Stiletto Torpedo System

## Ship Weapons

 Slot Usage
 2

The Stiletto Torpedo System could be called the 'Younger Brother' of the Trident Torpedo System mounted on the A.N.S. Bismarck. While the Trident's Triton Torpedo bodies are designed with durability and long-range picket-evasion in mind, utilizing shielding systems and limited FTL capabilities, the Stiletto's Specter body uses an opposite, but equally effective approach.

The Specter Torpedo is a specialized projectile designed around a sophisticated sensor package and linked directly to a 'Smart Targeting VI' that is placed within an onboard computer system built into it's guts. This allows the torpedo, when fired, to identify and track it's targets with peerless accuracy, course-correcting and even moving to evade obstacles and other ships in order to unerringly strike it's intended prey with almost unnatural intelligence.

On top of this advanced guidance system is it's own stealth profile. It possesses a rudimentary Anti-RADAR coating and it's propulsion uses a frictionless ion-pulse propulsion system in order to move it without generating undue heat from traditional propellant seen in rocket motors. This makes sure it has an extremely low profile on top of being very accurate once 'let off the leash'.

Last, but certainly not least, the Stiletto possesses a specialized function called "Cold Launching". When a Specter Torpedo is cold launched, the VI is placed on a specific 'fuse' before the dumb torpedo is fired out and left adrift in space. This is usually done in the direction of encroaching enemy vessels, though the Stiletto tubes span the entire body of the ship and thus it can launch the payload forward-facing, or rear, depending on tactical discretion. Once a cold-launched torpedo is fired, the fuse counts down on whatever setting it has been given before automatically triggering the torpedo to activate and come alive. When this happens, the dead torpedo, previously just a piece of harmless space debris, uses it's sensor array to sweep nearby targets and select the most viable one based on tactical data supplied to it prior to launch.

A Specter Torpedo cannot change targets after launch. Once it is fired, the command connection is severed so as to prevent any short-range radio waves from giving away the position of the firing ship. Thus, once it is let off of it's leash, the VI is responsible for target acquisition and firing solutions to a limited degree. This makes it a very flexible torpedo, since it can be fired in a multitude of situations and with a variety of fuse settings to create and exploit weaknesses where none may have existed prior.

The Stiletto Torpedo System, unlike the Trident, has a sizeable reactor draw due to the fact that is is necessary to constantly supply power to the system's computer to program torpedoes in real time. This is also utilized in the automated loading system that reduces the number of crew necessary to oversee and maintain the system to a single operator, ideally. (Even this is technically optional, in a pinch, as the system can still be utilized with no oversight, so long as the crew understands the inherent risk.)

## Notes

Specter Torpedoes, due to their stealth coating, have a RADAR return of 2 and an Infrared return of 0 for the purposes of detection via enemy ships. Enemy ships without LIDAR treat them as having a 0 Optical return, while those that do should treat the small torpedo bodies as possessing a 2.