Unlike most combat ships of her size, the Scimitar class patrol ship has a huge amount of storage space. As well a huge number of surplus hulls have been sold on the open market stripped of weapons. Some militaries have purchased these vessels and have rearmed them but few have attempted to use the extra space of the vessel effectively. The only exceptions have been individuals who have converted their vessels to become personal transports and others who have converted them to cargo vessels. The technicians at Tri-galactic Military Services came up with an interesting adaption for the Scimitar class patrol ship. This was to convert some of the hulls into high speed assault transports which are ideal for transporting special forces units and small units when needed. Often a client may just hire a small number of troops from the T.M.S. and these vessels are very useful for that. While their relatively light cargo capacity compared to standard cargo vessels, the high speed and heavy firepower makes them quite useful. In addition to being able to transport troops and equipment, the vessels make excellent convoy escorts while still transporting troops. The idea of the Scimitar being converted to a high speed assault transport is similar to destroyers and destroyer-escorts being converted to high speed transports. Most of the Bengal transports manufactured by the Tri-galactic Military Services have been for their own forces but a small number have been sold to outside interests. The Consortium Armed Forces has become interested in these vessels and there is current discussion of converting several Scimitar patrol vessels with some small modifications to test the vessels' concepts for their own roles. The idea of a small vessel to transport special forces units is considered quite appealing by many Consortium senior officers.

The vessel's shields and propulsion are unmodified from a standard Scimitar but the hull had to be modified for the ship to be able to carry two light assault shuttles and two light fighters instead of the six Scorpion class interceptors that are carried on standard Scimitar patrol ships. The Bengal generally will not land on a planet but will instead use the two assault shuttles for transporting troops down to the planet. Using the ship would have many inherent risks including the danger of having the ship's anti matter destroy a planet if the ship crashes on a planet. The payload of the assault shuttles is limited compared to a full sized assault shuttle but can carry one combat vehicle up to 15 meters long and up to 40 troops. Up to 100 troops can be carried in one of these assault shuttles if it does not carry any large vehicles. Reduce numbers of troops in the shuttle to 75 if they are wearing power armors. The Bengal herself is designed to be able to carry up to four combat vehicles that are 15 meters long, 6 meters high, and 6 meters wide. The number of vehicles able to be carried is affected by the vehicles size and the size of the cargo bay. The cargo bay is about 60 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 6 meters long. The ten Silverhawk power armors were retained and are very useful in supporting ground assault roles. The Bengal can carry up to 200 troops with or without power armor.

The weapon systems have been greatly modified. Most weapon systems are stripped from the Scimitars before they are sold as surplus. No long range energy or projectile weapons are mounted because long range missile launchers were viewed as more useful than direct fire weaponry because of longer range and ability to engage fighters. A smaller payload of long range missiles is carried compared to the Longbow class patrol ship but the ship carries the same number of launchers. The ship carries variable focus particle beams for anti-missile defense instead of the standard particle beams on Scimitar class patrol vessels. Only one weapon system remains the same as a standard Scimitar patrol ship and this is the mini missile launchers. Just like the Scimitar, The Bengal carries eight mini missile launchers for point defense although it does not carry as many mini-missiles.

This starship design uses modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Model: TMS-HSAT-20
Vehicle Type: High Speed Assault Transport
Crew: 96 (10 Officers and 86 Enlisted)
Troops: 234 (8 fighter pilots & crew, 16 shuttle pilots & crew, 10 silverhawk pilots, and 200 standard marines - with or without power armors)

Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:
Power Armors:

	200	Light / Medium Power Armors
	10	Silverhawk Power Armors

Fighter Compliment:

2

Light Starfighters (Commonly the SF-69 CAF Scorpion Star Interceptor)

Assault Shuttles:

2

Rampage class Light Assault Shuttles

Tanks & Other Vehicles:

4

Tanks or APCs (up to 50 ft long)

M.D.C. By Location:

	Variable Focus Point Defense Particle Beam Cannons (4):	150 each
	Long Range Missile Batteries (2):	600 each
	Mini Missile Launchers (8):	100 each
	Fighter / Shuttle Hanger Bay Door	500
	[1] Main Engines (2)	1,200 each
	[2] Bridge:	2,000
	[3] Main Body:	5,000
	[4] Variable Force Field:	1,000 a side (6,000 Total)

Notes:
[1] Destroying the main engines means that the ship FTL propulsion systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[2] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ships armor. This ship does not have an auxiliary bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but the ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[3] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the destroyer out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (300 MDC) per melee.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.8 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is Mach 2, can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric flight
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 5 lightyears per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system. Carries about one year worth of supplies on board and has a small hydroponic section.

Statistical Data:
Length: 500 feet (152 meters).
Height: 80 feet (24.4 meters).
Width: 140 feet (42.6 meters).
Weight: 13,500 tons (12,250 metric tons)
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 50 year life span. The ship normally only goes 10 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo: Small cargo hold that can carry up to 400 ton of cargo not including standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Hold is 20 x 20 x 200 feet in dimensions (6.1 x 6.1 x 60 meters). Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ships officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ships spaces are taken up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: 420 million for a Bengal with new weapon systems (Not including assault shuttles which cost 80 million each).

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Four (4) Particle Beam Mounts: These particle beams are copied from those carried on the CAF Assault Shuttle and will fire a very powerful narrow beam and can fire a scatter effect that is less powerful but is capable of striking multiple targets. The weapon system is quite useful against missiles although the cone is not as wide as Tachyon cannon sprays are. Weapons are mounted in turrets that can rotate 360 and have a 180 arc of fire. Each mount can be operated by a gunner or a gunner program (+2 to strike, 3 Attacks per melee).
   Maximum Effective Range: 300 miles (480 km) in space and 3 miles (4.8 km) in an atmosphere.
   Mega Damage: Single Target: 4D6x10 Wide Beam: 5D6 to all targets within a 5,000 foot (1,524 meter) diameter area. When fired as a wide beam, the cannon cannot be used on targets closer than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) away.
   Rate of fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
2. Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: Missiles have a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missiles will still cruise unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because the target does not move and missile when dead at -25% to detect.) Long range missiles do not have minuses to hit small targets unlike cruise missiles and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
   Maximum Effective Range: Missile range is 3400 miles (5470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
   Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles (Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC).
   Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, or 32 per launcher, per melee attack.
   Payload: 256 total, 128 long range missiles per battery.
   
3. Eight (8) Mini-Missile launchers: These are missile turrets used for point defense against enemy fighters and missiles. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
   Maximum Effective Range: Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space
   Mega-Damage: varies with mini-missile type (See Phase World Missiles)
   Rate of fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of 4 or 8 missiles
   Payload: 128 per launcher for a total of 1,024 mini-missiles.

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By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).

Copyright © 2001, Kitsune. All rights reserved.