NiS/Drop Ship

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Drop Ship

Although most HQ ships can make planetary landings when necessary, due to the energy and fuel costs of taking off again, most ships choose to stay in low orbit, and ferry their landing parts to and from the surface in drop ships. The drop ship is the workhorse of the ship: sometimes operating at a tug, sometimes as a taxi, and sometimes as a close support gunship. The turn after a drop ship has arrived, it has the option of returning to orbit, or it can stay on the battlefield and provide support. However, in their hover mode, they are ponderous machines. Treat them, for all intents and purposes, as Armored Skimmer Transports from the Ash Wastes rules.

Drop Ship Stats

Speed: As per Arrival Rules

Armor: This is the number that must be beaten on a d6+weapon strength roll to damage the drop ship (as per the ash wastes rules).

Crew Capacity: The crew capacity is how many people the drop ship can transport out of the atmosphere. In emergencies, the a drop can transfer 1.5x its capacity from one terrestrial location to another, which comes in handy when a whole gang needs a quick evac. from a hot fire-zone. However, at this overloaded capacity, the dropship cannot escape the atmosphere, so it would have to find a safe place to touch down, offload some riders, and ferry a batch up to the HQ Ship, leaving the remainders to fend for themselves during the transit time.

Ejector Save: As part of their basic safety package, drop ships come equipped with ejector pods in case of catastrophic systems failure or hull damage. The pilot compartment seals off, as the does the crew compartment, and each are jettisoned from the body of the craft. If the drop ship explodes in a way that would kill everyone aboard, the pilot and the crew can take the ejector save to see if they were able to punch out in time.

Every HQ ship automatically comes with a drop ship that has the following standard statistics. Speed: 2, Armored (+1 to skimmer armor values), Crew Capacity: pilot + 8, Ejector Save: 3+

Drop Ship Rules

[Treat Drop Ships as Heavy Skimmers from the Ash Wastes rules set]

Upgrades

Any of the following upgrades can be purchased for the drop ship. No drop ship may have more than three upgrades:

Engine Upgrade

The engine upgrade tweaks the maximum performance out of the ships power plants, increasing its speed by +2 for the purposes of arrival time. Also, it gives the ship +2” to its slow speed in the Tactical Battle

Armor Upgrade

The armor upgrade changes the skimmer to a heavily armored vehicle, giving it +2 to all skimmer armor values.

Maneuverability Upgrade

The ship is as nimble as a cat, responding well to even the lightest tough and adjustment. If a model who has access to the piloting skill table is driving it, he may pass an Initative test to ignore the penalties from landing stunts. Also, this upgrade gives the ship one additional 45 degree turn during tactical movement.

Extended Crew Compartment

The additional crew compartment adds 4 additional seats to the drop ship.

Gunship

The Gunship upgrade allows the driver himself to operate a forward mounted weapon. You may purchase a heavy, special, basic or twin linked version of any basic weapon to mount on the gunship. The twin-linked version costs twice the price of the basic weapon, but adds +1 sustained fire die to the weapons characteristics.

Turret Gun/Door Gun

You can purchase a heavy, special, basic, or twin-linked basic weapon to mount in a side or rear sponson that can be operated by any crewman of the ship. Alternately, you can mount them in a dorsal or belly turret that has a 360 degree field of fire. However due to the difficulty of entering and exiting the turrets, the turret requires a dedicated gunner.

Smoke Autolauncher

[Anyone have rules for this?]

Power Field

This is an energy field generator that siphons power of the main power plant, channeling it into shielding, which deflects incoming fire. The power field gives a 4+ unmodified save against all ranged attacks against that hit the drop ship. However, due in part to the stress of creating a shield to cover such a large area, high powered shots have a tendency to burn out the shield generator. If the power field rolls a 6 to save against a hit, then the power field burns out and cannot be used for the remainder of the game.

Mining Rig

The mining rig (or harvester as it is more regularly called) is a full-out drop ship conversion that turns it into a semi-automated asteroid miner. During the post-game phase, if two gangers can be assigned to the mining rig, they can recover 2d6x10 credits worth of scrap and ore from the edges of local asteroid fields.

On the downside, the mining rig takes up a lot of space in the drop ship, halving the initial crew allotment, and allowing only one upgrade in addition to the mining rig upgrade. In addition, because manipulator arms and intake hatches take up most of locations for weapon mounds, the only weapon upgrades the mining rig can have is side gun sponsons.

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