Freelancer Class V Blockade Runner

design by Dallas Reinhart & Jeff Willoughby

NOTES:
Known Sphere Of Operation:  Orion controlled space
Data Reliability:  B
Major Data Source:  Orion Sector Intelligence
 
The Raven Cartel, a small and independent Orion consortium, was looking for the finest ship they could find. The Wanderer and the Lightning Class Blockade Runners were both good classes, but the Raven Cartel was in need of a specifically custom ship–a signature class that it might call its own, and which would set it apart from the larger Orion houses. They also wanted the components to be completely Orion in origin. So, they approached the Vagabond Corporation, and asked that a ship be made that would be unique to the Cartel.

The Vagabond Corporation was severely handicapped by the demands the Raven Cartel. Vagabond had yet to design its own photon torpedo technology. Plasma weapons systems were scrapped after a failed experiment on 2265. Therefore the only weapons Vagabond had in its inventory that weren’t of alien origin, and could be mounted on the Freelancer, were their newly developed OD-5 disruptors. The OD-5 series was relatively poor compared to the beam weapon developments of other governments, most notably in its consumption of engine power.

Because of this, and because the disruptors draw their power through the warp engines directly, the design’s power plant and nacelles had to be re-vamped to make up the difference, at the cost of total warp speed. The OIC-2 model impulse deck was added only after it became clear that more powerful classes were too large for the small craft to handle.

When the Freelancer’s blueprints were finally finished and a prototype built, the magnate of the Raven Cartel visited the Vagabond Corporation’s shipyards to inspect the first of his new ships.

The magnate was greatly disappointed. In fact, he was furious.

Unimpressed with the size and the armament of the ship, the Raven Cartel leader complained mightily. Three days later, the CEO of Vagabond Corporation was found drifting in an asteroid field, decapitated.

Needless to say, the Raven Cartel didn’t buy the new Freelancer class vessel.

But this was the least of the Vagabond Corporation’s problems. They had spent precious millions of their own credits developing this new ship, and all it had gotten them was a dead executive, a voided contract, and one completed prototype, now derelict. The total cost of R&D for the Freelancer broke the back of Vagabond, and the company officers had to find a way to make money–and make it quickly–lest their creditors liquidate not only their firm, but their lives as well.

Vagabond’s solution was simple, and took but one additional investor. The ship’s weapons hard points were refitted so as to easily take a variety of interchangeable components, both Orion and foreign in origin. The idea behind this was if the ship’s armament was not good enough for a purchasing captain’s tastes, then said captain could remove the weapons and do whatever her or she wanted with the ship; even use the space for extra cargo.

As both the Lightning Class and Wanderer Class Blockade Runners did hot have “swappable” weapons systems, the Freelancer suddenly came into its own. Vagabond quickly set about advertising this point, and after a notable trader purchased the original Freelancer hull, and found it to his liking, sale began to take off.

A year later, privateers, trade consortiums, defense forces and even the Raven Cartel were all putting in modest orders for the new Freelancer Class. Vagabond breathed a sigh of relief as it was able to eventually satisfy its creditors and recoup all of the R&D money lost to the original contract failure with the Raven Cartel.

Most Freelancers have been kept in stock configuration, while other, more creative privateers and pirates have used the Freelancer to house all sorts of domestic and alien weapons, from cloaking devices to photon torpedoes, and beyond.