Octopus

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Model 97 "Octopus"
Production information
Manufacturer	Nimakachi Fusion Products Limited
Production Year	3051
Use	Tug
Type	Civilian Spheroid
Tech Base	Star League
Technical specifications
Mass	15,000 tons
Structural Integrity	20
Length	102 meters
Width	64 meters
Height	64 meters
Drive System	Merlin
Safe Thrust	3 g
Max Thrust	4.5 g
Fuel (tons)	700 tons
Fuel (days)	165.9 days
Armament	4x ER Large Lasers 4x Large Lasers 12x Medium Lasers 3x Large Pulse Lasers 4x LRM-10s
Armor	Fore: 15 Sides: 15 Aft: 12
Crew	40
Escape Pods/Life Boats	10/0
Heat Sinks	98
BV (1.0)	3,716
BV (2.0)	3,753

Description

Based on the Star League era Model 96 "Elephant", the Model 97 "Octopus"-class DropShip serves as a tug for large vessels and as a rescue and salvage craft.

The "Octopus" is built around a brand new 6,000 ton Merlin interplanetary drive that provides the vessel with a maximum thrust of 4.5 Gs and allows the craft to maintain almost one half-G when towing the largest DropShips and JumpShips or smaller WarShips. The vessel has four permanently fixed landing legs for planetary landings, but given the nature of its work rarely has cause to make use of them. The nose of the craft features a sophisticated tug adapter and eight long arms which it uses to securely attach itself to any vessel, including those without Docking collars, allowing the "Octopus" to act as the interplanetary drive for both. The adapter contains a universal airlock adapter to fit tight against any target vessel, with cutting equipment to force entry during salvage or rescue operations.

The class is also notable for the surprisingly high level of weaponry and armor it carries, which Nimakachi insist is merely prudent when operating alone in hostile territory, leading some observers to posit that beyond its supposed civilian market that the "Octopus" is perhaps intended as an oversize boarding vessel.

Armament

While classified as a civilian craft, the "Octopus" features a sizable and sophisticated new-tech weapons array. The nose bay features an ER and Pulse Large Laser, twin Medium Lasers and an Artemis IV FCS-augmented LRM-10, with identical weaponry on each fore-angle. Aft, the "Octopus" mounts twin Large Lasers and two Medium Lasers on each angle, with an ER Large two standard Medium lasers supported by an LRM-10 directly aft. Eight tons of ammunition keep the supposedly civilian and defensive use only missile launchers suspiciously well fed.

Cargo

Due to its unusual role, the "Octopus"s two main cargo holds are placed higher up in the craft than most spheroid designs, closer to the tug adapter to hold the goods and cargo brought aboard from stricken vessels. These two bays, with total 3,000 ton capacity, are only accessible via the airlock in the adapter, preventing the cargo from being off-loaded at a surface spaceport, only at an orbital station. The vessel also has facilities to support up to 216 crew and passengers from any rescued craft in one of thirty-six extremely cramped six-person capacity cabins, as well as the ability to carry four Small Craft.

Variants

None known

Named Vessels

• Bronco
• Glasgow

Bibliography

• AeroTech 2 Record Sheets
• Technical Readout: 3057, pp 60-61
• Technical Readout: 3057 Revised, pp 58-59