Trailblazer (Individual JumpShip)

This article is about the exploration JumpShip. For other uses, see Trailblazer.
Trailblazer
Vessel Profile
TypeJumpShip
In service until(destroyed by 2690; see text)

Description[edit]

Launched in 2655, the Trailblazer was an exploration JumpShip put on an ambitious mission to map and survey unexplored star systems, under the command of Commodore Niamola Bendricks. (The mission name was given as Trailblazer One, while the ship itself was consistently named the Trailblazer).[1]

The exact class of the Trailblazer was not mentioned. Its notable features (see Notes below) include reportedly featuring not one but three jump drives, and being capable of deploying a HPG beacon which indicates it carried an HPG.

History[edit]

At an unspecified point in time prior to 2690, the Trailblazer suffered a catastrophic accident. A mini-meteorite tore into the circuit junction that connected its three jump drives to its computers, stranding the ship in the Omega Lord system.

After a year of unsuccessful repairs, a bloody mutiny ensued. The commander and most of the senior officers were killed, leaving only 391 of originally 479 crew alive. The survivors attempted to set up a colony on the system's third planet and built a crude fortress-settlement there, but subsequently succumbed to huge herds of local carnivores and catastrophic diseases.

An HPG transponder signal finally led a rescue flotilla (survey vessels of the 169th Flotilla under Commodore Thomas Jenkins) to Omega Lord in 2690. The Trailblazer was found as a gutted hulk (though outwardly in good condition) orbiting the system's third world. Ship's logs and the remains of the colony on the planetary surface relayed its story, but the search teams found no survivors.[1]

Notes[edit]

  • Mentioned only in a sidebar in one of the earliest BattleTech sourcebooks, the Trailblazer story is difficult to reconcile with more detailed information about jump drives and HPG technology that was published later on:
    • Published information about the (fictional) Kearny-Fuchida jump drive technology strongly implies that it should be impossible for a single vessel to possess more than one jump drive core. It is impossible under current (or any previous) construction rules to design such a ship. There are no obvious advantages to combining three separate jump drive cores on one ship either.
      A possible canon-compliant explanation would be a setup by which three Kearny-Fuchida drive cores are linked for simultaneous jumps in a fashion similar to the Ryan Cartel IceShip fleets, but form a single vessel instead of separate vessels jumping in unison. For the Trailblazer to be a single ship the drive cores would have been physically linked permanently by means of the "circuit junction" that was hit by the meteorite.
    • Similarly, the idea of an "HPG transponder signal" or that the source of an HPG signal could be traced is not easily compatible with existing theories on how HPGs work. It could be assumed that the Trailblazer used its HPG to send distress radio signals containing the ship's transponder code and data on their current position to several nearby systems, one of which was eventually picked up. Alternatively, it could be an inaccurate description of a Jump Pigeon system.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Star League, p. 60: "Mysterious Disaster Ends Trailblazer Mission"

Bibliography[edit]