Imperial Courier

Imperial Courier
Maximum gross mass	480t
Empty mass	130t
Payload	350t (no drive)
Main thruster accel	16g
Retro thruster accel	6g
Gun mountings	1
Missiles	6
Crew	3
Hyperdrive ranges	Class 3: 5.62 Class 4: 10 Class 5: 15.62 Class 6: 22.50
Standard drive	Class 5 (cannot be replaced)
Fuel scoop	Not available

Overview

The Imperial Courier is the archetypal Imperial starship from both FE2 and FFE. It is probably the largest effective combat vessel in both those games as it provides a useful balance of speed and size. They are considered formidable opponents to relatively new players to the games.

It is closely related to the Imperial Trader, another starship commonly used by the Empire in both FE2 and FFE.

Notable features

Considering the Empire's love for clones compared to the Federation's preference for mechanical artificial intelligence, a general surprise of Imperial designs is the high level of automation. When being designed, the Imperial Courier (first of its class, the Trader being second) was to have been extensively reliant on the use of genetically-designed slave crew. It was found, however, that the level of automation required to keep the two drives perfectly synchronised to the precision required by a hyperspace jump meant that it was simpler to just add the extra robotics.

Most ships of this size require a significant crew, but the Courier makes do with only three crew members, nominally a Captain (who is also an experienced pilot), a pilot First Officer and an engineer. Although most spaceports will not allow a ship to launch without the proper number of crew, the Courier can easily be flown single-pilot on a "milk run", however most commanders will find their job significantly easier with at least a pilot First Officer on board. Although highly automated, the ship is large and complex and should not be used for a prolonged period of time without an engineer on the crew.

Engine replacement

The Courier has a unique two-drive system, and it is normally not possible to change the engine type. No reputable shipyard will remove a Courier's class 5 drive and replace it with another class since this invalidates the spacecraft's type certificate. However, some ship yards have been known to pair, bridge and modify two smaller drives and fit them to Couriers where the normal engines have been destroyed (typically in combat or due to lack of maintenance). In the few Couriers that have been modified in this way, typically a Class 6 drive is assembled by stripping two class 4 drives, bridging them, then fitting them to the engine nacelles of the Courier.

Notable commanders

Famous Imperial Courier Commanders include Norman Mosser and the Assassin from Status Quo.

See also

• Imperial Courier (Oolite)

External links

Everything you Wanted To Know about the Imperial Courier and Were Afraid To Ask - now try https://web.archive.org/web/20120629120115/http://eywtkaticawata.alioth.net/

This includes:

Birth of the Courier - In 2891, while attempting to reclaim the Edethex system for the Emperor, the 3rd Fleet suffered one of the worst defeats in its entire history at the hands of the Federal Navy. The Feds had an "unfair" advantage, mind you: they had the Asp, fresh off the production lines, capable of making short work of anything comparable in the Emperor's fleets. Fearful that this sudden imbalance of power might lead to a full scale invasion attempt by a now more powerful Federal Navy, Emperor Fournier ordered the immediate development and production of a spacecraft FASTER, BIGGER and STRONGER than the Asp. Problems? Yea. The Asp had a state of the art two-cycle fusion powered plasma engine capable of heaving the 150 tons of a fully laden Asp at 22 gees and one sixth of C on internal fuel only. It was a big ship, with plenty of room for weapons, fuel and armor. It could absorb tremendous amounts of damage and keep itself in one piece. And the Emperor wanted something better.
The first team of engineers concluded that the Emperor was asking the impossible. They should have known better. The second team of engineers, after watching the live execution of their colleagues had a sudden burst of creativity and said that not only it was doable, but that they will DO it. With that, they set themselves to work.
"Chili sauce smeared butthole" - First problem that faced the team was speed. The Asp engine was already at the limits of what could be achieved by plasma engines. Any ship bigger than the Asp would likely have inferior acceleration. So they turned to history: a fusion engine was capable of delivering the thrust required to fling a large vessel with Asp acceleration, and a ramscoop would allow it to reach tremendous speeds without having to carry impossible amounts of fuel on board. They needed a ramjet. Unfortunately, the only ramjets ever build were the size of a small city and were used to eat lightyears through realspace on their way to colonise a world. Hyperspace had made them obsolete. Somehow, our fellows had to come up with a miniature ramjet. And given the fact that material sciences and magnetohydrodynamics had come a long way since the 2300's, they succeeded. By 2896 they had a "thing" that was 52 meters in length, 10 meters in diameter, sucked in hydrogen like a ramscoop and spit out a 2*10^9 Kelvin stream of plasma at half the speed of light like a fusion engine. From then on it was a piece of cake, comparatively. They built the rest of the ship around the engines (yes, two were needed to reach the specs) and by 2899 the prototype was ready. In a series of tests, it demonstrated .9 C top speed and 23 gees of acceleration empty at v < .1 C. One Navy admiral present put it this way: "Folks, that contraption of yours runs like a cheetah with chili sauce smeared on its butthole". In other words, success.
The White Navy - By 2900, shipyards throughout the Empire were spitting out a Courier every 18 hours in an effort to equip the Navy as soon as possible with this remarkable ship. This caused great concern in the Federation and caused them to cancel their invasion plans, for they indeed were thinking to profit from the Asp's superiority and achieve what had eluded them in the 2350's, the total anihilation of the Empire. Anyway, in less that 13 years since its defeat at Edethex, the Imperial Navy had completely replaced everything except its capital ships with the newly designed Courier and the Osprey, a project designed to counter the federal Falcon. Since the Osprey and the Courier sported a predominately white color scheme, HMIN (His Majesty's Imperial Navy) soon became known as the white Navy. While serving with the Navy, the Courier was equipped with a lot of stuff, including the newly designed Navy heavy laser. As such, it became slightly less capable as the Asp, maneuvrabilty wise. But since it was four times bigger and the latest Navy modifications really packed a punch, it was regarded as being capable of making mincemeat out of a squadron of Asps. The Empire was quick to test this as it launched a series of probing strikes in Federal space, after 2910. The Courier proved to be the desired "Asp-killer". While the feds frantically scrambled to counter this new threat, the Courier evolved into a faster, lighter reconaissance version with longer hyperspace range and also a heavier and more powerful system defence version that sported a 100 Megawatt beam laser but was not hyperspace capable.
Civilian Couriers - By Imperial decree, Emperor Fournier ordered that the Courier be made avaiable to the Imperial citisens so that they can defend against Federal "savagery". Unfortunately this started a major crime wave as police forces were powerless against the Courier equipped pirates and assasins. Fournier himself fell prey to a Federal-sponsored hitman in a Courier. His successor, Duval I ordered that all civilian-sold Couriers be equipped with standard plasma engines and downgraded flight controls that now required a crew of three to operate instead of the usual one. This move, effected in 3250 greatly degraded Courier's performance and led to the creation of an underground smuggling movement of Courier parts required to restore it to military specs. Still, the civilian Courier had a few aces in his hand, the extra space that was made avaiable by replacing the fusion engines with standard ones allowed for a bigger hyperdrive to be fitted which increased its range well above the standard Navy Courier and even above the recon version. Recent events suggest that the full spec Courier will be built again; and even customized and improved versions may be in order - the Navy decided to release the Courier blueprints to the public after it announced a Courier successor is on its way. The data was relabeled as "public domain-releaseable" on 29th December 3300, 1100 PM, Topaz time.