Name: MSV Crimson Clupea
Class: Modified Kowloon Modular Freighter
Race Design(s): Mostly Human
Description: Non remarkable. The vessel is, at both first and second blush, a transport ship. The Clupea runs four spinal modules between the flight deck and the engines, for a total of eight large, standard cargo cells. The exterior is hull-metal gray with minimal trim. The only outstanding surface feature is the silhouette of a large fish picked out in red beneath the vessels registration marking on the lower part of the forward module.
Biography: The Crimson Clupea's history is, overall, about as illustrious as a well laid brick in the construction of a thousand floor skyscraper. It's not the sort of thing people really think about, unless they happen to be a masonry enthusiast.
Originally commissioned as a six-box colony ship in 2155 and sold to yet-another-family of enterprising humans destined for the final frontier, the Clupea saw many fine years of service as a housing project on a nearly-nameless rock on the fringes of human territory.
It flew again (with some serious overhauling) in 2164, to take part in humanities continued expansion into the Attican Traverse, ferrying supplies and colonists to far-away places to do marvelous things for the growth of humanity and then forget about them.
Over the years the ship changed hands a number of times in response to the fluid nature of the expansion economy, variously sold to pay debts, stolen by pirates, lost at cards or confiscated by authorities. Her least previous owner was (not coincidentally) Lorik Qui'in of Synthetic Insights. The ship came under his command in 2182 and went out again in 2183 without so much as a thank-you card from the AI that stole it during the general distraction caused by the Peak 15 Incidents.
Since that time it has undergone some significant internal modifications, and one good, solid retrofit to make it a serviceably armed eight-box house-and-home for the enterprising 'Captain' in the seedy part of the galaxy. Technical details to follow under 'Complete Armament'.
Complete Armament
Primary:
(4) Gimbal-mounted point defense laser systems: For use in the short-range dissipation of unwelcome asteroids, unexpected guests and the missiles they launch. Overall 2x720 degree coverage in close-quarters.
Secondary:
(1) Rear-mounted ECM Pod, including Chaff/Flare/Decoy dispensers and local electromagnetic spam generator (jamming).
(2) Single-Shot LRM launchers mounted front and rear.
Tertiary:
(1) Small-bore long-range spinal-mounted MAC for taking advantage of every opportunity to ventilate a bigger fish by surprise. Unreliable as hell, with a tragically long wait-time to re-fire and an unseemly power-draw from the engine make this is less a skirmishing weapon than a surprise birthday present for people you don't much like.
All of the above are carefully stowed and disguised when not deployed for use. The Primaries, being mounted directly onto cargo boxes, are generally withdrawn through the hull into purpose-built compartments and hatched over. The Secondaries are concealed by simple hull panels which are blown off when the system is Armed, requiring a certain amount of EVA and a new (or retrieved) panel to reset.
The Tertiary cannon stows it's entire length in an overhead compartment running along the interior ceiling of the ship's spine, rising into place on the assumption that all the extraneous moving parts decide to work that day.
Apart from the weaponry, the Clupea's defensive options revolve mainly around kinetic barriers and Running The Hell Away. Despite having a veritable plethora of combative options, Jane is less than interested in risking the loss of her brains to a well-placed shot. She's fast and, until her barriers drop, relatively durable compared to a standard freighter of the same weight.