Light Anti-Personnel Turrets for Merchants?

[vutpakdi]

Recently in our PBEM game, we had a situation where a far trader was trying to pick up some people from the top of a skyscraper when some assailants started engaging the people being picked up. One of the players had the idea of installing some sort of light anti-personnel weapon in a mini turret (a pop up turret?) that could be operated from within the ship.

The idea for a light antipersonnel weapon sounds pretty reasonable to me. Sure, the ship's weapons could be aimed at people, but there are situations when firing the ship's weapons at people would end up doing far too much collatoral damage.

I'd imagine that a laser carbine or rifle would be the best option for this type of installation since they could be fed off of the ship's main power. I also imagine that it'd be a reasonable standard option on certain types of merchant ships to have one of these mini pop up turret near cargo and passenger air locks.

In terms of cost, how about 15,000 (Laser Carbine) or 20,000 (Laser Rifle)? The turret probably would be small enough to be a negligible displacement addition except in large quantities.

What do you think?

Ron

 

[DaveShayne]

Originally posted by Ron Vutpakdi:
What do you think?

Whatever works IYTU. According to MT a ship can mount as many non-starship weapons as it can fit so throw those laser rifle turrets wherever you want them. The price for the turets will be the price of the weapons installed plus whatever fire control aids you want to add. Your numbers shouldn't be too far off for the kinds of minimal FC needed for close defense anti personel weapons.

 

[Ranger]

I seem to recall an option of putting a VRF Gauss Gun in one of the slots of the main turret just for this purpose. The idea was to be able to use it to lay down a large amount of suppresive fire against people trying to rush the ship on the ground. Presumably you could dial the rate of fire down to single shot and use it at a sniper weapon in a situation like you're describing. Of course there is always the option of just firing the sand caster as a giant shotgun, but you're right, that would probably cause too much colateral damage.

Just my thoughts,

Rob

 

[vegascat]

Installing a personnel scale weapon in an add on turret will have a few more problems to consider.

Reentry/ wind resistance will be a major factor. An unprotected barrel will melt or deform if not protected. A turret mount will be made out of hull metal, with control gear, will be heavy, and take up space.
Where will the firing station be located? Will it be a separate crew station, or an extra consol in the bridge?
What extra plumbing will be needed or rerouted? Power, control, ammo?
Will it be a hidden popup turrret, or exposed?
What liscenses will be needed to purchase a military grade weapon? Or mount it on your ship?

1MCr is a cheap price to create a new weapons mount with all asscociated hassels.

 

[KrasnyKot]

In another topic Mr. Liam Devlin wrote:

I quote:
In the MTJ-4 Gateway adventure (DGP's last one IIRC), pp78-80, they cover custom starship additions.


Ground defense Turretes
"Vessels landing on wilderness planets may need some form of ground defense. The main ship's weapons are usually ill-suited for this task, if only because they can demolish much more than is desired. Small *blister ground defense turrest are available for such needs. They can mount anything from LMG's to RFY-15's. They are either manually controlled, or set to automatic control using an anti-hijack program, e.g. fire on targets with no ID within 50meters."

weight for such a set up: .5 tons.
Vol (in kl): 1Kl per.
Price: as per weapon
Power requirement: as per weapon.

Now these are MT rules. *(the blister infers aerodynamics.)

In T20, I refer you to page 247 THB, chart at top of page, as much simpler.

End of quote

 

[Uncle Bob]

If all else fails, a sandcaster is better than a behive round.