Cargoships - Alpha Company



Alpha's only cargoship, the A009-FR01 was build during the first few weeks after arrival at Xyth to increase the productivity of the small miner fleet. With 7 small engines this cargoship had very reasonable speed, manouvrability and range. Compared to Rune's cargoship with similar dimensions, the A009-FR01 was faster and easier to navigate, but was equipped with only one laser turret. This ship was perfect for short un-escorted cargo runs, for more dangerous routes, additional escorts were needed since the ship only had limited defences, but with its higher speed it served well as support ship. Both the Guardians of Xyth and the Xyth Legions bought several of these cargoships and used them on long missions later on, where the A009-FR01 mostly carried extra ammo, fuel and spare parts to repair damaged fighters.

The A009-FR01 was standard equipped with 4 medium-sized containers, each of these containers (19.3 by 17.4 by 18.2 metres) had 4.750 cubic metres cargo space (167.500 cubic feet), for a total of 19.000 cubic metres (670.000 cubic feet), about 1.5 times the cargo space of Rune's X9-037. With bigger container the cargo space doubled, allowing the ship to transport 800 tons of cargo (1.750.000 lbs), or 500 tons (1.100.000 lbs) with the standard containers.

Dimensions : Height = 33,2 metres (108.9 feet), width = 42,3 metres (138,7 feet), length = 83,2 metres (272,9 feet). Max speed = 27.500 km per hour (17.000 mph), max range = 10.000.000 km (6.200.000 miles).

The only reasons why the Miner Guild preferred the Rune cargoships is because of its better offensive and defensive capbilities and its luxurous bridge and possibility to transport up to 20 extra passengers. The A009-FR01 could only transport 5 crew members and due to the lack of navigation computers, skilled pilots were needed to fly this cargoship.

Alpha's ship may not have been a succes for the Miner Guild, but after the outposts were finished, this ship was the preferred transporter for small independant transport companies and merchants. The A009-FR01 was cheaper than the X9-037, even with the additional costs of hiring several Vectors to protect it on its trip, also its higher speed, thus shorter transport times, lowered the risk of running into hostile aliens or pirates.