CARMAN HIGHLIGHT CRUISER Craft: Carman Starships X-15.7 Highlight Cruiser Scale: Capital Type: Experimental extra high speed cruiser Length: 89 meters Cost: Only 30 ever made. Crew: 24 Passengers: 50 Cargo Capacity: 5000 metric tons Consumables: 3 years Hyperdrive Mod: x.3 Hyper Backup: x11 Nav Computer: yes Space: 19 Maneuverability: 0D-1 Atmosphere: 1400 Hull: 2D Shields: 2D Sensors: Passive: 60/1D Scan: 110/2D Search: 220/4D Focus: 13/5D Weapons: 1 Ion Cannon Scale: Capital Fire Arc: front Crew: 3 Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery Fire Control: 1D Space Range: 1-10/25/50 Atmosphere Range: 2-20/50/100 km Damage: 3D 5 Turbolaser Batteries Scale: Capital Fire Arc: front Crew: 3 Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery Fire Control: 1D Space Range: 3-15/36/75 Atmosphere Range: 6-15/72/150km Damage: 5D This craft is the last ship ever produced by the independent Carman research facilities. Designed to travel faster than any ship ever made, the Highlighter was supposed to engage in long range scouting, and high speed pursuit missions. The one problem that proved intractable was the maneuverability rating of the ship. In the words of one engineer, the Highlighter "looked like a shark, moved like a shark, handled like a cow." This problem was a direct result of the improvements made to the hyperdrive and the sublight engines, that provided a force so powerful that the Highlighter developed a "wobble" at just about any speed, making it nearly impossible to control, often emerging from hyperspace several lightyears from where it was supposed to go. (reducing the maneuverability to -1D, and increasing the astrogation difficulty by 25.) After several years of work, Carman Research had produced a fleet of thirty experimental crafts that outpaced everything in space, but were prone to hitting any obstacles in it's path. Like solar systems. The Highlighter project was soon abandoned, and the experimental craft, most without working weapon systems, were sold to independent buyers at remarkably low prices. Some still ply the spacelanes, piloted by very skilled or very stupid pilots. This is a fun ship to give players. The first time they gun the engines, and they find themselves zooming away from the fastest of improved TIE fighters, they will fall in love with it, and work to correct it's "minor" flaws. The only catch is, those flaws can't be fixed without creating an entirely new impulse and hyperdrive system. The one it has is fundamentally screwed up, and will never work properly. In addition, the Highlighter is an experimental craft, and it has all the idiosyncrasies of a ship of that type. One problem that crops up fairly frequently is overburn. When either the hyperdrive or the sublight drive have been engaged too long, the wobble will decrease and then disappear, and the ships velocity will begin to slowly increase. At this point, the ship cannot be stopped by any methods short of destruction of the drive system, a risky prospect considering the fact that it is now sparking, and covered with a thick layer of green plasma. The overburn can continue for several minutes, hours or days before it subsides, leaving the crew with a burnt out hyperdrive, thousands of lightyears from where they should be.