Reliant Robin

From The Coursebooks Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Reliant Robin was a small scout-ship designed by Gudersnipe School and built in vast quantities during the Kamian Succession Wars. The basic design and variants were manufactured under contract by the Foundation, Alliance, and multiple member worlds. The ship is unique for being the only widely produced spacecraft to employ a Linear ion vacuum drive.

The complete schematics were released and widely disseminated by the Foundation, who while preferring to let operators buy or build under contract, effectively made the ship open-source.

Basic Design

Robins had three engines: a normal, highly standardized ion-vacuum drive in the main fuselage, and two linear drives in nacelles, mounted in wing-like protrusions. The ship also had a sensor mast.

The original design, the one built by the Foundation, was completely unarmed. The vessel was to them a scout ship, designed for the soul purpose of penetrating deep behind enemy lines and returning alive. For that, it required fantastic speed. It also needed one of the most sophisticated sensor systems ever designed.

In all, the robin had six distinct sensor systems, and carried unmanned probes. It was often described as "a scanner with a bunch of rockets strapped to it".

Engines

The Robin had two Linear ion vacuum engines, and a standard ion vacuum drive

Variants

The base version was built and heavily operated by the Crimson Blade as a reconnaissance vessel. In fact, so many identical ships were constructed that service crews didn't even bother to overhaul the engines. At a thousand flight hours, when the first overhaul was scheduled to occur, they would swap out the engine for a new one, and send the original back to the factory. The factory would then dismantle the drive, test it, and add any working parts back into inventory. While more expensive on paper than overhauling or even re-manufacturing, this method was a serious time-saver; and since the Foundation owned the factories(and the Crimson Blade]], the resource-savings actually made it cheaper.

Tri-Star Robin Variant

The Foundation built a variant with three normal ion-vacuum drives for operation deep within safe territory. These ships were used for long patrol routes and never brought near combat. Ironically, unlike the initial design, this variant had one of the highest endurance of any ship built. Tri-Star Robins were ultimately limited by just two factors: how much food they could carry and how long the crew could remain in the cramped quarters without killing each other.

Diligent Robin Variant

The Alliance re-designed the original Robin, removing most of the sensor equipment and replacing it with a cargo hold. The idea was to use the Diligent Robin as a supply ship, able to run blockades and quickly deliver cargo, or even rescue crewmembers from stricken ships.

Alliance Robin Variant

All Alliance versions of the Robin came lightly armed. Typically they would equip the ship with at least three plasma beam weapons. Unfortunately, these would not even penetrate the navigational deflector on most Kamian ships. The Alliance also used the externally-mounted probe rails to fit missiles and single-use torpedo tubes. The Alliance used Robins as corvettes and fast-attack ships, and even experimented with more heavily-armed versions. The high speed meant a high degree of manuverability, making the ship able to keep up with Alliance star fighters.

After the Crimson Blade switched to using Harpies as their main fighter-bomber, the Alliance even attempted to do the same with the Robin. They removed the three useless plasma beam weapons and fitting the ship with one large beam cannon, then added as many missiles as they could and operated entire formations and squadrons of Robins, often with few or no fighter escorts.

While the Robin-fighters were actually very effective, their extremely high cost heavily limited the Alliance's ability to field them. Further complicating matters, the Alliance attempted it's own "all ion-vacuum" variant, but this version lacked the high performance of the linear drive and was thus not nearly capable enough.