Meet the fleet #3 - Cannonball Run (Krait MkII)
07 Oct 2019Rex-Cramer
One area our enterprise was weak in was mission cargo delivery. Certainly our mining ships could be pressed into cargo delivery and in a number of cases we’ve done just that but the issue always boiled down to the fact that a lot of cargo space on a miner is sacrificed to the equipment needed for the task. Making multiple trips really cuts into the attractiveness of rush cargo runs and give pirates extra attempts to crack the nut. We needed something that was setup to run the small to medium volume missions to pick up that money on the table.Thus “Cannonball Run” was born. We looked at a few ships and decided that the Krait MkII was a good fit for this role. It’s a naturally fast and shield-heavy ship. It has ample internal space for cargo racks and a top-notch shield generator. In the high-risk environment of the frontier, those shields and that bit of speed can be the difference between getting home with a few scorch marks and being picked up in an escape pod. It also has a heavy-handed selection of hard-points giving it the teeth to fight back if cornered although no freight hauler has business picking a fight. The versatile Krait is where we settled for our medium-ship line-up. It comes with a heavy price tag but the advantages listed are worth the squeeze
Our configuration gives us a 180 ton cargo capacity and strong offensive capability that can keep up sustained fire and speeds in 400+ mps range. While the intricate details are not public these specs make it an ideal ship for moving both everyday rush orders and those occasional discrete missions where it’s imperative to get in and out quickly and with a minimum of official attention.
It has the ability to deploy an SRV for planetary salvage and S&R operations although not its focus. It also has minimal ability to fuel scoop for longer range deliveries but this is not something we expect to see a lot of. Mainly it’s role is to allow 1 or 2 local rush delivery contracts to fill the hold and get to the destination quickly and with cargo intact.
A fast, maneuverable and defendable medium-class ship, we expect to see a number of Kraits in service to fulfill specific roles within our fleet as it continues to expand here in Colonia. Future plans for expansion include a Krait mining vessel, and a security contract ship.
CMDR R. Cramer