Une Docina
Character
- 3LC Drone Barge -
[ Image Source ]
Affiliation - Open market.
Manufacturer - Formerly Yutechnica Automation, now defunct; currently Loronar Corporation.
Modularity - No.
Production - Mass-produced.
Material - Durasteel hull.
Classification - Drone barge.
Length - 300 meters.
Width - 120 meters.
Height - 60 meters.
Armament - N/A.
Hangar -
- 2x light freighter.
- 1x UN3 Skipper droid brain (Yutechnica Automation manufactured examples only).
- 1x generic pilot droid brain or command/control module (Loronar Corporation manufactured examples only).
- 1x standard commercial grade sensor array.
- 1x standard commercial grade comm unit.
- 2x tractor beam emitter.
- 2x heavy external manipulator arm.
- 2x docking ring, with extendable cofferdam and docking clamps.
- 1x emergency life support system.
- 4x emergency medical stasis pod.
- 1x self-repair system.
Speed Rating - 10.
Hyperdrive Class - 1.5.
Strengths/Weaknesses -
- + Excellent cargo capacity.
- + Yutechnica manufactured examples are exceptionally competent and adaptable thanks to their heuristic computer architecture.
- + Can carry a small number of passengers if necessary.
- + Fast hyperdrive for a ship of its size.
- + Can lead fleets of other vessels via slave circuit.
- + Can repair moderate damage on its own.
- - Loronar manufactured examples possess only generic computers with limited intelligence.
- - Is completely unarmed in stock configuration.
- - Self-repair system cannot access external damage.
- - Sluggish to turn and accelerate at sublight speeds.
- - Yutechnica manufactured examples can become bored and seek distractions.
- - Life support systems are not robust enough to last more than a standard week.
"For the first time ever, your fleet has personality."
_Yutechnica Automation 3LC marketing slogan.
The 3LC was originally the brainchild of Yutechnica Automation, a small Outer Rim droid manufacturer with big ambitions. Previously known for its line of shipboard maintenance and cargo handling units, Yutechnica believed it could successfully expand into other segments of the industry. They wanted a piece of the lucrative drone barge market, a field dominated by such players as Cybot Galactica and (at the time) Corellian Engineering Corporation, titans in the industry who routinely stepped on small upstarts like Yutechnica. With this in mind, the tiny manufacturer knew it would have to create a product which not only passed muster, but was unique enough to be noticed against the backdrop of its monolithic competitors.
"These karkin' things'll put me out of a job!"
_Unknown spacer.
In order to find out what they needed to do, Yutechnica embarked on a research program to determine the shortcomings of current drone barges, and discover ways to circumvent them in their own design. Quickly, they discovered what most of the shipping industry already knew: drones were often the slowest, least reliable method of cargo transport available. Susceptible to navigational errors and mechanical failures, they also had no defense against sabotage or piracy. While cheap to operate, their simple droid brains could not hold a candle to a sentient crew.Armed with this information, Yutechnica began their design program.
Conducting a wide survey of independent freighter crews, Yutechnica compiled a list of skills and behaviors which they believed embodied the ideal starship operator. With these in mind, they set about developing a sophisticated hardware and software package, an electronic crewbeing who could combine all these traits into a single individual.
The result, after long years of development, was the UN3 Skipper.
[ Image Source ]
The "cockpit" of an original series 3LC Drone Barge, with its UN3 Skipper flight computer.
The UN3 was a powerful flight computer, designed around a heuristic architecture and sophisticated operating system which allowed it to learn from experience and formulate its own solutions to new problems, rather than simply acting on pre-programmed instructions. Capable of developing their own unique skill-sets and complex personalities, early UN3s performed flawlessly in tests, and were advertised as "nearly sentient" in Yutechnica promotional material.
The UN3, when fitted to a ship, could also slave the lesser computers of other vessels to itself, acting as the leader of a convoy.
The ship which the UN3 was built for was less than impressive from an aesthetic standpoint, but indeed, served its purpose well enough.
At 300 meters in length, the 3LC Drone Barge was Yutechnica's first effort at starship design, having up to that point mainly built droids for use inside such vessels. The company thus approached the task from this viewpoint first, resulting in a vessel that ultimately ended up being as much oversize astromech droid as bulk freighter.
Capable of hauling over 270,000 tons of cargo in its cavernous main holds, the 3LC was as good or better than any other drone on the market at the time in terms of freight capacity. It could also transfer cargo to smaller vessels in an internal hangar bay, which could accommodate up to two light freighters at once.
However, large cargo holds were not all the 3LC boasted; having made note of its competitors' susceptibility to mechanical failures, Yutechnica fitted a novel self-repair feature. Controlled by a separate droid brain, this system operated by moving mechanical arms along a network of tracks set into the walls, floor and ceiling of the ship's corridors, cargo bays and maintenance spaces. These arms, each equipped with at least a universal tool mount and a simple manipulator, and ranging in size from tiny multi-jointed probes to giant cranes, could be sent to almost any part of the ship to repair or bypass internal damage. Though capable of being temporarily blocked or disabled by damage to their guidance tracks, and unable to access external hull damage, the arms were about as capable as any organic damage control team, with results and speed of repairs dependent upon the severity of the damage and the availability of proper tools and/or spare parts. The arms could also be used to move cargo inside the vessel, in addition to two large manipulator arms mounted outside the main cargo loading hatch on the ventral hull; they could also be used to affect repairs to ships inside the 3LC's hangar bay, though they could only access external damage.
The 3LC was also equipped with the unusual ability to carry passengers, after a fashion.
Knowing that many beings died trying to stow away on long-range drones, Yutechnica saw an opportunity to get in good with the Bureau of Ships and Services by incorporating safety systems for such an occurrence. Though not rated for normal passenger service, the 3LC did possess an emergency life support system with approximately a standard week's worth of atmospheric recycling capacity. Beyond that, or in the event of severe physical injury, the ship was also equipped with four stasis pods which could keep a stowaway or other passengers alive until the 3LC could reach port.
In a dire emergency, thousands of passengers could be crammed into the 3LC's cargo holds and hangar bay, though this taxed the life support system greatly, reducing its recycling capacity to only a few days. The ship also had no real consumables besides atmosphere, lacking food and water supplies besides a few packs of survival rations and what moisture could be drawn off power cells.
One final - and more conventional - feature of the 3LC was a class 1.5 hyperdrive. Installed as a way to address the long transit times which plagued many drone barge designs, it far outstripped the drives of many similarly sized vessels.
"I don't believe this... we built them too well?!"
_Unknown Yutechnica Automation executive.
Though the 3LC was undoubtedly an advanced and capable ship, it seemed that its own sophistication was destined to be its undoing.Unveiled in 814 ABY, the 3LC was initially a major success for Yutechnica, proving popular among early adopters. Hundreds were turned out by the new Yutechnica yards at Sluis Van, and for a brief period, it seemed that the small company might have a serious chance at not just taking a slice of the market away from its larger competitors, but revolutionizing the whole interstellar shipping industry.
However, while the 3LC was indeed well built, some seemed to think it was too much so.
Initial complaints mainly centered around the new Skipper computers. Operators who adopted the new ships were mainly used to simple, unintelligent droid brains, and the very creativity and personality which had initially sold the UN3 also made it somewhat unpredictable and difficult to integrate into existing fleets. Early models especially were known for getting bored when assigned to regular routes, and would sometimes plot more "scenic" courses in order to entertain themselves; this could throw off shipping schedules and sometimes disrupt entire convoys, as 3LCs were commonly assigned to head up groups of less advanced barges. Besides this, maintenance requirements were greater for the new computers and ships than for simpler models, thus driving up operating costs, in addition to the already somewhat steep purchase price for the more sophisticated vessels.
The 3LC's biggest critics, however, ended up being the spacers' unions of various large shipping concerns, who feared that they might be replaced by the new droid ships. They ensured this would never happen; early attempts by several operations to switch even partially over to drones were met with strikes and lawsuits, torpedoing Yutechnica's lucrative fleet sales market.
In the end, Yutechnica ceased production of the 3LC in 824 ABY, after only a decade, with only a few thousand examples sold. Having sunk much of its capital into the failed venture, the company foundered, eventually declaring bankruptcy. Most 3LCs then in service were phased out by their operators soon after, or were refitted with more traditional control systems to appease the unions, negating many advantages of the design.
Though Yutechnica Automation no longer exists, many of its assets were bought up by the Loronar Corporation, which resumed production of the 3LC at its own shipyards a few years ago. These modern examples do not incorporate the UN3 Skipper computer, partially in order to address concerns from early opponents of the design, and partially because the plans and tooling for the UN3 were not available for purchase, having already been acquired along with the Yutechnica name by an anonymous third party. These models instead use a more generic control system, without the same versatility or personality potential as the UN3.
Development Thread - UN3 Skipper AI development post.
Intent - This ship type is intended to be the basis for a droid character I am creating, as well as to provide a modern drone barge for use by others in the RP.
