By [[Larry Moore]]
Star Frontiersman Issue #11-p10
“The attack came fast. Without warning, the radar lit up showing a half dozen small objects coming in-system at an incredible speed. They couldn't be ships…. ships would be decelerating. Nobody knew where the attack came from. A fighter was able to launch in time to take out two of the objects before being destroyed by the last four objects. Someone or something had fired a torpedo capable of faster-than-light travel. The entire station was wiped out.”
Faster Than Light Torpedoes (FTLT) are relatively new in the Frontier. The UPF believes the sathar are behind the attack since several target areas have had encounters with sathar scout ships. FTLTs have been used to destroy capital ships and orbiting stations. There is no defense save a one man fighter attempting to intercept these devastating harbingers of destruction.
** FTLTs are outlawed within the UPF territories.
The Process
A sathar ship, typically destroyer class, will accelerate on a trajectory inline with the target location. Just before reaching Void speed the ship will launch the FTLT; from there it accelerates on a pre-programmed route, enters the Void, and then drops out of the Void at a speed of 180 hexes per turn. Faster-than-light torpedoes drop out of the Void about 10,000,000 kilometers from its pre-programmed target area. A station or ship has about 50 minutes (5 Knight Hawk turns) to react to these nasty incoming threats.
Accuracy
FTLT must be launch from the ship on a trajectory that will intercept its intended target. Minor adjustments can be made once a torpedo has exited the Void by an onboard navigation computer. In addition to hitting a target the torpedo must explode upon impact to cause the maximum amount of damage. There is a 15% chance the torpedo will simply puncture a hole in the target causing minimal hull damage and decompression.
A simple navigation program keeps FTLTs from hitting objects and planets until they reach their destination. If there are no objects within 20 hexes of their pre-programmed destination they will exhaust their fuel and drift harmlessly in space until caught by a gravitation force.
Knight Hawks Stats
HS: 1
HP: 5
Power plant: 1 Atomic sub-A
ADF: 2
MR: 1
Armament: Sathar Nuke: 6d10 -20 on DTM
Defenses: RH
Communication/Detection: n/a
Misc Equipment: Streamlined Hull, Missile shape
Computer: Astrogation (1), Homing (1)
Number Crunching Knight Hawks Style
The table below gives the speed of an object just fast enough to enter (or just exiting) the void in a variety of different units that can be used in the game.
Speed of Light (c) is 300,000 km/s (approx)
Void Jump Speed (in various game units)
- 0.01c
- 3,000 km/s
- 180,000 km/min
- 1,800,000 km/turn
- 180 hexes/turn
- 10,800,000 km/hour
- 3.33 seconds per hex
Editor’s Note: These FTL torpedoes are probably best used as a plot device rather than in a KH board game. The mechanics are such that a fighter probably couldn‘t intercept one of these in a way to get a MPO Assault Rocket shot off to destroy them unless they were lucky in the way the ref sets up the board. Other ships, equipped with weapons that aren‘t MPO limited, however, could line up along the flight path and take defensive fire shots on the last round before it impacted its target (or take the hit instead).
