Phantom is a smuggler ship from the Landreich.
Crew[]
- Kevin Milady - owner and pilot
- Hans Kruger - copilot and forward laser operator
- Igor - navigator and topside gunner
- Marilyn Langer - chief engineer and tail gunner
Description[]
As most ships, it was equipped with a durasteel hull, hydrogen scoop fields, inertial dampener. For defense it is equipped with shields and photon topside guns shooting mass driver rounds and tail guns. It also carried illegally a nuke mine along with fake ones.
The copilot operates the plot board that displays ships in the area with winking red blips; punching in a data inquiry, it gives a readout and on a side screen the silhouette of the ship and its class appears. Nearby is also the weapons console. The nav screen also the location of the ship within the galaxy. The heads up display displays blips across the glass. Flashing red lights and a target circle weave around, for locking and firing.[1]
History[]
In one of its skirmishes, it took a direct hit from a mass driver round which penetrated the shields and forward viewport, killing the co-pilot and scattering his body parts all around the ship's interior. The crew tried to cleanup the his splattered remains but failed to locate random bits of tissue, brains and blood, causing a disturbing odor
While on Gainer's World, young fugitive Hans Kruger boarded the ship and he took the co-pilot's position.
The ship was in the Empire of Kilrah carrying an illegal shipment of Kilrathi durasteel down in the hull. On 2634.201, while in the Hallin system, it was engaged by three Kilrathi Targu-class frigates. Two of them accelerated to block their way towards the jump point and four Vak fighters were launched against her. Milady made an abrupt maneuver to align the ship with the jump point. Igor managed to shoot one down.
Milady didged the ship away from its original trajectory and then resumed his course, fooling thus the frigate's fire. A second fighter was shot by Langer, finished off by Kruger.
The frigates started coming about to align with the Phantom 's new course, faster than Milady expected, threatening to catch up before the Phantom reaches the jump point. Launching a nuke mine, while one frigate blocked their way. The 2 Vaks again flanked the Phantom shooting its top, puncturing the starboard wing. The mine neutralized one frigate, while the other frigate changed course to avoid the fake one. However it launched 3 seekers against the Phantom.
The ship weaved toward the jump point, and shut off the shields in order to activate the jump engine. Despite the rear mass driver rounds attempted to detonate the seekers, 2 of them passed the chaff. As it approached the jump point, the light frigate also started firing in a lousy way. Igor was still shooting against the remaining Vaks, which however maintained a distance because of the frigate's volley; this saved the Phantom for the moment, because if they could make a close sweep, they could had easily puncture the hull.
The Phantom entered the light frigate's firewall which teared off a part of the portside wing; it avoided the next volley and resumed the course. Knowing that the frigate couldn't hit them anyway, and they wouldn't need to maneuver, Kruger turned the scoops off to gain speed towards the jump point.
Langer managed to shoot one of the seekers, and another one fell right into its debris but the other avoided it. As the Phantom shot past the frigate, it was turning to fire broadside, but it was far too late, and the Phantom was already inside the edge of the jump field.
However, while the engine was engaging, the remaining seeker boosted forward; Langer shot it, but too close: the explosion washed into the rear, and the hurling fragments, slammed into the unshielded, thin layer of stern durasteel, tearing the aft section open. The disaster evaporated Langer and decapitated Milady, leaving Igor wounded under debris, exposed in vacuum; Kruger always in the controls, who however had managed to secure himself in his flight suit.
Kruger was the only survivor who brought the crippled ship to an empty space of the demilitirized zone dividing the Kilrathi Empire and the outer reaches of the frontier. He filled the punctures with plasti-seal and sealed the aft section off with an inflatable collar.[2] It took more than a week to limp back to Landreich space and dock at the Hell Hole. Hans bribed the appropriate persons and altered the registration numbers and titles, and renamed the ship Lazarus, under his ownership, according to the local government.[3]