Re: Hypothetical Liberator Stats

	Throwing in my two cents on Liberator...

	As I recall, she was armed with neutron blasters (which had to
be
"cleared for firing") and missiles called seekers. The seekers were not
considered main weaponry. I recall an episode in which they threw out a
few
seekers just to make their opponents waste time and energy killing them.
The
main defense was an ablative force shield called a force wall and it
could
be set to "interlock" or "overlap" and it could be at full strength in
one
place and at zero strength in another (in one episode, someone sets the
controls wrong and "leaves her keel exposed.") The neutron blasters were
only fired forward. In one episode, going to full power and emergency
speed,
I believe they got Liberator up to speed standard by twenty. Liberator
is
armored with a hull made of Herculanium, the hardest substance known to
her
creator's science. As everyone knows, she is also equipped with teleport
equipment, which I don't think can teleport through force walls as I
don't
remember their ever being used in combat.

	As for Federation ships...

	The Fed vessels are called pursuit ships and are equipped with
weapons called plasma bolts which seem to fire a round bolt of high
energy
plasma in a straight line which can be outrun or dodged. Even though
they
were generally referred to as pursuit ships there were differences
between
classes. For example, the earliest of encountered pursuit ships were not
force wall equipped while later ones were. I clearly remember an episode
in
which somehow Tarrant and Dayna destroyed a pursuit ship by making it
fly
through its own force wall... Also, the villian Travis commanded a
pursuit
ship (leader?) that held its fire while the other two pursuit ships
systematically pounded down Liberator's defenses. When Liberator tried
to
ram Travis' ship, his vessel fired a simultaneous salvo of four plasma
bolts.

	While there are no fighters that I've seen in the Blake's Seven
universe, there are extremely small craft called "gunships" used for
insystem patrols and other coast guard type duties by minor powers that
seem
very close to them. 

	Both Liberator and Federation pursuit ships relied heavily on
accumulated power in power banks rather than on produced power from
their
powerplants. They would fill these banks outside of combat and then
drain
them to conduct the high energy maneuvers and weapon firings necessary
in
combat. There are several episodes that mention that they are low on
power
from running from large groups of Federation pursuit ships and haven't
had a
chance to build up juice again. Federation pursuit ships are typically
seen
in groups of three but as Liberator became more and more of a threat, we
were told of (from off-screen or perhaps we saw blips at a distance) the
federation deploying pursuit ships in larger strengths, presumably still
built on groups of three. Fleets of pursuit ships participated in
repelling
the would-be Andromedan invasion. Other classes of ships were mentioned,
such as scout ships and cruisers, leading me to guess that pursuit ships
fill a role akin to the destroyer.

	James
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	Battlecruiser INTREPID, CORMORANT-class
	Captain James L. Butler III, Commanding
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