Craft: Neogi Deathspider
Type: Assault/slaving craft
Scale: Capital
Length: 175 meters (not counting 'legs')
Skill: capital ship piloting: Deathspider (note that due to the special configuration of the controls that allows Neogi to use them, this ship cannot be piloted by non-Neogi without a 3D penalty to all manuevers, unless the Deathspider specialization is learned)
Crew: 98, skeleton: 30, gunners: 25
Passengers: 207
Cargo Capacity: 165 tons
Consumables: 3 years
Hyperdrive: X4
Backup: X29
Nav Comp: yes
Manueverability: 0D+2
Space: 4
Hull: 4D
Shields: 1D+2
Sensors: 20/0D, 40/1D, 80/1D+2, 2/2D+1
Weapons:
1 Heavy Turbolaser
    fire arc: rear
    crew: 5
    range: 1-3/20/45
    fire control: 1D
    damage: 5D+1
4 Heavy Laser Batteries
    fire arc: 2 front, 1 rear/port, 1 rear/starboard
    crew: 4
    range: 1-2/15/40
    fire control: 2D
    damage: 4D+2
1 Heavy Radiation Cannon
    fire arc: rear
    crew: 4
    range: 1-3/20/45
    fire control: 1D
    damage: 6D*
* Neogi radiation cannons fire focused bursts of radiation which damages living tissue, but not equipment. If a radiation cannon hits a ship roll the damage rating against the ship's hull and shields codes. Every point that the damage rating beats the hull roll by translates into 2 pips of character scale damage against the crew. For example if the damage roll is 25, and the ship hit rolls an 18 for combined hull and shields, then the crew would take 4D+2 damage (25-18=7, 7X2=14, 14 pips = 4D+2). For small craft such as light freighters this damage would be done to everyone on board, but larger craft such as capital ships would only have the damage done to crewers in the specific area that was hit (GM's judgement).
Capsule: The Deathspider is the largest ship used by the Neogi, as well as the most common. The Deathspider is shaped very much like a huge spider, with a head, a bulbous abdomen, and 8 legs. 4 of the long legs extend in front of the vessel (adding roughly 160m to the ship's length), 1 upwards, and one downwards on both the port and starboard side, while the other 4 extend back in a like manner, flanking the 'abdomen' of the ship. The rear legs serve no purpose except aesthetics and to play on the common fears that most sentient species have regarding insects and arachnids, but the forward legs serve as long boarding tubes. When the Neogi have disabled a ship the forward legs, which have some small degree of mobility, are attached to the target vessel using magnetic clamps (depending on the size and configuration of the target from 1 to all 4 of the legs may be brought to bear on it). Plasma torch boarding devices mounted on the tips of the legs are then brought into play, and once an airtight seal has been formed boarding parties can pour forth into the unfortunate target vessel. The Deathspider has gossamer, weblike 'sails' strung between the upper legs (from the forward upper port leg to the rear upper port leg, and the same on the starboard side), as well as between the rear upper legs and the abdomen. Again these 'webs' are there partially to enhance the appearance of the ship, but they also function as solar collectors when the Deathspider is close to a star. Because of this Deathspiders are often found lazily basking in the light of a star while they slowly (and I mean SLOWLY) recharge their batteries.
    The basic design of the Deathspider was completed for the Neogi well over a thousand years ago by the Nomoi (who had been enslaved), and although quite a few new Deathspiders have been built since then, most Deathspiders operating today were built in the days when the Neogi held the entire population of Nomoi in thrall. Just because the design is so old does not mean that the technology used in Deathspiders is of the same age however. As Neogi captured better technology through raiding over the centuries they have happily directed their slaves to reproduce this technology and retrofit it to all of the existing ships, and incorporate it into any new ships which are built. Considering the long history of these ships, and the fact that the Neogi are not unified as one coherent power, but are rather fragmented into many small fleets owned by individual Neogi it is somewhat surprising how standard the systems and technology are on all of the numerous Deathspiders. This is truly a testament to the Neogi racial identity.
    This being said, there are a number of standard variants on the basic Deathspider design. The most common version is that seen here. There is also a version known as a Black Widow which triples the weaponry found on the standard version at the expense of reducing consumables to 1 month, and leaving no room for slaves beyond what is needed to operate the ship. The Black Widow is used only for attacking long-time enemies of the Neogi, and never for standard slaving
practices, or as a brood ship. It is rumored that there are as many as 100 Black Widows , but the most that has ever been seen at a time is 3. The only other standard variation on the Deathspider is the Carrier. The Carrier strips out the Heavy Turbolaser and sacrifices space for 100 slaves in order to carry a smaller vessel inside the abdomen. A Carrier can carry either a Mindspider, a Leech, or 20 Urchins.
    A typical crew of a Deathspider will consist of 10-12 Neogi, 30-40 Vodyanki slaves, and up to 280 slaves of various other species. If the ship is operating as a brood ship (ie. if there is a Great Old Master aboard which must be fed), then the number of miscellaneous slaves will be much lower than normal, as these slaves are fed to the Great Old Master one by one to ensure that a new generation of Neogi is born.