urious
Craft: FNASS Furious
Type: fleet starfighter carrier
Scale: capital
Dimensions: length: 239.5 m, beam: 27.4 m
Crew: 678, gunners: 72
Passengers: up to 396 (pilots and other aircrew)
Cargo Capacity: 224 tons (excluding hangar space)
Consumables: 18 months
Hyperdrive: none
Maneuverability: 0D
Space: 4
Hull: 2D+2
Shields: 0D+1
Sensors: 10/0D; 15/0D+2; 25/1D; 1/1D+2
Weapons:
6 Twin Heavy Blasters
    Fa: 3 port, 3 starboard
    Crew: 2
    Fc: 1D
    Space range: 2-8/25/50
    Damage: 2D+2
3 Octuple Light Blasters
    Fa: 2 front, 1 aft
    Crew: 2
    Fc: 2D
    Scale: starfighter
    Space range: 1-3/6/10
    Damage: 6D+1
32 Light Blasters
    Fa: 8 all
    Crew: 1
    Fc: 1D
    Scale: starfighter
    Space range: 1-3/6/10
    Damage: 3D+1
22 Light Railguns
    Fa: 5 front, 5 aft, 6 port, 6 starboard
    Crew: 1
    Fc: 2D
    Scale: Starfighter
    Space range: 1-3/6/10
    Damage: 2D
Fighters: 33
Capsule: The Furious was one of the earliest of the FNA's carriers, being converted bit by bit from a light battle-cruiser as the war went on. The stats given are for the final, fully converted version of the vessel. The decision was made to add a hangar and flight deck to the ship when she was almost complete, but the facilities added to the Furious had some serious drawbacks: namely no provision was made for recovering starfighters launched from the vessel. In this configuration she could carry 10 fighters. Recovering these fighters after launch was an affair that took a great deal of time, and was absolutely impossible under any sort of combat situation. Often it was necessary for fighter pilots to eject and be rescued by the crew of the Furious rather than wait for their fighters to be brought aboard. In the second stage of her life as a carrier some of the vessel's primary weaponry was removed to make room for a second hangar, as well as facilities designed to allow fast recovery of fighters. The new recovery facilities dit not live up to expectations however, having an unacceptable accident rate, and it was decided that the Furious would, once again, be designated as not capable of recovering her ships (although as before it could be done if there was enough time). It was during this stage in the life of the Furious that she became the first carrier in the Nethin system to launch a starfighter strike. The strike in question was relatively small, only taking out two long-range heavy bombers and their hangars on one of the moons of Hangin, but it was significant as the dawn of a new type of strategy. Soon after this the Furious was modified with improved starfighter recovery systems, and then with an improved ‘tower' from which incoming and outgoing fighters could be more easily coordinated. The Furious was then considered fully capable of being a fleet carrier, and was put into more active service, both as a convoy escort, and as part of groups hunting for HPL wolfpacks. It wasn't long before the Furious was considered obsolete however, and she has now been relegated to non-combat missions, such as training and ferrying starfighters from one planet or carrier group to another. There have recently been calls to reinstate the Furious into active combat duty, if only in the role of a convoy escort, but her starfighter recovery systems are, compared with other carriers, still quite primitive. Upgrading the systems would be far too difficult to be worthwhile, and so she is likely to remain primarily as a training ship.