Hey folks,
Shorlty before the publication of the first issue of Sagittarius Eye, where we learn the fate of the Type-8, Cmdr Whitmann and myself came in possession of some leaked photographs of an unknown spaceship. A quick glance at those photographs tells us that this is a Lakon ship concept. Amongst the handful of documents and paper notes given to us by an anonymous source, was a sort of status report on the 'Iguana' project (it seems to be the codename of the ship). We learnt that this intriguing space vessel has been in development for quite some time now, due to tremendously difficult progress in designing a totally new kind of hull structure and fabric. I'm not a scientist by any means: all I could grasp was something to do with a new combination of graphene atomic structures or something. Anyway, the report states that the project went on hold several times, to allow technology to catch up.
It appears that Lakon, hearing the complaints and witnessing the eagerness of many explorers, decided to build a truly specialized exploration vessel. Lakon felt the need to do better than the demilitarized multipurpose Asp Explorer and, most of all, to rob the jump range leadership from DeLacy's Anaconda. From the documents, it's very clear that the Iguana is nothing if not an exploration ship. It's basically a skeleton hull with an oversized Frame Shift Drive and some room to stretch your legs. The hull is incredibly light: 220T; yet, the ship is said to be a large pad one. How they pulled this off, we couldn't say. That must justify the hefty price.
The FSD, around which everything else is built, is an enormous size 8 module. If you've been around long enough, you might remember that these huge FSDs existed for a short period of time, long ago, on some gigantic hauling ships. Both size 8 FSDs and said ships were barely more than prototypes, and numerous technical difficulties and drawbacks made them quickly disappear from the skies. The size 8 FSD was still in development after that, but without any new practical use on the horizon, only a few models were finished developing before it proved too expensive to invest in their development. That's one of these models we find on the Iguana (serial numbers don't match the ones we know from back then, but the performances are consistent). Albeit being size 8, this model isn't fully optimized: its Optimal Mass is 3,600T, whereas the goal, at the time, was to reach 5,000T. Maybe in future times we'll have even bigger size 8 FSDs.
Moving on to the internals, the sacrifice is striking. Undersized power plant, power distributor, thrusters, sensors -- basically everything is undersized, save for the FSD. Since explorers tend to undersize everything they can, it makes sense to limit the standard size module from the start. Optional internals follow the same path. The FSD takes a lot of room and doesn't leave much for the rest: one size 7, obviously designed with a large fuel scoop in mind to feed the FSD, two size 3, and two size 2 provided with Detailed Surface Scanner and Advanced Discovery Scanner upon purchase. One will have to choose. No fighter bay, of course; shields, provided one can power them without trouble, won't do much more than protect the landing gear. One can take an SRV, though. And forget about cargo: this is no disguised smuggler!
There is a symbolic small hardpoint, probably for a mining laser. So, no-go for real weapons. And two utility mounts. Not too many of those either, but they can always save your life once in a while.
Unfortunately, the photos don't give us a glimpse of the ship -- save for a silhouette on the buying screen, but using another ship's picture is common practice to prevent industrial espionnage... Here are the most interesting documents we collected: two Coriolis outfitting screens, one with a 8E FSD (apparently the stock version of the ship) and one with a 8A FSD and a lightweight outfit. We don't know the engineering capabilities of this FSD -- it's probable that the Iguana's development isn't advanced enough yet to allow Lakon to speculate on the subject. Nonetheless, the stock jump range tells enough!
Calculations were made using a copy of this sheet.
Shorlty before the publication of the first issue of Sagittarius Eye, where we learn the fate of the Type-8, Cmdr Whitmann and myself came in possession of some leaked photographs of an unknown spaceship. A quick glance at those photographs tells us that this is a Lakon ship concept. Amongst the handful of documents and paper notes given to us by an anonymous source, was a sort of status report on the 'Iguana' project (it seems to be the codename of the ship). We learnt that this intriguing space vessel has been in development for quite some time now, due to tremendously difficult progress in designing a totally new kind of hull structure and fabric. I'm not a scientist by any means: all I could grasp was something to do with a new combination of graphene atomic structures or something. Anyway, the report states that the project went on hold several times, to allow technology to catch up.
It appears that Lakon, hearing the complaints and witnessing the eagerness of many explorers, decided to build a truly specialized exploration vessel. Lakon felt the need to do better than the demilitarized multipurpose Asp Explorer and, most of all, to rob the jump range leadership from DeLacy's Anaconda. From the documents, it's very clear that the Iguana is nothing if not an exploration ship. It's basically a skeleton hull with an oversized Frame Shift Drive and some room to stretch your legs. The hull is incredibly light: 220T; yet, the ship is said to be a large pad one. How they pulled this off, we couldn't say. That must justify the hefty price.
The FSD, around which everything else is built, is an enormous size 8 module. If you've been around long enough, you might remember that these huge FSDs existed for a short period of time, long ago, on some gigantic hauling ships. Both size 8 FSDs and said ships were barely more than prototypes, and numerous technical difficulties and drawbacks made them quickly disappear from the skies. The size 8 FSD was still in development after that, but without any new practical use on the horizon, only a few models were finished developing before it proved too expensive to invest in their development. That's one of these models we find on the Iguana (serial numbers don't match the ones we know from back then, but the performances are consistent). Albeit being size 8, this model isn't fully optimized: its Optimal Mass is 3,600T, whereas the goal, at the time, was to reach 5,000T. Maybe in future times we'll have even bigger size 8 FSDs.
Moving on to the internals, the sacrifice is striking. Undersized power plant, power distributor, thrusters, sensors -- basically everything is undersized, save for the FSD. Since explorers tend to undersize everything they can, it makes sense to limit the standard size module from the start. Optional internals follow the same path. The FSD takes a lot of room and doesn't leave much for the rest: one size 7, obviously designed with a large fuel scoop in mind to feed the FSD, two size 3, and two size 2 provided with Detailed Surface Scanner and Advanced Discovery Scanner upon purchase. One will have to choose. No fighter bay, of course; shields, provided one can power them without trouble, won't do much more than protect the landing gear. One can take an SRV, though. And forget about cargo: this is no disguised smuggler!
There is a symbolic small hardpoint, probably for a mining laser. So, no-go for real weapons. And two utility mounts. Not too many of those either, but they can always save your life once in a while.
Unfortunately, the photos don't give us a glimpse of the ship -- save for a silhouette on the buying screen, but using another ship's picture is common practice to prevent industrial espionnage... Here are the most interesting documents we collected: two Coriolis outfitting screens, one with a 8E FSD (apparently the stock version of the ship) and one with a 8A FSD and a lightweight outfit. We don't know the engineering capabilities of this FSD -- it's probable that the Iguana's development isn't advanced enough yet to allow Lakon to speculate on the subject. Nonetheless, the stock jump range tells enough!
Calculations were made using a copy of this sheet.
Last edited:
