Kharos Ship Catalog ยท Chapter 1
The House of Kharos
The Kharos Forge Cooperative builds the hulls of the Funtari Confederacy's frontier: freighters, tugs, salvage ships, miners and carriers that are rebuilt more often than they are retired.
Kharos sells the hull you can still repair a week from the nearest yard, and the next rebuild of it.
The Cooperative is a network of clan yards, foundries and licensed workshops working to shared drawings. Its ships assume poor ports, scarce parts and a crew that learned the trade on the job. Every service route is reachable and no panel wants a proprietary tool.
How a Spacer Reads a Kharos Ship
It is built to be repaired. Kharos's Signature systems are sublight engines, maneuvering thrusters, damage control, workshops, salvage and towing systems, and cargo handling. A Kharos hull spends its points where a working crew feels them: Hull Points, Speed and Cargo. Of the five commercial makers it has the easiest field repair, and a lot of hull for the price.
It pays in the places that do not show. Kharos's Weak systems are signature management, luxury accommodations, refined AI integration and thermal quieting. A Kharos hull is easy to see, cramped, never smart, and hot when it fires. Its System Points run low and its Armor runs at the Civilian figure or under it.
It is never finished. A Kharos hull collects marks. A mark is the Cooperative's name for a standard rebuild: the same hull one step further along, with the kit and the clan yard to do it. A crew can fly a Mk I for thirty years, rebuild it to a Mk III at a yard, or buy a Mk V new.
It is loud and ugly and hard to retire. Even a new Kharos ship looks ready to be repaired. In Funtari ports and on the frontier that is standard. In League and Directorate ports customs looks harder, because the modification history is long and the paperwork is rarely current.
The saying along the docks: "A Kharos ship breaks every week and never stops flying."
Kharos at a Glance
| Common name | Kharos |
| Alignment | Funtari Confederacy |
| Market | Frontier, mining, salvage, mercenary, industrial |
| Reputation | Loud, ugly, repairable, nearly impossible to retire |
| Price tier | Low to moderate |
| Financing | Clan loans, work contracts, salvage shares, mercenary sponsorship |
| Parts | Excellent in frontier regions |
| Service | Informal but widespread |
| Gray market | Exceptional |
| Authority heat | Low until customs notices what the crew bolted onto the hull |
The Four Yards
Kharos's history is not recorded in the Vehicles Manual, the Sector Atlas or the Game Master's Guide. This section proposes one. Where it disagrees with the table, the table wins.
The Cooperative has no founder. It has a charter, and the charter has four signatures. 214 years ago four clans that built ships for the same frontier agreed to cut their drawings to one set of dimensions, so that a part cast in one yard fitted a hull launched in another. The Confederacy's Assembly witnessed the agreement and gave it a seat. The Assembly sits above Kharos Freehold, a world of approximately 800 million people, and the four yards that signed are still the Cooperative's Forge Yards.
| Yard | Clan | What it builds | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandhal Yard | Clan Brandhal | Skiffs, shuttles and the KR-41, the Cooperative's first and commonest hull | The ring of old ore platforms around Kharos Assembly |
| Tolvar Foundry | Clan Tolvar | Engine housings, nozzles and castings for every line; the KR-27 and the KR-38 | An ore platform in the Industrial Belt, between Taryon and Kharos Assembly |
| Esker Slips | Clan Esker | Salvage ships and the claw arms, winches and cranes that go on them; the KR-51 | A salvage anchorage on the Outer March |
| Harmund Works | Clan Harmund | Capital hulls and the heaviest rebuilds; the KR-61, the KR-47 and the KR-72 | A gantry ring above Kharos Freehold |
Three entries from the yard ledgers.
The Frame Accord, signed 214 years ago. One standard bolt pattern, one coolant fitting, one panel size for hatches, and one rule: no part that needs a tool the crew will not have. The Brandhal clerk who drafted it is remembered for crossing out the word "approved" wherever it appeared. The Accord says "serviceable".
The first rebuild plate, 163 years ago. A Brandhal KR-41 came back to its yard with a new engine housing from Tolvar and a patched flank from Esker. The yard did not know what to call it. The foreman stamped "second" on a steel tag and welded the tag by the bridge. The Cooperative later turned the tag into the Rebuild Plate (Chapter 10).
The Harmund gantry, 131 years ago. Harmund Works finished the first gantry ring able to lift a Scale 6 hull whole. Since then the heaviest rebuilds of every line have been Forge Yard work: the Mk IV and Mk V plates, spines and sealed housings are cast or fitted only where a gantry can lift them.
The Assembly refit facility. The refit facility at the Assembly station keeps the master drawings. A mark is a Kharos mark when a hull of that mark has passed the facility's inspection once; the Cooperative has never printed a release year on one, and the facility's logs are not public.
What This Book Covers
Eight ship lines. A survey skiff, a drop shuttle, a light freighter, a salvage ship, a tug, a mining ship, a carrier and a heavy freighter. They run from Scale 2 to Scale 6.
Twenty-six hulls. Every line has two to five marks. A mark is a number after the line: the KR-41, KR-41 Mk II, and so on to the KR-41 Mk V. The Cooperative reaches Mk IV and Mk V only on the lines that are rebuilt most (Chapter 4).
Every hull is built to the same grade. Kharos sells for open commercial use, so every hull in this book is built to the Civilian operator tier. Chapter 2 explains how to read an entry's stat block.
Rebuilds. Chapter 10 prices every rebuild from one mark to the next, says which yard does it, and describes the Rebuild Plate that records it.
Signature components. Chapter 9 lists the modules and systems that only Kharos builds.
What Kharos does not build. Yachts, liners and luxury hulls, science and survey cruisers, stealth ships and any hull built to hide. It builds no Scale 7 hull: Scale 7 mobile yards belong to the Funtari Warforge Compact, the Confederacy's military yard. A crew that wants a warship should look at Crown Meridian, an Open relationship for Kharos (Chapter 11).
Using This Book
The Vehicles Manual comes first. It prints four Kharos hulls: the KR-41, KR-51 and KR-61, and the Survey Skiff that this book names the Prospector. They are the first mark of their lines here, and every number in their stat blocks is the same in both books. Where the two books differ, the Vehicles Manual is right. The Hammer torpedo bomber, also printed there, is built to a different grade and stays in the Manual.
Class follows Scale. A hull's class matches the size category it sits in. The Vehicles Manual's printed names for the three starships (Frontier Workhorse Freighter, Heavy Salvage Tender, Industrial Carrier) appear under each heading as the descriptive name.
Prices are catalog prices for a factory-new hull at a Kharos yard, with the factory package fitted. Chapter 10 has used prices and rebuild costs.