3125 Scale Carnivon Police Corvette (POL) SRZ

The Carnivons are a species that is often described as “wolf-like,” but they are, in fact, genetically related to the Kzintis and Lyrans, and all three apparently descended from some ancestral species. How they came to be on such widely separated worlds is unclear. Curiously, the felinoid species (descended from solitary hunters) created fairly unified stellar empires, while the Carnivons (descended from pack hunters) remained a species rather than a nation. There is no such thing as a Carnivon “government.” Instead, at any given time, there are anywhere from a dozen to two dozen hordes (each of millions of members), each subdivided into packs (each with hundreds of thousands of members).

Carnivon ships are different from those of almost any other empire in that the crew do not have cabins or staterooms but sleep in relatively small cubicles reminiscent of caves. Most of the Carnivon crew’s off-duty time is spent in common areas engaged in various sports or other social activities.

The Lyrans and Kzintis hated the Carnivons on sight, more so even than they hated each other. It took just over 50 years for those two empires to slaughter the Carnivons.

But what if the Carnivons hadn’t been wiped out? What ships would they build?

As with most empires, the Carnivons had a huge volume of space to patrol and only so much money to build the fleet to do so. The compromise was a large number of very small ships built to maintain a presence, and many of these were controlled by “local” governments as “police forces” rather than “naval forces.” This prevented the local naval commanders from stripping all possible ships from an area without first coordinating and getting the permission of those protecting the local populations. The Carnivon police corvette was produced in great numbers, typical of the police ships of most empires and possible due to its small size (making it both cheap and easy to build). It benefited from using the same engines as the frigate, making it a relatively lively ship, even if its weapons would not impress a single Light Raider. However, its speed and relatively high maneuverability enabled ships of this class to hold off Light Raiders until help arrived and to pursue those Light Raiders in hopes of finding their bases. Known names include Gor, Tor, Dav, Fuf, Vel, Jen, Alor, Wor, Mol, and Simr.

The ship is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.