by John Douglass

Caught off-guard, Earth's response to the reality of interstellar conflict was, naturally, to build warships as fast as it could. All Earth's major shipyards were thus devoted to warship production and couldn't spare the capacity to create a small fleet of picket-ships to patrol deepspace and warn of enemy ship incursions. So, small shipyards system-wide were commissioned to convert small, non-military ships to picket duty. With upgraded engines and extensive sensor gear, and rudimentary offensive capability added as an afterthought so that the pilots didn't feel completely helpless, these vessels patrolled for months at a time as their vital though glamorless contribution to the war effort.

This ship started as a civilian vessel, a small freighter, but one of the largest that was ever retrofitted and armed for long-range patrol. Because of it's size, it actually required little modification, short of armament, a little more sensor capability, and the enhanced engines. The modifications left relatively large amounts of unused space inside, so a pair of guns were mounted, one a typical long-range pulse weapon, the other, a short-range beam weapon. Peculiarly, the interdictor's mission to serve as a patrolling component of an early-warning system and to avoid combat was not compromised by the additional offensive weaponry, as it seems the shipowner/captain wished to survive hostilities and return to commerce, with the modifications.

Indeed, the Reaver remained quite true to it's mission, as evidenced by the relatively pristine finish. There is also some evidence, however, that after the war the form of commerce to which the Reaver turned greatly resembled piracy, the first interstellar ship thought to have done so. Evidence of such is circumstantial, however, owing to dearth of corroborating witnesses.

The Model

This interdictor started off as a "Be-6" amphibious plane, an eastern european kit made of thick, glossy plastic, mercifully devoid of rivets. I like amphibian planes for this kind of thing because they all have a slab bottom instead of a rounded fuselage. Anyway, I started building an otherwise nondescript spacecraft, a space-only monstrosity with a long ventral wing. I lopped-off the nose and turned it upside-down. Turned the rest of the fuselage upside-down, too, but spread the new bottom apart to change the cross-section.

It was boring, and I put it aside for a while, resurrecting it after building another model. Added lots of detail. Still boring, to say nothing of hard to put on a stand, what with that long ventral wing. Lopped-off half the wing, and, Woo-Hoo! It's a whole new ballgame! Such is inspiration. Added a sensor package in the mouth, turning the Alien-head into a cigar-smoker. Added tanks and weapons and put a shield over them.

This ship is also inspired by another ship that looks almost nothing like this one. One of my favorite TV shows is one no longer aired, Firefly. In the pilot episode, aired, of course, after all the rest, the hero ship, a Firefly-class freighter named "Serenity", is menaced by a way-cool ship crewed by what amounts to berserker cannibal pirates, called "reavers". The only thing my Reaver shares with the Firefly one is the two fins on top, but again, such is inspiration.

Image: Left/rear view

Image: Underneath

Image: Before painting