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ZyCorp Ballista - Light Railgun Cruiser

ZyCorp is a relatively newer Ship Manufacturing Corporation and considered to be one of the fastest-growing corps in the past 20 years. Focusing on specialized hull types, ZyCorp designs ships that fill many different types of roles in a wide variety of combat applications. While ZyCorp focuses mostly on combat hulls, they have engineered a small number of logistical configurations which also find some use in the civilian markets.

• Hammerhead and Crossbow
  
• Jellyfish Light Transport Frigate
  
• Mimic Long Range Support Frigate
  
• Porcupine Medium Missile Cruiser
  
• Broadhead Heavy Armor Frigate
  
• Comet Light Ion Cruiser
  
• Sunburst Artillery Cruiser
  
• Shellback Light Civilian Freighter

The ZyCorp Ballista is a light railgun cruiser built for long range precision strikes on light and medium targets. With twice as many railgun accelerators and sporting a pair of railguns, the Ballista is the big cousin of the ZyCorp Crossbow. It was in fact originally designed using the Crossbow as a base and still retains the distinctive "bow" armor pattern. Like its smaller cousin however, it is also vulnerable to return fire and requires escorts to protect it after engaging an enemy... assuming the enemy is still in one piece after the Ballista's initial volleys, that is.

Role: Railgun sniper/light cruiser
Cost: 619,550
Crew: 60
Power: 12 (2 x Small reactors, 2 x Medium reactors)
Command: 100/100
Dimensions: 25m x 49m
Armament: 2 x Railguns with 10 accelerators
Defences: 6 x Point defence cannons
Secondary systems: 1 x Engine room, 2 x Cannon ammo factory
Cargo: 30 + 4 (Cannon ammo factory)
Hyperdrives: 2 (65% efficiency)

(Tip: When using the Ballista as a long-range sniper, it works best if you set the railguns to only fire when they have a target, and give a direct fire order on the targeted component. Then, line up a shot with a component using the Rotate Ship order [default 'R']. The railguns will fire the instant the ship lines up the shot. See this video for a demonstration)