  The Starfleet Light Attack Craft (LAC) began life as the Peregrine class Courier, having been modified by the Maquis to carry a Class VII phaser and a battery of 13.5cm Photon Microtorpedo launchers - three on each wing. It became a light, manœuvrable heavily armed vessel capable of moderate Warp speeds. It was used by the Maquis to great effect against the Cardassian Union and their Dominion allies. When the Federation entered the Dominion War, Starfleet felt the need for a fighter-style vessel similar to the Romulan Star Empire's Scorpion and Klingon Empire's Qang class Fighters. Starfleet had long ago decomissioned its Scorpio class Corvettes, the closest thing they'd had to a fighter. Studying captured Maquis Peregrines, the ASDB came to the colclusion that the modified Couriers were just what they needed, were cost-effective, and best of all, were easily and speedily converted from a readily available vessel. By the time of Operation Return, the attack to re-take DS9 from the Dominion, Starfleet had converted several hundred of the Peregrines to the new Light Attack Craft configuration. The Starfleet Light Attack Craft has a crew of two, a Flight Control Officer and an Operations Manager, and is equipped with a single Transporter pad. It has a small food replicator and a single bunk for extended-duration missions. Entry and egress are via a pair of gull-wing hatches in the cockpit and a secondary access hatch in the aft compartment. The vessel has folding wings for landing. Its cruising speed is Warp Factor 4, its maximum safe speed is WF6, and its emergency speed is WF8 for a maximum of 6 hours, which puts great stress of the engines and superstructure. The LAC is armed with a Type VIII phaser cannon in the nose and a pair of triple-mount 13.6cm Photon Microtorpedo launchers. Each wing has a flat-pack magazine of a dozen microtorpedoes. Each Photon Microtorpedo does 20% of the damage of a full-sized Photorp and each Peregrine can fire a spread of six Microtorps, making it a tough customer in swarm attacks. |
