IPS-Northstar "Caliban"

From the introduction: The Caliban is a relative newcomer in Interplanetary-Northstar’s line of single-client chassis, already garnering a reputation among Trunk Security for its efficacy inside of the envelope for which it was designed. Unlike many of IPS-N’s frames, the Caliban has no civilian analog or antecedent; it was designed from the ground up to be a military machine. The Caliban is IPS-N’s solution to the Yemanova Problem, or, the Impact-Override Problem. Capital ships, the problem notes, are incredibly expensive and time consuming for corpros and diasporan states to produce and maintain, and anti-ship weaponry has far outstripped capital defenses. In a conventional capital duel, a successful kill means the death of thousands of viable personnel and the loss of millions of units of manna; this leads many commanders to be gun-shy, relying on subline and fighter-class vessels to accomplish battle objectives rather than risk their big ships — a strategy that proves just as costly on average; instead of one or a handful of large ships being destroyed and signifying the end of a battle, engagements grind on for weeks as squadrons of smaller ships engage inside the unpredictability gap, inching towards victory. IPS-N was the first to crack the Yemanova Problem. Their designers identified the need for a rapidly deployable, sub-signature, directed weapon or weapon system; well armed and armored, small enough to enter a ship and efficiently and quickly neutralize personnel in order to achieve victory. IPS-N created the Caliban to solve this mission need. User Note: A "frame" for Lancer, provided separately to Kickstarter backers. Also published in The Long Rim