Ad Astra! ... an Aurora Forum Game, run by blue emu

[fnt]

Edit: scratch that, the things don't have jump drives so they wouldn't be much use without heavy company.

As most of the colonies are connected with jump gates that wont be a problem.

[blue emu]

So basically we'd be turning our escort carriers into the spaceborn equivalent of these nifty USMC heli+harriers-carriers. I approve of that :-D

Yes... that's what I mean by "Assault Carrier", correct.

They can change their combat role just by loading a different set of FACs... from Air Superiority, to Torpedo-Boat Tender, to Planetary Bombardment, to Planetary Invasion, to Boarding Shuttle Tender.

[Hearth]

I approve of the FAC idea. Then my marines have dedicated ships instead of the crappy ones we get to ride in now

[blue emu]

I approve of the FAC idea. Then my marines have dedicated ships instead of the crappy ones we get to ride in now

Here's a sample Assault Shuttle design. They have a combat radius of over 1.3 billion km, so the Assault Carrier can remain at a safe distance. They are only 800 tons and travel at 11,000 kps so they are hard to spot and hard to hit, and will fit exactly five Assault Shuttles into a Mountain-II's hangar deck. That's exactly enough to carry a Brigade (a Brigade is composed of four Battalions plus a Brigade HQ unit... five units in total). The only drawback is that it has no armor.

Bayonet class Assault Shuttle 800 tons 29 Crew 141.2 BP TCS 16 TH 88 EM 0
11000 km/s Armour 1-7 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 160% IFR: 2.2% Maint Capacity 0 MSP Max Repair 66 MSP Est Time: 0 Years
Drop Capacity: 1 Battalion

GB Magneto-plasma Drive E84 (1) Power 176 Fuel Use 840% Signature 88 Armour 0 Exp 30%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres Range 2.7 billion km (67 hours at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

It is also possible to design an armored version, with four or five layers of armor... but they are 2000 kps slower and also 25% larger, so they will only fit four into a Mountain-II's hangar deck instead of five. Not enough to carry a full Brigade.

[Gwalcmai]

Yes... that's what I mean by "Assault Carrier", correct.

They can change their combat role just by loading a different set of FACs... from Air Superiority, to Torpedo-Boat Tender, to Planetary Bombardment, to Planetary Invasion, to Boarding Shuttle Tender.

They could also serve to relay/transfer fighters to replenish the battle fleet, right?

[blue emu]

They could also serve to relay/transfer fighters to replenish the battle fleet, right?

... or to ship Fighters or FAC out to the colonies, to base at the assembled pre-fabbed PDCs.

[blue emu]

Our scouts hsve found a new jump point leading OUT of 82 Eridani. Like the 82 Eridani system itself, this newly-discovered system (CC Eridani) contains multiple Mars-like worlds.

[blue emu]

All of the wrecks in the 82 Eridani system have been salvaged, and the Wreckers and Freighters are headed home with the goodies. The Fleet will also head home to refuel and reload on maintenance supplies, and will have a quick overhaul while forces are being assembled for a Space Marine invasion of the three Prix-populated planets in 82 Eridani.

[Seli]

Nothing interesting from Charlie's wrecks then?

[blue emu]

Nothing interesting from Charlie's wrecks then?

Nothing signifigant from Charlie's wrecks, no. They show a tech level somewhat behind our own... although these ships were likely built a few years ago, so we can assume rough parity in tech.

[blue emu]

Another free tech found on El Dorado... +20% Mining efficiency.

We now have 85 Research Labs active on Earth. If we include the +20% Research Efficiency tech that we learned in the meantime, our Research output is now more than double what it was at the time of the battle of Wolf 294. About five more Labs are en-route to Earth from our excavation site.

EDIT: Another free tech on El Dorado... Advanced Railgun 10 cm. Again, I suspect that this is an alien tech, since I haven't seen Advanced Railgun techs in our own tech tree.

EDIT: Yes... the new tech opened up a new branch in the tech tree. I can now research 12 cm Advanced Railgun, without yet having researched the 12 cm standard model. Cool... more alien tech.

[Lord Strange]

Woo! Railguns!

[blue emu]

Woo! Railguns!

Yep... we haven't been building any Gun-ships so far, but with these two alien gun-techs it's becoming tempting. So far our only guns are core-ejection devices (Gauss Cannons) used for PD.

[Cromelex]

How's the railgun range, compared to lasers and missiles?

Railguns just sound so cool!

[blue emu]

Woo-Hoo!

Does anyone remember that "Compressed Fuel Storage" ship component that we found in a wrecked Prix warship? None of us had ever heard of it before... it certainly wasn't accessible from the Human tech tree.

We just found yet another research lab on El Dorado... and another free tech: Compressed Fuel Storage System.

Alien techs FTW!

EDIT: It allows us to store 50% more fuel in the same displacement.

[TheExecuter]

I foresee a round of redesigns as we take advantage of that displacement to mount more cool things, like weapons, sensors, or armor...or maybe just more speed!

[blue emu]

This brings us up to at least twenty-five free techs that we've found in these ruins, and the great majority of them were useful. Three of them weren't even researchable by Humans unless we could capture them from enemies, receive them as gifts from allies, or find them in archeological sites.

[blue emu]

According to our latest estimates, Dravar XV should reach class-0 status in about two-and-a-half years... faster than that if we can ship some more workers and life-support infrastructure in. Terraforming efforts are currently handicapped by a labor shortage.

[Quift]

the fuel compressors should really shine aboard the freighters, tankers and solarium harvesters.

[blue emu]

It is now late January, 2050... twenty-five years into the game. By the end of this year, two more Blinks, three more Constellations, one more Battle-II and the first four Heros will all be launched, as well as completing repairs to the Rocks.

the fuel compressors should really shine aboard the freighters, tankers and solarium harvesters.

Commercial engines only use fuel at 1/10th the rate of military engines... so it's the warships that will benefit most, since they burn fuel ten times faster.