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IHEMOD Dropship

During the Mordecai's planning stages, many overtures were made towards the construction of a fleet of ships of which the fortress would be the flagship. This plan was dropped, in favour of the fold capable Iconoclast fighters. However, once in the Andromeda, it was realised that there was a need for a landing ship larger than the Fold Shuttle. And so the Dropship was born.

The initial Dropship was a simple unit that could carry 100 Shock divers to a planet's surface. It was only IHE design principals that left a Fold Drive in the unit It was based on the Zentraedi landing pod, and so was slow, unarmed, and lightly armoured. after a couple of battles against the Monte Yarrow, the dropships showed their advantages and liabilities.

After many ships were lost to enemy attacks once their cover had been scattered, the dropship gained firepower and armour, as well as a modicum of speed. Also, with the brutal fighting the Mordecai encountered, an Ambulance version was produced. After seeing the need for new combat vessels in space, the IHe development teams devised a modular system based around the Dropship hull.

The first step was to create a Tabula Rasa hull, the Dropship. This was a simple cargo carrier, but was faster, and more heavily armed and armoured than the then current generation of Assault Dropships. Following that, prototypes of the gunship and Carrier variants were produced, before the modular system was designed. they were tested in combat, and were well recieved. Following this, a modular prototype was built, which could operate any of the mission roles. At this point, a link up design was proposed, where a number of Dropships could join together and operate as a ship. This prompted the design of the Tug and the Monitor systems.

Phyisically, the ship resembles a long cylinder with a box on top. the cylinder contains the pod space and engines, and the box contains the command section. The command section is two decks tall, the upper deck containing the bridge and anciliary functions, the lower quarters and facilities for the permanent crew of 6. The pod space, which takes up 80% of the lower section, is pretty much empty before a pod is attached. There are couplings and braces for power convertors and deck plates, and so on. The Dropship (cargo variant) simply attaches braces for cargo and some scaffolding. the Troopship makes heavy modifications, as two barracks for 45 people are installed, plus quarters for 10 officers, and facilities for all those. The carrier version installs a small barracks, but most of the space is launch and recovery facilities for the four iconoclasts carried board. the Ambulance is basically a converted troopship, with one barracks and seven quarters removed to make room for an operating theatre, trauma room, Xalon Tank, and barracks for ten nurses. The Gunship and monitor take up their space with weapons. The gunship boosts its firepower by adding a trio of particle cannons and a massive missile delivery system, while the monitor uses a meson accelerator. All in all, the Dropship is a dangerous addition to the IHEMOD arsenal.

Dropships went on to serve in every conflict the IHE took part in after their introduction in 2048. Following the full realisation of the link up procedure, IHEMOD Dropships operated alone as fully fledged vessels, either from Mordecai or a child state.

Available mission pods:

Dropship
Troopship
Carrier
Ambulance
Gunship
Monitor

Tug

N.B: The Dropship is a modular hull that can contain one of the features set out above.

Crew:

DropShip:

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 2

Troopship :

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 2
Shock Divers: 100

Carrier :

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 2
Iconoclast Pilots: 4
Flight Technicians: 3

Ambulance :

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 2
Medical Personnel: 3 Doctors, 10 Nurses
Capacity for 40 Wounded

Gunship :

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 8

Monitor :

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 5

Tug

Flight Crew : 4
Gunners: 2

MDC By Location:
All Ships:
Engines(4): 300
Command Deck**: 500
Sensor Suite***: 250
Main Body*: 2,000
Particle Cannons(5): 200
Reflex Shield: 3,000
Cargo Bay Doors +: 300

*Depleting the Main Body will destroy the Dropship , leaving the ship a wrecked hulk or exploding completely(50/50 chance)
**Destroying the command tower will destroy the bridge, leaving the ship floating in space, crippled.
***Destroying the sensor suite renders the ship unable to fold or move at more than 2G acceleration, also, missiles may not fire and all weapons are at -4 to hit.
+ Destroying the Cargo Bay doors will depressurise the bay, sucking everything that isn’t bolted down out, and killing all unprotected personnel. The Monitor, Tug and Gunship have no Cargo Bay Doors.

Gunship Only:
Particle Cannons (3): 500
Missile Bay: 300

Monitor Only:
Reflex Cannon 800

Length: 35 Metres

Weight: 600 tons

Main Engines: 4 IHE Mk. 7 Reflex Sublight drives.
A Dropship is capable of 12G acceleration up to a top sublight speed of .12c
Power systems: Anti Matter generator with Fusion backup. Backup power gives 35% of top speed, cannot use the main gun or fold, 50% of weapons are off line, and the shield may only be used if drives and weapons are shut down.

Weapon Systems:

All Ships:

1.) 5 Light Particle Cannons
To give the non combatant ships a level of defence, and to bolster the firepower of the combat models, five Light Particle turrets like those on Mordecai are mounted on every Dropship, one beside the command tower, and four on the cylindrical hull, at even spaces along the horizontal axis midway up the hull (i.e. at 'north', 'south' 'east' and 'west' on a compass)

Primary Purpose: Assault
Secondary Purpose: Anti fighter
Mega Damage: 1D6 * 30
Range: 50 km
Rate of Fire: two times per melee
Payload: Unlimited

Also:

Gunship Only:

2.)3 Heavy Particle Cannons
Again, these weapons are identical to those mounted on Mordecai. They are mounted fixed forward.

Primary Purpose: Close Combat
Secondary Purpose: Defence
Mega Damage: 1D4 * 500 per blast
Range: 1,000 km
Rate of Fire: Four times per Melee
Payload: Unlimited

3.)Missile Bay
A large missile bay takes up the cargo space on the Gunship. It can carry up to 100 ‘points’ worth of missiles. Missiles take up points according to the following table:
Missile Points:
Mini-Missile 0.5
Short Range Missiles: 1
Medium Range Missiles: 2
Long Range Missiles: 4

Primary Purpose: Assault
Secondary Purpose: Defence
Mega Damage: Varies from missile to missile.
Range: Varies per missile.
Rate of Fire: There are fourteen missile tubes on the Gunship. Four of these can fire any size missile, four can fire medium range missiles and smaller, four can fire short range and mini missiles, and two can fire only mini missiles. Each is capable of firing twice per melee round.
Payload: See above.

Monitor Only:

2.) ZCX99 Meson Accelerator
A larger version of the cannon on the SRF-71R Iconoclast, the Meson accelerator takes up most of the space in the Monitor. The beam is fired from a pair of short booms beside the command deck. Because of these, the Monitor may not linkup with another Dropship, if that Dropship is going to be forward of the Monitor. Of course, it would be quite stupid to have a Monitor anywhere but at the front of a ship.

Primary Purpose: Assault
Mega Damage: At full power, does 7D10*1000 damage to everything in its’ path. A small blast does 6D10*10 along a smaller line of fire
Range: 0.5AU
Payload: Limited only by reactor power.
Rate of fire: One full power blast every 5 minutes(20 turns) a small blast may be fired every turn..

Sensors and Equipment:

Fuel Capacity
Dropships use Matter/Antimatter reaction to power and fuel the ship. The shuttle has an approximate powered life span of two continuous months without refuelling. Of course, the dropship will go through consumables such as air and food a lot quicker than that.

Linkup:
Dropships are capable of joining together to form a larger ship. One ship is selected to be the command section, and the other ships are then subordinate to the orders of the ship’s commander and the systems are under the command of the Dropship’s computer. If this ship is to be used for a long range mission, a Troopship will be converted into a barracks for the crew, and at least three Dropships will be used for carrying supplies. A ship may link up to another ship fore, aft, and four along the sides, but note what configuration the linkup looks like, as some weapons may not be able to fire. Unless there is at least one tug for every four other Dropships, the linkup ship will lose 5% speed for every ship in the linkup.

Subspace Sensors
The Dropship can scan out to 3 light years in real time, with a 1 second time lag per light year beyond that as far out as 10 light years. Perception is 50% inside one light year, with -3% per light year beyond that, but may always find an IHE mecha or ship in range.

Meson Communicators
Dropships have meson transmitters with range limits as for the sensors.

Fold Drive
MC 144MT Super Fold Drive travels 66,666 Light Years in three days. The drive requires one day to recharge between jumps.

Reflex Shield
Provides a 3,000 MDC shield covering the entire ship conformally. Damage is removed from shield MDC before any other component. Shield regenerates 50 MDC per turn. The shield can withstand a Reflex cannon blast. The shield is synched so it can be dropped long enough to fire other weapons out and for two mecha to launch. If this feature is used, each weapon has one less attack per melee. The Monitor may not fire the Meson Accelerator while the shield is activated.

Mecha Compliment:

Carrier: 4 Iconoclasts.
Troopship: 100 Shock Divers.

Tug Only:
The Tug is capable of pushing four linked Dropships with no degradation in thrust.

Dropship Only:
The Dropship can carry up to 300 tons of cargo.

Ambulance Only:
The Ambulance has beds for 40 wounded. 15 of these beds can have a stasis field applied to them up for to 90% molecular slowdown. An operating theatre has two partitioned sections. There is negative pressure between the theatre and the rest of the ship, but not between the two sections. There is also a single Xalon Tank.