Aurochs-class DropShip (IS Civilian Cargo Hauler)

[The_Caveman]

This is a ship I came up with a while back to address the significant tonnage gap between the Mule and Mammoth classes, as well as the general lack of a "galleon" type cargo DropShip tough enough to survive on its own in the harsher regions of the BattleTech 'verse. I pitched it as being a victim of technological decline as a way to explain why there have been few if any mentions of cargo ships in the 20 kiloton range.

Class/Model/Name:  Aurochs
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 2630
Vessel Type:       Spheroid DropShip

Mass:              25,000 tons
Hull:              Bernardelli WebFrame
Dimensions:            170m (Length), 142m (Diameter)
Power Plant:       Bernardelli Type 2 Mod 0
Safe Thrust:       1.5g
Maximum Thrust:    2.5g
Armor Type:        Bernardelli Composite Plate
Armament:         
    6 Mydron Model D Autocannon
    6 Martell Medium Laser
   12 Mydron Minigun
    3 Martell Large Laser
    1 Mydron Model B Autocannon
Manufacturer:   Bernardelli Stardrive Corp
  Location:     Various
Communications System:  Plantronics Silver-VI
Targeting & Tracking System:  Garrett Dual-Band

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Aurochs (2630)
Mass:              25,000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass 
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                        4,875.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 3
      Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 15                                               750.00
Total Heat Sinks:    88 Single                                            .00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                     357.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                188.00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   .00
Food & Water:  (67 days supply)                                          9.00
Armor Type:  Standard  (660 total armor pts)                            50.00
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                180
   Left/Right Sides:                 165/165
   Aft:                                 150

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Cargo (1) with 4 doors                                    8,190.00
   Bay 2:  Cargo (1) with 4 doors                                    8,100.00
   Bay 3:  Cargo (Liquid) (1)                                        2,000.00

Life Boats:  4 (7 tons each)                                            28.00
Escape Pods:  2 (7 tons each)                                           14.00

Crew and Passengers:
      3 Officers (2 minimum)                                            30.00
      9 Crew (5 minimum)                                                63.00
      5 Gunners (5 minimum)                                             35.00
     10 1st Class Passengers                                           100.00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Autocannon/2(360 rounds) Nose      4      4      4      --      2      20.00
2 Medium Laser             Nose      10     --      --      --      6      2.00
4 Machine Gun(800 rounds)  Nose      8      --      --      --      0      6.00
1 Large Laser              FL/R      8      8      --      --      16    10.00
2 Autocannon/2(360 rounds) AL/R      4      4      4      --      4      40.00
2 Medium Laser             AL/R      10     --      --      --      12     4.00
4 Machine Gun(800 rounds)  AL/R      8      --      --      --      0      12.00
1 Autocannon/10(40 rounds) Aft      10     10     --      --      3      16.00
1 Large Laser              Aft      8      8      --      --      8      5.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (0.38%)                                               96.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                               Heat: 51      25,000.00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        284,379,200 C-Bills
Battle Value:      2,645

BattleForce2:      MP: 3,  Armor/Structure: 11 / 11
                   Damage PB/M/L: 3/1/-,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: DL;  Point Value: 26
                   Specials: sph

Overview:
The Aurochs-class DropShip is an older design dating from the dawn of the Star League. Significantly larger than more common cargo haulers like the Mule, the Aurochs fills a role in-between these standard transports and the massive bulk freighters like the Mammoth and Behemoth.

Capabilities:
The Aurochs is somewhat unusual among civilian DropShip designs of its era, as it was built with a significant amount of armor protection--comparable to military assault ships like the Overlord. This is because Bernardelli Stardrive intended for the Aurochs to be used by traders operating in the relatively lawless areas of the Periphery. In addition to helping the ship survive a phenomenal degree of abuse when operating far from maintenance facilities, the armor makes it a tough nut for would-be attackers to crack.
Contributing to this reputation for toughness is an arsenal of autocannons and lasers, with especially heavy coverage at the vessel's stern. No less than a dozen Mydron Miniguns cover the ship's nose and flanks. Although the machine guns can be used to shoot down incoming missiles, their main purpose is to discourage hostile boardings (in space or on the ground).
The Aurochs' cargo volume is arranged in three tiered bays. The upper tiers each house a store of bulk goods massing as much as the entire cargo load of a Mule. A set of integral lifting cranes is used to move cargo throughout each bay. The lower bay is built specifically to handle liquids in a honeycomb arrangement of individually-sealed tanks, which allows the Aurochs to carry both wet and dry goods on the same voyage without the need to be reconfigured. Some captains have preferred to use this liquid storage area as an extended fuel tank, greatly increasing the ship's endurance.

Deployment:
Aurochs DropShips have become very rare thanks to the Succession Wars. Bernardelli Stardrive, once among the top five civilian shipbuilders in the Star League, fell on hard times and went bankrupt shortly before the Amaris Coup. With demand for military transports outstripping production, many Aurochs were commandeered by the Successor States and pressed into a role for which they were not designed. As a result, intact hulls and spare parts are difficult to find except in the Deep Periphery, where many of these ships remain in service through extensive improvised modifications. Less than one percent of all Aurochs DropShips built remain in use, with less than a quarter of these serving within the Inner Sphere.
Recovered Star League technology allowed a large number of decrepit hulls to be refurbished in the 3040s and 3050s, but no manufacturer has taken interest in producing new spaceframes, so the design is projected to go totally extinct by the dawn of the 33rd century.

[Dragon Cat]

I like it

[The_Caveman]

I also have a somewhat "wilder" variant of the Aurochs.

This one is a unique, heavily modified ship named the Pale Rider, dating from 3025.

She was rebuilt as an assault transport for a custom merc unit, the 1st Pale Horse Regiment (as refurbing an old cargo ship was significantly cheaper than getting ahold of a military vessel capable of carrying a battalion). The Pale Rider has had most of her cargo space reconfigured to hold a combined-arms battalion consisting of 22 'Mechs, 36 tanks, 24 VTOLs, 12 conventional fighters, 6 AeroSpace fighters, 9 platoons of infantry, plus artillery, AAA, logistics staff, transport trucks, security teams and their jeeps, engineers, etc. In addition, she received a generous medical bay with 10 operating theaters, a mobile HQ suite, and upgraded quarters for the unit's officers. All told, the ship carries more than 1150 souls into battle.*
For this reason, her armor and structure have been significantly reinforced (though the extra armor did no favors to her handling) and her weapons array upgraded to help smash through a defensive line. 3 AC/20s, 6 AC/10s, and 5 LRM-20s have been added, and the medium lasers have been upgraded to large lasers. Extra heat sinks were also installed to cope with the heat of the extra weapons. All the ship's original weapons save the medium lasers have remained in place.
The ship's life support system has been massively beefed-up, though it still struggles to cope with a full load of over a thousand people, so a large number of personnel are usually stationed aboard the unit's modified Invader jumpship (which has one fewer docking collars than normal thanks to an accident decades earlier, and so now has extra permanently attached habitat space).

The Pale Rider's major vulnerability is that she carries only six escort fighters, so other DropShips are needed to keep her safe when threat levels are high (usually requiring the unit to sub-contract a mercenary fighter wing).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Aurochs (Pale Rider)
Mass:              25,000 tons
Year: 3025

Equipment:                                                            Mass 
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                        4,875.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 3
      Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 25                                             1,250.00
Total Heat Sinks:    150 Single                                         62.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                     867.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                188.00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   .00
Food & Water:  (32 days supply)                                        200.00
Armor Type:  Standard  (1,180 total armor pts)                          90.00
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                390
   Left/Right Sides:                 295/295
   Aft:                                 200

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Cargo (1) with 1 door                                     3,236.50
   Bay 2:  BattleMechs (22) with 4 doors                             3,300.00
   Bay 3:  Fighters (6) with 2 doors                                   900.00
   Bay 4:  Heavy Vehicles (51-100T) (40) with 1 door                 4,000.00
           Light Vehicles (to 50T) (52)                              2,600.00
   Bay 5:  Infantry (foot) Platoons ( 8 )                                 40.00
           Infantry (motor) Platoons ( 9 )                                63.00
   Bay 6:  Cargo (Liquid) (1600)                                     1,600.00

Life Boats:  8 (7 tons each)                                            56.00
Escape Pods:  16 (7 tons each)                                         112.00

Crew and Passengers:
     12 Officers (12 minimum)                                          120.00
     50 Crew (0 minimum)                                               350.00
     14 Gunners (7 minimum)                                             98.00
     10 1st Class Passengers                                           100.00
     35 2nd Class Passengers                                           245.00
  1,112 Bay Personnel                                                     .00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Autocannon/2(360 rounds) Nose      4   4   4     --    2     20.00
2 Large Laser              Nose     16  16     --     --   16     10.00
4 Machine Gun(800 rounds)  Nose      8     --     --     --    0      6.00
1 Large Laser              FL/R      8   8     --     --   16     10.00
2 LRM 20(120 rounds)       FL/R     24  24  24     --   24     80.00
1 Autocannon/20(50 rounds) FL/R     20     --     --     --   14     48.00
2 Autocannon/2(360 rounds) AL/R     34  34   4     --    4     40.00
  3 Autocannon/10(300 rounds)                                    18    132.00
2 Large Laser              AL/R     16  16     --     --   32     20.00
4 Machine Gun(800 rounds)  AL/R      8     --     --     --    0     12.00
1 Autocannon/20(50 rounds) Aft      20     --     --     --    7     24.00
1 Large Laser              Aft       8   8     --     --    8      5.00
1 LRM 20(60 rounds)        Aft      12  12  12     --    6     20.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (0.78%)                                              196.00
1 MASH Facility (10 Theater                                             12.50
1 Communications Equipment                                              12.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                              Heat: 147      25,000.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        707,655,200 C-Bills
Battle Value:      7,727

BattleForce2:      MP: 3,  Armor/Structure: 20 / 19
                   Damage PB/M/L: 11/8/3,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: DL;  Point Value: 77
                   Specials: sph, if

Quirks:
Non-Standard Parts
Difficult to Maintain
Atmospheric Instability


*It might be more appropriate to classify such a unit as a combined-arms regiment, however given that the Inner Sphere generally evaluates units based on their BattleMech strength rather than the size of the unit as a whole, and the fact that it would invite comparison to FedCom Regimental Combat Teams (which are much, much larger formations comparable to a Star League brigade), I decided it was fitting to call it a combined-arms battalion. Most of the unit's TO&E is actually logistical support (they believe strongly in the idea that an army marches on its stomach), artillery, medical staff, etc, so the "front-line" portion is much closer in scale to a typical Succession Wars merc battalion.

[David CGB]

Recovered Star League technology allowed a large number of decrepit hulls to be refurbished in the 3040s and 3050s, but no manufacturer has taken interest in producing new spaceframes, so the design is projected to go totally extinct by the dawn of the 33rd century.

Why no one would restart building these is beyond me, they fill a very large scratch.

[marauder648]

I agree with David, the Auroch fills a very wide gap in the dropship line up, she's a solid workman like vessel who's simple tech should mean she can be easily produced.

[The_Caveman]

Why no one would restart building these is beyond me, they fill a very large scratch.

Could be legal issues with who owns the rights to the design. Or perhaps it's viewed as too much of a financial risk when there are so many new designs coming onto the market, post-Succession Wars. Or it could be the economics of the current era made it less attractive than it was in the Star League: too big for small-time traders, but not big enough for the mega-corps that operate the huge freighters, and the Periphery is so poor these days that long trading voyages don't pay off like they used to.

Either way there must be an in-universe explanation why there's such a large gap in the tonnages of common cargo DropShips that has gone unfilled for so long.

[Hawkeye Jim]

Is it possible to reconfigure this design to carry less cargo and more passengers? I need a dropship to carry non-combat support personnel who will run things when the fighting is over.