AU: Der Tag (The Day)

[beachhead1985]

Interesting to see the Scorpions doing so well, I assume they got out of dodge early and now have one eye constantly over their shoulder should the Homeworlds come a calling.  I'm surprised the Scorps don't get in contact with the Ravens and Bears and form their own power bloc.  Between them they probably have the numbers to stave off all but the most serious of assaults and the Bears and Ravens share the same kind of sensible outlook in regards to their culture and what they are building.

Well, basically; the scorpions decided after or during the Clan Civil War that what the Clans were working towards wasn't really much like the Star League, or really much like anything they wanted to be a part of and they began making their preparations. Getting in touch with the 3rd League made scooping Caches a plausible option, but it didn't take long before they could tell they weren't going to make the cut in the Purity-Playoffs.

The Scorpions, Ravens and Bears are all considered "New Clans", but they are less Nationalist than either of those two and very isolationalist, The 3rd League is a lot closer to the ideals of the Star League than the rest of the Clans, for instance, but the Scorpions would still rather got heir own way and have rebuffed all overtures of membership.

Not that the 3rd League tried super-hard; they are good allies and League membership would mean defending the Imperio worlds to the death. With the time table for Operation: Century moved so far up and the precarious position of the Imperio, geographically and strategically; another front to fight a war on does not appeal.

For their own part; the Ravens and Bears are equally disinterested in mutual defence, but they are a more open society, both. The New Clans are more of a loose category, than anything like a fraternity or alliance.

[marauder648]

Ahh I see! Okay makes sense   Also I did a thing whilst bored at work.  Hope you don't mind



The SLS Northern Sky, soon to become the CSR Northern Sky was an antique and possibly the last example of her kind in existence.  The ancient Farragut class battleship had been found at Deep Space Naval Reserve 014/B along with a pair of equally archaic Lola II class destroyers and a very long in the tooth Naga that had barely avoided being scrapped.

The Farragut was a prize worth refitting though, one did not turn their nose up at a 1.6 megatonne battleship, even if she was centuries old and had been in mothballs for an additional 300 years.  The SLDF technicians who had put the old ship into mothballs, far from jump points, drifting with her compatriots in the Oort Cloud of the system they were found in.  The ancient ship now hung off the port side of the Grand Aerie, surrounded by tugs and slowly being moved into position to be accepted into the huge Newgrange’s docking bay.

“You’re not going to like this, but she’s going to be one hell of a job to get active.”
Chief Technician Williams nodded, ignoring the Outworlds use of contractions with practiced ease. “I am aware of this Piet Hein, but this ship is vital to the defence of the Outworlds Alliance and will be a welcome addition to the fleet.  The Khan and Council require we do our duties to the best of our abilities.”

“I get that, but look at the list of what we’ve got to do.  Three hydrogen seals have corroded due to solar radiation, the reactor’s going to have to be replaced completely, we just don’t have the parts for it, same for the secondary and tertiary plants.  The hull’s sound but the men are going over her to check to see if the armours gone brittle and if it has we’ve got enough plate onboard for replacement parts and can forge our own.”

“Wait..the teriary reactor must be replaced quiaff?”
“Er..Aff!  I know you wanted to bring it online but some coolant must have been left in it when she was mothballed, its corroded and weakened the structure over her years of sleep.”
“Understood, we will have to charge her batteries and link them to this vessel..”
“Already on it, I’ve got some of my teams adjusting our fittings on power cables so they interact with hers, once she’s docked we can then replace the batteries and should have power within 12 hours once she’s docked and the capacitors are charged, pressurisation will take another four hours at least, assuming we don’t blow any seals.”

The tech nodded “I will leave this in your capable hands Piet Hein..”
“Please just call me Piet, or Mr Hein if you must.”
“Of course, please alert me when the ship is pressurized and we can begin the repairs.”
“Oh this is just the start..do you want me to tell you about the wiring?”
“…neg..I do not.” Chief Technician Williams groaned, she knew it was going to be a long day.

True to his word the Northern Sky had power within 12 hours and then the serious work of repair could begin.  Clan and Spheroid technicians swarmed over the massive ship, checking systems, wiring and the hull.  It was a refit that would take months, with dozens of teams running round the clock shifts.  Six of the warships Gauss rifles had to be removed in a time consuming operation whilst other work crews were removing the archaic large lasers and replacing them with more modern defences as well as installing point defence anti-missile systems and of course the computer core had to be completely replaced.  By the fourth month of the refit the primary reactor was online with the secondary on standby but the tertiary reactor still needed to be completely removed.  Ongoing work to adjust the fighter bays to the Raven’s base five saw the fighter compliment drop to 35 but another dropship collar was added and the Harjel system was fully installed.  The blown seals for the hydrogen tanks proved problematic, and resulted in one full engine being removed to allow their repair to take place which was ‘fun’ as no one had worked on an engine mounting like this before.

By month six all three reactors were running and the hangar bays and an enlarged control bridge for the CAG had been installed.  The primary bridge had also been relocated deep into the centre of the ship.  Work crews were also altering the primary walkways and doors to allow easier access for Elementals and the marine’s quarters were altered to take the larger troops and their battle armour.  The crew quarters and grav-decks were also being worked on, but this time by an Alliance interior design company of all things much to the confusion of some of the Clanners. 

The structural alterations to the crew passageways took another two solid months but the refit was nearing completion, the air group was being assembled and a trio of Nagisawa Class dropships had joined the flotilla surrounding the Grand Aerie, already earmarked for the battleship once her refit was complete.  Even as the final coat of paint was being applied to the exterior hull the ships crews were boarding her.  After nine months of near constant work the CSR Northern Sky was finally ready to depart.  There would be at least another month’s worth of trials and crew familiarization before she finally jumped out to join the Reserve Star which despite its name was the hammer of the Alliance.

[beachhead1985]

Awesome! This great Marauder648, thank you!

Couple things; not wrong. This could fit in fine as part of Der Tag, but bear in mind that if the Ravens couldn't get Northern Sky Operational-enough to jump, they would have really, really been hurting for another battleship, or they would have left it. 9 month though? That's way faster than building a new Nightlord from scratch. and almost an order of magnitude faster and cheaper than another Leviathan

Not being jump-worthy means it was "Tugged" Ryan Cartel-style all the way from the homeworlds to the Alliance by 3-5 really big Jumpships; Star Lords or Monoliths. Not impossible, but it speaks to the priorities of a Clan basically fleeing the Homeworlds while the getting was good. You're looking at potentially a large number of vacant drop collars that could have been filled with hulls on that trip.

And yes; "Reserve" Is a word with many subtle layers of meaning in the military and some are quite sinister.

All in all; excellent. I am very flattered. Thank you again.

[beachhead1985]

Clan Cloud Cobra Warship Assets; Circa 31 Dec 3099

Lola-III-Class Cataclysm
Potemkin-Class Wisdom of Ages, True Sight
York-Class Brimstone, Nebulous, Protector
Sovietskii-Soyuz-Class Damascus, Budapest
Sovietskii-Soyuz (SL) International
Samarkand-Class Beijing
Aegis-Class Consequence, Inquisitor
Cameron-Class Liscense
Carrack-Class Merchant Blind Faith, Divine Vision
Carrack-Class Transport Maker
Fredasa-Class Hell Fury, Perditions Flame
McKenna Class Second Coming
Black Lion (SL)-Class Crusader
Essex (SL)-Class Trenton
Congress (SL)-Class Philidelphia

Just a quick look at what the Cloud Cobras are fielding in terms of warships these days. They're going with a mass Naval Reserve now and assigning ships on an as-needed basis to whatever missions come up. Yes, they got Beijing running; starting a few years earlier helped: the tipping point for the reactor and drives was that recently.

***

The Cloud Cobra's fought through the Civil War and helped put down the scientist's armies, but the other Clans still decided that their spiritual bent was a contamination of the Clan ideal. In the fighting of the purity wars that followed; the Cloud Cobra's held unto their worlds, but they were shot out of the New Clans movement and have found themselves excluded; enjoying only limited trade and relations with their nieghbours.

They have grown close with the Escorpion Imperio, but it's very clear that the New Clans will not tolerate them forever. When their former brethren come, it will be at the head of their warship fleets and the Cloud Cobras are determined to be ready.

The Cobras have a smaller fleet than they otherwise might have; they recovered a number of Star League-Vintage ships from their last Naval caches along with dozens of dropships and jumpers, but haven't taken the time to upgrade them. Even the original close-in weapons are still in place in many cases; only being replaced as they fail or parts come up short. Instead the Cloud Cobras have thrown their effort behind SDS systems and infrastructure.

As a result, the Cobras are one of the few Clans with a sufficiency of yards and orbitals to support their fleet, along with a growing defence network to enforce the continuing Cold War with the remaining Home World Clans.

Clan Cloud Cobra has put their lower castes on notice however; the day will come when the Home World Clans come to annihilate them for their unique culture and there is much work to be done. The remaining Brian Caches must be emptied and the equipment scrapped or restored and production of weapons and Sibkos stepped up.

Having enough yards to go around has meant the Cloud Cobras are now able to embark on the beginnings of the first serious new-build Naval Program in the Homeworlds; in the next five years, they will launch a Night Lord, a Conqueror and two Yorks and the keel has been laid on the Leviathan-Prime-Class Fortress of Faith.

[marauder648]

Ahh I didn't know she could not jump.  She must have been in worse condition than I thought.  I had her just being put into mothballs and left at a gravitationally stable point and save for a few errors hadn't decayed that much.  With a Newgrange's work crews on her 8 - 9 months is viable to get her going if the mothballing process was well done, but she's obviously in worse condition so double it easily.

[beachhead1985]

Ahh I didn't know she could not jump.  She must have been in worse condition than I thought.  I had her just being put into mothballs and left at a gravitationally stable point and save for a few errors hadn't decayed that much.  With a Newgrange's work crews on her 8 - 9 months is viable to get her going if the mothballing process was well done, but she's obviously in worse condition so double it easily.

You're the guy who wrote that lovely bit of fiction; you tell me: could she be made jump-capable quickly? Enough so to be boot-strapped?

Well, that's the decision point, right? If she could jump with droppers and support a crew during the journey, it's no probelm, anything less than that; it's a burden. That said; 1.6mt warship may be a burden worth bearing.

The Raven's bootstrapped a lot of warships just to get them to that point and sent them on their way in convoys with yardships along, whenever they could be spared, just in case something happened.

[Shadow_Wraith]

 O0 very nice updates!   

[beachhead1985]

O0 very nice updates!   

Thanks Shadow Wraith! The Coyotes are up next!

[mighty midget]

I'm quite enjoying all the work you've put into this, thanks for sharing it with the crowd.  One question though, so far I've counted 8 or 9 different Newgrange YardShips mentioned.  They were very rare in canon, are you using Exodus-era caches as the source for them?

[beachhead1985]

I'm quite enjoying all the work you've put into this, thanks for sharing it with the crowd.  One question though, so far I've counted 8 or 9 different Newgrange YardShips mentioned.  They were very rare in canon, are you using Exodus-era caches as the source for them?

Yeah, a bucket-load are said to have gone with Kerensky (and why not; they could haul massive amounts and sizes of stuff!), so these are Clans recovering the survivors from caches. The SLDFiE has access to at least one from a different site; "The Pitcher Plant System".

[beachhead1985]

Coyote Clan Warship Assets; 31 Dec, 3099

Carrack Merchant-Class Solar Blaze
Liberator (FRAM)-Class Spirit In The Sky
Vincent Mk.43-Class Relentless Pursuit, Spirit Guide, Stalking Paw
Potemkin (FRAM)-Class Midnight Star, Morning Star
Cameron (FRAM)-Class Blood of The Coyote
Essex (FRAM)-Class Wind Runner
Lola III (FRAM)-Class Courage, Honour of ages, Shocker
Nightlord-Class Great Coyote Spirit
Sovietskii-Soyuz (FRAM)-Class Howling, Steel Fang
Sovietskii-Soyuz (SL)-Class Full Moon
Texas (FRAM)-Class Ancestral home
York-Class Broken Sea
Aegis (SL)-Class Sharptooth
Volga (SL)-Class Den Mother
Baron (FRAM)-Class Coyote Wisdom
Fredasa-Class Medicine Man (formerly hellion's pride)

The Coyotes can be said to have had a "Good War" in the 3060s, less so in the 70s and 80s, what with their central position in the Purity Wars that followed the Civil War, the Clan was left weary and badly stretched from their efforts.

But the Coyotes learned from their experiences; gained territory and resources and also profited politically.

This shows in their alliance with the Steel Vipers (any real Coyote or Viper fans; feel free to school me if this is really against character), their continued position as power brokers in the Grand Council and the joint Viper-Coyote FRAM (Fleet Refit And Modernization) program.

While other Clans have expended vast resources on layered defences, massed offensive warship power and  expensive, but non-combat fleet support assets; the Coyotes and Vipers have debuted a series of standardized refits and upgrades to their warship fleets to make individual ships more effective. Ironic, as they no longer deploy their ships alone.

The FRAM program aims to make ancient warship designs more viable in the modern age; added anti-fighter defences and antimissile systems; bigger fuel bunkers and improved armour; sub-capital weapons in key positions even some technology reverse-engineered from spheroid sources: all combine to produce warships which are more capable, tougher and more useful to the Clans in the current operating environment they find themselves in.

Other, more extensive modifications have also been projected, drawn up and even employed; such as the progressively updated Mk.43 Vincents now coming on line which are slightly larger and much more capable in the modern approximation of the Corvette role as understood by the Clans.

FRAM has been a concept bandied around the Clans for centuries, but a lack of perceived need for further modernization of adequate, if dated hulls meant that most major refit programs were of older hulls to totally different configurations, such as with the York and Liberator-Class; a "Go-Big or Go-Home" approach with dominated Clan Naval capital project thinking for almost two centuries and one based somewhat on conditions which were fundamentally artificial.

The fighting in the Clan Civil War reignited the idea in several quarters, but it was the fleet actions in the York system where Steel Vipers and Star Adders met the battle lines of the SLDF FleetCom head-on which gave the concept fresh impetus.

While both Clans took different lessons from the series of engagements over a several-month period; the Coyotes, in typical fashion proved able to wisely benefit from the experience of others. It was the Coyotes who reached out to the Vipers; already working on a practical FRAM program with added resources and an offer of sharing facilities. It was this which finally got a real qualitative upgrade program off the ground for the Clan Warship Fleets for the first time since the Exodus.

It cannot be over-stated that previous to this almost any and all updating of Star League ships (short of total-rebuilds) was done as required by logistic and organizational concerns; new secondary weapons because vintage Large Lasers are hard to come by. Double Heat Sinks; because the single-capacity matrices were literally disintegrating and production was geared to the improved freezers. Better armour because the old stuff was succumbing to metal fatigue and it couldn't be had in quantity. Harjel; because the Sharks were good salesmen. ect.

While this could easily result in ships which had to be reconfigured into radically different visual forms (New heatsinks will get a ship to this point quickly; just look at a Mk.39 and 42 Vincent side by each) it did almost nothing to alter the way these ships sailed and fought, or to correct any of the flaws that even the Amaris Civil War had revealed.

The Coyotes have been judicious in their application of resources to the program and both Clans have benefited, but the Coyotes have unquestionably made the most of it. Following a triage system, all but the last applicable ships from the Coyote and Isorla Caches have been put through the FRAM Program and the remaining hulls, still relevant to the program, but requiring much more work will begin rotating through the joint Coyotes/Viper yard network after a brief refit and re-tooling of the yards themselves, to be completed late next year (3100).

In contrast; the Vipers prioritized certain Classes and individual ships over others and their fleet is now a mess; a hodgepodge of hulls at different points in their lifecycle progression from original Star-League configuration to FRAM-ships and all points in between, with resources yet diverted elsewhere. The Adders, it must also be noted, have forsaken any sort of major upgrade program for the time being, even while monitoring the Coyote-Viper program (for a modest contribution, of course) and instead have fed a desperate drive to restore, repair, crew and field as many hulls as possible at all costs. It is actually surprising that the Adders have allowed even one of their ships to be upgraded and this following a series of Trials by the Captain responsible for the ship in question.

Operationally; the Coyotes favour their Warships as a Clan-asset, deployed as needed from a few shuffling, large, informal formations patrolling their holdings. Warship deployment is currently managed by the Khans directly, as advised by a coterie of the senior Coyote Star Admirals and Star Commodores. Naval Stars are assembled according to the needs of a specific mission, rather than assigning warships individually and directly. It is now considered unacceptably wasteful and rash to assign single warships to any missions, no matter how important, following the needless loss of two newly recovered hulls during the Purity Wars against the Hell's Horses and Jade Falcons.

The Coyotes have benefited along with the Vipers from joint efforts to expand Naval Production, refit and Service capabilities and several new yards have been built in key Coyote systems in recent years, even though no new building program is yet on the horizon.

[marauder648]

Makes sense that Kerensky would want to take as many Newgranges as possible with him.  They are mobile habitats and carry an inordinate amount of cargo.  When the Pentagon was being settled I can imagine Newgranges and Potemkin's acting as living habitats for the majority of people whilst work crews set about estabilishing the new colonies.

[beachhead1985]

Makes sense that Kerensky would want to take as many Newgranges as possible with him.  They are mobile habitats and carry an inordinate amount of cargo.  When the Pentagon was being settled I can imagine Newgranges and Potemkin's acting as living habitats for the majority of people whilst work crews set about estabilishing the new colonies.

Well, the fluff seemed to indicate that a lot left with Kerensky, but up till now the Clans haven't needed that kind of major fleet support; even using Warships in inter-clan fighting has been rare. Looking at fighting other factions in a more full-up form, even if somewhat ritualized is going to require that kind of asset. And there isn't going to be enough to go around.

Most will have been cannibalized or scrapped outright and not all Clans will see the value inherent in such a massive manpower and resources sink.

[marauder648]

The FRAM refits make a lot of sense, the Clan's fleet was filled with ships built to operate in massed squadrons, the SLDF never came at you with one destroyer, it came at you with 8 with a heavy cruiser leading them, supported by at least one battleship and its escort group.  The depleted Clan fleets still had those ships but not the numbers and doctrinally used them as single units despite being part of a Star. A ship then built and designed to be part of the greater whole is forced to operate alone and suffers as a result. 

Overhauling the fleet, altering the designs and improving upon them makes perfect sense.

[beachhead1985]

The FRAM refits make a lot of sense, the Clan's fleet was filled with ships built to operate in massed squadrons, the SLDF never came at you with one destroyer, it came at you with 8 with a heavy cruiser leading them, supported by at least one battleship and its escort group.  The depleted Clan fleets still had those ships but not the numbers and doctrinally used them as single units despite being part of a Star. A ship then built and designed to be part of the greater whole is forced to operate alone and suffers as a result. 

Overhauling the fleet, altering the designs and improving upon them makes perfect sense.

Spot on and thank you.

We also know from the meta-game that a lot of the 2750-vintage ships just aren't very well designed, especially for a Jihad/WoR combat context (and that's *still* building to fight the last war!). Likewise, 3057 didn't do much to improve most of them. I've already toyed with the idea having the Falcons look at refitting their Aegis, but this is a much more extensive program, while not going the York/Liberator/Conqueror route.

[beachhead1985]

Clan Star Adder: Warship Assets. Circa 31 Dec 3099



Command Keshik

   McKenna-Class Soverign Right

Quasar Keshik

   Nightlord-Class Absolute Truth

Alpha Galaxy

   Monsoon-Class Cold Slither

Beta Galaxy

   sovietskii Soyuz-Class Nygaard

Gamma Galaxy

   Black Lion-Class Adm William S Preston

Delta Galaxy

   Liberator-Class Constantineau

Epsilon Galaxy

   Aegis-Class Ares might

Upsilon Galaxy

   McKenna-Class Nightscales (Former Cage's Pride)

Alpha Naval Reserve Star

   Aegis-Class Stellar Serpent
   Lola-III-Class Warlock
   York-Class Exodus Avenger
   York-Class Exodus Ranger
   Essex-Class Tuhantepec
   Volga-Class Cho Polu

Beta Naval Reserve Star

   Lola-III-Class Yodan
   Vincent Mk.42 Pegasus
   York-Class Exodus Crusader
   Carrack Transport-Class Black Adder
   Sovietskii Soyuz-Class Divine Conquest
   Volga-Class Pompeii   

Gamma Naval Reserve Star

   Potemkin-Class Renown
   BugEye Snake-Eyes
   Vincent Mk.42 Centaur
   Carrack Transport-Class Go Forth
   Naga-Class Naga
   Lola-III (SL)-Class Cam Rahn Bay
   Volga-Class Kintore

Patrol Duties 31 Dec 3099

   Whirlwind-Class Flashing Snake
   Essex-Class Eagle
   York-Class Pack leader
   Lola-III-(FRAM) Class Cameron's Flame
   Lola-III-Class Zerostroyer
        Lola-III-Class Hagar
   Fredsa-Class Arcadian Asp
   York-Class Exodus Sentinel

Drydock

   Newgrange-Class Lathe of Heaven
   Essex-Class Necromancer
   Sovietskii-Soyuz (SL)-Class Star Hammer
   Fredasa-Class Vicious fang
   Carrack Merchant-Class Montgommery (Conversion to Transport Configuration)

In Work

   Leviathan-I-Class Jormungandr
   Conqueror-Class Sea Serpent
   York-Class Return
   York-Class Short-Stop
   Liberator-Class Buckstop

Kappa, Mu, Xi, Omicron, Rho, Sigma and Tau provisional Galaxies all lack organic warship support

***

The Star Adders are the Re-eminent Clan in the Homeworlds; they lead the Grand Council and provide the Ilkhan. Among all the Clans, only they could Challenge the Snow Ravens on anything like an equal footing.

The Star Adders have a complex Warship Organization with some ships attached as organic assets to the frontline Galaxies, and some detached on dedicated patrol duties on a rotational basis among the lighter ships. And three separate Naval Reserve Stars, which despite their names are mainly administrative formations.

Thanks to the penetration of the Star Adders by the Scorpion Watch, an unusually detailed picture of their fleet is available, including which ships are in drydock and what is coming together on the slips.

The Adders  had a number of ships heavily damaged fighting in the York System, but their position and generally good Delta-V (due to luck more than anything) allowed most of the fleet to refuse decisive engagements and power out of the FleetCom fire baskets at the Costs of Bright Lance and Journey, two newly recommissioned Lola-III Clan-tech ships.

For years the Star Adder Yards were swamped with wrecked ships and older hulls being refurbished and they are only now digging themselves out into the light of day. The spare capacity to produce the beginnings of a balanced fleet has had to be built and established separately from the drydocks and has been starved of resources until recently.

The Star Adders take the concept of a renewed invasion seriously, but they haven't taken the time to bother with a massive fleet-refit program or a build up of support ships like some other Clans. Instead they have focussed on front-line realities. Any invasion of the Inner Sphere will mean facing at a minimum the disunited Ghost Bear, Diamond Shark, Nova Cat, RAF, SLDF and possibly Snow Raven Fleets, along with whatever the Great Houses have left. To this end, the Star Adders have completed the best possible survey of all remaining Cache sites, tagged unusable hulls for scarp and cannibalization and removed all usable hulls to secure sites for refurbishment.

There may yet be Society, or otherwise unknown holdings out there, but the Star Adders have ensured that all remaining Naval Caches are expended in the home worlds and their own fleet is the result. Notably patch-work but strong in hulls, the Adders have been solely pressed to man all their ships and support them and this showed at York. Things are getting better now, but full fleet readiness (full manning, complete maintenance, basic modernization, ect) is at least 10-20 years away. The Adders may now, at great cost approach the Snow Ravens in hull strength, but really have little idea what they now field and operate on projections. Were they to face the Snow ravens on new years day, they would be devastated as it stands now and the Snow Ravens would still be the largest fleet in the Galaxy. That's just do to the manning issues alone. never mind the outdated nature of so many Star Adders hulls and the exhausted maintenance situation.

The Star Adders have a hell of a fleet, but they will now need to work hard to build what many other clans already have; the means to support and field it far from home.

Current Fleet operations are geared to support the patrol duties, now requiring nearly twice as many ships as in 3060 to be effective. Rotation is brisk and contact with Dark Caste, Society Remnants and other, irregular contacts still occur. The real reason for the stepped-up patrols though is a building paranoia in the higher echelons of the Clan, having lost several assets, attempting reconnaissance of the 3rd League's Canton Worlds, the Star Adders worry if the SLDF hasn't taken on the mission the Word of Blake Militia and Shadow Divisions were ostensibly built for, prior to the Jihad.

[beachhead1985]

So...I've been updating this pretty regularly and now I'll be gone till next Sunday. Just so no one thinks i'm dead or whatever.

Beachhead

[marauder648]

Interesting take on their fleet's doctrine, a mix of stars and individual sailings.  THe fleets big but its disjointed and in dire need of the FRAM upgrades too.

[beachhead1985]

Interesting take on their fleet's doctrine, a mix of stars and individual sailings.  THe fleets big but its disjointed and in dire need of the FRAM upgrades too.

Exactly what I was going for; and that's just the material side of things, never mind manning, maintenance and training concerns.

You're right of course, but the Adders don't see it that way; they see their best bet as naval dominance through having the maximum number of deployable hulls. A major refit program contradicts that.

We'll do the Stone Lions next.

[beachhead1985]

Clan Stone Lion; Warship Assets, Circa 31 Dec, 3099

Lola IIIC Anathema and Red Knight
Aegis C Pride Alpha
Congress Seapike
Carrack Transport Firehold

Clan Stone Lion was assembled from bondsman captured from other Clans during the Purity Wars.

The True Clans found themselves burdened with a large number of ostensibly dedicated and loyal individuals from ideologically suspect backgrounds which Clan Culture required them to take into their own confidence as warriors and lower castemen. Forming a new and Separate Clan was a clever way to keep these individuals close, in order to watch them, while avoiding the waste of Reiving them and retaining their strength as potential allies.

Ideologically, we now know the Stone Lions to be that special breed of fanatic that is only found among the newly converted, but at the time, the whole enterprise was seen as a very precarious; these Clansmen could be Society Sympathizers, or simply guilty of harbouring revisionist sympathies afterall. Ultimately though, the True Clans would retain very few Bondsman from the Abjured and Annihilated Clans.

Part of the reason for the mistrust in which the concept was held was he reigning belief that to be taken seriously as a Clan required Warships and as such required the Grand Council to allocate Warship assets and support capability to what might have ended up being a nest of vipers in their midst (an no offense to the Steel Vipers, of course).

Finally, a token force was assembled and allocated to the Stone Lions of the Lola-III (Clan) Red Knight and Anathema, as well as the former Mandrill Carrack Transport Firehold, along with a small yard. The Stone Lions have since managed to recover and fit-out a Clan Aegis Cruiser, now the Flagship; Pride Alpha and the Congress (SL)- Class Seapike.

Stone Lion Naval Strength remains trivial in comparison to other Clans, but would still pose a threat to any Innersphere or periphery power of varying severity. At the moment, while comparatively strong in manpower (four light Galaxies is strong compared to their other assets) they lack for infrastructure, manufacturing and even training facilities. The Stone Lions know they will need to establish themselves better if they wish to be more than the "periphery kingdom of the homeworlds" and that will have to mean warships. At the moment their single small yard is fully taxed supporting their tiny fleet; Anathema and Red Knight still suffer serious technical issues even decades after their recoveries, up to random power losses and Seapike is little better. The Stone Lions are currently working on building a large yard over Tokasha, but have suffered numerous setbacks and shortfalls in technical skill from a lack of Technicians and Scientists to work the various issues that arise.

[marauder648]

Welcome back! Seems like the Lions are going to eventually grow into real hardline Clanners, a Smoke Jaguar reborn almost.

[beachhead1985]

Welcome back! Seems like the Lions are going to eventually grow into real hardline Clanners, a Smoke Jaguar reborn almost.

They brought it on themselves. This is where this kind of thinking inevitably goes.

This is me aping Larry Hamma in story-telling.

I don't have a script; I don't have an outline; I have characters (in this case factions) I expose them to stimuli and write how those characters would react to those stimuli. The Clans have always been prone to this sort of thinking and this is where it goes. You'll have individuals who push back and this kind of thinking eats them up.

[beachhead1985]

Clan Steel Viper, Warship Assets, 31 Dec, 3099

Leviathan Prime-Class Perigard Zalman
Carrack Merchant-Class Pride of new kent
Vincent Mk.43-Class Coiled Serpent, Champion's Honour
Whirlwind C-Class FRAM class Constrictor
Essex C-Class martial legacy
Lola IIIC-Class Snake Pit (FRAM), Anaconda, Rancor
Lola III-Class Forevermore, Gladiator
Cameron (FRAM)-Class Zalman's Endevor
Cameron C-Class Coiled Vengeance
Potemkin C-Class Ophidian, Serpentes (FRAM)
Potemkin-Class City of Dresden
Nightlord-Class Dark Asp
Aegis-Class Destructor
Aegis C-Class Linesman
Texas (FRAM)-Class New Mexico, Erin Go Bragh
Liberator (FRAM)-Class Void Serpent, Envenomed Blade
Newgrange (FRAM)-Class New Delhi Sunrise

In Drydock

Volga (SL)-Class Ancient Serpent undergoing FRAM refit
Davion-Class Shadowsword, undergoing modernization and asessment
Congress-D-Class Mysterious Stranger Undergoing full FRAM and Clan Upgrades

Under Construction

+Leviathan Prime-Class
+new Steel Viper Heavy/Battle Cruiser, specifics unknown
+Black Lion FRAM-Class Windy City
+un-named large 2.5mt yardship, further details unavailable.

***

The Steel Vipers have been through three major Fleet Re-Organizations in the last 35 years; from their initial arrangement of Naval Stars, to their warships marauding as singles and pairs of ships to their current Grand Fleet organization.

Naval Stars proved too inflexible to meet the demands and opportunities of the Clan Civil War and the Purity Wars that followed, but disjointed small task forces suffered badly during both conflicts and later during the Blood Spirit evacuation.

The Grand Fleet is the answer the Steel Viper Khans have settled on, for now. It is a circling of the wagons so to speak to husband valuable resources in a few select locations. The idea is to carefully manage their warship assets until enough hulls are available to provide for a small number of Naval Stars and a large number of small, well-supported task-forces, but the Vipers aren't there yet; not by a long shot.

The Steel Vipers have benefited greatly from the joint FRAM project with the Coyotes; extensive damage to most ships from the Purity Wars and the fighting in the York System should have put them farther along in the program; upgrading ships brought in for repair, but other pressures mandated that most of these were imminently required on active duty and so patched back up into any workable configuration and re-launched. The Vipers are committed though and the FRAM Program will continue.

Other wise, the Vipers are being remarkably taciturn in their ship building programs; they are building an resource-sucking sistership to Perigard Zalman, yes; but also have laid the keel and installed the engines and other major systems for the largest warship ever built in the homeworlds; an un-named 2.5mt yardships, which will be able to support any ship the Vipers or anyone else can build. The Vipers learned a hard lession from the repeated crippling of Perigard Zalman during the Purity wars; such assets are potent when in working order, but a lodestone if they cannot be supported. Several other Clans are contributing to the project in order to gain access to the completed plans for the support of their own Leviathans, but so far, these have been kept for the use of the True Clans, alone.

During the war, New Delhi Sunrise had been forced to be torn out of storage, still mostly mothballed herself and barely functional in order to effect emergency repairs, but proved woefully inadequate to the Perigard Zalman's full needs. Having to use the ancient ship three more times on similar missions proved the need of such assets in the Viper Touman beyond any doubt.

There is also a well-grounded project, quite far-along, for a new class of proprietary Steel Viper heavy cruiser or battlecruiser. No name has been seriously connected with the project yet, but Snow Raven Watch assets were able to learn it has features in common with the Mjolnir-Class before the overhaul of the Lum complex prior to the beginning of the Yardship project discovered and disabled the monitoring devices and subroutines in the Viper systems.

It is suspected however that this new design is quite radical, as the Vipers are also building a FRAM-version of the Proven Black Lion Class right alongside her on the Lum slips, as insurance should the new design fail in some way.

"Battle Cruiser" has often proven a loaded designation, however, so this makes pinning down in what way the new ship might be radical difficult to do. The only real proof that it is is that the Vipers are building a design of ancient pedigree literally right next to it.

As a whole, the Viper Grand Fleet trends lighter; with large numbers of smaller ships, such as the Lola-IIIs and these serve as dedicated escorts to the larger ships within the fleet. The handful of large battleships, of which Perigard Zalman is the Queen, counter this somewhat. The Fleet is mainly kept together, hidden in a few key Viper Systems. It would make a potent offensive instrument, but right now, even the Vipers admit it isn't an operational organization, so much as an administrative one. Direct naval support to the Clusters is by PWS and Assault Dropships, but Warships may still be loaned out for short missions, if well escorted.

One might summarize that the Vipers are currently too unwilling to loose hulls to be willing to actually use them in any meaningful way. That will not last for long, however.

[beachhead1985]

Capital Naval Assets, Diamond Shark Touman, 3rd League

   Diamond sharks

Spectral Diamond Naval Star

Sovietskii Soyuz C-Class Nagasawa
Black Lion (SL)-Class Tigershark
Samarkand Block-II Class Feeding Frenzy

Black Diamond Naval Star

Fredasa-Class Swift Strike
Essex C-Class Sharon
Aegis C-Class Bloodlust
 
Blue Diamond Naval Star

Essex C-Class Tracey
Lola IIIC-Class Space Hunter
Nightlord-Class Terror of The Deep

Red Diamond Naval Transport Cluster

Leviathan Heavy Transport-Class Big Kahuna
Potemkin C-Class Posiden, Titanic, Tsunami, Red Tide, Kraken
Carrack Merchant-Class Starswimmer, Devourer, Blackray
Robinson Transport Block II-Class, Zanzibar

Gold Diamond Navl Support Star

Newgrange-Class Megamouth, Pelican
Baron-Class Ramora
Volga-Class Bold Venture, Speculator
York-Class Wingsign


Under Construction:

3x Conqueror
Un-named Destroyer-Escort Class
2x Carrack Transport

***

The Diamond Sharks; with their extensive merchant caste, including vast transportation assets were possibly the best able to cope with a sudden abjurement. Transporting their entire Clan, or as much as could be got at, to the Inner Sphere was a process which should have been disturbing to witness for their former Brethren and their new Neighbors for it's speed and relative ease. Any force which could move that much in people, supplies and infrastructure that quickly and that far, could just as easily do so for an army.

Following their exile, the Sharks re-organized their fleet. Traditionally ordered around administrative groupings of ships, with the Potemkins concentrated for ease of support; the new arrangement removed the cargo haulers from the Sharks three Naval Stars, leaving what remained as dedicated combat formations. The Transport assets were concentrated in the so-called "Red Diamond Naval Transport Cluster", even while Spectral Diamond Star was stood-down for lack of hulls.

The Sharks brought their two best Newgrange-Class out of mothballs and hurriedly evacuated them to the the inner sphere when they were Abjured, but recovered little else.

The Jihad was kind to the Sharks; deploying two combat stars and keeping the transport assets concentrated in powerful, well-escorted convoys kept losses to a minimum. the Diamond Sharks conducted target of opportunity actions against any WOB forces they encountered. The Sharks chose to rebuff Chandrasekhar Kurita's overtures for the most part; suspecting him of duplicity aimed at reducing the Sharks' potential as competition and instead until the later days of the war pursued a policy of securing their trading worlds and continuing their mercantile operations. The Re-organization of the Fleet and convoy maneuvers made this possible.

The Sharks followed a wait and see approach to Stone's coalition once they appeared, while also maintaining and enhancing relations with the SLDFiE which had began during the early days of the New Model Army project. The Sharks aimed diplomatically to profit by any alliance and the outcome of the war as much as possible. In the end, it was determined that they would benefit more as founding 3rd League Members than Republic allies and the Sharks have been happy and prosperous since, with little need to regret their decision.

The Sharks received several warships by way of the Operation: Vril and the Pitcher Plant Boneyard after the war and have put these into service. Appropriately the Feeding Frenzy and Tigershark originally came from caches once controlled by the Diamond Sharks and these two have been used to rebuild Spectral Diamond Naval Star.

It would be impossible to ignore the recent launch of the Heavy Transport Big Kahuna, but the Sharks' ship building program has been about more than making big, flashy statements of ability and expertise in order to enhance buyer confidence in the ability of the Clan to project power and deliver the goods, but not a lot more until recently. True; the York-Class wingsign is a new build as of 3091, but in the projects on the slips, the Diamond Sharks clearly have a brighter future in mind and a serious ship-building program is in evidence.

The Program has delayed refitting Tigershark and the venerable Black Lion-Class will only go into drydock next month and at a FleetCom facility at that.

Down to brass tacks; the Diamond Sharks are building three Conqueror-Class ships as an investment in bringing their Naval Stars up to a more respectable strength. While the Sharks have had a lot of contact with the Snow Ravens recently and in the past, no technical assistance is in evidence and it is suspected the Sharks have had the plans for some time. Two more Carracks have been laid down as well, although it is thought these will finish as upgraded Transport-models, not the stripped-down Merchants currently in service. The Sharks lost two of those during the Jihad and one after and seem to have lost faith in the sub-class as a viable option for reliable commerce in uncertain situations. It may be that as these new ships come on-line, the older Carrack Merchants will be withdrawn to have their armour and weapons replaced, at least in a limited fashion.

Most interestingly is the Sharks' totally-new Destroyer-Escort project. The aim is to create a class of small warship which is made for escorting larger warships in battle and transports on the Sharks' commerce runs. The new class is to be fast, well-suited to long forays away from home, low-maintainace and possessing potent point-defence systems; anything else is pure speculation at this point, but rumours that they were to be built using Advanced Warship technology appear to be just that and the new hulls will lack full turrets and other features of the SLDF's new breed of warship.

While the project has yet to produce a finished prototype; the Sharks plan to build the new class in large numbers.

[marauder648]

Interesting, the Adders are finding out the logistical PITA that having such a monster like a Leviathan is to refit and repair whilst assumedly slowly upgrading everything they can to FRAM levels.  But they like the other Clans of the Homeworlds are being held back by the lack of facilities to do so and instead the refits are more haphazardly done rather than in blocks, a ship gets refitted when there is yard space rather than any seeming schedule.

[beachhead1985]

Interesting, the Adders are finding out the logistical PITA that having such a monster like a Leviathan is to refit and repair whilst assumedly slowly upgrading everything they can to FRAM levels.  But they like the other Clans of the Homeworlds are being held back by the lack of facilities to do so and instead the refits are more haphazardly done rather than in blocks, a ship gets refitted when there is yard space rather than any seeming schedule.

Thanks! I'm aiming for this ring of realism!

Because BT comparatively ignores support units, you need to ask yourself how important a Yardship really is? The SL got by with newgranges, but they could take anything up to a Mckenna (Not another newgrange). It begs the question; what if you break your bigger-than-a-mckenna ship? And also, how long did the SL sit on their warship laurels with the McKenna, before the Clans picked up the torch with the Leviathan? You have to wonder; if you build a bigger warship, do you *need* a bigger yardship, in case you break it?

Overall, I don't think we're sure how important Yardships are in BT.

In Der Tag, the Vipers went out butt-kicking with the Perigard Zalman, but were not nearly successful and were left with a disabled ship four times. Simply because they didn't have the element of suprise the first time, other Clans were able to prepare for the Perigard Zalman, as opposed to fighting an information black hole, as well as a heavy battleship.

[marauder648]

To me the Btech capital ship yards have looked something like this.

for the largest of ships or something akin to this - http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/e/e7/Telgorn_Shipyard.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20060429122615  For smaller yards (where destroyers etc are made)

Whilst the huge yard at the top there is not only a place where ships are made but also an important naval base and command center, and we can assume that these kinds of facilities also existed and that the SLDF didn't put all its eggs into Castle Brian's and ground based control centers.  We know that Terra for example had a sky full of shipyards and defense stations, not just M9 Pavaise but manned orbital platforms akin to them and that whilst the Titan yards were the largest shipyards in the Sol system and indeed Human space, we don't know what they were. Was it a name for a series of docks, slips, grav-decks and other assorted parts clustered together, or was it a large complex like the one seen above?

Now we know that the Btech universe has some large yards

See

For example and the Newgrange can is not just a mobile repair yard she's also what we'd call something like an AOR, a mobile replenishment ship.  They could sit behind the lines (probably in a systems Oort cloud or something) and have ships come to them to be repaired or for resupply, or even R&R, with the crew's having a few weeks on their massive grav-decks.

I would also expect that the Newgrange didn't exist as a singular class and that there may have been smaller ships of the type or dedicated alongside repair and replenishment ships with the Newgrange being the final iteration and evolution of the form and being the first, and last to be able to take ships of any size, which was a limit on the previous classes as they could not dock battleships and instead had to do slower alongside repairs (possibly with some kind of extending gantry arrangement?)

The closest I can think of is something like the RN's Fort Victoria Class ships off the top of my head.

But because of their immense size the Leviathans require a specialised yard not only to make them, but that yard must also be there to repair them and those kind of immobile yards are vulnerable to attack or sabotage, whilst Yardships have the simple advantage of being mobile and able to hide. 

Kind of like in Babylon 5 where most Earth Force personnel could go their entire career without seeing a Explorer class starship, most civilians would never see a Yardship unless it was being built, launched or had to come to a world for a reason.  They'd probably be off in deep space as they are basically a deeply important strategic resource.

[beachhead1985]

I've made a couple designs for some truly huge stations, but I think realistically something like Titan Yards would look more like what you posted; sprawling complexes built-up organically over centuries.

And that's leaving out impossible-categorize installations like Gabriel. So I don't think the rules yet fully support this, even though its more realistic.

The stuff I built was more drop-in plug and play separate stations you could just have live in a given area.

But as I'll get into later; i think you can go to some delightfully dark places with yardships

[truetanker]

Why not a Supersized M-9 Pavise?

TT

[beachhead1985]

Why not a Supersized M-9 Pavise?

TT

Well "Super-Size" is a limited concept with a ceiling of 2.5MT and facilities of the scale we hear about from time to time.