Author Topic: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap  (Read 1114 times)

Tempest56

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Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« on: 15 November 2024, 14:04:14 »
Code: [Select]
Quikscell Express
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Level                Era                   
--------------------------------------------
Experimental         - 
Advanced             -                     
Standard             3055+ (Clan Invasion -)
Tech Rating: D/X-X-C-C

Weight: 3100 tons
BV: 660
Cost: 70,621,600 C-bills
Source: (Unknown)

Movement: 3/5
Heat Sinks: 64
Cockpit: Standard Cockpit
Fuel Points: 0/4140 (138.0 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84

Structural Integrity: 5
Armor: 260 Standard Aerospace
            Armor 
-------------------
Nose          81   
Left Side     64   
Right Side    64   
Aft           51   

Carrying Capacity                 
-----------------------------------
Mek (2 doors) - 12 units           
Cargo Space (1 door) - 446.500 tons

Crew                 
----------------------
Officers             1
Enlisted/Non-rated   4
Gunners              0
Bay Personnel       24

Quirks
------
Easy to Maintain
Poor Performance

Overview:
In the wake of the Clan Invasion and the wider proliferation of technology throughout the Inner Sphere, Quikscell's marketing department found what they felt was an unfulfilled niche. While the vaunted Battlemech was no longer quite so rare and irreplaceable, there was still a significant shortage in transportation and what existed was very expensive. Even the simple Leopard was out of reach for many of those new hot to trot mercenary start-ups - even centuries old ones easily cost $170 million while transporting only the bare minimum four mechs.

Thus was born the Express: an ultra-cheap dropship alternative. Capable of carrying a full Battlemech company plus significant room for supplies with a cost of only $70 million - less than half that of a Leopard and a quarter of a modern Union. Additionally thanks to Quikscell's well known affinity for economical choices, the Express was a hardy ship that used mostly commonly accessible or easily replaceable parts to ease maintenence and repair woes.

The downside, of course, was that the Express cut every other corner possible. The engine - while sufficient to break atmo on most worlds - was sluggish and weak. The armor was the bare minimum of acceptable for a military craft, and there were no weapons what so ever.

Deployment:
The Express did not sell as well as hoped. While it was picked up by a few, most mercenary companies were unwilling to put themselves in a dropship that could be shot down by a Sparrowhawk. It did find considerably more popularity in the hands of private security forces and some Periphery militaries, who were more often worried about corporate raiders and pirates who rarely fielded aerospace elements.

Variants:
There are two known variants and one uniquely refitted dropship.
The first was an Express reconfigured to carry conventional armored vehicles - oriented towards Quikscell's own Scorpion, Hetzer, and Bulldog lines. Changing minimal aspects of the internals allowed it to transport eight heavy vehicles and eighteen light vehicles, which made Quikscell's marketing department very happy.
A second variant existed only in brochures and on paper: an aerospace carrier. Ostensibly designed to act as a carrier to defend the otherwise vulnerable ground transport Expresses, there is no evidence one was ever produced. (It was suggested that the more complex methods of launching aerospace fighters while in vacuum dissuaded Quikscell's engineers from completing the design.)
And finally there was an Express (dubbed the Gilliflower) that was modified during the Jihad to act as a minelayer, converting the mech bays into storage for large quantities of space mines. It is not noted as having had a significant impact, however, before being destroyed over Dieron during Operation: SCOUR.

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #1 on: 15 November 2024, 14:23:19 »
I must be missing something... I was only able to get down to a little under 76M for a company of Light Vehicles in a 1,000-ton hull: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,51064.0.html

Hellraiser

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #2 on: 22 November 2024, 13:10:31 »
I must be missing something... I was only able to get down to a little under 76M for a company of Light Vehicles in a 1,000-ton hull: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,51064.0.html

Maybe because Light Vees are "5 man bays" v/s Mechs are "2 man bays" so your paying more for Life Support?
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Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #3 on: 22 November 2024, 17:44:58 »
Possibly... I'll try to do some math this weekend... :)

Hazard Pay

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #4 on: 23 November 2024, 00:31:07 »
“A dropship made by Quickcell” is a phrase that should never be uttered.

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #5 on: 23 November 2024, 05:58:50 »
Maybe because Light Vees are "5 man bays" v/s Mechs are "2 man bays" so your paying more for Life Support?
That's definitely most of it... the Life Support difference alone is around 4M...

DOC_Agren

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #6 on: 23 November 2024, 07:34:15 »
“A dropship made by Quickcell” is a phrase that should never be uttered.

It should be, but only to be provided to your enemies
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #7 on: 23 November 2024, 07:38:56 »
I think the rest of it is the "no weapons" and slightly less SI and armor.  The multiplier is a real killer.

DOC_Agren

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #8 on: 23 November 2024, 21:28:37 »
I'm going to ask this as a more serious question would these be usable as a "single use" dropship to basecamp operation?

Think of something more inline with KCG transport of KPM of Cannonshop fame
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #9 on: 24 November 2024, 03:36:11 »
You mean in a quarantine scenario?

Hazard Pay

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #10 on: 24 November 2024, 10:10:10 »
More a “Fire and Forget” scenario where you plan to take andkeep the world. Just using them to land the Mechs and Troops necessary to conquer and use Engineering to construct facilities as well as commandeering on site facilities

DOC_Agren

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #11 on: 25 November 2024, 23:51:28 »
You mean in a quarantine scenario?
was that when KCG was supporting milita troops in "Junk" dropship, designed for basiclty a single use.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #12 on: 26 November 2024, 04:16:51 »
Cannonshop ran a design contest for one of those stories...

phoenixalpha

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #13 on: 26 November 2024, 05:46:45 »
These should be made by the hundreds if not thousands. The vast majority of mechs / vehicle transport would be between safe systems thus zero need for weapons and/or armour apart from anti meteor/micro asteroid use. Inner sphere militaries should be awash with these. Transferring mechs/vehicles from factories to front line units (not in combat) must take huge resources and stretch already strained transport links to the limit.

Think current day transport military aircraft which are unarmed and have very little in the way of defence which travel the planet daily transporting supplies, weapons and armoured vehicles to and from bases but just in space

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #14 on: 26 November 2024, 19:24:25 »
Cargo transport is what Mules are for...

phoenixalpha

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #15 on: 27 November 2024, 03:28:07 »
How many of these could you get to a Mule costwise?

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #16 on: 27 November 2024, 04:27:05 »
Sadly, neither Sarna, the MUL, nor TRO 3057R have a cost listed for the Mule.  It'll take some number crunching I might have time for after Thanksgiving...

idea weenie

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #17 on: 28 November 2024, 09:40:25 »
Sadly, neither Sarna, the MUL, nor TRO 3057R have a cost listed for the Mule.  It'll take some number crunching I might have time for after Thanksgiving...

From MegaMek Lab 0.48.0, the 2737-era Mule carrying up to 8144.5 tons of cargo had a cost of 161,604,128 C-Bills, broken down below:
Code: [Select]
Bridge                               312,000
Computer                             200,000
Life Support                         100,000
Sensors                               80,000
FCS                                  100,000
Gunnery Control Systems               60,000
Structural Integrity (10)          1,000,000
Attitude Thruster                     25,000
Landing Gear                         112,000
Docking Collar                        10,000
Engine (3/5)                       2,184,000
Drive Unit                           168,000
Fuel Tanks (319 tons)                 65,076
Armor (16 tons, 296 pts)             160,000

AC/5               125,000
Large Laser  x 3   300,000
Medium Laser x 8   320,000
Small Laser x 2     22,500
SRM 6 x 2          160,000
SRM 6 ammo x 2      54,000
Weapons/Equipment                    927,500

Bays                                   6,000
Quarters (4x1c, 16x2c)                   N/A
Life Boats/Escape Pods (2/2)          20,000
SubTotal                           5,771,576
Weight Multiplier                       x 28
-------------
Total Cost:                      161,604,128

The Mule costs 19,843 C-Bills per ton of cargo.
The Quikscell Express in the first post will cost over 150,000 C-Bills per ton of cargo.

I'd wonder if the QE was an on-planet design that was originally an armed Battlemech transport that just had its weapons removed and the remaining tonnage classified as cargo space.  It's be a good way for Quikscell to get into the Armed Dropship market while still only needing a civilian license - they just happen to provide a manual showing exactly how to retrofit the Dropship back into its armed version (and 446 tons can provide some decent weaponry options).


I am curious about a modification of the design, keeping all the armor protection, SI, acceleration, Battlemch capacity, etc all the same, and just increasing it to 6200 tons.  This increased the cost to 93,020,256 C-Bills but brought the cargo capacity up to 2875 tons, for 32,354 C-Bills per ton of cargo.  Armor is maxed, but it still has no self-defense weapons.
Code: [Select]
Quikscell Express (double-size)
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Level                Era                   
--------------------------------------------
Experimental         - 
Advanced             -                     
Standard             3055+ (Clan Invasion -)
Tech Rating: D/X-X-C-C

Weight: 6200 tons
BV: 780
Cost: 93,020,256 C-bills

Movement: 3/5
Heat Sinks: 90
Cockpit: Standard Cockpit
Fuel Points: 0/4140 (138.0 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84

Structural Integrity: 5
Armor: 308 Standard Aerospace
            Armor 
-------------------
Nose          92   
Left Side     77   
Right Side    77   
Aft           62   

Carrying Capacity                 
-----------------------------------
Mek (2 doors) - 12 units           
Cargo Space (1 door) - 2875 tons  (don't look for a decimal, there isn't one)

Crew                 
----------------------
Officers             2
Enlisted/Non-rated   4
Gunners              0
Bay Personnel       24

Quirks
------
Easy to Maintain
Poor Performance

Daryk

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Re: Quikscell Express - Dropship on the cheap
« Reply #18 on: 28 November 2024, 09:43:02 »
Thanks for saving me the math! :)