The Den is a Vengeance-scale carrier with a 7/11 move.
It's design philosophy is similar to the
Nest except that instead of simply plotting an intercept course, it's often carried by a
Lurk jumpship to the location of an adversarial jump providing a giant head start on any intercept attempts. Since the Lurk costs 338M, the right size for the Den has a similar price (315M) creating a minimal amortization.
The Den's central drive is an omni-present part of the ship, offering speeds similar to assault dropships. Combined with a standard Large Craft sensor suite, the Den can choose whether or not to engage in almost all fights, only unleashing it's horde of fighters when victory is highly probable and worth the cost. The relatively small cargo capacity is nevertheless 50% more than a Vengeance carries offering a 2+ months of expendables, a duration which is typically sufficient for defensive actions within a friendly system which may have caches.
When engagements occur, the Den can launch all craft in just 3 minutes and then maneuver to avoid combat itself. The attached Small Craft can provide ECM support for ASF, engage in boarding ops, or conduct search and rescue ops after a battle. Often a few fighters are held back, just in case something fast managed to catch up. Aside from on-board ASF defense, a modest array of point defense and an aft AC/2 bay offer minor ability to fend off fast interceptors.
Comparing with jump+carriers on a cost/ASF basis, we get:
- Leopard CV+Scout: 1.9k tons+90k tons, 4/6, 6 ASF, 47 days endurance[fuel], 558M C-bills, 93M/ASF.
- Union CV+Scout: 3.6k tons+90k tons, 3/5, 12 ASF, 47 days endurance[fuel], 604M C-bills, 50M/ASF.
- Nest+Lurk: 5k tons+50k tons, 7/11, 13 ASF+1 Small Craft, 62 days endurance[air], 505M C-bills, 36M/ASF.
- Quetzalcoatl: 90k tons, 0.2, 12 ASF, 47 days endurance[fuel], 290M C-Bills, 24M/ASF
- Vengeance+Scout: 11.4k tons+90k tons, 4/6, 40 ASF+3 Small Craft, 40 days endurance[air], 773M C-bills. 18M/ASF.
- Den+Lurk: 12.4K tons+50k tons, 7/11, 34 ASF+2 Small Craft, 70 days endurance[air], 653M C-Bills, 18M/ASF
Den Carrier
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 12,400 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3025
Mass: 12,400
Battle Value: 2,927
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 315,397,600 C-bills
Fuel: 300 tons (9,000)
Safe Thrust: 7
Maximum Thrust: 11
Heat Sinks: 195
Structural Integrity: 15
Armor
Nose: 193
Sides: 228/228
Aft: 275
Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (12) 2 Doors
Bay 2: Fighter (12) 2 Doors
Bay 3: Small Craft (2) 1 Door
Bay 4: Fighter (10) 2 Doors
Bay 5: Cargo (317.0 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
180 rounds of AC/2 ammunition (4 tons)
Escape Pods: 1
Life Boats: 0
Crew: 3 officers, 4 enlisted/non-rated, 6 gunners, 78 bay personnel
Notes: Mounts 54 tons of standard aerospace armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (2 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
RS/LS Fwd (2 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
RS/LS Aft (10 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
Aft (9 Heat)
3 AC/2 3 1(6) 1(6) 1(6) 0(0) AC
AC/2 Ammo (180 shots)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
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The big tradeoff here is around the size of the dropship. A larger dropship could carry more ASF to effectively amortize the overall cost of an associated jumpship. On the other hand the total system cost grows as well making it a less usable design. Given this, a design which barely amortizes the jumpship price seems about right.
