Belleville's Mech stalls

[Colt Ward]

Not sure I have seen this come up before but . . . in Chaos Irregular's stories they are traveling for the raid on Saravan in a Mule class dropship that had a hold modified to accept mechs.  They are described as '[n]ot proper bays with service and repair frameworks but narrow, walk-in stalls with anchor points that held them securly upright.  Not packed like cargo.'  Which to me sounds like a mech RORO system, where they can be secured in transit, power up when the DS arrives and walk off when the DS lands with a minimal fuss.

The Chaos Irregulars had roughly 12-15 mechs at that point which would be put in stalls which means it could be just about any single deck on the Mule though I would think the 3kt lowest deck.  The ship had no quarters for anyone which per the story means they were crammed in like cargo- all the pilots, techs and other support personnel.

Something worth including in BTU or put it down to a 1-off fiction creation?

[Dave Talley]

I would assume container quarters with their tools and equipment, you could easily podify anything this way, and have each department podded, maintenance, logistics, HQ (paperwork waits no one)

unload from dropship, drive to new base, or create a field base, your own olive drab gypsy caravan

[Colt Ward]

Sure, but that is for the mercs . . . and I have been a proponent of mercs having Conex bases for a long time, to include stacking & girders to make MFBs.

This . . .


Without front doors and of course mech sized with heavier support in the walls.  Its something that could be bolted from the in deck/keel attachment points for the divisions and stored when the cargo containers meet different specs.

[Dave Talley]

yep, you could easily fit a regiment into a mule that way

[Colt Ward]

Well, the lowest deck is 3000t . . . so even if you sectioned it off for 30 mech stalls to each hold a Atlas, Dire Wolf, Devastator or Pillager then that is still a lot of firepower.

[Hellraiser]

I feel like at one point there was some fluff somewhere for moving mechs w/o repair &/or drop pods attached, but still not as cargo & the bays were 100T each like heavy vehicles.

This seems like this would be something similar.


That said I'd really like to see some of the "alternate" configurations for canon dropships given RS at some point.

This isn't the first Mule conversion in fiction either IIRC.



SO some things that would be good to see.

Overlord-HQ  (32 Mechs & HQ Deck/More Cargo)
Overlord-2  (24 Mechs, 12 Heavy Vees,  +600 Tons Cargo)
Overlord-CV  (42 ASF or 36 & 900 Cargo,  we don't really know for sure what the CV looks like)
Union-CV  (14 ASF)
Union-Cargo  (2100 tons Cargo)
Union-MixedArms  (No ASF,  4 Light Vee + Infantry Company)
Leopard-LtVeeCo  (No Mechs,  12 Lt Vee Bays)
Leopard-MixedArms  (No ASF,  4 Light Vee,  Infantry Company)
Mule-CombatTransport  (Convert 1-3 Decks over to Mech, Vehicle, Infantry Bays)   (Again we don't know the stats but at over 2K per deck they could have 1-2 mech companies & battalion+ of mixed convetionals  (20 Heavy, 8 Light, 4 Infantry Platoons)

[Charistoph]

The US navy has a ship line specifically designed to be modular and take on various roles depending on what is loaded on its bay.  With military vessels being at a premium, smart captains and entrepreneurs would have figured out a way to transport troops and their rides in an efficient, if not at maximum effectiveness that would be little better than steerage (and maybe even a little worse).

[glitterboy2098]

actually that sounds rather like the kind of conversion the Atlantic Conveyor had to become an Aircraft platform for the Falklands war.. converting a Roll-on-roll-off vehicle carrier/containership hybrid into a makeshift VTOL aircraft carrier.

they didn't refit it to have actual carrier facilities, they refit it to have the needed tie downs, and containerized refueling system, workbays, and so on. effectively sticking a field airbase on the deck of a cargoship.