Drop pod and landing rockets

[ArgentumLupus]

In War of 3039 "The Harder They Fall", the Panther uses some sort of drop pod and one use rockets during a hot drop. What are these items called and do they have official stats/prices?
Thanks
-Argentum

[VhenRa]

Mech Jump Pack/Mech Drop Pack in Tactical Operations for the rockets... which it doesn't really need because a Panther can jump on it's own last I checked.

And Ablative Cocoons, about all we have is in Strategic Ops (Assault Drops, Space Drops). Lets a Mech survive entering the atmosphere from space, burns off during atmo entry but leaves you an intact Mech falling at terminal velocity towards the planet. Pack a parachute/jump jets/jump pack or else you get to experience de-constructive lithobraking first hand.

[ArgentumLupus]

I always thought the bit with jump jets to be the case, though the fiction depicted them as not having had enough power to keep the Panther from going crunch on their own (which makes sense. It's not a Gundam).

[Shin Ji]

Mech Jump Pack/Mech Drop Pack in Tactical Operations for the rockets... which it doesn't really need because a Panther can jump on it's own last I checked.

And Ablative Cocoons, about all we have is in Strategic Ops (Assault Drops, Space Drops). Lets a Mech survive entering the atmosphere from space, burns off during atmo entry but leaves you an intact Mech falling at terminal velocity towards the planet. Pack a parachute/jump jets/jump pack or else you get to experience de-constructive lithobraking first hand.

I wonder if there are Mech jockeys who only drop in JJ-equipped mechs for just that reason.  Who knows if that idiot Astech remembered to refuel the jump packs?

The experience of an orbital drop must be ... interesting.

[VhenRa]

Honestly. I would jump in a JJ equipped Mech, with a Rocket Pack... and a Parachute. Triple Redundancy.

[Acolyte]

The experience of an orbital drop must be ... interesting.

It's been described in before, from the pilot's perspective and it sucks! There you are aboard the dropship, cocooned in your drop pod with a single com line as your only link to the outside world. You're all nicely padded, so you can only feel the strongest vibration - like the DropShip getting hit. Then, just before drop, your com line is cut and freefall! Into a sky that you know is full of AeroSpace Fighters over a hot landing site (otherwise you wouldn't be dropping) and you have absolutely no sensors! Now, you're trusting only to luck, whatever AeroSpace your side has and enemy incompetence to keep you from being blasted all to hell by a fighter you couldn't have even detected. You know how good your Aero pilots are and if the enemy is half as good....... Then there's a loud noise from the outer shell breaking off into sections (it's done it's job for breaching the atmo) and hopefully adding radar targets. The spun foam inside the cocoon now ablates into more chaff, hopefully giving you a little more of a chance.

Then finally "Poof" and the last of the spun foam shreds off and now you can finally see! That's when you find out how good your DropShip pilot was. If they're good, you're on target (or close to), if not or they got interupted........ At best, you've got a hike on your hands. But first, you're still high up in the air, and any ASF's left are coming for you. You can shoot back, at least, but you are not atmospheric craft of any type, so it's their playground.

Hopefully, after all that, you land and regroup with the surviving members of you unit.

Interesting indeed! :o

   - Shane

[glitterboy2098]

I always thought the bit with jump jets to be the case, though the fiction depicted them as not having had enough power to keep the Panther from going crunch on their own (which makes sense. It's not a Gundam).

it has the oomph to keep the Panther from doing destructive Lithobraking. it just isn't very pleasant to land that way, and the pilot has to be very careful in his piloting.

[Armitage72]

And Ablative Cocoons, about all we have is in Strategic Ops (Assault Drops, Space Drops). Lets a Mech survive entering the atmosphere from space, burns off during atmo entry but leaves you an intact Mech falling at terminal velocity towards the planet. Pack a parachute/jump jets/jump pack or else you get to experience de-constructive lithobraking first hand.

They were also in the old Dropships and Jumpships.

1 ton, 30,000 C-Bills, and 5,000 C-Bills to refurbish after each use.
The entry talks about the pod and cocoon entering the atmosphere, the pod splitting into four pieces, and the cocoon disintegrating from the friction, so I guess it's assumed that the pieces of the pod are recovered and reused and the 5,000 covers replacing the cocoon.

[Nahuris]

They were also in the old Dropships and Jumpships.

1 ton, 30,000 C-Bills, and 5,000 C-Bills to refurbish after each use.
The entry talks about the pod and cocoon entering the atmosphere, the pod splitting into four pieces, and the cocoon disintegrating from the friction, so I guess it's assumed that the pieces of the pod are recovered and reused and the 5,000 covers replacing the cocoon.

Personally, I'd prefer a new one .... all things considered, is this a piece of equipment that you would really want to buy "second hand"?

Nahuris

[Diablo48]

Personally, I'd prefer a new one .... all things considered, is this a piece of equipment that you would really want to buy "second hand"?

Nahuris

Yeah, it does seem odd that they are not one time use.  After all, most of it is going to either burn up or be exposed to very high temperatures which electronics are not going to like, and then whatever survives that is going to slam into the ground in pieces spread across a wide area.  This would make recovering anything difficult, and the parts that are recovered would be closer to scrap than anything else.  About the only thing that might be reusable are the heat shielding segments of the pod, and even then they would probably need some reconditioning and inspection before they could be safely reused.  Recovery really strikes me as the kind of thing civilians would do to sell the salvaged quarters back to the manufacturer for something like a thousand C-Bills a piece to make a bit of quick cash, although some mercs would probably also do this (and might even buy the pieces off civilians to resell to the manufacturer without having to invest time in searching for them).