FANON XTRO - GHOSTS AND SHADOWS

[Daryk]

Question: Why does the Cameron Star in the Hegemony emblem have a....weird thing where point of the arrow should be.  Older ones didn't have such a thing.
*snip*

The Hegemony never used the Cameron Star.  That was a purely Star League thing.

[idea weenie]

question, why does everyone insist that the spy ship has to be a jumpship and not just be a modified dropship that never actually makes planetfall outside of safe ports, (or makes planetfall at all)

Customs doesn't check every ship that passes through their space, only the ones that come to the planet or stations

A Jumpship/Warship owned by a shell company gives the organization its own FTL capability.  Without their own ship the special ops team is vulnerable to whoever is providing transportation.  This could be the Star League Navy, a civilian contractor with a long history of not asking questions, or a civilian Jumpship that has to be fooled into not asking questions.  The fun part is the latter will likely file a transit arrival with the local system, who will soon realize that the Dropship never went through their checks.

There are likely Q-ship variants (and designs for them likely need to be added to the PDF), but being able to sneak into a target system using a self-owned FTL ship gives them more flexibility.  No need to file or modify an FTL transit record, no need to worry about a SLN Captain having an attack of honor, and no need to worry about a civilian Jumpship not being in good enough shape to handle any fancier FTL maneuvers needed.

So two new sets of designs are needed:

• Compact Core Warships that are the same mass as some of the more common smaller Jumpships (i.e. Scout, Merchant, and Invader)
• Q-ship variants of common cargo haulers (Mule, Mammoth, Behemoth)

As to Customs not checking every ship, the question then becomes what the Special Ops group's target is that is not the planet or a station.

[DOC_Agren]

I can do some of the Spec Force work with Q-Ships, but would they not want to have BUGEYE replacement?

I want the ability to slip in system and pull intel ops before I Jump in drop the raiders off.

But I also assume that they have set up a front company to prove "Jumpship/Dropships" to the IS and gather intel - Cargo Forwarders International

[marauder648]

I can do some of the Spec Force work with Q-Ships, but would they not want to have BUGEYE replacement?

I want the ability to slip in system and pull intel ops before I Jump in drop the raiders off.

But I also assume that they have set up a front company to prove "Jumpship/Dropships" to the IS and gather intel - Cargo Forwarders International

BugEye replacement hmm

[idea weenie]

I can do some of the Spec Force work with Q-Ships, but would they not want to have BUGEYE replacement?

I want the ability to slip in system and pull intel ops before I Jump in drop the raiders off.

But I also assume that they have set up a front company to prove "Jumpship/Dropships" to the IS and gather intel - Cargo Forwarders International

They probably have their own Bug-Eyes, plus first access to the raw data from existing Bug-Eyes.  A larger variant that can also act as a Q-ship would be a nice design to add.

Of course, the ultimate design would be a semi-Dropship that has its own KF core.  Though the price for that would be fairly obscene:
100-kton design:
KF Core: 135M base (this is just the Drive Coil, Initiator, and Controller, the rest is relatively minor)
Compact Core modification causing x5 price multiplier: 675M
KF Support Systems (Warship): 1200M
Total KF Cost: 1875M

Dropship Cost multiplier: x28
Final Cost just for the KF Core in a Dropship platform: 52,500M

So 52.5 billion C-Bills for just the KF core of a spy ship that can land on a planet.  This does not include any other requirements (sensors, engines, fuel, defenses).  It especially does not include a Li-F battery which would be semi-mandatory for a spy ship.  The real fun would be attaching a Dropship Collar to it to reflect modifications so its KF core can be carried by another vessel without interfering.  This would raise the cost by another 11.2 Billion C-Bills, again before Li-F battery.

As a comparison, a McKenna (almost 20* bigger and far better armored/armored) would carry 6 Dropships and only cost ~31 billion C-Bills, or a little over half as much.

[savagecoyote79]

If you're looking at the idea of a covert operations warship, why not just modify the Tracker into a Block II instead of a ground up re-design?  The fluff on it already states that is what it was built for and it conveniently matches the tonnage and has similar dimensions to the Merchant already.

[Takiro]

Great stuff marauder648! My only complaint is that I missed your original release date. Fantastic work as always!!

[Maingunnery]

ANd please folks, any feedback, good or bad is most welcome, I've not had much on facebook or reddit and have a rather demoralising feeling that this landed with an ungainly and unlwecome thud.

It looks great but it is quite niche (I have the same problem with some other projects). As for warships and such, I see no transport difficulties, you have your stealth dropship and even stealth dropcocoons.

Possible improvements:
- It lacks intro pages for sets of designs (such as tuatha series), in such as case I would recommend to just sort everything according to tonnage. 
- Full TRO entries for the Mk27 and Nighthawk mod 1.
- Adding page numbers
- Adding rules or examples for "Their 'Mech composition was dependent on mission parameters"

small errors:
- angular visual language, -> angular visual appearance,
- ERV column on the GWYLLGI DS is out of bounds.

[idea weenie]

If you're looking at the idea of a covert operations warship, why not just modify the Tracker into a Block II instead of a ground up re-design?  The fluff on it already states that is what it was built for and it conveniently matches the tonnage and has similar dimensions to the Merchant already.

That Tracker is perfect!  :thumbsup: 

For this TRO I would create the fluff about a Block II design being performed due to the better sensor systems, with a small cargo and fuel bays to better imitate a Merchant Jumpship to fit in nicely.  Add another design for the Invader Jumpship as well, so the Ghosts & Shadows unit has some variety in transportation capability.  A Scout-based design would explain why it s going to all sorts of weird locations in the Periphery, and missing for months at a time.

[DOC_Agren]

If you're looking at the idea of a covert operations warship, why not just modify the Tracker into a Block II instead of a ground up re-design?  The fluff on it already states that is what it was built for and it conveniently matches the tonnage and has similar dimensions to the Merchant already.

good call

An Invader clone would be nice, but not sure that a Scout clone is need