KitK
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Reged: 08/17/01
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Shannon Class Planetary Defense Dropship
#165188 - 04/25/12 10:06 AM (70.64.129.30)
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Duke Richard Shannon’s face was furrowed with frustration as he watched the Liao dropships descending on the continent’s southern plains for another food and industrial raid. It was all too common of an occurrence on Frazer, which was positioned near the rim-ward boarder of the Capellan March in the Federated Suns. Shannon’s homeworld militia had only managed about a 50% success rate at repelling Liao raiders. He had spent the better part of the year rebuilding the militia after last year’s losses as well as bolstering the planet’s aerospace defenses. He had spent the lion’s share of the military budget on aerospace fighters in hopes of not seeing the Liao dropship plumes burning in his atmosphere. But after losing nearly half of his fighters, while achieving damage to only one dropship bay door, he had to recall his fighters. With the ground forces not up to par yet he was going to need the rest of the aerospace units to win this ground war. Duke Shannon felt he had only one very expensive option left – to fight off dropships with dropships. Of course none of the local commercial ships were interested in combat, and anything of military caliber tended to be spoken for by the RCTs and mercenaries. Shannon would have to build the ships himself. He knew a small local company with aerospace aspirations, but it didn’t enough expertise and resources. But, CEO of CMCDesigns owed him are rather substantial personal favor. The Duke was sure he could leverage the two to get what he needed.
In 2970 CMCDesigns negotiated a 51% stake in Frazer Aerospace Ltd. and the partners broke ground for a small construction facility. Soon thereafter their aerospace engineers began designing what became known as the Shannon class Planetary Defense Dropship. The 2500 ton, spheroid craft is very agile with heavy armor and structural components but limited cargo space. It is bristling with guns, and it carries a skeleton crew. Some historians have suggested that the Shannon dropship is a precursor to the pocket-warship. But the suggestion is generally dismissed due to the Shannon’s small size, focus on speed, and complete lack of even the attempt to carry a capital class missile weapon.
The Shannon’s large engine pushes the craft along at a safe thrust of 7. 221 tons of fuel give the ship a range of 120 days travel at 1-G burn. However it is limited to 90 days unless extra provisions are stored on board. It is protected by 102 tons of standard armor, which are clad to a heavy internal structure rated at 50 points. It has one small craft bay, which is primarily used for resupply operations, so that the dropship rarely alights the planet, which allows it quicker response times to enemy incursions. The cargo bay only carries 54 tons, 19 of which is set aside for the ship’s provisions. For its combat role, all three of the Shannon’s forward arcs boast a pair of PPCs, LRM-15s, medium lasers, and an AC-20. All three rear arcs carry a pair of PPCs, LRM-15s and an AC-20. Each of the 12 LRM’s has 4 tons of ammo and the 6 AC-20s have 5 tons of ammo. 166 single heatsinks (engine included) allow all three forward batteries and one rear battery to be fired on any given salvo. Two escape pods have been provided for the crew.
The Shannon is deployed primarily in the Capellan March, and it becomes rare very quickly as one moves away from Frazer. The first 2-ship lance was deployed 2975, and Fazer has maintained two squadrons since 2985. Since then the Capellans have given up raiding Frazer. The Shannon is sometimes deployed to ferry light mechs in its cargo hold in emergency situations. Persons interested in more clandestine ventures will use the Shannon to slip scout mechs and vehicles onto planets. The small craft bay is sometimes remodeled into mech or vehicle bays for this purpose.
Dropship: Shannon
Weight: 2500 tons
Safe thrust: 7
Max thrust: 11
Engine weight: 1137.5 tons
Fuel weight: 221 tons
Fuel pumps and tanks: 4.5 tons
Structural integrity: 50
Structural weight: 250 tons
Controls: 19 tons
Minimum crew: 5
Minimum gunners: 6
Crew quarters: 83 tons
Bay personnel: 3 (tech and small craft crew)
Escape pods: 14 tons
Cargo bay: 54 tons
Small craft bay: 200 tons
Armor: 102 tons (evenly distributed)
Weapons and ammo: 336 tons
Heatsinks added: 79 tons
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