Cray
03/28/03 08:59 PM
24.165.247.189
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In the opening days of the Jihad, the Word of Blake attempted to decapitate the House governments with strikes against capital planets. The First "Battle" of New Avalon was a case in point. The WoB flotilla, with largely inexperienced crews, sent to New Avalon was driven away after a fanatic (irony here) defense by AFFS aerospace forces and a pair of Fox Corvettes. The cost to the defenders was catastrophic, though. Both warships were destroyed by the heavy guns of the refitted WoB McKennas [1], and many Davion aerospace fighters were wrecked.
While WoB regrouped several light-minutes from New Avalon and re-invented the concept of "escorting your troop transports rather than letting enemy warships get amongst them," the AFFS defenders discovered their HPGs (including the extra one Katherine had installed) were crippled with computer viruses. The Comstar HPG had even been the site of a massacre by WoB sleeper agents that police were just sorting out. Clearly, help from nearby AFFS units was out of the question.
The improvised solution was to strap some LRM launchers onto handy shuttles and stuff the ammo bin with...special...munitions. The CS-27 Light Duty Cargo Shuttle is a typical example of what New Avalon's defenders improvised in the space of hours. They only had hours - the WoB flotilla was shaking itself out and returning. The volunteer pilots of the CS-27s (and other converted shuttles) referred to their mounts as "Kamikaze Crates."
COMBAT HISTORY
CS-27 Cargo Shuttles are a four-century old design that, naturally, has seen use near Succession War battlefields. It is usually used for passenger or priority cargo transport - its 10 tons of cargo capacity is ill-suited for battlefield use. On the other hand, its powerful engine does often let it cram in quite a few more tons of cargo. The cargo bay is very roomy because 5 tons can be converted to storing additional liquid hydrogen reaction mass.
At the First Battle of New Avalon (actually, the second engagement in the first battle of...well, nevermind), two CS-27 Kamikaze Crates were credited with destroying the hulking WoB McKennas, warships so thickly armored that they could go toe-to-toe with the Clan Leviathan IIs. These "Kamikaze Crates" used their extended fuel capacity to accelerate to very high relative speeds, giving WoB defensive gunners and fighters only moments to engage them.
NOTABLE PILOTS
Daryl "Slim" Pickens--
Daryl was a hard luck case in the AFFS. He had a mere two kills under his belt despite forty years as an AFFS fighter pilot and participation in the Third and Fourth Succession Wars, War of 3039, Clan Invasion, Operation Bulldog, and the FC Civil War. On the other hand, he has required rescue after 9 of his fighters were wrecked by overwhelming enemy firepower (including at the First Battle of New Avalon.) He was rescued by a civilian dropship (one of many caught in the middle of the brawling battle over New Avalon) and promptly volunteered to fly a Kamikaze Crate. This was his last mission, and earned him an impressive third kill. "Slim" Picken's launchers both jammed (debris from hasty welds interfered with their loading), so he armed his missiles in the ammo bin and road the Kamikaze Crate into the side of the "Technical Purity," one of the WoB McKennas. Based on the multi-hundred kiloton yield of the explosion, at least two of the weapons successfully detonated.
Richard Montalban--
An eccentric civilian pilot and business owner, Richard Montalban was known for his ego and vanity, but they were justified: he was as intelligent, handsome, and strong as he thought he was, and devastatingly charismatic. Richard frequented New Avalon's tropical beaches (often holding his corporate board meetings on a fantastic tropical island), where he would wear an open shirt or vest to display his incredible musculature. Something about the ineptitude of the WoB fleet offended him and he volunteered to take a Kamikaze Crate into battle. An overlooked WoB fighter squadron mangled his Kamikaze Crate on its attack run, leaving him drifting and injured. However, this did not prevent Montalban from destroying the other WoB McKenna "Technical Grace." Based on the size of the explosion, Richard must have rigged most of his load of 120 "special" LRMs to act as a "second stage" augmentation to a handful of "special" LRMs used as "triggers." (In contrast, Slim's load did not sympathetically detonate - the first missiles mostly evaporated their neighbors before they could properly detonate.) Richard got in the last words over the "Technical Grace's" comm officers, who had been taunting him for challenging WoB's vision.
"From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee,"
And then he, the Crate, and the Technical Grace evaporated in a 30 megaton explosion. In addition to breaking the Technical Grace in two with the nuclear fireball, the x-ray pulse from the evaporating hull of Richard's Crate crippled several WoB troop transports.
CS-27 CARGO SHUTTLE/KAMIKAZE CRATE
40 tons aerospace fighter
16 tons 280 Vox fusion engine
....Thrust: 9
....Overthrust: 14
....Structural Integrity: 9
0 tons 10 SHS
3 tons cockpit
11 tons fuel
5 tons armor
4 tons 2x LRM 5 (RW/LW)
1 ton LRM ammo (fuselage)
[1] See: Peter La Casse's WoB McKenna
And if that link didn't work for you, imagine a McKenna with 84 NAC/30s and 1000pts of armor on each location. The fluff on the WoB McKenna is excellent, especially the part about, "The location of the eleven McKennas is unknown as of December 3067. They are rumored to be taking part in the Word of Blake's peaceful military exercises, code-named "Operation Annihilate the Infidels." "
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
Edited by Cray (03/28/03 09:04 PM)
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Karagin
12/27/06 12:10 PM
70.123.166.36
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Interesting story behind this one...
Have you gotten the chance to use it?
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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