[CODA-SS] Aegis Class CA (Battletech Conversion)

[GiovanniBlasini]

Just a little conversion of the Aegisclass heavy cruisers from the Battletech universe. The idea was to take an old, 24th Century ship, and have it "misjump" into a parallel universe - the Trekverse. Stranger things have happened - in the late 28th Century, another Aegis[ class ship will misjump 300 years into the future. Note this is a rough conversion, as things don't match terribly well, but I think it worked out pretty well without being too overpowering.



Background

Captain Ariana McMillan scanned the bridge, and was less than enthused about what she saw. Her ship, the Terran Hegemony heavy cruiser THS Bunker Hill, had run into some serious trouble when she activated her Kearny-Fuchida Drive to "jump" through hyperspace from the Sol system's zenith point to the nadir point of the Tau Ceti system, known as "New Earth". Her cruiser was to pick up a scientific team there, for an extended survey mission out on the Periphery of settled space.

As soon as she gave the order to activate the Bunker Hill's KF drive, all hell broke loose, as the 745,000 ton ship shuddered violently. The Bunker Hill had only been built a mere four years before, in 2372 - that her KF drive could malfunction this early in her lifetime was...inconceivable. Terran Hegemony jumpships, including warships like her own, were slated for active duty lives measured in centuries!

"Nav, status report, please."

"Captain, nav board looks green. We're right where we should be - star charts match, and the planets all appear to be where they should be."

Ensign Nogura, the Bunker Hill's comm officer, took this moment to chime in. "Ma'am, I'm unable to raise the recharge station on any frequency."

Captain McMillan took a quick glance at the holotank. Based on their jump profile, they should have arrived 1500 kilometers from the recharge station. Only problem was, there was absolutely no sign of the station.

"Begin full sensor scan. Look for anything indicating what happened to the station. See if you can pick up a transmission from New Earth." She had a bad feeling about this....

"Captain, I'm detecting a ship, bearing 120 mark 45, around 10 light-seconds out. Current velocity is .25c. Factoring in relativistic concerns, I'd say she's around 470 meters long, mass of...roughly 2 megatons, ma'am."

The silence on the bridge only lasted a moment, but betrayed the shock of all present. While travelling a quarter the speed of light wasn't beyond the capabilities of an Aegis class, getting there quickly was - her maximum acceleration was a mere 1.5G on her fusion torch drives. She was also notably more bulky and less dense than this newcomer, with her armored hull containing large, empty armor baffles, meant to throw off enemy fire.

On the other hand, while this ship was 260 meters shorter in length than the Bunker Hill, she was far, far more massive than any ship humanity had ever built. She was starting to suspect she was about to make contact with an alien civilization for the first time in human history. Unfortunately, she was also starting to suspect it wasn't going to go well. That they'd gotten so close to Earth, when humanity had settled worlds for hundreds of light-years away from their birth world, was disturbing.

At this point, though, the newcomer was nearly on top of them, and stunned the bridge crew again, by coming to an almost instantaneous stop relative to the Bunker Hill. To be able to decelerate that fast? There was no way they were human. "Ensign Nogura, please broadcast the following message on all frequencies: This is the Terran Hegemony Ship Bunker Hill. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration, and mean you no harm."

A few seconds passed, before they received a reply. "Bunker Hill, this is the Federation starship Valley Forge. I'm not sure how you got here, but we're fellow humans. Well, most of us, at any rate. I think things just got weird."

Little did either of them know....

Battletech Overview

The Aegis class cruiser, when introduced in 2372, was one of the most advanced vessels of its time. Designed to fill rolls ranging from combat, to exploration, to personnel and cargo transport, the Aegis was the do-all backbone of the Terran Hegemony fleet. Nobody is certain how many of the Aegis class were manufactured - some records from the Terran Hegemony period indicate that 106 were built, while other records show this number was massively expanded upon, with perhaps as many as 400-500 being built. What is known is that the class proved to have incredible staying power, being refit several times over the centuries, but with dozens of representatives of the class continuing to serve as the backbones of many fleets as late as the 31st Century, well into their seventh century of service. It is simply further mute testament to how much the Aegis was meant to last.

Over the years, three members of the class have had unexplained disappearances. In 2375, the THS Bunker Hill disappeared while en route from Terra to New Earth, to begin a mission of exploration. Roughly four centuries later, the SLS Manassas, serving as a rearguard for the Star League Defense Force's Exodus Fleet, disappeared without a trace, though there are rumors the ship misjumped three centuries into the future. Lastly, in the mid-29th Century, the LCS Invincible misjumped while returning to Tharkad, her home port.

Despite this, the class has given a good accounting of itself, both in combat and during peacetime. It is highly likely that the Aegis will continue to serve for centuries to come.


Specifications

Production Data
Origin: Terran Hegemony (manufacturer), United Federation of Planets (refit)
Class & Type: Aegis class Heavy Cruiser
Year Launched: 2372, refit in 2375

Hull Data
Structure: 45(50)
Size/Decks: 7/72 decks
Length/Beam/Height: 725/367/264 meters
Complement: 320

Operational Data
Transporters: none
Cargo Units: 70
Shuttlebay: 1 aft-ventral,
Shuttlecraft: 7 size worth
Grapplers: 1AV
Separation System: No
Sensor System: Class 2(+2/C)
Operations System: Class 2R (CC)
Life Support: Class 1R (BB)

Propulsion Data
Impulse System: Equiv to 6 x SBA (in three 2-unit clusters (.25c) (C)
Warp System: K-F Drive (special) (C)
---Note: similar to quantum slipstream. Rather than 300 LY/hr, ship "jumps" up to 30 LY instantaneously, to and from Lagrange points, or farther than 10 AU from star. Usually a star system's zenith or nadir points are used. Ship can jump once/week.

Tactical Data
Beam Weapons: Four 45-cm lasers, twelve 55-cm lasers (AA)
-- roughly equiv to 2 Type II and 6 Type III phaser banks
Penetration: 4/4/4/0/0
Missile Weapons: 24 NAC/20, 18 NAC/35, 4 Barracuda missile tubes, 8 White Shark missile tubes (AA)
-- rough equivs: 12 Mk 1 IF, 4 Mk 2 IF, 4 FST MkII, 2 FST MkIII
Penetration (FST missiles): 3/3/3/0/0
Penetration (NAC/photon): 6/6/6/6/0

Polarization Grid: HPG Mk. 3 (C)
Protection/Threshold: 11/1
Hull Plating: Type III
Protection: 9

Miscellaneous Data
Maneuvering: +1C -3H +3T
Obsolete (Helm - maneuver mods adjusted)
Ablative Armor

United Federation of Planets Refit:

-- Reduce structure to 40(45)
-- Add PFF 3 deflector shields (14/3)(B)
-- Change beam weapons to 8 actual Type III phaser banks (4/4/4/0/0)(D)
-- Replace all missile weapons with 35 Mk 12 IDF launchers (9/9/9/9/9)(D)

[Snake_Plissken]

That's a very odd but equally interesting cross-over idea. As a side note the mini produced by IWM is very nice (shameless plug for one of my fav mini producers). Here's a link : http://ironwindmetals.com/catalog/pr...oducts_id=2085

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest problems with naval assets in the Battletech universe is that they play second fiddle to the mech units. Which means that while there are awesome ship designs in the Btech line, along with nice minis, the space combat rules (Aerotech 2) are downright anemic. Anyways I digress. That's a very nice design and I must compliment you on your imagination.

[Phantom]

Very interesting cross over idea, and design for one of my favourite BTech ships. Well done.

As to the BTech rules, ASpace wasn't that bad for fighter combat. But, BSpace just plain sucked. I was really hopeing they would've ported over the Lev. rules set. Oh, well.

[GiovanniBlasini]

Originally posted by Snake_Plissken
That's a very odd but equally interesting cross-over idea. As a side note the mini produced by IWM is very nice (shameless plug for one of my fav mini producers). Here's a link : http://ironwindmetals.com/catalog/pr...oducts_id=2085

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest problems with naval assets in the Battletech universe is that they play second fiddle to the mech units. Which means that while there are awesome ship designs in the Btech line, along with nice minis, the space combat rules (Aerotech 2) are downright anemic. Anyways I digress. That's a very nice design and I must compliment you on your imagination.

I agree entirely. OTOH, I've found over the past year or two that I've been more interested in the space-based side of the game, with Aerotech 2. When I have time, I'm a fairly active poster on the Classic Battletech AT2 forums.

Haven't picked up my own Aegis yet, though my roommate has - they're pretty impressive-looking. My own starship mini collection consists of a Cameron-class BC, two Vincent-class corvettes, two Congress-class frigates, a McKenna-class BB, a selection of dropships, and then, on the Trek side, a Federation-class DN from SFB, and the saucer section from a Connie, which I've converted into something....weird, using spare parts.

Next up out of the gate for conversions with be the Cameron class BC, probably, including my own fairly nasty refit. Before that, though, I'll be posting a few actual Trek ships.

[GiovanniBlasini]

Originally posted by Phantom
Very interesting cross over idea, and design for one of my favourite BTech ships. Well done.

As to the BTech rules, ASpace wasn't that bad for fighter combat. But, BSpace just plain sucked. I was really hopeing they would've ported over the Lev. rules set. Oh, well.

Yeah, RL:Lev was a really smooth, well-running system. They borrowed a lot from the system when they created Battlespace, but not enough, IMHO.

Aerotech 2 fixed a lot of the flaws with Battlespace, though, of course, it created a few more. Overall, it's a much better system, though, that gives capital-grade weaponry advantages over small arms, again. OTOH, battles now tend to look something like this:

-- Two fleets of WarShips, DropShips and fighters engage.
-- WarShips blow the crap out of enemy DropShips, begin to engage one another.
-- Fighter jocks go, "Oh, how cute!" and obliterate enemy WarShips
-- Fighter jocks wonder how they're getting home.

Aerotech 2 Revised should be out, soon, though, which looks like it'll address some of the problems, like fighter squadrons not degrading in firepower as fighters are destroyed.

[Phantom]

The problem with BSpace basically was the damage to armour ratio. You had two fleets doing a high speed approach vector toward each other, one pass with broadsides and you have two large clouds of dust drifting away from each other. With Lev you could get some real good slugfests going.

Sorry for the the hi jack, I just thought BSpace had so much potential.

[GiovanniBlasini]

Originally posted by Phantom
The problem with BSpace basically was the damage to armour ratio. You had two fleets doing a high speed approach vector toward each other, one pass with broadsides and you have two large clouds of dust drifting away from each other. With Lev you could get some real good slugfests going.

Sorry for the the hi jack, I just thought BSpace had so much potential.

Oh, I pretty much agree with you. The two greatest flaws in Battlespace (and Aerotech 2, its refinement) are that WarShips do not carry realistic amounts of armor, and that fighters are too damaging to WarShips.

The idea that a 860 kiloton WarShip can really only carry 1400 tons of armor, roughly, is, well, silly. And, frankly, six 20-100 ton fighters should not be able to do significant amounts of damage to said ship.

As for my Federation-refit Aegis, I made a couple of errors. Originally, I'd been planning on putting 35 Mk.12 IF torpedo launchers on the ship, which would've put her penetration at 11/11/11/11/11, and then jury-rigged the PFF 3 shield generators, reducing their reliability to "A" to pay for it. I ended up deciding to go with 30 torpedo tubes and not jury-rigging the shields, instead. OTOH, that shouldn't have changed the penetration value!

OK, so, the UFP decides to refit the Bunker Hill. She originally had the equivalent to 42 spaces worth of weaponry.

People "on high" are a bit worried about the loyalties of the crew, but are in desperate need of ships, and the KF drive gives the Bunker Hill some unique capabilities.

First, they upgrade the old sublight drives used on the ship with a nice, new impulse engine. Only problem is refitting the ship with SIF and IDF fields, which is complicated on a ship whose decks are stacked nose to tail, rather than running from nose to tail, stacked on top of one another. Best they can manage in the end at sublight is .5c, and end up fitting an old, reliable SBE impulse engine, frequently used by commercial ships for decades, and by ships like the Consitution class before that. That frees up a whole 1 space point, lets the ship go .5c, and has a "D" reliability.

Ah, shield generators. Well, the first thought was a CIDSS-3, left over from the Galaxy class refits. The idea made sense - the Ambassador and refit Excelcior classes also had a lot of luck with them, so that's what they went with, giving the ship 15/3 protection and threshold, "C" reliability, for a mere 11 points total, leaving us with 32 points for our weapons systems.

Next up was mounting weapons systems. They knew they had a bunch of old Type IV emitters left over from when the Miranda class got upgraded, and, while they were bulky, they were reliable, and the Bunker Hill had plenty of volume. So, they chose to mount 10 banks of twin emitters, costing 20 points total (3 pts/bank - 1 pt for being a hvy cruiser), giving her 40 OV, and a beam penetration of 6/5/5/0/0. OK, we have 17 points left.

The next plan was to mount torpedoes. SCE engineers decided to mount a single Mk22 DF torpedo launcher in the nose, replacing the guns there, giving the Bunker Hill the ability to launch probes. They then went on to mount 10 Mk.12 IF launchers on each side of the ships, mounting 3 in each fore and aft quarter, and 4 along each broadside. Only problem was, between the SIF/IDF field generators and conduits, and making room for the launchers and magazines, they'd compromised some of the raw armor strength of the ship, reducing the structure to 40(45), which freed up enough space for the weapons upgrades.

So, the USS Bunker Hill, NCC-??????, differs from the THS Bunker Hill in the following areas:

Structure: 40(45)
Sublight Engines: SBE (.5c)(C)
Deflector Generator: CIDSS-3 (15/3)(C)
Beam Weapons: 10 Type IV Phasers (6/5/5/0/0)(E)
Missile Weapons: 1 Mk.22DF & 10 Mk.12IF (9/9/9/9/9)(E)
Transporters: 3 personnel, 3 emergency
Tractor Beams: 1 av

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Edit: OK, something's screwy, here. I plugged this puppy into a spreadsheet, and get that it's 5 over on the refit. So, drop the structure to 35(40), and to heck with it.

Any ideas where I screwed up?

[Phantom]

Holy Crap! Looking at the building description something occured to me. The Clans better hope this puppy doesn't make it back to the Inner Sphere....A brand new Impulse engine, upgraded weapons and (dare I say it) SHIELD TECH!

I can see this "new" ship wading into a fleet of Smoke Jaguar ships, and smokin' all of them.

Hey! Maybe that is how the Clans came about. Kerensky's people might have stumbled across an old DY-100 Sleeper ship from the Eugenics Wars.

To answer your question, nope don't see anything wrong.