Hi everyone, to me it looks like we have the makings of two contests. One for the Spirian "Wilds Support Ship" and one for the "Fleet Support Ship". When I wrote about the Tarawa I hadn't seen the Leviathan-assault Transport write-up in BARD. This is spot-on to what I was thinking of for a "Marine Support Ship". Oh well, another idea sunk (sorry, I couldn't resist).
DED asked about my pod idea and how it would be different from the Aurora/Maggart class Clippers.
First, the Coalition can't afford many of these ships. Building a pod that can be dropped, letting the ship return to Coalition space for other missions while the pod was left behind presents maximum usage of the ship. Also pods are cheap (in construction time, credits and people-power) compared to building another ship.
Second, the ship could be used as a freighter in and around Coalition space. As a salvage ship for bulky items or even small starships, items too big for even BUFF (see BARD) to carry.
I think the big difference would be the pod would be designed to be cheap and something that could be left behind as a semi-permanent instillation, that would argument and support bootstrap operations.
Also I own a copy of "Death of Wisdom" in it a Hiver colony on a member world is stricken with a disease. I always wondered how the Coalition would/could respond. Sure they would send doctors, supplies medicines and support staff. Mercy, on hearing of the outbreak could check its records for the nearest hospital/research pod. Jump there pick it and volunteer medical /research personal and drop the pod right on the doorstep.
the big difference between what I'm thinking of and the Clipper pods is flexability.
Can a Clipper pod land on a planets surface? I don't know. I think there are space-based only.
Eamon, just curious. The jump drives recovered, would these be the two TL-12 J-3 392m3 drives recovered from the Kingdom of Light on Tiniyd??? If so I think I may have to tone down the size of my ship's design. I was picturing a ship about 1200-1500 Tons. Ops!
Eamon, I enjoyed your "Cross-faction Kerfuffle" write up. It reminded me of the TAS and CINETWORK (or as we prefer in our verse "CNN" ...Coalition News Network) write ups.
Roger