| |
| Cruiser-Class Cruiser Refit | |
| Production information | |
| Manufacturer | Ix Shipyards, Niops Association |
| Use | Exploration Vessel Auxiliary Defense Vessel |
| Tech Base | Inner Sphere Experimental |
| Cost | 11,474,896,000 C-bills |
| Introduced | 3155 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Mass | 500,000 |
| Length | 243 Meters |
| Width | 174 Meters |
| Sail Diameter | 1,200 Meters |
| Fuel | 5,000 Tons |
| Burn Rate | 39.52 |
| Safe Thrust | 2 |
| Top Thrust | 3 |
| Sail Integrity | 4 |
| KF Drive Integrity | 21 |
| LF Battery | None |
| Armament | Main Weaponry
|
| Armor | Primitive Aerospace Armor |
| DropShip Capacity | See Notes |
| Crew | 47 Officers 108 Enlisted/non-rated 122 Gunners 500 Passengers 90 Marines 22 Bay Personnel |
| Grav Decks | 1 (100 meter diameter) |
| Escape Pods/Life Boats | 50 / 0 |
| Heat Sinks | 1,291 |
| Structural Integrity | 75 |
| BV (1.0) | |
| BV (2.0) | 39,729[1] |
Description[]
The NMS Beer Keg of Science is a Warship belonging to the Cruiser-Class Cruiser. Originally built by the Terran Hegemony as the , THS Vesuvius.[2] An Ancient design which was salvaged and restored by the The Administrator AU's Niops Association faction, created by Giovanni Blasini. A singular vessel which is featured ship and namesake of it's own BattleTech fan story, Adventures of the Beer Keg of Science! ("Denizens"/"Adminstrator" adjacent). The ship was restored using a mix of Primitive Technology with High Technologies which
Overview[]
Nobody would have expected the Niops Association to have an ancient, decrepit Cruiser class vessel sitting in orbit around a seemingly-uninhabited dwarf planet in the Niops system. Certainly nobody would have expected, were they to know about it, that the Niopians would be insane enough to try to refurbish the vessel. And, even once refurbishment of the ancient ship began, nobody in their right minds would believe that the Niops Association intended to use the ship for exploration.
Except, of course, that’s exactly what the Niops Association intended to do.
Building small patrol DropShuttles is one thing, and was not an easy project for the Niops Association to undertake. Refurbishing a 500 kiloton WarShip was another level of project altogether, and nearly ruinously expensive, even with funding assistance from Interstellar Expeditions and technical assistance from the Lyran Commonwealth.
However, the Niops Association as a whole felt the project was worthwhile. The Association had come close to complete collapse after the Word of Blake Jihad, and knew of several worlds near and far that, evidently, did actually collapse. The expansion of Ix Shipyards of Niops IX from a small yard capable of building Saturn and Independence class patrol ships to one capable of refurbishing a WarShip was not cheap, either. And while it might have been centuries in some cases since anyone checked on them, the Niops Association and Interstellar Expeditions believed it was high time somebody did, and since the galaxy was not always a friendly place, having a well-armed exploration vessel with sufficient supplies for long duration operations seemed a good way to do it.
That such a vessel would also be able to serve as a deterrent against any power that might invade Niops (again), posing a threat to them in return was, as they say, icing on the cake.
Armament and Equipment[]
Ix Shipyards engineers attempted to make no changes to the basic spaceframe, transit drive or jump engines of the ship, but found that, while they could get the transit drive more or less operational again, and her spaceframe was sound, there were significant issues with the KF drive. Ideally, the entire KF drive would need to be replaced which, of course, would mean disassembling nearly the entire ship and sourcing a KF drive for the vessel. That was not even remotely possible. The next best option would have been to effect repairs to the existing KF drive and restoring it to full operational status. This was beyond the capabilities of Niopian engineers, though, admittedly, nearly anyone else would have had the same issue. Ixian engineers, instead, settled on a kludgeworthy solution, patching computers and field generators and subsystems with bulkier equipment that would work nowhere near as well as the original. The revamped KF drive and support systems gained nearly 24 kilotons of mass, with effective range cut in half to 15 light years.
Unable to produce standard-grade armor, Ixian engineers were forced to downgrade to more primitive armor of the same alloys used in their Saturn and Independence class projects. This reduced overall armor effectiveness by a third, though the robust spaceframe of the original Cruiser class ensures the vessel is still resilient in combat.
An examination of the bores of the naval autocannons fitted to the ship indicated the Class-10 NACs originally fitted to the ship would explode if fired, so all 48 of them were scrapped, and replaced with light subcapital cannons in their place. This change also permitted engineers to fit quad SCL/1 batteries and point-defense turrets originally consisted of four low-grade small lasers to each arc of the vessel as well, using turrets originally slated for the next few Independence class patrol ships. However, it was more advanced Laser based Anti-Missile System was been swapped ancient laser's place. Fortunately, Ixian engineers could refurbish the existing capital missile launchers; capital missiles being a well-understood low-tech solution, and rumors abound that the vessel will carry a modicum of dual-purpose nuclear mining charges for xenogeological research that can be repurposed for ship-to-ship combat or surface bombardment.
Beyond that, most subsystems of the ship remain unchanged, though the reduction in armament mass has allowed Ixian engineers to automate the ship to a stunning degree. The Cruiser will carry accommodations for the original crew and five hundred passengers, as well as its shuttles (both small and DropShuttles), but can operate with only a handful of them. Expansion of the ship's sensors and additional scientific instruments were also fitted to enhance its exploration mission.
Cargo[]
- Bay 1: Dropshuttle (2) 2 Doors
- Bay 2: Small Craft (2) 1 Door
- Bay 3: Fighter (6) 1 Door
- Bay 4: Cargo (225.0 tons) 0 Doors
- Bay 5: Cargo (64912.0 tons) 1 Door
Notes - Equipment[]
Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-X-X
While Warship in name, this ship is a Primitive JumpShip, with some weapons of a modern WarShip.
Due to it's mixed nature, the ship can use Solar Sail to recharge, but limited to 15 light years in range due to primitive nature of it's KF-Drive.
Additional Equipment Includes;
- 1 Mobile Hyperpulse Generators (Mobile HPG)
- 1 Advanced Robotic Transport System (ARTS)
- 1 SDS (Caspar) Drone Control System
- 1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
- 4 Space Mine Dispenser
- 750 tons of primitive aerospace armor.