Rusty
Purveyor of Fine Weaponry
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a dropship suitable for the Roll On/Roll Off concept
- Image Source:
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Oxidation Industries
- Affiliation: Oxidation Industries
- Market Status: Closed Market
- Model: RO/RO Mk1
- Production: Minor
- Material: Cast iridium hull plates, durasteel, alusteel, duraplast starship components
- Classification: RO/RO heavy transport
- Length: 900 meters
- Width: 300 meters
- Height: 400 meters
- Armament: Low
- Sponson mounted weapons packages (7 port, 7 starboard, 2 bow, 2 aft) containing EITHER 1 LTC-1 Light Turbolaser Cannon OR 1 XLC X-Ray Laser, with 4 GRTD heavy machinguns in a coaxial configuration
- Keel mounted flex pods (3)
- Defenses: Very High
- Hangar Space: Base
- Hangar Allocations: 0
- Starfighters: 0 squadrons
- Support Craft: 1 squadrons
- Maneuverability Rating: Average
- Speed Rating: Very High
- Hyperdrive: Yes
- Hyperdrive class 1.1
- Backup hyperdrive 3.6
- Standard sensor package
- Standard life support
- Standard navigational package
- Standard environmental shielding and protection packages
- Standard repulsorlifts
- Analog redundant control scheme
- Cast iridium hull plating
- Ground attack weapons systems
- Layered shielding package
- Integrated Command, Control, & Communications (C3) facilities for ground forces
- Thicc- The RO/RO Mk1 boasts impressive cargo capacity, able to transport and deploy a brigage-sized combined arms element in a single drop. What's more, she's designed to disgorge her entire fighting element in a matter of minutes, rather than the hours or days required for a normal transport vessel.
- Armored- The use of cast iridium hull plating adds impressive durability to the ship, at the expense of weight. Even if the layered and redundant shields go down, she still stands a decent chance of making it to the ground intact.
- Layered Shielding- Rather than relying on an array of sophisticated and expensive shielding modules, the RO/RO Mk1 takes a standard complement of ray and particle shields, and makes it massively layered and redundant. Since all the the sponson mounted weaponry supplies its own power, nearly all of the ship's power not directly devoted to propulsion can be directed into the numerous shield generators spread across the hull. The theory is, while the shields might not be specialized in any one direction, enough of them can potentially attenuate just about any incoming attack enough for the armored plating to hold up.
- Ground Attack Package- Not possessed of any weapons designed for ship to ship combat, the RO/RO Mk1 does possess sufficient weaponry to clear out an LZ. What's more, the modular nature of the weapons allow them to be swapped out to meet the needs of the customer. The sponson mounted weaponry is well suited to engaging ground forces, and the flex pods on the keel can mate with nearly any off the shelf weapons system designed for ground attack roles.
- Mobile Command Post- When grounded, the RO/RO Mk1 provides an impressive Command, Control, & Communications package for the brigade's command team.
- Redundant Analog Controls- While the RO/RO Mk1 makes use of computerized flight control systems just like every other modern spacecraft, she's designed with a highly resilient analog control scheme, designed to allow the ship to be flown, or at least partially controlled, even in the event of a loss of power due to ion strikes, EMPs, and other potentially disabling weaponry. While she won't be performing any aerobatics in analog mode, a good crew will probably be able to land her without making too big of a crater in the process.
- Gotta Go Fast- The RO/RO Mk1 boasts an impressive power to weight ratio for its size, affording it great speed and workable maneuverability. She won't be dogfighting against starfighters anytime soon, but she can get down to the ground in a hurry.
- Density- For a ship of her size, the RO/RO Mk1 is remarkably dense, thanks to a combination of armored plating designed to shrug off blows that would hole punch most other ships her size, and the fact that her normal cargo involves lots and lots of tanks. As such, great care must be exercised when choosing a landing zone. If the LZ is too swampy, too sandy, or just plain not firm enough, she can easily become mired, and can't easily get herself back out again.
- No Fighter Compliment- The RO/RO Mk1 carries no parasitic fighter or support craft compliment, which somewhat reduces her flexibility. As she's designed to work as part of an assault force rather than alone, the idea is that other ships will provide air support once she's on the ground.
- Basic AK- There's no getting around it: the RO/RO Mk1 is basic as kark. She's designed for one thing, and one thing only: to put a lot of troops on the ground in a hurry, and she's specialized almost to a crippling degree. He weapons are poorly suited for ship to ship combat. She boasts neither EM warfare offensive nor defensive capabilities, and her sensor package is entirely tuned towards the task of landing in a hostile environment. She'll do her job and do it well, but she's not going to win any prizes for versatility.
- Big Target- While she's well protected, the RO/RO Mk1 is not a small vessel. Nor is she a stealthy one. Getting shots through the armor and shielding won't be easy, but anyone within range will have plenty of chances to try.
- Soft, Chewy Center- The RO/RO Mk1 is most vulnerable when she's unloading troops. While her cargo bays boast decent protection against small arms fire, they also carry a lot of things designed to explode spectacularly when used correctly, and that have an alarming tendency to explode catastrophically when struck by incoming. Without careful planning and support, a determined enemy assault can absolutely wreck the ship from the inside out.
The RO/RO Mk1 is the culmination of Oxidation Industry's short term goal of providing an off the shelf assault package for anyone with the money and the bodies to afford it. Based around the concept of Roll On/Roll Off, her sole purpose is to take a lot of troops, their accompanying armor, artillery, and supplies, and drop them on the battlefield in a concentrated package as quickly as possible. To accomplish this, one must necessarily have a transport craft capable of delivering the goods.
At her heart, the RO/RO Mk1 is a cargo vessel. The vast majority of her interior is a large cargo bay, designed to be configured in a number of different ways, depending on the needs of the mission. She can be left completely open, subdivided into decks or compartments, or anything in between, depending on the needs of the mission. The massive loading ramp at the nose allows cargo to be loaded in quickly and efficiently, with a minimum of specialized equipment. Once loaded, it's then locked down to prevent unnecessary rolling or shifting, and unlocked automatically upon reaching the destination. From there, the ramp drops in a matter of seconds, and everything can be driven out just as fast as the crews can manage. The Roll On/Roll Off philosophy dictates that cargo be loaded in the reverse order that it will be needed. The relatively unimportant stuff goes in the back, while the good stuff goes up near the loading ramp, where it can get off the quickest.
Since it's a given that she'll be landing in hostile environments, the RO/RO Mk1 was fitted with an impressive protection scheme. The outer hull consists of massive cast iridium plates. Have learned the casting process for large tanks and such, Oxidation Industries found the process of casting simple plates to be much easier. The plates themselves make for a formidable barrier between incoming fire and the precious cargo within, but that wasn't enough. Rather than boasting traditional weaponry, which relies on the ship's own reactors for power, the RO/RO Mk1 uses self powered guns mounted in sponsons along the hull, as well as a handful of flex pods along the keel that can mount anything from light cannon to rocket pods. The flex pods are designed to mate up with just about any off the shelf weapons system that can be controlled and powered remotely. Since the power normally used for offensive weaponry on a ship this size is freed up for use elsewhere, OxI decided to dump it into the shields.
No one set of deflector shields on the RO/RO Mk1 is particularly impressive. There are, however, a lot of them. This layering effect provides much greater protection than a traditional single or double arrangement, and is much cheaper and easier to maintain than proprietary exotic shielding systems designed to defeat specific threats. A heavy turbolaser might make it through one or more layers of shielding, but every layer it penetrates further attenuates it to the point where it'll either be stopped cold, or handled by the extremely refractory armored plating. What's more, the system has extremely good redundancy, meaning that if a segment of the shield goes down, the crew can compensate without overly weakening another area. The RO/RO Mk1 isn't invulnerable, but she is a damned tough nut to crack.
In order to give her the best chance of making it through enemy fire intact, and thus, getting to the ground with her cargo alive and well, she's fitted with massive engines for her size. This high thrust to weight ratio gives her excellent speed and acceleration for a ship of her draft, and the use of thrust vectored nozzles, in addition to standard maneuvering thrusters, gives her decent mobility. Additionally, her controls feature an analog backup scheme that can allow the ship to be maneuvered without power, albeit with great difficulty. So long as the engines are burning, she can have some control over pitch, yaw, and angle of attack. While landing without power is almost certainly going to break things and get her firmly beached, it probably won't crack her spine, and the troops and gear inside will probably still be alive. Banged up and grumpy as hell, but alive.
Once on the ground, the RO/RO Mk1 boasts an impressive Command, Control, and Communications package for use by the ground force commander and their staff. This allows her to function as a forward operating base for her troops, giving them not only clear and concise guidance from higher, but a place to return for rest, refit, and repair as necessary. Because of the spacious and modular cargo hold, it's not at all difficult to incorporate machine shops, chow halls, sleeping quarters, medical facilities, and other vital resources, without leaving them exposed to the elements. Even the stodgiest of sergeants major will admit that a hot meal and a dry bunk can be a combat multiplier, boosting the morale and overall health of troopers who otherwise might be eating MREs under makeshift tents in a combat zone.
Admittedly, this feature wasn't in the original design considerations. It was noted early on in testing that the RO/RO Mk1, thanks to its relative density, has a remarkably high chance of getting stuck in soft earth, mud, sand, or other unsuitably unstable environments. Rusty figured that, since she was going to have to stick around, they might as well let the commanders and support staff make the most of her.
Like everything else from Oxidation Industries, the RO/RO Mk1 is simple, rugged, and supremely effective. She won't be winning any beauty contests or prizes for cutting edge innovations, but she will be a treasured companion for any trooper who's found themselves riding an unarmored tin can to the surface, waiting flak to send them to an early grave. That trooper can not only expect to make it to the surface in one piece, but do so with the support of armor and artillery, as well as the expectation of having somewhere to eat, sleep, and take a dump in relative comfort and security. Troopers with that sort of peace of mind can be expected to fight harder and for longer than their opposing number, and that sort of combat multiplier is not something that any commander can scoff at lightly.
Bottom line is, if you want to win the fight, bring a RO/RO Mk1 or five. We offer package deals as well.
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