Prisoner Ship

[Froggiest1982 (OP)]

So I had my first big fight which I won, yay!

I already had something similar in mind before this fight happened but once finished I couldn't agree more with my choice.

PROBLEM
After a big fight, you have 2 issues: Number one is prisoners and survivors to rescue, Number 2 is the insane amount of wrecks to recover.



If my survivors are picked by our Fleet in the area (which I am more than fine with it) I cannot use the same fleet to recover the prisoners though or you would have an insane amount of overcrowding forcing you to leave the newly conquered space too soon.

I present you the SOLUTION:

Asheville class Prisoner Ship      50,648 tons       223 Crew       953.6 BP       TCS 1,013    TH 1,563    EM 0
1542 km/s      Armour 1-121       Shields 0-0       HTK 71      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 11    Max Repair 200 MSP
Troop Capacity 250 tons     Boarding Capable    Cargo 25,000    Cryogenic Berths 2,000   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day

Commercial Ion Drive (10)    Power 1562.5    Fuel Use 8.94%    Signature 156.25    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 39.7 billion km (298 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

THE CONCEPT
The Prisoner Ship will collect only prisoners and for roleplay/convenience purpose these will be used for our salvaging mission (it's a hard work not only done by a machine but you need people in EVO suits as well and on the ships extracting components) all under the supervision of a 250 Tons Space Marines Squad. The Marines squad has two purposes: the main one is role-playing of course but they can come handy to board few stranded enemy ships at 0km/s.

[L0ckAndL0ad]

In my games I'd classify that as Rescue and Salvage ship (ARS hull classification). I had one such class in my VB6 campaign.

Field use showed that I should probably have a separate and quicker life pod rescue ship (they expire and do not require recovery time), so I also made some fast and small rescue shuttles to supplement the efforts. It's obviously a lot of micromanagement. I'd suggest having a separate big cryo ship that would deal with life pods exclusively.

Old but proven VB6 designs:

Off-Topic: show

Rama class Rescue and Salvage Ship    40 000 tons     293 Crew     1813.4 BP      TCS 800  TH 2000  EM 0
2500 km/s    JR 1-25(C)     Armour 4-104     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 28    Max Repair 200 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 1   
Cargo 5000    Cryogenic Berths 1000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5    Tractor Beam     
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day

JC41K Commercial Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 41000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 1
400 EP Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive (5)    Power 400    Fuel Use 4.42%    Signature 400    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1 850 000 Litres    Range 188.3 billion km   (871 days at full power)

CIWS-160 (4x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
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RV-1 Willie class Rescue Shuttle    147 tons     1 Crew     80.4 BP      TCS 2.94  TH 14.4  EM 0
20408 km/s     Armour 1-2     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 50.71 Years     MSP 68    AFR 0%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 60 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 3   
Cryogenic Berths 200   

60 EP Internal Fusion Drive (Ex3/TR25) (1)    Power 60    Fuel Use 617.3%    Signature 14.4    Exp 30%
Fuel Capacity 25 000 Litres    Range 5.0 billion km   (67 hours at full power)

[Michael Sandy]

A sleazy thing you could do in VB6 was have a shuttle with a very short endurance, but a couple HS for extra berths.  With a 3 day endurance, it could cram in hundreds of people... and then you stick it in a carrier and it didn't check if life support was overloaded.

Since there wasn't a way to load prisoners or life pods into cryo, I just RPed that it really was cryo.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

A sleazy thing you could do in VB6 was have a shuttle with a very short endurance, but a couple HS for extra berths.  With a 3 day endurance, it could cram in hundreds of people... and then you stick it in a carrier and it didn't check if life support was overloaded.

Since there wasn't a way to load prisoners or life pods into cryo, I just RPed that it really was cryo.

Actually VB did use cryo as overflow if crew space was full.  That was the main reason to include emergency cryo on warships: If the crewspace was damaged you did't get a life support cascade failure due to overcrowding.  They also fit nicely on S&R fighters.  The annoying part was that you couldn't divide or transfer survivors between ships, so if you had a lifepod with 500 survivors and three 200 seat rescue ships you were hosed, and once your rescue fighters were full they couldn't offload to the mothership so they could go out for another load.  And then you couldn't transfer to a civilian transport for the trip home.

[Father Tim]

. . .PROBLEM
After a big fight, you have 2 issues: Number one is prisoners and survivors to rescue, Number 2 is the insane amount of wrecks to recover. . .

. . .THE CONCEPT
The Prisoner Ship will collect only prisoners and for roleplay/convenience purpose these will be used for our salvaging mission (it's a hard work not only done by a machine but you need people in EVO suits as well and on the ships extracting components) all under the supervision of a 250 Tons Space Marines Squad. The Marines squad has two purposes: the main one is role-playing of course but they can come handy to board few stranded enemy ships at 0km/s. . .

It works with your fiction, but Aurora's mechanics are in opposition to your concept.  Aurora wants prisoners taken to one of your colonies for processing, whereas salvagers want to stay and work on wrecks (possibly even transferring cargo to other ships for ferrying back to your colonies).

Your concept puts all of the "eggs" from holding the field into one (or a very few) basket(s) for a good long time.  Not only are you risking all of your gains from the First Battle of Somewhere to any potential Second Battle of Somewhere, but you're delaying the point at which your empire can benefit from those gains by not delivering them for months or even years.