MEGALITH-CLASS MILITARY JUMPSHIP
Class/Model/Name: MEGALITH-CLASS MILITARY JUMPSHIP
Tech: Inner Sphere / 2794
Vessel Type: JumpShip
Rules: Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
Mass: 430,000 tons
Length: 750 meters
Sail Diameter: 1,270 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 0
Armor Type: Standard or Improved Ferro-aluminum(early versions)
Armament:
12 Large Laser
24 Medium Laser
36 small Laser (later versions)
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MEGALITH-CLASS MILITARY JUMPSHIP
Overview:
Krester's Ship Construction is a company that today is a mere faint shadow of it's former glory. Before the Amaris coup and the wars following it Krester's operated thirtysix yards all around the Inner Sphere. Today just one production yard remain. Some of Kresters misery was self inflicted, when the company refused to cooperate with the Successor States over the surviving yards housed in those nations. While the loyalty to the Terran Republic was admirable it was hardly a realistic approach and the consequent destruction of the remnants of the Krester yard empire during the war was hardly surprising.
To make matters worse the premier Krester facility, the Terran O'Niel Yards, was attacked early in the war and suffered significant damage, most critically to the compact KF-core drive forges. Unable to find the funding, equipment or even the skilled manpower to repair the damage Kresters reluctantly left the warship construction business and concentrated on repairs, upgrades as well as manufacturing various dropships and civilian jumpships.
However Krester's never really gave up on getting back into the warship construction market but the savagery of the war prevented most restoration efforts, until the fortunes of war began to turn for the Terran Republic. Starting with Operation Phoenix the TRAS shifted from defensive efforts to a more offensive strategy aimed at reclaiming the worlds lost to the Free Worlds League and Draconis Combine during the opening stages of the conflict.
With this operational alteration an unexpected problem with the Terran Republic Navy showed up, the lack of LFB equipped interstellar transport. The casualties among the fighting fleets, that normally handled military transport into hot systems, were disastrous for all involved combatants. As the spacelift capacity of the fleets evaporated more and more civilian shipping was pressed into duty on the frontlines - something it was disastrously ill suited for. This policy rapidly led to catastrophic losses for the Inner Sphere's interstellar transport capacity. It was particularly bad for the Terran Republic since it had started the war with a shortage of shipping. To make matters even worse much more of the Terran navy's fighting power was tied up in dropship assets than that of the house navies. The Quicksilver program had given the Terrans a good defensive dropship fleet allowing their Navy to contest systems without exposing it's few warships to open combat. Now the problem of how to deploy these assets to hostile systems in an effective manner arose.
To respond to the perceived military need Krester's began design work on a militarized version of the Monolith class jumpship, which was already in production at Kresters Terran shipyards. Unwilling to halt the vital Monolith production Kresters instead looked into the possibility of making partial repairs to it's disabled military yard. Despite the requirement of costly investments Krester's managed to open a production line for it's new ship class in 2793, though some salvaged parts in the yard were said to glow from radiation whenever the yards passed into Earth shadow...
Capabilities:
The militarized version of the Monolith, named Megalith, retains much of the look of it's ancestor. This is intentional and the external modifications are carefully concealed with weapon turrets hidden and fake docking collars, complete with inflatable dummy dropships, to confuse an enemy for as long as possible as to which ship type he is facing. The Megalith was designed to deliver a squadron of gunboats or transports into a hostile system and then retreat before the enemy could engage it, eliminating the often fatal recharge period for ordinary civilian jumpships. To fit the Lithium Fusion Battery system on the Megalith Krester's had to cut the dropship capacity of the Monolith by a third as well as losing most of the cargo capacity.
In addition to the new KF-drive layout the Megalith also included increases of the operational endurance and protection to make the ship more effective in military operations as well as giving it a better chance of survival if engaged by the enemy. The armor protection of the Megalith was increased by about 50% for the standard armored variant of the Megalith compared to it's Monolith ancestor. An early variant of the Megalith uses improved ferro-aluminium armor which offers over 100% improvement in protection over the Monolith but it is easily recognized and late war shortages have caused a general return to standard armor plating. To further enhance the survivability of the Megalith it was one of the first ship classes in the Terran Republic Navy to be fitted with anti-missile laser clusters. The Megalith also mounts 36 anti-aerospace lasers in six hexagonal mounts as standard weaponry giving the ship some credible anti-aerospace capability. The two Small Craft bays are intended for service vessels but often carry a pair of heavy aerospace fighters when the ship is to jump into hostile star systems to back up the pair of fighters the ship normally carries.
Deployment:
Despite a huge effort to boost the availability of the Megalith by the Terran Republic these ships remain very rare and are usually attached to the main fleets. The Megalith numbers are low not because of low production numbers - indeed both Krester's and Bluenose's Monolith lines have switched almost half their output to manufacturing the Megalith class. Rather the problem is a massive casualty rate for the class that have remained constantly high despite every effort of the TRN to lower it. The Megalith is simply sent on too dangerous missions for a ship of it's type, but there are no other options other than sending regular civilian jumpships with far worse survival chances. The effect of the introduction of the Megalith Class can be best measured by comparing the jumpship loss ratios in offensive operations before and after the introduction of the Megalith and note the significant drop in destroyed jumpships that occurred. The average jumpship survived two or three jumps into a hostile system while the Megalith (and other Lithium Fusion Battery equipped jumpships) on average survives more than twice that many jumps.
The Megalith is most commonly deployed as transports for heavy gunboat squadrons with the frontline fleets or as part of the strategic transport reserve for major operations.
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Class/Model/Name: MEGALITH-CLASS MILITARY JUMPSHIP
Mass: 430,000 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 5,160.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 0
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive: Standard (Integrity = 8) 408,500.00
Jump Sail: (Integrity = 5) 87.00
Structural Integrity: 1 2,867.00
Total Heat Sinks: 146 Single 0.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 204.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 1,075.00
Fire Control Computers: .00
Food & Water: (81 days supply) 27.00
Armor Type: Standard (95 pts) Ferro-aluminum (143 pts) 238.50
Capital Scale Armor Pts
Location: Std L / R F-A L / R
Fore: 16 24
Fore-Left/Right: 16/16 24/24
Aft-Left/Right: 16/16 24/24
Aft: 15 23
Cargo:
Bay 1: Cargo (1) with 1 door 115.00 (124 without AM-sL)
Bay 2: SC (2), ASF (2) with 2 doors 700.00
Bay 3: Cargo (1) with 1 door 114.50 (123.5 without AM-sL)
DropShip Capacity: 6 Docking Hardpoints 6,000.00
Lithium Fusion battery system: 4,300.00
Grav Decks #1 - 2: (105-meter diameter) 200.00
Escape Pods: 5 (7 tons each) 35.00
Crew and Passengers:
6 Officers (6 minimum) 60.00
25 Crew (22 minimum) 175.00
6 Gunners (6 minimum) 42.00
14 Bay Personnel .00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
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2 Large Laser Nose 4(36) 2(16) -- -- 16 10.00
4 Medium Laser 12 4.00
6 small Laser Nose 2(18)* -- -- -- 6 3.00
2 Large Laser FL/R 4(36) 2(16) -- -- 32 20.00
4 Medium Laser 24 8.00
6 small Laser FL/R 2(18)* -- -- -- 12 6.00
2 Large Laser AL/R 4(36) 2(16) -- -- 32 20.00
4 Medium Laser 24 8.00
6 small Laser AL/R 2(18)* -- -- -- 12 6.00
2 Large Laser Aft 4(36) 2(16) -- -- 16 10.00
4 Medium Laser 12 4.00
6 small Laser Aft 2(18)* -- -- -- 6 3.00
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