OBT Forum

I’d like to thank DragonCat for letting me use these ships for my Hells Horse project.

Halcyon Class Assault Cruiser.

Following the general success of Project Zhukov from 2922 – 2932 the Horses were well on the way to recovery and despite the initial scorn of other Clans the Horses new tanks proved their worth when they staved off a Trial of Possession from Clan Smoke Jaguar for a year long production run of Elementals from the Niles Industrialplex.  This clash in 2925 helped validate saKhan Yana Fletcher’s vision of how his Clan would survive and grow.  Profitable trade with the Wolves and Coyotes and an inwards focus on rebuilding and surviving kept the Horses largely in the Warden political camp, but as the debates for the Invasion got more and more heated the Horses had to get involved.  There was disunity in the Clan thanks to hardcore crusaders like Galaxy Commander Malavai Fletcher and his supporters who argued that the Clans should return to the Inner Sphere.  The surprise appearance of the CVS Outbound Light was the final push the Horses needed. 

Faced with the very real threat of an attack from within the Inner Sphere and the belief that the Federated Commonwealth was going to force a false Star League upon the Inner Sphere  was intolerable and the Horses officially changed to support the Invasion.
Still, the Horses stuck by their Wolf allies and continued to build up their own forces.  This closeness with the Horses, despite their supposed Crusader leanings would earn the Horses the ‘glory’ of acting as the Reserve Clan, assigned to the Wolves invasion corridor where against the Free Rasalhague Republic it was fancied that neither Clan would cover itself in glory or win much acclaim against lesser opponents.

Despite having originated as a Clan that drew many of its members from WarShip crews, the naval forces available to Clan Hells Horses in the build up to Operation REVIVAL were actually very limited.  Their main combat vessel was the aging Lola III class destroyer whilst three huge Potemkin class Assault Ships were far too large and specialized to use and spent most of their time laid up ‘in ordinary’ maintained by skeleton crews. 
To not have to rely on these large, expensive to crew and maintain ships, the Horses instead sought to construct a new class of WarShip as well as several new DropShips that would add to the flexibility of their Tourman.

The new ship would mass 680,000 tons and would be smaller than the Aegis class, measuring 650 meters from bow to stern.  With its entirely ballistic based armament the cruiser was rather jokingly called a ‘Mini Black Lion’ and this was accurate as the ships only energy weapons was eight large pulse lasers. 
Armed with a mixture of NAC-30, 35’s and a huge heavy naval gauss rifle the new Halcyon class packed a heavy punch although there was questions about the inclusion of the Naval gauss rifle in the bow.  Still it did give the ship a hard hitting long range punch. 

A significant point defence battery focused around missile launchers and LB-10 autocannons was also fitted as well as the aforementioned large pulse lasers.  But the ships main role was not to destroy hostile WarShips but to push them aside so it could land its sizable compliment of Mechs and ground forces.
Like the much larger Nightlord class the Halcyon was designed to deploy Mech’s from low orbit onto a hostile world.  It also had a large number of the brand new Pellican class transport ships that could carry any of the Horses tanks in shielded cocoons. A single Halcyon can carry a full strength Cluster including 15 Mechs, 30 tanks and 75 Elementals using its orbital drop pods and shuttles.  Three DropShip Collars also allowed the cruiser to carry either the new Median, Tantalus or Kushan class DropShips as well as any other DropShip in the Horse’s inventory.  Allowing it to deploy even more forces.  For self defence and attack the Halcyon also carries a single Star of fighters, but it can swap out its small craft for this role if needed allowing it to carry a pair of Binaries if needs be (40 craft).

The Halcyon also boasts a huge number of marines carried onboard, with quarters for up to 275 in total, and these are not Elementals but normal infantry, although they would often be equipped with the Slepnir PA(L) armour if the ship was expected to see boarding action.  These marines through sheer numbers and by dint of their superior training could defend against all but the heaviest boarding attack and could overwhelm orbital facilities or even carry out successful boarding actions against other ships.

Unfortunately to fit this firepower as well as heavy armour on a sturdy hull, the Halcyon is slow and can only match the old Aegis class ship in terms of thrust performance.  Cargo space is also at a premium with just over 77,500 tons of cargo carried and the crew quarters are quite spartan and cramped but 3 100 meter grav-decks do make deployments more comfortable. 

Three ships would enter service with the Hells Horses prior to Operation REVIVAL, the CHH Pillar of Autumn, CHH Spirit of Fire and CHH Forward Unto Dawn, the fourth vessel the CHH Unto the Breach would enter service in 3052 and would carry elements of the Horses to Tukkayid along with her sister ships before assisting with the withdrawl of Horse and Wolf forces from the world following the battle’s conclusion.
Armament
1 x Naval Gauss Rifle Heavy
4 x Naval AC 35
28 x Naval AC 30
8 x Laser Large Pulse (C)
40 x LRM 15+Art4 (C)
16 x AC 10 LB-X (C)
33 x AMS (C)

Aerospace compliment

10 x Fighters
30 x Small Craft
3 x DropShip Collars

Additional capacity

15 x Mechs
30 x Heavy vehicles
75 x Elementals

Class/Model/Name: Halcyon Class Assault Cruiser
Tech: Clan
Ship Cost: $19,382,084,800.00
Magazine Cost: $146,780,000.00
BV2: 101,570

Mass: 680,000
K-F Drive System: Compact with L-F Battery
Power Plant: Maneuvering Drive

Safe Thrust: 2
Maximum Thrust: 3

Armor Type: Lamellor Ferro-Carbide

Armament:
1 Naval Gauss Rifle Heavy
4 Naval AC 35
28 Naval AC 30
4 Laser Large Pulse (C)
40 LRM 15+Art4 (C)
16 AC 10 LB-X (C)
33 AMS (C)

Class/Model/Name: Halcyon Class Assault Cruiser

Mass: 680,000

Equipment: Mass

Drive: 81,600.00
Thrust
Safe: 2
Maximum: 3

Controls: 1,700.00
K-F Hyperdrive: Compact with L-F Battery (15 Integrity) 314,500.00
Jump Sail: (5 Integrity) 64.00

Structural Integrity: 80 54,400.00

Total Heat Sinks: 1626(3252) Double 1,178.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 12500 points 5,100.00

Fire Control Computers: 0.00

Armor: 792 pts Lamellor Ferro-Carbide 676.00

Fore: 134
Fore-Left/Right: 133/133
Aft-Left/Right: 131/131
Aft: 130

Dropship Capacity: 3 3,000.00
Grav Decks:
Small: 3 150.00

Escape Pods: 50 350.00
Life Boats: 50 350.00

Crew And Passengers:
40 Officers in 2nd Class Quarters 280.00
141 Crew in Steerage Quarters 705.00
53 Gunners and Others in Steerage Quarters 265.00
530 Bay Personnel 0.00
275 Steerage Passengers 1,375.00



# Weapons Loc Heat Damage Range Mass
1 Naval Gauss Rifle Heavy Nose 18 300 (30-C) Extreme-C 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 35 Nose 240 700 (70-C) 8,000.00
2 Naval AC 35 Nose 240 700 (70-C) 8,000.00
2 Laser Large Pulse (C) Nose 20 20 (2-C) 12.00
5 AMS (C) Nose 5 15 (1.5-C) 2.50

2 Naval AC 30 FL 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 FL 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
10 LRM 15+Art4 (C) FL 50 120 (12-C) 45.00
2 AC 10 LB-X (C) FL 4 12 (1.2-C) 20.00
4 AMS (C) FL 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

2 Naval AC 30 FR 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 FR 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
10 LRM 15+Art4 (C) FR 50 120 (12-C) 45.00
2 AC 10 LB-X (C) FR 4 12 (1.2-C) 20.00
4 AMS (C) FR 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

2 Naval AC 30 LBS 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 LBS 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
4 AC 10 LB-X (C) LBS 8 24 (2.4-C) 40.00
4 AMS (C) LBS 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

2 Naval AC 30 RBS 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 RBS 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
4 AC 10 LB-X (C) RBS 8 24 (2.4-C) 40.00
4 AMS (C) RBS 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

2 Naval AC 30 AL 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 AL 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
10 LRM 15+Art4 (C) AL 50 120 (12-C) 45.00
2 AC 10 LB-X (C) AL 4 12 (1.2-C) 20.00
4 AMS (C) AL 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

2 Naval AC 30 AR 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 AR 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
10 LRM 15+Art4 (C) AR 50 120 (12-C) 45.00
2 AC 10 LB-X (C) AR 4 12 (1.2-C) 20.00
4 AMS (C) AR 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

2 Naval AC 30 Aft 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Naval AC 30 Aft 200 600 (60-C) 7,000.00
2 Laser Large Pulse (C) Aft 20 20 (2-C) 12.00
4 AMS (C) Aft 4 12 (1.2-C) 2.00

Aerospace/Troop compliment

10 x Aerospace fighter (4 doors)
30 x Small Craft (4 doors)
30 x Heavy Combat Vehicles
15 x OmniMechs (2 doors)
15 x Battle Armour Points (125 in total - 2 doors)

Cargo - 77,562 tons (1 door)

Ammo Rounds Mass
Naval Gauss Rifle Heavy Ammo 100 50.00
Naval AC 35 Ammo 200 200.00
Naval AC 30 Ammo 1400 1400.00
LRM 15+Art4 (C) Ammo 25600 320.00
AC 10 LB-X (C) Ammo 640 64.00
AMS (C) Ammo 19200 645.00

Pallas Class transport shuttle.

Developed as part of the Halcyon project the Pallas class Shuttle is designed to be a troop and vehicle carrier whilst having armament to support its forces on the ground and help clear a landing zone. 

Able to carry up to 25 Elementals onboard as well as having hook up points for orbital cocoons that can be fitted around any tank up to 100 tons the Pallas is built to get down quickly and deploy its cargo into or near the combat zone.  This saves the vehicles from having to be offloaded from a DropShip and allows them to get into combat quicker. 
Whilst not too heavily armoured the Pallas can take moderate damage but it does require escorts as it is only armed for self defence and engaging forces trying to attack a Landing zone.  A pair of Streak SRM-6’s and medium pulse lasers give the DropShip its main punch although some craft do replace the Medium pulse lasers with small pulse lasers for anti-infantry firepower. 
Initially only built for the Halcyon class the Pallas would start entering service on other Horse WarShips as well as Clusters quickly becoming the Clan’s prime mover of heavy combat equipment.  Other Clans would trial for the Craft and several variants, including ones that sacrifice their troop carrying capacity for additional cargo as well as ‘gunship’ models would also be produced and see service across Clan space.

Pallas Class Landing Craft
Base Tech Level: Standard (Clan)
Level          Era
-------------------
Experimental    - 
Advanced        - 
Standard      3145+
Tech Rating: F/X-X-X-D

Weight: 200 tons
BV: 1,155
Cost: 11,678,770 C-bills

Movement: 5/8
Heat Sinks: 10 [20]
Fuel Points: 0/1080 (13.5 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84

Structural Integrity: 8
Armor: 188 (Ferro-Aluminum)
            Armor 
-------------------
Nose           53 
Left Side      45 
Right Side     45 
Aft            45 

Weapons             Loc  Heat 
-------------------------------
Medium Pulse Laser  NOS    4   
Medium Pulse Laser  NOS    4   
Streak SRM 6         LS    4   
Streak SRM 6         RS    4   

Ammo               Loc  Shots 
-------------------------------
Streak SRM 6 Ammo   LS     15 
Streak SRM 6 Ammo   RS     15 



Carrying Capacity
-----------------
Battle Armor Bay (1 door) - 5 Points
Cargo Space (1 door) - 7 tons


Crew                 
----------------------
Officers             0
Enlisted/Non-rated   3
Gunners              1
Bay Personnel       30



Tartar Class DropShip

With Project Zhukov well underway, the Horses had to turn to their naval capabilities.  Never the strongest arm of the Touman, the Horses used a mixture of Broadsword, Union C and Overlord C's as their main transports.  But, with the emphasis shifting back to a true combined arms doctrine and the wider deployment of Nova's these DropShips proved less than ideal.  The Horses had often just resorted to configuring ships as needed, but this was slow and resource intensive and far from ideal as conversions would require extensive reworking of a ships interior whilst trying to minimise the effects on its centre of gravity which if thrown off, could prove catastrophic in an atmosphere. 

Although at the time it was considered a bold step, the design of a new DropShip was put fowards to help carry Hell's Horses formations into battle safely.  But to carry a suitable number of Mech's and tanks to fit the new Nova standards would require a larger DropShip, although not going into the realm of the Overlord-C in terms of weight. 

Inspiration came from two sources, one, the common Triumph class that had been used by the SLDF although it had long since fallen out of favour with the Clans owing to its primary role as a tank and infantry carrier.  The other source was far more surprising.  The Pueblo class DropShip had been one of the crown jewels of the SLDF and Terran Hegemony's intelligence departments but the class had suffered in the Armaris civil war, with the survivors taken by the SLDF into Exodus.  The Pentagon Civil War and the birth of the Clans had seen the classes numbers diminish even further as the ships were either destroyed or gutted and scrapped for parts and equipment, their numbers dwindling until barely a dozen remained. 
Four of these ships were still held in the Hell's Horses naval cache, long since stripped of many of their components, their hulls empty and open to space, but they served as useful design information for large aerodyne hull designs that would be used in the new DropShip.  It was felt that an aerodyne could defend itself better with its agility and would present a smaller target than the large Spheroid hulls of other DropShips. 


What slowly took shape and finally launched in 3000 was as one Inner Sphere pilot commented "The bastard offspring of a Triumph and a DroST" in terms of looks and capabilities although it also had the Pueblo's huge delta wings mounted high up on the hull for maximum lift and to give the most internal room for its cargo.  The craft's body was dominated by its cargo bay, capable of carrying a full combined arms Binary Nova of 10 Mechs, 20 tanks and 50 Elementals.  This large bay was split down the middle by a cargo bay which could take over 480 tons of munitions, spare parts and equipment for the embarked forces. 

The tanks and Mechs could disembark from either the large bow doors or through the side although tanks had to use the bow doors until the Mech's had disembarked.  The cockpit section jutted over the bow of the ship, giving the most room possible for the embarked troops to be able to get off as quickly as possible.
Every effort went into saving room and freeing up space and this meant that the Tartar class DropShip as they were called were horribly cramped affairs. 
The armament was simple but effective with lasers, particle cannons and missiles placed across the hull and wings to provide good all-round fire and there was even bunks for up to 5 Marines who helped secure the bridge section of the ship and were often older Elementals that many Clans would consider Solhama personnel.  As fast in an atmosphere or space as a Union-C the Tartar was heavily protected with layers of Ferro-Aluminuium providing protection that came close to that of the larger Overlord-C.

One thing about their design was that the layout of the troop and vehicle bay was integral to the hull, and it could not be easily altered although some Tartar's did carry full loads of cargo instead of Mech's and tanks several times.  This specalized nature saved the class from being the subject of many Trials.  Most other Clans barely considered using vehicles in any meaningful way beyond defensive roles and even those that didn't would not look at tanks in the same light as the Hell's Horses did.  And with their layout being largely fixed, the Tartar could not be converted into other roles like a pure Mech carrier easily or quickly.  Making the conversion both time consuming and resource intensive enough to, in most Clans eyes, not be worth the effort.  So, unlike the Zenith class Elemental Transport, the Tartar was seen very rarely outside of the Horses Touman.  It wasn't until 3058 that a variant of the Tartar was completed by another Clan, stripping out its troop capacity and reducing the cargo to allow it to carry and launch a Binary of fighters (20 craft), allowing it to operate as a medium carrier, fitting into the space between the Carrier and Titan/Miraborg classes.


Tartar  DropShip
Base Tech Level: Standard (Clan)
Level          Era
-------------------
Experimental    - 
Advanced        - 
Standard      3071+
Tech Rating: F/X-X-E-E

Weight: 8200 tons
BV: 10,738
Cost: 662,040,000 C-bills

Movement: 4/6
Heat Sinks: 200 [400]
Fuel Points: 9000 (300.0 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84

Structural Integrity: 20
Armor: 1191 (Ferro-Aluminum)
            Armor 
-------------------
Nose          341 
Left Side     287 
Right Side    287 
Aft           276 

Weapons                             Loc  Heat 
-----------------------------------------------
PPC Bay                             NOS   30   
ER PPC                                         
ER PPC                                         

LRM Bay                             NOS   15   
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15 (Clan) Artemis-capable Ammo  120
       
Laser Bay                           NOS   34   
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                               
 
AMS Bay                             NOS    2   
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System Ammo [Clan]      72 
     
PPC Bay                              RS   45   
ER PPC                                         
ER PPC                                         
ER PPC                                         

LRM Bay                              RS   10   
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15 (Clan) Artemis-capable Ammo   80 
     
Laser Bay                            RS   44   
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                               
 
AMS Bay                              RS    2   
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System Ammo [Clan]      72 
     
PPC Bay                              LS   45   
ER PPC                                         
ER PPC                                         
ER PPC                                         

LRM Bay                              LS   10   
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15 (Clan) Artemis-capable Ammo   80   
   
Laser Bay                            LS   44   
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                             
   
AMS Bay                              LS    2   
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System Ammo [Clan]      72 
     
PPC Bay                             AFT   30   
ER PPC                                         
ER PPC                                         

LRM Bay                             AFT   10   
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15                                         
LRM 15 (Clan) Artemis-capable Ammo   80 
     
Laser Bay                           AFT   34   
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Large Laser                                 
ER Medium Laser                               
ER Medium Laser                             
 
AMS Bay                             AFT    2   
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System                           
Anti-Missile System Ammo [Clan]      72       


Equipment       Loc 
---------------------
Artemis IV FCS  NOS 
Artemis IV FCS  NOS 
Artemis IV FCS  NOS 
Artemis IV FCS   RS 
Artemis IV FCS   RS 
Artemis IV FCS   LS 
Artemis IV FCS   LS 
Artemis IV FCS  AFT 
Artemis IV FCS  AFT 

Carrying Capacity
-----------------
Heavy Vehicle Bay (2 doors) - 20 units
Mech (2 doors) - 10 units
Battle Armor Bay (2 doors) - 10 Points
Cargo Space (1 door) - 484 tons

Crew                   
-----------------------
Officers              5
Enlisted/Non-rated   11
Gunners               7
Bay Personnel       240
Marines               5


Quirks
------
Atmospheric Flyer<br/>
Improved Communications



With regards to vehicle construction its converting other production sites into them, cancelling things like the Oro etc and using the lines that made them to make the new kit.

With regards to the Dropships, i'm not sure.  But I have thought of 2 options

1 - Produce them on the ground (hence the aerodynes)

2 - Get help from another clan, sharing the design with them but converting it to be more traditional for the other Clans use.