It occurred to me that a repair base is likely to
have a _larger_ Boarding Factor because a repair
base has to be able to fill out crews. A lot depends on what kind of planet
the base orbits. If it orbits an aboriginal inhabited planet there is
definitely a good reason for having extra marines onboard. Ditto for a colony
world with nasty native animals. Also, if there are frequent natural disasters
think of how useful Power Armor could be in clearing debris or rescuing
survivors.
> From a purely military standpoint, since it is a lot
Under FTII I always liked the idea of boarding
pods, non-ftl escorts with a Needle beam for targetting
engines and a boarding crew as well. Once I get the FTIII book I'm going to
see what the cheapest effective boarding pod design is.
> mehawk@internetcds.com (Michael Sandy) wrote:
> It occurred to me that a repair base is likely to
I disagree. I would think that the larger crew would be primarily repair
personnell. Though that may give them alot of people standing around, I'm not
sure if that translates into effective combatants.
> If it orbits an aboriginal inhabited planet there
I don't want to come off as sarcastic here, but depending on the tech of your
aboriginals, they might not be able to make it up to the station.
I suspect that construction equipment would be more prevelent on a "disaster"
planet, which would be more efficient than PA for both cleaning and rebuilding
afterwards.
> mehawk@internetcds.com (Michael Sandy) wrote:
> >If it orbits an aboriginal inhabited planet there
Yes, and that is a good reason to have some of the planet's garrison in orbit.
Very little deters rebellion better than knowing that there are troops you
can't get at who nonetheless can get at you. Think of the effect of Norman
Castles. They deterred rebellion because even with surprise the lord was safe
in his castle until reinforcements arrived. And versus a serf rebellion you
can be sure that his neighbors would help!
> I suspect that construction equipment would be more prevelent on a
> Schoon
My interpretation of Power Armor is that they are, in effect, construction
equipment. Power Armor should be able to dig a man deep foxhole in a very
short period of time in most soil conditions. It should be useful for creating
field fortifications on short notice as well.
A space station is often a great place to reposition supplies of all kinds.
Marines, medicines, food, fuel, and the like. It is a logistical and
communications hub. Warships are not going to be loaded for every contigency
and will not want supplies for much longer than its designated cruise onboard.
Space stations are great places to load up for mission specific tasks. And
marines are typically needed only for mission specific tasks.
> mehawk@internetcds.com (Michael Sandy) wrote:
> Yes, and that is a good reason to have some of the planet's
Good point on the orbital garrison. However, that would be a fairly expensive
way to house troops. After all, all their supplies need to come out of a
gravity well.
I suspect that they would be housed seperately, meaning in an entirely
different orbital, than our proposed "small station." Icould see it on a large
station, however.
> My interpretation of Power Armor is that they are, in effect,
They may be construction equipment for military style fortifications,
foxholes, etc., but I shink they might fare rather worse in rebuilding a
reactor station cracked in an earthquake. By rebuilding, I meant more along
the lines of constructing shelters for those who've lost their homes.
Just to add my 2 cents...
The majority of Naval personnel barely know one end of a small arms weapon
from the other- its not their job. Less than 10% of a ship's company
(and I'm talking major combatants of Destroyer and Frigate sizes here) are
trained for boarding operations or landing operations- for the most part
such ops in a high threat environment would be very risky due to the amount of
continuation training and exercises these guys have to keep up their skills.
After all, a 5" gun is the best way of cowering the enemy and
getting shot at is nobody's cup of tea- If you wanted that shit you
should
have joined the Army [just sign here :-)].
Having said that, during times of conflict and when 'sent into harms way' you
could expect this situation to improve somewhat. Basic rifle skills would
probably be equivalent to Militia for around half the crew. When one addresses
the situation at a Fleet Base (read Space Station for FT now), most tecs would
be at this level too. That is, they can stand behind a barricade and shoot at
things but they will scarper rather quickly when faced with regular troops.
After all, they should have been engaged and destroyed in their transports on
the way in.
So in my long inded way what I am saying is that a small Marine/Security
force could be appropriate, but not too many as they are also protecting other
vital assests. Ships do not offload their Marine contingents until
they are required- they have many other uses. Station crews could
muster a small amount of 'fightin' boarding parties and a few more 'static'
ones.
Remember that it is a dreadful waste to have your tecs killed in a
firefight- nobody will be able to fix that combat system or do those
tricky welding jobs when the fleet arrives home from combat operations.
> mehawk@internetcds.com (Michael Sandy) wrote:
[snip]
> My interpretation of Power Armor is that they are, in effect,
I think Michael's comment about using PA for disaster rescue was more along
the lines of using it to dig/pull survivors out of rubble etc. - the
most immediate need in, say, an earthquake situtation. We have all seen the
newsreels where the rescuers have to dig people out by hand, often at
considerable risk the the rescuers themselves - I'd think a few PA suits
would make the job much quicker, easier and safer. Sending in the bulldozers
would just kill all the survivors anyway.
> Schoon
Another reason for a high boarding factor for a repair station is that
spacesuits with powered servomechanisms would be extremely useful in repairing
hull damage or in general space construction. Skill with operating powered
spacesuits would be very important to Space Marines.
Rather than have a standing Space Marine force which is idle most of the time
it would make sense to crosstrain your repair crews with equipment very
similar to what they use every day. I imagine that a repair crew 'marine'
would have less effective armor and weapons but he would have a *lot* more
time in a zero-g enviroment and more familiarity
with power equipment as well.
Those repair crew trained for power suit hull repairs might spend their
offduty time playing lasertag outside the hull, in simulation of actual
boarding situations.
In short, it is fairly easy to come up with justifications for a high Boarding
factor for a repair base, if it suits your purposes.
> Another reason for a high boarding factor for a repair
I like this idea. It keeps their zero-G proficiency up, and makes them
more valuable on the station and whatever ship they may eventually crew.
However, I doubt they would ever get near as proficient as "professional"
engineers.
[snipped rest of good arguement]
> In short, it is fairly easy to come up with justifications
Of course; we can justify anything - even our excessive lead habit ;-)
[quoted original message omitted]
> You wrote:
> Having said that, during times of conflict and when 'sent into harms
Original question was formulated because I am slowly composing a wee bit o'
fanfic set in my Rhomanoi universe about a sort of 'Trojan
Horse' maneuver--ship crippled with EMP pulse missles, and surviving
crew interrogated enough to locate the refueling base used for probes of the
sector. Captured ship is then used to insert a special forces
unit--but here I was stuck: Given station crew, how large unit needed?
Seems that probably 2 or three troops might be used (Since RL Byzantines
didn't have SOF, I'm borrowing SAS organization.;) Which
means 32-48 men). In power armor.
> Original question was formulated because I am slowly composing a wee
> Seems that probably 2 or three troops might be used (Since RL
If it's a "heartland" system, and a small station, there may be no marine
contingent. If it's a fringe system, even a small station might have a
significant marine presence. Of course, I'm not familiar with your background,
so I could be totally
off-base (no pun intended).
You might want to read "Once A Hero", by Elizabeth Moon. A raider (pirate)
group tries to take the DSR
(deep-space repair vessel) Koskiusko. It's more
a mobile repair station than a ship, and the raiders' plan, while not a Trojan
horse, is similar. (Or maybe you should finish your fanfic, then read the
book.)
- Sam
> You might want to read "Once A Hero", by Elizabeth Moon.
Another source of information/inspiration may be the Battletech book
Freebirth (or Hunters, I forget which). This book had just such an attack.
Also, you may wish to check out the Alien Resurection book. It (IIRC)
listed the number of marine forces on the research ship/base.
> On Sun, 7 Jun 1998, Samuel Reynolds wrote:
> You might want to read "Once A Hero", by Elizabeth Moon.
Was the name deliberately Finnish, or did she just pick a cool word from
a dictionary, like the recent "Masters of Teräs Käsi"?