In my capacity as a systems technician at my world's nadir point space station, I have seen many different types of vessels come and go. Once a convoy of Wolf's Dragoons came by, escorted by several of their Star League era warships. But this day, I saw one of the most unusual vessels that I had ever seen appear. This JumpShip carried four DropShips including two Mules, a Seeker, and an unfamiliar small spheroid type DropShip. Several aerospace fighters from the JumpShip escorted it while one of the Mules detached itself and accelerated towards the planet. The JumpShip was studded with weapons mounts full of lasers, missiles, and PPCs, as well as other weapons that I could not readily identify. I also saw some indications of recent battle damage on the arriving JumpShip's hull. That was unusual because of the general prohibition on attacking JumpShips. After docking, several of the JumpShip's crew came aboard the station for some R&R. I quickly learned that the JumpShip belonged to TekTeam, and was enroute to their home base in the St Ives Compact after assisting Federated Commonwealth forces in operations against the Clans. I asked one of the crew about how they managed to acquire such a unique vessel. She said that TekTeam had several years ago utilized a Scout class JumpShip as its interstellar transport. During salvage operations in a planetoid belt near the Rimward edge of the Inner Sphere, an anomalous sensor reading led them to a remote, densely packed section of the planetoid belt. TekTeam found a large, heavily damaged JumpShip with a single small s heroid DropShip attached. With the exception of a single Elown hatch, the DropShip was totally undamaged. TekTeam's DropShip moved in closelyto land a boarding party on the mystery JumpShip. TekTeam's salvage team found major damage to the JumpShip's weapons, maneuver drive, fuel tanks, and Jump sail. The salvage team also found many bodies in the JumpShip, both in and out of spacesuits. When the DropShip was searched, while a large amount of equipment was discovered, only a few bodies were found, mostly in the areas furthest from the blown hatch. It was only after TekTeam's salvage crew examined the computer logs of both the JumpShip and DropShip that they discovered what had happened. The JumpShip had been the Amaris Star, in the service of the Rim World Republic Navy. She had been transporting assault DropShips during operations against Star League force opposing Stefan Amaris. The Amaris Star and her supporting vessels were ambushed by Star League warships nearthe planetoid belt. Her DropShips and fighters annihilated, her weapons shattered, and her drives heavily damaged, the Amaris Star limped into the planetoid belt. The drives suffered a final breakdown as their power plant failed due to lack of fuel. The Amaris Star's crew prepared a lethal surprise for the Confederate class DropShip which was weaving among the planetoids in order to board their ship. After the surviving crew members donned spacesuits, they filled the interior with lethal nerve gas at many times the Ju mpShip's normal atmospheric pressure. Unfortunately for the crew of the Amaris Star, they used too much pressure. The gas also penetrated their own suits, with deadly results. When the Star League DropShip attached itself to one of the Amaris Star'sdocking rings and opened the airlock, the gas rushed inside, killing the entire crew. Only the dying efforts of a crewman to blow open a hatch allowed the gas to escape both vessels. Apparently, the other Star League vessels had presumed that both vessels had been lost in the planetoid belt and abandoned any search. TekTeam's personnel found treasure on the DropShip: a lance of advanced Star League era BattleMechs and a lance of modified Kanga hover/jumptanks aswell as a large amount of supplies and spare parts. After towing the two vessels out of the planetoid belt, TekTeam performed some hasty repairs, charged the Amaris Star's K-F drive from the Mule's fusion engine, and Jumped out of the system along with their scout class JumpShip. Both JumpShips traveled out to the Periphery system where certain Belt Pirates who owed them a favor had a base. TekTeam had to seek assistance in repairing their new discoveries. At first, the Belt Pirates only were interested in trading for the Amaris Star. After some detailed negotiations, the Belt Pirates agreed to refit the Amaris Star, rearm the weapons stations to the extent possible, using available weapons, and even to provide several salvaged Aerospace fighters in exchange for the Scout class JumpShip that TekTeam had been using - and the complete technical data on Star League era JumpShipsthat the Amaris Starhad in her data banks. TekTeam renamed their new JumpShip the Lorelei's Hope; they now had a heavily armed JumpShip capable of carrying four DropShips and sixteen small craft, with several large cargo holds left in reserve. I asked the crew member from Lorelei's Hope about the damage on the JumpShip's hull. She said that after the Lorelei's Hope was returned to service, TekTeam participated in numerous operations throughout the InnerSphere. While lacking the large advanced weapons that the Amaris Star had carried during the Star League era, the Lorelei's Hope utilized much of the Amaris Star's available weapons systems space to mount the formidable array of weapons that saved her during one of their recent encounters with the Clans. While assisting with the evacuation of Sudeten during the Jade Flacon attack, the Lorelei's Hope was approached by Clan OmniFighters. They examined the exterior of the Lorelei's Hope, identifying it as having belonged to the Amaris forces, which the Star League Defense Force practically bled itself white fighting. They immediately attacked the Lorelei's Hope just after she had locked down the last DropShip of refugees. The Lorelei's Hope's heavy defensive batteries held off the Jade Falcon OmniFighters just long enough to jump out of system before Clans assault DropShips could get into firing range. She was certain that Clan Jade Falcon has sworn to destroy Lorelei's Hope in order to eliminate a remnant of the cursed Amaris legacy. The Amaris Star was a combat transport of the Royalty class. It was based on the highly successful Invader class JumpShip, but was larger, carrying an additional DropShip, had an organic complement of over a dozen AeroSpace fighters and other small craft. There were major changes in design. The Royalty class JumpShips were designed with sufficient armament to defend themselves against AeroSpace fighter attack as well as limited attacks by opposing DropShips. The vessel had superior speed and protection to the Invader class JumpShip, but was in noway a match for any of the Star League's combat JumpShips. While the Royalty class JumpShip is capable of over 0.8 G acceleration, any acceleration of over 0.4 G uses an excessive amount of the vessel's limited fuel supply. What happened to the Amaris Star was a good example of this. After sustaining damage to several of her fuel tanks, as well as her maneuvering drives, she ran out of fuel after maneuvering into the planetoid belt where she was later found. Her last remnants of fuel were used to stop her within the planetoid belt before she could collide with one of the large chunks of rock. The Amaris Star had dual Barracuda missile launch systems as well as several lasers in its bow. Covering the left and right flanks of both the command and engine sections are turrets mounting a pair of ballistic weapons covering both long and short ranges in addition to a number of energy weapons. One combination would be a Gauss Rifle, an SRM-6 with Artemis IV FCS, and a large pulse laser. A less sophisticated weapons mount combination would have an A/C 20, an A/C 5, a PPC, and four medium lasers. TekTearn has mounted various autocannons in the turret mounts. The Barracuda missile systems were replaced by an A/C 20, two LRM-20s, and six medium lasers. As supplies of Star League design weapons become available, TekTearn plans on retrofitting such advanced systems into the weapons systems of the Lorelei's Hope. Already, the nose and aft arcs have anti-missile systems covering them. The bow A/C 20 has also been replaced by a Gauss Rifle. The electronic equipment suite has also been improved by the addition of a Beagle Active Probe and the fitting of a Guardian ECM package. The original station keeping/maneuver drive was replaced by a variation of the Sunburst M220L drive used by the Star Lord class JumpShip. Currently, TekTeam is looking for additional recovered technology equipment to retrofit to the Lorelei's Hope hoping to include a Lithium-Fusion Battery and captu~ed ~ilan equipment. TekTeam is also actively recruiting for additional AeroSpace fighters and pilots to fill combat losses as well as to bring the AeroSpace fighter complement up to full strength. Unfortunately, TekTeam has not been able to procure the services of an assault DropShip like an Achilles or an Avenger to carry as additional fire support during sorties into Clan-occupied space. Lorelei's Hope (formerly the Amaris Star) variant on the Royalty Class JumpShip Tonnage: 210,000 Dimensions: Length: 600 meters Sail Diameter: 1140 meters Crew: 32 crew, 16 small craft pilots DropShip Capacity: 4 Small Craft Capacity: 16 Drive System: K- F Mark VIII-A First Introduced: 2695 Frequency of Sighting: Unique Lorelei's Hope Tons K-F Drive Integrity: 5160,000 Energy Collector Sail Integrity: 4 60 Maneuver Drive: 1.0 G13,500 Docking Hard Points: 44,000 Small Craft Cubicles: 162,400 Small Craft Bay Doors: 4 0 Grav Deck: 1 100 Fuel (1 Thrust Point/ton): 500 500 Consumption: 39.52 tons/burn-day Bridge: 383 Heat Sinks: 250 130 Armor Factor (8 points/ton): 800 100 Command Section Nose 120 Right Side 100 Left Side 100 Cargo Section Right Side 100 Left Side 100 Engine Section Right Side 100 Left Side 100 Engine 80 Armament: 1 x Gauss Rifle 5 x LRM- 20 4 x A/C-20 4 x A/C-5 3 x Large Lasers 4 x PPC 34 x Medium Lasers 3 x Anti- Missile Systems (AMS) Armament Dispositions; (Fire Factor) Command Section: Nose: 2 x LRM-20, 1 x Gauss Rifle, 6 x Medium Lasers, 1 x AMS (7) Right Side: 1 x A/C-5, 1 x A/C-20, 1 x PPC, 4 x Medium Lasers (7) Left Side: 1 x A/C-5, 1 x A/C-20, 1 x PPC, 4 x Medium Lasers (7) Cargo Section: Right Side: 1 x LRM-20, 1 x Large Laser, 4 x Medium Lasers (4) Left Side: 1 x LRM-20, 1 x Large Laser, 4 x Medium Lasers (4) Engine Section: Right Side: 1 x A/C-5. 1 x A/C-20, 1 x PPC, 4 x Medium Lasers, 1 x AMS (6) Left Side: 1 x A/C-5, 1 x A/C-20, 1 x PPC, 4 x Medium Lasers, 1 x AMS (6) Engine: 1 x LRM-20, 1 x Large Laser, 4 x Medium Lasers (4) Other Equipment: 1 x Beagle Probe, Guardian ECM Back to BattleTechnology 20 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Pacific Rim Publishing. 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