Re: aliens conversion

Someone wrote:
>The following is my attempt at converting the source material given in
the
>Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual into vehicles with Full Thrust
>and Dirtside Statistics.  I dont have Stargrunt II, which these would
>probably work best with, so Ill leave it to someone else to work out
those
>stats.  
>
>ALIENS COLONIAL MARINES FOR FULL THRUST AND DIRTSIDE II 

>UD-4L Cheyenne Utility Dropship
>
>	"Fact: the Cheyenne handles like a cow.  If its carrying a load,
>make that a drunken cow.  Listen up kiddies; these are righteous words
I
>speak.  Do no, I repeat do NOT get into a dogfight with one of these
>babies, cuz you will BURN!  You are not Cool Jo or Panda from No Guts,
No
>Glory and unlike the teevee shows you watched as little boys and girls,
>popping the airbrakes and throwing the nozzles forward NEVER EVER
causes
>the enemy fighter to overshoot into your guns!  If an enemy air threat
>appears, there are two sensible reactions: Run, which is good; or Hide,
>which is almost as good.  Anyone who tries to fight back is a dumb
>conehead who will burn in Marine Hell for wasting a perfectly good
>dropship.  Any questions?"
>
>OVERSIZED vehicle (class 6), VTOL mobility, FGP
>power, Armour 2 1 x SLAM/3 in Fixed-Mount with SUPERIOR FireCon, 1 x
GMS/L
>w/ SUPERIOR Guidance SUPERIOR ECM, 2 x FireCon, STEALTH-1, capacity for
1
>Size 3 Vehicle or 6 Infantry Fire Teams.  Basic Signature 6, Effective
>Signature 5 (D4) POINTS:  554
>
>	Logic:	This is a hulking beast of a VTOL that serves in Full
>Thrust as a dropship.	Even at Size 6, I had to get rid of its
>chin-mounted auto-cannon and degrade its air-to-ground missiles to
GMS/Ls
>in order to account for the unguided rockets--the SLAM system.  Its
>supposed to make an attempt at stealth, though how could you really
hide
>this monster?	

>USS Sulaco, Conestoga Class Light Assault Battleship
>MASS 40, 20 damage points, thrust rating 4.  Fitted
>with SUPERIOR sensors, ECM Systems, Planetary Bombardment System, 2 x
>Missiles, 6 x Class 1 Railguns (2 x forward, 2 x port, 2 x starboard),
>Size 3 Hangar Bay (containing 2 x UD-4L Dropships) 350 POINTS COST 
>
>160 CS
>for its MARINE DETACHMENT, Usually the Following:  2 x M577A Armored
>Personel Carriers (24 CS) Command Team (Lieutenant, Android) (2 CS) 2 x
>Dropship Crew (2 Pilots, 2 WO) (4 CS) 2 x APC Crew (2 Drivers, 2 Serge)
(4
>CS) 4 x Infantry Teams (12 Rifle,4 MG) (16 CS) 2 x UD-4L Dropships (in
>Hangar Bay) (Hangar Bay) TOTAL:  50 Cargo Space Capacity Note that all
>these personel are stored in Cyrogenic chambers (due to the technology
of
>the Sulacos FTL drive all crew members have to travel in Cyrogenic
>chambers to avoid pre-mature aging).  As such, up to 110 more Cargo
Space
>can be filled for combat missions.  These might include 2 more APCs, 4
>more Infantry Teams, a Platoon (4) of M22 Light Tanks, and the personel
to
>go with them. 
>
>	Logic:	The book describes the lasers and particle beams as
merely
>sensor-destroying systems, so I gave it ECM.  Though its supposed to
have
>8 missiles, to cut down mass constraints I assumed these were fired in
4-
>missile salvos (the book /does/ describe missiles launched from
dirtside 
>at space targets in salvos), so its only got 2 salvos.  Its got two 
>turret-mounted
>railguns, which are a no-no in Full Thrust, so to account for the
turrets
>I gave it two railguns into each arc.	Its definitely a military ship
>rather than a merchant one, so although it has a hangar with
drop-capable
>interface craft, it is only able to drop its marine contingent. 
>Considering its personel are all transported in cyrosleep, however, it
can
>transport a lot of troops--pretty close to the 90 described in the book

>plus some vehicles. I costed it at 18 points extra to account for the
cyro 
>chambers. 

I've seen the Sulaco listed as everything from a frigate to a cruiser,
now a
battleship? ;) Here's some specs on the Sulaco and Cheyenne from sources
that I found more closely related to the Aliens film:

Listing codes:

Each weapon system is listed with the following codes to identify the
number
of weapons and their respective firing arcs:

(<Firing_Arc>:<Number_of_Emplacements>)

where,

Firing arcs:
F=forward arc 180 degrees
P=port arc 180 degrees
S=starboard arc 180 degrees
R=rear arc 180 degrees

Other abbreviations:

MeV=Million electron volt(s)
Mw=Megawatt(s)
Tw=Terrawatt(s)

************************************************************************
********
SHIP: U.S.S Sulaco
TYPE: Light Assault Transport
CLASS: Conestoga
-BUILT: 36
-IN SERVICE: 27
MASS: 78,000 tons
POWERPLANT: Westinghouse A-59 Fusion Reactor generating 3.6Tw.
AUX. POWER: Four General Electric AS-4B and AV-5 series MHD Turbines
generating between 120Mw and 500Mw each.
MANEUVER DRIVE: Four Gates-Heidmann GF-240 rocket motors generating
thrust
in excess of 35,100 tons each.
FTL DRIVE: Romberg-Rockwell Cygnus 5 Tachyon Shunt capable of sustaining
a
high cruising speed of over 3.28 parsecs per side real day.
ARMOR: Bonded alloy and composite structure with single armored skin
consisting of a laminated shell of insulators, alloy micrometereorite
shielding, composite armor protection and aerogel layers.
CARGO CAPACITY: 1.26 million cubic meters.
CARRIED CRAFT:
-EMERGENCY ESCAPE VEHICLES(EEV): 20
WEAPONS:
-MAIN: Two 800 MeV turboalternator powered neutral particle beam
accelerators; (F:2); Range: 100,000km
-SECONDARY: Dorsal and ventral turret railgun launchers firing kinetic
rounds at velocities of 10km/sec.  The railguns are inaccurate at long
range, but are considered the most powerful close defense weapon on the
ship; (FPSR:2); Range:? 
-POINT DEFENSE: Port and starboard turrets mounting 87 Mw free-electron
lasers; (FPR:1, FSR:1); Range:? 
-ORDNANCE: 
*Eight ASAT missiles in dorsal launch bay; Range:? 
*Ventral dispenser with 60 orbital fragmentation mines; Range:? 
*Main forward magazine storing 80 free-fall guided re-entry vehicles
(RVs)
for orbital bombardment.  RVs are capable of carrying warheads from
bunker-busting to HE and nuclear as well as decoys.; Range:? 
-COUNTERMEASURES: Aft bay housing 20 decoy ballutes and two maneuvering
decoy drones.; Range:? 
SENSORS: 
-PASSIVE: Two optical and two infra-red telescopes; 60m planar radio
telescope array and backup 20m array.
-ACTIVE: Two main radomes mounting centrimetric wave radar for
navigation
and search; Five millimetric wave radar antennae mounted along the
length of
the ship for target tracking; Dorsal antenna mounting a mass counter for
FTL
travel and a 64m hyperstate antenna for FTL communications; Secondary
16m
antenna and a battery of microwave relays for in-system communications;
Low-band transmission receivers for monitoring/interception of surface
communications.

NOTES:	Conestogas are designed with a high degree of autonomy to
operate
effectively when far from friendly ships.  This class has been in
existence
for nearly 20 years.

************************************************************************
********
CRAFT: UD-4L Cheyenne
TYPE: Utility Dropship
MASS:
-LIGHT: 18,620kg
-LOADED: 34,628kg
POWERPLANT: 2 General Dynamics TF-900 Turbines rated each at 310kN
thrust.
PERFORMANCE:
-MAX ACCEL: 3.33g (loaded); 1.79g (fully loaded)
PAYLOAD:
-PAYLOAD CAPACITY: 324 cubic meters
-LIFTING CAPACITY: 16,000kg
CREW: 2
SENSORS: Radar, optical, thermal, laser sensing arrays, and a
communications
datalink.
WEAPONS:
-20mm Gatling cannon (caseless) with 2,000 rounds.
-Two main folding weapons bays carrying 16 150mm unguided rockets each.
-Two secondary weapons bays with 12 hardpoints each capable of carrying
air-to-air/air-to-surface missiles
COUNTERMEASURES:
-ECM: ALQ-2004V multimode deception/barrage jammer.
-DECOYS: Stern mounted dispensers for chaff, flares, and mini-jammers.

************************************************************************
********

Mike Miserendino