Conquer ST Earth... with... BT!

[Jedi Master Spock]

You have the resources of the BattleTech Star League at its height to throw a military expedition through time and space to the Trekverse shortly after the launch of the NX-01 Enterprise. It's a one way trip; you have to gather the fleet in one location and then launch.

Your mission is to become the lord of Earth and, by extension, most of humanity.

Your resources include anything the Star League can gather and fit in up to one hundred jump-capable ships with three months of lead time - you have your pick of talent and technology. The expedition will emerge from the portal in an uninhabited segment of space about 20 light years from Earth.

[l33telboi]

Well, I suppose the obvious first question would be: "What do Star League era capitalships look like?"

[Airlocke_Jedi_Knight]

Well, I think the first question should be "What is Battletech?" and "what is Star League?"

[Jedi Master Spock]

Well, I suppose the obvious first question would be: "What do Star League era capitalships look like?"

They look like this. As far as what the Star League is, this. In the history of the BT universe, the Star League ruled practically all of humanity for a couple centuries in a golden age, then fell, and things went into a downward spiral for something like three hundred years. That's where the BT story starts. Periodically "lostech" from the Star League shows up - stuff like good medical technology, decent computers, et cetera.

As far as specifications, I believe they have several gravities' maximum acceleration, make instantaneous "jumps" of up to 30 light years with a recharge time of somewhere on the order of a day. BT is fusion-based, but jump-capable ships also use giant solar collectors for some reason.

They have "Weberfoam" like densities according to some descriptions. Civilian jump-capable ships top out at 380,000 tons and 750m (Monolith) and the military ships go up to 1.9 million tons and 1400m long (McKenna). No shields; nukes, sometimes, and a variety of other weapons.

They can't land, but can tow a number of secondary craft that can, called drop-ships. Civilian drop-ships mass up to 100,000 tons, and the military ones get up to 20,000 tons.

[ILikeDeathNote]

Periodically "lostech" from the Star League shows up - stuff like good medical technology, decent computers, et cetera.

But the "lostech" people are most interested in are weapons tech - lasers that pack a bigger punch and longer range, or missiles with better tracking ability. Most commonly found in "Fortress Brians," massive underground armories named after the commander that invented them. But what's even better is Clanner tech, which is an outright improvement on Star League tech and is still in production. But none of that's important here.


The key to becoming Lord of Earth is to land your forces on the ground. We haven't seen much of Trek forces, but, ummm...yeah. At least BattleMechs can literally walk over them. Umm, that's all I have to say.

[Trinoya]

The campaign will meet with early success and than total stagnation. The Enterprise will briefly return home only to be overwhelmed. It will regroup with surviving federation ships most likely somewhere around mars and head to Vulcan, about a four 1/2 day trip. That is, of course, assuming they can't just send a message.

Vulcan will send reinforcements to earth which will most likely arrive slightly faster (3 1/2 days most likely)... even if we assume high end and the need to hand deliver the message to Vulcan, were getting around 10 days max.

So, you have 10 days, best case, to fully conquer and secure earth... I don't think it can be done. The transporter will also be an interesting factor, although I foresee it being used in more of a, "disable that mech by killing its pilot" capacity.

Honestly, once the Vulcans show up, it's over... don't get me wrong, earth won't soon forget it, and the battle won't just be over in mere seconds, but both sides will see the inevitable defeat/victory coming a mile away. A smart commander would surrender at that point rather than have his men die for no good reason...

It'd also be interesting to see how the SL would react to aliens...

Addendum: On a pure side note: Warp strafing is the primary deciding factor...

[The Corporal]

Aren't BT jumpships little more than space going umbrellas and horribley vulnerable to weapons?

[Dabat]

Aren't BT jumpships little more than space going umbrellas and horribley vulnerable to weapons?

Jumpships? Yes.

Warships? No. Not by a long shot.

[Jedi Master Spock]

The campaign will meet with early success and than total stagnation. The Enterprise will briefly return home only to be overwhelmed. It will regroup with surviving federation ships most likely somewhere around mars and head to Vulcan, about a four 1/2 day trip. That is, of course, assuming they can't just send a message.

Vulcan will send reinforcements to earth which will most likely arrive slightly faster (3 1/2 days most likely)... even if we assume high end and the need to hand deliver the message to Vulcan, were getting around 10 days max.

See, here's where you need to be clever - explain to the Vulcans this is an "internal Earth affair" between humans. They will probably be reluctant to interfere in a civil war. If you can make one 30 light year jump every day, you can send a ship to Vulcan and make your diplomatic case well before Archer makes orbit around Vulcan. Vulcan is less than 30 light years from Earth.

I think the most direct route (jump straight to Earth and make a blitzkrieg landing while they're not expecting it) might not actually be the best route to succeeding, but it does have its high points. The goal is complete control of Earth, and while you can't assume the details of technical knowledge, assume that you as commander of the force know what you could figure out about Earth's capabilities from watching Enterprise.

So, you have 10 days, best case, to fully conquer and secure earth... I don't think it can be done. The transporter will also be an interesting factor, although I foresee it being used in more of a, "disable that mech by killing its pilot" capacity.

Transporters are still highly experimental. I don't really see them being used very much in this manner.

However, were I running this, I would put transporters on the list of things to study. Subspace communications and translation software are critical to adequately managing the diplomatic end of this conquest. I would suggest impulse drive should be the first tactical priority - before transporters, warp drives, and phase weapons. It can be powered by fusion plants, and represents an enormous gain in sublight mobility between jumps.

IMO, a crucial part of succeeding with this scenario is gathering the best and brightest scientists and engineers out of a population of trillions. You can probably pack on the close order of a million personnel in with all the material you're shipping.

[The Corporal]

Jumpships? Yes.

Warships? No. Not by a long shot.

Right but these warshships can't jump on there own and have to jump to certain spots, right? And then there parasite craft have to move in system under there own power. So this really doesn't seem like much of a contest, there should be enough SF ships nearby to maul these things before they even get near Earth or at least destroy the jumpships which aren't easily replaced.

[Flectarn]

http://paintman101.tripod.com/sitebuild ... er1408.jpg

is it just me or those this one look an awful lot like galactica

[ILikeDeathNote]

Jumpships? Yes.

Warships? No. Not by a long shot.

Right but these warshships can't jump on there own and have to jump to certain spots, right? And then there parasite craft have to move in system under there own power. So this really doesn't seem like much of a contest, there should be enough SF ships nearby to maul these things before they even get near Earth or at least destroy the jumpships which aren't easily replaced.

Which is why getting forces on the ground is important. But given the limitations of BT jump drives, this will be problematic, unless a planetary assault fleet can be amassed and then jumped into Earth orbit all at once. Once you have forces on the ground, it's possible the only counter Starfleet would have to the battlemechs would be orbital bombardment, possibly at the risk of massive collateral damage.

[Dabat]

Jumpships? Yes.

Warships? No. Not by a long shot.

Right but these warshships can't jump on there own and have to jump to certain spots, right? And then there parasite craft have to move in system under there own power. So this really doesn't seem like much of a contest, there should be enough SF ships nearby to maul these things before they even get near Earth or at least destroy the jumpships which aren't easily replaced.

Warships can jump on their own, you are thinking of dropships. On top of that, almost every Warship carries dropships, plus fighters, and almost every dropship carries it's own fighters.... If you gather a hundred Warships together, it ends up being one huge armada.

And in the era of the Star League, the Warship fleets numbered in the thousands, Jumpships even more so. The era of the Star League is back when they still had the capability to manufacture them in bulk, remember.

In Star League vs. Enterprise era.. I'd have to side with the Star League, it is pretty much the only conjunction of eras between the two realities where i would say Battletech comes out ahead. It's kinda like armor combat in the Eastern Front: 'It doesn't matter if your Tiger is worth a dozen T34's, so long as I have thirteen tanks in my company.'

[The Corporal]

Warships can jump on their own, you are thinking of dropships. On top of that, almost every Warship carries dropships, plus fighters, and almost every dropship carries it's own fighters.... If you gather a hundred Warships together, it ends up being one huge armada.

And in the era of the Star League, the Warship fleets numbered in the thousands, Jumpships even more so. The era of the Star League is back when they still had the capability to manufacture them in bulk, remember.

In Star League vs. Enterprise era.. I'd have to side with the Star League, it is pretty much the only conjunction of eras between the two realities where i would say Battletech comes out ahead. It's kinda like armor combat in the Eastern Front: 'It doesn't matter if your Tiger is worth a dozen T34's, so long as I have thirteen tanks in my company.'

Ok then. :) Been a long time since I looked at BT.

[Jedi Master Spock]

Right but these warshships can't jump on there own and have to jump to certain spots, right? And then there parasite craft have to move in system under there own power. So this really doesn't seem like much of a contest, there should be enough SF ships nearby to maul these things before they even get near Earth or at least destroy the jumpships which aren't easily replaced.

They do have to jump to particular jump point unless they have good charts of the system. Systems close to Earth are probably more likely to have good charts that could be backdated a couple hundred years astronomically; Sol system itself is especially well documented and mapped.

Earth's ships of the time can run circles around an unmodified BT warship of the period thanks to the miracle of impulse drive. This is why I recommend making the study and reverse engineering of impulse drive systems a top priority.

However, they would be engaging with plasma cannon and spatial torpedoes; phase cannon are experimental weapons the NX is about to deploy, and photonic torpedoes not deployed yet. Plasma cannon have a maximum effective range of around 10 kilometers ("Fortunate Son," "Shuttlepod One"). Spatial torpedoes are described both as being less powerful than the new phase cannons (designed to be 500 GJ) and to have similar warheads as a quarter-kiloton Romulan mine.

BT warships have better range with their weapons; both top out with nukes and usually use less powerful weapons. I don't think Earth Starfleet can do a good job of mauling the warships ship-to-ship, not without help from more powerful allies.