Carry-All

by The Carry-All

The Carry-All classification of ships is a levitation capable heavy lift vehicle. The basic concept was pioneered during the Second Dark Age with the re-emergence of zeppelins as cargo carriers. Being equipped with A-pods, the Carry-All is able to carry more, and move more quickly than the rigid airship. They can, and often are armed, and serve a variety of roles beyond military transport.

Purpose:

Prior to the implementation of the Carry-All, military equipment and personnel were moved either through traditional logistic methods such as rail systems, heavy cargo aircraft, and such, or through the use of aerial warships, and space capable craft. Both methods had their flaws, such as traditional methods having difficulty with non-compact mecha, and using space capable craft as cargo runners was expensive. The military needed a way to quickly and efficiently move it's hardware. The answer was found in a heavy lift vehicle being used in the EuroZone of the Atlantic Federation.

The Atreus Planetlifter was a small craft with a strong hull, large engines, and small everything else. The craft was used as a cargo mover, picking up and moving industrial mecha, large pieces of equipment, bulk goods, and even being used in rescue operations in the case of the Antares ferry accident. Rather than acting as a conventional cargo vehicle, the Planetlifter was open in design, and everything it carried was slung under it.

Design:

The typical Carry-All has a lay out much like an ant or other insect. The backbone of the ship is the main spar, which runs through the dorsal part of the hull. The arc reactor or fusion core is situated near the center of the spar for maintaining balance. The A-pods are attached outside of the main hull and a carry-all can have anywhere from two pods to sixteen. The size of the pods is relative to their lifting power, while the number is more a matter of stability. The control cabin and crew accommodations are in the front dorsal part of the ship. There are currently two approaches to handling cargo, the freighter and the lifter. Freighter style carry-alls have walls and floors and are loaded like any other ship or vehicle would be, and are more common. The lifter has no internal cargo, and the central spar is usually visible as lifters shed as much weight as possible to give themselves as much lifting power as possible. There are some truly gargantuan lifter style carry-alls in use, mostly be ship buildings and arco construction companies, which allow them to modularly assemble massive warships, freight ships, and the like in different locations.

There are certain limitations on most carry-all designs, which separates them out from conventional cargo haulers. Carry-Alls are not rated for high altitude and certainly not space operations. Maintaining pressurized hulls, reactor power required, and other various requirements of high altitude and space flight are not cheap, and most carry-alls are designed for the lowest possible cost per ton for moving equipment. Carry-Alls are also not fast. Rigid airships typically do not exceed 50 to 70 miles per hour, so the 200 to 300 miles per hour of a Carry-All is more than sufficient for most cargo. Military carry-alls are not much, if any, faster than this. When a military needs something moved faster than this, they are more than capable of using a high altitude aerospace vehicle or an aerial warship with low orbit capabilities, putting hardware on the ground almost anywhere on the globe in two to three hours. Finally, carry-alls are not combat vehicles. Even the armed and armored carry-alls are not rated for actual head on combat.

History:

The Carry-All can trace it's origins to the humble rigid airship. During the Second Dark age, these venerable craft made a reappearance. Being simple to build and relatively cheap to maintain, they were invaluable in maintaining trade and travel between cities as the national and international infrastructures collapsed. The new arcologies were built with facilities to moor these airships, and when technology advanced it was matter of fact that the new ships would use the old facilities, rather than have the tops of arcologies around the world rebuilt to suit something new. The anti-grav pod, or A-pod, revolutionized air travel, and made VTOL an almost basic feature of all aircraft. Conventional helicopters and later helocraft went into service, including large versions for cargo purposes. This circumvented the need for large and extensive airfields, but was still limited by the relatively small cargo capacity and efficiency of even the largest helicopters.

The Atreus Atlas and Planetlifter vehicles bridged a gap between dedicated spacecraft and 'hover' craft. Little more than cargo cradles with A-pods attached to them, the craft proved to be capable machines, and were faster than the rigid airships, while being easier to handle for arco skyport crews to handle. A single Planetlifter with it's 400 ton cargo capacity proved much easier on crews and loading personnel compared to the dozen or more helocraft previously required to move that much.

The Atlas would eventually be phased out of production, with the civilian passenger version being a colossal flop. The Planetlifter was eventually sub-licensed out to new manufacturers, allowing the industrial/cargo carry-all to become a relatively common sight. By the time the first military designed carry-alls were entering service, the Planetlifter III was entering service, and proving itself a powerful and valuable workhorse, able to carry 10,000 tons of cargo at top speed of 220 miles per hour, and maintain a 100mm stable hover (less than 100mm in movement from the vehicle per minute) almost indefinately.

Military Operations

The Atlantic Federation fielded the first military carry-alls, and currently maintain seven carry-all designs.The most common Federation carry-all is the ubiquitous Taurus. The Taurus has dozens of variants, but the most well known version is the mecha carrier. The Taurus-M carries a complement of 3-5 mecha and can deploy them from a low hover, or from an atmospheric drop. It has moderate armor and moderate firepower to defend itself, and is a staple of military entertainment shows. Other variants include a light freight model capable of hauling 600 tons of cargo, an open frame lifter that can move up to 900 tons of equipment in a sling under it, an infantry/power armor transport, and a coach class civilian air liner.

The Transom class carry-all is currently the most cost efficient transport in use by the Federation. It is not the largest, nor the most common, but in the cost per ton per mile calculation, it is the winner. Three times the size of the Taurus, the Transom can deliver a full mech platoon (10+ mecha) in the same manner at the Taurus, or carry up to 2100 tons of cargo. Transoms are heavily used by the logistics departments of most megacorps, and by the Federation military for it's high cost efficiency. The carry-all is disliked by it's crews, as the design is utilitarian, cramped, and uncomfortable, especially in light of the long hours that most Transoms run. The Transom-C gunship is a known and feared weapon in the Federation arsenal, as it can carry an impressive amount of weaponry with it's cargo capacity, and Transom-C's are commonly attached to military ground units that are not deemed important enough to field a supporting sky destroyer or frigate. Despite their high firepower, these are paper tigers and in actual ship to ship combat, are easily destroyed by actual destroyers and frigates.

The Warlord carry-all is the main combat carry-all of the Federation. The large vehicle can carry up to 30 or more mecha in it's cavernous holds, and the Overlord cargo version can carry over 10,000 tons of cargo. The only real variants of the Warlord are the Overlord cargo version, and the Warlord-C3, a mobile command and communications vehicle. The Warlord's profile is iconic to the Federation, and goes hand in hand with the Wolverine main battle mecha, and the Corsair III aerospace fighter in military iconography. Entertainment aside, very few Warlords are ever used to perform combat drops or evacuations, as the vehicle is large, a generous target, and slow compared to anything else in the air.

The Cambrai was built with a singular purpose, to deliver an infantry battalion to the ground, and remain in close support of this ground force. As such, the Cambrai is well armed and armored, which limits it's cargo capacity and ability to provide logistic support to it's battalion. The Cambrai is a newer design, and is being well received by the infantry forces. Prior to the Cambrai, the most common infantry support was a Transom-C gunship, or a modified ground assault Transom. The Cambrai has no real variants as it was purpose built for deploying infantry and power armor, and nothing else. Size wise, it is comparable to the Transom, but is faster, and more resilient.The Avenger class carry-all is a purpose built craft, functioning as a pocket aircraft carrier. A fraction of the size of the mighty Federation class Battlestar, the Avenger carries a single squadron of aircraft, typically helocraft or electrojets. These secondary air assets are used in support roles, or as air support for secondary operations where an actual aerospace carrier is not called for. The Federation doesn't have a many Avengers in service, and most that have been built have been sold to other nations, megacorps, or private interests.

The Humpback is a commonly seen carry-all despite there not being all that many of them. The Humpback was designed for heavy lifting, and is a military cargo hauler. Moderately armored, it can carry 40,000 tons of cargo at just over 180 mph. Humpbacks are used for providing fleet support, moving cargo from bases to ships, and vise versa, as well as moving stupendously large objects such as mobile bases, marine boats, or the frames and components of aerial warships during construction, battlefield recovery, or scrapping operations.

The largest carry-all in the Federation arsenal is the actually impressive Oceanic type. There are only a handful of these in service, and almost all are owned by ship builders and megascale engineering firms. The current heavy lift record is held by Oceanic-6 (AFS Behemoth) by lifting the wreckage of the Amerikka Command warship USS Valley Forge, at a listed weight of 382,000 tons. (The Valley Forge was the grandiosely named and poorly armed Ark class floating fortress). Oceanics are largely used for spaceframe construction, moving seacologies, and other monumental operations.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The main strengths of the carry-all are cost, cost of operation, and logistic. The vehicles are relatively low tech outside of their A-pods. Being low tech, their maintenance requirements are low. Compared to ships that routinely transit between space and atmosphere, the cost of maintenance is pocket change. The logistic value of the the carry-all is the most important, as they allow for regular commerce, through the Planetlifter, CargoMaster, and a dozen other makes and models in use around the world, and in the case of Luna and Mars, other worlds. Military carry-alls are the armored carriers for infantry, mecha, and the other supplies that are needed, keeping actual warships doing warship things, and not spending time squatting down to load and unload supplies, personnel, and such.

The weaknesses of the carry-all are similar. They are slow, poorly armed, poorly armored, and are often the most tempting targets in military or terrorist actions. Being cargo vehicles at heart, they are designed for efficiency and cargo capacity, not combat ability. Their ability to defend themselves against something with anti-ship capabilities is limited. Without a warship escort, aerospace fighter cover, or carrying mecha, they are most of the time, all but helpless in the face of an enemy.

The Ubiquitous Carry-All

In the Cosmic Era, the Carry-all is a very common sight. The vast majority are civilian vehicles, and are comparable to semi trucks up through container ships, and carry the economy of the world. The vehicle is, at the end of the day, a flight capable barge. They aren't glamorous, popular, or really even seen as interesting outside of a niche community (comparable to railroad enthusiasts) and the sight of a cargo hauler flying over a mile tall building isn't awe inspiring or breath taking in the Cosmic Era, it's just the 7AM Federation-Pacific heading for LAX.

In game terms, the carry-all is a way to give a group or interest a 'ship' without giving them an actual ship. It flies, it carries cargo, and it can go places in a reasonably fast time frame, especially the smaller models. It cannot fly into space, it's not actually fast, and if a group gets too pirate-y or rogue, even a powerful carry-all is no real match for an aerial destroyer or a dispatched aerospace squadron.