This is where the (man-portable) guns are.
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Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- General Spec’s
- Access
- Lists
- Reasoning
- Conceptual Images
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Introduction:
Multiple weapons caches spread out evenly within this spacecraft-carrier provide enough small-arms firepower to repel numerous intruder parties. There is an armory within walking-distance of every section of the ship. This gives everyone roughly the same chance of making it to one, should they need to arm themselves.
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General Spec’s:
Their lasers and other projectiles will not do much damage to the structure of the ship, but are more than enough to neutralize most biological and robotic threats, as well as a variety of personal armor and shield types. That means they are rated against troops; human bodies and everything similar, but not some tanks or any BattleMechs (not much of an issue, as almost no on in 34 Tauri has BattleMechs, though the biggest corporations have industrial ‘Mechs).
They are also usually short- to intermediate-range, and their optics match; you’ll be able to handle Close-Quarters Battle/Combat (CQB / CQC) with them, but not do much/any sniping (which is prevented by hallway divider-hatches in most cases, anyway). Of course, for those who deploy for combat planet-side, there are exceptions; normal sniper rifles, etc..
For a list of some of the specific weapons stored in TNH’s armories, navigate here. Those are weapons that are a century or two old (by the time TNH goes on its first “float”; deployment), but they are still widely in use, very effective, and well-understood by many human militaries. That makes them easy to teach armorers how to service.
TNH has:
(in the computer model)
- small armories (sm): 2/lvl x 2 = 4… x14= 56
- md: 2/md x 12 = 24
- lg: 4 x 6 = 24
for a subtotal of 104 major armories, almost all of them right across the hatches to the small, medium, and large hangars for manned spaceships; that makes for the shortest times for deploying personnel to get their weapons issued and then board their respective ‘child’/subordinate vessels, then do the opposite upon return to the carrier.
There are also much smaller armories; for:
- single-craft hangars / fighter-pilot squadrons (though they only carry a pistol/phaser, if anything)
- military police; in their dispatch suite
- ODST (even though some of their weapons can be kept preloaded in their drop-pods for quicker-deployment)
Grand total: 262 armories in TNH
Each of these armories is designed and tested to withstand even the catastrophic detonation of all the ammo. and batteries they contain. Even when fully stocked, no lockers/shelves left available/vacant, a chain reaction, or even an all-at-once, explosion / premature detonation of the bullets, grenades, rockets, satchel/shaped charges, etc. in one of these rooms would be well contained, not damaging the rooms adjacent in any direction (to the sides, or below, or above). These are exceptional vaults of storage facilities, quite bunker-like.
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Access:
Armory access aboard The New Horizon is strictly regulated and monitored round-the-clock; clearance must be granted by designated armorers and armory-watch officers –who keep perfect records of where all their inventory is. Inisfreeans also assist with this.
Only come to draw your assigned weapon/s when you have orders to use them as part of a mission or training exercise.
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Lists:
These are the categories of items stored in these rooms:
- (mechanical) breacher tools (“hooligan kit”, incl. power-saw, etc.)
- flamethrowers
- grenades, explosive
- grenades, riot; flash-bang and tear-gas (those 2 being different types, not a dual-purpose grenade)
- grenades, signaling; colored smoke
- laser pistol (stronger than a Starfleet phaser –which was developed centuries before, and for science-based personnel)
- laser rifle, assault (not sniper)
- laser rifle, anti-truck (not rated for heavier armor such as on battle-tanks)
- laser turret, automated; crew-served, tripod-based
- grenade launchers, man-portable
- machineguns, some man-portable, others crew-served (requiring a tripod or vehicle-mount)
- missile launchers, anti-tank (linear/low-tech’, and high-tech’ w/ top-attack option) –one of the few small-arms powerful enough to make a big mess in TNH, but still not breach its hull or other critical layers/parts
- (Mortar systems CAN be stored in here, but are rarely used in this era.)
- rifles, assault/carbine
- rocket launchers (light anti-armor; not rated for battle-tanks)
- shotguns, with various shells/slugs
- sniper rifles
*All those weapons are at the tech’ level of Alien/s (late 2170s, hardly more than the same things the Infantry on Earth was using in the early 2000s), Mass Effect (early and mid 2180s, micro-scaled mass-accelerators similar to rail-guns, but which also reduce mass, not just using EM acceleration), and Star Trek (mid 2100s into late 2300s, predominantly handheld/portable anti-personnel lasers with multiple settings),
but not of Halo/UNSC (2520s into 2550s, such as barely-portable lasers like the M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, also known as the Spartan Laser, and other things only suit-assisted super-soldiers can wield) or the MIB (since MIBs use far-more-compartmentalized / classified / controversial memory-editing devices (e.g. The Neuralizer), and weapons capable of knocking advanced aerospacecraft (UFOs) out of anti-gravity ‘envelopes’/’fields’).
Typical use of each of the three main eras of these weapons:
- Small-arms of the UACMC/USCM/USCMC (Alien/s era/saga) are issued for regular planet-side possible-combat missions. This is because they are nearly the same level of technology as late-1900s / early-2000s weapons.
- Small-arms of the Systems Alliance (Mass Effect era/saga) are issued for more-challenging planet-side possible-combat missions. This is because they are more expensive, and able to defeat newer/stronger/thicker armor and personal (energy) shields (forcefields).
- Small-arms like those used by Starfleet (back when Starfleet existed) are issued more for in-carrier patrols and possible-combat situations, since they are much more precise, and able to be fired at much milder (“less than lethal” or “less lethal”) settings.
All weapons in TNH are within the limits of 34 Tauri’s latest rules of war.
These are how many of each type of item are stored in these armories:
- (for reference; helping with the math of the following bullet-notes) # of non-ICV mil’ personnel = ~10K
- 1 pistol per officer = ~1,800 (18% of 10K, incl. 105 pilots)
–and divide by 122 subordinate-armorers for an avg.; ~15 pistols managed by each of the TNH armorers the Chief Armorer is in charge of
–minus the 156 single-pistol armories, then divide the remaining 1,644 pistols by the remaining 106 armories = 15-16 pistols per armory (though obv. there will be many more in a large armory than a small one, so maybe ~5/sm armory, ~10/md, and ~20/lg) - 1 rifle per enlisted = 8,200 (1,200 Marines + 7,000 other enlisted) –though rarely more than the Marine rifles are issued; issuing the remaining rifles is typically only to prevent unauthorized boarding parties from breaching the carrier
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = ~77 per armory
- 2 grenades per Marine = 2,400
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = ~23 per armory
- ~3 satchel/shaped charges per Marine squad = ~270
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = 2-3 per armory - 2 rocket launchers per Marine squad = ~180
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = ~2 per armory
- optics/helmet-cams = 1,670 (1/Marine and 1/MP)
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = ~16 per armory
- ~3 smart-guns per Marine squad = ~270
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = 2-3 per armory
- ~2 crew-served (such as a tripod-mounted grenade-launcher) per Marine squad = ~180
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = ~2 per armory
- ~3 flashbangs per Marine squad = ~270
–and divide by the 106 armories which contain such things = 2-3 per armory
- lasers (whether pistol, rifle, or sentry) = ~32,000 (1 per active-duty) –again, like with rifles, rarely issued to more than MPs; almost always only to help deter/repel unauthorized boarders
–minus the 156 for the FJ pilots, then divide the remaining 31,844 by all remaining 106 armories = ~300 per armory (~100/sm, ~200/md, ~300/lg)
- phasers (pistol) = ~32,000 (1 per active duty)
–minus the 156 for the FJ pilots, then divide the remaining 31,844 by all remaining 106 armories = ~300 per armory (~100/sm, ~200/md, ~300/lg)
- tazers = 470 (1/MP)
–all in the same 1 armory; in MP-dispatch - batteries/bullets for all those = millions
–divide by all 262 armories = several thousand batteries and at least several thousand bullets (if not tens of thousands) per armory - cleaning agents and cleaning tools for all those = tens of thousands
–hundreds per sm. armory, thousands per md., and tens of thousands per lg. - inspection/armorer tools for all those = thousands (multiple per armorer)
–dozens per sm. armory, hundreds per md., and thousands per lg.
- weapons-cards (as a hardcopy backup for the issuing process, in case any/all computer/digital systems were not working at any given time) = hundreds of thousands (1 for each weapon, not just 1 for each person issued a weapon)
–just a few per single-craft / micro-armory, then thousands per sm. armory, tens of thousands per md., and hundreds of thousands per lg.
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When deployed with, issued weapons are often held by individuals, or mounted to vehicles such as trucks or proto-mechs, or locked onto weapon racks, or locked in padded containers specifically for those weapons, those containers bolted/welded to the inside of the dropships/whatever, not in mini armories of their own.
The only ‘child’ vessel in TNH with its own internal armory is Persephone.
Visiting spacecraft docking in TNH hangars sometimes have a tiny (closet-size; walk-in) armory of their own.
Personal firearms are not allowed in TNH; everything in this carrier that is a weapon is owned by the military (UAP) and issued (loaned) out on by-mission as-needed basis.
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Reasoning:
Weapons commonly used by humans during the 2140s into/through the 2390s (250 Earth-years) are what is cost-effective in 34 Tauri; they do enough to outgun the Browncoats / Dust Devils, without the potential for accidental overkill. They are also what those migrating to 34 Tauri would have had upon arrival. Since their economy took a significant dip during The Unification War, these weapons are also what they would have kept producing or resorting to for another century or two, if not longer.
What was developed during the 2520s had not happened yet, anyway; TNH’s first deployments were in the 2510s.
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