Editing BattleTech Spacecraft (section)

==Systems==
=== Kearny-Fuchida Drive ===
FTL Travel in Battletech is achieved thanks to '''Kearny Fuchida Drive''' ('''KF Drive''' or '''Jump Drive''' for short). Developed in the early 22nd century by the Deimos Project it made it's first jump in 2108, it opened up the galaxy to human colonization shortly afterwards with the first extrasolar colony being established in 2116 on Tau Ceti IV. After that there has been some incremental refinements but the basic system have not changed much since then. Physically, it’s a titanium-germanium alloy core that’s meters thick and surrounded by a super-cold envelope of liquid helium while hooked up to controls and circuits to act as a capacitor. Some (mostly WarShips) also have a Lithium-Fusion battery to enable a second Jump immediately after entering another Jump Point to avoid the need to recharge immediately. On the other hand, said battery is expensive and doubles the amount of time to recharge everything once all the energy is depleted.

To Jump from system to system, you need a lot of power and that power takes a long time to build up from collecting solar wind from a sail-shaped energy collector. Then you need a Jump Point, typically these are zones of space above the North and South Poles of a Star which are the preferred points but there are other spots to jump from called Pirate Points which are riskier. It takes a bit of time to spin things up even when the Drive is fully charged but once the timer reaches zero, you are effectively instantly transported to your destination, another Jump Point within 30 LY of where you started from<sup>1</sup>. Jump Drives release a lot of light and radiation when they Jump, meaning that a stealthy arrival is not really possible. They are also rather pricey pieces of hardware.

Occasionally things go wrong: a ship missjumps and ends up far off course, arrives badly damaged, blows up or simply disappears. The risk goes up if you don't calculate things right and there is less fudge factor with Pirate Points. Even so while it is kind of clunky, it's a generally safe way to get from Point A to Point B across interstellar distances (at least in comparison to the inherent risks of Space Travel), the mechanisms can last for centuries and of course [[FTL (Warhammer 40,000)|you are not literally taking a detour through Fucking Hell]].

<small><sup>1</sup> ''This means that for practical purposes interstellar travel is often reckoned in Jumps. If Star Systems A, B and C are respectively 40, 50 and 65 light years away, a ship would need to jump twice to reach A or B and three times to reach C.''</small>

=== Artificial Gravity ===
Either comes from thrust while the ship is under acceleration or rotating centrifugal sections. Former is more common but very high maintenance from the crews having to balance health and morale against fuel use. Latter is less intensive on maintenance but requires a much bigger hull to support.

In the 2018 Battletech video game, the prototype Argo DropShip (that is the player’s base) is designed to make use of both, with a centrifuge section which folds up so that "down" is either being spun outward or against acceleration.

=== Weapons ===
Basically larger versions of BattleMech, Aerospace Vehicle, or Combat Vehicle armaments called Capital, Sub-Capital, or Naval weapons. The only difference is their scale to the point they’re the size of a BattleMech and (if big enough) possible capabilities in orbital bombardment. Smaller versions tend to be optimized for engaging Aerospace Fighters, Small Craft, and DropShips. Larger ones are for WarShip-to-WarShip while the biggest ones can be used for bombarding continents and planets into oblivion.

They have their own damage scale where 1 point of capital scale damage = 10 points of standard scale damage.

* Lasers
* Particle Projector Cannons
* Conventional Missiles
* Nuclear Missiles
* Gauss Cannons
* Mass Drivers
* Auto Cannon