Abandoned Routes: X-boats in wartime

[aramis]

The numbers and the costs add up quick.

And I forgot to mention the two fuel/crew shuttles which keep the tender crew rotations to dirtside and the tender fueled (one each end), Only a few more MCr.

At S7 prices, daily X-boats, and 9 day cycle per ship, and scouts on the cheap at KCr1 per month (comparable to O1's and E9's, per Bk4)...

39 XB at MCr70.65 ea: MCr2755.35, Maintenance MCr2.755/yr, fuel 40*39*40*500 = MCr31.2/year, salaries MCr1014 per 13 month imperial year. Life Support is KCr51/year per ship, so MCr1.981. (No LS cost in maintenance week). Total: 1049.95635 per year


2 tenders at 274.77 each, for MCr549.54, MCr0.55 per year in maintenance, probably 2 crews of 6 man each ship, for MCr0.312/year . It requires 10 Td of fuel a month for KCr65 each for MCr 0.13/year. Life support of KCr6 * 51 weeks * 2 ships = MCr0.306. Total MCr1.29754/year

2 shuttles (95 ton) (1 each end) MCr66, Maint MCr0.066, each uses just 2.85 tons of fuel every 28 days for KCr30.05/year, each has KCr26 in salaries (KCr52/year), and each probably needs the same KCr51 life supportper crewman, so call that KCr206 for the pair. Total MCr0.35405

Each link is thus MCr1051/year, and has a cost to setup of at least MCr3370.89, and a presumed life of 40 years, so replacments add MCr84.272/year, so ops cost MCr1135.88019/year. At Cr10 per email, around 113.6 million messages per year, or 8.7 million a month, or 312 thousand per day, for 156 thousand messages each way.

That's a stupidly high traffic flow for the route.

If we assume weekly, instead...
we need 4 XBoats per link, plus the two tenders. No shuttles, as the tenders have time to go refuel. This drops the costs to MCr109 per link before replacements. We still get 104.8 thousand messages per boat... but that's weekly, not daily...

I'm not convinced the XBoats are supposed to be daily...

 

[Whipsnade]

I'm not convinced the XBoats are supposed to be daily...

"Avery" is, Robject has posted as much a few times in threads like this one, and that's all that matters in the OTU.

What both you and I do in our own TUs can be and most likely is something else entirely.

There's one thing which can be said for daily arrivals; it soaks up a lot of Imperial tax revenue.

 

[aramis]

"Avery" is, Robject has posted as much a few times in threads like this one, and that's all that matters in the OTU.

What both you and I do in our own TUs can be and most likely is something else entirely.

There's one thing which can be said for daily arrivals; it soaks up a lot of Imperial tax revenue.

The Express boat system is supposted to be self sustaining. OTOH, the salaries could be as low as half what I listed. I forgot that Scouts get pay based upon E(1+Terms).

 

[epicenter00]

IMTU, the crewman is there to perform planned maintenance inflight. The maintenance they do during jump shortens the amount of time needed for maintenance and checks between jumps. They're rated as pilots so the IISS can pay them more for what has to be one of the worst jobs in that service. (Bennies like that are not uncommon. I became an NCO within a month of leaving boot camp so that the Navy could pay me more as a bennie for volunteering for the nuclear propulsion program.)

IMTU, a lot of people who want to be alone to think or create get jobs on the X-boat route. It's easy work. Authors or artists who don't want distractions while they're writing or creating something archetypally get jobs as X-Boat "pilots" to the point where "she wrote the reminder of her book while working as a stint as an X-Boat pilot." It's likely how they recruit people to do this job (turnover may be high though). I also imagine nobles likely send their sons and daughters who screw up on stints as an X-Boat "pilot" so they have time alone to think about what they did and reflect on their life choices.

While there might be day-to-day duties to be done, they likely have a lot of free time. If you're an artistic type or someone who wants to be able to think or do stuff alone, it's a great job if you think about it. People leave you alone for an entire week but you're not a complete hermit - you get to talk to people once a week.

Your "rent" is covered, as are your food and health insurance costs.

In a universe with hundreds of Hi-Pop worlds with billions in population all at TL12 or something, the Scouts likely have more people who want to be on X-Boats than they have positions open.

 

[Whipsnade]

IMTU, a lot of people who want to be alone to think or create get jobs on the X-boat route.

I can easily see that. I'd think there would still be some screening. You'd want someone who wants or enjoys the solitude and you wouldn't want someone who loses themselves in that solitude. There's still a job to do.

I also imagine nobles likely send their sons and daughters who screw up on stints as an X-Boat "pilot" so they have time alone to think about what they did and reflect on their life choices.

No, if only for the corrosive message that sends to everyone else in the 'boats; "Lord Wagglebottom needs to be punished and the Duke believes the best punishment will be to make him do the same job you're doing..."

These are people working aboard starships and entrusted with MCrimps of high tech equipment. They're not ditch diggers or manure spreaders.

 

[Black Vulmea]

By "link station" I meant the collection of tender(s), scout/couriers, small craft, and tank farms tasked with supporting operations for each of a system's x-boat links. Much like how one 'boat per day per link is the generally accepted canonical operational tempo, having each link serviced by it's own group in-system assets is also generally accepted. The reasons for this have to do with the different jump shadows and relative velocities the different systems will have.

Thus Lanth will have two "link stations". One for the Lanth-Ghandi link and one for the Lanth-D'Ganzio link. Similarly, Ivendo will have three stations; once each for it's links to D'Ganzio, Equus, and Icetina.

These "link stations" will transmit 'boat messages to "central" station as needed.

You'd be surprised at how much the system costs. . . . A system on an x-boat receives one 'boat per day per link. That's seven boats flying each link in one direction at any given moment. To that number, you'll need to add a 'boat prepped and waiting to depart as soon as the incoming 'boat's data load can be transferred plus another which can be swapped for an outgoing or incoming 'boat requiring maintenance. You're up to eighteen 'boats per each link now and you haven't even begun to count the tenders, scout/couriers, tankers, and small craft servicing each link in each system. . . . With annual maintenance requiring two weeks out of every 52, you're going to need 54 boats at the very least to keep 52 available. Don't forget to factor in annual and unforeseen maintenance for all your tenders, scout/couriers, tankers, and small craft too.

Along with those spares being staged at central points, as I already explained there will also be spare 'boats already in each of the systems along the route to provide availability in the case of an operational 'boat needs to be taken out of service.

While you're trying to tally up all the ships and small craft the system needs, start thinking about all the salaries, supplies, fuel, parts, repairs, training, pensions, rations, fungibles, mainworld stations, bases, and other expenses too.

Some years ago I sat down to identify the number and composition of scout squadrons operating out of a way station, and without having my notes in front of me, I can say that what I recall of my calculations fits your model pretty closely.

I call 'em 'comm offices' imtu, but they are functionally identical to your link stations: a tender for each link in the network, tankers to keep the tenders and their boats fueled, and shuttles to connect to the downport component of the comm office for physical mail, delivering equipment and perishables, and relief pilot transfer. The busiest comm offices, such as a subsector capital, may include a standby tender, in the event a boat needs to be taken out of service and replaced, and an orbital facility on-station as well; iirc, I used the Eshpadir from Adventure Class Ships Vol II as the orbital element.

Security may be provided by a system defense boat, subsidized wholly or in part by the IISS. In systems without a planetary navy, orbital security may be provided by a scout-courier armed with a triple turret, called the 'messenger'; serving aboard the 'messenger' ship is known as 'riding shotgun.'

My scout squadrons tended to included tenders, tankers, barges, and couriers, while the comm office itself included a shuttle-and-courier flotilla. Keeping the comm offices staffed and supplied while allowing crews and ships to rotate out of service for rest and refit required several squadrons, for a way station which covered just two subsectors. The x-boat system is a logistical beast.

 

[Fovean]

Security may be provided by a system defense boat, subsidized wholly or in part by the IISS. In systems without a planetary navy, orbital security may be provided by a scout-courier armed with a triple turret, called the 'messenger'; serving aboard the 'messenger' ship is known as 'riding shotgun.'

Thanks for this. Consider it yoinked.

 

[MontyLovering]

I had a quick count up, and if it's two X-Boats per day per route, given there are about 128 routes in the SM, with a 10% reserve you need a shade under 2,000 X boats either in Jump or in a Tender for a single sector.

If we take this figure which is probably about 2/3rds of the average, then you need 134,000 X-Boats to run a daily service, that's an X-Boat fleets costing 9.5 trillion Credits.

That's a cost of about 1 billion Credits per member world

Not saying that is impossible, but it seems tad heavy.

Obviously, major routes would get one Jump per day. Urgent messages do not use the X-Boat network, that's what the J6 Couriers are for. So I can see some places getting one Jump per week.

So, plucking some figures out of thin air I'd say an Imperium-wide fleet of 80,000 X-Boats would allow a daily service on half the routes and a weekly service on the rest.

Canon may disagree but often canon is made up by people who don't sit down and run the maths.

 

[MontyLovering]

Another thought (separate to economics thus separate post).

IMTU people rarely Jump from zero velocity as it doesn't exist, not really.

If you're Jumping into Regina (for example), you know that the published approach vector and velocity are X, and you head out into the black after leaving a planet towards 100D with the aim of arriving at 100D with vector and velcocity X.

You then come out of Jump heading towards Regina at a point where the systems customs resources are positioned for an east intercept should they so wish it. The approach velocity is set at what a 1G ship could decelerate from to enter a geostationary orbit.

This minimises the customs assets required from policing a 100D sphere to a single area, means anyone arriving in-system out of that area is red flagged for inspection and intercept, and anyone arriving at too high a velocity is assumed hostile until proven otherwise (even if this is only after the coroner's court enquiry).

That's an aside. I do big asides.

An X boat station will be at a Lagrange point relative to the main world of a system, but separate to any Lagrange point used for other purposes.

X boat tenders 'pitch' and 'catch' X boats. One going out system will be accelerated to the velocity and vector of the destination's X boat station Lagrange point. Ones coming in system will precipitate out of Jump in a locale a mere tens of thousands of cubic km. A busy X boat station might require multiple tenders. So the day's rota will consist of pitching outbound X-Boats and catching inbound ones.

YTU may differ.