Other Types of Fuel Tankage: There are four varieties of fuel tankage which are not integral to a ship, each with i t s advantages and disadvantages. These are collapsible tanks, demountable tanks, exterior demountable tanks, and drop tanks. These may be added to any ship at any time, and may be added to any ship for Trillion Credit Squadron provided the cost is paid. Insure that the proper notation is made on the ship statistics if such additional tankage is installed.
Collapsible tanks hold fuel in the cargo hold to allow refueling when there is . no other source of fuel available. Demountable tanks hold fuel to increase the total available tankage of the ship. Exterior demountable tanks and drop tanks simultaneously increase fuel capacity and ship tonnage; drop tanks, however, may be detached just prior to jump to reduce ship tonnage in order to achieve greater performance.
Collapsible Tanks: Large fuel bladders can be used to hold additional fuel; the collapsible tanks are filled with fuel and take up space in the ship's main cargo hold. It must have a hold equal to, or greater than, the tonnage required for the collapsible tanks, and the tanks displace tonnage in the cargo hold when in use.
When not in use, collapsible tanks collapse and are'stored in the cargo hold; they take up 1% of their filled tonnage.
Fuel from collapsible tanks must be pumped into the normal fuel tanks before it can be used; thus a jump made using collapsible tanks may not use more fuel than the capacity of the normal interior fuel tanks. Pumping fuel before a jump takes about three hours.
The typical use for collapsible tanks is to allow a short-jump ship to cross a gap in two or more jumps. For example, to cross between two worlds located four parsecs apart, jump-4 drives are needed. With collapsible tanks, a ship with jump-2 could negotiate the distance in two sequential jumps, the first to deep space half way across, where the collapsible tanks provide the fuel for the second jump.
Collapsible tanks may not be used to enable a ship to satisfy minimum jump
parameters in Trillion Credit Squadron. They may be installed at any class A or B starport in one week and cost Cr500 per ton.
Demountable Tanks: Sturdy fuel tanks can be installed on a ship to supplement i t s normal fuel capacity. These tanks take up space in the ship's cargo hold; they occupy that space regardless of whether the tanks are full or empty. Demountable tanks may be installed in any tonnage, but may not exceed the cargo capacity of the ship.
Demountable tanks operate in the same manner as normal fuel tanks, and their fuel is available for use by the drives immediately.
Demountable tanks may be fabricated at any class A or B starport, at a cost of Cr1,000 per ton, in 10 weeks. Once installed, demountable tanks may be demounted by the ship's crew in about two weeks, or at a class A, B, C, or D starport by professionals in about one week (at a cost of CrlO per ton). Remounting costs are similar. It should be noted that demountable tanks (once demounted) must be stored and safeguarded. Costs for such run CrlO per day per ton of tanks stored.
Exterior Demountable Tanks: Exterior demountable tanks may be installed on a ship which does not have sufficient interior cargo capacity (or if that capacity is to be conserved). All costs and times are the same as those for interior demountable tanks, with the addition of a charge for exterior tank supports of Cr500 per ton. Any ship carrying exterior tanks is considered unstreamlined regardless of its configuration. A ship's tonnage is increased by the size of the tanks, with consequent effects on i t s jump, maneuver drive, and power plant numbers.
Drop Tanks: The disposable tank rule (Book 5, page 27) allows the construction of tanks which can be dropped from the ship. The reduced ship tonnage, combined with the higher resulting capacity of the ship's drives, can result in an increased jump number or maneuver drive number. Power plant number may increase, but its energy point output remains the same.
When a ship is produced with drop tanks, the total tonnage of the ship without drop tanks determines the number of weapons allowed.
Drop tanks may be built onto a ship when it is originally produced at a cost of Cr10,OOO; they may be added to an existing ship at a cost of Crl 000 per ton. In both cases the tanks themselves must also be purchased at CrlOOO per ton. Building time is 10 weeks; installation time is only a few minutes.
Drop tanks do not affect the streamlining of the ship carrying them.
Both drop tanks and exterior demountable tanks are very vulnerable to battle damage. Whenever a battle damage die-roll, if unmodified by ship armor, would produce a fuel hit, all exterior or drop tanks are destroyed. For example, suppose a ship equipped with drop tanks and level 8 armor is hit by a factor 5 fusion gun. After defenses are penetrated, damage is rolled; the unmodified die roll is 4. The modified roll for ship damage is 18 (+8 for the armor, +6 for a weapon code of 9 or less). The modified roll for the drop tanks is 10 (ignoring the armor), resulting in Fuel-I ; the drop tanks are destroyed.
