I do not own any of these franchises

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The following chapters will contain background information, disguished as in-universe reports, messages, etc., regarding the fictional universe that I put together for my Alien x Mass Effect story Someone has heard them scream and its sequel Someone had blundered. Originally it was my intention to insert these things into the main body of the text, but I find that it takes too much exposition and would slow down the story. On occasion, I also use this format to explain an issue that has been rasied in a reviewe. Reading this will not be necessary to understand the actual story, but it may help the reader visualize things the way I had it in my mind while writing.

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STG INTERNAL REPORT

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: Low

Subject: Rapid Deployment Vessel

Author: Senior analyst Kirrahe, STG

Sources: The following report has been compiled based on data obtained from turian Hierarchy internal reports (sources xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) following the Relay 314 incident, and eye-witness testimony of STG agent xxxxxxxxxxxxx aboard the council survey vessel Light of Dawn. The author notes the existence of extensive data on military vehicles freely available in human media. However, such data has not been included in this report and will not be considered until such time as its reliability can be verified through independent means.

Motivation: To clarify the nature and capability of the human designed warships in the category Rapid Deployment Vessel (Hereafter RDV)

Design: The size of the RDV, as deduced from comparative measurements, classifies it as a cruiser by citadel standards. The RDV follows the basic design concept prevalent among human vessels. It is has an elongated hull with multiple (4) engine pods mounted at the rear. FTL is achieved through an Element Zero core. (authors note: While this information would seem superfluous, the reader should take into account the existence of the hyperdrive tachyon shunt, which provided humans with FTL capability before the discovery of element zero technology.)

Armament: The RDV is equipped with four short mass-drives mounted in two traversable turrets (2x2), one at the front of the ship and one placed amidships, between the main hull and the engine section. Defensive armament consists of four GUARDIAN laser systems: Two on each side of the hull. In addition, a large pod is mounted on each side of the hull parallel to the aft third of the ship. These pods were initially identified as mass driver cannon by agent xxxxxxxxxxxxx aboard Light of Dawn. After-action reports from the Hierarchy show clearly that this assumption is in error and identify the pods as missile launchers.

Passive defense: As is typical for human-designed vessels, the RDV is only weakly shielded (most likely due to technological limitations.) Impact from mass driver projectiles show that this is partially compensated by heavy armour. Close inspection of impact points indicate that at least part of the armour is ablative in nature, being attached to the outside of the actual hull and designed for rapid replacement.

The controversy: Initial turian reports describe these vessels as: 'A cruiser with the armament of a fregat'. Although technically correct, this classification fails to acknowledge the purpose of the design of the RDV. The armament of this ship is indeed light compared to its size as it lacks a spinal mass driver cannon. The turret mounted mass drivers, though rapid-firing are short, and therefore relatively low-powered, being comparable to the broadside armament typically found in cruisers. However, the author wishes to emphasize that this is NOT as originally assumed due to the inability to produce a sufficiently powerful weapon, but instead reflects a fundamentally different design philosophy:
Unlike the warships typically found among the citadel races, the RDV's primary task is not to engage in ship-ship combat, but to serve as a troop transport. Although it may seem improbable that any military would commit a considerable fraction of its resources to the production of such vessels, the author would argue that this is in fact a logical result from the history of the human species, which, until recently, was effectively alone in the galaxy. It seems probable that, without an external enemy, the humans simply felt no need for strong anti-ship armament as space-combat would primarily take the form of law-enforcement (anti-smuggling and anti-piracy) tasks. Under these circumstances, the focus of human militray effort would almost inevitably have shifted to the deployment of ground troops, which would bear the brunt of the kind of low-intensity armed conflict one could expect to occur. To fascillitate suc operations, the RDV is equipped with six independent shuttle doors (three on each side) in the lower part of the forward secion of the hull. Shuttles are deployed from these doors at the end of a beam that extends from the hull. Once clear of the hull, the shuttle disconnects. (The reasons for this method of deployment, as opposed to taking off from inside the shuttlebay, are currently unknown.) Type and number of shuttles seem to vary between ships, most likely dependent on the mission profile (See Appendix).
While unusal in its concept, the RDV provides the United Systems Military with the abilty to quickly deploy a small (estimated 20-50) infantry unit to a trouble spot. The ship itself has the abilty to fight through light resistance in space and provides limited orbital bombartment capability. By combining these traits in a single vessel, the United Systems Military has created an extremely flexible platform that can perform a large number of tasks independently. This reduces response time, because the vessel can deploy directly without having to wait for support to be brought up. It also reduces the number of hulls necessary to perform a given task. Although inherently limited by what is ultimately a compromise design, a vessel such as this can be used to perform a wide range of tasks, varying from patrol duties and anti-piracy actions to special forces deployment and contributing to large scale orbital assaults as was demonstrated at Shanxi.

Recommendation: The author strongly recommends further study of the RDV design concept, pending review for possible implementation in STG

Appendix: Shuttlecraft

So far, three different type of shuttle have been observed deploying from RDV type vessels.

1) The standard UT-47 Kodiak class shuttle. This is an unarmed, general purpose, shuttlecraft. The capabilities of this vehicle are well know from its civilian variants, which seem to dominate the human short-range shuttle market.

2) The DR-4 Viking dropship. Larger than the Khodiak, this seems to be the primary troop transport and landing craft of the United Systems Military. These shuttles landed the majority of the troops deployed at Shanxi and carried out the boarding action observed by the Light of Dawn. It should be noted that the vehicles deployed in these two actions displayed significant differences. At Shanxi, Hierarchi soldiers observed that the Vikings landed, after which a large ramp at the front of the shuttle dropped down to off-load either infantry or vehicles. During the boarding action, two Viking shuttles used docking collars to attach to the airlocks of a larger ship. The fundamental difference in operation of these two tasks seem to indicate that there at least two variants of this vehicle. Alternatively, it may be of modular design. Viking shuttles appear to be armed with cannon, but lack missiles.

3) The UD-4Y Super-Cheyenne type dropship. Unlike the two previous entries, the Super-Cheyenne appears to be designed almost exclusively for operations inside an atmosphere with only limited space-travel capability. It has proven to be heavily armed, including a nose mounted cannon and both air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles. In addition to landing troops on a planetary surface the Super-Cheyenne performs close air-support for ground troops in a manner similar to a gunship.

Note: Larger shuttlecraft, capable of landing heavy vehicles were observed at Shanxi. However, size comparisons seem to indicate that they can not be deployed from the RDV.

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As I already stated in Someone has heard them scream, this entry was heavily influence by Starship Troopers (1997). The RDV is basically a smaller version of the Roger Young, adapted for the ME universe. The DR-4 Viking is from the same source. The Super-Cheyenne is basically a further development of the Cheyenne dropship from Aliens. The Kodiak shuttle is of course the standard shuttle from Mass Effect.
The Kirrahe that wrote this report is not the captain Kirrahe from ME and ME3. Considering the typical Salarian lifespan, that Kirrahe has barely been born at the time of the First Contact War. I just figure that STG service runs in the family.