Terran Ship Classes

[Demarquis]

Once Humanity chooses a side, which they apparently will be forced to do, they will presumably get some limited access to their alliance's tech. Humanity won't be very useful if they are still paddling around in the interstellar equivalent of a canoe, not even as enslaved cannon fodder.

[QuakeIV]

I still tend to think we would at most see a dozen or so kindof low ranking engineers sent over alongside technical packages to try to get us up to speed. There is no way humanity will be able to do anything in time to effect the current conflict (honestly seems like it might be over before we even notice the demise of the bellarmine), so it’s a rather long term investment to try to help us out in a time of significant short term demand for resources.

[Demarquis]

How long has this war been going on?

[Arioch]

How long has this war been going on?

25 years.

[QuakeIV]

I’m thinking of the current escalation in hostilities…

[Demarquis]

The Umiak cant presume they will win, and the Loroi probably assume they will survive.

[Dahak]

There is no way humanity will be able to do anything in time to effect the current conflict

On the MIlitary side little other than providing a route to the opposite side of the enemy's territory.

On the Logistic side however Terran Merchant shipping is as I understand it not much slower than Loroi Merchant shipping (since economics means their merchants aren't running around that fast either) and uses fusion powerplants rather than Taimat, which means they might be useful.

[Tamren]

I'm not even sure the backdoor route will be militarily significant in the current conflict. If the war was set to last another 25 years then sure, a backdoor attack that stabs the umiak in the kidneys would almost certainly be fatal to their war effort, even if it was a suicide run. But as it stands the umiak are doing their Big Push now because they seem to feel they have enough of an advantage to turn the tide. That being whatever psi stealth device they are using.

So yeah, in all likelihood the war will be over, or at least decisively tilted in favour of the loroi before any loroi ships could even begin to make the trek over the human space.

[QuakeIV]

I feel like I recall it being mentioned if either side wanted to take a huge detour through the hinterlands they could do that in pretty much any direction they wanted, humanity isn’t really uniquely situated in that regard.

[Tamren]

They could but it would be very slow because hyperspace exploration is dangerous and the "empty quarter" where humanity lives isn't well surveyed. You can do all of the math beforehand but hyperspace topography is invisible and the only way to check if a potential jump link is viable or not is to send a ship through and wait for it to come back.

If the loroi wanted to send a fleet on a wide flanking maneuver it would be much faster with human help because they could backtrack the bellarmine's path to human space and then continue on through the route the orgus used to flee from up arm. That would put them behind the umiak lines in well-mapped orgus territory in a fraction of the time it would take them to scout a route from scratch.

[GeoModder]

If the loroi wanted to send a fleet on a wide flanking maneuver it would be much faster with human help because they could backtrack the bellarmine's path to human space and then continue on through the route the orgus used to flee from up arm. That would put them behind the umiak lines in well-mapped orgus territory in a fraction of the time it would take them to scout a route from scratch.

While this might work to attack the Umiak Hierarchy from another angle, there's little chance of a breakthrough in Umiak hinterlands. It seems they have the habit of stationing huge defensive fleets in the very least their border regions.

[Tamren]

I could not disagree more. The umiak might have industrial might on their side, but they're not magic. The forces on the side of the heirarchy facing the loroi are going to vastly outmatch anything else in their empire. If they were able to make equally sized defensive fleets and point them in every possible direction this war would be over in a week because they could just combine all of those fleets together and crush the loroi flat.

A loroi fleet attacking from a random direction opposite the front line is going to face at most picket lines and listening posts. The umiak will have at least one large "sector fleet" lurking around any given area, but the loroi could easily go around it using farsensing and the umiak would have no way to intercept and stop them with a concentration of fleet assets because of the lack of FTL communications.

[Demarquis]

By the very same token, though, the Loroi aren't going to have much in the way of reserves either. I'm not sure they can spare the ships and personnel required to open a second front.

[Tamren]

Well again it's a moot point because they wouldn't be able to take advantage of humanity providing them a flanking route, it seems like the war will be over or decided before the loroi can even attempt to ship a diplomat over to human space. I'm just saying a flanking suicide strike like that would definitely be quick and devastating were they to pull it off in a vacuum, the umiak simply don't have any counters to that scenario.

[QuakeIV]

I dont think we can even provide them with fuel, we really aren't "providing" much of anything that isnt provided by empty solar systems.

[Tamren]

The only thing we have to offer is local map knowledge, and that of the Orgus. Even that would be very important, scouting jump routes takes a lot of time, at minimum you would have to jump ships through every permutation along the intended route and have those ships report back before you can risk moving a fleet of warships. With our data in hand a Loroi fleet would not have to do that, they could simply make continuous high-g burns across each star system and out the jump point on the other side without having to stop for anything.

[GeoModder]

Well, they overran the Orgus while already at war with the Union, in what sounds for all intents and purposes a well-coordinated assault. It does show they have the means to pull things off.
Also, it seems very much in line with their racial paranoid psychology.

[discord]

Hmm, me thinks some are underestimating the value of established infrastructure.
Send some techs and 'ugrade package' and humans can build and run those taimat fuel processing plants pretty quickly.
Add to that 'supply ships' and possibly munitions production and we could help a lot more than you might think.

But back on topic, me thinks the best 'terran ship design' we could work on right now, would be a modern variation on the liberty ship, take this time to make a very solid and optimised(cheap, easy to build, and low maintenance pretty much in that order.) design for it and spin up shipyards galore.
This is not only the most useful thing we can build to help a future partner, but also useful for the exodus project, and if by some magic the conflict ends, it is useful for trade....so whatever way the circumstances happens to fall, it is a really good idea.

edit:
Well technically more like the less known Victory ships, which were designed to actually run for more than five years.

[Tamren]

A liberty ship type freighter makes sense for the post war era where humanity will be trading materials and technology with the union. But I don't think we could provide any meaningful logistical support for the war within a useful timeframe. The war would have to calm down sufficiently for the loroi to even make a trip out to human space, and then establishing two-way shipping over such a distance seems like a pointless boondoggle when they can already make everything at home.

[QuakeIV]

Its not clear that any existing infrastructure could actually be retrofitted to produce 'taimat'. Its kindof likely that it would be like expecting an oil refinery to be retrofitted into making nuclear fuel. Totally different process with no relation.