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I appreciate the comments. I went with eleven troops because I was figuring 3 fire/spec. weapons teams of 3 + 1 officer and 1 non-com (to use modern-day platoon terms.) I didn't intend for it to actually be a main troop carrier, just add some flexibility or the ability to use for a special operation. I also figured on a using a lot of room per person, because I was thinking of real soldiers in full kit with longarms, etc., plus a squad weapon per team - an isomagnetic disintegrator or some such. I know Munro's boys - esp. spec ops - wouldn't go into battle as unprepared as normal SF troops.

Also, I had figured on upper and lower crawlspaces of about 1 - 1.5 m, plus the mechanisms for the fore and aft entry/egress ramps.

Even fully kitted out 4m^2 seems plenty to me. That's a king size bed - the person would probably take up a quarter of that standing up/sitting down, and then the rest would be plenty of room for their personal equipment. Obviously it's not a troop carrier, but I figure it could be very useful - not necessarily in this mission - to carry large amounts of people whereby the transporters are offline/unusable.

For example, the Chinook Helicoper carries about 50 people - and just the lower deck of this shuttle is considerably bigger, even taking into account the large amount of room required for machinery.

What about secondary vehicles like an Argo jeep? Could that fit down there?

ChakatBlackstar wrote:What about secondary vehicles like an Argo jeep? Could that fit down there?

Probably, again, that looks only about 2x3 metres. Maybe takes up the space of 2 men. You've got to remember this 'shuttle' is huge - more like a little starship.
An Argo jeep needs a lot of work, though. I'd start off by suggesting forcefields acting as a shield - covering the stupidly large gaps between the rollbars.

Indeed, maybe we could have a few of these jeeps, and maybe a sort of ('modernised') tank.

ChakatBlackstar wrote:What about secondary vehicles like an Argo jeep? Could that fit down there?

Sure. Evac or emergency capability would obviously be more than 11, plus there's the fore cargo bay. And Thorin's right about modding the Argo, but I would start here - take the friggin' wheels off! Isn't this the 24th century?

Mikey wrote:

ChakatBlackstar wrote:What about secondary vehicles like an Argo jeep? Could that fit down there?

Sure. Evac or emergency capability would obviously be more than 11, plus there's the fore cargo bay. And Thorin's right about modding the Argo, but I would start here - take the friggin' wheels off! Isn't this the 24th century?

And if the anti-grav gets hit by a phaser shot you could be easily stranded with out the right part. Even without a wheel you might still be able to drag the jeep back home. (not a road legal idea but we won't be on a road) Complex isn't always better.

If you're without a wheel, you're in just as bad shape as with a non-function antigrav. The antigrav would also certainly be better able to negotiate more varied terrain. However, if someone wants to design one, bang one out.

What's wrong with wheels? It's something that doesn't go wrong. Anti-grav 'skis' can go wrong, while quite primitive I don't see what's wrong with wheels. And anti-grav skis would be too Star Wars Speed Racer for me! Obviously the wheels would be run on flat.

Maybe we could bring an Argo style jeep into the story by someone having read about it in the Enterprise's log or something, and suggesting it might be a good idea to have some onboard - hell - even some onboard the Daystrom itself would be a good idea. It'd be cool to beam down people while they're actually inside the vehicle.

So I'd suggest a forcefield-shield so there's no way normal bullets/shrapnel could get through. Also make it a 4 seater - 2 in the front and 2 slightly raised ones in the back. Make it so the 2 back seats can swivel 360 degrees and each seat has one of them cannons (though more powerful than we see in Nemesis - modern day grenade launchers do more than that...). One of the front ones can be the driver, the other can have the control pannels/sensors/'remote control'

Go for it - I wouldn't be able to work on any designs right now, anyway.

Mikey wrote:If you're without a wheel, you're in just as bad shape as with a non-function antigrav.

but a flat tire is easier to fix then an antigrav. Even in modern times we have stop gap measures to fix a tire...temperarily at least. And we're talking a few hundred years in the future, I'm sure they've come up with something a lot better by then.

Hmmm...maybe an anti-grav stabalizer for jumps, or short boosts over tough terrain.

How about this, using the calculator. Yeah, it's not overly serious as to be particularly important, but fun to compare it to a shuttle/starship

Length : 3.8 m
Beam : 2.1 m
Height : 2.0 m
Decks : 1

Mass : 0.75 tons
Crew : 4

2 x micro phase cannons, total output 0.4 TW
Handheld personnel weapons

Level 8 forcefield system, total capacity 5.1 TJ
Light Duranium/Tritanium Single hull plus 0.1 cm high density armour
No structural integrity field

Max acceleration: 20 m/s/s
Max speed: 200 m/s

Beam Firepower : 0.008
Torpedo Firepower : 0
Weapon Range and Accuracy : 2
Shield Strength : 0.002
Hull Armour : 11.563
Speed : 0.0000001
Combat Manoeuvrability : -
Over all: 0.997

Alright so I'll be onboard the Dakota with the 300 forces under Munro's command? So that mean Daystorm will be empty of security?

I thought the guys you took were pretty much Starbase personnel? And we'd still have 'normal' security onboard. As you're away either your second in command can take over security or my character (as Chief Tactical Officer) can do it.

Okay that can work.

In fact this could be a nice opportunity if you wanted to set up a secondary character who is the second in command of security, so you could still RP aboard the Daystrom too. If you don't want to do that my character can do it.