Battletech - Antares Class Fleet Tender.

Length - 800 meters
Displacement - 830,000 tons
Crew complement - 782


Squat, ugly, slow and always smelling of lubricants, fuel and other vapours the Antares was also the unsung hero of the fleet and a vital part of Logistics command.  Whilst most SLDF WarShips had large volumes of cargo onboard it was actually rare for this to be fully utilised.  Most patrols, exercises and deployment's didn't require them to be fully loaded.  And even if they were, the cargo usually consisted of food, water, fuel and ammunition that would be for that ship alone.  To support the fleet the Antares was a genuine workhorse, her huge grav-deck gave other ships crews enough time in a less stressful and less cramped G-positive environment and the ships were fitted with storage tanks for fuel and water as well as more exotic liquids like weapons coolant as well as assorted petrochemical fuels.

Onboard workshops would allow the Antares to service fighters and shuttles and they also carried large quantities of spare parts ranging from nuts and bolts up to heavy naval PPC barrels and electromagnets.  Whilst not capable of repairing ships outer hulls as well as a dedicated facility the Antares could keep a WarShip or DropShip in the field and save them from the long trip back to a repair yard to be serviced and overhauled.

Practically unarmed and always heavily escorted the Antares use to the SLDF waned somewhat with the large scale deployment of the Newgrange YardShips but they still offered a cheap and easily deployable solution rather than the hugely expensive and vulnerable Newgrange's, and they were greatly valued by the House fleet's who lacked the SLDF's logistic support.  Whilst over two dozen remained in the Inner Sphere after the Amaris Civil War and Operation EXODUS the class was all but extinct by the end of the Second Succession War, with the three survivors being part of Comstar's hidden fleet.

Drawn by the amazing - mattplog.deviantart.com/