Suribachi Class Dropship

 Marine Drop ship

 1500 meters from bow to stern, 800 meters from port side to starboard and 980 meters from keel to top mast.

 It was home to 3000 marines plus Officers, engineers, techs, Medics, a few hundred civilian contractors and the actual Navy Crew of 150.

 Capable of carrying three full Companies of Cerberus Battle Robots, the Tanks, APCs and Field Artillery for three Regiments and the materials and munitions to set up a forward planetary base if that was required. D Deck Corridors were designed to double as Wolfcraft flight decks if necessary.

 A Suribachi had no IST. There was a large pipe-like shaft in the core of all Suribachis. There was no gravitation in those shafts and tiny precision tractor drones received the destination request and pulled the individual to that destination. This system allowed the members of one platoon or an entire company entering the shaft on various decks and various locations and exit as one complete unit at the Deployment Decks.

 R Deck was the Recreation and Relaxation (aka R and R, R&R) Deck. Once you entered, it appeared as if you were outside on a planet’s surface. There were no visible walls, but distant horizons, all clever projections of course. Force fields and tractor beams made it possible that you could try to reach that horizon but never did, so the illusion of unlimited space was nearly perfect.

 It was perhaps the most important deck of the ship. Having that many battle ready, aggressive, battle and combat honed marines in a closed confined environment, often for month on end was a recipe for disaster, no matter how disciplined and how well trained they were. So R and R was very important and the Union Navy and Union Marine Corps had thousands of years experience in such matters.

 Suribachi Class ships usually called this area the promenade as it looked like the downtown portion of a small Union town, with shop, restaurants, amusement venues, bars and so forth. The promenade was lined with trees, there was grass and always a light breeze. The sun in the lightly clouded sky appeared to be real and warm, but they could and did make it rain there and the crew could even make it snow once in a while, There was a nice park complete with a small lake and trees. There was also the Field of Honor, a small virtual cemetery with a large Oak tree and small name plates in regular intervals in the grass around it. Each plate carried the name of anyone who ever served aboard and had paid the ultimate price.

