Okay, I'm piecing together a bit more on the value of airships in 2000. Were we to suppose that MilGov continues to have a C-130 in operation (which I think is open to some question), the C-130 still has its limitations. Avgas is rare and getting more rare. The C-130 can carry around 20 tons. Obviously, a niche remains, but perhaps MilGov has needs that are better met with another vehicle.
Airships on operation in the 1990's had cargo capacities greater than 20 tons. In some cases, airships could lift in excess of 100 tons for much less fuiel than making five C-130 hops. Granted, the airship isn't exactly burning up the track. There are cargoes that don't have to be there overnight every time.
Right now, I'm thinking about heavy machinery. Howling Wilderness, which I like up to the part about the climate change, mentions that the Colorado enclave is rebuilding industries from the ground up as manpower and materials allow. Airships would be a means of transporting heavy machinery from one location to Colorado. We could come up with an enormous list of the machines Colorado Springs would want, I'm sure. Whole modules could revolve around PCs searching for and securing the desired heavy machinery so that an airship extraction operation can come in and retrieve the stuff.
By the same token, strategic metals might be worth diverting an airship mission. Vanadium, tungsten, chromium, and other metals with specialized industrial applications might be too heavy for a C-130 mission; or there might not be a suitable landing site near enough to the metals for a C-130 mission. However, if the USAF can work out a system of retrieval while the airship hovers overhead (yes, I know the weather has to be right), a whole host of sites an circumstances become accessible. Really, it's rather exciting. PCs have an enormous range of possibilities that don't involve further degrading the situation in CONUS.
I'm thinking about the future of Thunder Empire and module design as a means of spurring further creativity. Phoenix has a fair amount of manufacturing. PCs might be charged with a LRS mission designed either to catalogue industrial sites in the Valley of the Sun or to search for a specific type of machinery. Although the PCs can't carry off the desired machines like they can a painting, their actions could have a direct effect on making teh machinery accessible either for an armed convoy coming in from Fort Huachuca or an airship retrieval.
Webstral
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