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Foxboy Wrote:Heh. Just had a brainstorm... too bad I'm not in the circle...
It's not a circle, it's more of a broken C. There's plenty of space to join in and fill in the gaps if you're interested....
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Handwavium understands the value of Kirby Dots.
Finally caught up with all the new text...
KJ mentioned an idea of turning some worlds in the Draconis combine into some cyberpunk like setting because they grabbed Fen factory tech... this would mix interestingly with my idea that CI could move out with the RR to Rasalhague and help there building up modern infrastructure (and teaching people the basics of it).
A group of companies getting their hand on a "self-replicating" factory (self-replicating with the necessary working force and enough time) working together with a few local system governors (or just bribing them with lots of money) could trigger some interesting effects on the economic landscape of these planets.
Mal, do you think the "working with the BT laser" part of the old document could be useful as a side-story for the new one (after some cleanup)?
Alright I have a question, what do you want for a soundtrack for the drop on Anatallos. I'm starting with AC/DCs Thunderstruck as precision strikes enter atmos and take out the anti-air defense. What so you think appropriate for what occurrence.?
I can imagine mal I hope to have a small side story ready for you for next week.
*reading current chapter* I see C(G)I got a few human members to simplify first deals with the Inner Sphere?
They were wearing robes and headscarf's. The governor was allergic to them.
Matrix Dragon Wrote:They were wearing robes and headscarf's. The governor was allergic to them.
"Why is the robe shifting back and forth?" "Oh, thats just my tail!"
(might not work for the catgirls with fur on the body, but for those without one it could work)
I think this is ready for being posted as a side-story...
Quote:Mads behind the technology curve
Fenspace, Jenga Space Station
a few weeks after the Battle of Earth
A group of catgirls and the holographic avatar of Cortana are standing around an old and dented device on a workbench.
"This is Nina Ustinyavna, Catgirl Industries laser lab on Jenga, January 5th 2026. We are dissecting a weapon system acquired from the Leopard dropship Falling Hammer during the attempted pirate invasion of Earth."
An antigravity beam lifts the device as it is scanned optically from the outside.
"The device is a cubic box made from an unknown alloy. It is half a meter wide and high and point sixty five meters long, with a cylindrical extension through the center line. The mass of the device is 525 kg."
The device slowly descended back onto the workbench.
"I can see five electrical plugs and two attachments for tubes, each six centimeters diameter, on the surface. The front end of the cylinder is hollow. Mass and shape fits the description of a Medium Laser described in the Revised BattleTech Master Rules, 2001 edition."
"Oh this is just awesome, seeing one with my own eyes after playing with the miniatures" a different catgirl interrupts, "I wonder if its a pulse laser!"
"Keep focused, we want to do this by the books, we only have a limited amount of devices to work on. And its too early for a Pulse Laser anyways" Nina replies with a sigh, then she turns back to the laser. "The device is screwed shut with ten screws at the top... six torx, three cross slot and one slotted."
Nina measures the size of the screws and whistles. "Standard size, we should have fitting screw drivers! Incredible, they kept Earth standards for more than a millennia!"
A group of Exocomps rushes toward the screws and remove them carefully.
"NO. You can NOT take them, we might still need them for analysis later" she shouts before one of the Exocomps can get away with his screw. "Put it on the second bench now!"
The Exocomps makes some protesting noise but complies.
"I see several different types of components within" Nina says while holding a sensor over the device. "No electrical charge left, the device should be safe to handle. I can see a metal plate welded to the hull of the central assembly."
A telescope arm with a camera takes a picture that appears on a holographic screen.
"Defiance B3M 25/04/2683" she reads while the computer searches through the available BattleTech files. "It seems to be Defiance Industries Medium Laser, built on 25th April... 2683. The device might be more than 300 years old!"
"I am not sure if I should be impressed that this thing was killing our space drones left and right a month ago," Cortana's holographic avatar says and snickers, "or if I should get a headache that they have been using the same weapons for nearly four centuries."
"Cortana, this thing might have seen more time in combat than you are alive!" Nina replies and touches the laser carefully. "I don't think anyone from our Earth has ever built a machine that lasted that long, maybe except for some mechanical levers for church bells!"
"Most likely this Laser had a few generations of good mechanics" Cortana replies, "but lets keep focused. I like the idea to have a similar laser shooting at our enemies more than being the target myself."
"Can we do a few test-shots with this baby now?" a third catgirls asks, "I think it will make a wonderful light show!"
"Natallia, no testing until we are sure it will not explode in our face" Nina says sharply, "a Battlemech Laser is more dangerous than any weapon we have ever taken apart."
"Thats fine, I will just go and get us a small reactor" Natallia replies and hurries out of the room, humming a happy tune.
"Oh dear" Nina groans, "she might be our local expert on laser weapons, but if we cannot restrain her she might just kill all of us accidently."
~***~
"This is Nina Ustinyavna, Catgirl Industries lab on Jenga, January 9th 2026. We have reassembled the Defiance Industries Medium Laser and are ready for a first live fire test."
"Yes, yes, yes! Full power to all system, lets have a party!" Natallia cries excited. "Can I fire it?"
"Just a moment Natallia," Nina say and placed herself between Natallia and the control panel attached to the reactor. "The laser is still charging, you have to wait!"
"The controls were easy, no they were trivial to attach to the laser" Nina continues after a moment, "getting enough superconducting cable to attach the reactor was not. I begin to appreciate the simplicity of the design, someone made this weapon to last for an eternity. Or maybe two eternities."
Nina checks the numbers of the measurement probes attached to the laser for a last time.
"The capacitor inside the laser is nearly at 100% charge, we are taking our time with the charging. Otherwise we would have to use a bigger reactor and more cables" Nina says for the recording. "Our target is a small Nickel-Iron asteroid, roughly a meter across."
"Oh, the inner core of the laser is a crazy complicated mixture of crystalline structures" Natallia interrupts her, "with some nasty cracks right through the middle. I still betted against the odds that it will work fine and we will get our show!"
"As summarized in the last log, the laser core seems to be damaged" Nina says slowly to keep calm, "it might not survive the next shot. I have set up a security zone and we have installed a forcefield against incoming debris."
The control device beeps.
"Charging process is finished, we can begin the test." Nina says with a smile and turns to Natallia. "Would you do us the favor and press the lever, its the only way to keep you inside the secure perimeter."
"Haha, now you are mine you beautiful beast" Natallia states with a big smile on her face. "Open fire!" she finally shouts and pulls down the lever.
For a moment nothing happens except for a crackling noise from the Laser, then a mighty laser beam leaves the muzzle and hits the asteroid ore head one. A cloud of vaporized nitrogen obscures the whole laser for a moment.
"It worked, it worked... I won! The betting pot is mine!" Natallia squeals and both catgirls rush towards the laser. "Look, the whole core melted, thats why the cracks didn't matter!"
"Incredible, its a liquid laser, not a solid core one" Nina murmurs, then she looks at the asteroid ore. "I think we need a new target, this one has a large hole in it. The shot nearly penetrated right through."
"I CLAIM THIS ASTEROID" Natallia cries and races towards the piece of iron and rock. "The perfect memory for my first shot with this laser of doom! When can we shoot it again?"
~***~
From: Nina Ustinyavna jenga.ci.fen
To: MediumLaser btanalysis.convention.fen
Subject: Defiance Industries medium laser analysis
Hi,
we have finished our first analysis of the Defiance Industries B3M molten-crystal laser.
First, we are still scratching our heads about the base material of the laser. I don't think I have seen something similar before, so we have no valid theoretical model of the lasing material. I have sent parts of it to the Little Big Bang Labs, we should have a picture of the crystal structure in a few weeks. After that I want to start a brainstorming session how we can replicate the material… if we can do it at all.
Second, I would like to see some suggestions about a replacement for the laser optic. Its practically foolproof and very hard to damage, but the focusing unit is really bad for distance shots. Unfortunately everything we tested as a replacement was either a lot larger than the original or just fractured by the thermal stress after a few shots. We have still planned a few experiments with a waved hot-air lens, but it is too early to talk about results.
I have attached all experimental data and analysis to this mail, I think the B3M is a valid shot for reverse engineering our own combat laser.
Nina Ustinyavna
Attached: 35 files (1.4 GB)
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From: kj.dupree korolevgrad.ufp
To: Nina Ustinyavna jenga.ci.fen
CC: MediumLaser btanalysis.convention.fen
Subject Re: Defiance Industries medium laser analysis
> Unfortunately everything we tested as a replacement was either a lot larger than the original or just fractured from thermal stress after a few shots.
What about gravity lensing? I know that some people have been playing with that with mushy-to-hard tech in lab settings, maybe a viable thing to try for improvements past Inner Sphere baseline designs?
Just a thought, look forwards to more results.
KJ
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From: Nina Ustinyavna jenga.ci.fen
To: kj.dupree korolevgrad.ufp
CC: MediumLaser btanalysis.convention.fen
CC: Jenny lbbl.ci.fen
Subject Re: Defiance Industries medium laser analysis
> > Unfortunately everything we tested as a replacement was either a lot larger than the original or just fractured from thermal stress after a few shots.
> What's about gravity lensing?
That is a GREAT idea, I love it! And I am sure Jenny will love it too…
Jenny, do you read this? I will grab a fast vehicle and come back to the Labs… we have to test this!
Nina Ustinyavna
Heh, I like it. But it's not quite ready for primetime yet. You have some verb tense inconsistency -- flipping back and forth between past and present in the narration, for instance -- a lot of tiny punctuation errors ("Let's" always has an apostrophe unless it's a synonym for "allows or permits"), "millennia" is plural and should be "millennium" here, a couple other things. Have a good beta go over it and fix these.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
You know Mal, sometimes I feel like you're writing a story designed to go in the opposite direction of a large percentage of SpaceBattles posters opinions.
This is not a bad thing. It also means that the thread over there is fascinating reading.
I haven't checked the thread in quite a while, contenting myself with AO3. I should probably do so.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Also, 525kg? A medium laser eats a full ton....
And Greenwood has full-up gravitic lensing for lasers already, at this point. They do -not- have the liquid-crystal core you've described, though, so they don't match up to BT in performance, even if they outdo it well in range.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make
anything explode.
Bob Schroeck Wrote:Heh, I like it. But it's not quite ready for primetime yet. You have some verb tense inconsistency -- flipping back and forth between past and present in the narration, for instance -- a lot of tiny punctuation errors ("Let's" always has an apostrophe unless it's a synonym for "allows or permits"), "millennia" is plural and should be "millennium" here, a couple other things. Have a good beta go over it and fix these.
Yeah... but beta-readers are hard to get.
Maybe I should ask on the SB thread if someone is interested.
ECSNorway Wrote:Also, 525kg? A medium laser eats a full ton....
Damned, you are right... I should have checked the numbers more carefully, has been too long since I played BT.
Quote:And Greenwood has full-up gravitic lensing for lasers already, at this point. They do -not- have the liquid-crystal core you've described, though, so they don't match up to BT in performance, even if they outdo it well in range.
Did they Open-Sourced the technology before the BT iso?
If yes we have to change the mail exchange a little bit.
if not (but willing to do so now) we could add another mail from Greenwood to the thread. *G*
Not that it will prevent the cats from trying it out on their own anyways...
**looking at CitD SpaceBattles thread**
I hope this is just a small wave of "we want grim dark murder and failing Fen" event... :|
Been making my own way through the SB thread; I'm only on page 13 so I know not of what HRogge speaks. I just wanted to say that whatever is to come, please let us have at least the occasional return of Momo von Satan and the Cock.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Unfortunately Rog I am afraid that some people, none of which are CitD writers I don't think, have decided that Comstar needs to go and go hard. However, while I agree with some aspects of their arguments I am more about surgical removal of problem causing aspects instead of wholesale slaughter. I unlike the other ones am willing to wait and see though.
Alas. Spacebattles likes to inject grim and dark into everything. I think there are some people who frequent the board who do not know what to do with a more optimistic setting concept.
And I agree: Momo and The Cock is quality programming.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
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