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+--- Thread: [Short/Submission] The Peacemaker Class (/showthread.php?tid=2181)
[Short/Submission] The Peacemaker Class - Black Aeronaut - 09-05-2008
At first I thought that having B-52's would be flippin'
cool. Then, while checking out the Wikipedia article on the BUFFs, I stumbled upon something that I knew would be a much better fit. Comment at will. ^_^ Quick
edit to fix some gun calibers.
"Okay, Gina. What were the
damages this time?"
"Alpha Squad reports that the settlement is effectively
gone. No survivors. Anything of value - ships, raw materials, even the bodies - are all gone."
"You mean they took their bodies?"
"Yeah. I don't even want to think about what
they're using them for."
Benjamin sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. The
office he was sitting in was elegant. Carved out of the bare rock as were most of the chambers in 36 Atalante, the mottled brown stone of the asteroid was a
soothing look, far better than the taupe that the Dane's like to use in their offices. To Ben's right, bookshelves that were carved into the stone wall
held a great variety of books. This small library consisted of simple annotated records, technical documents of the ships in their fleet, accounting books,
references, and one or two fictional novels for light reading during self-prescribed breaks.
The desk was a massive wooden behemoth and it was beaten six
ways to Sunday. It was scratched and gouged, and in a few notable spots it bore burn scars. However, despite the haggard appearance, closer examination showed
that it was still solid as a rock and the drawer's fittings and slides were still perfectly functional. Visitors to Ben's office often wondered why in
space's name he would have something so beaten up looking. Those that knew him well enough understood that for someone like Ben, it was all too easy to see
the character the desk bore. That and he liked it for the texture. Benjamin wasn't one to pad his writing surface, so the one area that had been sanded
down smooth, but left unfinished, was the area he did most of the paperwork.
The chair was another matter. It was an odd, spare looking
powder-finished aluminum frame with strong, slightly elastic fabric stretched over it to form the seating surface and back rest. It breathed very nicely and it
was quite comfortable. Rather than rollers, it was suspended from a track in the ceiling by girder made of polished rebar. The track circled around the desk
and to the bookshelves, giving Ben easy access to his library when he needed it.
Last, but not least, was a rack of potted plants that dominated
the wall and corner opposite of the entrance to the office. The variety of plants in this garden was an eclectic one, but half consisted of cacti and
succulents. Others of note were an ivy plant that was starting to take over parts of that wall and a sizable bonsai tree. A sunlamp kept the plants happy and
Gina reminded Benjamin always to water the plants.
In the middle of the office was also a wooden coffee table
situated neatly in the middle, decorated by a small aloe plant and a Japanese tea set. There was a couch opposing the desk on the other side of the coffee
table and a thickly padded armchair sat at the head. That chair was solely reserved for one person.
Of course, that person was sitting in it.
Gina had been frowning over the reports she had in her hands.
With the lithe body of a highly active fourteen year-old-girl, she easily curled up into the chair like some cat-girl. The imagery was not helped by the
high-bandwidth ether-wave transceivers she had that looked just like the A-10 clips from Evangelion.
"Something has to be done about this," she said,
looking up to Benjamin. "Please tell me you've been thinking about this."
Benjamin cocked an eyebrow then smiled despite the situation.
"You know me."
"And I know that smirk. You've got an idea you
haven't shared with me yet."
"Rough idea," he confirmed. "Nothing concrete
yet."
"So what did you have in mind?"
The wall opposite of the bookshelf had a massive handwaviumized
plasma-screen TV. It served as a satellite to the much smaller flat-panel monitor on his desk. At Gina's askance, Benjamin drilled a command on his
keyboard and the big screen came to life, depicting a truly huge, silver aircraft. The size was not the only jarring thing about it - it had six propellers on
the trailing edges of the wings and four jet engines on the outer edges that bore a strong familial resemblance to those seen on a B-52.
"A B-36?" said Gina, raising an orange eyebrow as
well, then her eyes became distant as she focused more on her ether-wave connection. "Accessing B-36 entry on Wikipedia-dot-com. Wow. I can see how that
would be useful. Especially the bit about it being used as the mother ship for those experimental parasite fighters." She came back out of her net-dive
and refocused her eyes on Benjamin. "Still, think that's a little overkill?"
"You look at those reports again and tell me what you
think."
"Point. But still, how are we gonna get that? Something
like this is gonna be expensive as all hell, and we can just forget about getting anything from Earth. The Air Force still isn't on speaking terms with you
since they discovered where their Blackbird went."
Ben shrugged. "It'll be expensive alright, but I think
we can get Haruhi to lend us a hand once more. After all, it is for OGJ. And we won't need an intact bird. In fact, all I want is a few original pieces to
put into each one we'll be building."
"I guess that can be arranged. How many do you want to
build?"
"Four - two for constant patrol, one on standby, and one
in maintenance. All being cycled around, of course."
"Still..." she eyed the image on the big screen once
more. "Shiest, these things were huge. Do you really think we can keep them here?"
"Well, they'll mostly have to be docked externally,
but I'm pretty sure we can easily build a hangar to keep one inside for repair work and maintenance. That or we can put in a call to The Professor. If
anyone can give us a hangar that's bigger on the inside than it is outside, it would be him."
"Oh no. Please tell me his assistants won't be
coming."
"Sorry, you know he can't get anything done without
their help. Strange happenings or not."
Gina sighed in defeat. "Right. I assume you want to use
them with the Fezigs."
"Absolutely. I also figure that we can build modular
accommodations to give the crew and pilots a place to eat and sleep during the patrols."
"How will the pilots get to their Fezigs
then?"
"I think we can have them space-walk. They'll use a
life-line until they're secured in their seats, then close the canopy once the line is retracted."
"That would be kinda slow though."
"Hmm... We can use handle-tracks like they have in some
ships in the Gundam anime. That should make things go a bit more quickly."
"I hope so. These are people's lives, Ben. It bugs me
to think that we're sitting here wasting time when they're out there dying."
"I know, Gina. It bugs me too, but there isn't much we
can do about it except to continue making plans."
"Alright. Ditch the props?"
"You bet. Gonna replace them with the same system we have
in our production-model Blackbirds, maybe slightly different since we want more raw power than speed."
"Not an acceleration drive then?"
"Mostly, no, but I want acceleration drive boosters in
place of the original's jet engines."
"That makes sense. It sounds like we can do this, then.
Shall we get started on the proposal?"
"Yes, lets."
Peacemaker
Class
Registry Number
CV/B-###-RGR
Base Hull:
Original - Based on B-36 Peacemaker
Drive Type:
Speed - 6 independently powered ion engines
Acceleration - 4 short duration fusion torches
Drive Rating:
Speed - 0.065c
Acceleration - 30g
Purpose: Heavy assault platform, super carrier, and long-range patrol.
Owner of Record:
The Roughriders
Primary Manufacturer:
Gnarlycurl and Hepheastus
Launched: TBD
Crew:
1 CO (Pilot)
1 XO (Co-Pilot)
2 Relief Pilots
2 Navigators
2 Coms Operators/Airbosses
1 Bombadier
8 Gunners
Supplementary
Crew:
8 Fighter Pilots
2 Flight Engineers
Faction: The Roughriders
Current Status:
Awaiting Debut
Armament
- 6 Retractable 20mm Vulcan Turrets
- 2 Fixed 20mm Vulcan Turrets (nose and
tail)
- 4 Modular Bays rated at 21,500 lbs. of
capacity
Class Quirks
- I'm Not a Lemon: Like the aircraft they are derived from, these beasts find some pretty interesting ways to break.
Fortunately, they'll faithfully hold together until they get back home.
- Keeps
On Truckin': They may be slow and unwieldy, but God help you if you get in their way.
Trivia
- Not as uncomfortable as their predecessors,
these space-planes have four very large modular bays that can have
self-contained crew quarters 'dropped' inside with no fuss whatsoever.
- The Peacemaker Class may not be the fastest
thing out there, but it packs the biggest wallop in its size-class. For straight-up 'bombing' runs, the modular bays can be converted from crew
quarters to missile bays so the 86,000 lb. capacity of these monsters can be put to full use.
- Buy Yours Today! The Peacemaker doesn't
just drop bombs! Use it to transport precious valuables through the more dangerous parts of Known Space, or contact The Roughriders to contract their armed
transport services!
Don't worry about teh wiki-markup. I'll handle that once you guys give this the approval.
- robkelk - 09-06-2008
I'm thinking "too fast" - these monsters, as currently described, can keep up with the average 'waved four-seater car. Barely, I'll grant, but it still steals some of the "cool factor" from the smaller vehicles.
Other ships in this rough size class:
- The Inelegant Truth, a converted crabber, has trouble making past 0.06c (although she can make 0.09c in an emergency).
- The Starbug 1 can only make 0.05c
- The Xenu Express, a converted DC-8, makes 0.065C
(Tangent: This makes me realize that the Epsilon Blade is a slowpoke for her size... Anybody mind if I retcon her top speed to 0.075c?)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- Black Aeronaut - 09-06-2008
I'd be an ass-hole if I said that you couldn't speed up The Blade some. And I'll go ahead and drop the Speed Drive ratings some. Does Speed = 0.065 and Acceleration = 30g sound good?
EDIT: I think I ought to explain her Fusion Torch boosters briefly so no one gets terribly miffed. These boosters are swiped from the VVS after they made their most excellent Torch-Burner Fighter (I wouldn't have been all that miffed if Fnord had made them as fuel efficient as Midnight and her sisters). The fusion torch engines used by the Peacemakers are just as bad at guzzling fuel since they're based on the VVS design, but Benjamin had a brilliant idea. Seeing as the ships aren't dependent on the fusion torches as their primary source of propulsion, and the original B-36's had intakes, then why not put some ram-scoops on that puppy to collect fuel along the way?
This satisfies the idea that the jet-engine look-alike fusion torches are strictly boosters, and enures their continued use even after their fuel supply is depleted becuase you can collect more along the way... although it'll take a while to do so, so the crews are encouraged to be frugal in their use.
As for the cool factor... I can only shrugg because I thought of it first. Besides, it's not like it's an exclusive item. Buy yours today, and all.
- robkelk - 09-06-2008
Quote: I'd be an ass-hole if I said that you couldn't speed up The Blade some. And I'll go ahead and drop the Speed Drive ratings some. Does Speed = 0.065 and Acceleration = 30g sound good?Sounds good to me, although you're going to need some inertial dampeners for that 30G acceleration. (Luckily, that's a trivial application of 'waved gravity-tech.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- Black Aeronaut - 09-06-2008
I'd imagine that since the Wave doesn't like hurting people (unless whatever we're talkin' weapons) that it throws that in as part of the
package with any Acceleration Drive system.