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[Prompt]Elephant Sightings #024. Spotted on Mars
[Prompt]Elephant Sightings #024. Spotted on Mars
#1
Welcome to another edition of Elephant Sightings

Now then, there's been a stir in the defense industry over these spy shots taken at a test-range on Mars. Now then, I'm opening the question to the floor.

What is this thing?

[Image: 63MfsKr.jpg]

Beside it's a target drone so it's clearly supposed to be a combat craft of some sort, but I've never seen anything at all like this. L
So, first and formost, we have no obvious cockpit. Now, we have space towards the nose that could be a cockpit and would definitely be large enough to fit a pilot but no overt openings. That means one of two things. Either it has some sort of VR interior cockpit, or it's a drone. A VR cockpit could mean a lot of interesting things and I've heard through the back channels that at leat two or three of the major manufacturers are working on something just like it. Because only one manufacturer I know has that sort of drone technology.

It seems to be some sort of lifting body with truncated wings. Two obvious engines beneath fairs and a very deliberate dedication to Stealth technology. This is clearly a fairly adavanced piece of kit, whomever's behind it.

Anyway, for the time being, we're going to call it the Bodkin. Because it kind of looks like one. At least until I get a better name for what it is or what it can do. Or who built it. But somebody out there's building some advanced kit, and I have to wonder who, and why?

Until next time. Keep a watch out for those Elephants.

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(Because just sticking an image link in the other thread seemed a bit dull. I thought it'd be nice to give people a little something to jump off if they want to start a story. Next poster can set the date, timeframe or tell what it is.)
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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#2
Now, I have three guesses as to what the Bodkin is. In decreasing order of likelihood:

1) It’s a mockup for some show/movie. I’ve heard that someone’s up to something along those lines.
2) Someone’s trying to copy the Woodsman UCAVEDI’s. And doing a piss poor job of it; I mean, the Woodsman already have the stealth, the lifting body, and the FLYING WING tech. This thing has vertical stabilisers. That and the Woodsman has been through the ranges with and without the Black Talons as wing-leaders.
(If you want to know, the runs were full on ‘splash-us-if-you-can’ deep penetration live fire exercises. 100/100, zero collateral, zero damage, 340 seconds duration max (with the Black Talons)).
And you can pilot a Woodsman, though to get the most out of one you need one of those Inertial Damper Plugsuit things.
3) Eddie’s playing with interstellar range patrol drones. There are a few people who know things, and they are all saying Golden Bail and Damogran are pulling in resources. The last time they both did that at the same time we got the Simurgh class. Though I’d wonder why he’d be testing on Mars so early, with how much sim power the Forge has.
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#3
Reminds me of a heavy atmos skimmer/diver, something meant to skip across the upper atmos of a high grav planet while doing survey work or pulling whatever gasses you want out of the upper levels.

Couldn't tell you why one would be on Mars though. As for the cockpit, the damn thing could be accessed from underneath, its probably small as hell.
 
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#4
From: "R.Celestia" (solcompassio@nlr.fen)
To: Military Fen ML (recipient list supressed)
Subject: RE: Elephant Sightings #24. Spotted on Mars
Date: 31 July 2017

-------------------------------------

Thank you for putting this out on the interweave. Several of my analysts brought this to my attention earlier today, and I believe I may be able to shed at least some light on the design lineage and potential reasons for its development. Given recent developments in fenspace between the New Lunar Republic and other factions, I believe this may be a testbed to attempt to copy the hull plan of our line fighters. Given our recent break into the hull production field of industry, someone may be throwing some resources at attempting to copy our hull designs to see what advantage we receive from the Mk2 hull family. In particular would be the short-range heavy fighter we have under development at the Crystal Dome. No, I can assure you that this vessel is not ours, both from the design of what is presumably the cockpit section, and from the fact that the wings from our vessel are both missing as the primary major differences. Given the hull materials, the missing portions of the design, and such, this may be a sensor reflection mockup to test how stealthy our craft might be, or this may be a similar case of the similarities between the F-22 and the T-50, or between the F-35 and the chinese J-31/F-60.

[Image: TCn6N3k.png]

Our own design, currently labeled the XF-2, has been spotted by our competitors several times over the past six months as we have put the test craft through a rather vigorous test regime, giving them ample time to put test-beds into production to test the general characteristics of our design choices. The photo I have supplied is our own prototype rounding the Earth on the way back to our landing strips near our dome. There are numerous differences, of course. Primarily the removed (or never-intended) wings on the test article in the article, and particularly the engines. We use a twin-cycle engine much like the SABER design from Britain, along with-*Ahem*. I must apologize, I almost gave away a state secret as to the performance we gain from our design. To continue on, there is also the upper hull level. Ours mirrors on top and bottom to form an oval cross section, while one might notice the rather odd upper cross section of this test piece. My analysts suggest it may be a manufacturer-specific design idiosyncrasy much like the european love of canards or our own love of delta wings. However, I do believe this may be a finalized design, and this no more than a concept test bed, much like the American's 'X-Plane' program.
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#5
From: Ramona Jackson (rj@pilotsguild.helium.fen)
To: Military Fen ML (recipient list supressed)
Subject: RE: Elephant Sightings #024. Spotted on Mars
Date: 31 July 2017

That's ... nothing I'd seen before today, so it isn't based out of any of the Helium test ranges. Which means it isn't something that Great Justice is building. Of course, somebody else could be building it for GJ.

Avril and I took a good (long-distance) look at the Kuat Drive Yards test ranges while we were making a areographic photography run for Google, and we saw your elephant being wheeled into one of their hangars. This birdie does look something like that royal ship out of Episode I; maybe that's what they're trying to build.

If it is a Warsie bird, who's funding it and why did they wait so long to build it? And why is it so small compared to the source material?

If it isn't a Warsie bird, how did they get their hands on it?

RJ
--
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
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#6
From: Tom Rutley (old_man_tom@intermail.fen)
To: Military Fen ML (recipient list supressed)
Subject: RE: Elephant Sightings #024. Spotted on Mars
Date: 31 July 2017
Quote:Avril and I took a good (long-distance) look at the Kuat Drive Yards test ranges while we were making a areographic photography run for Google, and we saw your elephant being wheeled into one of their hangars. This birdie does look something like that royal ship out of Episode I; maybe that's what they're trying to build.

If it is a Warsie bird, who's funding it and why did they wait so long to build it? And why is it so small compared to the source material?
It might be a scale model for aerodynamic tests, maybe an unpowered glider or even a wind tunnel mock-up. As to the who and the why, my mildly educated guess is that Kuat's trying to make a sportier competitor for the Bolithio.
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#7
From: Chris Wood (ChrisWood@VoidShipping.fen)To: Military Fen ML (recipient list supressed)Subject: RE: Elephant Sightings #024. Spotted on MarsDate: 31 July 2017
Quote:It might be a scale model for aerodynamic tests, maybe an unpowered glider or even a wind tunnel mock-up.
I think you might be on to something. We've still got no official confirmation, but at this point, it's pretty much accepted fact that the new odd shaped dome Kuat's been growing on the edge of their yards, right next to those hangers, is an all-environment wind tunnel facility to replicate just about every atmosphere in the 'verse.
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