How To Abandon Ship?

penny wrote:But the ships are accelerating and maneuvering. Oops. If there is that much of an opening for spacers to get through, then what about laser heads? Lest you meant that that vast chasm is kept open only while evacuating; then closed. If that is the case, then a stealthy attack from a g-torp at just the right moment is going to blow the ass end out of a GA ship.

But you are only evacing from a ship which is already doomed. If the sidewalls are fully up and everything is working fine, you aren't leaving.

And if the ship is to the point where the crew is evacing, it's usually not fighting anymore - Who cares if it's attacked then - it is a weapon wasted on a dead ship. and why would you deliberately target a ship which isn't fighting back?

Theemile wrote:

penny wrote:But the ships are accelerating and maneuvering. Oops. If there is that much of an opening for spacers to get through, then what about laser heads? Lest you meant that that vast chasm is kept open only while evacuating; then closed. If that is the case, then a stealthy attack from a g-torp at just the right moment is going to blow the ass end out of a GA ship.

But you are only evacing from a ship which is already doomed. If the sidewalls are fully up and everything is working fine, you aren't leaving.

And if the ship is to the point where the crew is evacing, it's usually not fighting anymore - Who cares if it's attacked then - it is a weapon wasted on a dead ship. and why would you deliberately target a ship which isn't fighting back?

Regardless of whether the ship is still fighting and regardless of whether the ship is a total loss, the question still stands on how an evacuated spacer can gain access to “outer” space without incident while the ship is accelerating and maneuvering. Oftentimes a ship that has been badly damaged will unavoidably and haphazardly break out of formation. I suppose a vac suit has at least reaction thrusters. Better use the thrusters wisely and not run out. “Please fire one more time! Please fire one more time!” I hope those vac suits have been properly maintained and checked. And your skills had better not be rusty. Trying to gently set down the lunar lander in the old ‘80s game comes to mind. As a matter of fact, what is the visibility outside of the ship but inside the wedge and sidewalls for a spacer?

But essentially you are correct in your thoughts and Toll of Honor agrees. Paraphrasing, ‘When the Manties return they won't be concerned with ships that have already been mission killed.’ But some of those BBs were not mission killed; they simply couldn't get their wedge up in time. Which means that in a similar situation against a stealthed ship … burnt toast. (I agree, burnt toast anyway if the wedges are down.) But it is a moot point against the MAlign who will not hesitate to fire on a ship that is effectively already dead. The MAlign are not part of any treaties and they could care less about enemy spacers. In fact, they do care. The MA cares a lot; that they are dead. It is an attrition of a different sort that I suggested the MAlign can adopt as a tactic, which includes attriting qualified and experienced personnel. At any rate, I wanted to understand the manual on evacuating. Being splattered against the back of the ship at speeds should be put on the 1001 worst ways to die list floating about the forum somewhere. We know that that happens anyway to severely injured spacers who die as soon as they exit the ship in a vac suit. Occasionally some boats and life pods probably get splattered too.

But I do understand and agree with your thoughts. All exits, ports, doors and windows will be opened when evacuating. “Let me outta here!” It just won't be advisable in every circumstance but may be unavoidable. It is simply not a one-size-fits-all solution.

penny wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:We don't know for sure, but if someone did bail out in just their suit I suspect they'd try to push off to go out the open end of the sidewalls; when you bail out the sidewall is ~10 km away from you and at either end of the ship has an opening at least 1,800 km^2 wide -- so you don't need to be that precise to aim for that opening. (If the ship is accelerating I'd suggest pushing off opposite to its acceleration. It won't mater while you're still in its compensation field; but once you clear that field you want to ship to move away from you, not scoop you back up)

But normally I don't think people bail out from an airlock - if the ship isn't about to explode you're safer staying on the wreck if you can't get to an escape pod or small craft. (And if it is about to explode you're probably screwed even if you do bail out in a spacesuit). I suspect that normally you'd only find people floating around in their suits if they got blown clear of the ship by explosive decompression from a hit. In which case they just have to hope they don't hit the sidewall because they'd have no effective control over their trajectory

But the ships are accelerating and maneuvering. Oops. If there is that much of an opening for spacers to get through, then what about laser heads? Lest you meant that that vast chasm is kept open only while evacuating; then closed. If that is the case, then a stealthy attack from a g-torp at just the right moment is going to blow the ass end out of a GA ship.

sodewalls only protect the sides of the ship, and while the top and bottom are covered by the wedge the front and rear are open. (Unless you have bow/stern or buckler walls). And yes that’s a vulnerability to laserheads— that’s why a down the throat or up the kilt shot is so dangerous; no sidewall protection.
So while sidewalls are up there’s always an opening 20 km wide by about 100-150 km tall at their fore and aft end.


(Now a full bow wall will close that off. But a ship with a bow wall up isn’t (can’t be) accelerating or maneuvering,. And only the bow or the stern can be protected at any given time; so jump for the open end.

And the the ship can still accelerate and maneuver then you shouldn’t be jumping ioff it in your spacesuit; and conversely if abandon ship has been ordered then the ship likely struck its wedge to surrender and avoid taking more fire — but even if it didn’t the captain has an moral obligation to avoid maneuvers that would kill the crew ordered to abandon ship.

All that said though, abandoning ship in just a spacesuit is an act of desperation and a very risky one. You might well be killed attempting it. (Also from what we saw in HAR suits have very limited thrusters and if you expect to need to spacewalk you’d normally grab a thruster pack (like the one that Ginger was using that had been sabotaged. So unless there happens to be one of those handy when you decide to abandon ship without a lifeboat you’re not going to be maneuvering much).