Path to Darius (Spoilers)

Finding Darius! How about the long way? Going far back! How was mankind start to the stars? They don´t useing freezers to Scout Systems! They already Know that there is a habitable planet! Why? Because they use telescopes and Long range sensors to search for them!

So, start searching for not catalogiezed planets in the neigborhood of Mesa! If you put all Systems to the side who are already habitated it will be a Job with good chances of success!

Maldorian wrote:Finding Darius! How about the long way? Going far back! How was mankind start to the stars? They don´t useing freezers to Scout Systems! They already Know that there is a habitable planet! Why? Because they use telescopes and Long range sensors to search for them!

So, start searching for not catalogiezed planets in the neigborhood of Mesa! If you put all Systems to the side who are already habitated it will be a Job with good chances of success!

That plan is based on Darius being near Mesa. If it isn't the plan is useless

Hmm, where did I put the popcorn...

Roguevictory wrote:

Maldorian wrote:Finding Darius! How about the long way? Going far back! How was mankind start to the stars? They don´t useing freezers to Scout Systems! They already Know that there is a habitable planet! Why? Because they use telescopes and Long range sensors to search for them!

So, start searching for not catalogiezed planets in the neigborhood of Mesa! If you put all Systems to the side who are already habitated it will be a Job with good chances of success!

That plan is based on Darius being near Mesa. If it isn't the plan is useless

Not to mention that Darius does not actually need to be a "habitable" planet. It could have been a planet that was investigated by the hyper capable scouts in the early days, and dismissed because something on the planet would kill any body who took a breath.

Masa has the best genitic manipulators in the known universe. On planet that is fatal to everyone else, they could just make people who aren't bothered by it.

And if it is an invisable change, all of the star lines could already have it in their code.

Darius is in the verge so in known space, even if the region has not been surveyed properly. and it must be a desolate region as it seemed like quite a developed system, so would attrack trade ship traveling by.

Maldorian wrote:Finding Darius! How about the long way? Going far back! How was mankind start to the stars? They don´t useing freezers to Scout Systems! They already Know that there is a habitable planet! Why? Because they use telescopes and Long range sensors to search for them!

So, start searching for not catalogiezed planets in the neigborhood of Mesa! If you put all Systems to the side who are already habitated it will be a Job with good chances of success!

Unfortunately, the GA doesn't know that Darius has an inhabitable planet. It could as easily be a duplicate of Yildun, where everyone lives in space habitats around a very young star, too young to have habitable planets.

They already know about 5,000 systems which are inhabited, inside the League and outside, visited at least once by the RMMM. That does not help significantly, as they still have ~1,599,995,000 systems to check... and those systems need to be visited again anyway, for diplomatic purposes.

SWM wrote:Read David's infodump in the last URL I posted. It contains David's explanation. Yes, there are traffic lanes, and those are merely for traffic control. But the actual entrance and exit of a wormhole has to be made from a very narrow aspect angle, with your Warshawski sail engaging the grav shear of the wormhole. If you deviate from that narrow lane, you get torn apart.

Ok, but follow me for a thought experiment, please. Assuming you find some asteroids, big (and stable) enough to hole them out and put a ship into each of them - and then you put some alpha-impellers on the surface of the asteroids and (with the help of some big-assed traktors) put them exactly into the entry-lane of a terminus. Say, the asteroids in question have around 20 million tons, that makes for - what? 2 or 3 minutes, before the lane is open again after a transit? - Ok, say 5 minutes, to be on the safe side. And put a vessel into only one of the first 3 or 4 asteroids you send through - after all, you wont risk more people than necessary, but you will - if there is a chance - begin exploring as early as possible, 1st. And 2nd, in case there is a host, you have to make sure, your host is adequately distracted.

And your host will be distracted, because he knows for sure, that no asteroid is able to come through a terminus or junction without some heavy tinkering with it, first, so he'll attack as soon as the asteroids come calling. But he has to go through some meters of rock first to get to the ships he assumes have to be on the inside - and the rock itself could be fitted with additional armor around the hole where you put the ship, so the host has some real work to do first. And 5 minutes after the first asteroid comes the second; and 5 minutes after the second comes the third and so on.

We know, that only relatively small forces cover the exit of the Torch-Bridge. (1 or 2 BC-Squadrons, if memory serves). Manticore can only guess. But they can assume, that the defenses (if there are some defenses at all) are on the small side. Simply because of the secrecy of the thing. And a cruiser- or battlecruiser-squadron is made for long-time absences from home (on showing the flag missions, for example) - a squadron or two of wallers on the other side are most probably part of the homefleet, if it's nation is not engaged in a war. Additionally, chances are good, too, that the exit point is not near an inhabited system - else it would be most probably a known exit ...

So, if you put 20 or 30 prepared asteroids into the terminus, one after the other ... don't you think, at least some of them could go through mostly unharmed and put - say, some Rolands into places there the host does not want them to be? And go back to friendly territory, afterwards?

Searching with Telescopes for Darius!

Maybe it has no habitable planet in System, but you don´t have to search for habitable planets! What is with all the emissions of our civilisation? All the Radio waves? Search for them and you find a settled System with a high tech civilisation!

Maldorian wrote:Searching with Telescopes for Darius!

Maybe it has no habitable planet in System, but you don´t have to search for habitable planets! What is with all the emissions of our civilisation? All the Radio waves? Search for them and you find a settled System with a high tech civilisation!

Umm, they are deliberately trying to hide. So they will not be broadcasting "I Love Lucy" on megawatt transmitters. It's going to be "difficult" to pick up the equivalent of a 3 watt cell phone at 20 light years range.

Maldorian wrote:Searching with Telescopes for Darius!

Maybe it has no habitable planet in System, but you don´t have to search for habitable planets! What is with all the emissions of our civilisation? All the Radio waves? Search for them and you find a settled System with a high tech civilisation!

Those signals do not propogate faster than light. So at 20 light years, you would be looking for broadcasts made 20 years ago and so on. As kzt pointed out, the Dariusans aren't going to be making broadcasts that powerful.

Dropping out of hyper well above or below the star in respect to its planets' orbital plane will let you have a quick, clean look at the system. At either of the star's poles, shipboard telescopes should be able to see light reflected by anything - you just point them at a planetary crescent and wait for satellites, stations or ships to emerge from the shadow with a reflective flash as the sunlight hits them.

The only problem with that tactic(aside from the huge number of stars to check!) is, it'll take a few hours to complete the observations, unless you're lucky enough to catch Albrecht's yacht with impellers up, and that's enough time for hunter-killers to attack or set up an ambush in hyperspace when you leave.