Prediction: Spider Drive=Grav Lance

I was rereading Mission of Honor and there was a quick blurb that briefly mentions that at close range the spider drive can be used as a weapon. This got me thinking about something Weber said once.

"...I will also add that I didn't toss the grav lance out there in the very first book without the intention of doing A Little Something with it further down the line. Of course, just exactly what I do with it is for me to know and for you to... well, you get the picture."

With that in the back of my mind, A thought occurred to me. How terrifying would the Mesan fleet be if they could maneuver a stealth ship within 100,000 Km of an SD(P), tear down its sidewall and proceed to blast it into oblivion?

GabrialSagan wrote:With that in the back of my mind, A thought occurred to me. How terrifying would the Mesan fleet be if they could maneuver a stealth ship within 100,000 Km of an SD(P), tear down its sidewall and proceed to blast it into oblivion?

That would be, but at 300,000 km they can turn a SD into swiss cheese THROUGH the sidewall. Even longer if you can sneak up on it when it's in orbit with no wedge. I have no idea exactly how the MA is going to use their ships, but David has promised that they will be highly effective.

The grav lance is as much an engineering modification to the impeller drive as it is a weapon system. The grav lance reshapes the wedge such that it can project a spike of gravitic energy towards a target. In effect, it is a contact nuke missile's sidewall penetrator writ large. Since it requires a wedge, a spider drive ship cannot generate it.

Duckk wrote:The grav lance is as much an engineering modification to the impeller drive as it is a weapon system. The grav lance reshapes the wedge such that it can project a spike of gravitic energy towards a target. In effect, it is a contact nuke missile's sidewall penetrator writ large. Since it requires a wedge, a spider drive ship cannot generate it.

True, for the lance we're familiar with. But we don't know the power levels involved in the grav tractor spike the spider uses to grab the Alpha wall. It's not totally inconceivable that it's strong enough to disrupt a sidewall.

But I doubt they'd bother since you have to get so close. With a near invisible ship you could accomplish the same thing by sneaking around to get a down the thoat shot and using energy torps; why kill a sidewall when you can simple go where it isn't a problem.

Jonathan_S wrote:True, for the lance we're familiar with. But we don't know the power levels involved in the grav tractor spike the spider uses to grab the Alpha wall. It's not totally inconceivable that it's strong enough to disrupt a sidewall.

Or how far the legs of the spider drive extend, if they reach far enough with enough power, they might represent a functional warship-grade Crippler?

*flees*

Himself dealt with this one long ago [IIRC, it's in the FAQs]: spider has no effect on sidewalls, and won't operate through a sidewall.

Jonathan_S wrote:True, for the lance we're familiar with. But we don't know the power levels involved in the grav tractor spike the spider uses to grab the Alpha wall. It's not totally inconceivable that it's strong enough to disrupt a sidewall.

But I doubt they'd bother since you have to get so close. With a near invisible ship you could accomplish the same thing by sneaking around to get a down the thoat shot and using energy torps; why kill a sidewall when you can simple go where it isn't a problem.

The real question is how long will it take for counter measures to the spider drive to be developed?

pnakasone wrote:The real question is how long will it take for counter measures to the spider drive to be developed?

For preventing another attack like Oyster Bay, not long at all. The tricky part comes from when spider drive ships are deployed in tandem with conventional warships. The defenders would go after the enemies they can see while the enemies they can't slip in close and take out their targets.

GabrialSagan wrote:For preventing another attack like Oyster Bay, not long at all. The tricky part comes from when spider drive ships are deployed in tandem with conventional warships. The defenders would go after the enemies they can see while the enemies they can't slip in close and take out their targets.

It also tricky for the spider drive ships as they would not last long against conventional warships if noticed. Of course killing a SD for the cost of a spider drive ship could be considered a good trade.

pnakasone wrote:It also tricky for the spider drive ships as they would not last long against conventional warships if noticed. Of course killing a SD for the cost of a spider drive ship could be considered a good trade.

Don't worry, I'm sure David doesn't know about U-47.