How To Abandon Ship?

Fox2! wrote:
There are "gunports" in the sidewalls which open momentarily when weapons, whether missiles or energy, are fired. One hopes that enemy fire does not intrude during those milliseconds.

Which apparently they do from time to time since there are damage control reports of such-and-such tube is destroyed.

Fox2! wrote:

pappilon wrote:Not a tech head either but IIRC: alpha nodes generate the Warsawski sails, beta nodes generate the wedge which is an impenetrable grav layer on the top and bottom of the ship. hence the lack of need for protective armor plating. Sidewall generators create the sidewalls which are "stitched together (by handwavium, I assume) with the wedge. the missile laser impacts on the sidewall eventually overload the sidewall generators and they fail. At which point the ship is defenseless like the Enterprise when the shields are down in battle. At which point a prudent captain orders the crew to abandon ship. Since the sidewall generators are down but the wedge is still up, there is no need to punch a hole in it. But on the other hand there has to be a way to punch a hole in it to get a missile fired through it.

There are "gunports" in the sidewalls which open momentarily when weapons, whether missiles or energy, are fired. One hopes that enemy fire does not intrude during those milliseconds.

Alphas can generate a wedge or a sail. Betas can only produce a wedge, but in starships are normally used in conjunction with Alphas to strenghen the wedge and provide some redundancy. (Non hyper capable ships would have only beta nodes, and at least some freighters have only alpha nodes)

And in addition to the 'gunports' you can just drop an entire sidewall by turning off the sidewall generators. (Which is presumably what Ajax did)

There's no mention that Ajax lost her sidewalls, but the ship was still being evacuated, at least of anyone not absolutely critical personnel, because with her aft rings (alpha and beta) down due to losing the all the control and power runs to them she wasn't able to out accelerate her pursuers and wasn't able to escape the system (it was in a grav wave, so she needed both Alpha rings to run away in the grav wave). But because of all the advanced tech onboard the captain wasn't will to surrender her intact, so run to buy time to evacuate, then take as many enemy with you before your destruction.

How to abandon ship: While running: SCREAM:
ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP!
WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!! ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGG
SPACE HAMPSTERS ARE INVADING! AHOY MATEY!
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

pappilon wrote:

Fox2! wrote:
There are "gunports" in the sidewalls which open momentarily when weapons, whether missiles or energy, are fired. One hopes that enemy fire does not intrude during those milliseconds.

Which apparently they do from time to time since there are damage control reports of such-and-such tube is destroyed.

I never considered during storyline that these gunports were taken out from lucky hits at the right time, rather than from concentrated hits. During rereads, it will have more meaning. Thanks.

Interesting nonetheless. One wonders how these gun ports are managed. And I am the "one." It reminds me of the need for synchronization gear aboard war planes like the Messerschmitt.

pappilon wrote:

Fox2! wrote:
There are "gunports" in the sidewalls which open momentarily when weapons, whether missiles or energy, are fired. One hopes that enemy fire does not intrude during those milliseconds.

Which apparently they do from time to time since there are damage control reports of such-and-such tube is destroyed.

I tend to suspect that most tubes / grasers destroyed are from laserheads blasting through the intact sidewall (somewhat attenuated and diffused) rather than a beam slipping through the momentarily open ‘gunport’...

When gunports are taken out, that represents holes in the sidewall? I am certain that a ship would not want to take-on any more enemy fire at that location.

Utilizing the Star Trek template again, it would be similar to the damage reports given to the captain. "We've sustained damage to the forward shields Captain."

Which conceivably enables the captain to maneuver the ship while fighting in a manner that least exposes the forward shields to further hits. Which makes me wonder if in the Honorverse these damage reports has to be quickly assessed by commanders like Harrington in their maneuvers. Seems a lot to quickly digest while fighting and there is bound to be errors in maneuvers, like with Sword Simmons fighting Fearless.

In the case of gun ports lost on Havenite ships, I wonder if Apollo has the ability to "see" these ports or holes in the sidewalls and can adjust attack, or note the existence of these holes and send the info upstream to the ship for subsequent launches.

I know. I know. Star Trek is in my bones. I boldly went where no man had gone before. It is a long trek back!

cthia wrote:When gunports are taken out, that represents holes in the sidewall? I am certain that a ship would not want to take-on any more enemy fire at that location.

Utilizing the Star Trek template again, it would be similar to the damage reports given to the captain. "We've sustained damage to the forward shields Captain."

Which conceivably enables the captain to maneuver the ship while fighting in a manner that least exposes the forward shields to further hits. Which makes me wonder if in the Honorverse these damage reports has to be quickly assessed by commanders like Harrington in their maneuvers. Seems a lot to quickly digest while fighting and there is bound to be errors in maneuvers, like with Sword Simmons fighting Fearless.

In the case of gun ports lost on Havenite ships, I wonder if Apollo has the ability to "see" these ports or holes in the sidewalls and can adjust attack, or note the existence of these holes and send the info upstream to the ship for subsequent launches.

I know. I know. Star Trek is in my bones. I boldly went where no man had gone before. It is a long trek back!

You cannot "take out" a sidewall gun port, it's function of the sidewall around it. You can shoot through it when it is open, or burn out the sidewall it is a part of. But you cannot individually destroy a gun port.

Relax wrote:How to abandon ship: While running: SCREAM:
ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP!
WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!! ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGG
SPACE HAMPSTERS ARE INVADING! AHOY MATEY!
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Relax, I don't think that will do any good. As I understand it, the blaring sound of the klaxon is so ear piercingly loud it will wake the dead. Your screaming will not be heard amongst the dead of space.

Although, you may have suddenly answered one of my own questions since first touring navy ships...

"Why are the decks grated metal?"

It is so the shit and liquids running down a frightened soldiers legs won't aggregate in puddles causing someone to slip and break their neck.

.

The loss of a gunport does not leave a gaping hole open in the sidewall.

IIRC, gunports are generated by equipment which are part of each weapon mount, countermissile launcher and PDLC cluster. They open a temporary hole in the sidewall to allow their payload to pass through. Then they deactivate, closing the hole.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... rt.svg.png - basically, cutting the hatch ropes. True, it prevents effective use of the gun behind, but continues to protect the gun and its crew.

Theemile wrote:

cthia wrote:When gunports are taken out, that represents holes in the sidewall? I am certain that a ship would not want to take-on any more enemy fire at that location.

Utilizing the Star Trek template again, it would be similar to the damage reports given to the captain. "We've sustained damage to the forward shields Captain."

Which conceivably enables the captain to maneuver the ship while fighting in a manner that least exposes the forward shields to further hits. Which makes me wonder if in the Honorverse these damage reports has to be quickly assessed by commanders like Harrington in their maneuvers. Seems a lot to quickly digest while fighting and there is bound to be errors in maneuvers, like with Sword Simmons fighting Fearless.

In the case of gun ports lost on Havenite ships, I wonder if Apollo has the ability to "see" these ports or holes in the sidewalls and can adjust attack, or note the existence of these holes and send the info upstream to the ship for subsequent launches.

I know. I know. Star Trek is in my bones. I boldly went where no man had gone before. It is a long trek back!

You cannot "take out" a sidewall gun port, it's function of the sidewall around it. You can shoot through it when it is open, or burn out the sidewall it is a part of. But you cannot individually destroy a gun port.

Thanks Theemile for plugging another of the many holes in my sidewalls. LOL

But still a need for "synchronization (interrupter) gear?"