Honor: Pimp My Ride

Remontoire wrote:One of Hemphill's more outlandish and impractical ideas has been rotting away out in the unicorn belt for the past few years.

The idea was to take an upscaled Junction Fort, strap on a hyperdrive and set of impellers. Add a few Xtra Thicc boat bays for 1 Saganami-C CA + 2 Avalon CL and a few hundred extra LAC's. Weld several dozen grav lances and energy torpedo launchers to the hull for safe measure, and now we're talking! This monstrosity has a dashingly obscene acceleration of 80g and a Warshawski sail the size of Old Earth's Texas. It was intended to be built in the Manticore system and then transferred through the lynx terminus to be spread out to the various Talbot systems as a stop-gap planetary defense station until the local building programs could get underway and take up the slack.

Needless to say a several hundred page report from the Treecat's most esteemed hyperphysisist "Sprints For Celery" quickly put to rest any far fetched fantasies BuShips may have had regarding the idea.

That is until....

When the dynamic duo out at Bolthole heard about Honor's questionable plans to go galavanting around the galaxy playing super mom, they immediately set to work finishing the project. Everyone knew that inevitably fecal matter was bound to clog up the rotary air impellers again, and that the only chance humanity had was to ensure the survival of their renowned Demi-Goddess.

No longer needing to focus on the utilitarian necessities of system defense, the designers have taken quite a few liberties with the interior of "Her Majesty's Space Station Copperwalls" Not the least of which is a series of fully pressurized interconnecting docking bay's for the 1 CA 2 CL complement of "Small Craft" HMSS Copperwalls carries. With some creative programming of the envriosystems a truly innovative system of constantly changing thermals allows endless hours of challenging hang gliding through the hangers & around the hulls of docked ships.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Duke of Crometry

cthia wrote:An aside because I didn't get another memo. According to a passage in UH, the bow walls aren't always active, even when the wedge is up. Why is that?

I know it's a separate process and the bow walls have to be energized, but that's not what I'm asking. In UH, it appears they aren't brought up until it appears they will be needed.

cthia wrote:An aside because I didn't get another memo. According to a passage in UH, the bow walls aren't always active, even when the wedge is up. Why is that?

I know it's a separate process and the bow walls have to be energized, but that's not what I'm asking. In UH, it appears they aren't brought up until it appears they will be needed.

Theemile wrote:It's never been stated, but the simple answer is probably system wear: the more use, the shorter the life of the components. I don't believe it was ever stated that the normal sidewalls were always up when the wedge is in use either.

"And finally, the R&D boffins have come up with something really nice for these ships." Truman smiled at her audience like a shark. "As we all know, it's impossible to close the bow or stern aspect of an impeller wedge with a sidewall, right?" Heads nodded once again. "And why is that, Lieutenant Takahashi?" she asked genially.
The lieutenant looked at her for a moment, with the expression of someone whose Saganami Island days were recent enough in memory to make him wary of leading questions. Unfortunately, she was a senior-grade captain and he was only a junior-grade lieutenant, which meant he had to answer her anyway.
"Because cutting off the stress bands' n-space pocket with a closed wedge prevents you from accelerating, decelerating, or using the wedge to change heading, Ma'am," he replied. "If you want the math—?"
"No, that's all right, Lieutenant," she said. "But suppose you don't want to accelerate or decelerate? Couldn't you generate a 'bow' sidewall then?"
"Well, yes, Ma'am, I suppose you could. But if you did you'd be unable to change—" Takahashi stopped speaking suddenly, and Lieutenant Commander Stackowitz gave a sharp, abrupt nod.
"Exactly," Truman told them both. "The idea is that LACs will attack single starships in sufficient numbers that it will always be possible for them to close obliquely. The new missile tubes, coupled with the recent improvements in seekers, molycircs that can handle higher-grav vector shifts, and a higher acceptable delay between launch and shipboard fire control's hand-off to the missile's on-board systems, will let them fire effectively at up to a hundred and twenty degrees off bore. That means the Shrikes can engage with missiles—and launch counter-missiles against incoming fire—even on an oblique approach. Once they reach energy range, however, they turn directly in towards their targets and bring up their 'bow' sidewall . . . which has only a single gunport, for the graser, and is twice as powerful as the broadside sidewalls. That makes it as tough as most dreadnought's sidewalls, people, and according to the Advanced Tactical Course's simulators, a target as small as a bow-on LAC should be much harder to hit than a larger warship engaging broadside-to-broadside even under normal circumstances. When you add the sort of electronic warfare capabilities these ships have, they turn into even harder targets, and the presence—and power—of their 'bow' sidewalls should make them harder to kill even if the bad guys do manage to lock them up."

tlb wrote:No, it has been stated. If either the bow or stern aspect is completely closed by a protective wall, then the ship is unable to accelerate or turn (except by using thrusters). That is why they came up with the buckler, which only partly closes the aspect; in addition to the full bow and stern walls.

cthia wrote:Thanks for the info tlb. Theemile.

I wasn't aware that Sidewalls don't go up until needed either. It just seems like at the moment you hyper into a hostile system, or a hostile force hypers into your system, or simply because your skin is crawling or Honor is rubbing her Pinnochio -- it seems the Sidewalls, the Bow Walls and the Buckler should be activated. What if a ship is lying doggo, in stealth? As Honor did in the wargames. As the Sharks and LDs undoubtedly will do.

How long does it take to bring each of them up? I got the feeling the time is significant, as far as the bow walls are concerned. So I'm going to assume I can apply it across the board.

Theemile wrote:No text has been given on why the buckler cannot be up constantly.

cthia wrote:I wasn't aware that Sidewalls don't go up until needed either. It just seems like at the moment you hyper into a hostile system, or a hostile force hypers into your system, or simply because your skin is crawling or Honor is rubbing her Pinnochio -- it seems the Sidewalls, the Bow Walls and the Buckler should be activated. What if a ship is lying doggo, in stealth? As Honor did in the wargames. As the Sharks and LDs undoubtedly will do.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:When hypering in to a hostile system you haven't scouted previously, you should be cleared for action. That is, sidewalls up, bucklers up, crew in shipsuits (not uniforms). On a CLAC, the ready squadron should be aboard their ships and ready to launch.

UH wrote:"Missile defense Reno, aye, sir." Wozniak replied. "Missile Defense has good tracking says from the Ghost Riders, and bow walls are active...now." He looked over his shoulder and smiled at the commodore. "I think these people are in for a surprise, Sir."

cthia wrote:How long does it take to bring each of them up? I got the feeling the time is significant, as far as the bow walls are concerned. So I'm going to assume I can apply it across the board.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:I don't remember reading anyone say how long it is, but I've always got a feeling it's rather quick, but not instantaneous.