cthia wrote:I use hemisphere only as a more efficient manner to designate all positive bearings towards the junction. The negative hemisphere would comprise all negative bearings which may have to reverse course to obtain the proper bearing necessary for transit.
That still makes assumptions not validated by textev.
I'm not sold on random ejection from the junction. If that were the case, there would be random transit lanes. Yet, the transit lanes are locked to a specific bearing determined by ships like Harvest Joy. If ejection is random, then a fleet of ships would emerge all scattered about, on bearings as wildly haphazard and random as the results of two wildly divergent astrogators. Plus, I don't recall storyline ever stating that a warship has to reverse course before heading in-system. If Honor would have had to do that at BoM, all could have been lost.
That's not what I meant. I meant that the orientation of the inbound and outbound vectors is arbitrary, with respect to one another and the parent star. They do not have to be oriented in any particular way, such as all pointing in the direction of the star or away from it.
Once found, a vector remains stable fr the duration of the wormhole's existence.
On the one hand, limitations in lane size is stressed. On the other hand, discussions about how ships are stacked far enough apart are bandied about. If an entire fleet can use one lane in a mass transit then that isn't so constrained in size as far as this discussion goes. I would also imagine the lanes are somewhat grouped together, offering an impressive overall area in conjunction (pardon the pun.) Which, taken together, should go a long way in blocking return fire from certain aspects about the positive hemisphere of the junction.
We don't have a detailed explanation of how a mass transit works. But also note that the cylinder of the departure lane is much bigger than a ship, especially if the wedges are down. Ships are
small compared to anything else, with the largest of them being no bigger than 500 m wide. You can fit a lot of ships abreast in the lane and definitely a lot of them back to back. My guess is that a mass transit is accomplished by having all the ships in the departure lane at the same time, back to back, with Warshawski sails on. Everyone that is in the departure lane transits, then the WH locks down.
I agree that space outside the junction is normal. And, light simply has to pass thru the junctions or ships would find themselves being somewhat occluded by the junction. But, just because light passes thru the junction from the positive hemisphere allowing detection of enemy ships in the negative hemisphere, doesn't mean GA ships can fire thru the junction hitting LDs which are essentially on a bearing directly behind the Junction and its mess of transit lanes. Certainly not a missile attack. And I suspect energy weapons aren't as accurate.
I don't agree, but this argument is irrelevant, since the forts are all over the volume of the Junction, so they and more importantly the missile pods will have line of sight to the LDs wherever they are.
Has both been done? Firing from inside out, and from outside in? Interesting point, I can't decide which would/should be affected more, if they both are affected somewhat.
At least from outside in, yes (Battle of Ajay-Prime). I'm assuming the opposite is true since physical phenomena tend to be reversible in space (though there are known exceptions).
A course correction from a completely opposite bearing from the planet could take a significant amount of time to completely reverse acceleration. And if this exit from the junction is indeed random then all the ships in the fleet should be scattered and they must take time to regroup before charging on. It also sounds like a fleet could be defeated in detail upon exit before they reform.
No, it couldn't. Even if the arrival lane is directly opposite of the planet, the arrival velocity is very low. Well, at leat the departure velocity is slow, since ships are effectively waiting in queue and then accelerate at 20 gravities. Plus, everything we know about hyperspace is that it bleeds momentum and kinetic energy. So there's no reason the wormhole would spit ships out at high speed.
That being the case, once the ship exits the arrival lane, turning around to orient towards the planet is less than a minute of acceleration under full impeller power, especially for warships. So, no, it wouldn't be mentioned.
As for randomness, see above for the misunderstanding.
For all intents and purposes, I think we can assume they do have mass because 1. They exert gravitational influence on certain regions of space. 2. This gravitational influence varies from wormhole to wormhole. If their size (loosely, mass) didn't matter, Harvest Joy's job would be a lot easier.
They do not exert a form of gravitational influence known to our current science. Therefore, we cannot extrapolate that the wormholes have mass the way we understand them. Also note how an impeller produces a band of gravity pushing 200,000 gravities, yet the ship does not dismantle by gravitational stress. So somehow in the HV, gravitational effects can be limited in range.
Another detail is that if it did have a non-negligible mass, detecting the presence of a wormhole would be trivial by any survey expedition worth their money. We can do that today and we have been doing that for a couple centuries already (Neptune's existence and location was predicted before it was ever spotted).
Since detecting wormholes isn't easy, there's an upper limit on what the mass of the wormhole and its gravitational effects can be. It must be much smaller than even Pluto.
Agreed, but my thoughts on that matter were originally based on an assumption that specific classified astrogation data would be needed to hyper in on an immediately threatening vector. To build hyper logs, one has to travel the routes. I don't think any ships are allowed to take certain routes in or around the junction mapping certain avenues of attack, nor will they be given classified astrogation data. Ships can emerge from hyper in the "general vicinity" of the junction. But not on top of it. I still believe that.
I don't think you're correct, but like above, that's also irrelevant. First, as the single most visited location in the known Galaxy, almost any possible vector would have been flown by someone. It wouldn't be difficult for an attacker to obtain this data, or generate by themselves by sending a freighter or DB first to collect it. Therefore, the RMN has to assume an enemy can come from any vector and defend its bread-winner accordingly.
Second, approach vectors on n-space definitely don't need prior exploration and an LD would approach using n-space, not drop in from outside weapons range at a near stand-still, against prepared defences.
Absolutely, and I agree. But that comprises my entire point. The party will be positioned and trained on the norm. Completely blindsiding the GA with it's stealth doing something that isn't guarded against because it shouldn't have be possible. One doesn't waste security cameras which are a part of your home security system on your bedroom, or inside your home. You already take it as a given that those areas are free of the enemy.
I don't think I was clear.
I meant that any non-legitimate traffic path is watched closely and is probably a minefield. LD's stealth doesn't apply to navigation in a minefield, since it's pitting stealth against stealth. Worse, it's a 12 million-tonne ship that
is emitting, even if very lowly, against a mine that is a couple of tonnes and is not emitting. It's one against thousands.
Navigating through a minefield you don't have a map for and can't generate one on the fly implies you must succeed every time, against every mine. Statistically, this is unlikely. The other side only has to succeed once, and even if the mine does not significantly damage the LD, it will light the intruder up for all the other mines and the forts.
You may argue that there is no such minefield around the Junction. I argue that
if there are paths through which ships aren't routinely navigating, then there is a minefield there. Conversely, the absence of a minefield implies there are ships everywhere, which means stealth insertion is quite difficult.
That sounds like danger and chaos. No rhyme or reason to ships exiting the junction. No rhyme or reason to ships merging. Man must have structure.
On transit arrival lanes, see above.
But you're right about arrival via hyper and ships departing via hyper. Can they collide because they'd be oriented the same way? Space is vast. So the chances of a collision are, literally, astronomically small.
But it's possible that merchant ships are instructed to translate to n-space around the Junction at least x light-seconds out, whereas departing ships translate right at the hyperlimit. That means arriving ships never emerge on top of departing ones. After arriving, they can enter the proper paths leading to their destination. That's what ACS is for, after all.
At this point, yes, if there are proper vectors that every legitimate ship follows, there is a lot of empty space where no one is. And I maintain that this space would be mined.
Never say never, the enemy may not share your same flavor of logic or tactics. A hyper translation could be a diversion of a sort.
At any rate, if I'm correct about a ship needing to have traveled on certain routes near the junction beforehand, an LD can transit out and map the area unbeknownst. Upward translations leave no clue.
And as I said above, since anyone can do that, the RMN has to assume that anyone can arrive on any vector and must plan a defence according to this reality.
At any rate, if targeting with energy weapons near the junction is a wee bit off on certain vectors due to the junction, and the stealth of the LDs throws off targeting even more, then just perhaps.
And like previous suggestions of how to use LDs, the cost-benefit ratio of this attack is completely non-sensical.
The MAlign needs to invest months of a capital ship on a stealth insertion. Such a tactic only makes sense if there's a good likelihood of success and a big pay-off. I don't see either, especially the pay-off. Even if everything you said is true and the LD can sneak through a path undetected and get into a position that he defenders can't immediately shoot at, what can it do? Shoot up a few merchant ships before the cavalry comes along and the forts jink to get into position?
And this if it even has the time. The LD isn't likely to slow down sufficiently to take on more than a handful of targets. Slowing down means it's a sitting duck.
