Attacking Darius:

kzt wrote:It's like this: You have a giant steampunk war machine. It runs on gasoline. It's many guns run on nitroglycerin, which is pumped from a central tank deep inside the armor.

Which is more dangerous, a gasoline leak or a nitroglycerine leak?

Daryl wrote:In one of the books depicting the early Manticore, didn't a pair of heros get one shot from their spinal laser when using a damaged fusion pipe, which then destroyed the enemy ship and theirs as well?

Daryl wrote:In one of the books depicting the early Manticore, didn't a pair of heros get one shot from their spinal laser when using a damaged fusion pipe, which then destroyed the enemy ship and theirs as well?

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Indeed. That was the shot that broke the Volsung's back during the first Battle of Manticore, more or less simultaneously with the gambit that destroyed one of the destroyers. The two heroes were Ensign Fenton Locatelli and Senior Chief Lorelei Osterman. It was also this action that caused the creation of the Osterman Cross, given to enlisted personnel only, and one that later Alfred Harrington would get shortly before he mustanged to officer (and a story we're still waiting to hear).

I don't think the ECM drones codenamed Lorelei are named for her.

What I don't remember is what the nature of the damage was. "Damaged piping" can mean a lot of things, not necessarily a physical crack. If the containment mechanism is damaged, when the plasma flows throw it could leak and cause the problems that cthia is referring to. It might also be that they connected systems that were never meant to be directly connected, so those pipes were getting plasma directly from the reactor or something. I'd need to reread ACTV to get the details.

A Call to Arms wrote:Osterman said. “Looks like the capacitors have grounded, so we’re going to have to kluge some cascade relays directly into the plasma stream. Can you go get them? My left arm’s not good for much.”[snip]
By the time Ensign Locatelli returned with the cascade relays, Osterman had most of the wiring fixed, rerouted, or half-assed kluged.
Which had sounded a lot easier up front than it had turned out to be. Several of the plasma conduits had been ruptured in the attack, and though the plasma itself had long since dissipated it had left behind jagged tangles of superheated metal and plastic. Osterman sported a half dozen new burns of varying degrees, plus a couple of new cuts along her cheek and side.[snip]
“Pretty sure, Sir, yes,” Osterman said, peering at the uni-link she’d wired into the firing system.
Though in truth she wasn’t nearly as certain as she would like to be. While Phoenix’s laser firing equipment was still functional, the software had been seriously corrupted in the destroyer’s death throes.
Fortunately, she’d found an intact memory module in one of CIC’s systems that had enough space for what they needed. Invincible had downloaded replacement software, and then Osterman had removed the module, brought it back to the fire-control system, and wired it in. The system display had been cooked along with the software, but she’d managed to solve that problem by wiring in a uni-link to act as a repeater and let her keep track of what she was doing.[snip]
“Well, if they’re going to take the bait, I wish they’d get to it,” Locatelli muttered. “These things are getting hot.”
Osterman frowned. “What things?”
“These relays,” Locatelli said. “Yeah, I know they’re supposed to be wired to the heat sinks. But the couplings were shot, and most of the brackets were too warped to work. It’s okay—I’ve got them.”
“Except—” Osterman clamped down hard on the protest. Except that the whole system was about to surge with an incredible burst of energy, and if there were any gaps in the containment sheath there was a good chance Locatelli would be vaporized.
A fact that was, at this point, completely irrelevant. The instant that laser fired, something was going to fail in this jury-rigged system she and the ensign had thrown together. Whether it was the current couplings, the plasma conduits or the damn reactor itself, they were both dead.
But that was okay. That was the risk she and Locatelli had both agreed to when they signed up.
Most of the rest of their shipmates had already paid that price. Time for them to do likewise.[snip]
The uni-link signaled target acquisition. Bracing herself, Osterman pressed the firing key.
She had just enough time to see the distant battlecruiser begin to disintegrate when Phoenix’s last remaining plasma line ruptured.

kzt wrote:Once you get a hole it will expand as the material gets eroded. And not slowly, it will expand at probably meters per second, so in fractions of a second you have no conduit with a leak, you have a jet from on an open pipe that steadily erodes itself towards the reactor.

And destroy anything in the other direction, burning out to the outside of the ship.

The original crack or flaw would produce a directional jet, but the erosion process will spray plasma and conduit material pretty much all around the room.

tlb wrote:As I wrote in the earlier post (see below), there have to be safety devices to limit damage that do not get mentioned. We have seen ships destroyed by malfunctioning reactors, but by not damage to the plasma pipes. A shutoff that occurred fast enough would fry a compartment, without destroying the ship; but we have not seen mention of even that. I guess there might be some things that simply have to be glossed over; because to try to explain them would take too long and might even be impossible.

tlb wrote:We have seen ships destroyed by malfunctioning reactors, but by not damage to the plasma pipes. A shutoff that occurred fast enough would fry a compartment, without destroying the ship; but we have not seen mention of even that. I guess there might be some things that simply have to be glossed over; because to try to explain them would take too long and might even be impossible.

Theemile wrote:One of Honor's first awards was saving some sailors from a plasma leak in a compartment on the SD Manticore (SD-01). So it's still in the ship, and leaks do still occur.

tlb wrote:

tlb wrote:We have seen ships destroyed by malfunctioning reactors, but by not damage to the plasma pipes. A shutoff that occurred fast enough would fry a compartment, without destroying the ship; but we have not seen mention of even that. I guess there might be some things that simply have to be glossed over; because to try to explain them would take too long and might even be impossible.

Theemile wrote:One of Honor's first awards was saving some sailors from a plasma leak in a compartment on the SD Manticore (SD-01). So it's still in the ship, and leaks do still occur.

But it was not significant enough to "fry" the compartment, if Honor was able to enter and save crew personnel.

As I just said, that implies that at frequent intervals on the pipes there are artificial gravity "doors" that shut the flow going to the break or rupture. That way you only lose the plasma from a short section, rather than the entire pipe; depending on the spacing and the reaction times. Otherwise the rupture would just grow based on the plasma in the pipe and threaten the ship. So they have not ended the possibility of leaks; but have worked to mitigate the damage.

Honor's award sounded like something I should remember, but it slipped my mind. Do you know where it was mentioned, so I can remind myself?