Pax: the discussion thread

Well, Nathan DOES like shooting at people, but at the same time, I think I would like to tell other squads what to go and where to shoot... So I'll go for the bridge.

 

Mingo has also expressed a wish for Trin to be on the Bridge. It's important for all the players to have fun and get what they want, so I'll say it's up to you if you still want to stay on the Bridge or command a team.

Just remember that the Bridge is big enough to accomodate more than one officer - but each field also has its own magisteria and you guys should not be stepping on each others' toes either. Trin is a tactician, and a second generation spacer - I think she should have command of the bridge for the battle, but Nathan should be the one directing fire, keeping track of the action, and being her eyes and ears. My thoughts.

 

If Trin wants the bridge, perhaps Nathan could board the ship in a transport ship with a squad and be in charge of the squads on the actual ships and where they go/what they do...

Could that work?

 

When will things be kicking off? Shall we set a date to get it to start? Just a wondering.

 

I'll post later today, get Carter in his ship rdy to rock

 

That's a good idea, we usually do not plan for the major events, people just normally post when they'r ready, but with a major battle like this it might not be a bad idea to try and coordinate things a little. Tonight I will post it so that we arrive at the 61 Cygni system and expect to encounter Marauders shortly after that---so there's a good chance we'll start fighting tonight:redface:

 

AF - 17A Tornado multipurpose aerospace fighter

The Tornado began to replace the older Hurricane aerospace fighters at the end of the second interstellar war. Around that time it saw a transition to the role of multipurpose fighter, being the main fighter used in not just UEAF aerospace forces but also in many colonial militaries. The grievances that the UEAF Joint acquisitions bureau had with the earlier Hurricanes were addressed by the Tornado. Hurricanes were often adept as fighters in Earth-like atmospheres but often performed poorly in vacuum and low gravity environments. Other prototypes and variants entertaining the prospect of replacing the Hurricanes were either good at one (vacuums) or the other (atmospheres) and sometimes poor at both. The Tornado, with its folding wing design, can adapt to different planetary environments and make itself 'smaller' in orbit. It carries a large payload, over a dozen anti-satellite missiles for a single sortie if needed. Its four plasma jets make it very maneuverable in orbit and its powerful Omnitech Ramjet design gives it a considerable atmosphere-to-orbit transition time. The Tornado remains the most popular and common fighter in use for Earth and a number of Commonwealth allies.

Role: Multipurpose aerospace fighter

Crew: One

Length: 21. 7 meters

Height: 5.7 meters

Weight: 27,000 kilograms (empty) 39,000 kilograms (loaded)

Engines: Three stage engines: 4 x fusion plasma jets for atmospheric transit, reaction control, and navigation in aerospace 1 x Ramjet for transition to upper atmosphere, 2 x Scramjets for transition to orbit

Armaments: 8 x AA-17 Adder anti-aerospace craft missiles, 4 x AGM-118 Copperhead aerospace-to-ground missiles (typical)

Unit cost: 57 million Terran stars / 63 million Commonwealth credits

 

UEAF Aerospace warfare tactics

Aerospace warfare constitutes not just all spaceborne military efforts, but also all activities in orbit, in a planet's upper atmosphere, and even its lower atmosphere. It is a large area of study and difficult to summarize without leaving out a considerable amount of the many inevitable varieties of an individual commander's experiences. Historically, conflicts fought between different planets occur in space, and most often in the space in orbit around a hostile planet. This is typically because each planet's aerospace is typically defended, the many millions of cubic kilometers between planets are rarely fought in or for because there is no territory to hold or resources to use.

It has been the philosophy and mission of the UEAFs war fighting school to maximize, in battle, its efficiency and exploit every opportunity. To that end, it has been the aim of every space battle, since its earliest inception, to seek, engage, and destroy the enemy by means of fire and maneuver. Space battles are a terrifying and terrible thing, space Captains being a thing to be feared by their enemies and loved by allies. Space is a harsh, extreme environment, unforgiving to humans, who must take their environments with them in hermetically sealed metal tombs. The mission of the Captain is to charge at an enemy at unthinkable speeds, in the dark, and pierce another ship with a myriad of weapons like some kind of midnight mugger stabbing a stranger in an alley.

Of all known space battles, the most effective and common weapon is the anti-satellite missile. Missiles are relatively inexpensive, have ranges limited only by their fuel supplies (as there is no atmosphere to slow them down or gravity to make them fall), and can be made just as fast as a starship. With advanced detection and guidance systems, they can find and close with an enemy ship with pinpoint accuracy.

If one becomes the target of a missile attack, one has the option of avoiding or intercepting them. The larger starships do not have the option of making a good variety of evasions, certainly not if they’re in low planetary orbit. Even smaller and more maneuverable craft may find it difficult to avoid a missile with an evasive movement.

Intercepting the missiles can be accomplished with laser batteries or anti-missile missiles (a favorite of the Martian space forces, who seem to have scorned beam weapons entirely). Laser batteries have the advantage of being nearly instantaneous and extremely accurate, but with large energy requirements their rate of fire is high and carefully budgeted.

In addition to evading or stopping a missile by firing at it, all ships have found the need to carry a large number of decoys and countermeasures. In any ships' inventories are found a variety of jammers, flares, chaffs. In addition to these physical countermeasures, each ship typically contains a department and considerable equipment for electronic warfare. To make matters even more confusing, the enemy knows how effective these precautions are and simultaneously conducts anti-electronic warfare!

After an initial barrage of missiles the opposing ships will often close with one another, the more successful ship being the one taking fewer hits while inflicting more damage. At middle ranges (several hundred meters to a kilometer) assault craft and aerospace fighters will be launched, and the ships with DEB (Directed Energy Beam, or "Debbies") weapons will employ them as best as they can. As these weapons are often very costly in terms of energy requirements, their use is carefully considered, tactically employed, and designed to give a decisive edge.

The sinister advantage of DEBs is that they are nearly instantaneous, deadly accurate, and very difficult to counter. At extreme ranges, beam divergences can occur with lasers, and may merely warm an enemy ship’s armor plating. At closer ranges high power lasers can easily punch holes through several layers of armor. Reflective armor can sometimes deflect a good deal of laser attack, but rarely works against a direct blow. There are also heat absorbing laminates and ablative heat shields, many of which were employed by Confederation ships in the first Interstellar war to good effect.

The dirty duckling of the DEBs are particle beam weapons, which are far more rare than laser cannons and often far more devastating. Working on the same principles as particle accelerators, particle beam weapons use both the mass of a crashing streams of particle as well as the resulting heat as a weapon. Unlike with lasers, heat shields will not work against a particle weapon, and they cannot be deflected by any known or conventional means.

The option often available to Captains of old, but rarely to a commander of the twenty fourth century, is the boarding of an enemy ship. Often, because of the brutal and exacting nature of space battle in the modern age, engagements are over very quickly and at ranges far beyond the visual. On certain rare occasions when the opportunity is prudent, or required, boarding by ship and assault crafts can bring about victory by directly overwhelming the enemy crews and removing their will or ability to offer battle. Boarding is a common tactic of Marauders, who use their vast numbers to overwhelm otherwise effective crews.

Historically, the greatest asset that an aerospace commander has on his or her side is a sensor suite. Even from considerable distances, one ship can detect the engines firing on another’s, even over astronomical distances. Whether one is racing to engage an enemy, or fleeing from one, or pursuing one, it helps to have powerful power plants and engines. Even if the UEAF does not employ the very best power plants (Perhaps the Consortium can have that honor), UEAF ships have often set many records for performance, and continue to prove themselves top of the line and of the highest caliber. With the exception of some Consortium militaries, there are perhaps no other fleets that can compete with ability, and certainly not in the bulk with which the UEAF fields ships.

 

Damn, Jon, you must spend hours on that stuff!

 

Is what I posted alright? So I'd be commanding the boarding squads while Trin would be commanding the ship etc.

 

Sounds good to me

(and yes, it does take hours, but it's worth every bit)

 

Okay, I think that now is a good time to step in. You guys need to share the work load, there is no 'I' in t-e-a-m. I know, everybody wants to be the hero that saves the day, but there's more than one person playing this game. There are an unlimited number of Marauders for us all to kill, so let's not get greedy. There are no white knights here, we are Indians and not chiefs.

I think I may have accidentally begun this rivalry between the players with a mention of a case of beer, that always does this.

We are a team, let's do this together guys. Don't get greedy, and play along. That's an order.

 

I suppose Dogface will ride along in an assault shuttle. He's not much for leading or for flying. I'll post something tomorrow morning or afternoon since I have the day off. (The last three days have been hectic.)

 

I'm happy for Carter to take the ship, I'm just going from Nathan's view.

In other words Lebby, Nathan hates you, not me!

Perhaps Nathan's men could take another ship and send it to the Despoiler...

 

Hehehehe I'm kinda banking on Carter ****ing up and then needing help
Should be funz

 

I have an idea... I'll PM you...

 

Glad to hear it and see how the mission is involving. Like what you guys are doing, keep it up.

 

It's looking like I won't be able to post tonight. I have a new testament test to study for, and my instructor is late in posting our possible essay questions. (The test is tomorrow, and he plans on giving us the questions by 6pm tonight. He was originally supposed to have them posted yesterday. Great guy, huh?)

I'll have some free time tomorrow after classes.

 

I think I need to take a break tonight too, I don't think I'm feeling well, blah. See you guys tommorow

 

I know, dnt you just love teachers like that Flash?
'Yeah guys I'll have the scripts up by tonight'
*3 days later*
'Yeah guys they will be up tonight I promise'

 

Hey guys, I wouldn't worry too much about the engines of these ships as you are. I'm on the bridge, directing long distance fire. Those engines will be down long before you get there. Take their ship's bridges. Destroy weapons systems. Fight their fighters. But don't worry about the engines unless something goes wrong, I've got a few big long distance guns. All will be okay. I'll post a longer one up in a few hours.

 

Oops, wrong spot, haha. I'm dumb sometimes...

 

Yeah, I really do love those types of teachers, Lebby. What's better is how some of them get angry when you call them on their hypocrisy. Oh well, I think I killed the test despite the instructor's shortcomings.

 

nice job son
Love being smug after doing that eh?

 

I found some more cool concept art online.


Space marines! Hoorah!!!