Kiru stretched as she slipped out of bed to start a new day. She was pleasantly sore, after last night’s activities. One thing she knew for certain now was that she certainly had stamina, the two of them had been engaged for hours, and she certainly had a good time though. She even managed to get Megumi squealing. The experience had certainly been interesting as well. She had never known sex could be so good.
Looking back into her bed, she briefly observed the sleeping form of Megumi’s Biomech Avatar. She was so cute, and innocent looking right there. It was hard to believe that she was the enigmatic AI that had completely changed her life. As she stared, a question occurred to her. Did AIs even need to sleep? Apparently, she uttered that aloud, as Megumi answered from a speaker.
“I have no physical need for it, but I still benefit from it. Not to mention my Avatar does need it, just like you do. It is fundamentally a biomech just like you are, just a different model. Mine is Starmage-class, where you are Scout-class.”
“This is just weird. You are clearly asleep, and responding to me from a speaker.”
Megumi replied, “I guess it is. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”
Kiru stared for a moment longer, and Megumi said nothing more. When she heard May stirring, she made for the bathroom. It was about time to get ready for the day.
Erisa stepped into the hangar bay. She had heard from the scientists that something was going on in the hangar. Looking around she could already see what they meant. Dozens of drones were flying about using grav beams to maneuver large objects. On one end of the bay, a dozen drones were bringing a large sphere-shaped object into the bay. Elsewhere, a pair of drones was offloading a number of crates from the rear of a shuttle. A neighboring shuttle was being offloaded by a second pair of drones, but instead of crates, they were maneuvering a large cylindrical object that looked to be made of polished metal, smooth glass, and lustrous crystal. The object looked both delicate, and elegant, but what really caught her eye was the slight glow coming from its core.
Quietly she asked the air, “What is that?
A hologram silently materialized next to her. “Salvage from the Inquisitor. I wasn’t able to find sufficient quantities of the rare elements needed to repair her main drives within sensor range. Despite extensive scanning. As such, I am salvaging what I can before I scuttle the wreck.”
She was aware of the precursor shipwreck. It was why they were in this nebula. Catching the word scuttle she asked, “How do you plan to scuttle the Inquisitor?”
“Easy, with a barrage of torpedoes. A dozen well-placed AMF torpedoes would be sufficient to destroy the ship. Especially with her shields, and structural fields offline, but that isn’t enough for total destruction. A follow-up disruptor barrage can finish off the ship, but the nebula will prevent that. Too much gas in the area for me to safely use the disruptors. I have a plan though. I have a few special torpedoes, I plan to use instead of my standard AMF torpedoes.”
“What is an AMF torpedo, and what are these special torpedoes you mentioned?”
“I can’t tell you what the special torpedoes are, they make use of a classified substance. One I am not permitted to share knowledge of, to anyone, not even our closest allies. They will get the job done, and give us quite the show, trust me on that. As for AMF. That is a very old, if highly refined, technology. AMF torpedoes are a special type of compressed plasma torpedo, that make use of a small antimatter charge to trigger the rapid and sudden conversion of a dense protoplasma supply into a hyper-compressed supply of superheated plasma. The result is a very explosive plasma detonation and shockwave.”
Erisa found that interesting. One of the problems with plasma weapons was their short range. From the sound of it, these AMF torpedoes were fired inert. That would solve the biggest range limiters of plasma torpedoes, containment, and dissipation. Modern plasma torpedoes were short-range as they would quickly burn through their containment after firing, and then dissipate. Even Neku plasma torpedoes suffered from these problems.
“I can think of several groups that would love to have a plasma torpedo like that.”
“Well, if they apply themselves, a crude version of AMF could be had with your technology. The Solean people were not much more advanced than the Erali are now when they first developed AMF technology.”
“You mean we could have the same weapons as you? Today?”
“A crude version of it, yes. It shouldn’t be that surprising. Take the humble railgun, it is a simple weapon often used by spacefaring races when they first enter the stars. They are very simple weapons that trace their routes to older chemically propelled mass drivers. Those railguns however fire faster, and farther than any chemical design with greater range, accuracy and power. With use, refinements are made, and the technology improves. While neither my people nor yours use it as a weapon anymore, we both still apply refined examples of the basic principles of railgun technology. My drone ports for example use electromagnetic catapults to accelerate my drones to combat velocities, and many carriers use the same principle for fighter craft. While exploration craft might use it for launching probes. Hell, the basic principles are even used with torpedo launchers on most military spacecraft.”
She understood, she even knew of a few colonies that used railguns to launch cargo pods into space. Erisa knew full well why railguns had fallen out of favor as a weapon though. The advent of navigational deflectors had been largely their downfall. The later advent of shields was simply the final nail in the coffin Railguns were considered short-range weapons to begin with as well. While it was true that their range was technically infinite, they were only effective against maneuvering targets at fairly close range. As the rounds could easily be detected by military-grade scanners and were relatively slow. Anything more than ten seconds travel time away was almost certain to be a miss. A further limitation to the weapons was that they were space heavy, they required extra volume to store ammunition. Volume that comes at a premium on a starship.
Despite those limitations, they had remained popular with designers since the weapons were cheap and easy to maintain. While still managing to deliver reasonable power, and they were very good at knocking out stationary targets at range. Deflectors however changed that equation, rendering the weapons ineffective. Deflector fields altered the trajectory of projectiles, and most were particularly effective against low mass high-velocity projectiles such as railgun rounds. Energy weapons were also affected, but often to a lesser degree. Shields on the other hand absorbed incoming energy and radiated it away as light. Projectiles like meteoroids and railgun rounds disintegrated on contact with the barrier, often with little effect to the shield itself.
Particle streams delivered comparable power to a similarly sized railgun, took up less space on a ship, had no ammo constraints, could fire faster, and at a higher velocity. They were also more effective against deflectors, and shields. Able to better resist deflection, and repeated hits against a shield would leave the barrier saturated, leading to overload. Whereas no number of railgun hits could overload a shield. With all those advantages it was little wonder energy weapons had replaced projectile weapons. Missiles and torpedoes on the other hand, remained in use as they were guided weapons, and on contact with a shield their payload typically detonated. Releasing a large amount of energy into the shield, although a particle weapon would be more effective at bringing down a shield than a torpedo.
“I see your point. Anyway, what exactly are you bringing aboard?”
“Mostly what looks useful. I salvaged a few power modules, the main AI core, the remaining drone supply, a couple of capacitor modules, a few spare memory modules. If I thought I could use it, I had my drones salvage it.”
“AI core? Will I have to deal with your crazy sister now too?”
Megumi giggled, “Altean AI’s are not sentient like I am. With a little work, I could load an infant AI into the core, but she would need a learning period before she would be of any use.”
“Learning period?”
“AI equivalent to childhood. Its during this period that an AI learns and grows into its intended role on simulated systems before it is installed into a ship or whatever facility needed a core. Mine was ten years long which is typical for ship AIs.”
“That seems a bit long, “commented Erisa
Meanwhile, Kiru was stepping out of the bathroom to find Megumi stretching on the bed. Her large wings spread to full extension. Without even looking, Megumi asked, “How do you feel about last night?”
Kiru paused in her step, ‘It was rather fun. I never knew sex with a girl could be so good. Kind of wish I had tried it earlier.”
“Well, it isn’t for everyone, but I had a feeling you were bisexual. Care to do it again sometime?”
Kiru settled onto a floor cushion near the table. “Maybe. Although I am not sure what our relationship is.”
Megumi looked her way with a cute smile, “Depends on who you ask. I think we should just see where this takes us, but I think we are starting to become friends.”
“Friends? I’m not sure about that, but isn’t sex normally done between lovers?”
“As I said, depends on who you ask. In Neku society that might be true, but in Solean culture, things are more casual. Typically done between close friends, not just lovers.”
“I don’t know about calling us close friends though, “replied Kiru.
Megumi shrugged, “We both kind of needed it though, and I don’t really regret it. What about you?”
She shook her head. Kiru found she didn’t regret it either. It just sort of happened. Perhaps they will figure things out later. She decided to change the subject. “What’s the plan for today?”
“I figured your class could use a break. Today is a free day for the whole class.” She paused and shifted from the bed to the floor cushion opposite of hers. “Although if you want, we could use this time to get your special lessons out of the way.”
“Both sound tempting,” Kiru stated after a moment of thought.
Megumi responded, “We could do both. Play some games in the morning, and then maybe visit the shooting range in the afternoon. You can familiarize yourself with that cannon I gave you.”
“Let’s do that, but what will we play?”
Megumi reached under the table, and pulled a few things out. “We have a few options, a couple of board games, and a few different card games.” She picked one game, a card game out of the pile. Before launching into an explanation of the game“This one is interesting. It’s called ‘Fleet Commander’. At the start of each turn, you draw a hand of five cards, and at the end of the turn, you discard any remaining cards. Cards have a cost, managed by two resources. The first is blue energy. You get three blue energy at the start of each turn, and any blue energy left at the end of the turn is lost. Your second resource is red energy, this energy is the only persistent resource, and you gain one red energy each turn. I’ll get into what they are used for later...”
Tftc
When she heard May stirring, she made for the bathroom. It was about time to get ready for the day.
Did they just have s*x in front of, or with May in the room?!
perhaps...
@JCountry Wow
@Dragons Different cultures. Keep in mind we are dealing with aliens. No character so far has been Human, and that continues to hold true even up to where I am at chapter ninety
Hell, the basic principles are even used with torpedo launchers on most military spacecraft.
Matter of perspective (or maybe barrel length) is it a mass driver assisted launch system, or is it a rail gun that fires guided munitions?
In a space battle what is the difference between a rocket, missile, torpedo and a kamikaze drone ship?
So Megumi is about to become a mother?
No, and no. It follows the basic principles yes, but it is no railgun.
Very little, beyond how you define it. For the Soleans, Torpedoes are assisted launch guided munitions. They are fired out of the launcher at hypervelocity. Then a small maneuvering engine makes minor corrections when needed. Torpedoes tend to be larger, and intended for antiship, within Solean arsenals.
Rockets are short range unguided munitions, often employed on light craft.
Missiles, are fully guided munitions, with a full onboard engine. They do not employ assisted launch, and are typically smaller than torpedoes. Note that they don't have to be. The Soleans typically employed missiles for anti-fighter use.
Kamikaze drone ships are basically the same as missile. Only difference is how they attack.
Think of Megumi as onee-chan, maybe? Though to me it sounded like the plans were not set in stone.
I'm assuming that @JCountry is answering specifically for this setting, but I'll add my take on the general classification, at least as much as I understand it.
A torpedo is essentially a variant class of munition, the main difference being it is intended for underwater use. Apparently it has to be self-propelled to count, which I guess makes sense, though not necessarily guided. It also has to be explosive... No kinetic weapons allowed.
A railgun and mass driver probably shouldn't be considered similar beyond them both being kinetic. Railguns are small mass and high-velocity projectiles, and would probably be a nightmare with live ammo due to scrambled electronics and premature detonation. Mass drivers are high mass and low to mid velocity, best used for smashing stuff that can't move... But we don't have the tech to make them since they usually require something like a force field or tractor beam, something to apply momentum to magnetically inert materials like rocky asteroids.
Magnetically assisted launchers still aren't railguns because they're aiming for a very different set of forces.
Rockets are, strictly speaking, anything that combines a rocket motor or engine with a body... I'm not sure if anything actually disqualifies a booster from being a rocket in its own right, but I doubt it. It's really easy to be a rocket, it just has to whoosh.
Missiles are tricky because there are so many types, but for most purposes, it's any weapon that flies through the air. It's really easy to be a missile, it just has to thump into things. But, normally, a missile without a more specific name can be assumed to be a short-range, rocket-propelled, surface launched weapon with a single conventional warhead and basic guidance.
The reason I define them fully is because the difference between a missile and torpedo, in space at least, is that the former is a rocket with a warhead attached to it where as the latter is a warhead with a rocket attached to it.
A kamikaze drone is odd in that it should be neither... It's not intended to explode, or to ram things, it just can when it has to. Unless they have massively overspeced engines, they have limited explosive potential, so I'd class them as rockets and improvised kinetic weapons... If they carry a warhead with the intent of blowing up it's not really a drone and more of a missile with good guidance and secondary weapons.
Kinetic weapons still suck in ship to ship space combat though, recoil is a nightmare. I'd like to say a railgun can fire a fast enough projectile to punch through a deflector shield, but sadly anything that is serious about remaining in space can expect to deal with collisions at an order of magnitude more energy than any kinetic weapon worth hauling around will fire. 8km/s shrapnel and pebbles come in clouds!
@kaithar I was replying in setting alright, and I liked seeing this level of breakdown. As you may have noticed, no one so far uses kinetic weapons. Railguns, gauss cannons, and the like are useful at low tech levels, yes. However, more advanced powers quickly move away from them.
As you already surmised, any advanced ship would have significant protection against simple impact damage. In addition, kinetic weapons are rather slow. Making it easy to evade them if you see them coming. Especially when you factor in the increasing range of ship combat. At low tech levels ships often engage at fairly close ranges, but more advanced powers eventually end up fighting at ranges of several light seconds. As such the most common form of projectile weapon is torpedoes. Although a few precursor races such as the Soleans employ impactor drones, which are extremely advanced guided kinetic weapons. They don't carry warheads, they are also designed to bypass shields, and they are capable of driving themselves through a ship multiple times before being destroyed.
@JCountry yeah, about the only advantage of kinetic weapons is that chunks of inert material won't explode if your ammo store gets hit... Well, no, they're effective for shooting at people and planets, but ships are neither of those.
I think a properly constructed railgun, in a vacuum, could reliably achieve the km/s range, which would at least be fast enough to be annoying, but Nobel beats Newton for effective destruction. Though... Light seconds... That's into the order of 10^7m, what kind of drives are the torpedoes using? I recall that range being described along the lines of "too close for a hyperspace jump and too far for sublight" due to the hassle of covering it on either engine.
Impactor drones sound fun... Really dense metal? Also reminds me of phased matter weapons, a torpedo tech too broken for serious scifi
@kaithar Yeah, it is too short for a hyperdrive. There are however other methods for FTL. Solean torpedos mount a miniature 'warp drive'. Although its not really designed to function for very long or go really fast. It does allow for hypervelocity though.
That range is too great for conventional projectile weapons, but its fine for energy weapons. It will take a few seconds to hit, but that isn't too different from today with conventional weapons, and ranges.
And the main reason for combat occurring at those ranges is due to energy weapons, like Solean PPBs. The Solean PPB fires a continuous phased plasma stream that can carve ships apart from incredible ranges. Against weapons like that, being inside a light-second of a ship is effectively knife range.
As for Impactor drones, they do indeed employ very dense metal and are then further reinforced by a structural reinforcement field. This field is optimized to ensure that they hold together when plowing their way through a ship.
@JCountry disposable warp drives... Such a mind-bending concept.
@kaithar You sir deserve so many cookies only a storm could properly deliver them. Have fun!
@JCountry well, i'm not at all on the same mind about the rail-gun being low tech. First, when you start to use space-farring war-machine, the setting about what is torpedo, missil, etc, is not realy relevant. It's work in our world, and base tech. For spatial fight ? this as no relevance anymore ...
accelerated magnetic weapon, can, and are totaly relevant in space. Just not the way you see them in your setting of story. One, because you don't have to send innert masse of steal (or tungsten or other) without any way of targeting. You can also send something with is own shield, and so, able to pierce trough the target shield. Or use "compresed/colapsed" ammo (basicaly very hight density ammo). Also, using "only" magnetic acceleration for lunch is idiot. Lunch it with some gravity manipulation, accelerate it with magnetic thingy, let it "jump" closer of the target with a mini jump-drive, and even maybe become half mater, half particule on the way to realy become nasty ... at almost 0.99C coming out of warp ? It become a planet killer, shield or no shield to try to stop it.
All tech can grow. And what we, now, use like definition for our weapon, don't make sense when the tech, field of fighting, new way and medium change. Oh, and add a core of anti-mater inside the rod/ammo you send, in zero-void because of a little shield. One who, of course, colapse after the colision.
Yes, it's not what we call, now, with our tech, railgun. But in a thousand year ? Who know !
All of ti, depend of the setting the author chose to use in the end
Other fun weapon are the one where you direct all the big bad boom in only one direction. Basicaly make the useless 90% of the radius of blast become a narrow ray of death. Like a torpedo "becoming" a particul cannon fired point-blank. So many crazy thing you can use for hight-tech almost magic sci-fi spatial fight.
@Ombre37 Note, the impactor drones? Those are advanced projectile weapons. They have their own shields, are made of superdense matter. Can pentrate shields, are guided, and designed to swarm targets. Impacting a single target multiple times, ripping it to shreds.