"Capital Class railguns?!?!?!"
Don was appalled at this. That caliber of railgun was meant to exclusively tear apart heavy armor. They launched rods with such speed that smaller ships like pickets and destroyers would only have a hole the size of the rod blown through them with little else in the way of damage. Even smaller ships like fighters would be completely unaware that they were hit by such a thing until something stopped working. That was assuming they survived of course.
The penetration of these projectile launchers was not measured in millimeters like most other kinetic systems, but by meter and mass metrics. The armor on most capital ships was slanted for a reason, not just to put as much metal in-between the incoming slugs and any sensitive bits, but attempt to deflect the energetic lump of mass away from the core. Even with 20 meters of the highest rated armor slanted to 60 degrees from the perpendicular, spalling, splintering, and shattering were still issues that needed to be contended with thanks to the sheer amount of energy these things could put out.
These projectile launchers were such a massive energy drain on a ship's reactor core that even capital ships were often limited in their number. Even the biggest and most powerful ship in the fleet only had 128 of these guns.
His ship, something easily less than 1/10,000 of its size had a sixty-forth of its main battery firepower.
The kick he was going to feel from these things was going to be incredible.
"How does this thing have enough energy to even fire those things?"
Helmsguard chuckled at his shock. He too had experienced something similar when he first learned of the project. "It's a brand new type of reactor core. Central would have loved to build a new battleship with them, but they are incredibly expensive to make. Instead, they decided to make a 'super weapon' that works in tandem with a fleet. The reason it is so damn fast is not only to run away, but to compensate for those monsters."
"In fact, the designers were so amused by the idea of something this small with weapons that big that they actually have a name for them. 'The Big Boys'."
"So what am I supposed to do with them? It's not like I'm supposed to sit at 25 thousand kilometers with the rest of the battleships." There was no air in space to slow shells down, so range was meant to make enemy firing less accurate and hopefully trick sensors.
"Oh no, you will be much, MUCH, closer. Maybe within 1000 kilometers. Your job is to paint targets with your sensors for the main fleet to take shots, as well as position yourself perpendicular to their armor and punch holes in it. Using your stealth to stay dark, wait for the fleet to wear down their shields and draw the attention of their sensor arrays, then knock out their weapons and defense systems. If all goes well you will have a missile frigate make a run on the defenseless target and cripple it."
"The Big Boys are going to be your friends, but the fleet is still your lover. Point them at isolated targets and strip the enemy of their ability to fight, and they will do the rest of the work." The Doctor had a pensive expression as though he was a master giving advice to a disciple. Don could swear the accent he put on was from a character in one of those movies he used to watch. Was it about kung fu? Karate?
Five minutes later and Don was still in shock from the idea of having this amount of power in his hands. If what the doctor was telling him was true, then this ship is entirely capable of neutralizing a dreadnought in a one versus one confrontation. This ship was several generations ahead of the competition.
"That is about all I know about the ship, or rather all I have been allowed to know about the ship. The reason I'm here is because I was in charge of your training and I still need to teach you how to use my little contribution. Anyways, enough of the introductions. Time to get you familiar with the layout and register you with the computer."
Once again the doctor tapped something on his tablet. This time, a square chunk of the armor on the bottom opened up, dropping down a ladder.
"You have to go in alone. I'm not allowed in. So far only one other person has actually had the privilege of piloting her, but they were not combat trained. It'll be up to you to do weapon and sensor calibration. For now, just get accustomed to the cockpit and other amenities." The doctor shooed him away with his hand.
Don, used to being ordered around in this way, but he was more excited to try out the ship's systems.
The first thing he noticed was that the ladder was at a slight angle, making it easier to climb up. Considering how much he hated vertical ladders, he decided he would toast the designer the next time he had a drink.
The second thing he noticed was that the inside was very dark. Clearly the doctor was not exaggerating when he said that that coating on the outside absorbed ALL light.
This darkness did not last long though, and quickly the internal lights came on. The light blue glow illuminated what was a large room for a combat craft. Immediately, he could see a bed and bathroom, as well as a table for food. Behind him was the pilot's seat, complete with rows of buttons, switches, knobs, and the joystick.
"Entrant recognized as operator code 0-0. Welcome aboard Donovan Strauss."
A voice belonging neither to a man or a woman greeted him inside.
"Who's there?!?" Donovan could not help but be surprised. He was expecting to be alone when he got on board.
"Answer: I am the ARC System, the onboard computer for this craft. Do call me ARC in the future. Attention: I have received a communication request from operator code 2-14, Draco Helmsguard. Approve of connection?"
To be honest, Don was not expecting the onboard computer to actually talk to him. All of the computers he trained with in the past used text in order to relay important information. He could worry about that later though. "Approved. Do you accept that sort of response?" He was worried his commands would not be recognized.
"Answer: I am capable of receiving and interpreting a vast range of commands and suggestions. Establishing link to 2-14."
Doctor Helmsguard's voice started to come through on the speakers. "So Donny, what is your first impression of ARCS?"
—I get the distinct feeling that DS stands for ‘Designated Sacrifice’ . . .
More like
Designated Survivor
@cakeonfrosting Liked the series though.
@cakeonfrosting you sure it didn't change from one to the other when they found out about that 4 month timer?
The other ship was captained by an Elf with a Gnome first officer?
Tftc
I have a few thing i don't understand about the steal ships. Absorbing all ligths is not good for stealth. It's easy to spots something that's absord ligth if it go between you and your ligth sources (it's one way to spot exoplanet). One way to be stealthy is to make the ligth "pass through" (like the invisible cap in Harry Potter).
The second probleme with absorbing all ligth is heat an energy. If you absorb everything without radiating you are either in a black all... or you play with Clarktech level technology. (Wel you talk about thermodynamics bending technology so it's enter this categorie)
But event with playing with the ligth, if there is know way to play arrong the gravity the ship can still be detected with gravity lensing (with very advanced tech).
Furthermore shooting laser and a working reactor are not the steathiest thing imaginable.
5t with 200 m/s² mean 10⁶ N so 10⁶J/m so more than 10²⁴ ev/m. If my calculations is correct (it's have been more than 5 years since i have done such calculations) the ship create gama rays juste with black body radiation from the energy use for the acceleration. A quasar is not that stealthy.
And yeah i hope the shelding and cooling is good because with that much energy there should be cooked inside. And 20g i hope there a more robust than normal humain. Or no longeur entirely biological
Sorry if all those points are explained later. And yes I am a nerd
Light - Something of note is that computer systems are not quite as prominent or advanced as you are thinking. A disaster involving an AI called Skinnik has defined limitations of what a ship's computer systems should be capable of. This blends into the 'absorb all light' concept as a relatively 'dumb' computer is unlikely to make a fuss about an incredibly small patch of space showing 'zero' on the light spectrum. Minor sensor failures happen, and are likely to be accounted for so that warnings are not being given off when an asteroid blocks a star for a moment. You also have to account for the fact that, although the Noah will absorb all light, whatever space dust exists between it and the sensor will still reflect light. This is one of the reasons the Noah still wants to keep some distance.
Heat - The radiation aspect is handled by that coating, a sort of field that I have purposely left vague and described as 'prevents light'. There is a secret system on board that 'destroys' heat using a mechanic that will be introduced later, but most of the excess is 'directed' outwards by Arc using that thermodynamic manipulation you mentioned. If you keep the 'beam' of radiation relatively confined (like a laser) you can make it basically invisible unless you point it at someone.
Gravity - This is actually something mentioned and used, however it is not particularly effective against light ships at a distance. Remember, the effect of gravity is inversely proportional to the distance squared, so the best defense against them is to stay away. It should also be noted that a gravitic sensor on a warship is not going to be nearly as sensitive as one attached to a research station. They are expected to take damage and maintain their usefulness.
Offensive and point defense capabilities - The points you have mentioned are absolutely correct. Lasers, railguns, and autocannons make a lot of 'noise', which is why the primary purpose of the Noah is not to be the one throwing punches. It is (and this is very loose) a forward fire coordination and guidance platform. It scouts, finds targets, gets a refined position coordinate, calculates firing solutions for the capital ships (who are operating beyond their sensor ranges) and tells them which ship to fire at. It is also capable of assuming control over missiles and other guidable ordinance fired from a safe distance and directing them to their targets with greater precision. Now, it can act offensively if need be, either to defend against incoming light craft or finish off stragglers, but it is only going to show up for a few moments. Any missiles or sensors that do get a lock will be fried by the Laser Point Defense systems, the Cutters.
Black body radiation - Covered a little bit in the heat section, but it should be noted that there is no heat associated with the propulsion system. Just bear with me on that front.
20g acceleration - There is something in this universe that has been developed to tackled the limitations imposed by the human body - the inertial dampener. You might have heard or read about it in other media, but the basic concept is that it takes a volume containing mass and treats it as a single point. In other words, any force applied to that volume is evenly dispersed throughout, meaning that the internal effects of acceleration are not felt (you are now part of the ship's structure).
You can think of it kind of like gravity. At all times our bodies are experiencing a force, however because the field property of gravity means that the force is evenly dispersed volumetrically we don't 'feel' it without the ground. When standing the stress on your body decreases as you ascend from the soles of your feet to the top of your head (although it is concentrated on the bones).
Now, the inertial dampener is not perfect. It is a dampener, not a nullifier, so eventually you reach a point where it cannot evenly disperse the force and once again you feel the effects of acceleration. You will be at a greater acceleration though.
By the way, another use for this system is defensive. By 'spiking' an inertial dampener you can increase the capacity for a few short moments. If this was done, say, just as a railgun rod made contact with your armor, you could utilize the now dispersing force to decrease the kinetic energy of the rod and decrease the difference in vector velocities which further reduces the relative kinetic energy and penetrative effects.
Hoped that helped, and yes, I have spent an obscene amount of time figuring out how all of this would work-
-only to throw it away later.
@cakeonfrosting thank you for the answers, i also the several time the "jump" does those jump teleportation? So it's mean FTL for short distances?
@Phalex78 Yes, and it's a lot more complicated than you think. Mass should not be in the targeted region, limited to lightly concentrated dust. Thinking of gravity wells (if you have seen the graphs/figures in school or online) jumping to a place with an extremely different 'slope' will result in bad things happening. Picture in your head for a second jumping from a short building barefoot. In this example, the extreme slope is something like a knife sticking out of the ground, and landing on it will result in your foot being impaled.
Obviously it isn't a complete explanation, and I will get to it some 200 chapters from where I currently am, but suffice to say that it can be just as much of a curse as it is a blessing.
Didn't notice any mistakes here either. Funny that, and this is spoilers:
Don picked up on the Dr's exaggerated tone, akin to a movie teacher, knowing that the Dr is actually pretending to be an expert on science. I guess that's a little foreshadowing. Or something that can be noticed a little easier on a second reading.
There wasn't a glass cockpit, but he had expected that. A good part of his training was flying off of strictly sensor data, something that was not a prerequisite for a non-visual cockpit.
Probably want to remove either the "not" or the "non-". Double negatives.
A chapter off, but good catch nonetheless
"So Donny, what is your first impression of ARCS?"
The ARC system.
Computer identifies as ARC system. As one of the developers Helmsguard would know this.