NationStates Jolt Archive

If you have been finding yourself asking this question, then some of the answers will be provided here. If not, well, the unspoken question will still be answered.

The first thing shown today is our Spore technology. This is basically a bio-engineered acidic virus that attacks synthetic and metallic materials. Organic substances are unaffected unless they swallow the Spore. Then it results in nausea and diarrhea. Synthetic and metallic substances rapidly decay and eventually desintegrate. Great for removing landfills or enemy armor units.

It's capable of being fitted into almost any form of warhead, and has been widely dispersed throughout the Empire of Sakkra's Defense Forces.

Organic Armor Plating
This can be viewed here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2367365&highlight=#2367365), so I don't have to go through it again.

Hard Beam shield-piercer
Basically, these beams weapons are photon lasers that are rendered cohesive when several lenses focus on one point. The focus point, however, is where minute pieces of solid matter are injected into the stream. They are carried along the beam at the speed of light. If the beam impacts on an energy shield, it may be stopped, but the solid material continues on at the speed of the beam, penetrating the hull depending on its material.

Gelignite
Basically, gelignite is a white-phosporus based strain of napalm. More stable, however, so it can only be ignited easily by electrical means. It burns at 4000 degrees farenheit for 20 minutes per liter of the material. It spreads in a thick and viscuous gel. Can be outfitted into warheads or used in flamethrowers. The main advantage is that it can burn without oxygen, but is NOT recommended for use in space.

MAU Armor Cavalry units

These are basically advanced powered armor or mobile armor units that are self-propelled. Any armor unit equipped with jump-jets or has the ability to fly is rendered into service in the Armor Cavalry. MAU Horde Suits, MAU Minions and MAU Overlords comprise the main force. These are the combined efforts of Guaah Armor Works and Hreer Weapon Works.

The MAU-050 Minion
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/weaponry/assaultGear.JPG
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/weaponry/assaultGearRear.JPG

These are advanced powered armor units. Organic plating infused with cermite covers the entirety of this vehicle. Its weaponry consists normally of two quad-focus Hard Beam projecters, one light plasma projecter, one gelignite flamethrower and a grenade launcher armed with Spore grenades. Large titanium claws also adorn the fore-arms of these units for close combat. A large, detachable flight pack is pictured with these units for hot dropping into HCZ's
Height/Width/Weight: 3.5 meters tall. 1.85 meters wide. Weight is 2.75 tons.
Speed: Running, 52 kph tops. Limited flight is 550 kph for an hour of flight in atmosphere. Small wings in back fold out for maintaining direction. Has balancing thrusters for space flight.
Sensor package:UV light sensors on chest. Radio receiver/transmitter, nightvision and IR camera on chest. Mini-radar with a 3 mile range can track 10 simultaneous targets.
Power Pack: Miniaturized Kreeg IVb.A fusion power supply with a 1 month life-span. Needs replacing every other month. Can be substituted with an electrical battery pack, but no limited flight with it. Also expect a 12 hour life before it needs recharging.

MAU Overlord-062
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/weaponry/assaultGearB.JPG
These are advanced armor vehicle units. Organic plating infused with cermite covers the entirety of this vehicle. Its weaponry consists normally of two 45mm EM Gauss cannons, a fold-back gelignite flame-thrower, a 200 pound spiked ball at the end of the tail-section and heavy-duty claws for close combat. Can be armed with any special weapons specifically designed for it, as the arm units are modular. With a half-hour of preparation, a fore-arm can be removed an outfitted with a 180mm Chunk projecter, like the one shown above. A large, detachable flight pack is pictured with these units for hot dropping into HCZ's

Height/Width/Weight: 10.5 meters tall. 4.75 meters wide. Weight is 29.5 tons.
Speed: Running, 52 kph tops. Limited flight is 440 kph for an hour of flight in atmosphere. Small wings in back fold out for maintaining direction. Has balancing thrusters for space flight.
A reinforced pilot's cockpit is surrounded by .75 meters of titanium.
Sensor package:UV light sensors on chest. Radio receiver/transmitter, nightvision and IR/ultra-violet camera on sensor-head. Mini-radar with a 30 mile range can track 25 simultaneous targets.
Power Pack: Miniaturized Kreeg IVb.A fusion power supply with a 1 month life-span. Needs replacing every other month. Can be substituted with an electrical battery pack, but no limited flight with it. Also expect a 12 hour life before it needs recharging.


That's all we're telling you for now. If you have questions, ask now.
CEO Kargaah
Hreer Weapon Works
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/Character/Ghaar.JPG

OOC: Yes, this is where you would post comments, questions or what have you.

What haven't you been up to?

Well, there was an unusual upswing in cannibalism, but we now have that under control.

Glad to hear it.

Now I know some may be saying 'But how do you get those impressive and awe-inspiring armor units to the battlefield fast? HOW?' If you aren't saying this, SHAME ON YOU! Regardless, this is how we do it.

With the all-purpose aero-space dropship and MCU, the
Reptavian

Reptavian making atmospheric insertion
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/space/Dship1.JPG

When in atmosphere, wings flip out and lock.
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/space/Dship2.JPG

Preparing to land
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/space/Dship3.JPG

Dropping off MCU and making orbital insertion
http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/space/Dship4.JPG

Code-name: Reptavian
Length: 35 meters
Width: 30 meters
Height: 12.5 meters
Weight:(unloaded) 135 tons
Hull: Cellulo-Chitin Organic Plate infused with Cermite 13/14.
Crew: 5; Pilot, copilot, 1 comm officer, 1 engineer and 1 loadmaster.
Cockpit: 3 meters long by 2 meters wide by 2.2 meters tall
Passengers: 20 maximum
Air recycling duration: 3 months
Cargo capability: 60 tons
Max air speed:VTOL hover to Mach 1.5 for extended periods in atmosphere. Mach 6.2 for orbital entry.
Armament: 1 30mm minigun with 2400 rounds of tungsten-carbide tipped bullets.
Max Vacuum landing/takeoff gravity: 2.5
Fusion Engines: 4 Kreeg IVb.A variant C engines.
Engine Life: 9 months (with monthly maintanence) before requiring coolant replacement and alignment of laser-pinch containment field, and replacement of the fusion core. Has a back-up magnetic bottle containment field as well.
Features: The Reptavian has 1 universal restroom and 2 airlocks (double hatch) joining to the cockpit. MCU contains a passenger area with inertia-absorbing gelatinous full-body crash chairs (oh so comfy) for minimal jostling. Also has storage areas for passenger items and cargo. The Reptavian also has an infra-red, telescopic and UV camera. Wide-band and tight-band radio receiver/transmitter and a food and drink dispenser. A rear cargo door on the detachable MCU allows for the loading of vehicles and troops. Power-armor troops can be hot-jumped from a rear-facing cargo door for LZ's with active hostiles in the area. Microwave radar, wideband communication array and laser-pulse comm array are standard.

MCU (Mobile Command Unit) has space for three MAU Overlords, or 9 MAU Minions. Or even 27 Horde Troopers. Is fastened via magnetic clamp system to the Reptavian Dropship. Can be picked up again in the event of an emergancy evac.

<<Visibility bump>>

ooc:- Question how does your dropship leave the atmosphere after doing a drop?

Gelignite
Basically, gelignite is a white-phosporus based strain of napalm. More stable, however, so it can only be ignited easily by electrical means. It burns at 4000 degrees farenheit for 20 minutes per liter of the material. It spreads in a thick and viscuous gel. Can be outfitted into warheads or used in flamethrowers. The main advantage is that it can burn without oxygen, but is NOT recommended for use in space.


Some great stuff...

It had got my scientists interested. If they try to manufacture this stuff, why is it not recommended that they test it in space. Hell, that would be the first place I would be interested in using it.

Gelignite
Basically, gelignite is a white-phosporus based strain of napalm. More stable, however, so it can only be ignited easily by electrical means. It burns at 4000 degrees farenheit for 20 minutes per liter of the material. It spreads in a thick and viscuous gel. Can be outfitted into warheads or used in flamethrowers. The main advantage is that it can burn without oxygen, but is NOT recommended for use in space.


Some great stuff...

It had got my scientists interested. If they try to manufacture this stuff, why is it not recommended that they test it in space. Hell, that would be the first place I would be interested in using it.

ooc:- Pssst zero-G....be hell of a mess floating around.

Slagkattunger; When all thrusters are engaged, the Reptavian can attain a speed of mach 6.2 for escape velocity. Naturally the maneuverability is non-existant at that point, so it's a straight shot until it makes orbital insertion.

OOC: And SB, Slag has that one right. With solar winds in effect, it would make a big, gloppy firey mess that your own units would more than likely end up running into.

OOC: More developments are on the way.

Hard Beam shield-piercer
Basically, these beams weapons are photon lasers that are rendered cohesive when several lenses focus on one point. The focus point, however, is where minute pieces of solid matter are injected into the stream. They are carried along the beam at the speed of light. If the beam impacts on an energy shield, it may be stopped, but the solid material continues on at the speed of the beam, penetrating the hull depending on its material.


A note on lasers and shields.

Any laser can penetrate almost any shield. Why? Because it is light.

The shield that stops a laser stops light.

In other words, the shield that stops a laser blinds the ship. Blind ships are rather useless in combat....

This has been a public service announcement from:

-The Cardboard Avenger!!!

EDIT: Not that lasers do much damage compared to other weapons...too inefficient.

OOC: You do know that there are varying degrees of light, right. Selective shielding isolates non-weapons grade light energy. Also, we're in space. DO we really need to see all that inky blackness? There are other ways of getting information about the locality.

The Spores are cool. Do they have a pricetag?

OOC: You do know that there are varying degrees of light, right. Selective shielding isolates non-weapons grade light energy. Also, we're in space. DO we really need to see all that inky blackness? There are other ways of getting information about the locality.

OOC: "Weapons grade light"???

Light is just that, light. A laser is coherent and monocrome, but it is still just light. Photons/waves...quantized packets if you like.

There are many frequencies of light (from cosmic rays down through radio waves), and there are many amplitudes of light, but there is no way to distinguish a laser from any other type of light.

The moment someone claims fanticiful shields that block only laser light is the moment I claim fanticiful lasers that ignore fanticiful shields.

But like I said, lasers aren't all that damaging...very very inefficient. They would be mostly useless on armor (except perhaps cardboard armor. *grin*).

So I maintain, the only way to block a laser (light) is to block light.

EDIT: But neat stuff here. :) I like the bioarmor on that other page.

Not at this time. We tend to keep military technology closely guarded, instead of selling everything we have like some trailer-mutant itching for a Schlitz fix.

OOC: We'll concede that the barrier would block all forms of light, but it makes no difference really. Our ships have no viewports. Windows and such are weakpoints that can be exploited.

A Schlitz fix? What's that?

OOC: Schlitz is a really cheap. really crappy beer that goes for something like 2.50 a sixer. I knew some folks that would sell their children for a case of it.

OOC: We'll concede that the barrier would block all forms of light, but it makes no difference really. Our ships have no viewports. Windows and such are weakpoints that can be exploited.

OOC: Blocking light would block it from sensors as well as viewports. No radar (light), infra-red scans (light), microwave radio or laser communications (light), or even lasers of your own getting out (light).

Of course, the ship would be invulnerable to light as long as the shields stayed up (and a nice dark-splotch that would be fairly hard to detect with EM sensors), but it would be blind...and deaf...and mute.

It could use gravitic sensors...but those don't always provide all the information you need or want.

Errr, sorry about the hijack...not my intention.

It is more my intention to tell you (my friend) that if anyone ever says your lasers can't penetrate their shields, that you can tell them they are blind/deaf/mute and couldn't hit the broad-side of a planet at 200 klicks (never the less your much smaller ships).

:)

OOC: Then it looks like EM cannons all around. Anyways, how does microwave radiation register as light?

OOC: Because microwaves are light.

Light is just an EM-Wave...or a photon particle. Actually, it is both at once...or, rather, has characteristics of both a wave and a particle (like everything described by quantum mechanics).

The Electro-Magnetic spectrum goes vaguely like this:

Cosmic Rays (very short waves)
Gamma Rays
X-Rays
Ultra-Violet
Visible Light
Infra-Red
Microwaves
Radio-Waves (very long waves)

That is just from memory, so it is a bit patchy...and you could break it down further (visible light includes everything from violet, near the top, to red, near the bottom).

So really, all light is is electric and magnetic waves moving through space.

((NOTE: a magnetic or electric field, on its own, does not constitute light...but might still be stopped by such a barrier.))


In reality, there are no such things as "shields", so you can't simply stop light in midair (or midvacuum). But since this is NS, and shields are assumed to exist, they must have some real properties.

If they block lasers, they must block light.

Now since we are talking pure fiction, you could say they block only certain frequencies of lasers. Maybe they only block those darned gamma-rays (which would stop those fictional "grasers")...but you would be blind in that portion of the spectrum (probably not much of a loss). However, the more of the spectrum you cut off, the more of the spectrum you are blind/deaf/mute to.


EDIT: Oh, and like I said, in real life, lasers are notoriously inefficient. And even in NS and sci-fi, where they are efficient, using real-world physics (or semi-real-world physics), they would not penetrate armor as well as other weapons.

I tend to think of lasers as being the least penetrating energy weapon. This offsets their advantages of passing through energy shields and moving at the speed of light (a considerable advantage).

I tend to think of ions being the next least damaging (and the easiest to defend against AND the shortest ranged), but also as the cheapest, most efficient, and smallest weapons (making ions is easy).

I tend to think of plasma being somewhere in the middle, able to go high fractions of C (5-95% the speed of light, which doesn't do much damage itself) and able to do very good damage, but still fairly easy to defend against.

I tend to think of most particle weapons as very penetrating and potentially (not always) long ranged, but also extremely powerhungry.

And I end to think of electro-magnetic (and gravitic) mass accelerators (read: gauss and rail guns) as having the best penetration and damage, but projectile velocities ssssssssoooooooooooooooo low that they are only useful for extremely close-range combat (not uncommon in NS) or for use against targets that are not accelerating unnaturally (space stations, asteroid bases, satelites, ships with engines off, etc.).

But thats just me...based off what I learned in physics.

Maybe I should do a writeup before I go....

quote]I tend to think of lasers as being the least penetrating energy weapon. This offsets their advantages of passing through energy shields and moving at the speed of light (a considerable advantage).[/quote]
Methinks you're talking about using them against ships in vacuum, but lasers can be quite effective against people, and even machinery if in an atmosphere. If you use a pulsed laser against a person, the first pulse will vaporize the moisture on their skin, the next few will burn away the top layers of cells, and pulses after that will vaporize internal moisture, causing damage not directly from the heat of the laser but from the mechanical pressure of expanding steam. Two lasers in an atmosphere that have an energy output just below that required to convert the air into plasma can be focused to cause explosive expansion of the air at the point where the beams cross- but the downside is that neing in an atmosphere causes the beams to lose coherency, so the range is limited.