Random thoughts...

[robkelk]

New topic so as to not clutter up the Gazeeteer thread, with a few other random items.
First, the Gazeeteer comment:

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Space Pirates (Leijiites, Buccaneers): Free men of Space, the Pirates hold themselves to the moral code expressed by their symbolic founder, the great Captain Harlock. Known best for protecting the weak in the asteroid belt, flamboyant dress codes and melodramatic speeches.
Village Hidden in Asteroids (Ninjas): Founded by an international coalition of Naruto fans, the Hidden Asteroid is considered the finest martial-arts center in all of Fenspace. Also has the highest concentration of fenkinder anywhere save the Potterite districts. Has an odd friendly rivalry thing going on with the Space Pirates.

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"Friendly"? And here I thought the Pirate vs. Ninja rivalry was to the death...
Next, some random items:
The folks who are busy building up Pluto's mass in order to get it back to "planet" status should take a look at 2003 EL61 - it seems tailor-made for the job.
(Speaking of Pluto, the New Horizons probe is almost at Jupiter...)
Once the SOS Convention is finished, there's going to be a new addition to Stellvia. No complaints when it happens, please - it's 100% hardtech, so the Rules of the Wave don't apply... Noah will offer to transport one of these to The Island, if they decide to buy one as well. (For free - it'll be part of his contribution to the war effort.)

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

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"Friendly"? And here I thought the Pirate vs. Ninja rivalry was to the death...

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Pirates and ninja have a different concept of "friendly" than the rest of us. ---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Norgarth]

besides, how can you gloat about putting one over on your rival if you kill him/her? __________________
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live. - George Carlin.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[robkelk]

And another random thought... Is this better, worse, or on par with a coilgun? (And what could The Professor do with one?)

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Sirrocco]

No idea about relative degrees of power - but I guarantee you the coilgun is far cheaper, and probably a lot smaller and lighter as well.
EDIT: also, about the lasers - they look doable, but I'm not sure how easy they would be to get as pure hardtech. Where is your character going to come up with the money/influence to buy them? It's not like Northrop-Grumman sells cutting edge miltech to just anyone, and the pricetag is sounding pretty nontrivial - especially since the fact that you don't have a planet as a backstop means that you'll have to field two systems.
It's also worth noting that they aren't offering these as anything other than point defense weaponry at the moment - and that for use against things that are already inherently explosive. They're definately high-quality as far as that goes, but.... Anyone have any idea how much more than that they'd be able to do?
On the other hand, if you're intending that these be a Li Kohran Special, then it's certainly plausible to have a high-quality hardtech point-defense laser system powered by wavetech generators. It still wouldn't be *cheap*, but it should be within your character's means, and it would provide plenty of protection from someone tossing missiles at you.

[M Fnord]

Railguns work on the same basic principles as a coilgun, but they're actually not nearly as useful - the rails erode every time you shoot a projectile.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Acyl]

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Noah will offer to transport one of these to The Island, if they decide to buy one as well. (For free - it'll be part of his contribution to the war effort.)

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Quite likely. Officially, the Island is unarmed, and its only defense is patrol vessels: one dedicated "police ship", the Brave Legend Shakespeare, and a smaller armed craft, the Outrigger II.
This is mostly a public relations thing, though. The Island doesn't wanna seem like a fortified battle station. Unofficially, the Island is quietly gearing up. Some hidden ballistic turrets, and so on. Eric and the gunbunnies on his staff would be very happy to get a working laser weapon, even if it's just point-defense - assuming, of course, they could afford it.
They probably would need someone to transport it - the Island's got its own transport, the ISS Delphinus, but it's half-passenger ship, not a dedicated cargo hauler...and it's set up to shift things like food and boxed merchandise, not big weapon systems.
Far as contribution to the war effort is concerned, the Island would likely offer discounted (or free) docking and repair services to Fen fighting the good fight. Aid in logistics and supplies.
The Island has a very effective tugboat, the ISS Octopus, which could potentially be useful for rescue and support, as well as the aforementioned armed patrol ships...whether or not those see action, though, depends on how well SOS convinces Eric. Or how dire the situation gets. That said, I imagine, by the end, the Octopus would be latching on to at least some ships and towing 'em home.
While the Island generally maintains a strictly neutral stance, nobody likes Boskonians.
-- Acyl

[KJ]

Well, if you can get ahold of said lasers, that's all well and good... the probable price has been commmented on. Just, be aware that they really are dedicated missile defense jobbies; 100 kilowatts isn't really enough to kill hard targets (IE, ones without explosive onboard) and they're going to be setup for much shorter ranges than we can see in, y'know, space. If you get something to hold still for a while (or at least not manuver much) so you can burn through a single spot, that's one thing, but don't be expecting quick or easy kills.
... though really, that's the closest a current hardtech weapon gets to being a practical ship-ship ranged weapon; the mechanics of trying to hit something that can do 10% lightspeed with a projectile that's moving (assuming equivalent topspeeds from the firer and firee) only about 3km/sec faster than that are kinda tricky.
Railguns are actually a *lot* more efficient at turning electricity into kinetic energy than coilguns; rail erosion's an issue obviously, but oh well. The Navy jobbies mentioned in that article are going to be pretty close to state of the art for something that's intended to eventually live outside a laboratory. Note from interpreting the article, that a plain vanilla 5" gun ends up at about 8MJ of kinetic energy, though obviously lower muzzle velocities.
If you want a fairly cheap, practical hardtech gun capable of very high muzzle velocities, google the SHARP light gas gun. Basicially works like an overgrown air rifle, but with hydrogen instead of air (preferably very hot hydrogen at very high pressures) Because the speed of sound in hydrogen is a lot higher than in air (or burning cordite) the maximum muzzle velocity's higher as well. Been in use for decades; NASA has a bunch they use for micrometeorite simulation.
There's also ram accelerator cannons that are capable of even higher velocities, but I'm not entirely sure they've been experimentally demonstrated to work.

[Kokuten]

ooooh, a scram cannon!
I can _build_ that. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[robkelk]

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Unofficially, the Island is quietly gearing up. Some hidden ballistic turrets, and so on. Eric and the gunbunnies on his staff would be very happy to get a working laser weapon, even if it's just point-defense - assuming, of course, they could afford it.

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I'm sure you'll find the price of a "Li Kohran special" to be well within your means, especially since you're only paying for the parts (and the generator). Noah'll just write off the difference as going towards the war effort.
(And the Island is the only customer that Noah'll consider for these; everyone else is either too far from the front lines and thus doesn't need one, too near the front lines and thus in danger of losing one to the Boskonians, or can build one themselves. What you do with yours once you have it is up to you, of course. )
Speaking of the war effort, I suspect Stellvia will rather quickly become the equivalent of a MASH unit to The Professor's "aid station", assuming that The Professor moves his hospital ship close to the front lines for the duration.
(We haven't even started the first skirmish, and already I'm thinking about logistics... )

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[classicdrogn]

If Stellvia's at Earth/Luna L5, that's not quite the front lines either, as I understand, but that's not to say it wouldn't be one of/the major Space Patrol medical center. For the MASH-type slot, though, I propose the Gnarlycurl, since as of SOScon most of the crew quarters type spaces are half-finished rooms, and I already had it playing hospital ship in forward continuity. There's plenty of room for both, of course, espescially since Earth IS the social and financial center of the Fenspace universe and Gnarlycurl is gong to be in the Mars/Belt regions mainly.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[robkelk]

Another random thought: I can see quite a few of these getting 'waved to become Sumomo-style PDAs. Each with a different set of quirks, of course, and none of which will actually match Sumomo's quirks...
(BTW, feel free to post your own random Fenspace thoughts here. Better to do that than to clutter up any of the sticky threads...)

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[itsune9tl]

If a fen has a decent AI, and a handwaved gravitic drive. S/he might try the Gravity lens laser trick.
Demonstration
Explanation

[Kokuten]

If I ever hear back from Mr. Morden and get the Big Guns online, Grasers are indeed next on the list. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[drakensis]

If you'd sent anything I'd received then you would have heard from me. What sort of Big Guns do you have in mind?
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Bob Schroeck]

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If I ever hear back from Mr. Morden and get the Big Guns online, Grasers are indeed next on the list.

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And won't they make earth-bound militaries get all nice and paranoid...
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

[robkelk]

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If a fen has a decent AI, and a handwaved gravitic drive. S/he might try the Gravity lens laser trick.

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Oh, that's in Schlock Mercenary, too? I first ran across the idea in an anime called "Stellvia"...

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[itsune9tl]

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And won't they make earth-bound militaries get all nice and paranoid...

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Yes. But can you imagine the fun as the Mil-danes try to figure out where the fen is hiding the nice weapons grade lasers, and then find that it's essentualy a software hack.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hmmmm.... Dunno, guys. Glasers can be weak the further on out you get from good ol' Sol. However, if you're packing a really powerful lightsource (Like, oh say, an arc lamp from a movie theatre projector?) then you'd be in business.

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Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News
of this kind a danish requires."

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[Kokuten]

Glasers are not necessarily dependant on Sol's background - not when we have grav plates. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979