Armor packs:
I can definitely see them having the SIF booster functions, but it seems to me that something like those packs only makes sense if the core fighter is (much) more expensive than the things you're bolting onto it. At the EDTO's tech level, I think the best candidates for the things driving the cost of a VF up are going to be the joint drivers and (especially) the powerplant.
The way I'm seeing their powertrain is that you start with a quantum generator, which literally burns spacetime to create power. Then you siphon off a bit of that first for things like avionics and set the rest arcing across the combustion chamber of what would otherwise be a vaguely conventional dual-mod jet motor. In atmosphere? Pull in outside air and compress it - when it reaches the combustion chamber the arcs'll flay it to free-floating plasma, hot as you like and there you are with your thrust. Space work is even simpler - just dump in the water you've got stored in your fuel tanks and there you are...
The FAST packs then add additional combustion chambers and reaction mass, but don't actually have to increase the machine's power - since it's got that to burn anyway.
Oh, and, if we keep the Daedalus, then I'd consider it pretty likely that it wasn't the only ship that came along - just the most suitable for what was needed. We could spend an episode or so investegating the wrecks and driving home the 'horror of war' schtick with about ten times the plausability and effectiveness of having some rabid peacenik ranting about the evils of the military.
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
I can definitely see them having the SIF booster functions, but it seems to me that something like those packs only makes sense if the core fighter is (much) more expensive than the things you're bolting onto it. At the EDTO's tech level, I think the best candidates for the things driving the cost of a VF up are going to be the joint drivers and (especially) the powerplant.
The way I'm seeing their powertrain is that you start with a quantum generator, which literally burns spacetime to create power. Then you siphon off a bit of that first for things like avionics and set the rest arcing across the combustion chamber of what would otherwise be a vaguely conventional dual-mod jet motor. In atmosphere? Pull in outside air and compress it - when it reaches the combustion chamber the arcs'll flay it to free-floating plasma, hot as you like and there you are with your thrust. Space work is even simpler - just dump in the water you've got stored in your fuel tanks and there you are...
The FAST packs then add additional combustion chambers and reaction mass, but don't actually have to increase the machine's power - since it's got that to burn anyway.
Quote:*slams down Wicked Tribe Seal of Approval*
I wanna see SV-51s, too - maybe when the SDF is in Ontario trying to offload civvies, since I doubt the EDTO would sell its prize new fighter to a state that refused to be part of it.
Quote:*hasn't gotten that far in Macross 7-land*
RE the Atmospheric pack, with it's own wings while the normal ones stay tucked back - this would look something like the Sound Booster for Mylene's Sound Force VF-11, then? Only with the kickass VF5K atmo pack as a core, instead of a single pod.
Quote:Hmm. I can see that, I think. What I'd come up with keeps the tuning-fork cannon, but generally looks more like the Meltran Gunship than either canon Macross, while its original incarnation, which I've also sketched, looks a bit like the unnatural bastard son of a Shadow spidercrab and a Mon Cal cruiser. Why the vanes? Well, metatextually, they provide an explanation for the reinforced mounting points where the Terrans would eventually add massive outriggers. IC, they're, well, VLS bays for armored Zentradi. Hanging them out like that makes them more vulnerable, but it also keeps from needing to carve these endless arrays of doors or other serious weak points out of your carrier's defensive armor.
Well, that's how it's supposed to work, except one of the ARMORs was trashed by enemy fire... but the Deadalus was carried along in the misfold, and the ratchet jocks in engineering think they can whip up a coupling adaptor.
Oh, and, if we keep the Daedalus, then I'd consider it pretty likely that it wasn't the only ship that came along - just the most suitable for what was needed. We could spend an episode or so investegating the wrecks and driving home the 'horror of war' schtick with about ten times the plausability and effectiveness of having some rabid peacenik ranting about the evils of the military.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."