Quote:What, shaping the plasma from the explosion using a generator aboard the ship? I'm fairly certain that magnetic fields just don't work like that... and, as covered elsewhere, UTN technology can't build devices with enough shock resistance to work that close to the actual blast.
What about using magnetic fields to focus the drice's bombs as a extra protective measure after these are nuclear bombs being blwn up on your butt. All they would have to do is focus it a bit more for a nasty radiation blast. Right? If it works I can see every one else becoming kinda paranoid about coming to close while chasing them.
No, about the only weapons application for these drives is making the other guy's sensors go 'Bright light! Bright light! Owie!' Well, and there's the option of setting one off right close to someone too stupid to mind his seperations, but that really applies to any space drive.
Speaking of jump points, they're small... the actual point itself is a point in the geometric sense, ie, literally no volume, and the zone where your drives count it as 'close enough for jazz' is only a few kilometers across. Probably the only advantage the UTN drives have is that they can be marginally more generous about hitting the exact area - not a great deal, of course, but enough to make for some interesting tactical wrinkles.
The answer to why the UTN hasn't just bought stardrives from, say, the fuedalists or the Spiders, is that, actually, they have, but they haven't been able to properly reverse-engineer the ones they've gotten ahold of, and, 1, aren't willing to accept the strategic weakness of being dependant on an outside source for something so critical, and 2, now that they're already committed to the mothership/parasite model, continuing on in that vein is more cost-effective than trying to switch over.
Ja, -n
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