RE: [OOC][PLOT] Galaxy Building (Where we make Magrathea look like small potatoes)
09-26-2018, 12:42 PM
09-26-2018, 12:42 PM
Heh-heh-heh. You never saw the ideas I had that preceded Magnificent Midnight.
I called it The Punisher back in the day, and the name was eminently suitable. Imagine a double-size Blackbird. Most of the main fuselage was dedicated to a Star Trek style M-AM Reactor that rated somewhere between a Runabout and an Intrepid-class.
It was a fucking beast.
Dartz will appreciate this part. There were no touch screens or anything of the sort in this sucker. It was all heavy and clunky toggles, as well as the sort of relay switches you'd find in an Apollo capsule. You know, the ones that used mechanical indicators and not electrical ones. There was no digital anything - everything was the finest and over-engineered analogue systems. Comparing it to a starship from ST or even SW is like comparing a computer-controlled Honda V-Tech engine to a fugly monster of a 100% mechanically operated Cummins turbo diesel engine. That V-Tech is nice, sure. But it's gonna break if you try and do with it what you do with the Cummins.
High-power targeting sensors were in the nose-caps of both engine nacelles. It essentially had binocular vision and this ensured excellent ranging of your targets so you'd only ever need a couple of shots.
It was heavily armed and armored. No shields. No missiles. Five centimeters of ablative armor of the "Oh, were you shooting at me? How cuuu~uuute..." variety. (Remember The Doomsday Machine from TOS Star Trek? Yeaaaahhhh...) Main guns were pulse-firing anti-positron cannons and a secondary 'fuck all the things' Macross-style reflex cannon. And yes, they were all spinal-mounted. This bad boy was meant to get right up in their faces and pound on them until their own mothers couldn't recognize them.
And for all that weight, it was fast as hell, too. That M-AM reactor fed directly into all the major power systems - engines, weapons, active sensors. It simply had so much power that it was off the line as fast as an A-wing, and like an A-wing it kept going faster. And when it was time to REALLY put on the running shoes, it had a dockable rig with additional fuel, two more sublight engines, and a pair of warp nacelles. Once docked, the reactor would divert the power for the combat systems into the rig, and off it would go.
Not QUITE Lensman or Skylark levels of escalation, I'd say.... But it definitely sent a statement, which was the entire point. My character in that setting was the patriarch of his clan, and not one to take acts against his clan lightly at all. The Punisher was his way of saying, "Hey, asshole. This is personal now." - his first and last word when matters crossed the line.
The real Lensman level shit was the silicon-based biomechanical ships that bond to a person as a child and grow with them throughout their life to the point of becoming super battleships, fleet carriers, and mobile battle stations. And what was great was that they all had awesome personalities. One of my character's daughters had one that liked to let the children and it's partner graffiti it's hull. It would wash off later, but now and then someone would do something it liked enough that it would clear-coat it to it's hull. One day, I forget how, but someone caused his daughter to not only become covered in paint, but somehow also get splatted, face-down, limbs spread wide against it's hull. The moment she fell off it clear-coated the paint she left behind, causing no end of grumbling on her part.
It got really Skylarkish in that these lifeforms could assimilate new technology as effectively as the Borg. (Really, they were like a perfect synthesis of Species 8472's bio-ships and Borg technology.) And when it came to new technology, they were like the Kinder from Dragonlance - they'd take everything that wasn't nailed down... and even quite a few things that were!
So, yeah. There lay my standard of 'Lensman Arms Race'.
I called it The Punisher back in the day, and the name was eminently suitable. Imagine a double-size Blackbird. Most of the main fuselage was dedicated to a Star Trek style M-AM Reactor that rated somewhere between a Runabout and an Intrepid-class.
It was a fucking beast.
Dartz will appreciate this part. There were no touch screens or anything of the sort in this sucker. It was all heavy and clunky toggles, as well as the sort of relay switches you'd find in an Apollo capsule. You know, the ones that used mechanical indicators and not electrical ones. There was no digital anything - everything was the finest and over-engineered analogue systems. Comparing it to a starship from ST or even SW is like comparing a computer-controlled Honda V-Tech engine to a fugly monster of a 100% mechanically operated Cummins turbo diesel engine. That V-Tech is nice, sure. But it's gonna break if you try and do with it what you do with the Cummins.
High-power targeting sensors were in the nose-caps of both engine nacelles. It essentially had binocular vision and this ensured excellent ranging of your targets so you'd only ever need a couple of shots.
It was heavily armed and armored. No shields. No missiles. Five centimeters of ablative armor of the "Oh, were you shooting at me? How cuuu~uuute..." variety. (Remember The Doomsday Machine from TOS Star Trek? Yeaaaahhhh...) Main guns were pulse-firing anti-positron cannons and a secondary 'fuck all the things' Macross-style reflex cannon. And yes, they were all spinal-mounted. This bad boy was meant to get right up in their faces and pound on them until their own mothers couldn't recognize them.
And for all that weight, it was fast as hell, too. That M-AM reactor fed directly into all the major power systems - engines, weapons, active sensors. It simply had so much power that it was off the line as fast as an A-wing, and like an A-wing it kept going faster. And when it was time to REALLY put on the running shoes, it had a dockable rig with additional fuel, two more sublight engines, and a pair of warp nacelles. Once docked, the reactor would divert the power for the combat systems into the rig, and off it would go.
Not QUITE Lensman or Skylark levels of escalation, I'd say.... But it definitely sent a statement, which was the entire point. My character in that setting was the patriarch of his clan, and not one to take acts against his clan lightly at all. The Punisher was his way of saying, "Hey, asshole. This is personal now." - his first and last word when matters crossed the line.
The real Lensman level shit was the silicon-based biomechanical ships that bond to a person as a child and grow with them throughout their life to the point of becoming super battleships, fleet carriers, and mobile battle stations. And what was great was that they all had awesome personalities. One of my character's daughters had one that liked to let the children and it's partner graffiti it's hull. It would wash off later, but now and then someone would do something it liked enough that it would clear-coat it to it's hull. One day, I forget how, but someone caused his daughter to not only become covered in paint, but somehow also get splatted, face-down, limbs spread wide against it's hull. The moment she fell off it clear-coated the paint she left behind, causing no end of grumbling on her part.
It got really Skylarkish in that these lifeforms could assimilate new technology as effectively as the Borg. (Really, they were like a perfect synthesis of Species 8472's bio-ships and Borg technology.) And when it came to new technology, they were like the Kinder from Dragonlance - they'd take everything that wasn't nailed down... and even quite a few things that were!
So, yeah. There lay my standard of 'Lensman Arms Race'.