Quote:Kinetic cannon, a purely 'waved “weapon” Originally a Federation design,What if a ship's drive doesn't give the vehicle any kinetic energy? I'm unsure whether all vehicles in Fenspace are supposed to use, at the basic level, the same drive tech. My reading is most vehicles have some sort of gravity drive, which out of atmosphere becomes a 'speed drive', with a maximum velocity based on vehicle mass - mass also seems to affect maneuverability.
it is yet another attempt to create a tractor bean. The cannon will
stop any vehicle on its tracks (with a spectacular show of light, so the
theory is than it changes kinetic energy into electromagnetic
radiation) for several seconds, but neither it nor its crew will be
damaged; after a short time it will move again (it varies, with the
quality of the ship drive. Moving objects with no drives, like small
asteroids or cannonballs, will not start moving again until more force
is applied; but it never has been longer than 20 seconds so far). It is
not very useful in combat, but it will grant a few seconds of advantage
for the ramming.
Another sort of drive might be like the 'Doc' Smith 'Bergenholm'[1], a 'free' drive which cancels the inertia of an object; you could claim that ST Impulse drives partially cancel inertia by pushing the vehicle mass into sub-space, which is the reason reaction jets are so effective for such massive vehicles. A 'free' drive is attractive because it cannot ram - it just stops when the vehicle touches a mass too large for its drive field to pick-up and move with it. The drive field also protects from space debris - it's just swept up by the drive at no risk. For elegance assume the drive field neutralises any inertial differences in use - space dust is not a problem when you turn the drive field off, and you are inertia- matched with anything you are in contact, or docked, with.
More sophisticated versions of 'free' drive, sometimes called Momentum Generators, can generate an artificial gravity field within them, and the contents of the field is not inertia-free (you might suspect being inertia-free could do horrible things to your metabolism). These are the drives that allow sudden right-angle turns, and reversal of direction. Nice to move around with, but totally useless if you want a kinetic weapon.
Do these sort of drives exist in Fenspace? The area seems a bit fuzzy.
If Momentum Generators drives do exist then a weapon, like the Kinetic Cannon, which cancels their kinetic energy from relative velocity would arguably do nothing to them. As they have only a pseudo velocity not a real one. Or, the two fields might interact in a variety of 'interesting ways'.
What do people think?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind