hallmist wrote:I dont know about a larger version of the railgun. Its a really cool weapon, that fires rounds really fast (14,000ish MPH), but you've gotta remember that it fires normal matter.
Really effective against lightly armored units (i.e. infantry), not so effective against shields. Fel has mentioned several times that Faey shields block matter, but only one quantum state. Which is why metaphased plasma goes through; it is in multiple states. However, the titanium coated iron round that the railgun fires is only in one quantum state, and would be completely blocked by shielding. So I'm not sure how effective the railgun would be against Faey ships.
However, if whatever cloak Jason builds repels/reflects/cancels all energy, it could be possible to fly his skimmer inside a ship's shield, and fire from there.
Just a thought.
From Chapter 4..
"A weapon using a Class V PPG that can penetrate any armor we have, that would take at least a ten megajoule shield to stop? Theyd make you a damn noble."
Now looking at that, it sounds like a 10 megajoule shield is very very high powered, it's never said what type of shields are used on ships, but jyslin saying it would penatrate any armor they have, I'm assuming she means any armor as in whats on ships too.. To me to make him a "noble" it would have to penetrate any shields/armor the Faey currently have, including ship shields...
Well normal matter may not penetrate shields, but naturally occuring multi phased materials such as phasecloth exist.
So why not a saboted multiphase round for when you really want to ruin someones day.
I assume that the Faey have some serious armour on military eqiupment or else the first infantry troop with an MPAC could reduce an exomech to scrap in just a few shots.
Guess it's time to at least calm some of the conjecture, lol.
Shields are solid barriers constructed out of energy (thus the term "force field," an energy construct that possesses physical properties), which affords them the ability to repel physical impact on top of their primary function, which is repelling energy attacks. Shields deal with energy attacks by absorbing the hostile energy into its matrix, and deal with physical attacks by representing a physical barrier stronger than the force applied against it.
Metaphased plasma bypasses shields be exploiting a fundamental aspect of energy compared to matter: energy exists only in one quantum state, where matter is a composite of multiple quantum states. Metaphased plasma loses a small portion of its energy passing through a shield when it absorbs the energy that exists in the same state as the shield, but can do nothing to stop the rest. This multiphased energy then hits solid matter, which MANY of those metaphased states can affect, but not ALL. The interleaved aspect of metaphased plasma causes ALL of the states of an MPAC charge to detonate when a sizable number of phased states strike much colder matter and explode. This allows the MPAC charge to penetrate a shield without exploding prematurely.
This is what phase cloth was designed to protect against. It creates a physical barrier designed to cause that very premature detonation of the MPAC charge, by presenting a physical barrier to as many phased states of an MPAC as possible.
Now, the rail gun. The rail gun fires matter, relying completely on the power of kinetic energy to deal damage (as any kind of mass-driver weapon does, including our own firearms). Its phased state doesn't matter, because it's firing a solid object. Shields can oppose the slug of the railgun, but the immense power it delivers is focused in a very, very small area, which gives it the ability to punch through a shield that's too weak to deal with that kind of highly focused power. The railgun is designed to penetrate, not detonate, the way an MPAC is.
This same highly focused impact gives it the ability to punch through some pretty formidable armor, combined with the slug's shape and its rifling. If it was just a little piece of meteor flying through space at 20,000 miles an hour, most Faey armors could stop it...after all, their hulls are designed to cope with these kinds of sporadic impacts. Where a meteor would shatter on impact, the railgun slug's bullet shape and rotation, combined with that titanium casing, makes it much stronger and gives the slug much, much more power. The only Faey armor that could conceivably stop a railgun slug is crystalized Neutronium, whose molecular structure is specifically organized to deal with this kind of massive impact delivered to such a small area. It would stop it, but it would put one hell of a dent in the armor...not to mention all that transfer of kinetic energy would send the target flying.
When Jyslin made that comment in chapter 4, she was generally referring to a Faey wearing armor, because Faey armor is more suitable for dealing with a railgun slug than a shield. A railgun would go right through the thin armor of a soldier. It could also probably go through an exomech, dropship, skimmer, or maybe even a fighter. But the thicker armor on a larger combat vessel could stop a railgun slug. It'd get a big divot ripped out of it (think about the hillside, all that kinetic energy has to go SOMEWHERE), but it'd stop it.
It would take a shield on a Corvette-class ship (the smallest type of Faey starship, with a crew of 9) or bigger to stop a railgun slug. Shields on anything smaller just wouldn't be strong enough.
Now, one other little thing that someone asked me once.
Why not make metaphased shields? Well, the Faey have certainly tried...and tried...and tried. The problem is that metaphased energy is inherently unstable, and it's virtually impossible to take an unstable form of energy and build it into a stable energy matrix required for a shield. Metaphased plasma is very unstable, but it's stable enough to last the 5 seconds after it's built into an MPAC charge and fired. MPAC rounds self-detonate around 12-15 seconds after being fired, when the metaphased matrix breaks down, the individual phased states return to their base phased state, and that ruptures the magnetic envelope that contains the plasma.
Just another guy from the shallow end of the gene pool.
fel wrote:Guess it's time to at least calm some of the conjecture, lol.
Now, one other little thing that someone asked me once.
Why not make metaphased shields? Well, the Faey have certainly tried...and tried...and tried. The problem is that metaphased energy is inherently unstable, and it's virtually impossible to take an unstable form of energy and build it into a stable energy matrix required for a shield. Metaphased plasma is very unstable, but it's stable enough to last the 5 seconds after it's built into an MPAC charge and fired. MPAC rounds self-detonate around 12-15 seconds after being fired, when the metaphased matrix breaks down, the individual phased states return to their base phased state, and that ruptures the magnetic envelope that contains the plasma.
Thanks Fel, Now the questions becomes, does Jason figure out how to make a Metaphased shield Stable.. and uses that for cloaking his ship...
Edit:
Fel, it's fun to speculate what you intend to do, I mean it keeps us Occupied while we await a new chapter..
Last edited by Hearly on Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Take the sheild and armor peircing capabilities and build a MetaPhased plasma charge generator and then charge each round with metaphased plasma. This would be contengient on having hollow round that could accept a magnetic/metaphased bottle for the plasma.
Think of how explosive those rounds could be. Even phase cloth and ship armor would have problems with it.
j-man5 wrote:Take the shield and armor piercing capabilities and build a MetaPhased plasma charge generator and then charge each round with metaphased plasma. This would be contengient on having hollow round that could accept a magnetic/metaphased bottle for the plasma.
The only problem is with the size of the bullet to contain "plasma bottle". Not a rail gun, but rather a rail cannon (which are actually built for testing satelites and such shielding against meteorites). There is also additional problem with charging the bottle durig rest or loading, and the resistance of the bullet to very large accelerations.
BTW. what about lasers?
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
An even simpler method for breaking down shields that deflect on multiple quantum states would be to coat a round with carribuim (sic) because it's so dense it could affect those states.
An iron core that was wrapped in phase cloth, then had carribuim annealed to it would do plenty of damage.
I'd gladly travel back in time, except I would have to wait longer for the next chapter of Fel's work...sorry, pass.
Hey Fel, something jumped out at me while I was bored at work today and re-reading the story.. In Chapter 2, we learn about how PPG's work, Couldn't Jason devise a way to Fold space around his Ship, hence hiding it's mass?
Also thinking about folding space, wouldn't that make an Ultimate(sp?) weapon? I mean you just fold space in the middle of a spaceship, Or figure a way to make all PPG's think they are having an accident and eject the Core...
For the phased shields, could you introduce a shift into the shield to make it change phases? I don't know how fast it'd have to change phases to catch enough of the plasma to prematurely trigger it though.
An idea for Jason's moving the ship, how about reversing the gravity field that his skimmer creates? If he can balance it out like that, as long as he stays away from anything else with a gravity well he should be ok. If he gets into another planet or ships gravity well, he'd have to be able to reconfigure the reverse field to duplicate the part of the well he is in so he isn't seen.
Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power. Are the powerful very unhappy?
Sorry about the lack of replying, but I had lost my password for a while, and I recently found it. I have to say I am loving the Subjagation series very much. So much drool worthy tech is being mentioned that I forgot all the things I wanted to say back when i didn't know my password.
Yeah the reversing of the gravity drives to generate an artificial gravity field which Jason could use to mimic the surrounding gravity field would be my best guess at overcoming the gravity sensors as well, but wasn't there mention of how those detectors also detected the movement of mass through the ether of space? Which may or may not have anything to do with gravity.
It's basically a kinetic energy sensor. Hiding from that would be tougher... If only he could figure out some new way to travel from place to place without actually traversing space to get there.
hmmm... just jumping back to the shield topic on stopping mpac rounds for a second.
Instead of trying to create a multiphase shield, why not make a constantly fluctuating phase shield....
The reason why a phase cloth can detonate the mpac charge before it hits the body is because it makes contact with several phases. A constant fluctuating phase shield can operate in the same principle as long as it can change its phase at a fast enough rate to detonate the mpac round while the round is going through the shield. If the explosion can be triggered that early, the damage to the armor (person inside the armor included) can greatly be reduced.
Welp, that's my tupence. Any feedback might or might not be appreciated depending on my mood. And have a nice day.
- Reader since 2001.
PS: I got that idea from Star Trek, where the federation ship have to constantly try and change it's energy signature for it's shields in order to deflect the Borg attacks. :)
fel wrote:Guess it's time to at least calm some of the conjecture, lol.
...
This same highly focused impact gives it the ability to punch through some pretty formidable armor, combined with the slug's shape and its rifling. If it was just a little piece of meteor flying through space at 20,000 miles an hour, most Faey armors could stop it...after all, their hulls are designed to cope with these kinds of sporadic impacts. Where a meteor would shatter on impact, the railgun slug's bullet shape and rotation, combined with that titanium casing, makes it much stronger and gives the slug much, much more power. The only Faey armor that could conceivably stop a railgun slug is crystalized Neutronium, whose molecular structure is specifically organized to deal with this kind of massive impact delivered to such a small area. It would stop it, but it would put one hell of a dent in the armor...not to mention all that transfer of kinetic energy would send the target flying.
...
I had wrote this question about convervation of momentum but I ended up answering it myself. If anyone else thinks that it's not possible the object being shot would fly off, while the shooter stays in the same place, it's all about the recoil absorbers, Which without such, the rail gun would rip the shoulder off of Jason as I remember reading once.
forbidder wrote:
I had wrote this question about convervation of momentum but I ended up answering it myself. If anyone else thinks that it's not possible the object being shot would fly off, while the shooter stays in the same place, it's all about the recoil absorbers, Which without such, the rail gun would rip the shoulder off of Jason as I remember reading once.
Wouldn't it be fun to be able to reverse the recoil, onto the projectile? Absolutely no push against the shooter, and more power behind the railgun.
Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power. Are the powerful very unhappy?
lochar wrote:Wouldn't it be fun to be able to reverse the recoil, onto the projectile? Absolutely no push against the shooter, and more power behind the railgun.
It would be fun, but it wouldn't be possible. There is such small thing like the laws of physics: conservation of momentum and conservation of energy. You have to take some energy for recoil absorber. And what is most impurtant third law of Newton: action equals reaction.
Last edited by Shadowhawk on Thu Jun 17, 2004 11:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
