At the Spacer Lounge: A different way of looking at things

Tollon's picture
Tollon
April 2, 2016 - 4:48pm

"Me and Bubba were out there by the out rim, just cruisin' around, drinkin' a few suds when we saw the strangest thing?  There was this space ship parked down at the south pole of a star. It was bright fiery red and we thought it was those dang worms.

 

"So me and Bubba decide we're goin' bush whack these pesky worm and start sneakin' up on them. Yeah, yeah I know ain't nothin' down to hide behind anyway, which even makes it odder? Dang ship didn't move or nothin',  Even tried talkin' to them, but nobody, I mean nobody said word to us.

 

"I did tell ya all, we'd been drinkin', haven't I?  I think we' were on a seven day bender there, right Bubba?

 

There is a Dralasites in one the floor looking like a gray puddle of ooze.

 

"Ah fer get him?" the man waves at his partner and starts chuckling. "Bubba never could hold his liquor.

 

"Anyway, we begnnin' to a think, these guys are in trouble. Because there ain't no worm ship out there gonna let us this close. So we park old Martha right up beside her, and climbed right on aboard.  Dang it, wouldn't you know it, it is darn Worm ship?

 

"We're about to high tail it of there, when Bubba realizes everyone's asleep. SO we head on back to our ship and grab our holo recorders and pretend we're tourists.

 

"Even poke a few of those pesky critter while they lay in there fish bowls. Thry're kinda cute, when there a sleepin' like that? Didn't move a inch, even went fishin' in there swimmin' pool.  Must have tied on one heck of a hangover, because we spent over three hours in there, and not a one of them moved." The Dralasites mumbles something.  The man scowls at him. "No Bubba, about to get to that.  Let me tell the story now.

 

"We're there at the swimmin' pool, with our rods and the lines in the water when, it occurs to us, it was like sittin' by the pond back at home, 'cause we got gravity.  Now the dang ship, ain't movin'.  It's dead in space since we saw the blasted thing, and we got gravity?  Most peculiar thing I've experience in my fifty plus years as a spacer!

 

"Just then bubba catches himself a fish.  We start hootin' and yellin'.  He lands that puppy and it's the ugly darn fish you've ever seen.  We also realize we woke up the dang worm.  Needless to say Old Martha got a few more scars and I got another scar.

 

People start leaving when the men yells. "Now hold on a dang gum second, I ain't done yet?"

 

"About ten days later we get back, Pale and start show our vids around." He order another round form him and his partner. He takes the long neck bottle and shoves into the mass of ooze on the floor.

 

The Dralasites sound off in a very deep voice. "Thanks!"

 

"Hush up, Bubba. You talk too much." He looks at the people standing around him and says. "Now where was I...Ah yeah, we were showin' the vids around. and along come these two guys claimin' to be from Project White book?  You know, the Area 61 crap? Ask if they can get a copy, we say, sure and back to Martha we went.  Next thing you know, they toss a doze grenade and a tangle both at the same time.  We wake up sixteen hours later, and they have trashed  our space ship."

 

Bubba murmurs something. The man scowls. "Alright more than normal, the point is they thought had gotten our vids but..."

 

He taps the side of his head. "We're smart than that. We had copies made. Nine days later, we sold them to this nice guy for 1 million credit, said he worked for Inside Universe or one of the news show.  We'd figure we be star's once they hit the vid services.  Dang, if they ain't never showed them. Now we wished we sold them for three times as much."

 

By this time everyone had gone except for a drunk Vrusk who looked at him. "Can I see them?"

 

"Sure." He stomps on the ooze next to him and out pops a data clip. It flies several feet into the air and he catches as gravity takes hold. He plugs it into his holo projector...

 


I am writing a story dealing with one colony setting out to find the lost brothers after finding a Star Frontiers ship. Since I draw ships with Anti-grav more often than those without. (Alpha Dawn ships, I thought I give this a go).

 

Design: I gave the ship an organic feel, with allot of curved surfaces in the interior. Most of the machinery and electronics are stored in the walls.  The scout is basically from Module Face of the Enemy (my design) and the ship is the same without the scout/cargo bay (So of interest will let make me label everything).

 

General Info:  She roughs out to be about 500 tons.  124 meters long.  She has a crew of 19, 4 are dedicated combat solders.  

 

Technology:  She is armed with 1 particle cannon, 20 ICBM and 2 dual laser cannons top and bottom, reflective armor and force shield.  I went with Void and HEPRE engine. She also has a Bustard Ram scoop for collecting hydrogen. Range of this vessel is 128 light years before refueling

 

My Universe VS Star Frontiers:

 

MY Universe: one light year per day is the standard.  They use Hyperspace Generators to accomplish this.  Hyperwave communication (get complicated) allows for communications between stars systems without interstellar travel. Hyperwave Radar (HYDAR) allows a ship in hyperspace to detect planetary bodies within fifteen minutes of coming upon said object. Weapons have set damage and Force Shields stop all incoming fire (basically added armor.)  Scanner detect out to 1 AU, visual detection based on telescopes.  Sensors (five sense within local area) collect data from atmosphere or space surrounding.

 

Star Frontiers Universe: Void travel allows instantaneous travel between stars after fixing star system using astronavigation (i.e. Jump or Hop drive.)  Subspace Radio (operate on quantum physics) is the same as Hyperwave communications. They have no Hyperwave Radar. Everything else is basically the same as above, except range  is 1/2 an AU.

 

General rules:  Scanners can't be used in Hyperspace to detect object in normal space or scan them.  Weapons follow said rule (Nasty things can happen if there is a breech in the Hyperspace field or the generator goes boom.)  Communication between worlds is done by burst transmission once every 24 hours (depending on antennae location), therefore there generally a two day delay between the time the message is sent to the time it is received or delivered (off world telegram for Mister Bubba).  Most ships have a one light year range.  Ground base units, normal have a ten light year range can be larger.

 

The Sathar in my story have the advantage in several ways:  1: Shields are superior to My universe's (MU) because of the microization of shields.  2: Their particle cannons are Variable Particle Acceleration Weapons, or VPAW for short.  3: Void travel allows them to jump further distances in a shorter time (that get's explained in the story)  Basically it takes 10 hours for every light year plotted, where as MU ships there is the plot time plus travel time.  4:  As is the case on this ship,  ICBM carry 10 ktons nukes and as the saying goes with nukes almost does count, were the yield on MU ships is .5 ktons and are impact detonated. So they can still miss and cause damage. 

 

The MU ship in this story is a research vessel.  What saves or brings it up to their level are the following:  1. They know how to collect hydrogen off variable sources.  2.  Their technology can be adapted rather quickly because of their components (Must have studied parts first.) and can be repaired easily where the Sathar's can't repair there ship's battle damage (MU modular components).  3.  They can detect the ship's further out due to Sathar's drives and  Scanner systems allow for some guess to be made. 4.  Their laser turrets either be fired manually or set for anti-missiles defense. (fighters can overwhelm this system). 5.  Speed and maneuverability, The Sathar are limited by their HEPRE engines to 3 gs, where as MU ship has a 5gs and the Directional motors to perform faster turns, they have also been doing this longer than the Sathar since this technology is new to them.

 

As the story stands right now:  The Sathar in this story are Clannish and this clan is known as the Dragon clan. They are the strongest clan and control most of the area MU ship is traveling though.   General plot line about the Sathar here is another Clan controls the space around Star Frontiers worlds, their tech is older and on par with Alpha Dawn  rules.  They have more ships, build them more quickly and can mass on Dragon clan rather quickly (This is why only two wars with the Sathar have been fought).  In fighting has not allowed the AD Sathar  to mass for another attack.   I'm basically using things from the Fan magazines to ruff out the story as well as introducing a few  races and equipment of my own.

 

If there is an interest in that story, then let me know and I'll start posting it.  But a word of warning, adult language  and content is used. So be care for what you wish for...

Comments:

JCab747's picture
JCab747
April 6, 2016 - 8:56am
Well, I certainly like the idea of some Sathar clans being more advanced than X and Y.
Joe Cabadas