Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Actually the orginal Galactica is the Artemis in Deadlock not the Minvera @Legion0047
Battletech Battletech/Battlestar Galactica Crossover - Lucky 13th (the rewrite)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Legion0047
Member
They look very samey but you are right.
I made a mistake in the last chapter, Lee Adama at this time is in command of Pegasus, so he wouldn't be available to accompany Laura. I'll go back and edit that bit after I finish this chapter.
And I just spotted a continuity error spawned by my conflating the original version with this one. The Black Prince should be named Potente, not Constitution. I will correct this error as well once I finish this chapter.
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Having the Galaxy and Colonial One meet airlock to airlock for the meeting had been a very good plan. Then they tried it.
The Galaxy-class logistics dropship had a single 10m main airlock and a 1.6m personnel airlock as a backup and for docked small craft. Meanwhile Colonial One’s airlock was 3.5m in diameter and of a radically different configuration.
The two airlock systems were 100% incompatible.
Now Hegemony vessels did carry adaptors for multiple different types of civilian airlock systems that could be found, but none of them were quite right. They did have a 1.6m to 3.5m adaptor, for example, but the latching mechanisms were completely different.
Luckily one thing that Galaxy-class dropships did have were extensive machine shops with the capacity to essentially 3d print certain spare parts from feedstock. Once the problem with realized, and after some hasty communications that involved as much sharing images as words, they managed to get an extremely high detail image of the locking system of Colonial One, then created a 3d engineering model of it, and created a common docking adaptor with a Hegemony 3.5m locking system on one end and a Colonial 3.5m locking system on the other end. They then mated up a 1.6m to 3.5m adaptor to the personnel airlock and Bob’s your uncle.
It was agreed that since it was the Hegemony who built the adaptor that they’d be the ones to use it and the meeting would take place aboard Colonial One.
So after several days of delays thanks to having to figure out logistical issues like this the big moment came. The Galaxy came into close formation with Colonial One and the docking adaptors did their thing flawlessly.
Laura would always regret not having been at the airlock later in life, because the video just didn’t do it as much justice as the reality. A small Colonial Marine honor guard was formed up in precise formation, her aide Tory Foster stood next to Sergeant Harder, who was in command of the honor guard. Meanwhile she and Lt Dualla waited in the conference room, observing the situation over a video monitor.
It was all quite formal. Until after the inner airlock opened and the Hegemony delegation was found sprawled on the deck having mass face planted after ‘swimming’ through the null-g transfer tube and not expecting artificial gravity.
She’d wondered why their airlock diameter was so low…
It took several minutes for things to be sorted out, as the Hegemony delegation had to untangle themselves and try and look properly presentable after such an epic failure of a first impression. Thankfully for diplomacy’s sake, Laura was able to get her expression back under control well before the delegation reached the conference room.
Although she didn’t dare look at Dualla, because she just knew that the other woman would set her off laughing again. Unfortunately there was a sharp edge to the humor. If the 13th Tribe didn’t even have artificial gravity, then they might be too primitive, even with their large warship, to be much in the way of an ally against the Cylons. What else had they lost?
When the delegation arrived she had to suppress another reaction, a slight shiver of fear. The one leading it was the single largest mountain of a man she’d ever seen. Seeing him on the monitor had not prepared her at all for the sheer visceral presence of the man. He looked like he routinely bench pressed battlestars, did curls with base stars, and considered solid steel slabs of armor to be ‘minor inconveniences’ to his passage.
His voice didn’t detract from that, rumbling from somewhere deep in the bowels of Hades, passing through the entire underworld, making a detour to visit Poseidon’s realm, before coming forth in a basso profundo tone that moved continents.
“Madame President.” he said, dipping his head slightly in what could be considered a bow, if mountains moved. “I am Peter Sherman, Major General in the Hegemony Armed Forces and commanding officer of Circe Base. My superiors have assigned me the duty of conducting this first conduct. To my right is Colonel Nikita Arkhangelskaya, and to my left is Doctor Alexander Cohen who shall be acting as my translator.”
Laura waited as the odd words washed over her, then to the translation provided by the suit-wearing man identified as a Dr Cohen. She nodded to each at the introductions. “And as you have surmised I am President Laura Roslin of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.” she replied, then waited for the translation to be made. “I welcome you aboard Colonial One and I hope our discussions will prove fruitful. Please, be seated.” she gestured to the comfortable chairs arranged around the room, although she did worry if this General Sherman would be able to fit in any of them.
The chair somehow managed to withstand him, although she was almost certain it would need to be replaced later, as he sat down with great dignity.
“As the host it behooves me to take the lead.” she continued, pausing for the translation and the nod of acceptance from the giant across from her. “I will keep it simple. I wish I came to you as the leader of a 12 Colonies that were strong and at peace. But instead I sit here before you as the leader of all that remains of us.”
She waited there to see their reactions and was almost disappointed at the very lack of a reaction from the giant. The slender blonde woman seated next to him flinched visibly at the translation, and the translator looked troubled, the giant might as well have been carved from stone.
“So am I to assume that you are refugees from some calamity, Madame President?” he rumbled, a faint twitch of an eyebrow making it an obvious question.
“If you could call genocide a ‘calamity” she replied, looking him straight in the eye. “And the Cylons are pursuing us to finish the job.”
William had told her to be open about that, and she’d agreed. False pretence here would be far more harmful than anything else.
There was silence for a moment, the giant regarding her levelly. “Who are these Cylons and why did they attack you.” he finally asked in that rumbling voice.
What followed was a half hour explanation of what had happened, covering a brief history of the First Cylon War, followed by explaining what had led the rag tag fleet to this point. Lt Dualla provided a military point of view of the events while Laura focused on the human cost and telling the overall story.
The representatives from the Terran Hegemony sat and listened, with the giant and the woman beside him taking notes on small tablets that they’d had hooked to their uniform belts. Seeing such obvious computer technology still made Laura nervous, as she knew how easy Cylons could exploit such, but she held her peace on that score.
Finally at the end of the presentation the man-mountain simply looked at her for several long moments before speaking. “I am authorized by my leadership to contact you.” he finally said, frowning. “However on my own authority as CO Circe Base it is within my authority to invite you and yours there. Anything more than that would require approval by my own chain of command. Therefore.” he looked steadily at her. “By my authority as the CO of Circe Base, you are welcome to bring your fleet there. If anybody violates our territory in order to attack you they will have to deal with Circe Base Skywatch.”
Laura felt like collapsing bonelessly. That was far more than she’d feared for a worst case, although her worries about whether or not this Hegemony could…
It seemed mind reading was one of that giant's many talents. “And before you have doubts about whether or not we can handle ourselves. I am sure Captain Dacre would be happy to give a little demonstration.” his smile was almost predatory. “He does love showing off.”
Having the Galaxy and Colonial One meet airlock to airlock for the meeting had been a very good plan. Then they tried it.
The Galaxy-class logistics dropship had a single 10m main airlock and a 1.6m personnel airlock as a backup and for docked small craft. Meanwhile Colonial One’s airlock was 3.5m in diameter and of a radically different configuration.
The two airlock systems were 100% incompatible.
Now Hegemony vessels did carry adaptors for multiple different types of civilian airlock systems that could be found, but none of them were quite right. They did have a 1.6m to 3.5m adaptor, for example, but the latching mechanisms were completely different.
Luckily one thing that Galaxy-class dropships did have were extensive machine shops with the capacity to essentially 3d print certain spare parts from feedstock. Once the problem with realized, and after some hasty communications that involved as much sharing images as words, they managed to get an extremely high detail image of the locking system of Colonial One, then created a 3d engineering model of it, and created a common docking adaptor with a Hegemony 3.5m locking system on one end and a Colonial 3.5m locking system on the other end. They then mated up a 1.6m to 3.5m adaptor to the personnel airlock and Bob’s your uncle.
It was agreed that since it was the Hegemony who built the adaptor that they’d be the ones to use it and the meeting would take place aboard Colonial One.
So after several days of delays thanks to having to figure out logistical issues like this the big moment came. The Galaxy came into close formation with Colonial One and the docking adaptors did their thing flawlessly.
Laura would always regret not having been at the airlock later in life, because the video just didn’t do it as much justice as the reality. A small Colonial Marine honor guard was formed up in precise formation, her aide Tory Foster stood next to Sergeant Harder, who was in command of the honor guard. Meanwhile she and Lt Dualla waited in the conference room, observing the situation over a video monitor.
It was all quite formal. Until after the inner airlock opened and the Hegemony delegation was found sprawled on the deck having mass face planted after ‘swimming’ through the null-g transfer tube and not expecting artificial gravity.
She’d wondered why their airlock diameter was so low…
It took several minutes for things to be sorted out, as the Hegemony delegation had to untangle themselves and try and look properly presentable after such an epic failure of a first impression. Thankfully for diplomacy’s sake, Laura was able to get her expression back under control well before the delegation reached the conference room.
Although she didn’t dare look at Dualla, because she just knew that the other woman would set her off laughing again. Unfortunately there was a sharp edge to the humor. If the 13th Tribe didn’t even have artificial gravity, then they might be too primitive, even with their large warship, to be much in the way of an ally against the Cylons. What else had they lost?
When the delegation arrived she had to suppress another reaction, a slight shiver of fear. The one leading it was the single largest mountain of a man she’d ever seen. Seeing him on the monitor had not prepared her at all for the sheer visceral presence of the man. He looked like he routinely bench pressed battlestars, did curls with base stars, and considered solid steel slabs of armor to be ‘minor inconveniences’ to his passage.
His voice didn’t detract from that, rumbling from somewhere deep in the bowels of Hades, passing through the entire underworld, making a detour to visit Poseidon’s realm, before coming forth in a basso profundo tone that moved continents.
“Madame President.” he said, dipping his head slightly in what could be considered a bow, if mountains moved. “I am Peter Sherman, Major General in the Hegemony Armed Forces and commanding officer of Circe Base. My superiors have assigned me the duty of conducting this first conduct. To my right is Colonel Nikita Arkhangelskaya, and to my left is Doctor Alexander Cohen who shall be acting as my translator.”
Laura waited as the odd words washed over her, then to the translation provided by the suit-wearing man identified as a Dr Cohen. She nodded to each at the introductions. “And as you have surmised I am President Laura Roslin of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.” she replied, then waited for the translation to be made. “I welcome you aboard Colonial One and I hope our discussions will prove fruitful. Please, be seated.” she gestured to the comfortable chairs arranged around the room, although she did worry if this General Sherman would be able to fit in any of them.
The chair somehow managed to withstand him, although she was almost certain it would need to be replaced later, as he sat down with great dignity.
“As the host it behooves me to take the lead.” she continued, pausing for the translation and the nod of acceptance from the giant across from her. “I will keep it simple. I wish I came to you as the leader of a 12 Colonies that were strong and at peace. But instead I sit here before you as the leader of all that remains of us.”
She waited there to see their reactions and was almost disappointed at the very lack of a reaction from the giant. The slender blonde woman seated next to him flinched visibly at the translation, and the translator looked troubled, the giant might as well have been carved from stone.
“So am I to assume that you are refugees from some calamity, Madame President?” he rumbled, a faint twitch of an eyebrow making it an obvious question.
“If you could call genocide a ‘calamity” she replied, looking him straight in the eye. “And the Cylons are pursuing us to finish the job.”
William had told her to be open about that, and she’d agreed. False pretence here would be far more harmful than anything else.
There was silence for a moment, the giant regarding her levelly. “Who are these Cylons and why did they attack you.” he finally asked in that rumbling voice.
What followed was a half hour explanation of what had happened, covering a brief history of the First Cylon War, followed by explaining what had led the rag tag fleet to this point. Lt Dualla provided a military point of view of the events while Laura focused on the human cost and telling the overall story.
The representatives from the Terran Hegemony sat and listened, with the giant and the woman beside him taking notes on small tablets that they’d had hooked to their uniform belts. Seeing such obvious computer technology still made Laura nervous, as she knew how easy Cylons could exploit such, but she held her peace on that score.
Finally at the end of the presentation the man-mountain simply looked at her for several long moments before speaking. “I am authorized by my leadership to contact you.” he finally said, frowning. “However on my own authority as CO Circe Base it is within my authority to invite you and yours there. Anything more than that would require approval by my own chain of command. Therefore.” he looked steadily at her. “By my authority as the CO of Circe Base, you are welcome to bring your fleet there. If anybody violates our territory in order to attack you they will have to deal with Circe Base Skywatch.”
Laura felt like collapsing bonelessly. That was far more than she’d feared for a worst case, although her worries about whether or not this Hegemony could…
It seemed mind reading was one of that giant's many talents. “And before you have doubts about whether or not we can handle ourselves. I am sure Captain Dacre would be happy to give a little demonstration.” his smile was almost predatory. “He does love showing off.”
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Yeesh Sunhawk how do you produce so much content on mutiple different stories so quickly. Not that I'm complaining at all of course
I'm working hard at improving my writing ability so, maybe, eventually I'll be able to do it for money
Kujo
For the FEDCOM! For the Archon-Prince!
To paraphrase Hermes Conrad "We shall compensate LordSunHawk with cheap cheap words of praise"-from the Awesome Xpress episode you know the one
In all seriousness great chapter, keep it up! Thank you!!!
namar13766
Well-known member
@LordSunhawk Have you considered threadmarking the post with your designs?
I will do so!
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Laura Roslin was… annoyed. It was now quite obvious to her that no matter how otherwise level-headed a military man was, hearing the phrase ‘firepower demonstration’ ignited something deep within the military soul that required him to start beating his chest and strutting like a peacock with the desire to show off.
No sooner had General Sherman offered a demonstration of the capabilities of the Hegemonies warships did Adama promptly insist on showing off as well.
Testosterone. It had to be the testosterone.
Her arguments about limited ammunition stores making this a terrible idea? Waved off as no consequence. Her attempt to invoke presidential authority to prevent it? The hurt puppy looks from every single one of the officers involved forced her to back down on that one.
It was as if the phrase ‘firepower demonstration’ was some magic spell from Hecate, causing all sense to flee the military mind. And everybody was determined that they were going to show off the best.
Men… all she could think was MEN!
The Hegemony helpfully short-circuited one of her arguments when they offered to provide target drones, which evidently they always carried around for training purposes.
She had finally managed to smother the worst of the excessive enthusiasm by pointing out that it would be a bad idea to show these people absolutely everything that they could do, after all, we still didn’t know how friendly they actually were. The appeal to paranoia actually worked, wonder of wonders. So they’d only show off the Vipers and have the Marines show off small arms and anti-Cylon techniques.rather than engage in a massive penis waving contest of naval gunfire with the Hegemony warships. The Hegemony, for their part, had offered to host the Marine portion of the contest aboard the Potente, which she’d accepted.
The Hegemony had also allowed the Colonials to go first, which she thought was proper and just. So she had some parochial pride, she was quite aware of it, thank you very much. So here she was sitting in the observation lounge of Colonial One along with Bill… Admiral Adama… watching as Starbuck and a few other Viper pilots engaged in some basic aerobatics. Of course ‘basic’ didn’t last long as Starbuck and Kat got into a ‘I can fly this thing better than you’ contest which proved that penis waving wasn’t confined to those who possessed penises in the first place.
Granted it was quite impressive, the incredibly agile Vipers engaging in a mock dogfight at greater and greater speeds, followed by a gunnery pass at a target that the Hegemony had deployed for them to shoot up.
The Hegemony delegation had seemed very impressed with the Viper, right up until the moment where they opened fire on the target. Colonel Arkhangelskaya cleared her throat and through the translator asked. “Ummm, you use heavy machine guns for aerospace fighter’s, Ma’am?” the relatively petite redhead wearing pilot’s wings on her chest said carefully.
Bill just frowned slightly. “30mm kinetic energy cannon on the Mark II, later models used lighter but faster firing weapons.” he clarified, looking at the Colonel.
The Colonel’s reaction wasn’t what Laura had expected, as the other woman traded a look and a slightly raised eyebrow with General Sherman who actually smiled, slowly, as the two looked like a cat who got in the cream.
Bill looked at her, somewhat flummoxed by that reaction, then he shrugged and turned back to the observation window. The Vipers finished their final pass, formed up into a far crisper formation than they’d probably have managed just months before and made a beauty fly past of Colonial One before forming up around the transport to observe the Hegemony’s turn to show off their fighters.
Or perhaps ‘fighter’, singular, because they only sent out a single craft. It looked like somebody really had a love affair with the wing and decided that all a fighter needed was a bigger, longer wing with a small tailfin assembly. It took a moment, but soon Laura realized that this ‘fighter’ dwarfed Raptors, let alone a Viper. Indeed, that singular fighter looked like it massed as much as all of the Viper’s that had been deployed for the show.
It flew like its size implied, slow, deliberate. There was a sort of ponderous grace to it, but she didn’t need Bill murmuring in her ear to tell that it was nowhere near as agile as a Viper. If this was what the Thirteenth Colony flew as a fighter they would be…
The fighter had only done a single, lazy pass past Colonial One, executing a sweeping roll as it turned and headed towards the target. And then it fired.
Bill sat up straighter as if poked with something sharp in a very sensitive place as the five meter diameter target disk shattered upon impact of something moving far too fast for the eye to see.
The petite Hegemony colonel answered the unspoken question through the interpreter. “That was what we call a Gauss Rifle, firing a 100 kilogram steel projectile.” she said quite pleasantly. “Caveman is coming up on the next target.” she nodded towards the second of the target disks that was visible.
The massive fighter was indeed coming up on the second of the three disks. This time Bill almost surged out of his seat as red bars of coherent light, actual combat grade lasers, connected the fighter and the target, causing the latter to shatter as well.
Laura forced herself not to react too much. They had lasers. Something that had been talked about for years as ‘coming soon’ to the Colonial military but never actually delivered, and their fighter had two… make that three, as a tail gun of all things shattered the largest surviving fragment of the target disk with another red flash.
The colonel spoke up without prompting “Three 5 centimeter extended focus lasers, Madame President.” the redhead sounded just a trifle smug. “Third target about to be engaged.”
She braced herself, and was glad for it as four coherent bolts of lightning surged from the wings of the massive fighter and utterly annihilated the remaining target. Somehow they have seized the power of Zeus’ thunderbolts from the heavens she thought numbly.
And the colonel spoke as if the Colonials hadn’t just suffered shock after shock. “Quad Lightbringer Extended-Range Particle Projection Cannons, Madame President, the main ‘guns’ for the Tornado strike fighter.” the tiny woman looked utterly insufferable.
The aptly named Tornado then performed a slow pass. The ponderous bird no longer looked laughably slow and clumsy, it looked lethal as it performed a slow, lazy roll as it passed the observation lounge.
General Sherman stood up, along with the Colonel. “Madame President, I do believe that the next set of demonstrations is scheduled to take place in an hour aboard Potente.” He smiled, and Laura numbly recalled just how confident she’d been that the Colonials would be the ones doing the most showing off.
---
Kara “Starbuck” Thrace had been having a great day. She’d shown Kat just who the queen of the sky was… again. She’d gotten to strut her stuff in front of this so-called 13th Tribe. She’d had some great celebratory sex the night before, had won an unopened pack of cigars at strip triad, and was top of the world.
Then she’d almost laughed at the giant lumbering lummox of a fighter these 13th Tribe folks considered worthy to show off against her agile little warbird. She’d actually been snickering… right up until that first shot shattered a target she’d dinged up with both of her cannons.
Then the lasers. Then those bolts of lightning. And although she knew it wouldn’t have been apparent from the observation lounge on Colonial One, Starbuck had a fighter jocks vision, and had realized something even more horrifying than the sheer carnage those weapons had unleashed. They’d fired seriously off-axis. From what she could see, if she flew in front of that thing, even if she wasn’t directly in front of the nose, she’d get the personal attention of that lightning, those lasers, and whatever the hell it was that they’d fired first. If she flew behind it she’d have to contend with a laser…
She wasn’t feeling quite as smug about how lumbering that thing was now.
Maybe she could talk somebody into letting her fly one...
Laura Roslin was… annoyed. It was now quite obvious to her that no matter how otherwise level-headed a military man was, hearing the phrase ‘firepower demonstration’ ignited something deep within the military soul that required him to start beating his chest and strutting like a peacock with the desire to show off.
No sooner had General Sherman offered a demonstration of the capabilities of the Hegemonies warships did Adama promptly insist on showing off as well.
Testosterone. It had to be the testosterone.
Her arguments about limited ammunition stores making this a terrible idea? Waved off as no consequence. Her attempt to invoke presidential authority to prevent it? The hurt puppy looks from every single one of the officers involved forced her to back down on that one.
It was as if the phrase ‘firepower demonstration’ was some magic spell from Hecate, causing all sense to flee the military mind. And everybody was determined that they were going to show off the best.
Men… all she could think was MEN!
The Hegemony helpfully short-circuited one of her arguments when they offered to provide target drones, which evidently they always carried around for training purposes.
She had finally managed to smother the worst of the excessive enthusiasm by pointing out that it would be a bad idea to show these people absolutely everything that they could do, after all, we still didn’t know how friendly they actually were. The appeal to paranoia actually worked, wonder of wonders. So they’d only show off the Vipers and have the Marines show off small arms and anti-Cylon techniques.rather than engage in a massive penis waving contest of naval gunfire with the Hegemony warships. The Hegemony, for their part, had offered to host the Marine portion of the contest aboard the Potente, which she’d accepted.
The Hegemony had also allowed the Colonials to go first, which she thought was proper and just. So she had some parochial pride, she was quite aware of it, thank you very much. So here she was sitting in the observation lounge of Colonial One along with Bill… Admiral Adama… watching as Starbuck and a few other Viper pilots engaged in some basic aerobatics. Of course ‘basic’ didn’t last long as Starbuck and Kat got into a ‘I can fly this thing better than you’ contest which proved that penis waving wasn’t confined to those who possessed penises in the first place.
Granted it was quite impressive, the incredibly agile Vipers engaging in a mock dogfight at greater and greater speeds, followed by a gunnery pass at a target that the Hegemony had deployed for them to shoot up.
The Hegemony delegation had seemed very impressed with the Viper, right up until the moment where they opened fire on the target. Colonel Arkhangelskaya cleared her throat and through the translator asked. “Ummm, you use heavy machine guns for aerospace fighter’s, Ma’am?” the relatively petite redhead wearing pilot’s wings on her chest said carefully.
Bill just frowned slightly. “30mm kinetic energy cannon on the Mark II, later models used lighter but faster firing weapons.” he clarified, looking at the Colonel.
The Colonel’s reaction wasn’t what Laura had expected, as the other woman traded a look and a slightly raised eyebrow with General Sherman who actually smiled, slowly, as the two looked like a cat who got in the cream.
Bill looked at her, somewhat flummoxed by that reaction, then he shrugged and turned back to the observation window. The Vipers finished their final pass, formed up into a far crisper formation than they’d probably have managed just months before and made a beauty fly past of Colonial One before forming up around the transport to observe the Hegemony’s turn to show off their fighters.
Or perhaps ‘fighter’, singular, because they only sent out a single craft. It looked like somebody really had a love affair with the wing and decided that all a fighter needed was a bigger, longer wing with a small tailfin assembly. It took a moment, but soon Laura realized that this ‘fighter’ dwarfed Raptors, let alone a Viper. Indeed, that singular fighter looked like it massed as much as all of the Viper’s that had been deployed for the show.
It flew like its size implied, slow, deliberate. There was a sort of ponderous grace to it, but she didn’t need Bill murmuring in her ear to tell that it was nowhere near as agile as a Viper. If this was what the Thirteenth Colony flew as a fighter they would be…
The fighter had only done a single, lazy pass past Colonial One, executing a sweeping roll as it turned and headed towards the target. And then it fired.
Bill sat up straighter as if poked with something sharp in a very sensitive place as the five meter diameter target disk shattered upon impact of something moving far too fast for the eye to see.
The petite Hegemony colonel answered the unspoken question through the interpreter. “That was what we call a Gauss Rifle, firing a 100 kilogram steel projectile.” she said quite pleasantly. “Caveman is coming up on the next target.” she nodded towards the second of the target disks that was visible.
The massive fighter was indeed coming up on the second of the three disks. This time Bill almost surged out of his seat as red bars of coherent light, actual combat grade lasers, connected the fighter and the target, causing the latter to shatter as well.
Laura forced herself not to react too much. They had lasers. Something that had been talked about for years as ‘coming soon’ to the Colonial military but never actually delivered, and their fighter had two… make that three, as a tail gun of all things shattered the largest surviving fragment of the target disk with another red flash.
The colonel spoke up without prompting “Three 5 centimeter extended focus lasers, Madame President.” the redhead sounded just a trifle smug. “Third target about to be engaged.”
She braced herself, and was glad for it as four coherent bolts of lightning surged from the wings of the massive fighter and utterly annihilated the remaining target. Somehow they have seized the power of Zeus’ thunderbolts from the heavens she thought numbly.
And the colonel spoke as if the Colonials hadn’t just suffered shock after shock. “Quad Lightbringer Extended-Range Particle Projection Cannons, Madame President, the main ‘guns’ for the Tornado strike fighter.” the tiny woman looked utterly insufferable.
Code:
Tornado Strikefighter
Mass: 100 tons
Frame: Unknown
Power Plant: 300 XL
Cruising Speed: 54 kph
Maximum Speed: 86.4 kph
Armor: Ferro-Aluminum
Armament:
3 ER Medium Laser
4 ER PPC
1 Gauss Rifle
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 3145
Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-X-D
Cost: 9,799,500 C-bills
Type: Tornado
Technology Base: Clan (Standard)
Tonnage: 100
Battle Value: 4,032
Equipment Mass
Engine 300 XL 9.5
Safe Thrust: 5
Max Thrust: 8
Structural Integrity: 0
Heat Sinks: 36 [72] 26
Fuel: 400 5.0
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor (Ferro) 241 13.5
Armor
Value
Nose 73
Wings 60/60
Aft 48
Weapons
and Ammo Location Tonnage Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV
2 ER PPC RWG 12.0 15 15 15 15 0
2 ER Medium Laser NOS 2.0 5 7 7 0 0
CASE NOS 0.0 - - - - -
Gauss Rifle NOS 12.0 1 15 15 15 0
Gauss Rifle Ammo (32) FSLG 4.0 - - - - -
2 ER PPC LWG 12.0 15 15 15 15 0
ER Medium Laser AFT 1.0 5 7 7 0 0The aptly named Tornado then performed a slow pass. The ponderous bird no longer looked laughably slow and clumsy, it looked lethal as it performed a slow, lazy roll as it passed the observation lounge.
General Sherman stood up, along with the Colonel. “Madame President, I do believe that the next set of demonstrations is scheduled to take place in an hour aboard Potente.” He smiled, and Laura numbly recalled just how confident she’d been that the Colonials would be the ones doing the most showing off.
---
Kara “Starbuck” Thrace had been having a great day. She’d shown Kat just who the queen of the sky was… again. She’d gotten to strut her stuff in front of this so-called 13th Tribe. She’d had some great celebratory sex the night before, had won an unopened pack of cigars at strip triad, and was top of the world.
Then she’d almost laughed at the giant lumbering lummox of a fighter these 13th Tribe folks considered worthy to show off against her agile little warbird. She’d actually been snickering… right up until that first shot shattered a target she’d dinged up with both of her cannons.
Then the lasers. Then those bolts of lightning. And although she knew it wouldn’t have been apparent from the observation lounge on Colonial One, Starbuck had a fighter jocks vision, and had realized something even more horrifying than the sheer carnage those weapons had unleashed. They’d fired seriously off-axis. From what she could see, if she flew in front of that thing, even if she wasn’t directly in front of the nose, she’d get the personal attention of that lightning, those lasers, and whatever the hell it was that they’d fired first. If she flew behind it she’d have to contend with a laser…
She wasn’t feeling quite as smug about how lumbering that thing was now.
Maybe she could talk somebody into letting her fly one...
Interstellar dick waving diplomacy. Gotta love it.
Adventwolf
Well-known member
Aren't Medium lasers Green? And if not they should have shifted to a higher color wavelength like blue with the ER large moving into invisible wavelength.
*pouts* I like my red pew pew lasers!
Kujo
For the FEDCOM! For the Archon-Prince!
Well the see of how far aqueous NH3 with salts can be pushed and for how long it can be maintained has lead me to the following conclusion:
The Colonials are using A6M Zeros while the THiE are using a P61 Black Widow for their demonstrations...
Great chapter keep it up, thank you!
The Colonials are using A6M Zeros while the THiE are using a P61 Black Widow for their demonstrations...
Great chapter keep it up, thank you!
More like the Colonials showed off agile little SPADs. . . and then the THiE rolled out the other SPAD, complete with toilet.
Adventwolf
Well-known member
Not really the Colonials just use small fighters since they have to deal with massed missile and fighter swarms. So their crafts are built in respect to those fighting conditions. If the Colonials had been facing forces like what the IS and BT face then they would have built bigger fighters. But they didn't do they worked with what was available.
The Colonials use small fighters that are long obsolete even within their own technology limits because they lack construction and support facilities, not because they have a choice. They're a ragtag band of refugees led by a literal museum piece.
Adventwolf
Well-known member
Except they do have the ablility to build new fighter and have been since Pegagsus showed. Also, the MK II is only "obsolete" because they stopped using it. It is still an extremely well built and effective fighter. And You are missing the entire point it seems. The Colonials created the Vipers to face the Cylons which make use of mass fighter and missile swarms. That means that instead of wasting time building huge slow fighter that would just get killed in a swarming fight they made their fighters to counter the threat they faced. Also very "obsolete" when they come standard with XL engines and one of the highest speeds of any ASF in both universes.
IF (note the IF) the Colonials before the fall of the Colonies had wanted a 100 ton ASF, they'd be quite capable of building one. However weapons wise it would likely have a mix of AC/20, AC/10 and HMGs. Note that due to tech differentials I make the following assumptions for Colonial fighters.
They have XXL equivalent drives
They have FA equivalent armor, but use relatively thin plates
Their drives are unable to supply power to energy weapons
They have XXL equivalent drives
They have FA equivalent armor, but use relatively thin plates
Their drives are unable to supply power to energy weapons