Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

[CrimsonFALKE]

What is the TCA's Marine corps like? Weapons and armor wise, as well as doctrine in unit function does it have a dedicate MEU task forces? Also power armors now are clumbsy but depending on how advanced you can go with the nano fibers to simulate increased muscle then it could easily become a useful form of armor.

[Arioch]

What is the TCA's Marine corps like? Weapons and armor wise, as well as doctrine in unit function does it have a dedicate MEU task forces? Also power armors now are clumbsy but depending on how advanced you can go with the nano fibers to simulate increased muscle then it could easily become a useful form of armor.

The Colonial Marines serve both in small units aboard Fleet warships, and in larger infantry units that have been deployed in police actions and peacekeeping missions. They would be armed and equipped much like Loroi marines (though with equipment appropriate to humanity's lower tech level e.g. lasers instead of blasters). They do not have powered armor or other exotic gear.

[CrimsonFALKE]

What is the TCA's Marine corps like? Weapons and armor wise, as well as doctrine in unit function does it have a dedicate MEU task forces? Also power armors now are clumbsy but depending on how advanced you can go with the nano fibers to simulate increased muscle then it could easily become a useful form of armor.

The Colonial Marines serve both in small units aboard Fleet warships, and in larger infantry units that have been deployed in police actions and peacekeeping missions. They would be armed and equipped much like Loroi marines (though with equipment appropriate to humanity's lower tech level e.g. lasers instead of blasters). They do not have powered armor or other exotic gear.

What the heck is the difference between laser and blasters? Not just story wise but well in general they are the same thing they send out little blasts of DEW? Not to mention doesn't anyone realize how weak plasma is as a weapon in real life? What is the TCA's motto, and colors do they have dress blues?

[sunphoenix]

Lasers are coherant direct-light based weapons.

Blasters are charged particle beams.

In real life the reason why we don't have battlefield particle beams... not to mention the power issue is the uncontrollable radiation cascade firing such a weapon produces. Particle accelerators are sooo big mostly because of the heavy shielding we need to place around them so that we don't kill ourselves from the dangerous radiations produced operating them. Even still its not safe to be anywhere near let alone inside the accelerator ring track when they are in operation.

When coherant light hits a target focused intence heat is produced causing rapid expansion of gases and melting.

When a particle beam hits a target not only is there intense heat but also a significant amount of radiation the more dense the object is ~ Metal producing a dangerous burst of radiation when struck with a particle beam {puls and electrical surge through the targeted metal object/vehicle/person. Problem is that radiation is created also at the source of the particle beam array. To make man-portable particle beams powerful enough to be damaging to flesh the power of the beam would commensurately create a massive amount of radiation. Not practical to carry and dangerous to use for an unshielded man... and shielding can never be enough {ie is too heavy} due to the power needed to make the particle beam weaponzied. At least, with our current understanding and technology.

{Forgive my loose science here... this is the best I can recall from the scientists I've asked on the matter... so feel free to correct me and chime in if anyone knows better...}

[CrimsonFALKE]

Lasers are coherant direct-light based weapons.

Blasters are charged particle beams.

In real life the reason why we don't have battlefield particle beams... not to mention the power issue is the uncontrollable radiation cascade firing such a weapon produces. Particle accelerators are sooo big mostly because of the heavy shielding we need to place around them so that we don't kill ourselves from the dangerous radiations produced operating them. Even still its not safe to be anywhere near let alone inside the accelerator ring track when they are in operation.

When coherant light hits a target focused intence heat is produced causing rapid expansion of gases and melting.

When a particle beam hits a target not only is there intense heat but also a significant amount of radiation the more dense the object is. Metal producing a dangerous burst of radiation when struck with a particle beam. Problem is that radiation is created also at the source of the particle beam array. To make man-portable particle beams powerful enough to be damaging the flesh the power of them would create massive amount of radiation. Not practical to carry and dangerous to use for an unshielded man... and shielding can never be enough {ie is too heavy} due to the power needed to make is weaponzied - with out current understanding and technology.

{Forgive my loose science here... this is the best I can recall from the scientists I've asked on the matter... so feel free to correct me and chime in if anyone knows better...}

Okay so can a particle rifles are blasters, but can a large spacehttp://crimsonfalke.deviantart.com/art/ ... -413188484 mount a particle cannon? I mean there has to be some way to mount a particle weapon on a ship eventually right?

[Beliskner]

Yea it's much easier(theoretically) to mount particle cannon on ship than make handy one. There are few reasons for it:

1. Power : Power needed to accelerate ship (approx. 250m long, weight about 40,000T) to 6G can easily power such cannon.
2. Shielding : Ship itself is well shielded from different space radiations and hazards.
3. Size: Plenty of space on spaceship

and probably more.

[CrimsonFALKE]

Yea it's much easier(theoretically) to mount particle cannon on ship than make handy one. There are few reasons for it:

1. Power : Power needed to accelerate ship (approx. 250m long, weight about 40,000T) to 6G can easily power such cannon.
2. Shielding : Ship itself is well shielded from different space radiations and hazards.
3. Size: Plenty of space on spaceship

and probably more.

Well my ship in question has an antimatter reactor that can last for 3 years before refueling it and provide it with several thousand terawatts. As for handheld weapons why not just use ballistics, masers or lasers. I prefer the balistics always something about knocking a person on their ass with a shot is entertaining.

[GeoModder]

Well my ship in question has an antimatter reactor that can last for 3 years before refueling it and provide it with several thousand terawatts. As for handheld weapons why not just use ballistics, masers or lasers. I prefer the balistics always something about knocking a person on their ass with a shot is entertaining.

Wow! Compare that with navy fission reactors that power vessels for a whole generation before refueling becomes necessary!

[CrimsonFALKE]

Well my ship in question has an antimatter reactor that can last for 3 years before refueling it and provide it with several thousand terawatts. As for handheld weapons why not just use ballistics, masers or lasers. I prefer the balistics always something about knocking a person on their ass with a shot is entertaining.

Wow! Compare that with navy fission reactors that power vessels for a whole generation before refueling becomes necessary!

The reactor's are antimatter catalyzed CNO Fusion to be exact, its completely alien technology a gift to humans from the more advanced Yaren. Although the amount of energy these ships use up in battle means its needs to be refueled every so many years. Its all in my up coming ebook "Ghost Squad: Last Ones Standing" The wonderful benefactor of unadulterated epicness is doing the cover art.

[Suederwind]

Again a question regarding those national spacenavys: How many of these ships are there and are those bigger than frigates? Can the TCA seize controll of them in case of an attack? Are those ships FTL capable or just monitors?
And something else: how well defended is earth at the time the story takes place?

[CrimsonFALKE]

Again a question regarding those national spacenavys: How many of these ships are there and are those bigger than frigates? Can the TCA seize controll of them in case of an attack? Are those ships FTL capable or just monitors?
And something else: how well defended is earth at the time the story takes place?

Earth is at peace and from what I've read those America class cruisers the TCA built aren't too popular with the public. With that in mind earth has to be under defended, if not done.

[CptWinters]

Check out this page: Terran Warship Classes.

This article and others have all the answers to your questions.

[discord]

crimson: considering that the ECS Victory is equipped with such a gun(admittedly still under construction as of the time of our story) the answer would probably be 'yes'.

ECS? what does ECS stand for? Earth Colonial Ship? seems strange with the parent organization being Terran Colonial Authority, TCS seems more likely.

[CrimsonFALKE]

crimson: considering that the ECS Victory is equipped with such a gun(admittedly still under construction as of the time of our story) the answer would probably be 'yes'.

ECS? what does ECS stand for? Earth Colonial Ship? seems strange with the parent organization being Terran Colonial Authority, TCS seems more likely.

You are part of the story? As for ECS the TCA is earth's 'controlling' force.

[Arioch]

Again a question regarding those national spacenavys: How many of these ships are there and are those bigger than frigates? Can the TCA seize controll of them in case of an attack? Are those ships FTL capable or just monitors?

The TCA treaty limits local FTL-capable forces by number, size, tonnage and armament; none is larger than 200m. They are mostly small police frigates with minimal armament. The TCA has no authority to take control of local sovereign forces (with the exception of the 12 Hayes-class frigates which are still technically owned by the TCA), but local forces would certainly cooperate in the event of an attack.

Stations and ships without FTL drives are not covered by the treaty limitations, and so there are a number of armed stations and weapons platforms. Earth and Mars nations also have a number of non-FTL-capable "monitor" warships that are larger than 200m; none of the extrasolar colonies has any large monitors, partially because nearly all large ships are still manufactured in the Sol system, and partially because there has been no pressing need for them.

And something else: how well defended is earth at the time the story takes place?

Earth's defenses are designed around repelling a small-scale raid from one of the other human colonies. They consist of a few armed space stations, a network of defensive satellites, a number of armed frigates and corvettes, and a handful of larger monitor warships.

ECS? what does ECS stand for? Earth Colonial Ship? seems strange with the parent organization being Terran Colonial Authority, TCS seems more likely.

http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 019#p13019

[CrimsonFALKE]

Well can I ask if the human's use RIS systems on their laser rifles?http://crimsonfalke.deviantart.com/art/ ... -422287581

:thumb422287581:

[Absalom]

Not to mention doesn't anyone realize how weak plasma is as a weapon in real life?

Lasers are currently considered to be light weapons when in a ground war. The reason that they're so much to die for in the air and anti-missile realms is because those targets can't mount the armor that a ground (or water) vehicle would consider trivial.

To make man-portable particle beams powerful enough to be damaging the flesh the power of them would create massive amount of radiation. Not practical to carry and dangerous to use for an unshielded man... and shielding can never be enough {ie is too heavy} due to the power needed to make is weaponzied - with out current understanding and technology.

{Forgive my loose science here... this is the best I can recall from the scientists I've asked on the matter... so feel free to correct me and chime in if anyone knows better...}

We currently have the technology to foresee possible solutions to that. Specifically, if you can moderate the range of the radiation, then this might be a valid starting point for developing a lighter-weight form of shielding. Unfortunately there's only so much that you could do with this, so your "plasma marines" might need hard-suit shielding themselves, but it's a starting point.

Okay so can a particle rifles are blasters, but can a large spacehttp://crimsonfalke.deviantart.com/art/ ... -413188484 mount a particle cannon? I mean there has to be some way to mount a particle weapon on a ship eventually right?

Mounting a plasma weapon on a ship is fairly simple, making it useful is a different issue. Near-C weapons are commonly known as particle-beam weapons. The other end of the spectrum is low-speed plasma weapons, which are vulnerable to excessive beam-spread before contact with the target. Between the two, particle beams have the longer effective range (they travel faster, so they get further before they disperse), and plasma weapons have higher potential effect (particle beams take a lot more energy per atom, so you run into heat, power, etc., restrictions at a lower mass for particle beams than for plasma weapons. Both particle beam and plasma weapon variants can be vulnerable to magnetic or electric shielding.

If you're going to use one, go with the particle beams, since they'll have a better chance of hitting. Plasma weapons work easier in an atmosphere than they do in a vacuum, since you get an additional restraining force that reduces dispersion.

As for handheld weapons why not just use ballistics, masers or lasers. I prefer the balistics always something about knocking a person on their ass with a shot is entertaining.

Note: for our purposes, masers can be thought of as a form of laser.

As for why to use plasma weapons, plasmoids apparently produce an explosive force when they hit something conductive, and they have metal-seeking behaviors, and you can apparently normally just use the air around you as ammo, so it may be useful to have them as squad-level weapons. Anything beyond that will vary a lot.

none of the extrasolar colonies has any large monitors, partially because nearly all large ships are still manufactured in the Sol system,

Which relates back to the 200 meter maximum length for FTL combat ships, right?

[CrimsonFALKE]

Thank you for the answers Absalom.

[saint of m]

How far along will languages change? What was verbaly acceptable 100 years ago would be a dirty word today and vice versa, and I'm sure the slang and diolects of the colonies are probably vastly different then here on the Home world.


I'm thinking mostly form say from United States English and Brittish English have their own unique flavors (Toarch=Flashlight, or the Brittish don;t usualy roll the R's.)

Spanish, in all the countries it is spoken in, all have their own flavors, why not the other planets.

[Arioch]

How far along will languages change? What was verbally acceptable 100 years ago would be a dirty word today and vice versa, and I'm sure the slang and dialects of the colonies are probably vastly different then here on the Home world.

There are certainly many different dialects of Trade which have diverged widely over the millennia, and even multiple dialects of Loroi Trade. Even though language evolves rapidly among humans, we have still 3000+ year old archaic languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin) which are still readily understandable to modern speakers of Italian, Modern Greek, Hindi, etc. The vogue of common spoken English has changed a great deal in the 400 years since Shakespeare's time, but his writings are still quite decipherable. It's important to consider that the rate of change in non-linguistic cultures such as the Loroi is much slower than ours.