Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

[Jethreuel]

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider139.html

Not sure if I was supposed to include 138 as well.


[Edit:] So does this mean the station is now being destroyed by the torpedoes?

[Zarya]

Well done Arioch! I hope the station has adequate shields.

[wedgekree]

Hopefully tactics do not involve using friendly defense stations as shields. Particularly if said stations do not survive said tactics.

[dragoongfa]

Press F for the crew of Gora Relay:

F

[boldilocks]

Let's hear it for cold reptilian pragmatism.

[CF2]

I wonder if our space elves and Alex are hoping to get out of the Leido Crossroads with the help of a new vessel jumping in from Seren. Or perhaps they're just going to go cruising out of the system, putting space between themselves and any incoming enemies as they wait for a response fleet to jump in and secure the place, getting fished out of the void once things are safe.

[GeoModder]

Now the question is how many of those 16 torpedo's which acquired target lock spent itself in that series of blasts.

[entity2636]

Alright, Talon's maneuver is sound, albeit quite reckless, threading a needle (flying between the station's hub and ring) at, I dunno, Mach-10 or something, but given the circumstances it's the only option available to her. What is wrong in my opinion, is that she didn't tell Cerulean about it, resulting in the station holding back on their point defense and taking 16+ torpedoes to the face, likely resulting in the station being destroyed or at least severely damaged (see the debris scattering in the last frame of Page 139).

I'm curious about Talon's next move though. I think that in her place I'd cut all power and see about minimizing all possible emissions from the shuttle the moment I pass through the station's rings, and pretend to be a piece of debris hoping the Umiak don't notice me.

[Krulle]

Geez, our timeline is so fucked up....

From the update history:

9 September 2018: New pages: 138, 139
Sorry again for the delay.

30 July 2018: Sorry for the delay! I have been extensively sidetracked. I will post the new page as soon as it is ready.

24 July 2018: ...or perhaps a bit later in the week.

23 July 2018: There will be a new page this week, but it will probably be posted sometime Tuesday.

I also posted a new essay on the Barsam in the Insider section.

I don't mind the delays, but I find it interesting I can see pages that've been posted on 9 September, while my calendar shows 5 September......

Also, yay for lap sitting.... I hope Alex has a firm grip on that nerd....
Can't have her flying around.....

And I hope the station survived.
But I would've expected the station's anti-collision prevention systems to rip the shuttle apart. Can't imagine them being programmed so narrow to allow such high-energy elements to fly through its spoke.
The only reason I can see, is that Cerulean (or someone from her staff) had the idea of what Talon is trying, and programmed the systems to let the shuttle pass.


And now it's cruising, likely pretending to be (high-velocity) debris, until the Barsam can pick them up.

[SVlad]

How shuttle manage to pass through station force field?

[Luge]

Looking at the image at the top of page 138, the gaps between the sections of station are pretty big - As big as the sections themselves.

I'm looking through Insider now to see if we've ever had any firm information on how far from a ship's hull defensive screens extend. I think we can conclude from this "not far".

L.

[entity2636]

@Krulle about collision prevention - indeed, unless they disabled it in preparation for a rough emergency landing.

@Luge - They're (a) not "bubble shields" as seen in Star Trek and the like, more like "polarized hull plating" that "sticks to the hull" rather than extends above it and (b) IIRC these defensive screens protect against/absorb energy weapon impacts, but not kinetics or explosives. With that in mind, they should protect somewhat against antimatter or nuclear explosions as those when in space are mostly photons and particles but not hinder the shuttle from passing between the station's structure.

[dragoongfa]

The Loroi and Umiak use electromagnetic screens, capable to only stop energy weapons. Kinetic weapons and other collissions cannot be stopped by such screens.

[Victor_D]

The best strategy now would be to shut down everything and just drift until picked up by Prophet's Reason. The explosion will have temporarily blinded Umiak's sensors and the drifting shuttle would look like a piece of debris from the destroyed station. It might just work.

[Zorg56]

It didnt worked if she just missed the station so PD can shoot down some torpedoes, and then barrelrolled behinde it, right?

[Luge]

@Luge - They're (a) not "bubble shields" as seen in Star Trek and the like, more like "polarized hull plating" that "sticks to the hull" rather than extends above it and (b) IIRC these defensive screens protect against/absorb energy weapon impacts, but not kinetics or explosives. With that in mind, they should protect somewhat against antimatter or nuclear explosions as those when in space are mostly photons and particles but not hinder the shuttle from passing between the station's structure.

The Loroi and Umiak use electromagnetic screens, capable to only stop energy weapons. Kinetic weapons and other collissions cannot be stopped by such screens.

I remembered that it was something like this but couldn't find any definitive clarification from Arioch. There's an Insider page on weapons which is very detailed, but not on screens.

L.

[GeoModder]

I remembered that it was something like this but couldn't find any definitive clarification from Arioch. There's an Insider page on weapons which is very detailed, but not on screens.

L.

You can see the effect on the top panel on page 77 where a shield deflects the beam of either a heavy blaster or a pulse cannon. Its deflected literally just outside the hull of the Umiak vessel.

[Arioch]

Geez, our timeline is so fucked up....

From the update history:

9 September 2018: New pages: 138, 139
Sorry again for the delay.

30 July 2018: Sorry for the delay! I have been extensively sidetracked. I will post the new page as soon as it is ready.

Sorry, accidentally put in the 9 for September rather than the actual date. Should be fixed.

But I would've expected the station's anti-collision prevention systems to rip the shuttle apart. Can't imagine them being programmed so narrow to allow such high-energy elements to fly through its spoke.

I'm not sure what sort of anti-collision systems such a station would have (tractor beams don't exist at this tech level), aside from point-defense weaponry, which was focused on the torpedoes which were already targeted at the station.

How shuttle manage to pass through station force field?

[/quote]
Defensive screens are electromagnetic fields that sit close to the surface of the hull, and they have minimal effect on kinetic attacks or purely photonic attacks; they are designed for defense against charged particles (blasters and plasma weapons). The shuttle may have felt a jolt as they passed through, but it wouldn't stop them.

[GhostlyYorick]

Defensive screens are electromagnetic fields that sit close to the surface of the hull, and they have minimal effect on kinetic attacks or purely photonic attacks; they are designed for defense against charged particles (blasters and plasma weapons). The shuttle may have felt a jolt as they passed through, but it wouldn't stop them.

Yeah, that's why the "Brace for Impact" bit: They foresees some minor impacts/jolts but not actually slamming through something. I wondered about it, but it makes perfect sense now. (In fact it's impressive how few if any plotholes there are in this comic.)

[SVlad]

"figures" - is it an idiom or just a short request for torpedo count?