The Space Opera Working Thread

Originally posted by mf_luder
Oh boy.

I just realized.

Slayer.

lol

We're going to have to rip that Seeker pod off of the bridge and take the wrappings off of the original weapons control consoles.... Seeker isn't Seeker anymore.

Wonder if he can still fight?

Let's not give him a gun just yet to find out. Besides, he's still got that Hyper Plasma Zapper Gizzy still implanted in his arm, and from the looks of his post, it's still partly functional if he can retract it still. Might have to let him out to vaporize the brig hatchway with it if Studious don't quit breaking stuff in there.

Stay outta neno's Tardis Refrigerators Inc, refrigerator! That's where he hides his still.. *whispers: Studious ...sees...DEAD...people...*

To avoid a catastrophic localized atmospheric evacuation, I'm thinking we can get someone to manually override the Auto Happy Gas Disperal Thingamajiggy, and clear the residual out of the brig with normal air circulators until we can break in and get Studious out. Who breaks INTO a jail, anyhow?

Cap'n Luder: We have an unidentified starship heaving into view. How do you think they'll react to us 'releasing' or 'jettisoning' a pod full of N-bombs? This could become uber-interesting, really quick

Edit: pesky manual spellchecker... AKA 'eyeballs'


[edit on 2009/4/25 by nenothtu]

[edit on 2009/4/25 by nenothtu]

Hey guys give me a little bit to play catch up I love the way the story is unfolding I'll have something up tonight so stay tuned...



Lots of yard work today trimming roses and such I'll post something later tonight for sure

reply to post by mf_luder


Try not to rip out the interface chair if you can avoid it. I have plans for it later. (I say that in as non-nefarious a tone as possible )

In any case, the N-Bombs are purposefully designed to be very volatile things. If they are tampered with they might just go off, is the impression I'm aiming at.

Maybe we will need them later if we come in contact with some alien menace?

reply to post by SeekerOfAUTMN


I think the major question Captain Luder forgot to ask was - are the N-Bombs there as a booby trap against the Penelope OR are they there as a device to use as a defensive/offensive weapon?

If they are part of the Penelope's weapons systems - I'll stop Slayer from removing them or at least attempting to.

If its a booby trap then Luder is just acting the way I would in the same situation.

reply to post by SeekerOfAUTMN


Who has operational control of the N-bombs? Seekers AI is defunct, so we know it doesn't. Are they rigged into the ships weapons systems, under crew control now? Are there likely to be NI 'failsafes' on board, to ensure the crew DOESN'T get control of them? Boobytraps, agents with a command detonate transmitter, that sort of thing? Or would NI have been more likely to restrict that knowledge to Seeker only, to avoid leaks? I'm sure they were secure in the knowledge that Seeker couldn't be compromised, what with the ability, so they thought, of frying his brain and all.

Come to think of it, NI may be a tad peeved at neno for short-circuiting whatever plans they had for Seeker. He might oughtta want to check his six more frequently now...

Seeker - do we refer to your character as Asher now?

[edit on 2009/4/25 by nenothtu]

Seeker do the "Nova" bombs just shrink a star it by sending off the outer layers of the it towards everything around it? Or do does this weapon blow up the star too?

To answer your question Luder, they are there as a defensive/offensive weapon, but the morality of using such a thing is somewhat gray, hence Seeker/Asher's problem with them.

About his name, technically it's Asher now, but I know it's freaking confusing. I wrote Seeker about a dozen times in my last posts before I changed it back.

Nenothtu, the N-Bombs have quite a few failsafes and such on them due to how nasty the weapon is. This is the reason they trusted the codes to Seeker, as he would be the last to go AWOL. Heh... Whoopsie.

Asher can get to the codes, but he has to jack back into the Penny first, which won't be a pleasant process without his implants functioning, hence my plea to keep the interface chair as a paper weight or something until Asher gains some trust back.

And yeah, I'm trying to portray NI as "the man" or "TPTB" archetypes, so we might want to watch our backs now...

And to Studious, Novae occur when a low-mass star has reached the end of its life cycle. Basically, the star begins to shed mass in the form of it's outer layers until its a dwarf or proto star, at least that's what I think was being explained to me in my cosmochemistry classes.

What the N-Bomb does is basically disrupt any size star into duplicating the effects of a Nova, creating what amounts to an epic size solar flare that pretty much irradiates the bejeezus out of everything in the solar system.

[edit on 26-4-2009 by SeekerOfAUTMN]

reply to post by SeekerOfAUTMN


Alright, good. Then we can probably go ahead and cancel sending Slayer's crews out into the void to remove them. Besides, we have the fated meeting with the Yydryl to deal with at the moment.

I caught on to your TPTB aim w/ NI - lol. That's why Luder told those guards that NO ONE else was getting in to see you, in case NI agents on board the Pen. were going to come in and try to "erase" you.

Originally posted by SeekerOfAUTMN

And yeah, I'm trying to portray NI as "the man" or "TPTB" archetypes, so we might want to watch our backs now...

And to Studious, Novae occur when a low-mass star has reached the end of its life cycle. Basically, the star begins to shed mass in the form of it's outer layers until its a dwarf or proto star, at least that's what I think was being explained to me in my cosmochemistry classes.

What the N-Bomb does is basically disrupt any size star into duplicating the effects of a Nova, creating what amounts to an epic size solar flare that pretty much irradiates the bejeezus out of everything in the solar system.

[edit on 26-4-2009 by SeekerOfAUTMN]

So, neno is on the Galactic run, and don't yet realize it.

Nova are stars below about twice the sun's mass, as I recall (might be wrong about the specific mass) that 'explode', shedding the outer layers into space and 'irradiating the bejeesus' (very descriptive! I like it!) out of everything around with massive doses of gamma rays, like planets, asteroids, moons, the Penelope, etc. Whats left of the star's core then collapses into either a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole, depending on the star's mass. I think the threshold for black holes is around 4 solar masses. The higher the mass, the greater the collapse, so that's pretty much the order. Yup, they shed their skins, but they do it RAPIDLY, which amounts to an explosion. Thoroughly nasty things to be near. What was NI thinking? They could've fried us all! Does that mean we're disposable to TPTB?

reply to post by nenothtu


Erm, yep, disposable. Who'd a' thunk it?

And hey, at least I wasn't too far off concerning novae. Maybe I gathered more from class than I thought. I do remember that the process is very fast.

A nova bomb sounded more plausible to me than a supernova bomb, which would have to essentially add an arse load of mass to anything below the giant stage, and then fuse off all the elements up to iron... Didn't seem too feasible to me.

[edit on 26-4-2009 by SeekerOfAUTMN]

Here's are links to the latest Space Opera Starmaps. I don't know much about the internal arrangement of the Orion Empire, so Only the main stuff is labelled. At this scale (the map covers 500 parsecs, about 1631 light years in each direction from the center) it wouldn't much matter anyhow. Fine details don't show up very well. For example, Alpha Centauri, being only 4.3 light years from the sun, is actually within the dot representing the sun, on it's lower left edge.

I had picked a real star for Khalamzadar when I created the system, so I went in to Celestia and got the co-ordinates, then did the math to plot it, and that's where it is. Most of the other stuff mentioned in the story is mapped and labelled, except Alpha Centauri, since it's hidden by the sun's dot.

I don't know where you want the various bases for the Mossian Slea and whatnot, so I didn't drop 'em in yet. Rigel and Betelgeuse are there, from the original map, as is the Orion Nebula (M43).

I hope this will help us to visualize what's going on a little.

This one is from the north galactic pole, looking 'down' on the plane of the galaxy:

The Space Opera Map ver 01

This one is the view from the galactic center towards the sun. It shows 'up' and 'down'. the flat plane of the galaxy is in the middle of the map, running left and right:

Elevation Map

Where the Ophiuchi Consortium is, relatively far above the galactic plane, stars are kind of thin, meaning they have fewer rescources. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't invaded before now.

Oops. I just checked behind myself, and I omitted a step, neglecting to convert from light years to parsecs, so that ISN'T where Khalamzadar is. It's actually one third of that distance from the sun, same direction.

[edit on 2009/4/26 by nenothtu]

[edit on 2009/4/26 by nenothtu]

Originally posted by mf_luder
reply to post by SeekerOfAUTMN

 

Alright, good. Then we can probably go ahead and cancel sending Slayer's crews out into the void to remove them. Besides, we have the fated meeting with the Yydryl to deal with at the moment.

Ok

Thanks for giving me the headsup

I'll delete what I wrote and head to bed.


[edit on 26-4-2009 by SLAYER69]

I've altered my last post a bit. (Nothing too major.)

I reread it and realized the ring part gives the wrong impression. I rewrote it to convey what I actually meant.

I also realized some parts did not flow very well into each other so I moved some things around.

As an example I went from this...

Originally posted by Studious
“They’ll find some way to open it.”

They sat in silence for awhile.

Then Studious noticing something shiny said.

“You still have your ring on…"

Shiny

To this...

Originally posted by Studious
“They’ll find some way to open it.”

As she gestured toward the door the light reflected off something on her hand.

“You still have your ring on…"

[edit on 26-4-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 26-4-2009 by Studious]

My next written post that I have been waiting to post had me in Time travel mode not wondering the halls of the Yydryl so now I will have to come up with something entirely different so I will post now when I have figured out what to be doing.

Edited to add:

It is OK actually thanks Silo I had to do something and now I will.
Otherwise I might never have emerged.
Also thanks for saying such nice things about my character.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by cindymars]

Originally posted by cindymars
My next written post that I have been waiting to post had me in Time travel mode not wondering the halls of the Yydryl so now I will have to come up with something entirely different so I will post now when I have figured out what to be doing.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by cindymars]

I'm confused. If you're in time travel mode, can't you be anywhere, anywhen, independent of where the story is?

Cindymars -
I left it as open as I could - or I tried to.
It's sadly obvious Loam is out for a bit, (and I hope all is well with him) and that Penelope is breathing down on our necks (hopefully with a little playful nip and not like a fire breathing beast) - then after Masqua made the point it might even be better we're Captain-less - Well, again - I left it open as I could, no time table, no definites, and if you change it - I’ll write along with you - I so do NOT want to step on no toes! (Bad grammar but I’m leaving it)...
And yeah, my character might just have a little girl crush on you -
Naw, Attendant to Ship Silo is just most happy to see someone on Ship who's not a Regalian.

By the by - all you Regalians, please don't take it to heart my character has a *thing* against Regalians - there's going to be quite a twist to it - but I can't say so much at the moment to *ruin the moment*...

So... Cindy, please, I'm not trying to force anything - just trying to move along without stomping along...

I also hope we can get some answers from Whisper as to what she found in her capacity as Security Officer - hehehe - I can't wait to find out!

reply to post by silo13


LOL you did not step on my toes we dragged out of bed by them.
Its all good I just have to figure something out.

I dont know the rules of TT I has making them up as I went. LOL

Here's a light weight discussion of Dark Energy, and possible fates of the universe:

Fate of the Universe

reply to post by nenothtu


That's a perfect find! It explains things simply and in a neat little package. Sure beats reading dozens of complicated theories on innumerable websites.

For quite a while, I've been thinking that knowledge should be a backdrop, some kind of psuedo-religious or at least a spiritual thinking tying together the various advanced species in the universe.

Like the idea of a collective unconscious shared by humans, Rigellians or any other species... we ALL just naturally come to the same questions of why we are here, in this universe and conscious of the great mystery that Dark Energy/Matter presents.



[edit on 27/4/09 by masqua]

I refuse to accept that author status updates are off-topic. So here goes.

I am about to fly back to Korea and will more than likely be off the net for at the most 2 days. I'll post again once I'm on the ground over there.

See you all soon.