If they phase out of space and they have not interacted with matter yet, maybe they cannot interact with matter on the journey. Since we know that they can interact with black holes and ZPED's, then it could be said that the place that they phase to, is also where black holes drag all of their matter too. This is also where the ZPED's get their energy from, so the place that they phase to could be a place of nothing but energy, and the bright light around the Aurora (a form of energy shielding) is the only thing that is protecting the ship during the transit.
There was a similar concept for travel in the Slave Empire series. Ships used an energy shield to enter and move through the 'energy dimension', but some ships could only move through much faster, but not instantaneously, which others could just jump. Don't recommend reading that series though, sort of the complete opposite of a high tech sci-fi book.
Ahh right, if they're travelling in another dimension they are practically immune to matter in this dimension, that's why they can jump through the shields as Hamster said, but the Jump Drive is affected by large gravity wells, which I'm assuming by this instance the gravity of objects is also present in that other dimension in order to interact with the drive and cause some kind of noticeable affect on the Jump. I mean the immense gravity pull of a black hole was able to still pull them not only out of the Jump but hold them into its gravity well. At least that's what I'm thinking happened. Nathan only woke up to find they were getting pulled into one, they never explicitly said that they were pulled out of the Jump by the black hole. At least if they did I didn't commit it to memory sadly.
I'm thinking that the "dimension" or "universe" that the "jump drive" travels through is close enough to our "dimension" or "universe" that would not want to risk traveling close to a ZPED or gravity well like a black hole or massive star and that they might be pulled off course during the jump. Nathan and Abby have also discussed that they should only jump when their path is clear and not through an object like a planet or ship. Abby has said that she isn't sure what might happen, because they are not that sure of how exactly the jump drive tech really works. Only that is does. Another $0.02 from me. This $0.02 at time is going to start hitting my wallet soon.... LOL 🙂
May I suggest a different strategy.
ToT time on target.
1) Pick a point in space where the Jung warship is going to be in 15 seconds.
2) Jump to a point 45 degrees off the Jung warships starboard bow at the distance rail gun slugs cover in 15 seconds. Fire a 3 second salvo aimed at the target point.
3) Jump to a point 45 degrees off the Jung warships port bow at the distance rail gun slugs cover in 10 seconds. Fire a 3 second salvo aimed at the target point.
4) Jump to point directly ahead of the Jung warship at a distance rail gun slugs cover in 5 seconds. A few plasma cannon shots to take down their shields followed by 4 seconds of rail gun.
5) Jump out to a safe vantage point and watch as 3 salvo's impact the same spot on the Jung warship at the same time.
ToT... I like this... If they can program the flight and combat computers to work together it would be a great show!!!
ToT - Great concept Glenn. To refine a bit on Eric G's response if you can additionally change the orientation of the ship during a jump you can expand to include close in work and firing arcs or protect already damaged parts of the ship - for example you could jump in at range moving towards your target from directly above or below using the forward firing arc or jump in directly next to the target but moving away in a direct line using the rear firing arc.
ToT would also let a single ship set up it's own Hammer and Anvil attacks.
Just to throw something else out there - since it seems likely that at some point jump tech will leak or be captured - how about a armored missile/torp designed to jump past shields and then embed itself in the target, destroy the jump components with a small conventional explosive and activating an unshielded mini ZPED at full tilt to prevent the target vessel from jumping.
Thanks, however it's not my idea.
Saw something on either History or Discovery about a Swedish auto-loading 155mm that does this.
Fires the first round at a high angle 85* or so, fires the second round with a reduced powder charge at 60*, fires the third round at a low angle. The computer calculates firing times and flight times down to the micro-second so all three rounds hit at the same time.
The issue with those type approaches is predictability on both sides, the solution in both cases is to add randomness. The aurora should be jumping so that it fires at random angles rather than a specific angle. Likewise the actual ToT should vary somewhat. However, the more time the target has, the greater the chance of it not being where it is expected. This is especially true for space combat situations where acceleration rates are rather high. In the case of the example, if the target moves at just 10 gravities of acceleration for 15 seconds, then it moves about 1100 m. Assuming that the target could move in any direction, means that the Aurora needs to cover a 1100 m sphere in the target is making random movements.
That being said, the tactic would work rather well for a while as long as the the Aurora isn't too predictable, and the enemy ship(s) don't move around too much.
Nuclearman, your points are valid.
I was thinking of the battle platforms, which were called "slow" but heavily armed and heavily armored.
First pass should be a two jump ToT targeting the main drive.
Another thought. The plasma canon 90* to the target is impressive. What about shallow angles? Say 10*, not enough to punch through the hull, but would it be enough to fry emitters? Like FTL and shield emitters. If so the Aurora could leave the Jung warship in a really bad way (no main drive, no FTL drive, and no shields) very quickly.
It seems like a bad idea to get near a battle platform. Probably better to just use FTL (comm) drones on it, especially if it's just sitting in orbit. On the note of FTL drones, ToT tactics work with FTL drones, and they would likely increase the range at which an ToT attack could be made by 100-1000x by moving that much faster. The main benefit being that attacking from multiple angles can limit the benefits to the target of maneuverability. If you attack the target from say 6 directions (front, rear, top, bottom, left and right) and add some degree of terminal guidance (which you get from the FTL drones), then missing a missile in one direction is likely to force the target towards another missile. The only real evasion would be for the target to go to FTL as well.
Since the comm drones can move much faster in FTL, another strategy might be to devise a bombardment strategy so that FTL drones that miss are turned around and fired back at the target. This less-than-subtle stategy allows for the targeted ship to face FTL drones until it is destroyed. Since the FTL drones are faster than (current) Jung ships, they could even follow the target if it leaves in FTL. Only a ship with faster FTL speeds than the drone could beat it. So far every jump capable ship has an effective FTL speed faster than even a mini-ZED drone.
As for the plasma cannon idea, it might work. The issue with shallow angles is the effect gets spread out over more shields. That might be enough for the shields to hold. Although, it would likely only need one to fail to damage a lot of shields.
I agree with Nuclearman - "It seems like a bad idea to get near a battle platform."
Long distance, or attrition, seem like the best tactics. Anything up close seems like a teenager's idea of glory.
I agree with Nuclearman – “It seems like a bad idea to get near a battle platform.”
Long distance, or attrition, seem like the best tactics. Anything up close seems like a teenager’s idea of glory.
Although, now that I think about it more, a possible alternative exists. Shields powered by enough ZEDs should be able to take it no problem. I seem the ZED-powered battleships may have had sufficient shielding if the Jung weapons are inferior to theirs.
Up until 1941 battleships were considered the pinnacle of naval power. Between the sinking of the Bismark and Pearl Harbor naval doctrine got rewrote, and aircraft carriers became top of the food chain.
Jump ships are another doctrine changer.
A big battle platform is just a big excuse for target practice if the captain of a jump drive equipped ship fights his/her ship well.
Question, can the Aurora jump while firing the plasma cannons and quad rail guns or do they have to cease fire for ever jump?
If they can fire while jumping.
Match heading of Jung warship at a speed slightly faster.
Yaw 45* before making the jump that puts you just aft and 5,000 meters off the Jung's side.
Make a series of 250 meter jumps, pausing 1 second at each stop, firing both plasma cannons and all the quads as long as there is something for them to hit. The Jung gunners won't have anything to target because it jumps to quickly.
Up until 1941 battleships were considered the pinnacle of naval power. Between the sinking of the Bismark and Pearl Harbor naval doctrine got rewrote, and aircraft carriers became top of the food chain.<br>
Jump ships are another doctrine changer.<br>
A big battle platform is just a big excuse for target practice if the captain of a jump drive equipped ship fights his/her ship well.<br>
Question, can the Aurora jump while firing the plasma cannons and quad rail guns or do they have to cease fire for ever jump?<br>
If they can fire while jumping.<br>
Match heading of Jung warship at a speed slightly faster.<br>
Yaw 45* before making the jump that puts you just aft and 5,000 meters off the Jung’s side.<br>
Make a series of 250 meter jumps, pausing 1 second at each stop, firing both plasma cannons and all the quads as long as there is something for them to hit. The Jung gunners won’t have anything to target because it jumps to quickly.
I think you are underestimate the size of one a battle platform as well as the Aurora if you suggesting jumping to within 5000 meters of it. The issue is that it probably has heavy enough weapons that it would be best not to hit by it even once. The Aurora is about 1000 m long, at only 5000 meters away, if the weaponry is spaced close enough together (this condition would also apply to the smaller Jung craft, but this scenario is less of a concern with smaller, weaker weapons being used), then within a few jumps there is fair chance of the Aurora hitting hit just by the Jung setting there weapons to fire perpendicular from the hull.
Then again, the battle platform's weapons may be spaced far enough apart for this tactic to be rather effective if the guns have to move significantly off center to target the Aurora when close. There is also the matter that 5000 m is probably arbitrary. Although, it is known that shields (thinking the Jung used them) tend to be rather close to to the ship and the Aurora would probably have to jump within the shields to do damage to a battle platform, which is probably 5000 m or closer.
I think were saying the same thing.
If you approach a Jung Battle platform from 200,000 kilometers out, by the time you get close enough to do any good the Jung gunners will have pulverized you.
Jump drive is a doctrine changer.
Jump 3 or 4 light minutes out and get a really good look at gun ports, shield emitters, FTL emitters, reactor heat exchangers, fighter launch tubes, sensors, and main drive.
Then Jump in close and hit them hard and jump away. The Jung gunners can't shoot at what they can't see, if you jump while firing and jump away a second or two later, the Jung won't have time to bring their guns on target.
With a huge Battle platform it may take a couple of dozen passes but sooner or later you will leave them naked (no shields), blind ( no sensors), and crippled (no FTL or main drive) then it's game, set, match.
