Also Eric Luke Skywalker blasted wramp rats in his T-16. Just had to throw that out there.
and its wamp rats which are not much bigger then 2 meters
Nathan has another reason not to use KKV's, whether he has them or not, he doesn't want to teach such a large empire that's so willing to destroy anyone that gets in their way, about a weapon they could easily develop themselves when it seems, so far, that they haven't already thought to design. You shoot one off to send a message, you might just send more of a message then you meant to..
As much as I would love to see him use KKV's some more. I can totally understand why he doesn't on many levels.
by the time the jung would hear about a kkv if Nathan even had any, their battleships and platforms would be gone and no trace of how they were destroyed would be left.
remember the Wallach, the pieces simply flew everywhere and even Tug surmised that whoever found a piece would wonder what caused it.
Here's a nice touch for the future. You don't really need the Takaron Drones to utilise as a KKV. With the amount of prodcution capacity they don't have it would be easier to apply propulsion to a small asteroid and use that as a Kinetic Weapon.
Larry Niven used kinetic weapons in Footfall where the aliens there simply threw rocks at the earth.
I have to say, I am loving this series, my Kindle has been running hot for the last few weeks when I started with Eps 1~3 and then since then I have been reading an episode per day on average. Now I have caught up, I don't know what i'll do 🙂
Loved the series, had my first good nights sleep in 3 weeks after finishing episode 11 last night at precisely 2136hrs.
It was proven in the past that they could guess the trajectory of the enemy while at FTL and they had 2 months to watch where the Jung were. My problem and the reason I yelled at the book (something I only do when the authors hooks are in me but good) is this why not send FTL drones in counter course to the fleet? Would this not harm some of the ships? perhaps destroy the fleet? It would be a reach but this series is about reaches. On the same note why not retrieve the antimatter reactors from the many that were ejected and put them in the path of the Battle Platform? I would have enjoyed this episode much more if that effort was even tried yet failed. Yes I now others have brought this up but the armchair Admiral in me had to say something.
Right there with ya, Mike G. 🙂
Space is big, really big, but since the Aurora was drawn towards a ZPED across 1000 light years, and since they have ZPEDs and can figure out the rough course, it just seems to me they could maybe figure out a No-Jung-Strip kind of defense.
Hi Ryk,
Any chance you can add a summary of whats gone before to the start of each book. The series is now up to 11 books, and unless I keep re-reading the books i forget bits and pieces of the story.
Thanks
Gaz
Hi Ryk,
Any chance you can add a summary of whats gone before to the start of each book. The series is now up to 11 books, and unless I keep re-reading the books i forget bits and pieces of the story.Thanks
Gaz
Oh please no. There are few things that aggravate me more than recaps.
Reminds me of what happened last week on Happy Days.
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Hi Ryk,
Any chance you can add a summary of whats gone before to the start of each book. The series is now up to 11 books, and unless I keep re-reading the books i forget bits and pieces of the story.Thanks
Gaz
This story is complicated enough for an extensive Wiki with cast of characters, books, ships, etc. This site has the forum and ship designs. It even has the various solar systems to an extent. I am not seeing cast of characters or a spoilers recap. Military fiction in general has a LOT of characters and you have to figure out where every single one of them comes from, what they look like, culture etc.
I have since my last post seen that there are some but not many characters in the Wiki. It should have at least a hundred. Lotsa work to spread around and check for accuracy. Some of the characters have so far, barely mentioned. For example, the guy that said something like, "Have you seen the size of that rail gun? I think you could launch my house with it." The quote alone is enough for an entry.
Is there a quotes page?
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Hi Ryk,
Any chance you can add a summary of whats gone before to the start of each book. The series is now up to 11 books, and unless I keep re-reading the books i forget bits and pieces of the story.Thanks
Gaz
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This story is complicated enough for an extensive Wiki with cast of characters, books, ships, etc. This site has the forum and ship designs. It even has the various solar systems to an extent. I am not seeing cast of characters or a spoilers recap. Military fiction in general has a LOT of characters and you have to figure out where every single one of them comes from, what they look like, culture etc.
We have a Wiki located here. Yes we don't have that many characters on it due to its basically only 2-3 people doing the Wiki. It is fan based but has been approved from Mr. Brown. If you would like to contribute please, go and sign up and help out.
David ~ We are currently working on that, but we redesigned the Wiki for easier navigation. If you would like to help, please follow the link up top, sign up, and contribute. Thanks guys!
EDIT:1 - if the link doesn't work, right click and open in new tab and it will work.
Hi Ryk,
Any chance you can add a summary of whats gone before to the start of each book. The series is now up to 11 books, and unless I keep re-reading the books i forget bits and pieces of the story.
That is a great idea! Even with relatively short period of couple of month between releases, the farther we get into the series this should become an issue for many, especially those who joined early on in this story ark.
I doubt that Ryk has the time to spend on what happened as oppose to what going to happen, although important events/tidbits are usually repeated in conversations and after the story ark in Pentaurus Cluster was over (in ep7?) we got pretty extensive overview about earthplauge etc.
Still it will be amazing if anyone here write a some quickrough overview while we wait for the ep12 ticker 🙂
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Oh please no. There are few things that aggravate me more than recaps.
Oh pleeease! There are few things that aggravate me more than people who get aggravated by optional things 😉
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David ~ We are currently working on that, but we redesigned the Wiki for easier navigation. If you would like to help, please follow the link up top, sign up, and contribute. Thanks guys!
Just quick note about signing up, while it has its benefits, it is not required. Anyone can edit, just by hitting the edit button and use the "Word" like basic interface to improve upon, alternatively they can also contribute by post suggestionsfeedback at the comment section at the bottom of each article ( its use the most robust chat like system, it is easier to post comments there than posting here )
As for navigation, we are updating the navigation bar as we grow, updated the Community Portal which should help new editor to get their barrings and organizedlinked all content articles together to help navigate between them.
@Ryk -
First of all, love the series.
Question about Combat:
Under Einsteinian math, an object projected in space will continue at the same speed until another object stops it (paraphrasing). This being said - Wouldn't all the Aurora (or another ship) have to do is tow a rock/ship/metal at near relativistic speed (.9c) and just release the item in tow towards the planet/ship/moon and let it do the rest?
Also, using the same law, why hasnt the Aurora used this in conjunction with the Jump Drive? Jump at near relativistic speeds, jump out, and your missiles, turrets, and plasma are now traveling at the same speeds as the ship. This would not only limit the amount of time another ship would have to maneuver away from said missile/turret/plasma, but also INCREASE the amount of damage done per hit, as the amount of energy at point of contact is orders of a magnitude higher than is now during combat in the current books.
Also - coming from a background of military and combat, Nathan should have automatically given the brevet rank of Commodore or Admiral (depending on what ranking system you're using) provided he is now in charge of multiple space faring ships. He does not have the authority to give command decisions to another captain of another ship while in the same rank. This also means that he can not be the Captain of the ship he is aboard. There should be a new Captain placed on the Aurora with him as Admiral of the Fleet. This also needs to happen in order to provide order on Earth and the surrounding colonies.
Just my 2 cents.
The main reason they haven't attempted to get a rock to .9c is the fuel required. The Aurora has great acceleration, but she wasn't really designed to use that as a main propulsion system to go log distances. Also, the time that it would take to get up to speed, deaccelerate and change direction, then accelerate to .9c to get another run, would make it almost impossible for a prolonged battle. Good for hit and run tactics, but the Aurora needs time to wear down her opponents. If the enemy survived the first run, giving time to the enemy to repair their ships will only waste the ammunition spent in the .9c attack run. As long as you could guarantee that the target would not move, it would be great tactic for doing initial bombardment with a specialized torpedo boat.
Considering the nature of the current Alliance forces, having Nathan organizing and making command decisions is not really a big deal. It is not often that you run into a situation in the military, where you have 2 people of the same rank, in the same squad, section, etc., but when you do, who is in charge comes down to time in grade, and if that is the same, then time in service. (Saw this allot in a unit I served 4 years in where the average rank was E5-E6/O3-O4). Even if Cameron is of the same rank, Nathan still has time in grade on her, so he out ranks her, and does have the authority to make command decisions. He just shouldn't make decisions that undermine Cameron's authority or micromanage her/her crew.
Actually Mike and Apoc are both right. Apoc has the chain of command issue down correctly but Nathan should be breveted to Commodore. A commodore in the British Navy and American Navy prior to 1985 was a senior Captain in charge of a group of ships. This was in fact an assigned position. After all if you're going to have Nathan in charge of Earth Defense, at least you should be paying him at flag rank. Nathan would direct Cameron to attack a certain target but as Apoc said, would not get involved in how she fights her ship.
