Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

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icekatze
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

I feel a little bit bad for the station defenders, if they were having to take sub-optimal firing solutions in order to avoid hitting the Highland-7. Still, I'm pretty sure they all knew that they were making their last stand. I imagine there probably wasn't enough point defense to go around even if they had ideal shots.

I'll be curious to see if there's anything left of the station in the next panel or two.

On the plus side for the Highland-7, since they're almost out of propellant, they're probably getting close to their optimal acceleration. (Not counting the possibility of tossing dead weight out the back, since they probably want to keep it out of Umiak hands/graspers.)

Sweforce
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Sweforce »

icekatze wrote:hi hi

I feel a little bit bad for the station defenders, if they were having to take sub-optimal firing solutions in order to avoid hitting the Highland-7. Still, I'm pretty sure they all knew that they were making their last stand. I imagine there probably wasn't enough point defense to go around even if they had ideal shots.

I'll be curious to see if there's anything left of the station in the next panel or two.

On the plus side for the Highland-7, since they're almost out of propellant, they're probably getting close to their optimal acceleration. (Not counting the possibility of tossing dead weight out the back, since they probably want to keep it out of Umiak hands/graspers.)

Throwing stuff out will do nothing for their speed right now. They could have tried that earlier to get rid of some mass for the engines to deal with but since they are out of fuel there is nothing they can do.

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Werra
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Werra »

Fireblade could use her powers to push the shuttle onwards from the inside. Theoretically, she could also decelerate. Might take a while with a mass this large and fast.

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Zarya
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Zarya »

If Fireblade is abord, isn’t that something similar as pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?
Despite the novelty factor of psychokinesis, I suspect Newton will still be spinning in his grave.

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Werra
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Werra »

Fblade isn't taking the opposite force of her abilities. They're quite literally supernatural. So yeah.


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SVlad
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by SVlad »

Zarya wrote:If Fireblade is abord, isn’t that something similar as pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?
Despite the novelty factor of psychokinesis, I suspect Newton will still be spinning in his grave.
The manual said that force applied from outside of our reality.
Fireblade can produce a force of 6600 N. At 400 ton vessel it produce acceleration of 0.017 m/s.
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SVlad
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by SVlad »

What are "in-universe" reasons for Talon and Spiral to speak aloud to each other? For flight recorder logging?
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icekatze
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by icekatze »

hi hi
Sweforce wrote:Throwing stuff out will do nothing for their speed right now. They could have tried that earlier to get rid of some mass for the engines to deal with but since they are out of fuel there is nothing they can do.
Okay, three things here.

• First: I said "optimal acceleration," not "optimal speed."
• Second: They are not yet out of fuel. (Or propellant which may or may not be the same thing in their case, seeing as how they have atmospheric engines too.) Do you see the drive plumes? Do you see Alex wondering why they are still accelerating toward the station on page 138?
• Third: The Umiak are still there. Evading beam weapons is something they can potentially do, up until they do actually run out of propellant.

At the risk of having to repeat myself. As I stated, since they are "almost out of propellant," is true based on their conversations and the visuals on the most recent page. Due to the nature of mass to thrust ratios, their acceleration ability will increase right up until the moment they run dry. That is a feature of their situation.

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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Arioch »

SVlad wrote:What are "in-universe" reasons for Talon and Spiral to speak aloud to each other? For flight recorder logging?
Yes.

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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by CF2 »

Where did Spiral and Talon pull their helmets out from in all this? I know they put them on a few pages back, but I can't spot their storage location.
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Arioch
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Arioch »

CF2 wrote:Where did Spiral and Talon pull their helmets out from in all this? I know they put them on a few pages back, but I can't spot their storage location.
There are storage bins in a number of locations in the cockpit.

twowolves7niner
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by twowolves7niner »

THAT was just Epic. JUST EPIC. rock star solution. THANK YOU ARIOCH!!!!! :shock:

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orion1836
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by orion1836 »

Were this a movie, there would either be dead silence at the moment of impact, or a rising guitar riff. Either way, epic.

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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by Michael »

TWO PAGES?! ::Squee::
CJ Miller: How many millions must be banned before we stop having pointless arguments on the Internet?
fredgiblet: ALL OF THEM! Our banhammers will blot out the sun!
CptWinters: Then we will troll in the shade.!
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novius
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by novius »

icekatze wrote:At the risk of having to repeat myself. As I stated, since they are "almost out of propellant," is true based on their conversations and the visuals on the most recent page. Due to the nature of mass to thrust ratios, their acceleration ability will increase right up until the moment they run dry. That is a feature of their situation.
It's not rocket science. Oh, wait.... :mrgreen:

In addition, they would need fuel to decelerate as well to speeds suitable for docking. So Spiral's words when they discussed docking means that while they might have enough fuel to get to the station, Alex pretty much hit the nail on the head with the question that they won't have enough fuel to slow down to safely dock.

Now they got rid of the incoming missiles but face the prospect of drifting towards interstellar space, especially since the Relay seems to have taken quite a battering, too, and may be in no shape to catch up to them.

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RedDwarfIV
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Re: Page 138-139: Brace for Impact

Post by RedDwarfIV »

novius wrote:Now they got rid of the incoming missiles but face the prospect of drifting towards interstellar space, especially since the Relay seems to have taken quite a battering, too, and may be in no shape to catch up to them.
I assumed that was the Barsam Courier's job.


Also, I noticed the explosions are depicted as white spheres. A nice touch, because IIRC, that's the most realistic way to show an explosion in vacuum.
If every cloud had a silver lining, there would be a lot more plane crashes.

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