Page 214: Ready for boarding action!

[Demetrious]

Yes, except that the kinetic-based weapons should have a slightly different recoil pattern. Also, the Bellarmine would be equipped with laser pistols, I guess? Those don't even have a recoil, and Beryl should know this from the examination of the wreck. Therefore, Alex is highly likely to miss his first shot, at least, and she dialed the blasters power down to prevent accidents.

As someone who carries a loaded firearm upon their waist every day and has practiced point-shooting at common personal combat ranges with regularity, I can assure you that Alex is unlikely to miss a large alien bug jumping at him in 1/3 Gs. There's a few commonly popular self-defense pistols that lack any kind of sighting arrangements whatsoever based on the simple premise that they are designed for use at ranges where any sighting accouterments whatsoever are effectively useless.

There are people in this world who cannot strike targets at a range of nine feet. I call those people "strange." I presume Alex is not one of them.

[Cthulhu]

Personally, I favor a heroic act where Alex saves the day, but let's be honest, he is still a rookie and could simply panic. Especially if a huge cyberbug straight out of Fireblade's his nightmares charges right at him. Also, for the Loroi, seeing a male fight may sound utterly ridiculous, and Beryl isn't expecting much anyway. Let's see if he can prove them wrong, hopefully next week.

[ReneKay]

Hi, I've been reading Outsider for a little while now, but this is my first time posting!

Particle beam weapons are a different from kinetic weapons in how they do damage. While the individual subatomic particles (probably mostly protons, as they have the best penetration) carry kinetic energy, which does damage to the target, this damage manifests in a different way from kinetic weapons.

Speaking generally, particle beam weapons damage a target by two means, heating and radiation dose, I'm going to focus on the first as it will be the rapid heating of the target that causes material damage.

With a kinetic weapon, regardless of the means of accelerating the slug, the force of the projectile on the target must be equal to that exerted on the weapon. But for particle beam and laser weapons, the stream of particles (ions, nanoparticles, photons, etc.) damages the target through heating, either gradually or quickly (shock heating). Because of this, the explosive force of the beam where it impacts the target can be much greater than the recoil on the weapon.

It's somewhat analogous to a kinetic weapon firing an explosive slug of some sort, the force on the target can be much greater than the recoil.

Source: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/r ... ticlespace

Hopefully that sheds some light on the subject!

[Demarquis]

It's not the weapon proficiency that Alex needs to worry about, it's his lack of knowledge of Loroi small team tactics and procedures (and the fact that they don't know what he doesn't know). The potential for misunderstandings is very high. That said, if he accomplishes anything beyond "did exactly what he was told" they will all be impressed.

[DevilDalek]

Alex isn't that much of a rookie, and was particularly chosen as best of the best in how he would react or be able to handle these situations.
Have a little faith in the guy!

[Krulle]

Hi, I've been reading Outsider for a little while now, but this is my first time posting!

[...]

Hopefully that sheds some light on the subject!

Welcome, and thank you for your interesting feedback and thoughts.
In general, I do agree.

But the pulse will still have a certain amount of energy, just additional damage an inert bullet itself does not have (but an exploding bullet may have too).

Hence a particle beam weapon (pulse or continuous) likely needs a lower power setting for the same targets as an inert bullet will need.
Which reduces the recoil.
The difference is, that if you're using particle beam weapons, your enemy will likely have much better armour than enemies of inert bullet users will have, which again increases the power need.

So, it all depends on what kind of damage you need to make to get the target down.
And particle beam weapons with power settings are faster in adjusting than "taking out the magazine and any bullets in the barrel / replacing with a different type of bullets according to need" (if even available)...

Any single-shot TL6+ weapon (laser, blaster, slugthrower) is done firing long before you have a chance to react to the recoil or lack thereof.
[...]

SpoilerShow

[redacted by Krulle]YAY! Spoilers![/redacted, if you're that curious, find the original post and read it there]

I did not expect otherwise. (speed of light simply is MUCH faster than most accelerations can impart on the physical world to make a difference - so the particles/light will have left the barrel long before the physical forces translate into movement.)

But when missing, having your hand in the exact position of the "miss" allows for better "walking" of the shot, as you merely correct by what you think the correction needs to be.
With a recoil, however small, you will also need to compensate for whatever effect the recoil had on the position of your hand.
Well trained personell will automatically adjust that first, unconsciously, before the brain starts adjusting for the miss.

[Zorg56]

Even for 3 km/s projectiles of modern tank canon (and even slower bulelts of moder firearms) shell is long gone before recoil starts affecting anything on the gun side.
You can clearly see it on Sprut SDб it is really light tank:


My idea at the beggining was that, alex must limit his involvment as much as possible, just because he is unfamiliar with the weapon, MIB situation with flying in the air with recoil is by far not worst that can happen.
Alex is also surprisingly prone to panic.

[Tamri]

Timecode on 1:40 and 2:50 - Alex and gun for short

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq_ZVgyBSEI

[ReneKay]

Hence a particle beam weapon (pulse or continuous) likely needs a lower power setting for the same targets as an inert bullet will need.
Which reduces the recoil.
The difference is, that if you're using particle beam weapons, your enemy will likely have much better armour than enemies of inert bullet users will have, which again increases the power need.

So, it all depends on what kind of damage you need to make to get the target down.

Agreed, though I'd add that the damage potential of particle beam weapons (especially with the technological capabilities of the major combatants in Outsider) will increase exponentially given the way particle beams do damage, and given the energy that can be put behind them.

With laser weapons, the recoil is practically nonexistent, yet a pulsed laser can cause a detonation at a target's surface on par with a shotgun or better.

Likewise, particle beam weapons, consisting of subatomic particles, will act in a very similar manner (similar to gamma-rays actually), hence the damage scales exponentially.

For ships you might be able to stop particle beams with armour or high-tech hardened hull materials, but for close-quarters or ground combat it's unlikely you can pack enough armour (even of advanced materials) to make a difference. Even a material with a density on par with neutronium, if low mass enough for a Umiak hardtrooper to move in, will only be able to stand up against a particle beam weapon for a fraction of a second.

[Bamax]

Regarding the spoiler: For those unfamiliar with military terminology,

SpoilerShow

'secure the magazine'

may sound vague.

Yet a quick bit of google-fu revealed:


1. A 'magazine' is where a warship's ammunition is stored. For the Umiak that means weapons, likely missiles, maybe even the power supply for their focused plasma beams.

2. To secure means as a soldier that you take whatever measures necessary, peaceful or otherwise, to hold a location free of any ememy forces attempting to take or damage it.

Conclusion: The umiak are not stupid, if they realize their command center is compromised and unable to detonate the ship to keep it ouut of enemy hands, they will attempt to manually blow it up by shooting up their own missiles or power supply generators.

Beryl does not speak Umiak, so I expect her to kill any Umiak who can see her if it comes at her.

Basically Alex and Beryl are going to let their guns do the talking... unless Beryl can pull mind tricks somewhat like Tempo too.

One can see advantages Loroi have over human soldiers in combat against aliens not immune to telepathy.

Loroi do not have to go guns blazing like humans do... not at first anyway.

They have more offensive options to put it bluntly than mere humans do in combat.

And war is never about fighting fair... it is about deception and winning.

[Demarquis]

That sounds to me exactly like the kind of "important but not mission critical" assignment one would give to your science specialist and her human sidekick.

[Krulle]

SpoilerShow

securing the magazine

IS mission critical.
Any resistance which may start to form will try to get the proper tools for that.
Denying the enemy proper and dangerous tools is therefore important.

[Arioch]

SpoilerShow

The ship's magazine stores ordnance (in this case, torpedoes) for the ship itself. Storage of weaponry for the crew would be the armory.

As Beryl mentioned, once the Umiak realize that they've been boarded by psi-troops, their only real option is to self-destruct the ship. The locations on the ship where this can be most easily done are the bridge, the engineering spaces, and the magazine. The Loroi must control all three locations, and do it before the Umiak have a chance to react.

[Demarquis]

Is it possible for the Loroi team to board the Umiak vessel, take over the ships systems, and defeat the crew before they have a chance to resecure their magazine?

[Cthulhu]

Is it possible for the Loroi team to board the Umiak vessel, take over the ships systems, and defeat the crew before they have a chance to resecure their magazine?

SpoilerShow

YesShow

Otherwise, the comic would end, no?

SpoilerShow

Also, stop asking Arioch for more spoilers! Let him color the next page in peace.

[Keklas Rekobah]

The Loroi (and Alex) are already aboard the Umiak vessel.  They have to exit the Highland-7 into the cargo bay, and then make their way to the bridge, main engineering, and the missile magazine before the Umiak can mount an effective defense. The ship's locker/armory is a secondary target.  That the Umiak will be jumpsick may offset the Umiak's superior numbers, but only for a short time.  The Loroi have to move fast, strike hard, and take no prisoners without causing collateral damage to the Umiak ship or becoming casualties themselves.

Bridge: Secure access and external communications, and start hacking any software lockouts the Umiak may have installed while transmitting telemetry that indicates nothing unusual is going on.

Engineering: Secure access and shut off power distribution, internal communications, and life-support (i.e., gravplates, lighting, et cetera).

Magazines: Secure access and disable any means to remotely detonate the missile's warheads or start their engines while they are still inside the ship.

Have I missed anything?

[Cthulhu]

Have I missed anything?

"Hack" the commanding bug itself?

[Keklas Rekobah]

Have I missed anything?

"Hack" the commanding bug itself?

Sure!  Why not?  It has been done before.

I did forget something, however.  My experiences with Naval ships and aircraft gave me the knowledge that there are access panels in the passageways giving way to junction "boxes" for power and communications.  Even if our strike team cannot access the primary targets, these access panels (if they exist) could be used to similar effect.

[Cthulhu]

I did forget something, however.  My experiences with Naval ships and aircraft gave me the knowledge that there are access panels in the passageways giving way to junction "boxes" for power and communications.  Even if our strike team cannot access the primary targets, these access panels (if they exist) could be used to similar effect.

It's still quite the bottleneck. Only Tempo has "Umiak" in her language skill tab, and I have no idea how good the others are at reading the bug's minds. Nobody seems to have any "hacking" tools either, so Alex may need to use his tablet instead. That porn folder can certainly screw up the entire ship.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Are you implying that the Historian tablet app may be the "Chekov's Gun" that saves the day?

It cannot be a "Deus Ex Technia" because its presence was indicated before the Highland-7 was captured.