What weapons did the cap ship fire?

POSTED BY: Juggernaut
UPDATED: Thursday, December 19, 2002 21:41
VIEWED: 9698
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JUGGERNAUT

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 7:26 PM

Pardon me if this has been discussed elsewhere, and I missed it:

At the end of 'Bushwhacked,' what did the Alliance ship use to destroy the derelict transport? I'm going off of memory, but if I remember, it looked a little 'ray gun'-ish. Were they missiles?

I'd be interested to know, since it's about the only evidence of 'ship to ship' warfare we've seen in the FF universe yet...

ZICSOFT

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 8:37 PM

Yeah, it looked ray-gunnish to me too. That ship was certainly big enough to mount an energy weapon. Like a particle beam. Then again, if it were a high-velocity missle, it would look even more like a ray gun than a particple beam would. Cause you'd have the rocket exhaust to generate the "ray", whereas a particle-beam fired in a vacuum wouldn't scatter, and thus would not be visible from the side.

JOSS, WHERE'S MY CHECK???!!!

HAKEN

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 8:58 PM

The weapon looks like a missile because of the vapor trail. I don't know how vapor trails dissipates in space, but that's what it looks like.

This is the first missile.

This is the second.

And finally, notice the expansion of the vapor trail near the ship.

JUGGERNAUT

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 9:10 PM

A-ha... thanks for the screen grabs.

Definitely looks like some kind of missile. That makes me feel better. I was afraid it was going to be some sort of slow-moving ray bolt. That definitely would've given me fits.

HAPLO721

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 9:23 PM

Missiles make a lot of sense as space weapons. They can be fitted with tracking systems, they're fast, and they blow up real good. Kudos to ME for using a sensical (new word) space weapon.

HOBBES

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 9:39 PM

I think the missile wasn't fitted with a warhead. The explosion looks like interior ship systems blowing up.

The missile would most likly be armed with a nuclear (fusion?) warhead or something else (plasma? high-intensity chemical? a little help here).

Anyway it would be a lot bigger explosion if any warhead was used (even an old style chemical).

Of course I could be way off.

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May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.

TRAGICSTORY

Saturday, October 12, 2002 7:03 PM

Well, If I had to guess I would go for the Plasma theory. I'm not sure how a conventional missle would actually detonate in space against the hull .(no air,no explosion) Frm the screenshots above, it doesn't look like a missle. Plasma (super heated gas/liquid) on the other hand, would melt through the hull and travel straight through it. This would be much like modern tank guns today. The projectile itself is not explosive, but it causes the combustionable parts in the enemy's tank to explode. Of course in a tank, they use velocity to generate heat, instead of heat to begin with, but the principle is the same. If this doesn't make sense, I'll try to re write it more coherently.

LOONYTOON

Saturday, October 12, 2002 7:18 PM

Tragicstory, modern tanks still use, among other things, high explosive shells, along with armor-pierceing, and incindiary ammunition. Missile would work with a nuclear warhead, and an internal explosion would work from the ships atmoshere. Plasma would be quite inefficint to use.

THEGN

Saturday, October 12, 2002 8:08 PM

Actually, no oxygen would be needed for a conventional warhead to explode in space. A conventional warhead doesn't use ambient air to explode. Explosives of that intensity use internal oxidizers.

And many warheads are designed with delay detonation, so that they explode only after penetrating the haul.

It may look like a round ball of green gas, but it could still be a missile, because from a distance the plume from a missile during boost-phase looks like a round ball of flame if the boost is hot enough and far enough away. The green color, however, is not indicative of missile exhaust. Usually it is white or bright-yellow. I would think that any exhaust glowing hot enough to appear green from that distance would pose a significant problem with damaging the missile itself, since few materials can withstand that kind of temperature. But maybe they have special materials in the future.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

DELVO

Saturday, October 12, 2002 8:08 PM

Remember there are other ways to make chemical reactions that go boom without oxygen or even any other kind of air. You just have to carry the ingredient(s) with you.

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