Story(-ish): The Babble Files (updated 2408.5)

[Loser]

New Technology for 2408.3

High Pressure Anti-Proton Beam

Originally discovered on a Drushocka ship, our Anti-Proton Beam weapons have gone through many phases of development. Still striving to make a suitable main-line weapon out of this promising technology, the Ministry of Science has refined yet another improvement.

Improvements in materials science and production management spearheaded by the Drushocka researchers on Picoturion II have led to an inovation that allows the weapon to pass a more concentrated stream of anti-hydrogen plasma through the directional coordinator that comprises the barrel of the weapon.

For some time after we learned the manufacture of this weapon system from them, the Drushocka possessed superior anti-proton beams to our own. It seems that some agencies within their empire wished to maintain this status, and continued research to further improve their technology.

Some the the Drushocka engineers who worked on these semi-private efforts has made their way into the republic, through various means, and they are currently employed in the Research Centers of Picoturion II. Here they have contineud their work to improved these contra-terrene weapons, now for the greater good of the Republic and all sentient beings who comprise it.

Nonetheless, we have no reason to believe that the Drushocka possess and Energy Stream Weapons more than the Carburated Anti-Proton Beam that was, until recently, our best acomplishment in this area.

This new technology simultanieously improves the alignment coordination systems in the barrel of the weapon and the magnetic fields that transfer the anti-plasma to the accelleration fields though improved component materials and inovative subsystem integration.

This allows more of the destructive anti-hydrogen plasma to be directed at the target, yeilding an increase in destructive power that finally matches that of our Piercing Sheel Depleted Uranium Cannon, though only at point-blank range. At it's max range the High-Pressure APB delivers only slightly more than sixty percent of the power of our best DU cannon, and so the Ministry of Science does not yet recommend this technology as a replacement for our mainline weapons.


New Technology for 2408.4

Accelerated Anti-Proton Beam

The Energy Stream Weapons research team on Picoturion II has delivered yet another advance in Anti-Proton Beam technology. These Drushocka scientists and engineers worked to advance this specific weapon system for the Drushocka Empire before they came to join the Republic and continue their endeavors now.

By completely redesigning the timing system in the alignment coordination system in the barrel of the weapon, developing more efficient magnetic acceleators, and fitting more magnetic acceleators into the system these Ministry of Science funded weapons developers have increased the potency of our contra-terrene beam weapons by twenty percent at max range.

This rework of the weapon increases damage at middle to longer ranges but yeilds no better damage at point blank than the Last iteration of the design. This is due to the incease in the speed of the particles as they are driven out of the barrel. There are no more anti-protons, but the higher speed lessens the degree to which the the beam disipates at greater distances.


New Technology for 2408.5

Solar Sail

It was by utiliizingdifferences in air pressures that our acesstors first began moving about the seas of our homeworld at any reasonable rate, and those civilizations that improved on their sailing technology overtook those that continued to rely on their own muscles to swing and draw oars. By adapting this technology to harness the solar wind of our system, instead of moving air molecules, many small craft made economically possible the exploration and early exploitation of the other worlds in our system.

Unfortunately this technology is limited by scale and to the inner reaches of our solar system. Though the ships that brought colonists to Secondus made use of such technology, the ship that made the long journey to Palaquin moved to far from the stars of Avalon for the sail to provide them with anything.

The chiefest current limitation in the technology has been the mass of the ship to be propelled. In order to provide some movement to an Escort class ship, the solar sail would have to be so large that the mass of the support beams and webbing would end up beyond that of the Escort itself.

The solution to this problem, and a new form of supplimental propulsion, was found in a miraclous marterial synthesized on Avalon VI B. In experiements conducted at the System University on this world, a team was researching the applications of our new system of subatomic physics, developed to accomodate the incredable Jacketed-Photon Engine we discovered from the Drushocka. They theorized a means to reflect light from one direction and simultaniously allow it to pass through, almost unaffected, from the opposite direction.

By embedding countless billlions of the microscopic crystals that perform this magic trick of optics in an ultra-thin matrix of supercritically dried silica dioxide, one of the the lightest materials possible, and suspending great solid sheets of this matrix from simple structural supports we can provide additional propulsion to any ship.

An additional plus to this technology is that, unlike a solar sail, it is not dependant on a neaby star. Since cosmic background radiation bombards a ship from all directions, the ability to reflect it from one angle and be transparent to it at another provides automatice and 'free' propulsion. Unfortuantely, this technology still requires the use of at least one engine, as the manuvering capabilities of the sail are limited by the materials from which it is made.

Should a ship equipped with this technology be engaged in combat, any attack that penetrates the shield is likely to hit the sail. Fortunately, the entire sail will nto fall apart when one small portion of it is hit, and the mounting system itself would have to be damaged before the sail will lose any significant effectiveness.

The Ministry of Science beleives this technology will be improved several more times within the coming months, and so does not recommend that any ships are redesigned to accomodate it, just yet.