Rei finds the effect mesmerizing. The Onsiras' Zengei (drones), half machine, half man, do not have a tapetum and their eyes are very dark, almost black. They are occasionally referred to as "shark eyes." The Reonhe are the "royalty" of the Onsiras and have one dark eye and one light eye. Estar, the villain in Part 1 and Part 3 of Rome's Revolution, is a Reonhe as is Sussen, the spy on Deucado who precipitated the crisis of Book 3. As you are well aware, Sussen returns in Rome's Evolution but is dispatched by none other than Bonnie Mullen herself.
Entry 1-289: October 10, 2013
Vuduri Starship Controls, Part 1
In the 35th century world of the Vuduri and Rome's Revolution, all Vuduri starships are designed the same way. They have two main modes of operation: atmospheric and space.
The elements of control are:
- A small rocker switch to toggle between modes.
- Dual joysticks, each 12 cm tall - their operation depends upon which mode: atmospheric or space.
- PPT controls - an outer wheel which controls the size of the tunnel and a pushbutton which controls the amount of negative energy.
Atmospheric Mode:
Any Vuduri craft which is capable of flight has a small set of wings. These are not for lift. That is provided by the Electro-Gravity (EG) pods. The wings are for control. They use flaps to roll the ship left or right, the same as an airplane. The joystick on the left is the throttle. With the right stick pulled back, pulling back on the left stick causes the ship to move forward faster. Pushing it forward halts the thrust. Pushing it all the way forward causes a braking action. Rotating clockwise or counterclockwise causes the ship to rotate about its center axis using trimjets regardless of its orientation, very handy for getting a ship upright. Rotation of right stick controls rolls the ship banks the ship and is more normal for flight control when oriented properly.
There is a button on top of the left joystick which can be used to fire the plasma thrusters, even within an atmosphere. It operates essentially as afterburners to explosively accelerate the ship. The button on the right stick is a throttle lock. Setting it would allow you to release the button on the left and continue at the desired acceleration or velocity.
The controls can also be used to hover the craft. You must leave the right stick upright. As mentioned before, rotating the left stick causes the trimjets to fire rotating the craft about its midpoint. When hovering, pulling back on the throttle causes the ship to rise up in the air. Pressing it forward causes it to descend. It sounds more complicated than it is. Rei found it very natural to control the ship within the atmosphere.
Tomorrow, we go into space.
Entry 1-290: October 11, 2013
Vuduri Starship Controls, Part 2
As I mentioned yesterday, in the world of Rome's Revolution, all Vuduri starships are designed the same way. They have two main modes of operation: atmospheric and space.
The elements of control are:
- A small rocker switch to toggle between modes.
- Dual joysticks, each 12 cm tall - their operation depends upon which mode: atmospheric or space.
- PPT controls - an outer wheel which controls the size of the tunnel and a pushbutton which controls the amount of negative energy. Today we cover Space mode:
Space:
Flipping the small rocker switches the controls to space mode. The right stick becomes the primary mechanism for small changes in attitude or speed. Pushing it forward causes the rear trimjets to fire so the ship accelerates. Pulling it back causes the front trimjets to fire slowing you down. The left joystick controls the plasma thrusters. You press on the top button to activate them, it is a safety switch. As they are firing, pushing the left joystick forward causes you to move forward. You can use the throttle lock on the right to then release the left joystick. Pulling back on the left joystick simply throttles down the plasma thruster. There is no braking action. In space, to brake quickly, you must rotate the craft 180 degrees and fire the plasma thrusters in retro-mode. Otherwise you will have to rely upon the trimjets to slow you down.
Tomorrow, for the final piece, we will cover the actual jump through a PPT tunnel.
Entry 1-291: October 12, 2013
Vuduri Starship Controls, Part 3
As mentioned in yesterday's post, in the world of Rome's Revolution, the starship controls in space act differently than when operating in atmospheric mode. Today's post will cover how to use the controls to jump through a PPT tunnel:
FTL Travel using PPT Tunnels:
For the PPT star drive to operate, you must be at a complete standstill relative to the nearest gravitational point of reference. Most Vuduri just rotate their craft and use the plasma thrusters to bring them to a halt. They rotate the ship around, alter the width of the tunnel using the yellow ring if necessary (most ships have a tiny triangular indicator for the proper size for that ship) then punch the center button to project negative energy in front of the ship. The more negative energy, the deeper the tunnel and the faster the effective velocity. Once the tunnel is the proper size and depth, the ship (typically using the plasma thrusters) moves forward and through the tunnel.
To travel continuously at FTL speeds, you have to stop, create a tunnel, go through, turn around, stop, turn around, make another tunnel and so on. During their long journey between Tabit and Deucado, Rei finds this method of travel very tedious. Eventually, MINIMCOM figured out how to force project a continuous series of tunnels so there was no more stop, go, stop go. In The Ark Lords, OMCOM figures out how to apply the Casimir Effect to negative energy and invents the null-fold drive which is much, much faster.
Hopefully this will be enough to get you going should you come across an abandoned Vuduri starship and want to take it out for a spin.
Entry 1-292: October 13, 2013
Laser Pulse Rifles
While laser pulse rifles are mentioned in Rome's Revolution, they really don't achieve any prominence until the Jack Henry saga in The Ark Lords and an attempt by the Darwin group to use them to intimidate Rome and Rei.
I thought I would give you a little more information on how they work:
While laser pulse rifles can be operated in continuous mode, their normal mode of operation is pulsed, hence the name. The weapons designers discovered that pulsing the laser could be as effective as a continuous beam in killing people. When operated in this manner, they use a fraction of the energy and therefore their power source lasted longer.
The way they work is a quick pulse of laser energy vaporizes the first solid substance it hits. The next pulse drives the "puff" of material forward and simultaneously vaporizes a new section. So instead of the hole being created like you see in the movies, it is more like the original design of the Project Orion nuclear spaceship.
After reading The Ark Lords, you may be wondering why the laser pulse rifles did not cauterize the human tissue they drilled through. Conceptually, it is the difference between a dashed line and a solid line. While maybe half of the tissue is cauterized, the rest is blown away by organic material. This is why the people who are hit by laser pulses bleed out so quickly. If the Ark Lords used a continuous laser beam, all it would do would be to punch a tiny hole in the target and therefore not necessarily inflict much damage. Laser pulse rifles are specifically designed to cause massive bleeding.
There is one scene where a soldier does turn his rifle on continuous and swings it around, like a very thin light saber. But mostly they use it to cause massive bleeding and a quick death with very little energy.
Sadly, even today, people are actually making these weapons but let's hope they don't get too popular any time soon!
Entry 1-293: October 14, 2013
Weapons of the futur
e
In the world of Rome's Revolution, there are many weapons based upon the technology of the 35th century and others that are based upon technology which we know about today. Yesterday's post described one such weapon, the laser pulse rifle. However there are many more weapons described in the books. Here is a brief summary:
Vuduri:
-Plasma Pistol - small PPT Generator-driven hand weapon - shoots controllable (adjustable) beam of plasma. Since it uses Casimir Pumps at its core, it essentially never runs out of fuel
-PPT Thrower/Rifle - PPT Throwers can be adapted into deadly weapons
-Electrostatic Charge Disrupters - basically they throw lightning bolts at objects
-Magnetic Pulse Cannons - EMP shaped pulse cannons. Reduces anything electronic to smoking ruins
Erklirte/Essessoni:
-Particle Beam Cannon - Drilling rigs convert to particle beam cannons. They vaporize large swatchs of ground.
Laser Pulse Rifle - Powerful laser rifles. They do not emit a continuous beam, rather short bursts of far more powerful laser light.
-Flamethrowers - These were selected because the fuel for them could be frozen for many centuries and when thawed, still be volatile and effective.
-Mini-nukes - Small atom bombs. Tactical in nature. Yield is just three tenths of a kiloton of explosive power.
Hanry Ta Jihn (From The Ark Lords):
-Vorasdock - actually just M4 Carbine rifles stored in perfect conditions for 600 years
MINIMCOM:
-PPT Thrower/Cannon - In The Ark Lords, MINIMCOM adapted his "roadgrader" PPT Throwers to become cannons. They could level a square kilometer in under one second.
-"Weaponized" VIRUS Units - special version of VIRUS units that can communicate with Rome and Rei. They use a hierarchical management structure with the supervisory units referred to as "queens." These units can operate within an oxygen atmosphere.