Guns on spaceships

[FractiousDay]

Problem with swords and stuff though is whenever someone turns up with a gun they'll win. If you're crew is equipped with swords and then the space pirates turn up with illegal or untested space weapons then the space pirates will win

 

[Claudette Savagely]

Problem with swords and stuff though is whenever someone turns up with a gun they'll win. If you're crew is equipped with swords and then the space pirates turn up with illegal or untested space weapons then the space pirates will win

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Well sure, in a setting or situation where firearms can be used aboard a spaceship without risk of catastrophic (or indeed value-deprecating) damage.

For everything else, there's poleaxe.

 

[Ironanvil1]

In an environment where personal armour probably comes within spitting difference of the coverage, if perhaps not the resilience, of Mediaeval harness, why not go the whole hog? Perhaps with a short poleaxe-type weapon, except with a crowbar's forked head where the queue would be.

Think something like this, for length. No longer than 3 feet from dagger tip to crowbar head.

Bludgeon, crush, cut, stab, pry.

Can be applied to an uncooperative hatch with just as much facility as that uncooperative bloke round the corner.

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That's pretty much what I'm talking about:

 

[Claudette Savagely]

That's pretty much what I'm talking about:

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yeah but that's missing a dagger at the head

and where's the axe???

can't beat people to death without an axe

 

[Ironanvil1]

yeah but that's missing a dagger at the head

and where's the axe???

can't beat people to death without an axe

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It's got an adze, which is like a hipster axe!

 

[Claudette Savagely]

It's got an adze, which is like a hipster axe!

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bah

make this thing a proper space-poleaxe and that pointy thing is just the backspike

3/5 killing impliments isn't bad though

 

[Ironanvil1]

I do think that a modernised attempt at a space pollaxe would end up resembling a mutant Halligan Bar more than it would the historical original, though.

 

[Claudette Savagely]

I do think that a modernised attempt at a space pollaxe would end up resembling a mutant Halligan Bar more than it would the historical original, though.

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Quite possibly. A Halligan tool with knobs on, rather than a poleaxe with ideas above it's station.

 

[FlyingScanian]

Problem with swords and stuff though is whenever someone turns up with a gun they'll win. If you're crew is equipped with swords and then the space pirates turn up with illegal or untested space weapons then the space pirates will win

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In addition to the problem of each round you fire potentially ruining your craft (or the price), what will the engagement distances be in a spaceship? If you only encounter each other when you're within 5 meters or so, a well-drilled melee specialist will quite probably (and quite literally) gut the pirate with a gun.

 

[FractiousDay]

In addition to the problem of each round you fire potentially ruining your craft (or the price), what will the engagement distances be in a spaceship? If you only encounter each other when you're within 5 meters or so, a well-drilled melee specialist will quite probably (and quite literally) gut the pirate with a gun.

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Two points here, I think if the alternative was swords then research would be put into space guns, maybe there'd be greater emphasis on CQC, but ranged weapons would still be useful.

Secondly, I would imagine that most encounters would be within 5 metres as you say, I suppose it would depend on the construction of the ship. If we're talking Enterprise with wide corridors and structural supports for cover, but alternatively you might have a Nostromo with enclosed spaces.

Sub-question, what's SOP for boarding a submarine or other enclosed space like a plane? This has been mentioned briefly in the cases of places, but not with submarines

 

[ThySpasticFool]

Wear space suits. So what if there's a five millimeter hole in the pressure hull? Your primary concern is killing your enemy, and slugs which are literally designed to not penetrate things will not help with that if your enemy bothers to wear armour. The ship is compartmentalised and explosive decompression really isn't for a bullet hole.

Damaging sensitive components, causing a fire, or shooting a pipe and spraying the interior with something unpleasant, is a far greater concern than air. I suspect even a glazer would happily penetrate a cockpit dashboard. Not much you can do about that. Only shoot if you're reasonably certain there isn't something mission critical behind the enemy? Aim and stay on semi, don't death blossom (Easier said than done I imagine) Boarding against professionals is probably a fool's errand in any case. I think the marine from the Expanse says something to the effect of 60% survival rate being the absolute best for boarders which I don't think is far off the mark.