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Hard Vacuum: Tetralian Colonial Military Research Institute

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Did we seriously roll at least one 1 in every roll we had so far?

Anyway, revision phase. What do we need to fix?
 
I guess fix the laser battery? Or we could try to revise the factories and increase their precision manufacturing
 
I would say get a derivative of the laser array located in orbit, working on the shuttles, or perhaps getting a from of the factory that can fit in the shuttles.
 
So since the biggest flaw is their lenses do we need to revise the lasers or the factories to improve that process?
 
We could do that, however jsut being able to dump them out in space would be a marked improvement. We probably want to make them modular inorder to be able to deploy them rapidly in orbit.

-edit-

Have a revision.

'Lux Lite' modular laser battery

Based off of our current Lux installations, the Lux Lite is simply a Lux cut into sections able to be loaded into an ITC and deployed wherever, enabling rapid construction and scaling of batteries wherever we can transport them.

If extra time is had, work is to commence on improvements to the optics, improving their quality.

[X]Lux Lite
 
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Revision: Lux Lite | Start of Turn 2| Start of Design Phase 2
  • Threadmarks
    • Buggy Mess

    The only thing that can really be said in favor of the Lux Lite is that it works. Given that it is basically a cut-down version of a laser battery that was already a horrible kludge, this is saying a lot. All in all, the laser that the Lux Lite is ultimately based on has been compromised on heavily for weaponization purposes twice. The original device was a high intensity ultraviolet laser intended for the purpose of igniting nuclear fusion in an inertial confinement drive; this meant it could get away with a very small aperture size, since it didn't need to shoot very far.

    From those lasers was derived the Lux, which made several design compromises in the name of weaponization. The optics were kept the same out of haste, but the wavelength was adjusted to 510 nm so it could shoot through Agua's atmosphere. The reduced effective range this would lead to was compensated for by putting an utterly stupid number of lasers together and having them fire at the same target, increasing effective aperture. The sheer number of lasers also reduced the penalty to power per laser involved in shrinking them down enough to be turreted.

    The Lux Lite that has just been kludged together, meanwhile, can't do that. This means that it is quite simply stuck with its abysmal performance against both space and ground targets. Its wattage is a relatively weak 2.5 megawatts, and the retained narrow aperture diameter of 5 cm means that range is abysmal. More specifically, the Lux Lite is almost completely ineffective against targets further out than 1.4 km, which is pretty much melee range as far as space combat is concerned.

    Transport Capacity: 1
    Mobilization: 1
    Ore: 2
    He3: 1
    Munitions

    Mining Explosives: Fairly simple chemical explosives intended for mineral extraction. One of the primary ingredients is Magnesium.
    1 Ore (Cheap)
    Infantry

    Tetraloid Utility Droid: These spider-shaped worker automatons really aren't built for combat, more being intended for industrial and domestic use. Each robot is powered by a supercapacitor bank, meaning that they need to re-charge every twelve hours, with endurance declining the more power they expend in combat. As such, they don't have much going for them in a fight, with their most effective weapon being a re-purposed mining laser that quickly drains their power.
    1 Ore (Cheap)
    Ground Vehicles
    Strike Craft
    Capitol Ships

    Interplanetary Transport Chassis Mk2: This 150 meter long vehicle is intended to be used for both transorbital and interplanetary transits while carrying a significant load. It has standardized mountings for strike craft, cargo pods, or weapons modules. Other features include an electrolysis system to break down H2O into useful Hydrogen propellant. It is powered by a redundant pair of Pulsed Nuclear Thermal Rockets, which can not only blast it into Agua orbit with nearly two thirds of its propellant to spare, but can shift gears meaning it can fling itself all over the system in just a few weeks! The thrust generated by these engines in 'stationary mode' can be re-directed through a set of auxiliary thrust outputs on the underside, allowing VTOL capability on worlds with surface gravity of less than 12 m/s2​
    1 Ore 1 He3 (Cheap) | Provides 1 Transport Capacity

    Static Installations

    'Lux' laser battery: These planetary defense batteries were originally based on the ignition lasers used for the Inertial Confinement Fusion Engines in the arkship that brought you here. The design was hastily copied and made into vast phased-array laser batteries, which are only really effective due to sheer scale. This lack of efficiency can be directly traced back to the shoddy manufacturing quality of the optics. When firing in the visible wavelengths (which is necessary to pierce Agua's fairly thick atmosphere), these laser batteries can shoot down strike craft and ordnance within 20,000 km, and can open fire on capitol ships out to 30,000 km.
    3 Ore, 2 He3 (Somewhat Expensive)
    Logistics
    Infrastructure

    Prefab Factories: Your colony ship came with a bunch of 3D printers and other such devices needed to establish manufacturing infrastructure. They do not have the precision needed to manufacture fusion-based devices reliably, meaning that the production thereof is currently complex.
    Loose Components

    Laser Ignited Fusion Engine: Utilizing inertial confinement and an array of very powerful lasers, this propulsion system can blast a plume of plasma out the back at a significant fraction of light speed. This renders it capable of both a significant thrust to weight ratio, and extremely high Specific Impulse. The precision needed when manufacturing the parts demands extremely close manufacturing tolerances, which means that our current industrial base isn't up for the task of producing it.

    PuNTRo Engine: A variety of Nuclear Thermal Rocket, the PuNTRo operates in a pulsed regime which allows it to briefly operate at levels that should by all rights melt the engine into slag. Coupled with a hefty cooling system, these engines can achieve patently absurd levels of thrust and fuel economy (though not at the same time!), making them suitable for both taking off from planetary surfaces and gallivanting all over the system. These engines are bimodal, meaning they can be used for electricity generation when not producing thrust. Maximum exhaust velocity of 48,000 km/s.

    Lux Lite: This is a turreted 2.5 megawatt laser weapon. It has a wavelength of 510 nanometers and an aperture diameter of 5 centimeters, meaning it has a cripplingly short range against space targets.

    It is now Turn 2. War starts in four turns.

    It is now the Design phase.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Maybe a long range probe? Seed them over time around the solar system?

    Or we could leverage our new engines and design a long range space borne missle? Expensive but a cap killer?
     
    I think we should go for the long range missile. Missiles have an amazing thrust to weight gain and awesome vectoring. We'll be able to stop Capitals from getting too close.

    If not the missile, then maybe an actual Capital Warship, but that seems a bit ahead of where we are
     
    We need more tech before considering a capital ship. A missile ship sounds good to me. Make a new missile and strap it to our spaceship. We could store a decent amount, especally if we made smaller, shorter range variants for when we don't need to off something from the other end of the solar system.
     
    So I guess we are looking to build a module for our transports that stores and fires the missles with the sub component being the missle itself?
     
    I'll write up a missile in the morning. Trying at 2 am wouldn't give a coherent result.

    Edit: Morning didn't work, I slept through that. Afternoon didn't either, because I overslept. I'll see what I can do now.
     
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