- Location
- Indiana, US
That was always one of the things that irritated me on Star Trek. "We've lost life support" meant suffocating in about five minutes, even when they're on a massive ship with enormous hallways filled with air.
Unbound (Homeworld/Mass Effect)
- Thread starter Geas
- Start date
- Crossover Sci-Fi
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- Tags
- homeworld mass effect fusion
- Location
- The States
I would love a Kadeshi needleship to still be around. They're such a cool concept for a faction that really doesn't get explored at all.
Yeah, I enjoy Star Trek a lot more when I can make myself think of it as just fiction. Not science fiction.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
If you assume the Federation penchant for forcefields in place of shuttle bay doors extends to things like airlocks and the valves on emergency air tanks, it makes sense again. It's stupid, but it makes sense.
- Pronouns
- She
Gotta love the demands of the plot. Overriding reality to bring us the (theoretically) most enjoyable story possible!
Though, plot aside, giving it some thought, I do feel like that kind of thing would be a little less effective against the ME races. While we do see most people forgoing hardsuits - likely because that'd be uncomfortable as hell working a console and sitting in a full suit of armor - the security and anti-boarding teams are almost always going to be suited up. Absolutely no idea what the Homeworlders are packing in terms of personal armament, but ME hardsuits have both kinetic barriers on top of regular armor plating rated for multiple mini-railgun shots. Not looked up the calcs, but I have to imagine even the weakest service sidearm is going to be stronger than pretty much any infantry weapon humanity fields today. Well, standard infantry weapons. Be a bit unfair to compare what's essentially a souped-up gun to an explosive launcher, for example.
Plus, ME hardsuits are actual hazard suits on top of all that! EM hardening, radiation shielding, a bunch of environmental protection, and even a limited amount of resistance to hyper-lethal environments. I've got a lot of issues with the setting, but it's refreshing to see a sci-fi setting actually pay some respect to the ludicrous number of potential dangers in space.
Yeah... Even worse, I can see something like that happening today. Shiny tech means it's good, right? Who needs those ugly, expensive redundancies and backups? Besiiiiides, squishy meat is totally cheaper to replace than some circuitry! Eugh.
I can definitely see the utility in having high-tech solutions like that, but more spacefaring civilizations could really do with taking a page out of the Terrans' playbook. Build rugged and reliable if it's not going to be dirt cheap. I mean, honestly, if you're building a spacecraft and it can't survive a nuke or two... Is it really worth the material you spent on it?
- Location
- Indiana, US
Even non-suited ME crew members have some protection on-hand. In the Mass Effect 2 opening, Joker was apparently able to erect a kinetic barrier behind the cockpit to maintain a partial atmosphere which he supplemented with an emergency survival helmet.
As irritations go that's right up there with the all-too-common "we lost engine power, our orbit is now decaying and we're about to burn up". Implying that "standard orbit" is already deep in the upper atmosphere. have you considered using an orbit higher than about 100 miles?
At least the Original Series episode Space Seed implied it took a few hours after Khan cut the bridge's life support for them to start having problems. I'd still have some oxygen candles and battery-powered CO2 scrubbers (take a disposable filter cartridge like what Apollo used and slap a fan, battery, and hand-crank generator on it) on hand.
Hiigarans know what element zero is - they've encountered deposits of it in dark space while traversing galaxies. Short version: they're convinced that you have to be insane to use the stuff the way the Citadel races do, and exactly why will come up eventually.
As to whether or not they've made use of it?
See, I know that you are using that image to reference yourself, the author, as that is referencing tour profile picture.
But now you've got me shuddering in horror at the mental image of Desty Nova getting his hands on eezo...!!!!
bobnik
Memetic Warfare Specialist.
I've often wondered if the problem with losing life support on Star Trek ships is heat. After all, they've got plasma conduits running everywhere as their primary power distribution system (which is why the consoles keep exploding, IMO)
Now I'm just imagining the Migrant Fleet showing up.
"Can we join up with you guys?"
"Depends. Lost your Homeworld?"
"Yep. Overrun by horrible AI things."
"Okay. Here's a starter ship with a resourcer, and you can have that chunk of moon over there. We expect you not to be using eezo tech next week."
Now I'm just imagining the Migrant Fleet showing up.
"Can we join up with you guys?"
"Depends. Lost your Homeworld?"
"Yep. Overrun by horrible AI things."
"Okay. Here's a starter ship with a resourcer, and you can have that chunk of moon over there. We expect you not to be using eezo tech next week."
- Pronouns
- She
While I'm uncertain if they'd actually get along, or how they'd react to the whole Geth thing...
I really, really want this to happen now. Proud Parent Homeworlders watching their adopted Quarian children fumble about in their newfound planet-eating munchkinnery and the adorable little renovations/upgrades they'd do to the migrant fleet.
Might be some good material for a subplot or a side story, tbph. Little drama romcom or something? That, or an exceptionally silly shipgirl omake.
Actually, shoot, now I'm getting a terrible yet wonderful idea for a comedic short: A Somtaaw, a Quarian, and a Krogan get together on the same ship. The entire galaxy trembles in fear.
RavenWolffe77
The Marauder series is the best BattleMech.
- Location
- Deep Periphery, A Long Way From The Inner Sphere
I'm guessing an Incompatible Systems-esque scenario where "Eezo + [Insert Common Crossover Tech Here] = super huge explosion"?
Because with how Eezo is explicitly stated to work, it wouldn't be difficult for someone from outside of the Citadel Races' poisoned/booby-trapped worldview to realize you could make a really, really, really powerful bomb out of the stuff...
EDIT:
Wait, Ion Cannons are a thing. Yeah, Eezo is a... hilariously bad idea for a species that makes excessive use of EM-based weapons;
Ion Cannon round touches-off the target ship's Eezo? Said ship is now a smear across several AU after trying to jump itself to FTL in several different directions.
The magnetic bottles that make Plasma weapons a thing? Kinetic Barriers go kaboom.
I can't even imagine the bullshit Eezo would do when inside a Hyperspace field, not to mention the jump-calculation hell it would cause from fucking with gravity.
Also, Eezo-based FTL and Sublight propulsion doesn't scale up, like... at all. Whirlpool builds big, so the required amount of Eezo and the power to throw through it would totally prohibitive.
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Suggested punchline: Of that triumvirate, the KROGAN is the voice of reason
Geas
Meat Thing
Suggested punchline: Of that triumvirate, the KROGAN is the voice of reason
The funny thing is, I think you're more right than you might realize.
The Krogan would be the Old Man/Dad of the group, more fond of percussive maintenance than most people are comfortable with, with a really weird knack for jury-rigging things with a much higher success rate than he should, that could be attributed to the fat that he's been doing his thing for literally centuries.
The plucky young Quarian on pilgrimage, who is constantly on the edge of horror about the old Krogan's idea of maintenance and his ideas of proper sanitation (and his reliance on duct tape). Smart as a whip, but he always manages to surprise her when some bizarre fix of his always seems to work.
The Somtaaw find himself being the one always having to break up the arguments, when he's not arguing with the Quarian himself about her always borrowing his tools and never putting them back where she got them from, or when they argue over just how to fix something, not realizing that the Krogan is already pulling out his duct tape and starting yet another jury-rig. He'd always get annoyed by the Quarian blatantly always trying to weasel Somtaaw/Hiigaran tech out of him.
Might be some billigerent sexual tension between the Somtaaw and the Quarian for added laughs/drama, with the Krogan definitely not helping by sharing sharing all of the little tricks that this one Quarian prostitute he once knew used to keep herself hearty and healthy 'back when you runts first started gettin' that real nasty asthma,' as he'd so eloquently put it.
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Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
If the Krogans get cured of the Genophage, them with PDA construction technology would be a match made in heaven.
Besides mass cloning, Krogan reproduction is one of the few ways to be capable of crewing all the ships Homeworld tech can pump out.
Then again, the same crazy combo would happen if the Geth got a hold of Homeworld construction tech.
Besides mass cloning, Krogan reproduction is one of the few ways to be capable of crewing all the ships Homeworld tech can pump out.
Then again, the same crazy combo would happen if the Geth got a hold of Homeworld construction tech.
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Arimai
Curmudgeon
Geth using the more powerful and capable human computers would be a game changer for them.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
If transporters were short ranged, there'd be a reason to get that close. But they're not - standard issue units, even on shuttlecraft, have a 40,000 kilometer range.
That's an unlikely point of contention. While some Quarians might be sticky-fingered while out on Pilgrimage, any Quarian that careless with tools on their own ship wouldn't be allowed to go on their Pilgrimage - they'd be under close watch in the Fleet as a danger to everyone around them, considered too immature to be out on their own.
- Location
- United States
I'm sort of concerned about what is going to happen when the Exodus Fleet meets the Quarians for the fiest time.
"Oh, you're also a fleet of displaced peoples who've been booted off their Homeworld? Give us 5 minutes to warm the Ion Cannons and lock in the hyperspace coordinates and we'll see about fixing that."
"Oh, you're also a fleet of displaced peoples who've been booted off their Homeworld? Give us 5 minutes to warm the Ion Cannons and lock in the hyperspace coordinates and we'll see about fixing that."
Geas
Meat Thing
I should clarify - she never puts his tools back exactly where she got them from. Not by his standards, anyways.
He freaks if his tools are even just the slightest centimeter out of place because his OCD is that bad.
- Location
- Frozen Winterland
I can't see that turning out well. At their cores, Somtaaw have been, for centuries, Miners; having everything perfectly aligned is just not feasible, but 'Every tool in its place and every place has its tool' would be a practical ethos.
So, her yoinking a 10mm box wrench wouldn't annoy too much, but her plunking it in the 14mm slot because she needed the larger wrench? That'd grind his gears harder than a Siddim blathering on about how they were the only 'true' Kiith.
So, her yoinking a 10mm box wrench wouldn't annoy too much, but her plunking it in the 14mm slot because she needed the larger wrench? That'd grind his gears harder than a Siddim blathering on about how they were the only 'true' Kiith.
- Location
- Northish
It might be more of a molecular scale blender. Consider that element zero increases and decreases mass in proportion to charge and an ion beam with have widely opposing charges at high intensity. When hit the eezo core should flicker between crushing gravity and repulsion incredibly rapidly and with incredible intensity. A solid hit would reduce the ship in question to a rapidly expanding cloud of molten fragments backlit by the anti-matter stores exploding.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Of course we've already seen eezo-based ships hit by ion cannons in-story so Geas is obviously not including that bit of physics.
Of course they still carve open ME ships like somebody taking a plasma torch to tin foil so there isn't really a need on the meta level to make them any worse.
- Location
- Northish
I mean those hits were not to the eezo core so their is still hope we get to see a dreadnought ripped apart molecule by molecule.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Don't ME ships (and a good chunk of all their equipment) use eezo like, everywhere and in everything?I mean those hits were not to the eezo core so their is still hope we get to see a dreadnought ripped apart molecule by molecule.
Hecatonchires
Just an H-class cyborg with an octopus brain stem
- Location
- The Gong, NSW, Australia
Death by snu-snu is an option…
- Location
- Northish
The main concentration should be in the eezo core, with smaller amounts in the guns and engines. You shouldn't have any needed in areas like computer banks, general crew areas, life support, or most duty stations. Its not in the plating or superstructure though it is used in the manufacturing process.
- Location
- United States
And now I have this mental image of a shipyard casting the entire superstructure of a ship using a complex array of mass effect fields as a mold.