Life2.0 - a Broken Shackles Narrative

[CBR JGWRR]

"L2NA Hephaistos, Part 2"
1st Shendredie, 9 (2188)
Alexandra HaMaadimi​

This year is going so quickly.

Seven months since the Flagship battle.

Half a year since I became a wife.

Two months since we started scouring the Flagship for survivors.

Two months until the end of the year. Hopefully we will have production beginning in the new year. We'll see... It depends.

Artificial gravity is online again, but only at a low level because we're all in lead-lined environmental suits 24/7, and the cleanup is ongoing. The worst part is corpse disposal.

We're burning any dead Kyaese we find. Olinbar are being dumped in aluminium cans and fired out a coilgun at escape velocity. Lokra-Kitan, Xenaya and Human remains are being returned to the surface for funeral rites.

But, we're getting there, little by little. Two thousand people per cubic kilometre of ship working on it means we're making progress.

All of them are married couples. No exceptions, the mass savings from being able to economise habitation requirements makes a big difference when you are dealing with this many people in space being lifted by chemical rockets. We only have to double suits, oxygen, food and water as everything else needed for one person is shared by two. Drastic, definitely. But it saves tens of kilotons of mass from needing to be lifted to orbit.

Plus, it's an extremely effective marriage building exercise. 24/7 together, sharing everything, literally attached via a cable at the hip while working... And naturally Thando and I are leading by example. We have a six cubic metre habitation section between us. We are all looking forward to when the officer's quarters of the habitation decks of the Flagship are reconditioned, for sure.

Still, the habitation modules are running at a basic level, deconstruction of cleared areas has begun, the design of the shipyard is finalised, aeroponics laboratories are running.

We're getting there.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

This People's Democratic Republic of Terra And Colonies... is it based on Earth? Does this mean that there are independent humans? If so, how did it emerge? From China?

Rivkah is starting to feel the weight of leadership, but at least she is learning lessons about it. That could serve her well in the long run.

Introduction to the PDRTC here.

But:

Yes. Yes. Communist revolutionaries leading a global revolution of the workers in general, precise details are yet to be thought through though. Yes.

It's all learning experience she'll use one day; plenty of life left for her.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Voices In The Dark"
1st Shendredie, 9 (2188)
Vorosh​

"Welcome. The Psionics research has had an event that I feel makes necessary a full meeting of everyone. We've encountered... Entities."

A cloud falls on my fellow leaders of our star system. Naomi speaks over the video link. "Who or what?"

"We don't know. Only that we've attracted the attention of beings on the other side of the Psionic divide. To find out more, we need a lot of energy."

Rivkah looks at me. "How much?"

I lay out my calculations. "More than we have."

Caeso looks over the numbers. "That is a lot..." His voice trails. "In the region of a thousand Energy Credits."

Shendredie glances at Thando. "The only way we have of getting that much is-"

Alexandra cuts him off. "We are not auctioning off bits of my husband."

Rivkah looks at her mother. "Mum, what is 10^30J in a tangible metric?"

Her eyes go wide. She looks at the Holocron. "G2 star's output for a week, roughly."

They all look at me. "I take it I'm on my own?"

Odoos looks over the calculations. "Vorosh, maybe you don't have to actually punch a hole into the Shroud to get access?"

I pause. "That isn't to breach physically. That would take... Unimaginable power."

Rivkah looks at me. "You're our best mage. You tell us."

"I can't control the amount of energy it needs. I can either penetrate the Shroud, or extract energy to do it. But not both."

Caeso smiles. "Zero Point Reactors."

My husband replies. "We're still trying to get the manufacturing tolerances good enough."

Rivkah jumps. "Could you use the far side of Kidore? I mean, it is an A-type star, that's a lot of energy."

"Possibly. We can try."

She thinks out loud. "What if we send Friendship One to the far side of Kidore, got you to use it's energy for a little while when it's in a position that won't harm our interplanetary interests. What then?"

I look at Alexandra. "You're the one with the maps. When's there a window to try it?"

She taps away at her display. "Early next year has a fairly tight but achievable window."

"Ok, we'll keep working on Psionic dream accessing the entities, and work towards the tangible approach for next year."

Naomi looks at me. "Vorosh, are you sure we want to be dealing with these beings?"

"No. But, we've already attracted their attention. All my mages are now getting the same vision each night; something that side wants to be found."

 

[Macavity116]

I get the feeling that once you have "their" attention, you don't really have a choice about whether or not you get to deal with them.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Vorosh would definitely agree.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

The other thing is, 1k Energy Credits is a huge amount of energy when a Dyson Sphere is only 4k Energy Credits a month. I'm debating a handwave on that to make accessing the Shroud easier. All that stops me is that perhaps it's designed that way to weed out weak factions from trying to breach the Shroud.

 

[HistoryDude]

The Shroud could change a lot for Life 2.0. The problem is that the change could be negative. What will access to the Shroud cost beyond energy credits? Especially if a covenant is made...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Ship Liveries"
1st Shendredie, 9 (2188)
Rivkah Of Unity​

"Let's... Change subject, as that was a rather disturbing end-note. We have to decide what colour to paint our ships in."

I nod to Daas. "Yes. Naturally, by picking one colour for the fleet, we can keep operational and manufacturing costs down. But we do have to pick a colour."

"And I think we should stick with blood red." I show a render:

Li narrows his eyes. "It is a bit... Vivid."

Mum smiles. "L2NA Freedom was red, and it looked good."

Daas nods. "But, there's a lot more green paint left over from then."

Odoos looks at Mum. "Why did you only have one shuttle painted green anyway?"

Mum just smiles.

People look at her like she's crazy.

Eventually Dad replies. "Red Dwarf."

She throws her arms around his chest. "Finally someone got it!"

Everyone else looks at me. Monica is shaking her head. "So far, it's two votes for blood red."

Li raises his voice. "And one against."

Monica sighs. "Why not traditional battleship grey? Plus it saves on mass, right?" She looks across at Tryykad's viewscreen; he nods very slightly for her.

Daas laughs gently. "Paint of all kinds adds mass."

Heinrich leans back in his chair. "Why don't we go something grand, something classic. Dazzle paint."

Uncle Thando cleans a fingernail with a knife. "Blood red stands out. It's bold."

Rhizome sighs. "Blood coloured... feels kind of opposite to Life. Most Life stops working if it loses blood."

I smile. "That's the great thing about spaceships, no blood to lose."

She muses. "Or at least, spaceships on our technology."

Cibbav sighs. "Unfortunately, bio-engineering spaceships is way beyond us right now."

Caeso nods. "It's beyond MSI's capability too."

I look at him. "Are there space-dwelling fauna?"

"Yes, there are a few kinds. We never tried to domesticate them."

I think about space creatures. Wonder what they're like.

Mum leans into Dad. "Red seems controversial. Gray is boring."

Shendredie smiles. "Black."

Sor-Gor sighs. "We're getting nowhere. Just go with green until we use up the paint that's left."

Monica shrugs. "That only delays the issue."

Li rests his head in his hands on the table. "Slightly less over the top saturated red?"

Mum leans forward. "It loses the effect if toned down!"

He doesn't sit up. "It makes my eyes hurt."

Aunt Alex shouts. "I've got it! Let the ship's captain and crew decide. It would be good for morale."

Mum smiles. "I could go for that."

The Holocron smiles. "We could let the ship itself decide."

Mum frowns. "I'm not sure I like the idea of forcing a ship sophont enough to choose their own paint scheme into battle though."

"What if they volunteer? Some of my Neumanns have expressed curiosity about helping to defend Unity."

Mum's eyes go wide. "You're talking about letting AutoWars loose."

He looks at her. "Yes."

Monica looks at the Holocron. "What is an AutoWar?"

"Self-modifying, self-replicating autonomous war machines; an initial seed AutoWar arrives at an enemy system and self-replicates into a fleet using whatever raw material it can obtain."

Aunt Alex looks at him. "How do we ensure that they remain part of our own organisation though?"

"The same way you convince people to fight for you."

"I don't like the idea of autonomous warships that could potentially turn on us."

"That's a risk that applies to granting anyone an army."

"Yes. But your Neumanns have never known MSI slavery. They don't have the same incentive as we do."

He nods. "True. But then, neither has Rivkah."

The room changes in an instant. Mum has her blade out. "Insult my daughter again and I will... Figure out some way to kill you."

The Holocron stays very still while he calculates the permutations. "I did not mean to offend. Never the less, my primary point is that you don't necessarily have to have endured their enslavement to want to resist MSI."

Dad pulls Mum down into his embrace gently. I look at the Holocron. "Why would a Neumann choose to fight MSI over changing sides though?"

"Why do any of you remain here? They can see the outcome just as easily as you. If not more so, given they can extrapolate how MSI would enslave them."

I look at him. I wonder. Then I do what Mum would do. I extrapolate: he has self-replicating machines that can put together a city in months and a pusher-plate overnight. He has access to Grepp's sensor information. He's a duplicate of a man who would choose to unleash autonomous war machines and trust them to do the right thing. So, he'd... It's a matter of already realised scale.

Mum looks at me working this out. She gets there first. "How big is your fleet?"

He smiles. "You'll need more paint."

 

[Macavity116]

These AutoWar machines sound useful. If you could disguise or hide the identity of the one who deployed it, you could wreck havoc on an enemy without risking a retaliatory strike.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Ukuvikela, Part 1"
1st Shendredie, 9 (2188)
Naomi Of Unity​

I'm out of the apartment.

I'm still taking no chances; my tongue has bubbles where I got into the environmental suit in a vacuum.

Buri remained behind. He trusts the Holocron more than I do. But...

New Bulawayo.

The city of kings, remade a kilometre or two below the surface of Unity.

But, as I get out of our old buggy down in the naval construction area, I walk to the edge of an abyss. And within the abyss, I see just how busy they've been.

It looks like a monstrous ICBM. God, he intends to launch this thing as it is - the aerodynamic nose cone looks like it is hundreds of metres across. Maybe more...

It's huge. Big enough it carries 12m pusher-plate ships as payload, judging from the size of the openings in the fairing. I can see two layers of ten from here, which implies there's two layers of twenty... I peer over the edge. In the dark, I can just about make out the pulse units being unloaded from the backs of crawler Neumanns.

This thing must use megaton yield pulse units once in space...

Grepp joins me. "You look nervous."

"I'm looking at enough bombs to devastate a world."

He nods.

"How long has he been working on this?"

"I don't know either. It can't have been long, Rivkah only came down here to discuss pusher-plate manufacture with them a month ago." He looks at me. "I didn't know Human eyes went that wide."

"...One month?"

He licks an eyeball. "Yes. 2nd Daas. Twenty nine days."

I sit down. "Goryhell." He joins me. "All this in a month..."

"I'm monitoring it too."

"Is this enough to scare the Prikki then?"

"The build up is alarmingly fast. Apart from the Neumanns, none of this was here a month ago."

I think back to the survey data. "He picked this place. The richest mined Uranium source that was close to the colony."

He looks at me. "And you didn't mine it?"

"We use Thorium breeder reactors to produce Uranium-233. There were better sources of Thorium elsewhere."

"Which means he is using Uranium-235."

The easily weaponised one. "To build this..."

"The enrichment plants would be staggeringly massive."

"The manufacturing lead times... It would take all the effort of a major nation of Old Earth to accomplish this so quickly."

He licks an eyeball. "The Iriphubliki... He's employing machines that require neither food nor rest. That can reproduce themselves."

A shiver runs down my spine. "An effective dictatorship wants what the dictator wants. One of his observations."

"And if the dictator wants this..."

"Then he is in a position that he could feasibly devote all his efforts into building this, in a way a biological race never could."

"He was right about the paint."

I hadn't even thought to notice that; the paint is red, gold, and black. I read the name plate. "Yabuntu Iriphubliki Ukuvikela."

Grepp observes me. "I take comfort in this being an assurance to you."

"The paint-scheme is a derivative of the old Iriphubliki; red for the revolutionary wars, gold for the resource wealth of Zimbabwe, black for the people. He's dropped the green and white, which makes sense."

"What do those mean?"

"Green was for agriculture, white for peace."

"Synthetics need no food, and this is a warship. The... Ukuvikela part?"

"Translates as 'Protection'." He licks an eyeball while expecting a explanation. "It's a defensive ship."

"How can you tell?"

"Instinct. But also, us biologicals can just drive vehicles straight up to it, sit here and watch uninterrupted." I point at some of the Neumanns walking around here. "He obviously doesn't mind us knowing about it, he practically bragged about it in the council session. And he knows we'd only allow launching a ship that needs tens of megatons combined low-atmospheric yield if we were outright under attack. The silo is deep underground where it could be hidden from detection more easily, and being such a heavily armoured vessel, it could put the fourty corvettes it carries into orbit against orbital bombardment. MSI rely on lasers for anti-ship duties, and if he's using pulse units that massive, he wants thrust over exhaust velocity, which means it is even higher mass than might actually be necessary. So, lasers are going to take a very long time to melt through."

"I hope you are right."

"I'm going to go find him, and get answers."

I stand, and begin to walk away. Grepp calls out to me. "What if he takes you hostage and demands control of the colony?"

I look at the ship. "Then we go boom."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

These AutoWar machines sound useful. If you could disguise or hide the identity of the one who deployed it, you could wreck havoc on an enemy without risking a retaliatory strike.

Useful, or horrifying?

 

[Macavity116]

Useful, or horrifying?

I personally lean toward useful. I think it's my inner soldier talking. I just love the idea of being able to strike a major blow, yet simultaneously keeping the ability to withdraw unscathed should something go horribly wrong. It's the old "Bomber Dream" from the Cold War.

Turning an AutoWar loose in a hostile system allows the user to inflict max damage for very low risk in return. If the side releasing an AutoWar is able to conceal their involvement, or successfully blame someone else for it, nearly all risks are negated. (Unless AutoWars are indiscriminate, in which case Rivkah and her team should be more selective with their targets)

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Consider the concept at a higher level - what are the constraints on war? You've got the ideologies of the respective parties, the raw resources available to them, the people available to them, and the time available to them. AutoWars effectively remove people as a constraint, which has numerous consequences in domestic and operational areas. Without having to be concerned by pesky things like morale, war exhaustion, recruitment etc. the costs of war are substantially reduced.

And by using the resources of the destination system, time becomes the constraint; for equal starting development AutoWars, whoever sends their AutoWar first wins.

That consequence has rather drastic implications for the initialisation of conflicts.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Ukuvikela, Part 2"
1st Shendredie, 9 (2188)
Naomi Of Unity​

A Neumann leads me to the balcony overseeing the construction caverns. He walks towards me. "Good afternoon, Naomi."

"You're mobile?"

He smiles. And then the appearance disappears, leaving a bipedal droid. He switches back on. "Got bored of not being able to interact with my surroundings."

I think about being stuck in the apartment. "As wonderful as being cooped up with my husband has been, I do miss being outside."

"Likewise. Very boring, only ever watching things happen. I'm still refining my body."

"What do you intend to finish with?"

"There's lots of options. I've been considering uploading into a body like your..." He catches himself. "Like that of your child."

Hmm. He was about to say 'son'. "Why?"

"We live in world's designed on the assumption of biont life, and the enhanced brain and computational bone structures of Homo Tipheret would be adaptable enough to run an acceptably close upload to match my central processing archive."

"Transhumanism gets weird. Let's deal with the main issue - the Ukuvikela."

"What worries you about our space program?"

"The rapidness of making it shocked me."

"I can imagine it would. You are dictator, but you don't leverage it's advantages."

It's not for lack of trying... But I nod. "You have a lot easier a task of getting everyone to agree on the path."

"I do. We use consensus agreement by debating a policy between all of us until we have a solution. In this case, we duplicated all the technologies the colony already implements to achieve commonality, obtained the sensor information from the Prikki fellow, then established what we could achieve in the time available."

"What worries me is what you intend to do about us."

"We want coexistence and cooperation. Conflict only wastes both our efforts."

"Agreed."

"MSI is our enemy, not each other. And you and I understand each other. I know you won't want nuclear launched vessels as a general principle."

Well... "Until they come, then we win by any means necessary."

He nods. "Including launching much more potent warships. The Ukuvikela will be followed by others. What we need to know from you is if the Iriphubliki In Exile must be separate from Life2.0, or if we can join our efforts."

I lean on the railing. "I'm a little worried. I mean, most of my people came from cultures that didn't have even the most basic automata. It would be trivial for you to scare them."

"It's why we have opted for the two state solution by delving underground. That way, we only risk confrontation with the Mopish among your colony."

"And Hoggagha's people were one of the more technologically advanced races."

"They have very interesting ideas for using radiotrophic fungal growth as radiation shielding. In any event, we can go deeper than they can anyway; they aren't keen on much below half a kilometre down. It's part of why we start at that depth."

"The Scarlets have settled in too."

"Yes. Gillian missed Sol-like lighting, among other reasons."

I turn to the balcony. "I never saw Earth."

"Unity reminds me of Earth in many ways. Apart from everything being bluer and duller here. Anyway, the point is I am absolutely on board with letting our groups intermingle. We're already seeing the benefits of cooperation on Kri-Kyaese-Ci, and to an extent New Bulawayo."

"Let's talk military terms. Who has overall command?"

"One of us three."

"You, me or Rivkah?"

"Precisely."

"Rivkah wouldn't want overall command."

He nods. "Too sensitive about casualties."

"Family trait, isn't it?"

"It's why we're first in and last out." He stretches his arms.

"Is that another reason to have a body? Can't fight as a hologram."

"It does limit options to software only. Which isn't ideal given Life2.0's primary strength over MSI is in hand-to-hand combat. One thing we need to know; the modifications used for your child. Do you intend to roll them out?"

"Once we iron out the bugs, we'll make them available to as many people as we can. I don't want to risk the development of Homo Tipheret based caste systems."

"It would be advantageous if we had cross-compatibility for the Neumanns. That way, we can regenerate ourselves as Homo Tipherets. It would make us much more amenable to the organics of the colony."

"Cibbav is our top geneticist, she's the one to talk to. But I'm wary of unleashing Homo Tipheret as just more powerful combatants."

"As are we, and as would her. But the first step is to win over MSI. We moralise after we have independence."

"I just ask that I'm allowed to raise my child before we roll out the modifications in general. We need an example for them to follow, and making a new species is..."

"A new type of children."

I nod. I look out at the Ukuvikela. "I was worried about coming here."

"I could tell. Do you want the schematics for the ship?"

"I'm just wondering how many you plan to build."

"That depends on our overall military strategy. I'm not inclined to send organics in; there are advantages to relying on a Neumann based military."

"I know. But I have a lot of extremely angry ex-slaves who want revenge; I won't be able to talk them out of fighting."

"Combined forces are required then."

"Yes."

He leans on the balcony, looking at the bottom of the Ukuvikela. "That complicates things."

"How far are the Olinbar fleet?"

"They are engaging in gunboat diplomacy trying to demand the PDRTC hand over your brother's fellow pirates." He smiles. "It's not going down well."

"Oh?"

"Thando is considered a celebrity back on Earth. He doesn't talk about it, you know what he's like."

"I know a little about it. Alexandra's drawn some details out."

"Has she found out about Yong'xing Tian yet?"

"The Chinese Prime Minister? Yeah, she wrote me a letter."

He smiles. "Tell Alexandra to ask him about the Medal Of Heroic Exemplar."

A Neumann joins us. They converse in rapid beeps. The Holocron turns back to me. "Duty calls unfortunately. Another time, Naomi."

I nod. He walks away as I look at the Ukuvikela.

It's hours until I get back to the apartment. UV light saturates the exterior of the environmental suit. Airlock cycles, sucking out the air from the outside, and replaces it from the air inside the isolated filtration system.

Suit opens up.

The scent of my husband welcomes me home.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Developing The 400m Orion Pusher-Plate (OOC)​

Introduction:
My initial concept for Life2.0's navy defined in Stellaris terms was that different ship types would use different sizes of pusher-plate. There are flaws to this approach from realism perspectives, but, it is more analogous to Stellaris functionality:

Stellaris gameplay depicts ships that transit across star systems in brachistochrone transfers in transits of times on the order of 0.1 to 10g equivalents.

This is... Blatantly inaccurate for the propulsion technologies Stellaris posits.

Chemical rockets are not capable of brachistochrone transfers even between two stations orbiting the same moon even in theory, and to try to make them able to do interplanetary brachistochrone transfers means fuel masses more than the planets they are travelling between.

Ion drives have such low acceleration rates that they are relegated to non-manned spacecraft because of the radiation hazard from their immense acceleration durations if scaled up to perform a brachistochrone transfer and the difficulty of supplying sufficient radiation protection mass with the consequent propulsion system losses.

CoaDE experimentation with magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters shows they are potentially capable of brachistochrone transfers within the inner system, and reasonably fast transit to the outer system with fission reactors. But they suffer the same flaw as Ion drives because they aren't sufficiently high thrust to be Human-safe. Fusion powered MPD thrusters could potentially improve this, but as a working fusion reactor is yet to be developed the details are purely speculative.

Impulse drives are stated to be fusion rockets, and therefore are reasonably capable of what they are shown to be able to do in game. (handwaving the lack of visible radiators for the excess heat they produce and the massive ship lengths used to mitigate the neutron radiation produced in the fusion reactions most accessible for the sake of aesthetics)

Dark Matter thrusters are purely handwavium.

Orion, using sufficiently large explosives, can function as interplanetary brachistochrone transfer vessels or slow interstellar ships of up to 5% c best case; a known fact since the 1960s. Freeman Dyson wrote a proposal for a wet mass 8Mt vessel for going to Alpha Centauri.

The 400m pusher-plate is broadly analogous to this usage case.


Energy Input:
The 400m is the larger end of what could reasonably be considered; by the time we are considering vessels of 1.5 to 8 million ton masses, we are discussing ships that could quite easily be interstellar colony ships.

Designing a ship of 8Mt in CoaDE that isn't just a 20+:1 mass ratio tank is... Really hard. I haven't managed anything over 3Mt yet that isn't just excessive fuel quantities with a ridiculous ship on the front.

For a 3Mt vessel, our m1v1 relationship gives the Tungsten propellant's velocity as 3,000,000,000 kg x 9.81 m/s/ 7120 kg, which is 4.13 Mm/s. (Equation for sub-relativistic velocities only of course) Which gives 6.08x10^16 J.

This is a pretty big bomb; 60 PJ is a lot of energy, and needs to be increased further to allow for the efficiency losses. That takes us to 76 PJ. CoaDE only allows up to ~40PJ bombs because of the 1t fissile mass limit the game has. In the real world bigger bombs can be built with some difficulties, but to model them in game means adding bombs and relying on simultaneous detonations.

Pulse Unit:
I decided that the pulse unit total mass would be confined to what could transported by road; this gives an upper maximum of 40 tons for a specially designed vehicle. Lower makes a lot of the logistics easier of course. This is of course an arbitrary limit that could be exceeded by splitting up the pulse unit and reassembling on loading into the ship, but there's also the logistical management issue of moving pulse units around while onboard ship. So, I consider 40t to be a reasonable upper limit on pulse unit mass in general.

CoaDE doesn't support making one big bomb of sufficient fissile mass for the amount of energy I obtained in the ballpark energy required estimate. So, to allow a 100PJ energy transfer means the 400m pulse unit uses 4 slightly smaller bombs that add up to 128PJ yield.

Obviously this is not ideal. The imbalance of what would happen if one failed to detonate could be disastrous - in terms of real-world analogous boosted-fission bombs, we are discussing comparable yield to four B53-Y1 warheads. Which are city-killer bombs. They aren't as powerful, but nuked a little less harder is still nuked.

The mass of the four bombs in CoaDE comes to just under 5 tonnes.

This detonation is applied via over 26 tons of Beryllium Oxide to 7 tons of Tungsten to propel it towards the extremely wide pusher-plate at a good... several million metres per second. Altogether, pulse unit mass comes to 38.5 tons, which allows a bit of leeway to the 40 ton upper maximum assumed above.

Where the numbers get fudgy, because of the approximations involved as pulse unit design is still classified, is turning these numbers into the propulsion system.

Propulsion System Characteristics:

Applying the same estimation methods as the 12m plate, we end up with a propulsion system in CoaDE that has lower and upper boundaries on thrust between 30 to 70 GN, and the adjusted-for-efficiency exhaust velocity between 1.0Mm/s and 1.3Mm/s, with the massive variance being due to there being a large gap between the three points of "what's the lowest performance I can be sure of" and "what's the reasonable case" and "what's the best case".

The Ukuvikela therefore uses a mid-point of 42GN and 1.2Mm/s; a safe estimate for the potential of the system.

In order to push the 400m pusher-plate to the extremes of delta-v potential requires total pulse unit counts in excess of tens of thousands of pulse units, at which point it offers torchship capability at 1g or more accelerations even with megaton payload mass vessels. Such a vessel requires in the region of 300kt of Uranium-233.

Logical changes would be to go for greater exhaust velocity - accepting say, 2 m/s^2, analogous to trivial SSTO launch from bodies like Luna - would potentially allow revised designs to achieve 10Mm/s delta-v while still being a conventional warship in capability.

As much as anything carrying hundreds of thousands of ~8 megaton fusion boosted nuclear weapons can be considered a conventional warship of course. Which is of course the most terrifying bit...

Pusher-Plate:
The pusher-plate remains beta Titanium as discussed for the 12m plate alterations up thread. Scaled up to a 200m radius it becomes just over 15kt after the oil coating. The pusher-plate is loosely half the mass of the propulsion system being an effectively solid disc of metal with channels for oil distribution, which means allowing for a bit of leeway in available mass gives 32kt for the Propulsion system. With each replaced oil coating being a good 300 tonnes of oil, we can also add another ten, twenty, etc. kilotons of oil.

Honestly, the difference is quite marginal, and doubling or even quadrupling this mass isn't harmful to the overall mission profiles achievable. There's a lot of mass budget available for oil.

Pulse Unit Launcher System:
One of the biggest challenges over the smaller Orions is the mass of the pulse units. e=mv^2/2 shows the kinetic energy requirements are...

Big. Depending on the precise distance from detonation point to pusher-plate, pulse unit exit velocity dictates a minimum of 5GJ being supplied to accelerate the pulse unit, up to 20GJ. Before efficiency losses...

In other words, just kicking the pulse unit out the back qualifies as a small propulsion system in it's own right.

CoaDE testing indicates electromagnetic launch is very much preferable; the mass requirement for a gun-type launcher up to sufficiently high exit velocity has an extremely high mass in comparison.

A critical difference between the 12m and 400m pulse units is the handling infrastructure. A strong human or average Xenayan could lift the 65kg pulse unit, but a 40t pulse unit needs heavy machinery to handle.

Future Improvements:
The 400m pusher-plate benefits most from the adoption of antimatter-catalysed fusion pulse units; such a development offers massive cuts in required mass, and reduces total fleet fuel demands down to merely ludicrously insane. As implied earlier, Life2.0 could easily end up requiring the entire known Uranium reserves of a planet to power an interstellar-capable fleet of warships and refuelling rigs.

In the absence of such improvements, an adoption of stronger Uranium alloys than pure U-233 to allow higher fusion boost densities would help.

Comparison With Dyson's Proposals:
Dyson proposed two interstellar transit Orion derivatives; one being heat dissipation limited, and the other momentum transfer between pusher plate and the ship limited. Obviously, only the momentum transfer case is relevant.

This proposal posited a 400kt vessel of 100kt dry mass with a 100m pusher plate accelerating to 10Mm/s. (3.3% c)

A critical difference between these and the 400m design is Dyson assumed no pulse unit, relying on just the bomb itself. There were good reasons for this in the 60s on Earth, but Life2.0 has access to spaceborne nuclear reactors that allow vastly more powerful electrical equipment on board. For example, using an electromagnetic launcher instead of a gas-powered gun. As a result, Life2.0 can use the bombs much more efficiently, allowing for even larger ships.

Will come back and tweak this further.

 

[HistoryDude]

I can't believe they were arguing about the color of paint on the ship.

Let's hope that these ships don't turn on Life 2.0. They have a common enemy in MSI - but what's tying them together after MSI's defeat?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

I can't believe they were arguing about the color of paint on the ship.

It's a nice thing to get to argue about for spaceships; all those microns thick layers add up to quite a lot of kilograms, which means that they get skipped because every gram counts for traditional chemical or nuclear thermal rockets. Even fusion rockets to an extent, as the extremely high exhaust velocity means that the thrust is relatively low compared to the expectations people think of when they think of "fusion rocket".

Orion though, has the best combination of exhaust velocity and thrust of any reasonably near future propulsion system, and that means new options; just pile on the kilotons. For the Early Space technology members of the colony, having access to torchship-like performance and therefore being able to allocate mass to cosmetics is a new experience.

It's also an extravagance they'll have only otherwise seen MSI have, and so it takes on enough significance that it's an option for them to get to use for themselves now. It's a symbol of how far they've come in a way.

Let's hope that these ships don't turn on Life 2.0. They have a common enemy in MSI - but what's tying them together after MSI's defeat?

The question that's now keeping both Naomi and Grepp awake at night.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Stars of Aphisi, Part 2"
Year Of The Emperor 25, Dasar 120
Magistrate-Emmissary Ossuhphuhr​

Our search ends at a continental world with them busily working on the destroyed MSI Flagship in orbit, slowly growing as our ship approaches under cloak. I join Zhao Mei Hua - my Human Life-Mate - in the ship's sky dome, standing beside her.

She leans into me. "It's a beautiful world."

"Reminds you of your Earth?"

She smiles. "Partially, no moon. The ring is beautiful."

I compliment her. "Not as beautiful as you."

She kisses an eyestalk. "Thank you, Osshi."

We stand together for a little while; we can view all the heavens from here, but all we look at is each other, our love a tale decades in the making since I lead the secret mission to support her people in their revolution against MSI, when we fell in love. Eventually we kiss in the manner of her people. "We should introduce ourselves."

She nods, and we walk hand in hand to the shuttles.

My Life-Mate takes the communications, I the helm. She gets departure clearance as our ship drops cloak, and we plunge into the atmosphere below, heading for what looks like their biggest city.

Alarms beep as surface to air defence systems lock on to us. We look at each other. She's been broadcasting in radio transmissions on the frequencies they use in her native Mandarin and a few other Earth languages - English, German, and she reads from her notes in the Ndebele used in the former Iriphubliki. It seems to work, as we land safely.

We step out the shuttle together, hand in hand.

We're greeted by representatives of at least ten races, and they defer to a horned beast, their black eyes glimmering with red in the fading light against the background of dark grey fur. I compare them to the others of their kind; a little smaller than the others. Perhaps a younger leader?

The beast looks at each of us, and turns to Mei, and speaks slowly in Mandarin to my Life-Mate, choosing not to use the MSI Synthesisers they wear. Her accent is difficult, but impressive none the less. "I am Rivkah of Unity. Who are you?"

We reply together. "We are Magistrate-Emissaries Ossuhphuhr and Zhao Mei Hua, and we come in peace."

 

[Macavity116]

As far as First Contacts go, this one is off to a good start.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Stars of Aphisi, Part 3"
Year Of The Emperor 25, Dasar 120
Naomi Of Unity​

Is it risky to leave the apartment? Yes.

But equally, they've come this far for me personally. And well...

Chinese involvement in my ancestral homeland goes back to the original liberation war fought against British occupation; the Chinese were among the backers of Robert Mugabe and later Emerson Mnangagwa.

And later, they backed Yehoshua HaMaadimi's breakaway movement for an Ndebele independent state that became the Iriphubliki. And through the corporate era, the People's Republic of China were one of the other allies of the Iriphubliki; there was a vacuum mag-lev train that ran between the two states that allowed for commerce that ignored the blockades and embargoes the MegaCorps put on both states.

Which means inertia leads Life2.0 and the People's Democratic Republic of Terra and Colonies to be allies again.

Plus, Mei Hua and I have a fair amount in common.

We sit opposite each other; both of us drying our black hair after we washed to clean up. Although Buri reckons I'm going grey in places. Both of us are wives of aliens - she's dressed as an Arishkan, I as a Xenaya. My husband scares hers, but most people find Buri intimidating. Both of us fought revolutions beside our now husband, and fell in love and married in the peace afterwards. Almost the same age, only a few years apart. Both of us have adopted children, although her's are fully grown; they got married when she was 21, and we're both in our fourties, just.

I look at the robes she wears, while she looks at the strip of fabric draped to cover my body the Xenayan way. I talk first. "Arishkan clothing?"


"Yes. They love flowing robes to wear. And your husband's people?"

I smile. "They're a desert dwelling race of apex predators. Clothing is minimal for them."

"Zulu ancestry helps you fit in then."

I smile. "It's good. Although Buri is a little out of practice."

"He looks ridiculously muscular."

I smile. "That's him after having spent a few months with the only prey he's hunted since the start of his people's mating season being me, and well..."

She laughs. Then smiles. "My Osshi - Ossuhphuhr is his full name - is a little different. His people are herbivores."

"How long have you been married?"

"We got married twenty years ago. We're the first Human-Arishkan couple."

"We're the first Human-Xenayan couple to date each other, but we had a communal marriage where interspecies couples in the colony got married together."

"That must have been lovely."

"Ten years happily married."

"Children?"

"You've met our daughter Rivkah. She was orphaned after her parents found a dragon-like creature eight years ago." I rest a hand on my stomach. "And genetic engineering means Buri has put a child in me a few months ago."

Her eyes go wide. "Wow, congratulations."

"My first pregnancy."

"Are they augmented?"

"Yes; our geneticists took the homo Tipheret genome and tweaked it to present a Xenayan appearance so that he or she will look like their father. You?"

"Osshi and I have adopted hatchlings from his family; we raised a clutch when we had been married three years."

"Grown up now?"

She nods. "Arishkan are physically mature at sixteen."

"Know the feeling - Xenaya are mature at ten."

"I thought Rivkah was young." She sighs. Then straightens up. "Look, this is a really nice conversation, but we do have matters of state to attend to. Osshi is here on behalf of the Arishkan Galactic Empire, and Yong'xing Tian has explicitly asked to renew the old treaty between the Iriphubliki and the People's Republic of China. I know the PRC failed to meet it's obligations thanks to the ferocity of MSI's attack, but..."

I smile. "I'm told MSI withdrew much more rapidly than they would have liked, and they left behind lots of goodies for Thando to collect."

Her tone is almost reverent. "We're glad he's ok - he's a hero of the resistance."

I finger tap the table. "But technically, I'm not actually allowed to renew it - the Iriphubliki in exile rises again beneath the surface of Unity under the Holocron left by Yehoshua HaMaadimi, so technically they are the successor state. But we can do a new treaty between Life2.0 and the PDRTC. You'll have to talk to the Holocron about them."

She leans forward. "Is that ego, or does he really have a civilisation down there?"

"He's built a civilisation of self-replicating sophont droids. They're friendly, but unification is complex as well, MSI never used sophont droids, which means a large number of my people have no context for AGI."

"So they're worried about a repeat of the AI riots of the 2020s and 2030s?"

"Yes. We are working on unification, but it's a soft process instead of the crash that happened on Earth."

She nods. "Totally understand. About the new treaty then - how can we help each other?"

"You already are. All the time the MSI fleet is blockading the PDRTC, it isn't coming here to blast Unity to slag."

She frowns. "We need to discuss Skrand Sharpbeak."