Been thinking about some cool stuff pertaining to space warfare I thought was worth sharing.
Unlike other Scifi, basic technology doesn't change throughout the eras. The ancient world and modern world have, more or less, the same level of technology. But some differences do exist.
In the Ancient Galaxy, Resonance lasers were the mainstay of beam weaponry. They work essentially by carrying sonic energy and upon hitting something, will vibrate it so strongly that the atomic structure of whatever it hits basically collapses. The more powerful the laser, the more powerful atomic structures it can rupture. Essentially, you kill people in the same way one might topple a building made of bricks - just take out a gigantic chunk of brick.
Resonance lasers are best countered by just having more and more rigid material that it can't cope with. So during this time a ****-ton of advances were made in metallurgy to find the perfect alloy, the atoms of which could withstand being basically shook apart.
Eventually, armour won the arms race, and alternatives to resonance lasers were sought. The chemical laser was born. It's the more traditional type of laser - vaporization and melting. I think the idea behind lasers being hot is that photons passing through atoms makes them shake, and that's what temperature is. I'm no physicist though.
If that's the case, there are materials that do not react to photons in such a way. For example in solar panels we use silicon crystals and some kind of copper/iridium mixture. In this case the atoms don't start shaking when hit with photons, so they don't heat up. Instead they transfer electrons.
And so along with Ablative/anti-vaporization armour being developed, you can develop a defensive system that actually generates energy when hit by lasers. Of course these have limited effectiveness, especially the copper/iridium thing which is apparently less efficient at absorbing sunlight as energy than the silicon crystals are, for example. I imagine that means some of the energy does inevitably get lost to heat instead, so more powerful lasers could still melt through that **** if they need to.
A side-effect of the resonance to chemical laser transition is that space warfare was revolutionized.
Resonance lasers wouldn't work so well in space. This is simply because starships are miles-long hunks of layered laser-cladded metal which is not only perfectly sealed against the vacuum. Its pretty hard to make the atomic structures of these collapse. Essentially, resonance lasers lack penetration power.
So the Ancient Galaxy was largely full of ballistics-based space warfare. Ballistics weapons in space are fine so long as your enemy is also using ballistics. But once someone gets their hands on lasers, which are hands-down vastly superior weapons in space warfare as they achieve instantaneous effects - among other things - it's like using tempered steel longswords against some bronze stabby thing. No contest.
Chemical lasers were more effective in space warfare and so appeared everywhere. On the ground, ballistics weapons still held their own compared to beam weapons. Indeed its really a case of weighing the pros and cons.
But there are things more powerful than lasers, in space warfare specifically. Warp missiles. Probably the most OP thing ever. Something moving at FTL speed needs no explosive or melting power to **** **** up. Basically, rather than try to stop the inertia of a starship using the warp drives, a warp missile just keeps on going and slams itself into whatever's in front of it.
A pebble accelerated to these speeds would easily tear the miles-long starships in half, so a missile-sized one is capable of causing asteroid-level destruction on planets (but not outright destroy planets in most cases)
The main problem with warp missiles is that miniaturized warp drives are expensive; as one of that small size must use antimatter for fuel rather than the usual dark matter. As antimatter is still something that can only be created a few atoms at a time in a laboratory, this means that they are pretty extortionately expensive to mass-produce.
They can be countered. Blink Displacers and Tachyon Bolts. Blink Displacers, hooked up to a ships' weapons computer, basically use temporal mechanics to, essentially, see into the future a few seconds. This way, they can "see" where warp missiles will appear, and a Tachyon Bolt burst will go to where the missile "WILL" be. The missile will 'appear' there, the tachyon bolts phase through the differences in reality, and essentially this becomes quantum-level point defense.
I'm never researching physics again. Maybe I should get some consultant or something. This **** was cool though.
Unlike other Scifi, basic technology doesn't change throughout the eras. The ancient world and modern world have, more or less, the same level of technology. But some differences do exist.
In the Ancient Galaxy, Resonance lasers were the mainstay of beam weaponry. They work essentially by carrying sonic energy and upon hitting something, will vibrate it so strongly that the atomic structure of whatever it hits basically collapses. The more powerful the laser, the more powerful atomic structures it can rupture. Essentially, you kill people in the same way one might topple a building made of bricks - just take out a gigantic chunk of brick.
Resonance lasers are best countered by just having more and more rigid material that it can't cope with. So during this time a ****-ton of advances were made in metallurgy to find the perfect alloy, the atoms of which could withstand being basically shook apart.
Eventually, armour won the arms race, and alternatives to resonance lasers were sought. The chemical laser was born. It's the more traditional type of laser - vaporization and melting. I think the idea behind lasers being hot is that photons passing through atoms makes them shake, and that's what temperature is. I'm no physicist though.
If that's the case, there are materials that do not react to photons in such a way. For example in solar panels we use silicon crystals and some kind of copper/iridium mixture. In this case the atoms don't start shaking when hit with photons, so they don't heat up. Instead they transfer electrons.
And so along with Ablative/anti-vaporization armour being developed, you can develop a defensive system that actually generates energy when hit by lasers. Of course these have limited effectiveness, especially the copper/iridium thing which is apparently less efficient at absorbing sunlight as energy than the silicon crystals are, for example. I imagine that means some of the energy does inevitably get lost to heat instead, so more powerful lasers could still melt through that **** if they need to.
A side-effect of the resonance to chemical laser transition is that space warfare was revolutionized.
Resonance lasers wouldn't work so well in space. This is simply because starships are miles-long hunks of layered laser-cladded metal which is not only perfectly sealed against the vacuum. Its pretty hard to make the atomic structures of these collapse. Essentially, resonance lasers lack penetration power.
So the Ancient Galaxy was largely full of ballistics-based space warfare. Ballistics weapons in space are fine so long as your enemy is also using ballistics. But once someone gets their hands on lasers, which are hands-down vastly superior weapons in space warfare as they achieve instantaneous effects - among other things - it's like using tempered steel longswords against some bronze stabby thing. No contest.
Chemical lasers were more effective in space warfare and so appeared everywhere. On the ground, ballistics weapons still held their own compared to beam weapons. Indeed its really a case of weighing the pros and cons.
But there are things more powerful than lasers, in space warfare specifically. Warp missiles. Probably the most OP thing ever. Something moving at FTL speed needs no explosive or melting power to **** **** up. Basically, rather than try to stop the inertia of a starship using the warp drives, a warp missile just keeps on going and slams itself into whatever's in front of it.
A pebble accelerated to these speeds would easily tear the miles-long starships in half, so a missile-sized one is capable of causing asteroid-level destruction on planets (but not outright destroy planets in most cases)
The main problem with warp missiles is that miniaturized warp drives are expensive; as one of that small size must use antimatter for fuel rather than the usual dark matter. As antimatter is still something that can only be created a few atoms at a time in a laboratory, this means that they are pretty extortionately expensive to mass-produce.
They can be countered. Blink Displacers and Tachyon Bolts. Blink Displacers, hooked up to a ships' weapons computer, basically use temporal mechanics to, essentially, see into the future a few seconds. This way, they can "see" where warp missiles will appear, and a Tachyon Bolt burst will go to where the missile "WILL" be. The missile will 'appear' there, the tachyon bolts phase through the differences in reality, and essentially this becomes quantum-level point defense.
I'm never researching physics again. Maybe I should get some consultant or something. This **** was cool though.
