Human Technology

Spaceships

Atmosphere Flight Simulator

The Atmosphere Flight Simulator (or AFS) is a flight system, present in all modern spaceships. Only the first generation of spaceships had no such system integrated in their basic flight systems.

As the run for space demanded a lot of pilots being able to fly the sheer mass of newly built spaceships, there were simply not enough fully educated astronauts available. Engineers have therefore developed a system with which a spaceship in free space behaves similar to a small plane in the atmosphere. With this flight system any normal pilot could fly a spaceship after a short period of retraining. Those systems are still in place after many decades, because they proved to be very handy and many pilots have not even tried to fly without them. Skilled fighter pilots however are required to learn to fly without it. They learn to temporarily disable parts of the AFS or the whole system to allow them to perform risky maneuvers giving them the upper hand in combat. In fact it is pretty dangerous to disable and restart the AFS mid-flight as it can be a strain on the spaceships hull. There have been several bad accidents with disabled AFS so that the flight system can usually not been turned off.

Flying with the AFS uses more energy because control jets all over the spaceships need to stabilize the spaceship to give the impression to fly in an atmosphere. There are also things like maximum flight speed and other kinds of restrictions in place which are helpful to the beginner pilot, but bothersome for the skilled one.

Artificial Gravitation

In the early 21st century, scientists at the CERN in Geneva, Switzerland have found the source of gravitation in an experiment with their LHC. They were able to simulate strong gravitational forces without the presence of large masses. As this technology has been refined and commercialized over the years, newer spaceships and space stations could afford to use it to build artificial floors without having to rely on centrifugal forces as artificial gravity. Newer spaceships and space station are therefore not built like cones or cylinders, but rather like planes or houses.

Weapons

There are basically three main categories of weapons: Projectile weapons, laser/energy weapons, disruptor weapons. The three categories all come with advantages and disadvantages and can be combined to make up for the disadvantages.

This means that all weapons cause three different kinds of damage: Physical, energy and disruptor damage.

Projectile Weapons

A projectile weapon shoots a mass (a projectile) with large speed towards its target. The mass is designed to damage the target's structure significantly on impact. The size of the weapon and projectile vary from handheld devices to large mass drivers on battle ships. The means to propel the projectile can be a small explosion, but also a strong magnetic field when the projectile is magnetic.

Depending on the target different ammunition cause different amount of damage.

Projectile weapons don't do damage on energy shields. They usually penetrate the shields without problems. Only magnetic projectiles may be slowed down or redirected slightly.

Handheld

Everything we know nowadays. Small pistols to large assault rifles exist in the realm of Orxonox. Their damage to structures, armor plates and flesh is significant, depending on the design of the projectile. The projectile weapon is used most in combat with handheld weapons.

Mounted on Spaceship

Projectile weapons use ammunition, which is heavy and therefore often limited in space. The damage on the hull of a spaceship however is significant. The fire rate of such a weapon can be up to 3000 RPM when it's cooled.

Turret on Battle Ship

Usually projectile weapons on turrets are used to fight slower targets. Very large mass drivers can be used to attack space stations or even targets on a moon's or planet's surface from space.

Laser/Energy Weapons

Laser weapons release a burst of high energy that heats up the target significantly and melts it in the process. While the damage to the hull is not as bad as with projectile weapons, a laser weapon doesn't need ammunition and can fire with a higher rate. Since the laser emitter overheats quickly in normal environments the laser is designed to emit rapid pulses instead of a continues stream.

Another disadvantage of the laser is it's loss of energy when travelling far distances.

To make up for these disadvantages there is a subcategory of particle stream weapons that use subatomic particles with the energy released by the laser to make additional physical damage on impact.

The best defense against laser and energy weapons is a super-conductive overlay (SCO), which absorbs most of the energy of the beam without causing damage to the hull.

Handheld

Handheld laser devices are available and cause instant damage to all kinds of materials. Human flesh is burnt away while metals and stone melts and loses structural integrity. Lasers also find uses as mining equipment and tools in general. In these cases they are rather ineffective as a lethal weapon, but they can injure people badly.

Mounted on Spaceship

Laser and energy weapons are the favorite weapon for space ships. The high fire rate and the speed of the particles are more suitable over large distances and in chaotic combat situations.

Turret on Battle ship

Very strong particle beams can only be mounted on large battle cruisers. However their use against small ships is questionable, because they may damage ships beyond the target. Against large ships big energy weapons are very effective to damage certain parts of the ship to render the ship immobile or defenseless.

Disruptor

Shields =