How To Abandon Ship?

Are there sidewalls to worry about while abandoning ship? Or does the computer allow exit by momentarily opening a tiny window as with Star Trek's shields?

cthia wrote:People in the shower, bath or john would seem to be at a disadvantage. Also, the time available to abandon ship seems awfully short.

A warship at battle stations won't have anyone in the shower, bath or john. And if the abandon ship order goes out you're not going to let your attire stop you--you run for the pod or lifeboat even if you're naked.

Given how fast we have seen people get off a doomed ship it basically must mostly involve grav-boosted transport of some kind.

cthia wrote:Are there sidewalls to worry about while abandoning ship? Or does the computer allow exit by momentarily opening a tiny window as with Star Trek's shields?

Well a ship is supposed to cut its wedge to indicate surrender, which should happen about the time you abondon ship - losing the wedge would drop all the sidewalls.

But even if the wedge stayed up the sidewalls are 10 km off each beam so it’s unlikely a pod would be shot out with enough force to cover 10 km before exiting the rear of the wedge. (Because once your far enough out to clear the compensator field, normally maybe a km or less, the ship zips away from you at several hundred gravities of acceleration. And a buckler wall seems a limit problem as it is about the diameter of the ships max width - so unless you bale straigh out the aft of the ship any course that clears the aft hammerhead would also clear an aft buckler wall.

Seems to me about the only way you could hit a sidewalk while abandoning ship is if they were dumb enough to cut accel to zero, leave the wedge and sidewalls up, and the ship survived long enough for the pods to drift 10 km into an intact sidewall. ,

Jonathan_S wrote:

cthia wrote:Are there sidewalls to worry about while abandoning ship? Or does the computer allow exit by momentarily opening a tiny window as with Star Trek's shields?

Well a ship is supposed to cut its wedge to indicate surrender, which should happen about the time you abondon ship - losing the wedge would drop all the sidewalls.

But even if the wedge stayed up the sidewalls are 10 km off each beam so it’s unlikely a pod would be shot out with enough force to cover 10 km before exiting the rear of the wedge. (Because once your far enough out to clear the compensator field, normally maybe a km or less, the ship zips away from you at several hundred gravities of acceleration. And a buckler wall seems a limit problem as it is about the diameter of the ships max width - so unless you bale straigh out the aft of the ship any course that clears the aft hammerhead would also clear an aft buckler wall.

Seems to me about the only way you could hit a sidewalk while abandoning ship is if they were dumb enough to cut accel to zero, leave the wedge and sidewalls up, and the ship survived long enough for the pods to drift 10 km into an intact sidewall. ,

Thanks for the detailed explanation Jonathan. AND the imagery!

IOW, a pod's occupant could end up staring into the jaws of incoming missiles impacting with the sidewall that is between the missiles and the excreted golden bricks in his pants! Talk about one-upping the pin pricks of light that Abigail once looked up in the heavens and guffawed over being nothing compared to his front row seat. Even if it is a shitty seat way up in the rafters of space.

I don't think the plumbing in those skinsuits are up to the task of passing golden-colored gawd-stones!

cthia wrote:I think I've identified the discs you were speaking of Maxx. As soon as I realized that dorsal means "rear" as well as "top." The reason I wanted to be clear, is because if someone just leaps, there momentum may not take them clear of the upcoming rear hammerhead. And smash!


I remember that Ajax couldn't get her bay doors open and was frantically trying to repair them. Why didn't suited people go for an emergency jump exit? Run and jump as if you are parachuting. ::another shrug::

In the image I linked, there is a group of four escape pod hatches forward of the superstructure, and another pair forward of the radiators. Keep in mind that these are not necessarily the final locations or numbers of escape pod tubes.

Referencing other posts, as well as this one, when the order to abandon ship is given, it's usually because there's a chance the ship is going to blow, or otherwise break apart. Just surrendering, there's no real need to abandon ship, unless so ordered by the victor.

In the case of abandoning, wedge and sidewalls would be dropped. It makes no sense to have them up when you're abandoning ship. With the wedge down, the ship may still be moving, but it won't be accelerating, and therefore, when one jumps out, you're still carrying the same momentum as the ship, PLUS the momentum in whichever direction you jump. In a vacuum, there's nothing to slow you down to slam into the hammerheads.

That also takes care of the issue of suddenly going from the protection of the compensator field to, NOT being in the field - the ship isn't accelerating (it's just coasting) - so technically, there's no need for the compensator field.

As for incoming missiles, well, that's the chances you take. Lightspeed limitations would cause issues with sending a self-destruct command, or a command to veer off, even with FTL comms.

MaxxQ wrote:As for incoming missiles, well, that's the chances you take. Lightspeed limitations would cause issues with sending a self-destruct command, or a command to veer off, even with FTL comms.

Do you think any navy would add special programming to their missiles that would attempt to alter target if their primary target's wedge went down?

Obviously from far enough out if the wedge goes down the missile loses lock, but in close enough to have the target ship on non-gravimetric sensors I guess you could build a missile targeting parameters to attempt to automatically recognize a dropped wedge as a surrender attempt and try to avoid shooting at it.


Though that doesn't help you survive the EMP from 'nearby' laserheads targeting other ships in your fleet. Life pods are probably pretty EMP hardened, but skinsuits could have a rougher time if you had to do a manual bailout.

Jonathan_S wrote:

MaxxQ wrote:As for incoming missiles, well, that's the chances you take. Lightspeed limitations would cause issues with sending a self-destruct command, or a command to veer off, even with FTL comms.

Do you think any navy would add special programming to their missiles that would attempt to alter target if their primary target's wedge went down?

Obviously from far enough out if the wedge goes down the missile loses lock, but in close enough to have the target ship on non-gravimetric sensors I guess you could build a missile targeting parameters to attempt to automatically recognize a dropped wedge as a surrender attempt and try to avoid shooting at it.


Though that doesn't help you survive the EMP from 'nearby' laserheads targeting other ships in your fleet. Life pods are probably pretty EMP hardened, but skinsuits could have a rougher time if you had to do a manual bailout.

See what happened at Saltash. The SLN ships surrendered and the Manty missiles continued their attack.

Not to mention an unscrupulous Commander in a less than scrupulous navy that may not give a damn about taking neobarb prisoners but you know that your cavalry will be there any moment and you just have to buy yourself those moments.

Or, one of your fusion bottles is about to blow, your ejection mechanism is damaged and you only have ... let's pull ten minutes out of our doomed asses. In which case, we must abandon ship and keep our wedges up.

Or, that same scenario could happen and you definitely are NOT surrendering because your RMN fleet has the SLN sorely outmatched, but their 800 or so ships has many incoming missiles bearing down on your ass and you have to abandon your ship that is about to blow. You definitely are NOT surrendering but you certainly better keep your sidewalls up! Only one lucky slavering missile needs to get by your hellishly effective Manty CMs to give an unlucky ship with no sidewalls in the middle of an evacuation a really bad day.

I simply can't shake the imagery of an evacuated pod in the middle of a firestorm with hundreds of missiles bearing down on its location that passes it waaaaay too closely -- if it's lucky!

Jonathan_S wrote:Though that doesn't help you survive the EMP from 'nearby' laserheads targeting other ships in your fleet. Life pods are probably pretty EMP hardened, but skinsuits could have a rougher time if you had to do a manual bailout.

EMP is not an issue in space, they are the result of the interaction of the plasma from the blast with a planetary magnetic field so in the absence of that don't happen to any significant degree.

cthia wrote:I simply can't shake the imagery of an evacuated pod in the middle of a firestorm with hundreds of missiles bearing down on its location that passes it waaaaay too closely -- if it's lucky!

Remember, space is big, space is really freaking big, even a dense swarm of missiles is going to have tens of kilometers between them and missiles detonate at tens of thousands of kilometers out. Its less being in the middle of a firestorm, more watching a distant fireworks display with a chance of sudden death

Grashtel wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:Though that doesn't help you survive the EMP from 'nearby' laserheads targeting other ships in your fleet. Life pods are probably pretty EMP hardened, but skinsuits could have a rougher time if you had to do a manual bailout.

EMP is not an issue in space, they are the result of the interaction of the plasma from the blast with a planetary magnetic field so in the absence of that don't happen to any significant degree.

cthia wrote:I simply can't shake the imagery of an evacuated pod in the middle of a firestorm with hundreds of missiles bearing down on its location that passes it waaaaay too closely -- if it's lucky!

Remember, space is big, space is really freaking big, even a dense swarm of missiles is going to have tens of kilometers between them and missiles detonate at tens of thousands of kilometers out. Its less being in the middle of a firestorm, more watching a distant fireworks display with a chance of sudden death

Talk about timing. My brother sent me this link a week or two ago about EMP. Said it was a must watch.

Yes, space is big. And those missiles may originally showcase that much elbow room between them, but at the end of their run they will converge on their assigned target(s). And if it is a launch from the Havenites—post Committee of Public Safety—where they've gotten themselves back on balance, the brunt of those missiles will be converging on a few targets. And if the timing of your evacuation for whatever reason is late, well, then you have the best seat in the house.

Also, from a Havenite or SLN perspective facing the RMN, Apollo's brood of missiles are very close together. Even before Apollo, the RMN was always spreading its fire amongst a few targets. Where at the end of their run they converge for a bit of fun. Heeeere's Johnny 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...