How fiesable would it be...

[Dooey Jo]

Bastard EDIT:

As an Aside, the Propulsion system in question here Actually does work better the bigger it gets. Mainly because the bigger its built, the bigger the power Cores can be to fuel it. Of course to get the whole thing going, Group A used the gravity of the systems Gas Giant to slingshot it ou of the system and into interstell space before main engines are fired... Well, thats How I thought it could be done, you can see why I'm throwing all this out to see if I'm making sense or making technobabble.

Well if it's an hollowed out asteroid, you could keep a solid piece of the original asteroid and use it as a mass driver. That would probably be pretty intresting. And you wouldn't need huge fuel tanks or anything either. Just a power plant to power the thing.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Dang I'm glad I started this. I hadn't honestly thought of how many problems using an asteroid ship would cause. Shoot, I totally forgot about the amount of Energy required to STOP the darn thing when it arrives... They would have to begin breaking and slowing down long before they even arrived. and steering the thing would be almost impossible.

I wonder if maybe I can't just put the people in it and send the ships seperatly.

[Wicked Pilot]

I wonder if maybe I can't just put the people in it and send the ships seperatly.

I would construct one relatively large habitat ship designed around crew comfort, and a fleet of dedicated warships. That way crews can spend time on the habitat ship en route to avoid going insane. Maybe a month out they get in their warships, leaving their mothership at a safe distance, and go do their dirty work.

Leave the asteroid at home, it might make a good space station.

[AMX]

Dang I'm glad I started this. I hadn't honestly thought of how many problems using an asteroid ship would cause. Shoot, I totally forgot about the amount of Energy required to STOP the darn thing when it arrives... They would have to begin breaking and slowing down long before they even arrived. and steering the thing would be almost impossible.

Stop the thing?
Whatever for?
If you don't need it anymore, you can just let it fly past the target system; thus needing only the energy required to stop the individual ships, just as if you had sent them alone.
With the notable difference that you can put a catapult system onto the asteroid, so the ships don't have to carry all the fuel required for braking.

Similar can be said about steering.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I wonder if maybe I can't just put the people in it and send the ships seperatly.

I would construct one relatively large habitat ship designed around crew comfort, and a fleet of dedicated warships. That way crews can spend time on the habitat ship en route to avoid going insane. Maybe a month out they get in their warships, leaving their mothership at a safe distance, and go do their dirty work.

Leave the asteroid at home, it might make a good space station.

Well, and this addresses what AMX said. Original I had planned for the Asteroid to become a vital, secondary base after the take over the Planet at the middle of all this. However, Building a much smaller ship that could serve the same purpose I guess could work. Wasn't their some StarWars ship that was designes to hold a fleet on it for a long range mission?

[Wicked Pilot]

Stop the thing? Whatever for?

You spent money on it and you might want to keep it. Hell, it's probably your only ticket home should your attack not go as planned.

If you don't need it anymore, you can just let it fly past the target system; thus needing only the energy required to stop the individual ships, just as if you had sent them alone.
With the notable difference that you can put a catapult system onto the asteroid, so the ships don't have to carry all the fuel required for braking.

How the hell would you put a catapult on an asteroid that could produce enough force to significantly slow down a warship from .2c? Please tell me you have some spetacular idea behind this idiocy that will make it work.

And let's still not forget about the loss of stealth and massive fuel and engine requirements needed to get this dead weight moving. Is anybody going to address those, or shall we just assume the use of magic fairy dust?

[Crossroads Inc.]

As mentioned stealth isn't a problem.

No one, outside of the planet that gets sacked, will know of this untile about 2 weeks after it happens, mainly because of time a signal wil ltake to reach the Other sides Military.

As for Energy/Fuel of the Asteroid, well, thats begining to look like an ever growing problem given the low tech of the race in question.

[AMX]

You spent money on it and you might want to keep it. Hell, it's probably your only ticket home should your attack not go as planned.

You do, in fact, have a point there.
Although "no way home" is said to be very motivating (how ruthless is this dictatorship exactly?)

How the hell would you put a catapult on an asteroid that could produce enough force to significantly slow down a warship from .2c? Please tell me you have some spetacular idea behind this idiocy that will make it work.

Why significantly?
Every bit helps.

And let's still not forget about the loss of stealth and massive fuel and engine requirements needed to get this dead weight moving. Is anybody going to address those, or shall we just assume the use of magic fairy dust?

Considering the atrociously high amount of energy needed to send anything at all at these speeds, I assumed this was also a nonissue.

[wolveraptor]

You said that the system attacked was low-tech, and almost certainly screwed. Hell, the way you described them, you implied that they didn't even have spacefaring technology. Why would you need to establish the asteroid as a secondary base when you could a)wipe them out with it or b)just let it fly away.

[Crossroads Inc.]

You said that the system attacked was low-tech, and almost certainly screwed. Hell, the way you described them, you implied that they didn't even have spacefaring technology. Why would you need to establish the asteroid as a secondary base when you could a)wipe them out with it or b)just let it fly away.

Because the system thats attack isn't the one thats eventually going to attack the invaders. Eh, let me see if this helps.
Invaders = Group A

System Attacked = Group B

Trio of Near By Worlds = Group C

Basically War is Fought between A and B over planet C.

Of course if you REALLY wanted a rund down on the Plot/story itself, you could go HERE Of course it should be noted its not really finished yet, but lays out in more detail what’s behind all this.

[Wicked Pilot]

Why significantly?
Every bit helps.

That's absurd. This contraption, whose helpfullness is negligable, is gonna be massive, and as such will require energy to accelerate. Is there any other useless mass you want to add to this bloated clusterfuck of can we assume that's it?

Considering the atrociously high amount of energy needed to send anything at all at these speeds, I assumed this was also a nonissue.

It's a two by half mile asteroid, it's fucking millions of tons! You are bringing a mountain along for no legitimate reason. Jesus Christ how is this escaping you?

[Zero]

If you wanted to slow the damned thing down a bit, couldn't you actually use the atmosphere of the target planet, or is that completely impractical with objects this large?

[AMX]

Considering the fact that the whole idea of a low-tech civ sending a battlefleet at a fifth of lightspeed is not exactly feasible in the first place, I'm operating under the assumption that power provided by the home system is effectively unlimited.
Which makes sending extra mass effectively free.

Got it? They somehow come up with the power to send the ships, they can somehow come up with the power to send a mountain along. That's the part of the story that can't be explained anway.

[Wicked Pilot]

I'm operating under the assumption that power provided by the home system is effectively unlimited.
Which makes sending extra mass effectively free.

Ok, thanks for demonstrating to all that you're a worthless wanker. Now if you could please go wank in some other thread now that'd be great.

[AMX]

Ok, thanks for demonstrating to all that you're a worthless wanker. Now if you could please go wank in some other thread now that'd be great.

Ok, thanks for demonstratinmg that you're an idiot. Now, if you could please read up on "suspension of disbelief"...

[Wicked Pilot]

So does anyone else have a credible arguement for this asteroid idea, or can we call this discussion resolved?