Whoops! Missed my deadline – sorry about that, but I’ll have it up this evening! Just needed a little extra special effects attention!
In the future, this is what we’re going to be using lasers for.
Man this was a lousy week, and it culminated in this cough I’ve had since August finally blowing up into something just positively awful. So, that’s just great. But nevertheless, I did manage to get this page together! But beyond that I’m sick and miserable so I’m leaving it short and going to bed, now.
Before I do, though, once again, my “Secret Project” is up on the “voting” page, so take a look if you like.
And there are two more Comics of the Week, so check them out, too!
Stargazer’s Gate: Atrina Vilanar discovers an alien civilization on the other side of a strange gate! Alien to Atrina, at least. People on the other side seem to recognize her. Back home, Leawyn still believes Atrina is alive, and will do anything to find her.
Storm and Desire: Three women’s fates collide as they uncover the secret history of the multiverse! STORM AND DESIRE is an epic sci-fi/fantasy adventure comic about three women whose fates collide: WYNDERIA, a scientist-musician & interdimensional explorer; LORELEI, a cyborg translator & occasional singer; and ANJETTE, an intelligent weapon system & occasional sorcerer. Together they set out to learn the secret history of the multiverse…
THAT is why many recon pilots get hazard pay.
Line of sight range at lightspeed? No way to avoid such a weapon with that level of tech.
I can guess who just did that.
Gonna be a long long walk home for someone, methinks.
Assuming they pull the eject cord in time.
It was someone with one or more surface-to-high-altitude lasers tuned in the blue-green spectrum. 😉
I know that the blue-green spectrum is used for LASER communications under water. Most of the LASER beams to work are invisible to human eyes. We just like seeing it for effect. Burn baby burn! Despite his speed they still hit him dead on target. Maybe computer controlled like a Mike in charge?
Well, it isn’t like that plane could float and bob around like a hummingbird. Its path would be predictable enough for a honking big laser beam.
Of course, things can still go wrong, even with ‘precise’ targeting. Maybe this shot was actually intended to be nothing more than a warning? 😉 Oops!
Ow.
Mmyep.
Aim for the head.
Or just a little under.
This is why flying recon is a place where line of sight means you’re dead can be…wasteful.
Now drones for recon in this highly unpermissive environment is exactly what they are for.
Unfortunately, the FSR is behind the curve in drone technology, their three Kill-Bots notwithstanding.
Drones capable of dealing with this kind of environment are probably more expensivce and harder to get than a suitably-qualified person.
Also, a pilot is able to use discretion to decide what may or may not be useful or interesting to photograph, which is pretty handy. Look up the US Air Force “MOL” or Russian (read: Soviet) Almaz space stations, manned spy satellites that, although not used extensively (MOL was never completed) had astronauts in space specifically so they could decide what to take pictures of and what not to.
Not drones, robots, self guided autonomous machines. SGAMs They certainly cracked at least weak A.I. with the giant tanks. Maybe still too hard to put it into smaller planes….better to use satellites then manned recon planes.
Satellites versus recon planes – each has its own strengths and weaknesses, so arguing which is “better” is, IMO, pointless.
Plus, in this world they have practically no space program. Recon satellites are speculative technology at best.
The lack of space program, barring ballistic missiles, is based on the hot nature of this conflict so less opportunity for peaceful duel I presume?
Military budgets are sky high. Scientific research is considered a low priority. They only build missiles that can carry atomic warheads. Satellites are too easy to shoot down with “soft bombs,” big wads of junk blown into their orbital paths, so nobody uses them. Planes and drones are far cheaper and don’t require a space launch infrastructure.
Shame, it was such a elegant-looking recon plane. 🙁
Although, I guess now that pilot knows UNA lasers are no joke. I hate to consider the power required to get a beam into the upper atmosphere though.
1.21 Jigawatts!
And that’s a lot – one Jigawatt is one bajillion Ziggawatts!
Uh-oh, someone had seen it (or more precise, him) comming 🙂
😉
Fun fact, we already have lasers to ‘blind’ satellites as anti-satellite missiles have proven to cause too much debris.
We (that is, the US Navy, the US being my nationality) have one mounted in the forward hull of the unfortunately-named USS Ponce.
Ponce? Named after Ponce de Leon perchance?
Named for a City in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico I believe.
Which in turn is named after the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico, or his great-grandson Juan Ponce de León y Loayza.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponce,_Puerto_Rico
“Victor” is the one that shot him down, right? How rude! 😉
…maybe…? 😀
I do wonder if anytime soon we will have any kind of laser IRL capable of shooting down enemy air-targets this way.
Had to think of this video, where Rheinmetall Defence demonstrated a laser-defense system against small drones and mortar shells and similar lose-speed targets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGpCUkFwYI
Also, just curious, what kind of Laser would they be using in your world? Free-electron lasers? Or simply electric lasers? Chemical lasers are likely out of the question as they rely on chemicals for their energy, while the other types ‘just’ need electric energy. And since you have a tank with a nuclear reactor running around, there seems to be no shortage of that. ^.=.^
Mike has (or had) a free-electron laser. Victor uses charged-particle lasers that have a higher impact at the target point and operate at a somewhat lower temperature.
Well that looks more like a particle beam
Technically it’s a hybrid called a charged-particle laser, or a low-mass-ion laser. It fires linearized copper ions on a coherent laser “leader,” that burns a path to the target and damages it by overpressure and heat at the point of impact. The copper ions add mass and range to the impact causing more piercing damage than a free-electron type like Mike was carrying. It also has a lower operating temperature.
The UNA is working on a genuine particle weapon but it’s nowhere near introduction – it’s a massive machine confined to the Defense Induction Accelerator Laboratory at the University of Gadsden.
So in short, first there is a laser that burns a way through the atmosphere to clear a ‘neutral’ path for the following particle beam, to incease the damage of the charged particles?
Yes, but because the particles are relatively light, the laser is still doing the heavy lifting. The copper ions just boost the damage of the laser impact.
Wow. What a crazy concept, medium-sized ions hitchhiking on a beam of laser-light. Where do you get your ideas for weaponry from? ^.=.^
Real life probably: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1977/06/laser-and-charged-particle-beam-weapons
Also, I worked for a high-energy physicist as a work-study in college. If I had it to do over again I’d have gone into particle physics instead of architecture. But, there it is.
Free-Electron Lasers, like Mike’s Sikkei Sunfire weapon, use oscillating electrons to produce an electromagnetic lasing medium that can produce very high pulse energies, but are larger and run at hotter temperatures that would usually be thought of as optimal. They also are much more subject to atmospheric effects like smoke and aerosols since they are coherent photon beams and tend to impart energy to intervening particles in an atmosphere.
The Charged-Particle Laser is similar, but uses copper ion plasma instead of electrons to produce an electric field for the lasing medium. This is less efficient for the laser, but allowed “bottlenecking” of the copper plasma at the end of the weapon, essentially adding part of the excited copper particle medium to the laser beam, which slipstreams along the back end of the vacuum the beam creates as it burns through the atmosphere. So the beam itself does damage, and the copper particles exploit the initial strike.
If they could find a way to make a beam entirely out of plasma particles it would be way more powerful but the energy input is too big, so far. They’re working on it.
Does it use tungsten and hydrogen ion particles accelerated to .9% the speed of light?
Personally? Lasers are going to be the death knell of high cost/manned aircraft. Cheap drones will rule the aerial battlefield in the future filled with AAA laser/flechette-railguns/smart-micro missiles.
I would expect a rail gun to be heavy and with hard recoil. EMPs will clear the air of those pesky things along with on the ground and in the water. And maybe space too. It is an electronic battlefield over the real blood and guts battlefield where humans will still be needed.
Darn. Tried voting to see the next project, and got a black X where the picture should have been on TWC. Any ideas?