Turn Update
Put on one of the sets of stormtrooper armour and take a blaster rifle (AKA the on-duty gear), then head up onto the bridge.
Taricus returns to the bridge in stormtrooper armor, with a blaster rifle in hand and his side arm at his side.
Head back up to the bridge myself.
mastahcheese returns to the bridge.
Head down to the
Armory
Zanzetkuken leaves the bridge.
Check Weapon Systems.
10ebbor10 powers up the turbolasers and runs a self check.
Gunnery check:
* Left forward light turbolaser operational, 100 estimated rounds remaining
* Right forward light turbolaser operational, 100 estimated rounds remaining
All systems nominalIt's true that the ship is a bit underequipped. The stock Guardian light cruiser, manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems, ships with 2 laser turrets, one on top, one on bottom, plus two forward mounted laser cannons. Ships fitted for war routinely swap out the four lasers for as many as 6 turbolasers.
Turblasers, contrary to the name, are not lasers at all. Rather than firing merely streams of light, they fire a highly energetic, charged tibanna gas, using a laser as a carrier beam. Turbolasers have considerably less effective range than lasers, in most cases measuring in only the tens to thousands of kilometers. Also unlike lasers, they're massively subluminal, with a ship-based turbolaser beam typically only propagating at a few tens of thousands of kilometers per hour. And finally they suffer from the need for ammunition: power alone is not enough to fire a turbolaser. Tibanna gas is required as well, with a typical reload providing enough gas for 100 shots. But in exchange for these disadvantages, turbolasers provide considerably more firepower than lasers, as well as greater possible rate of fire due to faster charge times, and superior damage delivery. Whereas a laser fires a very thin beam that tends to poke a hole in its target, the blaster gas of a turbolaser tends to splatter on its target, disintegrating large chunks rather than poking thin holes. Far superior against heavily armored targets.
The Dependable has two, forward-mounted light turbolasers. While this does mean considerably more firepower than the standard lasers, it is a bit curious that the ship was not fitted with at least 4. The top and bottom laser turrets emplacements were removed, but nothing was installed in their place.
Why that would be, one can only speculate. Perhaps the ship was intended only for light patrol actions. But if so, it's curious that the forward mounted lasers were replaced, but not the turrets. Forward mounted guns require that the ship be pointed in the direction of firing. This isn't a huge problem when the intended target is a large, perhaps capital, stationary target. But they're generally impractical against small, fast moving targets like fighters. The laser turrets were a 360 degree rotating design that required that they be manned, and perhaps having a pair of dedicated gunners wasn't part of the mission profile this ship was intended for. But even so, why remove them? The most probable scenario seems to be that the Dependable was in the process of being refitted, and that those laser turrets would have eventually become turbolaser turrets, but for one reason or another the refit was unfinished.
Snail glances at his chronometer.
:
"ETA for escort arrival: five minutes."If anyone has anything they'd like to do before the escort arrives, now's the time.
Author
Topic: You are the bridge crew of a Galactic Imperial light cruiser (completed) (Read 34147 times)