THE FORMIDINE RIFT MYSTERY (Part 4)

Jaiotu

Jaiotu
eadghe said:
What I get from the logs is that the general opinion of the crew was that they die in the next 20 min. Hope dies last, so if there where other systems which still have power, everyone would have tried to the last minute to reroute power to the life support. The only reasonable explanation for all the lights being on is that someone restored power at a later point, so its either that and Drew tries to spread some misinformation or it was an mistake made by FD in which case they could just admit it.
It is of course possible that the lights are on for a very good reason...
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They didn't [EDIT: necessarily] loose power to life support. Life support was sabotaged. You can have all the power you want but if the Cargo Handlers vented the atmosphere ... power isn't going to help. Not that I'm saying that they vented the atmosphere ... we don't know exactly how they sabotaged the life support but there's no indication that it was a simple matter of cutting off power to it.
 
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Jorki Rasalas

Jorki Rasalas
Edelgard von Rhein said:
At the time of the Dynasty Expedition, ships used type 2b hyperdrives, not Frame Shift Drives (type 3), so there would have been no FSD boosting. Their range would have gradually increased as they dropped off beacons, which presumably allowed them to get as far into the Rift as they did.
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This raises the question as to why set beacons (around Earth-like and seemingly also terraformable worlds) over such a wide region? If, as many people now seem to think, they were laying the ground for future colonists, then why not distribute them in more confined regions, so that the different colonies can easily trade, communicate and also protect each other? The seeding of terraforming candidates seems to demonstrate quite conclusively to me that they were laying the foundations for someone to go back and live there - but in what numbers and for what reason? What is special about this part of space? Are the future colonists people looking to get away from the bubble, or is there something in/near the Rift that they want to move next to? A lot of these questions will have to wait for Premonition, or at least the 29th, though...
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I would like to think that there are other mega-ships, or at least wrecked Anacondas, in the Hawking's Gap and the Conflux but that is wishful thinking. If the same thing happened there as on the Zurara, then perhaps they might have been destroyed and the Zurara is the only surviving mega-ship of the expedition. It is certainly worth looking but without clues it would be extremely difficult. I think there might eventually be beacons added around some planets, however, and that these could help lead us to wrecks, or provide information themselves. Perhaps we need Salomé or one of her friends to survive the 29th, so they can tell us what frequency the beacons use, to help us locate them...
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Well, if on the 29th you hear "DUX DUCIS, INCOLUMITAS!‟ over the comms then push Salome to the front! :D
 

eadghe

eadghe
Jaiotu said:
They didn't [EDIT: necessarily] loose power to life support. Life support was sabotaged. You can have all the power you want but if the Cargo Handlers vented the atmosphere ... power isn't going to help. Not that I'm saying that they vented the atmosphere ... we don't know exactly how they sabotaged the life support but there's no indication that it was a simple matter of cutting off power to it.
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You are right, I guess we interpret too much into this anyway but now that there is nothing left to find in the rift, at least not before the 29th, we need something to speculate about. ;)
 

Han_Zen

Han_Zen
eadghe said:
What I get from the logs is that the general opinion of the crew was that they die in the next 20 min. Hope dies last, so if there where other systems which still have power, everyone would have tried to the last minute to reroute power to the life support. The only reasonable explanation for all the lights being on is that someone restored power at a later point, so its either that and Drew tries to spread some misinformation or it was an mistake made by FD in which case they could just admit it.
It is of course possible that the lights are on for a very good reason...
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What I think happened is that the log were written for an Anaconda and have been in the game for quite a while. The forgot to update the details in the text for the new megaship.;)
 

Cmdr-Wotherspoon

Cmdr-Wotherspoon
eadghe said:
You are right, I guess we interpret too much into this anyway but now that there is nothing left to find in the rift, at least not before the 29th, we need something to speculate about. ;)
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It seems a bit pointless speculating about why the lit model is used rather than the derelict one. It's the way it is, and we don't need all the answers. We know that Rebecca Weston visited the derelict ship several years back, and explored inside it. Perhaps she was able to restore some limited power: lights take much less power than life support.

What we need to speculate about is who was behind Dynasty. Given Sirius Corporation's recent programme for deep space probes, I have my suspicions....
 

Athan

Athan
Han_Zen said:
I seriously doubt that a ship like that has just one reactor or just one battery power unit.

The different sections may have separate power systems.
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BluWolve said:
I interpreted it as the recording device battery that was just about dead.
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I'm willing to believe that this was just an ambiguity in the text. But you can see why I, and others, interpreted that as "The Zurara is now without any power and should show as such", right ?
 

eadghe

eadghe
Cmdr-Wotherspoon said:
It seems a bit pointless speculating about why the lit model is used rather than the derelict one. It's the way it is, and we don't need all the answers. We know that Rebecca Weston visited the derelict ship several years back, and explored inside it. Perhaps she was able to restore some limited power: lights take much less power than life support.

What we need to speculate about is who was behind Dynasty. Given Sirius Corporation's recent programme for deep space probes, I have my suspicions....
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I guess a part of this will be revealed at the 29th, or not...
 

Jim Dangerous

J
Just been out to the Zurara (which looks creepy as hell) and scanned it with the new Data Scanner fitted to my DBX. But should I have got data items in my Inventory for the data logs, can I not retain or sell the data? I've never scanned anything before as I have a dislike of driving around in the SRV (hence my exploration is generally space only in my DBX) :)

I thought I had seen people scanning the abandoned bases in EAOFTS and getting cash for selling the data somewhere?

On another note, are the Farsight Exploration Company legit? ;-)
 
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lorrad

lorrad
Jaiotu said:
Yes. Drew said, "The Zurara's main reactor was damaged beyond repair preventing the ship from hyperspacing. Life support was sabotaged and the crew were only able to restore battery backup." The problem is that, according to the logs, they didn't lose the battery backup. They were still on batteries but they were being drained:

"I don't know what will get us first the lack of oxygen or the cold. Battery power is about to die."

So they were already on the battery backup when they recorded the logs but if that battery power was about to die in 3270 ... surely they wouldn't have lasted until now. If I thought my cellphone's battery charge would last for the next 30 years I wouldn't say, "my phone is about to die."

I'm pretty sure that Drew meant that they restored power TO the battery backup but ... I can't speak for him so if he chooses to further clarify the matter I'll leave that to him :)
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The attackers did exactly what they needed to achieve their goal and no more which may suggest military planning.
Drew's characters can get things a bit off as they can lack his omniscience and omnipotence.

Re: Nuking the gen plague ship.

Yes it will work as there is no upper limit on nuke size only a technological lower limit, one can easily match the fireball size to the size of the thing you want to totally vaporize. You might ask why don't they do that in Armageddon and those other movies? Because having nukes around in those sizes is orders of magnitude more dangerous than the asteroid/comet/whatever.
 

Toffmeister

Toffmeister
lorrad said:
Re: Nuking the gen plague ship.

Yes it will work as there is no upper limit on nuke size only a technological lower limit, one can easily match the fireball size to the size of the thing you want to totally vaporize. You might ask why don't they do that in Armageddon and those other movies? Because having nukes around in those sizes is orders of magnitude more dangerous than the asteroid/comet/whatever.
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Didn't the Russians use the biggest so far? And we found out that bigger is a waste of time as the fireball was bigger than the atmosphere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
 

Gimi

Gimi
There are ways in which a reactor failure can result in life support failing while auxiliary power remains functional.
Life support would quite often mean producing oxygen by splitting water or even CO2. That requires power, lots of power. Backup life support I imagine would consist of oxygen tanks or chemically produced oxygen and CO2 scrubbers. Both have a limited supply. The backup would run off battery or possibly solar power where available, or even small old fashioned solid fuel turbines.

When the main reactor fails, oxygen production stops, at least in large quantities. Backup power could be sufficient to sustain rotation to the rings, especially if there was any sort of recharge available.
Whoever designed something like this wouldn't get a Nobel prize, but plausible non the less.
 

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
lorrad said:
…
Yes it will work as there is no upper limit on nuke size only a technological lower limit, one can easily match the fireball size to the size of the thing you want to totally vaporize. …
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There is almost no "fireball" in a hard vacuum. Even a big thermonuclear bomb has only a limited amount of matter. Without air the only thing of significance such a bomb creates is radiation.

No shock wave, no super heated air - just radiation.

Sure, the bomb could be made big, really big - but just calculate how much matter (preferable dense plasma) you need to fill a sphere of over one Km diameter. That's a lot of matter.

In short: nuking it won't work unless some Sci-Fi-magic weapon is used.
 

Han_Zen

Han_Zen
Has anyone been doing any speculation on ' Intelligence reports indicate that they will be attempting to reach an unconfirmed destination in the heart of the core worlds'?

Should be relatively close to Sol and no permit required, if I have understood correctly.
 
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