Giant Transdimensional Shitkicker (Part 2 of a Story)
Copyright © 2006 TWM. All rights reserved.
Amnin crawled back into his bunk and slept until the sprites woke him. He washed carelessly and stumbled up to the bridge. There he conferred with a sullen sprite about the state of the globule’s armament, using each of his limbs and joints to convey precise shades of meaning while it quivered resentfully. Finally it conceded that the four gas clouds affixed to the vessel’s exterior were ready for launching.
The ship’s main armament consisted of four clouds of gas, carried externally. Each cloud was a Vitiator missile. The Vitiator warhead was a black hole waiting to happen. After impact, chromodynamic fires on its surface would implode the cloud to the point of gravitational collapse within a few brief millennia. The surface of a ball a thousand light-years across would be rapidly heated to supernova temperatures – fairly benign by the standards of the present conflict, though it might impair or even disable enemy equipment. But the real point of the chromodynamic blaze was to begin gravitational collapse while burning out any possible solar fuel that might ignite and retard compression. Anything caught within the target ball would be reduced to x-rays or vanished over the newly-formed event horizon.
If everything went smoothly. Which, realistically, with weapon systems the size of small nebulae, good luck. Gooooood luck.
Eventually Amnin noticed the frantically waving limbs of a small chorus line of sprites and sluggishly directed his attention at the monitors. Amnin was not entirely displeased to see that a flight of Vitiator missiles was apparently headed toward his globule. He had noticed before that his daydreaming was often remarkably apropos, even perhaps precient.
Enemy fire was somewhat more common than friendly fire in this sector, and the sprites estimated about a 70% chance that Amnin was in combat. From his point of view it might not matter. One downside of near-speed-of-light weaponry was the impossibility of countermanding a mistaken attack after launch.
Amnin didn't particularly feel like dealing with this sort of tense situation so soon after waking up and he proposed to the sprites that if one just stayed relaxed these things usually worked out for the best. But they seemed unusually testy and impatient, rattling on very emotionally about "countermeasures" and "evasive action." If he didn't let them "do something" then he supposed he'd never hear the end of it.
(To be continued!)
Amnin crawled back into his bunk and slept until the sprites woke him. He washed carelessly and stumbled up to the bridge. There he conferred with a sullen sprite about the state of the globule’s armament, using each of his limbs and joints to convey precise shades of meaning while it quivered resentfully. Finally it conceded that the four gas clouds affixed to the vessel’s exterior were ready for launching.
The ship’s main armament consisted of four clouds of gas, carried externally. Each cloud was a Vitiator missile. The Vitiator warhead was a black hole waiting to happen. After impact, chromodynamic fires on its surface would implode the cloud to the point of gravitational collapse within a few brief millennia. The surface of a ball a thousand light-years across would be rapidly heated to supernova temperatures – fairly benign by the standards of the present conflict, though it might impair or even disable enemy equipment. But the real point of the chromodynamic blaze was to begin gravitational collapse while burning out any possible solar fuel that might ignite and retard compression. Anything caught within the target ball would be reduced to x-rays or vanished over the newly-formed event horizon.
If everything went smoothly. Which, realistically, with weapon systems the size of small nebulae, good luck. Gooooood luck.
Eventually Amnin noticed the frantically waving limbs of a small chorus line of sprites and sluggishly directed his attention at the monitors. Amnin was not entirely displeased to see that a flight of Vitiator missiles was apparently headed toward his globule. He had noticed before that his daydreaming was often remarkably apropos, even perhaps precient.
Enemy fire was somewhat more common than friendly fire in this sector, and the sprites estimated about a 70% chance that Amnin was in combat. From his point of view it might not matter. One downside of near-speed-of-light weaponry was the impossibility of countermanding a mistaken attack after launch.
Amnin didn't particularly feel like dealing with this sort of tense situation so soon after waking up and he proposed to the sprites that if one just stayed relaxed these things usually worked out for the best. But they seemed unusually testy and impatient, rattling on very emotionally about "countermeasures" and "evasive action." If he didn't let them "do something" then he supposed he'd never hear the end of it.
(To be continued!)
posted by Project WANNABE at 5:42 AM
5 Comments:
life just a good
Right!
'vitiator'! yes!
Which, realistically, with weapon systems the size of small nebulae, good luck.
ok its slithgly wierrd teh way ur vancign along an suadanly d.f. walasce looms up.
Yeah, I agree, but I had to do it.
Usufruct is not only in the lead but has every vote. In fact I just voted for it again. What a word!
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