Re: [FT] Weapon of the Week - AM-SM

In message <200102090618.f196IJW02869@maile.telia.com>
	  "Oerjan Ohlson" <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com> wrote:

> Charles Taylor wrote:
> 
[big snip]
> 
> >Another question - although IIRC no one has mentioned it yet, what
> >happents if a ship looses a SML-Magazine to a threshold when there
> >are _Antimatter_ SMs in it? The chance of an 'accident' is rather
> >higher than for normal SMs? :-)
> 
> According to various SF novels and games, particularly Weber's novels
> and Starfire, the ship should go BOOM if a magazine holding
anti-matter
> missiles is hit. Certain Starfire players who also are atomic and
> nuclear phycisists have voiced objections to that description though -
> according to them an accidental explosion is vastly more likely to go
> "fizzzllleee" than "BOOM" :-/ Spoilsports, I call them... <G>

Hmm... I remember comming to that conclusion myself - IIRC there is a
good description of such an effect in 'The Anvil of Stars' by Greg Bear.

In the next gen Star Trek technical manual, the photon torpedoes
described carry a payload of anti-matter and _matter_ pellets in many
containment force-fields, when detonated, the force fields switch from
keeping the AM and matter apart, to forcing it _together_.

A simpler idea is to shoot a lump of anitimatter at a matter target at
high velocity, the KE of the impact wil vapourise the AM and some of the
target, and the resultant gases _should_ mix a bit :-)

> 
> 'Course, Starfire magazines can jettison missiles in a jiffy if the
> hits start getting too close. Full Thrust game turns are usually
> considerably longer than Starfire game turns, so it's not unreasonable
> to say that "if a magazine holding AM-SM fails a threshold check (or
> equivalent), the AM-SM are automatically jettisoned (ie., cannot be
> repaired even if your normal house rules allow repairing missiles).

Ok, I'll go with that.
> 
> Later,
> 
> Oerjan Ohlson
> oerjan.ohlson@telia.com
> 
> "Life is like a sewer.
>   What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
> - Hen3ry
>