A little doomsday weapon, perhaps ?

[rust]

Just some weird ideas ... :wink:

According to the Mongoose Traveller core rules, a jump drive can be
built at technology level 9, and this jump drive is able to create an ar-
tificial singularity.

This singularity has to be controlled in some way to prevent the desas-
ter that would occur if it would come in contact with any part of the
ship, and since singularities have an electromagnetic charge, a kind of
„magnetic bottle“ is the most likely way to keep the singularity where
it does no harm and can be used for the jump drive.

However, with the ability to create artificial singularities some other
uses for them come to mind – for example destructive ones. Since a
singularity has a charge, it can not only be kept under control, it can
also be accelerated, much like the projectile in a railgun – a railgun
that fires singularities.

In a way a singularity would be the best possible projectile, because all
the usual means to defend against such an attack would either have no
effect, or would even increase the damage caused by the singularity by
increasing its mass and therefore its force of impact. And once it has
impacted, it would grow by „swallowing“ the entire target ship.

With the ability to create and control artificial singularities at TL 9, a
„singularity gun“ or „singularity torpedo“ should become available at
TL 11 or 12 (if not earlier), because compared to the creation of a sin-
gularity the other technical problems would be almost irrelevant.

So, if you want to introduce a really extremely nasty weapon into your
Traveller universe, one potentially even able to destroy entire planets,
ask your jump drive engineers for a little help ... :twisted:

 

[rinku]

It's a thought, but how dangerous something like this is depends largely on its mass. The mass-energy involved in creating it can't be more than the ship is able to generate, which should make it only molecular sized. These aren't particularly dangerous to my understanding, since they are expected to evaporate almost instantly in a burst of Hawking radiation. To maintain such a beast you'd have to keep feeding it; switch off the power and it would evaporate in a few nanoseconds. Squeezing it with a gravity field might well be the secret to making it work - but again, if you turn it off, the mass-energy of the object remains miniscule.

Of course, that's based on our current limited theories. We're only really beginning to explore a lot of this with things like CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Quantum gravity effects (if they exist) may well make 100 or 1000 ton black holes stable. But they'd make damn poor projectiles. Shoot one at a planet and it should basically drop down the centre and stay there, very occasionally absorbing a molecule or two that wandered close enough.

(I invite others with a better background in physics to comment - I'm only speaking from an informed lay perspective!)

Now...

If you wanted to make a REAL singularity doomsday weapon, you just need to ramp up the mass-energy involved. Maybe squish down a small moon or two (though you might be able to make it work with a continent or a few large asteroids). Keep a sucker like that on ice and find some way of shifting it and you have a real killer

 

[Treebore]

That also depends on the nature of the singularity. Have you watched the newest Star Trek movie? If its that kind of singularity, and it reads like it is in the Traveller book, then it is a weapon that is too risky to use, and only insane types of people/races would even use it. Meaning those interested only in total destruction, rather than conquest for want of resources.

So unless those among us who have that kind of power and influence goes insane, we would not use such weapons because we like to conquer intact worlds and to salvage the remains of starfleet battle fields.

 

[Charakan]

Inspired thinking rust to come up with that one and a nice explanation of the science in laymans terms from Rinku, Treebores right it seems like the kind of thing only a complete nutjob would use or some kind of superweapon used by a major power to win an all out war. From someone who uses Traveller to tell straight up adventure tales its interesting as the kind of the thing the PCs would have to stop a major villain or terrorist organisation from using.

 

[BP]

... „singularity torpedo“ ...

While I might concur that the jump 'singularity' may not make the best weapon - gotta love that name! 8)

Jump tech does appear to be at odds with the published TLs, though I have little problem handwaving this, just as with grav tech.

The Jump description - 10 - 60 seconds to divert power, however and the instant 'jump bubble' are a bit less palatable... IMTU, 'shunting the mains' to protect the power systems from feedback, as the Jump Capacitors discharge, accounts for the 'Jump Dimming' and the power up sequence takes a lot longer. The RP aspect being that the Jump Capacitors can be used for emergency power, high power systems must be down during pre-jump and jump intent is detectable...

As to the rest, I've never even tried to define it. The 'Jump Bubble' concept has the advantage of explaining where all that fuel goes, but I prefer it to be used during the duration of the Jump, otherwise, well that can amount to a lot of liquid hydrogen that has to be transported (in 10-60 seconds?) to the 'singularity'.

 

[Charakan]

Of course rust while logically this becomes a viable technology at TL 12 or so, in the 3I given the wonky tech levels it doesn't become available until much later .

 

[rust]

Of course rust while logically this becomes a viable technology at TL 12 or so, in the 3I given the wonky tech levels it doesn't become available until much later .

Well, my idea for a TL 15 jump technology weapon would be one that en-
closes the enemy ship in a jump bubble and transfers it to a parallel uni-
verse, to stay there for good ... a non-lethal enemy removal device ... 8)

 

[BP]

:lol: The 'Jump-U Bomb'!

 

[rust]

:lol: The 'Jump-U Bomb'!

Exactly, produced by the Megacorporation B-Gone 4 Good.

 

[Charakan]

Of course rust while logically this becomes a viable technology at TL 12 or so, in the 3I given the wonky tech levels it doesn't become available until much later .

Well, my idea for a TL 15 jump technology weapon would be one that en-
closes the enemy ship in a jump bubble and transfers it to a parallel uni-
verse, to stay there for good ... a non-lethal enemy removal device ... 8)

Well that explains the wierd pocket of jumpspace where all those old battle ships came from in MJD's 1248 timeline (don't have the books to hand so can't remember the rationale behind it). Maybe a malfunctioning alien weapon based on rusts technolgy (I was going to say Ancients but blaming everything strange in the 3I on the Ancients is like Arnie Rimmer blaming everything on aliens in Red Dwarf!).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The interaction with gravity would limit the use of such a weapon to ships and the like. It couldn't work against a planet or moon.

 

[rust]

The interaction with gravity would limit the use of such a weapon to ships and the like. It couldn't work against a planet or moon.

I think my main market for that kind of weapon would be more interested
in a portable version anyway, for example a non-lethal MOL* Remover.

[* Mother-in-Law]

 

[Charakan]

Nice thinking RTT, I suppose you came about from jump bubbles going wonky when they are in a strong gravitational field (100 diameters and all that). Oh well back to the drawing board for the Ine Givar doomsday weapons techs!

I'm nowhere near as educated as you folks, is their anyway anyone can see to stop it working outside a strong gravity field?

 

[Charakan]

The interaction with gravity would limit the use of such a weapon to ships and the like. It couldn't work against a planet or moon.

I think my main market for that kind of weapon would be more interested
in a portable version anyway, for example a non-lethal MOL* Remover.

[* Mother-in-Law]

ROFL, well if you ever make enough radical breakthroughs in physics to invent one rust, I'll be your first customer provided it has a way of bringing the target back, when my GF starts nagging I can pop her into jumpspace for a bit to let her cool off! .

 

[zero]

A few points on how this (the OP doomsday-weapon) probably wouldnt work to the level as described;

First, the singularity would need to be fed to keep it from dissipating, well we know that in a Jump, hydrogen is used up in the jump and when it fades after a week the jump concludes, which would mean that the J-Drive could only create a singularity for a week and depending on the quality of drive and ship size needs a certain amount of hydrogen to maintain it for that long. I'm not sure how large that would make the singularity but it is restricted by the J-Drive being used, and in effect the TL, for longer jumps.

Also on the next point of keeping something in the jump-verse, that couldnt happen as the shift in dimensions is reliant on the hydrogen and I guess other molecules, fed into it. Though if using a larger fed singularity you could shift something for a long time, eventually the singularity would fade away and bring the target back to the universe.

 

[Hopeless]

Okay how about a moon thats been tunnelled into and storing large quantities of nuclear material ala Space 1999?

Jump tech would work better by giving a missile the means to "jump past" the defences on a planet rather than be used to destroy a planet.

Now if you were really looking for a weapon to destroy a planet I'd recommend a beam weapon designed to disrupt the molecules of carbon based lifeforms.
That would cause any life whatsoever residing on that world to be slowly ripped apart as the literal binding core of their dna is unravelled as a result of what can be considered terraforming science.

How about the pulse from a Pulsar being directed straight through the solar system with little or no chance of it missing at all...

You could dictate that several jump drives were built beneath the planet's surface and once activated sent the part they were attached to in an entirely different direction the rules regarding the gravity well preventing a jump drive from working might prevent the planet from being totally torn apart but the sudden shift caused by the then inoperative jump drives could just as easily disrupt everything on the planet perhaps even being considered the result of plate techtonics unless they know better...

I'd recommend watching Star Trek 2 Wrath of Khan for how to really take out a world and consider how effective that would be if the means of causing that effect was a jump capable missile designed to dodge counter fire ala Wing Commander the movie.

Okay just the bit about the missiles jumping through space and popping up every so often to correct their flight path...

 

[BP]

:lol: The 'Jump-U Bomb'!

Exactly, produced by the Megacorporation B-Gone 4 Good.

:lol:

(Weren't they the original distributors of 'Poo-Be-Gone' and "Planet Eraser'?)

 

[DFW]

[(Weren't they the original distributors of 'Poo-Be-Gone' and "Planet Eraser'?)

I thought they also made the "self cleaning" cat litter trays.

 

[AdrianH]

Or, if you really want to be certain, a jump drive big enough to move a planet.

Pick two useless planets with equal and opposite velocities. Jump them both simultaneously, one either side of the target planet. And then watch the fireworks from a safe distance.

Well, it worked in the Lensmen series.

Another trick is to put a manoeuvre drive and a black globe generator onto an asteroid. Aim the asteroid at the planet of your choice, then switch off the drive and switch on the globe. Then inform the planet that, for a suitable sum of money, you'll tell them the last known position and velocity of the asteroid. (If you're really good at confidence tricks, tell that to the planet but don't go through the little formality of actually doing anything to an asteroid. They won't know that you haven't. :twisted

 

[Charakan]

Another trick is to put a manoeuvre drive and a black globe generator onto an asteroid. Aim the asteroid at the planet of your choice, then switch off the drive and switch on the globe. Then inform the planet that, for a suitable sum of money, you'll tell them the last known position and velocity of the asteroid. (If you're really good at confidence tricks, tell that to the planet but don't go through the little formality of actually doing anything to an asteroid. They won't know that you haven't. :twisted

Well you could probably detect by looking for the absence of background radiation as it would be blocked by the globe. Of course then you'd have to pound the crap out of it until its capacitors overloaded. Which would probably take a lot of time and resources, which you might not have depending on how close it was to the afore mentioned planet.