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KFY Mobile Inertia Cannon

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A Mobile Inertia Cannon is a modified graviton pulse projector which sends out a narrow cone of gravitons which impart a velocity onto an object that is opposite the direction the pulse was moving. This sends the object towards the firing starship where it can be caught and processed.

History: Graviton beams have been around for ages, but were generally limited to large fixed stations on starships. The MIC allows for faster, more versatile salvage operations - it is small enough to fit inside most shuttles and can me stationed in the armor or shuttle bays of small starships.

Appearance: Round base ring with center axle for rotation, power cable hookups in the trunk (rotating box of sorts), and cannon laying on top of the trunk. Targeting system display and small seat attached to the rear. Object-catching graviton projector at the front for slowing and landing objects as they get close.
 
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The idea makes sense but do we understand the behavior of gravitons yet?

Projecting a cone of them might not even pull an object closer.

My only other niggle with this is that a cone by nature is not a narrow shape.

Otherwise: Sweet. We're getting tractor-beams.
 
Yeah, I figure this would make salvaging a lot more accessible to plot ships and salvager NPCs.
 
The cannon doesn't tow things. It shoots them and the object come flying towards it. Any size is fine, but the bigger, the slower.
 
No, you'll need them for towing and stuff.
 
o_O Okay. Maybe it is just because I woke up, bt you just confused me.

From my point of view, the mobile inertia cannon and the graviton projector both can tow ships. What's the big difference between them except the inertia cannon's possibly smaller size?
 
The MIC fires pulses. It can't actively tow things like graviton beams.
 
Ohhhh, now I get it.

MIC can float things your way by shooting pulses, which makes it good for salvage and what not. But it can't tow like the big ships. Gotcha.

I'm down with this. Makes good sense to me.
 
I still can't picture it in my mind.

Do you mean it provides momentum with a single blast (as in the term 'cannon') rather than just drag something closer?
 
But isn't grabbing and dragging an object with the graviton projector more efficient on the level of how you control the object's motion?

I just fail to see how applying a one-shot force of motion versus just grabbing on an object is better.
 
You can control it with more pulses. I think the idea is you use this on a salvage ship that basically is too small for a real graviton projector, and that ship just lines up with its target and fires a shot or two to tug the thing its way. It's safer than just trying to line it up with your hull or collector or whatever.
 
I don't see how it is safer.

Mind you, I'm not debating if this is feasible. I just don't see how it is any more useful than the gravitron projector except for small ships which can't be equipped with a device of the size of a projector and must settle for something with a lesser performance.
 
Kotori said:
I don't see how it is safer.
Click to expand...

I've worked in trucking and shipping before, so I'm assuming some knowledge I shouldn't. Sorry 'bout that.

Right now, salvage crews -- at least KFY crews -- are using converted power armor or just massive ships to do the dirty work of actually collecting parts and what not and bringing them to a docking bay. Large ships can afford this.

Smaller vessels probably don't have the best equipment (tiny shuttles, drones, power armor, et cetera) to drag stuff out of a big mess of crap. So instead they rely on subpar stuff, such as a battered tug or retracting claws, or they wait out a piece somehow and directly guide it into their open cargobay somehow. These two ways of doing it are somewhat dangerous, as they rely on the craft to be at a fairly close distance.

This allows a smaller vessel to kind of pick out a piece of what they want from an otherwise unapproachable wreck. This way they are not risking crew and equipment by having them storm the wreck. For general loading usage, a ship could transfer cargo easily between itself and another vessel simply by gently ejecting the cargo and then focusing a MIC on that cargo.

This is especially useful for very small vessels that lack any appreciable method of dragging cargo into a hold. Instead of sending out guys in spacesuits ala Firefly, you remote-control your MIC and guide something straight into a hold.

Essentially, larger ships don't desperately need this. Smaller vessels, depending on their mission profile, absolutely could.
 
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