To Crack Invulnerability - Zesuaium

[DocTomoe]

During my time in the SARP I've found that there have been some different opinions about the weaknesses of various armor and materials found in the RP. Most of the debate is about the material Zesuaium.

According to some people, Zesuaium could be breached with a steady barrage of disruptor hits. Others say that Zesuaium could only be harmed by Aether and antimatter. While in RP, we've seen power armor constructed from Zesuaium sustain significant damage from what appeared to be a shoulder mounted plasma weapon of some sort, and be breached by a steady assault from the grinding maw of a NH-18. What I want to know is what can; melt, crack, break, shake, vaporize, stretch, warp, bend, compress, shred, breach, or just all out destroy Zesuaium.

 

[Fred]

One thing to keep in mind when dealing with power armors is that, while zesuaium-coated plates and mesh are indeed very resilient, the structure they are attached to might not be. So, some part of that protection can be removed by just shaking it loose through brute physical force.

The Mindy's armor is immune to small arms fire, provides excellent resistance to large mounted weapons, good resistance to light starship weaponry, and poor resistance to heavy starship weaponry such as main guns and anti-matter

Also, please bear in mind that the mention of 'resistance' does not mean 'immunity', meaning that weapons in the 'large mounted weapons' category and up will apply deterioration over consecutive usage.

 

[Cora]

Actually Fred, I think the term resistance means just the amount of punishment it can take.

Though the idea of a five foot tall suit of armor taking a Main Gun hit at all, (since poor resistance means 1 hit = fragged and most likely dead pilot, 2 hits = utterly destroied armor and most certinally dead pilot) is just plain overscaled and laughable.

Main guns on the ships in the SARP do varying ammounts of obsene damage, from causing something to self destruct from its own potental energy (high end of the sacle, IORI-class Starbases) to causing spacetime to tear it apart (Mid leve) to causing more or less compleye disintagration (low end) to Utter removal from space time (Extreme level).

 

[Fred]

I'm sorry Chris, but I didn't make much sense of your previous post.

I think it's fair to consider that a Mindy caught in a main gun blast will be utterly annihiliated without question. However, there are instances where the same sort of weaponry is used on a lesser scale (like the aether saber-rifle) which does not necessarely spell the destruction of the unit in question.

Of course, much of this is left in GM interpretation. Our older moderators are generallyconfident in their ability to adjuciate damage and things are often left at that, regardless of materials (they've been known to feel offended when hinted otherwise).

My impression about zesuaium is that it has stopping power for one pulse attack. A pulse delivered at the same location will breach and cause damage, and a subsequent one will likely disable/destroy that part. I typically consider the beam function of the Mindy aether saber-rifle worth 3 pulse shots, meaning that if it hits, it concentrates a lot of damage at one place (making one-hit armor kills possible even if it's easier to land multiple hits with the pulses).

That point of view is a bit inspired from me reading Micheal Stackpole's Battletech novel series in which there is an exchange of fire generally happening between mechs instead of instant kills... but this 'exchange of blows' seems to get along well with players in tougher encounters - I have to admit SARP combats are a lot more quick and decisive though.

 

[Cora]

But Fred, a MAIN GUN, cannot adjust it's fire power to go from Eradicate to spitwad. That's not possible in the scale of GMING. A Main gun is ment as the Primary forms of utter destruction.


To wit, I'll break down what the mindy armor can and cannot take. Ok?

The Mindy's armor is immune to: (No matter how much you try, you'll never penitrate it.)

Small arms fire: Handguns, rifles, shotguns, light laser guns/rifles, SMGs, and RPGs.

The Mindy armor provides excellent resistance to: (It can take a sever beating before it's forced to flee, which would probably mean atlest five to ten hits. If one ignores kinetic inerta from impact.)

Large mounted weapons: Vechial Mounted Machine guns, vechial mounted cannons, small, and medium sized rockets.

Light starship weaponry: (Not too sure, seeing how every weapon on a starship in the YSE are from Heavy to super heavy.) Most probably ship mounted torpedos and missles, aswell as small and moterate laser, and scaler.

Poor resistance to heavy starship weaponry: Just about every non torpedo/missle/laser weapon built onto a ship in the SARP.


And Poor resistance means the armor has at lest one hit, and at most two hits before it's utterly destroied. I mean, Poor doesn't mean moterate. That would count for at lest three hits depending on the weapon.

And the reason Mech Warrior has exchange of blows and not utter side wipes is because all the mechs have been balanced. Light mechs carry several light weapons or a few lights and a medium. and so on with the size scaling. In the Sarp, a ten manned ship can utterly wipe out a planet with one or two shots from their main gun, and armored battle suits can destroy whole crusiers on their own.

 

[Wes]

No ship would fire a torpedo at a power armor. The torpedoes in the SARP are there for one-hit kills of large starships, and are some of the setting's most powerful weapons. Chris, please take time to present your posts in a readable format. I added three new wordfilters to the forums to catch your misspellings (vehicle, moderate, and seperate).

 

[Zakalwe]

Wes, can we simply get the answer to this:

Can conventional damage destroy zesuaium? Can you break its bonds with anything other than anti-matter or infinate energy such as with aether?

If so - what?

 

[Wes]

Can conventional damage destroy zesuaium?

No.

What I want to know is what can; melt, crack, break, shake, vaporize, stretch, warp, bend, compress, shred, breach, or just all out destroy Zesuaium.

Nothing can melt, crack, bend, stretch, warp, or shred Zesuaium. It is immune to radiation and chemical interaction.

Zesuaium can be damaged by aether weapons (not aether-powered weapons), anti-matter, and to a lesser extent, molecular disruptors.

One thing to keep in mind when dealing with power armors is that, while zesuaium-coated plates and mesh are indeed very resilient, the structure they are attached to might not be. So, some part of that protection can be removed by just shaking it loose through brute physical force.

True. Many newer weapons like the rifle the Sylph carries circumvent the armor by just putting enough force through it to mess up what's on the other side. There is the equal distribution of force through the entire Zesuaium plate to deal with, though (due to lack of penetration and flexibility).

 

[DocTomoe]

What I want to know is what can; melt, crack, break, shake, vaporize, stretch, warp, bend, compress, shred, breach, or just all out destroy Zesuaium.

Nothing can melt, crack, bend, stretch, warp, or shred Zesuaium. It is immune to radiation and chemical interaction.

Can radiation pass through Zesuaium? Or will it be blocked?

 

[Zakalwe]

There is a certain of translusent Zesuaium which allows a reasonable amount of light through, but nothing really significant.

All other Zesuaium is completely immune to radiation - throw it in a sun and it won't care. What I want to do is put a black-hole in a Zesuaium box - they can't be broken so it would be cool.

 

[Derran Tyler]

Zesuaium can be damaged by aether weapons

This statement is completely contradictory to this statement:

Nothing can melt, crack, bend, stretch, warp, or shred Zesuaium. It is immune to radiation and chemical interaction.

Aether weapons, ultimately, are energy weapons. They deal their damage by the transferrence of heat energy into their target. Because of this, it is only reasonable that any weapon that delivers enough energy to Zesuaium can damage it. The true question is - how much energy does it take to deal damage?

You can't have it both ways. Either Zesuaium is completely immune to all forms of attack save anti-matter or it isn't.

 

[Cora]

He has a point, you can't claim this stuff's immune to heat, but can be destroied by energy transfer.

 

[DocTomoe]

Aether is not like normal "Energy Weapons". It operates on converting matter to energy, not destroying it to make energy, like antimatter, or basic combustion.

Think S2 engine from Evangelion

 

[Zack]

You are just making that up. Aether in this setting has refered to a sea of energy that exsists within normal space and is called forth.

 

[Derran Tyler]

It operates on converting matter to energy, not destroying it to make energy, like antimatter, or basic combustion.

Huh?

Let's pretend just for a moment that you are not in fact talking out of your ass. How does aether covert matter to energy? No description of aether in any RP setting, sci-fi or fantasy or whatever has ever had this asinine explanation of what it does.

 

[Fred]

This is a mecha-grade aether-based weapon.

Ke-M1-2714 Aether Beam Rifle: Based on the Projected Energy Beam, this arm-cannon uses a spatial distortion to release condensed Aetheric energy. The result is a fantastic flow of tremendous energy. Because of the subspace effects of beam, it naturally pierces shields based on subspace distortion. The weapon's range can be reduced to proportionally increase power and output duration, giving the rifle the ability to also function as a sword. The rifle has a long, thin, two-pronged shape.

• Purpose: Anti-Starship Surgical Attacks
  Damage: Total Annihilation in a 5-inch-wide beam.
  Range: 588,000 miles. 6 feet for sword.
  Rate of Fire: One three-second blast every 15 seconds. Sword can be constantly sustained.
  Payload: Effectively unlimited when properly attached to the mecha. Free-floating rifles rely on a battery magazine (BU-M5) which holds enough power for five shots. The mecha carries two such magazines (not including the one in the rifle) behind its shield on the left arm.

Let's see the projected energy beam then...

Projected Energy Beams: This beam system was first developed in Yuumi battleship program and has since become a staple of Star Army weaponry. The spatial distortion around the ship (the Combined Field System) is used to release condensed potential energy from the aether, the ubiquitous sea of energy. By distorting the shield-space, the origin of the beam can be maneuvered around the field bubble, allowing it to be fired from any point on the field system. The subspace effects of the beam make it naturally piercing to distortion-based shields. Please note that when firing, it substantially weakens the Combined Field System.

• Location: Combined Field System
  Primary Purpose: Anti-Starship
  Secondary Purpose: Heavy Assault
  Damage: Good chance of destroying a non-capital ship in a single hit; a great deal of possibly crippling damage on a capital ship
  Area of Effect: Beam of 1 to 25 meters in diameter.
  Range: Theoretically unlimited except by the beam's speed (1c).
  Rate of Fire: Up to ten five-second blasts every 15 seconds.

And next, one of the larger starship weapons whom apparently work on the same principle, the Sakura-class gunship's main gun.

KFY W2800 Anti-Fleet Cannon: The largest and most powerful weapon the Sakura-class Gunship possesses is a massive aether shock cannon. Operating on principles similar to a quantum detonator, the cannon fires an incredibly intense scalar interference pulse that causes a tear in the fabric of space-time. When this occurs, all energy potentials in the target area are released into real space simultaneously, causing catastrophic destruction.

• Location: Forward section of the ship (looks like two dagger blades over one another).
  Purpose: Anti-fleet, Anti-star
  Damage: Total annihilation of everything in a 5,000,000 mile long, 30 degree arc.
  Range: 150,000,000 km (About 1 AU or 93,000,000 miles)
  Rate of Fire: Once every minute.
  Payload: Effectively unlimited, so long as the ship provides power.
  
  Note: Systems that make up this weapon were built in a modular fashion so that the ship's main gun could be easily switched with other modules (weapon systems, additional crew space, sensor arrays) at a later time, if desired. Exchanging the main gun's systems in this fashion requires about 6 hours.

So, basically, people using aether weapons essentially shoot tears in the fabric of space-time. When that connects with Zesuaium, it's energy potential is released.

~_~ well, as far as I know, those are the sources of information put at the disposal of the players.

 

[Derran Tyler]

Based on the Projected Energy Beam, this arm-cannon uses a spatial distortion to release condensed Aetheric energy. The result is a fantastic flow of tremendous energy.

The spatial distortion around the ship (the Combined Field System) is used to release condensed potential energy from the aether, the ubiquitous sea of energy.

See what I'm saying now - aether weapons are just fancy energy weapons. The aether just provides a very potent source of energy, but at the very base level, it's damage is dealt by transferring tremendous amounts of heat energy to the target.

So if aether can harm Zesuaium, any sufficiently powerful energy weapon can.

 

[Zakalwe]

I think it's sort of the point that an aether rifles beam is meant to have 'infinate energy density' that might do it.

 

[Zack]

If energy dosen't hurt it at all, then why would more energy effect it?

 

[Tom]

I think the more important question here is how exactly does this material work? It doesn't make much sense to me at all.

Does this fall under suspension of disbelief? I dunno...