E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman data

[Currald]

Heh...here, I'll post the data I got from Skylark a while back, if you don't mind getting a few spoilers.

Nah, I handle the spoilers. It's been pretty hard to research for my website without running into constant Skylark references. I doubt you could spoil my enjoyment. Post away!

[consequences]

Remember the Supermauler is completely different from a normal mauler in design, the Supermauler has just one truly evil weapon that it is built around, a normal mauler mounts a slightly more traditional grouping.

[Darth_Shinji]

Yeah your right. I though a supermauler was mearly an upgraded mauler with primaries. Its actually a ship based on putting all of its power behind a single primary..... Damn.

Maulers prob have primaries too. Considering battleships have them as well by second stage. Just not as powerful. Anyone have anything?

[Currald]

Maulers were created before primaries were developed, but I'm fairly certain that they were upgraded to include primaries. Maulers are smaller than the Dauntless, and slower. They are less astrodynamic and devote most of their space to offensive weaponry and power storage and generation. They can prevent nearbye ships from drawing power from cosmic radiation. I worked together a very rough size comparison chart, which certainly isn't ready for prime time yet, but might generate some useful discussion. http://www20.brinkster.com/pariahpress/ ... zecomp.htm

[Darth_Shinji]

I also found a quote that cruisers have primaries by second lensman.



Nice website by the way Currald. Outside the FAQ its the only other lensman fansite I've found with actual info about the series outside of explaining what the series is and who made it.

[Hotfoot]

Okay boys and girls, this is a big one. Old school Science Fiction coming up, and so far as I can tell, apart from godlike entities, probably the only thing that could compare in raw power is the Culture or other similar-powered races. In this thread I will detail the powers and capabilities of, quite simply, five vessels, each one more powerful than the last. But first, a small introduction:

The first of the series of books written of these ships was written in 1919, but published in 1928. The final book I believe was written around the early 1950’s or so. They were written by Edward E. Smith, PhD., otherwise known as E.E. “Doc” Smith. For those curious, he was a Chemist, though obviously he has some rather substantial knowledge of physics (one would only hope, but that’s me). Smith also wrote the Lensman Series, and perhaps at a later date I shall comb through that series and bring back slightly less ungodly numbers, or slightly more, I don’t know. The series is, in case you have not guess, the Skylark Series. The initial premise of which being that accomplished chemist (surprise, surprise) Richard Seaton accidentally stumbles upon a strange substance, which he dubbed “Metal X” (also known as Rovolon elsewhere). This substance, under certain conditions acts as a catalyst in a peculiar matter to energy reaction, which releases a full one hundred percent of a material’s mass into energy, with no loss of energy anywhere in the process. The first material proven to be responsive to rovolon is copper. Later, uranium is used as a much more efficient reaction mass, but I’ll touch on that further on.

Now, the first ship to be displayed is the original Skylark of Space. Constructed purely through terrestrial materials, save the rovolon in the engines and the weapons systems, it was about forty feet in diameter and spherical in shape. It had four feet of steel armor for a shell, and for armament had several fifty-caliber machine guns poking out through the hull. The machine guns, while not sounding like much in the way of armament for a spacefaring ship, were in fact quite potentially devastating due to the ammunition they carried.

Dubbed X-plosive bullets, the specialized rounds (designed to create a rovolon-copper reaction upon impact) were designated Mark One to Mark Ten in order of lethality and raw destructive potential. As far as I can tell, the increase is not linear. Only three classifications of bullets were discussed at any real level, the Mark One, the Mark Five, and the Mark Ten. The clearest descriptions are the Mark One and the Mark Five, whereas the Mark Ten is rather nebulous.

Mk 1: A round fired at a tree stump from a pistol at 100 yards tore the tree stump from the ground and reduced it to so many splinters. (Guessing that about 1/8th a stick of TNT would do just about that…but that’s just a guess)
Mk 5: A round fired at a large boulder from a pistol at 900 yards (note: Character firing was noted to be an expert marksman with a pistol, I know that a normal person with a hand gun would have little change of being so accurate, even with a large enough target) created an odd, almost indescribable “explosion”, created a small, very rapidly climbing mushroom cloud, and a shockwave that knocked both main characters off their feet.

Now, the Mk 10 is a special case, and requires a little cross-referencing, as they are most notably used against battleships armored with a material known as Arenak. Arenak is a special metal, which is impossible to create without the catalyst sodium chloride (NaCl). It is entirely transparent unless specifically tinted at the time of forging. Once created, arenak is more or less set. It will flex and bend under extreme pressure and energy rather than break, and IIRC, when it finally does lose stability, it almost instantaneously vaporizes rather than slowly melt away. Now, how durable is arenak? How much punishment can it take? One-tenth of an inch of arenak personal body armor is capable of withstanding a direct hit from a sixteen-inch armor piercing shell. The person inside the armor is, naturally, in for some serious trouble from the force of the impact without special equipment, but that is hardly the point. The Osnomian Battleships being shot at by the .50 caliber Mk 10 rounds had one full inch of this armor plating (why not any more? Simple. NaCl is rare on Osnome. The amount of salt one usually has in their kitchen is more Salt than Osnome can produce in hundreds, if not thousands of years). Here is what happened when X-plosive bullets were used against the one-inch arenak hulls of the Osnomian battleships

Mk5/6: blown to bits
Mk7: disintegrated (almost dematerialized…but with a explosion, of course)
Mk8/9: one bullet, 2-3 ships destroyed as if by Mk7
Mk10: one bullet, 10-12 ships destroyed as if by Mk7

Distances apart for the ships in question is not given, so I am assuming that they were somewhat close together (they were trying to swarm the Skylark, then the Skylark Two at that point) and had not yet thought to disperse their formation to reduce causalities. I have not yet bothered with the horribly vague calculations needed to find the power of the Mk10 rounds, but I think that it is safe to say that they are, at the very, very least, in the kiloton or megaton range. It should be noted that the explosions created by the X-plosive ammunition is not directed, at least not in any that I have ever seen in use in the series.

Now, back to the Skylark of Space. Fuel, as I had mentioned, was copper, and simple enough element to obtain, and since rovolon is not consumed in the reaction, as is the copper, much more copper is required for any one trip than rovolon. Rovolon is not, however, native to Earth. The only sample of the material came from a meteor which also contained high levels of platinum. On the first major expedition into deep space, an entire planet was found which was brimming with rovolon. So beyond this point there is no real shortage of the specific material required to make the special reaction that makes interstellar flight a possibility.

The Skylark of Space had a maximum velocity of quite literally infinity. No limit was ever placed on the top speed of the ship’s rovolon-copper powered propulsion system. The only limit, in fact, was place on the acceleration of the vessel. At first, it was theorized by the two main characters that the maximum possible velocity was that of light. They found out quite quickly that they were wrong. In fact, the maximum acceleration that the Skylark of Space achieved was twice the velocity of light. So they happily went flitting about the cosmos at 2*( 3*10^8 )m/s^2. Well, not happily…going at full power did put their bodies through hell, and even the prime physical (and mental) examples of humanity that made up the cast could hardly keep up that sort of pace under normal conditions. At any rate, in 48 hours, a poor prototype of the Skylark of Space traveled approximately 237 light years on full thrust before the copper bars fueling the system ran dry. At that rate, the ship was already at superluminal speeds and did not stop. It simply continued at its last defined velocity and kept going. This was all done in real space, not hyperspace, subspace, or some other thing, real space. I don’t pretend to know how or why Skylark ships could break the light barrier and still follow so many other laws of physics, but the simple fact is that they do, quite regularly.

The only other abilities of much note on the Skylark of Space are the Object Compasses, “shields”, and attractors and repellors. Object compasses are very simple in what they, but hardly ever described as to how they do it. All that is known is that if you set them to an object, they will always point to that object. They look like three-dimensional compasses, and can be used to determine the range of an object. The most primitive ones had ranges of at least 235 light years. That is the highest distance the low-tech object compasses have been absolutely proven is within their range of reliable detection, though it is assumed that the actual maximum range is somewhat larger. Also, the object detected at that range was a man-sized object. The more massive the object, the easier it is to track at longer ranges. Obviously, the less massive the object, the harder it is to track. It is apparently just as possible to target a man as it is to target a galaxy. Early shields are not fully explained, and I am not entirely certain that the original Skylark of Space had anything beyond what is labeled First order shields, namely protection from the normal electromagnetic spectrum. If they did have shields of this sort, they were extremely limited. Attractors and repellors are just what they imply. Essentially, they are tractor beams and repuslor beams on steroids. They can be used as screens against projectile attacks, as “snares”, or what have you. They can be used in deep space under full acceleration, and can toss around massive creatures like toys (exact mass unknown, estimated equivalent mass: Earth Elephant).

The Skylark Two hardly deserves much more than an addendum to the Skylark of Space, but there are enough significant changes to make it worthy of being a new ship. First of all, the four feet of steel were replaced with four feet of solid arenak armor. The ship was fitted with Osnomian shields (strong first order, likely second and third order as well, with at the very least elements of fourth order protection), and given more advanced electronics systems. A sister ship was also built, using purely Osnomian technology and piloted by the Osnomian allies of the Skylark crew. When X-plosive ammunition was running low in a major battle, the Skylark Two simply began darting about around, and specifically through the opposing Osnomian battleships without taking serious damage.

Now a short break and an explanation as to “Orders” of shields and energy as they are used in the Skylark series. As far as I have figured out from my rapid re-reading of the series, there are a total of six “Orders” of energy/power/waves. There are thought to possibly be a seventh, and possibly even higher, but that was not proven by the end of the series, and as such is so much speculation. First Order is the Electromagnetic spectrum. Second and Third order are not very clearly defined, and Fourth Order contains gravity, along with a myriad of other forces. It is also the final order of energy that is carried inside of normal space. Fifth Order is not propagated through normal space, and is not affected by the same restrictions as previous orders. It is very capable of a number of disturbingly powerful uses, not the least of which involves a beam weapon that is capable of at least 7.8 petatons per shot. Fifth Order energy travels faster than light by a considerable degree, so much so that using a Fifth Order communications device nearly-instantaneous communication can be held at distances measured in the hundreds of thousands of light years. Sixth Order is even faster, and can be used for essentially instantaneous conversation from across the known universe (since actual distance is never mentioned exactly, I’ll assume that at the very least the distance involved is around 20,000,000,000 or more light years, stolen from my “current” map of the universe from an old 1983 National Geographic)

Fourth Order Shields are fitted to the Skylark Two shortly into the second book. These shields effectively stop all energy from fourth order and below from passing through. Light, sound, heat, even gravity does not affect the matter inside the sphere. Nothing Fourth Order or below can get through the shields, period. The only limit is how long the power supply can maintain the zone of force. It does, however, make you effectively blind unless you have Fifth or Sixth Order projectors, and thus just as unable to do anything as any foe you might be trying to survive (or stymie). If you are flying around on a planet and activate a zone of force, you will begin to drift upwards and off at an angle from the planet (most of the time, at any rate) as you will stay in place while the planet keeps moving around on its axis and through its orbit. Any matter in between the “inside” and the “outside” of the zone of force is severed nice cleanly in two, with the precision of a monomolecular scalpel. This has been used before as an impromptu weapon by the Skylark Two by means of dropping the zone suddenly, locating and finding the hostile ship, going on an instant near-collision course, and snapping the zone of force into life as they flew by. Just a few sweeps later and what had formerly been an alien warship of incredible power was so much cleanly cut scrap.

But so far, this isn’t so bad. This isn’t even a taste of what’s to come. It’s not until Skylark Three that we begin to see the monstrosities that the Skylark Series is capable of. The Skylark Three is 10,000 feet in length (3.3km) and is shaped somewhat like a zeppelin rather than a sphere. The Skylark Two is used as a dinghy and lifeboat for the larger of the Skylarks, and God’s Gift to Inertial Dampeners are installed. The first ship of the Skylark Series to use uranium fuel instead of copper, the Skylark Three was capable of acceleration equal to twenty times the velocity of light. Armed with weapons and shields of the Fifth Order and pretty much everything below that, it was capable of tossing around ~7.8 PT Fifth Order beams at ranges in excess of 200,000 light years with devastating accuracy.

Now, to give you all an idea of what kind of mojo Fifth Order beams are, in order to focus Fifth Order stuff, you need a neutronium lens. Fifth Order can transport things insanely long distances, force, matter, or whatever. They can be detected, and they can be stopped, but only if you know what to look for and that involves knowledge of the Fifth Order, and functional Fifth Order devices.

That, sadly, is about all that can really be said for the Skylark Three. It was a short-lived ship, and subsequently replaced by the planetoid Skylark of Valeron.

The Skylark of Valeron is a return to the traditional spherical ship design of the Skylark Series, and is over one thousand kilometers in diameter. The ship had mechanical brain that acted as an extension of the pilot’s minds, and did most of the automation of the ship, besides other various menial tasks. Reaction time for this sort of automation was given as a rather small fraction of a trillionth of a second. Calculate that however you wish. The ship was outfitted to the brim with Sixth Order and down gear, the Sixth Order being more or less the realm of thought. If the crew wanted corned beef hash with a smattering of cheddar on top, and a tall class of milk, all they had to do was think into a headset and poof, there it was, courtesy of the ship’s brain. The Skylark of Valeron was the first ship of the series to make use of totally artificial gravity and inertial dampeners, no longer needing to provide as much reverse acceleration when approaching a destination, instead being able to apply an ether-brake of sorts. The new propulsion system no longer fully relied upon the matter to energy conversion generated by rovolon entirely, but instead used the reaction to draw upon the latent energy of the universe, which in itself is nearly infinite. The only mentioned acceleration rate of the Skylark of Valeron is listed at 127 times the velocity of light, so you can make your own conclusions from there. The hull of the Skylark Series ceased being arenak with the Skylark Three, instead being made of isonon, a material about which even less is known, other than it is far more resilient than arenak, to the point where the advantages arenak has over steel are dwarfed by the advantages isonon has over arenak, with the one exception being that isonon is not transparent. At this point, due to the particular fashion in which the ship generates energy, any focused beam of the Fourth Order or lower used to attack the Skylark of Valeron simply makes the shields glow red (they fail at black), and the energy is drawn from the offensive power of the beam to power the ship itself. It is therefore only forces that are not purely cosmic in nature (do not travel through “realspace”) that pose any sort of serious threat. Fifth and Sixth Order (or higher) only need apply.

Now then there is the Skylark DuQuesne, perhaps my favorite of the group, because it is owned and operated by the primary antagonist of the series, Marc C. “Blackie” DuQuesne. DuQuesne himself is worthy of his own rant and spiel, but I’ll spare that for a moment. Save to say that he is one of the most badass, ruthless, truly intelligent, and successful “bad guys” out there. He was given the exact blueprints to the Skylark of Valeron, but he decided to make a few modifications. While the Valeron was designed to traverse and communicate distances from the other end of the universe, the Skylark DuQuesne was first and foremost a ship of conquest and war. The brain inside the ship had specific safeguards that Seaton had designed in removed, and other sections locked away. It bristled with all sorts of projectors and shields, it was larger, denser, and comparing it to the Skylark of Valeron in way of design would be like comparing the Enterprise-D and an Impstar Deuce. Quite literally, the Valeron lavishly housed three families, while Skylark DuQuesne held but captain and “crew” much more spartanly. DuQuesne also fitted his ship with several Fourth-Dimensional transporters, devices which ignored many of the laws of normal Three-Dimensional Space and thus most orders of known energy. Using these devices, he staged a short-lived assault on a galaxy of hostile Aliens. He managed to destroy over 15,000 planets by turning the planets in the space of the few minutes he had before he was forced to retreat from intense ray bombardment while still outside the actual galaxy.

And now for a real kicker:
While turning planets into suns wasn’t hard to do, provided you could get the rovolon-uranium (or copper) bomb to the planet somehow (via Fifth or Sixth Order projections, or Fourth-Dimensional transport), the galaxy of hostile aliens was a very dangerous potential threat. So much so that Seaton and DuQuesne joined forces in order to wipe out the aliens utterly, and yet still prevent loss of human life by saving the human slaves that the aliens had conquered. Using a combination of advanced Fourth Dimensional and Sixth Order techniques and technologies, as well as the power of their own minds (at this point, Lyta should be paying attention, either taking notes or running far, far away) to drastically affect a grand total of three galaxies, which for the moment I will label Galaxies A, B, and Z. Galaxy A was essentially the ammo dump. Galaxy B was a refugee camp, and Galaxy Z was ground zero.

Galaxy Z had a grand total of well over 197,277,188 inhabited systems (DuQuesne had mapped less of a quarter of Galaxy Z and had found 49,319,297). Of that, DuQuesne had turned 15,000 into stars. A good start, but not enough to even make a dent. At time zero at ground zero, the Skylarks began grabbing stars from Galaxy A and placing them in particularly nasty positions in Galaxy Z, namely right next to, if not right on top of, a local system’s native star. Before anything critical happened, however, they were very careful to transplant any human slave planets in the area in an appropriate orbit around an appropriate star in Galaxy B. Over the course of many hours, “more than fifty thousand million suns to move, in all,” and by the time they were done, Galaxy A was a mere shade of what it once was, while Galaxy Z was, as best as I can describe it, a Galactic Supernova.

Now THAT is what I call a thorough job.

Obviously, there have been some things I might have forgotten, left out, or passed over. If you have any questions, ask away, and I shall strive to answer to the best of my abilities. I did not include page references for this initial post for a few reasons, primarily that I doubt they would have done much more than lengthen this already humungous post. It is quite simple for me to retrieve page numbers, however, so if you want me to quote book, chapter, and page for your own reference, I would be more than happy to do so. Do take in mind however that whatever editions I have might not correspond precisely with other editions on the market.

If you just skipped down here to see what the hell I was smoking writing all this up and posting it, it was done as at least a partial reference since I knew that very few people were likely to have read this series, much less anything by E.E. “Doc” Smith (shame on you…it’s good enough stuff for JMS to have cut his teeth on, dangit). So rather than just toss out a random and belligerent “hey! I got something that kicks everyone’s ass! Try your luck!” followed with the usual “Ha-ha! YOU CAN’T DO THAT! IT’S IMMUNE!” or some such, I am attempting to lay down all the facts (and some of the speculation) as far as I can see them. I am also curious as to how this would fit into any sort of Org Chart (seeing as how the Valeron is capable of holding a small fleet of other vessels, including the venerable Skylark Two, and considering that construction times for ships of such size and power is ridiculously low, requiring, at best, a few days time in which DuQuesne created his monster, at worst, a few weeks) and if, by any slight chance or marvels, if I have finally found something from Old School Science Fiction that would give the Culture a stomachache at the very least.

So what of it, fellow forum folks? I’ve got the hook dangling, ready to bite? I’ll take all comers, short of god-like characters/extra-dimensional beings. Trek, Wars, B5, Weberverse, FS, whatever. *rings a bell*

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!

-Hotfoot
“DuQuesne calling Seaton, reply on tight band of the Sixth…”

[Currald]

I also found a quote that cruisers have primaries by second lensman.

Well, then I'm sure maulers have 'em too, since cruisers seem to be the smallest warships in the Lensman universe. Well, Kyle mentioned destroyers in one of his books, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what you'd want a destroyer for in Lensman. The ship classifications are clearly WWI-based, and destroyers were used to defend against subs and airplanes, neither of which has an analog in Lensman.

Nice website by the way Currald. Outside the FAQ its the only other lensman fansite I've found with actual info about the series outside of explaining what the series is and who made it.

Thanks. I noticed the apalling lack, and decided to remedy it. I seem to be updating it every two days lately, so I guess there's a lot to do!

The Skylark of Valeron is a return to the traditional spherical ship design of the Skylark Series, and is over one thousand kilometers in diameter.

Did they build that in the garage in two weeks? Nice analysis. I think I read it over on Spacebattles or usenet a few months ago. So maybe the more advanced Lensman types are more powerful in usual physical areas, but Skylark tech can operate in areas inconceivable to the scientists of the GP. It really doesn't look like Civilization would stand much of a chance against Seaton and Blackie.

Well, I just read "Moon Prospector" by William B. Ellern, and got a nice solid dating cue! The formation of the Galactic Patrol in First Lensman takes place 200 years after moon rovers were used by the Apollo mission! So the early 2170's. Haynes said that explosives hadn't been used in space combat for "centuries" when he was explaining the Q-gun to Kim Kinnison, and they used explosives in First Lensman, so that puts Kinnison's graduation at 2370 at the earliest, mas o menos. My brother has a poster from the Lensman anime with Worsel on it. The caption: "In the 25th century, I new breed of hero..." But I guess that doesn't qualify as a valid source.

[Darth_Shinji]

Two additions for skylark.

Time freeze and force globes: Basacally the skylarks can make zones of force as big as they want. One instanance they covered a world and another hundreds of light years in daimeter. They can also freeze time in thier globes instantly freezing people and objects. They even discussed doing this to the chloran galaxy. But didn't, mainly due to emotional and time constaints.

Inoson: Wanted to touch on this metal a little. It is decribed as the ulitimate synthetic made from the electrons up as the strongest theotical possible phyisical substance. One example of its strenght is a beam that was stronger than a beam that complealty vaporized a vessel of arenak, was used on a scout ship built of the stuff for five minutes, and did not destroy half of the outer thickness of the point it was set on. And the ship was still compleatly space-worthy. They also could make this stuff aperantly anyway out of avaibale materals. And could build bases out of it in a day.

[Hotfoot]

Two additions for skylark.

Time freeze and force globes: Basacally the skylarks can make zones of force as big as they want. One instanance they covered a world and another hundreds of light years in daimeter.

I don't recall this. Unless you're talking about the Sixth Order Trap they made for those "omnipotent" 6th-order aliens that they ran across and turned DuQuesne into for a time. I didn't cover that as much because I was looking for hard numbers, and that was almost impossible to quantify. As a note, "Zone of Force" specifically refer to the Fourth Order shields, IIRC.

They can also freeze time in thier globes instantly freezing people and objects. They even discussed doing this to the chloran galaxy. But didn't, mainly due to emotional and time constaints.

I think I know what you're talking about, concerning the Sixth Order prison they made for the aliens mentioned above, but I don't recall them ever seriously discussing it as an option for the Chloran galaxy. I mean, trapping a handful of aliens is one thing, but a whole galaxy? Quite another indeed. I'm also not certain that time would be frozen. The aliens appeared to be aware even while in their prison, which would indicate time was not frozen.

Inoson: Wanted to touch on this metal a little. It is decribed as the ulitimate synthetic made from the electrons up as the strongest theotical possible phyisical substance. One example of its strenght is a beam that was stronger than a beam that complealty vaporized a vessel of arenak, was used on a scout ship built of the stuff for five minutes, and did not destroy half of the outer thickness of the point it was set on. And the ship was still compleatly space-worthy. They also could make this stuff aperantly anyway out of avaibale materals. And could build bases out of it in a day.

Your sentence wording is quite confusing there, and I can't make out exactly what you're attempting to say.

[Hotfoot]

The Skylark of Valeron is a return to the traditional spherical ship design of the Skylark Series, and is over one thousand kilometers in diameter.

Did they build that in the garage in two weeks?

Meh, garage, spare planet, fourth-order projectors, and a little elbow grease.

Nice analysis. I think I read it over on Spacebattles or usenet a few months ago. So maybe the more advanced Lensman types are more powerful in usual physical areas, but Skylark tech can operate in areas inconceivable to the scientists of the GP. It really doesn't look like Civilization would stand much of a chance against Seaton and Blackie.

Thanks. I did post it on Spacebattles a while back, but it's so good, why not post it again?

But yeah, end result would have Skylark crushing Lensman, with both the tech levels raised to max. It's even possible that Seaton and DuQuesne could beat out most, if not all the Lensmen in the whole "power of the mind" department...

[Darth_Shinji]

Two additions for skylark.

Time freeze and force globes: Basacally the skylarks can make zones of force as big as they want. One instanance they covered a world and another hundreds of light years in daimeter.

I don't recall this. Unless you're talking about the Sixth Order Trap they made for those "omnipotent" 6th-order aliens that they ran across and turned DuQuesne into for a time. I didn't cover that as much because I was looking for hard numbers, and that was almost impossible to quantify. As a note, "Zone of Force" specifically refer to the Fourth Order shields, IIRC.

They made a globe of sixth order energies for that one. But they also zoned the choloran planet fighting valeron. I made a mistake there.

They can also freeze time in thier globes instantly freezing people and objects. They even discussed doing this to the chloran galaxy. But didn't, mainly due to emotional and time constaints.

I think I know what you're talking about, concerning the Sixth Order prison they made for the aliens mentioned above, but I don't recall them ever seriously discussing it as an option for the Chloran galaxy. I mean, trapping a handful of aliens is one thing, but a whole galaxy? Quite another indeed. I'm also not certain that time would be frozen. The aliens appeared to be aware even while in their prison, which would indicate time was not frozen.[/quote] The Chorans in valeron where said to be frozen solid in time and whould not be aware of there journey, even though it would take 300 years to reach thier home galaxy. Project Rho was only one option they were considering using with thier new powers. All of them had broken up into groups to think of options to do and that one was one of them. It wasn't picked mainly becuase Seaton was blood thirsty and iproject Rho was farthest along in devolpment, having Hunkie and DQ already making hardware for it when Seaton was discussing the options with Dorothy. And the 6th order beings were not time freezed until after he talked to them to reconsider their actions and DQ joined them.

Inoson: Wanted to touch on this metal a little. It is decribed as the "ulitimate synthetic" made from the electrons up as the strongest substance possible . One example of its strenght is a beam that was said to be able to distintagrate a ship made of arenak, was used on a scout ship built of isonon for five minutes, and did not destroy half of the outer thickness of the point it was set on, And the ship was still compleatly space-worthy. They also could make this stuff aperantly anywhere out of any avaible materals.

Your sentence wording is quite confusing there, and I can't make out exactly what you're attempting to say.[/quote] I hope this helps. Mainly I'm just going over Isonon.

[Currald]

Gah! Now I've found a quote in The Vortex Blaster saying that it had been over 1000 years since atomic power had been developed by Tellurians! What the hell was Civilization doing in the 800 years (give or take) between First Lensman and Galactic Patrol. At least 3 galactic surveys, colonization, first contacts, etc. But they couldn't bother to cure polio or make any advancements in weapons technology? Oh, sorry. I guess beam weapons are 100 times more powerful for the same mass of equipment needed to generate them. That ain't bad, I suppose. Still. Eight hundred years?!?

[Darth_Shinji]

Gah! Now I've found a quote in The Vortex Blaster saying that it had been over 1000 years since atomic power had been developed by Tellurians! What the hell was Civilization doing in the 800 years (give or take) between First Lensman and Galactic Patrol. At least 3 galactic surveys, colonization, first contacts, etc. But they couldn't bother to cure polio or make any advancements in weapons technology? Oh, sorry. I guess beam weapons are 100 times more powerful for the same mass of equipment needed to generate them. That ain't bad, I suppose. Still. Eight hundred years?!?

Wouldn't it also be triplantary? A third world war, bringing civ back up from the ashes. And if we want to get techinical, atomic power was first made by the alanteains. And they have stated thier weapons were getting more powerful, just not be how much.

[Currald]

Ah yes, over 1000 years after the year "19--?"
The line in The Vortex Blaster wasn't referring to the Atlantean atomic power, but the current incarnation of Civilization's, since he (Neal Cloud) was also charting interstellar travel, which the Atlanteans didn't have. Plus, I doubt that Cloud knows anything about Atlantis beyond hazy legends. The weapon efficiencies come from The Dragon Lensman, by David Kyle, which is a secondary source, but can be used by the rules stated above (in the top post) so long as it isn't contradicted.

[Darth_Shinji]

Ah yes, over 1000 years after the year "19--?"
The line in The Vortex Blaster wasn't referring to the Atlantean atomic power, but the current incarnation of Civilization's, since he (Neal Cloud) was also charting interstellar travel, which the Atlanteans didn't have. Plus, I doubt that Cloud knows anything about Atlantis beyond hazy legends. The weapon efficiencies come from The Dragon Lensman, by David Kyle, which is a secondary source, but can be used by the rules stated above (in the top post) so long as it isn't contradicted.

Lensman's history seems parrel to ours on the surface up to the third world war. WW2 ahandles the same eniemies so prob the same time we did.

[Andras]

I thought something like 5 centuries passed from ww3 til the Triplanetary era. Then theres another 200 years between First Lensman and Galactic Patrol. Remember that the Lensmen series was originally the 4 books from Galactic Patrol to Children, and the first two books were backfit into that.

[Currald]

I thought something like 5 centuries passed from ww3 til the Triplanetary era.

And what made you think that?

Then theres another 200 years between First Lensman and Galactic Patrol.

Well, I said that it was at LEAST 200 years, but then I read the "over 1000 years since atomic power was developed" line in The Vortex Blaster, which puts Galactic Patrol in the 30th century or later.

[quotes]Remember that the Lensmen series was originally the 4 books from Galactic Patrol to Children, and the first two books were backfit into that.[/quote]

True, but hardly germaine to the discussion at hand.

[Currald]

Whoops! I accidently used a diameter in the place of a radius. The low-end numbers for the Dauntless's primary beams are merely 6.229e18 tons. That would put a 1 second blast from a macro beam at 1.557e17 tons, and the needle beam shot at 6.229e15 tons.
Well, I'm allllmmmoooosst done with Skylark DuQuesne. I havent gotten to the big crashing of suns yet. I assume that it's the Chlorans who are going to get it, but I guess I'll have to find out for myself!

[Currald]

Here are my notes from Galactic Patrol. These are different from the previous notes. They're almost entirely devoted to details of the ships, uniforms and armor of the Patrol, rather than the general tech notes from the two prequels posted previously. I'm getting geared up to do some schematics and tech manual stuff, but I'd thought I'd share the notes with y'all. Enjoy!

***

GP

The old-style ships:

small scouts

large scouts

cruisers - big teardrops. Used (unsuccessfully) for convoy escort.

battleships - big teardrops

superdreadnaughts - globular

Brittania - Cruiser (possibly vernacular), vastly larger than superdreadnaught. Tear-drop. Fastest ship in space. Inert accelleration of 10 Gs. Free speed of 90 parsecs per hour. No long-range beams. Batteries of short range beams (probably arranged near Q-gun). Needle-rays. Tractor beams. Repellor beams. Q-gun. Plenty of defensive screens. Code call "QBT." Sensors have <10 ly range. Q-gun: Port opens, projector-ringed muzzle, projector bands. Q-gun projectile takes 4-5seconds to traverse 10 km, magazine contains 8 torpedos. Repellor zones project 10 km from skin of ship (this is typical for Boskonian ships too). Accumulators and atomic motors for power. At least four semi-portables, powered by power-beams. 100 Valerian marines. 40 (crew specialists + Valerian non-coms). Well over 21 life-boats. (4 caught, 9 escaped) Helmuth describes her has a speedster and a bomb, also a speed-boat and a firecracker.

Brittania life-boat: Tiny control room, detector plate, Bergenholm, driving projectors, less range than a ship, tiny airlock, miniature versions of practically every mechanism for The Pit,

F47U596: Boskonian first-class war-vessel, super-ship (superdreadnaught?). The single emergency inlet port, with Galactic Standard Controls, is just foreward of main driving projectors (which is the conventional arrangement). Atomic motors are first stage exciters for cosmic energy screens. Starboard cargo lock big enough for Brittania's lifeboat. Two weeks from somewhere around Alsakan near the rim to Sol. Numbering recorders on all ports (unlike with GP ships). Starboard main lock. 11 ly in a shade over 2 minutes. Accumulators for stablization of power flow. Faster than GP ships except Brittania. One of Boskone's new battleships. First-class battleship.

Pit Ships: (probably the same class as F47U596) Superdreadnaught. Accumulators for stablization of power flow. Another immense cruiser of the void joined her sister ship. And another and another. Two more ships. Kinnison's ship: one of the most powerful battleships afloat. 1800c with flare baffles on. Boskone's best. Standard fourteen rating Bergenholm. Six Boskonian battleships.

Merchantman: Emergency inlet port. Nose. After-jets.

Helmuth's speedster: Fully automatic.


New-style ships:

Special scouting cruisers: aka Cruisers. Speed and defense. The fastest things in space. Upgraded from previous builds. Interference. Tear-drop-shaped. Very strong tractor beams (uncuttable by 1st generation shears). Useless for reducing bases.

Maulers: Huge, ungainly, slow. Storhouses of vast powers of offense. Largest & most powerful projectors ever mounted on mobile platform. Not dependent on cosmic energy. Bank after bank of accumulators. Can stop nearby vessels from receiving cosmic energy. Squat and monstrous. Tractor beams. Macros can penetrate wall shields previously proof against all but 20 metric tons of duodec. Maulers use storage cells to power projectors. I guess that firepower/defense chart result vs. Boskonian battleship's wall-shield would be a "+3" result. AKA El Ponderoso. Very strong tractor beams (uncuttable by 1st generation shears). Example: B 42 TC 838 (no italics). Probably slower than 36.79 parsecs per hour in open space, based on notes below ("SLOW ship"). Armored side. Vastly more comfortable than a speedster (but what isn't?).

Heavy battle cruiser Brittania: Probably same shape as previous Brittania (both were "streamlined to the ultimate degree"). Special wall-shields and dissipators to radiate into space the heat of friction. Almost certainly faster than the original Brittania. "a battle cruiser just wasn't enough ship." Enought screens to fight a Boskonian superdreadnaught indefinately. Beams powerful, but not as powerful as a mauler's.

New automatic speedsters: Lots of legs, range, and screen. Only one beam. Unlike the larger GP warships, very narrow in proportion to length. Jets on all six sides. Belley jets. Everything is clamped down. Gravity plates are perpendicular to the orientation used in the "big tear-drops." Speed and maneuverability are only priority. Under jets places specifically and only for inert flight. If other jets are used, is extremely cranky and tricky. I THINK the thrust for the jets are as follows: under jets 2(200)Gs, aft jets 5+(500+)Gs. Braking jets more powerful than under jets, but less than aft jets. Room for six people during Kinnison's landing to hospital. Flare baffles. One of the fastest things in the galaxy. Streamlined nose.

Ultra-fast vessels of the pirates: Same shape and design as the GP speedster. We'll see what this refers to.

Prometheus: Merchantman spaceship heading to Alsakan for cigarettes. Ports. Could hold speedster, if not for cargo and men on board. Spy-ray screens. Its screens take an hour to to be burned down by a Boskonian raider (of unknown class, though. Pity.).

Boskonian raider (unknown class). Would take an hour to burn through Prometheus's screens. Wouldn't even warm up a mauler's screen. Wouldn't last a second against a mauler's beams. Braking jets on nose make no flare. Emergency inlet Lock. Under jets placed specifically for inert maneuvering (can this be one of the "Ultra-fast vessels of the pirates?" I think so.) "Battleship."

Hospital ship: Escorted by a mauler. Slow enough to be caught by a
Boskonian ship (Same one that Kinnison infiltrated on the way to
Aldebaran I, the "ultra fast vessel of the pirates.). Stateroom. "Picked up" Kinnison;s speedster (probably in a cargo lock, but possibly attached with magnets). Hasn't "got a beam hot enough to light a cigarette (that leaves out tertiaries), nor a screen strong enough to stop a firecracker." Has legs, but not as many as the Boskonian ships searching for her. Calculating machine & tank. Control room (usually called such, rather than bridge). Has supplies to burn.

Boskonian mauler:

Boskonian outposts: Eighteen small centers of radiation. Huge, floating fortresses, practically stationary in space relative to the sun. Guardian fortresses. Maulers.


GP Armor: Black and silver. 4c in interplanetary space with Bergenholms. At least 5 Gs inert. Bergenholm can be adjusted to cover three or so people. Batteries (accumulators) hold myriawatt-hour after myriawatt-hour. Drain was sufficient to cause noticible power shortage in Delgonian city, and the batts charges faster than the firing DeLameters would drain them. Took hours to charge accumulators. Defensive fields inches from surface of armor. Space armor all looks alike (GP and Boskonian).

Kinnison's peculiar armor: Has controls. Flaring drivers. Spings and shock absorbers. Shining alloy. Doesn't scratch or dent under heavy machinegun fire. Helmet built up of inches-thick laminated alloys. No window or port. Pretty close to a ton. Kinnison won't be walking around in it, but flying it. Flares are heavily baffled. Bergenholm (of course!). Locking toggles. Screens almost that of a battleship; armor, relatively, as strong. Projector scarecly less powerful than a semi-portable. No machine gun. Magnetic clamps (on hands?).

GP Fleet: Untold thousands of ships. Almost everything mobile that could throw a beam. Cruisers, battleships and maulers. A hundred thousand projectors (200,000 total?).

Dress Uniform: Space-black and silver. Golden meteors on collars. Polished ray-pistols and other items of equipment, including Bergs, on belts. Tight-beam ultra communicators strapped to chests.

Uniform: Four silver bars indicate captain rank.

Grays: Unardorned neutral-colored leather. Round, almost visor-less cap. Heavily and softly quilted to protect from armor helmet. Heavy goggles, opaque to harmful radiation. Short jacket, trim breeches, high boots.

DeLameter: Aperture and blast are adjustable. Minimum aperture is pencil-sized. Boskone uses 'em too.

Notes: "Less than one" ly is within sensor range. "Less than one" ly can be traveled in 30 seconds by a SLOW ship. Ships' hulls are ferrous, as electromagnets attract to them. Base commander threatens to have Blakeslee "spread-eagled across the mouth of number six projector." Projectors have a large mouth, eh?

[Currald]

Alright, folks. Here's the updated notes, including everything from Gray Lensman. It's a very long post. I anyone even reading this?

GP

The old-style ships:

small scouts

large scouts

cruisers - big teardrops. Used (unsuccessfully) for convoy escort.

battleships - big teardrops

superdreadnaughts - globular

Brittania - Cruiser (possibly vernacular), vastly larger than superdreadnaught. Tear-drop. Fastest ship in space. Inert accelleration of 10 Gs. Free speed of 90 parsecs per hour. No long-range beams. Batteries of short range beams (probably arranged near Q-gun). Needle-rays. Tractor beams. Repellor beams. Q-gun. Plenty of defensive screens. Code call "QBT." Sensors have <10 ly range. Q-gun: Port opens, projector-ringed muzzle, projector bands. Q-gun projectile takes 4-5seconds to traverse 10 km, magazine contains 8 torpedos. Repellor zones project 10 km from skin of ship (this is typical for Boskonian ships too). Accumulators and atomic motors for power. At least four semi-portables, powered by power-beams. 100 Valerian marines. 40 (crew specialists + Valerian non-coms). Well over 21 life-boats. (4 caught, 9 escaped) Helmuth describes her has a speedster and a bomb, also a speed-boat and a firecracker.

Brittania life-boat: Tiny control room, detector plate, Bergenholm, driving projectors, less range than a ship, tiny airlock, miniature versions of practically every mechanism for The Pit,

F47U596: Boskonian first-class war-vessel, super-ship (superdreadnaught?). The single emergency inlet port, with Galactic Standard Controls, is just foreward of main driving projectors (which is the conventional arrangement). Atomic motors are first stage exciters for cosmic energy screens. Starboard cargo lock big enough for Brittania's lifeboat. Two weeks from somewhere around Alsakan (located near the rim on the side of the galaxy opposite Sol) to Sol (around 69 parsecs per hour, but this is a bit of a stretch, calculating from hazy data). Numbering recorders on all ports (unlike with GP ships). Starboard main lock. 11 ly in a shade over 2 minutes (2:00 = 101.2 parsecs per hour. If we assume 2:15, we end up with 89.83 pph. 2:25 = 83.73 pph). Accumulators for stablization of power flow. Faster than GP ships except Brittania. One of Boskone's new battleships. First-class battleship.

Pit Ships: (probably the same class as F47U596) Superdreadnaught. Accumulators for stablization of power flow. Another immense cruiser of the void joined her sister ship. And another and another. Two more ships. Kinnison's ship: one of the most powerful battleships afloat. 1800c with flare baffles on. Boskone's best. Standard fourteen rating Bergenholm. Six Boskonian battleships.

Merchantman: Emergency inlet port. Nose. After-jets.

Helmuth's speedster: Fully automatic.


New-style ships:

Special scouting cruisers: aka Cruisers. Speed and defense. The fastest things in space. Upgraded from previous builds. Interference. Tear-drop-shaped. Very strong tractor beams (uncuttable by 1st generation shears). Useless for reducing bases. Probably 2 or 3 intake screen exciters.

Maulers: Huge, ungainly, slow. Storehouses of vast powers of offense. Largest & most powerful projectors ever mounted on mobile platform. Not dependent on cosmic energy. Bank after bank of accumulators. Can stop nearby vessels from receiving cosmic energy. Squat and monstrous. Tractor beams. Macros can penetrate wall shields previously proof against all but 20 metric tons of duodec. Maulers use storage cells to power projectors. I guess that firepower/defense chart result vs. Boskonian battleship's wall-shield would be a "+3" result. AKA El Ponderoso. Very strong tractor beams (uncuttable by 1st generation shears). Example: B 42 TC 838 (no italics). Probably slower than 36.79 parsecs per hour in open space, based on notes below ("SLOW ship"). Armored side. Vastly more comfortable than a speedster (but what isn't?). Super-powerful battleships. (Based on calcs from data in Gray Lensman (have same macros as Dauntless), GURPS Lensman and Lensman wargame, have about 34 Dauntless equivilent macro beams. Obviously this is tentative, and subject to revision due to secondary sources used.) Probably 2 or 3 intake screen exciters.

Heavy battle cruiser Brittania: Probably same shape as previous Brittania (both were "streamlined to the ultimate degree"). Special wall-shields and dissipators to radiate into space the heat of friction. Almost certainly faster than the original Brittania. "a battle cruiser just wasn't enough ship." Enought screens to fight a Boskonian superdreadnaught indefinately. Beams powerful, but not as powerful as a mauler's. Probably 2 or 3 intake screen exciters.

New automatic speedsters: Lots of legs, range, and screen. Only one beam. Unlike the larger GP warships, very narrow in proportion to length. Jets on all six sides. Belley jets. Everything is clamped down. Gravity plates are perpendicular to the orientation used in the "big tear-drops." Speed and maneuverability are only priority. Under jets places specifically and only for inert flight. If other jets are used, is extremely cranky and tricky. I THINK the thrust for the jets are as follows: under jets 2(200)Gs, aft jets 5+(500+)Gs. Braking jets more powerful than under jets, but less than aft jets. Room for six people during Kinnison's landing to hospital. Flare baffles. One of the fastest things in the galaxy. Streamlined nose. never used by civilians.

Ultra-fast vessels of the pirates: Same shape and design as the GP speedster. We'll see what this refers to.

Prometheus: Merchantman spaceship heading to Alsakan for cigarettes. Ports. Could hold speedster, if not for cargo and men on board. Spy-ray screens. Its screens take an hour to to be burned down by a Boskonian raider (of unknown class, though. Pity.).

Boskonian raider (unknown class). Would take an hour to burn through Prometheus's screens. Wouldn't even warm up a mauler's screen. Wouldn't last a second against a mauler's beams. Braking jets on nose make no flare. Emergency inlet Lock. Under jets placed specifically for inert maneuvering (can this be one of the "Ultra-fast vessels of the pirates?" I think so.) "Battleship."

Hospital ship: Escorted by a mauler. Slow enough to be caught by a
Boskonian ship (Same one that Kinnison infiltrated on the way to
Aldebaran I, the "ultra fast vessel of the pirates.). Stateroom. "Picked up" Kinnison;s speedster (probably in a cargo lock, but possibly attached with magnets). Hasn't "got a beam hot enough to light a cigarette (that leaves out tertiaries), nor a screen strong enough to stop a firecracker." Has legs, but not as many as the Boskonian ships searching for her. Calculating machine & tank. Control room (usually called such, rather than bridge). Has supplies to burn. Probably 2 or 3 intake screen exciters.

Boskonian mauler: Cannot destroy patrol heavy cruisers.

Boskonian Super-maulers: AKA outposts. Eighteen small centers of radiation. Huge, floating fortresses, practically stationary in space relative to the sun. Guardian fortresses. Maulers. Hulking monsters. The slowest mauler in the Patrol fleet could catch them in five minutes. Improvised primaries dropped all screens (3 plus wall-shield) on inertialess Patrol heavy cruisers and did "GURPS Great" damage. At LEAST nine projectors, almost certainly more. Cosmic energy powered. Gigantic accumulators.

Heavy Cruisers: GP. Little offensive strength. Tractors and pressors of prodigious power. screen which, theoretically, no projector-driven beam of force can penetrate. (Possibly the same as the special scouting cruisers?) Nine of the mightiest of Civilization's ships of war. Probably 2 or 3 intake screen exciters.

Flagship: GP. Unknown class. Airlock. Control room.

GP Fleet: 50,000 ships. Almost everything mobile that could throw a beam. Cruisers, battleships and maulers. A hundred thousand projectors (200,000 total?).

Dauntless: Superbly powered for flight, defense and offense, a complete space laboratory and observatory. Immense. Iron walls. 100,000 pph cruising in intergalactic space (this doesn't jibe with the "Ether Density" and Dauntless-class stats from GURPS). Atomic motors used for exciters maximum power of 400 pounds per hour. Cosmic energy screens operate at a 100,000:1 ratio in the galaxy (= 4,000,000 pounds per hour), and a 1,000,000:1 ration in intergalactic space (= 40,000,000 pounds per hour). Can sense ships "light years distant." Series of four screens. Master Pilot Henderson's control panel is compared to an organ, with each key controlling a jet... how many jets is that? Landing jets at least 5 Gs. Secondaries of same power as mauler's. Enormous. Bigger even than a mauler in bulk and mass. Needle-beaked prow, jet studded stern. 200 intake screen exciters. Equipped to energize simultaneously 8 primaries. Primary beam duration of .60 and a switching interval of .09 (1.98 seconds to destroy 21 vessels.). Useful life of little over half a second (0.60 seconds, to be exact). Switches control well over 100,000,000,000 KVA for primaries (whatever THAT means!). Not even a Q-type helix can withstand the primary. Secondaries can make full-aperture cones. Is designed to land on her belly. Carries Kinnison's automatic speedster. After being rebuilt with Medonian tech, she was faster than before. Can engulf Will Bill's tug. Main airlock can hold at least 20 men. "Plenty" of secondaries could be brought to bear on a target. Super-dreadnought. Medonian generators and transmitters seem to equal more powerful screens. Biggest, most powerfully-armed, and fastest thing in space (at least after her Medonian rebuild). Under-jets for first 4-5 miles upon take-off, with sirens and flaring lights clearing the way.

Boskonians attacking Medon (1st primary victims): Slower than Dauntless. Their macros are weaker than the Dauntless's. 21 of ships.

Battle-cruiser: flare-baffled, softly hissing under-jets. (This COULD be
the same class as the Brittania (II), but I suspect that it's a new
design. (Are under-jets unique to the ultra-fast shape?)

Indetectable speedster: Berylumin structural parts, force field
(instead of silicon-steel) cores for electrical equipment, what
iron-containing parts are absolutely necessary are saturated in a dense
field of detector frequencies. No ports or windows. 99.99%
non-reflective coating. Dead-black sliver of semi-precious metal. Tiny. Can hold at least Kinnison and Worsel. Main drive does 11 (1100?) G's.

Eich battleship: All equipment and weapons can be operated by two Eich.
Black, airless, lightless. Can fire missiles aka torpedoes. Communicator
Eich battleship: All equipment and weapons can be operated by two Eich.
Black, airless, lightless. Can fire missiles aka torpedoes. Communicator
panel. Vast torpedoes designed to disrupt, almost to volitize a world.
The Eich seem to have pretty advanced computers...

Tellurian freighters: Took a couple hours to get from Medon (at Alpha
Centauri) to Sol's asteroid belt, but they weren't hurrying. Huge. Freighters have large under-jets.

Wild Bill's ship: Stubby, powerful space-tug. Oversized airlock. Ten
years old. After Patrol rebuild, as staunch as a battleship.
Space-armor, Spalding drills, DeLameters, tractors and pressors and
"spee-gee" (torsion specific-gravity aparatus). Chunky space-boat.
Stocked for a six-week run. Small ship. Spalding drill cuts and polishes
a sample one inch long and one inch in diameter. Sample is placed by
hand in jaws of "spee-gee." Bergenholm is deactivated, and "spee-gee"
measures metal's specific-gravity. Raving under-jets. (Huh, this is an
old ship, so clearly under-jets are not exclusive to the state of the art
ultra-fast ships.) Can be engulfed by the Dauntless.

Heavy caterpillars: Twenty. Huge, flat treads. Mount projectors
quite comparable in size and power with the warships' (maulers') own.
(5000 firepower = 1000 tons, 1000 cy. according to GURPS) Projectors
are called heavy defense-guns. Controlled remotely.

Q-type mobile screen: Fifty units. Heavier than heavy caterpillars.
Huge, flat treads. Panels of mobile screen. Instantly flashed to
violet
under one of Prellin's beams (first-line space artillery (5000
firepower?)). Controlled remotely.

Maulers: Are these the same type as the originals? Huge ungainly
flying
fortresses of stupendous might. Under-jets (gah!). Twelves against
Prellin's base. At least two-score beams from 12 maulers (probably
quite
a few more, I can probably ignore this). High explosive shells by the
hundred. Tractors and pressors.

Transports: The commissariat and service units are carried by these.

Prellin's ship: Hidden in building covering an entire city block and 80
stories tall. Cylindrical screen. At least five up-to-the-minute
first-line space artillery beams. Takes up almost the entire building,
though there are "outer offices" conducting legitimate transactions.
Ethan D. Wembleson and Sons, Inc., 4627 Boulevard Dezalies, Cominoche,
Quadrant Eight, Bronseca. Howard Webleson aka Prellin. Beams cannot
penetrate maulers' screens. Super-dreadnought. Fast, but not as fast as the Dauntless (which is the fastest thing in space, yo). Tractor shears (which are universal equipment these days). Three simultaneous primary shots did GURPS Stark damage.

Flotilla ZKD: Composed of the Dauntless's sister-ships. On shake-down cruise. 54 units (w/ Pasteur).

Pasteur: New hospital ship. The only Red Cross ship in space that could leg it, parsec for parsec, with the Dauntless. Cost 200 million credits. Gravity-pads cut to zero, 1.4 G's from under-jets, the maximum allowed. Can engulf indetectable speedster, and presumably the gig, too.
Gig: Carried in Dauntless. Brakes at least 5 (500?) G's, probably more. At least two crew run it.

First-line super-dreadnoughts: The only type used in the operation. Built throughout the galaxy. Built and armed. Rebuilt and rearmed. Weapons made more powerful. Screen made stronger. Primaries made more powerful and longer-lasting, newly devised shells. New and heavier Q-type helices. Larger and more destructive duodec bombs. Formation moved at almost 100 pph. Tellurian armada of 80 super-dreadnoughts plus the Directrix. Sleek. Secondaries, toght-beam-directed duodec bombs which loop to gain momentum, Q-type helices improved by Medonian tech screwed in, biting, gouging. Shear-planes, hellish knives of force. Boskone has a similar fleet, but without primaries and Z9M9Z. Red K6T screen used for battle flag and identification. All primaries which could be brought to bear made 200 million shots (this is useless info, really). 0.02% of the Boskonian fleet escaped to return to Jarnevon.

Z9M9Z: Whole ship built around an Operations tank. Gigantic tear drop. Technically the Z9M9Z, socially the Directrix, and ordinarily GFHQ. No offensive armament. Every possible defense. Capable of directing efficiently a million combat units. Tank: 700 feet in diameter and 80 feet think in the middle, over 17 million cubic feet. Full circle of million plug board surrounding tank. "Reducer" is standard ten-foot tank. Haynes "looked up into the immense lens" of the tank. I think it's standing vertically. Sleek. 200 Rigellians.

Jalte's guardian citadels: Fortresses. (Probably upgraded versions of Helmuth's fortresses.) Repowered, defenses stiffened. Formidably armed and armored planetoids. Projectors batter quite a few GP ships down to the wall-shields. Mastodonic fortresses. Could withstand conventional attack, but not primaries. Mobile citadels.

Plantery-based weapons are extremely powerful. Shields cannot be breached with primaries. Beams which rival primaries in intensity and of 100 times their effective aperture. Beams encased in Q-type helices against atmosphere.


GP Armor: Black and silver. 4c in interplanetary space with Bergenholms. At least 5 Gs inert. Bergenholm can be adjusted to cover three or so people. Batteries (accumulators) hold myriawatt-hour after myriawatt-hour. Drain was sufficient to cause noticible power shortage in Delgonian city, and the batts charges faster than the firing DeLameters would drain them. Took hours to charge accumulators. Defensive fields inches from surface of armor. Space armor all looks alike (GP and Boskonian).

Kinnison's peculiar armor: Has controls. Flaring drivers. Spings and shock absorbers. Shining alloy. Doesn't scratch or dent under heavy machinegun fire. Helmet built up of inches-thick laminated alloys. No window or port. Pretty close to a ton. Kinnison won't be walking around in it, but flying it. Flares are heavily baffled. Bergenholm (of course!). Locking toggles. Screens almost that of a battleship; armor, relatively, as strong. Projector scarecly less powerful than a semi-portable. No machine gun. Magnetic clamps (on hands?). Cannot throw switches; does not bear any of the small and delicate external mechanisms so characteristic of the ordinary space-suit.

Dress Uniform: Space-black and silver. Golden meteors on collars. Polished ray-pistols and other items of equipment, including Bergs, on belts. Tight-beam ultra communicators strapped to chests.

Uniform: Four silver bars indicate captain rank.

Grays: Unardorned neutral-colored leather. Round, almost visor-less cap. Heavily and softly quilted to protect from armor helmet. Heavy goggles, opaque to harmful radiation. Short jacket, trim breeches, high boots.

Nurse Uniform: Saucy white cap. Cross-surmounted wedge on cap = sector chief nurse. Crisp and spotless white.

DeLameter: Aperture and blast are adjustable. Minimum aperture is pencil-sized. Boskone uses 'em too. Ugly. Worn, rough-checkered grips. Fully-charged
magazines. Burned, scarred, deeply-pitted orfices.


Notes: "Less than one" ly is within sensor range. "Less than one" ly can be traveled in 30 seconds by a SLOW ship. Ships' hulls are ferrous, as electromagnets attract to them. Base commander threatens to have Blakeslee "spread-eagled across the mouth of number six projector." Projectors have a large mouth, eh? Full coverage screens block vision. Ultra-wave communictors propagate at 19 billion c, not 19 trillion c, as stated in GURPS Lensman. Screens can be made more powerful with Medonian tech, but not to block primaries. Ships rebuilt with Medonian tech go faster. Kinnison says "I don't need ports or windows," WRT his
indetectable speedster. This suggests that ports and windows are
standard equipment in GP ships, though I don't remember them ever being
mentioned. I'm convinced that the battle-cruiser watching over Kinnison on Redlix and
Wild Bill's ship both have under-jets like a speedster. This may be
commonplace in smaller ships, and was only adopted in larger ships
comparitivly recently. Kinnison's battle-cruiser Brittania (II) was
almost certainly a big teardrop. Hundreds of miles is "pointblank" range for secondaries. Medonian generators and transmitters seem to equal more powerful screens.

[Currald]

Well, I know I haven't posted the Second Stage Lensman notes, but I thought I'd just share my latest calculation with y'all. The super-mauler is armed (as near as I can figure from slightly ambiguous text) with a SINGLE giant primary. The LOW END firepower for this monster is 1.038e20 tons of TNT. It is certainly higher than this.
How does that compare to the Death Star? I assume it's less, but I don't know the figures offhand....
The scary thing is, the fortified planets used by Boskone have enough screens to hold off the super-maulers, and considerably greater firepower.

[Darth_Shinji]

Darth_Wongs minuim estimates puts the DS at 3.7E32 joules lower limit. I don't know joules to tons however.


Man... this is cool. Personaly I'm not sure if Smith meant this type of power but we will work with it just find.

[Darth_Shinji]

Wait, its 2.4E32 Js I'm sorry. Here is his page.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tec ... hStar.html

[Currald]

That's 5.736e+22 tons. Not bad! Only two orders of magnitude greater. I bet those super-maulers could crack continents with those primaries.

[Darth_Shinji]

That's 5.736e+22 tons. Not bad! Only two orders of magnitude greater. I bet those super-maulers could crack continents with those primaries.

No doubt about it. What is really scaring is that is really the minuim that we know the supermauler primaries are greater then. Prob by a very large margin.

This also prob puts the sunbeam at DS or greater than DS power. They destroyied the sheilds of those planets in a secound. The ones holding the supermaulers indefinatly off.