Latest blog post: End of the chapter 5, and a short hiatus (2024-02-19)

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Darrell Swanson

So how long to the beginning of 6?

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Darth_Biomech

It's all there in the latest blog entry.

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Mark Linimon

Congrats on 200.

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tully

So I have been thinking. Just HOW many cliffhangers does this chapter end with?

So far I have ;

1: Val and Mark about to maybe doublecross Dan and thus putting their friendship in jeopardy.

2. Gharr undecided if he should go public or surrender to the military/government.

3. Nea still a prisoner with an undecided future and has been bluffed by either the Major or General Bahin.

4. Agent Iskra has been doublecrossed by either Major or General Bahin. I put my money on Bahin.

5. Zane on the way and he does not look to happy. I think he´s got a "naughty" list.

6. The Ghosts still an unknown, despite maybe being the instigator for the Fleets route to Sol system.

7. General Bahin seems to have is own little powergame going on behind Majors back

8. Certainly Quantum & partly Zane is kept out of the info-loop by intent from Cap.Kas.

******************************

Then there is the unspoken ones :

9. Professor Zelenkov could still snap and go full Dr. Moreau on Nea , for the "benefit of mankind".

10. That "Space TAB" can is pure uncut supercharged hephrene,. The energy stored in that small container could probably split the Planet in half. Don´t shake on the hands Professor!

11. Agent Iskra has not yet checked if that cell door will unlock now she is in there with Nea.

12. If everything turns Dandy, is there enough Pizza on Planet Earth for 13 billion Raharr ?

Have I missed something ? Anyway . I am on the edge of my Haag Capisco seat here!

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Darth_Biomech

One of the benefits of hephrene is that no matter what you do to it outside of a quite specific environment, it's gonna just act like an inert heavier-than-air gas. So it's safe and even kinda trivial to handle, one of the major reasons why hephrene reactors basically took over in the Alliance in comparison to, say, antimatter or even fusion reactors.

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JoB

> it's gonna just act like an inert heavier-than-air gas.

So, as harmless as standing next to a nice lake.

(... what kinda scientist would Zelenkov be not to subject the sample to a couple "quite specific environments"?)

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ANTIcarrot

The Expanse is strong with this one...

And a suitable image to end chapter 5 on.

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Regular

They are at approximately 48° to the sun. Is that stealthy enough?

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Regular

Correction: 41°. Copied the wrong number. Still pretty high in the twilight sky.

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Onyavar

I think the west coast of Africa should be less green.

Other than that, a wonderful shot of Earth.

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JoB

... frankly, I have problems definitively identifying any surface items on both Earth and the Moon ... given that no polar ice caps are visible and the Moon is off to the right, Earth's axis should be pretty much up/down in the panels, but then continents should be visible in pairs (N and S America, or Europe+Africa, or Asia+Australia) ... the pronounced assembly of (darker) maria belongs on the Northern part of the Moon's Earthward side, but then there's no match for the two large craters "above" (the actual Moon has Tycho in a similar position, but that one's brighter than the surrounding surface, rather than darker) ...

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Wilson

I believe the big sunlit continent in the middle of view is South America, seen roughly SouthEast-up. The West coast of Africa is way over on the left, with very little sunlight remaining at the end of the day. Western Africa is plenty green around Liberia and the Ivory Coast, which, if I'm right, is what's in view.

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However, that'd put the Moon at what, 50+° S as seen from Earth, when the actual maximum is 23.44 + 5.14 = 28.58 degrees, wouldn't it ... ?

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Senior

(I'm not sure that Earth's terminator could actually follow that line, either ...)

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Senior

(... not to mention that it'd mean that the cruiser's approaching from way out of the ecliptic, unlike what's apparently shown on page 198 ...)

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Wilson

Perspective in outer space can be disorienting. We could get all picky about orbital dynamics, but I just think it's a pretty image, and setting the mood for the tensions to come.

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Senior

Oooookay, let's see what we have here ... position lights: STILL on ... engine exhaust: visibly a-blazin' and apparently pointed exactly at the planet ... I wonder whether those engines also work as ion drives, to maximize thrust? Because why would you botch der shneakiness only halfway when you can blast the atmosphere with ions and cause aurorae all over ...

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tully

Occam's razor says : Female pilot

And sorry to all Female readers out there, I just could not help myself

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(Punitive dismemberment with Occam's particularly rusty one in 5, 4, 3, ...)

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Phil Eklund

The engine exhaust pointed at the destination indicates a deceleration. Entirely reasonable. Somebody speculated the the engines are ion thrusters. This seems likely given the very small fuel tanks. Ion engines, with their enormous specific impulse, maximize fuel efficiency, but have very low thrust.

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Bug

I don't think we know enough about how their drive or combat works. If neither fuel nor space combat are issues, the best way to run in deep space is with the engines going full throttle all the time - accelerate beyond the half way point, decelerate to orbital velocity (except that breakdowns happen, so ...).

If fuel is a thing, then the harder it is to refuel, the shorter the burns. For our current tech, this far outside the moon's orbit looks way too early for a deceleration to orbit burn (a good place for a Kerbal test!), but theirs isn't our tech.

If space combat is a thing, then velocities much higher than available acceleration tends to produce trivially easy targets, which shortens burns to keep velocity low enough to allow evasive actions. This is true no matter how good a ship's acceleration. Max burns would be just as short.

However, if a ship has very high possible acceleration, it could for lots of reasons maintain constant thrust far enough below the max possible acceleration to always allow evasive action. Fuel efficiency, dangers inherent with relighting the engines, crew comfort/survival to name a few. There could also be an eventual escape through speed, but that would always make you vulnerable at some point of the velocity curve, almost certainly in the most populated places - interplanetary space.

I assume the author has already figured out such details, so that information isn't provided later that makes all the possibilities necessary to produce this image impossible. Without explanation, anyway.

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charlesw81

The pale blue dot is looking much less like a dot

No time left for contemplation. Everything is starting to move now.

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tully

The period of the Dot is over. Enter the period of the Disc...world.

And yes...A nice end to Chapter 4.

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tully: "A nice end to Chapter 4."

page: "End of chapter 5"

... umh ... ?

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Wouter215

I suppose for SPAM reasons, this comment system doesn't have an edit button.

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tully

Mistyped. Yes , I meant Chapter 5.

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Wouter215

Ah, the worst part of driver's ed, reverse-parking into orbit.

I liked this chapter. especially the Pizza plotline.

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"There is no sound in space! ... Well, except ..."






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TRIVIA
So far there hasn't been a single instance of a massive interstellar war. Due to the vastness of space, there's no territorial or economic gain from it. The presence of armed spaceships is still warranted for keeping space travel safe and for peacekeeping or policing missions since unexpected events or rogue states can still happen and might require force as a solution.