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Ball Station Trench Run.txt
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Ball Station Trench Run.txt
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Ball Station Trench Run
The Galactic Energy Broadcast Company has constructed a reactor-based long-range burst projector station using breakthrough reactor technology that allows for a truly self-sustaining reactor that is able to recover from energy broadcast using it's enormous surface area to harvest area light. The Station is immense, but in the interests of efficiency is the minimum possible size that can house the reactor used. In order to keep station size down, the station is undersized such that for a very brief period of time just before a maximum discharge rating burst is delivered, the reactor must charge to a nearly unstable state, requiring the use of a ventilation port that is a perfectly straight shaft from the reactor core to the exterior of the station. When the charge cycle reaches intended overload capacity, this shaft allows for the expansion of core energy to prevent the meltdown of the stations cooling systems.
The Galactic Energy Broadcast Company is believed by a militant activist faction to be intended to be weaponized by using the long-range burst hardware at decreased range to increase the concentration of energy for the purpose of mass destruction. The station is one of the most prized assets by not only the GEBC , but by the collective unified governmental bodies that the GEBC and other galactic companies service, as it is a critical infrastructure element for all projects which require a short-term energy resource that is able to offer outputs far beyond day-to-day demands. Examples of such projects are the construction of significant mining infrastructure, the transport of galactic scale resource floatillas, or the manufacture of large scale single orders of machines. As a result of it's value, it is normally guarded by a dedicated inter-stellar armada capable of outmatching the fleets of even the most prominant independent governmental organizations in the relevant spheres.
During an unusual posturing of the fleet, the GEBC's prized ball-station goes unprotected to deliver supposed small, sub-overload broadcasts to seemingly insignificant contracts on a largely underdeveloped moon of a largely unimportant planet in a largely unpopulated system. The militant activist faction executes a seemingly impossible strike on the station that would only be possible if the station were at a peak of it's charge cycle, and only during a maximum rated burst or higher charge. At this time of normally sustainable overload, backpressure on the overload discharge ventilation would result in a cooling system meltdown. The faction strike revolves around using a missile designed for fighter combat to explode within the shaft inside of a critical time window just before a maximum burst is to be delivered. The missile expansion energy is minimal, and the missile must explode within a small region of the shaft very close to the reactor itself in order to provide enough back-pressure to result in overload. A burst any closer to the exterior of the ship inside of the shaft will still not result in enough pressure, so the missile must fly almost the entire path of the shaft and explode so that the expansion adequately reaches into the reactor chamber.
The station is not protected by it's normal armada due to the unusual fleet posturing, however the station itself is fitted with adequate armament to protect it from any inbound missile threat. The structure of the ventilation system at the surface of the station has a gravity drain trough network. The station size is significant and there is enough gravity produced by it, that gases vented from the station will often gradually settle to the station surface, and then find their way into the drainage troughs. The armament of the station is primarily mounted guns, that are unable to fire down into the drainage system. The strike strategy is to fly small, highly maneuverable fighters at the station using pilots that can avoid turret fire by moving in an unpredictable evasive trajectory, and then into the drainage troughs that lead directly to the shaft, which are the largest of the troughs and able to accommodate the size of the fighters.
The fighters must follow the curvature of the station in order to remain below the firing line of the guns mounted to the surface of the station. In order to fire a missile down into the ventilation shaft, they must come to a complete relative stop with the surface of the station, exactly above the ventilation shaft. Once positioned exactly above the shaft, and facing exactly down the center of the shaft, a missile can be fired unguided, which will fly in a straight line. Then the fighter can flee down the trough until it reaches a velocity that will enable to it once again evade turret fire as it moves away from the station.
In order to reach the trough, the fighters must be at an extremely high velocity relative to the station or be destroyed by the turrets. Then, in order to reach the shaft and fire, the fighters must, while remaining below the threshold of the trough by following the curvature of the station, decelerate to a complete stop exactly above the shaft. Although quite large, the station gravity is not enough to noticeably affect the fighters, the gas that normally settles to the surface of the station takes a very long time to do so. The fighters must perform the vector change using the maximum thrust output of their main engines. During the attack, an elite pilot leading an elite fighter squadron engages the attackers, and is able to accelerate up to catch them, and then during their final deceleration moments, line up iron-sight munitions onto the attackers craft, meaning that they have only one chance to decelerate, and must decelerate from maximum speed to zero speed perfectly on top of the shaft, as there is no time for correction. Any lingering at such low velocity will guarantee destruction before the opportunity to deliver the missile. One pilot before the attack, likens the concept to a prohibited method of hunting a particular kind of burrowing animal by flying a thruster powered craft in a planetary gravity well, and lofting the craft at low velocity to aim iron-sighted perfectly down the animals burrow to hit the animal without hitting the edge of the burrow, which would collapse the mouth of the burrow protecting the animal from further attempts. (earth example of such a lofting manuever: quadcopter FPV trick "pop up")