[gurps] In space no one can hear you go boom!

[Nigel McCarty-Eigenmann]

> Concern: the gravity drives of some of the remaining refinery 
> stations tearing up one of their number  while they are all 
> in orbit around a gas-giant.

Fair point.  Failed to put that well. :(
I'd intended that the Harvesters drives maintained their orbit by pushing
against 
one another's core hulls.  So they make a single ring and remain stable.
When the 
one drive failed the stresses the drive was suppoised to balance were
unbalanced 
and tore the crippled Harvester apart.  

And the unbalanaced forces had a ripple effect across the system I suppose,
which I 
didn't note either.
 
> Any stations that are large enough to be a significant 
> percentage of the mass in this situation (since there are 
> only 4 left after the first one is hit by the comet), would 
> be large enough to tear apart the gas giant just by being there.
> 
> And if they are not a significant part of the mass in the 
> system, then having one of them get destroyed should have 
> approx 0 effect on the orbits of the other 4.

The drive that allowed the station to move damped the mass effect by tossing
the 
energy into hyperspace... TL12 technobabble  its not important as this scale
is not 
things player will ever _truly_ control
 
> Perhaps if the comet plunged through the holding orbits of 
> the asteroids waiting to be harvested it could cause enough 
> debris to cause some disruption in those orbits(possibly 
> including throwing enough stuff at a second station to also 
> disable it as it passes through the rain of debris following 
> the comet in it's plunge into the gas giant, but generally 
> speaking, mining gear should be made large and robust to 
> handle things like sudden vents, jets, or explosions in the 
> materials being dealt with, especially when dealing with 
> things that are expected to be as diverse as asteroids.
> 
> Unless this comet was a real monster, the mining stations 
> should have been able to shrug it off(a monster as in several 
> times the size of the asteroids usually dealt with, perhaps 
> even larger then the mining station it hit, just carrying the 
> whole thing into the planet).

In full operation will all systems working the comet would have been 
driven away with gravitational field devices, smashed with ship based 
disruptors or AM missiles or the Harvestor Station could have dodged it.

But nothing smart was operating.

> Come to think of it, the whole scenario becomes much more 
> plausible with a rogue planet instead of a mere comet, 
> perhaps one that was torn apart by the gravitational 
> deflection/direction system that the mining stations use with 
> plenty of large bits to take out one or more stations as well 
> as throwing the whole ordered system out of whack.
> 
> As far as what to fight over: power and control, the same 
> things humans have been fighting over since time immemorial.  
> Someone wants to be in charge and just tell others what to 
> do, but someone else wants to be in charge as well, so they 
> have their followers fight over who deserves to be king/has 
> the best plan to save them all/gets the most functional bits 
> of technology.
> 

...and there you have the bones of the Metaplot.  Add in some bioroids 
and Master mechanism in a part built ship, politics, and a possibility 
to get to the less damaged Harvester #4 and the Biggest Biosphere...

Thanks

McE