Talk:AIF/@comment-10905876-20160819010545

-Fondor Base-

With development of the AIF's warp bubble merging project having progressed beyond the simulation and laboratory stage, six testbed vessels have been constructed to begin full scale studies and tests. Emerging from their construction stations, the six Pioneer class warp testbeds depart the base under impulse power. The battleship Enterprise follows them along with a Katar class cruiser, both to provide heavy firepower in case of attack and to partake in trials. The ships then power up their warp cores for the first time, and the fleet warps off to deep space.

Arriving at a pre determined location, the ten ship flotilla exits warp. Immediately, tests begin. A pair of testbed vessels enter warp together. Once at warp, the two vessels begin to merge their warp fields. While there is a power drain, both ships stabilize their fields and merge to form a single stable warp field. Continuing at warp, systems on board both vessels take readings and record data, before eventually returning to the deep space rendezvous.

The exercise is repeated several times. Soon, all six vessels can merge fields with their specially tuned warp engines. The vessels return for a final time, at which the warp engineers and scientists decide to test merging fields with a standard warship. One of the Katar class cruisers enters warp with a testbed following close behind.

Engineer: "Warp field stabilized, test vessel commencing merging, steady as she goes."

The testbed begins to merge it's warp field with the cruiser's.

Engineer: "Captain, I'm reading a major power drain on our warp core. Attempting to boost power."

The fields begin to merge, but the cruiser begins to experience a major power drain. The engineers on the testbed attempt to re tune their own engines, in the process destabilizing the warp field, dropping both vessels out of warp like they had entered a disruption field. The warp core on the cruiser is fried, forcing the testbed vessel to envelop it in a large field, and tow the vessel back to Fondor. The test is considered a failure, but the results are ironically right in line with an Aneph warp attack, though the AIF engineers don't know it. With the incident logged, the engineers and researchers continue to work on improving the warp engines, tuning them to not drain power when merging with a typical warp engine's field. While the Enterprise undergoes modifications to allow her own engines to perform warp merging tests with the testbed vessels...





OOC: Since attacking other ships at warp isn't the intended IC goal of warp sync, the ability to forcefully merge with another warp field isn't going to be a virtue until some aggressive officer reviews the reports and thinks of the possibility. Current tactical doctrine regarding this is mid warp fighter deployment, at warp formation forming, or, like in the post, rescuing stranded ships. For that to work, more fine tuning is needed before this tech is fielded in combat ships.