Why is Rommie the uber-ship? Matt Nightsider I found this board only after the first season of Andromeda, so if this has been discussed before, so sorry.... In most of the episodes to date, when the Andromeda Ascendant shows up, planets, nations, and people tremble; she appears to be regarded as the reigning heavyweight champ of starships. Dylan was spooked by the Pyrians, and the Vedrans are apparently some super-race with presumably super-technology, but other than them and the Magog Erector-Set Solar System, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of competition for our fave warship. My question is, why? Even given that she may have been the state of the art, flagship vessel for the Commonwealth when she was commissioned, Andromeda was parked by the event horizon of a black hole for 3 centuries. Didn't technology evolve at all during that time? The civilizations Formerly Known as the Commonwealth fell into some chaos after the fall, but there are clearly planets and civilizations which have prospered and progressed (e.g. the Perseids) during that time; I'd think that someone would've made improvements in engines, weapons, materials, etc. in the interim. It would be like taking whatever the hottest, most bad-ass fighter or bomber the Air Force has right now and burying it for 300 years. My guess is that in 2302, assuming we're still around, it would be an antique curiousity rather than anything of any real use. OmegaPaladin Human It was more than a little chaos, it was a dark age. Technology regressed considerably Delvo2 Nietzschean There is precedent for this. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe forgot how to do running water and plate armor (they went to "chain" maille instead), among other things. These technologies were recovered or replaced only after a long time (well over three centuries). This was a result of the loss of the frequent and easy transportation of things and ideas, and the loss of a central government to consolidate scattered money, resources, people, and work, which amounted to a switch from mass production at mass cost to smaller-scale economic practices, which did not support the same kinds of technological results that Rome had had. tennyson Vedran The Andromeda Ascendent was the most powerful vessel ever launched by the Systems Commonwealth. The Vedrans were the ones that built her as part of the Commonwealth fleet. The old Vedran Empire slowly changed into the Systems Commonwealth much like the British Empire became the Commonwealth, except much more united. She is more equivalent to an aircraft carrier than a fighter and in Commonwealth times would have been the command ship of a High Guard battle group.She had taken some damage at Hephestos but she was quickly returned to battle worthy status in a universe where most technology has regressed and order has broken down. It took the rescources of several solar systems to build ships like her in Commonwealth days and postfall ships are more like cheaper destroyers and cruisers in comparison to Andromeda's own aircraft carrier. None of the ships of the major post fall known worlds powers have the range of capabilities or the sheer raw firepower of the Andromeda. No one except for maybe Dylan himself has the ability to make nova bombs, which can destroy an entire solar system, and the Andromeda originally had forty. She is simply a better ship on an individual basis than the postfall ships. She carries more armament, has slightly better technology and carries a swarm of fighters. She can be overwhelmed but in most cases she has just won against minor powers or a single isolated ship and hasn't been involved in major fleet battles.Do you think a Coast Guard cutter would stand a chance against an aircraft carrier because that was what was happening with NewHolland and Castalia. The Restor ships she encountered used a lot of tricks to even the balance between them and the Andromeda but they died in the end. It has been shown that she can take on small fleets of Drago-Katzov major warships but a group of fifteen of their major warships could kill her as shown in USV. She is like having an aircraft carrier on your side and brings all the advantages that such a craft would bring in combat with the addition of more finely crafted High Guard technology. Exawatt Human Andromeda is actually more like the super-battleships of the WWII era, she's only an "aircraft carrier" in the sense of the fighters and usually being a command and control center for fleet engagements Matt Nightsider OK, thanks for all the answers, I'm a happy camper tennyson Vedran Hi Exawatt, I really think my aircraft carrier anaology is a lot more apt especially considering just how many smaller craft she carries(148, including drones), her relatively smaller missile tube armament compared to specific shipkillers like the DSA or DSX, her function of carrying nova bombs(like how American aircraft carriers carried nuclear weapons for some 40 odd years, our own weapons of last resort), her command and control function and her general overall capability with respect to other vessels.She might be more like a Kiev class carrier which also incorporated the armament of a cruiser forward than the relatively lightly armed Nimitz class carriers but she is more like a carrier. Any analogy is by definition not a completely exact correspondance but I think mine is the better analogy, especially considering how the Yamatos were torn apart by aircraft.You are entitled to your opinion but this is what I think. Talkie Toaster Nietzschean quote: Originally posted by tennyson: Hi Exawatt, I really think my aircraft carrier anaology is a lot more apt especially considering just how many smaller craft she carries(148, including drones), her relatively smaller missile tube armament compared to specific shipkillers like the DSA or DSX, her function of carrying nova bombs(like how American aircraft carriers carried nuclear weapons for some 40 odd years, our own weapons of last resort), her command and control function and her general overall capability with respect to other vessels.She might be more like a Kiev class carrier which also incorporated the armament of a cruiser forward than the relatively lightly armed Nimitz class carriers but she is more like a carrier. Any analogy is by definition not a completely exact correspondance but I think mine is the better analogy, especially considering how the Yamatos were torn apart by aircraft.You are entitled to your opinion but this is what I think. The Yamatos had to the absolute hell pounded out of them before they went down. They had no air support, were pretty much sailing on their own- and it still took most of the opposing US Task Force's aircraft to do the job. There are actually very few instances of battleships being sunk by aircraft while on the high sea. The only other example that immediately comes to mind was the POW- which, again, had to be swarmed with aircraft before she went to the bottom. As a point of interest, I believe an old Soviet battleship was 'sunk' of the shore of Lenningrad by the Luftwaffe, and sat there for the the rest of the siege as a colossal artillery emplacement. Gvambat Artificial Intelligence Wasnt the Balance stronger than Rommie? He was discribed as a starship killer...wouldnt that have made him superior? cliffhangered Nightsider The Balance was a stronger ship, but you forget, Andromeda had the great Dylan Hunt on her side! With his quick wits, he was able to destroy the Balance with no trouble at all!! IN DYLAN HUNT WE TRUST!!!!! (sarcasm, sarcasm) tennyson Vedran The Prince of Whales and the Repulse were both sunk purely by aircraft. The Tirpitz(sp?) was reduced to an unussable condition by aircraft, the Bismark had a mobility kill happen to it when the torpedoes from those old Swordfish hit it's steering systems. Aside from places like Pearl Harbor and Taranto where battleships were caught in port or situations like the Scharnhorst and it's sistership fleeing back to German waters due to the damage they took from aircraft I can't really think of other instances where battleships or battlecruisers and aircraft met directly aside from the Yamatos. The point buried in that comment was that they didn't have airsupport or the ability to operate militarily significant aircraft beyond recon planes which was what doomed them. Rommie operates a lot of smaller combat craft and is more like an airctaft carrier. As for the Balance it was a pure starship killer, i.e, few to no troops, no command and control function, few close in weapons and no nova bombs. When it hit Rommie she was still unable to defend herself thanks to the computer virus that Gabriel delivered and only survived the heavy pounding due to how singlemindedly he was focused on her and not the "fleeing" Eureaka Maru. cliffhangered Nightsider IMO I don't see how a sophisticated sentient ship such as the Balance could have fallen for Dylan's strategy to eliminate it. The Balance would not have survived the many battles it must have seen in the 300 years or so that it was commissioned without having someone else try a tactic that was as simple as Dylan's. A ship like that should have had enough sensors and intercept missiles to take out the Maru's salvo. The ending was, to me, a bit of a copout. AJ The Sarge Perseid AJ, the BOJ could have taken out the Maru and Dylan's missiles easily... if it had seen them. Remember, Beka was running at minimum power, and the missiles were dropped, not fired. So neither the ship nor the missiles were putting out any significant amount of energy. That makes things in space very hard to detect. In normal conditions, BOJ still should have picked up the objects in its path, but remember that he was busily blasting Andromeda with everything he could bring to bear. The energy output from his own weapons masked the presence of the minefield in his path. Something else to consider is that BOJ was a shipkiller. The way he was programmed, the first answer to every problem was to kill ships. He was a lot more single-minded than Rommie, and suffered from tunnel vision. When he had a big, powerful, dangerous ship in his sights, he focussed everything on killing it, and ignored everything else. That was a mistake that cost him everything. cliffhangered Nightsider Thanks Sarge. It all makes more sense to me now. In addition, I guess the reason the BOJ was also so "angry" and intent on destroying the Andromeda was because he had lost his avatar, or "right hand" , in some small part because of Rommie. The Sarge Perseid You're welcome, cliffhangered. Matt, here's an easy answer to why Rommie is the uber-ship: that's what the story is about.