/-Transmission Received || Ansible-Sector-74 || To Prohibited Subject 248029:BA7-/
Trade Route Attacks
With the Triptite Federation being gently convinced to open their borders for trade, merchants from our glorious Glorspindle Empire have been hard at work extending our trade routes there.
However, there is currently a rather headache-inducing issue. Our trade routes pass through Manti territory, and the pesky Manti pirates in their Rammers have been pillaging every merchant ship they can get their greedy scythes on.
Manti Pirates
Our on-ship crew have been having trouble holding off their boarding-attacks, as these man-sized alien mantises have carapaces resistant to our ranged weaponry. Generally, they swarm our crew 3 to 1, and can attack from multiple angles by grappling off the corridor walls. They're born to kill, and just as often fight themselves when there are no enemies around, so only our most elite crew are capable of fighting them evenly in a melee entanglement.
Luckily, our blunt weapons can crush them like the bugs they are, but entanglement with their scythes is still a dance with death.
It is also difficult to find enough mercenaries for the cause. For now, we've been drafting citizens, but the Emperor is most displeased with their deplorable and often bisected military longevity.
Magnetic Corridors
Our brilliant Emperor has given us the task to fit our merchant vessel's corridors with electro-magnetic fields to protect from Manti boarding-attacks. We are hoping to make it hard for them to use their scythes, and maybe even stick their darned bug-carapaces to the walls.
You, as one of the members of our Imperial think-tank, are tasked with finding an effective implementation.
Should your solution be unsatisfactory, you will be personally volunteered to defend our merchant ships.
Lightspeed!
/- Decimator Admiral Cloverick -/
Appendix:
The Question:
Is it possible to install electromagnets in corridors such that Manti have trouble employing melee combat? And will this be effective enough to stop the Manti Pirates?
Requirements:
- Has to not harm our own space-humans. We tried blade-corridors, but constantly cleaning human and Manti gunk off the corridor-walls in space has been bad for morale.
- Has to not harm the ship in its activation.
- Has to give an advantage to the humans if they must engage in melee combat.
Technical Details:
The Manti are mantis-like man-sized aliens with carapaces 15-20 pounds in weight, 3 pounds of which is iron.
The Manti primarily employ their iron scythes for combat. Their iron scythes are bladed appendages 30-40cm long and weighing roughly 200-300 grams. They are detachable, but grow back very slowly.
Manti are extremely agile, but possess half the strength and body weight of an average human male.
Manti have carapaces capable of deflecting our ranged weaponry, but their internals are very sensitive to blunt-impact.
Manti have iron nails that allow them to partially puncture into hull and walk on corridor ceilings
Manti boarding swarms consist of 15 members, outnumbering combat-crew 3 to 1
The Manti perform boarding attacks by ramming ships, and then streaming through the corridors from the apertures opened by the collision. They can theoretically come from any corridor on the ship.
Corridors are usually cramped, 10 meters long, and 2.5-3 meters in diameter.
Corridors have (some) artificial gravity.
Ships have auxiliary generators capable of providing large bursts of energy for fifteen-twenty minutes.
Most corridors between rooms do not have sensitive electronic equipment.
Our human crews have access to melee weapons not affected by magnetic fields, but aren't as proficient in melee combat as the Manti.
/-End of Transmission-/