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Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I’ve been even more scatter brained than usual.
I’ve also been playing a lot of Aurora 4X and watching the 90’s Justice League cartoons (which I missed at the time.)
As a result of this I’ve been reconsidering the closely related concepts of ‘Space Truckers’ “Space Truckstops’ and ‘Space Bikers’ and how I might be able to work them into a more pulprev friendly setting. The Breylandverse is out completely but upon further reflection I can slot space bikers into the Nekoverse at the very low end.
Besides travelling in a ‘space bike’ over interstellar distances is possibly the craziest pulpiest thing I can think of. So not having space bikers in what is supposed to be a ‘fun’ setting is therefore a crime against pulp.
So how you get space bikes and why would anyone actually use one?
We need to give them clear advantages and drawbacks.
The first advantage is the simplest… space bikes are fast. In fact they are the second fastest way to send a message over interstellar distances making them vital for coordinating dispersed military campaigns. Even more so if you military force is operating on a tight budget and can’t use massive planetside FTL comm facilities. This creates a military and commercial purpose for space bikes and plants the seeds for a space biker culture to form.
Space bikes are also very small craft and able to operate planetside or from a very Spartan base. This means that they can operate at the fringes of the law.
How small? Well it turns out that the very high tech Hogg drive which powers the space bike is mass limited at around roughly eight tons. Which is still a decent size aircraft but not much for a space craft that requires interstellar range.
This means that every kilogram counts when building or refitting a space hog… and logically results in a great many “no fat chicks” jokes in space biker and space trucker culture. If you’re over the mass limit you can’t use the micro-wormhole function and are stuck in system until you lighten your load (often by dumping a few rounds of ordinance in the direction of your enemy.)
As for the Hogg drive itself. These devices are very valuable and require some very rare industrial technology to produce. In some sectors Hogg drives and Rigg drives (which power Space Trucks) are practically irreplaceable artifacts from the height of the Codteki Empire. The good news however is that these engines are very durable and long lasting. Even a badly worn and battered Hogg drive salvaged from an ancient battle field is still going to be worth building a space hog around.
So what about the space bikers? What roles do they fill? Often they find themselves working as low budget pirates, smugglers and discount mercenaries. A space bike is no match for a proper starfighter; even an advanced trainer is probably going to able to take on two or three space bikes. So this means that space bikers have to pick their fights very carefully. High tech but low end. Watching, waiting, scavenging but then when the time is right risking everything in one great gamble. Such as the life of a space biker gang.
Of Wolves and Men 