Minding the Gap I finally got my new system configured, so it's back to my old standby: Spaceships in Rings. Everything but the signature is Bryce. To get that close to Saturn and still have a decent texture, I used a modification of a map created by Runar Thorvaldsen (available at the Celestia Motherlode). The Ring mat might be from the same place, but I've had it for years and I forget. The loose ring materials are rocks and metaballs multi-replicated, randomly scattered and forced into a long and narrow field. There's also a sphere of fuzzy transparent stuff to make the "haze" of smaller particles. The two gunships are my standard creations of Boolean construction. --- "The Martians are coming! The Martians are coming!" Yeah, that's the panic we heard and most of the civvies took off for the inner Belt. I'm not sure we can hold out against a whole Martian task force either, but if they try to come into the Rings after us, they're in for some rude surprises. Yeah our base at Daphnis is pretty much toast, but we've got supplies prepositions throughout the A Ring, and there's lots of little drones hanging out as mines all through the Rings. Our Marauders can't hold up against them in open space, but at short range, our 40mm coil cannons and point defense lasers can pack enough of a punch to do some serious damage. And when we run silent with our radiators out, we should be able to spot the suckers at twice the range that they can spot us. If we can't kill 'em we can hide from 'em. The Martians are going to be dealing with us for a while, even if they take the system, that's for sure. - Group Captain Felix Lemieux, Belt Defense Force. On patrol in the Keeler Gap, 2 Feb 2520.