The Ark post-crash landing

In Part 2 of Rome's Revolution, Rei and Rome arrived at Deucado after an 11-month journey only to be attacked immediately. Their attackers were going to use PPT Throwers mentioned yesterday. Because Rei's brain was working better, he was able to come up with a brilliant but unorthodox plan to save the Ark. They punched a PPT tunnel through the atmosphere of Deucado and slid on through hoping that the tunnel would collapse before their Vuduri pursuers could follow them.

They were successful. The tug holding Rei and Rome broke off and the Ark crashed to earth, crushing MINIMCOM underneath. The Vuduri had to pursue them using a regular Bessel-style aerobrake-type approach.

Even so, how was it that the Vuduri could not find the Ark when they did arrive? After all, the Ark II weighed 7000 metric tonnes. It would be hard to miss.


The answer lies in the Vuduri inability to think outside the box. Normally, they would use infrared to detect the heat signature of the vessel. What they failed to appreciate was that the metal hull of the Ark was sitting at minus 80 degrees Celsius initially, the temperature of space, so it literally did not have a heat signature.

Second, they would use MIDAR in ground-penetrating mode and they did but it never occurred to them to scan the stands of cane-trees. After all, who would land into a clump of trees?

Finally, they would use visual inspection but the Ibbrassati had taken the time to cover the Ark in camouflage netting along with cane-tree leaves and bark so it would blend in visually.

The Vuduri gave up. They knew the colonists would turn up eventually but it was their lack of imagination that prevented them from finding the gigantic Ark II after the crash landing in the first place.