Torpedoes

to make sure that the
Reverend knew it.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Each
and every one of us is
ready to give our lives
for our gods. We all
know that we may be
called up to do so at any
time. These are dark
days. We are invaded
from beyond. The dirty
beastmen and the filthy,
conniving serpents
from Prometheus seek
to make alliances with
us, to draw us into their
eternal battle with each
other.
“But we know better.
They both must be
forced entirely and once
and for all from the
Milk Way!”
80
Directly after the ship enters a wormhole,
it is spat out on the other side. It appears
in one of the six hexes adjacent to
the corresponding wormhole counter, facing
in whichever direction the player controlling
the ship likes. This extra “free”
movement is a result of the wormhole’s
strong gravitic pull.
If, by some incredible circumstances, all
of the hexes surrounding the other end of
the wormhole are occupied by things like
ships or satellites, the ship coming through
the wormhole is displaced to the next closest
open hex. If several hexes qualify, the
player controlling the moving ship gets to
choose which hex the ship ends up in.
Black Holes
Black holes are similar to wormholes in
that they are an anomaly in the general fabric
of space and time. A black hole is the
remnant of a collapsed star. The material
at the center of the hole is so dense that it
forms a gravity well that can actually pull
light off of its path and suck it into the center
of the hole. Since darkness is the absence
of light, this hole, which absorbs all
light that nears it, is called black.
In Silent Death, a black hole has a radius
of effect that is measured in hexes. The
radius can be any number of hexes, from 0
(i.e., just the hex the black hole is in) up to
large enough to cover the entire map. If a
starcraft or some other object happens to
come within the black hole’s radius of effect,
it will be sucked toward the heart of
the hole.
Once a ship enters the heart of the hole,
it will be crushed to infinitesimal size and
destroyed. Life pods fail here.
At the end of every Movement Phase, any
ship, torpedo or asteroid within a black
hole’s radius is drawn toward it. The attraction
of the black hole toward its center is
stronger the closer you are to it. To find
out how many hexes an object is drawn
toward a black hole, count how many hexes
the object is inside the black hole’s radius
of effect. Then move the object that many
hexes closer to the black hole. The ship’s
player always choose the exact route when
more than one are evident.
Example: Helen’s Death Wind is 7
hexes away from a black hole with a
10 hex radius of effect. The range from
her ship to the outer fringe of the
black hole is 3 hexes. Her ship moves
3 hexes directly toward the black
hole’s center.
This means that any ship that ends a
movement phase within half of a black
hole’s radius of effect will be drawn into
the black hole at the end of the movement
phase. A ship that crosses or is drawn into
the heart of a black hole at any time is instantly
destroyed.
Once inside a black hole’s radius of effect,
movement toward the hole is free, but
movement away costs double. This counts
for sideslips and straight-ahead moves, but
not turns.
Use a D10 to represent the black hole.
The number shown on the die is the black
hole’s radius of effect. For larger holes, use
two D10s, one representing the tens digit
and the other representing the ones digit.
In this way, you can get numbers from 01
to 00 (read as 100).
Firing Through
Black Holes
The heart of the black hole blocks attacks
made across it just like an asteroid does.
Additionally, any cannon attacks made
within a black hole are at –1 to hit for each
hex by which the shot crosses through the
black hole. Don’t count the hex the attacker
is in, but count the target’s hex. Torpedoes
and missiles do not suffer this penalty.