#ssv normandy

For those who may not be familiar with it, this is something that often comes up in ‘hard’/‘realistic’ science-fiction settings which posits that camouflage or the classic ‘invisibility cloak’ wouldn’t actually be all that useful in hiding a spaceship, as the distances involved even within ‘local’ space such as our own solar system are so mind-bendingly HUGE that nobody would ever be able to identify or aim at another ship visually, as everyone would simply be relying on sensors.*

Namely, Mass Effect being a famously ‘hard-scifi’ setting has one of the most well-known and explored cases of this with its ‘Hero Ship(s)’, the Normandy. A ship with a brand-new, cutting-edge stealth system that pointedly doesn’t actually turn the ship invisible, but instead hides it from sensors. Most notably in the way the ship can hide the heat-emissions that all spaceships HAVE to give off via massive heat-sinks.

Really, it’s pretty much a running gag across the trilogy that the Normandy CAN’T actually turn invisible and that ‘anybody could just look out a window and see them’, as Joker puts it a few times.

Now one reason this trope has come to bug me a bit is that, like a lot of ‘hard sci-fi’ tropes, it sometimes feels like it carries a subtle air of smug condescension towards the audience. Like the writer(s) just can’t wait to explain to the audience just how WRONG they are

However, the main reason that this trope has really come to BUG me over the years is that it feels like for all of its fixation on ‘realistic’ sci-fi, it so often seems to miss one CRITICAL detail:

That these ‘stealth ships’ are very often and frequently not in deep space.

Consider for a moment just what the Normandy is actually supposed to DO: a bit chunk of its role is supposed to be the deployment and support of infiltration and special forces teams.

Namely, on planets.

Where people could actually SEE THEM.

Are you starting the see the problem here?

Say you need to drop off, or more importantly pick up a team from a hostile rich environment quickly and quietly, but alas it seems your super advanced and more importantly super smart and REALISTIC stealth system has been foiled by a few random guards LOOKING UP.

Sure would be nice if your spaceship could turn invisible NOW, huh?

And now that I’ve noticed this, I really just can’t unsee it across both Mass Effect specifically and so many ‘hard-scifi’ settings in general.

I mean seriously, why DOESN’T the Normandy EVER have any kind of optical cloaking or even just camouflage? Remember how many times Joker freaks out about hostile anti-air across the trilogy? You know what would have SOLVED that?

Being able to turn invisible!

I mean, okay the SR1 not having it makes a certain degree of sense. It was more an initial proof-of-concept of the stealth system and they clearly hadn’t fully ironed out all the kinks.

But the SR2? You’re really telling me that super-sneaky Cerberus DIDN’T think to fit the Normandy with a tactical cloak? Or even just the shuttle?

Okay, okay, fine! Pre-indoctrination Cerberus were in fact a bunch of unmitigated morons who couldn’t build a taco-cart without it going crazy and killing all their guys. I can buy them not thinking of this just for the funnies.

But have you considered just how fucking cool it would have been if the ME3 Alliance refit of the Normandy came with total cloaking? I mean just IMAGINE the entrance at the end of the Earth Prologue with Shepard and Anderson cornered by Husks and we get the ‘Cavalry has arrived!’ moment from Joker, only with the Normandy materializing out of thin air as her brand new cloak drops.

You KNOW that would have been awesome XD

Anyway that’s my rant on ‘Space Stealth’ and one of MANY reasons why I think the obsession with ‘realism’ in sci-fi is a whole lot dumber than people seem to realize.

--

Message: Hi mum. It's Silas. I'm sorry I missed our weekly vid chat, I know how much you worry when I'm out of contact especially after what happened on Eden Prime last week but I'm alright.

Actually it's complicated.

Remember that new posting? The one I was not allowed to talk to you about? The Classified, I'd go straight to jail, drummed out of the Navy, secret one? (Seriously I couldn't tell you mum, I'm sorry) Well I can now. It was a posting aboard the Normandy the new stealth frigate that was just commissioned last month. And I'm in heaven.

She's a great ship, nothing like those Kowloon-class boats you and dad worked on. Fast, quiet and is is a mean punch. She's probably the best ship in the fleet, any fleet even and we've got a hell of a crew, a hotshot helmsman, a veteran navigator, the ship's doc actually reminds me a lot of you, and the Captain and Exec well...

Capt. Anderson was great. A real leader. Cool headed. I'd trust him to take us through a debris field blindfolded because if he asked us he knew we could do it. Navy man to the bone. And our new Exec Cmdr. Shepard is something else too.

Like literally something else. They made her a Spectre. You probably saw it on the news. Gave her the ship too so turns out we're all junior Spectres too now or at least on loan. Just like the ship I can't say much right now(please don't ask, I hate not telling you but I also hate repeating myself) but we're heading back out on a new mission. Really important stuff I promise if they pep talk she just gave us is to be believed.

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to email you again, vid calls are out of the question for now too. Don't worry, I know after what happened to Dad you worry whenever I'm deployed but we've got the best of everything with us. I'm going to text you again next chance too. They have these messages on a delay so when you're reading this we'll already have left the Citadel. Just know this is exactly why I enlisted. Be proud, I know Dad would have been.

I love you Mum, see you soon,