Heading

How to discuss relative positions in a three-dimensional movement field -- such as out in space

Riot Hyl, Black Hat:

Sure, I'll tutor you in headings and bearings. They're numbers!

Headings are about where I am travelling, where I did travel, where I'm gonna travel, that kind of thing.

Bearings are about where something else is located in relation to me.

The numbers are designated by the same system, though! And that system is egocentric: it's all based on me.

Azimuth mark Elevation

Imagine two full-circle protractors.

Azimuth

Drawing of instrument for measuring angles

Elevation

Drawing of instrument for measuring angles

One is laying flat. Its numbers get bigger as they circle counterclockwise, until they come all the way back around to 360° = 0°.

The other one is balanced on its edge. Its numbers get bigger as they go up and back and then down and forward.

In the center of the two, in the hole, is the ship that's trying to describe where something ELSE is. That's me, okay?

The direction of the descriptor's travel is "0° mark 0°". Always. If I'm traveling toward Tortuga, I figure out how to fine-tune my angle of approach based on my "straight forward" being zed-zed. If my navcomp wants to tell them where to look for me, it first has to query the Port Comptroller's system for a definition of Tortuga's "zed-zed" and then do some math based on how the station drifts through space.

If I am shooting at a Preybird Fighter using my prow lazcannon, I can hit anything from -- look at the flat protractor -- about 290° through 0° to about 70°. Funny enough, I can also hit anything from -- look at the vertical protractor -- about 270° to about 60° -- the launcher being below my nosecone gives more "down" but is blocked from a little bit shy of "straight up".

Anyway, the Birdy might be a little above us and a smidgen to the right, so we would call that "bearing 340° mark 30°" if we were not, in fact, calling it "oh frak! shoot that dude!".

Group Synchronization

Now, when multiple starcraft are fighting in tandem, there's a galaxy-wide custom of synchronizing our heading calculations based on one ship of the allied side. You as Comms Officer are going to be in charge of keeping that up to date in the database that feeds our IFF. You are simultaneously responsible for listening in on the other side's communications, pick up any references to headings or bearings, figure out which ship on their side is their defining zed, and pass all that intel over to the tactical holodisplay for the raid leader.

Don't mix 'em up!

The order of priority for picking which ship will be zed usually goes like this:

1. - the vessel it's most important to protect. Usually this has the most valuable cargo or person aboard.
2. - the slowest-moving vessel. This might actually be toward the back of the formation, if they have something with more armor sitting in front of it to block rammers.
3. - the vessel with the most weapons, or the longest range on a single weapon. We in the Black Hats tend to start here, because this is probably a vehicle in the "heavy freighter" or even "capital ship" range so everything else launched off it.
4. - anything with a Mentat plunked in any crew station chair. If a vessel or station is equipped with The Power of Superior Calculations, the galaxy will bend toward their will and ought to! We don't waste a Mentat's brainpower on carrying the two when they go to figure their own bearings or headings.

Also, headings don't care how far away, just what angles.