[Heir of the Void]

Originally Posted by Fireminer

Hey, does anyone remember how fast the BETA could dig a tunnel?

Not entirely clear; we never get a clear explanation of how they do it, except maybe that the Megaworm/Carrier class are the ones who dig.

Basically, they dig as improbably fast as the plot demands. What's really impressive is how anyone with a seismic sensor ever misses a ~20m diameter tunnel being dug at those speeds.

Originally Posted by blitz1/2

Just a question: how tough and heat resistant is a Destroyer class armour?

All we know is that Destroya Armor (and Grappler Klaws) is made from a material with 'Moh 15 Hardness', which doesn't actually mean anything. The Moh scale is a relative index, not a actual measurement, and it only goes up to 10.

Also, high-hardness materials are not necessarily desirable as armor. While a harder material can better resist deformation by an applied force, it also looses some ability absorb that force (or, technically its energy) by deforming. Worse, a harder material also becomes less able to disperse the energy of an impact, making it brittle and actually reducing it's toughness (technical term, seriously, basically the amount of energy something can absorb without fracturing). This is why, even if you could actually shape dimond into armor, it really wouldn't be very good armor. It would actually be terrible armor.

And none of that has anything to do with it's thermal properties. The most pertinent question, though, is how you are delivering the heat; Laser? Nuke? Super Napalm? The end result and relevant properties are pretty different, depending.