Originally Posted by DataPacRat
Ah, nice and simple.
... Of course, I'm going to be an annoying physics fan and complicate it up a bit, because relativity is fun. I think I'll take a reasonably high, not-particularly-relativistic speed, like 0.6c, as a baseline for damage (that is, ObjectHP * 196,200,000d), and for higher speeds, use the ratios of the Lorentz factors instead of straight speeds. That is, 0.6c has a Lorentz factor of 1.250; so an object travelling at a speed of Lorentz 2.5 would do double the damage - that's around 0.915c; a Lorentz of 10 (0.995c) eight times; a Lorentz of 100 (0.99995c) eighty times, and so on. (Or, to make it one step simpler, set damage as ObjectHP*LorentzFactor*156,960,000d.)
Now, since we're dealing with a Wall Shield of DR 30,000,000 (which I'm assuming can deflect relativistic-level masses as well as it can gamma rays), and assuming an average damage roll, then a 1-hp object (a 1/512 lb or 0.9 gram homogeneous rock) going at Lorentz 0.05 (1/25th 0.6c's baseline L1.25, meaning 0.024c) would do around 27M damage, enough for the shields to sit up and take notice but not quite let damage through. And a 2-hp object (a 1/64 lb or 7.1g rock) would only have to be going half that speed, and so on. 2.4%c... isn't really all that much; the speedster itself can accelerate itself up to that intrinsic velocity in only 38 minutes.
It looks like the safe zone around a body with ridiculously-high gravity may be more a matter of how fast the local rubble might have been accelerated to, rather than strictly due to the dangers of the body itself. After all, I seem to recall that the fastest-spinning known neutron star twirls at 0.24c, so any tiny bits that get flung off for whatever reason (such as a random rock dropping down onto its surface and disturbing its equilibrium) are going to be moving at quite a clip...
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