“Jennis Inurian, captain-owner of the free trader Transfinite Revenue, inhaled deeply as the airlock door rolled back, catching the rich, spicy scent of myriad species and goods crammed into too few hab modules with too little organized air reprocessing. It smelt promising enough.” Among the floating markets of the Starfall
Nuclear Option: The Imperial military is somewhat keener to use the Nuclear Option than most, partly because of the lack of a Nuclear Weapons Taboo, partly because nukes have a marvelous combination of characteristics that kill lots of things dead that conventional weapons are less useful against, like active bioweapons
Jennis Inurian, captain-owner of the free trader Transfinite Revenue, went through her traditional pre-disembarkation ritual – checking the telltale lights on her emergency pack and the collar of the skinsuit she wore under her spacer’s leathers, adjusting her trader’s signet to best show the Confraternity seal, and testing the
Memory Gambit: This is the stock in trade of the ISS and of most intelligence organizations that have the technology to do it. People who don’t know the plan can’t give away the plan. Besides, eliminating the knowledge from your brain is pretty much the only way to
And we have a follow-up FAQ. Mark Atwood asks: Follow up question: how compatible are various worlds and polities nanofacs and slurrys? Polities that are colonies of existing polities will likely use compatible slurries and facs, but independent invention and/or long-enough separation in time will lead incompatible tags, inline
Sometimes, a Floating Market forms. No-one knows when or where – they are emergent phenomena. Free traders accumulate oddities in their holds, the detritus of a thousand speculative trades on a thousand worlds – some trash, some too unique or exotic to sell, some which could be either. Slash-traders, smugglers, walkers of
Having mentioned Gilea & Company’s policy on this, and even storified it, I should perhaps head off at the pass the inevitable someone pointing out that “sovereign debt doesn’t work that way”. No, it doesn’t work that way here, where we are accustomed to extending a certain
Mega Corp: Oh, quite a few. (Well, bearing in mind the cultural, demographic, and technological differences that mean that while an Earthly multinational might hit millions of employees, its Imperial counterpart probably has a couple of dozen executives, a large computronium core, and millions of jobs being done by subcontractors,
Yes, folks, it’s that time again for the first time when I answer y’all’s background questions! We have one question this month. James Sterrett asks: What precursor elements do autofacs require for fabrication? The same elements in the same proportions as the finished product (plus waste etc)
Mechanical Monster: Ooh, fun-sized mobile agony and death dispensers? Well, of course. Given the eldraeic low population growth rate and taste for automation, the mechanical monster has been a staple of, ah, “military and security applications” ever since they could build a decent steam engine to power them and a
Mechanical Lifeforms: Arguably, digisapiences, although if we’re being picky, they’re information lifeforms that, from time to time, may choose to inhabit mechanical bodies. Also certain worlds which have been given over to experiments in mechanical ecology, with basic mechanical elements handed a number of simple forms, limited intelligence,
As it’s nearing the end of the month, that time at which Patreon charges people’s cards, today I deem an excellent day to thank my Patreon patrons for their contributions to my writing time and funds. Thank you, gentlesophs, most kindly; your generosity is most appreciated. Of course,