“Heavies! What is your profession?” “Bein’ the chewy meat center in a vanadium-plated god of war, SIR!!” – apocryphal Making up three of every sixteen legions (i.e., one for every three light infantry legions) – again, not counting the various specialized legions built off a heavy infantry platform – are the heavy
Human Shield: Combat Pragmatism, remember – and the thing about making Final Death very hard? You can always shoot the hostage.
Human Mail: This is what “steerage-class” transportation is. In the old days they’d freeze you down (Human Popsicle–style), and in the new days they put you into nanostasis, but either way, at the sophont shipping center they pack you into a body pod, stack them three by three
I should also perhaps take a moment to note that, given their philosophical views, the Laws of Thermodynamics in general and the Second in particular would seem to be right up there on the list of Problems Which Ontotechnologists Should Urgently Address, inasmuch as knocking that one off (and maybe
…a reader asks. Well, let me say right up front that ontotechnology as I describe it is pure-quill handwavium. Its connection to contemporary, real-world physics is that I endeavor to avoid coming right out and stabbing said contemporary, real-world physics in the face; after all, anything discovered in the future
Human Popsicle: Cryostasis used to be a standard way of storing people, and was taken advantage of for a variety of purposes, specifically including the Deep Star projects (subluminal interstellar colonization of the Thirteen Colonies, with ships full of frozen people), and, in the time after the prospect of fixing
Hover Tank: Some lighter tanks are, indeed, vector-control vehicles which can hover (and fly briefly to hop over obstacles, although using this as an extended flight capability is discouraged, due to the high probability of a fatal encounter with a real aircraft). Their strengths are in speed and maneuver (and,
“…to refer to the Consolidation as the Consolidation Wars, as is the practice of certain critical historians, is to do the period an injustice. While the foreign policies of the time were largely if irregularly driven by the Senate axis revolving around the Immanent Destinarians, the Sons of Liberty, and
Hover Board: Yes, those of you who want a ludicrously overcomplicated hard-to-control method of transport can have a vector-control board (or, indeed, its predecessors with regular old rockets. Or fans, even, for you boring safety-lovin’ types.). Have fun!
Hostile Terraforming: In the Worlds, pretty much any straight ecopoesis carried out on a currently life-bearing world is considered this, and even sensible-but-dubious regimes steer clear of it because it is, in effect, burning down an asset. Ecosystems are extremely valuable informational resources, and not to be casually overwritten. On
Hostage Situation: You’re going to take the habitually armed people who can’t be killed hostage? And this was your good plan?
Horse of a Different Color: The cerrĂşr is a four-horned, hexapedal, browsing animal, but it fills much the same niche as the horse, as historically early basic transportation/power and later prestige transportation. Despite much wishful thinking and a few attempts, no-one ever managed to breed a bandal large enough