Death From Above: In space, all death planetside, or at least the delivered hot and steaming kind, is Death From Above. When the going gets tough, the tough call for orbital fire support. What else is orbital supremacy for, if not for plastering the fuck out of the enemy with
The freelance adventurer (and his cousins, such as the curiosity-ridden weirdseeker), that product of societies with more wealth and capability than anything resembling sense, is a magnet for trouble, a fountain of disturbance, a contagion of confusion, and a blight upon all settled states of affairs and those enjoying them.
Dead Man Writing: Played straight and potentially extra creepily inasmuch as even when someone has suffered/chosen permadeath (see: Final Death), their muse and/or other personal or fiduciary AI systems, and even derivative forks, may well be left behind executing on their final will.
Deadly Gas: What would life be without deadly neurotoxin? Yes, much like the nuclear weapons (see: Nuclear Weapons Taboo) and flame weapons (see: Kill It With Fire), no-one ever got around to telling the Imperials that this sort of thing wasn’t sporting in real wars, and they wouldn’t
Under careful examination, the Aránà & Aurévar Designs Shadowcat-class blockade runner rapid interface freighter uses an identical spaceframe, high-performance fusion-torch drive with antimatter afterburner, sensor masking package and auxiliary systems as their Exciseman-class customs cutter. The Shadowcat merely replaces the staff accommodations and boarding pod of the Exciseman with a
Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted completely and comprehensively. The Empire has none – which, to expand, may have something to do with a homeworld considerably enriched, relative to Earth, with heavy and radioactive metals and lacking in fossil fuels, better biological radiation protection, and consequently an industrial era that used a lot
To primitive peoples, the world is a place of telos. Created for a purpose; moving towards a purpose; ending with that purpose. Of course, as they develop the scientific method and practice it assiduously, they rapidly come to learn that there is essentially no teleology to be found in the
“There are two kinds of black plants that you’ll commonly see in your travels. The first evolved on the worlds of ember stars, where the primary’s light is relatively dim and much of it in the low-energy red and infrared parts of the spectrum, and so the plants
Kill It With Fire: Played straight in both senses. The Empire is certainly happy to use flamethrowers and other Fire Breathing Weapons, fire bombs, fire sheets, and other kinds of fire in war, not because it’s tremendously efficient (it’s not) or because things are Immune To Bullets (they
Memeweave: Extranet Meta/Extranet Service Notifications/Open Access Classification: WHITE (General Access) Encryption: None Distribution: Everywhere (Bulk) As received at: SystemArchiveHub-00 at VĂĂ«lle (Imperial Core) Language: (various local)->Universal Syntax (at source)->Trade Key window phrases: extranet expansion, Sullen Wildlands, clueless bloody outies, spam Time of
Deadly Euphemism: Outside certain specialized and arguable applications, the Imperials don’t really go in for euphemisms. Some of their terms sound a bit like euphemisms, but “erased” reflects the technical difference between cognicide and corpicide – namely, that you have to kill people in the information-theoretic sense (see: Final Death)
“Are you sure this will work?” “Well, no, it’s an experiment.” Brandel held up his hands, warding off the glare thus produced. “But the theory is sound. We’re never going to find out more unless we move it in vivo.” “The theory is barely formed.” Soléä gestured at