Original trope here; a comment left on the original posting of it was: “Now you have me wondering about parentally-assisted pods: “Well, we have just enough emergency reserves to give this ship a delta-vee of 0.1 km/s… or we can use the same joules to give 10 km/
Original trope here; a comment left on the original posting of it was: “What’s happened to people who try to claim that those microbes are weapons?” I reply thus: “A weaponized microbe in an appropriate warhead or containment packaging is freight.” “A weaponized microbe in your gut/skin/breath/
Super Soldier: Most successful galactic militaries and mercenary organizations tend to have a favorite package of military-specialized genetic enhancements, nanoviruses, and implants; these days, receiving at least the “military-basic” upgrade package (a whole shopping list of enhancements on top of the already impressive alpha baseline, for the Empire’s version)
It was raining on Magen three months later, the dismal, sleeting, heavy blatter that always came as the months wore on towards winter. But the planet’s perpetual, churning overcast existed at a considerably lower altitude than the 995th floor office of Lyrith Kazesh, TriDyne’s Vice President of Computation.
Backpack Cannon: Found in a couple of forms. The primary one for those of us whose body plans resemble the ones we’re used to, which is to say, vertical, involves using a backpack to hold vertically-launching smart missiles and other such guided support weapons that don’t need to
The dim red star at the center of this system is named Argyran. This establishes something of a theme; the system as a whole, being planetless, is also named Argyran – or Argyran Depository, after the corporation which owns it lock stock and barrel; Argyran Depository, ICC. And the drift which
Awesome, yet Practical / Boring, but Practical: Rather than attempt to come up with a large ad-hoc list here, I shall just point out that the Empire’s hat, or one of them, is largely based on playing the former as straight as possible while averting the latter, inasmuch as the
Illicit Drift, Narijic System, Freeport Loop – Mission Elapsed Time +0:00:01 In the base of the crater in which the pod had impacted – aided by the requirement for stealth of the illicit drift, which couldn’t afford to reveal its position by installing local defense systems, never mind by
Awesome Personnel Carrier: The V40 Ralihú – as used by the Exploratory Service and the Imperial Legions – with its full-environment sealing (operate on any planet, including underliquid; also, climate control), all-directions sphere-drive, vector-control facility for better ground-holding and brief off-ground hops, plus ability to drop from orbit and hover for recovery,
In honor of (I can honor the weirdest things) it being February 29, our calendar’s leap day, a half-dozen facts about the leap day for those using Imperial Standard Time: 1. First, it does have one, as IST is based on the rotation and orbital periods of Eliera, the
My colleagues have spent most of this issue telling you all the conventional reasons why you ought to visit the Empire: the outstanding natural beauty, the many places of historical significance, the music, the food and wine culture, the chance to experience their literary, gaming, and entertainment culture up close,
Awesomeness by Analysis: Actually quite common, given the sheer amount of computing power people carry around in their heads. The Super Senses and ability to tap into other local devices wirelessly for additional input data doesn’t hurt, either.