trope-a-day
Kill and Replace: A tactic â and with modern sophotechnology, a lamentably obvious tactic â used by lower-tech and lower-ethics intelligence agencies, for whom fast-growth cloning (or even radical plastic surgery) and programming is the best they can manage â rather than the implantation of overshadowing gnostic overlays used by the technological sophisticates
Rim Free Zone
âSo youâve been attacked in the Free Zone⊠ââŠyou had a security provider, right? At least I hope you had a security provider, given the giant âTHE RIM FREE ZONE TRAVEL FACILITATORSâ ASSOCIATION RECOMMENDS THAT YOU GET A SECURITY PROVIDERâ banner hanging in the starport with maybe a thousand
trope-a-day
Jump Jet Pack: A ubiquitous addition to virtually all combat armor (see: light infantry), scout armor, and the equipage of just about everyone else who can benefit from high mobility, from disaster relief teams to microgravity construction workers. (Being able to bend momentum with your mind is nice, but some
worldbuilding
So, yes, answers. But before we get to those, remember the reference to fanfiction being written in âThings You Are No Longer Allowed To Do In The Imperial Military Serviceâ? Mark Atwood points out the following niftyness in a comment: The anime series âGate â Thus the JSDF Fought There!â was
crossover
âŠon the technologically advanced civilization vs. WH40K Imperium of Man scenario occasionally played with. What we might have here is a really dramatic example of why you donât want single points of failure, regardless of how well defended you think your single points of failure are. Combine Jonâs
trope-a-day
In The Future, We Still Have Roombas: There are probably something like 10,000 of these little guys â from literal space-Roombas to the more general purpose utility spider and cogsworthâ running about (or fixed in place) performing various mundane tasks for every robot that we might recognize as something like
military
This one goes out to all my readers who have spent time deployed somewhere really, really, exquisitely tedious⊠From: Master-at-Arms, CS Ablator To: All Personnel, Task Group SPIKY POTATO Subject: Prohibitions That Should Not Have To Be Explicit It has come to my attention that due to the less than
eldraeic language
vanĂĂ€lathdar: (lit. âbeyond-knowledge-personâ) Ultracrepidarian, or less formally, âbullshitterâ; one who holds and/or gives opinions on matters which are beyond their knowledge.
trope-a-day
Intangibility: Has yet to be successfully developed, for most of the reasons given in the trope page (although I disagree on one major point: intangible objects can and probably should have mass; itâs the electromagnetic interaction they need to be lack in order to properly interpenetrate). There is one
Darkness Within
Sometimes AthnĂ©Ă«lâs random factors are kind. I grin like an idiot, staring into the hole my obliging drones have cut into the engineering bulkhead. Although, to be fair, that might be the oxy-tox. Itâs there. Itâs intact. A geodesic sphere wrapped in golden foil, glittering in the
eldraeic language
sef-affiĂ«n: flying fish; lit. âspume-dancerâ from Old Cestian sef (âspume, the foam at the crest of a waveâ) and affiĂ«n (âdancer, to danceâ).
trope-a-day
Improvised Microgravity Maneuvering: Literally every vaguely physically plausible version of this has been tried over the eldraeâs history in space. Actually, so have most of the physically implausible ones, but they didnât work out so well. Yes, even the ones that sound like the punchlines to off-color jokes.