OK kids, time for some simple yet fun math. Write the following out on a piece of paper. You may not write any new number, but may write any other mathematical operation that makes each line true. I'll even start you off with the easy one

0 0 0 = 6
1 1 1 = 6
2 2 2 = 6 Answer: 2 + 2 + 2 = 6
3 3 3 = 6
4 4 4 = 6
5 5 5 = 6
6 6 6 = 6
7 7 7 = 6
8 8 8 = 6
9 9 9 = 6
 

Dave

Staff member
I went to the personal trainer today for my first paid session - the first two were free. He beat the crap out of me for an hour and I paid for it. The problem is my car had to go into the shop this week so the paycheck from YESTERDAY is dangerously low. I have two checks that are supposed to be coming in the mail and should have been here that would more than make up for the difference, but for right now I'm chewing my fingernails and the wife is upset that I paid out the money. Waiting for the mail and crossing all my fingers that even one of them shows up and saves me!
 
So the human weaponry in my sci fi I've been coming up with has been all basically current gen stuff, not the super advanced tech that you think we'd be using in 500 years. But how do you write a convincing conflict when military weapons could probably decimate entire companies?

Instead of that being a plot hole or failure of imagination, I decided to turn that into a plot point. The city under siege isn't a Marine base or something. There's no reason for them to have a standing army and current generation armaments. But they do have amazing industrial production (think massive 3D printers/fabricators, manufacturing robots, etc). They wouldn't necessarily have the facility to produce electrolasers or pulse masers or particle beams or plasma cannons. But industrial lathes can easily be designed to make gun barrels. That includes weapons like Metal Storms, automatic grenade launchers, the GAU-8 Avenger cannon, etc. Ancient designs, sure. But a slingshot firing a 10mm ball bearing is still more dangerous than a non-existent ray gun. A chemical plant making caseless propellant, electric firing system (with mechanical backup), and metal bullets make ammunition very simple to make.

Likewise, the power suits. A 10-foot tall, 1000 lb humanoid exo-frame is small enough to use in urban environments and has a wide range of non-military applications - construction, demolition, rescue, police, firefighting, etc. Modular construction would allow it to be quickly adaptable to the purpose. And there'd be a lot more reason to have them, than, say, a 200 ton hovertank with a main cannon that could crater the moon.
 
A 10-foot tall, 1000 lb humanoid exo-frame is small enough to use in urban environments and has a wide range of non-military applications - construction, demolition, rescue, police, firefighting, etc. Modular construction would allow it to be quickly adaptable to the purpose. And there'd be a lot more reason to have them, than, say, a 200 ton hovertank with a main cannon that could crater the moon.
There's a long and storied history of farming implements evolving into weapons of war. No reason for it not to happen in the future.

--Patrick
 
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