I've been talking amongst Tomoe and Toshiro over a happy fun little concept and I thought I'd bring it to light for you in the simplest way I know of by explaining the basics.
The idea is I give you folks an informal brief, you tell me what you think and if it's a worthy contribution, I'll do some research to back it and gut this post into a formal submission.
I'll be contributing something called an NAC which sounds really good but doesn't stand for anything. I'd assume it'd mean like nano something compound but the ideas is that an NAC is a metalloid or synthetic substance which exerts some or all properties of a living thing and treated as a bacterium. NAC which haven't been discovered or engineered yet would demonstrate a degree of lower cognitive and logic intelligence with a degree of reasoning, little smarter than most insects or animals and less able to communicate.
Some of these would be invisible and air-borne, mostly harmless, others a solid mass like crystal or a liquid/gel form and some capable of moving through all of the above during it's life-cycle.
The idea is that they'd each be labeled. I'm still working on the label system but effectively it's NAC, three numbers and if nessesary, a safety designation and/or a nickname.
For example, NAC-441 is a compound extremely suitable for modification for things like armor and NAC-662 has unique properties which make it a great choice for optic circuitry. Simply put, NAC is incredibly rare in the wild and capable of living in the most remote and hostile of places where life was thought to be impossible.
Nobody knows it's origin but reverse engineering it shows that it can with some work be modified to perform very specific tasks extremely well and maintain itself so it doesn't require replacement.
Lor happens to have something of a head-start with 441 and 662 but other than this, they're pretty stumped since 441 and 662 are already very well trained into their task but the compound was "discovered" on unknown wreckage.
I was hoping to introduce them in a fairly... How shall I say.. "nasty" way with NAC-531T (Terminal).
--
The idea behind this little beauty is that it'd be dug up during a mining operation on a newly colonized planet and unwillingly distributed by the automated system.
It has some very unplesant effects. For one, it consumes metalloids and a wide array of unhardened synthetic substances but has a particular taste for Zeusanium. Depending on the substance consumed, it leaves behind either dangerous gasses or radioactive substances and what's more is the planet it's found on is infested with Terminal, though it's dormant until light hits it.
NAC-531T will happily eat the foundations of cities and whatnot over a period of several years and it seems to be unaffected by most standard modes of destroying such a thing, the others which would take years to perform.
I figure there'd be a big evacuation to get everyone off the planet before the thing makes the planet inhospitable.
On the upside, 531T can't survive in a vaccume so cargo held in a vaccume for 3 or 4 hours would be decontaminated.
The planet left behind would probably be a scavenger's wet dream assuming he or she can brave and survive the hostile climate changes caused by the gasses but I think the major changes would come pretty late and some people would get left behind from the escape.
The other plesantry is that 531T is localized to whereever it happens to be found and it's easy enough to get rid of in space but on the planet, there's so much of it... Well.
Eventually, it would go through a cycle where it rips the face of the planet open to awaken the remaining 531T beneath and drain the planet. Towards the end, the complementry of gasses would change dramatically and the planet would close again: Within three years, the planet would be livable but this event would happen every decade or two.
I know what you're thinking: "ZEUSANIUM!!?".
But the process takes about a week to really get started and then the Zeusanium acts as a catylist for its own break-down. This isn't because I hate the technology though. It's because I want to create a disaster that people will notice and have something to talk about which is exempt of some nation or invading force's labeling and whatnot.
Well, let me know what you all think.
"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it"
The idea is I give you folks an informal brief, you tell me what you think and if it's a worthy contribution, I'll do some research to back it and gut this post into a formal submission.
I'll be contributing something called an NAC which sounds really good but doesn't stand for anything. I'd assume it'd mean like nano something compound but the ideas is that an NAC is a metalloid or synthetic substance which exerts some or all properties of a living thing and treated as a bacterium. NAC which haven't been discovered or engineered yet would demonstrate a degree of lower cognitive and logic intelligence with a degree of reasoning, little smarter than most insects or animals and less able to communicate.
Some of these would be invisible and air-borne, mostly harmless, others a solid mass like crystal or a liquid/gel form and some capable of moving through all of the above during it's life-cycle.
The idea is that they'd each be labeled. I'm still working on the label system but effectively it's NAC, three numbers and if nessesary, a safety designation and/or a nickname.
For example, NAC-441 is a compound extremely suitable for modification for things like armor and NAC-662 has unique properties which make it a great choice for optic circuitry. Simply put, NAC is incredibly rare in the wild and capable of living in the most remote and hostile of places where life was thought to be impossible.
Nobody knows it's origin but reverse engineering it shows that it can with some work be modified to perform very specific tasks extremely well and maintain itself so it doesn't require replacement.
Lor happens to have something of a head-start with 441 and 662 but other than this, they're pretty stumped since 441 and 662 are already very well trained into their task but the compound was "discovered" on unknown wreckage.
I was hoping to introduce them in a fairly... How shall I say.. "nasty" way with NAC-531T (Terminal).
--
The idea behind this little beauty is that it'd be dug up during a mining operation on a newly colonized planet and unwillingly distributed by the automated system.
It has some very unplesant effects. For one, it consumes metalloids and a wide array of unhardened synthetic substances but has a particular taste for Zeusanium. Depending on the substance consumed, it leaves behind either dangerous gasses or radioactive substances and what's more is the planet it's found on is infested with Terminal, though it's dormant until light hits it.
NAC-531T will happily eat the foundations of cities and whatnot over a period of several years and it seems to be unaffected by most standard modes of destroying such a thing, the others which would take years to perform.
I figure there'd be a big evacuation to get everyone off the planet before the thing makes the planet inhospitable.
On the upside, 531T can't survive in a vaccume so cargo held in a vaccume for 3 or 4 hours would be decontaminated.
The planet left behind would probably be a scavenger's wet dream assuming he or she can brave and survive the hostile climate changes caused by the gasses but I think the major changes would come pretty late and some people would get left behind from the escape.
The other plesantry is that 531T is localized to whereever it happens to be found and it's easy enough to get rid of in space but on the planet, there's so much of it... Well.
Eventually, it would go through a cycle where it rips the face of the planet open to awaken the remaining 531T beneath and drain the planet. Towards the end, the complementry of gasses would change dramatically and the planet would close again: Within three years, the planet would be livable but this event would happen every decade or two.
I know what you're thinking: "ZEUSANIUM!!?".
But the process takes about a week to really get started and then the Zeusanium acts as a catylist for its own break-down. This isn't because I hate the technology though. It's because I want to create a disaster that people will notice and have something to talk about which is exempt of some nation or invading force's labeling and whatnot.
Well, let me know what you all think.
"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it"
My conversation with Doshii: said:00:52:42 doshii_jun: Does my other post make sense?
00:53:03 doshii_jun: I'm not trying to be a jerk, I swear.
00:53:10 osakanone: I know you're not.
00:53:19 osakanone: you're better than that.
00:53:34 doshii_jun: Aheh. Well, most of the time.
00:53:43 osakanone: I'll have to try and explain this on a one-to-one basis, I guess.
00:53:54 osakanone: If that's okay.
00:54:00 osakanone: I'm obviously doing something wrong here.
00:54:04 doshii_jun: I don't know about that. When you said "Lorath discovery," it clicked fine.
00:54:26 osakanone: Well, here's the thing.
00:54:28 doshii_jun: At first, it just seemed like you were trying to replace or recreate the Nodal System.
00:54:34 osakanone: This had little or nothing to do with the nodal system.
00:54:46 doshii_jun: Ahh. My bad.
00:55:00 osakanone: Why would I want to replace something that works perfectly well?
00:55:10 osakanone: The idea with this is that it's... How to explain.
00:55:32 osakanone: Like a sort of ore in a massive number of different forms, only it's alive, like a bacterium, not like an animal.
00:55:58 osakanone: With what could almost be called genetic modification, a fairly plain compound can be engineered into an amazingly effective whatevermajigger.
00:56:11 osakanone: But it doesn't work for things which involve complex moving parts.
00:56:50 doshii_jun: Sounds like T-1000.
00:56:54 osakanone: Not so much.
00:57:01 osakanone: It can't zip from one role to another.
00:57:25 doshii_jun: Right. But it can't, say, be engineered into a gun or something. You could engineer it into a metal for a gun, though.
00:57:34 osakanone: Right.
00:57:43 osakanone: It can't decide "I want to be a gun".
00:57:43 doshii_jun: Gotcha.
00:57:49 doshii_jun: I see.
00:57:51 osakanone: But the applications are beyond armor.
00:58:06 doshii_jun: Okay.
00:58:33 osakanone: Another one I posted up was 662, a photonic conductor/generator. Marvolous for micro-optic circuitry and since it's smart enough to be a memory alloy, it can repair itself to a degree.
00:58:41 osakanone: Try to hold it's default pathways.
00:59:27 osakanone: 531T was supposed to demonstrate a naturally occuring varient that was unplesant and pretty useless but otherwise very interesting.
00:59:40 doshii_jun: Hmmm. I see.
01:00:04 doshii_jun: So you can take this base ore, and make it into a lot of different type of material.
01:00:27 osakanone: Not quite. You can take the base materials, like a "strain" and train and manufacture it to perform specific tasks.
01:00:41 osakanone: Like a high strength artificial muscle.
01:00:55 osakanone: Tomoe loved the idea and Harrikke was begging me to submit it.
01:01:06 doshii_jun: So ... you can't, instead of having to mine or collect 2,000 different materials for a vessel, mine a shitload of this stuff and modify it how you want?
01:01:31 osakanone: Yes but the modification process is a but crude at the moment.
01:01:44 osakanone: There are a few naturally occuring types which break down into further types based on their properties.
01:02:46 doshii_jun: Ahhh, I see. So eventually, you could get to that stage. But for now, it's limited. I see, I see ... so there might not be a base type that can be modified into, say, plastic -- not yet, at least.
01:03:00 osakanone: Exactly.
01:03:12 osakanone: They're all named by number based on their behaviors.
01:03:41 doshii_jun: Mmmmm. Okay. And it's a living organism, right? But only semi-sentient, not enough to revolt?
01:03:45 osakanone: Some are like naturally occuring crystal. Others liquids at the bottom of oceans but they're a sort of life-form.. Like how we're carbon based life-form.
01:03:47 doshii_jun: (Sorry to cut you off.)
01:03:50 osakanone: It's okay
01:04:48 doshii_jun: Hmmmm, okay. So not enough to revolt. Almost like plankton in a sense? Microscopic or near it, but they can cluster together and form material X?
01:04:58 osakanone: Mm.
01:05:08 osakanone: Originally, this was going to be the basis of Sourcian technologies.
01:05:16 osakanone: Wes said I should ditch it for a bit.
01:05:17 doshii_jun: Ahh, I see.
01:05:20 osakanone: Let my ideas grow.
01:05:24 doshii_jun: Right.
01:05:31 osakanone: I figure if I am allowed to introduce them, this would make an ideal plug.
01:05:37 osakanone: Otherwise, it's still damn cool.
01:05:40 doshii_jun: I suppose that makes sense. You were new.
01:05:45 osakanone: New?
01:05:46 doshii_jun: Yeah, I get what you mean.
01:05:48 osakanone: I was a noob.
01:05:51 osakanone: Say it with me.
01:05:54 osakanone: Nooooob.
01:06:01 doshii_jun: NOOOOOOOOOOBERZ
01:06:04 osakanone: XD
01:06:24 doshii_jun: Now wait a moment -- does this lifeform have a common weakness, throughout the base type and sub-types?
01:06:41 osakanone: I haven't decided yet.
01:06:49 osakanone: But I know 531 can't survive for extended periods in a vacume.
01:07:08 doshii_jun: So it can't be a ship armor or something like that. I gotcha.
01:07:09 osakanone: Through accelerated evolution, it could be made extremely resiliant.
01:07:20 osakanone: Well, 441 is in use as a ship armor.
01:07:33 osakanone: 531 is like a mass planetary cancer. An evolutionary fuckup in terms of NAC.
01:07:42 doshii_jun: Gotcha.
01:08:01 osakanone: I thought it'd be neat to create a "dead zone" or something, even if it was a single planet.
01:08:07 osakanone: Like a bermuda triangle.
01:08:10 doshii_jun: So it kind of kills itself off -- destroys planet, planet possibly loses atmosphere, shit dies.
01:08:22 osakanone: 531 goes through a sort of cycle.
01:08:31 osakanone: Starts dormant at the mantle layer.
01:08:42 osakanone: Wakes up on contact with specific chemical gasses and light.
01:08:44 doshii_jun: Mantle layer? Huh. So it can survive heat.
01:08:48 osakanone: Yes.
01:08:49 osakanone: Eats and multiplies
01:08:53 osakanone: Keeps eating and multiplying.
01:08:59 osakanone: Until it practically covers the planet.
01:09:02 doshii_jun: Most viral.
01:09:04 osakanone: Rip planet open.
01:09:11 osakanone: Collect whatever passes by for a few decades.
01:09:13 osakanone: Close up.
01:09:18 osakanone: Shoot off a spore.
01:09:25 osakanone: Dormant for a few thousand more years.
01:09:54 doshii_jun: I see. And it creates its own vacuum-protected spore?
01:09:58 osakanone: Yep.
01:10:04 doshii_jun: Hmmm.
01:10:07 osakanone: Using the metalloids it's consumed.
01:10:11 osakanone: Like a rounded case.
01:10:18 osakanone: And it just throws it out into space and hopes for the best.
01:10:42 doshii_jun: It does sound pretty cool. How does it escape the metalloid?
01:10:55 osakanone: It's set to erode in specific atmospheres.
01:11:00 doshii_jun: Ah sou.
01:11:13 doshii_jun: *shrugs* It does sound really cool, I'll admit.
01:11:21 osakanone: I know eating Zeusanium was a bit much but it takes a week to start.
01:11:28 osakanone: The idea was to do it on a very heavily populated planet.
01:11:39 osakanone: 99% of the population escapes.
01:11:59 osakanone: Everyone else is left on a wasteland for about a decade, hoping for the best. Salvage oppertunities would be epic.
01:12:14 doshii_jun: I dunno where it'd fit into the SARP ... but yeah, something like that I imagine. Shoot it at Yamatai or something. Though Yamatai would blast it first.
01:12:23 osakanone: The one thing is that 513 can't fly.
01:12:34 osakanone: Anything airborne is pretty safe so long as physical contact isn't made.
01:12:43 doshii_jun: Maybe at one of the Mishhu worlds that's less protected.
Can't fly? As in, no airborne travel. Gotcha.
01:12:54 osakanone: Why bomb the misshu?
01:13:04 doshii_jun: 'Cause you couldn't bomb Yamatai.
01:13:06 osakanone: The idea was it would already be dormant in one of the newly populated worlds.
01:13:12 doshii_jun: Ohhhhh.
01:13:19 osakanone: And they'd unwittingly "discover" it.
01:13:24 doshii_jun: So, like, it's on Jun or something.
01:13:29 osakanone: Sure, why not.
01:13:31 doshii_jun: Some planet we haven't really done anything with.
01:13:40 doshii_jun: Yet, anyway. Okay.
01:13:42 osakanone: Heh.
01:13:57 osakanone: Sorry if my explination has been whack.