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Personal Characters List

Name: Rameshvara V. Katalin

Handles: Ram, Katalin, Valerianus, Val

Occupation: Scientist & Engineer

Description: Whole-brain emulation of an undisclosed species uploaded within a masculine shark-like synth body. Compared to what little said of his original form, he claims to’ve traded up in physique, synthetically masked to appear young in his mid-twenties with grey, slightly reddish requiem-like skin & a long thresher-like tail.

His body is an “Exocet” selachimorph; a synth model hardened to survive condensed physics-altering degrees of inertial force experienced in extreme acceleration. Numerous after-factory cybernetics enduing additional senses & cognitive enhancements have also been subtly integrated, with a few even falling into legally dubious areas, including a ‘‘hot core’’ security-grade cyberbrain kernel-patched with various “skillsofts” & “pathotronics”.

Finally, while his head, neck, & torso are braced by synthetic bone, the arms & legs are supported by a frame of artificial cartilage reinforced by a self-repairing mosaic of Carbon-Boron-Nitrogen ‘‘tesserae’’, resulting in limbs that are near-unbreakable and sturdy, yet still pliant enough to non-destructively bend under enough force.

^{[ ♫ ]}
Notes: At one point was merely a 20-something drudge living a quiet life many centuries ago. In the natural order of things he would’ve lived, died, & his personal achievements would’ve eventually faded with him, with one notable exception: Rameshvara V. Katalin was one of the first sapient test subjects for synthbrain connectome architecture imaging. His last pre-reinstantiated memory was being lured & coaxed by an attractive wunderkind professor & her interns to lie still while wired up to a strange machine, before suddenly getting barraged with an overloading maelstrom of bizarre sensory input.

When he was re-instanced a century later within the virtual simulspace servers of Preserved Connectomics Limited, & given his first orientation by a “CAIS” (lowtech “comprehensive AI service”) donated as a personal assistant for life, he found that the future was the world he always wanted to live in. He would soon later discover though that he’d be assigned into indentured servitude to defray the steep costs of recovering him out of ancient hard drives, & so for whole subjective millennia trapped in time-accelerated virtual labs of a subsidiary’s R&D robotics division, he’d toiled away under the tutelage & authority of the now-immortalized professor who had effectively enslaved him.

In the last decade Rameshvara has been finally released from his indentureship, only to discover he was locked in a second near-forgotten yet non-complete contract with other employers now trailblazing space colonization. Unable to earn his own credits, but at least now corporeal, he’s taken solace in that his new occupation pushes him to diversify into new fields and frontiers.

Roleplaying/Motivations: [^ Science] [^ Power] [v ‘‘Antigonus…’’ (Antigonus Carbrey; another “infomorph” who’d been indentured alongside Rameshvara, yet became something of an academic rival)]

Millennia of slaving away in time-accelerated simulspace labs, as well as frequent “forking” & “re-integrations” has left him somewhat unbalanced; occasionally he fantasizes blueprints for doomsday devices or super-soldiers. In an attempt to avoid these destructive fantasies, he’s grown accustomed to keeping himself evened out with “pathotronic” cyberbrain algorithms, resulting in a more gleeful personality, that while a bit unsettling, doesn’t have unproductive & intrusive thoughts, such as seeking to weaponize vacuum-materialized antimatter to destroy perceived enemies. While some worry what damage he would be capable of if turned loose, others fear what precisely Rameshvara may’ve been mentored & used by his former employer for.

Quote: “They say madness is rampant in this sort of career. Some have even personally called me mad…”

“And why?” ^_{ô_ó}

“Because I dared to dream of my own new race of Amazonian goddesses, celestial giantesses with herculean strength and Olympian forms, with hearts burning hotter than thermonuclear fire, that’d feast upon nebulae for sustenance, AND-” Wanders off from the listener, continuing on in his rambling tirades out the door.

Name: Caitríona Greeley
Sex: Female
Age: late 30’s
Handles: Cait, Greeley
Occupation: Private Magistrate, (a.k.a. Freelance Judge)
Physical Appearance: [ + ]

Notes: An exemplary “freelance judge” by career, whose adaptable jurisprudence and keen supervision keeps employer’s systems of contract-law running smoothly. Between the credit earned to her name from passing fair arbitration, and the money received when a contract stipulates a percentage of damages or payment for an arbitrator, it’s a comfortable living. That is, when not being shot at while cutting through hull plate to get at a party hiding away in breach of their obligations.

Roleplaying/Motivations: [^ The Law ] [^ Wealth ] [v Corruption ] [v Indolence ]
Freelance judges are sometimes mistaken for bounty hunters, but this is incorrect. Before enforcement, their first function is to examine the case on its legal merits. Then one may call both parties in for arbitration, take action against a breaching party by themselves, or even publicly identify the breaching party and offer up a cut of their own reward to assemble a posse.

Quote: “Earth customs don’t apply here. You’re in breach of Section 3, Paragraph 9 of your duly executed contract under the Nomic system. Heave to and prepare to be boarded. This is your only warning.”

Name: Konstantin Rurik
Sex: Male
Age: late 20’s
Handles: Contractor
Occupation: Still-functioning assassin, somehow working still in a post-death era.
Physical Appearance: [ + ]

Notes: Even in a spacefaring gilded age, the underlying spook world hidden from society maintains a stranglehold on the flow of information, and hitmen are one of many powerful instruments with which any deep state uses to tighten their grip. In order to maintain control and stability, it is sometimes necessary to make certain people either disappear, or suffer unfortunate physical trauma as a message. That’s where Rurik comes in. He gets assignments from higher-ups, never questioning why, and accomplishes them with no witnesses and no traces left behind.

Roleplaying/Motivations: [^ Survival ] [^ The Hunt ]
He’s seen those action clips of mecha-octopus assassins wielding eight guns at once, but that’s fiction; a true pro only needs one gun–and one shot–to get the job done. _{||Unironic fan of Huey Lewis & The News. ||}

Quote: “That, tetrodotoxin, should be nicely into your meatbag system by now. It’s isolated from the liver of an old-world pufferfish. So, it paralyzes you, but it leaves all the other neurological functions, perfectly intact… in other words, you can’t move, but you feel, everything. It does absolutely nothing to blunt the pain, and you’re about to experience more of that, then you could ever, fucking, imagine…‘’

Augmented Reality & You

Tactical Networks

Tactical networks, or “tacnets”, are specialized software programs used by teams that benefit from the sharing of tactical data. They are commonly used by sports teams, security outfits, military units, AR gamers, explorers, surveyors, miners, traffic control, scavengers, and anyone else who needs a tactical overview of a situation.

Functionwise, tacnets provide specialized software skills and tools to a superintending AI, as best fits their tactical needs. These tools link together and share and analyze data between all of the participants in the network, creating a customizable display within smart-glasses, helmet visor HUDs, or even entoptic implants for each user that summarizes relevant data, highlights interactions and priorities, and alerts the user to matters that require their attention.

The following list is a sample of a typical combat tacnet’s features:

Maps: Tacnets assemble all available maps and can present them to the user with a bird’s eye view or as a three-dimensional interactive diagram, with distances between relevant features readily accessible. The superintending AI can also plot maps based on sensory input, breadcrumb positioning systems, and other data. Plotted paths and other data from these maps can be displayed as entoptic images or other AR sensory input (a user who should be turning left might see a transparent red arrow or feel a tingling sensation on their left side).

Positioning: The exact position of the user and all other participants are updated and mapped according to local mesh network positioning and GPS. Likewise, the position of known people, vehicles, and other features can also be plotted according to sensory input.

Sensory Input: Any sensory input available to a participating character or device in the network can be fed into the system and shared. This includes data from physical senses, portable sensors, smartlink guncams, XP output, etc. This also allows one user to immediately call up and access the sensor feed of another user.

Communications Management: The tacnet maintains an encrypted link between all users and stays wary both of participants who drop out or of attempts to hack, spoof, or otherwise interfere with the communications link.

Smartlink/Weapon Data: The tacnet monitors the status of weapons, accessories, and other gear via the smartlink interface or wireless link, bringing material stress and damage, shortages, and other issues to the user’s attention.

Indirect Fire: Also known as “tacnet sniping”, members of a tacnet can provide targeting data to each other for purposes of indirect fire.

Analysis: The AI(s) participating in the tacnet are bolstered with skill software and databases that enable them to interpret incoming data and sensory feeds. Perhaps the most useful aspect of tacnets, this means a superintending AI may notice facts or details individual users are likely to have overlooked. For example, the tacnet can count shots fired by opponents, note when they are likely running low, and even analyze sensory input to determine the type of weaponry and ammunition being used. Opponents and their gear can also be scanned and analyzed to note potential weaknesses, injury, and capability. If sensor contact with an opponent is lost, the last known location is memorized and potential movement vectors and distances are displayed. Opponent positioning can also identify lines of sight and fields of fire, alerting the user to areas of potential cover or danger. Tacnets can also suggest maneuvers that will aid the user, such as flanking an opponent or acquiring better elevation.

Vade Mecum to 22nd Century Combat
_{( mish-mashing from these two PDFs; [ A ] [ B ]. )}

Let me drop some Sun Tzu on you first. The best thing is of course never to have to fight. Get the enemy to love you, want to help you, or at least ignore you. But if you have to fight, you fight to win. If you find yourself in a ‘fair fight’ you have done something wrong.

What we’re dealing with here is destruction, but what is the essence of that? It’s to prevent the intended function of something – a weapon, a person, a machine, a society. It can be surgical, like resetting a synthmorph’s brain to factory defaults, or it can be entropic, like perforating it with bullets, or blowing it up. The problem with surgical destruction is that it’s complicated, so it often requires special tools and a lot of preparation. You also need to know a lot about your enemy – always a good thing, but often hard to come by. Entropy on the other hand is easy, it is the natural tendency of the universe. Apply enough of it and it doesn’t matter what you are fighting.

This is a collection of conventional and unconventional weaponry, used to dispense entropy where it does the most good.

Strategic weapons
Let’s start with the strategic section first. The best way of making an impression that can be measured in kilometres.

Antimatter bullets

Rare, deadly, and very, very unpopular. Normally installed in special micromissiles that can fly far enough to be safe to use, but a few railgun bullets have also been made. Generally regarded as completely insane to use, but a few rogue ASI hunters I know swear by them: nothing survives ambiplasma, no matter how smart it is.

Unfortunately, antimatter ammunition is quite unstable. A sufficiently serious hit on the weapon or ammo will set it off. While antimatter railgun bullets are built to handle extreme accelerations sometimes they fail when fired, blowing up the firer. Worse, some do not detonate when they should, leaving unexploded antimatter ordnance lying around or inside a body. Of course, sometimes you want this to happen, and so we have a design for that too.

The yield can be anything from a grenade to a nuke, depending on the design. Unlike a hydrogen bomb you cannot set the yield after making it. Tends to set off WMD detectors left and right, so these are hard to covertly transport.

Tantalum charge

This is a nuclear isomer bomb that produces an intense gamma ray burst. Leaves no lingering radioactivity, but plays merry hell with organic tissue, circuitry, nanomachinery, and anything else that disagrees with getting ionization and free radicals everywhere. It has an explosive power similar to a high-explosive grenade, since the gammas tend to bump the atoms around quite vigorously. One of the nice things about this device is that it takes a somewhat sophisticated detector to figure out that you are lugging around a block of tantalum 180m, rather than just a block of boring old regular tantalum.

This is puny compared to the others in this section. This is the man-portable version you would lug into the Den of Evil to cleanse it with fire. We have a big and expensive warheads that do the same thing on regional levels. Yeah, this is likely what happened to New Maracaibo on Mars…

RKKS (Relativistic Kinetic Kill System)

These are the Big Guns; the “rocks”. To be honest, I don’t know if any have actually been built. But I’d be surprised if nobody had tried – there are a few too many paranoid groups out there with ample energy supplies and expansive strategic defense budgets.

Basically it just throws a heavy projectile at something very fast. So fast, that the enemy will not be able to react to it: when they see the blueshifted gammas from it they have milliseconds to react. Even if the enemy could break the missile they would still be hit by the fragments. And when it hits, it doesn’t matter what it is made of since it has more kinetic energy than its own mass-energy: making the warhead out of antimatter would just be superfluous.

Of course, you need to point it at where the enemy will be when it hits. So this is great against somebody who doesn’t move very unpredictably, like a large space habitat, a terrestrial city, or a big installation.

The big problem with RKKS is how to accelerate them. This particular blueprint (courtesy of Omnicor) uses pulsed explosions for propulsion: it is a series of stages that gets propelled forward when the previous stage explodes. Very visible, of course, but if you happened to have a small icy moon to hide it on, like, say Phoebe, Cordelia or Pasiphaë (not that I’m hinting at anything) the initial explosions would be pretty invisible and by the time the RKKS is obvious it would already be very fast. I know some Jovian think tank and the Quantum Defense Group (paranoid lunarians) have been looking at a really powerful railgun version, and there is a rumour the Titanians have found a clever way of launching projectiles using a long ‘‘thunder well’’ tube filled with deuterium that acts as a directional hydrogen bomb.

Remember, the main point of the weapon is that there’s no time to react. This is for a surprise “let’s rid the world of you”-party.

Planetary maser

Another absurd weapon that works in theory but nobody seems to have built. In a maser atoms that have been put in a high-energy state fall to a lower state when tickled with photons of the right frequency. If there are enough of them, and there is some sort of resonant cavity, you can get a cascade where a lot of energy gets released as coherent microwaves. The fun thing is that there are a lot of highly strung atoms around the universe. There are natural masers in star atmospheres, in molecular clouds, in comets, in the water plumes from Saturn’s ice moons and in gas giant atmospheres. In particular, Jupiter has fine conditions for making lots of maser energy.

These masers are not very focused and directional. But suppose somebody arranged things so that magnetic fields produced a resonant cavity, fired a bunch of really big lasers to provide charged channels that would act as directional antennas and beamed microwaves at the right phase to make a self-focusing beam? You would get a very big maser delivering a lot – many terawatts - of energy. To actually use it you would need to set up a set of control stations in close jovian orbit. Which likely will require some cooperation with Earthgov and the inhabitants around Jupiter.

Antimatter cluster bomb

While we’re on the topic of redecorating geography on planetary scales, here’s an old classic: the AMCB. Just like the antimatter warheads we all know and love, except that this one contains hundreds to thousands of individual mini-warheads. They spread out, and detonate simultaneously across a big area or volume. Yep, this is what made the “Big Shiners” pock-marking all over Amazonis Planitia.

Why not use the AM in one big bomb? Because there is a limit on how much entropy you want to throw at a single place: making something a million or ten million degrees hot is not going to make much of a difference; all the atoms are going to turn to plasma. If your target is made of molecular matter it is not going to care much about the difference. But targets are often extended or you are uncertain of where they are. Hence the cluster: lots of sufficiently big detonations, covering the area so no point is far from a fireball.

Perhaps you want to dissociate nuclei? Then you need to get a few billion degrees to be sure (those pesky iron atoms are pretty tough to crack). Normal nukes only give you a few million degrees in the fireball and to be honest it is hard to get beyond that with antimatter warheads too. Inside the ambiplasma you can be pretty sure of some corrosion of nuclei, though. So if you think you need to cleanse a femtotech threat, I would recommend just pouring antimatter on it.

Maybe I am a bit too fond of the stuff, but it is hard to beat.

Futuristic Structures

AB-Domes
A lot of Earth’s cities had AB-Domes in place during and after some of its worst environmental crises. You read about those, right? They’re a series of thin film layers held aloft by simple air compressors, forming a hemispheric shield over the entire city.

The layers are transparent, and help regulate the weather and climate while protecting from attack—most attacks, usually coming from missiles, would detonate outside the dome and the film would stop any radiation, chemicals, or biological agents from getting through. They’re also riddled with solar cells, so they provide power that’s routed through the skin and into generators and batteries on the ground. A Russian named Alexander Bolonkin invented them, hence the name.

Of course, AB-Domes can be made to any size. Smaller ones can be inflated in hours. They can also be stealthed with refractive meta-materials, making them and anything beneath them invisible to radar and other sensors. This makes them an excellent tool for hiding a small settlement or camp away from prying eyes.

 
_{[ link ]}  

_{(What’s weapon tech like? I’m thinking something battery-powered but lead acceleration is dandy, too)}

_{(it is mass acceleration and lead has proven to be the densest mass available for the desired impacts.)}

 
^{>Basic ballistics (& maybe the occasional rare Lorentz-force gun)}  

 
_{[ link ]}  

• _{plot thread:
  one first wave has stopped answering the phone
  however monitoring equipment shows all is running smoothly
  second wave are dispatched, with increased security detail, just in case
  find that the insectoids are not responding to commands and when approached would act aggressive to deter any contact.
  first wave reptiloids found destroyed/otherwise indisposed
  find odd looking tech monoliths.
  insectoids have apparently constructed them.
  monoliths are super servers, offering computing power near equal to the advanced synthbrains of reptiloids
  house “ascended” AI protocols acting as hive queens
  wish to preserve their existance
  do not trust the organics’ federation/empire to respect that
  conflict.}

• _{the first wave would be our reptiloid friends and a workforce of insectoids, as neither are bothered by the passage of time they can land on their suitable world whenever and install the homing beacon for ftl travel, as well as begin terraforming work and the heavy lifting of colonization.}

_{(Gears of war was on mah brain.}

 

 

_{[ Synsects ]}

_{[ Seeker Swarms ]}

_{[ ‘‘SWARM ARMOR’’ (on linked PDF’s page 184) ]}

• ^{The SIS learned the hard way that these shapechanging combat armor suits are in fact quite dangerous to the wearer. Liberated from a TITAN cache, their intended purpose is unclear—perhaps they were intended as traps, or perhaps they simply malfunction in a particularly horrific way.}
  _{Swarm armor suits operate as a vacsuit with a full helmet, providing an Armor Value of 17/14. They have the fireproof, lotus, and shockproof armor mods. What they also have is a dormant nanoswarm that can be accidentally reactivated by an unlucky hit from an energy weapon. If the wearer is hit by an energy attack that inflicts 20+ points of damage, they must make a MOX x 10 Test (NPCs automatically fail). If they fail, the nanobots come to life and attack the occupant. Treat this as a disassembler swarm attack inside the armor. Removing the armor while being eaten by nanobots requires a REF x 3 Task Action with a timeframe of 10 Action Turns.}

_{[ ‘‘Effector Frames: utility fog limb extension tech’’ ]}

• ^{Type of handtech device using utility fog based ‘limbs’. Often used by sophonts working in non-angelnet conditions to generate a variable number of limbs, ‘smart’ anchor lines, grippers, etc.}
  _{A basic effector frame (sometimes also called a fog-frame) consists of a multi-strap harness and pack that is worn around a sophont’s torso or equivalent and adjustable bands that fit around each forelimb and calf (or equivalent). The bulk of the pack and each limb unit are made up of utility foglets optimized for the environment they are expected to work in (atmosphere of some particular temperature and pressure, vacuum, underwater, etc.).}

_{[ ‘‘Ifrit’’ (within a broader list of scifi melee weapons based on characteristics) ]}

• _{the ifrit is one of the few completely new types of close combat weapon. This nanotech device is normally worn disguised as a vest or other article of clothing. When activated it becomes a whirling cloud of micro-flechettes. The cloud is a cylinder that extends about half a meter from the wielder’s body, and it can project “pseudopods” that extend up to four times that distance in response to the wielder’s arm or leg movements. Using an ifrit without flaying one’s allies as well as enemies takes great skill; the battle katas of ifriti-masters are often compared to dance. The most advanced (and expensive) variants have IFF capability. Like all utility fog an ifrit is vulnerable to high winds, and most versions can be disrupted by electrical or sonic discharges. An ifrit will not function underwater. The greatest weakness of the ifrit is its prodigious power requirements. Some versions employ high-yield capacitor belts, but these only function for up to 30 seconds. A wielder who has access to a ship or installation can run an ifrit off of broadcast power, but this can be interfered with in a variety of ways. Capacitor backup for broadcast power variants is standard.}

Weapon: 60mm “Jericho” vortex cannon

^{An ingenious creation of a ballistic weapon, but without the immense mass requirements of ammunition. The idea behind vortex cannons is quite old, but the destructive potential they at first offered was never enough to attract serious development. Technological progress of the future not only provided the theory’s combat efficacy however, but resulted in many of the Solar System’s armies adopting vortex cannons as a quintessential “seige-type” weapon utilizable within dense-enough atmospheres.}
_{The main drawback is that they’re difficult to aim - vortex muzzle velocity is much lower than conventional munitions, and unless dyed with opaque smoke, the projectiles themselves are invisible to the naked eye. Vortex cannons also have real trouble particularly against blast-dampening ablative armors to boot, but will annihilate most unhardened structures and unprotected targets in a single shot. Even the smaller ’‘RArefaction waVe guN’’ models fireable off the shoulder will burst most military vehicles and combat-synth bodies wide open like soda cans.}

[ ♫ ]
Sada: “Dammit, 🅱⭕⭕MERS! You’ve got 💥ERS, moving on your position right now!’’

Rameshvara: “What, where?!”

Amy: “Hey, hey assholes, over here! Bah!”

Boomer: Racks a fresh superconductive charge-loop battery into their vortex gun. “🅱🅾🅾Ⓜ…”

Riggs: ‘‘Shuddefukkup, boomers!’’

I joined more or less officially in 1997 and drew art up until roughly the mid-2010s.

But I’m curious to know if all of the members here are the “next generation” of furries – people who are probably young enough to be my offspring – or if there are still some of the old guard floating around.

Here’s a little test to see if you are. I’m going to say some artists’ names, and tell me if you recognize them: Scotty Arsenault, Eric Blumrich, Shawntae Howard, Richard Bartrop, Scott Ruggles, Kim Arndt, Malcolm Earle, Jeremy Bernal, Steve Gallacci, Mitch Beiro, Roz Gibson, Kacey Miyagami, Eric Schwarz, Ken Singshow.

Do any of those ring a bell for any of you, or am I just the lone shaggy old wolf here?