The Katral TN-series are a relatively common mannequin-type android. Facial features are basic, just eyes and a speaker grill. TNs are five feet and four inches tall, a design feature intended to make them less intimidating and also save materials and reduce cost. TNs are typically used for tasks that favour a human body- form […]
“A conventional tank takes a couple of seconds to roll out of cover, fire and then roll back again. You can use that to your advantage. The Kuros, however…They pop out, fire and are gone again before you know it. And they can hide in a lot of places a tank cannot!” “The spider was […]
Today I was watching the Matt Helm movie “The Ambushers”. In one scene Helm runs out of ammunition, so unthreads his belt from his trousers. He holds the belt under a convenient stream of water and the belt becomes rigid so he can use it as a weapon. It occurred to me that a similar […]
In Timothy Zahn’s Blackcollar series, the blackcollars are a ninja/ commando unit that use low-tech, non-electronic and non-explosive weapons to avoid detection by their high-tech opponents. Favoured weapons included nunchaku, shurikens and slingshots. Oddly, the weapons used in the books that I read were still made from metal. The technology available in Transhuman Space permits […]