The 8mm flechette rifle is a weapon that is usually encountered in the hands of security guards. Users favour the weapon for its flat trajectory, high hit probability, low recoil and effects on unarmoured and soft-armoured targets. Its limited range and poor performance against hard armoured targets have precluded it from military adoption. Their minimal […]
The attrapeur is a robot used by a number of police and security forces. It was first used with great success in the Paris student riots four years ago. An attrapeur has four multi-sectioned legs of about a metre length which join onto a compact, flat body of less than a third of a metre […]
I let my gaze wander around the apartment. A water jug was on the table near the window. As I glanced at it the water suddenly began to violently bubble. No sooner had I began to marvel at the strangeness of this when it again settled. I looked towards the chairman to see if he […]
In GURPS, firing a gun is an Attack, All-Out Attack or Move and Attack manoeuvre. This may or may not be preceded by one or more seconds of Aim manoeuvre. In Transhuman Space, we have the added complication that smart ammunition, including homing bullets, are relatively commonplace. Any firing in non-homing mode will simply be […]
Around 400BC in Nemea, the Greek fighters Creugas and Damoxenus fought until dusk. They resolved to permit each other a single final blow. Creugas struck Damoxenus on the head but the blow was weathered. Damoxenus had Creugas raise his arm and then struck him with his open hand, using his fingertips like a spear. Damoxenus […]
As I have described in previous articles, military operations in the Transhuman Space-era often involve relatively small numbers of personnel, often tasked with an operational or strategic-level mission. In contemporary parlance, these units would often be described as “special forces”, although “covert forces” is more accurate. In the THS-era, however, special forces have undergone a […]
In the late 20th century special reconnaissance missions would normally be performed by small parties of highly trained men. In the TS-era the same mission is more commonly performed by a collection of diverse robotic systems. A reconnaissance/surveillance force will usually contain a variety of systems. Some of these systems such as surveillance dust, surveillance […]
Before the widespread use of radar a number of other means for detecting enemy aircraft were tried. Direct observation of aircraft was only possible during daylight and if clouds and other conditions permitted. An alternate approach was to use devices that could locate an aircraft by its engine noise. From the First World War and […]
The 20mm micromissile owes some of its ancestry to an early 21st century South African weapon. The designers of the PAW-20 Neopup had the inspired idea of mounting 20mm cannon shells in a grenade gun casing. The resulting round had a flatter trajectory and higher velocity than larger calibre grenade guns. This resulted in a […]
One of the warhead types available in Transhuman Space is designated the MBC or Microbot-Biological-Chemical warhead. This is a somewhat misleading label. The minimum mass for a microbot swarm is one pound. Transhuman technical appendix version 3.1.1 tells us “The number of hexes of cyberswarms that a warhead can carry is equal to (bore size/60) […]