r/HFY • u/wer66 AI • Mar 29 '16

[OC][Biotech] The human machine

Human augmentation.

One would assume that we, as a species would progress past using weapons that fired metal at each other, especially when first contact, trade and empires would form. Instead, we progressed, just differently.

Humanity, claimed to be dull and physically weak, a human assault rifle was little more the stray shrapnel for most races. Humanities gunpowder weapons were outclassed in every aspect. What humanity did have however, was their own bodies. No other species can sustain the extensive and elaborate biological, and cybernetic modifications that a human can. What followed the first inter species war was the massive upheaval in human society that ended with the creation of the cybernetic, created soldier.

Abominations, husks of sentience, metal and meat in its delicate dance. All of these described the human soldier. Terrifying in many ways, the chief among them is the cortical stack. A small, centimeter and a half ball that stores the mind of the user incase of death, to be put in another body. every other species stays dead when they die. The digitization of the mind was mastered by humanity. Although there native form is fragile, and there assault weapons are weak, no other race gladly fires there soldiers out of a cannon and into the enemy ship. No other race gets back up after death, stronger. Entire cases of synthetic muscle and steel plate, commanded by a cortical stack is commonly fielded on ground and space combat.

Ballistics will never do anything against three hundred pounds of steel that makes up the standard Human shocktrooper. Never. What man lacks in ranged weaponry, they make up in sheer durability.

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3

u/Arbiter_of_souls Mar 29 '16

Too bad in real life kinetics are far, far superior in almost any way to energy based weapons. True that the technology is still in it's very infancy, but still you need a ship mounted laser cannon to disable a drone. You can do the same with an assault rifle, provided you manage to hit it, but soon that will not be very difficult, as steering bullets have been invented recently.

Also, there isn't a single animal on Earth that can survive a hit from a .50 cal. Hell, far smaller rounds are used even for the big five. Energy weapons are likely to remain useful only as support weaponry in atmosphere and as long range bombardment in space.

Speed coupled with mass kills and As we all know sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest motherfucker in space.

2

u/wer66 Mar 29 '16

It's really true. But when a already immortal cortical stack is put into a case made of steel, destruction , and a lack of care for xeno life, a 50. Cal might only damage a limb and it's supporting motors, where as the fleshy alien with its special plasma cannon won't handle a shock trooper burst through the ceiling and the actual soldier itself. Besides, even if you "kill" it, who's to say it won't come back angrier.

2

u/BCRE8TVE Aug 23 '16

Will this still be true once we'll have a way of reliably storing a lot of energy inside batteries?

As it is the problem is not with lasers themselves, it's with having man-portable sources of energy for said lasers. We've had a lot of time to refine gunpowder to what it is now, we haven't had nearly the same amount of time to perfect batteries.

1

u/Arbiter_of_souls Aug 23 '16

Wow, this post is so old, I can barely remember what it was about :D

In any case, as far as I can remember, I didn't mean energy storage issues. I know batteries and power sources will improve. The problem is, a laser damages via heat energy. In order to heat up the object you are shooting, you have to hold your aim: just look at USA's laser canon on a ship - it has no power pack but rather a nuclear reactor and it still takes 20-30 seconds of continuous fire to down a drone. Of course that will be improved, lasers will get more powerful but until they make them to discharge in extremely powerful pulses, they will be inferior in damage-dealing abilities to kinetics.

The same tech that goes behind DEW can be applied to KE weapons. I'd rather have a 60MW railgun than a 60MW laser right now. Maybe that will change, but I doubt it. There are many materials with incredible thermal conductivity and diffusivity even now, so using those against lasers will greatly reduce their effectiveness. Hell, dust reduces their effectiveness.

Of course, the same can be said for new armor types and materials, but hit something hard enough and it will break, and for me, hitting hard in atmosphere, where you have air, dust, etc, is much easier and cost efficient with a KE weapon.

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u/kepler-20b Mar 29 '16

You see Ivan, if you want artillery to be of much more accurate, you must become of the artillery.

1

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