Well of Souls Forums

I doff my hat to you...

GeoModder wrote:No, to me this betrayal theory sounds too farfetched.

The thing that makes me doubt it is the fact that the Pocket Historian asked permission to be installed, it could probably have proceeded without asking. It’s a detail that counts (for me at least).

Good question! My gut feeling is to get rid of all instances of the historian, which would probably mean dump all computing devices that were recovered from the Bellarmine (which doesn’t seem a practical scenario because they would continue on the same trajectory as the Highland shuttle), or make ce...

Could the "You are in grave personal danger" have something to do with the current sleeptime ceremony? (I'm asking for a friend.)

We don’t know, yet

(the human systems were!)

@krulle – yeah, you may be onto something.

Another good example is Afghanistan. Never mind the superior production capacity and larger economic base of the usurper. The decisive factor is that trying to pacify or control it will suck the life out of any power that tries to dominate it. Up to the point that pursuing such a goal is no longer r...

I find it interesting that you mention Vietnam, especially since a lot of the discussion above revolved about production capacity.

It's not just economics, I think. It's also important to have an edge in other areas too: an untapped strategic advantage, new types of weapons, new allies. Many battles - though indeed less so entire wars - have been won against the odds thanks to perseverance, outright luck, good old fashioned pig...

I envision variants of the Dead Parrot sketch when trying to get rid of the installed Pocket Historian. "I wish to complain about this software what I installed not half an hour ago from this very bucket." "Oh yes, the, uh, the Pocket Historian...What's,uh...What's wrong with it? "I'll tell you what...

my new favorite page - thank you Arioch

let's greet with hugs

You're right about the Vulcain as well as about the higher chamber pressures - up until the late 1990s considered 'extreme' - for closed-cycle/staged combustion engines. Although the RD-180 is still used to launch NRO satellites and has a spotless track record, it has never been man rated, presumabl...

edit: Correction, the Vulcain is actually a gas-generator engine like the Merlin. It pumps both fuel and oxidizer into the chamber with a pump driven by a turbine running from a small fraction of the propellant flow and dumping its exhaust separately. Simpler to develop but less efficient. heh - yo...

That's the first full-flow staged combustion rocket engine to reach flight worthiness, with a 300 bar chamber pressure and burning methane fuel. Easily the most advanced chemical rocket engine in existence. Hmz, the Russian RD-170/RD-171 and derivatives like the RD-180 (ox-rich kerolox), or the Vul...

The staff on the bridge of Tempest would be better informed, and I'd also go with the innate (unhuman!) "honesty" the Loroi have. It takes effort to hide information and I see no indication in the story that such an effort is made. When picking over the remains of the wreck the Tempest may even have...

I've already mentioned this in a different thread, that this could be intentional as well - if someone wants Alex to 'disappear', better do it with all witnesses and evidence as well, leave no traces behind. After all, Alex's mere existence is a threat to the status quo within the Union. But then L...

At a Loroi/Umiak tech level I could still imagine anti-matter based fireships capable of taking out entire planets / fleets / solar systems. The idea would still be that a fireship needs to survive long enough, for example by looking "innocent & harmless", to reach the position where it can inflict ...

the stereotypical female interrogation officer By playing good cop Beryl already managed to pull a lot of information out Alex, including the location of the solar system. I also have a hunch that Fireblade will turn out to be important for our hero. No doubt he prefers her natural eye colour, not ...