Turn 2 Revision Phase ResultsThe Federal Armed Forces have just realized that they are out of all pre-Event military armor. The thought of sending troops without kevlar is an appalling one to anyone who has access to casualty rates before and after the introduction of ballistic vests. Should the same individual happen to see a Silicalisk, one might come to some very non-PETA-approved solutions.
After some trial and error, it's been discovered that a Silicalisk can, in fact, recover from being skinned. Most don't even seem bothered, so long as the process is careful enough. Something about a lack of nerve reception in the dermis. As it stands, a Silicalisk can be skinned for its hide and come out the other side reasonably intact, and can even regrow the shed material with some feeding and time.
After setup for a prototype farming operation, we had to figure out to do with the stuff. Silicalisk leather "Sleather" is only slightly stiffer than normal animal leather, and has the resistance of kevlar and nomex. The first product of this monument to industrial inability and animal cruelty is the Grade Light Infantry Armor, a vest with inserts for ceramic plates. In lieu of a modern helmet, Grade L armor features what could be best described as a colander with some Sleather on the exterior. This instrument is known among the designers as "MIld STeel Armored Cover Equipment" or "MISTACE".
One of the designers appears to have come down with a case of humor.
How concerning.
Normal (9+1) +0 = 10 (Average)
Skinning a living creature alive would have been truly abhorrent back on earth. But to a silicalisk, removing their whole hide is not at all like skinning a Terran creature - it's more like shearing a sheep, except it reveals their muscles and exposed tendons and bones. Oh, it's possible to cut a bit too deep and nick something important, likely breaking a vein or severing a muscle; but a skilled worker can avoid that happening ninety nine times out of a hundred. And even unskilled labor can work the torso area without risking any lasting harm to the silicalisk. As long as part of it's hide remains, and we usually leave the skin on it's head untouched, it can regrow anything we cut off of it with a steady diet including at least some metals.
The harvested hides of the silicalisk, once tanned similarly to how leathers on Earth were tanned, is flexible enough but not too much. Sleather is a durable material, if gained in an unusual fashion in a way that would make certain people upset, and makes quality armor. At least able to stand up to modern earth equivalents. We've made new uniform vests out of it with internal pockets for ceramic plates, which are at least easy - getting stones and minerals for forming quality clayware is the easiest thing we do. OK, maybe modern ceramics, especially armor ceramics, are a bit more complicated than making a vase, but we make a quality armor-grade ceramic. The uniform also has a Sleather shirt and pants, made not quite as stiff as the vest during the tanning process, and a helmet.
Somebody made a joke when doing the paperwork for patenting the helmets. MISTACE does do it's job as a helmet, but in what might be a new Sujian tradition, they were found out and made to do battle in a gladiator pit vs wild beasts. Their clever use of the MISTACE by re purposing it from being a helmet to a shield, and then to a gag, and then to a jawbreaker, allowed them to fell the beast they were pitted against; they live to do clerk work for another day. An arm down, maybe, but they can learn to do paperwork left handed.
Oobleck Storage Crates
Sujium is a material with many possibilities, for example: if one could keep its force from increasing too much it could be used to create perpetual motion. However, there is one major down-side to Sujium. Simply put, it requires a large amount of power to store, transport, and work safely. This project aims to help mitigate this flaw, by devising a method of safely storing and transporting both Sujium and Sujium-based equipment.
The basis in this plan, is something that was actually devised on earth. Corn starch dissolved in water, otherwise known as oobleck. Oobleck is a Non-Newtonian fluid, meaning that its viscosity increases the more force and/or stress is applied to it. By filling special crates(triple layered, an inner solid layer, an outer solid layer, and a middle layer of padding to reduce shock) with oobleck, it will make it so that the faster the sujium is moving, the more drag is applied to it by the oobleck. Therefor reducing the force of the Sujium down to, if not zero, than at least a level that is safe for human handling.
This will not stop Sujium that is already moving at dangerous speeds, rather it is meant to stop it from getting there in the first place. At least until we actually want it to do so.
Trivial+1 (2+2) + 4 = 8 (Below Average)
A big issue in harvesting
Sujium may be that once it's no longer embedded in something, there's very little resistance to stop it from just accelerating off into the sky, presumably to be lost as it propels itself out of the atmosphere, or burns up in the air. It can be shut down with controlled energy, but storing too much of it can easily eat up all your power. We keep the REEE from draining too much power by locking it down tightly with steel clamps when the batteries aren't connected - but the raw Sujium ore and even the processed cores don't have the luxury of being easily locked down.
Until we realized that if the air still pushes back on it to slow it down, then while it's unrestricted by Newton's Third Law, nothing it interacts with is. And if whenever it pushed on something, it got pushed back... well, that would repel it in the other direction, usually, if the material were to push with just as much strength as the Sujium could. But if something were to be able to put variable quantities of force into it, not pushing quite as hard but not ever weak enough to just let the Sujium pass right through like air does, it could effectively contain the Sujium indefinitely without using power.
Enter non-newtonian fluids. If Sujium doesn't want to play by Newton's rules, neither shall we. Sure, we're breaking the law of viscosity, a feat we have done billions of times over on Earth, while Sujium breaks his laws of momentum which had previously been unbroken, but it still counts dammit. Oobleck, which was considered a child's toy, is the perfect storage medium.
Whenever Sujium is disturbed, it accelerates rapidly in the direction it was pushed. When it tries moving through Oobleck, though, this increases the apparent viscosity of the fluid, and increases the friction pushing the Sujium back greatly; And while this means it starts moving in the other direction, as long as the Oobleck is not made too thick it will be moving slower than it was, which means when the storage medium resists the new direction of movement, it will be pushed back even gentler.
As a result of packing a crate with Oobleck, and giving it a soft padding layer and putting that in another slightly larger crate, is that we have a safe way of transporting Sujium to where it can be used. When the crate is moved, the Sujium inside will be agitated and start vibrating, but that's about all it can do in it's starchy prison. Thus the padded layer to keep it from vibrating a handler's arms to pieces.
It's still recommended to let an Oobleck Storage Crate rest for a couple hours after transport - if opened, disturbed Sujium could still have enough energy to come shooting out of it like a bullet and pierce someone's brain. And even after it's safe to open, one must be very careful removing the Sujium from the crates. A modified cookie baller or ice cream scoop that shuts air tight around chunks of Sujium with some quantity of Oobleck can extract it, and move it to where it's needed to be worked, but much Sujium is still lost by improper handling after delivery and getting Oobleck into sensitive machinery or into the hot forges of refineries can cause nasty smells.
It's good enough to transport Sujium long distances, and improve how much we're able to use from any given mining site. This gives 2 unit of transport capacity useful only for Sujium, and lets us harvest 1 Sujium extra from far reaching mines right now.
Transport Capacity: 0 General + 1/2 Sujium (
1 Oil available,
1/1 Sujium transported)
Resources: 3 Ore,
1 Oil (0/1 imported),
2 Sujium (1/1 imported)Credits: 1 Research Credit
Weapons- Makeshift Earth Rifle (Cheap): Based on designs from home, cobbled together from native materials with remaining architecture. Mediocre accuracy at Long Range, good Accuracy at Medium. 1 Ore
- AK-10 Jezail (Cheap): Accurate out to Long range, devastating up close. Durable, dependable, although quirky. Lower capacity magazine, but quiet and sighted. 2 Ore
- Standard Issue Pulse Pistol (Cheap): Moderately understood alien tech in the shape of a pistol. Variable energy controls range from starting small fires to stopping a heart. It's battery powered, but its maximum energy pulses still use a lot of their juice; stun level shots are recommended as the battery life is exceptional. Very accurate up to short range, somewhat accurate at medium range. 2 Ore, 1 Oil
OtherStandard Uniform: A plain uniform with very little decoration or utility. There is a space for rank insignia, and some colored markings but it's rather plain.- Infantry Armor//Grade L: Armored protection up to modern standards, made from PETA-provoking live-harvested Silicalisk leather (Sleather) instead of Kevlar; the bowl helmets have the unfortunate name of MISTACE, but the uniform will stand up to live fire and strong acids, and the MISTACE will easily stick in the craw of a rampaging beasty.
- Reverse-Engineered Extraction Equipment (Expensive): A mining hammer, using alien minerals and tech to multiply it's momentum drastically; power hungry to control, but allows for very rapid mining expansion, and once out of power, goes out of control. Provides 1 Ore and 1 Sujium. 4 Ore, 2 Sujium
- Oobleck Storage Crates: Exploits starches in water to safely transport Sujium long distances. Be very very careful on unpacking. Provides 2 Sujium specific TC, and 1 importable Sujium.
Creatures- Battle Silicalisk (Cheap): Silicon based animals somewhere in shape between a horse and a mole with rocky hides and sharp claws, bred and trained for the purposes of fighting. Very aggressive and will turn on trainers if not fed rocks and ores. Acidic saliva, ability to spit it removed at young age to control it. 4-1 Ore
- Acid Muzzle: Keeps the mouth clamped shut when acid spit isn't needed. Reduces the cost of Silicalisks by 1 ore, and lets them spit acid.
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Topic: Absolutely Absurd Abductee Arms Race: F. Cities of Sujia (Turn 4 Revision Phase) (Read 9659 times)