Re: 'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)
"Throwaway":
This is a cheap disposable multipurpose tool. It contains a transceiver, receiver, small database-processor for storing apps, and often a pair of secondary tools like a penknive or windowbreaker or similar device. The most important part is the modular attachment to which can be hooked several types of sensors to sow on the ground, or an explosive packet to make a grenade or small mine. Any number of ingenious variations exist. It can be used as a com but most use some more sophisticated device for that, which can convey a greater amount of information.
It's chief quality is in being disposable. Though it has aspects that can make it worthwhile to keep one, they generally of quickly finished rather then fine craftsmanship. It is in many ways the descendant of the disposable phones seen used by spies and criminals in old Terran urban intrigue dramas but it has more uses. Variants are found in many places and they are so cheap that many cultures have their own style for producing them and their own traditions for their use. The cheapness allows it to be made into an ad-hoc weapon or sensor and the mass production means it can be found in any hand. It is not an elegant tool but part of an everyday collection for soldiers. It can be found in civilian usage too, for various uses.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
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