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#11 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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... May I borrow that for something? I don't know what yet, but I want to borrow that!
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
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#12 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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Some thoughts - not necessarily relevant to each other.
Ground forces on un-terraformed worlds will have a heavier logistical burden since nothing could normally be requisitioned. If you didn't bring it, you ain't got it. If transport has significant costs then efforts to cut down on that logistical burden will be made. This could be SOP for anything from LRRPs checking out a planet to full on invasion/defense forces. I am thinking that normally bodies would be gathered to make their contribution to the ship/orbital/small-moon sized space station but in an extended conflict that may not be possible so conversion is done on the spot. I myself was thinking that this would be thought of as a reverent and noble last gift to the rest of the unit. Foe men consumed would be honored. How does this change if there is the means to record minds on the go up to the point of death and these soldiers are trained to recover that recording so that the fallen may rise again? Variations - 'Death Cheaters' that go through multiple resurrections or you get one resurrection to fight the Ultimate Foe at some point in the future. Or the recordings go home to be digital ghosts. That culture may be shocked to find another that does raise their dead. How does this work if it is aliens doing it as opposed to humans? Is it more understandable? Does it make humans more alien? The swarms make it all easey-peasey magical. Kind of like how many people don't understand how meat gets on the shelves at the grocery. Wondering if a messier option gets at more cultural roots.
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Joseph Paul |
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#13 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Shropshire, uk
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As a ritualised process in a specific situation the rules change significantly while it wouldn't work in anything too close to modern western society it doesn't strain my sense of disbelief too much either. Quote:
There is no single answer to this one ultimately it depends on the culture of the people practicing this and the amount of, for lack of a better word, theatre they are willing to surround the act with. |
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#14 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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This has made me wonder if casual cannibalism is rare because of the bounty a planetary ecology enjoys. If that is true then I would want to look at the carrying capacity of orbitals/generation ships/outposts and their robustness. If it is less than a planetary ecology then it may not be so casual. I think the idea of having some separation would be normal but the realities of warfare may make it easier to justify.
When two such cultures fight I wonder about the possibility of how to deny resources to the other side? Deliberately poison the body? Fight swarm with swarm for possession? How many conversion swarms can a unit lose before it suffers? Cause the body to be burned?
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Joseph Paul |
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#15 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Have you run the maths on it?
Would it make enough of a dent in the daily logistical drain to become a standard procedure? I think if your casualty rate is high enough for it to matter, then you're probably facing more important problems than whether you have enough food.
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Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! |
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#16 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Of course, if your logistical base is a swarm of cannibal nano that assembles your orders out of anything that it can find, you might end up eating post consumer human (or firing rounds with propellant made thereform) by default.
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#17 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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Also the feel of it should be that margins are thin at the best of times for operations in a non-hospitable location. That implies that transport costs are high but not impossible but prioritization is necessary. If you can convert biomass at the location that means that even less of your stores that you dragged out there have to be consumed and that increases the margin for survival. Hmmm Pyrrhic victories where one side wins the battle but starves on the way home.
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Joseph Paul |
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#18 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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What is the motivation for fighting on a planet that has no local food supplies? If there's any population there, they'll necessarily have some source of food. If there's nobody there but enemy troops, why bother invading?
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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#19 |
Join Date: Mar 2010
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The planet in question might still have a closed system (due to an inability or lack of interest in terraforming and agriculture) or even be dependent on external sources for some portion of its food supply. The planet could be a mining colony, or could be inhabited solely as a strategically-located military base, for example. Both would be valid military targets, neither would likely maintain any local food production in excess of actual need.
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#20 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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One of the things I don't have a handy answer for is just how difficult it is for swarms to deal with biologicals. If the source is someplace with left handed amino acids then can they take those apart and make them right handed? Is there a point where the process takes so long that it isn't worth it? An assumption inherent in this is that it is fairly easy for a swarm to render a compatible biomass and more difficult the further from the 'designed norm' that a biomass is. That assumption may be wrong. If the swarm tech is good enough to just rip individual atoms out and put them together in a brute force manner then complex biologicals that would not be compatible are no problem. I suspect though that for a long time such a swarm would be programmed to use the body as a chemical factory and make the best use of cellular processes that exist in it.
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Joseph Paul |
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Tags |
icky futures, logistics, ultra tech |
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