The Nightfall QT47 utilizes Quasar Industries patented energy storage and discharge technology to accelerate tungsten alloy coated slivers of neodymium to high speeds via electromagnets. It has options for semi-automatic, burst fire, or automatic fire at a rate of 1,200 rounds per minute. With a handle that will automatically shift to fit the hand of its wielder, to built-in recoil suppressors, to being vacuum, water, high pressure, low temperature, high temperature, proof, this gun will outlast you and your descendants unless you really try to destroy it. It has 3 levels of capacitor draw available to it, with the lowest able to punch through body armor after plowing through several walls, and the higher settings able to go straight through an armored Union shuttlecraft. Buy one today for only 20,000c! Quasar Industries takes no responsibility for any malfunctions of devices that have been tampered with, and such tampering will void the warranty. Class II personal armament permit required to buy, carry, use, or sell. Prices may vary. Quasar Industries takes no responsibility for the actions of any who buy this product.We bought one of these and tested it out. If anything its capabilities are understated in the ad. Besides its firepower, we tried crushing it in a hydraulic press. It broke the press. Do note that something like this would be military only for us, whereas, for them, a "class II personal armament permit" is pretty much along the lines of "you haven''t committed a felony and aren''t dumb enough to shoot yourself in the face with this." The gun isn''t actually that much heavier than a handgun we might produce, despite its ammunition, due to how minuscule the ammunition is. Still, a hucerret feather traveling at sufficient velocity will knock over its target, and this does a lot more than that. We were skeptical at first about the claims of it being able to shoot through a shuttlecraft. It went straight through three in a row. We only lined up three.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. We bought a light anti-personnel sniper rifle from one of their sporting goods stores. Upon testing it, the person firing it had both arms broken from the recoil, and the projectile went through the peak of one mountain and got stuck somewhere within a second. Very low bullet mass, very high armor penetration. A rather good thing we had it mounted correctly else the recoil would have done much worse. Thankfully we learned our lesson and rigged up a remote fire system for the ridiculously oversized block of metal they called a shotgun. We still had those three shuttlecraft from the earlier test. After a single shot they had much larger holes in them, in fact we weren''t certain if there was more ship left or more hole. Due to hearing damage we decided to retire the explosive ammunition after only that first test shot, especially since the mount designed for bracing light direct-fire artillery had broken in several places. As for their actual military equipment, take for example the Hellgoose light attack craft and its ammunition. The shell fired from each of its main guns is a 3.4 kg armor penetrator with a payload set off by timed and or inertial fuses, of antiboron. The "light" craft can fire about 65 of these rounds, per second, per gun. Apparently the ship is built around the two guns. Oh and this fighter craft has shields stronger than most of our battleships because of course it does. Though to be fair, the autonomous-capable "fightercraft" is more the size of a destroyer or light cruiser than a fighter, and most of that shield strength is forward-facing. When asked why on the eighth ring of Satsaakshul a battleship would need that much firepower let alone a light attack craft, humans generally respond with something along the lines of "because big explosion awesome" or "it''s classified." I think it''s safe to say that "if firing it doesn''t kill you, having it fired at you definitely will" holds true. A brief look at human civilians It turns out that the humans we had been receiving with mostly open arms were in fact, not average humans. They''ve been mostly military, or at least military-related, with baseline modifications, and more or less on best behavior. Take a moment to comprehend that statement. The man that accidentally turned a moon into an expanding ball of plasma was a military engineer on his best behavior, working without our civilian-grade weaponry. Yeah. It turns out that human cybernetic and genetic technologies are further along than we thought. They''ve figured out some way not only to selectively kill and regrow cells in accordance with new genetic code but managed to get their neurons to replenish themselves and flawlessly integrate with existing nervous structures. Because of this, humans can change their bodies like those of us with tattoos would change them. It''s not something done in a couple of seconds, but it''s hardly arduous. Because of this, many have modifications that are far from their baseline enhanced intelligence, strength, durability, etc, viewing altering their body the same as we view changing pants. For the species that don''t wear pants, you get the idea. As such, you will likely be seeing humans with soft fur, scales, tails of whatever type, wings that shouldn''t be able to support their mass but do, claws, feathers, bigger ears, more limbs, different eyes, digitigrade legs, differently proportioned limbs or bone structures, or any other number of modifications. Basically, if you see a sapient species you don''t recognize, odds are decent it''s a human. There also might be some humans with bodies closely mimicking some of the more, to them, cute, of us. To quote one human "Oh my Omnissiah, those squirrel people are so adorable!" To them mimicry is among the greatest forms of flattery, so try not to be too offended. Every species has its... quirks.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Since some people would freak out when a human''s hair dye would fade, (that was an interesting discovery, though some have taken up the human idea of dyeing parts of their bodies) if your human coworker/compatriot/whatever shows up one day looking entirely different, don''t freak out that they''re dying or have a disease or something. Proclivity for bodymorphing aside, be aware that from this point the humans you''ll mostly be interacting with aren''t as dead-set on making a good first impression, which we are told means they''ll be tamping down on their creepier instincts less. When we asked for clarification on what they meant their body language shifted to be almost motionless when not actively changing position and far more snappy and precise when moving, and a swarm of tiny drones flew out of their torso. Some buzzed around them in a manner that was disturbing for reasons we still can''t discern while other drones observed everything and everyone nearby from various angles as if deciding how best to disassemble such for information on its workings. That combined with them greeting people before they were visible or audible and several other things resulted in us requesting they go back to as they were not long after. Still, it seems that overall personality remains the same between the two groups, if rather amplified in nature in the second. Sure, this means that the lack of empathy for those they deem an enemy is even more pronounced, but so is kindness. Just, be aware that the humans being extreme in everything holds even more true. Oh and we''ve been informed that our previous document was wrong, those weren''t military-grade weapons, just slightly higher-end civilian. A brief look at a cargo ships captains log entries pertaining to humans Contextual translation enabled. The timestamps on the log have unfortunately been lost.
I hired a human engineer today. Said his name is Elizabeth. When asked what sort of augments they have, they responded, and I quote "Well I have the standard nano, cyber, and genetic enhancements for increased intelligence, durability, endurance, strength, biological immortality, agility and flexibility, dexterity, disease prevention, anti-radiation, toxin filtering, temperature regulation, computer in my head, vacuum protection, atmopheric recycling, metabolism control, that sort of stuff. Although there''s been talk of having those basic genetic changes be germline instead of somatic, so that would be just baseline human, not baseline enchancements. Oh and I''m pentachromatic like anyone else, apparently we used to to only have three types of photoreceptor cells in our eyes. As it is we can distinguish around ten billion different colors? Something like that. Anyway, as for the non-standard stuff, I had my eyes entirely replaced with cybernetic ones, decided to keep to standard pentachromatic instead of going higher, and I have a basic engineering suite. Intuitive programming, multitools in my hands and forearms, electron beam welders, that sort of stuff. Lastly I replaced my fingernails with small but retractable, sharp, and durable claws. Helps with stripping wires and manipulating small finicky stuff. Oh and I have several chambers in my left upper arm that can synthesize different inks which I can draw into and eject out of my claws. Never have to worry about having a pen or sharpie with me basically." Firstly, it seems they like to ramble a bit. Secondly, "standard" augments. It''s kinda funny how these people that are a fair bit smaller than any other known sapient species are so terrifying.Do note that said genetic changes have in fact gone through recently. The humans are also looking into designing cells that would create nanobots to construct other nanobots and cybernetics, thus allowing any human to automatically have "basic health assurance."
Turns out the human is female, not male. I was mistaken due to the lack of apparent mammaries. Also, even a joking hit from a human rather hurts.
Upon trying out the shower in their quarters, the human proclaimed that it''s like "drizzling ice water on yourself in the middle of the arctic!" There was much more colorful language surounding that, including several expletives that didn''t originate with humans. They then started working on refitting the shower, starting with adding more pumps to the extent that the water would pulverize the flesh of any other being onboard.
Upon loosing a 10mm socket, the human slammed their hand against an armored bulkhead in frustration. The bulkhead in question massively deformed. After cursing the "flimsy" materials they got to work fixing it.
Elizabeth diverted some of the heat from one of the secondary reactors to their shower, and then not satisfied with that reactor, completely rebuilt it to compensate for the extra power draw from the additional pumps. On one talon, that secondary reactor is the new primary. On the other, while the shower was never able to get particularly hot, that seems excessive. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
One of the drawlzak, Damka, challenged the human to a sparring match, on the condition that the human disable their cybernetic first. Damka is now in stasis until we can get them to a proper hospital. Elizabeth apologized profusely, stating that without their cybernetics active they can''t judge their strength versus the sturdiness of their opponent anywhere nearly as accurately. Another drawlzak, Dakma, challenged the human to a spar. With a great effort of will I restrained myself from just shooting them to save on medical expenses.
"I finally got around to looking at the weapons you guys carry. They''re not great." A little while later Elizabeth gave me a seemingly cobbled together handgun. The weapon does nothing to the ship''s hull, but against anything organic or containing organic matter, such as a heavy assault infrantry suit with an avian inside, the result is... gruesome. I was not aware that meat could do that.
Elizabeth was tinkering with our anti-meteor weapons. The ship is now technically classified as a lightly armored artillery warship instead of a cargo hauler. They swore to "fix" the lightly armored part.
The human worked on the shield generators and increased their strength by some amount I''m not really sure of. The other engineers are insisting physics doesn''t work like that. When at full power the back of your teeth taste like blueberries. I have never tasted blueberries. They apologized for not being able to make it stronger without taking down the entire power grid for refit.
"I hadn''t gotten around to looking at the drives because I assumed that would be the first thing the other engineers here would bring up to decent specs with the materials avaliable. Clearly I was wrong." Our sublight manuevering speed is 1.3 times as fast, our sublight forward acceleration 1.7 times as fast, and our FTL 3.1 times as fast. I have no idea where they got the materials from.
A crewmember "accidentally" disabled the filter on the internet, and browsed the human-specific internet. They''re a tad bit traumatized.
Apparently the ship''s cooling system and some of the security cameras are now partially organic. I no longer have any idea what happens on this ship.
There was an attempted boarding action against us. Elizabeth has since incorporated their ship into ours, and their corpses into a many-limbed robot called Igar that likes to travel through the air vents. Its primary purpose is handing her items but it does have other functions. Apparently she was rather displeased at some of the threats they made, so now their heads sing encouraging things at the crew and their central circulatory organs act as drink dispensers. I am far from sure on how to feel about this as while their protectiveness of us is I think on the whole a good thing it can lead to rather disconcerting things.
Medic Jkholmdk was crushed between two crates in an accident. Elizabeth tried to rig together an impromptu life support system but Jkholmdk perished all the same. Elizabeth had an entirely calm expession on their face. Investigation revealed that several of the poles involved in the shelving one of the crates had been on were considerably weaker than they were sold as and had buckled in a matter of tragic timing. The next I heard of the company that had produced those poles was Elizabeth nonchalantly mentioning that apparently hundreds of millions of lawsuits from various sources had been filed against the company regarding false advertising and cutting corners. Also apparently, the entire board of directors had contracted some novel illness that impaired judgment and then when discovered racked up astronomical medical bills. That combined with persistent inexplicable hardware and software issues in all of their factories as well as a sudden surge of strikes and various automated auditing systems suddenly catching quite a few issues with the company resulted in the company going under. I am going to assume that Elizabeth had absolutely nothing to do with any of that and not look at that assumption too closely.
I was not aware that the ship''s internal defenses now include a wide variety of neurotoxins. I miss when things made sense.
A crewmember accidentally downloaded a computer virus that resulted in any input showing a human sing that they would never stop hunting the viewer through a desert. Elizabeth spent several minutes cursing whoever programmed the device before fixing it. I learned several new interesting combinations of words from them.A brief look at a Union Military Intelligence memo The humans have discovered something. All of their diplomats, their scientists, their military highest, they''re all excited and a little nervous about something. Our people are still free to come and go in their space, but everyone is being heavily scrutinized. While the average citizen may not notice anything, intelligence agents have noted a massive increase in surveillance drones, satellites, and sensors of all sorts monitoring any non-human. See file xhdlpj552-21 for more information. One possibility is that they are planning to invade Union space, though this is unlikely. It''s more likely that there''s another sapient species past their territory that they''ve discovered, or that they''ve invented something with troubling implications. In the event of the latter, it seems unlikely that they will share such technology until such a time that they are secure in their supremacy of it since they remain fairly nationalistic despite our best efforts to promote infighting and factionalism. Hopefully, those efforts will be more effective over time. There are a few paths we can tread. We can ignore this. We can approach some of the more mercenary humans and see if we can hire them to figure out what''s happening. We can send spies with the best espionage technology we have.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. To preempt some people''s suggestions, invading human space is not a wise choice. While we have an immense advantage in sheer number of people, the Terran Confederacy definitely has the advantage in augmentation, cybersecurity, big guns, and a much smaller area to defend. The only information we really have is an intercepted message promising "Project Reality Diner" an unlimited budget. No matter what we choose to do, something big is coming. A brief look at a update to the university rules. Since there have been a few issues integrating human students, posted here will be a brief list of rules and guidelines to be updated as time goes on, in order to aid in this transition.