Seems to me that this would be the perfect timepiece for the average Troubleshooter. No point trying to fool yourself!
Gadgets and Gear
I need to get out more… I seem to find far too much mileage returning to the New Scientist home page again and again. This time – current controlled drug delivery from a specially treated patch (got to love the double meaning of that article title!). Current on – material breaksdown and drug enters the body; current off – material stops breaking down. Perfect. Seems like an ideal way to handle baseline hormone suppressent delivery because the patch could be constructed to react to very specific low level current delivered through a chair or the floor or something. Food and water could be laced with top-up medication as appropriate, but sub-dermal patches or slivers (delivered by needle gun or ice splinter projectile) could handle the basic necessities of keeping the population under control. The rate we’re moving Year 214 may not be so far away…
Those eggheads in R&D have come up with an innovative new lightweight armor, intended to provide optimum protection with reduced weight. Yes, Armed Forces are sceptical – so R&D want some willing, energetic and enthusiastic Troubleshooters to trial the new armor, along with some other fine innovations, in a simulated battle situation down in IRQ Sector. Recently the site of a pitched battle against Communist infiltrators from Outdoors, it will provide an ideal environment with genuine battle ravaged features and true combat conditions. Armed Forces recon has confirmed an all-clear status for the Sector… so, lets get out there.
Civil engineer Habib Dagher has come up with an original idea on building materials for the battle zone. A combination of balsa wood, fibre glass, thermoplastic resin and kevlar, Habib believes it provides an ideal lightweight material for constructing shelters in combat environments. The material should stand up to blasts and shrapnel impact, while still allowing easy transportation.
I immediately went off on a tangent after reading this, because I had this image of samurai enter my mind. The traditional armor of the samurai, all interlinked and connected blocks… I could envisage R&D using a material like this to create some perverse re-imagining of samurai armor, based on Old Reckoning pictures or movies. I seem to recall Jim Holloway did much – if not all – of the interior artwork for the old AD&D Oriental Adventures book… I shall have to track it down.
I have found a new home for my inquiring mind when seeking out new Stuff
Take the 3rd December 2007 article featuring the DNA syringe, a device that increases the permeability of cells with an electrical charge to allow the injection of drugs, or even DNA. R&D couldn’t resist a gun-based platform for this technical breakthrough – and it would be a matter of but a short space of time for pro-mutant factions to seek it out as a means to spreading the ‘gospel’ of positive genetic difference. Perhaps the Mystics could borrow it afterwards, undermining the local power structure of a sector with sniper-style attacks on key individuals who suddenly find themselves under the influence of powerful hallucinogens.
How about breathable hazard suits that allow your skin to breath freely but can seal against hazards through the application of current, which closes the suits nanopores. Anyone for an entire adventure where you have to wear these suits, but R&D have a problem that the frequency of the controller device disrupts the functionality of the suit – so another team member has the responsibility of activating the current. Oh, and the eggheads have had a few problems modulating the charge in the suit’s capacitor… so sometimes the shock might edge into the realms of the uncomfortable, though at least you’ll be safe from harm!
I’m reasonably certain a handheld food and beverage analyzer would fall into the classification of grey tech within Alpha Complex, where the less you know about the actual composition of your food, the better.
I’ve added a blog feed under Scientist on the righthandside of this site… Good reading, have fun!
Canadian researchers have been investigating eye-tracking technology that can make advantageous use of knowing where people are more or less likely to look. In the real world, it could ensure that vital information appears in the best possible place in a heads-up display; in games, it would make it possible for enemies to select the best possible spot to take a player completely by surprise.
Could they work on a device that ensures the Commie traitor is the person the players are least likely to suspect?