Library: basic history of arms

This is merely an outline, it is by no means a technical document. Historical trends and use are hard to analyze ex post facto, so approximate dates w/in 100 years could be off by about 10 years, and all other dates are probably off by around 20-30 years. There is no translation for the name of the planet these (people) came from, so for now and here I'll just call it "Planet U". The citizens of "Planet U" are quite different in attitude when it comes to arms/weaponry than the people here. This is one reason why it is so hard to incorporate their weaponry systems and technology into arms produced here. Until 150+ years ago, the people preferred Bludgeoning weapons made mostly from hardwood or wood reinforced with strips of metal. Though swords were avaliable, they were frowned up and rarely well-made. One of the most popular weapons of the pre-modern era is a large and heavy spiked club designed to be used two-handed. Misile weaponry was even more rare, with the only remotely common powered misile weapon being a compact hand-crossbow used like a pistol. This fired a projectile laced that had the head laced with an explosive substance that would explode on impact. In wartime situations it was rarely used, considered less practical than standard thrown weapons like javelins or axes. Electricity was first utilized by the citizens about 150 years ago. It was the first major scientific discovery for the people there. This is probably due to physiology, as many of the people on this world could control electicity with their own bodies. A system to generate high voltage was developed, and at this time a lot of new weaponry is developed which uses electricity. One of the most popular arms of the era from 150 to 100 years ago was a metallic whip which could deliver powerful shocks to a victim, causing burns and convolsions. The alternator in these whips, and other electric shock-type weapons makes a quiet but high-frequency and rather unique sound. These whips were especially popular among women and even today are still quite common. The reason these whips seem to have stuck, while other weapons like ordinary slugthrower devices (ie. guns) didn't is because they are more in-tune with the sadistic nature of the people of Planet U. The next major discovery used in arms came soon after, this was that certain crystaline rocks would form an intense beam of light if high electric currents were applied to them. This would often melt the crystal in the process, however. Also, the light beams would at worse cause bad burns. Around 125 years ago, the technology was perfected and a tommy-gun style rifle was developed that could fire almost continuosly. It was packed with about 100 individual crystals in a mechanism that rotated continously, with only one being used at a time, giving the rest a chance to cool down so they wouldn't overheat and melt. Even though each beam was mostly harmless, only capable of causing light burns to skin, the rapid rate of fire is what made this into a useful sadistic device. The damage to structures and surroundings was rather low. The major (and temporary) change in the society of the planet came around 100 years ago when it became possible to travel to (and conquer of course) other planets. During this time we see a bunch of newer weaponry, such as concusion rocket launchers and such. One of the main weapons used in ground battles was an extremely powerful wheeled beam gun that had to be loaded with disposable crystals before firing -- a "ball" of the crystals is slid down the barrel not unlike a typical cannon (from this world). They are very large, and the beams they fire are extremely powerful, doing extensive penetration damage to structures. The barrel/beam width was seldom over 20 cm wide, however, so it rarely actually collapsed anything. These weapons were intended for practical use by ground forces and such. With the invasion of other worlds being attempted, another major development was that of superior defensive systems and armor. Quickly developed was a "force bubble" generator which surrounded the user with an almost impenitrable sphere when activated. Development of better armor and defensive systems quickly became more important than new weapons development, and the weaponry began to lag behind the defensive systems to counter it. This is the exact opposite of what happened on this world. Eventually, as the people of U had to manage and occupy worlds they had conquered, their dreams of galactic imperialism and rule died down, since they hated civilian affairs and managing alien populations. After about 10 years, the citizenry lost instrest, and till today if they "take over" another world it is often a merely disguised alliance, co-optation, mutual defense contracts, or such. In order to back down honorably, they would sometimes threaten to invade a world and then offer to back down if the citizens could beat them at a sports game or some other physical contest of skill. In most cases these games were rigged by the military commanders, so that the people of U would lose and be able to back down without looking like wimps. With people from U beginning to be scattered all over, rather than confined to one world, and with new resources/substances avaliable to them, around 50 years or so ago there was a lot of development of technological devices previously unheard of (to anyone). Many of these devices doubled as weapons, for instance a duplicator/instant-clone device originally used to make duplication of artwork easier became a rather nasty weapon for its ability to quickly generate large crowds of confused people. A girl student accidently shot herself with this once and discovered that it worked just as well on living things as inanimate objects. Also popular was a restraining gun originally used by riot police that uses compressed air to fire globs of encased glue which explode and coat victims with it. The US armed forces also have access to (but rarely use in combat) a similar weapon. There's a host of other developments which lead to even more exotic and strange devices turned into weapons. For a discussion of all the exotic technology devices, we'll I'm not about to -- it would take about 6000 pages to list them all with the theory behind them, I can't even begin to do that. This book written by Ran

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Library: basic history of arms