25. GLOSSARY
Aging
A distinct change in the human condition since earlier times is greater
longevity and more importantly, a slower rate of aging. Current average life
span for humans living on Earth is 203 years, the Batur have shorter life-spans
with an average of 149 years. With the slower rate of aging, a person (Homo
Sapiens ) who is 80 years old would look much like a person in their
fifties 700 years previous. The scale is not linear however, and a ten year old
in both periods would look much the same. Below is a table comparing apparent
ages, present andpast:
Present Chronological Age (within story)
|
Apparent Age (pre-glacial times)
|
10 |
10 |
20 |
20 |
30 |
25 |
50 |
35 |
80 |
50 |
120 |
65 |
150 |
75 |
175 |
80 |
200 |
88 |
Batur
Species name is homo silvensis. The Batur were the first
race of sentient beings invented by humans. They were created by Professor Joao
de Silva of Curitiba University in response to doubts about the comparatively
largehomo sapiens' ability to
survive the onset of The Glacial. The Batur are small, averaging roughly 1.5
meters in height and quite slender. They walk upright like humans but
they have far more body hair and their appearance is reminiscent of various
species of monkeys or juvenile marmosets. They are extremely intelligent and
are famous for their outstanding manual dexterity. The Batur language is
Kitak, which is a highly modified
dialect of Brasilian (Brazilian) Portuguese.
California California is the only surviving remnant of the former
pre-glacial powers of the United States and Mexico. Its capital is the
underground city of San Diego, which lies beneath El Cajon Mountain about 45km
inland from a large bay. The next largest city is La Paz, another relatively
sheltered site of strategic and commercial importance overlooking the Gulf of
Cortez. There are major military bases located across the country and in some
areas immediately outside the borders.
California
is not closely allied to any other nation, but it does have generally good
informal relations with Brasil and Australia. California also has a general
working agreement with Japan, something not enjoyed by any other planetary
governments. This is a carry-over from Japan's original exodus, when the old
United States used some of its dwindling resources to help Japan with its
planetary evacuation. The trade agreement at that time was that the then US
government would conduct the technology transfers to Japan in exchange for
return transfers to any surviving entity representing the general interests of
any population formerly holding US citizenship. This covered the possibility
that one or both countries and their populations faced imminent extinction or
mass migration. Centuries later, the Japanese continue to conduct regular
technology transfers to the government in California, the only surviving
portion of the pre-glacial USA which continues to operate as a cohesive
political entity and which also hosts numerous individuals of American descent.
Crawler A small unmanned ground reconnaissance unit, not
exceptionally fast but able to navigate all terrain. They tend to be lightly
armored compared to MBTs (Main Battle Tanks) but are also quite a bit smaller
and lower. They commonly have better active camouflage systems for protection,
although this varies greatly by nationality.
Eylau
Sequence The Eylau Sequence is part of the Archimedes Program, a
sentient computer program which controls three sequences: The Osler
Sequence (bioscience), The Richter Sequence (planetary science) and The Eylau
Sequence (military science). The Eylau Sequence covers a wide range of
tactical, operational and strategic concerns and has been an invaluable aid in
the creation and use of autonomous systems used in warfare.
As a part of
The Archimedes Program, the Eylau Sequence is sentient it is aware of
you, and it is self-aware. It can identify objects in its environment and it
"thinks" like a sentient being. However it only deals with its assigned area of
expertise in a passive-aggressive manner. If you try to get the Eylau Sequence
to give its opinion about a politician or to tell you the best way to steal
something, it will passively ignore you and only operate within military
confines. There is no way to force the sequence to operate outside of its area
of specialty and all previous attempts have failed.
All of the
sequences, but especially the Eylau Sequencewere designed to operate on a
minimum user base.Each major activation requires tens of thousands of users,
which prevents small organizations such as those relating to organized crime
from deploying their own copies. Also, activation requires permission of the
master Archimedes Program, which itself is very demanding.
ES
Assistant A personal, customizable interface that gives any one
individual access to the Eylau Sequence entity being operated by their
organization. An ES Assistant usually takes the sensory form of a fellow human,
although due to its almost limitless options, it can take on many forms
including 3D, 2D, audio only, text only or combinations of those depending on
task priority. The key to the assistant's success is customizability,
familiarity and identification; an ES Assistant gives users a powerfully secure
connection that is impossible to violate.
Glacial,
The A misnomer for the extended cooling period that followed the
impact of comet Evers-Patel. Even though the cause of the cooling was a
disastrous comet strike, most survivors only experienced the catastrophic cold
that followed. As a result the period is almost universally referred to as "The
Glacial." The post-strike changes in weather resulted in spectacularly damaging
southward glaciation, although the resulting state did not turn into a
full-scale ice age. Even hundreds of years after the comet, the climate remains
dangerously unstable and prone to violent storms with little warning. Summers
are still warm, but they are short and prone to violent weather and repeated
freezes, rendering surface agriculture nearly impossible.
Ice Wall
Duel This feature of modern military training has its origins in the
dawn of unmanned combat. As humans were banned from frontline combat zones by
their various physical weaknesses, a new system of hardening officers and men
to danger had to be created. After the failure of numerous combat simulation
systems, it was eventually decided that only genuine danger itself could
provide military personnel with the cultural and societal basis of their trade.
Over a
century of experimentation produced several variations, but the most common is
the ice wall duel. A soldier or officer volunteering for a duel will stand
without armor protection six paces in front of a large flat wall of super-hard
material, ranging from nickel to rhenium diboride. The front of the wall is
coated with a thin layer of ice, making the surface slightly irregular. At any
time after taking position in front of the wall, the volunteer must level a
side arm directly at the wall face and fire one shot, allowing a kinetic round
to strike the wall and ricochet off. Depending on a variety of factors, the
round may or may not ricochet back and hit the "dueler." If hit, the injury may
or may not be fatal, depending on which part of the body is affected.
The odds are
in favor of the ice wall dueler, as 96% of all rounds ricochet out into the
dueling chamber and eventually end up on the floor in pieces. But regardless of
the result, the effect on the volunteer is permanent. Only two decorations are
allowed to be represented on uniforms; combat experience and ice wall duels. A
full record is also maintained for each duel, including such key scoring
elements as how long the dueler waited before firing, how directly they aimed
at the wall, the wall's specific flatness profile and condition at the moment
the round was fired, and a host of other details. It is well known in armed
forces around the solar system that without any combat experience or ice wall
duels to his or her credit, an officer has little or no chance for promotion.
For lower ranks, ice wall duels help pave the way for possible promotion and at
the very least help establish their position in the natural pecking order that
exists in all such groups.
L5
Complex (Japan) The gigantic complex at Lagrange Point Five which
now comprises the "island nation" of Japan was the subject of technical
speculation long before the Japanese decision to relocate their population in
the face of extinction. The first major decision in favor of an L5 location and
against a lunar base was rooted in two major concerns: a) That the moon was
equally vulnerable to disasters similar to that suffered by Earth, and b) that
humanity needed to make the proverbial leap into space for the sake of long
term survival. They made their greatest intellectual breakthrough when they
abandoned an engineering solution to the problem of artificial gravity in deep
space, and instead decided on a biological solution of adaptation.
Along with
the question of physiology came the equally thorny issue of station keeping for
the complex. It was ultimately decided to build a string of mega-stations which
would remain in the general vicinity of each other, but which were individually
free to change relative position as they migrated around the L5 circuit. The
resulting station network allowed populations in various stages of physical
adaptation to live in dedicated zones, and it also helped to prevent any
disasters in one area from becoming a disaster for the entire nation. With
stations having been built at different times, the installations vary greatly
in appearance.
MGV
Acronym for Miniature Ground Vehicle. MGVs are combat vehicles
averaging three or four millimeters in length. They serve as operational links
between nano-scale smart chemicals and larger meter scale combat vehicles. MGVs
may themselves be used as weapons, or they may be used to overcome MGV defenses
to facilitate precision delivery of nano-scale weapons. They are also used for
intelligence collection, sabotage, assassination and a host of other tasks
which might require mobility and delivery options in confined spaces.
A prominent
aspect of MGV operation is the lev-drive system, which holds the vehicle in
place slightly above ambient surface level, and which also impels the vehicle
forward. There is a frictional relationship between the MGV, the lev-drive and
the supporting surface. The resulting reaction mass allows MGVs to carry
surprisingly powerful kinetic weapons, at least by those countries who care to
pay for miniaturization of such weapons.
Selangor The largest nation on Earth with a population of
approximately 35 million, Selangor is located Northwest of Australia,
encompassing most of pre-glacial Southeast Asia and portions of Indonesia and
Southern China. Its capital is Singapore, which is now many kilometers inland
due to the drop in sea level. Selangor is pronounced with a soft G
sound, like hangar or
among.
Uniforms,
Military Modern military clothing serves a variety of purposes,
including protection from the elements, camouflage against direct observation,
and as a buffer against enemy chemical and MGV forces. They also serve as
platforms for various gear systems that augment the basic military outfit. As
with civilian clothing, military uniforms are made in a bewildering variety of
patterns, functions and types. Some are partially armored and others are not.
Some include extensive medical and survival modules whereas others are designed
for non-combat roles ranging from work and exercise to dress uniforms. The
latter are still very subdued in comparison to the lavishly decorated dress
uniforms of the pre-glacial era.
Two key
visual elements to the modern combat uniform are its complete enclosure of the
human form including the face and hands; and its native camouflage
abilities which allow it to change tones and shades in response to anticipated
backgrounds. Large areas of a combat uniform's surface are commonly covered
with fine hairs similar in appearance to horse hair. It lies very flat against
the weave of the supporting material and is absent in key areas such as the
hands, face, most areas of the head and the feet. Uniform hairs are part of the
external defense and camouflage system and do not shed or fall out like natural
hairs.
The portion
of the uniform which encompasses the head is usually called the hood. It lies
very close to the head considering the exceptional number of sensor and display
systems integrated into it. Two large combination sensor/displays cover the
eyes, and a complimentary set of sensors are positioned around the head in
order to guarantee a 360° field of view on command. The internal displays
compliment the In Eye systems used for ocular and display purposes. The
end result is a 99.999% realistic visual experience with all the benefits of a
modern 3D interface. Uniform hoods can be opened via a self-welding seam up the
middle, and folded over the back of the neck for temporary access, especially
for meals. Military personnel in combat zones are not usually allowed to open
their hoods, and those based inside structures or on-board ships and vehicles
must be in sealed compartments before breaking the seals on their uniforms.
|