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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Maula Pistol | ||
| A spring-loaded projectile device. |
| Maula pistol: spring-loaded gun for firing poison darts; range about forty meters. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
One of the advantages of this weapon is relatively silent operation, but it is useless against a shielded opponent. Of course, in the desert, a shield can attract a sand worm.
When Paul and his mother are found in a Fremen place in the desert, he escapes when his mother uses her skills to take down the man facing her. This is what a battle with maula pistols would sound like.
Then Paul was into the shadows... the weapon tucked into his waist sash. He had recognized it... a projectile weapon, and that said many things about this place, another clue that shields were useless here.
There came a chorus of sharp spring-clicks from the basin. Projectiles whined off the rocks around him. One of them flicked his robe.
At his mothers first movement, Paul backed two steps... A bearded man rose up in his path, half-crouched, lunging forward with a weapon in his hand. Paul took the man beneath the sternum with a straight-hand jab, sidestepped and chopped the base of his neck, relieving him of the weapon as he fell.
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'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
