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"Poised between intransigent scepticism and uncritical credulity, it [science fiction] is par excellence the literature of the open mind."
- John Brunner
 |
| Aether Cannon | ||
| A hand-held energy weapon. |
| Bane nodded slowly, letting his steady gaze rest on the soldier long enough to unnerve him. The faint sound of aether cannon discharge came from inside the warehouse. He raised his right arm, where the blunt stub of his own cannon projected from beneath the specially adapted sleeve of his coat. ... It was one of the Taken. A boy-child, perhaps ten years old, with long blond hair down to its shoulders and wearing a simple blue smock. Its feet were bare. It gazed innocently at them from a distance of a few dozen feet. ... Bane raised his cannon. "Get out of my city," he told it, and fired. The Taken dodged the first blast, its expression of fresh-faced youth dissolving into snarling animal hatred as it attacked. It ran at them with teeth bared, fingers held out before it like claws, screeching. The soldier panicked, squeezing off a shot too early. The Taken leaped over the path of the soldier's bolt and landed on him, hands clamped around his bald head. The soldier dropped without a sound. The mere touch of a Taken meant death. Bane didn't miss a second time. He caught the Taken full in the chest as it bunched to spring, and it crumpled. |
| Technovelgy from Storm Thief,
by Chris Wooding. Published by Scholastic in 2006 Additional resources -
|
Here's another excerpt that displays the nature of the weapon:
Compare to the power gun from David Drake's 1979 novel Hammer's Slammers and the
Standish from 'Doc' Smith's 1934 novel Triplanetary. Also, check out what is probably the first use of the word "blaster" from the 1925 story When the Green Star Waned by Nictzin Dyalhis.
Thanks to Connor Lawrence for writing in with this item.
The cannons spat squealing globs of burning green energy, a moist slither of pure aether that fizzed and spat as it cut through the air.
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| Has Turkey Been Stealing Rain From Iran? |
| We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces |
| Bullet Steers Itself! The Advanced Low-Cost Munitions Ordnance ALaMO |
| Russians Think US Is Weaponizing Asteroids |
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
