Well of Souls Forums

Loroi ideas about military decorum may well be different than human ideas.

For all we know, Tempo may have dismissed Beryl via sanzai.

Humanity is on a peacetime footing. For comparison, consider that in 1931, the US Navy had 308 ships of all types. By the end of WWII in 1945, that number had climbed to 6768, more than a 20 times as many. US army active manpower peaked at something like 50 times its peacetime size.

While some hotheads might call for precautionary genocide, such a course of action has some major problems. Just one of these problems: Loroi can't detect humans, so they can't be sure that they've gotten them all. If even one shipload of human refugees make it to Umiak space, then the Loroi are on ...

When did the UK fully adopt the metric system? AFAIK, they started metrification in 1965, but still haven't really completed it, since one still buys beer in the pub by the pint. The UK didn't adopt a rational (decimal) currency until 1971. The US has had one since 1792. So... we'll let you be behin...

The "dark" in "dark ages" might not refer to he grimness of the period so much as our lack of knowledge about it. People weren't leaving as much information about themselves and their lives behind, so that period isn't well illuminated, historically speaking.

Depending on how the Loroi military organizes itself, it is possible that the Clearbrook is part of the 51st Strike Group, but just not part of the strike element.

Multiple ships can travel independently and still arrive at a single destination at the same time. This doesn't make them a convoy. Even if multiple ships are leaving from the same supply depot and arriving at the same rendezvous, staggering their departure is more efficient, unless your supply depo...

Actually, convoys were less efficient than ships operating independently. Assembly of the convoy takes time, with many ships waiting around for the rest to be ready to go. Then, once moving, the convoy moves at the speed of its slowest ship. Finally, when arriving at its destination, many of the shi...

I thought it was there so you didn't have to sit on the frigid porcelain. And once it is there, you make it hinge up so you can clean under it.

I once compared spacecraft to seacraft and I'm pretty sure you said spacecraft were heavier. So I took the mass of a seacraft of similar length, doubled it, and did not assume that was the actual mass, just a guess. Insider doesn't give the masses. Another way to do it : Scale down from one of the ...

There's a good chance this was just a probe by the Umiak to see what they were up against. What weapons do the defenders have? Do they have combat specialists? Are they really aliens, or is this a Loroi trick? Risking 32 Hardtroops may be a low price to get answers to these questions. If there is a ...

An average English speaker has about 20,000 words in their active vocabulary. If Beryl can learn 5 words per minute (Alex speaks the word, and gives a brief definition) then it will take her about a week of 12 hour sessions to get them all. Though I suspect Beryl would spend a LOT of time telling Al...

The thing is, these might be REALLY good pickup lines to the Loroi. Their males, being outnumbered 10 to 1, might not have never had to 'up their game' or even develop one in the first place... More likely, though, the Loroi will just be confused and put off since their males don't have to do this k...

My opinion is that, by August 1945, most of the Japanese leadership was looking for a way to end the war without having an invasion of the home islands, and without losing an unbearable amount of face. The two atomic bombs mostly provided this. Fighting and losing to other (non-Japanese) men is sham...

No disagreement here either about them doing the heavy lifting. But, to expand the metaphor, I don't think they could have lifted enough* without the steroids the west sent them, without Germany being 'lighter' from a poor diet due to the western blockade/bombing campaign, and without the (less that...

Yes, the USSR was on the winning side in WWII. No, the USSR almost certainly would not have won if it didn't have the rest of the allies on its side. Can't say for sure, of course, since what might have happened is always conjectural. But here's my reasoning: 1) If there was no war in the west, or t...

Loroi might be able to learn to understand Trade very quickly, but actually learning the precision vocalizations needed to speak it clearly and quickly might take longer. Speech is not natural to the Loroi as it is to Humans, and most of them don't really have much use for it in their day to day liv...

The spring idea would work for reducing the g force on the brain-box from very rapid jolts of acceleration, but wouldn't do much to counter sustained acceleration. As to the liquid bath thing... I think the liquid has to be the same density as what it is supporting, and the more of a difference ther...

In regards to the acceleration tolerance advantages of cybernetic Umiak... It kind of depends on how inertial dampeners work in the setting. Are they incremental, meaning they simply subtract their rating from the perceived acceleration effects within the hull, such that the crew of a ship with 25g ...

Got a hold of the codes, or just stripped the IFF badges off of the killed or the captured.