Destiny: Lost Souls by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[Claudia]

^ Evil!!!

Well then, I'll be a very patient girl...

Hm...

When's FC going to be released? Tomorrow?

[Sci]

I think it's interesting that we see near-identical behavior in Picard and Seven at the end of Lost Souls, yet no one accuses Seven of behaving in a manner unbecoming of her station in life, and no one assumes that Picard as reverted to a mental child.

[Durek,]

David Mack wrote:

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^ I know that I could clarify the matter if I chose to, but I'd rather that people buy and read Kirsten Beyer's epic and masterfully executed Voyager novel Full Circle to find out what has become of Seven/Annika.

David,

I have the first 2 Destiny books as E-books, and read some of the 3rd one in the library. I just have a question:

The 3rd one mentioned a General Klag in the Klingon fleet. Is this the same Klag that appeared in the TNG episode "A Matter of Honor", and in KRAD's Klingon Empire/IKS Gorkon novels?

[ShamelessMcBundy]

David Mack wrote:

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^ I know that I could clarify the matter if I chose to, but I'd rather that people buy and read Kirsten Beyer's epic and masterfully executed Voyager novel Full Circle to find out what has become of Seven/Annika.

You bitch.

Great another book i'll have to pick up. Curses!

[Daddy Todd]

David Mack wrote:

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Well, that's a major drawback of projectile weapons. Even with a caseless ammunition system (such as was developed by Heckler & Koch for its G11 advanced combat rifle in the 1980s), one has to balance the conflicting desires for more magazine capacity and lighter weight. Add too much capacity, and the weapon becomes too heavy to use effectively in the field; reduce the capacity to lower the weight, and your troops spend all their time reloading.

So just mount a teeny tiny replicator on the rifles, and have it replicate ammunition. When the power cell wears out, pop it out and pop in a new one. Your ammo box would only need to contain replacement power cells. You can even change the ammo with a flip of a switch; when the target changes, replicate a different kind of ammunition... Aaah, Clarke's Law is so true!

[Marie1]

KRAD wrote:

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Those aren't electric shavers -- they're car vacuums. Get it right....

For crying out loud, no wonder you people almost lost the War!! Those things only work on creatures like Armus. What were you thinking? If the Dominion had known that, we would have given you two free shots per encounter!

David Mack wrote:

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I don't know that the show ever depicted that, but in my TNG novel A Time to Heal, some Starfleet forces were equipped with modified TR-116s and later versions, which I dubbed TR-120s, though I flubbed the terminology of its exographic targeting sight (I think I called it exogenic, which makes no sense).

Stop pointing out mistakes! But that makes sense, its not really had to bring a backup phaser when testing them out, and I'm assuming the TRs can be replicated, so its easier to test them.

I kinda think they need a larger magazine or somesuch- it seemed like they were running out a lot in Destiny, but maybe that was just a full-auto thing.

Well, that's a major drawback of projectile weapons. Even with a caseless ammunition system (such as was developed by Heckler & Koch for its G11 advanced combat rifle in the 1980s), one has to balance the conflicting desires for more magazine capacity and lighter weight. Add too much capacity, and the weapon becomes too heavy to use effectively in the field; reduce the capacity to lower the weight, and your troops spend all their time reloading.

The TR-116s probably carry a 30– or 50–round clip of caseless ammunition (invented by Dynamit–Nobel, for Heckler & Koch). Basically, the chemical propellant surrounds the projectile and is consumed during the firing. There is no ejected shell casing, and the combusted propellant is used to drive the reload mechanism. Because it's a closed system, it has less recoil, making it more accurate.

I'd imagine that by the 24th century, Starfleet R&D has also added better stabilizers and developed lighter, stronger composite polymers for the weapon's shell.

All in all, the TR-116 and its cousin, the TR-120, are very sophisticated and very deadly small arms. Add in their monotanium projectiles with monofilament tips, and you have weapons whose accuracy, range, and penetration capacity surpass those of any standard-issue battle rifle currently in existence.[/quote]

True. For some reason in Destiny I thought it was smaller, but I have no idea what I'm basing that on, so its nonsense. Tho I don't like the idea of my Jem'Hadar being shot with them!

But in all seriousness, thats a great point about the overall materials the gun is made of. With that lightness, the magazines could be heavier from more bullets.

Whats the point of the monofilament tips?

[David Mack]

Marie1 wrote:

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Whats the point of the monofilament tips?

A monofilament can be described as a cutting edge precisely one atom wide; in other words, it's an edge honed to perfect sharpness, and therefore able to pierce practically any armor.

Daddy Todd wrote:

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So just mount a teeny tiny replicator on the rifles, and have it replicate ammunition. When the power cell wears out, pop it out and pop in a new one. Your ammo box would only need to contain replacement power cells. You can even change the ammo with a flip of a switch; when the target changes, replicate a different kind of ammunition... Aaah, Clarke's Law is so true!

As pointed out to me in other threads, replicators don't quite work that way. They require some reservoir of raw matter that is reshaped using energy from a remote power plant. One would have to carry a significant mass of raw base material from which to fabricate ammunition, and one would also need a lot of energy — more than is normally used to operate an ordinary phaser rifle.

Furthermore, in the scenarios depicted in Destiny, even if such a replicator-based ammo feed could be created and made portable, the dampening fields needed to suppress the Borg's adaptation routines would render the replicator modules inert and therefore useless.

To answer Durek's spoiler-coded question: Yes it is. Though the story of how that character attained that rank is one to be told in another tale....

[Christopher]

David Mack wrote:

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As pointed out to me in other threads, replicators don't quite work that way. They require some reservoir of raw matter that is reshaped using energy from a remote power plant. One would have to carry a significant mass of raw base material from which to fabricate ammunition, and one would also need a lot of energy — more than is normally used to operate an ordinary phaser rifle.

On the other hand: if these weapons can be equipped with microtransporters that can beam their bullets through solid walls to targets hundreds of meters away, they surely they could also beam ammunition into their magazines from some separate container stored nearby. Although that would require the fighters to stay within transporter range of the ammo reservoir, which might limit their mobility, depending on what that range is.

The problem with Trek tech is that it's easy to take it into such hyper-advanced territory that it can accomplish virtually anything, which is bad for storytelling. One keeps having to either devise arbitrary limits or just gloss over the potential applications.

[KRAD]

Durek, wrote:

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The 3rd one mentioned a General Klag in the Klingon fleet. Is this the same Klag that appeared in the TNG episode "A Matter of Honor", and in KRAD's Klingon Empire/IKS Gorkon novels?

Yes.

[David Mack]

Christopher wrote:

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On the other hand: if these weapons can be equipped with microtransporters that can beam their bullets through solid walls to targets hundreds of meters away, they surely they could also beam ammunition into their magazines from some separate container stored nearby. Although that would require the fighters to stay within transporter range of the ammo reservoir, which might limit their mobility, depending on what that range is.

While that's an interesting idea, I must point out again that it would not be usable in the sort of dampening fields that necessitated the weapons' use in Destiny, or that were needed to neutralize the Borg's adaptation advantage.

The problem with Trek tech is that it's easy to take it into such hyper-advanced territory that it can accomplish virtually anything, which is bad for storytelling. One keeps having to either devise arbitrary limits or just gloss over the potential applications.

Precisely.

[nx1701g]

David Mack wrote:

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^ I know that I could clarify the matter if I chose to, but I'd rather that people buy and read Kirsten Beyer's epic and masterfully executed Voyager novel Full Circle to find out what has become of Seven/Annika.

Well I for one am looking forward to it.

[Man of Steel]

Keith,

You mentioned in an earlier post that there's a book that will explain how Sonya Gomez became Captain of the Da Vinci and what happened to Captain Gold. Just wondering if this book was announced yet and if so, when can we see it?

[KRAD]

^ Yes, and in 2009.

[Marie1]

David Mack wrote:

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A monofilament can be described as a cutting edge precisely one atom wide; in other words, it's an edge honed to perfect sharpness, and therefore able to pierce practically any armor.

Now that is cool!!

This is perhaps a ridiculous question, but could that ammo be used in the gun from "Field of Fire?" I think this conversation is leaning that way...

[JD]

That's what they were using. Or at least a newer version of it.