04/23/25 – Lasper Meets Fate Apparently

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Ascending the staircase, Prought spread his arms, and it was seen that they wore similar gloves as Lasper. Prought said, "Okay, let's settle this for good." Watching, still upside down where she was punched to, Val said, "Wait you have those things too? Are yours lightsab-" Prought interrupted her and said, "They're laserzweihanders!" And with a downward swing of one of them towards Lasper, Prought said, "Meet your fate!" Lasper defending himself, and Prought swung at him with the other arm, but Lasper jumped the swing. Then they both swung at each other at the same time, bot landing blows, and both propelling the other to opposite sides of the bridge. Lying on his back, Lasper said, "Unghh. I don't suppose you want to call it a draw, and you can just go back to your ship?" Prought said, "Nnnnf. Never. Besides, my chiropractor needs the income."

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Oh, trust me, I can get sillier if you insist. 🙂

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Ascending the staircase, Prought spread his arms, and it was seen that they wore similar gloves as Lasper. Prought said, “Okay, let’s settle this for good.” Watching, still upside down where she was punched to, Val said, “Wait you have those things too? Are yours lightsab-” Prought interrupted her and said, “They’re laserzweihanders!” And with a downward swing of one of them towards Lasper, Prought said, “Meet your fate!” Lasper defending himself, and Prought swung at him with the other arm, but Lasper jumped the swing. Then they both swung at each other at the same time, bot landing blows, and both propelling the other to opposite sides of the bridge. Lying on his back, Lasper said, “Unghh. I don’t suppose you want to call it a draw, and you can just go back to your ship?” Prought said, “Nnnnf. Never. Besides, my chiropractor needs the income.”

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23 Comments

    1. Fnordius

      Good thing light has no noticeable mass. No need to worry about balance, blade inertia, and so on. Though I guess the laser blades are actually more like electrical fields, because they stun and don’t cut.

      I got go hand it to Christopher, it’s a clever idea: ” We invented a stun weapon that’s safe to use on a ship, so it won’t cut through metal or damage the consoles. And thanks to input from Marketing, we can make them resemble ancient fantasy weapons from popular romances!”

  1. Dave

    Not here to criticize. I love the Trawler universe and everything you’ve done. Just curious – did I miss a reference that would explain why the invaders didn’t have guns? This has been a gun crazy universe in most other instances. And how did the lone Bollyck on board manage to stay out of the fight – even if he is a pacifist compared to his people – he still has proven very useful in a fight. Strange occurrences.

    1. Nemo

      The G.O.B. banned guns at one point. (I know — as an American, this is possibly the least believable thing that ever happened in Spacetrawler.) I’ll update if I find it…

      I can’t speak to where Gerek is. I think he was asleep, last we saw him.

    2. Mr. Scott

      Maybe when guns were (briefly) popular:
      – bullets tend to open the hull to vacuum, or damage life-support or drive systems, or cause stored power systems to release their energy rapidly (a.k.a. “detonate”): a bit of a Russian Roulette factor on a ship
      – when hulls and bulkheads became stronger, think “ricochet”
      – someone invented a kinetic shield that reversed the kinetic energy by nearly 180°, colloquially known as “return to sender”
      – tiny bots to fly into barrels and plug them, turning guns into hand grenades
      – tiny bots to superglue the mechanisms (though I’d expect those for ALL weapons)
      – someone figured out how to touch off the rounds in the clips, making them remote-controlled holster grenades
      – tiny ‘termite’ bots to recognize and ‘eat’ the bullets
      – everyone gets to breathe any toxic gases or odors released, until life-support (which may be damaged now) can clear them

      1. Mr. Scott

        Also:
        – a standard bullet impacts stored antimatter fuel, resulting in a release of energy in the megatons of TNT range
        – kinetic bullet deflection: small interceptor projectiles deflect the relatively slow-moving (vs. radar) bullets so you usually miss
        – “Surprise!” rounds: tiny bot adds antimatter to the cartridges, again turning guns into hand-grenades
        – “Acme” rounds: tiny bots turn bullets into “BANG!” flags
        – non-standardized ammo across the Universe(s): how do you get more cartridges to fit your weapon? At least the early synthesizers couldn’t make explosive compounds reliably without accidental ignition, and the synthesizers are hooked into energy systems capable of providing the incredible level of energy required to synthesize matter. More Russian Roulette factor.

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