Qustion To The Fan Fiction Community!
The_Fluffy_Duck
Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22740Members
Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22740Members
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Does that answer your question? <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Tungsten Hill: Systemwide Corp. and the Taiwanese Republic "negotiating" a "policy dispute" while 6000 people, the live-in work force of the gigantic mining outpost, slowly starved to death. The TSA ran both blockades with minimal casualties, and evacuated the civilians … after TSA engineers repurposed the outpost's railguns, and made good on their threat to destroy any forces that interfered with 100 ton bullets of tungsten ore<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The trans-system govs and corps were stunned by this and for the next 50 years worked ceaselessly in an attempt to get back the power they had reliquished, mainly by steadily decreasing TSA funding.
Then in c.2200, the Khaara showed up. Initially the trans-system govs and corps thought they could take the threat on themselves, but the results were bad: whole ships lost, stations destroyed, thousands dead. This lead directly to a decision to give the task of fighting the khaara to the TSA. A new bill, the Frontiersmen Charter, was passed that injected a whole heap of new funding into the TSA, to be expressely used to fight the khaara.
Why do this you ask? Well the trans-system govs and corps don't exactly like one another very much. They'd much rather have a 3rd party (the TSA) going into infested stations and colonies rather than a rival. Why not do it themselves? Some tried, and failed. Military technology has been in stagnation for some 150 years thanks to the almost complete lack of warfare (which is also why marines are packing machine guns and shotguns as opposed to lightsabres and plasma rifles. You'll note that all the high tech stuff the marines use, such as phase gates, jetpacks and heavy armour are all simply adoptions of civilian technology used in space colonisation), and frankly their own militaries arn't up to the test.
Of course, if the Frontiersmen fail, then it's every man for himself; literally. With the power of the TSA broken, and an invasion of potentially apocalyptic proportions looming, every trans-system government and corperations would try and go it alone, either sending their forces peacemeal against the khaara, nuking the entire Ariadne Arm, or fighting amongst themselves. Either way billions would die. Thus the stakes are quite high; the fate of humanity in many ways hinges on the actions of the Frontiersmen.
So going back to the original question, despite the influx of cash, this has been mainly spent on training new recruits to throw into the battles raging throughout the Ariadne Arm of the galaxy. What's left is enough for a little basic field equipment. The TSA is forced to scavange or salvage resources from the bases they fight in in order to fuel the production of high tech devices in the field.
Secondly, most of the TSA encounters occur with little preperation. A distress signal is heard, a station goes off-line, and a team is dispatched right away with just the bare essentials. If they wait too long, the infestation spreads too far and any colonists would be long dead, and khaara life-forms would be too advanced to fight.
A final note that should be added; the Constellation. Funding for the TSA increasingly is coming from individuals and private donators, who often live on the frontiers of space itself and thus have the most to gain from a TSA victory (and the most to lose from a defeat). The Constellation program is allowing the TSA to develop further beyond what it's current funding allows, and indeed without it the TSA would have had little spare cash to invest in much needed research and development.
So there you have it. The marines don't phase it with HA and HMGs because the TSA really can't afford it, plus they have little warning. If you're interested further in this subject, check out the Techtrope articles on the front page of www.natural-selection.org, and you could also follow the little piece of writing I'm currently doing, a link to which can be found in my sig. Btw to anyone who's interested I'm about half way through Part 2 <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Kinda like Deepshadow's Monster website.
The Fluffy Duck, all I can suggest is to read a few of the fan fictions smattered within these forums so you could get a 'better' understanding. Try <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29447' target='_blank'>this</a>.
Kinda like Deepshadow's Monster website. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Google for "html" and read up a bit. HypterText Markup Language is the basic life blood of websites, and the starting point for any beginner.
Also, I told you I'd host it, but I need a word doc or .txt with your stories in it <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Check <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64098' target='_blank'>this</a> out then. The leader is looking for all the help he can.