The Armory - Guns, Knives, and Axes

[Smitty-48]

In the Crew Compartment, which they call the Beer Can, it's like a prison cell at the Supermax

It's tiny, there's a toilet, a food processor, gym equipment and a sleeping bag. In the Rest Easy.

Below the Rest Easy is the Flight Deck. There's nothing in there but the G-chair, and the analog backup controls.

And that's it. So it's a prison sentence. Which is why they spend most of their time in VR.

[Smitty-48]

When you are in the VR intranet, it's like the movie Inception.

It's like a conscious dream, you experience it as real, to include all your senses, you can't tell the difference.

So you can be in the Beer Can, but your mind is on the beach in Polynesia

There's a variety of recreational environments where the operator can pass the time,

For combat they switch to Augmented Reality. (AR)

That's just a projection through contact lenses, you see but don't feel.

The only thing the Operator can "feel" in AR is the robot. He becomes the robot.

He feels inpact and whatnot, he can grab and hold things, but he doesn't feel pain,

damage is registered by numbness, where he is damaged, that feels like pins and needles to him,

[Smitty-48]

The Operator can also dismount from the MBD

The A.I. becomes Loyal Wingman giant sidekick

So you can do Speicial Operations In Space (SOIS)

Hostage rescue for example, the MBD muckles onto the ship, breaches, then the Operators spacewalk to board it

Then they put the hostages in emergency evacuation suits and bring them back to the MBD

For this sort of mission the MBD will attach the QB Pod, that would be where the hostages would ride.

[Smitty-48]

The MBD can also fight on land

There comes a point where Martian Spaceghanistan is causing so much shit, Spaemerica invades Mars

There's no big armies on mars, it's gangsters and bankters and terrorists and insurgents

So Spacemerica drops the MBD's on them ; Shock & Awe

They also conduct Operations Other Than War (OOTW)

They are always on call for Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR)

They are also on call to support NASA science missions.

So their secondary function is Giant Astronaut. Robotic Rescue & Research

NASA is the main component of the Space Race, the Space Force is there to defend and support NASA.

So it is a Multi-Mission Platform, it doesn't just fight, in fact most of the time they don't fight.

So there are other reasons for the Man-Machine Team beyond combat.

[Smitty-48]

Spacemerica is much more realistic than the Expanse

In the Expanse there is a One World Government : not realistic

In the Expanse Mars becomes a colony which builds a space fleet to rival earth : silly.

In the Expanse the Asteroid Belt becomes a colony with critical mass; not gonna happen.

Constant acceleration rockets ; handwavium

Intelligent aliens and a Stargate ; purely fantastical handwavium

Moreover the guys who wrote it were never in the military, so their military shit is dumb.

They also have no tactics, their combat is just running and shooting, also dumb

Their military characters are silly, they're not like real military, they are cliche cartoon characters

The writers are civilians, gaming nerds, they have no idea what the military is like in person.

Spacemerica is what the military is really like, only people who served know.

The target audience is not civilians, Smitty Magnum Higgins mil sci fi is for the troops.

My wife still likes it tho, because in actual fact, there's a lot of boy meets girl in military world too.

[Smitty-48]

In terms of inertia, how does the Expanse deal with that? Handwavium fluids pumped into the crew.

Spacemerica is more realistic, the MBD is g-limited, it can't whip around at super speed.

But it doesn't need to, because that's not how battles really are.

Civies think it's all running and shooting and dogfights, but it's not, it's much more plodding than that.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

[Smitty-48]

What is the interface like in the Expanse, for ship control, or their version of the internet?

Same old, same old tv screens and joysticks

Spacemerica is more realistic, we are on the verge of VR now, in the future it's like the Matrix

The MBD MMT is all operated by AR and/or VR, there are no tv screens, no joystick

[Smitty-48]

In the Expanse they have a handwavium rocket to zip around at ludicrous speed

Spacemerica is more realistic, nuclear electric powered android, but not interplanetary

To go interplanetary, an MBD attaches a big Space Shuttle to its back

It's a fusion plasma rocket, but it's not a reactor, it burns its fuel, and then you coast

It's faster than rockets now, but it's not ludicrous speed.

So it still takes months to get anywhere. Mostly the crew just sleeps in flight, dreaming in VR.

The rest of the time they are working out in their tiny gym in the Rest Easy. To counter bone loss.

They have to get up to pump iron in jail at intervals, then they go back to sleep.

[Smitty-48]

Yeah, that's right, this shit is dope, and that's just the tip of the iceberg ; suck it, Brewster.

Kick back and dream VR for the long haul to the Trace at Titan.

Bring it on, we'll keep coming.

[Smitty-48]

The combat in the rocks, in the contested volumes, is not like dogfigting in an F-16 Viper

It's more like the AH-64 Apache. They creep around, low and slow, from positions of observation and fire

They set up for ambushes. They counter ambushes. They do reconnaissance by force, and raids.

They do Special Operations, like snatch patrols, to capture enemy equipment.

It's very tactical, it's how the army really fights

Then when it is point blank, they close and engage with Military Mixed Martial Arts (M3A)

Spacemerica Fuck Yeah.