Slowshields: A Korozhet device implanted subcutaneously, just above the breastbone of a mammal user. The device remains inactive, except for maintaining an ovoid spherical perimeter field—just outside of the reach of the user—for which it draws energy from the body heat of the user. If an object moving at greater than 22.8 mph impinges on the perimeter field, the slowshield device strips all the kinetic energy from this object. Effectively, the projectile will simply fall. The energy absorbed cannot be contained by the slowshield device. The device wastes the energy by projecting a hardshield (a force field). The time the hardshield is active for depends on the amount of kinetic energy absorbed. The slowshield device has a particle-size acceptor program. Should two slowshields intersect, a twin focus develops, making a larger perimeter than both combatants.
The shield is ineffective against laser or gas. However, the Magh' are not immediately affected by gas, as they stop active "breathing" (and use stored oxygen) while in combat. Contact of a perimeter field with a force field results in enormous energy influx into the slowshield device. Should this be a full-sized force field, the slowshield device is unable to cope. Attempts to take slowshield devices apart have ended catastrophically. X-ray and ultrasonic examination reveal little, except that the device is a complex one containing solid-state nano-circuitry within an artificial crystal matrix.
Weaponry: When small arms proved ineffectual against slowshielded Magh' and it appeared that hand-to-hand combat weapons were required, human troops were issued with three basic weapons:
1) The trench knife: a twelve-inch broad-bladed weapon with one serrated edge. Relatively ineffectual except for opening cans and breaking locks.
2) The ice pick: a good weapon against the Magh' pseudo-chitin—except that a swing was required to wield it effectively, which made it unreliable against slowshielded Magh' warriors.
3) The bangstick: the most effective weapon in the human ground troops' arsenal. A mixture between an assegai (broad-bladed short stabbing spear) and an anti-shark spear, the bangstick blade was hollowed out to allow a .410 shotgun cartridge full of birdshot to be set into the middle of it. The cartridge is triggered by a sharp blow on the base of the spear shaft, which knocks a pin into the percussion cap. The spear allows penetration; the birdshot then ricochets around the soft inside of the Magh' without breaking out of the pseudo-chitin.
Pole mines have been tried as well, but because of slowshield interpenetration have proved a failure. The use of tanks was stated to be "disastrous" by the Korozhet advisors . . .
Both sides make extensive use of heavy artillery. The Magh' equipment is far superior to the human, both in rate and accuracy of fire.
Small AP mines are one of the basic tools of defense. They are painted to reflect infrared light. Human and rat troops can see this but Magh' do not. Human troops have infrared lenses. Bats act as chief mine distributors and also as the army's sappers. The mines are visible to the humans and rats but also make human advances slow and wary.
Force fields: Only in the possession of the Magh'. Energy expensive, allow zero penetration, except for light. Certain wavelengths are reflected.
FTL travel: Only the Korozhet and, in a far more primitive form, the Jampad have faster-than-light travel capability. The Magh' are restricted by their Korozhet overlords to sub-light travel in slowships.
"Rats": African elephant-shrews, basically—long-nosed insectivorous animals with much larger hind legs than forelimbs—but otherwise more or less rat-shaped (hence the name). Using Rhychocynodon chrysopygus as the basic blueprint, the genetic engineers spliced on some genes from Elephantulus rufescens, from ordinary shrews (noctural eyesight, speed and red-tipped toxic teeth) and a bit of bulk and dietary tolerance from rats. A "rat" is about the size of a small Siamese cat, but lighter boned. There is considerable sexual dimorphism. Females are smaller, weighing on average 1.7 kg. Males can weigh up to 2.3 kg. They are of relatively fecund origins but, because of the effects of gene mixing, sterile. Gestation would be short and reproduction frequent. They are fast growing and relatively short-lived (8-12 years).
"Bats": Genetically engineered from a very complex mixture of both Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera, built on a Pteropodid framework, modified to include the echolocation and detention and therefore the digestion of insectivorous bats. Bats are capable of very slow and very precise flight. Despite a wingspan of nearly 5 feet, the bats are not very heavy. Light-boned, they weigh in at between 800g to just under 1kg. Bats typically have long gestations and may practice sperm storage. Unlike the rats, they are fairly long-lived (30+ years).
Galago: In this case, galago senagalensis. A small primitive nocturnal African primate (similar to loris and lemurs), agile tree dweller, capable of prodigious leaps of up to forty feet. A galago's most salient features are the enormous eyes and delicate mobile ears. Their diet varies, but they are principally insectivorous, with fruit and acacia gum also being diet items. The galago, otherwise known as the "bush baby," has a harsh strident voice, totally out of proportion to the small size of the creatures. The fur is gray, soft and fluffy. They have long fluffy tails. The little hands have long slender fingers, but the thumb is not truly opposable. They are one of the species known to practice urine washing of the hands and feet, a practice thought to increase adhesiveness.
HAR: Harmony And Reason. The name given to the human slowship-colonized planet.
Shareholder: Theoretically, what every citizen of the colony world of Harmony And Reason (HAR) is—or can become. In practice, only the crew of the slowship, those wealthy enough to come as corpsicles, and their children. The colony is in theory a "collective commonwealth" from which all the Shareholders receive dividends and access to various shared technical facilities. Control of the colony is maintained by a board elected on the basis of share-votes. Individuals, such as Virginia's parents, can hold many shares.
Technology: On HAR, except for brought-from-Earth 21st century technology (mostly retained at the slowship), most technology is at the self-sustaining level—anywhere from 14th century to early 20th.
"Vat": Clone-child bred from one of the frozen cell-fragments brought from Earth for a minimal fee. They may become Shareholders after repaying the costs incurred in growing them and raising them. In practice, this is extremely unlikely.
Soft-cyber chip: A Korozhet-made neurological enhancement device implanted into the brain of the bearer. A lentil-sized piece of highly advanced nano-circuitry, it is nonmetallic and contains both cybernetic and software elements. The device secretes microfilaments into the brain to obtain raw data, whereafter it acts as an enhancement and logic coprocessor, enabling instant "uplift" of various nonsentient animals.
Magh': A superficially arthropod-like alien species characterized by extreme polymorphism. Certain differences from true Terran arthropods, such as an exoskeletal structure of a substance unlike chitin containing fullerene chains and considerable internal bracing, make creatures ranging from the size of toy breeds of dog to German Shepherds possible. Body shapes vary enormously, with six factorial possibilities. The Magh' are a voracious, invasive and habitat-destructive species living in immense magh' adobe scorpiaries—spiral mound structures centered on the breeders' nest (the brood-heart) and broodchambers. Each scorpiary of several million members is a single intelligence, sharing a group-mind with consciousness centered on the breeders, the Magh'mmm. The Magh'mmm practice group spawning with external fertilization and with a sextuploid-haploid DNA analogue.
Respiration is spiracular with a countercurrent flow of a fatbottomed decacupraglobin carrier. This allows for the accumulation of oxygenated blood during low activity, which can then be expended during high activity, allowing high burst speeds for a brief period. Magh' warriors have no stamina.
Korozhet: An alien species, technologically advanced. Radially symmetrical, they look like spiny red beachballs. The spines are hollow and jointed. The Korozhet can exude suckerlike pedicellaria, ocelli (simple eyes) and other sensory organelles from the hollow spines. Like several mollusc species, the Korozhet are also capable of firing harpoonlike darts from two special hollow spines. These harpoons are hollow also, and act as hypodermic needles through which toxic enzymes can be delivered into the prey or enemy. Like starfish, Korozhet feed by stomach eversion into the body of their partially digested prey. Speech is by means of a gas-bladder. Gas is produced from digestive processes within the food remainder sucked back in with the stomach.
Jampad: An alien species opposed to Korozhet and the Magh'. Jampad are short and stocky, bipedal, with four tentacular arms. Heavily furred, from a high g (1.3g) cold planet.