gamer5

Books?

I will list some of the authors I found good.

Fantasy
Have you read any of the works from Guy Gavriel Kay? He is a Canadian fantasy author best known for his trilogy "The Fionavar Tapestry" and two books which make "The Sarantine Mosaic". He is a good fantasy author which even helped with the legacy of the great J. R. R. Tolkien.
Then there is Tad Williams with his more known works - the "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" trilogy and the four books of the "Shadowmarch" series and various other books.
Terry Pratchett is also well know and funny as hell to read with his satirical portrait of usual fantasy themes. He has so much works that listing them all would be pointless.
Chris Wooding - Although aimed at older teenagers his "Broken Sky" series show a unique mix of anime/manga and western elements in one action packed adventure. Not sure how attractive it would be to you but you never know until you start reading. As for his other works - well I am still sad that I live in such a behind-everything place that I can't read them.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Explanations not needed. The first books I read completely and on English was the very trilogy of the "Lord of the Rings".

Science Fiction
Isaac Assamov - you have to read Assamov at some point of life to call yourself a real fan of science fiction due the she importance of his books, especially the Foundation series.
Ray Bradbury - For now I read "Cat's Cradle" and "Fahrenheit 451". If I manage to get my hands on more of his novels I will probably read them.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Best known for the Vorkosigan Saga.
Arthur C. Clarke - I don't need to explain why he is here.
Robert A. Heinlein - With Assamov and Clake he made the so called "Big Three" of their times AKA the three most important SF writers of our time. I didn't have the opportunity to read a lot of his novels except for "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" and the fact that I watched the movie adaptation of "Starship Troopers".
Larry Niven - I heard about him but still haven't read something from him.
Gorge Orwell - If nothing else due to "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
Kim Stanley Robinson - One of the best writer in the terms of mixing soft (social) and hard (scientific) science fiction in his Mars trilogy which is also one of the most glorious and realistic displays of a possible transformation of Mars joined with a show case of possible future technology. A must read.
H.G. Wells - A honorary position for one of those which paved the way for modern SF.
Jules Verne - Probably one of the most influential writers of his period and a predecessor of modern science fiction. His adventurer novels are rich in actual scientific techniques, terms and methods as well as well-made guesses about future possible technologies.
Dmitry Glukhovsky - The guy who wrote "Metro 2033" and "Metro 2034". You mid find them familiar due to the two novels being made into games.

Other Fiction
Clive Cussler - Dirk Pitt Adventures. Why? Well let's say that when you add evil organizations, humor, action and a government organization dedicated to studying the oceans you get a good mix. Oh not to mention they actually go and rise the one and only "Titanic" from it's watery grave in one of the novels.
Haruki Murakami - He's works are in one work as weird as you would expect from a surrealism writer.
Paulo Coelho - I will admit that I read only "The Alchemist". Trough it was a interesting read.
Stieg Larsson - The author of the "Millennium trilogy" and a strong anti-fascist. " The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" rings a bell?
Markus Frank Zusak - The author of the "Book Thief" a strong novel about a girl living in WWII Germany and risking her life to save books from Nazis.

And that is all I can think for now. Dunno if you read any of this but this is what is enough strong to make me remember it even now so they are all pretty good. Might remember something else but that is all for now.

1X1 IDS Interest Check (Never Closed!)

So all I got from this interest check was one person ... was expecting better results ... well it is always open so maybe someone will come?

IDS RP (MegaraFoxfire X gamer5)

"Not really, I mean I do have my parents and a few siblings but we are not that close. After all most of them ended up as managers and so on in some of my father's child companies. I didn't like my home to much, one of the main reasons I joined the Forces, I was almost sure that I will see Earth, and them, as little as possible, " Yakov said while sighting at his remembrance of his family, the good times of his childhood and the hardships of his teenage years. He took one glance at Megumi and said: "Well I am planning to get our team to work as smoothly as possible no matter how different we might be. I do not how much I will be able to do it but at least for the duration of the mission we should try to get along otherwise the mission will fail and we all might die. Trough it will just be a inconvenience, after all we will be just reconstructed as we were on our last complete body & memory scan. Well I hope we can get along miss Wolfbane. After all we will be charging straight into danger together inside the next ten days."

IDS RP (MegaraFoxfire X gamer5)

"I am not worried about ninja but about guys like them," Yakov said while pointing to the two mages engaged in some magical calculations,"They are the liability factor that I would not want on my mission. Most of them are as serious as a kid but have the firepower of an IFV or tank." He finished the meal and then said: "Now as for the desert." Then he stood up and went to quickly pick up two jars of ice cream he returned and said: "Some ice cream, it is not from Earth but Mars. Not like it is much of a difference. So on another matter, what do you use your free time on Wolfbane? I doubt you just train every moment of your life."

The last city - Zombie RP

Snyper, after twenty or so hits knew that the opponent in front of her was not someone that would be defeated so easily, especially since he only had to defend, if he actually attacked Renia cloud have used his own strength against him, but if she would keep this pattern it would only mean her defeat once her stamina runs out. So instead of attacking on she decided to stop and concentrate on what she observed until now from Ghost, and she knew that he would be not possible to win an endurance race against him. Instead of that she decided to change her attacks, instead of the fast jabbing technique she was using now she decided to do something else - to use the only thing that you can always throw at your enemy - your own body. Snyper charged at Ghost in a manner that would suggest a fast kick at the lower abdomen and actually not having that much speed - she gave him enough time to respond before she even came in kicking range...

IDS RP (MegaraFoxfire X gamer5)

"Hm, the mission, well if nobody screws up than it should be the usual; drop in, scout and gather info about the target, if necessary destroy said target and then scatter and return when possible. As for the cooperation," he made a stop there and said: "Well it is not the first time that we work with someone outside of the military, trough I am wondering if all will actually go well, especially given that unlike us a nice portion of JCU didn't go any training similar to a military one. But still we need someone with knowledge of Europa Corp and most of the ones on the JCU mission worked or had contact with them so they have valuable information about how Europa Corp works. The others selected are those I find actually more useful and less prone to disobeying orders just because of a whim or some other nonsensical reason. Like martial artists, combat shrine maidens and other amongst which are also ninja." He took a short break to put some food in himself and then continued: "Now I would like to ask you one thing, miss Wolfbane. How much do you know about EDF droppod methods, IRS mission standard action plans, equipment and so on?"

The last city - Zombie RP

"I just have to hit you? Well then," Renia said while taking a stance, moving her center of gravity so it would provide optimal mobility, with a smile, "this will be easier then I thought." With quite a speed, trough not quite on the level of for example a professional female kick-boxer of the same weight category, Snyper closed in and started to unleash a barrage-like series of hits with her arms, minimizing the use of her legs to keep a solid attack distance. Deadly accurate from her natural talent in targeting and fast from the years of the desire to reload faster and faster Snyper's attacks lacked only one thing, strength and now it was only one thing that she counted on - that Ghost makes a mistakes and that an attack slips past his defense and hits the upper portion of his body...

IDS RP (MegaraFoxfire X gamer5)

(OOC: Sorry for the long abstinence. Stuff happened.)

After quickly glancing over the kitchen staff Yakov spotted one familiar face and called out to him. A quick talk resulted in two full plates of beef and rice, together with various vegetables and small cups filled with sauces which the Major soon carried to the table where Megumi was waiting. He placed one plate in front of Megumi and the other on his side of the table: "I managed to make one of the chiefs to bring this out, the main dish is Kobe beef and Kyushu rice with various vegetables grown in Japan and a collection of Earth's famous sauces, all from actual grown plants. A little taste of home as a godspeed before our journey." After putting his own plate down he returned to the counter and produced two glasses and three bottles, one of spring waters from the Kanto region, the second a Coca Cola, 100% un-replicated version, and another of a mid 34th century Californian wine. He brought all of this to the table and said, while sitting down: "Some of Earth's classical products, completely non produced by replicators. God bless the Space Fleet and their will to spoil elite crews like this one. So attache Wolfbane, if I might ask, what are your thoughts about this mission and this joint cooperation?"

The last city - Zombie RP

"Well, I have no problem with showing some of my self-defense skills, as long as I am not asked to duke it out with a heavy weight champion," Renia first replayed to Leona and then proceeded to greet the man she was introduced to: "Renia Lönear, but I prefer to me called Snyper, nice to meet you mister Pond; or Ghost, whatever suits you better." She didn't waste time and used the opportunity to clear her inter thoughts, pump her adrenaline up with breathing techniques and stretched the muscles she will be needing to efficiently use the self-defense techniques she knew ...

Various Scifi Weaponry and Destructive Potential

There are ways to go, mostly depending on the technology level and ways of progress to it that your civilization would have taken:

No matter in which age you are a FTL civilization would be heavily dependent on computers and cybernetic warfare, artificial intelligence and network protection would be a significant part of every major conflict.

The earlier you are the less advanced your weapons will get and on the low tech levels will be faced with two major choices - use massive barrages of missiles and hope some hit or go in close with railguns, cannons and other weapons. Naturally space crafts would be also used to provide a long-reach alternative to missiles. Fusion or fission reactors would provide power for ships.

As time progresses you would probably develop lasers enough powerful to damage ships, shielding systems and plasma cannons. The much quicker lasers would slowly replace railguns as anti-craft turrets. Antimatter warheads might start to appear in larger missiles (history has shown that it is easier to use potent energy reactions as weapons then as a power source). Power would probably come from advanced fusion reactors.

With the invention of a practical anti-matter reactor you would see that near-light speed plasma weapons are used for long-range attacks, together with powerful lasers, railguns returning as medium to near combat weapons and firing at high speeds, advanced strike craft run on miniaturized fusion reactors equipped with shields and missiles equipped with pin-point accuracy used together with lasers to provide anti-craft firepower.

Nanotechonology (nanotech), quantum computers, genetic engineering, improvements in ion thruster technology, high-temperature superconductors are just some of the technologies we cloud see in the next 25-50 years which would lead to development of the basics of space warfare.

Oh and nukes would still have some use - but not in stupidly powerful builds but rather in high electro-magnetic emission bombs for EMP and as cobalt bombs for punishments or terror attacks due to them turning wide areas inhabitable for centuries (now imagine a star ship threatening to bomb the largest cities on planet with them).

But it all depends on how realistic you want to be - I am usually am somewhere around half the way on the realism scale with most things being based upon technologies being already developed or that are scientifically plausible. Less realistic you get the more firepower your ships will probably have - more realistic you get, well at some point even FTL would be need to disappear.