Alistair Young @cerebrate@schelling.pt

@cinebox @mds2 @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

Could be a useful tool, but you've got to be careful if the opposition have ranged weapons. Also, in a crowded spacecraft - what's mounted on the bulkhead that might interfere with its effectiveness?

@Dandelion

Number go up == bubble;
Number go down == recession;
Number stay same = stagnation.

@mds2 @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

In my previous thinking about space polearms, I was quite fond of the classic lochaber axe. You have a spike for stabbing, a blade for cleaving, and perhaps most useful in space, a hook for grabbing and pulling free-floating foes towards you prior to either of the former.

Magnificently flexible!

@isaackuo @synlogic @mds2 @cstross @thisnorthernboy @nyrath

I'm contemplating shortening the length of the staff part of the space-naginata and putting a cold-gas thruster on the butt end, for greater confined-space maneuverability and, conversely, no longer needing a wall to push off.

@mds2 @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

I, for one, fully support _hoshi no naginatajutsu_ .

@isaackuo @synlogic @nyrath

It's a fair point. But getting in place to attach to them, though, may still be tricky in the face of hostile maneuvering, like jumping onto a moving car. And even a light tap from a spacecraft under RCS is a lot of inertia.

@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

Amusingly and contra myself, it's just a couple of days since I watched _For All Mankind_ S2E10, in which a stray bullet goes right through the reactor cooling pump controller. Oops!

(Maybe send the space SWAT team with a second OTV full of spare parts...)

@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

I recall a while back reading about sky marshal training, and it including a great emphasis on making sure your misses _didn't hit the floor_, that being where hydraulic lines, cable runs, etc., tend to be on commercial aircraft, and thus ceiling and walls are much safer to accidentally.

One could imagine a similar protocol developing for space. "Make sure you aim out of the plane of the removable cover tiles!"

@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

I might be inclined to trust a painstakingly-educated-in-shot-placement team with slug-loaded shotguns on the grounds that even their worst screw-up is still a decent gamble against terrorists who plan on taking the civilian population with them, or amateurs who might panic and hose down the life support compartment with their black-market AK.

@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

This seems like a scenario where whatever you use you need it to be immediately disabling, on the grounds that however professional and competent your team is, you cannot guarantee that the oppo is and/or even cares about such things.

@isaackuo @synlogic @nyrath

It doesn't have to use acceleration to escape you to make boarding impractical; it just has to be able to generate enough differential acceleration to tear your boarding pod/tube/grapple/etc. off the hull, or to make itself too dangerous to close with for fear of collision.

@synlogic @isaackuo @nyrath

Side note: also, I feel like I must have missed most of the references for this sub-trad, as the only primarily melee boarding actions one I can call to mind are from _Lensman_, where the justification is that guns are useless when _free_ (inertialess), as the bullets would proceed to their targets and stop dead without penetrating, even if you built special guns with _free_-compatible firing mechanisms.

@synlogic @isaackuo @nyrath

I've always found this a bit curious, myself, as it's hard to come up with circumstances that lead to a contested boarding battle without your spacecraft already being all shot up for, if no other purposes, immobilization to enable boarding in the first place.

(Undefended static habitats aside, I suppose.)

@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath

Don't we already have "Airline Special" loads designed for this particular purpose?

(I'm not up to date on this, but I was reading about multi-ball loads for regular guns designed to centrifugally fan out and decelerate rapidly back in the 80s, so suspect the state of the art should have improved by now.)