Sci-fi Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment

Technically Living Zombies are a thing, like Left 4 Dead where it's a mutated virus, with its own specific mutations the longer one is infected.

Okay, but then they would still need to eat and breathe, and so "killing" them becomes a fairly straightforward affair. They aren't supernatural beings; they're just brain-damaged people who can't feel pain.

It's funny how works these days will bend over backwards to avoid supernatural explanations for zombies but still get to use zombie tropes. Enough with the zombies, already.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 29th 2024 at 1:41:06 PM

Killing them is a very straightforward affair, the problem becomes in dealing with the infection, which is airborne and spreads very easily. Survivors aren't so much immune as they are having a genetic mutation themselves, they're carriers of the disease without knowing it. Mass populations fall to this.

As I understand it, when the term "zombie" comes up in sci-fi contexts, it's usually something else piloting a human body as a "vessel" with optionally, increasing amount of disturbing mutations added onto it depending on how infectious the "pilot's" genetic-code is over the body's own.

The worst I've seen being that "thing" in Splinter. Since that thing doesn't give a single d-...dime regarding if the body it takes over is dead or not.

Well since there is no thread for fantasy weapons (and that old timey ones tend to pop up in sci Fi anyway) this will have to do for this question. Ahem.

Is it just me are are colored blades rarer than they ought to be. Like outside of black swords the only notable instances I can think of are Endro, Yu-Gi-Oh, Disgaea and FF XIV (the last two being video games and the very last one had enabled the ability to paint the weapons)

Like I don't think even red swords are common despite the obvious symbolism of bloodstained blades. Why to most writers seem to default to the usual steely colors for swords?

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 29th 2024 at 11:38:29 AM

and : I don't care why zombies exist. That's just plot filler for the sake of being unique. What I do care about is when they apparently ignore thermodynamics.

As noted here , any coating would rapidly wear off of a blade that is in active use. Swords are meant to be functional, not pretty — well, that depends on the era and purpose — but impurities that change a blade's inherent color would also affect its material properties, possibly making it weaker and/or more brittle.

Nothing's stopping you from finding an alloy that makes the blade red, though. It's just not something a blacksmith would consider to be a first priority.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 29th 2024 at 2:55:41 PM

Have you tried to keep the coating of a blade that actually gets used?

Use is going to expose the gray metal in no time.

28 Days Later practically ended with the zombies starving to death and in 28 weeks later, it showed that nerve gas also works.

Edited by AngelusNox on Apr 29th 2024 at 3:54:46 PM

Worth noting, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror have long been closely related genres, and supernatural elements have been known to introduce themselves into all three genres at will (Star Trek, for example, is heavily prone to this sort of blending from time to time).

What color a blade is might depend on the material used. I imagine you could make a red or gold-colored sword by making it from copper or bronze, but there's a few practical reasons why we collectively moved on from those materials to iron and steel for many weapons.

Ironically, many modern infantry weapons instead utilize a famously soft metal: Lead. Encased in cartridges made from brass and fired from guns made of iron and steel and other metals. It's all in how you plan to use it.

For whatever probably interesting reason, most of the metals that come in colors other than shades of grey and silver seem to be poorly-suited to being used as blades, hammer heads, or guns.

Edited by AFP on Apr 29th 2024 at 12:15:26 PM

Well, I'm not super happy when a franchise known for paying lip service to everything being science-based waves its hands and goes, "What, that? It's just magic."

Well, you know, Any sufficiently advanced technology...

Frankly, no. I'd argue that the only real distinction between Sci Fi and Fantasy today is aesthetics. Sci Fi takes the aesthetics of science (ie knowable, explainable, even if you may not understand the explanation yourself) whereas Fantasy takes the aesthetics of fantasy (IE, unknowable). Beyond that though, there are plenty of examples where fantasy-type stories take a sci-fi speculative fiction approach or sci fi takes a fantasy approach. The era that there were distinct writers with distinct signature stories is basically long over.

Even things like aliens, interstellar travel and FTL (typically the realm of sci fi) have all been done in fantasy too.

It's true that they used to be more distinct traditions but not really today. It's more about audience expectations than form, story types, etc.

So i'd argue that modern zombies (result of plagues, viruses, genetic modification etc) borrows heavily from Sci Fi rather than Fantasy (as zombies used to be simply supernatural).

It also leads to weird knock-on effects like many zombie shows/games involving simply shooting sick people. Rather than, you know, corpses.

Sure, all that may be true, but in the end consumers seem to demand zombies, so they get zombies, and if their provenance doesn't really matter, the thermodynamics certainly don't.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 29th 2024 at 4:36:08 AM

In any case, I'd argue that the provenance of zombies is outside the scope of this thread, unless they're zombies with frickin' laser beams attached to their foreheads.

I've said before, although perhaps not in this thread, that if zombies really do ignore thermodynamics and can keep going indefinitely, these post-apocalyptic societies are missing out on infinite free energy. Capture the zombies, put them on treadmills, and dangle brains in front of them. Boom, post-scarcity! Don't worry about grandma; she's powering your television. Forever.

Of course, if they're actually fueled by Hell or something, this is just a middleman. Cut it out and we can go right to Doom (2016).

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 29th 2024 at 4:41:02 AM

I'd imagine if a zombie apocalypse of the technically living variety occurred, the actual zombie part of it would be over fairly quickly. The cities would be a major breeding ground at first but they would be quickly vacated and avoided once it becomes apparent how bad the outbreaks there are. Once that happens the zombies would likely start spreading out, either alone or in large groups. However, they would still have all the same vulnerabilities as normal humans, and as such it wouldn't be long before they start to succumb to things like starvation, dehydration, and exposure. Plus, with cities now empty, the virus itself would have a hard time making it to suitable hosts.

Although, even if the zombies themselves quickly stop being an issue, humanity would still have plenty of other problems. Mainly, with so many areas of critical infrastructure now abandoned, society as we know it would completely collapse. Famine due to nobody to run industrial farms and stores. Exposure from people forced out into the heat or cold without proper supplies or survival knowledge. And more mundane diseases would become plagues in their own right without doctors or vaccines. Among other issues.

Once you kill the zombies, why doesn't the infection zone sterilize itself?

COVID showed that even a minor disruption in supply chains can have catastrophic consequences. A zombie apocalypse would render humanity crippled for generations if not permanently depending on the source.

The fact that modern civilization runs as well as it does now, is a goddamn miracle.

As we are finding out in Ukraine, ammunition can also run out in a war. That's a problem even with zombies. Although the minutiae of zombies are probably more suited for another thread.

There are also other issues, like zombies just decaying, or being able to move despite massive damage, or having better senses than humans, etc. A zombie apocalypse like in the movies would be a massive boon for medical research, you'd be able to create super-humans in no time.

If the zombies need to eat etc to survive, then they aren't really undead. And if the zombies do obey the rules of physics, you basically have a very non-threatening shambling corpse army with very little intelligence that can easily be stopped by modern weapons (seriously, movies love zombies overrunning locations but modern weapons are really really good at killing unarmored people in the open! WW 1 showed how good we are at it!). Quarantine the affected places, and the zombies die out in a matter of weeks.

Quarantine didn’t work against the Flood.

At least one pocket survived for over 100,000 years post-Great Purification (firing the Halo array). Happened three times to be specific and two of them were contained by destroying their host installations.

Granted it was kinda sorta hibernating until a new food source (humans, Covenant) broke quarantine and gave it a means of escape.

Also they were perfectly happy picking up shotguns or plasma rifles or driving vehicles or what have you unlike most zombies.

Wait, is the discussion about "zombies in sci-fi" or "zombies as weapons in sci-fi wars"?

Might have to clear this one up here before going any further.

There is the Resident Evil zombies and T/G-Virus based weapons.

One of the points mentioned over a T-Virus release over a major population center, is how disruptive it is for everyone involved. But it also defeats the point that not you are using a WMD but you have an entire city where you can't effectively occupy because of biohazard risk and forces the struck nation to nuke itself to sterilize the area.

It is hella useful for terrorists groups though.

Well this IS a Weapons, vehicles, and equipment thread so lets go with Zombies as Weapons.

I think you'd be better off with a drug than a virus. Or perhaps a very short term virus that runs it's course in a few days. If you move your army in right as the Zombification runs out then not only would you benefit from maximum distruption but all the victims will be exhausted and doctile.

Huh, you never hear of someone recovering from the T-Virus but it would also open up new cans of worms with possible permanent genetic changes.

A zombie-creating virus is the sort of bioweapon you use when you don't care about occupying the target later. It is important to remember that Umbrella doesn't initially intend for the T-virus to be released into the general population. Its effects on humans are unintended/accidental. It's trying to make engineered creatures that can be sold to militaries.

The Tyrant line ^note (That's what the 'T' in T-virus stands for, by the way.) combines the virus with biomechanical engineering to make unstoppable humanoid monsters. Infecting everyone around them isn't the primary goal, although Umbrella's careless approach virtually guarantees that will happen anyway.

It's not just the ethics that are "questionable". Umbrella is being run by people with infinite money who apparently don't give a shit if they kill all their customers. It's uncanny just how evil they are with no apparent rationale behind it.

Edit: If we want to talk about a future of capitalist domination, Umbrella apparently either has access to nuclear missiles or the wherewithal to convince the US military to launch them at its own cities. That's pretty nuts.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 30th 2024 at 1:52:20 PM

I can cover that, Raccoon City was nuked by the US Government to contain the outbreak AND help cover up its involvement in a French Company splinter cell in an attempt to get their hands on super soldier materials. In fact this was the express purpose behind the Raccoon City Trials that took place in the early 2000s, as the end goal was to kill Umbrella before they could reveal their ties to the US.

It worked and Umbrella went under hard.

As for the Super Soldiers themselves, Umbrella had a lot of success with it's Tyrant line, especially the 100 series. Aka Mr. X. Humanoid enough to not awaken second notice, can be dressed up to hide features, single minded in its task but just smart enough to complete it. Virtually immune to everything but heavy weaponry.

Compared to their nemesis project which is far more expensive, needs specialized materials to make in the first place, is smart enough to actually make use of vocal chords but too smart to just get the job done and can creatively interpret orders.

Edited by EchoingSilence on Apr 30th 2024 at 1:57:48 PM