After the Ragnarok
Technical Manual

Ki Fighter is the designation for a member of an elite group of Space Pirates who are well trained in the art of physical combat. They usually attack in pairs and rely on surprise from pack hunting and their concentration of their physical and mental energy, or Ki, as well as strong armor for defense. When a Ki Fighter is in full concentration, he is immune to most attacks and most damage dealt to him will be redirected or channeled. Only after the Ki Fighter uses his energy on an attack is he vulnerable, but only until he can recharge his Ki. Samus first encountered Ki Fighters in a narrow corridor of lower Norfair on her second visit to Zebes. Ki Fighters wear silver-colored armor. No two sets are ever the same, and each suit has its own markings and designs which detail the Fighter's past victories and life story as well as designate his rank, division, and serial number.

Ki Fighters are very dangerous and it is best advised by the Galactic Federation that evasive maneuvers should be taken if any are encountered until support can be brought in. Should no support be available, it is advised that you should attempt to dodge their attacks and fire on them when they lower their defenses. A Ki Fighter with lowered defenses will turn a yellow-green and will be susceptible to most attacks.

--Taken from Galactic Federation Police Training Manual, File No. 3372; 'Ki Fighters'--

Chris and Kris by Andy

Chris and Kris are Information Solicitors. They gather and sometimes interpret data and sell it. Chris and Kris are some of the very best in this job and they have access (or don't if you're not the right person) to vast amounts of information, both legal and illegal. They work together, but Chris usually handles the computer and network side of things while Kris handles the human interaction part.

Holo Disguises by FireNexus

Many Bounty Hunters, when contacted, use Holo Disguises to cover their identities.

These consist of a small Gnerator unit which projects a field used to absorb the light around them, and project it outward in a different manner. These units are hard to come by, and are sometimes used as payment to newbie Bounty Hunters.

Spice by FireNexus

Spice is a chemical drug that is banned in most parts of the GFed. It is a derivative of the ocochuchu plant, found mostly on Tal'Alma.

In order to make spice, the seeds and stem of the plant are both steamed for five hours., then dehydrated. The steaming causes chemicals to form, most notably C16H4O6N3, also called by the pharmaceutical companies Ennexoral. it is commonly used as a sedative as well as treatment for Parkinson's disease. However, when combined with another chemical agent, C45O17N53, which is also formed during steaming, it becomes a powerful hallucinogen, capable of directly stimulating a nerve and causing a response. It also stimulates the brain and causes Euphoria.

Generally, the dehydrated spice "stalks" are ground into a powder and mixed with a saline solution and dropped into the eye directly. However, Spice does cause severe nerve, tissue, and brain damage if used consistently over a long period of time. If one takes more than .1mL of pure spice, then blindness, suicidalthoughts, and even death can occur.

As was stated before, Spice is illegal in most areas of the GFed. Some areas, such as the Talzan sector, the Nories sector and Jarmungas allow the spice trade under a heavy tax. But, transport of it to other legal worlds must be documented, so as not to cause arrest and seizure of property by GFed police.

Metroid DNA by nameless

Metroid DNA is an extremely complicated structure. The DNA is not of the standard double helix shape found in most Earth species nor is it in the linear form found in many of the species found on other worlds. The DNA of a Metroid comes in the form of a quad helix. Think of it as a long rectangular cube made out of rubber that has been twisted many times. Alone, the quad helix would not lead to a non-cloanable codon, but it seems that a randomized encryption system has been imbedded into the DNA code. The origin of this encryption code is unknown. Some who believe that the Metroids were created by a highly advanced civilazation speculate that the encryption system is a fool proof for duplicating the Metroids. Others believe that it is a genetic defect caused by centuries of evolution.

It was found on Ceries that it is impossible to clone an entire Metroid organism due to this encryption system. When synthesis begins at a genetic marker, protein synthesis will halt once it reaches a random base pair which seems to be part of the encryption sequence. There is no system to the encryption code which appears to be completely randomized, but after years of calculation by powerful super computers, it was found that the standard coefficient is a number which is very close to pi.

Scientists have been able to remove viable genes from the Metroid equivalent of chromosomes. These genes, which are located on one of the four sides of the quad helix are then flattened out and attached to the DNA of retro-bacteria. The bacteria will then synthesize the genes which may be used to create functioning organs or likenesses of those organs.

Terrell Seuss by nameless

Terrell Seuss was briefly mentioned in another Technical Manual post and will most likely not appear in this story, but his name and background is well known throughout the galaxy.

He is a commissions lord, a middle man who capitalizes on information. Hiring thousands of spies to collect information on potential bounties, Seuss hires bounty hunters for a percentage of their profit. He has many loyalists who will deal solely through him as well as many enemies who would benefit greatly from his death.

He has made it his business to invest heavily on bounty hunting proprieties and holds royalties on over 900 hunting aids, the latest of which is the Supra 14.

Nano Technology in the Making by nameless

Nano technology originated on 21st century earth and has undergone a number of evolutions before it reached it's current level of sophistocation. Although the technology is highly advanced at the present, the basic principles remain the same. Here is an article from a 21st century scientific newsletter which was written at the dawn of nano technology as we now know it. The original article can be found here. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000502190235.htm)

Chemists at Washington University in St. Louis have created tiny synthetic polymer particles that mimic viruses and show potential for a new direction in gene therapy and other potential biomedical applications.

The "nano" particle (a nanometer is roughly one-billionth of a yard) has the unlikely name of knedel (k-ned-l) because of its similarity to a popular Polish dumpling filled either with meat or sweets. The knedels are shell cross-linked structures surrounding a hydrophobic, or water insoluble, core domain.

Needless to say, the knedels are too small to see with the naked eye. They have diameters ranging from 10 to 100 nanometers, so that they are of similar size to many globular proteins and viruses. In the body, they are expected to escape detection by the immune system.

Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, recently announced that she and her Washington University colleagues, Jianquan Liu, Ph.D., and Qi Zhang, Ph.D., both research assistants in chemistry, and Tomasz Kowaleski, Ph.D., research assistant professor in chemistry, have successfully hollowed out the knedel core to produce "nanocages" and attached a fluorescent tag to the core. They also attached a polypeptide called protein transduction domain (PTD) to the exterior of the nanostructure. They got this idea from Steven F. Dowdy, Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dowdy demonstrated the efficiency with which PTD transduces proteins into cells.

With the aid of extremely powerful microscopes, Wooley and her colleagues were able to detect the peptide-bearing knedels binding to cell surfaces. Another group of nanoparticles without the PTD but with the fluorescent tags did not bind to target cells.  'New territory' The accomplishment is a step toward using the knedel nanoparticles as potential gene therapy carriers, or vectors. Most gene therapy attempts today use live viruses that are weakened to carry RNA, DNA or other therapeutic payloads. However, gene therapy has met with great difficulties since its inception a decade ago, and much of the trouble surrounds the safe use of live viruses. The difficulty reached tragic proportions in September 1999, when an 18-year-old gene therapy patient died after being injected with a genetically altered adenovirus carrying a gene to control the boy's enzyme deficiency.

Wooley's knedels are biomimics - they are designed to behave like viruses, which biochemically are attracted to hosts that they seek to infect. But a biomimic does not run the risk of a live virus, which, as in the case of the 18-year-old who died, may have toxic or, on the other hand, negligible effects.

"We're combining synthetic constructs with biological pieces," explains Wooley. "It's what is called bioconjugation, and it's really a whole new territory for us. We're interested in making nanoparticles with the hollow cages into which one could put peptides, genes, proteins and small molecule drugs, all sorts of biomedical possibilities, even scavenging other cells or molecules.  Other researchers are doing similar things in particle research, but they can't seem to get down to the same size range that we can."

Wooley presented the details of these latest results at the American Chemical Society's National Meeting, held March 26-31, 2000, in San Francisco.

Next up for Wooley is a search for the appropriate genetic material to place into the nanocage for delivery to host targets.  "We don't have a candidate yet, but we're confident we will find one," Wooley says. "We've come a long way with knedels, with still farther to go."

Much Farther indeed, Dr. Wooley....

Shield Penetrators by nameless

Shield penetrators are a recent development by the resourceful and profit hungry engineers on Kufa 4. They were developed with the specific interest of bounty hunters in mind and under the ordinance of Terrel Seuss, a malevolent commissions lord.

The Shield Penetrator, technical name Supra 14 Tactical Missile, often referred to as "The Cure" by bounty hunters throughout the Kufara system, operate in a manner that undermines shield integrity at the area of contact. To understand the function of the shield penetrator, one must understand the function of standard shield systems.

There are two basic types of shields. There is the sub space shield which generates a ripple in the subspace continuum at a fixed distance around the space craft. This is by far the most effective shield but has many draw backs including the off-fall of intense and lethal micro wave radiation. This shield literally absorbs all projectiles, including shield penetrators. The Supra 14's were not developed with this technology in mind due to the fact that it is used by less than 1% of all battle equipped space craft.

The other type, and by far the most common, is the radiant shield. It works much in the way that the earth's magnetosphere functions. A generator, normally located at a central position within the ship, creates an electromagnetic field around the craft. This field is designed to deflect most particle blasts, any form of energy based projectile, and has the ability to destroy most solid based projectiles. A shield will draw energy from the ship's power systems and most crafts allot a specified amount of energy for shield functions, hence the percentage based calculation of shield integrity (i.e. shields are at 80%).

The Supra 14 rocket is equipped with a negative wave interference buffer which produces a frequency in direct compliment to the target ship's shield. This causes a hole to form in the shield shortly before impact and allows the rocket to pass easily through the barrier. The rocket itself is highly explosive and can severely damage many grades of battle armor.

Ship's systems may be upgraded to avoid the negatory effects of such negative wave interference, but at the current time, shield penetrators are not common enough to warrant such action.

The shield penetrator missiles are not a common weapon in standard war craft, but they have been adapted by many bounty hunters who do not abide by the standard chivalric code of intergalactic combat.