Re: Bio-Forces

>>I also thought of soldiers with bio-powered versions of the normal DS2

weapons. Again, this seemed to streach reality beyond the breaking point

(how much food do you need to eat to produce a 100 megawat energy beam?
How

far can you throw your quills?).<<

Actually having a ranged weapon is not that difficult--just extrapolate
from
living Earth forms. Most of these would be chemically based, like the
boiling
sulfuric acid from a bombardier beetle (DFFG?), or exploding seed pods
for
several plants (possibly containing acids, for RAM Mortars). 

These sentient creatures would probably use modified electrical
discharge
organs, such as those found in torpedo rays. Each set of "batteries" can
deliver several sets of shocks over 3-4 meters in water (and 2-3 feet in
dry
air), and this is from a fish slightly larger than your hand. Build this
up
to something the size of a human and apply sentient biotechnological
engineering and you have some sort of electrostatic zapper. You could
even
modify this for a biological rail-gun--and then you have MDC
equivalents,
with ammo consisting of secreted crystals or other charged, non-living
material, perhaps silicate pods filled with volatile organic solvents
(alcohols or ethers that explode on impact) or corrosive acids. The size
of
the projector should be based on the size of the creature.

Then you have sound, which can be engineered for certain materials. Just
don't try it in an atmosphere--no atmosphere to conduct sound. Of
course, in
denser atmospheres, these devices could be terribly effective.

These creatures don't have to be all animal, either; plants use
chlorophyll
to harness light energy to excite ("charge up") electrons. A sentient
race
devoted to extreme biotechnology could use this as an energy harvesting
organ
to power the biorailguns, or absorb laser fire and the like.

A lot more would be close quarters, though, for what we've seen in
films. I'd
believe that the biorailguns (direct fire MDCs, railgun artillery) would
represent one form of ranged weapon, the electrostatic discharger could
represent another (though short-ranged). I discount "laser" types of
bioelectrical weapons, though, rightly due to the energy requirements.
Most
of the other stuff is probably short-ranged, including DFFG-like liquid
projectors. And, of course, these things would be brutal in close
quarters.

My two scents, from a biologist's viewpoint.

Charles