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Tinkers have done a lot to sabotage Nomads’ chances of coming home alive from battle.
That’s not how the Tinkers think of it, of course.
To back up, spaceship weapon technology has greatly outstripped spaceship armor technology. If a shot hits your ship dead-on, you’re going to die, and even a glancing strike can do grievous damage. Dogfights are quick, brutal affairs that come down to not getting hit.
Nomads have a natural solution to not getting hit. Just jump into hyperspace! But no hyperspace drives available today work as fast as a Nomad’s natural abilities, so escaping an unavoidable shot means abandoning ship and hoping someone’s around to pick you up afterwards. A lot of research has gone into making hyperspace drives that can activate fast enough to avoid enemy fire.
If Nomads can pop in and out of hyperspace for ambushes from every direction, then Tinkers become a lot less useful in ship-to-ship battles. What can a Tinker do that a Nomad can’t do better? And face-to-face battles against Parasites only happen when something has gone very wrong. Improved hyperspace drives would relegate Tinkers to pirate cleanup, denying them their revenge for the loss of Earth. And when you’ve spent your whole life being told it’s your duty to get revenge on the alien menace, you’re not going to let a bunch of aliens steal all your glory.
Sometimes research labs burn down. Sometimes they just get denied funding. But Nomads have their own private labs, and they continue their studies where they can. Someday, Nomads will be the premier anti-Parasite forces, and Tinkers will have to find something else to be instead of “the soldier race.”
This will not be a clean or pretty transition.
That’s not how the Tinkers think of it, of course.
To back up, spaceship weapon technology has greatly outstripped spaceship armor technology. If a shot hits your ship dead-on, you’re going to die, and even a glancing strike can do grievous damage. Dogfights are quick, brutal affairs that come down to not getting hit.
Nomads have a natural solution to not getting hit. Just jump into hyperspace! But no hyperspace drives available today work as fast as a Nomad’s natural abilities, so escaping an unavoidable shot means abandoning ship and hoping someone’s around to pick you up afterwards. A lot of research has gone into making hyperspace drives that can activate fast enough to avoid enemy fire.
If Nomads can pop in and out of hyperspace for ambushes from every direction, then Tinkers become a lot less useful in ship-to-ship battles. What can a Tinker do that a Nomad can’t do better? And face-to-face battles against Parasites only happen when something has gone very wrong. Improved hyperspace drives would relegate Tinkers to pirate cleanup, denying them their revenge for the loss of Earth. And when you’ve spent your whole life being told it’s your duty to get revenge on the alien menace, you’re not going to let a bunch of aliens steal all your glory.
Sometimes research labs burn down. Sometimes they just get denied funding. But Nomads have their own private labs, and they continue their studies where they can. Someday, Nomads will be the premier anti-Parasite forces, and Tinkers will have to find something else to be instead of “the soldier race.”
This will not be a clean or pretty transition.
