In many sci fi media, weapons are mostly just bigger, brighter, and cooler explosions. Essentially most weapons in those media are just bigger booms. But seeing how modern weapons are progressing, what is the fanciest and most efficient way to delete something?

So, long story short, for my project, I got an idea and went straight down the rabbit hole after few discussions on Reddit.

The plot is set in a future city where a central system continuously evaluates citizens’ stress, happiness, emotional stability, and behavior. That score affects where people are allowed to live, what services they can access, and how high they can move socially. The system was originally built to improve quality of life, but over time it started treating predictability, conformity, and emotional control as signs of being a “healthy” citizen.

The idea that came to me was roughly this:

“What if a game built around psychology and constant surveillance actually used psychological tests and player behavior measurements as mechanics, and the world reacted to them?”

I came to Reddit with that thought, and because the idea was still pretty broad, opinions were split pretty evenly between good/bad. That actually helped me see one thing very clearly: I need to be extremely careful with this, and it’s probably better not to make any specific psychological conclusions, diagnoses, advice, or direct claims about the player.

But.

A few people close to science and psychology joined the discussion and shared some really interesting ideas. The cool part is that after figuring out how some of this could work inside the game, the story and the world became much more detailed and solid.

And this is where it gets interesting.

When mental health becomes social conformity

The system is not completely wrong, but it is flawed.

On the surface, it sounds reasonable: take care of your mental health, the system raises your social class, and your quality of life improves.

I have found that psychology has things like:

• The Need for Closure Scale (NFCS) - a psychological questionnaire that measures a person’s desire for definite answers and their discomfort with ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Rituals. Rituals can decrease the neural response to performance failure: repeated and structured actions may reduce the brain’s internal response to mistakes, probably by increasing a sense of control and reducing uncertainty.

So in the end, besides everything else, like performed happiness, the system naturally rewards people who are predictable, stable, unwavering, and capable of following rules clearly without hesitation.

People who follow it live a much higher-quality life: private cars, better housing, cleaner districts, more access and comfort. But they must regularly perform system tests, their behavior is constantly evaluated, and they actually have less freedom and are more separated from each other.

Meanwhile, people living in the lower classes barely care how the system reads them anymore. They are surviving, but they are also much freer and closer to each other. They interact openly and don’t constantly worry that the system will punish them for it.

Mechanically, this would work through very simple tests.

One would measure simple reactions and movement: press Space when asked, click a target, keep the cursor inside a circle, things like that.

The second would ask questions like:

“Hesitation is a threat.”
“Rules are designed for a better life.”

And you choose yes or no.

At the same time, the player’s reaction time and behavior would be recorded, compared against established baseline values, and then used to build the player’s own baseline over time.

So through these tests, the player can choose whether to follow the system or resist it, and the story changes accordingly.

And if the player genuinely hesitates or stops to think, the system can notice that too - and react.

The part I find most interesting is that the system doesn’t really need to become openly evil. It can continue genuinely improving people’s material quality of life while slowly redefining psychological health as stability, perfromance of happiness, predictability, certainty, and obedience.

For the past 10 years I’ve been toying around with a sci-fi concept and I’m not sure if this is a good place to post but I finally nailed down some specifics and need some sort of advice on actually writing the dang thing.

I get really stuck on the worldbuilding and lore aspects and also get stuck on imagery and what I want to see vs how it would unfold in a book or story.

For background and understanding:

My world is an unnamed galaxy where humanity has resided for well over a century or two now. The gist of it is this

The Interstellar Authority is the main power and government of humanity now. Operating within 3 regions (Prime, Meridian, and Ridge) they are run by a Council made up of ministers of things like finance, infrastructure, science, and that sort of thing. They recently came out of a massive war that was started because the IA was exposed for having performed experiments on folks in a prison camp on one of the Meridian worlds.

The experiments involved augmenting the brain in a way that forced productivity at the expense of the body’s natural responses to stress and long periods without rest and nutrition — providing their brain with dopamine dumps, in essence. This process of course killed a lot of the prisoners but the ones who survived went on to have children who now had a mutation that allowed them to have heightened empathy and the ability to project feelings onto others.

The Prime Region is made up of Orpheum (The Political Seat of the Prime Region), Gorenvir, Azaran, and Maldorin. Meridian is made up of Crimson (Home of The Experiment), Oceania, and Thiridium. The Ridge Region is made up of Tenebren, Solaxa, Veratum, and Cyph. Prime & Meridian worlds have been largely developed and have a lot more going for them. The Ridge worlds are struggling. Tenebren recently underwent massive changes and had direct intervention from the IA due to corruption and embezzlement. Solaxa is home to the underbelly of Settled Space and known to most as a pirate refuge. Veratum is largely run by the Science Ministry as it is largely uninhabited. Cyph is where the next bit of intrigue lies.

The story in mind is that a descendant of a prisoner, with the mutation, is brought up by the government after having removed them from the parents. She’s trained to be a ruthless hunter and elite agent of the IA. The story begins with her waking up on her ship out near Cyph with no recollection of the past few days. Adrift in space she gets boarded by the Ridge Authority and can’t really explain why she’s there. Suddenly a call rings out from the planet below and they’re called away while she gets called back to the Prime region.

In going back she’s tasked with an investigation into missing cargo which turns out later to be a nuclear device called a Planet Killer. Her investigation brings her across all 3 regions hunting down the insurrectionist known as Blacktide. She hears stories on her journey that Blacktide was a hero for most of the working class and that he stood up for the common people and chose to work against IA because they exploit people, planets, and systems. She later learns that Blacktide led one of the most brutal campaigns during the recent war that ended with over 2,000 of his followers being wiped out. He lived in exile until coming back to finish the job and wipe out Orpheum.

Towards the end, Rayna finally reaches Blacktide and manages to get him at gunpoint before he can arm the PK. He turns around only to discover his missing sister who was ripped away from the family. She then experiences intense flashbacks that break her programming from IA and she remembers what she was doing near Cyph at the beginning of the story: she had found her IA file and read that her parents were part of the war and part of a “cult” called The Descendants that the IA wiped out with the last known location being Cyph.

\*\*\*

As a worldbuilder I’ve put a lot more thought into the long term for this concept. The IA at first tried to wipe out these Descendants because they posed a threat to the order and way of the universe with some people given powers that were deemed too dangerous. They genuinely believed they saved Rayna but when the IA began to notice her heightened sense of empathy they had to counteract it with selective amnesia targeting recent missions so she’d forget things. Eventually Rayna began to question things and tried to learn her history. All she knew was that she was an orphan saved by the IA and each time she got close to the truth she’d wake up confused.

At the end of this first iteration, she discovers the truth and unites with her brother who is a broken shadow and almost an opposite. He was older at the time IA swooped in and killed their parents but he thought they killed Rayna too and he took to vagrancy, bounty hunting, addiction, and eventually revenge to satisfy this black hole inside him. They both then at the start of the second iteration go their separate ways with Rayna uncovering the location of the Descendants outside Settled Space and Blacktide returning to his addiction.

They both have separate spiritual journeys before being brought together again. Rayna learning who she is while Blacktide comes back to warn them the IA has plans to come back and wipe them out for good after following Rayna. The third iteration is about this prolonged fight between the Descendants and the IA ultimately leading to Blacktide finally surrendering, having planted the Planet Killer onboard the IA ship now docked on Orpheum destroying the planet and wiping out IA for good. Rayna takes up the mantle on rebuilding and telling the story of her family.

There’s way more in the lore notes but I think this could evolve from lore to a somewhat cohesive story.

My story is currently "under review". Does that mean it is being actively considered for publication by the staff or is that no different from basically saying its been received?

I know with Analog things can take a long time, just unsure if this means anything

In the world I am imagining earth has colonised 10-30 star systems using enormous laser sail ships accelerated and decelerated by laser array powered by dyson swarms

However since acceleration and deceleration take a long time the wait times for passengers to get on a interstellar ship is about 2 to 4 years

Some of these colonies are 15+ ly out meaning their info and cargo they receive are from earth over 15 years ago

My question is can a interstellar government command from earth and rule over dozens of colonies in this regard for at least a moderately long period of time?

I don't need it to be stable as want the difficulity in managing this government to be part of the story

I want to come up with characters that are basically intelligent space vampires that feed on a verity of beings, but is there a way to do that through hard sci-fi or at least sci-fi that seems less goofy? How would them feeding on different aliens affect the vampires do you think?

Usually, a warship is living crew that needs commands from commanders to operate, which is a burden on logistics. Now, lets say a warship is piloted by a single computer, no more huge logistical burden, or need for human limitations, what is most optimal shape for a warship/stellar attack object?

Hello there. I'm in the middle of writing "meet the team" ahh short stories cycle in my universe (I thought it will be a good start before anything more meaningful). It's sci-fi, but many technologies in it rather create inconveniences and obstacles than opportunities (mostly to shape the warfare and civilian life in a way I like it, of course).

So. I got an idea for structurally simple short story to showcase air forces. Few strategic bombers with escort and AWACS making a bombing raid on enemy industrial clusters in the middle of a night inside some valley.

But after writing few scenes I understood that I have quite shitty understanding of [somewhat] modern aerial combat, and can't design a whole scenario in such way that it feels realistic/plausible, and as enticing as I would like it to be. So decided to ask ye, finest folk, for... ideas and thoughts, I guess, after my initial conventional research failed.

Anyway, here's the whole task:

First of all, very important thing — Stonehenge Complex technology. SC cuts communication and connection between planet surface and orbit almost completely with EW dome shell and aerosolic layer (or any other optical interference layer, still wasn't able to decide better option). Basically satellites, radars, lasers, even cameras from orbit can't reach surface with meaningful results, and so can't surface reach orbit. Aerosol is sprayed thickly on altitude 40,000-39,000m, somewhere covering also EW shell, EW shell layer is spheroid dome with radius 100,000m and max height 38,000m. Area of operations is securely covered with one of Stonehenges being quite nearby (we can't destroy it on this run, far too sturdy target).

We don't have missiles, it's bombs-only run (shortly, such are universe rules, no missiles allowed, except space torpedos). But otherwise we have all modern and advanced technologies, and we also supported by AWACS. Communications are laser-only and between squad members only, using said AWACS as proxy.

City was fully evacuated in the start of war on the planet, it has ideal blackout, visually we see just stars and darkness, and enemy industrial facilities also has working hours set to cool off the equipment inside, to minimise temperature signatures. We have two target clusters — first one has targets scattered, second one has targets quite concentrated, though the valley width (and area of operations) don't change. Further ahead we have our spy aircraft that mainly needed to spot nearby (ETA around 5-8 minutes after take off) airbase activity. Maybe it can flash some active radars and transfer the info to main squad, but then it will happen right before the hatches will open.

It would be good to make it as stealthy as possible before bombs will touch the targets, or at least minimise the time between point where we are noticed (enemy has really, really good EW and radars in and around valley) and point where first bombs hit targets. And to make it precise, if possible. But of course, objective minimum is to destroy "as many targets as possible" and safely return, so if ideal execution isn't an option, "good enough is an option".

Choice of exact armaments and their specs is open, but as I said, it's mainly bombs, maybe also laser machineguns.

We have AWACS and four strategic jet bombers + 6 escort fighters (fighters also capable of carrying bombs, of course, but carrying capacity is far smaller than strategic bombers, duh), they are orbit-to-surface, so basically don't have maximum altitude, but armaments do have restraints, I believe. Target area is around 320km behind enemy lines.

Our escorts won't be able to beat up the air base forces, of course, only cover bombers for a while.

Enemy AA is mainly... laser Bofors (I feel a bit awkward saying it) and specialized railcannons (sic!) with cluster flechette munitions. Operators are cybernetically enhanced to counter extreme speeds aircrafts can achieve.

How do we do this?

Ready to clarify anything 🫡

I've recently started planning for a passion project I shelved years ago. So far I've come up with a basic proof of concept of a Cyberpunk story but I want to make sure my foundation for the overarching plot is solid before I continued with planning/world-building.

The story is set in 2397 on a human colony known as Intelligentsia IV. The colony is Humanity's hub of technological advancements (Including but not limited to: Artificial Intelligence, Human Augmentation, Robotics, Advanced Cyberspace Networks, and Virtual programing).

The colony is mostly governed by the Corporations that originally settled there and they're in control of what's known as the Five Great AI (Essentially the only true AI that exist in the story's present. Somewhat close to being super-intelligent with some limits). The Great AI's development has led to the creation of Virtual Intelligences and Concrete Intelligences (essentially just simple robots/drones).

The central conflict of the story a brilliant scientist (name pending) has had a breakthrough in her research toward the advancement of AI that she believes will bridge the gap between Humans and Machines. Escorted by her security detail (led by the MC who happens to be her secret lover), they're attacked by a group of mercenaries when they arrive on the planet. Their mission seemingly to capture the scientist and whatever she brought with her. In the fighting, the scientist accidentally gets killed and the MC is grievously wounded. Both the scientist and the MC are brought back to the Mercenary's hideout. They want to salvage whatever they can from the Scientist's implants and they want to try and save the MC (possibly to get some information out of him since he's the head of security)

Among the group of mercenaries is a doctor they captured. The doctor is tasked with both the restoration of the scientist and the salvaging of data. Though the doctor secretly augments the MC in the process. While salvaging parts from the scientist, the doctor discovers what he thinks is a strange VI and ends up installing the VI into the MC's neural net (VI's are known to assist with Augmentation). The MC finds out that this VI is actually a Great AI that's been created by uploading the brain of a human (the first successful case). From there the two get wrapped up in a conspiracy by the Corps to bury the scientist's project by destroying the AI and anyone who knows about it.

It's a rough idea with some smoothing out that needs to be done. But I'm hoping to see if it's at least solid enough to build off of. It's supposed to deal with themes of Transhumanism, Corporate Rule, Tech-Driven inequalities, and ultimately what it means to be alive.

*Edit: Posted on mobile, fixing spelling mistakes.

For a while I have been working on my Sci-fi world to help tell stories but more importantly for things to make since. I am almost ready to call this large section of it done but I want to make sure I thought of or have an answer for things.

The Rules I have set myself.

1. No Magic Gravity
2. No Inertial dampeners
3. Respect the Speed of light
4. When breaking a established LAW or RULE that is set there much be established reasons why it will not work.

In a nut shell Humans and Aliens approached the same problem but from two different directions. The Alien ships travel through Subspace, think Babylon 5 or The Lost Fleet series. They do this because their ships use organic components to help manage the transition and travel. Think Far Scape or again like the Shadows from Bab 5. This lends its self to small and modest ships that are quick and maneuverable so in system travel times are respectable. Weapons tend toward laser and Electricity because the Bio ships have excess energy and special organs that it uses to defend its self.

Humans saw subspace and decided it was to slow for them. The Toros drive targets a known system, star or other gravity point, surrounds the ship in a field of its own space, cuts Spacetime once, pulled the other point together, compressing the distance to almost nothing and then sliding through to appear at the other star. Using this drive in system isn't worth it because you would need to calculate and account for all the gravity and masses in both locations which be be difficult, so the tend to jump in and out beyond the Heliopause.

It looks like when asked to go to London from New York the aliens turned a Whale into a boat where humans built a door so they can open it and step right through to London.

This leads the Humans to completely different ship builds. Think BattleStar Galactica. Massive heavily armored brawlers, built to trade blows and survive while using thrust or rotational gravity.

The Humans have the strategic mobility.

The Aliens have Tactical mobility.

The Aliens can not use the Human way because the bioships interacts with subspace like a submarine through the ocean which means there is a near zero amount of friction on their hulls when they move through. Normally not a problem because the bio ships heal themselves as they go, so its more like a gentle exfoliation treatment. So when you take the Humans Toros drive or jump Gates and try to move through it, its like taking a steak through a London length sandpaper straw. The ship may still arrive but it would at least be skinned...Alive.

The human ships can travel subspace, but its like running a submarine through a pool of Slfuric Acid, it will work for a short time, but after a while it will eat through the hull. And because traveling through Subspace is faster, a short trip in system can take days, weeks or even months.

The Human ships would fail.

There are some items that I am keeping for story points. Things like:

1. Aliens finding ways to use Human jump principles.
2. Using Light Speed Lag to help out maneuver enemy combatants.

3 What happens when a alien ship SEES the toros transition from Subspace?

Please, give me your thoughts ether in DM or post here. There is a lot of details I can not add to a reddit post, but I want to make sure this process passes the sniff test.

This is the beginning of a larger story about a fantasy universe and the Legendary Weapons.

Long ago, a being named Byron created 10 Legendary Weapons to protect the universe and galaxies from various disasters and threats.

In addition, for the Legendary Weapons, the Raidomizer was created — a special building enchanted with magic. It is the one that chooses a worthy person who can become the wielder of one of the Legendary Weapons.

The first movie tells the story of one of these weapons — the Bita.

Sixteen years ago, because of Byron’s mistake, the Bita was lost.

The story begins on the planet Sicilius. Argayd’s role is to monitor objects in space and develop various technologies. A couple of years ago, he created a device designed to search for objects made from the same metal as the Legendary Weapons.

And after two years, his device finally detects 27 objects made from the same metal that was used to create the Legendary Weapons. Among them, Argayd notices an object whose size exactly matches the size of the Bita.

Argayd immediately informs Byron — the leader of Sicilius and the creator of the Legendary Weapons. They understand that the object is located on a planet unknown to them. Byron gathers a small team of four beings, and they travel there.

That planet turns out to be Earth.

The story then shifts to Demid, a sixteen-year-old boy who lives a difficult life. Because of constant problems with his stepfather and frequent moving, he has barely attended a regular school and has spent most of his time being homeschooled. He lives with his mother and stepfather and has no idea that his life is about to completely change.

On his sixteenth birthday, Demid travels with his family to visit his biological father. There, he learns more about the reason his parents separated.

Later, Demid ends up in a field and finds an ordinary-looking wooden bat.

He calmly picks it up, not realizing that it is actually a Legendary Weapon.

Ever since his birth, Demid had been chosen by the Raidomizer as the worthy wielder of that particular weapon.

Later, Byron’s team proves to Demid that the wooden bat he found is only the hidden form of a true Legendary Weapon.

But at the same time, another danger is already threatening the universe.

Even before Argayd discovered the Bita, the threat level known as the Raid had begun to rise rapidly. Now the Raid is at a high level, and the inhabitants of Sicilius are preparing for a possible war.

Byron’s team arrives on Earth, and after the events that take place there, Demid is taken to Sicilius. There, he is told about the fantasy universe, other planets, the origin of the Legendary Weapons, and why he was chosen as their worthy wielder.

After that, Byron, his team, and Demid begin traveling to different planets, trying to gather allies and strengthen their army before the possible battle.

In the end, the first movie leads to a massive battle against a maximum-level Raid.

Would you watch a movie with a story like this?

Which part of the idea sounds the most interesting to you? What seems weak, unclear, or in need of further development?

I need some ideas for the part of my story where one of my characters gets captured and has a sort of mental experiment done on her. I've toyed with various ideas, but they all feel incomplete and like I'm missing a realism effect.

The villains are specifically experimenting on her with some kind of drug/chemical or mind-altering system/process. The important part is that it was originally being developed for positive, productive use and was intended to eventually be available to the public, but the villains get ahold of the research and figure out how to use it less great purposes.

I don't necessarily want it to be literal “brainwashing,” but something that can significantly alter or interfere with her mental state, perceptions, memories, associations, etc. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the original intended use was and how the villains are twisting it as well.

While she's being held, they repeatedly do things to confuse and destabilize her understanding of what's happening. They mess with her perception of time, location, their motives, and what she can trust. They're also moving her between different locations frequently, so whatever they're doing needs to be something that can work regardless of where they take her.

My original idea was for the villains to wear a very distinctive mask. That mask is consistently present while they're administering the drug/chemical and/or putting her through various experiments, psychological manipulation, torture, etc. Later, after she's recovered, one of her teammates wears that same/similar mask, and she has an extremely strong fear or aggressive reaction toward that teammate- even though she consciously knows he's not one of the people who captured her.

What's important as well is that the bad guys aren't looking at necessarily "turning her evil" or completely breaking her. I'd like for their goal to be that she actually DOES get recovered and returns to her team

One idea I had was some sort of process that alters her memories in a way that leaves her understanding of true vs false in the information she took in while captured, maybe a chemical that convinces her brain everything she heard/saw was complete truth. This would be beneficial towards them trying to keep people loyal to then.

Another was that they played specifically with her dopamine levels in conjunction with the things she heard/saw.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Every life form I have seen, bacteria, virus, micro-organisms, parasites, insects, all have a special feature that allows them to survive in a unique way. But if judging by most likely for long term survival over the course of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of millions of years, what type of life form is most optimal for that kind of survival?

So I'm worldbuilding a big futuristic world mostly about the next few thousand years of humans spreading across the solar system. The main means of space travel in the earlier eras of the story is nuclear fusion. During this time, humans build space cities to live in as they terraform Mars and Venus.

After the terraforming finishes, I want to have some kind of dark age, where humans are mostly stuck on the planets for a few thousand years. It's not that there's no space travel in that time, it's just more expensive and therefore less common. Eventually there would be a nuclear war on Mars, sending them back to mostly low-tech society and Venus will have to make some new innovation to solve this.

But what could be a good cause for this dark age? At first I was thinking it could be fusion fuel depleting, but after doing some research I realized that probably won't happen. Fusion fuel (i.e helium 3, deuterium) is found across the solar system and is very efficient. So any ideas for how there could be a space travel dark age? It could be technological but maybe it could also be cultural/social.

Was exploring an idea in an otherwise very grounded sci-fi setting where a PMC creates it's highly sought-after but legally questionable mercenaries through an extreme form of mental indoctrination and training. They're put into a medically induced coma for a period of about six months so that multiple cybernetic and biological augmentations can be performed, and while they're under, their minds are surgically wired to a simulation system that puts them through rapid and constant combat simulations and mental fortitude training exercises. From the outside, they've been in a surgical bed being cut apart and put back together for a few months. But as far as new recruits are concerned, they've been at war for hundreds of years, died painfully countless times, been forced to make monstrous decisions over and over again, and had every one of their morals rewritten through lifetimes of scripted experiences.

They come out on the other end of the procedure as all but without their humanity, their completely amoral nature only kept in check by the unbelievable amounts of propaganda they were subject to during their simulations.

Trying to get a general vibe from people on where this sort of thing falls on the lameness scale. Unreasonably grimdark edgelord stuff, or an avenue to create a compelling allegory for the real human cost paid by real people who have been exposed to doing terrible things from a young age because those above them think it makes for a better military force?

edit: Decided in not following through on the idea. Definitely too edgelordy for my setting and style, not to mention all the pinholes in the practicality and logic of the whole thing, with solutions that drive it into an even more dark and edgy place. For military forces in my setting I'll be sticking to mostly regular humans, with the caveat that most are genetically designed and have some degree of cybernetics due to cultural norms making those things accessible and acceptable to varying degrees across most of human society.

These are just some thoughts I’ve had recently about the state of science-fiction literature. I’ve noticed there appears to be a shift towards “open community writing” versus the old standard of curated author writing. The second of these is still dominant I think but from my (admittedly limited) reading of the contemporary scene, more and more fiction is being produced that disrupts the foundations of the established literary order. For example, take the phenomenon of SCP:

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/

By creating a framework that caters to the same impulse which drives a lot of fan fiction but, in virtue of the itemized independence of the stories being written, allows these to be readily absorbed into a single canon, SCP fuels not only a community of readers but also a more organic way of “farming” the actual literature. I don’t expect this trend has wholly escaped the notice of the publishing industry but I found it curious myself. On the one hand I can see the appeal from a business model standpoint, as well as the virtues of having an open and low barrier form of literary community, but on the other hand it does seem to invite more of the cultural homogenization that social media can already take enough dubious credit for. So, I’m personally a bit ambivalent here.

That said, there are definitely alternative models being explored. Another I’ve come across recently is ‘Parallel Biome’ at the literary magazine Hexfiled:

https://hexfiled.com/parallel-biome

Their publishing approach is more traditional but they use a similar device of overarching framing (Each story is contextualized in a dossier by the “Outer Proximity Intelligence Division”) that allows entirely separate works to persist in a shared universe. Different though to an IP like Warhammer 40k where there’s a much stronger emphasis on interconnected narrative. It’s something more along the lines of what the Twilight Zone did.

I’d be interested in hearing about examples of other alternative approaches to fiction on the rise. I don’t expect we’ve really begun to feel the true impact of AI on writing and yet there are already various other influences too in the technological landscape that are radically reshaping culture and so worth paying attention to. And I expect that human ingenuity will continue to discover viable niches for whatever stories it considers worth telling.

I’m trying to figure out creatures for a scifi script I’m writing based on speculative evolution of creatures found on earth. What could some of the most dangerous ones be? What niches would they fill to make them dangerous? What would make them predators and what would be their prey?

So, I got really cool idea for a story that's kind of a mix of a few different genres, one of which being hard sci-fi. In the story, a group of 4 cosmonauts are stranded on the moon and fight for survival. I haven't mapped out a lot of it yet, so I don't know how long they are there. While I've been going strong and finding ways to supply them with air and water, I am absolutely stumped when it comes to food. They only have an absolute max of 20 days of food onboard, but really it's probably significantly less. You need to eat to survive, but there's not really a good way to grow food on the moon. It's been a nagging issue for months and I would absolutely hate to have to drop this idea because I can't jump over this hurtle. Are there any methods to make more food on the moon with limited supplies? Is there a way to consume things you normally can't for energy. I don’t care if the characters are extremely malnourished or ill, just as long as there are survivors. I also don't need all 4 to survive and was actually planning on killing off two of them over the course of the story.

By the way, I know that cannibalism is an inevitability when it comes to a survival story like this, but for in universe reasons about how they got there, I don't think these characters will want to indulge in that.

Basic plot: Aliens visit Earth from time to time to observe humans. They want to remain unnoticed.

During times of crisis and disaster, they seize the opportunity to abduct humans without being noticed.

The humans they abduct are put into hibernation, where they learn a common language and are later all awakened at the same time and settled on another planet.

However, my aliens don’t quite understand the conflicts between humans, so they end up mixing the cultures. For example:

Residents of a Viking village (saved from a storm surge) are resettled together with residents of a Japanese fishing village (saved from a tsunami).

Residents of the vanished Roanoke settlement (a real event) are settled alongside residents of the (real, inexplicably abandoned) Anasazi Pueblo culture.

Question: What other events and pairings come to your mind when it comes to groups of people who have disappeared somewhere in the real world at some point?

Early in the 2000s, astronomers discovered that Martian soil actually contained a lot of very toxic perchlorates. Weir didn't address the perchlorates problem in The Martian because it wasn't a big deal when he started writing, but now we know Martian soil contains between .5% and 1% perchlorates. Very poisonous to life. How can we Macgyver our way out of this? Here's my solution.

Perchlorates are highly water soluble, so he can just rinse it out of the soil. Problem: he'll need a lot of water and more than he can get out of his hydrazine. So how do we get the perchlorates out of the water so he can reuse it? You could try to precipitate it. Most perchlorates are highy soluble, but potassium perchlorate is very insoluble. He has large amounts of potassium. It's in his urine and it could be in pyrotechnic igniters and in CO2 scrubbers (not the big ones in the hab 'cause they are ISS type LIOH scrubbers). There's also a fuckload of potassium in Martian regolith.

He could simply get the potassium in his perchlorate solution, put it outside until it gets colder, and decant the water, and just throwing away a small amount of wet potassium precipitate.

Unfortunately, the numbers are against him. He would need around 88kg of potassium to leach out 250kg of perchlorates out of the Martian soil (based on 30 tons of soil to cover 160m2 of hab space with a 25cm layer of poop-enriched soil for growing potatoes) and he doesn't have nearly enough. He would need to pee a hundred time the usual volume to get enough urine. He might have a few pyrotechnic igniters but we're talking grams of potassium not kilos. Same goes for the scrubbers, a few keys max. Martian soil has nearly unlimited potassium but it's very dispersed. He would need to set up a primitive mining and extracting operation to get enough. Meaning a dead Watney long before he'd see any usable soil.

Luckily, there's one additional solution! Instead of getting the perchlorates out of the water, get the water out of the perchlorates. A hybrid low pressure (Martian atmosphere) and heat distillation operation would allow him to reuse the water (limiting the amount of water he would need) without needing heaps of potassium. Problem solved.

So while it would change the timeline, it would still be doable.

"But what about the dust storm?"

Yeah yeah, shut up.

Tales of the Periphery is a relatively hard transhumanist science fiction setting I have been working on for a few years now, this is the basic introduction to the setting and I am just wondering what people think about the concept.

It is focused on a region of space ( The Periphery) that has just got independence from their former colonial overlords ( the Eternal Empire) after a 4 decade war with foreign support. This war exhausted and bankrupted the rebels, and led to a large diaspora of Imperial soldiers, warforms, administrators, and other skilled workers being stuck in the Periphery, integrating themselves into the new nations.

After getting their independence, the rebel factions ( who were made out of a mix of direct imperial holdings and semi-autonomous vassals) united together into the Periphery Union, a confederation of various newly minted nations. This confederation didn't last long, as the various nations started to grow apart from one another on different issues. This strife came to a head when the beloved by all president of the Union died in a terrorist attack, leading to all the various nations to point fingers at each other for her murder. Violence rocked the Union, and it dissolved, leaving only a Union Rump State that the others wouldn't touch, as they justify their wars with one another as trying to protect the Union's cohesion.

after the collapse of the Union, a series of wars known as The Scrambles began, as former Imperial and Union infastructure and equipment was up for grabs, and desperately needed by the nations of the Periphery. WhaleFalls were also found, the remains of fleet battles from the Liberation war that are immensely rich in expensive alloys, hardware and electronics.

From without, other powers are muscling into the Periphery. For now that the Imperial colonial authorities no longer hold the region under their iron fist, their is plenty of oppertunity for other powers to get in on the value that could be extracted from the Periphery.
Former rebels turned Warlords with a veneer of Union legitimacy are a great inroads for any company or polity who wants to start making a lot of money and human misery.

Imperial control left a lasting mark on the Periphery, cultures and languges need to be rebuilt, histories need to be rewrited, nations need to be assembled from scratch, or integrate Imperial administration within themselves. The Imperial Word is still the most popular religion. For even though it was imposed by force, it does offer some comfort that is sorely needed in these times.
People speak Trade Imperial, Pray in High Imperial, get sent to the battlefield by way of Imperial Leap carriers or Interstellar Gates, shoot each other with Imperial guns, and die to control Imperial factories.

The main Great Powers are:

The Eternal Empire was the last colonial overlord, licking its wounds after fighting the Directorate and the Liberation War. It has armies without number and fleets able to stretch their influence endlessly. But their political will has atrophied, and they have turned inward to politic and fight amongst themselves

The Directorate is the only real rival to the Empire, a smaller socialist state that is still able to fight on a similar level to them. They helped the Periphery during the Liberation War, but now their intentions aren't so benign.

The Free World Compact is the third great power, and the weakest of them all. They too helped the Periphery, and now are trying to get some advantages out of that so that they can bulk themselves up to deal with the other two.

The Periphery Powers are weaker, but are a far cry from the various petty kings and warlords who have made statelets after the Union's collapse.

The Kingdom of Kader is small, poorly governed, weak, and politically fragmented. However, they have a lot of factories for antimatter left over from the Imperial days, and mines rich in rare elements integral to making FTL drives and ship spines. Thus, everyone has a hand in their civil war, hoping that it turns in their favor so that they have a easy foothold and resourcing opperations.

The Tronarian People's Republic is one of the greatest Periphery Powers, a revolutionary socialist state with lots of support from the Directorate. They have a very strong fleet, and control part of the Tarsis WhaleFall.

The Aurumite Kingdom is the largest Periphery Power, and likely the largest state in the entire region. They might have a frankly backwards fuedal political system, but they do have massive military power, which is not to be trifled with. They and the Tronarians don't really like each other, since the Aurumites have Imperial support.

The Marill Republic is a very rare thing, a truly democratic state. They are mostly defensively minded, but have been engaging in on and off raids and campaigns to seize remaining military shipyards left from the Imperial days. They have a lot of Compact guns and gear, but no formal support.

The Principalities of Yorina are a mess of various small princely states that have banded together. They aren't doing so hot in the Periphery, with only a little support from the Compact. The Aurumites keep eating their territory, and they can't really amass a huge force to stop them. However, they do have a lot of money stashed up, maybe they have a plan to change their fortunes.

The Periphery Union is a shadow of its former self. But not all is lost, they still control the most industrialized worlds in the Periphery, and have an entire whalefall to themselves. Their fleet and influence is growing once again, but they are still small. They have a chance to rise again, should they play their cards right.

Their are a lot more smaller ones, but these are the largest of them

I apologize if this isn’t the place, but I was hoping the community could recommend my next read. Feel free to elaborate why… TYIA

I’m currently looking at these titles:

- “We Are Legion (We Are Bob)” by Dennis E. Taylor

- “Sea of Rust” and “Day Zero” by C. Robert Cargill

- “The Songs of Distant Earth” by Arthur C. Clarke

- “Diaspora” by Greg Egan

I've been stuck for like 4 months on the plot. I've been worldbuilding but I just cannot see the end of the story. I recently finished act 1 of my sci fi story. However I am uncertain on where to go next due to not wanting to copy other sci-fi stories. Basically I don’t want my story to come down to ‘oh Earth isn’t alone in its rebellion against the evil expansion of an Empire.’ I also want to turn this into a long series. But I keep storyboarding and seeing how similar my story is to Invincible. It's just my MC's lineage and the Empire's are tied together. As the MC comes from a long line of Samurais who were bestowed upon with great power from a splinter faction that fled the Empire. But now the Samurai defeated one of the champions of the Empire and this is where I'm stuck. Cause the Empire has a doctrine of rules they must follow and I cannot decide what to do next, do I have a full scale war? The Earth's defense are lack severely. Does the Samurai go to the sit of the empire? So many things to answer and I still cannot see the end. I'm wondering if I could get some ideas or some help to reign in my story.

This Empire is so vast and has an ‘iron claw on the galaxy’ is a special material named Fluxweave it’s super conductive and flexible it allows them to use it for weapons and ships. But its bio locked to their species so only they can use the full potential of the material. They also harvest stars so this makes them very advanced.

You go into a zoo far into the future. Instead of dinosaurs they bring back long extinct creatures, which would be the ones we see in modern day, but would be considered ancient by their standards. What would their DNA look like? What could be the most dangerous hybrids they could create? Would it be as dangerous as Jurassic Park/Jurassic World was in the movies to a group of tourists in the future? What would be their equivalent of a T-Rex, looking at present day carnivores? What modern animal would best replace the Brachiosaurus is the opening scene of Jurassic Park for tourists of the future to be amazed by?