The Shadow Mind Begun

Alright. I've given you some background on where I'm at--I'll start dropping true Sparks now.

Yesterday I finally sat down after several weeks of brain-storming and began to write out the Outline for 'The Shadow Mind', the 3rd book in the series 'Xor Sector'. This one is getting tricky... I've come up with two new systems: Fynto (FIN-toe) and Nastagoryth (nahs-TAH-gore-yth). Also designed are the self-operated combat robots, the Krishnath (KRISH-nath), which are about 6 feet high at the head and structured like a Theropod. They are incredibly inteligent--much more so than the Federation Battledroids from Star Wars. Each Krishnath has five 'guns'--four are located on the underside of the lower jaw. The other 'gun' is a single-use weapon that releases large, shot-gun style blasts of pulson balls. The latter system is located in the Krishnath's chest, and is used in one of two instances: (1) to blow open a door, partticularly if it is heavily reinforced, and (2) if a Krishnath were to enter an area and find itself confronted with forces too large for it to handle with the lower power guns located under its jaw.

The four guns on the Krishnath's head are very low power--generally two shots would be required to terminate a human. But when each gun has a 2:1 shot/second ratio, that means a possible eight shots a second--thus the Krishnath's gun speed makes up for the power. The Krishnath is very agile, being fully capable of almost any ground maneuvers that a human might take.

Another use for the Krishnath is their ability to fly. Their leg-guards and a few other pieces of armor are designed in such a way as to extend upwards and out to form wings, giving the Krishnath flight abilities. However, that ability is mostly used for landing or board procedures--they are not space-fighter material. One note--the Krishnath is not very good in close-quarter combat.

The Krishnath does have a particularly large counterpart--the Nashkon--which can be pretty much described as being Krishnath, only about 5 times the Krishnath's size. There are four Nashkon: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. Each has one 'Wing' under its command, each Wing containing 15 Krishnath. Each wing has three 'Coms', which have direct control of an 'Operation' of four Krishnath. Each operation is split in two halves; a Genor (JEN-or) is the leader here. Thus, you have four Nashkon, four Wings, twelve Coms, and twenty-four Genors.

That's the breakdown of the Nashkon and Krishnath forces--they are used when traitorous forces are discovered on the system Fynto, mentioned at the beginning of this post. Alpha Wing is the first group manufactured, but Delta Wing, including its Nashkon, is the first force from Xor Sector to land on Fynto in a swift and deadly invasion.