The Mage Star is Complete

[Raleigh]

I would imagine the room now looks much like an acid trip so I suppose it wouldn't have been.

[Just some lady]

"Thanks~! ^__^"
*Smiles brightly and speaks into the thing*
"Hiya, everyone~! How are you? <3"

(The plushies reply back in a loud, rolling wave, with responses ranging from "Fine" to "I'm cold" and "Isn't there some sort of prison break going on right now?")

After what seems like quite a while, Caprice finished listening to every last reply, giggling and smiling to the plushie horde.
"Neat! It's good to see that you're all happly-like!
...
Let's go get some food!"

[Snow Dragon]

(Wow, this one is starting up again? Oy.)

After what seems like quite a while, Caprice finished listening to every last reply, giggling and smiling to the plushie horde.
"Neat! It's good to see that you're all happly-like!
...
Let's go get some food!"

Black Mage plushie #40: Food? Didn't we just come from the cafeteria?
Black Mage plushie #88: BOOOOOOORING!!
Black Mage plushie #71: Let's go blow something up!

[Just some lady]

((Threads dun die! They just slow down.))

Caprice frowns, not seeming to agree that food is boring...

"Nu-uh! Let's not 'splode things...How about we go shopping? ^_^"

[Snow Dragon]

((Threads dun die! They just slow down.))

Caprice frowns, not seeming to agree that food is boring...

"Nu-uh! Let's not 'splode things...How about we go shopping? ^_^"

Stormtrooper #70: Shopping? Where could we shop? There're no stores on the Mage Star...
Black Mage #55: There's only one solution... PLANETARY ASSAULT!! (The plushie let out a whooping cheer!)

[Raleigh]

So where to next, Kaze?

[Snow Dragon]

So where to next, Kaze?

Kaze plushie: Would you like to beat up Ellf and drag him back to the prison, or take a tour of the orbital strike facilities?

[Raleigh]

The beating is tempting, but I think I would like to continue touring the place first in all honesty.

[Snow Dragon]

The beating is tempting, but I think I would like to continue touring the place first in all honesty.

Kaze plushie: Very well. *Sigh* So much for my bonus.

(He leads them into a vast hall outside the waste disposal bays full of huge spheres of glowing green energy)
Kaze plushie: These are the weapons generators for the main orbital batteries. It's estimated that there might come a time, EVENTUALLY, when the Mage Star wants to assault a planet without destroying it entirely. For that purposes, we have several secondary bombardment cannons that, while being far less powerful than the main gun, are still leagues above and beyond your standard turbolaser battery.
Because this station doubles as a research facility, some of the engineers take it upon themselves to create unique weapons geared for this purpose. One of the more successful ones was the Warp-lightning array. You can see the powering mechanism above us.

[Raleigh]

Interesting. Are they looking to maybe condense this and make a portable version? Maybe even a gun that can do it as a form of magitech so to speak.

[Snow Dragon]

Interesting. Are they looking to maybe condense this and make a portable version? Maybe even a gun that can do it as a form of magitech so to speak.

Kaze plushie: Precisely. The biggest challenge of most energy weapons is not finding a means to project the energy source, but rather to do so without being tethered to a huge platform and energy source with limited mobility. Most weapons work fine when feeding from a generator used to feed a cannon that cleanses the life from entire planets, but in most other situations, most commonly being mounted as turrets on combat vessels, there are critical space and energy generation issues that must be addressed. Naturally, if you want to turn a gun into a rifle, then the energy source and the bolt projected must be miniaturized tremendously, and we've found in most cases that the power tends to drop exponentially, reducing the end projectile nearly harmless, or at least no more harmful than your everyday slug.

[Raleigh]

That is a shame. Have you thought of using space compression from the time/space spell set?

[Snow Dragon]

That is a shame. Have you thought of using space compression from the time/space spell set?

Kaze plushie: Well, despite the complicated idea of setting up a functional large-scale generator in a space that wasn't subject to the same physics restraints as the soldier carrying it, that WAS one of the first areas studied.
Unfortunately, simple rules regarding gravitational pull and mass displacement isn't the only things that spell circumvents; anything more complex than a pulley has an extremely difficult time functioning within such a magic field.
Thus you can see the primary difficulty to overcome with magitechnology: magic's nature is to alter base natural laws. Technology is based on the precision and reliability of natural law. Thus, the more magic is infused in a piece of technology, the less precise any given technological device is going to function. Circuits will break at random, chemical reactions will spontaneously fail to occur - or worse, occur when they're not intended to - and energy will react unpredictably. It's quite a serious difficulty.

[Raleigh]

I see. That is why I think its best to stick to just casting your spell yourself, but I understand not everyone can do that. Such a shame too. Have you all considered possibly binding spells in scrolls or in bullets or something instead? Though I suppose that wouldn't have anywhere near the punch of these orbital platform type weapons.

[Snow Dragon]

I see. That is why I think its best to stick to just casting your spell yourself, but I understand not everyone can do that. Such a shame too. Have you all considered possibly binding spells in scrolls or in bullets or something instead? Though I suppose that wouldn't have anywhere near the punch of these orbital platform type weapons.

Kaze plushie: Well, of course we can just stick to magic, and those that can't can just stick to technology, but if we decide to limit ourselves by never progressing past that point, then MASA's existence is pointless.
Wether mage or magical invalid, magitech allows one to do thing one never could before. Even the most powerful mages can't cast a half-dozen spells at once, on the fly, or produce magic missiles at the rate that a common machine gun can dispense bullets. And yes, spell-inscribed bullets were one of our earliest successes. If you wish to see such devices and possibly purchase them, please visit the Magitech Shack in the Throws a Stick thread in Muffinville... though I understand there's some kind of disturbance there now.