ns/dev/performance-3.0.5/manual/general_aliens.html
2005-06-29 13:51:58 +00:00

238 lines
No EOL
14 KiB
HTML

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Natural Selection Manual</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/marine.css" type="text/css">
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0
var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;
}
function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0
var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array();
var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++)
if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}
}
function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.0
var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) {
d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);}
if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n];
for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document);
if(!x && document.getElementById) x=document.getElementById(n); return x;
}
function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0
var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3)
if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}
}
//-->
</script>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=#000000 leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/design/buttons_nav_on.gif','images/design/buttons_gen_on.gif','images/design/buttons_front_on.gif','images/design/buttons_alien_on.gif')" background="images/design/page_background.gif" text="#FFFFFF" link="#0099FF">
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="704" height="512" align="center">
<tr>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=40 height=1></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=33 height=1></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=24 height=1></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=375 height=1></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=82 height=1></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=175 height=1></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/spacer.gif" width=39 height=1></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2> <img src="images/design/surround_ne1.gif" width=73 height=34></td>
<td> <img src="images/design/surround_power.gif" width=24 height=34></td>
<td colspan=4> <img src="images/design/surround_n.gif" width=671 height=34></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="103" valign="top"><img src="images/design/surround_title_w.gif" width="40" height="103"></td>
<td colspan=3 height="103" valign="top">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" height="103">
<tr>
<td height="57"><img src="images/design/surround_title_animated.gif" width="432" height="57"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" background="images/design/surround_title_s.gif"><span class="sectionlink"><a href="general.html">General
Data</a></span><span class="sectiontext">: <font color="#FF6600">What
are the Kharaa?</font></span></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td height="103" valign="top"><img src="images/design/surround_title_c.gif" width="82" height="103"></td>
<td height="103" valign="top">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" height="103">
<tr>
<td><a href="introduction.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('button_nav','','images/design/buttons_nav_on.gif',1)"><img name="button_nav" border="0" src="images/design/buttons_nav_off.gif" width="175" height="25"></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="general.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('button_general','','images/design/buttons_gen_on.gif',1)"><img name="button_general" border="0" src="images/design/buttons_gen_off.gif" width="175" height="23"></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="frontiersmen.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('button_tsa','','images/design/buttons_front_on.gif',1)"><img name="button_tsa" border="0" src="images/design/buttons_front_off.gif" width="175" height="28"></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="2"><a href="alien.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('button_alien','','images/design/buttons_alien_on.gif',1)"><img name="button_alien" border="0" src="images/design/buttons_alien_off.gif" width="175" height="27"></a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td height="103" valign="top"><img src="images/design/surround_title_e.gif" width="39" height="103"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="103" valign="top" colspan="7">
<table width="768" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" height="424" align="left">
<tr>
<td background="images/design/surround_w.gif"><img src="images/design/surround_w.gif" width="40" height="482"></td>
<td width="472" background="images/design/background.gif" valign="top">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" width="100%" height="476">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" width="100%" height="63">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top">
<table width="100" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><img src="images/titles/general_aliens.gif" width="628" height="25" hspace="25"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table width="628" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5" align="center">
<tr>
<td>
<p>This question still plagues the scientific
community. The Kharaa began appearing on
ships and bases throughout the Ariadne Arm
a decade ago, slaughtering everyone on board.
In almost every case the ship then wandered
off course, and either destroyed itself
by slipping into some gravity well (usually
a planet or sun), or was tracked down and
destroyed by the owners of the craft. Life
support on bases and ships usually fails
soon after the Kharaa take over, so even
without military response, they don't last
very long. But without more detailed knowledge
about them, we will never learn how to prevent
them from appearing on our ships in the
first place. Every successful team returns
with valuable information. And our fragile
economy cannot afford to loose all those
ships and bases. There is also the danger
that a fallen ship will automatically dock
at a major city-base, or land on an Earth-compatible
planet. Lord help us if this happens &#150;
we have seen what they do with the limited
resources on ships &#133; and can only imagine
an entire planet of Kharaa. Thankfully,
the Ariadne Arm is a frontier sector, and
there are few large habitations. So far,
there have been no incidents involving more
than a crew of civilians. </p>
<p>The terminology for the aliens is still
being developed. At the moment, we refer
to the aliens, and their whole system of
bacteria, lifeforms and growths, as the
&quot;Kharaa&quot;; and the pre hive-stage
presence as the &quot;bacterium&quot;. The
first TSA encounter with the aliens occurred
aboard the Mongol's Sanjii mining facility.
The tattered voice comm logs they extracted
from the command network had one word that
stood out, used again and again &#150; &quot;Kharaa!&quot;
&quot;Kharaa!&quot; Later, it was understood
that this means &quot;Watch out!&quot; in
Mongolian. By then, it had stuck.</p>
<p>The relatively obscure field of exo-biology
has flourished since the beginning of the
conflict, attracting many of the best and
brightest from biology, chemistry and even
paleontology and sociology. And while we
have made huge strides (as you will read
in the pages to follow), we are a long way
off from a true understanding of these prolific
and dangerous creatures. The information
in this manual is that small amount we are
confident enough in to tell you as you head
in to combat. </p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" width="100%" height="21">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top">
<div align="center"> </div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" width="100%" height="74">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="bottom">
<div align="center">
<table width="100" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><img src="images/design/info_bar.gif" width="666" height="15" hspace="12" vspace="6"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="616" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<p><b>Reading Material<br>
</b>For more detailed information on topics
related to the history of the TSA and Frontiersmen,
we recommend the Techtrope article &quot;Gather
Frontiersmen!&quot; <a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/world_marine_start.html"><br>
Click here to read</a>.<br>
For further insight into the war, and the
Kharaa, your best bet is the eyewitness accounts
and journals of the soldiers who have fought
them. <a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=3db0d16a1ad0ffff;act=ST;f=1;t=3406"><br>
Click here to read</a>.<br>
</p>
</td>
<td valign="top">
<table border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="images/images/reading.gif" width="64" height="64"><br>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td background="images/design/surround_e.gif"><img src="images/design/surround_e.gif" width="37" height="482"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3" height="2"><img src="images/design/surround_s.gif" width="768" height="81"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</BODY>
</HTML>