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"For the sciences, the way to change science's perception of things is to wait until all the old farts have died off."
- Larry Niven
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| Slow Pellet Stunner | ||
| A projectile device that throws darts in a manner calculated to get past a force shield. |
In the Dune universe, troops generally wear a personal force field that will repel any fast-moving object. Go slow, however, and you just might get through.
| A rain of blue uniforms came over the cliff wall in front of him, falling
in low-suspensor slowness. In the flashing instant, Hawat had time to see
that they were Sardaukar, hard faces set in battle frenzy, that they were
unshielded and each carried a knife in one hand, a stunner in the other.
A thrown knife caught Hawat's Fremen companion in the throat, hurting
him backward, twisting face down. Hawat had only time to draw his own
knife before blackness of a stunner projectile felled him...
.... With his mother beside him, Paul leaped for the door, seeing Idaho blocking the passage, his blood-pitted eyes there visible through a shield blur, claw hands beyond him, arcs of steel chopping futilely at the shield. There was the orange fire-mouth of a stunner repelled by the shield. Idaho's blades were through it all, flick-flicking, red dripping from them. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
In the glossary at the end of Dune, stunners are described as shooting "poison- or drug-tipped darts." However, in the two passages quoted above, it seems unlikely that either of these would result in an orange-tinged explosion. You might speculate that the projectiles carry an electrical charge.
Thanks to MrX_TLO for suggesting this item.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
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'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
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