Most gratuitous biowank

[Imperial528]

A gauss rifle which is apparently less powerful than a rifle that fires a blunt canister. I don't doubt that modern higher-caliber rifles (not .50 high, but around .40-.45) could match the firepower, given the cinematic footage and that pistols similar to modern pistols (as in, essentially the same power and operating principles) are still in use against enemy forces, albeit not in front lines combat, but obviously still regarded as capable.

I think that the Marine rifles may use a gauss system because it reduces the number of moving parts required for the rifle to operate, since the main problem with using modern firearms in space is that while the gun powder charge will work, the lubricant in the moving parts of the weapon will either reach its boiling point or freeze, and the gun will seize up or jam. While an electromagnetically propelled bullet only needs moving parts in its reloading system, which means less volume of the gun to keep in an optimum temperature and pressure environment.

Oh and the Goliath, which can take out a zergling in two-three shots, uses dual mounted light machine guns, each of witch the same power as a Marine rifle. And to further reinforce my point, the terran civilians, which aside from wearing techy jumpsuits, are just as armored as the modern civilian: zip. And they take more shots to kill than the 'lings do. (About 5-7 shots).

[Teleros]

Oh and the Goliath, which can take out a zergling in two-three shots, uses dual mounted light machine guns, each of witch the same power as a Marine rifle. And to further reinforce my point, the terran civilians, which aside from wearing techy jumpsuits, are just as armored as the modern civilian: zip. And they take more shots to kill than the 'lings do. (About 5-7 shots).

And this is why we don't count gameplay mechanics in these things . Zerglings have however survived several shots from a marine's rifle at close range in the BW opening cinematic.

[Ford Prefect]

They've also been killed by hitting the windscreen of a slow moving truck, and in one of the novels someone takes a zergling out by chucking a gun at it.

[Srelex]

In fairness, the former could be a case of it being stunned, but a gun being chucked at it? Can we get an excerpt, or at least some more detail? o_O

[hongi]

They've also been killed by hitting the windscreen of a slow moving truck, and in one of the novels someone takes a zergling out by chucking a gun at it.

If you want to be painfully generous, they could have been defective individuals in their batches. But really, from what I hear about the novels, they seem to have been written by a 5 year old.

[Imperial528]

In fairness, the former could be a case of it being stunned, but a gun being chucked at it? Can we get an excerpt, or at least some more detail? o_O

If you look at zerglings (and indeed, most Zerg) closely, you'll notice the most armoring is in the front and follows the spine after the main armor ends, so a jeep ramming the side of it could very well kill the 'ling.

And this is why we don't count gameplay mechanics in these things . Zerglings have however survived several shots from a marine's rifle at close range in the BW opening cinematic.

Remember, most of the shots fired missed.

And speaking of that cinematic, going from it hydralisks probably aren't very effective AA infantry at all, since there were dozens of zerglings and hydralisks, yet the Aleksander was able to loiter at only a hundred or so feet from the ground without even being attacked.

[Batman]

While I don't think they were INTENTIONALLY biowank, the Oswaft from that Lando Calrissian novel. Giant naturally FTL space-going manta rays that could instakill unshielded capital ships by yelling at them (though it's dubitable if those were actually first-line Imperial technology ships).
Oh, and nevermind Mobys and the Suprahet which few people here would know about but how about LEXX?

[takemeout_totheblack]

LEXX is actually a pretty frail and fragile ship! It was intentionally designed by His Divine Shadow to be a superweapon that could easily be destroyed should it turn against him. The idea being that the LEXX would ideally be accompanied by a fleet to protect it, and should it be commandeered by hereticsit could easily be destroyed by said battle fleet. Makes sense to me.

I think the term is 'Glass Cannon'; a powerful weapon that is very frail.

So no, LEXX probably isn't bio-wank despite being a very powerful weapon, its soft fleshy hull cannot withstand much punishment.

[Luzifer's right hand]

Oh, and nevermind Mobys and the Suprahet which few people here would know about but how about LEXX?

The Mobys are anorganic though.
They are the result of a bio-wank process though.
Once the "Radolxin" is deployed on a planet it first infects lifeforms like bacteria which takes about 8-10 weeks, these lifeforms mutate and infect simple plants, fungi and other simple lifeforms which die in the process.
The toxin keeps mutating to infect higher lifeforms, it can take up to 2 years to kill all lifeforms on a planet.
Afterwards the whole planet is covered with the slimy remains of the lifeforms, this slime changes into a crystalline substance which takes about 2 weeks.
After that point it moves past bio-wank into the realms of magic hyperspace-energy.
The atmosphere, oceans and core of the planet are consumed, what remains is a core-less, flattened(at the poles) and dead planet.
The interior is quickly filled with gigantic "organs" which are anorganic in their composition.

The finished Moby itself is more a disc with a round edge than a sphere, the biggest know had a diameter of 30 000 km and a height of 10 000 km.
A Moby has thousands of tentacles at his edge which many 100 km long, they project forcefields and fields which are used for STL and FTL travel.
A fully charged Moby(the gather energy and matter from stars but can also convert asteroids) can destroy a planet with bomb like attacks.

The Suprahet itself was a gigantic energy being, after it was defeated it's remains turned into matter though and the life forms based on this matter are certainly over the top. Hitting one of those lifeforms with gigaton range bomb kills it but leaves a corpse behind...

A good example for pure bio-wank from Perry Rhodan are the Guan a Var, wormlike creatures which were uplifted by an alien race and used as space ships. They get their energy from stars and the quickest away involves blowing the stars up.

[white_rabbit]

So no, LEXX probably isn't bio-wank despite being a very powerful weapon, its soft fleshy hull cannot withstand much punishment.

It can blow up a planet.

[OmegaChief]

So no, LEXX probably isn't bio-wank despite being a very powerful weapon, its soft fleshy hull cannot withstand much punishment.

It can blow up a planet.

In a wholey organic way, think of how eco friendly it must be!

[Lurks-no-More]

Shadows and Vorlons in B5. The Tyranids merely have stuff that is on a par with the IoM etc. In the B5 universe, biowank organic ships are supposed to be inherently superior in every way to inorganic ships made with conventional engineering.

What makes you think that the Shadow or Vorlon ships are squishy space squids or crunchy space bugs? The "organic technology" I have always assumed to mean not that they're animals made from flesh, but that they're self-repairing, adaptive and (at least in the case of the Vorlon ships) sentient constructs?

(Or, whoops, what Starglider wrote later...)

[lordofchange13]

vong becuase there ships are supperior to STAR WARS level ships. thats just fraken madness. also the zerg its realy stupid on that they flap there wings to fly in SPACE, how do wings work in space?

[Bottlestein]

Does Magneto count as biowank?

[lordofchange13]

zerg flyers taking down protoss ships from blobs of acide shot out of there but, the ship also had shields.