Grey Area?

[ffutures]

I'm vaguely thinking of writing a short Culture crossover fanfic when I have the Harry Potter / Wonder Woman thing finished. For reasons not entirely unrelated to my wanting to use a bad pun, plus its general attitude, the ship in the story will probably be the GCU Grey Area (notorious for using effector technology to violate mental privacy), which was not in the Culture universe at the end of Excession.

The problem I'm running into is that there doesn't seem to be much information on the Grey Area's weapons and equipment. I'm assuming near-perfect stealth technology, ditto displacer technology (beaming people up and down etc.), effector technology capable of total invasion of privacy when dealing with primitive 21st-century computers and other records (also human minds, which is how it earned the charming nickname Meatfucker), shuttle craft, drones with knife missiles, and all of the other usual Culture tech, but I'm not sure what sort of big guns (if any) a GCU would carry - it isn't actually a military ship, though I'd imagine it could ramp up fairly quickly given an asteroid or two to assimilate for raw materials, but the Culture Wiki says that 'GCUs were considered able to "waste planets."'

Anyone got any thoughts? General size etc. would be useful too.

Comments

[turol]

The ship's engines use energy grid propulsion and so can produce gridfire which is perfectly capable of wasting planets or even stars if given enough time. Other than that and its effectors it doesn't have any real weaponry. Its field envelope will also protect it from anything primitives might try. A proper high-level Involved civilization warship would probably waste it though.

[ffutures]

Gridfire is definitely useful for my purposes. I can't see anyone in the setting I want to use having any effective counter to it, which possibly removes a little dramatic tension, but as one of the Minds once said "I'm a fucking starship; I'm allowed to cheat."

[cdybedahl]

In "Consider Phlebas" it's stated that at the start of the Culture-Idiran war, GCUs did most of the fighting for the Culture while actual warships were being built. Given that, it seems reasonable to assume that a GCU is a non-trivial challenge even for an enemy with Culture-level technology. Which likely means that anyone with inferior technology is pretty much toast.

My impression is that in the Culture, the distinction between a warship and a "normal" ship has more to do with the ship's Mind's personality than the hardware of the vessel. Given identical hardware and goals, I'd expect an ROU Mind to blow things up in a tactically and strategically optimal fashion, and the General Contact Unit Mind to first work at understanding the situation as thoroughly as possible and then get creative.

[ffutures]

Sounds about right. Which fits nicely into the story idea I have - start off slow with a little investigation and a lot of poking around in people's brains, then get seriously old testament on various people who thoroughly deserve it.