It's "Canon"

Message:

In being an article published in an issue of Space Gamer (I think the web edition). Reminder: because Cruz can see in 360-degrees, and (Todd and I assumed) the reproductive system is centered between the legs and the mouth is on top of the head, the Cruz don't have a "front," and don't understand "left, right, back, front." During an early Cruz deployment against Ecclesiastics the Cruz unit got shot to hell when their (Terran) Commander (relaying orders from his ship in orbit) told the Cruz to attack a position "2 kilometers behind them" and they were trying to figure out what that meant.

My editor added a line to the article that you can spot a Cruz FNG by the labels on their suit.

Anyways, the "Jet-Pack" is a "Back-Pack." The way Todd and I worked it in the art, on Battle Born Armor the jet-pack assembly is entirely contained between two Cruz arms, making the arms "left, right, front." On duro-armor there's an exhaust on either side of one arm making the arms "left, right, and back."

Two reasons: 1) we figured the wider exhaust gives better flight stability (the "engineering reason"), 2) it's funny.

Picture what happens to a Cruz trooper changes armor and their body isn't in the same orientation, or when upgrading from EE-Suit to Duro-armor. They go the wrong way for awhile.

It's not terribly visible on the final cover of that Era Ten source book I did for you ("A Galaxy Primer for Era Ten") , but, on the G/Sol Cruz, bottom left of the cover, his rear-left exhaust and left arm are right near the edge. It's the BACK arm holding the pistol-grip. If you still have the layout rough where you asked me to remove the building and add another guy in the foreground, you can see a bit more of the assembly. The Cruz in the foreground (is Rocky, BTW) is holding his rifle in his front arm, cradling the barrel with his right arm. You can barely see all three of his shoulder pauldrons, and none of the jet-pack, because that's facing away from the viewer.

I had reference turnarounds for Cruz EE-Suits and Duro-Armor, but that sketchbook got destroyed before I owned a scanner. I don't think I (or Todd) actually still have art showing the jet-pack assembly on Battle Born armor because it just looks kind of funky. Cruz just look better when shown from the front angles. The Duro-Armor looks pretty good from any angle.

Also, if anyone cares, that cover is the battle between the G/Sol and Battle Born on Iota Upsilon. The building was removed, but the art is Sarge and the Boys pulling back to evac up the skyhook. (the removed building was the skyhook ground station. Behind are Sarge and Doc. Sarge is blasting away with rapid-burst cycle plasma, Doc should really be star-point overloading, not messing around with entrenching tool.

As a side note on a. Different species, if you see a drawing of a Skia with all the horns and spiky bits -- those aren't natural weapons, they're ears. They're hollow and fragile. Smack a Skia on the head and those "horns and spikes" break easily. The assumption there was a thicker atmosphere and the Skia having hearing two octaves above Terrans. I think the note of Skia hearing going to 192Khz is still in print SG#7. Cruz have "vibration sense" which registers down to 1/15Hz, I think. It's the article of additional Suit functions.

Yours,