Need explodium http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637 awesomeo Okay so I'm writing my scifi tale and the main story is finally getting going. A band of alien mercenaries and the human who hired them go chasing after the other aliens that pasted a human colony. Ah revenge...They find them on a sparesly-populated world colonized by mining consortiums. The bad aliens have seized a mine/refinery and are loading the goods into their ship. And torturing the crap out of anyone not complying. After that they will probably waste the refinery crew and leave but the heroes show up. Epic battle ensues. I want the refinery to go up like a fireball, but not instantly. How do you make a firefight better? You add real fire! Now I'm not a chemist or anything. What is a valuable material that would have to be mined/refined but would still be dangerous even after that? Or at least dangerous enough to risk the entire complex going up in a fireball. I could always take the madeup route and say the "dirkastrinium fuel" or whatever is refined from some rare and unstable material only found on some worlds. But why not use something real if I can. I was originally going with it just being a methane processing plant built over vast natural reserves. And the bad guys sabotaged the safety systems to cover their escape... If it helps: The bad aliens are radiers. Basically pirates. They go around stealing whatever they like, but on occassion hire themselves out as mercenaries. In this case they were hired to hit the plant as it is owned by one side in the local political struggle. They are "outside agents" and thus the other side can say their hands are clean and a bunch of crazy aliens did it. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:16:52 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1096346 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1096346 vate white phosphorus. burns on contact with oxygen. this includes water. youtube it. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:35:28 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1097110 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1097110 throughasplendour Certain metals are extracted from their ores using solvents. Many organic solvents are explosive. This link has some information on the process: http://www.halwachs.de/solvent-extraction.htm But the metals it's used to extract: "Alkyle sulfides are selective for gold, silver and palladium. In pgm refinery circuits they can help to separate palladium from platinum, iridium and rhodium if no gold or silver is present in solution or separated before. Ruthenium and osmium as well as strong oxidants should not be present either to prevent degradation of the valuable extractant." All of which are certainly valuable enough to mine. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:26:54 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1098719 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1098719 brian_gott I don't really know enough chemistry to contribute to this discussion, but I just want to encourage you to work the name "explodium" into your novel. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:48:07 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1099938 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1099938 Suzana Mazon Magnesium. Love to watch it burn. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:23:14 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1101020 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1101020 RobertLent Any of the metals on the left side of the periodic chart can be spectacular. Sodium, Potassium, Cesium are all fun when mixed with water... Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:09:34 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1102832 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/science-fiction/threads/49637?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1102832