These gold-guys popped up immediately after the death of Decimus. Maxus can't afford to ignore them, even a little bit, because there may be a causal link.
And if there is, then the most likely causal link would be a "Contingency" program Decimus never told anybody about.
Basically, anything that's a major threat, and also appearing right now apparently out of nowhere, with no known history behind it.... He has to assume, even knowing it's unlikely to be true, that it's there to destroy Nova Roma and especially him (or Acantha) personally.
This is a whole order of magnitude beyond the serious consideration that unexplained new threats normally get. Just because of when it's happening.
@Morituri I'm with you on this. I have a hunch that this is some sort of "contingency failsafe". They're not robots, or androids; there's meat inside. I suspect Setorius' hand in this.
Correlation (or coincidence) doesn't always mean causality, sometimes coincidince is just that
I'm inclined to think that nothing the Goldiebots are doing would mean anything to Douchy, not because of his death
But you are certainly correct in that Maxus has to take that possibility into consideration
Occam's razor can shave very closely but it can also cut to the bone if it slips
True, there's no direct link, but the timing of the coincidence smells funny. Decimus wouldn't care now because he's dead, but that doesn't mean he didn't commission additional backstop contingencies beforehand. We'll find out in time.
Yes, Maxus has to follow up any and all leads, and the Cassians should be instrumental.
Given douchy's obsession with weaponry, I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with bankrolling the scavenging, whether it was his idea or someone came to him to make an offer, but I have a harder time seeing the Goldiebots being an instrument of retribution tied to his 'contingencies', that doesn't seem to be their goal.
That's the thing. What if the Goldies are the weaponry, and the scavenging is for self sufficiency/self sustenance? What if they're just doing what they can to keep themselves operational.
Maybe, douchy did have some 'interesting' ideas...
They could possibly have a specific mission, but why scavenge tech they don't need ?
I see another hand in this, maybe a 'player to be named later' ?
Who says the Goldiebots don't need what they are stealing. Suppose that the Goldiebots were intended to be replacements for the Cassians. The facility that builds them might be something left over from previous wars that was just sitting in the desert, having gone on standby because of the lack of raw materials and parts. Decimus would be especially secretive about such a project, and his death might stop the shipments of supplies because nobody else knew the base was there.
The main item that the Goldiebots seem to be hunting for is humans, possibly brains. Decimus certainly wouldn't have had any compunctions about sending people to a slaughterhouse using their parts in the machines. Remember that one of the Goldiebots showed remorse and declared that the little girl wasn't suitable for scavenging.
The potential creator of such an automated facility would be a combination of the doctors Frankenstein and Moreau, a bit of Ming the Merciless, together with a few other cackling villains. I can't see Septimus himself being involved, but I'm sure he had a lot of equipment in his labs that Decimus could send to the hellish facility.
The small, provocative force intended to draw out a proportional response - which, revealing your major force, you can crush, and then face an enemy weakened by the loss....
That casts their scavenging not as a way to serve any need of their own, but rather as a deliberate provocation intended to force Maxus to respond.
I hope that they are in constant telemetry contact with the group (just in case). I know that it’s unlikely but not needing a backup that is available is better than the alternative.
Am I reading the map right? Is Death Bowl City approximately where New York is?
{edit}
Looks like DB City is in a dead zone.
Am I right in thinking New Rome is approximately where Martha’s Vineyard is?
Going by the Tech page, Nova Roma is located in and around the current Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island...
I spent most of my childhood there, inside Aeneas's 'DMZ' which is why I reference it from time to time :)
I live about an hour from there now, I don't care for what Douchy's done to the place.
I did look at that, and even magnified it, but like I said, I don't know Canada very well, and magnified, the map gets a little fuzzy. The map of New Rome is clear enough, but I didn't recognize the island shape.
The Black Palace seems to be at Kingston between Charlottetown and Summerside
Summerside is the real main 'city' on the Island and the site of a now closed RCAF ASW/Patrol/S&R Base
I lived there for awhile in the 50's, my future Father-in-law was stationed there at the same time.
My brother ended up stationed there in the late 80's/early 90's.
I was on course there and visited from our other East Coast ASW/Patrol/S&R Base at Greenwood a few times.
You can see the 'land bridge' at Borden that was opened in the mid-90's to replace the main ferry run..
Lived there for a short time too ;)
I remember the ferries well, we got stuck in the ice for a day or so when I was probably five or six years old
Kensington, near the Luna area is one of the tourist traps on the Island, famous for the 'Woodleigh Replicas'.
The replicas were very popular at one time but sadly, seem to be closed now, pity, my mother loved going there :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoozWFNpvIY
I'm not so sure if the cursor on the map they're looking at is the actual position of the patrol craft
Or if it's just 'resting' there.
Or maybe the patrol is there at the moment and is being vectored to the co-ordinates they're being given
Looking at the map, The 'Queens Dead Zone' would most likely be the Queens Borough in New York City...
But maybe the coastline got rearranged a little over the millenia ;)
DB City seems to be west and a little south of that, maybe...
Hard to tell without overlaying maps but maybe around New Brunswick, NJ ? or north of Philadelphia ? hard to tell without scale
All I can think of for DB City is some of the former administrations there. I imagine in a war state, major population centers would have been targeted. Though I think that a small tactical warhead would have gone to Martha's Vineyard to target politicos who live there.
I want to change my previous comment. I don't think DB City is located where New York is.
For the coordinates
41° 34' 57" , 45° 21' 18"
The only place on our globe that hits land for that set of numbers is North and East. Smack in the middle between the Caspian and the Black Sea, is similar terrain to what I would expect around New Rome to be based on earlier images used.
North and West is near the mid-Atlantic Ridge. The others are in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Accounting for probable sea level rise I would imagine that Italy would have become difficult to survive on, but that isthmus is high desert plateau.
Pretty heavy armaments for a scout group! If they call for an air strike, I hope they know there is a possibility of civilians in the area, and have some ground spotters/support.
Looksto be a pretty light loadout for what they should be considering a combat patrol...
Energy weapons don't need ammunition though and they do seem to have several trypes onboard.
Then again, going by the tech page, Nova Roma doesn't seem to have the strongest Airforce...
But some of their craft do have PPC's built in so...
Even today, 'SNIPR' pods and other targeting systems can replace ground controllers in many cases
Besides, since when has Nova Roma concerned itself with excess casualties ?
With Maxus currently running the show, that may indeed be a consideration
The pilots might need that concept reinforced a tad though ;)
If the co-ordinates mentioned aren't directly translatable to today's Lat/Long system
Or if they're encoded (for 'security') and they're actually over land to the south instead of at sea to the east
Maxus may indeed have given "look before you shoot...or else" orders in the name of diplomacy
Unfortunately, nobody asked the Goldiebots if they wanted to enter into a diplomatic relationship ;)
Coordinates as written: 41 34' 57" by 41 25'18" would put them about halfway along a familiar track...
A track that's pretty much a straight line from what was once upon a time CFB Summerside, an ASW Base
(and it was right smack in the middle of DC's Nova Roma) ;)
To USNAS Lajes in the Azores...where ASW and NorLant patrols from Summerside often overnighted...
Convenient coincidence or dastardly planning by the authors ?
Been to both several times, Lajes has better weather, Summerside is closer to 'home' :)
Curiouser and curiouser....
oooorrrrr... Nova Roma completely renumbered the Lat/Long system to suit plot needs ;)
Or the sea levels changed...or the North Atlantic Ridge finally rose above sea level...
Or the Goldiebots have a floating Base in the 'New Sargasso Sea'
Or the coordinates are in code...yeah, code, that explains it ;)
If you did intend for it to be that exact map reference, I've flown over it several times :)
Small world, but I don't want to have to paint it...
Speaking of paint, how's your hand handling the handiwork ?
Going off the map for a moment. Maybe I guessed right in referring to Hrist as a 'Valkyrie' ?
What with Feelie asking her for a Viking funeral and all ;)
I would not choose to contradict Ophelia directly; she is the only one who can know how bad being in the body of "commander funbags" is for her.
And yeah, the desert mechanics scored "a job lot" of them because they were being scrapped on account of illicit free-will-affecting mods some jokers had found a way to install, so that's its own little nightmare if you run into those.
But I gotta say, even speaking as a male with no traces of gender dysphoria, I'd choose it over being dead.
The weird (and tragic) thing about those is they didn't actually need to be illicit.
In the same way a lot of couples who are frustrated to tears about how their sex life has deteriorated are willing to pay good money for enablers like viagra and would probably be willing to pay even more for genuine aphrodisiacs, and if they existed people in loveless arranged marriages would flock to buy love potions and drink them together....
These sex-promoting mods, in context and by free choice, could be very welcome in a lot of people's lives and circumstances.
Question, can't they upload the survivor, miss viking funerals memory files of the ambushes to get a idea what happened? I mean a secondary air search verification doesn't hurt.
personally,, i wood say , everything after the major hit, is subject to corruption,. she is a free thinking person. and the brain will change things to protect from mental trauma.. IE: i remember getting hit (shot), but when the paramedic told me i was shot,, i don't remember after that...
or tv show M.A.S.H. , where Hawkeye's brain turned a baby into a chicken, to try an protect him..
That works for humans but we did see Feelie trying to sort out the image, even if it was distorted from her damage.
I'd tend to think that a camera, which is still what her eyes are, feeding to a storage media would be accessible, even if she had to directly permit it.
That would make Androids potentially the best of witnesses...or possibly the least credible since data can be manipulated...works either way ;)
Maybe in her debrief with Maxus we'll see her 'memory' of the incident projected on a big-screen for analysis
That is a good point. The brain protects itself, and that functionality should likely be copied if you want sane androids, because the brain needs that protection. I know it's ironic to call out something we'd usually think of as a symptom of insanity as a thing we'd need to preserve in order to have sanity in the first place, but there it is.
At the same time, recording the images that entered the eye, and recording them in permanent form with error correction codes and failsafes, and even uploading them immediately via some encrypted connection to a Nova Roma military command center, is nowhere near as hard as emulating the way the brain handles memories, and Nova Roma doesn't give a crap about invading the so-called privacy of its Cassians. They would definitely do that.
And in some ways it's a handy resource for the Cassians doing their job. Like rewind the recording to see exactly what the equipment loadout was, down to the last detail like the serial numbers on the weapons and any unusual tread marks on the tires, so as to know what to watch when looking for clues out in the wastes.
At the same time, there's that brain that needs its protection from absolutely traumatic memories, and it probably shouldn't be able to directly access recordings in the field of events so traumatic that the brain has suppressed them. Because it's quite a different thing to call up and stare directly at the moment when a close friend and teammate's all-too-fragile flesh started disintegrating into charred bones and a cloud of ash.
We saw Ada and TeeDee transfer their 'brains' complete with memories and feelings twice, without loss
Once as a data-only Q-drive transfer and again as the entire brain module, which was reportedly much easier
Feelie had her entire brain module transferred so she should have all her momries intact
What we saw as distorted images were taken as she ws going offline and her sensory inputs were damaged
but i seem to remember in both those cases , one or the other waiting to see if they came out intact..
in one case , waiting with a gun.!!!
and i seem to remember Teedee had a melt down after one of those transfers...
And there was loss.. Dr. Silver had restore an bypass sections ..
The problems seemed to come from the Q-drive transfers and those were already damaged almost beyond repair
All of the 'brain module' transfers, including Feelie's, seem to be a routine thing with few if any problems
TeeDee had a little hiccup with hers, but that seems to be more from a lingering 'pyrophobia' (odd for a pyromaniac) ;)
Q-drives were fine.. the memory was damaged. (A was dead "clinically" ,, and T was fire , damage , induced failure "dying" an extreme anxiety due to Ada's death..
and the "BMT" seemed routine cuz Dr Silver (made saving throw.!)was doing it.. an without Doc, Teedee's hiccup wood have been fatal for two reasons ,, pyrophobia and forced body type swap ( look at Dolly's swap, an had both Mom an Cent helping..)..
I also want to add one thing to that, @robnot. Also remember that Dolly wanted to do the body swap for Lynn's and Calliope's sakes. TeeDee did not want the new body type, and felt kind of violated that they would make that decision for her without so much as a 'By your leave'.
?"momries.??
Feelie went out just like Teedee , except Q-drive transfer.. (going off line due to extreme damage, on fire, an anxiety due to losing team.) oh an forced body type swap..
so i think Feelie needs to see Dr Silver (or Roma equivalent.) for PTSD.!
Dr Silver said she'd rather do a thousand module swaps than one Q-drive...
Seeing that Q-drives are an 'emergency' transfer that's used when there isn't time or the facilities for a module swap
I'd warrant that almost all of them come with some accompanying glitches and that made the Q-drive necessary
TeeDee's was 'Green', Ada's was 'Amber' with a lot of damaged data that would have been fatal except for Silver
The later module switches at the end of the mission were routine, except for TeeDee's residual memories (now fixed ?)
Both of Feelie's transfers went off without a hitch...that we've seen so far ;)
Timing or no, the intelligence that Maximus has is that a single human-profile unit took out a strike team like it was spreading butter on toast. Given history, the chance that this is a solitary threat is perhaps 10%. This unit is in Roma's sphere of influence.
Yeah, I expect that there is more than one scout team out right now. Probably 20-30% of Roma's air assets.
I don't see any fuel tanks under the wings, and apparently no bombs. Which feels like an odd choice--they are not expecting an airborne target. Maybe they don't want the weight?
BTW, a US standard flight is four craft, in two pairs. I don't know what NR is using, but nothing we've seen so far rules out four.
And so very, very glad your surgery was successful!
It seems most vehicles in this world have fusion drives, so fuel probably wouldn't take up much space
Which beats the hell out of loading and unloading tanks seemingly every five minutes :)
'Bombs' might be in an internal bay, or the 'missiles' could be capable of both A-A and A-G use.
A 4-ship is a common formation, as is a 2-ship, maybe Roma prefers a 3-ship ?
With one assigned to watch the other 2 like a 'political officer' on a Soviet sub ;)
Or the 4th one crapped out on launch or in transit and they went with what was left and coincidentally fit the frame
fighter bombers... in most cases carry the bombs inside.. unless the "bomb" is too big.. and a craft carrying bombs on the outside, is usually a 'fighter' retasked to a bomber..
just look at the first (usually) letter in the name. F4 Phantom, F/A-18 (fighter / attack), EA6 Intruder (Electonic Attack), B2 Spirt, B17 Flying Fortress, C-130 Hercules an C-17 Globemaster (Cargo)
Spent 20 years loading bombs/rockets/missiles/torpedos/guns/tanks/droppable stores/ECM, etc. on various A/C
Several types of Fighters and a few with internal bombbays...
Loaded a lot of F-18's...9 weapons stations including the gun, no internal bay except the gun bay
note: add two wing pylons for the 'Super Hornet')
pro tip: never load a bombbay with a crew that spent the previous night scarfing beer and pickled eggs
improved tip: never be the guy locking the bombbay racks...you can't leave mid-load
additional tip: during a gun load on an 18, one man ends up with his head at waist level to the other, neither can move
safety tip: NBC masks aren't all that uncomfortable comparitively
morale tip: if the Big Boss sees you loading in NBC gear, you might get applauded for 'realistic training' :)
Most dedicated 'bombers' are now used as 'bomb trucks' with a long loiter time to carry many precision weapons
You do still get the odd 'arc light' but mostly it's their endurance and capability to carry items like 'bunker busters'
The majority of ordnance is now dropped by fighter type A/C since one or two guided bombs are usually enough
Still, there's nothing quite like watching a B-52 drop a full load...or an AC-130 on a 'fuck everything down there' pass :)
It would be extremely amusing to see Nova Roma roll out a flight of lovingly maintained and preserved A-10's. "We still haven't managed to improve on the design."
(Disclaimer: I have no military experience or background.) Do A-10 drivers ever refer to opening up with the gun as 'Putting her in Reverse'? ^_^
the only real effect an A/C gun has is possibly sucking gun gas down the intake and stalling the engine
They've been modified to prevent that, recoil has little to no effect.
It IS possible, however, to cease firing too close to a ground target and shoot yourself down with a ricochet
That's been documented several times, as is dropping ordnance too close to the ground and fragging yourself
Most fuses have a minimum arm time that prevents that, too close = no boom :)
"The average recoil force of the GAU-8/A is 10,000 pounds-force (45 kN),[4][19] which is slightly more than the output of each of the A-10's two TF34 engines of 9,065 lbf (40.3 kN).[20] While this recoil force is significant, in practice a cannon fire burst slows the aircraft only a few miles per hour in level flight.[18]"
So you are, of course, correct. But the thought of the gun recoil force overwhelming the engine thrust is an amusing one, even if the net effect at normal engagement speeds is only a few miles per hour until the ammo runs out.
One of our concerns was making sure the 'purge doors' opened properly.
They were normally part of the firing circuit and the gun wouldn't fire if they weren't open.
This is mainly because a build up of 'gun gas' in the gun bay has a nasty habit of blowing the nose off the A/C if it ignites
(or wing if that's where the gun is)
A 'gun run' is normally a one or two second burst, even if both engines flame out the gun's recoil won't 'back the plane up' due to inertia, one of the cases of Newton's laws cancelling each other out ;)
You have to be logged in to edit, I'm usually too lazy or just pop in while passing by :)
That's why you get things like 'momries'...I swear the text changes after you hit 'enter', I know I didn't type that.
Now I'm wondering exactly what Feelie's debrief is going to look like...
Will it be a Q&A session to gain tactical insight from a firsthand source ?
Or will it be a 'no hat, no coffee, stand still and be quiet' affair ?
From what we've seen of our interpid Cassian, she's given to bucking authroity to the point of personal danger
But also, she seems to be a little too self-confident, not using all the tools at her disposal at the gutter camp
It's true that it likely wouldn't have made any difference had she made a proper approach, but we'll never know
It's the improper procedure and being a little too familiar with the troops that trips up many a young officer
Especially one who is already a little too well known for pranks and insubordination...
Sometimes snatching victory from the jaws of defeat or carrying out the 'impossible mission' gets a medal
Other times it gets a medal and a firm 'whack on the pee-pee' for getting into the situation in the first place
And she didn't even win the fight...and had to be rescued by civilians...non-Roaman civilians to boot
Methinks Feelie might be getting a hearty handshake and a 'turn around for my boot' in the same interview ;)
Ophelia's only real error in judgement in my opinion was ignoring that the area had been Jammed, and hard. When reading it, I had gotten the impression that this wasn't something you would expect at a gutter camp.
To be fair, I would think that a lot of officers, even experienced ones, would make the same call. "Fortune favors the Bold" is a Pattonesque attitude, and is common among a lot of military personnel. (I'm not judging here, Patton was bold, Eisenhower was cautious, both were effective).
I'm also getting a sinking feeling in my stomach that a seasoned flight squad is about to make a similar error...
As my dearly departed mother would say..."I guess we'll see what we see when we see it" :)
Feelie ignored jamming, left her troops standing around with their thumbs in their bums in a potential contact scenario, didn't even man the 'tank' or use any remote sensors she had available, she deserves a good 'reverse sandwich' debrief but she lost a lot of men she cared for and Maxus will likely take that into consideration.
He isn’t Decimus.
And if there is, then the most likely causal link would be a "Contingency" program Decimus never told anybody about.
Basically, anything that's a major threat, and also appearing right now apparently out of nowhere, with no known history behind it.... He has to assume, even knowing it's unlikely to be true, that it's there to destroy Nova Roma and especially him (or Acantha) personally.
This is a whole order of magnitude beyond the serious consideration that unexplained new threats normally get. Just because of when it's happening.
I'm inclined to think that nothing the Goldiebots are doing would mean anything to Douchy, not because of his death
But you are certainly correct in that Maxus has to take that possibility into consideration
Occam's razor can shave very closely but it can also cut to the bone if it slips
Yes, Maxus has to follow up any and all leads, and the Cassians should be instrumental.
They could possibly have a specific mission, but why scavenge tech they don't need ?
I see another hand in this, maybe a 'player to be named later' ?
The main item that the Goldiebots seem to be hunting for is humans, possibly brains. Decimus certainly wouldn't have had any compunctions about sending people to a slaughterhouse using their parts in the machines. Remember that one of the Goldiebots showed remorse and declared that the little girl wasn't suitable for scavenging.
The potential creator of such an automated facility would be a combination of the doctors Frankenstein and Moreau, a bit of Ming the Merciless, together with a few other cackling villains. I can't see Septimus himself being involved, but I'm sure he had a lot of equipment in his labs that Decimus could send to the hellish facility.
The small, provocative force intended to draw out a proportional response - which, revealing your major force, you can crush, and then face an enemy weakened by the loss....
That casts their scavenging not as a way to serve any need of their own, but rather as a deliberate provocation intended to force Maxus to respond.
It's called a segue, our creatrixes are very fond of them ;)
Am I reading the map right? Is Death Bowl City approximately where New York is?
{edit}
Looks like DB City is in a dead zone.
Am I right in thinking New Rome is approximately where Martha’s Vineyard is?
I spent most of my childhood there, inside Aeneas's 'DMZ' which is why I reference it from time to time :)
I live about an hour from there now, I don't care for what Douchy's done to the place.
Summerside is the real main 'city' on the Island and the site of a now closed RCAF ASW/Patrol/S&R Base
I lived there for awhile in the 50's, my future Father-in-law was stationed there at the same time.
My brother ended up stationed there in the late 80's/early 90's.
I was on course there and visited from our other East Coast ASW/Patrol/S&R Base at Greenwood a few times.
You can see the 'land bridge' at Borden that was opened in the mid-90's to replace the main ferry run..
Lived there for a short time too ;)
I remember the ferries well, we got stuck in the ice for a day or so when I was probably five or six years old
Kensington, near the Luna area is one of the tourist traps on the Island, famous for the 'Woodleigh Replicas'.
The replicas were very popular at one time but sadly, seem to be closed now, pity, my mother loved going there :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoozWFNpvIY
I'm not so sure if the cursor on the map they're looking at is the actual position of the patrol craft
Or if it's just 'resting' there.
Or maybe the patrol is there at the moment and is being vectored to the co-ordinates they're being given
But maybe the coastline got rearranged a little over the millenia ;)
DB City seems to be west and a little south of that, maybe...
Hard to tell without overlaying maps but maybe around New Brunswick, NJ ? or north of Philadelphia ? hard to tell without scale
For the coordinates
41° 34' 57" , 45° 21' 18"
The only place on our globe that hits land for that set of numbers is North and East. Smack in the middle between the Caspian and the Black Sea, is similar terrain to what I would expect around New Rome to be based on earlier images used.
North and West is near the mid-Atlantic Ridge. The others are in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Accounting for probable sea level rise I would imagine that Italy would have become difficult to survive on, but that isthmus is high desert plateau.
How is your hand doing, @Centcomm?
Energy weapons don't need ammunition though and they do seem to have several trypes onboard.
Then again, going by the tech page, Nova Roma doesn't seem to have the strongest Airforce...
But some of their craft do have PPC's built in so...
Even today, 'SNIPR' pods and other targeting systems can replace ground controllers in many cases
Besides, since when has Nova Roma concerned itself with excess casualties ?
With Maxus currently running the show, that may indeed be a consideration
The pilots might need that concept reinforced a tad though ;)
If the co-ordinates mentioned aren't directly translatable to today's Lat/Long system
Or if they're encoded (for 'security') and they're actually over land to the south instead of at sea to the east
Maxus may indeed have given "look before you shoot...or else" orders in the name of diplomacy
Unfortunately, nobody asked the Goldiebots if they wanted to enter into a diplomatic relationship ;)
A track that's pretty much a straight line from what was once upon a time CFB Summerside, an ASW Base
(and it was right smack in the middle of DC's Nova Roma) ;)
To USNAS Lajes in the Azores...where ASW and NorLant patrols from Summerside often overnighted...
Convenient coincidence or dastardly planning by the authors ?
Been to both several times, Lajes has better weather, Summerside is closer to 'home' :)
Curiouser and curiouser....
Or the sea levels changed...or the North Atlantic Ridge finally rose above sea level...
Or the Goldiebots have a floating Base in the 'New Sargasso Sea'
Or the coordinates are in code...yeah, code, that explains it ;)
Small world, but I don't want to have to paint it...
Speaking of paint, how's your hand handling the handiwork ?
Maybe they're keeping an eye on the battleship there ? ;)
What with Feelie asking her for a Viking funeral and all ;)
And yeah, the desert mechanics scored "a job lot" of them because they were being scrapped on account of illicit free-will-affecting mods some jokers had found a way to install, so that's its own little nightmare if you run into those.
But I gotta say, even speaking as a male with no traces of gender dysphoria, I'd choose it over being dead.
In the same way a lot of couples who are frustrated to tears about how their sex life has deteriorated are willing to pay good money for enablers like viagra and would probably be willing to pay even more for genuine aphrodisiacs, and if they existed people in loveless arranged marriages would flock to buy love potions and drink them together....
These sex-promoting mods, in context and by free choice, could be very welcome in a lot of people's lives and circumstances.
Why is everyone trying to hurt my brain!?!?!?
i will NEVER say Uncle
I'm getting too old for this running around getting shot at stuff, I'll just give the orders ;)
...I wonder if and what is left of Ophie's group... =S
@alt text: true, ever helpful she is... =)
or tv show M.A.S.H. , where Hawkeye's brain turned a baby into a chicken, to try an protect him..
I'd tend to think that a camera, which is still what her eyes are, feeding to a storage media would be accessible, even if she had to directly permit it.
That would make Androids potentially the best of witnesses...or possibly the least credible since data can be manipulated...works either way ;)
Maybe in her debrief with Maxus we'll see her 'memory' of the incident projected on a big-screen for analysis
At the same time, recording the images that entered the eye, and recording them in permanent form with error correction codes and failsafes, and even uploading them immediately via some encrypted connection to a Nova Roma military command center, is nowhere near as hard as emulating the way the brain handles memories, and Nova Roma doesn't give a crap about invading the so-called privacy of its Cassians. They would definitely do that.
And in some ways it's a handy resource for the Cassians doing their job. Like rewind the recording to see exactly what the equipment loadout was, down to the last detail like the serial numbers on the weapons and any unusual tread marks on the tires, so as to know what to watch when looking for clues out in the wastes.
At the same time, there's that brain that needs its protection from absolutely traumatic memories, and it probably shouldn't be able to directly access recordings in the field of events so traumatic that the brain has suppressed them. Because it's quite a different thing to call up and stare directly at the moment when a close friend and teammate's all-too-fragile flesh started disintegrating into charred bones and a cloud of ash.
Once as a data-only Q-drive transfer and again as the entire brain module, which was reportedly much easier
Feelie had her entire brain module transferred so she should have all her momries intact
What we saw as distorted images were taken as she ws going offline and her sensory inputs were damaged
in one case , waiting with a gun.!!!
and i seem to remember Teedee had a melt down after one of those transfers...
And there was loss.. Dr. Silver had restore an bypass sections ..
All of the 'brain module' transfers, including Feelie's, seem to be a routine thing with few if any problems
TeeDee had a little hiccup with hers, but that seems to be more from a lingering 'pyrophobia' (odd for a pyromaniac) ;)
and the "BMT" seemed routine cuz Dr Silver (made saving throw.!)was doing it.. an without Doc, Teedee's hiccup wood have been fatal for two reasons ,, pyrophobia and forced body type swap ( look at Dolly's swap, an had both Mom an Cent helping..)..
Feelie went out just like Teedee , except Q-drive transfer.. (going off line due to extreme damage, on fire, an anxiety due to losing team.) oh an forced body type swap..
so i think Feelie needs to see Dr Silver (or Roma equivalent.) for PTSD.!
Seeing that Q-drives are an 'emergency' transfer that's used when there isn't time or the facilities for a module swap
I'd warrant that almost all of them come with some accompanying glitches and that made the Q-drive necessary
TeeDee's was 'Green', Ada's was 'Amber' with a lot of damaged data that would have been fatal except for Silver
The later module switches at the end of the mission were routine, except for TeeDee's residual memories (now fixed ?)
Both of Feelie's transfers went off without a hitch...that we've seen so far ;)
Timing or no, the intelligence that Maximus has is that a single human-profile unit took out a strike team like it was spreading butter on toast. Given history, the chance that this is a solitary threat is perhaps 10%. This unit is in Roma's sphere of influence.
Yeah, I expect that there is more than one scout team out right now. Probably 20-30% of Roma's air assets.
I don't see any fuel tanks under the wings, and apparently no bombs. Which feels like an odd choice--they are not expecting an airborne target. Maybe they don't want the weight?
BTW, a US standard flight is four craft, in two pairs. I don't know what NR is using, but nothing we've seen so far rules out four.
And so very, very glad your surgery was successful!
Which beats the hell out of loading and unloading tanks seemingly every five minutes :)
'Bombs' might be in an internal bay, or the 'missiles' could be capable of both A-A and A-G use.
A 4-ship is a common formation, as is a 2-ship, maybe Roma prefers a 3-ship ?
With one assigned to watch the other 2 like a 'political officer' on a Soviet sub ;)
Or the 4th one crapped out on launch or in transit and they went with what was left and coincidentally fit the frame
just look at the first (usually) letter in the name. F4 Phantom, F/A-18 (fighter / attack), EA6 Intruder (Electonic Attack), B2 Spirt, B17 Flying Fortress, C-130 Hercules an C-17 Globemaster (Cargo)
Several types of Fighters and a few with internal bombbays...
Loaded a lot of F-18's...9 weapons stations including the gun, no internal bay except the gun bay
note: add two wing pylons for the 'Super Hornet')
pro tip: never load a bombbay with a crew that spent the previous night scarfing beer and pickled eggs
improved tip: never be the guy locking the bombbay racks...you can't leave mid-load
additional tip: during a gun load on an 18, one man ends up with his head at waist level to the other, neither can move
safety tip: NBC masks aren't all that uncomfortable comparitively
morale tip: if the Big Boss sees you loading in NBC gear, you might get applauded for 'realistic training' :)
Most dedicated 'bombers' are now used as 'bomb trucks' with a long loiter time to carry many precision weapons
You do still get the odd 'arc light' but mostly it's their endurance and capability to carry items like 'bunker busters'
The majority of ordnance is now dropped by fighter type A/C since one or two guided bombs are usually enough
Still, there's nothing quite like watching a B-52 drop a full load...or an AC-130 on a 'fuck everything down there' pass :)
BRRRRRRRT!
(Disclaimer: I have no military experience or background.) Do A-10 drivers ever refer to opening up with the gun as 'Putting her in Reverse'? ^_^
They've been modified to prevent that, recoil has little to no effect.
It IS possible, however, to cease firing too close to a ground target and shoot yourself down with a ricochet
That's been documented several times, as is dropping ordnance too close to the ground and fragging yourself
Most fuses have a minimum arm time that prevents that, too close = no boom :)
"The average recoil force of the GAU-8/A is 10,000 pounds-force (45 kN),[4][19] which is slightly more than the output of each of the A-10's two TF34 engines of 9,065 lbf (40.3 kN).[20] While this recoil force is significant, in practice a cannon fire burst slows the aircraft only a few miles per hour in level flight.[18]"
So you are, of course, correct. But the thought of the gun recoil force overwhelming the engine thrust is an amusing one, even if the net effect at normal engagement speeds is only a few miles per hour until the ammo runs out.
They were normally part of the firing circuit and the gun wouldn't fire if they weren't open.
This is mainly because a build up of 'gun gas' in the gun bay has a nasty habit of blowing the nose off the A/C if it ignites
(or wing if that's where the gun is)
That's why you get things like 'momries'...I swear the text changes after you hit 'enter', I know I didn't type that.
Will it be a Q&A session to gain tactical insight from a firsthand source ?
Or will it be a 'no hat, no coffee, stand still and be quiet' affair ?
From what we've seen of our interpid Cassian, she's given to bucking authroity to the point of personal danger
But also, she seems to be a little too self-confident, not using all the tools at her disposal at the gutter camp
It's true that it likely wouldn't have made any difference had she made a proper approach, but we'll never know
It's the improper procedure and being a little too familiar with the troops that trips up many a young officer
Especially one who is already a little too well known for pranks and insubordination...
Sometimes snatching victory from the jaws of defeat or carrying out the 'impossible mission' gets a medal
Other times it gets a medal and a firm 'whack on the pee-pee' for getting into the situation in the first place
And she didn't even win the fight...and had to be rescued by civilians...non-Roaman civilians to boot
Methinks Feelie might be getting a hearty handshake and a 'turn around for my boot' in the same interview ;)
Ophelia's only real error in judgement in my opinion was ignoring that the area had been Jammed, and hard. When reading it, I had gotten the impression that this wasn't something you would expect at a gutter camp.
To be fair, I would think that a lot of officers, even experienced ones, would make the same call. "Fortune favors the Bold" is a Pattonesque attitude, and is common among a lot of military personnel. (I'm not judging here, Patton was bold, Eisenhower was cautious, both were effective).
I'm also getting a sinking feeling in my stomach that a seasoned flight squad is about to make a similar error...
Feelie ignored jamming, left her troops standing around with their thumbs in their bums in a potential contact scenario, didn't even man the 'tank' or use any remote sensors she had available, she deserves a good 'reverse sandwich' debrief but she lost a lot of men she cared for and Maxus will likely take that into consideration.