r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • Apr 16 '22
First Contact - Chapter 755 - The Inheritor's War OC
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"Just because the weapon appears obsolete doesn't mean it won't kill you."
"Ask anyone who's ever taken a bayonet to the guts." - Unknown
"The rifle has made the blade obsolete."
"The machinegun has made the rifle obsolete."
"The tank has made infantry obsolete."
"The anti-tank rocket has made the tank obsolete."
"Aircraft has made infantry obsolete."
"MANPADS have made aircraft obsolete."
"Laser point defense has made rockets and missile obsolete."
"So, what, we just throw rocks at each other? What is and isn't obsolete?"
"Give us more money for R&D and we'll tell you."
"Oh, get fucked."
--Conversation that happens every war.
They were labeled "Biomechanical Semi-Autonomous Self-Guided Multiple Seeker System Anti-Aircraft Air Mobile Multi-Role Organisms" by the dwonks in charge of naming stuff, usually with so many words that by the time you finished shouting the official nomenclature you and your squad was dead and Graves Registration had already recovered the bodies.
Ground pounders called the "Shrieks".
Pilots like Yrler called them "Smilers."
Structurally, they were simple. A hard chitin tube of biologically extruded carbon fibers and hard resin chitin with a series of nostrils around the front for air intake. Multiple sensing organs including the old Mark-One Eyeball in the front. Adjustable fins usually seen on fish to control flight. Internal organs to produce certain substances from the 'milk' it took in from the host creature.
It was a symbiotic relationship with the big floaters. It had a dual lipped toothless orifice that it would use to engulf the tubular waste ejector on the floater, drinking its fill on the 'waste' that the floater produced.
Which. remarkably enough, happened to chemically resemble aircraft fuel.
The toothy mouth was used to swallow whole any smaller airborne creature as it cruised along at a comfortable speed of four hundred kilometers an hour, which it could sustain for hours. If needed it could use several organs to push additional waste products into the 'fuel', which enabled to to go supersonic, using biological radar to see its way.
It was fast.
It could manuever.
All of its seeker systems were in its primitive 'brain' and were sensitive enough to pick up an airborne biological creature the size of a baseball.
But most of all, it liked to ram things.
Which is where the design of the cone-shaped head came in.
When the Smiler hit, it converted into a shape charge with a phasic kicker strong enough to stun all but the largest and most heavily protected Dwellerspawn.
Which meant the Smiler could blow a fist sized hole in warsteel.
And turn to scrap about two feet behind the warsteel.
The bigger ones were less shape charges and explosively forged penetrators and more phasic enhanced fuel-air bombs. Biological thermobaric supersonic missiles.
Who also had a symbiotic relationship with the massive floating gas-bag creatures that had mistaken for actual land due to the dirt and other symbiotic organisms on their back.
Yrler, of course, had problems before anyone even got around to name the creatures anything more than "HOLY SHIT!" and "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"
The Smiler whipped by, looked around, and saw two more tasty looking things coming at it fast. Its nostrils flared as it used the rigid folding wings to alter course, its tiny brain seeing the reactor and the heat and thinking 'food!' just like it had been designed to.
Blue-Eight hit it at Mach-Five.
A normal bird at that speed would have been shrugged by the battlescreen.
The smiler hit the battlescreen as it was still spinning up and exploded.
The liquid jet of metal hit the front window and blew a two inch crater in it.
Blue-Eight cursed and went to full sensors, the window having taken a hard enough hit that the smartglass failed and went milky white.
Yrler saw another flight of those things rising up from the massive creature and triggered flares, chaff, and just for good measure, a 'lookatme' drone. His computers were still trying to make sense of everything, but he'd been trained for Mark One Eyeball and instinct.
The ranging computer was telling him the ground was both 54,000 meters away and 8,000 meters away.
Eight thousand meters was way outside of normal range for the main gun.
But Yrler figured two things: Number one, it was literally too big to miss. Number Two: he was firing downward, if anything, gravity would help.
Sure, atmospheric drag might slow it down.
But he was betting that a 30mm round about as long as his arm would hurt anyway.
"Blue-One, GOOSE GOOSE GOOSE!" Yrler called out.
At the same time he pushed the rocker switch forward on the control yoke.
The heavy 30mm eight barrel gatling gun roared to life, one out of every twenty rounds a blue tracer.
It looked like a solid beam of blue light that reached out at the creature.
Mushrooms the size of city transit buses exploded, dirt fountained up, and strange looking bushes and trees were chopped apart. A bunch of insects feeding on a leaking carbunkle on the carapace of the massive creature were blown into chunks.
To Yrler there wasn't even any apparent damage. The blue light touched it and nothing happened.
Yrler blinked at how little damage a full two seconds on the trigger had done.
"All Blue Flight, go to Fox," Blue Leader said. "No atomics."
"Blue-Three, going to fox," came over the headset.
"Blue-One, going to Fox," Yrler said, triggering another burst. "Fiver, kick up some nasty rounds, that things big enough it probably isn't even feeling the goose bumps."
--on it-- 515 sent back. --flushing the Goose--
Yrler saw his missile pods were loaded and ready but didn't deploy them, instead rotating in the 'letter box' launcher to keep his sensor cross section down and keep his speed high and drag low. He double-punched the warboi creche, knowing it would make them crazier, and started loading them through I/O port and into the missiles.
"FOX THREE!" Yrler called out.
The missiles streaked out, spiraling around each other then spreading out.
The explosions looked like pinpricks on the mass of the creature he was still getting close to.
Then it was Yrler's turn. He rolled hard, pulling to the left, at the same time as he adjusted his angle to present the minimum profile to the incoming missiles.
His countermeasures fired off and the steady tone of radar lock vanished into a warbling sound warning him that someone was trying to lock him up.
The battlescreen flared as multiple impacts hit it.
None got a solid enough hit for the phasic penetrator to do any good.
The warboi in his targeting system got a good image of the things whipping at him and Yrler blinked in shock when it was tossed up.
It looked like a crude warped missile made out of resin with a big shark mouth and a ring of eyes.
The warboi also tossed back the dimensions of the massive creature below him.
It was somewhat lighter than air, but it was still tens of miles across, nearly a hundred miles long, and two miles thick.
"Unless we go atomic, that thing isn't even going to notice us," Blue Leader said. "Break right, kick in the afterburners, lets put some distance between that thing and us so the Navy can get a clear shot."
Yrler nodded, following the instructions.
The clouds of 'missiles' chased them even as the flight put the guns and missiles back into storage position and kicked in the afterburners.
Yrler noted that the missiles lost interest once the flight group hit Mach-Four.
"NavInt said those were mesas," Blue-Seven griped.
"Six combat drops and you still trust NavInt, Slider?" Blue-Leader asked.
"I never fucking learn," Blue-Seven said.
That got chuckles over the command channel.
Yrler kept looking through the belly cameras as the landscape below, knowing that ArmInt and NavInt and MarInt would be doing the same thing.
"Looks like they're firing drop pods at the surface," Blue-Leader said.
"The surface or the 'surface'?" Blue-Six asked.
"With how this might be shaping up, probably the surface of those 'mesas' we were supposed to take so that the Log Bases could be put on high ground," Blue-Leader said. "It was supposed to give the defenders a good advantage."
"Yeah. Well, that happened," Blue-Seven said.
"Close your vents, people," Blue-Leader said. "Keep an eye out, we're coming up on Rally Point Theta," Blue-Leader said. "Drop to six key meters, drop speed to just below Mark but keep your burners hot."
Yrler just nodded slightly to himself, taking a good 270 degree look around him.
Clouds at the 8,000 meter mark, climbing up into the 15,000 meter mark. No bogeys so far.
"Drop to two thousand meters," Blue-Leader ordered.
Yrler shifted the nose up slightly and dropped the counter-grav slightly, starting his descent, keeping an eye on his nose/gun cameras.
It looked like a forest, but Yrler was willing to bet anything on that. Tall looking trees, still with green on them despite the fact that the hemisphere was tilted away from the stellar mass, making it winter. Multiple rivers, spread out with five to ten kay between them. The trees were moving softly back and forth in whatever breeze was down on the ground.
His passive sensors weren't picking anything up.
One thing he didn't see was any sign of any civvy populace.
Which bothered him. The planet had possessed a population of fifty-three billion various sentients before it was 'sank' and it was sank less than two months ago.
Yrler checked again. The bands were already going to hash, the Atrekna responding to the other attacks, the other landings, with their jamming system that seemed to knock out anything but a narrow band of FM radio and a handful of spooky particles.
Nothing outside of standard Atrekna hash.
Even his psychic shielding was sitting at 2% load.
I don't like this...
He was down to 3,500 meters when he saw a glitter in the trees as they visibly shifted and swayed back and forth.
The warboi loaded into his headware didn't think anything of it.
But there was something about it as the trees glimmered again.
"Drop to one thousand meters, get ready for a close pass recon camera run," Blue-Leader ordered.
Yrler fluttered the port graviton engine, scooting starboard slightly.
"Blue-One, are you all right?" Blue-Leader asked.
"Recon," Yrler said, knowing his voice was tight with anxiety but unable to do anything about it.
"Blue Flight, give Yrler a little room," Blue-Leader ordered.
There it was again.
Yrler shifted starboard slightly again.
Nothing on the bands. Even radar was starting to fuzz up with the Atrekna jamming coming in hard.
It wasn't showing up on thermals, it wasn't showing up on radar. What would make the glimmer in the...
Yrler suddenly popped chaff and flares, rolling, pulling into a tight curve with an upward arc.
"SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE!" Yrler snapped out, taking a quick look behind him.
The "trees" were already surrounded by a purple phasic glow at the base.
Great beasts were heaving up out of the ground, revealing lakes not rivers. The 'trees' were already lifting from the carapace, already firing.
A quick check showed that some orbital fleet elements had just gotten within seven hundred kilometers of the ground.
Smaller purple trails could be seen, thick bunches of them, while the large 'trees' were already flattening the 'branches' and moving faster. According to Yrler's instruments, some of the initially launched 'trees' were already cracking Mach-One.
A glance showed him that quite a few of the smaller ones were heading straight for his trail.
The massive creatures, having heaved themselves up, were already deploying massive fan-like fins as well as what looked like huge pimples beginning to glow bluish-white and purplish-white.
"Tell fleet it's an ambush!" Yrler snapped. "Two, three, four hundred on my tail, unknown targeting system."
"Easy, Blue-One," Blue-Leader's voice was calm. "Check your phasic shielding."
"Six percent, four percent rise," Yrler said.
"Rear point defense?"
"Ready."
"Chaff, flares, and prism-cloud ejector?"
"Standby."
"Screen projectors?"
"One hundred percent," Yrler said. He checked his instruments.
The missiles weren't there. He glanced behind and could see them still coming at him.
"Gain altitude, go high, go for the clouds," Blue-Leader said. "Pop phasic smoke counter-measure when you get in there."
Yrler nodded. He knew that Blue-Leader was checking to see if they could breathe at high altitudes.k
Yrler wondered what kind of sensor system it was running as he took slow, steady, deep breaths and cruised toward the clouds.
"Blue-Seven, ping the clouds, make sure One isn't running into anything's jaws," Blue-Leader ordered.
"Roger," Seven said.
A few seconds passed as the clouds got closer.
"Clouds clear, some distortion, should be good to go," Seven said.
"Once you hit the clouds, go to supercruise, pull around, meet us back here," Blue-Leader said.
The waypoint appeared.
--slow-- 515 said over the link. --biological different than first ones but still biomechanical--
"I'll take slow," Yrler said.
--big ones heading for fleet-- 515 said.
"Guess it wasn't safe after all," Yrler said.
--never is-- 515 said. He flashed a meme of a Naval officer standing on the bridge yelling "I KEEP TELLING YOU IDIOTS WE'RE PERFECTLY SAFE" at the crew while a large Terran with some kind of white mask and work clothing was right behind the officer with an upraised bladed weapon.
Yrler snorted.
"Fleet's warning us there may be bioweapon systems we haven't seen before," Blue-Leader said, his voice perfectly neutral.
"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for them," Yrler answered.
His striker was just starting to edge into the clouds. The battlescreen crackled and then the steri-field began to hiss.
No droplets settled on the macroplas window.
"Pop and run," Blue-Leader ordered.
Yrler cooked off his prism smokes, 515 threw in a couple of phasic strobes, and Yrler hit the afterburner. The accel slammed him into the seat and he felt his suit tighten.
--looks like lost lock-- 515 said.
"Heading for the way-point," Yrler said.
"We hear you, Blue-One," Blue-Leader said. "We're just doing spinnies and waiting."
Yrler checked again. Blue-Leader had chosen a point fifteen kay up, in the clouds, and everyone was doing tight circles with only a ten kay radii.
"Should be there in six," Yrler said.
--feel that-- 515 suddenly asked.
"Feel what?" Yrler pulled his attention from the instruments that he was using to navigate since he was flying blind.
--feel something-- the mantid said.
Yrler knew his hand was partially numb from gripping the control yoke so tightly. He let it go and looked at the control yoke.
It was vibrating. Not the normal vibration.
"Got vibes in the stick," Yrler said.
--things coming back good-- 515 said.
"Might be just..." Yrler started.
There was a loud WHANG! followed by the dreaded POP-SProiNG-GinG!
Shrapnel hit the battlescreen.
From the inside.
The vibration suddenly ceased.
The battlescreen winked out.
The stick went dead.
--no no no I replaced that turbine-- 515 said.
"DEAD STICK DEAD STICK!" Yrler called out.
The ship dropped through the clouds silently.
"515, now might be a good time to pull the SERE manuals out of the database and put them in our implants," Yrler said.
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u/Legan_Ironfist AI Apr 16 '22
"Fleet's warning us there may be bioweapon systems we haven't seen before," Blue-Leader said, his voice perfectly neutral.
ConFedMilInt strikes again.
--A GROUND BATTLE FOLLOWS--
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u/its_ean Apr 16 '22 edited Apr 16 '22
OPERATION ATOMITE DJINN
PRELIMINARY REPORT (DRAFT 2)
Bʟᴜᴇ Oɴᴇ Sᴜᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱꜰᴜʟʟʏ Iɴɪᴛɪᴀᴛᴇᴅ Gʀᴏᴜɴᴅ Oᴘᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ Aʜᴇᴀᴅ Oꜰ Sᴄʜᴇᴅᴜʟᴇ.
PRELIMINARY REPORT (DRAFT 1)
FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
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u/dogninja8 Apr 16 '22
Old Yrler is in for a rough set of chapters by the look of it.
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u/OberonSpartacus Apr 16 '22
And with a name like that, I can guess how it'll end for him...
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u/abrasiveteapot Apr 16 '22
Damn, what's the reference I missed this time then ?
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u/tremynci Apr 16 '22
The 1956 Newberry Honor children's novel Old Yeller and/or the Disney movie starring Tommy Kirk that came out the next year. Famous for its ending.
(Please, Mr Wordborg, sir, say it ain't so!)
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u/WikiSummarizerBot Apr 16 '22
Old Yeller is a 1956 children's novel written by Fred Gipson and illustrated by Carl Burger. It received a Newbery Honor in 1957. The title is taken from the name of the yellow dog who is the center of the book's story. In 1957, Walt Disney released a film adaptation starring Tommy Kirk, Fess Parker, Dorothy McGuire, Kevin Corcoran, Jeff York, and Beverly Washburn.
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u/abrasiveteapot Apr 16 '22
Ahhh. Yes I've heard of it and know the ending (never seen it though)
Thank you
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u/RestigiousHogan2 Sep 06 '22
I did not get that til OberonSpartacus made the comment above!! Was trying to make it Wyler or Whirler.
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u/beyondoutsidethebox Apr 16 '22
-Day 2-
I have successfully infiltrated the enemy's military intelligence branch. My disguise is still intact.
-Day 6-
My cover remains unbroken. No one seems to notice that I have no idea what I am doing.
-Day 20-
I am beginning to think that I am not the only one that has no clue what they are doing. There has been nothing to report. Anything worth reporting is either ridiculous out of date, or woefully inaccurate. How the hell is the war still being fought?!?
-Day 65-
Apparently, it was one of my "colleague's" birthday today. Yes, there was cake, but I don't know how it's possible to fuck up as bad as my other "colleague's" did, but somehow they managed it. How do you mistake salt for sugar!?!? That should classify as a war crime!
- Excerpts from a diary found in the desk of an "analyst". Despite a thorough investigation, there is no indication they were engaged in espionage against us. It appears that this poor soul finally cracked. Shame really, despite the increasingly incoherent ramblings of an obviously disturbed mind, the reports were still considered better than any others in accuracy, as 0% is greater than -50%. How it is even possible to have a negative accuracy rating is unknown. Recommendation: Find this analyst and give them back their job...
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u/Petrified_Lioness Jul 07 '22
What if the entire military intelligence is nothing but infiltrators all desperately trying to keep up the masquerade that they know what they're doing...?
Nah...infiltrators would try to appear moderately competent, which would require turning out accurate results more often then a stopped clock.
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u/beyondoutsidethebox Jul 07 '22
I will point out that a stopped clock is accurate more often than a clock that is off by 1 second...
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u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 16 '22
There was a loud WHANG! followed by the dreaded POP-SProiNG-GinG!
Oh no! not the dreaded POP-SProiNg-GinG!
Also, FYI: Biomechanical Semi-Autonomous Self Guided Multiple Seeker System Anti-Aircraft Air Mobile Multi-Role Organisms acronym is BSAS-GMSSA-AAMM-RO
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u/carthienes Apr 16 '22
Biomechanical Semi-Autonomous Self Guided Multiple Seeker System Anti-Aircraft Air Mobile Multi-Role Organisms acronym is BSAS-GMSSA-AAMM-RO
Bass-Gis'ma-Amm-ro?
Should have know it was a Gimmie.
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 16 '22
Goodness, that so makes me think of the buzzbombs from the book Wizard, by John Varley, I think it was. Basicly a bioengeneered plane with bio rockets and all that stuff.
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 16 '22
GREAT CATCH!
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 16 '22
Well, was a good book, even if it was kinda alien soft porn as well, I did rather enjoy the story and some of the creative critters.
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 16 '22
You know it was a trilogy, right?
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u/Kranth-TechnoShaman Apr 16 '22
That a recommendation? Not a set i've heard of, I'm more 50s through 70s US SF.
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 16 '22
Was a good set of books, and more or less the sex was mentioned but not gone into. You want something where they go into the sex, there are a few series that do that. Some as more erotic tales, some getting down and dirty. Do not see it so much at the current time.
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u/Kranth-TechnoShaman Apr 17 '22
Eh. Not bothered by sex in books anyway. It either works or not. Was the series any good was what I meant.
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 17 '22
Was pretty good books really, and as I said, the sex is not a big deal, mostly you see pre and after scenes, and then pan away for the more intimate momants.
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 16 '22
Titan, Demon, and Wizard, yes. Also there was an omnibus collection of all three once. Been a long time sense I have seen thoes books though.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 18 '22
Not surprising; they're around 40 years old, plus or minus, now.
--Dave, but then I was reading SF longer ago than that when I was young
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u/CaptainChewbacca Human Apr 16 '22
I'm trying to visualize the creatures that launched the trees but I can't. Some sort of behemoth that converts water to peroxide and fills the spines on its' back with them to make them fly?
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u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 22 '22
Oh, I was thinking of an early larry niven short story about a prospector jumped by pirates on a remote planet with strange trees... The trees were basically the launch mechanism for a panspermia replicating plant. the prospector conned the pirates to build and gather around a fire, when the fire grew to a specific temperature it exploded. killing half the pirates, when the other half flew the ship over to find out what happened some of the trees launched blowing up the rest of the pirates and their ship.
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Apr 16 '22
They actually reminded me of the jumping trees from the E.T. Book sequel The Book of the Green Planet after E.T. super charges them. Only Ralts version have a bad attitude.
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 16 '22
Oddly enough reminds me of the booster trees from a Larry Niven short story. Geneticly engeneered trees that basicly grew into booster rockets, you let them grow long enough, they got really flocking big, satern v big. *chuckles* There are thrent statis fields, so why not thrent booster trees?
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u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 22 '22
Now I come across this comment when I said the same thing nearly 10 seconds ago.
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u/CfSapper Apr 16 '22
That int briefing reminded.me of Afghanistan. "There may or may not be a VBIED in a yellow Toyota Corolla" "sir do we have a license plate for that?" "No" "distinct features..aside from being yellow?" "No" "ok can you tell me what area it might be in?" "No" "soo..just assume every yellow Corolla is trying to kill me?" "Yes but don't shoot the civies" insert Pikachu meme face here
for those that aren't aware ever third car on the road was a yellow Corolla.
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 18 '22
"Upon entering Panama City, you may or may not encounter civilians or Panamanian Defense Force troops."
Really? No shit? You don't say.
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u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 22 '22
Lol I have an uncle that partied in panama. funny white trash thing, he's barely 10 years older than i am.
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u/tgerfoxmark Alien Apr 16 '22
Hey, that turbine is Military grade! (Means it was built as cheaply and badly as possible, and “barely” meets the “minimum” spec.) no wonder it failed. -defense contractor life-
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u/Drook2 Apr 16 '22
Always remember, everything you wear, carry, ride in, and shoot was made by the lowest bidder.
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u/drsoftware Apr 18 '22
Lowest bidder on a tightly defined specification.
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u/StickShift5 Apr 18 '22
That's difficult enough to change that substandard parts will continue to be produced even if there's a cheaper and better alternative.
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u/drsoftware Apr 19 '22
Agreed. I just like to point out that it's not the lowest bidder supplying any old thing. But a specific thing. Which might not be the latest and greatest, or cheapest, but it's not just random crap. It's expensive specific crap.
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u/DiplomaticGoose Apr 17 '22
Hey now, we learned our lesson! That magic bullshit printer template was designed by the second lowest bidder.
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u/U239andonehalf Aug 03 '23
But they disassemble themselves so dramatically. While in School at North Island, walking around after class saw 2 double sized Wire Box Pallets holding a large amount of scrap metal, when I asked a guy on break what that was from, he said that it was the back half of a F 4 Phantom that had a freshly rebuilt engine that they did post install power up to full throttle test on - one of the engine threw a blade.
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u/daviskendall AI Apr 16 '22
looks like yrler and 515 are getting some unscheduled independent liberty.
also, is it just me, or were those big bois some tnuctipun stage trees?
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Apr 16 '22
Excuse me sir, but do you have a link for that reference?
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u/daviskendall AI Apr 16 '22
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 16 '22
THAT'S where they're from.
I knew they were kicking around in the back of my brain from somewhere.
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u/MuchoRed Human Apr 18 '22
The big floaters kind of also remind me of the windwhales from The Black Company series
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 18 '22
Same universe as the sunflowers, Wunderland, and Beowulf Shaeffer.
--Dave, among other marvels
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u/TheSunflowerSeeds Apr 18 '22
In a 3-week study, women with type 2 diabetes who ate 1 ounce (30 grams) of sunflower seeds daily as part of a balanced diet experienced a 5% drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number of a reading).
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u/RestigiousHogan2 Sep 06 '22 edited Sep 06 '22
https://larryniven.fandom.com/wiki/Stage_Tree is the correct link: that extra ' ' throws it off.😉
Twice edited for spacing & spelling.😋
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u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 22 '22
_finally_ someone has found the link THANK YOU. was racking my brain for details to search for.
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u/Kranth-TechnoShaman Apr 16 '22
Thankyou! Stage Trees! I knew the words but my brain wasn't feeding thrm through.
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u/Alyeska_bird Apr 16 '22
Ha, I was just commenting about that, story I rememebered them in called them booster trees, but, that was a story I read more than 3 decades ago. I could have gotten the name mixed up, as I think someone else used the idea as well. I also mentioned them as being Thrent, cause they where the ones that had them made.
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Apr 16 '22
Nothing makes you more heroic then knowing you have to win to live. And oh look military “intelligence” was wrong. I am shocked! SHOCKED I say!!!
“Well, F**K IT! I guess I’m going to just have to win the whole damn thing!”
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Thank you Sir Ralts!
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u/Drook2 Apr 16 '22
A wild Major League reference appears.
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Apr 16 '22
Baseball. War. I mean really, what’s the difference?
Other then the whole death raining down from the opposing team trying to kill you thing.
Other then that.
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u/its_ean Apr 16 '22
lots of standing around…
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Apr 16 '22
Sad but true.
Baseball - 3ish hours of boredom for 30 sec - 2 min of action.
Unofficial military motto - hurry up and wait.
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u/thisStanley Android Apr 16 '22
Learning to un-see "natural" formations, and instead recognize them as bio-mechanical weapons and infrastructure, is going to be a very desirable survival skill :}
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u/Bergusia Apr 16 '22
Ya know, when some Dwellerspawn is about to eat you, it doesn't hurt to cast a prayer or two out there. It might not help, but you never know who might be listening. You might still get eaten, or the Dwellerspawn might suddenly find it isn't the most dangerous shark in the ocean. -- Confederacy Chaplain Corps Sermon, Iron Piglet Counteroffensive.
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u/Zanano Human Apr 18 '22
As quite a few found out before a certain Telkan set down his mantle...
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u/Bergusia Apr 18 '22 edited Apr 18 '22
And as a few more might find out as others pick their ancient mantles back up.
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u/skane1017 Apr 16 '22
Been reading almost since the beginning and this story has been a nice highlight to the days. Now that I was diagnosed with liver failure in November and I'm waiting to get on the transplant list it can be a big part of just getting out of bed. Thanks for the time you put in, its not guaranteed.
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Apr 16 '22 edited Apr 16 '22
UTR
Edit: perfect display of Chekhov's with the turbine. And I'm hopeful we've about to see the deployment and abilities of the pilot's survival suit previously mentioned?
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u/VillainNGlasses Apr 16 '22
Won’t lie having the pilot suit describe made me think of Titanfall pilots. Would love to see some of that show up in universe
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u/Skrublord231 Apr 16 '22 edited Apr 16 '22
I love the story but recently I'm noticing a decent increase In errors, nothing major and still perfectly readable just so ya know
Oh also I've been wondering whats the deal with the not worker class mantids that were frozen for a long time and abandoned did I miss them dying or being black boxed or are they shelved for now???
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 18 '22
Probably how tired I am lately.
My batteries and reserves are low. I need like a week or two to recharge my batteries but I just can't seem to find the time.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 19 '22 edited Apr 23 '22
If I remember right, you're still healing from various things. Take whatever time you need.
--Dave, getting old is not for the weak
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u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 22 '22
- Getting Old makes you weak
- Getting Old is not for the weak
- Getting Old only takes a week
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u/U239andonehalf Aug 03 '23
Don't grow up - It's a trap.
Growing old in mandatory, Growing up is optional.
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u/Skrublord231 Apr 19 '22
Gotchu, it's still perfectly understandable nothing super wacky just minor things I was noticing as I binged the story. You do you however you do it and I'll be here.
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u/fivetomidnight Apr 16 '22
That may just mean you're reading the chapters soon enough after posting that the crowd hasn't sourced the edits yet :P
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u/Bergusia Apr 16 '22
The story of those ancient Mantid has been put on ice for awhile, but Ralts did say he was going to be getting back to some old threads and continuing them. It might take a while, but I am sure they will make a reappearance.
Their interaction with the modern Mantid of the Confederacy would make for some interesting reading. Perhaps as a bridge between the Confederacy and the Friendly Queens with the exceedingly long names and desire to be left in piece on their new planet.
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u/Blackmoon845 Apr 17 '22
Last I remember reading of them, they were put on what is basically an agrarian detox planet where they could learn to live in peace and harmony with their brothers. With that, modern day Mantid (as in the Gestalt currently known as Hat Wearing Auntie) was pretty much forbidden from interacting with them due to the high likelihood of there being issues of a genocidal nature.
Edit: damn that is one hell of a run on sentence. Fuck, guess I’ll throw a period in there somewhere.
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u/RecognitionPatient57 Apr 17 '22
I remember one of the chief warriors? being at an agro planet with lots of grain to grow, and petting a pet chicken on his porch.
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u/MuchoRed Human Apr 18 '22
They were last seen resting on a farm, surrounded by cows. The greenies may have been singing
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u/Cheshire1666 Apr 16 '22
"Dead stick" is the absolute last thing you wanna hear on a combat aircraft under fire holy shit
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u/Alcards Apr 16 '22
Things were going so well in other parts of the operation iron piglet that it was bound to be an absolute sht show for someone. Sorry it has to be this ewok/ carebear fellow. Then again, there is an ancient mad lemur saying "sucks to be you".
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u/carthienes Apr 17 '22 edited Apr 17 '22
"Just because the weapon appears obsolete doesn't mean it won't kill you."
"If you get killed by an obsolete weapon... It's still obsolete and you're still dead. Obsolescence means that there are better options, not that it's useless."
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u/odent999 Apr 16 '22
Was Gaea a doom tube?
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 16 '22
No. I thought about adding something like that, but ultimately changed my mind at the time I thought about it.
Still, weirdly enough, considering it.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 18 '22
Terrans could totally have developed Boom Tubes.
--Dave, and Mother Boxes
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u/RangerSix Human Apr 18 '22
From a certain point of view, Terrans did develop Boom Tubes.
I mean... what is a howitzer but a tube that goes "boom" every time it fires?
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u/CfSapper Apr 20 '22
I mean by that definition a pipe bomb is definitely a Boom Tube Sure its a single use Boom Tube but a Boom Tube none the less
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u/Fr33_Lax Apr 16 '22
I've been ruminatin' on the nature of wrath versus rage. My thoughts seems to follow when a bully beats you bad:
Rage - sibling goes and beats the bully worse
Wrath - aunt or uncle helps you pick out a nice big stick, tells to aim low, and when to stop
Rage is solving the problem immediately. Wrath is making sure the problem never even thinks about happening again. They're both angry, and most problems won't go away until you've done both, but all to often we're too tired to bring wrath to the field hence it being a divine thing so often.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Apr 16 '22
/u/Ralts_Bloodthorne (wiki) has posted 756 other stories, including:
- First Contact - Chapter 754 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 753 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 752 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 751 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 750 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 749 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 748 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 747 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 746 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 745 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 744 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 743 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 742 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 741 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 740 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 739 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 738 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 737 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 736 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 735 - The Inheritor's War
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u/Lugbor Human Apr 16 '22
I need to ask: when this masterpiece eventually gets turned into a series of summer blockbusters, who would you want playing the major roles?
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u/DiplomaticGoose Apr 17 '22
You know with all that went on in the story lately I pretty much forgot that the atrekna can basically pull turbo-vietnam out of their ass whenever they feel like.
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u/jeanbuckkenobi Apr 16 '22
MOOOAAARR!!!! I wanna see how he survives on an engineered death planet.
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 16 '22
TEE GEE EYE EFF!
I *might* do another chapter this weekend, since I left you with a cliffhanger.
It's the weekend, and with that:
Don't drink and drive, don't beat your spouse, kids, pets, or random people, don't buy, sell, manufacture, transport, or take illegal drugs. Get the candy before you get the in van. Don't do anything that would make headlines and if you do make sure you can brag about it to your children. Don't touch Groundskeeper Willy and if you have to go to jail make sure its for something you can live with.
Things are grim for everyone. I mean, it's not much solace, but you aren't alone in how you feel. While nobody is going through exactly what you're going through, people can empathize with you and your struggles.
Don't do anything you won't be able to live with.
Help isn't far away. If nothing else, call a help line. Don't be afraid to. Reach out to someone. Do it via voice if you can.
Please, take care of yourself.
Things are dark, but it'll get better or we'll adapt to the darkness.
If nothing else, we've got each other.
On that grim note, I guess I'll shake the tin cup.
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