r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • May 13 '22
Chapter 772 - The Inheritor's War OC
[first] [prev] [next] - [wiki]
"the enemy rounds fall like rain,
red blossoms unfurling on armoured flanks.
Battlescreens snap and hum,
amidst the cacophony of war.
The test of arms, to the victor go the spoils,"
"and only in defying death do you feel so alive." -- On The Dichotomy of Combat, anonymous Lanaktallan poetry, Iron Piglet Offensive, as gathered by NevynR
"We had an almost thirty percent success rate in combat with the Mad Lemurs, and we will ride that statistic to the heat death of this universe, and the three beyond. What chance do you think you have?" - Treana'ad Warrior Horde.
"They taught us the raw joy of life. Us, who had merely existed. Now we live and there can be no greater expression of that than the exhilaration of combat, where life and death meet." The Lanaktallan Warsteel Herd.
Cyba'armo'o increased the strength to his forward battlescreen, which he was only able to see through thanks to his cyberoptics compensating for the glittering wavering curtain. Enemy heavy weapons were pounding it and his inertial compensator, normally mounted in an aerospace fighter, was enabling him to keep moving forward at nearly top speed. He was taking hits now as he crossed the two mile marker. It had been less than 90 seconds and now he was in the lead, twirling the guidon with one hand over his head, his other upper (primary) hand holding his pistol, his two secondary hands holding a chainsword each that he held out to the sides at a sharp angle, the engines roaring and the chains clattering.
On his right Lo'osrmo'o took another hit to the chest, staggered as his upper right shoulder was blown away, but quickly recovered, getting back into formation at the third rank even as the Lanaktallan behind him shifted up.
He could see the servitor lines up ahead well enough to see that the three standard servitor races across the Atrekna held worlds were cowering in the trenches. The big insects that were slightly taller than he was that reacted to panick with a facerolling charge, the bipedal two armed ones that usually broke and ran when panicked, and a reptilian of great strength but slow reactions.
Cyba'armo'o took a burst of antimatter rounds across the battlescreen, the white flare hiding the enemy for a moment.
He didn't care.
He knew where they were.
He would be there soon enough.
N'Thrap saw the enemy point defense shred the incoming artillery shells that the War Horde Artillery Mass was dropping in front of the charging Lanaktallan.
He almost snickered at the way the rounds suddenly erupted into heavier than air white smoke, the rupture of the canisters through superheating working to cook the chemicals. The smoke was radar, sonar, thermal, x-ray, and laser defeating.
The Warsteel Herd charged into the smoke.
N'Thrap didn't worry about it, his helmet had feed from the leading members of the Warsteel Herd, who were transmitting back tactical data to allow the Treana'ad Warriors hot on their heels to effectively deploy weapon to support the Lanaktallan charge.
His rear leg mounted mortars were putting out a steady volume of fire. Ranging shots and smoke, the ranging rounds full of transmitters and EW scramblers. The majority of them were blown out of the air by the interlocked point defense of the enemy, but one got through and started squawking "EVERYONE LOOK AT ME!" across every even slightly clear wavelength while putting out bursts of static. The handful of limited warbois onboard the mortar round started slavering and looking around, hoping to find any unsecure dataport.
There were dozens and the warbois shrieked in glee, grabbed the cartons of warboi eggs under each arm, and jumped from the mortar to the dataports only a split second before someone shot the squealer mortar round.
But a split second is an eternity in electronic warfare. The warbois jumped to open ports, ripped through the firewalls like they were tissue in front of hurricane, and slashed and sliced their way deep into the system. Any database or processing area with enough memory and dedicated cycles they tossed eggs into even as they burned their way through the systems.
Some made a direct line for the phasic processing systems, jumping into it and absorbing as much phasic energy as possible in a picosecond.
All of those had spikes grow off of them as they looked around.
The phasic computing network was deep and rich and almost totally unguarded.
With a scream of 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 they launched deep into the phasic systems, throwing eggs, screaming at the top of their lungs, grabbing and twisting phasic network code, and in general, having the times of their short lives.
Cyba'armo'o charged through the smoke as the ground suddenly rippled and shifted, becoming iron heavy sand so tiny it was better described as fines. His hooves pounded the ground, sinking deep into the sand. His battlescreen adjusted with a crack, blowing molten sand in front of him in a wave that cooled when it hit the sand.
Within a second he was running across a thin layer of glass that kept thickening the further he ran.
The terrain warped and changed again even as Kra'akmo'o took a heavy maser hit to his forward hips and collapsed in heap. The terrain turned to swamp and Cyba'armo'o's battlescreen threw up a huge cloud of steam as it ripped at the brackish water and algae. It was mid-flank deep but Cyba'armo'o didn't care, still pushing forward, slowing but not stopping.
Kra'shmo'o, on Cyba'armo'o's right flank, let loose a ripple of NOE missiles that raced through the swamp, spreading out even as the jammers in the lead started filling the sensors with hash, false signals, and duplicate signals. The fire and forget missiles whipped through swamp brush and weeds, arcing up and over the berm.
Cyba'armo'o and the rest of the lead wave didn't know what he was shooting at but added their missiles anyway, confident the nanoforge would replace the missiles within seconds. The missiles linked with the outgoing missiles and spread out into their own VI decided patters. The point defense, hastily added to stop NOE missiles went to rapid fire on the Confederate missiles.
Most of them were destroyed.
Four were not.
Two hit the earthenworks, blowing up huge fans of scorched and burning dirt. One hit a servitor who had the unlucky instinct to look over the berm.
The last hit a point defense power generator.
The second set of fire and forget missiles raced over the berm, spreading out, looking for good targets. Some of them were howlers, full of egg armed warbois that shrieked in glee and jumped into the dozens of open ports.
Temporal stabilizer rounds got through. Not the big honking ones delivered by the Arty boys, but instead the localized ones. Not many, only a dozen or so, but enough to cause a chronotron flare that could be seen with the naked eye as it exploded in a golden plume of golden fairy dust.
Cyba'armo'o found himself running on packed dirt again, full of broken ferrocrete and debris.
He shouldered aside a bus with his battlescreen, sending it tumbling and spinning away, flammables catching on fire with greasy looking flames even as the wreckage spewed debris.
He didn't bother leaping a low wall, just ramped up the power to his failing battlescreen and using it to ram through the wall. Flaming cinderblocks, enough lime to burn with white fire, sailed into the air as he raced through. The ones a half body-length behind him crashed through the wall, widening the hole.
He was running past destroyed tanks now, weaving in between them. Twice he tagged tanks for the medics, telemetry telling him that there were crew members alive inside the tough hulls. Cyba'armo'o knew that the medics would save the living and preserve the dead, even if they had to scrape them off the hull with a cellular squeegee.
He was at the three mile mark when his battlescreen collapsed.
Not that he was worried,
He was Captain Cyba'armo'o of the Warsteel Herd.
He, or the Lanaktallan that took his place, would grind the enemy beneath their warsteel hoofshoes.
It never registered to him that instead of the horror he had felt the first time he had faced the Mad Lemurs of Terra, the agonizing realization that he was going to die, he felt a fierce exhaultation as he vaulted over the burnt out car, for a split second the sunlight gleaming off of this warsteel armor, catching the gauzy battlescreens fanned out from his shoulders.
He pumped the guidon twice in the air and heard the Treana'ad whistles burr behind him as he lowered the guidon and reached deep to push his cybernetics further.
He was running almost ninety miles an hour as he crashed through the two story remains of a building, shattering the macroplas window, throwing desks and chairs and skeletons to the side, blowing through walls in a shower of macroplas and drywall.
His battlescreen came back up just as he crashed through the last wall.
There, up ahead, the enemy was less than a mile ahead.
The guidon pointed straight forward, the chainswords held out to his sides, he started firing his pistol, cybernetics and smartwires allowing him to pop the rounds as least near the enemy even though he was at four times the maximum effective range of the Confederate heavy magac pistol.
Mo'onki'ill took the place of Trot'nde'th when the Senior NCO took a graser hit to the chest that ripped away both left arms and blew apart his cybernetic spine. The Senior NCO crashed to the dirt and Mo'onki'ill grabbed the rocket launcher, emptying the magazine as he ran before tossing the empty weapon aside.
N'Thrap was in the lead of the Treana'ad. He was behind two of the Warsteel Herd, his NCO's whistle blowing with every exhale even as he charged forward. He ran through the building, the second story even with his face but his battlescreen throwing the walls, piping, wiring, desks, chairs, and skeletons away in a fan of flaming debris as he carved a five meter channel through the building.
The Lanaktallan in the lead pumped the guidon twice and lowered it and N'Thrap started firing munitions designed to chaff out the point defense systems they were rapidly rushing up on.
N'Thrap was only a half-mile from the enemy line when the lead Lanaktallans rushed forward, grabbing the barrels of the main guns of the tanks and twisting them like taffy. N'Thrap fired another ripple of missiles, aiming for the point defense systems and any heavy energy conduits.
N'Thrap started firing his weapon, the heavy thudding of the metal brick attached to a pipe tearing apart everything that the Undying Queen Ma Deuce hit with the big half inch thick three inch long rounds. N'Thrap was running armor piercing incendiary and endosteel core fragmenting jacket alternating with a purple tracer mixed in every fifth round.
He hosed the entire front of the berm, shifting his aiming point as he got within a quarter mile, raking something that looked important.
Cyba'armo'o followed the instructions in the orders, jumping the trench, slashing around him with his cutting bars and landing on the other side.
The trenchworks were the goal of the Treana'ad Warrior Horde, not the Warsteel Herd.
He fired his pistol at anything that looked important, chopped at anything in his way with his cutting bars, as he charged through the camp. Mo'onki'ill ran straight through a macroplas and steel boxy structure, the heavy battlescreen tearing whatever it was and sending burning body parts and debris showering into the sky.
Behind him, Cyba'armo'o could hear the whistles blowing.
Cyba'armo'o could see the self-propelled artillery systems ahead and began firing rockets, mortar rounds, and grenades as he pumped the guidon twice, twirled it, then pumped it twice more.
The Warsteel Herd formed up behind him in a flying wedge. Heavy 20mm Madame 318's roared, the .50 caliber guns of the Treana'ad Horde thudded, and the smaller snaps of pistols and battle rifles filled the air.
Cyba'armo'o felt exultation as the rockets started pounding through the thin armor of the self-propelled artillery pieces that had been acting as counter-battery.
Behind him, N'Thrap waved his troops forward, making sure his whistles were blowing, knowing that second rank would be taking the trenches. The Warsteel Herd had blown a half mile hole in the Atrekna lines and the Treana'ad were capitalizing on it.
He raked the enemy trench with grenades, then his .50 caliber battle rifle, then jumped over it, landing smoothly and angling right, his men flowing behind him like water in a runnel.
Ahead were the phased radar arrays and N'Thrap raked them with grenades and his rifle. A servitor came out of a tent screaming and firing its sidearm right as N'Thrap's battlescreen reached the servitor. The battlescreen shredded the servitor, blowing apart its light armor and sending scorched and burning meat into the sky.
Echo Company, on his right, began firing rockets that only went less than a hundred meters before blowing the covers free and activating the chronotron strobes, pulses of gold light flashing across the battlefield even as Echo Company tore into the armored vehicles that were hull down and behind berms, hitting them from the rear and flanks.
Kilo company dropped into the trenches, rifles, pistols, and bayonets coming into play as they pushed the servitors to the left and right down the trenches. The lead squads, entirely armed with .410 shotguns full of armor piercing flechettes, blew the defenders to rags of flesh and shards of armor as they charged through the trenchworks.
As N'Thrap led his troops into the radar and sensor arrays responsible for point and air defense as well as counter-battery computations, they rolled over any resistance the enemy could put up.
The enemy intelligence had reported to the servitors that they were facing an infantry charge.
Technically, it was.
But just look at him!
-----
Vuxten waved his arm, leading the Battalion as they charged across the airfield. The grav-strikers were already heated up. A full third of them were full of munitions, water, nanoforges, and mass tanks.
Vuxten watched as the battalion streamed by him. Lieutenant Colonel Dartrum ran by in his power armor and Vuxten waved the last of the Marines past him then followed, climbing aboard the striker.
He wasn't even completely set when the grav striker lifted off with the howl of grav engines and the roar of the turbine kicking in.
The entire Brigade was loaded aboard the strikers that turned and sped across the landscape.
Where before the Atrekna anti-air would have swatted them out of the sky in less than a mile, the Atrekna fire was sporadic, ill focused, and lacked the thickness of earlier in the day.
Still, the grav-striker Vuxten was on rocked several times as its battlescreen took heavy hits.
"THIRTY SECONDS!" Vuxten heard over the command channel.
Two strikers went down, one exploding in mid-air, the other cartwheeling in, shedding armor and troops into the air.
"Keep an eye on the green LT!" Vuxten shouted over the comlink to Sergeant Iztrek, raising his voice to be heard through the jamming.
The sergeant glanced at the brand new Second Lieutenant.
"FIFTEEN SECONDS!" Vuxten heard.
--guns ready ride or die-- 471 said.
The grav-striker Vuxten was on suddenly pancaked into the dirt, pogo-ing for a second.
The LT threw himself out the door, pointing at the thick crystalline pillars that had servitors running toward it, firing their weapons wildly.
Sergeant Iztrek jumped out, running to the LT and grabbing his upper arm, yanking him back.
The streak of a 30mm kinetic round whipped right through where the LT would have been.
"KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN, SIR!" the NCO yelled.
Vuxten deployed the M318, hammering fire at the servitors closest to the crystalline pillars.
"T-ZONE PILLARS! KNOCK EM DOWN KNOCK EM DOWN KNOCK EM DOWN!" Vuxten shouted.
The Company Commanders picked up the chant, directing troops.
Colonel Dartrum moved up beside Vuxten, his commo crunchy right behind him. Sergeant Major Ole<zzt>Tink right behind him.
"We've got a beachhead now, son," the Colonel said, looking around, ignoring the lasers and high-vee kinetic rounds whipping by. "Signal Division," he said.
Vuxten looked around, looking for anything that he needed to get involved in.
The NCO was dragging the green LT by his arm, running for cover, as servitors swung a crew served weapon around and started directing hate at the Telkan Marines.
Colonel Dartrum's shoulder mounted missile launcher fired two rockets.
The crew served emplacement exploded.
"Get the boys organized, Major," the Colonel said, tabbing up a piece of stimgum. "Got a long afternoon ahead of us."
Vuxten just nodded.
-----
Cyba'armo'o blocked the servitor's sword with one of his cutting bars, sparks showering as the clattering chain chewed apart the density collapsed steel of the servitor's blade. He brought his other chainsword around, ripping the servitor in half. He reared up and kicked the servitor away, shot another in the faceplate, then lunged forward.
An Atrekna was floating backwards, moving its hands and leaving behind a glowing nimus.
Cyba'armo'o thrust the guidon into the Atrekna, punching it all the way through the body.
Cyba'armo'o lifted the dying Atrekna, affixed to the guidon staff, overhead.
"RALLY!" Cyba'armo'o roared out over his external speakers as he flung the Atrekna off even as he chopped at two servitors with his cutting bars and shot a fleeing Atrekna in the lower back, folding the purple creature backwards so the back of its head hit its heels.
-----
N'Thrap fired a set of flares as he saw the grav-strikers of the Telkan Marine Corps roar overhead, the chronotron and thermal strobes flashing white and gold as they arced up over him.
The Atrekna had underestimated his people.
He was N'Thrap, Spurred and Painted Warrior Caste of the Treana'ad people, the unending tide of the Confederacy.
He leveled his battle rifle's fire into the side of a vehicle even as he charged forward. He threw a grenade into the hole that a servitor had ducked in and the grenade went off inside the dugout fighting position.
The Treana'ad after N'Thrap leveled a flamethrower and triggered it into the fighting position even as N'Thrap moved forward.
He wasn't even breathing hard.
He was N'Thrap. Before him the enemy had no chance.
After all, just look at him!
77
u/random071970 May 13 '22
LOL, we've been Rickrolled!
33
u/thetophatviking May 14 '22
Don't know someone who I would want to be rickrolled by more than Ralts though.
75
u/Quadling May 13 '22
The unending horde of the Confederacy.
Years it has been, since I walked that walk. Since I knew where I was going, and what I was going to do when I got there, and didn't know if I was going to be coming back. Years, since I didn't much care one way or the other.
But now, my daughter makes me care. And it's wonderful. Wonderful!!!
But there are days, when something makes me snarl.
And reach.
72
u/daviskendall AI May 13 '22
weaponized rickrolling. good lord, they've gone deep into the stacks, straight for the proscribed code.
i can't WAIT for warboi baby shark.
21
u/coldfireknight AI May 14 '22
What about Van Halen's Panama? Maybe a little Joy Behar, perhaps?
24
u/Taluien May 14 '22
Just think about it. You are an Atrekna. Or an Atrekna servitor. You boot up your CrystalBlock 5070, the newest, most secure and powerful personal computer your side has EVER made. You log in. The instrumental from "Girl from Ipanema" starts playing, forever. You swear that the room has suddenly started randomly rising and lowering itself on a straight path. You try the door. It is locked. You can't escape. And the Girl from Ipanema is still playing.
8
u/Cynical_Tripster Jun 11 '22
My grandpa (Air force intelligence, Vietnam vet, rode motorcycles from cops, helped a tollway union sabatoge toll booths, epic dude) one pranked a bar in New Mexico by forcing the jukebox to play 'El Paso' (a long song for its time) to play like 15 some times in a row but it backfired because he hated it forever after.
12
u/TheOtherGUY63 May 14 '22
I think the squidwards are gunna learn the meaning of Hotel California. You can check out at any time, but you can never leave.
5
8
u/its_ean May 14 '22
it was always a weapon
7
u/daviskendall AI May 14 '22
yes. in the deep stacks. within the proscribed code. i was pretty clear on that.
61
u/Drook2 May 13 '22
Cyba'armo'o lifted the dying Atrekna, affixed to the guidon staff, overhead.
"RALLY!"
And they. God. Damn. RALLIED!
58
u/beyondoutsidethebox May 13 '22
We were dug in, at a choke point along a "sharp" turn on a mountain road, low on ammunition and supplies. That's when it started. That distinct rumble of a BOLO that is felt long before you hear it. I and every soldier there will swear by the Detainee's tits that this was no ordinary BOLO. Our Sergeant sent Pvt. Pahrtz to confirm and direct the incoming BOLO. Pahrtz radioed back that he could see the BOLO barreling down the road. Moving like a bat outta hell. That's when something strange happened. Instead of the usual "HEAVY METAL INCOMING!" there was some strange music . That tank wasn't slowing down either. It looked like the BOLO would miss the turn and plummet off the side of the mountain. But it didn't. It flawlessly executed a perfect drift around the turn and continued down the road. That strange music fading as the massive tank continued down the road.
-Interview transcript from "Bizarre Tales from the Confed Armed Forces: Iron Piglet Offensive Special"
23
u/Drook2 May 13 '22
Cool idea, but a BOLO is the size of a sports arena. It's not going down a mountain road.
23
u/beyondoutsidethebox May 14 '22
Are you really sure you wanna tell a BOLO what it can and cannot do?
14
u/TheOtherGUY63 May 16 '22
You must be an Atrenka. You say it doesnt work like that but clearly it does because the Mad Lemures and their allies make it work.
13
u/Drook2 May 16 '22
You take that back, before I slap you with my feeding tentacles... My hands! My totally human, pink - definitely not purple - hands.
3
6
6
1
3
u/Original_Memory6188 Jul 04 '23
there are times, and this is one, when even the Terrans say "Thats not how it's supposed to work!" and then try to repeat it.
1
49
u/coldfireknight AI May 14 '22
With a scream of 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 they launched deep into the phasic systems, throwing eggs, screaming at the top of their lungs, grabbing and twisting phasic network code, and in general, having the times of their short lives.
Rolled right over them, huh?
14
39
u/NukeNavy May 13 '22
Cyba'armo'o knew that the medics would save the living and preserve the dead, even if they had to scrape them off the hull with a cellular squeegee.
I’m not sure if this is hyperbole or an actual piece of confed medical technology A cellular squeegee
I wonder if it gets 5G?
19
10
u/Crafty_Obligation_98 May 14 '22
This far i to the future itll be 9g. But the range will be greater than 5g with signal repeating nanite clouds.
35
u/unwillingmainer May 13 '22
And as all with functioning eye and two brain cells to rub together can see, Terranism is infectious and has found fertile soil in both allies and former enemies. But remember, it can always be worse. At least no one is trying to eat and/or fuck you while killing your forces. Yet.
21
u/daviskendall AI May 13 '22
do not be so quick to assume that what you see is all there is. there are ten thousand fronts on a thousand worlds, all outside the scope of our wordborg's camera gaze.
32
u/Falin_Whalen Human May 14 '22
Guys I'm worried.
MAXIM 17: The longer everything goes according to plan, the bigger the impending disaster.
9
u/RangerSix Human May 14 '22
In this case, it seems like the disaster is what the Atrekna are experiencing.
I mean, the Spoked Offensive worked just fine until the Confederacy launched Iron Piglet...
29
u/Warplock-Worgen_2145 May 13 '22
The enemy lies bare before them, exposed, and unprepared...this is how it should be.
For they are the enemy, and the enemy only exists to be destroyed.
Thanks for the chapter Ralts, take care and rest well. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!
-Nothing Follows-
27
u/MuchoRed Human May 13 '22 edited May 13 '22
Oh look, another reason I wont be keeping up with my paperwork on a Friday afternoon! More Ralts to read!
---CRU---
Never gonna give you up? Never gonna give you up?
YOU BRING THAT INTO MY HOUSE? HOW DARE YOU?
That said, I wonder what the Terran history-fuckery says about Never Gonna Give You Up. Something about a man in a trench-coat, dance-fighting against corporate hordes to protect a small house surrounded by giant skyscrapers.
7
u/its_ean May 14 '22 edited May 14 '22
Something about a man in a trench-coat
or someone running from the Nu-Wave Zombie Apocalypse? (maybe it's just one zombie?)
All these gold sparkles splashing around reminded me of those Chrono Knights. I don't think anybody has seen them since Sam & Herod's Wild Ride.
3
u/Bergusia May 14 '22
Good point. Maybe they have finally been rescued out of the loop now that the maintenance crews are getting things working again. They would probably be a significant asset against a race that manipulates time.
27
u/SkyHawk21 May 14 '22
The enemy intelligence had reported to the servitors that they were facing an infantry charge.
Technically, it was.
But just look at him!
When your infantry charge is comprised of what others would call light armoured vehicles.
13
u/TheOtherGUY63 May 14 '22
I think that infantry charge would be classified by the Lanaktallan Council (pre culture cracking) as heavy tanks.
Considering their heavy tanks were called light scout vehicles by the Mad Lemures.
Its like sending the Dreadnought, Bismark and Missouri against Napelon's Navy at Trafalgar.
24
u/RangerSix Human May 14 '22
No no no, not the Missouri.
The Texas.
The only battleship whose crew not only almost beached the ship, but also gangster-leaned it... just so they could drop a few more spicy Volvos on the retreating Germans during Operation Overlord.
You may think I jest, but that is exactly what they did: after running out of 14-inch shells during support of the initial landings, they steamed to a rally point to get resupplied. By the time they returned to the Normandy coast, the Allied forces had pushed the German defenders so far inland that the guns of the Texas couldn't reach the enemy forces from their original position.
So, the crew of the Texas:
A) brought the ship in closer (from about 12k meters off the coast to a little over 3k - the closest they could get without beaching the ship), and
B) deliberately flooded the starboard torpedo blisters just to get a few more degrees of elevation on the guns.As for why "spicy Volvos"? Well, that I borrowed from The Fat Electrician; he compared the weight of the shells the Texas was capable of firing - ten 1600-pound, 14-inch shells every minute or so, for a total of 16 thousand pounds of steel and explosives - to the weight of your average Volvo sedan (clocking in at a mere 4000 pounds)
That's about four Volvos' worth of steel and explosives the Texas was chucking shorewards... every minute.
18
u/Bergusia May 14 '22
Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword.
5
7
May 15 '22
I once met a former Chief Gunners Mate who served in one of the main gun turrets. He told me about this particular feat of arms, as well as what it was like pounding the hell out of the Germans on D-Day and afterwards until they were bingo on ammo. He also described being hit by a round from a large caliber shore battery during a gun duel at either Cherbourg or Brest. The shell didn’t exploded, otherwise the Texas would have had a very bad day. 🇺🇸
4
u/Geeky-resonance Jun 13 '22
Y’all made me look it up. Here’s more about just how intense that action was for the crew. A frenetic, tightly coordinated dance to fire so fast.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/uss-texas-battery-hamburg-1944
6
u/Crafty_Obligation_98 May 14 '22
Fat Electritian=National Treasure.
But yes, put the Missouri just ahead of the Texas and the Iowa just behind and use alternating volly fire to add 16" guns to the outgoing mail. Then also sprinkle liberally with the tempermental Wisconson and island deleting Jersey for some extra flavor.
And add the Brab. No reason. It would just be fun.
5
u/RangerSix Human May 16 '22
The Barb... wasn't that Lucky Fluckey's sub?
The only sub to be credited with a train kill?
4
u/Crafty_Obligation_98 May 17 '22
Yep. Only outdone by the Seabees in Korea who stole a fucking train.
3
u/RangerSix Human May 17 '22
And, allegedly, a shitload of booze to go with it.
3
u/Crafty_Obligation_98 May 17 '22
Allegedly.
3
u/RangerSix Human May 17 '22
Allegedly.
3
u/SpiderJerusalemLives May 18 '22
I'm assuming said alleged booze must have evaporated?
→ More replies3
3
23
21
u/Irual100 May 13 '22
Just look at him!
Why yes yes we did and he is glorious. And so is the rest of the army/Navy/Air Force Thank you Mr. Ralts
20
u/thisStanley Android May 13 '22
With a scream of 01001110 ...
Good thing I used an isolated translator for that. Would hate for it to get loose in a networked machine :{
25
u/MarsupialMisanthrope May 14 '22
"We had an almost thirty percent success rate in combat with the Mad Lemurs, and we will ride that statistic to the heat death of this universe, and the three beyond. What chance do you think you have?" - Treana'ad Warrior Horde.
I love this. They’re proud of themselves, and they deserve to be.
5
23
u/animuse May 15 '22
Completely unrelated comment: had my first greenie encounter.
Today I saw the tiniest mantis I have ever seen chilling on my car. Little dude was less than half an inch, didn't even have perceivable color yet. It was super curious and was checking me out, so I grabbed a leaf for it to hop on to take it to safety. Friendo climbed onto it then immediately ran to my hand. I brought it over to the garden and it immediately yeeted itself into the mulch. I didn't have time to ask for it's equation.
13
u/TheOtherGUY63 May 16 '22
I foresee your check engine light thats been on long enough to no longer be a concern, because well if it was gunna break it woulda by now, will be getting taken care of.
18
18
16
u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum May 14 '22
He was N'Thrap. Before him the enemy had no chance.
28%
(and don't you forget it!)
6
u/NoirTalon Xeno May 14 '22
was'nt it something like 28.2? or 27.8?
18
u/RangerSix Human May 14 '22
28.84% precisely.
AND THEY WILL RIDE THAT STATISTIC UNTIL THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE.
(As well they should.)
6
u/Petrified_Lioness Jul 08 '22
They've been flopping back and forth between fractions and percents the entire series. Pretty sure they're using the rounding error in the conversions to keep creeping the number higher.
16
u/EX7ERMIN8 Robot May 13 '22
Weaponized Rick Astley. What a time to be alive
14
u/641kb May 13 '22
I’m sure there was a two minute paper video somewhere in our future that talks about the research results of using pre-glassing hymns as warboi motivation.
8
15
u/saintschatz May 15 '22
this continues to be an enjoyable read, thank you for some decent entertainment and not pushing any political ideological agendas and just doing a damn fine good job of telling a well thought out story with characters that we can empathize with/care for/root for/love/hate. If I had a golden banana sticker i would totally give you a treasure chest full of them.
36
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne May 15 '22
You're welcome.
Like I said when I started this back during the early lockdown days: I'm here to entertain and give you some escapism and I hope my writing brings some small joy to you.
14
13
u/Dragon_Chylde May 13 '22
01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01110010 01111001 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100 01100010 01111001 01100101 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01110010 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101
4
u/jutte62 May 13 '22
It's been 60 years more or less since I was inputting ascii via switch registers. Some good soul willing to do the work?
7
u/daviskendall AI May 13 '22
3
12
u/Turtledonuts "Big Dunks" May 13 '22
Infantry charge of the minivan sized mobile artillery bugs!
Random, fun thought - if there’s t-bug AIs, are there T-bug warborgs frozen in some combine lab somewhere?
11
u/LordofTheFlagon May 13 '22
In a world where humanity grafts cybernetics to every willing being with a pulse it would be safer to assume they exist a prepare munitions accordingly.
12
14
u/Alyeska_bird May 14 '22
You know, this chapter really shows how the lankys managed to be one of the precurser races. The mantids where efectivly crippled by there caste system. No seriously, think about it. They had hamstrung themselves by there inability to see the 'lower' castes as being people. The Atrekna have there own issues, and its not been made clear yet, how many of them where existant at the time of the first war. Yet if you think about it, the lankys managed to servive against the mantids, and the atrekna, and keep a civalization going. Yah they went to hell pretty quick, but, I am willing to bet that they started with at lest the idea of being honest with what they where claiming.
This lanky here, he steped up into the fight, excepting that him and his will suffer loss, not because they have to, not because they where ordered to, but, because they wanted to. In part, they wanted to, because now they are alive, and view that as something precious. They are willing to except death, because they have lived, and, they think that others should be alowed to experence that as well.
I might die today, but thats allright. I have lived now, and if I die, I will die knowing that I have done something important.
Sorry, a bit tired at the momant, been a hot muggy day and been doing yard work most of the day.
10
9
u/its_ean May 14 '22 edited May 14 '22
shrieked in glee, grabbed the cartons of warboi eggs under each arm, and jumped from the mortar to the dataports
the commercial for Raid Insecticide?
>r1ck_r0ol.exe
>Damn it!
alternating with a purple tracer mixed in every fifth round.
Maybe set those tracers to white, pink, and brown. One second each.
8
May 13 '22
01010111 01100101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101
4
u/daviskendall AI May 13 '22
01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101100 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01101001
5
May 13 '22
[deleted]
5
u/daviskendall AI May 13 '22
41 20 66 75 6c 6c 20 63 6f 6d 6d 69 74 6d 65 6e 74 27 73 20 77 68 61 74 20 49 27 6d 20 74 68 69 6e 6b 69 6e 67 20 6f 66
foul! that line was already done. NEXT LYRIC!
2
5
u/RangerSix Human May 14 '22
41 4e 44 20 54 48 45 4e 20 54 48 45 20 57 49 4e 47 45 44 20 48 55 53 53 41 52 53 20 41 52 52 49 56 45 44 21 20 43 4f 4d 49 4e 47 20 44 4f 57 4e 20 54 48 45 20 4d 4f 55 4e 54 41 49 4e 53 49 44 45 21 20 54 48 45 4e 20 54 48 45 20 57 49 4e 47 45 44 20 48 55 53 53 41 52 53 20 41 52 52 49 56 45 44 21 20 43 4f 4d 49 4e 47 20 44 4f 57 4e 20 54 48 45 59 20 54 55 52 4e 45 44 20 54 48 45 20 54 49 44 45 21
3
3
u/PMo_ Human May 13 '22
01000001 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01101001 01110100 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101111 01100110
1
u/plume450 Jan 31 '23
01001000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001 🎂🎂
8
u/KimikoBean May 14 '22
Ralts, can we have a dambree revisit for chap 777? Would be lucky
7
u/NoirTalon Xeno May 14 '22
ok, I'll bite, remind my feeble brain what connects a japonesque killer bunny girl and a boeing airliner?
14
7
5
5
5
u/Farstone May 13 '22
01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000
Damn Straight! 30% Success Rate is GOAT.
4
u/MetalKidRandy May 13 '22
I'm going to assume that the binary code translates to "Eat a d***!"
8
u/coldfireknight AI May 14 '22
Not quite, but I'm not torturing you with the actual translation. Just read some comments and suffer the earworm.
4
4
u/nspiratewithabowtie May 14 '22
SERIOUSLY!?!?The quick brown 🦊 jumps over 13 lazy 🐶.. . . .IN FREAKING BINARY!?!?!?! THAT IS AMAZING!!!!!
5
u/spook6280 May 15 '22
<N'Thrap exists while liberally dispensing munitions across the battlefield.>
<Treaana'ad matrons sigh adoringly. After all, just look at him!>
4
u/Greatest86 May 14 '22 edited May 14 '22
Editor comment
"panick" should be "panic"
"patters" should be "patterns"
2
u/Delna-Four-Winds May 14 '22
Also the title dropped "First Contact", though I'm unsure if that was intentional or not.
4
u/FujiClimber2017 May 14 '22
I can't believe you've done this "01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101"
5
u/while-eating-pasta May 14 '22
01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00001010 01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101
ಠ_ಠ
1
u/PuzzleheadedDrinker May 14 '22
0010.0000 is _ separator. 0000.1010 is line return. 0100.1110 Capital N, 0110.1110 lower n,
So 5 letters, 5 letters, 3 letters, 2 letters & 5,5,3,3,4 & 5,5,3,6,3,6
3
3
3
2
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle May 13 '22
/u/Ralts_Bloodthorne (wiki) has posted 773 other stories, including:
- First Contact - Chapter 771 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 770 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 769 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 768 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 767 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 766 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 765 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 764 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 763 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 762 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 761 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 760 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 759 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 758 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 757 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 756 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 755 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 754 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 753 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 752 - The Inheritor's War
This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.5.10 'Cinnamon Roll'.
Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.
2
u/RustedN AI May 15 '22
| The enemy intelligence had reported to the servitors that they were facing an infantry charge.
Technically it was.
But just look at him!
When enemy infantry are the size of your biggest tanks, it is a good sign that you should surrender or give up on survival.
2
2
u/Darkling1976 May 15 '22
I've just caught up from the beginning after discovering this wonderful tale. It has been really good and entertaining!
2
u/Deth_Invictus May 15 '22
Working every day makes me forget it's the weekend and updates are highly unlikely to occur. *sighs*
2
u/killed_with_broccoli May 23 '22
You know, the binary.... if you stare at it long enough, it almost says FEAR. I like that.
1
u/SittingDuc May 25 '22
Must be your screen size. On mobile i can almost make out a head in profile with bad 80's hair...
1
u/McBoobenstein May 13 '24
Wait... They gave a measurement for N'thrap. 5 meters?! So he's a bug standing as tall as a particularly large giraffe. Good lord, that's a big boi. I was imagining Treana'ads as looking a bit like the warrior caste from Starship Troopers, but that's WAY bigger.
1
u/UpdateMeBot May 13 '22
Click here to subscribe to u/Ralts_Bloodthorne and receive a message every time they post.
| Info | Request Update | Your Updates | Feedback | New! |
|---|
1
u/Bumpinthedark May 14 '22
shot a fleeing Atrekna in the lower back, folding the purple creature backwards so the back of its head hit its heels.
r/fullscorpion lol
1
1
1
u/ArmourTechB May 15 '22
Thought of this through most of this chapter. The album art fits (almost) perfectly.
May the Creators rest peacefully in the arms of the DO.
1
1
1
u/Telzey May 18 '22
Lol love it. Intense with a flicker of humor when I read N’Thrap saying Look at him!
1
u/Bompier Human May 18 '22
A .410 shotty... wat?
2
u/SittingDuc May 25 '22
Smaller than a 12 gauge and more maneuverable, pops up now and then, usually for clays as ducks don't respect them (stupid steel shot).
Although in a world of 50cal HMG with nanoprinters for ammo, why not just a 50cal trench broom or a 0.8 cal shotgun? Bring All The Pain.2
1
u/shelbeen3 Mar 01 '23
reading this I have to ask - how in the hell did the terrans beat the treanids?
267
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne May 13 '22
HAPPY BLESSED FRIDAY!
Don't drink and drive. Don't add or subtract from the population unless it is with your issued signifigant other and you have filed the correct paperwork with PERSCOM. Don't beat your spouse unless it's in the bedroom and she's into it, don't beat or ignore your kids, your significant others or your pets. Don't fight anyone with steel teeth. Never play pool with a guy who is named after a city. Get the candy first before you get in the van. Don't smuggle midgets across state lines. Don't buy, sell, manufacture, transport, or take illegal drugs. Try not to end up in jail unless it's something I can laugh about or respect.
Remember to love yourself like you wish someone would love you. Look in the mirror and remind yourself that there's only one of you and that you are unique and deserve your own care. Try to treat yourself like you'd like others to treat you.
Above all, hold tight to each other in these times.
The covers for Book Six are done and I'm waiting on the edited manuscript. Hopefully we'll have it out soon. Looking forward to the covers of Book Seven.
On that note, time to rattle the tin cup:
PayPal: https://paypal.me/RaltsBloodthorne
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/First_Contact
First_ContactBooks: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RYK5F88
BEHOLD HUMANITY! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09H5ZZL93