Grrl Power #612 – Thunderbirds are go!
When I started the comic, I kind of scattered the ranks around the characters because I didn’t really understand what all that stuff meant. To me, military ranks always seemed like leveling up at your job like you’re playing Call of Duty. I was genuinely blown away when learned the difference between commissioned and non-commissioned. Like, why does anyone not want to be an officer? I know you have to meet certain requirements like some higher level education, but being a Lieutenant has to be better than being a private, right? If for no other reason than there’s like 10,000 fewer people than can boss you around on your base. I’ve always had a pathological aversion to authority, so maybe it’s just me.
Sure, I’ve seen movies and TV with people of different ranks doing stuff, but usually it’s all in service of a larger plot and it’s just one guy barking orders down the chain. They rarely show the stuff that each rank actually does, (at least never in the shows I’ve ever watched) because 90% of what you do in the military is probably super boring. Stargate SG-1 didn’t exactly focus on what a Lance Corporal or a 2nd Lieutenant spends all day doing.
Anyway, since I made Anvil a sergeant, I figure she ought to be seen bossing the troops around a little bit. I’ve definitely seen that in shows, so I’m sure I’m right on the money with that.
I don’t know why I named the teams Alpha and Delta instead of Alpha and Beta. I guess mostly because Delta sounds cooler than Beta, plus, Alpha and Beta sounds like sociological categorization instead of military squads. You got to call them something, and Maxima vetoed Alpha and Kumquat.
Unrelated side rant: I need to make a 3D model of Maxima’s gun, because I’m no good at drawing them, and I idiotically designed hers a little too complicated for me to draw from a lot of different angles. I started doing it once, but like a dummy, the first thing I tried to do was the rifling inside the barrel. That was not in my 3D modeling 101 skillset. I could make a barrel with little fins running along the inside, but as soon as I tried twisting one end, the middle part pinched in like I was twisting up a towel. The problem with 3D programs is there might be one checkbox that fixes that problem, but if you don’t know the exact solution, you could spend 20 hours experimenting and googling for answers and watching youtube tutorials before figuring it out. Even then, if you do find the answer, the version of the program you’re using might be different from the guy who made the tutorial, and the checkbox is in a different place now, and there’s another 20 minutes of figuring it out.
The long and the short of it is that 3D programs are completely unintuitive as far as I’m concerned. I think part of the problem with them is their UI is made by programmers and not people who are actually good at UI. The other problem is there’s so much crap you can do in a 3D program that a layer, and brush palette and a color picker like in a 2D paint program isn’t going to cut it. There are probably better solutions than what’s in most 3D programs, but there’s probably not any great ones.
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I think Sydney needs wing resistant armour instead.
I think I need to post something where DaveB might see it, and do something about it. That is, as I mentioned earlier among all these comments, that the last panel has a speech balloon next to Anvil, that needs to have a pointy thing showing that Anvil is the source of the words in the speech balloon (comparable to the pointy thing that’s part of the speech balloon located near Sydney).
You needn’t fear, DaveB reads all the comments. Although he may not have time to reply to them all, or to do fixes. In this case though he has actually already replied, some time ago.
Look at how low she is on the orb skilltree, she doesn’t even know what two of them do. They respond to thought commands as regards to movement so they can obviously work that way.
The orbs probably regard Sydney as still being in training, and having to hold one to make it work is both a safety and training (focus) feature. As she levels up they will start to work unheld.
Only one of the orbs is a total mystery now. The other one has been discovered to have at least one definite capability: making air (underwater, but probably in other contexts too).
Making water in air? The rainmaker.
Making fire underground? The volcano.
Making stone/metal in fire? The quarry forge.
I still like the “spaceship” theory. Green is life support, so I’d expect it to also be able to make water and nutrient paste (if not proper food). The remaining one is probably a cargo hold, power source for the other orbs, stasis chamber… something along those lines. Something that can be represented by a white blob / cloud / blank void…
Sydney would love the hammer space option.
Navigation/mapping…..
there is another option for the last one that no one has considered, it is similar to the cargo hold and brig ideas.
Crew Quarters. What if something or something are in there…sleeping…waiting…constantly hitting the snooze button every time Sydney taps the orb because they don’t realize the function orbs are operational even though the main bio-ship crashed on Earth ages ago and died leaving the function orbs on the sea floor.
*tiny alien wakes up, scratches facial tentacles…”what the Hell? Are we moving? Did we get a new ship?…Who the hell just ordered the ship to fire the phasers?! What’s going on??”
:-D
“Chief Engineer, I need you to find a way to restore power to sensors!”
“I canne do that Captain, there is no way to reverse the polarity of the thingmybob, whilst the external hatch jammed. Until someone presses the manual release glyph we canne repair anything outside!”
Maybe the last orb is the automation orb.
I mean when you think about it, having passive abilities like the shields and the life support needing active, constant attention (even to the degree of holding an orb) seems a little poorly designed. They really only need an on-off toggle.
So maybe holding the auto-orb, you can set the shields up, drop the shield orb, shields stay active. Then grab the life support orb, turn life support on, drop the life support orb, then drop the auto-orb, and everything stays active.
Further extensions of the auto-orb include, Auto-orb + PPO allows you to target something, turn on auto-fire, and then focus on flying and the light-hook. Auto-orb + fly ball = cruise control+basic object avoidance+basic altitude control. Point yourself at the horizon, set the auto-orb, then focus on PPO targeting, or just read.
As functional as that would be, from a writing stand point it would be a poor choice. Sydney has a huge array of powers to choose from, many of which still have upgrades to go, her limitation is she can only use two at a time. for instance the bussing A-team thing, she can’t use fly, air, and shield at the same time, so either someone needs to float her, or she has to be quick about it unless she can stop to use the air ball to fill the shield back up, in which case she might as well stop to unshield and then re-air.
air and shield together is only really good for her being carried or turtle maneuvering an enemy. On the ground can switch one hand to refill shield air as needed while staying safe, then back to other hand using a weapon orb.
OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!
A REAL STORY WITH A REAL JOKE!
“I’m on the Alpha team. That’s the best one.”
Errm, that sounds kinda foreboding to me. Like something said in an old war movie- right before said team gets royally smashed.
That’s why she got yelled at. Break it now in a safe place before karma breaks it on the field.
I think that NCO’s would get some respect from the officers today. During Vietnam, lieutenants and some captains deferred to senior NCO’s; why? They had served in WWII, Korea, and assorted police actions. They knew combat and could read a situation before it developed. After Vietnam, a long slow period and they retired and new NCO’s didn’t have much experience. We’ve been in the Middle East long enough that NCO’s should get that experience bonus again!
Just my take as an old sergeant!
Late reply, but I once spoke to an old NCO who told about a newly minted 2nd lt who told the group where to setup camp.
Nco took one look at the sky and area, and said “sir, I respectfully suggest we set up over there”
“I just gave an order!”
So they set up camp, waited for the lt to go to sleep, and everyone relocated the camp to the other position.
The ensuing rain down the gulley they set up in floated the lt several meters out of his tent.
The next morning the nco was officially put in charge of setting up camp.
When I had military (officer school) aspirations, I always said that if I finished, my first act on any location I was assigned to was to get all the nco’s together to ask how things work there.
Your comment said teams Beta. https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/guide-to-the-military-phonetic-alphabet.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet
Teams would probably be called Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo etc. Unless Arc has a thing for greek?
Scattered.
Nice comic, like a lot. Keep up the good work.
Military vernacular? “We are oscar mike” -> we are ON MISSION. Stuff like: in the pipe, 4×4.
OFC, post comment thinking I’m first. Third page. Already said. Ignore
Well you did actually raise a new point, which is highly pertinent, and true. Archon do have a thing for Greek.
Bow down to your new masters!
That’s 5×5, as in your toes are all in a line.
You actually nailed it with Alpha & Delta: B would have been Bravo, not Beta. The military is very picky about their phonetic alphabet.
They are also picky about Chain of Command, just as well Archon isn’t regular military and make up their own rules and regulations (and ranks)
ARCHON is more picky than GI Joe though. At least dress code-wise. :)
Wait. I’m still confused about exactly what happened between Maxima showing up at Deus’s building and the deal between Sciona and Deus. Maxima knew Sciona was there fighting Vale so why did she leave?
Your last should have been in the past tense. By the time Arc-SWAT arrived both Vale and Sciona had left the scene, leaving no indicator of where they were. Possibly still fighting, possibly not. They were no longer in sight, as Super Hiro was looking out the window (with what looks like binoculars), past where they had been fighting before, and could not see them.
Likewise the team would have arrived by air, and did not see them even from that vantage. Obviously the search would have continued for some time, but would have wound up once there were no more sightings, nor calls from alarmed members of the public.
That scene concluded (in that regard) with Deus promising to let Maxima know if there was any development. Cunningly phrased as:
So he can quite confidently sit in a lie detector machine and confirm that he has complied with that promise. Despite having subsequently slept with Sciona, he did not agree to inform Archon if he saw her. Vale has not made her official report to Deus yet, so he can wait until she does. Maybe around about now. Or perhaps tomorrow morning.
Do not forget that the last we saw of Vale and Sciona, prior to Maxima and co. turning up, was the former politely extending an invitation to Sciona to continue the negotiations. So the fight was already over by that stage. Meaning that they could simply have walked straight back into the building, at the lower level they had fought down to, and would have been safely out of sight when the cavalry arrived.
Vale, being particularly stealthy, and also the head of Deus’s security, and thus having full access to the building’s security surveillance, safe rooms and the like, would have no difficulty in keeping Sciona completely out of sight, until the coast was clear of any pesky cops.
One slight correction: Hiro was just looking with shaded eyes, not binoculars
Another correction: as your quote said, SmugD would give Maxi an update when he hears from her (Valeur), not when she makes an ‘official report’. He did hear from her, couple times at least, in the same room as Sci-fright
I was not sure, when trying to decide if it was a shaded hand or a pair of binoculars, being used one-handed. I decided on the latter, but qualified my statement, as I could not be certain.
Hearing something, without it containing any information substantive to the fight on the roof, is not something that need be reported to the police. Deus is a very busy business man and has a country to run and would be expected to ignore trivia or gossip. Until Sciona tells him what happened, he is under no obligation to inform Maxima (whilst sticking strictly to the letter of his agreement, if not the spirit).
And even then he did not say he would tell her everything. So I suspect that his report may be bare bones enough to omit any subsequent liaison with Sciona.
“Vale has returned. She did not manage to apprehend Sciona. I am not aware of Sciona’s present whereabouts.”
More confused about Harem here. Where was she during the whole thing? Was she with Deus when he talked to Vale? Did she follow the fight at all? Did the two manage to evade her in a relatively non-suspicious way?
That seems like something too important to leave out, unless it’s to hide from us what Harem is or is not telling Maxima.
Remember, there are five Daphne’s, so one of her was at Arc-HQ the whole time, butt seriously doubt SmugD would have allowed Abby to know about the follow-up meeting
Harem was sitting on the desk, in front of Deus. So saw the start of the fight. When he lost sight of the action, so did she. She will very have heard Deus phone Vale (unless he left the room to make the call or asked Harem to do so), to get her to stop fighting and encourage Sciona to return to negotiations.
Possibly Daphne may have gone over to the window, to look down. But as she knows that Deus was cutting a deal with Sciona (and presumably has not told Maxima) it is unlikely that she would contradict Deus’s statement that the fight had continued. But we shall have to wait and see on that.
Currently we have no indication that Maxima knows about Deus offering Sciona deals. However we do know that she had not kept Archon in the loop about dating him. So it is reasonable to assume that her reports have not been comprehensive.
Either way Vale and Sciona could have just walked down through whatever rooftop access there is to the helipad. Vale is Deus’s head of security, so would have access to even locked doors.
Anything that Harem needed to report will have been done via her other body at the HQ. Hence why we did not see Maxima cross examining her on the scene. Everything that Harem chose to tell Maxima had already been passed on to her, before they even arrived.
A possible cheat for the rifling in the 3D gun would be to just to the end of the barrel instead of the full rifling, and cap it inside with a black plug/disk.
For the viewer, you see the rifling on the end of the barrel, but you never see it going down the inside of the barrel. Heck, in real life, without the light just right, you don’t see down the inside of the barrel anyway, even if it’s pointed right at you.
Because the Sarge’s job is to KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
The LT’s job, is to tell the Sarge to do something, and trust they do it. Here’s a standard military Intelligence test.
A variation is give a prospective junior officer a description of a situation, such as “You are to erect a 30 foot long flag pole in a certain location to that the top is 24 feet above ground level. Your resources are a sergeant and 20 men, and four each picks, shovels, and axes, plus two thirty foot ropes. What is the first order you give?” The correct answer is “Sergeant, erect the flag-pole.” The test is to see if he understands that the non-coms are supposed to see that the men do the assigned tasks, and figure out how to carry out orders, while the officer commanding the unit decides what should be done. Further, if the sergeant for some reason can’t get the pole erected, and the officer must take over, he has time to think of something the sergeant hasn’t tried. Also, he hasn’t made himself look incompetent first, retaining respect as the leader.
The problem, of course, is that you need SOMEBODY to relate to the troops on a personal level, know what they are doing…and many people go into the military because they can’t afford/have the time for officer training.
Nicely put.
Another downside to an officer’s job that’s not widely advertised is that the job is to lead their troops, take care of them… and also expend them like ammo if that’s what it takes to get the job done.
It’s one of those jobs where the number of people who can actually do it well is much smaller than the number who think they can.
Hey Dave, Im only a PFC in the army right know but if you need to know how rank structure works and what they are supposed to do (in the army at least) just let me know (i got the email setting turned on for this comment)
Whelp thats 8 corrections of the phonetic alphabet by the third page….who had that in the pool?
One of the sargents
I’d like to point out that Sydney is actually in a position to make alpha wait.
She’s uh. Their ride.
Though there is, of course an important distiction between “able to” and “advisable to”.
Very much of a distinction. As per my reply to Nikaro below.
They are on a time critical mission to stop someone who has already attempted mass murder, is believed to be in possession of weapons of apocalyptic power and who has attempted to bring down The Veil. Which would create the chaos of humans attacking members of the supernatural (who would just be perceived as monsters, rather than people) and potentially a global war between them and humanity.
One where the odds are very much in favour of the technologically and magically far better equipped races, with allies spread across the galaxy. Even supers might not be able to tip the balance in such a war.
So Sydney could be tempted to have a quick game on her smartphone, but there would be … repercussions.
I doubt there would be an all out war, rather some nations, cults, and individuals would attack them, possibly on sight; the legal ramifications would be staggering in most cases given how some species feed.
I doubt the council are technologically superior, magic perhaps.
I an inclined to believe the aliens representative on the council doesn’t play any enforcer/legal aspect, the way it was worded and prior conversation with Dabbler is that aliens regard Earth as a tourist destination, the alien representative would be an ambassador not a law maker only representing whatever company runs tourism on Earth and not inclined to extend any military aid (now the odd chance a human attacks an alien whose race CAN is another story). Note also the aliens don’t really use the veil, they have their own disguise kits *Dabbler’s conversation again*
likewise demons, being from a Netherworld beyond the confines of life and death, could also fall into another grey area where they have their own means to hide *Dabbler’s various glamor options for instance*.
Demons and Aliens would likely be least affected by the veil dropping and continue business as usual, however the Vampires, werewolves, fairies, undead, harpies, mer-people, lamia, and everything else would have a much worse situation.
Some of their member races are from other planets. We have already seen Dabbler using hand guns that can shoot holes through mountains, or satellites out of orbit! Most of her technology being ‘off the shelf’ galactic stuff which she ‘tweaks’ for her specific needs.
Unless either:
1) the galactic community has an embargo on bringing high technology to Earth (in which case Dabber is in serious trouble).
2) they are the savage decendents of more advanced races, who are only able to travel to other planets using ancient technology
3) there is some other explanation for how they can travel to other planets and Dabbler has access to ultra technology
they must have superior technology. Probably far far superior.
And you think that races who routinely have wars with each other, sometimes even fighting in the Twilight Council HQ chambers, would sit passively by whilst they were being systematically attacked in such a fashion?
I guarantee that they would fight back.
The only question is whether it could be contained or not. If the Twilight Council and Archon, and all of the other supernatural-friendly nations, all actively co-operated and put in laws protecting the supernatural (they can be freely murdered at the moment, as murder is specifically defined as being against homo sapiens only), then maybe that can be averted.
Until that was done there would be an anarchic free-for-all for anyone who did not want to have werewolves, vampires and even worse living next door to them! And everytime the supernatural victims fought back, there would be TV pictures of ‘another massacre by monsters’.
Aggravated by the fact that a lot of the supernatural are inclined to be monsterous by nature and would have every justification to indulge their whims, just as much as the fearful and superstitious humans.
So either way you would still end up with World War III, as it would be the monster hating nations vs the monster hugging nations. And Deus will have been happily supplying apocalyptic weapons to the highest bidders on either side!
Unless, of course, supers can contain the worst incidents, whilst a framework for peace was built. But Archon could not police the entire planet, and they are the only (official) national super unit in existence anyhow. So the rest of the world would be relying on either individual supers stepping up or whatever hastily organised teams they can muster.
All of which would be opposed by whichever super villains found the anarchy to suit their purposes! It is, after all, a lot easier to destroy than create. So even if they are in a minority they would still have a significant advantage, in a time of chaos.
That is a very fair argument. Which could lead to the kind of technology embargo I made provision for above.
Such has not been mentioned or implied in-comic. Rather all pointers are that succubi and other demons are just aliens. Dabbler specifically says as much. Granted she does not specify ‘from this dimension’. But we do know they are on planets throughout the galaxy, so even if they originate from ‘a Netherworld’, there are now native populations across the planets of the Milky Way.
Granted. And well thought through.
Although do bear in mind that they do have seats on the Twilight Council, and thereby obligations to their allied races. So they would be under intense pressure to assist. Which, if the other supernatural races are facing a war of extermination, they may feel duty bound to honour.
Oh I definitely think that the Council is superior if it ever came down to an all-out war.
They have a MUCH wider range of personnel to choose from, especially power-wise.
Their technology is likely going to be far superior given they have alien races among them.
Their research capabilities are probably a lot better as well given, in addition to the alien aspect, they have some extremely long lived members.
Their finances are probably superior (again because of the long lifespans and ability to get into every area of government and lifestyle over that time), not to mention that Congress has to justify its spending EVENTUALLY.
Their access to magic is definitely superior, given the main three magic users are Dabbler, Gwen, and Zephan (and with Zephan we’re not sure if he’s a magic user or just as access to magic relics ), while the Council has a worldwide cabal of mages, not to mention aliens/mystical creatures LIKE Dabbler.
So yeah, war is probably a bad thing, even if ARCHON might have a few of the more powerful members on an individual level (ie, Maxima and Sydney). I’m pretty sure the Council would have access to ways to outflank that – usually with magic which Maxima doesn’t seem to have any special protections against far as we’ve seen so far, reality warping, and hypnotic control (which probably would work on Maxima as well given how even that super-Mannekiller almost worked its mind mojo on her (if not for the crack in the lens).
I’m guessing the main reason that the Council would not want a war, other than that they actually are not evil villains who want to destroy or take over the Earth, since they like living on it, is because even if they did, it would probably be a pyrrhic victory which uses up way too many resources and personnel.
Two factors I am regarding the biggest:
1: The council races are far fewer in number, hence the need to hide from humanity in the first place. They have already stated they believe they would suffer tremendous losses if the veil dropped. They are at a numerical disadvantage, not to mention some races could take advantage of the chaos and throw others under the bus as it were who they are also enemies with. It wouldn’t likely be a united front.
2: The aliens would likely play a NEUTRAL stance. They aren’t from Earth, *not my monkeys not my circus* approach. As I stated before and has been implied in comic the aliens are not like the other council races, they aren’t one united clan or hive or whatever, but rather a tourism agency for various alien VISITORS. Generally speaking visitors on vacation don’t like getting involved in local wars or visiting war zones. Hence using their own disguises, they have just been visiting Earth for so long they’ve made non-conflict deals with the supernatural races and not to out them.
Also note: if the council deemed it necessary for their own survival to hide from humanity hundreds of years ago and stay that way, what are the chances they would fare any better now? Hence their own statements about projected losses. Secrecy is their survival…or at least keeping their own kind in line with that threat. If it turned out there wouldn’t be a big war (hence my statement about it not being most governments that would go after them), especially after the reveal of supers *just umbrella everything else in as ancient bottlenecked evolutions versions as a cover* and most would be okay; well then the council would lose all its political hold over its member races.
Says who? Does the census form in your country say “are you human, alien or other”? Just what proportion of the population is human versus supernatural? We have no idea. In fact the numbers may reflect the ratio of races, and humanity could be in a minority.
Plus don’t forget that several of the ‘races’ are just humans affected by a disease. 70% of your neighbourhood could be lycanthropes of various sorts. Even if a year ago there were only one or two.
And the alien ones probably have 10 billion per planet they occupy. Until we know what means they use to travel between worlds, we do not know how significant that is for a war on Earth. But if they can use something like Stargates, then they can supply an unlimited number of reinforcements, and would guarantee winning any war of attrition. As long as the stargates remained functional.
Plus it is pretty easy for advanced races to wipe out most of a primitive race’s population. For example, if fighting your own species, you cannot safely use a deadly pandemic. But they can selectively infect humans, if they chose, at no risk to the majority of their members.
And the remainder, with human members, could be evacuated off-planet, or to other sanctuaries, until the diseases had died out. Then, just like the Spanish in the Americas, their opponents would be at a tiny fraction of their former numbers, and their society would have crumbled to a much less effective state.
When extinction is the price to pay for making an error it is best not to assume that you know the psychology and politics of aliens. Even if you have guessed correctly for some of the species, there are many and all it would take is for one powerful race, or government, to decide to send a fleet and your theory would be busted. Along with humanity.
Note that “if”. You are making another potentially deadly assumption. Look at how humanity deals with less advanced, more numerous, species. They wipe them out. Or, if they deem them not to be a threat, they put them in cages in zoos or farms. Or, when feeling particularly generous, allow them to live in safari parks or other confined habitats, that can be easily policed.
Likewise with putting defeated subject races to work in fields and factories. And, if they get too troublesome, allowing them a contained tribal homeland.
With the options made available with advanced magic though, you can take away all the bad feelings that they have about being a captive race, living under subjection. You can give them the illusion of being masters of their own destiny and allow them to make advances and develop in interesting ways, that they would not do if under the influence of more sophisticated civilisations.
Finally the proof that my version is the more viable is that it would be extremely easy for the supernatural races to have wiped out humanity, under the cover of The Veil (and/or unleashing human targeting diseases, contagious curses, etc). Especially as they established The Veil millennia ago, back when human numbers were very low, and their technology even more primitive than at present.
If they genuinely were in fear of being wiped out, that is. And we know that there are a lot of fierce races/factions who would have advocated just that. The only reason that they would have won out in any debates is if the more peaceful, civilised, factions managed to convince them that humanity was not a credible threat to their existence.
Aesperians: We don’t make it a habit to aid one troop of monkeys over another if they go to war even if we liked one better than the other.
I can’t speak for the alien’s in DaveB’s universe but between the various Sci-fi examples and my own I’ve generally seen the attitude go in a very wide range. Usually a ‘Trekkie non-interference rule.
Maybe the council are more akin to Atlantis, Netherworld, and Attilan from Marvel and I am grossly underestimating them, I am just going by what was being told to Sydney during the council meeting and reading from that conversation’s implications. Otherwise there is no reason if they have the numbers, technology, and ability, to act as a controlling super-government and fix the planet. However they seem to prefer to a more disconnect from human politics and police their own only, this creates a lot of negative assumptions regarding their capabilities; but hey, wouldn’t be the first time there has been some seriously advanced supernatural culture just sitting beneath the surface ignoring humanity even as it messed up the planet with a *shrug* as they’ve existed long enough to see greater changes to the planet than even humans have accomplished (or have just a bad concept of time that someone has to shake them awake to realize that in only a century and a half humans suddenly jumped from barely reinventing the wheel and plumbing over and over again to atom bombs, power grids, internet, and basic space travel).
the alien thing again though, while again, maybe DaveB has more MiB meets Star Gate style aliens who will aid one local group over another if the cause is good enough. and yeah it would take just one alien government who likes vampires or dryads over humans and is willing to do something about it to intervene…but I don’t see that intervention as ending in any way that either humans or anything else would like in the long run; if Earth examples of one country moving into another to aide one group over another is any indication.
-see occupation (for their good),
-see cultural over-write (for their good),
But generally speaking, the impression is Earth is one planet occupied by several sapient races, most of which have chosen to hide from ONE sapient race (that doesn’t look positive no matter how you try to spin it), the planet is being contacted and a council of the sapient majority *as well as human governments given what has been shown* and used for tourism. Putting aside aliens who have no regard for other species at all and would just as soon build over them like minor “pests” in the way, and thinking only of aliens who would even have a tourist trade like this.
Basically you have three options.
1: the Aliens vacationing on Earth decide to stay out of any local conflict and find a less hostile place to have vacations.
2: Decide they like one of the groups in a conflict over the others and take sides (say good bye to island paradises when this crap happens), see occupation forces, enforcers left behind to insure the safety of their own vacationing there and suppress ANY hostile local elements. Long run tends to look bad for those who were helped as well.
3: I like this mud ball, screw these things fighting over it, we’re done playing with them; let’s just take it for ourselves.
Of course all the above for the aliens requires other factors.
1: How close in physiology (form bias plays a big part), mentality, and any underlying friendships are any influential members of an alien government to any locals of any particular side.
2: Do the aliens actually have sympathy for local affairs or are they treating it as some diversion *cosmic beings, immortals, eldritch, and variously very long lived of VERY alien life forms may simply regard the planet getting too hostile as being like an island being over-run by different groups of monkeys constantly fighting and wreaking the snack bar, so just pack up and go somewhere else…that or if they don’t have any prime directive conservation mindsets and have a more 1-1 dark logic just take out the “annoying pests” to set up shop again.
3: How many DIFFERENT alien races are involved here and what are their laws and relations with each other? This becomes a big if. Because if we are looking at *we own multiple planets, massive empires, there could be some rather odd situations such as not being able to act due to an area treaty, the idea Earth could be used as a military outpost if it loses its neutrality so they can’t act *See Skrull-Kree war*, so if one tries to aid the planet the other could be afraid they’ll use that as an excuse to occupy it and use it as a strategic outpost (see Russia aiding Caribbean islands) *which probably inspired the storyline*.
then you have the type of situation the council could even not be aware of, where it turns out the alien ambassador is less an ambassador and more there to keep tabs on the situation and is really working for one empire in particular who actually OWNS the Earth already but regards it as a preserve and they are the ones really being paid for its use by vacationers throughout the empire and beyond, so any local conflict beyond a certain point deemed “too far” is shut down (usually very secretly such as through embedded agents) or technology that comes across as a natural or magical phenomon.
-such as Tenchi Muyo’s Jurai Empire owning the Earth without Earth knowing about it save for a very small handful of people.
This is the biggest issue we don’t actually know what the alien situation is. All we know is their presence on Earth isn’t habitation is vacation.
Meanwhile we have a large group of supernatural creatures who have stated that for their own well being have chosen to hide themselves from just ONE of the sapient species residing on Earth.
The scene in question:
Note that Scarlett is not denying that such plotting has occurred. Nor is she saying that ‘we feared extinction so did this to protect ourselves”.* Simply that the Council does not consider any other options to be viable.
Which could either be interpreted as ‘humans are too powerful to wipe out’, or ‘it is morally unacceptable to drive an intelligent species into extinction’ or ‘the losses on both sides would be unacceptably large’.
* It is also significant that it is a vampire saying this. Given that they are dependant on human blood to survive. So their survival is dependent on humanity living too. If humanity dies then there would be no one to volunteer to donate blood.
Who are all undetectable to humans. Who can do things like turning people into stone. Who have access to all the technologies that humans do, and a heck of a lot more besides, and who have world-spanning powerful magic.
These are not weak beings. You have to keep their extensive power on the table, when examining the situation. Possibly sheer weight of numbers might do the trick, as you suggest. But that is just about the only advantage that humans have over the other races. And I have shown how easy it is to take that away.
We can look to history, when deciding if it would be a good idea for humanity to go to war with the supernatural.
In WWI, Britain had the superior surface fleet, versus Germany. And had an engagement with the bulk of the enemy fleet. Having been able to assemble the superior force, many historians argue that the Admiral in charge missed his opportunity to destroy Germany’s fleet and achieve an overwhelming advantage in the war.
Rather the Royal Navy avoided heavy engagement and pursuit of the retreating German Navy.
The reason being because Germany did have significant numbers of submarines. Who’s disposition was unknown. They could have been dispersed elsewhere, or the bulk could have been lying just beyond the German fleet, waiting for the feint of the surface fleet withdrawing, to launch torpedoes at the pursing British warships.
This caution was vital. Germany easily had enough submarines that they could sink every single capital ship in the one engagement. Leaving the German fleet unscathed to pick off the survivors. But, even more importantly, leaving Britain undefended. And unable to protect any shipping resupplying forces on the continent.
Britain could have lost the war in that one battle. And may even have ended up under German occupation.
Which is why you must not make assumptions, without evidence to support them. If you do not know for sure, you must not roll the dice. You avoid the conflict. The admiral took the safe choice. Let the German navy slip away. Both Germany and Britain retained their fleets.
But Britain still had its numeric advantage, so the German navy could not risk an open fight again. Even though history has shown that there were no submarines, the safe option still left open a viable path to winning the war.
Keeping The Veil up maintains the status quo, with humanity growing ever more numerous and more powerful, allowing more infiltration behind The Veil, to assess the threat levels. And also to confirm whether peaceful co-existance is indeed possible.
If it is then they can continue to explore ways to prepare the public (and the law) for a safe way to reveal the supernatural. If not, then they will want to make sure they know precisely the forces and capabilities arrayed against humanity. And ensure that they have a way of defeating them.
If they cannot guarantee that, then humanity must find a way to deal with their murderous urges. Or stick with the same solution that has worked for three thousand years.
Who lit the fuse to Anvil’s Tampon?! seriously. The thing is this seems compltely out of character for her. I dunno maybe it’s just me?
Anvil is a sergeant. If Sydney is late it is Anvil who will be hauled over the coals first. It is her job to light a fire under Halo and get her ready for take off, fully equipped for a fight. Potentially to the death.
The military does not care what your personality is like before signing up. Once you have enlisted you do things the military way. And that means when the CO gives a five minute deadline, you move Heaven and Earth to ensure that it is met. With time to spare.
I’m actually getting a little worried about this whole thing. I’ve been kvetching a bit about how ineffectual Sciona is seeming — forgetting important items in the heist, being reckless and impulsive, winding up a Deux trophy conquest. I recently started approaching it from the other side: if Sciona *is* really intelligent and dangerous, how do you explain everything? And *that* becomes worrying.
Roll back to the attack on the Council. That room was large, and crowded. Either this was a regular Council meeting, or it was an emergency session called because of the attacks on the Veil. *Either way*, Sciona could have known that Arc personnel would be there (either there’s a regular liaison group, or they would presumably be called for the emergency meeting). She attacked *knowing* ArcSWAT would be on-site — with the intention of drawing them into the situation on a controlled schedule. Now, it wasn’t a fake attack — killing a pile of Council members would have been fine. But that’s not the only reason she did it; at every site there was a combined Council/Arc team, so she was able to gather intel on fieldable personnel that she might not have been able to get otherwise (because, for example, nobody knew — eg: “Is the most powerful super on the planet subject to vampiric mesmerisation?”).
Fast-forward. Deus apparently knew the robbery in the Reliquary was going to happen ahead of time. He had to get that information from somewhere — maybe it was intentional. Sciona “forgot” something she needed (and made herself physically attractive) with the *intent* of bursting in on Deus to demand it. As he was very willing to show her his conquest encyclopedia, it’s safe to assume he’s not really keeping that a secret. Maybe she figured on the likely “fee”, and this is how a blood mage goes about getting someone’s bodily fluids. Which in turn implies that she may have thrown the fight against Vale.
All this is super crazy thin, and I don’t deny that. But it’s got me wondering. And if she’s been setting everyone (Council, Arc, Deus) up this masterfully, holy *shit*, are we screwed.
:-)
I love a setting well enough written that it inspires such paranoia.
Especially it it turns out to be justified. ;-)
Oh it warms the cockles of my heart when one of Deus’s peers gets what he deserves.
It’s only a shame that the courts can’t dictate business decisions to a convict in addition to, or perhaps as a bargaining chip to defray, sentencing.
Because anyone who jumps the price of a lifesaving drug which had been on the market for many years from $13.50 per pill to $750.00 per pill deserves the maximum sentence (which he did not get) if he refuses to reduce the cost to the prior level.
I hope that he has an adequate supply of lubricant while he is serving out his seven years in prison. But that’s only because I’m not a monster like Shkreli.
Yea, that is why I made the comparison to Deus. Because raising the price, to unavoidable levels, and endangering the lives of all the patients, and likely resulting in the deaths of many, was perfectly legal. Had he not gone on to commit the crimes listed in that article he would have gone unpunished, other than having the scorn of the general public.
Sort of sounds like what Lex Luthor did in DC where his scientists found a cure for cancer or something like that, then he told them to make it a treatment, not a cure, so that they can keep charging money for it. Cures are not as profitable as even extremely effective treatments. Sort of like how a phone that you can use for 20 years is not as profitable as a phone with planned obsolescence after 2-3 years. :)
Whisky Tango Foxtrot, It would not be the Greek alphabet that the military uses to list squads but the Phonetic alphabet. (PS: Bravo squad is the best squad! Hoora)
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lema
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Serria
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Wiskey
Xray
Yankee
ZULU (ZULU RULES!!!! especially as a time zone, the military uses it to arrange when meeting happen so that you don’t have to figure out what time the meeting is. Just look at the Zulu clock on the wall.)
PS, You also use the Phonetic alphabet when you are spelling things over the radio or giving coordinates.
For instance (and I am picking a completely random location) map coordinate TS 396145 would be spoken over a radio as
Tango Sierra Tree Niner Six Won Four Fife (because we have to also have a specific way of pronouncing numbers to avoid confusion also).
Keep learning, You are doing great at picking these things up Dave.
“ZULU (ZULU RULES!!!! especially as a time zone, the military uses it to arrange when meeting happen so that you don’t have to figure out what time the meeting is. Just look at the Zulu clock on the wall.)”
As a clarification Zulu is used for Operations or Meetings that cross time-zones to ease coordination.
That way that don’t have to include 5 time zones in an Op Order/Meeting Announcement.
Official messages will normally do it as well for the same reason (The NORKs launched a test missle at 1950Z) for the same reason.
Anything happening in a local AOR (Area of Responsibility) will normally be passed in the local time zone. (Meeting about the duck pond at 1400!). Though any official message will still have it in Zulu.
Saaaay what does ARCHON call their personnel office anyhoo ARC-File? ARC-Desk? Someones gotta do the paperwork!
Bah, if they wanted to improve secrecy they would use the Phonetician alphabet.
I learned something! YAY!
Good on getting the phonetic alphabet down, however, you did misspell a few…
L = Lima
S = Sierra
W = Whiskey
Other than those, looks good…
Thank you, Spelling has always been my weak suit. I am a bit surprised I only misspelled 3.
That makes nine….I think….they are starting to blur together…8-P
Well its nowhere near complete, mostly cause I need to sleep, but here’s a very quick and dirty 3D model of Maxima’s gun.
https://i.imgur.com/LKhg2Gt.png
Nice.
Why the Hael do they use “Quebec”?
And it should be “Lulu” not ‘Lima’ :P
And “Hobbit House” not “Hotel”, eh?
“Hobbiton” actually :P
What does an old BeBox system case have to do with this? :-p
One thing most readers seem to have forgotten (in their haste to point out the ‘correct’ team designations), the reason why Sydney said Alpha Team is the best is the same reason why Anvil is so pissed: it refers to the “Itty Bitty Titty Committee” that Sydney has been inducted into along with Peggy, Pixelicious & Kronachrome, and the team Anvil can never join :P
AKA “The A Team”.
DaveB, maybe you can say that it’s Alpha and Delta because Beta and Gamma are doing other stuff, like checking alternate positions where Sciona might turn up if this turns out to be a fakeout :)
More likely guarding the two most strategic locations, if this is a diversion. So maybe one being in reserve at Archon HQ (currently a vital strategic asset) and another at the most vulnerable Sigil.* Just in case Sciona reverts to her tactic of trying to expose The Veil.
* The damage to the network has put a strain on the surrounding Sigils to plug the gap. Coverage is unlikely to be equal, so some will be more critical than others. Likewise, as they are concealed amongst human buildings, their natural defences are likely to vary. Similarly the personnel available** to defend them are not likely to be of identacle composition. So some Sigils may be more vulnerable to attack.
Possibly therefore one of the teams may be stationed at the already damaged Sigil. To protect repair efforts, and to be centrally located, as a mobile reserve, to respond to an attack on any of the surrounding Sigils.
** Resources will be stretched, with the World Wide Magical Web being down and supernaturals will be having to find manual ways to replace magical methods, until it is up and running again. So all supernaturals, with any social responsibilities, will be hard pressed, not just the politicians, troops and civil servants of the Twilight Council.
Reading back and felt the need to comment on this… Going forward won’t it make sense to have a “Go Team” ready to jump in 10 mikes? The old AIR Defense Command (ADC) squadrons like my old 49th FIS had two F-106’s on alert. The pilots and the jets were rotated weekly. The jets were fueled and loaded. When the klaxon sounded the crew ran to the Alert Pod, jumped in strapped in and launched in 5 minutes. Their mission was to intercept the Soviet Bear bombers off the East/West coast.
The principal is that you can’t have 100% of your staff available 24 hours a day ready to deploy. Your force are in training, on leave, on medical hold (even supers,) etc. So you have a Squad/Platoon/Team on Alert, with others to follow at set intervals. Sure right now the force size is handful. But you know that Max and the General want to grow Archon. By the way, the team needs a dedicated recruiter; a super-salesman so to speak!
Alpha and Delta were good calls, if only because beta isn’t in the military alphabet
Neither were the names used when they were scouting the Sigil sites when they were looking for Sci-fright
About 3d models–go to ShareCG.com. The site has tons of free content (including firearms, and other stuff that would probably be useful at GPC).
Interesting sight. I just had a browse through the ‘materials’ section, and was impressed at how you can filter it for every aspect you want. So mighty good. I chose the usage rights of “Unrestricted” / “Commercial and private use” and there were 18 pages of such.
Sadly no guns amongst those though. Any which would be in the other categories would be of no use for someone intending to use them commercially (unless obtaining specific permission on a case by case basis).
So a site worth knowing of, and easy to browse through, by refining a search accordingly. But presently lacking the vast range of material (in the relevant categories) that you would need in order to have a good chance of finding something that approximated the needs you have for a specific task.
“sight” —> “site”
Dave,
The reason officers are paid more, is because that level of compensation is required to get someone to sit through all of the incredibly tedious meetings they go to. I’m an NCO, and you could not pay me enough to be an officer. I simply could not endure that level of “Death By PowerPoint.”
For USAF take on NCO’s see the AFI 36-2618, The Little Brown Book. Page 4 gives you a good summary of expectations of the Air Force enlisted structure.
https://www.airuniversity.af.mil/Portals/10/CMSA/documents/Required_Reading/AFI%2036-2618,%20The%20Enlisted%20Force%20Structure.pdf
Took a closer look at it, nice rendering of a map of New Jersey behind Maxima.
Yeah, Beta team sounds wimpy. But then again, a US military force wouldn’t use Beta for a team designation. In NATO phonetic notation, ‘Bravo’ is used for ‘B’. Bravo Team sounds way cooler than Beta, though not as cool as Alpha.
(source: 6 years in the US Navy submarine force and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet)
Interesting
Not that I can attribute the source. But it did pop up on a google search, and seems to be extensive and specific enough that it may be credible. In this case, due to the large number of callsigns being needed they were not utilising the phonetic alphabet.
Which would not be necessary for Archon teams, as they specifically have the problem of there not being many heroes, so they should not need lots of team name callsigns. Not unless they intend to use disposable ones for every mission, of course. Which, for info, does not match the author’s reply to the earliest such comment.
Doing some more googling I found other websites and PDF files with similar results. It looks like enthusiast radio operators intercept communications and manage to work out the callsigns. Given the nature of the various sites I found.
I came back to this post, by the way, just to mention that I was not trying to disrespect your service experience. I just get curious when folks make absolute statements, and my instincts tickle my ‘I bet there are exceptions’ bone.
Then just top that off with me being willing to query such, no matter how eminent the individual is, or how much certainty they state the facts. And am willing to argue my corner, until they satisfy me that I am in error.
As Pander has discovered, over the years. ;-)
Am I the only one who notices that Halo’s hiding how she’s built like a goddess?
Nope. She is shy for no reason.
And what’s the deal with rank names? A Lieutenant Colonel is higher than a Lieutenant and lower than a Colonel, sure, but I couldn’t tell you if she’s higher or lower than a Captain or Major. Anyone who knows these things could tell me that specifically, but they’re not going to say what other ranks there are in between those that I don’t know and can’t ask about. Are there Lieutenant Captains? Captain Majors? Lieutenant Majors? Captain Colonels? I guess there’s no Sergeant Lieutenants because of the nebulous NCO/CO divide but beyond that I don’t see a pattern here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_officer_rank_insignia
The patterns are derived from the quirks of history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_rank
Thanks, that’s relevant, and when you combine that list and this one it’s looking complete. How simple.
And hey, I was almost entirely right about there not being such a thing as a Sergeant Lieutenant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_major
My pleasure.
*wags tail, like a swagger-stick*
If you want operatives that can make the rules up as they go, don’t forget the Warrant Officer ranks. They’re really just civilians that can command units in addition to performing in their field of expertise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_officer_(United_States)