Grrl Power #622 – Whatever the opposite of Gas-X is
“Hey team, let’s split up so we can search this abandoned bunker faster. If you find anything, signal with a massive explosion that threatens to cave the whole place in on top of us…”
…is not quite the instructions Maxima gave the team. But that’s how Dabbler would paraphrase if asked to repeat them. She’s just frustrated she hasn’t been able to use much lethal force lately.
You know how when you’re playing a video game and killing wave after wave of evil gangsters, then a few hundred evil corporate security guards and then two dozen battalions of evil PMC soldiers and by the end of the game you’re the technically the hero, and you’ve saved the day, buuuuut you’re also history’s greatest mass murderer because the body count in most action video games is in the thousands? That’s a lot like most of Dabbler’s previous adventures.
Don’t worry, they were all bad.
I like the idea of explodey gas, but I’m not sure it would be more effective than just firing a rocket or a grenade in the room. Obviously, it’s not spraying aerosolized kerosine in there, it’s Dabbler’s own special super science blend. But again, you can bet Dabbler’s grenades drop the bass like DJ Davvincii. Get turned up the death! At least I could make the excuse that the gas gets into all sorts of nooks and crannies and when it explodes it’s like 10,000 years of erosion in 1/10,000th of a second.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
This reminds me of something I imagined for a chemist-based vigilante superhero. But I used something like a gyrojet round, mostly driven by internal pressure releasing an aerosol exhaust. On impact or as the propellant runs out, an igniter sets the whole thing off. To protect the user, the projectile is time delayed to begin spraying a safe time after the launcher has released it (with enough velocity that the user is outside the area of effect).
It occurs to me that there was another option for this page. Assuming the enemy didn’t notice when Sydney and Dabbler noticed the enemy, the girls could have withdrawn slightly, and Sydney could have sent her “lightbee” (see page 496 /archive 2393, and the page after that) into the room. Upon enabling her telepresence (but most certainly not the teleportaion), she could have goaded the enemy into shooting her image –and whichever of the enemy was behind her image. After the enemy shoots up each other for a while, then Dabbler could have launched her explody foam capsule.
And now I feel the need to mention something that might look like a continuity error in the story, if one isn’t paying close attention. Back on page 236 /arc 1422, Sydney uses her telepresence to talk with Vehemence. Later, on page 277 /arc 1564, she notices the grey-out new feature (teleportation) of the CommBall. Still later, on page 499 /arc 2409, she notices that that feature is enabled, However, it must also have been enabled back on page 236 when she talked with Vehemence! We can only assume she didn’t notice it then because she was holding the orb behind her back, and was simply using the telepresence feature that she knew well-enough to not need to look at the CommBall.
The former paragraph is more showy, granted. However it does not grant any advantage over the present attack, as it ends with doing precisely the same thing. Any plan that adds unnecessary extra elements is increasing the chance of things going wrong.
Such would have only been required if, for instance, trying to lure some outlying enemies in closing into an area where they could all be hit together. However, as they all started in that area, it is both pointless and the reverse actually becomes likely. Namely that they will spread out.
Albeit that they would be doing so to avoid hitting each other, in the cross-fire (not all opponents being as dumb as TV and film like to present them, when heroes do such tactics). This though has the side effect of affording the opportunity to disperse, before the final part of the plan can be enacted.
Your concluding paragraph is nicely pieced together and well reasoned.
I see the high res version option, but would we be able to get the last panel in high res without the text or speech bubbles?
I’ll admit, at this point I’m really really hoping they don’t find here there. Just so they can explain how they caused all this devastation to someone in charge.
:)
Unlikely mind. Given that those SWAT manikins are Sciona’s signature foot soldiers. About the only organisations likely to have bunkers on this kind of scale are the US military and super villains.
Let us hope that Uncle Sam has not sub-contracted to Sciona to supply base security.
And mining company’s that comvert there mines into massive underground warehouses, factories, farms, and the US post office facilities….
https://link.usps.com/2015/02/20/tunnel-vision/
Never mind that there’s a Iron mine in Canada that has an estimated usable internal volume of 14,700,000 m3
All those though appear on the public record. So, just like military bases, Archon would know where they are. We know that the team are suitably equipped to remain in contact with their HQ and that they have a full team of people dedicated to supplying them intelligence information.
Therefore it is reasonable to assume that such simple due diligence checking started to take place from as soon as they called in Dabbler’s projected destination. And they will have had a result coming back, at the absolute minimum, saying who owned the land, and whether there was any legal planning permission to have built a structure there.
The post office will have filed that, and gotten it approved. Super villains would need to have Deus’s level of cunning to build a militarised base, yet have it appear innocuous in all records. But if it appeared legit Maxima would not have needed to rip the vault door off. They could have just contacted the registered owners.
Actualy a lot of open underground space from mines and naturally existing caves are not well documented at all, Never mind the newer ones recently discovered or reported. At least one now probably flooded cave network exists Under the lake of the Ozarks, and they recently opened up a semi flooded one in Canada recently.
Yup. But that is abandoned caves. Ones that are converted for industrial or commercial use will require to be registered as to being legally owned, before any building work can start. Likewise being made compliant with zoning laws, building standards, etc.
So by the time you have employees starting to work there the mountain of paperwork will leave an easy to follow trail to its location.
But husks do not immediately mean the presence of Sciona. Recall that in the initial search for her, at least 2 teams ran into husks, and the only construct we see at Sciona’s actual hideout is the regenerating drone. I doubt Dave will jerk us around like that, but it is a possibility.
Same here, butt the not-SWAT kinda rules that out now :(
Verily, vicious viscous gas, vivified via vivacious virago!
A real shame that I didn’t use ‘vapor’.
Verily.
Vile vapors.
Vividly!
Wundabar!
Did somebody mention “waper”?
Did you mean wery real wampire?
Didn’t spot any vampires there. But a few points seem highly appropriate here:
15. Teamwork is essential — it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
20. If your attack is going really well, you’re in an ambush.
27. The easy way is always mined.
28. If the enemy is within range so are you.
32. Communications will fail as soon as you desperately need fire support .
33. Cavalry doesn’t always come to the rescue.
47. It’s not the one with your name on it — it’s the one addressed “to whom it may concern” that you should be worried about.
48. Mines are an equal opportunity weapon.
50. Remember that napalm is an area weapon.
Doh – wrong link. Was supposed to be to Ingsol’s intro
Whoa! You just did an inverse Cheshire Cat on me. First you were all invisible and ‘nobody here but us disembodied voices’ then all of a sudden you face appeared, grinning at me!
I learned it over at Namesake.
Ooh, you keep some esteemed company there. :)
And Dabbler might have destroyed part of a government facility meant to contain an elder god or something.
Doubtful, especially if this is Sciona’s base. Remember, she wants to rule the world. She doesn’t want or need the competition of an elder god.
Somehow I suspect that anything like that will be under ARC Dark, so it would be there own damn fault.
Well, we still don’t know much about Diablo-face…
And now Dabbler uses chemical weapons…
That debriefing is going to be so much fun.
Isn’t that more alike to a fuel-air bomb?
That gas might be exotic enough to not need air. If I were Dabbler, I’d definitely want that stuff to work in all sorts of environments, including vacuum, underwater, and low-O2.
…
That said, I suspect that the yield of this little package of fun is way higher than your average thermobaric grenade. Otherwise, what’s the point? My question is, Sydney’s in her shield. What’s protecting Dabbler?
Yeah she’s not even walking away from the explosion!
RE:What’s protecting Dabbler?
It’s her stuff, she was expecting it. If she needed a magic “protection from this stuff” item before pulling the trigger she put it on off camera.
Also, she knows the range.
And she’s standing at least partially behind sydney’s shield.
Butt, she’s still blowing in the wind…
She is a demon sorceress.
Implied in conversation with a vampire, fire doesn’t bother her as much as it bothers others. The demon aspect *while not delved into much here so far* usually involves some degree of increased durability.
the sorceress, not to mention the addition of gizmo-tech type gives her an insane plethora of defense option. Gravity, space bending, defense aura, light shields, kinetic deflectors, ect…
Debriefing? Dabbler’s ahead of the game, in commando mode.
+1
Shame on you Dave for missing an opportunity to do shout out to The Fifth Element.
The second to last panel is almost nearly “Bada Boom” and the last panel could easily have been “Biiiiig Bada Boom”.
Dave would not want to repeat that gag.
It’s not a repeat, it’s more of a call back with extra reference.
Fair enough.
Ah, I love a good fuel-air explosion. …In fiction, of course. I’d much rather avoid them in reality.
Re. the commentary on action games: that sounds like an almost perfect description of the enemies from the first Max Payne game, and he actually DID get arrested as a result of his bloodthirsty rampage through them.
TBH, the reason he’s arrested has nothing to do with his bloodthirsty rampage. It’s because he was framed for the murder of a DEA agent.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
I was confused because you said “the first Max Payne game.” He was arrested at the very end of it, true, and was still under arrest at the start of the second game… until Vladimir Lem’s killers attacked the hospital and very nearly killed the chief trying to get Payne.
Yes it can be so frustrating, blue killer balling you, when virtually everything in your arsenal is designed to either kill or go up against significantly more durable opponents than the average human, super, or supernatural Earth creature.
Seeing as how they’re on US land, wouldn’t the proper introduction be to announce yourself and give them the ability to surrender? Not see them and just kill them?
They did after all, break into the place, not knowing for sure who’s it was, but rather going on the thought process of “60% sure it’s her place”
They also went in with no warrant and again, back to the 60% sure it’s her hideout, doesn’t tend to be, probably cause.
If they were vigilantes, I wouldn’t bat an eye, but they’re all government employees. For all Dabbler knows, she just killed a ragtag militia/end of world survivalist group.
They probably should have, yes. That said, Dabbler can see her targets and knows that they are the mannikillers from the attack on the Twilight Council. They can very legitimately claim that these are terrorists operating on US soil, possibly even enemy combatants. That would give them a lot more leeway than if they were normal humans.
Just realized, Sydney has fought the mannekillers before, but Dabbler hasn’t. Presumably the entire team (or at least those who are in the know about the Council) was briefed on them before starting on this trip; if not there could be some nasty consequences. Hypno succubus glamor + laser claws is a pretty scary combination.
Dabbler was there when they fought the first group in the Council chambers.
Yup, she ended up all wrapped up in Icon and made him look all sexy.
…doh. Don’t know why I couldn’t recall her being there – guess I was too excited about the new characters showing off their skill sets.
Probably because she didn’t get to do much, except make Icon look dead sexy :P
I do not believe that there is any rule about making such an announcement to manikins.
Fully armored individuals. Human looking individuals. What if they weren’t manikins?
Aside from the one without a helmet, who has wooden/plastic head and the distinctive bloody handprint used to animate them. Not much chance of misidentification on that one. So very unlikely that its companions are innocuous.
But if Dabbler’s explosion is hot enough there will not be any evidence left to incriminate her, in any event. ;-)
what makes you think anybody living working with sciona would be alive long enough to be useful as a guard anyway
Lol. Great point.
Well they are a special branch, secondly the perp isn’t a US citizen, third they were already in pursuit, and fourth you don’t need or should ask inanimate autonomous weapons to surrender; you can shoot down weaponized drones that pose a threat all you want
unless the Council members that represent golems etc get involved, but in this case considering the bloody handprint i think it’s safe to say it’s a continuation of the ones that Icon said were ok to destroy
Exploding aerosol foam…I think I’m in love!
:-D
gives an entirely new meanig to ive got the Vapores…
Am I the only one severely disappointed that we don’t see Sydney’s expression in the moment of the explosion and her realization?
:)
Panel 5 gives us a milder approximation.
In Air Fuel Explosives are the only form of conventional weapon considered to have the ability to reach the devastation levels of nuclear weapons. They were seriously considered for inclusion in the list of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
As to bringing down the roof, that place is built like a nuclear war survival bunker, it can take it.
Besides, Dabbler can probably adjust the yield of her toys when she doesn’t want to get buried or blasted along with her opponents.
Then again, she does some real bonehead things on occasion.
But only if it is a handsome bonehead.
well, might as well,
https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/graphicker/o/img%2Fworks%2F1%2F462%2F624cb509350d449a0c7d5243bef1e52a_t300.jpg?generation=1464249232834000&alt=media
bad link, need to edit, delete, delete!
Uh this is what I meant to link. DO NOT click on that first link; it is suspect. fricken google images.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/03/d7/57/03d7578b41586debe9e459e97f97e269.jpg
okay, but blast shields are meant to protect the exterior of the building, not the interior
Love the Cast Away NPC in panel three. With the explosion, Sydney’s definitely internally screaming, “WIIIIIIIIIILSOOOOOOON!”
First time commentor from a long time reader. Love the comic!
Just because I often see comments about the napkin physics of what goes on in this particular comic, I thought I’d bring up the possibility that IRL the over-pressure shock wave from a FAE blast might have shot Dabbler and Halo out of that bunker at extremely uncomfortable velocities.
Halo’s shield should handle that comfortably enough of course, and if she has her fly-globe in hand she could presumably anchor against it, but Dabbler doesn’t appear to be in the field – though of course she has a nigh-infinite bag of tricks, so who knows what she’d use to avoid the side effects of a confined blast like that?
Then again if that room is large enough (we can’t see its full extent) I suppose its possible that the pressure wave would have dissipated enough so as to not turn the tunnels they entered through into an impromptu cannon.
Well analysed.
And welcome out of the shadows.
*sets up trestle tables with staple foods (pizza, cheezeburgerz and hot dogz) and yummy drinks*
*strings up the WELCOME banner*
Explodey gas is in fact more potent and better than using a rocket. Rocket = shrapnel from a focused point which can shred things in a generally smal area. Explodey gas = a more dispersed burning effect. Especially if it’s Dabbler’s home brew. :)
Being a dispersed liquid (vapor), it also has plenty of opportunity to deposit molecules of itself onto their armor and bodies….meaning it cannot be escaped once ignited! If it has enough consistency to be “viscous” it’s not a pure gas, it’s more like “wet steam” as opposed to “dry steam”, so any description of the effect as a “fuel-air bomb” is probably incorrect. Any product light enough to disperse into pure gas at atmospheric pressure (and not needing to be contained in a vessel under pressure to attain that state) would probably not be heavier than air..
while that is true, when dabbler described it as a “viscous gas” i got the impression of a kind of reverse mercury. mercury, despite being denser than nearly every metallic element that won’t burn a hole in your phospholipid bilayer, is a liquid at room temperature. this could be some sort of exotic gaseous compound akin to aerosolized aerogel (look it up, neat stuff) that, like mercury, acts as a liquid at room temp, just technically lies one step lighter on the phases chart. heck, most binary foams are moderately to very flammable from what i’ve seen, during and after reaction periods.
How was Sydney able to grab her forcefield ball from around her head in the fraction of the second between Dabbler firing and the explosion going off?
She has shown a great deal of telekinetic control over where they go. Presumably after this long using them and being thrown into such dangerous environments she has summoning the shield orb down to an instant reflex. Thinking about your next move can be done from inside the impervious bubble shield thank you very much.
I don’t think you understand just how quickly an explosion moves if you consider that at all possible…
If she thinks it, it’s already there
or, she’s in assuredly hostile territory, as shown by the deathtraps in the prior hallway. she never let go of Mr. Bubble.
She wasn’t under Mr Buble’s protection in the other panels on this page
When she wants one, it flies to her hand. How fast they fly to her hand hasn’t been established but probably as fast as she wants it to.
New orb’s next gaseous production acquired.
I like the way you think.
Thermobaric explosives. They are actually considered more effective than condensed (regular) explosives, but is harder to control (no shaped charges from a cloud of gas) and unsuitable for use underwater, at high altitude, or during adverse weather (could be dispersed too much before explosion making it a fizzle not a bang). They are particularly known for a longer duration blast wave, and for happily consuming all the surrounding oxygen making them very effective against fortified positions. In this case of course, the lack of air in the area should be less of a problem.
By the same token, the longer duration blast wave is even more likely to cause the above mentioned potential cave in.
Essentially a thermobaric weapon distributes explosive material into the air in aerosol form, the entire contents of your device are explosives as it uses the oxygen in the air instead of having it mixed in, and once distributed the material has plenty of access to oxygen. A spark is delivered, and boom. Pretty much exactly as depicted in the comic above, although typically the device delivering the material would also provide the ignition.
The FAE (Fuel Air Explosive) is the most well known version.
This sort of thing happens accidentally; carbon (which is the primary part of everything from plants to animals to coal) when dry is combustible. When a fine powder carbon will also float. Give it a high enough concentration and you have a bomb in the air, just waiting to go off. This has occurred accidentally in coal mines, grain silos and elevators, and other places.
It is also why you can light the spray from an aerosol can and make a mini flamethrower without it (probably) backing up and blowing up in your hand. The material in the can (hair spray, paint, whatever) doesn’t have a lot of oxygen available, but once sprayed from the can it has plenty of oxygen and is quite happy to burn. Between little oxygen inside the can with the material, and the force of the spray sending it outward, the odds of the flame backing up into the can and causing an explosion inside the can should be low. Still, not recommended.
It can also accidentally happen in kitchen (not home kitchen, bigger one) or flour mill: flour in air is also combustible. Actually, flour dust that is suspended in air is more explosive than coal dust.
Though as Mythbusters found, the most godawful particulate for creating huge fireballs is non-dairy creamer.
Trust me, this was already well known before Myth Busters, there are a lot of substances we don’t think much of that are ticking time bombs when left for too long in store houses with risk of sparks, fire, overheating, ect..
The US even lost an aircraft carrier due to precisely that. In that case it was actually munitions that had been left too long and deteriorating to a deadly state. However they had turned from being something useful in killing the enemy into something that was more likely to kill anyone handling, moving or firing it.*
So bad a risk that the duty officer at the armoury flat refused to allow them to be requisitioned, no matter how bad the munitions shortage, nor how urgent the fire support was required. And both were at a critical point in the war in question.
Even refusing direct orders, insisting that he would only obey the chain of command if it was put in writing.
Given the outcome, a very sensible precaution. Although scant consolation, as I am sure he would far rather have had his dissent listened to, and the lives and capital ship saved.
* The reason why they had not been moved, for safe disposal, already.
…can you recall which carrier, Yorp? USS Lexington CV-2 was lost due to Avgas fume explosions after battle damage…
Sadly, no, I have a serious problem with names. Not only that but I came on the information from an unusual angle. It was an article dealing with this subject matter, namely decaying munitions which had caused serious incidents. As such the whole focus was on that, and it only touched on the military situation surrounding it (but only to emphasise how urgently the munitions were required).
The fact that I could not even remember which war (and still can’t) gives us the clue that my comment should not be taken as being authoritative, other than as regards what happened at the munitions site. I recall that it was a source I found credible.
Doing a bit of googling I could not get any pertinent hits though, so doubtless I had something wrong. Possibly it may have been another class of ship? And/or, whilst I do recall that the damage was catastrophic, it may only have been taken out of action, rather than sunk.
Sorry, it is the kind of thing that I would usually check up on and link with the comment, but without a name/conflict to go on I knew it would be a pain in the butt to track down. I probably should have mentioned that when making my post.
Given that safely disposing of expired explosives is a safety rule, it’s reasonable to expect that that’s a true story.
Every safety rule is written in blood.
This sounds like the 1967 incident on the USS Forrestal, where a missle from an aging munitions shipment on deck started a fire, which ignited other unstable munitions. Killed/injured several hundred and destroyed 21 planes, but didn’t sink the ship.
Or perhaps you were thinking of the SS Quinault Victory and the Port Chicago disaster – the ship was brand new and loaded with fuel oil, which may have been releasing flammable gas, but the accident was due primarily to old munitions, poor handling and unsafe working conditions, combined with a lack of equipment maintenance. There were actually 2 ships lost here:
Ahh, thanks. It was the former. I had come across that one several times, but got thrown by the various articles talking about an electrical fault. But when you look at the details you get this part:
Ugh, not those assholes again. Where’s the honey badger when you need her?
Somebody else in danger? Honey badger don’t give a care.
She fought ’em. Solo.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2445
Is anyone else surprised by Sydney being the voice of reason?
Compared to Dabler?
How does the single trigger know whether to launch a gas grenade or deliver an electric shock?
any number of ways. most likely, the ignition shot is automatically the next effect after firing the thermobaric canisters. possibly it’s determined by degree of trigger depression. unreliable in the heat of battle, but this strikes me as more of a “ruin lotsa people’s days from a very safe distance” kinda gun. on the other right hand, might be selected via thumb controls on the stock, since the cylinder is prominently displayed above the grip and firing mechanism. on the prosthetic hand, contact neural interfacing?
i really should’ve been in bed two hours ago.
Agreed.
*tucks Polysanity into bed*
There could alternatively be a slider on the other side of the weapon, adjusted by the trigger finger.
“Safe / marshmallow gas / ZORCH”
The delay, in removing the trigger finger, after the first shot, would not impact the weapon’s effectiveness, given that time has to be allowed for the gas to propagate.
One other option is that the weapon is set up so that the first pull launches the payload, and that the second fires the igniter. No user intervention required.
Even if the weapon has multiple different payloads it could be built to recognise which type has been selected and adjust the firing mode accordingly. Hopefully with some kind of feedback to let the user realise that. Maybe the grip getting all tingly when it is readying a zap attack?
dispersion is a factor, with something like that you might be taking out a room or a stadium. ignite too soon and you don’t’ get the optimum explosive force and a lot of wasted product. fire too late and it’s dispersed so much that it either won’t explode or weakly explodes. lots of math involved, chemistry, physics…I think you’d need a super genius to figure all that out on the fly…Oh wait..she is a super genius.
Heh. Yea.
But the weapon could be used by anyone (if Dabble turned off the feature that teleports it back to her lab if she lets go of it). The operation is fairly simple. Fire the canister wherever you want it to go. Anybody who has trained with a grenade launcher, equipped with smoke canisters will be able to use that feature easily.
OK they will not be able to easily calculate, in advance, just how big an area it will fill (although practice would certainly help). But they don’t really need to. All they have to do is watch it expanding. Once it has covered all the opponents that they want to deal with, then they activate the Zorch and detonate it.
Should it stop dispersing, they know that they have reached the limit of its capacity, and will just have to make do with however much coverage they have.
Obviously the greatest danger is that the blast is so very energetic. So that is the aspect that they would really need either plenty of simulator practice or to err very much on the side of caution. If they have any doubts that they are not far enough away, then that is not the weapon to use.
Straightforward two-stage trigger. Pull it halfway back, it launches the grenade. Pull it all the way back, it delivers the electric shock.
They already do that kind of thing with guns that have an integral laser sight. Pulling the trigger halfway back activates the laser sight, pulling it the rest of the way fires the weapon.
Just don’t sneeze, whilst painting your target.
Well, fuel/air explosives ARE the most efficient, and Dabbler certainly has the brainpower to get the mixture right for maximum blast power….
okay, because no seems to have asked this question… How did maxima think it was good idea to leave Sydney and Dabbler by themselves?! I mean really, Sydney is a recruit and Dabbler is a “consultant” and both of them are fire crackers that set each other off.
Realy…. remember Syd one punched Dabler, and otherwise they by and large do seem to get along. To be honest Syd is probably also the one least likely to be randomly molested, and compared to the rest of the team has shown she can tank Dablers guff it and dish it back without getting too flustered.
I’m not saying that they aren’t good partners, the would one of the strongest pairs on the team, and definitely the least predictable. which is what I’m really worried about. and that neither will likely restrain the other from taking rash action, as seen in the page above
So you are saying that they will not be able to endanger the more sensible members of the rest of the team? And that they will have to deal with the consequences, of any foolishness that they conduct, by themselves?
Sounds like a good plan!
explody gas. you mean a fuel-air explosive. the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal? that explody gas? yeah, it’s a thing. it’s actually ethylene, longer carbon chains don’t explode they just burn fast, not explody fast, but still cool. they even make one now that explodes, longer…called a Thermobaric bomb.
Fine metal powders are highly reactive in air.
yeah, but they don’t disperse as well and aren’t as persistent as a gas is. you usually do the powdered metal thing by putting a few sticks of dynamite or a tuna can of plastique under it and detonating it. this disperses the powder and ignites it before it can settle. good for destroying houses and such but not optimum for large areas.
So is coal dust and wheat dust. Basically anything that can burn is dangerous when mixed into a volume of air.
LOL…we used to use powdered non-dairy creamer and lighter.
I can see that your eyebrows never did grow back!
So much for stealth lol. I love Dave’s explanation for Dabbler’s more FPS based tactics. That’s not always gonna fly on Earth honeybunch.
Must take down perp…hmm I know, I’ll use “Crystal Barrage”
-what’s that do?
It fires a large number of crystal shards at the opponent impaling them and everything around them…what…no good? Okay how about “Devastation Beam”
-Doesn’t even sound non-lethal
Oh its just a cutting plasma beam surrounded by an accompanying sonic beam…what? What do you people have like only 1hp?
Like a pack of Kobolds in a Cloudkill…
DaveB:
“Hey team, let’s split up so we can search this abandoned bunker faster. If you find anything, signal with a massive explosion that threatens to cave the whole place in on top of us…”
I don’t know. I think that IS in the spirit of Maxima’s approach lately :)
So Dabbler just used a slow acting Fuel Air Explosion? I mean it was cool, but the US military already has this shit. Nothing groundbreaking really.
Yeah? Not only aren’t you the tenth person to point that out (here, have a cookie), butt does the US military have a FAE-gun? o_O
Well this guy claims to have built one himself.
However his is just used as an alternative propellant to fire the gun, as opposed to Dabbler’s rather more spectacular version.
I’m the tenth person? Would have read the entire comments but it was 5 in the morning. Sorry bout that.
“history’s greatest mass murderer”
Haha, not even close, even restricted to an apples to apples comparison.
My friend, you should look up Valery Blokhin, for one candidate.
“But the FPS protagonist is a hero” can be compared as a defense to “those were technically executions under Stalin’s authority, so basically legal under Soviet law”.
Okay, you can argue that he was technically only one part of the greater mass murder. But he did personally kill quite some number of people. For example, in just the Katynn forest massacre, he pulled the actual trigger on 7,000 over the course of a month, at a rate of about 250 a day.
I’d think that a single player FPS would get dull and tedious before matching or exceeding Blokhin, but I would want to see some numbers before saying for certain.
US law, mostly based on Anglo-American Common Law, tends to require Mens Rhea for the strictest category of murder. This basically means that the murderer knows what they did was wrong, and did it anyway. How can we argue that this was the case for Blokhin? Maldoon executed a relatively small number for Parker’s court, and Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) had attracted violent white criminals from across the nation. Population numbers aren’t exactly the same, but this does help make the case that many of those Blokhin killed probably were not Common Law capital felons.
Looks to be a fine artist. Possibly being one that Dave knows, living and working in the same city. So apples to apples when comparing artistic skill. Failed to pick up anything on the first page of google results other than said artist though, so nothing to help on the mass murderer front.
That aside, there is point of order. Your piece was interesting, therefore I feel that BoringOldPedant is a misnomer.
Turns out I screwed up. /Vasily/ Blokhin. The surname turns up the the right name when searched on Wikipedia, and perhaps surprisingly, the article mentions relevant details.
Boring can be a synonym for drilling, and I aspire to know more about that then I currently do.
Ahh, no probs. I have issues with names myself, that was a lot more minor than the ones I normally have. It is grim how many people died at Stalin’s orders, by that fellow’s hands and otherwise. Directly fighting Nazi invasion that is understandable. But far far too many were not justifiable.
And a lot were highly counterproductive. Like wiping out most of the army officer corps. Leaving the country without experienced military leaders. And likely contributing to Hitler’s decision to invade. Striking before the replacements could be adequately trained.
As for drilling, one of the most interesting projects, on the planet, has been at Lake Vostok. A lake that has been blocked off by ice for over fifteen million years. With several attempts having been made to drill down to see what organisms have been living down there, isolated from the rest of the world.
The problem being the risks of contamination. So the technical aspects (especially with the complications of it being both remote and very cold) have made it hugely technically complicated. Not to mention courting controversy at any risk of harming its ecosystem.
Understandably so as it is one of the last few refuges for Nessie and her family!
While impressive that ruins the whole stealth operation. I approve of it. XD
I think ripping the vault door probably did that. If not from the noise, then from the inevitable alarms connected to it and/or the corridor beyond. Plus we know that Sciona uses magical wards to detect any entry into her base (that is how she caught Pixel, despite her being in stealthy jaguar form and invisible).
Very true, you are correct sir.
*wags tail in appreciation and mutual approval*
Gasp!
Sometimes Sciona appears to be gifted, through easily overcoming enemies. Yet at other times she shows true incompetence. Then add in the fact that she defeated the Pink
PantherJaguar.Have we seen Sciona’s true form yet? Or does it look like this?
The other team might’ve appreciated a “Fire in the hole” here.
Yea.
Look at it this way though, at least they can tell what Dabbler and Halo are up to now.
If it goes quiet, that is when they need to get worried.
FYI, aerosol explosions tend to be more concussive that heat damage. The gas burns so quickly it creates a vacuum that pulls in air so quickly that it affects a greater area than the area the gas was in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttl9FDxtnm8
Our D&D game master let us do something similar to a dragon.
Filled the room with spiderwebs and grease spells, then “fire bolt!”
Massive fire damage per cubic area it was occupying.
It’s … kind of scary when Sydney is the mature, responsible one in the conversation …
Lol. Well put. Especially that bit about calling in. Whilst it does carry with it a small chance of being overheard or otherwise allowing the baddies to spot them or (if already aware of them) act first, it is the sensible thing to do, according to standard operating procedures.
Not really Dabbler’s thing though, is it. ;-)
And, hey, combat experience will have taught her that a decisive, and extreme, first strike can eliminate many of the possible unforeseen actions that an enemy could have respond with. Were they not crispy chunks of charcoal.
“Explodey gas” idea is actually called “Thermobaric explosion”, and is a way the most powerful modern non-nuclear payloads work. In short it does work better than just a grenade filled with solid explosives.
Dabbler has an advantage mind, over present day military payloads. She has a technology base to work from that is many generations in advance of that. To be honest she is probably picking antique technology, just to make sure that she does not expose humanity to too many concepts* that would allow them to leapfrog to discovering new advanced technologies.
Some of them might actually be really simple things (with hindsight and/or a completely alien perspective) that a galactic schoolkid could do with the contents of their backpack and access to junk from a scrapyard.
Whereas picking technologies that humans have already developed basic versions of and just using highly developed versions, she is minimising the impact that her presence may have on our technology.
Most new weapons start out chunky and oversized. The first cannons were big static things that could only be moved with the resources of an army. Which, due to inaccuracy, were only useful on things as big as an army or a castle. Then humans developed ways of using them on ships and transporting them for fluid battle use.
In parallel experimenting with smaller versions, until they had more of a chance of killing an opponent than the user. Eventually refining that line enough to have automatic handguns.
Dabbler has just done the same with Thermobaric weaponry. Taking our primitive army attacking versions to an eventual refinement, useful in more focused attacks.
The ability to ensure you have hit the right target, gloop them up enough that evading is likely inhibited and only then choosing to initiate the explosion, shows really advanced technology at play. Significant because it allows the process to be safely aborted, if the wrong target has been hit.
Yet will not have been wasted because hostile target(s) have been immobilised (to some degree). Yet any friendlies also affected will not be inherently harmed by the attack. Allowing the weapon user, and her allies, the opportunity to rectify the friendly fire error easier than it lets their opponents to exploit it.
It also shows some of Dabbler’s genius, at work, as allowing human scientists to advance such destructive weapons, to ones that are less likely to (inadvertently) blow up schools, hospitals and other innocent bystanders, is arguably a moral thing to do.
* She has seen Star Trek, so Dabbler knows that we have been exploring teleportation concepts and anything which might lead to that eventually. So, as we are already resolutely walking that path, no harm in confirming that it can be done. Well, given that the intermediate steps are probably too great for us to cross, for some considerable time.
Short list of tech *which may or may not be a weapon to its native developers* black listed for use on and around members of developing worlds.
Molecular Phase shift inhibitors.
Trans-special pocket disruptors and constructors
Gene Linked Dimensional Imprint Signature Domino Strikers
Dimensional Distortion-Multi-Dimensional Control Matrix Assemblers
They split the party. (slaps forehead with palm)
“it was a bad call, Sydney… it was a bad call…”
:-D
A party is a group of adventurers looking for loot (generally speaking, and in simple terms).
Whereas these are cops seeking to apprehend (or incinerate) a villain with a WMD!
If you see cops approaching a suspect’s house and one of them says “I (/we) will go around the back”, you realise that is a good thing. The villain is likely to try and escape otherwise.
Here they are using the same principle. They need to cover each potential escape route, as the proceed to push into the complex. Not to mention avoid getting themselves cut off and surrounded, in the likely event that Sciona orders her troops to make a fight of it. Some of the constructs are dangerous foes even for Maxima!
Plus this is not an open battlefield, where superior numbers can (barring the above) surround a smaller team from all sides. Here they can keep their enemies confined to the tunnel ahead of them.* Thus allowing them to use their superior super-firepower to devastating effect.
* Provided they have not missed any secret doors. But we have already seen Sydney searching very thoroughly for those!
Yeah, but you’ve got two rogues here off by themselves – you know they’re going to
lootkeep some souvenirs if they get a chance and see something that won’t be missed or risk flubbing a conviction.Wait, they split up into pairs to search and Sydney and Dabbler were paired? What the hell? Oh, those to together were sure to find the primary target. I get it.
Back in the days of the Steakhouse Battle Royale, a few years ago, I storyboarded an arc based on the team searching a villain’s lair hidden inside a mountain too, although mine was a rescue mission (*). They were against the clock because the self destruction system was ticking (**) so I got them split up too… and Syd and Dabbler were teamed up as well :)
In my case it was for Syd to protect Dabbler from the internal defenses of the fortress while she (Dabbler) worked her tech, but now it seems Dabbler wouldn’t need a bodyguard at all. Sigh. This is like my fourth fanfic that get outdated one way or another. I should find a way to bring them to life before it is too late.
* Math and Jiggawatt were kidnapped
** Nope, not THAT silly, the system was meant to activate right away in case of intrusion but Dabbler and Leon hacked it to give them and edge.
Sometimes the character sheet doesn’t align the way you thought, but it can make for some wonderful shenanigans.
(For those who don’t want to read enough of the linked comic to get the context, The Fed is a bodybuilder-size super-spy who was picked to protect a medium-size woman who’s abilities were vital to the plans of the (possibly) corrupt director of the spy agency. The catch is that due to some counter-espionage while she was being monitored initially, the boss is still unaware that The Girl is an international martial arts champion and has taken down The Fed in hand-to-hand combat multiple times at this point.