Grrl Power #655 – The Robotech
Given how powerful those orbs are, the screw ship aliens might actually have good cause to attack Sydney. Imagine them in the hands of someone who was out to actually cause a bunch of mayhem. And presumably had 4 or more hands.
For those of you unaware of Sydney’s reference, there was an amazing show called Robotech, which more or less introduced me to proper anime. I had seen G-Force and Speed Racer and Voltron, but that stuff was much more childish. Robotech had a serialized story, dialog spoken at a regular human pace *coughspeedracercough* and amazing music to boot. Hearing the opening theme to this day show gives me a serious nostalgia boner. Some of you will know it as Macross. Robotech was apparently three different anime series bought by Harmony Gold and then translated and dubbed to make them all one long story. Purists of course hate this but I didn’t know any better when I watched it and I thought it was incredible.
ANYWAY. One of the things Robotech was famous for, especially the first season (Macross) was these panoramic shots of distant explosions ripping across the sky, just like Sydney has managed to pull off here. Hence the reference. The last time I checked, Robotech was available on Netflix, and is worth checking out if you’ve never seen it. Imagine that you’re 12 and this is the first thing like it you’ve ever seen. It was pretty damned amazing.
A lot of people have questions about the physics behind Sydney’s flight capabilities. The short version is that she’s currently limited to Mach 4, which granted in most cases is like being limited to only having $4 million dollars in your bank account, but an important factor is that she is immune to gravity while using it, so things like escape velocity aren’t a factor for her. She can just fly straight up and doesn’t have to worry about slingshotting around stuff.
I say “immune to gravity” but of course, she’s only tested it out against 1G. (We can assume the Alari homeworld is within 10% of Earth’s gravity.) If I were her, I wouldn’t go buzzing any neutron stars quite yet.
Thinking about that more, I had originally thought that her speed was fixed once she tops out at mach 4, and it’ll definitely stay that way in the atmosphere, (unless she buys a speed upgrade, obviously) but in space… maybe it makes sense that she can accelerate indefinitely. 1G of acceleration is pretty fast, according to some math I found after a quick google, you could get to the moon in like 3.5 hours, half of it spent accelerating, and half spent decelerating. With 4 dots filled in on her flight tree, I’d actually give her 16Gs of acceleration, which would almost be like that scene in Futureama where Leela flies to the moon before Fry can finish counting down from 10. Ok, not actually that fast, but still pretty god damned fast. It makes me appreciate those Honor Harrington books with ships that could accelerate at 450-500 gravities.
Max never tested Sydney’s Extrosphere flight capabilities. That’s a word, right? It should be. Anyway, maybe Sydney’s speed does work like that, in which case it would probably make more sense for her to Mach 4 straight up till she hits space, then G-boost across and back down, if she ever has to make a cross country trip. Even with that kind of speed, I think the previous page holds up. Sydney wasn’t headed toward the moon long enough to close appreciable distance to it.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Ah, the Pew Pew Orb! About time!
Good use of the PPO!!!
And yes I am hip enough and can provide proof of my hipness.
If you need proof, then you’re not hip dude
No you MUST provide proof. Sydney’s rules.
Um… Sidney… This is, in fact the Macross Missile Massacre, according to tvtropes.org
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacrossMissileMassacre
A Macross Missile Massacre is when you’re *firing* a crapload of missiles. A laser that cuts through a bunch of enemies before exploding is somewhat lacking in missiles for such.
Not sure if this is RoboTeching either – that was referring to how the missiles moved. I know Gunbuster had a beam like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other stuff used it earlier.
More like a case of firing the wave motion gun perhaps?
Whatever the case, SYDNEY calls it: “THE ROBOTECH”
I thought Roboteching was when you were firing a bunch of lasers, and the lasers curved around to hit their targets, like what they did in Eureka 7 around the Correlian cloud.
No missiles though.
Maybe more of a Kamehame Hadoken trope.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KamehameHadoken
Surely it’s more like a wave motion beam.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WaveMotionGun
Missile Massacre no, main energy cannon from Robotech firing yes, if the energy cannon could shift its aim while firing.
I believe this is primarily a Gundam trope. With beam sweeps destroying hordes of enemies. I assume there are older variations, but that is the oldest and most popular one I can think of.
and plenty of newer ones as well.
BUSTER BEAM!
https://youtu.be/oPZQHLCFKew
Gunbuster! Yeah!
+1
+1 indeed
+1 indeed
It can definitely be called The Robothech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHDxYYHBDZE
even though HG doesn’t technically own the rights to JFA, and therefore calling it a Triple M is more appropriate.
S names for ultimate moves go that one’s not bad. Also I’m guessing that she’s like trying to kill me once shame on you try and kill me twice that’s just not happening.
Have to say Sydney’s definitely doing her grinding no I’m still not certain how her XP system works.
Don’t tell Microsoft she’s using XP, they’ll want her upgrade to 10
Shame on you for even voicing the possibility! Can you imagine how much harder it would be if Sydney had to struggle with any version of Windows as her UI on the orbs? Heck, once installed, Windows woulde have legal claim of complete use of her orbs despite the fact that Sydney ones them!
“Oooops! Windows has detected unauthorized use of your PPO & have shut down use of your entire system. Please call Tech Support to resolve the issue, which may even require you to lawyer up first.”
Seriously, Microsoft are complete dicks & nearly have a monopoly (in court several times to defend themselves against it) on OS software in the market.
Yeah, I get the impression that at a certain point Microsoft just decided it was easier to defeat the competition in the courtroom than in the market place by actually providing a better product.
Microsoft has never been a better product. They just shovel themselves into everything.
In at least one case, MS used the tactic of farming out legal work to every law firm in town so the plaintiffs couldn’t due to conflicts of interest.
It would fail. Even if the orbs antistupidware didn’t reject it immediately, it would force Microsoft to upgrade to Orbsoft UCode.
That is if the orbs didn’t just all grow smiley faces and laugh for a week.
We would hope that they were made with a hefty helping of goblin craft (J.K.Rowling)- “it only takes in that which makes it stronger”
So Sydney’s plan is to keep using her orbs, leveling up and gaining skill tree points for her Flight Orb, until she gets enough to bring her home?
Aside from the grind she mentioned previously, she’s going to be groping around in the dark trying to find the right upgrades. And given how comprehensive her skill tree is… it’s gonna take awhile. :-(
Problem: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2452
She can’t use the orbs while the skilltree is open. She really needs to keep the shield orb up…
Very good point! It’s the same end result but different argument I used last page- Sydney can’t level up.
Well, not while fighting, no…
Wipe out the enemy in toto or force them to retreat, she can return to the planet, find a place to hide, and then pull up the skill tree. We already know she can breathe the atmosphere safely, at least for a short while.
I want to know the EEPs she gets for taking out each fighter (probably more like for a percentage of the total, I’d wrangle). Defeating the mothership via destruction or retreat has got to come with a pretty big award, since she’s probably going to need to get creative to do so (dramatically, it’s more tropey if the mothership is harder to defeat).
It should also be noted that the skill tree has only ever shown up AFTER Sydney has stopped using the orbs for a period of time.
First after she dropped the shield from Maxima’s fallout and stood around. Next after she was revived and stood around not using them for a while before they poorly timed with the arrival of Sciona’s bloodbot
HOPEFULLY this is a safety feature of the orbs specifically designed to prevent them from becoming unusable at a critical moment and all Sydney has to do is get away from them safely and wait for a period
She can wipe out the enemy (or force them to retreat), return to the planet (it has an atmosphere with a breathable atmosphere, at least in the short term), hole up, and upgrade.
Assuming she can force either of the above, Pie.
If she can’t, she has better things to worry about than leveling up her Flight Orb. Like survival.
stupid post lag…
DAveB, when you get a minute, kill this post and the one it’s in reply to? Thank you!
So here we can see what earned her the big gun title. After getting attacked repeatedly i think she is more then justified in defending herself with lethal force. Wagner Flight of the Valkyrs – good one in that situation.
Flight of the Valrkries…Every time I hear even the first few notes of it, the first thing I think of is “Kill the wabbit!”
O Noble Sydney, of great Scoville stoooooock,
Might I inquire as to ‘Meh *crunch crunch*, What’s Up Dooooooc?’
(am actually eating carrot chips while writing this)
Um. I’m going to kill the Mega-Nega-Squidwards!
O Mighty Halo, ’twill be quite a Taaaaaaaask,
How will you do it, might I inquire to aaaaaaaaask?
I’ll do it with my Shield and Robotek Beam!
Shield and Robotek Beam?
SHIELD AND ROBOTEK BEAM!!!
Pfft, ‘Robotek Beam’. *scofff*
YES!! ROBOTEK BEAM! And I’ll give you a SAMPLE!!!
*waves arm, dozens of ships explode*
*smiles sheepishly* Bye! *scampers away*
Hey, dat was da Mega-Nega-Squidward! *dashes off in pursuit*
She only has two hands. So to maintain shields while attacking, she needs to briefly switch flight for PPO and fire in freefall, yes?
Yes, so technically this is ” Freefall of the Valkries”
Two arms is currently her biggest limitation.
I am sure if she asked Dabbler nicely enough it’s a problem she could solve.
I think Sydney would look great with four arms. :)
She probably could, however…
1) This is still an (extended) flashback, and we know she doesn’t have four (visible) arms at story-telling time from the opening that established this as a flashback.
2) The limitation makes things a bit more interesting, story-wise.
3) It’s explicitly unknown at this point whether or not cybernetic arms would work with the orbs.
4) 3 should, in theory, apply to cloned arms as well.
1) Good point, but flawed. Illusion magic!
3) Very accurate. What about biological arms made with a cell sample and grown using an 3d printer? Sydney has the money for that and we don’t need Dabbler’s help. Well, except for the surgery maybe.
4) :) Okay you already saw my 3 before I wrote it.
I still think the orbs were made to be mentally controlled, only not by humans…
pun: well Sydney already has forearms (ba-dum-ching) Boooo BOOO! :)
Dabs already has a advanced cybernetic arm, would be an interesting test if she could control an orb with original vs cybernetic arms. which probably means a way to hook up nerves etc to arm control systems. Dabs also has a cybernetic eye that could not ‘see’ her orbs iirc.
Bio components/arm clone? maybe. If you could hook the nervous systems to to the arm and could be controllable by the brain (learning to use it etc). Might also depend of if the orbs ‘recognized’ the new arm.
She’s not flying, she’s falling in style!
Flight of the Valkyrs, she’s getting serious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V92OBNsQgxU
I wonder what Earth will look like if Sidney ever manage to go back, since she is (probably) in the future.
After all, a lot of souls just used the portal to invade.
And Sidney is very very very far away.
By the way, how is she even planning to find the way back?
It’s not like she even knows where she is.
Well seeing as she is still recounting this story its set a few months behind so not that far in the future me thinks.
True. This might be the ‘okay we caught up to current time now’ arc.
The word is “exosphere,” not “extrosphere.” Additionally, “space” isn’t really well defined. At higher altitudes, the air is progressively thinner until you don’t notice it. What you call space depends on where you “don’t notice it” anymore.
https://what-if.xkcd.com/24/
https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/
If Sydney’s high enough to be out of the planet’s atmosphere, I think the correct term would be “exo-atmospheric.”
You drew the PPO instead of the Flight Orb in the fifth panel.
Above her head, he means.
That’s actually the unknown orb, you can recognize it from the blurry white center. It’s pretty much a copy-paste of the image in Sydney’s character panel to the side of the comic page.
No, fifth panel, not fourth. There are five orbs above her head, and the PPO is one of them, while the flight orb is not.
Oh man you’re right. In that panel, Sydney has:
2 PPOs
1 Shield
1 Commball
1 Hentorb (Lighthook, Molestorb, Lightwhip)
0 Flight
1 Air
1 Fuck You Orb
She can’t have the flight orb – she NEEDS the shield (it’s not optional) and is wielding the PPO in the other hand.
Yeah, she’ll have to switch back to Flight orb occasionally to prevent becoming a predictable-trajectory target in between blasting them into oblivion. But still, with firepower like that, she shouldn’t have to use the PPO for more than a few shots…
She first described it to Maxima as “like touching a star,” but right here, she seems pretty close to igniting a new star.
0.o
What they were saying is that the PPO is floating above her head while she is using it, and the flight orb is missing.
Addendum to my previous comment
Panel 4 and 5 have 2PPO’s each, and flight orb is nowhere to be seen.
Also, the targets being evil robot aliens seem to have instantly removed any qualms she had about using lethal force against intelligent beings. I wonder what she thinks about all this once she calms down.(reminds me of how in Discworld Vimes kills a dangerous ceiminal and says nothing – because if you can kill someone coldly enough to make a one-liner, that’s murder in his book.)
Good point. She met Icon, who is intelligent living armor, and there are robots that she’s met too. Right? Besides that killer ultramannequin with the tentacles?
I’m not sure, but I think it’s that the aliens using lethal force against her without provocation which removed her qualms about using lethal force.
Hmm I would have gone more Gundam Wing as opposed to RoboTech but yeah probably go with the RoboTech one. You can watch episodes on YouTube as well. Did make me laugh re watching the first MacCross episode. Alien Spaceship crashes on Earth. Humans immediately think its an attack so gang up to kill the aliens. Sigh, typical human mentality/
I was kinda expecting a Macross Missile Massacre using the PPO when she mentioned Robotech.
(The alien tactical officer):
“The entity cannot maneuver while using weapon.”
(The alien captain):
“Fighters! Draw fire away from the”
Was probably going to say “ship”.
and ended up saying it with a ‘t’ at the end instead :)
Sydney, find something that doesn’t move, then walk/swim/fly against it.
Use some thing to hold down the go forward button.
Now sleep on it overnight and when you wake up, some effortless grinding will have occured!
I see you’ve played The elder Scrolls games
Harmony Gold are trash. They sue everyone working on Mechwarrior games for rights that they don’t even own, due to a copyright fuckup from the 80s, then drag out the proceedings until the game companies have to either settle or harm their own products with delays. 2020 can’t get here soon enough.
Big West owns Macross!
Harmony Gold are pretty notorious copyright trolls now, but they sued Tatsunoko recently so at least the odds of them keeping the Macross license are pretty nil. Not that “not actually owning the rights to something” has stopped them from suing in the past.
Okay, not sure if Dave intended this or not: Syd is not holding the fly-ball, but is showing no sign of being in freefall.
Also, I have reread the entire comic several times now and cannot find a reference to her having a force selector on her PPO, so if she is using the non rapid fire mode should not the screw ship have taken a mountain obliterating amount of force right then?
Goodness, she does look pissed off !
This is the Machine Gun Mode she used against the Not-a-Bot at the Wars Factory
This is the laser she used against the tank when the team was showing off to the press, you know, the default setting. First cuts and then explodes.
Freefall is relative and only visible/discernible through motion. We are seeing still frames of the action. Up until she switched orbs, she had static self-gravity applied, but was moving back toward the planet, so her hair and so forth would be doing what it’d be doing if she was in freefall because her motion has not vector-changed (a body in motion will continue to move in that way/direction until acted upon by an outside force).
There is no wind to make her hair flap around (she’s not touching the air-refresh orb; she just did that a few seconds ago; she’s not traveling through an atmosphere but is instead traveling WITH it going at the exact same velocity & direction she is going), and we already know from a previous scene (the first time she goes flying with Maxima, on their way to Archon) that Sydney’s bangs (and presumably the rest of her hair) has a (metaphoric) mind of its own on how it will look & behave anyway. So we cannot presume that a gravity well she’s already headed toward in a static atmosphere would really have all that much effect on her hair.
As for her uniform, it’s brand-spankin’-new, probably fresh out of the plastic wrap just a day or two ago, and this is (er, was) a fresh uniform, probably never before washed, so it’s still got that crisp starchiness (and that weird dyed cotton smell that takes a few washings to go away). It’s not going to flutter around, either, because she’s literally not moving through an atmosphere, she did not change vectors wildly enough for the fabric to have sufficient inertia to overcome the movement change so much that Dave would have to draw our attention to it…etc, etc, etc.
Freefall, as I said, is relative. Especially when you consider that in freefall, you are experiencing zero gravity…albeit with plenty of acceleration. Freefall only has a visual effect if, say, the atmosphere you’re rushing through is rippling your clothes & your hair…but if you freefall on the moon, your space suit fabric isn’t going to ripple at all, because there’s no air molecules to cause enough friction to make your space suit material move. In fact, you won’t even know you’re moving unless you gauge your position against the relative position of the moon’s surface…and that requires video.
Apocalypse Now, the Macross Saga and Honor Harrington all in the same spot. Geek-gasm commence!
And a touch of the newer Battlestar Galactica for the fighter launch sequence.
As the Captain would say Sydney, let’s be about it!
Bleek!
using a some RPG rules to understand/expand Sydney’s powers…
When she found/bonded with the Orbs, their guiding program assessed her basic stats, skills, and experience, and then assigned her Player Character level credits for unlocking some of the Orb abilities. Much like a game master letting a player start out at level 3 or 4 as a reward for a well fleshed out character with back story, and to help the game along. This is why she is already able to do Mach-4 in spite of keeping her Orbs a secret as much as she could before hand, instead of leveling.
In theory, if Sydney were spend time and training to learn to use her feet in hand-like ways, when her pedal dexterity reached a high enough reflexive proficiency, she would be able to use them to control Orbs as well. Of course, as she stated that she hates grinding, and her natural ADD, would make such training a living hell for her.
That would be worth a humorous montage.
Is that somehow a “My left foot” reference?
OR… the points were from the previous owner leveling up the orbs. At this point, I think we can all agree that Sydney is DEFINITELY not their first user, so somebody else had to grind the first 35 levels for her. (Going by how many spaces are filled in on page #181, when she discovers the level-up grid.)
I caught that reference,now I wonder what’s going on back on earth as Maxima and the others are debating as to how to bring Sydney back….!?!?
Aaand next episode we’re back on Earth again, wondering how much effect Sydney’s attack actually had? ;)
I dunno. I think we are going to get a couple pages of this at most and then we are going to see the answer maxima and the team came up with with an exposition after the fact maybe as a pre-epilogue. we are reaching the end of this chapter I believe.
Seeing as the orbs seems to have been created by some kind of intelligent being, if it makes it easier for you as a writer, it’s very possible that the flying orb works mechanically differently in space compared to in-atmosphere. The flying orb may well detect that it is flying in an atmosphere and pushes and pulls on the air around her like a jet engine in order to accelerate her, only to change its method of operation once it enters a vacuum.
Presumably the orbs have some kind of fuel source that is either simply a huge battery and when it’s out it’s out and the orbs are useless until you plug them into your Tesla Homebattery Orbrecharger and that will be a sad arc, or it has some kind of energy storage capacity and some way of generating energy (maybe there’s a mobile or rapidly shutting-and-opening portal in one of them that is directly connected to a star or it just drains the souls of those she kills and souls regenerate mana indefinitely. First law of thermodynamics-breaking souls, yay!).
This potential power capacity and regeneration may be able to maintain her flight indefinitely or for a very long time when flying in the jet-engine configuration, but when expending all its energy to thrust her forwards without any kind of fuel it would rapidly drain the energy storage and would before too long perform an emergency shut down of the thrust before completely emptying that would try to make sure the operator is not harmed from this shutdown.
In this case she may well accelerate an extreme amount, but it would be up to you how long the orb could keep that up before it had to recharge, and how long it had to recharge before she could use them as a main thruster again. I don’t think the precise details of the thrust/recharge cycle is necessary to calculate * so long as it takes her roughly the same time/distance to get up to a certain speed** with a certain number of points in the flying orb.
* Though if you simply tell your nerdy fans how long it should take her to get to a certain place from another (like-earth-to-moon or earth-to-mars) I’m sure we’ll cheerfully throw all the numbers at you and what deductions you can draw from it. Don’t be afraid to use your fans to help you with complex time-consuming calculations and the like, we love this story. :P It’s not cutting corners if you have someone else do it.
** And presumably just as long to slow down. Knowing the halfway point to a planetoid without instruments is REALLY hard though and may not be feasible unless an orb upgrade give her some kind of sensor suite for interstellar travel. Or maybe the orbs are even intelligent enough to notice when she’s about to smash into a planet at mach 500 unless they start breaking NOW, or adjusts her angle so that she enters an orbit instead of a thermonuclear faceplant.
Since we saw that there are people capable of drawing upon alternate energies, i.e. tantirc for Dabbler and vehemnic for that one guy whose name I’ve forgotten, I would posit that the orbs draw upon something similar to an akashic field or perhaps, in keeping with the RPG line, something like The Weave from D&D settings.
*cough* Kevin *cough*
“Presumably the orbs have some kind of fuel source”
I’m thinking zero-point energy myself.
And now I’m expecting Inez Fressange to pop in with another thrilling episode of “Naze Nani
NadesicoSydney Orbs”…There are a lot of potentials, especially in a universe that has confirmed teleportation as a part of normal (though yet undiscovered) physics.
It could also be something relatively mundane like a fusion generator portal-connected to a place with a lot of hydrogen, an antimatter-reactor, a matter-converter, or just a turbine powered by objects falling through portals, or there might literally be a spell that just creates energy, breaking the laws of thermodynamics (maybe previously mentioned turbine + portals), and as other commenters have mentioned, it could be something like tantric energy.
Of course it runs on a battery.
Sydney (or whoever its user is at the time) being alive/conscious is what makes it work.
The orbs sleep when she does (her bedroom after the parking lot) and also they turn off when inactive for long enough (ballroom interview).
That is not strictly necessary. Think of it like a spaceship.
It might have a battery that is powered up by an external machine and will thus eventually run out, or by some unknown energy generation method, or it might just have a generator of some kind that supplies energy to match demand.
Though there is a possibility that she’s actually a super without the orbs, and if the orbs had not attached to her, she would have gotten abilities of her own, but the orbs are instead sucking on an ability that is maybe similar to Jiggawatt’s in order to power themselves.
If she’s not inherently some kind of super, it seems unfeasible that they’d charge simply from her being conscious, nothing of what we’ve seen so far suggests that a single otherwise normal human has enough energy of any kind (thermal, tantric, vehemic, electric) to power anything big.
Even Vehemence was powered up by a small strike force of superhumans unleashing absurd amounts of energy of various kinds, after all, not by 12 people going at it with fisticuffs.
Considering her body shape I don’t think she’s a super. Maybe if she has found the orbs while still growing but she found them as an adult.
That is definitely a thing, though it may be supress the super-body growing as well.
Is Sydney an adult? I thought she was in her late teens at most, not sure when super-abilities show themselves in the Grrlverse.
She is a legal adult yes.
Put it this way, she owns a business.
Depends on whether superpowers always come with the onset of puberty, then.
Maxima has blown up multiple mountains and there is no fucking way she gets that energy from eating or any other natural processes. Dabbler’s handheld railgun was noted to pretty much say fuck you to any energy concerns that modern physics would say are normally a pretty big deal.
Plus magic literally exists in this universe.
Suffice to say pretty much all laws of thermodynamics were robbed of all dignity a long time ago in this comic.
If you want to be technical about it (and not so technical considering how the Worm setting handles thermodynamics and parahumans and that this setting has been confirmed to have portals) there are a lot of non-eating natural processes through which you might blow up a mountain and power+cool Dabbler’s railgun.
A portal to a sun would definitely cut it. Some supers are apparently powered by vehemic (violence) energy, while others are powered by tantric (sexual) energy. The Spinnerette comic has supers powered by cherenkov reactions (“natural” matter-conversion). Magic exists, but evidently it’s part of the laws of physics. For these reasons, I sadly cannot say with certainty whether or not the laws of thermodynamics are being robbed, or if the energy is either being converted from local matter, or simply taken from *elsewhere*.
How is she opening the shield to fire in space?
I’m not sure she’s still in space in this panel.
If she is, seeing as the orbs are made by intelligent beings it’s possible that they engineered the shield orb to be able to let the specific kind of attack unleashed by the red orb through, without letting the air out.
Or it’s just a hole that is rapidly evaquating air, but the life-support orb is resupplying air as quickly or at least quickly enough to not make her choke right away.
She isn’t. The PPO’s beam forms up just outside of the shield. It makes sense that whoever designed the orbs set it up this way, so as to protect the orb wielder from any shrapnel, burning debris, or backblast damage.
The circle is a targeting aide projected on the surface of the shield. Possibly also a live-weapon warning if other people can see it.
“if your seeing this your screwed, love ppo” ;D
Warning: Do not look into the business end of this PPO with your remaining fleet.
The circle isn’t a hole, it’s the focusing iris. On rapid fire mode it changes the angle of spray of shots. Beam mode it would adjust the focus to punching large holes to shaving the wings off flies.
It’s not a hole, the PPO fires from outside the shield. The red ring is the latest PPO upgrade, a visual indicator of the “aperture” allowing her to customize the focusing of the attack (along with a rapid-fireball mode).
In Champions / Hero System terminology, she’s bought one level of Indirect on her Pew-Pew Orb – more than likely just one level, defined as “Just outside my forcefield and always in the direction I’m looking”.
Very useful and often underused Advantage.
OMG! Dave you evil sneak, Sydney did not switch out the florb for the PPO, the link between the two just became active. Unless Dave cannot recall the colours of his own creations. Please sir, do not post to clarify
this, let us see if we can get a comment section to rival the orbital mechanics one.
Check out the Sphere Grid- Sydney did start out with a point spent between Flight and PPO.
You might be right!
Wow. I was just looking at that page earlier today, and I noticed that those orbs were linked. I then Looked at this page and completely forgot about that point. (I still have the page open.)
so the links between are basic if:then programming ?
Like Dave, my first introduction to the world of anime was via Robotech. I’m a bit older than him as I was about 30 at the time. I fell in love with the idea that cartoons could have a real story, with proper character development, personal tragedies and victories, and the grand sweep of an epic adventure. So different from the pablum that American animation studios were cranking out at the time.
Join us next page for Sydney learning she’s got an ammo limit on the pew pew orb.
With that being only one shot, (shame on stupid aliens for bunching up like that. Guess they weren’t present on Maxima’s lectures on realistic battle) she’s likely to run out of targets long before she runs out of ammo.
That sort of depends on the durability of the mothership, which we don’t know yet.
I hope it’s durable – you don’t want the dungeon collapsing before you can loot it.
That’s the proper way to think of the mothership – not as a single boss, but as a dungeon, full of enemies, and full of potentially useful tech. She needs to get inside of it – that way, other smaller ships can’t gang up on her. They’ll have to go after her with their infantry – and they can’t go wielding their nukes, either, not on their own ship!
So important, it’s Maxim 1: Pillage, then burn.
Agreed though, usually you don’t have to worry about the dungeon collapsing before you can loot it. Assuming your team is remotely competent, of course.
The concept described here is known as “Roboteching” it is when a numerous number of projectiles (usually missiles) are fired at once. When said projectiles hit they created a massive cloud of explosive smoke.
As mentioned above, it’s also called a Macross Missile Massacre, which I prefer as I adore alliteration ad nauseum.
MMM is usually supported by, but is not necessarily done via, Roboteching. Roboteching is the act of launching missiles at an angle away from the target, having the missiles then converge on the required vector by themselves. It’s just easier to Macross Missile Massacre things when you can launch missiles from everywhere on the ship, rather than just from the launchers facing the enemy.
“Roboteching” is when missiles/other projectiles are launched sideways and/or in directions not towards the target, but then reorient and converge on the target regardless. It’s got nothing to do with massed attacks, except insomuch as it makes them easier to perform since your weapons don’t have to face the enemy.
I don’t think that’s Roboteching – she’s firing a laser, not a bunch of missiles.
yeah seeing a lot of weird confusion in the comments regarding this.
tv tropes terms be damned,
Guided Missile Barrage would be what a lot of people are talking about, firing a bunch of missiles that turn and home in on the target. There is a beam version of this as well used in some sci-fi…but more common in superhero stuff like Darkseid’s curved beams.
What Sydney is doing is rather simple, a Beam Strafe, she is strafing a cutter beam across a wide area, the explosions are caused by the ruptured mechanical enemies exploding from the damage being done to them…although in Sydney’s case given what happened with the tank its possible her beam has a sub-light explosive payload as well.
Mach 4 relative to what? The planetary surface, the core around which it and any satelites rotate, or the star around which they orbit.
Earth’s equatorial rotation is 0.4651 km/s (Mach 1.5), the Moon’s orbital velocity is approximately 1km/s (Mach 3), and the Earth-Moon’s orbital velocity (at perihelion) is about 30.3km/s.
And Mach is just relative to the speed of sound which varies depending on the thickness of the air.
IE, land speed MACH 1 is different to high altitude MACH 1. Go into space and it means nothing.
It does not convert to speed in MPH or m/s.
And the spiral ship curses. “She’s reached level seven! Don’t let her find her synchronization partner!”
Which would probably be Varia or Krona.
Shit, what happens if Varia touches Sydney’s shoulder with one hand and Kronachrome’s shoulder with her other one!?!?!
My head-canon was that Varia can only activate power from one person at once, but on re-reading Varia’s Q&A page I actually don’t see anything to justify that assumption.
She’d still have to cross-link powers instead of just getting them herself though, and so far it appears to be a one-way thing – so far nobody appears to share her unlocked power.
Before you fire, look behind your target. If there’s another target behind your target, you’re in what’s called a “target rich environment,” so fire away!
Anyway, I like the theory that Sydney’s flight ball accelerates via gravity manipulation, meaning that its top speed is reliant on the magnitude of the current gravitational force. This explains why flight seems to defy gravity, and is also a “realistic” explanation for why the flight orb has a capped speed.
Called it!
Ahhh unrealistic space battles vs eye candy.
I mean, seriously, why are all those fighter ships so close to each other? You would have figured that a space faring species would realise a semi-sphere of widely spaced craft would be far less susceptible to rapid fire attacks, and also upon explosion, you doesn’t destroy the ships adjacent to you…
Also, why no shields? Even Sciona’s semi-dumb sentry bot had a shield that deflected Syndey’s rapid fire….
But in terms of eye candy… go Dave go! Rah rah Sydney!
The fun part here is though they will have powerful weapons against Sydney, she has a serious advantage over the ships though: she’s tiny and they aren’t.
yeah but the ppo previously sliced an Abrams, “like butter” and that is the best armor full stop in the world… it is a real possibility that they have shields and the ppo just over whelmed them, and air/space craft are weight restricted…
.02 ;)
“Best armour full stop”[citation needed]
Abrams uses afaik Dorchester armour on the latest models (formerly known as chobham armour).
The Challenger II uses Dorchester II armour so…
I am using previous experience with the M1 Abrams tank. If it has changed, it is really possible it has, I have not worked with any Abrams since 2007, all MRAPs before I retired out. Land vehicle Armor is better than aircraft armor… it is a sapphire armor on the Abrams if memory serves…
To be fair, the composition of Dorchester is Top Secret. I have no idea how much changed between the first and second versions, and it seems like my info is out of date. The A1 used the Dorchester armour (though they called it Burlington)
It seems the A2 incorporates a Uranium mesh. I don’t know how it really compares.
The uranium mesh is intended to protect more effectively against long rod penetrators, since they’re mainly a battle between projectile and armor density.
As for what would most effectively protect against the PPO, the only thing that seems effective is either not being the target or having several meters of ground in the way.
Or being Maxima :)
Not to dis. the PPO, but the Abrams was upside down when Sidney sliced it so most of her beam was cutting through the relatively thin steel plates that make up the top and bottom. The ‘slab armour’ that makes Chobham armour famous is designed to deal with very specific threats (HEAT shells and kinetic AP shot) coming from very specific directions, not explody beams coming from underneath. It would be more interesting to see if the PPO can cut through the thickest armor plate on one of the Iowa museum-ships.
Even if it was upside-down, it still sliced the tank in half. So what if the top armor was cut in half from effectively inside the cockpit? Still got cut in half.
Top and bottom armor on the M1 Abrams is probably not more than an inch or two (2.5 to 5 cm) of steel, while the front armor is probably equivalent to somewhere in the region of 30 to 40 inches (76 to 100 cm) of steel when hit by a HEAT shell from the front. I’d say that makes a significant different to how impressive it is.
“an Abrams … is the best armor full stop in the world”
Correction: the most we can honestly claim is “the best armour full stop in our world”.
I don’t know whether that assertion is [i] fully true, [ii] true within that class of vehicle (but may be outdone by something bigger), or [iii] entirely outdated. Whichever is the case, we know nothing about how it compares to other worlds’ vehicles. Maybe an Abrams does have better armour than an AT-AT or a Wraith, but nobody’s yet done the testing.
They’re close together because they’ve all just been launched form the same mothership.
___________________________________________
My introduction to anime was ‘Marine Boy’. I can still whistle the theme tune well enough for other people who remember that series to recognise it…
And for those that do not remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41k8mvZKWU8
I pop in my oxygenating bubble gum and hope in my Aquaman Power Armor™
I loved that show, too…
My intro to anime was “Space Battleship Yamato”… or “Star Blazers” if you must.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9L9vWmvvX0
Maybe they are used to formation/swarm flight patterns and have shielding that is sufficient in most occasions. I doubt that Sidney is using the low power rapid fire – It looks more like her main explody ray weapon. She has no reason to hold back. They attacked, they are in bigger numbers and there is nothing to protect on that planet.
Only one thing i don´t get – why not fire on the main ship from above or in the engines – that should do some damage or would at least tell you if they have massive shields.
“And her beam burned brighter than all beams I’d seen before,
And her shields were harder than the heart of any whore…”
Dawson’s Christian
Yep. That giant twisted screw-ship just got screwed.
I just heard that yesterday!!
It’s the track after ‘Carmen Miranda’s Ghost’ on YouTube.
The day before yesterday was the anniversary of her passing.
BTW, the pictures used in that youtube are from a couple of books I have on my bookshelf.
Personally I prefer the Vixy and Tony cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjxMieuRPe4
But that might be partly due to the bad recording of the one you linked (I think it was being played back too fast).
Actually I’d call this move the Zelos from Slayers
with a wave of his hand he destroyed an entire army
but I never saw robotech
For the case of constant acceleration, the simple equation is: D=1/2at^2. From this you can see if you want to cut T to a given distance in half, you’d need to accelerate 4 times as fast.
For VELOCITY, of course, it’s just V=at.
If you accelerate at 1G for one year, you’ll reach (or at least very very closely approach) the speed of light.
To use your example of the moon, it will take just a bit under two and a half hours at 1G for her to reach the moon — about 5 hours if she wants to STOP at the moon, since with constant acceleration you have to reverse your thrust midway in order to come to a stop at your destination. At 16G, those times would be cut by a factor of 4.
That’s 2,5 hours to reach, 3,5 hours to stop at the Moon (at one gee). Half the distance means 1/√2 the time.
With 16 gees, it would take her 51 minutes to travel to the Moon, a bit over one day to cross the inner Solar System, and 6 days to pass Voyager 1.
… In which Sydney possibly murders a bunch of people without knowing what their deal is.
Also, I wonder if one of the level-up abilities (probably a high-tier one) unlocks the ability to use the orbs without holding them.
Well, it seemed pretty obvious that “what they were up to” was definitely hostile…Towards Sydney specifically.
Recall the immediate response when their ground-side “scout” first scanned Sydney; warning signal to the ship & then it attacked with nearly enough force to pierce her shield. If their ground-scout has that kind of firepower, best not to take any chances at all with the ship’s firepower.
When Sydney started heading into space they chased her before she turned back (realizing that going off-planet would be tricky). Then they launch a fleet of fighter ships.
For all intents & purposes, Sydney wanted to avoid direct confromtation even after being attacked without provocation; her mere presence provoked their attack. It seemed beyond reasonable doubt that they were going to try peaceful settlement…So, rest in pieces. Not murder, but self-defense, as sad as the loss of life turned out…Then again, we don’t know for certain if the whole ship was robotically controlled by an AI anyway.
If you’re part of peacekeeping forces which under order to purge all things on a planet of genocidal xenophobic would-be galaxy conquers… would you ignore a flying shielded organism suddenly appearing on the surface of said planet?
These guys could well be the galactic federation of do-gooders who may have been busy killing one secret super-weapon or biotechnical monster after another. Who knows what things a planet like theirs have created for their war effort? Doppelgangers? Murder-cyborgs? Magical shape-shifters? Demons?
…but narratively I doubt Dave wants Sydney to suddenly have become the murderer of a 100’000 peacekeepers. Could have had Dabbler guess that the ship was AI controlled or something to make Sydney less murder-happy-seeming.
Blood mage lawyers with cursed subpoena and Jury duty notices.
Sorry but she was attacked multiple times. That is a very valid excuse to defend yourself even if that means destroying/killing the attackers
But she does “know what their deal is”. Sure you could say that it was circumstantial that they were found roaming a recently genocided planet, but they immediately nuked Sydney. That fully justifies the return use of lethal force. A rolling assumtion of “that was the past and this is now” would effectively negate the natural right to self defense.
Twice. They nuked her twice. She’s more than justified in hosing them down with extreme prejudice.
Okay, this is going to be my next hero’s catchphrase in the next Supers game in which I play.
“Surrender now, villainous scum, or get hosed down with extreme prejudice!”
Actually, this would make a great catch phrase for The Amazing Schlong™…
(“Let me get this straight – your Gamma World character rolled Multiple Body Parts, Enlarged/Enhanced Body Parts, and strangle vines?”)
Not only did they nuke her twice, they did it under the “shoot first and ask questions never” philosophy, without even saying hello. There’s no way that they get to play the aggrieved party here.
What fascinates me, is that the alien drone first scanned Dabbler, and did nothing even though she tried to block his scans. But then it noticed Sydney, or more specifically her orbs, and immediately went ape-sh*t! I think the planet-wreckers have encountered such technology before and DIDN’T like it!
My ringtone is the Robotech theme song. I’ve got all of the Robotech, Army of the Southern Cross and Mospeada episodes on DVD somewhere.
Ditto plus full VHS copy and trilogy of books which also has a extra story bit on the ultimate fate of earth civilization and Robotech aliens. The last bit was never in video.
Hmm… Nobody has mentioned that the one onomatopoeia has an actual sound associated with it – LAUNCH FIGHTERS
https://www.sa-matra.net/sounds/starcontrol/UrQuan-Launch.wav
*sets as his FB Messenger ping*
I wonder if the PPO’s beam intensity correlates with just how pissed Sydney is at the time. I could see Sydney doing the Hulk thing.
Don’t make her angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.
Loved Robotech, and Macross, but the excessive exploding enemies thing is VERY common in Tech Anime. I’m fairly certain that it’s listed in ‘The Anime Laws of Physics’ somewhere, just like the law that states that Minmei is a bimbo. I’ll just wait and see if they send out some kind of Mecha to fight her directly that’ll make her have to learn to properly multi-task with the orbs, like switch them out FAR more rapidly than she has in the past.
So, I know these aliens wiped out a whole civilization, which is pretty evil, but from what Dabbler said about Sciona’s people, they kind of deserved it. So, maybe Sydney should have tried to get on the ship and try talking to them? Just in case they aren’t total assholes?
They shot at her (and the rest of the team) without warning and and with enough force to form an impressive crater.
Sorry, but that just doesn’t give a “I’m willing to be talk”-vibe (unless the talk is about how they will exterminate you).
Its possible that the aliens assumed they were allies of the Alari trying to help them escape (which they kind of did to be fair), but I just remembered that the unkown alien probe or attack drone thing deep scanned them first before attacking. So, ya. Maybe they are just assholes.
Although, it can be argued that (If the time travel theory is correct) the alien recognize Sydney and are enemies with Earth already, and/or know what the orbs are and want them for themselves.
Yeah, the aliens actions do carry a Dalek-like vibe. “Seeek…Locate….EXTERMINATE!”
Dalek-ka lekka Hi, dalek-alekka Ho!
Ah yes, the ‘Robotech attack’ or ‘Macross Missile Massacre’ or simply ‘Go Anime’.
Had the reverse happen in a tabletop space combat game. Player One attacks Player Two’s supply convoy using four supercarriers, who launch a swarm of angry bees at the hapless cargo vessels. Four tiny escort ships streak to intercept. P1 assumes these are packed with anti-fighter weapons, and gives them a wide berth. They are, in fact, carrying pulse torpedos and missile packs, which both ignore defense screens. Two carriers are destroyed outright. The other two are badly damaged and unable to pursue the escaping convoy. P1 learns valuable lesson regarding carrier convoys and escort vessels…
And we see in the battle with the main enemy ship that Sydney fired first.
This will, of course, be changed in the movie to the enemy taking the first shot (and a bunch of extraneous CGI in the background that has no relevance to the story).
The aliens fired first when the alien mech thing attacked them
but… they did fire first… they sent the monster that tried to nuke Sydney twice when she was still planet side. so there’s no way they didn’t fire first