Grrl Power #818 – Queue E1M1.mid
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard this music track.
The reason Peggy isn’t manning the gun range today is because I meant to show Sydney’s upgraded glasses the very next time she went shooting, but she already went. So I decided that Peggy is a big believer in safety goggles, and… I guess Sydney doesn’t like wearing the goggles over her admittedly weirdly huge lenses.
I’ve been to a shooting range only one time, for a beginner “rent a few different kinds of pistols and shoot them” thing, and I actually did get an ejected piece of brass stuck behind my glasses for like half a second. It wasn’t pressed up against my eye though, thankfully. And of course, some woman in a V-neck shirt got one down her top. There’s probably never been a day at any shooting range where that hasn’t happened at least once. I mean, can you blame the brass?
Dabbler has a similar system in her cybernetic eye. It scans the exterior of a gun as well as some of its internals, then projects a calculated crosshair based on the vanishing point drawn by the barrel shape as it’s pointed away from the wielder. It’s not as accurate as something with a smart jack built into it, but… it’s still pretty accurate, especially once a few rounds are fired and it can calibrate.
Arc-SWAT is hilariously casual. Seneca is from the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron, which is like the Air Force equivalent of the SEALS I guess? They don’t seem to have a cool name though, like “Rangers” or “Delta Force.” Just “STS” I guess. Anyway, I have no idea what rank Seneca would be, so let’s just say Master Sergeant. A raw recruit would not normally be addressing a MSgt by her first name like that. Like, probably never, actually. Maybe if they were both off duty and off base.
Of course, as you can probably tell from this page, Seneca is pretty laid back. She’s more of a “you seem vaguely aware of the risks, go for it.” kind of instructor.
Edit: For those who don’t recall Cora making new glasses for Sydney.
Edit 2: Okay, I added a thought bubble trim on panels 3 and 4 to help indicate that it’s a Sydney daydream.
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You can always have it that ARCHON isn’t the “real” military and so there is less a strict and rigid interaction between the people except in highly formal matters like press conferences.
When you got a bunch of superheroes together, you’ll want them to make friends, after all.
Problem is, that most of them just got out of the military, Archon only recently came out of the military secret closet, so there probably only are a few people that are as lax as Seneca here. Outside of the guy in the flashback fantasies, who wasn’t quite clear on the situation when he was discharged, and was convinced that this was all a joke at his expense, or something.
Having been in the real Army some 40 years ago I can attest to the fact that the military is a mixture of people who take it all pretty casual and people who act like military discipline is the most important thing in the universe. I remember one warrant officer who told us enlisted guys under his command that we had to play Army when we were out in public but he preferred us to be just coworkers inside of our shop.
Major Frank Burns, MD comes to mind
There are sort of two parallel hierarchy systems with supers in Archon, military rank and power levels. Sid is recruit as far a military rank but is arguably top three in powers outside of close quarters combat, and her shield could almost make melee a non-issue for her. In the bio’s Math has a higher power level than Sid, but how would Math have faired alone on the Amari home world? Anyone but Dabbler and Max would probably have died, well Achilles would just be captured or buried alive… Anyway Sid gets respect via Power Level not Military Rank.
Unfortunately simply adding a laser pointer to your gun is not going to make you a crack shot
It’s not a simple laser pointer, it’s an AR display that predicts where the bullet will hit. Which is why is needs 3 shots to calibrate. It can then watch how the bullet moves in the air and adjust for that.
Mike: Still not going to be enough. Sidney would have to fire every shot the exact same method. Exact same amount of jerking the gun when she pulls the trigger and everything, etc. Also, as soon as they glasses realize that Sydney is still effectively a beginner, the system may be smart enough to turn itself off.
Why would it be smarter to shut off? Two reasons:
One: This is training. Even if the glasses are basically indestructible with an infinite power source, they can still be knocked off or Sydney need to have them off for some other reason. If the only way Sydney is safe using a gun is with the glasses on, then it’s best if she doesn’t have the gun.
Two: Even if the glasses can assume Sydney will always have them, it’s still inefficient for both to be ‘learning’ together. Let’s say Sydney shoots and the first shot is too low (most probably, since the glasses still need to learn about Earth propellant and the aerodynamics of the bullet). The targetting system is going to compensate. BUT… Sydney is also going to compensate. So next shot is too high. No problem, both try to correct, and… you get into a chain of where both are over-correcting, under-correcting, etc. Oh, and yes, Sydney is probably smart enough to figure this out, but she’s not going to be able to completely override her subconscious when that subconscious is still building the ‘muscle memory’ for firing guns.
How often is Sydney going to be relying on a mundane handgun when she was her balls to play with?
This is simply something that is required of every member of an armed forces unit, even Radar had to learn how to shoot
Your reasons are why said, on the first page, that, yes, she will set a new range record, for the most numbers of shots fired without even hitting the target or even keeping them in the correct lane
Phrasing!
Always :P
On her own she already can hit the target with 11/21. that’s why she was firing the bmg instead of at the press conference with the fel.
I’d assume that the glasses are going to be learning based on the input it has about where the gun was aimed and where the bullet hit. But it also gets to see how much the gun moves, which tells it about how Sydney’s coming along as well. If the system does learn based on watching her shoot, it’ll probably fairly quickly figure out that she’s learning, too.
To be fair, I’m assuming that the glasses don’t understand that she’s at a target range and she’s aiming for center of mass. The glasses are just trying to show her where her bullet will hit, As such, it’s not going to be thrown off by her overcompensating, because her changing her aim based on where the bullet actually hit doesn’t change where the bullet goes relative to where the gun was pointing. That said, there’s also the effect of how much she moves the gun in response to the gun’s kick, but she’s been firing on the range a number of times already, so will be stabilizing there quite a bit. I mean, she got over half of her bullets on target once already.
Personally, it feels to me like this is a good set of training wheels for her to start. Once she gets to be good using these glasses, her next improvement comes from learning to shoot without them. But I feel that she’ll likely get to the end of that challenge quicker for having the time with them.
It’s certainly going to be a decent training aid – she gets to watch her point of impact jump all over the place with poor stabilization and trigger jerking. Nice feedback to help her get good faster.
This will HELP her aiming, but actual CONTROL of the firearm is still up to the person pulling the trigger. Heck, not everyone knows that there are WRONG WAYS to pull a trigger.
Doesn’t that also have to do with the quality of the trigger? One with a clean break at a consistent level of force will mostly neutralize that issue, where as a spongy trigger would give control problems to all but the most practiced marksmen. I’d imagine Peggy has Sid’s firearm dialed in to give Sid the best chance of success.
The best set up gun in the world won’t fix sloppy technique. Bad components certainly make slop worse.
I don’t need any helper devices, I am an expert shot, without using the sights.
Of course you don’t need sights, it’s amazing how effective one can be firing from the hip.
I learned instinctive shooting, I don’t need sights.
I’ve used it as well (sometimes called point-and-shoot or finger-aiming), it’s fine for close-range things like the pistol range or skeet. But beyond say 50 yards, there’s no way anyone hits a target accurately and consistently without the sights.
Hell, if youse can hit the target at 50 yards using a handgun, you’re doing bloody well. I’m happy to get a two-hand grouping at 20 yards using a proper pistol.
Waiiiit for it…
Mhh during my military training (in germany) we never wore saftetyglasses at the range…. and for earprotection we had barely visible formfitting inear plugs…
For guns we had mostly older stuff as it was only basic training
P38 / MP2 / G3 / G36 / G22 / MG3
Never had an issue with someone getting hurt by hot lead though.
Yeah, no kidding. Fired thousands of rounds, and unless that brass literally lands directly on your fully open eyeball, any damage it causes is going to be minor at worst. Oh no, I got singed by some slightly hot metal, boo hoo. Still, eye and ear protection at all times, no need to take avoidable risks.
If you are left handed and firing an M16A1 (it was the guy next to me in Army Basic Training) the brass ejects toward the opening in your shirt.
And the Army has brass deflectors that will prevent that from happening.
That deflector became a thing in the M16A2.
Also, those brass deflectors are for service weapons, and range weapons are pretty low priority for upgrades.
In an infantry battalion you always shoot with your service weapon.
Is that why I had a different weapon in each deployment and every trip to the range just like each 11B in my unit.
11B? Wait, SG?
Conscription armies (any and all armies actually, but especially for “temporary service” members) work by different rules and regs.
Definitely a situation where the Law of Large Numbers applies. You’re firing tens of thousands of rounds. So is everyone else. A tiny % of a very large number is still a pretty big number. So even if the hugely enormous vast majority causes no problems simply the fact that millions upon millions of rounds are fired means someone is going to get something down their shirt, or shoe, or to the face. And of those incidents where something Bad Happens, again because there are so many, there’s a chance some of them could through sheer bad luck cause catastrophic damage.
So, yeah, long winded way of me agreeing with you. Take precautions when possible.
P38 ? Though the P1 was the term used by the FGR.
And yes its common for Euro-Shooters to not use eye protection (see bloke on the range) as for me I do not like brass thrown in to my face with out protection which my P1 does from time to time.
Yea the P1 (and later P8) would have been the ones we should have used, but there was some lack of gear at the time in our company , so they issued us the older p38 model…. Making fun of having some warnshots and then the gun parts as precision throwing weapons afterwards….
The MP2 were oldschool stuff too , only there to show us recruits what an machinepistol is like.
Our main weapons were the G36 and MG3
P38?
Walther P38?
I tried that, but couldn’t hit the target often enough to qualify. I’d probably have trouble hitting the walls of a barn… from the inside…
The MG3 was fun…
And a quick way to get rid of a lot of old ammo…
I ven got decent at doing quick barrelswaps.
The AG-3 is better than the G3, though.
Never tried the MP2. No idea what it is.
The MP-5 was like a downscaled AG-3, though, so it was easy to get used to. But the familiarity also caused issues such as people using the same grip on it as on the G-3/AG-3 and firing off a shot while holding onto the flame-whatsamacallit at the end of the barrel…
Gun ranges insist on the goggles and ear protection because of legal liability. To keep their property & business insurance costs low, they need to insist people take all possible (not extreme mind you, just reasonable) precautions. And yes, I did get a shell down my shirt neckline and into my (at the time quite ample) cleavage. It was a regular crew neck teeshirt collar, a little saggy from years of wear, but not like a V neck or anything. Bullet casings can & will go anywhere. It was painfully hot, but only briefly so.
I dunno…maybe Tom Smith’s “Bullet Time” might be a good theme for this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTOBfEcJWNI
What little shooting you get to do in US Navy bootcamp demands safety goggles, and massive earphones. The mandatory requals use whatever safety glasses are handy, and whatever hearing protection is available, usually oldschool foamies.
Heh, requal in the fleet was disposable foam earplugs and the glasses I had on, which weren’t even navy issue BCGs.
Man, that M-60 was fun to shoot from the hip.
In 97, in the Army, the required safety gear for range qualification was a pair of orange “christmas tree” earplugs. There were no glasses unless you were issued the “birth control” glasses, regular glasses, but their look basically ensured that the wearer wasnt getting laid. Even I 99, in Germany when we were doing the M249 SAW range, there were no safety glasses to be seen.
The Comments got to page Two rather quickly.
(“It’s a new Academy record!”)
1) Let’s hope Seneca teaches Sydney a proper shooting isosceles shooting stance. Otherwise all the advanced optics in the universe won’t help her hit the target.
2) I’m guessing that Glock is a G44 chambered for 22LR (the apparent size/shape of the cartridges indicated, and best suited for beginners with small body-frames) but even that doesn’t hold 21 rounds. Unless this is some custom version made for military only.
All right looking back up the thread I see FN 57 mentioned. Yeah I can sort of see that, although Dave didn’t include the little cog-tooth ridges underneath the barrel. But it does hold 20 rounds plus one in the chamber. It still looks more like a Glock to me.
It’s an FN Five-seven, which actually can hold 21 rounds. 20 round magazine and 1 in the chamber. Way earlier in the comic, chapter 326, she gets issued her pistol and Dave says which gun and why.
On that note, it’s a little weird how, despite firing a shot, it still has 21 rounds. I guess she changed the magazine after catching the brass with her eyeball.
She didn’t fire a round, two of the panels are Sydney’s imagination showing her the catching of a hot brass casing to the eye, hence her decision to go with a hat. Look at the edges of panels 3 and 4, they’re the fluffy cloud edging of imagination/though processing.
I completely didn’t notice the dream cloud thing.
Oh, it’s because he added them after I read the page :p
“… actually can hold 21 rounds. 20 round magazine and 1 in the chamber.”
Old cowboy trick, practically guarantees you’ll toast an unintended target, unfortunately probably not your own knee or ankle.
I have never come across any legit instructor even permitting the practise. It’s dead equivalent to starting the chariot in gear. In fact it’s even more stupid than putting the safety catch onto a second trigger…
Big toe it is always the big toe for some reason. Read the old Dodge city and Tombstone news papers about shoots outs not the famous ones the little ones between farm Bob and rancher Jim. The normally read like this.
Last night there was a shoot out between farmer Bob and rancher Jim. Neither men was seriously hurt and the only real injurer was farmer Bob how was some how shot in the big toe. They are all like that or worse someone get shot that isn’t part of the shoot out drunk idiots. There is a reason the Law would take weapons at the town limits.
One of my great uncles worked with a sheriff in the town I was born during the oil boom, his standard load out was .38 belly gun under his shirt a .45 on the hip and a 12 gauge in hand. You didn’t screw around with the man he said drop the iron you dropped the iron or he dropped your guns, no questions asked.
Good thing Sydney’s not an old cowboy, then.
The main reason for carrying “hammer down on an empty chamber” in the Old West was to prevent the hammer from accidentally tapping the firing pin hard enough to set off the primer on a round in the chamber, thus, as you say, shooting off a toe. That’s not going to happen these days.
Practically every modern handgun has a trigger disconnect safety, meaning until the trigger is squeezed, the hammer physically *can’t* contact the firing pin. There’s zero danger of an accidental discharge from having a round in the chamber, until the shooter puts their finger on the trigger.
That said, the primary (almost the only) cause of unintentional discharge is poor trigger discipline: putting your finger on the trigger before you’re sighted on the target. Panels 6 and 7 show Sydney using EXCELLENT trigger discipline. Her finger is so far away from the trigger, it’s almost in another county.
Standard practice in law enforcement and military use, and general practice in the self-defense/CCW community, is carrying with “+1”. It’s only sensible to get Sydney used to having a fully loaded weapon in her hands, siince that’s what she’ll be carrying in action. That moment or two it takes to chamber your first round can be the difference between life and death; your own, or your partner’s. As George Patton said, “You fight like you train.”
I was 13, in a land far from Oz, getting regular tuition on a Lee-Enfield .303, “just in case…”
Most of the tuition was actually broadbase “weapons training”, covering what is a weapon, and when and how should one deploy a weapon of any sort. Naturally this came down to the need for discretion and stealth, even if you were hunting game rather than doing “Army stuff”.
Of course trigger discipline was mentioned. But a far greater discipline was instilled in me: Deploy your weapon only when needed. Sun Tzu teaches that you will need to deploy your weapon before the enemy/prey has detected you, but not until you have detected the enemy/prey. Deployment is not arming the weapon. Arm the weapon only when you need to. This will usually be when the enemy/prey acts nervously, when they may have detected sign of your presence. With the Lee-Enfield, one would load a round in the chamber, and then half-cock the gun. And finally, fire the weapon when the time is right and one can do so as a surprise attack, or in a strategic retreat. On the Lee-Enfield one simply pulls the hammer back to full cock, aims the rifle and squeezes the trigger. If you have diligently practiced the teachings, you will never be caught by surprise, and will never have to deploy and arm a weapon against an enemy or prey you have not seen.
As my Dad said: “This means you should never be drawing attention to yourself to make others suspect you have ill intent toward them.”
If you really need that moment or two to get your first strike off, you not only have no time to aim properly, you have not carried out your target preparation: look behind the target, assume you will either miss or the round will go through it, and make sure you don’t drill an innocent bystander.
To me, carrying any weapon, be it stiletto, crossbow or shotgun, in such a manner that it can be used immediately with no further thought is anathema, it shows the user is not ready for either war, hunt or social intercourse. And I long ago ceased to be surprised that so many hunters die from hunters’ bullets every season.
In later life, I noted many people earnestly discussing why the Police were deploying their most lethal weapons first, regardless of the circumstances. It turns out the Police are not actually trained in how to use all their options, and a Smith & Wesson (then) or a Glock (now) is far simpler to operate. And I don’t want to even speculate on the attitudes and abilities of armed security guards. Anything that even smells of potential trouble, I simply leave the area, discreetly.
Your post reads like you don’t think one really needs to aim properly and carry out target preparation.
I didn’t get that at all – my takeaway is that a weapon is a tool that requires respect, and part of its proper use is a) knowing when not to use it, and b) that it’s not the only tool and rarely the best choice, and c) preparing and practicing with any tool will make you effective with it when the time does come to use it.
Was kinda hoping Some Ed was being sarcastic, because gorblimey‘s post covered all that
gorblimey’s post suggested that the moment or two to load wouldn’t matter if you had the luxury of having time to aim and evaluate what else was around your target that you could hit. But realistically, there would be some times where you have the time to do that, but only just. We can assume that your target in the field isn’t just going to be standing around waiting to be shot. So they’re on the move, and they could be a half second away from cover when you’ve finally gotten through what you need to do to get them. If you have to arm the weapon then, you’ve missed your shot. Alternatively, if you armed the weapon as you were assessing that situation, you were distracted in doing it.
Everything takes time. Everything has a cost. If I have to have a gun, I’d really prefer it was one where I could spend all the preparation time before I’m in the thick of things, so that I don’t have to take moments out to do that when moments matter.
One of life’s little luxuries is watching occasional footage of a mass extinction event in the USA. The “occasional” bit is where the camera catches the loonybin with the guns strolling through the crowd following his bullets. You get to see what it is targeting: mostly unarmed civilians, but from time to time it spots a Concealed Carry, only now it’s an Unconcealed Carry. The Unconcealed Carry has just attracted the loonybin’s total attention, and a whole magazine of lead, because it Didn’t. Spot. The. Danger.
This video is highly illuminating. Personally I’m doubtful of its authenticity, but… I should say that a thoughtful shootist suspecting athe presence of a flak-jacket would very soon transfer it’s aim from the upper body to the groin or face. That’s how Ned Kelly came undone at Glenrowan: he forgot about the gang’s legs.
There is a HUGE difference between poncing around with a gun ready to solve all the world’s problems, and evaluating the shitstorm from a place of relative safety in order to make sane decisions. The walking testosterone bottle has no backup even if it IS a member of a properly constituted Law Enforcement group, whereas all the rest of those good Public Servants are backing each other up via that most deadly weapon, the The Prestart.
I think that in any country there have been perhaps 5 occasions when a professional was suddenly surrounded by The Evil Ones aiming their armory at him (or her). Your arguments are based on fear and hysteria, in case some angel decides finally that the average person is not fit to carry projectile weapons in public.
…
I have just been reminded that The Problem might not only be in a crowded mall. It may well be entering your house… Sun Tzu does not ever explicitly advocate having a loud watch dog, per se, as such. But his teachings make that pretty obvious. Loose coarse bluemetal gravel is an excellent noise-maker laid oustide windows, or thick plantings of rose bushes. So as you are forewarned, there is time to gather your child’s cricket bat and slide up near the point of entry… There are two ways of holding a cricket bat, face forward or edge forward. That choice is yours.
I’m no gun expert, but… don’t automatics fire a bullet when the trigger is squeezed, provided the safety is off, regardless of whether it’s in the chamber or the magazine?
…
Please, tell me you’re having a lend of us?
On the off chance it’s a serious question worded a bit poorly – no on both counts. To the poor wording: obviously no gun will ever fire a bullet that is in the magazine, only one loaded into the chamber and aligned with the barrel. Doing so would just be an un-directed explosion and probably destroy the inside of the weapon and injure the shooter.
As for what I think your actual question was – auto and semi-auto guns work by using the energy from each shot to eject the spent shell and load the next one from the magazine, the difference being that a full-auto activates the firing pin directly and a semi-auto requires the trigger to be released and squeezed again. So if there is no round in the chamber to start with, the gun can’t load one to jump-start itself and the shooter must prepare the system by chambering a round. This is the slide pull or shotgun cock you see in the movies when things are about to get serious – the weapon is being changed from “standby” to “loaded and ready to fire.”
Which is why any scene showing the characters cocking their weapon after already engaging someone with it makes me cringe. Yes, it gives the writers a way to escalate the threat one last time before actually firing, but unless that’s clearly the intent it’s just sloppy writing or uninformed directing.
It really depends on the situation regarding cocking the weapon after engaging
Just watched “Desperado” again, at one point, the druglord walks into the same shop the Mariachi is hiding in, Mari wasn’t expecting that and you see him trying to cock his weapon quietly while the shopowner is distracting the druglord
Okay, not quite the same situation, hopefully you get the point anyway: sometimes you don’t have the chance to pre-cock your weapon
“e magazine after catching the brass with her eyeball.” That was Sydney’s imagination.
Hm, surprised the HUD didn’t activate while firing her first round.
That got me too, it was a ‘dream sequence’ kinda thing, you can tell by the cloud pattern of the border. Didnt even realize it until Dave pointed it out in the blog post. She didn’t really take hot brass to the cornea, just imagined it, hence why she wisely chose a hat. XD
I find it ironic that the woman in the tank top is lecturing someone on the dangers of hot brass.
> dangers of hot brass
That’s Maxima in a nutshell.
Hah hah.
Two spent shells are sitting in a woman’s cleavage. One shell says to another shell, “This is a pretty hot pair of tits!” The other shell replied, “Well, it is NOW!”
Nize glasses…
Hell, if I could get glasses like that, I wouldn’t be so dead-set on contacts.
Unless this is strictly a built-in training aid, still cheating, Syd – shut off the cybermetrics and do it with what Mother Nature gave yah. Even if they never break, run out of power or fall off your face, the dressing down when Maxima finds out ain’t worth it.
Any sort of corrective lenses qualify as artificial aid – and if Sydney isn’t wearing them, she’s struggling to even see the target, let alone aim at specific points on it…
She actually only needs the glasses for reading
A huge part of training to shoot is in the muscle control to stabilize the firearm and smoothly pulling the trigger (instead of jerking). Most people are naturally fairly accurate at pointing at where they’re looking, so fast reaction shooting comes a bit later on. I agree – she needs to learn to shoot without the tech lenses, but there’s room for them at the start of her training.
All of Sidney’s powers are alien tech enhancements. If she just used what nature gave her, she wouldn’t be a super. Instead I think Sid is taking the “Use the best tool for the job” approach. If she is in a firefight and her glasses break, she could just bubble up and fly into her enemy at Mach 4. I am having trouble coming up with a good combat reason for Sid to even train with a conventional firearm other than the gun safety rules crossing over to her PPO usage.
Because it’s a ranged weapon which won’t cause collateral conflagrations.
Captain Obvous is right, but it is also an OBVIOUS weapon (no pun intended).
Fairly likely future scenario: Sidney yells “Freeze @#$%^%!You’re under arrest!”while holding the PPO. Uniformed Perp thinks,”WTF? She’s thretening me with a big marble?!”Situation comes unglued.
Or: Sidney yells “Freeze @#$%^%!You’re under arrest!”while holding her trusty FN FiveseveN. Any perp who’s been on Earth in the last 150 years has an instant, visceral reaction to what he KNOWS is a lethal weapon. Only the stupudest, craziest and the most desperate fail to comply. Much better chance of a favorable outcome.
See for example the first time they were at the range and Max blasted a target with her finger, then immediately pointed in Sydney’s face. Sydney was just confused in spite of the demo, but then responded instantly to Max’s sidearm doing the same thing
This is why we carry guns. However, in regards to Syd’s FN 5-7, this is why we should all carry BIG guns.
Oh, please tell me she thinks she can beat Leon now:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-419-lacking-in-tactics/
Nah, Leon cheats
An organization that recruits metahumans is quite likely to be much more casual than standard military if metahumans are rare and randomly distributed through the general population. They’d need to stay more broadly appealing to a wide range of people because they have less recruits to choose from the fill their ranks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sQFx_e_0jc
she BREAKS the smartglasses and no more smartglasses ever again.
Maybe … however, what do you think the smartglasses are made of? It’s possible they are some monomolecular stuff resistant to armor-piercing rounds. Or self-repairing nanotechnology.
Or McGuffiam, insuring they are completely indestructible no matter what…until she no longer needs them, or needs to learn she no longer needs them; at which point they’ll shatter like cheap glass from a two foot fall.
So just like bcg’s?
Sidney is the Captain of the FTL intergalactic starship Sidney. If she can run over to Fracture station to get Neil DeGrasse Tyson some spicy noodles, she can get new AR glasses at will.
oh my that’s look painful… safety first.
CALLED IT! I knew that Cora would put a HUD in those glasses
Yeah but can she go into VATS?
That would require the glasses to be able to change her perception of time, and guide her aim. So, probably no. The glasses are more like video game cross-hairs.
Given Maxima’s speed and reflexes, I’d imagine the world looks like a frozen VATS display to her when she really gets moving, though. Or at least like Skyrim’s Slow Time shout with all three words unlocked.
Seneca is air force, she is automatically going to be pretty casual. And good thing it isn’t called the Special Tactics Detachment.
I suspect after Sydney fires three shots, that aimbot is going to give up in disgust when trying to zero. What is Sydney doing in the last panel, is that the pistol against her ear?
Sydney’s putting on the noise suppression headgear…They happen to resemble old-style bulky headphones like maybe your grandpa might have worn to listen to music on his stereo. They’re designed to cut down the loud sound of the gun being fired because long-term exposure to loud noises tends to degrade your hearing.
That was my first thought, but it doesn’t look like ear defenders, and in the panel before, she is still holding the pistol, and I don’t see a table at the shooting station.
I had to stare at it for a couple of seconds too; she’s putting on her hearing protection.
On the one hand, Maxima might get pissed on the other it will significantly aid SYd in the field if she needs to use a gun so….Maybe she’d let it got …and possibly ask her to hook up her sunglasses
Cool! Cora managed to install some useful DLC Mods for Sydney’s glasses!
sorry ou have to pay $5 for each cross hair. Like the red dot!
Gamification makes everything easier, now if only I had a gamified exercise plan I would be in great shape.
Try the “Zombies, Run!” app. To complete your mission in the Zombie apocalypse, you have to run IRL.
Hot damn, that pistol shoots rifle rounds. No wonder she flinches with every shot, that recoil’s gotta be killer!
I noticed that too, Dave didn’t allow for any material depth in the grip or the magazine. And handgun bullets are not quite so pointy, and there’s far less of a gap between the top of the magazine and the chamber. But we still get the idea, so oh well.
It’s a fairly good representation of the FN 5.7x28mm rounds, which are for both the FN Five-seveN pistol and the FN P90 carbine. She may be using the sporting round for target practice but the normal duty round was specifically made to be armor-piercing.
You’re right – haven’t ever seen a FN or its rounds in person, should’ve looked it up. Much more familiar with 9mm, .38, .45 and the like. The only other pistol round I can think of that long off the top of my head is a few custom revolvers I’ve seen that fire .22LR, though those rounds aren’t pointy.
Yeah the 5.7x28mm rounds are weirdly pointy, and are apparently quite armor piercing for a pistol round. Probably not a lot of stopping power though.
I was going to comment on “Neat, FN 5.7”. Due to higher velocity I believe the initial energy on impact is similar if not greater, doesn’t carry the momentum as far after meeting resistance compared to a heavier round though.
There are other things that are unique to this cartridge as well, some say they’re characteristics are good some say they’re not.
Yup. For stopping power, i.e. knocking down a typical squishy-but-enraged target quick in the fight you prefer large, soft, slow ammunition such as the .45 or .40, which typically stop inside the target, transferring ALL of their energy. They push the person back hard and do massive internal damage.
If they are coming prepared for the fight, you want a narrow, hard, high velocity round that makes relatively small, neat holes through body armor, the body, the body armor on the other side, and maybe the cover they were using. The bullet doesn’t stop and so doesn’t transfer as much force. The small amount of damage is a drawback, but the positive is being able to put holes in people wearing body armor. The small damage is compensated for by the high rate of fire and accuracy of the smaller, faster round so you put a LOT of small holes in someone instead of a big one.
Armor piercing is a good choice for a super-cop squad, given the likelihood of running into henchmen in armor, robots, and rhino-hide supers. For Sydney, who already carries better weapons, the small size and light weight are probably the more important reasons for choosing it, since it’s primarily an intimidation/deterrent device for demonstrating that, yes, she really is a cop and they really don’t want to resist arrest.
Armor is a good choice for bullet-resistant heroes too, as ArcSWAT knows. As an Alpha-type (basically Supergirl) Astra is often up against villainous Alpha & Ajax types and her combat ability took a huge boost when she started wearing a specially made chest-plate & helmet and carrying a 200 pound maul (hammer). And one of the worst beatings she got was from an Ajax-type (basically Hercules) in an Iron Man style set of powered armor.
Speaking of Astra, I hope you’re working on another collaboration. Her recent Christmas special brought back Faith and referenced Santa from the Team-Up & Crossovers book. Astra & ArcSwat in text were fantastic!
Bad, BAD fan. I obviously meant Atlas-type, not Alpha-type. Sorry for the confusion.
I see the FN preferred rounds are prone to tumbling in the target, similar to the .303 rounds used by the British & etc. This effectively transfers a lot of momentum to the target in that the mushed wounds will induce hydrostatic shock effectively subduing the victim.
I am betting that Seneca figures out there are Shenanigans when Sydney tries the picture in a picture mode where the lenses use ‘advanced alien technology’ to show her where the gun is pointed even when she isn’t facing that way –as long as it is a registered weapon and held. Sydney would immediately go for the Annie Oakley over the shoulder backward shot…
Which requires you to fire a gun next to your own ear. You better have really good ear protection for that.
FYI: Reagan lost most of the hearing in one ear when filming a cowboy movie and another actor discharged a gun next to Ronnie’s head during a shootout scene.
Lots of us definitely called it, re: the glasses being upgraded by Cora!
Also, did ANYONE catch onto the fact that the silhouette is DARTH VADER? (with a pale grey cloak, not black)
It would be hard not to. He does have rather an iconic silhouette. Even people* who have not seen the movie will probably recognise him from clips, trailers and pop culture references.
I am living with one! Yes, they do exist. Implausible though it may seem to some.
would be fun if in her glasses in the last panel it said “LOCKED ON TARGET” in reverse very vaguely hehe.
“Locked on target” requires an integration with the weapon system that these glasses would be highly unlikely to have, as Cora only fabbed the glasses, not the gun. Yes, Sydney had it at the time (or at least should have – I didn’t go back to check.) But there was no need. Cora may be a little more lenient on giving away tech than Dabbler, but she’s certainly not going to be all “oh, cool, a human from the home world! I’m going to give her all the things!”
maybe showing a reticle or something could be cool too
While a bunch of people noted the glasses upgrade, no one mentioned that this isn’t her first trip to the range after returning with them..
This was back on 753 https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-753-a-civilized-abeyance/
The aiming point will only give her stability feedback. Holding the weapon steady, pulling the trigger smoothly, and flinch reaction are things that the AI is not going to be able to compensate for, but it should give her more direct insight on what she is doing wrong.
Actually Dave mentioned it in his comments, where it’s stated (as implied in the comic) that Peggy made her wear standard googles so she didn’t have her new tactical eyewear on.
Although it does make me wonder what else might trigger that functionality, or other features we haven’t seen, because surely she’s been around people carrying weapons. And if it only triggers for something she’s holding, how does it detect that vs someone sticking their arm over her shoulder during say a hostage situation? Visual shape detection of a firearm wouldn’t be enough, there would need to be some EM or EKG feedback from the wearer to make the distinction.
Regardless of how easily this thing is able to spot bullets, it only gets Sydney’s attention if she notices it and notices the difference from what she expected.
Consciously, she’s genre-savvy enough to know that Max, for example, isn’t going to apply neon stickers on her gun, especially not at the angle that Sydney would be looking at her gun. But unless she’s consciously looking at the gun, her conscious genre-savviness doesn’t help.
It’s possible it’s also fairly short range, to help save on power. Unlike her orbs, they can’t just tap into some infinite energy reserve somewhere. I’d guess that they’re probably solar powered, which would mean their available energy for doing things like this would be pretty severely limited.
Wondering now what options Cora has for getting massive power into something so small. The frame may have an unobtainium core good for decades of continuous use, or the lens rim may be wireless induction chargers powered by light* passing through them.
* or xrays, or background radiation, or brainwaves, or zero-point energy…
No X-rays, you would need shielding for that.
There are all sorts of high-frequency induction methods for powering these. I don’t know why you latched onto x-rays. You wouldn’t want anything that energetic near you anyways however power level in addition to frequency, matters. I would expect Cora, as human herself, wouldn’t give her anything dangerous.
Although frankly I can think of much easier ways to power them than high frequency. You can put something in hinge that generates electricity from flexing. There could be something in the long part of both frames that generates electricity when she moves her head. How about Building each over the ear part with a capacitor at the lens end and making that a tube out of a long coil of thin wire. Then you put a ferromagnetic fluid in the tube. As the magnetic fluid passes along the wires it induct electricity which is stored in the capacitor the run the display.
Wasn’t suggesting the glasses would emit xrays (or any other form of radiation) themselves, just that they could use background energy of whatever kind as a power source.
Lol. Sydney got me going. Her overwhelming confidence and look just tickled me.
Especially as she has missed the possibility that a steady hand, controlling respiration and heartbeat and other factors beyond just her sighting mechanism may contribute to a range record.
While thats true, having a range finder and windage calculator and knowing the ballistic drop for any weapon after just three rounds is still a pretty cool tool.
I’m just marveling at the sight of Sydney with a goddamn firearm in active usage. I guess we skipped the part where she wound up learning every piece of her weapon, and how to strip it down and re-assemble.
We’ve seen Sydney firing at the range before (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-402-montage-attained/), squeaking with every pull of the trigger. And then there was the whole thing about cutting a car in half with an L.M.G. (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-753-a-civilized-abeyance/)
Range must be pretty empty if she’s just now putting on her ears.
You can’t shoot Vader (check it out, I ain’t the only one who noticed)
But Sydney’s reaction when he snap-parries her shot with his lightsabre will be worth every penny.
Vanishing point from the barrel wouldn’t be enough except for point blank range.
Let me clear up a misconception.
Point blank is not so close that the target gets powder burns on them.
Ok, well, that’s a half truth… if the target is that close, it is point blank… but what I mean is that’s not the definition of point blank.
Point blank means you line up your target in the cross hairs (assuming you’re doing it properly) and you will hit exactly where you’re aiming, or close enough that you’d never know there’s a ballistic trajectory involved.
Beyond point blank, you have to worry about the ballistic trajectory and thus have to aim ABOVE where you’re trying to hit…
What this means is that point blank range also changes depending on the difference in your elevation. The higher the target is than you, the closer the cut off for point blank range is. Also the further above you are than your target, the further away the cut off for point blank range is.
Mythbusters did a pretty good episode that demonstrates just how much gravity actually affects bullets. Remember. Gravity is a thing and bullets don’t have wings. Take a bullet and drop it from where it would be fired. See how long it takes for it to hit the floor? Ok. If you fire it completely level with the ground, along a completely “flat” surface, it’ll take that long for the bullet to hit the ground.
Going with Sydney’s height, let’s just say a bullet she fires is being fired from about 5 feet above the ground. That takes about half a second for it to hit the ground. A typical 9mm round generally travels about 1500 feet per second or 450 meters per second. Let’s just say 500 meters per second to be generous and make the calculations a bit easier.
This means, assuming no air resistance or drag, would take about 250 meters before the bullet would impact the ground when fired completely level. This is less than the length of an American football field, or a little more than twice the length of a soccer field.
If Sydney wants to hit someone in the head from that distance, she’s going to have to aim up by a considerable margin.
Say the person is about her height and she wants to go for a head shot. If she fires it at eye level from 125 meters or yards away, aiming exactly for the head, we’re talking about her basically shooting the person in the crotch instead.
60 meters or yards, eye level, aiming directly at the head, we’re talking about maybe a shot to the lungs or heart.
30 meters or yards away, it’ll probably hit the head, but maybe the jaw if she’s aiming for between the eyes.
15 meters away, the nose if she’s aiming for between the eyes.
My numbers might not be 100% accurate, though I’m fairly confident that I’m not far off. Even if they aren’t accurate, it gives you an idea of the true meaning of point blank and why simply calculating the “vanishing point” as drawn by the barrel is insufficient for anything other than a laser or other projected energy weapon.
Also my figrues are assuming no drag from air…
Moral of the story… the ammo you use, the velocity of that ammo, the kind of gun you use, the workmanship of the gun, the length of the barrel, how your sights are adjusted… and given that the glasses are “FTL civilization designed space glasses” the gravity of the planet, air resistance, etc are all determining factors that should be taken into consideration with the calibration of those glasses. So to say the least, if she changes to high velocity versions of the ammo for the same gun, the glasses are going to need re-calibration even if the gun itself is unchanged.
Any self-respecting mad scientist building these would include continuous monitoring of the current gravity and atmospheric density, both pretty simple with a couple integrated piezoelectric sensors. They’re clearly already detecting and aligning images with her pupils, and scanning the shape and mass of the weapon and its ammunition.
Pre-computing the burn rate and propulsion of an unknown propellant based solely on scans would be a bit harder, even if it could detect the exact molecular composition. Which is probably one of the reasons the embedded AI wants 3 shots to dial everything in, and I expect it’s not only cataloging the weapon and firing data, but will continue monitoring each shot for ongoing refinement of its firing profile. And probably aggregate all user data across all known weapons to refine the shooter profile and make predictive adjustments for new weapons, which would explain how Cora (and crew) have been so successful.
Add in video recording and playback, and they also double as a body cam and official record of every single time the weapon has been drawn or fired. And if they are reading her brainwaves in any way, they could possibly detect and even generate the signal for the trigger pull, allowing for a kind of guided aiming and auto-fire system.
Honestly given everything these glasses are definitely doing, and what else they could do with the same equipment, they’re sophisticated enough that I’ll be shocked if ArcLight doesn’t confiscate them (and her holowings when those appear) for reverse engineering. NASA’s tech contributions will have nothing on Archon in just a couple years, especially if the Council allows them access to some of its artifacts.
Right, but Dave was talking about how Dabbler’s eye has the same tech, and described it as just looking at the “vanishing point of the barrel”.
So far as the targeting goes, sure – not that hard to draw a couple lines in 3D and see where they will intersect. But all the work needed to acquire the weapon internals in the first place, and then map an AR overlay onto them for the user in realtime, requires some pretty sophisticated tech. And since you must have a processor and all that sensor and display equipment in the first place, why not do some actual ballistics which is comparatively trivial? The HUD clearly distinguishes the individual rounds, so it’s made for projectile weapons and not just laser/energy weapons which have no trajectory to consider.
I’m not questioning the fictional technology, or saying it can’t be done. I’m trying to inform Dave that if all it does is project the barrel into infinity, as he described in the text under the comic, then in reality it’s going to suck for anyone trying to hit anything outside of point blank range.
My original reply to you didn’t seem to go through…
I’m not questioning whether or not a reasonably accurate trajectory could be projected. I’m questioning that it could be done so as described by Dave, who describes it as
“It scans the exterior of a gun as well as some of its internals, then projects a calculated crosshair based on the vanishing point drawn by the barrel shape as it’s pointed away from the wielder. It’s not as accurate as something with a smart jack built into it, but… it’s still pretty accurate, especially once a few rounds are fired and it can calibrate.”
It’s not “pretty accurate” if it works as described unless “pretty accurate” means “aim at the torso and hit the crotch from across the street”.
I’m willing to accept that her glasses can predict the ballistic trajectory, if Dave says they do. At current he’s basically saying they don’t, and that they instead work in an extremely naive manner that would only be accurate for projected energy weapons. If it’s just using the “vanishing point” of the barrel, then the fact that it knows what a bullet is is kind of irrelevant… If Dave hadn’t described it as operating in that manner, I wouldn’t have said anything and just assumed it’s predicting the trajectory as you are… However he’s specifically described it as operating in a manner that very explicitly does not and cannot handle ballistic trajectories.
Perhaps we’re about to see that gap in functionality on the next page when Sydney inevitably does much worse than she expects. After all, it’s an alien HUD so perhaps it’s intended for use on ships, not planets. There would be no trajectory drop in SPAAAACE!
Again, I’m talking about Dave’s explanation, not the in-world use of it.
Your “typical 9mm round” muzzle velocity suggests that you’re used to using a Lehigh Defense 70gr Max Exp HERO or similar, which is at the high end for 9mm round muzzle velocities. According to a quick web search, it looks like 300 meters per second is more common. That having been said, this firing range looks like it’s probably still point blank range.
Also, even if it’s slightly past point blank range, that’s not enough distance for it to be visually obvious whether or not the glasses’ projected targetting accounts for gravity or not.
That’s for a 9mm. This is an FN 5.7. As it’s a specific gun, there’s a far smaller range of velocities than if we were just checking on the bullet. It’s 700 meters per second. So this range is pretty definitely point blank, thus we cannot draw the inference you were trying to draw.
I’m talking about the glasses calibrating. Don’t tell me you honestly think glasses like that are meant to be used exclusively in the firing range and not at all in the field. That would not only be dumb, but make the glasses completely ruin her training.
Also the figure I gave for 450m/s for 9mm is assuming that the first figure I came across on a google search is typical.
An American football field is 120 yards goal post to goal post or just shy of 110 meters. The end zones make it longer than a soccer field but not enough to be as long as you say.
Is it just me or is the range target Darth Vader/Kylo Ren?
Could also be Cobra Commander.
They make detachable safety side shields for glasses specifically so that people with prescription eye wear don’t have to wear cumbersome safety goggles.
That shirt dips below the clavicle, tucked in and she’s handling a pistol. There is a moderate chance for a hot brass incident, once you take cloth physics into account.
I’ll admit it’s been 18 years since I retired but I’m pretty sure the Air Force special forces unit is Pararescue. STS sounds like someone has been watching Star Gate a bit too much.
Special Tactics and Rescue Squad?
Just kidding
The military may be a lot more formal than this, but try as she might, Sydney is not military.
…Safety glasses, damn it. All it takes is an out-of-battery detonation or a double-charged round to blind you for life.
ANSI Z87+ rated safety glasses are can stop a direct hit by what would otherwise be a lethal shotgun blast fired from any distance greater than one foot. (I have video of the difference between “fashion” glasses and safety glasses if anyone’s interested.) It probably won’t be fun, but at least you won’t have pellets through your eyes. Not even purpose-built ballistic eyewear is necessary; The $5 clear plastic ones you can get at a hardware store will protect.
Now, I can understand the (implied) argument that Cora’s work would probably protect up to .50 BMG, but without ballistic side shields, it’s still possible to pop an eye.
And if I were leadership and found out about her laxity, Seneca would be banned from RSO work and carrying the pink gun for a year, just to drive the point home.
While Seneca may be aloof, she still knows what she is doing, or she wouldn’t be where she is now, or where she was before Archon