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ashtxeman · 2 years ago

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Glass Joe's Confession

With lights blaring from the ceiling and the blurred cheers of the crowd mixing together in a concoction of chaotic haze, the Minor Circuit ring had never felt more alive. One would think, given the circumstances, that a notable match was taking place to send the audience into such an uproar. Perhaps a new challenger had emerged to challenge the boxers at the bottom, or maybe a shift in the seemingly stone-carved ranks of the circuit was on the verge? Either of those promised something exciting for definite, though neither were the truth. In reality the match was simply a brawl between the WVBA’s lowest contenders.. German ‘fighting-machine’ Von Kaiser and lowly Frenchman Glass Joe. Truly the pinnacle of mediocre.

At this time the match was approaching its end, a quick victory to Kaiser and another emphatic loss slapped onto Joe’s record. To anybody who knew the WVBA’s trends these results came as no surprise (especially with so many defeats under Glass Joe’s belt already), simply another round of pity and prediction for the Frenchman’s next battering until the next one came around in a few weeks time. A sad and unfortunate pattern, yes, but one that never seemed to stop said loser from getting back up and trying again. In some way it was admirable but it surely couldn’t keep him going much longer.

The ring was heated. Ropes boiling with the screams of the audience and the floor scattered with dust and drops of foreign blood. Von Kaiser stood firm towards the back of the ring with his arms pressed behind his back, occasionally making himself known with a teasing laugh or a quick quip to keep things exciting. He was a dignified fighter and he certainly knew his place amongst other contenders, anybody who had seen him in or out of the ring would know that well, though with said place he knew a win would be easy to take from an opponent such as the one opposite him. Of course with his position there were no complete guarantees since he himself had lost 14 times, but everybody could agree he had a right to make some assumptions this time round. After all it was Glass Joe.. everybody made assumptions for him.

Contrary to the confident Von Kaiser, the other end of the ring was stained with the shame of yet another loss. Good old Joseph had once again found himself shaking hands with the floor, lips swollen and eyes half-shut. He was used to the feeling of the ring pressing against the side of his face at the end of every round, cold and unforgiving as usual. It was a routine that never changed. Enter the ring, throw some punches, have a few conversations with the floor and go home. This time however.. Things were different. Being down there was more humiliating than it had ever felt before, simply because of the opponent responsible for sending him down in the first place. Kaiser.. Oh, there was so much to say about Kaiser.

To Joe, Von Kaiser was more than the stern German man most people in the WVBA thought him to be. He was stoic mostly, he would obviously be given his situation, but the Frenchman had also seen him defensive, and determined.. Not to mention all the times he’d stepped in to save a fellow circuit member from a tight spot. Especially Glass Joe himself, given the countless times he’d gotten tangled with a bad bunch or caught up in a fight he didn’t ask for only to have Von Kaiser drag him out of it with hardly any effort. Perhaps these ‘heroic acts’ were simply exaggerated in his head, but Joe couldn’t shake the feeling that there had always been something special about Kaiser since the very beginning.

There was a lot of thinking to do in just 10 seconds.

Thinking about getting up.

Thinking about what Kaiser did to make him so unique!

Thinking about what Don Flamenco had said before..

Ah!

Don Flamenco, that was it.

Despite the inconvenience of the time limit, Joe had just enough time to quickly wizz through the memory of a notable conversation he’d had with Don not too long ago. He distinctly remembered it, a late night approaching closing time just as people began to pack up in the locker rooms. The day had been lacklustre, to say the least. Average. No matches that particularly stuck out, no new disagreements amongst the contenders to chat about with anybody, just training and generic conversation with anyone who passed him. By now most people had called it a day and gone home for the night, save for the few who stayed for the extra hours or for some odd reason wanted to look more dedicated by being the last to leave. This left the locker rooms wrapped in a welcome blanket of silence, with only the creaking of distant doors and final drops from the showers indicating that things hadn’t quite wrapped up yet.

Towards the back of the room, Glass Joe was collecting the last of his belongings as he prepared to head outside for his taxi home. The usual items were gently organised into his bag, perfect and precise as he liked them. Not an inch out of place. It would’ve been a satisfying way to end an otherwise boring day was it not for the kind graffiti Aran Ryan had left on most of the boxer's lockers.. Including Joe’s and definitely including Flamenco’s. The two were unlikely to cross paths if it wasn’t for these regular artistic interferences on their respective property.. Though there was no need to worry about that, Ryan's 'art pieces' were a known and highly repetitive occurrence for everyone.

Joe had just shut his locker and turned to leave when Don had approached him from the other side of the area, the usual captivating aura in his stride. It was easy to assume he may have been approaching to give some form of backhanded compliment before he left (a thing that Joseph found Flamenco did often to those below him in the ranks), however this time would be different. The Spaniard leant himself on the nearest locker besides Joe’s, looking the other up and down with a slightly unnerving stare before pushing onto a conversation.

“Ah, Señor Rousseau, is something on your mind?” He asked, a somewhat genuine tone of concern in his smooth voice. It was a notable detail about Don that words came to him naturally and practically rolled off his tongue. Any conversation with him was guaranteed to be charming, whether you liked it or not.

“How did you guess?” A quick reply from Joseph marked with a slight smile revealed quite quickly that something had indeed made itself at home in his head. Something that couldn’t simply be ignored like other thoughts. Something he’d been putting off addressing for a while. The Major Champion slowly nodded, analysing Joe’s body language as the conversation progressed. Simply put, Don was an expert at reading people without a need for words. He always seemed to know exactly what was going on with someone and this was no exception. “It’s been a boring day.. And with boredom comes thoughts. Thoughts of romance!” His tongue clicked at the end of his sentence as some subconscious way to make his point proven.

If there was an issue with romance there was a Flamenco there to fix it. “I’ve taken note of you today, you see, the way you’ve been subtly glancing around the room as if waiting for somebody to show up.. I do not miss those details, mi amigo. Who is the lucky one, hm?”

As Don lamented about his omniscient view on the romance game, the other man came to realise how obvious he probably was looking around today. At every moment he wasn’t occupied, Joe had ironically been lamenting to himself about a particular man in the WVBA he longed to be closer to, one who he already had a wonderful bond with but still somehow felt nervous to approach. One being Von Kaiser. He knew he’d wanted something more than friendship with Kaiser for a while, and counting the months in his head he realised how ridiculous it was he hadn’t given himself away for exactly that already. Things like this were usually so hard to hide for somebody as fumbly as Glass Joe, and with Flamenco on the prowl that may have been more obvious now than ever before.

“They-!” Joe blurted out, rushing to form some kind of excuse that could get him out sooner. He had nothing though. He was nowhere near ready to admit what kind of feelings had been stirring up in that little Parisian heart of his, but at this point he may never be ready to admit at all. But then again.. “They- Are nobody important.. Yes, just a fling.. Somebody I have had my eye on lately. It is hard to explain but you must know what I mean… right?” Tapping his fingers nervously against the strap of his bag, Joseph looked to Don with the expectation he would be miraculously saved from this embarrassing interaction by an outside force. However this expectation would not be met, as all that followed his rushed response was an awkward 5 second silence before the conversation was graciously picked back up by Flamenco.

Flamenco’s eyebrows furrowed slightly at Joe’s clumsy wording, then causing him to laugh to himself for a short moment before cutting off. “Of course, mi buen hombre! Of course.” He reached a hand out from his idle position against the lockers, placing it down on the others shoulder to give some reassurance. “It’s easy to see you are struggling, Joseph. You are not too used to a rush of roses like this, as they say.” A side note that ‘rush of roses’ was a saying original to Don’s vocabulary. There was no ‘they’ to say. “But not to worry, I am here as your ears and your advice. Tell me about this fling of yours.”

Shuffling on the spot to readjust himself, Joe stared at Flamenco in thought for a short moment. He didn’t quite know how to explain a thing like this despite being no stranger to romance in previous times, but his best guess was that it was likely due to the thought of explaining it to a colleague of all people. Usually it was to a friend.. Then again, Don was a friend, of course he was! This entire 5 second ordeal was simply two sides of Joseph’s mind arguing amongst each other.

“.. If I had to say..” He started slowly in order to determine what he wanted to say next. Rushing something like this would be careless, and frankly an insult to Kaiser if he didn’t think about it first. “It was unexpected. A while back it just clicked to me that I had seen somebody I wanted to be closer to. Somebody I knew and honestly.. Held dearly as a good friend. And still do! They’re nice to me, helpful.. save me from difficult situations often, always look out for me in my times of need.” A solemn smile crossed Glass Joe’s face as he spoke. Everything he said was completely truthful. He couldn’t count on his fingers the amount of times Von Kaiser had done something to help him and that was a fact.

“If I could bring myself to.. I would have confessed a long time ago. Is it bad that I feel something is stopping me from doing so?” His fingers intertwined as he rocked back and forth on his heels, simple things he did to keep himself occupied as he talked. That question at the end, despite how insignificant it sounded being said out loud, was one that Joe debated with himself very often. On one hand it felt normal to have conflicting feelings about approaching a relationship like the one he wanted, but on the other hand he felt like a dick holding back on a confession. He felt more pathetic than he’d already been made out to be through his career, and that was saying something. That was the reason that as he waited for Don’s answer, he wanted to cut the conversation off and simply scream about everything he was feeling! But that wouldn’t be right, and he knew that. Screaming could get you many places in the WVBA, but it couldn’t get you to a healthy romance.

“Copain, s'il vous plaît. An answer would help me dearly.” His hands shook slightly, in some sort of plea to Flamenco for some ‘saving grace advice’.

“Very well then.” Don, giving Joe a quick pat on the back before crossing his arms, cleared his throat. “What you have told me is enough to know that this is a feeling with.. potential!" He gestured extravagantly to keep the mood up. "There are many things you could do.. one of them being simply giving up. But I say nay, amigo. Chase that feeling as the bull chases the matadors muleta, yes? Chase it until you can snatch it from the air! And when you have it in your grasp, save it until the moment is right.. then release."

"Ah.. monsieur, I don't follow." Joe laughed the sentence out so that speech didn't feel like a complete waste. Don's metaphors were.. hard to keep track of sometimes.

Flamenco stared at the other sharply, his tone firmer than it had been before. "Do not be intimidated by rejection, Joseph. When the time is right do not simply 'confess', no, that is amateur! Make it a spectacle for the public, something people will remember. Something your lover will have engraved into their mind the moment you embrace. It will be no simple 'I love you' back and forth, it will be a musical of passion in the middle of all else! Sí!"

"But what if-"

Don held his hand up in front of Joe's face. "Hush. I believe you will do yourself justice, amigo." He lowered his hand, nodding to Joe reassuringly. "In due time, remember that. Adios!"

As Glass Joe watched his unexpected wingman make his way out, he nodded to himself in agreement. A bit of guidance was all he needed to be steered in the right direction, straight towards the thing he'd been after for so long… and as he sat in the backseat of his taxi home, all he could think about was what he'd been told. 'In due time', he noted. He noted that everyday since that night.

Even now in the present with his face pressed against the floor, and the very man it was all for watching him struggle, he noted that.

In due time..

Oublie ça, time had waited long enough.

The ring had only grown more alive as Joseph thought to himself, and with his time almost up he knew now that more than anything he had to do something. Not win, that was out of the question by now. He had gone down 4 times already and to get up on time for a 5th would frankly be a miracle, especially with how much effort Kaiser had put into the fight this time round. Von Kaiser entered the ring to win, Glass Joe.. did not. But despite that it was the right time to follow through on that conversation he’d had with Don back then, with the audience waiting in anticipation and the bell on the verge of ringing. All he had to do was get up! Get up!

“9… 10! It’s over! It’s over!”

He did not get up.

“Ha! Ein leichter Sieg, mehr Glück beim nächsten Mal..." Von Kaiser laughed out to the audience at the sound of his victory, the bell ringing in the background. He was not entirely bragging, to say, he just hadn’t had the opportunity to enjoy a win for a while. At best he felt sympathy for his opponent and his more than unfortunate career record. The German looked across the ring for a short moment before turning sharply to leave. As he did though, a sudden yell from behind had him turning back for another look.

There at the other side of the ring was Glass Joe, now standing relatively upright with a gloved hand pointed in Kaiser’s direction. He hadn’t gotten up on time, obviously, but getting up at all was good enough as he would usually be out cold in any other instance. He seemed defensive, determined.. Somehow familiar. “Kaiser!” Joseph yelled, his voice sharp.

Turning, Joe’s opponent was visibly caught off guard. The slight twitch of his eye or, at split seconds, even his entire head indicated that this sudden move from Joseph had shook him slightly. “Are you asking for a rematch?” Squinting, Von Kaiser uttered the only assumption he could think to make. Glass Joe wanted the fight to go on.. That had to be the reason for this sudden burst of life from the otherwise beaten man. Though as he watched with a piercing glare as Joe approached him, that thought was thrown aside and he was left in cautious confusion. At any moment he could throw a harsh punch at this unsuspecting Frenchman, dare he try anything after the bell had rang.

“Non, Kaiser.” Joseph shuffled on the spot as he had done back in his conversation with Don, carefully thinking as he spoke. What had worked that night would surely work now, right? He hoped that, at least. “I…” He choked, slightly overwhelmed by the presence of the audience.

“Well..”

There was no need to worry about that, the audience was his motivation! They had been there for so many matches, and they would be there for another 100. Backing out now would be a foolish move.

“I wanted to tell you something important, Monsieur.”

The room had fallen into silence. The audience, the referee, Von Kaiser.. Even Joe himself. Despite this being a Minor Circuit match, it felt more grand than anything the other circuits could bring.

“I am in love with you, Kaiser!”

Joseph exclaimed, extravagantly throwing his arms into the air to match the wide grin now plastered on his face. Having confessed something he had been avoiding for as long as he could remember, the weight of the world had faded from his shoulders. Though now there was a new concern for the man, and waiting in vain for Kaiser’s reaction left the fear of rejection lingering over him once more. Rejection now would deliver a hit to him harder than any punch he’d ever received.

Kaiser looked at Joe with an unreadable expression, in a mix of confusion, complete disbelief and any other emotion that had crammed its way in during the mere seconds it had taken for that statement to process in his mind. Even having comprehended what had just happened, he could not think to form a response that wouldn’t make him look like a fool. What exactly could he say?

“Erm..” Stunned by Kaiser’s silence, Joseph flicked through the notes he’d mentally prepared that had now scattered themselves across his brain. “It is.. Fine if you do not feel the same. I have simply wanted to be closer to you for a long time, you are.. Strong. The way you fight is so admirable and unique.. You help me all the time! I could not think of how much I owe you for everything you’ve done.. I simply wish for you to know how I feel and…” He rambled on, simply a blur in the background of Kaiser’s own thoughts. As he continued to speak each of their faces tinted a deeper and more obvious shade of red until it looked as if they’d each been drowned in a paint bucket.

And at this point, that was enough.

“.. It feels wrong to hide my feelings from you any longer, and what better than to do it right here! In front of- AYE!”

Joseph was swept off of his feet and pulled into Kaiser’s arms, surprising him and likewise everybody watching the ordeal. “Watch the jaw, s'il vous plaît! Heh..!”

“Sie! Be quiet!” Kaiser cut off Joe’s ramblings once more. “I accept.”

“.. Accept what?”

“A date. Kein Zurückweichen.”

The match had begun like any other, and the victory had been sweet. But that day as the crowd made their way out and the two contenders remained embracing in the middle of the ring, the only thing thought about was the ending after the bell.

Of course Joe would have preferred a kiss.. But that wasn’t a problem. After all, Glass Joe was built to last.

#punch out #glass joe #von kaiser #don flamenco #glass joe x von kaiser #something i wrote back in august #and just got the confidence to post!#with some silly art too!#hopefully more writing on the way muhaha

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bucketspammer4life · 1 year ago

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☆how comfy i would be asking the boxers for... Substances™☆

idk if i should maintag this, obv tw for drug use

saw that one "how comfy i would be asking the boxers to hold my drink" post? yeah we're advancing now bitches buckle up

Bottom of the list is...

Little Mac

come on why should i ask a minor for drugs?? of course he would be familiar with drugs from hanging out with soda or just hearing about steroids

dont even bother asking him, his idea of drugs is painkillers & vitamin gummies

Next place is...

Doc Louis

He'd just get worried for you and give you a entire lecture and hint to Mac that you're a shady figure

He would gasp at you like "noo!!! Stay sober!!"

hes gotta be a good parent to Mac and i understand that

next place is...

Piston Hondo

He'd gasp like a conservative grandma finding out you got a piercing, pretty similiar to doc louis (full name doctorate louisana) and he would check up on you often

He would hit you up for some tea & meditation, he means well but still not helpful

Next place is...

Disco Kid

He wouldnt be suprised because he probably witnessed unpleasant stuff at some parties he went to but he wouldnt carry

Of course he wouldnt be like doc and tell you to get help but he wouldnt flat out go "sure broski heres 100 pounds of weed"

He would just say "no" and move on with his day

Next place is...

Super Macho Man

He would only carry steroids and even then, he wouldnt share like the selfish dickhead he is

at best hes just giving you steroids and at worst hes a selfish bitch ass who isnt sharing

Next place is...

Mr Sandman

He would be dissapointed but he would redirect you to a pharmacist and tell you to go convince someone to give you some substances

He couldnt care less and wouldnt think more or less of you

Next place is...

Bald Bull

We're now getting into "knows someone who carries or is carrying" territory

How do you think hes still not dead from a heart attack considering he turns into a fucking smoke machine when he gets angry enough?? theres no correct answer other than substances™

if he didnt use weed he probably would be dead, he would be more on the chill side so if you want something that will make your soul leave your body he isnt your guy

He wont share if youre on his bad side or not close enough to him, anything other than that and hes fine with you, ofc if youre gonna try to blackmail him with it except your life to end very soon

Next place is...

Von Kaiser

hes traumatized, hes old and hes stressed, how couldnt he use substances™?

This grandpa is willing to share as long as you keep quiet & keep it hidden

same case as bull for his reason for using, hes one spot away from being the sore loser, give him a break

next place is...

King Hippo

Hes from a island in the middle of who-knows-where, how could he not be used to that kind of stuff??

He would be generous but whatever he would give you is sure to kill a entire village, if i were you id chuck it off a cliff and let nature handle it

Next place is...

Don Flamenco

look at him SNORT that flower and tell me he hasnt done more, his nose takes up 80% of his face, dont even try to ignore the fact that he felt that flower in his VEINS.

He wouldnt be generous but would give you enough to hold you back for a while

if he can take perfume straight into his nostrils, he can take anything

Next place is...

Bear Hugger

This dude speaks to animals like a Disney princess and boxes with a bear, you dont achieve that without some help

besides, Just look at him inbetween fights, he chugs maple syrup and naps, unless you have some medical problems you dont pass out in a corner during a boxing match after chugging a entire bottle of syrup

Next place is...

Aran Ryan

oh boy, hes sharing but suddenly i feel like going back to when doc was concerned for me

He would probably have some shit that would have your heart climb up your throat and have you meet the grim reaper

if youre wild, go for it, if you wanna stay sane, back off

Next place is...

Great Tiger

hes a magician, hes bound to carry some magical stuff, it would make you see weird shit for sure and wreck you for a few days but other than that, hes okay

hes not generous but hes not that strict either, he knows his stuff well

Next place is...

Soda Popinski

its obvious as day, hes out with it and has a entire ass gimmick including it

hes not sharing his soda, but he'll hook you up on some scientific shit if you know him well

He'll gaslight a pharmacist for you if you can convince him

First place is..

Glass Joe!

He takes beatings everyday like its his last day, how do you think he deals with the pain? both mental and physical i might add since he has a wonderful count of 100 losses. 100 LOSSES.

He wont judge (since hes the one with 100 losses and also french) and will be generous with it

this is probably the first thing he wins (in his life)

Honorable Mentions

Bear Hugger's Squirrel - this little goblin could steal some stuff for you, not much, but its kind

Mrs Bear - Oh my god, she can help 100%. What sane person wouldnt give up their Substances™ after seeing a bear??

Carmen - she can convince don to give her some and give it to you, just keep quiet

Narcis Prince - good heavens NO. He'd scold you, not because he cares, but because "thats ugly people stuff"

#im not maintagging this #i want people to become archeologists and dig this up like some ancient artifact if i post more #we dont talk about the punch out drug post #tw drugs

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subtile-jagden · 1 year ago

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Emil Schäfer - Part 2

Jasta 11

Schäfer had no trouble keeping up with the other pilots and shot down his first victory within Richthofens Staffel (his second in total) a few weeks after his arrival. On 4 March 1917 he shot down two enemies in one day. On 6 March he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Within the squadron there was room for friendly teasing; when Schäfer reported about his fight, his comrades teased him about his supposed bad shooting (he himself admitted that he needed a lot of ammunition): “The observer must have thrown the map at you” (in reverence to him having to get so close to the other airplane), “The observer probably cried about your lousy shooting and his handkerchief flew away”. But all in good fun.

Once when Manfred von Richthofen didn´t return after a big fight, Schäfer drove around the area trying to find out what had happened. Rumours of bullet wounds and life threatening injuried were making rounds. That's why Schäfer was pleasantly surprised when he found his squadron leader happily in the mess of a pioneer unit in Hénin-Lietard. Slurping oysters.

In his first full month with Jasta 11 Emil Schäfer increased his victory score to 8, then it was time for the infamous Bloody April. Schäfer contributed to that terrible time for the British by shooting down 15 of them. He enjoyed the spring time: “Numbers 12 and 13 fell today. It's wonderful spring weather here and it's been raining Englishmen for eight days”, he writes to his parents on 6 April 1917.

On 22 April Schäfer got shot down during a fight and he had to emergency land between lines. He had to hid in a shell hole and wait for darkness, then he had to sneak back to the German lines dodging English patrols. He managed to reach an outpost and after a short recovery break he made his way back to his comrades. His adventure impressed his comrades and even Richthofen mentioned it in his biography. He learned a lesson from that experience: “I am glad that I got out of the situation yesterday in one piece, and in future I will strongly consider attacking at low altitudes beyond the line”.

On 26 April he got the notification that the Kaiser awarded him the Hausorden von Hohenzollern (the award that usually preceeded the Pour le Mérite). He also got less happy news, as he was ordered to leave Jasta 11 and become leader of Jasta 28. He was excited about getting to lead his own unit, but “I am bitterly sorry that I now have to leave my beloved squadron, my excellent comrades and, above all, von Richthofen”.

On the same day, Schäfer had the pleasure to safe Lothar von Richthofens life. Lothar was being attacked by an English plane and lost controll of his machine, Schäfer got behind the enemy and managed to shoot it down in flames.

On 30 April he was awarded the Pour le Mérite.

In May he left for Jasta 28. “I now face a task like no other I´ve had before. I hope and believe that I´ll be well up to it. Staffel 28 is filled with good pilots. In the four days since I am in command, we´ve shot down four, so the prospects are good”.

On 5 June 1917 Schäfers luck ran out. Used to the extremely close teamwork and mutual protection within Jasta 11 he went into a group of English planes. Max Müller, an experienced pilot himself, described the fight: “Leutnant Schäfer was the leader of our flight against eight Englishmen. I myself was attacking from above – that’s the best way to attack. Leutnant Schäfer was attacking with six other gentlemen from the same hight. He had almost brought down one Englishmen when he was attacked by three more from the rear and from above. I came to his assistance but it was too late. Leutnant Schäfer´s machine broke up and crashed vetically. The other gentlemen did not attack vigorously enough. They are not as yet proficient enough. It could also be that a cable had been severed or shot off. He made the mistake of acting without regard for himself in order to take care of the others. I have told him that many times before”.

He was buried in his home town of Krefeld on 11 June 1917. Manfred von Richthofen and Werner Voss attended the funeral. The plaque commemorating Schäfer is still above his birthplace.

RIP Emil Schäfer (1891 – 1917)

Sources:

Vom Jäger zum Flieger, by Schäfer (1918)

The Blue Max Airmen Vol.7, by Lance J. Bronnenkant (2015)

#Emil Schäfer #WW1

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anotherwvba · 1 year ago

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An Origin Story pt. 7

Gabby Jay led the group of new and prospective fighters into the WVBA Boxing Academy Gym, the last stop on their tour. The gym was a sprawling, state-of-the-art facility, buzzing with activity. Fighters and trainees were everywhere, some practicing their craft in hopes of getting signed one day, others preparing for their next bouts.

"Mes amis, this is where the magic happens," Gabby Jay announced, his voice tinged with a thick French accent. "Here, you'll find everything you need to become the next WVBA champion."

Mika and Skye, who had become fast friends during the orientation, looked around in awe. "This place is incredible," Mika whispered to Skye.

"I know, right? It's like a boxer's dream come true," Skye replied, her eyes wide with excitement.

Gabby Jay led them through the different sections of the gym, showcasing the strength training area, the cardio machines, the boxing bags, and the eight rings designated for classes and sparring. "I look forward to seeing you all at 6 am in the cafeteria for breakfast. Make yourselves at home, and welcome to the WVBA," Gabby concluded, dismissing the group.

Mika's eyes caught sight of Niki Binary in one of the rings, shadowboxing under the watchful eye of her coach, Von Kaiser. "Come on, Skye, let's go say hi," Mika said, grabbing Skye's arm and leading her toward the ring.

Von Kaiser was intently focused on Niki, his thick German accent filling the air. "Gut, Niki, focus on your footwork. Remember, a strong foundation is key. Wenig Stahl, show me what you've got."

Niki moved gracefully around the ring, her feet gliding over the canvas as she threw a series of jabs and hooks into the air. Her concentration was palpable.

"Hey, Niki!" Mika called up to her.

Niki looked over and nodded, finishing her drill with a swift one-two combo. "Alright, let's take a quick break," Von Kaiser announced.

Niki jogged over to the ropes and sat down, her eyes meeting Mika's. "Hey, Mika! How's orientation going?"

"Great! Oh, this is Skye. We're roommates at the Campus Lodge," Mika introduced.

Niki extended her glove to fist-bump Skye. "Nice to meet you, Skye."

"Wow, you're Niki Binary, right? I saw your fight with Cutie a couple of days ago. You were amazing," Skye exclaimed.

"Thanks, it was a tough fight. So, how's orientation treating you both?" Niki asked.

Mika and Skye launched into a detailed account of their day, from the physicals to the tour of the campus. "The facilities are amazing, and the people seem really nice," Mika said.

"Yeah, and the gym is like something out of a movie. I can't wait to start training," Skye added.

Just then, Glass Joe approached, dressed in his workout gear. "Pardon, mesdemoiselles, but may I have a moment with Niki?"

"Of course, what's up, Joe?" Niki responded.

"My sparring partner couldn't make it today. Would you be able to help me out?" Glass Joe asked.

"I'd love to, but I'm training with Von Kaiser for the rest of the afternoon and sparring with Cutie later," Niki explained.

"We can spar with you!" Mika and Skye blurted out in unison, then looked at each other and laughed.

Niki chuckled. "Joe, meet Mika and Skye. They're here for orientation."

"Ah, bonjour, mesdemoiselles," Glass Joe greeted, his French accent lending charm to his words.

"Hi, Glass Joe! We're really excited to be here," Skye said.

"Yeah, we can't wait to start training," Mika added.

Glass Joe looked thoughtful. "Normally, we don't allow sparring with new boxers during orientation."

Both girls' faces fell, disappointment clouding their eyes.

"But," Glass Joe continued, "I'll go ask Hoy if we can make an exception."

Mika and Skye's faces lit up again. "That would be awesome," Mika said.

"Yeah, really awesome," Skye echoed.

Glass Joe nodded and headed off to find Hoy, leaving Mika, Skye, and Niki excitedly chatting about the possibilities that lay ahead. The WVBA was proving to be everything they'd hoped for, and they couldn't wait to dive in.

#punch out #super punch out #punch out wii #wvba #punch out oc #punch out fanfic #Gabby Jay #Glass Joe #Star Mika #Skye Ivy #Niki Binary #Von Kaiser

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wvbaandtheboys · 2 years ago

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we’re doing another one of these boys/girls/non binary folks. so did I ever tell u about von bon?

and how he’s my favorite character out of all the punchy boys? well let me tell you why. ahem. so I just admire him as a whole. just from the stance in the select screen alone you can tell he’s serious about his career. german precision. he doesn’t have time to bother about your wimpy self. IGNORE THAT HE GOT BEAT UP BY KIDS OK HES TRYING SO HARD

“I am a fighting machine! My name? Von Kaiser!” indeed. you are a fighting machine von von <3 I will ignore the fact that game play wise you’re easier than glass joe and just focus on your character,,

“Hey Rocky, what exactly do you like the most about Von Kaiser?” EVERYTHING. We know that he’s not that strong behind what he presents himself to be but listen. let’s just appreciate him. also his battle sfx being different weapons are just. GREAT. ALSO HIS THEME. MY GOD VON YOU ARE A BADASS. his victory screen in contender give me joy just because of how unapologetic he is.

“I go to the left.. I go to the right.. [insert evil laughter]” HE KNOWS HE’S FUCKED YOU UP. AND HES PROUD OF HIMSELF. YOU GO GRANDPA!! if calling him grandpa offends u I’m sorry it’s an affectionate nickname just cause he’s 42

now. title defense. von loses, right? and he’s pissed. so now, he cuts his hair and trains SUPER hard to get back at you. and I. oo. it hurt to beat him up just cause I know his after match damage on the title screen has him shaking cause he’s humiliated VON IM SO SORRY!! I would give you a hug but you’d stomp me like a bug…

<33333 [please don’t hurt me sir I love u /p]

well uhm. surprise surprise, von actually took the belt from me on my playthrough of title defense… and that victory screen gave me even more joy but also like woah. look!!

he looks down on you like you’re just. PATHETIC. the intimidation. the confidence. he LAUGHS at you. GOD VON KAISER YOU’RE SO AWESOME. don’t care that you’re honestly worse gameplay wise than Joe!! [joe I will never forgive you for taking that belt from me /j] you will always be my favorite of all time <3

[I probably sound like a dork making these rambles I apologize but I need to get them outta my system-]

#punch out!!#punch out wii #love u vonny #von kaiser #rambles #fraidy sayz

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theballmighty · 6 years ago

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thoughts on lotgh because it’s great and I wanna rant/hear myself talk

okay so fucking Yang Wenli and Reinhard Von Lohengramm are both fucking fantastic as protagonists, I love both of them and want them to succeed in their goals, even at times when they are up against each other. With Yang it’s because the alliance is the classic underdog going up against a tyrannical empire deal, but it goes deeper than that. The alliance is governed poorly and is crawling with imperialistic and warmongering fervor that only serves to push the war even more, regardless of whether or not the alliance can win it. Yang opposes this, and generally hates fighting, the imperialistic/pro-war mindset but does his job because he’s sort of a symbol of hope to the people, and he gets results whenever he enters the battlefield.

Meanwhile, we have Reinhard Von Lohengramm and a different perspective on the war. With rein we have political intrigue, and machinations of the court, and the decadence and corruption one would expect of an empire and it is glorious. Reinhard is viewed as an upstart and a usurper because his family name was basically unheard of until his sister was taken in by the kaiser. As a result he’s pretty much universally despised by the nobility/anyone who isn’t siegfried or his trusty officers.

in this regard, I want to cheer them both on as they both have good motivations and they’re both just so interesting as characters, and whenever they go up against one another, it’s basically a game of space speed chess to see who can outwit the other first which leads to a lot of tense and genuinely interesting scenes as they try to predict each-other’s next move and I love it.

This show is fucking good.

#legend of the galactic heroes #keith.txt

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historyandclassicactors · 6 years ago

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Today in History: August 23, 1914

AKA: The Battle of Mons (1914)

On August 23, 1914, Europe saw its first battle of WWI. This was the “first confrontation on European soil since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815” (Source).

Four divisions of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Sir John French – as confusing as that is – battled against the German 1st Army “over the 60-foot-wide Mons Canal in Belgium” (Source). This was the last in a series of four battles known as the “Battles of the Frontiers” that took place in the opening days of WWI. Under the command of Gen. Joseph Jeffre, the French fought the first three of these battles in Lorraine, Ardennes, and Charleroi. Initially, the BEF and the French 5th Army were meant to fight together at Charleroi, all under the command of Charles Lanrezac. However, thanks to a delayed start �� not to mention poor “relations” between the French and Lanrezac – it ended up as two separate battles at Charleroi and Mons (Source).

The day before the battle, the BEF encountered the German First Army at Soignies. French made immediate plans to attack. His plan was to have his five divisions take defensive positions at Mons Canal.

Even more surprised than French, was German Gen von Kluck. Von Kluck and his 1st Army had just finished battle at Sambre against Lanrezac.

Now remember, The BEF at Soignies comprised of only two corps (each with two infantry divisions) and one cavalry. This totaled some 70,000 troops with a mere 300 guns.

But the Germans? They had four corps and 3 cavalry divisions, comprising of 160,000 men and some 550 guns. It’s quite clear the superiority the Germans held. However, they didn’t make use of this superiority.

Van Kluck had previously been warned not to outflank the BEF because they were meant to meet up with a second Army.

So what did he do?

“On Sunday August 23, as church bells called the faithful to mass, a German cavalry patrol approached the canal: The British opened fire at dim shadows in the dawn mist. The battle of Mons had begun” (Source). German guns returned fire, focusing their aim on the “northernmost point of a salient formed by a loop in a canal,” realizing that the British position by the loop left the vulnerable (Source).

French responded to this artillery attack by deploying his two infantry troops – I Corps commanded by Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien and II Corps commanded by Sir Douglas Haig – “east and west of Mons across a forty kilometer front” (Source). They almost reached reserve French Fifth Army, who were eight miles away.

[Below: Royal Fusiliers]

The British underwent six hours of this bombing. But, their precise machine gun fire did do much to, at least, annoy the Germans. The British had one thing on their side, these men were experts.

Then the German infantry began to advance, “as though on parade for the Kaiser in Berlin” (Source). Led by Captain Walter Bloem, the 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers marched out of the woods, only to encounter a set-up of little British fortresses. It was here that they discovered the distinctive sound of machine guns. They had just happened upon the 1st Battalion Queen’s Own Royal West Kents. Turns out, they were the ones responsible for the damage!

At noon, the Germans were joined by more units. On top of more manpower, they’d since learned how to smartly fight the British: they rained “shells from cannons and howitzers” on the heads of their enemies (Source).

Between this change of tactics and their added men, it became clear that the British did not have a fighting chance. They were clearly outnumbered. The Royal Fusiliers at Nimy Bridge had the worst of it. “For two hours Private Sidney Godley single-handedly manned the machine-gun, despite shrapnel in his back and a bullet wound to his head. Both Dease and Godley were awarded the Victoria Cross, the supreme award for valor: the first VCs of the war” (Source).

Eventually, though, the Germans forced their way across the canal. The British were pushed further and further back, digging shallow trenches or firing through “loopholes” in walls; they stared up their fire again.

Then, to their great surprise, at 8 pm, the Germans called for a cease-fire.

Meanwhile, French received news of General Lanrezac and the Fifth Army’s retreat at Charleroi. This left the British in complete danger of German envelopment. Thus, French had no choice but to call for the retreat of his own men.

But, that evening von Kluck resumed the offensive. Realizing the true strength of the German First Army, French called for further retreat of Smith-Dorrien and Haig.

Moral plummeted with their retreat. Food, water, and rest were all in short supply. Many soldiers slept as they marched. “More field guns were abandoned than at any time since the War of Independence in America” (Source). Worse yet, some units even lost all sense of unity and reason. “One officer was so spooked, he started firing his revolver at imaginary Germans in the street” (Source). All of this, and more, was the fault of their commander, Sir John French, and man wholly unfit to command.

While the British may have retreated, they still managed to hold back the Germans for an entire day. Back home, the battle reached mythic proportions, painting the lost lives as heroes. Over time, their loss became more of a victory. The truth, though, was that the battle only gave the Germans more confidence as they carried on their advance through Belgium. Before long, they would hold control over the industrial control of both nations: coal, iron ore, factories, railroads, and rivers.

Losses: British 1,600 casualties

German anywhere from 2,000-5,000 casualties (depending on who is estimating).

[Below: British in trenches]

Up Next: Too Many Acts: Four Acts That Led to the American Revolution

#History Series #Today in History #WWI #The Battle of Mons (1914)

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doctor-cherrys-office · 2 years ago

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Which boxer is the best patient of yours? Worst patient?

"Which one is my worst or best patient, well, aren't we getting to the nitty gritty"

"Let me get the worst out of the way first, to save me a headache and as to not ruin my day with unneeded angry. Soda has a match today and I already know I will be pissed at him"

"I feel like a few could tie for that place honestly. Like, speaking of Soda, SODA HIMSELF. The amount of times I had to scold him for drinking soda in the middle of a fight or how drinking so much could raise his blood sugar is insane. The fact the man's teeth haven't rotted away yet is a miracle! Then there's Don, don't get me wrong, I adore Don like the next person, but behind closed doors, he can be such a drama queen! He can be a gentleman next, but if I have to hear whining like a Spanish Soap Opera, i personally smothering him with a pillow. Then there is, ugh, Super Macho man."

"Maybe I'm biased since this man has hit on me so many times it took me literally snapping his wrist and threatening his ability to have children for him to stop it, but my god is he the worst! He's always on his phone, livestreaming to his fans, flashing a bright camera for selfies, bringing reporters into my office when that is AGAINST THE RULES. At least mine....But moving on, it has gotten the point I had to BAN him from my office. Bet everyone in the league thought it was gonna be Aran, but hell! At least Aran knows when to behave and not push his luck surprisingly! "

"But, switching subjects onto something nicer. The best patient among the boxers, I could honestly say is any of them, minus Macho Man. Yes I know a gripped about Don and Soda, but they have their moments of behaving too. I guess the best so far would be a tie between Von Kaiser and Bear Hugger. But, I would have to mainly say Von Kaiser. Maybe its his military background or his strict self, but he has never given me any problems. He shows me wear it hurts, reports what he can and lets me run test. He is also willing to let me do check-ups for upcoming matches, which is a blessing. I even got meet one his support pets during one of his check-ups."

"Overall, the boxers are a mix bag. Sometimes it depends solely on how their matches went, sometimes it can be outside forces. But I will openly admit, Vok Kaiser has been my best patient so far and I sometimes wish the others would follow his example, dear fucking god...."

#Let Me Write You a Prescription || Text Post #Fighting Machine || Von Kaiser #The Irish Dumbass || Aran Ryan #Rose Filled Tears || Don Flamenco #Soda Chuggin || Soda Popinski #Super Macho Dumbass || Super Macho Man #punch-out!!#punch out #punch out oc #punch-out!!! oc #punch out!!! oc #von kaiser #aran ryan #don flamenco #soda popinski #super macho man #anon ask

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autodidact-adventures · 7 years ago

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World War I (Part 59): More Politics

After the February Revolution and the Battle of Arras & Nivelle Offensive, political turmoil increased once again, with struggles for power erupting in Russia, Germany and Berlin.

Russia

In Russia, the tsar's regime had been toppled; the tsar's ministers were under arrest and rival factions battled for control of the provisional government. The politicians had to decide what form of government to use, and how to organize its worsening economy.

For the first half of 1917, there was still strong support for continuing the war. Minster of Justice Alexander Kerensky claimed that the revolution had been partially an angry reaction to rumours that the Romanov government might settle for a separate peace. He and the general staff were preparing a summer campaign, one that was smaller than the late 1916 Chantilly one.

But resistance against the war was growing, especially among the army and industrial workforce, which was where the most support was needed. By May, over 35,000 troops were deserting each month. On the home front, the situation was still volatile. Soviets had been recently formed, representing soldiers, sailors and workers; they were very skeptical about what Kerensky was doing. Lenin had returned from exile and was now in charge of the Communist Party's Bolshevik faction, which was stirring up opposition and becoming more & more bold in doing so.

Germany

In Germany, the struggle was simpler, focusing on who would be in control of the government. Nearly all the elite of German society were united against any meaningful reform, and their only real opposition was Chancellor Bethmann von Hollweg. The kaiser floated between both camps, and was overall a fence-sitter. He often agreed with Bethmann – for example, in 1917 he issued an Easter message endorsing his proposals for electoral reform. But he knew that he was being increasingly overshadowed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff.

These two blamed Bethmann for pretty much everything. They claimed that his failure to keep control over domestic policies was lessening the Reichstag's loyalty. Trying to arrange peace negotiations was making Germany look weak, and also encouraging the Entente nations to keep fighting. When strikes broke out in Berlin, they blamed him for that, too.

A standoff between them and Bethmann was lasting for months. A conference was held on April 23rd, where Hindenburg & Luidendorff demanded a war aims memorandum be approved – one that declared Germany's intentions to annex parts of Belgium and France, and large parts of the Balkans. Bethmann didn't resist, but a week later he placed a note in the files, in which he stated that he viewed the memorandum as meaningless – it implied Germany's ability to dictate peace terms to the Entente, which was completely unrealistic. He wrote, “I have co-signed the protocol because it would be laughable to depart over fantasies.”

On May 15th, he gave a speech to the Reichstag, declaring himself to be “in complete accord” with the generals on war aims, but also willing to offer Russia a settlement “founded on mutually honourable understanding.” These two things contradicted each other, of course, and caused Bethmann to lose potential support in the Reichstag – there was a growing number of Reichstag members who realized that the U-boat campaign was failing and wanted a negotiated settlement. On the other hand, Ludendorff became even more hostile towards Bethmann because of the peace-with-Russia section.

There were two sources of support for Hindenburg and Ludendorff – the first was their success as generals going all the way back to the Battle of Tannenberg. The second was from the most powerful & conservative parts of German society. This elite believed that only victory could prevent the ordinary people from demanding reform of the entire system after the war finished.

Pressure began to grow for Bethmann to be dismissed. The kaiser resisted strongly (to a surprising degree), because he realized that the new chancellor would be Ludendorff's pawn, which would cause the end of Bismarck's system. But the pressure was great – even his wife and son (the Crown Prince Wilhelm) took part. And the generals were willing to do almost anything to get what they wanted, whereas the kaiser was not.

Britain

Here, as in Germany, the struggle was between the head of the government (PM David Lloyd George) and the general staff, but apart from that there were few similarities. Unlike in Germany, a military-based challenge to government control of policy was impossible. The struggle was only over control of the BEF, but was still very intense.

Lloyd George faced off against Douglas Haig and General Sir William Robertson (Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and based in London). As the summer of 1917 began [June], the question of what to do with the BEF was paramount. Lloyd George's government had began shakily, but now had solid public support; he was very skeptical about the generals' tactics and strategies (with good reason). Any inclination he might have previously had to leave military things to the military, had been destroyed with the failures at Arras and the Chemin des Dames. He insisted that they wait for a great number of American troops to arrive before launching any more large offensives. He pushed for an Italian offensive while the French and Russians recovered & rested, and the Americans got an army ready.

There was actually no guarantee that America would send a whole lot of troops into the field. After Wilson's declaration of war, it wasn't certain that they were going to do anything more than send money, equipment and ships to their new allies. The Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee declared that “Congress will not permit American soldiers to be sent to Europe,” but Wilson quickly proved him wrong on that. However, America didn't have much of an army yet – until a gradual buildup was authorized in late 1916, their regular army had only 130,000 men (barely putting them among the 20 biggest armies in the world). They had no tanks, almost no aircraft, and very few machine-guns (even though the machine-gun was an American invention). The general staff was legally limited to only 55 officers, with only 29 being allowed to be based in Washington – the country distrusted military establishments.

Also, their largest army unit was a regiment – there were no divisions. The military quickly organized a First Division and sent it to France to show theyr were serious. It was led by General John Persing, who had begun his career in fighting against the Native Americans. On July 4th, it marched through the streets of Paris to an enthusiastic reception. But it was much too small to be of any importance, and wasn't ready for combat. There weren't any other divisions ready yet.

The first draft since the Civil War was authorized. By mid-1917, every male from 21-31yrs was registered (it would later be 21-45yrs). 32 training camps were built within two months, each covering 8,000 – 12,000 acres (32.4 – 48.5 square km), and with 1,500 buildings capable of holding 40,000 men.

Nearly every noncom in the regular army was commissioned. New schools (with specialties from gunnery to baking) were established along the East Coast. The Entente sent veterans over to America to train American instructors in modern war. The French specialized in artillery, tactics, liaison and fortifications; the British specialized in mortars, machine-guns, sniping, bayonets and gas.

In order to manage all this, the War Department and general staff had to be greatly expanded and restructured. But even with all this expansion, Washington was not prepared for Pershing's estimate of how many troops he would require within a year. Soon after he arrived in France, he reported, “It is evident that a force of about one million is the smallest unit which in modern war will be a complete, well-balanced and independent fighting organization. Plans for the future should be based...on three times this force – i.e., at least three million men.”

Battle of Messines

Douglas Haig was still obsessed with Flanders, believing he could make a breakthrough at Ypres. The Royal Navy leaders agreed with him – on the Belgian coast, their naval guns could support the infantry; and it was a strategic objective that they had to take. The Admiralty had been working on plans for an amphibious invasion of the region since 1915. By spring [March-May] 1917, they were building huge floating docks that could land infantry and tanks.

Haig and his staff decided to seize this opportunity. With his staff, he worked out a plan to combine a new offensive out of the Ypres salient with an amphibious landing. They would thus be attacking Germany from two different directions, and force them to give up the Belgian coast. They might even be able to drive Germany out of Belgium entirely, by giving them no room to manouevre. And with their flank exposed, they might be forced back from the Hindenburg Line.

At the very least, the British would capture the Belgian ports of Ostend, Zeebrugge and Blankenberge. Germany would lose the ports that they were using to send some of their smaller submarines out from into the Channel – and this would strengthen Britain's position when it came to any peace negotiations.

But although the amphibious landing was a new idea, the Ypres offensive would be the same old strategy that had just failed in the Nivelle Offensive – a massive artillery bombardment followed by an infantry attack, supposedly leading to a breakthrough that the cavalry could exploit. Lloyd George was angry when he heard about it; and the amphibious landing wouldn't be possible until this supposed breakthrough had been achieved.

Haig attempted to placate Lloyd George by laying down a specific definition of the breakthrough – it would be counted as real once they'd captured the town of Roulers (11.3km into German territory), and then they would start the amphibious landing. Lloyd George, however, believed that Roulers was out of reach for them. Haig and Robertson believed he was being presumptuous to have an opinion on such things.

Weather was a very important factor in western Belgium. The region of Flanders is extremely flat, with scattered farmhouses, small villages and some patches of trees, but very little else. The ridges and hills of the Great War battles are barely noticeable today as more than wrinkles.

Flanders is also a very low part of the northern Europe's great coastal plain. The inhabitants spent centuries installing drains, canals and dikes so that it could be farmed, as previously it was practically an extension of the sea. Even today, it is the wettest a terrain can be without being an estuary.

Even in “dry” weather, you only have to dig a few spadesful of earth to strike water. It almost always rains heavily in late summer [August], and the whole area turns into mud. Because of the soil composition, it turns into a bottomless, gluey mess.

Haig was warned about this. Actually, the summers of 1915 & 1916 had been very dry for Flanders, unusually so. However, his staff looked at records going back to the 1830's, and reported that usually “in Flanders the weather broke early each August with the regularity of the Indian monsoon.” The London Times military correspondent was a retired Lieutenant Colonel, and he warned Haig against trying to launch a major offensive in late summer: “You can fight in mountains and deserts, but no one can fight in mud and when the water is let out against you. At the best, you are restricted to the narrow fronts on the higher ground, which are very unfavourable with modern weapons.”

“When the water is let out against you” would be referring to the Belgians in 1914, when they'd opened their dikes to flood the countryside east of the Yser River to hold back the Germans. The Germans would have learned from that, and might also use it against the British. Furthermore, heavy bombardment might wreck the fragile drainage system & cause flooding.

Haig didn't completely ignore these warnings, but he carried on anyway – he was impatient to begin while the Flanders region was still dry. As soon as the Battle of Arras was finished, he began building up an attack force at Ypres. Lloyd George hadn't given approval for this, and Pétain had warned Haig that this plan had no chance of success (this warning wasn't passed on to Lloyd George.)

For preparation, Haig wanted to establish a new strongpoint on the salient's edge, which could be an anchor for troops moving outwards. And he had a perfect way to do this, thanks to General Sir Herbert Plumer, who had been commander of the Second Army on the salient's edge for the past two years (during that time, ¼ of Britain's casualties had been at Ypres).

In 1915, Plumer had ordered tunnels to be dug towards the German positions opposite his line. In 1916, he expanded these tunnels into the biggest mining operation of the whole war – there were 20 shafts, some almost 800m long, and many over 30m deep to escape detection. They were drained by generator-driven pumps. The tunnels were extended towards the Germans, eventually reaching to below the Messines Ridge, which had been an excellent vantage point for German military spotters to survey the region. One of the mines was discovered & destroyed by the Germans, but the other 19 were finished and packed with explosives without the enemy finding out.

The Battle of Messines began with a week-long artillery bombardment, with the heaviest concentration of artillery of the whole war so far (one gun for every 7m of front). Then on June 7th, at 3:10am, the mines were detonated. They exploded nearly at the same time, blowing up the entire ridge into the air. Tremors were felt as far away as London, and David Lloyd George heard a faint boom at 10 Downing Street, where he was working through the night.

A lieutenant with a machine-gun corps later said, “When I heard the first deep rumble I turned to the men and shouted, 'Come on, let's go.' A fraction of a second later a terrific roar and the whole earth seemed to rock and sway. The concussion was terrible, several of the men and myself being thrown down violently. It seemed to be several minutes before the earth stood still again though it may not really have been more than a few seconds. Flames rose to a great height – silhouetted against the flames I saw huge blocks of earth that seemed to be as big as houses falling back to the ground. Small chunks and dirt fell all around. I saw a man flung out from behind a huge block of debris silhouetted against the sheet of flame. Presumably some poor devil of a Boche. It was awful, a sort of inferno.

A member of a tank crew said, “We got out of the tank and walked over to this huge crater. You'd never seen anything like the size of it, you'd never believe that explosives could do it. I saw about 150 Germans lying there dead, all in different positions, some as if throwing a bomb, some still with a gun on their shoulder. The mine had killed them all. The crew stood there for about five minutes and looked. It made us think. That mine had won the battle before it started. We looked at each other as we came away and the sight of it remained with you always. To see them all lying there with their eyes open.”

All that was left was a line of 21m-deep craters – the ridge had been destroyed, with very few British casualties. They'd penetrated about 3.2km into the German lines (at their farthest point), but Haig didn't want to advance any further at the moment. He'd achieved his objective; he didn't want to Second Army so far ahead that the artillery couldn't protect it; and he wanted to dig in before the Germans could counterattack. For a few hours, there was an opportunity to break deeply into the German lines, and possibly even through their broken defences, and it wasn't taken advantage of. Plumer was a capable commander, and perhaps the most important part of this battle was that he saw the advantages of a limited attack.

Lloyd George, however, still doubted Haig, and Haig still didn't have approval for the main attack. On June 19th, Lloyd George summoned Haig to a meeting with his recently-formed Cabinet Committee on War Policy. Haig was to explain his plans in detail, and Robertson also attended.

William “Wully” Robertson was born in 1860, the son of a tailor & postmaster; he was educated at the local church school and later became a pupil-teacher there. He joined the army at 1917, despite his mother's shame, and spent 10yrs in the ranks. A commission changed him from the army's youngest sergeant major to its oldest lieutenant. He served for a long time in India, learning several languages there. He served with distinction in the Boer War (1899-1902) and then returned to England.

After his return, he was a reform-minded authority on military training, and also an expert on the German army. He is the only English private soldier to have risen to the rank of Field Marshal (he was given that rank at his retirement, and also a baronetcy). Throughout his career, he made no attempt to get rid of his rough Lincolnshire accent.

Robertson had been focused on victory on the Western Front from early on in the war – he'd opposed alternatives such as the Dardanelles Campaign. In December 1915, he'd been appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and become Haig's most important supporter. Because of this, Lloyd George distrusted him as well.

The June 19th London conference lasted three days. Haig laid out his plans and what he expected to achieve; Lloyd George questioned him constantly. He wanted to know: why they thought a Flanders offensive could succeed this time; what they thought the casualties would be; how the German forces were arranged; what the consequences of failure might be. He wasn't satisfied with the answers, and he made that very clear.

The Royal Navy was brought in, and they sided with Haig & Robertson. Admiral John Jellicoe (the sort-of hero of the Battle of Jutland) stated that Britain wouldn't be able to continue the war for much more than a year unless they captured the Belgian coast. This was actually unlikely – Germany only had a small number of smaller submarines going out from those ports. But Lloyd George couldn't prove them wrong because the claim was so completely speculative. The army & navy representatives were impatient with Lloyd George and his meddling (as they saw it).

Eventually, Lloyd George had to give in. By the end of the discussion, he only had one other committee member firmly on his side. The Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law was also doubtful about Haig & Robertson's claims, but he said that he didn't think the committee could “overrule the military and naval authorities on a question of strategy” (which was pretty much what Bethmann had said 5 months earlier about the unrestricted submarine warfare issue).

Lloyd George knew that if he overruled Haig & Robertson without strong support (from both Liberal & Conservative members) then he would be exposed and vulnerable in the House of Commons. And Haig promised that if his plans didn't succeed quickly, then they'd be called off (like Nivelle had falsely promised). Lloyd George was still very much against the plan, but he told Haig to proceed with preparations while he waited for the final approval.

While the generals had won their case, this situation showed the strength of the British political system. Haig and Robertson hadn't won control of strategy overall – they'd only got permission for one more attack, and this permission had been granted by the civil government, whose authority was not diminished in any way. The PM had insisted on the conference, and it had been held, and he had had the last word. Everyone knew & accepted (if reluctantly in some cases) that Lloyd George and his committee had the ultimate authority, even if they'd given in. The constitution remained intact.

Germany's constitution was supposed to work in the same way, but it didn't. The chancellor was supposed to be in control – when Bismarck was chancellor, this had been the case, even though the kaiser was allowed to dismiss him at any time, and did so in the end. But the government leaders had no actual power base of their own – they weren't chosen by the legislature (as they were in Britain), and so the complications and problems caused by a lengthy war were causing the chancellor to lose his grip on control. Eventually, the system broke down, and a new one had to be improvised.

Hindenburg could have improvised the new system (he was the one person whom nearly all of Germany trusted) but he had no interest in it. So it fell to Ludendorff, who had been elected by no-one, and whom the kaiser greatly disliked. The war turned Germany's political system into a true military dictatorship, the first time that Germany had really had one.

Russia

The Russian authorities were struggling to hold their forces together. Rudolf Hess, who would be one of Hitler's top henchmen during WW2, was a newly-commissioned officer commanding troops opposite the Russians, and had recently returned from being wounded in action. In a letter to his parents, he described the chaos among the Russian troops:

Yesterday we saw heavy fighting, but only among the Russians themselves. A Russian officer came over and gave himself up. He spoke perfect German. He was born in Baden but is a Russian citizen. He told us that whole battles are going on behind their lines. Their officers are shooting each other and the soldiers are doing the same. He found it all too ridiculous. They can all get lost as far as he's concerned. We invited him to eat with us and he thanked us. He ate well and drank plenty of tea before going off. There was a lot of noise coming from the Russian side yesterday. They were fighting each other in the trenches. We also heard shots coming from their infantry but they were fighting at each other. Charming!”

But on July 1st, Kerensky launched his promised offensive (the Kerensky Offensive). Not enough troops were available for it to be as big as what had been promised before the revolution, but it had over 200,000 men and over 1,300 guns on a 48km-wide front. General Brusilov, now Commander-in-Chief, was in charge. It took place in Galicia – this was where Brusilov had had his earlier successes; Russian forces were more organized here & had better morale than in the north; and nearly half the enemy was Austrian rather than German. They were also well-equipped in artillery & aircraft thanks to their allies.

The offensive went very well at first – the initial bombardment destroyed much of the enemy's forward defences, and the infantry attack took a lot of territory. But the Russians didn't know that even the Austrians were using Ludendorff's new defensive system, and when the counterattack came, it was the final straw for the troops. They didn't even desert – they just quit the war on the spot, refusing to obey any more orders. They shot dead officers who attempted to restore order.

Only July 8th, the Russian Eighth Army basically ceased to exist. On the 18th, Brusilov was relieved of command. (He had had misgivings right from the start, but Kerensky had ordered him to carry out the offensive.) By July 19th, the Germans were driving a disorderly mob of Russians before them. Max Hoffmann (now Chief of Staff on the Eastern Front) was in command. Wherever the Germans advanced, the Russians fled; they even fled from the Austrians when they joined in.

This was basically the end of the war in the east. Russia had suffered only 17,000 casualties (including missing & wounded), which was relatively low compared to the last 3yrs. But the general collapse meant that they were finished. The Germans would attack again later in the north, but success there would be extremely easy. This was also the end of the provisional government – the way was cleared for the Bolsheviks.

Germany

Their success in routing Russia on the Eastern Front emboldened Hindenburg & Ludendorff even further, and they were determined to settle the political struggle in Berlin in their favour.

On July 6th, Matthias Erzberger had delivered a speech that shocked the nation. He was the leader of Germany's Catholic Centre Party, a moderate and a monarchist. In his speech, Erzberger showed that the submarine campaign had failed (he used information from international contacts who had been made available by the Vatican). He demanded reform and a stronger role in government for the Reichstag. He also insisted that Germany renounce territorial gains to secure a “peace of reconciliation”.

At this point, there was great struggle for control over policy (with many factions & many different positions). Erzberger's speech outraged the conservatives, and those who believed the Reichstag should be annexed attacked Bethmann. But the kaiser continued to support him.

Until Hindenburg & Ludendorff played their final card. On July 12th, a telegram arrived from their headquarters announcing their resignations. It stated that other resignations from the general staff were sure to happen as well, and that the reason was the impossibility of working with Bethmann.

The kaiser was angry, but could do nothing. (In Britain or France, these blackmail resignations would have been accepted without comment.) He asked Hindenburg & Ludendorff to come to Berlin to see him. Bethmann resigned.

The timing of this was not good. Monsignor Eugenio Pacelli (who would become Pope Pius XII in 1939) had spoken to Bethmann shortly before his resignation, and presented an offer made by Pope Benedict XV – the pope would mediate between the warring sides to try and end the war. Pacelli said that the first step would have to be for Germany to declare their intentions with regards to Belgium. Unless Germany was willing to restore Belgium's prewar borders, peace talks would be impossible, and the Vatican realized this.

The kaiser had long insisted that they needed to control at least part of Belgium, if they were to keep the country secure. But even he understood by now that it wasn't realistic. Bethmann had told Pacelli that Germany would agree to restoring Belgium's prewar borders if Britain & France also did so (he didn't ask the army for their agreement on this). He even talked about dealing with the Alsace-Lorraine issue to mutual satisfaction.

The Reichstag had a liberal majority, and that majority was growing. If they'd been given the opportunity, they would almost certainly have supported Bethmann. But now there was no such opportunity, and the Vatican's attempt came to nothing.

Factions put forward their candidates for the a new chancellor, but were rejected. Eventually, Georg Michaelis was chosen. He was an obscure bureaucrat whom the kaiser had never even heard of. He would prove to be a useless choice – he lacked experience, good judgment and strength of character, and even Ludendorff (whom he was eager to please) would soon be disappointed in him.

Ludendorff didn't actually want to be a dictator (suggestions he should become chancellor were ridiculed), but found himself responsible for everything, with no-one of any importance or any use to help him with the politics or diplomacy. Neither he, nor his agents, nor Michaelis managed to bring the Reichstag under control.

On July 19th, a large majority of the Reichstag approved a resolution that declared, “The Reichstag strives for a peace of understanding and the permanent reconciliation of peoples. Forced territorial acquisitions and political, economic or financial oppressions are irreconcilable with such a peace.” This infuriated the conservatives, and the government remained at war with itself.

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generic-internet-name · 3 years ago

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thank you so much for asking!

this is gonna be a Lot so I’m putting it under here

So I’ve already explained most of what we know about Carmilla(at least most of it that’s not in secret lore, why is there secret lore it’s so annoying-) but like. she literally doesn’t show up in any of the actual mechs albums so I should probably explain the crew.

All of them “died” at some point, and then were brought back from the brink of death by Carmilla, who replaced a piece of their body with a mechanical part and made them immortal(well. relatively immortal. they still died eventually.)

Jonny D’ville, ship’s captain first mate, mechanism is his heart. He grew up in New Texas before a guy named One-Eyed Jack at a casino hired him to kill his father. After doing that he met Carmilla, shot Jack, and burned down the casino. Backstory told in the song One-Eyed Jacks.

Nastya Rasputina, engineer, mechanism is her blood. She was a princess of Cyberia(aka space russia) before a revolution where she was stabbed by her tutor, then found and mechanized by Carmilla. After joining the crew, she started dating the ship(it’s not clear whether she viewed Aurora as a person bc cyberians are all cyborgs or bc Aurora is like. fleshy and alive. see what I said earlier re. aurora lore is fucked up and I hate it). During the events of UDAD(one of the albums), she blows up her home planet. Eventually, when all the orignal parts of Aurora had been broken and replaced and there was none of her left, Nastya went out the airlock for good, along with the last real piece of Aurora. Backstory told in the song Cyberian Demons(the only recording of which is only on youtube), the fictions in the Cyberian Sequence, and the end of her story is told in the fiction Out.

Ashes O’Reilly, quartermaster, mechanism is their lungs. They grew up on the planet Malone as an orphan, before being recruited into a gang my Smooth Mickey. Later, Mickey betrays them, and traps them inside of a burning building. After being mechanized, they go back and burn down the entire planet. Backstory told in the song Lucky Sevens.

Drumbot Brian, pilot, mechanism is all his body except his heart. He crash-landed on a planet with no memories of his past, and became a doctor. He was so good at this, he could even bring the dead back(hmmm, somewhat like a certain vampire I could name...). Eventually, the town’s priest got sick and Brian brought him back, but then was accused of witchcraft and was strapped onto one of his own machines and left out to freeze in space. Backstory told in the song Lost in the Cosmos(but most details are found in blog posts)

The Toy Soldier, ???, not really a mechanism bc it wasn’t made by carmilla but it is all artificial except its voice. It was an automaton owned by an old widow, and when she died it was donated to a museum, then it ran away and briefly volunteered with the salvation army before finding a woman who “sang with the voice of an angel” and fell in love with her. The Angel was blind and couldn’t tell it wasn’t real, but when she fell in love with another girl, the Toy Soldier was so jealous it killed the Angel and stole her voice. Backstory told in the fiction The Story of the Toy Soldier.

Ivy Alexandria, archivist, mechanism is her brain. She lived in a library before it burnt down with her in it, and after Carmilla found and mechanized her she can’t remember any of it with any emotion except in her dreams. Backstory told in the fiction Archive Footage.

Gunpowder Tim, master at arms, mechanism his his eyes. He was fighting in the moon war against the moon kaiser, who had a huge gun and intended to blow up england. After his best friend Bertie died he went on a bloody rampage, ending with him taking control of the lunar cannon and blowing up the moon. Backstory told in the song Gunpowder Tim Versus The Moon Kaiser.

Baron Marius Von Raum, ships doctor(neither a baron nor a doctor), mechanism is his left arm(although he was not mechanized by Carmilla). On a planet ravaged by war, he found two old battle mechas and with his best friend tried to repair them and use them to stop the war. it didn’t work. Backstory not yet told, to be told in the album The Death of Byron Von Raum(all information here is from Kofi’s blog post about it).

Raphaella La Cognizi, science officer, mechanism is her wings. Backstory unknown/no official backstory(except that she wasn’t mechanized by Carmilla and likely did it herself). :(

They generally show up in the albums as an inciting incident or to spur the plot along. in Once Upon a Time(In Space), Jonny and Nastya take out the defence grid that was keeping the rebels from advancing. In The Bifrost Incident, Ivy fixes the black box, which lets Lyf see what happened. In High Noon Over Camelot, Brian tells Arthur, Gawain, and Galahad what to do and that inspires the pendragons’ quest. I would tell you what they did in Ulysses Dies at Dawn but I feel like that would be a bit of a spoiler.

Anyways. this post is very long but I have So Much Lore this is just the surface.

Reblog this post with a fun fact about anything you’re passionate about! Infodump at me and everyone else! Go!

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zerobag · 7 years ago

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2020 Edit: The description and story has been revamped a lot and is on the Ocs page. Old one under the cut.

Name: Jonathan von Kaiser/ John Age: 24 Height: 6'1 Weight: 90 kg

Oc description written by my friend and oc belongs to him.

Other: Inspired by Red Hood from Batman. He/Him, bi. Has insomnia, depression and a bad temper sometimes.

Summary: Mephisto blows things up- explosives and guns style. Rich (from stealing) and owns lotsa tech. He gets rid of what and who he doesn’t like. Is generally moody and doesn’t care much about people, but he has a soft spot for kids and Sabri. Works in the same company. Had a bad past and childhood. He loves cooking, mythology, chemistry and puns. He’s charismatic and likes things to go his way. Let’s say hes not too late to redeem himself...

Body description: Pale white skin, black undercut. He’s tall, long torso, long legs, lean and athletic. Dark circles under eyes, scars on his back from tigers during his circus performance years. Black circle-pattern tattoo on neck. Light baby blue eyes. Wears black earrings.

Short Bio:- An acrobat prodigy who worked in a circus while being a student at the same time. His parents used him for money because of his talents too. John is interested in chemistry and finding out people’s weaknesses.

Additional info: He’s a chemistry major and currently works for a pharmaceutical company (same one that Sabri works in, it’s called “Parasol Cosmetics”.) as a chemist and medicine designer/inventor. He works extra ‘shifts’ when in fact he is creating more weapons and bombs. He is very precise and sometimes steals chemicals from the lab. His knowledge of explosives stemmed from being in the army for 3 years. He is fascinated with demonology and European folklore. He enjoys playing mind games with people. He answers his therapist with riddles, he can use the objects around him as weapons, even something as simple as a pen. In his prison days, he was banned from the kitchen of the prison because he placed metallic cultery in a microwave and cracked open the gas, causing a massive explosion.

Alter Ego: Mephisto (meaning right hand/worker of Lucifer)

Unconfirmed if he is an ally or villain. Mephisto uses fear against his foes and is a master demolitionist, strategist, marksman and chemist. The police already have a hard time capturing the guy and facing him in a gun fight. He is excellent in hand to hand combat and sniper. When disarming Mephisto’s high tech bombs, make sure he is distracted.

Gadgets:- High tech suit with kevlar, heat and cold resistant fabrics Cape used for short distance gliding or uses a separate flying glider. it has two machine guns, missile launchers and two large blades in front. it has a camera that can scan areas from above, locate and drop items and can be controlled from afar by Mephisto’s gauntlets. The footpads control the flying.

Dual pistols:- The two pistols can be semi-automatic to automatic machine pistols. When combining them they turn into a high functioning sniper rifle with 32x scope.

Shurikans:- Normal Explosive

Grenades: incendiary and flash types.

Marble bombs: marble sized explosives used for close combat and to daze opponents.

Time bombs: miniature square time bombs with counters on them. Explosion power varies based on counter time. Detonator is Mephisto’s gauntlet.

Mask:- The mask has a remarkable voice changer. The voice is low and distorted, similar to an evil robot’s voice in sci-fi movies. There are four red eyes; two for frontal sight and the other two are cameras on side ways to see if there are attacks coming from far left and right. Excellent for sniping when using the lower two eyes. The mask has night vision, thermal vision, x-ray vision and detective vision. The mask can mimic voices; useful for luring enemies by mimicking their comrades, and record videos with audio function as well.

---

The rivalry between the two characters started when Mephisto took revenge on the CEO that imprisoned him by kidnapping the CEO and his family and blew up the city tower that caused death/harm to innocent people and a lotta damage. Shirazi was unable to stop it. While Shirazi could care less about a corrupt CEO, involving innocent people is not the way to do it. Mephisto then continues to cause havoc throughout the city by explosions that endangers others, with no clear purpose other than just to be evil or show off his skills.

#mephisto #jonathan #oc #othersoc #rp #superhero #ref #john

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hermanwatts · 5 years ago

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Science Fiction New Releases: 30 November, 2019

Recover from the Black Friday madness with a science fiction new release or two, filled with vast space operas, alien invasions, and even an interstellar caveman.

A. I. Rescue (The A. I. Series #7) – Vaughn Heppner

Despite being all alone—the only one of his kind—Bast Banbeck has generously helped humanity time and again against the death machines, saving us from extinction. Years ago, Jon Hawkins promised Bast that he would hunt for and save the Sacerdotes in return.

But the homesick Bast is losing hope, drowning his sorrows in extended drinking bouts. Now, Intelligence learns there are Sacerdote prisoners 162 light-years away.

Jon leads the rescue operation, using the void to slip undetected into enemy territory.

But this is an AI trap to capture and study Hawkins—the puny creature that has done more harm to the great AI Dominion than any other parasitical life form.

What no one knows is that Hawkins’ passage through the void has awakened an ancient evil, and it’s eager to reenter time and space.

The battle for life has just become more intense.

Hell’s Reach (Galactic Liberation #6) – B. V. Larson and David VanDyke

USA Today bestseller B.V. Larson and Dragon award finalist David VanDyke have released book six in their epic military space opera!

The Breakers find a new home among the stars: Utopia. An engineered planet that is vast beyond comprehension with plenty of room to grow. They set up trade routes and work as mercenaries for their supplies… but trouble lurks.

Pirates strike their merchant lanes. Key personnel are captured and enslaved. Straker is called upon to do something, and thus a new conflict is set in motion.

Don’t miss HELL’S REACH, a wild thrill ride of combat and intrigue among the stars. This new novel of military science fiction is the sixth book in the Galactic Liberation series. Look for book #1, STARSHIP LIBERATOR if you’re new to this expanding universe.

Interstellar Caveman – Karl Beecher

You think you’re struggling to find your place in the universe?

Consider poor old Colin Douglass, a terminally ill insurance agent who awakens from centuries in cryogenic freeze to find Earth is a devastated wasteland. Now, he’s being pursued by a homicidal interstellar tourist board, and calculating insurance dividends is as outdated as making stone axes.

Sci-fi-hating technophobe Colin embarks on a desperate struggle to find a cure for his illness, as well as a place for himself in this strange new galaxy where toilets talk back, and door handles are a long-forgotten relic. Only by teaming up with his rescuer, hard-boiled, space-traveling archaeologist Tyresa Jak (that’s Doctor Jak to you), can Colin hope to succeed before time runs out.

Along the way, this galactic odd-couple must evade the Erd Tourist Board – a powerful mega-corporation which will do anything to ensure the mythical Earth stays mythical – and deal with a crackpot religious cult who not only possess a cure for Colin’s illness, but who also believe there is more to this caveman from Earth than meets the eye….

Jim Cartwright: Raknar Quest (Four Horsemen Tales #14) – Mark Wandrey

Having successfully saved Cartwright’s Cavaliers from bankruptcy, Jim Cartwright has a new quest—he wants to know more about Raknar. Unfortunately for him, the secrets of the giant machines appear to have been lost to antiquity. Still…he has to try.

After returning from a lucrative contact, he secures a base of operation for his Cavaliers in the Karma system, then he sets off toward the galactic core. It’s something he feels he needs to do by himself, so he leaves his over-protective mentor Hargrave behind.

Can Jim and Splunk find the answers to their questions on their own? They need to know how to maintain the massive Raknar, and where they can find more—and they need the info now! The towering 20,000-year-old war machines could give humanity an edge against the contentious Mercenary Guild…but only if he can get the information he needs.

Jim’s heading for more trouble than he bargained for, though, and there are many people who want to stop him and see his quest fail. Few answers await, and there are many new adversaries in his path. At the end of his journey, war looms, as well as a long-lost mystery from his past. Come along on Jim Cartwright’s Raknar Quest.

Komenagen: Slog – Rolf Nelson

What separates boys from men? How can you prove you are worthy of rights and respect of adulthood?

Skaffington White is a sixteen-year-old nobody in New Philly as far as the rest of his high school class-mates are concerned. Bright and honest enough to be a discipline problem at school, under-appreciated by his accountant father and mousy mother, he was just putting in seat-time at school until he could graduate. At least until a drug raid gone wrong left him an orphan with three younger siblings. None of his extended family was willing to take in what the government described as an entirely too independent problem child…. How could he get a new start in life that didn’t go through Enlightenment Foster Care Facility Number Four, with level two treatment?

Could a wilderness trek for the pitiless Plateans offer a way out, or will it lead only to a cold, lonely death on a barely terraformed planet? How much worse can the wild of a new world be than the impersonal bureaucracy of “civilization”?

Every great character has a back-story. Here is how one of the characters central to the award-nominated novel “The Stars Came Back” got his career started.

Point of Honor (The Exiled Fleet #4) – Richard Fox

Gage and his allies learn dark secrets of the Daegon invasion…

When the Exiled Fleet enters the Cathay Empire, Commodore Gage must confront an awful truth. Albion ships have joined the enemy invasion. With an alliance to liberate the home world in doubt, Gage leads a mission to bring the renegades to account.

But will Gage lose everything to protect Albion’s honor?

Meanwhile, the spy Tolan sneaks back to Daegon territory and witnesses just how the Daegon rule conquered worlds. There, he finds information that can win the war for Albion…or plunge the free galaxy into darkness.

Stryker’s War (Galaxy’s Edge: Order of the Centurion #3) – Josh Hayes, Nick Cole, and Jason Anspach

Feel the thunder!

Stryker Company always brings the fight, but when they relieve embittered and embattled Republic marines, they find an enemy unwilling to stand up and face them. Tasked with protecting the Republic’s interests on a mining world, the legionnaires face roadside ambushes, double-dealing locals, and constant sabotage.

And the mission isn’t as straightforward as they thought it would be.

As skirmishes escalate into coordinated ambushes and assaults, two squad leaders, Talon and Lankin, are forced to chase after the sparks threatening to ignite the entire populace into a full-blown insurgency. Denied the legionnaires and resources they need to contain the situation, a single platoon fights to complete a mission requiring all of Stryker Company. The outnumbered platoon must work their way from glittering coastal ports, through steamy jungles and dust-covered mines, to find an enemy hidden seamlessly among the indigenous populace.

The cost is high; the sacrifice great…but nothing short of death itself will stop the legionnaires of Stryker Company from completing its objective. In this stand-alone tale of combat, brotherhood, and sacrifice, these legionnaires will learn what it truly means to make the ultimate sacrifices for their friends.

Sunset (Legend of the Galactic Heroes #10) – Yoshiki Tanaka

Having taken his devoted confidant Hildegard von Lohengramm as his empress, Kaiser Reinhard awaits the birth of his heir. Much remains to trouble him, from the ongoing campaign of terror by Church of Terra diehards to the machinations of an erstwhile landesherr, and there are ominous signs that his own condition may be graver than anyone suspects. Nevertheless, it seems that peace has finally come to the New Galactic Empire.

Meanwhile, in the Iserlohn Republic, Julian Mintz, successor to Yang the Magician, resolves to begin the first and final battle fought on the republic’s terms—the world-shaking conclusion to the Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

Science Fiction New Releases: 30 November, 2019 published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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courtneytincher · 5 years ago

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World War II Turns 80 Today. The Aftermath Changed America Forever.

Eighty Septembers ago the world plunged into the abyss of World War II. The worst conflict in human history began with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. It was a horrid, murderous conflict which started at terrible and only got worse.Adolf Hitler’s attack on Poland, a state resurrected by the Versailles Treaty two decades before, was but the first act. Having signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union, the Nazi dictator next turned his attention to France, Great Britain, and assorted countries nearby and in between. Achieving less battlefield success, Italy plunged the Balkans into war. In June 1941 Germany invaded the USSR, triggering the largest and most brutal combat of modern history. In December 1941 Japan, deeply engaged in China for a decade, expanded the battle to the United States and much of East Asia. Then the world truly was at war. The consequences of the global conflagration were profound. Thirty countries were involved and as many as eighty-five million people died. Germany, Russia, and Japan suffered especially heavy destruction. The conflict was horrid all around, especially between Germans and Soviets and between Japanese and both Chinese and Americans. Anti-Semitism turned genocidal through the Holocaust. Other groups, including Slavs, Roma, and gays, also were targeted by the Nazis for murder.The United States and Soviet Union emerged as the world’s premier military powers, two contending poles around which other nations circled. Europe, historically home to the world’s wealthiest and most influential states, was ravaged. Pre-war colonial empires survived on life-support, as local residents saw their one-time overlords humbled. Japan essentially disappeared as a geopolitical factor while the Chinese Communist Party seized control of a nation short on power but long on potential.Korea was divided, triggering an extended civil war. After the war Jews fled Europe for the lands of the ancient Hebrew Kingdom, triggering a religious and historic clash which destabilized the region that became the world’s most important energy source. The newly created United Nations fell victim to the emerging Cold War.Impacts of the war radiated outward. During the fighting in the British colony of Burma, now Myanmar, Burmans and ethnic minorities split, backing the Japanese and British, respectively. Japanese rule spurred nationalist sentiments in such colonies as India, Vietnam, and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Moscow, which had largely retreated from Asia after its defeat in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese war, regained its lost influence and more. In the United States the conflict brought women into the workplace, highlighted discrimination against African-Americans, and expanded state control of society and economy. A bipartisan interventionist consensus formed, as the country became a quasi-imperial power.All these consequences traced back to Hitler’s decision to destroy Poland while regaining territories lost in the previous conflict. Indeed, a more accurate start for World War II might be June 28, 1919, when the Versailles Treaty, the most important of the agreements ending World War I, was signed.Much about the lead-up to the so-called Great War or War to End War—so called before the second and worse conflagration forced a name change—should cause today’s policymakers to pause. While it is hard to imagine a similar global “killfest” today, no one on the morning of June 28, 1914, imagined that in just a few weeks much of the continent would be at war. Later that day a young Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and the latter’s wife. There followed a rush of countries jumping into the abyss of war, in which some twenty million people were killed, four major empires were destroyed, other states were greatly weakened, and the ideological viruses of communism, fascism, and Nazism were released.The years before World War I were a time of increasing globalization and prosperity. However, the forces of Mercantilism lived on, as influential economic interests demanded protection and talked of economic war. What should have brought people together pushed many apart.At the same time, nationalism exercised an increasing and increasingly dangerous hold over European governments. The United Kingdom was determined to preserve its colonial empire. France was driven by revanchist demands to retake territory in Alsace and Lorraine recently lost to Prussia. Serbian officials used terrorism to undermine Austro-Hungary and create a greater Serbia. Germany began building a globe-spanning navy and creating a colonial empire to gain what it saw as its rightful “place in the sun.” Russia played protector to Slavs challenging Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman control. Italians desperately sought territorial aggrandizement.All of these governments were prepared to use military force to advance a wide variety of ends, few terribly important let alone existential. Desire for prestige and concern over credibility, demand for territorial expansion and resource acquisition, and expression of anger and ego motivated some leaders. War was seen as merely another policy option. Even in the United States now venerated leaders, such as Theodore Roosevelt, worried that Americans would grow weak if they did not fight. Perhaps the most venal World War I combatant was Italy, which sent its young men off to die in hopes of plundering its one-time ally, Austria-Hungary. In Rome, at least, there was no pretense of promoting democracy or ending war.The Europeans divided into contending alliances, making conflict far more likely. Germany allied with Vienna and embraced its ramshackle ally ever more tightly as Italy’s allegiance spoiled and the Russian Empire’s friendship faded. Revolutionary France and despotic Russia created an alliance which turned offensive; the United Kingdom unofficially joined, keeping its own people in the dark while creating the Triple Entente, which threatened Berlin with a two-front war. Rather than act as military firebreaks, these alliances became transmission belts of conflict. A political assassination in a distant Balkans city lit a fuse which ultimately brought every major European power into combat, along with the United States, Japan, and China.Still, war was not inevitable, even though many policymakers imagined that it was so. Which caused them to take steps making it more likely. For instance, Russia’s growing industrialization placed the Central Powers, Germany and Austro-Hungary, at a growing disadvantage. If conflict was inevitable, then perhaps it was best to fight now, suggested some. Virtually every power vastly overestimated their likelihood of success; none imagined the carnage to come.Moreover, the detailed military plans and ever-growing military machines created pressure to use them. As the crisis of late July and early August 1914 developed, the opportunity for diplomacy diminished rapidly. As Europeans headed toward the abyss, Germany’s Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg declared: “control has been lost and the stone has begun to roll.” Even last minute “Willy-Nicky” telegrams between cousins the German Kaiser and Russian Tsar could not halt their nations joining a conflict which resulted in the exile of one and murder of the other.In April 1917 the United States also joined the war. It was an inane decision. Obviously, America faced no threat to its security. With the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and the United States, none of the contending powers had the ability to hurt America. Nor did any desire such a result, since no European power had a meaningful quarrel with the United States. And it didn’t much matter to Washington which imperialistic and militaristic power or bloc dominated the continent. To paraphrase Germany’s late “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck, Europe’s balance of power wasn’t worth the blood of a single American infantryman.President Woodrow Wilson’s formal justification for war, that American citizens absolute personal immunity while traveling on a belligerent power’s merchantmen acting as reserve warships and carrying munitions through warzones was too preposterous to take seriously. In fact, the sanctimonious Wilson—said to be waiting for the first vacancy in the Trinity—imagined that he had been anointed by on-high to reorder the globe. However, to achieve his ends the U.S. had to enter the war. For his delusions, which were dramatically dispelled by the Versailles Treaty, 117,000 Americans died needlessly.As well as, ultimately, the many millions in World War II. While counter-factuals can never be proven, the most likely outcome of Americans staying home in 1917 was a compromise peace. Even with its troops from the east after Russia made peace, Germany was unable to force a decisive breakthrough in France. However, resources from territories freed of Russian control would have eased the brutal British blockade, making an allied victory unlikely. People were weary and governments were exhausted everywhere, which probably would have forced a settlement, however imperfect.Instead, U.S. forces troops put the Entente over the top. After which Wilson’s attempt to impose a glorious perpetual peace ended disastrously. At the subsequent conference allied powers cheerfully flouted his famed 14 Points as they sought national aggrandizement. Some observers warned of a potential new war in every provision. Germans resisted what they called the Diktat from the beginning; destabilizing grievances were created when ethnic Germans were strewn about in a variety of newly created Saisonstaaten, or “states for a season,” which ultimately were swallowed by Nazi Germany. Even the winners were dissatisfied. The Belgians and French wanted a tougher peace. The Italians believed they were denied a fair share of the geopolitical loot. French military commander Ferdinand Foch appeared to possess a crystal ball when he said of the Versailles Treaty: “This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.” Twenty years and two months, to be exact, between international delegates signing the treaty and German panzers rolling into Poland.Thankfully there has been no similar large war since World War II ended seventy-four years ago. The existence of nuclear weapons, which increased the cost of big power conflict, undoubtedly is one reason. A stronger will to prevent a bloody recurrence in those nations most affected probably is another reason. Still, conflicts with a million or more casualties ensued: Korea, Vietnam, Nigerian civil war, Bangladesh Liberation War/1971, India-Pakistan, Ethiopian civil war, Afghanistan conflicts, Sudanese civil war, Iran-Iraq, Second Congo War. Major powers—America, Soviet Union, and Washington’s European allies—were involved in several of these conflicts.Nor have Wilsonians disappeared. They have been reincarnated as both Neoconservatives and liberal interventionists. They have enthusiastically urged war, mostly in cases of smaller geopolitical stakes compared to Europe, though some urged military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. Wilson inadvertently created circumstances that resulted in the destruction of huge portions of the globe and slaughter of tens of millions of people. So far, neocons merely engineered the destabilization of the Middle East and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. However, interventionists on both Right and Left remain active, planning new wars likely to have no better consequences.The best way to mark the anniversary of the beginning of World War II would be to learn from it and other catastrophic conflicts which came before. For instance, alliances can deter war but also risk spreading violence. Military action rarely has humanitarian effects. Good intentions do not prevent awful results. Wars are filled with unintended consequences. International social engineering is a daunting task, confronting different cultures, histories, religions, ethnicities, politics, traditions, and more. Blowback is real, a terrible consequence of ill-considered intervention. Washington’s foreign policy consensus is busted, and its practitioners are incompetent.The American republic disappeared long ago, leaving a half-hearted, bungling semi-empire which views the entire world as its sphere of interest. The cause was less World War II than Washington’s decision afterwards to put the country on a permanent war footing, even in peacetime. The Cold War left only bad choices, but that justification for an imperial, militaristic policy disappeared three decades ago. Today’s political leadership has chosen to bury the American republic, leaving Americans less secure at home and abroad.Candidate Donald Trump sounded like he might change the country’s direction. But his policy still is largely formed and administered by the “usual suspects” who populate Washington. Some Democratic presidential candidates appear willing to break with the discredited conventional wisdom, though history offers little confidence in their promises. If not, then eventually America’s disastrous finances will force even the establishment to retrench militarily. Until then, the American people will be stuck with leaders who failed to learn the lessons of the world’s greatest conflict.Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He is the author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire.Image: Reuters

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