#ask the aerial corps

[ask-the-aerial-corps]

So Temeraire, has it ever occured to you to found your own dragon nation?

"Yes."

Welcome to DRACOTOPIA

o0o0o0o0o

Oh wow, how long has it been since our last post? Nearly seven months you say? Well I can say that both mods are in fact alive and well haha. Both of our lives are pretty crazy with us still in school and just other life events, but fear not! We have not forgotten our little ask blog even if we haven’t posted in over half a year 😭

As you may have noticed this response was not the most serious one in the world, trying to keep everything 100% serious and in character has definitely not helped us reach our full creative potential, so with some of our responses we may not try to make it perfect so that we can at least make it something and not leave the ask in our inbox forever simply because we feel like it isn’t perfect. 

Thank you to everyone who stayed with us during our radio silence, I hope in the future we’ll be able to keep up with this blog a little more actively 💜

-Mod Nightie

[gravitycircuit]

Version patch 1.2.0 is out now on Steam! This is accompanied by a hefty sale, 35% off until May 27th! Other storefronts and platforms will follow in due time, we ask for your patience! Artwork in the image above by @teoft. Go give them a follow! Read the patch notes for this release after the break!

WHAT'S NEW?!

Version 1.2.0 introduces new Game Modifiers, that allow you to spice up the game, and provide additional challenge! When starting a new save (or New Game+), after choosing which difficulty mode you want to play on, you can choose up to five modifiers to enable. These modifiers were made based on some player suggestions or feedback.

The modifiers are as follows:

MASTER LEVELS: Remixes the game's levels to provide more challenge for those who have mastered the game's movement.

RUDE ENEMIES: Changes up enemy and boss behavior to make them all, well, ruder. If this is picked in tandem with Hard Mode, bosses have more health.

DOUBLE HAZARDS: Makes the game's hazards (spikes, lava, crushing) deal double damage. Ouch.

SINGLE CREDIT: Levels need to be beaten in a single go from start, and no restarting from checkpoints via the Pause Menu. Death sends you to the Guardian Corps HQ (or beginning of level if you haven't reached that far yet). Can not be enabled with Iron Circuit.

IRON CIRCUIT: No saves until the game has been cleared, and no restarting from checkpoints via the Pause Menu. Death sends you to title screen. Can not be enabled with Single Credit.

FLIP WORLD: Walk on... Ceilings? Who's the joker that asked for this? (Note: doesn't necessarily flip everything)

Game Modifiers become available upon completing the game on any difficulty, or by inputting the following code on File Select screen: LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, BURST! A legend has it that if you beat the game with any of these modifiers enabled (or when "Everyone is There"), you might even see something little extra? Only one way to find out! ...Just make sure Speedrun Mode is disabled!

Of course, this is not all. Below is a list of other things that have been added, tweaked or fixed!

QUALITY OF LIFE ADDITIONS

Added a checkpoint menu in the mission select screen. This allows you to warp to checkpoint in a previously cleared level, as well as toggle any in-level cutscenes to play again (like boss confrontation dialogues). Mission rewards and certain challenges are disabled if this feature is used.

Added an extra toggle in the game's settings, which determines if speedrun mode is enabled by default or not when starting a new save file. If the setting is set to "default", speedrun mode is enabled by default when accessing file select screen. Otherwise, it's off. However, even if the setting is set to "off" or "default", you can manually toggle speedrun mode on/off on the file select screen, like you have been able to do up to this point. The intention is to remove any confusion caused by some players wanting to have the on-screen timer on during normal play (which determined if the speedrun mode was toggled on/off when launching the game).

Added an additional setting for enabling an aiming arrow that appears around Kai, which can help with aiming the hookshot during platforming sections or similar. There are three different settings for its behavior. The aiming arrow is disabled by default.

Added a toggle for adjusting double tap tolerance.

Mission Complete screen now shows the target values for max rank in relevant categories in square brackets (clear time, enemies defeated, damage taken). Rescues, if available for the level, are displayed with the icons as usual.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES/TWEAKS

Made it possible to cancel to divekick (down+attack while mid-air) from air jab (attack while mid-air).

Made it possible to gain sprint speed if the run button is held down, or "inverse" run button behavior is in use, when exiting quick warp portals in cyberspace (Warehouse Area).

Similar to above, certain aerial Armor Paint abilities are refreshed when exiting a quick warp portal.

If Loadout Swap button is assigned to the same button as Accept or Cancel, the Accept and Cancel buttons override the Loadout Swap button on the pause screen (ex: when exiting out of the pause menu with Cancel, the game won't do double input by closing the pause menu, and also swapping loadouts).

Fixed an issue where pressing attack after a wall jump might lock you out, and prevent you from moving back towards the wall. The game was simply treating like you were still in wall jumping state, and as such was applying some forces onto you.

Fixed an issue where crumbling blocks (Ore Mines) may sometimes block the hookshot from going through them when they've been crumbled.

Retracting metal spike blocks (final level) have had their hittable boxes increased in size, making them easier to clear out.

Fixed an issue where Kai did not gain sprint speed if he jumps out of a crouch while run button is held, by releasing the down button roughly on the same frame as the jump input is detected.

BURST TECHNIQUES

Burst Spark's hitbox has been increased to hit a larger area. Does damage ticks slightly faster, duration slightly shorter. Essentially you're stuck in place for a shorter duration (overall duration reduced by ~25 frames, or ~0.42 seconds).

Support Platform has been buffed. Creates three platforms to cover a wider area, the platforms take few frames longer to start falling, side platforms do slightly less damage than the main one. You can still perform the original version by holding the Burst button during the startup.

Cycle Kick can now be cancelled with a jump or hookshot at any point. Can gain sprint speed out of it if run button is held down.

ARMOR PAINTS

Hot-headed Red Armor Paint's Float Beam now does its damage ticks faster. How it affects boss invulnerability times has been adjusted.

Heavy Orange Armor Paint now grants a slight damage boost for hookshot on top of its other effects.

Scheming Pink Armor Paint can now be set to activate by pressing and holding jump while holding up, or double tapping jump while holding up. The setting can be found in the controls menu. Shop description changes to match the selected setting.

Fixed an issue where the "powered up" state of certain Burst Techniques (Heavenly Piledrive, Surface Render, Catch Interrupt) were not handled correctly if they whiffed, or Kai got struck by hazards, when using the ability of a certain Armor Paint. Similar fix was applied for Powered Walker's Self-Destruct ability (Ore Mines).

ENEMIES

Contact damage has been removed from Flip Panel Turret enemies (City Center).

Crystal Floater enemies' contact damage has been removed (Cyberspace).

Fixed an edge-case game crash involving the Battie enemies. It was unlikely to happen, but there was some potential for it.

Fixed an issue where the Virus Zombie and Turret Zombie enemies had their usual behavior code running when they were grabbed by the player (normally, any normal behavior is paused on grabbed objects). This led to some weird interactions at times.

BOSSES

Trace's (Patch Circuit) Burst Technique can now hit her own minions. This is so to prevent situations where her minions might cause undodgeable damage.

Fixed an issue with Ray (Optic Circuit), where after a certain action he always jumped towards the wrong direction from what was intended.

Fixed an issue where Crash (Break Circuit), in rare circumstances, might wind up defeating themselves due to some of the larger falling blocks.

Fixed a minor visual error where certain bosses' mugshots in their lifebars got mirrored on the horizontal axis during their Burst Technique activations.

Fixed Crash's (Break Circuit) mugshot to have a "weak flinch" animation during his boss fight. He can now properly feel pain.

And a few [SPOILER] worthy changes...

[SPOILER] Fixed a phantom hitbox from one of the later game bosses, where they grabbed an object off of the floor, and threw it. During this throwing animation, the boss would have a hitbox beneath them for one frame, that could hit the player if the boss jumped before the throw.

[SPOILER] During the Final Battle, if you have gotten to a certain phase, the transition to the next happens much faster. This behavior happens by default on Speedrun Mode. If you hold down the run button before the transition were to occur, the transition plays normally without any skips.

[SPOILER] During Final Battle, if you have gotten to a certain phase, on subsequent attempts the game will drop little health before the transition described above occurs. You know you'll be receiving the health drop if your opponent is different color from before. This behavior only occurs if you are playing on Easy or Normal Mode. Hard Mode won't see this extra drop. The intention for this change is to make the Final Battle little easier for first time players, by giving them a little token of encouragement on subsequent attempts at the final portions of the game, while retaining the challenge of clearing the encounter in one go the same as before.

LEVEL ADJUSTMENTS

Adjusted the clear time goal for the main eight levels from 5min45s to flat 6 minutes for max rank.

The final level in the game has had its target clear time increased from 6 minutes to 7 minutes for max rank.

Adjusted the enemies killed goal count from 45 to 40 for the first two of final levels.

Adjusted certain enemy positions in a couple of levels to make them a bit less messy or rude.

In the Steelworks level, adjusted geometry to remove a single tile gap that was possible to squeeze into with Support Platform Burst Technique.

The final level of the game has had its level layouts slightly touched on the blue floor.

Am I hearing things in Cyberspace (Warehouse Area)?

Note: When playing levels with the Master Levels modifier (or Easy Mode), target clear times are increased by one minute. Playing with Rude Enemies modifier adds another extra minute. This is to account for the more difficult platforming, and giving players more leeway during boss fights if playing with self-imposed minimalist challenge in mind.

GENERAL BUG FIXES

Fixed Medley's (Wave Circuit, City Center) concert billboard's despawn and respawn radiuses, so it doesn't disappear if you weave back-and-forth between the screens.

Fixed a minor edge-case oversight in Warehouse Area, where in a certain portion of the level, you weren't able to drop from a ledge-grab-jab with the 'up' button, like you are supposed to. Had to press 'down', like you generally have to in all other instances.

Fixed a little oversight where during Bit's (Shift Circuit) Burst Technique, if you position yourself in certain ways, one or two of the screen slashes may not render because they're deemed "off-screen" based on their starting positions.

Fixed a scenario where if Kai is using a certain Armor Paint to carry an object, and Kai then picks an end-of-level item, releasing the hookshot button to throw the object may softlock the game entirely.

Fixed an issue where if Hardware Barrier Burst Technique was active at the same time as Emergency Accumulator Booster Chip, taking a hit would trigger both at once.

Changed the order in which certain damage calculations are applied, to fix an issue with Underflow Guard (Booster Chip). Underflow Guard is supposed to prevent you from going below 1 health if you had 2 or more, but if Function Overload (Burst Technique) is active, the damage becomes fatal anyway (because Function Overload multiplied the incoming damage after Underflow Guard's reduction by 1.2, and rounded up, meaning at low enough health any damage would bypass Underflow Guard).

Fixed an oversight where if player took damage from hazards (spikes, lava, crushing), this was not reflected in the damage number reported on the Mission Complete screen.

Fixed an oversight where when Kai grabs a stunned (gray blinking) enemy he is standing next to, the enemy may become overkilled (red blinking) from the grab action itself. This means that upon throwing the grabbed enemy it would not do any damage to other objects, due to overkilled enemies becoming intangible.

LOCALIZATION

Fixed one minor color tag issue in some dialogue in Japanese localization.

Fixed some missing text strings in Chinese (traditional) localization.

Fixed some text overflow issues in a text box in Chinese localizations.

MISC

Applied a fix that should prevent any flickering issues while streaming the game through Discord.

Wrote additional code to better ensure that, if in the event that the file that locally tracks player's challenges progress (ie. "Pat's Challenges") has through whatever means become corrupted, the game treats that as though starting from scratch. This prevents the game from crashing during startup.

Made the game crash screen little more readable with a darker blue background, as well as deploying an additional support Pat for your comfort (PC versions only).

Improved the code efficiency of various objects (ex: gray breakable crates, explosive barrels, goop dispensers, and several others). These changes help with general performance on lower-end hardware.

...And maybe some few smaller things. This has been a big patch (bigger than we anticipated), so might have forgotten to list a thing or two!

[crazycurly-77]

Quantico in Danger - pt. 1

Spellbound and worried to no end you all stood in front of the screen and watched the reports concerning the big fire because of the heat at the Marine corps base in Quantico. 

You observed that the wind was constantly changing so that the fire threatened to get out of control. 

“The fire must be prevented from spreading any further” you mumbled. 

Tim looked at you with a frown and spoke up “sure, but how should that be possible? They already do what they can.”

Staring at him you had an idea “there is a possibility” and you grinned. 

“That's it! Thanks, Tim!” you hugged him tightly and kissed him briefly on the cheek. 

Then you grabbed your mobile and called the fire fighters

“This is Y/N Y/L/N and I'm a pilot. We have two CL-215 Firefighting Aircrafts, do you need help?”

“Yeah, the wind changes constantly so the fire grows. There are tanks with gasoline and ammunition storages. We need to protect them from the fire or the whole camp will blow up.”

“Hang in there, we're coming.” You answered hurriedly and hung up. 

The whole team stood there stunned and observed what you were doing. 

You ignored them and called your colleagues on the airfield next. 

“Ray here” the other pilot of the second fire fighting airplane answered the phone. Exactly the man you wanted to speak to. 

“Hi, this is Y/N. You heard of the big fire in Quantico?” 

“Yes” 

“Good. We will fly there to help. So get the two CL-215s ready for take-off, refuel one manually, we don’t have time to take on water. I’ll fly ahead with the first plane. In the meantime, you can take on water with the second plane and come to help.”

“Okay, will do.”

With that you both hung up. 

Ray got to work and you turned around to meet the worried glances of the team. 

You felt with them and your heart flew out to them, but you had to go. 

“What are you up to?” Gibbs asked with a frown.

You sighed “the fire is spreading quickly and it needs to be stopped before it reaches the tanks with the gasoline.”

“Yes,” he said, but it sounded questioningly and absolutely worried. He was starting to get an uneasy feeling and he didn't like it one bit. 

“I called the chief of the fire fighters and he said the wind is constantly changing. So they are fighting a nearly lost cause. Aerial support can help stop the flames.” You continued. 

“Good” he stated, starting to suspect what you were getting at based on your phone call. His blood started to run cold out of fear for you. 

“I have to do it. I simply have to, Gibbs. I'm one of the few people who can fly these aircrafts.” you argumented. 

He huffed out, shaking his head. Walking towards you he grabbed your upper arms and spoke softly “you know what you are risking?”

You simply stood there, looked at him and nodded. 

He didn't give in and continued, intensifying his argumentation worriedly “you risk everything. You could be blown up by an explosion and crash because of it.”

“Yes, I know. We always have this risk” you stated, breaking free from his grasp. 

He shook his head, grabbed your hand and pulled you to the elevator, ordering “come with me.”

As soon as the elevator moved for two seconds with you both standing inside, he pulled the emergency switch and the cabin came to an abrupt stop. 

The stopping caused the metal box to shake and you landed in the arms of Gibbs, who held you tight to his chest wrapping his arms around you and pulling you to him, reveling in the feeling of your body against his. 

Your cheeks began to burn out of embarrassment, so you tried to get a little bit away from him. But he still held you close and didn't want to let you go. 

Beneath your palm on his chest, you felt his heart beating just as fast as yours. 

He couldn't help himself, but kissed you briefly right on your lips and then said 

“As a valuable member of the team, I cannot lose you.” 

Then he kissed you once again, but with more passion.

Breaking the kiss once more he whispered, winking at you “That's for encouragement to come back to us and most importantly to come back to me. And then we'll talk about both of us.” 

He paused and then continued “And if you can kiss Tim, then I can kiss you” he said grinning sneakily. 

“But I…” you began, but were stopped by his lips which were pressed on yours again. 

Breaking the kiss after a few moments he whispered “no buts.”

“So you kiss every agent of your team to encourage them to take care before a mission?” you mused smiling. 

He laughed “no. Only the ones I'm in love with.”

You were speechless. 

He leaned his forehead on yours and you both savored the feeling of the other. Both your hearts were racing and you were feeling lightheaded because of all those intense feelings you felt. 

Eventually he mumbled “I only ask you one thing: take care of yourself”. 

You tried to answer, but he softly laid his index finger on your lips. 

“Don't say anything. We’ll talk when you get back.”

You shared a sweet and tender kiss full of promises for the future, then you broke away from each other and Gibbs started the elevator again.

(To be continued...in Chapter 2)

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Here you will find the other chapter of this story and the other stories I've written to date.

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Tags: @ilovemark1951, @hobby27

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[usafphantom2]

AC-130 Gunship’s Laser Weapon Cancelled, 105mm Howitzer May Be Removed

The AC-130J was set to get the first operational airborne laser weapon, but that plan is over as the gunship changes to ensure its relevance.

Joseph TrevithickPUBLISHED Mar 19, 2024 1:56 PM EDT

The US Air Force no longer plans to flight test a laser directed energy weapon on an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship.

USAF

The U.S. Air Force has scrapped plans to flight test an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship armed with a laser directed energy weapon after years of delays. The Airborne High Energy Laser program for the AC-130J had for a time looked set to become the U.S. military's first operational aerial laser directed weapon. This all also comes amid a review of the AC-130J's current and future planned capabilities, which could see the gunships lose their 105mm howitzers, as part of a broader shift away from counter-insurgency operations to planning for a high-end fight.

Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) confirmed that there are no longer plans to test the prototype Airborne High Energy Laser (AHEL) system on an AC-130J and provided other details about the current state of the program to The War Zone earlier today.

"After accomplishing significant end-to-end high power operation in an open-air ground test, the AHEL solid state laser system experienced technical challenges," an AFSOC spokesperson said in a statement. "These challenges delayed integration onto [the] designated AC-130J Block 20 aircraft past the available integration and flight test window."

One past US Air Force rendering of an AC-130 with a laser directed energy weapon. USAF

The original hope was flight testing of an AC-130J with the AHEL system would take place sometime in the 2021 Fiscal Year, but this schedule was repeatedly pushed back. In November 2023, AFSOC told The War Zone that a laser-armed Ghostrider was set to take to the skies in January of this year, something that clearly did not occur.

Lockheed Martin received the initial contract in 2019 to supply the AHEL's laser source for the system and lead the effort to integrate the system onto an AC-130J. The complete AHEL system also includes a beam director and other components.

A now-dated US Special Operations Command briefing slide discussing the AHEL program and the components of the weapon system itself. SOCOM

"As a result, the program was re-focused on ground testing to improve operations and reliability to posture for a successful hand off for use by other agencies," the statement added.

This is all further confirmed by the Pentagon's 2025 Fiscal Year budget request, which was rolled out last week, and does not ask for any new funding for AHEL. Official budget documents say this is because the program is expected to close out in the 2024 Fiscal Year.

What "other agencies" might now be in line to benefit from the AHEL program's work and the exact status of the 60-kilowatt class laser directed energy weapon system developed under the program are unclear. AFSOC directed further questions to U.S. Special Operations Command, which The War Zone has now reached out to for more information.

The U.S. Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWC Dahlgren) had already been deeply involved in the AHEL program. The Navy has been very active in the development and fielding of various types of shipboard directed energy weapons, including another 60-kilowatt class laser directed energy weapon called the High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS. Lockheed Martin is also the prime contractor for that system.

The US Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble pierside in San Diego in July 2022. The ship's HELIOS directed energy weapon system can be seen on a platform immediately in front of the main superstructure. USN

The U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps have also been working to develop and field different types of air and ground-based directed energy weapons.

The Air Force has been working on at least one other aerial laser directed energy weapon in recent years, under the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program. The SHiELD effort was centered around a podded system for tactical jets ostensibly intended to help defend against incoming missiles, though it would have the ability to engage other target sets. In the past, the stated goal was to begin flight testing of the SHiELD pod in 2025, but its current status is unclear.

A rendering of a US Air Force F-16C Viper fighter with a podded laser directed energy weapon. Lockheed Martin

The Air Force is pursuing other directed energy weapon programs, including for base defense use on the ground. Additional work is understood to be going on in the classified realm, including efforts tied to the larger Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative.

For the Air Force's current fleet of 30 AC-130Js, the end of the AHEL program comes amid larger questions about the future of Ghostrider's armament package and other current and future capabilities. There are growing signs that the Ghostriders are set to lose their 105mm howitzers as part of this reassessment of the aircraft's capabilities.

"Initiate engineering analysis and development to remove the aft weapon system (105mm Gun), refit the aft section, and optimize crew workload in support of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) crew reduction initiatives," is the plan for the AC-130Js in the 2024 Fiscal Year, according to the Pentagon's latest budget request. The War Zone has reached out to AFSOC for further clarification.

The Air Force originally planned not to include a 105mm howitzer in the armament package for the AC-130J, which was originally focused more on the employment of precision-guided missiles and bombs than guns at all. The service subsequently changed course and had more recently been in the process of integrating improved howitzers onto the Ghostriders. That work came to a halt last year after the start of the capability review. As of last November, only 17 of the 30 AC-130Js had gotten this upgrade.

AFSOC has been taking this new look at the Ghostrider's current and future planned capabilities in large part due to discussions about how AC-130Js might contribute to future high-end conflicts, especially one in the Pacific against China. AC-130Js, which are today primarily tasked with providing very close support to special operations forces on the ground, currently operate almost exclusively in permissive and semi-permissive environments and at night.

AHEL has been presented in the past as being ideally suited to supporting lower-intensity counter-insurgency-type missions.

"Without the slightest bang, whoosh, thump, explosion, or even aircraft engine hum, four key targets [an electrical transformer, the engine of a pick-up truck, communication equipment, and a parked drone,] are permanently disabled," now-retired Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, then head of AFSOC, said in a 2017 interview with National Defense magazine, describing a notional mission for a laser-armed AC-130. "The enemy has no communications, no escape vehicle, no electrical power, and no retaliatory intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. Minutes later, the team emerges from the compound, terrorist mastermind in hand. A successful raid."

In line with all this, the Air Force is also looking to add a new active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar to these gunships, "allowing the platform to detect, target, identify, and engage across a spectrum of threats at longer ranges and react with greater precision," according to Pentagon budget documents. You can read more about the benefits of adding an AESA to the AC-130J here.

Other specialized C-130 variants belonging to AFSOC have been heavily involved in the testing of a palletized weapon system called Rapid Dragon. Rapid Dragon offers a way to readily transform existing cargo aircraft into launch platforms for AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) cruise missiles and other stand-off munitions. SOCOM has previously expressed interest in the past in integrating precision-guided munitions with longer reach onto the AC-130, in part to help keep those aircraft away from increasingly capable enemy air defenses. A return to a focus on precision-guided munition employment when it comes to the Ghostriders could be important for ensuring their continued operational relevance.

Altogether, the exact mix of capabilities found on the AC-130Js looks set to significantly evolve in the near term. However, a laser directed energy weapon is no longer on the horizon for the Ghostriders.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

@warzonewire via X

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Anything from the Temeraire or Torchwood sections of the RoL Crossovers?

So the concept behind the Temeraire crossover that I've been playing around with is still a bit loose, but the general idea is that some practitioners serve in the aerial corps because dragons And magic is a very fun concept, although I've yet to decide if Nightingale is the last active wizard or not. (Tbh he probably is, I just haven't figured out what happened to the rest of them yet.) And, as this snippet would suggest, Molly is a dragon:

Just as Temeraire was about to seize the cow of his choice, a small black and white dragon appeared out of nowhere and stole it out from underneath him in a gliding swoop. She sailed off down the valley with her ill-gotten prize, moving as quickly and as silently as she had arrived.  “Oh!” exclaimed Temeraire, outraged. “Oh! Laurence, that dragon stole my cow!” He was bristling, backwinging as if he was about to chase after her. Laurence tried to reassure him.  “There are plenty of other cows, my dear,” he called.  “Yes, but that one was mine.” Despite Laurence's best efforts, he pursued the smaller dragon down the valley. Perhaps knowing she would be outmatched on speed, the little black and white creature tried manoeuvring and looped back to fly over the heads of the onlookers and land in the courtyard. She dropped her now-dead prize on the ground and stood over it, hissing viciously in Temeraire’s direction and lashing out occasionally with an unusually long and barbed tongue.  “There is no reason for you to be hissing at me,” said Temeraire, indignantly, as he came in to land in the courtyard also. “You are the one who is stealing.” The small dragon kept hissing, shifting position to better guard the carcass, clearly determined not to give it up.  “It’s that damned feral again,” exclaimed Barclay. “Someone send for Nightingale, he's the only one who can talk any sense into her.”

And, since I also enjoy the Torchwood stuff, here's a bit with Nightingale and Jack after the episode 'Captain Jack Harkness' that's also my best attempt at imitating the narration style in the short story 'Miroslav's Fabulous Hand':

“You should have seen it, Thomas,” says Jack. “It was beautiful.” It is 2007, and I am sitting in the atrium of the Folly, in one of the overstuffed green leather armchairs. Across from me, also in an armchair, sits a handsome, square-jawed man with spiky brown hair and clear blue eyes. He wears a light blue dress shirt, grey braces and pleated dark grey trousers in a 1940s style. The Second World War RAF great coat that he arrived in is currently hanging on the coat rack by the door, hung there by Molly. His name, or at least the one that he chooses to go by, is Captain Jack Harkness, and he looks to be in his 40s. Like me, he is much older than that. “The 1940s, dancing and singing and living,  and we stepped right into it,” Jack continues. “A dance hall full of soldiers, shining out right in the middle of the Cardiff Blitz.” His gaze is far away, lost in the memory. “It must have been quite something,” I say.  “It was,” he says. “They were.” A long moment’s pause, and then he sighs. “He was.” “Someone you met?” I ask, gently. I know the grief that I can see behind his eyes. Jack nods. “It was him, Thomas. The original Captain Jack Harkness.” I feel my eyebrows rise involuntarily. “The man whose identity you -” I can’t think of a more tactful word before Jack completes the sentence for me. “That I stole, yeah. Way back when I first visited 1941. The man whose name I’ve been using for a hundred and [number] years. Of all the dance halls in all of history, I walk into his.”

[cora626]

What was in my Downtown and Where can you find it?

I received a sort of ask/WCIF on this post so here is the answer.

Aerial View to provide an idea for placement.

Hood Decor is form here. (Megapolis P1, P2. & AD INC. Deco Buildings.)

Simple Decor Apt. Bldg

Bonehilda Statue

Downtown City Condos

Deh’Javu Modern Art Museum

Sim Center North

Lucky Shack Card & Drink

Swift N Thrift Mini Mart

Cold Issue Clothing

Hans' Trap Door Corp

Bernard’s Botanical Dining

P.U.R.E

Sims Center South

Downtown Inner City Park

Comandgo Emporium

Fresh Rush Grocery

Downtown Area High School

SIMKEA

GilsCarbo Auto

Simoleon General

Carr Family Appliances

107 Custer Blvd

36-38 Greaves Avenue

205 Custer Blvd

105 Custer Blvd

103 Custer Blvd

All 4 Mendoza Lane Properties

Shillibeer RV Park

The Grimy Fork

Londoste

Downtown Public Library

Similar Sights Sculpture Park

House of Fallen Leaves

Speedy's Fast Lanes Bowling

SimBowl Lanes is now Rapid Racers Roller Rink

Garden Center

Leaf & Bean Cafe

Garden at Home

Ummmm....I think that is all. The rest of the lots in downtown have been left untouched for now. I will update as I create or find new lots.

[boltlightning]

i was gonna make a long post of books i read this year that i would recommend, but it was a thinly veiled excuse to ask people to read two books in particular. so here are those two books:

you should read his majesty's dragon by naomi novik. will laurence is a navy captain in napoleonic england, and he stumbles upon a dragon egg capturing a french ship, which hatches into his dragon friend, temeraire. he joins the aerial corps, raises his son, and learns what it means to fight a war from a different perspective.

this book (and the whole series) has a silly premise, but it fully understands the consequences of that. the dragons aren't just for show. novik has considered what it means to have sentient, thinking, gigantic beasts in society, especially in war, and doesn't shy away from the ugly or technical aspects of what that entails. it's heartwarming and charming and exhaustively detailed. there's nine books but this is the first and works well on its own. you should read this book.

you should also read notes from the burning age by claire north. it follows the scribe monk ven through a post-apocalyptic world, where gods of nature reclaimed the earth in a cataclysm, and humanity is trying its best not to repeat those events and falling into war along the way.

this book is not scary, but it's haunting. the character voices are so sharp and poignant. it's about data storage as much as it is propaganda. and between the spy antics it has a lot to say about what makes humans human. i may have forgotten some of the finer points of the plot but i think about the way this book made me feel all the time. you should read this book.

(for bonus points: you should read ithaca, also by claire north, if you like classics at all. extremely good. i haven't read the sequels yet but im excited to. you should read this book.)

thank you. have a good year. i love you

[bihanspookies]

I’ll probably never do anything for them since I don’t really have them fleshed out but I wanted to post my 2 demon slayer oc’s since I caught up with the latest season and I’m living in fear for the movies

Making two sep posts since there’s minor spoilers for Infinity Castle in Azusa’s ⬇️

Name: Azusa

Age: 22

Height: 5’8

Breathing Technique: I originally had her as the Lotus Hashira but then I read the manga and found out about Kanae and went OOP gotta change it lmao. I thought about her being a Crystal Hashira, derived/trained from Gyomei but I never fully decided.

Personality: She’s very calm, cool and collected, kinda like the mediator and has a “mom” presence about her. Whenever inosuke was being Chaotic, she’d walk over, place her hand on his head and go “Now, now, let’s calm down a little hm?”

And as much as inosuke wants to be like 🤬🤬🤬, she has this calming presence around so he grumbles and is like “I’ll try my best I GUESS.”

History: im 100% Just copying and pasting with minor edits what i sent to my friend bc i don’t want to write it properly lmao.

So her family and the Wisteria estate were close friends. When she was 10 her family was killed by demons but she survived and the Wisteria family took her in bc: Friendship™️ and they had a son who she was really close to and they were best friends and whatnot.

Growing up he always said he wanted to become a Hashira bc that’s who his family protects and he wants to honor them, so it was his ultimate dream. And when she was 16 the son admitted to being in love with her but she didn’t reciprocate. So even though he was hurt, he accepted her decision and went off by himself at night to have some alone time.

W E L L He dies By demons And Azusa blames herself bc she tells herself that if she just told him she loved him back then he wouldn’t have gone off on his own and gotten killed. Which is one of the reasons she went off to become a Hashira so she could protect her loved ones and also fulfill the son’s dream . So she goes off, joins demon corps And it’s all good and dandy.

She’s super focused on achieving Hashira status And then she meets: Rengoku And at first she was friendly with him, ya know being civil but then he kept being extra nice to her and just treating her so sweet etc etc etc that she could not help but fall in love with him even tho she was scared bc she’s just reminded of The Son.

They eventually start “dating” but in secret and the only person who’s aware of it is Ubuyashiki.

First Kiss: Their whole relationship, they’re basically dating without actually saying it. One night they’re alone and Rengoku just suddenly asks “my love, will you do me the honor of being mine?”

And Azusa just looks at him and goes “if you’re calling me “my love” then you already know the answer. I’m already yours.”

And then she gently grabs his face and gives him a Kiss™️

Mugen Train Arc: I decided that Azusa is not there on the train but back at home. I also decided that they were engaged and her ring is on her finger while Rengoku’s is a necklace. Rengoku tells Tanjiro to tell his wife that even though they weren’t officially married, it felt like they were every second they spent together. Tanjiro doesn’t understand at first but then Rengoku pulls out his necklace and he recognizes it as the same ring on Azusa’s hand.

Very much movie scene in my head when I pictured this but when the other Hashira find out about Rengoku’s death, Azusa’s crow is the one to come tell her. You never fully see her face, just her walking with the camera stopping right under her eyes or an aerial view from behind as her crow flies next to her head. She gets the news and clutches her ring to her chest.

Infinity Castle Arc: Tanjiro and Giyu are the ones that go and fight Akaza and Azusa is there too. So when Akaza sees her he’s like “and who might you be?”. And she’s staring at him and says “my name is Azusa Rengoku, you killed my husband”

She’s about to just go straight in and murk but then this other demon shows up like “no no sister, you gotta go through me first”. So Azusa ends up fighting that demon while tanjiro and giyu fight Akaza.

But long story short the demon incapacitates her and is all “I think you’d make a good edition to the team, let’s see how you handle killing your teammates” and then forces her to drink muzans blood, turning her into a demon. She’s struggling to not fight tanjiro and the others but either he or someone else has to kill her bc it's too much to fight her/keep her away while also fighting Akaza.

They successfully kill her but right before she dies she sees Rengoku above her and holding his hand out for her to take.

[who-is-muses]

Continued | @1rstflight

"jealous it wasn't you who did it this time, sinestro?" he huffs. "get in line, will you?"

the sarcasm in his tone is palpable as jordan braces against the nearest surface, an arm limp against the construct cast woven from will's color, its corresponding side burning like fire in what he assumes to be multiple fractures. he's had just enough of them before that he can recognize it, which is, by all means, a worrisome way of measuring injury, but it's all hal has at hand right now. for all his ring isn't dead, any lantern worth their salt knows exactly how difficult it is to keep multiple constructs through injury and right now, his main priority is to fix what is a recon mission gone increasingly wrong.

first, getting caught by enemy fire (and narrowly avoiding worse fate than fractures with his force shield to lessen the impact of his fall right into orbit and, well, the ground) while scouting space, now getting found by thaal sinestro of all people. his former mentor, current nemesis, all around menace. most days, if they met, hal would be certain he could take any fight, any insult, but right now, flying solo, with little chance of reinforcement or outmaneuvering someone that, on a good day, is on his level? it's grim.

if sinestro wants a fight right now, the odds are against him.

he knows.

it doesn't lessen the edge of his tongue any.

a distraction. he needs a distraction from the pain and the pressing issues at hand as he tries to focus enough to send a silent distress signal to the corps. banter seems like the best option, if perhaps not the smartest."what are you even doing in this sector, anyway? scheming? in cahoots with the pirates that got me here in first place? bit of a low blow even for your standards, pal."

The dimwitted, artless jab makes Thaal's blood boil- in a way beyond the norm he doesn't care to think on- but brushes it off with a slight twitch of his lip. As always, Hal has offered up a plethora of options for rebuttal, and while it may be briefly rewarding to twist the metaphorical knife in his quite literal wound, he doesn’t desire a fight.

Not with him, at least. Not in this moment.

"You truly are a moron to think such prosaic animals could have anything of interest to me." Ask all that he may, he isn't owed an explanation; Thaal is not some commonplace criminal to be interrogated.

A distant thoom far overhead splits Thaal's attention, eyes remaining fixed on the man in front of him while his ears pin back slightly. The sound of atmospheric breach isn't at all surprising, but it still puts him on even higher alert. Jordan crashing into his enterprise is problem enough- any further interferences are strictly out of the question.

Dimming his own uniform's glow with a thought, Thaal summons a construct tendril to wrap around Hal's upper arm- the uninjured one, how polite- and yank him along back into the dense foliage the Korugaran had first emerged from. Making sure he's slingshot into an almost comically plush looking shrub, dampening both the sound of impact and (hopefully) Hal's inevitable complaints. Just to be certain, the tendril morphs into a solid strip of light across that insufferable mouth, extending to hook around his ears and under his chin. Taking advantage of the momentary stillness- it's only a matter of time before it's broken again- Thaal listens close for any disturbances in the planet’s natural soundscape and quickly picks out the distant, aerial sound of an engine. But after only a couple beats, it fortunately begins to fade until inaudible.

They have a general idea of where Hal crashed, but nothing to track emotional energy. Ideally, the simpletons will lead themselves on a 'wild goose chase' as it were, giving him ample time to plot this sizeable detour.

Satisfied with this conclusion, Thaal's shoulders loosen minutely, the construct disappearing entirely with a disparaging tut from its source.

"Pirates." He turns to face Hal- stopping halfway through the motion for less than a microsecond- with a frown that does nothing to lessen his palpable smugness. "Really, of all the opponents to fall to. What was that about 'low blows?'"

There is no will strong enough in the multiverse to resist a little dig at that arrogant Earthman. But the ideas of what he'll do to said pirates percolating in the back of his mind are much more interesting at present.

[mariacallous]

Something extraordinary happened in Moscow on May 30: In broad daylight, the city was attacked by a swarm of drones—anywhere from five to 25 or more, depending on the Russian source. It was not a symbolic gesture, like the single, small drone that hit the flagpole on top of the Kremlin palace containing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office, but several strikes in different parts of the capital. None of the drones exploded—as Kommersant reported, they were meant for unspecified targets but fell on residential buildings after being either shot down or electronically jammed. It was the first time Moscow had been hit by an aerial attack since it was bombed by the German Luftwaffe in 1941.

Unfortunately for Russians, it was only the first humiliating incident in a long week filled with many more. By the next day, the attack all but disappeared from the Russian state media’s headlines, and Moscow carried on as if nothing had happened. Residents grumbled about malfunctioning taxi apps because GPS services had been switched off in an attempt to disorient any further drone swarms. Local news outlets quickly moved on to reviews of the latest rooftop restaurant openings, with a few acerbic commentators asking if congregating on a top-floor deck makes you an even easier target.

Then it got even more disturbing from the Russian perspective—and downright bizarre. Two groups calling themselves the Russian Freedom Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps—and claiming to consist of Russians fighting to liberate Russia from the Putin regime—crossed the border from northern Ukraine into Russia’s Belgorod region. At several spots along the border, the fighters encountered weak resistance and took over villages, as most Russian army units long ago abandoned the northern border areas for eastern and southern Ukraine. There, the bulk of the Russian army—or what’s left of it—now awaits the main thrust of Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive.

One of the ostensibly Russian militias briefly took over a border village, captured some Russian conscripts, and invited Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov to a prisoner exchange. Surprisingly, he agreed—but then failed to comply. Shebekino, a Russian town about 5 miles from the border with a prewar population of almost 40,000, has been cordoned off and is being hastily evacuated, with locals complaining bitterly about Moscow’s indifference to their plight.

Kyiv is cheekily claiming it has no control over the Russian guerillas, mirroring the claims that Russia itself made about the groups of armed men who took over Ukraine’s Donbas region in the spring of 2014. To add insult to injury, Ukrainian Twitter users promptly proclaimed the “Bilhorod People’s Republic”—using the Ukrainian spelling for Belgorod. Some of them joked that more than 100 percent of the region’s Russian residents had already voted in a referendum for the republic’s creation, parodying Russia’s establishment of its two illegal puppet states in the Donbas. Ukrainian hackers broke into several local networks and broadcast a fake announcement by a poorly imitated Putin, announcing an evacuation, a military mobilization, and the imposition of martial law in Belgorod and other Russian border regions. Meanwhile, the two groups of fighters released a stream of videos showing them inside Russia and promising Russians they would be liberated from the Putinists.

Combined with the Moscow drone attack, it’s now clear that Russia’s war has come home to roost, with Russian forces seemingly unable to occupy Ukraine and defend Russia at the same time. The incidents come at a time of heightened anxiety for Russia, as its offensive in the Donbas has stalled and Ukraine has begun a series of probing attacks in the east and south while shelling Russian targets behind the lines using new, longer-range Western missiles. The Ukrainians have also been stepping up their drone attacks on oil refineries, airfields, and other critical sites deep inside Russia.

And the Russians seem to be unraveling. Exhibit A is the stunning escalation of the bitter conflict between Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Defense Ministry. On Sunday, Prigozhin published a video showing a Russian army lieutenant colonel—commander of the 72nd mechanized brigade in eastern Ukraine—who had been captured and interrogated by Wagner mercenaries. On camera, the commander confesses to having ordered his troops to fire on a Wagner unit. Russians firing on each other, private mercenaries capturing a high-ranking officer of their own country’s army—it all begins to feel a bit like a disintegrating state.

Even if the Moscow drone attacks and cross-border incursions do not have much of an impact on the general course of the war, their psychological effect on Russia has been devastating. The mood on the propaganda talk shows on state television, which usually veers between cheerily patriotic and fully genocidal, has lately been tilting toward defeatism. On One’s Own Truth, a daily talk show on Kremlin-controlled NTV, RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan invoked the specter of 1917, when the Imperial Russian Army was routed by the Germans and Austrians in World War I, soldiers rebelled, and the regime collapsed. At a public forum on June 1, a high-profile parliament member of Putin’s United Russia party, Konstantin Zatulin, cast doubts on the war’s progress with unusual candor, calling its goals “unrealistic.” His party promptly announced it was investigating his remarks for possible censure.

Amid the panic, some members of Russia’s extreme nationalist right are no longer content heaping vicious abuse on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, and other top brass. Now, they have begun to directly attack Putin for his supposed indecision. Igor “Strelkov” Girkin, a former mercenary linked to the Russian security services, who was convicted in absentia for war crimes by a Dutch court, has been mocking Putin for his lack of leadership on a daily basis to his audience of more than 800,000 Telegram channel subscribers. The Angry Patriots Club, a militant ultranationalist group co-founded by Girkin, is reportedly under investigation for “discrediting the military” under a law introduced in March 2022 to silence and outlaw any remaining independent voices. The Russian authorities are in a bind: If they don’t prosecute the most vocal critics of the Russian leadership, it will be seen as weakness and could pave the way for more unfiltered discontent. But if they do, they risk sparking further anger from the right-wing nationalists, who are even more invested in the war than the Kremlin itself. This comes at a time when paramilitaries such as Wagner are already in protracted conflict with other military factions and openly defying Russia’s top command.

Where is Putin as Russians unravel? On the day of the Moscow drone attack, he first went silent. He gave no emergency address to the nation, and only mentioned the attack much later in the day in a hastily staged interview on the sidelines of a creative industries convention he was attending. True to form, he spent almost seven minutes ranting distractedly about civilizational clashes, NATO encroachment, and his usual pet peeves, only briefly mentioning the actual drone attack by praising the efforts by Moscow’s air defense to repel it. The next day, as Belgorod district residents waited in vain for the nation’s leader to soothe their panic, Putin rambled incoherently in response to questions about his sleep patterns and the Russian Santa Claus at a virtual meeting with families. Neither he nor Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov—hated by the pro-war zealots for his evasiveness—has commented with substance on any of the week’s most notable developments on the front lines.

In Putin’s narrative of the war that Russians are not allowed to call a war, there is no room for setbacks. That narrative never included the possibilities of the war lasting this long, Ukraine returning to the offensive, drones attacking Moscow, and Russian fighters claiming to liberate Russian territory. In an unprecedented crisis of Putin’s own creation, his grip appears to be unraveling.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 🔞☠️ 🚨 Three martyrs arrive at Al-Qaim hospital in western Iraq after U.S. "retaliatory" strikes against "IRGC"-backed militias. The U.S. says it launched strikes against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria.]

🇺����⚔️🇮🇷 🛩️🚀💥 🚨

💥U.S. MILITARY LAUNCHES WAVE OF STRIKES AGAINST IRGC TARGETS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA💥

The United States Armed Forces launched a wave of "retaliatory" strikes against supposed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iraq and Syria Friday after previously blaming Iran for the recent deaths of three American soldiers by Shia militias in Iraq and Syria.

Although many of these groups receive funding and purchase arms from Iran, the White House has yet to produce evidence that any these Militias, such as Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, take literal orders from Iran, or that Iran even knew anything about the attacks on American bases.

Iran, for its part, denies involvement in the drone strikes that killed three U.S. soldiers on the border of Jordan and Syria, and denies knowing about it in advance.

Still, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) released a statement on the social media platform X, announcing that U.S. had "conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups."

U.S. forces launched strikes against "85 targets" in Iraq and Syria, utilizing "numerous aircraft," including long-range bombers "flown from the United States."

According to CENTCOM, the attacked also used "125 precise munitions" striking "command and control operation centers, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities" belonging to Militia groups "and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated the attacks" against U.S. and partner countries in the region.

In Iran, President Ebrahim Raeisi vowed to respond to any attack by U.S. Forces, telling reporters earlier Friday that Iran has "said many times that we will not be the initiator of any war, but if a country or a cruel force wants to bully the Islamic Republic of Iran, it will respond firmly."

Despite the death of three U.S. service members and the wounding of dozens as a result of the recent strikes on U.S. bases, all of which are located in the middle of the desert overlooking refugees of U.S. wars, yet no one in the U.S. mainstream media seems capable of asking just what American soldiers were doing on the border of Jordan and Syria in the first place?

And how does having U.S. soldiers in a post in the deserts of the Levant, overlooking the refugees of war or stealing Syrian oil is making America a safer place? Or how a regional war in the Middle East will lower inflation rates, slow the growth of U.S. public and private debt, solve homelessness, immigration or crime?

#source

#source2

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 186 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: We get a two week timeskip after the season finale and we basically get a full reset, like everyone’s still grappling with their various traumas from the terrorist attack but the general consensus is ‘go back to slice of life school shenanigans and pretend it didn’t happen’ which didn’t work out so well for Code Geass R2 but this seems to be handling it better since there are a number of status quo changes that come along with it. Suletta has to take on the duel backlog she gained while Aerial was being repaired in a gauntlet and we’ve reached that point in slice of life action hybrid shows where the protagonist is stronger than everyone in the area except for pre-approved plot-relevant people, Kill la Kill had a couple of these thresholds. Also I’m just laughing because Shaddiq’s basically been disowned so Ceres is the MC for the gauntlet and no one ever questions why he just completely changes personalities every few months. Miorine’s dad is still alive but he’s basically in a coma and may not be able to walk anymore. Nika’s not been outted by generic guy but she’s still depressed because her ambiguous double agent status is causing problems. Everyone else’s just kinda reeling from almost fucking dying and then having to go back to school and not mention it. Suletta’s been cut off from Miorine but Prospera assures her once they get through the legal troubles and Miorine has time to process her husband squishing a guy like a bug right in front of her everything will be okay. Meanwhile the school’s basically having an Open House for new students and, guess what, the Discount Lagoon Corps girls are on the list, called that as soon as I heard there was gonna be an open house. Luckily Suletta doesn’t recognize them despite Sophie still fangirling over her the exact same way and Norea not really giving a good alibi at all. The two pal around the school for a while, harassing Nika for knowing they’re terrorists and stealing Ceres’s Gundam Key to potentially kill Nika and tie up loose ends. They reveal Nika just wanted to be a mediator between the two factions of Earth and Space but both these girls are jaded enough to take that as an insult onto itself. Suletta barges in and in characteristic fashion has no clue what the fuck’s going on and asks no followup questions but will use violence to stop violence and challenges Norea to a duel at the conveniently placed school festival battle royale thing. Meanwhile in the post-credits scene (the new ED is fucking beautiful btw), Miorine learns from Prospera about Quiet Zero, a supposed project to end war forever which sounds like som Human Instrumentality shit because as long as there are two humans and sticks there will always be war so if you’re using the soul-stealing mech power to end war you’re probably going to be killing/lobotomizing a lot of fucking people.

Inuyasha The Final Act: Kohaku is able to force our Magatsuhi with his act of bravery and “Kikyo’s Light” ends up being a weird ambiguous plot device for the last arc of the series but I like to think that since it ebbs and flows over the course of the final battle here, it’s not so much a power source from Kikyo but something that reacts to the goodness and selflessness in humanity which is the opposite of Magatsuhi’s energy, like Kikyo didn’t save Kohaku, Kohaku saved Kohaku and Kikyo gave him the catalyst to bring energy to his goodness. Meanwhile during the skirmish Sesshomaru shows up and tears apart Magatsuhi with Tenseiga and destroys a bunch of Naraku’s body parts with Bakusaiga while Inuyasha takes out a bunch more with Meido Zangetsuha, though Kagome notes Naraku basically feels like he’s everywhere right now. Once Magatsuhi’s destroyed, the part of him in Miroku back in the village jumps out and abducts Rin (idk why both parts couldn’t have abducted them both but we want Miroku to be in the final battle so it’s fine). Sesshomaru takes off because his “Rin’s been abducted” alarm went off, leaving Inuyasha’s group with Naraku as he takes Kagome hostage, using the big turtle shell he absorbed from Moryomaru to protect the jewel in his body. Kohaku makes a deal with Naraku to let Kagome go if he gives him his shard which everyone knows is a terrible idea since Naraku;’s word is less than useless like if he says he’s going to do something he’ll probably do everything BUT that. But Kohaku’s not stupid and uses the deal as a farce to use Kagome’s arrow to just pump purifying light into Naraku and break the turtle shell thing. I gotta say back when I first watched this and saw Kohaku regain consciousness and be like “I’ll destroy Naraku��� I fucking laughed because the power scaling was so off at that point so seeing him actually get a shot at it thanks to the Human Light Catalyst energy from Kikyo is kinda neat. With his armor gone, Sango and Inuyasha chase Naraku off and start wrapping up, Kohaku resolving that he’s ready to stop running away from his guilt and giving living a shot… right before Naraku shoots a bit of flesh through his neck to kill him and take his shard. Like if they actually had the balls to kill Kohaku right here this’d be like a top-tier anime gutpunch moment, all because Naraku wised up and knows the good guys start chilling once he’s done his Team Rocket’s Blasting Off Again speech and takes advantage of their ridiculously lax defenses. However the group finds Kohaku’s still alive “Kikyo’s Light” deciding to save him instead of purifying Naraku. Now this seems really dumb but you can kinda take this two ways, either a character arc for Kikyo where she post-mortem finally puts her trust in Inuyasha and the others to defeat Naraku and refuses to use Kohaku as a sacrificial pawn for her plan to do it all by herself, OR a character arc for Kohaku where the purifying energy given to him by Kikyo and his resolve to live makes a small wish on the jewel which decides to cut him some slack and allow him to survive since he’s basically been on life support for nine months and probably actively healing his wounds anyway unlike the Band of Seven who had to have their bones and shit put back together. Either way Naraku has a cool scene where he mind melds with all the villains who’ve ever held a jewel shard and completes it in the name of evil. Admittedly even Naraku doesn’t know what to do with it now but point is it’s done and the final battle is upon us with Naraku turning into a giant spider and Rin being abducted to lure Sesshomaru and all his enemies into a final confrontation.

Castlevania: Taka and Sumi have a “Alucard’s hiding things from us” fully entrenching them in the arrogant Anakin Skywalker phase of their training arc. Like they’ve been there a couple of weeks max and it’s a big place full of demon magic, like yeah Alucard’s a little lonely but also there’s probably Arc of the Covenant shit in there that will melt human faces so there’s no reason to be mad that he’s not showing you the face-melting room in the first month. Meanwhile the girls have a pow-wow to discuss the logistics of their lesbian takeover and the idea is they’ll pick up mercenaries as they kill their employers and the main takeaway from this is Carmilla is the worst and doesn’t really add anything to the dynamic but we already knew that. Lenore continues seducing Hector and her gaslighting is fucking MASTERFUL like she gives him a ‘oh I’m falling in love and we could run away together’ plot while also subtly bringing up the mercenary plan to undercut Hector’s necessity to the plan and take away the one card he has to play even though they do still very much need him, she’s just making him THINK he’s unessential so it’s HER that’s the only thing tying him to life and not any of his own merits and she’s fucking GREAT at this shit because it’s not even the main thrust of their conversation, like if Carmilla was this good at the gaslight gatekeep girlboss shit in season 2 we wouldn’t have a plot rn because it’d all be over. Meanwhile meanwhile, Trevor’s group gets the full skibidi toilet on what’s going on in the priory with the cruficied Evangelion Demon courtesy of Saint Germain and Trevor actually makes it a point to get Germain to the multiverse tunnel as part of the plain which throws the Jack Sparrow type off when another Jack Sparrow type is actually noble. They advance on the priory but the monks are already well underway with their plan to open a gate to hell and bring Dracula back and like… bro I don’t think Dracula wants to come back, he seemed pretty pissed last time he left but this basically is the plot to Yu Yu Hakusho Chapter Black now that I’m thinking about it.

Konosuba: Kazuma gets kicked out of the party for being a scumbag and Kris takes him up to go steal Iris’s soul-swapping necklace. There’s a funny little exchange where they talk about how the person with it could basically become like Dante from the original FMA anime and live forever by body-hopping but Kris trusted Kazuma enough that she knew he’d only get up to scumbag shenanigans with it instead of anything megomanical with it which is true, like there’s a floor that Kazuma always has to be at least a little scummy but there’s also a ceiling where he won’t get into any serious trouble with his schemes or do anything too bad and it’s just funny to watch that be acknowledged. The two do an Oceans Eleven heist and fight their way through the guards where Kazuma wears Vanir’s mask and essentially becomes Super Kazuma for the duration while being mildly possessed by Vanir’s personality. They beat the shit out of Mitsurugi and find that actually Aqua, Darkness and Megumin are the final guards which is good for them because Kazuma is well and truly familiar with how much each of them individually suck, it’s like the opposite of the ‘the boss after you recruit him’ meme, without Kazuma’s insane strategies and dumb luck pulling the party together the group really isn’t much of a threat. Darkness can’t hit shit, Aqua’s too drunk to be useful and Megumin’s too caught up in their Phantom Thief disguises to do anything, not that she could just use Explosion in the castle anyway. They steal back the necklace (feel like this would’ve been a lot easier as an inside job instead of a frontal assault but okay) and accidentally take Iris’s chastity ring thing too which basically means Kazuma’s engaged to a twelve year old, like Darkness says if he tries to return it they’ll just kill him to preserve her dignity but like mail it back to her or send an anonymous calling card, do some Phantom Thief shit we don’t need this to be this complicated. Still Kazuma has to sit there and listen to how cool he was as a Phantom Thief without being able to reveal it was him to anyone but Darkness who beats the shit out of him for it, though admittedly he does admit he didn’t want to tell her for fear of linking her to Kris and ruining her reputation which is nice. The group finally leaves the Capital and Iris reveals she has a crush on Kris thinking she’s a boy or maybe she’s just a lesbian idk, but also that she knows Kazuma was the one who took her ring and given that the series seems to be tracking Megumin and Kazuma as the main ship I don’t think that’s gonna work out for her so hope she has a backup plan. Darkness sneakily gets Kazuma to affirm to Iris that he’ll defeat the Devil King so yeah we’re actually planning on maybe doing that at some point.

Delicious in Dungeon: It’s a mid-season breather episode as we catch back up with Kabru’s group on his parallel journey through the dungeon. Kabru’s kind of an interesting guy in that he seems to be the exact foil to Laios in that he has trouble with monsters but relishes interacting with people and figuring them out, he’s like a less misanthropic Sherlock Holmes and it’s kinda neat. They find and take out the guys that robbed them before though they still have a grudge against Laios’s party for some reason even though they know they were being lied to. Also apparently you get paid for bringing corpses out of the dungeon? Like idk what’s stopping two guys from going in, killing each other and taking turns dragging one another out. Still Kabru muses that the dungeon’s model is unsustainable as treasure becomes harder and harder to come by like some kind of fossil fuel metaphor and he kinda geniusly breaks down what happened to Laios’s group and I kinda love this scene because he doesn’t get everything right like some sort of weird Sherlock Holmes ‘I noticed a speck of dust on their cloak so they’re the murderer’ scene, he puts natural common sense stuff together in an interesting way to form the puzzle of what most likely happened as well as a few alternatives and he’s like 90% right. Meanwhile they get rescued by Shuro who’s in the dungeon looking for Falin as well and they join forces to be the most important secondary character group going into the second half. Meanwhile Laios and co. can’t figure out how to fucking leave the underground city and are about to die from starvation.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: The First-Class Mage test continues and Ubel and Wirbel face off, turns out Ubel’s spell is basically just “magic knife” and she can cut through anything without leaving a trace like a less powerful version of Sukuna’s technique in JJK. Wirbel meanwhile has Pertificus Totalis from Harry Potter but he has to keep eye contact on the subject’s whole body and can only use it on one person at a time. The two pontificate for a bit on how they’re both killers and how agonizing over killing each other would have little point despite Wirbel’s hesitation. Still Fern took out his girlfriend and convinces him to back off by saying he killed her and the test is voided for them since they don’t have all three members. Like he was kind of fucked anyway since two on one fights put him at a major disadvantage and Fern basically had him dead to rights anyway but guess that does keep him from struggling. He finds his teammates after the girl has been beaten into the dirt by Fern and the guy got Shadow Clone paralysis Jutsu’d by Land but they still manage to find a bird through a lucky break after Wirbel admits he was just fighting and killing to impress a girl he knew when he was a kid which just so happens to be the girl on his team now, I’d say that’s an incredible contrivance but also this test does have the theme of “luck is a skill in its own” so I feel like that’s intentional. Frieren faces off against the Old Man party so Old Man will fight her and the other guy wants to kill her two party members despite Old Man telling him to just knock them out. Still they reveal that anyone who becomes a First-Class Mage gets a spell of their choice from the Elf that founded the Mage Association who’s basically a living List of Spells Wikipedia page. It’s funny because on the surface that sounds like something Frieren would like given how she likes collecting spells but she doesn’t react and the more you think about it, she seems to enjoy obtaining the small and insignificant spells from all over the world and obtaining the stories and cultures that correspond with them, she’s not someone that attaches herself to specific spells for utilitarian purposes and wants to learn all she can about a wide breadth of things, so yeah one spell from the official list of broken spells probably doesn’t mean much to her.

Revolutionary Girl Utena: Utena is an average girl who no one understands (okay I know that’s my running joke whenever I start a series but to be real there is actually very little average about Utena), as a child she’s given hope by a Prince and instead of falling for him she takes the One Piece Yamato route and goes ‘fuck bro that dude’s awesome, I’mma become an awesome dude too’ which I can definitely appreciate, though after hearing that backstory and seeing all the visuals for the opening I was not expecting this to take place in a normal-ass slice of life school, like the tone is high fantasy even before the high fantasy shit starts happening. Utena is basically living her best life as a boy in everything but underpants and has something of a relationship of convenience with her friend Wakaba, though everything changes when she sees a mysterious girl tending a greenhouse and arranged by fate to marry some jerkass on the student council… god this sounds familiar. I like how the evil student council even has to call Saionji to a meeting to be like “Please stop beating your fiancée, it’s really ruining our evil rep and there’s no reason for it” but Saionji’s just that much of a bag of dicks that he keeps doing it, like he’s not even a manipulative type of abuser he just seems to do it whenever he gets the chance. Anyway Wakaba likes Saionji but as we’ve previously established he is a huge sack of dicks he posts her love letter for the school to see, causing Utena to challenge him for her honor. Saionji agrees because he wants to find out why the ring she got from the Prince in her backstory matches the ones worn by the royal-ish student council so they’ve got a duel on their hands. Problem is they get to the magical fucking castle thing in the sky (which Utena questions but also kinda just rolls with) and Saionji gets a real fucking sword while Utena’s stuck with the kendo sword because she did not come here prepared for murder and magic. Saionji pulls a magic sword out of Anthy’s tits because he’s the Holder and gets to do shit like that but Utena fucking beats his ass with just the broken handle of the bamboo sword and it’s fucking badass, and as a bonus as the new Holder she’s also Anthy’s husband now despite kind of already being with Wakaba in their playful ‘oh we’re REALLY good friends’ way. There’s something really kind of likeable about Utena right off the bat, like it’s tempting to say it’s boring that she’s just immediately better than everyone at everything but it is the first episode that does kinda happen in the first episode of things and she has this upbeat charm to her with her determination to be her ideal self and stalwart determination that doesn’t falter while she’s rolling with all the absurd magical shit around her, idk I immediately like her a lot, the plot is kind of  like a stage play so it moves really fast and people talk very weirdly with higher emotional drives than they probably should and it doesn’t give things quite the chance to breathe it probably should but there’s a lot of character to her and it’s fun.

[tintenspion]

Der rote Kampfflieger

publication history, propaganda value, and different versions

by @tintenspion, December 2022

Der rote Kampfflieger (The Red Air Fighter), published in 1917 and translated in 1918 is regarded to be the autobiography of Manfred von Richthofen. It was, and still is, the best selling german book about the first world war. In this post I will talk about how it was written and published, adress some personally selected instances of propaganda found in the book and explain the changes other publications of the book have made (focusing on the versions of 1920 and 1933).

This post is incredibly simplified and I can recommend reading the sources that I have listed, as they cover the topic in a lot more depth (but they're almost all in german)

Der Rote Kampfflieger, 1917

The publication history

Manfred von Richthofen began writing his biography in May 1917. He had rejected requests writing a book multiple times before, because he did not feel that he had the talent nor the time to write. However, he was asked by the command of the aerial forces to write one and since that was essentially an order he accepted a request by the publisher Ullstein. (1)

Most historians agree that the book was essentially ghostwritten by Hauptmann Erich von Salzmann, who based it on acconts given in stenography by MvR. Salzmann was not credited for the book, however in the contract with Ullstein (the publisher) MvR gave Salzmann full authority over what parts of the stenography he adapts into the finished book, without having to get MvRs consent. (2)

Due to a lack of an original draft, is not reconstructable what parts of the book are actually written by him, which parts were ghostwritten and which parts were edited for propaganda purposes.

The intentions

Ullstein Kriegsbücher, the series Der rote Kampfflieger was published in was a series that focused on "firsthand accounts" of front soldiers, which explains why the book still uses an easy and "uneducated" language despite being mostly written by a ghostwriter. (3) This was done on purpose to make the reader identify more with MvR, since the divide between him and the average reader was already there due to him being an aristocrat. The books also focuses a lot on the fallibility of its main character, Manfred von Richthofen. He is portrayed as a little naive; someone who has no idea how war works and therefore makes a lot of mistakes. Examples include: Capturing french soldiers in a house and letting them escape on accident, giving wrong hand signs that almost get his division killed, failing his piloting exam and hitting his finger on a propeller. This is also done to make him more relatable to the average reader. (4)

The second part of the book focuses then on his life as a pilot and a squadron leader. The book goes out of its way to portray Richthofen as very humble. It is for example described how "in the flying corps we dont think about records. We only do our duty." [DRK p.154]. This is obviously an instance of propaganda, as records and victory numbers were contrary to this statement very important to the individual pilots. To portray MvR's "chivalry", they use a very interesting stylistic device. MvR calls himself a "Weidmann" (hunter) in comparison to his brother, whom he denounces as a "Schießer" (shooter). The word Weidmann, in contrast to Jäger, implies an unofficial hunters code on how to hunt in an honorable way. (5) In modern times, this comparison seems kind of grotesque, as MvR views his enemies as prey to be hunted. Downplaying the death enemy pilots and comparing the dogfights to a hunting situation is a reaccuring theme in iterature written by and about german ww1 pilots and is not exclusive to Manfred von Richthofen. (6)

The most infamous example of editation for propaganda regarding the "honorable fight" is probably the discription of MvR's 33rd victory: In the book it is described that MvR flew low over the downed plane to check if the pilots were dead, they are not and shoot back at him, however he decides to just fly away and not retaliate. (7) In his combat report for that victory however, he described that he did retaliate and killed one of the occupants. (It is notable that, according to Algernon Peter Warren, the pilot that survived, they actually didn't shoot back at Richthofens plane. Warren notes that there was ground fire coming from the trenches, and Richthofen probably mistook that for the downed plane firing at him). (8) Due to the fact that MvR seems to have been truthful in his combat report, it is to assume that the change in the book was most likely done by the censorship and not by Richthofen himself.

Richthofens view on his own book

MvR didn't really care about his autobiography. I believe this for multiple reasons: He says that he is not a good writer (9) and that he rejected writing an autobiography multiple times (as mentioned before). Also I believe if he really cared about how he was portrayed in his autobiography he wouldn’t have given Salzmann the rights to change things without him checking them first.

Ein Heldenleben, 1920

Published under the name "Ein Heldenleben", this was the version that had the worst sale numbers, however it is also the one that includes the most material. It was also edited by Salzmann. (10) It includes the original biography, shortened, and adds about 200 extra pages. Those extra pages include:

"Hinterlassene Papiere" (leftover papers): Excerpts from either letters to his family, his diary or rejected chapters of the autobiography (historically unclear)

A selection of letters to his mother

Excerpts from his brother Lothar

An account about Manfred as a child written by his mother

German, english and french articles about his last flight, death and funeral

Obituaries

Memories of Richthofen: Articles and anecdotes from other people who knew or met him

This book is regarded as the most detailed versions and is free from government censorship. Salzmann in this case only worked together with the Richthofen family, who probably decided what will go into the book and what won't. I need to point out however that some of the articles in "Memories of Richthofen" were already published in newspapers during the war, so those definetly had to pass a censorship comittee. I would still regard this version as the most trustworthy one out of the tree I am presenting.

Der Rote Kampfflieger, 1933

This version of the book is the one that had the most copies sold. It was edited by Hans Rudolf Berndorff. (11) Differences, aside from a couple of chapters having different titles and some chapters having been combined, include the removal of the first two chapters, and the inclusion of four extra chapters, with three of them having not been published beforehand. The book starts with a foreword by Hermann Göring an introduction written by MvR's brother Bolko. It also includes some chapters from his brother Lothar (the same as in the 1920 version, however a couple have been removed). The book also uses some of the letters that were published in Ein Heldenleben and add them to the autobiography (mostly) chronologically.

Especially notable is the often referenced chapter Gedanken im Unterstand (Thoughts in the shelter), where MvR talks about how his feelings towards the war have changed since his autobiography came out in may. The chapter was a letter to his mother, however it has been cut a lot, so we don't exactly know when and why it was written.

This book, in contrast to Ein Heldenleben, focuses more on the military aspects of MvR's life, as it is a part of Nazi propaganda.

Other publications of the book:

There was a version published in 1977, that included the full autobiography written by Friedrich Wilhelm Korff. In 1990 another version was published with a foreword written by Manfred Wörner, a former NATO secretary. I have not included an analysis of these two books, as they “only” evaluate the morals of the latter three. This is an entirely different topic, and a very complicated one, that deserves its own post.

The first english translation was published in 1918. I already made a post about a few translation mistakes, that you can see here.

Peter Kilduff also translated both the 1917 and the 1933 version.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the book is mostly interesting because you can see how the myth of Manfred von Richthofen was reshaped to fit different narratives and propaganda purposes over the course of 80 years. I wouldn't take it as a trustworthy source, especially regarding MvR's feelings towards the war, but I do believe it is a good guideline. Something to be weary of while reading biographies about Manfred von Richthofen or watching video essays about him is when people take the autobiography a little too much at face value and automatically assume that the propagada in it was edited by him personally and not by the editor.

Sources:

(1) CASTAN, Joachim: Der Rote Baron: Die ganze Geschichte des Manfred von Richthofen (2008) ISBN 9783608944617, p. 148f [AN: currently looking for a primary source; this book does exactly what I described in "conclusion"]

(2) SCHILLING, René: Der Körper des “Helden”. Deutschland 1813–1945 In: Bielefelder Graduiertenkolleg Sozialgeschichte: Körper Macht Geschichte – Geschichte Macht Körper. Körpergeschichte als Sozialgeschichte (1999) ISBN 9783895342806, p. 132

(3) SEIDEL, Nadine: Wie man Helden ediert. Ein Ausgabenvergleich von Manfred von Richthofens Der rote Kampfflieger. In: GLUNZ, Claudia; SCHNEIDER, Thomas F. : Dichtung und Wahrheit. Literarische Kriegsverarbeitung vom 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (2015) ISBN 9783847104872, p. 69f

(4) SEIDEL, Nadine: “Nicht 'Schießer' sondern 'Weidmann': Wie ein missverstandenes Ethikkonstrukt Manfred von Richthofen zum Helden werden ließ. In: SEYBERT, Gislinde: Heroisches Elend - Misères de l’héroïsme - Heroic Misery: Der Erste Weltkrieg im intellektuellen, literarischen und bildnerischen Gedächtnis der europäischen Kulturen - Teil 1 und 2 - La Première Guerre mondiale dans la mémoire intellectuelle, littéraire et artistique des cultures européennes- 1 ère 2 (2014) ISBN 9783631636626, p. 748-753

(5) ibid, p.744ff

(6) VOIGT, Immanuel: Stars des Krieges: Eine biografische und erinnerungskulturelle Studie zu den deutschen Luftstreitkräften des Ersten Weltkrieges (Zeitalter der Weltkriege, 20, Band 20) (2019) ISBN 9783110605020 p. 176-183

(7) RICHTHOFEN, Manfred von: Der rote Kampfflieger (1917) p. 126

(8) FRANKS, Norman; GIBLIN, Hal; McCRERY, Nigel: Under the Guns of the Red Baron: The Complete Record of Von Richthofens Victories and Victims Fully Illustrated (1998) ISBN 9781898697961, p.91f

(9) RICHTHOFEN, Manfred von: Ein Heldenleben (1920), p. 330

(10) SCHILLING, René: Der Körper des “Helden”. Deutschland 1813–1945 In: Bielefelder Graduiertenkolleg Sozialgeschichte: Körper Macht Geschichte – Geschichte Macht Körper. Körpergeschichte als Sozialgeschichte (1999) ISBN 9783895342806, p. 132

(11) SEIDEL, Nadine: Wie man Helden ediert. Ein Ausgabenvergleich von Manfred von Richthofens Der rote Kampfflieger. In: GLUNZ: Dichtung und Wahrheit. Literarische Kriegsverarbeitung vom 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (2015) ISBN 9783847104872, p. 72

[usafphantom2]

#onthisday in 1937 the Grumman F4F Wildcat prototype made its first flight. Known as the XF4F-2 it was powered by a 1,050-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine.

@classicwarbirds via Twitter

Grumman F4F Wildcat

During 1936 the United States Navy required a new carrier-based fighter and despite ordering a prototype of Brewster's Model 39, designated XF2A-1, which would become the first monoplane fighter of the USN, a prototype of Grumman's biplane was ordered, designated XF4F-1. However this prototype was cancelled after a earlier Grumman F3F biplane was performing almost at the level predicted for the XF4F-1 and Brewster's design was showing good promise. Instead the USN ordered a monoplane prototype from Grumman on the 28th July 1936, designated XF4F-2.

The XF4F-2 with a 1,050-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine flew on the 2nd September 1937, with a maximum speed of 290 mph and despite proving to be faster then Brewster's aircraft, it wasn't as good in other areas and on the 11th June 1938 Brewster's XF2A-1 went into production, known as the Brewster F2A Buffalo. However instead of scrapping Grumman's aircraft it was returned to Grumman and further development was ordered.

A new designation of XF4F-3 was given to the aircraft and with a more powerful Twin Wasp engine, featuring a two-stage supercharger, and other modifications including a bigger wingspan, the aircraft flew in March 1939. These changes were found to have improved the aircraft's performance, and before the test programme had ended a second prototype with further changes had been tested and achieved a maximum speed of 335 mph. As a result on the 8th August 1939 the United States Navy ordered 78 production aircraft.

With the gathering storm clouds in Europe, Grumman offered their new aircraft to other nations, and received orders from both the French and Greek Governments. Powered by a 1,000-hp Wright R-1820 radial engine, these first Wildcats were to serve with the French Navy, but due to the fall of France by this time, the British Purchasing Commission took over the order and asked for a small increase in the amount of aircraft to be supplied. This aircraft was named by the British as the Martlet I. Serving with the Fleet Air Arm, first equipping No. 804 Naval Air Squadron who would score the types first aerial victory on the 25th December 1940. Shooting down a Junkers Ju 88 over Scapa Flow. This meant No. 804 Naval Air Squadron were the first to use a US built fighter serving with the British services to shoot down a German aircraft during the Second World War (1939 - 1945).

Over 1,000 Martlets, as it was known until 1944 when it was changed back to its original name of Wildcat, served with the Fleet Air Arm throughout the Second World War. During March 1945 the Grumman F4F Wildcat would score its last victories whilst with the Fleet Air Arm, when four Messerschmitt Bf 109s were shot down by a number of Grumman Wildcats.

The first F4F Wildcat to serve with the United States Navy differed from the prototype by being powered by a R-1830-90 engine with a single stage supercharger, not the two stage supercharger that had powered the prototype, and by December 1940 was equipping Navy squadrons. Development of the aircraft progressed and in May 1941 the prototype XF4F-4 flew, this aircraft benefited from combat experiences of Martlets serving with the Fleet Air Arm. These changes included more armour, self-sealing tanks, folding wings and an increase in armament to six guns from the original four .50 machine-guns. This new version was starting to be delivered during November 1941, and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a number of USN and United States Marine Corps squadrons were equipped with the Wildcat.

It was during the defence of Wake Island, which was attacked during December 1941, that the Wildcat would show it was a formidable opponent against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was also able to take more damage than the unarmoured Zero. With eight aircraft destroyed on the ground, the remaining four Grumman F4F Wildcats put up a courageous defence of the Island.

Until 1943, when replaced by more advanced aircraft, the F4F Wildcat was involved in all signification action in the Pacific, seeing service in the Battle of the Coral Sea (4th May 1942 - 8th May 1942) and the Battle of Midway (4th June 1942 - 7th June 1942), during operations in Guadalcanal and in North Africa. The F4F-7, a long-range reconnaissance aircraft, with no armament and a bigger fuel tank, was to be the last production version, and by the time production had ended over 7,500 Wildcats had been built. General Motors would build the majority of these designated as FM-1 and FM-2 Wildcats.

Technical Details

Click on the aircraft image to view a larger version.

Top Speed Range Service Ceiling Armament

XF4F-1 Biplane prototype.

XF4F-2 Monoplane prototype.

F4F-3 331 mph 845 miles 37,500 ft four 0.50-in machine-guns

F4F-3 side profile image

F4F-4 318 mph 770 miles 39,400 ft six 0.50-in machine-guns

two 100lb bombs

F4F-7 309 mph 3,700 miles 28,300 ft Photo reconnaissance

XF4F-8 Two prototypes serving as the basis for the General Motors FM-2.

[melishade]

Will you do a part 9 to the dark timeline? Ngl wanna see what happens to OP.

Previous Episode of the Dark Timeline: The Rescue

So...there are some good news and some bad news.

Good News: Optimus is still alive.

Bad News: Due to lack of skill and experience out of Arcee, Wheeljack, and Megatron over all, his condition is really touch and go. He's unconscious on the Neutral Ship for weeks as they do what they can to patch him up. But due to the torture, energon loss, and scarring, it's clear Optimus' recovery is going to take a long time. His armor is discolored because of the patchwork, he has to relearn to walk, and he's partially blind in his right optic because of the Predacon.

Good News: Because of their efforts in Optimus' rescue operation, Shockwave's ship is destroyed. Shockwave won't be able to conduct a proper aerial strike on the island. Even if Shockwave were to rebuild his ship, it would take time, and it gives them the advantage. Although they don't know for how long.

Bad News: Based on Optimus' warning, Shockwave has a Cortical Psychic Patch and knows all of Optimus' memories on the island. He knows additional information about the island, military workings, what the titan shifters look like, and how to get around the vow-renouncing war.

Additional Bad News: Based on Optimus' warning again, Shockwave has a supply of dark energon, from Porco. Because the dark energon inside of Bertholdt was never destroyed, it was transferred. So now it's in Porco.

Megatron laments that he should've killed Porco or Bertholdt when he had the chance, because who knows what Shockwave will try to do now.

The military suggests they interrogate Gabi for any information that she might know. She was on the ship with Optimus, and Optimus rescued her. Maybe she has some valuable information. Megatron immediately says no to that, earning some protest due to the situation.

"I have seen Cybertronians older than I traumatized by what they have witnessed and endured under Shockwave's experiments," Megatron reminded them, "How well do you think a human child would fair under such condition? Wait until Optimus recovers. If anyone interrogates the girl without my knowledge, I will tear out their voice."

Military clearly gets the message and don't bring it up again. Levi does talk to Megatron in private about interrogating her, but Megatron still says 'no'. He knows she needs some time to recover from everything she's been through.

Speaking of Gabi, oh boy, recovery is hard. She's woken up from nightmares and will think she's still on the ship. She'll disassociate and beg for her life. She's scarfing down food and water from starvation, but will throw it up hours later because her body's not used to eating that much again. Her body is weak, bruised, frail. She's so afraid of falling asleep because she doesn't want to see the horrors she witnessed as Shockwave's prisoner. The Warrior Cadets and the Warriors themselves are relieved she's alive, but lament that there's not much they can do to help Gabi recover.

Through all of this though, she keeps asking about Optimus and his condition, and whether or not he was alive. She's worried about the titan who saved her life, and kept her alive this whole time. She's afraid Optimus will die because of her, and she would never be able to live with herself if that happened.

Meanwhile, Survey Corps and even the Warriors are taking shifts watching Optimus. They'll camp out on the neutral ship and just watch Optimus' unconscious body and any signs of changes. Eren is definitely taking it the hardest. Any time he's there, he doesn't sleep, and someone has to remind him to eat or even move. Megatron ends up talking to Eren, and Eren admits that he's scared, because even though they got him out, Optimus may never be the same again, and Shockwave knows what everyone looks like. He'll target them to get what he wants.

Megatron tells him that they'll prepare for that, and the rescue had shown Megatron that Eren was more than capable of handling his own. He could be relied upon, and that what he pulled off was something he wouldn't have been able to do in the past. But no matter if Optimus pulled through or not, they still needed to stop Shockwave, no matter the cost. Eren is still feeling a little down, and Megatron ends up cheering him up by simply asking him how it felt to take on a Predacon.

And Eren has to process that, before he's in a state of shock, saying "Holy Shit!" repeatedly in a much louder tone. Because Eren fought a Predacon! He went against a beast that ate Cybertronians! He punched it in the face! He ripped out its eye! Like holy fucking shit! He can't believe he did that! And Megatron help but laugh at Eren's disbelief, but this is the first real smile Eren's managed to pull in a while.

Hanji ends up apologizing to Megatron when she gets the chance. And Megatron is a little confused by this, but Hanji explains that she's apologizing for not acting like a leader and instead acting like a child with a tantrum. Instead of stepping up to the plate and acting like a leader, she hid herself away, wouldn't talk to anyone, and would just pour herself into her work. She blamed him and Levi for a decision that ultimately saved thousands. The fact that Megatron stepped up to the plate and took over for a race he fucking hates, says a lot about him...and about her. Megatron tries to say this was all for Optimus and Hanji immediately tells him to cut it with the bullshit. She knew it stopped being about Optimus the minute they became aware of Shockwave.

Time passes and Optimus does wake up, disoriented and confused. He notices that his vision has become poorer in his right optic and raises his servo to try and see it through that optic. It's just a blurry outline. He then hears something and pulls out his blaster on reflex since the last thing he remembers is the fucking Predacon, but it's just Wheeljack who dropped some of his tools. And Optimus is just stunned to see him, and then everything that happened before he knocked out comes back. Wheeljack ends up comm. linking Arcee who tells Megatron and the Survey Corps that Optimus is awake. And they are all at the neutral ship in just a few short hours. The Survey Corps are hounding Optimus about his condition and making sure that he's okay, but Arcee has to remind them not to pressure him because he's been through a lot.

However, Optimus has to explain right then and there what he saw on Shockwave's ship, so he does. And everyone is starting to get more concerned about the details. Because Shockwave having a groundbridge? Of fucking course he would. But a dark energon serum? In the works? They don't know if Shockwave cracked it, but they know he's working on it. Optimus explains that the Predacon can't transform like Predaking, which bring relief to a lot of them, especially Wheeljack and Megatron. They don't want to fight someone like Predaking again, really. Optimus also states that Shockwave has an offsite lab, but he wasn't able to get the exact location due to the urgency of the situation and getting him and Gabi the hell out of there.

It's come to a point where Optimus states that they need to use the powers of the Founding Titan and activate the Colossal Titans in Shinganshina because this is a very severe situation, and they need to buy some time in order to stop Shockwave and get in contact with Cybertron. And the moment Optimus brings that up, everyone is looking suspiciously nervous. Even Megatron. The ex-con did not look proud of something.

Hanji sucked in a breath. "About that,"

Because if you remember this part and this part, Zeke is currently in an underground, disclosed, location, getting energon injected into his throat because he infected the military with his spinal fluid and he clearly cannot be trusted. And Optimus is trying so hard not to swear. He's too exhausted at this point.

Levi laments the fact they don't get to kill Zeke now, since they got Optimus back.

But since Optimus was captured before Arcee and Wheeljack's arrival, Shockwave isn't aware that they are here, and the island can use that to their advantage. Possibly to get communication to Cybertron sooner rather than later. Or maybe building a functioning groundbridge if possible. Wheeljack says one thing at a time.

Everyone then leaves as Optimus needs his rest, but they are relieved that Optimus is alive. However, they have to start preparing for the worst outcome.

Additional Stuff:

Even after Optimus is awake, the Survey Corps still do their rotation to check in on Optimus and make sure that he's okay, and get him anything if he needs it. Optimus is appreciative of the aid and the Survey Corps are just happy to see him after so long.

Once they confirm that Optimus will be able to make a full recover, the public becomes aware that Optimus is alive and well and on the island, which just boosts the morale of the people of Paradis and the people Optimus helped save before his capture. Military is elated, and they are also happy that Optimus was able to relay a substantial amount of information to them.

However, the location of the Shockwave's offsite lab is still a mystery, since Optimus didn't get the coordinates, nor did he get the location. Megatron does think that Gabi might know since she was with Optimus, and realize that now might be a good time to ask some questions. Which the Warriors are extremely reluctant about. Colt is even blocking the door, but Megatron merely picks him up by the shoulders and sets him aside with little effort. Megatron says that if it gets too much for her, he will stop.

Gabi is sitting curled up on her bed and is surprised to see Megatron walk in and calls him Matthew, but Megatron states in his normal voice that he's not Matthew. Gabi replies in a solemn voice that she knows. Megatron is confused by how long, and she explains that she saw Optimus' memories through the Patch. Megatron inquires how far back, and is surprised to see Gabi describe in a layman's terms, since Optimus dove into the Well.

Megatron then inquires about Shockwave's offsite lab, but Gabi admits she doesn't really know. She couldn't read the text on the screen. Megatron then asks if she saw any pictures that might be an indicator, and Gabi does explain about the picture of the mountain with a flat top in the middle of the desert, but she doesn't know where. Megatron thinks this should be enough and decides to not press any further. However Gabi begs Megatron to know if Optimus is alright because she's been so worried and she just doesn't want Optimus to die because he was protecting her.

And Megatron does something that surprises Gabi, and the Warriors who are listening in. He places a hand on her head and tells her that Optimus is alright. He's alive, and that he'll recover. He also tells her thank you, because Optimus did tell him that Gabi ended up aiding in their escape in the first place. The Warriors end up seeing a hopeful smile appear on Gabi's face, but Megatron quickly warns her to not let the praise get to her head. The Warriors were about to retort, but Gabi is just laughing at it, and it's the first real laugh she's let out in a while.

(Oh look at that. A way develop Gabi without killing Sasha.)

Levi snitches to Optimus about Megatron. About how he stepped up to lead, about him training the Warriors, and about Megatron referring to Optimus as brother. Optimus is smug about it when it's Megatron turn to monitor him and the former warlord vehemently denies all of it out of embarrassment.

Eren and Optimus have...a very heavy discussion about what Shockwave knows, what to prepare for, and about sacrifice. Eren was so distraught at what Optimus did and he just didn't want Optimus to do something like that again. Optimus retorts by saying that he couldn't let Eren or anyone else pay for his and Megatron's war, pay for their mistakes. And parts of Eren still can't understand why Optimus would just sacrifice himself like that on the off chance they might have survived, for people who would have cast him aside. There's still the mentality of island devils. That hasn't changed much. And Optimus just says...he doesn't want anyone else to suffer like he has. He didn't want his family to suffer anymore. He cares and loves them too much to let anything bad happen again. And if the situation called for it once more, he'd do it in an instant.

And Eren...has to sit with those words for some time.

Meanwhile, Shockwave is just examining the wreckage caused by the Rescue Operation. He has no clue if Optimus or the Warrior Cadet are still alive, but his ship is in shambles. He's not getting off the planet anytime soon. However, he is delighted to know that Terran (The Predacon) had survived, but was very slowly regenerating its wounds. It groans in pain and Shockwave pets it in response, making mental notes of the time and energy for the regeneration process. He's thinking about testing the dark energon serum on it, but decides that Terran needs to recover before starting something like that. However, he has to be mindful of his experiments on Porco now, since he doesn't have a spare Warrior Cadet now.

[cloudshoregames]

Greetings, Dan here!

Real quick before we get started it was asked if we intended to make BTE available on Roll20. I admit I've only sparingly used the service as I do most of my gaming at the table, but from the games I have played on there, I know you are able to create custom character sheets that can be accessed at large. In the very least I will be pursuing getting one of those up for players groups interested in running through Roll20. As for anything further I will need to do additional research.

Additionally, in regarding these Mech Construction showcases I know the next one I had planned after Escaflowne, but I will be sure to have to do a second one to commemorate the return of Armored Core on the 25th. For now, let's take a look at one of the preeminent fantasy mechs, Escaflowne. 

(Concept art from Vision of Escaflowne, property of Funimation.)

Unlike with the King Crab, this build was specifically done as a version of the Escaflowne as built during initial mech construction, with all the limitations in place during character creation. There are two versions of this mech, one more steampunk (show), and the other more biomech (movie). The only real difference being one or two additional traits/weapons featured in the movie over the show. For clarity, I built this with the show version of Escaflowne in mind.

For those unfamiliar, Escaflowne is the titular mech from Vision of Escaflowne, where it is the guymelef (mech) of the royal family of the Kingdom of Fanelia. Guymelef's are similar to steampunk, exosuits where they function as suits of armor for their pilots. Because of this, most of them carry giant versions of medieval weaponry and that's the extent of their capabilities as making the knights giant sized.  That said, some like the Escaflowne are of special make, which gives them some special traits in this case. This is reflected in the mech parts chosen.

Because of its impeccable design by the Ispano clan, the Escaflowne is very hardy, reflected here with a Blitz Tech Frame giving it 24 AP. When on foot, more on that later, it is no faster than your average guymelef, so we left it with the Caballero Corp boosters, giving it an Movement Rate of 1. Since, it comes with some special traits from its creators, it will require multiple utility systems, so we went with the Blitz Tech CPU, giving it two utilities. Lastly, since the Escaflowne's primary weapon is a royal long sword, the Caballero Corp Radiator with it's Heat Rating of 8 will do just fine.

Now as for the Escaflowne's two utilities, those of you who are fans of the franchise will already know where we're going, for the Ispano Clan designed the white armored guymelef to be able to transform into an armored dragon. This is mostly used for transportation purposes as most guymelefs are incapable of flight. To reflect this, we went with the Aerial Frame giving it the ability to apply its Movement Rate into the air, as well as the Mobility Mode Converter so when it transforms into the dragon mode, the Escaflowne will gain 2 MR allowing it to change up to three range types in a move action. The mech will be unable to use weapons while in this mode, but depending on the player's flexibility around their build, the Escaflowne here would technically be capable of flight even in humanoid form. Granted it would have some difficulty doing combat while in the air anyway, as it only carries a melee weapon.

Speaking of, the Escaflowne has one weapon system at start, that would be the Sword of Fanelia, an extending long sword bearing the crest of the kingdom's royal family. Since this is the guymelef's primary weapon, and it was designed as a close combatant, we were about to apply three HR toward damage, giving it a d8 damage die. While we needed the HR for other traits, the Rate of Fire was left at 1 using only a single HR, but by optimizing this portion of the weapon, we were able to increase the RoF to 2. For the ammo, two HR allowed it to have 6 full damage swings. After which the weapon would be reduced to unpowered melee damage (1 + Weapon Skill Bonus). For ranges, obviously, the sword was given melee, but since it does extend into a two handed longsword, two HR gave it a little reach, allowing it to hit targets at Close Range as well.

With this build, even at start, the player would have a mech that would feel like the Escaflowne in play. Of course, as the player earned credits through missions, additional equipment could be purchased to make the mech feel even more accurate to the franchise. Higher level CPUs would give the Escaflowne more utilities, and the first one that comes to mind is the Neural Interface that grants the pilot bonuses on attacks, but runs the chance of causing them harm as they take damage, something that occurs in the show as the pilot's bond with the guymelef grows. Additionally, in the movie, the mech was organic in nature, capable of going on a rampage if the pilot lost control, so perhaps the Bio Frame utility as well. Also in the movie, the Escaflowne was capable of shooting lasers from its shoulder crystals. Improving the radiator and constructing a range weapon could give the build some much appreciated versatility. If not, the pilot could always purchase Disposable Equipment to supplement the need for ranged attack options. Some might view a mech focused on melee as limiting, it should be noted that a single mech does not exist in a vacuum as players are but one member of a squadron. While one mech may focus on dropping onto the front line, and tanking, others could fill in range attack roles. 

This time we took a look at a mech that was themed after knights in heavy armor (granted one that could fly lol), but what about a player that was something more...primal in theme. Next time, we'll take a look at the fast moving, feline mech from the Zoids franchise, the Blade Liger.