#kinetic orbital strike

[speed-metal-punk]

https://phobiarecords.bandcamp.com/album/kinetic-orbital-strike-s-t-7ep

I'm sure y'all know Kinetic Orbital Strike already, but gods this is killer dbeat

[onedesertrat]

Kinetic Orbital Strike!

[bestfuckinmusic]

Kinetic Orbital Strike - The True Disaster 7" - 2023

Philly D-Beat. Brilliant, fast core.

[robinsonprojection]

Urraiy-Luera, World Anchor

An explanation of each panel, from left to right:

1 - A topographic map of a mountain range annotated to have been sometime in the past.

2 - Urraiy-Luera's hand holding sweeping 16 arrows into the same space.

3 - A shot of the mountains in the top left of the 1st panel emitting plumes of smoke, similarly in the past and labeled as belonging to Form Glutton Gierrot.

4 - Urraiy-Luera silhouetted by the sun while drawing a bow, a root like pattern flowing down into the mountain. The bow is comprised of the head of an Adamant pickaxe broken from its haft which was further broken into the arrows.

Central 5th Image - Urraiy-Luera releasing the bow, sending the arrows off as a shotgun blast which has quickly caused a sonic boom from its speed and caused plumes of dust to emerge from the mountain they are standing on. Gierrot's mountain is visible as the destination of the arrows.

6 - A cutaway diagram of the mountain Urraiy-Luera was standing on, demonstrating a series of faults in the mountain from the recoil of the shot. Text explains that the peak of the mountain is quarried for the magical properties of the stone.

7 - A repeat of the third image showing a massive plume of dust kicked up by the impact of the arrows on Gierrot's mountain.

8 - A trajectory diagram of the arrows shot by Urraiy-Luera, showing one exiting the atmosphere and becoming unrecoverable, while another plunged far enough beneath the ocean crust to enter the asthenosphere. Several are marked as recovered, with each individual arrow recovered later being forged into legendary weapons.

9 - A map similar to the first showing mountains in roughly the same position with the exception of a pair in the middle, the two maps can be compared below:

[robotsprinkles]

I'm so sorry to all the smart tf fans for how busted I'm going to make Cybertronian weaponry in my fic

[deepspaceboytoy]

The Suit

They don’t really tell you just how hot it gets under the armor. That’s what you notice first, the buildup, the whine of the fans, whir of the cooling systems. You tell yourself, before your first drop, that it’ll be the gunfire that gets to you, the booming of naval artillery and the guns of Imperial armor. But it’s the sound of your suit trying to stop you from dying from the heat that stays with you. Reminds you just how human you are. Surrounded by three thousand years of technological advancements, you can still get fucking heatstroke.  

-First Decanus Aksinya Ramirez, 1st Cohort 127 Legio “Ironmongers”, 12th Fleet, on deployment to Operation Sector Ramesses, Eastern Fringes, Provinci Nomitius, January 7th, 2732 

First drop worst drop, that’s what people tell you. Combat nerves and first-time jitters, all that stuff, that’s what’s supposed to get most rookies. Your 47th drop, though? Your hands still shake, teeth still clench, nerves still fray. No conditioning exists that can mentally prepare a human being to drop from low orbit into an ocean of enemy fire at 1400 meters a second, surrounded by less than an inch of armor in any direction. You just point your feet at the ground and hope that when you land you can reach your gun faster than the guy trying to kill you can recover from the shock. Even once you’re on the ground, you’re not much better off. A Legionary is pretty goddamned well equipped all things considered, but combined arms still rules the day. Now, instead of rolling hot with tanks and APCs, you’re on your own in hostile territory, and the other guys don’t play by your rules.  

They call it Ionia. Pretty world, if you ignore the global firestorm we touched off when we dropped the orbital artillery. Global weather patterns have turned these wildfires into a wall of heat and flame a mile high roaring along at well over 50 kph. Perfect environment for a drop assault. Our carrier, the IHNV Long Time Coming, sits in low orbit, drop bays open. Her shields are down, allowing us to take the plunge without being incinerated down to our constituent atoms, and she’s taking a hell of a beating for it. But that’s fine; it takes less than 10 seconds for all 10 cohorts to drop through the bay, and then she’s hightailing it for the protection of 12th Fleet’s Strike Flotilla 34, a shoal of escort frigates and heavy cruisers that envelop her in their shield profiles. They’ll be sitting overwatch for us and the two other legions dropping today, the 546th and 1232nd, waiting until we need them to drop some more kinetic kill vehicles on some poor unsuspecting Aberinian fuckers. Before the end of this, there’ll be a lot of poor unsuspecting Aberinian fuckers who’ve learned to dread the low moaning those cannons make as they breach atmosphere. They’ll dread the sounds we make even more.  

At 1242 hours Terran time, we jump, 15,000 fully armored Legionaries dropping in total synchronicity. 32 seconds later, 14,500 of us land in newly formed craters. The air is on fire. The ground is on fire. If it weren’t for the environmental seals on our armor, we’d be dead in minutes. With the seals, we barely notice it.  

First objective is a local Aberinian firebase coordinating aerial defenses over Ionia’s primary continent. Take it out, and Fleet can drop another couple hundred thousand Legionaries with impunity, shipping down troops and materiel at will. Fail to take it, and any transport ships closing within 2000 kilometers of the continent get turned into aerial fireballs. Simple, you might think. The Aberinian defenders have different ideas. Immediately after I land, I’m under fire, maser beams and plasma rounds turning the alpine undergrowth around me into smoldering, runny mud and patches of fused glass. Abs love their energy weapons, and in those first few seconds after we land, they reap a punishing toll. But it only lasts a few seconds. On solid ground, we thunder into action. The nearest weapons position to me, a dugout full of automatic weapons, is my first target. 1st Squad, with me leading, takes to the charge, armored boots pounding the dirt and fallen trees around us as we rocket up to almost 80 kph, arrowing down on this enemy position like lightning. Two hits, three, four, I stop counting, my shoulder armor not even glowing yet from the dispersed energy, and then we’re on the Aberinians, shouldering into the charge.  

There’s a big burly bastard standing in my way, so I choose to go through him. Impact, and he’s down on the ground, where all that famed Ab muscle mass does him no good. I look him in the eyes as I put six rounds into his brain, hearts, and redundant nerve cluster. Dead in less than half a second. Next one is smaller, smarter. This one has fought Legionaries who were on the bounce before, and they know they can’t absorb the charge. They don’t even try, immediately beating a retreat from the edge of the firing position, trying to steady themselves for a good shot on me or one of my people. A hasty shot cleaves their right arm off at the elbow, and then I steady, putting three more rounds into their chest. They punch out of ragged holes in the Ab’s back, ending up lodged in the rear of the dugout. 

1st Squad is equally clinical. Engagement time in the dugout is sitting at 6 seconds, and there’s probably ten or twelve dead Abs littering the ground. Weapons position silenced, onto the next one. We leap the back wall, throwing ourselves back into the hurricane of defensive fire. My commswoman, Gauria, takes a hit to the head, but she’s back up before we’ve even set off; her combat helm is bubbling but otherwise no worse for wear. The first Legionary mortars land near where the shot that hit her came from, and the Ab who took the shot is definitely worse for wear. We’re through the cloud of dirt and arterial spray before the Ab troops have had a chance to recover, and they’re all dead by the time we reach the back wall of their trench. 15 more dead defenders, no casualties. Engagement time, 17 seconds. We’re slowing down, I realize. The key moments of any drop landing come now, in the first minutes. Either our forces secure enough room to consolidate gains, establish a beachhead, or the entire drop force dies. Imperial Legion timing allows no errors, brooks no mistakes. We take this firebase here and now, in the next 10 minutes, or I watch the troops under my command and three whole elite legions worth of soldiers die. No pressure.  

Resistance is struggling to keep up with the speed of the assault. Elements of my 1st Cohort, along with 2nd, 5th, and 9th, have secured most of the approaches to the base. Now it’s just the bastards inside. Time to crack this thing open. First up is my squad, along with the rest of 1st Cohort. 487 of us left. Far more than enough with three more cohorts backing us up. Marilene places a demolition charge against a central span of the perimeter wall, and I nod to blow it. We’re already thudding inside as the wall is falling, reinforced layers of synthrock and steel showering us as we simply drive over top of the first defenders we encounter.  

The inside of the firebase is divided into quadrants, with barracks closest to us on the eastern side. Reserves are still suiting up outside it as we gun them down, single shots blowing craters in unarmored Aberinian torsos. Some, we don’t even have time to draw down on. Instead, single unarmed strikes pulp limbs and crater skulls. We’re pounding the interior asphalt, well on our way to the command post on the western edge of the base, when defensive fire finally reaches us. Pelted with energy bolts like rain, we gun down anyone who pokes a head up. The sleeting defensive fire slackens as 9th Cohort breaches, taking the hastily repositioned defenders in the rear. Engagement time, 1 minute 20 seconds. Casualties, 22. Dead Aberinians? Hard to count the splotches on the ground where bodies used to stand. We’ve liquified anything in our way.  

We take stock outside the command center. It’s a synthrock blockhouse, windowless, fortified and reinforced entrances. There were guards, but they aren’t combat effective with rounds drilled through their torsos. More Legionaries are streaming inside the compound, following up on breaches set by the other assault teams. Colonel Melody Moriconi, Legion commander, is pounding her way down the central asphalt thoroughfare towards us, armor shedding beam rounds and plasma like rain drops. At the compound's weapons depot, a few Abs have managed to put up a fight with the heavier artillery, but now the Legion breaching teams are inside the firebase, and they use their heavier armor to simply roll over the depot. Fighting inside the base is brief and brutal, Legion speed overwhelming the Abs’ famous resilience and feral aggression.  

Colonel Moriconi comms us halfway to the command center, giving us the go ahead to breach. Marilene places two more det charges, and we’re inside, plowing through guard and command staff alike. Quarles takes three plasma bolts to the chest, stumbling forward a few more steps before the superheated ammunition burns through his chest plate and eats his torso away. He gets two rounds off before his brain reminds him he’s dead, and he crumples. We’re stuck in it now, charging down cramped hallways and bursting into hastily reinforced rooms. Doesn’t matter what they put in front of us, we run over it, daring the Aberinians to try and slow us down. Outside the doors to the central comms room, they give it their best.  

An Ab Headhunter pack is waiting for us, heavy armor laced with trophies and tally marks. These things are Legion-killers through and through, and for the first time since drop, the Abs meet our advance. A fist bigger than my head bats my rifle away, so I lower my shoulder and shove hard, getting some room for myself. Deploying the combat blade from its port in my forearm gauntlet, I thrust with the blade, a glancing hit to the big bastard’s ribs. I can feel the crunching, but he’s barely fazed, swinging another huge paw for my head. Ducking under it, I lever a fist into his knee, hoping to shatter it, but he pivots away at the last damnable second and the best I can manage is some solid contact with his armored thigh.  

The squad is in the thick of it now, combat blades out or sidearms drawn, locked in melee with the Aberinian pack. Marilene takes a huge Ab claw to the thigh, arterial blood spraying from rent armor even as she spears the Ab through the skull, blade punching out of the crown of its head.  

The big bastard in front of me is back on me before I can survey the rest of the squad, his fangs bared and nostrils flaring. Two quick swipes pass by my head and then I’m reeling from a brutal kick to the stomach, his hoof connecting with my amor in a vicious thud. The Ab presses his advantage, trying to skewer my face on his clawed paw, but he can’t leverage the force he needs to get through my armor, and in this tiny moment I seize my chance, pushing upward and bearing him to the ground. My combat blade is buried in his chest.  

Kang, our demo expert, is first out of combat after me, putting a full sidearm mag into the brain of one of the Headhunters. The rest of the squad finishes off their opponents, minus Bannon, who is missing an arm and three quarters of his head, and we line up to breach the comms and control room. Gauria and Vento are first through, soaking up fire as a distraction while Kang chucks an armed fusion device into the room. Device armed and landed among the Abs, we fire off what’s left of our magazines and beat our retreat out of the firebase. Not 30 seconds later, we watch the fusion device make a crater of the firebase sixty feet deep. Time from drop, 6 minutes 48 seconds. It’s an overwhelming Legion victory. It will be repeated across the continent at 16 other points, although none of those strikes will be as singularly fast and brutal as ours. 127 Legio will lose 311 troopers. The Abs, though? 7200 dead and counting.  

[black-aengel-07]

Scythe Model: Arrowhead

An interceptor-fighter craft known for its speed and unique style of combat that had made it the bane of all Imperial attempts at air superiority. The Arrowhead Model is specialized for Aeronautics combat, while its much larger and heavily armed variant, the Viper, is specifically constructed as an orbital fighter.

General Design:

Shaped like a leaf, the Arrowhead is quite small for an aircraft, not even nine meters long, with a width of three meters, its small profile makes it a challenge to target, especially when its right up in your face about its deadly intentions. Yet its proportions hide a surprisingly sturdy frame, on top of having a passive sensor mask that makes it very challenging for standard targeting equipment to get a lock on it or detect their approach until they are almost on top of its target.

Propulsion and Manoeuvrability:

The Arrowhead Scythe is propelled by six thruster engines at its caudal side that are not too dissimilar to the design of the plasma thrusters on void ships, if only with a much smaller profile. Furthermore, it is aided by grav-plates to remain suspended in the air without the need of wings to support its flight. However, these are not the most outstanding features of this craft, those would have to be the Gyroscopes.

Mechanicum adepts are still in heated debates as to the inner workings of recovered pieces of the Gyroscopes, as they have been dubbed, from dead Arrowhead craft. But what they all agree upon its that they are the singular most fundamental piece in the Arrowhead’s near physics defying agility.

Named after the device they most closely resemble in appearance; it is theorized they emit some form of gravitational anchor point that allows the craft to always be relative in their positioning to the closest primary gravitational well.

This is how the Arrowhead is able to remain in stable flight and turn without the need of any form of wings, as well as perform manoeuvres that would otherwise kill an organic pilot within. For instance, by simply rotating both Gyroscopes inside the Arrowhead in the same direction along a horizontal plane, the craft immediately spins on its axis without changing direction, allowing it to suddenly turn around on a pursuing target and light it up with its main armament before reconfiguring its trajectory back into a stable flight configuration.

For this reason alone, the Arrowhead has earned the righteous ire and fear of all Imperial pilots who have ever faced them in battle and survived to tell the tale.

Weaponry:

Arrowheads are a significant threat to face in combat, made all the deadlier by their arsenal.

Primary Weapon: Arrowheads maintain their weapons locked beneath their plating when in cruising mode or whenever they are performing their most famous attack. Depending on the Sub-Model of the Arrowhead, one could either expect forward facing twin linked las-cannons with surprisingly high rates of fire or a missile volley, ranging up to ten fire-and-forget missiles before the craft needs to fabricate replacements.

Secondary Weapon: Arrowhead Scythes all tend to be fitted with a secondary weapon on its underside, usually geared for smaller targets like infantry. These weapons tend to vary greatly from direct energy weapons like Laser Beamers and Volkites, or kinetic weapons such as RCGs.

Power Field Blade Wreathe: The most famous weapon of the Arrowhead, even if it’s the one with least range, if only due to the sheer gal of the Men of Iron to create a fighter craft specialized for melee.

Given its sturdy design and high manoeuvrability, the Arrowhead is designed to ram against enemy aircraft to immediately achieve a kill or shatter formations, forcing a chaotic dogfight where the Arrowhead holds the advantage or is actively forcing enemy craft to focus on it while other aircraft deal the finishing blow.

This final armament converts the Scythe into a flying Power Blade capable of slicing clean through a Lightning Strike Craft without hardly loosing speed, and given its agility, entering close quarters combat with these crafts is always a deadly dance where one wrong move could result in a swift end by the reaper’s blade.

[inkwell-passion]

From The Break Of Dawn

Romero-012 wakes up after exactly 2 hours, with its armor unlocking; allowing it to stretch, and flair out its plasmatic wings, drumming them against the ground that cause small scorch marks that are dusted away.

"Diagnostics?" It asks, immediately getting the response from its other half, also Romero-012. It nods and walks out of the barracks to start the day at 6:25 on the dot. Romero-012 would boot up a sparring simulation of several orbiting discs that it is meant to tag with punches and kicks. After that unordinary morning where Seamus-124 had the conversation with the Agent, it has been trying to improve it's close-quarters-combat.

Romero-012 walks into the center and presses the start button, having its other half time it.

The moment the timer begins, she lets out a flurry of punches and kicks; finding good purchase on the discs as she does her best to maintain her kinetic energy, flowing one strike into another as she quickly clears disc after disc, finishing the training exercise in only a few seconds, but not coming anywhere close to Mathuin-076 in her opinion.

It'll continue the training regimen after the rest of its wake up routine. Heading out of the simulation bay, Romero-012 would enter the Gym allocated for the Seraphim, removing its armor plating and placing them on the rack, leaving it in the techsuit. In its techsuit, the Seraphim would start stretching; preparing its yoga routine in order to alleviate the ever present soreness within its body as a result of its augmentation.

47 minutes into its 90 minute yoga routine the door would slide open, and reveal Agent Maelstrom; causing the Seraphim to go to attention and salute the Agent, who clears his throat. "Zero Twelve, are you busy?" He asks the Seraphim.

"No Agent." It responds after dropping the Salute.

"Do you mind if I ask you to keep me company during my rounds of the facility? I could pick your brain about this new training regimen I wanted to put the Seraphim on."

"Of Course Not Agent."

The man smiles at the war machine. "Well get your armor plating on, and let's go."

[apod]

2023 March 9

DART vs Dimorphos Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins APL, DART

Explanation: On the first planetary defense test mission from planet Earth, the DART spacecraft captured this close-up on 26 September 2022, three seconds before slamming into the surface of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos. The spacecraft's outline with two long solar panels is traced at its projected point of impact between two boulders. The larger boulder is about 6.5 meters across. While the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft had a mass of some 570 kilograms, the estimated mass of Dimorphos, the smaller member of a near-Earth binary asteroid system, was about 5 billion kilograms. The direct kinetic impact of the spacecraft measurably altered the speed of Dimorphos by a fraction of a percent, reducing its 12 hour orbital period around its larger companion asteroid 65803 Didymos by about 33 minutes. Beyond successfully demonstrating a technique to change an asteroid's orbit that can prevent future asteroid strikes on planet Earth, the planetary-scale impact experiment has given the 150-meter-sized Dimorphos a comet-like tail of material.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230309.html

[the-kick-of-bones-malone]

Well it's everyday that I'm there, I just don't talk to my colleagues to initiate conversation, I'd respond but to some degree. Might be mild selective mutism, maybe, I just don't like them in general but I don't say anything about it.

Anyways, how bout you? How's things going on your side?

🐦‍⬛

Ah, I getcha.

As for things over here? It's definitely been busy. I've been thinking about the ODIN strikes a bit. Like... wouldn't it have been more security on the sat? Considering it's a kinetic orbital bombardment weapon, with the capacity for destruction at a similar range to a small tactical nuclear warhead (just without risk of nuclear fallout), you'd think it'd be more complicated to initiate for a launch. I'm talking two, maybe three keys, a sequence code. The works. And even then- designate the personnel required for a launch. Not just anybody with the keys.

But y'know.

A handful of Federation dudes and a shuttle.

Sure.

[nikproxima]

Horizon WIP Post 14

The Phalanx Class Submarines were some of the last ships of the true PSSA Naval Fleet, gargantuan submersible vessels designed to skulk under the waves of the Earth’s oceans. Construction of these 8 behemoths took nearly 20 years to complete, and once they left dry dock in 2249, they would never return, a constant circumnavigation of the planet to ensure orbital second strike at any given time. These ships were basically floating cities, 620 meters long with a crew of 700, and a displacement in excess of 150,000 tonnes. They would not be alone in their journey, out of their launch bays they could field several Recon Simurghs and at least 2 modified Screech Owls, an eye in the sky for pinpointing targets in orbit. These Screech Owls would be different, not only would they bear a naval blue paint scheme, they would trail multi mile antennas behind them in an effort to communicate with allies across the ocean. These ships, true behemoths of Earth, would be the first and last terrestrial naval vessels powered by nuclear fusion, compact Tokamaks designed to work nearly silently, supplemented by a fission reactor for emergency starts that could power a city. Unlike submarines of old, these ships did not bear the traditional hallmarks of their suboceanic predecessors, rather they were focused entirely on surface stealth, heat shielding and wake production were kept to a minimum. Onboard, in the belly of the beast, their true might was contained. Six massive angled launch tubes, each 3.5 meters in diameter, bulged from the deck of the vehicle, containing the Volk Deep Space Missile, produced in the former Russian Republic - one of the last great heaves of engineering before environmental collapse in the region forced them southwards. A launch of a Volk would bring terror and destruction, the six storable first stage engines surrounding the Torch Drive nozzle would burn bright in the night sky, before the deep blue glow of the Torch would mean that a nuclear payload was well on its way to its target. The payload itself would consist of 2 50 megaton plasma enhanced weapons, with the shaping of the charge creating a cloud of plasma to devastate capital ships in orbit or glass a planetary surface - a truly fearsome weapon the likes of which the world had never seen. The Phalanx Class would see combat for the first time in 2263, with PSSA Buckler firing its first Volk against the ICM Hana Brigade, leading their first charge against Earth in the Second Terrestrial Campaign. Buckler however, was not the aggressor in this conflict, ICM cutter Hephaestus would fire a salvo of tungsten kinetic weapons at the sub, which evaded through a successful crash dive. Buckler would score a direct hit on Hephaestus, as well as destroying two Pykrete cruisers in the area.

While 7 of the subs would serve in their combat role, each to the seven seas of Earth, PSSA Silent Shield would be converted for a different purpose. She was to serve as the COGS - Continuity of Government Ship, where the PSSA High Council would be evacuated to in the event of Loss of Command Post. Her mission was simple, protect the council for long enough that a cruiser in orbit could line up to retrieve her barebones SSTO, launched from the converted flight deck. This SSTO would not be the comfortable standard of travel so many civilians were used to, rather, it would be optimized to deliver the council and their staff with minimal equipment if the planet was deemed lost. From there, a cruiser would attempt to make the run to Lunar Space, where they could regroup with a carrier force and hunker down in the Moon’s sphere of influence. An Atrues Class Mass Confinement Carrier would rendezvous with the executive cruiser, and take over the role of COGS.

[speed-metal-punk]

One hell of a mail day. We got SVAVELDIOXID, Lifeless Dark, KOS (Kinetic Orbital Strike), TORTUR, Innocent, ENZYME, and UTROTA. Tunes for days!

[themagnificentmags]

Saving this for fun later: a month ago I read a book (Out of the Dark by David Weber) and did not like it. and then I wrote an essay about it in the group chat.

I'm gonna actually give a book ANTI-rec here because I finished it last night and I'm still thinking about it: Out of the Dark by David Weber. tl;dr the last 10% of the book wrenches the genre away from hard sci fi in a way that undercuts the first 90% of the book and comes across as a huge ass-pull

The premise: aliens (the Shongairi) are attempting to invade modern-day Earth to bring it into the fold as one of their many pre-FTL slave/"client" states

The first 90% of the book is basically a brutal beatdown of humanity. The Shongairi start off by destroying every major city and military base via orbital kinetic strikes, then move in with ground troops across the world. Since it's military sci-fi there's a lot of enthusiasm over all the cool military tech humans have (fighter jets, tanks, machine guns) and some dubious politics about US intervention in afghanistan/iran (again par for the course), but the overarching theme, over and over, is that despite any individual battles humans win, they always are losing overall -- even if the Shongairi are comically unused to fighting anything more sophisticated than crossbows and plate armor, they always control orbit and frequently use more orbital bombardment to deal with human insurrection. Again: it is brought up by basically every POV character that it is completely impossible for humans to win the war, but every human of course chooses to go down fighting. (There are a lot of sad dads with dead wives and children.)

Eventually the Shongairi decide to cut their losses and start working on how to kill all humans without getting in trouble with their bosses (they try to develop a bioweapon and are thwarted, then they decide to pull out their troops and just crack the planet with massive bombardment). However, only now, like 4 months into the invasion, 90% of the way through the book, does one of the secondary characters show up with a solution: actually, the entire time, he's been Vlad-the-Impaler Dracula, and he has magic powers that can kill entire Shongairi bases, steal their retreating ships, and capture their flagship (including "neural education" tech to train humans in galactic tech and the intended industrial base for Earth-the-client-state.

So instead of, like, a heavy and kinda depressing alien invasion novel, we get an 11th hour shift to fantasy when it was not remotely foreshadowed (yeah he's good at woodcraft/stealth, yeah he's a little weird and possessive of the POV character that interacted with him but TBH I thought he was just gay, yeah I looked it up after and it says the name he gives is one of Vlad's brothers/father/whatever) and like! Why now! Why not 4 months ago before billions more people died! Who gives a shit what the rest of the cast have been doing, them trying to survive in the unpopulated wilderness of South Carolina/Russia/Romania literally doesn't matter when fuckin Dracula could have saved the day any time! It just completely undercut the stakes of the rest of the novel.

also at the very end of the novel someone had squished a full mosquito between the pages. chefs kiss

if it had been the middle of the book turning point (or, to be fair, if it wasn't rather dry military sci fi that I was already skimming the "play with military toys" bits), I think I could have enjoyed the twist, even! like it's a cool concept! You just can't do it in hard sci fi yknow?

I think there's also a connection somewhere between the Ur-Fascism [Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak".] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism#Umberto_Eco) with how the Shongairi occupy the equal categories of hypercompetent interstellar conquerors and comedically incompetent commanders and footsoldiers, who throughout the course of the novel never even discover that humans can hear their stealth drones coming and react to counter them. They're strong when the story calls for humans to lose, and weak when the story calls for humans to win.

Ok I should get back to work but I have one more gripe. The pacing on the Dracula reveal is also fucked. The reveal, from the reader's POV, is: Romania POV character has most of the civilians he's protecting killed by Shongairi and he nearly dies. Dracula-as-human says "ok we're [me and my elite Romanian army unit] gonna Really kick their ass now" and POV army guy demands to go with them. Cut to aliens getting killed mysteriously. Cut to aliens in orbit saying "they were killed so mysteriously, go on high alert! Also they stole some tech and tortured the lead scientist alien for info". Cut to some Carolina crew filler. Cut to aliens getting killed mysteriously, this time the soon to be dead alien sees some gas, maybe it's a gas? Some speculation about illusory hologram humans being backed by other alien factions. Cut to aliens in orbit saying "fuck this, everybody leave and we'll glass the planet." Cut to aliens in orbit realizing some of the returning alien ships were highjacked, and then Dracula and Co rock up to the alien flagship, magically paralyze everyone but the commander, and save the day wooooo!!!

In a different, better book, we could have spent so much more time on like getting to know Dracula and his newly made vamps, doing prep and buildup for highjacking the ships, etc, but instead the writing is contorted to preserve the twist for the reader as long as possible. No dramatic irony, no tension on "but can they make it?", no possiblity to do character building with Dracula since preserving the twist is more important.

[weaselle]

@neobiohazardus hey, just out of curiosity, how much would you charge to draw this style of drawing for close to 100 mechs for a video game concept i keep trying to kick further toward gamehood?

And do you draw things that aren't robotic, or should i keep looking for someone who wants to draw the other two factions, which are basically fantasy races for one, and aliens for the other

the style you show above simple and small in all the best of ways, and just jumps out at me as perfect for like, concept art to get me one step closer to maybe making a video game one day, and i'd happily pay for it if i can afford your quote

as you can see, my own art skills aren't going to cut it, but should give you an idea of what i wish i could do

The Cyberians are human-minded cyborgs with downloadable/transferable minds and robotic/cybernetic support crews. When a Cyberian is killed, their mind is simply uploaded to their central server and then downloaded into a new body, which is 3D printed with one mineral-matter jet and one organic-matter jet. For a price.

To replicate food, water, and sleep needs while streamlining the player experience for the faster pacing more suitable to a MOBA ARPG with RTS and FPS elements , Player Character Cyborgs require electricity to function, water for power moves (separated into hydrogen and oxygen) mineral matter for ammunition and armor, and hydrocarbons/organic matter for healing (this can be had from many sourcres, such as oil, vegetation, or hunted creatures).

Special abilities are orbital support (like missile/laser strikes or supply drops) which costs money and may require waiting for an available satellite (variable cooldown). Cyberians specialize in kinetic and explosive damage, and maintain a physical damage option for ammunition budgeting and special counters. They can employ laser shields or physical shields; mechs and mega-class Cybernauts (whole other thing) all have at least some metal armor. Their on-world faction center is a couple of large Cyberian Citadels. The Cyberian off-world faction power base is a metropolis on one of the moons that orbit the planet.

player characters are one of three Classes: Rogue, Fighter, Support, and every character of these classes will be one of three Types: Specialist, Purist, or Movement (movement means they specialize in a type of terrain or have movement skills/bonuses like jumpjet, transport objects/personnel, or burrow) and each of these has three Skill Trees to develop

Therefore, the nine player character class types are: Rogue Specialist Rogue Purist Rogue Movement Fighter Specialist Fighter Purist Fighter Movement Support Specialist Support Purist Support Movement

and since each of these has three skill trees to go down (which include water and possibly flying variants) that means concept art for 27 Cyberian Mechs plus another 28 mega-class Cybernauts are on the table, as well as the NPC support classes:

each player has a certain number of points to spend on npc support bots, there are three size classes, each size class costs a different number of points, so a player can have a whole bunch of small support bots, or one of each size, or one big one and a few small ones etc These size classes are, small to large:

Wagon/Sub -support wagons are like small trucks about the size of a bulldog, Subs are small submarines. Wagons come in fighter and support variants, Subs come in support, fighter and worker variants

Humanoid Bot - worker and fighter variants Bot Dog/'Fin - fighter and support variants, wolf and dolphin builds

Mechabot - large robot; Bear, Hulk, Jet Suit, and Orca versions

so, like, close to twenty of these support npc designs and then a few things like signal relay posts and drop ship orbital supports and the rogue classes are typically humanoid cyborgs on robot mounts or vehicles, that adds a few and you'd be looking at something like 85 little robot-y units to draw. Of course, a huge percentage of what you already drew up there is totally useable so you could probably count almost twenty of them as done already.

i have break downs that suggest design, like so

Player Characters

Class: Rogue Type: Movement Body: humanoid cyborg

Skill Trees:

scout - robot horse invisible to enemy radar, weapons moslty long range rifle and dagger, mark enemies on team map ability , calm local creatures ability, smuggler - hover cycle & tow trailer with low altitude flight capabilities and active camouflage, weapons mostly sword & pistol, cache ability, mark loot on team map ability ranger - bear mech, combat bow & physical damage, set traps ability, tame/calm local creatures ability, mark resources on team map ability

Class: Rogue Type: Purist Body: humanoid cyborg

Skill Trees:

thief - special backstab, disarm trap, cache item, pick pocket (take a percentage of a resource from an enemy unnoticed) very short term active camouflage, short term invisible to enemy radar, bonus to sneak spy - disguise self as enemy npc, Mark All on team map, forge authorization, bonuses to sneak and hide agent - disguise, forge authorization, set traps, disarm traps, bonus to hide and crit

Class: Rogue Type: Specialist Body: humanoid cyborg

Skill Trees:

sniper - special rifle, special headshot, bonus to climb, hide and crit assassin - special strike, physical damage, bonus to crit, hide, climb, and sneak special ops - disguise, traps, disarm traps, sabotage enemy functions, forge auth, bonuses to attack speed, crit and sneak

Class: Fighter Type: Movement Body: Mech

Skill Trees:

jet jumper mech - jump-jet and glide, wing mounted large calibre machine guns, mech sword, bomb drop amphibious mech - swim and dive, torpedo launcher, surface to air rocket barrage rocket bank, AOE electric strike (bonus damage and range in water) trident, harpoon, or robot crab claw arm for melee choices digger mech - trench, wall, burrow, dozer shield, laser cutter, explosives

Class: Fighter Type: Purist Body: Mech

Skill Trees:

fighter mech - Left side: large double gun arm with mounted metal round shield on forearm Right side: large melee weapon arm, wrist-mounted small beam energy weapon, shoulder mounted cannon that can be modded for different types of damage. slightly more humanoid mech. tank mech - Left side: giant metal bulldozer-esque shield with room for a teammate or two to take cover behind, shoulder grenade launcher rounds that can either be damaging or can "explode" into stationary temporary energy shield bubbles for allies Right side: choice of slow large gun that can be modded for damage type (plasma gun, explosive rounds, flame thrower, etc) or slow large melee weapon that can be modded for damage type (giant plasma sword, electrified war axe, explosive damage war hammer, etc) wrist mounted small calibre machine gun berserker mech - melee damage specialist, high attack speed, four arms, energy shield, mechsuit possibly designed with living body cybernetic elements

etc etc

oh dang i've gone and put far too much, when i should have simply asked if you do commissions

Every* Type of Mecha

*Not Actually Every Type.

Something I spent WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much time on lol. This is entirely just riffing off of the many 'kinds' or 'tropes' in mecha design I found. Feel free to suggest more of them.

Might make a document providing examples for each one, but idk. I think most of these are pretty self-explanatory.

Tell me your favourites below