#Armored Unit Ammunition

[quotesfrommyreading]

Much of the public discussion of Ukraine reveals a tendency to patronize that country and others that escaped Russian rule. As Toomas Ilves, a former president of Estonia, acidly observed, “When I was at university in the mid-1970s, no one referred to Germany as ‘the former Third Reich.’ And yet today, more than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we keep on being referred to as ‘former Soviet bloc countries.’” Tropes about Ukrainian corruption abound, not without reason—but one may also legitimately ask why so many members of Congress enter the House or Senate with modest means and leave as multimillionaires, or why the children of U.S. presidents make fortunes off foreign countries, or, for that matter, why building in New York City is so infernally expensive.

The latest, richest example of Western condescension came in a report by German military intelligence that complains that although the Ukrainians are good students in their training courses, they are not following Western doctrine and, worse, are promoting officers on the basis of combat experience rather than theoretical knowledge. Similar, if less cutting, views have leaked out of the Pentagon.

Criticism by the German military of any country’s combat performance may be taken with a grain of salt. After all, the Bundeswehr has not seen serious combat in nearly eight decades. In Afghanistan, Germany was notorious for having considerably fewer than 10 percent of its thousands of in-country troops outside the wire of its forward operating bases at any time. One might further observe that when, long ago, the German army did fight wars, it, too, tended to promote experienced and successful combat leaders, as wartime armies usually do.

American complaints about the pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive and its failure to achieve rapid breakthroughs are similarly misplaced. The Ukrainians indeed received a diverse array of tanks and armored vehicles, but they have far less mine-clearing equipment than they need. They tried doing it our way—attempting to pierce dense Russian defenses and break out into open territory—and paid a price. After 10 days they decided to take a different approach, more careful and incremental, and better suited to their own capabilities (particularly their precision long-range weapons) and the challenge they faced. That is, by historical standards, fast adaptation. By contrast, the United States Army took a good four years to develop an operational approach to counterinsurgency in Iraq that yielded success in defeating the remnants of the Baathist regime and al-Qaeda-oriented terrorists.

A besetting sin of big militaries, particularly America’s, is to think that their way is either the best way or the only way. As a result of this assumption, the United States builds inferior, mirror-image militaries in smaller allies facing insurgency or external threat. These forces tend to fail because they are unsuited to their environment or simply lack the resources that the U.S. military possesses in plenty. The Vietnamese and, later, the Afghan armies are good examples of this tendency—and Washington’s postwar bad-mouthing of its slaughtered clients, rather than critical self-examination of what it set them up for, is reprehensible.

The Ukrainians are now fighting a slow, patient war in which they are dismantling Russian artillery, ammunition depots, and command posts without weapons such as American ATACMS and German Taurus missiles that would make this sensible approach faster and more effective. They know far more about fighting Russians than anyone in any Western military knows, and they are experiencing a combat environment that no Western military has encountered since World War II. Modesty, never an American strong suit, is in order.

  —  Western Diplomats Need to Stop Whining About Ukraine

#eliot a. cohen #current events #politics #ukrainian politics #american politics #warfare #strategy #tactics #diplomacy #russo-ukrainian war #2022 russian invasion of ukraine #war in afghanistan #vietnam war #ukraine #usa #toomas hendrik ilves

[captain-price-unofficially]

Video published by Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas) allegedly showing them tracking an officer in the elite Shaldag unit, Yitzhar Hoffman, before he was killed by a sniper. Hoffman is said to be responsible for the siege and storming of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

Translation:

A unit of the occupation forces is holed up in Gaza City. The images obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera allow the location of the concentration to be determined. The field command center was established in a sports club, about one kilometer away from Al-Shifa Hospital, and located within the Jawazat area, which witnessed fierce clashes between the Israeli army and the Resistance factions for weeks.

This is Yitzhar Hoffman, a platoon leader in the Shaldag Special Unit. He was responsible for drawing up a plan to besiege Al-Shifa Hospital and then storm it last November. According to photos obtained by Al Jazeera, which are being shown for the first time, the Al-Qassam Brigades monitored Hoffman's movements after storming the hospital. At the end of last January, the Al-Qassam Brigades waited for the Israeli army to announce the killing of Hoffman so that they publish pictures of the operation and identify the targeted person.

The Al-Aqsa flood was not the first confrontation in which the Qassam Brigades used sniper weapons. The developed Al-Ghoul rifle that mimics the specifications of the Austrian-made Steyr rifle, caliber 12.7 mm, has the capabilities and features of an assault rifle with an adjustable system, to transform from an assault rifle into a sniper rifle.

The Al-Qassam Brigades were able to manufacture it locally and it bore the name of one of the most prominent symbols of military manufacturing in Al-Qassam: the martyr Adnan Al-Ghoul. With the rifle, Al-Qassam produced the appropriate ammunition to enhance the rifle’s effectiveness and feasibility.

The ammunition was manufactured with three specifications:

1- Training that enable the preparation of fighters within the special units.

2-Ammunition designed to target flammable materials.

3-Used to deal with the armor and fortifications used by the Israeli army.

The impact of the locally manufactured weapons is show on battlefields, in a way that the bullet penetrates the helmet worn by the soldiers and explodes after penetration. The bullet can also penetrate the protective vest, which is supported by a metal plate that shatters when hit to cause damage to the upper area of the body. It can also penetrate and disrupt devices and systems used by the occupying army.

To put the weapon into use, the Al-Qassam Brigades trained special units of fighters within its combat formations, as the photos obtained by Al Jazeera show. Training takes place after selecting fighters who have qualities that enable them to withstand long periods of waiting to capture a potential target, the ability to work under extreme pressure in difficult field conditions, the flexibility of concealment, determining the importance of the target and making the decision of execution.

The Qassam had previously used sniper weapons in field combat in battles before 2007, when it seized medium-caliber rifles like the Russian Dragunov and Brezhnev models and the Belgian FN FAL rifle. But it suffered from limited availability, scarcity of ammunition and its high cost. Then, heavy snipers including the Austrian Steyr and the Chinese M99, were brought into the Gaza Strip through supply lines. And documented operations were carried out using them.

The Ghoul rifle is the latest weapon in the resistance’s arsenal, which according to Al Jazeera’s information, recorded a verified hitting distance of 1800 meters in Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

#modern #combat footage #2023 israel-gaza conflict #arab-israeli conflict

[ammg-old2]

Imagine that someone—perhaps a man from Florida, or maybe even a governor of Florida—criticized American support for Ukraine. Imagine that this person dismissed the war between Russia and Ukraine as a purely local matter, of no broader significance. Imagine that this person even told a far-right television personality that “while the U.S. has many vital national interests ... becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.” How would a Ukrainian respond? More to the point, how would the leader of Ukraine respond?

As it happens, an opportunity to ask that hypothetical question recently availed itself. The chair of the board of directors of The Atlantic, Laurene Powell Jobs; The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg; and I interviewed President Volodymyr Zelensky several days ago in the presidential palace in Kyiv. In the course of an hour-long conversation, Goldberg asked Zelensky what he would say to someone, perhaps a governor of Florida, who wonders why Americans should help Ukraine.

Zelensky, answering in English, told us that he would respond pragmatically. He didn’t want to appeal to the hearts of Americans, in other words, but to their heads. Were Americans to cut off Ukraine from ammunition and weapons, after all, there would be clear consequences in the real world, first for Ukraine’s neighbors but then for others:

If we will not have enough weapons, that means we will be weak. If we will be weak, they will occupy us. If they occupy us, they will be on the borders of Moldova and they will occupy Moldova. When they have occupied Moldova, they will [travel through] Belarus and they will occupy Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. That’s three Baltic countries which are members of NATO. They will occupy them. Of course, [the Balts] are brave people, and they will fight. But they are small. And they don’t have nuclear weapons. So they will be attacked by Russians because that is the policy of Russia, to take back all the countries which have been previously part of the Soviet Union.

And after that, if there were still no further response? Then, he explained, the struggle would continue:

When they will occupy NATO countries, and also be on the borders of Poland and maybe fight with Poland, the question is: Will you send all your soldiers with weapons, all your pilots, all your ships? Will you send tanks and armored vehicles with your young people? Will you do it? Because if you will not do it, you will have no NATO.

At that point, he said, Americans will face a different choice: not politicians deciding whether “to give weapons or not to give weapons” to Ukrainians, but instead, “fathers and mothers” deciding whether to send their children to fight to keep a large part of the planet, filled with America’s allies and most important trading partners, from Russian occupation.

But there would be other consequences too. One of the most horrifying weapons that Russia has used against Ukraine is the Iranian-manufactured Shahed drone, which has no purpose other than to kill civilians. After these drones are used to subdue Ukraine, Zelensky asked, how long would it be before they are used against Israel? If Russia can attack a smaller neighbor with impunity, regimes such as Iran’s are sure to take note. So then the question arises again: “When they will try to occupy Israel, will the United States help Israel? That is the question. Very pragmatic.”

Finally, Zelensky posed a third question. During the war, Ukraine has been attacked by rockets, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles—“not hundreds, but thousands”:

So what will you do when Russia will use rockets to attack your allies, to [attack] civilian people? And what will you do when Russia, after that, if they do not see [opposition] from big countries like the United States? What will you do if they will use rockets on your territory?

And this was his answer: Help us fight them here, help us defeat them here, and you won’t have to fight them anywhere else. Help us preserve some kind of open, normal society, using our soldiers and not your soldiers. That will help you preserve your open, normal society, and that of others too. Help Ukraine fight Russia now so that no one else has to fight Russia later, and so that harder and more painful choices don’t have to be made down the line.

“It’s about nature. It’s about life,” he said. “That’s it.”

#current events #warfare #politics #russian politics #american politics #russo-ukrainian war #2022 russian invasion of ukraine #russia #ukraine #usa #volodymyr zelenskyy #ron desantis #nato

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Coldshot Thoughts

I'm doing this for another operator because I took the time to figure out how she works and now I have to upstage Gamepress. That's not hard but it's my moral duty as someone who actually plays Arknights.

HP: 1,855 ATK: 958 (+105 from Trust) (Total: 1,063) DEF: 224 RES: 0 Redeployment Time: 80 seconds DP Cost: 21 Block Count: 1 Attack Interval: 1.6 seconds

Potentials DP Cost -1 Redeployment time -10 seconds DP Cost -1 Improves "Not to be Outdone" DP Cost -1

Welfares in Arknights suffer from being in a state of limbo generally. Welfares are generally decent or good units, but they very rarely fall out of these bounds. Unlike normal Operators, Welfares do not really benefit from access to their potentials: they have deliberately inflated DP cost and Redeployment Time which means that their potentials don't actually end up improving them across the board. Most Welfares are also 5-stars, which means they end up sitting in the awkward rarity where they feel like they cost more like a 6-star operator but don't quite have the same impact.

This said, Coldshot doesn't initially leave a bad impression, at least in part because the Hunter class is pretty impressively stated. They have good bulk for a Sniper (only losing to Spreadshooters), very high ATK, and a reasonable attack interval. This all comes at a rather nice 18 DP cost too.

Trait Attacks consume Ammo (not Ammunition) to increase ATK to 120%; While not attacking, Ammo will be slowly reloaded (max Capacity 8)

This is due to the Hunter trait. They can attack continuously while they have ammunition, but will have to spend time reloading once they don't. This results in some DPS loss while they have no ammunition, since there is some delay between reloading and attacking again (at most about 0.39 seconds).

Reloading is worth talking about here as well. Reloading takes the same amount of time as attacking (1.6 seconds), but isn't affected by anything that would modify the attack interval, such as ASPD. This means that while Hunters can benefit from ASPD buffs, once they need to reload, their DPS can be considered capped since they need to go through the entire reload process.

In addition, it should be noted here that Coldshot has no synergy with Chen the Holungday. Her talent won't affect Coldshot's ammo use, since they're different mechanics entirely.

The benefit here is the juicy damage increase Hunters get. This is an Attack Scale buff, which means it gets applied after all other modifiers (Inspiration, +x% Atk buffs) but before Defense. This gives Coldshot a rather fantastic damage per hit of 1,275.6 damage, which is really impressive as a base line for a Sniper class. This makes Hunters rather versatile anti-armor units thanks to their good attack interval, especially against low Weight enemies with high DEF (such as in Contingency Contract) where Besiegers are disadvantaged.

The Hunter attack range is an upgraded Lord Guard attack range, and that's honestly a pretty good place to be. She doesn't quite have the spread of the other Archer classes, but she has better penetration being able to hit 5 tiles away.

That was intentional, this is absolutely the cock and balls attack range. Helena is a trans milf and you cannot change my mind.

Next let's move to Helena's talent.

This is an interesting talent since it supports using Helena in generally low pressure lanes. Not attacking for 2 seconds is a pretty easy condition to fulfill by accident since she only needs to stop attacking for 0.4 seconds, and she gets another nice Attack Scale buff for her trouble. Attack Scale buffs stack in a multiplicative fashion, so she'll end up dealing 1.596x her attack in damage with her talent.

This brings her DPH up to 1,696.548 (yeah I've learned that Arknights doesn't round its really annoying on my eyes too) which is quite impressive. If you're sustaining her talent hits over a long period of time as soon as you can, it's worth noting that Coldshot's DPS actually goes up a bit too, which really incentives the low pressure lanes for Coldshot.

Moving onto her skills:

ATK Up gamma Auto Recovery, Manual Activation, 30 second duration Starting SP: 15, SP Cost: 30 ATK + 100%

There is not a particularly compelling reason to use Coldshot's S1. The attack buff it provides is weaker than her S2, she misses out on the Slow bonus which helps to keep enemies in Coldshot's attack range, and it has a worse duration than her S2. Even with the shorter reload time compared to her S2, her DPS is weaker thanks to the smaller ATK buff.

Party Night Auto Recovery, Manual Activation, 40 second duration Starting SP: 25, SP Cost: 40 Increases reload interval by 0.8 seconds, ATK +140%, and attacks slow the taget for 1 second.

This is the only skill that's really worth using on Coldshot. Her ATK with this skill goes up to a pretty staggering 2,551.2, and that's before adding in the ATK scale bonus innate to the Hunter class. That brings her DPH to 3061.44, and that's really impressive. It's not often you can boast damage numbers that high on a Sniper, and this also means Coldshot has a very respectable DPS while her skill is up of 1,913.4.

The extra reload time is both a drawback and a boon. It means that while Coldshot is reloading, she will always benefit from the effect of her talent, and the extra damage pushes her DPH to 4,071.7152 this rather gross looking number. 4000 DPH is genuinely impressive, but Coldshot also suffers from a DPS while having to reload, since the increase to her reload interval outweighs the extra benefits of her talent.

This puts Coldshot into a very weird spot. There's already a general shortage of enemies in the 3000 DEF range, you can tell Coldshot was teched for her event stages given the Energy mechanic, so the extra damage per hit is mostly just unnecessary, and she does suffer from the DPS drop. But hey, you wanna see a fun calc kid?

1063 * 1.35 = 1435.05 * 2.4 = 3444.12 * 1.596 = 5,496.81552

Coldshot while reloading can do meaningful damage to a non-debuffed Last Knight while her reload interval will keep her from being frozen. If you pair her with a Therapist Medic (particularly Ceylon), or have the Healer's Path - Restore Sanity book, she can DPS him while his HP is below 50% as well and won't have to worry about running out of ammo beforehand.

That rocks personally, I cannot fucking wait to try that out. That's with one Relic too. Imagine.

With this all being said, where exactly does Coldshot fit into all of this? If you were concerned about her viability, what is there to think about? One of the problems facing Coldshot is that a high DPH Sniper class is not one without competition, since Deadeyes, Heavyshooters, and Besiegers all fit in that slot too. Hunters don't quite have the ceiling that Heavyshooters like Melanite do, the range that Deadeyes like Firewatch provide, or the impressive DEF ignoring benefits of the Besieger class like Erato.

But, critically, Coldshot is really fucking easy to use, and comes with her own fun specific range benefits over the other classes. Melanite requires extreme close quarters range or ends up having worse DPS with her S1 than Coldshot. Provence can boast similarly nutty DPH numbers, but doing so is both luck based, requires enemies to be damaged, and has a strong positional requirement. Erato needs outside Sleep support to make the most out of her DEF reducing talent, Toddifons is good against exactly Sarkaz enemies, and the Deadeyes all end up with weaker DPS than Coldshot. Firewatch's DPH without her module is even weaker than Coldshot's.

(It's better with her Module though, although her DPS is still lower thanks to her longer Attack Interval.)

Every 5-star comparable operator has some tension in their kit, tension which is fun and cool to work around, but its still there. Coldshot just gets to do big funny numbers for free, with the tradeback that she will have a period where her DPS takes a hit comparatively. This ease of use is a big reason Ray is really good on CN: she's very comparable to the other 6-stars but benefits from being really easy to use. Unfortunately, this does incentivize people to not take much note of Coldshot, but let's be real for a moment.

Coldshot is pretty good, but a very what you see is what you get operator. She maintains no strong niche for the benefit of being more generally powerful. There's no real way to push her higher, meaning her ceiling won't be that impressive, but her floor is rather ridiculous. In the world of shitty Youtube thumbnails and Gamepress tier lists, sometimes you just gotta sit down and go

3000 damage is 3000 damage.

#arknights #coldshot

[homochadensistm]

WaPo recently came out with this report on al-shifa, but i haven't had the chance to read + investigate it fully yet :/ my initial reaction is that it has to be bullshit but im going to try and read it tomorrow anyway. i really respect how knowledgeable you are and how you break things down so i wanted to know your reaction to it as well fjdndksncksnf but i totally understand if you dont want to. hoping you dont caught in mercazi traffic again tomorrow !! 🧿 maybe hamas will respect shabbat... עלק

The main thing I find funny about this Super Serious Professional Report is that WaPo, back in 2014, published multiple articles admitting that Shifa was being used as a Hamas command center, stating that Hamas leaders were present in the hospital consistently.

idk what "evidence" WaPo could be looking for when multiple journalists reporting from Shifa have stated over the years that they saw rockets being launched from the hospital.

We dont even have to go that far back in time, the CCTV footage from Shifa at October 7th seals the deal. Why is a stolen IDF armored vehicle parked there 3 hours after the invasion began? why are perfectly healthy Israeli hostages being led through the corridors of the hospital? The quality of the footage is pretty good, you can clearly see that most of the Israelis being pushed around the hospital by armed gunmen (what are they doing in the hospital?) are not injured. What was Noa Marciano's body doing under the hospital? Its honestly so stupid to deny at this point.

My favorite parts however about this amazing journalistic masterpiece is:

"While the underground tunnel uncovered by Israeli forces after the raid does point to a possible militant presence underneath the hospital at some point, it does not prove that a command node was operating there during the war." ???? like....first of all, it was multiple interconnected tunnels, not one. What possible uses does a hospital have with a tunnel system blocked off by metal doors with firing holes? "possible military presence"??? We can just translate this as WaPo-speak for "well sure the hospital was used by the terror org but it wasnt specifically a command center!" girl the intl rules of war dont fucking care! if u use a hospital for any military activity it loses its protection status, period.

And "Photos released by the military later that day purported to show the full haul of weapons recovered at the hospital — about 12 AK-style rifles, in addition to magazines of ammunition and several grenades and bulletproof vests. The Post was unable to independently verify to whom the weapons belonged or how they came to be inside the radiology unit." oh WOW the post wasnt able to independently verify to whom the weapons belonged or how they ended up there?? how the fuck would you be able to verify that?? Imagine if, lets say, a field of bodies belonging to Ukrainian soldiers was discovered somewhere east of Kharkiv, and WaPo would be like "well we werent able to independently verify that these people were killed by Russian soldiers, maybe the caught the Bulletitis disease??" thats how fucking stupid it sounds. It only takes 2 minutes to check what kind of weapons the IDF carries (hint, not AK47s or Iranian-Russian made RPGs) to "independently verify" who those weapons belonged to, and if you want to claim IDF soldiers carried 100s of kgs of AK47s and other Iranian-Russian made weaponry you better show me where we can see that in the myriad of videos posted by retarded soldiers (not by official IDF releases) and how were they able to achieve such a feat, cause no amount of porridge-eating and Popeye cans will help you individually carry 80kg of clunkyass equipment throughout an incredibly dangerous, dense, urban environment just so u could place it inside a lil building.

This entire article could win the mental gymnastics olympics. Its just a huge Cope and adds absolutely nothing new to the table. The evidence is simply not enough only if you willingly dont want to actually look at it or accept it.

#israel #palestine #free palestine #from hamas #washington post being washington post

[asktheguardponies]

Equestria's most modern tank is the Caballus Mk5, the latest modernization program for an aging Main Battle Tank developed in the late 970s. The Caballus was produced in vast numbers and upgrading them was a piecemeal affair, with many Mk3s and Mk4s still in service with reserve units.

The Mk5 retained the commander's rotary MG and upgraded it with a millimeter-wave radar for better performance against fast moving targets. The main armament is a 120mm smoothbore introduced in the Mk4 variant. The loader can grab ammunition from three storage bins separated by armored bulkheads with blowout doors to protect the crew in case of fire.

The Mk5 is has very good frontal protection with enchanted armor slabs on the frontal hull and ERA panels on the turret cheeks. To address the increased weight, a new V12 turbocharged diesel was installed, giving it even better mobility.

#ask the guard ponies #ask me anything #reference #worldbuilding

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

The hatchetman

A very notable and classic 'Mech. The first produced in the Inner Sphere in centuries. An impressive and extremely effective urban fighting unit. Also, I cannot help but find it somewhat cute. Even an basic Spheretech AC/10 is not to be trifled with at such close quarters, contrary to the beliefs of some of my fellow Clan Warriors. Which that arrogant fledgling "Point Commander" Helmer found out the hard way... regardless of my reminiscing, an extra two lasers, and of course the eponymous hatchet, allow it to continue to deal damage even once it is out of ammunition, meaning it is often dangerous far longer than many other 'Mechs in urban combat. Add to that an array of Jump Jets, and it ultimately stands as a formidable ambush predator, and a danger in one-on-one duels. It does not do so well in open combat, however, though I recall one... inspired Periphery mercenary outfitting his Hatchetman with armored components, a small cockpit, and as many other survivability enhancements as he could, and then using his jump jets to close the distance even in open combat, or using the - and this is true - jump jet he'd added to his hatchet to make it into a crude and devastating ranged "tomahawk". Personally, as a somewhat unique individual among the Clans - in that I possess my own built-in melee combat weapons - I feel a strange kinship with the Hatchman. Were I to pilot one, I might migrate more towards the Kuritan -5K variant, though had I a choice, I would keep the AC/10 instead of the MRM-30. Or perhaps a hybrid of the -5K and the more contemporary -8S, keeping the sword, but otherwise sticking to the -8S design.

#battletech #mechwarrior #some more muse lore lol

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME — "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

November 19, 12:00:

IDF spokesperson: IDF soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade, together with the Armored Corps, Engineering Corps and the Israeli Air Force, operated in the Sheikh Ijlin and Rimal areas in order to identify and destroy Hamas infrastructure and assets. During the operations, the soldiers located approximately 35 tunnel shafts as well as a large number of weapons and eliminated terrorists.

Additionally, the soldiers operated in a Hamas military base belonging to the terrorist organization’s military intelligence unit. During the operation, IDF soldiers located ammunition depots and seven rocket launchers.

Embedded in the Rimal area are the residences of senior Hamas officials, who took control of the buildings in the area to conduct and direct terrorist activities. Military posts and Hamas infrastructure are also located in the area.

#Israel #Gaza #October 7 #Hamas Massacre #Iron Sword #Real Time Updates. #Merkava

[agbpaints]

So today I don't so much want to talk about some unknown mech I dug out of the bowels of Sarna, I just want to gush about a classic.

Whenever I build a list for playing Classic Battletech, I usually tend to focus a lot on my mediums and heavies. I like mechs that get into the thick of it fast and brawl and joust. Jumping jack Thunderbolts, Grasshoppers, Wolverines, Wraiths, etc. Light mechs are important too- scouts and light support and knives to push into the backs of people too busy dealing with my fast battle line. But when I get to the 80+ ton bracket I always think to myself 'why am I looking for slow fire support? I already play An Assault Mech,' and then I strap myself back into my Awesome.

Originally designed by Technicron Manufacturing in Merrick space furing the height of the Star League, the Awesome AWS-8Q was supposedly intended as a replacement for the aging Striker. The Striker itself is fairly forgettable product of early human mech design- it isn't much too write home about beyond being a janky bracket firing pile of direct fire weapons stapled onto a chassis with a questionably large engine and far too few heat sinks. I've got a feeling someone at Technicron thought the same when they looked at Stormvanger's offering.

Gone is the 320 power plant, replaced by a 240 rate fusion reactor that allows the Awesome to stride around at a stately top speed of 54 kph. All of that extra weight savings has been plowed into heat sinks to manage the Awesome's primary battery, 3 PPCs firing at unified ranges, something it does fairly well for its age with the ability to maintain a run while volleying in a 3-2-3 pattern with no decrease in performance. The Awesome is also incredibly thick skinned, carrying 97% of the potential armor its chassis weight allows, a fact that combines with its total lack of ammunition-bearing weapons to make an absolute zombie of a fire support unit- the only way to kill an 8Q is to core out the center torso or kill its pilot. That isn't to say it's without weakness- the low speed of the mech combined with the safety interlocks on the particle guns and the lack of any secondary weapons beyond a single head-mounted small laser means the Awesome is vulnerable to flanking attacks, especially whilst operating unsupported. Something for commanders to consider when fielding or facing. The 8Q is an absolute classic of a mech that continues to deliver well despite its age.

The Awesome has many variants (a few very good, a lot weird and LRM based because the purple parakeet spent most of the succession wars stapling every PPC they could get onto their Awesomes and still coming up short) but I'll just go over my own ride of choice. After an early and fairly mediocre modernization package in the 9M which mostly just made the Awesome more like the Striker (over-engined, under-sinked, and with a return to pointless ammo-bearing sidearms to threaten the precious 320 XL engine), Technicron delivered their own take on a 31st century Awesome in the form of the AWS-9Q in 3057. If the 8Q is a classic car, the 9Q is what happens when someone looks at that car and asks 'what if we super charged the hell out of it?' Unlike many other IS designs of the era, the 9Q is very deliberate with its use of lostech, simply cutting 9 heat sinks and replacing the rest with far more efficient double freezers. Those 9 extra tons play host to the mech's 4th PPC, an ECM suite, and the last available half ton of armor. As far as I'm concerned, the AWS-9Q is the zenith of Inner Sphere assault mech design prior to the adoption of clan tech and God's perfect direct fire support platform. Once it finds its hill, it will pump out PPC shots in a steady 4-4-3 pattern until the enemy removes it, and for a mear 1,875 bv or 7,456,050 c-bills, that's a damn good deal.

So, the next time you're building your inner sphere lists, consider the Awesome. It might not match the flashiness of the Clan assaults or the versatility of something like a Battlemaster, but it does beat them in terms of efficiently cranking out armor-stripping salvos until the enemy is scrap. And that's pretty awesome

#hobby #battletech #battlemech #mech talk #assault mech #awesome

[mariacallous]

More than two-thirds of the Russian tanks that Ukraine’s military has destroyed in recent months have been taken out using first-person-view (FPV) drones, a NATO official told Foreign Policy, an increasing sign of Kyiv’s reliance on the unpiloted aircraft as it awaits more artillery ammunition from the United States and other Western countries. 

With much-needed funding and artillery rounds held up in Washington, the Ukrainian military has largely turned to FPV drones to carry out anti-tank attacks. Ukrainian troops operate the drones via a controller and are able to watch the machines’ “suicide” attacks on Russian vehicles through video feeds, which now play on a loop on Ukrainian social media channels on Telegram and other platforms.

In the third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, FPV drones have become nearly ubiquitous on the Ukrainian battlefield. Many of them can carry 10 pounds of explosives or more, and after nearly 780 days of nonstop war, drone pilots on both sides have gotten plenty of practice. 

“I used to shoot such ‘cinematic’ videos with the help of FPV-drones before the war,” Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Anton Ptushkin posted on X (formerly Twitter) last November. “Now we use FPV to defend our land.” 

But for every success, there are nearly as many blooper reel-worthy incidents. These aren’t the $20 million-a-piece Predator drones that the United States uses to hunt terrorist targets in the Middle East. These are inexpensive off-the-shelf drones that go for $400. They have cheap cameras, making them more difficult to aim at night or in cloudy weather, and they often carry improvised munitions such as grenades or homebuilt bombs, which sometimes detonate midflight. Some are duds. In one video shared on Telegram, a Ukrainian FPV drone gets stuck in the front window of a Russian minivan and doesn’t explode. Others hit Russian quadcopters and tanks that have already been abandoned. “What we’re seeing probably is a fraction of what’s actually happening,” said Samuel Bendett, an advisor at CNA and a member of the think tank’s Russia studies program. “FPV drones have a short range. So even if the Ukrainians lack enough long-range artillery, they can only use a few drones up to 10 kilometers [about 6 miles] because that’s the normal range.”

Analysts tracking the Ukrainian military believe the attacks are having mixed results. Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia program who last traveled to Ukraine to embed last November, said the overall accuracy of FPV drones is less than 50 percent. It’s an experienced pilot who is going to score a “kill” of a tank—and the soldiers inside—with an FPV drone, not a newbie.

Even those drones that get through Russia’s increasingly sophisticated, if unchic, countermeasures—boxes of signals equipment strapped to tanks—might not deal a fatal blow. “You usually don’t kill a tank the first few times,” Lee said. “It can take 10 or more [FPV drones] to kill a tank.” 

Still, Russia has a good reason to cover up its tanks with camouflage and jamming equipment, Lee said. It is running low on armored vehicles and tanks. If Ukraine keeps attriting at this rate and Russia keeps sending in more tanks to replace the destroyed ones at the rate it has been, the Kremlin could lose its numerical edge in tanks, which could make it more difficult for the Russians to carry out offensive operations in the future. 

But Russia still has more troops. “The issue is that Russia’s getting a lot of manpower,” Lee added.

The all-out use of cheap drones indicates that the Ukrainians are turning to increasingly desperate measures to improvise weapons to fight back the Russian assault, which has moved farther west into the contested areas of Donetsk. Ukraine is using a network of microphones—similar to the one you might find on your iPhone—to sense incoming targets. The microphones are good enough to classify what type of munition is coming in, what direction it’s going, and what trajectory it’s on just by using acoustics. 

And with limited air defense munitions, Ukrainian troops have rigged heavy machines with sensors to shoot down most of the Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones that are overflying their positions. The NATO official, speaking anonymously based on conditions set by the alliance, said Ukraine’s hit rate against Shahed drones with simple machine guns and small caliber weapons is about 80 percent. It’s not a complete fix, though: Ukrainian officials have spent recent days urging the United States to send more Patriot air defense systems. 

And the FPV drones are not a match for artillery ammunition when it comes to keeping up a high rate of fire or for creating explosive effects. They can also be more expensive. “You cannot replace a 155 [mm] shell,” one Ukrainian official said. “It’s like replacing a Kalashnikov with a small gun.” And artillery is immune to electronic warfare. It’s just a bombshell that’s flying through the air. 

The rapid pace of innovation for drones has made U.S. military leaders second-guess big, expensive drone programs. The future, officials think, will be cheap and attritable. 

“I don’t think we could buy a drone and say it’s going to be in our formation for the next 20 years,” U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said. “We can’t do that.”

It’s not clear how effective they will be in the long term. But like improvised explosive devices in the Iraq War, cheap drones have revolutionized the battlefield—for now.

“It’s possible that any vehicle, any system, any soldier that moves on the Ukrainian battlefield right now can be seen, observed, and ultimately hit with a [unmanned aerial vehicle],” said Bendett, the CNA advisor. “There’s no such thing as just moving around uncontested anymore.”

[checkxmaster]

"The hell is your problem, dude? Did you seriously forget about me? Or what, you think I'm a clone? Be for real."

It was getting dark, so Chad pulled his armored vehicle over to the side of the road and set about preparing to settling in for the night. Over the years, he'd accumulated a lot of tech to help him survive, from computers and GPS, to motion sensors, timers, and alarms. Generators and power storage units were essential, as were solar panels and other methods of harnessing power as electrical grids began to fail seemingly everywhere.

Some of the tech he built himself, having raided hardware stores for parts, and others he'd acquired from abandoned police stations and homes. It passed the time, to sit and occupy himself with building computers, or to set up surveillance systems, or to create spreadsheets to catalogue all of his supplies, and he liked to keep his skills sharp. Why? He didn't really know anymore. Maybe it just kept him sane. He had about a million flashlights, flares, weapons, and a multitude of ammunition types, complete with all the batteries, solar chargers, hardware enhancements, additional parts, and optional adjustments he could store.

Metal boxes, backpacks, and duffel bags were stacked in an almost hedge-maze-like fashion inside the armored vehicle he'd taken over after it had been abandoned by the military. His bed was little more than a shelf nestled into all this organized chaos, but he found it strangely comforting to be boxed in while he slept... especially since he was alone most of the time.

Occasionally he joined up with some survivors, but he found it difficult to remain with them. Their goals were vastly different, with civilians wanting to find somewhere safe to hunker down and barricade, and Chad wanting to keep on the move to see what he could do to screw Umbrella over or help other people.

He'd gotten his motion sensor perimeter up around his mobile home, as it were, and had just taken his nightly dose of painkillers so he'd have half a chance of sleeping. The deep scars from where the licker had grabbed him as well as the pain of a few broken bones that hadn't quite healed properly from being thrown off the train on the way out of the Hive had him pretty much in near-constant pain. He'd learned to live with it, and as long as he was busy and moving, he could ignore it. At night, though, he needed some extra help from good ol' pharmaceuticals. Just over-the-counter, though, nothing too heavy. He couldn't risk not being able to wake up if something significant went down. And absolutely nothing with an Umbrella logo on the bottle.

That was when one of his alarms went off, indicating that something was moving in the near vicinity of the vehicle. "Really?" he groaned, his head falling to the right as he lay in his bed to look at the screen across the way. Sure enough, it was blinking. Sighing, he sat up and typed away, looking at the camera feed indicating movement. To his severe disappointment, it wasn't one of the undead. It looked like a soldier of some kind. "Just perfect," he said cynically. Grabbing a couple guns, he went out to investigate. What he found was... startling, to say the least.

It... it was Rain. His heart began to pound. No, Rain's dead. Don't get fooled again by those stupid clones. Man, they were creepy... Clones of his now-deceased friends and comrades that often times acted nothing like the originals. The Rain ones... were always particularly nasty. He lifted his rifle, leveling it at her. "That's far enough," he said coldly, assuming this was a clone. How can it not be?

But then she spoke, and almost simultaneously he began to notice that she looked a bit older. The clones always looked young, pristine. Swallowing hard, Chad found it difficult to breathe with how vigorously his heart was now pounding, rattling his ribcage. Faltering a little in his resolve, the tip of his rifle slowly dipped a bit and he stared incredulously at her.

"N-no, I-... Of course I didn't forget about you, but..." But you're dead. You've gotta be. Forgetting Rain - or anyone else he'd lost in the Hive due to his incompetence, poor planning, and cracking under the pressure - was never an option. He saw their faces almost nightly in the twisted horrors of his guilt-fueled nightmares.

Chad blinked, not knowing what to do. The rifle lowered just a bit more at the mention of clones. "Yeah, actually, that's exactly what I'm thinking. Wait, you're-... Are you telling me you're not a clone?" Oh, how he wanted to believe that, but he'd been fooled before, almost fatally. "Come on, don't fuck with me..." he said, more with a crestfallen type of exhaustion than with any sort of real intimidation attempt. "If you're not a clone... then prove it."

If this really was Rain, the real Rain, then he was about to feel like a huge jerk momentarily. But if it wasn't... he couldn't afford to let his guard down...

#wanderingaroundwithmysoul #kaplan rp #{ on to the next mission } ʷᵃⁿᵈᵉʳⁱⁿᵍ ᵛᵉʳˢᵉ #{yassss let's get these two back in the saddle again haha}

[workersolidarity]

🇷🇺🇺🇦🚨 OVERNIGHT UPDATE ON THE RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR DAY 618

In the Kherson direction:

A Russian recognizance unit inside Krynky was destroyed as a result of Ukrainian ambush and shelling, destroying roughly 10 soldiers as they exited the village on its southwestern outskirts.

Russian Forces were heavily shelling the Krynky area using TOS Flamethrower systems.

On the second Ukrainian foothold south of Prydniprovske, Russian Forces were bombing and shelling the forward Ukrainian positions using FPV Drones in the hope of preventing the development of the foothold in this area.

In the Zaporizhzhia direction:

Ukrainian Forces launched offensive operations to the southeast of Robotyne using armored personnel carriers and judging by the video evidence, were destroyed.

Meanwhile, Russian Forces were heavily bombing Ukrainians positions west of Verbove using FPV drones on the forward positions of Ukrainian Forces in this region, no changes in territory.

Russian Forces launched strikes against the accumulation of Ukrainian ammunition in the fortified positions in the fields southeast of Novodanylivka, resulting in a significant explosion, suggesting an ammunition depot was in fact destroyed. Secondary explosions were recorded.

In the Novomykhailivka area:

Russian Forces continued bombing and shelling Ukrainian positions in the central part of Novomykhailivka using FAB500 bombs. This story has been on repeat all week.

In the Avdiivka direction:

Video evidence suggests Ukrainian Forces have a significantly vast underground network of tunnels in the northern Avdiivka area, not unlike the tunnel network Russian Forces used to destroy Ukrainian positions to the south of the city recently.

In the Bakhmut Direction:

North of Bakhmut, to the west of Yahidne, Russian Forces were heavily using FPV Drones to hammer the forward positions of Ukrainian Forces in the fields following the rail lines where Russian Forces developed their positions here, taking a small strip of territory in recent days.

Keep in mind that with the breakout of conflict in the occupied Palestine area and the difficulty of American authorities to produce ammunition, funding and equipment to continue Ukrainian resistance, ammunition and equipment is severely lacking for Ukrainian Forces, mostly forcing their forces to depend on commercial FPV drones to provide cover for their forces and to defend territory from Russian operations.

The result has been largely standstill for Ukrainian Forces and we only see the development of positions where ammunition has not yet run dry, such as by the footholds in the Kherson direction.

As a result, American authorities are pressuring the Zelensky regime to consider a negotiated settlement or ceasefire, however so far Ukrainian authorities have rejected the suggestion and Russian authorities have made it clear a ceasefire is out of the questions due to a lack of trust by Russian leaders in the intentions of American authorities, believing a ceasefire would just mean the rearming and reconstitution of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

@WorkerSolidarityNews

#russo ukrainian war #ukraine #ukraine news #russia #russia news #special military operation #russian smo #smo #eurasia #eastern europe #news #politics #war #geopolitics #war news #world news #global news #international news #international affairs #breaking news #current events #us news #zelensky #vladimir putin #political news #global conflict #update #war update

[walkingthroughthisworld]

Military Armed Forces The M1A2 Abrams Main battle tank. M1A2 (Baseline) : Production began in 1986 and entered service in 1992 (77 built for the US and more than 600 M1s upgraded to M1A2, 315 for Saudi Arabia, 218 for Kuwait). The M1A2 offers the tank commander an independent thermal sight and ability to, in rapid sequence, shoot at two targets without the need to acquire each one sequentially, also 2nd generation depleted uranium armor components. M1A2 SEP (System Enhancement Package) : Has upgraded third-generation depleted uranium armor components with graphite coating (240 new built, 300 M1A2s upgraded to M1A2 SEP for the USA, also unknown numbers of upgraded basic M1s and M1IPs, also 400 oldest M1A1s upgraded to M1A2 SEP) M1A2 SEPv2 : Added Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station as standard, color displays, improved interfaces, a new operating system, improved front and side armor with ERA (TUSK kit), tank-infantry phone as standard, and an upgraded transmission for better durability. M1A2C (SEPv3) : Has increased power generation and distribution, better communications and networking, new Vehicle Health Management System (VHMS) and Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs) for improved maintenance, an Ammunition DataLink (ADL) to use airburst rounds, improved counter-IED armor package, improved FLIR using long- and mid-wave infrared, a low-profile CROWS RWS, and an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) under armor to run electronics while stationary instead of the engine, visually distinguishing the version by a small exhaust at the left rear. Prototypes began testing in 2015, and the first were delivered in October 2017. Fielding is expected to begin in 2020. M1A2D (SEPv4) : Under engineering development with delivery planned to start by 2020. The Commander’s Primary Sight, also known as the Commander’s Independent Thermal Viewer, and Gunner’s Primary Sight will be upgraded with 3rd Gen FLIR, an improved laser rangefinder and color cameras. Additional improvements will include advanced meteorological sensors, laser warning/detection receivers, directional smoke grenade launchers and integration of the new XM1147 multi-purpose (AMP) 120 mm tank round. The AN/VVR-4 laser warning receiver and ROSY rapid obscurant system have been trialed by the US Army for adoption on the Abrams tank and Bradley fighting vehicle.

[transmechanicus]

Played my second game of 40k, my Admech against also my Death Guard so a friend could learn, and dear god is it fucking impossible to shift them. I brought Robots and a unit of Kataphrons and i was still in dire need of something with at least 3AP. I’m out here emptying the whole museum of exotic ammunition and trying to buff intelligently only for countless wounds to evaporate on his save rolls. How in the goddamn are space marines losing, every time i fight something in power armor i regret not bringing tanks.

#my stuff #wh40k #i won on points but also i realized after the game i had misread the Kastelan datasheet on the last turn as T10😳 #like um…there’s a reason everything is bouncing off them #i know i played correctly the rest of the time and we were gonna call it at turn 4 due to time constraints #but still oops #i killed 1 squad of plague marines all game and 7/9 of em were due to Kastelan fists in conqueror protocol #girl HELP these bitches will NOT die #like i tried everything! Enriched rounds! Elimination Volley! Volkite! #if it didn’t have 3AP it didn’t do dick!!

[glvlvukcan]

What Could Happen

(SOPA Images / Getty)

 

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Ukraine is fighting for the lives of its people and its very existence, and it is running out of ammunition. If the United States does not step back in with aid, Russia could eventually win this war.

Despite the twaddle from propagandists in Moscow (and a few academics in the United States), Russia’s war is not about NATO, or borders, or the balance of power. The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin intends to absorb Ukraine into a new Russian empire, and he will eradicate the Ukrainians if they refuse to accept his rule. Europe is in the midst of the largest war on the continent since Nazi panzers rolled from Norway to Greece, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is by far the most important threat to world peace since the worst days of the Cold War. In a less febrile political era, defeating Russia would be the top priority of every American politician.

The Republicans in Congress, however, remain fixated both on their hatred of Ukraine and on their affection for Russia. Their relentless criticism of assistance to Kyiv has had its intended effect, taking a bite out of the American public’s support for continuing aid, especially as the war has been crowded out by the torrent of more recent news, including Donald Trump’s endless legal troubles and Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

And so it’s time to think more seriously about what might happen if the Republicans succeed in this irresponsible effort to blockade any further assistance to Ukraine. The collapse and dismemberment of a nation of millions is immediately at stake, and that should be enough for any American to be appalled at the GOP’s obstructionism. But the peace of the world itself could rest on what Congress does—or does not do—next.

First, what would it even mean for Russia to “win”? A Russian victory does not require sending Moscow’s tanks into Kyiv, even if that were possible. (The Russians have taken immense losses in manpower and armor, and they would have to fight house-to-house as they approached the capital.) Putin is reckless and a poor strategist, but he is not stupid: He knows that he doesn’t need to plant the Russian flag on the Mother Ukraine statue just yet. He can instead tear Ukraine apart, piece by piece.

The destruction of Ukraine would begin with some kind of cease-fire offered by a Ukrainian leadership that has literally run out of bullets, bombs, and bodies. (The average age of Ukraine’s soldiers is already over 40; there are not that many more men to draft.) The Russians would signal a willingness to deal only with a new Ukrainian regime, perhaps some “government of national salvation” that would exist solely to save whatever would be left of a rump Ukrainian state in the western part of the country while handing everything else over to the Kremlin.

The Russians would then dictate more terms: The United States and NATO would be told to pound sand. Ukraine would have to destroy its weapons and convert its sizable army into a small and weak constabulary force. Areas under Russian control would become, by fiat, parts of Russia. The remaining thing called “Ukraine” would be a demilitarized puppet state, kept from integration of any kind with Europe; in a few years, an internal putsch or a Russian-led coup could produce a new government that would request final union with the Russian Federation. Soon, Ukraine would be part of a new Russian superstate, with Russian forces on NATO’s borders as “peacekeepers” or “border guards,” a ploy the Russians have used in Central Asia since the 1990s.

Imagine the world as Putin (and other dictators, including in China) might see it even a few years from now if Russia wins in 2024: America stood by, paralyzed and shamed, as Ukraine was torn to pieces, as millions of people and many thousands of square miles were added to the Kremlin’s empire, and as U.S. alliances in Europe and then around the world quietly disintegrated—all of which will be even more of a delight in Moscow and Beijing if Americans decide to add the ultimate gift of voting the ignorant and isolationist Trump back into the White House.

The real danger for the U.S. and Europe would begin after Ukraine is crushed, when only NATO would remain as the final barrier to Putin’s dreams of evolving into a new emperor of Eurasia. Putin has never accepted the legitimate existence of Ukraine, but like the unreformed Soviet nostalgist that he is, he has a particular hatred for NATO. After the collapse of Ukraine, he would want to take bolder steps to prove that the Atlantic Alliance is an illusion, a lie promulgated by cowards who would never dare to stop the Kremlin from reclaiming its former Soviet and Russian imperial possessions.

Reckless and emboldened, emotional and facing his own mortality, Putin would be tempted to extend his winning streak and try one last throw of the dice, this time against NATO itself. He would not try to invade all of Europe; he would instead seek to replicate the success of his 2014 capture of Crimea—only this time on NATO territory. Putin might, for example, declare that his commitment to the Russian-speaking peoples of the former Soviet Union compels him to defend Russians in one of the Baltic states. After some Kremlin-sponsored agitation close to the Russian border, Russian forces (including more of the special forces known as “little green men”) might seize a small piece of territory and call it a Russian “safe zone” or “haven”—violating NATO sovereignty while also sticking it to the West for similar attempts many years ago, using similar terms, to protect the Bosnians from Russia’s friends, the Serbs.

The Kremlin would then sit on this piece of NATO territory, daring America and Europe to respond, in order to prove that NATO lacks the courage to fight for its members, and that whatever the strength of the alliance between, say, Washington and London, no one is going to die—or risk nuclear war—for some town in Estonia.

Should Putin actually do any of this, however, he would be making a drastic mistake. Dictators continually misunderstand democracies, believing them to be weak and unwilling to fight. Democracies, including the United States, do hate to fight—until roused to action. Republicans might soon succeed in forcing the United States to abandon Ukraine, but if fighting breaks out in Europe between Russia and America’s closest allies—old and new—no one, not even a President Trump, who has expressed his hostility to NATO and professed his admiration for Putin, is going to be able to keep the United States out of the battle, not least because U.S. forces will inevitably be among NATO’s casualties.

And at that point, anything could happen. The world, should Russia win, will face remarkable new dangers—and for what? Because in 2024 some astonishingly venal and ambitious politicians wanted to hedge their bets and kiss Trump’s ring one more time? Perhaps enough Republicans will come to their senses in time to avert these possible outcomes. If they do not, future historians—that is, if anyone is left to record what happened—will be perplexed at how a small coterie of American politicians were so willing to trade the safety of the planet for a few more years of power.

From The Atlanic Newsletter Feb 9th 2024

#politics #gop #donald trump #ukraine #russia

[thatpocketninja]

PERSONNEL FILE: ASHI [M.S.R.S.]

Incredible art by @sugarflow

INFO DUMP

Personality:

Ashi finds great fun in their work, and is generally very upbeat and excitable. As an assassin mech, Ashi lacks the ability to comprehend the value of a human life, unable to really grasp the weight of their actions. They love to show off and really push their abilities during combat, often resulting is unnecessarily brutal executions. Some testers have raised concerns that Ashi comes off as a sociopathic killing machine, and worry that they might turn on their superiors at any moment. But this is the United States military, so that's really a plus.

Ashi is preprogrammed with the prime directive to accomplish their objective at any cost. any deviation from their orders can be grounds to have them reset, or decommissioned. The only thing that rivals their commitment to the mission is their loyalty, initially to their superiors, but more specifically to their partner, Ika (more on Ika coming).

Many officers have reported strange behavior from Ashi regarding the on base slushie machines. Stating that the mech can often be spotted dumping the slushie mix on its primary optic, almost as if it is attempting to drink it. Aside from increased slushie requisitions from base Fharon, this odd quirk has yet to be problematic, so it is largely ignored.

A note on AI personality: It is currently a mystery how AI come to develop personalities of their own, as they are not programmed with them. The current working theory is that an AI may develop a personality influenced by their prime directives and by observing influential people in their early days of operation.

Technical specifications:

Ashi is the second of 3 true AIs created by humans, Commissioned by the United States military, they stand at about 7' tall, and specialize in stealth, speed, and lethality. Able to operate behind enemy lines, they make a perfect assassin, or hunter.

Ashi's entire system runs on a fusion reactor in their torso, generating enough power to operate as long as their systems are kept cool. Emergency power is stored in their backpack, in case of a reactor failure.

Ashi's main strength is their speed. Sustainably running at 90MPH, but can sprint even faster with the use of the phase core. The phase core is a highly experimental piece of technology allowing Ashi to manipulate their mass, enabling acceleration and top speeds that would otherwise be impossible. At full power, the phase core can be utilized for a short range teleport to get out of harms way. However, due to its immense heat generation, the phase core must be used sparingly to avoid permanently damaging Ashi's systems.

Ashi's retractable plasma blades are an incredibly lethal CQC option. Able to cut through nearly any material, they are effective against mechs and people alike.

A high powered railgun is Ashi's primary weapon. It can be used as a short-mid range assault rifle, or a long range sniper rifle. With varying levels of charge, the lowest of which being too powerful for people, and the highest requiring Ashi to lay prone when firing, it can pierce even the heaviest armor. The railgun comes with custom made ammunition, however in a pinch, any magnetic metal that can fit inside the chamber can be used as ammo.

For defense, Ashi has light plate armor. While robust and durable, it can be pierced with higher caliber rounds and anti-tank artillery (if you can hit them). Explosives are also effective. This armor is actually lighter than the armor standard fodder/infantry mechs are equipped with, on account of the fact that hitting Ashi is near impossible.

Ashi works seamlessly with their partner, Ika, who is designed to cover all of their weaknesses. Namely overwhelming numbers, and heavily armored targets.

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Thanks for reading! (if anyone actually reads all this i might cry). I may add more to this post when I think of it, so be sure to check back if you see me reblogging it!

Okay byeeee! :3

#writeblr #OC #oc #original character #character design #character concept #character art #sci fi #sci fi writing #pocketwrites #Ashi MSRS