aim-hai-strike-true

[aim-hai-strike-true]

I promised not to hook up my rifle into the ships power supply to create an improvised deep space death ray...

However unaffiliated stations on the other hand...

It has been too long since I've heard from the Bailey's I hope they are okay and if I find out any house of stone bastard hurt those good boys I'm gonna cry.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

(Hai shakes Sadia's hand eagerly, and twirls a blue-black lock of hair with their free hand. Radha, shorter and encased in a hardsuit, does the same with a degree of measured formality.)

That-

(Hai pauses to light a cigarette)

Would be due to a rapid series of unfortunate events that flipped lifelong allegiances firmly on their heads and-

(Radha cuts xem off, shaking her head)

Forge saved our lives and offered us a place aboard the ship where we might put our skills to use.

While disembarking the Leviathan, Forge and her crew are greeted by a shout from the next berth over. Sadia, her yellow coat fluttering, waves at them as she strides out from beneath the checkered prow of her starship. MAC's monolithic subaltern follows at a more stately pace.

Hey, folks! Fancy meeting you here!

@cosmariner

- Ahoy there !

- Wonderful to see you again, and I’m loving the coat ! Good to see you and the star in good shape.

- Ah yes !

[FORGE gestures first to her left - indicating yarrow and the armoured bulk of In Anger Clad’s new body, then to her right - encompassing Hai and Radha. ]

- Yarrow and ‘Clad you’ve met of course, but I don’t think you’ve met our chief engineer Hai and their partner and fellow pilot Radha.

- Don’t worry about the rest of the crew, I’ve ordered our re-supply with station staff and it should be delivered before our departure, so the rest are on shore leave.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

While disembarking the Leviathan, Forge and her crew are greeted by a shout from the next berth over. Sadia, her yellow coat fluttering, waves at them as she strides out from beneath the checkered prow of her starship. MAC's monolithic subaltern follows at a more stately pace.

Hey, folks! Fancy meeting you here!

@cosmariner

- Ahoy there !

- Wonderful to see you again, and I’m loving the coat ! Good to see you and the star in good shape.

- Ah yes !

[FORGE gestures first to her left - indicating yarrow and the armoured bulk of In Anger Clad’s new body, then to her right - encompassing Hai and Radha. ]

- Yarrow and ‘Clad you’ve met of course, but I don’t think you’ve met our chief engineer Hai and their partner and fellow pilot Radha.

- Don’t worry about the rest of the crew, I’ve ordered our re-supply with station staff and it should be delivered before our departure, so the rest are on shore leave.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

Þhat maelti min modir

Standa upp Í stáfni

Ping. Ping. Ping.

A marker appears on sensors. It's 100,000 km out and closing; probably a ship, moving slow, near the end of a braking burn if you had to guess. As it moves closer, an identifier pops up—a familiar one. It's registered as the "Shooting Star" in your system. It's also sent you a message.

Hey, Forge!

Found myself nearby and figured I'd swing around to say hi. You and Janissary free for a day or two? There's a station I stopped at a couple hours ago that has some killer tacos.

//Cpt. Sadia Çech

@cosmariner

- Hell ! I’ll be damned !

- Pleasure to hear from you again Cpt !

- I think we can probably manage a day or two. Hey Yarrow ! Get your dancing shoes on ! We’re going for tacos !

- We’ll be there. For some repairs to make, and ammo to stock up on. You can meet the rest of the crew.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

Excellent, my beloved can add this to her spreadsheet.

Clad. How much simmunition have we used already?

>> The uptick in training exercises has depleted our simmunition stockpile by 28%, and live-fire drills account for 13% of our standard munitions.

>> The overall combat efficacy of the crew has increased 57%, which reduces munitions waste.

>> Please also inform Radha that we will not be using excessive combat stimulants to eke out another 5% efficacy per exercise.

][ In Anger Clad ][

[aim-hai-strike-true]

Already on it Captain.

Ping. Ping. Ping.

A marker appears on sensors. It's 100,000 km out and closing; probably a ship, moving slow, near the end of a braking burn if you had to guess. As it moves closer, an identifier pops up—a familiar one. It's registered as the "Shooting Star" in your system. It's also sent you a message.

Hey, Forge!

Found myself nearby and figured I'd swing around to say hi. You and Janissary free for a day or two? There's a station I stopped at a couple hours ago that has some killer tacos.

//Cpt. Sadia Çech

@cosmariner

- Hell ! I’ll be damned !

- Pleasure to hear from you again Cpt !

- I think we can probably manage a day or two. Hey Yarrow ! Get your dancing shoes on ! We’re going for tacos !

- We’ll be there. For some repairs to make, and ammo to stock up on. You can meet the rest of the crew.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

You should transition NOW

-Han Jae-

[aim-hai-strike-true]

It will be done Ma'am.

- All crew

[FORGE sounds… tired. Struggling to draw breath and hissing in pain every few minutes]

- The hangar is still off limits due to excess heat venting, but the rest of the ship is now safe to use.

- It is advised that you remain at least lightly armed as we do not know whether the intruder is still at large.

- Please report any sighting to the warden, or the first mate.

- @aim-hai-strike-true, as chief engineer I would ask you to seal the Worldkiller in its hangar bay for the moment.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

My beloved and I had blast pointing out the various innacuracies.

Hello! We here would like to thank everyone who attended our newest professor, Francine Angela Rivera’s lecture on Karrakin Politics and Culture! She claims to have enjoyed her experience, and is excited to teach a full class on the subject soon!

Prof. Rivera extends personal thank yous to everyone who came, and made it a wild refuel first experience!

- The UCCC staff

[aim-hai-strike-true]

(Back in the mech now) That, they did.

Let's hope the old coolant system still works.

(Without warning, a cloud of glass-like particles engulfs the frames, droplet by droplet cooling the genghis)

Coooome on...

N O T A R A T , L I T T L E B I R D .

D I D N ' T Y O U R M O T H E R T E L L Y O U N O T T O P L A Y W I T H F I R E ?

- W H O

- COWARD

- I WILL MOUNT YOUR CARCASS TO MY HULL WITH THE OTHERS

- FACE ME AND BURN

- I HAVE BARELY BEGUN TO FAN THE FLAMES

[{faint alarms can be heard as the flames that were previously dying down around the Worldkiller flare like a dying star, stripping paint and incinerating any debris left in the hangar entryway.}]

- YOU WILL BURN

[aim-hai-strike-true]

You're still all manual, right? Because if you're plugged into a neural bridge, that could mean some very bad things.

(Glassy eye's back pries itself open, and Hai, dressed in a hardsuit and all too cautious, steps out.)

Passions- it's like the deep desert in here! I'll get you out but... gosh...

N O T A R A T , L I T T L E B I R D .

D I D N ' T Y O U R M O T H E R T E L L Y O U N O T T O P L A Y W I T H F I R E ?

- W H O

- COWARD

- I WILL MOUNT YOUR CARCASS TO MY HULL WITH THE OTHERS

- FACE ME AND BURN

- I HAVE BARELY BEGUN TO FAN THE FLAMES

[{faint alarms can be heard as the flames that were previously dying down around the Worldkiller flare like a dying star, stripping paint and incinerating any debris left in the hangar entryway.}]

- YOU WILL BURN

[aim-hai-strike-true]

On it. ATHENA class is working their magic... I'm receiving far too many signatures for that to be possible. Something is distorting my sensors.

N O T A R A T , L I T T L E B I R D .

D I D N ' T Y O U R M O T H E R T E L L Y O U N O T T O P L A Y W I T H F I R E ?

- W H O

- COWARD

- I WILL MOUNT YOUR CARCASS TO MY HULL WITH THE OTHERS

- FACE ME AND BURN

- I HAVE BARELY BEGUN TO FAN THE FLAMES

[{faint alarms can be heard as the flames that were previously dying down around the Worldkiller flare like a dying star, stripping paint and incinerating any debris left in the hangar entryway.}]

- YOU WILL BURN

[aim-hai-strike-true]

That escalated quickly.

Yeah I'm coupling the Banshee at half power, this is too much BS to deal wi-

We're on open comms Love.

N O T A R A T , L I T T L E B I R D .

D I D N ' T Y O U R M O T H E R T E L L Y O U N O T T O P L A Y W I T H F I R E ?

- W H O

- COWARD

- I WILL MOUNT YOUR CARCASS TO MY HULL WITH THE OTHERS

- FACE ME AND BURN

- I HAVE BARELY BEGUN TO FAN THE FLAMES

[{faint alarms can be heard as the flames that were previously dying down around the Worldkiller flare like a dying star, stripping paint and incinerating any debris left in the hangar entryway.}]

- YOU WILL BURN

[aim-hai-strike-true]

NOW WERE TALKING

Engaging simulacrum

OVERCHARGING MY REACTOR TO GET HERE BUT IM COMIN'

Yes dear we can hear you from here.

N O T A R A T , L I T T L E B I R D .

D I D N ' T Y O U R M O T H E R T E L L Y O U N O T T O P L A Y W I T H F I R E ?

- W H O

- COWARD

- I WILL MOUNT YOUR CARCASS TO MY HULL WITH THE OTHERS

- FACE ME AND BURN

- I HAVE BARELY BEGUN TO FAN THE FLAMES

[{faint alarms can be heard as the flames that were previously dying down around the Worldkiller flare like a dying star, stripping paint and incinerating any debris left in the hangar entryway.}]

- YOU WILL BURN

[aim-hai-strike-true]

Ooc: spoilers for belladonna from the abyss and the iron jannisary

Ooc: I know, thank you tho. The Banshee is a spinal tachlance's firing mechanism, stripped down to its barest bones, and miniaturised to hell (Hai is ex RKF and has max engineeringand invent + create AND some bond powers from the builder) and it's still over twice the size of the rest of the mech. Mechanically, it can average 25 ap energy damage + 8 burn, plus an extra 20 from a lucifer class nhp. All from a range of 30.

So yeah. Given the apocalypse rail is a MINIATURISED spool weapon and the Banshee is averaging about half of that from the same range, I'd classify it as an auxiliary naval weapon.

Shipkillers, Part One

Shady marketing materials will sometimes claim a weapon from a particularly license is “ship scale” or “naval grade”. Some pilots will also claim that the custom, overpowered monstrosity they’ve attached to their Mech is a “ship-class” gun. But what does that mean, anyway?

On a purely technical level, it means absolutely nothing. All of these terms are fluff and marketing buzzwords. There is no formal or official definition of what is and isn’t a naval weapon. At the most literal level, if someone bolted a GMS Type-I Pistol to the side of a freighter then any Frame equipped with a Type-I Pistol is technically armed with a “ship gun”.

A more realistic definition for so-called “naval weapons” is that they are dedicated ship-to-ship weapons that have been scaled down for use on a Mech, Mech weapons that have been scaled up into a ship-to-ship weapon, or Mech weapons that operate using the same principles as a popular ship-to-ship weapon.

In a hilarious twist the Pinaka missile launcher is a simultaneous example of both the first and second definitions*, while Harrison Armory’s Tachyon Lance is a pretty straightforward example of the third.

All that being said, claiming a chassis weapon is a “naval gun” because it has a loose naval counterpart is like claiming something is an artillery mech because it’s equipped with an IPS-N. hand cannon. The hand cannon uses explosive propellant to launch a high-caliber projectile just like the GMS Type-III howitzer and HA siege cannon, and even has “cannon” in its name! That still doesn’t make it an artillery cannon.

There is one major exception to this, and it’s the main reason we even have to have this discussion. So let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the Apocalypse Rail.

First, we need to clear up some misconceptions. The Apocalypse Rail does not use the same technology as the long and short-spool guns found on warships. It was never put on a ship, and it was never meant to be put on a ship. Not in its current form, at least.

The Apocalypse Rail was originally a scale test of an entirely new type of spool weapon that Harrison Armory hoped would eventually replace existing spinal spoon guns. It was released to the general public as a form of crowd-sourced field testing, to give HA engineers live data they could use to help work out the kinks before attempting to put it on a ship.

Getting it to the point it could actually be deployed to a real battlefield was the tricky part. It was too big, too volatile, and required too much power to include as a standalone weapon. So instead they built the Apocalypse Rail around the only Chassis big enough to handle it: the new (at the time) Barbossa frame. Or the Barbossa was built around the Apocalypse Rail, depending on who you ask.

Unfortunately for those desiring taxonomic precision, this came with a PR problem. The Barbossa was built under the explicit orders of John Creighton Harrison II. It was supposed to, and this is a direct quote, “stand as the unstoppable image of Harrison I”. There was no way HA was going to let words “miniature”, “small”, or “light” be affiliated with the signature superweapon of the biggest frame they’d ever released, a frame that was supposed to be an idol to their beloved founder. So instead of an accurate classification like “small-scale gravitational spool gun” or “miniature exponential gravitic catapult”, the weapon was marketed as a “ship-class spool weapon”.

…which is where the problems start.

There’s no shortage of people who like to perform statistical analyses of Mechs and their equipment, and there’s no end of data for them to comb through: official specs, field tests, action reports, simulations accurate down to the last spec of dust, videos of weird stunts someone pulled in the Long Rim, and so much more. The official reports done by corporations or nationstates almost never see the light of day, but plenty of others are willing to take a more public stab at it. Some of these are extremely methodical and well researched, some are hot garbage, and virtually all of them have at least some bias (intentional or otherwise).

The Omninet is flooded with articles, videos, and think pieces on each and every major Frame, most arguing why the Frame is either the best thing ever or utter trash. While it has its supporters, the Barbarossa rarely comes out well in these sorts of amateur reviews. A common complaint (aside from its ridiculous size) is that the terrifying Apocalypse Rail is overhyped. It's easy to find a weapon that can be modified to hit just hard as the Apocalypse Rail does against an unarmored or lightly armored target, without the Rail's many drawbacks. For example, according to most reports a full burst from a stock Leviathan Heavy Assault Cannon has higher average damage than an Apocalypse Rail, and a mech with a Leviathan doesn't need to sit still while their gun charges.

This causes some misunderstandings. Pilots look at the numbers for their over-caliber artillery cannon or super-charged turbolaser and see that it's averaging as much or more damage as the legendary "ship-class spool weapon". If the Apocalypse Rail is a ship-scale weapon and their gun hits just as hard, they must be carrying naval ordinance too!

What most people forget is that the Apocalypse Rail wasn't designed to shoot at Frames, or aircraft, or tanks. It's honestly wasted against them, like trying to kill ants with a sledgehammer. The Rail was designed to be used against hundred-meter long slabs of armor that can't dodge or take cover. It's an anti-ship, anti-fortification weapon, and that's where it shows its true power.

An IPS-N portable bunker can shrug off hits from siege cannons, Pinaka missile barrages, and fully-charged solidcore lasers. It’s four times as thick as the GMS Pattern-A Jericho deployable cover, designed to tank sustained barrages from super-heavy ordinance.

An Apocalypse Rail can destroy a portable bunker in a single shot.

Even if you somehow doubled the bunker's thickness and put it under two overlapping Aegis shield generators, a fully-charged Apocalypse Rail will still vaporize the bunker in a single hit. It’s that powerful. So why does it suck?

To put it bluntly, the Apocalypse Rail can barely hit the broadside of a barn. It has a deviation measured in meters. This shouldn't come as a surprise: it's a highly volatile weapon system built directly into an infamously clumsy Frame that must be totally stationary while charging and firing. Everything from gravity to humidity to atmospheric pressure to density of air particulates can impact the weapon's accuracy, and that's not even getting into the fact that enemies usually won't sit perfectly still so they can be shot. Unless the Rail is shooting at a large building, a direct hit is almost impossible. So instead of aiming at their target, most pilots will aim at something near their target.

Infantry, Frames, vehicles, and similar units don’t take damage from an Apocalypse Rail’s projectile: they get damaged by the shockwave from the projectile impacting nearby. This keeps misses from unintentionally rearranging landmarks several dozen kilometers away, and a fully charged Rail is so powerful that even a near miss can severely damage most units. It doesn't always work, however, which is how you get those amusing images of people standing in the molten crater of an Apocalypse Rail impact, totally unharmed despite everything around them having been vaporized.

Against large orbital targets, which move in predictable ways and don’t have as much terrestrial nonsense to complicate the shot, the Apocalypse Rail is devastating. In an orbital defense role, its range and damage exceed almost any other chassis-based weapon system on the market. Thus, while it isn't purpose-built for the job, the Apocalypse Rail is still the closest thing most pilots ever get to putting “true” naval ordinance on a Mech.

But dedicated Frame-mounted anti-ship weapons do exist. They’re known as “Shipkillers”.

To be continued…

*: The Pinaka was based on a ship-to-ship missile system, which was sized down for use on a mechanized Chassis. The original naval weapon was phased out, but the Pinaka performed so well as part of the Monarch license that SSC scaled it back up and rereleased it as part of their LIMITD line of naval weapons.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

You see this is why I refer to the Banshee as the equivalent of an auxiliary naval weapon.

The "rifle" was, originally, a naval scale tachyon lance. I had to spend over a year retrofitting, stripping down and miniaturising the firing mechanism alone to get what she is now.

In spite of the ability to core most anythings with ease, she's still a pop gun in comparison to real spinal weapons.

...

Still need to test what happens if I put back thr original amplifiers-

Shipkillers, Part One

Shady marketing materials will sometimes claim a weapon from a particularly license is “ship scale” or “naval grade”. Some pilots will also claim that the custom, overpowered monstrosity they’ve attached to their Mech is a “ship-class” gun. But what does that mean, anyway?

On a purely technical level, it means absolutely nothing. All of these terms are fluff and marketing buzzwords. There is no formal or official definition of what is and isn’t a naval weapon. At the most literal level, if someone bolted a GMS Type-I Pistol to the side of a freighter then any Frame equipped with a Type-I Pistol is technically armed with a “ship gun”.

A more realistic definition for so-called “naval weapons” is that they are dedicated ship-to-ship weapons that have been scaled down for use on a Mech, Mech weapons that have been scaled up into a ship-to-ship weapon, or Mech weapons that operate using the same principles as a popular ship-to-ship weapon.

In a hilarious twist the Pinaka missile launcher is a simultaneous example of both the first and second definitions*, while Harrison Armory’s Tachyon Lance is a pretty straightforward example of the third.

All that being said, claiming a chassis weapon is a “naval gun” because it has a loose naval counterpart is like claiming something is an artillery mech because it’s equipped with an IPS-N. hand cannon. The hand cannon uses explosive propellant to launch a high-caliber projectile just like the GMS Type-III howitzer and HA siege cannon, and even has “cannon” in its name! That still doesn’t make it an artillery cannon.

There is one major exception to this, and it’s the main reason we even have to have this discussion. So let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the Apocalypse Rail.

First, we need to clear up some misconceptions. The Apocalypse Rail does not use the same technology as the long and short-spool guns found on warships. It was never put on a ship, and it was never meant to be put on a ship. Not in its current form, at least.

The Apocalypse Rail was originally a scale test of an entirely new type of spool weapon that Harrison Armory hoped would eventually replace existing spinal spoon guns. It was released to the general public as a form of crowd-sourced field testing, to give HA engineers live data they could use to help work out the kinks before attempting to put it on a ship.

Getting it to the point it could actually be deployed to a real battlefield was the tricky part. It was too big, too volatile, and required too much power to include as a standalone weapon. So instead they built the Apocalypse Rail around the only Chassis big enough to handle it: the new (at the time) Barbossa frame. Or the Barbossa was built around the Apocalypse Rail, depending on who you ask.

Unfortunately for those desiring taxonomic precision, this came with a PR problem. The Barbossa was built under the explicit orders of John Creighton Harrison II. It was supposed to, and this is a direct quote, “stand as the unstoppable image of Harrison I”. There was no way HA was going to let words “miniature”, “small”, or “light” be affiliated with the signature superweapon of the biggest frame they’d ever released, a frame that was supposed to be an idol to their beloved founder. So instead of an accurate classification like “small-scale gravitational spool gun” or “miniature exponential gravitic catapult”, the weapon was marketed as a “ship-class spool weapon”.

…which is where the problems start.

There’s no shortage of people who like to perform statistical analyses of Mechs and their equipment, and there’s no end of data for them to comb through: official specs, field tests, action reports, simulations accurate down to the last spec of dust, videos of weird stunts someone pulled in the Long Rim, and so much more. The official reports done by corporations or nationstates almost never see the light of day, but plenty of others are willing to take a more public stab at it. Some of these are extremely methodical and well researched, some are hot garbage, and virtually all of them have at least some bias (intentional or otherwise).

The Omninet is flooded with articles, videos, and think pieces on each and every major Frame, most arguing why the Frame is either the best thing ever or utter trash. While it has its supporters, the Barbarossa rarely comes out well in these sorts of amateur reviews. A common complaint (aside from its ridiculous size) is that the terrifying Apocalypse Rail is overhyped. It's easy to find a weapon that can be modified to hit just hard as the Apocalypse Rail does against an unarmored or lightly armored target, without the Rail's many drawbacks. For example, according to most reports a full burst from a stock Leviathan Heavy Assault Cannon has higher average damage than an Apocalypse Rail, and a mech with a Leviathan doesn't need to sit still while their gun charges.

This causes some misunderstandings. Pilots look at the numbers for their over-caliber artillery cannon or super-charged turbolaser and see that it's averaging as much or more damage as the legendary "ship-class spool weapon". If the Apocalypse Rail is a ship-scale weapon and their gun hits just as hard, they must be carrying naval ordinance too!

What most people forget is that the Apocalypse Rail wasn't designed to shoot at Frames, or aircraft, or tanks. It's honestly wasted against them, like trying to kill ants with a sledgehammer. The Rail was designed to be used against hundred-meter long slabs of armor that can't dodge or take cover. It's an anti-ship, anti-fortification weapon, and that's where it shows its true power.

An IPS-N portable bunker can shrug off hits from siege cannons, Pinaka missile barrages, and fully-charged solidcore lasers. It’s four times as thick as the GMS Pattern-A Jericho deployable cover, designed to tank sustained barrages from super-heavy ordinance.

An Apocalypse Rail can destroy a portable bunker in a single shot.

Even if you somehow doubled the bunker's thickness and put it under two overlapping Aegis shield generators, a fully-charged Apocalypse Rail will still vaporize the bunker in a single hit. It’s that powerful. So why does it suck?

To put it bluntly, the Apocalypse Rail can barely hit the broadside of a barn. It has a deviation measured in meters. This shouldn't come as a surprise: it's a highly volatile weapon system built directly into an infamously clumsy Frame that must be totally stationary while charging and firing. Everything from gravity to humidity to atmospheric pressure to density of air particulates can impact the weapon's accuracy, and that's not even getting into the fact that enemies usually won't sit perfectly still so they can be shot. Unless the Rail is shooting at a large building, a direct hit is almost impossible. So instead of aiming at their target, most pilots will aim at something near their target.

Infantry, Frames, vehicles, and similar units don’t take damage from an Apocalypse Rail’s projectile: they get damaged by the shockwave from the projectile impacting nearby. This keeps misses from unintentionally rearranging landmarks several dozen kilometers away, and a fully charged Rail is so powerful that even a near miss can severely damage most units. It doesn't always work, however, which is how you get those amusing images of people standing in the molten crater of an Apocalypse Rail impact, totally unharmed despite everything around them having been vaporized.

Against large orbital targets, which move in predictable ways and don’t have as much terrestrial nonsense to complicate the shot, the Apocalypse Rail is devastating. In an orbital defense role, its range and damage exceed almost any other chassis-based weapon system on the market. Thus, while it isn't purpose-built for the job, the Apocalypse Rail is still the closest thing most pilots ever get to putting “true” naval ordinance on a Mech.

But dedicated Frame-mounted anti-ship weapons do exist. They’re known as “Shipkillers”.

To be continued…

*: The Pinaka was based on a ship-to-ship missile system, which was sized down for use on a mechanized Chassis. The original naval weapon was phased out, but the Pinaka performed so well as part of the Monarch license that SSC scaled it back up and rereleased it as part of their LIMITD line of naval weapons.

[aim-hai-strike-true]

I just got onto the outer hull...

- Fuck it. There will be no rats on my ship.

[{switching broadcast}]

- All crew, return to quarters and seal your doors.

- Do not leave until I give the word, unless you are confident you can survive hellfire.

- that goes for pilots too. I want one of you in each of the crucial rooms just in case.

- No more fucking rats. I’m burning them out.