lancer-hannibal

[lancer-hannibal]

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE!!!

I'd add 'be gay, do crime', but I think a lot of you already got that covered, so I'd recommend 'be queer, observe safety protocols when using stress as a ressource'.

[lancer-hannibal]

There is a lot of valid criticism concerning the Barbarossa, but there is also something said about the psychological aspect of combat. The Apocalypse Rail is easily recognizable, and its charging time certainly adds to the fear a Barbarossa can evoke. You have a hulking beast of a mech, no subtlety at all, charging its gun, pointed right at the door of your fort. Yes, there are weapons that can do the same faster, but sometimes you don't want efficiency but intimidation. The charging gives the enemy time to consider: maybe yielding doesn't sound so bad, maybe you can pick another battle.

The Barbarossa, and with it the Apocalypse Rail, is a symbol, and as that, it functions exceedingly well.

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.

[lancer-hannibal]

Sometimes I get the unrelenting urge to yell at Tokugawa pilots for all the unsafe modifications they pile onto their mech in addition to the fact that it is a fucking Tokugawa.

Then I remember that they know all this very well, but decide to do it anyways.

But PLEASE, for all that you hold dear, don't run your cables right along your Heat Sink. I'm gonna scream.

[lancer-hannibal]

The pain only people who grew up in a bureaucratic hellhole know: losing a form with an important number on it.

Hour 1: Blissfully ignorant I begin with a few calls. Office A tells me office B is in charge, office B refers me to office A. Office C tells me office D is responsible, but they are currently restructuring and are not reachable for individual persons. I start to rifle through my storeroom aboard our ship.

Hour 4: I find the letter the important number was sent with, but the second page is missing (I stored it separately so I wouldn't throw it in the trash on accident).

Hour 7: I find the code for my old bank account I terminated five years ago, and am exposed to the thoughts of my 19 years old self via an old document living in one of my dusty backups. Trying to remember my old desk layout to guess were I could have stored it.

Hour 9: Lunchtime. My friend asks me to explain my sorting system, to try and refresh my memory, hopefully uncovering an important clue in the process.

Hour 12: No results. I go to bed unsatisfied. Can't sleep, but suddenly remember I gave the number to one of my university friends. I plan to contact them, but then remember they joined a Far-Field Team.

I JUST WANT MY FUCKING UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ACCESS!

[lancer-hannibal]

Thank you! They are going to have a great time with it!

From what I can tell Scipio (the person in question) had a bad experience with simulacra once, but I don't know for sure. They had been running and adapting combat sims for a while before we met, so there are quite a few things I don't know about them. We are working on giving them more physical options, but they are, understandibly, pretty picky.

I know it is generally a bad idea to ask the collective omninet for advice, but there are not a lot of options at the moment.

My friends birthday(?) is coming up, and I want to get him a present. Problem is: they are an NHP. That of course doesn't change anything about them per se, but what it does mean, is that they currently don't have a physical body. (The closest thing to a physical presence is a drone he commands whenever we are on a mission.)

So what can you get a person that has access to the omninet, no physical body, and a hyperfixation on warfare tactics, cultural sciences and mythological studies?

I wasn't invited to too many birthday parties, so I can't claim a lot of experience in that area. General tips (NHP or not) would be welcome as well!

[lancer-hannibal]

I know it is generally a bad idea to ask the collective omninet for advice, but there are not a lot of options at the moment.

My friends birthday(?) is coming up, and I want to get him a present. Problem is: they are an NHP. That of course doesn't change anything about them per se, but what it does mean, is that they currently don't have a physical body. (The closest thing to a physical presence is a drone he commands whenever we are on a mission.)

So what can you get a person that has access to the omninet, no physical body, and a hyperfixation on warfare tactics, cultural sciences and mythological studies?

I wasn't invited to too many birthday parties, so I can't claim a lot of experience in that area. General tips (NHP or not) would be welcome as well!

[lancer-hannibal]

So I had some time to reflect on my impression on my lost relative, and I'm not quite sure if I like him.

Cons:

He is pretty solid Armoury material. He knows why he serves, and is pretty adamant about it.

Liking him will probably get me uninvited from the next family gathering (not that I would have been able to make it).

He has a disconcerting... aura(?) about him (but I am told I do as well, so I am not really one to judge).

Pros:

His husband is very kind.

His house has an enormous library.

He treated me to a fresh spinach lasagna.

He got booted from the family by his older sister because he 'stole' something his mother explicitly wanted him to have (I have a lot of these kind of stories about my distant relatives, so I think I can believe him about this).

No matter if I like him or not, he at least got me to reflect a bit more about my family history, and why we got our relatively high social rank. It seems like a worthwhile effort, unrelated to whatever else my colleagues might accomplish on Arkady II.

[lancer-hannibal]

As it turns out I actually DO have a relative that lives more than a one month travel from Ras Shamra away. Interesting because nobody ever talked about him. Even more interesting is that he is apparently a succesful naval officer, so now I'm really interested who he insulted to be kicked out of the family tree.

We are going to meet in a few hours, so let's hope that he doesn't behave the way I normally anticipate from officers that are active in the Dawnline Shore.

[lancer-hannibal]

It has been a surprisingly long time since I posted on the Omninet, but I can't say I am surprised. I spent the better part of a month to get our permits for landing on DS2 (Arkady II/Barr/Underthrone/whatever your nav computer named it) in order. A horrible experience, but I can now add "successfully tricked port authorities" onto my CV.

[lancer-hannibal]

Harrison Armory finally presents its Year of the Snake ensemble. Security Captain Valentina Santoso makes a rare return to Ras Shamra, dressed in an outfit that conveys both her military standing and minor celebrity status among the core territories of Harrison Armory. For better or worse, all HA rank and file know The Dirty Worker.

The brief sojourn has her in uncommonly good spirits, she's here to review the results of the Armory's new prototype frame—the Gustav. The return signifies changes in the year to come. New equipment, new assignments, and most importantly for Santoso Company, new enemies.

[lancer-hannibal]

I have been hard at work on the frame I recently found (not that there is much else to do while in transit). I discovered that it has great synergie with drones, and I couldn't resist a training match. Sadly our Hydra pilot was the one who agreed to a spar.

I know they had no choice, but I feel deeply betrayed by my little drone children. We all talk about how disturbing HORUS mechs are, but I think we all disregard the emotional toll it takes to see your little mechanical friends abandoning you.

0/10. Can't recommend bringing drones to a Hydra fight.

[lancer-hannibal]

So, I have someone in my family serving in the naval branch and are in possesion of form F-38527, officially establishing me as their next of kin. If I want to know if they are still alive, which office would be responsible for the enquiry? Is it dependent on where they were deployed?

The last time I was on Ras Shamra it was a minor office of the navy, but there were talks about changing it in a future bureaucratic revision.

--- HANNIBAL [@lancer-hannibal]

Due to recent bureaucratic revisions, the official Harrison Armory personnel locator service has indeed changed. Due to an uptick in enlistment numbers caused by unrest in the Dawnline Shore, the personnel locator service has gained its own office with vastly expanded staff.

In order to locate an active duty service member and ascertain their status, you must submit a request to the Legionnaire Locator Service. In your message, please include the Legionnaire’s full name, citizen identification number, rank, last known duty station, and a copy of form F-38527.

Due to the traffic this office often receives, it may take the LLS several days to process your request and locate the requested Legionnaire despite the new office’s vastly expanded capabilities. Processing speeds have improved drastically, however, with the average wait time being three days as opposed to two months. When waiting for your request to be processed, please take into account the possible differences in day length between your world and Ras Shamra.

[lancer-hannibal]

Update: I was able to acquire the jet system through a friend of a friend. I don't know where or how she got it, but I am pleased nonetheless.

PSA: Do not by the Size 1/2 fuel tanks from a scroundrel named Hartmann from the workshop of the same name! They are NOT heat resistant when used for longer amounts of time!

I recently found a nanite-using frame on a mission, and Surus' nanites and the other's acclimated nicely to each other. It seems I have a new restoration project on my hands.

Does anyone know where I can get a decent hover-capable jet system in the Long Rim? Price isn't as a big as a factor as compliance to GMS security standards.

[lancer-hannibal]

I recently found a nanite-using frame on a mission, and Surus' nanites and the other's acclimated nicely to each other. It seems I have a new restoration project on my hands.

Does anyone know where I can get a decent hover-capable jet system in the Long Rim? Price isn't as a big as a factor as compliance to GMS security standards.

[lancer-hannibal]

Attachment: [[observation_433.log]]

These are my current notes, pretty messy, but hopefully not too cryptic. They are mainly focused on my Balor, as well as a Hydra and a Lich which I am currently doing maintenance on. Addendum I and II are focused on the Minotaur/Calendula and Manticore respectively. I regularly see them in action, but their pilots don't really trust me with them yet. Addendum III is basically everything that is left.

I am going to sort through them and properly update when I get something new. Good luck!

Horus tech is so intriguing and odd and something I want to at least try to understand. I'm not an expert on the paracausal, no, but I am interested in the engineering side of how the hell a gun that both exists and doesn't exist at the same time works. Or the engineering side of how any of their stuff works.

The only thing I wonder is how bad of an idea it might be to seek out Horus and its technology is.

[lancer-hannibal]

I mean, given that HORUS is not really a singular group, it could go badly, just as likely as it could go great. But you should always operate under the assumption that there is something more than you can see.

It is fascinating though, so I can absolutely understand you. I have access to some HORUS tech, so if there is anything specific you are interested in I might be able to send you some of my observation notes. It is not much, but it could serve as an adequate starting point for your own research.

Be warned though, from an engineering standpoint it is pretty frustrating. I understand why some just chalk it up to "space shenanigans" and let it be.

Horus tech is so intriguing and odd and something I want to at least try to understand. I'm not an expert on the paracausal, no, but I am interested in the engineering side of how the hell a gun that both exists and doesn't exist at the same time works. Or the engineering side of how any of their stuff works.

The only thing I wonder is how bad of an idea it might be to seek out Horus and its technology is.

[lancer-hannibal]

Well, the historical Hannibal lost an eye on a campaign, and since I wear an eyepatch sometimes...

The origin of it is an after work evening with my (now former) colleagues which included a pub quiz with a whole section about historical commanders. Definitely one of the less exciting stories, but also embarrassment free, so I can't complain.

I wonder…

Hey, to any other lancers on the Omninet who see this(or people with callsigns in general), how’d you get your callsigns?

I imagine a lot of these are stupid because that’s how a lot of them are, but I got Delta from, during basic training, always getting assigned to point delta in practice missions. Without fail, every time. At some point people just started saying “Delta,” and I would say, “I’m on it,” and that sort of sounds like they’re just calling me ‘Delta,’ so the name stuck.