#central/commander

[master-of-the-game]

Nuances of the relationship between the Obsidian Order and the Central Command.

Fragments under the cut

[purple-nautilus]

More xcom au

[ionjuno]

some old (and new) sketches of my commander

[alwaysbewoke]

[horus-unofficial]

Cell ThreeGoblinsInATrenchcoat reporting in.

We have exposed every single Union official in our sector’s cringy high school phase.

One prospect’s printer will soon receive access to a lich.

The local social network has become completely overtaken by false accounts all managed by our NHP comrades. No conversation is had nor issue raised that we do not influence in some way.

None of the murders nor detonations have been traced back to us.

Glory to Horus, her manifold eye will soon open.

good job 👍

[alphamecha-mkii]

[redsolon]

Ultra-left dogmatism and right-wing revisionism create and reinforce each other. Commandism and tailism create and reinforce each other. Centralist cults and ultra-democracies create and reinforce each other. To advance the struggle you must advance these contradictions, not just pick your favorite error.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The US transferred thousands of machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition seized from Iran to Ukraine last week, US Central Command announced on Tuesday.

Ukraine has been suffering from shortages of weapons and munitions on the battlefield in its war against Russia, with the US unable to send more equipment from its own stockpiles until more funding is approved by Congress.

CENTCOM said the materiel transferred to Ukraine is enough to equip one Ukrainian brigade — around 4,000 personnel — with small-arms rifles. “These weapons will help Ukraine defend against Russia’s invasion,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

The munitions were originally seized by the US military and its partners “from four separate transiting stateless vessels between 22 May 2021 to 15 Feb 2023,” but the US government did not obtain ownership of the equipment via the Justice Department’s civil forfeiture process until December of last year, CENTCOM said.

It is not the first time the US has transferred seized Iranian military equipment to the Ukrainians. The US transferred over one million rounds of seized Iranian ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces in October, CNN previously reported.

Over the past year, the US Navy has seized thousands of Iranian assault rifles and more than one million rounds of ammunition from vessels used by Iran to ship weapons to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The seizures, frequently carried out with regional partner forces, target small stateless vessels on routes historically used to smuggle weapons to the Houthis.

For the last year, the Biden administration has been working to legally send the seized weapons, which are stored in CENTCOM facilities across the Middle East, to the Ukrainians.

[jbk405]

Even other Cardassians don’t like Gul Dukat

A Thirty Years Too Late Observation

Gul Dukat is one of the villains of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and has the distinction of being the longest-running of them all.  As a villain -- particularly an Imperialist and Genocidal villain -- he is despised by the primary cast who hate him and what he stands for.  That’s to be expected.  But something I find fascinating is that throughout the series it is revealed that even other Cardassians can’t stand him.

Despite the fact that he’s a Gul -- A high military rank, only below Legate in the Cardassian military hierarchy -- he isn’t respected by any of his former superiors or colleagues.

You get the first inkling in the two-parter “The Maquis” in season two.  He tells protagonist Benjamin Sisko with full sincerity that the Cardassian Central Command isn’t funneling weapons into the Demilitarized Zone, because if they were then he would know about it.  Except that they are, and just never bothered to tell him.  When the plot is discovered the Central Command even tries to blame him for it to cover up their involvement.  And it’s not as though he was an intended scapegoat all along, they just didn’t bother to loop him in beforehand.

In season three’s “Civil Defense”, an old automated defense program is activated from when Dukat was in command of the Terok Nor station years ago.  It turns out that back then his superiors had modified the program without his knowledge specifically to prevent him from being able to escape from the station, as they believed that he would inevitably try to flee from his failures.

In “Defiant”, one of the few episodes where we see Dukat ‘in his element’ in command of Cardassian forces, he is the target of near constant mockery by the Obsidian Order observer who is monitoring the event.  Some of that can be explained by the institutional rivalry between the Obsidian Order and the Central Command (Spies Vs Soldiers), except that she keeps hammering on him, not the military in general.  Even to the point of doing it in front of a Federation officer, when presenting a united front against outsiders is an established part of Cardassian society.

After Cardassia has joined the Dominion and Dukat used the situation to make himself the ruler, Tekeny Ghemor points out that there are several Guls and Legates who could oppose him internally.  Not because they hate the Dominion, but because they resent him being in authority over them.

When you piece all these different points together, you realize that Dukat was held in contempt by the Cardassian military at large.  Different Legates, different branches, all viewed him as incompetent and expendable or not worth involving.  Even at the height of his power and prestige during the Occupation of Bajor they were silently counting down until he screwed up.  It’s so widespread that it honestly makes me wonder how he ever became a Gul in the first place.  If his father hadn’t been executed by the Obsidian Order I’d think it was family connections that got him his position and initially shielded him from repercussions.

[lovethistoomuch]

expectation when watching master and commander for the first time last night: a gritty revenge story à la captain ahab chasig the unattainable object of selfish desire where the captain slowly descends into madness.

reality: a story of men on a boat loving each other oh so much.

especially these two:

[etherealvoidechoes]

Can either of you learn how to let go?

Sad-ish future scene of that VoidWalker AU.

[abitunexpected]

I think it's interesting how the cardassian government evolved as a concept in the star trek mythos from the wounded to way of the warrior

in one of the tng episodes (I think chain of command or possibly a later tng cardassian episode) Picard says that the military holds the most power over affairs on Cardassia

however its later stated in DS9, the most specific occurance I can think of is defiant, that while the detapa consul is supposed to have power over the central command and Obsidian order, the two operate independently with the consul having very little influence in the grand scheme of things

in s4 there has been a successful revolution on Cardassia prime subsequent to the fall of the Obsidian order in the gamma quadrant in s3, in return to Grace it is revealed in gul Dukat's rant subsequent to his conversation with the civilian government that they are in fact the detapa consul

I just think it's interesting how the pre s4 ds9 cardassian government changed from a military government with a civilian puppet to the worst kept secret in the alpha quadrant

[purple-nautilus]

[ellikiins]

Commander, you can’t just ask if the snakes have boobs! But we all thought it the first time around, right? Or just me?

This dude really looked for her for 20 years. Strategic genius? The aliens will destroy the world to find her? Is this the same Commander we are talking about? I do like to think she can be pretty forward and blunt, type A personality, but take away the red tape for a lack of filter. She just has the guts to say it out loud haha

[alwaysbewoke]

America is Israel's bitch

[companionwolf]

When in doubt, just draw Central again.