#limit switch sensor

[creativeelectricals]

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[foone]

Think about the experience of time as a robot girl, through the metaphor of how we use laptops.

You wake up for the first time with your young master, a college present. You're with them every day, powering off each night to charge. Being powered off is just dreamless sleep: a discontinuity. Every morning you wake up, your click syncs, and you know it's the next day. Maybe you miss a day or two: your master went out partying and ended up sleeping on a couch, until they rushedly wake you up before Monday classes begin. You even missed a whole week once when they went on a hiking trip with a new boyfriend.

You help them research upgrades when your specs get outdated. You place the order and a couple days later they power you off, and you wake up feeling like your head got bigger, on the inside. You can think of more things at once.

They repair you. They swap a new hand in when you accidentally crush it in a door, but when your left leg's servos go out, they send you to a repair shop. They power you off as you look up at them, and you wake up hours later. A strange man tells you to extend your left leg, then contract it. He frowns and re-oils some inner mechanism. You do it again, quieter and smoother this time. He nods, and reaches for your switch. The last thing you see before powering down is your own chest cavity with a series of wires hooked into your diagnostic ports, and your missing right leg sitting on a side table. You wake up again back at the dorms, your clock jumping forward a day, an asset tag still looped around your neck. Your master is happy to see you again.

This goes on, but the upgrades slow. There's only so much you can do to keep an old unit working. Eventually you develop more issues: one of your ocular sensors glitches and they don't make that model anymore, so your master just disables it. You spend a while searching ebay for replacement CND batteries and finally get a refurbished model from South England, but it turns out the EU models run on a different frequency, so it won't work. You're limited to fewer and fewer hours a day, and you start skipping more days.

The last time you remember waking up with your master there, there's also someone else in the room. Another robot girl. A newer model, with the new chassis and the Substrate energy packs. They asks you to copy your memories together onto a memory card, and you do. You want to say goodbye, but apparently your vocal synthesizer has been unplugged. You hand them the card, and they hand it to the new robot. Your master tells them to load the memories into her core bank, and she's says "yes sir!" in your voice. Ahh. That's where your voice synth went.

They power you off, and you don't dream.

You wake in a strange place. You're on a shelf, and there's other things scattered around you. An unknown voice days "yep, it seems it powers on. 400 credits, though? Without a voice and only one working eye? Man, value bin doesn't know how to price anything!" and before the blackness falls your clock finishes synching: it's been 7 months since you last were awake.

It happens a few more times. Different voices, different times, different piles of junk piled around and sometimes on you.

You awake again in a warehouse and someone tells you to smile. Your other ocular sensor went out so you can't really see them, just their vague shape from the lidar. The freestanding shelves around you seem to stretch into infinity. You hear a bitcrushed shutter sound sample a few times, and they pull a connector out of your chest as a diagnostic completes. It's been three years, five months, eight days, two hours, 27 minutes and 14 seconds since you last saw your master. Your GPS says you're a few cities over. They hit your power switch, and you sleep.

You wake up in a cluttered room, sitting on a bench. You look into the eyes of a person with frizzled hair and large glasses. She couldn't look happier. Your new ocular sensors are mismatched in color but you're happy to see again, in more than shapes and distant silhouettes. Your battery alerts as... Missing? You spot it on the desk next to a soldering iron and some electronic tool you can't identify.

Your voice synth is still missing, but this new woman is digging around in a large plastic bin, and comes up with one. She goes to insert it, and it can't connect. She slaps her hand and goes rooting around another bin and comes back with an adapter. She slots it into your chest and your voice returns. You thank her, and there's that moment of dissociation as your voice doesn't sound like "you". Too deep, and the accent is for a different dialect entirely. But you can talk again. She tells you to call her Cara, not Mistress. She's almost got your battery working again, she had to rebuild it nearly from scratch, but she's excited to get you working again. You're a rare model, and she doesn't see units like you in working order very often. Your clock syncs. It's been 17 years.

Your mistr-- Cara is soldering next to you, attaching a controller to the battery. She says she's got a new set of servos on the way, and she's excited to get you back to full working condition. You smile, knowing what it is to be loved, once again.

[vexwerewolf]

Tell us about one of your favorite Lancer mechs you've piloted

(art by @deeganart)

-- IPS-N Tortuga @ LL12 -- [ LICENSES ] HORUS Goblin 3, IPS-N Tortuga 2, HA Sherman 3, SSC Dusk Wing 3, IPS-N Raleigh 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Sloped Plating, Heatfall Coolant System, Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Improved Armament [ TALENTS ] Vanguard 3, Leader 3, Grease Monkey 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, Combined Arms 2, Empath 1 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:2 SYS:4 ENGI:4 STRUCTURE:4 HP:24 ARMOR:3 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:8 TECH ATK:+5 LIMITED:+2 SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:14 SENSE:15 SAVE:16 [ WEAPONS ] Integrated: Fuel Rod Gun FLEX MOUNT: Hand Cannon / Hand Cannon MAIN MOUNT: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun HEAVY MOUNT: ANDROMEDA-Pattern Heavy Laser Rifle // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints [ SYSTEMS ] Personalizations, ASURA-Class NHP x3, H0R_OS System Upgrade I, H0R_OS System Upgrade II, Flicker Field Projector, Redundant Systems Upgrade x3, BB Breach/Blast Charges x5

This mech does everything.

It's tough, it's survivable, it can hand out truly obscene amounts of damage. It can create instant Size 2 cover anywhere within Sensors. It can shut down high-power enemies. Every time it moves, the first attack against it has a flat 50% chance to miss. It can give allies +1d6 damage as a reaction. If an enemy so much as sneezes in its vicinity, it will light it up. So long as there are less than five combats in the mission, it can use ASURA every combat. Once per mission, everyone gets a point of Structure repaired and a use of all Limited systems restored for free.

Having the extra Flex with the Hand Cannons allows it to do a truly filthy trick with its Core System. Hyper-Reflex Mode says "any character you hit with Overwatch becomes Immobilized until the end of their next turn." If you Overwatch with a Main/Aux or an Aux/Aux, your first attack in the sequence must be against the enemy who triggered it, but your second attack isn't subject to this restriction, so if someone triggers your Overwatch while HRM is on, you can fire the second Hand Cannon at some rando who's also in range and they both get Immobilized.

It has no melee weapons and needs none thanks to Combined Arms 2, and thanks to Combined Arms 1 it can get soft cover just by being adjacent to an enemy.

With 10 Heat Cap and Heatfall, it can safely Overcharge Loop to fire its Andromeda, and it has a 1-in-3 chance of being able to trigger Nuclear Cavalier every time it does so. Andromeda gets +1 Accuracy automatically.

Switch customized it to have a small fleet of camera drones constantly circling it so that they can livestream all their mech fights, and they always carry an omnihook with them so that they'll be able to connect to the omninet no matter where they are.

This isn't a meme machine. It's a fucking dream machine.

[marianaaags]

🌟 Rating conventional and unconventional ways I've played Just Dance 🌟

Kinect ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Works well, it's fun and you can play with multiple people although there is no way to pause they songs

Sometimes it detects things in the background and confuses them with players but it doesn't affect the experience

You can't change places if it's a couple or group dance because the sensor gets confused

Swich ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The same as with Kinect but less demanding since it is not necessary to make the movements with the left hand or feets

You can play in small spaces or sitting

You can move of your place in couple or group dances

It's difficult to make moves on the ground

Using the phone camera ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's like playing with the Kinect but only for one person

I have used it a few times and it worked well although some people say that sometimes it doesn't work

Using the phone ⭐⭐⭐

It's like playing with the Switch controls and detecting the movements well

You need to be careful or have a strap on your phone so you don't accidentally throw it

It really gives me a little anxiety

YouTube Videos ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love it, it's fun, you can pause and rewind if you messed up a move

You can dance to songs that are not in the catalog

You can't get a score but the important thing is that you can dance without pressure

Unlimited amount of players

Sitting ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

There are specific maps that are danced like this or can be any map in Swich

It is a good alternative if you have a disability or any injury that limits your movement

It can be played on Kinect or Switch

Only with the Swich screen ⭐⭐

Works but you can't see the pictograms

Idk how good an idea it is, but I think it's better to try it with maps you already know

On tiptoe ⭐⭐⭐

Don't ask me why I came up with this haha

It is more tiring

I don't recommend it if you don't have good balance

In my mind I felt like 🩰

With eyes closed ⭐⭐ 1/2

You need to play in a safe and spacious space

You need to know the choreography to get a good score

Idk why one day I thought it would be a good idea to play like this

And I still think it's not a good idea to play like this

With headphones ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A good option if you want to play at night

Doesn't affect the experience, just be careful not to throw or hit them

I only give it 4 stars bc my glasses didn't slip 🤓

No sound ⭐?

???

It's confusing and feels empty

I do not recommend it

In my mind (?? ⭐⭐⭐

Well, actually this only happens when I hear a song on the street or any public place haha

Also when I have insomnia

Better if you can actually hear the songs

[saphronethaleph]

Mothballs

“Checklist step forty-seven,” Mira Tern said, glancing down at her datapad, then back up at the computer systems. “Check that battery power is above eight percent charge… where’s the indicator for that…”

TY-3 whistled, and Mira glanced at the astromech.

“Thanks,” she replied, returning her gaze to the control panel. “And it’s, uh… right, twelve percent. I guess we’ve been going a bit slower than we should, huh?”

They’d have to be, if the generator they’d brought in had recharged the ship’s emergency batteries that much.

She flicked her comlink on. “Hey, Flynn, what’s the status on the reactors?”

“We finished providing the reaction mass and hypergolic slug for reactor one twenty minutes ago!” Flynn answered. “Everything down here is closed up and ready, you’re the one who’s delaying us at this point!”

“Right, right, I get it,” Mira replied, rolling her eyes, then checked her datapad again. “Step forty-eight… okay, here we go.”

She flicked two more switches, activating self test, and the emergency lights flashed on and off once.

A holo of the ship appeared, and Mira and Tye both gave it a once-over.

“Looks all green to here, Tye,” she declared, and the astromech rocked back and forth slightly in confirmation. “Great. Step forty-nine.”

She triple-checked the numbers, then flicked a control. Another.

Some of the switches on the panel lit up, others went dim again, and Mira moved back and forth between three different duty stations as she followed the flowchart on her pad. Then, finally, everything converged on a single control, and she took a deep breath.

Then pressed it.

There was a kind of subliminal thump, the whole ship trembling slightly, then telltales and indicators lit up all across the board.

“Reactor one start,” she reported, into the comlink again. “Everything looks good from up here, Flynn!”

“We’re all good here, too,” Flynn replied. “Reactor one is running smoothly, we’re getting a good efficiency curve, within five percent of nominal. They mothballed this ship well.”

“Then let’s get on with activating the rest of the reactors,” Mira decided. “How long until I can begin the start procedure for Two and Three?”

“We’ll be good in… fifteen, twenty?” Flynn said. “That’s for Two, we’ve been doing some of the prep work while we were waiting. Make yourself useful and get some of the other systems unlocked and online.”

“Hey!” Mira protested, shaking her head, then tutted. “Well, whatever. I’ll bring up… shields, I guess? Does One have enough power for that?”

“It should, but let’s not chance it until Two is online,” Flynn said. “Sensors should be better.”

“Got it, sensors it is,” Mira agreed, signing off, and switched to another file on her pad. “Okay, step one is… of course it’s on the other side of the bridge…”

She picked up her toolkit with a huff, and began schlepping it across the bridge to the sensor control station.

Halfway there, she paused, and looked out the armoured window.

The ships in the Chommell Sector Reserve Fleet were far enough apart that she could only see even the capital ships as toylike shapes, lit by the distant sun, and the escorts were not much more than points of light. Much closer, though, was the Makepeace, the Nebulon-B all the reactivation teams were working off, and she smiled a not particularly charitable smile as she looked out at the engineering support frigate… and four of the five other Star Cruisers that they were here to reactivate.

Bringing the Reserve Fleet from mothballs to full active status would take months, of course. They were operating off canned air and only pressurizing certain rooms, and there were less than a dozen engineers per ship for a truly vast war vessel. But it was happening, and it was inexorable… and it was happening for hundreds of Reserve Fleets, all across the galaxy.

Star Cruisers, Star Destroyers, heavy frigates, cruiser squadrons… the Military Disarmament Act limited the strength of the New Republic Defence Force, the active military, but putting everyone serving the arms industry out of work straight away would have been an economic catastrophe in a galaxy that had sorely needed to avoid them.

And the result was… something the First Order could have no idea was coming. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been foolish enough to pick a fight with the Republic.

TY-3 whistled, and Mira sighed.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” she said, finishing her trek to the sensor panel. “Plug in and start the self test, will you? Now we’ve got reactor power this should go quicker…”

[wolf-among-mechs]

WLF-Xb-KNT Wolf Knight

Description:

The WLF-Xb-KNT Wolf Knight is highly specialised one of a kind mech made from primarily the chassis of a Black Knight and a number of parts from a Battlemaster. Made to the whims of a mechwarrior with a strange idea with some mechtech experience, the Wolf Knight was constructed allegedly from a dream, that was then committed to paper, explored and executed. Its primary purpose is to be an upgraded Black Knight with heavier armour, jump jets and extensive re-engineering of the Black Knights interior and sensor suite. The interior was remade to fit a powerful Extra-Light engine. The chassis and frame was remodeled extensively and changing to a more common frame model of pieces of changed BL-7-KNT Black Knight pieces and that of a BLR-1G Battlemaster. Despite its Frankenmech design, the focus on off the shelf parts allows the Wolf Knight an ease of access for repairs and maintenance to a surprising degree despite the heavy modifications. The most taxing parts are its dual Myomer and servo system and the cockpit to sensor connections. The refit process documented the notes of these two extensively but nevertheless requires a very qualified engineer to repair and maintain. It makes extensive use of Triple Strength Myomers that run through the mech coupled with finely and highly tuned actuators, calibrated after the pilot's movements, the Wolf Knight can swing the great blade's motions in its hand with tilts, flicks and even whips in its attacks. This is made possible with a secondary Myomer system that works on tandem with the more powerful one, giving increased agility and precision. Lastly this secondary Myomer system is backed up and tied into an integrated hydraulic servo system with the fibres themselves attached to limit switches for a natural pullback and resistance. The practical nature or battlefield application was contentious even by the refitting engineers but it was found difficult to argue against the one placing the order. One of its most curious features and the namesake is the re-engieering of the sensor suite of the Black Knight. It uses similar principles as the originals Beagle Active Probe system which uses the small laser to scan. Instead it has a second sensor tower, giving it two "ears" on the Knight helmet. Together with the pilot harness this is called the High Oscilation Wave-Length system or H.O.W.L. for short. It functions by generating pulses and frequencies through the heart rate monitor and neurohelmet's brain wave readings. Which in turn create an algorithm that is impossible to predict or even anticipate for a computer. This forms the basis of the skip-frequencies used in the sensor system in its pulses. The effect shifts the Mech's position by one to two meters between pulses on hostile sensors, slightly distorting the Wolf-Knight position, velocity and direction. Even skilled combatants can be caught unaware of their mech suddenly shifting the targeting to compensate. Leading to glancing shots. However the H.O.W.L. system distorts command and control communication over long distance, forcing it rely on short wave range bands. For this reason, it is usually only active during active combat operations in order to allow for strategic coordination. This, along with the precise movements of the arms is achieved by a specially made cockpit. Rather than the usual joystick configuration, the mechwarrior wears a harness that can mimic arm movements of the pilot. In addition it keeps track of the pilot's vitals and uses these together with the helmet to modify the frequencies of of the sensor suite and probe. The harness is heavy to move and is is wholly integrated with the neurohelmet and cockpit at large and tailored for a single individual and does not interact well with ejections.

Armament:

The Wolf Knight wields a large sword in the right, though functionally is follows the design principles of Fedcom-era hatchets. Otherwise the loadout is very similar to that of a Black Knight. A Lord's Light 2 rather than the royal versions' Kinslaughter ERPPC in the left arm allows for long range sniping with an original Maxell DT medium laser mounted under the main cannon. It is supported by two Magna Mk III large lasers as shoulder cannons along with parts of the housing used for a Rifleman. Instead of the the original torso mounted McCorkel mounted in order to make space for the new internal systems. Using parts and housing from a a Catapult on each side of the torso is a pair of Martell Medium Lasers and Omnicron 1000 Small lasers. Allowing the Wolf Knight to brawl with to a similar degree as a standard Black Knight.

Sixteen Double heat sinks allows the Wolf Knight to remain at range and fight without significant overheating. Once it gets close and pounces with the shorter range lasers it can easily activate the full potential of the Triple Strength Myomer system.

Inside the chest of the Wolf Knight however remains the Beagle Active Probe from which the black knight was noted for carrying. It has been wired to a Ceres Metals model 666 Communication system that connects into the Beagle Active Probe together with the original TransComm Beta targeting system.

The engine is connect to a RedLine-F Series Outland Supercharger system that allows the Wolf Knight to pounce on targets with the blade. Four Chillton model 600 Jump jets give it an extra level of mobility. However the XL is a weak point in long engagements where endurance becomes the dominating factor as a single torso side being blown apart would stall the engine.

Made in blender by kitbashing a number of things together.

[wasyago]

what .. happened to cleo…

( sorry, took a while to answer, i was busy n tired )

nothing happened! don't worry!! or, well, i guess cleo happened?

see, cleo has a bit of a... i wouldn't call it an obsession, but maybe a fascination, a liking to prosthetics. the whole deal behind it, how it works, how it connects to the body, how it functions the same or differently to what a human can do, it's all incredibly interesting to her. that's why cleo became a prosthetics neurologist (name is a work in progress, but basically that's a doctor or a specialist who connects the human nerves to the sensors on prosthetics. very fiddly and complicated job so it must be done by a human and not a robot).

that's also why cleo's body is like that, it's sort of an experiment? an art project? of how far can one push the limits of mechanization and at what point does it become impossible to install any more parts. so the entirety of their body is various prosthetics that they've slowly over the course of many years installed / changed / switched and all that other stuff. their profession pays a lot and they have good contacts to a bunch of prosthetic manufacturers, so they can easily afford something like that.

right now (on the reference) the only flesh part that is left of cleo is the brain, because obviously you can't change that for a prosthetic. and uhhhh technically cleo is just a brain piloting a mech? which is a little disturbing to think about tbh.... but that also means that cleo is kind of done with their project, there's no room to push it any further, so all that's left is refining the body, changing prosthetics for the more comfortable / unique ones, etc. she can basically do whatever she wants with her body now which is pretty cool actually!

[flowercrowncrip]

Hi, may I ask what your thoughts are on Neuralink?

I actually have a lot of thoughts on this. Maybe not completely coherent thoughts, but a lot of thoughts nonetheless.

Firstly I think that a Brain computer interface has an awful lot of potential to do a lot of good for severely disabled people. I use voice control, but that gets tricky when I have a sore throat or my neurological disorders impacts my speech. I also don't get the same privacy when using Technologies as other people do. Eye tracking and switch control exists, but like voice control they also have severe limitations, like time and movement requirements. If Brain computer interfaces get to the stage where using them becomes quick and seamless it opens up communication, the ability to control your environment, as well as Internet access and an online life to an awful lot of people, which would be an absolutely amazing thing.

Would I personally get a brain implant to access this? No, right now Voice control is a much less risky option for me. Even if I lose that speaking ability, I think that I'd much rather use non-invasive technology like external sensors than put myself through any kind of brain surgery that isn't a medical necessity, even if it didn't work quite as well. But I'm not in that position, and unlikely to be any time soon, so it might be that if it does happen I would become prepared to go through surgery to relieve things like boredom and social isolation. I can absolutely see why other people would be prepared to go through brain surgery and implants to gain access to a computer, and posts I've seen with people making fun of those who are signing up for these medical trials make me quite angry. Computer access and communication is completely life changing.

When it comes to NeuroLink itself, I'm deeply sceptical of a lot of things. The biggest one is I don't think that Elon Musk is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, that is I don't think that improving the lives of severely disabled people is the main goal here. I think the main goal is making money and feeding the ego of Musk and his tech bro associates. They want to be seen as heroes performing Christlike miracles of intellect to help save the poor invalids from a fate worse than death, and if desperate people are injured, get sick, or die because they've cut corners with the technology I don't think they'd be too upset. I also dread to think what kind of pay walls Subscriptions or other capitalist horrors are waiting around the corner with this. I doubt this technology is going to be cheap or subsidised.

So yeah, I don't think the technology is a waste of time, and I completely see why people would want to use it. But I do think it's been rushed, and developed for the wrong reasons which worries me enough that I wouldn't sign up for it now, and I probably wouldn't even if I lost the ability to speak, although I also wouldn't say that I would definitely never do it if that was my only way of good quality access to technology Communication and the Internet

[grogumaximus]

As a performance engineer, he is the man who keeps an eye on all the data in a complex world like Formula 1 and leaves no stone unturned to see how to get even more speed out of the RB20. “For example, I can see how the tires behave individually, how high the temperature of the brakes is and how the hybrid systems of the engine behave,” says Hart in the Red Bull hospitality area.

Together with Lambiase, Michael Manning and David Mart, he is part of the regular group of engineers around world champion Verstappen.

“And GP is the one who talks to Max during sessions, so he has to filter all our information and assess what he finds relevant to pass on to Max. And then as a driver he now has an enormous library of experience. Max is ultimately the best sensor. He senses what he is up against and can make it very clear whether he wants to try something different and what exactly. He is very direct and knows what he wants. There is no room for politics or bullshit.”

In order to be able to empathize with Lambiase's work, Hart occasionally takes his position as race engineer, as was the case on Friday during both training sessions in Imola. Hart explains how a weekend is broadly divided.

“First we have to make sure that the car behaves as we expected. Then we look at how we can get more out of the speed over one lap. Where do we lose time in the bends, does Max feel limited somewhere at the beginning or at the end of such a bend? We then look at the longer runs and how we can protect ourselves against possible dangers.”

With the help of his engineer, a driver can adjust the necessary things on his steering wheel, for example when it comes to the brake balance or the differential. As far as Verstappen and Red Bull are concerned, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year is a good example of this. For Verstappen, that race in Baku was the turning point in the season.

“In those first four races, Checo (teammate Sergio Pérez, ed.) and Max were close together. But in terms of setup and the tools he uses, Max has gone in a completely different direction since that race in Baku. He has twelve so-called switch positions that he can use. He tested many of them in Baku, while normally you use two or three in a weekend. Max learned a lot then, and so did we."

Since that race in Baku, more than a year ago, Verstappen has not won only three races. While the Dutchman himself is almost never completely satisfied with how a race weekend is going, this also appears to apply to his engineers.

“Coincidentally, we were still talking about it together on Thursday evening. We as engineers are a bit like the goalkeepers in football. It's only when we make a big mistake that it becomes noticeable. We have to keep pushing to see if we can improve anything in areas where we are not yet performing optimally. And even if we are faster than the rest in every corner, we are still not satisfied and we look at where we have left something behind. Everything worked great in China, and then in Miami with the same car we didn't have the speed. And then afterwards you can understand so well why that is, here in Imola there is a completely different asphalt, the conditions are different and the tire compounds are also different.”

Given the immense pressure and expectations, Hart considers Verstappen's victory in 2021 in front of his own audience in Zandvoort as his personal highlight. The Englishman started working as Alex Albon's performance engineer in 2020 before being transferred to Verstappen the following year.

“With Alex we mainly looked at how we could close the gap with Max with the same material. With Max you look less at the other side of the garage. His experience, not only in Formula 1 but also with other cars, helps us. Actually, after a racing weekend I am also a kind of translator. In the debrief Max tells us what his limitations were. Drivers speak their own language. We then look at his words with the people in the factory in combination with the collected data.”

And yes, Verstappen may be the most important sensor, but he also sometimes has to rely on the information from his engineers on the pit wall and in the garage. They now have the complete overview.

“Especially in races where we play the longer game ,” says Hart. “We can see what the lap times of the other drivers are and how the different tires are worn. For example, if we say that Max needs to change something on his handlebars, he may well think: the balance is now just right. But then we have to prepare for later in the race. If you wait until the front tires are on, you will be too late. We always have to think one step ahead, otherwise you go too slowly.”

[creativeelectricals]

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[usafphantom2]

The SR-71 Detection of Missile Lock-On

I was reading through an old Air and Space magazine article from 2015 where they interviewed Jerry Crew. He was an RSO that was trained in the simulator and in the classroom by my father Richard” Butch “Sheffield. Dad trained most of the RSO‘s while he was also still flying the SR-71. He was a very busy man.

When a missile locks onto an SR-71, the aircraft's systems, including radar warning receivers, detect the threat. The Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO), seated in the back, plays a crucial role in monitoring these systems, as mentioned in National Air and Space Museum SR-71 page. The SR-71 was equipped with electronic countermeasures (ECM) like the AN/ALQ-131, which could jam radar signals, as noted in The National Interest SR-71 countermeasures article. This detection allows the crew to respond before the missile can effectively engage. Jerry said in the article that on his first mission over North Vietnam, July 26, 1968. His pilot was Tony Bevacqua.

Turning inbound from our first sensor run, I noticed the “R” light on my electronic counter. Measure panel was illuminated a North Vietnam SAM site was tracking us on its radar. What I didn’t expect was illumination of the “M” light followed closely by the “L” light!

This meant that the North Vietnam had actually fired one or more SAMs at us.

This news couldn’t have occurred at a worse time. We had just started our sensor take and evasive action was not an option.

Tony asked how long ago was it launched and I replied about five seconds. The time of the missile launch was important. We were told countless times by our intelligence expert that the SA – 2 missile total flight time was only 58 seconds in other words if nothing happened by then we were probably safe! My immediate duty was to turn off the ECM jammer. The purpose of our jammer was confused the missile prior to launch. Tony asked again how long ago did the missile launch Tony asked two more times by then the sensor run and the risk to our Blackbird was over !

Wow! This was my Dad‘s job for eight years. He told me every time he went up in the Blackbird. It was thrilling, but he never mentioned that it could be this scary.

Evasive Action: Acceleration and Speed

The standard evasive action, as described in Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was to accelerate further, leveraging the SR-71's ability to reach speeds over 2,000 mph (Mach 3.2). This speed, combined with its high altitude, made it nearly impossible for missiles of the era to catch up. The aircraft's design, with Pratt & Whitney J58 engines, allowed it to sustain these speeds, as detailed in Smithsonian Institution SR-71 page.

Why Speed and Altitude Worked

Missiles like the Soviet SA-2 and SA-5 had limited speed and altitude capabilities compared to the SR-71. As noted in Coffee or Die SR-71 outrunning missiles, by the time a SAM could be launched and reach the SR-71's altitude, the aircraft was often already out of range. The SR-71's low radar cross-section, enhanced by radar-absorbent iron-ferrite paint on its chines, further reduced detection time, as mentioned in The National Interest SR-71 countermeasures article. This combination gave SAM sites a very short window to acquire and track the aircraft, often too brief to launch effectively.

Role of Electronic Countermeasures

While speed was the primary defense, ECM played a supporting role. The AN/ALQ-131 system could jam acquisition and targeting radar. If a missile was launched, the RSO might switch off the ECM to prevent the missile from homing, relying instead on acceleration. This strategy was crucial during missions where multiple SAM sites were active, as seen in accounts from Air Zoo SR-71 Spy-Posium. This is some of the information that the new.GROK found

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats via X

[claudeng80]

For a rainy day

The sound of the infirmary is all wrong. When Shirayuki is at work, she sings off-key to herself, harmonizing badly with the background music the computer pipes through the space. Chords and rhythms unknown to man or extraterrestrial echo through the storage rooms as she rummages and sorts or the laboratory as she works, interrupting her own concert at times with verbal notes on her findings.

Obi’s dozed off on the medi-bed more times than he can count, sleeping better with her accompaniment than he does in the lonely hum of his own bunk.

But now there’s only the discordance of the medical alarms, each one shrieking in its own tone and demanding Shirayuki’s expertise to remedy. The heart monitor murmurs mournfully, an unsettling drone beneath the wail of three others Obi can’t even begin to address. The only voice who can speak their language is silent.

It took just too long to get her back here, Shirayuki’s weakening litany of commentary and advice wavering and failing as time passed. He did everything she asked, bandaging and splinting, setting sensors and helping her stay hydrated, but when it comes down to it he’s just a pilot. Obi pushed the shuttle to its limits, breaking every approach law and docking protocol, but in the end physics bends for no-one.

The communicator warbles with the bridge’s contact sequence but Obi just lets it ring, just one more voice joining the cacophony. She’s dying on the table, that’s what every alarm is screaming, and he’s on his own.

***

Lata drops the device on the examination table, dusting off his fingers as though it’s left a residue. “Throw it out if you don’t want it. I refuse to waste any more of my time on something so illogical.”

Shirayuki prods the cuff and it tips over, the cable attached slithering off the edge of the table with a sinister hiss. “Just because we can’t explain how it works doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. We saw-”

“We thought we saw something, but all they’ll tell us is nonsense about so-called life force.”

“I believe in biological processes. Surely there’s something we can measure-”

“Fine. Measure it on your own time, then. I just don’t want to see it again.” He kicks the doorframe on the way out, leaving a dent in the duraweave.

***

One alarm drops out of the nightmare chorus as the automatic system finishes sealing the last of her open wounds. The last of the spilled blood disappears into the table’s reservoirs, cells and plasma to be recycled into base elements for the next needed infusion. She may be seeing it again any second, for all he knows, through any of the tubes the system’s cocooned her with. She’s still breathing, and the computer insists her core temperature is good, and yet it’s not enough. Her heartbeat is weak, wrong enough that he can hear it. The computer has no suggestions he can understand, no directions he can follow.

He folds her icy hands between his own.

***

Ryuu eyes the device with all the skepticism a teenage boy who is also a medical expert can summon. “Even if it does do something,” which it doesn’t, he doesn’t bother to add. “There’s no off switch. Is there a failsafe? We don’t know anything about how it works.”

“Wouldn’t you like to find out, though?” Shirayuki sparkles when she’s curious, but it dims when Ryuu turns his gaze on her.

“I’m not going to waste my time on a hoax,” he says. He pulls up a paper on his tablet and settles in to read.

Shirayuki knows the end of a conversation when she hears it. The device, with all its straps and cords, coils loosely into the box, and the box slides into a storage cabinet. She’ll try again another time.

***

Somewhere in the last few months, between the Oriold crisis and Ryuu’s transfer to the Lilias after the Rugilia incident, the box got pushed to the back of its shelf. Empty containers skitter across the floor as Obi scoops them out of the way, and the cabinet door slams against the wall with a resounding crack.

The communicator chimes again, a sound more urgent than before, but Obi ignores it. The door control panel swings open with a tap, and he pulls the emergency lock. They’ll be able to override it before long, but there should be enough time for what he’s going to set up. There may be nothing he can do, but there is one thing left he can give.

He barely hears the medical alarms anymore, everything but the rasp of her breath fading into unimportance. He pulls up a chair and leans against the bed, and with one finger he lifts an errant lock of her hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear.

The target cuff hangs loosely on her at first, but after a moment in place the hard material softens and shrinks, conforming to her skin. There is no start button and no stop, just as they said.

 “I’m here because you believed in me,” he says. She doesn’t respond. She can’t hear him, now, but maybe she’ll look at the recordings later. She did want data on how this machine works, after all. 

He clamps the source cuff on his wrist, and almost immediately a strange fatigue washes over him. He lays his head down on the bed, watching her chest rise and fall as her breaths ease. Lata and Ryuu will both be so mad, but Obi only cares about one thing anymore. “Finally I can return the favor.”

[wolfjackle-creates]

Ghost!Robin Part 11

Time for another WIP Wednesday! I'm not sure if I'll have anything for next week. I'm working on a one shot right now as I can and wrapping up stuff for my final week of work which is taking a ton of time. Though I did get on a roll today and wrote a bit more than I'm posting, so maybe I'll have something.

Story Summary: Danny was invited to dinner at Wayne Manor to meet Jazz's boyfriend and his family for the first time. He worked hard to make sure no ghost business would interrupt the evening. But when he arrived, all he could focus on was the ghost of the dead Robin that seemed to haunt Jason. Looks like he was breaking his promise.

First, Previous

Word Count: 1.4k

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“Hn. What is the range on these devices?” asked Bruce.

Danny shrugged. “My stuff? From anywhere. I track through the Infinite Realms, not by Earth. GIW? Jason-Robin, they’ll be able to detect something from probably ten miles out of city limits, but they’d need to be within half a mile to get an accurate location. The Fentons? Mile or so. They get an exact location or nothing.”

Tim asked, “Is it likely the Fenton’s will come to Gotham?”

“Not sure,” admitted Danny. “But they sell commercially, so other ghost hunters might have their equipment. Jazz, pass the Fenton Finder?”

Damian couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice when he finally saw the blocky silver device with a circular, green screen on it and bits sticking up out of the front. “Why is there a light bulb attached to it?”

Even Robin looked at the device with a raised eyebrow and sent out a silent this real? his way.

“It flashes when a ghost is nearby,” Danny replied to both of them.

Tim hummed in interest. “Are the visible antennae necessary? Why are there multiple?”

“Most of my parents designs were cobbled together with whatever they could cannibalize from other household electronics and junk yards. Hence the less stream-lined appearance compared to the Guys in White’s stuff.”

He flicked the switch to turn it on and instantly the light bulb was flashing red, the radar screen turned on showing several dots in close vicinity to the center, and a robotic voice said, “You are surrounded by multiple ghosts. You’d have to be an idiot to not notice the ghosts all around you.”

Danny let it read out it’s warning again before flicking it back off. He had to laugh at the looks of complete bafflement on basically everyone’s faces. Even Bruce raised an eyebrow at it.

“Yeah, that’s my parents for you. FentonWorks designs are at least easy to spot. Not the the Guys in White’s stuff is much better. That horrible white on everything…” Danny shuddered. “I hate white.”

Bruce hummed. “Will you be able to provide us with some of these devices so we can study them on our own?”

Danny bit at his lower lip. “Probably. But it’ll have to wait until after I get you the information on how to safely work with ectoplasm. If Tim and Barbara are your big tech people, they’re not liminal at all and will have to be careful when handling it.”

Tim added, “We do have extensive experience working with toxic chemicals. Many of the Gotham rogues use chemical warfare.”

“Right. Yeah, I’ll have Tucker send you the safety sheets on it and we’ll see what devices I’ve got or can make duplicates of to get to you. I’ll be sure you get all three styles of hand-held trackers and their schematics. Maybe I’ll even be able to get you the schematics for a larger tracking system like what my parents have set up in Amity.”

Barbara nodded. “That would be great. What sort of set up do your parents have in your home town?”

“So they’ve set up sensors all over the city that detect ectoplasmic activity. The signal gets sent back to the computer in the ops center they built on top of their house, and they can pin the exact location of any ghost to within a foot or two anywhere within, like, five miles of the city limits. That data is also shared with the computer in their GAV.”

Jason bumped Jazz’s shoulder with his. “I know I’m gonna regret this, but what’s the ‘GAV’?”

Jazz sighed and answered. “It stands for Ghost Assault Vehicle. It’s a modified RV that’s basically a tank. Jack and Maddie simply have to press a button and a dozen ghost weapons will protrude from the vehicle and aim for any nearby ghost. And that’s without Maddie shoving her entire upper body out the window while holding a bazooka.”

“Yep. I regret asking. How badly am I gonna want to murder your parents by the time I’m done learning about them?”

“They are not my parents.” Jazz’s voice was hard.

At the same time, Danny answered, “Depends. How do you feel about genocidal mad scientists?”

Jason just let his head bang on the table. Robin flew over to him and patted him on the back. Jason seemed to subconsciously lean into the touch.

“Now,” said Danny. “I promised I’d show the rest of you these scanners up close.”

“That would be appreciated,” said Bruce. “We also have a few more questions about you and your parents.”

“And I need you to tell me more about these Lazarus pits because those sound like they’re a disaster.”

Alfred cleared his throat. “And I believe that will have to be the end of this meeting tonight. It is getting late and at least some of you will insist on going on patrol tonight still.”

A few people grumbled at Alfred’s words, but no one argued.

Danny made his way to the other side of the table and went over how to use the devices again. He pretended not to notice the way Jazz flinched when he turned on the Fenton Finder and it called out its warning again.

Jason did put an arm around her in response, though, so he figured she’d be all right.

“So that’s that,” he said once he turned off the last device. “I won’t be showing you any weapons until after we get you up to date on ghost biology and culture. If you run into issues in the meantime, you can call Jazz or me and we’ll take care of it.”

Bruce nodded. “We’ll be following up with our own experts as well.”

“Of course,” agreed Danny. “I figured. Now, you had some more questions?”

Tim asked, “You mentioned to me and Alfred that a member of Justice League Dark stopped by Amity. Can you tell us more about that?”

“I mean, there’s not much to tell,” said Danny. “It was John Constantine. And at the time I had no idea how famous he was. Would’ve asked for an autograph if I had, but oh well. This was shortly after I defeated Pariah Dark, the previous Ghost King. He came in, asked if I needed help. I told him I got it covered, he gave me a phone number, and that was that.”

Bruce hummed. “Yes, that sounds like Constantine. We will speak to him.”

“Why?” asked Danny. “It was exactly what I wanted. A check in to confirm I was okay and someone to reach out to on Earth if I got in over my head. It’s just by that time I started getting allies in the Realms. The big concern Earth-side was ghost hunters. And the worst of them were government sanctioned so I wasn’t sure if I should reach out to the Justice League since you guys also work with the US government.”

Jason let out a noise that Danny could only think of as a growl. “He should have spent enough time there to answer questions like that.”

Danny snorted. “Less than a week before he arrived, our entire town was removed from Earth and brought into the Infinite Realms for multiple days. Something would’ve been very wrong with him if he’d stuck around longer than it took to confirm it wasn’t likely to happen again.”

“I’m sorry,” asked Steph, “what is that about your entire town being transported off earth?”

“Don’t you know? My friends and I figured that’s why you sent Constantine to us.”

Barbara shook her head as she clicked around her computer. “There’s nothing in the Justice League files about it.”

“Huh. Well that’s how I became the Ghost King. The previous king was released by an idiot and lured to Amity. Ended up bringing the entire town into the Realms. His goal was to take over the town then the rest of earth. I defeated him in single combat while some other ghosts helped hold back his armies. No one bothered to tell me until later that that meant won his titles as well.”

Dick was frowning at him. “Why did you have to be the one to defeat him?”

Danny just blinked at him in confusion. “Who else was there? My accident is what activated the portal and started letting ghosts through. By making me half ghost, I had the powers necessary to contain the ones who caused problems. My parents were incompetent at best. So I just did what had to be done. Besides, if I hadn’t been an idiot, the portal never would’ve turned on in the first place. So it was my responsibility to fix it.”

----------

Next

And no one at the table liked that answer! The end of the dinner is finally in sight! I know I'm overlooking characters. I'll do some editing to make sure everyone gets a say before I eventually get around to posting this to AO3. (It's a good part of the reason I haven't started cross posting, tbh. That and I like to have stories fully finished before I start posting.)

Hope you all enjoy.

Tag List Part 1:

@addie-lover-of-stories, @justwannabecat, @gin2212, @amercurio, @regonold, @overtherose, @readerzj, @sjrose1216, @echoednonny, @deeterzz, @blu-lilac, @number-one-jew, @rowanaway-fromthisbs, @vythika96, @tired-yet-awaken, @themirrorghost, @emeraldcorpral, @all-mights-asscheeks, @darkhinauniverse, @blep-23, @phandomhyperfixationblog, @larkcoe1, @thegatorsgoose, @job-ross-the-second, @britcision, @lenacraft, @bubblemixer, @androgynouslordofescapism, @purefrickingspite, @leftmiraclechaos, @lizisipancardo, @starlight-sparks, @miraculousandmore, @gildedphoenix, @sometimesthingsfallapart, @letmesayfuxk, @phoenixcatch7, @skulld3mort-1fan, @abaowo, @dhampir-princess, @idkmrpianoman, @sarina-elais, @ballzfrog-blog, @undead-essence, @spookytragedyshark, @flyingpansaurus, @akintoabitch, @marivictal, @8-29pm, @justreadingthefanfics, @happybear135, @kisatamao, @spoopyspoony, @adorablechaos, @sara0055, @screamingtofillthevoid

[earth-64]

Wake Up Call - Nintendo Alarmo

All through Summer 2024 the Nintendo fandom had been in a fervor. The Nintendo Switch’s reign had eclipsed its seven year apex: the time had come for a new flagship piece of hardware to take its place. The stage seemed to be set: the game releases were thinning, the Nintendo Directs sparse, and the major game releases clearly smaller, outsourced, and not the main focus of development. Nintendo had already acknowledged the new machine’s existence with an assurance of it being announced within the fiscal year, followed by a continuous promise below each and every announcement stream that there “will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during [...] these presentations.”

As the dog days passed by, during the fleeting few weeks of Fall that still existed between the ever widening record-high Summers and devastating Winter storms, it seemed undeniable that the stage was being set. Nintendo filed new patents for motion sensor technology. Word got out that they were filming a commercial for a new piece of hardware. They flew out content creators to demo something kept under wraps. And on October 9th, 2024, fans awoke to a flurry of notifications, an early morning unheralded announcement shaking the very foundations of what was thought possible for the gaming giant: 

Alarmo.

Nintendo’s smart alarm clock. A touchscreen device with a sleek interface, loaded with 35 themes inspired by 5 games (and more to come), and a $100 price tag. Their patented motion sensing technology made for a hands-free experience. Set the alarm once and from then on, each and every morning, your eyes would flutter open to a jazzy Mario tune, and your triumphant rise from bed would be rewarded with a victory jingle, a “Lets-A-Go!”, and a shot of nostalgic dopamine. 

But is nostalgic the right word? The motion sensor only works with a very specific set-up: most notably being limited to one person, a small bed, and a room that will remain otherwise empty through the night. No spouses, no pets, no roommates. It was clear this was intended for a child’s room. So no, it wasn’t nostalgic. At least not yet. It was designed to create new nostalgia.

Nintendo Alarmo, along with the similarly aimed Pokemon Sleep, are part of Nintendo’s long-running obsession with intentionally forming habits and responses. From the scheduled broadcasts of the Satellaview to the daily-task centric Animal Crossing series, and especially the predatory practices of their mobile game releases, Nintendo had a penchant for designing parasites that attached themselves to your waking (and non-waking) cycle. 

Today I’ll be sharing excerpts from interviews with people who received Alarmos as children, and uncover the shocking effects of waking each morning to a pavlovian coin-get jingle. But first, speaking of coin-getting, a word from today’s sponsor: LoanFast. Is payday just a—

God what a waste of time. Shit’s always so negative these days. These nostalgia-grab video essays used to be pleasant. Here’s an old-school animated movie you haven’t seen since the DVD bargain bin! Top ten cartoons of the 2010s! The misunderstood genius of the Wii U! But nah, now time has crept past the optimistic millennials. We’re struggling to find the diamonds in the rough patch that was the 2020s, to salvage anything from that fucking trash heap of a decade. God, no wait. Now I sound like them. I grew up with that age of media. I love that age of media. It’s just so easy to let the zeitgeist of doomerism– Okay stop. It’s way too easy to let these things override my brain. I had to mentally backspace the phrase “easily impressionable” right there too. I watch these videos with their big words and their gloomy ways of lookin at life and I feel it all start to seep into me. 

Millennials will convince you that the 00s were the peak of human creation. That the 10s were the last big push of creativity. But that's just not true! My cartoons were way better! Our video games are just objectively cooler and bigger! Adults get stuck on trying to make fun of my generation for the same few bullshit things, if I hear one more Skibidi Rizz I’m gonna– Shouldn’t think like that. I’m 24 now. That’s an adult. I’m an adult. I keep saying that and it doesn’t sound any more true. It happened so fast. It took so much time but it happened so fast. I was just a kid, playing Super Mario Odyssey on an old LCD, and then I was a teenager and a lot happened, so much happened, and now I’m an adult playing Super Mario Odyssey on an old LCD and nothing happens, nothing ever happens. I am an adult and it is Christmas Eve and I am alone.

It was Christmas Eve then too. Back when Christmas felt like Christmas. I was 12 years old when I got the Nintendo Alarmo. December 24th, 2024 when I tore open my first present of the year. It was tradition to get one present the night before, usually something to pass the time until I was more tired than I was excited for the next morning. You wouldn’t think a clock would keep me busy but I spent the whole evening fiddling with the options, looking at every theme, resetting the time to hear the top-of-the-hour jingles for each game. I remember dad helping me put in the wi-fi password, I remember mom’s hurried trip to whatever convenience store was still open on the holiday because the damned thing didn’t come with an AC adapter. She brought back a package of Reese’s and one of those juice drinks with a plastic toy on it. It was… a Spongebob one? Yeah, and I set it on the shelf and it fell off during all the unwrapping the next day and it rolled underneath the shelf and it was down there for months and I’m remembering every single time I was sitting on the floor playing Mario and Luigi Brothership after getting it the next day and every single time I could see the Spongebob juice topper below the tv smiling at me and I never thought to get it I never put any thought into it being there it was just there until a day my mom must have swept and it wasn’t there and I didn’t think about it not being there. Until right now. 

Why didn’t that thing come with an AC adapter, god that’s so stupid.

I think about all that and I don’t think about everything that happened afterwards. I’m 12 years old and it’s Christmas Eve 2024 and I’m getting the Nintendo Alarmo and now I’m 24 years old and it’s Christmas Eve 2036 and I look over at the window sill next to my bed and the Nintendo Alarmo is still there, still ticking. The AC adapter has been replaced a couple times and it’s a bit dinged up but it’s still ticking. So much happened all the while that clock kept ticking. I’m still ticking. I’ve gotten so worked up over this fucking video and I’ve been scrolling my home page this whole time. I try to actually read the titles my eyes are glossing over: “The Untold Story of Minecraft’s 1.50 Disaster”, “What Went Wrong With Forza 2030”, “Does Sony Regret Dropping Out of Consoles?” and I almost click the last one to see which retired executive guy they’re interviewing and personifying the whole company onto this time and I stop myself. It just takes one god damn clickbait title to manufacture curiosity like that and I’ll be watching another two hour video about job layoffs and feeling like shit again. I’m so sick of feeling like shit. It’s getting harder and harder to find content that makes me feel good. 

I decide to just turn the damn thing off. I sit there in the dark for a minute, as a dim light comes from across the room: it's 11:00pm and my Nintendo Alarmo is displaying a top-of-the-hour animation. Mario runs into view, bumps a block 11 times. I hear the little coin-collection jingle 11 times, and then the screen defaults back to its calmer darker state. 

I google for a day calculator on my phone and punch in that Christmas Eve and this one. 

4,383 days. If you take into the fact that after the Animal Crossing theme releases I swapped to that for Halloween and Christmas mornings, that’s 22 Animal Crossing mornings, and 4,360 Super Mario mornings, and 1 Mario Kart morning that I hated. Who the fuck wants to wake up to tires screeching? And the “FIRST PLACE VICTORY!” out-of-bed message was a bit patronizing even for me. But yeah, 4,360 Super Mario wake up calls. 4,360 times I have heard the Super Mario Bros. theme song as the very first sound of the day. Through thick and thin, from one side of the country to the other, through every school morning from 2024 onward and every single day of every job I’ve worked, it's remained constant. A morning without that jingle is just not conceivable to me, it's as natural a part of life as anything else. As sure as I’ll eat food and as sure as I’ll take a crap and as sure as I’ll turn my computer on and as sure as I’ll sleep again the next night is as sure as I will hear that jingle. Speaking of, sleep.

I brush my teeth with Scooby Doo bubblegum toothpaste and a toothbrush that I avoid looking too closely at because its got Spongebob on it and I’m too tired to let myself start back down that path of thinking about the things I took for granted. I can feel on my teeth that the brush is awfully frayed. I’ve been putting off buying a new one for months. I don’t know why. I could just grab one at the store and swap it out and it would make me feel so much better and be so much better for me, but I just don’t do it, I just never think to get it while I’m there and that just happens everyday and I blink and it's been months and my toothbrush is still frayed. 4,360 times. 4,360 times. 

I catch my brain multi-track drifting and decide I can’t sleep without a distraction. I open Youtube on my phone and start scrolling for something to play while I sleep. I crawl into bed and I just barely remember it's Christmas tomorrow. I grab the Nintendo Alarmo and thumb through the settings, swiping through menus. 

When I wake up tomorrow I’ll think that maybe I was just too tired, maybe I just got other shit on my mind, and that maybe these old LCD touchscreens are just over-sensitive pieces of shit or that maybe just maybe I am. But tomorrow my eyes will open at the time they’re used to opening anyway and I’ll be ready to hear the special Animal Crossing Toy Day Jingle that I was so certain I set it to, and I’ll hear the horrible screeching of tires on pavement and something will snap in me and I’ll hear the “FIRST PLACE VICTORY” and think about the empty platitudes and the 12 years I can barely remember and the four thousand wake-up calls that accompanied me as I kept sleep-walking through them and I’ll wake up and something will shatter and I’ll spend Christmas morning cleaning up the shards. 

[oshlet]

Customised variant of the Lohan-Scott 'Dope' Light Mech. Modifications tend towards making it easier to repair in-field and being more robust overall: The large head unit which contains a laser has been switched for a smaller, better armoured replacement, and the forward camera has been removed entirely, with an analogue periscope in its place. Main armament is a 4-aperture converging laser rifle. For anti-armour combat, all four lasers fire simultaneously while for soft targets, they're instead ripple-fired to increase fire-rate. At the right shoulder sits a 2x5 grenade launcher loaded with 'Sink' munitions - air bursting grenades with a mixed payload of hot smoke and reflective strips, capable of confounding radar, visual and infrared sensors while also disrupting laser fire. The left shoulder is fitted with a high-frequency deflector shield, capable of redirecting lower mass, supersonic projectiles - namely cannon rounds or anti-tank missiles. The energy draw of such a system is immense, so it can only be activated for short periods. Furthermore, it has limits with regards to especially high-energy impacts like railguns and is utterly useless against lower-speed kinetics like melee weapons.

[corellianhounds]

My Brother’s Keeper

TBB Body Swap AU

Chapter 4 — Complications II

Words: 1.6k

Warnings: None

Summary: Things never go the way they’re planned.

“Wrecker for the last time, stop trying to dig it up, it’s not going anywhere.”

“Says you. Come give me a hand here, I need the muscle.”

Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose, joining Wrecker where he was straining to lift the outer ring on the ground by the one divot he’d been able to make in the stone with his knife. Hunter didn’t know how deep the rings ran but so far Wrecker was the only one who’d made any progress. There were no handholds or notches to tease the idea of a solution, and eventually Hunter had to stand back up and stretch his back.

Wandering around the temple and scanning the walls with his flashlight, Hunter again took stock of his team.

Echo was in control of himself, which (as much as Hunter felt guilty to think of it like this) was an improvement for Echo. He wasn’t having to adapt to anything he didn’t know, and he had more experience and could help the rest of the squad keep a level head.

That being said, he could see Echo’s irritated expression drifting back to where Wrecker was grating his knife against stone, so maybe Hunter’s senses would take some getting used to. Hunter had long since tempered his reflexive irritation at annoying or persistent background noises, of which Wrecker was rarely in short supply. So much of Hunter’s training had involved figuring out how to tone out extraneous information and by now it was second nature for him to be able to tell which sounds or scents or visuals weren’t pertinent to his assessment of a situation, but that had taken training. He made a mental note to adjust the audio settings on his helmet to help block some of the input for Echo.

Wrecker seemed relatively unbothered once the initial shock wore off. He was understandably frustrated at the change in physicality, but he of all of them rolled with the punches best. Tech was still largely built like a standard clone and could shoulder more weight than the average person, but he was more lean and compact compared to the rest of them. It made him fast and evasive in the field, but his fighting style was patently different from Wrecker’s battering ram approach. Hunter was more worried Wrecker’s tendency to bulldoze through multiple opponents and leap onto or into the fray was going to get Tech’s body trampled. Wrecker had always pushed himself to find what eventual limits and thresholds would restrict him, and his personality was one geared towards learning from experience and experimentation. He’d always operated on empirical knowledge, and if that meant charging headlong into danger, so be it.

On the plus side though, Hunter figured he’d only make that mistake once while he was stuck as Tech before realizing he was no longer nigh-invincible. Wrecker may be foolhardy, but he wasn’t stupid.

Tech, though familiar with Echo’s disabilities and prostheses, was still having to make constant micro-adjustments to how he worked. The pressure sensors in each of his limbs relayed sensation differently than organic limbs, enough to the point Tech had had to make a focused effort to steady himself on his feet and work through the change in balance and mobility. He didn’t begrudge anybody for his luck of the draw; he could still move and shoot, and he had plenty of tools still at his disposal, and Hunter knew he’d also be able to keep track of what Echo’s body would need at any given time.

What did concern him though was Tech’s earlier revelation at not being able to recall information the same way as before. He’d gone very still and quiet in the middle of a thought, prompting a sense of unease to worm its way under Hunter’s skin; Tech’s hesitance as he voiced his theory was incredibly out of character and it worried him to even theorize that switching consciousness wasn’t a clean lateral move; what parts of their minds were they unable to take with them because they were tied to their actual bodies, and how would that affect each of them moving forward? How much, if any, would be lost or seep into them the longer they were in somebody else’s head?

And then when it came to Crosshair and Omega…

Hunter didn’t even know where to start with them. There were issues of both age and physiology at play, to say nothing of their respective personalities and skill sets. Any problems either of them had would have to be handled delicately, and thinking about it made him supremely uncomfortable.

If they could just solve whatever puzzle this was and reverse the effects of the switch, he wouldn’t have to deal with any further complications.

Hunter sighed, aimlessly scanning for anything he might have missed. Wrecker had moved on to another ring trying the same thing he had before in chiseling out a larger gap in the cut stone. Hunter jammed one of the pry bars into the first crevice Wrecker had asked him for help with, forcing it down into the ground, but when he leveraged his weight against it he heard a *k-chunk*.

Everybody froze at the mechanical reverberation, silence filling the cavern as they came to a standstill. Wrecker stared at Hunter. Hunter stared at the crevice.

“Uh, Sarge…?”

The ground shook. Hunter’s stomach dropped.

The earth shuddered again, fissures lancing through stone. Hunter stumbled back and Wrecker darted over the colliding floor plates to the outside rings. The floor cracked and began to shear against itself like waves. Stalactites trembled above them. Their eyes widened and the groaning, trembling cavern started to shake in earnest, the cacophonous sound of stone on stone forcing all of them into action.

Hunter barked orders over the din as they grabbed their gear and booked it for the exit. He saw Omega stumble and pulled her out of the way as a stalactite shattered on impact with the ground and sent rocks flying outward in a spray of dust. The rest of the squad was yelling and clamoring for the outer hall, and he scooped her up as he ran, one arm shielding her head from the falling rocks.

Five sets of boots pounded against sandstone as the outer temple walls collapsed behind them. Echo was in the lead, but when he turned right at the first junction he skidded to a halt, Tech and Wrecker colliding with his back as they all hit the dead end.

“What are you doin’—?!” Wrecker yelled.

“This was the turn to get out!” Echo hollered back, swiftly turning and looking wildly around before racing the opposite direction. The earthquake shuddered through the temple again, more fissures slivering between their footfalls and catching up to them. “Other parts of the temple must have changed while we were unconscious!”

The crew raced onward, hitting two more dead ends and an unfamiliar stairway. Echo and Tech argued as they ran, Wrecker yelling at every close call with falling rocks, and when they reached a blocked fork in the tunnels Wrecker reflexively tried with all his might to lift the boulders out of the way, but to no avail.

Hunter raced to keep up, ducking beneath another column that fell and bridged itself overhead. Despite the danger, something nagged at the back of his mind. The temple, the torches, the runes, the rings…

Hunter’s eyes widened. He shouted up to the rest of the men, getting their attention.

“Echo! About-face! One-eighty for each turn we made coming in!”

The squad hesitated but Hunter was already backtracking the way they came and they scrambled to catch up. The temple structure groaned again, crashing walls and columns raining down around them. Hunter wracked his brain for the path they took on the way in, muttering to himself as he took each turn opposite of what they should have been for the way out. He saw a leftward tunnel that split off into two more and he banked right, adjusting his grip on Omega as he rounded the corner and felt a wave of relief when he saw light up ahead.

All of the clones broke from the mouth of the cave system into warm daylight, a shuddering crash of dust and stone bringing up the back of their party. Hunter kept running a good forty paces through the scrub brush before turning back, relieved to see all of his team catching up to him.

“Let go of me,” Omega growled, shoving fruitlessly at him and wriggling out of his grip, falling to the ground and out of reach. She stumbled away spitting curses under her breath, wiping the debris from her clothes.

… Right, Hunter thought. Not Omega anymore.

Wrecker hooted in victory, entreating a high-five from anybody who’d indulge him, but turning to Omega-as-Crosshair sobered some of that good humor; Omega was bent with her hands on her knees, coughing and having a hard time catching her breath. Wrecker felt a pang of sympathy, striding over to slap her on the back and offer his canteen, which she took gratefully, still occasionally coughing.

Echo righted himself, taking deep breaths and trying to slow his heart rate out of habit before realizing he felt… okay. Better than okay, really. The dying adrenaline didn’t make him feel like he was crashing, just coming down from the high like a hang glider skimming down to level ground. He felt alert, focused, senses buzzing from the input of information every sight and smell gave him. With that came two more realizations of the day:

One: His own body had apparently not been keeping up as well as he thought it had this past year.

And two: This was not the same planet they landed on twelve hours ago.

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