#payload injection

[tf2occontest]

The Courier VS Ágatha, the Nurse VS The Intern

(Full matchup list here)

Alright team, here's a recap: This is a contest to determine who amongst you will take the top of the leaderboards and be hired at TFI! Simply put, whoever gets the most votes gets to move on, and whoever doesn't... Well. They'll be put down swiftly and cleanly. :}

So, mann your stations, because here are your next contestants! Vote for your favorite mercenary who you want to win the TF2 OC Contest! - P

OC INFO UNDER THE CUT!

We highly encourage you to take a peek to make your decision!

The Courier

@sicc-nasti

Image credit: @/sicc-nasti

Do you like receiving your mail on time and your packages in pristine condition - untouched by curious hands and peeping eyes? Do you love when your woefully embarrassing love letters filled with poetry from your soul are delivered with the utmost care and secrecy? Does it fill you with glee when your special snacks you ordered overseas finally make its way into your hands and not a SINGLE piece is missing?

If you said yes to any of these questions then WOW do I NOT have the guy for you!!!!

Instead-

TFI presents you something you didn't know was possible OR legal - weaponized postal services!

Meet your 10th Class-

The Courier!

By intercepting and opening someone else's mail, an individual can gain access to confidential information that can be used for identity theft, fraud, or other illegal activities. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we? That's why our solution to this simple problem is bringing the mail to the battlefield! Courier is equipped with MANN CO approved disposable stackable mail crates for your climbing or shielding needs. Just think of how nice it would be to build a tower to do taunts on or have cover from that enemy Heavy's hail of bullets. Sure it's clunky but nothing shreds paper faster than a bullet - that's science tested and math approved by TFI scientists! And monkeys!

Courier is THE MANN for the job.

If that ain't enough to catch your attention, let's take a peek at the men behind the uniform.

RED’s Courier is a Puerto Rican ex-felon hailing from the greatest place on earth! New York City! With an insatiable appetite for all things fraud, deli meats, and violence - what more could you ask from a guy?

BLU's Courier is a Puerto Rican-Italian ex-con plucked from the greatest place on earth! Jersey City! With an insatiable appetite for all things smuggling, deli meats, and violence - what more could you ask from a guy?

Not enough for a vote?

Well, listen, I'm not above bribery. If you vote for them, Courier promises to not read your mail for like a week and INSTEAD- will write you up a totally not fraudulent marriage certificate to any merc you want!! Just think! Finally legally married to Heavy! Or Engie! How’s that sound for incentive, boss?

THROUGH RAIN, SHINE, BULLET HAIL OR SNOW, THEY’RE YOUR COURIER.

VOTE FOR COURIER IN THIS UPCOMING TF2 OC CONTEST

Maybe there’ll be enough in the budget for a third one!

Ágatha, the Nurse

@arts-of-gjb

Image credit: @/arts-of-gjb

Ágatha is a young brazilian girl from Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). She is very friendly and energetic, but also have a deep taste for medical experiments and doesn't mind seing blood for the most of the time, traces that were noticed and encouraged by her uncle, Medic. He started to bring her once she made 10 so he could teach her all he know. Inside the battlefields, Ágatha asumes The Nurse title, The nurse class in unable to capture control points, move payloads, grab inteligences or even cause directly cause damadge to others players, because her only objectives as part of the team are:

To assist, by curing her team. different of Medic, the nurse does not have a medigun to that, so she fulfills this task by being able to grab the medikits (or other healing iten disponible on the ground) and then give them to your teamates

To anoy, by shooting small injections on the rivals. as said before, they wont make any damadge, however, they will "stop" the player for a few secconds (the same way that when you're hit by a christmas glove from heavy, but it should make a pain animation than a laught one, and would work if hit in any body part).

Once her hp reaches 0, the nurse would enter in a "sleeping mode", where you get unable to do anything. If no one does anything with you when youre like this for a couple of seconds, then you wake up with half of your total hp, but if someone from the opposite team pick you up and leave you to a specifc location, then you are teleported to your respaw base, where you get unable to go out for a minute (be grounded time >:I )

A vote for Ágatha is a vote for Red team, Medic, Brasil and nepotism!!!!!!!

The Intern

@queensqueercourt

Image credit: @/queensqueercourt

YOU KNOW THEM! YOU LOVE THEM!! The ever so fashionable intern makes a stance once again! paired with a improv pen shiv, stapler gun and rifle, they're ready to hit the battlefield with something never seen before!

These teens accidentally stumbled on the battlefield during their job orientation, and as a reward for surviving the battle unscathed they got a brand new responsibility: fighting in the field alongside the mercs! Simcha is a fun good-hearted rapscallion from Denver, and Tirzah is rebellious punk from New York City! help them win and who knows! maybe they'll get a paycheck for this!

[areyoufuckingcrazy]

“Dark Water”

Chapter Five: Iron in the Voice

The Bad Batch x Reader

Rain streaked down the wide windowpanes of the observation deck, the sky outside Kamino’s sterile lab facility a dull grey. Below, banks of consoles gleamed with soft-blue light as two cadets crouched over separate terminals in the center of the slicing bay: Fixer, Delta Squad’s quiet prodigy, and Tech, Clone Force 99’s fast-talking firebrand.

You stood beside Sergeant Kal Skirata, arms folded, as the two boys were handed their challenge prompt by the Kaminoan overseer.

“Both will be given identical encrypted data cores,” the Kaminoan droned. “They are to extract the primary data payload, identify the false trails, and re-secure the system with no external support. Sabotage is permitted.”

“They’re still kids,” you muttered.

“They’re soldiers,” Skirata replied, flatly. “And this is Kamino. You think the real war’s gonna wait till they’re ready?”

You didn’t argue.

Not here. Not in front of the Nulls, who were slouched in the back with arms crossed, eyes sharp.

Below, Fixer tapped once to acknowledge the test. No wasted motion. No questions. Just cold efficiency.

Tech, in contrast, adjusted his goggles three times, then pushed up the bridge of his nose and muttered, “Ah — we’re beginning already. Excellent. I had concerns about the test design, but this—this will do nicely.”

Skirata snorted. “Is he always like that?”

“Worse,” you replied. “He narrated his own vaccinations last week.”

⸻

Tech’s fingers were a blur over the interface, his brow furrowed as he worked his way through five firewalls and an obfuscation spider-layer of recursive code. “Crude,” he muttered. “But well implemented.”

Across the room, Fixer had already bypassed two layers of security without a single verbal comment. His expression never changed. No muttering, no celebration. Just clean, silent efficiency.

Tech peeked over his shoulder briefly.

“Oh. Oh that’s fast,” he muttered. “Okay. Okay, it’s a race now.”

He cracked his knuckles and pulled a secondary cable from under the table.

“I’m rerouting my partition. Not technically regulation,” he said to no one, “but well within the parameters of testable creativity…”

He pulled a spike tool from his belt — homemade, by the looks of it — and jammed it into the dataport.

On the observation deck, one of the Nulls — Mereel — leaned forward and squinted.

“He made that himself,” he said. “Did you give him permission to modify the slicer tools?”

“No,” you said, frowning. “But he’s… inventive.”

Skirata grunted. “Reminds me of Sev. With less blood and more monologues.”

Fixer paused just long enough to notice the tremor in the data feed.

“Interference,” he muttered.

He traced it to Tech’s console. A deliberate loop injection.

Without missing a beat, Fixer countered — flooding the shared sandbox environment with null packets, static noise designed to crash low-level buffer systems.

Tech’s console stuttered for half a second. Long enough to be noticeable.

He blinked, surprised. “He’s sabotaging me. Oh, good. This is now a true contest.”

“Your boy’s cocky,” Skirata said, eyeing Tech.

“He’s ten and smarter than half the Kaminoan engineers,” you replied. “He’s allowed a little arrogance.”

“He’s gonna learn it doesn’t keep you alive in the field.”

You nodded slowly. “Then I’ll teach him what will.”

Tech’s strategy changed. He abandoned the route he’d started and began carving a new one — a longer one — and began patching over his past mistakes behind him. Not just slicing anymore. Cloaking.

Fixer noticed.

He adjusted. Hard countered.

Back and forth it went: silent duel over code and cleverness, one looping and twisting, the other dissecting with ruthless precision.

Eventually — as the test’s timer reached zero — both terminals chimed.

Data retrieved. Payload secured. False trails identified.

Match drawn.

“Well,” Skirata muttered. “Neither of them lost. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”

You glanced at him. “Means we’ve got two assets. Not one.”

You stepped away from the window and headed for the exit, tapping your comm once to send your evaluation of Tech’s work to the instructors’ logs.

Behind you, Fixer and Tech were unplugging their tools and walking off the mat.

“…That was exhilarating,” Tech said, pushing his goggles up. “You’re very skilled. Efficient. Elegant, even. You hardly said a word!”

Fixer looked at him. “You didn’t stop talking.”

Tech looked genuinely pleased. “You noticed!”

Fixer didn’t respond. But there was, just briefly, the hint of a smirk as he walked away.

Tech watched him go, then turned back to the empty lab.

“…I liked him.”

⸻

Tipoca City — Mess Hall

2043 Hours

It was late by Kaminoan standards.

The mess hall had emptied into that liminal quiet, where the cleaning droids hummed softly and trays clattered only once every few minutes. A few cadets lingered, muttering over ration bars or staring into nutrient paste bowls like they might tell fortunes.

Tech stepped into the room, datapad clutched to his chest like a prized relic.

His eyes scanned the space and — there, toward the back — was Fixer, alone at a table. Tray pushed aside. Console open. Fingers dancing over keys in precise, economical movements.

Tech hesitated only a moment before crossing the floor.

“Hello!” he said cheerfully, sliding into the seat across from him.

Fixer barely looked up. “You don’t stop, do you?”

“I’m trying,” Tech said earnestly. “But I’ve found most silences are simply opportunities to fill gaps in mutual understanding.”

Fixer paused in his typing. “…You’re talking again.”

“I am.”

Fixer stared at him flatly.

Tech cleared his throat. “I… just wanted to say your code loop countermeasures today were incredible. You rerouted the sandbox flood without destabilizing the sequence, and your packet injection efficiency was—”

“Average,” Fixer interrupted.

Tech blinked. “That’s demonstrably false.”

“I made two mistakes,” Fixer replied. “One delay on the decoy bypass, and I used a loop that was inefficient. You still almost beat me.”

“I didn’t even finish my best algorithm,” Tech admitted. “I overcompensated when your spike flooded my initial path.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

Fixer tilted his head. “You coded that spike tool yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Send me the schematics.”

“…Really?”

Fixer gave a curt nod.

Tech lit up like a reactor core. “Absolutely! I’ll send them through the shared uplink once I debug the sublayer compression.”

Fixer returned to his console. “No rush. I’ll rebuild it better.”

Tech smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Across the room, the doors hissed open.

Boots stomped in, loud and uneven.

“Well if it isn’t the Nerd Herd!”

Tech looked up to see Scorch, decked in slightly scuffed cadet fatigues, two ration bars crammed into one hand and a bottle of high-protein caf in the other.

“Fixer! I thought you swore off social interaction unless it involved ‘tactical necessity.’ You finally making friends?”

Fixer didn’t glance up. “Trying.”

Scorch stopped mid-chew, looked between them, then jabbed a finger at Tech.

“You! Goggles!”

“Tech,” he said politely.

“Right. You’re the loud one.”

“I’ve been told that before.”

“I heard about your little slicer showdown. You realize Fixer’s the reason the rest of us don’t even try anymore, right?”

“His skill is remarkable,” Tech agreed.

“You’re lucky you still have a console,” Scorch muttered, flopping down beside Fixer with all the subtlety of a plasma grenade. “Last time I challenged him, my data terminal burst into flames. Pretty sure it cried.”

Fixer didn’t look up. “You deleted your own boot files.”

Scorch waved a hand. “Details. Point is, you made an impression, Goggles.”

“I aim to,” Tech said, a little proud.

Scorch leaned back in his seat. “Well, guess the quiet killer has a sparring partner now. You play sabacc?”

“Not against probability,” Tech replied. “It removes the tension.”

Scorch stared, mouth full of ration bar. “…Stars help us.”

Fixer typed one more command, closed his console, and glanced at Tech.

“Same time tomorrow?”

Tech nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. I’d… like that.”

Scorch snorted. “Maker, you two really are bonding over data encryption. Someone warn the Nulls. The nerds are uprising.”

“Statistically improbable,” Tech said absently.

Scorch just cackled.

⸻

Kamino — Outer Training Deck Gamma

The storm rolled heavy over the ocean, lightning painting the sky in violent flashes that reflected off the metal plating of the training yard. A dozen cadets stood shoulder to shoulder on the firing line, their modified rifles slung low and helmets tucked under arms.

You were on the upper observation balcony, soaked to the knees from the walk out here but too stubborn to complain. This was sniper day — and the only day you’d been warned about ahead of time by Skirata with a grim smirk and a flask in hand.

“Long-range accuracy under simulated field conditions,” Vau intoned dryly as he stepped up beside you. “Each cadet will have one shot. 1,200 meters. Wind shift every six seconds. Targets move randomly. And no, we don’t let them brace.”

You raised a brow. “You want them to fail.”

Walon Vau smiled behind his helmet. “We want them to adapt.”

Down below, Crosshair stood at the edge of the group, helmet under one arm, a frown on his sharp face and his posture full of quiet tension. Unlike the other cadets — including the taller, broader sniper from Omega Squad, and the shockingly composed Null named Kom���rk — Crosshair didn’t speak to anyone.

He just watched.

And calculated.

“Cadets,” barked Sergeant Gilamar, stepping in front of them. “You will fire in pairs. One at a time. First pair: RC-1205 ‘Sev’ and Null-C Kom’rk.”

Sev stepped forward, already grinning. “Hope the target’s got a will.”

Kom’rk didn’t speak. He just dropped into a kneeling stance, rifle already shouldered.

Sev fired first — a clean, brutal shot. 1,200 meters. Impact.

Kom’rk adjusted slightly and fired — almost at the same second. His shot split Sev’s round. Even from the balcony, you heard the trainer next to you exhale.

“Show off,” Sev muttered.

Crosshair stepped up for his round when called. His partner was the Omega Squad sniper in training, a clone with textbook stance and regulation posture.

The trainer called it.

Omega fired first. A good shot — clean hit, upper right quadrant.

Crosshair barely moved.

He didn’t drop into position like the others. He crouched low, rifle steadied in his elbow rather than his shoulder, breathing so shallow it barely misted.

“Crosshair, fire.”

He didn’t even flinch. His scope realigned.

Bang.

The Omega cadet’s shot had been good.

Crosshair’s round hit dead center, splintering the internal core of the target and sending a flash of red through the training readout.

No one spoke.

“Lucky,” Omega muttered under his breath as they stood.

Crosshair’s lips curled. “Skill. Something you’d know about if you stopped shaking when you breathe.”

That got the kid angry. “Say that again?”

Crosshair just kept walking, leaving his helmet tucked under one arm, his long rifle balanced with the lazy grace of a child who knew he was better and didn’t care who liked it.

“Arrogant little shabuir,” Skirata grunted from the back.

“He’s not wrong,” you murmured.

“He’s not right either,” Vau added. “That kid is a shot — no question. But he’s ice. He pushes everyone away. That kind of sniper gets someone killed on a team.”

You didn’t reply. Your gaze followed Crosshair as he returned to the prep bench, checking the sights again, not speaking to anyone. Even Sev gave him a sidelong glance.

“He’s going to be one of the best,” you finally said.

“And the loneliest,” Skirata finished for you.

⸻

Cadet Barracks, Later That Night

Crosshair was sitting alone at his bunk, rifle spread in parts across the mat, a soft cloth in hand. He wasn’t polishing it for show. He was cleaning the trigger mechanism like it was an extension of himself.

“Nice shot today,” came a voice.

It was Sev, carrying two protein bars and a half-finished can of caf.

Crosshair didn’t look up. “You missed center.”

“You split it,” Sev shrugged. “Didn’t say you weren’t better. Just didn’t think you’d still be cleaning that thing two hours later.”

“It keeps me steady.”

Sev flopped down across from him. “You know you can be good at your job and also have a personality, right?”

Crosshair finally looked up. “I don’t care about personality.”

“Clearly.”

A pause.

“I was going to offer to help you mod the scope next week,” Sev muttered, “but now I’m thinking I’ll just watch you struggle.”

Crosshair smirked faintly. “I don’t struggle.”

Sev rolled his eyes. “You do now. You’re talking to me.”

⸻

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

[another-fanfic-haven]

Eyes on me! Baby

I've got what you need baby

A/N: guess who's back, alive and with a new obsession? :3 Word count: 530

You're his proudest creation, his Magnum Opus in genetic engineering. Agile, sturdy, strong… and just as fast as he is. Of course, you're not perfect; no one is in comparison to Him. He sees himself as a god. And, to be fair, so did you. He gave you the powers you wield so eagerly.

You're standing by his side, half a step behind, not to overshadow him. Your hands clasped behind your back, mimicking his posture, as he overlooked the preparations from the metal balcony in the hangar. The stealth bomber glimmered in the flickering light with the menace of what was yet to come.

"Soon, the sun will set at the age of men." He said, his voice cold, emotionless, but with a slight edge. His words echoed in your head, yet you could NOT help but grin slightly. That's what he wanted. That is what YOU wanted. Or at least, you thought so. The P30 flowing through your veins permanently altered your mind, making you a perfect puppet in this twisted theatre, your mind, and ideals finally aligning with his. You took a step forward, the toes of your boots lining up with his. The P30 in your spine glowed as you took one deep breath, exhaling slowly, easing the tension in your shoulders.

"Reckon we'll be ready to launch in half a year." You commented, yet it was more of a statement. The Uroboros research reached its peak. Now all that is left is to load the bombs with the virus and spread all over the world. You could sense his emotions, excitement, and impatience. In a perfect world, the payload would be long ready, and he could declare himself a new ruler, a messiah. You glanced up at him, trying to read his expression - cold as always, with eyes glued to somewhere in the distance.

Suddenly, the silence cut with his voice, he turned his face towards you, his eyes obscured by the glasses. It's not like they could display any emotion anyway. "Go fetch Excella. I'll need my injection soon."

He commanded, and you obeyed. Like a good little soldier. Like a good little rookie. You bowed courtly, then turned on your heel and made your way out of the hangar in great haste. Your steps were confident, quick, and deadly as you strut through the Tricell complex.

And there you were, standing in front of the heavy office doors. You raised your hand, knocking a couple of times with your fist. You retreated your hand, clasping it behind your back, waiting patiently for the command, allowing you to walk in.

And there it was. Excella's voice rang through. You pushed the doors open, allowing it to close on its own as you stepped in.

"Oh. It's you." Excella turned around to face you, her voice almost disappointed. She attempted to keep her tone even, not betraying any emotion or resentment towards you, Wesker's prized little agent. You tensed your muscles, eyes narrowing on hers. You cleared your throat before you commanded quickly and coldly, yet trying not to make it sound like an order.

"Wesker sent me to remind you of his injection."

To be continued..?

[dailycharacteroption]

Resonating Biohack Biohacker (Biohacker Alternate Class Feature)

Sound is a funny thing when it comes to medicine, having many different applications, everything from therapeutic vibrations to ultrasound scans to using a sonic device to break up things like kidney stones.

But for a crystalline creature, sound can often be much more than that due to the way that their structures resonate, which is why today’s subject was canonically invented by the urog.

Indeed, given their silicon-based nature, it can sometimes be hard to inject medicines directly into their bodies, so urog doctors developed ways to transfer medicines through hypersonic frequencies, a practice that they and those they train carry over into affecting other creatures.

Now, there is some credence to this. Jet injectors, for example, propel medicine at such force that it penetrates the skin without needing a needle. However, the flavor of the class suggests that what the practitioner is doing is instead vibrating the bodies of their subject in such a way as to induce various changes in their bodies, despite the fact that they often are still consuming a physical resource. Perhaps it’s a bit of both, then, with daily uses of boosters and inhibitors being resonation-based while those with an actual price tag are injected.

Either way, the result is a variant of biohacker that utilizes sonic weapons instead of various forms of syringe-launchers. So let’s see what they’ve got.

Rather than use injection weapons, these doctors instead use sonic weapons, able to use them to deliver their payloads of serums and the like through vibrationary force and resonance. Of course they still gain the advantages that other biohackers do with their weaponry, able to inject foes at a distance without injuring them. Additionally, if bereft of such weaponry, they can still deliver their biohacks with a sonic pad in their toolkit or a ranged sonic burst.

While relatively simple, this alternate feature does offer greater damage with sonic weapons and a way for them to target EAC instead of the generally tougher KAC. However, sonic weapons aren’t exactly subtle, making them less useful for stealth. However, if the aesthetic vibes with you, by all means go for it.

There isn’t a whole lot to differentiate how you roleplay these biohackers compared to traditional ones, especially since they are both well known for experimental treatments despite them being flavored different ways. That flavoring, what with their inhibitors and boosters being resonant in nature, can make for interesting descriptions though, I suppose.

The Tournament of Might, a competition where combatants of all stripes face off, has suddenly ground to a halt when one of the medics making sure that competitors do not die or face permanent injury is found dead, murdered with their own sonic therapy glove (actually a modified pulse gauntlet), but who could have wanted a medic dead and why?

With their fierce warrior culture, it can be hard to imagine tromlin bloodseekers in a medicine role, but someone has to tend to the needs of their allies, and one such person is Baklas, a rather level-headed member of their species. They could be a useful contact among a people that would rather fight than talk.

In the farthest reaches of that galaxy are ancient remnants of the yithian culture, including some of their greatest innovations. One such tool is a device that far surpasses any sonic medicine practiced today. Acquiring one of these items means braving such ruins, or finding the current unscrupulous owner.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

A Small Blue-Gray Marble

In 1968, as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon, astronaut Bill Anders captured one of the most iconic images of all time: Earthrise. The photo, showing Earth as a vibrant blue-and-white sphere emerging over the barren surface of the Moon, helped propel a nascent environmental movement and changed NASA’s and humanity’s perception of our home planet.

“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth,” Anders later said of his journey. “Earth was the only thing in color. Everything else was black or white. It was the only thing that had any life to it.”

Now, more than half a century later, a new image taken from the surface of the Moon offers a fresh perspective on the theme. The new “blue ghost” photograph shows a small gray Earth drifting in the cosmic expanse beyond the flat, lifeless surface of the Moon.

The new photo was taken on March 2, 2025, after the Blue Ghost lander—a 330-pound (150-kilogram) spacecraft built by Firefly Aerospace—gently touched down on the powdery regolith of Mare Crisium. This dark feature in the Moon’s northeast quadrant formed when basaltic lava filled an ancient impact crater billions of years ago. Since the feature is close to the edge of the visible disk when viewed from Earth, it comes into view on a waxing crescent Moon and remains prominent until soon after a full Moon.

Blue Ghost, named after a rare type of firefly found in the U.S. Southeast, landed in Mare Crisium six weeks after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the probe from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The new photograph, taken soon after sunrise, shows a faint, almost spectral view of Earth beyond the lander’s shadow. Unlike the crisp details in Earthrise, where swirling clouds and continents are visible, Earth appears as more of an apparition—our gas-rich atmosphere scattering light in a way that makes the planet look opaque and monochromatic.

The photo was taken with a high-definition commercial off-the-shelf digital camera with a wide fisheye lens with little to no zoom, making Earth appear small, a Firefly Aerospace spokesperson explained. “In contrast, Bill Anders was in orbit and using a 250-millimeter telephoto lens when he took the Earthrise photograph, so Earth looked relatively large,” said Olivia Tyrrell, an optical engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Tyrrell is a member of the science team for SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies), one of ten scientific payloads aboard Blue Ghost.

Earth, however, looked much bluer and larger in other photographs taken during Blue Ghost’s journey to the Moon. On February 12, a Firefly Aerospace camera captured the remarkable image (above) of part of Earth’s Southern Hemisphere and the Moon a few days after trans-lunar injection, a maneuver that altered the spacecraft’s orbit and put it on a trajectory for the Moon. At the time, the spacecraft was much closer to Earth than the Moon, so the Moon appears as a mere speck in the photo. On Earth, ice sheets covering Antarctica and a tropical cyclone churning in the Indian Ocean are visible.

Around the same time, Firefly Aerospace’s cameras looked back home and captured an image (below) of Earth’s clouds and part of Australia, also visible in the reflections off the mission’s solar panels (foreground).

The mission’s X-band antenna and LEXI (Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager), a NASA telescope designed to study Earth from the Moon, are shown in the center of the image. Scientists will use the telescope to study how Earth’s atmosphere responds to space weather, or variations in the conditions in space caused by solar activity such as flares and coronal mass ejections.

For six Earth days during the Blue Ghost mission, LEXI will collect images of X-rays emanating from the edges of Earth’s sprawling magnetosphere. These images will help researchers track how the protective boundary reacts to space weather and other cosmic forces and sometimes allows streams of charged solar particles into Earth’s atmosphere, creating auroras and potentially damaging infrastructure.

The Blue Ghost lander was designed to operate for about one lunar day, equivalent to 14 Earth days. The mission is part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, a partnership between NASA and several American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface.

[lonestarflight]

Apollo Application Program: BALLOS

Concept art of BALLOS (BALlistic LOgistic Spacecraft), an Apollo-derived logistics spacecraft. It was studied by NASA, Lockheed and McDonnell-Douglas for the transportation of Astronauts to and from the Large Orbiting Research Laboratory (LORL) space station for the Apollo Application Program.

It came in three variants, a 6 astronaut version (2 crew, 4 passengers), 9 astronaut version (2 crew, 7 passengers) and a 2 astronaut version (2 crew, 10 passengers).

It would potentially be launched onboard either the Saturn IB or Titan III-C (in hammerhead configuration). The Saturn IB was preferred. Despite being bigger than the base line Apollo CSM, it would weigh roughly the same.

The 12 astronaut version has the following description:

"It is conical in shape with a spherical segment base. The base diameter of the spacecraft is 190 inches. The cargo-maneuver module is conical in shape and located immediately aft of the crew module. The conical shape adapts the 190-in. diameter crew module to the 260-inches diameter of the launch vehicle. This module is capable of carrying 13,455 lb of packaged cargo and 3,755 lb of maneuver propellant. This propellant is sufficient to meet the maneuvering impulsive velocity requirements of 1,050 fps which is provided by a modified LEM descent engine located in the module. Three solid-propellant retrorockets are located at the fore end of this module also.

This vehicle fulfills the mission requirements of delivering 12 men and 13, 455 lb of packaged cargo to a space station orbiting at an altitude of 260 nmi and an inclination of 29.5°. The launch vehicle puts the spacecraft in a 105 nmi parking orbit from which a Hohmann transfer is used to reach the rendezvous altitude of 260 nmi. Impulse for the Hohmann transfer and injection into final orbit is provided for in the 1,050 fps of impulsive velocity capability of the maneuver propulsion system. The maximum dynamic pressure of 525 psf is reached approximately 85 sec after launch. The maximum longitudinal acceleration during launch is approximately 4 g's."

At the end of the mission, the capsule would return to Earth for recovery, refurbishment and reuse. The propulsion module would be allowed to burn up.

"On an operational basis, prelaunch preparation time for a new [Ballos] spacecraft is 40 days. This time period includes receiving and shop processing prior to mating to the erected launch vehicle.

The projected 1968 to 1970 time period estimate for on-pad preparation time for the Saturn IB launch vehicle is 48 days. Of this, 23 days are allowed for payload mating and integrated vehicle checkout. The total prelaunch processing time required for the [BALLOS] vehicle, therefore, would be 63 days."

BALLOS never progressed past the study phase, like many proposals of the Apollo Application Program.

Date: Study 1964

source, source

NASA ID: S64-3663, S63-4634, S64-1800

[rauthschild]

"Bombshell news today on the vaccine front as AstraZeneca, after admitting its covid jabs cause fibrous clots, is now withdrawing its covid vaccine from the entire world marketplace.

The EU has now revoked authorization for this vaccine, meaning it is now illegal to administer this jab to anyone in the EU.

Meanwhile, an attempted reinfection trial that exposed volunteers to 10,000 times the "dose" of covid deemed necessary to cause infections failed to produce a single infection. The premise of virology as being capable of causing pandemics is a total fraud. And that means vaccines are a fraud, too."

We could not surpass his brevity or logic.

Contrary to what the perpetually gullible Public has been led to believe, The Virus Theory, also known as The Germ Theory, is, and has always remained a theory with as many bits of evidence against it as for it.

While the introduction of any foreign substance does trigger the immune system and if it is a biological entity or molecule will provoke the creation of specific antibodies, that doesn't really prove anything about the nature of what we have come to call "viruses".

All this does is prove things about the immune system and basic mechanisms of immunity, leaving the more basic issue of the Causative Agent in limbo.

Our scientists assure us that viruses, also called "exosomes" are dead, little pinched off particles of DNA and waste products encapsulated in a protein shell.

Can dead things "infect"? Not really.

Think of waste DNA and RNA as Hazmat and the protein shell of a virus as a specially designed waste container with a lid. The protein shell is not alive, but its contents, the degraded bits of deoxy or ribonucleic acid can still replicate, if they get back inside a cell.

And then what have you got?

You've got bits of polluted and degraded foreign DNA or RNA snippets coding for foreign proteins inside your cells.

Those foreign proteins then hit your system like a sledge hammer and provoke your immune response -- which is then misidentified as a "disease".

It can be any disease, depending on the nature of the DNA or RNA contained in the "virus" packet, and the nature of the resulting immune response to whatever foreign proteins are being produced.

Blood clotting factor snippets of DNA or RNA code result in foreign blood clotting factor proteins and your immune system reacts to them, specifically.

Tumor producing snippets of DNA or RNA code result in foreign tumor proteins and your immune system reacts to them, specifically.

Each set of such stimulus-response reactions is different, so, Astrazeneca's "vaccine" loaded with blood clotting factor snippets of RNA (left over from a Department of Defense Experiment during the Iraq War) leads to "fibrous clots" as the foreign blood clotting factor proteins meet your body's immune response.

Depending on what the "payload" of DNA or RNA snippets are, you exhibit different symptoms and appear to have different diseases.

Our cell walls and membranes naturally work to exclude foreign DNA and RNA and keep this intracellular production of foreign proteins from happening, but thanks to Doctor Fauci and other Mad Scientists --- tech-crazed men with no actual brains or hearts --- this natural barrier has purportedly been overcome.

To our universal detriment.

We are calling for an immediate full stop and end of production and injection of all DNA and RNA "vaccines" worldwide.

We are calling for the prosecution and public punishment of all the Corporations responsible for this genocidal crime against humanity, and in the case of this country, the prosecution of the US CONGRESS and its Members, which recklessly and in gross negligence and dereliction of duty agreed to accept the liability for vaccine manufacturers.

Let them have the liability for all this expense and disruption and death -- individually, personally, and with 100% commercial liability.

And may no bank dare to give them as much as a peso of our credit. They were not acting "for" us or in our favor when they did this, and they do not deserve any indemnification or insurance at public cost.

The UN CORPORATION has promoted war instead of stopping it, and has contributed to this genocide through its WHO organization. We see no reason for its continued existence, much less any treaty empowering it in any way.

We call for the immediate liquidation of the UN CORPORATION and WHO, both, and an end to any further discussion of a sea "treaty" among the guilty corporations to grant any purported powers possessed by any corporation to either entity.

[darkmaga-returns]

by Jessica Rose

Ulrike Kämmerer, Verena Schulz and Klaus Steger have just published what might be the paper of the century entitled: “BioNTech RNA-Based COVID-19 Injections Contain Large Amounts Of Residual DNA Including An SV40 Promoter/Enhancer Sequence”. It got through peer review on December 3, 2024 and it confirms much of what has already been evidenced and answers many questions lingering in the background.

Let’s unpack their results:

Spike protein expression in HEK293 cells after transfection with BNT162b2 biologicals is seen in green. This means the LNPs dump their payload successfully into human cells and this payload is translated into spike protein using the cell’s machinery (ribosomes) as per the design. The spike had a cytotoxic effect on cells (bad for cells = they die) and stuck around for at least 7 days (persistence). And that’s just when they stopped measuring. Spike got into the medium that the cells were in: it was released from the cells that were transfected. Spike can be cleaved from the m

[theterribletenno]

Theseus, the Surgeon Warframe

Not completely sure why Theseus was the big winner this season, I blame sexual degeneracy as usual. I have a lot of vague ideas to start with but making them fit together and have an intelligible playstyle is going to be a challenge. Definitely taking my time with this one!

Health: 200 (300 at rank 30) Shields: 200 (300 at rank 30) Armor: 300 Energy: 150 (200 at rank 30) Sprint Speed: 1.05

Passive: Thanks to his great and terrible medical expertise Theseus's abilities and weapons bypass enemy viral resistance and instead of the normal cap of 10 stacks viral status inflicted by Theseus reaches a maximum of 13 stacks.

Ability 1: Dark Harvest, 25 energy. In a single moment Theseus performs surgery on the enemy targeted by his crosshairs within 20 meters, lunging upon them and harvesting either a limb or an organ which he immediately uses to augment himself. The surgery deals true damage to the enemy equal to 15% of its combined max health and shields as he slices them up with his surgical tools, and then mercifully closes the wounds to prevent further damage. Each enemy can only be affected by Dark Harvest once. Tap to harvest an organ or hold to harvest a limb. Dark Harvest cannot be used on unique enemies (such as bosses, eidolons, The Stalker, etc) nor on enemies currently protected by overguard.

Stealing an organ heals Theseus for 25% of his max health while increasing his max health, armor, and max energy by 10% and his sprint speed by +0.01 for 12 seconds. Theseus can augment himself with a maximum of 10 organs. Further organ havests while at 10 stacks will still heal Theseus and refresh buff duration.

Stealing a limb will add one of the enemy's limbs to Theseus's body, the limb now (partially) under his control for the next 12 seconds. The stolen limb will use a copy of the victim's standard attack with identical behavior to the original but applying a 20% bonus to damage dealt, status chance, and critical chance. These stolen and grafted limbs will attack random enemies within viable range. Up to four limbs can be stolen and grafted onto Theseus, harvesting a new limb while Theseus already has four grafted will replace the oldest grafted limb with the new one. The enemy will be crippled by the loss of its main limb and weapon, greatly reducing their threat to the Tenno.

Ability 2: Suture, 50 energy. Targets the ally or enemy indicated by Theseus's crosshairs within 45 meters. If the target is an ally they will be purged of all status effects and become immune to status effects for the next 15 seconds. If the target is an enemy all statuses currently afflicting them and applied to them within the next 10 seconds have their duration doubled and damage (if applicable) increased by 50%.

Ability 3: Blood Donation, 75 energy + 50 health. Releases A swarm of drones which target up to 12 enemies & allies within a 30 meter radius, prioritizing allies. The drones first inject the target(s) with a sample of Theseus's blood, healing allies and infecting enemies. When a Blood Donation drone reaches an ally it will inject that ally with Theseus's blood, healing them for 50% of their currently missing max health. Allies missing less than 25 points of health will be ignored by the drones. When a Blood Donation drone reaches an enemy it will infect them, dealing 150 viral damage with 50% status chance per half-second for the next 10 seconds. Two seconds after injecting their payload the drones return to Theseus with a sample of their victim's blood and tissue which Theseus assimilates into himself.

Assimilated tissue from allies will increase Theseus's ability strength, range, and duration by 10% for 12 seconds stacking up to 5 times.

Tissue assimilated from enemy units will increase Theseus's max health, armor, and max shields by 5% for 12 seconds stacking up to 10 times.

Ability 4: Chaos Serum, 100 energy + 50 health. Theseus brandishes a special medical tool, a revolver pistol loaded with syringes, each one filled with one of 6 serums. Theseus spins the chamber and holds the muzzle to his head, pulling the trigger to inject himself with one of the serums at random. Each serum has a different effect which lasts for 10 seconds and Chaos Serum cannot be reactivated until after it expires.

Aggression Serum: Theseus's equipped primary, secondary, and melee weapons gain +30% bonus damage.

Infinity Serum: Theseus's abilities can be cast at no cost.

Painkiller Serum: Theseus becomes immune to damage and status effects.

Isolation Serum: Deals 500 viral damage per half-second with 50% status chance to all enemies in a 12 meter radius.

Overcharge Serum: Deals electric damage equal to 200% of max overshields when overshields break and deals electric damage equal to 200% of max shields when shields break to all enemies within 20 meters with a guaranteed electric status proc.

Omni Serum: Provides partial benefits of all other five serums; equipped weapons gain +10% bonus damage, abilities gain +50% efficiency, Theseus gains 50% damage reduction, deals 100 viral damage with 20% status chance per half second to all enemies in a 10 meter radius, and deals electric damage with a guaranteed electric status proc equal to 100% of max shields to all enemies within 10 meters when shields break.

Subsumed ability: Suture

Signature Weapons Phleboto: A speargun used by Theseus to inflict grievous wounds... surely for medical purposes, right? Phleboto has a four-round burstfire trigger, deals exclusively slash damage, and has high status chance at the cost of low critical chance. Furthermore, if all four rounds in a single burst hit the same enemy it will cause a viral explosion with a guaranteed viral status proc in a moderate radius. When thrown with the alt-fire button the Phleboto deals blast damage in a wide area and creates an aura at its point of impact. All friendly units, both player and non-player, gain an additional 300 armor upon entering the aura which then scales up to 500 over five seconds. This bonus armor persists for five seconds after leaving the aura. As his signature primary weapon when Theseus throws Phleboto it applies a guaranteed viral status proc to all enemies caught in its blast radius. Plasmosis: Theseus's signature secondary weapon the Plasmosis has a held-beam style trigger, high critical chance and multiplier at the cost of low status chance, deals pure viral damage, and has a generously sized magazine at the cost of a slightly slower reload. The Plasmosis deals abnormally high damage at the cost of an abnormally short maximum range, but has the ability to lock on to an enemy after dealing damage to them for the first time, continuing to damage the enemy as long as they are within range and the trigger is held regardless of where the wielder aims. Plasmosis can fire up to three of these lock-on beams at once, with more made possible by multishot. This lock-on effect always targets the center of the enemy, meaning it is nearly impossible to land reliable headshots with this weapon. The Plasmosis also has an alt-fire mode which also uses a held-beam trigger, but instead of dealing damage this secondary fire is able to heal allies, healing the targted ally for 2 points per tick at a rate of 12 ticks per second. This mode also has lock-on behavior similar to the primary fire mode but cannot lock onto multiple allies even with multishot. This healing effect has no crit or status and can only be increased by mods which add base damage such as Hornet Strike, Magnum Force, and Augur Pact. Healing from this fire mode grants health first and shields if health is full but cannot grant overshields or overguard and cannot target the wielder by any means. As Theseus's signature weapon the Plasmosis gains extra magazine capacity when he wields it.

Closing Notes: Wow holy fuck yeah it took me a WHILE to get this done. And he ended up being a huge wall of text. I don't think there's much here that needs to be explained or contextualized except that both of Theseus's signature weapons' names are related to blood. Phleboto is short for Phlebotomy - the process of drawing blood with a needle - and Plasmosis refers to blood infections.

[tf2occontest]

Ágatha, the Nurse VS Scurple (Purple Scout)

(Full matchup list here)

Alright team, here's a recap: This is a contest to determine who amongst you will take the top of the leaderboards and be hired at TFI! Simply put, whoever gets the most votes gets to move on, and whoever doesn't... Well. They'll be put down swiftly and cleanly. :}

So, mann your stations, because here are your next contestants! Vote for your favorite mercenary who you want to win the TF2 OC Contest! - P

OC INFO UNDER THE CUT!

We highly encourage you to take a peek to make your decision!

Ágatha, the Nurse

@arts-of-gjb

Image credit: @/arts-of-gjb

Ágatha is a young brazilian girl from Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). She is very friendly and energetic, but also have a deep taste for medical experiments and doesn't mind seing blood for the most of the time, traces that were noticed and encouraged by her uncle, Medic. He started to bring her once she made 10 so he could teach her all he know. Inside the battlefields, Ágatha asumes The Nurse title, The nurse class in unable to capture control points, move payloads, grab inteligences or even cause directly cause damadge to others players, because her only objectives as part of the team are:

To assist, by curing her team. different of Medic, the nurse does not have a medigun to that, so she fulfills this task by being able to grab the medikits (or other healing iten disponible on the ground) and then give them to your teamates

To anoy, by shooting small injections on the rivals. as said before, they wont make any damadge, however, they will "stop" the player for a few secconds (the same way that when you're hit by a christmas glove from heavy, but it should make a pain animation than a laught one, and would work if hit in any body part).

Once her hp reaches 0, the nurse would enter in a "sleeping mode", where you get unable to do anything. If no one does anything with you when youre like this for a couple of seconds, then you wake up with half of your total hp, but if someone from the opposite team pick you up and leave you to a specifc location, then you are teleported to your respaw base, where you get unable to go out for a minute (be grounded time >:I )

A vote for Ágatha is a vote for Red team, Medic, Brasil and nepotism!!!!!!!

Scurple (Purple Scout)

@cyantt-does-stuff

Image credit: @/cyantt-does-stuff

Scurple is an alien who's taken control over the Blu Scout's body. His aim is to steal the technology of the respawn machine. His goal, immortality.

I made this character after watching a few Freak Fortress videos. I thought about a unique take on one of the Scouts, and, since Blu is mostly correlated with horror, I decided to go for them. Since aliens are a big part of TF2, I thought "why not have an alien takeover" sort of deal. Thus, Scurple was born.

He's looks exactly like the Blue Scout (with a bit of my own personal hcs, like Blu having freckels/and scars). How his shirt turned purple is a mystery, however I have this idea that somehow he turned it purple through bloodshed.

He's completely different from either Scout. In fact, he really isn't truly a Scout. He's just using the Scout's body as a means to an end.

I think he'd like participating in a fight to the death, since that's what his character must do to achieve his mission. Maybe his winning could get him one step closer to gaining the immortality he so desires.

He exists in the main TF2 universe, and also coexists in the Freak Fortress universe.

[nixalegos]

Sinful Asks - What ritual is the most favorite to use for Nix regarding bedroom activity? How about did he learn this ritual?

The common name of the minor transmutation of ones form is called 'Fangs of the Vampire King'. Given his elven biology, this mostly serves to elongate and strengthen his natural fangs into far more devastating points. However, he has altered the spell. His fangs become proteroglyphous. Nix's spell altered 'bite' is venomous. Choosing to inject a sorcery laden payload of his own blood that is essentially ignited upon passing the three-fourth mark groove of the interior of the fang. This fel-venom infusion of his own blood serves as a catalyst for all SORTS of further sorcery, with a victim of said bite having much less chance to resist. He has learned to use this spell after exposure to a great number of monsters and terrible beasts. Why should they get all the fun? Thanks @safrona-shadowsun!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Open Circuits

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet that picks up where the old, good internet left off. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Every trip to Defcon – the massive annual hacker-con in Las Vegas – is a delight. Partly it's the familiar – seeing old friends, getting updates on hacks of years gone by. But mostly, it's the surprises, the things you never anticipated. Defcon never fails to surprise.

I got back from Vegas yesterday and I've just unpacking my suitcase, and with it, the tangible evidence of Defcon's cave of wonders. My gear bag has a new essential: Hak5's malicious cable detector, a little USB gizmo that lights up if it detects surreptitious malicious activity, even as it interdicts those nasty payloads:

https://shop.hak5.org/collections/omg-row2/products/malicious-cable-detector-by-o-mg

(In case you're wondering if it's really possible to craft a malicious USB cable that injects badware into your computer and is visually indistinguishable from a regular cable, the answer is a resounding yes, and of course, Hak5 sells those cables, with a variety of USB tips:)

https://shop.hak5.org/collections/omg-row2/products/omg-cable

But merch is only a sideshow. The real action is in the conference rooms, where hackers update you on the pursuit of their obsessions. These are such beautiful weirdos who pursue knowledge to ridiculous extremes, untangling gnarly hairballs just to follow a thread to its origin point.

For the second year in a row, I caught a presentation from Joseph Gabay about his work on warshopping: slicing up shopping cart wheels and haunting shopping mall parking lots during resurfacing to figure out how the anti-theft mechanism that stops your cart from leaving the parking lot works:

https://www.begaydocrime.com/

And of course, I got to give one of those presentations, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification," to a packed house. What a thrill! It was livestreamed, and if you missed it, you'll be able to catch it on Defcon's Youtube page as soon as they upload it (they've got a lot of uploading to do!):

https://www.youtube.com/@DEFCONConference/videos

After my talk, I went back to the No Starch Press booth for a book signing – which was amazing, so many beautiful hackers, plus I got to share a signing table with Micah Lee. As I was leaving, Bill Pollock slipped me a giant hardcover art-book, and said, "You're gonna love this."

I did. The book is Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components, by Windell Oskay and Eric Schlaepfer, and it is a drop-dead gorgeous collection of photos of electronic components, painstakingly cross-sectioned and polished:

The photos illustrate layperson-friendly explanations of what each component does, how it is constructed, and why. Perhaps you've pondered a circuit board and wondered about the colorful, candy-shaped components soldered to it. It's natural to assume that these are indivisible, abstract functional units, a thing that is best understood as a reliable and deterministic brick that can be used to construct a specific kind of wall.

But peering inside these sealed packages reveals another world, a miniature land where things get simpler – and more complex. Inside these blobs of resin are snips of wire, plugs of wax, simple screws, fine sheets of metal in stacks, wafers of plain ceramic, springs and screws.

Truly, quantity has a quality all its own. Miniaturize these assemblies and produce them at unimaginable scale and the simple, legible components turn into mystical black boxes that only the most dedicated study can reveal. Like every magician's trick, the unfathomable effect is built up through the precise repetition of something very simple.

A prolonged study of Open Circuits reveals something important about the hacker aesthetic, a collection of graphic design, fashion and industrial design conventions that begins with this realization: that the crisp lines of digital logic can be decomposed into blobby, probabilistic lumps of metal, plastic, and even wax.

It reminds me of George Dyson's brilliant memoir/history of computing, Turing's Cathedral, where he describes how he and the other children of the scientists building the first digital computers at the Princeton Institute spent their summers in the basement, hand-winding cores for the early colossi their parents were building on the floors above them:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/03/12/george-dysons-history-of-the-computer-turings-cathedral/

You can see my hacker aesthetic photos in my Defcon 31 photo set:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=date-taken-desc&safe_search=1&tags=defcon31&user_id=37996580417%40N01&view_all=1

In this video, Eric Schlaepfer illustrates the painstaking work that went into decomposing these tiny, precise components into their messy, analog subcomponents. It's pure hacker aesthetic, and it's mesmerizing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byKyJ0b04Lo

But Open Circuits isn't just an aesthetic journey, it's a technical one. After all, Oskay is co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Labs, one of the defining places where hardware hackers gather to tear down, pick apart, mod, improve and destroy electronics. The accompanying text is a masterclass in the simple machines that combine together to make complex assemblies:

https://www.evilmadscientist.com/

Defcon is a reminder that the world only seems hermetically sealed and legible to authorized parties with clearance to crack open the box. From shopping cart wheels to thermal fuses, that illegibility is only a few millimeters thick. Sand away the glossy outer layer and you will find yourself in a weird land of wax-blobs, rough approximations, expedient choices and endless opportunities for delight and terror, mischief and care.

Back my anti-enshittification Kickstarter here!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/14/hidden-worlds/#making-the-invisible-visible-and-beautiful

[piratesexmachine420]

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Relevant to that mention of two stage fly-back heavy launch vehicles i made earlier: I flew a Mün landing with one (uncreatively named the FBHLV), a nuclear ferry and a one-kerbal lander.

Here's the highlights (part 1/4, lots of images ahead!):

Liftoff number one!

Stage sep. (using the second stage RCS thrusters to help push 'em apart)

Circularizing with the second stage

Second stage fly-back

Touchdown number one!

Deploying the payload (Münar lander + ferry stage)

Second stage deorbit burn

Second stage reentry

On approach to the KSC runway

Diving to reduce altitude (came in too high, oops)

Lining up with the runway

Almost there...

Touchdown number two!

Plane change burn

Trans-Münar Injection

Entering the Münar SOI

Münar capture

Undocking number one

[rabbitcruiser]

Terex 33-19 "Titan", Sparwood (No. 3)

Terex put the Titan into service with Kaiser Steel at its iron mine at Eagle Mountain, California, in January 1975. The Titan experienced frequent downtime, but hauled approximately 3.5 million tons of earth over the course of its four years of service at the Eagle Mountain mine.

In late 1978, the Titan was sent to Kaiser Steel's mine at Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada. The mine was acquired from Kaiser Steel by B.C. Resources in 1980. When the mine was subsequently acquired by Westar Mining in 1983, the Titan was repainted from its original Terex lime green livery to Westar Mining's blue and yellow livery. Shortly after, Westar Mining purchased the Titan from General Motors for US$200,000 ($610,000 today) and $1 million of spare parts ($3 million today). During Westar Mining's ownership, the Titan had an uptime rate of more than 70% and regularly hauled loads exceeding 350 short tons (320 t). Westar Mining retired the Titan from service in 1991.

The Titan has a payload capacity of 350 short tons (320 t), a net vehicle weight of 509,500 pounds (231,100 kg) and a gross vehicle weight of 1,209,500 pounds (548,600 kg). Fully loaded, the Titan had a top speed of 29.8 mph (48.0 km/h). At the time of its construction in 1973, the Titan was the largest, highest payload capacity truck ever built. The Titan remained the highest capacity haul truck in existence for 25 years until the début of the 360-short-ton (330 t) payload capacity Caterpillar 797 in September 1998.

The Titan used a diesel/AC electric powertrain that consisted of an Electro-Motive Division model 16-645E4, 16-cylinder, gross 3,300 hp (2,461 kW), 10,320-cubic-inch (169.1 L), turbocharged, intercooled, unit injection, locomotive engine directly coupled to an Electro-Motive Division model AR10-D14, 10-pole, AC electric alternator sending DC power via a rectifier to General Motors model D79CF traction motors at each of the four paired rear wheels. The Titan utilized a power, all-wheel steering system. The front wheels swept through a 71-degree arc. At a preset point as the front wheels moved off-center, the eight rear wheels would also begin to steer, moving up to a maximum of 10 degrees off center. The Titan required ten 40.00x57 tires.

Source: Wikipedia

[arts-of-gjb]

MEET ÁGATHA (AND WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE HER ON THE TF2 OC TOURNEY):

Ágatha is a young brazilian girl from Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). She is very friendly and energetic, but also have a deep taste for medical experiments and doesn't mind seing blood for the most of the time, traces that were noticed and encouraged by her uncle, Medic. He started to bring her once she made 10 so he could teach her all he know.

She loves and idolizes Medic, wanting to became just as him in the future, and also likes to help during the matches and feeling as part of the red team. She also hates the blu guys fervently, BOOOO BLU GUYS!

Reasons to vote for Ágatha:

1) SHE IS BRAZILIAN!!!

2) She is Medic's niece

Will you say no for nepotism? Will you say no for them?

3) She has fun 10th class mechanics! (At least i think so im the concept artist not the game designer 😔)

Inside the battlefields, Ágatha asumes The Nurse title. She would be faster than Scout, but with the lowest health among the othes.

The nurse class in unable to capture control points, move payloads, grab inteligences or even cause directly cause damadge to others players, because her only objectives as part of the team are:

To assist, by curing her team. different of Medic, the nurse does not have a medigun to that, so she fulfills this task by being able to grab the medikits (or other healing iten disponible on the ground) and then give them to your teamates

To anoy, by shooting small injections on the rivals. as said before, they wont make any damadge, however, they will "stop" the player for a few secconds (the same way that when you're hit by a christmas glove from heavy, but it should make a pain animation than a laught one, and would work if hit in any body part)

Once her hp reaches 0, the nurse would enter in a "sleeping mode", where you get unable to do anything (and because a 10 yo getting exploded away would be too much even for tf2). If no one does anything with you when youre like this for a couple of seconds, then you wake up with half of your total hp, but if someone from the opposite team pick you up and leave you to a specifc location, then you are teleported to your respaw base, where you get unable to go out for a minute (be grounded time >:I )

So, in the tf2 oc tourney, vote right!

VOTE FOR ÁGATHA!!!

(and also feel free to ask me anything about her :) )

[lonestarflight]

Cancelled Missions: Gemini Saturn V

-Concept Art, however this has a typo, as this is clearly the Saturn V.

"American manned lunar orbiter. In l LP late 1964 McDonnell, in addition to a Saturn IB-boosted circumlunar Gemini, McDonnell proposed a lunar-orbit version of Gemini to comprehensively scout the Apollo landing zones prior to the first Apollo missions.

Status: Design 1964. Gross mass: 11,182 kg (24,652 lb).

The lunar orbit version required an Agena stage to provide the delta-V for lunar orbit insertion and trans earth injection. The 1.52 m-diameter Agena was enclosed in an inverted conical fairing to both transmit thrust loads to the Gemini and provide thermal protection during the coast to the moon.

Alternatively, a propulsion module based on a repackaged Apollo Service Module propulsion system, as had been proposed two years earlier for a lunar-landing version of Gemini, could be used. This raised the translunar injection mass of the spacecraft to 11,182 kg, well above the capability of a Saturn IB or Titan III-C, but only a quarter that of a Saturn V. The launch vehicle was unspecified, but could only have been a Saturn V used on an early test mission. The mission profile would have involved a 68 hour flight from low earth orbit to lunar orbit, a 24 hour lunar mapping mission in a 10 nm x 80 nm lunar orbit, and a 68 hour return flight. The scientific equipment would consist of a modest camera array installed in the nose of the spacecraft. This consisted of a long focal-length telescope, to which were attached two narrow-field stereo mapping cameras, a wide field mapping camera, a panoramic camera, and two 16 mm film cameras. The film was not accessible by the astronauts, being stored in a film vault shielded against radiation in the nose of the spacecraft. The camera compartment would protrude from the stub nose of the Gemini after parachute deployment.

The manned portion was the same as the circumlunar version, a modified earth-orbit Gemini. The aft modules would be retained, but with the retrorockets removed. The retro module space would be used to install Apollo-type lunar distance communications, navigation, and test equipment. Deployable DSIF omni-directional and parabolic antennae would deploy from the aft modules to support lunar-distance communications. To handle re-entry from lunar distances, several modifications were necessary. The capsule's heat shield would be beefed up, and the Rene 41 corrugated shingles of Gemini's skin would be replaced with ablative shingles. The load of attitude control propellant for the capsule's reaction control system was substantially increased. Additional strap-down gyros and solar sensor packages would be added to provide navigation system redundancy. The ejection seats would be deleted and a Mercury-style launch escape tower added. The then-planned Rogallo wing recovery system would be used to glide to the Gemini to a runway landing on US territory after return from the moon. To handle the scientific payload, a camera compartment was added to the nose below the parachute/Rogallo wing housing. The Gemini spacecraft modified in this way had on on-orbit mass of 3955 kg as compared to the 3207 kg of the earth-orbit version.

Crew Size: 2. Habitable Volume: 2.55 m3."

-information from Astronautix.com: link

source, source, source