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historyandarthijinks · 1 year

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Historical People: Red Baron

The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, was a famous ace pilot during WW1 who fought in the air force of the German Empire. Despite Richthofen fighting for the offensive military he is hailed a war hero, and good man to this day.

Manfred von Richthofen was born in Prussia, which was once it’s own nation, but then a unified part of the German Empire. Now a days this territory of land is in modern day Poland. He born into an aristocratic family making him a Freiherr which more loosely translates to what we would call a baron.

In his early life Richthofen showed a lot of talent in many different activities. This included hunting, horse back riding, school, and gymnastics. He’d enter military school at the age of 11.

Richtofen would write, and like a lot. He already wrote one of his own autobiographies before his death in war. In it he writes about his childhood disappointment about becoming a cadet in military school, stating that his father “wished it” of him.

Richthofen was a fan of risky tricks. Most notably in his autobiography he wrote that a friend and him climbed the steeple of Wahlstatt using the lightning conductor. He had tied his handkerchief at the top, and was delighted to see 10 years later with his brother, it still flittering in the wind.

WW1 began, being known at the time as the great war, and the worst war that man had ever seen. It took the world by storm, and especially Europe. Millions of young of men, no matter how they felt, were forced to the front lines on all sides. That included the German Empire, who is credited as one of the major aggressors in the war.

Richthofen served on both western and eastern fronts as a cavalry reconnaissance officer. Trench warfare had made cavalry units mostly useless, so he’d find his regiment turned into dispatch runners and telephone field operators. This upset him greatly.

The baron became incredibly interested in the German Air Force after getting to behold one of their planes himself. He decided to transfer and apply to become part of the Imperial German Air Service. It’s reported that he wrote, “I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs.”. His transfer was granted.

His first time ever riding in a plane changed Richthofen’s life for both better and eventually worse. The feeling of being above the world in the flying machine, even as a passenger, was thrilling and breathtaking. Although very nervous to fly on his own, his first ever time as a pilot during training proved to himself that this was where he was meant to be. His own flying mentor, Boelcke would collide accidentally with another plane in battle and die.

Richthofen’s first ever confirmed kill happened to his rival, and British ace, Lanoe Hawker. Richthofen referred to Lanoe as the British Boelcke. This fight would cause Richthofen to begin searching for faster planes that suited his own flying style. From then on his victories skyrocketed. By the end of the war he would be credited with downing 80 planes. The most he ever took out in one day was 22.

Richthofen became the Red Baron, and his crew the flying circus, after he had added a red painting motif to the planes he flew. Most notably the Fokker Dr I. He went by many variations of the name Red Baron, including Der rote Kampflieeger, Le Petite Rouge, and Red Pilot. He became a commander of his own flight crew. His crew became known as the flying circus when they all followed in his footsteps painting their own planes a various amount of bright colors.

Richthofen became a propagandist for the Imperial German Military, a symbol of moral, and eventually part of the cult that was hero-worship during the world wars. However in his own writings and recorded behaviors, the war was certaintly something he didn’t enjoy or endorse.

During the war his autobiography was published with heavy signs of temperament and censorship. Lines were often added to make him seem even more blood thirsty and pro-war than he actually was. English translations did the opposite as well, adding lines making him even more remorseful for the war. However he truly did show signs of both, more so a transition over time, from young war hero to equally young regretful soldier.

He even began to hate his own book before his death, stating that he’s changed. There was nothing he could do though, he was now a legend among both sides. Special rewards and calls to bring him down from Allied forces were spread around British and French Air Forces. It didn’t help that he himself shared a strong sense of honor towards his fellow pilots, calling the Englishmen his friends.

He even would even speak to two that he downed without killing. He found the situation comical as he had to land due to last minute engine problem. He said they landed perfectly despite being on fire, while he ended up in the barbwire of his own trenches and flipped his plane. The honor was shared among the Englishmen and other Allied pilots in return.

Richthofen was obsessed with downings. Originally he had a jeweler make him a silver cup per each person, which he would decorate his dashboard with. But the jeweler started to say no due a shortage of silver. After that the Red Baron would track down his downed opponents and pluck a souvenir from their plane. One his most notable being a plane engine he had turned into a chandelier.

The soldier would have a major head injury which changed a lot about him in the war, most notably making flight very migraine inducing and difficult to focus on doing. The war itself was also taking a great toll on him, especially in both his physical and mental health. Other sighted his face as becoming sunken. His family noted he was growing very no-nonsense and quiet. He himself wrote of his growing hatred to the war.

His mother mother had a diary of her own in which she wrote about her son. She wrote, “I think he has seen death too often.”. One evening while he showed her pictures from his time in Russia, she began asking about the other men in the photo. She wrote he became harsh with her, stating that all where dead except him. She knew to stop asking. She wrote that his final visit with her before his death was like talking to a ghost.

Other of his revealed writings, including a diary unveiled that he began to hate himself truly. He wrote about depression, wanting to lock himself up in a room and never seeing another person ever again, about debating his future death. He talked frequently about how awful he felt after every battle now. There was no longer pride in his flight, the deaths began to weigh on him, and his head was truly hurting.

All of this lead to Richthofen’s death at age 25 in the war. Although being chased down by planes the Red Baron wasn’t knocked out of the sky by them, but AA instead, or at least that was most probably. There are several candidates about who dealt the killing blow, but no one truly knows for sure. Wilfred May was the pilot chasing after him that day, or really the Red Baron pursuing him. Arthur Brown, Cedric Popkin, and W.J. Evans were the AA on the ground that day trying to protect May. There are other variations of who killed him though, including pilots in the air.

Brown is overall credited with the kill, but to be honest as much the Englishmen wanted him dead, they were still disappointed to see him actually so. Richthofen had been shoot through the side, the .303 exited his chest, killing him within minutes. Richthofen managed to land his plane although very roughly, breaking his nose, fracturing his jaw, and beating up his face. Englishmen rushed to his plane to hear his apparent final words, “Kaput.”

There is still an air of mystery to his death has that following week, and especially that day Richthofen was flying out of character. The ground men reported him being unusually low and flying recklessly, going much farther into friendly air space than stratigically okay. This all even goes against his own words where he advocated for tactics and smoothness.

Richthofen is thought to have been suffering from CSR (Cumulative Combat Stres), and he wasn’t the only ace pilot at the time to have this problem. He also was suffering from his head trauma awfully, and was likely experiencing target fixation. Some even speculate, especially due to his writing and tone, he may have wanted to be shot down that day. He was noted to be flying extremely fast on top of everything.

Major David Blake organised Richthofen’s military funeral when the Allied forces found him. They could do nothing to stop souvenir scavengers from tearing the Red Baron’s plane apart though. He would have a few more funerals as his body was moved back home, and when he was held as a war hero. He received many awards. His grave is now in Südfriedhof in Wiesbaden.

The Red Baron became a pop culture icon among both sides, becoming the face of Ace pilots. Like most pilots or snipers his kill count and victories were questioned. This time however it’s more likely all his victories were true and that he more so had more unconfirmed kills under his belt.

#history #german empire #ace pilots #ace pilot #red baron #german history #ww1 #air force #military history #historical people #war hero #war heroes #military #german military #manfred von richtofen #famous people #long post #educational post

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apocalyp-tech-a · 1 year

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So what if it’s a little blurry, Tech flying in the sneak peek clip of Season 2 of The Bad Batch got me like... I mean... Just look at how intensely he concentrates... 😳

#Tech the bad batch #tech flying #better than Han Solo #it's HIS ship #the bad batch #can't wait for season 2 #star wars #tech tbb #ace pilot #tech addiction #Tech Tuesday

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worldofavania · 1 year

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Are there any Osprian aces? Judging from their tech, it seems they'd have some high scoring pilots?

Some juicy gossip indeed! Hope you enjoyed hearing the thrilling secrets of Ospria's most vaunted pilots...

Stay tuned though, because there's always more Avania (and/or Ospria) Mail yet to come!

#anthro #webcomic #ace pilot #femme fatale #ask #avaniamail #viktoria

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avaniacomic · 1 year

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#webcomic #anthro #ace pilot #stunt flying #aircraft #issue8 #daniel #pennrose #charlotte

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redarmytrio · 2 years

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Pink, blue, and green? Powerpuff Girls fan spotted

[Technically it's red but yes, you got me anon]

#eddsworld #ew ocs #ew red army #ew ask blog #eddsworld red army #ooc #ask #anon #red army trio #ace pilot #amelia guillory #simón alberto #the powerpuff girls #powerpuff girls #ppg

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fantasticworldspod · 1 year

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art by arabird (@AraArt6 on Twitter, arabird_art on Instagram)

#miss fanny #ace pilot #our grandma #lgbt+#genderfluid #queer #starfinder #dnd #paizo #pathfinder #actual play #far beyond the stars #fwp+textposts

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postbadbadassqueen · 1 year

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Kallen in her Guren ~

#code geass #kallen kozuki #kallen stadtfeld #codegeass #lelouch of the rebellion #code geass hangyaku no lelouch #kalulu #black queen #guren seiten #ace pilot #red head #badass #action girl #it's all in the original and not in the alternative

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redrex-64 · 1 year

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Killed by Ghost

#sonic rivals 2 #ghost #whaa...#no fair #tails #ace pilot #ace pilot tails

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archtroop · 29 days

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Since apparently Google Translate is not that bad if one can edit/run through the translation, I present to you one very well written, cheeky article, that goes like this (oh and do check out the article for photos!):

"A blast from the past: this is how the Harrier was flown to defend the State of Israel

The old fighter plane, the hero of the action movies from the nineties, was already on the way to retirement - then it was unexpectedly sent to intercept the dangerous UAVs of the terrorist organizations. How did it deal with the mission, and why did the Americans send it?"

"Hello, this is the captain; Reno Raines was a good cop who testified against corrupt cops, and they tried to get revenge on him but they killed the woman he loved, then he was framed for a crime he didn't commit, and sentenced to roam the US deserts as a criminal who hunted other criminals. It wasn't until the nineties that there were such over-the-top action heroes; what What I just described was not the plot of an entire series, but rather the exposition that was said in a dramatic voice at the opening. All the nineties looked like this: excessive content but full of grace, stormy revolutions alongside optimistic innocence. Today, we will talk about such a clichéd action hero, who on his way to retire was given one last mission : to stop a dangerous air attack on Israel.

Our story begins on Saturday morning, when a pleasant wind caressed the waves of the Persian Gulf and the stern of the American aircraft carrier Bataan. After two months on patrol in the sector, the ship's crew prepared to pack everything, iron their uniforms, and sail back to the USA; the sailors did not see home for a long time. Then, an emergency order was received: two hours ago, a new war broke out in the Middle East.

Bataan was required to spray, and row at full steam down the Persian Gulf, through the Red Sea - and reach the Gaza Strip sector. At first, the sailors thought it was another round of fire and even wondered why they were being thrown into something that would surely end before they arrived - after all, Israel and the terrorists in the Gaza Strip often exchange blows. In a short time, the first reports were received about the occupation of Israeli territory, and everyone realized that this time, it was a completely different opera.

The sailors of the ship weren't tense for nothing: they could easily find themselves on Gaza soil, aiming at Hamasniks. This is not a standard issue carrier, but smaller ship, intended for an amphibious attack by the Marine Corps. Its body has compartments for unloading hovercraft and landers, and even APCs that know how to swim - a force for invasion from the sea.

Its air force is small, and is only intended to support such an attack: it has helicopters of various types - Cobras for attack, Super Stallion (the American cousin of the Storm) and Osprey helicopters for transport. And what about planes? It has a small force of Harriers for close range support. And on the morning of October 7, 2023, it was the only mobile air force of the United States in the sector: huge aircraft carriers with 70 advanced F18s had not yet been sent here; the modest Bataan was what there is.

On the way to Gaza, the sky began to boil hot: the first attacks by suicide drones were launched towards Israel. Until then, every intelligence analyst in the world knew that the Houthis know how to surprise and that their heads aren't screwed up tight - but no one expected their involvement in the attack by Hamas. When the drones began to go north from Yemen towards Israel, the order was received from the American headquarters: the Bataan ship will remain in the Red Sea, and will stop these attacks, no matter how.

The challenge seemed too big for the aircraft by several sizes: long-range suicide drones are very small, and fly low so that it is difficult to track them - and they are disguised by radar reflections from the surface of the sea. Intercepting such an enemy is a difficult case even for advanced fighter jets.

All this to say, the Bataan's harriers were mostly heading to the museum; their replacements, state-of-the-art F35s, are already waiting for them at the home port.

The Harrier was revolutionary at the time, and became a very famous aircraft: it was designed in the sixties to survive Soviet nuclear strikes on NATO bases in Europe. how? Using an engine with thrust nozzles that allow vertical take-off and landing, like a helicopter. In this way, the Harriers were deployed in forests and improvised airstrips, and could evade any blow that fell on the airfields.

The plane was developed in Great Britain, and was well proven in air battles during the Falklands War of 1982. The Americans adopted it, improved it and gave it attack missions: its ability to take off from a short runway and land vertically suited the small invasion ships of the marines, and in the Gulf War of 1991 the plane became a superstar. The Harriers were recorded on CNN as they pounded Iraqi army positions with rockets and cannons, winning the hearts of the action-loving American public. And not only that: the marines themselves loved their air support, and more than once owned their lives to the successful sniping abilities of the airborne snipers.

The plane became so popular that it began to appear and star in video games, and even reached Hollywood; I once told you about his affair with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But beyond the glamor and the high level of stealth of a fighter plane that knows how to hover and dance in the air, it was a very dangerous plane.

Its body is built around the engine, and is full of piping that transfers the exhaust stream to the maneuvering nozzles - and a slight hit to the center of the body or one of the pipes is enough, and the plane loses its stability. Even without enemy fire, the plane was so sensitive and vulnerable to malfunctions that about 25% of all Harriers built crashed and were lost in accidents.

When you think about it, the Harrier is one of the least suitable tools for hunting UAVs: its radar is very weak and limited - and it finds its targets mainly using a case with a thermal camera; after all, it is built to attack targets that are very close to the ground force that called him up for help. In general, the Harrier pilots of the US Navy do not practice air-to-air combat of the required type, and only at very short ranges - defense missions. They do not have the appropriate equipment for an interception mission in which they are required to find a target, pursue it, and stop it.

Bataan pilots' Harriers still had a small advantage though: when the F18 fleet got new advanced radars, the old ones went to some Harriers, and Bataan's planes were among the few who got one. That way, they could detect targets in the air from greater distances despite more interference from the ground and launch RADAR guided missiles at them. On their side stood also destroyers of the Arleigh Burke model, which are equipped with a powerful radar that can detect movement in the air and provide a general directions of the UAV.

And that's it: just like the action heroes of the nineties, the Harrier on the way to retirement is required to take on one last mission - to deal with the targets that are among the most difficult for aerial interception.

In the darkness of the night and the winter storms, the drones of the Houthis advanced ahead - the Smad 2 and Smad 3 models, which even for an improved sensor have the radar signature of a rice cracker. And the interception teams were sent in front of them, to probe in the dark.

The method worked like this: when the destroyers picked up something suspicious, the Harriers were sent in the direction and flew to a meeting point with the target, initially at the same height as it or a little above; when they got close, they opened the interception radar and looked for a reading that moved like a drone. After finding a target, they tried to lock the thermal sensor on it and verify that it was indeed a Houthi suicide drone - and often this required an extremely dangerous maneuver: the UAVs flew at a low altitude, sometimes only 100 or 200 m. The Harrier crews dived to let the thermal sensor look at the target from below, so that it stands out against the sky.

Do understand the risks here: flying the Harrier is still like spinning a Russian Roulette, and the crews knew very well that at such an altitude any malfunction or fragment from the UAV is a 100 percent crash. And even if they succeed in abandoning, they will be planted in the middle of a dark sea so stormy that even the sharks stay put and won't surface.

To shoot down the target, they had to get very close; Sometimes they also passed by without finding it. The firing range was short, and the armament - radar-guided or heat-guided missile - was simply chosen according to who was able to lock on the target. The thermal signature of the UAV is also very low.

But despite everything, the pilots strove for contact, managed to reach and intercept more and more UAVs on their way to Israel. One pilot, Earl Earhart, eliminated seven Samads - which, in principle, made him the first ace of the American Air Force since the Vietnam War.

Only after the arrival of the aircraft carrier Eisenhower to the scene, with its huge jet assembly, did the Bataan came down from formation. Since then, dozens of Yemeni drones have been intercepted by ships and planes more suitable than the geriatric Harrier.

For dessert, I want to talk about the American assistance in this story: in general, even if Earhart and his friends had missed a Houthi drone, there was a very high chance that the IDF would have been able to stop it before it reached Eilat; In the south, an F35 squadron of the Israeli Air Force is stationed, with excellent crews that have already managed to intercept such daring flyers more than once before.

But at the beginning of the war, all our forces were stretched to the limit with attacks in the Gaza Strip and later also in Lebanon, and any help we received was a real blessing. And in addition, we must appreciate people who are willing to risk their lives for Israel; Since the beginning of the Gaza war, three American crew members have been killed in a rescue mission of a vessel, and another five in a helicopter crash.

The American pilot in the cockpit does not think about geopolitics and interests, about Biden's goals or foreign relations; He just gets into his Taranta*, motivates and fights for us simply because he has to - and for that, he deserves thanks and appreciation.

Take care of yourselves, be alert and we will win."

Nittany Sadan for Calcalist

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*Google Translated it as "truck". A "Taranta" is Hebrew/Israeli for "run down, old, used and battered, from two centuries ago vehicle. But it starts, so its ok".

God Bless America, as far as I'm concerned, and congratulations to the new US Ace, Earl Earhart. For some reason, mainstream media like Forbes and Co are digging in that that's not true/drones aren't jets, it doesn't count etc. My god, can't you guys just have a hero?

#bataan #US #aircraft carrier #Houthies #israel #war #pilots #article #Hebrew to English with Google Translate and editing by me and my god did i have to edit #ace pilot #airborne warfare #Harrier #7th october

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sunlit-mess · 1 month

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I can't get enough of this deer

#messyr #doodle #artists on tumblr #i swear guys he wasnt even my fav since pilot until the show came back and got me hooked to him #hes got that ace rizz and it's too strong #AND IM CUPIOROMANTIC (but bisexual)#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel lucifer #hazbin hotel charlie

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asteralien · 5 months

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[image description: a screenshot of a youtube comment that reads, "I'm not sure that's what you're meant to take away from it. What the quote is implying, the way I see it, is that witty, charming, genius people - the traditional idea of the genius artist - are charming enough to get in people's pants. So the people with the most wit and intelligence would, it is presumed, be the most romantically and erotically successful, and thus also be more likely to fall victim to AIDS. Of course, this doesn't count in people that simply don't aspire toward sexual activity.

It's not saying "sex is what makes life worth living" but that the charming creative geniuses are the ones most likely to have more sex, leading to the amount of people dying in AIDS who were also talented creative geniuses was disproportionately large, leaving behind the uninteresting dullards with no personality or talent.

Of course it's still a... bizarre and asinine statement, but I don't see it as specifically offensive to asexuals." end description.]

allos literally just don't give a single solitary shit about asexuals.

their antipathy towards ace people turns them ghoulishly cruel towards aids survivors, too! two for one! fun times!

#every time i try to put my disgust and horror into words it all just gets clogged up in my throat #'i don't see how saying that people who fuck a lot are better smarter and more charming than people who dont is offensive to aces'#(shut up for a second about some aces having/liking sex okay i know i know i know.)#(this is about allonormativity and how fucking rotten it turns your brain. okay.)#it feels a lot like i'm overreacting but also this is the clumsiest and yet most poisonous acephobic thing i've seen in ages #which is. yanno. saying something.#mythtakes #ace pilot #sex mention cw #aids mention cw #ask to tag

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lifryxai · 5 months

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pounded in the butt by my 500 ton asexual robot mecha that's still dtf because asexuality isn't an indicator of whether something will fuck you

#chuck tingle #armored core #asexual #i named my long range sniper lancer the arrow ace #get it.#because #its good with arrows #and im a great pilot

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frostfangalphabitch · 8 months

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The rest of the base has gone to sleep, but you don't sleep anymore. You don't join them in the mess hall anymore, either. You barely eat organic food at all these days, and when you do, it's mainly for pleasure. You can take the organics out of the pilot, but you can't take the love of sweets and pizza out of the organics, you guess. Despite that, you're so far removed from your humanity that it's gotten difficult to relate to most of them. It's not like anyone else is sharing your meals of titanium and copper.

The other pilots look at you with fear and disgust, knowing their inevitable fates if they're ever pitted against you. The mechanics see you as an oddity, a fascination, and heap praise and adoration upon you, but it's hollow in your eyes. It feels more like they're ogling a rare car rather than talking to a pilot. The corps see you as nothing more than a weapon to be pointed at their enemies, or whoever has less money than them that week.

The only person who still respects you as an autonomous individual is your handler. You adore her just as she loves you. Certainly, you're still a weapon - that's what the relationship started as after all - but you think she might be the only human in the base, including the mechanics, who could truly love a weapon of any kind. She's been so good to you through all of this, taking each stage of your radical transformation in stride as naturally as a lover watching her partner go through a more mundane transition. She's only gotten more attracted to you as you've grown into your new form and become more comfortable and confident with yourself. You'd burn the whole world down just to make her happy.

There's one other who respects you for who you are, though: your girl. Your beloved Wolfrun Mk.X, heart of Coral, veins of electricity, and arms of 5 ton power-guzzling metal-shredding AC-devouring WB-0010 Double Trouble carnage. Before all this started, you always thought of her like a weapon, just as the others see you now. Then she started changing you. The Coral in your augments connected with the Coral in her systems, and something changed in both of you. At first, it was just a whisper. Something brushing over your psyche, speaking just on the edge of hearing, incomprehensible but unmistakable.

Then your body started following suit. Your teeth, jaw, and digestive tract were the first things to change, presumably to allow you to consume and digest - you're not even sure if that's the correct term - the materials your girl needed to keep changing you. After your first meal, the tastiest 20 pounds of scrap you've ever eaten, your skin started changing too. The docs couldn't give you injections anymore. Their needles bent or broke when they tried to push them into your skin. You figured out why a few weeks later when what was left of your epidermis sloughed off and revealed armored plating underneath. They had to take an angle grinder to your arm in order to access your veins. You didn't feel any pain when they did. At the time, you thought that should have disturbed you a lot more than it did.

By that point, you'd been noticing Wolfrun's thoughts coming in a little clearer. In transit to your jobs, it was feelings of curiosity, probing, and wonder. In combat, it was a spark in your vision when you needed to dodge, a wordless warning about approaching enemies. In the base... still nothing but a whisper. That's when you started feeling lonely: when you couldn't feel her presence anymore.

As you became more and more monstrous, more and more like her, you began to visit her night after night. Maybe it was because you sensed an intelligence within her 65 ton body, or maybe it was simply because being near her drowned out the silence. You had no way of verifying this, but you felt like she relaxed as well when you were around. She was shut down in the hangar, of course, and there was no way any part of her could still be engaged, or so you thought. But as time went on, the whispers got louder, the words - feelings and thoughts, really - more comprehensible. And all the while, your body changed.

The 5'6" chubby trans gal who went into debt and subsequently under the knife to get a hand-me-down set of 4th gen augments all those years ago is long gone now. The thing you've become, whose claws clanged against the metal of the hangar's floor, had long since cast off that form. Where once was skin had become plated metal. Despite having no screws or rivets to speak of, it stayed firmly in place no matter how much the techs tried to pry it off. The augments which before had stuck partially out of the left side of your skull had seamlessly integrated themselves into the sleek plating that had cropped up on your head, looking far more natural than they ever had before. Your hair had fallen away, and the metal around your skull became angled and sleek, looking more bulwark than biological and with aerodynamic fins sprouting from it.

A sleek black plate had formed where your eyes once were. The day you woke up with that, you thought you had gone blind. You panicked, begging for help, afraid they wouldn't ever let you pilot her again. You had been moved into your new warehouse home at that point, and it took time for the maintenance techs to find you. Before they did, though, you felt someone - your girl, you realized - beckoning to you. She could help you. When the techs finally got there, you begged them to put you in her cockpit. It took them a while to figure out who you meant by "her", but your handler, who had come running the moment she heard the news, was on top of it. She barked at them to get you to Wolfrun, and with great difficulty, the three of them helped you get your then-8 foot form into her. You spent the next week inside her cockpit, refusing to get out except to eat and drink. She was there with you, and she let you see through her eyes. The world as she saw it was far more vivid than human eyes could ever see, infrared, ultraviolet, gamma, magnetic, smells, sounds, vibrations, on top of the visual spectrum you were used to. And when the delicate sensor plate where your eyes once were finally engaged at the end of that week, that's how you saw the world, too.

When you finally left her cockpit, you realized you could still hear her. From then on, she was with you always. That made you happy. It made her happy, too. You started letting her choose her own parts, and she was happy to. She still insisted you choose some too, though, since according to her, it was your body just as much as it was hers. True enough, whatever force was altering your body changed you to match her. When you tried out digitigrade legs, you stumbled getting out of bed the next morning after yours had reconfigured themselves to match. When you got her bulky, high capacity arms, your arms - fully synthetic by then - had bulked up considerably.

Even cosmetic changes started to affect you. You painted menacing, sharp teeth onto her head over the sensor plate with mechanical precision, and you found your own mouth elongating and becoming more of a muzzle as a result. You'd have thought being so malleable would have unsettled you, but you found you were more excited about the possibilities instead. It felt more like becoming who you were meant to be. Besides, it made wolfing down your metal meals easier. You figure intention, either yours or hers, or both, affected how you changed, but no one else had any satisfactory explanation for any of this. You'd stopped caring long ago in any case.

What you and Wolfrun ended up settling on for her, after earning a mountain of COAM for you and your handler with your unbeatable, utterly synchronized performance, was a mid-lightweight build focused on tearing apart the battlefield as quickly as possible with heavy machinery. What you became in response was anything but lightweight, at least compared to the humans around you. The finned bulwark and the black sensor on your head never really changed, but the rest of you seemed plenty mutable. Your arms grew long and powerful, your shoulders tipped with decorative spires. Your waist grew slender, tapering inorganically in nested panels to allow for plenty of articulation. Your torso got wider, too, though for whatever reason, the outline of breasts remained constant on your new chassis. You kept the digitigrade legs. Over time, hydraulic supports seemed to have formed on yours. The snout stayed, too. You were too proud of that paint job to ever take it off even with the changes to your own body. BECAUSE of the changes. You might be more machine than woman at this point, by you're still you, pride and all.

The techs estimate that only about 5% of your body is still organic. Probably most of your brain and maybe some other systems, plus a few symmetrical patches of skin. They suspect that you had either some kind of sympathetic Coral connection to your AC that rearranged your augments and allowed the changes to start, or that somehow repair nanites adapted to your form and began "fixing" you. In any case, they think the bulk of your changes are done with at this point. You're a little disappointed by that. Wolfrun likes the new you, though. She's happy for your connection and to be able to get even closer to you. Your handler appreciates your new form just as much. She doesn't even bat an eyelid when you tell her that you've been talking to Wolfrun. If anything, she seems a little sad that she can't talk to her directly. As for your relationship with your handler, you might be nearly twice her height, standing at a hulking 10 feet tall, but that doesn't stop her from loving you, or from jamming her fingers lovingly between your legs after missions.

But she's sleeping now. It's late, but you're still lonely. There's only one entity up at this time of night you'd care to talk to, so you climb the catwalks to meet her, claws clanging against the metal of the hangar. You smile your toothy, metal smile as she greets you, opening her cockpit so you can crawl inside and be one with her for a few more hours before your next mission.

#this one's probably too long to get attention #but it felt so good to write #armored core 6 #ac6 #mechaposting #mechposting #transhumanism #transformation #handler x pilot x AC

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