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jcmarchi · 1 month

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Denmark to Upgrade Its CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/denmark-to-upgrade-its-cv90-infantry-fighting-vehicles-technology-org/

Denmark to Upgrade Its CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles - Technology Org

Denmark has ordered the defence contractor BAE Systems to upgrade its fleet of CV9035DK infantry fighting vehicles. These vehicles will receive many important upgrades, designed to help them to keep up with the demands of modern warfare.

CV9035DK infantry fighting vehicles are great weapons in the arsenal of the Royal Danish Army and they should continue serving for a couple of decades more.

CV9035DK is a Danish version of the Swedish infantry fighting vehicle CV90. Image credit: Pfc. Shardesia Washington via Wikimedia

The Royal Danish Army uses infantry fighting vehicles CV90. The CV90 ( Combat Vehicle 90 or strf 90) was designed in the late 1980s and entered service in 1994. Although it is technically a Swedish weapon, it is produced by BAE Systems AB, which will upgrade the Danish machines. Denmark is using the CV9035DK, which is an export version of the CV90 with a 35mm Bushmaster III autocannon.

Similar infantry fighting vehicles are used in the Netherlands, where they are designated CV9035NL, but are essentially the same thing. However, the CV9035NL already has a new turret and now the CV9035DK will get it too.

The Bushmaster III is a serious autocannon that fires 200 rounds per minute. The armour of Russian BMPs can be pierced through with no problem whatsoever, and if they hit well (that is, from the side) these rounds can even go through main battle tanks. But still, it’s time to upgrade its turret.

The Danish defence procurement organization DALO commissioned BAE Systems to modernize the fleet of CV9035DK infantry fighting vehicles. Denmark has been using 44 CV9035DKs for about 20 years now and would now like to upgrade them from the ground up. This will be a mid-life update, which could mean that these infantry fighting vehicles will be good for another two decades. War machines last a long time when there is no war.

The main upgrade for the CV9035DKs will be new turrets, but they will also receive lighter and quieter rubber composite tracks, better protection and mobility. The first upgraded infantry fighting vehicles will return to Denmark in 2026, the rest until 2029.

What’s so special about those new turrets? BAE Systems developed them some time ago and Dutch machines already use them. They have many improvements. For example, the position of the main gun has been adjusted to better balance the vehicle and to provide new opportunities to integrate other weapon systems (for example, anti-tank missiles).

According to the manufacturer, the new turret is also more ergonomic for the crew. This should not be overlooked, because soldiers can be more efficient when they are more comfortable.

It is good to remind people that while main battle tanks are great, it is infantry fighting vehicles that perform the majority of the tasks in today’s combat. Denmark has 44 CV9035DKs and 44 Leopard 2A7DK main battle tanks.

Written by Povilas M.

Sources: Tech.wp.pl, Wikipedia

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ceilidho · 8 months

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prompt: you keep seeing apparitions of a dead special forces operative who's been haunting the barracks. (light angst; nsfw) (actual ghost simon riley)

War dogs chewed up and spat out by the machinery of war.

It is an incalculable blow to learn of his death. Worse still that you learn of it by happenstance, one officer talking to another, only listening in because it’s been weeks since you’ve seen him and their voices go hushed in that way that makes your ears prick up. You’re sitting at a nearby table in the canteen when someone says the single most devastating words that have ever been spoken near you.

“They weren’t able to recover the whole body, just some of it. Pretty gruesome. Don’t know if you ever met him, but he was an alright guy—pretty quiet. Scary, yeah, but—I don’t know. He was fair. Got the job done though. Soap’s taking it pretty hard.”

You barely breathe at the news. Something is squeezing your heart until it overfills on the other side.

You walk around base in a daze after that. It’s not anyone’s fault that you aren’t notified—no one was supposed to know. Your whole arrangement with Simon was predicated on the knowledge that it would never be revealed to your commanding officers or the rest of the infantry. Made sense at the time. Makes less sense now when your world is falling apart and you have no way of even requesting Ghost’s dog tags.

Pain holds you upright like a splint while it also tries to smother you. You crawl back to your barracks after training the recruits, voice a hoarse whisper in your throat. Showers are an optimal place to cry, when maybe you won’t be heard. Grief is not grief when there’s nowhere for it to go.

Maybe Soap was privy enough to Ghost’s life to know. He doesn’t spend time with you, but you see him once from across the tarmac on a flight out and his gaze lingers on you. There are deep troughs under his eyes, dark even with the distance between you. His posture is still, rigid; despite his uniform being pressed and his hair being cut and gelled into place, there is something singularly heavy weighing him down.

He nods from across the way to you. You grit your jaw and nod back.

It’s the only time you’ll ever acknowledge it. Soap never seeks you out after that—maybe it’s too painful. Maybe shared pain isn’t always enough.

The worst is only finding out weeks later that Ghost has been buried. That’s your closure. An offhand comment from an operations officer on a smoke break. Your numb hand flicking a lighter. Rain breaking in the early twilight hours and you stand in it so long that you shiver and shake on your way back to your room.

Lightning that crackles in the storm clouds, illuminating the place where you just stood outside while you stare from your window. Illuminating someone standing where you just were. You squint, but they round the bend to one of the other buildings before you can make them out.

Every soldier has a story. Conducting barracks checks on staff duty only to find a soldier with half their jaw missing asking for a cigarette. A marine approaching a soldier asking for his rifle, garbed in a ripped vest from early Iraq. Squad bays known for apparitions, known for hauntings. Figures seen from the trees, the half-shadowed remains of old tanks, burned and hollowed out, suddenly upright and mobile.

In certain barracks, soldiers won’t even leave their rooms at night to use the washroom. They’d rather piss in old bottles or hold off until morning light altogether. It’s common enough to be joked about, for soldiers to trade stories in the mess over supper, trying to spook each other with the things they’ve seen or claimed to see.

You can tell the ones who’ve actually seen things from those who haven’t though. The ones who have are often quieter, often only laugh a little. The truth is buried in their inability to fully commit to the bit. It’s the knowing that does that.

Knowing that there are things that death cannot hide.

The first time you see Simon again, it’s not a homecoming. You know there’s something very wrong.

It’s 3am and someone’s standing in front of your door. You feel it before you see them, feel something like every single hair on your body standing on end and the sudden lucid thought in the middle of a dream that you need to wake up. That you need to wake up right now.

Heart racing when your eyes snap open. Sweat already slicking the backs of your knees. You’re lying on your side, hands curled close to your face, and you feel its gaze on you like the heaviest dread you’ve ever felt in your life. You stare at the wall that your bed is pushed up against until you find the courage to roll over.

Just a shape in the dark. A dark shape. Distinct from the rest of the darkness in your room. Tall as it is wide. The slightest motion to it, like breathing or the gentle swaying of the human body when it’s allowed to be loose.

There’s a lamp on your end table. You flick it on without tearing your eyes away from the dark shape looming by the door, but when light unveils your room, it flickers away like a bad illusion. Just a jacket hung up on the back of the door. Your heart races still.

When the light goes off, the shadow doesn’t reappear.

It might not be him, but something’s haunting you. You spoon cereal into your mouth in the morning with a shaking hand. It’s the massive shape of a body behind the shower curtain in your private bathroom that has you certain—certain—that someone’s there until you whip it to the side and see only tile wall. You know what you saw though, and you know from the way the top of it peeked over the curtain that it was blond.

Weeks go by. You’re in a bivy sack and a voice you recognize wakes you up for watch. It’s the same voice that used to rumble low in your ear when you let him into your bed on leave (you always used to take them at the same time, no one the wiser). You’re back on base in your room and something leans its full weight onto your bed. You wake up to him sitting on the edge of your bed, blood dripping from an old wound. Him though, skull mask and all. Eyes shadowed always, black staring at you seeing and unseeing.

You don’t need to ask what he wants from you. He lumbers around the barracks like a wraith that only you can see. Never truer to his old moniker than he is in death. A civilian worker flirts with you one day and he winds up in the infirmary. Fell down the stairs, another sergeant tells you when you ask. You smile tight, brittle. If only.

He slips into your bed at night when the lights are shut and you’ve turned over onto your side. You can’t see him, but the bed compresses under his weight like it did when he was alive. He’s still for a minute, stare heavy on you while you lie there motionless, waiting him out. When he finally lays a hand on your hip, you flinch at how normal it feels. Like he didn’t go out and die one day. Like it’s really him at your back dragging a hand down the curve of your hip and over your thigh.

He divests you of your pyjamas the same way he used to in motel rooms, your apartment off-base, his cabin up north that you still have the key to but can’t bring yourself to visit. You let him. Shorts pulled down and kicked to the bottom of the bed, then your underwear. Shirt rucked up so he can fit a big, rough hand over your tit. His hands are solid where they touch you, nothing ghostly about them. He squeezes like the memory of your flesh is half-gone, like he needs to sink himself into you again.

“Missed…you…” His voice comes like a deep rumble, tectonic plates shifting over the asthenosphere.

The hand on your breast slides up, over the delicate skin of your throat, over where your pulse goes mad and you dry swallow because there’s nothing in your mouth. Over and up the curve of your cheek, thumb pressing against your lips, curling your top lip up until you’re almost kissing it. Then he lets go, hand coming back down to your hip.

“Simon, are you—” you start, cut off on a gasp when he lifts your leg over his hip and something presses against your opening. Notches there, sinks in hot inch after hot inch. Head spinning and breath wild when he spears you on his thick length, half-tumbling over you until you’re lying prone on your bed. Simon’s as heavy as you remember, the full weight of him keeping you trapped there. You can only take. You can only draw in a deep breath and let out the softest sounds while he presses in,

“Had to…come back,” the ghost of your old lover says, growling into your ear. “Couldn’t…leave you here…alone.”

You wonder what’s really behind the mask this time. His hands and dick feel flesh enough, but fear still quivers in your belly because you know that whatever it is pressing you down with a firm hand on your shoulder blade, it’s not fully him.

You’ve heard of ghosts haunting places but never people. There’s something achingly loyal about the way he fucks you though. It’s dark and hot under him, and he mouths where he can, mask pulled up finally. Not that you can see. Better that you can’t, maybe. Pulsing in and out of your cunt, silent but for his shallow intakes of breath. He feels enormous and terrifying at your back.

A big arm still clad in his old uniform jacket is braced beside your head. Simon whispers apologies into your hair; that he pulled himself out of a grave for a second time because he couldn’t untangle his soul from yours, but he got it wrong this time around. He didn’t make it in time.

“I won’t leave you though, love,” he says around kisses laid tender on the nape of your neck. He bites the meat of your shoulder hard enough to leave an imprint of his teeth. “Never gonna leave you.” His words make you slicker, hotter; tightening around him until he snarls and fucks more viciously. A promise you thought he couldn’t keep.

In the morning, you stare at yourself in the bathroom mirror. You take off your shirt and turn around. There’s a red bite mark on your upper left shoulder and it aches when you touch it.

#cod mw2 #ceil writing #cod x reader #cod simon riley #simon ghost riley x reader #ghost cod #ghost/reader #ghost x reader #simon ghost riley #simon riley x you

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dailyadventureprompts · 17 days

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DM Tip: Lining up the Pieces

A few years ago I saw a video that changed the way I design combat encounters, using chess pieces and 4th edition monster roles as a handy way of conceptualizing the enemy roster and making better combat.

I’ve wanted to refer back to it for ages now, but I can’t seem to find it. As such, I’m going to reproduce it’s wisdom here for everyone’s benefit and hope I can find the source one day. ( I feel like it was a Matt Coville video, but my searches have turned up nothing. Seriously, if you can find it I will be extra grateful).

TLDR: You can break down enemy combatants into six (ish) roles represented by different kinds of chess pieces, and you can mix and match them when designing encounter to create fun tactical scenarios. You can also use this as an alternative to CR picking a “budget” of these enemy roles based on how many players are in the fight. Check out the types below the cut:

Infantry (pawn): Generally weaker and mechanically simpler than any other type of combatant, the infantry uses teamwork or sheer numbers to overwhelm the party. This can be anything from rank and file soldiers to a necromancer’s skeletal minions to a pack of wolves, anything that takes up space on the battlefield and prevents the party from targeting who they want or generally getting their way in a fight. 5e combat is a numbers game, and the infantry is there to swing the numbers in the enemy’s favour (until the party cut through them to even the odds). Infantry likes battlemaps with chokepoints they can hold and crossroads they can use to outflank opponents. When budgeting they’ll have a balance of 2 infantry per 1 player they’re matched against , but the weaker they are, the thinner you can spread them.

Brute (rook): High defence, high offence, the brute is an outright threat that the party should not want to take in a head to head fight. Giants, beasts, constructs, and heavy armoured warriors are your traditional brutes, but you could also go with a buffed to hell battlemage getting all up in the party’s face. Conversely, every brute has some kind of weakness that the party can exploit. They might be slow, or be unable to maneuver as easily, or like a werewolf, fiend, or troll, have particular weapons or damage types that overcome their natural resilience. Their job is to force confrontation, blunder into the middle of combat and force the party to act defensively rather than proactively. They soak up the party’s frontline’s attention while forcing the mid/backlines to scatter under the threat of too much raw damage. The brute Likes open spaces where they can have a direct path to the party and dead ends they can corner their targets against. Budget: Around 1 per 3 players

Skirmisher (knight): A very broad type of opponent, the skirmisher’s job is to bully the party’s weapsots whenever they’re exposed. They can do this by being ranged fighters ( traditional archers, magic users) or by being highly mobile (stealthy, mounted, flying, teleporting). They’re the bane of the party’s backline, generally targeting whoever has the lowest armour/or least health, then using their evasiveness to deny any kind of retaliation when the group rallies to protect their squishy friends. Skirmishers have great offence but are generally pretty weak, made helpless when you can deny them their movement/terrain advantages. Skirmishers like unfair fights, terrain that gives them a movement advantage, cover, or allows them the highground over their foes. Budgeting: 1 per 1-2 players.

Controller (bishop): The controller’s job is to fuck with the party, Either by locking down some of their stronger options (counterspelling, mind control, status effects, grapples), by manipulating the battlefield in some way that disrupts planning (aoe spells to prevent grouping together, summoning to reinforce numbers, barriers and banishment to single targets out), Or by advancing the baddies’ goal while the party is otherwise occupied (the cult priest finishing the disastrous ritual, the master thief making off with the mcguffin) forcing them to split their attention. The controller likes to distinctly be away from combat, and will usually be on the otherside of some kind of hazardous/hard to bypass barrier, sometimes of their own making. Budgeting: 1 per 2-3 players:

Support (king): Usually a healer, bodyguard, or some kind of buff-bot, the support wants to piggyback on other sorts of units or make them better at doing their jobs. Generally this means they’ll ignore whatever the party is doing to focus on staying with effective range of those who most benefit from their abilities. Supports will stay back in safety while throwing out buffs, bodyguards will put themselves between the party and their designated defendee. They tend to prefer whatever type of terrain most benefits their partners. 1- 2-3 players

Elite (queen): Something to be reckoned with, an Elite mixies the strength and abilities of two other kinds of combatants and uses both to devastating effect. Combine a brute and a support for an unstoppable frontline commander, or infantry and a skirmisher for an elite striketeam that attacks in perfect coordination before fading back into the shadows. Mix and match for whatever combination you think would be most interesting for a situation, then supplement it with a different unit or two for contrast. Elites make up your traditional “big bad and minions” bossfight, without escalating to the full party challenge of “solo” monsters. Budgeting: 1 per 3-4 players.

Picking the right Pieces:

Generally what you're going to want to do when planning a combat is to first think of what the baddies are trying to acomplish with the fight then pick 2-3 different types of baddie that you think would work well in concert to achieve that goal. "Kill the party" is an all too common goal, but you could easily imagine others that provide for dynamic stakes:

A group of forest bandits intend to rob a caravan, so they unleash a captive warbeast as a distraction while their archers rain chaos from above (Infantry, brute, skirmisher)

A villain abducts an important npc into a carriage while their dutiful muscle run interference (controller, brutes)

A necromancer hurls curses from behind a barricade of gravestones while their undead minions pour from surrounding tombs ( Controller/infantry)

While the party is ambushed by an archer in a tower, a cloaked figure waits in the underbrush, waiting for them to thin out and begin picking them off one by one (paired skirmishers of different types)

After the fighter is tricked into single combat against the mounted arena champion, the rest of the party will have to search the crowd for the caster secretly channeling healing magic to their opponent. ( combined brute/skirmisher elite, support)

Once you've got your pieces picked out, you can start designing the battle arena taking the desires of each combatant into account while also throwing in any environmental flourishes you'd like to enjoy.

As an added benefit for DMs like me who don't have the inclination or budget to collect huge batches of minis, it's SUPER easy to pick up a second hand chess set or two and use them as stand ins. Your players will have an instinctive understanding of what each piece does which will help them understand the roles outlined above.

Artsource

#dm tip #dm advice #combat #dap combat hack #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #ttprg #pathfinder

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jmdbjk · 1 month

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White Bear Artillery Brigade.

I'm not here to share anything earth shattering or reveal new information. I'm just going to elaborate on what I know and how I see it. Feel free to form your own opinions.

Ok so, from everything I know, this is how I'm understanding it (long ramble)...

Republic of Korea (ROK) Armed Forces is one of the largest and most powerful standing armed forces in the world. At any given time, it consists of about 600,000 active duty soldiers and approximately 3 million reservists.

Soldiers are automatically transferred to the Reserve Forces upon discharge from their initial active duty service and serve four years in the Mobilization Reserve followed by four years as a Homeland Reservist. No one ever talks about this. They are not "free" following their active duty service. They are still considered reservists.

Jimin and Jungkook are in the White Bear Artillery Brigade of the 5th Infantry Division of the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA).

ROKA itself, the Army, is the largest of the military branches. The other ROK military branches are ROK Navy and ROK Air Force. The ROK Marines are part of their Navy forces.

It might be difficult to fathom the scope and size of ROKA. Here is an outline of the structure. You will need to scroll down a ways to see where the 5th Infantry Division falls. It is under Army Ground Operations and then under V Corps (Corps 5).

The White Bear Brigade consists of the: 195th, 196th, 205th and 988th Field Artillery Battalions. The 196th is also called YELLOW DRAGON.

I do not know which Field Artillery Battalion Jimin and Jungkook are assigned to.

Each of these Field Artillery Battalions are scattered in different locations but tied to the 5th Infantry Division. The 5th Infantry Division's top general controls these Field Artillery Battalions.

And the term "field" only means they are not located at the training base where Jin is.

It means they are out in the "field" in another remote, secluded strategic location, away from the main base, where if necessary, they and their artillery, can be deployed efficiently and rapidly should this action be required.

They don't see Jin any more. He is at a separate location.

The front line between South Korea and North Korea is lined with hills and low-lying mountains, they will be nestled up in there somewhere.

"Field" does not mean they are living in the middle of a farm field in tents, cooking food over campfires. It means they are at a base somewhere in the hills and mountains. This base will hold lots of other soldiers, though not as many soldiers as there are at the original training base where Jin is because that's sort of a hub where they deploy the newly trained soldiers from.

Simple terms: Jimin and Jungkook are out there in the middle of nowhere near the front lines at a base where they take care of weaponry like tanks and the ammo for tanks in case they have to quickly respond to an attack. Heaven forbid.

Anyway. How many ways can I explain that? Obvs a bunch.

Military jobs.

There are probably dozens of jobs that an Army base like theirs requires.

Cooking food to feed all the soldiers is one of those jobs. Cleaning the kitchen after cooking is part of that job. There were rumors since January that Jungkook was a kitchen worker. Those in the K-military call it Kitchen Police. And then JK just said he is cooking rice and cleaning up to the ceiling so that pretty much confirms he is indeed a Kitchen Police.

In the context of him being enlisted in the military and him coming to tell us he is doing good in the military, he is telling us he cooks rice and cleans up afterward.

He didn't mean he sometimes randomly cooks rice in his room. Nor did he mean he made himself a snack. It doesn't mean he also has a second job of cleaning. Everything he does will be associated with the Kitchen Police.

Their days are very regimented and structured. He will be one soldier on a team of soldiers tasked with creating enough food 3 times a day to feed the entire base. It is a full time job.

The rumor for Jimin is that he might be in a role that involves maintenance. Maintenance of what? We don't know. But what we know about Jimin is that he was on the robotics team in school, he has leadership skills, and he made a bunch of LEGO kits and a miniature house model in front of us during several weverse lives. Is he putting together computers? Is he reassembling machinery? We don't know.

The Companion Enlistment Program.

The buddy system was created in 2003 in order to foster better outcomes and psychologically stronger soldiers. It allows those who choose to enlist under this program to be with someone who they can gain this support from throughout their enlistment. That's the whole point. To be together during their enlistment.

The age range is dynamic. Every year this range progresses one year.

For 2023, the age range for this program were those born between Jan. 1, 1995 and Dec. 31, 2005. For 2024, the age range will be those born between Jan. 1, 1996 and Dec. 31, 2006. And so on.

The reason is because only Korean men between the ages of 18-28 are conscripted. 2023 was the last year Jimin was eligible for this program.

The criteria is very specific when choosing this type of enlistment. You can't "game" the system by enlisting in this program for reasons other than the ones the military has set for this type of enlistment. It's the military... they are masters at the "game." Strategy, out-thinking the enemy, creative warfare... that's their gig.

The barracks where Jimin and Jungkook sleep will be the same. The bathroom where they wash up will be the same. The cafeteria where they eat will be the same. Their recreational facilities will be the same.

It's the same base, same facilities. They may not be in each other's faces while they perform their jobs every day, but they see each other EVERY DAY. They sleep together EVERY NIGHT.

Delulu time.

Every time I say that I go "hammer time" and think of MC Hammer and the song starts in my head...anyway... I'm a dork.

I can imagine Jungkook's day starts a little earlier than Jimin's because the kitchen will need to be ready to serve breakfast for the rest of the soldiers.

There might be other teams/groups who also begin their day earlier than others. Perhaps they all gather and do some sort of brief, early morning drills or general chores before heading off to their respective posts/jobs for the day. I don't know, just guessing.

The kitchen team would do things like take in supplies, store the supplies correctly according to regulations, place orders for more supplies, gather the ingredients to make that day's menus, prepare the foods according to specified recipes, serve the food, maintain and clean the serving area, maintain and clean the cooking appliances, cookware, cooking utensils, clean the food trays and eating utensils, clean the kitchen from floor to ceiling, plan and prepare for the next day's menus, doing any preliminary prep like thawing frozen food, etc.

Menus are not decided on a whim. The Army will have set daily menus and have contracts within the country's food industry to provide ingredients and supplies in bulk.

I used to think it was slightly odd to obsess over the food they were being served in the military. But now I'm keenly interested. Is there a jikook food tray account on X?

As I don't really know the details of Jimin's job, I can only guess that he reports to his job, carries out his duties just like Jungkook and just like all their fellow soldiers. His duties may be similar in that he inventories supplies, orders new supplies/parts. Or he might be training for a specific skill like polishing glass for gun scopes or something. I just made that up to use as an example.

Of course, duty on base would be vastly different from combat if they were to actually be activated to fight. I don't want to think about that.

Perhaps during the course of their week, they all attend classes or lectures or informational meetings or whatever. I don't know. That's just a guess. But somehow, information would need to be shared and continuing training would need to occur.

At the end of the day, they'd head back to their own barracks and enjoy their evening of free time. They'd get their phones for a short period of time. From what I understand, depending on their location, their wireless signal may not be reliable or strong.

Maybe they work out. If so, they do it together. They are accustomed to doing that so there's every reason to think they'd also work out together while enlisted.

They can decompress in the company of each other, relaxing, being themselves in the comfort of familiarity. They can talk about things that they accomplished, things they learned or situations they got embarrassed about.

They can make jokes with each other, poke fun at each other, commiserate, empathize, laugh, express frustration or joy with each other.

If they have enough moments of privacy, they can vent about assholes they had to deal with or they can hype the nice people they interacted with during their day.

Or they can just relax in the company of each other in silence and nothing else.

You know... all the things you do with the person you are most comfortable with... the person they wanted next to them sharing the ups and downs of this period of their lives. It works out wonderfully for them.

Then lights out and go to sleep and do it all over again the next day.

Anyway. I send up my thoughts every day that they are safe, healthy, eating well, and that their bodies and minds are strong. I am thankful they have each other. It is day 97 into their service. 451 days remaining. FIGHTING!

#i know more about the korean military than i do about my local school system #jimin #jungkook #jikook #minkook #kookmin #bts military service #i've said it before - washing rice is a chore #someone please start a kookmin food tray account on X

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niqhtlord01 · 5 months

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Humans are weird: The fall of Reservoir

From the audio recording of Frin Yuel Retired Artark, Recipient of the Stone of Valor, Hero of the Battle of Reservoir Recordings restricted from public distribution by order of Central Command.

“I have been called many titles over my years of service, but there has been none more insulting to me than the “Hero of Reservoir”.

There was nothing heroic about that engagement; at least not from our side of the battle.

Yes, yes, I know; what madness do I speak against our glorious people to not call us all heroes on the field of battle. Hear this old soldier out and decide after if your judgment is as strong as you think.

We were half way through the first contact war with humanity when we stumbled upon their core world of Reservoir. It was a backwater colony planet that had just transitioned from a colony into a functioning world of their empire when our fleets darkened their skies.

By that time I had been in several intense battles with the humans, but this was the first time we were attacking a well-established metropolitan world of theirs. At best our early skirmishes had been in space or along resource worlds that had their mining operations established.

The orbital battle was over quickly. The human planet had no orbital defense platforms and only a small fleet was present which was quickly swept aside. No sooner had the last of the human ships been destroyed in low orbit above the world did the ground invasion begin.

I remember watching as the first and second wave of our infantry forces detached from the troop carriers and began their descent below the cloud cover. My war host was in the third wave so while we waited for deployment we watched the video feeds of the first and second.

It was not a smooth landing.

The moment they broke the cloud cover they were met with withering barrages of anti-aircraft fire from emplaced redoubts and mobile vehicles. Scores of dropships were violently ripped apart or had their engines damaged and spiraled out to the surface below. I can remember hearing troops in the latter calling out for help right up until the moment they impacted the ground and the feed went silent.

It is not easy to listen to your comrade’s die….. I can still hear them sometimes in my dreams. Even now after all these years I can close my eyes and listen to their tortured souls calling out to us again and again……

……….

Apologies; I got a bit side tracked there.

Eventually the second wave was able to carve out safe landing zones and signaled the third wave to deploy.

We launched with vengeance in our hearts and fire in our bellies. Our one purpose now to avenge our fallen friends and shatter whatever human fools had slayed them.

The humans for their part did not make our task easy. Over the span of several weeks we had to grind their resistance down meter by bloody meter, losing thousands of warriors with the capture of each one of their cities. Yet our resolve was unwavering and though our losses mounted the day finally came when I found myself standing outside the final human bastion of their world.

Even when cornered like vermin the humans refused to surrender. We shelled their city for days, reducing their towers of stone and metal to rubble and yet they only burrowed deeper and became that much harder to dislodge. Vehicles that went into the city were beset on all sides by craven hit and run attacks, while our scouts were ambushed and cut down by well concealed snipers. This went on for several days until our commander had finally had enough.

When the order finally came to storm the city a great war cry was let out from our warriors and we poured into the city. I wish I could say there was some battle plan or larger strategic picture we were following, but the reality was we were storming one building at a time before advancing to the next.

That is where I found my worthy foe.

Within the heart of sector G17 there were reports of a lone human soldier causing untold damage to our attack. I ignored the reports at first, but as the day progressed the reports continued to come in only far worse. Now they said the human soldier had slain a hundred warriors and still stood their ground. By the end of my fourth block cleared I was hearing that an entire cohort had been wiped out and now warriors were avoiding the area.

At this notion of fear spreading through the ranks of my brothers I was filled with a seething rage and made my way to sector G17 to confront this human champion myself. It was not hard to find them, as the trail of bodies led straight to them. As I followed the trail I realized that the reports had not exaggerated the casualty list; if anything they had underestimated the dead.

Standing at the entrance to a metal bunker of some sort stood the foe I sought. They wore power armor standard to their people but damaged in several places. The paint had long since been scorched away by ricochets, their once proud cloak torn in a dozen places and hanging limply from their waist; yet their rifle was still firmly clutched in their hands so tightly I wondered if even the gods themselves could pry it from their grasp.

While I approached the warrior I saw three of my fellow soldiers come forward and try to slay the human first. The first went down with deep hole in their chest where the human’s plasma shot had carved through them. The second warrior used this opportunity to close the distance with the human but with a swift backhand from the power gauntlet their neck was snapped and they collapsed to the ground. The third soldier made it close enough to land a blow against the human, adding to the collection of gashes already dotting the armor. Their combat blade dug deep between the leg joints and the human let out a cry of pain. The third soldier twisted the knife inside the joint, reveling in the victory to come. I watched as the human let their weapon fall from their hands and clasped the third warrior’s head between their mighty gauntlets. In a grueling and morbid motion the human crushed the third warrior’s skull like a grape and let the broken body fall to the ground.

The human stood motionless after the melee, which to my surprise had taken less than a minute to complete. They made to pick up their fallen weapon as they finally registered my presence but the blade wound had done more damage than they expected causing them to tumble to the ground in a loud bang.

I watched for a moment as they crawled towards it in an attempt to bring it to bear before I casually kicked it out of their reach. It was then that more of my warrior brethren began to flood into the area and saw me standing over the human that had done such horrendous damage to our forces. One by one they began chanting my name as if I had been the one to bring the foul beast low and called for me to end their life once and for all; but all I could focus on was the human before me.

Through their visor I saw the face of the human looking up at me. A thin red stream of blood ran from the corner of their mouth with specs of blood dotting the inside of the helmet from where they had coughed it. Their eyes…….even though their body was broken and defeated their eyes never once showed a hint of remorse or pleading as they fixed me with a death glare. If it was possible I half imagine they were trying to kill me with their stare right there and then before I emptied my clip into their chest cavity.

I just stood there with my finger held down on the trigger as round after round of plasma energy burned into them while the surrounding soldiers cheered. The human died half way through the clip but I kept my fingers firmly on the trigger until every shot was emptied.

As you know after that I was given the title “Hero of Reservoir” for I had seemingly killed the human butcher all by myself. There were of course the video feeds from the warriors helmets that came before me that contradicted that sentiment but central command quickly quashed that notion; erasing or restricting what footage there was while fabricating their own that made me out to be the ‘Hero” after all. With the substantial losses they had taken claiming the planet they needed someone they could hoist up and show the homeworld to as a sign of admiration and prowess in our war against the humans.

Like I said before I never cared for the name. Not because it was based on a lie, but from what I discovered when I went to investigate the bunker the human soldier had been so ferociously defending.

It took several explosive charges to pop off the hinges but with a loud thunderous boom the door finally gave way and I led a war party inside. We had expected some sort of redoubt or military bunker and went in with our weapons firing on anything that moved; which was fortunate as the door led into a series of tunnels dotting the city filled with humans.

My fellow warriors were lost to the blood lust and carved their way through the humans as if they were made of paper while I stopped and examined the nearest fallen human.

They were a frail thing, not half the size of a normal human adult. I believe they were called “children” by their cultural standards and were designated as the youth of the species. The child lay huddled in a corner they had attempted to hide in when the breaching charges had gone off but were caught by the explosion nonetheless and died.

As I gently pulled on them to turn them around I saw that the child had been holding something tightly against their chest. When I saw what it was I recoiled and nearly fell over another dead human from my realization.

The child had been clutching a stuffed toy animal, not a side arm as his fellow warriors had believed.

With a grim realization I came to the conclusion that this was not a military bunker or the last vestiges of the human military lurking within the walls of these tunnels. They were human civilians who had been led into the depths of their city in the hopes they could survive the coming battle.

I tried to call off the attack into the lower levels but by then our warriors were lost to the haze of battle. By the end some three hundred human civilians were massacred in that bunker; their bodies sealed within a rocky tomb when we detonated charges to collapse the bunker complex.

That is why I hate being called a hero for that awful battle. I am a pretender, a charlatan, a fraud; held up to justify the deaths on both sides as if a statue of me will someone make us forget what we had done.

The real hero of reservoir died by my hand, giving their life to defend the defenseless.

#humans are insane #humans are space oddities #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #scifi #story #writing #original writing #niqhtlord01 #ai generated art #stable diffusion

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howtofightwrite · 1 year

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What are the battle tactics for combatants where individual soldiers could fly on their own power naturally? (like wings and such). I assume it won't be "land battle, but in air". What are a good weapon for winged soldiers to arm themselves with? And what would be a logical countermeasures against these flying fighters?

So there's a lot of elements here, and there's probably some physiological issues that make this less appealing than it may initially appear.

The significant advantage is probably in hit and run tactics. Flying soldiers would be an excellent skirmisher option. Able to move in without significant opposition and harass enemy units behind the front lines. Either allowing them to pick at the enemy's flanks or assaulting archers and artillery. They might be able to tie up the enemy's command, and severely limit their foes' ability to manage their own forces. Just the sheer mobility would make them difficult to deal with, and priority targets.

Weapons would vary depending on role, but ranged weapons and polearms are probably the best options, both for the flying troops, and then also the best countermeasures. Polearms would let them attack without getting into direct melee. This might be spears, or it could be glaives, halberds, poleaxes, and basically anything else. Billhooks could be pretty nasty, if they wanted to grab enemies on the ground and lift them up (assuming that's an option.)

Of course all of these considerations also apply against them. Polearms mean they can be struck and dragged down even while they're trying to stay out of reach. Ranged weapons are going to be highly effective in situations where they have no cover. An arrow through the wing will bring one down immediately, possibly seriously injuring them or killing them from the fall. Bolos, or bolo launchers of some design might also be a good idea for tangling and incapacitating the flying soldiers. Similarly, some kind of net launcher might be a very viable way for getting these guys out of the sky. However, ranged weapons in general are likely to be highly effective for one very specific reason: They (probably) can't armor their wings, and their wings will be large targets. Their wings also mean they can't pack together tightly.

With birds and other naturally flying animals, the more it weighs the larger the wings need to be. This is part of why birds have hollow bone structures. Their bones keep their weight down and allow them to fly with significantly smaller wings than they'd need if they had the same bone structure as a mammal. This means that bird people would likely be more vulnerable to violence. Either because their bones would be far more fragile in combat, because their wings would make for massive targets, or both. Now, it's likely their wings would be able to lift far more than their own weight, but the more weight they carry the more that would exhaust them, and especially weight on the wings would be tiring. (Assuming that they can armor them at all without losing their aerodynamics.) This is why your bird warriors would make better skirmishers than front line infantry, and a force comprised entirely of bird warriors would suffer from having a very fragile front line. In that case, they would be better off adopting a warfare doctrine of harassment and hit and run tactics, where they deplete enemy forces without ever committing to conventional battles. Getting into straight up fights would result in devastating losses, especially against shock tactics or heavy infantry forces. It's worth remembering that even their heaviest armor is probably going to be much lighter than the heavy armor their foes can deploy with.

When presented with a phalanx, your bird warrior's best option might just be drop rocks on them. Which might sound funny, until you consider the prospect of someone dropping 20lb stones from the sky.

There's also a weird strategic element here. Your flying soldiers (and presumably) the rest of their society could, simply, inhabit areas that are impossible to besiege, or potentially even impossible to access as part of a normal infantry campaign. If you have a settlement or outpost located up on a high peak, with no footpaths up, and any invading force would need to either fly up or climb sheer rock walls, that's going to be very difficult (if not impossible) to assault. Similarly, your bird warriors probably wouldn't need to worry about laying siege at all. They can just fly over enemy fortifications, and get to the important task of dropping limestone brickwork on their enemies, and grabbing high-value targets, taking them for an impromptu sightseeing trip, and dropping them off a little too far above the ground. These guys could be a real handful to deal with. Either as irregular forces mixed in with an enemy army, or just acting on their own, and any group dealing with them would need to seriously reconsider their fortification designs.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #howtofightwrite #starke answers

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fictionalafvsmybeloved · 6 months

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How about Warhammer's Razorback / Rhino?

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only M113.

Even a few thousand years into the future you still need a battle taxi, and this is the Imperium's.

So this is clearly just an M113 that's been Grim-Dark'ed.

It's fairly mobile with a top-speed of ~45 mph (70 kph) and a middling weight of 30 tons. It is powered by a futuristic multi-fuel engine, which is a plus for logistics.

It's armor profile is somewhat variable, as it can be constructed of various materials; from far future composites to just plain steel. Armor thickness is listed as 60mm, but I'm not sure if that's the actual thickness of the plates of its RHA equivalent.

It's lacking in the weapons department, usually only mounting light weapons (with the exception of specialized variants). Also, sometime they put frag grenades in the the smoke launchers.

It has a decent array of view-ports for thew driver, who is the only crew member, and pulls double duty by remotely operating the machinegun.

It has a fair collection of auxiliary features: handles, headlights, and hatches.

Respectable Infantry capacity of 10 dudes in power armor.

FINAL SCORES

Credibility: 5/10 - 70-Year-Old Doctrine

Coolness: 4/10 - METAL BAWKSES

BONUS:

Chaos is cringe

youtube

#noncredibledefense #ncd #noncredible defense #tank ratings #tanks #w40k #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000

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bantarleton · 6 months

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What better way than to start your week with a new Don Troiani artwork? Depicted is a private of the United Corps of Pennsylvania & Maryland Loyalists at Pensacola, West Florida.

Both the Pennsylvania and the Maryland Loyalists were raised as separate regiments in Philadelphia 1777, during the British occupation of the city. They were combined, rather unhappily it seems, into one outfit of six companies in 1778. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Allen they were and sent first to Jamaica and then, from December 1779, to Pensacola in West Florida, to aid in operations against the Spanish.

They took part in the failed relief of Mobile in March 1780 and the assault on Mobile Village on January 7 1781. They were then part of the garrison of Pensacola when it was besieged and captured by the Spanish later that year.

The prisoners were taken to Havana and then repatriated to New York a few months later, and formally returned to duty – as two separate units once more – in July 1782. The Pennsylvanian and Maryland Loyalists spent the last year of the war garrisoning New York. The Maryland Loyalists were last mustered in December 1783, while the Pennsylvanians were disbanded on October 10 1783.

Provincial Loyalist corps are often depicted as wearing green, but by the mid point of the war and beyond most wore red coats, with only a few notable exceptions, such as the British Legion and the Queen’s Rangers. This was for ease of supply, and likely also helped make the Loyalists feel more thoroughly incorporated into the British military, while also causing opponents to believe they were facing British regulars.

The Pennsylvania-Maryland corps appears to have had green or olive facings with white lace plus yellow and green threads based on the lace of the Loyal Irish Regiment. I think the black leatherwork here (usually reserved for light infantry) is because the belts are store-issued from a “stand of arms.”

Also note how high on the torso the cartridge pouch and bayonet frog and scabbard are worn, in contrast to how low-down many reenactors wear them – an accurate historical touch, as befits Troiani’s work!

#history #british army #military history #18th century #american revolution #redcoat #american war of independence #revwar #redcoats #provincial corps #loyalist #loyalists #american loyalist #american loyalists

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is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not · 9 days

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Royal Black Watch Regiment TO&E (3153):

Trinary 1: 1a. Regimental Command Supernova- "Claymore"

1x HGN-732bM (Regimental Command Mech; COMGEN Melissa Hazen)

1x AS7-K3T (Nova Captain MAJ Theodora Marten-Steiner)

1x AWS-9Q-K (Regimental Senior Enlisted WO Karrie DeLacey; also Unit Chief Technician)

1x OC-1Xb (Quick Reaction Fire Support)

1x CP-10-HQb (Forward Base Defense & Headquarters Transport)

1x RPT-3Xb (Quick Reaction Reconnaissance Asset; attached from Supernova 1 "Dirk")

1x Infantry Star (Armored; Special TO&E; 2/5ths Elemental BW, 3/5ths Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry w/ Tornado G17 PA(L); Elite/Reliable)

1b. Supernova 1 - "Dirk"

4x HGN-732Ib

1x RPT-3Xb (currently attached to Command Nova)

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry with Tornado PA(L)

1c. Supernova 2 - "Broadsword"

4x HGN-732Ib

1x RPT-3Xb

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry with Tornado PA(L)

Trinary 2:

2a. Command Supernova - “Baselard”

1x HGN-732Ic

3x HGN-732Ib

1x OC-1Xb (Quick Reaction Fire Support)

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry w/ Tornado G17 PA(L); Elite/Reliable)

2b. Supernova 1 - “Cutlass”

4x HGN-732Ib

1x RPT-3Xb (currently attached to Command Nova)

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry with Tornado PA(L)

2c. Supernova 2 - “Falchion”

4x HGN-732Ib

1x RPT-3Xb

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry with Tornado PA(L)

Trinary 3:

3a. Command Supernova - “Longsword”

1x HGN-732Ic

3x HGN-732Ib

1x OC-1Xb (Quick Reaction Fire Support)

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry w/ Tornado G17 PA(L); Elite/Reliable)

3b. Supernova 1 - “Sabre”

4x HGN-732Ib

1x RPT-3Xb (currently attached to Command Nova)

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry with Tornado PA(L)

3c. Supernova 2 - “Gladius”

4x HGN-732Ib

1x RPT-3Xb

2x Infantry Star (Armored; Elemental III; Elite/Fanatical)

1x Infantry Star (Unarmored; SLDF Infantry with Tornado PA(L)

Support Sections:

4. Regimental Engineering/MechTechBattalion – “Brunel” (not drop capable)

5x BattleMech Recovery Vehicle

15x Heavy BattleMech Recovery Vehicle

12x Savior Repair Vehicle

12x Paramour Repair Vehicle

40x J-37 Ordnance Transports

10x Pit Bull Medium Trucks

40x Coolant Trucks

5x Hoplite HMMWV

5. Regimental Headquarters Support Battalion - “Chieftain” (not drop capable)

3x Gossamer Drones + 3x Sasayaku Control Transports (Strategic Recon Section)

3x Beagle Hover Scouts (Beagle TAG variant; Battlefield Awareness Section)

1x Praetorian Mobile Strategic HQ

8x Mobile Point Defense System

7x Burro Heavy Support Trucks (1x Water Tanker, 3x Fuel Tanker, 3x Cargo)

6x GESV Mobile Field Kitchen + Field Kitchen Trailer

15x Pit Bull Medium Trucks

3x Hoplite HMMWV

6. Regimental Artillery Battalion - “Caber” (not drop capable)

9x Mobile Long Tom (LT-MOB-95 variant)

1x Pit Bull Medium Truck

3x Burro Heavy Support Trucks (2x Cargo, 1x Fuel Tanker)

9x J-37 Ordnance Transports

1x Tribune Tactical Mobile HQ

4x Hoplite HMWVV

7. Regimental Medical Company - “Fleming” (not drop capable):

10x GESV (MASH configuration) + GESV Medical Trailer

5x Soar Medical VTOL (Militarized variant)

4x Burro Heavy Support Trucks (x2 Fuel Tankers; x2 Cargo)

#battletech #mechwarrior #story event #tactical information

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