Shelley the burbank bomber! torrent

No game today, so let's remember a forgotten Yankee: Horace Clarke

2024.05.13 14:26 sonofabutch No game today, so let's remember a forgotten Yankee: Horace Clarke

"I played major league baseball for parts of 10 years, and I played in the magnificent city of New York, and as a child in St. Croix that was beyond dreams. Yes, I am a happy man." -- Horace Clarke
The worst stretch of Yankee baseball since the Highlander days, the mid 60s to the mid 70s, is remembered by those who lived through it as the Horace Clarke Era. Unfairly or not, the bespectacled switch-hitting middle infielder from the U.S. Virgin Islands came to symbolize all that was wrong with the Yankees in those sad years.
Horace Meredith Clarke grew up on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was just the fifth player from the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in the majors, and the first Yankee. His father had grown up playing cricket, and because there were no youth baseball leagues on the island, young Horace played softball. He said he didn't see his first baseball game until around age 13, when he saw some U.S. Navy sailors playing.
“We were poor kids in St. Croix. We played on a field which was right on the ocean and had no fences. We couldn’t afford baseballs. So the coach made the lefthanded batters hit righthanded and the righthanded batters hit lefthanded. This was so they couldn’t hit the ball so far. It saved us from losing the baseballs in the ocean.”
Clarke was spotted by a Yankee scout in the Caribbean and assigned to the lowest run of the Yankee farm system -- the Kearney Yankees in Class D ball. Imagine being an 18-year-old kid from St. Croix in the Caribbean, and arriving in Kearney, Nebraska in the spring of 1958. The culture shock must have been overwhelming. Maybe not surprisingly, Clarke hit a disappointing .225/.322/.283 in 187 at-bats. He said the biggest adjustment wasn't the cold weather, but night games played under the lights, something he'd never done before.
The following year Horace was in the Florida State League, and he thrived in the warmer weather, hitting .293/.375/.366 in 571 at-bats. He also stole 34 bases that year. The year after that, he was back up north, playing for Fargo in the Northern League, and hit .307/.389/.369 in 537 at-bats. The following year was Amarillo in the Texas League, where he hit .300/.364/.429.
Then the next three years in the International League, where he hit .281/.345/.352 in 1,494 at-bats while playing shortstop and second base.
But despite Clarke's promise, he was blocked by Bobby Richardson. By the time Clarke had reached Triple-A at age 24 in 1963, the 27-year-old Richardson had already been a four-time All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove winner, and had won three World Series rings... plus the MVP for the 1960 World Series, the only time in baseball history a player for the losing team won the award!
But the Yankees knew Richardson was planning on retiring, so they kept Clarke waiting in the wings. He opened the year with the Toledo Mud Hens, then the Yankees' Triple-A team, and then after a month he finally got the call to the show.
Fifty-nine years ago today, on May 13, 1965, Clarke was sent up to the plate in the 7th inning as a pinch hitter to make his major league debut in a game the Yankees were losing, 4-1, to the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park.
Clarke, facing Dave Morehead, beat out an infield single. It was a promising beginning. But, as if scripted to be symbolic of his career, Clarke's success was short-lived as the next batter bounced into a fielder's choice. Forced out at second base, Clarke watched the rest of the game from the dugout. The next day he'd get the start and go 0-for-4.
Hitting .250/.298/.269 at the end of June as a utility infielder, Clarke was sent back down to Toledo for two months to get more regular playing time. It helped. When he returned on September 3 -- coincidentally, also against the Red Sox -- he went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Overall that month, Clarke hit .273/.298/.327, and for the season, .262/.298/.299 in 115 plate appearances. But the Yankees, the reigning A.L. champions for the past five seasons, finished a shocking 77-85, all the way in sixth place.
That off-season, Phil Linz -- the harmonica playing utility infielder -- was traded to the Phillies, opening up a roster spot for Clarke. Richardson, though only 31, had told the Yankees he would retire at the end of the 1966 season, and the Yankees wanted him to mentor Clarke as his successor.
Clarke started just seven games over the first half, but a series of injuries forced him into regular service. Over the second half, he played almost every day, hitting .276/.334/.404 in 300 plate appearances. He was mostly used at shortstop, where his defense wasn't great, but in 16 games at second base he looked good enough that the Yankees were confident he could be a regular there. Yankee fans were no doubt a little sad when Richardson officially announced to the press on August 31 that it was his last season, but at least we knew who would be playing second base the following year.
Indeed, second base was the least of the Yankees' problems. New York finished dead last at 70-89 in 1966, the team's worst performance since 1925, as injuries fell Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, and Whitey Ford.
Entering 1967 as the starting second baseman, Clarke hit a solid .272/.321/.316 (94 OPS+) in 633 plate appearances while leading the league in fielding percentage, assists, and range factor as a second baseman. He also stole 21 bases in 25 tries, a second-best .840 SB%. His 3.7 bWAR that year was better than any season Richardson ever had -- his career high was 3.2 bWAR in 1962.
The following year, the Yankees finished 83-79 -- above .500 for the first time in four seasons -- but a whopping 34.5 games out. Clarke had one of the worst years of his career, hitting .230/.258/.254 (60 OPS+) as he played through injuries all year.
He rebounded in 1969 to .285/.339/.467 (101 OPS+), with 33 stolen bases. It was, statistically, the best season of his career (3.9 bWAR). But once again the Yankees were terrible -- 28.5 games out.
In 1970, Clarke again disappointed, hitting .251/.286/.309 (68 OPS+). The Yankees won 93 games that year, but it amounted to naught as the Orioles ran away with the pennant, going 108-54 to win it by 15 games. In fact, it was pretty much over by July, with the Yankees 7 games out at the All-Star break.
It was around this time that Yankee fans began focusing their frustration on Clarke. One New York sportswriter routinely referred to him as "Horrible Horace". Miscast as a leadoff man -- he had a career .308 OBP -- and criticized for "bailing out" on double plays, manager Ralph Houk years later offered a tepid defense of his second baseman:
“I know I got a lot of criticism for playing Horace Clarke as much as I did, but he was a lot better ballplayer than anyone gave him credit for. He did a lot of things good but nothing great, and that was his problem. Besides, I didn’t have anyone else.”
The lack of a replacement was certainly an issue. In 1971, there was talk in The Sporting News about a prospect named Fred Frazier being the heir apparent to Clarke at second base. That year, Frazier hit a disappointing .261/.316/.313 in Triple-A; the next year, .216/.302/.281. The year after that, he was in the Orioles organization. He never made it out of the minors.
In fact, Clarke was the only constant in the Yankee infield in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Yankees during the, ahem, Horace Clarke Era had holes everywhere, with a revolving door at first base, third base, and shortstop. For five years, from 1967 to 1971, Clarke was the Opening Day starter at second base; during that same stretch, there were five different third basemen, five different third basemen, and three different shortstops. Between 1967 and 1973, he started 1,017 games at second base, or 90% of all Yankee games.
But that, explained Yankees PR man Marty Appel, was kind of the problem. "Fans especially didn’t like the second baseman, the beleaguered Horace Clarke, whose major flaw seemed to be longevity. It wasn’t his fault that no one better came along, and he was a better player than the fans gave him credit for. But because he was out there, year after year, he came to stand for this disappointing run by the club."
"I always did my best. I always played as hard as I could. I never was concerned about how the fans reacted to me." -- Horace Clarke
The following year Clarke hit .250/.321/.318 in 696 plate appearances, but the Yankees again were out of it, finishing 82-80 in 1971.
Yankee fans had been miserable since 1965, but frustration with the team in general -- and Clarke in particular -- reached a boiling point in 1972. It had been seven years since the Yankees had been in the post-season, and 1972 was the first year the Yankees had the playoffs within our grasp since winning the pennant in 1964. (The "closest and latest" the Yankees had been since the 1965 season was 9 games out of 1st place on September 8, 1970.)
On September 12, 1972, the Yankees were a half-game out of 1st place at 74-64, with 17 games left to go in the season. The Red Sox were in 1st at 73-62, the Orioles tied with New York at 74-64, and the Tigers a half-game behind at 73-64. Over the rest of the season, the Yankees went a heartbreaking 5-12, while the Tigers won 13 out of 19 to win the A.L. East.
There was plenty of blame to go around for that collapse, but Yankee fans were particularly irate at Clarke, who hit .225/.267/.296 during those final 17 games.
To his credit, Clarke never complained about the boos from fans or the criticism in the press. As quoted by Dick Young in the New York Daily News in 1972:
"Sure, I would feel bad when I saw in the papers that, 'the Yankees can never win the pennant with that guy at second base.' But why get mad. I figure that's his opinion, and he's entitled to it. I must have been able to do something. Don't tell me a ballplayer can fool a manager for seven years."
Years later, Thurman Munson said his adversarial relationship with the media was based on how Horace Clarke was treated.
In 1973, the 34-year-old Clarke hit .263/.317/.308 (80 OPS+), his defense was no longer among the league leaders, and the Yankees were once again double-digit games behind by Labor Day.
It was finally time to move on. That off season, the Yankees acquired 23-year-old utility infielder Jim Mason from the Texas Rangers and installed him as the starting shortstop for the upcoming 1974 season; Gene Michael, the Yankees' on-again, off-again shortstop since 1968, was moved to second base; and Clarke to the bench. It wasn't exactly an earth-shattering move -- Mason was coming off a season in which he hit .206/.273/.290, and Michael .225/.270/.278. If anything, the two represented a substantial downgrade from Clarke's numbers. (By bWAR the previous season, Clarke was still the best option of the three, 0.6 compared to Mason's -0.7 and Michael's -0.9.)
After hitting .234/.294/.255 in 53 plate appearances as a pinch hitter and spot starter, on May 31, 1974, the Yankees finally ended the Horace Clarke Era by selling his contract to the San Diego Padres along with minor league pitcher Lowell Palmer for $25,000. At the time of the deal, Clarke was still the Yankees' best option at second base as Mason was hitting .214/.287/.307 and Michael a putrid .134/.224/.179!
Six weeks later, the Yankees tried to address their second base problem again by acquiring former All-Star Sandy Alomar from the Angels. Alomar, who fathered major leaguers Sandy Jr. and Roberto, played for the Yankees for the next two and a half seasons, hitting .248/.287/.302... again, worse than Horace's career average of .256/.308/.313.
And yet getting rid of Horace Clarke immediately turned around the Yankees' fortunes. With Horace, the Yankees were 23-27, the worst record in the American League; without him, a second-best 66-46. New York finished 89-73, just two games behind the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yankees finally found a solution to the second base problem on December 11, 1975, trading previously forgotten Yankee Doc Medich to the Pirates for Dock Ellis, Ken Brett, and a 20-year-old prospect named Willie Randolph.
Meanwhile, Clarke went to San Diego and hit .189/.255/.200 in 99 plate appearances. He was released at the end of the season and retired. He was a frequent attendee at Yankee Old Timers' Games, and promoted baseball in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He died at age 81 on August 5, 2020, from complications due to Alzheimer's disease.
The Clarke Side
"I remember the first game I played in Yankee Stadium in 1965. There were more than 40,000 people in the stands. I had just come from my country where there are 30,000 people in the entire country. That was some adjustment." -- Horace Clarke
Overall, Horace Clarke hit .257/.309/.315 in 5,144 plate appearances as a Yankee. His numbers aren't quite as bad as they appear, as he played during one of the lowest offense eras since deadball... an 84 OPS+. That ranks him ahead of fondly-remembered Yankees like Shelley Duncan (81 OPS+), Rick Cerone (80 OPS+), Miguel Cairo (80 OPS+), Bucky Dent (72 OPS+), and... Bobby Richardson (77 OPS+). And while many complained about his defense, his defensive metrics -- such as we have for his era -- indicate he was at least an average defender. He led the league in range factor three times, in fielding percentage once, in assists six times, and in double plays twice.
People tend to think about Clarke -- if they think about him at all -- as either a terrible player, representative of the teams he played on, or a good player who was wasted on bad teams. The truth is somewhere in the middle. As sportswriter Maury Allen said, he was "an average big-leaguer on below-average Yankee teams."
And in fact, Clarke's 16.0 career bWAR as a Yankee is twice as much value as the player he replaced, Bobby Richardson (8.0 bWAR). But Richardson was a fan favorite, while Clarke was scorned. But of course... Richardson won three rings. And Yankee fans love a winner!
"New York is New York. You don’t win, you’re going to hear about it. I was in the middle." -- Horace Clarke
Had Clarke come along a few years earlier and been part of the early 1960s dynasty, he might be remembered fondly as a scrappy infielder, a Tony Kubek or a Bucky Dent or a Scott Brosius -- a good but not great player who had some memorable moments.
Instead, Horace Clarke defines an era of futility.
submitted by sonofabutch to NYYankees [link] [comments]

2024.04.29 22:20 Ultim8_Lifeform Respect Ryo Saeba! (City Hunter)[Manga]

Ryo Saeba

(Alternate Header Image 1 2)
"You pulled off a shrewd plan, I applaud you for that. But you made one mistake. You showed me the tears of a woman. And now you have to pay the price for it."
Anyone who has spent considerable time in Tokyo, or Japan as a whole for that matter, may have heard rumors about the blackboard in Shinjuku station. They say that if you have a problem and can't go to the police, all you have to do is write a note with the letters XYZ at the end and wait for the mysterious City Hunter to come and find you. However, pretty much anyone that's done this will tell you that the City Hunter isn't exactly the man you might expect.
At the incredibly young age of three years old, Ryo Saeba was traveling with his parents when their plane crashed in a country in Central America that was in the middle of a civil war. Being the sole survivor, Ryo wandered the jungle for days until he stumbled upon a village of guerilla fighters that were battling their country's government. The guerillas would only accept warriors that could fight with them, so Ryo joined their ranks in order to survive. They taught him everything they knew about fighting, weapons, and warfare until Ryo grew to be one of the most dangerous men on the battlefield. However, the government forces eventually overwhelmed them, chasing the guerillas out of the country. Now an adult, Ryo made his way to the United States and opted to become a sweeper, a mercenary/bounty hunteprivate detective that performs off the books jobs to clean up the filthy criminal underworld. Partnering with Mick Angel, another sweeper and one of his best friends, Ryo formed the team known as City Hunter.
At some point, Ryo left the US and returned to Japan, the country of his birth, where he kept the City Hunter name for himself and continued doing sweeper work with a new partner, ex-detective Hideyuki Makimura. Ryo's reputation spread rapidly, becoming known as one of the most dangerous men in the criminal underworld. So what's the problem? Well, he does have one weakness: Beautiful women. Despite his upbringing, Ryo is a goofy pervert and womanizer that would only accept jobs from the prettiest women around if he had his way. For awhile, he had Makimura to keep him in check, but his partner would meet a tragic end after refusing a job from a powerful drug syndicate, giving Ryo the dying request of looking after his little sister Kaori. Initially planning to help Kaori get out of the city, Ryo was surprised to find that Kaori wanted to take her brother's place as Ryo's assistant/partner and continue the work he thought was so important. Together, they became the newest iteration of City Hunter, sweeping the streets of Japan of evil and assisting any beautiful women that requested their services.
While his methods may be questionable, rest assured that the City Hunter always sees a job through no matter what criminal organizations, serial killers, or assassins stand in his way.
Note:

Strength

Striking
Vs Enemies
Destructive Output
Lifting/Throwing
Jumping/Charging
Other

Speed

Travel
Reactions
Melee
Aim Dodging
Projectiles
Other
Combat/Attacking
Quickdraw/Shooting

Agility/Mobility

Acrobatics
Jumping
Climbing
Hanging
Propping/Wedging
Other

Durability

Blunt
Piercing
Explosive
Falling
Electrical
Endurance/Survivability
Other

Cock

Yes, you read that right. Ryo's penis, his erection, his boner, his mokkori. It's frankly capable of some pretty incredible things and seems to have stats that are completely independent of Ryo's other physical abilities. So much so that it's probably best to have an entire section of the thread dedicated to it. I'm not sorry.
Physicals
Strength/Growing Power
Speed
Durability
Abilities
Detecting Women
Other

Intelligence

General Knowledge
World Knowledge
Weapon/Chemical Knowledge
Deduction
Other
Planning
Quick Thinking
Mental Fortitude/Pain Resistance

Gear

Firearms
Ammo
Other Long Ranged Weapons
Melee Weapons
Explosives
Espionage/Tracking/Surveillance
Chemicals
Other

This Thread is Continued in the Comments Below

submitted by Ultim8_Lifeform to respectthreads [link] [comments]

2024.04.28 17:15 CallicoJackRackham51 Found this little oddity about 1,5 or 2 years ago, is this a special demo edition of the movie or something else?

Found this little oddity about 1,5 or 2 years ago, is this a special demo edition of the movie or something else? submitted by CallicoJackRackham51 to VHS [link] [comments]

2024.04.28 05:42 Ultim8_Lifeform Ryo Saeba Manga Draft

Ryo Saeba

(Alternate Header Image 1 2)
"You pulled off a shrewd plan, I applaud you for that. But you made one mistake. You showed me the tears of a woman. And now you have to pay the price for it."
Anyone who has spent considerable time in Tokyo, or Japan as a whole for that matter, may have heard rumors about the blackboard in Shinjuku station. They say that if you have a problem and can't go to the police, all you have to do is write a note with the letters XYZ at the end and wait for the mysterious City Hunter to come and find you. However, pretty much anyone that's done this will tell you that the City Hunter isn't exactly the man you might expect.
At the incredibly young age of three years old, Ryo Saeba was traveling with his parents when their plane crashed in a country in Central America that was in the middle of a civil war. Being the sole survivor, Ryo wandered the jungle for days until he stumbled upon a village of guerilla fighters that were battling their country's government. The guerillas would only accept warriors that could fight with them, so Ryo joined their ranks in order to survive. They taught him everything they knew about fighting, weapons, and warfare until Ryo grew to be one of the most dangerous men on the battlefield. However, the government forces eventually overwhelmed them, chasing the guerillas out of the country. Now an adult, Ryo made his way to the United States and opted to become a sweeper, a mercenary/bounty hunteprivate detective that performs off the books jobs to clean up the filthy criminal underworld. Partnering with Mick Angel, another sweeper and one of his best friends, Ryo formed the team known as City Hunter.
At some point, Ryo left the US and returned to Japan, the country of his birth, where he kept the City Hunter name for himself and continued doing sweeper work with a new partner, ex-detective Hideyuki Makimura. Ryo's reputation spread rapidly, becoming known as one of the most dangerous men in the criminal underworld. So what's the problem? Well, he does have one weakness: Beautiful women. Despite his upbringing, Ryo is a goofy pervert and womanizer that would only accept jobs from the prettiest women around if he had his way. For awhile, he had Makimura to keep him in check, but his partner would meet a tragic end after refusing a job from a powerful drug syndicate, giving Ryo the dying request of looking after his little sister Kaori. Initially planning to help Kaori get out of the city, Ryo was surprised to find that Kaori wanted to take her brother's place as Ryo's assistant/partner and continue the work he thought was so important. Together, they became the newest iteration of City Hunter, sweeping the streets of Japan of evil and assisting any beautiful women that requested their services.
While his methods may be questionable, rest assured that the City Hunter always sees a job through no matter what criminal organizations, serial killers, or assassins stand in his way.
Note:

Strength

Striking
Vs Enemies
Destructive Output
Lifting/Throwing
Jumping/Charging
Other

Speed

Travel
Reactions
Melee
Aim Dodging
Projectiles
Other
Combat/Attacking
Quickdraw/Shooting

Agility/Mobility

Acrobatics
Jumping
Climbing
Hanging
Propping/Wedging
Other

Durability

Blunt
Piercing
Explosive
Falling
Electrical
Endurance/Survivability
Other

Cock

Yes, you read that right. Ryo's penis, his erection, his boner, his mokkori. It's frankly capable of some pretty incredible things and seems to have stats that are completely independent of Ryo's other physical abilities. So much so that it's probably best to have an entire section of the thread dedicated to it. I'm not sorry.
Physicals
Strength/Growing Power
Speed
Durability
Abilities
Detecting Women
Other

Intelligence

General Knowledge
World Knowledge
Weapon/Chemical Knowledge
Deduction
Other
Planning
Quick Thinking
Mental Fortitude/Pain Resistance

Gear

Firearms
Ammo
Other Long Ranged Weapons
Melee Weapons
Explosives
Espionage/Tracking/Surveillance
Chemicals
Other

This Thread is Continued in the Comments Below

submitted by Ultim8_Lifeform to u/Ultim8_Lifeform [link] [comments]

2024.04.25 22:44 brinkeguthrie Favorite Lines (Updated!)

Security Guard Mike: "It's a nice morning, Mr. McGarry."
Leo McGarry: "Well, we'll take care of that in a hurry, won't we, Mike?"
​
Interim President Walken: "My only regret is that we only got to kill the bastard once."
​
President Bartlet: (to Butterball Hotline rep:) "If I cook it inside the turkey, is there a chance I could kill my guests? I'm not saying that's necessarily a deal-breaker."
​
Nurse: "I need to ask you some questions, sir. Do you have any medical conditions?"
President Bartlet: "Well, I've been shot."
​
(Charlie is trying to wake up President Bartlet)
Charlie Young: "Sir, I need you to dig in now. It wasn't a nightmare. You really are the President."
​
President Bartlet: "You know that line you're not supposed to cross with the President?"
C.J. Cregg: "I'm coming up on it?"
President Josiah Bartlet: "Look behind you."
​
Naval officer: “It’s an honor to meet you, sir.”
Admiral Fitzwallace: "Yes, I imagine it would be.”
​
Danny Concannon : "...also, I'd get in trouble with the First Lady."
President Bartlet : "Welcome to the club, Danny...we had some jackets made."
​
Abbey Bartlet : "I concede I was wrong about the thing."
President Bartlet : "Good."
Abbey Bartlet : "However..."
President Bartlet : "No. No "however". Just be wrong. Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it."
President Bartlett: "One last thing: While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in THIS building, when the President stands, NOBODY sits."
​
President Bartlett: "We agree on nothing, Max."
Senator Lobell : "Yes, sir."
President Bartlet : "You name it, we disagree."
Senator Lobell : "You know why?"
President Bartlet: "Because I'm a lily-livered, bleeding-heart, liberal, egghead communist?"
Senator Lobell : "Yes, sir. And I'm a gun-toting, redneck son-of-a-bitch."
President Bartlet: "Yes you are."
Senator Lobell : "We agree on that."
​
President Bartlett: “Fitz! You ol' pole cat, you old so-and-so!”
Admiral Fitzwallace: “Trying to be one of the fellas, sir?”
President Bartlett: “Yep.”
Admiral Fitzwallace: “Well done, sir.”
​
(The President neglected a formality transferring executive power before going into surgery)
Margaret: "Can I just say something, you know, for the future?"
Leo McGarry: "Yeah."
Margaret: "I can sign the President's name. I have his signature down pretty good."
Leo McGarry: "You can sign the President's NAME?"
Margaret: "Yeah."
Leo McGarry: "On a document REMOVING HIM FROM POWER and handing it to someone else?"
Margaret: "Yeah. Do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?"
Leo McGarry: "I think the White House Counsel would say that's a COUP D'ETAT!"
Margaret: "I'd probably end up doing some time for that."
Leo McGarry: "I would THINK."
​
Sam Seaborn: [looks at officer's name tag] "Officer Peter, we're in a certain amount of trouble tonight and the only thing I've got going for me is that you're in more trouble than we are. My name is Sam Seaborn, I work for the President and the sooner you reach the conclusion that I'm telling you the truth the better off we're all gonna be. Why don't you go get your watch commander?"
​
Admiral Fitzwallace: "Have you changed shampoo? You have, I can tell. 'Cause your hair seems bouncy and more manageable."
Leo McGarry: "I like to look good for you."
​
Admiral Fitzwallace: "I'm an admiral in the U.S. Navy and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Beat that with a stick."
​
President Bartlet: "She booted all over the back of her car. You know they're gonna bill me for that."
Leo McGarry: "Yeah."
​
Josh Lyman: "President Bartlet's a good man. He's got a good heart. He doesn't hold a grudge. That's what he pays me for."
​
President Bartlet: (the President is telling an unenthusiastic Josh about National Parks) "...Shenandoah National Park. Right here in Virginia! We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah. I can even act as the guide. What do you think?"
Josh Lyman: (audibly but under his breath) "...good a place as any to dump your body."
President Bartlet: "What was that?"
Josh Lyman: (mumbles): "Did I say that out loud?"
President Bartlet: "See? And I was going to let you go home."
Josh Lyman: "But instead?"
President Bartlet: "We're going to talk about Yosemite!"
​
Nancy McNally: "Leo."
Leo McGarry: "Nancy."
Nancy McNally: "Yeoman Fitzwallace."
Percy Fitzwallace: "Dr. McNally."
Nancy McNally: "Let's attack."
Leo McGarry: "Attack who?"
Nancy McNally: "Qumar. Let's recommend to the President that we attack."
Leo McGarry: "Why?"
Nancy McNally: "'Cause I've had it!"
Percy Fitzwallace: "I don't think the UN is going to let us do it for that reason."
Nancy McNally: "That's 'cause you're a sissy. You want peace in the Middle East? Give me a pair of third generation ICBMs and a compass. You got B-2 Spirit stealth bombers over Qumar right now, as if the Qumari Air Defense System requires stealth capability. Just fly in at night and while you're at it could you order the USS Louisiana to fire off a D-5 Trident just to see if it works? What's the worst that could happen?"
Percy Fitzwallace: "Is she talking to me?"
Nancy McNally: "Yes!"
Percy Fitzwallace: "Well...98% of all living organisms within a seven mile radius would die instantly in a torrent of fire."
Nancy McNally: "Admiral Sissymary."
​
submitted by brinkeguthrie to thewestwing [link] [comments]

2024.04.21 22:37 high_warden [Custom Design] Two-Player Introductory Set - The Baron vs Wedge Antilles

This is a custom design recreating the Battle of Endor influenced by the Decipher Star Wars CCG. Product details listed first followed by full card spoilers and deck stats. Thank you for reading.

Features

Leaders

Deck List (Baron)

Leader
Base
Space
Ground
Upgrade
Event

Deck List (Wedge)

Leader
Base
Space
Ground
Upgrade
Event

Card Spoilers (Baron)

Name The Baron
Subtitle Saber Wing Leader
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity S
Type Leader Unit
Arena Space
Cost 6
Power 5
HP 6
Text (Leader) When a friendly Imperial Fighter unit completes an attack: You may exhaust this leader. If you do, deal 1 damage to an enemy base.
Text (Epic Action) Epic Action: If you control 6 or more resources, deploy this leader. (Flip him, ready him, and move him to the space arena.)
Text (Unit) Saboteur. When another friendly Imperial Fighter unit completes an attack: Deal 1 damage to an enemy base.
Art Front - Baron in cockpit. Back - Saber 1. Grim ambience. AI style reference.
Notes First Saboteur space unit. Compare to Iden Versio, IG-88.

Name Reactor Core
Aspects Aggression
Traits Death Star II
Rarity C
Type Base
HP 30
Text -
Art Space location. No ships.

Name TIE Vanguard
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 1
Power 1
HP 2
Text Action [→]: Play a space unit from your hand. It costs 1 less.
Art Lone TIE Vanguard in a cloud of space dust.
Notes Compare to Alliance Dispatcher.

Name *Black 11
Subtitle Icy Precision
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 2
Power 3
HP 1
Text When Played: You may pay 1 and discard a card. If you do, an opponent discards a card at random.
Art A TIE/ln in parade formation around the Death Star.
Notes Compare to Lothal Insurgent.

Name *Scythe 1
Subtitle Hand Picked
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 2
Power 3
HP 2
Text When Played: You may reveal a weapon upgrade from your hand. If you do, deal 1 damage to a unit.
Art TIE/ln racing through the bowels of the Death Star, passing through the wreckage of another fighter.
Notes Compare to ISB Agent, Viper Probe Droid.

Name TIE Avenger
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 2
Power 2
HP 3
Text Grit.
Art TIE Avenger rolling & firing.
Notes Compare to Scout Bike Pursuer.

Name *Onyx 2
Subtitle Limited Prototype
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 3
HP 3
Text When Played/When Defeated: Another friendly Fighter unit gains Raid 2 for this phase.
Art TIE Defender in hyperspace.
Notes Compare to Benthic "Two Tubes", Ruthless Raider.

Name Onyx Squadron TIE
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 4
HP 3
Text -
Art TIE Defender in a Star Destroyer's shadow.
Notes Compare to Swoop Racer.

Name *Saber 2
Subtitle Vengeant
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity R
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 3
HP 4
Text Grit. When Defeated: Bases can't be healed for this phase. You may deal 1 damage to a Rebel space unit.
Art Saber Squadron TIE underneath a Star Cruiser, finishing a B-Wing.
Notes Canonically, the brother of Saber 2's pilot was killed by Wedge, so this unit directly counters Wedge's healing. Compare to Wolffe.

Name TIE/sa Bomber
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 2
HP 4
Text When this unit attacks an opponent's base: It gets +2/+0 for this attack. If you have the initiative, you may exhaust an enemy ground unit that costs 2 or less.
Art TIE Bomber in the clouds bombing the city far below. Composition of Ross Taylor's Relentless.
Notes Compare to Ardent Sympathizer, Snowspeeder.

Name Saber Squadron TIE
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity S
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 4
Power 4
HP 4
Text When this unit completes an attack: If the defender was defeated, give an Experience token to this unit.
Art Saber TIE Interceptor with blood-red stripe along its wings.
Notes First Aggression card with Experience tokens (the stripe represents combat kills).

Name *Scimitar 1
Subtitle Death from Above
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 4
Power 3
HP 4
Text This unit can attack Rebel units in the ground arena.
Art Ground shot looking up at a TIE bomber making a dangerous low pass over a Rebel compound while a proton bomb explodes. Troops scramble to return fire.
Notes Compare to Strafing Gunship.

Name Victory-Class Star Destroyer
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Capital Ship
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 6
Power 6
HP 6
Text When Played/On Attack: If an enemy unit was defeated this phase, draw a card. Use this ability only once each round.
Art Rear view of a Victory-Class Star Destroyer in orbit.
Notes Compare to Reinforcement Walker, Iden Versio, Cassian Andor.

Name *Thunderflare
Subtitle Death Squadron
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Capital Ship
Rarity R
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 8
Power 9
HP 7
Text Ambush. Overwhelm. When Played: An opponent discards all but 4 cards (of their choice) from their hand.
Art Oblique front view of a Star Destroyer over a stormy planet lit by a dim carnelian sun, destroying a corvette.
Notes Canonically Thunderflare rerouted power from its hyperdrive to weapons, hence high Powelow HP. First Aggression Star Destroyer. Compare to Mercenary Company, Smoke and Cinders.

Name Scout Bike Striker
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Trooper
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 2
Power 3
HP 1
Text When Played: You may defeat an upgrade that costs 2 or less.
Art Biker scout accelerating in an aerodynamic pose, firing the bike's cannon. All speed, no safety.
Notes In the starter decks players learn to use this to target upgrade cards (Proton Torpedoes) and non-card upgrades (Experience and Shield tokens). Compare to Scout Bike Pursuer, Disabling Fang Fighter.

Name Twi'lek Nightblade
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Underworld, Twi'lek, Bounty Hunter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 2
Power 1
HP 2
Text Raid 2. If an opponent controls a damaged non-vehicle unit, this unit costs 1 less to play.
Art Urban night. Indigo-skinned Twi'lek female bounty huntress. Dark cloak hides eyes. Vibro-rapier at the ready. Lying in wait against a rain-slicked wall. Her prey approaches around the corner. Composition of Hoan Nguyen's Jedha Agitator. Style of Sandra Chlewińska's Infiltrator's Skill.
Notes Pairs with Yuzzum Packhunter. Purposeful stark shift away from Endor to show Underworld units to players who may not enjoy the Empire flavor of Villainy. Compare to Volunteer Soldier, Death Star Stormtrooper.

Name Yuzzum Packhunter
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Underworld
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 3
Power 3
HP 3
Text When Played: If you control a Bounty Hunter unit, ready this unit.
Art Endor night encampment - a Yuzzum in an unsavory troupe.
Notes Yuzzum are native to Endor. Pairs with Twi'lek Nightblade. Titillates new players with mention of Bounty Hunters. Compare to Frontier AT-RT.

Name Assault AT-RT
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Walker
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 4
Power 4
HP 4
Text While you control another Imperial unit, this unit gets +1/+1 and gains Overwhelm.
Art A biker scout on an Imperial AT-RT, storming a beach from the water.
Notes Compare to Wampa.

Name E-Web Gunner
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Trooper
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 4
Power 3
HP 3
Text When Played: Deal 2 damage to an enemy ground unit.
Art An E-Web fired at us by a snowtrooper.
Notes Compare to Imperial Interceptor.

Name Elite Stormtrooper Squad
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Trooper
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 4
Power 5
HP 4
Text -
Art Four stormtroopers tactically clear a street, weapons at the ready. Leader dons a pauldron and carries a repeating rifle.

Name Tempest Scout AT-ST
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Walker
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 4
Power 4
HP 5
Text When Defeated: Look at the top card of an opponent's deck. You may put it on the bottom of their deck.
Art Peaceful & pretty - AT-ST in a shaded forest glade. Shafts of sunlight stripe its hull and butterflies loiter.
Notes Compare to AT-ST, R2-D2 Ignoring Protocol.

Name *Tempest Scout 3
Subtitle Siege Breaker
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Walker
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 5
Power 5
HP 5
Text When Played: Each opponent discards a card from their deck.
Art AT-ST on a rocky outcrop. Top hatch open. Pilot surveys with binoculars.
Notes The wording "each opponent" intrigues new players into discovering the multiplayer format.

Name *Tempest Scout 4
Subtitle Suppressive Fire
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Walker
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 5
Power 5
HP 5
Text When Played: Deal damage to an enemy ground unit equal to the number of weapon upgrades you control plus 1.
Art AT-ST firing upon us. Trees are splintered.
Notes Compare to Karabast.

Name Canyon Krayt Dragon
Aspects Aggression
Traits Creature
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 6
Power 5
HP 5
Text While attacking, this unit deals combat damage before the defender. (If the defender is defeated, it deals no combat damage.)
Art Krayt dragon roaring at Tuskens in a Tatooine canyon. Can be melee or ranged.
Notes Tatooine gives warm change of setting to contrast Endor. Compare to Han Solo Reluctant Hero.

Name *Darth Vader
Subtitle Reckless Duelist
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Force, Imperial, Sith
Rarity S
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 7
Power 5
HP 6
Text When Played: You may discard two cards from your deck. If you do, deal 3 damage to an enemy base.
Art Vader throwing his saber at us.

Name AT-AT
Aspects Villainy
Traits Imperial, Vehicle, Walker
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 8
Power 7
HP 9
Text Sentinel.
Art Charred AT-AT in volcanic terrain.
Notes Compare to AT-ST.

Name Light Blaster Cannon
Aspects Aggression
Traits Modification, Weapon
Rarity C
Type Upgrade
Cost 1
Power +1
HP +1
Text Attach to a Vehicle ground unit. Attached unit gains Raid 1.
Art Small laser cannon on light vehicle. Include terrain to remind of ground vehicle requirement.
Notes Compare to Hardpoint Heavy Blaster.

Name TIE Laser Cannons
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Modification, Weapon
Rarity S
Type Upgrade
Cost 1
Power +1
HP +0
Text Attach to an Imperial Fighter unit. Attached unit gains: “On Attack: If this unit is attacking a unit, deal 1 damage to the defender.”
Art Closeup of TIE firing lasers.
Notes Compare to Hardpoint Heavy Blaster.

Name Anger, Fear, Aggression
Aspects Aggression, Aggression
Traits Innate
Rarity R
Type Upgrade
Cost 3
Power +0
HP +0
Text Choose one: • Attach to an Aggression unit. Attached unit gains "On Attack: Deal 2 damage to an enemy base". • Attach to a non-Aggression unit. Attached unit gains "On Attack: Deal 2 damage to your base."
Art Dagobah cave - Luke's vision of himself in Vader's mask.
Notes Part of a new cycle of rare Aspect-titled upgrades to match the legendary Aspect-titled events in SOR. Can buff units that match its aspect or debuff those that don't.

Name Intruder Missile
Aspects Aggression
Traits Modification, Weapon
Rarity C
Type Upgrade
Cost 3
Power +2
HP +0
Text Attach to a Fighter or Transport unit. Action [defeat this upgrade]: Deal 3 damage to a Capital Ship unit.
Art Bulky missile in space with a short trail.

Name Exhaustion
Aspects Aggression
Traits Innate
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 2
Text Deal 1 damage to a damaged or exhausted unit. If it's damaged and exhausted, deal 3 damage to it instead.
Art Luke collapsing in the Hoth ice storm.
Notes Compare to Open Fire.

Name Tallon Roll
Aspects Aggression
Traits Tactic
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 2
Text Friendly Fighter units gain Saboteur and Raid 1 for this phase.
Art A TIE Tallon rolling a Rebel fighter.
Notes Not Villainy-specific due to Adar Tallon's influence on both Rebel and Imperial space combat. Compare to Rallying Cry, Precision Fire.

Name All Too Easy
Aspects Aggression, Villainy
Traits Plan
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 3
Text An opponent discards a card from their hand. If you have the initiative, draw a card.
Art Vader sees Luke fall into the carbonite chamber.
Notes Compare to Mission Briefing, Force Throw.

Name Crossfire
Aspects Aggression
Traits Tactic
Rarity S
Type Event
Cost 3
Text Deal 2 damage to a unit, then deal 1 damage to another unit in the same arena.
Art Endor back door - chaotic lattice of blaster fire.
Notes Players learn requirement for two targets can be good or bad. Compare to Open Fire.

Name Trample
Aspects Aggression
Traits Tactic
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 3
Text Deal 4 damage to an enemy non-vehicle unit. If you control a vehicle ground unit, you may deal excess damage to the opponent's base.
Art AT-AT about to crush Luke.
Notes Compare to Open Fire, Force Choke, For a Cause I Believe In.

Name Demolish
Aspects Villainy
Traits Gambit
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 4
Text Defeat a non-Villainy unit unless its controller discards 4 cards from their deck.
Art Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie in the trash compactor.
Notes Teaches Gambit events. Compare to I Am Your Father.

Name Release Your Anger
Aspects Aggression, Aggression
Traits Innate
Rarity U
Type Event
Cost 5
Text Deal 3 damage to a non-Droid unit and ready it.
Art Luke enraged dueling Vader.
Notes Encourages strategy choosing friendly/enemy unit. Compare to Keep Fighting, Grand Inquisitor Hunting the Jedi.

Card Spoilers (Wedge)

Name *Wedge Antilles
Subtitle Red Squadron Leader
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity S
Type Leader Unit
Arena Space
Cost 6
Power 4
HP 7
Text (Leader) Action: [1, →]: Heal 1 damage from a friendly Rebel Fighter unit and 1 damage from your base.
Text (Epic Action) Epic Action: If you control 6 or more resources, deploy this leader. (Flip him, ready him, and move him to the space arena.)
Text (Unit) When Deployed: You may attack with this unit. On Attack: Heal up to 2 damage divided as you choose among any number of other friendly Rebel Fighter units and your base.
Art Front - Wedge in cockpit. Back - Red Squadron 1 with victory markers visible below hatch. AI style reference.
Notes "When Deployed" ability mirrors SOR Wedge's Ambush. Compare to 2-1B Surgical Droid.

Name Rendezvous Point
Aspects Command
Traits Haven
Rarity C
Type Base
HP 30
Text -
Art Space location. No ships.

Name Alliance Y-Wing
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 1
Power 1
HP 2
Text If you control a Rebel Capital Ship unit, this unit costs 1 less to play.
Art Y-Wing with capital ship.
Notes Compare to Volunteer Soldier.

Name Alliance A-Wing
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 2
Power 1
HP 4
Text -
Art A-Wing in a high-speed turn.
Notes Compare to Alliance X-Wing.

Name Alliance B-Wing
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 2
Power 3
HP 2
Text -
Art Rear view of a B-Wing's thrusters.
Notes Compare to Alliance X-Wing.

Name Gray Squadron Y-Wing
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 2
Power 2
HP 2
Text When Played: You may defeat an upgrade attached to a space unit.
Art Y-Wing firing an SW-4 ion cannon.
Notes Compare to Disabling Fang Fighter.

Name Blue Squadron B-Wing
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity S
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 4
HP 3
Text Overwhelm.
Art Action shot of a B-Wing firing over a planet.
Notes Compare to Echo Base Defender.

Name *Green Squadron 1
Subtitle Fighter Screen
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 3
HP 4
Text Ambush. When you play another Rebel Fighter unit: Heal 1 damage from this unit.
Art A-Wing charging as lethal fire streaks through the frame. Second Death Star fills entire background.
Notes Compare to Fighters for Freedom, Colonel Yularen ISB Director.

Name Medium Transport
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Transport
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 2
HP 4
Text When Played: If you have the initiative, give an Experience token to a friendly ground unit.
Art Rear view of a medium transport descending through atmosphere.
Notes Compare to Wing Leader.

Name *Red Squadron 7
Subtitle Rebel Logistics
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 3
Power 2
HP 4
Text Restore 1. Each other friendly Rebel Fighter unit gains Restore 1.
Art X-Wing with closed S-foils escorting a frigate.
Notes Compare to Red Three, Home One.

Name Corellian Corvette
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Capital Ship
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 4
Power 3
HP 5
Text Restore 1.
Art Corvette in orbit.
Notes Compare to Regional Sympathizers.

Name Escort Frigate
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Capital Ship
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 4
Power 4
HP 4
Text When Played: Give a shield token to another friendly Command unit.
Art Nebulon-B frigate near a ringed planet. Style of Arthur Mougne's Gladiator Star Destroyer.
Notes Teaches Shield tokens. Compare to Distant Patroller.

Name *Red Squadron 4
Subtitle Alliance Ace
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Fighter
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 4
Power 3
HP 4
Text When Played: An enemy Capital Ship unit loses all abilities for this phase.
Art X-Wing lacerating a Star Destroyer's hull.
Notes Compare to SpecForce Soldier, Relentless.

Name Armored Star Cruiser
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Capital Ship
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 6
Power 5
HP 7
Text Shielded.
Art Massive cruiser with ventral mast visible.
Notes Teaches Shield tokens. Compare to Cargo Juggernaut, AT-ST.

Name *Defiance
Subtitle Rear Guard
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Capital Ship
Rarity R
Type Unit
Arena Space
Cost 8
Power 8
HP 8
Text Sentinel. Ambush. When Played: Give an experience token to each other friendly Rebel unit.
Art Cruiser broadsiding us. Rebel starfighters storm forward. Style of Francois Cannels' Corellian Freighter.
Notes Compare to Devastator, Academy Defense Walker.

Name Dressellian Commando
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Trooper
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 1
Power 3
HP 1
Text -
Art Dressellian commando on Home One.
Notes Compare to Death Star Stormtrooper.

Name Rebel Scout Trooper
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Trooper
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 2
Power 2
HP 3
Text When Played: Look at an opponent's hand.
Art Veteran trooper with white facial hair.
Notes Compare to Viper Probe Droid.

Name Blurrg
Aspects -
Traits Creature
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 3
Power 3
HP 4
Text -
Art A blurrg drinking at a lilypad-dappled pond.
Notes Blurrgs are native to Endor. Compare to Underworld Thug.

Name T-47 Airspeeder
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Speeder
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 3
Power 2
HP 5
Text -
Art A T-47 skims a lake, casting spray in its wake.
Notes Compare to Snowspeeder, Wilderness Fighter.

Name Forest Ranger
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 4
Power 3
HP 4
Text When Played: The next Command card you play this phase costs 1 less.
Art Rugged forest ranger vehicle rushing from beneath a giant fallen tree, firing saffron energy from its turrets. 1984 Kenner toy (right is front). See timestamped video for turret swivel.
Notes Compare to Escort Skiff, Bendu.

Name *Orrimaarko
Subtitle Resistance Leader
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Official, Trooper
Rarity R
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 4
Power 4
HP 5
Text Restore 1. When this unit completes an attack: If an Imperial unit was defeated this phase, deal 1 damage to an enemy base.
Art Dressellian with eyepatch, contemplative in Home One's war room. Style and facial expression of Didier Nguyen's SpecForce Soldier.
Notes Official and trooper - he's a leader on his planet and part of the Endor strike team. Compare to Iden Versio.

Name Command AT-AP
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Walker
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 5
Power 3
HP 6
Text Sentinel.
Art Overhead shot of an AT-AP atop a waterfall. Steep angle gives view of the falls below and a convoy crossing a bridge.
Notes Compare to Guerilla Attack Pod, Chewbacca Loyal Companion.

Name General Madine
Subtitle Endor Scout Commander
Aspects Command
Traits Rebel, Official, Trooper
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 5
Power 5
HP 5
Text Other friendly Trooper units get +1/+1.
Art Crix Madine on Home One. Composition of this unused Return of the Jedi shot.
Notes Official and trooper - advisor to Mon Mothma and leader of Alliance commandos. Buffs troopers regardless of faction due to service in both the Empire and Alliance. Command-aspect only to allow flexibility similar to Colonel Yularen. Extends cycle of uncommon Generals from SOR - Tagge is all 2's, Veers 3's, Dodonna 4's, and Madine 5's.

Name Rebel Strikeforce
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Rebel, Trooper
Rarity C
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 6
Power 5
HP 5
Text Ambush. On Attack: If you control a leader unit or a Force unit, this unit gets +2/+2 for this phase.
Art Endor troopers firing from a fern-veiled ridgeline.
Notes Buffed by leader due to discipline, and by Force due to hope. Compare to Steadfast Battalion, Mercenary Company.

Name *Luke Skywalker
Subtitle Rebel Scout
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Force, Jedi, Rebel
Rarity S
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 7
Power 5
HP 5
Text Sentinel. When this unit is attacked by an Imperial unit: If you have the initiative, deal 1 damage to the attacker.
Art Luke on Endor holding lightsaber & helmet. Smoldering speeder bike behind. AI style reference.
Notes Compare to Chewbacca Loyal Companion.

Name Alliance Freerunner
Aspects Heroism
Traits Rebel, Vehicle, Tank
Rarity U
Type Unit
Arena Ground
Cost 8
Power 7
HP 8
Text Overwhelm.
Art Hulking Freerunner tank firing cannon in a battle-cratered savanna. T-47s for scale.
Notes "Strongest armored vehicle in the Alliance's arsenal".

Name Proton Torpedoes
Aspects Command, Heroism
Traits Modification, Weapon
Rarity S
Type Upgrade
Cost 2
Power +1
HP +1
Text Attach to a Rebel Fighter unit. While attacking, attached unit gets +1/+1 and gains Overwhelm.
Art Orange warheads with blue glow fired from a B-Wing.
Notes Compare to Hardpoint Heavy Blaster.

Name Scout Blaster Rifle
Aspects Command
Traits Modification, Weapon
Rarity C
Type Upgrade
Cost 2
Power +2
HP +1
Text Attach to a non-vehicle unit. If attached unit is a Trooper unit, it gains "When this unit completes an attack: You may look at the top card of any player's deck."
Art BlasTech E-11B Blaster Rifle fired by gloved hands.
Notes Compare to Academy Training, R2-D2, Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Name Responsibility of Command
Aspects Command, Command
Traits Learned
Rarity R
Type Upgrade
Cost 3
Power +0
HP +0
Text Choose one: • Attach to a Command unit. Attached unit gets +2/+2. • Attach to a non-Command unit. Attached unit gets -2/-2.
Art Close over-the-shoulder shot of Vader seated in the meditation chamber choking Admiral Ozzel with a powerful clenched fist. We see supreme strength and supreme weakness represented simultaneously. Piett nervously observes.
Notes Part of a new cycle of rare Aspect-titled upgrades to match the legendary Aspect-titled events in SOR. Can buff units that match its aspect or debuff those that don't. Compare to Academy Training.

Name Quad Laser Cannon
Aspects Command
Traits Modification, Weapon
Rarity U
Type Upgrade
Cost 4
Power +3
HP +3
Text Attach to a Transport or Capital Ship unit. Attached unit gains "Action [4]: Deal 3 damage divided as you choose among any number of enemy space units."
Art Quad laser cannon firing all four barrels.
Notes Compare to Overwhelming Barrage.

Name Reinforce
Aspects Command
Traits Tactic
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 1
Text Give an Experience token to a friendly unit.
Art Profile shot of a parked, blaster-pocked landspeeder (facing right) under fire from our direction. A milquetoast Snivvian mercenary clutching a pitiful pistol has taken cover in the starboard seat. He's sheepishly peeking over the door and gazing over at the brawny nautolan heavy gunner who's come to the rescue. The nautolan is expertly sliding over the speeder's hood, unleashing a torrent of retaliatory fire toward us with joyful confidence and bloodlust.
Notes Teaches new players about Experience tokens. Compare to Vanguard Infantry.

Name Armed and Dangerous
Aspects Command
Traits Supply
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 2
Text Search the top 7 cards of your deck for a weapon upgrade, reveal it, and draw it. (Put the other cards on the bottom of your deck in a random order.) If you didn't draw a card this way, ready a resource.
Art Two Rebel Scouts on Endor with A280 Sharpshooter Rifles. One checks their weapon's body, the other tests the aim. A third scout behind brandishes explosive charges. These figures are Corporal Janse, Lieutenant Greeve, and Sergeant Junkin from the Decipher cards.
Notes Recoup half cost if you fail your search. Compare to Recruit, Prepare for Takeoff.

Name Someone Who Loves You
Aspects Heroism
Traits Innate
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 2
Text Heal 4 damage from a unit.
Art Boushh Leia kissing Han.
Notes Compare to Repair.

Name Bring Him Before Me
Aspects Command, Command
Traits Plan
Rarity U
Type Event
Cost 3
Text Give a unit +4/+4 and Sentinel for this phase. It can't attack bases this phase.
Art Emperor's throne. Silhouettes of Vader and Luke clash sabers. Endless stars in windows. Composition reference.
Notes Encourages strategy choosing friendly/enemy unit. Compare to Entrenched, Tactical Advantage, Gladiator Star Destroyer.

Name Supreme Firepower
Aspects Command
Traits Tactic
Rarity S
Type Event
Cost 3
Text Deal damage to an enemy unit equal to the number of Command units you control.
Art Hoth trenches - An off-balance, smoking, sparking AT-ST explodes as Rebel troops fire from multiple angles with Atgar laser cannons and Golan laser batteries.
Notes Compare to Admiral Ackbar.

Name Found Someone You Have
Aspects Command
Traits Force
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 4
Text Return a non-unique unit that costs 3 or less from your discard pile to your hand. If you control a Force unit, return a unit that costs 3 or less from your discard pile to your hand instead.
Art Yoda amused digging through Luke's gear. Items are strewn about.
Notes Teaches reading carefully - the two actions may seem identical at first but controlling a Force unit allows retrieval of a unique unit.

Name Harvest
Aspects Heroism
Traits Supply
Rarity C
Type Event
Cost 5
Text Choose 3 cards in your discard pile. An opponent chooses 1 of those cards. Put that card on top of your deck and the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order.
Art Owen, Beru, and droids busy in the Lars Moisture Farm courtyard.
Notes Compare to Restock, I Had No Choice, Search Your Feelings.

Miscellaneous Deck Stats

Starter Card Types
Starter Card Rarities
Starter PoweHP Totals

Baron vs Wedge Resource Costs

(Number of cards per resource cost - one-drops, two-drops, etc)
Resource Cost 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total # of Cards
Baron
Space 2 4 5 4 - 2 - 1 18
Ground - 4 1 4 2 1 3 1 16
Upgrade 4 - 2 - - - - - 6
Event - 3 6 1 1 - - - 11
Baron Totals 6 11 14 9 3 3 3 2 51 (Deck + Leader)
Wedge
Space 2 3 6 4 - 2 - 1 18
Ground 2 2 2 3 2 1 3 1 16
Upgrade - 4 1 1 - - - - 6
Event 2 2 5 1 1 - - - 11
Wedge Totals 6 11 14 9 3 3 3 2 51 (Deck + Leader)

Thanks again for reading.

submitted by high_warden to starwarsunlimited [link] [comments]

2024.04.17 02:06 commanderAnakin Fallout: Newer York (Updated with locations)

Game set: 2177
Songs:
New York, New York - Frank Sinatra
We’ll Have Manhattan - The Supremes
Fallout Shelter - Dore Alpert
Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller
Earth Angel - The Penguins
La Vie En Rose - Louis Armstrong
We’ll Meet Again - The Ink Spots
Someone To Watch Over Me - Ella Fitzgerald
Eve of Destruction - Jan & Dean
Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Vera Lynn
In The Still of The Night - The Five Satins
Surfin’ Bird - The Trashmen
Doo Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann
L-O-V-E - Nat King Cole
Midnight, The Stars and You - Al Bowlly
Life Is But A Dream - The Harptones
Sunday Kind of Love - The Harptones
Locomotion - Little Eva
Dream Lover - Bobby Darin
Johnny Angel - Shelley Fabares
My Girl - The Temptations
Everybody Loves Somebody - Frank Sinatra
G.I. Jive - Johnny Mercer
The World We Knew - Frank Sinatra
Personality - Johnny Mercer
Mack The Knife - Bobby Darin
Wonderful World - Sam Cooke
I Wonder Why - Dion
In The Year 2525 - Zager and Evans
Smile - Nat King Cole
Rockin’ Robin - Bobby Day
So Long, Mom - Tom Lehrer
Autumn in New York - Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald
Till The End of Time - Perry Como
Put Your Head On My Shoulder - Paul Anka
Sincerely - The McGuire Sisters
Twilight Time - The Platters
Factions:
New United Nations
One day in the Wasteland, a group of Wastelanders discovered the remnants of the UN Headquarters, which had been transformed into a museum for UN history. This group of Wastelanders was intrigued by this. They read about how the UN kept peace between nations, and in a world with people killing each other at every chance, they want something like that to come back.
The group of Wastelanders formed the New United Nations (NUN). NUN focuses on bringing peace between factions and nation-type states like the NCR or Legion if they come across them, and trying to form civilization (finally, the east coast can start to rebuild!)
They are led by the elected Security Council, and Secretary General.
Their main force are Peacekeepers, with their iconic blue helmets with NUN written on them.
They are in constant battle with Raider gangs, like the Yankees.
A common criticism of the NUN, is their loose restrictions on businesses. Some go as far as to call the NUN “Empire State-Suckers.” The NUN’s defense for this is that they want to create a free society (and are also afraid of the very thought of an uprising), and also have good relations with traders and groups like the Empire State alike.
The Enclave
We all know what they are. They are attempting to control New York City to restore one of the most influential cities in America, while killing those who aren’t them.
You can sometimes randomly encounter a patrol, it’s best to go the other way, unless you join them. However, if your character is a ghoul, there is no chance to join them, and they’ll try to kill you no matter what.
The New Mob
A more organized raider-type gang. They dress as classic mafia members, usually armed with tommy guns. They usually take over settlements and force them under their rule, and usually strip any currency these settlements might have for themselves. When settlements fall under their rule, you can expect them to be like an authoritarian state, this, to them, is their own way of stopping violence in the wastes.
The Empire State
A faction which believes in pre-war values of business. Their main goal is to purchase shops and stores in settlements across the Empire Wasteland, and be rich. They are stationed at the Empire State Building, which is littered with mercs guarding the building.
Yankees
The biggest and most widespread Raider gang in the Empire Wasteland. They had turned the old Yankee Stadium into their new main base. They are focused on distributing chems to other Raider gangs, while also raiding settlements for said chems.
If you are doing a NUN playthrough, at one point they will launch an assault on the stadium for a side quest. When they succeed, the stadium will slowly become more and more of a settlement and community. Yankee Raider counts will drop over time.
Notable Locations
World Trade Center (Twin Towers)
The Twin Towers is the biggest and most expensive settlement in the entire Empire Wasteland.
The South Tower serves as housing and public areas.
The North Tower serves as a huge trading hub, which the Empire State has bought a lot of stores in, which leads to complaining by the residents of the Twin Towers about how the Empire State is ruining small trading posts.
The Twin Towers are heavily guarded by NUN.
Underneath the towers, are large tunnels, where you can find the support beams. This area is also inhabited by settlers, and also serves as an official NUN base in some parts.
From a distance, you can see the lights of the towers.
Vault 49
Vault 49’s experiment was that after the bombs fell and the residents were inside, a few hours later an automated message would be sent to all the terminals in the Vault stating that no one else made it into the other vaults, and that they’re the last people out there in the Wasteland.
When you find the vault and get inside, the residents will be so keen on that they’re the last people, you must be a mutated creature disguising as a person. The residents will begin to attack you.
Plot
You are a businessman from the Commonwealth, sent by your employer. The beginning portions of the game are you traveling to New York City after making a stop at a trading post. You assign your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats at the trading post, so you can fill out the form to get your own Pip-Boy 2000 Mark II. You are here to obtain a nuclear bomb which is in the possession of The Empire State, and negotiate terms for it. You find out other factions have gotten word of its existence. (You can also choose to be a Ghoul or not)
The NUN want to disarm the nuke and keep it away from everyone.
The Enclave want to use it against their enemies in the future.
The New Mob wants to use it as a fear tactic for settlements to submit to them.
When you are done discussing with The Empire State, you get a message on your Pip-Boy stating that your workplace has been destroyed by Raiders, and your boss has been killed. You are on your own with how you handle the bomb.
From here, you can start to work for any faction you want. Each one has a different ending.
If siding with the New United Nations, you have to find a secure location for the bomb, and go through hardships. After that, the Enclave will stage an attack on the Headquarters. You will need to defend it.
If siding with the Enclave, you have to find an old bomber plane to use at Fort Hamilton. Depending on your status with other factions, the lowest reputation will come after you to stop you from owning the bomb, causing a battle between the Enclave and said faction in the city.
If siding with The New Mob, you have to also find an old bomber plane, before the Enclave or NUN does. Depending on your status with other factions, the lowest reputation will come after you to stop you from owning the bomb.
Pip-Boy 2000 Mark II
A more advanced Pip-Boy 2000. It can display your health status and has a radio.
submitted by commanderAnakin to Fallout [link] [comments]

2024.04.12 13:27 Liberty-Prime76 Letter of Marque 78 - A NoP Fanfic

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good AND it just updated!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to u/creditmission for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
First Prev. Next
Memory Transcription Subject: Christopher A. Dewey, Human Merchant Ship Captain, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 12th, 2136
At least Heartwood is chipping in, guess it’s another little light in the dark.
Polani’s systems hummed along with happy determination and the distinct sound of her drive spooling down thrummed though her frame like a bow across a well-tuned bass as it pulled us from subspace. The stretched stars receded, their multicolored spectrums of light coalescing into distant, shining white dots amongst the sea of the void. Earth filled the viewscreen, bejeweled by a bustling spray of starships scattered within her orbit that were all hard at work evacuating and preparing for the coming fleet.
Night was falling again when we’d left VP, her polar winds all but throwing us into the sky as if the planet itself was urging us on. Taisa and I were happy to listen, pushing Polani for everything she had, even if it wouldn’t make the jump any faster. The people of Heartwood, with the help of a few human hands, had been building shelters near about as fast as we could deliver them, guided by massive flood lights that lit up the whole valley so much that even the Venlillian Night was held at bay.
Watching those buildings get hauled out of their compactor crates was something. An entire steel frame, walls, and roof were up in an hour with the interiors not far behind. One of the hands said both shelters were slated to be done later today or early tomorrow; seemed they just needed to check wiring and tie it into Heartwood’s grid. Either way, they’d be done before we were back with the first group of refugees.
The festival, in spite of it all, was still going on; Taisa and I figured they wanted to keep some kind of normalcy amongst everything. Apparently the town hadn’t missed a single festival in something like two hundred years and they weren’t gonna stop now! The prep was already done, after all, and I couldn’t fault anyone for trying to have a good time before… that happens. The response to the workers we’d brought in yesterday had been surprisingly accepting, though not without a little wariness from a few of ‘the usual coats’, as Taisa had put it. But between Lentan, Shenod, Salamar, Ulmic, a whole herd of helping Venlil and a few familiar vendors from the festival happily selling them all kinds of festival food, I was hopeful the workers and the coming refugees were going to feel welcome enough.
Lentan’s new U.N. liason, Elena, had sent us another authorization code for evac-landing, this time at the recently renamed ‘Dulles Interplanetary Space-Port’ and told us the first of our passengers for Heartwood would be there waiting for us. Polani’s helm let out a soft chime as I sent a hail to the controller, requesting a landing vector with the codes we’d been given attached. “Dulles Interplanetary, VP-2865-HR requesting vector to land under attached authorization.”
An answer came back immediately, a curt, quick voice snapping from the speakers alongside a plotted approach vector for us to follow. ”VP-2865-HR, Dulles Interplanetary, approved for landing, Pad 14-Bravo North. East approach over Chesapeake Bay, vector 2-7-8 your heading.”
“Pad 14-Bravo North en route from Vector 2-7-8 afirm. VP-2865-HR, out.”
Polani’s nose sparked with reentry flames that danced across the viewscreen as we struck the atmosphere, burning an approach vector out across the open ocean. The dull, well working groan of her inertial dampeners spooled to life as I hauled her nose over to brake our speed, clearing the encroaching red, orange and yellow of atmospheric fire only to be replaced by the shimmering deep blue waters of the Atlantic and Maryland Coast beyond.
The scrubby sea-washed coast rolled beneath Polani’s hull, her engines greedily sucking in the rich, cold coastal air and pouring out echoing calls across the rolling dunes. Small clusters of farmhouses, well beaten dusty dirt roads and brick towns zipped past as we rolled on along our vector. Taisa let out an appreciative whistle as she watched from her side of the viewscreen, her tail’s pleased twitching a far departure from the nervous wreck she’d been the last few paws.
We’d both been concerned, to some degree, that Heartwood wouldn’t accept any refugees, at least not in an appreciable number; but Lentan’s project was far more than either of us could have hoped for. Darno had let us know that Shining Waterfall was actively outright refusing any Human refugees, alongside an ocean of other rural towns doing just the same, but he and Natus had tried their best to get something set up in town. I appreciated the effort even if it, ultimately and unfortunately, hadn’t bore any fruit.
The peninsula beneath us fell away to dark, muddy brown waters of the Chesapeake and an ever-present procession of ships streaming out to sea. Some were undoubtedly working, taking shipments to where they needed to be and doing their damnedest to pitch in in any way they could for Earth’s defense; the others were, more likely, off to hide on the ocean, hoping the Federation couldn’t find them amongst the churning waves. Overhead in the distance we saw shaded outlines of star-ships of all kinds climbing ever onward to the void above, transporting refugees and hauling parts to the yards in one last-ditch effort to add just one more hull between Earth and those who wished to scrub her clean.
D.C.’s bustling skyline rose into view on the horizon, her vast sprawl pressing against the Chesapeke’s lapping banks. It wasn’t long until we’d be landed at Dulles, taking on another ship’s worth of scared, huddled people grasping for anything to keep themselves and their families safe. The weight of my pad was like lead in my pocket, tugging at my attention and prodding at the back of my mind to try again. To try to get Ma, Pa, Ryan or Annabelle to leave again.
The U.N. had been keeping tabs on the fleet and, more importantly, were publishing it for people to see. Guess they figured it’d be better to give people every scrap of information they could in the face of what just might be the end. They said they’d managed to hold them off an extra day or so with some odd off-and-on jumping, ditching subspace disruptors in their path and pulling a hit-and-fade before they could fully wake up. Apparently some runs were a lot closer than others.
The ‘how’ didn’t really matter to me, I didn’t know how it worked nor were the UN keen on talking about it; I was just holding out hope that it’d keep on working. Taisa said something about the buoys pushing out a fake gravity well to trick the drives into an emergency shutdown, which had a tendency to be rather disruptive. Either way it sounded terrifying from either end of the coin, diving headlong on a fleet that could wake up at any second in the hope of breaking something or just being a sitting duck in a tin can while a bomber fell on me like a ten pound hammer… Certainly wasn’t something I’d wanna deal with in the slightest.
“What’s that weird spire?” Taisa whistled, breaking me from my thoughts as the soft tinking of her claw on the viewscreen shattered the silence.
Weird Spire?
I traced the line of her gaze out across the skyline, finding her staring at the distant peak of the Washington Monument rising above the rest of D.C. Despite the weight that’d been hanging in my stomach a few seconds before, I couldn’t help but laugh as I eased back on the throttle to set up for our approach. “That’s the Washington monument. We built it… god, around two hundred and fifty years ago now? It's meant to honor my country's first president. There's some old baggage there but I’ve always liked seeing it when Ma’ an’ Pa’ took us to D.C. for the museums. Somethin’ about it just feels right, I suppose. Do the Venlil have anything like that?”
“Closest we have is the Cattle Memorial.” She grimaced, letting out a small whistle as the mall fell out of sight behind us. “What kinds of museums?”
“Loads of ‘em. Natural history, Art, entire buildings about specific cultures, beautiful gardens and my favorite - probably be yours too - the Air and Space Museum.”
Her ears perked up in that adorable way they did whenever she got excited about something as her tail tapped enthusiastically against the bulkhead beside her. “Oh?”
A wry smile tugged at the corners of my mouth as I saw her enthusiasm grow with every word. “Covers everything from our first flying machines to our, far more recent, discovery of FTL. Though their hangar is way more involved. Pretty sure they already managed to line up getting one of the prototype drives on display, now that I think of it.”
Her eyes were all but glowing as she stared at me across the center board, the familiar hum of Polani’s thrusters switching to reverse thrust pouring through the frame around us as we slowed down. “You have to take me there!”
“If everything wor-”
“When.” She stated, her voice firm with resolve as she stared me down, one paw hovering over her console. The droop in her ears and slowing of her tail betrayed the fear behind her words, but I was thankful she was trying for me. It helped. “When this all works out.”
“When this all works out,” I replied, pushing down the bitter worry eating at my heart. “we’ll have to go. Make a whole weekend of it! Good food, full museums and some amount of restraint so you don’t go rooting around in exhibit displays.”
“I’ll hold you to it, Heartwood.”
Silence filled the helm but for the sound of Polani’s systems as I eased her down on our marked pad, the soft crush of the landing struts welcoming us to Earth once again. The distant whir of hydraulics heralded the ramp’s descent, letting in the distant sound of someone calling groups to board. Taisa and I rose to our feet in silence, her tail slipping around my wrist as she padded at my side down the stairs.
The flitting early morning east coast light filtered into the hold alongside scattered, weary voices as we settled down to sit on the bottom step. Thankful eyes fell on Taisa and I as families filed aboard one by one, excited children frantically waving to who was probably the first Venlil they’d ever seen in person. It was refreshing to see the unquenchable enthusiasm of young kids, even if they didn’t know what was coming; they were still just so excited to see someone new. Boy… were they in for a treat when we got to Heartwood!
Elena’s message had said we’d have a hundred passengers aboard this run and a hundred on the next, families with children only. Taisa and I had wondered what Lentan was up to with his shelters, especially keeping them reserved for families, but as long as they got good people out of harm's way then we didn’t care. The ‘twenty minutes’ this was supposed to take passed by like molasses in winter as we sat and watched. Families and the bags they’d brought with them quickly flooded the deck as a handful of peacekeepers and organizers helped stow their luggage away for the trip.
Every passing minute made the weight pulling at my heart sink ever lower; Taisa’s pressing warmth at my side did little to quell the torrent of worry I felt brewing in my gut, but I would never give it up for anything. The last family hustled aboard as the embarking co-ordinator shot me a thumbs up before jogging off to their next pick-up. The weight strung taut as I stared at the smattering of people settling into the hold for the trip, tears welling in the corner of my eyes as I couldn’t find them anywhere in the throng of families before us.
They weren’t here.
Taisa’s tail squeezed my wrist as she pressed a little closer, wrapping me in a tight hug and whispering quietly before rising to her feet. “We can call them on the way, love. Maybe they just weren’t ready yet.”
I nodded, forcing myself up to follow her into the helm, the echoing thud of my boots on the deck under my feet punctuating the tempest of worry brewing in my thoughts. On autopilot, I slipped into my pilot seat, sending out my request for clearance to depart before hauling Polani’s nose skyward and zipping off. We clipped through a sea of clouds, punching out into a clear blue sky as we reached for the black void beyond. The storm of worry in my mind crystallized, coalescing into a single, tangible emotion.
Fury.
I had told them to be there, secured them a spot, be it in the shelter or with Taisa’s family, and pulled every feeble, tenuous string Taisa and I had to make sure they’d be able to get off world as soon as possible and they didn’t take it. Ma' and Pa' had said they would be here when we got here and then hadn’t followed through. So far as I was concerned, they’d lied to me.
Before long Polani escaped the bounds of Earth’s gravity well, her jump-drive automatically spooled up as soon as the sensors detected it was safe to jump. Within a few moments the stars had once again stretched into long streaks across the viewscreen as the constant thrum of the drive dropped an octave and launched Polani out across the stars.
I couldn’t say a word. Couldn’t make a sound, through the boiling rage I felt in my chest; Taisa’s tail was still wrapped snugly around my wrist when she rose from her seat and slipped into my lap with a sigh. “You want to call them?”
“Not sure I should right now.” I grumbled, my fingers finding their way into her wool. “Don’t think I’d have much pleasant to say.”
“Maybe ‘not much pleasant’ is what they need to hear.”
“Maybe…” I trailed off, my other hand resting on the pad weighing down my pocket.
“You have to at least try, love.” She stated, closing her eyes and pressing her head into my chest.
“I know, Darlin’, just hate havin’ hard conversations with family.”
She let out a small mewl of agreement before shifting to peer up at me with one big, amber eye. “Those are usually the most important ones though, aren’t they?”
“Yea…” I mumbled, pulling my pad free and unlocking it before staring at the call-log. “Doesn’t make it any easier though.”
>No it doesn’t.<
I held my breath for a long moment, staring at the call button and trying to will my finger forward before I let out a long, heavy sigh and tapped the button. The up-beat chiming song of the FTL-call filled the silence of the helm as agonizingly long seconds dragged by with, the smiling picture of Annabelle at the harbor dig in Cypress shaking back and forth with each beat. Just as I was about to cancel the call the chime stopped, Annabelle filling the screen with a quick flourish of her messy hair.
“Hey Big Guy, Taisa, wha’s up?” Annabelle asked, her thick drawl still present despite her travels, words tumbling past her heavy breathing as the edge of a broad pine crate just barely peeked into view at her side.
“Good to see you again, Annabelle.” Taisa whistled, forcing an upbeat tone into her voice as she shifted to better look at the pad.
Again?
“An’ you.” Annabelle replied, concern flashing across her face as she studied me through the pad. “Everythin’ alright, Chris?”
“Ma, Pa', an’ Ryan weren’t at Dulles.” I replied, pulling my hand down my face and out my beard with a heavy groan. “I know we tal-”
“I still ain’ goin’.” She chimed in, the view shifting as she set the pad against the crate to pull her messy auburn hair up into a single tie before letting it flop against her back, her attention shifting to Taisa. “As much as I’d adore getting to see your people’s festival, the museum’s far fro-”
“We know, Anne, we know. I think that’s a whole ‘nother issue we need to talk about but it ain’t the one I’m callin’ for.” I replied, stepping in before she tore off on another dissertation on every piece they hadn’t managed to get offloaded to the bunkers the U.N. had set up outside London. I loved hearing about her work, but now wasn’t the time. “I need help to get them on one of our next runs.”
She nodded, picking us back up and leaning against the crate, framing a bold red label: ‘Fragile: Handle With Care’. “I can try, but I don’ know that I’ll be much help considerin’ my own stance.”
Another long sigh tumbled from my mouth as I ran my fingers through Tai’s wool. “Better than nothing, Anne. Thank you.”
“I don’ want ‘em in harm's way anymore’n you do, Big Guy. I’ll try an’ help.” She replied with a sigh of her own, her video cutting out as she continued. “Now, I do still need to get these artifacts movin’, I’ll still be here, don’chu worry.”
“Gotcha. Gimmie a sec.” I replied, a mote of hope sprouting atop the ball of grief festering in the pit of my stomach as I pulled up Ma' and Pa’s contact card and put Anne on hold.
That same up-beat jingle of the FTL-call mocked me for a long moment before the smiling picture of Ma'and Pa' was replaced with a video-feed of them outside on the porch swelled into view while the drifting chirping chatters of distant birds filtered through the speakers.
We stared at each other through the connection for a few hanging seconds, the only sounds exchanged being that of Polani and the familiar tune of home. I finally broke the silence, my voice heavy with hurt, worry and anger as I spoke. “Where were you? We agreed that you three wo-”
“No, Chris, we didn’t agree.” Ma’ stated, cutting me off with a stern voice. “You told us what you’d managed to set up and expected us to go with it.”
“You should go.” Anne’s voice chimed in, startling Ma’ and Pa’ as Pa’ tapped at the screen with heavy, clumsy hands. “Ain’ no reason for you three to stay behind.”
“And there’s a good one for you to?” Ma’ retorted as she crossed her arms, staring daggers at the screen.
“Better’n whatever yours are now.” Anne sighed, the sound of roller wheels clacking on rough concrete punctuating her words. “I’ve got a duty to history. You two are just deciding to stay for stayin’s sake and Ryan wants to try an’ make up for whatever ‘failure’ he still thinks he’s gotta atone for.”
“No, we ain’t.” Pa’ rumbled, all but growling as he leaned forward. “Ryan may feel like he’s got something to prove an’ your Ma’ certainly doesn’t want to abandon the collection of our entire lives. Visitin’ VP’d be one thing, and god knows I want to, but leaving everything behind to let it turn to ash ‘neath these murderous assholes while most of us end up left behind? Now that I can’t abide.”
“Pa’ that ai-”
“And I refuse to be just another nail in the coffin for the Venlil if’n this fleet does manage to do its job. The U.N. don’t wanna admit it, but I’d put dollars to donuts that’s their next stop when’n they’re done with us. Either they do the same thing to us there and chuck our friends in the pot along with or it’ll be somethin’ far worse for the lot of us. If’n we don’t stop ‘em here there'll never be a safe place for us in the galaxy. Not VP, not some barren rock nor the void itself, it won’t matter, we’ll be hunted till the end of time.”
“Pa’ please…” I whispered, doing my best to meet my father’s eyes through the camera. “Tai’s family’ll have us, an’ if you don’t wanna stay there the shelter in town will take you in just the same. Don’t make me come ge-”
“You’ll do no such thing, young man.” Ma’ cut in, knocking my words short as she leaned forward and jammed a finger at the camera. “We’re not goin’ anywhere an’ you can’t make us, no matter how big you think you’ve got o’er the years.”
My heart plummeted as she pulled away from the pad with an all too familiar huff, her hands gripping her arms tight as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and refused to meet my eye, everything a stark reminder of a hundred ‘arguments’ I’d thought I could win when I was far younger. My mouth was dry as I spoke, the hope entirely gone from my voice. “That it then?”
“That’s it.” Pa’ stated with a small nod, his voice tight with a tinge of grief as he rolled his jaw. “Don’t know what’ll come of it, but it's what we’ve decided.”
“Pa…” Anne’s voice wavered, trailing off weakly as the echoing sound of her cart's wheels on the pavement came to a slow stop.
My chest tightened, Taisa’s tail squeezing my wrist as the helm fell quiet again while Pa’ and I stared back at each other through the pad for a long, hanging moment before he spoke again. “I wish you two luck, kids, hopefully this all rolls on by, they turn tail, run off and ain’t nothin’ come of it. But I doubt it… We love you all more’n anythin’ else on Earth.”
“We love you too, Pa.” I whispered, biting back tears as Ma’ gave a nod, squeezing her eyes shut tight.
“Love you too, Pa.” Annabelle sighed, her camera flicking on to show her leaned back against the crate beside her.
Pa’ gave a small smile, his eyes shifting across the screen; his voice was tight with worry as he tried to bolster some confidence into it. “Taisa, do your best to keep him safe, ya’ hear?”
“I will, I promise.” She whistled, sitting up a little higher as her tail tightened reassuringly around my wrist. “If you do change your mind…”
“Thank you, Taisa.” Pa’ answered, giving a small nod as he spoke, one hand casually brushing at his eye like he always did when he didn’t want anyone to see him cry. “We’ll let you know if we do.”
With that, I watched Pa’s finger reach across the pad, cutting off the call as his eyes started to well with tears.
“Fuck…”
“That didn’t go quite as well as you was hopin’, huh big guy?” Anne sighed, nervously running her fingers through her hair.
“No, Anne, no it definitely did not.” I mumbled, tightening my jaw as Taisa pressed into a close, comforting hug. “Don’t suppose I cou-”
“Nope.”
“Thought not.”
“Sorry…”
“It’s alright just- just stay safe, alright Anne?”
“I’ll do my best, and if I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know, promise.”
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“I’m sure you will. I love you, Chris.”
“Love you too, Anne.”
“Taisa?”
Taisa let out a small mewl of acknowledgement as her ears swung around to face Annabelle on the pad. >Yes?<
“Love him like I know you do; Lord knows he needs it.”
“I’ll do my best, Annabelle.”
“Thank you.”
I watched as she let out a long, heavy sigh, the distant sound of rollers on concrete fading in as she forced herself to her feet. She hesitated for a moment, staring at Taisa and I through the pad before nodding. “Good luck, Chris.”
“Good lu-” The call ended before I could even finish the sentence.
Fucking stubborn as always.
---
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submitted by Liberty-Prime76 to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]

2024.04.10 03:19 OldManWarhammer FoTD - The Seventh Vral War - Part Five

Part One
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The loosely translated name of the Vral cruiser was the Devouring Maw. It was a sleek war machine, having fought in four regional wars against the Vral’s neighbors. It held the singular distinction of being the first to fire on the Tulinak homeworld three hundred years prior. The sight of the Devouring Maw was a glimpse of terror, built to not only look like a pure weapon of war but to be armed like it as well. Disruptor cannons lined the outer hull, missile silos built to launch the city blocked sized HunteKiller missile lined it’s centerline sweeping along the arch of the cruiser’s five kilometer long spine. It had dorsal, front, and aft launchers to launch the fast moving torpedoes called Gullhawks, which had gotten their name from another dead empire. It’s primary weapons, tri-barrelled laser batteries, were built to unleash a torrent of light and death. Long paint lines decorated the hull, one for each ship that the Devouring Maw itself had claimed a kill for, so many that if the cruiser was compared side by side with a fresh cruiser of the same design it appeared the two were painted with different styles in mind. For three hundred years, the Devouring Maw had either been directly in a war zone, or had been stationed at a border to be apart of the armored fist when war was declared on another victim of the Vral’s expansionism. It had been at the front for six invasions, but for the last ninety years it had been stationed at the border of the Piranesti Commune, waiting for a war to end that seemed to refuse to end. For ninety years the guns of the Devouring Maw had remained silent. Finally, the Devouring Maw was reassigned, sent to the endless war to fight the enemy that had dared to resist the Vral for so long. If a machine had a soul, the Devouring Maw would have been eager, ready, almost salivating at the chance to deal death again. As the crew of the Devouring Maw engaged this new enemy, in long, dagger like ships, the crew was increasingly frustrated. The missiles would launch and never reach their destination, shot down by point defense, the torpedoes would sail past their targets of intent, confused by signal interference to explode uselessly in the vacuum of space. The disruptors and laser batteries would strike true only to seemingly do nothing against armor that was purpose built to disappoint the Devouring Maw’s energy based arsenal. If a machine had a soul, the Devouring Maw would have been raging against this new enemy. Until, of course, that enemy glanced it’s way.
The Devouring Maw, the Vral cruiser who had killed hundreds of ships that dared to stand against it, didn’t understand what was happening to it, even while it was happening. A sudden hail of shells impacting the shields caused the crew to panic, watching as the power of the protective barrier was being stripped away, and more importantly, what was stripping them away. If the ship had a soul it would be shrieking in terror, as it realized that after a life of mercilessly hunting down prey it itself had flown into the jaws of a much more malicious predator. The instant the crew began to react to the battering of the shields, a shell the size of a freight container slammed into the shield wall and pierced through as if it were paper. The hull armor didn’t even slow the massive shell, and the Devouring Maw lost power almost instantly as the precise strike blasted through the engineering section and blasted an exit wound out of the other side of the cruiser so large a corvette could fit inside. Another massive shell hammered straight through the spine of the ship, and the entire frame of the cruiser seemed to buck violently, the hull screaming. In less time than it takes to breathe in, the Devouring Maw had been rendered broken, helpless, and as the Vral crew that survived desperately tried to determine how badly they were hurt a few looked through viewing ports or displays that were flickering with the first pulses of auxiliary power, just in time to see an avatar or war turn it’s gaze from them. Any relief was short lived, for as the guns of the Antares shifted to a new target, a single trail of vapor was seen. The Vral who noticed it stopped trying, watching the missile approach, and waited for the end.
On the bridge Field Marshal Simmons didn’t even look as the Vral cruiser met it’s end, blasted almost cleanly in half by the El Reno class missile. Her attention was focused on the wider war. “Richards, you’ve got four heavy cruisers trying to bear down on the Donnager.” She said into her headset, while to her left and right officers with ranks of Commander to Admiral stood bent over the same large circular table, issuing commands to their own weapons teams. She heard Richards reply, and looked his way and he flipped a control switch on his headset and began speaking rapidly to his team while manipulating the displays in front of him. A few moments later, as she turned her attention down to the displays that she commanded, she watched as the lead heavy cruiser was blanketed by a torrent of laser battery fire. The Antares could, of course, focus all of it’s firepower on a single target. That would be pointless however, overkill to the extreme. Instead, the weapons of the Antares were split into multiple groups organized into overlapping zones of control. The operational brain of the Antares had dozens of commanders issuing orders to their assigned weapons ports. Twelve point defense Areas or Responsibility had their own overseeing captains. In different areas of the Antares over a hundred flight commanders directed thousands of strike craft, split into tactical wings with their own overseers. Each individual aspect of the ship ran in a chain, just as Thermopylae had done. In fact, many of the men and women around the table with him had served on Thermopylae itself.
Three admirals stationed at her three o’clock, six o’clock, and nine o’clock positions around the table had their jobs as well, watching the overall battle and making calls much the same as she had just done. Simmons job was to direct the fleet, but in times like this, she only stepped in if she felt like it was needed. She trusted her ship captains, she trusted her commanders around this table. She trusted her fleet. That was why, during times like this, she had to fight off the urge to start calling shots. What good is trust if it’s not shown? No, at times like these she made it a point to simply direct attention if she felt it were needed, to see things that others were too preoccupied to see. At times like these, she watched. Almost as an afterthought she reached down and pressed an icon on her display, hearing a click in her right ear. “Shield status Admiral?” She asked, almost conversationally.
“Shields are at eighty seven percent and increasing.” Came the reply from a station she knew was almost twenty kilometers away. “Reserve generators are charged and ready.” She nodded to herself as the Admiral on the other end of her comms continued. “Is the fight going well ma’am?”
“Very well.” She replied. “Keep up the good work.”
“Of course ma’am.” The Admiral replied, and Simmons reached down and tapped a sub screen, bringing up a new list of icons on her display.
“Tac-Com, this is Antares.” She said, speaking to the Strike Tactical Commander. “How are my rabble rousers doing out there.” She actually leaned against the table out of habit when talking to the leader of the strike craft wings.
“Glad you asked Field Marshal.” A woman’s voice came on the line, and she grinned hearing Admiral Shelby. “Strike is being itself, but I need some priority put on the Shitcans. I can’t send anyone within five kilometers of any of them and they are starting to catch on.” By shitcans, Shelby was talking about a specific class of destroyer. Field Marshal Simmons quickly brought up the design, a blade like picket destroyer with an alarming amount of point defense laser turrets. She always had found amusement in the nicknames most had given Vral ships. Shitcan was the name for the Shivota class destroyer. There was a host of classes, and a lot of inventive people to mock them.
“I’ll get on it.” Simmons said. “How are the losses.”
“Not as good as I wanted, better than I’d hoped.” Shelby said, “We are close to having strike dominance but those little nuthuggers won’t let go.” Simmons blinked, and she almost asked if Shelby was sure. Strike dominance at this stage in the fight meant that Shelby’s pilots were on the verge of sweeping the Vral strike elements completely off the board. The Antares could knock out ship after ship with MAC and railgun volleys, but the rest of the fleet would only be able to take down one at a time. The Vral might be able to get off the field with a significant portion of their fleet intact. If they took strike dominance though, that meant the strike craft could slide just under the speed threshold where the Vral shields solidified to protect their ships. The second strike dominance was achieved if the Vral tried to cut and run at all, they’d have a swarm of fighters and light bombers devouring their drive sections.
“”Sounds good. Get your flights ready.” Simmons said, and once more she changed her icons. She cast her eyes over the field and looked over the flow of the battle. Antares had jumped into the system at a three to one numerical disadvantage, and it was at two to one now. Her fleet losses were there, but out of the ships that had been taken out of the fight only a small fraction had actually been destroyed. The Vral weren’t killing the ships they had taken out, they were trying to disable them and shifting targets the second a Terran Front ship was unable to fight back anymore. Long gone were the days the Vral felt comfortable enough to turn ships into scrap metal. As Simmons cast her eyes over the battle she felt a grin slowly spreading on her face. Strike dominance now meant this Vral fleet was going to be eliminated from the battleships to the corvettes. The numbers of her dead were low, the Vral were losing this engagement. Even now she could see the beginnings of a fighting retreat beginning to form in the lines. She could sense the retreat coming, she could smell it. Blood was in the water, and she had tens of thousands of hungry piranha waiting to pounce. Her finger hammered down on the icon for fleet wide transmission.
“All commanders, this is the Fleet. Stand and heed. Shift course to my heading” She said as she hammered in a path directly into the heart of the Vral lines, her table had gone silent, all eyes turning to her. “Target priorities are reassigned as follows, I want every Shivota class destroyer on the field dead or dying in the next five minutes. If you can’t reach one of them, eliminate anything cruiser weight and above.” The commanders at her table began to quickie search their areas of responsibility, some of them already speaking into their headsets. “The goal is Strike Dominance. Get it done.”
As one, the Terran fleet turned and drive plumes lit up, driving the entire Terran fleet like a fist into the Vral. Simmons watched in silence, interrupted every so often by status checks, as systematically her fleet began exterminating the picket destroyers. As the Vral tried to flex their lines in the face of the sudden advance, they seemed to realize what Simmons was up to, and the Vral fleet began to burn hard towards the jump point for the Kazitka system. What was beginning to become a fighting retreat turned into a rout. Simmons watched with a slight grin on her face, unchanging, as swarms of Terran strike craft suddenly began swooping into the larger wakes of the Vral fleet. One by one, their drive plumes sputtered, and went out. Within the hour, the rout turned into a massacre. Simmons stood by for it all. Urgent calls slowly became less urgent, her own losses in her fleet slowed to a crawl, then almost stopped completely, as less and less of the Vral fleet were able to fight back.
Her own fleet turned from killing the Vral fleet to disabling them to be returned to later, doing it’s best to keep up with the fleeing ships. As she watched yet another Vral ship begin to drift as railgun rounds turned it’s hull into a graveyard she reached down and lightly tapped on her display. She keyed her headset. “This is the TFF Antares to all hostile ships.” She saw several heads within range of her voice come up, looking to her quizzically. “Your fleet is lost. Surrender now, and we will spare your lives, you will not be mistreated. You will not be tortured or put on display. You will not be enslaved. Do it not, and I will exterminate you.” A few of them looked at her in surprise, but more than a few nodded their heads once, then went back to their duties.
She wanted them to surrender. She wanted them to beg for mercy. She wanted desperate pleas like they had caused so many others to scream to come from their mouths begging for her to stop. She might have actually entertained the notion of allowing them to leave on transports, and not keeping them as prisoners of war. More than anything though, she wanted them to reject her offer. She wanted to kill them all.
As the time went on however, her grin turned into a sneer. No messages came from the Vral ships. No quarter was asked. None was given. Celebrations were already beginning to kick off even as the last hundred Vral ships were still being erased from existence. On the bridge of the Antares Simmons herself was stopping each of her warfare leaders mid task, congratulating them on a job well done.
She took another hand, putting her free hand on the shoulder of the man in front of her, a rather young looking commander. “Excellent work today Sharpe.” He nodded, but something in the depth of his gray eyes held her for a moment. “Is something troubling you commander?” He said nothing, but something about the way he was looking at her bothered her. Simmons raised a brow, then used her hand still holding his to draw him away from the table. She looked past him to one of the captains who she had spoken to earlier and raised her hand, signaling that whatever it was, it could wait. The captain nodded once, then stood by.
“What’s on your mind Commander Sharpe, rank is off the board.” She asked, stepping into him so their conversation would not be overheard. His eyes widened a bit in what she could only see as alarm, and she didn’t blame him. He had attracted the attention of the most powerful eyes not only on his ship and his fleet, but probably in the entire military.
“Begging your pardon ma’am, but why did you give the Vral a chance to surrender.” He was trying to appear calm, just inquisitive, but she could see there was a lot of hesitation to speak with her, especially about this. Her offer had bothered him. No. It had pissed him right off. He was masking it well, but there was a lot of bitterness in the way he was holding himself. There was a lot more he was trying to hide, probably anger, and she understood why. He didn’t understand, he probably felt betrayed. She never took her eyes off of his, but both of her hands came to his shoulders and she clasped them tightly.
“Because we aren’t them.” She said, and she saw a bit of confusion suddenly creep into his expression. “Because we’re not the Vral. That’s why.” She paused a second and lowered her head, then raised her eyes back to his. “If we had lost here, they would scream it to the heavens. They’d string up my body to the prow of their flagship. They’d torture anyone they found alive in the hulls until they got bored and either enslave the rest or just kill them for sport.” He nodded at her words, and was about to speak again but stopped as she continued. “When the rest of the galaxy hears about this battle. They are going to hear that we destroyed every ship, killed every Vral. They are going to hear that we exterminated them, down to the last, and they are going to be terrified.”
“And then they will hear that we reached out a hand and offered mercy.” The commander said, and the moment he said it she watched all of the conflictions about her offer to the Vral vanish. She grinned up at Commander Sharpe, squeezing his shoulders. “They’ll hear we didn’t just offer mercy, we offered fair treatment.”
“And they will know that we aren’t the Vral. They aren’t watching one horror die only to be replaced by another.” Simmons said, and Sharpe nodded. “They need to know that, because when we push into Vral space, we want them to know that they aren’t next. They need to know that they haven’t traded one monster for another one, now don’t get me wrong. We are monsters.” She said, and he grinned at that. “But they need to know that we’re the right kind of monster. The kind they can trust. The kind they can rely on.” Sharpe nodded at her again, a growing grin on his features.
“Because we aren’t and will never be the Vral.” He said, and she nodded. “Thank you for helping me understand Fleet Marshal.” Sharpe
“I trust my crew. I want them to trust me. If you ever have a question like this again, just ask. Better you get the clarification you need rather than letting it stew.” Simmons released his shoulders and Sharpe snapped to attention, only turning at a nod from Simmons. She went back to the table, spreading her hands and pressing them to either side of her display, watching as the fleet began to turn from a war setting to one of salvage and recovery, but more importantly, planetary assault. There was time though, to do this one thing. With a few taps on the display she brought up the TFS Vellacore. Minor damage rode along her starboard side, where it looked like a Vral disruptor bank had gotten through their shields. From the reports it was mostly cosmetic. “Comms.” She said into her headset. “Patch my station through to the Vellacore, and get someone up here to rig this thing where I can do this sort of thing myself.” She said, “Kind kind of silly to be able to address the fleet but not individual ships.”
She heard her comms key up for a second but all she heard was a low chuckle for a few moments before an acknowledgement of her orders. A few moments later a gruff sounding voice spoke into her right ear. “This is Vellacore OOD.”
“Officer of the Deck this is Fleet.” She said, and on the other end of the line she heard the officer of the deck on duty on the Vellacore hitch their breath for a moment.
“What can we do for you Field Marshal?”
“Is the crew of that ship that sent us the drone feed back on board?” Simmons asked, leaning back and glancing around the table, watching as her officers began the long and laborious process of getting the fleet put back together after a heavy engagement.
“Checking on that ma’am.” Came the reply. After a few seconds of silence the line became active again. “Ma’am the crew of the Thumper is currently still onboard the Barrowmore. One of the crew was injured bringing us the scout data.”
“Not seriously I hope?” Simmons asked, leaning back and bringing back up the datapack on her screen that had started all this. She tapped play as drone footage showed the inside of the lane, then an absolutely nauseating series of maneuvers made all the more nauseating by the epilepsy inducing light show that was the god alone knows how many ships trying to kill it.. Whoever had piloted this drone had been absolutely unrelenting.
“No ma’am, high g-force related injuries.” The OOD on the Vellacore replied, even as the footage showed that the drone had stopped. She saw some of the ships of the fleet she had just destroyed, saw the first probe launched from the drone and the sudden influx of information. The drone’s camera feed was pointed straight at the Mandeville point as three corvettes entered the lane to chase down the Thumper. The drone began a blistering set of turns and accelerations, decelerations, and rolls. The crew onboard the Thumper had stayed until the entire scan of the system was done, and then had been nearly destroyed even as they sent their data over to be processed. If they had lost the drone, or cut and ran before it was done processing the data, there was no chance she would have brought her fleet to this system for another few days. They had stayed with death coming quickly, risked themselves, and one of them had in the end been hurt. In doing that, they had been the catalyst for this entire battle, which she already knew based off the initial jump in alone was going to be decisive in this war, and they had won, and won massively.
“Good. Here’s what I want.” She began talking, and she shut down the display. All around her, as she gave her orders to the Vellacore’s Officer of the Deck, damage report assessments began to come in from every corner of the fleet. Damaged ships were given orders to withdraw or to dock with Antares, salvagers were dispatched to harvest the wrecks of Vral ships for alloys, and the manufacturing centers prepared to begin building ammunition to replace what had been expended. The battleship Blade of Hope was given first rights dock with Antares to repair it’s drive section, Several tugs were dispatched to bring the ships too damaged to move independently to planetary orbit, fast runners were dispatched to run down the fighters who had been damaged but still read pilot life signs, and at the corner of the system the signs of a large fleet began to show at the Mandeville point.
Having had no part to play in any of the fleet battle that had just occurred, General Zziaa had been at his own small terminal, the chua General working as fast and as hard as he could, alongside his own general staff. It wasn’t the best plan, he would admit, but it was a plan, and he could live with it. He heard the call that his fleet was in lane and would arrive soon, and he looked over to the tactical table where Simmons stood. She was speaking with another officer, but she glanced over and saw him standing there. She said something to the officer and walked briskly over.
“General, your fleet is coming in?” She asked, and he bobbed his head, then he motioned for her to follow. As she reached his terminal she kneeled down to look at the screen he had been working on. “Just show me what you need from me, you’ll have it.” Slowly the chua turned, and he grinned.
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2024.04.09 00:30 Most-Yogurtcloset Just Finished Oxenfree 2: No need to wake up

This is my opinion on Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (spoiler alert)
I remember playing the og Oxenfree and i was amazed by how imperfectly perfect it was for me! And since then, i always wanted to play another Oxenfree based game. When i first saw the trailer on Steam, i was above the whole city and i was afraid. My fear was because it was YEARS after the first game and i had the fear of an overhyped game (by myself) that just took way too long to write and make. I wanted something that kept me thinking and asking my morals on certain situations and Oxenfree II was that imperfectly perfect candidate i was hoping for.
The game is not all rainbow and diamonds by any means. The story can be somewhat vague in some situations. The punchline with Alex and her friends being stock in a timeloop was amazing but it went against anything that was happening in the first game (which was also discussed by another guy here) the map is simply HUGE and it can be atrocious to move around (cause some games like “What Remains of Edith Finch” were designed around slow movement and gives you a sorta relived feeling for moving slow but Oxenfree does not pull that off at all) and some missions like helping “Hank” or just the transmitters (just to freaking place them, not the main story in middle of the walks) just took ages to solve and some parts were just blank with foreshadowing to Riley’s future and Rex (like the beach walk), the radio puzzles on the first game was sorta simple and yet joyful but on this one, if you had a controller, you basically needed to ditch it if you wanted to solve the puzzles faster and i don’t know if this part’s on me or what but i wished that i could’ve found more easter eggs and collectibles across the map (cause i love to explore just random places) and this one is not a fault but i felt really sad for Olivia’s ending (cause if you think about it, a teenager shouldn’t be always in control of things and her being stuck in the past because of her trauma, made her a narrow minded person with one purpose only and you can just hope that she’s not gonna regret her decision)
But none of this matters for me cause it was the game i put on pedestal and always wanted! There was certain points that i felt bad by my choices or even questioned my actions! They were heartwarming moments and not only did it still had the same “cold” with a hint of mint feeling like the first game, but it also managed to be spooky but not in a shivering form.
The introduction of characters was just 🤌🏻 (for me) and the best thing about it is that they are basically a mirror to your own feelings and act. However you’re in life towards others can be portrayed in these characters. I am an emotional and empathetic person that cares about other people (which can be gold or a curse) and the game wanted to bring up that aspect of my inner self, so it gave me “Nick” or i’m not really good at handling sticky situations but i still like helping others in hard times (even tho i’m not sure what i’m gonna do or say) so i had “Evelyn” or i like to see the good in people, even tho they can be a complete asshole so i had the f bomber teenager (sorry for being cringe) and speaking of cringe, i’m a hybrid of an antisocial/social person that’s not always very good at confronting his feelings or just reuniting with older memories or friends and i know random facts about random bs a lot and that aspect is basically what makes Jacob my favorite character. i’m not always very good at connecting dots or figuring out what i’m doing with my life and i feel like i’m stuck in an unhealthy situation that my heart wants me to improve myself (like now, going to the gym or reading the book i like or writing the 5th chapter of my novel i’m writing) but my body is a cage and my mind’s holding the key (i hope you guys get the song here), so basically i have to be the protagonist cause whatever i do at this point can determine my future and i gotta live with the consequences of my own actions.
The story was an emotional roller coaster for me. It was beautifully written and the dialogs were just on point. There were moments at the ending that i was scared, frustrated, sad, hopeful, calm and carefree in matter of minutes! The ending was just an emotional bomb. I cried when i saw Olivia going to the portal, i was laughing when Evelyn was confused because of my blabbering. I was beyond happy when i saw the kids and Alex and i was tearful when i talked to Jacob at the shore (yeah i left him behind, i’m a dickhead but i thought he’s gonna be a sacrificial hero and i just couldn’t help myself seeing him hurt himself because of my actions. So i left him behind and it’s my first walkthrough so i still have no idea if he’s gonna do this if i take him with me or not) and i literally cried when i saw that box at the end with Evelyn’s note and how Alex was talking about Riley to Rex) (i wished there was more depth to some characters like Shelley because characters like Violet had the impact that was needed and was kinda a necessary thing for the ending but Shelley was just saved (or not) and that was it)
I loved it and i’m glad that i waited all these years since the first game. It did not disappoint and in my opinion, it managed to take the good aspects of the first game and represents them in a larger range and still keeping that same emotional bombing effect and twists that the first game had.
It was awesome and i really hope that i can see another game in the future!
And a huge thanks to people here who helped me with some problems on my walkthrough too!
And emm, stay off the radio….
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2024.03.26 18:07 swaaoa 10,101 AD- Part 3: Stuck in Hell

"At ease Commander" Xerxes spoke as his mechanical eye focused on his subordinate.
"I have an assignment for you. Currently our screening corvettes are feigning a retreat. I need you to use the screen to bring yourself close to the lead frigate and isolate it. Once isolated, our bombers and attack craft will destroy it with ease. From there, our corvettes will loop back and crush the rear frigate. Any questions?"
"Yes one my lord. When should I start firing? Once I clear the screen I'll be picked up on the radar in seconds." He retorted
"Then you will have but mere seconds to react Commander. Don't fret about it, you've been to Hell before." cackled Xerxes. Almost instinctively, Commander Saito bowed his head in shame.
"Y-yes my Lord. That was foolish of me to ask." he cried.
"Fear not Commander for you are my best leader. I won't have you pay your debt yet. Now go and seize your glory." Xerxes replied
"Yes my Lord, it will be done." he said, giving the traditional chest salute to his Lord as the coms cut away. He ran his hand across his bald head thinking about what to do. He turned to his Igbo First Mate and spoke.
"Guitai, set thrusters to max and prepare for immediate engagement with the front frigate. We're ramming her so make sure shields are protecting the front. Hold fire until we cross over the screen, we're doing this fast. Clear?"
"Yes Commander. I'll send word to all stations to prepare for ramming. Should I prepare a boarding party?" he spoke in his Igbo native tongue.
"Yes, a small demolition team. Tell them to blow the reactor but that it might be a suicide mission."
"As you say Commander." the Igbo replied. He moved over to the ships and internal comms and began barking the orders. Within moments the ship was creeping towards the screen that had formed and began charging into shields and engines.
"So he plans on going in hard and fast. Daring as always, Saito." Xerxes commented. "Bold as always you old bastard." he cackled.
As the battle raged, the corvettes began their feign and kept on firing at the rear frigate with their impressive firepower creating an unimaginable light show. As the fleet began to turn towards the Asmodeus Commander Saito's frigate the Ashikaga suddenly swam over the corvettes and high above the battle at a blazing speed, targeting the enemy's lead frigate.
“Oh, now that’s even bolder you sneaky bastard.” commented Xerxses.
With no time to waste, the Ashikaga opened up with a volley of lasers, lead and missiles. The enemy frigate responded with a barrage of her own but was met with the Ashikaga's powerful frontal shields. Seeing that the ship was flying towards their bridge like an arrow about to hit its mark and with no intention of stopping, the enemy frigate began to turn away from the Ashikaga. She would miss her mark, guns still blazing with hellish fury, scraping most of her left side off as the engines of the other ship hit her side. The enemy ship survived but lost her engines and was now dead in the void and easy prey for the Ashikaga and other attack craft orbiting her. Deciding not to risk any more lives, the decision was made to cancel the boarding and instead they destroyed her up from a distance with the help of Hawk and Weasel squadron. Back with the rest of the fleet, the corvettes stopped there feign and began unloading everything on the last frigate, detonating an ammo storage that created a supernova like explosion. However the galleon fought on and with their orders to capture it there wasn't much more to do besides target their weapons and shields. And so they did, systematically destroying all possible weapons systems and other essentials without actually destroying the ship. She was left floating and without support after the barrage. The battle in space was won, but the battle in the galleon was still raging on.
With the taste of vomit fresh in his mouth Tolbert moved down the corridors towards the sound of the fighting that was going. Hearing the sound of boots Tolbert decided to hide and wait for the patrol to pass, probably sent to investigate the squad that he had just wasted earlier. He pressed on not knowing where to go. He knew he had to link up with one the landing parties or he would be dead. Another patrol passed by, this time more in a rush than the other. He decided to follow them leading to an ongoing firefight with one of the landing parties. The robot marines of Black 3 fought hard commanded by Lt. Somers, a short dark-skinned man with a fat cigar in his mouth.
"Give those bastards hell metal mouths! You know you're expendable! That's why you got no brain, only programming! Now use that programming and kill those Chaelgar sons of bitches!" he yelled urging the robots forward. Instinctively, Tolbert began to fire upon the Chaelgar warriors with his blaster killing a few in the initial torrent of plasma. Now being flanked from the left with heavy machine gun fire, the Chaelgar fell back to the back right hallway allowing the robots to secure their landing point and press forward as well as the hallway he had just come from. Tolbert would keep on firing his plasma blaster for a minute or so, helping to assist the assault into the other hallway on the right until it was fully secured by the robots. He took a deep breath and realized his whole body was shaking as he fell to the ground wheezing hard from the encounter. Everything had slowed down and it had felt like hours had gone by but he knew that he'd only been on the ship for around twenty minutes at this point.
‘I’ll never sleep again’ he thought to himself. He stared blankly at the wall pondering his existence, his mortality, his reality and everything in his life that had led up to this point. He didn’t care that there was a job to get done. He didn’t want to kill another being. He hated it. A tear began to roll down his eye as a familiar voice called out to him snapping sense back into him.
“Tolbert! Tolbert! TOLBERT! GET UP!” it was Lt. Somers. “What the hell are you doing here?!?!” he yelled hoping it would get him out of his trance. Tolbert stared at him for a second before speaking.
“I got shot down and crashed in the hangar, ended up fighting my way here to link up with one of the landing parties.” he explained his ordeal and what had happened.
“Shit that many? Must be hell out there just like here. Well that's the job we do, go to hell and bring glory back for ourselves and Xerxes!” he laughed sarcastically. Tolbert wondered if he was fully dedicated to the cause like the others or was only doing this plunder and glory. The thought slipped by as a massive ripple shook the ship. One of the Chaelgar frigates had been blown up into a magnificent fireworks display.
“Beautiful isn’t it. Stick with us kid and you’ll see more things like that.”
‘Awesome, sure’ thought Tolbert, ‘but beautiful? No.’ he also thought.
Somer spoke again.“Looks like you're with us kid, stick close to me and provide cover for my robots and we’ll make it off this hunk of junk in one piece. First things first is to link up with the rest of Black Platoon and push onto the bridge. White’s clearing the rest of the ship so we got a straight shot to the bridge from here on out. You ready?” he said with a grin as wide as his face. As they moved forward towards the bridge they mowed down all the enemies that stood in their way. Shrapnel ripped through Tolbert's skin and there were noticeable plasma burns on his flight suit but he pushed on to his new objective. After finally making it to the bridge and rendezvousing with the rest of Black Platoon, Captain T’ehr, a short and stocky black furred Vuldar stepped forward with his hand outstretched towards Lt. Somers. As they shook hands he spoke.
“You're late, Somers. Bertloux, didn't think you’d make it.” he laughed as he let go of the lieutenant's hand.
“Oh yeah? What was the wager at? 1,000 credits I wouldn't make it?” responded Somers. A voice rang out from the swarm of robots now outside the doors of the bridge. It was Lt. Bertloux, an old man filled with robotics that keep him alive. Barely standing four feet, he speaks with a French robotic voice and is the lead engineer for the platoon.
“Oh no, you're not worth 1,000, barely 500, so I put down 450.” he said in his heavy French accent.
“‘Not worth 1,000’ you say?’ You know I'm worth 1,000 of you right?” he laughed back.
“Yes, but without me, no robots. Plus Verxulo bet 600 you’d make it so don’t feel to bad, someone still likes you.” he retorted.
“So you're saying there was a 1,050 credits total on the line? See I know what i’m worth!'' They both laughed at his joke only for their laughter to be cut off by a female Ju’val. She was Lt. Verxulo. She had a similar build to that of Hezrea, Xerxse’s First Mate, but was purple skinned instead of red skinned, but just as stunning.
“Now pay up Bertloux.” she said demandingly. Bertloux would grumble to himself as he handed over the credits.
“Your welcome babe.” said Lt. Somers as he passed by the purple skinned Ju’val. All he got back was an eye roll but with a noticeable flirty smile on her face. Suddenly she noticed Ensign Tolbert who was just standing there watching the whole thing go down. She spoke to him like an officer would to a subordinate.
“What’s your name Ensign?” she asked sternly.
“Tolbert, Ensign Tolbert.” he said at attention giving the salute of Xerxes with a perfect fist on his heart with his right hand while his left fist was placed firmly by his side facing forward and bow of his head.
“Relax Ensign,” said Lt. Somers, “You’re with me, which means there will be no need for formalities. We're here to do a job, not look good and prance around for our Lord and Saviour Oh Mighty Xerxes” he laughed. “Lay off the kid, it’s his first fight.” he whispered to Verxulo.
“If you say so.” she retorted.
“We done chattin?” asked Captain T’ehr. “Cuz we got work to do.” And work they did. After about an hour and one call with Xerxses’s Second Mate Ver, the door was finally breached and a firefight ensued with the last of the Chaelgar held up in the bridge. The Prince and a few technicians were taken prisoner while the rest were killed in the fight. The bridge was secured after the short fight and Captain T’ehr radioed the Asmodeus for new orders.
“Understood Lord Ver.” said T’ehr as he saluted. “The Ashikaga is going to tow us towards the Asmodeus where the scavenging team will strip the ship and look for this ‘Key of the Lost Ark’. Until then, we get to loot as we see fit!” A roar erupted from the Lieutenants as they heard their new fantastic orders.
“How are you feeling kid?” asked Lt. Somers to Tolbert who was sitting by himself. All the nerves that had been built up inside him vanished as heard the familiar voice. But that all changed to nausea and vomit soon after.
“There, there. Get it all out.” spoke Somers. Once finished, Tolbert looked at the lieutenant and spoke.
“I was scared. I-I-I-i’ve never felt anything like it before.” he said with a stammer in his voice.
“Everyone does, including me. The only ones that don’t are the dead, robots and maybe T’ehr since he’s a Vuldar cuz i’m pretty sure they don’t feel fear.” he laughed. “But remember kid, you did good.” said Somers with his hand on Tolbert's shoulder. He stood up and went to go chat with the others while Tolbert stayed in his spot.
‘I did good?’ he thought ‘I don’t feel good.’ he also thought as he stared out into the void.
submitted by swaaoa to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.03.16 05:13 jackbenny76 My proposed set of episodes

I proposed this earlier, got some feedback, and updated. This is how I would have broken down the show. The main goal of this show is to tell the story of how the USAAF seized daylight air superiority over Europe over the course of 18 months, and then used that air superiority to help crush the Nazi's. The problem is that the story is so vast- and has so many moving parts- that no one perspective can tell it. We can use the 100th Bomb Group to tell parts of that story (that make sense for the unit) but need to bounce away from time to time to show other perspectives. (1)
This is 10 episodes. If you need to cut 1, I'm afraid that episode 2, Tidal Wave, would have to be the one to get cut. It saves us needing Liberator models, a whole bunch of actors who aren't in other episodes, an enormous amount of of CGI work, and its point in the broader narrative- that they were trying a bunch of stuff, took high losses, and and the bomb damage manifestly wasn't crippling the Nazi war machine- can be told with Lille and Regensburg-Schweinfurt without needing to tell Tidal Wave. It sucks because Tidal Wave is something of a favorite of mine (just in terms of shear what-the-fuck was anyone thinking!) but sometimes that's what the narrative is telling you.
Also note that I've tried to avoid needing a B-17G model, we can get away with just the B-17F if we do Big Week from the P-51's perspective and just see the bombers as dots in the distance. But we do need a Flying Prostitute and a Jug instead for D-Day.
​
  1. Can We Do This? Introduce Paul Tibbets, Curtis LeMay, Ira Eaker, the Norden Bombsight, self-protecting bomber formations, the whole idea that the bomber will always get through, and end with the big set-piece of the Lille Raid (follow Tibbets and Jack Jersted, in Jerk's Natural)
  2. Operation Tidal Wave, Ploesti- probably focus on Hell's Wench, Baker and Jersted (who die but got MoH's for it), and Sandman (Sternfels and Jackson) because of that iconic image and the duel with the Flaktrain that Sandman and the 98th did part of.
  3. Mission 84, Regensburg-Schweinfurt- focus on the 100th and Buck and Bucky (introduce them here). Something like Episode 3 of MotA, though need to introduce the characters some.
  4. Black Week- stick with Buck and Bucky and both of them getting shot down and the Munster raid, the low point of the narrative is just Rosenthal returning to base. Basically episodes 4-5 of MotA smushed together.
  5. Flak House- I had something else originally, but I've decided that my favorite moment in the whole series (certainly the one that's stuck with me the longest) is that lovely scene with Eithne singing Tear the Fascists Down and I don't want to lose that. This gives us time with Rosenthal and Crosby, whom we introduced in 3/4 but didn't spend much time with. Focus on the men and what it takes to get back in the damn plane knowing what awaits you. That leads us to the question of the planes themselves, next week. Mostly episode 6 of MotA.
  6. Domestic production: how did the USAAF have enough planes to keep replacing these horrifying losses they took in the course of the first four episodes? Can focus on the real Rosie the Riveters (time and budget permitting might even touch on the Battle of Kansas to introduce the B-29 and show us Tibbets again). Definitely need to introduce the B-26 Marauder here (for episode 7) and dramatize the famous story of the WASPs who were assigned to fly it to prove to the suspicious male pilots that it was safe. Also have to introduce the P-51 and explain it's history and why it's such a game changer. End with the P-51 to lead into next week's episode. (The P-51 bit needs to like the LM episode of From the Earth To the Moon, explaining how the engineers built a revolutionary vehicle. The WASPs B-26 story organically gets us the heroism of real women who actually existed, and doesn't just sideline them as love interests. The Rosie the Riveter building B-17's in Burbank plot shows us how everyone was working together for one goal, even the women who were running the daycare at the Burbank Lockheed factory were part of the war effort, no planes get built if Rosie the Riveter can't work because she's taking care of her children.)
  7. Big Week. Not sure who to focus on exactly, maybe 354th Fighter Group? That way you have James Howard as the main character and even can have Wah Kau Kong as your secondary character who dies. Set piece finale is the March 6th Berlin raid. The point is to pay off that line when Rosie re-ups about the bombers being bait, and to show that the Mustang was able to make Doolittle's plan work. And you end the episode with a shot of 100 B-17's sitting at a depot in the UK to replace all of the losses on that raid and a voice over that the VIIIth AF returned to Berlin two days later with another 450 bombers and even more P-51s. This is the key moment of the series- everything else built up to this, showing the high losses eventually were worth it because of the new technology of the P-51, and this is where the USAAF takes daylight air superiority.
  8. D-Day- this is focused on IXth Air Force, the B-26 Marauder and the P-47 and the tactical and operational strikes to protect the troops on the ground, taking advantage of the air superiority earned by the VIIIth AF in Big Week, this is about shutting down every German airbase that could provide tactical support and every bridge across Northern France so the troops can do their job, and strafe every train or truck that is providing supplies to the Wehrmacht, and hitting every German artillery gun that might have shot at the infantry. (Also, time and budget permitting, mention IXth Troop Carrier Command taking the paratroops over the channel on D-Day for a BoB tie-in.) Can end with the Cobra Breakout or the slaughter of the Falaise pocket. This is what the sacrifices in the first seven episodes allow, so this is a mostly happy episode- some losses but mostly aiming for a tone of jubilation and inevitable triumph. Probably focus on two guys- pick a Marauder and Jug pilot. Not as well read on exactly who it should be.
  9. 332nd Fighter Group, gets a full episode this time. Maybe move it before D-Day? It depends on exactly what story we tell. And there I'm not sure exactly. Honestly while I've read lots on the VIIIth AF I simply don't know much about any of the units in the XIIth AF or XVth AF, including the Tuskegee Airmen. So sorry that I don't have a good dramatic line here. This one's my own ignorance.
  10. POW experience- we pick up with Buck and Bucky here, and an evader like Quinn (though honestly I think that Chuck Yeager is a much better choice!) as well. Tell it all as one story, end the whole thing- and the war in Europe- with their liberation/escape. Except for a brief coda at the end where Tibbets and LeMay from Episode 1 have a discussion and then Tibbets gets into a B-29 and you reveal it is named Enola Gay and cut to credits.
​
I also suspect I know why they didn't do this, as beautiful as it is. It would need a lot more actors- you have huge new waves of actors pretty much every episode (except for 3-5 and some of 10 which can reuse your 100th actors). You need more ground models- MotA got away with a B-17 non-flying taxi replica plus a cockpit P51 and FW190, we need those plus B-24, B-26, P-47, even at least a partial B-29. You need many more locations to represent different airbases and ground stations, you need much much better CGI for fighter air battles, you need more more more, and the series already was hideously expensive. So that's why they didn't do it, I suspect. And why they didn't spend much time in the air in the stories they did tell.
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1: There are lots more stories that ought to be told: RAF Bomber Command and the other half of the Combined Bomber Offensive, 2nd TAF and their tactical support like IXth AF, the Dambusters, Mossies on their low altitude precision raids, Sink the Tirpitz!, 1st TAF+XIIAF+XVthAF in the Mediterranean, Project Aphrodite, the Mk 24 FIDO from VLR Liberators to close the Mid-Atlantic Air Gap, special operations Lysanders and Liberators, so many good stories in a war this massive, and that's just in the European Theater of Operations! But when your name is "Masters of the Air" you really need the story to be about seizing air superiority, and everything that doesn't tell that story needs to be cut.
submitted by jackbenny76 to MastersoftheAir [link] [comments]

2024.03.10 11:49 CommanderRoger444th If you had your own Planetary defence force, how would you compose your starfighter corps.

So recently I've had a interest in Planetary defence forces and I've become interested in their composition specifically the composition of nearly every single element of a Planetary defence force. It got me wondering, if you were organising your own Planetary defence force with any fighters excluding extremelly rare or one off types. With the lack of any other limitations limiting your imagination. With the option of using elements from any period in Star wars canon or legends contininuity like certain fighters avaliable, structures, personal limitations, galactic events etc. Pondering the question what would your starfighter corps look like?
My starfighter corps would be like...(post endor 9ABY)
Fighters allocated to airbases on my planet.
For me personally I would mainly have a small variety of fighters for my own PDF fighter corps. In terms of basic dogfighters I would have modified v wings that would be able to allow pilots to operate them without the need of suits with life support built into them. I would have these V wings be stationed in airbases on the planet I'm defending but I would operate them in a unique but odd way. I would restrict there operation to only in atmospheric defence. As I personally view V wings as great atmospheric swarm fighters that could intercept and blitz any enemy fighters that somehow don't get destroy by my fighters in space or are responding to a disturbance within my planet's atmosphere like a ship being stolen etc. In terms of who I'll have pilot these fighters, I would have them mainly be operated by a dedicated group of reserve pilots that would be an somewhat small force that live locally near the airbases on the planet I'm controlling.
Another fighter I would have would be a few modified tie interceptors. Which would be modified by making them completely white and remove imperial elements on there design like the cockpit windows, lack of life support, complex landing and takeoff requirements (like the need to be deployed using certain contraptions seen on ISDs and other craft) etc. They would be allocated at airbases on my planet but unlike my V wings they would be allowed to exit my planets atmosphere. As they would be designed to respond extremely quickly and would usually be the first fighters my PDF would launch into space. Due to them being good at intercepting enemy craft and being deadly when they are expected. The pilots who would fly these craft would be dedicated pilots unlike the ones flying the V wings. However they would be a bit different then usual pilots as they would have a bit of independence, as they would be allowed to have custom pilot suits, gear and would be allowed to operate with a slight bit of independence. As they would follow an squadron centric loyalty ideology that would require them to work in ways that would win battles while minimising casualties. Additionally they would be more like mini families where promotions would be done on skill and effectiveness rather than family or other factors. With squadrons not having an designated leader but more like mini leaders that could operate there squadrons in a set way with different pilots per mini leader.
Fighters allocated to my planetary defence fleet
Unlike the fighters allocated to my airbases these fighters would all be allocated to vessels in my fleet. All these fighters would have some of the best and most dedicated pilots available to my PDF in them and majority of them would be veteran pilots. For my standard fighters they would be modified V19 torrent fighters modified to be more deadly and effective with them requiring special training. They would also have a design element inspired by the tie fighters that would allow them to magnetically connected to the hulls of my vessels with the ability to drop pike ties from romantic crusiers while still being able to be launched from hangars. They would be tasked with causing damage to enemy vessels and fighters. Another fighter that would be standard among my fleet is the z95 head hunter modified to be as effective as a x wing. With them being tasked with the standard fighter duties. The only difference with my z95 head-hunters is there composition with them being a mix of modified civilian ones used by certain elite pilots within my corps and clone wars era versions being the bulk of my Z95s. My bombers and interceptors in my starfighter corps would be Y wings and A wings. Which would operate as they do normally with the rebel alliance with considerations for there new planetary defence duties.
submitted by CommanderRoger444th to MawInstallation [link] [comments]

2024.02.28 12:43 KFrederickD The remaining Star Wars vehicles we could possibly get in the Micro Galaxy Line:

Jazwares has already covered a lot of ships, but here are the remaining possibilities for (canon) ships from the Star Wars movies and shows that they could adapt:
-A New Hope:
-Empire Strikes Back:
-Return of the Jedi:
-The Phantom Menace:
-Attack of the Clones:
-Revenge of the Sith:
-Clone Wars (There are so many Clone Wars ships that can be made, but I'll stick to the most important):
-Rebels (Again, there are many ships that could be made from this show):
-The Force Awakens:
-Rogue One:
-The Last Jedi:
-Solo:
-Rise of Skywalker:
-The Mandalorian:
-Bad Batch:
-Resistance:
Book of Boba Fett:
Kenobi:
Andor:
Ahsoka:
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And that's it for now...
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submitted by KFrederickD to microgalaxysquadron [link] [comments]

2024.02.14 00:07 aprilkhubaz First Turn-in for 2023 Bingo - HM/Reviews

First Turn-in for 2023 Bingo - HM/Reviews
I've completed my first card for the 2023 bingo! I have the next six weeks all planned out, and most of my next card completed, so this year I'll get to finish two. It's been a lot of fun creating my little spreadsheet to plan out the books I've read and will need to read.
I have reviews of all the books below. Overall, my favorites of this card would have to be A Memory Called Empire, Vanished Birds (which I read after his most recent novel, which will be on my next bingo), He Who Drowned the World, and Revenant Gun - but really the whole Machineries of Empire series. I was not a big reader of space opera until this card, and as you can see, I'm a changed woman now! I crave them, so feel free to drop recs. Ann Leckie's my first go-to after I finish the bingo (couldn't fit her in based on what I know beforehand in squares I needed).
https://preview.redd.it/a3z0596v3aic1.jpg?width=791&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1a7f376abf6cadb45addc7a582b9c935164701f
On to the reviews:
Title with a Title (HM: Not a title of royalty)
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho – 5/5. Black Water Sister is the title of a Malaysian deity. This was a really entertaining read that takes us through some crazy family drama and dips its toes into the world of Malaysian spirits and gods. The setting and the MC’s relationships with her family were vivid and complicated. Jess realizing she knows almost nothing about her mother's side of the family hit very close to home, where a lot of other child-of-diaspora commentary in general usually doesn't for me. The only criticism I have is that the commentary on migrant workers was not fleshed out. She did try, and it’s a poignant thing to discuss in the country context, but it was too touch-and-go and there wasn’t a real recurring migrant worker character so it did not feel like a meaningful discussion.
Superheroes (Substituted with 2022's Set in Space, HM: Characters not from earth)
Sorry, I know this bingo is all about expanding horizons, but I really can't stand superheroes and I felt like I'd done enough expanding as it was. This review's a long one. I can't help but rave.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine – 5/5. This is one of those books that are gripping and immersive from the outset and then never let go, ending in a finale of action and fireworks and resolved-but-not-completely tension. It takes place almost entirely on one planet, so doesn’t have the vastness that the space opera genre often imparts. The book is held together by the theme of encounter with empire - but that of someone who admires aspects of the empire's culture, while recognizing its existential threat. In a way, it reminded me of what Babel was trying to do, but with much more nuance and depth on both sides of the confrontation. Mahit lives on a space station on the fringes of an empire that has gobbled up the galaxy surrounding it, and yet admires the culture, its literature especially; she is appointed Ambassador to the empire, and she will never be seen as anything except "other" by its residents. Her station system is at risk of being annexed by the empire, but it's not inevitable, and there are forces against it within the empire itself, named and unnamed. This dynamic made the world feel real and compelling.
Mahit's station system passes on knowledge through a brain implant for institutional continuity. She receives an implant (albeit outdated) from the former Ambassador following his absence in court; upon arrival to the capital, she discovers that he is dead, and also her implant is malfunctioning and she cannot access his knowledge. A delicious concept! The rest of the book unfolds very quickly, in the span of a week. The tension builds and builds as the MC collects a few key allies and makes political moves of her own. I like that the book doesn't handhold here - the characters always feel a step ahead of me with what they understand, and their political solutions felt genuinely innovative and surprising. The story's climax was breathtaking.
Bottom of TBR (All HM)
Heterogenia Linguistico: An Introduction to Interspecies Linguistics, Vol. 1 by Salt Seno – 3/5. I made my goodreads tbr list when I was still trying to get into manga, which I have since given up on. It doesn’t work for me as a medium, with a few exceptions (early Berserk, Nausicaa). This a bit like Delicious in Dungeon but with monster languages. It’s alright. It sort of just drops us right into the monster worldbuilding with little preface. It could also be more linguistic-y for my taste, but that’s because I’m a nerd for that stuff.
Magical Realism (HM: Not in top 30 ranking)
The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh – 4/5. This was a very charming story of a large, messy family of Vietnamese women who are all trying to find their own happiness, re-connect with each other, and find real love instead of trying to survive. Breaking generational trauma is a significant theme throughout, as is the difficulty of a mother-daughter relationship. The large number of POVs worked; it escapes the trap of ~3-5 POV books which always have a weak POV and instead emphasizes developing the family as a whole rather than a small set of individual characters. It adds to the generational storytelling feel. The beginning was a bit slow for me, as the estrangement between mothers and daughters or between sisters got a bit repetitive and melodramatic, but it picks up with subsequent family reunions and becomes really cute and funny (and still wonderfully melodramatic). The ending felt fitting, because the women are still trying, but it's hard to break the cycle, and all mothers are imperfect.
Young Adult (HM: Published in last 5 years)
Song of Silver, Flame like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao – 3/5. An introduction to xianxia fit into a YA story. It's decent but is prone to being overwritten at times and a bit predictable. I was interested in the worldbuilding but less invested in the characters. Also, I sort of feel if you aren't going to significantly change the history or geography of a real world place (besides adding cultivation - sorry, practitioning - and Demon Gods) and just change a few letters of real world equivalents, just make it an actual alternate history.
Mundane Jobs (HM: Not set on earth)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – 4/5. The job in question is barista/other café type jobs. The characters are very cute. I’d been contemplating getting an espresso machine for a couple months, and this pushed me over the edge. For max realism, Thimble should’ve been showing up in the middle of the night to start his baking - they’re mostly yeasted goods!
Published in 00s (HM: Not in all-time top 30)
Peach Blossom Debt by Da Feng Gua Guo – 3/5. It was recently translated, but like others, I’m going with the original publishing date. The set-up was amusing: an immortal lord who chanced into his immortality descends back to the mortal realm to set up love trials between two other banished immortals for their violations of the immortal realm's rules. These immortals clearly have nothing better to do, as several others intervene in the scenario as well. The first arc was the strongest, but it began to drag after that, with the next arc repeating the previous one's patterns, and the one after that just getting a bit muddled and aimless with the de-aging trope. The main character didn't have a particularly vivid personality; he was just sort of floating through the plot. The ending itself, while a bit convoluted and relying heavily on conveniently omitted information revealed at the last moment, is nicely bittersweet while still saving itself from a "bad ending" (in the sense of tragedy, not a judgment).
Angels and Demons (HM: Protag is angel or demon)
Witch King by Martha Wells – 3/5. I was a little let down for my first Wells book, after hearing a lot about Murderbot (which will feature in my second bingo). I was hooked by this demon who can jump into others' bodies and has to figure out what conspiracy occurred to get him locked up. It reads as a character-based story, split between two timelines (a structure I didn’t mind) against the backdrop of war and then its aftermath - rebuilding a devastated world. But, the characters weren't strong or vivid enough to carry this structure. There was clearly a lot of richness to this world, but it felt like we weren't seeing enough of it, and it didn't feel lived in. Even on a prose level, it read dry and left me sometimes skimming over paragraphs. So that just left me wanting more of the plot - more from the depiction of war against the Hierarchs, more from what happened after the war with the Hierarchs was won and how that even happened? How did we get from Bashasa to Bashat? Then there was the tidbit dropped by Dahin about the origin of the Hierarchs, and it was never revisited despite how many intriguing questions it raised! And we hear so much about Bashat, but he gets no screentime. I allow for authors to purposefully leave things unanswered, but there wasn't enough to the story to justify the open ends.
Five SFF Short Stories (HM: Anthology or collection)
The River of Silver by S.A. Chakraborty – 4/5. I have a bad habit of not picking up short story collections after finishing a series. I may never have read this one were it not for the bingo. Besides the final story, which provides some much-desired confirmation of a certain pairing, the stories don’t add that much additional information. But I’m reminded by how I like the author’s writing and characters and depiction of politics.
Horror (HM: Not King or Lovecraft)
Uzumaki by Junji Ito – 3/5. It was certainly unsettling. The art was fantastic and effective. The first couple of chapters had reveals that were indeed horrifying. But I began to find that the chapters, as they went on, were not as impactful (with a couple exceptions) and didn't build off or connect with each other. Not until the end, when it takes this sort of environmental apocalyptic humans-are-the-main-evil-now shift that just had me reading to see how it would conclude. I liked that at least the end sort of explained the premise of the spiral, even if it's hard to imagine how it ended up there from the first chapters. My other main gripe is with character reactions in the horror genre. Why, oh why, after even just like seven chapters of this, did the main characters not LEAVE the city. Shuichi was the only person who ever reacted relatively normally or relatably, and he only ever even TALKED about leaving! How many bizarre encounters does Kirie have to have before she stops being like, "Oh, I must be seeing/hearing things! What a coincidence!" Excuse me, have you not seen at this point dozens of people die from spiral-related incidents? Maybe believe your senses, and secondly get out of there.
Self-Pub or Indie Pub (HM: Self-pub with less than 100 Goodreads ratings or AMA Indie)
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur – 4/5. I feel like this book warrants a second read at a later date to fully digest everything it throws at us. (Warning though, this is more litfic than spec-fic, if that’s not your thing.)
At the outset, the MC Elsa is unlikeable. She treats those who care for her poorly, and she comes off as judgmental. Her actions can be really frustrating, both when it comes to her personal relationships and the way she approaches her career. In fact, most main characters here are pretty unlikeable, flawed and hard to root for. But this is obviously intentional, and they're written and characterized vividly, especially Elsa's family members. The family dynamic was the strongest part for me - I can't even pick a duo dynamic among Elsa, her parents, and her brother that I think is best. Maybe Elsa and her brother, since they get a significant amount of present-day time instead of flashbacks. But also I'm weak for a complicated mother-daughter fictional relationship and this book is nothing if not that. Somewhere down the line, when Elsa is talking with her brother, it becomes super clear that Elsa is an unreliable narrator - something I'm not so good at picking up on - and that just adds this other layer of depth to this already messy web of memories and family.
I was less sure about the one fantasy element until the ending, but the reveal involved there is tied up in a great moment of plot relief. I also liked the folk retellings, though I sometimes felt like it wasn't as integrated into the story as Elsa believed. The one weak point is the focus on Elsa's physics career. I was very convinced by her obsession with her mother's folktales, and not so much by her aspiration to broach the new frontier of neutrinos.
Set in the Middle East/Middle Eastern (HM: Author is of Middle Eastern heritage)
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi – 4/5. I enjoyed the surreal look at the mundane lives of a haphazard group of people living in Baghdad against the backdrop of violence. At one point, a character sees a suicide bomber in a car outside his house, is vaguely curious, thinks he should warn his family, and then just doesn't move from his spot at the window. (He lives.) Elishva was the most compelling character in my opinion. It does get repetitive by the end. The Frankenstein aspect was sometimes poignant: his monologue about how he has a moral obligation to kill criminals in the name of justice and is being depicted as a criminal for doing so struck me as reminiscent of American excuses for the invasion. I haven't seen that comparison made by others, so I'm not sure if that was the point. The part where he gets a bunch of infighting followers was a little out of place and not fully integrated into the rest of the story.
Published in 2023 (HM: Debut)
The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu – 3/5. Maybe this works better if you're more familiar with Hamlet (which I wasn’t). The multi-media approach was cool, and the author writes well. But for me, the character motivations weren't convincing, and the chapters spend too much time in character monologues. And it's not really a mystery, so after the halfway point the plot feels like it's dragging out the resolution more than anything else.
Multiverse and Alternate Realities (HM: Don't walk through literal door)
Piranesi by Susanna Clark – 4/5. The writing is fantastic. I’m not one for journal-entry type structure, but the author is a master of her craft. The story is interesting as well, with a strong ending. It wasn’t as surreal or mindblowing as I expected, though. I think I prefer to uncover the mystery alongside the MC, where in this case we know quite a bit more than Piranesi starting pretty early on.
POC Author (HM: Futuristic Sci-Fi)
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez – 5/5. Once again, I have been destroyed by a Simon Jimenez book (the other one I read first but is in my second bingo). This one is a space opera, following primarily a ship captain and this young boy who's come into her custody and their bond together. The boy is immediately precious, as is the found family here. Outside of the spaceship crew, we get a few vignettes of other characters - like Kaeda and Fumiko. These chapters are written so tightly and are some of the most impactful parts of the whole story. Always bittersweet, too.
I've only read a few space operas, but the world-building felt fairly standard for the genre, with a strong undercurrent of the sacrifices capitalism and corporations are built on, and a romanticization of the traditional. It's a character-driven story at its core, which - no complaints here! That's my jam. And everyone always mentions the prose, which I almost forgot to because it's sort of a given with him. Incredible and evocative way with words. There were occasional narration sections in Nia's chapters where the feeling that each word carries such weight is lost, but overall, every page is written with intention.
The ending is heart-wrenching. It's a similar balance of tragic but bittersweet and not-all-is-lost as TSCTW. The way music is tied from the first chapter to the very end pulls it together.
Book Club or Readalong (HM: Participate in book club)
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid – 4/5. I quite liked this one. The writing style is atmospheric, and the book tackled a lot thematically. It handled the confronting your heroes theme the best - the main character is discovering that her favorite, cherished author is not who she thought he was. For the most part, I thought it handled the aftermath of Effy's abuse by her adviser well; the way she interprets the world afterward is so raw, the way it parallels Angharad's story is beautiful, and the way she processes how it - that it was wrong - is therapeutic. However, and I say this as someone who seeks out feminist themes in fantasy, not every male character besides Preston has to be so blatantly creepy. Just because it's YA doesn't mean its feminism has to be introductory. (I'd point to Iron Widow as an example of the alternative.)
The central mystery about Angharad's authorship is predictable but forgivable. I was a big sucker for the quotes from this book-within-a-book. "I will love you to ruination" is highly memorable. My feelings on the fantasy elements are more mixed. The Fairy King was built up as a sort-of antagonist so much, and that plot point got resolved unsatisfyingly fast. A lot of other fantasy elements - the Sleepers, the Drowning - are sort of background material, but I didn't feel like we needed everything properly explained.
Novella (HM: Not Tor)
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers – 5/5. I liked the worldbuilding here. It’s nice to finally see a futuristic world where humans stopped themselves from destroying the planet. The way humans live here really satisfies the itch in me that wants to live on a farm and make everything from scratch forever. Dex and Mosscap’s discussion of our purpose in life was comforting, and the ruins setting really set the mood. The ending is what bumped the rating up for me, bringing it back to the practice of being a tea monk (such a lovely thing) and the promise of their future adventures.
Mythical Beasts (HM: Not dragons)
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee – 5/5. Another stellar bit of storytelling from Fonda Lee. It's part nature documentary part extreme sport. The relationships between Ester and Darius, and Ester and Zahra, were written so naturally and convincingly. The ending was well forecasted, and its open ending struck the right balance between loss and hope.
Elemental Magic (HM: Not Shades of Magic or Codex Alera)
The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun, Vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou – 4/5. While a xianxia, each cultivator in this series has a certain elemental type (including earth/wood and fire, if not more), which has significant bearing on the plot. This was my reread square of the bingo. The author has a very melodramatic style, spending a lot of time ruminating on the MC and ML’s internal monologues. This volume had two pretty iconic melodramatic scenes that pack a punch (less so on the second time around, admittedly) and expands on Rong Jiu as a compelling side character. On the cute side, I like the way Mo Ran approaches Chu Wanning after his “misunderstanding of two lifetimes.”
Myths and Retellings (HM: Not Greek or Roman)
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan – 5/5. (Retelling of the founding of the Ming dynasty.) Parker-Chan is one of those authors whose writing is just everything I'm biased towards, almost in a guilty pleasure way. The prose is easy to read but still has beauty to it. The plot and characters are equally strong (to my tastes), and they don't shy away from the dark in dark fantasy. The plot balances war and court politics, my favorite combination. The dynamics between particular characters are delicious, and they don't shy away from melodrama (though admittedly, between Ouyang's and Baoxiang's POVs, the melodrama is laid on a bit thick in this one).
Though nothing topped the Esen-Ouyang dynamic of the last book, I was really pleased with how this one unfolded. It was SWBTS but dialed to the max. The characters are even more violent and destructive. The plot is more complex. The commentary on gender and sexuality is more pervasive and quite poignant. While this was a feature of SWBTS, it was explored even further with Baoxiang in a really interesting away, seeing as Baoxiang is a straight man, but does not fit into the gender norms - and then chooses to flout them in that performance of his. Parker-Chan also writes war really well; it's difficult to write an account of war that is both 1). interesting and 2). satisfyingly realistic. But they do so by choosing to depict key turning point events, skipping the in-between, and through a strong character lens. There was more ground covered in the war here than in SWBTS, but it didn't drag in the way that similar books have done so for me.
The last act of the book was just fantastic. It was already a book where my heart is just clenched in pain, quite literally, for these characters the whole time. The message as this act starts to wrap threads up of how all the suffering these characters had wrought was futile had me grieve for them. Ma Xiuying's appearance, who I had missed, brought this warmth that her character does that led to the most heartbreaking scenes for me.
Queernorm Setting (HM: Not futuristic setting)
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo – 5/5. I love everything she writes. This one is a bit nostalgic, a bit sweet, and quite a bit sad. My heart absolutely broke for Myriad Virtues. There's a lot of richness to the whole world packed into the story, even though it just takes place at the abbey, as is typical for this series.
Coastal or Island Setting (HM: Features sea-faring)
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart – 4/5. Genre-wise, this is up my alley. The magic is interesting and unique, and the worldbuilding is great too, the reveals done gradually but leaving some mysteries for the later novels. The book starts off quite slow, and the chapters disparate, and the characterization was nothing spectacular, so it was a bit hard to get into. It does pick up after the halfway mark, with some really interesting (and shocking, disturbing) plot twists. Lin's chapters were the strongest of the 5-ish POVs by a wide margin.
Druids (HM: Not Druid Chronicles)
Sistersong by Lucy Holland – 3.5/5. Another one of those Christianity vs paganism stories a là The Bear and the Nightingale. The writing is consistently lyrical and evokes the historical setting well (I can’t judge its accuracy). On its face, this is up my alley, but the pacing was just glacial. Part of this is that it follows three separate POVs, a set of siblings, but for the vast majority of the time, they are in the same place and experiencing the same thing. I loved Keyne’s POV; it was a wonderful depiction of what a trans man might experience in the time period, and the growth of becoming accepted as a leader even despite the grim circumstances was great. But the other two POVs get mired in jealousy and lovesickness and I just couldn’t get attached to them. The plot twist was also super obvious from the outset. Maybe intentionally? Ultimately I did like the ending, but the book could’ve gotten there faster.
Featuring Robots (HM: Protag is robot)
The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard – 2/5. It's a set-up with potential; a pirate captures a tech-savvy scavenger in order to investigate the pirate banner's former leader's death, most likely at the hands of a supposed ally. Although, the arranged marriage trope has never really done it for me, and this was no exception - that marriage is the most logical outcome of everyone's motivations is not convincing. There's some interesting worldbuilding here. I think the author's writing just doesn't click for me. The flow of the plot didn't come off as natural, and while I can see the characterization, the two MCs didn't feel particularly distinct apart from their view of piracy, and their narration often came off as melodramatic. I was surprised that there wasn't more done with the concept of a ship having a human nature.
Sequel (HM: Book 3 or more)
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee – 5/5. I rarely feel that a trilogy pulls off the arc it's aiming for, and a satisfying ending to all the plotlines and characters introduced over three whole books. This series shows how it's done. Sure, book one was a little dense and confusing, and book two exhibited a bit of second-book-syndrome, but from the beginning, the series' themes and characterization were being built. Book three is a fantastic culmination, a collision, really, of the series' top players and themes - of rebelling against the horrors of empire; free will; of choosing mortality.
Perhaps my favorite part of the series, even more so than the slow build towards a revolutionary climax, is its characterization. Jedao has made it to the list of my top 5 characters of all time, in all his forms. He is most memorable in the first book's bleedthrough moments and the reveal about the Hellspin Fortress massacre. But Jedao in this book, in his amnesiac and rawest form, is special as well. How he navigates twisted relationships with Kujen (another gem of a character, but in a darker way as the sort of antagonist of it all. The reveal about his self-manipulation through his archive is unforgettable) and Dhanneth. His struggle between being a weapon and being a person deserving of love. The author writes his characters messy and complicated and I couldn't ask for anything more.
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Sorry these got so long! Thanks for reading!
submitted by aprilkhubaz to Fantasy [link] [comments]

2024.02.13 15:32 LittleWaithu Bringing back an old screenshot from December 2020

Bringing back an old screenshot from December 2020 submitted by LittleWaithu to StarWarsEmpireAtWar [link] [comments]

2024.02.08 07:57 Dr_Venture_Media USA - WTS Armada Collection

USA - WTS Armada Collection
USA WTS Armada Collection - $1800.00
Howdy! I'm looking to sell my Armada Collection. Everything you see below includes multiple well-painted squadrons, multiple ship types for all four factions, and about 3 core sets worth of tokens/dials/dice.
The list includes:
Empire: 2 Imperial Star Destroyers 1 Imperial Star Destroyer Chimera 1 Interdictor 2 Victory Star Destroyers 1 Onager 1 Imperial Venator (Official Model) 1 Quasar 1 Gladiator 4 Arquitens 4 Raiders 2 Gozanti 1 Slave-1 1 Houndstooth 1 IG-88 1 Dengar 4 Dominator 2 Lambas 2 Gauntlets 4 Phantom Squadrons 4 Tie Defender Squadrons 6 Tie Interceptor Squadrons 6 Tie Bomber Squadrons 3 Tie Advanced Squadrons 1 Tie Advanced Squadron w/ Darth Vader 11 Tie Fighter Squadrons 1 Tie Interceptor Soonter Fel 1 Howl Runner 1 Barron Ruder 1 Tie Interceptor Royal Guard (Red) Squadron 1 Tie Interceptor Ciena
Rebels: 1 Starhawk 2 MC-80 Home One 1 MC-80 Liberty 1 MC-75 2 Assault Frigate Mark 2 1 Pelta 1 MC-30 4 CR-90 4 Nebulon B 2 Hammerhead 4 Z-95 6 X-Wing Squadrons 6 A-Wing Squadrons 6 B-Wing Squadrons 4 E-Wing Squadrons 6 Y-Wing Squadrons 1 Outrider 1 Ghost 1 H6 Bomber 1 Jan Ors 1 Shadow Caster 1 X-Wing (Biggs) 1 Millenium Falcon
Republic: 2 Venator 2 Acclimator 1 Victory Star Destroyer (FFG repaint) 4 C-70 Charger 2 Pelta 6 Y-Wing Squadrons 6 ARC-170 Squadrons 6 V-19 Torrents 3 Delta 7 Jedi Starfighter 1 Delta 7 Anakin 1 Delta 7 Plo Koon 1 Delta 7 Ahsoka 1 Delta 7 Luminara 1 Delta 7 Kit Fisto 2 Naboo N-1 (V-19 Torrent) Squadrons 1 V-19 Axe 1 V-19 Kickback
Separatist: 1 Providence 2 Munificent 4 Hard Cells 1 Recusent 2 Gazanti 6 Tri-fighter Squadrons 6 Hyena Squadrons 4 Belbullab Squadron 9 Vulture Squadrons 1 Slave-1 (Jango)
Unpainted: 1 Bulk Cruiser 2 Assault Frigate MK1-V6 1 Assault Frigate MK1-V6 1 CR-90 Far Star 1 Victory Star Destroyer (open wings) 1 Victory Star Destroyer FFG model (painted white) Wes 3D V-Wing Squadrons, Clone Z-95s, ETA2 Interceptors Multiple unpainted official squadrons and aces
Expansion Sets: Rebellion in the Rim The Corellian Conflict
Other: 3 Damage Decks 2 Gaming mats (Above Planet Coruscant; Grip Map Starfield) 2 Rulebooks Additional Assorted Items (dice, tokens, movement dials, cardboard terrain, squadron bases, command dials, 3D printed squadron tokens) Card Binder with current upgrade cards for all factions - Rapid reinforcements 2 NOT included
submitted by Dr_Venture_Media to StarWarsArmada [link] [comments]

2024.02.05 20:20 Sausagebroth Stormfang gunship is actually incredible!

Got the stormfang the other day and I used it for the first time and wow this is great! I was really sceptical at first because 300 points is a steep investment but its shooting is really good. I use it with the multi meltas and lascannons. I brought it in from reserves and dropped a unit of eradicators and that combo was absolutely insane! It was a 2v2 and my opponent were ad mech and custodes, in a single turn this model whipped a unit of skitarii, killed 3 custodes and damaged a breached unit while the eradicators took out the ad mech bomber. I then overwatched with it every turn and its helfrost torrent is ridiculous. D6+6 8 strength -1 ap 2 damage is so powerful I denied so much with this and I think it will be a staple in my army from now on
submitted by Sausagebroth to SpaceWolves [link] [comments]

2024.01.30 22:52 professor_fiction__ Build the perfect planetary defense fleet

This was inspired by u/few-item6853 and his really cool post
The Empire is in power, and has abandoned your little Outer Rim planet to the whims of pirates and crime lords. You have just been promote to Marshall Commander of the planetary defense forces, and given a budget for how to build your force. Your objectives are to fend off pirate attacks, manage the customs of surrounding space, and provide protection for your planet and possibly other worlds within your system
Note: Due to the end of the Clone Wars, much Republic and Separatist hardware is readily available, thus are discounted by 20%(rounding up)
Bonus: If you want, name your planet, the name of your fleet, the ships under your command, take it as far as you want!
Warships: 120 pts
24 pts Heavy Cruisers: Acclamator Class Assault Ships, Munificent Star Frigates, Dreadnought Class Heavy Cruiser, Liberator Class Cruiser
12 pts Cruisers: Neutron Star Class, Quasar Fire Class
6 pts Frigates: Carrack Class, Arquitens Class, CC-9600 Frigate, Nebulon B Escort Frigate, Pelta Class Frigate
3 pts Corvettes: CR90, DP20, Interceptor VI, Consular Class Cruiser, Marauder Class Corvette, Hammerhead Corvette
2 pts Gunboats/Patrol Ships: Braha’tok Class Gunship, IPV-1 Patrol Craft, Guardian Class Light Cruiser
Fighters: 100 points
6 pts Light Transports/Gunships: X4 Gunship, YT-Series, Hawk-Series, Katarn Class Boarding Shuttle, VCX-Series
4 pts Heavy Fighter: ARC-170, ETA-2 Actis Interceptor, H-60 Tempest Bomber, Rihkxyrk assault fighter, Hyena Bombers
2 pts Light Fighter: V-Wing Interceptor, Y-Wing Starfighter, Cutlass 9 Patrol Fighter, R41 Starchaser, Z-95 Headhunter, Vulture Droid, V-19 Torrent
Fighter Squadron=12 fighters Gunship Squadron=3 Gunships
submitted by professor_fiction__ to MawInstallation [link] [comments]

2024.01.26 18:55 pfeifer20 fleets short by a few from a whole fleet

I know they just got the resistence to 5 units but i feel there are plenty of units that could be added Examples The sepertists could get tri-fighters Belbalub-22 (possible grevious pilot) Porax-38 (magnaguard pilot) Genivex/fan blade (ventress) Jango's slave 1 Armed shetapede shuttle Etc Republic gets V-wing (arc trooper pilot) V-19 torrent Yoda's custom eta actis 2 Ahsoka & anakin's twilight (g9 rigger) Kenobis eta actis 2 N-1 starfighter Etc The rebelion gets R22 spearhead/a-wing B-wing Red-5 (episode 5 luke) Etc Empire gets Tie-phantom Tie-punisher Tie-brute Etc First order gets Tie-wisper Tie-se bomber Tie-baron Etc Resistence A-wing resistence version Mark 2 b-wing Z-95 headhunter T-85 x x-wing Etc
submitted by pfeifer20 to SWGOH [link] [comments]

2024.01.13 02:13 Karasu243 The current state of our Apocalyptic Horde Mode game

The current state of our Apocalyptic Horde Mode game
As per request, u/bungobak, u/p0jinx, u/hellfire965, and u/MountainPlain, here's the current state of the Horde Mode game my brothers, friends, and I are playing. We started last Saturday, played about 5 hours, and got to round 5 out of 10. We plan to resume our game next weekend.
If you're unfamiliar with Horde Mode, it was designed by the Poorhammer Podcast (video here). In Horde Mode, the players all work cooperatively against one "horde" faction, wherein every round the horde spawns more units and the players must survive against the eternal onslaught. Normally in Horde Mode you'd play for up to 5 rounds, but we've extended it to 10 due to this being pseudo-Apocalypse, though we may extend it to "until we all die" if we later feel up to the task. One modification we made to the rules is that datasheet abilities can affect other allied factions - Guilliman buffing nearby Eldar, for example; however, detachment, army, enhancement, and strategem abilities do not work this way. This makes it feel like our armies are actually working together as a coalition.
Each of us brought 3k point armies, for a total of 18k points. Brother 1 is playing a weirdly efficient meme-tier Astra Militarum list, brother 2 is playing Imperial Knights, friend 1 is playing Ultramarines, friend 2 is playing Craftworld Aeldari, friend 3 is playing Thousand Sons, and I'm playing Necrons; the enemy horde faction is composed of a composite of Chaos Daemons, Chaos Knights, CSM, World Eaters, and Death Guard. (If you were curious, I've listed our army lists at the end of this post, below.) The coalition of Imperium, Ulthwe Craftworld, Thousand Sons, and Szarekhan dynasty decided it was high time to kick Abaddon's ass in the Eye of Terror once and for all. Magnus and Ahriman got their shit together and rebelled against Tzeentch under the promise from Ulthwe and Necrons that they'd help research how to undo the Rubric curse.
We pre-spawned the first wave of the horde in No Man's Land, in the very defensible fortress and flanks of the fortress. The fortress was defended by Angron, Kairos Fateweaver, and Belakor, supported by a large number of chaos cultists, CSM legionaries, CSM terminators, Khornate berzerkers, plague marines, noise marines, obliterators, and a variety of daemons. The objectives on the side of the fortress were defended by heavy vehicles, including a handful of chaos knights, wardogs, defilers, forge/mauler-fiends, greater daemons, and supporting monsters and infantry, such as a couple squads of beasts of Nurgle among other things.
My Necron army is built to be purely support. The Silent King and Illuminor Szeras are busy buffing the artillery, 2 Monoliths to spawn infantry into strategic footholds, canoptek arcanthrites to improve allies' AP, technomancers to heal, triarch stalkers to deny cover, spyders for FNP aura, psychomancers to deny horde units OC, and Anrakyr to shut down those pesky chaos knights, greater brass scorpions, and Khorne Lord of Skulls.
My brother who brought all the artillery is just sitting in our back point shooting 3 pointers like they're Stephen Curry while being buffed by Lord Solar Leontus, 3 Castellans, the Silent King, and Illuminor Szeras. That +1 to Hit, +1 AP, and re-rolls turned the earthshakers into earthbreakers. He's been busy deleting any of the infantry before they even make contact with our forces. He also has 2 Marauder Destroyers on the northern front that are busy harassing the incoming horde waves.
Thankfully, my brother's meme-tier Astra Militarum list of way too many artillery was perfectly designed to clear a landing zone for one of my Monoliths to deep strike in the fortress and establish a foothold by portaling in a contingent of Thousand Sons forces. Magnus is in there now, mopping up the remaining defenders inside the fortress and dueling Angron and Belakor simultaneously. He's being supported by a few occult terminators, rubric marines, T.Sons daemon prince, and Lokhust Heavy Destroyers.
The Thousand Sons are functioning as an elite vanguard strike force to clear and clean out the fortress. Negating armor saves through their rituals has come in clutch for their fight against Angron, Kairos, and Belakor. Kairos got one-shot earlier in the game, and Angron is on death's door. Belakor took a heavy beating by the torrent of artillery. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Angron doesn't kill Magnus next turn.
The other Monolith spawned on the north side, between the center fortress and enemy deployment area. From there, Guilliman, Cato, Tigurius, Eldrad, and the bulk of the Ulltramarines and Eldar are holding the line in the trenches. Among Guilliman's and Eldrad's forces is an Astra Militarum command squad with attachés. The attachés are functioning as the artillery's and bombers' forward observers.
The plan is for them to stall the horde so that the Thousand Sons and Knights are able to capture and solidify our presence on the center 3 objectives. The praetors could then snipe the horde unit spawn points from those side objectives. Hopefully the Eldar and Ultramarines will hold out long enough for the knights, tanks, and wraithknight (all currently tied up fighting for the side points in No Man's Land) to catch up and help relieve them from Mortarion's and Abaddon's assault. (You can see Mortarion and Abaddon on the right and left, respectively, in the image of the horde's central spawn location.)
(As an aside, we discovered that the Earthshaker Carriage Battery is considered an infantry unit, rather than a vehicle unit. This means you can hilariously transport the Earthshaker Carriage Battery in a Hades Breaching Drill.)
Astra Militarum list: (1×) Lord Solar Leontus, (3×) Cadian Castellan, (1×) Cadian Command Squad, (1×) Regimental Attachés, (3×) Earthshaker Carriage Battery, (3×) Earthshaker Platform, (3×) Basilisk, (3×) Praetor, (2×) Marauder Destroyer
Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearheaded) list: (1×) Roboute Guilliman, (1×) Captain Cato Sicarius, (1×) Chief Librarian Tigurius, (2×) Apothecary Biologis, (1×) Captain in Phobos Armor, (1×) Chaplain in Terminator Armor, (1×10) Assault Intercessor Squad, (1×10) Intercessor Squad, (2×6) Aggressor Squad, (1×6) Inceptor Squad, (1×10) Scout Squad, (1×10) Terminator Squad, (1×) Gladiator Lancer, (2×) Redemptor Dreadnought, (2×) Dreadnought Drop Pod
Imperial Knights list: (1×1) Canis Rex, (1×1) Cerastus Knight Castigator, (1×1) Cerastus Knight Lancer, (1×1) Knight Crusader, (1×1) Knight Gallant, (2×1) Armiger Helverin, (2×1) Armiger Warglaive
Thousand Sons list: (1×) Magnus the Red, (1×) Ahriman, (1×) Exalted Sorcerer, (1×) Thousand Sons Daemon Prince with wings, (1×) Thousand Sons Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, (2×10) Rubric Marines, (1×10) Scarab Occult Terminators, (2×) Mutalith Vortex Beast, (1×) Thousand Sons Defiler, (1×) Thousand Sons Forgefiend, (1×) Thousand Sons Maulerfiend, (1×) Thousand Sons Land Raider
Craftworld Aeldari list: (1×) Eldrad Ulthran, (1×) Avatar of Khaine, (2×) Farseer, (2×) Spiritseer, (2×) Warlock, (2×10) Guardian Defenders, (2×10) Wraithguard, (2×) Wraithlord, (1×) Wraithknight, (1×) Scorpion
Necron (Hypercrypt Legion) list: (1×) Silent King, (1×) Illuminor Szeras, (1×) Anrakyr the Traveller, (2×) Lokhust Lord, (2×) Psychomancer, (3×) Technomancer, (2×3) Lokhust Heavy Destroyers, (2×3) Canoptek Arcanthrites, (3×2) Canoptek Spyders, (2×) Monolith, (2×) Triarch Stalker
submitted by Karasu243 to Grimdank [link] [comments]

2024.01.04 23:11 VLenin2291 My Dream Battlefront III

I think it's safe to say that there is a curse about Star Wars: Battlefront III. The original game got canned, and apparently, EA has little interest in making their own. But, suppose that this wasn't the case. Here's how I'd do it:
Eras and Factions
The eras and factions of Battlefront III will remain largely the same as Battlefront II: Republic, Separatists, Rebels, Empire, Resistance, and First Order. However, the faction name will change in certain cases. The name changes will be as follows:
Republic: "Grand Army of the Republic" on the ground, "Republic Navy" in space
CIS: "Separatist Droid Army" on the ground, "Confederate Navy" in space
Empire: "Imperial Army" on the ground, "Imperial Navy" in space
Additionally, the Rebels name may change on some occasions, but we'll get there momentarily
Maps
In total, at least at launch, there will be 25 different maps-10 for the Clone Wars, 10 for the Galactic Civil War, and five for the First Order-Resistance War. The maps will be as follows:
Clone Wars: Geonosis (ground only), Ryloth (ground and space), Coruscant (ground and space), Utapau (ground only), Christophsis (ground and space), Kashyyyk (ground only), Anaxes (ground only), Kaliida Nebula (space only), Cato Nemoidia (ground and space), and Felucia (ground only)
Unlike in Battlefront II, Clone armor will be dependent solely on the map, and it will be as follows:
Geonosis: Phase I unmarked
Ryloth: Phase I 91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps
Coruscant: Phase II Coruscant Guard
Utapau: Phase II 212th Attack Battalion
Christophsis: Phase I unmarked
Kashyyyk: Phase II 41st Elite Corps
Anaxes: Phase II 501st Legion
Cato Nemoidia: Phase II 104th Battalion
Felucia: Phase II 327th Star Corps
Galactic Civil War: Yavin (ground and space), Scarif (ground and space), Hoth (ground only), Endor (ground and space), Jakku (ground only), Kuat (space only), Crait (ground only), Coruscant (ground only), Sullust (ground only), Lothal (ground only)
While, for all other maps, the Rebels are referred to as the Rebel Alliance, they are referred to as the New Republic on Jakku, Kuat, and Coruscant.
First Order-Resistance War: Takodana (ground only), Starkiller Base (space only), D'Qar (space only), Crait (ground only), Exegol (ground and space)
On Exegol, the First Order will be referred to as the Final Order.
Heroes
For heroes, the CIS gets four, the Rebels get five, the Empire also gets five, the Resistance gets four, and the First Order also gets four. There heroes are as follows:
CIS: Dooku, Grievous, Asajj Ventress, and Cad Bane
Rebels: Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian
Empire: Darth Vader, Alexsandr Kallus, Grand Inquisitor, Boba Fett, and Bossk
Resistance: Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and Chewbacca
First Order: Kylo Ren, Phasma, Pyre, and Tierny
The Republic operates on a unique system. They only get two: Jedi and Clone Commander. However, they're unique to the map they're on. Their roster is as follows:
Geonosis and Ryloth: Mace Windu and Ponds
Coruscant: Shaak Ti and Fox
Utapau: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cody
Christophsis and Anaxes: Anakin Skywalker and Rex
Kashyyyk: Yoda and Gree
Cato Nemoidia: Plo Koon and Wolffe
Felucia: Aayla Secura and Bly
Another unique feature is that, for Lothal, the Rebels get a different set of five: Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, Garazeb Orrelios, and Ryder Azadi.
For hero starfighters, every side except for the Republic and First Order gets two: Ventress's starfighter and Soulless One for the CIS, Red Five and Millennium Falcon for the Rebels, TIE Advanced X1 and TIE Advanced V1 for the Empire, and Black One and Millennium Falcon for the Resistance. The First Order only gets the TIE Silencer, and the Republic has one for each map, namely:
Ryloth: Ahsoka Tano's Delta-7
Coruscant: Obi-Wan Kenobi's Eta-2
Christophsis: Anakin Skywalker's Delta-7 (technically not canon compliant but let's just roll with it)
Kaliida Nebula: Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano's BTL-B Y-Wing
Cato Nemoidia: Plo Koon's Delta-7
Infantry
Seven different infantry classes are featured in Battlefront III: Rifleman, Medic, Engineer, Demolitions, Heavy, Sniper, and Squad Leader. Each has the same types of weapon, but faction-specific weapons. These are as follows:
Rifleman: Blaster Rifle, no special equipment
Medic: Blaster Carbine, Medkit (heals allies)
Engineer: Blaster Carbine, Fusion Cutter (heals vehicles)
Demolitions: Blaster Rifle, Rocket Launcher (blows things up)
Heavy: Heavy Blaster, Supply Crate (resupplies thermal detonator)
Sniper: Sniper Rifle, Blaster Pistol (kills people)
Squad Leader: Blaster Rifle, Commlink (can designate objectives)
In squad modes (will touch on momentarily), your squad must have a Squad Leader, but can only have one. The other seven are fair game. Additionally, all classes have a thermal detonator.
Battle Points
The Battle Points system will be returning in Battlefront III; however, they will only be awarded for playing the objective and performing actions that aid your teammates, e.g. deploying Medkits as a Medic. This means, for instance, that kills are only worth Battle Points if the objective is to kill enemies. In such a case, your get one battle point for every point of damage that you deal to an enemy infantryman, two for vehicles, and five for Heroes. Heroes cost 5,000 points a piece.
Starfighters
Starfighters this time around have five classes: Fighter, Interceptor, Bomber, Transport, and Special. The first three operate as they did in Battlefront II. The Transport, meanwhile, is exclusive to modes with infantry and acts as a mobile spawn point. It can't dish out much damage and it's fairly slow, but it is tanky. The Special, meanwhile, is, well, a special vehicle, unique to that faction and not operating like the others. The vehicles used by each faction are as follows:
Republic:
Fighter: V-19 Torrent
Interceptor: Z-95 Headhunter
Bomber: BTL-B Y-Wing
Transport: LAAT/i
Special: ARC-170; middle ground between a Fighter and a Bomber; has a rear turret
CIS:
Fighter: Vulture Droid
Interceptor: Droid Tri-Fighter
Bomber: Hyena Droid
Transport: HMP Predator
Special: Vulture Probe; faster than an interceptor but will less health and the firepower of the Vulture Droid; can spot targets for allies
Rebels:
Fighter: T-65 X-Wing
Interceptor: RZ-1 A-Wing (not available on Yavin space)
Bomber: BTL-A4 Y-Wing
Transport: UT-60D U-Wing
Special: A/SF-01 B-Wing; like an ARC-170 but tankier and without the rear turret
Empire:
Fighter: TIE/ln Fighter
Interceptor: TIE/in Interceptor
Bomber: TIE/sa Bomber
Transport: TIE/rp Reaper
Special: TIE/d Defender; like a B-Wing but faster and not as tanky
Resistance:
Fighter: T-70 X-Wing
Interceptor: RZ-3 A-Wing (not available on Starkiller Base)
Bomber: BTA-NR2 Y-Wing (not available on Starkiller Base)
Transport: UT-60D U-Wing
Special: A/SF-01 B-Wing; same as the old one
First Order:
Fighter: TIE/fo Fighter
Interceptor: TIE/ba Baron
Bomber: TIE/se Bomber
Transport: AAL-1971/9.1 Troop Transport
Special: TIE/sf Fighter; tankier and faster than the TIE/fo, has a rear turret
In ground battles featuring starfighters, Fighters cost 500 points, Interceptors cost 750, Bombers cost 1,000, and Specials cost 1,500.
Ground Vehicles
Each faction gets five ground vehicles with the exception of the First Order and Resistance, which get three. The vehicles listed will be in order of point value. They can be worth 200, 400, 600, 800, or 1,000 points. First Order and Resistance vehicles are instead worth 300, 600, or 900 points.
Republic: BARC, ISP, AT-RT, TX-130, AT-AP
CIS: STAP, LM-432 Crab Droid, DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid, AAT, NR-N99 Tank Droid
Rebels: 74-Z, AT-RT, TX-130, AAC-1, T4-B
Empire: 74-Z, AT-MP, 2-M Saber-class, AT-DP, AT-ST
Resistance: 74-Z, AT-RT, TX-130
First Order: 125-Z, First Order AT-ST, UA-TT
Modes
There will be two types of game modes: Squad and Battalion. Squad modes have 32 players, are played on sections of maps, and do not feature vehicles. Unfilled slots are filled by bots. Battalion modes have 64 players, are played on full maps, and feature vehicles. In total, there will be 14 modes to choose from, eight for Squad modes and six for Battalion modes. The modes will be as follows:
Squad modes:
Blast: A classic team deathmatch. Each enemy killed is worth one point. First team to 100 points or closest to it at the end of 10 minutes wins.
Dogfight: Blast, but in starfighters. First team to 75 points or closest to it at the end of 15 minutes wins.
King of the Hill: Every 60 seconds, a single point-the hill-will appear in a location. Whichever teams controls it gets one point for every second that they do. After a 30-second intermission, the point reappears. First team to 300 points or closest to it in 15 minutes wins.
Order 66: Only available on Coruscant, Utapau, Kashyyyk, Cato Nemoidia, or Felucia. A remaster of Hero Hunt, with a twist. One player plays as the Jedi, the rest play as Clone Troopers. There are also AI battle droids present on the map who fight the players. The player that deals the killing blow to the Jedi will become the Jedi. Whoever's the Jedi at the end of 15 minutes wins the game
Heroes vs Villains: Only available on Galactic Civil War or First Order-Resistance War maps. Played in five-minute rounds. Four players on each team are randomly selected at the start of a round to play as a hero. All of a team's heroes must be eliminated for the opposing team to win the round. If not all are eliminated, the team with the most heroes left wins, and if the number of heroes is equal, then the team with more cumulative health wins. If that is also equal, the round is a draw. First team to win five rounds wins the match.
Domination: Teams fight over three control points on the map. Every five seconds, each point gives one point. First team to 150 points or the closest to it at the end of 10 minutes wins.
Sabotage: Teams take turns planting bombs on or defending the objective. Played in five-minute rounds In each round, players get one life. Defenders win if time runs out without the bomb being planted, all attackers are killed, or they defuse the bomb. Attackers win if the bomb is successfully planted and detonated or all defenders are killed. First team to win five rounds wins the match.
Hunt: Played in five-minute rounds. In this mode, one team faces off against the indigenous population of a planet in single-elimination rounds. All or most members of a team must be eliminated to win a round. First team to win five rounds wins the match. This mode can be played on the following maps with the following setups:
Geonosis: Republic vs Geonosians
Ryloth: CIS vs Twi'leks
Kashyyyk: CIS or Empire vs Wookiees
Hoth: Empire vs Wampas
Endor: Empire vs Ewoks
Lothal: Empire vs Loth-Wolves
Battalion modes:
Galactic Assault: Ground battles with map-specific objectives. Whichever team completes all their objectives wins.
Starfighter Assault: Space battles with map-specific objectives. Whichever team completes all their objectives wins.
Conquest: Teams fight over five points. Every ten seconds, each point controlled gives one point. First team to 500 points or closest to it at the end of 30 minutes wins.
Breakthrough: Attackers must attempt to capture a sector within 20 minutes. Defenders must stop them. Each sector consists of two points. Capturing one point gives the attackers an extra five minutes. Capturing both points resets the clock gives the attackers the sector. Attackers win by capturing all sectors. Defenders win by holding off the attackers until time expires.
Convoy: One team must escort two vehicles (AT-TEs for the Republic, Rebels, and Resistance, MTTs for the CIS, AT-ATs for the Empire, or AT-M6s for the First Order) while the other must try to destroy it. In each of the three sectors, there are two uplinks and two launchers the attacking team can use. For every 60 seconds that an uplink is active, they will gain one bomber in the bomber queue. After 10 minutes, all bombers will come in and hit the vehicles. Each will make the vehicles vulnerable to all forms of attack for 15 seconds. After all bombers have made their run and the vehicles are no longer vulnerable, fighting in the next sector begins. Alternatively, launchers spawn once and, when fired at a vehicle, will make it vulnerable for 30 seconds, but only that vehicle, and the launcher for that sector is gone once it's used or the person carrying it dies, whether it was used or not. Defenders can use the weapons of the lead vehicle for 60 seconds for 500 battle points, gaining another ten seconds for every kill they get for the first 30 seconds. After that point, they only get five more seconds per kill. Defenders win if at least one vehicle remains intact at the end of the game. Attackers win if both vehicles are destroyed.
Boarding Party: In this three-phase mode, the teams attempt to board the enemy's capital ship and destroy its reactor. In phase one, both teams are in starfighters. In 60 seconds, one team will send transports toward the enemy warship. If all are destroyed, then in another 60 seconds, the other team will send theirs towards the enemy warship. If the transports reach the enemy ship, then phase 2 begins. Phase 2 is a single elimination infantry only mode, set in the enemy's hangar bays. If all attackers are eliminated, then the mode reverts to phase 1. If all defenders are eliminated, then both teams gain the ability to respawn and the attackers will have 10 minutes to destroy the enemy's reactor. If they succeed, then they win the game. If the reactor remains intact, then it reverts to phase 1.
Campaign
Finally, there's the campaign to discuss-or, rather, campaigns. In Battlefront III, there are a grand total of seven campaigns. The first six are more concepts for the idea of each. The first six campaigns are:
  1. For the Republic: Play as CT-1115, AKA Flare, a Clone Trooper in the 501st Legion, as he fights from the First Battle of Geonosis to the attack on the Jedi Grand Temple in this partial reimagining of the Rise of the Empire campaign from the original Battlefront II.
  2. Roger Roger: Play as RO-PA, an unusually long lived B1 battle droid, fighting from Naboo to Cato Nemoidia.
  3. Spark of Rebellion: Play as Jerek Bilbar, a Rebel soldier who first sees combat in the evacuation of Yavin and continues to fight through to the Battle of Jakku.
  4. Vader's Fist: Continue Flare's story as he fights still as an Imperial Stormtrooper in a reimagining of the remainder of the Rise of the Empire campaign from the original Battlefront II.
  5. Once a Rebel...: Play as Devon Bilbar, Jerek's son and a fighter in the Resistance, from Takodana to Exegol.
  6. The New Order: Play as FN-1215, a First Order Stormtrooper who sees combat from Jakku to Exegol.
The seventh campaign is the Cinematic Campaign, which you don't have access to by default. It consists of nine episodes, each corresponding to a film in the Skywalker Saga and having their own missions within them, in which you play as different heroes. Who you play as in each episode and how you unlock them is as follows:
The Phantom Menace: Play as Obi-Wan Kenobi; unlocked by completing the Naboo section of Roger Roger
Attack of the Clones: Play as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi; unlocked by completing the Geonosis sections of For the Republic and Roger Roger
Revenge of the Sith: Play as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi; unlocked by completing the For the Republic and Roger Roger campaigns
A New Hope: Play as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi; unlocked by completing the Yavin sections of Spark of Rebellion and Vader's Fist
The Empire Strikes Back: Play as Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian; unlocked by completing the Hoth sections of Spark of Rebellion and Vader's Fist
Return of the Jedi: Play as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo; unlocked by completing the Spark of Rebellion and Vader's Fist campaigns
The Force Awakens: Play as Rey and Poe Dameron; unlocked by completing the Jakku section of The New Order and the Takodana and Starkiller Base sections of Once A Rebel... and The New Order
The Last Jedi: Play as Finn and Poe Dameron; unlocked by completing the D'Qar and Crait sections of Once A Rebel... and The New Order
The Rise of Skywalker: Play as Rey, Poe Dameron, and Finn; unlocked by completing the Once a Rebel... and The New Order campaigns.
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