Armageddon???? (Part Fifty Up)

[JCady]

The demons were asking why their commanders kept blowing up before. Now they're going to be asking why their bridges are blowing up and their commanders have holes in their heads that they shouldn't have.

I think it means that the demons can easily see rockets ("fire lances") and missiles ("seeker lances"), but not unpowered bombs. They call tank cannons fire lances too, but they're probably seeing the muzzle blast and not the actual shell.

[Stuart Mackey]

Which tooling lines have we saved, and which are gone?

Is the A-4 line still around (with all the countries that have some variant in service), or is it gone, too?

A4 is a good choice, if the tooling exists and their are still people around who can run them: The RNZAF/Safe Air will be flat out getting its 17 back into airworthy condition.

[Stuart]

I think it means that the demons can easily see rockets ("fire lances") and missiles ("seeker lances"), but not unpowered bombs. They call tank cannons fire lances too, but they're probably seeing the muzzle blast and not the actual shell.

That's more or less right; the baldricks can't see bombs coming down so they can't explain what's happening except "its human magic". They can see rockets and missiles though, plus tracer gunfire. The shots from tanks also leave a red track that can be followed by eye; to the inexperiences they look like rockets or missiles.

[Darth Smiley]

What happens to a human that is 'alive' (ie never been killed) but in hell? Do they just show up somewhere else in hell?

[Crayz9000]

You mean if they get killed? I don't think anyone except Stuart knows, though it would be strange if they showed up in the demons' afterlife-plane of existance, wherever/whatever that is...

[Sidewinder]

That was some brutal house-to-house fighting. I wonder if any of the Baldrick infantrymen are considering surrender?

By the way, would a M1 Garand or BAR, modified to fire .338 Lapua rounds, work as an antidemon weapon? I'm asking this because the photo of a .458 Winchester Magnum on Wikipedia shows it having a round-nosed bullet, suggesting it's not a good choice for long-range shooting.

[JN1]

That was a pretty impressive depiction of FIBUA/MOUT. I'm almost beginning to feel sorry for the legions of Hell, they really seem to have bitten off more than they can chew.
Once an insurgency gets started in Hell itself then things are going to get even worse for Old Nick.

[Sea Skimmer]

By the way, would a M1 Garand or BAR, modified to fire .338 Lapua rounds, work as an antidemon weapon? I'm asking this because the photo of a .458 Winchester Magnum on Wikipedia shows it having a round-nosed bullet, suggesting it's not a good choice for long-range shooting.

At close range .338 magnum would be no real advantage over .30-06. As Stuart pointed out, you need to shoot a big hole in Baldrick to make it bleed out, the .338 round doesn’t get that job done. At longer ranges, I’d forgot about using any such weapon. I’d say the ideal thing to do is give every solider a .458cal AR-15 type weapon which would still be relatively light, while reorganization the basic nine man rifle squad into a pair of machine gun teams as fast as new weapons can be produced. Some squads might become additional mortar squads as well. Pretty much we’d go from three rifle companies and a weapons company in a battalion to four weapons companies, each of which might still have one normal rifle platoon.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

That was some brutal house-to-house fighting. I wonder if any of the Baldrick infantrymen are considering surrender?

By the way, would a M1 Garand or BAR, modified to fire .338 Lapua rounds, work as an antidemon weapon? I'm asking this because the photo of a .458 Winchester Magnum on Wikipedia shows it having a round-nosed bullet, suggesting it's not a good choice for long-range shooting.

That's just one loading. There's a large variety available, including those which can maintain prodiguous force at long range. Though really the goal is just to cut big holes through the demons--range is less critical. But a .458 magnum is still more than sufficient at range. And you're simply ignoring pages of discussion, in which the Winchester Magnum .458 was chosen not as the best round period, but as the best round you can fit into a Garand with minimal modification: Overall length is the same as that of the .30-06, you see.

[MKSheppard]

the end product would most likely create more problems than it would solve.

Why? Even in the GULAG, during WWII, the Zeks kept putting out high quality work for the Red Army. I"d expect the same here from our prison labor.

[MKSheppard]

I don't get the Vickers .303 watercooled love. It's clearly inferior to the ultimate weapon:


Water-cooled .50 caliber Brownings.

[R011]

Why? Even in the GULAG, during WWII, the Zeks kept putting out high quality work for the Red Army. I"d expect the same here from our prison labor.

I'm much more worried about the after-market support once the aircraft have been delivered to someone's air force, as I've noted in previous posts.

I'd rather build a new plant with a product without such issues employing people who were working in a non-war related industry and leave the prisoners to their existing trade as it is already applicable to the war effort.

[MKSheppard]

May I humbly suggest that among the packages that Broomy recieved were these:



The new US Army "Hell" ACU pattern?

[R011]

I don't get the Vickers .303 watercooled love. It's clearly inferior to the ultimate weapon:

Water-cooled .50 caliber Brownings.

Twin water cooled fifties are indeed way cool (and quad even better), but I kinda like the rotary barrel GAU-19/A. I mean what's not to love about a thousand half inch bullets per minute?

I posted a nice video of it a day or so ago mounted on a Hummer.

[Mayabird]

If people get killed in Hell, would they know they're dead?

People die in hell, they die for good (as far as we know). They're just much harder to kill because they heal so much faster, and they don't need to eat or sleep.

But what if its someone who walks from earth to hell, and so hasn't yet died once. Does being in hell automatically confer 'hellish' qualities to a living being?

What I want to know is, what would happen if someone who had died and was in hell went through a portal back to Earth. Do they keep the super-healing and everything? Do they go poof?

[JCady]

I don't get the Vickers .303 watercooled love. It's clearly inferior to the ultimate weapon:

Water-cooled .50 caliber Brownings.

Twin water cooled fifties are indeed way cool (and quad even better), but I kinda like the rotary barrel GAU-19/A. I mean what's not to love about a thousand half inch bullets per minute?

I posted a nice video of it a day or so ago mounted on a Hummer.

The British did a side-by-side comparison of the .50-cal Browning and the .50-cal Vickers and found the Vickers superior, primarily in reliability.

[KlavoHunter]

“All of you, stand to, and help us unload these supplies,” Schatten snapped, then turned and passed his rifle to Kim. “It’s an M107, hot from the production line. We got you Semtex instead of C-4, its 30 percent more powerful. She, in turn, handed the rifle to McInery, who leaned it against a boulder. The stack of equipment grew until they had received six webbings to carry things in, two slightly modified 0.50 calibre assault rifles, 30 crates of ammunition, 180 kilograms of Semtex with all the requisite electronic fusing, two dozen M24 claymore mines, the same number of AT-4 anti-tank rockets, six pairs of night-vision goggles, and twelve outfits of dark combat fatigues.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... d/m107.htm

Oh my. The M107 looks just like what the doctor ordered, to cure a rash of baldricks...

[Chris OFarrell]

I don't get the Vickers .303 watercooled love. It's clearly inferior to the ultimate weapon:

Water-cooled .50 caliber Brownings.

Twin water cooled fifties are indeed way cool (and quad even better), but I kinda like the rotary barrel GAU-19/A. I mean what's not to love about a thousand half inch bullets per minute?

I posted a nice video of it a day or so ago mounted on a Hummer.

The fact that you have to feed it 1000 half inch bullets every minute.

[Chris OFarrell]

So is the entire Demon army now in full retreat, trying to fall back and regroup near the hellmouth with whats left? Cause they are fucked in that case.

"Satans wraith will be terrible, his retribution swift. The Battle for Iraq is over. The Battle for Earth, is about to begin"

[Cecelia5578]

May I humbly suggest that among the packages that Broomy recieved were these:



The new US Army "Hell" ACU pattern?

DCUs might actually be good in a pinch-or the Marine desert pattern.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Oh, Stuart, what about the Spark Varks? I understand there's 36 of them which are still intact, and that kind of electronic warfare capability might be enormously useful if we can modify the equipment to jam Demonic communications.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

What I want to know is, what would happen if someone who had died and was in hell went through a portal back to Earth. Do they keep the super-healing and everything? Do they go poof?

Let's apply Occam's razor here: Hellish-bodies are biological constructs of the hellish plain of existence. So are demonic bodies. If one can go back and forth, the other can.

Yes, of course they can leave Hell. Anything else would defy all sanity.

But it is also extremely likely that if you die in Hell, even if you haven't died before, you are dead for good. After all, Demons require the carefully tapped energies of millions of other sentients for tens of thousands of years to ascend--that more or less implies automatically that if you die in Hell, you're gone for good, no matter if it's your second or your first death.

[pdf27]

But it is also extremely likely that if you die in Hell, even if you haven't died before, you are dead for good. After all, Demons require the carefully tapped energies of millions of other sentients for tens of thousands of years to ascend--that more or less implies automatically that if you die in Hell, you're gone for good, no matter if it's your second or your first death.

At least, that's what they think. Remember they're at a bronze age level of technology, and until the last chapter humans couldn't ascend to hell except by dying - and now have a way to do it electronically. It's conceivable that humans will find a way of going up to the next level too if they pump enough power into it...

[Crayz9000]

At least, that's what they think. Remember they're at a bronze age level of technology, and until the last chapter humans couldn't ascend to hell except by dying - and now have a way to do it electronically. It's conceivable that humans will find a way of going up to the next level too if they pump enough power into it...

The only catch with that is they need to have a "receiver" on the other side to first establish the link. Once the link is established, the portal can be opened.

So unless the higher beings on the next level are in the habit of messing with the Baldricks' heads, or we devise a better (i.e. one-way) system of opening portals that don't require someone to be on the other side already, then I don't see how that's going to happen.

Also, this brought up thouts about the Dalais. They do live ridiculously long lives, and have strange notions regarding reincarnation. Do you suppose it's possible for perhaps one or two of them to have been previous escapees from Hell?

[Brain_Caster]

But it is also extremely likely that if you die in Hell, even if you haven't died before, you are dead for good.

How so? As of right now we don't even now what keeps people running in hell after they died on Earth. If they can form a body from nothing after their old one get's destroyed once, who says they can't do it again? For all we know, whenever you die in hell you might simply reform somewhere else in hell.

And if that isn't the case and any hell-deaths are permanent, wouldn't that mean that you can get out of "eternal" torture simply by killing yourself? If so, I'd expect a whole lot of people to have taken that option.