Armageddon???? (Part Fifty Up)

[CaptainChewbacca]

Stuart, does GW Bush really refer to HIMSELF as 'Dubya'? I thought that was a less-than-affectionate nickname given to him by the media.

[R011]

Mark, I suspect that he will even get a fire power demonstration similar to those that new Presidents get.

Abigor's already had a vey impressive fire power demo. I would think they'd be very careful about what they show him until they're sure he can be completely trusted. He'll certainly have some kind of "advisor" attached.

[tim31]

Season Four of nBSG could get shitcanned and I wouldn't care as long as this story kept going. That's how friggin' enjoyable it is.

A line in the last chapter made me wonder what the mortality rate was amongst the Salvation Army ranks following the message.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Found the 'six most important words':

The silence in the room deepened. This was unheard-of, the great ones never interfered with the domains of others. When they did, it meant a war. There had been one between Satan and Yahweh already and nobody wanted that experience repeated. Still, Yahweh never interfered in the work of hell, just as Satan never did so with Heaven. Or anywhere else for that matter.

I wonder where else there is...

[Lonestar]

Found the 'six most important words':

The silence in the room deepened. This was unheard-of, the great ones never interfered with the domains of others. When they did, it meant a war. There had been one between Satan and Yahweh already and nobody wanted that experience repeated. Still, Yahweh never interfered in the work of hell, just as Satan never did so with Heaven. Or anywhere else for that matter.

I wonder where else there is...

The Olympians, the Aesir/Vanir....

[kdahm(the same one)]

I've been fishing for a Western 20mm, single barrel autocannon to replace the M2's on Army gear, and haven't found a good one.

Basically, I read it that the 50cal rounds were not especially lethal on the Baldricks (or rather, not lethal as quickly). I was thinking that the land forces would look at a 20mm or 23mm replacement, that will fit in a similar footprint, so that tanks, APCs, and crew served (V)HMGs will have mroe effect on Baldrick legions than the 50BMG. Basically, the equivalent of a switch from the 5.56 to 7.62 on humans for the SAW.

That would of course free up large numbers of M2's for US Volunteers, where they would be really needed. In addition, of course, to the M2A2's produced by Stuart's plan.

The only one I found that was even close was the single barrel 20mm Oerlikan from WW2. My google-fu is weak today, although that may have something to do with 6 hours sleep in the last three nights.

Another thought - if a Baldrick appears in the Projects, whether Chicago or Detroit, will it rampage around for a good while before a response team arrives, or will the dealers quickly ventilate him because he's, you know, killing customers?

Off to the bed shaped object....

[KlavoHunter]

Another thought - if a Baldrick appears in the Projects, whether Chicago or Detroit, will it rampage around for a good while before a response team arrives, or will the dealers quickly ventilate him because he's, you know, killing customers?

Doubtful - gang elements do not carry heavy firepower, the likes of which you need to put down a Baldrick - remember the mall scene? They only managed to kill it when they brought in hunting rifles firing full-calibre rounds - something that I can't imagine the stereotypical gangbanger owning. The Berserker would end up killing a whole lot of people until the USVs arrived.

On the other hand, they might eventually kill it out of blood loss, after putting enough relatively small-calibre rounds into it.

[Academia Nut]

"Citizens! A rampaging baldrick is highly resistant to small calibre fire, and studies have shown that they can retain 67% of combat effectiveness even when an entire 30 round magazine from an M-16 is unloaded into their torso. Instead, you should concentrate fire on the head.

Would you like to know more?"

[Darth Wong]

Another thought - if a Baldrick appears in the Projects, whether Chicago or Detroit, will it rampage around for a good while before a response team arrives, or will the dealers quickly ventilate him because he's, you know, killing customers?

Doubtful - gang elements do not carry heavy firepower, the likes of which you need to put down a Baldrick - remember the mall scene? They only managed to kill it when they brought in hunting rifles firing full-calibre rounds - something that I can't imagine the stereotypical gangbanger owning. The Berserker would end up killing a whole lot of people until the USVs arrived.

On the other hand, they might eventually kill it out of blood loss, after putting enough relatively small-calibre rounds into it.

Or they manage to put one into its brain.

[KlavoHunter]

Or they manage to put one into its brain.

.50 calibre rounds to the head have been shown to not be 100% effective in killing a Baldrick. I suspect a pistol round would not do the trick unless it was an absurdly lucky shot; IE, went in the eye and managed to bounce around the brain.

[Darth Wong]

Or they manage to put one into its brain.

.50 calibre rounds to the head have been shown to not be 100% effective in killing a Baldrick. I suspect a pistol round would not do the trick unless it was an absurdly lucky shot; IE, went in the eye and managed to bounce around the brain.

A baldrick has a huge head, and a shot to the head is not guaranteed to hit its brain. But if a bullet should strike its brain and scramble it, the baldrick will go down hard. It has been made quite clear earlier in the story that creatures from hell do in fact have physical brains which serve the same purpose that ours do.

[Sidewinder]

As for the reinactors in the US Volunteer units. They could carry modern muzzleloaders. .50 calibre sabot rounds fired using mass produced pre made ammunition, available in store that sell hunting supplies, will be nasty.

I don't really get the point of buying muzzleloaders, but from what I've read in magazines like 'Field & Stream', hunters buy them to intentionally handicap themselves so the hunt will be more challenging, and these people can be compared to those who use a bow and arrows. But the obvious difficulty with reloading will keep muzzleloaders out of any contemporary military unit, i.e., the fact that if you miss, by the time you're done reloading, the Baldrick is already close enough to disembowel you.

[Darth Wong]

As far as arming civilians against baldrick attacks, wouldn't the 12ga slug be the most logical choice? Shotguns are in wide circulation, so it's just a matter of people buying ammunition. And civilians aren't going to be dealing with major incursions; just the occasional baldrick showing up in a crowd. You would think that the limited range of such a weapon wouldn't be a big problem in that context.

[Sidewinder]

I've been fishing for a Western 20mm, single barrel autocannon to replace the M2's on Army gear, and haven't found a good one.

A 20 mm autocannon would be too heavy to be a .50 cal replacement. You might get away with something firing the Russian 14.5 mm, though.

Another thought - if a Baldrick appears in the Projects, whether Chicago or Detroit, will it rampage around for a good while before a response team arrives, or will the dealers quickly ventilate him because he's, you know, killing customers?

That would certainly be an amusing sight.

[JCady]

And JCady, those four hundred were what was left of his sixty legions, you know, the ones that got blown to pieces?

I'm pointing out that since he was ordered reinforce his survivors with women and children, he should have had more than four hundred unless that order only applied to his own clan as opposed to his entire command.

Sixty legions worth of women and children should be within an order of magnitude of size as the legions themselves.

He was ordered to reinforce his survivors with women and children from his own family. That won't add a whole lot of numbers, and many of the survivors might have died after reaching Hell.

That's what I was saying. It was not clear whether the women and children order applied to his family, to the families of all his survivors, or to the families of his entire army.

[Darth Wong]

I'm pointing out that since he was ordered reinforce his survivors with women and children, he should have had more than four hundred unless that order only applied to his own clan as opposed to his entire command.

Sixty legions worth of women and children should be within an order of magnitude of size as the legions themselves.

He was ordered to reinforce his survivors with women and children from his own family. That won't add a whole lot of numbers, and many of the survivors might have died after reaching Hell.

That's what I was saying. It was not clear whether the women and children order applied to his family, to the families of all his survivors, or to the families of his entire army.

It seemed clear enough to me.

[Beowulf]

I've been fishing for a Western 20mm, single barrel autocannon to replace the M2's on Army gear, and haven't found a good one.

A 20 mm autocannon would be too heavy to be a .50 cal replacement. You might get away with something firing the Russian 14.5 mm, though.

XM312. Sure, it's actually 25mm, and a bit low RPM, but you do have the added punch of explosive rounds. Probably require simplification though (toss the sight, and make the rounds point detonating). Lower recoil than the M2 as well, apparently, so it's sure to fit just fine on the mounts, without needing reinforcement.

[KlavoHunter]

A baldrick has a huge head, and a shot to the head is not guaranteed to hit its brain.

Indeed, there's no guarantee.

But if a bullet should strike its brain and scramble it, the baldrick will go down hard. It has been made quite clear earlier in the story that creatures from hell do in fact have physical brains which serve the same purpose that ours do.

Oh, entirely agreed there - I just hold the opinion that the average stereotypical gangbanger holding his Glock sideways is most likely not possessed of the accuracy to reliably achieve such a shot that enters the brain.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'd invest in a Mag 10 Roadblocker for the car, but that's just a personal preference as a civilian weapon for personal defence in the event of a raid.

[Robo Jesus]

Found the 'six most important words':

The silence in the room deepened. This was unheard-of, the great ones never interfered with the domains of others. When they did, it meant a war. There had been one between Satan and Yahweh already and nobody wanted that experience repeated. Still, Yahweh never interfered in the work of hell, just as Satan never did so with Heaven. Or anywhere else for that matter.

I wonder where else there is...

What idiot dares disturb the peaceful slumber of the great Prince Laharl?!

[Shroom Man 777]

Sometimes I just can't believe the rate with which this story progresses. Mang. It's faaaaast.

[Sea Skimmer]

As far as arming civilians against baldrick attacks, wouldn't the 12ga slug be the most logical choice?

A shotgun would be best for close range killing power, but it’s a subpar weapon in the event of say a Harpy attack when you might really need the reach and long range accuracy of a rifle. Rate of fire is also an issue, lots of detachable box magazine fed rifles are around and millions will be produced, but detachable box magazine shotguns are rare in the US since most of them are (or they were until real recently anyway) illegal or banned from import.

[Shroom Man 777]

The AA-12 might be shitty for all of the reasons you folks pointed out, but with an ad campaign, I can easily see civvies buying these auto-shotguns in droves!

[pdf27]

It was found that there was no shortage of potential NCOs among the volunteers and on average the recruits were more intelligent than the pre-war recruits; recalled reservists were certainly impressed with the quality of recruit.

Much the same is true of the TA - the universal comment you hear is that the TA learn much, much faster than the regulars. One caveat though - the TA are volunteers who really want to be there and are willing to give up their free time to do so. That won't be true of the conscripts.

...and possibly 4th Mech back into 4th Armoured because it seems that heavy units are better able to deal with baldricks than light formations.

Ummm... be a bit careful on that one, the Baldricks have no anti-armour capability at all so far as we've seen, so there may be a preference for light armour over heavy (MUCH cheaper and easier to make). The advantage heavy armour has had to date is that it carries heavier firepower - a legacy of it's previous task of fighting other heavily armoured vehicles. Something designed from the ground up to fight Baldricks won't have the armour although it may have the firepower.

[Shroom Man 777]

Depends if the Baldrick can crush your LAV like a tin can...