Page 213: The Bug Hunt is on!

[Cthulhu]

Were there any "bug hunt" scenarios in the TCA training? But without a weapon, will he have to hijack Fireblade's telekinesis to swat the bugs now? I don't think that the standard infantry training encompassed this, too.

Page 213Show

Also, is that a Martian dome in the flashback panel?

[Werra]

Don't expect heroics from Alex here. He has to measure up to born and bred warriors and is fighting a totally alien enemy. If he pulls his own weight, he's doing well.

Is it just me or are the Loroi taking a break? Fireblade was crouched beside the door and she has her back turned to it now, hasn't she?

SpoilerShow

an alternatives

[CrimsonFALKE]

Are those laser weapons he has or dud rifles I see no actions, ejection ports or safety on the human guns.

[Cthulhu]

Are those laser weapons he has or dud rifles I see no actions, ejection ports or safety on the human guns.

They could be training rifles that do not fire, merely simulate the shots. You don't want stray bullets to hit that dome in the background.

Don't expect heroics from Alex here. He has to measure up to born and bred warriors and is fighting a totally alien enemy. If he pulls his own weight, he's doing well.

But he's the protagonist of a comic! Soon enough, he'll rip those bugs to shreds with his bare hands.

Is it just me or are the Loroi taking a break? Fireblade was crouched beside the door and she has her back turned to it now, hasn't she?

They are activating their blasters.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Are those laser weapons he has or dud rifles I see no actions, ejection ports or safety on the human guns.

The ejection ports would be on the right-hand side to throw the spent cartridge away from the shooter's face.  The safeties could be a lateral thumb-operated slide just below and to the rear of the bolt, or a similar arrangement just forward of the trigger guard.  There could also be a "squeeze-safety" built into the hand-grip that prevents an accidental discharge if the weapon is dropped.

If they were laser-based training weapons, then Alex should acclimate to the Loroi weapons quickly.  That looks like a cartridge magazine just rearward of Alex's left hand, however.  The ear-muffs and safety goggles are a dead giveaway -- those were projectile weapons (e.g., "slug-throwers") the TCA cadets were using.

As for exhibiting so much indecision/reluctance ... it does not make sense.  In the Navy, we learned that when the ship is threatened, everyone becomes a combatant, a firefighter, a hull-repair technician, or any combination as the need arises.

"Gimme a weapon and tell me where to shoot" would be my response when Beryl first posed the question.

[Arent]

Spiral has to survive.

Everything else isn't important.

[Krulle]

Indeed, we all here would sacrifice Alex to keep Spiral, and Shoegirl (Cloud) alive!

[Snoofman]

That's some mighty firepower Beryl is hefting. No matter their castes, every loroi that passes training really is a warrior! Even the nerdy, science ones!

As for Alex, not sure how he'll be the hero of the story. But perhaps he will impress the loroi not with his physical prowess or skills in combat. But rather demonstrate his worth with his diplomatic as well as tactical skills. He did after all best Talon at a game of Crossfire. When word of this starts to spread among the loroi, the higher ups may very well be demanding games matches with him. Wait till he introduces Chess.

[CrimsonFALKE]

Are those laser weapons he has or dud rifles I see no actions, ejection ports or safety on the human guns.

The ejection ports would be on the right-hand side to throw the spent cartridge away from the shooter's face.  The safeties could be a lateral thumb-operated slide just below and to the rear of the bolt, or a similar arrangement just forward of the trigger guard.  There could also be a "squeeze-safety" built into the hand-grip that prevents an accidental discharge if the weapon is dropped.

If they were laser-based training weapons, then Alex should acclimate to the Loroi weapons quickly.  That looks like a cartridge magazine just rearward of Alex's left hand, however.  The ear-muffs and safety goggles are a dead giveaway -- those were projectile weapons (e.g., "slug-throwers") the TCA cadets were using.

As for exhibiting so much indecision/reluctance ... it does not make sense.  In the Navy, we learned that when the ship is threatened, everyone becomes a combatant, a firefighter, a hull-repair technician, or any combination as the need arises.

"Gimme a weapon and tell me where to shoot" would be my response when Beryl first posed the question.

Well kudos for not going with a bullpup rifle. Although that now makes me wonder what do the ballistic rifles use to disperse heat in vacuum.

[Arioch]

There's no ejection port; the ammunition is caseless. The selector and safety is at the thumb.

[icekatze]

hi hi

Seems like the long waiting period matches up with some people's concerns on the previous page about the shuttle being well off course from the jump point. Guess the Umiak had to swing back around.

If they were laser-based training weapons, then Alex should acclimate to the Loroi weapons quickly.  That looks like a cartridge magazine just rearward of Alex's left hand, however.  The ear-muffs and safety goggles are a dead giveaway --

Although Arioch has confirmed that they're ballistic weapons, laser weapons would definitely require safety goggles, and possibly benefit from ear protection too. Polarized goggles would be absolutely necessary to prevent burning out one's own eyes from any amount of reflection, and if a laser is powerful enough to ionize the air it passes through, it could make potentially a rather loud snap.

Well kudos for not going with a bullpup rifle. Although that now makes me wonder what do the ballistic rifles use to disperse heat in vacuum.

If it's not a radiator, they could potentially use an internal heat sink. Lithium is a good choice since it has a high specific heat and a relatively high vaporization temperature.

[Keklas Rekobah]

There's no ejection port; the ammunition is caseless. The selector and safety is at the thumb.

CASELESS?!

With all it's inherent drawbacks?

TCA science must have made some dramatic advances since the current day.

But I suppose if I can accept faster-than-light transportation, telepathic space-elves, and cyborged bug-oids in the far future, I can accept effective caseless ammo as well.

[inxsi]

Bets on if Alex gets:
1. One of the Loroi rifles
2. Beryl's sidearm (or equivalent from the shuttle)
3. Absolutely not arming the pink eye-candy (he'll shoot his eye out... Fireblade might be ok with that?)

[Zorg56]

There's no ejection port; the ammunition is caseless. The selector and safety is at the thumb.

CASELESS?!

With all it's inherent drawbacks?

TCA science must have made some dramatic advances since the current day.

But I suppose if I can accept faster-than-light transportation, telepathic space-elves, and cyborged bug-oids in the far future, I can accept effective caseless ammo as well.

Caseless have some significant drawbacks regardless of how good TCA sience will get.
They significantly increase weapon temeprature (brass removes a lot with itself being ejected), it dosent simplify firearm in any measure, and entire set of problems with gas sealing, while its main advantage- larger amount of ammunition at hand, is hardly anything worthy in a spaceship interior. (it is not like security teams onboard gona cary them on 20 km long marches)
If anything TCA should teach its student to use relatively large caliber weapons with self closing cases (probably some version of 12,7x55) to avoid filling spaceship interior with gunpowder gases and great stopping power.

[dragoongfa]

At the tech level the TCA is at, those are almost certainly the baseline reservist/training weaponry with their main frontline weaponry being made up by a mix of lasers and high powered projectiles (my guess for the later would be somesort of a railgun for the heavy punch and high precision gyrojets).

The case of caseless weapons would be for massproduced and easy to use weapons for rear line and low intensity duties; there to be as a deterrent and self defense weapon for specialist personnel in case of an emergency. Much like how submachine guns are today.

I imagine that the joke goes like this:

Poor Scrub: Sir, how much good will this do for me when the other guys have laser rifles and gyrojets?
Officer: If you are lucky, they will duck for cover and waste enough time for your backup to reach you. If I am lucky they will waste something expensive to quickly move past you.

[Demetrious]

Caseless have some significant drawbacks regardless of how good TCA sience will get.

By the time a species is flying around in fusion torch-ships, handling the issues of caseless ammo is pretty trivial. Remember that caseless ammo was invented a good hundred years ago in our world (nitrated paper cartridges for revolvers.) Firearms tech is on the opposite end of the scale from computers; where the cutting edge is always preferable in computing despite frequent crashes, issues, etc., with firearms absolute reliability is required so design innovations will often first emerge a hundred years (or more!) before they finally mature into a properly serviceable state. A lot of design innovations are waiting on advances in materiel science or such. Right now, in the real world, the US military has a design using telescoped ammunition that's near ready to enter service, and that same firearm has a telescoped caseless version that's also performed surprisingly well: linky There's also some very innovative new designs that fundamentally rethink the traditional firearm action in a fashion that will work much, much better for magazine-fed caseless ammo.

In practical terms, the TCA's rifles are most likely benefiting from carbon-fiber composite barrels. Those exist right now in real life, but the TCA likely has the fabled l o n g carbon nanotubes to work with - the kind you could build a space elevator with, for instance. The very high operating temperatures barrels and actions made of (or coated with) such materiel can achieve also directly translate to an ability to get rid of that heat, due to the Stefan-Boltzmann law. Simply put, the efficiency with which something radiates away thermal energy as electromagnetic (infared) radiation increases exponentially with its actual temperature. (I learned this playing Children of a Dead Earth when I got confused as to why my spaceship's conventional cannons had no overheating issues in vacuum - turns out, even when limited to current materiel science, spaceship-sized guns simply have the thermal mass needed to hit those higher temperatures without a problem. With current tech you could do the same with small arms at the cost of a rather hefty barrel to sink the heat.)

I'm curious to see what kind of small arms weaponry the Loroi utilize. Even for them, kinetic weapons should be perfectly effective in most conceivable roles, but people trucking around with better than antimatter drives have an awful lot of options open to them, too.

[Dan Wyatt]

There's no ejection port; the ammunition is caseless. The selector and safety is at the thumb.

Arioch, there's an issue in the top right panel on page 213, Alex got some weird eyes.

Also, on a side note:

https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider200.html

The topmost tab bar in my browser shows "Outsider Chapter Two", where it should be "Outsider Chapter Three". This is coming for all Chapter three pages. Is it a site-specific issue?

[Krulle]

I was wondering what you were complaining about, but indeed, the browser tab says "Chapter Two" (ont he webpage everything seems fine, besides the missing page 3 cover, which we all know about)

[Arioch]

Arioch, there's an issue in the top right panel on page 213, Alex got some weird eyes.

I don't know what you mean by "weird eyes."

Also, on a side note:

https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider200.html

The topmost tab bar in my browser shows "Outsider Chapter Two", where it should be "Outsider Chapter Three". This is coming for all Chapter three pages. Is it a site-specific issue?

Yeah, I forgot to update the template. Thanks.

[Arent]

There's no ejection port; the ammunition is caseless. The selector and safety is at the thumb.

Arioch, there's an issue in the top right panel on page 213, Alex got some weird eyes.

I think he is meant to be under stress, maybe even tearing up or scared in the face of possible death.

I think the eyes/facial expression seems appropriate for that, unless I missed something.