davebarrack
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Grrl Power #1307 - Batmax
🕑 Added 2024-11-25 11:00:10 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys are awesome!
What Maxima is implying about the split decision is that the sniper competition judges were probably a bunch of boy's club old school military types, so naturally anything resembling a tie goes to the "can write name in snow" club.
By "in the service," Maxima means the Air Force specifically. A branch not usually renown for their snipers. Which isn't to say there aren't USAF special ops sniper teams or anything, but if you had to rank the branches in terms of who's the sniperiest, it's probably the... Army first? Like, just by sheer volume, plus various special forces. Then it's kind of a toss up between the Marines and the Navy, which is weird, because initially I'm like, why would the Navy even have snipers, but then I'm like, oh right, the SEALS.
My point is, the Air Force only doesn't come in last because of the Coast Guard. I won't say the Coast Guard definitely don't have a special forces sniper team... but they seem the least likely of any branch. I know I could google it, but it amuses me not to.
What I do know that the Air Force has lots of special ops teams that explore alien worlds and fight the Goa'uld. I mean, if Stargate SG-1 taught me anything, it's that a P90 can definitely dunk on a Staff Weapon. Yeah, you know what clip that is, but you're going to click anyway cause it's baller and it's worth rewatching at least once a year in perpetuity.
Not sure why I dedicated 1/3 of the page to a drive by on injera. I've only had Ethiopian food once, and honestly, it was fine. I mean, the meat, spices, etc. But, if you don't know what injera is - I couldn't blame you, I had to look it up - it's like nan/pita/tortilla, except it's thinner, spongey and kind of... wet? At least the one I had was. Ethiopian dishes, or at least one category of them, are served on a big injera, like a scoop of 5 different things, and you rip up the injera and use it to scoop up your choice of... topping. Filling, dip, whatever.
Now, I know the burning question you have is, "Why is the American Airbase in Afghanistan serving Ethiopian food?" Simple, the hospital has an Ethiopian chef on staff. Now your next question might be, "Dave, is inflicting Ethiopian culinary sensibilities on American servicemen who are probably mostly used to MREs and relatively unadventurous chow hall cuisine, who are also in the hospital for one reason or another, possibly on drugs that make their whole GI tract a little iffy to start with, a recipe for ensuing hilarity?" Yes.
Comments
Mike
I was MC, I don't think I ever saw crunchy lettuce.
Mark Magagna
Relative speed does depend on range. You can see the projectile from an Abrams main gun, if you're watching from the side and far enough away. Of course, that's still hundreds of thousands of times slower than any energy weapon bolt, which either move at the speed of light (because they are light) or some large fraction of it.
Mark Magagna
But then, the same thing applies to ordinary firearms. If you're a main character, you clutch your arm. Or you don't get hit because you hid behind a hedge. If you're an extra, you either explode or do a Wilhelm scream off a high place. At least, if you're watching an action movie. If it's a "realistic" movie, then things might be different.
Mark Magagna
"A gold lady with purple hair just walked into the hospital." "Must be Tuesday. Or we've been invaded by Venus, who want our men."
Eric Loken
@Dave: Space 1999 where their lasers never seemed to work on any alien being. So yeah, older sci-fi space guns were pretty useless. Unless they were alien space guns used on primitive humans (War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still), then they were pretty damn effective. But at least in SG1 the Staff Weapon hit pretty hard, even if it was incredibly inaccurate and stupidly bulky. Star Trek's phasers are pretty effective (mostly), but suffer from all the other problems I mentioned. I have noticed that in the newest Star Trek they have changed phasers to fire as fast as a semi-auto pistol with a faster bolt (which as Mark says is still moving slower than an arrow).
Beechwood Chip
Why would Maxima not just enter the hospital and visit a soldier/patient like a normal person? Her super powers are classified, so why use them where there are dozens of witnesses? Is it just "Rule of Cool"?
Mark Magagna
Misquoting a character in another comic "I would read the f*ck out of that."
Mark Magagna
Lack of salt, sugar and fat is probably the cause. Many patients are proscribed from any but extremely low levels of one of more of those (possibly wrongly, but that's another matter). If you don't have those, the food may be healthy, but it's not going to taste nearly as good. This goes for many sauces and spices as well. Ketchup? Sugar and/or fat. Most spicy sauces? The same.
Mark Magagna
Has Peggy actually managed to get out of bed and go over to the window yet? Probably not if she's still hooked up to a heart rate monitor. From where the bed is, at most she'd be able to see that it's probably not the ground floor.
Mark Magagna
Yeah, dodging an energy weapon bolt is pretty much like trying to dodge someone about to shine a laser pointer at you. Most energy bolts on the other hand, are shown as moving considerably slower than an arrow.
Person
I thought they established that when she moves that fast the... atmospheric effects are non-trivial. Like maybe "blow out all the windows with the pressure wave" non-trivial.
Mark Magagna
That would be very audible. See earlier references where she uses super-speed. She actually knocks sitting people off the couch where they were sitting. They probably needed healing for e.g. hearing damage, though that was skipped over.
Person
Plumpy Nut?
Dave Barrack
When watching old Sci-fi like Dr. Who, I always think, "All these energy weapons are so much less effective than a (ballistic) gun. People get hit all the time, and if they're not a background character, they grab their arm and go "arr" but then they're fine. There's no lasting damage, no blood loss, no chance for infection." One guy with a .22 would terrorize that world. Their only advantage usually is they never seem to run out of their ineffective ammo.
Michael Strödick
Everyone can write their name in the snow. You just distinguish between child scribbles and death metal band logo.
Martin Drkoš
Max actually super-speeded inside, unlatched the window, went back outside and then came in trough the window.
Teksura
Like she heard them talking about it from the story and decided to try it out. Heh. Is Ethiopian food spicy enough for her though?
eddi_TBH
Sydney versus an Ethiopian Restaurant. Like she did the noodle place, so long ago.
eddi_TBH
When they have to, assume major intel failures and critical rescues of the sort of people who normally handle these problems. As well as, like Max, looking out for their own.
eddi_TBH
Cynicism in the job description.
eddi_TBH
If she's in the right mood, Max might do it anyway. Math certainly would.
eddi_TBH
But they eat barrels like a teen going through a bag of chips.
eddi_TBH
Low profile is an Air Force specialty. See "Stealth Aircraft" for further details.
eddi_TBH
Depends on the power source. How small can an anti-matter reactor be made?
eddi_TBH
Peggy is about to get a visit from the Code Blue team.
JasonAW3
Probably a hospital that high ranking officers and dignitaries go to... like Prime Ministers and Presidents...
JasonAW3
I think, at first, they were using standard rounds, which sparked. When they figured out that their armor was as good as our bullet resistant gear, they started using AP rounds. Tungsten core rounds with a hight enough powder load, are seriously nasty...
JasonAW3
Maybe some day, when you go to a convention, near someplace that serves Ethiopian food...
JasonAW3
Don't even ask what the Ethiopians thought peanut butter was...
JasonAW3
Don't even ask what the Ethiopeans thought peanut butter was...
JasonAW3
"Why would a window open from the outside?" Because Max timed her forcing the lock on the window to when Peggy was taking a bite through a crunchy part of her sandwich. Properly timed on most of the older latches would pop with comparatively little sound. Military and VA hospitals take YEARS to update, especially ones for the US military in Europe..
Person
Right there with you.
Eric Loken
Re: P90 vs. Staff Weapon (what an original name....) Most energy weapons in sci-fi are crap compared to a standard slug thrower. They have a low rate of fire, they don't have sights, their bolts are absurdly slow (okay, I know that's just so the audience has something to see, although characters have dodged bolts and even beams that should be going at an extremely high fraction of c), they tend to be overly bulky, they are often easier to defend against than a simple bullet (Borg, Replicators), and other issues. The only strengths energy weapons tend to have is that they can hit really hard - although it's often overkill - and seem to have high ammo capacity (although, not always). In reality there is serious debate if a DEW will ever be practical as a personal weapon.
Eric
Every service has it's Elite unit/s whose skills have to respected and commended. Even the Coasties with the Mosties are to be respected. When your unofficial motto is "We gotta go out, we don't have to come back" well...
Seth Ruskin
In the words of Dave, "Well if you're going to make sense, how am I supposed to argue with you?"
Hugh Eckert
Yeah, some of my favorites!
Mathew Aaberg
Rule of cool always wins in fiction, and occasionally IRL.
Mathew Aaberg
I just googled that because I thought you were pulling our leg.... The USAF really need to rebrand, those are terrible names. I mean Helljumpers might be fictional but its right there, thieve it and suddenly you go from wow lame to badass. "To hell and back sir!"
Mathew Aaberg
It says RPG, I think it's just a dodgy font.
Mathew Aaberg
Never a wasted day with Dave around. :D
Todd Ellner
And it has some excellent vegetarian dishes.
Todd Ellner
Ethiopian cooking rocks, African with some old, strong Indian influences
Hugh Eckert
Sidney might like Ethiopian food. Some of it is super-spicy, and you also get to mix and match things from your plate and roll them into soft bread. Now I want Ethiopian food.
Hugh Eckert
I used to live in the DC area (best place in the US for Ethiopian food) and ate Ethiopian food a lot. Never had bad injera. I love Ethiopian food and miss it a lot.
Stephen Bobchin
Fun fact, Kandahar Air Field had multiple national dfacs for the various countries who were deployed there.
Erin Palette
Seeing how I was a child in the 1980s during the Ethiopian Famine, when "We Are The World" was popular and MRE stood for "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians", every time I see a reference to Ethiopian cuisine I need to consciously stomp down a shitty, sarcastic reply.
Paul Williams
The Marines are a pseudo-separate service. The Commandant of the Marine Corps holds a separate billet on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but they fall under the Department of the Navy and the Secretary of the Navy. Midshipmen at the Naval Academy (and through NROTC) can commission into either the Navy or the Marine Corps. There are Navy ships whose primary purpose is to support Marine operations (amphibious or otherwise). My understanding is that the Space Force holds a somewhat similar position under the Department of the Air Force, with the Air Force Academy (and presumably AF ROTC) being the primary commissioning source for SF officers. I don't know enough about the Space Force to know the extent of a continuing relationship between AF and SF similar to Navy and Marines.
Paul Williams
I'll take your word for it. I watched a fair amount of SG-1 and a little bit of the spin-off series, but it's been a long time ago and I freely admit I don't remember that.
gaijin 99
Maybe my local Ethiopian place does better injera than most?
StLOrca
Can I just say I love the absolute breadth and depth of knowledge here? I've just learned about the interservice badassery of snipers, how hospital windows work, and the technical details of a P-90. And toasted bread vs Injera.
FuzzyDragon Cosplay
The white death was a badass
A Patreon of the Ahts
Shouldn't RPS be RPG?
Aaron Mauthe
I’m gonna guess it only happens when a high ranking officer is running the hospital, thus necessitating that they be there often, and has a few E4s (or other branch equivalents) running the cargo manifests, ostensibly to make sure their hospital is well supplied.
Aaron Mauthe
JUST NOW?!?! THERE WAS AN ENTIRE PAGE DEDICATED TO SYDNEY HAVING A PANIC ATTACK ABOUT IT
Philip Masters
As I recall, the British Navy certainly used to have trained marksmen, if only to deal with eliminating old-school sea mines when necessary. One ex-sailor I met had a story about meeting an army sergeant who was kind of sniffy about them, and winning the argument by way of the range. When RN sailors have a job to do, they always do it competently. (That's aside from any Royal Marines snipers, of course, who I'm sure are as good as most.)
Th3 JimP
USCG MSRT and HITRON snipers were 9th and 11th in the USASOC in 2024 and 2023, respectively. We don't employ professional snipers, so the skill set is rare in our breed. M Bair is right, though. Shooting moving human sized engine targets from a moving in flight or planing watercraft ain't no frickin joke.
Eric
Air Force PJ, baby! When the Seals need a Rescue, the Parajumpers answer the call!
Justaguy
There's also the just "what if it wasn't locked?"
Person
I thought the Marines were split off several years ago, at least as far as their budget is concerned.
Person
Ah, but you're forgetting that SG-1 uses magic Goauld armor piercing rounds. Remember how their rounds just sparked off that armor until they developed the new-n-improved stuff?
Stephen Gilberg
There are a lot of Ethiopian restaurants in my neighborhood. I tried two many years ago and can't bring myself to try again because of the injera.
Dave Barrack
Well now I want to write a story arc with a big injera payoff. :/
Dave Barrack
Uh, based on the blurry mess outside the window... 3rd floor?
Seth Ruskin
Oh. I'm sorry. I forgot the rules. They're so Santa can get in to nibble on your cookies and leave you a special gift when you don't have an accessible chimney. Better?
Dave Barrack
Yeah, like I said, I only had it the one time. It's not like you can go into a Chili's and get Ethiopian. You pretty much need to go to an explicitly Ethiopian place to get it. I'd totally be willing to try it again.
Paul Williams
I suspect Space Force would be at the bottom of the list for snipers, although they can probably shoot with the longest distance if they ever get to do so out of atmosphere. 🤣. Let me wirelessly link my rifle to Hubble and let her rip down range! (Yes, I know that’s not feasible.) The Stargate clip is funny, but I’ve fired a P90 and there is no way it could chew through a log like that with less than one magazine. The 5.7x28 is one of my favorite rounds (other than being very expensive). I own three pistols chambered for 5.7 (including one using the 50-round, top-loading magazine used by the P90). The round is small and high-velocity with very low recoil; not one that will chew through a log like a .50 cal machine gun (and I’m not sure it could do it in that few rounds). It tends to be very accurate, so I could see it severing the rope holding the log, though (aided by the weight of the log tearing the rope).
Dave Barrack
Well if you're going to make sense, how am I supposed to argue with you?
M Bair
Coast Guard snipers have a skill unique among snipers though. Firing at a speedboat engine with a .50bmg Barett from a strap attached to the open door of a helicopter. From a moving shooting position to a moving target through rotor wash is kinda hardcore.
Seth Ruskin
Outside locks on windows facilitate fire rescue or other external initiated rescue operation without requiring use of breaking the window. You use them on windows where you assume no one's going to attempt to break in but someone may need help getting out via ladder or some such.
Simon Magid
Honorary mention should go to Finnish snipers. Those are scary, scary people. Okay, any professional sniper is really scary. But I personally reserve a special respect for the Finns.
Simon Magid
I have yet to encounter ANY hospital food that was worse than the meal I was served the one time I flew British Airways. Seriously. And I have encountered pretty bad hospital food.
Simon Magid
@Andrew: The mind boggles. Maxima with Baymax personality. She beats you up very politely and then asks on a scale of 1 to 10 how pulverized you feel. O.O
Simon Magid
It's good to keep track of what is important in life. My admiration to your friend :)
Opus the Poet
My Dad used to shoot with the base rifle team (1000 yards with iron sights!) with the Marine detachment. He's not with us anymore and neither is the base we were at. I was looking and most of the places are not bases now, I could only find one that was still open and it's not a Navy base anymore. For the people who complain their childhood was ruined, mine was obliterated.
Town Crier
Ah. A good lieutenant is even more humble than God. Here I thought that Peggy got stuck with a crappy BLT. I was thinking that since the bread was untoasted, it was the tomato that was crunchy. The last time I visited a friend in the hospital in the Twin Cities, he was happy as a hog in a mudhole, because he could order all the bacon that he wanted. That, along with a decent southern-style sweet tea, and he felt that losing the lower portion of his left leg was well worth it. I thought that he had a pretty healthy attitude at the time.
gaijin 99
Dude, injera is flipping AWESEOME! The spice mix is designed to pair perfectly with the slightly sour flavor, and if they're wet you've probably done something wrong since they're only "wet" in the sense that fresh bread is wet. Yes, the one being used as a platter to hold the other stuff is going to get soaked. The ones you tear apart to use as eating utensils/carbs aren't supposed to.
James C
I'm sure that Dabbler has a spell for that... even if only in part(s)
Andrew
The title first made me think of Baymax. So hear me out - still gold with super strength/power/speed, but… inflatable.
Steve Ronuken
Catenary is a bitch. (Or so I've heard.)
KnightRider007
Keeping in mind that as far back as page 83, Max is established as an activist who will likely *assume* sexism by default.
A Patreon of the Ahts
Charles beckworth's book called Delta force mentioned.What's the head competition and secret service was the only outfit that was better than them at sniping.
Brett Peirce
Also, can't use the window's hardware itself to lock it when it has an A/C unit hanging out of it - likely some extra hardware can accomplish it.
KnightRider007
Yeeeah, that’s right up there with “implying” that any high-ranking female officer got her position through affirmative action.
Darkstand
So.... what floor is that window on? I mean, we know she can fly, but does Peggy (yeee gods I just realized the pun there) actually know that at this time?
Michael Obert
First instance I can recall of hospital food being designated better than any other food. I'm sure it happens, but I've never seen it
Justaguy
Err the marines ARE the navy also. "marine -> Mariner" "Yes, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) is part of the United States Department of the Navy. The USMC has been part of the Department of the Navy since June 30, 1834. The USMC operates on land and on amphibious warfare ships, and some of its tactical aviation squadrons operate from aircraft carriers. "
Opus the Poet
Yeppers, those stats are superhuman.
Smallmoon
No, Max is realizing that she's found a Bucky.
Randy Kittelson
The US Air Force doesn't go hands on often. When they do though, they go hard.
Teksura
I think the injera talk is a nice touch. It's just casual conversation. A lot of webcomics out there don't put that in a lot, instead focusing their precious dialogue for plot progression or gags. But allowing casual conversation means we get to see the characters just behaving like normal people do. Like mutually complaining about the food they have to eat. We'll never see any big injera based payoff, but that's okay. Sometimes life is just life.
Hamish Clarkson
Immediately googled it. Apparently there are snipers in the coast guard. Dudes snipe from helicopters. Damn.
Thomas Dorner
You can open them because they haven't been properly locked. (That was an easy one. ;-)
Forecaster
When Maxima asks a window to open it will open from the outside
Rhadan
Must be a military hospital. Regular ones have windows that don't even open, just in case someone would decide to jump from it ... Maxima is leaning in hard.
3of4
Well, looks like Max is suddenly realizing she wants a Bucky.
