The K-101
Kadastrattik sat quietly, his hand still on the cutoff switch for the communication wand on the arm of his Bridge chair. He thought very rapidly for a few moments, and then stood up.
“Tactical, are any forms of energy emissions directed at us from the planet’s surface?”
The Tactical officer examined all of his readouts carefully. “No, Commander. No unusual energy sources from the planet’s surface. The communications signal has stopped. There are the usual electromagnetic communications transmissions, and one and one-half cycles ago there was a subspace transmission from the transmitter on their low-orbit docking tower. All traffic appears routine.”
“Give me a global scan of the area.”
“Scanning now, Commander. Space scans clear for one hundred thousand kilos around the ship. The human cargo ship left orbit six cycles ago, Commander. There is no other detectable ship traffic.”
“And as far as we know, they can’t cloak a ship,” Kadastrattik mused. “Weapons, status.”
“Commander, anti-proton projectors are warmed, charged and ready. Torpedo bays report loaded and ready, all weapons are on-line.”
“Excellent.” Kadastrattik crossed over to the Weapons station. “Since they know we are here, perhaps it is time to send a more stringent message. Tie in the targeting computer of the number one forward anti-proton projector to the main scanner and pick up the antennae for the subspace transmitter. Very carefully, now – target the antennae only, not the power source or the tower itself. We shall cut off their ability to communicate with their fellows on other worlds, and now that the cargo ship has departed, there will be no way for them to call for assistance. Then,” Kadastrattik grinned wickedly, “Perhaps this Director Pritchard and I will speak again.”
The whole process took less than fifteen seconds. “Commander, target is acquired, I am ready to fire.”
“You may proceed,” Kadastrattik replied.
The Tarbos Skyhook
From outside, were there anyone to see, the sight would have been impressive. Seemingly from empty space, a slight green glow brightened suddenly, building within a second to a blinding green glare that disgorged an emerald energy bolt down to the planet’s surface.
The hyperphone transmitter’s antennae on the top of the Tarbos Skyhook consisted of a stout titanium and gallium pole, a meter thick at the base, thirty-five meters high, tapering to only ten centimeters at the tip. Various wiring, relays, molecular switches, and a massive power transformer filled the interior of the transmitter; at the heart of the mechanism was a tiny magnetic bottle holding, in separate eddies of a powerfully driven field, a tiny particle of dark matter and another of anti-germanium.
The bolt of emerald-green anti-protons, traveling at about a third of the speed of light, hit before anyone could even notice them coming. The bolt smashed into the antennae three meters from the base.
The anti-protons converted the titanium and gallium layers of the antennae wall to plasma, which flashed outward, cutting through the rest of the antennae base. Before the top portion could begin to fall, the follow-on antiparticles in the bolt penetrated into the magnetic containment bottle holding the particles of dark matter and anti-germanium, exposing both to the surrounding environment. Both materials exploded violently, and only the tiny quantities involved prevented an enormous catastrophe. As it happened, the upper portion of the antennae was shattered into several pieces, which were shot into space by the force of the blast.
Three technicians were working in the monitoring station below the antennae. The explosion immolated all three before they had the chance to know anything was wrong. The next level below the monitoring station was taken up with an automated weather monitoring radar and various mechanical elements of the shuttle docking stations, which absorbed most of the rest of the blast. The next level down contained offices and a small cafeteria for the Skyhook staff, which survived with minor damage. Decompression alarms began hooting as the Skyhook’s self-repair droids immediately deployed to close several small breaches in the level’s pressure hull.
Three seconds after the anti-proton bolt hit, alarms were clanging up and down the Skyhook, and an emergency message was flashed to the Director’s office even before the emergency evacuation of the Skyhook’s staff began.
The Conference Center
The blast from the Skyhook was only a faint rumble when it reached the courtyard in the back of the Conference Center, where roughly half of the delegates were enjoying the balmy afternoon. Mike Crider looked up curiously, scanning the sky for thunderclouds with an outdoorsman’s instinct, but the sky was clear.
“Dad,” his son called from a bench a few meters away. “Did you hear that?”
“Sounded like thunder. No clouds, though…” Around them, the ebb and flow of conversation went on as before, until a contingent of Security troops burst into the courtyard.
“Ladies, gentlemen, please follow me at once,” the Sergeant leading the detail shouted.
“What is this?” “What’s going on?” Several delegates, assistants and various hangers-on began asking questions at once. The Sergeant cut them all off with the swipe of one hand. “There’s no time for questions now, people. I need you all to follow me out of here right now.”
“Come on, then,” Mike called out, and got up to follow the Sergeant out of the courtyard. The rest of the groups slowly followed them to the street side of the Center, where three skimmer-buses were pulling up. People from inside the Center were already filing aboard the first bus.
“What’s this all about?” Mike asked the Sergeant.
“Don’t know, sir, I’ve just got orders to get you all in the bus and get moving. We’ll get destination orders once we’re under way.”
“Fair enough,” Mike acceded.
The buses whipped away from the curb the moment the last passenger’s foot left the pavement. The Sergeant had boarded the bus Mike was on; as soon as the skimmer-bus was moving in the light mid-afternoon traffic, he stood up at the front and removed his polymer helmet.
“OK, folks,” he announced, “I’m Sergeant Paul Kroger, and here’s what we know so far.” He turned to look out the front windscreen before continuing.
“There’s been an explosion and a fire at the top of the Tarbos Skyhook. We don’t have all the details yet, but the hyperphone transmitter was knocked out. Initial indications are that the tower was hit by an energy beam or particle beam of some sort, fired from an orbiting ship.”
Mike Junior and Maria Gutierrez had taken the seat just behind Mike; the younger Crider now leaned forward. “Grugell ship, Dad?”
“Yep. Pipe down and listen, Junior.”
At the front of the bus, Sergeant Kroger was still talking. “…at this point, we know that three technicians have been killed, and several people in the office/cafeteria level were injured. The Skyhook is being evacuated right now, and the Director has ordered all of the delegates and conference attendees be taken to a safe place. Where that safe place is, I don’t yet know. When I know, so will all of you.”
The bus shot through traffic, dodging the few private skimmers and larger cargo haulers as it sped for the outskirts of Mountain View.
Central Signals
Bob Pritchard was back in Central ten minutes after the explosion, trailed again by Clomonastik. “Get me that Grugell son of a bitch on the line again,” he barked at the technician on duty.
Two and a half minutes later, the technician reported, “I have a reply, sir.”
Pritchard heard a string of high-pitched, chittering Grugell in his headphones, reminding him of the calls of bats. Almost instantly, Clomonastik smoothly translated.
“Is this Director Pritchard? What is it you want?”
“You know what I want, you bastard,” Pritchard barked. (Clomonastik, after a pause, translated the last word as “one without honor.”) “You fired on our Skyhook. That’s an act of war.”
“Against whom, I ask again, Director? What government do you represent?”
“I’m speaking as a representative of the Confederated Free Planets,” Pritchard replied, using the term publicly for the first time. “I’ll warn you one more time, Commander, you have been ordered to leave Confederate space at once.”
“I think I will oblige you to force me, Director.”
Clomonastik removed his headset. “Director, I strongly recommend you terminate communications at once and recall your cargo ship. Kadastrattik’s ship must be destroyed at once.”
“What? Why?”
“He knows more than you suspect, Director. He has already destroyed your hyperphone transmitter, effectively cutting off your communications with the rest of humanity. Were I in his situation, I would now be back-scanning your location from the radio transmitter signal to discover your location, and we will know when he has succeeded when he fires on this location. Decapitation,” Clomonastik explained, “Has long been a common tactic against a competent enemy.” Despite his prediction, Pritchard noticed the Clomonastik was quite calm and seemed unconcerned for his own safety. “You should remove yourself from this place at once, Director,” the tall alien urged. “He may already have a close approximation of your location.”
“Cut the signal off,” Pritchard ordered. “All right, let’s get out of here.”
“A wise decision, Director. Where shall we go?”
“The Conference delegates. We’ll join them.” Clomonastik nodded and bent from the waist in a half-bow, motioning for the Director to precede him from the chamber. “Evacuate this building,” Pritchard snapped at the Signals staff as he left. “Everybody out.”
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Is this the weirdest war ever?
Coverage is spotty and weak, even at Aljazeera.com
The opposition here seems to be primarily “Trump bad”. Much of the democrat opposition seems to be “sure, we are all for war with Iran, they totally deserve it… but we disagree with the way OMB is doing it”
In fact, that could be the majority position – “I am both for the war and against the war! Trump is a Nazi but I am a hero for pushing for war!!”
Just…. incoherent.
Our lives went from surreal back in 2015 to…. well, I think the writers of the simulation worked on season 8 of Game of Thrones.
Yeah, the Grugell War is weird.
If Trump was President in 1941, these fucks would be for Germany.
American Communists were all for isolationism from the signing of the Moltov-von Ribbentrop Pact until the Nazi invasion of June 1941 at which point they suddenly did a volte-face.
Yay! Something blew up!
An
Earthantenna-shattering kaboom!So this is essentially a stand-off now. The Grugell can’t seize the planet and the humans can’t destroy their ship.
There’s that tech guy tracking them on the cargo ship, right? That gives a chance to shoot at something.
Shoot? Shoot what? The cargo ship already made the point the only thing they could do is ram the Grugell. Not an attractive prospect.
Your remark led me to think “I wrote a solution to that” and dig up a crappy book from 2008 only to realize that other than having a ship a planet and an attempted conquest, the situation was almost entirely dissimilar.
Now I’m unhappy. I was reminded of how badly written that book was. I don’t care if it was only my second novel-length story ever finished, it was a piece of crap.
So I have to blame you for reminding me. 😜
I was thinking, last Monday, that informing the Grugell that their cloaking tech has been compromised maybe wasn’t the greatest idea.
Like with the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto as retold in Cryptonomicon – the Admiral realized that Purple had been cracked about the same time the first rounds from the squadron of P-38Gs impacted his G4M1…
Unrelated except it’s also sci-fi:
I finished Pantheon. I liked it. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone deliberately write a Gainax ending that didn’t work for Gainax.
For those of you who are unfamiliar:
Series: happens. Series wraps up with all the major plot points/character arcs resolved by the third-to-last episode. Then there’s a two episode postlude which tackles the “Big Ideas.” This one was classic, starting 20 years after the third-to-last episode with time jumps going 117,000 past that. Which compared to “Sleeping in Light” isn’t trying all that hard.
Unrelated except it’s also a sci-fi writer:
Neal Asher
@nealasher
It does peeve me seeing some Americans sneering at the British in general because of the actions and behaviour of Kier Starmer and his party of leftwaffe twats. How quickly they have forgotten that they had a similar dribbling moron in charge of their country before Trump. Please understand, guys, that Starmer is the most hated Prime Minister in recorded history, while his party is so ridiculed they want to be rid of jury trials so they they can imprison people for ‘speech crimes’.
https://x.com/nealasher/status/2028002954075140531
He has a point, but…I suspect that what Asher is seeing is less hatred of Starmer, and more hatred of how successful Starmer has been. It’s not like ‘prosecuting people for speech crimes’ wasn’t happening prior to 2024.
Yep. And no matter how unpopular he is, he will stay in power or be replaced by somebody worse. They will not turn a corner and throw out the commies.
Short memory – We sneered at our dribbling dotard as well. You don’t get special treatment. Put your funny money where your mouth is and oust the bastard.
Larry Correia
@monsterhunter45
It’s because most of our interaction with Brits (and Canadians and most Euro nationals) is your deranged liberals screaming nonsense at us.
Most of us recognize there are lots of normal sane people there, but you are bossed around by your libs. Like Californians, or any other US state with a big blue city. But it takes too much time to explain that every post it comes up. So we just insult the euroweenies. Personally I don’t mean any offense to the sane people
https://x.com/monsterhunter45/status/2028190746248167650
English Bob: Well, Sir, again I don’t wish to give offense when I suggest…
German Joe Schultz: Well, maybe you don’t wish to give offense, Sir, but you are giving it pretty thick…
Neal is one of the good ‘uns.
I’m not sure he speaks for the majority of his compatriots. His half-compatriots, at any rate – he spends half his time (or more?) in Crete.
Soooo, when do we get to start importing hot Iranian women?
After the Shah fell.
Shakka, when the Shah fell.
Zulu or KHAAAAAAAN?
I feel for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW0sxgYAmLM
https://x.com/DrewPavlou/status/2028278191639646416
+100
I appreciate that she throws in the Trump double-handjob dance move.
Middle-out.
Boring Real World question.
I don’t know if they’ve been granted cert or merely filed for it, but a stack of suits against magazine capacity limitations (standard capacity bans) have gotten to the Supreme Court. If the court goes and admits that these limits are unconstitutional, from a practical standpoint, what does that mean for non-party states with the same sort of laws? We know they won’t voluntarily repeal, so will each need an individual challenge under the new precedent to be struck?
I ask because New York is not one of the states in the stack, and I want standard capacity magazines without going to prison.
NY Democrats will just legally redefine 17 as 10. Sure you can have a 17 round magazine, because it will only have 10 actual rounds in it.
the limit should be 6 like a standard revolver. 10 is too much.
also if 17 bullets fit in a magazine aren’t those bullets kinda small?
My 686 is a 7-shooter.
In fact, all of the revolvers I’ve shot have been 7-shooters. And yes, I’ve shot more than just the one.
Yes, those are 9x19mm bullets. They are small so you can carry more to make up for the small size.
It will depend on how decisive the decision is.. Right after Bruen (which only held for NY, or perhaps the 2nd circuit) NJ and other states immediately changed from may issue to shall issue, even though their circuit had decided contrary to the Bruen decision.
There is already a split decision on magazines and AW (which are usually intertwined).. I suspect that all of the circuits that are against the capacity ban will immediately reverse if the decision is “they are arms, and there is no historical basis for banning them”
If there are penumbras, and emanations.. then ???? Just like the “sensitive places” doctrine that is now being litigated after Bruen.
Basically the state attorney general said “This part of our law has been ruled unconstitutional.” These are our new procedures.
That is then an affirmative defense against prosecution.
Will the cop on the beat know that?.. meh..
In NJ there is a hollow point restriction, but certain ammunition has been determined by the state police to not technically be hollow points (polymer filled) . They used to have an official memo from the superintendent that stated that… I can’t find it now.. Joy.
I love uncertainty.
/sarc
Though I wouldn’t be surprised if NY goes “Our laws have not been struck down. Go to Jail. Go Directly to Jail. Do not pass Go.”
Lets look a Bruen… NY immediately switched to shall issue, rather than re-litigating in the 2nd circuit to find out “your entire permit system is invalid”. Once you get smacked by the supremes you don’t always try and go back to the appellate division, you concede the exact point they found on, and then change the law to cover points they didn’t cover in the decision.. wait and repeat.
They will probably pivot to a “well you need extra special permission for those magazines, just like a carry permit.. but a different one.. just for more $$ and bother, since Permits and special permission have already been allowed.
In today’s “what does the customer actually want?”
“Hey Rat, I’ve got someone from plating here he needs a sample run ASAP. I don’t have the instrumentation to help him.”
“Hi Plater Guy, what do you need?”
“I need to determine the water content in the CRD stream.”
“CRD? That’s copper rinse drain, right? After you pull the wafers you give them a rinse with DI water? That CRD?”
“Yes.”
“You need me to determine the water content of… water? Wouldn’t you be more interested in the residual copper, or sulfuric acid or PEG?”
“No, see we gave Quality those numbers and now they want to determine the amount of water so that everything on the CoA is accounted for.”
🤦♂️
This shit always happens when I have a short week.
I dug deeper into the problem.
Some dude made a CoA based on the recipe used. So the “water content” was the added water when (almost) all of the other components were also aqueous.
So the sumdood is claiming that his copper plating bath is only 20% water. This is not even vaguely a novel process, I have no idea what happened to all the process owners who knew wtf is going on. I can only surmise this must have been some early adopter of AI.
I’d be surprised if the actual water content percentage doesn’t start with a 9
I i cant even… I mean…. I wouldn’t know where to begin to ask the right question to answer that.
Did you at least find out what the actual reason is? My wild guess is “total volume of effluent”?
I know nothing about what you are doing, but I dont think that is why I am baffled.
I just assumed the actual reason was “Our paperwork requires accounting for everything.”
So, by mass “high acid” copper plating solutions are actually <80% water. The copper is added as copper sulfate and stabilized with sulfuric acid. Some HCl (c~1%) is in there to make the plating even (no idea how, AFAIK, nobody really knows how the chloride does the voodoo) and there are ppm levels of organics in there to also regulate how fast the plating happens.
From what I can tell, the issues are twofold: Someone gave a number to Quality and now that number must be obeyed, and also someone other than me looked at the spec, realized it's nonsense and in bringing up this issue spawned a mandate to measure literally everything.
The volume (actually mass) of effluent is known, since this is collected prior to treatment.
I’m surprised.
But I also thought the step in the process being measured was where they were flooding the wafer with new water to remove residues. Maybe I misread the initial description.
You are correct. The initial ask was the post plating rinse, but then the digging deeper came up with the bath CoA being fubar.
Fortunately for me discrepancies like this bring requests to a screeching halt until all the relevant stakeholders may be contacted for input.
Well, yeah, you do need the requirements clearly defined before implementing anything.
Ah, drill instructor water….
And here I read it as De-Ionized
I keep this handy for work questions:
https://xyproblem.info/
Meant for NA, above.
You posted in the right place.
I never called it that, but it was one of the key things I trained my team on. Never accept a request for a solution if you can help it. Always document the problem first.
I cant tell you how many expensive projects were averted with accurate problem descriptions. They often ended up actually deleting processes instead of adding to them.
The drinker weighs in on the movie at the center of the BAFTA awards controversy.
“This movie made me feel really fucking good”
https://youtu.be/VKpc2npfY3Q
“leftwaffe”
Excellent.
Hot Iranian women?
You slay me.
https://x.com/AzatAlsalim/status/2028116540621553915
Fortunately for me discrepancies like this bring requests to a screeching halt until all the relevant stakeholders may be contacted for input.
Ow, my head.
My kitchen blinds hate me.
I decided to open the blinds to let some sunlight in. The blinds decided they disliked the window mount and leapt off.
So apparently, If I want to open the blinds I have to hold the top, since the catch or whatever that keeps the end closed isn’t worth the “included with the house” I paid for it.
I have a couple like that. Infuriating
Holier than thou preening
As a California millionaire, I have no problem paying more in tax if it means millions of my neighbors get to keep their health care coverage. I am proud to pay higher taxes if it makes for a healthier and safer nation. I also won’t leave my beloved home state of 30 years if that happens.
It is a pity that some of my billionaire peers don’t feel the same about their civic responsibility and patriotic duty.
——-
The wealth of America’s billionaires has climbed to almost inconceivable heights in recent years. And although they may be smart and talented, this is largely because they are not paying their fair share in federal, state, or local taxes right now.
Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez estimates that California’s roughly 200 billionaires collectively pay between $3 billion and $4 billion in state income taxes each year. That might seem like a lot, but it’s not really, considering that it’s only 0.2 percent of their total collective wealth. Let’s also not forget that they and the rest of the rich in America got another massive tax break with Republicans’ so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” last summer.
Why do you think we call them “robber barons”?
“I have no problem paying”
Then pay.
Nobody is stopping you.
I would be FASCINATED to learn exactly how much Maureen Kennedy has kicked in to the California Franchise Tax Board voluntary contribution funds, over the past few years…
Yeah.
Liars.
Mendacious. Not even debatable.
“that it’s only 0.2 percent of their total collective wealth”
I love how she looks at this backward. Did she mention anything about how much California spends, and how this “one time” tax is supposed to cover all the future spending increases?
I need to make a macro or something . . . . .
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
But even if billionaires do flee California in an attempt to avoid the tax, they will not be successful. That’s because the initiative would enact the one-time tax on their net worth in 2025. In other words, so long as they were living in California on Jan 1, 2026, they’re paying it.
Those of us who have W-2 income and capital gains pay a lot of tax to make for a healthier, safer and well-educated California, as we should. It is the fair thing to do. The billionaires have to start paying their fair share too. We can no longer allow them to exploit tax loopholes that let their wealth grow to oligarchic levels while they benefit from public goods and services.
Despite what the public whining from a few of them may suggest, if the initiative passes and they have to pay the tax, they will be absolutely fine, especially compared to the 7 million Californians who live in poverty.
If only California did not have a statutory maximum contribution to the public good, this woman would be free to alleviate poverty on her own initiative, to her heart’s content.
Stupid or mendacious?
Conniving.
Greed, envy, gluttony, pride, lust, wrath, sloth.
Forget about the Ten Commandments, post the Seven Sins in every American classroom.
Amazing that we have been able to channel our natural instinct to steal from the out group into an organized, socially acceptable form of theft.
It seems clear that there is a genetic component to this urge. Some are much more comfortable taking than others.
*Eeek. Apologies: I feel remarkably unwell. Not brain damage related, tho my usual tremors are in effect. Without supervision, I’ve gone back into old habits, slow-motion suicide, primarily out of boring, dreadful depression.
I’m still persistently chipper, at least outwardly, but there’s nothing resembling happiness in *my* life. Other happy people are in there, so I’ve got that, I s’pose. I feel my presence among them is a stiff, heavy weight on them. I do have a long-ish psych session on Thurs to vent. Fucking dreadful idea for them to even think of prescribing bullshit, tho I’d really like my methamphetamine salts again.
Should get back to looking for work, but my current gig is exhausting and gotta juggle having time for myself, which I obviously shouldn’t have any of. (I’m remarkably bad for myself.) Writing for fun is another idea, which certainly is a positive, but doing that rather than something actively productive will *also* further depress me.
Promise I’ll look for productive work options after I walk (15yo) puppy. Staying stuck is another dreadful idea. Gotta walk away from today with *something* accomplished. Work w Dragon Lady returns in 22hrs, tho she did legit compliment me Sat.
Biggest issue: I still don’t know anyone IRL in America outside of ‘work’ and family. WTF do people do in modern times, I presume app-wise, to meet and find folk? Dating apps would be nice, cuz I haven’t been laid in 3yrs, but I also know I’m not a ‘finished’ product yet, and other than my somewhat-intelligence and experiences, I have nothing to offer anyone. I’m obviously into politics, thought, baseball, and I was a drummer in several bands, so I’ve got those?
(Big Thought: I’d really really like to write a Tight Five and do Open Mic Nights for stand-up.)
Um. I’ll stop now cuz I’m not trying to dampen everything, but, uh. Hrm. This likely will be re-posted to evening eyes for inspiration. I turn 39 in two months and I live in a tiny room in my parents’ house in Affluent Land. I don’t ‘belong’ here. Onward and upward, per usual, but in fairness, my brain has a rocky mountain to climb.
Y’all are by far the closest thing to ‘friends’ and ‘people I know’ in America. Thanks for giving me a moment, here.
Like most of life’s problems, the answer is to take up BJJ.
How about joining a league of some sort? At least locally, there’s pinball leagues, dart leagues, ski ball leagues, bowling leagues (mini duckpin and regular), shuffleboard leagues, and the like.