Grrl Power #329 – It’s only painless if you ignore the back pain
When I started writing this page I may have overestimated the weight of a minigun. I based it off what I remember hearing the prop from Predator weighing, which was something like 160 pounds. Thinking about it now that may have included the belt and the backpack, or heck it may have been someone’s estimation of the total weight including the ammo. I actually timed all the firing time in the movie once cause I’m a big nerd like that. The “Schwarzenegger’s Forest Clearing Service” scene was the bulk of it of course, but all told it was very nearly 60 seconds worth, and depending on the exact model of the minigun that comes out to somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 rounds, and that adds up.
Turns out the GE M134 Minigun, which I think is what Blaine used, weighs 85 pounds (39 kg). (There’s a lighter variant but clearly this one is not that.) The prop for the movie was modified, for instance it had some kind of rifle grip on the bottom. It actually looked like a pump action shotgun but it was probably just a handhold. Anyway, Sydney could probably lift 85 lbs off the ground if she could get her legs and back into it, but picking it up when it’s already waist high mostly using her biceps would be… well, impossible according to this page. Also I can say the one on the table is modified and weighs whatever I want it to. :) If nothing else, six bayonets and the clamps to hold them on to the spinning barrels would probably add what, 10-ish pounds?
The previous page telegraphs this one a bit, and a few people in the comments called this outcome with comments like “Yeah, if she can lift it” which is why I wanted this page and the previous one to go up as a double page, but there’s only so much time in a week and I was still catching up from the previous double. Well one day I’ll have a bevy of unpaid interns doing backgrounds and making 3D models for me. :)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
Thus endeth the lesson
also, FIRST!
Also also, as soon as FO4 comes out, I intend to find a way to craft that weapon!
And I’m also renaming the dog Yorp :)
Whee!
*wags tail enthusiastically*
or make a mod to let you do it?
Don’t have to…judging from the gameplay footage, there are miniguns available [though maybe not the M134 we all know an love. Probably more like the XM214 “Micro gun” in 5.56 since the FO3/NV miniguns were in 5mm]
XCOM 2 was announced around the same time too for anyone who cares! :D
Well she was allowed to try and lift it. lol
She got to TOUCH it! ooOOOoo
How much do you want to bet the next comic opens with Sydney spraying the range with bullets after she uses the Lighthook to pick it up?
that would be epic
but wouldn’t make sense with her going asleep here.
Just having a rest. She forgot to breathe when trying to lift.
lifting things doesn’t exactly require you to breathe, unless it makes you stop breathing for more than lets say 30 sec. that that long of a break from breathing MAY have a negative effect, but i dont think she was at it more than 5 sec…
i would rather go with blood pressure someone else mentioned.
Looked to me like she was doing it long enough to get woozy.
You’re both right, actually. (The next two paragraphs are taken from a web page about weight lifting):
“Holding your breath or breathing shallowly during weight training limits the supply of blood to muscles at a time when they need replenishment. Not breathing correctly increases the blood pressure and can cause a lifter to black out or suffer long-term effects from high blood pressure. You should breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
Improper breathing creates something called the Valsalva Maneuver, in which the air passages in the nose and throat close down but the body continues to try to force air out. That creates extreme pressure in the chest cavity, reducing blood flow to the heart. This is what can cause fainting or in extreme cases create irregular heartbeats or cause heart attacks.”
(Wish there was an Edit function on this…)
Anyway, the bottom line is, her failure to breathe properly resulted in increased blood pressure, which caused her to feel faint. So, that’s why both R and Yorp are correct.
Oh yeah!
it would be epic and the logical use of the lighthook in this situation
however you forget the joy of holding something in your own hands
using the lighthook to hold and pivot from
would mean she can only use one of her hands
she at least had to try picking it up with her own hands
but having received permission to use it
she will be determined to fire it by the end of the day.
useing the lighthook to pick it up and hold it is probably the best idea as it would enable her to both pick it up (wrap the tendral around the handle a few times) and hold it steady (as we know forces acting upon the lighthook do not have a effect or sydney)
lighthook does the heavy lifting and probably wouldn’t even twitch from the minigun’s recoil as well as take the recoil. One hand on the light hook and one hand on the trigger, terminator sydney engage
unfortunately that wouldn’t work, even if the light hook could lift it the recoil would still affect the gun, making it spin within the light hooks grip, and if that is anywhere near the General Electric XM214 Minigun in terms of stats then that thing would be somethign along the lines of this:
Gun Weight: 30 lbs (14 kg)
Ammo Weight: 35 lbs (16 kg) per 1000 rounds
Battery Weight: 7 lbs (3.5 kg) for 1000 rounds fired
Caliber: .223 NATO.
Overall Length: 39 inch (100 cm).
Action: Electrically Powered Gatling.
Mode of Fire: Full Auto Only.
Range: 1,000 feet (300 meters).
Magazine: 1000 round backpack.
Cost: $ 25,000 (ammo not included)
the sheer amount of recoil such a beast of a gun would create would fling Sydney all over the place like a bloody rag doll not to mention make the gun spin like a damn water turbine at the bottom of a waterfall sending bullets all over the place, and that is PROVIDED Sydney would be able to even lift the ammo backpack, which, considering she had issues with the gun, I find rather unlikely.
As explained the light-hook can take the recoil. As for pivoting, we are not talking a simple gantry hook on the end of a steel cable to pick it up but one very versatile tentacle …. Tentacle!
Nice stat block by the way.
Now for this particular customization, you would need to add at least the bayonets.
Now how to stat out the Ginsu effect in combat? A variation on a Moulinex mixer maybe?
The lighhook might be capable of taking the recoil, but only with practice. This is NOT something to come at full-bore if it has never been tried before.
It would not be Sydney countering the recoil, but the tentacle. Which has a lifting weight equal to a car. Assuming that this mini-gun is actually designed to be hand held, by a single person (with appropriate harness), that should be sufficient force to counter the recoil and torque. Provided that Halo manipulates the tentacle appropriately.
I think the latter is more likely to be the problem, rather than the former. Not that the lighthook lacks the flexibility or adaptability. But clearly it needs direction, and Sydney is not familiar with the forces involved, other than in abstract.
We have plenty of physicists, mathematicians and gun enthusiasts in the community though. It would be interesting to see if the numbers would play out like I think.
the issue of recoil is a non-issue. rotary-barrel weapon systems, like gatling guns, do not have an appreciable ‘recoil’ because they are mechanically driven weapon systems. What most people feel as recoil is because the energy of the round overpowers the inertia of the weapon itself. With the weight of that weapon being several thousand times the kinetic energy of the round it fires, there is no recoil at all, which is why we can basically shoot a stream of bullets at the target with very little spread.
Yeah… no. That’s not at all true. Fire a pump action or double barrel 12-gauge shotgun and tell me there’s no recoil because the action isn’t moving.
True enough. Everything has an equal and opposite reaction. If enough force is going forwards, to chop a tree in half, then that same force is going backwards too. It does not just vanish into the weapon because it is heavy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed.
this is the basis for thrust in jet aircraft tiny little atoms of air thrown out the back of the vehicle at some speed by sheer speed of material thrown it moves the more massive and dense structure forward, it is also why the A-10 could slow to the point of falling out of the air from firing its main weapon. (5grams thrown forward at 3+ thousands mph countering the ton of aircraft at 100 mph)
Hah i know from experience those things sitll have verrry appreciable recoil when mounted to a helicopter.
That’s not a 214. Its definitely the M134. The 214 was never configured like that, and the motor on the 214 is more inset, instead of the offset motor on the 134 [the cylinder hanging off the side towards Sydney. So, you are looking at a MUCH heavier .30 caliber [7.62x51mm NATO] version
On top of that, there aren’t even that many 214’s, because it never reached mass production. Its big selling point was that it used the same round as the M16 rifle. Unfortunately, its biggest drawback was that it used the same round as the M16 rifle. For aircraft gunners, accuracy suffered at high speeds, range compared to the M134 was limited, and the Army simply lost interest.
So in case people wonder here are the specs for the M134:
Overall Length: 800 mm (31.50 in)
Barrel Length: 555.00 mm (21.85 in)
Weight (Empty): 35.05 lb (15.90 kg)
Caliber*: 7.62x51mm NATO
Action: Electrically-Driven; Belt-Fed
Feed: 4,000-round linked belt
Muzzle Velocity: 2,850 ft/sec (869 m/sec)
Rate-of-Fire: 6,000 rounds per minute
Range: 3,280 ft (1,000 m; 1,093 yds)
Sights: Optional Optics
This is the vehicle mount version this one has the wicked kick as well 7.62 is a .308 round which is what is used for hunting game like elk and bear locally we use it for deer as well they get big up here. Nice round for long distance shooting.
Also should be noted the kick the on the 5.56 version .223 is a 5.56 NATO round on it’s own doesn’t have that much kick but when you shoot a lot of them it does the M-4 and M-16 and SAW which all fire the same round handle the recoil just fine you can fire the M-16 full auto from any and I do mean any part of your body without fear of it hurting. As demonstrated by my Drill Sargent in Basic when he lit off the magazine with it firmly tucked up against his crotch. Yeah we had fun that day.
considering that gun would likely be handled by someone with super strength, like Stalwart or Goose/Groose?, he looked buff enough to handle it anyho, it’s most likely the vehicle version at the shooting range.
Goose is the correct version. The ‘space marines’ do look buff, but there are three possible explanations for them:
1) They are glass cannons. Supers with enhanced strength, but no innate defence. Hence they wear armour. Note that it can be a lot heavier than armour designed for normal humans can use. Thus allowing them to be truly bullet proof. To calibers lower than Peggy’s Bartlett anyhow.
2) They are normal humans who wear powered armour. Namely enhanced armour (as above) that has a strength-enhancing exoskeleton built into it. This has a significant disadvantage that, like any mechanical system it can break down or be damaged.
Should that happen, the Space Marine would not only cease to be able to carry heavy loads (such as vehicular mini-guns) he will also be unable to even move! The armour will be too heavy for him to walk, or possibly even stand upright.
The biggest disadvantage though, is that is going to happen anyhow. As soon as the power source runs out. Although Kevlar+ shows that there are a few enhanced technologies, most items appear to be identacle to ours.
As such they will not have any generator providing power. We do not have anything small and powerful enough to power battle armour. So they will be limited to batteries,. Which, with our limitations, mean that they have a limited operation life. Very limited.
Mind you, they could have a small petrol or diesel motor, carried in a back-pack. The noise of which would be highly distinctive. But would come with the disadvantage of carrying combustible fuel with them. Not the safest option on a battlefield. But viable if the armour protects it sufficiently.
Although should the presence of super powers have accellerated the discovery of some techs, the above might not be the case. We are on the cusp of producing viable fuel cells.
These will be the solution used for powered armour to become a battlefield reality. Within our lifetimes. Yup, I am even talking to you oldlings. Unless you are already visiting coffin showrooms there will be prototypes being tested, before you get a return on your investment.
3) They are normal humans, and do not have exoskeletons. Whilst armour is good (no gap where the face is), it is not too different to the protection offered by everyone else’s kevlar+.
Options 1) and 2) allow Goose to use a vehicular mini-gun. Option 3 would prohibit it. Although a small mini-gun, specifically designed for humans to use, is still best used in the hands of someone with the build and muscles to use it effectively.
From comments made by DaveB, I think that 2) or 3) are the more likely. If I followed it right, Goose is an exceptional normal human, of the action hero type. Although I was not familiar with the particular flava he drew an analogy to.
I can answer which flavor he used with 2 words: Duke Nukem, the man who is known for using a minigun with his bare hands, and who thinks that, and I quote; “Power Armor are for pussies”
I hate it when there are no Edit button.
Anyhow:
in the panel where Goose get’s told to hold up his arms he’s basically the spitting image of Duke, blond hair ,sun glasses, red sweatshirt and blue pants.
EDIT 2
Also Duke Nukem actually have a minigun in one of his games, though there is no page for it on dukes wiki so I can’t give specs :/
I was about to say… “good thing that Sydney didn’t think of (unfairly) using the lighthook for helping with the weight”.
On 2nd thought… since she must hold the lighthook-orb, thereby having one of her hands fully occupied, while now trying to lift the minigun with both hands, physically exhausting herself during that…
On 3rd thought… observing Sydney to exhaust herself to the limit of fainting… Not that I’d ever even thought of having a rangemasters job just once, but imagining myself in Peggy’s shoes I’d probably re-think letting her shoot anything at all.
(Getting near a circulatory collapse from jumping / running / biking / lifting too hard/fast isn’t unknown to me. Now. Damn you, aging.)
Let’s just hope she doesn’t remember her lighthook orb can lift heavy shit and doesn’t try to fire it with that….
Why not? Sounds like fun for all!
cuss the light hook cannot compensate for the recoil since it’s twisted around the lifting bar, meaning little Sydney have to take that all alone, which he lacks the weight, build, stamina and physical strength to do, everything physical about Sydney says that she’s not firing that thing ever even if they mounted it as a turret the recoil would have her lose complete control over the thing.
The lighthook is definitely long enough to twist around more than just the lifting bar, so why would it not be able to help with recoil.
And on second note, if lifting it with a long, flexible, energy tentacle, why would one need to lift it in the normal human manner?
Great minds think alike :p
I do love Maxima’s final line there.
Indeed. This is exactly the sort of problem I would expect a superhero would have. You could intellectualise mortal limits, but not actualise them.
That one sentence (for me) just produced a whole new depth to the comic.
Sometimes it’s the subtle or offhanded dialogue that makes the best impact.
For example, Schwarzeneggers “I’ll be back” from The Terminator was never intended to be the iconic catchphrase it became, just another idle line, evidenced by the fact that it doesn’t even show up in the novelization of the film.
well
this just shows how much she doesn’t think much before she acts hehe
the more she shows up the more i love peggy lol
+1 for Peggy and Max each
Peggy has to be pretty bad-a** to hang out and work with supers as a peer.
Not to mention taking on super villains, without having any powers herself. She earns my respect!
That’s what you get for blowing up the rangemasters range.
Lighthook as ChaosSepher said would probably lift that easily although for balance she would have to wrap the the tentacle around it without getting it jammed in the firing mechanisms and allowing her freedom to aim and shoot
Depends on how she deploys the lighthook. if she wrapped it around the front handle, then horizontally against the top of the gun about 6-8 inches, then went 90 degrees to the side to clear it, then down to the floor and spread out to act as a base, it would support the gun as a tripod quite nicely. Think of an engine jack type of idea with a back facing horizontal brace.
She made a nice lifting sling with it at the end of the Vehemence fight, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Heck, she carried three women in it BEFORE that fight.
She also wrote the name of her comic shop with it. The Henticle must have some serious predictive software/magic to read Sydney’s intention of it’s use and then form accordingly. The kind of 3-D mental visualization to accurately make the stuff she makes in real time would be very very difficult, if not impossible.
tell the green lanterns that as that is how that power works
Very good point. But do you actually expect Sydney to plan ahead like that? Power related stunts are one thing, what you’re talking about is a heavy weapons related stunt, something she has no real concept of. She gonna shoot someone’s eye out with that thing, taking their head with it.
when in a mad run to get the three women away before one of them could utter the V-word (vegetarian), she was able to snare and safely carry along -three- human bodies with two being completely comfortable and the third having only a bit of a worry of flashing the room due to her short skirt. Either the tentacle adjusts its shape automatically to fit the task Sydney wants it to do or she’s a gosh darn master at using that thing instinctively.
Either way she’s proven quite able to make that tentacle perform some darn complex maneuvers, sometimes in ways that Had to be improvised, not something she could practice before the comic started and I sincerely doubt that making it wrap and secure the mini-gun for firing would trip her up much at all. (unless of course Dave has her forget about the spinning the gun does as part of a gag).
Well argued.
Of course, as always, the most important reason for why it played out the way it did, is because it is funny.
Mind you, there are enough justifications for why Sydney chose to handle it that way, so that it remains within character. Not least of which was that, had she pulled it off, she would have looked incredibly cool.
That’s a good point I hadn’t considered before. It is quite possible that the lighthook works on a subconscious level, adjusting to what’s needed at the time. Kind of like writing. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you don’t sit there and consider how every little stroke is made, you just think of the word and transfer it onto paper.
I still, however, believe there will be some kind of residual issues arising from her lack of complete understand of firearms. Though once she’s trained, she can probably handle two of those puppies at once.
And I’ve just given myself nightmare fuel for the next few nights.
Perhaps if she wasn’t now so lightheaded she would actually think of lighthook.
maybe
Sydney forgot that Sasha weighs 150 kilograms.
but that isn’t “Sasha” from TF2
it is clearly a mobile Minigun based on the M134
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigun
which weighs between 20 and 40 Kg depending on the build
usually mounted to fire, but easily carried by a trained soldier.
given super soldiers this would be the 40 Kg build with a mobile frame.
which would be heavier when you add the ammo case, which it is currently lacking.
However that is one designed for puny humans to use. This one is designed to pack a heavy punch, when a super human wants to bayonet someone. Making it robust enough to survive that, and still be able to fire afterwards, does require over-engineering.
Plus, not being so concerned about keeping the weight down, allows for other in-built anti-super enhancement, for the gun. Although that is clearly not as important, as the whirling fun, that stems from the bayonets.
as I said the 40 Kg build is the one the supers would use.
it can’t be too heavy because normals also work at Arcon,
especially in the supply department.
also guns are built to be very sturdy, the problem isn’t the gun or the barrels
the bayonets and bullets are the weakest points, and are the only parts that need enhancement
as many supers have some degree of bullet resistance.
the bullets and blades would need to be made from vibranium
or something that can penetrate the skin of powered threats.
also you forget that Harem has a teleport weight limit,
and she was the one who ported to Archon for supplies during the recent fight.
if supplies are too heavy they can’t be delivered to where they are actually needed
Archon are not going to limit their armoury to the weight that Harem can carry. They have to be free to use whatever weapon may be needed. Arc-SWAT have plenty of alternative means of deploying the bigger ones, including helicopters. Not least by means of the strong supers, the very ones who are intended to use it!
Indeed. Even at 200 LB. I can think of four people who could jump and fire it.
Hump. Stupid phone.
Yep. Having Harem ‘port equipment is good for a fast response, when action & equipment is needed immediately. Even as ARCSwat is delivering an immediate response to hostiles, Archon is more than up to the task of transporting anything else that might be needed for long-term engagement as well as clean-up & triage/trauma response as necessary.
You may notice that, even as last night’s superbrawl was the fast response, there were already local law enforcement & medical facilities already on the way. Even as the superbrawl was winding down to the point of Vehemence surrendering, there was medical/police/additional Archon equipment probably already standing by, just waiting for the fight to finish so they could go in a& act.
Either Super-Normal or just plain Super, it’s still a minigun, and thus, still carries the same problems that not only kept it from replacing the assault rifle on the modern battlefield, but having a frequent place on the foot soldier’s battlefield as well. Halo, and her ‘skinny hobbit’ stature, caught wind of just one of them, without having to take ammo use into the equation, no less, as Peggy was counting on.
Wouldn’t be surprised of Halo is going to experience a, well, surprise when she get’s for first taste of something called ‘recoil.’
“Well one day I’ll have a bevy of unpaid interns doing backgrounds and making 3D models for me.”
You forgot to qualify that “prediction” with “….a bevy of scantily clad..”
You must learn to be specific.
If you’re specifying that, do you need to add more qualifiers? (Age/gender/weight/attractiveness) Either way, it doesn’t matter if they’re telecommuting via t’internet rather than in his office.
you don’t have to be specific in that way.
the interns can be in various shapes and sizes, someone not even be from earth or living beings.
I am not sure if Dave’s wife would approve. Looking at myself, I am pretty sure you would not want me to be scantily clad (6′ tall, just under 300 pounds, not in shape), not that I can do squat with drawing and 3D modeling.
His wife might approve, if they are a bevy of scantily clad young bucks.
Heh. Or maybe not…
Wow, you’ve put on weight :o
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nuttall
Not the same guy. I live in Canada; he is British.
Does advanced A.I. do unpaid internships? Because 10 years from now it might be possible for an A.I. to scan all of the Grrlpower pages and make 3-D models of everything thus far and predict some useful new maps.
“You forgot to qualify that “prediction” with “….a bevy of scantily clad..””
Well, I would think DaveB would also take into consideration how his “Significant Other” to react to that idea.
He may have even been pushing a few limits on the envelope with his previous researches into Boob Physics too. TBH, even while I do appreciate what he’s accomplished do far, I wouldn’t want him to risk being on the wrong side of ‘Ol Painless there. Especially cnosidering that any Significant Other worth their salt would be certain that what happens will definitely NOT be painless…
O.o
To Maxima, weight is something that happens to OTHER people.
Because nobody is suicidal enough to call her on her own weight.
are you calling her FAT?!
Lol. Would “dense” sound better? I don’t think so.
Maxima has ‘vital statistics’ just like everybody else. It’s just vital that you don’t mention them, or you’ll be a ‘statistic’…
That’s because Maxima tends to aim for the vitals…Her record of performance statistics proves that.
No anti-Sydney labelling required. Reality has it’s own ways of denying Sydney.
Much like Syndey has her own ways of denying reality!
At least for now …..
I’m still trying to adjust to the idea of a chain gun with bayonet attachements…yep, stll trying. awesome comic by the way.
It’s not so much of the “idea of it” that I’m still trying to wrap around my head. I’m more considering what kind of threat would make it useful as a practical response…
Pretty much anything that could wade forward through the bullets isn’t likely to be vulnerable to the blades, would it?
Clearly this is a weapon optimised for supers to use, so the following is framed with super-fights in mind, But, yea, the prospect of us, as non-supers, being caught up in any circumstances where that weapon is working to it’s optimum, would be bladder-weakening.
• Guns can jam or otherwise malfunction, including mini-guns.
• Running out of ammunition. There are a host of things that make this more likely in a super fight. The clip showing one being used against an invisible opponent gives one example, from just one category, which is opponents who’s location is hard to determine. Be that invisibility, decoy illusions, ninja skills, chameleon powers etc.
Sheer numbers of opponents can do this. You might need your mini-gun versus swarms of rats and wolves. Then face the vampire lord who is commanding them. The same principle applies for a vast number of mastermind and minion battles. Getting you to use up your expendable resources, and otherwise weaken you, before sending in the heavies, is a time-honoured technique.
And, of course, they face the prospect of being in full-blown wars. The vast majority of opponents will be civilians. And you can bet their opponents will be happy to use villain techniques too. So human lives will be disposable cannon fodder, to ensure the ammo is used up, before the enemy supers deploy.
All the above is aggravated by the extremely fast rate of fire and ease, even in real world fights, of running out of ammo. Worsened if having to carry ammo around, on foot. Especially in a civilian environment, where you do not want to risk a cop being hit by let us say a flame attack and then taking out half the team around him, or a crowd, or a building, by all his ammo exploding.
The quantity of ammo, a strong super can carry, would concentrate enough explosives to operate like a bomb. One conveniently having a lot of shrapnel sprinkled throughout it. So their operating environment and circumstances might limit the availability of ammo, more than their ability to carry it.
• Not being able to see the surroundings clearly is worse than an invisible opponent, in that you cannot risk firing at all, so you do not even have to run out of ammo. Many things can cause this such as vegetation, rain, snow, fog, smoke, being in a building with walls and doors which are thin enough to be penetrable by bullets and so on.
• Not being able to fire the mni-gun, due to risk of collateral damage. Similar to the previous point, but from other reasons. Fast moving opponents (not even needing super speed), crowds, hostages, allies, civilian buildings, vehicles, hazardous objects nearby, and others.
• Regenerating opponents, or other super tough ones. Yup, this is similar to the one you were thinking of. But they will be facing enemies who are harmed by bullets, yet not invulnerable to them. So the mini-gun is weakening them, but the hero will have to go hand-to-hand, because they are not down yet. And being in hand-to-hand fighting the ammo belt could get tangled up, or simply be too risky to fire, as the weapon is not fully under your control, and allies would be at risk, if it got knocked.
• Difficulty in identifying friend from foe. Simple battlefield confusion is the most common, but others are possible from even mundane tricks, equipment and weak super powers. Disguises, enemies wearing allied uniforms, hostiles dressed as civilians, shapechange (remember even weak versions, that do not bear scrutiny up close), illusions, friendlies or neutrals being turned hostile (mind/emotion control, zombies, werewolves, making you appear hostile, confusion), enemies hiding in allies (alien parasites, possession, phased opponents) and more.
If you face mixed targets, and some, or all, are of indeterminate status, you may not have a clear field of fire. But you can poke a the one nearest you, who is attacking.
There are more circumstances too, but the post is overlong. But you get the gist.
The vast majority of opponents will be
civiliansI intended to say humans, but must havel had civilians, in mind, from other points I had been editing.I wonder if Sydney will grab the we-don’t-know-what-they-do orbs and see if Strength increase is one of the attributes.
Or has she said she’s tried that already?
so far she already grabbed both of the balls, and nothing happened.
but judging by the other balls, streangth definitely wouldn’t be one of the effects.
if you want to move something, just use the tentaball (also known as hentorb).
“so far she already grabbed both of the balls, and nothing happened”
Now there’s a line that doesn’t get used much….
i not gonna stop. EVER!!!
Wgich brings to mind an old joke:
If you hold a green ball in your right hand, and a green ball in your left hand, what do you get?
Answer: The undivided attention of The Incredible Hulk.
And what do you get if you’re holding two green balls in ONE hand?
Kermit the Frog’s undivided attention.
Stop making my inner child cry, damn you.
Puny Sealord. Single Hulk ball require two hands!
How did that old advertisement go?…
Oh yeah:
♪♫ It takes two hands to handle the Whopper… ♫
Sydney is a gamer, and has been testing all the orbs systematically, for months. No way would either of them have such a readily apparent function. She would have discovered strength boosting, within the first hour of testing.
Yep. My own guess is that Strength probably would have been one of the very first things she tested for.
also, streangth doesn’t really make sense, considering that she has to use one of her hands for that.
My personal bet is that at least one of them is meant for interstellar/space travel, quite possibly FTL so you can go from one world to another in a reasonable time. And in all likelyhood said orb hasnt worked for her because either A: she’s not in outer space or B: Able to pin down the “mental adress” of a world she wants to go to, or C: the functionality is locked out pending her completion of the tutorial segment on her orbs and/or her leveling up a bit.
Very credible reasoning. Mind you that could alternatively be on the top end of the fly-ball upgrade path.
Good news though, Halo now knows an easy way to test to see if either provide life support.
Hmm. Her job must involve some hauling of boxes.
Which weight a lot less.
That is what Joel is for.
Sometimes I forget that Sydney isn’t the typical super. Also, I think there is a joke from Avengers 2 in there…like Sydney manages to lift it a few millimeters, making Peggy and Max raise an eyebrow in worry.
“Go ahead sudney”
pretty sure someone called that.
but why is she sleepy all of a sudden? she can act hyper active all day, but one lift exhausted her?
did she ran out of sugar or something?
“u” is almost “y” so, close enough.
Sudden lifting like that can cause a drop in blood pressure, leading to light headedness and dizziness.
It’s why you see weight lifters suddenly fall over after doing a lift, or even during.
hopefully this will get Sydney back on track, now her hype rush seems to have worn off.
It’s okay if Max forgets that stuff has weight, as long as she remember that it has mass.
The weight of the gun is one thing, but then you start adding in the not-negligible weight of the ammunition, and things get awkward in a hurry. It’s why most weapons like that are mounted on vehicles.
Her fainting is apropo, guys.
When you lift and hold yer breath, and it escapes suddenly and you stop lifting.
Suddenly all the pressure on your upper chest and blood supply drops drastically.
Low blood pressure, low O2 to brain and voila THUD.
Look at all the “Fail” videos for lifters…
Another problem is those lifting –especially deadlifting– put pressure on diaphragm and stomach and if they just ate (protein shake anyone) the pressure forces it up the alimentary canal and out the mouth with some force.
Yes, saw it all on Science of Stupid this weekend, hosted by one of the Top Gear guys…
Great show, that.
Halo weakneesses:
-shirtless guys with nice abs
-mittens!
-lifting heavy stuff
Bullets. Never forget bullets.
And direct sunlight
Currently they are (according to DaveB) in a basement level. But it is not unreasonable to mention it here. Should Halo figure out how to actually load, and fire, the mini-gun there is a fair chance she will be able to let some daylight in!
And being decapitated.
And sunlight! STOP! DROP! ROLL!
…din’t work :(
…and that was only the first of two times that day in which the technique failed
It depends, though. If they used a GAU-2B minigun, that would rank as ‘portable’ – even for Sydney – as they are a very ‘light’ 35 lbs/16 kg.
The rub is – that’s when it’s empty. Add in a ‘light’ 1500 round magazine, and that quickly adds 125 lbs/57 kg. Take a standard 3000 round magazine – +208 lbs/95 kg. Throw in a forest-clearing 4000 round magazine – + 295 lbs/134 kg.
I don’t see Sydney hauling that anytime soon. But she would get to play with an empty one. Or perhaps Peggy might give her a special six-round clip to start out with. ^_^
…And thus Peggy proves, once again, why she is on this team.
Trust Peggy. She knows stuff.
i guess that’s what happens when you don’t have super powers.
need to compensate for it in another way.
she is an elite sniper after all, you would think that she has to at least know the basic anatomy.
now, as she is not limited to a long range sniping, and could potentially end up in the middle of it, knowing how to make your enemy drop before you do could be useful.
And so, she made her point while making her tame at the same time.
Yup. Especially guns and helicopters…
GUNSHIP! … with twin forward-firing bayonet machine guns!
Can I drive it, please?
Gunship! Gunship! Gunship!
*bounce*
*bounce*
*bounce*
Err, the nice twirly mini-guns that is. With lots of bayonets! :-D
Sounds easier to carry all the ammo too.
Peggy’s idea would have backfired if Sydney had managed to get it to the edge of the table. Maxima would have had to leap in to stop Syd dropping it on her foot.
And, I spot another hidden link. The best part is the scar on his face – repaired with rivets…
… “his”?
pretty sure peggy is a “she”…
… I mean in DaveB’s hidden link in the comments. Do you think I was talking about Peggy’s face!?
XD LOL etc.
well, that’s the only scarred face i have seen here…
but then i checked… “s” huh…
yeah, i have no comment on that.
Of course, using the words “hidden link” next to a spoiler tag probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’ll do today. So, erm… sorry for that.
Peggy does not have rivets repairing her scar. Find the link.
Link? I’m not even seeing the comments. Or am I looking in the wrong place?
DaveB,s blog, below the comic.
Links display in a different color that regular text, and only two links I’m seeing is “Schwarzenegger’s forest clearing service” and “rifle grip on the bottom”.
They do indeed. But Dave is a master of subtle. There are a few clues in this thread. Try to clamp onto them.
… ah. damn clever duck he is.
Eh, just say it is made from super heavy materials, which better handle the heat and stress of continuous fire.
Also with enough weight behind it those bayonets will become lethal.
Genius, plain and simple, genius.
Though I wonder if Sydney realizes she could probably lift it with lighthook, and their reactions to that would be…interesting.
Also realised that as well. Maybe she’s going to try it on the next page if she doesn’t immediately pass out.
it doesn’t matter if your a day one private or a five star general; the rangemaster is god withing the bounds of the range.
Yes, but you can still question their sanity.
there’s no question. anyone that would actually want the job is clearly insane. teaching rookies how to handle weapons is more stressful than actually being shot at.
How like the way your comments are emperial, but the actual comics is metric.
For anyone who does not understand what I’m talking about, DaveB talks about weights in pounds, but the comics shows Sydney moving the mini, not half an inch, but a centimeter.
Then again, I never know what you crazy Americans consider metric any more. I’ve had an amusing conversation with an American supermarket clerk once, because I was wondering how come soda bottles were using a metric unit, and he explained to me that “Liter” is not a metric unit.
Shachar
Liter _is_ metric, that clerk was an idiot.
He no doubt was (a Liter is defined to be the volume of a cube, 10cm each vertex, or 1000cc, that’s 1000 cubic centimeter).
My point was to explain how come American are using a metric unit: they don’t know it’s metric.
Shachar
I believe the clerk was confused in that while liter is a metric unit, we are repeatedly told in science classes that liter is not an SI unit. Honestly, I believe companies (and the consumers thereof) will use the most convenient unit available.
I used cm because I wanted a small distance and “1/3 of an inch” didn’t play the same way.
Personally I think the US is about 30 years overdue to switch to metric, but I don’t see it happening in the next few decades. Generally speaking I think Americans are too… stubborn isn’t the right word. Belligerent. My generation and younger could probably be talked into it, but as usual the problem is with the old white people.
The U.S. military has been using metric measurements for years. What, did you think “klicks” referred to the number of insects between point A and point B? (It’s short for “kilometers”.) I can do the most common metric conversions in my head… it’s really not that difficult. Mechanics that work on foreign-made cars (BMW, Nissan, etc) will also be used to metric measurements, and almost all scientists. The real problem is convincing everyone *else* to switch (by which I mean Americans who are not in a career where metric units are commonly used).
It would help reduce the likelihood of internationally built spacecraft crashing.
One nice thing though is that you do not have to give up the old measurements. Not the useful ones anyhow. We still also use inches, feet and yards in the UK. Because they are convenient and scaled to humans.
The areas where the weights and measures body clamps down on though are those areas which it would be harmful to the economy and individuals, to retain. So they heavily enforced the change over from pounds and ounces to kilograms, for shops. Even those shops which wanted to keep two sets of scales were barred.
It would have been too costly to do the usual spot-checking, and other regulatory activities, to ensure no fiddling was going on. Especially not for just a few hold-out shops. And it would get increasingly confusing for younger customers, and foreigners, who would not know what it was all about. A foot is easy enough to visualise. Pounds and ounces are something you learn through experience. Which they would lack.
The thing I like though is how common sense the folks at the weights and measures unit are. But the best bit is how stroppy their head gets if any European bureaucrat suggests that we should do away with something (to paraphrase, from memory).
“That is for us to decide, it has nothing to do with them. We have introduced and adopted metric. And anything else, that is convenient to us, we will keep. I guarantee that policy will not be changing unless I am in the grave!”
You guys also still use ‘stones’ right? What the heck is a stone anyway – in weight, I mean?
Fourteen pounds.
In Canada house building still uses feet and inches just because we share so many supplies with the US.
In the US a lot of hand tools & power tools are gauged by both US & Metric measurements systems. Mostly because just about anybody can expect to need to do work on domestic equipment or foreign imports at just about any time.
Not really. In an earlier comic, Harem explained she uses the elevator for the same reason Max doesn’t float “one foot off the ground,” and then of course there was the “nearly 400 mile-per-hour” flight to the shooting range. So yeah, the comic does use English units internally.
Of course the use of centimeters in this context would not be unusual in the U.S.–we are a bi-metrical society after all. :)
Well, at least she got to see the minigun. Being in Australia means that the closest I got to a gun was when it was tucked in a policeman’s holster. I tried not to look at it too much in case they thought I was going to steal it. But I saw a real gun! :P
I touched one once! I thought it was a prop, or replica. On account of there being a pile of them, on the table. Where we were setting up to play a role-playing game. So I figured it would be some kind of war or cyberpunk game. But the penny dropped, when I felt it’s weight, moving it out of the way.
This was in America, needless to say.
Turns out the guy who brought them wanted advice on which was best for his frail grandmother to use for self-defence, in the anticipated looting (hurricane Katrina was on it’s way). Who, notably, was untrained and unused to guns.
The choices? A big, heavy pump-action shotgun. One of those Dirty Harry pistols. Or a similarly big automatic pistol. The guy had a big-gun fetish and did not own any small ones.
This for a woman who did not want to leave her property, because of having limited mobility. Presumably the intention was to use her zimmer-frame to support the weight? My non-expert opinion was she might break her wrists trying to fire any of them!
bah, i touch AND FIRED a mutiple guns before i was 18! GANGSTA POWAH!!!! or something…
no seriously, i had a few chances to actually fire a gun, although under supervision.
and since i don’t remember explosions i guess they were all air guns?
Any Boy Scout has access to several firearms, or at least shotguns (if you’re 14+) and rifles. I also shot a pistol at a shooting range once, but the kick intimidated me enough to not want to fire it again. I earned all the marksmanship badges, so I’ve fired a shotgun 50+ times, a rifle 100+ times, and a bow 60+ times. I still say I did the best with the bow.
i have never been to America, and i am not a scout.
You don’t have to live in the U.S. If you live in any country on this list, you could have experienced scouting. (And if you’re under 18, you still could!)
I did. I was a cub scout!
Errm, I think that was an honorary cross-species thing. Obviously I was a puppy, at the time, not a cub.
I can also remember looking forward to going to the big school, which my brother attended. Because, even though they also had to do parade duties, in the scorching hot sun, at least they were compensated, by having a rifle range in the school grounds. And regular shooting lessons were part of the curriculum, at that school.
As an experienced shooter (40 years exp), from the choices given, I’d recommend the pump action shotgun with non-magnum #1 or #4 size shot. The size of the gun requires a two-handed secure hold, it can be cradled against the body (shot from the hip) to manage recoil, and as has been stated before, just racking a shell into the chamber will usually clear the house of bad guys. Also, a shotgun fired down a hallway does not have to be particularly well aimed to be effective.
Yea, the consensus of opinion was that the shotgun was best. If only because she could stick it out the window or, as you say, rack it, to scare looters off. There would be plenty of empty buildings, rather than risk one that had an armed resident.
Not that she needed anything, as it turned out. I don’t think she actually wanted it mind. Although I never did find out how that played out, in detail.
Yeah, for in-house, close-quarters defense, a shotgun is the best choice. As far as it goes for aiming in such conditions, all you need is a compass heading.
Here in ‘the states’ it is common for local sport hunting and conservation clubs to offer gun safety seminars that let the general public see and try various firearms. I went to one about ten years ago and (after the proper lectures and signing various waivers) got to do target shooting with handgun and rifle, and skeet shooting with shotgun. I also tried my hand at compound bow and crossbow. At lunch we covered making a fire without matches and campfire cooking methods. In the afternoon part of the workshop we went over basic boat and water safety, building an emergency survival shelter in the woods, recognizing edible and poisonous plants and identifying types of animals by their prints.
I figure I am now semi-ready for any zombie apocalypses (apocalypsi?).
That was a dangerous chance Peggy just took there. As other people have pointed out, sydney DOES have super strength in the form of her lighthook, which she can manipulate into all sorts of complicated shapes. Had she thought of using it like that, she would have been able to easily lift and probably fire the minigun. And if there is one thing sydney is generally good at, its outside the box thinking. On the other hand, since the lighthook gives her super strength, she would have been able to handle the gun without being sent flying backwards from recoil. If she can lift a car, she can hold a minigun steady. So other than the trip to the firing range, with everyone diving for cover as the gun swings around, it probably wouldnt have ended badly.
Also, as was not readily pointed out in graphics or text, there’s no source of ammo to feed it…
Peggy was completely self-assured that Sydney couldn’t have fired it, even using the lighthook to lift it.
;)
Hehe, they better be glad she didn’t figure out that she should have used lighthook to lift and the other hand to aim.
There are two things a out a minigun that most people either don’t know or never think about. The first is the ammo weight. A 100 round belt of 7.62mm weighs 3 pounds. With a rate of fire of 3000-6000 that means it uses one of those every one to two seconds of fire. That’s a lot of weight to carry. And as it’s throwing one to two pounds of just bullets doe range that’s a lot of recoil. The other thing is as it needs an external power source you have to carry one or two truck batteries to keep it running. Add that and the weight of the power feed mechanism and nothing human is going to be able to use it, or if they can not for very long.
Probably have to add in some kind of rigid support harness to counter the torque of the barrels rotating to keep it on target farther than touching range too.
I just had an urge to check on the official specs. They are stated as (up to) 6000 rounds per minute at 2800 feet per second.
6000 rounds per minute is 100 rounds per second. Dividing 2800 by 100 means that each round will travel only 28 feet before the next one leaves the gun.
For those of you ‘metric’ people out there, that is 8.5 meters.
Don’t worry I can paws to convert it, in my head.
Would I be delicate to ask how much does Syd weigh? I’m guessing 85-90 pounds?
When wringing wet, maybe.
Yeah, she’s a wee tiny lass. Optimistic, though.
Honestly, if Sydney can lift 85 pounds, it wouldn’t be for very long. I can carry 40-60 pounds across my house and down a flight of stairs. (Measured when moving wood pellets to the basement.) That leaves me pretty tired. I’m not very fit, but I’m certainly not out of shape. So while Sydney might be able to lift the gun given she approaches it right, I’m fairly certain she’d drop it before it even fired a round.
Its probably a very advanced version using ultra-high velocity rounds, requiring thicker barrels, as well as denser rounds themselves, which could increase the weight considerably.
I don’t find it hard to believe Sydney couldn’t lift 85lbs. Budge it maybe, but lift it? At 5ft tall, doesn’t look like the type to workout at all, and at 85lbs and Sydney being so short and a twig, could likely weigh as much as that gun. :p
I approve of Peggy’s teaching style.
She can use the hook to lift it and the other hand to shoot. Syd’s is smart enougth to figure that.
Eventually.
That method loses the hands on feeling she likely wanted.
It’s also extremely pointless to use a minigun when she’s got the pew pew orb for serious firepower.
A pistol will do the job of getting the point across when needed just fine.