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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-25-20, 07:44 PM (EST) |
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"OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
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As a Neuroi attack on a passenger liner unfolds in the English Channel, the witches of Operation Hammer and Gryphon's ad-hoc team from Project Mogami scramble to help—but are they getting in over their heads? Concluding Our Fighting Fleet, here is Episode 22: "To Glory We Steer" N.B.: Parts of this are so fresh they're still twitching, but I applied the old "what's ready goes" Serial Experiment approach in order to have this out while it's still Christmas (in North America, anyway). Please forgive any typos or other oddities you may run across. --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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Peter Eng
Charter Member
2078 posts |
Dec-25-20, 10:37 PM (EST) |
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1. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #0
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The moment they went to Phase 1, a lot of things became clear. This is a welcome tale on a good Christmas Day. Also, I hope Captain von Preußen gets a chance to talk with Flandre. There might not be any useful experiences to share, but who knows? Peter Eng -- Insert humorous comment here. |
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Zemyla
Member since Mar-26-08
451 posts |
Dec-26-20, 00:10 AM (EST) |
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3. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #0
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LAST EDITED ON Dec-26-20 AT 00:17 AM (EST) >her new jet Striker was the most >powerful unit yet fielded by the Empire of Fusō.It really says something about how nuts this battle was that I'd forgotten about Yoshika's new Striker in between *waves hands at the rest of the fic* >"We'll just have to improvise." Sounds like someone's playing Gryph's tune. >"Hattori, make a note: I'm 99.8 percent sure >we're about to be the first people ever to air drop >a heavy cruiser, but we'll need to make sure >before we apply for the world record." Whaaat? I thought that Mogami was just going to sail into combat. Also, they may have the record in this universe, but "air drop a heavy cruiser" sounds like something the WDF did back in the Golden Age - they saw what happened with the Fleet of Fog, developed a droppable ship, and used it exactly once before Sonset. >Klein >field energized, phase space neutralized. The former is Fleet of Fog terminology, but we haven't seen the lattet since NXE. Also, I sort of envision the way AT fields worked in NXE was sort of like, imagine someone in 2D space that is on top of a mesa. They can drop things on the people below, but are nearly impervious to anything down there. AT fields are the same, but in 3D. Of course, that mental image doesn't fit with how Klein fields can seemingky be temporarily depleted by damage, unlike AT fields which require either neutralization or utter penetration, so it's an imperfect analogy. >The first >thing she came to, for instance, was a Mercedes- >Benz automobile strapped down on a shipping >pallet, no doubt the property of one of the first- >class passengers. And second cousin to the car in the hold of the Titanic in NXE 3:1. >"I shouldn't sit there too long if I were you," >Alice said coolly. "It could be detrimental to your >health." > >"I got a protection spell up," Marisa replied, >unconcerned. "This ain't my first rodeo with this >stuff." That sounds radioactive. >"How would they even know about it, though?" >Marisa wondered. "That it's here, or even what it >is? It ain't like they have an intelligence network." It seems odd that neither of them conjectures that the Neuroi can sense the special materials in question, the same way they sense and react to magic. >At the very back, behind the crated art objects >and the Mercedes-Benz car, the collection of crates >labeled TUBE ALLOYS had no comment of their own >to offer. *googles* Yep, that's radioactive. >And then the fairies came. I said "Hell yes" out loud here. >"Took ya damn time about fully >synchronizin', di'n'cha?" Wait, did Hattori or Hutchins put in some kind of fairy nest, or is it Mogami synchronizing with Mogami somehow? Also, did the bosun of the original ship have a cigar and Kansai accent as well? >They came the same way their reinforcements >now appeared, rising out of the sea. Man, isn't the brass glad they didn't ship the tube alloys by submarine now? >"... I am in complete control," That's either confidence or hubris, I can't tell. >the altered cruiser slowed, then reverted >to her original configuration. That's a massive relief. >but there's one critical difference. The captain is wrong about the difference. WARLOCK and the Yamato were trying to replace witches. Here, there's still a witch involved. >She >thinks something is influencing them, but she's no >idea why or how. Honestly, I don't see who would be doing it even. Neuroi have supposedly beem attacking humanity since the dawn of time, so is this a new development? >"I want to get over to Paris," said Gryphon Yep, something came up. I can only imagine the effort he had to keep a poker face during the debriefing and denouement. |
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Astynax
Charter Member
1062 posts |
Dec-26-20, 01:22 AM (EST) |
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4. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #3
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>>Klein >>field energized, phase space neutralized. > >The former is Fleet of Fog terminology, but we haven't seen the lattet >since NXE. Also, I sort of envision the way AT fields worked in NXE >was sort of like, imagine someone in 2D space that is on top of a >mesa. They can drop things on the people below, but are nearly >impervious to anything down there. AT fields are the same, but in 3D. >Ah, so that's why 'phase space neutralized' was pinging for recognition. Been a while since I've consumed anything Evangelion so i was scratching my head a bit about where I'd heard that phrase. >>"I want to get over to Paris," said Gryphon > >Yep, something came up. I can only imagine the effort he had to keep a >poker face during the debriefing and denouement. > Huh, I read that more that the man simply wanted to get to his lady love now that doing so was a semi-feasible option, as opposed to her either being inside a nigh impenetrable time-space bubble, or more recently across the Channel with both of them having respective important business to tend to. "Something came up" would, I'd expect, trigger a more forceful and immediate reaction than pondering unauthorized use of the Reichsmarine motor pool.
| | -={(Astynax)}=- "This Space For Rent." |
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Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-26-20, 01:23 AM (EST) |
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5. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #3
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>Whaaat? I thought that Mogami was just going to sail into >combat.Would've taken her too long to get there! Ships are slow, even the relatively fast ones. >>Klein >>field energized, phase space neutralized. > >The former is Fleet of Fog terminology, but we haven't seen the lattet >since NXE. That is true, although it ought to be kept in mind that a Karlsland sailor in 1946 might not mean precisely the same thing that a Fog vessel in the 2400s or a NERV technician in 2015 means by either term. >>The first >>thing she came to, for instance, was a Mercedes- >>Benz automobile strapped down on a shipping >>pallet, no doubt the property of one of the first- >>class passengers. > >And second cousin to the car in the hold of the Titanic in NXE 3:1. There was a car on the real Titanic, too (although it was a Renault; there was no such thing as Mercedes-Benz in 1912). >It seems odd that neither of them conjectures that the Neuroi can >sense the special materials in question, the same way they sense and >react to magic. Well, that leads to the same quandary by a different route, anyway--why would they care? >Wait, did Hattori or Hutchins put in some kind of fairy nest, or is it >Mogami synchronizing with Mogami somehow? The latter. >Also, did the bosun >of the original ship have a cigar and Kansai accent as well? Possibly. No definite data. >>They came the same way their reinforcements >>now appeared, rising out of the sea. > >Man, isn't the brass glad they didn't ship the tube alloys by >submarine now? At least submarines are armed... >>but there's one critical difference. > >The captain is wrong about the difference. WARLOCK and the >Yamato were trying to replace witches. Here, there's still a >witch involved. "All right, there are two critical differences--amongst the critical differences are such diverse elements as... >>She >>thinks something is influencing them, but she's no >>idea why or how. > >Honestly, I don't see who would be doing it even. Neuroi have >supposedly beem attacking humanity since the dawn of time, so is this >a new development? They've never been smart enough to do things like work together and have discernible goals before this war. (And it's not entirely clear from the historical record whether the "monsters" recorded before the twentieth-century Neuroi wars really were Neuroi. The history of this particular world, as Remilia's father's journals note, has never been short on supernatural enemies of humankind.) This latest pattern, where they seem to have some kind of intelligence-gathering capability, and the capacity to make use of what it acquires, is new, and very unsettling to combatants used to regarding them as (as Eila once put it) not smart enough to be treacherous. --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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SneakyPete
Member since Jun-30-04
133 posts |
Dec-26-20, 11:00 PM (EST) |
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16. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #3
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>>The first >>thing she came to, for instance, was a Mercedes- >>Benz automobile strapped down on a shipping >>pallet, no doubt the property of one of the first- >>class passengers. > >And second cousin to the car in the hold of the Titanic in NXE 3:1.Which was a 1912 Renault Type CB Coupé de Ville owned by William Carter of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. >>And then the fairies came. > >I said "Hell yes" out loud here. So did I. What's a ship without her crew, after all? "Synchronizing", though...that smacks of NxE as well. I really *hope* the Neuroi don't turn out to be Angels, but I've got a bad feeling about this... |
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ImpulsiveAlexia
Member since Oct-22-20
139 posts |
Dec-27-20, 00:10 AM (EST) |
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18. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #17
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>No such connotation was intended; the bosun fairy was merely referring >to Mogami-the-girl finally getting completely in stride with >Mogami-the-ship. The part of me that's been looking at a lot of Kemono Friends stuff recently is of the opinion that this should be called Mogami's Wild Release. The sensibility of this use of the phrase is dubious at best. -IA. (received information not interpretable) |
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Astynax
Charter Member
1062 posts |
Dec-26-20, 04:36 AM (EST) |
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6. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #0
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>"Hattori, make a note: I'm 99.8 percent sure we're about to be the first people >ever to air drop a heavy cruiser, but we'll need to make sure before we apply for >the world record." >I wonder, would the body certifying such records argue that dropping the spirit of a heavy cruiser embodied in the form of a young witch doesn't count since they didn't drop the actual, physical warship? I can see that being a point of contention (even if G meant this in jest, which is likely, someone is still likely to argue the point I bet.) >Lucchini's ears picked up the familiar sound of magic being released as both >the captain and her cat began to glow—but the sound was lower-pitched than >usual, and the glow was not the blue-white of normal magic... >... It was red. The deep, angry red of Neuroi plasma beams. >Lucchini felt a chill race up her spine as duplicates of Oskar's ears and tail >materialized on the captain. They were not, as was typical of a witch's >familiar's manifested features, direct copies. Rather than being organic and >covered in short black fur to match the cat's, they were smooth, geometrically >perfect black crystal. >Captain von Preußen raised her head, her eyes snapping open—and they, too, were >black glass, their irises and pupils shining with blood-red light. > Well, now we know why Eugenie speaks Neuroi-chan. It does make me wonder if she can communicate with any other Neuroi, though later bits of at least this story make it seem like communication on any sort of human intelligible level might be limited by nature or by choice to Neuroi-chan. >Yoshika saw the seaborne witch take the hit. Evidently she either didn't have >an automatic shield, or it had crashed instantly, because she disappeared in a >cloud of spray as the beam exploded something in that strange combat rig she >was wearing. > The Strike Witches canon plays very loose with how witches learn any magic, shielding in particular (Yoshika, for example, just seems to innately know how toss up shields in her very first combat,) but the way things have been portrayed in the UF version of this world it seems like a skill/spell that can be learned, so I hope Mogami can pick it up before her next life or death escapade. Even Eila learned that you can't always dodge your way out of trouble. >Marisa nodded. "Mine too. What outfit they got you with these days? MI5? SIS?" >Alice looked her steadily in the eyes for a moment, then sighed. "MOE." > So this reference is explained in the Annotations, but I couldn't help but chuckle at an organization called MOE turning up in something Strike Witches related. Was this happy coincidence, or intentional convergence? >"Probably impatient, too," Marisa agreed. "'Why take ten days to get it across >when Karlsland's fastest liner can have it in New York in four?' I can hear >some yonk at the Admiralty sayin' it now. I do like the codename, though," she >added, holding the companionway door for Alice and the dolls to precede her >out. "Got kind of a ring to it. It'll look good in the history books." > It took me to about here to realize the answer to "what's int he box?" At which point I could only really quote Henry Cavill's version of Geralt of Rivia. >"Sorry we're late," she said in a tiny, piping voice with a distinct Kansai >accent, and then, with a wry smirk, "Took ya damn time about fully >synchronizin', di'n'cha?" > So I'm deeply amused that the fairies, and only the fairies, seem to have any idea what is going on here, and they seem to regard it as perfectly normal, to the point of being a bit annoyed that it took Mogami this long to trip over it. >The blonde in white and blue had a whole squadron of miniature helpers with >her, evidently deployed from cards like old-fashioned spirit summonings. > Are these a variation on the spell cards the Scarlets use, or something physically similar but magically distinct? >Up forward, Nos. 1 and 2 turrets changed shape, their twin gun tubes partially >retracting and then splitting apart into what looked like three-pronged >antennae, while the sides of the turrets narrowed to sharp angles and sprouted >rakishly angled rows of glowing red crystal. > I know that a "don't jump to conclusions" type response has already been given regarding the Fleet of Fog-ness vibes in this, but this turret reconfiguration pinged that hard for me. It just seems a lot like Eugenie the captain is something much like a mental model for Eugenie the ship when she ramps up her magic and they engage whatever techno-mystical whatsit they have going on. Even if there is no direct link, it's an interesting bit of coincidentally convergent evolution. >"Oh, for—aren't they ever going to learn?!" Ursula Hartmann burst out, sounding >so unlike her usually reserved self that Shirley had the momentary impression >that she'd somehow been replaced by her extroverted twin sister Erica. > They're military brass, so no probably not, at least not on anything resembling a useful timetable. Though to be fair, they do at least keep refining their safeguards for these Frankenweapons. Hopefully for Eugenie's sake they got it right this time. >"She doesn't really understand why she changed, either, but what's happening to >the other Neuroi is different." > The long, proud tradition of some otherworldly invader making a version of itself that is human-like to learn from humanity, and ending up becoming fond of humanity in the process. If there isn't a trope name over on TV Tropes for this there probably should be. Meanwhile, the larger point is that the Neuroi aren't just adapting and learning based on observation, as they seemed to do during the various anime seasons set in that world, but Something Bigger™ is afoot. <cue ominous music> >"Tracking, huh?" said Gryphon. "I know someone who's pretty good at that." > I can make some wild guesses, but I'm really not sure who G's speaking of here. Are we supposed to know and I'm just having a dense moment, or is this hinting at things to be seen later?
| | -={(Astynax)}=- "This Space For Rent." |
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The Traitor
Member since Feb-24-09
1214 posts |
Dec-26-20, 03:01 PM (EST) |
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10. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #9
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Beagles used to be scenthounds but he's a bit far removed from that. Instead he uses his powers to track down more tantalizing prey, such as the entire roast ham you thought you'd put in a safe spot. This is something he has used to great effect as a Lensdog, since him hunting down and consuming the turkey, ham, beef, and side dishes quite ruined the Magnificent Ten's Christmas Party. --- "She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards. |
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Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-26-20, 04:39 PM (EST) |
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13. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #9
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>I think Astynax can be forgiven for forgetting about Wolfgang's >tracking abilities. I'm not sure we've ever seen them "on camera", so >what people remember him for is (a) being cute and (b) being an >infallible judge of character. He's a hound, though. The clue is in the name! Granted, Ombra isn't a rabbit, so it's not as obvious as it would've been, say, in WL, where Gryphon's dog is a bloodhound. :) --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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Astynax
Charter Member
1062 posts |
Dec-27-20, 03:59 AM (EST) |
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19. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #13
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>He's a hound, though. The clue is in the name! > >Granted, Ombra isn't a rabbit, so it's not as obvious as it would've >been, say, in WL, where Gryphon's dog is a bloodhound. :) >My only meager defense is that scent tracking didn't even enter into my mind, since while some few familiars do manifest physical bodies, most do not. Thus I'd assumed Ombra would be something of a spirit cat with no scent, or other physical signs, to pick up.
| | -={(Astynax)}=- "This Space For Rent." |
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Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-30-20, 07:10 PM (EST) |
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29. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #28
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>>Thus I'd assumed Ombra would be something of a spirit cat >>with no scent, or other physical signs, to pick up. > >They probably don't have any physical signs to pick up. But the >Lenshound isn't limited to physical signs. I'm just going to say that I'm really looking forward to this scene, though, as always, I have other things in the timeline I have to get past before I can get to it. --G. the reveal of Prinzessin Eugenie Phase 2 was like that, I've had it in mind for literally years now -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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Astynax
Charter Member
1062 posts |
Dec-30-20, 10:32 PM (EST) |
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30. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #28
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>They probably don't have any physical signs to pick up. But the >Lenshound isn't limited to physical signs. Not every lens confers additional abilities IIRC, so I wasn't sure if Wolfgang's let him sniff spirits, but that would be the most direct path anyway. Though it's also easy to forget the hound has a lens, since it isn't plot relevant all that often.
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Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-26-20, 04:37 PM (EST) |
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12. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #6
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>I wonder, would the body certifying such records argue that dropping >the spirit of a heavy cruiser embodied in the form of a young witch >doesn't count since they didn't drop the actual, physical warship?Almost certainly. Those guys are such rules lawyers. >The Strike Witches canon plays very loose with how witches >learn any magic, shielding in particular (Yoshika, for example, just >seems to innately know how toss up shields in her very first combat,) >but the way things have been portrayed in the UF version of this world >it seems like a skill/spell that can be learned, so I hope Mogami can >pick it up before her next life or death escapade. Even Eila learned >that you can't always dodge your way out of trouble. In my head (which is, after all, where all this is happening :), her lack of a shield in this engagement is at least partly related to the fact that her test rig has no armor. Magic, after all, can be a very literal thing. >So this reference is explained in the Annotations, but I couldn't help >but chuckle at an organization called MOE turning up in something >Strike Witches related. Was this happy coincidence, or >intentional convergence? Sort of both. I thought of the Office of Strategic Sorcery first, and when I was thinking about the witchly equivalent to SOE, my first thought was that its initials could be the same as well, but I didn't want to use "sorcery" or "sorcerous" twice in the same capacity, and when I went looking for synonyms I realized what "Magical Operations Executive" would end up spelling, at which point I pretty much had to go with it. :) (As an aside, like SOE, it's meant to be pronounced with the letters independent: "em-oh-ee".) >So I'm deeply amused that the fairies, and only the fairies, seem to >have any idea what is going on here, and they seem to regard it >as perfectly normal, to the point of being a bit annoyed that it took >Mogami this long to trip over it. Let's just say it can be frustrating being a poorly understood metamagical phenomenon. :) (Also, as an aside, the fairies' dress and demeanor here is mostly a nod to the way they turn up a lot in Kancolle fan works, particularly the DAMCON fairies, but the bosun, in particular, is also a callback to the karma dwarves from my old pal Seann's Shadowrun campaign I was in back in high school. :) >>The blonde in white and blue had a whole squadron of miniature helpers with >>her, evidently deployed from cards like old-fashioned spirit summonings. > >Are these a variation on the spell cards the Scarlets use, or >something physically similar but magically distinct? They're similar disciplines in that they use cards and are largely considered obsolete in the 20th century, but have different roots. In D&D terms, think of spell cards as belonging mostly to the Evocation school of sorcery, while spirit summons are Conjuration. >>"Tracking, huh?" said Gryphon. "I know someone who's pretty good at that." >> > >I can make some wild guesses, but I'm really not sure who G's speaking >of here. Are we supposed to know and I'm just having a dense moment, >or is this hinting at things to be seen later? Geoff gave it away, but if he hadn't, my answer would've been "sort of both". :) --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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Star Ranger4
Charter Member
2483 posts |
Dec-26-20, 01:08 PM (EST) |
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8. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #0
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Thanks for a great christmas present G. Loved every bit of it, though it wasn't until I looked at the annotations I got the fuel storage joke. For myself, I didn't forget about Yoshika's new striker, but was drawing a blank on why the proffessor was aboard at first. Then finally my mental indexi pulled up he's the New Karsland equivalent of Group Captain Whittle. Nor was I that surprised at the Fleet of Fog terms floating about as it also sank in that Her Kaptain was, in fact, effectively the ships mental model. Wasn't until the lift lifted her up to the 'traditional' position for such I got it. At that point, all the 'special' terms started making a lot more sense. I assume I am also parsing this right that since Fleet is over, most of what G is doing is finalizing and getting the rest of Mogami's rig right, at which time that engineering LT will take over as production, repair and refit supervisor? I can only hope that while UF-G gets on with his life with Remilia and the 501st, the muses still have a few scenes of the ongoing life for Our fighting Fleet. If it was me, I'd homeport the Euginnie at castle rock, concentrating (for good or ill) the anti sea special magic forces in one place. Also, from Shirley's comment about ON the water, one gets the feeling there is the occasional sea witch, but they don't skate across the top of the water the way Kanmusu do? Meh. To much curiosity. Investigating it too closely.
Of COURSE you wernt expecting it! No One expects the FANNISH INQUISITION! RCW# 86 |
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Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-26-20, 05:11 PM (EST) |
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15. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #8
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>I assume I am also parsing this right that since Fleet is over, most >of what G is doing is finalizing and getting the rest of Mogami's rig >right, at which time that engineering LT will take over as production, >repair and refit supervisor? That's the plan. That's why they brought in Nishimura in the first place, because G and Shizuka have to get back to their regular assignments eventually. >If it was me, I'd homeport the Euginnie at castle >rock, concentrating (for good or ill) the anti sea special magic >forces in one place. Crone Rock was an RAF base, so it doesn't have the kind of facilities required to support a heavy cruiser (particularly one with Prinzessin Eugenie's, uh, special needs), but there is a Royal Dockyard in nearby Dover that could be modified for the purpose relatively easily. Most Reichsmarine facilities in wartime Europe are in Gallia, though, rather than Britannia, so they would be more likely to set something up in Calais, which is right across the Strait of Dover (much nearer to Folkestone than Le Havre). >Also, from Shirley's comment about ON the water, one gets the feeling >there is the occasional sea witch, but they don't skate across the top >of the water the way Kanmusu do? Meh. To much curiosity. >Investigating it too closely. There are sea witches; they operate underwater rather than in the air, and are both less numerous and much less famous than their flying cousins. They mostly have to contend with "land" Neuroi that are walking on the bottom of bodies of water. "Swimming" Neuroi are a new wrinkle. I actually wanted and originally planned to include one of Karlsland's Unterseehexen in this story arc, but it was already so busy and had so many moving parts that it turned out not to be practical—although we can assume that a U-witch or two were among the force that responded to secure the area at the end of the battle in this ep (and probably one or two Gallian and/or Britannian sub witches as well). Part of the reason why the sea witches are not as famous as their flying counterparts is because their operations take place out of sight, where the public can't witness them, but mainly it's because the Britannian government deliberately kept them and their activities very secret during the Battle of Britannia. The fact that the Neuroi didn't have anything like ships was one of the propaganda levers they used to maintain public calm in the period when Britannia stood alone in Europe. The assumption among the brass was always that, if the aerial Neuroi could gain air superiority over the Channel and the southern coast of Grand Britannia, the true invasion would come in the form of ground Neuroi walking across the bottom of the Strait of Dover and flooding unopposed onto the beaches of Kent. By focusing the public's attention on the threat from the air, they hoped to avoid the panic that might ensue if people twigged to the danger from the sea. And it mostly worked! But the upshot is that most Britannian civilians don't know the part that the submarine witches played in securing the Channel while the air forces were holding the line above. (Meanwhile, on mainland Europe, they didn't have much of a part to play, though a few nations developed the technology anyway, because what else are you going to do with a witch whose familiar is a fish?) --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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Gryphon
Charter Member
22872 posts |
Dec-27-20, 10:41 PM (EST) |
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25. "RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer"
In response to message #24
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>>That reminds me, I was actually wondering if Gryphon (the character) >>might be aware of and have taken some inspiration from the kanmusu of >>Valhalla. They've been a going concern for some time now after all, >>and while the afterlife isn't exactly a tourist spot, he's got >>connections and all. He may have heard something about them, but it's likely he hasn't seen one in person—Valhalla is more Corwin's beat, and on the rare occasions when G gets there himself, he generally has specific people to see. >One of the other places he might have taken inspiration is from the >Kohbu. You don't spend three years up to your elbows in a chi-burning >steam engine and not pick up design cues for whem you decide to build >another one. He says as much to Shizuka in "H&H Ltd.", but she doesn't have the background information to know what he's referring to, and before she can ask, they're interrupted by Wilma showing up. "What use is this, though?" Shizuka carefully walked around the arrangement that now sat on one of the test benches that used to hold Strikers under repair. "I see you moved the prop shaft up to this steam turbine, but... why the boiler? Why not just run the turbine off her own magic?" If we can help her to use it, she didn't add out loud. She didn't understand why the younger girl couldn't find her familiar—how could she be magically active without one?—but she didn't want to insult her, either.Kneeling next to the modified engine, tightening one last set of bolts, Gryphon shook his head with an indulgent smile. "Because Mogami had a single-funnel boiler array driving her turbines before she went down, so now our Mogami needs one too." Standing and stretching, he gently ran a hand up the unpainted aluminum stack. "Magic's funny that way sometimes. It can be a very literal art. In this case—if Admiral Sugita is right—the Satō girl is tied to the ship's spirit. That means the engines we build for her need to work the same way." "Well... if you say so." Hattori frowned as she thought that over, then looked to the other side of the shop, where Gryphon had asked Mogami to start welding together a set of aluminum and steel struts, creating a frame for the engine to eventually rest in. "So this is something you've seen before?" Gryphon scratched at his beard thoughtfully. "Well... not precisely, but I'm borrowing a couple of ideas that worked for a few of my friends, and pairing it up with some equipment I used to use, well, a long time ago..." --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
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version 3.3 © 2001
Eyrie Productions,
Unlimited
Benjamin
D. Hutchins
E P U (Colour)
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