With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

'good with'?
'seriously'

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"Neigh, we did not!"

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Thank me, corrected.

 

[Bud-E]

Great to see Paul hanging with the team again! BTW who's officially on the team at this point like is Cassie Wonder Girl yet?

 

[Ngamer11]

Great to see Paul hanging with the team again! BTW who's officially on the team at this point like is Cassie Wonder Girl yet?

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She was a little kid in the beginning of the story, so nope.

Edit: Double checked, and she was eight when Paul revealed to Diana her existence.

 

[Vaermina]

Innovation isn't just taking a perfectly functional design and changing it just enough to be unusable with your design. No, having unique chargers for specific product lines is a problem.

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That's almost exactly how we went from USB-Micro-B to USB-C...

 

[NightmareWarden]

I hope Jade gets to spend time with with the junior heroes out of Paul's supervision. She needs more peers near her age. Also I can imagine her working with Arsenal in the future at least once because she's a human raised on Earth who has become accustomed to the logistics and safety of space travel. Learning from a normal human, getting different experiences than Red Arrow, that'll be good for both of them. Which is amusing due to canon… but Ambush Bug is the only one with a real chance of pointing it out.

 

[Silveraith]

The bacon and honey fade into dust as the last gasp of the wave shoots up the main thoroughfare, surging over the walls and depositing seven people inside the inner city. Five of the monstrous fishmen form a perimeter around the other two as the water that brought them here vanishes. The first is a man of average height dressed in a shocking red suit with a white shirt, black tie, black shoes and black gloves. His head is invisible and I can only tell where he's looking due to the simple red mask which appears to be floating where his face should be. Johnny Sorrow. I thought he was dead… Or at least gone. He appears to be taking in the assembled Royal Guard with affected disinterest. The second person is easy to identify. Circe. She's wearing black and purple body armour covered over by a green outer robe and she's got a very punchable face.

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For what it's worth, these links don't work anymore.

It was? Where?

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It took me awhile but I finally found the quote. Back during the Oceanus arc the the SI/MC speculates that the Olympians are actively suppressing Diana's powers because she's technically a Titan and can grow more powerful than them.

Something occurs to her. "Is there something which you know about me which you have not told me?"

Oh… Poop. "A.. couple of things."

"Alright." She smiles. "Tell me. Let us see what is so disturbing that you would hesitate to tell me."

"Diana, I don't think that's a good-."

She raises her eyebrows slightly. "You still have a full seventeen days on your oath still to serve. Do you intend to take advantage-"

"No."

"-of the fact that it is unenforceable?"

"No."

Her smile broadens slightly. "You may have noticed, I have fairly strong feelings where the truth is concerned. I promise you that there is nothing you can say to me about me that is true that will lower my opinion of you."

…

"Alright. You know that Dryads regard themselves as being Gaea's daughters?"

She hesitates for a moment, then nods. "You believe that I should think of myself in the same fashion, since it was Gaea who gave me life and not my mother."

"I'm the last person to speak against the relationship you have with your adoptive mother, or your relationship with Kon. But the fact remains that the magics in your body are those of the earth and not of war. You live like a demi-goddess when as far as I can tell you're Oceanus' youngest sister."

She waits for a moment, then holds out her hands palms upwards. "You see? That wasn't such an earth-shattering revelation. Unless you have more to say on the subject."

"Gaea didn't just reshape and empower the magics in the earth to bring you to life in the way she did the magics in plants to create the Dryads. You've got her in you. I still don't understand why you're as -relatively- weak as you are."

"Perhaps it is something that I must grow into. Or perhaps she wanted me to experience the full range of Human life before I experience apotheosis."

"Or perhaps the 'blessings' the other goddesses gave you were intended to suppress your innate abilities."

The smile fades somewhat and she raises her eyebrows. "That, is speculation."

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[Ngamer11]

It took me awhile but I finally found the quote. Back during the Oceanus arc the the SI/MC speculates that the Olympians are actively suppressing Diana's powers because she's technically a Titan and can grow more powerful than them.

Click to shrink...

Thankfully, she is no longer restricted that way and is now growing in power so that she will inevitably become more like a god or a titan in the future.

 

[Mr Zoat]

For what it's worth, these links don't work anymore.

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Link rot is a perfectly natural phenomenon that other bothers pedants.

Darn it.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Universe 191
13th May 1954
15:44 GMT

"…sloped armour to encourage incoming shells to be deflected off the armour rather than simply stopping it with the thickness of the metal." The Reptiloids have reactive armour, but no other nation on Earth has the sort of shells that it is designed to stop. As such, we haven't bothered including it in the current generation of tank armour. Honestly, there was some debate as to whether composite armour was worth including for much the same reason, so to make things a little easier for us it won't be included with the export version. "The main gun is rifled, and will cheerfully punch through the front plate of any armoured vehicle on Earth… That doesn't come from our workshop."

Mr. Blood's face has gone from thunderous to becalmed, though the remaining members of the German delegation look more interested than offended. The Japanese look almost excited -and having seen images of their tanks I can understand why- while the others are less interested, presumably realising that a significant number of these would be outside of their budgets. I imagine that they'll be more interested in the lighter vehicles we're showing next.

"Three machine guns, smoke launchers, internal communications and external radio, A.P., H.E. and incendiary ammunition on the main gun,-"

The Reptiloid version had an anti-air missile rack, but that struck me as a very bad idea when incoming enemy fire could trigger all of the missile fuel and potentially wreck the tank.

"-and options for bulldozer blades, electrified hulls, fragmentation grenades and a internal hatch to expose the engine to the crew compartment so that you can brew a pot of tea without getting out."

That gets me a few odd looks.

"Oh, I'm not joking. We lost more than a few tank crews doing that during the last war, so we engineered a solution. If your country doesn't share our tea addiction, we can easily omit it."

I gesture as the tank moves over a series of artificial hillocks and sights a target than purely by chance resembles a current generation American 'barrel'.

BOOM!

The main gun fires and there's a exceedingly loud noise as the anti-armour round punches through the target's sheet metal.

"Better acceleration, higher-" The tank accelerates again. "-top speed and better manoeuvrability than anything in its weight class, the Landcruiser Mark One is the most powerful thing on land."

Mr. Blood's lip curls. "How does it handle superbombs?"

"Direct hits? Not well. But anything short of that, the armour will block the radiation pretty much indefinitely, the curved shape means that it can survive the shockwaves surprisingly well and the filtration system will keep the radioactive particulates out for a couple of days. The same applies to poison gasses." I raise my right hand. "Though I will say now that while Britain does have a reserve of nerve agents, those are not going to be for sale."

The tank pulls around a corner and comes to a halt in front of a group of mannequins holding an American anti-tank rocket. Somewhere backstage someone presses a button and the rocket fires, striking the front plate and failing to penetrate. The high explosive round fired from the main gun an instant later shreds the dummies.

"Of course, in an actual battle the machine guns would have shredded them before the could fire."

There's a smear on the armour where the rocket was deflected slightly before detonating, but no visible damage to the armour.

"The command variant has the facilities for receiving images directly from our satellites-" And our drones, also not for sale. "-but for the most part that's intended as something for their commanding generals."

I look around to gauge the mood-. Mr. von Spreti is finally rejoining the party. He missed half of the small arms demonstration arranging to have the unexploded fission bombs removed by his government and he understandably avoided me at lunch, but I don't know what he's been doing this afternoon. We've got security just about everywhere and it's not like he can sneak a tank out under his jacket, so… His business. Maybe lunch was a bit spicy for him?

The tank hits the straight and opens the throttle, engine roaring as it accelerates, dirt spraying backwards. There's a smattering of applause from several parts of the audience as it leaves the proving ground and heads back into the display area. They'll be able to have a closer look later and talk to the crews and engineers, because any purchase is going to have to come with training for both. And that's where the risk of spies comes from, and why we're probably going to have to set up on an island somewhere, or otherwise in neutral territory.

The Transvaal Republic might be able to afford more tanks that it thought it would.

"Next up is more of the same." Another tank with an almost identical profile drives out onto the proving ground. The one has replaced the main cannon turret with a radar-guided anti-aircraft system. It also works well against helicopters and drones, though those are less of a concern at the moment. We haven't quite gotten to the point where ground-based anti-aircraft weapons are obsolete; even the United States and the German Empire still mostly use propeller aircraft while they gradually switch over to jet aircraft, and second tier powers mostly just dream about being able to afford jets. "That monster can fire an astonishingly huge number of bullets per minute, and with our improved guidance system it's a very sorry pilot who tries contesting territory against it from anything less than the highest altitude."

Because there are limits. Shooting high-altitude targets from the ground just isn't practical, but current generation heavy bombers are relatively easy to hunt down with our 'killcraft' variants. We've looked into ground-based missiles but it's hard to get them to hit the target if they use even basic countermeasures. We could probably make it work right now, but the Reptiloids weren't that much more advanced than us. Everyone will catch up eventually.

As the mobile anti-aircraft gun comes to a halt I walk over to a clay pigeon thrower and turn the handle. The vehicle flicks a signalling light to indicate readiness so I release, the clay disc flying up into the air. The turret tracks it automatically and with the touch of a button-

BLAAART!

-the clay pigeon disintegrates in midair.

"We also have a rotary cannon variant-" It drives out and pulls up alongside its batchmate. "-if for some reason you want a tank capable of killing mass infantry or light vehicles."

It aims at a target painted on the side of a hillock and fires,-

Goodness that thing's noisy!

-shredding everything and boring a hole into the hillock. The first time we did this, bullets actually came out of the other side, though not fast enough to cause significant injury.

"It's also a threat to low-flying aircraft, though we didn't fit it with the guidance system that-"

BANG! BANG!

"-ugh!"

I stagger back, falling over onto the damp ground, hands going to my chest is shouts of alarm go up from the crowd! One of my minders runs towards me while the other frantically signals the on-site army medic. I hear more shouts and sounds of violence as it turns out that a crowd full of veterans are perfectly prepared to charge down one man with a gun…

von Spreti. I thought it would be Blood.

I reach up, slapping my bodyguard aside with my right hand as I reach into my shirt with my left.

"And!"

Okay, grab the bodyguard and pull myself upright, to the astonishment of those not in the middle of laying in to the German delegation.

"A surprise demonstration of-!" I pull out the armour plate which had been covering my upper torso, a flattened bullet falling to the ground as I do so. "Our next generation infantry body armour! Steel-ceramic plates in pouches of stab-resistant fabric! I'd bet my life on them! Hah!"

I make eye contact with the sergeant in charge of the detail.

"Sergeant, please detain our German friends. I think I need to have a word with their government."

 

[BR549]

The Reptiloid version had an anti-air missile rack, but that struck me as a very bad idea when incoming enemy fire could trigger all of the missile fuel and potentially wreck the tank.

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You're using storable-liquid-fueled missiles, then? Solid fuels shouldn't go off like that; I don't think even the hackjobs who came up with 'The Pentagon Papers' suggested the TOW mount on the Bradley was a problem, and vehicle-mounted SAMs are commonplace these days.

Now, for a tank, it's probably a little overkill regardless, unless you're building things like they do in BattleTech...

I gesture as the tank moves over a series of artificial hillocks and sights a target than purely by change resembles a current generation American 'barrel'.

Click to shrink...

'Chance'

"Next up is more of the same." Another tank with an almost identical profile drives out onto the proving ground. The one has replaced the main cannon turret with a radar-guided anti-aircraft system. It also works well against helicopters and drones, though those are less of a concern at the moment. We haven't quite gotten to the point where ground-based anti-aircraft weapons are obsolete; even the United States and the German Empire still mostly use propeller aircraft while they gradually switch over to jet aircraft, and second tier powers mostly just dream about being able to afford jets. "That monster can fire an astonishingly huge number of bullets per minute, and with our improved guidance system it's a very sorry pilot who tries contesting territory against it from anything less than the highest altitude."

Because there are limits. Shooting high-altitude targets from the ground just isn't practical, but current generation heavy bombers are relatively easy to hunt down with our 'killcraft' variants. We've looked into ground-based missiles but it's hard to get them to hit the target if they use even basic countermeasures. We could probably make it work right now, but the Reptiloids weren't that much more advanced than us. Everyone will catch up eventually.

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Now this is interesting in a historical/real context. Interesting fact: during WW2, there was a serious proposal to set up anti-aircraft guns to deal with incoming V2 attacks, and as I recall the only thing that kept the plan from being gone ahead with was the front lines pushing the launch sites far enough back they couldn't reliably reach England anymore. (It's not as ridiculous as it sounds - the key word in 'ballistic missile' is ballistic, so if you know where it is and where it came from it's easy to track out where it's going and put a wall of HE in its path.)

And the bit about missiles having issues if even basic countermeasures are used is true - especially then, but even now. The whole thing about 'missiles made high and fast obsolete' was virtually a crock. The Powers U-2 shootdown that precipitated that presumption was an outlier - Powers had descended from operating altitude, there's still debate if it was a missile that got him at all or a MiG-19 at max zoom-climb altitude getting a lucky shot, and either way the U-2 was very decidedly subsonic -, the SR-71 which was "high and fast" incarnate was shot at many times and never hit, and SAMs run into simple geometry and reaction-time issues: apply any degree of signature reduction to a high, fast bomber, and by the time they see it, process that it's hostile, and make the decision to fire, it's fast enough it'll be virtually overhead, and no missile is going to win a tailchase at that aspect. Even without signature reduction, there's still the same issues, and an aircraft is manueverable: even the small course corrections a high-speed craft is limited to add up to a lot of variation in short order.

The reasons why, given these facts, 'high and fast means death' became the dogma that still survives today are - given 'still survives today', considering Rule 8 - left to the reader to ponder.

 

[012345]

"Sergeant, please detain our German friends. I think I need to have a word with their government."

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So is Germany about to be orbitaly shelled of they dont give good explanation and recompensation?

 

[Ciber]

Do the reptiliod barrels use jet engines like the Abrams?

 

[Mr Zoat]

You're using storable-liquid-fueled missiles, then? Solid fuels shouldn't go off like that; I don't think even the hackjobs who came up with 'The Pentagon Papers' suggested the TOW mount on the Bradley was a problem, and vehicle-mounted SAMs are commonplace these days.

Now, for a tank, it's probably a little overkill regardless, unless you're building things like they do in BattleTech...

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The problem is more that I-the-writer don't know enough about real weapons to state things like that, and the reason I wrote it owes more to the Imperium of Man removing the exterior missile racks off their superheavies than any actual knowledge of real warfare. In-universe, they'd be using either 1950s fuel, or directly copying whatever the reptiloids use, and I don't remember Worldwar well enough to remember that.

'Chance'

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Thank you, corrected.

So is Germany about to be orbitaly shelled of they don't give good explanation and recompensation?

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No, but their diplomats would be arrested or expelled.

Do the reptiliod barrels use jet engines like the Abrams?

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I don't remember.

 

[RichardWhereat]

"Oh, I'm not joking. We lost more than a few tank crews doing that during the last war, so we engineered a solution. If your country doesn't share our tea addiction, we can easily omit it."

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The Australian delegation is interested. Our bushmasters come equipped with that too.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

Universe 191
13th May 1954
15:44 GMT

"…sloped armour to encourage incoming shells to be deflected off the armour rather than simply stopping it with the thickness of the metal." The Reptiloids have reactive armour, but no other nation on Earth has the sort of shells that it is designed to stop. As such, we haven't bothered including it in the current generation of tank armour. Honestly, there was some debate as to whether composite armour was worth including for much the same reason, so to make things a little easier for us it won't be included with the export version. "The main gun is rifled, and will cheerfully punch through the front plate of any armoured vehicle on Earth… That doesn't come from our workshop."

Click to shrink...

Which puts them just a wee bit ahead of most nations, then. Early armoured vehicles were... Not particularly suited to combat against their enemy equivalents, mostly due to their armaments being more suited to anti-infantry engagements, with only light cannons for harder targets... I doubt the militaries of the world have advanced much by this stage.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Mr. Blood's face has gone from thunderous to becalmed, though the remaining members of the German delegation look more interested than offended. The Japanese look almost excited -and having seen images of their tanks I can understand why- while the others are less interested, presumably realising that a significant number of these would be outside of their budgets. I imagine that they'll be more interested in the lighter vehicles we're showing next.

Click to shrink...

Ohhh... Japanese tanks? Yeah. Their early tanks were copies of foreign designs, but their own national developments were not great...

"Three machine guns, smoke launchers, internal communications and external radio, A.P., H.E. and incendiary ammunition on the main gun,-"

The Reptiloid version had an anti-air missile rack, but that struck me as a very bad idea when incoming enemy fire could trigger all of the missile fuel and potentially wreck the tank.

Click to shrink...

Just a bit, though I suspect that was down to them having planet-side military technology just above World War II levels, being the reptile aliens of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar? So rockets using liquid fuel, which would naturally spill everywhere if breached and ignited...

"-and options for bulldozer blades, electrified hulls, fragmentation grenades and a internal hatch to expose the engine to the crew compartment so that you can brew a pot of tea without getting out."

That gets me a few odd looks.

Click to shrink...

My god, you make it sounds like a Leman Russ. Which is no great insult to it, that design is actually pretty decent even for a space-opera fantasy concept (barring the exposed tracks on the basic spec...)

"Oh, I'm not joking. We lost more than a few tank crews doing that during the last war, so we engineered a solution. If your country doesn't share our tea addiction, we can easily omit it."

I gesture as the tank moves over a series of artificial hillocks and sights a target than purely by change resembles a current generation American 'barrel'.

Click to shrink...

Ah, the British love of Tea... And yes, English tank crews would brew tea on their engines. Nothing like a cuppa to ease tensions...

BOOM!

The main gun fires and there's a exceedingly loud noise as the anti-armour round punches through the target's sheet metal.

Click to shrink...

That'd put the wind up more than a few governments, seeing their best armour turned into a picture window.

"Better acceleration, higher-" The tank accelerates again. "-top speed and better manoeuvrability than anything in its weight class, the Landcruiser Mark One is the most powerful thing on land."

Mr. Blood's lip curls. "How does it handle superbombs?"

Click to shrink...

...Why do I get the feeling there are larger designs in the works as 'Land-Destroyers' or 'Land-Frigates'?

"Direct hits? Not well. But anything short of that, the armour will block the radiation pretty much indefinitely, the curved shape means that it can survive the shockwaves surprisingly well and the filtration system will keep the radioactive particulates out for a couple of days. The same applies to poison gasses." I raise my right hand. "Though I will say now that while Britain does have a reserve of nerve agents, those are not going to be for sale."

Click to shrink...

I assume the 'superbombs' mentioned are smaller devices than the ones alt!Paul handed back to the German fellow. Which means the next war may be fought with tactical nuclear weaponry...

The tank pulls around a corner and comes to a halt in front of a group of mannequins holding an American anti-tank rocket. Somewhere backstage someone presses a button and the rocket fires, striking the front plate and failing to penetrate. The high explosive round fired from the main gun an instant later shreds the dummies.

Click to shrink...

Not bad at all. Though early infantry anti-tank weapons often didn't have the greatest success rate anyway in their earliest uses. Too new a weapon for consistent training and all...

"Of course, in an actual battle the machine guns would have shredded them before the could fire."

There's a smear on the armour where the rocket was deflected slightly before detonating, but no visible damage to the armour.

"The command variant has the facilities for receiving images directly from our satellites-" And our drones, also not for sale. "-but for the most part that's intended as something for their commanding generals."

Click to shrink...

Certainly not going to let that little trick slip out, until the first engagement where enemy tanks start dying to apparently nothing...

I look around to gauge the mood-. Mr. von Spreti is finally rejoining the party. He missed half of the small arms demonstration arranging to have the unexploded fission bombs removed by his government and he understandably avoided me at lunch, but I don't know what he's been doing this afternoon. We've got security just about everywhere and it's not like he can sneak a tank out under his jacket, so… His business. Maybe lunch was a bit spicy for him?

Click to shrink...

I mean, arranging shipping for two nuclear bombs probably wasn't the easiest challenge. Bet he's gotten a bit of indigestion from the stress.

The tank hits the straight and opens the throttle, engine roaring as it accelerates, dirt spraying backwards. There's a smattering of applause from several parts of the audience as it leaves the proving ground and heads back into the display area. They'll be able to have a closer look later and talk to the crews and engineers, because any purchase is going to have to come with training for both. And that's where the risk of spies comes from, and why we're probably going to have to set up on an island somewhere, or otherwise in neutral territory.

Click to shrink...

Heh. Reminds me of the demonstrations of British Challengers cruising at high speeds...

The Transvaal Republic might be able to afford more tanks that it thought it would.

"Next up is more of the same." Another tank with an almost identical profile drives out onto the proving ground. This one has replaced the main cannon turret with a radar-guided anti-aircraft system. It also works well against helicopters and drones, though those are less of a concern at the moment. We haven't quite gotten to the point where ground-based anti-aircraft weapons are obsolete; even the United States and the German Empire still mostly use propeller aircraft while they gradually switch over to jet aircraft, and second tier powers mostly just dream about being able to afford jets. "That monster can fire an astonishingly huge number of bullets per minute, and with our improved guidance system it's a very sorry pilot who tries contesting territory against it from anything less than the highest altitude."

Click to shrink...

I'm guessing something reminiscent of the modern AA armoured vehicle. More barrels to put more shells aloft. And with the slower speed of prop planes, tracking isn't too hard.

Because there are limits. Shooting high-altitude targets from the ground just isn't practical, but current generation heavy bombers are relatively easy to hunt down with our 'killcraft' variants. We've looked into ground-based missiles but it's hard to get them to hit the target if they use even basic countermeasures. We could probably make it work right now, but the Reptiloids weren't that much more advanced than us. Everyone will catch up eventually.

Click to shrink...

True. In Worldwar, they were more like 60's levels of tech than world war II. Or so I understand, as I haven't read them.

As the mobile anti-aircraft gun comes to a halt I walk over to a clay pigeon thrower and turn the handle. The vehicle flicks a signalling light to indicate readiness so I release, the clay disc flying up into the air. The turret tracks it automatically and with the touch of a button-

Click to shrink...

Heh. Effective, if overkill.

BLAAART!

-the clay pigeon disintegrates in midair.

Click to shrink...

Ludicriously overkill. Imagine what relatively modern AA guns would do to wood or aluminium-skinned WWII aircraft...

"We also have a rotary cannon variant-" It drives out and pulls up alongside its batchmate. "-if for some reason you want a tank capable of killing mass infantry or light vehicles."

It aims at a target painted on the side of a hillock and fires,-

Click to shrink...

Ah, a mounted equivalent of something like the Close-In Weapons System concept?

Goodness that thing's noisy!

-shredding everything and boring a hole into the hillock. The first time we did this, bullets actually came out of the other side, though not fast enough to cause significant injury.

Click to shrink...

Yes, they are loud. That happens with that sort of gun...

"It's also a threat to low-flying aircraft, though we didn't fit it with the guidance system that-"

BANG! BANG!

"-ugh!"

Click to shrink...

Oooh, that doesn't sound like part of the demonstration!

I stagger back, falling over onto the damp ground, hands going to my chest is shouts of alarm go up from the crowd! One of my minders runs towards me while the other frantically signals the on-site army medic. I hear more shouts and sounds of violence as it turns out that a crowd full of veterans are perfectly prepared to charge down one man with a gun…

Click to shrink...

Hopefully they don't put too much boot in, you'll want them alive. If only to find out who and why.

von Spreti. I thought it would be Blood.

I reach up, slapping my bodyguard aside with my right hand as I reach into my shirt with my left.

Click to shrink...

Oh-ho, still got a working Ring, eh...

"And!"

Okay, grab the bodyguard and pull myself upright, to the astonishment of those not in the middle of laying in to the German delegation.

Click to shrink...

Might be a bit sus if you just shake of being shot like that, though.

"A surprise demonstration of-!" I pull out the armour plate which had been covering my upper torso, a flattened bullet falling to the ground as I do so. "Our next generation infantry body armour! Steel-ceramic plates in pouches of stab-resistant fabric! I'd bet my life on them! Hah!"

Click to shrink...

...Huh, well, I hope I wasn't the only one fooled when they first saw that reaction. Talwyn's still gonna have a fair bruise there in a few hours.

I make eye contact with the sergeant in charge of the detail.

"Sergeant, please detain our German friends. I think I need to have a word with their government."

Click to shrink...

Very pointed words, and if their answer isn't very polite and apologetic, I suspect they might be seeing further demonstrations of Britain's new weapons, up close and personal-like...

Interesting that they targeted Paul with assassination. He's not a political leader, and I can't imagine they assume he's the sole source of all these new technologies, Tony Stark-style. Though him dying would probably have thrown the British military-industrial complex into a bit of a tizzy for a while. Good thing he didn't aim for the head.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I assume the 'superbombs' mentioned are smaller devices than the ones alt!Paul handed back to the German fellow. Which means the next war may be fought with tactical nuclear weaponry...

Click to shrink...

No, 'superbombs' is a catch-all name in the same way that we use 'nukes'.

True. In Worldwar, they were more like 60's levels of tech than world war II. Or so I understand, as I haven't read them.

Click to shrink...

The wiki says 80s, and that feels a bit more right to me.

Interesting that they targeted Paul with assassination. He's not a political leader, and I can't imagine they assume he's the sole source of all these new technologies, Tony Stark-style.

Click to shrink...

They can, actually.

 

[WereDragon]

"Oh, I'm not joking. We lost more than a few tank crews doing that during the last war, so we engineered a solution. If your country doesn't share our tea addiction, we can easily omit it."

Click to shrink...

Why would you not want the ability to boil a kettle without being exposed? Even if you don't want tea you probably still want something hot to drink.

Mr. Blood's lip curls. "How does it handle superbombs?"

"Direct hits? Not well. But anything short of that, the armour will block the radiation pretty much indefinitely, the curved shape means that it can survive the shockwaves surprisingly well and the filtration system will keep the radioactive particulates out for a couple of days. The same applies to poison gasses."

Click to shrink...

It is something rarely thought about but nukes aren't actually that good against hardened targets. They will gut cities and slaughter people at huge ranges, but the square-cube law is a harsh mistress and even megatons gets spread very thin surprisingly quickly.

"-ugh!"

I stagger back, falling over onto the damp ground, hands going to my chest is shouts of alarm go up from the crowd!

Click to shrink...

Even with armour that probably hurt like the dickens.

I thought it would be Blood.

Click to shrink...

Nah, he strikes me as a more 'shouting and punching' sort of guy than an assassin.
Although what von Spreti hoped to achieve with this I cannot imagine. Killing the salesman doesn't remove the product.

 

[Duke Long]

"-and options for bulldozer blades, electrified hulls, fragmentation grenades and a internal hatch to expose the engine to the crew compartment so that you can brew a pot of tea without getting out."

Click to shrink...

'an'

I gesture as the tank moves over a series of artificial hillocks and sights a target than purely by chance resembles a current generation American 'barrel'.

Click to shrink...

'that'

The main gun fires and there's a exceedingly loud noise as the anti-armour round punches through the target's sheet metal.

Click to shrink...

'an'

"Of course, in an actual battle the machine guns would have shredded them before the could fire."

Click to shrink...

'they'

I stagger back, falling over onto the damp ground, hands going to my chest is shouts of alarm go up from the crowd! One of my minders runs towards me while the other frantically signals the on-site army medic. I hear more shouts and sounds of violence as it turns out that a crowd full of veterans are perfectly prepared to charge down one man with a gun…

Click to shrink...

'as'

Okay, grab the bodyguard and pull myself upright, to the astonishment of those not in the middle of laying in to the German delegation.

Click to shrink...

'into'?

They can, actually.

Click to shrink...

I thought it was staggeringly stupid, but it does actually make sense from that perspective. If they think he is the primary cause of this enormous technological advancement, it is prudent to kill him as soon as possible to prevent the technological gap from becoming even larger. They'll be concerned about what he could do with decades of research time, given how much he seems to have achieved in what, one decade? Less?

I do wonder if von Spreti acted on his own recognisance or if it's the result of the discussion with his government.