Mom's home, hide the beer [video]

[relativityspeaking]

I've got good news: Reinhardt and Brainy are both stable and safely tucked into healing pods. They're both expected to make full recoveries.

I figured I'd get that out there up front. The rest is going to get long, so it's split into parts.

[ooc: People can respond to the two parts of the briefing in the subthreads below.]

Comments

[Audio]

[thedreamisdead]

I'm fine unarmed or just a daystick. I was top of my class in Applied Violence.

[She was top of her class in a lot of things. She even acted as a student teacher for a few of the younger Cadets.]

No disrespect, but your combat effectiveness ends at the end of your fists. Or however far you're throwing something. My combat effectiveness has a range of three miles. Or, if we're talking purely stun shots, a few meters.

It's a lot easier to teach someone to aim with a gun than it is to teach them the muscle memory required for good hand-to-hand combat. And if we can shut our opponents down before we have to use our close quarters training, so much the better.

[Audio]

[legionnpcs]

That depends on one's method of fighting. I often handle controlling crowds of henchman in ways that a stun weapon wouldn't allow for, manipulating them against one another to make them all crumble. This allows my teammates to focus on the greater threats on the battlefield instead of occupying themselves with enemies that are meant to be a distraction. For me, a gun wouldn't be the most effective use of my skill, not against such numbers, not with my intended role in combat.

Whether or not a gun would work in tandem with the skills or powers of others would be equally individual. Those with ranged powers would find one superfluous, except for as a backup weapon if they are depowered. Those with heavily offensive capabilities and heavy shielding are perhaps more effective armed with technologically-enhanced blunt weaponry or bladed weapons, due to their typical placement in combat and the way such weapons complement their abilities.

For those who seek additional nonfatal weaponry to complement their skillsets, or use as a fall-back in the case of power nullification, it can be made available to them, and I'm sure that we can find proper trainers from among the team. You are welcome to train others that opt for weapons you have skill with, and encouraging the use of some type of backup weapon is not unwise.

But enforcing a small number of standardized weapons is impractical when we are all of us are fundamentally unique and varied in skill and powersets. We should be seeking to arm ourselves in ways that make us each of us the most individually effective, and figuring out battlefield tactics that place us in the most effective roles on the battlefield. We do not have time to waste trying to train everyone up to a single standard.

[Audio]

[thedreamisdead]

I mean, yes, we could let you handle perps by yourself. Or we could drop concussion grenades and Stu-er. Tranquilizing gas grenades into their midst. Maybe spray them down with riot foam, if you have that there. That way the perps are down or disorganized in a matter of seconds and valuable manpower is available elsewhere.

[Why, in Grud's own name, would you send one of your most capable combatants down simply for crowd control?]

People can choose not to use the weapons as they like, but learning how to use them in case of power loss or need for a different touch should be mandatory for the power loss reasons you just listed.

Standardized equipment, also, should be mandatory. I'm not saying that we need to have the standard Judge layout. I do think it would be a good idea. But the current Legion standards for belt contents are trans suits, batteries for them, telepathic ear plugs, nutrient bars, multi-tools, and mini-omnicomms. I was one of the few, possibly the only person on that mission with a first aid kit on hand. Why?

I'm looking at my own equipment and what I know about the armor that the Freelancers and Master Chief use. Between us, we have motion detection, ultrasound, and thermographic vision modes. These, too, should be a standard group feature, not just spread out to whatever members of the team got the in the superpower lottery or whoever's refusing to trade in their equipment for unitards and capes.

[It's taking a conscious effort for her not to point out that the absolutely idiotic lack of equipment, not just weapons, rather than relying purely on superpowers is probably why half of their team has been kidnapped.

How do you people function as a law enforcement agency?]

Re: [Audio]

[goddamngrenades]

I'm gonna make a note here real quick re armor loadout and stuff: do not use freelancer tech as a guideline for anything. It's highly experimental and fucking broken compared to the chief's. It works for us because we learned to make it work but- F minus, do not recommend until we get a tech to fix and fine tune this shit.

[thedreamisdead]

So you're just prototypes for his technology? I'd assumed that it was the same.

[Looks the same to her.]

Techs are here. There's no reason for you to still be using faulty equipment. If I've got to, I'll let them examine my helmet for a proper baseline.

[Don't tell her that her gun and helmet are more advanced and reliable than space marine armor.]

[goddamngrenades]

...not exactly. Uh- more like Dr. Church copied off Dr. Hasley's test and got a barely passing grade.

[thedreamisdead]

Grud.

Really?

[She's not asking for clarification. At this point it's just... Disgust and exasperation at the world in general.]

[steelandtemper]

[OH MY GOD.]

Well, since York's making things public [she's not actually mad, since it gives her a chance to defend the honor of the Spartan program] Freelancer armor strips out all the functionality that makes Mjolnir special. Before you ask, no, I can't upgrade them to Mjolnir. It's designed explicitly for Spartans, and unaugmented and untrained humans are physically and psychologically incapable of using it without killing themselves.

I've been cleaning up the Freelancers' firmware anytime I get my hands on it, but there's only so much I can do with the platform.

[She's never even met Church and she's so contemptuous of him it's palpable.]

[text]

[turntex]

hey not all of us can use guns okay
i dunno what the word would be for "casual discrimination against people without some sort of gunkind" but you sure are rockin it

[AUDIO]

[thedreamisdead]

Then you can learn.

I'm not arguing that everyone should be issued a lawgiver and go about shooting people. But stun weapons exist. There's absolutely no reason for someone to avoid carrying tranquilizers or a taser of some kind, just in case. And, if we're concerned enough to avoid killing people, then having options to knock people out that doesn't end up passing out concussions like candy would be preferable, wouldn't it?

[turntex]

dude
im saying i literally cant use guns
swords or broken swords thats it that's all ive got in my strife deck

[thedreamisdead]

Strife deck?

[What sort of nonsense is this?]

[turntex]

the weapons a person can equip
come on i know shit was different where you come from but try to be a little understanding of the mechanics of alternate universes

[thedreamisdead]

That is the dumbest... No, nevermind. So you can't use other weapons at home.

Did this rule follow you here?

[Have you tried or are you just being argumentative?]

[turntex]

["Argumentative" makes it sound like he gives a shit. He's mostly just fucking with you.]

wow bro you cant just ask about a guys strife specibus history like that
hells rude
im scandalized officer please arrest yourself for this crazy rudeness

[prettycoolguy]

"Can't" isn't descriptive.

At what point in the process do things stop working?

[ He has followed this thread and none of it makes sense to him, sorry Dave. ]

[turntex]

why are yall focusing on this so much
the point was just that not everyone uses guns and things are fine the way they are
jesus is it that big a deal

[prettycoolguy]

[ The Chief tilts his head a bit and struggles in silence for several long seconds. ]

It's just very simple.

[Audio]

[stophamatime]

You actually had a class called Applied Violence?

[Audio]

[thedreamisdead]

Of course. I didn't learn how to twirl a daystick on my own, after all. And knowing when, how, and more importantly when and how not to use violence to keep a perp in line is important.

[stophamatime]

That's just, um.

So blunt.

[thedreamisdead]

No point in sugarcoating it. If we start lying to ourselves about a little thing like that, it'd just snowball.

[stophamatime]

I guess not. It just sounds like horrible PR.

Or maybe really good PR, if that's the impression you want to make.

[thedreamisdead]

Having the citizens fear us is good for their sense of respect, but our training isn't really that open. It's one series of classes in fifteen years of schooling.

I'd say the only people that really know about it, outside of the dropouts and the obsessive Judge-spotters, would be the citizens who find employment as human dummies for the classes.

[stophamatime]

I hope they have good health insurance.