Gunther

Foreign Legion - First Contact is First Contract

The M2 .50 Caliber Machine Gun, Heavy Barrel is frickin' heavy.
The gun weighs 84 Lbs. It is so much easier to separate the barrel from the receiver and the tripod. The gun should be carried in three separate pieces plus the ammunition.

Receiver: 60 Lbs.
Barrel: 24 Lbs.
Tripod: 44 Lbs.
Can of Ammo (100 rounds): 35 Lbs.

Foreign Legion - First Contact is First Contract

Brian Park felt they were in a bad place. As a special operations soldier, he was always in a bad place, but this was alien; on so many levels. He felt something was going to go wrong quickly. The squad had dispatched many of the drones and felt if they had to leave, they had properly completed their mission. But he didn’t have to leave. They set up an alternate position roughly thee hundred yards to the west. They might have to fight their way through the streets, and they had some heavy weapons to carry, but the squad could displace if necessary using the Grathik anti-gravity technology.

As the sound of gunfire intensified behind them, he was still focused on what was in front of them. He went from man to man whispering, “be prepared to move to our alternate position.”

After telling Robson and Simmons about the be prepared order a loud sound that could best be described as a sonic boom struck their eardrums from the front. It was not alone, several additional sonic booms resonated through the concrete canyon of the Grathik base. There was no sound of projectiles being launched from what could be described as an electro-magnetic coil-based weapon system.

As Brian raised his binoculars to scan the area to his front, large heavy projectiles ripped through the buildings around them. The projectiles may have been smaller, impacting with intense kinetic energy. It was sufficient to rip walls off buildings. There were no explosions. It was like throwing a rock at a glass bottle, but a hundred times larger. One round struck low on the building they were standing on. It tore into the right front wall around the sixth floor and ripped the right side of the structure apart depositing debris into the street below.

“That’s it guys! We are out of here! Displace to the alternate position now! Break down that pig. Load up your Donkeys!” As their observation platform was being dismantled, the human soldiers had a similar version of the anti-gravity tech that allowed them to descend to ground level safely. Some described it to a parachute drop with or without the Parachute Landing Fall (PLF).

The movement to the alternate position was without event, but every man in the squad could feel the adrenaline coursing through their veins. They knew they escaped what could have been a very terrible situation. Within a half hour, the new Observation Post (OP) was set up. Brian Park contacted his higher headquarters which was closing in on his location after fighting through the Salvesh ambush sites.

“BUTTERFIELD, this is RIDDLER, over,” Brian spoke into the radio.

Lieutenant Jacob Butterfield was in an armored personnel carrier moving very close to his position when he heard the call. “RIDDLER, this is BUTTERFIELD, go ahead over,” he spoke with his thick Mississippi accent.

“BUTTERFIELD, this is RIDDLER, we have displaced to position Alpha Oscar Two, over.”

Lieutenant Butterfield checked his map and realized the squad was right in front of the lead elements of the company team. “RIDDLER, this is BUTTERFIELD, we will be at your location in ten mikes. Be prepared to mount your Alpha Papa Charlie. Join the company. You can push forward with the rest of the unit.

“Roger that, Riddler out.” Brian Park clicked off the radio and addressed the squad over squad comms, “I just spoke to the Lieutenant. I know we just got here, but the LT will be here in ten minutes. We are loading onto our APC and joining the company for the advance.”

@HeySeuss

Post a random fact about yourself.

Also, random fact: As an English major, I don't recall ever using the word "Shat" in a sentence, whether written or verbal.

@Hellion

Isn't the past tense of shit, shit? Correct me if I am wrong. Where did the word shat come from other than his definition: "An action performed by American actor William Shatner."

Post a random fact about yourself.

@Gunther's got this.

@Briza

Thanks and plate has five (5) letters.

During my black belt test (2017), I did 100 push ups after running a mile and after two and a half hours of intense curriculum in self defense. We had to do 50 push ups non stop and then we could break up the remaining 50 however you like. I did four sets of ten and two sets of five with breaks between each set. I'll test for 2nd degree black belt later this year.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I have way too much stuff on my plate.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I got used to waking up early due to time spent in the military. I enjoy it now, because I get those peaceful hours in the morning while my family remains asleep. I get some of my best gaming done then. My current guilty pleasure is Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I've been banned from three "All You Can Eat" buffets for eating too much.

@Loki221

Reminds me of John Pinette...

Hider

The Combat Zone

In the second video, I posted, the demonstrator uses a different type of clinch, which does work if you have experience with the technique. It is better to use the method I describe until you feel comfortable with it.

The Combat Zone

Knife Defense

"can you teach me how you stop someone threatening you with a knife? That's another weapon they like to use out there."

“Sure thing,” James responded and placed the training gun back in his sparring bag. He then pulled out two training knives. Both had his initials written on them in white marker. “We only need one. I just happen to have two; a story for another day,” James declared with a smile.

“I wanted to tell you, I received a report from the forensics lab. They scoured the house. They found finger prints for seven people other than the deceased in the house. Five of them are family members; her mother, father and two siblings. The fifth was a brother-in-law. The last two are unknowns and could possibly be our perpetrators. We should speak to the family members too just to eliminate them as suspects. They also used luminol around where the body was found. They found a partial shoe impression. They can’t determine shoe size, but they know the person who stepped in the blood wore Adidas Superstar shoe.”

“OK, back to the knife. One thing to remember in Krav Maga is you never back up. You always drive forward into your attacker. You want to keep him or her off balance, on their heels. If you can cause them to forget math for a few moments you can get them into an advantageous position.”

“Before we go over actual knife defense, you need to know how to burst.” James stood with his feet roughly shoulder width apart facing a mirror. The mirror would help him to correct his movements if he did something wrong. He stood in front of the mirror. While leaning forward, he rapidly burst forward, leading with his body, not with his feet. His feet move forward simply to prevent himself from falling over. “When you burst, you want your weight to go into your opponent. You are not catching your fall with your body, but with the bad guy’s body. He prevents you from falling and you knock him off balance at the same time. Try bursting a few times to get the feel for it.”

bursting

After the pair had practiced bursting several times and Jenna felt comfortable with it, James introduced the training knife. It was all black with a ten inch blade made of a malleable rubber/plastic material. “In Krav we go over three different knife defense techniques in the under belt curriculum. Overhead knife, underarm knife and straight stab. Overhead knife can come from any angle with a downward motion while underarm can come from any angle from below. Straight stab assumes your attacker is thrusting the blade at chest height toward you. We will cover overhead attacks.”

James tucked the blade into his waist. “Stand facing the mirror with your feet shoulder width apart. Thrust your left arm into the air with a 90-degree bend in your elbow. Position one is over head and slightly forward. You want to burst forward as you use this block. You want your hand open flat as you execute this block.” James demonstrated the movement a few times. “you can angle the defense to the left at a 45-degree angle and to the side. These are positions two and three. Position four is the same as position three but with your arm bent downward instead of up. Position five is 45-degree downward angle and position six is the downward opposite of position one. When you use positions five and six, you essentially want to hollow out your body by arching your back, making it more difficult for a knife to strike your flesh and cause any critical damage.”

“If you feel comfortable with these blocks, I’ll show you the technique for dealing with someone attacking you with a knife.” James handed Jenna the knife and told her to use a downward overhead motion at him. He would take it slow. As her hand came downward towards James’ head, he burst forward while executing 360 degree defense position one, immediately overhead. “You want wrist to wrist contact. Think of this block as an attack. With your hand bladed, rather than balled up in a fist, it exposes the radial bone in your forearm. Having the bone strike your opponent rather than muscle tissue causes an appreciable amount of pain. I’ve suffered several bruises from this contact. Simultaneously while blocking the knife hand, use your right hand to punch your attacker in the face. It should be one movement with the block and the right cross. Once the punch is thrown, wrap your left arm around your attackers right arm pinning the arm into your side so he cannot use it. You are fighting the person, not the knife. Do not try to take the knife yet. You want to convince your attacker they are making a bad decision. With their right arm wrapped up in your left and your right hand grabbing the material of their right shoulder, give them a firm and decisive groin kick with your right leg. Hit with such intensity it would send their testicles into their throat. This person is trying to kill you. You are changing their mind. Once the groin kick has been delivered, then execute a few Knee strikes to the body and maybe one or two the face. Make all your strikes decisive and explosive. We can cover the groin strike and the knee strike on the kick shield if you like. Your goal is to strike your attacker so hard and with such intensity repeatedly until they feel like they have just given up. Then you can try to take the knife out of their hand.”

knife defense

James and Jenna repeated the knife defense technique several times until she felt comfortable with it. Then they repeated it several more times to insure it was firmly implanted in her brain. “The big difference between a knife and a gun, is this. The gun only works in one direction. By altering the direction of fire and controlling the gun, you have essentially taken it out of the equation. The knife will work in either direction but can only be used in close contact. The gun is a ranged weapon. The gun requires bullets. If the user runs out of bullets, it then becomes simply a piece of steel. The knife never runs out of ammo.”

“I would be more than happy to go over other items with you, if you like. Maybe you can come check out a class at the school in Waltham with me sometime. You can watch from the bleachers. I know they give introductory classes too.”

The Combat Zone

I noticed as I was reading your second to last post that Jenna and Jim are ahead by a day. It's alright, just let me know whenever you want them in again.

Also, I have an idea as to the direction we could take. The detectives slowly start working their leads, eventually to the point where they can bring in the siblings for questioning down the line in the story (we'd have to work on the specifics for that). They get questioned and released as there's nothing solid against them. More time passes and enough evidence is gathered to issue a warrant and the detectives get into it with the siblings when they find them, and that's where we could have a big fight scene, which up until then Jenna would have been getting trained. The siblings get away for xyz reasons and at that point it's a cat and mouse chase. But in the end they do get caught and taken into custody.

@Liv

Hard to believe, but I haven't looked at my computer in over two days. I'm just now catching up on Emails and RP posts. I do like your direction. I did mean to do a time skip with the characters. I felt the siblings were minor characters when we started even if their stories are more interesting. I intend a conversation with the detectives on any forensics that may have been gathered at the crime scene.

We could stage another crime scene post with the siblings too, if you like.