The Phalanx Editorial Office

[Kassiopeia]

Good link. Thanks.

Wow, have you already written all those articles? If so, could we get a preview of the remaining material for next issue?

No, not quite. And why'd you need a preview, you'll have the paper in a few hours anyway.

[Zeiter]

Hey, would it be possible to use that picture with the junoir ducks with the machine gun edited in for my article of the first day of school? I think that would go really well with the article.

[Kassiopeia]

Oh. Oh. Right. The woodchucks. It'd fit right in with the Spartan Young theme. There's our sixth article.

[Zeiter]

Here's an article for the next issue. It's kinda long, so maybe someone could edit it down, or break it up into two installments.


Recon Rover Routine Report - MY 2115

Good news Spartan citizens! From the latest reports, it seems our rover crews are still in good condition, and have been successful in scouting many lands near and far. The exact details remain classified with top military commanders, but we can share with you this exclusive audiofeed transmission from one of the rover crews:

Captain Zeiter: "This is R-112 Corazon Recon Vehicle Corps transmitting audiofeed to Sparta Command HQ."

Lt. Col. Maniac: "Very well. Channels are secure. Proceed with transmission."

Captain Zeiter: "I'm glad to inform you that the men's morale is high, their health good, and the vehicles are in near perfect working order."

Lt. Col. Maniac: "Hrnm [inaudible - seems to be some sort of satisfied grunt]. Continue."

Captain Zeiter: “Our scouting efforts have proceeded with utmost efficiency and precision. We’ve mapped out the area near [censored] and uncovered [censored] near [censored]. We are now in the process of mapping out the terrain near [censored], just as you ordered. So far, we have encountered no difficulties in our reconnaissance, except one, which I will describe in brief.”

Lt. Col. Maniac: “Yes, well, what was it?”

Captain Zeiter: “It was a warm hazy afternoon, some [censored] months ago. Our rover battalion was riding smoothly across some already explored rolling terrain. We were cruising at a relatively high speed, paying little attention to reconnaissance. I take full responsibility for the lapse in discipline, and I assure you, it will not happen again, sir.”

Lt. Col. Maniac: “Make sure that it doesn’t. Continue.”

Captain Zeiter: “Yes, sir! Anyways, we were rounding a large field of boulders when a leading recon crewmember radioed in an enemy sighting. Soon we could all see what the transmission was about: I sighted what appeared to be 3 Hiverian scout squadrons marching in strict frontal assault formation approximately 12 km straight ahead with 2 rover battalions speeding alongside on their right flank. I quickly decided that, even so grossly outnumbered as we were, a retreat would not be a good idea with the Hive forces at such close range. Therefore, I rallied the men to their turrets, and sped straight toward the oncoming enemy. We closed within 5 km, but still no enemy fire. We came within 2 km, but still no resistance. I radioed to my rover pilots to be prepared for evasive maneuvers. At 1.45 km range, we opened fire with our 70-caliber Alpha-Class Rocket Turrets. Much to our dismay, the rockets seemed to swerve out of the way of the oncoming army. Bad aiming, I judged. At 1.07 km range, we opened up a second wave of rocket attacks. Again, unbelievably, no hits. I decided to order the 30-caliber machine guns manned, and at 530 m range we engaged the enemy with all the rounds we could let loose. Meanwhile, I had ordered Beta team to arm their rovers with our new experimental weaponry. It hasn’t been rully researched yet, as you know, so I was a little leery about testing it on the battle field, but our situation seemed rather desparate. I'm glad to report that the diodes and fiber couplings seemed to hold up fairly well, and its firepower was extremely impressive. But even then, still no damage done to the enemy, it seemed, and, oddly enough, still no counter-offensive. At that point the Hiverian army seemed to dissolve away in the wind, and all of the sudden I felt a piercing stab of pain and fear engulf my mind. The dust seemed to rise up in the wind, choking our breath. Fortunately, I remembered my rigorous Spartan training, and yelled to the men to shake off the illusions and reach for their flamethrowers. Suddenly the real enemy revealed itself: a seething N-I [native infestation] 20 meters wide. The men immediately formed disciplined ranks on the ground and engaged the oncoming mind worms at 7 meters distance with a fierce wall of flame. The mind worms recoiled in shock, and the men ran forward and charged the mind worm horde at almost point blank range with terrifying fury. One of the most glorious battles I have ever witnessed, and a textbook Spartan maneuver, if I ever saw one. When these men get back to Sparta Command, I recommend that they be duly recognized for their discipline and bravery.”

Lt. Col. Maniac: “Glad to hear our boys are kickin’ some [expletive].”

Captain Zeiter: “Yep, and now their morale is exceptional. More disciplined than ever, and you can almost see the gleam of battle in their eyes. In addition, the vehicles made it out of the fray almost unscathed. I’m attaching a vidfeed snapshot of one of our rovers, so you can see for yourself their still excellent condition. That’s all I have to report for now.”

Lt. Col. Maniac: “Excellent. Over and out.”

[End of transmission]

Vidfeed Snapshot:

A rover of the R-112 Corazon Recon Vehicle Corps sits in a field outside a makeshift Spartan barracks out in the region [censored] of Sparta Command.

[Googlie]

Outstanding!! I'd leave exactly as is, with maybe one exception (which would really confuse readers this early in the game)

Maybe work in the in-game descriptors of the level I (modified handguns) and level II (laser) weapons

Extracted from flavor.txt
; WEAPONS

#HAND WEAPONS
Ammo: 7.62mm UN standard
Muzzle velocity: 1100 mps
Rate of fire: Var; max 120\min
Max range: 550 m
Target acquistion: Visual

#LASER
Active medium: Diode
Type: Fiber-coupled
Pulse duration: 5 nsec
Wavelength: 193 nm
Peak power: .84 gw
Burn rate (1m steel): .76 sec

[Zeiter]

Done. Hehe, that'll confuse them. I also edited the distances to make it more realistic.

[Andemagne]

maybe I should write a short article about scout rover unit popping a pod?.....
or maybe it could be inclueded into the Interfactional IC Story Thread?.....
BTW what that IC stands for?

[Kody]

IC stands for "In Character". It sort of means the same thing as roleplaying.

[Dis]

As I said, I'm not much of a writer. Is this any good? I'm not sure about calling our ships united. should we refer to ourselves as united? That doesn't sound very dictator-ish. Of course, we aren't exactly a dictatorship are we

Hazing out of Control?

editorial by Lieutenant Dissident. Reactor officer of USS (United Spartan Ship) Patriot.

I am concerned about the upsurge of hazing upon our arrival on Planet. Sure it has its uses to weed out the weak from our military ranks. They have no place in our military, they should work less important jobs like being a doctor, or lawyer. But the hazing has spread and now everyone is affected.

Last week I heard my son had been tied to #4 main shaft on USS Invincible. And then the ship was placed in high speed runs. My son is no slacker. He has risen in rank 3 times, and is the top in his division. What could he have done to deserve this hazing? He is not a new recruit. The hazing should be left to those who truelly deserve it. And I can assure you, my son has proved his worth, and passed his initiation.

So I emplore you fellow Spartans. To use public pressure on those in leadership positions in the military to keep hazing to a minimum. And to keep at the task at hand. And we all know what that is.

[Kassiopeia]

"United" would not be out of question at all, Diss. Maniac wrote in the IC story discussion thread:

I think giving groups of individuals the freedom to colonize other regions fits with the Spartan ideal of self-determination. When our third base actually gets established, I was thinking of next writing about some ceremony where the Spartan Federation is founded. (Note that I referred to us as the Spartan Brotherhood at the moment.) This would promote an idea of Sparta, not as a faction dictatorially ruled by military and police control, but instead a meritocratic society, a voluntary union of semi-independent bases, where each person is free to seek his own fortune in life.

I'm fine with this idea too. In fact, I happened to mention in Issue #2 that "Being a Spartan, Part III" will be about civic duties - that would be a good opportunity to "canonise" this and make it known to non-Spartans as well. (It's not the fact of the matter in the IC story yet, but we can cut a few corners between the two - on the other hand, Maniac could have it written by the 25th-26th anyway.)

What comes to your text, Diss, it's good, if a little short for an article in its entirety. We could extrapolate on hazing and perhaps have a second story of it in the same article? That, or we could have a reader's opinion article and include yours plus other texts.

[Zeiter]

It could be a point/counterpoint type of article, where I could argue the PRO side for hazing, and Dissident's article could be used for the CON side, perhaps.

[Andemagne]

Kody: thanks


I'm against this USS-thingy. why can't we just have SS(spartan ship) or why do we need those letters in front at all? Invinciple sounds OK, doesn't it? and 'USS' sounds SOOOO amerikan, and after all we are _NOT_ amerikans

[Zeiter]

Re: USS thingy

I could either take it or leave it. Perhaps we could come up with something more unique to the Spartan faction? I don't know, I'll think about it, and try to come up with some catchy names.

[Googlie]

We could stick with the SC theme:

SC Invincible could mean Spartan Craft, or could be Spartan Cruiser

Or if we wanted to differentiate more,

SCC Invincible = (Spartan Combat Craft) as opposed to a trannie or seaformer which would then be something like SNC Dependable or SNC Muckraker - ie Spartan Noncombatant Craft

[Zeiter]

PRO:

Hazing Essential to Spartan Training

To the untrained eye, hazing may seem like a cruel, barbaric, and essentially useless exercise. But to a veteran rover pilot, there's nothing that whips new recruits into shape like some good 'ol fashioned hazing. It's an extremely valuable tool. Ask any squad leader what would happen to new regiments if hazing wasn't allowed.

"I’ll tell you what you’d get: a bunch of sissy [expletive] pansies." Drill Sergeant Lance Laconia states as he oversees one of his squads during a practice session at the shooting range. “Oh sure, you can make them do 500 push-ups, but physical exercise is only half of the training. They also have to be psychologically tough. Often in the heat of battle, the soldiers who can keep their heads on straight come away the victors. It is imperative that soldiers be able to make split second decisions without any emotional or psychological interference. What hazing does is it breaks down the individual soldier’s emotional and psychological consciousness. Then, proper training and discipline rebuild the soldier’s emotions and psychology into the collective unit consciousness. A properly trained unit thinks like one mind. Each soldier thinks only of how to make the unit successful. Such a unit is vastly more effective than a group of soldiers who have not been broken down. In that case, the individual soldiers often think of themselves and their personal well-being, and in the heat of battle, such thoughts can cloud a soldier’s judgment, or can even be so overpowering as to cause a soldier to flee. And soldiers who can’t even make it through the hazing are too emotionally fragile for battle, of course, and they are immediately weeded out. That goes without saying. So, you can see, hazing is an essential aspect of Spartan training. The vets know this. They take rookie hazing very seriously (even though they like to pretend otherwise). Vets are always looking for new hazing techniques. Why, just the other day they came up with the idea of tying someone to the main shaft of one of our ships! ‘Brilliant!’ I said.
The vets make no exceptions. Every Spartan soldier must go through some hazing at least once, by military protocol. This fosters camaraderie and respect between the soldiers, as they have all been through the same trials. Of course, those particular soldiers who need a little more ‘motivation’ are offered it gladly by our more than willing veteran officers. I see nothing wrong with our current level of hazing, as it is essential to Spartan training."

There you have it! Right from Lance Laconia himself, the Head Drill Sergeant from the highly disciplined and successful Chiron Knights rover corps.