No kidding.

High velocity impact, it's no joke...

One of the most memorable pages from the early issues...

Agreed.

indeed...

V.

Relativistic projectiles are no joke

High velocity impacts... hmm.. AP rounds? Seems to be two ideas going around these days when it comes to high speed and high energy items. A small piece could blow up things pretty good just by impact alone. Or, just punch a clean hole straight through things.

I remember old articles about the problems of armoring ships, and how much the ship's structure actually contributed to secondary damage as kinetic energy was passed from the impactor to the ship's material. Some portion of ship's armor was there as much to protect things from the high velocity splinters generated by the initial impact.

I seem to recall there was a layered armor system that made use of a void space in the middle to help mitigate the effects of secondary shrapnel. I don't remember what it was used on though. I do know that Kevlar layers, or at least a version of it, gets used a lot on the interior sides of crew cabins these days to at least help mitigate the shrapnel effects some.

The detail of that panel really hit me when I first saw it, still gives immediate chills today. Fantastic work.

I wonder how many first people saw this page and realised anthropomorphics could be more than just "funny animal comics".

At least one right here. Albedo is what brought me into the fandom. An adult level story using critters. Had not seen that before. I may be using a different era militarily, but By The Saints owes its anthropormorphic roots to this series right here.

I tip my hat to you Mr Gallacci. Thanks for reposting these. Blast from the past.

That has to be a big mess to clean up.. a high velocity round like that.. you ain't surviving that

"Only a few grams." Yeah, that was some nightmare fuel that's stuck with me over the years. Definitely a lot more terrifying than the old exploding consoles in Star Trek.

The Hot Seat.

Anyone who says "Lol kinetic weapons future tee hee"

I direct them to this page.

To quote from Mass Effect 2:

"Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space."

Exactly. And this page predated Mass Effect 2 by, like, 25 years...

The understated way this is portrayed only magnifies the impact of had on me back then. Space is Dangerous.

Touch more messy of a crew loss than what you generally see in sci-fi settings. Bloodless explody console death this ain't.

These troopers are going through the damage assessment with military precision and professionalism (no pun intended), but they're both still in a state of shock. They're observing and recording, but they're not really SEEING it, not yet.

I predict a lot of puking, therapy, and residual PTSD for these two poor souls.

(Sometimes it's the lucky ones who die, they don't have to relive the horrors in their dreams.)

Their culture is very human-like, but not completely human. It includes a lot of discipline that comes from their upbringing. There is also a lot of self-responsibility. It is a bit difficult for me to explain and I don't want to spoil too much of the story, but I'll say that much, there is less therapy coming towards them than you think and their AI is a good judge if someone needs therapy and is quite good at giving it.
And let's not forget, that the person from that chair is still alive.

That was what drew me into the fandom, stories with near-human or nonhuman points of view.

I understand how everyone is raised with 'Ship Discipline' (I own the old RPG), but still, they're a little TOO calm about a shipmate being 'aerosoled,' and Kaina may still be alive after being 'blown in half,' but it looks like he still left a good portion of himself smeared on the walls and floor. That alone should evoke a reaction from the viewer, unless they're longtime fans of Sam Rami movies.

Of course, I reply to one of the very few people who have the same source I have.

Is that person still alive? From the way it is depicted, it looks like he/she was sliced in half from the upper part from the ship, rather than from the sides, meaning that person was sliced in vertical way, rather than horizontal.

Reclining, landing in his lap

From the damage to the chair, I'd guess that the 'projectile' clipped his right hipbone on its way through. so best case scenario, his right leg was blown off messily, worst case, his pelvis was shattered violently, causing a more accurate depiction of 'blown in half.'

Either way, it's probably on the Captains list of "Five worst days of my life," possibly even topping the list.

"I saw the Commander before they got him into a 'doc."
I don't remember with 100%, but I think "doc' " is short for auto doc.

...he was lucky he survived that....

I haven't commented on this series until now (I have Command Review #1-4), but this and Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe taught me about hard science fiction.

The tech ain't pretty, but holy crap the entire battle scene must've been nerve wracking!!!

Inertia. Serious business.

Kinetic energy is not always our friend.

Another page that's stuck with me after all these years.

And it could have been MUCH worse. Those impacts were most likely from an angle. A head-on hit from even just a few grams more would have seriously damaged the forward fuel tankage and possibly several of the decks right behind it.

I believe that's one of the secondary duties the forward tankage serves on Albedo starships. As a sort of armor in the form of damage absorption. Sorta like those collapsible barriers between the off-ramps and the main road. They're not meant to STOP the impact, but to slow it down so it does less damage with less parts flying off in different directions. I know, that's not a very good analogy, but it's the best I can think of.

Damn.

BTW, after checking my Command Review issues, that Kaina person was supposely Erma's mentor in her academy's days, right?

My Dad's unit had 'liberated' the German countryside and bulldozed a POW camp in the Black Forest toward the end of hostilities. One of his best friends was struck by a piece of falling junk from some demilled munition. It killed him instantly. 32.2 ft/s² and all that...