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Good thing the engine was only idling. 
Providing power to ship's systems.monkey flush
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TGW-1253

Chapter: Ride for Life
Characters: gopi, mavia, Miral, mist, sgt birov
Location: base, millers
└ Tags: a fear factor, incentive training

Related Comics ¬

  • TGW-872
  • TGW-1243
  • TGW-109
  • TGW-1410
  • TGW-1277
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Discussion (67) ¬

  1. Sam
    May 20, 2024, 20:15 | # | Reply

    Panels 2 & 3 – Where is Mist?

    Panel 7 – Good thing that wasn’t a turbine engine,
    wouldn’t you say, Mr./Ms. Coon?

    Well, well – that’s quite a different use than we
    all imagined last week, eh? It’s a positive incentive
    to get the best efforts out of all of the trainees.

    • Paul
      May 20, 2024, 20:25 | # | Reply

      Mist wasn’t needed until panel 4.
      She is an aide and enabling ‘tool’..
      Did one of the dragon flies scare the poor ‘coon?
      Panels 7 & 8.

      • Petercat
        May 20, 2024, 20:43 | # | Reply

        Hovertext.

        • JasonAW3
          May 21, 2024, 13:21 | # | Reply

          MHD type effect using gravity? Lucky Racoon! At full power,
          I bet it would be like getting shot out of a railgun!

    • Paul
      May 20, 2024, 20:36 | # | Reply

      Darn I missed that thought.
      The turbine ejected the coon
      not a dragonfly.
      Thanks Sam.

    • Petercat
      May 20, 2024, 20:45 | # | Reply

      Mist is on the pillow behind Mavia in panel 2.
      You can barely see her wing.

    • Jochi
      May 21, 2024, 10:23 | # | Reply

      Also, since they’re scored as a squad in aggregate,
      incentive to improve teamwork and building up the
      slower/weaker team members WHILE pushing the better
      ones to excel.

  2. Petercat
    May 20, 2024, 20:44 | # | Reply

    One of the best explanations I’ve seen of the loss of the HMS Hood:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLPeC7LRqIY

  3. Scarsdale
    May 20, 2024, 21:06 | # | Reply

    That’s what I was expecting, Gopi hasn’t accepted that it’s over
    and she’s safe, yet. PTSD + survivor guilt is an awful thing to
    live with.

    Heh, that coon should have been a missile, got a bit lucky AND
    learned a lesson. I was torn between target practice and a perk
    for hard work. No turbines, don’t need them, but the tube allows
    for thrust without the need of them. even at an idle, that coon
    should have flown 20-30 ft! I love that idea by the way, rocket
    levels of thrust without heat, flame, or smoke! And an old mech’s
    dream, no moving parts!

  4. Scarsdale
    May 20, 2024, 22:04 | # | Reply

    I think that coon was looking for a place to nest, there’s food,
    water, and a handy hiding spot on that medivac. I honestly
    thought it was going for an open man-door on the side of the
    medi-unit. Raccoons love handy hiding spots, groundhog
    burrows, attics, a concrete pillar form my father hung from the
    barn rafter, and so on, I guess it thought that handy-dandy
    pipe on top of it’s “larder” made perfect sense,
    up until it went “Pa-tooeee!!!! HEH!

  5. Chryzopraz
    May 21, 2024, 05:12 | # | Reply

    The question is – was the engine damaged (even slightly)?

    • Bill Mullins
      May 21, 2024, 07:32 | # | Reply

      Couldn’t be. No moving parts.
      I’m just curious why it ejected the coon.
      If it’s not running it basically ought to be a simple tube.

      • rob stanley
        May 21, 2024, 09:42 | # | Reply

        even the Dyson bladeless fan,. has moving parts..
        and same principle, those ‘tubes’ are thrust vectors.
        IE: they provide thrust,. more if water is added.
        and, PC said they are running (low idle) to power
        the accessories..

        • Scarsdale
          May 21, 2024, 11:24 | # | Reply

          Those do have a fan, the electrostatic charge is a gimmick.
          You can see the fan and the vent holes in the ring, the
          charge just angels it. My ion “engine” moved a little air,
          but mostly shocked me stupid when I got careless. :/

          • JasonAW3
            May 21, 2024, 13:33 | # | Reply

            I’ve seen a few electrostatic engines online,
            that seem to be able to push quite a bit of
            air with a relatively low charge.
            One guy was even using it to make a
            propeller-less non turbine driven DC model.

            • Scarsdale
              May 22, 2024, 00:41 | # | Reply

              I’ve seen a few, but for the power needs for it to
              work well is much higher than a simple box fan.
              Not to mention the risk to small children in the house.
              I got my tail chewed out when my parents seen
              the electric bill the next month…
              I’m sure they have improved since then. (1972)

      • Petercat
        May 21, 2024, 11:35 | # | Reply

        Hovertext, Bill.

        • Bill Mullins
          May 21, 2024, 11:51 | # | Reply

          Which doesn’t show up in the greatly restricted
          browser Amazon puts on a Kindle.

          • Petercat
            May 21, 2024, 12:16 | # | Reply

            Oops, sorry. Not familiar with Kindle, decided not to buy
            when I learned that Amazon can delete purchased books
            from the Kindle’s library at will. The raccoon picked the one
            engine that was idling to provide power to the ship’s systems.
            They all can, but only one is needed.

          • JasonAW3
            May 21, 2024, 13:28 | # | Reply

            Bill, hold your finger on the actual comic for a few seconds.
            A short menu with a few options pops up, with the hovertext
            as the title on top of the menu. Hope that helps!

            • Bill Mullins
              May 22, 2024, 05:37 | # | Reply

              Thanks, Jason. That worked perfectly.

  6. JasonAW3
    May 21, 2024, 13:24 | # | Reply

    Omg! I thought they’d just shoot it up or use it for target practice!
    Turning it over to trainees to party in?!? It makes me wonder, what’s
    The scrap value of a MASSIVELY overused Locust??

    • Sam
      May 21, 2024, 15:18 | # | Reply

      Remember – they have to restore it to it’s prior condition after
      use. Or the cost to do so comes out of their pay. They have
      incentive to not trash it. Use it, yes. Overuse it, no.

      • Petercat
        May 21, 2024, 16:37 | # | Reply

        And since it was built as a luxury transport for the Empress,
        you know any repairs to the interior would be
        expensive as hell.

        • JasonAW3
          May 21, 2024, 23:12 | # | Reply

          Ok, but, are they going to be provided pilots to fly it,
          or will they have to fly it back to their barracks themselves?
          If the latter, do any of them know how to fly a Locust?
          And worse, even if they could, will they be in any condition
          to do so, after partying like that?!?

          • Petercat
            May 22, 2024, 00:12 | # | Reply

            I guess they’re a little hard to see,
            but there’s a crew of two sitting in the cockpit.
            Marines don’t fly, all aircraft have Navy pilots.
            Well, except for ultralights.

            • Scarsdale
              May 22, 2024, 00:24 | # | Reply

              That’s what I was expecting to be honest.
              A pilot, screaming for help,
              while trying to get that coon off his head heh.
              It’s how I learned a cow will buck just like a
              horse if something jumps on it’s back.

  7. Petercat
    May 21, 2024, 16:30 | # | Reply

    Well, damn. After the first 20 days in May, TK had 3000 votes.
    In the past two days, it’s picked up over 9000 votes,
    climbing from #26 to #1.
    Maybe he posted a new vote incentive 18 days ago,
    like the last time?
    If I posted kitty porn, would TGW do as well?
    Not happening.

    • Scarsdale
      May 21, 2024, 23:54 | # | Reply

      I spent an hour explaining and describing TGW to my father,
      he kept asking me “where is this at?” so I’ve got to figure
      out a way to send the comic to his big screen TV so he can
      read the text. He’s never seen on-line comics before, he’s
      pretty anti-tech these days. But I’ve peaked his interest enough
      he might go for it, I’ll have to advance the pages for him and
      such, but if he’s interested enough, maybe I can get him to
      watch less news TV all the time.

    • Scarsdale
      May 22, 2024, 00:28 | # | Reply

      Yeah, slippery-slope there. There’s a fine line between
      cheese-cake and soft “pron”. Which is what caught my
      eye in the first place. it’s rare that some Dev is doing
      3D CGI and NOT doing that.

      • Petercat
        May 22, 2024, 01:14 | # | Reply

        You haven’t cruised Deviant Art, have you?
        Some 3D “artists” are doing their best to live up to that name.
        Not just 3D, either.
        My contribution:
        https://www.deviantart.com/cat-man-dancing/art/The-Wolf-Speaks-Up-578173464
        And of course, on that page, under “suggestions” and
        “You might like”, DA showed links to porn, bondage porn,
        and torture porn. DA is very, very sick.

        • Chryzopraz
          May 22, 2024, 03:13 | # | Reply

          It’s “deviant” for a reason.

          • Bill Mullins
            May 22, 2024, 05:46 | # | Reply

            Was gonna say the same thing.
            There are plenty of folks posting different types of artwork
            (I post renders of my 3D modelling efforts)
            but there are also a crap ton of pervs posting pron.
            It would appear Ted Sturgeon got it right.

        • Scarsdale
          May 22, 2024, 11:49 | # | Reply

          I did some, kinda lost interest after the “barely legal” crap.
          And don’t search anything starting with r\34!

  8. JasonAW3
    May 21, 2024, 23:06 | # | Reply

    One thing I’ve always thought about; if you had a grav system that required power
    but could generate thousands of gees of acceleration, would it not be possible to
    essentially, “throw” small masses with such force, that relativistic effects on mass,
    multiplies the effective mass of the material ejected at these velocities, as to simulate
    significantly more thrust mass? Simply put; throwing a few hundred grams of matter,
    so hard, that it would produce TBE equivalent thrust of, say, a Saturn For maybe one of
    SpaceX’s Starships? It could, in theory, allow a craft to go from Earth to Mars in a few
    days, while using, say a couple of hundred kilograms of water?

    Just putting that out there.

    (I also realise, water launched at a target at these velocity, at a target, could hit
    at significant fractions of the velocity of light, and would hit with a near nuclear
    level of impact. Would the material be hydrogen or lithium, it could hit with enough
    force, that the hydrogen or lithium, might actually undergo a fusion event. Not
    just boom, but a fusion boom. Not fun to be on the receiving end of that weapon…)

    • Scarsdale
      May 22, 2024, 00:18 | # | Reply

      Some of the navy ships have grav – assisted missile throwers,
      we just saw that it doesn’t matter what goes into those, it WILL
      be shot out!
      That’s pretty much what a water knife does, granted the stream
      isn’t C-fractional! Sorry but the amount of water that would
      require would be staggering, and would require a bag of some
      kind or the air would break up the “round”. Riot police have
      been using a modified “water cannon” made from a fire truck
      ladder turret. Those are fun by the way, as long as you’re ready
      for the swaying it causes.

      • Jochi
        May 22, 2024, 10:35 | # | Reply

        Yes it is. Just a very small fraction. Ba-dump-tish.

    • Petercat
      May 22, 2024, 00:18 | # | Reply

      That’s the way their railguns work.
      Y’know, I hadn’t thought of using them that way, even though the
      Dragonflies can inject water into the intakes for extra thrust.
      Thanks for pointing out a huge possibility that I’d completely missed.
      Maybe a grav railgun could double as a thruster via water injection.
      Hmmmm….

      • Scarsdale
        May 22, 2024, 00:29 | # | Reply

        True…

      • Petercat
        May 22, 2024, 01:11 | # | Reply

        Miral kicks it on this page, especially panels 1-3.
        http://thegentlewolf.net/comic/tgw-747/

        • Scarsdale
          May 22, 2024, 11:31 | # | Reply

          I remembered that page, the coon getting flung out
          reminded me of it. It only makes sense, increasing
          the mass of the thrust would help the acceleration.
          But sadly, the hard limit of how much water you can
          carry is making it a “emergency only” function. I’m
          will to bet most trainee’s either over use it, or forget
          about it in the heat of training. Like a kid putting NOS
          on their car, then cry when the motor throws a rod.

      • Bill Mullins
        May 22, 2024, 06:01 | # | Reply

        Slight quibble, Catman. What your grav tech would allow is more on the lines
        of a coil gun, not a rail gun. Similar effect but totally different principle. What
        Jason described would be a mass driver. I see spacers moving asteroids
        around by throwing away chunks of the rock to provide delta V. Something
        just occurred to me. You’d kind of need to be careful orienting your mass
        driver. Once something is accelerated it would essentially keep going forever.
        Space is unimaginably huge but maneuvering asteroids in a solar system
        could potentially mean accidentally aiming at something.

        • rob stanley
          May 22, 2024, 10:56 | # | Reply

          humm:
          railgun = uses one – negative and one + positive charged rails,
          to push Massive amounts of electricity (and round) thru the rails..
          coilgun = uses multiple coils, switching on and off at “Precise” time,
          to get massive amount of electricity (and suspended round) thru.
          mass driver,, see coilgun,. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver

          • rob stanley
            May 22, 2024, 11:07 | # | Reply

            https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=hand+held+rail+gun+for+sale&&mid=FCDD4BC013F1134588ADFCDD4BC013F1134588AD&&FORM=VRDGAR

            https://youtu.be/Zm_oZZZBLj8

            • Petercat
              May 22, 2024, 11:32 | # | Reply

              in 3….2….1…. “Machine Gun” redefined by the ATF.
              Arrest warrant issued for the guys in the video for possession of a short barreled
              rifle, machine gun, and sawn off shotgun.
              News weasels scream about “Mass Murderous Space Age Assault Rifle!!!!!”
              Designers, builders, users arrested en masse.
              Life sentences sought.
              …
              Whoever made the thing should have made it pink with Barbie decals.
              And made the video exclusively with trangenders. Then they wouldn’t be persecuted.
              Blair White would have loved to participate, but she’s a conservative
              transgender, so isn’t immune to persecution.

          • Scarsdale
            May 22, 2024, 11:42 | # | Reply

            You can make a mass driver out of magnets and using an iron
            ball bearing, there’s quite a few science tech guys on Youtube
            that’s done it for fun. it only shoots about 8-10 feet and
            only knocks down soda cans, but it shows the concept. I’m
            sure it would sting a bit.

            • rob stanley
              May 22, 2024, 20:09 | # | Reply

              back to my description..
              a “Mass Driver” is either a ‘coilgun’
              ,,round launched thru coils..
              or a ‘railgun’, that launches the
              round down a “Rail guide”..
              like in all those videos..

  9. Scarsdale
    May 22, 2024, 00:33 | # | Reply

    I can’t believe this, my wife woke up gasping for air,
    damnitfukingcat managed to chew through stainless
    steel cable casing to chew my wife’s hose! I swear
    if she wasn’t cute…
    The cat of course, my wife has never really been cute,
    more of the hotness verity 😉

    • Sam
      May 22, 2024, 01:08 | # | Reply

      Scars – not really equivalent, but we once had a cat chew through
      one side of an electrical cord. A plugged in electrical cord for a lamp.
      She apparently chewed through the hot side, as she never, ever,
      chewed another cord after that.

      • Chryzopraz
        May 22, 2024, 03:19 | # | Reply

        Heh. I’ve had a dog that had a habit of chewing on cables as a puppy.
        Once he chewed on an extension power cable that was under power.
        He never touched any cable again.

    • Petercat
      May 22, 2024, 01:25 | # | Reply

      Maybe you could paint it with some of that
      bitter no-nail-chewing nail polish?
      Stuff is pretty nasty.

      • Scarsdale
        May 22, 2024, 11:16 | # | Reply

        I did try it, the tubing started to swell up.
        I guess it broke down the plastic, I’ll
        keep looking. I’ve got her an appointment
        for her “fixing” June 7th, I’m hoping it
        calms her down. It’s going to be a long day,
        in at 7am, home by 5pm.

        • Petercat
          May 22, 2024, 18:54 | # | Reply

          Try painting the mesh first, then slip it over the tubing after it dries.

      • rob stanley
        May 22, 2024, 11:16 | # | Reply

        i run into , my cat likes it
        https://i.imgflip.com/8ar7ez.jpg

        • Scarsdale
          May 22, 2024, 11:34 | # | Reply

          well, that kills that idea HA.

        • Petercat
          May 22, 2024, 11:38 | # | Reply

          Sounds about right.

  10. Scarsdale
    May 22, 2024, 11:16 | # | Reply

    filter got me again…

    • rob stanley
      May 22, 2024, 11:19 | # | Reply

      fixed

      • Scarsdale
        May 22, 2024, 11:32 | # | Reply

        Thanks

  11. Michael
    May 22, 2024, 11:58 | # | Reply

    I understand that this comic is written in honor of Robert Heinlein
    who was an important science fiction author. i read some of his books.
    He has some important points but i don’t like his militarism and
    sometimes borderline fascist and/or authoritarian ideas. Starship
    troopers f.e.. The movie was strange, not sure for it meant to be a
    satire, comedy or splatter something.
    Libertarian society always seems so easy and straight efficient.
    Same as an anarchistic society can be described as a paradiese. Only
    that it never is. Not all people can be healthy, forward, intelligent,
    mentally sane, matured, passionate. Some can be helped, some not.
    Some are in bad positions without having done anything wrong.
    Libertarian or anarchistic societies can possibly deal with those
    things in theory, but by experience they never really do.

    • Petercat
      May 22, 2024, 13:14 | # | Reply

      You understand wrong. This webcomic wasn’t written to honor anyone,
      I started writing it to entertain others and to keep myself mentally
      sharp.
      While I like and admire RAH, if any writer had an influence on the
      direction of the story, it would be Tom Kratman.
      Every society has its weak points, but this is a story about people,
      so I can only write a very shallow depiction of this particular
      society as it affects those people and their decisions – I certainly
      have neither the time nor the space to cover the minutiae of the
      Imperial system of governance.
      So, no, there will be no in-depth narrative on how the water or
      garbage systems work. That is not my interest.
      This is not a treatise on politics, it is a series of stories
      about people. I think I am a decent story teller,
      and my readers seem to agree.
      I want my readers to like my characters and enjoy their lives.
      Anything else is just a vehicle that supports the characters,
      ties them together, and moves them along.
      Just relax and let me tell their stories.
      But for myself, and with all of it’s faults,
      I would love to live in the Wolf Empire.

      • Scarsdale
        May 22, 2024, 16:07 | # | Reply

        Heh, and I’d be that annoying old fart down street the from
        you, cussing out that dog that keeps taking a crap on my sidewalk…

  12. Petercat
    May 22, 2024, 11:58 | # | Reply

    Since we’re on a video kick, this is one of her best yet:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7AyLFhI4MM
    That first guy who’s offended by the American flag is disgusting.
    But the stand-up comedian makes up for it.

    • Scarsdale
      May 22, 2024, 16:15 | # | Reply

      Sigh… I have words, but I’ll censor myself…
      Jeesh…

      • Petercat
        May 22, 2024, 19:00 | # | Reply

        Censor yourself? Have you forgotten where you’re commenting?

        • Scarsdale
          May 22, 2024, 21:58 | # | Reply

          Naa, just don’t want to start a rant with anyone again.

          • rob stanley
            May 23, 2024, 10:00 | # | Reply

            rant…

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