作者：Morgane

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

Lens of History (7?)

by Morgane 2017年5月2日

STEC Archives, Digital Document Division
May 1st, 1989

Correspondence no. 1014
Sender: Marblehead, Shipgirl
Recipient: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.

We have access to CIA stuff right? Did you look there?

Correspondence no. 1242
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.
Recipient: Marblehead, Shipgirl

Ms. Marby,

Yes we did. The individual you’re researching is in our own archive records as Agent no. 1863. After said event he was rotated to a clerical position and performed his job dutifully though without additional note. His employment was terminated on April 15th, 1961 and Agent no. 1863 was subsequently institutionalized at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. He passed away two days after.

Correspondence no. 1245
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Marblehead, Shipgirl
Recipient: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.

Not helpful. Again, I am looking for information pertaining to a top secret hearing carried out by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The hearing occurred in 1961 over suspected ties and/or communist sympathizers of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agent no. 1863 was the sole source from a major intelligence agency since, well, LITERALLY nothing happened. But you know they wanted to make sure of that.

 

Correspondence no. 1356
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.
Recipient: Marblehead, Shipgirl

Ms. Marby,

Do you mean the one involving Ms. Iowa? I’ve attached it here.

Correspondence no. 1358
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Marblehead, Shipgirl
Recipient: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.

YES! THANKS

Correspondence no. 1361
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Marblehead, Shipgirl
Recipient: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.

Wait, is this it?

Correspondence no. 1450
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.
Recipient: Marblehead, Shipgirl

Ms. Marby,

Yes.

Correspondence no. 1455
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Marblehead, Shipgirl
Recipient: Staff No. 4, Department of Historical Research, STEC Archives.

… You know what I’m going to go get lunch now. Literally nothing. No secret funneling of government slush-funds, no global defense coordination initiative, no COMMUNIST ARCANO-TECH, not even a secret handshake.

They really did just talk about growing stuff for three hours and Khrushchev left with a small package of seeds as a sign of friendship. BORING.

Correspondence no. 29, 657
Time: XX:XX
Sender: Pennsy, Shipgirl
Recipient: Marblehead, Shipgirl

I seriously CANNOT understand you girls and your silly games. CANDY IS NOT RATIONED. IT’S LITERALLY SITTING THERE. IN JARS. AT EVERY CANTEEN AND CAFETERIA AND RESTAURANT. YOU EVEN HAVE IT IN YOUR OFFICE.

WHY BET.

I’m on archival duty this month and I only have four staff members. FOUR. Next time, bookworm, maybe think about GODDAMN ASKING SOMEONE. LIKE MAYBE ASK IOWA. THEN YOU WOULD REALIZE THAT AS PER USUAL CHESTER’S A DAMN TROLL AND YOU WERE DUMB ENOUGH TO BUY INTO IT.

前线来信·Mail call

[Mail Call 04/30/17] Jefferson’s Ice Cream & Other Stuff

by Morgane 2017年5月2日

This is St. Bernard’s approximation of ice cream. Looks pretty good. The article is here in Japanese, but I largely cobbled together from the Jefferson museum and the internet at large.

The source can be found here.

“If he had not tasted it before, Jefferson no doubt encountered ice cream during his time in France (1784-1789), and it was made and served in his kitchens for the rest of his life.  Among the items filling the 86 crates of belongings that Jefferson had shipped back from France were “quatre moule a glasse” [four ice molds].”

What’s this got to do with the navy? Well, similarity of general methods. It’s general knowledge that ice cream was a coveted morale booster. There’s plenty of legends out there (most of which are true) involving destroyers picking up downed airmen from carriers and getting X gallons of ice cream for their efforts.

The thing is, navy ice cream during WW2 is a little different from what we’d expect. Taken from the Cookbook of the US Navy:

Ice Cream should be a “regular” on the Navy menu. In addition to being one of America’s favorite desserts, ice cream is nourishing and economical.

The following directions, if carefully observed, will be helpful in producing ice cream of good quality.

Keep the freezer, utensils used in measuring the ingredients, ice cream cans and all other equipment scrupulously clean and properly sterilized.

Weigh or measure all ingredients accurately to insure uniformity, proper texture and pleasing flavor in the finished product.

Follow directions carefully.

It is important that the correct “overrun” be reached before the batch is drawn off from the freezer. The “overrun” which refers to the increase in volume, obtained by whipping air into the mix during the freezing process, may vary from 80% to 100%. An “overrun” of 100% is most commonly used in commercial practice.

A simple way to determine “overrun” is as follows : Weigh 1 cupful of the original mix, deducting the weight of the cup. When it is determined that the proper “overrun” has been reached, weigh 1 cupful of the ice cream and again determine the net weight. If the weight of the ice cream is just 50% of the weight of the original mix, the proper “overrun” of 100% has been obtained. For example, if the cup of mix originally weighed 8 ounces, the sample taken just before the batch is drawn should weigh 4 ounces. Ice cream with too much “overrun” will melt rapidly and show many air bubbles in the melted product.

Keep the blades of the freezer sharp and properly adjusted since faulty adjustment allows a thin layer of cream to freeze along the inside wall of the freezer. This tends to insulate the batch from the refrigerant and lengthens the freezing time and decreases the “overrun.”

Store the ice cream in a hardening cabinet or room at 10° F. below 0° F.

When serving, have the dispensing cabinet at 6° F. Use a “rolling” motion with the scoop. Digging or pushing the scoop into the ice cream will compress it and reduce the number of servings per gallon.

The ice cream came in a dry powder mix. You’re supposed to add water to it at cold temperatures (so not freezing – the manual says about 40-70 degrees (Fahrenheit)) and then freeze it down. The machine’ll do the stirring work for you (otherwise you’d have to stir for a long time) and you just have to draw the ice cream out into a can.

“What happened to pictures from Boston?”

Zero lost his camera. We’re in the process of getting it back.

So in the meantime have a long-haired Tiny E. 🙂

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call 04/29/17] – I fell asleep and forgot to post edition

by Morgane 2017年5月1日

As an aside, Sima did a pretty fun series of the Northampton girls from vol. 1. It’s a bit like Kaga-posting but with our girls. I also really like using these to make a point.

“I have a question about submarine girl riggings. In Pacific it seems many of the girls carry what looks like basically the submarines on their persons. Yet in other instances like Sculpin they literally ride on the torpedoes themselves. Why is this the case?”

Oh. This is a case of show and tell. I think I’ve been asked this before.

Just because a subgirl isn’t wearing her equipment doesn’t mean she doesn’t have it. In the same way, just because a subgirl is wearing her equipment doesn’t mean she can’t do anything without it.

One of these days I’ll show you how subgirls use their torpedoes. It’s not quite as you would imagine. The general gist of things is that they have several options, ranging from literally throwing them (think darts, where the torpedo then go to full size) to using their equipment to track, guide, and align the torpedo so it would go on course properly. We’ll have a Silent Service explaining how in real-life torpedo runs were made and we’ll show how this applies to the shipgirls themselves. (Handy for playing Silent Hunter, too)

As for Sculpin? Sculpin’s just derp enough to want to ride them at base. These are girls that can take tank shells to the face without so much as a scratch, so…

“ENGLISH VOL. 2 WHEN”

… I knew this one was coming. Soon. We’re still ironing out the details in our NA distribution network. Unlike Asia we have to build all of our infrastructure from the ground up, and at any rate you’ll see Silent Service and 2016 first beforehand.

“Will Anime still be around in Pacific?”

That answer your question?

“Which one’s your favorite chibi?”

I like them all. They all make me very happy because Sima’s got a unique talent with capturing expressions and faces.

Case in point, this one.

I do lurk around and read other creative works, you know? While I’m amused and entertained by how many others view Ari (some even using our art), she’ll always be a little klutzy and adorable in Pacific.

The Arizona is one of the most well-documented ships, in no small part thanks to the Arizona memorial. It is almost universally associated with tragedy due to in no small part the significant loss of life at Pearl Harbor.

Yet it is precisely that it is well-documented that I took Ari in a slightly different direction. By the time Pearl happened, the Arizona had been in service for nearly three decades. Some men that my family’s very well acquainted with served there in the early stages of their careers. The tales I found were many, but they can be summed up in one word: animated.

Dodging the deck’s watch (to sneak some beer below decks) to hastily tossing the day’s piracy overboard. Impromptu sessions of fun and horseplay. Shore leave (why am I not surprised that this was remembered well?). Flipping between generally slacking off (as again, one particular officer who went on to become CNO would tell) and suddenly try-harding (and winning) at both inspection and sports.

She’s awkward. Sometimes she doesn’t want to be handled at all. Other times she’s slow to start. Reading some of the folks who worked down in the engine room really hits this point home, and I’ve read enough recollections from people that served to grasp that this was perhaps a little more troublesome than the others.

But once she gets going she gets going, and she does it well. She’s good at what she does. Perhaps not the best, but definitely “above average” (though basically everyone thinks that of their ship xD).

I’ve said many times that Pacific isn’t really a miliotaku work at this point. We simply don’t view the shipgirls as pieces of equipment, and we intentionally avoid or minimize the extent of which physical “attributes” of the ship would mirror that of a girl. That stuff is easy. I could have Ari walk with a slight limp in her left leg due to one port screw consistently having troubles, for instance. Or make her farsighted since she had a tendency of overshooting her targets.

But what does that add to the story? Why is that interesting? Why should I communicate that to the reader as a character trait when I can have Ari say that as a bit of trivia?

We’re in this to make cute shipgirls, after all. Emphasis on the girl 🙂

前线来信·Mail call

[Mail Call 04/28/17] Sleep edition (again)

by Morgane 2017年4月29日

Okay. xD I think sleep edition posts are basically days where I get home late, want to put something on the site (since I got done with writing) but doesn’t feel like putting it online just yet.

“Question: Excluding STEC and other ship girl agencies for now, but in terms of build-up and capabilities of Pacific’s ‘modern’ (conventional/non-fairy tech) military (’90s and beyond), whether it’s the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Japan, *insert country name here*, how well do they fare against the Abyssal Fleet as a last line of defense? Say, if they were to defeat STEC and the other agencies, what then? The military has to fill the gap somehow to defend humanity. What are the contingency plans for a STEC defeat? Or there is none? It’s either death or survival.”

Not very well.

The Abyssals are optimized against conventional human armies with all kinds of nasty tricks up their sleeves. Despair is a powerful tool and they excel at it. If the initial shock and awe isn’t sufficient to cow humanity, the Abyssals can easily enter a war of attrition that no human country could realistically hope to recover from. Human production would simply not be able to keep up – even if a full salvo of tomahawk missiles could kill an Abyssal scout there will not be enough produced to matter in the long run. Every ship or aircraft lost against the Abyssals is one that is more or less lost permanently given the speed of the Abyssal incursion.

Or, simply put. How long would it take to build a new Arleigh Burke or a new F-22? Do you think the Abyssals will give you time to breath and recuperate?

 

Humanity has many tactical short-term options, but even WITH the shipgirls and fairies, what are their strategic options? How would you even plan a strategy to “win” against the Abyssals without knowing what works on them and what don’t?

The reason why folks like Mike are important is that at the “beginning” of Pacific’s tale, this is the first time ever (thanks to stuff we’ve revealed in OCEAN) that humanity has considered seriously a long-term response or solution to the Abyssals. STEC is trying to figure out something that’s beyond “survive for as long as possible.” Or, rather, it’s figuring out better ways to ensure humanity’s survival.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the military has contingency plans for fighting *an* Abyssal with conventional forces – though I would bet on it being more of a delaying action than a real plan for victory. However, given that STEC is humanity’s last, best hope, I don’t think the military can afford to have their best and brightest spending time and resources planning humanity’s hopeless last stand instead of doing all they can to support that one hope.”

The Soviets and Chinese definitely have plans to fight “an” Abyssal, and the US already have plans for integrating conventional naval and air units into anti-Abyssal task forces. Japan and the UK are the odd ones out in that the segregation between function is still pretty distinctive.

However, you’re right. It’s not really STEC’s job to tell other services what to do. That’s really up to the proper parties involved.