u/pyratemime

TL;DR The latest directions from the Pentagon will slow acquisitions, increase overhead, and lock out non traditional vendors. All of which co tradicts the goals set out in November 2025.

For context not in the article FY27 will bring new mandatory annual performance metrics to civilian acquisition professionals in DOD. These changes will make the goals for more OTAs, CSOs, integration of non-traditionals, and other things will become much harder.

So Department policy is not only undercutting their stated goals but also fucking the entire workforce that has to carry it out.

My LGS had their shipment delayed by Ash Waste Raiders or the Guilders lost it.

I was excited to spend the weekend geeking out but alas I have to wait until "sometime" next week.

My wife has a contentious relationship with my parents, particularly my father. There is enough blame to go around but if you had to total it up there is more responsibility on him than her.

We have discussed this frequently and for the last few years I have encouraged her to just not talk to him or be around him if there is no path to a reconciliation between them. She prefers to push the issue on how do we fix him and that typically leads to a fight and tension for several days.

My parents are getting older, mid to late 70s, and my mom is showing signs of alzheimers or dementia. We are the only support network in the area. Abandoning them completely is not an option for a host of social, cultural, economic, religious, and personal reasons so no matter what level ofncontact he has with them I will be there for them in some capacity or another.

That said my father is preparing to have a fairly major surgery and he isn't in the best shape. The chance of his dying isn't high but it ain't zero either. As many faults as he has as a human being, and who doesn't, he is still my dad and he is still my mom's husband of nearly 60 years. I am concerned for him and for my mother.

Over the last few days my wife has been upset with him again because of a poor interaction between him and our daughter. This has led to rebroaching the topic of what is wrong with him and I finally shut it down saying I am not having this conversation, again, right now. I have enough emotional weight with his surgery, potential death, and the implications that has on my mother in her deteriorating state.

This has earned me a very cold shoulder and much glaring silence.

AIO by saying we aren't going to press the "instant fight" button as I deal with a very near term acute health issue for him?

Management has passed around the excepted list in case we get furloughed and I am on it. The list also camr with a memo of what activities are excepted directly and what functions which support those activities can be performed at a minimum level to keep the critical things going.

Nothing I do fits on either of those lists. In fact my entire job is in the third category of prohibited activities during a furlough.

So now I get to have that conversation about why I would need to be excepted and what exactly am I supposed to do if I come in to the office.

I know the answer will be "coverage" but coverage for what? Everything I do is specifically prohibited.

Alas I can see myself losing that fight and having to drive 30 minutes both ways to clock in, check email, and leave 10 minutes later.

Which isn't a lot of time but will be just enough to prevent my furlough hustle from panning out.

Poop.

Wife and I have been together for nearly 20 years. I am an unapologetic geek loving Trek, B5, Firefly, Star Wars etc. She is a lovely wife but just never been interested.

Well our anniversary was a week ago and she said she wanted to give Star Trek a shot. Growing up Saturday evening was pizza and TNG. So tonight we got a pizza and have settled in for Encounter at Farpoint Station.

She loved watching MLP with our daughter as she grew up and I love her reaction to Q. I am exvited to introduce her to the wide world of Trek.

This coming Monday, 13 July, marks 24 scheduled legislative days (80 calendar days) for the House until the end of the fiscal year.

The link is for the Congressional appropriations tracker. As we draw closer to the end of the FY there are always a lot of questions on where the appropriation for this department or that department is. So here is the resource to stay in the know on if your department is on track to be fully funded or not when the clock strikes midnight.

With the end of the previous edition and the Aranthian campaign which put us... right back where we atarted where do we want the new edition to take us?

Do we want to see what the Delaque have been calling from the deep?

Do we want to see the Cawdor and Redemption resurge to purge the Aranthian heretics driven underground

Do we want to see a waaaagh surge from The Skull as Gazgkulls energy pulses out drom Armageddon?

Do we want to see a genuine GSC uprising as tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan push deeper toward the Segmentum Solar?

What do you want to see?

This is a wish list. Sanguinalia in summer. Tell da Red Gobbo what you want!

The Senate Appropriations meeting to discuss that was supposed to happen today has been pushed to after July 4th. In regard to those 4 bills:

>The four individual bills up for review by the committee are not contested on their own. **Considered among the least controversial of the 12 annual bills,** they were negotiated over months within each subcommittee in a process that lawmakers said went smoothly.

The four bills that were meant to be discussed are:

1. Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

2. Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies

3.Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (which includes funding for agencies like NASA)

4. Legislative Branch

It is worth noting that post-4 July the House has 24 days still in session and the Senate has 28 before the end of the FY.

So, while anything can happen between now and 1 October that isn't a lot of time to get a budget, or even a CR, passed with election year hijinks and shenanigans in play on top of the normal tomfollery with the budget.

Maybe RNGesus just hates me but I am finding that the flechette blaster is useless as I run missions hunting for Djebka.

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Everything is 0 damage or blocked. It is bad enough I am considering not taking Infiltrators anymore.

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Anyone else dealing with this?

Mechanicus 2 got me in a mood to brush off an old homebrew idea I had for an Explorator/Archeologist gang in the underhive.

All profiles would go through my PoDS 40K conversion process to make them Necromunda appropriate. Below are the bones of the idea, and there are likely contradictions or overlapping elements because I don't know which way I want to go with certain mechanics, and I am interested in general thoughts and constructive feedback.

GANG STRUCTURE

Leader: Technoarcheologist

Champion: Skitarii Alphas

Specialist Champion: Sicarians

Gangers: Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard

Prospects: Pteraxii

No juves, or rookies.

Brute: Kataphron

House Agents: Electropriests

Recruiting for this gang revolves around purchasing captives from the Guilders and converting them into Skitarii. If they capture a fighter and the owning gang chooses not to reacue them or fails to rescue them then instead of selling the fighter they can turn them into a Skitarii for free. When converting a captive into a Skitarii roll a D6:

1: Captive Dies
2-3: Conversion is successful but the fighter enters recovery
4-6: Conversion is fully successful and the fighter is immediately available

Tasor weapons would be geared toward assisting with capturing fighters

SKITARII
Ganger Skitarii choose a type similar to Cawdor/Redemptionist as either Rangers or Vanguard. This will determine what weapons they have access to and special abilities. Naturally, Vanguard will be rad-phage immune. Rangers would have some swingy weak version of infiltrate. Something like rolling a D6 for each Ranger before a game and on a 6+.

The Pteraxii would be mounted prospects like the Dust Rider with the Born in the Saddle rule requiring them to have their wings and if they promote they promote to a Ptexarii Alpha.

At creation each Skitarii starts with one bionic valued at 25 credits or less. Alphas at creation may have 45 credits of bionics. Bonuses are figured into their starting stat line.

MACHINE CULT ALIGNMENT

Gangs can choose one of three paths to follow in the Underhive, Archeologist, Xenarite, or Heretek. This is similar to the Cawdor paths or Nomad Warrior Spirits. Below is the general theme for each but no specifics on the D6 table that would accompany the choice.

Archeologist: Always lawful aligned, bonuses when rolling for rare items in the trade post that are not xeno or chaos corrupted, cheaper repair of bionics

Xenarite: Can align lawful or outlaw, bonuses when rolling for xenos weapons in the tradepost/black market, has some xenos weapons in their gang list, has some exotic bionics

Heretek: Always outlaw aligned, bonuses when rolling for illegal technology in the tradepost/black market, has access to some chaos weapons and wargear in their gang list.

HANGER-ONS

Biologis: A biologis is an expert in maintaining the interface between the biological and machine parts of the skitarii. Not only does this hanger-on act as a Rogue Doc but it can also perform an action that improves the damage role against any bionics from 1-3 to 1-2 and allows the player to roll 2D6 for the lasting damage on their bionic and select the result.

Necromechanic: Any fighter that dies during conversion to a Skitarii or from the lasting injury table is instead turned into a servitor. Servitors would have minimal stats and only hand weapons if encountered during a base raid. Each servitor is available to be harvested for biological or bionic material. A servitor may be sacrificed in order to reroll a result from the lasting injury table, the second result must be accepted.

Enginseer: Part of the crew, sub-types similar to the Underhive Trader, Engineseers are able to speak to the machine spirits great and small throughout the hive.

Mechasapient: Any friendly model, to include this one, within 3" that must make an ammo test does so with +1 to the roll. Any enemy model within 3" that must make an ammo test does so with a +1 to the target number to pass. Any friendly model, to include this one, within 6" makes an action to interact with a terminal, door, or loot casket add 1 to the result. Any enemy model within 6" makes an action to interact with a terminal, door, or loot casket subtract 1 from the result.

Lexmechanic: When on a vehicle roll a D6 on the first glancing hit, on a 5+ ignore the first glancing. In the end phase of of a vehicle battle roll 2D6 for the lasting injury on a vehicle and the player may choose which result to apply, if doubles are rolled no lasting injury is applied.

SKILLS

Noosphere Skills

Electrostatic Charge - The fighter is able to charge their melee weapons to deliver a strong electrostatic shock which if it results in a serious injury behaves like a someone who has been webbed.

Machine Logic - Once per game this fighter may automatically pass a single leadership, cool, willpower, or intelligence test (one total, not one of each)

Tactical Recalibration - This model doubles the distance at which they may be counted for nerve tests and rally tests. (Stacks with Enhanced Data-tether)

Will of the Omnissiah - When hit with a ranged attack roll 3D6 on a cool test and choose two dice for the result.

Binharic Scream - This fighters vox unit can emit a disorienting scream, when an enemy model charges they must pass a willpower test. If it fails the number of attacks they may perform as part of the charge action is cut in half, rounded down.

Salvage - When a skitarii model dies and is not turned into a servitor or a servitor is sacrificed this model may perform a salvage action to collect parts which are then sold for D3x10 credits.

WEAPONS & WARGEAR
Weapons

Weapons would be brought over and converted from 9E.

Basic Weapons:

- Galvanic Rifle & Carbine, Radium Carbine, Flechette Carbine, Stubcarbine

Pistols:

- Archeo-revolver, Arc Pistol, Eradication Pistol Mechanicus Pistol, Phosphor Blast Pistol, Radium Pistol

Special Weapons

- Phosphor Serpenta, Plasma Caliver, Radium Serpenta, Transuranic Arquebus

Heavy Weapons

- Heavy Arc Rifle, Heavy Grav-cannon, Plasma Culverin, Phosphor Blaster, Radium Jezzail, Torsion Cannon

Melee Weapons

- Arc Maul, Chord Claw, Omnissian Axe, Power Sword, Servo-arc Claw, Taser Goad, Transonic Blades & Razor

Wargear

Omnispex - Any friendly model within 6" of this model counts as having an infra-sight

Enhanced Data-tether - This model may be counted for nerve tests and rally tests if they are within 6" of the model taking the test.

Pteraxii Wings - ignores all terrain, may move freely between levels without restriction, and can never fall. They may not, however, ignore impassable terrain and may not end their movement with their base overlapping an obstacle or another fighter’s base.

END

So that is my idea so far. Like I said I know there are gaps and overlaps as well as a lack of detail in certain areas. Looking for feedback on does this pass the sniff test of viability, what feels right, what feels off. Would you be interested in playing or playing against a gang like this?

Family and I are coming to Louisville in a week. We will be staying near the zoo.

Any local restaurants we must try? As a coffee person any coffee houses I should try? Any local snacks we should makes sure to sample while we are there?

We are foodies so open to any kind of food options.

To me it just feels random on the order. Also I get the interweaving order does prevent alpha strike turns from ending the entire mission but holy crap early on with this random order there just seems to be no way to plan anything. Hopefully later there is a process to work the turn order.