Normally there's not a whole lot I can post up about at the moment (OPSEC makes a great ball gag), but I can definitely say a few words about what almost happened the other night, while I was out on a call.
As I'm sure most people know, downtown Suckville is rife with stray animals. Kinda like a petting zoo gone horribly wrong. Well, for this trip out, it was cats. There were 4 of them on the street we were working on. Normally, I'm pretty cool with animals, and I adore cats. But when I'm in sector, I don't give a damn how many legs you have, you're not going to like it if I have to move you.
Cutting to the chase, I had my charge placed on the item, everything's buttoned up, and camera trained on the expectant fireball. We're about 20 seconds out from detonation, when through the camera, I see this cat come ambling out into the middle of the street. I don't know why, but this gave me the giggles to no end. T-minus 15 seconds, and Mittens decided to come over and check out my handiwork. I'm looking through the camera, and there's that damn cat, right there on the item. First it sniffed at it, sniffed again, and then started batting at my initiator. Apparently Mittens didn't realize that Mittens was about to cash in all 9 of those lives in very short order.
Now, I have this habit of talking to myself while I'm running the robot (strange commentary sometimes), and usually I'll have the boom mike up out of the way, as to spare my cohorts who are also plugged into the system. I forgot that I had dropped the boom mike back down, though, because all everyone else heard was "Don't you fucking touch it, cat! Just stay there, fucker. Staaaaay there, come on, 10 more seconds." The only other one who could see the camera view was Boss Man, and he didn't see that damn cat. So he's swearing I've lost my mind, just as net call went out for fire in the hole.
Lucky for Mittens, Boss Man picked up the PA to broadcast to the denizens that we were about to wake them up. Loudly. When he keyed the mic, Mittens hauled ass for the curb. All I heard from Boss Man was "Taugh jeer, taugh jeer, taugh je....hey, it's a cat!!!" Crack, boom, detonation complete. I'll be honest, I wasn't looking at the item, because I was too damned busy laughing at Mittens like a girl gone insane. I've never seen a cat move that damn fast in my life, as Mittens did when that charge went! Mittens survived, and I went back to bed for a couple of hours. So much for my first confirmed kill of the deployment.
As I'm sure most people know, downtown Suckville is rife with stray animals. Kinda like a petting zoo gone horribly wrong. Well, for this trip out, it was cats. There were 4 of them on the street we were working on. Normally, I'm pretty cool with animals, and I adore cats. But when I'm in sector, I don't give a damn how many legs you have, you're not going to like it if I have to move you.
Cutting to the chase, I had my charge placed on the item, everything's buttoned up, and camera trained on the expectant fireball. We're about 20 seconds out from detonation, when through the camera, I see this cat come ambling out into the middle of the street. I don't know why, but this gave me the giggles to no end. T-minus 15 seconds, and Mittens decided to come over and check out my handiwork. I'm looking through the camera, and there's that damn cat, right there on the item. First it sniffed at it, sniffed again, and then started batting at my initiator. Apparently Mittens didn't realize that Mittens was about to cash in all 9 of those lives in very short order.
Now, I have this habit of talking to myself while I'm running the robot (strange commentary sometimes), and usually I'll have the boom mike up out of the way, as to spare my cohorts who are also plugged into the system. I forgot that I had dropped the boom mike back down, though, because all everyone else heard was "Don't you fucking touch it, cat! Just stay there, fucker. Staaaaay there, come on, 10 more seconds." The only other one who could see the camera view was Boss Man, and he didn't see that damn cat. So he's swearing I've lost my mind, just as net call went out for fire in the hole.
Lucky for Mittens, Boss Man picked up the PA to broadcast to the denizens that we were about to wake them up. Loudly. When he keyed the mic, Mittens hauled ass for the curb. All I heard from Boss Man was "Taugh jeer, taugh jeer, taugh je....hey, it's a cat!!!" Crack, boom, detonation complete. I'll be honest, I wasn't looking at the item, because I was too damned busy laughing at Mittens like a girl gone insane. I've never seen a cat move that damn fast in my life, as Mittens did when that charge went! Mittens survived, and I went back to bed for a couple of hours. So much for my first confirmed kill of the deployment.
