Space Marines!

[utahjeepr]

OK, so now it's really a thing.

https://spacenews.com/marine-corps-stands-up-space-unit-at-offutt-air-force-base/

Can I have a plasma rifle yet?

[SeriousStudent]

Like the man said in the movie Aliens: "Those Colonial Marines are pretty tough hombres."

:cool:

[Diamondback]

Makes me wonder if Trump has intel about there being real, no-shit Xenos out there and they have a deal with Biden for all the face-rape and gutbursting they can make us eat...

[Co-gnARR]

Makes me wonder if Trump has intel about there being real, no-shit Xenos out there and they have a deal with Biden for all the face-rape and gutbursting they can make us eat...

While that would be cooler than what I really think this is all about, I don't think we are responding to alien distress beacons or organizing any interstellar bug hunts just yet.

What I really think is going on is reaction to American hegemony being challenged in all spheres...including ventures into the exosphere ( AND BEYON-N-N-N-D-D-D_D!!!).

Think about it this way...the media has been rather quiet in the past 25 years about the true threat of the CCP as an emerging super power.

Nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, with global reach. No one else has that except us.

Satellite buster missiles, fired from high-altitude strike fighters. American technology that magically appeared in Chinese hands.

Chinese plans for lunar exploration.

Some one on our side has realized that we are no longer the only ones capable of doing these things, or is at least very capable of reaching this capacity VERY SOON...and has decided to adapt our offensive/defensive capacity.

[Diamondback]

While that would be cooler than what I really think this is all about, I don't think we are responding to alien distress beacons or organizing any interstellar bug hunts just yet.

What I really think is going on is reaction to American hegemony being challenged in all spheres...including ventures into the exosphere ( AND BEYON-N-N-N-D-D-D_D!!!).

Think about it this way...the media has been rather quiet in the past 25 years about the true threat of the CCP as an emerging super power.

Nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, with global reach. No one else has that except us.

Satellite buster missiles, fired from high-altitude strike fighters. American technology that magically appeared in Chinese hands.

Chinese plans for lunar exploration.

Some one on our side has realized that we are no longer the only ones capable of doing these things, or is at least very capable of reaching this capacity VERY SOON...and has decided to adapt our offensive/defensive capacity.

The Chicoms have had nuke boomers since around the '90s, and the Russkies still have a few. I was mostly tongue-in-cheek with that comment, but yeah our biggest alien threat is very terrestrial. Nixon's deal with Beijing was very much as "short term win with long term cost" against an immediate foe as FDR's with Stalin.

[Jellybean]

Whether benighted xenos or godless communist heretics, we shall meet them with bolter and blade. Ave Imperator!

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BrilliantWeirdJunco-max-1mb.gif

Small steps... it all begins with small steps. :cool: