A Birthday present for Orca Girl.

[icarus]

orca_girl, happy birthday.

wildernessguru and I have a gift that only you would appreciate.

*opens the Stargate Atlantis armory* John, could you give her the tour please?

"I thought I delegated this shit to Bates... Okay." John gestures for orca_girl to follow and throws open a weapons locker. "Basically on the left here we have...

... the Smith & Wesson .45 ACP, eleven round automatic pistol. It weighs about the same as a 9 mil Baretta and has four rounds fewer -- which for a .45 is pretty cool -- but the best part?" John chambers the first round. "This baby has twice the stopping power of the 9 mil. Something we're really happy about, and the Wraith aren't. It's stainless steel, too, so it's reliable under lousy off-world conditions. But hey, we don't encounter crappy field conditions, right?" A group of soldiers laugh. "It was a good day when the Daedalus brought us these and we could dump the Barrettas. Almost even worth the inventory headaches Caldwell dropped in my lap.

"Though I am by no means suggesting he did it on purpose," John adds with a sly grin. "I'm sure revenge was the furthest thing from his mind."

He hands the weapon off to a soldier. "Personally, I like the Ruger Six .357 magnum double action revolver. But I only carry that off-duty. Or as a spare." John gives Ronon a grin.

Ronon snorts. "He carries it all the time."

"But if I had one of your weapons, I might have a new favorite."

John gives a wide gesture, and one of the soldiers who's wandered over opens the second locker for him, with an amused smirk at the show.

"Next we have the Banali M4-Super 90 .12-gauge shotgun -- speaking of stopping power. Ronon likes this one. Six plus one rounds, one or two of which can usually drop your average Wraith." John smiles and pulls one out. "Largely because we use one ounce hollow-point slugs. That was special order." He turns the weapon over in his hands. "Intimidating, too. It's a mean-looking weapon. Next time I meet the Genii I'm going to have one of these in my hand -- Now who has the bigger gun?"

He throws it to Ronon, who catches it and puts it back in the locker. "Theirs are just for looks."

"Yeah, well it works."

The next cabinet John opens himself. "Over here are the familiar P-90 PDW 5.7 mm, with a 50-round magazine. Mostly plastic polymer, lighter than light, they fire left or right-handed -- good design, nice touch -- but the best part of course--" John hefts it, aiming, and the growing number of soldiers standing around step aside. "--is the punch. The standard round penetrates all layers of body armor. They cut through the Wraith like birthday cake."

"I've had them go through the side of a Wraith dart, sir. Took out the pilot," one soldier volunteers.

John nods with a gesture and smiles, his eyes lighting up. "There you are."

"The recoil on those things is next to nothing, too," another Marine offers.

"And the transparent magazine's sweet. You just check the side and see what you've got left," someone in the back adds.

John grins. "I'd like to thank the U.S. armed services for providing us with these fine weapons."

"Mine's still better," Ronon points out.

"Get us a couple hundred and we'll switch, I promise," John says.

"Can't." Ronon shakes his head. "Manufactured on Sateda."

"Well, that's a shame."

John moves to the next locker. "Now. Let's say we're invading a Wraith hive ship."

"Let's not," a voice calls out from the back. The other soldiers chuckle.

"Not my idea of a good day either. But let's just say you're in close quarters and need what's essentially a sawed-off M-16. We have 'em. The M-4 5.56 mm auto carbine with thirty rounds. Very compact. Designed for house-to-house fighting."

John shuts the locker door and shakes his head. "Or you could just use the P-90. Hell, I dunno why we've got these things, Sumner's notes says it's because it uses the same bullets as the M-249 -- but we don't have any of those." John shrugs. "Ask Bates. This is his job now."

Bates clears his throat, arms folded across his chest. "They capped the number of P-90s we could order. But we could order both and claim 'special use' on form USAFD.79-849. More's better, right?"

John gives him a broad, tight smile. "That's why you have the job."

"It sucks, sir."

"How're you and Caldwell getting along?"

"Just fine, sir."

John's eyes narrow. "Yeah. That's what I thought. Funny how those inventory problems just cleared right up."

John sighs. "I could use a break. And aren't you guys all supposed to be somewhere?" John gives them a suspicious smile.

"Sorry, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"How 'bout a sandwich, Bates?" John claps him on the back.

"Sure."

"orca_girl, you coming?" John turns to orca_girl, hand on her shoulder, "We're working on getting the Sako M-90 assault rifle, because a 7.62mm round would come in real handy. You know that it's cool a woman's into this stuff, right? Later on we can show you the big guns."

Bates snorts, shaking his head.




ETA: corrections on calibre of the rounds for the Sako M-90 from juuro and wildernessguru.

Comments

[not-sally.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*g* WG and orca_girl went back and forth about military gear in SGA. He has these lists of weapons they've used in the show that I'm turning into descriptions of how and why each weapon is used in the field. I only got about half-way through it, however.

Icarus

[jackie-brown.livejournal.com]

Aw! That's such a cute birthday gift :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

She already knows most of this stuff.

WG has two lists: one for gear he's seen used on SGA, and another for what he'd take, if given half a chance.

Icarus

[theemdash]

That was awesome. And this is going into my fic reference list. ;)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

He's great, isn't he? I was hoping something more detailed will be more useful than a list of tech specifications.

Icarus

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

*melts in puddle of goo*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* I should do the other half. H&K MSG90, the Stinger, SMAW, and more.

Icarus

[juuro.livejournal.com]

Sorry to butt in with nitpickery; your reference to Sako M-90 caught my eye.

You see, I was a warrant officer in the Finnish Defence Forces for a while. Even if the scriptwriters of the Stargate universe have made a minor slip, you might be interested in The Truth.

The Sako assault rifles use mainly 7.62 mm ammunition -- Finnish Defence Forces standard. Some export versions have been manufactured with 5.56 mm caliber. Personally I have not met one with 7.69 mm caliber -- am not saying it is impossible, though.

Apologies for the intrusion, again, and my best regards to your writing career. I read you on cheshyre's friends-view, usually.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

wildernessguru has also corrected me. He says it's 7.62 by 39. He says it's also used by the Swedish who do use the M-16 style round, but then use the 7.62 for urban environments for their three or four urban warfare batallions.

The reason he recommends the Finnish gun is that it's lighter, more accurate, and -- because it's based on the AK-47 -- it's utterly reliable. It's the best AK-47 clone ever made.

He thinks SGA should use it because it isn't finicky like the M-16. And it's got more punch (yet it's empty weight is the same as an M-16A2). "The Wraith would go down in droves."

I must have misheard him yesterday. Or else that's a typo.

Finnish Defense Forces, eh? Cool.

Icarus

[orca-girl.livejournal.com]

I cannot, upon short notice, find a pic from which I could make a Big Shiny Eyes icon appropriate to the situation -- but you can picture that, along with the hands clasped under the chin...

thank you thank you, both of you! eeeeeeeee! Sweet!

(I also espeicially love that Ronon is snarking in the background, with reminders of his cool-ass Sateda weapon. *nods*)

No M-249s? *wipes away a tear* Such a shame. Ah well, that'll always be Jack's Bigass Gun to me...

*HUGS*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*beams* Happy birthday, and you're welcome. I hope you had a great day.

WG and I had fun putting this together (and I hope people can use it for their fics, too).

Icarus