Cat Shit One Impressions

Unpacking Packy’s decision to go in on the basis of this key scene: White Camel’s order to kill the rabbit who attempted to run away is seriously bad news, a deliberate act of murder rather than a spontaneous outburst by an ill disciplined underling. Tired and bound and surrounded by militia, the runaway couldn’t have gotten far anyway. And the order was given with full awareness of it being recorded by the camel on the left. The prisoners were going to be killed soon, as part and parcel of the terrorists’ spectacle.

Lots of nostalgia from the good bad ole days of Full-time National Service (especially Basic Military Training and the trade courses) follows:

I agreed with Botasky though: No f**kin’ way! A ratio of 2:15 is, not to put a too fine point on it, f**kin’ terrible especially since when the traditional force ratio for an infantry deliberate attack is 3:1. But then it helps that they are the Good Guys and oh so cute to boot. But on a more serious note, this is a hasty attack/raid, they are professional Special Forces types, have superior training and equipment as well as the element of surprise. So it is (just barely) gets a free pass.

It also helped that the enemy didn’t do itself many favours. The militia was pretty complacent given how they were spread out in the open street without any stand to positioning or prep. They were also badly trained. The first two camels who went down couldn’t really have done anything. The third camel’s first reaction was not unreasonable in braying (I presume): “Sniper!” before racking up another head shot for Botasky. But when it was under fire like that, cover and concealment should have been its first priority. You know, moving quickly towards the walls of the buildings rather than remain in the centre of the street. Or at least crouch or lay prone (and then leopard crawl) to reduce its profile. Which they did practice belatedly.

Movies like to show throats being slit rather than stabbed (no blood here though). But given how the camel was taller than Packy, I thought he would have gone for a kidney stab instead which is also pretty much instantaneous.

Packy taking down all four camels in the room without serious resistance was also believable to me; I managed something similar during a paint ball session years ago LOL.  Also helped that one was preoccupied with playing film crew and White Camel was preoccupied with posturing. The element of surprise (with Packy having sighted all his targets beforehand) is so important because, in general, human (ahem) reaction time is four seconds. *Bam* One thousand (first camel down) *Bam* Two thousand (second camel down) *Bam* (third camel down) *Bam* Four thousand (last one begins to raise weapon, aim not even acquired yet)

That one of the prisoners was a camel made the framing of the others as terrorists more plausible; otherwise it would be all too easy to think of this as some kind of genocidal rabbit vs. camel war. The designation of the prisoners as “canaries” was also interesting. The allusion to birds trapped in a cage. Or even spies who will, figuratively, sing like birds. The latter thought was triggered by the dialogue above (implying some sort of prior relationship between the canaries and CMS) and might also explain the viciousness of the camel militia towards them.

This scene was just the lulz – with Botasky’s upright bunny ears, it’s a wonder it took so long to spot him! I approved, right from the start, of how Packy reduced his profile by wearing that hat.

Kudos though to Botasky and Canary rabbit for the casualty evacuation of the Canary camel with just a two man stretcher team for one kilometre. Even a fresh four man team would have found it exhausting.

Another beautiful moment, courtesy of Packy and camel grunt. Packy and grunt turn the corner, with weapons ready at standing shoulder position, and nearly crash into each other. In a moment of tragi-comedy, the grunt’s weapon was just above Packy’s head and couldn’t be brought to bear onto him from that angle.  Packy, with just a bit more forewarning and quicker reflexes, reached out with left arm while right arm continued to hold weapon and on trigger. Push comes to shove and the startled wide-eyed camel gave a cry of alarm and fell onto his back. Left arm went back to support weapon, sights levelled and trigger pulled. It’s over in a flash. So well choreographed. It also reminded me of the tunnel vision we sometimes got when advancing in that position and trying to keep the ring of the rear sight aligned with the tip of the forward sight and the added boo boo of closing one’s non-master eye while doing so.

Four seconds for detonation seemed a tad short as I was expecting about seven. But I’m just basing on what we used to do yonks ago. Certainly the type we used wasn’t as round. Can’t even remember what its model/serial number was. Was Packy using an M67?

Initially thought that the placement of the M18 was too open and obvious but its position turned out to be perfect just before it was detonated.

A really nice moment to show that Packy wasn’t invincible and to set up the scene for Botasky to come to the rescue. Man, everyone really really hates RPGs when you’re on the receiving end. Mostly because they’re so cheap and cheerful that there can be a whole bunch of them out there.

Surprising addition of the kukri knife into the mix though I doubt very much that if it would have been able to cut into the body of the rifle even if the scope wasn’t there. Camel was also being an idiot – after kicking Botasky and freeing his weapon, he wasted precious seconds screaming his battle cry before attempting to slash Botasky again. The reward, of course, was missing his chance and getting a few rounds put through him. Reminded me of Ibraha’s raving in Black Lagoon‘s Guerillas in the Jungle before Takenaka countermanded him.

This brought back another particularly vivid memory from BMT wrt cover and concealment. Various things like uncompacted and compacted sandbags, wooden logs and even a reinforced concrete wall were subject to a few rounds of firing (M16 for most and GPMG for the last) after which we (the trainees) were brought to see the after-effects up close and to learn the relative endurance of various types of cover. One lesson was “that’s why we tell you to compact your sandbags, you compact your sandbags. And then compact them again.” The other was that nothing lasts forever against sustained fire and you need to keep moving.

By this time, Packy and Botasky have gotten themselves pinned down. But the saving grace was that, at least, they had reasonably good cover. Looks like solid masonry. But apparently even if it were mud brick wall, it would have been decent (please correct me if I’m mistaken).

By this time, P&B no longer have surprise, their mobility is severely curtailed and the camel militia are finally able to use their superior numbers to lay down suppressive fire while advancing in an enveloping movement.

And the air support arrives just in a nick of time to save the day as well as for P&B to turn the tables on the militia reinforcements. I was half-expecting it to be an AH-64 Apache but looks more like a MI-24 Hind which was another nice way to keep things mixed up and not associate the bunnies too closely with any particular RL military.

A thoroughly enjoyable episode with stunning visual effects, fight scenes and even hints of potential political nuance. Characters-wise, I disliked Packy’s bravado and Botasky’s whining but I really couldn’t argue with the former’s reasoning (when stripped of its macho adornments) or the latter’s initial FUD and I can see them growing on me.

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