Argh.
Rob, I wish I'd known in advance that the possibility of more than one giant being there was a known thing. It would have changed the entire dynamic of how Ben would approach the situation.
Thing is, the way I approach stuff like this, I anticipate the absolute worst case scenario. Always. No maybe maybe maybe's here. He is only looking at how anything and everything can possibly go wrong, because this is not only how he was raised, but also the shit-tier luck he's had most of his life - to see only the worst possible outcomes. Thus, Ben would have the following in mind during the planning stages.
If Giant = 1, then send in the ARX-7.
If Giant = 2, then Send Ben in.
If Giant >/= 3, Ben would say, "Everyone out! We're nuking it from orbit!" (Not literally, but you get the idea.)
Really, a lot of the ridiculously bad fortune I've had lately, I could see coming in some fashion. Not the exact scenario that actually occurs, but just that it comes as no real surprise. "Of course you did, because why the fuck not?" I would often say at these moments. There's no way for me to plan for these things because more often than not, the only real fix is to throw gobs of money at the problem in the form of parts, tools, equipment, software, what have you, and time taken off from work to make it happen.
A great example was when I had to replace the axle seals on my truck, because they were leaking gear oil from the differential into the rear brake drums. Thing is, at SEVERAL points, mom drove my truck for several miles with the parking brake on. She just never noticed because her way of driving a truck is if it doesn't move, give it more gas until it moves. The oil leaking into the brakes didn't help matters any. (She used to drive very old, heavy, full-sized pick-up trucks and not the little Ranger I had.) What this meant was that the damn axle bearing races wound up getting fused to the rest of the axle, and the only thing to do then was to pull the whole damn thing out and take it to the machine shop to have them knock the bearings out. Of course, I only discovered this AFTER I had to break down and buy a whole slide hammer kit to get the blasted things out, and then even afterwards I had to go and buy a drill and a cylinder honing tool because the new bearings weren't going in - there were some burrs that were keeping that from happening. And there was no way in hell I was returning those tools after the fact, because I knew damn well that would just be tempting Murphy in the worst way possible.
By comparison, this sort of planning is easy for Ben. "Uhm, yeah, no, fuck that noise, if there's three of those fuckers there, I'm blowing the whole goddamn place to hell. And fuck what you think because having three or more of those fuckers around is way more risky than the risk of blowing our cover. We're out in the goddamned sticks anyhow."
Rob, I wish I'd known in advance that the possibility of more than one giant being there was a known thing. It would have changed the entire dynamic of how Ben would approach the situation.
Thing is, the way I approach stuff like this, I anticipate the absolute worst case scenario. Always. No maybe maybe maybe's here. He is only looking at how anything and everything can possibly go wrong, because this is not only how he was raised, but also the shit-tier luck he's had most of his life - to see only the worst possible outcomes. Thus, Ben would have the following in mind during the planning stages.
If Giant = 1, then send in the ARX-7.
If Giant = 2, then Send Ben in.
If Giant >/= 3, Ben would say, "Everyone out! We're nuking it from orbit!" (Not literally, but you get the idea.)
Really, a lot of the ridiculously bad fortune I've had lately, I could see coming in some fashion. Not the exact scenario that actually occurs, but just that it comes as no real surprise. "Of course you did, because why the fuck not?" I would often say at these moments. There's no way for me to plan for these things because more often than not, the only real fix is to throw gobs of money at the problem in the form of parts, tools, equipment, software, what have you, and time taken off from work to make it happen.
A great example was when I had to replace the axle seals on my truck, because they were leaking gear oil from the differential into the rear brake drums. Thing is, at SEVERAL points, mom drove my truck for several miles with the parking brake on. She just never noticed because her way of driving a truck is if it doesn't move, give it more gas until it moves. The oil leaking into the brakes didn't help matters any. (She used to drive very old, heavy, full-sized pick-up trucks and not the little Ranger I had.) What this meant was that the damn axle bearing races wound up getting fused to the rest of the axle, and the only thing to do then was to pull the whole damn thing out and take it to the machine shop to have them knock the bearings out. Of course, I only discovered this AFTER I had to break down and buy a whole slide hammer kit to get the blasted things out, and then even afterwards I had to go and buy a drill and a cylinder honing tool because the new bearings weren't going in - there were some burrs that were keeping that from happening. And there was no way in hell I was returning those tools after the fact, because I knew damn well that would just be tempting Murphy in the worst way possible.
By comparison, this sort of planning is easy for Ben. "Uhm, yeah, no, fuck that noise, if there's three of those fuckers there, I'm blowing the whole goddamn place to hell. And fuck what you think because having three or more of those fuckers around is way more risky than the risk of blowing our cover. We're out in the goddamned sticks anyhow."