Mega Force was the most elite unit of the Galactic Army. They prepared for duty with very intense training and enjoyed state-of-the-art equipment. Their members were hailed as heroes in all corners of the universe. Mega Force was disbanded in 2134 because of internal bitching.
The issues:
Laser Beam Sounds
Members of Mega Force could not agree on a sound for their laser beams. Several fought to change the existing laser beam sound from the traditional high-pitched Cheew-Cheew sound to a lower-range Byoo-Byoo sound. This ongoing dispute diverted time and energy that would have otherwise been devoted to more worthy projects – such as keeping Station Beta from being destroyed.
The Patch
Lt. Danté felt the cursive font on the Mega Force patch was messy and that it looked like it said “Mega Fonce.” He wouldn’t let up for three weeks until finally HQ agreed to change the font. When the Tioks attacked New France, everyone’s uniform was in the shop having the patches replaced. By the time they got their new patches sewn on, thousands were dead and everyone was mad at Mega Force. People said they wished the Mega Fonce guys had come instead, because they were faster.
Frivolous Claims
Farschanth translator Captain T’ung was forced to spend three months defending against allegations of sexual harassment from Betty Po despite the fact the Farschanth are genderless and born from fibrous husks.
Sgt. Baker’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Sgt. Baker was teased mercilessly because he would not operate the teleporter until Mega Force members were standing on the teleport pad according to height, name and birthday. Because Mega Force members wouldn’t cooperate, often times it took 40 minutes to get to the planet surface – at which time most hostages were usually dead.
Failure to Scramble
Dispatch Officer Porter refused to call the Advanced Tactical Spacefighter by its proper name, so no one knew what he meant when he said “Launch the dildo boat.”
Lieutenants Brandon and Barnschweiger
Brandon and Barnschweiger tied up the secure communications link calling each other “bitch” for twelve minutes, so nobody heard the message from CENTCOM telling everyone to look out for the supernova.
Sounds a lot like what happened to the Girl Force I organized back when I was about nine. We were conducting patrols of the neighborhood to keep the boys in check. I had organized recon missions to find out what the boys were doing, and we even had a spy amongst the boys, who later turned out to be gay. We had a meeting to plan our big attack, but then somebody passed out Avon catalogs and that was pretty much the end of the Girl Force as an effective boy-fighting team.
Hi. Longtime reader, firsttime poster.
Thank you for this.
It will be forwarded to my tens of friends, I’m certain resulting in a huge spike in your readership.
Though this post takes place in the future, I am sure I served on a committee with Lt. Dante.
Magnificent.
I think I’ve had a future life where Lt. Dante was my boss.
I believe many of the same reasons are also (unofficially) cited as the true cause of the collapse of the infamous ‘kitchen’ think tank comprising Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, retired Gen. Daniel O. Graham and astronaut Buzz Aldrin, amongst others. Having designed the whole ‘Star Wars Program’ myth for Reagan, they disagreed on whether it should be Nancy or Ronald who wore the danishes on the sides of their head. Things quickly degenerated into petty squabbling and name-calling which continued well into the Dan Quail ‘Space: it’s Big’ era.
OMG, you went to the E3 Expo, didn’t you? This must be an excerpt from your review. Perhaps you ran into Wil Wheaton while you were waiting in line to play Guitar Hero II.
Great, great post!! I, too, am a long-time reader, and firs-time poster … I just had to thank you for this!
Further down on the list was a lot of in-bickering about past military campaigns; especially the protracted and recurring “was so, was not” Iraq a quagmire debate; and the follow-up, if “was so” – could we call it “Iraquagmire”?
A little further down: who kept getting the grenades sticky?
Can you get this in wikipedia? People should know.
I’m stumped