Old, but .....

[unixronin]

3dFrontier.com forum commentary on the best science fiction battlecries.  (Though some of these ... well, quite a few, actually ... don't originate from SF.)

I notice the forum missed a few.  Two in particular spring to mind; the first:

Muad'dib!

And if "Semper fi, do or die" belongs in there, then so does the other motto of Uncle Sam's Misguided Chidren:

Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle.

And I'd like to nominate one more, even though it isn't SF either, and doesn't even have the connection of the Once And Future Marines to carry it into the category.  But I think it carries as much weight and honor, and means just as much, as any of the entries nominated on that list and above.

It's just two words.

Let's roll.

Comments

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

How about, "Blood makes the grass grow. Kill! Kill! Kill!"

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

That one's my favorite.

-Ogre

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

It's not a battle cry, per se, but it's stuck with me for years.

We've left blood in the dirt of twenty-five worlds,
We've built roads on a dozen more,
And all that we have at the end of our hitch
Buys a night with a second-class whore.

The Senate decrees, the Grand Admiral calls,
The orders come down from on high.
It's 'On Full Kits' and sound 'Board Ships,'
We're sending you where you can die.

The lands that we take, the Senate gives back,
Rather more often than not,
But the more that are killed, the less share the loot,
And we won't be back to this spot.

We'll break the hearts of your women and girls,
We may break your arse, as well,
Then the Line Marines with their banners unfurled
Will follow those banners to hell.

We know the devil, his pomps, and his works,
Ah, yes! We know them well!
When you've served out your hitch in the Line Marines,
You can bugger the Senate of Hell!

Then we'll drink with our comrades and throw down our packs,
We'll rest ten years on the flat of our backs,
Then it's 'On Full Kits' and out of your racks,
You must build a new road through Hell!

The Fleet is our country, we sleep with a rifle,
No man ever begot a son on his rifle,
They pay us in gin and curse when we sin,
There's not one that can stand us unless we're downwind,
We're shot when we lose and turned out when we win,
But we bury our comrades wherever they fall,
And there's none that can face us, though we've nothing at all.

Jerry Pournelle - "March of the Line Marines"

-Ogre

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Dangit, and me without my Johnny Reb icon all picked out.

If you want songs, I like this one, given the spirit in which I'll likely be fighting....

"Wanted fan in Luna City, wanted fan on Dune and Down,
Wanted fan at Ophiuchus, wanted fan in Dydee-town.
All across the sky they want me, am I fattered?
Yes I am!
If I could just reach orbit, then I'd be a wanted fan.

"Wanted fan for mining coal and wanted fan for drilling oil,
I went very fast through Portland, hunted hard like Gully Foyle.
Built reactors in Seattle against every man's advice,
Couldn't do that in Alaska, Fonda says it isn't nice.

"Wanted fan for plain sedition, like the singing of this tune.
If NASA hadn't failed us wed have cities on the moon.
If it weren't for fucking NASA we'd at least have walked on Mars.

And if I can't make orbit, then I'll never reach the stars.

"Nader's Raiders want my freedom, OSHA wants my scalp and hair,
If I'm wanted in Wisconsin, be damned sure I won't be there!
If the E-P-A still wants me, I'll avoid them if I can.
They're tearing down the cities, so I'll be a wanted fan!

"Wanted fan on Chthon and Sparta and the Hub's ten million stars,
Wanted fan for singing silly in a thousand spaceport bars.
If it's what we really want, we'll build a starship when we can;

If I could just make orbit then I'd be a wanted fan.

"Wanted fan for building spacecraft, wanted fan for dipping air,
Sending microwave transmissions, building habitats up there.
Oh the glacier got us last time, next time we'll try to land!
And when the Ice is conquered, it'll be by wanted fans.
And when the stars are conquered, it'll be by wanted fans!"
    -- Larry Niven (http://www.baen.com/library/067172052X/067172052X__21.htm) (I *love* the fact that this book is on line for free legit!)

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I like that one too.

I wrote another verse for it (*gulp*) 16 years ago...

Wanted fan for writing Books, wanted fan for running Cons,
By the time they come to look for me, you know I'll be long gone.
The Air Force hunting high and low, they want my tail and head,
You know I'm running hard and fast, a wanted fan until I'm dead.

-Ogre

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Wanted fan for building spacecraft,
wanted fan for shooting back
Wanted fan for running Linux
that the government can't hack.

Wanted fan for breaking orbit,
putting bases on the moon,
but the government can't chase us
busy chasing some typhoon.

Wanted fan in Luna City
holding World-con on the moon
on the hundredth annivers'ry
hope I do not die too soon.</em?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If we're branching out into songs, too, I'd nominate Mazianni.  It's a little different character, but still:

We fought your fight and we died in droves
In a rearguard action with no reward
We spilled our guts to cover your butts
Spending ships and lives we could ill afford
And now Earthside says we can't win
And we could have won if we'd gotten support
Now they say pull out, they say pull back
They say the war is over, mission abort

But they're not here and they don't care
Our dead are just numbers on a page
They only see how the money rolls out
And that war is a cost they think to wage
So the Union sneers, and Union laughs
And the merchanters turn and run away
And the stations where we fought and died
If they could would throw us out of their bays

Give up, give in, says Earthside now
You merchanters sing the same refrain
But we won't stand this kind of defeat
And knowing our people died in vain
It was our blood spilled on the stars
Did you think that you can deal it away?
Well, you merchant hogs, better think again
Mazian will make the Union pay

You decry our fight, you deny our doom
But we can learn from every mistake
You'll repay what we spent in blood
What you won't give us freely, we'll take
We'll contest each star Union wants
This is war, not some bureaucrat's game
So we hear you're calling us pirates now?
Then screw you all, we'll earn the motherless name!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I still haven't read the book that comes from (and still don't know which book it is, actually).

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

While I have enormous respect for your favorite there, it just doesn't shout very well. It's good as the initial movement order, just as "Engage" is... but a really good battle cry needs an open vowel at or near the end...

"Remember the Alamo!"

"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

Haakaa päälle!!!

Although a good chant works about as well:

HALLO! MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA! YOU KILL MY FATHER! PREPARE TO DIE!

(You haven't heard bloodcurdling until you get 250 bloodthirsty engineering students yelling that at the top of their lungs as the Count gets his...)

(Just as bloodcurdling as the reaction every time they saw a Soviet uniform just before this one:)

WO000LVERIIIIIINES!

Some of'em just don't roll very well, the old

"Blood and souls for my lord Odin!" is quite a mouthful... on the other hand, some don't even have words, like Ye Olde Rebel Yell, which as I know it could probably be best transliterated

HDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAH!

(and if you're not expecting it will put a shiver down your spine, which was exactly what Johnny Reb intended....)

And there are other wordless bits; anywhere from the bugle's charge to the bagpipe's drone and squeal... if I wanted to strike terror into an opponent's heart, I'd probably have them play "The Campbells Are Coming".... the full import of that is left as an exercise to the reader. :)

Some are just fun.

"N-Y-P-D! That means I will Nock Yo Punk-ass Down!"

Or one I just made up, usually accompanied by chucking a stuffed penguin at the target:

Hundred mile an hour penguin! AAAAAAHHH!!!

(inspired by:

"Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really
embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never
seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd
be a lot more careful about what they say if they had."
    -- Linus Torvalds)

Besides, being a Penguinista, I hold Linus in very high regard.... and as it turns out, the one I like best means the same thing in both Finnish, spoken where Linus went to school, and Swedish, his actual native tongue."

Haakaa päälle!!!

Or just render it in English, since that's what computer people do anyway....

"HACK THEM DOOOOOOOOWN!"

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

HDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAH!

How do you pronounce a long string of D's? ;)

-Ogre

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

It's very similar to a rolled "r".

Put the tip of your tongue at the point at which the back of your top front teeth meet your gum. Exhale such that your tongue vibrates, like the purring of a cat. Now vocalize, falsetto. It sounds like you took Johnny Weismuller or a Hollywood-esque Indian cry and put it on fast-forward.

If you've ever seen traditional tribal belly dance, you may have heard something similar, but it's made using a different technique....

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

Och! How could I forget?

HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE DIE! (http://www.heatherlands.com/seafire/lyrics/lyricdetails.php?RECORD_KEY%28songs%29=id&id(songs)=38)

(reposted comment with corrected link)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

HELL YEAH! How could we forget that one?!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I heard tell that was the fight song for some of the relief workers in New York, back when this war was still righteous....

You're right, kind sir. Haakaa Paale is good for cavalry. But if you're talking good old fashioned foot soldiers on a traditional battlefield, you put you the Wicked Tinkers up on a hill and play that pipe tune and you get the men (and women!) singing it and crashing their weapons in tempo and you charge on the last note of the last chorus....

HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE HDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDIIIEEE!!!

Guarantee what of the enemy don't visit the morgue will need a trip to the laundry....

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

mmmmmm, Heather!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Quite a few of those are already in that 3dFrontier list, btw.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I thought that was in some of Drake's stuff....

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

Okay, now, see, since we're branching out into fantasy/real world and not just SF, you're missing the single greatest battle cry of all time:

"Prepare to kiss the fleeting steed of Death!"

--Grignr, "The Eye of Argon"