What species is she? And, is that a cut-down Enfield SMLE?

It's a cut-down Enfiled Pattern 4 I think, which would be WWII vintage. I've been told you could do it, but it would buck like a Hummer that slipped out of gear.

The girl is a Mesuldan. The original notion was that one day a fleet of her kind appeared over the skies of Earth. They were looking for a mysterious enemy that had struck their own planet, but discovered Earth instead. It turns out that their DNA is something like 99.8% identical to humanities, and no-one is sure why. They claim they're the original species and we must somehow have come to Earth in millenia past, but we're just as sure we're the originals and they must have someone gone to the stars in prehistory. (In fact, the fossil evidence supports our story rather than theirs, but it leaves the question hanging how they managed to leave Earth thousands of years ago, and the whole thing forgotten.)

In a separate incident, the Mesulda colonized an Earth-like planet that turned out to be in the process of colonization by a third intelligent species. This led to a series of wars, starting with the fairly primative technology the self-supporting colonies could fight with, gradually progressing in weapons sophisticated and the scale of violence. The drawing is from a fairly early stage when all the colonies can manage is to copy old 20th. century firearms.

That 3rd intelligent species must be some very tough beasties if it takes .303 as a medium range to point blank in-yo-face range weapon to knock down. That's the kind of thing I'd consider for backup on bear or razorback should I have the misfortune of encountering an irate one.

The other dudes aren't so tough as that. The Musulda are, maybe though. The main reason for the cut down rifle is easy of carry. The foreward scouts are expected to run miles, jump off bluffs, climb trees, swim, wade swamps, and do everything but fly. Rather than train like the Marines to do all this by brute muscular force, they train more like the Cheyenne or Japanese troops in WWII, to be mobile through agility and endurance.

During the Russian Civil War of ~1918-20, some folks took the standard Mosin-Nagant 1893 army rifle and cut it down like that, basically as a suicide weapon as even not cut back it kicks like thirteen mules (personal experience), and the muzzle blast would set fire to everything in sight, as you can imagine. I suppose that would be a fungun for the Musulda, though.

If anyone *actually* wants to know why I drew a cut-off Enfield, it's because that was the only way to get it to fit in the picture!

Actually, I saw an Enfield much like that, tho' cruder, in the hands of a machinegun dealer in Pennsylvania. I remember telling you about it, Taral. He said his was actually converted during the vietnam war for use in tunnels, but the idea of firing that in an enclosed space made me wince even more.

If I were crawling through tunnels I think I'd rather have a sten gun or some other small automatic weapon like a mini-Uzi. The sawed off Enfield might be handy, but operating a bolt action in a confined space wouldn't be. Especially while fumbling with a flashlight and hand grenades to toss around the corner.

I've always thought this was about the max-archetype of all military anthro-fem pictures I've ever seen.

A little more realistic in its way. No lipstick, high heels, or eyeshadow, no "I'm gonna fuk ya" look, no whip or black leather, nor a gun the size of a small WWII Japanese fighter plane. Just a lethal piece and the know-how to use it. I was thinkng more Israeli army than Mad Max.