57 replies to this topic

[Oni Storm]

Skyfall, desert plains
"Paradise" Crew Compartments
22:15 hrs

[Note: All commentary is to his crew, not open broadcasts]

"Hi-Ya!, stupid gaijin!" Commander Shimada cursed the others as they began running off to get lost in the storm, his crew smirking and laughing as the man continued his ti-raid in Japanese to his crew so as not to cause any discontent in the ranks.

The "Paradise" slowed to cruising speed and pondered on trying to lead the silly foot sluggers as a shield break before the storm winds. "They all crazy! Being out in the open in a sandstorm. Loony gaijin."

[dal10]

"Uh Darius? all of our little infantry buddies are running around." pointed out Jake.

Darius just facepalmed... "Do they not realize there is an APC? Larry, get on the comms and point this out to them, please"

"right away master" said Larry in a rather sarcastic voice. "To all the infantry running around like chickens with their heads cut off. You DO realize we have an APC right?"

[ChaosGrinder]

Skyfall, desert plains
"Paradise" Crew Compartments
22:16 hrs

"Allright, is anyone supplied with oxygen and the guys on foot hitched a ride ? We should get to the base ! " Pepper said via comm and arcellerated her mech forward. Slowly the Omen trudged through the sand, leaving footprinst to be washed away by the wind.

" Stick together and enjoy the landscape ... isn´t it beautiful ? Also keep an eye on your oxygen , the next supply could be a bit away. "

[guardian wolf]

Skyfall, desert plains
In the back of the APC
22:14 hrs

Wilson let out a sigh on the comms, that showed his admiration of this new landscape. The marines filed into the back of an APC that pulled up, but kept the suits sealed. They instead let the air tanks recycle, so that way, they could keep their air sealed, and refreshed every fifteen minutes.
"I don't like this Sarge, last time we were in an APC, we got ambushed," Wilson stated

"Yeah, well, last time we were in an APC, we were in a ******* war zone," Jenkins retorted

"Cut the chatter you two, keep your wits about you, we ain't out of this yet," Chris called out into the squad comm chatter (That is separate from team chatter)

[Aegis Fate]

Skyfall, Desert Plains
APC troop compartment
22:15 hours
Tyla, realizing her stupidity on going out on foot, cursed underneath her breath as she entered the APC herself, the bulky Hostile Environment suit obscuring her features as she disregarded the soldiers inside, idly sitting and mulling over what the rest of the job would entail, briefly chirping over the radio a simple phrase, her voice tinged with irritation
'Why the hell does nobody tell me we have a bloody APC when we drop? Nobody ever tells me we have something besides feet to get there.'

[dal10]

ChaosGrinder, on 27 October 2012 - 05:41 AM, said:

Skyfall, desert plains
Outside, the surface
22:14 hrs

" Ok everyone, stay put, until this storm has blown over. My radar is blind, Mag does show me ... weird things ... Ey man ! Stay here ! Are you mad ? If you´re heading out in this storm, you´ll never find the base. If you wanna suffocate go ahead. "

Pepper was annoyed. The weather was bad and they had no real idea how close they where to the base. This was a particular problem for all those who where on foot, as they couldn´t carry that much oxygen and could possibly suffocate on the way to the base.

" Man, this weather sucks. I thought there´d be at least a bit of sun, not a crazy *ss storm !"

Tucked in behind the rock formation she watched the sand racing through the air. Despite the storm, it was almost silent, only the creak of the sand in the wind. And a good fifteen minutes later, the storm disappeared as fast, as he came.

Suddently everything was dead silent. The Landscape, now visible for endless miles was bizarrely beautiful. Sand falts , only broken by bizarre, twisted rock formations of dark brown stone stretched to the horizon, far away was the looming shadow of the Mountains visible, north of them the mountains where closer. That was the way they had to take.

" Allright, i´d say let´s go. Ration your air supply, i´m cutting mine down to 80% now. This could be a longer way than expected."

"well at least the storm is dying down. that should help our sensor woes a bit." pointed out Jake.
"Darius, we can see now." Steve "the magneticy (magnets, how do they work? Steve doesn't know.) sensors still don't work..."
"Steve, the red sand has a lot of iron in it. Magres is going to be useless this mission." replied Jake thoughtfully.
"Okay, Jake."

ChaosGrinder, on 27 October 2012 - 10:58 AM, said:

Skyfall, desert plains
"Paradise" Crew Compartments
22:16 hrs

"Allright, is anyone supplied with oxygen and the guys on foot hitched a ride ? We should get to the base ! " Pepper said via comm and arcellerated her mech forward. Slowly the Omen trudged through the sand, leaving footprinst to be washed away by the wind.

" Stick together and enjoy the landscape ... isn´t it beautiful ? Also keep an eye on your oxygen , the next supply could be a bit away. "

"Well Jake I think it is time to put this tank into motion. pull a hundred meters back from the omen and fifty meters to its right and match speed." then on the lance channel (not to whole group, actually really to no one in game since I am the only PC in the recon lance) (considering I am the only PC in this one it makes sense to tell them where to go.) "Chevalier light tank, pull back 30 meters to my right and back. Savannahs, stick towards the rest of the group, I don't want to risk you guys yet, especially since it would only take a few hits to fry you guys. not that there is any evidence that we are going to have anyone shooting at us." Larry then relayed the message word for word. Recon lance assumed its position back and to the right of the unit leader.

[pinsndneedles]

Skyfall, Desert Plains
Surface
22:13 hours

Wilson looked around the landscape, it was utterly barren from what he could see. 'Gonna be a long ride if there's no scenery,' he thought, and was getting settled in for the long haul when the comms lit up.

"To all the infantry running around like chickens with their heads cut off. You DO realize we have an APC right?"

Wilson started chuckling to himself at the thought, making him glad he had battle armor. At least the grunts had some wheels so they wouldn't be trudging along through the sand. He checked his oxygen levels, would need to start making that a habit as this dragged on, didn't look like anything was amiss.

He flicked open his comms, "How much longer we going to be at this? I could go for a smoke."

[guardian wolf]

John heard the call on the comms and waved over at the APC, their new ride, he then spoke into the squd comms (once again, separate from team comms)
"Alright boys, standard OP, thirty minute shifts topside, Jenkins, you got first shift on the hatch,"
"Dammit, manning post,"
The rest of the marines filed inside, and listened to the seals engage. They took their seats in the infantry bay, and John spoke into the team comms.
"Hey boyos givin us the ride, we got one of mine topside covering your hatch, we'll be switching mid ride, so, we'll let you know when to vacate the O2 in here,"
"Sarge, you think this will be a quiet one?"
"It never is private, that's why they send the marines,"
"Ehhhh... ****, so much for R&R,"
They settled into their seats for the long ride that was about to happen.

[ChaosGrinder]

" In for one hour... how yre you guys doing ?" Pepper asked via comm and looked around. The rest of the squad was moving with them toward the distant Mountain ridge.

" Those mountains are moving away from us, this is like syssiphos ! Oh, by the way check your radar from time to time, mag is useless on this planet, as it´s full of magnetic metals but the rest works fine i guess. Wich doesn´t mean that i´m sure ... "

Slowly her cockpit had the right temperature for her to feel comfortable, the view was stunning and the way easy.

" Everything´s going better than expected. How about betting on the distance we yet have to cover ? Looser has to cook for the rest of us. I´d say about 5-7 hours to walk. "

[Listless Nomad]

Skyfall, desert plains
In the back of the APC
22:14 hrs

Pavel smirked as the hatch opened and the troop of marines entered the cramped back of the APC, although the smoked glass of his faceplate obscured his expression. He’d been monitoring the comms channels of their little troop, and found particular satisfaction in the fact that he had been the only one to take advantage of the APC from the get go. Although he was clad in the rust and black mottled power armor, his nighthawk suit did not take up much room, and he easily shifted over to accommodate the marines. Moments later, the hatch opened again, and the nondescript form of the lady technician stumbled into the troop bay. She seemed rather flustered, as much as one can appear in a anonymous environmental suit. Pavel gave her a wink and a nod, although the wink was once again obscured. Once they were inside and the hatch was sealed, Pavel leaned back against the bulkhead of the vehicle and crossed his arms in an attempt to drift off. As the APC began to rumble forward through the desert landscape, the gentle lolling of the vehicle rocked Pavel completely asleep.

[ChaosGrinder]

Skyfall, desert plains
01:06

" Guys, here we go, the ridge is getting closer ! " Pepper mumbled yia comm, observing her radar screens.

It was almost pitch black outside, only a perfectly clear sky showed billions of white, tiny dots to guide them. Back off in the distance a black rocky formation loomed over the dark desert plains.

Suddently something attracted her attention. " Have you seen that ? I think i´ve seen a light at northnortheast. Someone else seen it ? "

It might have been a trick of her mind and it didn´t come back afterwards, but she was sure, she had seen some sort of light flashing in the mountains for a split second.

" Turn down every active radar and scanner and keep radio silence if possible ... by the way, why am i managing this exploration ?! We´re one team ! " with that Pepper observed the horizon for every sign of movement or light. She felt uncomfortable, almost like someone would watch them.

[dal10]

ChaosGrinder, on 09 November 2012 - 08:28 AM, said:

Skyfall, desert plains
01:06

" Guys, here we go, the ridge is getting closer ! " Pepper mumbled yia comm, observing her radar screens.

It was almost pitch black outside, only a perfectly clear sky showed billions of white, tiny dots to guide them. Back off in the distance a black rocky formation loomed over the dark desert plains.

Suddently something attracted her attention. " Have you seen that ? I think i´ve seen a light at northnortheast. Someone else seen it ? "

It might have been a trick of her mind and it didn´t come back afterwards, but she was sure, she had seen some sort of light flashing in the mountains for a split second.

" Turn down every active radar and scanner and keep radio silence if possible ... by the way, why am i managing this exploration ?! We´re one team ! " with that Pepper observed the horizon for every sign of movement or light. She felt uncomfortable, almost like someone would watch them.

"Unit leader, be advised that we have not seen anything. But nothing should be able to sense us, Our Angel ECM suite should protect us from being detected by sensors until we can detect them. But we shall turn off the bloodhound and go radio silent"

"Larry, get the savannahs out on a sweeping patrol, but make sure they know if they see ANYTHING even remotely suspicious to not engage and hi-tail it back here."

"eye eye el capitan" shot back larry, and then on the lance channel, "Savannah 1 and 2, we need you to do a perimeter sweep with sensors on passive and all lights off. Something has the unit leader spooked and we need to find it before it finds us. If you see any boogeymen, please run back here, we would rather not lose our speed demons before we even make it to the base."

"acknowledged, 2 speed demons a way" replied the savannahs as they broke off to do a bit of recon (Chaos's choice on what happens to them.)

Edited by dal10, 09 November 2012 - 08:51 AM.

[Oni Storm]

Skyfall, desert plains
01:06 hrs


" Turn down every active radar and scanner and keep radio silence if possible ... by the way, why am i managing this exploration ?! We´re one team ! "

"They soo sillry." Commander Shimada told his crew before responding to the question on the preset team channel "You want see, you fire flare. Simple strategy Thermal is on though and have gunner watching area. You want let know, we can light sky and mountain with flares."

"Unit leader, be advised that we have not seen anything. But nothing should be able to sense us, Our Angel ECM suite should protect us from being detected by sensors until we can detect them. But we shall turn off the bloodhound and go radio silent"


01:09 hrs

Shimada shook his head in dismay to his crew, then spoke to them in yet more Japanese curses and disgust before telling them his plan more plainly in their native tongue, "You all keep you eyes open. Okamoto keep one of those Savannahs painted on the auxiliary scope. Katayama run targeting computer and scans through the whole gambit at different intervals. You see anything out of the ordinary blast them with pulse fire. At least then we might catch a glimpse of them, between strobes."

Edited by Oni Storm, 10 November 2012 - 01:06 AM.

[guardian wolf]

John was topside when the call came out, and he checked his air, he had a little over two hours left. His shift was about to be over, but, he wasn't going to risk one of his men out here, better himself than them.

"Sarge, this is Jenkins, comin up,"

"Negative, stay inside, we got trouble incoming, I don't want to risk missing something in the switch, new timer, two hours from now, I'll come off shift,"

"Roger sir,"

John brought his AR up to his shoulder, when he spotted a flash, dead ahead, off to the north east. He brought up his range finder to his nightvision goggles, and the flash was gone. Dammit, someone was watching them, and John hated it when the enemy was tracking them, not the other way around. He switched to team comm and directed it towards the lead battlemech.

"This is John, requesting permission to take a small fire team up to investigate that flash, I spotted it too,"

"You thinking what I'm thinking Sarge?"

"This just got interesting, stay hot, Jenkins your topside on the APC, Wilson your with me, any other volunteers we wait for the go ahead, then follow me,"

[ChaosGrinder]

" Leave it, i´ve no idea what that was. Keep your boys together, save your air, i´m cutting mine to 50%, i´m not sure if we can refill at the base, so save some for later. "

Skyfall, desert plains
3:05AM

The towering blackish brown rocks of the mountains came closer and closer, sending their looming shadows as a dim forecast of what would await them once the group would have reached their mighty foothills of red sand.

A clear, dark, stardotted sky gave the whole landscame something eerie. It was dark but the stars and the moons flooded the barren sands with a pale, white light, makin the bagage visible for a long way.

Pepper felt uncomfortable. The light she had seen hours before didn´t return but she felt watched. She started to slip around in her sealed rubbersuit, a shiver ran down her spine.

Suddently, as they passed the hilltop of one of the sanddunes making the foothills of the mountaing range, the structure that made the base was visible afield.

Breathing a bit heavy under her mask she turned on the comm. " We´re almost there. Looks like they´ve closed. And i hoped for a hot shower and a comfy bed. Seems like this has to wait. What am i wearing my suit for ... "

As they closed the distance between them and the station, more and more things where visible. The base had a u-like shape, hugging into the side of the mountain, where the mountains carved in to make a small, wind-shielded valley. On the left side of the station was something that looked like a lookout- or airfield tower. from there the structure made it´s way around the small basin, behind the tower was some sort of hangar, though the door was closed. From that, the structure got bigger to thw what seemed to be the main living part, as it was mostly made of huge windows. Ontop of that where measuring instruments, radars and antennas. Amidst the u that made the complex was a sandy landing pad on which a what seemed to be a modified Ares Craft was landed.

" Watch out around here. This seems dead, i won´t even try to ping them via comm. We need to find our way inside. " Pepper announced and slowed down. " Better dress warm, this looks f*cking cold out there ... -32°C at a wind speed of under 1m/s. At least no shockfreezing. . . Doesn´t help it, we need to get in there. Maybe soneone´s still at home."

With those words she powered down besides the Craft and prepared for the freezing cold. Her latex suit alone wouldn´t shield her from the cold so she slipped into a onepiece, fur-lined Arctic-conditions-suit, unplugged her mask that also served as her Neurohelm, replugged it to the portable airtank, souldered said tank and opened th cockpit airlock. With a swoosh the cold atmosphere rushed in, sucking the warmth out of the cockpit within seconds. She climbed out and closed the hatch again. It was dead silent. She listened to her own breath, as the air flowed through the mask and to her heart beating heavy. This place had something eerie, deserted. As if this base wasn´t in use for decades. Slowly she descended from her mech until she had solid ground beneath her feet.

" Allright, gather here, we´ll see, what we can find", she said with short gasps and waved her hand. She had cut down her air to 40% to save enough if there shouldn´t be some opportunity to refresh it soon.
"Keep the lights out if possible. I don´t know if someone´s watching out for us and we don´t need to draw more attention than necessary. "

[guardian wolf]

Skyfall, desert plains
3:09AM

Chris recieved the call, and mumbled to himself something along the lines of 'miserable ****'eads will get us all killed'. He then saw the base, and it looked like something right of a horror vid. The lights were out, place looked so quiet, if somebody would've coughed, it would've would have sounded like a grenade going off. Then Wilson cracked a joke that put it better into perspective.

"So ******* quiet you hear a mouse fart at 300 yards,"

"Can it Wilson," barked Darman

Chris looked through the rangefinder, and spotted the mech that powering down nearby an entrance. The comm chatter indicated that they were were now going to try to effect entry, and if anything, top off their air. Chris smacked the top hatch as a sign it was time to go. Chris then spoke through his SC.

"Marines, disembark, I want an entry into that building now,"

It took about five minutes for the air to switch from the oxygen to go to the reserves, and to venting the outside atmosphere into the cargo bay. Chris heard the seals pop, and then the hatch opened. His marines broke outside running, and immediately got into a tactical formation. Chris signalled the motley group forward, and they advanced swiftly to the mech. Chris called out to the figure climbing down the mech on team com.

"Hey, we're moving inside, Wilson, find an airlock,"

"Yes sir,"

They scanned the side of the complex next to them, and found one nearby. Wilson took out his PDA, and attached a cord to the outer linking system. The PDA scanned the nearby hardware, and sent a ping to the system, not only did the system respond, the seals on the door popped.

"Sir...."

The men reacted within half a second, snapping their weapons and training them on the inside of the chamber. It was dark, and the men snapped on flashlights to illiminate the space. Chris reached up and snapped his helmet light on. They quickly sweeped the room, and Chris motioned for Wilson to move next to him.

"What's your thought on this so far?"

"Too easy Sarge, something's up,"

"Get ready to seal it off," Darman called out

[pinsndneedles]

Skyfall, desert plains
3:10 AM

Wilson dropped down from the 'Mech as the call went out to disembark and prepare to move into the base. Firing his jumpjets he brought the suit to a soft landing on the desert sands, stretching a bit and getting his bearings. A quick diagnostic showed all the suit's systems working correctly, all the seals intact and his air supply more than adequate, nonetheless he cycled the machinegun slung under each arn, watching to make sure they ejected both the links and the casings properly. Wouldn't do to have a jam right at the start of an operation.

He changed over to thermal and watched as the marines piled out of the APC, calling their attentions to the pilot of the Omen and moving to the entrance of the base. Wilson took his time to move in that direction. He wasn't seeing anything but their own forces on his sensors and thermal was mostly a was of cool blues, the only heat signatures their own troops. Once the marines reported the all-clear he moved into the room, machineguns up and ready.

He opened the public freq before speaking, "Not that I don't trust ya'll, but I think it might be a sight more efficient for those of us in the armor to go first. We tend to take a bit more kindly to bullets, if ya get my drift."

He moved through the marine formation and up to the door on the other side of the airlock, into the compound. Near the top a red light glowed, indicating the toxic atmosphere outside the airlock and that the inner door would be locked. Luckily the hinges were on the other side, and while the bolts that kept the door locked would doubtless have kept it secured from normal infantry battle armor was an entirely different beast.

Stepping a few metres back, Wilson looked around at those in the airlock, "Ya'll might want to take a few steps back." As they cleared back a ways he removed his rifle from its place on his back, took a running start at the door, fired his jumpjets and spun. The crash of armor on metal, overwhelmed the sound of the locking mechanism popping free as it encounted a force well past what it had been intended to stop, sending the door swinging wide open.

Wilson hopped off the floor and leveled the machineguns, scanning the room with his thermals. Ignoring the alarm that had started wailing at the breached seal, he slowly moved into the room beyond the airlock, sweeping across all he could see, searching for any form of heat signature.

"Aint no one been in this place for a while," he called over the comms, "cold and empty as the grave in here. I'm not seeing no movement or heat signatures at all, not even residual ones. I'd say ya'll can come on in and we can get to searching."

Edited by Brother Grim, 24 November 2012 - 11:27 AM.

[ChaosGrinder]

Skyfall, desert plains
3:10 AM

" So you tw*t just broke the airlock. There would´ve been a so called manual function", Pepper said pointing at the manual switch to pull open the hatch. This was counterproductive, just in case someone would be around and hostile.

The base was dead silent, dark and cold. She could almost feel the cold, stale air when she moved around, grasping for her. From the airlock she moved on to the camber behind. It measured about 6x8m, the walls where lined with lockers and weapon racks.

Weapon racks ? This was a civil research station. " Why guns in a civil base ? This doesn´t sound right... "

The door to the hangar was open and from the huge, glass-paned door a dim starlight dipped the scene in a horror-like atmosphere. She looked around. Lots of tools, a crane, big enough to lift a Warhammer was installed and at the back end of the Hangar where storage racks filled with repair equipment.

" This looks daaaaaamn nice here", she said appreciative.

" Heyoooo, a map of the base ! This is what we need. " She gathered everyone around a working table filled with tools and bolts, where a layout of the base lay.

" I´d say time for a plan. This isn´t really working out if we won´t split up. " She puilled of her breathing mask and turned off the oxygen. The air was cold and stale, it felt used and didn´t really satisfy her lungs need for oxygen. " Close the airlock people. "

Returning to the table she pointed at the map. " I need everyone who´s a bit skilled in tech to work on the generator. Without power this isn´t going to work out. One or two of you could peek around the base and look for any evidence of what happened to the ... scientists. maybe we should check the labs if there´s something dangerous around, we should know about. Once power´s up again we should refresh the air in here, i don´t wanna suffocate and maybe see if we can loot any research data."

With a look around she asked " Any questions or concerns ? "

[guardian wolf]

Chris overlooked the map, and noted the location of several key points. One, the generator room, and two, security center. The generator room would get all primary power systems online, and the security center would give them access to everything they would need. That, and it would give them footage as to what in the h*ll happened. He looked across the map, and then noticed something about the base, two of the rooms were unmarked, and not just some small janitor's offices either, these were quite large.

"Alright, I'll have Wilson, and Darman, head for the generator room. The rest of my squad will head to the security room, to get us access to the base. Wilson, as soon as you get those generators going, I want you to head down to our position, then Darman, Scorch and I will head to this room, and see if we can't find the life support systems. Is that okay with you boss?"

[Oni Storm]

The base was dead silent, dark and cold. She could almost feel the cold, stale air when she moved around, grasping for her. From the airlock she moved on to the camber behind. It measured about 6x8m, the walls where lined with lockers and weapon racks.

Weapon racks ? This was a civil research station. " Why guns in a civil base ? This doesn´t sound right... "

The door to the hangar was open and from the huge, glass-paned door a dim starlight dipped the scene in a horror-like atmosphere. She looked around. Lots of tools, a crane, big enough to lift a Warhammer was installed and at the back end of the Hangar where storage racks filled with repair equipment.

The "Paradise" and crew came through to the hangar from around the outside slowly and took up a defense stature in the back corner of the bay well behind and to the left of the crane. Shimada popped his the hatch and he and Okamoto immediately jumped down and headed over to the lockers as Katayama stayed focused on the targeting computers and swung the turret back and forth from right to left. Kikuchiyo quickly changed out the load of the autocannons to a shrapnel followed by a slug in the left and the reverse for it's opposite's setup.

Meanwhile Comm Officer Shichirōji climbed through the lower hatch and quickly secured her vibro-katana to her waist, before beginning the arduous task of climbing to the crane's controls, for a better vantage and to see if they still worked.

Hayashida slide out of the top turret slowly and deliberately with a little wiggle of her hinnie as she stood and jumped down clear of the tank.

Kyūzō Milton appeared next, grinning from ear to ear as he followed behind her, popping his head from the hole mere seconds after Hayashida was clear. Then worked for the next couple of minutes to get himself out and clear, before joining Hayashida in gathering up what tools and patches of armor they could to store away in the cargo bay and external compartments aboard the mighty tank.

Edited by Oni Storm, 25 November 2012 - 12:21 PM.