The Sol War: 2065 Part II

[Inspectre]

/ooc Thank you all for your patience as I've finished up everything. For the most part, everything is indeed finished, although there are a few things that I would like to add/improve. Also, I may take the liberty of adding this and that as the thread continues. Now, on with the show. ooc/

Note: Anyone can join at any time. Feel free to post your character, and I'll weave you into the story somehow.


The year is 2065. For 25 years the Sol Commonwealth had been the undisputed governing body for the entire Sol System. It was formed after the Wars of 2030, when mankind finally realized that it was on the brink of self-inflicted extinction. Many nations turned control of their militaries to the newly formed Sol Commonwealth, and by 2042 the countries that resisted the new world government were completely defeated. Since that time, the SC had never been required to fight more than minor police actions . . . until now.

The Majestic Corporation, the massive system-spanning WAVE manufacturer, has suddenly declared war against the Sol Commonwealth. Within hours all organized resistance on Earth was crushed as a large Majestic fleet swept aside the defending Commonwealth fleet. The scattered remnants of the Commonwealth fleet are now desperately trying to reorganize as the entire Solar System becomes a dangerous place. Majestic units lurk everywhere, even beyond the sheltering Asteroid Belt. But the Sol War has just begun . . .

You are a member of the 52nd Mixed Division, stationed aboard the Commonwealth Battlecruiser Illustrious. The 52nd was recently formed, and consists of WAVEs, gunships, and powered infantry operating in harmony. That’s the idea, anyway, but it has never worked before. If you want to start a new character, these are your choices:


WAVE - Stands for Walking Attack Vehicle Enhanced. These are mech-like machines, and are the ultimate weapons of the mid-21st century. Their versatility makes them effective in any situation.

Gunship - A cross between helicopters and fighters. These craft rule the skies as well as outer space in the 21st century.

Powered Armor- Not really a machine, as it is a suit of armor for infantry. This allows infantry to finally have a decent chance of survival in combat, but they are still likely to lose in a direct confrontation with a WAVE or gunship.

Starship Captain – Commander of one of the smaller escort ships for the Illustrious. While you are limited to only space combat, in general you will have plenty to do as you lead your crew against the Majestic fleet. A limited number available, and you will have to speak with me beforehand (I will need to add a starship section to the RPer store as well.)


Character Creation

Most of the story will be told through the eyes of Nick Andrews, a WAVE Rider, or WAVE pilot, in the 52nd. Everyone may create a new character. However, returning veterans may choose to continue with their current character.

For new characters, all that is required is a name, basic personal history, and which of the above four machines the character pilots/commands (as well as anything else you'd like to add to your character ). Note: All characters are human.

Ok, that's it. Other parts of the thread will be posted shortly.

Returning characters:

Jennifer "Lady Hawk" Gonzalez – (LH’s char) The daughter of a famous WAVE Rider, Jennifer always pushes herself to do her best. A former WAVE Rider in the NYPD, Jennifer has escaped the city and is plotting rebellion against the new Majestic authority.


Hannibal – (Hannibal377’s character) A gunship pilot for the CDF. Helped organize several shattered squadrons of Defense Force into a decent fighting force that helped cover the retreat from Earth. Now part of the 52nd Mixed Division.


Paul "Draco" Hewitt – (Hewitt’s char) A civilian employee at New York City’s spaceport. Escaped from Earth while piloting an old-model WAVE that he had purchased. He now is a WAVE Rider for the 52nd Mixed Division.


Peter 'PK' King – (Planetkiller II’s char) A civilian starship captain who had the bad luck to be at New York spaceport the day of the attack. Offering his services to the Commonwealth, he helped many Commonwealth troops escape Earth onboard his vessel. Knows how to pilot a WAVE, and is currently a member of the 52nd Mixed Division.

Ryon "(callsign) Dragon" McCright – (Ryon’s char) A gunship pilot from the CDF’s base in Manhattan. He survived the bombardment of the Manhattan base by having the luck of being on patrol at the time. Having fought his way to the spaceport, he escapes Earth and joins the 11th Battlegroup as a gunship pilot for the 52nd Mixed Division.


James Hunter – (James Hunter’s char) A civilian starship captain who loans his cargo space to the fleeing masses of civilians and Commonwealth personnel. Is suspected of playing a part in the assassination of the Senior Air Controller at New York City spaceport. ( ) Has currently joined the 52nd Mixed Division as part of its space-force assets.

Hudre – (Hudre’s char) A WAVE Rider of the CDF’s Manhattan base. Also escapes destruction by being out on patrol at the time. Has since managed to escape Earth and join the 52nd Mixed Division as a WAVE Rider.


Lt. Jin "Squish" Saotome – (Immortal Squish’s char) A powered infantryman in the CDF, nicknamed “Squish” for his disastrous duel with a WAVE. Fortunately he recovered from his injuries, and today is serving as part of the 52nd Mixed Division’s Powered Armor regiment.


No Dachi/ Ishide Morataki – (ND’s char) A starship captain who once was a famous WAVE Rider. Commanded the first unit of WAVs during the Majestic presentation of the WAV’s capabilities to the Commonwealth. Left Majestic after forced to obliterate a defenseless village.


Flapjack – (flapjack’s char) A gunship pilot formerly in the NYPD, now in the 52nd Mixed Division. Although nothing could have been done to stop the president’s assassination, he must still deal with the stigma of having the chance to possibly stop the Majestic Special Force sniper who pulled the trigger.


Dave "Crazyboy" Gilvenko – (Crazy’s Char) A former gunship pilot of the NYPD, now CDF. He joined the 52nd Mixed Division to get revenge on Majestic, but also because it was something to do.


Warren "Fluffie (the Evil One)" Gosh – (Fluffie’s char) A member of the 52nd Mixed Division’s Powered Armor Regiment. He despises Majestic because of everything Majestic has taken away from him: his relatively peaceful life, his favorite bike, and his family.


David Antony Selby – (David91’s char) One of the older members of the 52nd Mixed Division, he is one of the voices of experience within the WAVE Rider Regiment. However, he must still work his way up through the ranks like everyone else, and thus his suggestions are sometimes (unfortunately) ignored.


Takezawa Oshi – (Psychosis’s char) A somewhat neurotic member of the NYPD, his rather peaceful, solitary life was destroyed by Majestic. Thus, he will have his revenge on Majestic. For a start, he has joined the 52nd Mixed Division’s Powered Armor regiment.


Paul "Terminator" Zukov – (Terra’s char) A gunship pilot for the NYPD turned CDF, Paul desires to defend the ideals of the Commonwealth by fighting in the 52nd Mixed Division.

[Inspectre]

TSW Website: http://wave2065.tripod.com/

This will be updated soon.

Once you have chosen your machine, you will have to select which model within that catagory you want to pilot, and then what equipment you are going to put on it. The money for this thread will be known as Requisition points, or Req points for short. You will earn additional points for completing mission objectives, and will spend those points how you like for new models, better weapons, in-battle repairs, etc.

All RPers start with 20,000 Requisition points.

If you don't want the agrivation of shifting through all the choices, give me a PM or post that here and I'll make something up for you.


Note: Armor: Left Arm/Right Arm/Torso/Right Leg/Left Leg/Head

Slots: Left Arm/Right Arm/Torso/Left Shoulder/Right Shoulder/Head


Also, if you are designing your own vehicle, please indicate which hand is holding which weapon, where each piece of equipment is, etc.

[Inspectre]

Models

Name: Chickenhawk
Class: Recon
Height: 14m
Mass: 30 tons
Armor: 30/30/40/va/va/25
Top Speed: 150kph
Boosters: 60 seconds
Slots: 1/1/1/1/3/1/1/2
Summary: The Chickenhawk is an extremely unusual WAVE. The first, and most noticeable difference, is the backward-canted legs that make this WAVE look like a gigantic bird of some sort. The other main difference is the fact that the Chickenhawk has no arms, but instead has a series of “pods” that can be mounted in place to serve as weapon turrets.
Cost: 9000


Name: Tornado
Class: Light
Height: 18m
Mass: 45 tons
Armor: 45/45/50/40/40/25
Top Speed: 126 kph
Boosters: 45 seconds
Slots: 4/4/2/2/4/1/1/1
Summary: The Tornado is a favorite amongst Commonwealth Wave Riders, due to its high speed and thick (for its class) armor plating around the ****pit.
Cost: 10000


Name: Heron
Class: Light
Height: 21m
Mass: 55 tons
Armor: 55/55/65/45/45/20
Top Speed: 112 kph
Boosters: 45 seconds
Slots: 4/4/3/3/5/1/1/2
Summary: The Heron is more of a recon WAVE then a front-line one. However, the Heron can still pack enough of a punch to play an active part in a battle, and the increased extra equipment room makes the Heron almost the equal of a Shogun Mk II
Cost: 11000


Name: Shogun Mk II
Class: Medium
Height: 17m
Mass: 70 tons
Armor: 65/65/80/60/60/30
Top Speed: 98 kph
Boosters: 30 seconds
Slots: 5/5/4/4/3/1/1/1
Summary: The Shogun is built with heavy combat in mind. It can be equipped with heavy weapons and armor without sacrificing too much speed. However, the Shogun’s extra equipment package is more limited.
Cost: 14000


Name: Gunslinger
Manufacturer: Fultex
Class: Medium
Height: 16 m
Mass: 80 tons
Armor: 65/65/75/70/60/45
Top Speed: 79kph
Boosters: 30 seconds
Slots: 6/4/4/4/5/1/1/2
Primary Allegiance: Commonwealth
Summary: The Gunslinger is based around the concept of having a very, VERY large gun in the left arm. Thus, the left arm has greater slots and armor than the right.
Cost: 17500


Name: Linebacker
Class: Melee
Height: 18m
Mass: 95 tons
Armor: 65/65/80/60/60/35
Top Speed: 61 kph
Boosters: 25 seconds
Slots: 5/5/3/3/5/2/2/1
Summary: The Linebacker is Winstar Inc.’s only WAVE model. It is rather slow and outdated, but the WAVE can take a beating from long range as well as up close, resulting in some WAVE Riders calling it “Lineholder” instead.
Cost: 16000


Name: Legionnaire
Class: Heavy
Height: 21 m
Mass: 150 tons
Armor: 70/70/95/75/75/45
Top Speed: 53 kph
Boosters: 20 seconds
Slots: 8/8/5/5/10/3/3/3
Summary: The Legionnaire is an old design, but it is still a formidable sight on the battlefield. Its plodding pace in comparison to the newest WAVE models has earned it the nickname “Turtle”. This is especially apt, considering the Legionnaire makes up for speed with armor . . . lots of it, especially around the ****pit.
Cost: 21000


Name: Lancer
Class: Command
Height: 21 m
Mass: 125 tons
Armor: 65/65/80/65/65/40
Top Speed: 86 kph
Boosters: 35 seconds
Slots: 5/5/4/4/5/2/2/3
Summary: The Lancer is primarily used as a command WAVE, as it provides an ideal amount of protection and speed while still allowing for advanced communication and sensor systems to be added.
Cost: 19000


Name: Bombardier
Class: Artillery
Height: 25 m
Mass: 110 tons
Armor: 85/85/95/90/90/50
Top Speed: 49 kph
Boosters: 25 seconds
Slots: 3/3/4/4/8/7/7/3
Summary: The Bombardier is an ancient design. Its primary function is to serve as a missile/artillery unit, staying back from the fighting while hammering the enemy from long-range. This is about the only proper use for this model, as its wadding speed makes it an easy target for fast-moving WAVEs close in. Despite its formidable armor and weaponry, it’s extremely rare to see a Bombardier fighting in the front lines, especially without escort.
Cost: 20000


Weapons

Pistols

Name: X-4
Type: Pistol
Damage: 1 x 8
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 5
Slots: 3
Cost: 1500

Name: P-18
Type: Pistol
Damage: 1 x 9
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 3
Cost: 2500

Machine Guns

Name: Ingstan SMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 4
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 4000

Name: Ingstan HMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 6
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 7500

Rifles

Name: Ingstan Longbow
Type: Rifle
Damage: 1 x 17
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 5
Cost: 4000

Name: Fultex Lance
Type: Rifle
Damage: 1 x 27
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 5
Cost: 7000

Shotguns

Name: Kalvex Leveler
Type: Shotgun
Damage: 7 x 3
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 4
Slots: 4
Cost: 3500

Name: Fultex SG 65
Type: Shotgun
Damage: 8 x 4
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 4
Slots: 4
Cost: 7500

Flamethrower

Name: Kalvex Inferno
Type: Flamethrower
Damage: 9 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 5
Slots: 4
Cost: 5000

Name: Kalvex Blaze
Type: Flamethrower
Damage: 14 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 5
Slots: 4
Cost: 8500

Weapon Pods – for the Chickenhawk WAVE only, uses both arm slots automatically

Name: Rifle Pod
Type: Rifle
Damage: 2 x 11
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 1
Cost: 5000

Name: MG Pod
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 8 x 3
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 1
Cost: 6500

Name: Flame Pod
Type: Flamethrower
Damage: 13 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 5
Slots: 1
Cost: 7500

Swords

Name: DD2 Claymore
Type: Sword
Damage: 15
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2000

Name: DD2 Falchion
Type: Sword
Damage: 24
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 4000

Axe

Name: DD2 Battleaxe
Type: Axe
Damage: 20
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2500

Name: DD2 Halberd
Type: Axe
Damage: 28
Range: 2
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 5
Cost: 4500

Fist

Name: DD2 Knuckles
Type: Fist
Damage: 12
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 3
Cost: 1750

Name: DD2 Spikes
Type: Fist
Damage: 20
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 3
Cost: 4000

Missiles

Name: Tidan 3X
Type: Missile Launcher
Damage: 1 x 20
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 2
Slots: 3
Cost: 4000

Name: Tidan 7X
Type: Missile Launcher
Damage: 1 x 30
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 4
Slots: 4
Cost: 6000

Name: Tidan 12X
Type: Missile Launcher
Damage: 1 x 45
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 4
Slots: 6
Cost: 13500

Rockets

Name: ZLX-20
Type: Rocket Launcher
Damage: 1 x 5
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 20
Slots: 2
Cost: 3000

Name: ZLX-40
Type: Rocket Launcher
Damage: 1 x 5
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 40
Slots: 3
Cost: 4500

Name: ZLX-60
Type: Rocket Launcher
Damage: 1 x 5
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 60
Slots: 4
Cost: 6500

Shields

Name: W – 6 Buckler
Type: Shield
Damage: 30 – if shield is destroyed, it is gone for good
Range: N/A
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 2
Cost: 4000

Name: W – 8 Guardian
Type: Shield
Damage: 55
Range: N/A
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 8500

Equipment

Armor Plating (Please specify which area gets the armor)

Steel Plating: Cheap armor that adds 2.5 armor rating onto the area it is installed in
Slots: 1
Cost: 500

Extra Armor Plating: Adds 5 armor rating onto the area that it is installed in
Slots: 1
Cost: 1500 (due to shortages, the cost is higher than usual)

Computers

Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. A must-have.
Slots: 1
Cost: 1000

Tactical Computer: Contains a database of known CDF and Majestic unit types. Can display this information, including the status of the current target.
Slots: 2
Cost: 2000

Encryption Breaker: A high-speed number cracker that occasionally allows users to pick up enemy channels.
Slots: 1
Cost: 7500

Upgrades

Sensors Upgrade 1: Upgrades your basic sensor suite, giving better resolution and detection for magnetic resolution and light amplification systems.
Slots: 3
Cost: 3000

Boosters Upgrade 1: Upgrades your boosters, adding five seconds onto their burn time before needing to recharge.
Slots: 2
Cost: 1500

Engine Upgrade 1: Upgrades your fusion engine, adding 10 more kph onto your WAVE’s top speed.
Slots: 1
Cost: 7500

[Inspectre]

Models


Name: TX – 45 Nighthawk
Manufacturer: Textech
Length: 5m
Mass: 30 tons
Armor: 70/60/65/65/20
Top Speed: 279 kph
Afterburners: 45 seconds
Slots: 12
Summary: The Nighthawk is generally used on scouting missions, using its fast speed to avoid AA fire while gathering reconnaissance.
Cost: 10000

Name: TX – 32 Mosquito
Class: Light Fighter
Length: 4m
Mass: 35 tons
Armor: 75/70/65/65/25
Top Speed: 245 kph
Afterburners: 45 seconds
Slots: 10
Summary: While the Mosquito has light armor, it does have a decent top speed, good sensor package, and low cost. Most pilots prefer flying something heavier, however.
Cost: 8000

Name: I – 4b Wasp
Class: Interceptor
Length: 5m
Mass: 30 tons
Armor: 85/75/80/80/30
Top Speed: 286 kph
Afterburners: 50 seconds
Slots: 14
Summary: The Wasp is the successor to the Foxtrot, a gunship that provided the financial foundation for Veritech to expand beyond the Interceptor market. The Wasp carries heavier armor and yet is faster than its predecessor.
Cost: 14000


Name: TX – 72 Shrike
Manufacturer: Textech
Class: Medium Fighter
Length: 8m
Mass: 40 tons
Armor: 80/70/75/75/25
Top Speed: 214 kph
Afterburners: 35 seconds
Slots: 15
Summary: The Shrike is designed with a bird-of-prey philosophy: sweep in fast and kill fast.
Cost: 12000


Name: AR – 22 Raptor
Manufacturer: Argust Industries
Class: Heavy Fighter
Length: 10m
Mass: 55 tons
Armor: 90/75/80/80/35
Top Speed: 187 kph
Afterburners: 20 seconds
Slots: 20
Summary: The Raptor is an old model heavy fighter. While it has strong frontal armor, it can quickly get into trouble once enemy gunships slip in behind.
Cost: 18000

Name: X- 26 Battle Axe
Class: Bomber
Length: 11m
Mass: 65 tons
Armor: 110/100/105/105/40
Top Speed: 136 kph
Afterburners: 10 seconds
Slots: 22
Summary: The Battle Axe is Majestic’s first venture into gunships, and is a solid entry model. The bomber’s armor has been equalized between all four quadrants, creating a gunship that can defend itself against an attacker coming in from any direction.
Cost: 17000

Weapons

Guns

Name: Ingstan HMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 3 x 3
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 2
Cost: 1500

Name: Ingstan Shrieker
Type: Gatling gun
Damage: 10 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 2500

Name: Ingstan Banshee
Type: Gatling gun
Damage: 15 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 6
Cost: 6500

Cannons

Name: Ingstan Crossbow
Type: Cannon
Damage: 1 x 15
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 5
Cost: 3000

Name: Ingstan Musket
Type: Cannon
Damage: 1 x 23
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 6
Cost: 6500

Rockets

Name: Needler 15
Type: Rockets
Damage: 1 x 5
Range: 7
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 15
Slots: 2
Cost: 2000

Name: Needler 35
Type: Rockets
Damage: 1 x 5
Range: 7
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 35
Slots: 3
Cost: 3500

Missiles

Name: Harpoon
Type: Missiles
Damage: 1 x 25
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 2
Shots: 10
Slots: 4
Cost: 4500

Name: Ballista
Type: Missiles
Damage: 1 x 55
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 2
Shots: 8
Slots: 5
Cost: 7500

Torpedoes

Name: Torpedo Launcher (can only be installed on bombers)
Type: Torpedo
Damage: 1 x 125
Range: 5
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 4
Slots: 8
Cost: 7500

Equipment

Armor Plating (Please specify which area gets the armor)

Steel Plating: Cheap armor that adds 2.5 armor rating onto the area it is installed in
Slots: 1
Cost: 500

Extra Armor Plating: Adds 5 armor rating onto the area that it is installed in
Slots: 1
Cost: 1500 (due to shortages, the cost is higher than usual)

Computers

Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. A must-have.
Slots: 1
Cost: 1000

Tactical Computer: Contains a database of known CDF and Majestic unit types. Can display this information, including the status of the current target.
Slots: 2
Cost: 2000

Encryption Breaker: A high-speed number cracker that occasionally allows users to pick up enemy channels.
Slots: 1
Cost: 7500

Upgrades

Lateral thrusters: Increases maneuverability
Slots: 3
Cost: 4000

Ammo Bin: Adds 10% ammunition to heavy weapons. Possible risk of accidental detonation, causing extreme damage.
Slots: 4
Cost: 2500

Chaff Pod: Contains a group of fifteen chaff pods, able to possibly divert a wide range of missile types.
Slots: 1
Cost: 1500

Sensors Upgrade 1: Upgrades your basic sensor suite, giving better resolution and detection for magnetic resolution and light amplification systems.
Slots: 3
Cost: 3000

Afterburners Upgrade 1: Upgrades your afterburners, adding five seconds onto their burn time before needing to recharge.
Slots: 2
Cost: 2000

Engine Upgrade 1: Upgrades your fusion engine, adding 10 kph onto your gunship’s top speed.
Slots: 1
Cost: 7500

[Inspectre]

Models

Note: Infantry can carry their weapons with two hands, thus the first value of the slots rating is both hands combined. Any weapon that takes up more than 50% of that value is a two handed weapon.


Name: Berserker Suit
Class: Melee
Armor: 15/15/20/12/12/9
Top Speed: 12 kph
Jump Jets: None
Slots: 6/3/3/2/1/1/1
Summary: The Berserker is one of the first suits of armor to include speed boosters for the legs. This allow a person to run harder and faster than usual, especially accounting for the heaviness of the armor.
Cost: 13000


Name: Ranger Suit
Class: Scout
Armor: 12/12/17/10/10/8
Top Speed: 8 kph
Jump Jets: None
Slots: 4/3/3/5/1/1/2
Summary: The Ranger is a suit of lightweight armor designed to be worn without the need for mechanized components. While this dramatically reduces the Ranger Suit’s capabilities in combat, it does reduce the emissions that appear on most sensors, allowing a Ranger to be an effective scout.
Cost: 9000


Name: Titan Suit
Class: Powered Armor
Armor: 17/17/22/15/15/12
Top Speed: 12 kph
Jump Jets: None
Slots: 8/3/3/4/1/1/2
Summary: The Titan is a suit fairly typical of powered armor: enough armor to protect the user from glancing blows or shrapnel, but incapable of taking heavy abuse when compared to a WAVE.
Cost: 16000


Name: Birdman Suit
Class: Jump
Armor: 18/18/27/16/16/12
Top Speed: 15 kph
Jump Jets: 15 seconds
Slots: 8/4/4/4/2/2/3
Summary: The Birdman is the first suit of armor to include boosters. With boosters mounted in the legs and back, the jump jets allow a user to leap great distances with minimal effort.
Cost: 24000 (New Majestic model, thus a shortage)


Weapons

Pistols

Name: .55 Caliber
Type: Pistol
Damage: 1 x 4
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 5
Slots: 2
Cost: 4000

Name: 13mm
Type: Pistol
Damage: 1 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 5
Slots: 2
Cost: 1500

Shotguns

Name: 10-Gauge
Type: Shotgun
Damage: 7 x 1
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 4
Slots: 4
Cost: 2500

Name: SG 14
Type: Shotgun
Damage: 14 x 1
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 4
Slots: 5
Cost: 5500

Rifles

Name: R-12
Type: Rifle
Damage: 1 x 5
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 4
Cost: 4000

Name: X-5
Type: Rifle
Damage: 1 x 11
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 6
Cost: 9500

Machine Guns

Name: Kalvex SMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 6 x 1
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 3
Cost: 3500

Name: Kalvex HMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 5
Cost: 7500

Mini-guns

Name: Instan Shrieker (cut-down version)
Type: Mini-gun
Damage: 18 x 1
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 8
Cost: 10500

Grenade launchers

Name: TY – 8
Type: Grenade Launcher
Damage: 1 x 15
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 8
Slots: 6
Cost: 5000

Name: TY – 12
Type: Grenade Launcher
Damage: 1 x 24
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 6
Slots: 8
Cost: 9500

Flamethrowers

Name: Kalvex Blaze
Type: Flamethrower
Damage: 8 x 1
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 2
Slots: 5
Cost: 4500

Rocket Launchers

Name: TR – 4
Type: Rocket Launcher
Damage: 1 x 22
Shots: 6
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 1
Slots: 8
Cost: 6500

Missile Launchers

Name: TM – 6
Type: Grenade Launcher
Damage: 1 x 35
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 4
Slots: 8
Cost: 9500

Knives

Name: Kalvex Combat Knife (can be thrown)
Type: Knife
Damage: 1 x 6
Range: 0
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 1
Cost: 1000

Swords

Name: Kalvex Short Sword
Type: Sword
Damage: 1 x 10
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 3
Cost: 2500

Fists

Name: Kalvex Brass Knuckles
Type: Fist
Damage: 1 x 8
Range: 0
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 2
Cost: 1500

Axes

Name: Kalvex Hatchet
Type: Axe
Damage: 1 x 12
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 3
Cost: 3500

Batons

Name: Kalvex Baton
Type: Sword
Damage: 1 x 9
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 2
Cost: 2000

Shields

Name: Kalvex Buckler
Type: Shield
Damage: 15 (can absorb this much before completely destroyed – forever)
Range: N/A
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 1
Cost: 1500

Name: Kalvex Guardian
Type: Shield
Damage: 30 (can absorb this much before completely destroyed – forever)
Range: N/A
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 3
Cost: 2250


Equipment

Armor Plating (Please indicate which area you are installing this in)

Steel Plating – Add 1.5 armor rating onto area that it is added to.
Slots: 1
Cost: 500

Extra Armor Plating – Adds 3 armor rating onto area that it is added to.
Slots: 1
Cost: 1500 (cost is high due to shortages)

Computers

Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. Almost a must-have.
Slots: 2
Cost: 1000

Tactical Computer: Contains a database of known CDF and Majestic unit types. Can display this information, including the status of the current target.
Slots: 3
Cost: 2000

Encryption Breaker: A high-speed number cracker that occasionally allows users to pick up enemy channels.
Slots: 2
Cost: 7500

Upgrades

Sensors Upgrade 1: Upgrades your basic sensor suite, giving better resolution and detection for magnetic resolution and light amplification systems.
Slots: 2
Cost: 3000

Strength Enhancers 1: Boosters the strength of a soldier by adding extra artificial muscles to their suit.
Slots: 2
Cost: 5500

[Breezer]

Name: Breezer
Machine: Gunship
History: Breezer aquired the ship winning a bet with a rich friend. When the attacks occured, he quickly offered his services to the government, and was placed in the 52 mixed division

[Fluffie]

Warren "Fluffie (the Evil One)" Gosh - (Fluffie’s char) A member of the 52nd Mixed Division’s Powered Armor Regiment. He despises Majestic because of everything Majestic has taken away from him: his relatively peaceful life, his favorite bike, and his family.

Titan Suit, Kalvex SMG, 500 req points.

[Flaag]

Name: Triolus Harbinger
Machine: WAVE
History: all of his family had been in the air force, moving on as times changed, Triolus was the first to join the land based troops due to a fear of flying, but being shunned by his family onlt made him train harder.

[No Dachi]

No Dachi/ Ishide Morataki – (ND’s char) A starship captain who once was a famous WAVE Rider. Commanded the first unit of WAVs during the Majestic presentation of the WAV’s capabilities to the Commonwealth. Left Majestic after forced to obliterate a defenseless village.

^^That would be me^^

WAVE Model: Shogun Mk II (14,000 RP)
Armaments: Ingstan Longbow (4000 RP)
DD2 Claymore (2000 RP)

0 RP remaining.

[Hudre]

Hudre – (Hudre’s char) A WAVE Rider of the CDF’s Manhattan base. Also escapes destruction by being out on patrol at the time. Has since managed to escape Earth and join the 52nd Mixed Division as a WAVE Rider.


Can I have my old machine?

[Planetkiller II]

Peter 'PK' King – A civilian starship captain who had the bad luck to be at New York spaceport the day of the attack. Offering his services to the Commonwealth, he helped many Commonwealth troops escape Earth onboard his vessel. Knows how to pilot a WAVE, and is currently a member of the 52nd Mixed Division.



Do we keep our old equipment? If so, do we still get the 20000? When selling equipment, how much do you get for it?

[Dunin Hemm]

Name: Orlando Bernard Meade
Vehicle: AR – 22 Raptor
Armament: Needler 15
Description: Orlando Meade was born in Ireland in the year of 2033, but his family moved to Mars after six months. At the age of 24, Orlando had lost both his parents to cancer and realizing that he could not stand continuing working in the commercial bureau he joined the forces.
He is a heavy gunship pilot with little practical experience behind him, as he has never been sent out on any mission before. Back on Mars he has a girlfriend named Cali Jora.
Orlando Meade is a 32 years old caucasian, 5'7'' tall, weighs 165 lbs and has brown hair and a vandyke beard/moustache. His hair is cut short and combed back. When he is off duty he sports a pair of sunglasses; the lenses shaped like small disks and brass frames. His skin is pale and his eyes are gray. His build is of normal military cut; not too heavy, not too light.

[Inspectre]

Slots in gunships have been upped, due to a shortage of space available for weapons and equipment. However, there has also been a restriction placed on the number of slots that can be used for weapons. Also, most weapons have had their damage slightly downgraded in order to compensate for the sheer number of weapons RPer will eventually be able to mount. Here are the updated ones.


Name: TX – 45 Nighthawk
Manufacturer: Textech
Length: 5m
Mass: 30 tons
Armor: 70/60/65/65/20
Top Speed: 279 kph
Afterburners: 45 seconds
Slots: 20 – 10 of which may be used for weapons
Summary: The Nighthawk is generally used on scouting missions, using its fast speed to avoid AA fire while gathering reconnaissance.
Cost: 10000

Name: TX – 32 Mosquito
Class: Light Fighter
Length: 4m
Mass: 35 tons
Armor: 75/70/65/65/25
Top Speed: 245 kph
Afterburners: 45 seconds
Slots: 15 – 6 of which may be used for weapons
Summary: While the Mosquito has light armor, it does have a decent top speed, good sensor package, and low cost. Most pilots prefer flying something heavier, however.
Cost: 8000

Name: I – 4b Wasp
Class: Interceptor
Length: 5m
Mass: 30 tons
Armor: 85/75/80/80/30
Top Speed: 286 kph
Afterburners: 50 seconds
Slots: 27 – 14 of which may be used for weapons
Summary: The Wasp is the successor to the Foxtrot, a gunship that provided the financial foundation for Veritech to expand beyond the Interceptor market. The Wasp carries heavier armor and yet is faster than its predecessor.
Cost: 14000


Name: TX – 72 Shrike
Manufacturer: Textech
Class: Medium Fighter
Length: 8m
Mass: 40 tons
Armor: 80/70/75/75/25
Top Speed: 214 kph
Afterburners: 35 seconds
Slots: 24 – 12 of which may be used for weapons
Summary: The Shrike is designed with a bird-of-prey philosophy: sweep in fast and kill fast.
Cost: 12000


Name: AR – 22 Raptor
Manufacturer: Argust Industries
Class: Heavy Fighter
Length: 10m
Mass: 55 tons
Armor: 90/75/80/80/35
Top Speed: 187 kph
Afterburners: 20 seconds
Slots: 35 – 18 of which may be used for weapons
Summary: The Raptor is an old model heavy fighter. While it has strong frontal armor, it can quickly get into trouble once enemy gunships slip in behind.
Cost: 18000

Name: X- 26 Battle Axe
Class: Bomber
Length: 11m
Mass: 65 tons
Armor: 110/100/105/105/40
Top Speed: 136 kph
Afterburners: 10 seconds
Slots: 40 – 20 of which may be used for weapons
Summary: The Battle Axe is Majestic’s first venture into gunships, and is a solid entry model. The bomber’s armor has been equalized between all four quadrants, creating a gunship that can defend itself against an attacker coming in from any direction.
Cost: 17000

Weapons

Guns

Name: Ingstan HMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 3 x 2
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 2
Cost: 1500

Name: Ingstan Shrieker
Type: Gatling gun
Damage: 8 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 2500

Name: Ingstan Banshee
Type: Gatling gun
Damage: 11 x 2
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 6
Cost: 6500

Cannons

Name: Ingstan Crossbow
Type: Cannon
Damage: 1 x 15
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 5
Cost: 3000

Name: Ingstan Musket
Type: Cannon
Damage: 1 x 23
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 6
Cost: 6500

Rockets

Name: Needler 15
Type: Rockets
Damage: 1 x 3
Range: 7
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 15
Slots: 2
Cost: 2000

Name: Needler 35
Type: Rockets
Damage: 1 x 3
Range: 7
Firing Rate: 5
Shots: 35
Slots: 3
Cost: 3500

Missiles

Name: Harpoon
Type: Missiles
Damage: 1 x 20
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 2
Shots: 10
Slots: 4
Cost: 4500

Name: Ballista
Type: Missiles
Damage: 1 x 45
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 2
Shots: 8
Slots: 5
Cost: 7500

Torpedoes

Name: Torpedo Launcher (can only be installed on bombers)
Type: Torpedo
Damage: 1 x 125
Range: 5
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 4
Slots: 8
Cost: 7500

[Crazyboy]

Dave "Crazyboy" Gilvenko – (Crazy’s Char) A former gunship pilot of the NYPD, now CDF. He joined the 52nd Mixed Division to get revenge on Majestic, but also because it was something to do.

TX-45 Nighthawk (10,000)
2x Ingstan Crossbows (6,000) (10 Slots)
Targeting Computer (1,000) (1 Slot)
Tactical Computer (2,000) (2 Slots)
2x Steel Armour Plating (+5 Armour) (1,000) (2 Slots) (Cockpit area)

Money Left: 0
Slots Left: 5

[Inspectre]

/ooc This is just a post containning a short summary of the major events in TSW I. None of the RPer characters are mentionned, except for Nick Andrews. The reason for this is that the post is a short history of Majestic's attack, rather than everyone's actions. Mostly it's just for new RPers, or those of you vets that have forgotten some of this. ooc/


March 15th, 2065


The President of the Sol Commonwealth gives a speech . . .

President Jonas Keller – “Good afternoon, all of you. It feels rather chilly out here, so I'll try to keep it short so you won't freeze. 25 years....for 25 years the Sol Commonwealth has stood as a beacon for all humanity, a model of peace and unity. I was, and still am, very honored that I was elected two years ago to serve as its President. I will freely admit that I have made a few mistakes during my term, and the biggest one of these was in regard to Majestic. I tried negotiation, bargaining, and even threats to control them. All of them failed. The Majestic Corporation is determined to shatter the peaceful unity mankind has painfully created, and is unwilling to accept any alternative except complete control over the military hardware market. I will not allow that, because to do so would violate the principles of the Commonwealth, that every citizen has a right to produce any product they desire, and economically compete with others in the open market. The situation has remained as a stalemate for almost a year now, but one hour ago I received an ultimatum from Majestic's offices. It announces that the Majestic Corporation hereby secedes from the Sol Commonwealth, and that either the Commonwealth gives Majestic the entire planet of Mars to serve as their new seat of government, or they will take it by force. History has taught us that appeasement of an aggressor does not work, and I am sorry that I did not see that in time. Just as I am sorry about what I announce now: the Sol Commonwealth declares war on the Majestic Corporation, and denounces them as a rebelling state. I regret that it has come to this, and that the peace the Commonwealth has worked to achieve must now be broken. I pray that the war is short, but even if it isn't, we shall emerge victorious. We shall strike down these would-be tyrants. And we shall restore the peace after the war is over, and return to our mission of improving the quality of life for all mankind.”

There was a loud cheer from the crowd as the President ended his speech, and the President nodded his thanks and waved to the crowd. It was obviously a successful speech, and everyone was confident that the President would fulfill his promises, except . . . a second later, the President's head exploded. A scream tore itself from the lips of everyone in the crowd, and riot officers scanned the buildings for the sniper.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A declaration of war is accepted . . .

Meanwhile, a second figure appeared on top of the President's office, and threw a small ball down to the steps before disappearing as well. The small metal ball was a Holosphere, and a moment after it touched the ground it came to life, revealing the face of Cedric Winthrop, the CEO of Majestic.

"The Majestic Corporation accepts the Sol Commonwealth's declaration of war, and announces that all military personnel and equipment of the Sol Commonwealth will be targeted. I'd advise all citizens to return to your homes and wait, so that unnecessary bloodshed will not occur when we wrest control of Commonwealth holdings on Earth in oh . . . five minutes from now."

The image winked out, and the crowd scattered in terror, racing to get back to their homes and hide from the monsters that killed their President.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Sol War begins . . .

Fleet Admiral Sanders stared in hatred as he watched the carnage following the President's speech. "Lieutenant, tell all ships to prepare to repel a possible Majestic attack. If they want to commit suicide by attacking Earth, let's give it to them."

"Aye sir!"

The forty warships under the Admiral's Command powered up their engines, and the massive batteries of Earth Orbital came to life.

Several minutes passed, and then . . .

"Sir, I'm picking up several ships entering sensor range now . . . appears to be four Orion Gunboats." the sensor operator called.

"That's not much of an attack." the Admiral snorted, but then the operator recoiled from his station in horror.

"Sir! I'm picking up eleven new signatures, no thirty! Sixty!"

"WHAT!!! That's impossible. That number is over five times what Intelligence's worse-case estimate was!"

"NINETY!! Sir, we have ninety-six ships incoming, all classes!!"

The Admiral's jaw tightened as he gave the order. "Tell all ships to fire at will."

The first major battle of The Sol War, The First Battle of Earth, had begun.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Unthinkable Occurs . . .

“So you want my to mobilize all of our forces, is that correct General?” Captain Simon Walters asked the base commander, Lieutenant General Peter Veers. “Yes, I want you to start mobilizing all of our troops, to prepare for a possible invasion. I also want all units out of this base as soon as possible, in case they bombard the planet.” “Bombard Earth!!?” Walters laughed. “Most of our bases are near cities. They would never risk harming the civilian population by bombarding our military bases.”
Walters continued to walk towards the barracks to inform his men of their deployment orders when he looked up again. He saw an unusual sight: the clouds over the base were suddenly separating and forming a donut shape. That was very odd, unless . . .
Walters felt a knot form in his stomach as he realized what was happening….one of the ships in orbit had fired a primary beam down at the base! Veers had enough time to think The General was right., before the beam finished burning through the clouds, and left the parts of the base that survived burning.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in orbit . . .

“They just took out another of our bases sir.” The sensor operator confirmed, and Admiral Sanders sighed. With over twice the number of ships, Majestic could afford to have a few ships do nothing but blast away at Defense Force bases with their primary beams. As he watched on the monitor, a destroyer fired its primary beam down to Earth’s surface again with single-minded determination. “This battle is over.” Sanders announced, sighing. “And we have lost. But rather than throw away what remaining ships we have in a valiant but foolhardy gesture, I’m ordering a retreat. Inform Vice Admiral Simmons that he is in command now.” “But sir, what are you – “ “I’m going to stay here, and command this battle station until they blow it apart, or we run out of ammunition. And then I’m going to find some rocks.” There was a dry chuckle at the Admiral’s joke, but it did little to alleviate the depression that gripped the station’s crew; they all knew they were going to die. Suddenly an alarm whooped, and the security officer growled, “They’ve breached Deck 12. Looks like WAVEs and some powered infantry. Orders, Admiral?” “Let them come. We’ll take them with us to h*ll.” The Admiral commanded as he got out of his command chair, and walked over to a computer console. “This is Fleet Admiral Sanders. Activate self-destruct sequence . . . “

Five minutes later, Earth Orbital exploded, taking out two nearby destroyers and five gunboats, along with almost a company of WAVEs and powered infantry. The rest of the battered Commonwealth fleet used the explosion as a distraction while they escaped, leaving Earth to the enemy. None of the Majestic ships pursued, along they certainly could have. No, they were more interested in completing Phase 2 of the invasion. The Majestic gunships screamed down through the atmosphere to provide cover for the WAVE and infantry laden drop pods that were even now detaching from the Majestic ships.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Innocent Interference . . .

The two sides then stand motionless for a few moments, and then the silence is broken by the pilot of the Lich.
"I am Colonel Alexander Driscoll, commander of the Omega Letters. I have come to retrieve a pilot that was shot down by one of my own gunship pilots. Do not interfere or suffer the consequences.”

The Lich takes a step forward, but then stops when Nick raises his rifle. “Sorry, but I guess we’re about to interfere.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Hatred is Born . . . .

"Got him!" Nick heard Melissa's triumphant yell, and throttled his WAVE back into forward motion again. Turning around the corner of the building again, Nick saw that Melissa had approached the Lich from behind while Driscoll was busy shooting at Nick again. Her shotgun blast had pegged the Lich directly in the back, and Nick turned in the corner in time to see the machine staggered forward from the impact. Unfortunately, the Lich had heavy armor everywhere, including its backside. Seeing that the Lich wasn’t quite down yet, Melissa began to reload, and Nick opened his mouth to shout out a warning. Too late. The Lich turned, and in one smooth motion, raised its rifle and fired. The shot slammed into the chest of Melissa’s Shogun rocking it backward, and sending it crashing to the ground. The Lich calmly walked over to the downed WAVE and stomped its right foot down onto its chest, keeping it from rising. “A pity. You were more of a challenge than the others.” Nick watched in shock as the following events happened in slow motion. Driscoll lowered the Lich’s rifle, maneuvering it until it was pointed directly at the Shogun’s ****pit. A flash from the muzzle of the rifle barrel, and a hole appears in the front of the Shogun where the ****pit was. The loading mechanism of the rifle slides back, ejecting the empty rifle cartridge. The cartridge lazily spins through the air, and then lands of the pavement, bounces once, and then lies still. At this point time speeds back up, and Nick finally notices that a loud noise has been filling his ****pit through this grisly scene. A moment later, Nick realizes that it is him, screaming one word: “No!” The Lich lazily removes its foot from the Shogun’s chest, and then turns to face him. “Ah . . . I see now. The pilot of that Shogun was your . . . wife? Sister?” Nick felt a bolt of shock and disbelief strike him in the gut: shock that Melissa was dead, disbelief that a man could so calmly murder someone. It took a few moments for Driscoll’s words to sink in, and Nick murmured, “Fiancé.” “Hmm . . . well, I suppose now you’ll avenge her death . . . if you can.” The arrogant tone in Driscoll’s voice as he finished speaking ignited Nick’s shock and sorrow, and he felt something in him snap. At first he felt nothing at all, and then the void was filled with a hot, blinding rage. “As a matter of fact, I will.” Nick kicked his WAVE to full throttle and charged toward the Lich, intending to fire one good rifle shot into Driscoll’s face and then pummel his WAVE to pieces using his WAVE’s spiked fist. The Lich seemed content to watch Nick’s Shogun rush forward, and the snapped into action just as Nick began to aim his rifle. Driscoll made his WAVE side-step again, and then he raised his rifle and fired, striking Nick’s right kneecap. Caught in mid-stride, the Shogun suddenly lost its balance, and tumbled to the ground. It slid several meters across the pavement, gouging away asphalt and armor plating alike. Finally, the WAVE came to a stop, and Nick begin to maneuver his controls to get the Shogun back onto its feet. This time, he’d get that murdering b*stard. A foot suddenly slammed down onto the chest of Nick’s Shogun. The foot belonged to Driscoll’s Lich, naturally, and Nick could only glare up at the skeletal machine with hatred. “Tsk tsk . . . I would have thought that a police officer would keep a cooler head in battle. Obviously you are no match for me, even less than the other Shogun I just killed. I suppose skill doesn’t matter, since you have both ended up the same. Perhaps I could have both of your remains dumped into the same mass grave, that way you could” for a moment Driscoll broke off to chuckle, and then finished his taunt. “Together forever.” Nick saw the Lich line its rifle barrel up with his ****pit, and felt regret as he gazed into the dark cavern of the barrel. I’ve failed you. I failed to protect you, and now I’ve failed to avenge you. Forgive me. A second before the Lich pulled the trigger, and missile slammed into its back, shifting the aim so that the bullet slammed into the pavement a foot from the Shogun. Whirling around, Nick heard Driscoll growl, “What!!?” Turning the Shogun’s head so he could see as well, Nick saw that a Commonwealth WAVE was approaching at top speed. A few seconds later it launched another missile, and Driscoll maneuvered his WAVE off of Nick in a futile attempt to avoid the attack. The Lich staggered back from the blast, but recovered quickly to return fire with a rifle shot. “This is Captain Sinclair. Get out of here, Nick! I’ll hold him off!! The Senate will fall, there’s no way we can win here. Get your *ss over to the spaceport with as many people as you can, and leave this place! Majestic isn’t going to look kindly of anyone who fought them after Earth is theirs.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Escape Part 1

"Sir! I'm reading a power build-up within one of the Battle Cruisers. Its preparing to fire its energy beams again!!"
"I'm picking up another Battle Cruiser on approach sir."
"We should feel honored, sir. They've had to sic yet another of those behemoths on us."
"Receiving a broadcast from the approaching BC! Patching it through!"
"This is the CBC Illustrious, Commodore Michael Lee commanding. All friendly units, disengage and head for the Illustrious, we'll cover you."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Escape Part 2

“Sir, those gunboats will overtake us in seven minutes.”
”ETA to Lunar orbit?”
“Three minutes, sir.”
“Take us around in a slingshot orbit.”
The Illustrious turned slightly to port as it closed with the Moon, preparing to enter into an orbit that would use the Moon’s slight gravity to increase the Illustrious’s speed slightly. This slight acceleration would not match even the gunboats’ raw speed, however, and they obviously knew that as the wing of boats matched the Illustrious’s maneuver. Another two tense minutes passed, and the sensor operator announced, “The gunboats are within firing range of the rearmost civilian ship, sir.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Sir! Picking up multiple contacts ahead of us . . . they’ve got Commonwealth ID’s!” the sensor operator gasped.
“Say hello to the 11th Battle Group.” Lee said with a slight grin.
A minute later the gunboats came within line of sight of the Commonwealth fleet, and began to break away . . . too late. Brilliant lances of light streaked out of the leading ships of the Commonwealth fleet, hammering apart the gunboats’ armor.
A few seconds later the viewscreen showed what appeared to be pieces breaking off of the lead ships: torpedoes, all arrowing in on the wounded light capital ships. One Majestic gunboat was completely destroyed, and two others floated helplessly, leaking air like sieves. Only the fourth and rearmost gunboat was operational, having just enough power to limp away.
“Receiving a communication from the flagship, sir.” The communication officer reported.
“Put it through.” Lee commanded, already knowing who it would be.
The viewscreen was replaced with a view of the flagship’s bridge, centered on a balding, middle-aged man: Vice Admiral John Prescott, Commanding Officer of the 11th CDF Battle Group.
“Welcome to the ambush, John.” Lee said, cracking a rare smile.
“I’m just glad that my Battle Group was returning from maneuvers around Venus at the time. Now that we’re here, I was thinking about taking back a little place called Earth . .”
“Forget it, Vice Admiral. Earth’s a lost cause for now. Our only hope is to fall back and regroup at Mars.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



March 18th, 2065



The Birth of the 52nd . . .

"Are you insane?"
"Of course not." Commodore Lee replied.
"Well, your plan certainly makes it sound like you're insane. A Mixed Division of gunships, WAVEs, and powered infantry? You know as well as I do that mixed divisions have always failed!" Vice Admiral Prescott replied, slapping his hand down on the conference desk for emphasis.
"What would you have me do, John? The Illustrious was only about half-finished loading all of the equipment we'd need for a full division of each, and only about a tenth finished loading the necessary personel!"
"So? Keep the extra vehicles as spares, or something. I'd place my faith more in a company of professional pilots rather than an entire division of untrained, inexperienced wackos!" Prescott replied, refusing to be convinced.
"I fully intend on having tests run, and then selecting the best of the bunch. I'll make sure I have the best people I possibly can for the job, and then I'll train them well. Come on, John. Both of us have been through too many battles to know that our backs are firmly against the wall on this one. We've got a nice large fleet of potential recruits aboard the refugee ships, we have to use them! Just like we've got to use every available resource if we want to win this thing."
"<Sigh> Very well Michael, you win. But if this division screws up, I'm pulling the plug."
Lee gathered up his papers, trying to keep the triumphant smile off of his face. He nodded to everyone else at the table, and then left to head back to the Illustrious. He had a recruitment notice to broadcast.

[Hewitt]

Hewitt

WAVE: Heron (11000)

Weapons:

Left Arm - Kalvex Inferno (9 x 2)

Range: 4

Firing Rate: 5

Slots: 4

Cost: 5000

Right Arm - Ingstan SMG (5 x 4)

Range: 4

Firing Rate: 6

Slots: 4

Cost: 3000

Equipment:

Head - Targeting Computer (1000)



Straight from the site that.

[Lady Hawk]

Jennifer "Lady Hawk" Gonzalese - Ex WAVE pilot for the Police

Name: Shogun
Manufacturer: Majestic
Class: Medium
Height: 17m
Mass: 50 tons
Armor: 20/20/35/20/20/15
Top Speed: 54mph
Boosters: 5 seconds
Primary Allegiance: Police Forces
Summary: The Shogun was one of the last WAV designs produced by Majestic, and thus was designed with the ability to be upgraded to a WAVE in mind. Thus, many of these outdated machines were bought by police and militia forces

Weapons for Shogun

Name: P-18 - Right Hand
Type: Pistol
Damage: 1 x 9
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 3
Cost: 2500

Name: Ingstan HMG - Mounted on Left Shouder Mount
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 6
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 7500

Name: TY – 8 - Om Right Shoulder Mount
Type: Grenade Launcher
Damage: 1 x 15
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 8
Slots: 6
Cost: 5000

Name: DD2 Claymore - in left hand
Type: Sword
Damage: 15
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2000


Current Equipment and Men

1 Ambulance - Fully Equipped
1 Old Mk I Shogun (soon to be replaced)
1 APC

20 Powerd Infantry
1 Gunship Pilot (Candice - Candy for short)
4 Doctors/Paramedic types

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dateline - Now - Location a small farm some days travel away from the scene of the Majestic Victory in the City

They both stared at one another, Victor new that LH disagreed with the plan, but he could smile knowing that she also needed their help.

LH looks at the men and sighs.

LH - ok Victor you win we will go after the men in the prison, but we will also try to capture as much equipment as possible.

We will need them in teh days to come. Oh and also i will need 24 hours to repair and modify the SHOGUN WAVE.

Victor sighs and nods.

LH looks again at Victor

LH - do not forget to leave 2 men behind to help gaurd the remaining Medics

Medic Leader - Remaining?

LH - yup - wether you like it or not one of you is coming with us, MAJESTIC will not rest until we are all caught.

ML - yes thats true - well in that case I will come with you as i have had some comabt training i was with the National gaurd for a time as a field medic.

LH - good

Victor nods

As it happens from the equipment that had been taken in the flight was an Infantry HMG and a grenade launcher. It was LH's plan to install them on the WAVE.

Some 24 hours later the repairs are done and the WAVE has been modified.

LH - Well Victor lets do this.....

[Planetkiller II]

Since I don't seem to be getting an answer, I'll just design a new WAVE.

Name: Heron
Class: Light
Height: 21m
Mass: 90 tons
Armor: 55/55/65/45/45/20
Top Speed: 112 kph
Boosters: 45 seconds
Slots Remaining: 0/0/3/3/1/1/1/0
Cost: 11000


Equipment:

DD2 Claymore
Type: Sword
Damage: 15
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2000


2X Ingstan SMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 4
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 3000


Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. Almost a must-have.
Slots: 2
Cost: 1000


Remaining: 0

[Hudre]

Hmm, I guess Ill design a new on too then...

Name: Heron
Class: Light
Height: 21m
Mass: 55 tons
Armor: 55/55/65/45/45/20
Top Speed: 112 kph
Boosters: 45 seconds
Slots: 4/4/3/3/5/1/1/2
Summary: The Heron is more of a recon WAVE then a front-line one. However, the Heron can still pack enough of a punch to play an active part in a battle, and the increased extra equipment room makes the Heron almost the equal of a Shogun Mk II
Cost: 11000

Equipment:

Left arm:
Name: Ingstan SMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 4
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 4000

Right arm:
Name:Kalvex Leveler
Type: Shotgun
Damage: 7 x 3
Range: 3
Firing Rate: 4
Slots: 4
Cost: 3500


****pit:

Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. A must-have.
Slots: 1
Cost: 1000

Req points left: 500

[Breezer]

Breezer, gunship pilot

Name: TX-72 Shrike
Class: Medium
Length: 12m
Mass: 65 tons
Armor: 150
Top Speed: 450kph
Afterburners: 35 seconds
Slots: 15
Summary: The Shrike is designed with a bird-of-prey philosophy: sweep in fast and kill fast.

Cost: 12000

Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. Almost a must-have.
Slots: 2
Cost: 1000

Name: Ingstan Crossbow
Type: Cannon
Damage: 1 x 20
Range: 6
Firing Rate: 3
Slots: 5
Cost: 3000

Lateral thrusters: Increases maneuverability
Slots: 5
Cost: 4000

[Fluffie]

Fluffie, sits, somewhere, drinking and waiting. Something was bound to happen soon... Or so he thought.

[Flaag]

WAVE specs:

Shogun Mk II
Armor: 65/65/85/60/60/30
Slots Left: 0/5/4/4/1/1/1/0
Left Arm: Ingstan Longbow
Head: Targetting Computer
Chest: 2 Steel Plating

-------------------------------------------------

Triolus waited in his quarters, while running a small battle simulation on his PC

[Inspectre]

/ooc The thread is now officially starting.

My apologies for not replying earlier, Hudre and PK. I was away from my computer for most of the day yesterday, and while I was here, working on this start-up post. As for your old designs, here they are.

PK

Name: Heron
Class: Light
Height: 21m
Mass: 90 tons
Armor: 55/55/65/45/45/20
Top Speed: 112 kph
Boosters: 45 seconds
Slots: 4/4/3/3/5/1/1/2
Summary: The Heron is more of a recon WAVE then a front-line one. However, the Heron can still pack enough of a punch to play an active part in a battle, and the increased extra equipment room makes the Heron almost the equal of a Shogun Mk II
Cost: 11000


Name: DD2 Claymore
Type: Sword
Damage: 15
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2000


Name: Tidan 7X
Type: Missile Launcher
Damage: 1 x 30
Range: 8
Firing Rate: 1
Shots: 4
Slots: 4
Cost: 6000

Targetting Computer - 1000

Points Left: 0

Hudre

WAVE

Name: Heron
Class: Light
Height: 21m
Mass: 90 tons
Armor: 55/55/65/45/45/20
Top Speed: 112 kph
Boosters: 45 seconds
Slots: 4/4/3/3/5/1/1/2
Summary: The Heron is more of a recon WAVE then a front-line one. However, the Heron can still pack enough of a punch to play an active part in a battle, and the increased extra equipment room makes the Heron almost the equal of a Shogun Mk II
Cost: 11000


Weapons

Left Arm

Name: Ingstan SMG
Type: Machine Gun
Damage: 5 x 4
Range: 4
Firing Rate: 6
Slots: 4
Cost: 3000


Right Arm

Name: DD2 Battleaxe
Type: Axe
Damage: 20
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2500

Equipment

Torso

Targeting Computer: Gives range to target, displays current target on the sensor map, etc. Almost a must-have.
Slots: 2
Cost: 1000

Head

Extra Armor Plating: Adds 5 armor rating onto the area that it is installed in
Slots: 1
Cost: 1500 (due to shortages, the cost is higher than usual)

Points Left: 1000

For the most part your new designs are superior, I would say. But if you want to switch back, be my guest.

ooc/

March 30, 2065
CBC Illustrious
Crew Quarters

The eerie green glow of a datapad screen illuminated the bunk of Private Nick Andrews, CDF. Caught in the green glow, Nick’s face appeared to be that of a zombie. He certainly felt dead inside, at least. With a critical eye he scanned down the ‘pad’s screen. Displayed on the screen were his recent journal entries.


Journal Entry 3/15/65

This is my first journal entry. Melissa has been bugging me about keeping a journal, to "enhance my creative side". I think she's full of it, but like everything else she asks me to do, I do it. I'm out on patrol right now so I figure I've got some time. Well, let's see . . . what can I write about. Today the President is giving a speech. The entire police department is out of patrol. I think the Chief personally called every single member of the police force. That sounds like him, anyway. The President's speech is supposed to be about the growing tension between Majestic and the Sol Commonwealth. Majestic . . . I don't see how they think the trouble they're causing is going to help them. Mostly, it just makes them look worse to the public, and that's going to cut down on sales. Messing with the Commonwealth will cut down on sales too. Whatever the Commonwealth orders, it is obeyed. I'm surprised the President hasn't just authorized the disbandment of the Majestic Corporation already. And

3/15 cont.
She's gone. My fiancé is dead. They've taken everything from me. My president, my home, my family and friends . . . everything. They've taken my LIFE from me, but my heart still beats. I guess my body hasn't gotten the bad news yet. I don't know where I will go from here, but I have only one purpose left in my life now: revenge. I am going to do whatever it takes to get back into the ****pit of a WAVE, and then I'm going to hurt Majestic any way I can.

3/18
I think I’ve found a way to get back at Majestic. The people in charge of the Illustrioushave announced the creation of a new division, staffed partially by civilian recruits. I’ve already signed up, and have been promised a WAVE upon completion of my training. Not too bad a deal, considering my training lasts only until we get to Mars, about two weeks from now. The drill sergeant, Sergeant Steiner, seems to be a bit of a hard-*ss, but I don’t care so long as it gets me back into the ****pit of a WAVE.

3/21
I was right. Sergeant Steiner IS a hard-*ss. He’s been riding pretty hard on me and the rest of the recruits for the past couple days. He must feel with only two weeks to whip us into shape he can’t pull any punches. Supposedly at the end of the week the recruits are going to engage some veterans in a mock battle within the simulator. I’ve managed to log-in some extra simulator time, so I should do well.

3/24

Well, I blew it. The mock battle with the veterans was actually a set-up, designed to test how quickly we would join together against a common enemy. In this case, several AIs, set up to appear as Omega Letters. When I saw those WAVEs, painted in Omega Letter colors, I – I just lost it. I certainly went out in style as a quartet of Omega AIs ripped me apart. Unfortunately, getting ripped apart wasn’t what the higher-ups were looking for. Oh well. At least I can redeem myself in a few days during the final exam that all recruits must take. If I pass that they have to put me into the ****pit of a WAVE. Until then, I’m going to be hitting the simulators some more.

Deciding to add an entry for today, Nick’s fingers began to fly over the keys, quickly adding the new entry without too much conscious effort from Nick.

3/30
It’s official now. I am formerly a member of the 52nd. The final exam was a piece of cake: a simple one-on-one duel with an AI, and then a group melee with the other hopefuls. I passed the exam with flying colors, and now have a WAVE of my own. Unfortunately, an hour after I graduated, that b*stard Müeller grounded me! So now I get to sit aboard the Illustriouswhile all the other pilots fly missions against Majestic. Screw this. In a day or two we’ll be at Mars. When we get there, I plan to steal a shuttle and fly down to the surface. I’ll sell the shuttle and lay low in one of the lower domes for awhile until the heat is off. Then I’ll head back to Earth and join a resistance group. One of them is bound to accept me. Regardless, I won’t stop until I have my revenge. Whatever the cost.

Looking back over the new entry, Nick felt a rush of anger flow through him as he remembered Müeller coming to ground him.

I was there in the Bar with a bunch of the other graduates, celebrating the fact we were about to join the ranks of the 52nd. Then that SOB Müeller comes in, and everything goes quiet. “Mr. Andrews, may I speak with you for a minute?” He asks, and then adds “Privately.” He leads me out into the hallway, and after a “depressed” sigh, says to me, “Private Andrews, I’m afraid that due to your current psychological condition, Commodore Lee has seen fit to ground you. It’s just until we get to Mars, now, so don’t get the wrong idea. Once we get to Mars we’ll have a few psyches talk to you about your problems, and once they think you’re fine, you’re back on the flight list.” Psychological condition my *ss!! That sonofab**** has wanted me gone since the day we met. Well, you’ll have your wish soon enough.

Nick angrily punched the SAVE button on the datapad, turned it off, and threw it into the storage space beneath his bunk. Still angered by his current situation, Nick tossed and turned on the bunk for several minutes before he finally closed his eyes, and went to sleep.



March 30, 2065
Venus Orbit
Bridge of the CDD Lionheart

“How’s those sensors looking, Leanne?” Captain Michael Sonjas asked.
“Looking good. Nothing on sensors yet.” Leanne Wright replied, checking her sensor panel yet again for approaching Majestic contacts.
“Anything new from Fleet Command, Mack?”
“Nope. We’re just sitting here until Judgment Day, or at least until Command has figured out a “safe” path back to Mars, or Jupiter.”
“Ugh, we can’t just sit here and do nothing. Majestic’s going to find us soon if we stay here much longer.” Frustrated, Michael pounded the arm of his command chair.
“Uh oh . . . sir, I’ve just picked up a Communiqué from Command. The gunship patrols have found a Majestic battlegroup heading this way. We’ve been spotted.”
“Sound General Quarters, and launch the gunships and WAVEs. It looks like we’re not getting away from here without a fight.”

Ten minutes later . . .

“Sir, picking up the first contacts now. Their transponders identify them as the 12th Majestic Task Force.” Leanne reported.
“They sent a Task Force to engage a fleet?” Michael asked, slightly in disbelief at the arrogance of Majestic.
“Well, it’s a pretty big task force sir. I’ve got forty ships on my scopes so far.”
“I see. That’s nearly three-fourths our size.”
“Sir, Fleet Command has just issued orders. We are to break formation and move to engage the enemy fleet.”
“Acknowledge the orders, and take us in, Helm. It’s time to avenge Earth.”

Twenty minutes later . . .

“We just lost the Olympus Mons, sir.”
“Acknowledged, Sensors. Helm, swing us around to fire our energy beam at that wounded Majestic battlecruiser.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Oh sh*t! Sir, I’ve just picked up some Majestic ships on approach, behind us.”
“Behind the 3rd fleet?”
“Yes. They’re coming out from behind Venus. No one knew they were there, apparently.”
“Are they a part of this 12th Majestic Task Force?”
“No sir. Their ID reads that they are the 9th Majestic Fleet.”
“Of which the 12th Majestic Task Force is no doubt a part of. Sh*t. We’ve been suckered into a trap. Inform Fleet Command that we should immediately cut our losses and run, rather than try to fight off the enemy while caught in a pincer movement.”
“Sir, I’m afraid Fleet Command disagrees. We are to stay and fight against the Majestic 9th fleet.”
“Great. Well, it’s been nice knowing all of you. Helm, turn us around and take us into the heart of the Majestic 9th Fleet.”

Ten minutes later . . .

“Sir, the Intrepid just fell into enemy hands. Since the flagship was the last battlecruiser left in the fleet, you are now in command.”
Michael sighed, afraid it would come to this.
“Alright. Mack, tell all remaining Commonwealth ships to cut and run. Use Venus to shield them from Majestic sensors and to give them a little speed boast. Oh, and wish them Godspeed.”
“Yes sir.”
“Well people, that’s it. All we can do now is get out of here. Helm, set course for Low Venus Orbit, and sling us away from these corporate b*stards.”
“Yes sir!”
As Helm wildly slewed the Commonwealth Destroyer around to avoid energy beams from the chasing Majestic ships, Michael slumped in his command chair.

So many people died today . . . all because some idiot aboard the Intrepid thought we could handle a fleet twice our size. May I never throw the lives of my command away so pointlessly.

[Inspectre]

/ooc The following post may be seem disturbing to some people, mostly likely those with an overactive imagination. Thus, if you are one of those people, don't read it! Not that I expect you to listen anyway

TSW II has now officially started, and you may post if you wish. As soon as I am able, however, I will be advancing the storyline a few days and the first actual battle will begin. ooc/


Help me . . . help me Nick.

Nick Andrews looked around at the shadowy streets leading away from him in several directions. A thin cover of mist flowed over most of the street, obscuring Nick’s view somewhat.

Help me!!

A sense of dread tightening his stomach into a hard knot, Nick picked a direction and began to walk forward. After what seemed to be a minute of walking, a graveyard loomed out of the mist.

I don’t want to die!! NNNIIICCCKKK!!!!!

Nick did not want to go into the dark graveyard, but his body seemed to be on autopilot as it continued marching towards the graveyard’s wrought iron gate. Still not obeying his commands, Nick’s body walked up to the gate, unlocked the gate, and pushed it open with a loud screech. Looking beyond the gate, Nick could see a dirt path winding its way up a small hill. Still attempting to fight off a sense of foreboding, Nick began to trudge up the hill to its summit.

Once at the top, Nick saw that almost directly in front of him, only a few meters away, was a freshly dug grave. A large pile of earth still sat next to the pit, testifying that either the grave had just been dug . . . or someone had just been buried. With mounting anxiety Nick approached the grave, fearing what he would find, while at the same time knowing what was waiting for him.

Coming to the edge of the grave, Nick looked down, and found his fears confirmed. Lying at the bottom of the grave was an open coffin. Lying within the coffin was a young woman, dressed in the uniform of a NYPD officer. Her face was pale white in death, except for several places on her cheeks and chin where drops of blood had splattered. Her ordinarily navy blue uniform jacket was stained crimson with blood, and just off-center from the middle of her chest was a fist-sized hole. Nick had only a moment to stare down at the corpse in cold horror before its eyes snapped open.

YOU KILLED ME!! Coward!!

The corpse glared up into Nick’s face with an accusing look. With a gasp of pure horror, Nick tore himself away from the edge of the grave, intending to turn and run. Upon turning around, however, Nick was greeted by a new sight: two WAVEs, one lying flat on the ground while the other stomped it right foot down on the fallen one’s chest. The victorious WAVE slowly lined its rifle up with the fallen WAVE’s ****pit. A moment later there is a flash from the end of the rifle’s barrel, and a hole appears in the ****pit of the other WAVE. The loading mechanism of the rifle slides back, ejecting the empty rifle cartridge. The cartridge lazily spins through the air, and then lands on the ground, bouncing once before lying still. The victorious WAVE, now clearly identifiable as a Lich, turns its skeletal visage towards Nick.

Come . . . avenge her death . . . if you can.

The Lich then begins stomping towards Nick. Taking an involuntary step back, Nick nearly tumbles backward into the grave as his foot finds nothing but empty air behind him. As the Lich came closer and closer, it resembled less a WAVE, and more a skeletal monster. Seconds later, the Lich-creature towered over him, and scooped him open with one bony hand. Trapped by the thick bands of the monster’s bony fingers, Nick could only kicked futilely as he was raised to a level equal to the Lich’s face.

You . . . are . . . MINE!!!

Opening its mouth wide, the Lich treated Nick to a good look at its rows of sharp teeth, before it pitched him inside, and . . .

With a yell Nick awoke, jerking himself up into a sitting position. Or at least, half-way up into a sitting position before Nick’s head slammed into the bottom of the bunk above him. Groaning in pain and exasperation, Nick fell back onto the bed as he rubbed his head vigorously.

That d*mned nightmare again. D*mn you, Driscoll, D*MN YOU. Ugh, what time is it?

Taking a quick look at his wrist watch, Nick could see that it was just after five o’clock AM, May 31st.

Blah . . . still early dawn. Probably should go back to sleep . . . . aw, f**k it, I’ll just get up and hit the simulators early. I need the practice anyway. Especially if I’m about to blow this joint.

Nick quickly got himself out of bed and then smoothed the covers out before heading for the showers. After a quick, frigid shower, Nick threw on a clean uniform from under his bunk and left the Crew Quarters area, heading for the Simulator Room located two decks down.

[Hudre]

((Ill keep my new design then))

Hudre awoke and looked around. He was on the top bunk of his bed, John just under him. He looked out the window to see if the sun was up, then remembered where he was. Their wasn't going to be a rising sun today, only the dark emptiness of space.

Hudre checked his watch, the digital numbers glowing 5:30 AM. Well, I guess I should've suspected troubled sleep Hudre thought. Earth being taken over, seeing WAVE's around him exploding, the pilots inside either ejecting into capture or simply dying.

Hudre sat up and moved the itchy bunk blankets off himself. Hudre sat their, not wantingto wake anyone up. He'd wait until John was up, then they could wander around.

[Inspectre]

/ooc Ok, say hello to the first battle.

Note that I may change a few of the details (i.e., number of capital ships, their names, and the names and number of the WAVEs and gunships involved in the battle), due to the fact that I'm not quite satisfied with how they look. This cannot really be helped, since some people *glares at ND, fluffie, and crazy*
wanted their battle now, now, now. So there ya go everyone, have fun. ooc/


April 1, 2065
0700 hours
11th Battlegroup, CBC Illustrious
Bridge

“Coming into sensor range of Phobos now, Commodore.” The sensor operator reported, and then swung around to face Commodore Lee. “We made it.”
Lee nodded, and then gave the lieutenant a slight smile. “So we did.”
Turned away from his console, the sensor operator did not notice the flicker of gunship-sized contacts that briefly appeared, and then disappeared again behind Phobos.

April 1, 2065
0745 hours
11th Battlegroup, CBC Ajax
Bridge

“We’re coming within sensor range of Mars Orbital now, sir.” The Ajax’s sensor operator reported.
“Acknowledged.” John Prescott replied.
As Mars Orbital entered sensor range, the bridge viewscreen shifted to display the new information.
“Good god!” Someone gasped.
On the viewscreen, a magnified view of Mars Orbital took center stage. One whole arm of the station was missing, and a long gash ran along the central hub. Several other Commonwealth ships were flying close enough to the station to also be picked up, and they too looked a bit worse for wear.
“Picking up a transmission from Mars Orbital, sir.”
“Patch them through.” John ordered, and a moment later the voice of Mars Orbital filled the bridge.
“*Crackle* Ajax? This is Mars *static*. Welcome *crackle* home. You are clear to dock *static* 3. Repeat, at Pylon 3.”
“Rodger, Mars Orbital. What happened here?”
“Majestic attack. *Crackle* Tell you more after you dock. Mars Orbital *static*.”
“They’ve cut the channel, sir.” The communications officer reported.
John bowed his head for a moment, and sighed. “Looks like nowhere is safe anymore. Alright people, we’ve still made it to Mars intact. Let’s dock with Mars Orbital and figure out what our next move is from there. Helm, take us in.”

April 1, 2065
0805 hours
11th Battlegroup, CBC Ajax
Bridge

“Now on final approach to Pylon 3.” The Helmsman reported, carefully lining up one of the massive ship’s docking collars with one of Mars Orbital’s own.
“Acknowledged.” John replied, trying unsuccessfully to force away a sense of wrongness about the current situation. The communications officer suddenly coughed, getting Prescott’s attention.
“Sir, I’m a bit worried. I have been picking up next to zero communications between vessels. While ship-to-ship channels are usually fairly low, I should be picking up a lot more comm traffic than I am currently. It’s like everyone is maintaining radio silence or something.”
“Hmm . . . that is odd, especially for a usually busy port like Mars Orbital. Are you detecting anything unusual, Sensors?”
“No sir. We do seem to have a large welcoming party waiting for us within Pylon 3, however. Quite large . . . hmm . . . focusing sensors on Pylon 3 . . . . what the? Sir, most of the people within Pylon 3 are wearing powered armor!”
“Communications, give me a channel with Mars Orbital!”
“Aye sir!”
The communication officer’s fingers flew over the keys, and a moment later a channel was established.
“Mars Orbital? Just what the h*ll do you think you’re doing with all those powered infantry standing around in Pylon 3?”
“Ajax? This is Mars Orbital. I just wanted to say: April Fools!!”
“HELM!! GET US AWAY FROM MARS ORBITAL!!” John bellowed, and the Helmsman jumped to obey, widening the several meter gap that had been all that was left of keeping the Ajax from capture. Prescott was about to issue more orders, but he was cut off by an exclamation from the sensor operator.
“Sh*t!!! Sir, Mars Orbital has just powered up its weapons, and is starting to launch WAVEs and gunships. The other Commonwealth ships in the area have also powered up their weapons, and are moving to intercept us.”
“Switch those ships’ IDs to Majestic.” Prescott growled, and then continued to calmly bark out orders. “Scramble all gunships and WAVEs. Alert the powered infantry to stand by to repel borders. Start powering up our own weapons. Helm, plot us the most direct course out of here, and engage.”
“Sir, I’m picking up a hail from the Illustrious. Patching it through now.” The communications officer reported, and a moment later the equally calm, dignified voice of Michael Lee filled the bridge.
“John? Looks like we’ve been snookered.”
“That we have, old friend. Now we’ve just got to figure a way out of this trap. How’s your ship holding up?”
“We’re doing fine. At the moment we’re a bit close to your ship’s predecessor, and are taking a bit of fire. I’m scrambling all WAVEs and gunships. We’re going to have to fight our way out of this one.”
John nodded, understanding that “his ship’s predecessor” meant the former CBC Apollo, the prototype Apollo class battlecruiser.
“We’ll try to swing by and give you a hand ourselves if we can, old friend, but I imagine that in a few minutes we’re going to be swamped with troubles of our own.”
“Aye. We’ll watch your back too. Good Luck, Ajax.”
“Happy Hunting, Illustrious.”

“Channel cut.” The communications officer announced, and John nodded.
“Alright people. Let’s cut our way out of this net. Weapons officer, fire at will.”

April 1, 2065
0810 hours
CBC Illustrious
Flight Deck

“SCRAMBLE!! SCRAMBLE!! ALL PILOTS, SCRAMBLE!!” Rumbled the intercom over the whooping of the General Quarters alarm. Pilots dashed in all directions across the flight deck, focused only on getting to their machines, and getting them airborne. The ensuing chaos was the perfect time to steal a ship, and Nick was wasting no time attempting to thwart the electronic lock of a shuttlecraft. As the shuttle’s lock chimed another failure, Nick groaned, and entered another sequence into the number pad. Although he could just shoot the keypad with his sidearm, the gunshot was bound to attract someone’s attention, and Nick could not afford to be noticed. Not yet, at least.
“Nick Andrews! What are you doing over there!?” Someone shouted, and Nick cursed.

So close, d*mnit.

Nick turned, debating with himself if he should cross the point of no-return or not. It would surely be a simple matter to quick-draw his sidearm pistol, shoot whoever it was that was calling to him, blast the keypad lock, dive into the shuttle, hotwire it, and take off. Better than spending a month in the brig for what he was attempting to do, anyway.

“Yes? That’s me.” Nick replied, his Plan B going awry as he saw that the person calling to him was Darian Matthews.
Arms crossed over his chest, Darian Matthews lifted and an eyebrow and sarcastically said, “Don’t you think you’d have better chances out there in your WAVE, instead of a shuttle?”
Nick’s anger flared, and he allowed some of it to slip out as he caustically replied. “Yes, I suppose I would. If I was on the flight list. However, considering I’m grounded until further notice, I think a shuttle would be better than floating out an airlock in my uniform, armed only with my sidearm.”
Darian bowed his head, and Nick was sure he heard him mutter several explicit curses to himself before looking back up.
“Considering yourself back on the flight list until further notice. I need every pilot I can get out there, whether they’re all there or not.”
Nick, caught off-guard by this sudden reversal, simply stood and stared at the Major until he growled, “Well, are you going to get to your WAVE, or do I have to lead you there by the hand?”
“NO SIR! I CAN MAKE IT MYSELF!” Nick shouted, tossing off a quick salute before running full-pelt toward the section of the launch bay where his Shogun Mk II was being kept.


April 1, 2065
0810 hours
11th Battlegroup, CBC Ajax
Bridge

“Sir, I’m picking up additional Majestic and Commonwealth ID ships coming out from around Mars. They’re on an intercept course.”
“Of course. We can’t have an even fight, now can we.” John muttered in disgust, and then said, “Switch those Commonwealth IDs over to Majestic. From now on, assume all Commonwealth ships are Majestic controlled except those within the 11th Battlegroup and the refugees from Earth.”
“Aye sir . . . ah crud. Sir, I'm picking up additional Majestic ships closing from Phobos." the sensor operator reported, and John nodded.
"The other jaw of their trap. I thought they would have more than just a few ships coming out from around Mars. Those ships,” John nodded at the sensor blips emerging from behind Phobos. “Will be moving in to cut us off when we try to leave Mars orbit and make a break for it. Stay here and fight until we're overwhelmed, or try to leave and fight that fleet while the one coming out from around Mars kidney punches us from behind. I think we'll take the kidney punches. Helm, plot a new escape trajectory from Mars orbit, taking into account the new ships. We're getting out of here ASAP."

Battle Report: 2nd Battle of Mars

Commonwealth Forces

11th Battle Group
Morale: Low
Experience: Veteran

CBC Ajax Apollo Class Battlecruiser
CBC Trafalgar Atheleron Class Battlecruiser
CBC Constitution Atheleron Class Battlecruiser – Docked with Mars Orbital
CDD Nelson Hyperion Class Destroyer
CDD Wessex Hyperion Class Destroyer
CDD Deismos Hyperion Class Destroyer – Docked with Mars Orbital
CDD Hera Ares Class Destroyer
CDD Fury Ares Class Destroyer
CGB Griffon Donald Class Gunboat
CGB Valiant Donald Class Gunboat
CGB Hornet Donald Class Gunboat
CGB Winchester Donald Class Gunboat
CGB Battle Axe Donald Class Gunboat
CGB Thor's Hammer Donald Class Gunboat
CGB Centaur Donald Class Gunboat
CTT 571 Hive Class Tender
CTT 575 Hive Class Tender
Earth Refugees
Morale: Poor
Experience: Green

CBC Illustrious Atheleron Class Battlecruiser Light Damage
CDD Typhoon Hyperion Class Destroyer
CGB Talbot Donald Class Gunboat
CTT 621 Hive Class Tender Light Damage
CTT 413 Hive Class Tender Heavy Damage
CTT 572 Hive Class Tender
CTT 682 Hive Class Tender Light Damage
CTT 211 Hive Class Tender Moderate Damage

236 Refugee ships


63rd Commonwealth Lancer Division: 360 WAVEs
- 101st Commonwealth Guard 120 WAVEs (CBC Constitution)
- 21st Commonwealth Dragoons Regiment 120 WAVEs (CBC Trafalgar)
- 63rd Commonwealth Lancers Regiment 120 WAVEs (CBC Ajax)
Morale: Low
Experience: Veteran


42nd Commonwealth Guard: 360 WAVEs
- 15th Commonwealth Hussars 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (CDD Nelson)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (CDD Nelson)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (CDD Wessex)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (CDD Wessex)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (CGB Hornet)
- 9th Commonwealth Paladins 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (CDD Deismos)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (CDD Deismos)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (CDD Hera)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (CDD Hera)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (CGB Windchester)
- 42nd Commonwealth Guard 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (CDD Fury)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (CDD Fury)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (CGB Valiant)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (CGB Battle Axe)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (CGB Griffon)
Morale: Low
Experience: Skilled


11th Commonwealth Black Guard 72 WAVEs
- Company A 24 WAVEs (CDD Typhoon)
- Company B 24 WAVEs (CDD Typhoon)
- Company C 24 WAVEs (CGB Talbot)
Morale: Poor
Experience: Master


7th Commonwealth Chevaliers 72 WAVEs
- Company A 24 WAVEs (CGB Thor’s Hammer)
- Company B 24 WAVEs (CGB Centaur)
- Company C 24 WAVEs (CTT 571 & CTT 575)
Morale: So-So
Experience: Veteran


39th Commonwealth Reserves 60 WAVEs
- Company A 24 WAVEs (CTT 621 & CTT 413)
- Company B 24 WAVEs (CTT 572 & CTT 682)
- Company C, 2nd Squad 12 WAVEs (CTT 211)
Morale: Poor
Experience: Green


52nd Mixed Division: 120 WAVEs/120 gunships
- 52nd WAVE Regiment 120 WAVEs (CBC Illustrious)
- 52nd Gunship Regiment 120 gunships (CBC Illustrious)
Morale: Good
Experience: Green


17th Commonwealth Diamond Shark Division: 360 gunships
- 1st Commonwealth Diamond Shark Regiment 120 gunships (CBC Ajax)
- 2nd Commonwealth Diamond Shark Regiment 120 gunships (CBC Trafalgar)
- 3rd Commonwealth Diamond Shark Regiment 120 gunships (CBC Constitution)
Morale: So-So
Experience: Skilled


51st Commonwealth Space Tiger Division: 360 gunships
- 51st Commonwealth Space Tigers Regiment 120 gunships
-- Company A 24 gunships (CDD Nelson)
-- Company B 24 gunships (CDD Nelson)
-- Company C 24 gunships (CDD Wessex)
-- Company D 24 gunships (CDD Wessex)
-- Company E 24 gunships (CGB Hornet)
- 72nd Commonwealth Angels Regiment 120 gunships
-- Company A 24 gunships (CDD Deismos)
-- Company B 24 gunships (CDD Deismos)
-- Company C 24 gunships (CDD Hera)
-- Company D 24 gunships (CDD Hera)
-- Company E 24 gunships (CGB Winchester)
- 101st Commonwealth Salamanders Regiment
-- Company A 24 gunships (CDD Fury)
-- Company B 24 gunships (CDD Fury)
-- Company C 24 gunships (CGB Griffon)
-- Company D 24 gunships (CGB Valiant)
-- Company E 24 gunships (CGB Battle Axe)
Morale: Low
Experience: Veteran


12th Commonwealth Poleax Regiment 72 gunships
- Company A 24 gunships (CGB Thor’s Hammer)
- Company B 24 gunships (CGB Centaur)
- Company C 24 gunships (CTT 571 & CTT 575)
Morale: Poor
Experience: Skilled


24th Commonwealth Blackhawk Regiment 72 gunships
- Company A 24 gunships (CDD Typhoon)
- Company B 24 gunships (CDD Typhoon)
- Company C 24 gunships (CGB Talbot)
Morale: Poor
Experience: Master


4th Commonwealth Reserves Regiment 60 gunships
- Company A 24 gunships (CTT 621 & CTT 413)
- Company B 24 gunships (CTT 572 & CTT 682)
- Company C, 2nd Squad 12 gunships (CTT 211)
Morale: Apathetic
Experience: Green


Overall Morale: Low Experience: Skilled 4 BC, 6 DD, 8 GB, 7 TT, 1044 W, 1044 G


Majestic Forces

Mars Defense Fleet
Morale: High
Experience: Veteran

Mars Orbital Heavy Damage
MBC Apollo Apollo Class Battlecruiser Moderate Damage
MBC Kiros Atheleron Class Battlecruiser Heavy Damage
MBC Cardinal Atheleron Class Battlecruiser Light Damage
MBC [i]Victor[i] Trident Class Battlecruiser Light Damage
MBC Minotaur Trident Class Battlecruiser
MBC Thanatos ???? Class Battlecruiser Light Damage
MDD Hercules Ares Class Destroyer Moderate Damage
MDD Drake Ares Class Destroyer Light Damage
MDD Tybalt Hyperion Class Destroyer Moderate Damage
MDD Taurus Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Scorpio Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Libra Draco Class Destroyer Heavy Damage
MDD Andromeda Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Aldeberan Draco Class Destroyer Moderate Damage
MGB Berserker Donald Class Gunboat Light Damage
MGB Impetuous Orion Class Gunboat moderate Damage
MGB Gustav Orion Class Gunboat Light Damage
MGB Defender Orion Class Gunboat Light Damage
MGB Protector Orion Class Gunboat Heavy Damage
MGB Traveler Orion Class Gunboat Heavy Damage
MGB Starfire Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Sting Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Antares Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Newton Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Osiris Orion Class Gunboat
MTT 112 Hive Class Tender
MTT 334 Hive Class Tender
MTT 423 Hive Class Tender
MTT 567 Hive Class Tender
MTT 568 Hive Class Tender

Mars Blockade
Morale: Great
Experience: Master
MBC Belaserius ???? Class Battlecruiser
MBC Aquatine ???? Class Battlecruiser
MBC Intrepid ???? Class Battlecruiser Moderate Damage
MBC Imminent Dominion Trident Class Battlecruiser
MBC Crimson Star Trident Class Battlecruiser
MBC Tyrant Trident Class Battlecruiser Light Damage
MBC Scimitar Trident Class Battlecruiser
MDD Aquarius Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Galetea Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Cassiopeia Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Lawrence Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Centurion Draco Class Destroyer
MDD Griever Draco Class Destroyer Moderate Damage
MDD Black Widow Draco Class Destroyer
MGB Alpha Centauri Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Tau Ceti Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Polaris Orion Class Gunboat Light Damage
MGB Polearm Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Buckler Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Guardian Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Bulwark Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Burke Orion Class Gunboat Moderate Damage
MGB Sirius Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Canopus Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Menkar Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Deneb Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Corsair Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Castor Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Vega Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Caesar Orion Class Gunboat
MGB Hannibal Orion Class Gunboat
MTT 417 Hive Class Tender Light Damage
MTT 094 Hive Class Tender
MTT 078 Hive Class Tender
MTT 314 Hive Class Tender

Mars Orbital Defense Screen 200 gunships, 200 WAVEs (Mars Orbital)
Morale: Good
Experience: Skilled


14th Commonwealth Nova Division 360 WAVEs
- 14th Commonwealth Nova Regiment (MBC Kiros)
- 2nd Commonwealth Mars Guard Regiment (MBC Apollo)
- 59th Commonwealth Templar Regiment (MBC Cardinal)
Morale: So-So
Experience: Skilled


1st Majestic Dragoons Division 360 WAVEs
- 1st Majestic Dragoon Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Victor)
- 2nd Majestic Dragoon Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Minotaur)
-3rd Majestic Dragoon Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Imminent Dominion)
Morale: Excellent
Experience: Master


12th Majestic Guard Division 360 WAVEs
- 12th Majestic Guard Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Belaserius)
- 21st Majestic Guard Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Aquatine)
- 34th Majestic Guard Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Thanatos)
Morale: Good
Experience: Veteran


81st Majestic Hussars Division 360 WAVEs
- 81st Majestic Hussars Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Crimson Star)
- 17th Majestic Templar Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Tyrant)
- 3rd Majestic Basilisks Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Scimitar)
Morale: Great
Experience: Veteran


4th Mars Guard Regiment 120 WAVEs (MBC Intrepid)
Morale: Low
Experience: Green


19th Majestic Berserker Division 360 WAVEs
- 19th Berserker Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Aquarius)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Aquarius)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MDD Galetea)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Galetea)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Alpha Centauri)
- 92nd Majestic Reaver Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Cassiopeia)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Cassiopeia)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MDD Lawrence)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Lawrence)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Tau Ceti)
- 103rd Majestic Guard 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Centurion)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Centurion)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MDD Griever)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Griever)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Polaris)
Morale: Great
Experience: Veteran


84th Majestic Lancer Division 360 WAVEs
- 7th Majestic Dragoons Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Black Widow)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Black Widow)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MGB Polearm)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Buckler)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Guardian)
- 62nd Majestic Light Cavalry Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MGB Bulwark)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MGB Burke)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MGB Sirius )
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MGB Canopus)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Menkar)
- 84th Majestic Lancers Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MGB Deneb)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MGB Corsair)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MGB Castor)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MGB Vega)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Caesar)
Morale: Great
Experience: Master


6th Majestic Crimson Guard Division 360 WAVEs
- 6th Majestic Crimson Guard Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Taurus)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Taurus)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MDD Scorpio)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Scorpio)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Osiris)
- 7th Majestic Crimson Guard Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Libra)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Libra)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MDD Andromeda)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Andromeda)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Newton)
- 11th Majestic Reaver Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Aldeberan)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Aldeberan)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MGB Impetuous)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MGB Gustav)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Defender)
Morale: Excellent
Experience: Master


- 4th Majestic Rapid Deployment Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MGB Protector)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MGB Traveler)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MGB Starfire)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MGB Sting)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Antares)
Morale: High
Experience: Veteran


27th Commonwealth Light Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MDD Hercules)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MDD Hercules)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MDD Tybalt)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Tybalt)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MGB Berserker)
Morale: So-So
Experience: Skilled


9th Commonwealth Mars Guard 60 WAVEs
- Company C, 2nd Squad 12 WAVEs (MTT 568)
- Company D 24 WAVEs (MDD Drake)
- Company E 24 WAVEs (MDD Drake)
Morale: Low
Experience: Skilled


5th Majestic Rapid Deployment Regiment 120 WAVEs
-- Company A 24 WAVEs (MGB Hannibal)
-- Company B 24 WAVEs (MTT 417 & MTT 094)
-- Company C 24 WAVEs (MTT 078 & MTT 314)
-- Company D 24 WAVEs (MTT 112 & MTT 334)
-- Company E 24 WAVEs (MTT 423 & MTT 567)
Morale: Good
Experience: Veteran


63rd Majestic Wolfpack Division 360 Gunships
- 63rd Majestic Wolfpack Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Belaserius)
- 64th Majestic Wolfpack Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Aquatine)
- 65th Majestic Wolfpack Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Intrepid)
Morale: Excellent
Experience: Master


11th Commonwealth Enforcers Division 360 Gunships
- 11th Commonwealth Enforcer Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Apollo)
- 12th Commonwealth Enforcer Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Kiros)
- 13th Commonwealth Enforcer Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Cardinal)
Morale: So-So
Experience: Skilled


31st Majestic Shrike Division 360 Gunships
- 31st Majestic Shrikes Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Victor)
- 62nd Majestic Demons Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Minotaur)
- 64th Majestic Eclipse Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Crimson Star)
Morale: Great
Experience: Veteran


80th Majestic Bearcat Division 360 Gunships
- 44th Majestic Wolverine Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Tyrant)
- 65th Majestic Space Escort Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Imminent Dominion)
- 80th Majestic Bearcat Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Scimitar)
Morale: Good
Experience: Skilled


111th Majestic Grim Reaper Regiment 120 Gunships (MBC Thanatos)
Morale: Excellent
Experience: Master


71st Majestic Panther Division 360 Gunships
- 16th Majestic Manticores Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Aquarius)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Aquarius)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Galetea)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Galetea)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Alpha Centauri)
- 27th Majestic Valkyrie Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Cassiopeia)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Cassiopeia)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Lawrence)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Lawrence)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Tau Ceti)
- 71st Majestic Panther Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Centurion)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Centurion)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Griever)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Griever)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Polaris)
Morale: Great
Experience: Veteran


31st Majestic Chimera Division 360 Gunships
- 18th Majestic Arrow Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Black Widow)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Black Widow)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MGB Polearm)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MGB Buckler)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Guardian)
- 29th Majestic Lightning Bolts Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MGB Bulwark)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MGB Burke)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MGB Sirius)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MGB Canopus)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Menkar)
- 31st Majestic Chimera Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MGB Deneb)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MGB Corsair)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MGB Castor)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MGB Vega)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Caesar)
Morale: Great
Experience: Master


41st Majestic Hurricane Division 360 Gunships
- 34th Majestic Steel Eagles Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Taurus)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Taurus)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Scorpio)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Scorpio)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Impetuous)
- 40th Majestic Hurricane Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Libra)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Libra)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Andromeda)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Andromeda)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Gustav)
- 41st Majestic Hurricane Regiment 120 Gunships
-- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Aldeberan)
-- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Aldeberan)
-- Company C 24 Gunships (MGB Defender)
-- Company D 24 Gunships (MGB Protector)
-- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Traveler)
Morale: Good
Experience: Veteran


3rd Majestic Rapid Strike Regiment 120 Gunships
- Company A 24 Gunships (MGB Starfire)
- Company B 24 Gunships (MGB Sting)
- Company C 24 Gunships (MGB Antares)
- Company D 24 Gunships (MGB Newton)
- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Osiris)
Morale: High
Experience: Veteran

14th Commonwealth Mars Recon Regiment 120 Gunships
- Company A 24 Gunships (MDD Hercules)
- Company B 24 Gunships (MDD Hercules)
- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Tybalt)
- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Tybalt)
- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Berserker)
Morale: Poor
Experience: Green

15th Commonwealth Mars Recon Regiment 72 Gunships
- Company C 24 Gunships (MDD Drake)
- Company D 24 Gunships (MDD Drake)
- Company E 24 Gunships (MGB Defender)
Morale: So-So
Experience: Skilled


4th Majestic Rapid Strike Regiment 108 Gunships
- Company A 24 Gunships (MTT 112 & MTT 417)
- Company B 24 Gunships (MTT 094 & MTT 334)
- Company C 24 Gunships (MTT 078 & MTT 314)
- Company D 24 Gunships (MTT 423 & MTT 567)
- Company E, 1st Squad 12 Gunships (MTT 568)
Morale: Good
Experience: Veteran


Overall Morale: Great Experience: Master Mars Orbital, 13BC, 15 DD, 28 GB, 9 TT, 3260 gunships, 3260 WAVEs

1920 WAVEs
Key

Morale – Routing, Apathetic, Poor, Low, So-So, High, Good, Great, Excellent, Ecstatic, Victorious

Experience – Garrison, Rookie, Green, Skilled, Veteran, Master, Elite, Hero, Legendary, Omega



All

As you launch, you can see the former CBC Apollo off to your right, set against the backdrop of Mars. It is concentrating its firepower on the Illustrious, although none of the nearby ships have managed to bring their beam weapons to bear on each other . . . yet. Just shortly after you launch your HUD displays your current mission objectives. Obviously someone had quickly worked out a flight plan for each of you, despite the surprise attack.

Mission Objectives

Primary

- Survive 100 Requisition Points
- Escort Illustrious and Ajax out of orbit 200 Requisition Points

Secondary

- Assist all ships of the 11th Battle Group out of orbit 100 Requisition Points
- Assist all civilian refugee ships out of orbit 1 Requisition Point/ ship

Tertiary

- Engage and destroy the MBC Apollo 300 Requisition Points
- Destroy any/all target of opportunity Requisition Points Based on Target Destroyed

/ooc DM advice: Do NOT attempt to fight Mars Orbital . . you’ll lose badly. ooc/

[Dunin Hemm]

With a shake Meade's Raptor's steering system yanks into action and he tests it to make sure all the steering thrustors are working as they should. He glances at the objectives and then checks his weapons; the few Needle rockets his ship has been armed with. That's all, unfortunately, which Meade is painfully aware off.
He stays in formation, waiting for the fight to begin. All he can hope to do is flank the enemy and fire at them when they're not looking.

/OOC: What's happening? Are there any enemy ships near our formation? Are we being fired at? What can we see? Etc.

[Planetkiller II]

*PK hurriedly strapped himself into his WAVE, ready for the order to launch. It came, and he blasted out of the launching tube, thrusters blazing. He targeted the Apollo, and made for it at full attcak speed.*

ooc// I'll keep my new WAVE. Having looked at cap ships stats, it's nearly impossible to take them out in a WAVE. Even with torpedo bombers it's damn hard, so I hope there's method there. //ooc

[No Dachi]

No Dachi raced through the door to the WAVE Hangar and, with agility unbecoming to one of his age, raced up the ladder running vertical past his stationary Shogun MkII, jumped off the top rung and swung himself down past the canopy into his ****pit. The training might've been dull, but he was certainly in better physical shape than he had been in a long time. Snapping himself in with the air of someone who had done so many times before, he flicks the Canopy switch to 'Closed', then waits untill the red LED indicating that the ****pit has been fully sealed from the outside is on. Finally, he reaches underneath the crook of his arm and produces his old combat helmet, breathing apparatus removed due to modern-day WAVEs having reliable life support systems - and jams it on his head. The helmet was pockmarked and, had once been, crimson. The colours were slightly washed out now, but clear paint remained, that of the black of the numerals 'XII'. Three simple letters that would still make a lot of people stop and stare if they saw him in battle gear...

He takes the jack plug for the WAVE's com system outlet and plugs it into the rear of his helmet. Normally such things wouldn't be necessary, the jack would just be plugged into speakers, but No Dachi preferred the helmet system and always told his ground crew to leave the jack out. This done, he pulls down the aging microphone arm from the helmet's side so that the small metal bud on its end is positioned just in front of his mouth.

"Illustrious Flight Control, this is 52nd Mixed Division Pilot Ishide Morotaki, ****pit is sealed, system checks have been performed, awaiting launch."

Part of that was a lie, he certainly hadn't performed any system checks. He couldn't be bothered with the damned things anyway, hadn't had them in the WAVs, where it was a pilot's own intuition that spotted mechanical faults before he took off - luckily No Dachi had found that he still had that intuition about him after so many years. After a few seconds the reply from the Flight Controller crackles across his helmet speakers.

"52nd Mixed Division Pilot Ishide Morotaki, you are cleared for launch. Opening your Bay Doors in five...four...three...two...one..."

During the countdown the floor below No Dachi's WAVE had been sliding back into the wall, and at 'one', the mechanical arms holding No Dachi's WAVE in place abruptly released their hold, the WAVE tumbled down out of the Ship, proppelled outwards by the rotation made so to induce artificial gravity. No Dachi still found this 'launch tube' procedure disconcerting, but never mind. He flicks a few tiny siwtches on the side of his helmet near the coms jack socket - 'commander', 'wingmen' - and leaves the Flight Control one on.

"Morotaki, launch successful, flight path recieved, requesting additional orders and sensor information from Ship."

[Crazyboy]

*Crazy's early morning drinking binge with Ralph is suddenly cut short as the alarms sound and the scramble is called*

"Ah! Crap. Time for some flying boy! Down that last one and lets go"

*Crazy and Ralph both downed their last drink, which was one of the stronger ones on the ship, then hurried out of the bar and to the flight deck, almost sprinting there, and overtaking some of the other pilots, and almost knocking over some random people on their way.*

*The two of them half staggered and half ran into the hanger bay, as the drinkings were going slightly to their head. Crazy shook his head as he jumped up the steps and into the cockpit of his gunship, slipped and hit the chair with a thump. Shaking his head again, Crazy flipped through the start-up and closed the canopy, and pulled on his helmet, and watched all the pretty lights come on, indicating that his gunship was ready to launch*

"Sigh. Ralph, we shouldn't have had those last two drinks damnit! Oh well, at least I won't be flying straight! Hahah!"

*Crazy pulled the breathmask other his face and strapped it on, before hitting his engines alive*

"Woo! Does this baby sound good! Illustrious flight control! This is teh Crazyboy, ready for launch."

*Crazy hit a few more buttons, turning on his flight computer, heating up his guns and turning on his lights, blinding a few unlucky people who were infront of him*

"oops heheh."

"Crazyboy. This is Flight Control. All gunships are cleared for launch, repeat, launch"

"Roger that. See you on the other side guys!"

*Crazy hit his thrusters forward, and managed to make it out of the launch bay without hitting anything. As he left the hanger bay, Crazy got his first proper look of space, and the view almost overwhelmed him*

"Wow. What a view"

*Crazy shook his head, he didn't have time to take in the view now, but he promised himself he would come back here after the war and spend some time, just floating in his gunship, just looking. Shaking his head again, to clear of it of uwanted thoughts, Crazy started concentrating on the task at hand. He glanced down at his console, looking at his objectives, and then searched around on his targeting computer for the closest threat to the Illustrious or Ajax*

[Fluffie]

ok, I am the only infantry dude around. I see no mention of my kind of guys on the battle report, so I'll just assume I'm still sitting around in my quarters.

Or maybe I'm already geared up, holding on tight to my SMG and waiting for further orders from Command. A lone suit in space sounds bad, y'know.

[Hewitt]

*Hewitt grinned as smooth, naked body of the woman in the room climb up onto the bed towards him. She crawled over his blanketed form, straddling his legs.*

I'm sorry 'bout not being able to come to your aid during the sim test Claire.

*The woman smiled and brought her face down towards Hewitt's, stopping just inches from his own. She spoke quietly but there was no mistaking the seductive hint in her voice.*

"All is forgiven my love, that is of course if you provide me with one little favor."

*Hewitt raised an eyebrow in mock question. He had a good idea what that favor might be.*

Oh really? And what might that be?

*Grinning wider, Claire moved forward and together they embraced and prepared themselves for the inevitiable-*

SCRAMBLE!! SCRAMBLE!! ALL PILOTS, SCRAMBLE!!

*Hewitt jerked awake so suddenly that he smacked his head on the bunk above. Cursing profusely, Hewitt held his head as he half scrambled, half stumbled from his bunk grabbing wildly at his flight gear hanging loosely over the nearby chair, trying to dress quickly while still rubbing sleep from his eyes. In no less than 30 seconds Hewitt was running out the door, still grumbling while doing up buttons and such as he headed for his WAVE.*

Of all the times for an attack it just had to be this morning didn't it?

*With himself mostly dressed, Hewitt runs full tilt into the launch area and towards his newly built WAVE, painted a glossy dark green-grayish colour with bright red, yellow and orange flames erupting from the lower end of the legs and arms. Him and his mates had done it yesterday along with their own WAVE's in a celebration of graduating the day before. The paint job was still so new Hewitt still wasn't sure if the high-ups approved. Buckling the last few straps of his flight gear as he climbs into the co(kpit, he begins his series of pre-flight checks, secures his helmet - also painted, in the likeness of a dragon's head along with his name, callsign, etc - and commences with the power up sequence. Soon all systems are in the green and ready to go.*

Hewitt: Flight control, this is Draco requesting permission to launch over.

Flight Control: Acknowledged Draco, you are cleared to launch.

*Hewitt barely heard the numerous hissing and humming sounds as the launch tube sealed around him and prepared to shoot him into the void of space. Inside his co(kpit a big red, flashing button indicated he was now ready for launch.*

Hewitt: Roger that control. Let's burn the tires and light the fires!

*Hewitt hit the flashing red button and suddenly felt ten times heavier as his WAVE was launched from the Illustrious. Soon gun metal gray was replaced by black with white dots, unmoving despite the obvious forces in play. Soon the acceleration cut out and Hewitt was floating free in space. A few seconds later and green letters also floated... up onto his HUD. Hewitt quickly scanned the briefing and after checking his sensor grid, decides to join the group headed for the Apollo.*

[Hewitt]

Originally posted by Fluffie
ok, I am the only infantry dude around. I see no mention of my kind of guys on the battle report, so I'll just assume I'm still sitting around in my quarters.

Or maybe I'm already geared up, holding on tight to my SMG and waiting for further orders from Command. A lone suit in space sounds bad, y'know.

Hey, the ship your on might well be boarded... think about it.

[Fluffie]

Hence the "ready" part of the post.. I was more hoping of boarding another ship though, some funky flying action with a high speed assault shuttle first, finished by a l33t boarding action and killing everyone hostile aboard the ship.

You know, the usual hero stuff

[[IV-CL]Zappa]

Name: Shogun Mk II
Class: Medium
Height: 17m
Mass: 70 tons
Armor: 65/65/80/60/60/30
Top Speed: 98 kph
Boosters: 30 seconds
Slots: 5/5/4/4/3/1/1/1
Summary: The Shogun is built with heavy combat in mind. It can be equipped with heavy weapons and armor without sacrificing too much speed. However, the Shogun’s extra equipment package is more limited.
Cost: 14000

Left Arm:
Name: DD2 Claymore
Type: Sword
Damage: 15
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2000
1 slot left

Right Arm:
Name: DD2 Claymore
Type: Sword
Damage: 15
Range: 1
Firing Rate: N/A
Slots: 4
Cost: 2000
1 slot left

Right Shoulder:
4 slots left

Left Shoulder:
4 slots left

Torso: 3 slots left

Head:
Targetting computer (1000)

Right leg:
Steel plating (500)

Left leg:
Steel plating (500)

Name Pilot: Thorin McCrow
age: 25
maritial status: engaged
militairy rank: private
specifications: clean record, overal good combatant, leadership quality, but refused further promotions. recently called back to active duty
looks: one of those freaks from those strange cults, worshipping the ways of the old world (a rocker, but so far in the future, it is considered differently )
skills: swordcombat, mecha-combat - close quarter

[Hudre]

Hudre jerked upwards as the alarm went off, his bunk creaking underneath him, but the sound was inaudible with the alarm blaring and the various WAVE pilots around him yelling while quickly putting their uniforms on. Hudre got off his bunk and began putting on his clothes, John right next to him, going faster since he was on a lower bunk and had gotten up faster.

Hudre and John raced down the corridors of the Illustrious, not needing to look at the various signs on the wall pointing to the hangars. The drill seargent had brought them here enough for them to memorize the way.

As the two pilots neared the hangar, they could hear an officer yelling at the pilots to hurry, also saying that their was no time to wait. Hudre passed him by without a look and ran to his Heron, the shotgun in the right hand of his WAVE pointed at the ground, but Hudre knew that soon that that weapon would be pointed at an enemy Majestic.

Hudre leaped up the ladder to the ****pit with ease, the training the drill seargent had given them on simply climbing ladders not seeming so irrelevent now. Hudre sat down on his ****pit and strapped himself in. He pressed the button that closed the WAVE's ****pit and while it was closing, hit and flicked the various switches to boot up his WAVE and his targeting computer.

Looking at the screen that showed his course of action, it simply showed objectifs. Save the Illustrious and Ajax. Save the Earth refugees. Hudre highlited those two. He had decided that the 11th battle group could fight back, and other WAVE's would help them.

Hudre fit on his helmet and looked out of the side of his ****pit at Johns WAVE. He saw Johns head turn and look at him back. They nodded to each other, and simultaneously unlocked their WAVE's. They got a slight jolt from the unlocking, and then activated their boosters. Suddenly they were surrounded by space, but Hudre knew it was not empty. His radar and tagetting copmputer showed lots of ship. Too much to fight, but Hudre knew he had to try to keep them back.

Hudre activated his comm "Alright John, let's stay with the illustrious and escort her out of here. But keep your eye on the Earth refugees whenever you can, if they are getting slaughtered, we should help them."

[Breezer]

*breezer sat on the john early in the morning *

"man, i should NOT have had milk and space cafeteria burritos together!"

Suddenly, to break the early morning silence, the alarm sounded out to the pilots.

"Ah fudge! Never fails!"

Breezer made a quick finish and ran out, zipping up his flight suit. There was pandemonium in the hall ways. WAVE and gunship pilots everywhere, scrambling for their ships. Breezer ran to the Gunship deck where his ship was docked. He quickly boarded and took his place at the controls. The moment had come. He placed the picture of his girlfriend Lauren on the dash. Was she still alive? He had not heard from her since the Majestic attack. Those beesnatches. They would pay.

"Breezer to control, ready for launch, requesting clearance to take off"

"You're cleared dang it! GO GO GO!"

Yeesh, Breezer thought to himself. They sure did get huffy in moments like this. Breezer fired up the engines and launched, entering the lonliness of space. He looked at his scanners to get a reading on the rest of his squadron and took a look at the mission objectives on his screen.

"hmmm. the illustrious needs escort eh? can do!"

He keeps attentive to his radar for any incoming hostiles and flies around to approach the illustriuos from behind. he keeps a safe following distance and prepares his weapons and boosters to be able to zoom in and destroy any hostile ship that attempts to fire on the illustrious. He speaks over the com

"Breezer to the 52d. Sorry for being late, but I had to stop in the bathroom. Good luck to ya, I'll be attempting to cover the Illustrious"

[Flaag]

As soon as the alarm sounded Triolus woke up, got dressed, then rushed to the hanger. He found his WAVE among the few remaining, climbed into the co(kpit and sealed the door, he then ran the bare minimum of safety checks.

"Harbinger reportring for duty, requesting permission to kick some *ss out there!"

He cluched at his dragon medallion as the reply came

[David91]

Name: Shogun Mk II
Armor: 65/65/85/60/60/30
Slots: 5/1/4/4/1/1/1/0
Cost: 14000

Head: Targeting Computer 1000

Right Arm: Ingstan SMG 4000 (Rifle's bigger, but MGs do slightly more damage ).

Chest: 2 Steel Plating 1000

Remaining RP: 0

[Inspectre]

/ooc Ok, I've been busy with that accurse RL, and also upgrading the openning battle post to give you a bit more information about the different units involved in the combat. Actual DMs coming up soon, as I'm working on it right now, but unfortunately my comp is acting up and being the paranoid person I am, I'm going to run a Virus Scan. Which could take awhile. ooc/

[Inspectre]

/ooc

In answer to PK's question, there are several ways to go about neutralizing a capital ship.

1. Blow it to h*ll, turning it into the metal version of swiss cheese, generally with another capital ship
2. Utterly cripple it, leaving its crew to either surrender, or sit there and rot.
3. Cause enough damage to the capital ship that it's power grid becomes unstable, and it's reactor is damaged enough that it is shut down - this is the most likely outcome of a ship-to-ship engagement, and generally requires the loser to be either abandoned, or dragged back to a repair yard for extensive refit and repair, including a replacement of the massive fusion engine
4. Cause enough damage to the capital ship's reactor and power grid that the reactor goes critical and explodes, generally taking out anything within a certain radius (1km for BCs) when the reactor blows up.

Those are primarily the outside methods. Another BIG thing that most capital ships do is disgorge assault shuttles carrying powered armor. WAVEs can also tag along to board the enemy ship as well. Once aboard, the WAVEs and powered armor attempt to

5. Capture the ship
6. Cripple the ship by planting enough bombs to destroy its power grid, etc.
7. "Destroy" the ship by planting breaching charges on the ship's reactor, causing the fusion reactor to shut down
8. Blow the entire ship up by planting breaching charges on the ship's reactor, causing the fusion reactor to go critical, generally killing everyone onboard and anything within a certain radius.


/ooc Another Note: Most people have the right idea about the Crew Quarters, for the most part. The Crew Quarters are divided up into several sections, each section positioned along the length of the ship. With only the light gravity generated by the Illusrious’s spin generators, bunks can be stacked ten high, with little worry of someone injuring themselves upon jumping out of their bunk (of course, there is a ladder also ).

For those in the Mars battle, please note that while the leading squadron of Majestic gunships has entered firing range, you do not have to engage them specifically. ooc/


Earth

Lady Hawk

Private Johnson (Victor's the captured one) nods. "Alright. Let's do it." He then stomps off to finish getting into his powered armor, and mobilize the rest of his men. Travis Cartwright, the doctor who would be coming with you, and the man that saved Candice's life, walks up to you. "I just checked on Candice. She's stable, but still in a light coma. She should awaken in a day or two. She was pretty banged up, however, so I doubt she'll be ready for combat anytime soon. Well, I better go get my field equipment." The doctor then walks off; leaving you alone with the memories of this place, the farm that was once your home.

An hour later, Johnson returns and nods to you. "Alright, we are ready. The men in the unloaded ambulance will lead; you and the APC will follow at a distance. Hopefully we can get at least partially into the city before we're noticed."

You nod in reply, and the two of you exit the farm house. Johnson runs over to the ambulance, while you run over to your Shogun. Quickly scaling the ladder, you run through the short list of start-up procedures, and bring the metal behemoth to life. As the ambulance starts to head down the road, you follow after it, a few meters behind the APC.
---------------------------

A few hours later, you and the convoy arrive at the city. While the ambulance pulls up to a roadblock stretched against one of the smaller roads leading into the city, you and the APC hunker down behind a hill. You watch the ensuing scene with your WAV's low-quality thermal vision, and manage to watch a blur of heat, which you assume to be a guard, approach the ambulance. The blur stands by the driver side of the ambulance for some time, and then motions to several of its companions, clearly urging them to go around and search the back of the truck.
"Ah sh*t, they're about to discover us. All units, move forward and engage! Repeat, engage!" Johnson's voice shouted over the channel, and a moment later you see several flashes of heat as Johnson pulls out his pistol and shoots the surprised guard in the face. The rebel infantry leap out the back of the ambulance and begin to fire at the startled, approaching guards, while the APC surges forward to bring its machine gun and passengers into the fight.


Mars

All

Upon launching, you can see the former CBC Apollo off to your right, set against the backdrop of Mars. It is concentrating its firepower on the Illustrious, although none of the nearby ships have managed to bring their beam weapons to bear on each other . . . yet. The Illustrious is dangerously close to Mars Orbital, although at the moment it seems to be concentrating its resources against the Ajax and other nearby ships within the 11th Battlegroup. One of the 11th Battlegroup's destroyers has unfortunately already docked, and is no doubt now swarming with Majestic troops. This also holds true for one of the 11th’s valuable BCs, although the fighting does not appear to be especially desperate on that ship yet.

The former Commonwealth battlecruiser Kiros is also docked with the massive space station, and appears to be badly damaged, perhaps even crippled. The rest of the captured Commonwealth ships are all some distance away from the station, and all are moving under their own power. These are the closest Majestic ships to the Illustrious, with the Apollo being closest among them. Several minutes away are the Majestic reinforcements coming out from around Mars, their WAVEs and gunships streaming out ahead of them at maximum thrust.

Most of the Mars Orbital units are either closing on the Ajax to launch attack runs, or are hanging back as if waiting for something . . .
The former 2nd Commonwealth Mars Guard Regiment has launched from the Apollo, and is rapidly closing with the Illustrious, while the rest of the captured Commonwealth units attack other ships within the 11th Battlegroup.

The exception to this appears to be the 9th Commonwealth Mars Guard, and the 14th Commonwealth Mars Recon Regiment, which are rapidly closing with the refugee ships along with the captured MGB Berserker.

Dunin

/ooc Question answered above. Ooc/


You quickly climb into your Raptor heavy fighter and power it up, hurrying through the checklist before launching. Once in flight you check the flight stick’s responsiveness, and nod as it performs as expected. For the moment, at least, the aging fighter design would respond quickly to your every command. Responsiveness you will no doubt need, as you are in a heavy fighter and armed only with a rack of Needler rockets. Fortunately, you can retreat back to the Illustrious for a quick reload (for a small fee of requisition points ), but in the midst of combat this could prove difficult. Your thoughts drift to Cali for a moment as you wait for the rest of your squadron to form up, and you wonder if she is alright with Majestic’s now-evident take-over of Mars as well. A moment later, the cool voice of Julian Murphy, your Company commander, comes over the comm system.
“Alright pilots. We have incoming from the Apollo. Let’s give them h*ll. Reduce your sensor range until only the incoming are invisible. There are a lot of non-combatant hostiles out there, and I don’t want anyone distracted in the coming battle.”
Following his orders, you reduce your sensor range until only the incoming from the Apollo are visible, clearing your sensor screen immensely as the hundreds of other distant Majestic units are blocked out.
“All pilots, break and attack.” Julian orders a minute later, as the leading squadron of Majestic gunships comes within range.

Planetkiller II

You quickly climb into your WAVE’s ****pit and launch. As the Apollo is the closest enemy capital ship to the Illustrious, you head for it immediately after launching. Coming in the opposite direction, however, are the WAVEs and gunships of the Apollo. You are not quite sure how close the approaching enemy is, however, due to the fact that their sensor contacts are partially merged with the hundreds of other hostile contacts filling your sensor display. The voice of Jack Robinson suddenly comes in over your comm system, giving you some needed advice.
“All pilots, reduce your sensor range down. It’ll help clear your board of hostiles.”
Upon following his advice, you see that your sensor board has cleared immensely, helping you see that the leading gunships of the Apollo have entered firing range.

/ooc You can either engage these guys (approaching gunships and WAVEs), or push on to the Apollo. Either way you’re going to have to fight through them, and engage the escort units that stayed back close to the Apollo. ooc/

No Dachi

The comms line is silent for several moments, and then a female voice responds, obviously not the male flight controller that supervised your launch. “This is Illustrious. We currently have incoming from the Apollo. Intercept them, please. Sending data now.” Your sensor grid blinks off for a moment, and then blinks back on, revealing a scaled-down version of the battlefield that has removed many of the distant hostile contacts. Instead, your sensor display the area immediately surrounding the Illustrious, and you can see the incoming from the Apollo closing in from the edge of the sensor grid. The leading squadron of contacts are labeled as Nighthawk and Mosquito gunships, the labels probably being supplied by the Illustrious’s sensors.

Crazyboy

Ralph gets unsteadily to his feet, downing the last of his drink as he rises. Wiping his mouth, he shakes his head before running after you. “Whoa . . . that last one was a dozy. Hope I can still fly straight, or at least only slightly crooked!” Ralph calls after you as he charges down the hallway just a few steps behind you, trying to catch up. He gradually begins to gain on you, until he is just one or two steps behind. Unfortunately, a female WAVE Rider chose that moment to run out of a small side hallway, no doubt heading for the flight deck as well. You manage to brush past her without too much trouble, but Ralph is not quite as fast on his feet and pushes past her, sending her stumbling toward another side hallway. Unbelievably, a second WAVE Rider chooses just that moment to run out, and he crashes into the off-balance female. As the two of them rebound off of a wall, Ralph somehow manages to catch up with you, snickering. “I don’t think I’ve ever managed that trick in the simulators before. Score one for the fly boys!”

Thankfully, the two of you manage to make it to the flight deck without further incident or crewmen popping out in front of you. You manage to get into the ****pit of your gunship without too much trouble, albeit with a bit more thump that you intended. A few minutes later, and you are launched into space, the planet Mars filling up most of your ****pit for the moment. Almost dead ahead you can see the bulk of the Apollo, but when you check your sensors for incoming, all you see is a mass of red dots! You wonder if perhaps the alcohol was splitting the hostile contacts, thus making them appear more numerous, but your confusion is cured when your squadron leader, Samuel Cruz, comms you with the rest of the squadron. “All pilots, reduce your sensor display’s range, until only the incoming from the Apollo are visible. That should get rid of most of those hostile contacts.”
You quickly obey, and are relived when you see only one set of sensor contacts remain as the Apollo’s gunships and WAVEs close.
“Here they come!” Ralph shouts over the comm as the leading squadron of gunships come into firing range.

Fluffie

You hop onto the back of the tank as Nicholas throws it into gear, taking you away from the sword-wielding mad-man as he draws a pistol and somehow manages to gun down three Commonwealth soldiers, all armed with assault rifles. The man calmly walks over to the remains of your shotgun, but upon yanking out discovers that his sword blade has been badly bent, rending the weapon useless. Your last view of him is of him throwing the sword blade down in disgust.

A sense of unease suddenly fills you with dread, and you order Nicholas to take you to your house, instead of to the pick-up point as planned.

Your sense of dread increases many fold as you and Nicholas pull into the driveway. The front door to your house was wide open, and as you jumped off the tank you saw that it had been kicked open. You call out to Senta and Johan, but receive no answer. Heedless of the danger, you charge into the house, and stop dead in your tracks a few feet within the house, shocked still by the horror awaiting you. The entire house was a wreck, with pictures off of their wall hangings and furniture upended, as if a struggle had taken place here. Worse still, however, was the blood – splashes of crimson were scattered about almost every room, and a wide trail of crimson-stained carpet leads you from the front door to the foot of the stairs leading up to the second floor. Mounting the steps on shivering legs, you reach the second floor, and find the blood trail leading you over to the attic trapdoor. This too, was also open, with the ladder fully extended to the floor. Deathly afraid of what you will find up in the attic, you barely manage to marshal your fear as you put your right foot on the first rung of the ladder. Taking a deep breath, you steady yourself, and climb upward into the attic. Pulling yourself up into the large attic, you carefully look around. Nothing leaps out of the shadows at you, which is good, but a foul odor now assaults your nose: the smell of death. Finding that the floor boards of the attic have also been stained into a trail of crimson, you continue to follow this trail of blood to wherever it leads. Rounding a corner of boxes, you suddenly see what has caused the trail of blood. You can feel the blood drain from your face, and your throat constricts at the sight of two bodies hanging from the attic rafters like sides of beef. You do not even need to examine the bodies to know that the two are Senta and Johan. They had evidently been tortured to death, as their bodies were covered in long shallow gashes and both of them had been disemboweled. The bile in your stomach suddenly flows up, and you double over before heaving out the contents of your stomach. As you straighten, the back of your head encounters the cold barrel of a handgun. You heard the sharp click of the pistol’s hammer being ****ed, and then a mocking voice saying, “Go join your family.” There is a loud bang . . .

The scramble alarm blares into your room, snapping you awake.

SCRAMBLE, ALL PILOTS SCRAMBLE!!!

A moment later, the curtain sealing off your bunk from the rest of the Crew Quarters parts, and Nicholas sticks his muscular head through the opening.
“Comrade? They’ve just called all of the powered infantry to the armory.”
Nicholas’s face then splits into a grin as he says, “It’s time to suit up, comrade!”
Sure enough a minute later the alarm blares again.

ALL POWERED INFANTRY, REPORT TO THE ARMORY.

Hewitt

As the alarm blares, jolting you awake, you curse the Fates for giving you such a nice dream, and then ending it just as it was getting good. ( ) Nevertheless, you haul yourself out of your bunk, hoping out to drift down to the Crew Quarters floor several bunks below. In the low gravity, you land lightly, and straighten out your shirt and pants before slipping on your uniform jacket. You then push past several other crewmen before reaching the door and racing out into the hallway. You charge down the hallway, nimbly dodging several crewmen who are a bit less eager to get to their stations than you are. You soon see the Main Hallway a few dozen meters ahead. Once in the Main Hallway, you’ll be but a short distance from the Flight Deck. Pouring on yet more speed, you enter the hallway, and – get ran into from the side! In the low gravity of the Illustrious’s corridors, the inertia of the impact is greater than the gravity, and thus instead of simply falling over, you and the idiot that slammed into you both go flying into the far wall. Being sandwiched in between the wall and your “attacker” does little for your mood, nor your body as the air is squeezed out of your lungs. Thankfully, a moment later you rebound, and give this joker the same treatment he gave you as the two of you bounce off the wall at an angle and slam down onto the floor. A moment after you land, you manage to plant one hand against the floor, and the other hand against the guy’s body before pushing yourself up to get a look at him. You open your mouth to scream some obscenities into this jerk’s face, but upon looking into the soft chocolate brown eyes, your mouth snaps shut so fast you almost bite your tongue.
“Ugh . . . hi Hewitt.” Claire gasps, and then holds a hand up.
“Do you, uhhhhh . . . mind getting off of me?”
It is only at this point that you notice not only are you lying on top of Claire, but that your right hand is lying on her chest.
A few minutes later, the two of you have managed to get untangled and get back onto your feet. Claire brushes down her uniform, and then explains.
“Sorry about that. Someone crashed into me from behind and send me sprawling into you. Well, I’d better get to my WAVE. See you later, Hewitt.”
Claire then runs off, leaving you to stare after her . . .
Eventually, you manage to pull yourself together, and make your way to the Flight Deck. Finally, you launch, and dead ahead of you is the Apollo. You push your WAVE to its maximum speed, and head for the Majestic Battlecruiser. In between you and your target, however, is a large mass of gunships and WAVEs launched from the Apollo. A large mass of gunships and WAVEs that you can’t make out on your sensor board, due to the sheer number of hostile contacts around you. Your comm system suddenly crackles to life, however, giving you the solution to this problem. “This is Captain Müeller. Reduce sensor display down to the immediate area around the Illustrious. It will clear your screen of all hostile contacts except those coming from the Apollo.”
You do so, and the effect is immediate as the number of red blips on your screen drops to just one clump: the clump directly ahead of you. The clump of hostiles whose leading gunship squadron just entered maximum firing range.

Zappa

SCRAMBLE!! ALL PILOTS, SCRAMBLE!!

The alarm blares over the intercom, and repeats itself again. Startled by the sudden noise, you nearly drop the glass that you are holding up to your lips for a drink. Unfortunately, while you manage to keep your hold on the glass, a small amount of your drink sloshes out onto your uniform. A nearby crewman snickers at this, but quickly shuts up as you turn to stare at him. A moment later he gets up and walks away, hurrying off to his own station. You manage to dap some of your drink off your uniform with a handful of napkins, and then you leave the Bar and head down to the Flight Deck as fast as you can. You hop into your WAVE’s ****pit, and run through the startup procedures. You are then launched through one of the Launching Tubes, and emerge into space, the bulk of the Apollo almost directly in front of you. Glancing down at your sensor board, you see that it is a mess of hostile contacts, and you wonder if there is anyway to fix that before your comm system comes to life. “This is Christopher Zane. All WAVE Riders, form up. Reduce your sensor display range down to the immediate area surrounding the Illustrious to clear up those sensor displays. Alright, here comes the Apollo’s WAVE and gunship compliment. Let’s take it to them.”
Looking down at your cleared sensor screen, you can see that the leading squadron of gunships has entered maximum firing range.

Hudre

You and John hurriedly get dressed, and head down to the Flight Deck. For once, you are thankful for your drill sergeant’s lessons, as you manage to quickly hop into your WAVE and run through the start-up procedure with greater speed and efficiency that you managed back when you were still part of the Manhattan Defense Force. Those days seemed like years ago now. For a moment you reminiscence about your life back on Earth, and then Flight Control announces that you are ready for launch. You quickly maneuver your WAVE into a launch tube, and ignite your boosters to give yourself a little extra oomph as you are launched out. There is silence for a moment, as you try to figure out just what the h*ck your sensor screen is showing you. A very large portion of it is red with hostile contacts, and you cannot separate each individual unit. A minute later your comm system comes to life as John messages you.
“D*mn, I can’t make anything out. How am I supposed to fight if I can’t tell where the other guy is!!??”
The answer proves to be forthcoming, as your comm system comes to life again a moment later. “This is Christopher Zane. All WAVE Riders, form up. Reduce your sensor display range down to the immediate area surrounding the Illustrious to clear up those sensor displays. Alright, here comes the Apollo’s WAVE and gunship compliment. Let’s take it to them.”
Following your Squadron Commander’s advice, you notice a tremendous difference as almost all of the hostile contacts disappear, to be replaced with a single large group of hostile moving toward you. A moment later, you can see that the leading gunships of the Apollo’s escorts have entered maximum firing range.

Breezer

You manage to quickly “take care of business”, despite the surprise scramble. At least you manage to avoid fouling your clothes, so that no one gets the wrong idea about you entering combat ( ). You manage to make it to your gunship without further incident, and quickly run through the start-up procedures and launch. You manage to find your squadron, and quickly join up with them. A moment after sending your apology, your squadron commander, Jean-Luc Valon, comms you. “Oh . . . scared sh*tless, are you rookie? Well, I suppose taking time to go to the potty is better than fouling yourself when you get into combat. Form up and get ready, we’ve got incoming from the Apollo.” (Jean-Luc is a Class A *sshole. Pay him no heed, except for obeying orders. ) A few moments later, the voice of your Company Commander, Angela Richards, comes over the comm. “Alright, stow the chatter pilots. We’ve got inbound from the Apollo. Decrease your sensor display range down to the immediate area surrounding the Illustrious so that you can make some sense of this sensor contact soup.”
You follow her orders, and immediately your contact-cluttered screen is replaced with a much better view of the approaching enemy gunships and WAVEs. As the leading gunship squadron enters maximum firing range, Jean-Luc roars over the comm, “BREAK AND ATTACK PILOTS!!!”

Flaag

Despite the rude awakening the scramble alarm gives you, you manage to quickly pull yourself together, get dressed, and hustle down to the Flight Deck. Even so, you are one of the last pilots to arrive and launch from the Illustrious. Regardless, you manage to find your WAVE squadron and link up with it. You broadcast your message, and a moment later receive a reply from your Squadron Commander, Ferdinand Pelorez, “Alright! That’s the kind of thing I want to hear! Decrease your sensor range down to the area around the Illustrious, so you can make some sense out of that hostile contact soup, and then get ready. They’re coming.”
You follow his advice, and indeed see an immediate improvement over the mass of red filling most of your sensor screen. With the improved view, you can also see that your squadron commander is right: the leading squadron of Majestic gunships just entered maximum firing range.

David91

The scramble alarm jolts you awake, and for a moment you mutter obscenities to yourself about the possibility of the sudden noise giving you a heart attack. Regardless, you manage to quickly get dressed and make your way down to the Flight Deck. Upon entering, you find that you are one of the last to launch, but also find that Vincent is waiting for you. He waves to you, and calls “Time to show these youngins what we can do!” He then bounds up his WAVE’s ladder, pulling himself into his vehicle’s ****pit and then sealing it. You follow his example, and a few minutes later the two of you are launched. Immediately your eyes are assailed by the mass of red covering your sensor screen from all of the hostile contacts. Thankfully, your friend Vincent has a solution to this. “I was playing around with this in the simulator one day. Access your sensor screen controls, and tell it to reduce the range down to the immediate area around the Illustrious. That’ll get rid of most of the contacts.”
Following your friend’s advice, you notice a markable improvement as most of the red disappears, leaving only one ugly mass left, which is the group of gunships and WAVEs coming in from the Illustrious. A moment later your sensors report that the leading squadron of gunships from the Apollo has entered maximum firing distance.

[[IV-CL]Zappa]

The alarm blares over the intercom, and repeats itself again. Startled by the sudden noise, you nearly drop the glass that you are holding up to your lips for a drink. Unfortunately, while you manage to keep your hold on the glass, a small amount of your drink sloshes out onto your uniform. A nearby crewman snickers at this, but quickly shuts up as you turn to stare at him. A moment later he gets up and walks away, hurrying off to his own station. You manage to dap some of your drink off your uniform with a handful of napkins, and then you leave the Bar and head down to the Flight Deck as fast as you can. You hop into your WAVE’s ****pit, and run through the startup procedures. You are then launched through one of the Launching Tubes, and emerge into space, the bulk of the Apollo almost directly in front of you. Glancing down at your sensor board, you see that it is a mess of hostile contacts, and you wonder if there is anyway to fix that before your comm system comes to life. “This is Christopher Zane. All WAVE Riders, form up. Reduce your sensor display range down to the immediate area surrounding the Illustrious to clear up those sensor displays. Alright, here comes the Apollo’s WAVE and gunship compliment. Let’s take it to them.”
Looking down at your cleared sensor screen, you can see that the leading squadron of gunships has entered maximum firing range.

*waits for his queue, then ignites his thrusters, and speeds off towards the Apollo's WAVE, dodging the shots of the gunships as he does his best to pilot his WAVE passed them. if he should happen to pass near one, but I do mean near, he lashes out with the claymores. once passed, he picks out the weakest meleeWAVE of the enemy, since that's most likely to also be the strongest long distance WAVE, and charges it

[Dunin Hemm]

Meade listens to the orders spoken through the less than up-to-date radio of his ship. As the buzzing dies down, he places his left hand on the acceleration regulator and, after waiting for the faster ships to move ahead, he presses it forward and the ship's thrustors begin to work, sending the ship flying faster and faster.
Almost instantly, he presses down the red little button on the regulator and his afterburners roar into action. Moving at maximum pace his ship closes in on the enemy fighters, though Meade's mind drifts of to the reaction of the ship towards the afterburners: The ship has begun to tremble and he can hear small inner parts of it bumping around and making a racket. Then he hears a small, sharp pang! and the weezing sound of something leaking out of a small pipe. He feels unnerved, to say the least, but the ship is old, and worse things have happened to it.
But now, more important matters are closing in: The intercepting enemy. Meade's hand travels over the panels in front of him, flipping switches to open the bombay and readying the rockets. He is just about to fire as the enemy responds with its cannons. Meade gets only time enough to fire off two rockets before the laser reaches him. He pulls the stearing stick towards him and the Raptor turns upwards, but a violent shake anounces a hit. The sound of his engine takes on a lower tone, but all seems fine for the moment. He veers off to attack again, and then another trouble shows its ugly face: His left stearing thrustor is out; he cannot turn right. He gives the panels a slap then prepares to attack again.

[Flaag]

*flies off towards the Apollo's WAVEs, avoiding the gunships. When he gets to the WAVEs he charges for the nearest one and fires his rifle as soon as he can.

[Fluffie]

Fluffie sits up, or at least as much as the small bunk allowed him to. Probably looking pale and feeling a bit sweaty after his nightmare, he simple blinks his eyes and nods at Nicholas. Grabbing the outsides of the bunk and pulling himself out, he takes off his shirt and quickly reaches for a new, fresh one, as he keeps following Nicholas to the armoury. Stroking the hair out of his face, he slowly shakes his head and moves up next to Nicholas.

"Dreamt they were dead I did..."

"Dead?"

The Russian Bear grins shortly, continueing by looking at Fluffie's pale face. The grin fades away and Nicholas is silent for a moment.

"I thought you meant them... But you look like you'd regret killing them."

Not replying immidiatly, they turned around a corner and kept on heading for the Armoury, which suddenly seemed farther away than ever. Fluffie took a short breath, his partner waiting in silence for the other to speak.

"My family.. Senta.. Johan, killed - no, not killed, tortured till they died of their wounds. In our bloody own house damnit..

You remember that guy with the sword? The voice that spoke before he killed me too sounded like his.."

Fluffie sighs and Nicholas puts his arm around Fluffie's shoulder for a moment, pulling him close - hugging him, while at the same moment still dragging him to the Armoury.

"Don't worry about Senta, or Johan. They're fine, they've got that... thing about them. Just like you, you're still alive after all this madness, aren't you?"

Laughing for a moment, the entrance to the Amoury finally appeared up ahead.

"We'll just get into our suits and show them what we're made of - just imagine that everyone we kill is that lousy swordfighting prick, you're bound to feel better."

"I don't know..."

And with that, the two finally made it into the Amoury, along with a large number of other infantry units. Heading towards their suits and weaponry, they suited up and joined up again, awaiting further orders...

[Hudre]

Hudre shrugs. They had entered maximum firing range. He might as well see if he can get some hits off before the battle gets very intense. Hudre operates his controls, bringing his machine gun to aim at the nearest enemy. He begins firing, using his targetting computer to bring the best accuracy possible.

[Breezer]

*Paying no head to the squadron commanders remarks, Breezer just chuckles as the radar screen clears up. On command from Jean-Luc, Breezer breaks formation, banking off to the right as other pilots bank left, down, and up. He locates the closest WAVE or gunship to where he is, and readies his trigger finger as it comes into range. He lines up the crosshairs with the incoming ship, and the very moment it is in range he starts to fire, prepared for any sudden maneuvers they will undoubtedly make*

[No Dachi]

No Dachi nods silently and lines up the target reticule - little more than a small circle on his HUD - with one of the many bright lights he can see in the distance between himself and the Appollo. Of course, it would be easier if he were to have a targetting computer, but he'd heard dark rumours from the neo-veterans about the reliability of such computers in the lower-ranks club of the Illustrious. He tended to get more out of said veterans than most of the other 51st pilots did, for they were more willing to talk to him. Seasoned veterans of combat learned to recognise eachother by that odd look in their eyes one got after seeing one's friends and comrades gunned down or blown to pieces day after day, battle after battle through a long campaign - or so some thought. Were it true, No Dachi had apparently not lost the distant look in his eyes. Were it not, then apparently the veterans simply warmed to him for some other reason. He lifts his right hand to the tiny switchboard of his helmet, preparing to turn off his link to the Illustrious but leave the flight controllers able to speak to him, and responds.

"Acknowledged. Moving to intercept enemy Gunship formations. Leaving one-way channel open for subsequent orders, over."

With that, he switches off his voice link to the Illustrious and also the switch marked 'wingmen', leaving only his link to the 52nd WAVE Squadron commander's mech on. Gunning the thrusters of his own WAVE forward, toward the encroaching enemy forces, he looks on the sensor data feed and identifies the nearest clump of Mosquitos tags. More heavily armoured than the Nighthawks but also slower - No Dachi had been sure to memorise the details of the modern hardware that was in the field. This done, he speaks into the tiny microphone bud again, not entirely sure whose command he would be fighting under for this battle.

"Sir? Morotaki here, any orders regarding formation or is it just free-for-all duckshooting?"

With that, he glances down at the sensor grid again, checking this time to see if he has any other 51st WAVEs nearby to form up with, and if so what their ID tags are. No Dachi had gone to the trouble of learning the names that matched each ID tag in the long hours of monotony that came between activities during his training. As a precaution, he switched the channel for friendly traffic on again in case anyone needed to warn him of imprending danger...

[Planetkiller II]

ooc// the Apollo should have around 120 WAVEs, right? Also, who's Jack Robinson? //ooc

*PK addresses the nearest WAVEs of the 52nd*

"OK, let's take it to them people! Can some of you give me cover, I'm going to try and cut a path for our assault shuttles to the Apollo."

*Waiting only momentarily for a reply, PK switched his thrusters up to maximum burn, barreling towards the incomming mechs. He brings his SMGs to bear on the closest, and lets rip, still speeding straight at. As he reaches it, he stops firing and simply shoulder barges the Majestic mech out of his way, still continuing towards the Apollo. He checks his board to find out the results of his actions.*

[David91]

Originally posted by Inspectre
David91

The scramble alarm jolts you awake, and for a moment you mutter obscenities to yourself about the possibility of the sudden noise giving you a heart attack. Regardless, you manage to quickly get dressed and make your way down to the Flight Deck. Upon entering, you find that you are one of the last to launch, but also find that Vincent is waiting for you. He waves to you, and calls “Time to show these youngins what we can do!” He then bounds up his WAVE’s ladder, pulling himself into his vehicle’s ****pit and then sealing it. You follow his example, and a few minutes later the two of you are launched. Immediately your eyes are assailed by the mass of red covering your sensor screen from all of the hostile contacts. Thankfully, your friend Vincent has a solution to this. “I was playing around with this in the simulator one day. Access your sensor screen controls, and tell it to reduce the range down to the immediate area around the Illustrious. That’ll get rid of most of the contacts.”
Following your friend’s advice, you notice a markable improvement as most of the red disappears, leaving only one ugly mass left, which is the group of gunships and WAVEs coming in from the Illustrious. A moment later your sensors report that the leading squadron of gunships from the Apollo has entered maximum firing distance.

*David turns towards the enemy group, loading his weapons (though already loaded, so he readies them instead) and aims, not to fire yet and lose the shot, and then get shot at himself. A sensor bleeps at him annoyingly about some other unidentified ships somewhere, and he ignores it. The bleeping decides to get clever and attempt to annoy him as much as possible, so he spits on the sensor, and that sorts it out. He lifts his weapons and aims for the group, waiting for a good shot opportunity to come.*