|
|
| Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 0 post(s) |
Governor Odius
Doomheim
177
   |
Posted - 2012.10.18 02:11:00 -
[1] - Quote
The Assault on Platform 179:
In the Ready Room
There were about forty of them crowded into the ready room. Forty mercenaries from the Surface Response Front. The atmosphere in the room was high-energy. Several of the mercs were new, and obviously nervous. The more experienced few weren't helping, telling their most gruesome stories to the newbies. After a few minutes the side door banged open and a Civire man entered.
"Room, ten-hut!" He shouted. Shortly thereafter an blonde Amarrian woman with her hair in a tight bun entered. Atudad Jikuram, an apostate and SFR's most talented field commander. She strode briskly to the podium, paused a moment observing the team the company had assembled, and told them to take a seat.
"Yesterday at 0845 the Stellar Unity alliance launched an assault on our alliance's holdings in the GTY-FW system. Seven of the system's ten planets are completely under their control. Planets IV, IX, and X are being contested. We have lost control of every moon, and all of the system's starbases have been forced into reinforced mode. We have control of the station, but several systems are still offline from the attack, and it will play no role in our upcoming mission.
"The alliance got a serious bloody nose yesterday morning, but we've managed to muster enough forces together to begin a serious assault to retake the system. SRF has been tasked to retake planet VIII, and SRF leadership in turn tasked me to retake platform one seven nine. The team engaged in this mission is being designated element GÇ£Tailor.GÇ¥ My callsign, then, will be GÇ£Tailor Six.GÇ¥ I understand many of you are fresh out of boot, and this will likely be your first encounter with a gas giant. Allow me to give you an idea of what you're in for. Platform one nine seven is 2500 kilometers above the planet's metallic core. At that altitude the acceleration of gravity is only 7.02 meters per second per second. Expect to jump higher and run faster than you are accustomed to. Most importantly, however, is that there is no utilizable natural terrain on GTY-FW VIII. If you are separated from the MCC, platform, or dropship, you will fall for about three minutes before the atmosphere will subject your suit to more heat and pressure than a cruiser sized hybrid charge.
"The only place you can put your feet is the MCC, the dropship carrying you, and the objective platform. For this reason we will be using launch platform MCCs. Instead of dropping from the MCC to the ground and proceeding from there, we will be calling aircraft directly onto the MCC and proceeding to the platform from there. Which brings us to the actual plan of attack.
GÇ£CommanderGÇÖs intent: SRF exhausts the clone supply of Stellar Unity ground forces in the district controlled by platform one seven nine. To do this I have identified three Clone Reactivation Units within the facility. When we have control of these the opposing forces are forced to drop in clones haphazardly from their MCC and we are able to pick them off a few at a time with minimal losses. The attack is conducted in three phases: the air assault, aerial insertion, and the assault on the platform.
"Friendly forces: This is a joint attack along with capsuleers from Anger Incorporated. They are simultaneously attacking orbital positions over every district. Because of the lack of ground to fire on we are not getting any interdictive support, however they are projecting sensor dampeners and remote sensor boosters onto the field once they control the space above us. This tightens your suit's scan resolution, and weakens that of our opponents. Squad leaders can arrange for eWar intervention via neocom. Element GÇ£DressageGÇ¥ is assaulting the district to our north. Element GÇ£GeoGÇ¥ will be operating in the district to our southwest. The district to our east will be assaulted by element GÇ£ArborGÇ¥. They are not available to assist with this mission.
GÇ£To explain the details of the air assault and aerial insertion is the Commander of the Air Group for this mission, Adeirik Aeldern." A small man with a dark complexion and receding hairline stepped forward. Upon reaching the podium he shook Jikuram's hand and stepped in front of the microphone.
"Thank you, Col Jikuram. I am captain Aeldern, CAG for this mission. The MCC warps in here."
He four-finger pointed at the wall behind him and it lit up with a largely featureless map. The symbol for the MCC could be seen at one end next to lat/long coordinates. On the other end of the map was a shape, mostly rectangular but with several other rectangles jutting out. The coordinates next to it indicated a distance of about a kilometer between the two. On the other side of the platform was a red MCC symbol. The main rectangular body of the platform appeared to be 50 m by 100 m.
"Out of the 32 troops going in on this mission" he continued, "the commander has given me eight for the Air Group. I am leading four gunships to clear the air above the platform for the dropships that are carrying you. The gunship element is using the callsigns necktie 1 through necktie 4. The dropship element is using the callsigns Fedora 1 through Fedora 4. Remember that while you are in the dropship you are referred to as an element of that dropship, alpha for the left gunner, foxtrot for the right forward seat. One of the dropships is accompanying us to provide cap transfer and remote repair support. We don't have spare time for it to return and pick up troops, so six of you are in a dropship during the dogfighting.
"Intelligence indicates that the corporation holding planet VIII only has twelve pilots worth mentioning. We expect to see two of them in this district. The Colonel gave me four minutes to clear the air, and given that anticipated resistance I expect to have it done in three. After three minutes the remaining three dropships take off from the MCC and all eight aircraft converge at this pier." |
Governor Odius
Doomheim
177
|
Posted - 2012.10.18 02:12:00 -
[2] - Quote
He pointed and one of the pieces jutting off the main rectangle lit up green.
"All four gunships open fire on the entrance here, which provides cover for the dropships to take position over this pier. We expect the opposition to call in installations, and may even have a HAV under the opening. Once you drop in and have secured the pier we are decommissioning all but one of the of the gunships and all but one of the dropships. That remaining dropship ferries the the six pilots back to the pier and they are divided amongst the three ground assault squads. The remaining dropship parks on the pier with an mCRU to provide a final fallback point. It is covered by myself in the remaining gunship. The rest of the fight is indoors, so we arenGÇÖt able to provide any more air cover. You're on your own on the ground from there."
Concluding on that note he wished the team luck and left the stage. Colonel Jikuram thanked him and positioned herself behind the podium. A woman near the back began standing up uncertainly, paused, then began sitting down again before the commander spoke again, introducing her.
"It seems that Lieutenant Vindole isn't quite certain if it's her turn to brief you all yet or not" she said. There was a round of laughter and Lieutenant Vindole blushed and began returning to her seat. After she was seated again the commander spoke up.
"And on that note here to brief you on the platform assault phase of the mission is Commander of the Ground Group, Mitendrittan Vindole." This was greeted by another round of laughter and Lieutenant Vindole stared at the floor for the entire trip to the podium.
"Um, thank you, Colonel Jikuram" she said, placing a series of note cards on the podium. She was a tall woman, nearly six feet. She had very dark hair, which was cut to reach her jaw. "I'm Lieutenant Vindole, I will be acting as the CGG in this mission." Murmuring could be heard among the collected troops. The CGG wasn't making a great impression.
"Our portion of the aerial insertion begins here." She pointed at the wall and the image zoomed in so that the entire screen was occupied by the landing pier. "Each squad will have a logistic troop fit for maximum defense. This troop's responsibility is to use the cover provided by the gunships to lay wall shielding, so have it in hand and ready to go before you even enter the dropship. The rest of us wait two seconds from when they drop before we follow suit. If your suit is destroyed at this point you can activate a new clone in Necktie 4 and drop back into the fight.GÇ¥
GÇ£Fedora 4.GÇ¥
GÇ£No, I...yes, thank you Captain Aeldern. Fedora 4.GÇ¥ She stopped for a moment to stare at her notes, took out a pen, and wrote something on one. GÇ£This will be the most dangerous part of the assault. We expect 217% casualties in the process. In essence, each of you is going to lose two suits, and five of you will lose three."
She flipped to the next note card. "If B CRU is the one...sorry" she flipped through her notecards again, having lost her place. "There are three CRUs that our enemies will be using." The map on the wall zoomed out again so that the entire platform was visible. Labyrinths of passageways and rooms could be seen. Three CRU symbols were visible, one of them shaded to indicate it was on a different floor than being shown. "We will divide to assault each simultaneously. As Colonel Jikarum said, once we have control of all three CRUs our opponents will be forced to rely on scattered drop-ins, and will be easy pickings.
"Wristwatch squad, led by Nardir Shila, will be assaulting this CRU, which I will call Alpha." One of the CRUs blinked green three times, then a letter A appeared next to it. "I have identified an attack path with three fallback points." A line drew itself from the pier along a some of the pathways to the CRU. Three rooms along the way flashed blue. "If A CRU is the one the opposing team chooses to use you are to fall back to the last of these fall-back points you encountered. You will hold that position as long as you can, until the other two squads take their objectives and are able to come support you. If it is not, you will proceed to the CRU and hack it, then move on to CRU charlie."
The highlighting on the path from the pier to A CRU disappeared, and was replaced by a path from the pier to B. Again, three rooms were highlighted in blue. "Sportcoat squad" her voice cracked, and she paused. There was another round of murmuring. She cleared her throat and began again. "Sportcoat squad under Amama Shila will be taking this objective. You have the same orders as wristwatch squad. Hold one of these points if your objective is the one our opponents choose to defend. Otherwise take it and proceed to Alpha."
She was able to give a nearly identical set of orders to loafer squad, identifying its leader as Isaala Vaukarieto and its secondary objective as Bravo, pausing only to apologize for something. No one was clear what mistake she felt sheGÇÖd made. After issuing the final squadGÇÖs orders she specified that she would be embedded with this squad. After a pause she concluded awkwardly with "that's...um...that's the platform assault phase. Um, thank you." Before stepping down, staring at the floor all the way back to her seat. Another round of laughter began, until the commander took the podium again.
"Shut up." Immediately the laughter ceased. Colonel Jikarum's orders carried a great deal of weight. "Lieutenant Vindole's concept of operations has borne the strictest scrutiny. It is our best option to take platform one seven nine with minimum casualties. We will be dropping in one hour. Squad assignments are on the wall behind you. Pilots, remember that six of you are on two lists. Those of you not on any list will report to corporate office, they'll try to find you a different mission. |
Governor Odius
Doomheim
177
|
Posted - 2012.10.18 02:12:00 -
[3] - Quote
Several mercs got up and began milling toward the squad assignment list. Vindole left the room in a manner that could only be described as "fleeing." Sergeants Shila seemed to have actually fallen asleep on top of each other at some point during the briefing. Captain Aeldern and Sergeant Vaukarieto bee-lined to the commander, intercepting her before she left the ready room.
"This is an important mission, ma'am." It was Vaukarieto spoke first. Jikarum looked at her, but said nothing. The importance of the mission was not lost on her, so surely Vaukarieto had not stopped her to tell her something she already knew. Vaukarieto seemed unsure what to say, and it was Aeldern who spoke next.
"Vindole's not ready to CGG for a mission like this. She got her implant, what, a month ago? Bring in Alta, or Suokka."
"Alta and Suokka are taking third district." The commander crossed her arms in impatience. "This being a gas giant, we had a shortage of pilots, so some of our platoon leaders are filling in those roles. More to the point, Vindole's academic record is impeccable. This is well within her capabilities."
"That's the academy, ma'am. Academy isn't battlefield," said Sergeant Vaukarieto, finding her voice again.
"That's the second time this conversation you've told me things I already know. Allow me to return the favor. Lieutenant Vindole is leading the Ground Group, you are leading loafer squad, and youGÇ¥ she pointed at Captain Aeldern, GÇ£are leading the Air Group. Those are my orders. I believe I already dismissed you. I'll see you when we arrive at the planet." With that she turned and shut the door. The pre-mission briefing was over.
|
Governor Odius
Doomheim
177
|
Posted - 2012.10.18 02:16:00 -
[4] - Quote
It depends on your drill manual. In the Air Force we say "Ten-hut". |
Governor Odius
Doomheim
177
|
Posted - 2012.10.18 04:28:00 -
[5] - Quote
Octavian Vetiver wrote:LT. Vindole sounds like a bit of a flake. Gets under pressure and the brain blips out. Could be a social thing related to her height. I bet she's gallente too. Sounds like a gallentean with that name.
I made all of the names by going to eve-agents.com and mixing and matching first and last names. Vindole is indeed a Gallante.
I also plan to add in three more installments to the story, depending upon interest level, which will feature Lt Vindole heavily. |
Governor Odius
Doomheim
177
|
Posted - 2012.10.18 21:28:00 -
[6] - Quote
Sparten 269 wrote:I thoroughly enjoyed this, amazing work.
One of the things I was hoping to do with this, and I doubt I was being as subtle as I would have liked, was include a couple features that I think would be cool to see in the game, at least eventually.
Such as:
- Orbital platforms over gas giants
- Variable gravity
- Ships in EVE projecting buffs/debuffs into DUST
There may be a few more I'll work into the sequels if I ever get around to them. |
|
|
| |
|