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06/14/2011 08:12:11
Public Pad Latest text of pad originindustries Saved June 14, 2011 |
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PO: Destiny, Asher, Card, Lady, whateva, whateva.
Today was a special day of training. The recruits had all been loaded onto Caballeros, wearing full Savior armor, Web gear, and their full helmets. They were essentially decked out for a planetary invasion. However, when the back doors of the shuttle finally opened, they had yet to land. Instead, they were hovering, approximately 100 yards off shore of the largest lake on the planet, roughly ten feet above the water. Their target was to assault the training drones on the semi-fortified beach in a mock assault mimicking one of Terran history's greatest battles, that of June 6th 1944.
Destiny stood next to Asher, near the ramp door, and squinted to protect her eyes against the heavy breeze that had cropped up, whipping her hair around, helped, in part, by the whining engines that were holding the shuttlecraft steady. Grabbing her hair, the redhead shoved her helmet on her head and sealed it, ready to go. And then Asher started complaining again.
"You're fuckin' kiddin', right?" said Asher, who had the inconvenience of being located on the seat right on the edge of the door. He had volunteered instantly to sit closest to the end where you could fall out the easiest. Though, little did he suspect that there was actually going to be water under them. "Couldn't you just drop us on tha' fuckin' dirt? I don't care how high! Why we gotta do this shit ova' that god damn wata'!" babbled Asher as he stared out at the large lake. Like with Doctors before he had met Sumedha, the Surandanian had never had a good experience with water.
Emma, who had been one of the first ones in the transport and therefore had taken a seat towards the front, could nevertheless hear Asher already complaining from his position all the way by the door. Standing up she took her helmet out from underneath her arm put it on and sealed it in place.
Ignoring the loud complaints of Asher and the much more subtle grumbling from various other recruits Card began to explain the excercise. "Amphibious assault is still a necessary skill for our land based troops and that is why we are here today." Emma stopped for a moment and walked closer to the open shuttle door. "Do not worry about getting hurt, Medical Officer Sumedha, who those of you that have been injured before know is our best medic, has gladly joined us for her combat recertification." Behind her mask the Drill-Captain smiled as she looked over towards Lady, she was a little bit vindictive. "Our objective is to storm and take the beach, destroying the various bunker emplacements along the way." Walking further still Emma stood next to Destiny and Asher now, just at the lip of the opening. "Now, just to show you how easy it is I will count to three and then be the first to jump, all you will follow afterwords and will immediately continue to the beach where we will group up."
Emma slung her rifle behind her back and give a small salute to the recruits, then she began to count, her voice cheery. "One, two..." Moving quickly she grabbed Asher by his webbing and tossed him out of this shuttle. "Three!" Then she jumped after her flailing student, an evil grin hidden behind her mask.
Medical Officer Sumedha gave a small wave of acknowledgment at being announced, but was otherwise busy taking care of herself. She was pulling her hair back into that same tight bun while Miss Card explained the scenario, and by the time both Drill-Captain and Trainee were in freefall, Lady was snapping on her helmet. Without the Drill-Captain, one might have been concerned that no one else would proceed, but most did, and few only needed to be gently reassured by the medic. One young man in particular, however, wouldn't budge. Lady wasn't having this. "Jump or you'll be dismissed from basic, Trainee!" The boy still shook his helmeted head. "Fine. I've always wanted to try bodysurfing." Before the Trainee could contemplate the implications of that statement, he was gripped fiercely by the meshing and flung from the Caballero, Lady Sumedha still gripping him. Though he couldn't see it, she smirked before shoving him away and making the dive headfirst. And by god, it was graceful; even Germany would've scored her a 10 on that one, but it was no surprise- she'd been diving since she was eleven.
"Oh what the-- fuuuuuuuuuu---!" Asher found himself thrown out of the shuttle. He looked up at Emma, who, despite being covered by the helmet, was obviously enjoying this. Apparently, she had the hots for him, and the only way she could possibly find time alone with him, were these few seconds between the shuttle and the ground. That, or she was a real bitch.
The fall seemed to take a while, Asher continued to stare up at Emma, forgetting all about the water. Which was a mistake. The poor Surandanian landed flat on his back, effectively back flopping the lake, and stopping at the surface of the water. He floated for a moment, his rifle only still with him thanks to the strap. The sky looked rather beautiful, until the waters around him began to consume his vision. Inside, he began to panic, but his body refused to move from the immense shock he had just sustained. So he simply sank, like a furious, curse-slinging brick. It reminded him cruely of the time a few mutants had drug him underwater into a pool, and the few friends he had lost in the process.
Destiny seemed to enjoy what Card had done as well, and did not hesitate to jump out after the duo, falling feet-first into the water, after the ten foot drop and jarring smash into the waves below, she noticed that, despite her best efforts, she couldn't quite keep on the surface- all the gear was just that heavy. However, before she could panic, she had sunk beneath the waves to find that she was still breathing- the helmet gave her a bubble of air to breathe, and remained fresh by drawing oxygen from the surrounding water.
As Destiny floated down the fifteen or so feet to the bottom of the lake, she noticed that Asher had decided not to try and right himself, so, rolling her eyes (they might fall out one of these days!) She grabbed him by the same bit of web gear that Card had, and began dragging him toward shallower water.
Something was dragging Asher. Was this all a dream? Was he reliving a memory? The blood wasn't moving fast enough to his brain. For a moment, Asher was back on Surandan, and Destiny was mutant. A mutant which suddenly received the incessant striking of his rifle's stock.
The Stock wasn't really enough to do much to Destiny's armored form right now, so she simply called him over the radio. "Hey dummy, stand up and walk, we need to get to the beach."
Emma hit the bottom of the lake and walked as fast as possible to the surface, as she passed Destiny - who seemed to be having a bit of trouble with a now dangerously flailing Asher - the Drill-Captain signed to the recruit that she would surface first and find them a forward position.
Surfacing, Emma herself wasn't quite sure what she would find, her dear brother had decided all she needed to know was that the excercise would be on an amphibious assualt.
There was precious little on the damn beach to use as cover. The only thing immediately in view was a low, flat rock that could give maybe half the men a decent covering position while the other half would have to continue in a rush further inland.
Deciding on a plan, Emma fully emerged from the water and could see the drones in the distance immediately start to track her. Kicking herself into a run, the Drill-Captain closed in on the rock and landed in a skid, pulling her rifle off her back as she did so.
Turning on her unit radio she spoke to the recruits. "Begin surfacing now, converge on my location and for the love of god do it in a timely fashion, those drones won't hesitate in firing!"
As Lady neared the water's bottom, she brought her boots to bear and touched down soft as could be; were it above water, one would have thought her a cat with such a landing. She made sure to route any confused or straggling Marines-in-training toward Drill-Captain Card, also making them aware that their HUD did display her location. Furthermore, she requested everyone to verify that their suits hadn't malfunctioned or they'd be in for one hell of a swim. As before, she brought up the rear, making sure all the boys and girls were moving and doing so in the right direction.
As she trudged up the beach, Lady immediately had a great dislike for Emma's lack of information, and lack of detail in planning. The supposed source of cover was small, and everyone knew that simply by looking at it. Furthermore, she hadn't issued any commands pertaining to organization. Everyone was just moving forward. Still, it was too late to retreat into the waters- and what a stupid move that would be. Instead, she sprinted to the rock face, and came to a crouch behind it. Whilst awaiting further commands, the Medical Officer scanned the Trainees for injury by sight and via the HUD.
Destiny continued to trudge forward, and, soon enough, had made it to a part of the lake where her head and shoulders were out of the water. At this point, she raised the powered-down Sugar she had been given for training, and made sure to drain the barrel quickly as they had been trained, targeting one of the drones, and using the weapon's prodigous range to begin laying down covering fire. Despite Destiny's lack of orders, she had lived in a place where being slow to act meant death, and the redhead was always the fastest to it. Here in training was no exception.
Asher's body squirmed to reach something beneath it's feet as he settled in the water. His vision was returning, and his intense impact had caused him to be dizzy by only a little. So he forced his legs down into the murky sands of the lake water, and forced his small body up as fast as he could. It was nightmarish, feeling the entirety of the waters consume him. What felt more odd was getting that sickening sensation of fear, something he felt only rarely, but recently more since he came to Waypoint. The citizen-soldier burst his helmet above water, and landed on all fours, shaking violently from the incursion.
It was then he noticed that he could breath underwater with the helmet, little difference it made now. He looked up, and saw Destiny already shooting, Emma already scanning the field, and Lady, acting important.
"That. Was. Fucking. [i][b]POINTLESS[/b][/i]!" the Malifarian shook the water out of his rifle angrily and fell in beside Destiny pulling down shots on any target that reared it's unlucky head. Finally, the Surandanian was where he could lay his boots down.
Emma looked at the first part of the unit to reach the cover of the rock. Nodding to the group she broke down the rest of the plan for them. "Before the rest of the trainees reach us we will advance to secure a beachhead, the remainder of the unit will take up position and provide covering -"
Card stopped as she heard the sound of Destiny's sugar cracking off at the drones. With a curse the officer opened up a com link directly to the trainee's suit. Just as she opened her mouth to speak Asher added his own fire to their little gun show. "Damnit Briggs!" Emma shouted. "GET DOWN NOW!"
Turning towards Lady, the Drill-Captain spoke quickly, "Miss Sumedha, I have seen your record and you have quite a bit of combat time, I need you to lead the men forward to secure our position - I'm sure you have a good grasp of the basic plan I was going over, just execute it."
Emma switched back to the channel with Briggs, this time including Asher in on it. "YOU IDIOTS! The drones prioritize firing targets and you're just standing there shooting away! You got the whole damn line targeting you, take cover and don't touch your damn rifles before me and the second half of the unit can extract you."
"Fuuuuuuuuuuck, [i]that[/i]." said Asher. Instead of getting down, he started to barrel across the sand, covering amazing long strides with each step, "I'm gettin' away from tha' fuckin' water!"
The Medical Officer gave Card an affirmative nod and a solemn, "Ma'am," before rising to her feet and opening a unit-wide com. Just before she spoke, however, Asher made his break. Very well, then. "Marines, if you've touched the rock, it's time to move forward. You put all suppressive fire on any drones targeting Trainee Westwood- the one running and gunning for the hills. MOVE! Double-time!" As the marines-in-training took off sprinting after Asher, MO Sumedha was never far behind. However, she had yet to even attempt aiming at a drone; that was not her place in this exercise, and she would only take that upon herself if the trainees started to really fuck up.
Destiny may have been standing there, but her distance and the fact that most of her body had still been underwater made her a small target. This Drill-captain didn't seem to want to lead, however, intent on simply yelling at the recruits instead. Still, Destiny began moving, heading first towards the low rock, and then after Asher as he began barreling up the beach.
The redhead followed him, laying down suppressive fire- the drones were shooting at everyone anyway, and they were also wary of incoming fire, so doing such wasn't as bad an idea as Card seemed to think. "Asher, Head toward that sand-bunker twenty yards to your left, we can get better cover there and then start throwing grenades" She suggested, moving towards one of the bunkers herself.
While Asher gave no obvious indication that he had heard the order, the fact that he made a sharp change in the direction towards the bunker signified he had gotten it.
The flat disks popped in and out of cover, firing in response as the Marines moved up the shore. A glint of red caught in the optics of one drone, and it came out from behind it's berth to fire a burst at Destiny before ducking away as though it were a real soldier. Several other floating disks picked up on this and fired at the general direction of the red head, assuming there was someone to shoot at there.
From the bunker came a stream of fire as a machine gun opened up on Asher. Sand spurted from the ground, clouding the air with grit as the fire stitched a line in his directon. The concrete bunkers and pillboxes behind the first started to come alive with activity as more shifting, moving forms piled out to man the battlements.
Training-strength plasma was hurled their way and into the Marine trainees.
Lady, seeing the turrets now actively responding, ventured in the opposite direction of Destiny toward a second bunker. "Don't forget to use everything at your disposal, soldiers," was all she said, her calm voice betraying the excitement of the situation. While the marines went about their business, she found a new spot from which to keep a good eye on most of her team, and the rest were easily tracked via the HUD.
Emma, watching the attack on the bunkers, was still with the men providing covering fire from the from the original staging point. Most of the drones on the ridge line were still alive and throwing their less-than-deadly loads of plamsa towards the attacking troops.
By far though, the bunkers were the more dangerous targets, the machine gun fire pouring out of the two being assaulted and a third, slightly farther back emplacement would soon began taking their toll on the advacning trainees.
Tapping the three nearest soldier next to her Emma motioned towards the last bunker, ordering them to follow her in a quick assault on the final position. The trainees checked their webbing, making sure all their grenades where within easy reach, and slipped out after The Drill-Sergeant.
As she ran Emma opened a com-link to both Lady and Destiny, "Briggs, Miss Sumedha, can you give me an estimate on when you'll take those bunkers? We need them done and gone so we can continue with the excercise and take the ridge."
As soon as she was fired upon, Destiny dove into the sand, coming to a stop a few feet from one of the sand bunkers, before crawling up closer to it for better cover. She then got a call from Card. Rolling onto her back, she responded. "I can have this one down in about ten seconds." And she then proceeded to remove a grenade from her web gear and lob it over the sand bunker and up and into the concrete bunker behind. With a loud bang and a flash of light, smoke filled the bunker.
Asher eyed the quickly tracking plasma fire out of the corner of his vision. Instead of taking his original approach, the hustling soldier swiftly changed directions. With that, he hustled and jumped into a trench below one of the bunkers, and looked up and around. There wasn't exactly much else he could take advantage of at the moment. He wasn't even much sure what was going on, but at the very least, he was away from the water.
In the ten seconds it took for Destiny to take down the bunker, several Marines toppled like nine pins as (training) plasma lanced their bodies. The trainees fell to the ground, and the disks, sensing the weak point, floated and flittered through cover to fire on anyone attempting to reach the downed soldiers. The grenade entered the bunker, bounced once, twice, and rolled to a stop in front of three of the drones, floating stacked upon one another to take up the space a real machine gun crew would have taken up. The machine gun fell from the window as a drone pitched forward as it deactivated, part falling, part rolling out on it's rim before it landed in the sand on it's side like a crashed flying saucer, complete with black, char and sparks coming from it's hull.
As Asher dashed to the side, the stiching continued on, sowing across several Marines behind him, (a small amount of) smoke and fire bursting from the impact points on their suits as the plasma burned into them (a little bit). The other Marines behind Asher who were quick on their feet were lucky; bolts of energy soared overhead as they hid in the trenches or behind cover.
With the sudden lack of targets in the forefront, either downed or hunkered behind protective cover, several disks rotatd to and fro from behind their sandbags astheir optics sought out new targets; the ones acting as riflemen opened up on the pinpricks in the distance. Emma, Lady and the other Marines providing suppressing fire.
