XCGS Training Roleplay

[Loonie]

<<Allrighty then! This topic is the first ever active forum roleplay thread of XCGS and has a specific setting for our simmers. All of your characters are to be stationed aboard the orbital military station called Charon. This station is located somewhere in the Frontier over a colonized planet and has all the military training equipment for both ground personnel and pilots alike. There are even a few scientists and engineers around.

 

Post your characters aboard this paticular station and let your imagination run wild. They'll probably be practicing their weapons skills, flying skills, chattering between themselves in the mess hall about the discovery that Earth has been enslaved by the aliens,...ect. You decide. You can also post that two of your characters meet each other and practice interacting between each other here. For example Harris meets Neos accidentally in the station and the two strike up a conversation. There's just one thing. None of you would know Oskari (my character), but he will be around as well so you might bump into him in the halls.

 

Otherwise that's it! Let's get it on!>>

 

September 29th, 2085 - X-Com Frontier military station Charon

 

Viktor was just now in the armoury, examining one of the plasma rifles for any flaws. He quickly, skillfully, yet with care handled the weapon checking its surface features and looking down the barrel briefly after shining a small light through it. He then proceeded to take a clip from a table nearby and with a swift quick motion inserted it into the weapon, making a snappy click sound and afterwards a low humming noise as the plasma charges inside moved into the barrel's proper position. Turning around he quickly tapped a button at the side, thereby arming the rifle, and after crouching fired a single bolt down the firing range. After the impact and the sizzling noise of the bullet's residue he slowly got up from his position and thought to himself.

 

Hmmm.....aim isn't quite what it used to be with me.

 

Then again it wouldn't surprise him since this usually occured when he lacked motivation. And right now the mission he was being sent to definately didn't seem too inspiring. He turned to the figure next to him.

 

"I'd say these are in good and working order. The sights may be a bit low but so is my aim today. Well done and keep up the good work."

 

"AFFIRMATIVE" was the mechanical voice that came from the android that was sent here from engineering to listen and also swiftly comply with any of Viktor's requests on the weapons. Viktor now began making his way out of the testing range and into the corridors of the base, still not too accustomed to the latest series of production and managment engineering androids that were in and around the base. The whole benefit of an android constructing a weapon was that it had the ability to construct it almost without any flaw. However occasional, though very rare, tests were still needed since even robots aren't perfect.

 

In fact.....this is the first time I've fired off a weapon in the last 6 years. Huh...

 

He wondered to himself how long it would be until he would have to use it on another living being all the way until he almost crashed into an X-Com Sergeant as she made her way around the corner.

 

"Whoops! Pardon me madame." He said in a quick tone and smiling in a gentelman way as he looked at the Sergeant.

 

"It's perfectly allright thank you." she replied neutrally and kept a good distance away from the Lieutenant as he continued onwards: "Hardly when we have such lugs as me knocking people down all the time." he finished up with an open smile, to which the Sergeant replied with a smile of her own, though this one was more of the cynical kind. Viktor managed to spot her tag on her chest which read -Sergeant Shelley Draco-

 

<<Now feel free to drop in with your own storylines or also interact with mine if you'd like. >>

[Ion Mage]

Shelley "Frost Dragon" Draco took a look at the Lieutenant looking at him.

 

"Ah, Lieutenant Viktor Oskari. I believe you are the CO of the platoon I have been assigned too, and me the XO of."

 

"Oh yes, of course, now I remember! I recall seeing your' name on the roster" Viktor said with the same smile on his face

 

The smile on Shelley's face was very short-lived. "Of course. Good to know that you study your' ranks. Now, most surely you have heard of the loss of Earth?"

 

"Yes, of course I have! Who hasn't?"

 

"That's not the point. I find it likely that we will try to retake the planet, and I believe you should order all the troops into training. Preferably VR, since it gives a better impression of real combat than simple targets. I personally was heading to the crash course, as I have seen enough simulated combat for the moment. Good day." Draco stated, and was off before Viktor could reply, and head down to the crash course.

 

The crash course consisted of the usual stuff. A climbing exercise, a crawling one, etc. Draco felt it was insufficient, and went over to a control panel. She activated the crash drones, a bunch of antigravity-based orbs that fired minilasers. She donned some 'crash armor', which was designed to protect the user indefinately from the minilasers, but would tense up upon getting hit to simulate damage.

 

Ultimately, the goal was to make it through the course without getting hit. She would have a pistol though, which would disable the drones and make them leave the course.

 

First, the beginning. Draco first had to get over a low (4 meters) wall. She did so by running up to it, and using the inertia of her initial run, ran up the wall itself somewhat, then grabbed the top before gravity caught up to her. Pulling herself up a little bit, she peered over the wall somewhat. No drones in the field on the other side of the wall. She climbed over.

 

The new field had a tower on it, and large 20-meter walls around it. The tower had a pole with which to climb up. For the sake of training, it was better than a ladder. The top of the tower had a rope extending from it to another tower in another field to the left, allowing her to bypass the walls.

 

She climbed up, and 15 meters up the pole (halfway, as the tower itself was 30 meters high), she could hear the light humming of a small antigrav unit nearby. One of the drones. She was unable to fire her pistol, as she needed both hands to hold on. Or, 2 limbs, she thought. Not necessarily the arms where needed. Frost Dragon wrapped her legs across the pole, tight, and let go of her hands, doing a downwards 180 degree rotation with her body. She was upside down, her life depending on her leg's ability to keep tightly wrapped around the pole. But with her hands free, she unholstered her 'crash pistol', and looked around for the drone. It was nearing the point in which it would detect her (they have a 10-meter detection range). She took aim, and just as it got in detection range and started to spin in her direction to shoot, she fired. Success. The drone was disabled, and started to hover off the course.

 

She grabbed the pole again with her hands, tightly, and let go with her legs, making her do yet another 180 spin, but putting her right-side-up, and continued climbing upwards. Upon reaching the top, she grabbed the rope, and slid it down towards the tower in the next field.

 

<<Okay, that's it for now. If you want to barge in and see her do this training go ahead. Already IN the training, and ambushed by the crash drones without crash armor, not expecting the crash drones to get activated? Go ahead! Just don't mess around with other characters toooooo much. And needless to say, this isn't the end of the training course>>

[Neorapsta]

Neos 'awoke' in his quarters, more accurately he got up as a Psionic never truly sleeps, not when you have the thoughts, desires and emotions of every being in range coursing through your mind. His quarters were basically a stripped down and modified psi-lab, which kept his inhuman brain under close scrutiny while he meditated, after all the higher ups didn't want what could one day be their most potent psionic weapon getting damaged...

 

He was greeted by one of the human scientists, who had treated him as little more than a lab rat since his arrival, just a thing to handle their idle curiosities.

 

"Greetings Mr....uh..Neos, I would like to welcome you to he Charon orbital station. As it is your first appointment with us we need you to undergo some bsaic exercizes before we officially add you to the team roster for your upcoming mission." The young scientist told Neos.

 

"Very well then, but know this human, I will not allow you to treat my like somekind of dog to jump through hoops at your bidding."

 

The scientist didn't seem pleased with the reply but didn't comment, he simply turned and beckoned for Neos to follow him as he left.

 

He adjusted the dark shades he wore slightly, they performed a double function, first to hide his eyes from those that were incapable of reacting to them in a civilized manner and also to compensate for his light sensitivity. He also became aware of the uncomfortable weight of the human's Neural Inhibitor on the back of his neck and extending into the base of his skull. The device kept his psionic abilities in check, protecting him from a possible mental overload and also keeping his powers in check for the higher ups in this little program.

 

He exitted and followed the man to one of the Charon's psi-labs which house a Psionic Excercise course, it was a simple room used solely to train up psionics against another creature kept safely in containment.

 

The scientist beckoned for him to enter his container and left for the course's observation room. Neos entered the chamber noting its unusual design, it was created to specifically create complete sensory deprevation to give the user no distractions during the exercizes. The door sealed behind him and the lights brightness lowered until it was completely black and silent.

 

"OK, this will just be a basic warm-up excercize, shouldn't be anything you can't handle. Psionic Excercize Initiation in 5..4..3..2..1..Begin." A voice sounded from a

concealed speaker somewhere in the chamber.

 

Neos then begun his concentrations and the darkness faded away to be replaced by the Astral Plane(Not sure what you want to call it, its supposed to be the place where psionic people go when they do their psionicky things). He could see the outlines of the walls in and around the chamber as a faint gray mist and also he could sense the minds of the scientist and also the creature across from him. The creature across from him showed up as a vaguely humanoid blue glow, while the scientist was merely a faint blue mist. This showed that the creature across had atleast some form of psionic talent. He sent out some of his mind as small tendrils to try and discern what kind of creature he was up against and also gauge its psionic defences. From his basic probes he could tell it was a Sectoid, a prisoner of the humans no doubt, it also had very basic psionic abilities shown by the rough look of its mental defences. If he desired he could simply overwhelm the sectoid's mental defences through shear will, but that required little skill. Instead he spread his senses out like a web around it's defences searching for any cracks or gaps. He found small seams running along the defences into which he sent small tendrils to gain entry and begin the slow and steady process of subverting the creature's will. His goal completed he made the sectoid perform a small controlled sequence of gestures as proof and then withdrew.

 

"Excellent!, that was most impressive" The voice spoke through the speakers, followed shortly by the silent hiss of the door opening.

 

Neos stepped out and was again greeted by the young scientist and they moved along to their next appointment at the basic training 'crash' course.

[Zager]

"What do you mean, you don't have my rifle?" Rina 'Ice' Delmar demanded of the armory droid. "It was supposed to have arrived by now."

 

"I have no record of a personnel rifle arriving yet," replied the armory droid. "We do have numerous standard issue sniper lasers for your use."

 

"That is correct. My rifle is not standard issue," Rina stated. "It is my rifle, a standard issue rifle that has been customized. It would take me up to three weeks to remodify a new one, and this is assuming I had full access to the parts I need. Beam focusers and cyro-cooled laser barrels cannot simply be just attached overnight. Let me see the incoming list." She snatched the datapad out of the droids hand, and scrolled down. Her finger shot out.

 

"There it is," she stated. "Private Delmar's personnel possesions. Sent to general stroage. It's with then. Have it retrieved from storage and stored here so I can readjust the sights."

 

"Affirmative, private," replied the droid. "It will take some time, however, to retrieve it from storage."

 

"Very well then," Rina said. The situation had been settled, there was no sense in pressing the issue on this. "I'll be back later then. Contact me when you have it."

 

She walked out of the room, adjusting the eyepatch that covered her right eye, and headed towards the crash course. The time until her rifle was retrieved from storage could be best spent by training.

[Loonie]

As Draco finished up quickly Viktor kept watching her as she made her way down the corridor...he didn't have that good a feeling about her...as if she was very closed and uptight...but what she'd really turn out to be like would be shown later a lot better when they would be fighting together in the field. He sighed slightly and resumed walking down the hallway.

 

Nonetheless the sergeant was right and it would be about time that he reviews the squad roster that he was assigned to. He knew about what he could expect too since he hasn't exactly been a pleasing presence to his superiors. Quite possibly they would assign him a newly formed squad with little experience so as he would supervise and supply it, thus being busy taking care of his subordinates as opposed to being busy questioning his superiors' orders. With these thoughts he produced his holopad from his hip pocket and accesed the roster.

 

Pretty much to his expectations there was not a single corporal in the team and two of the members had never even seen actual combat. Nonetheless the squad seemed to be made up of positions that he was quite used to dealing with so at least in that aspect he wasn't deprived. One primary scout with two secondary ones along with a sniper team if he so requested and a psionisist which was useful in either long-range operations or covert ones. Along with the other additional positions he could definately say that this squad was overall very suitable for open terrain medium firefights or covert operations if it was needed.

 

He also checked their schedule for today and noticed that a great majority of them would be at the crash course right now, the same place where his XO was heading towards. It seemed pretty obvious to him now that he'd best head there himself so as he introduces himself and gets things off to a good start BEFORE he acts on his sergeant XO's advice. He turned around on one foot and after placing his pad in his pocket he began making his way towards his destination.

 

<<Okay. Now remember the ones that haven't posted yet don't have to be in the crash course too. If you want to you can come, but if not then that's okay too. >>

[NickAragua]

Alexei Harris walked through the hallways of Charon station with a smirk on his face. Again with the training schedule..., he thought to himself. ...shove a psionic examination up your... His thoughts were slightly interrupted as he walked by a big, tall officer type and saluted him. Taking a right, he wound up in front of a door labeled 'Training Facilities'. Up a gravlift was the 'psionic training facility', often called the psi-gym.

 

"I was uh, ordered to report for psionic training here..." Alex mumbled at the receptionist.

 

"Finger on the scanner, buddy." The receptionist quipped. "Hmm... Harris, eh? Looks like you're in for some defensive training. Not the brightest light bulb on the tree, are we?" the receptionist chuckled.

 

"Hey speaking of bulbs, don't make me kick your bulbous, chair-parading ass, buddy..." Alex answered, making a fist and a smirk.

 

"Yeah, yeah, sit your ass down in 2-10B, nutcracker. Your, uh, partner should be getting there as soon as he gets done reaming the previous guy." The receptionist turned around before even finishing the sentence and resumed watching the 3d sensovision broadcast.

 

Alex rolled his eyes, and strolled down to 2-10B, sitting down in the uncomfortable metal chair and crossing his arms. Soon enough, a tall, skinny man wearing sunglasses, followed by what Alex characterized as a 'dork with a clipboard', entered.

 

"Now, for your next examination, Mr. Neos, we will measure your capabilities against a number of humans of varying psionic capacity. You must render your targets unconscious without inflicting permanent damage." The 'dork' clicked a button, closing the door. "Mr. Uh... Harris, you will be required, to the best of your ability, to resist psionic compulsion. That is, try to stay awake." The 'dork' chuckled.

 

Alex rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get this bull-crap over with."

----

Lifting his head up from the desk, Alex shook his head groggily. "Well, that concludes this test. Very well done, Mr. Neos. You may leave, Mr. Harris."

 

Alex shook his head again. "Yeah, ok, whatever, egg-headed spooks..." he quipped as he got up and walked out. As he floated down the gravlift, he looked at his watch. A full five minutes had passed. "Boy, time sure flies when you're not having fun..." he said to himself.

 

Looking around the training facility's central chamber, he took note of the fact that the assault course was currently occupied, with drones activated. He queued in his request at the terminal, and waited somewhat impatiently for whoever was in there to finish...

[ShadowBlade]

Vanessa's shuttle had arrived at Charon station early in the day, around 0500 hours, though it was hard to tell the difference in space, since it all seems night up there. The young recruit hated this fact, she wasn't used to living in the void, since she had been a planetary girl most of her life, except for some zero-G experiments she had to do while she was studying Biology a few months ago. She had finished her studies with honours, had just received the long-awaited degree in Biologic Sciences and had enlisted in X-COM as a Field Medic. She was surprised when she noticed she was the only medical officer in the team assigned to her, thus she probably would be designated as the chief medical officer by the squad's CO, whom she hadn't met yet.

 

She proceeded across the docking bay along with some other privates. Vanessa was quite busy thinking in what she had to do today to listen to those who approached her. Coming from the British aristocracy, she was something of a perfectionist, and wanted everything to go well, so she couldn't be bothered by other recruits until she had everything under control. Once outside the station's hangar, she took some time looking at the facility's maps and, after a couple of minutes, the private located her quarters in Charon's diagram and immediately set out to her destination.

 

McAllister was now in her quarters. The room was quite tidy, just like she liked things to be. There were two beds against opposite walls, and a desk with a lamp on it in the middle. The walls were pretty empty, though showed small remains of old posters and several other items, pointing out the room had been used before by other soldiers.

 

The young medic dropped her heavy bag on the floor next to the bed she picked, the one on the right, then she took out the top part of her uniform and threw herself on the bed, exhausted. She wondered for a while who might her room mate be, but it didn't take long before she fell asleep, all the procedures he had to go through back in the spaceport plus the ones in the X-COM office there and the trip in the shuttle itself had drained all her energy.

[Loonie]

Arriving at a steady pace at the crash course, Viktor took a glance around the spacious room. The first person that came to his attention was apparently either a very nervous or a very impatient rookie which was pacing up and down in front of the entrance to the crash course. Either way looking at him reminded the lieutenant of his own first years on Luna as he smiled at that memory. The second was his XO, whom he had met just a bit earlier and for whom Viktor could tell right away that she would have little trouble handling herself in the field. The only real question however was if she could handle the squad...

 

Just then he noticed the third person entering through the door, which was akin to a female pirate by first looks and assumptions. Nonetheless Viktor knew that eyepatches were usually worn out of necessity rather than as a fashion statement and it would quite possibly mean that the soldier wearing it has to make up for this weakness by being more tougher or so.

 

In any event he thought that guessing his squad any further was of little meaning when he could just talk to them right away. He went up a nearby gravlift in the room into the observation lounge, that had the full overview of the crash course, and after producing his pad from his pocket typed a single preset command into it. Soon after the P.A. system across Charon station went alive, just as Viktor stood in front of the observation window, watching the three soldiers of his squad continue onwards until they seemed to have noticed the P.A. system's message.

 

"ALL MEMBERS OF BLUE SQUAD, ZETA PLATOON, REPORT TO THE OBSERVATION LOUNGE IN THE CRASH COURSE MODULE."

 

<<Remember, there is some time for you to write stuff that happened before this event. That is to say you can post for instance that Harris and Rina stroke up a conversation before this message was sent. >>

[greghannibal]

Alexander Stahley finished up his weight set in the weight room and wiped his brow. The large man stretched his long arms and felt the newfound straing and pressure on his arms. He wasn't "big" by any means, more like tall and and strong, like skinny guy who had never worked out before, but has started doing it regularly for a few years now.

Alex threw a towel over his shoulder and headed out of the weight room to look for his buddy Alexei. He was a wearing a tank top with the "X-Com" logo on it and walked passed the where the shuttles had landed. He smiled as he watched the passengers shuffle out, including their new medic. Alex watched for a few more moments at all the new faces and than headed to the Crash Course Lounge as he noticed the order.

[ShadowBlade]

<<My last post continued>>

 

Vanessa didn't get to sleep much. Her thoughts managed to wake her up, since she still had to go through the Emergency Medical Training (EMT) and she hated to arrive late to her appointments. She jumped out of the bed and checked her PDA for her schedule for today. She had EMT at 0530 hours and Firing Practice Training at 0615 hours, plus other events later. She quickly checked her watch: 5:29 AM!

 

"Bloody hell, I'm late" -The young recruit grumbled as she realized she had slightly overslept.

 

McAllister hastily grabbed the upper part of her uniform and put it on. Then she kneeled down and began rummaging among her stuff inside her bag. He took out small mirror after a few seconds and tried to comb her hair as quickly and properly as possible. Then she put the mirror back into her bag and took out her new, standard-issue Medikit. The private delayed a few moments contemplating the marvelous device with pride, but quickly snapped out of it and raced outside her quarters. Luckily for Vanessa, there was a Charon Station map conveniently placed a few meters from her room's door, hung on the opposite wall of the corridor. She checked it as quickly as she could, started her search from the "You're here" point, located the Medical Training Area and the EMT room in there and set off to her first training excercise.

 

Falcon entered the EMT room a couple of minutes later, after running around the station looking for it. A rather short, curly-haired doctor behind the reception desk welcomed the sweaty, gasping recruit. After getting some air into her lungs, Vanessa looked at the doctor:

 

"I am terribly sorry, I thought I could wake up earlier but I was absolutely exhausted beca--" -The young medic tried to explain, but was interrupted by the stocky doctor.

 

"What's done is done, no need to worry about that now, private..." -The man awaited the recruit to introduce herself.

 

"McAllister, Vanessa McAllister, serial is VM-8R3." -Vanessa gasped, still not recovered from the swift run from her quarters. She also placed her thumb on the scanner located on the right of the desk to confirm her identity to the doctor.

 

"Very well then, follow me. We will commence your EM training in a few moments." -The doc pointed at one of the doors behind him, the left one.

 

The stocky chap entered the room on the right as McAllister entered the one on the left. Vanessa was now in a big, white room. There was a window on her right, where the doctor could see her performance. There was also a dummy about 20 meters away from her, lying in the floor. She looked around the room a while, not moving from her spot, until the doctor spoke to her using the PA from his room.

 

"OK, private, you've been taught how to respond to medical emergencies in the heat of battle, swiftly and accurately. We will now test your abilities with a typical combat situation." -The man cleared his throat before continuing, and said something to his assistant next to him before speaking again. "Alright, we have placed a training dummy set to unconscious stance several meters away from you. He's wearing X-COM Standard Armour and has a few injuries in his legs and arms, so proceed accordingly and use your skills as you see fit. Get ready, we're about to start the evaluation." -The doctor concluded and said something else to his assistant.

 

Vanessa was firmly grasping her Medikit when the room darkened and battle sounds began playing. Their quality was astounding, they were surely designed to apply some stress and give the trainee a better feeling of the battle. The emulation wasn't perfect, but it was a close as you could get to a similar real situation. As soon as the "GO" sound played, the young medic ran across the room towards the training dummy lying in the floor, keeping her head down as her survival instructor had taught her back in basic training. Once next to the dummy, she kneeled down and quickly placed her Medikit on the patient's left leg, right where the special portholes were. The three standard needles inserted themselves into the dummy's leg and released the proper amount of nanobots as soon as the medic activated her medical device. Once the Medikit was fully operational, she selected the patient's left leg from the menu and immediately pressed the red button next to the screen, which enabled the healing process. The simulated wound wasn't severe, so it didn't take more than a few seconds to heal. To conclude this wound's treatment she prompted the blue button to inject painkillers to numb the simulated pain. Vanessa then selected the right arm and scanned the wound. Apparently it was infected with some poison besides being wounded by a plasma blast. She quickly activated the handy "antidote" function of the nanobots and pressed the red button again, which eliminated the poisonous agent and healed the damaged tissue, though taking more time than before because the severity of the wound was higher. She now proceeded to apply another small dose of painkillers to reinforce the previous one. Finally, she pressed the yellow button to inject stimulants to revive the unconscious dummy, whose eyes lighted up to show consciousness.

 

Once she finished this, she waited some time until the screen showed the treatment had been completed, detached her Medikit and retracted its needles. The large room lighted up to the state of lighting it had before, blinding Vanessa for a few moments, and the combat sounds faded out. She heard the doctor's voice soon after, through th PA system:

 

"Brilliant, McAllister, simply brilliant" -The stocky chap declared through the comms. "You have successfully saved a fellow soldier from a certain death in record time" -The doctor added to his evaluation. "Please meet me outside, in the reception desk." -Said the man, expectantly.

 

Vanessa was now filled with pride, knowing her family's discipline, her hard work at the university and her inherent knack for these things had earned her a decisive skill that would surely be needed by her squadmates in the future. She exited the examination room. The short doctor was waiting for her outside, a broad smile could be seen in his face:

 

"The reports from the planetary university didn't lie, you're certainly one of the best trainees I've had the honour to examine in a long time! You have a bright future here in X-COM, of that I'm completely sure" -The stocky lad was fascinated by the young medic, and would've continued enumerating details if it weren't for the fact their conversation was interrupted by the station's PA:

 

"ALL MEMBERS OF BLUE SQUAD, ZETA PLATOON, REPORT TO THE OBSERVATION LOUNGE IN THE CRASH COURSE MODULE." -The strong voice announced through the speaker.

 

"That's me. I should be leaving now, doc. Thank you very much." -Vanessa stated, hating to sever the seemingly endless row of compliments from the doctor.

 

"Oh, yes, that's correct! I'm sorry to have delayed you, the Crash Course module is directly right of this area, just follow the corridor." -The doc aided the private.

 

"Thank you, doctor. I hope to see you again some time." -McAllister replied, showing a large smile too, trying in vain to hide her pride.

 

"Indeed, farewell, Dr. McAllister. It's been a pleasure to meet you." -The stocky chap mentioned as he shook hands with Vanessa.

 

It had been the first time someone had ever called her a doctor, and this served to motivate her and pump up her pride even more. After this, she exited the Emergency Medical Training room and followed the right corridor, as the doctor pointed out earlier, towards the Observation Lounge.

[Ion Mage]

Draco had managed to get past the next two 'fields' in the crash course, having to dispatch two more crash drones along the way. She was now at the part where one had to 'lay low', with laser fire at a certain elevation,and conveniently placed hills, enabling one to crawl past them, if the hills are used as shields properly. She had no issues with that part.

 

The next part was a bit tricky; using a grapple gun (conveniently placed, but then it was just a training course...) to climb up a large wall. The main problem came in the fact that there were three different drones orbitting about. If she approached even the base of the wall, at least one would detect her. And if she fired, they'd all notice her.

 

But, it was the last field of the course. Over the wall, and down another rope. She devised a plan. She took her stun laser and threw it somewhere far from her and the wall. The sound created distracted the drones, whom went to investigate. Using htis opportunity, she grabbed the grapple gun, fired it up the wall, and climbed on up at near-record speed, which was needed as the noise would only distract the drones for so long. Within 10 seconds, the wall was climbed, she grabbed the rope, and slid on down.

 

"ALL MEMBERS OF BLUE SQUAD, ZETA PLATOON, REPORT TO THE OBSERVATION LOUNGE IN THE CRASH COURSE MODULE"

 

How convenient, that's where you end up after finishing the course.

[Zager]

Ice considered her fellow soldiers as she worked through the crash course. They were both competent, naturally, since they had been accepted into X-COM. Ice didn't recognize the Sergeant, who was certainly effective. Ice tended to think of herself as a good judge of people, and from what she could tell, the Sergeant was a very effective soldier.

 

The other one, the private, was a bit unusual. He seemed familiar for some reason. Ice worked back through her memories as she went through the course, trying to remember where she had seen him before.

 

As she cleared the final obstacle and heard the announcement, her memory clicked. She waited by the exit for a moment, until Alexei caught up.

 

"I'm Private Rina Delmar," she stated, introducing herself to Alexei. "You are Alexei Harris. We've met before."

 

"Pardon?" he said, momentarily nonplussed.

 

"Yes, though back then I was Sergeant Rina Delmar, of MarSec special security. I headed the squad that arrested you after you broke into the research facility on Mars."

[Neorapsta]

Neos 'recovered' from his Psi-practice with Harris, he was recovering from glimpses of his mind rather than from any physical exertion, that person did have a strange mind...very strange...disturbing even.

 

Neos became aware of the young scientist that had been a constant niusance throughout, appeared to be on the very of jumping around with his barely contained enthusiasm, he obviously believed he was in for some kind of promotion once Neos was on his way to Earth.

"Mr. Neos, you are quite amazing, though i'm sure a common variety grunt like Mr. Harris would be no match for you. There has been a slight change of schedule you will need to go to the crash course observation lounge where you will meet up with the other members of your team."

 

"I find your manner strange.." Neos trailed off.

 

"Stange...? How?" The scientist asked.

 

"You dismiss these soldiers so easily thinking you are superior due to your station, yet his mind presented a greater challenge to my powers than yours ever did..." He trailed off as he departed the psi-gym and made his way to the crash course observation lounge. He could hear the comment finally sink in by the slight growl of rage from the scientist as the door closed.

 

A few moments later he reached his destination and entered, he saw his future team before him and it appeared one was trying to engage a confrontation with Harris, the squadmember he had encountered earlier.

[NickAragua]

Alex smirked as he heard the comment. "Well, look at what we have here, a genuine old-school rent-a-cop. Luckily for you that cargo buggy had a driver, or you'd never even have known I was there..." He looked up. "Sorry if I don't recognize you, those Marsec goons all looked the same to me."

 

"I assume you have learned to pay more attention to your surroundings since our last encounter?" Rina asked, barely even acknowledging the commentary.

 

"Huh?" Alex blinked. "Yeah, yeah, of course I did, what'd you think I spent a couple of years at the academy doing?" He spread his arms, his face expressing the "duuhhh" look.

 

"Training, I assume." She stated flatly.

 

Alex smirked. "Uh... yeah..." He looked around, at least partly with the goal of escaping this rather uncomfortable conversation. Soon, he found it. "Hey, it's Spooky McBrain" He looked towards the approaching Neos with a grin on his face.

 

"Actually, my name is Neos." The approaching individual responded.

 

"Yeah, ok, whatever, Spook. Man, you gave me a major hangover... it's like having a bottle of vodka except without actually getting drunk..." Alex rubbed his temple. "I'll tell you what though, if you came up against me out in the wild, you wouldn't even have seen me coming to pull that spook crap."

 

"I believe alcoholic beverages are prohibited on base premises." Rina remarked

with a slight smirk.

 

Alex turned slightly, ready to offer a bit of 'friendly commentary' about base

regulations, but his train of thought was interrupted by the loudspeaker ordering

everyone to report to the observation facility.

 

"Right, that's my cue." He said, heading towards the gravlift.

[Loonie]

Viktor Oskari moved away from the window and slowly approached the wall opposite of it. On that wall was a number of plaques where several quite legendary squads were listed and some which fared not so good. Some of them had no special commendations or notes whatsoever, whilst others were quite impressive in one case even managing to earn themselves two Silver Wolf awards along with the majority of the team members earning themselves their own personal awards.

 

"How would this squad be written into history?" Viktor thought to himself briefly before hearing the gravlift activate, bringing in some of the first members of his squad.

 

"Welcome! Please. Take a seat." the Lieutenant said with a slight smile as he observed his squad enter the room and one by one, each member in his or her own way, begin to adjust themselves to the lieutenant's attitude. The first up the lift was the impatient rookie whom he had spotted earlier and who took his invitation quite quickly to heart by quickly sitting down behind one of the seven chairs that was positioned behind a long table and stretching his legs. "I'd need to make sure that he gets the message that it's not going to be all flowers and daisies here." Viktor quickly thought to himself as he smirked slightly whilst looking at him.

 

Then came in two other people, one of which was the "pirate lady" whom he had noticed earlier and who took a seat in a neutral fashion after Viktor repeated his invitation again. The other was unknown to him, but was quite a tall individual with his noticable features being his slightly elongated fingers and black shades. Though one could perhaps consider such a person to be intimidating it'd seem as if the person was himself slightly worried upon entering the room. Viktor made a mental note to find out what it was that could be worrying him, that is unless he had made a mistake reading the man's body language.

 

Soon after came two other arrivals as well. One of them was the already known XO of his squad, no doubt looking strong at the moment after she had just been practicing on the crash course. And the other was quite an energy filled woman who was apparently in a rather good mood despite it being quite early right now. At Viktor's repeated invitation she seemed to try and sit down at the table in a military manner, but was a little too overexcited to do it properly. "Quite possibly the soul of our squad that'll keep it going..." Viktor thought despite being unaware that she was indeed the medic in the squad.

 

Finnaly shortly afterwards came in the last member. A rather tall and strong looking individual who began in quite a disciplined manner: "I apologize for my tardiness." Viktor quickly nodded his head and looked slightly away before responding: "No problem. Just take a seat." "Yes sir." came back the response quickly and sharply. And with that Viktor himself stopped behind his own chair at the end of the long table, putting his hands behind his back and beginning to speak with quite a bit more serious voice whilst the other six people comprising his squad were all now seated behind the table:

 

"Good morning to you all! My name is Lieutenant Viktor Oskari and I have been assigned to lead your squad during our campagin to retake Earth from the alien forces. As you are a newly formed squad, and of course do not know each other nor have had the opportunity to begin to trust one another, my superiors have assigned me to supervise you during these first few months of your activity and make sure that, as a squad, you manage to function at an adequate level at least. Whilst I will be observing and leading your squad however I will of course relay some of the responsibility onto my XO, Sergeant Shelley Draco" he said as he pointed with an open palm towards the "Frost Dragon". "who will also take full command of the squad after I am no longer your CO. As the squad sergeant and my XO she has all the authority within it that I have, with the exception of overriding my own authority. Which in short means that when she issues an order you are to carry it out as if I had issued it." he concluded as he looked into Alexei's eyes briefly and on purpose. He then paused briefly and began yet again.

 

"Now. This squad has been formed with its primary mission set as of yet undetermined. However based on an overview of your positions I can say the following with certainty. Our primary missions will entail open terrain firefights, area patrols and, if the squad preforms well enough, covert operations. Still, despite this I can say quite definately that we nonetheless have capability of preforming close quarters combat operations and other similar missions as well. The only ones that we could not preform adequately are heavy assault operations and extensive or fortified defensive missions as there has been no heavy weapons expert or combat engineer assigned to aid us as of yet.

 

In order to make certain that we are combat ready by the time we land on Earth my newly appointed XO has already proposed something with which I concur. During the following weeks you are to train with standard weaponry, utilities and munitions in combat situations using the VR combat simulators on this base. As all of them are supervised I can assure you that skipping is quite out of the question." he remarked as he smiled slightly, but continued in a serious voice yet again. "This following week I want you all to have logged at least 59 hours of training and once finished you are to present the statistics logged within to me for review. As long as you make the standard that is expected of every X-Com soldier, you'll have nothing to worry about from my end. After that will come a short period of time where you will begin to ready your muscles as well by taking intensive crash courses. Finnaly at the end we will preform a mock training of a combat situation in one of the VR chambers where you, as a squad, will be placed with a mission ahead of you and with your task to achieve its objectives."

 

He paused breifly again, also so as to rethink slightly:

 

"After that I believe that we will quite likely soon be leaving for Earth and from there onwards we'll see how things go and what tasks we are given. Now. If there is any question, any problem, any trouble which needs solving then speak now, except if it may be a personal one which I will solve in private with you later. Just don't be too shy to ask, since shyness will quite likely not turn into your favour right now. Just as it wouldn't on the battlefield." he concluded with a slight smirk, looking around the room to see if anyone would be smart enough to ask questions rather than just sit around, much more if anyone would be smart enough to ask an intelligent question.

 

<<Allright. Keep in mind the mock training that I've mentioned in this briefing is going to be preformed in this saturday's sim. So if you want to roleplay on this post I'd advise you to step on it a bit if you (hopefully) have the time. >>

[greghannibal]

Alexander had arrived and was now sitting next to Alexei, who seemed to be distracted, as if his friend wasn't ever not distracted, he was going to ask him what was up but decided better of it until the briefing was over at least. When the squad leader mentioned VR missions, Alex raised an eyebrow at that. He had been in VR before, but never for combat missions, he wondered if they were as real as the real thing. Having never been in actual combat, Alex wasn't sure how well he would perform. He liked to think that he would perform quite well, he felt he was ready, fighting aliens was in his blood. He wondered if he would adapt as quickly as his anscestors did during the previous wars. He had a brother and sister down on earth who fought for Mega Primus during its darkest hour, and as far as he knew they were still alive at the war's end, so could it be assumed that they had gotten used to battling the new alien threat rather quickly? Were they even still alive after this fresh assualt on the earth?

He tried to push the thoughts out of his mind as he turned back toward the briefing. The squad leader, Oskari, had just asked for any questions. Alex raised his hand. "What sort of weapons will we be using in the sims? Plasma and Laser? Or the new Disruptor weapons? Or will we be able to get our hands on something new?" He asked after the Seargeant had called on him. He was trying to go about professionally, but he was very eager to get down to earth and fight the aliens himself, even in the VR room.

 

<<forgive me if the tech is off, I'm not sure what they're using at this point in the future>>

[Loonie]

<<no problemo about the tech. I can handle it. >>

 

"You will be practicing with kinetic, laser and plasma weaponry. As it is we have recently discovered that disruptor weapons no longer function since the end of The Fourth Alien War for some reason, so do not expect any of those to fall in your hands since they'd do you as much good as a howitzer in a firefight. Check the UFOpaedia more carefully for what types of weapons you will practice with and also train with those that are most likely going to be assigned to you in the field, regarding your position of course. New weaponry will not yet be issued to you since, obviously, this is a brand new squad, but we will have access to plasma weapons in dire times at least if we need to. Anything else?"he raised his eyebrows as he looked around yet again.

[NickAragua]

Alexei elbowed the taller, skinnier Alex sitting next to him and chuckled. Yeah, that's Paladin, always asking about the guns. It made fairly good sense to him that disruptor weapons had stopped functioning after the dimension gates closed - after all, there's no way to draw power from an alternate dimension without having a gate generator. To him, the unfortunate side effect was that those cool cloaking devices he'd heard about had ceased functioning as well... Alexei raised his hand, and when the lieutenant turned his head towards him -

 

"Sir, when are we gonna get some real action? Or, are we at least gonna be able to go up against some competent humans in training? Those stupid AIs in VR wouldn't know it if someone was sneaking up on them in a neon yellow suit of powered armor, and the drones on the assault course aren't much better... "

[Loonie]

Viktor smiled slightly at that question and answered in a somewhat fake tone of voice:

 

"Ah! If I understand correctly you think the VR training is too easy for you? Well...I'll be sure to oblige you and make sure that you aren't bored by raising your standards bar. Instead of preforming at a "standard" level of difficulty on the majority of your VR training simulations you now have to preform at a "veteran" difficulty setting. I will expect you however to finish the majority of your training simulations just like the others have to do on the "standard" level." the Lieutenant concluded whilst still slightly smiling, even though he was quite laughing on the inside about the genius way of how this rookie gave him an excuse to assign him more work.

 

"Allright then. Anything else?"

[Loonie]

<<As there seem to be no other questions I might as well turn on the fast foward...to our very first training mission. All roleplay posts are now to be made AFTER tonight's sim training mission. >>

[greghannibal]

Alexander watched and winced through the viewscreen as he observed what was going on in the Virtual Reality world. "They were doing so well too..." he muttered as he saw Vanessa's head get blown clean off. He chuckles as he watches Alexei take a fatal wound to the midsection. "Aren't gloating too much now, are ya Alex?" He turns his head away from the viewscreen a few seconds before the mission ends, just before Ice's kamakazi move. He turned around just in time to see the "Mission Over" heading on the screen, and got a quick view of all his comrads dead on the battlefield. He runs over to where they're coming out of VR.

"Sorry I didn't make it sir..." he says to the Lt. as soon as he is back in reality. "I could have been a lot of help..."

 

 

<<sorry for my absense, my server was down>>

[Loonie]

As he had been observing the entire session up till the end Oskari now turned to the private and replied: "Not to worry. Apparently the maintainance crews will get hammered over the VR system here getting broken so that you couldn't be a part of this, but nevermind about that. I'm sure you would've done well." he said as he lightly put his hand on Alexander's shoulder and removed it quickly the next moment as he approached the team that was even now making its way out of their chambers, looking somewhat dazzled as they still had to adapt to the base being their surroundings rather than the hell they were previously in.

 

"Well done team. Overall you did rather well, though I will need to speak to Sergeant Draco alone. Otherwise not bad at all. Get some sleep now and you'll be able to see the de-brief up tommorow." he spoke.

 

----------

 

Indeed it was soon the Lieutenant and the Sergeant heading down the hallway together as Viktor began in a somewhat reprimanding tone of voice:

 

"Sergeant, when we land on Earth I will expect a bit better preformance than that in the field when it comes to tactics. I want you to know that as a team, and as far as general combat readiness is considered, this squad is quite good. But all of the brawn will do us no good if there are no brains to lead it. Usually it will be me, but there will be cases when I won't have control and when it'll be completely up to you, just like right now."

 

The response came in rather quick as Draco tried to make her point "Sir if I may..."

 

"I haven't finished yet Sergeant." came back the reply just as quickly. "At the beginning you taking down the Floater was perfect - no other word for it, which also shows that the team does have what it takes to do covert ops. But you, as the on-site tactitian, must anticipate what will happen next. You spotted 2 Floater scouts and took them both down and it should've been evident to you that a third Floater scout chancing upon the squad was also a possibility. But as it was you didn't consider it and never assigned Sandman to watch out for them, so that in the end that scout warned the aliens of your presence. Even then however not everything was lost, since you could've decided to cut your losses and retreat the scene. The objectives may've been failed but at least the squad would survive. As it was however you decided to be stubborn and as a result the entire team got wiped out. And believe me, Paladin's presence would NOT have made things significantly different."

 

Viktor then turned towards her, quite certain as to why the Sergeant hadn't ordered a retreat:

 

"The next time you're on the battlefield I want you to keep the safety of the squad as a much MUCH higher priority. I am not going to lose men and women over the fact that you need to win every time. Understood?"

 

<<And on we go. No problem about not making it Greg. We got you integrated into the story just nicely and that's good too. And kudos to Ion Mage. I never realized it until now just how well he roleplayed his character - so well in fact that he didn't order a retreat in the end with her. >>

[Ion Mage]

The sergeant listened to the lecture given by her immediate superior closely. When he was finished, she spoek up.

 

"Acknowledged, sir. I imagined that we wouldn't be up against such a large force, given how not all of us are the most experienced in the universe. I did not believe you would attempt the 'throw it all at them at once' trick of training rookies, not that I disagree with it. It is for the best."

 

"Strange that you would say that, Frost. I'd imagine you were rather used to always being aware on the battlefield, regardless of the odds."

 

"I am. I was hoping to train the rookies and see if anyone would actually get the mind to retreat during the fight."

 

"So it was just a ploy to train their senses?" A slightly bewildered Oskari was giving Draco an odd look.

 

"Correct. Do not worry, I would never do such a thing in real combat, for there are no second chances when a real plasma bolt burns your' intestines away, and as such no chance to learn from mistakes."

[Loonie]

"I sincerely hope so for your squad's sake Sergeant." concluded Viktor afterwards. He then let out a deep sigh and continued.

 

"Well in any event. I expect that it won't be that long since we'll leave towards Earth now. Based on the amount of reports I've been getting from the other squads in this last week and a half a lot of things moved onwards so I'd start packing your bags soon if I were you. In fact I doubt we'll have much chance to practice with the squad after this exercise, so I hope that you have a good idea of the people in it. Good day." he finished up as he nodded slightly and left over to his own personal quarters.

 

As he made his way in the doors slid open in a soft high-tech sound and upon entering the room he noticed his holocomputer bleeping anxiously. Quickly tapping a button at the side of the machine he read the message that was contained within. In 2 days time the fleet would depart and it had been sealed and approved as final orders.

 

"I guess I'll soon find out if this war's worth fighting." he said to himself as he closed down the computer.

 

<<Allrighty. Now feel free to continue from here, or if you feel like it post your characters preparing for the departure. >>

[Zager]

The rifle most certainly was not elegant or graceful. The original design was, yes, but not this one. Parts of the casing had been removed, exposing various electronic components, all carefully protected against the environment and breakage. Wires across the surface connection various components, and a small canister of liquid nitrogen was located on the side of the weapon, balancing out an attachment to the beam focuser on the other side. To the layman, it looked like a cheap, shoddily produced rifle. To a sniper, it looked like a gift from the gods.

 

Ice carefully lifted her customized laser sniper system from its case, and raised the scope to her eyes. She fired two shots downrange, and then brought up the targets. She picked up a screwdriver, and carefully adjusted the telescopic sights, before replacing the target and firing again.