Into the Abyss

[arvg]

Alessandro looked up from where he was working on the landing gear of the CPW-Social Credit. One of the only Storms still in Omega-52 carrying the VI experimental Cloaking System. He’d gotten the call to get out of bed and haul his ass down to the deck to begin pre-flight prep of his ship, ready for whatever it was they needed of her.

Cruz was somewhere onboard the worn old Gunboat, banging away merrily with a hammer on something delicate in the hopes that the aging gunboat would actually cooperate and the check engine light on dash might actually go out. Not that it had ever gone out, it seemed a constant orange reminder on the dash that the ship was well past her sell-by-date.

He wiped his hands on an oily rag, re-tucking his baseball cap over his hair, looking at the assembling nuggets.

“Head’s up, dude,” he yelled up through the main ramp into the body of the ship. “They’re here.”

He walked up the ramp to where he had left his shoulder holster, slipping it on and patting the VI-Zenith it contained. If there was going to be trouble, he’d learned the hard way, make sure there was some firepower standing by.

“Ordinance truck!” one of the hangar deck-apes called out, wheeling the small truck over, and jumping down to flip open some crates. “From the upper brass, seems they want you loaded up with EMP grenades, mines, and the like. No energy weapons on this one.”

Allie looked at the grenades, and rubbed his forehead looking towards the muppet brigade. “What, they’re throwing them up against warbots for training? Seems a bit harsh for their first week, but then mine had me crawling through the muck on JiangXi dodging hungry cannibles intent on sticking me in a cookpot.”

---

[Tomtomrawr]

James Middleton's Insurgent was rolled into the Zhukovsky hangar deck, and once a ladder was pushed to the side of the cockpit the pilot pushed open the canopy and signed the paper a deckhand gave him to confirm that system shut down was complete. He remained silent.

He stepped backward down the ladder and slowly turned his head to observe the theatre around him. A world that he had until recently been an active part of, back in Liberty. Deckhands scurried between moving obstacles to perform tasks issued to them by technicians, standing at tables scattered with parts brought to them by the deckhands. Middleton always liked thinking of the deck as an ant nest. Ants brought the queen ant the things it needed.

He walked over to the other Militsiya standing in the middle of the deck, awaiting the mission leader who would brief them. The deckhands avoided them as if they were toxic, giving them a wide berth. Without a word he joined the line of the end.

---

[17:45:39] Wolfs Ghost (Murphy): Tom, you have problems. Go kill yourself.
[19:25:12] Johnny (Jam): Tomtom, I will beat you with a spoon.
[14:22:56] Prarabdh Thakur: KILL HIM WITH A SHEEP.
[17:40:48] Eagle (Junes): Tom should be slapped with a spoon.
[11:32:18] Warspite: Thank you for being so awesome Tom. <3
[18:17:36] Metano: I love you tomtom
[20:06:24] Warspite: I will seriously give you epic head.

Edit: also, Tomtomrawr, fappin' like a boss.

[mtjsmith]

Thomas Cruz just couldn't find the problem. He'd taught himself the basics of engineering and maintaining a Storm long before his Scout Troop actually got any training. It saddened him that there was only a handful of his class left, the rest meeting their abrupt end in various explosive and frankly disgusting ways.

"Why.. won't... you... WORK!!"

He smashed at the drive coolant pump again before hearing a delightful thud and nattering sound showing it had kicked back into action again. He sauntered up to the Cockpit to run a brief scan, before he caught a glimpse of the "Check Engine" light.

"ARRRGGGHHHH!"

SMASH! His hammer struck true. The warning light was no more. Sure, it didn't actually solve the problem. Cruz didn't care. He went out the ship towards where all the various pilots and techies were dashing around the place. Cruz took a deep breath in. "This will probably be more cool than that stupid Ship" he thought. He caught a glimpse of his buddy Alvarez and snuck up on him, slapping his back fiercely.

"Haha! Gotcha! What's all this dude? What'ya think of my new hair? I can get into the bar now, they don't ask! HAHA!"

---

[Jam]

Another Insurgent strolled into Zhukovsky's hangar rooms. A new, shiny one. Its proud wings made it look fearsome, the Red Star was to be recognized by every single being in this universe. The Cockpit was a bit dirty, probably earned its rewards during the trip to Omicron Alpha, to the Hispania, an ancient colony ship built by those capitalist dogs, who thought we couldn't infiltrate it.

As the Insurgent was slowly landing, a howling sound swept through whole deck. It landed. Crewmen did all the necessary things, and our pilot finally left the ship. It was Sergei Levashov. He looked for other Militsiya. After he spotted James along with others, he walked to them.

"Comrades." He saluted, and looked around, waiting for things to happen.

---

[10:46:32] Wolfs Ghost (Murphy): And actually, the KU Dessie is the best GB.
[19:29:19] Joseph (Aphil): SCRA|CPW-Capitalism.

Admiral John Clay - Retired and dead *sadface*

[Aphil]

Colonel Sashenka entered the hangar, trailed by a large mobile armory, fully equipped with enough ammunition and weapons to arm an entire marine platoon.

"Listen up." Sashenka said in a rough voice which immediately caught the attention of the recruits.

"Alvarez, you get the VLR-01 Seeker Variant, it's good for medium range firefights, has an ACOG Scope, and used the new VI Assault 10MM Ball Bearing Ammunition." He passed the Rifle to Alessandro.



"Cruz." Sashenka took the shotgun into his hand, and fired it at Cruz's torso. He smirked as Cruz winced in pain. "You get the SPAS-112 Breacher. It's useful for both assault operations, and non-lethal crowd control. Of course for this operation, empty it out of beanbag rounds." He smirked as he handed the weapon to Thomas, noticing a look of disdain from the boy.



"The rest of you muppets, you get these."

Sashenka picked up the Compact Assault Rifle.

"The VLR Compact Variant is similar to the VLR-01, however it has a shortened barrel, and uses iron sights rather than a scope. Of course this means it's more for close quarters combat then ranged engagements. It fires in full automatic, and in a three round burst." He watched as the recruits approached the mobile armory and selected their weapons.



"Check your gear, check your ammo, accomplish your missions." He thought for a moment.

"Not that you have much choice, failure means death." With that, Sashenka turned and left the hangar.

---

| Sirius Coalition | Information Centre  | Recruitment Centre | Visa Application | Communication Centre |

[arvg]

Alessandro checked the Seeker over, sighting down the ACOG, and checking the balance the way he had been shown to do by his drill instructors at the War College. Everything checked out, and he slung the rifle on his shoulder, trying to avoid the spot where Cruz had whacked him earlier.

"Ready, willing, and eagre," he reported, with a salute.

He glanced smugly over at his best buddy who was still trying to get his wind back from having it knocked out of him by a beanbag.

---

[TheOrangeButterfly]

Johannes scrutinized his new weapon sharply, examining it. Reloading it, unloading, messing with the sights. Once satisfied he put some extra magazines on his person, and glanced at the other recruits. He knew this was going to be a long, long day.

---

[Jeremy Hunter]

After Sashenka left, the MILs had a few more seconds of peace before shouting was heard. Before anyone could move, a Technician was thrown through the open door, skidsing into a welder. The man stumbled to his feet, but suddenly someone was there, kneeing him in the groin and throwing him down.

"Wanna say that agsin? Thought not!"

The speaker punched the tech and then stood, revealing it to be a girl. She adjusted the strap of a VLR Compact and moved to stand in front of the Militisya.

"Attention muppets. I am Senior Lieutenant Tori Villers, and I'll be dropping your pathetic asses onto JiangXi with the Social Credit! Your only assistance shall come from two Commando detachments who will be dropped from the CPW Stormfall II. I'd go through and brief you, but I'll leave it to Major Forge. Also."

Tori shucked her rucksack and threw extra clips to the MILs.

"Always good to have extras. Now get to know your comrades, for they will be your only means of getting out alive."

Tori went to her Insurgent and leaned against the side, observing the MILs as she waited for Forge.

---

May you ever walk in the Light, Shizune.

[Dane Summers]

Ketsu gave a half smile and touch on the shoulder to his wingman, Claus, and a smile & nod to Dasha. He'd flown with both of them, and had come to like them.

"I dont know what this is about - do you?" He whispered to Claus.

He saluted smartly to Colonel Sashenka - And began raiding the armory for supplies. Filling his combat webbing with an extra sidearm (making it two), four pulse grenades, four magazines of regular steel core ball bearings, and eight magazines of tungsten armor piercing rounds.
He grabbed some tape, and started taping the magazines together, for easy reloading - tossed it to Claus to do the same. Afterwards, he grabbed a lowlight optic set, some det-cord, a length of rope, 20 glowsticks, two flash grenades, and a pair of smoke grenades. He grabbed a water canteen, and two packs of c-rations. With Claus and Dasha giving him a weird look for the food, Ketsu shrugged - "hey, you never know..."

He was checking all his gear, and going through checks to make sure everything was secure on Claus's pack, when shouting was heard. Ketsu stared as Tori Villers kneed a man in the groin, and threw a sack of extra magazines to the ground. Ketsu crouched over it, and started sorting through, handing the Magazines to the other Militsiya - He looked up at Tori, smilled, and said "Thank you."

---

[TheOrangeButterfly]

Claus shook his head silently as Ketsu asked the question. Johannes had only heard stories of countless 'Muppets' and 'Nuggets' dying at the hands of the Coalition's vetting process. This was yet another time to prove how expendable each and every soul in this room truly was. He accepted the extra magazines when Ketsu handed them to him.

"Danke."

He remained stoic, unshaken by the unknown that lied ahead of this small ragtag bunch of pilots turned soldiers. What were they going to face? He had numerous things running through his mind. He went to the mobile armory and began packing his kit. Rations. Magazines. Flash-bangs. Smoke-grenades. Spare side-arm. A smaller, secondary shotgun. He'd been in ground combat before. This kit would hardly weigh him down. Ah, nightvision. Never forget the nightvision.

He looked at Ketsu again, "Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst." He nodded at Dasha, luckily his interest in her slavic features was nothing. Especially due to his family back in Rheinland. If he died here, they would never even hear of his demise. The last thing he prepared was the taping of the magazines that herr Ketsu had recommended. Simple, eloquent, and efficient.

He wondered what frau Villers was thinking as she leaned up against her Insurgent. Did she have any idea what the hell was about to happen to them? Johannes glanced her direction once or twice, always trying to avoid her gaze. Coalition superiors... never piss them off. Claus wondered, just how much ammo was he going to carry on this mission. He began to re-examine his counts. Side-arm, 4. Second side-arm, 4. Primary weapon, 15. Secondary weapon, 60 shells. That should be plenty.

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