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RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 5.4] Briefing II

"I've already been briefed on the mission, si- ah, mam" Luke said taking a quick glance at Volkov. He did not trust women in the front lines, let alone be the sergeant. Men are just more reliable, capable and can do the job better. Though he did not like this arrangement, Luke knew to keep his thoughts to himself for now. Standing firm with shoulders back, he kept a deadpan stare straight ahead and continued, "I understand we are going underground into the mines. Prisoners and slaves are not to be harmed." He wore a blank face as he waited to be dismissed so that he could gear up.
 
"Cavaliers! You heard the Captain; we go in 30 mikes! Mount up!" barked Phaedra.

She was suprised to see Sergeant Rochester approach her with a new face in tow.

"Volkov, Private Daniels was supposed to join Hawkins. Unless you want me to carry out that assignment and bung him out the airlock, he's all yours."

"Thank you Rochester," said Phaedra, eyeing Luke with scrutiny.

"I've already been briefed on the mission, si- ah, mam. I understand we are going underground into the mines. Prisoners and slaves are not to be harmed."

"That is correct, Private Daniels," said Phaedra. She tapped several times on her Datapad and prepped another Hostile for the new arrival.

"I have your armor here," she said, gesturing to the Hostile being lowered into place.

"Get inside and have it ready as soon as possible. We drop in 30 minutes. Welcome to the Cavaliers."

Phaedra placed her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly.

"Due to the circumstances I will excuse you this time, Private. But in the future, you would do well to salute your superior officer," she said, staring up at him with her frigid gaze.

"Get a move on. The rest of the fleet drops with or without you," said Phaedra with a salute.

"Dismissed."

Phaedra pulled out her datapad while she headed to her own Hostile. She sent a message to all members of her squad.

Code:
Cavaliers, I want your equipment loadouts finalized and sent to me in 15 minutes please.
-Sgt. Volkov
 
Luke spotted his hostile lowering down into place. He was already getting pumped and anxious to get out into the field.

"Understood Sergeant," Luke said with a salute before marching off to the hostile. Wanting to avoid the embarrassment of getting corrected by a female sergeant, Luke took note to always salute.

Before he began setting up his hostile, a notice came up on his DataJockey.

Code:
Cavaliers, I want your equipment load outs finalized and sent to me in 15 minutes please.
-Sgt. Volkov

With only fifteen minutes, Luke wasted no time preparing. He already knew what he wanted; He chose the AS4GS as it would be useful in this situation where the space is confined. After making sure the AS4GS was well equipped, he quickly checked the hostile and saw all secondary weapons were in place. He loaded up ARROWS for the right rack and DARTs for the left. Unfortunately, BOLTs are probably a poor choice for this mission. He'll have to wait another time.

Since he was planning to join Hawkins, he was already well equipped with his own weapons and ammo.

After climbing into his hostile, he sent a message to his Sergent to finalize his load out.

Code:
TO: Sgt. Volkov
FR: P3C Daniels
Hostile Load out: 
AS4GS as primary weapon.  
Standard Secondary weapons.
ARROWs on right rack.
DARTs on left rack.
 
Mulling it over further, Stan settled for the Bulldog. Other Marines were already selecting the AS4GS, and you never knew when you could use the extra muscle. That, and it would help round out everyone's capabilities.

It was at that moment that a message appeared on his DataJockey:

Code:
Cavaliers, I want your equipment load outs finalized and sent to me in 15 minutes please.

It had felt like he had just started! Frowning slightly, he made his last few choices and replied to the message.

Code:
From: P3C Stan Brandt
To: Sgt. Volkov

PA: Aggressor

Loadout:

Primary:

1x RFMD-02b “BULLDOG” Rapid Fire Mass Driver

(ammunition composition: 200x RED, 50x all other ammunition types)

Secondary:

1x EWC containing ARROWs

All other secondary weapons as standard

Wiping the back of his arm against his forehead in a gesture of relief, he began mentally priming himself for the upcoming mission.
 
Rita had already selected her loadout prior to the mission, and had even already described it to Henry while the two were off-duty. She was taking a new-fangled RAIDER armor, with a good old-fashioned HPAR with half the barrel sawn-off for more maneuverability at the expense of range. She was still able to handle the kick as a result of her prosthetics, but it would be a lot more intense than it was in her old suit. She also took with her an HHG with 6 EMP rounds loaded and 6 more in an ammo pouch. She had the standard secondary weapons for the RAIDER armor as well, and had opted for a VBCS combat knife.
 
Francis was busy finalizing the checks on his Hostile when a message from Sgt. Volkov appeard on his HUD. Francis read Phaedra's message and quickly typed up a reply in his Hostile.
Code:
Message:Pvt. Lasalle
PA: Hostile
Main-HPAR 
-AS4GS on back
-Secondaries as standard
-BOLTs and ARROWs on mini-missile hard points 
-3 Extra magazines for LSP-01 on skirt armor
 
Blake caught sight of Morris and smartly snapped to attention. "Pvt. Matthew Blake reporting for duty, sir," he said. " I just wanted to let you know that I'm ready to do whatever is needed to win, even if that means dying". As Matthew looked at Morris, he noticed he had two different colored eyes, and Blake found this to be somewhat intriguing. Blake then saluted Morris and went about preparing his load out.

Matthew spent a few minutes researching the type of action he would be involved in to help him decide what weapons would best suit the mission. First off, he decided to go with Hostile armor, as this would be mobile enough to go from cover to cover while still being protective. He decided to equip himself with an HPAR as his primary armament. He figured this would give him good fire capabilities. He chose to keep it simple and stick with the standard secondary weapons set. Also, he equipped himself with a BOLT, as this would allow him to get rid of more heavily armored enemies. Finally, he chose to take an ARROW, since this could be used on more lightly armored targets, saving the BOLT for heavier armor.

Matthew then sent a message to Cpl. Morris informing him of his weapons selection.
Code:
Message: Pvt. Blake
Load out selections
PA: Hostile
HPAR-main
Standard secondaries
BOLT and ARROW mini-missiles equipped
 
Wulfe received the message a while after he finished with his Hostile's loadout. The marine took out his Datajockey and started typing the reply.

Code:
From: P3C Stones
To: Sgt. Volkov

Loadout for the Hostile is as follows, ma'am:
-Primaries: AS4GS and HPAR
-Standard Secondary Weapons
-Left calf rack: DARTs
-Right calf rack: ARROWs

He sent the message and then hopped into his PA, running all the checks necessary for it to function, as well as calibrating it for the planet's gravity as the countdown for deployment got close to zero.
 
Ice nodded at the medic, relaxing a bit as Romero relaxed. At least some people didn't go psychotic when you told a joke. She managed a smile a little closer to actually genuine than a smirk as Romero headed off. "Drill Instructors did their best, but sometimes the humor extractor breaks down."

The mission profile worried her a bit. Hunting mushu in a mine, that sounded like an fun mission for her first combat sortie. But Ice was damned if she was going to let them thing she was a weak link. The minimum damage order, and the fact that she wasn't close to a mining engineer, kept her from suggesting explosives on this mission. So for now she was just a grunt, but she'd to her best to be a useful one.

Code:
From: P3C Planesview
To: Sgt. Volkov

Locked and loaded sarge:
-Primaries: AS4GS
-Standard Secondary Weapons
-Left calf rack: DARTs
-Right calf rack: ARROWs
-Ancillary Equipment: Recon Drone

Ice sent in reply to the Sergeant's request for loadouts. With half an hour to go, she began her pre-mission checks. Remembering the sim, she'd rigged up a field expedient shell holder for the AS4GS on her Hostile's right forearm to keep a few dozen spare rounds on hand for topping up the tube magazine. Checking particularly to make sure that it wouldn't get dragged into the elbow or wrist joints, Ice moved on to check, double check and triple check her weapons and electronics for her first mission out.
 
As the squads loadouts were messaged to her, Phaedra prepared her own Hostile. After stopping by the armorer to requisition three 40mm stun grenades, Phaedra loaded them into the underslung grenade launcher beneath her HPAR. She selected the AS4GS as her secondary weapon and loaded ARROWs into both of her missile racks.

After climbing into her Hostile, Phaedra reviewed the loadouts of her squadmembers.

Code:
Attention Cavaliers.  While I will not restrict you from equipping BOLTs, I will ask that you use them as a last resort against NMX PAs only.  We must capture this mining facility intact, and being buried alive from one too many anti-matter warheads is not a fate I would wish for anyone.  Also for that reason, you may not equip any RX33 or detcord.
 
Phaedra's message didn't sit well with the ID-SOL. Having demolition material would have been good, just for the options it provided. Well whatever her reasons she was in charge of the squad and he didn't need to know. He just needed to do.

Leaving the case he's been working on as a side project behind Talbain started making rounds through the bay in his Aggressor. Checking on the load outs people had selected, making sure they actually were carrying what they said they were, and that their armor's software was ready to go into an environment with 3 times normal gravity.
 
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