Christophskiffer
07-01-2005, 14:36
C-130 Transport
Just South of Salt Cay
0300 Hours
"Thirty seconds!"
The sharp voice of the jumpmaster over the noise of the engine startled Lieutenant Cassidy out of his sleep. He immediately cursed himself for dozing off in front of his platoon, and looked around the craft to see if anyone had noticed.
He was lucky; the majority of the other infantry had fallen asleep as well. Cassidy didn't exactly blame them - they had been dragged out of bed in the early hours of the morning to be loaded on a place to be flown to this goddamn place.
Cassidy unstrapped his harness, and walked down the rows of men, nudging the ones who were asleep. They had to be alert and awake; they had a job to do.
Number One Platoon was going in first. That's what their orders had been. They and Numbers two and Three Platoons would be dropping onto Salt Cay to capture the airport. After them would come the Airforce squadrons who would station there in case an assault on the rest of the island was needed. Cassidy doubted that somehow; at just under 20,000 inhabitants and no standing army, this should be a walk in the park. Should... a little voice in the back of his mind kept nagging. Things that were supposed to go well very rarely did.
The rest of the platoon was awoken in the next few seconds, and they all unstrapped from their seats and stood up, stretching cramped muscles and checking their parachutes and equipment. The jumpmaster called out the twenty second warning. Cassidy went to the front of his squad.
"Okay men," the young Lieutenant said, checking his weapon. He shook his head absently; the BAR was an outdated, Second World War piece of kit that didn't fair well against better-equipped forces. Indeed, the rest of the Platoon were armed with bolt-action Springfield 1903s. One of the distinct problems with the Christophskiffer Armed Forces - lack of funding.
Shouldering the BAR, he looked up. "Now, we're not expecting any trouble on the way down, but if I had a penny for every time I heard that and the place went SNAFU, I wouldn't have to work for a living." That got a few laughs from the squad.
"Ten seconds," called the Jumpmaster.
Cassidy continued. "Our orders are clear; capture and hold the airfield until morning, when the flyboys send in their kites. There are civvies in the nearby town and this airbase isn’t military, so watch your fire and only engage when threatened."
The five-second alarm went off. Behind Cassidy, the Ramp way opened. Cassidy glanced over his shoulder into the thin clouds below. Somewhere in that darkness was the small island they were aiming for. As Cassidy signalled his squad to jump and dived out after them, he hoped to God they were accurate.
OOC: This is the beginning of my invasion of the Turks and Caicos Islands, since it seems no one else owns them. Someone can RP as these islands if they wish, however according to the CIA World Factbook for 2004, the islands have no standing military as in RL they are a colony of Britain. Also, with a population of just under twenty thousand, their armed forces wouldn’t be very big if they had one.
I’m also intending to use this as a thread to develop some characters in my government and military who will feature as prominent people in my nation’s RPing, so this is sort of a cross between a military invasion and a character RP.
Other EIII nations can feel free to comment, jump in etc as they can on all Earth III RPs. The capture of Salt Cay probably wouldn’t be known about until later that morning, however.
I've got to go do some work, so I'll post again later.
Just South of Salt Cay
0300 Hours
"Thirty seconds!"
The sharp voice of the jumpmaster over the noise of the engine startled Lieutenant Cassidy out of his sleep. He immediately cursed himself for dozing off in front of his platoon, and looked around the craft to see if anyone had noticed.
He was lucky; the majority of the other infantry had fallen asleep as well. Cassidy didn't exactly blame them - they had been dragged out of bed in the early hours of the morning to be loaded on a place to be flown to this goddamn place.
Cassidy unstrapped his harness, and walked down the rows of men, nudging the ones who were asleep. They had to be alert and awake; they had a job to do.
Number One Platoon was going in first. That's what their orders had been. They and Numbers two and Three Platoons would be dropping onto Salt Cay to capture the airport. After them would come the Airforce squadrons who would station there in case an assault on the rest of the island was needed. Cassidy doubted that somehow; at just under 20,000 inhabitants and no standing army, this should be a walk in the park. Should... a little voice in the back of his mind kept nagging. Things that were supposed to go well very rarely did.
The rest of the platoon was awoken in the next few seconds, and they all unstrapped from their seats and stood up, stretching cramped muscles and checking their parachutes and equipment. The jumpmaster called out the twenty second warning. Cassidy went to the front of his squad.
"Okay men," the young Lieutenant said, checking his weapon. He shook his head absently; the BAR was an outdated, Second World War piece of kit that didn't fair well against better-equipped forces. Indeed, the rest of the Platoon were armed with bolt-action Springfield 1903s. One of the distinct problems with the Christophskiffer Armed Forces - lack of funding.
Shouldering the BAR, he looked up. "Now, we're not expecting any trouble on the way down, but if I had a penny for every time I heard that and the place went SNAFU, I wouldn't have to work for a living." That got a few laughs from the squad.
"Ten seconds," called the Jumpmaster.
Cassidy continued. "Our orders are clear; capture and hold the airfield until morning, when the flyboys send in their kites. There are civvies in the nearby town and this airbase isn’t military, so watch your fire and only engage when threatened."
The five-second alarm went off. Behind Cassidy, the Ramp way opened. Cassidy glanced over his shoulder into the thin clouds below. Somewhere in that darkness was the small island they were aiming for. As Cassidy signalled his squad to jump and dived out after them, he hoped to God they were accurate.
OOC: This is the beginning of my invasion of the Turks and Caicos Islands, since it seems no one else owns them. Someone can RP as these islands if they wish, however according to the CIA World Factbook for 2004, the islands have no standing military as in RL they are a colony of Britain. Also, with a population of just under twenty thousand, their armed forces wouldn’t be very big if they had one.
I’m also intending to use this as a thread to develop some characters in my government and military who will feature as prominent people in my nation’s RPing, so this is sort of a cross between a military invasion and a character RP.
Other EIII nations can feel free to comment, jump in etc as they can on all Earth III RPs. The capture of Salt Cay probably wouldn’t be known about until later that morning, however.
I've got to go do some work, so I'll post again later.