NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: I'm very sorry for the delay ladies and gents, BUT, here we go. Participating nations, your engineering korps now have 2 days to modify the town / bases of operation.

UDW 31, a barren lifeless ball and never been colonized. It had never drawn attention to itself on the galactic front, a waterless world in a small system around a harsh red sun. But it was this lack of life, and lack of attention that saw a swarm of ships no orbiting the planet. Life had come to UDW 31, but it was not for colonization that the world's first city was being raised.

Near the planet's equator, near on of the massive equatorial mountain ranges, there was a massive valley. Almost 3 miles wide and 8 across. The steep rock sides of the valley rang with the sound of Construction. Typhus, Warmaster of the Draconian Cult stood on the edge of the valley with his elite guard looking down at the shifting sands. In the exact center of the valley, a great square had been laid. It was a vast concrete square, large enough to hold a small city, which members of the Padmasan Engineering Korps were now swarming over. For indeed, a small city was being raised there, at the centre of the city there was an open square around a vast cathedral the spire of which rose over the “city.” Typhus smiled inside his helmet as he watched controlled demolitons take down one of the newly raised structures. The city would be 10 blocks of dense urban crawl by 10 blocks of rubble and ruins. There were partially demolished structures that would be havens of snipers, a complete construction zone with open girders and the like to conceal scouts and watchers, and most of the streets were now choked with rubble. An urban battlefield fit for a proper war.

The engineers had gone to great lengths to make a proper city, to perfectly replicate a bombed out capital. Indeed, there were craters and the like dotting the streets. Typhus had been informed that the city even had a working sewer system, large enough to put only a few men down there but still, an infiltrated strike team could do a lot of damage and Typhus aimed to see a lot of damage done.

Far to his left and right, he saw more construction, small towns being raised in the “wastes” that would be his barracks for the length of the battle. The engineers dug snaking roads leading from each town to the city but sand would probably obscure much of them before the games began. Indeed, the towns had scarcely 40 buildings a piece and only the smallest of road networks. The Engineers attached to the strike force would have their work cut out for them. Colonel Kang and his Iron Horses would be up the challenge Typhus was assured, but still, the task ahead looked daunting. Typhus side and turned. Black, the leader of his elite guard hissed, “It looks like a perfect vision of hell, lord. Soon, we will make it such.” Typhus nodded. The heat of this world was oppressive, but the Padmasans thrived in the cold and dark. The night would be their time, and woe betide their foes.

The city was called Hope, at first sarcastically, but as the joke grew, so did the signs. Hope, the first and only city of UDW 31, would fall.

"They made a freaking city" "A whole freakin city" "Who would thought that?"

It was Mat Johnson's first day as a commander.

"Shut up! You've seen cities before."

They had given him all new recruits. The only veterans he had numbered a paltry hundred.

"From this moment on, you are the hammer of the empire, the blunt instrument of the ethereals, the protectors of the Tau'va. As most of you know this is just a game, but you will treat it as a real battle. They is the real enemy."

Johnson knew that this would not end well.

"Now if you'll stop gawking at that city for moment, I would like to direct your attention to that" Johnson pointed at the small town " That is our base of operation."

Unable to control himself, a voice called out.
"But it's a piece of shit!"

"That is why we have 2 days before the battle starts, Private Washington. Now I want you all to assist the only real soldiers in this regiment, the combat engineers. I want barbed wire, fortifications and machine gun nests. I want the artilery in fortified posistions by tommorow so we can start the shelling."

"Shelling of what?"

"We're going to create a chain of craters between here and the city to act as cover."

It was noon when Kang finished, but the city was complete down to the last fallen brick. He lead a short column of vehicles packed with engineers down the sand covered road toward Nightwatch, the shaded Beta Team base town. His transports pulled up short, seeing a great hive of activity in and around the town, links of barbed wire and sandbags all around. The lead vehicle settled on the ground its great grav engine giving a low humm and looked around for any sign of the Padmasans. He drew a taloned hand over his head and hissed.

A shadow fell over him scarce seconds later and a set of massively armoured figures dropped down onto the ground. They were quickly followed until a group of 21 stood looking about warily, looking distinctly out of place in their power armour and black, maroon edged cloaks. They held massive assualt weapons easily and chainswords were visible at their hips as well as other sidearms. Kang did a double take and noticed that there were two swords sheathed at their hips, one a chainsword similar to his own, the second a plain thing that looked entirely out of place. “Vanadium steel bastard swords, with power packs to discharge a heavy stun. Dulled naturally,” a harsh, deep voice answered his unspoken question. Typhus stepped forward, he was taller than the others and his cloak was jet black, with gold lettering around the edge. “Kang, old friend, it is good to see you.”

“Warmaster,” Kang anwsered, drawing his fist to his chest in a salute which Typhus waved aside. Typhus, and indeed all of his men were techincally outside the Padmasan chain of kommand. “What shall we do about them?”

“Oh, I'll have a talk with their commander. Don't worry about that. The only thing you need to do in that town is take the largest building you can find and wire it into a suitable kommand centre. Make it defensible, no effort spared. Reinforce the doors, the windows, everything. The flat roofs lend themselves to gun outposts... you know what to do.”

“Of course, Warmaster, I'll see to that personally. But what of the rest of our kommand?”

Typhus pointed one massive gauntleted hand to the east. “The cliff face overhangs a bit there, that is where we shall build our base of operations. Centre the artillery beneath the overhang, dig out a larger area so that they will be immune to counter batttery fire and airstrike. Then clear a large area for a motorpool and landing zone. Finally, up the cliff face, dig out a shallow alcove to put a pair of watchers and comm gear in. Towers and emplacements if it can be managed, I don't expect miracles.”

Kang smiled, revealing a mouth full of fangs, “Oh, we'll give you miracles. I have a few ready-made structures waiting to be lowered from Orbit, and prefab walls to erect... You'll like it, a proper fort.”

“You can have this done in two days?”

Kang shook his head, “I'll be working the men to exhaustion I admit, but we should be able to manage to clear a space, and get the pre-fabs into place... There'll be no ditch around the base and other than the walls and prefabs I can't promise much. But you'll have towers, gun emplacements, a gate, and best of all a firing step.”

Typhus nodded, “You never cease to amaze me old friend. 300 men worked to the bone, I assume you'll be sleeping all day the first day?”

“Oh, I doubt you've grown that merciful since we last worked together. But we'll be able to sleep through the rest of the grunts getting here. And after that... well... we have some freshly made rubble to clear for the armour I'd guess.”

Typhus just nodded, “Get to work then. I'll see to our friends.”

Kang vaulted back into the vehicle and they headed off to the west. Typhus watched a series of dropships head into orbit, the rest of the 109th combat engineers would be watching the contest from orbit. Pity Kang couldn't join them. Typhus himself turned smartly toward the town and began walking toward the main road into town, his elite guard walling into step.

Typhus walked past the barded wire and the poor grunts laying it. More than a few were staring up at the gaints who moved among them. Fully armoured Typhus was nine and a half feet tall, his men only a head shorter. They stalked through the dusty streets easily despite the heat. Typhus finally found what he wanted behind the town itself, a large group was hastily laying wire and setting up sandbag emplacements around what he was sure would be a gun battery. The man was soaked in sweat, but still looked poised, even after being down for several hours. He wore an officer's uniform and certainly bellowed orders well enough.

He turned as Typhus approached and typhus nodded to himself, decent looking for an alien. The kind you'd see on a propaganda poster. The man took a slight step as Typhus marched right up to him. In full black armour, Typhus looked like a killing machine, a Daemon. The daemon-mask helm, long taloned fingers, and overall in-humanness of it all didn't help. His armour had been designed to do such, the Draconians were half psychological and half brutal overwhelming assault. He offered a nod to the commander.

“You are,” he paused, “ Commander Johnson.” It wasn't really a question, Typhus continued in his harsh growl, “I'm Typhus, your opposite among the Padmasans,” He lowered his voice quickly, making sure none of Johnson's troops would here. Respect and politeness were in order, not publick scrutiny. “What the hell are you doing? I know that these men are not all Engineers. You know damned well that only command staff and Engineers may be down here for the next two days. Are you trying to have us lose this before we begin?”

It had happened overnight. Almost nothing for a time, then a series of bright flashes heralding the transport in of deployment structures and base defenses. Massive portals were soon allowing the massive Spartan mechs and their smaller tank and jetbike teammates to enter the designated base area. Smaller portal structures appeared shortly after, allowing the thousands of infantry deployed for this operation to set foot upon the surface of UDW 31.

However, despite the grace and speed used to set up the base structures that the Cerberan military required, things could seem slightly off to any outsiders. Indeed, the force that had just arrived, unlike the forces sent by other nations to this world so far, was largely a force made up of fresh recruits and trainees. Among this under-experienced force were a few elites, along with a small number of Rangers to ensure that none of the squads of guardians were completely idiotic.

Finally, after the ground forces had arrived and barracks structures had teleported in, Observer Icarus chose to make his appearance. Clad in gold-trimmed black armor, a matching cloak, a masked helm, and carrying a scythe weapon with a built-in piece of long-range weaponry, as is the standard uniform of a member of the Observer order, he none-the-less displayed a level of actual experience equal to that of much of his army. While skilled and knowledgable, he was the least battle-experienced of his order, which was why they sent him here.

This entire wargame was seen by the leadership as nothing more than a training excercise. That being the case, they had sent those that needed the combat experience, with only enough experienced fighters to ensure that there was at least a degree of competence in the force sent.

As for weaponry, each weapon of this new force carried remarkably similar yet different to the lethal weapons that they normally used. The weapons had been designed specifically to have the same size and weight as their deadlier couterparts, yet their effect was slightly different. There were a number of large transport ships that the Cerberan forces had jumped into the system. Each of these had large internal networks of weapon nullification systems and such to make sure that potentially hostile forces could be kept within them for a time, comfortably, without any riots or attempts to commandeer the vessel. Whenever one of the cerberan weapons would harm someone with anywhere between heavy injuries to an actual fatality, onboard computers on an assigned vessel would direct the vessel to teleport the "victim" to one of the vessel's living quarters. Another ship would essentially do the same thing for vehicles. The system had taken a lot of preparation from engineers to make it work, even modifying melee weapons to project a field around them that would cause this effect rather than harming an opponent.

However, all this innovation in technology would be completely useless if this band of recruits kept up their own antics. Icarus had seen the reports from the accuracy tests prior to departure from the homeworld. As if he wasn't already facing an uphill battle, a majority of his infantry couldn't hit the broad side of a battlecruiser.

The fleet of starships dropped out of warp as they approached the planet where the war game was to take place. The fleet consisted of eleven starships; 5 Intrepid, 2 Akira, 2 Carrier Ships, 1 Sovereign and 1 Olympic class medical ship. While they weren't expecting any trouble, Starfleet felt it couldn't hurt to have a dedicated medical ship in case something did happen.


Bridge
USS Thunderbolt
The sovereign class ship had been designated the flagship and as such was in charge of coordinating the offloading of equipment and personnel.

=/\= Captain Steele to the fleet. Take the Intrepids down to the edge of the staging area and offload. All pilots participating in the war game launch the runabouts and land near the ships. All ships standby to transport the personnel to the surface. You all have your training so I will not tell you anything further except good luck and make the Federation Proud. Steele out =/\=

UDW 31
Alpha Site

Less then five minutes after the fleet arrived at the planet, the five Intrepid class ships flanked by the Runabouts landed at the predetermined co-ordinates and started offloading their cargo. Once that was complete the ships in orbit beamed down their cargo. Once everything and everyone had been offloaded, the Intrepid class ships lifted off from the planet and rejoined the other Federation ships sitting in the space near the planet. Thanks to a reconnaissance probe the ship's crews would be able to watch the war game in real time. Communication between those on the ground and those in the ships was restricted to emergencies only to help prevent cheating. Fifty six of the APCs and all the Runabouts were allocated for cargo transport while the other fifty six APCs, and the ground vehicles were shuttling troops to the staging area. The first vehicle to arrive at the staging area was a Puma carrying Colonel Huxley and Commander Lado who were the senior officers. The half Klingon and joined Trill flagged down an officer from the Cerberus Alliance. It was Lado who spoke up.
“Excuse me, I'm Commander Lado and this is Colonel Huxley. We're in charge of the Starfleet personnel participating in this war game. Could you show us where your commanding officer is located? It would be greatly appreciated.”

Off:

Tag:
Cerberus

As Commander Johnson looked up at the heavily armored alien, he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time, fear. The main thing that made Johnson such a good commander was his fearlessness. His courage inspired his men.

"Just a small mix up in command. You may be on your way."

The armored giant turned without a word. Johnson turned to his troops.
"It seems that we are in violation of some of the rules. Commandant Smith, I want you to take these soldiers back to the ridge and run some drills. I will contact you when you may come back."

Commandant Smith saluted the commander and led the soldiers away.
"Combat engineers and officers must stay. Officers, I want you to ask one of the combat engineers to help assemble the pre-made HQ."

The Ranger, in response to Lado, simply motioned in the direction of a black-clad individual that was working among the engineers in order to get the bugs worked out with the weapon modifications done to the Spartans. He was easily able to be seen among the white-clad engineers and the large, white and green Spartan machines.

Each Spartan not only had a mecha-scaled power sword equipped with the teleportation-type weapon engineered for the game, but was also mounted with a pair of prism cannon type weapons mounted over their shoulders, while a small, armor-enclosed cockpit for a single pilot was the primary feature of the machine's torso. Similar in initial appearance to a wraithlord, these machines are slightly larger to accomdate the increase in firepower and the use of an actual pilot.

By now, Icarus's teams of elites (the Fire dragons, Banshees, and bodyguard) were coming in through the gates being generated by various structures, and a transport was depositing the aircraft onto a freshly-made landing pad. The army had finished arriving, and now defenses were being finalized to ensure that this base would be safe during what would probably be a horribly messy initial series of attacks between the opposing sides' bases before any attempt to grab the objective position would occur.

bump

The first vehicle to arrive at the staging area was a Puma carrying Colonel Huxley and Commander Lado who were the senior officers. The half Klingon and joined Trill flagged down an officer from the Cerberus Alliance. It was Lado who spoke up.
“Excuse me, I'm Commander Lado and this is Colonel Huxley. We're in charge of the Starfleet personnel participating in this war game. Could you show us where your commanding officer is located? It would be greatly appreciated.”

The Ranger, in response to Lado, simply motioned in the direction of a black-clad individual that was working among the engineers in order to get the bugs worked out with the weapon modifications done to the Spartans. He was easily able to be seen among the white-clad engineers and the large, white and green Spartan machines.

Lado and Huxley made their way over to the indicated individual. After introducing themselves they had a brief but useful conversation with the commanding officer of the Cerberus Alliance. The rest of the Starfleet personnel arrived and began setting up camp. A few modular shelters served as the command base while the sleeping accommodations were provided by tents which took up most of the space. A series of portable shield generators were then set up around the camp's perimeter along with phaser cannons to help protect from a direct attack. The vehicles were positioned at various locations throughout the camp to provide protection and to minimize damage should the shield generators fail. The area was a flurry of activity as all this was being accomplished and under two hours from when Lado and Huxley arrived, everything was ready for combat. As soon as the work was complete the mess tents were filled to capacity as most of the personnel took advantage of the opportunity to eat food from the replicators instead of the field rations they would be using out in the field. The engineers along with the command staff were taking the time to fine tune the defenses and observe their allies military capacity.

“If they are as efficient on the battlefield as they appear to be while at the camp, they should prove valuable allies.” Stated Lt. Sulek.

Major Tanang scoffed at the statement.
“Vulcans. Efficiency has very little to do with it. The Dominion was efficient but they were defeated. If our allies know how to fight and do so with honor then we have nothing to worry about.”

Seeing the potential for a debate over battlefield tactics, Huxley called the Marines together and instructed them to make sure all their gear was ready to go as they would be the first to move out when the fighting began.

Off:

Observer Icarus placed a map on the table infront of a number of his elite officers and infantry squad commanders. This group would be the brains in the operation, and Icarus wanted to ensure that nothing would go wrong that hadn't already done so.

After a drawn-out discussion on opening tactics, the decisions involving what to do were finalized. Artillery and air power would be critical in the opening moments when they would be the only way to hit the opponents. Getting to the city as soon as possible would also be important, along with forcing the enemy into a defensive.

However, it would be important to watch carefully for what the army from Niord was about to do. Functioning as a team with them would likely be the best way for these two forces to come out of this victoriously.

That night as the engineers worked, Mat Johnson had a meeting with his command staff in which they laid down the basic plan.

At the start of the battle, shelling will commence on the city. During this time, The infantry will establish a front at the edge of the city, And the faster vehicles will attempt to flank the enemy on it way from the command posts to the city. After a front has been established, Infantry will proceed into the city, while coordinated shelling will create a line of trenches along the path from the towns to the city.

Kang groaned and stretched as he walked away from the construction site, the walls were up, the pre-fabs were solid and well anchored, able to withstand bombardment. Everything was ready, except for the majority of things. The world was tinged a deep red by the pre-dawn sun and kang smiled, it looked like the world had bathed in blood. He paused and looked around, “where?” He listened and eventually the sound of steel on steel drew his attention to the left. Kang sneered and headed toward the sound.

He crested a dune and stopped. In the small plain below the twenty men of Typhus' elite guard were paired off in bouts of vicious combat. Their chainswords whined and hummed as they whirled and struck against one another. Typhus himself stood a way away fighting four massively armed combat robots, each of which was lethally armed with twin chain bladed. Typhus himself stood in the middle of the four wearing long black pants. His pallid skin tinged the colour of sickly blood by the light. Kang stopped and watched for a long minute as Typhus whirled and struck again and again a custom made Hellforge chainsword in his right hand, the massive blade was nearly silent despite its power, in his left he wielded what should have been a two handed katana. The blade was light and powerful, writing in a deep red enamel ran down the length of the blade, this would be the Crimson Brand, a master forged blade he had been given by the Leader of Padmasa's long time ally Crimson Sparta. The blade was perfect in a very real way and Typhus used it like a master. More than that however, Typhus spoke to his men. He was unarmoured and vulnerable, but he had also split his attention between the deadly combat he was engaged in and delivering the morning lecture-prayer to his men. He extolled on them the value of relentless, merciless assault. The power of fear in battle. He roared each word in an archaic form of the Padmasan tongue. Kang gave a toothy grin, his age was showing.

Kang approached Typhus slowly, almost unwilling to end the combat and interrupt the lecture, but it was far too late for that. Typhus began his closing of the prayer, blessing his men and reciting the litany of Light, during which he started moving faster. He had been a blur of movement before but Kang realized that he had been at a leisurely pace, now he was moving almost too fast for Kang to follow. The first combat servitor fell with its sensor unit spinning through the air, the next two with both weapon arms severed, the final one, Typhus split in two with a mighty strike. His men wrapped up their bouts too and took up defensive stances. Most facing the west, where Kang noticed they were clearly visible to the Joesian forces... Typhus usually had an ulterior motive in these sorts of things.

“Warmaster, our troops will begin arriving within the hour. Construction is complete and the Colonels will be on the first dropship.”

“Very good,” Typhus hissed. He ran a hand over his heavily tattooed and scarred torso and grinned exposing his fangs. Kang's eyes widened. Apparently it was true that the longer a Padmasan lived the longer his fangs grew. “I will hold a meeting in some few hours to go over our strategy for the first night. Black, “he summoned the leader of his Elite Guard, “ Go over to our ally's camp and ensure our Kommand post is set up, also see if you can get a copy of their deployment orders.” Black simply nodded and began loping off with two of the other heavily armoured Draconians following.

“You know, m'lord, our allies see this as a training exercise, they are fielding almost no veteran units... no one hardened.”

“I know, Kang, I know. For them this is just a game, for us... Pride is at stake. I will do the Master proud. The Daemons of the Light are with us in this place. We shall not fail while their burning gaze rests upon us.”

Kang merely nodded.

It was merely an hour later, the sun was up, and Typhus, now armoured, lead his men into the town Kommand Post. With him was Colonel Kralgar of the 365th Heavy Infantry, Colonel Illith of the 782nd Light Infantry, and Colonel Kang of the 109th Combat Engineers. As well as Scout Master Tarrant, Marksman Arkin, Black, and Talon Master Zho of the Draconians. Assorted staff members were already there, including the majors and representatives of the armour. Typhus walked up to a massive holoprojector which came to life with a hum at his gesture. It showed a perfect replica of the valley which began to slowly rotate as force dispositions, markers, and points of interest appeared. Typhus removed his helmet and ran an armoured hand over his head, it was going to be a long day.

“Gentlemen, I'm sure you've read the plans of our allies, “ Black had managed to get a copy with some effort, “ They think that this will be a battle of the big guns. They are largely right. But they also think that Trenches are even an option. They don't understand the shifting sands of these dunes. Not like we do. But it is our job to support them. This night will be long and brutal, don't mistake me.

“It will begin with a concerted barrage, they want to hit the city and that may well be the range of their guns. But that isn't the range of ours. At 20:21 we will begin a sustained, random bombardment of the area on the other side of the city. Focus will be on the routes around the city. We must channel them into the city where our superior close combat abilites will ruin them. Tarrant, you must work with Master Arkin to reach the city and begin sabotage operations. I want snipers to and scouts to be ready to harrass them every inch they advance into that city. Moreover, two groups of scouts are to move to the forward edge of the city to act as observers to help direct our batteries. We have enough shells to maintain a constant rate of fire with those guns for 3 full days, I want to use every single one and more besides.

“Our allies will be advancing later in the night, but the cold should slow them. Before and while they advance we will move in light infantry, under cover of the bombardment and heat-null suits.” The heat null armour that was normally reserved for scouts and snipers had been recently issued to light armour regiments so that thermal scans would not betray them. They did not wear the camo that most scouts wore, but in the darkness it would not matter. “I want to hold our armour in reserve as much as we can. This fight will be all about attrition. Our bikes are to go our and plant false beacons that will replicate the heat signature and sound of heavy vehicle and troop movements, this should confuse their artillery for the night at least. Meanwhile the tanks will be buried up to their turrets and the turrets covered in camo netting. If they want want assault us directly, they will be in for a suprise.

“The 365th will be held in reserve as will the Draconians. Tarrant, I have a special set of surprises for you. Also, Kraglor, assign one of your men to liaison duties and get him over to our ally's kommand centre asap.”

Typhus smiled revealing his fangs. His men got down to the business of fleshing out orders and Typhus slowly led Tarrant off for a whispered conference. When Tarrant collected Arkin to begin preparing he was smiling. Tarrant's smile combined with Typhus' sent a chill down the collective spines of everyone in the command centre. Typhus watched the holographic display, and on the wall a timer lit up, it displayed the hours until battle began. 12 standard hours... Hell's maw was starting to open, and in twelve hours it would be fully open, disgorging fire and battle onto this world.

A sergeant was picked to liaise with the Joesians, Sergeant Theron. He wore full combat dress as he began looking for the Joesian kommand post and carried his rifle easily. He wanted to get into the fight but, then again, if Typhus and the other kommanders were right, the fight would come to them. He growled and looked around... Why did all of these aliens have to look the same? He came to an intersection and headed off in a random direction, he'd find the allied command post soon enough, or if he got desperate he could ask one of the aliens.

“Try it again, I think we've got it this time.”
Ensign Obreque climbed into the cab of the Striker at the request of fellow engineer Lt. jg. Kudlacek. The Klingons had provided 125 cloaking devices for the war game and it was the engineers' job to incorporate the devices into their armament. They weren't the newest cloaking devices but for the purposes of the war game they would do just fine. The biggest challenge the engineers were facing was power distribution as cloaking devices required huge amounts of power. Apparently whatever the two engineers were doing worked as the entire APC soon vanished from sight and reappeared indicating the cloaking device was properly installed. After a few more tests on that vehicle they repeated the test on 10 others before taking their findings to Commander Lado.

“Sounds like you've done your homework, The cloaking devices will certainly come in handy during the conflict. I want you to install the cloaks on 25 of the Strikers, as for the remaining hundred cloaking devices, I want you to be able to install them on any vehicle we are using for the game with the exception of the Argo LEVs and the Pumas.”

As the engineers left, Lado called the senior staff together to discuss strategy.

Off:

"Sir the defenses are almost done."
"Good. The padmasans should be sending some kind of emissary to work out a strategy with us. Now all we must do is wait."


The new recruit stared with fear at the alien, but his natural joesian kindness did not dessert him.
"Excuse me. You seem lost. Are you looking for Johnson? If you are he should be straight down this road."
The alien turned without a word and walked slowly down the road.

As the new recruit returned to his work at the machine gun nest, his comrades looked at him in a new way. He had gained their respect.

In the midst of all this a group of ten engineers had called Vehicle Commander Drake in from the chaos to brief him on a new weapon, for which targetting systems had been installed in the spartans. What sat on the table infront of him was a small mining drone in terms of apparent function. A majority of the forward section of the machine was a large laser drill array meant for blasting through rock and creating a glass tunnel through a sand dune. The use for this little bot was a little bit more subtle than that, as the Head Engineer soon began to state:

"This is our trench-killer. Likelyhood is that we're going to have to use this weapon, either to create paths around obstacles on the battlefield, or for a purpose that this little group has been working on. It's standard equipment with all of the engineer squads, since a few bits of digging to secure foundations had to be done for the major portals and the defensive base shields.

"What we have it ready to do now is... well, we've got a huge water tank set up in camp, aside from the main one that we will be primarily using during the exercise for any soldiers that get heat exhaustion, regardless of the highly effective cooling systems in their armor. This second tank as a substance mixed with it that the orbital systems can spot, and thus they recognize that water tank as a giant tank of acid. Simply, we've made sure that the thing won't break due to gunfire and cause us all to be teleported away.

"We've set up a basic pipe-and-water pump network with an ending hub underground where there is an anti-heat valve to stop the tunneling from this little drone as we have it mine it's little way in a straight underground path to be in any place that you target. If target it and also press the trigger button on the special targetting system, the valves in the pipe system open, essentially sending a flood of 'acid' into the enemy trenches."

Drake didn't take long to respond: "Come on, speed is going to be crucial in this game. Do you think that the enemy is really stupid enough to resort to trench warfare?"

The Engineer fought back against this comment: "The human scientist Albert Einstein had a quote 'Two things are infinite: The universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe.' What he said extends to all sentients.

"Now trust me, it's best to be prepared."

bump

Bump for my post later tonight.

Sorry about the delay gents but don't worry, I'll have a proper post up and done tonight.

OOC: Hey, Niord, your vehicles are they tracked, wheeled or what? Also, just a couple quick things on the cloaking system. You said it has massive energy needs, so no weapons fire when it's active right? Also, how would the system react to say... a rain storm or sand storm? Actually, a more detailed set of info on the cloaking in general would be nice. Does it somehow mask thermal emissions?

Also, Cerberus, how noticeable is your tunnler if it's boring through say concrete?

IC:

Theron ducked inside the allied kommand centre and found himself face to face with a group of aliens. The tiny screen that hung in front of his right eye flashed to life showing a picture and partial bio of the alien kommander, Johnson. Theron identified the man quickly and saluted in the Padmasan style, a fist to the centre of his chest. “Kommander,” he hissed, “I am Sergeant Theron of the 365th Heavy Infantry, I have been assigned to liaise with you for Warmaster Typhus.” Theron nodded and stepped back, placing his back against the wall to watch and listen.


Typhus walked about the camp, seeing it bustling with black clad troops. The heavy infantry made up the majority, their battle standard rested outside the company command centre in the fort. Each man wore his heavy black uniform well the heavier armour and weapons making them appear menacing. The light infantry stood out easily from their brethren because of their long cloaks. One side featured dark urban camo, the other was black as night with a coloured brooch to denote rank. The camp hummed with purpose, the Draconians had taken a space just behind the forward wall and were conducting equipment maintenance while Zho lead them in prayer. Indeed the base loudspeakers boomed a hissing prayer to the men, stoking their fury and pride.

Typhus walked up the the quartermaster's bunker, bypassing line of men. He slipped inside and walked up to the counter. A quartermaster-sergeant approached him a moment later, “M'lord, how may I help you?”

Typhus nodded, “I'll need gel rounds for my Dominion. At least 6 clips. As well as 4 clips Enforcer and 2 clips Devestator” Typhus drew the massive rifle off of his back, the integral bayonet looked wicked. “And a training sheath for the bayonet also.” The quartermaster nodded and departed into the racks of equipment. Typhus took the time to eject the current magazine and attach it, with 5 of its cousins to his back harness. The quartermaster returned a moment later bearing a small crate.

“M'lord, here it all is. Will there be anything else?” Typhus considered carefully and then shook his head. He moved to the side and began loading up, slapping fresh clips into his weapons and checking all of them. He was just turning to leave when a rather large cart trundled past, out from the back of the bunker with Tarrant pushing it. Typhus nearly laughed, the man knew how to rig explosives, but being given free reign to conduct sabotage operations was probably just too much. Typhus noted an actual crate of smoke charges, the kind designed to replicate poison gas, and laughed.

Typhus left and headed to the mess tent to restock the supply of water in his armour's integral tank. With this heat, everyone needed to keep drinking to avoid dehydration. It was only four hours until battle began.


Theron drew Kommander Johnson aside quietly, his com had just buzzed. It seems the engineers had some extra after all. “Sir, the Warmaster has sent along a gift.” He lead Johnson outside to where several massive barrels had been unloaded. Each was easily fifty gallons, and there were 10 of them. A Padmasan grav-hauler was quickly heading back toward where construction was under way. “The chemical inside these drums, when used properly is a bonding agent. It will make the sand similar to a very dense concrete. It only holds up for a few weeks if you don't touch it up but... that's more than long enough. A gift to make sure your trenches are secure.”


The camp had gone quiet, very quiet. Typhus stood on the firing step with the Draconians looking out. The gate was closed but right behind it the eight hundred members of the Light Infantry and the hundred scouts waited. The artillery crews had loaded their first shells, waiting. A countdown, superimposed over Typhus' vision counted down slowly, each second seeming longer. “Men, I don't need to tell you that we will be victorious, and I don't need to tell you that you will fight well. You know me, and you know I expect to be honoured by the company I keep. The next time I see you, it will be during the victory parade! Check your loadouts, check your weapons, and unleash hell.”

A mile away in the town the Padmasan theater kommand was silent. Every man was watching the boards and displays, looking for any signs of enemy movement or activity. Colonel Kraglor stared at the perimeter defense screens and sneered. He couldn't wait for the fools to reach them, that he might unleash the fury of the Iron Wolves.

Arkin leaned down and kissed his sniper rifle. He had painstakingly adjusted the sight earlier, indeed he had performed a complete round of maintenance on the weapon just an hour ago. “You are my hand in fate,” he whispered to the weapon, “my way of changing the world.” He turned and sighted the cliffs, checking the range adjustment before going through the vision modes it could display. He smiled, and put his finger on the trigger... he'd adjusted his armour, cutting off the glove around his trigger finger. He would never put something between himself and that lever.

Tarrant was at the very head of the column as befitted his rank of Scout-master. He wore his cloak over a heavy pack, filled to brimming with the tools of his trade. Ten of the scout-snipers stood with him, each one also carrying a heavy pack. They would burn a lot of energy running for the city, but it was worth it, they had to get there first. He lit a cigarette and grinned up a Typhus. The ember of it was the only light in the entire camp.

5...4...3...2...1. Typhus drew his chainsword and gestured his men forward. It wouldn't befitting to send them off with the weakling shock-sword he would have to use on the enemy soldiers. The gates slammed open and men ran out, melting into the deepening shadows. In twenty minutes, it would be true night, and the artillery would begin firing. Typhus smiled to himself. He looked far to his right and saw the 10 grav-bikes screaming off in pairs to plant the beacons. It has begun.

"We thank you for your gift."
Johnson turned to his men



"Begin the bombardment."
All around the area the sky was lit with redish color of the photon shells.
"I want you all to move into positions on the outside of the city as soon as possible. The engineers will be hauling our gift around, so once your in position signal them. You shall not fire or enter the city until you receive a direct order. The only people exempt from this are those floating bastards."
A great roar of laughter came from the vehicle crews.


Within 2 hours the troops were in position.
The tanks were just outside the city waiting for the first sign of the enemy to strike. The 1st armored division was not going to be denied the "first blood" of the battle.

"We thank you for your gift."
Johnson turned to his men.

"Begin the bombardment."
All around the area the sky was lit with redish color of the photon shells.
"I want you all to move into positions on the outside of the city as soon as possible. The engineers will be hauling our gift around, so once your in position signal them. You shall not fire or enter the city until you receive a direct order. The only people exempt from this are those floating bastards."
A great roar of laughter came from the vehicle crews.



Within 2 hours the troops were in position.
The tanks were just outside the city waiting for the first sign of the enemy to strike. The 1st armored division was not going to be denied the "first blood" of the battle.

Joe, look, I debated more than a while before posting this. I'm generally pretty laid back in an RP but... 12 sentences is NOT going to cut it. I'm not saying you have to do what I do and get in at least a thousand words but... put some description in it for god's sake! If you don't put description and details into your posts, then it's incredibly hard to reply to them. So do myself and our opponents a favor and re-write your last post please.

Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mention it in my post but there's a good two hour gap between theron giving you the chemicals and the start of the wargame.

On:

The camp was bustling with activity as the time for the war game to begin was rapidly drawing near. Vehicles were undergoing last minute maintenance checks, weapons and tricorders were being checked one last time to ensure they were in working orders, and those in charge made last minute revisions to their battle plans. There was a marked difference in the way those with combat experience handled themselves compared to those for whom this was their first taste of combat outside of Starfleet Academy.
Those without experience were constantly checking and rechecking their gear while the veterans gave their gear a once over before settling down and awaiting the final orders to deploy.

Checkpoint Alpha
1.5 KM South of Main Base

Senior Chief Petty Officer Elden Glasgo peered through his binoculars at the desert terrain ahead for any sign of early enemy movement. Checkpoint Alpha was the first line of defense should the enemy attempt a direct assault on the main base. Alpha was one of four checkpoints 1.5 Kilometers away from the main base. There were three other checkpoints set two kilometers away from the base located north, east, and west of the base. Each checkpoint was manned by 2 senior enlisted personnel, 2 junior officers and 2 cadets in either their 3rd or 4th year at the Academy.
“You really think they'll try a direct assault?”
Elden set down his binoculars as he answered the question.
“It's hard to say. We know little about their tactics and military preference. At least in Earth's history and that of Starfleet ,a direct assault is usually the most costly even if it results in a victory. However if they follow the Klingon's philosophy they wouldn't be concerned about casualties even if they are just simulated...”

He was interrupted by Commander Lado's voice over his comm badge.
=/\= Lado to checkpoint Alpha, we're preparing to move out and expect the enemy to begin their assault any time now.=/\=

=/\= Roger that Commander. We'll be ready for them. Glasgo out. =/\=

Main Base

As the Federation Anthem played softly in the background, Lado and Huxley stood up in front of the gathered troops. Huxley stepped forward to deliver a short speech.
“Today we are given a unique opportunity to show others the true might of Starfleet and of the United Federation of Planets. I don't ask much of you, just that you go out there and do your best. You all are competent at what you do or you wouldn't be standing here today. While this is only a war game I want you to treat this as the real thing. Remember also that you are Starfleet personnel and I expect you to act as such.
He paused for dramatic effect.
“Red Alert, all hands to battlestations!”

At that the music was replaced by the alert klaxon and all gathered quickly dispersed as the first set of vehicles moved out. The first wave consisted of 4 tanks, 10 Strikers, 12 Runabouts and 20 Pumas.

Off:

OOC:
A cloaking device is a form of stealth technology that uses selective bending of light (and other forms of energy) to render a starship or other object completely invisible to the electromagnetic spectrum and most sensors. It has been encountered in varying forms over the centuries.
Due to the enormous amount of power required to generate a cloaking field, there is by and large not enough power available to also power the weapons and shields.

OOC: Niord, very interesting. Active camo is fun. Are your vehicles tracked, wheeled, or powered by say, a gravity induction engine?

Also, I'd suggest that rain or sand would render you cloaking useless. Active camo would still make you hard to see, BUT sand and rain hitting a solid object would also be pretty visible... the rain sheeting off of your tank, and the sand smacking into it... That's just my logic, during the second day (as I've stated before) there is going to be a rain storm... As far as I'm concerned your cloaking is useless then, unless you can figure out why it wouldn't work. Also... how would active camo block out... say thermal imaging? It just seems to me that it would make you more visible, the energy expended to bend the light and all... I'm not going to be a metagamer and try to claim all of my men have thermal imaging in light of this. But I can tell you that some do.

Also... 8 KM is around 5 miles, the valley is 8 miles long total... That would put you inside the city. Finally, my artty is random and all over the place, a barrage wouldn't be hitting your base in all likelyhood. My ally seems to be shelling the outside edge of the city, according to my memory. Dunno.

I think it might be a good idea to post standard kit load outs for our men, or something... dunno. I still have to figure out mine exactly (I have a good idea) but haven't done it yet.

Joe, look, I debated more than a while before posting this. I'm generally pretty laid back in an RP but... 12 sentences is NOT going to cut it. I'm not saying you have to do what I do and get in at least a thousand words but... put some description in it for god's sake! . So do myself and our opponents a favor and re-write your last post please.


man chill.
im on a very tight schedule this week.
im suprised i even had time to write that all out.
and whats wrong with it? it explains whats happenin

If you don't put description and details into your posts, then it's incredibly hard to reply to them

my post doesn't really effect you. your reply doesn't have to respond to mine
in the wargame it will but right now this is all just positional stuff.

what kind of detail do you want? what exactly there doing what everything looks like?
this is a large scale thing thoses things aren't really that important

man chill.
im on a very tight schedule this week.
im suprised i even had time to write that all out.
and whats wrong with it? it explains whats happenin

If you don't put description and details into your posts, then it's incredibly hard to reply to them

my post doesn't really effect you. your reply doesn't have to respond to mine
in the wargame it will but right now this is all just positional stuff.

what kind of detail do you want? what exactly there doing what everything looks like?
this is a large scale thing thoses things aren't really that important

I should probably go to sleep, ignore this post of yours, and keep going with the RP. I don't think I'm going to. I don't mean to sound hostile, or anything like that. I'm just addressing your points.

1. What's wrong with it is that it looks like something you did in... two minutes, tops. It shows no effort at all. I understand being pressed for time, I really do. But at the same time, I know that this is a forum game, if I don't have the time one day, I make time the next day. The game moves as fast as the players want it to. If you can't make a post one night, all you have to do is spend the same two minutes to say "Hey, things came up (or whatever) I won't be able to post until tomorrow or the next day or whenever". No one is going to complain or probably even care.

2. Yeah, it does explain what happens, in the most limited possible way. There are no details to it at all, nothing about the size of the troops moving out, nothing about the path they take, nothing about where your artty is targeting (although you had said in previous posts, it's always good to re-affirm where it's hitting). All it really explains is that some amount of armour is moving and that your big guns are firing.

3. Your post doesn't affect me? I disagree. You are moving tanks up, so like a good ally I would like to move infantry to support you (since it doesn't seem that you sent any to support the armour). I would like to know if I'm going to have to radio your commander to stop the bombardment so my men can enter that city. I'd really like to know what the force you're sending looks like and what the force defending your base looks like so I know how I can best support you.

4. Positional stuff? No, it's not at all. This is the war, if I was Cerberus or Niord I'd be sending every air unit I could muster to strafe that convoy right now. From the second I posted "It has begun" this is the war. There is no more get ready, no more getting stuff into position, it's open battle. If we aren't directly attacking one another with ground units yet that doesn't mean we can't affect one another.

5. What I want, is a post that is up to par with Niord, with Ceberus, and with me. I want numbers, I want dispositions, I want detail. I want something that shows you give a damn about this RP. You moved some armour about, great, what kind of formation was it? How are they formed up outside the city? Things that would be good to know if I was an enemy and going to send air units against you. Things that would be great to know for my next post when my light infantry walks right up next to you.

6. I disagree, I don't think this is large scale at all. Large scale usually means hundreds of thousands of men where the smallest unit I'd describe the movement of is a regiment. In this wargame, I know I'll be describing the movement of men at the squad and fireteam level all the way up to the company level. Treat it as large scale if you want, but at least to me and probably to Cerberus and Niord I don't think it is. And if we treat it like that, and you don't, you'll get taken apart piece by piece.

Now, if we were sitting at a table right now. You'd understand that I didn't mean to be hostile in any way. You'd know I was trying to level with you man to man, so you can be a better roleplayer and we can all have fun. Hell, you'd probably know I just wanted you to at least try and show some effort. But as it is, we're not sitting across from on another, so I'm left trying to tell you this after the fact.

Oh, and hey, please. Don't call me "man" or "kid" or any of that other BS. I have a name, I don't do you the discourtesy of calling you "kid". I think it's rude. So please, call me Pad, or Padmasa, or something in that vein.

"Let's go! Commence the operation!" A single order that went throughout the base. It was the order that the Cerberans had been waiting for from Observer Icarus, and now the wait was finally over. The battle had begun.

Within moments, 800 warp spiders had teleported themselves into the city, using the buildings as cover to make sure that they could begin mowing down the initial wave of enemy infantry before teleporting out to safety with their death spinner-type weapons. At the same time, armed with information on the location of the enemy command bases, 50 of the Spartans began launching artillery attacks. The 50, out of 100 total, machines had been fitted earlier with plasma mortars. Though somewhat old-fashioned compared to the prism cannon, the mortar could do a bit better against targets not in the line of sight, while still not burning through ammo.

((OOC: yeah... I fitted guns from the Covenant tanks from Halo on my mechs. Needed some decent artillery power. ))

About five minutes after the official beginning of the battle, 50 Rangers were in position around the valley, using personal stealth field generators to remain hidden for the time being (though they do know that the conditions will likely not allowing them to hide like this much longer), in order to act as spotters for the planned strafing runs to be made by the Raiders and artillery strikes, along with being prepared to snipe anyone trying to give out orders or rally the troops within their sniper rifle's range.

And with that begin done, the Observer had his remaining infantry forces prepare to run as quickly as possible from their base to the city. All that he's waiting for is the perfect moment. Not so soon that artillery catches them off guard in a moment of arrogance before any of the inexperienced soldiers have mentally adjusted to combat, but not so late that the enemy already has the objective. "Timing is critical..."

my computers pissing me off

i wrote my entire edit (i made it longer and detailed it's still not that good. I'm not much of a writer) and when i tried to post it told me to sign in (which i was) and when i signed in i lost everything

do you guys know anything about this problem?

do you know how i can get back what was there?

Few tips to avoid the situation you just dealt with:

1) While you are signed into the forums, make sure that you do not accidentally click the forums link on a tab or window that shows the main nationstates site. There's something wrong with the link that makes it automatically sign you out in the process of redirection. However, if you have the forums themselves bookmarked, then you can just use that to reach the forums without signing out.

2) Make sure to keep a copy of your work before you hit the almighty SUBMIT button. Just select the message, use Ctrl + C to copy it, and then if it forums do pull what they did to you, unless you copy something else like this beforehand, you should be able to use Ctrl + V to paste your message into the blank message box when you go in to try it again. If you feel the urgent need to copy + paste something else during the time it may take to do this, then just paste your post into a blank text editor document.

However, beware that your message from when it force-sign-outted you might still make it through, but with a slight time delay. Check back a few hours later. If the post or the changes (in the case of editting) are still not there, then you should probably re-post.

thanks.
it didnt show up like you said it might so, i remember it pretty well, so i'll repost it

OOC

Argh, the number of posts I've lost to forum bugs. I dunno if you were there for it but before we moved to jolt it was a major problem. The only advice I can give is to use something like Open Office to do your work in. Even with the spell check in Firefox I still prefer to work in a proper word processor. Likewise, Cerberus made a good point, just hit copy on the text of your post before hitting submit, that's saved my arse a time or two.

OOC: I received this TG from Padmasa 2 days ago:

Hey, the forums are down right now and I only have a few minutes online. Please post in the wargame thread saying that I have had some computer issues and I'm working on getting it fixed. I'll hopefully be back in a few days.

Other than that... bump.

I'm very sorry for the delay and my comp problems. But I'm back and so I offer you this Bump.

can you start off the hostilities?

Okay, the thread will be back on track and proper fighting will start by tomorrow night. See you all then.