Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

The Second Devil Dawgs Campaign. The Marines find themselves marooned on an uninhabited jungle planet, but find something they did not expect.
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Corporal Hicks
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Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by Corporal Hicks » Mon Nov 11, 2019 3:21 pm

Date: June 24, 2189
Time: 11:09:52
Location: Camp Sierra, Capua, Nembus System


The marines and sailors in Camp Sierra whooped and cheered as the train of vehicles rolled into camp. Scouts on ATVs had rolled into camp thirty minutes previous, and now the main convoy appeared through a gap in the surrounding woods. First was a buggy, a sort of all terrain jeep. The next was two APCs, with bright yellow power loaders strapped on top of each. Finally, a blackened steel tank rolled in with one last ATV in front of it. The lid of the tank popped open and Sergeant Major Sykes appeared, grinning from ear to ear. “Ladies and gentlemen, the cavalry has arrived!”
<Tag everyone>

Among those who returned were many individuals they had feared dead. Among them were Screaming Eagle, Dirk Pitt, Jacob Honeysett, and Samantha Hall. The homecoming was glorious, work was suspended that night and the officers issued a ration of beer to everyone. The benefit to morale was well worth it.

Date: June 28, 2189
Time: 16:22:14
Location: Camp Sierra, Capua, Nembus System


After four days of hard labor, the marines and sailors had turned Camp Sierra into a somewhat defensible location. With supplies salvaged from the vehicle bay they had a three-foot rampart that extended around two-thirds of the camp. Three remote sentry turrets were stationed at key points in the perimeter. On top of this, the vehicles with offensive capabilities were stationed at weak points, but there wasn’t always someone in them. The thing that mattered even more then this, they still had food to last for ten days. Without the supply run, they would already have run out.

Perhaps the most important gain was the new transmitter, created largely from salvaged parts. The new transmitter could reach fifty times as far as the last one in all directions and could even hail a ship that happened to pass overhead (Not that this was likely to happen in the next year.) Mostly the new view they had was bleak: swamp, jungle, and ocean. However, there was one anomaly, something that looked like a small steel structure. It had sharp lines and 90-degree angles, and they had to assume it was man-made. Whether it was occupied they didn’t know, but it was worth looking into.

As the humans casually went about their daily camp duties, they felt the ground under their feet start to shake slightly. Then the camp radios crackled to life with the worried voice of Private Chip Austin. “This is Romeo Six, we have multiple contacts incoming! Look like big rhinos, they are moving fast, I’m keeping my head down, over!”

A remote sentry turret burst to life, followed by a mournful baying. The crew of the Shiloh had 30 seconds to react before the giant beasts were charging through camp, many spattered with blood as the sentry guns had peppered them. They violently hurled unlucky sailors and marines out of their path, and they crushed and toppled any tents or other debris that stood in their way. The intense baying of the herd assaulted the ears and the ground shook.

“This is Romeo Six, I think we- What the fuck is that? Holy shit! AAAAHHHHH!!!” The radios went dead.
(Actions)

(OOC: If you want to use a vehicle, just mention that you hop into one. First come, first served. Available are 1 tank, 2 APCs, 1 buggy, 3 power loaders, and 3 ATVs. PM for more details.)
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ImageSgtMaj. Danny Sykes - Platoon NCO
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by maxvale76 » Mon Nov 11, 2019 6:19 pm

June 22, 2189; USS Shiloh

Samantha Hall was lying blissfully in her cryo-tube, dreaming of playing on the beach with her adorable twin niece and nephew when she was suddenly awakened to bright, flashing light and an annoying sound that kept blaring over and over again in the same pattern. Shaking off the cobwebs, she saw that her tube's top had opened and bright orange-yellow light was flashing as the emergency lights on the ceiling were on and a constant wailing was coming from the loudspeaker. Snapping out of it, she hopped out of the tube and immediately lost her balance as the ship suddenly lurched heavily to one side from a massive impact and a terrible metal on metal impact sound echoed throughout the chamber.

Racing over to a locker where she had stowed her gear when she came on board a week or so back, she hurriedly threw on her BDUs and boots and grabbed her seabag, comforted by the weight of the compact pump-action shotgun she had packed in there. In an unconscious motion, she reached for, felt and was comforted by the locket she was now wearing around her neck. It had a picture of her late parents on one side and her brother, sister-in-law and nephew and niece on the other. She threw the bag over her shoulder and raced out the door, seeing a sad-faced, brown haired synthetic herding people to a life-boat. Following his instructions, she jammed herself into it with a bunch of strangers and soon found herself rocketing down towards and unknown world.....


June 24, 2189; Camp Sierra, Capua, Nembus System

Samantha disembarked from one of the APCs, her BDUs were largely filthy and had a few tears in them from spending the past 48 hours or so on this jungle hell-hole of a world, but all in all, she took comfort in the fact that she was alive and whole and surrounded by fellow marines and sailors and the welcome weight of her seabag across her back and the familiar grip of her compact, pump-action shotgun in her right hand made her feel relatively secure.

She had been happy to have been 'found' by SGT MAJ Sykes, who she had vague memories of serving under briefly, but had been ecstatic to hear that several of her old squad/platoon mates were here on Capua with him, including Mark Giosso. Walking into the camp, she had suddenly seen Mark and before she could stop herself, she was grinning like a fool and rushed over to him, dropped her shotgun near him and wrapped him up in a big hug, which the quiet Marine responded too with an awkward pat on the back and a 'Nice to see you too ma'am', with a shy smile that Hall laughed in joy upon seeing. She picked up her her weapon and quickly got caught up with her old friend, jabbering away like a mag-pie.

To Mark and the others that had known her, Samantha Hall looked a bit older (she was now 29), a few grays were visible in her black, straightened hair and her left forearm all the way up to her where her bicep disappeared under her BDU short-sleeves was covered in hatch-mark looking scars. However, her big brown eyes were still warm and friendly; she was still quick with a smile; her Carribbean-esque accent still tinged her speech, especially when she was excited; and the athletic black woman still gave off a professional, veteran marine vibe. Still, Mark and perhaps a few others could see that there was a bit of a sadness to Sam that hadn't been there before.....a weary determination that didn't remember her seeming to have had before...

June 28, 2189; Camp Sierra, Capua

Sam was helping out wherever she could when the alarms came in about a herd of massive creatures coming there way. Quickly racking a shell into her shotgun, Hall went to see what they were up against and upon seeing the herd of massive creatures coming her way, her eyes popped out and she out a quick; "OHHHH SHIT MON!"

Grabing whoever was near her, she yelled out, "THOSE TINGS ARE HUGE MON! GET TO DE APCS!" and she took off like a shot for the nearest APC, opening the door and staying at the edge of it to help push others into it as quickly as possible....

<Tag Anyone/Everyone>
ImageSGT Samantha "Sam" Hall

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JuanPerez
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by JuanPerez » Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:04 pm

June 28, 2189; Camp Sierra, Capua
Perez caught a break helping to build the perimeter and sipped a cup of coffee, as hell broke lose in an instant. Giant rhino-like creatures stomped their way through everyone and everything. The sentry guns opened up on them, but to no effect. It seemd, that those bullets seemed to piss those rhinos off and they increased their assault speed. It was much too late to don a smartgun gear, and pistols and knifes didn't seem to be too promising, so there was only one chance left ...

After realizing the situation in a few frags of a second, he dropped his cup of coffee and barked as loud as he could ...

"E-V-E-R-Y-B-O-D-Y M-O-V-E-S, get your asses out of the camp. N-O-W."

Chaos reigned. He turned around and ran towards the vehicle parking area, dragging up a stumbled trooper, saw an open APC door and a figure at the edge of it, so he just ran towards it, threw the soldier in and then himself. Only then he realized, that the figure was Sam Hall.
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by taimdala » Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:56 pm

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Dmitri was in his tent when the rumbling started. Sticking his head out for a look, he caught sight of a body flying through the air and heard screams and gunfire. Ducking back inside, Dmitri grabbed his go-bag and his rifle and headed out.

Above the noise, he heard Perez and Hall yelling. He looked, he saw, he dodged the pseudo-rhinos and hauled ass for the APC. Twice he had to dive and roll out of the way, once he was nearly gored. Then he was scrambling aboard the vehicle. He turned for the open hatch where Perez and Hall stood.

"Can we get to the med tent? We've injured who need evac."
ImageCpl. Dmitri Mikhailovich Barayev
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by Quinn » Mon Nov 11, 2019 9:59 pm

Quinn had been up and about for the most part looking to the wounded. He heard the call of the stampede, which got him moving. With his leg, he was of no help in shifting the wounded. He looked to the other few medics which he had taken command of (out of competence rather than rank), and barked ”Shift the wounded to the APCs, NOW. NOW. NOW.”

When that was going, Sixtus hobbled to the armored vehicles. He had a rare skill, one that he had been trained in extensively back when he was an officer sitting in the APC. He knew how to use ordnance, and very well. He moved as fast as he could, climbing to the top of the largest vehicle sitting in the camp, an M22A3 Jackson medium tank. It had a crew of two, the commander/gunner and a driver. It could fit a third, but wasn’t typically required (although common practice was for a tank commander to be separate from the gunner so as to maintain situational awareness).

Climbing through the top hatch, Sixtus sat down in the gunner’s position and started up the tank. It hummed for a moment, the battery charging the engine before...

The turbine in the rear whined until it hit a fever pitch, similar to a jet engine spinning up. The hatch closed and the displays lit up, controls winking on and the simple joystick feedback came to life. Quinn grinned as he heard someone clamber in the driver’s seat, buttoning the hatch shut. He reached out and flicked the intercom inside the tank.

”Driver, put us in the path of those rhinos, with the APCs and medbay behind us.”

He took hold of the joystick and traversed the turret, to face the massive beasts. The tank growled and moved into position, the turret smoothly aiming at the oncoming herd. Selecting high explosive, the auto loader slid twenty 115mm shells into the carousel. Quinn tracked the herd, and fired the gun. The tank jumped a little, the breech slamming back to pick up another shell.

Outside the tank, the effect was a little different. The blast from the gun was so loud that it didn’t so much register as a sound, but as a shockwave to everybody within fifty feet. And the gun kept firing, and firing, and firing. Once a second, the gun spat out a 115mm high explosive shell. But that had nothing on what the shells were doing downrange.

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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by eyeball » Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:36 pm

the beasts where large very large and without doubt scary but the only thing that struck paulson was the last part of the message and the fact that the radio's went dead he grabbed his weapons and headed to higher ground in this case on top of the tank, was its top mounted weapon still functioning he did not know but he knew he needed to get a better view and get off the ground before he was trampled.
seeing Morse as he ran he shouted over the cacophony of sound "how did they block the radio their just dumb animals? aren't they?"
<tag Morse>
Thoughts raced through Paulsons head the last message was incomplete and a little cryptic, stampede rarely get caused spontaneously something usually drives them or scares the creatures into a headlong charge.
once in his slightly safer and more advantageous position he tried to look past the rhino heard to see if there was anything behind driving them on, bigger predators came to mind but it could be anything especially with the odd radio black, out enemy action could not be disregarded.
two rhinos rocked the tank as they ran near but as yet nothing had ran directly into it. people where scurrying between cover avoiding the creatures but the tents and softer structures where being decimated, Paulson would like to have used his flamer but feared he would just set a rhino alight rather that kill such a big creature and was not sure it would provide enough fear power to stop them running.
he looked around for the top weapon maybe if that still functioned it could provide some much needed penetrating power to bring some of these creatures to a halt.
<check weapon>
<roll awareness outside camp>
the tank moved beneth him he had not seen anyone get in but the hatch was closed so they might of, the turret swiveled and depressed paulson just had time to realize what was about to happen, he covered his ears and opened his mouth just in time as the main gun fired the recoil knocking from his feet this was suddenly a really really bad place to be.
grabbing the hatch handle he prevented himself from tumbling off but only just he desperately looked around for another elevated position so he could view what was going on and away from the damn creatures.
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incinerator, 2 spare fuel bottles, motion detector, first aid kit, pistol, knife, 2 frag.
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Morse
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by Morse » Tue Nov 12, 2019 2:17 am

The days that followed the excursion out were a tentative easing. Though they were still stranded it was giving the impression that they may be alright. The food stocks left something to be desired but they would have enough time now to figure out what was edible near them and what was not. Hopefully they had enough meds to deal with that issue as it came. The beer that had been given out was a nice assistant, but morale was decent enough. Though they may not be expecting rescue immediately, it looked as though they'd be able to survive until one may come. Certainly at least a salvage would be sent out eventually to ID a crash and pick up pieces. That was spacer consideration, and Morse like all others was stranded on the ground.

The wall they built was not much, more just a line of skirmish and a mental assistant. Animals here had never seen anything that resembled a structure and may not know how to react to it... or react to it at all. But it certainly made everyone feel better seeing a sort of fence line fortification around them. The armaments had been laid out, vehicles were on hand, and they were getting used to what would be the life.

And then the stampede.

Morse had never experienced a real stampede of wildlife, there simply never was anything that really dared tried. They'd been chased by swarms of xenomorphs, but that was not quite the same thing. Stampedes were filled with fear and chaos, not aggression and hunger. In a way... this was worse. At least at the end of a xeno swarm if you didn't outrun it you had the solace of knowing you were dead. This could leave any number of people injured and maimed for life... however long that would be.

"Scatter out!' Morse roared out as fast as he could. The earth rumbling was felt and heard and the creatures were immense. Were the hostile? Were they hungry? Were they here by accident?

None of that mattered to Morse, or anyone else. He was not there to study, nor was his consideration for anyone who desired study. He was there to keep people alive and do the same for himself.

Morse made for the buggy. The last time he'd been in any situation even resembling the one he was in the buggy was what kept him alive. He was near enough to it, and hopped on its back.

The Machine Gun mounted was something Morse was intimately familiar with and he made immediate use. His higher vantage point would keep people out of the firing line, but those things could mulch the camp. He was not going to let that happen lying down.

Morse racked the rounds and unloaded a hail of machine gun fire the stampede.

< Roll Machine Gun - (Rank G)
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by Quicksilver » Wed Nov 13, 2019 4:00 am

This whole miss adventure had been a disastrous emotionally rollercoaster of terror and relief. The most recent of which was seeing Samantha Hall roll in with the vehicle train. He knew she had been on board, but in the shaking, panicked chaos of their cryo wake up and the Shiloh's destruction there simply hadn't been any time to try and locate her. Once they hit the ground, well, he'd tried to keep hope alive by not thinking about it too hard. And somehow it had come through. It was a high point on this mission.

With restored food and a more secure feeling perimeter, the last four days had been almost decent. For the most part, Mark had been tasked with working on the transmitter and radio system. It was his specialty after all and despite the close call with the wildlife, he was still in mostly healthy condition.

Thus it was that Mark found himself day four on a well-deserved break. Well, technically he was monitoring the comms and transmitter unit, but that essentially amounted to a break on this planet. He has just started a new article in one of his many back issues of Popular Mechanics when the ground started shaking and someone started yelling. He shoved the reader back into his shirt pocket, trying to focus on what the Marine was saying. His eyes widened as realization dawned on him. He quickly keyed the high-power override on the transmitter.

"Scatter! Scatter! Scatter!" he yelled into the microphone. "Find Hard Cover!"

Having given out as much a warning as he could manage, Mark ripped the headphones off and took to considering his safety. His first instinct was to run for one of the APCs. He took a step towards the closest one when the first of the beasts crashed into the clearing. In a moment he realized he wouldn't reach it in time. Panicking, he glanced around for another option.

On the second pass, his thoughts resolved the bright yellow power loader parked just a few yards away by the remnants of its last job. He sprinted over to it and lept into the padded cockpit. Nearly fumbling in haste, he latched the securement webbing together and pulled down the heavy metal safety cage. He heard the locks give a satisfying clank just seconds before the first rhino-creature passed him by.
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Re: Mission 3 Turn 1: Stampede

Post by BarbarianMathematics » Thu Nov 21, 2019 6:15 am

June 22, 2189; USS Shiloh

Tanya Sokolova awoke from what appeared to be a nightmare from her cryo-tube, dreams of being trapped out in a cryotube in space forever finally leaving her mind once she found consciousness. Shaking off the cold cryogenic sleep, she saw that the tube was just opening as the emergency lights on the ceiling were on and a consistent blare of alarm was going off. Before she could manage to get out of the cryotube, she felt something that sent a chill much deeper in her than the cryosleep ever could, the sound of something scrape into the main body of the ship, before a violent shaking occurred.

Pushing herself up from the tube once she felt the tube stop a little short of its full swing, but managed to get enough space to crawl out of the freezer and into the fire metaphorically speaking. Having little time, noticing that the ship itself was quite similar to what her dreams were picturing, she got to her locker, hastily put on her uniform and boots, grabbed some of the emergency supplies that were available, namely some of the rations and other assorted things in her military bag along with her trusty standard issue rifle. Having little time to think about it, she hurried off to the life-boat, hoping her nightmare was not about to become a reality...

June 24, 2189; Camp Sierra, Capua, Nembus System

Tanya disembarked from one of the APCs, her uniform having been marred by the mud and swamp water of the planet, she was relieved, if only a little bit, that she was not stuck out in space in a pod for the next two hundred or so years out this far in unexplored space. If not for that, the land around her, the fellow survivors, and her gun to keep her company, she had not much to complain about... as for survival on the other hand, her mind was reeling on where they had ended up. However, as for most of the people there, she hadn't recognized most of the people, having been only recently assigned to the USS Shiloh.

Tanya, being of northern Ukrainian heritage, she was stubborn and strong, determined to live out the events that unfolded before her. Her young, youthful 25 year old appearances also did not mask some of the beauty that she still had left in her age, save for a minor laceration from the crash that was healing on her left eyebrow. Her dirty blonde hair and ice blue eyes scanned the area, having at least a small smile upon her lips as she and the others were found by Sykes and his motley crew of marines.

June 28, 2189; Camp Sierra, Capua

Tanya was overlooking some of the camp's perimeters, having been out on patrol for the time being when she spotted something moving in the distance. Once she heard the shouts from the others in the camp, she realized what kind of trouble all of them may be in, given the size of those monsters nearby. Cursing in Russian, she locked and loaded her rifle, having only a short time before those things might come crashing into her... having at least found the nearest APC from her location to head toward while keeping the rifle aimed and ready to unload if anything got in the way.

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ImageLCpl. Tanya Sokolova
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