USCMRPG

Gateway Station: The largest known space object to man. The home of the ICC, Interplanetary Commerce Confederation. Still it looked surprisingly small from a distance, dwarfed by the blue planet that it slowly orbited around. Second long flashes from engines igniting as they left the station could still be seen although the ships themselves where to small to be seen with the naked eye.

The planet and station just seemed to hang there, in the middle of nowhere, with a backdrop of a myriad of stars and deep black space. Slowly shrinking in size as the U.S.S Costaguana accelerated away, already travelling faster than a pulse rifle bullet and still accelerating.

The Lieutenant, David Minuteman, looked for a few more seconds and then turned around and headed away from the bridge where the Android Priest where busy working with the nav-computer.

The Squad was assembled in the hanger bay waiting for the Lieutenant. Someone whispered a muffled "Appearantly his fresh out of war-school..." to which someone replied "great". Having inexperienced Officers where never particularly popular amongst troops, and especially not in new formed units where a cohesion still had to be formed.

The squad was a ragtag group of more or less experienced marines. It had been hastily pulled together from the Marines that where on leave at Gateway at the moment this situation arose. They had been assigned a ship and been transferred to the 03battalion, 2nd regiment 8th platoon. All in less than three days. To say the least, not everyone was very pleased about being forcibly moved to a new unit. Off course they could refuse. But that would mean that their careers in the USCM was over and they would have to stay the rest of their tour of duty in the brink.

The ambience of the huge engines could be felt as much as beeing heard. Everything vibrated slightly and the chains that hung from the roof swung slowly back and forth. The hangar was large, the two UD4L dropships situated in the center of it where impressive yet there where plenty of room over around them.

Suddenly a door slammed and quick steps down a stair could be heard. The Lieutenant appeared and with him a strictly dressed civilian woman, both quickly walked towards the group, he looked young. "Wonder if he even shaves?" someone remarked but before Sgt. Caden saw who it was the Lieutenant approached them.

"Officer on deck!" Caden snapped and everyone stood in attention, some rather sloppily and appearantly defiant.

The Lieutenant didn't seem to notice.

"Good morning Marines!"

"Good morning, Sir!"

"At ease"

"First I would like to say that I am sorry for the situation and that you have been put into this against your free will." he gave the group a glance. Everone met his eyes steadily. Measuring.

"But being Marines I expect you to deal with it. You have a job to do and sometimes reality comes knocking." The Lieutenant picked up a small folder before continuing.

"I apologize for me not being able to brief you back on Gateway but I was given charge of this boat in the last minute"

"Ok listen up!"

"Yesterday we received an emergency call from the Weyland-Yutani corporation regarding their Piranha Class Armed Trawler 'WY 109' near the Denebola Star. According to Weyland-Yutani sources the trawler carried important scientific finds from the Acheron incident.

The WY-109 reported that their computer had detected an anomaly in the drive engines and pulled them out of hypersleep and that they would try to make repairs in space. Appearantly they found evidence of sabotage. A few hours later they reported that some of the crew commited mutiny and had barricaded themselves in one of the containers, shots had been fired and there had been at least one casualty"

He turned towards the woman next to him. "This is Linda Copperstone and represents the Weyland-Yutani on this mission she is here on an advisory basis only"

She nodded and gave a nervous smile.

"I want mission discs and schematics studied before we hit the sleeperss in two hours, once there I want you to concentrate of weapons loading and dropship prep"

"Now...are there any questions?"

OOC: Please skim through posting rules before replying, thank you

Sgt Caden eyed the Lieutenant. Considering the comments of this newly acquired gang of misfits, this Minuteman was evidently trying hard to exude confidence. Can't blame him, though, Caden thought, since he probably wants to be here about as much as I do. As for Copperstone... well, being a colony brat, Company-types left a bad taste in Caden's mouth. Still, you didn't get far in the old USCM by questioning orders... Besides, it'll probably be another secure and stow mission.

Sgt Caden spoke up: "With the personnel on this WY-109, what kind of possible resistance are we looking at? Any military detachment on the vessel, or just a research crew?"

The Lieutenant opens his mouth but is cut off by the advisor

"The crew conscists of civilian Weyland-Yutani employees" The woman replied.

Magnus looked around at his fellow grunts. He did a little mental arithmatic and couldn't believe it, they didn't seem to have a full compliment of soldiers.

"Um, yeah, I have a question, Lieutenant, sir." Magnus had a strange drawl to his voice, almost snobbish, like he was bored by everything (which was usually true) and the way he said 'Lieutenant' emphasized his belive that Minuteman was more wet behind the ears than the soliders he was in charge of. "Is this everyone? We seem short."

Lt. Minuteman, clearly irritated at being cut off by the Advisor, cleared his throat. He took a slight pause before answering the rather obvious question:

"Yes, private, we are short. I'm not pleased with that either" The Lt. snapped

"Any more relevant, questions?" The Lieutenant said giving Magnus an iced glance.

"No Sir, Lieutenant... SIR." Magnus said crisply to Lt. Minuteman, matching the Lieutenant's stare. Magnus sighed silently to himself. He'd seen men like Minuteman before, greener than the vegetables they used to grown back on the hydroponics farm. Officers just didn't seem to understand the grunts, and more imortantly brushed them off as stupid and expendable.

Mag was going to make sure the Lieutenant knew he was neither stupid nor expendable. And apparently being the only medic on the damn ship ment he was going to have to keep everyone else from being expendable too.

Nick Steel casually glanced around, confirming to himself that the squad was short of people. A momentary frown flickered across his face at the confirmation of this news.

"Sir, I have a question. Are we to eliminate the mutineers or try and take them down without greasing them all?"

Andy Dufresne looked unintrested in anything that had been said, but that was far from the truth. He knew enough to know there was something else going on here - something that wasn't being said, and even if he asked "The Company's" Ms. Copperstone, he wouldn't get an answer.

Sabotage - mutiny - a crew of entirely civilian Weyland-Yutani employees that just happen to have firearms on board; it just didn't add up.

Andy figured it better to be quite, for now.

(snip) "....Are we to eliminate the mutineers or try and take them down without greasing them all?"

Minuteman hesitates for a moment before answering: "They are considered pirates and as such they do not fall under the protection of ICC law. Weapons free"

Ronald Green smiled for himself with his green eyes sparkling, he longed for spraying some bullets at whatever thing they would meet. And there he stood listening to the others, smiling for himself dreaming away.

Denebola, thought Caden... That's pushing the Outer Rim boundary. Law and order wasn't as pervasive there as in the Core Systems. It could be that one or more of the crew had eyed a precious find on Acheron and aimed to take it for themselves. Plenty of credits got passed around on the black market. Even against Marines, the opposition might not give in without a fight.

Going into an unknown situation with an untested group made Caden uneasy. Caden absent-mindedly handled the holster of his VP90 strapped to his waist, a nervous habit he'd picked up from his drill instructor years ago.

Kelly took the opportunity of the to take a look at the other marines. Nothing much stood out about any of them, she guessed she'd find out which of them she could trust soon enough. The lieutenant and his little advisor were another matter.

The lieutenant was a lieutenant and there wasn't one of them to be trusted an inch, and as for dragging along some Weyland-Yutani suit. She stared at the woman with a lazy half smile, watching her nervous expression. No question that one would be trouble.

"We got any numbers on those mutineers, sir?" Kelly asked finally, "Just so I know how many bullets to pack."

(snip)"We got any numbers on those mutineers, sir?" Kelly asked finally, "Just so I know how many bullets to pack."

"Well MacQuiver...the WY 109 had a crew of twelve including three androids. I expect there to be no more than three hi-jackers at most" The Lieutenant said obviously trying a little to hard to sound convincing.

"Well MacQuiver...the WY 109 had a crew of twelve including three androids. I expect there to be no more than three hi-jackers at most" The Lieutenant said obviously trying a little to hard to sound convincing.

"That's Macguire. Sir." Kelly said with a hint of irritation, "I think MacQuiver must've got lost."

"That's Macguire. Sir." Kelly said with a hint of irritation, "I think MacQuiver must've got lost."

Magnus smirked. "I know where MacQuiver is." He winked at Kelly and said quietly "I left it with 'mah bow'... it's got 'mah arrows'..."