Turn 3: Hydroponics

[Corporal Hicks]

The secondary docking bay was in the newest module of Gaia Station. Due to the growth of the population and the scale of the operations, the module had been shipped from Earth and attached to Gaia Station by a series of umbilicals. From an external view it appeared to just hang down from the main station. The Devil Dawgs entered a large freight elevator that would take them to the central part of Gaia Station. They were guided to hydroponics by the Bishop android that had helped them dock.

hydroponics1.jpg (10.58 KiB) Viewed 9293 times

Upon opening the door to hydroponics they noticed two things. Firstly that they were in a large, aesthetically pleasing room with a number of trees and shrubs. Secondly, that there was a major firefight happening in the room. The staccato sound of gunfire popped in their ears and the general mayhem was clear at first glance. On the north side of the room stood rows of exotic trees, but many of these had fallen or splintered. Fires raged on the north side of the room where grenades or flamethrowers had set the trees ablaze.

hydroponics2.jpg (12.28 KiB) Viewed 9293 times

Sergeant Major Sykes issued orders without hesitation. In a very low voice, he spoke to his squad leaders. “Morse, take first squad that way,” he pointed toward the fallen trees. “Hall, Second Squad in the middle,” he pointed to an area in the middle of the room where tall shelves full of plants stood. “Hoops, take Third Squad and flank to the right. Go!”
<Tag Everyone>
(Actions)

(OOC: You hear gunfire from the general vicinity of A and B on the area map.)

[Corporal Hicks]

Hydroponics Map 1.jpg (63.82 KiB) Viewed 9291 times

[LT_Chun]

As his squad sprinted towards the trees, the first rounds began to snap and whine past Henniger. He had no clean lane of fire as the squad ran and held his fire. He did rack his 30mm underslung grenade into the chamber and absently safe the launcher. He kept his lips pressed together tightly until a round lifted the lobster plate hanging from the rear of his helmet and slam it to the side.

"Sarge, whoever is engaging has our range." He said slowly but loudly enough to be picked up by the mic.

He continued running as another round shattered the top of his shoulder-mounted flashlight.

[Morse]

Morse had immediately been impressed by the station. Though he hated the idea of living in space for prolonged periods of time, and most certainly did not appreciate that it was the intention of many to find better ways of doing so, Morse could not help but be impressed. The station, while having the metal feel, and solid footing of walking in space, also had a sort of grandeur to it. By the time they had arrived at the hydroponics bay, Morse was once again stunned by the fact that they were growing trees on the station. He'd never seen that before. He knew that the station was big, but that it was large enough to sustain a root system in its green houses were truly spectacular.

Many of the trees were toppled over however. It seemed the planners did not have a firefight in mind when they were creating that system. The fire had gradually started moving in their direction, as rounds came to their vicinity. Sykes told them to take cover by the trees, and Morse did not argue, charging to get the squad to concealment. The trees were not incredibly thick, so their armor might be the only cover they actually had.

As Henniger started railing about how they were in range, and were taking fire, Morse was not in a point of direct threat. Threat meant only one thing to him... kill.

"Open fire!" Morse roared, taking aim as he poked his rifle through the leafy bundled that were atop the trunk of the tree he and his squad were behind.

Morse was not yet ready to start firing grenades onto the enemy, but he certainly was not far from using the option.

He took aim and began to fire bursts at what fired at them.

< Tag Anyone
< Roll Awareness
<Roll Gun Combat - M

[eyeball]

Paulson moved up into position with Morse, he order to open fire was clear but he saw no targets within the range of his primary incinerator, he qucikly slung it and pulled out his side arm and began to engage targets that he could see.
every thirty seconds he would scan his motion tracker and call out targets as they moved around in the chaos that was a fire fight.
<roll aim plus shoot>
<roll motion tracker>
<tag squad with results>

[LT_Chun]

"Open Fire!" His squad leader roared. Henniger dug his boots into the deck plating and turned into the enemy. He jammed the stock of his pulse rifle into his shoulder and found his first target at mid range and tapped the trigger twice, sending seven rounds down range. He didn't take the microsecond to relish the crumple of the asshole he just clipped. An asshole who fucked with the wrong Marine Corps.
He snapped his eyes and the grated barrel of his weapon to his front right and took more intentional steps forward while gaining a quick sight picture. He felt the steel of his shin armor dig into the canvas tops of his boots. He squeezed the trigger lightly, but his counterpart fired all around him. His head dodged instinctually to the left and his finger clamped down on the trigger. His enemy danced as the 10mm rounds chewed through his torso.
There was no time to think, just react. He was aware of a Marine firing a sidearm nearby vaguely on line with him. He flipped his pulse rifle sideways quickly and read the digital counter glowing above the magazine well completely by habit. As he did this he sidestepped to a tree trunk and took a knee. His thighs were trembling with the tension. The tree trunk took impacts from large caliber rounds and he risked a glance in either direction to take stock of his squad mates.
The persistent destruction of his tree snapped his attention back to the front. A heavy weapon's muzzle flashes dazzled his vision from range. He flipped the safety off his grenade launcher and switched his grip on the pulse rifle.

<roll aim plus shoot>
<roll awareness>
<tag squad with results>

[eyeball]

the motion tracker pinged back results 3 friendly just north and 5 hostile to the east Paulson called out the targets as the rest of first squad opened fire.

[maxvale76]

Samantha took in the incredible sight of trees and plants on a space station with wide eyes, but at the same time, her focus was on the fact that a firefight was in progress....

Hearing Sykes give the order, Hall yelled out to her squad; "Second Squad! Stay low and move fast! We be moving to de East, use de shelves as cover! I'm point, Dmitri, Tanya, Poole bring up de rear...don't bunch up. Let's GO!" she called out and then moved forward quickly, staying low and hugging the shelves to keep as protected as possible and all the while keeping her attention trained on where the gunfire was coming from in the direction of the fallen trees and pool of water (i.e. near area 'B')....

When she saw the break in the rows of shelves (i.e. the wide area between the two groups of four looking north/south...4 rows to the west of this area, 4 rows to the east of this area; she's stopping at the edge of the 'west' group), she knelt down and stopped, bringing her squad to a halt as well with a whispered "Stop here, get low", and she trained her Pulse Rifle between any breaks in the plants, looking for any muzzle flashes or signs of movement from the enemy....

If she sees any indicators of where the gunfire is coming from, she'll train her Rifle at that spot, take a deep breath, and fire a single burst after aiming for a long moment (i.e. 5 actions aim, 1 action: burst: Gun Combat: Master)....

If she does NOT see any signs of the enemy, she'll whisper to her squad. "Okay, here's de plan. Poole, get up here to where de shelves 'break' and when I give de signal, lay down a long spray to keep dere heads down. While he does dat, we move to de other side. Got it?"

<Tag Second Squad>

[taimdala]

"Roger that, Sarge." Dmitri kept his voice loud enough for Sam to hear, without being loud enough to give away their position. Which, he reckoned, was safe, considering all the noise Morse and his squad made. He waited for Poole to get in position, then readied himself for the dash across the open aisle. Just for a second, he peered through the stacked slats of the hydroponics tubes to his left, toward the firefight in the trees—Trees! in hydroponics! Spyativshiy! Who knew?—hoping to form an idea of where the enemy was.

Not his problem. Morse had it in hand. Dmitri's priority was to get to the far side alive. From there, he figured Second squad would work with Third to flank the terrorists and catch them in a crossfire with First.

But for now, he'd wait for the signal to go forward.

[Corporal Hicks]

Bullets pinged around the Marines of First Squad. They returned fire on their foes at the far side of the room. Morse had more combat experience than almost anyone in the Corps, but anyone would admit his shot was deserving of credit. The black-armored enemy went down with a burst of assault rifle to the face, the glass front of his helmet shattered and bloody. Paulson was armed only with a pistol, but his shots were very accurate, nonetheless. Another enemy went down with a round in his shoulder and his neck. The rookie, Henniger, sent lead downrange from his pulse rifle. His shots went home in another hostile’s chest, some of them deflected by the plated black armor but not enough.

As Second Squad moved up, they tried to take cover behind various shelves. Samantha Hall slowly exhaled as she prepared to take out another terrorist with a well-aimed shot. The terrorist turned and sent a burst of lead in her general direction. She squeezed the trigger and the bullets riddled his torso. The enemy’s fire had not been wasted, the bullets sprayed amongst Second Squad. Dimitri’s pulse rifle took a few rounds and it clattered out of his hands. Two large metal dents were visible in his chest plate. The armor had protected him. Tanya Sokolova had been less lucky. She crumpled where she stood, feeling a searing pain in her right knee.

A shout of “Grenade!” came from Third Squad. They had been spotted as they flanked the enemy on the south side of the room. Sergeant Lulu Hoops jumped on the grenade just as it exploded. She lay motionless as the rest of her squad returned fire.

The sprinklers in the room came on. The fires began to diminish as water from the ceiling soaked everyone and everything in the room.
(Actions)

Meanwhile, back at the hangar, a large group of civilians were forming around the USS Heimlich. “We want off of this station! Let us in! We aren’t safe here!” shouted a woman in the front, apparently the ringleader.
<Tag Fernandez/Bishop>

[JuanPerez]

Knight evaded further encounters on his way to the secondary docking bay successfully, thanks to the motion tracker and his superior knowledge of all that rat tunnels around the Gaia Station. If his job would have been to run a smuggling operation, he easily would have made a fortune. Of course no such thing ever occured to him. He met the new arrivals at the main fright elevator and, after briefly introducing himself, he gave a short SITREP to the marine's leader, a grizzled veteran named Sykes. Without hesitation he was ordered to show them the way to hydrophonics, which he did. On the way, he uploaded the latest maps of Gaia Station to the Marines personal data stores, increasing their success rate an approximately 1.5 percent.

After guiding the marines safely to the entry, he was ordered to return to the secondary docking bay, make contact with Ensign Fernandez and assist him in assessing the marine's ship, helping with possible diagnostics and repairs. Again, he successfully evaded any unpleasant encounters. Arriving at the marines ship, he introduced himself to Ensign Fernandez and the later was just about to start explanations, as his motion tracker began to hum and beep rapidly.

"Excuse me, Sir, but we have incomings"
<Tag Fernandez>

a group of civilians rushed the docking bay, frightened and visibly shaken. A woman made their intentions very loud very clear “We want off of this station! Let us in! We aren’t safe here!”.
Knight accessed one of his internal data stores, trying to identify this particular person by matching her face with all the personal files he had read.

[maxvale76]

Samantha saw SGT Hoops action and could only close her eyes fro a brief moment and say a prayer for her fellow Marine after witnessing one of the bravest acts she'd every seen....

Then her eyes snapped back open to the here and now and she switched her comms to the platoon wide frequency while simultaneously handing Dmitri her Pulse Rifle and taking her shotgun off her back and racking a shell into the chamber. "Morse, this is Sam. If you can spare him, send Quinn over dis way....Tanya got shot in de knee and I tink Hoops might be KIA." Looking at her squad, she called out, "Okay Second here's de plan....Poole, spray down de bad guys and don't let NOBODY cept us get anywhere near Tanya. Tanya, keep pressure on dat wound and Quinn'll be here soon to get you patched up. Dmitri, we move when Poole opens up, 'den we'll take out dose assholes one atta time". Looking at each of her squad in the eyes, she nodded and said, "Okay....MOVE PEOPLE!"

As Poole opens up with his smartgun, she darts out and dives/rolls to the other set of rows of plants. Once there, she'll kneel behind whatever cover she can find, raise her shotgun to her eye-sight and if she sees an opponent, she'll cut loose with a blast.*

<Tag Morse>

<Tag 2nd Squad>

*Plan is to have Poole (who I think is an NPC?) Spray down the entire area B area...or as much as is feasible while standing near/protecting Tanya....as he does so Dmitri (with my Pulse Rifle) and I move across to the next set of shelving, find cover and shoot at any bad guys we can see....so, 1st action: Move; 2nd action: Dive/Dodge; 3rd action: Take cover; 4th-6th actions: aim and if a target is visible, shoot 1 round from my Shotgun: Gun Combat: Master

[BarbarianMathematics]

Compared to the typical environment they encountered on a day-to-day basis in the marines, this place seemed like it could be paradise if not for the stench of smoke, the bursts of gunfire, and the screams of the wounded. She moved up with the rest of her squad. She did her best to stay behind what cover she could, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do in a narrow aisle. Then suddenly the black-armored enemy popped up in her view. She barely had time to raise her pulse rifle before she saw the muzzle flash. She fell hard on her right side, but she thought he had missed. That is until she tried to regain her feet and fell back down. The excruciating pain swept across her and she tried to muffle her cry by biting down on her shoulder to avoid giving away their position.

Tanya, keep pressure on dat wound and Quinn'll be here soon to get you patched up.

After half-hearing Hall’s order to her, she dragged herself behind the nearest shelf with her remaining strength. Remembering that she had brought the extra cloth, she pulled it out of her utility hold-all and tried to tie off the leg to reduce the blood-flow. As far as she was concerned, Quinn couldn’t get there too soon.

<Roll: Medical>

[eyeball]

Paulson had seen three enemies hit whilst he was firing , two from pulse rifle fire and one he thought from his own shots, ducking down behind cover he checked the motion scanner to make sure they where not being flanked or that the downed men had not moved off to safety.
<roll motion tracker>
once he was sure the only combatants where those ahead he popped back up to have another shot.
<aim and shoot pistol>

[LT_Chun]

Henniger was still under fire from the crew-served heavy weapon. He guessed the range at about 60 meters. He hefted his pulse rifle and aimed in an exaggerated arc. He pinched the shoulder stock under his armpit and held his breath. He let his breath out slowly as his finger crept to the secondary trigger. He let his vision blur around the MG position and the Spaceball looking clowns manning it.
The buck of the 30MM and the distinctive THWUMP took him by surprise which was always a good sign in marksmanship.

"Frag out." He whispered into the comm.

<roll aim/shoot>
<roll awareness>
<roll cover>
<tag 1st Squad>