USCMRPG

<GAMEMASTER INFO: End Of Turn 01.11.2020>

<November 31, 2189, 22:04 p.m.

Polaris System, Planet Utica - Former Hiatt Corporation Mining-Complex
Mission Time 04:04, 21 grad celsius, slight-to-medium rain

Insight Freight Terminal>

Very soon Paulson and Henninger found a man-sized door, which had not been weld-shut, but electronically locked. They managed to crack the lock and could open the door silently. One by one, both squads entered the freight terminal and worked their way towards the muffled sounds of chinese conversations at the other end of terminal. The freight terminal interior was in the same condition as the exterior building. Years of neglegance had taken their toll, but it had the benefit of providing a fast array of cover to approach the chinese mercs unseen. Lt Harper ordered first squad to take the left route and second squad to take the right, covering each other in turn. The two squads closed in on the opposing force, as approximately two_thirds of the way, the comms crackled ...

"Hold positions, drone is picking up two fast moving vehicles, coming out of the underground tunnel towards the terminals. Looks like the chinese version of an armoured personell carrier. ETA 30 seconds"
<Tag squad 1 & 2>

All of a sudden, the chinese inside the terminal began to scream, shout, yell and move and the distinctive sound of firing shoulder-mounted RPGs could be heared. Seconds later explosions outside of the building could also be heard and after that, a very loud and distinctive noise in combination with a slight shudder and a horribly loud cracking sound made it clear to everybody, that something has breached the wall. The chinese campers immediately opened up with everything and the stakkato of sentry-guns, assault rifles, pistols lasted for about a minute. It ended aprupt, the air was filled with the smell of gun-powder, dust and exitement. The marines dared to peek out of their cover, seeing six chinese soldiers, reloading their weapons and yelling at each other, pointing towards the chinese APC, that has cracked the wall of the fright terminal and was half-way stuck between inside and outside and severly damaged.

Suddenly, a front hatch opened, thick black smoke came out of it, but unfortunately that was not all. Two ridicoulus figures emerged out the APC. You have read about it in classified reports, you have heard rumours about it, but now the worst nightmares have become real. Jingti Long special forces operators, called "Wu-Gong". And you see at once, why they were called "centepedes", because of the autonomous targeting weapons rig on their back. In no time wu-gong operator 1 took out the sentry guns, while wu-gong operator 2 opened up on the visibly terrified chinese solders in front of him, thereby killing two of them, as the rest managed to take cover.
<Tag squad 1 & 2>

<take cover>
<perception>
<rack grenade launcher>

Paulson was still riding a slight high from opening the door with Henniger, they had been quiet and breeched the building without detection. Moving slowly in pairs watching for tripwires or the like they had made good time through the jumbled terrain.

The cackled radio message had just given Paulson enough time to find some cover before the crash of the APC and the short but deafening gun fight had left the Chinese forces decimated but not completely wiped out.

Paulson was however confused Jingit Long special forces now attacking Chinese regular forces, should they just be left to duke it out then sweep in a pickup the remains or engage now while they are both occupied with each other?

Paulson racked a grenade into the underslung launcher on his pulse rifle figuring the mechanised infantry to be the much bigger threat, once he was ordered to engage or became engaged that would be his target of choice as first shot. He risked a look down at the motion detector to see how many newcomers had arrived and verify the two who appeared to have been downed by the sudden onslaught.
<roll motion detector>
<tag Morse>
<roll awareness>
<Roll hiding?>

After covering First Squad as they secured entry into the facility Dwight's own squad then moved in after them in textbook fashion, just like he had done many times before joining Devil Dawgs. It was comforting to see everyone so focused and decisive, his new comrades new what they were doing. The inside of the facility they entered was not in great shape, Dwight smelt the familiar odour of a closed space hanging in the air and it reminded him of his old life on the Space Station. He quickly pushed the nostalgia out of his mind and focused on the interior of the facility. The place didn't look totally abandoned, but it definitely wasn't been used for what it was originally designed for. He doubted some of the equipment would even work anymore.

As soon as the commotion broke out ahead Dwight switched his Smart-Gun from Manual to Active mode and repositioned his rear hand to grip the firing handle with 3 fingers. he preferred the rear trigger due to its wider swing acting as an additional safety and also it helped him not interfere with the weapons targeting by gripping too tightly on the rear handle. He felt the weapon system align itself to his field of view when he put a slight pressure onto the rear handle and the reticle appeared on his eye display.

Dwight shifted into a full battle ready stance while sweeping ahead with the Smart Gun in the direction of the commotion and flicked the primary safety off.

<Machinegun/Smart Gun Expert>
<Perception 15>
<Awareness Expert>

Henniger noticed that the Chinese regulars seemed panicky. Like they were unused to combat sits. The two in the attack loaders were calm and focused however.
He racked the underslung grenade launcher and tapped his helmet mic.

"Sarge, who we engaging here?"

<tag Morse>

ooc. not sure what i can exactly see but from PM i have been informed about targets so am assuming i can see them too shoot at them.

Paulson answered the comms request "This is Paulson, more combat walkers in APC can engage from this location, two walkers emerged they are taking fire from Chinese forces ready to engage at your synchronized command"

Paulson checked his pulse rifle and pulled it to his shoulder, taking a knee all he would need to do is lean out, round his cover, and he should have a clear path to his intended target, he waited, coordinating an attack would offer the best chance of success.
<tag command structure>

SGT Sam Hall saw the APC burst thru the wall, took a knee behind some cover while calling out; "Get down and take cover!" to her squad mates and then watched in bewilderment as the two 'suits' opened up on the terrified Chinese Mercs.

"What in de fu#$", she asked no one in particular as the spectacle unfolded all around her. She took careful aim at the least armored areas she could see on one of the men in the suits while calling out on the Platoon wide net; "Dis is Hall....Skyes, El-tee....you seeing dis? Do we engage everyone or let dem fight it out for a bit?"; she asked, then muted the Comms while calling out to her squad mates.

"Carlson, keep dat Smartgun ready to go....good man....Doc, watch our flank....Dmitri, Funker pick a target and keep a good aim on 'em 'till we know what in de hell we're supposed to do".

<Tag Everyone, but especially Harper and Sykes>
<Tag 2nd Squad>

Private Johann Funker took steady aim on the right hand centipede. He tried to regulate his breathing and stay calm with the rattling of gunfire in his ears. "Copy that, Sarge. I got the right-hand centipede in my sights."
<Tag Hall>

The arrival of the special forces gave Morse a real moment of pause. In a way he was more afraid of them then he was of many of the Xenomorphs at this point. The Xenomorphs were easy to understand in a lot of way. Keep them away from you and you'd be alright. If they got a hand on you you were going to be severely hurt. If they dragged you away you were dead. Easy to understand, painful, but easy.

These mechs that arrived on the scene were the opposite of that for Morse. Morse was used to being the most advanced and tactically proficient force. Colonists were usually poorly trained and mixed in their armaments. And they were a small force with the ability to obliterate targets with nuclear weapons and phased plasma rifles so most tended to stay out of there way.

These were Centipede wearing Wu-Gong... and that was a whole mess of trouble that most Marines simply weren't ready for. Their weapon systems could be decades ahead of what the Marines were holding. The targeting system in a Smartgun was very sophisticated, but it was still a slave to the operator carrying it. For all they knew these things could have the same targeting system, that were independent of the operator. Their ammunition count would be higher, and their speed would be even harder to match... not to mention the armor.

"We aint targettin' shit!" Morse rasped over the mic to both squads. "Stay the fuck down. Take targets, n' one do a goddamn thing!"

Morse was worried that both forces could engage them. He could deal with outgunned, and he could deal with outnumbered, but it was very difficult to both. The mission had only just begun and he did not want to start it with a mass casualty engagement.

"Wait for them to soften eachother up'r till we figure out what the fuck they're doin'." Morse ordered. "Cock grenades in your tubes but do not give away our position yet."

Shock and awe would work, Morse knew that, but only if it was done at precisely the right moment.

<tag everyone
< Roll awareness

"Copy."

<roll awareness>
<aim grenade launcher>

With a shower of debris, the Chinese APC burst through the wall and slewed to a halt, disgorging its cargo of Exo-armoured special forces.

"Get down and take cover!"

Kelly wasted no time in complying, hunkering down behinds a stack of dusty packing crates and leveling rifle at the nearest Chinese soldier. He clicked off the safety and waited for the order to open fire.

"Carlson, keep dat Smartgun ready to go....good man....Doc, watch our flank....Dmitri, Funker pick a target and keep a good aim on 'em 'till we know what in de hell we're supposed to do".

Kelly readdressed himself to cover the unfortunate Chinese soldiers who were being driven back across the warehouse. As he watched, a second one of them was punched off his feet by accurate bursts of fire from the exo-armoured trooper pursuing them. Meanwhile the second exo-suit was making short work of the sentry guns. If they played their cards right, the Devil Dogs might be able to just follow along behind the unidentified special forces and let them do most of the dirty work.
<Roll Awareness>
<Tag 2nd Squad>

When the APC crashed through the wall and the gunfire and screams began, there was a moment of confusion amongst the squad. No one expected this to happen! That moment passed quickly however and everyone's focus returned to the task at hand. If Dwight wasn't carrying a Smart Gun he would probably not be handling this as well as he appeared. The powerful weapon fills its wielder with confidence and makes one feel unstoppable.

Still, on the inside Dwight was more than a little nervous. These armored troops are using tech far beyond anything that Dwight has seen, he wasn't even sure if his Smart Gun would be able to damage these things! Using the advanced optics on his Smart Gun eye-piece he studied the two armored combatants. They were showing up on his targeting system loud and clear, no interference. Dwight suspected their own tech prevented them from deploying countermeasures, or they never expected us to be here. That gives the marines a distinct advantage. Even if these things are too heavily armored to damage with a Smart Gun, the shear force of the impacts from the rounds should prevent them from effectively firing back.
The idea at least gave Dwight a little confidence boost, visualizing the attack and the reaction from the armored units.

Dwight suddenly noticed that the Armored unit attacking the Sentry Guns was moving differently to the other one engaging the Chinese forces. Its movements were slightly less fluid, a little slower than the other and less efficient. Perhaps that one was damaged in the crash?

"Sarge, that armored guy attacking the Sentry Turrets, I think his suit might have been damaged from the crash, it's not moving like the other one, its slower and jerkin a bit. We might wanna take him down first"


<tag SGT Hall>
<Roll Awareness (Expert)>