The First Mission - (Chapter 1)

[Aaron Brand]

Spending time with Victoria was a pleasant surprise; it was always gratifying to meet someone who shared similar interests. When Aaron and Victoria exchanged numbers, he her know that she was free to call or text any time she needed help with her studies. Making acquaintances with someone with such a close connection to a tech giant such as Wilks could prove advantageous some time down the road, but keeping contact wasn't purely a mercenary move on Aaron's part, for he did genuinely enjoy their talk.

Aaron was also pleased to see the normally stoic Marcus in such good spirits after their night out. Good! Expect more of those in the future. Cutting loose in between training and missions once in a while was good for mental health.

In the days leading up to the first mission, Aaron resumed his regular training protocol, though he spent noticeably less time working on random side projects and more time polishing up his combat training. During off hours, he made sure his gear and the apc were well-maintained and worked almost exclusively on his sniper rifle (plus some social calls here and there). There were a couple modifications that had popped into Aaron's mind and he had set to work to see if he could tweak the balance and weight of the rifle and make it less cumbersome to aim.

weapons engineer 56%: 1d100 69

[DM Spiral]

---Everyone---

Only about a week passed before the call came.  Load up, mission details were downloaded.  An entire platoon vanished along the Tolkeen border near the city of Northfields.  The squad, includes not only the three boys, the Sarge and the LT.  But four Dogboys and the three Psi-Stalkers as well. 

When the call came, everyone was suited up and rolling out. Within the hour they were traveling north along one of the main highways with the Coordinates of the last known location of the platoon.  It apparently vanished at a small town called Appleseed about twenty miles north of Northfields, though still well within Coalition territory.  This clearly has the officials nervous as an entire platoon ranged from 50 to 100 soldiers and this one had 95.  Not one of those soldiers has radioed in. 

The journey is relatively smooth and quiet as it takes most of the day to get to the city of Northfields. The place isn't nearly as large as Chi-town, but its a decent sized walled city. Probably close to 40,000 people.  There is a Coalition base here where the LT will get the final briefing. 

Lyn pulls up to the gate.  The four Coalition guards in the guard house whistle and step out to look over the ATV. "Holy shit, that's insane. Experimental?" One of the guards calls up to Lyn who is one driving.



She shrugs and gestures over to Aaron in the passenger seat, "He built this thing, ask him."


Damn man, did you really build this baby? They gonna make this baby standard?" A second guard near the passenger window called up to Aaron.

[MSgt Khayman Tamaroa]

Poking his head out to look at the soldiers, he said, 2nd Lieutenant Randal and his squad, open the gates, his voice the commanding tone his boys knew all to well, as he held out the credentials they'd received from headquarters. He wasn't in the mood for drooling guards, an entire platoon vanishing was serious business. 


Command/intimidate: 40% 1d100 39 

[Marcus Brand]

The trip was relatively chill.  Marcus spent most of his time reading digital comics he had stored on his personal computer. He like the ancient pre-rifts digital comics with superheroes but he had some newer stuff as well.  Chi-town had several new writers and artist that revitalized the comic book idea, though most of it was web based now. It was one of the only hobbies he had outside of computer games. Another old pre-rifts hobby that had made a comeback.  He even had one of the newer handheld gaming systems that he kept just for long trips like this one. He played it for a bit before he pulled out some maps of the Iowa and studied them for the last hour of the trip.

When they finally stopped, Marcus just smirked as he folded the map of the northern territory and stowed it in his left thigh pocket. The Sarge was never one for dilly dallying or small talk.

[Aaron Brand]

Aaron stuck his head out the window and nodded a greeting to the guards. Still a prototype I'm afraid. Aaron glanced over to Khayman, then gave the guards a shrug. Another time, boys. Duty calls.

[Viego]

Viego spend the trip playing cards, and talking with the dog boys. They were a lot of fun, and never cheated at the games, unlike the one time he had played with the psi stalkers, although Viego hadn't caught them, he just knew they had cheated.. no one was that 'lucky'. Since then he usually just hung out with the dog boys and avoided the psi stalkers, as much as he good in a vehicle. 

When they finally stopped, Viego perked up, soon he would get to fly and that got him excited. He chuckled at Sarge barking at the guards, somethings never changed.

[Nolan Randall]

Nolan spent the ride reading a brief on the local environ and studying maps of the terrain where the platoon had disappeared. He saw Marcus doing the same and made a mental note to encourage that.

He nodded his gratitude to Khayman for his handling of the gate guard.

Before they arrive, he makes sure his  gear is all secured and he is in his dog boy armour, but leaves the face plat off for now.

He will quietly scan to see if he can sense any nearby ley lines or nexus within 10 miles of their location.

[DM Spiral]

---Everyone---

The guards snap to attention, "Yes Sir!" and stepped back from the APC as the gates opened.  Lyn drove the armored vehicle inside and parked it near a designated spot by the garage. 

Everyone stepped out to at least stretch their legs to find a captain standing with his hand behind his back waiting for them.  He had a man and a woman with him, both looked like Lieutenant's.  He is very clearly waiting for acknowledgement in the form of attention and salutes. 

The dogboys immediately dropped to one knee, and the Three Psi-stalkers snapped to attention.  They looked quite a bit different in their armor which honestly made them easier to deal with and much less distracting.

[Marcus Brand]

Marcus not expecting to be greeting right out of the APC by a Captain and two Lieutenants, snapped to attention with a salute.  Again he held the position until told to be at ease.

[Aaron Brand]

Aaron followed suit and saluted his superior officers.