War is War OOC [Closed]

Sounds good, but I expect something up Jan 1st.

lol, jk jk.

*Drums fingers in anticipation*

Ahem....what can I say? Had a long recovery period after the New Year...

Seriously though, was swamped with various mathematical problems (had an important test today) and the rest of my day is out, seeing as I have even more maths waiting for me. Preliminary tests for uni start at 20-something January and I'm gearing up for those.

Anyyyyywayy...to say something which concerns the RP itself, I was hoping to hear from a couple of people regarding their characters, but I won't be waiting any longer. I think an even longer waiting period will kill any remaining attention, so from tomorrow I'll be starting work on the intro post. Seeing as I've yet to write anything from an IC perspective in this world, I have no idea how in depth I wanna go. As such, I have no idea how long it will take me to finish the whole thing. Expect it this week, though, I'm sure of that.

Well I am still excited. Waiting on your post.

I'm also excited to get going!

yes indeed. I keep chiseling away at my character profile in my word processor, apologies for the late start. That's always a challenge for me- getting the bio up on time, but after that hump i'm good to go.

Name
Full Name: Marcus Janus Delphi
Use Name: Corpsman, Doc, Delphi
Player:Spectre

Apperance and Gender
Gender:Male
Height and Build: 6'1", 190lbs. Athletic
Physical Description: Being in the military, he's not aloud to really have a 'hairstyle', so he's got the typical crew cut, high-and-tight. His hair is a dark brown color, though at it's length it mostly looks black unless inspecting for a closer look. His eyes sit beneath full dark brown eyebrows, and are unassumingly brown at first glance. Though upon further inspection he has heterochromia, meaning he has two differently colored eyes. One eye is a brown color, and the other is a dark greenish brown hazel color, though from a distance, since their darker colors, look similarly brown. Delphi always seems to have a content, or thoughtful look on his face. The way his eyes always seem to be focused, makes him appear analytical and sharp. Though his smile is a crooked one, and when he shows his teeth, they are clean and mostly straight, not having a need for corrective procedure. His face is mostly unassuming, having mostly average features. He is mildly attractive, though nothing that would stick him out from a crowd. He has an average sized nose, not too sharp and not too rounded. His lips are fairly thin and sit above a moderate sized chin. Most would assume, and assume correctly that he is athletic just by looking at him.

Equipment: Legion standard issue equipment. Standard PFR-15, medium ammunition loadout. He adorns his green jumpsuit and armor with pride, taking care to have his patches and insignias in order to regulation grooming standard. Since he is a medic, he has the standard medic pouch that everyone else gets, but also an extended one that has a various essential tools, syringes with different serums of adrenaline, atropine, and other chemicals to get his friendlies up and moving again. He also carries a personal knife given to him by his grandfather- a very lightweight, damn near indestructible, and sharp knife he used in the elite force years before. It's got a six inch non reflective blade, a tanto point and a small serrated section of the blade near the hilt on the dull side. The handle is a comfortable gray-green color, and the sheath is a hard-case. This is with him at all times.

Skills & Personality
Desired Role: "Medic"
Skills: He is a good recruit. Very well rounded, and skilled in the art of war. Just because he's a 'medic' doesn't mean he won't be pushing the fight. He's an excellent marksman, third best in his graduating class, scoring a 37 out of 40 targets, from targets ranging from 100 to 300 yards. He also showed man to man prowess, as well as good sidearm proficiency. He has completed Corpsman 'A' school, as most cadets who were planning on being activated as medics. This means he's a mixture between an EMT and a RN. Other than his medical prowess he's also athletically inclined, making him a fast and fluid runner, and an all around swift soldier.
Personality: First and foremost he is a soldier. He is disciplined, and loyal. His perseverance and determination make him good at accomplishing tasks swiftly, and without question, unless he has something to add. He is prideful of the legion having grown in a semi nationalistic environment on planet Ceres. He will stop at nothing to complete his task, although sometimes he gets a little overzealous and hungry when it comes to courage. He may not be stupid about it and do it, but he'll want to chase down a retreating enemy and stab him to death instead of firing a shot from behind cover and awaiting for support. That's mostly pride, though, as he has a lot of it. Marcus isn't a huge talker, but he is interested in people, and he is dedicated to saving his fellow human being a Medic and all. This pride and love for his brother in arms also means he's a bit crazy, and won't hold back if he's got to go grab and drag one of his buddies from heavy fire to a covered area for treatment. He enjoys getting to know his team, because he knows teamwork allows for success, an synergy is something to be promoted, especially when the enemy is realistically- a little better prepared for the fight.

Biography
Born on the planet Ceres in 1319, Marcus Delphi was bred for military use. Much like capital planet Victoria, they were very nationalistic and held a lot of pride for their government and especially their military. Despite the horrors of war, most kids grew up wanting to join, and worked hard for it. It's a widely colonized world, making the environment wide from heavy urban to vast rural areas. Just like Earth of today, it would be considered a modern day Japan, intense city areas, still with beautiful natural terrain as well.

His parents weren't military, however his grandfather, and some other extended family were. Not that it mattered to him, he grew up in a loving close environment with his family. He had everything he could have asked for, though he was never spoiled. His mother worked for a corporate food industry that provided for schools, and his father was a medical technologist for a prominent company. They weren't 'rich', though they never had to worry much about finances. They lived a comfortable life, and Marcus attended his local general school. Much like many of the other kids in his class, and almost every other class, he graduated and went straight to the military academy, 19th Legion Military School.

There he was trained by some of the better instructors the legion had. He was no anomaly in his class when most kids around him had a tough similar drive. He was very good with both academics, and athletics. He was a hard worker and had a lot of drive to be a good soldier. This never really changed much, since his family supported him and his evolving love-life had the persistence to stay with him even though they were both cadets in the same course. She was a transfer student from planet AO Bertola- 32nd Legion Mil-school. She was pursuing a different field but before they went to their separate MOS schools, spent much time together outside of PT and Class. She wanted to be in intelligence analysis, and he was going into the medical field. Regardless, his determination never wavered up until graduation where he moved on to Corpsman 'A' school.

Basically he went through three months recommended training, in a nutshell compared to EMT and Nursing skills. Despite the basics, he also learned some complex battle field medicine. After being sent through his three months, he was recommended to continue on, since his unit was inactive due to a large cycle coming out and a new one coming in, the unit he was going to be assigned to got postponed since a unit from Bertola (a satellite planet) took it's place. He had an extra couple months to take courses and go to school at a Tactical Casualty Care Course provided, and recommended to him. Though immediately after passing the extended course, he was activated. He would be assigned to a new unit on Alexandria, the 107th Alexandrian Legion. He didn't complain, but he did get butterflies when he was called to action outside of his unit.

He said his long goodbyes to his family and girlfriend, and friends who were outside of the military. He spent a few days with his family and girlfriend before heading back to Fort Silva at the apartment district- where he had lived with the 32nd Legion soldiers. He was processed and made headway to the breathtakingly large Carrier Ship to be transferred with other Boots.....Stepping aboard the enormous Legion ship- the UPLS (united Planet Legion Ship) Scirroco, he was gathered with a group of transfers and other units to go to the Processing and Readiness center on Ares before heading straight to Alexandria.

Awesome, welcome aboard!

In other news, I'm half done with my post.

Name
Full Name:Grace Marjorie Jennings
Use Name:(Little) Red
Player: Dominique

Appearance and Gender
Gender: Female
Height and Build:She stands about 5'6" tall. Her shoulders a bit too angular, her hips slightly too wide for the perfect stereotype. Although she's in particularly good shape you wouldn't think her athletic on first sight.

Physical Description: Grace is a proper redhead, with pale skin and freckles littering her cheeks to match. Her hair is straight but lively, with stubborn strands that stick out from the single low braid she wears to keep it all out of her face. Her eyes are brown and big, giving you that deer-in-headlights look when scared. Her nose is slightly tip-tilted, and by all means, with the blush on her face, the rosiness of her lips and the roundness of her features she looks more like the typical farmer's daughter than the next G.I. Jane. And really, that's not too far from the truth. She has no visible scars with the exception of a thin, pink line on her lower right abdomen thanks to an appendectomy at age sixteen.

Equipment:She wears the standard green uniform with a minimal amount of armour (still more than most are given, though.) The uniform, while clean-looking and in a considerably decent state, does come with the frayed seams here and there and is obviously worn in places. Of course she carries a PFR-15 as well - it's a fairly decent one compared to what many of her companion infantrymen were given; fortune struck her at least once when the issuer of this third or fourth hand equipment took pity on her. She also holds a field moulding kit designed for the crafting of additional bullets, as well as a small amount of grenades. An expert would notice they've all been manufactured over a decade ago and were, in fact, remnants of a collection of minor explosives her older brother hoarded in the past. Mostly standard explosives, though an addition of one or two smoke grenades (green).



Skills & Personality
Desired Role: Rifleman
Skills: She's stronger than she looks and has an uncanny ability to get out of headlocks - in short, she can brawl a lot better than you'd give her credit for. She's capable of fixing a number of cars and other mechanical devices, all taught to her by her father. Naturally, she knows a lot about plants and cultivating the earth as well as some basic survival skills, like building a camp fire.

Personality: Growing up with two older brothers had a great impact on her childhood and personality: Grace is a bit of a tomboy, though not so much in appearance as in her hobbies, preferences and skills. She knows an infinite amount of ball games, and usually knows how to hold her own in an argument (her choice of words can be a bit crude for a woman at times). She can be rather irritable; her biggest flaw is her inability to keep her calm at all times - she can be a bit panic prone and takes a while to snap out of it. She isn't easy to anger but when you do piss her off you can expect a growl, a shout and a number of insults thrown at you.
An important thing to know is probably that the military has never really appealed to her. She would have happily lived a civilian life, and although she is courageous enough to feel that need to defend her home, Grace isn't particularly patriotic. Her reasons for joining the Legion are mostly out of necessity, and because it seemed the logical path to take when most of her family are part of the military already.

Biography
Grace Marjorie Jennings was born 1323 AT; daughter of Samantha Lynn Jennings-Carson [born 1294 AT] and Marcus Jennings [born 1288 AT]. Her mother, a true Alexandrian, served from a young age in the Legion force, working her way up towards the higher ranks [with relative ease, partially due to the force's eagerness to add more women to their ranks]. Specializing in heavy weaponry she was a skilled and active part of her regiment. That is, until the aftermath of a short-lived romance hindered her in her way to the top. Samantha Jennings was honourable discharged from the military before news spread of her temporary 'handicap' and she retired to one of the smaller colonies on the outskirts of the alliance; Eriphas.

This particular planet is often overlooked and rarely mentioned, but is, like many of the small planets that surround it, vital to the UP as a massive supplier of food. Known for its agricultural advancement Eriphas is one of the few planets properly suitable for growing plants and vegetables in and out of the vast greenhouses that are scattered all over the planet. It quietly does its part and is content with its modest though essential task and more than a little happy to be more or less forgotten. It was here that Samantha Jennings gave birth to a boy, who she named Derek, after his father. Over the next few years she met and wed a farmer and together they had two more children; Kai and Grace, born three years after her brother and five years after her half-brother Derek. For a short while, all was well, or so it seemed - but Marcus Jennings' beloved wife longed to return to the front, and eventually, she did. The Legion welcomed her with open arms and after a few months of getting re-acquainted she and her regiment were sent on a high-priority mission to an invaded planet.
None of them returned.

Although Marcus was overwhelmed with sadness, he raised the three children to the best of his abilities. Grace had little memories of her mother - after all, the girl had only been a toddler when her mother had rejoined the ranks of the Legion, and only knew her face from the three video messages she had sent them before she died, footage the three children replayed an infinite amount of times. When the time came, both Derek and Kai attended military school, eager to follow their mother's footsteps and play an important part in the freedom of the UP. But not Grace, who instead opted to do as her father had done and chose the agricultural path. This was, in part, due to her love for the small planet upon which they lived, but also because the growing of plants actually did fascinate her. And, although she would never admit this, the thought of leaving her home and travelling into the vast openness of space frightened her more than a little.

Meanwhile, Derek successfully finished sergeant schooling and joined the better ranks of those just graduated. Kai, desperate to be as good as his brother, is instead sent to the front, much to the younger brother's disappointment. Grace follows the steps of both their brothers' with a mixture of anxiety and curiosity - and of course, while missing the both of them terribly. Then several things happen in less than a year's time; Marcus Jennings suffers a heart attack and dies three days later in the medical centre when a second MI proves to be too much for the man. It was a typical case of having worked too hard and too much for too many years, and he leaves behind a teenage girl too young to look after the farm herself. She attempts to contact her brothers but news is slow to reach the front, and while Derek replies weeks after the funeral, Kai doesn't respond at all.

Having to sell their property and their home to compensate for the debts of the farm Grace moves in with a distant aunt and uncle, who really aren't accommodated for an extra guest. Grief-stricken and with no means of supporting herself, the close to eighteen year old young woman decides to drop out of school one year before graduation and joins the Legion force instead - a drastic decision but not so illogical when your mother and siblings have all preceded you already. Shortly after signing up she finds herself on her way for her half year of training. And while she doesn't do too badly, it is clear that the army has never been part of her personal aspirations and she isn't selected to be a more specialized recruit. Therefore Grace finds herself part of the front line infantry at the early age of nineteen. It is only days before she is sent off to Alexandria when she finally receives word from Kai - it comes in the form of an official letter. In polite but reserved words she is informed of the regretful loss of private K. Jennings. Further words teach her that he died in combat on the very planet she is about to head for herself.
This knowledge is a big dent in the frail and newfound courage of the young soldier and only her determination keeps her from deserting the army altogether. But the closer they get to Alexandria the more vividly images of the possible ways of her brother's demise pass before her a thousand times. Fear and sadness take turns in trying to get the better of her, ultimately bringing her to a harsh realization; she doesn't want to die...

Wooohoo, we're at six now! A pretty well-rounded number.

In addition, I HAVE FINALLY POSTED. THIS THING IS OFFICIALLY ON, BABY! Link to IC thread

Now a few pointers.

1) The italics part is a scenario of what you MAY experience on the ship. It doesn't have to be exactly like that; your character doesn't have to think like that; the sergeant doesn't have to say exactly that. You get the picture. It's just something I tried to set the mood with.

2) You don't have to be on the same ship. You don't have to meet the other characters before you all end up in the same squad. That said, I wouldn't object to people forming relationships before you actually finish your baptism by fire.

3) Going on a tangent from above - your ships will land in the area of second battalion. That means you don't have to end up in the zone of Radisson's platoon, or the captain's company or whatever. You can be pretty much all over the place.

4) Try not to reach the top of the hill in one post, eh? I plan to split this in 3-4 segments. I'm sure you can think of something to busy your character with - wounded soldiers, looking for cover or, you know, trying to stay the fuck alive amidst all that machine gun/artillery fire.

Lastly, just to make sure we're all one the same page on the structure of a regiment it goes like this (in descending order):

Regiment - > Battalion -> Company -> Platoon -> Squad -> Fireteam (but we won't be using that)

Nooow, I'm sure there was something else I wanted to mention, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I bet I'll think of it soon...until then, have fun and don't let the TL's get you!

Hey folks! Just as we're getting started, I thought I'd share this article I came across yesterday. It's about 5 soldiers who did things that put Hollywood characters to shame. Since we're doing a more realistic style of war (as opposed to an idealized, super-hero type thing), I thought it might be interesting to see something about real-life soldiers who did some incredible stuff.

Here's a link to the article:
http://www.cracked.com/article_17019_5-real-life-soldiers-who-make-rambo-look-like-pussy.html

Anyways, I enjoyed the article and I wanted to share, so I hope someone else gets a kick out of it too

Hell yes! Lets lock and load!

Quite an epic article right there, thanks for sharing! I personally knew only of Simo Hayha and Jack Churchill, but know I have three other legends to add to my collection.

Like the posts so far, keep 'em coming. I'll bring out the next part once all of you have posted.

That cracked article is just a header for the guy who writes this stuff. Look up badass of the week on google. Mushashi Miamoto is another such bamf.

Musashi Miyamoto is probably one of my favorite historical people ever! Half the stuff I wrote in high-school was about him I've read The Book of Five Rings, and it's probably one of my favorites

The story of the archer? Fantastic. I like how he basically killed two clans by himself. Also, in Japanese veins, Hattori Hanzo is awesome. They guess at over 500 assassinations? Insane.

Wait... what archer? If you were talking about The Book of Five Rings, I was talking about Musashi's treatise on military strategy, the "path" of the warrior, and life in general, but perhaps there's another work of the same title of which I am not aware? If you were talking about something else, then I missed something and am probably sounding rather foolish right now Either way, if this guy took out two clans by himself, he sounds pretty epic!

Also, Hanzo is epic indeed

In the beginning of the five rings, there is a story about a man who wants to become an archer. He goes to a master archer and asks him how to become one? Or is this from a different martial arts work? I can't remember anymore

Yeah, there are definitely a lot of heroes out there. For everyone we know, there are at least 3 more whose names never see the light of day. A less-known person, who remains a total badass in my book has got to be Alexey Maresyev, what he did just shows how much a person can persevere.

In other, more RP-related news, I like how the posts are coming along, I gotta say - I'm pretty pumped up about this, I've got a LOT of ideas in my head right now. Most of them promise nothing pleasant for the group...*insert evil GM laugh here*

Another little known hero, a sniper called the White Death. Simo Häyhä is probably the man for combat marksmanship.

It's been a while since I read the Five Rings, so maybe that is in there and I just don't remember

Anyways, I'm also pretty excited with what's been going down in the RP. And possibly a little scared now....

awright. posted and am stoked to get this rolling

Sorry for the slight delay, I got a bit carried away writing.

Yo Blackrock, should I hold off until you post a second time, or should I progress at my own pace?

I generally don't like restricting people, but I plan to move the whole battle in this next post, so maybe it will be for the best if you hold it off. Then again, if you don't end up going too far (as in, past the second line of trenches where the bunker is)...you might want to post. Regardless, I'd advocate waiting for now, got the majority of the day free so I may end up writing this today.

Oh did I speculate wrong in my writing? I assumed the foot of the hill was lined with a few bunkers. So I'm having my squad hit the one they landed at... Or were you just responding to dio? I'm bad at making assumptions so I want to make things clear.


I guess I get mostly thrown off with topography and geography. In my head I'm just envisioning a small mountain with several enemy fortifications and bunkers lining and surrounding the "hill"...?

To be honest, I repeatedly bugged Blackrock on MSN to figure out what the situation actually looked like - mostly because I find picturing it in my head really difficult.

Oh. See, I was imagining something different.

I thought the trenches and bunkers were up the hill, so there was a large open stretch of land we had to move across before we even saw the enemy, who are shelling us from the top of the hill.

While we're at it...

I pictured the drop ships landing right at the foot of the hill (at least a few of them), and scattered trenches and bunkers - from previous battles as well - on both sides. I figured that the TL had most of the hill, plus the height advantage, so that was why it was so difficult to take. I figured that most of the battle was on the hill itself, with TL folks taking a few easy shots on the recruits landing in the drop ships (or something along those lines).

Well, at least we all knew there was a hill!

Damn, there go my battlefield-describing skills, down the gutter

Sorry for being this unclear guys, I originally thought I had described it well enough, but even I had my doubts after reading the post a few times. I don't know you enough, how you reason and what makes you tick, so I can't say how you'll interpret what I write. Not to mention I'm not overly familiar with the setting and this is my first serious attempt at describing a larger-scale operation. Enough excuses though, hopefully with time we'll iron out any misunderstandings.

Now, when I explained to Dani how things were, I took the liberty of drawing out a small chart. I've taken it one step further in hopes of clearing this up. Mind you it's a rough chart, as rough as it gets - I'm not much of a map maker, but hopefully - things will be more transparent after this.

Link as the damned thing doesn't fit properly

Right, let's have a look.

First off, we have the UP trenches. Those are uninteresting, suffice to say the assault began from there, that's about it. Also, this is one of the possible destinations for the drop ship.

Then is the first line of TL trenches, those were captured a short time before the events described in the first post. There is a field between the UP and TL trenches, but they're not too far apart (the distance doesn't really matter in our case). This is where I imagine the majority of dropships to land.

Then is the tricky part, where most people I think are confused. Between the second and first line of TL trenches, there's a field, about a kilometer (sorry yanks, convert it on your own) across. Now, there's not much in the way of vegetation as everything is mostly charred and fucked over by artillery shells. Imagine it as barren, rocky ground (the more they advance, the rockier it will become...although never too much) with the low shrub scattered here and there. This is another possible location for the dropships to land.

Now, my character along with his platoon leader (and part of said platoon) are behind the tank. As you can see, the bunker is in a clear position to pin them down. What Dani described in her last post was an attack from the side, over at Kirenko's men. So, that means the bunker in the second line of trenches is now destroyed. The trenches themselves will be taken in my next post (I'll get to that in a bit). Now, there's nothing wrong with putting the odd bunker here and there, but I imagined the one's Spectre described to be in the FIRST TL trench-line, not the second. As in, the one already conquered.

ALSO, IMPORTANT BIT. Note that the sketch doesn't show the ENTIRE battlefied, only the one which our characters are involved with. It continues further to the west (left), where the main fighting is taking place. As stated in the IC post, our platoon and company as a whole are just there for support. Now, in the second trench line, as far as OUR part of the battlefield is concerned, there aren't any other bunkers. When we get to the third and fourth, we'll meet plenty of those.

Phew, hopefully that clears it up somewhat. If you look at the "map" and read my explanations and THEN read my opening post, I'm certain things will become clearer. Or so I hope...I won't know until you guys say

Now, as for my post, I said it would be here yesterday and it obviously isn't. I'm afraid to say that today won't be an option either, I just had some unexpected (and unpleasant) stuff pop out over the past day and that has cut down my writing time considerably. Dio and all others for that matter, feel free to post if you had anything in mind. With the directions given, your grasp of the situation should be somewhat better. I'd ask that you don't move things into the second line, though - I have a few plans for that.

And lastly, I decided to set up a little chatroom, just for this RP in order to promote some socialising. You can find it here, I don't promise to be around much, but hey....it's the thought that counts?