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[a1s]

What about portable (well anything is portable, a well coordinated squad might be able to carry an artillery piece around on their arms and backs, but I mean something like an RPG) AT weapons?

[Parsely]

What about portable (well anything is portable, a well coordinated squad might be able to carry an artillery piece around on their arms and backs, but I mean something like an RPG) AT weapons?

The ATGMs I mentioned are shoulder-fired launchers like the SRAW or Javelin, no tripod or anything. You aim the launcher at the target and the guidance package acquires and locks onto it, then you fire away. They're incapable of dumbfire I'm afraid.

[Parsely]

"Sarge, request permission to seek and destroy the enemy's ground vehicle." Esquire looked up and frowned, clearly she didn't follow.

"Ground vehicles? How do you figure that, corporal?" I quickly explained my reasoning and she nodded.

"Do it. Take this fuckwit--" She grabbed the nameless AT gunner and practically threw him at me; his name patch read 'Oates, N.'. "--and whatever else you need and bound to the top of that hill, we'll cover you from here."

She handed me the gunner's two spare missiles for me to distribute as I saw fit and I wondered if I needed to ask anything else before I went.

"Once you've completed your recce we can think about regrouping with the other drops." There was no familiarizing with the terrain, as the severe winds changed the scape of the infamous Martian desert week by week, all year round. The only realistic solution was to obtain a real-time picture of Mars' surface, but until high orbit had been secured that was impossible.

Code: (USFA Rifle Section) [Select]

[Cover:Heavy]   [Frags:10   Smoke:9   HE:5]

Hall | Leader | MC:---  EXP:---  PS:Dead  STA:--- | HK.1-B Carbine [150]

Gavin | Assistant Leader | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]

Toric | Squad Gunner | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | PP.3 Squad Automatic Rifle [409]

Beem | Rifleman | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Wounded  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [105]

Artoka | Rifleman | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Wounded  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [120]

Cricket | Grenadier | MC:Stable  EXP:Recruit  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle w/GL [120/4 Rifle Frags]

Oates | AT Gunner | MC:Stable  EXP:Recruit  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | HK.1-B Carbine [150]  Avenger AM-00 [1]


[a1s]

That is an excellent update. Sadly, though we found out the "result" of some of our "checks" (I don't know if you roll dice, or just go with the best plot), we have not been presented with a new decision. The plan is still: scout that hill. I did like that it was explained why we have to scout, and not just hand waved. 

[Magistrum]

Hill scouting!
Things are calm, this is good. Knowing guninanrunin things would probably go "and then a shell fell on them and everyone died".

[adwarf]

That is an excellent update. Sadly, though we found out the "result" of some of our "checks" (I don't know if you roll dice, or just go with the best plot), we have not been presented with a new decision. The plan is still: scout that hill. I did like that it was explained why we have to scout, and not just hand waved. 

I think the pause is for us explaining how we want to advance since right now we are the main character (I think), and as thus we should sort of explain how things are done to some extent.


Advance towards the hill making sure we stay covered by our allies, and move somewhat spread out with the assault riflemen at the front, and the automatic rifle + AT weapon slightly behind and in the center of the advancing riflemen. When we get near the top stop, and have Cricket go down and climb up to see if he can spot something on the hill while everyone else takes up position to cover him.

[Parsely]

I decided to carry the extra missiles myself. Gavin threw away his nearly spent belt and grabbed a fresh one on his own, but without a reminder the others failed to grab replacement magazines for their rifles. I did take the time to go back and grab Corporal Hall's tags, miraculously still twisted around what remained of his neck, and give them to the platoon medic.

Cricket was a brave young man despite his inexperience, but as we left the safety of the trench and began our march up the hill, it became clear that Oates lived up to the stereotype of the fresh-faced rookie out on his first patrol. I could judge just from his body language that he was surely a coward, I think he would have abandoned us if there were anywhere to run, I was forced to make Beem responsible for him to keep him from falling behind. If anyone else aside from the specialist AT gunners had been trained with the new guided launchers I would have had him replaced in a second, but we had to make do.

I put Artoka and Cricket in the lead, with Beem, Toric and Oates in front of me, as I was stood in the rear where I was safest (I made sure Artoka understood that he was next in command if I were hit) and could see and track everyone at once without having to turn my head. Only now that I had a quiet moment to think did I notice that there was a distant but ever present sound of gunfire coming from the direction we were headed. The sound filled me with a sense of dread, but in spite of myself I couldn't wait to see what was on the far side of that wide, relatively squat dune. We reached the sandy hill without incident and I felt my excitement near a climax as we grew closer to our goal. We stopped our fast march and began to traverse the steep grade, stopping partway up to scan the territory to the north. We could see clear over and past the dropship seated in the red sand behind us and after scanning the terrain for enemy forces with our rifle scopes I reported in on the chalk's net.

"Recce to Marble 1-Actual." M1-A would be Sgt. Esquire, who had taken charge of the chalk.

"Marble 1-Actual, send it."

"Clear north. Guess they've only partially encircled us. Shitty terrain might be forcing them to feel it out, they mightn't have been as prepared as first assumed. No other drops visible, they're all to our south, looks like the fliers landed us in formation. Going to finish the climb, over."

"Roger that. We've got your back. Out."

As we neared the peak of the hill the slope's degree became less severe. I ordered everyone down on the squad net and I watched them drop prone. Oates, who wasn't in bad shape, was nonetheless red in the face due to the 40 pound launcher on his back, and he took the opportunity to bite the water straw that led to the hydration pack on the back of his combat vest. I didn't blame him, for the missiles on my back (10 pounds each) were causing the straps of my vest to wear into my shoulders, so when we stopped I took a knee myself and removed them temporarily before toggling my throat mic. "Listen up, squad. Cricket, take point and go to the top of the hill quietly." He muttered an affirmative and began crawling up. I heard Artoka come over the net.

"I haven't heard any engines, Gav. Whatever it is, it's not close or it must've left, don't you think?"

I considered it briefly, but my thoughts were interrupted as Cricket came rolling down the hill. He arrested his descent and I held up a hand in defense as he nearly slid into me. His face was pale and his eyes were scared. He spoke urgently, pausing now and then to gulp air.

"There's a GEV IFV at the opposite side of the hill, down near the base of it! I don't think it spotted me but I backed off anyways. I can see some smoke starting to trail up at about 500 meters out and there's a wrecked dropship between me and that." His sentence was punctuated by a distant explosion that made us all flinch in spite of our active noise-cancelling headphones.

Code: (USFA Rifle Section) [Select]

[Cover:None]   [Frags:10   Smoke:9   HE:5]

Gavin | Assistant Leader | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125] AM-00 Missiles [2]

Toric | Squad Gunner | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | PP.3 Squad Automatic Rifle [500]

Beem | Rifleman | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Wounded  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]

Artoka | Rifleman | MC:Stable  EXP:Line  PS:Wounded  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]

Cricket | Grenadier | MC:Stable  EXP:Recruit  PS:Healthy  STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle w/GL [120/4 Rifle Frags]

Oates | AT Gunner | MC:Stable  EXP:Recruit  PS:Healthy  STA:Winded | HK.1-B Carbine [150]  Avenger AM-00 [1]


[a1s]

Well, we need to call it in.
And then we need to get our new friend, Oates, the cowardly rocketeer, to shoot a missile at it. It's not like any of us can outrun an IFV. Twice surely not in an unfamiliar part of mars.

[adwarf]

Well, we need to call it in.
And then we need to get our new friend, Oates, the cowardly rocketeer, to shoot a missile at it. It's not like any of us can outrun an IFV. Twice surely not in an unfamiliar part of mars.

+1 Get Oates ready to shoot that damn thing when it crests the hill.

[StrawBarrel]

Well, we need to call it in.
And then we need to get our new friend, Oates, the cowardly rocketeer, to shoot a missile at it. It's not like any of us can outrun an IFV. Twice surely not in an unfamiliar part of mars.

+1 Get Oates ready to shoot that damn thing when it crests the hill.

If Oates fails to hit it, Gavin should throw a HE at the IFV.

[a1s]

Eh, what the hell do I know?.

[adwarf]

From what I heard from GUNIN the vehicle isn't moving so I shall suggest a change of plans.

Advance up the hill slowly, and get into place to hit it with an HE. If the HE misses or doesn't down it have Oates ready with the launcher to take it out.

[Parsely]

By the way, even though Mars' gravity is less than 40% that of Earth's, moving and fighting probably wouldn't be as different as you might think. I'm not an expert, but here's the way I understand it: running on the moon would actually be not that different than running on Earth (tl;dr, after making the proper adjustments to your stride your top running speed and acceleration are about 25% lower on the moon than on Earth). The primary reason the movements of astronauts are so awkward on the famous lunar videos is that proper astronauts have EVA suits that weigh about 200 pounds total; the semi-rigid material makes moving about 4x harder than normal. Mars has higher gravity than the moon, but still a lot less than Earth, so running would be different (you would struggle a bit to get used to it), but not entirely dissimilar from running on Earth. It's a bit slower but, after adapting, you'll be more efficient than if you carried the same load on Earth.

From what I heard from GUNIN the vehicle isn't moving so I shall suggest a change of plans.

Advance up the hill slowly, and get into place to hit it with an HE. If the HE misses or doesn't down it have Oates ready with the launcher to take it out.

Yeah. Artoka pointed out that he couldn't hear any engines, and Cricket said that the hovercraft didn't react when he saw it.

[a1s]

Just to confirm: Mars is terrformed and none of us have space-suits on? (I assumed that, but I don't think you mentioned it)
Also, can an HE grenade take down an AFV? This one is a hovercraft, but on Mars they could pull it off and still have a pretty decent armor.

Finally, Holly Shins, could the vehicle be empty? Is checking worth the risk? Discuss.
(My vote is: no, it's not like we know how to use it)

[Parsely]

Just to confirm: Mars is terrformed and none of us have space-suits on? (I assumed that, but I don't think you mentioned it)

Also, can an HE grenade take down an IFV? This one is a hovercraft, but on Mars they could pull it off and still have a pretty decent armor.

Correct.

Maybe. Normally the best you could hope for is a mobility kill; if the grenade detonates directly under the vehicle then it's not going anywhere, but that's not possible when the engine is off since the vehicle rests against the ground, but there's a possibility of deflation if the grenades go off right next to the armored skirt. If the vehicle isn't buttoned up and the grenade lands on top of the vehicle then you're going to harm the crew, but they probably won't be killed, and possibly damage it's weapons.

E: Overall I don't consider them much more vulnerable to attacks on mobility than wheeled vehicles.