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[Dwarmin]

In the year 2142, Earthgov, and by extension Humanity itself, faced a threat to it's existence unlike it ever had before. An entire exploratory fleet has been lost at Medusa Prime. So fast, not even a single message had been sent back as clue to what had happened. The borders were reinforced with additional ships. The Military began a rapid period of rearmament and retraining. And specially trained Black Ops squads, composed of a few specially selected soldiers, began undertaking covert missions.

But most normal citizens didn't know any of that. They would never know. Perhaps that's for the best. This is the story of one of them-Taiya's Troublemakers, and what they did. The information that follows remains classified to this day.

[Dwarmin]

Faction Dossier

Earthgov

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The set of Human power in this region space, Earthgov is the remnants of the Australian Pacific Empire that unified Old Earth under it's iron heel in year 2022. These days, it's more of a Parlimentary Democracy though-the only way to hold so many colonies with any degree of order. It's beset from many sides by foes, but maintains a well trained, modern army and navy, and it's borders are well fortified...it's currently undergoing a period of strife due to revolts on Planet Ozark and others over a worsening Galactic economy.

Xeno Remnant

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first thing Human explorers found when they travelled through the star gates was Xenos. We didn't really know what to call them, so they became Xeno's. Picture a cross between a spider and a cockroach, and now give it gun. That's what most people see Xeno's as. Long story short, we fought. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, we won. The Xenos were, for the most part, evicted from their former homes, though they remained in many places, refusing to move. Sort of like how Old Earth dealt with the Native Americans of Old America, we've forced them on various reservations-unhappy spots in the galaxy-Antigen being the biggest one. They're very aggressive to Humans who trespass on their land-or even exist in their vicinity-but Earthgov doesn't really have the political will to exterminate them outright, so we establish bases and blockades to keep them from spreading. We've no idea how many Xenos exist today, but horror stories of a million billion strong Xeno horde hiding under Antigens crust still persist...

Technlogically, they are less than stone age. They compensate with having an amazing understanding of biological weapons, armor and space vessels. They don't stand up well to our modern power armor, but they're far from harmless. They utilize brood based telepathy to coordinate their workers and warriors-we don't know much about it, except our psychics can blast it right out of them, making them alot less deadly. It's how we won the war after all.

Known castes and soldiers

Warrior Beta
The most bestial and least intelligent-the washout and conscripts. They typically are not even armed, and are forced to rely on their strength and speed in combat. They are not totally helpless though...a Beta can still tear a man apart, even if he's in power armor. Don't let them get close.

Warrior Alpha
A slightly more dangerous variant, they tend to the ones that guard the nest itself, though they may occasionally be found commanding a pack of Betas-if they've pissed off their superiors, we guess. They're much better armed, and well trained, operating in squads of eight to ten. They use some sort of Squad based Telepathic link to coordinate their manuvering, which has been proven to be weak to our own Psionic attacks.

Warrior Prime
The largest Warriors usually guard the Mother in the center of the hive. They're not dangerous indivually, but they command the other warriors from long distance, and they tend to be fairly intelligent. Killing the Prime can slow down down a Nests response time, but it depends on how independant the Alphas are, since they can restablish the link themselves in a short time, designating a new Prime through some sort of free for all Psionic duel between the contenders.

Warrior Tiger
What looks like a Warrior Alpha on steroids. They are easily recognized by their striped red and orange markings. Tigers are masters of sabotage, camoflage and ambush, and utterly merciless in battle. Some of us assume their the Xeno equivalent of our own special forces. Given that they've been showed to decimate our squads about as fast as we do theirs, they might be right.

Courtesans
These Xenos are slightly larger than any warrior, and are possessed of a certain grace and deftness not usual to them. They have two bone pylons growing out off their back, which they use to generate bio-electrical attacks.

They are typically found attending the strong Warrior Alphas deep in the nest, as a sort of male-female bonding ritual. A Warrior Prime may have as many as four. Courtesans are either failed Queen strains or not yet developed ones, and don't produce eggs-they serve a purely defensive effect bolstering their mates psionic defenses through shared emotions. They are typically not trained in combat, but they have been known to exhibit an often fatal ability to manipulate bio-electricity as a weapon.

Courtesans exhibit the ability to painfully siphon their power of other beings with a single touch of their hand-even through the strongest armor-leaving the victim a empty, drooling husk. This can kill easily, or leave them in permanent Thralldom, to be used as expendable labor for the Hive. The process is also used during their interrogations, as survivors can attest.

Flyer
Sometimes called the "Sopwith", Xeno Flyers are smaller beta warriors with wings. They are clumsy, slow flyers-apparently this strain was developed only recently, after they saw the success of our own airborne craft. Typically, Flyers are used as scouts and perimter alerters. Good reason to keep your head down.

Tremor Hunter
A sort of annelid being that the Xeno cultivate for a variety of reasons-they eat it's meat, milk and eggs for one, and turn it's hide into armor. We wouldn't care, but they also use the creatures to detect tremors of our approaching forces. Thermal scans show them, sometimes.

Worker
They do the tunneling and the sculpting. Not as harmless as you might think. Worker Xenos are strong physically, but have no connection to the overall telepathic link-they're more likely to be found guarding the egg chamber than be out in the field, or even defending their own sub-nests against intruders at the expense of the Hive overall.

Priest
They are rarely seen in combat-the Priests are the egg tenders, diplomats, and doctors, and perform various other functions, most of them undefined. They are said to be able to use Psionic Attacks, but no one has ever documented it-some Earthgov scientists think they are pacifists. They do have an effect on the other warriors though-when a Priest is wounded, scared or hurt, the other Warriors will go into frenzy. They are identified by their completely white carapace, sort of like our own medics. Be warned-they can regenerate downed Xeno soldiers back to fighting form in no time. Make sure you kill the warriors all the way, or kill the Priests first...of course, then there's the berzerking...

Mother
The Egg layer at the center of any Hive, they produce the various strains of soldiers, workers and priests and continually build their nests. They don't take part in combat itself-even Xeno Hives go to war, and they do-the Mother is left uharmed, even if her entire nest has to be butchered by the invaders. Indivually, they are highly intelligent and somewhat aloof, disconnected from what happens in their realms. They claim to relay diplomatic orders to us from the "The Brain Caste".

Overmind
Rarely seen? More like never seen. The Xeno talk alot about their Mind Caste, but no ones ever seen one. They might even be a creative fiction designed to mislead us.

[Dwarmin]

Lore

Spoiler: Junker Tugs (click to show/hide)

 
Junkers Tugs are ramshackle space going vessels owned by nomadic clans and even small families, who make a living cleaning up space trash and selling the scrap for meager profits. They are typically harmless, and usually not even armed. Most people ignore them, since they do a valuable service no one else wants to do. They are frequent targets of pirates, but Earthgov don't usually spare the resources to help people like them.

There was a news report saying one of these had been destroyed when it failed to stop, and it was being quarantined because it was carrying radioactive material.

[Dwarmin]

Equipment

Spoiler: Armor (click to show/hide)

 
Type A Power Armor: Current standard in Earthgov forces. It's dependable, but becoming quickly obsolete in modern war.
Absorbs 10% damage sustained during combat, to a maximum of 50%

Type C Power Armor: Usually called "super heavy" armor, it's become a desperate thing that we've had to equip some of our guys with it. It's more durable, but slows you down, even with muscle enhancers, and reduces your manual dexterity.
Absorbs 20% damage sustained during combat, to a maximum of 60%

Proto-type Class B Armor: Probably our next generation armor-it's still experimental as of now, and only given to specially trained soldiers to test. A bit buggy...

Absorbs 30% damage sustained during combat, to a maximum of 100%.


Sony SS-13 Modular Cover System.
A small box weighing around 5 kg, the SS-13 is a revolutionary design allowing soldiers to deploy their own cover in areas otherwise deemed coverless. The SS-13 deploys a highly efficient and powerful Grav shield, capable of slowing or even stopping incoming fire. The SS-13 works best against slow moving projectiles; Plasma Weapons and Xeno Bio-weapons being held still meters from the soldier they were aimed at, saving them from an otherwise messy and horrible death. Against lasers and ballistic weapons, the SS-13 is somewhat less useful, only slowing the bullets by around 20%, and only bending lasers very slightly.

The shield has a height of around 3 feet, a width of 4 feet, is effectively flat and an effective radius of 1 foot. The shield is slightly curved, but only faces in one direction.  Anything making contact with the shield is sucked inside and torn apart. As such, it is recommended that soldiers give the shield a safety radius of at least 3 feet to avoid messy dismemberment. The battery is expected to last for around 4 hours of constant use, but it has been noted that the SS-13 has cooling problems on particularly hot planets, shutting down after only 20-30 minutes of use.

The SS-13 can be slotted together with other SS-13 modules, increasing the width, curvature and strength of the shield by around 50% each time. This, however, compunds overheating issues, and is not recommended on worlds deemed hotter than Earth Standard.

Spoiler: Weapons (click to show/hide)

Ballistic Weaponry: Still the tried and true, even now-though most of them are technically railguns now. They pack good punch and decent ammunition capacity, at the cost of the range and accuracy of newer weapons.

Laser Weaponry: A serious contender, laser weapons are very accurate, and can generally be relied upon to hit at longer ranges. They lack stopping power, but given that they run on fusion energy cells, they can be fired for longer. They are more expensive though, and as such, less pleasing to Earthgov bean counters.

Plasma Weaponry: The newest thing to come out of the Labs, Plasma Weaponry is unique, in that it's not quite like anything we've had before. To summarize, a bolt of raw plasma is ejected from the front of gun, encased in a metallic-plastic mesh sphere, and propelled forward by powerful magnets. When it impacts with a target, the sphere ruptures, and the plasma eats through on contact. To the casual observer, you would see blue and red tinted balls of fire being emitted from the gun in question. They're accurate and deadly, but difficult to aim, and prone to malfunction.

Pistols/Backup Weapons
Powerful at short range, but hampered by low or no ammo capacity, you typically only pull these out when your making a last stand and out of ammunition.

Kukri Knife A deceptively dangerous weapon, this ancient blade is made of nano-sharpened amorphous steel, and can cut it's way even through a powered armor exo-skeleton.

Barracuda Bullpup (Ballistic) A small, easy to carry double barrel pump action shotgun, you'll like to keep this handy... for close encounters.

Stun Rod (Chemical) An ancient holdover from the X-Com wars of 2011, continually upgraded. It's a fairly heavy baton that emits an electrical charge when striking an opponent. You can set the charge to paralyze or kill, and it recharges itself about three seconds after use. Used by police forces these days, but Earthgov soldiers looking to capture live prisoners have found it useful as well.

Beretta M50 (Ballistic): Just like his ancestor the infamous M9, the M50 is a short recoil, semi-automatic, single-action / double-action pistol. Unlike the M9, however, the M50 uses a 25-round staggered box magazine and is much more powerful while keeping the same low recoil and precision. It was chosen as the standard sidearm of the earthgov army nine years ago.

The HSH-P (Hex Standard Handgun, Plasma): One of the most powerful handguns in the army, the HSH-P can fire plasma rounds of average power, at the rate of 70 shots/minute. However, it's clips hold only 7 rounds, far below the average, and it has a very high recoil. It's efficient at medium and short range, but rapidly loses power and accuracy further than that.

SMG/Shotguns
Designed for short range fighting-and only that. They usually are concealable, fairly light, and have low clip sizes.

12 Gauge "Echo" Shotgun: A break-action over-under shotgun employed by EarthGov for CQC. It's light weight and durability makes it perfect for small ops. However it's small ammo clip (duh) and reload time makes is more used as a support or secondary weapon rather than a full-assault weapon.

HFKN Colt Sturmgeshultz 22 "Wolfgang" Assault shotgun: A revival of H&K's CAWS, the wolfgang is capable of firing on full-auto, gas operated fro use with buckshot, flechette, polyshok and explosive shells. An expensive weapon which has dropped in price after Earthgov took control of the plant on Ozark, where the gun got it's nickname from rebel survivors after finding out it was just one gunman eliminating their squads, rather then a platoon they were expecting.

Sony KS10 LSMG (Laser SMG): The Sony KS10 is Sony's contribution to the world of bugzapping. It promises a finely modulated beam highly effective at short range against lightly armoured targets and a Micro-Fusion reactor capable of over 100,000 shots and a Rate of Fire of 180 shots a minute. As such, it is billed as the weapon with no reloads. Unfortunately, the crystals that modulate the laser are prone to overheating and breaking down if the weapon is fired on the full-auto mode. Crystals are expected to work at peak performance for 30 shots over two minutes in standard temperate conditions after which it is recommended to let the crystal cool for 2-3 mins, although it will continue to work for another 50 shots at impaired performance. After this, the modulating crystal is effectively useless, and must be changed out for another crystal. A variety of crystals are available, including the powerful but easily traced visible light crystal, the long ranged but low-powered Microwave crystal, the insidious Gamma and X-Ray crystals, and the standard Infrared crystal. Sony does not accept responsibility for any accidental discharges of the KS10 LSMG, and are not liable for damage caused by misuse of this product.


Battle Rifles
Powerful at medium range, but difficult to use in close combat, or at longer ranges.

FN Kolt 'Telo Sol' Gyrojet Rifle: (Ballistic?) The FN Kolt Telo Sol Gyrojet Rifle is an attempted reproduction of an earlier, failed, project. It maintains the same basic principles of the original Gyrojet weapons. It holds a magazine of thirty 9x39 Gyrojet rounds. It is quite reliable, and will even work admirably when one is underwater or in the vacuum of space. However, it is not recommended that one uses this for long ranged combat due to limited fuel per round and initial bullet velocity when it leaves the barrel. That, and never set it on fire. Ever.

Kangaroo Combat Rifle (Ballistic): A 6.4mm Caseless Assault rifle, designed to be a jack of trades for dealing with every challenge it faces, And it does it well. The 45-round magazine is reliable and won't fail to feed a shot through. The rounds themselves are quite damaging, the new composition aiding energy transfer has kept the Kangaroo kicking the enemies of Earthgov for nearly 40 years, and it'll continue doing so due to it's reliability and cost. It also has an intergrated grenade launcher, Firing a clip of 5 40mm eletronically launched grenades.

M2129-GA1 (Ballistic): The GA1 Rifle is a 7.62x54mmR firing rifle designed to compete with the Kangaroo in better power, range, and reliability. Think of it as a merge between the FN FAL, H&K G36 and the M16A4. It's ammo capacity is lackluster, holding only 25 rounds. Has an ROF of 700.

M2129-KA1 (Ballisitic): The KA1 is what the M4 is to the M16, a Carbine. It's similar to the Kangaroo but much more tailored for CQC. It holds 39 7.62x51mm NATO rounds and has a ROF of 800.

Weyland 4R Laser Rifle (Laser): A shiny piece of work, it's notable for it's square stock and factory ordered silver paint job. It's obviously repainted before it sees combat. The Weyland is a balanced laser rifle, easy to learn, but deadly in the hands of a skilled marksmen-veterans complain it lacks the knock down power needed for real combat, though. It's significantly less strong at short range-the laser beam needs a clear range to punch through armor, but combusts flesh on contact. It's power cells allow a sustained combat of about six hours before you need to replace them.

Earthgov Type R-PBT (Plasma): The R-PBT is the first generation working plasma firearm Earthgov is sending out into the field. It's got high marks in damage dealing, but it require a very steady hand to use it with any skill. Low clip size also tends to make it hit or miss, and it's got several design problems. All you need to know is, if it starts leaking fluid THROW IT AWAY.

Heavy Weapons
A catch-all term, they tend to be bulky and powerful, but only truly dangerous in the hands of a skilled user.

Zeus Auto-Cannon (Ballistic): What you might expect-a massive gatling gun that can be freely held in both hands by a man in power armor, though if you have the time to set up a tripod, it's range and power increase. It incorporates a unique system of interchangable ammunition-standard, explosive, incendiary and smoke, among others.

Perdition Flame Gauntlets (Chemical): The Perdition Flame Thrower system is installed on your suit beforehand-it increases range and power, while using the suits natural armor to protect the flammable chemicals. Soldiers usually refer to a soldier wielding them as "wearing his bear claws", since the flame jets are located on the hands. Obviously, it makes it impossible to operate anything without manually diesngaging the system first. It's hot enough that virtually nothing that stand up to it, but you still have to get close to use it.

Odin Rocket Launcher: When facing anything that requires a bit more boom, the Odin will serve your needs. It's rockets are computer guided-just input a target, and it will unerringly seek it out.

Sniper Rifles
Though they can be used tactically at medium range, they are best used when lining up a shot from very far away.


.66 CheyTac Annihilator (Ballistic): This sniper rifle is the favorite of Earthgov black ops. The Cheytac is easy to aim, and easy to fire. The bullets can kill pretty much anything you hit, if you get enough range on it.

Explosives
Titus Crop Scrambler Grenade: Likes EMP on living creatures, it sends out a burst of stored psionic energy, stunning foes within a good radius. Your squard psychic can interact with them and keep them from hurting guys on your side.

Blastech 987 Needle Grenade: Ouch time. Sends nano sharpened titanium spines into everything in its radius. Tears apart flesh, less effective against armor.

Minotaurus HEG Grenade: A block of high explosive in a tiny package-with an ergonomic grip. Better against armored targets, but radius is smaller than a needler.

Adeptus Mechanus EMP Grenade: Shaped like a keg of beer, the explosion fries unshielded circuitry and machinery in a fairly large radius. Power Armor is well protected, but is still affected.

Earthgov EXP Plasma Grenade: Sends a torrent of flesh melting plasma in all directions of the blast zone. Pretty nasty...watch out for friendly fire.

Spoiler: Vehicles (click to show/hide)

Antillese Type 4 Hover Bike: A favorite of scouts-and some criminals gangs-, it's a two man hover bike that is fast and responsive. Good for making a quick escape, or doing recon. It's not armored though-how would that make sense anyway? So don't expect it to last long under fire. You should probably get a good driver too, of you'll end up splattered on a tree or off a cliff.

Battlehog 16-Wheeler: A Earthgov military favorite, it's a cheap, dependable wheeled vehicle that can seat twelve. It's got minimal armor, and and two guns turrets on each end. Pretty easy to deploy, but getting it back is the hard part, since it's heavy as Hell.

[Dwarmin]

The Last Gleaming-Mission 1/Operation Stead Burner

Sami Taiya and her squad had barely gotten time to know each other before she was summoned to her quarters to receive a personal encoded message.

-EarthGov HQ Incoming Message
Receiver: Sami Taiya
Location: Hanover Station

Got a mess for you to clean up sweetheart. Figured your fresh meat squad needed some blooding, before we give them a real mission. Details located within...

Operation Stead Burner
Our problems with the Xenos are just getting started, apparently. They were generally quiet, up until a few years ago, during the incident at Medusa Prime. Now they're all up in arms, with the Brain Caste demanding independence from Earthgov on behalf of their race. Unfortunately, for them "Independence" is another word for being allowed to breed and spread themselves through our stars with no restrictions. We really can't afford a long, drawn out conflict with them, especially with what's coming.

Objectives
-Destroy 50 Warrior Xenos
-Minimize non-combatant Casualties
-Do not destroy the Xeno Nest
-Do not leave anyone or anything behind, at least intact

Your being sent to Antigen-remember that place? We need you and your squad to lay waste to a small bug nest. Don't kill the eggs, or the Workers, or the Mothers. Just kill the warriors, to show them we can. For the love of God, don't destroy the nest. And don't get caught, or leave any trace behind-man or technology. They'll know its us, but we don't want to give them trophies.
Earthgov hopes a show of force combined with a show of mercy will impress their Warrior Caste and Priest Caste to give us a little leverage in negotiations. We'll see...

Target zone
We'll drop you on is a natural shelf of high density metals-should keep you safe from the Tremor Hunters, for a little while, at least. The Xeno Nest is located at least a mile from there. Thermal scans say the Nest if fairly small-only about 100 Xenos in all, about half of those warriors. No telling what special variants they have prepared.
Burn all the Warriors, then get back to the bird for pick up.

Support and Equipment Available
We can't give you fire support for this mission-your being flown in on a Stealth Ship, the E.G.S Churchhill, for one, so don't expect rescue if you mess it up. The Ship will be able to give you heat scanning on a ten minute delay, but every communication risks the Xenos pinpointing its location, so be careful. Your going in on your two feet, jump jets authorized, of course. We can't promise you nukes or viral bombs, but if you really want them...we can try to get to them for you. We can provide vehicles, but you know very well how easy those are to leave behind.

Any questions?

((The rest of the team is located is the lounge of Hanover Station, or their own personal quarters, awaiting Squad Leader Sami Taiyas mission brief. You can RP now, and I'll start filling in the lore posts.))

[Luke_Prowler]

Down in the Hanover lounge, next to a holo-screen showing a stunning view of a grassy plain on some faraway planet, a large man was sitting down with a book in his hand and a old cigar in his mouth. Roger Blackwater was a ex-miner who looked older than his year (mostly thanks to his previously mentioned job) who joined the space marines for a very simple reason: because marines get paid more for doing the exact same thing. Going down into dangerous territory in search of some objective that's only important because some guy hiding safely in his chair said so. If you thought that miners didn't get attacked by space bugs or shot at by rebels and space pirates, then you would be dead wrong. At least the marines corps gave you a gun.

[Taricus]

Taiya Had just finish filing of the reports after receiving the mission brief. She proceeded to head to the lounge of the Hanover, waiting for the rest of the squad.

[Shootandrun]

Right next to Roger, another man was looking at the ceiling, bored. Daniel Laliberté was'nt as large and strong as the man to his side, but his equipment left no doubt on his job. Three years ago, he was working in construction, where he got his only physical augment. He did'nt exactly remember why he decided to become a space marine back when he was still a normal citizen - he was pretty damn sure it was'nt a good reason, though.

Having nothing to do, he took his combat knife and began to sharpen it. He was relieved to see his squad leader enter the room. Action was about to start.

[adwarf]

Wulfric walks down the corridor to the lounge, adn plops onto a couch, and pulls up a holo-display quickly checking that his gear had all been delivered as it should have.

[Toriad]

Closely behind Tanya followed a bearded young man, Joao Caine, a former member of the 601st special reconnaissance element of the marines. Perhaps his most notable feature was his scarred lips. Joao had a massive scar on his lips that gave him a permanent sneering look. He was whispering something into the squad leader's ears. Perhaps some form of warning.

[Luke_Prowler]

Roger poked head from his book, a manual for a bulky machine that most people probably never heard of, and scanned his eyes across the room, or rather one eye and what looked like the front end of a camera. To his side was another a man sharpening his knife, whom Roger assumed was another boot-stomper like himself. He reactively checked the left side of his belt, finding that his brass knuckles were still there. It was by no means standard issue, but it made him feel safer having it around.

Aside from the other grunt and the guy on the couch across the room, his squad leader had just walked into the room. She the only person he really bothered to remember since he would have to take orders from her for who knows how long. There was also some ignorable guy following on her heel, probably some suck up. Hopefully, they'll get to shoot something soon.

[Phantom]

Lev casually walks into the area, appearing to have a chat with...
Erm, he appears to be speaking to his sentient data-disk by using a PDA. Strange man. He leans on the wall next to the doorway and continues his chat, utterly ignoring everyone else in the room.

[Dwarmin]

Everyone is momentarily distracted by a breaking local news report on the television, which reports that a Junker Tug violated Earthgov space, refusing orders to stop, and was summarily shot down. An Earthgov spokesman is saying that they were smuggling illegal Uranium, and that the debris sight is highly radioactive, and ships are enforcing a quarantine zone around it.

It's a little bit odd-Junkers don't usually smuggle things like Uranium, but then again, what it isn't odd these days, The report changes back to the previous program, and everyone turns back to what they were doing.

[Shootandrun]

Daniel looked at the television for a moment. He was surprised that they interrupted a program only to tell people that some idiot smuggling Uranium had been shot down. Once the report was finished, he got up and closed the TV - no one in the room was listening anyway. Looking even more bored than before the news report. He picked up a cigarette, checked his pockets for a lighter and turned towards the grunt next to him.

"Got a fire?"

[Luke_Prowler]

Roger watched the television as the news of a junker being shot down. Junker Tugs getting attacked was nothing new, but it was the reports of Uranium that brought his interests. Where the hell would scavengers get something like that (assuming that the reports of radioactive material wasn't a lie)?

When Daniel asked him for a light, the ex-miner reached into his pocket a pulled out a massive zippo lighter, flicked the top of and lit the cigarette with a single practiced motion. "Here you go"