Shadow: I'm not entirely sure about the Laser Designators. I need to read up on those rules. They should/will/might have full BattleTac capabilities, including indirect firing capabilities, so I'm sure they can. But yeah, I'll read up on it later and get back to you.

Just let me know which SR3 ammo type you'd like to use, and I'll convert it over to Raygun's ammo.

After a quick read, no, none of the drones have a laser designator. But since we all have (should have) BattleTac networks and they have FDDM modules, they can feed targeting information directly into the network.

The only problem is that I don't think we have any weapons that will benefit much from this, at least not beyond shooting through some walls. Do we have anyone using missiles, mortars, or other heavy artillery? If so, a laser designator isn't really necessary as the network can handle it. If not, well, it's not necessary then unless we call in for some air strikes or something, and even then we still have the BattleTac targeting info to feed to them.

At least that's what I gather from the rules. Feel free to correct my ignorance if I'm wrong.

It could help with Grenade Launchers. If I can't see the target, you can just paint them for me and I'll hit them from the other side of a hill or whatever.

It says it doesn't work with grenade launchers since they're so unprecise.

Ok, I've put together what I could find from the thread before and the OOC one. Here it is. I'll edit what's incorrect. Also, Panzer and Lime, I didn't find a blurb about your character. I'll post all the blurbs later, but I thought that I should start with this much.


Leader / Mike / Grey / Human

Sniper / Downtown / Shadow / Ork

Decker / Flatline / CardBoard Armor / Elf

Rigger + Comm / Dragos / A Clockwork Lime / Ork

Engineer / Max / gobogen / Elf

Adept / Illian / Digital Heroin / Elf

Medical Shaman / Ophelia / Callidus / Human

Combat Hermetic ? / Muramasa / Panzergeist / Human ?


Common Languages

Russian / Mike, Dragos, Flatline, Muramasa, Max, Downtown
Turkish / Mike, Max
Japanese / Illian, Flatline, Muramasa
Arabic / Mike, Ophelia, Illian, Dragos, Flatline, Max, Downtown
French / Ophelia, Flatline, Downtown
Enocian / Illian, Muramasa
Azeri / Mike, Max
German / Ophelia, Downtown
Sperethiel / Illian, Flatline


Downtown / Shadow

Danny Townsend is an ork, 5'10, 180lbs, sand brown hair he keeps fairly short. He prefers to go buy his handle, Downtown. He walks, breaths and lives... quietly. The ork does not make noise, not in the parking lot, at the ball game, in the bar.He spends an hour every morning meditating, followed by an hour of running up the many hills in Seattle. He trains with his HK MSG90A daily by shooting quarters at 500 meters. When relaxing he enjoys listening to classical music, while cleaning his riffle. Recently he has been seeing a woman who works at the Zales counter in the Westlake center. They see movies together and go to ball games. He has yet to invite her out with the group. It has seemed to soften his personality a little. He is from Georgia, though he tries hard to not speak with an accent. In stressful situations he has been known to say 'yall'. He is friendly but not overtly so.

English
Russian
German
Arabic
French


Maxwell / gobogen

George Maxwell is the team engineer. He is a male good-looking (aren't they all?) elf from the spec. forces of the UCAS. Everyone generally calls him only Max in the team.

Knowledgeable, cultured, clever, Max always has a fuuny comment or an interesting fact to point out. You sense in him the spirit of a leader, and you know that he is accostumed of filling that role. His suggestions are generally cunning and he often has good tactics and strategies to offer. In general, he is very sociable and talkative, although he can still be very serious and professional during missions.

Knowing everything about electronics, demolitions, engineering, and chemistry, Max clearly had a long college education which prepared him perfectly well to become the reliable combat engineer he is.

Max is a very good sharp-shooter. He has good social skills and knows a lot about the Middle-East, so he is good at interacting with locals. Max has quite a lot of cyber and bioware, including a datajack, two chipjacks and skillwires, for you know that using chips, Max can drive efficiently any vehicle whatsoever. Max has a full body armor covered with ruthanium, which lets him become almost invisible when it is activated (+8 TN to see him when walking). Of course, he generally carries a reasonable amount of explosives.

English
Russian
Turkish
Arabic
Azeri


Muramasa Kenjiro / Panzergeist

…

Japanese
English
Russian
Enochian


Flatline / CardboardArmor

I'll be playing Flatline, the team's decker. She's your old-school type Japanese girl that found out one day that her ears gettin' pointier wasn't exactly part of puberty's normal growth structure. Her family, getting elfy as well, decided to kick out of Japan before the lynch mobs showed and they migrated to Tairngire. Seeing as they're new immigrants, she's getting enough flak trying to pick up Sprethiel, and most of their money was spent smuggling them out of the country Flatline went for a less-educational-intensive career. Military! Picking up on her education while serving, she found her niche in decking and computer code so it was a logical extension that she be employed in cyberwarfare and intelligence. The Ghost unit she was assigned to was slanted towards anti-terrorism. That's how she got to Tiblisi. A data-raid against some of the nationalist insurgents went sour when they discovered that the defenses of the compound were reinforced with child-soldiers and, unwilling to let his team be lost, Flatline's commander gave the order to open fire anyway. Though largely over what happened through a combination of rationalization and psychiatric help, Flatline was discharged from the military soon after the incident and didn't re-enlist. It was then that she hooked back up with the man from Ares and the rest, they say, is history.

Japanese
Sperethiel
English
French
Arabic
Russian


Nikolai "Dragos" Rozhenko / A Clockwork Lime

Callsign: While a member of the Spetsnaz Alfas, Nikolai encountered a young dragon in league with the Israeli forces his team was battling outside of Istanbul. Just as he was about to land in a clearing, the feathered serpent appeared out of nowhere and attacked. Flying only an old Mil Mi-40 battle taxi, there was no way Nikolai could outrace the dragon so he decided to take it on head to head to at least buy his team enough time to get away. To make a long story short, Nikolai lost his bird in addition to his legs, but he managed to defeat the dragon and save his team in the process. He was rewarded with his second Order of the Red Star for valor in combat and his teammates nicknamed him Dragos after a famed Kurgan dragonslayer of Slavic mythology. He's used that name as his radio callsign ever since.

Training Summary: Nikolai learned to fly from his grandfather Piotr, a barnstormer and former attack helicopter pilot in the Red Army, while living on an old air strip in Russia. At 18 the state decided he would best serve Mother Russia in the armed forces, and his natural aptitude for electronics was honed as a combat engineer where he served for five years. During a conflict near Minsk, he earned the admiration of a Spetsnaz Alfa commander who requested him to be transfered into his unit. He served with the Alfas for nearly ten years and often cross-trained with other special forces groups around the world. Most notable amongst these were the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment in Ft. Campbell (better known as the Night Stalkers) and the SASR "B" Sabre Squadron in Sydney. The last three years have been spent in serves with Ares working as a mercenary.

Specialties: Electronics and electronic warfare, communication networks, helicopter and drone rigging, aircraft mechanics, and drone reconnaissance and information gathering. Despite being a brainiac flyboy, however, Dragos is more than capable of handling himself in the field thanks to his Spetsnaz training.

Arabic
English
Romanian
Russian
native Caucasus Dialect
Techno Jargon


Illian / Digital Heroin

Illian Blackwater is a strikingly handsome elf, with deep green eyes and long black hair, which he usually keeps tied with a simple black cord. Despite his appearance, he seems to have an uncanny knack for blending into a crowd. While operational, Illian is a specter. He speaks rarely, communicating through hand signals before radio. Anyone close to him, however, while scouting, may hear him speaking in a strange tongue beneath his breathe. He dresses military almost all of the time, wearing black fatigues, combat boots, and a pair of polarized lens sunglasses.

Illian makes no pretense of gloating about his past achievements, and in fact refuses to speak of them. Flatline, however, will see in him the telltales of Ghost training. His attitude towards her is perhaps the strangest amongst the team. While he is friendly with the others (having overcome many of his past prejudices), he seems protective of her in particular. Why this is remains a mystery.

Sperethiel
Enocian
English
Japanese
Arabic


Ophelia / Callidus

I'll be playing Ophelia Haley, a female Caucasian Human with long ash blond almost white hair, about 5'8". Still speaking with a slight British accent even after the two years over here and what you suspect is a fair bit of travel with her old unit. She came to Ares for the British Army 5th Parachute regiment based out of Aldershot and specialises in defensive and illusionary magics. Although added to this she is a very good shot with almost any launched weapon and has a limited number of offensive spells. A great medic both with a medkit and with magic she's usually the first person to anyone who gets hit and can usually have them back up and going in a few minutes, and seems to have a good enough ability to sneak that she can get to them without too much attention, especially when backed up with her spells. Although she does carry an assualt rifle, when it's not a hush hush mission, she'll be the first to admit that she's not a good shot with it but it does prevent violence sometimes, the same in melee she can defend herself... for a short while but would be relying on either a spell or help to arrive and end the fight. Consequently she regularly loses sparring matches with the rest of the team in downtime but takes it philosophically.

She does sometimes seem to have a few problems with gangs but can usually rein in her urges to do them serious injure especially if any of the rest of the team are around although the signs at certainly there that she's going combat ready and Muramasa would be easily able to pick up the rage in her aura at those times. She doesn't speak about her early life but any questions about her family will get an answer about the para's and the members of her old squad. Also one time when she and a couple of other team members were heading through downtown shopping and a gang fight started, she started to cast a spell to stun one of the gangers with a gun until a small girl in the crowd caught a stray bullet in the head and she froze for a good couple of minutes mumbling 'Not again....'

English
Arabic
German
French
Spanish


Michael / Grey

From his accent you can automatically tell that he is from Boston. You know he used to do SpecOps for the UCAS, though you don't know if he was NSA, FBI, or CIA. Later on he went on to a head up a Delta Squad. He is a devout Catholic and is known to quote the bible durring combat situations... in latin. A few of you may have even seen the effects of his faith, as sometimes you'd sware you saw a firey angel come down from the skies to smite down Michael's enemies.

He is a master tactician and leader. He has all the social skills under the sun and knowns how to use speech to get more things done than you would have imagined. Between his skills with disguise and his voice modulator, you have a feeling he could blend into any culture. He is also a excelent marksman, adept with the pistol he keeps stored in his cyberleg, or the assult and snipper rifles that he makes use of. He also is good with grenade launchers and has one in his personal collection that can launch a grenade at sniper ranges.

As for cyber, you all know that he has a cyberleg, though it is synthetic to help him blend in. He has a Tactical Computer installed in his, along with a cyber holster. He has some ammount of reflex enhancers, though not much. Lastly he has a very wide range of senseware.


English
Arabic
Azeri
Hebrew
Hindi
Latin
Russian
Turkish

I'm a sniper not a weapon specialist btw. I don't want you guys thinking I am going to go John Woo on you. Give me a hill and a light breeze and I will mow people down.

@ Clock,

DT has a laser designator and a skill in using it, that is why I asked. I will pack it just in case it come in handy.

Sorry, Gob, I did my "blurb" as a little website here. My apologies. I'll work up a more formal one in a little while.

Grey: Again, CC is saying that grenade launchers can't take advantage of indirect firing. Or do you have a special one that can?

Sorry for spamming the posts,

@ Ronin, I made changes to my gear request, I highlited those changes in red for easy access. I guess the only ammo I need converted is the EXEX ammo.

Cool.

@ Ronin,

I edited my gear list again! This time I went through and replaced the ammo with Rayguns groovy ammo.

In that case, I'm changing to an underbarrel grenade launcher for the Minimi, too. Raining down hellfire from over the hilltop (even if most of the country consists of flat steppes) is always funstuff.

Composing Illian's gear requisiton at the moment. Notably, in addition to the common languages listed above, Illian also speaks Russian.

Here is my list of weapons and ammo needed.

Pistol: Ares Predator III ERASe (10x24mm)
(http://matrix.dumpshock.com/raygun/firearms/pistol/img/p3.jpg)
10 clips of M309LP Light Armor Piercing rounds
5 clips of Capsul rounds fill with a DMSO & Gamma-Scopolamine mix

Assult Rifle: KAC Stoner SR-25KSD (.338 Whisper)
(http://matrix.dumpshock.com/raygun/firearms/sniper/img/sr25.jpg)
10 clips of Armor Piercing Incendiary rounds
10 clips of Explosive rounds
5 clips of Capsul rounds fill with a DMSO & Gamma-Scopolamine mix

Grenade Launcher under SR-25KSD: Carswell M443 20mm Grenade launcher (20x35mm)
(http://www.webmutants.com/strategypage/xm_25.gif)
15 Offensive HE Directed Scatter (DSAT)
15 Defensive HE Directed Scatter (DSAT)
20 Concussion

Sniper Rifle: AMP Defensive Sniper Rifle 1 (DSR-1) (.338 Lapua)
(http://matrix.dumpshock.com/raygun/firearms/sniper/img/dsr1_2.jpg)
10 clips of Armor Piercing Incendiary rounds
5 clips of Capsul rounds fill with a DMSO & Gamma-Scopolamine mix

Shotgun: Franchi SPAS-22 (12 gauge)
10 clips of Slug
10 clips of Flechette
2 clips of Lockbuster

I'm going to start the team meeting tomorrow morning. If someone hasn't posted their arrival, we'll just assume they showed up to keep the game moving.

Here is a picture of Michael.

Okay, I've put together what I could find on the original thread. Hope it's useful to everyone... I was thinking that maybe I could put it on at a more useful place, but I don't really know where ...

Anyways, I don't really know what to ask for extra equipment. Ronin, what's the most efficient armor piercing ammo from Raygun? Because that's what I would like to have; also, what would be good ammo against vehicles, if different?

Well since everyone is posting pictures.....


Downtown

I guess now would be a bad time to cue the Village People, eh?

Who can use a rocket laucher or a grenade laucher in the team (with the exception of the rigger who can, I assume, use vehicles to do that)?

Ophelia(Callidus) is really good with Launch Weapons.

Yeah, laser designators don't work with grenade launchers, at least not in the way you guys are thinking. The grenade itself doesn't have any type of guidence system that could track a painted target, nor does it have the means to steer itself to said target. The battletac FDDM rig on the drones should be more than enough for what you guys want to do.

Now, Ophelia was talking about requesting an IWS and some AVRs. Perhaps she can request some AVMs instead and you guys can use them with the laser designators. Again, you probably won't need to carry that mess everywhere you go. But if you plan a mission where it is needed, you can bring it all with you.

I can use a rocket launcher.... and in fact I did request one although it's in the "if the shit hits the fan" section *8->

I *was* gonna put a Ballista in that section too but it really only goes with mil grade armour so passed on the guided missiles it comes with *8-<

Mostly I was going with rockets because they're cheaper, lighter and from a quick flick through CC there wasn't really any difference but I'll happily take missiles if they have a guidance comp onboard *8->

Actually, you don't need MilSpec armor to use a ballista...and in fact, it would probably be a great piece of gear for you guys...espeically if you are planning a raid/assault.

The only real difference between rockets and missles is that Missiles are guided and rockets are not. Rockets are point-and-shoot (like a LAW), while missiles track their targets (like Stingers). Yes, the missiles are more expensive, but they really come in handy when you have laser designators/FDDM stuff going on.

You know...come to think about it...your team has probably brought a Ballista out in the field at least a couple of times, so it would be a good thing to put on your request list.

Grey asked about maps of the middle east. The chips Deke has given you has all the high res maps you could ask for.

However, if you are looking for something that you (the players) can actually look at, I have a good high-res PDF map of the middle east, and a close-in JPG of Azerbaijan, with all its districts and whatnot. I would be happy to email them to all of you individually, but I think it would be better if one of you could post them on a website and then send the link for everyone to view. Any volunteers?

I always had the notion (probably fuelled by fields of fire) that the Ballista was only useble with mil spec armour, if that's wrong I'd defineately take the ballista over the IWS... hmmm better revamp the kit list and resend it to you ronin *8->

Might wanna consider a Great Dragon ATGM, too. I don't know if they can be guided, but a 20D (AV) blast is going to take down just about anything you shoot it at, and if we're shooting rockets, that's probably our goal.

I might well put a few in the kit list the problem with GDATGMs is the weight.... my little mage prolly can't carry very many along with teh rest of her kit *8-> Plus their single shot and the launchers pretty big... might leave a fair amount of evidence..... but then again so will the shoot out we'd be in *8->

Email it to me Ronin, I have University Webspace and unlimited bandwidth

I will post it up as soon as I have it.

kelvaris@dragonbaitstudio.com

Thanks Shadow, but Clockwork beat you to it. He's putting the files up right now, which will also include the view of Baku's town square from your hotel room window.

Too late, sucka. He's already hooked me up with 'em, and in return....

* Political Map of Azerbaijan
* View from our Suites at the Baku Hotel
* PDF Map of the Middle East (ooh, purty...)

Note about gear:

Normally, SpecOps guys carry a LOT of gear with them into the field. However, they don't usually walk all over creation with ALL of it. Normally, after they drop in country, they make their way to a secluded spot in the middle of their operational area and create a cache-point where they bury/hide most of their gear. Then they return to it when they need to resupply, or pick up mission-specifc equipment. If you guys go out in the field for a while, you may want to consider doing just that.

Ok so I am ready to go in-country now.

Dragos probably knows quite a few safe places to hide the gear, too. Ah, to be young and a smuggler again...

Keep your eyes on the IC thread, I'll be starting the meeting today once I clear something up with Ronin.

It's that all the pizzas have anchovies on it that you have to clear up, isn't it? Damn those evil GMs. Damn them to hell. <shakes his fist menacingly>

Anchovies on pizza? That's it, field promotion for Downtown cause Michael is getting geeked. Fish on pizza is a crime.

Shrimp on pizza = good
Anchovies = evil

Linguistics: 4,4,3

Since people were posting them earlier...

Flatline (not very elfy looking, is she?)

Flatline - Online Persona (Ninja?)

For those of you who have requested details about the Tblisi op that brought you all together back in '59...

From my previous post:
"In a bloody coup, national radical Giorgi Gachechiladze takes hold of the Georgian capital. Several MegaCorps (including Ares) as well as several national governments have a significant presecence in Tblisi because of their vast telecommunications infrastruture, and the fact there are no laws regulating any data/information flow. This has resulted in the creation of SEVERAL datahavens, used extensively by the Corps and Governments alike.

After the coup, Gachechiladze declared all data and hardware in the Georgian Telecom network to be property of the new Georgian Government. Of course, the corps and countries were scared shitless...they couldn't have this madman in control of their data. So several countries and 4 MegaCorps assembled a multinational task force who's aim was to topple Gachechiladze and restore the former Georgian regime."


More info:
Gachechiladze had inside help in the form of Alsan Berdzenushivli, then, the Georgian Information Minister. While the task force managed to capture/kill most of those responsible for the coup, Berdzenushivli and his aides managed to disappear. Nobody knows how much data Berdzenushivli walked away with, or where he ended up.


More details to come.

On a somewhat unrelated and not, and since no one really responded with Cardboard asked, what's the chain of command for this ragtag team?

From what I understand of most mercenary groups, military ranks tend to carry over into most groups, but that doesn't mean someone who might have been a Private 1st Class couldn't be the captain if he proved his worth.

So what has our team hashed out regarding this? Obviously Michael's the leader, but beyond that how are we organized?

My vote is that Clockwork would be second in command. I know his character has a decent Tactics skill and Riggers are always good at being leads because the usually have drones all over the place keeping an eye on every angle.

The final choice about chain of command is up to you guys, but let me see if I can give some suggestions.


You guys are too small of a group to need a strict chain of command. All of you play equal roles, and can operate without someone looking over your shoulder. You don't need someone to make decisions for you. The only time you need SOLID leadership is when the lead starts flying. When that happens, you all have to operate as a team rather than a bunch of individuals. One person needs to make tatical decisions for the the whole team. And that falls on Mike. Also, in your experiences, Maxwell is a great second in command, and is often the de-facto leader if Mike is not available or if the team has to split up.

When there's no crisis, you guys should be a democracy, with Mike being the speaker of the house. When people start shooting, it becomes a dictatorship.

@Cardboard:

Can you give me some specifics as to what sort of info you are looking up? And are you surfing wide open, or logging on to the Ares PLTG and searching there?

BTW, nice Metaphor.


@All:
None of you remember running into or hearing anything about a Ramiz Amadov when you were in Tblisi. Come to think of it, none of you have heard squat about this guy until he started his little rebellion.

I'll be searching wide open, heading out through the Seattle LTG through to the UCAS RTG, probably hitting a lot of Data Havens and stuff on the way while throwing up SK's to do searches on the way.

She'll set them loose on finding old PNIA membership records and Tblisi op information, specifically on those coup starters that weren't caught/killed and on the former Georgian Information Minister. Livewire, for his part and if he decides to cooperate, handles the searches on Ilham and Telestrian. If something comes of it, well, Flatline'll follow up later.

Nothing done from the Ares PLTG yet. If her searching throws up dust, I don't want people backtracking her to an Ares server.

Drop me a PM with the rolls you need, if I need to make some.