Brotherhood of the Machine (OOC Thread) {03}

[Ryudo Lee]

Don't get yourself shot.

Until we get someone to play a medic, then a medic NPC can be sent with the team on missions.

[Lisky]

right, but from what i can tell, isn't she supposed to be at the staging ground with us? and i'm supposed to report to her for a checkup... under the circumstances, are we going to have you play her as an NPC until she gets back, or should i take the reigns at the moment, and control the interaction between her and DS as best i can?

[Ryudo Lee]

No, she was left behind.  She was playing an NPC that was sent with the team, but that NPC went back with the body of an unconscious zealot.

[Lisky]

mmmkay, so how are we gonna handle this then

"Think of it as a funeral pyre, if that helps make it any better. At least they're free from whatever crap they were being fed and brainwashed with before. As for medics, ask Doc there. Can't promise you'll get what you want, but you'll get what you need in the long run."

since i've been acting on that already

more specifically i've already acted on getting the supposed medic's attention, and asking for some basic treatment since DS is fairly positive he's received a mild concussion for the hit to the back of the head

[Azlan]

Late response...

Most Special Forces leadership have given up on the one person army and opt for small teams with specially trained support.  It is just not feasible to try and carry gear for every conceivable situation, that is the purview of fantasy and unrealistic roleplaying games.

I must urge Ryudo to carefully study his character and capabilities, it is rare that private mercenaries should be so much better equipped and trained than first world nation elite soldiers.  As Ryudo has given good past examples of his gaming experiences, I will accept his decisions on these character extras, but I wish to log that I feel entirely over-limited in comparison.  I'm just going to go with "Morgan wrote his own character and drastically understated himself".

[Lisky]

(apologies in advance for the bit of a long rant)

Did you see what i was saying about blackwater, your average soldier for the US army is payed 35-40k(including signing bonus) and is assigned a weapon, they pay out of pocket for anything not standard issue... a blackwater soldier is payed 10 times that and although they have to pay for their own gear, the company has contracts so they can buy military grade equipment (something like an M4 is 1000$)... special forces groups are a different animal entirely as they tend to order the specialised gear they use, and the government pays for anything that's not standard issue... but it's not unreasonable for say a green beret who prefers a G3 style rifle to order a G3A3, a G3KA4 and possibly an MG-21 for use on a long term mission where getting resupplied is limited to set schedules.  If he needs to do something such as having to investigate a village, but only took the G3A3, he has a solid chance of getting himself killed, because the rifle is just too long to use while clearing a room... at the same time, if he took only the KA4 variant, he'd be cutting his effective maximum range in half, if he's fighting in an area like Afganistan, where it's a mixture of CQC and long range, he'd need at least both styles fairly readily available...  All three weapons i mentioned are built on the same platform, but perform differently as they have different goals in their design...   

It's not a 1 man army approach i was going for, the specialized gear was more of a navy SEALS approach of "i've got the basic skills of long shooting, i prefer my assault rifle, but i may need additional range that my rifle doesn't have, so i'll throw this sniper in a rifle bag and take it along" (every navy SEAL can perform the same function of every other members of the squad at, at least, a level that would describe them as competent), since then, ryudo scraped that idea, and i opted for variants of the same weapon with a plan the mission, and execute with what 'feels' right approach. 

Azzy, you have Morgan carrying a 15.2x(?)118(i believe the round is)mm sniper rifle, and from what i'm reading in his bio, you have him using the Marine Scout Sniper approach of: don't get seen, don't get caught approach.  You could have gone with the SAS approach of carry a light SMG and your rifle in a bag while moving.  Then once in position, bag the SMG, and setup the rifle... i'd have no problems with Morgan carrying something like the UMP .45, because if things got in close, he has his pistols yes, but nothing that's capable of really putting down some heavy suppression to give himself cover while he moved out of his sniping spot...

With darkshine, he's more of a mid to longer-range combatant, he uses a light weight silenced assault rifle, chambering a 7.62x51mm(7.62nato) round, he's got decent range, and while in that range, excellent stopping power against lightly armored targets, but, he's also a private contractor, and therefore sometimes has to adapt to what he's been given a mission to do... he likes his rifle, likes the feel, and the way the weapon works... but sometimes, he needs something different that the full rifle can't do properly, as it wouldn't work in all situations (close quarters combat or high intensity raids where volume of fire is the difference between life and death)

would it be unreasonable for a mercenary, who has the money, to find a weapon with similar traits where he likes the style, feel, and weapon in general... but some missions require longer range, where a carbine just doesn't have the reach... some missions require urban style fighting, where a longer rifle is a hindrance in room clearing and tight tight corners, where speed is more important than accuracy and a longer rifle with probably get you killed. 

The vehicle has 0 fighting capabilities of it's own, it's for mission planning, and transportation of people, weapons, and supplies to an area outside of combat, where the team, or single person at the moment, make their way to the mission zone, once finished, return to the vehicle for a quick egress.  Inside the vehicle at the moment, from what ryudo has agreed to are 3 variants of the rifle dorcan is holding, and 4 sets of pistols, which both the rifles and pistols are more or less used for spare parts, though each with slight variations which he may, or may not opt for while going on a mission...

[Ryudo Lee]

Dropping the amount of weapons in the vehicle as he did made me feel more comfortable with the vehicle.  As I said before, it's no stretch of the imagination that someone would have grabbed this vehicle.  It'd make more sense if it was one liberated from the Brotherhood, such as how the rebels did with EXO.  In his history he states that he used to belong to an organization.  It's also not a stretch to think that when that organization disbanded, he grabbed the vehicle as a "parting gift".  I never had a problem with the vehicle to begin with.  It was the amount of weapons in it that bothered me, and he took care of that.

[Lisky]

anyways, back to the game, should i go and edit my post and have him actually report to the medic at the vans and do the whole exhange, or do you(ryudo) want to go and NPC the medic?

[Ryudo Lee]

You can go ahead and do it.  The NPC is just a medic, so don't go having him performing miracle surgery or anything like that.

[Lisky]

alright, soo, if there's any other questions with regards to equipment or whatnot, i'll try and  answer them, but at the moment, i'm pretty much set to get moving on in the story

and now i'm done with the rough back story of my character... soo, no more angsty outbursts from my end 

[Azlan]

I was going to add how comparing what your character does to Blackwater is like comparing them to the schutzstaffel.  Respectable private military contractors do not perform murder for pay, regardless of how justified it may seem, and yes we truly do not know what they may do or who might contract them. 

Anyways, I would like to begin to transition them back to base.

[Lisky]

Azzy, i'm gonna appologize, first for seeming confrontational (as that's not my goal, merely trying to find a modern example to explain something in my mind, to as broad a base as possible...) as well as for using blackwater as an example, a better analogy would have been to use the now disbanded Executive Outcomes (Sierra Leon civil war) but wasn't sure if people actually knew anything about them... if you want more details, the wiki is fairly accurate though doesn't seem to cover all the reasons the company was disbanded such as UN investigations into suspicions of committing several war crimes, including possible assassinations, and murder of civilians (a current rumor is that the Sierra Leon government tried to not pay, and in the months of negotiation that followed 'lost' several key officers in their army though, no paper trail)...

which leads to the biggest problem.  once hired, the mercs had 0 accountability as they were operating in such a way that if they were captured, they'd be killed, and furthermore, the area they were operating in, any crimes not documented (which none were) could be blamed on someone else, such as rebels, or a raiding neighbor  (brings to mind an amusing convo while playing some MP in Rainbow 6... while standing over a group of dead soldiers ME: "dude, don't look at me, they were dead when i got here" Friend: "maybe that's because you EFFING SNIPED THEM!!!")

[Arcalane]

Blargh. Critical internet failures suck, but everything should be back in action now. Will post as soon as I'm able.

[Lisky]

well, today in class i did a rough sketch of what darkshine's armor actually looks like(yea, i should probably be paying more attention in econ, but w/e), just thought i'd give you guys a heads up... if you want to see it, you can check it out here

[shadowterm]

Can I be with the group that went to the Banshee? I want to call shotgun. 

I'm also qualified. . . and stuff. . . yeah.

[Lisky]

... somehow as a mechanical engineer, i doubt Izzy is qualified to even try and operate the inertial guidance system, let alone the plethora of features available while accessing the C&C  systems... that being said, i'm in favor of it... just so ranger(darkshine's AI, in the armor) can be an asshat when izzy does something, and have the on board system display a message across the screen "computer says no"

[shadowterm]

As an Engineer. I have the ability to repair those systems. Knowing every piece of a car tends to help one know which pedal is the gas, and which is the brake. As for the computer. I just pulled the drives on a brotherhood generator. I'm sure the Banshee will be much less resilient if it comes to that.

[Lisky]

hate to brake it to ya pal, but under the circumstances, you want shotgut, aka. the passenger seat, as in, the one with a wrap around screen for accessing the C&C systems, memory, and listening tools available... no pedals to speak of, just a keyboard, and voice commands

[shadowterm]

It was a metaphore, but whatever. It's not up to us.

[Ryudo Lee]

There is no real posting order.  Just don't double post.

[Lisky]

gotcha... well, for now, i'm in reactionary mode until either A: someone wakes DS up, or B: Arrival at the rebel HQ

[Azlan]

I have to back track slightly to make a reply to that.

Edit: I'll have to wait to the base... or maybe not...

[Lisky]

if you want to do it now, we can, if not, it can wait till we get back to base... either if fine by me, just give an OOC heads up to let people know it's happening before the vans leave

[Tapewolf]

Just a quick query - wasn't sleep likely to damage DS?

[Lisky]

Medic checked him out, not a concussion, just a nasty hit, with some disorientation caused from both the bruise and the position he was kept in, had it been a concussion, he'd basically be sitting there with a medic keeping him awake until he'd actually recovered, since sleeping while having a concussion for the first like 15-20 hours can lead to coma, brain damage, and ultimately death, although rare, it does happen...

[techmaster-glitch]

So, Morgan is affected by strong emotions? And yet... the veritable avalanche (comparatively) that Jexx pours out every time he goes postal (and even often when he's not) hasn't ever made a blip?

Huh. Guess Morgy's got a quite specifically tuned mind-shield

(btw, this is not meant as confrontational in any way. Just a little discrepancy I couldn't help but notice )

[Lisky]

as far as i can tell, when jexx goes ballistic at the very least, morgan gets upset... don't forget, just because someone is effected by emotion doesn't mean they have to act on them... such as morgan trying to goad a response from darkshine with a couple of little jabs... just because it makes him angry, doesn't mean he has to go out and sucker punch morgan the first chance he gets... as hilarious as that might be, it's just not DS's style or personality...

[Azlan]

Morgan has also snapped some nasty replies and had heated arguments with Jexx.  Jexx would incapacitate Morgan every time he spouted, so he learned really fast to block you on a regular basis. 

Also, psychics, even minor ones who can only block, are more influential than blockheads with anger management issues.

[shadowterm]

Oh my god, I was having a memory lapse on my character and referred back to the sheet I wrote. It's so full of misspellings I don't know whether to be amused or ashamed. I'm glad I can laugh at myself.

[techmaster-glitch]

Allow me to laugh with you