- Date: January 1, 110 PA
Time: 0700 by end of post.
Temp: 8°, Bitterly Cold outside. A cool 65 degrees inside the complex.
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Only a light dusting of snow and plenty of ice
Ley Line info: There are multiple ley lines in the ruins of Old Chicago, but none close to the base at Fort Resilience.
Location: Fort Resilience; Briefing Room 17-Charlie
Captain Roger Dooly (as voiced by John Barrowman).
He strides to the podium and sets down a tablet. "At Ease. Be seated." His voice is easy, pleasing, but it has the gravitas of one knows the true horrors out there. Templar strides over to Perry and holds her hand out for the tablet. She scans it and nods. She calls out. "Platoon Indigo, 17th Special Operations Company, 14th Battalion, Fifth Brigade. Stand at attention." Once the room is standing, she nods. "Platoon assembled and awaiting orders Captain."
"Very good Staff Sergeant." He looks at the assembled platoon and lets them stand a moment. "Welcome Indigo Platoon. I am Captain Roger Dooly, but you can call me Captain. This is Staff Sergeant Templar. If you have a concern, bring it to her. She will bring it to me if it requires my attention. Before I move too far forward, let me get some book keeping out of the way. When I call your name, step to my right and wait. Staff Sergeant, if you will?" She nods and opens the briefcase and sets it on the podium.
"Private First Class Solène Bouchard." When she stands beside him, he nods. "Emperor Prozek, and High Command have seen fit to promote you Ms. Bouchard. For actions becoming of a leader in the Coalition Army, showing judgement and restraint, you are hereby awarded the rank and pay of Corporal. You shall comport yourself as such. Staff Sergeant Templar shall see to it you are educated in your new rank and its responsibilities. Congratulations."
"Private First Class Raleigh Colton." When he stands beside him, he nods. "Emperor Prozek, and High Command have seen fit to promote you Mr. Colton. For actions becoming of a leader in the Coalition Army, showing initiative and a methodical nature, you are hereby awarded the rank and pay of Corporal. You shall comport yourself as such. Staff Sergeant Templar shall see to it you are educated in your new rank and its responsibilities. Congratulations."
"Private Cassandra Maverick." When she stands beside him, he nods. "Emperor Prozek, and High Command have seen fit to promote you Ms. Maverick. For actions becoming of a soldier in the Coalition Army, showing initiative and daring, you are hereby awarded the rank and pay of Private First Class. You shall comport yourself as such. Staff Sergeant Templar shall see to it you are educated in your new rank and its responsibilities. Congratulations."
About three other privates receive promotions to PFC, and one PFC becomes a Corporal. "Have a seat," he commands as he finishes and Templar closes the case. "That all had to be done because of the advanced timetable of this deployment. Congratulations all of you. Second, you are all now part of the Special Operations Group operating out of Fort Resilience. Most call our group commandos. You are not true Special Forces. Not yet, but you might be ready after your tenure here is done. If you work hard at it. What that means is we get the hardest missions in the AO and the least amount of time to deal with it. All of you are veterans, so you have seen the real horrors out there. Well that was yesterday and the last easy day you'll have. Because we are dealing with a full on invasion by forces from the dimensions of Hades and Dyval." Involuntarily, voices murmur a mix of disbelief and scorn.
Dooly seems unimpressed, but also unbothered. "Yes, I said Hades and Dyval. Hell is not a metaphor, it's a real place full of demons and deevils locked in eternal combat simply because they hate each other. And they've made their way to our planet so we have the chance to show them all what it means to kick the hornet's nest waiting for it here in the Domain of Man. You've all heard the Emperor's speeches, I'm sure. This is not hyperbole. We are at war with supernatural creatures on a scale we have not faced before. But we've got some new toys to do it with. The Death Knight will be issued to some of you. It's a modified SAMAS frame, but redesigned for melee combat. It's a straight up beast. Which is good, because some of the enemy you will be fighting will be in excess of fifteen or twenty feet. We will be a quick reaction force. If you can't fly you will be on one of our transports. We have a collection of modified Death's Head Transports for big deployments, but we also have a good selection of Demon Locust assault choppers from Iron Heart. They will get us moving on smaller deployments. If you get to fly one, know I'll be jealous. That's a lot of firepower."
He glances around the room. "You'll all be issued a suit of CA-7 Commando Armor. Make sure it fits you well. We don't need mistakes out there. Check your gear, double check your ammunition loads, and get prepared for immediate deployment by 0830. Make sure you all have at least a silver vibro bayonet, if not more. I personally keep a sidearm loaded with silver, when I am not in my own Striker. The Armory knows to load you for demon. Let's get to why you get all these toys first thing out of the gate." He turns back and makes a series of gestures on his tablet and syncs with the larger screen and steps to the side.
As he does, aerial footage of a mass of demons and demonic looking vehicles and animals appears on the screen. "This is an advanced recon force and artillery unit now making its way into the ruins. This footage is one hour old." He lets that sink in and continues. "They are far enough away and about to hit some obstacles we put in specifically hinder troop movements like this that we have time to respond. We will be getting close and calling in a missile barrage from artillery units from Fort Resilience and the Navy. That will at least soften them up and then we will mop them up. The 17th, 28th, and 30th Companies will all be hitting this at the same time. We have one third of the AO, and we need every missile to count. The more we take out at the start, the less we will face in close quarters. Squad leaders report to the Staff Sergeant before mustering out for individual orders. Let's be about it. Dismissed."
Templar finds Frost. "Sergeant, you're to take command of bravo squad and the helicopter sitting in the hanger. Private Gregg is your pilot. You've got Colton and Phillips in Death Knights, two skelebots under Colton's direct command, and Bouchard in a Striker. Everyone else will have jetpacks for rapid deployment. This tablet has your full squad and what you need to know about them." It contains their service records.