1 A.K (After-Khan): A Post-Apocalyptic Military Roleplay Interest (Re)Check

[YankeeSamurai]

It's so awesome to see this thread! Nice job on the backstory, this is world is gonna be loads of fun to roleplay in. As poking around the Middle Atlantic region might gradually become stale, do you think we could eventually have some greater purpose to push west into the country?

Also, how exactly are our characters starting off with the group? Have we already been selected and assembled into a group? It's just that having a lone officer running around and picking random people off the street for an important mission wouldn't make much sense.


Name: Sid Pleasants

Sex: Male

Age: 23

Race: Caucasian

Nationality: United States

Service affiliation: United States Navy

Unit: 1st Platoon / F Company / 2nd Battalion / 8th Marines / II Marine Expeditionary Force

Rate (rank): Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class
Although the rate belongs to the E-5 paygrade and is equivalent to Sergeant, the rate of HM2 itself does not equate with unit leadership, and in addition is often attained within the span of one enlistment.

Vocation: Hospital Corpsman

Position: Fleet Marine Force, "line" Corpsman

Job scope: Helps to maintain the health of a forty-man Marine Corps infantry platoon. A Corpsman in a Marine platoon is effectively his platoon's first care provider, their go-to guy for any injuries they receive in the field. The job is somewhat akin to being a paramedic in the civilian world.

Combat experience: Experienced sporadic "low-intensity" combat in two deployments, both of them in a peacekeeping/advisory capacity in Syria (2017 - 2019).

Personality: Pleasants usually strikes people as a fairly laid-back and light-hearted guy. He enjoys watching action and comedy movies with his buddies and can often be found poking fun at people, running long distances, reading good books, and listening to chill music. Being "chill" defines a good portion of Pleasants' behavior; it's not often that he finds it worthwhile to get angry or overly emotional.

Background: Coming from a family dubbed by classmates in high school as "trailer trash," Pleasants was the first in his home to serve in the military. His childhood and adolescent years were fairly mundane, dull even, and by his senior year of high school Pleasants was itching to go do something, be a part of something bigger than himself, prove himself, and so on. Making copies at his local FedEx Kinko's for the rest of his life just wasn't cutting it. Although he initially desired a USMC grunt MOS, after Pleasants found he scored high on a high school ASVAB test he changed his mind, deciding to instead enlist as a Corpsman for Marine Corps line infantry. Ever since then, the going's been tougher than he expected, but Pleasants has so far managed to make the most of it. "Take it all one day at a time," he often tells himself. "Just one day at a time."

Current status: Catching some Zs in the PC squad's makeshift shelter.

Appearance: Tall, lanky build, almost to the point of being gangly. Sandy-brown hair, all mussed up. Tanned, healthy skin, light grey eyes. A shit-eating grin is often plastered on his thin, freckled face.

then-HM3 Sid Pleasants (center front) returning from a foot patrol near Daraa, Syria, 12 Apr 2017

Equipment loadout: Wears the standard-issue MARPAT camouflage uniform with coyote brown MTV body armor and no-shine boots. Tactical gloves, bought with his own paycheck. Kevlar helmet with ballistic goggles strapped around. A ballpoint pen and a plastic kazoo are clipped to the goggle's headband. Camelback-type water carrier on back. Wears a Corpsman-type assault pack, along with several other satchels filled with supplies. An olive drab shemagh is wrapped loosely around his neck. Tends to wear his sleeves rolled to the elbow. Victorinox Swiss Army watch worn on his left wrist, also bought out of his personal paycheck.

Weapon loadout: 1x KA-BAR fighting knife, 1x M4A1 carbine, 1x M9 service pistol, 2x fragmentation grenades, 2x smoke grenades

Skills: Standard infantry skills and theory knowledge. Battlefield medicine and all that it entails. Extremely familiar with the operation/mechanisms/maintenance of the AR-15 family of rifles and the M9 pistol. Talented cross-country runner and avid reader.

[xbriannova]

Hmm yes, Firecrackermain has brought up a very good point, which led to my awareness of this issue. Experience-wise, I think you guys should be a little more realistic. The U.S pulled out of Afghanistan in 2011, and the rest in 2015, which means some of the character profiles might need change. YankeeSamurai, I'm not sure when your character's deployment is, but if it's in 2010-2013, then it'd be rather odd, so do clarify that bit and I'd say your character's good to go. From the looks of it, your character would be a new recruit of freshly-trained private at the time of the apocalypse. As for KessonReal, the experience of your character is not acceptable, as the U.S pulled out of every theatre by 2015. As for Dark, I'd say it's acceptable. Do try to include everything in your character's gear though.

Also, to answer your question, YankeeSamurai, yes, if this RP goes on long enough, the objective of Phoenix Company won't remain the same, that is, if it would remain the same at all in the first few days. If this is successful, I might have to divide this up into episodes.

Also, if I have the time, I'll be coming up with information on... pretty much everything to compile into something like an operational manual that I'd put up in the OOC thread.

[Aristocrap]

-This is a WIP; trying to decide how he'd get transferred from CAT to Cpt. Colbourne's unit.-

Name:

Sex: Male

Age: 33

Race: Caucasian

Nationality: American

Service Affiliation: United States Secret Service

Unit: Uniformed Division Counter Assault Team (CAT)

Rank: Officer (Police)

Vocation: Security, tactical operations

Position: CAT Personnel

Job Scope: "The Counter Assault Team (CAT) typically operates in heavily-armed, five-man teams that augment an existing protective detail. In the event of an assault, their purpose is to engage the attacker(s) while the protective detail evacuates their principal to safety. Out of the generally 35 vehicles in the Presidential motorcade, anywhere from 2 - 6 vehicles may contain CAT members, depending on the threat level that day. The purpose of a CAT is not to win a firefight, but to completely overwhelm the enemy right up until the point where the protectee has escaped. After that, a local SWAT team (also travelling with the motorcade) will take over."

Combat Experience: Hasn't needed to fire his weapon on-the-job, but due to his position in the CAT, re-qualification training is necessary several times a year. Has made several arrests as a regular UD officer prior to joining the CAT.

Personality Report:

Background:

Current Status:

Physical Description:


Equipment Loadout:
-Black police BDU
-Ballistic/tactical vest
-Low Profile Headset w/ Radio
-Handcuffs
-Flashlight
-Gas Mask
-Spare mags
-Ballistic glasses
-Misc. tactical gear

Weapon Loadout:
-Knights Armament SR-16 carbine w/ red dot optical gunsight, IR laser aimer/illuminator, and tactical light
-SIG Sauer P229 pistol
-Combat knife

Skills:

[xbriannova]

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see the complete CS. Anyway, we have 8 interested roleplayers so far. I'll try to accept up to 10 before starting. I'll try to accept everyone, but at the same time I want the CSes to be within specified quality.

To let you guys know, I've pretty much planned out (at least in my head) how the environment and factions are going to be like. As I don't have any of DrNyx's plans, I had to start from scratch. Half of it is going to be made as we go along, but I have a very good idea of what we'd be facing.

EDIT: Also, answering your question, YankeeSamurai, Captain Colbourne is actually plucking people off the streets. Well, at least it'd be semi-organised. Paperwork and administration would be done, and the army would definitely be slightly selective even in these times, but specially selected? No. In other words, it's a draft, but without the usual training and equipment. You get informed that you must serve the US government, you get drafted into the army, then you get dropped into the Phoenix Company as the cream of the crop, not that there's much crop left, which explains why we're getting mechanics and paramedics with guns (or without) rather than crack commandos.

[SilverwindBlade]

Hey hey. I'd like to state my interest in this. I had a read over of the OOC, and a look at all the characters, and I like that there's a lot of emphasis on character personality and development, rather than being 'teh bestest miltry guy!!!11', and that it's NOT a zombie apocalypse, but there should still be quite a lot of excitement and challenge.

As for my character, I was wondering if it was possible to play an English character. Perhaps a soldier from the British Army serving in an exchange position with a US unit, or working at the British Embassy in DC, as security staff or an escort to an important person (such as the ambassador themselves).
After looking at the impact map, I see that the UK took a hit right in the Midlands, which would've probably wrecked a lot of the country - my guy could have had a family ack home (I was thinking of playing a married man with children), so his main goal would be to find out about home, and try to get back. However, if the US is in a bad state, it'd be in his interest to work on getting the country to a point where he could travel, not to mention he'd probably feel some kind of sense of duty to help.

[xbriannova]

Sure, English characters are accepted. My RP design goal in mind is to allow as much freedom in character creation as possible. Write up the CS and I'd get back to you. I think we could start after you. We don't necessarily need ten characters. I think the OOC is due to be up soon. A few CSes here and there needs polishing, but other than that, it's good. I've largely figured out how the RP should start too.

[Dark]

I aged my character and i will polish it more in the ooc and as we go forward in the rp.

[xbriannova]

Hmm... It should be polished by OOC, not during IC I'll check by in a few hours. In the meantime, I'm kinda busy... Will be back...

[xbriannova]

I will have the OOC up by tomorrow. In the meantime, do polish up your character sheets. Also, I do not want quitters, so if you have something that's going to hold you back, if you're feeling sick and bored of this already, you have a day to back out. Otherwise, I don't expect anyone to quit anytime soon. From the way this is going, the RP's going to be semi-dependant on player characters, semi-dependant as in they will play huge roles in the RP and story, but is still replaceable and not integral. The player characters of those who quit will become NPC, and are, as a rule, slightly more vulnerable to being written out than PCs.

Oh, and it's 2013 on my side now.

[YankeeSamurai]

I edited my CS. To clear up some confusion about my character's experience, here's a quick timeline.

MAY 1997: Sid Pleasants is born in Mobile, Alabama.
MAY 2015 - SPRING 2016: Sid Pleasants turns 18 and enlists in the US Navy, graduates Recruit Training, Hospital Corpsman "A" School, Field Medical Training Battalion, and other specialized training courses.
SUMMER - WINTER 2016: Pleasants is assigned to 1st Pl / F Co / 2nd Btn / 8th Marines / II MEF (2/8 for short), based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. 2/8 does not see overseas experience at this time, but is mobilized to aid in humanitarian efforts in a devastating earthquake which rocks western California in November 2017.
SPRING - WINTER 2017: 2/8 is deployed to Syria to aid in an ongoing United Nations-backed peacekeeping and military advisory role.

Syria, which underwent a bloody civil war lasting from 2011 to 2013, had seen numerous governments claw their way to the top, only to crumble within a year due to incompetence, assassination, public revolt, or a combination of the three. American involvement in Syria was initially met with enthusiasm, but the US psyche ultimately began to re-feel its bruises from over a decade of dead and maimed American youth returning from the Middle East. Although casualties sustained in Syria were uncommon, public opinion plummeted after no more than a year of US intervention, thanks to an increasingly anti-government popular culture (somewhat akin to the 1970s), a stale economy, and a succession of public relation blunders on the part of the national administration. By late 2019, the US military was well on its way to a complete withdrawal from the muddle in Syria.

SPRING - SUMMER 2018: 2/8 rotates home to rest, re-arm, train, and train some more. Pleasants goes on leave to visit family and friends in Alabama.
FALL 2018 - SPRING 2019: 2/8 deploys to Syria again.
SUMMER - WINTER 2019: 2/8 rotates back to garrison life in Camp Lejeune, resting and preparing for its next deployment. Pleasants picks up HM2.
JANUARY 2020: 17 meteorites strike Earth; an already teetering globe descends deeper into chaos. II MEF immediately mobilizes. The US military is spread thin across the Eastern Seaboard, coordinating with local law enforcement to maintain order.
SPRING 2020: 2/8 and the rest of II MEF eventually finds itself much further north, assisting in the federal push to retake Washington DC.
SUMMER - WINTER 2020: 2/8 assists in rudimentary law enforcement and humanitarian relief, although by December 2021, scuttlebutt says that these operations won't be sustainable for much longer and that the armed forces will need to hunker down into a more primitive state of survival. Morale is at the bottom of the barrel, so to speak.
JANUARY 2021: Word spreads of a renewed federal offensive to be planned for the spring - a glimmer of hope in the minds of the remnant soldiers and Marines huddled around the campfires which dot the DC perimeter. An unknown Army Captain visits Pleasant's unit. After a heated discussion with 1st PL's CO, Pleasants is notified that he's been re-assigned on the spot.

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Also, I have another question. Does our cobbled-together unit have a name? Like "Task Force Alpha" or "Detachment 255" or something? I just was wondering what we would be calling ourselves.