HeySeuss

Resol'nare - How the Mando Boys (and Girls) Won the War [Star Wars]

@Naril has an approved character and I owe you guys a post.

Spiritum - Reborn

I misinterpreted the use of Discord. So now I'm back :)

@vietmyke Also finished the sheet for review. Let me know if there is anything I need to change.

@Hashih

Hello, we all reviewed the sheet and you're good to go.

Resol'nare - How the Mando Boys (and Girls) Won the War [Star Wars]

@Dusty@ReusableSword@vietmyke@webboysurf - First post is up.

Incidentally, as discussed, they are exfiltrating with the aforementioned boats, modified for AA work against TIE fighters and other pursuit from the air. But they made sure the guns can depress down and engage targets at lower altitude too... :)

Resol'nare - How the Mando Boys (and Girls) Won the War [Star Wars]

Odds

---

The first time Voshno ever visited Ghala, and he was stuck under a tarp. He was a Tengaran country boy all the way through.

Ghala was the jewel of Tengaru, a balmy place where vacationers from other places came to enjoy themselves. For the adventurous, there were the wild lowland jungles and higher, cooler altitudes, but always the trees and the vibrant slashes of wildflowers, in a riotous array of colors as the green was shot through with a dizzying array of shades. Bisecting this greenery were the waterways. The waters were often of crystalline purity in the lakes, which were the size of small seas, though muddier in the jungles themselves. Further up from the equator, the soil turned to clay and the land was still crossed with rivers, estuaries and lakes, where it was more tall grass, rather than lush rainforest.

As a result, Tengaru did not bother with building roads, except in towns and cities. The transport system used what already was there, all that water. That was their highway system.

In better times, Ghala would have beings sipping all sorts of drinks on sidewalks and enjoying the balmy pace of life. But they resisted their occupation strongly and the Empire responded with increasingly harsh measures to protest, which turned into insurgency and moved from the University centers out to the countryside where the farmers and the fishermen became the backbone of the fighting.

But Ghala still had its guerrilla cells, and these were active in the last few days at the behest of an Alliance Intelligence controller that made patient contact with the local organization, not terribly impressed with the conduct of the 43rd Alliance Regiment's lack of urgency about actually fighting the war.

She said the magic words: Iron Masks.

The city-fighters of Ghala were experienced and wary, and had been cadre'd by experienced Tengaran gendarmes and criminals that knew their city. They were able to procure the required equipment and promise their support. Snipers, surveillance, explosives and streetfighters. But they were not the ones that would break into the Sultana's manor.

Teams of guerrillas would hit the position with explosives and high volume heavy blaster fire. The assault would be timed with a volume of fire against Imperial positions and a purloined Imperial vehicle, outfitted as a ram with explosives to crash the compound, which lay by the water. If they could breach, they would. And they would support the rescue team as much as possible. But they expected to be stopped cold, because they were hitting a company of Imperial Storm Troopers.

The real assault element was the rescue team was hidden under a tarp in the bed of an ostensibly civilian vehicle, the sort of speeder truck that saw less use outside of Tengaru's cities than on most planets, but were still commonplace. Five beings in armor with the t-shaped visors, one Twi'lek in a uniform for a food delivery service, making for the delivery dock near the kitchens. Theoretically, they'd get checked if they made it all the way there, but that wasn't the point here.

Voshno did not like jetpacks, but the truth was that no one expected guerrillas to just jump the fence. It was not in Rebel doctrine to use jet packs. And even Resol Squad rarely used them in their months as a lowland jungle raiding unit that inflicted casualties, kidnapped officers and stole equipment, out in the hinterlands, but never really got to use the jetpacks in combat. Surprise doom for the Imperials.

That wasn't the original plan, but Hadaj had to improvise. When the SpecForces task force en route was intercepted by the Empire in a bad luck situation, she found the answer to her 'specialized strike troop' problem, after realizing that Jest wouldn't merely mind losing them, he'd welcome it. And unlike Colonel Jest, when Old Man Resol told her the best way in was with jetpacks, she took the grizzled bounty hunter and mercenary's advice to heart.

The asset inside, GRIEVOUS, had a small group of dedicated infiltrators, locals with well-hidden loyalty to the Sultana, ready to get her into a safe room when they got the signal. That would give them time to prevent an execution and give them the window they needed to clear a way to her. These were palace staff, they would not last long in a fight and these people knew their odds. Without their supreme bravery, there would be no op.

Hadaj had a good plan, that was what Old Man Resol said to his boys. Those people inside were giving their lives, more than likely, to get their ruler to that safe room. Make it count.

Voshno had some residual loyalties to Tengaru and the Rebel Alliance, but he was a Mando Boy now. He knew what this war felt like from the day he found his family's farm done in, he and Grin. His brother died in his arms, a burned out hole in his chest. He was not usually the one that had the battle lust out of the squad, but the anticipation had him shivering a bit in his armor as he waited for the word. The speeder truck glided over the cobblestones of the street, its occupants keeping all suit systems turned down as much as possible so as to not be picked up on a scan. Still, they had macros set in the microcomps they all ran that would bring it all to life with the signal, slaved to Resol's signal.

When the signal chirped, the fire started. Moments later, the tarp was ripped off the truck and the Mandos launched themselves over the fence, coming down with blaster fire and already charging across as the guerrillas soaked up the casualties of engaging the white jobs. All around, there was a world of fire, but that was the world Mando'ade inhabited.

Old Man Resol, who should have been slowing down, showed none of that as he sprinted ahead while others covered, and then covered them as they moved through a sculpted garden with high hedges and stone benches, and into the kitchens of the Manor. Long months of conditioning the Mando way, with assault courses and killhouses, raid after raid after that, sharpened them to the point where even the Barabel moved nearly as fluidly as the Nautolan, as they covered angles. But they generally held fire, because the point wasn't to seek out Imperials to kill, however much as they might want it. They only engaged the ones that spotted them, staying on the move.

That didn't mean a stormtrooper or two didn't get in the way, but they were mowed down with volume of fire. There were Tengaran Royal Guard, but that corps had been purged of loyalists. The ones that got in the way were subject to the same treatment by the insurgents out there, some of whom were former members of that corps as well -- they'd briefed the snipers well on how to identify the officers, which added to the confusion as beings screamed out. The smuggled-in firepower, repeating blasters, E-webs and other, allowed the guerrillas that few minutes or so of superior firepower before the Imperials could mobilize true fire support.

Those guerrillas also knew their odds. They were engaging the Imperials in a stand up fight in Ghala, something they avoided for a long time, because they reckoned the prize worth it. They were buying Resol a way in and would pay the price; time favored the Empire.

Resol Squad had nav waypoints to work off of that would show them primary, alternate and tertiary routes to the safe room. They could hear the blaster fire and grenades echoing in the jasper-veined stone corridors of the Sultana's residence, and that was where they were headed. The staff not in on the caper took one look at the armored forms of Mandalorian warriors and didn't stop to think, "How did that happen?" but instead opted for the instinctive response. Confronted by armored, heavily armed warriors, they got out of the kriffing way.

Resol'nare - How the Mando Boys (and Girls) Won the War [Star Wars]

@HeySeuss I'm not going to hold you up, so I'll pull out before you pick any steam up; best if luck with this though, and I'll certainly keep an eye on it.

@Jbcool

Thanks, much appreciated.

Resol'nare - How the Mando Boys (and Girls) Won the War [Star Wars]

Got room for another? I can try and drop a character in the next 24 hours, easy.

@webboysurf

Awesome, go for it!

Resol'nare - How the Mando Boys (and Girls) Won the War [Star Wars]

@Dusty@ReusableSword@vietmyke Gonna roll this weekend.

@jbcool In or out, my friend?

Spiritum - Reborn

Sorry, I might have to withdraw at this point :( I might drag the pace because of major the timezone difference.

@Hashih

I don't know about that. We aren't necessarily the fastest posters, going by the last time.

If you need clarification on a point, you can always contact us by Discord. HeySeuss #6650.

Battletech: Anabasis

(for the sake of brevity, assuming all enemies disabled by now-NPC members of the lance.)

As the smoke and fire cleared, it appeared that Rat Lance had the advantage, with most enemies down through the efforts of the lance. The Thunderbolt pilot did the math. There was a series of small explosions at the cockpit as the head's cockpit hatch blew off its hinges and the chair went up in the air on a jet. A parachute deployed once the thing got altitude.

That's when the comms came in from 1-5, "Contacts bearing northeast of the position, three fast moving contacts at 20-40 tons each."

"1-6 here, pull back the vehicles and bring down fire on them, over. Fight's not over," Hart intoned grimly, "Let's see if we can't keep this at range."

A quick glance over lance status info on one of the cockpit displays confirmed some of what the Captain knew. His group took a beating trying to fight that beast of a TDR. It looked like they were generally alright, but that the pirate had a roving patrol that they called in when there was trouble.

Mattlov checked his own status. He had a right torso that was pretty well mangled from the ammo explosion and scrapes along the armor, but otherwise, fundamentally sound. The Shadow Hawk ran fairly cool, except that the laser spiked the heat when used and needed to be nursed along. He checked for good terrain where he could set himself with that left torso exposed but the right shielded, to take some of the incoming fire, but could find little in the basin where they'd had their fight with the Thunderbolt.

There was comm chatter on the support tac net as the vehicles coordinated a withdrawal and the spotter, heretofore quiet and out of the fight, started to coordinate the fire patterns. The Arrow VI and artillery rounds screamed overhead in their trajectory toward the oncoming enemy, looking to catch them on the advance. Midway in the trajectory, the projectiles broke up and pieces scattered on the approach, along with the notification from the spotter, "Rat Lance, sending telemetry on the location of the mines, avoid those at all costs. We're switching to conventional rounds."

"Dropship is powering up," Hart added, "But we have a window to disable it if we can handle this engagement quickly." And then they'd get answers.

Spiritum - Reborn

Gideon Tyrol Anbruch

Gideon Tyrol Anbruch
21|5'10|A+

_{A P P E R A N C E}

---

Blonde-haired and gray-eyed, he inherited the classic looks of the Rass line. A decade spent in assault courses, ruck marches and other combat training exercises at the Citadel have left him lean in places, and thickened in others; a broad back and shoulders, long legs and strong arms. Off-duty, he prefers a button down shirt, untucked, and jeans, preferring a casual look that helps him blend into a club or pub. If on leave long enough, he'll put on some stubble as a bit of rebellion against the clean cut look always expected of him.

_{P E R S O N A L I T Y}

---

Gideon likes to affect a devil-may-care attitude and pretend to be a thick-headed jock that fires synapses but infrequently. He is a good actor, having been forced to play a role under scrutiny much his life.

It's not really a lie, he enjoys a good sweat and physical activity to take his mind off things. He also enjoys problems to solve. He's more of a hands on person. If anything, he is quick to make irreverent comments and likes to be one of the lads, particularly in the barracks at the Citadel. He has remained at a Cadet Corporal rank (academy rank means little to one's career afterward, when it gets real) because he's wanted to. He made sure to mouth off to the right people at the right time to prevent some sort of big to-do about a prince getting promoted to any sort of special position in the Warden Corps of Cadets.

He is, in a sense, able to manipulate people from that perspective. Nonetheless, he wants to prove that he is more than his name and his family. Granddady isn't going to be on a battlefield to keep him safe, and he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about being given special treatment. When he's not deliberately being a smartass, the real Gideon is watching people carefully. He's done it all his life, trying to figure people out. They're the most interesting puzzle. His psychological adaptability, which is part of his 'one of the lads' charm, has been noted by his instructors.

Also part of that 'one of the lads' attitude is that he tends to be distant to strangers. Not one for casual acquaintance is Gideon, he prefers the company of people he knows and trusts. The public eye is harsh on his family, and he doesn't let people past a casual acquaintance into friendship all that easily. He is good at putting people at arm's length, but among mates, he's fairly relaxed.

_{B A C K G R O U N D}

---

Born as the second-born child of HRH Daniel Rass Anbuch, Herzog von Austberg and the second son of King Balthazar, and HRH Johanna (neé Giehl), Gideon was born into notoriety and media scrutiny. Prince Daniel, a naval officer until there was a terrible training accident, became heavily involved in public relations work and philanthropy, which was considered a good option for the royal family at large. His mother, a materials scientist, met Daniel while working as a R&D project manager for Rassvet Military Industries (RMI), working on current generation polymers for military applications. Gideon was the middle child and was somewhat forgettable until the Survey when he was assessed with a connection to the Mist.

The reality was that while the Royal Family could have pulled strings to avoid having WARDEN take young Gideon, it was considered a good thing to have a youngster of House Anbruch in the ranks of one of the kingdom's most visible institutions. It was meant to be a stint in the Wardens and then onto a life of doing something else. Gideon was put through the training like the others, though he made up for it when given time away from the Citadel. There was, regrettably, media scrutiny. Like any teenager, he screwed up multiple times, said dumb things and made a jackass of himself, especially as the later years happened and the parties got more outlandish and ridiculous. House Anbruch's press relations people had their hands full, at times.

When he wasn't pulling stunts or engaged in military training, he took to the rugby field, enjoying a good sweat -- it took his mind off things. His academic performance was alright, but not in the top percentile. His performance in the military training was quite good. He had endurance to spare and his magical talents were unorthodox; lacking the power of his peers, he focused on creative solutions rather than power solutions.

He picked courses with an emphasis on asymmetric warfare; SERE, improvised explosives, construction, demolition (including IED's), communications, reconnaissance and camouflage, many of these taught by veteran WARDEN instructor Sergeant-Major Matthias Rask, who took a shine to Gideon and assumed a mentorship role. He also took courses in the Vangar language. In field exercises where he was handed the command of a squad of classmates, normal rotation where they were all tested as such, he scored much higher than his strictly classroom grades would indicate. His understanding of limitations, with less magical firepower than most of his classmates, made him adaptable and creative, since falling short is not a part of his makeup.

During the last couple years, he had a relationship with a much older woman by the name of Georgette Duvalier, an art broker, and it got out. As divorced thirty-something and the barely-twenty scion of one of the Realm's princes made for quite the tabloid scandal and headlines. In one particular instance, Gideon threw a cameraman that asked nasty questions about Ms. Duvalier's emotional breakdown down onto the pavement, which resulted in a disciplinary action at the Citadel. He was unrepentant about the whole thing, as only a young man could be with the first woman that took his heart. All the same, after that, there were no more outings on leave; he and his friends would spend their time on safe grounds, out of town and well away from the press.

Graduation came on the heels of the war; they cut out the visits anyway and the pressure was on. Suddenly, WARDENs were needed as they never were before. It was surprising to Gideon that they weren't graduated in a fast ceremony and sent to the front, but the supreme effort of Rassvet's Defense Forces managed to create a stalemate situation on the Orestia line. Now, facing the prospect of deployment, Gideon and some of his classmates are waiting for their assignments, and some of them won't be coming back to the reunions. So they have one last chance to howl at the moon together before they have to let go of their childhoods and take on their sworn duty.

_{C O M B A T}

---

Gideon is best with ranged weaponry, typically using an assault rifle or carbine for versatility. His power is not one of the most burgeoning, but he's put in a lot of effort and thought into his use of magic; others practice slinging fireballs, Gideon spent his time at the Citadel improvising with known effects and finding new things to do with what he had. In this world of fireballs, he works in subtlety and shadows.

He has a taste for magics that are often overlooked and has, cunningly, combined this with his studies in rifle marksmanship, asymmetric warfare and improvised weaponry, including explosives, to give him quite the ability to lay ambushes and create mayhem behind the lines.

Closer up, Gideon is more of a takedown guy, instead of a toe-to-toe fighter like so many other Wardens. Not for him, a fair fight. To that effect, he is particularly good with the standard issue "Knife, Fighting Mk.IV," which is mostly steel and a grip wrapped in paracord. His load is surprisingly light because he has dispensed with a lot of gear that a conventional soldier might carry, taking the Warden philosophy behind the design of the Aegis, which allows them to dispense with plate carriers and armor (heavy) in the first place.

More than that, Gideon is an unconventional 'out of the box' thinker.

_{N O T E S}

---

In his off time, he is an avid hiker and mountain climber, if he's not on a rugby field. He's all for the challenge and, most importantly, the privacy of the outdoors.

_{R E L A T I O N S H I P S}

---

- Setzer - Strong relationship based on mutual interests and a shared outlook. The training was meant to encourage bonding between squadmates. There is one key difference; Setzer likes the limelight, Gideon is much harder to approach. Odds are that if one is in trouble, the other is on hand to assist in some way.
- Galahad - The two got off on the wrong foot but managed to settle it down during the course of school. Essentially, the argument came down to attitude and everything chilled out around the time the puberty wore off. It also helped that they started collaborating on tactical problems; that collaboration helped put Barghest Squad on top of class rankings in field exercises.
- Zimmy - Zimmy is firmly friendzoned in Gideon's world. Sometimes, Zimmy is everyone's best bet for a good time. However, if one needs sleep, peace and quiet, she is the enemy. Sometimes, Gideon feels tired just looking at her zip around and he's an endurance athlete (as they all are.)
- Lee - Lee is the social opposite of Gideon but for all that, he's a colleague; they think alike and so they are often bouncing ideas off one another. Both prefer the unorthodox and unconventional in their approaches. On the other hand, they tend to mouth off at each other, so it sounds like they're constantly putting each other down but in petty sorts of ways where they mock each other's accent and socio-economic background, along with other offensive stereotypes. End of the day, there's a shared joy in watching properly set explosives go off on the intended recipients.
Lori - The refugee's predicament is one Gideon can sympathize with; Rassvet is in this pickle with the Vangar because they pursued isolationism for so long when they could have been more engaged. His father's refugee resettlement work and other philanthropy made him more aware of the situation, but Rassvet's parliament runs the show and they decided to play a very short term game. On a more personal level, the observation of Lori's insects and the descriptions of the link gave him the idea of working with a similar mechanism for their use...but so far, only partial success. Link, slight headache and some nosebleeding. Major migraine and huge nosebleed if Galahad does it.
- Kitty - Gideon always had to hand it to Kitty, because if there was some sort of award for turning the Citadel on its head, she won it, hands down. He always appreciated the model; one is forced to do something, but that doesn't mean one has to do it on anything but one's own terms. So in a very unlikely sort of way, he's been willing to assist the enterprise for the thrill of the great outfoxing game that ran for years until the Citadel finally shut everything down. The ironic thing is that with money on the line, people became a lot more intense about field exercises and sparring matches with the incentivization of what already existed. Betting on Barghest paid off too.