NickTrano

Give Me A Bullet [A Military/Horror/Sci-Fi Story]

Staff sergeant is E-5 in the Air Force. E-6 in the Marines and Army. Air Force's E-6 is a tech sergeant because they're special snowflakes.

Give Me A Bullet [A Military/Horror/Sci-Fi Story]

Staff sergeants are equal in rank to first classes.

Give Me A Bullet [A Military/Horror/Sci-Fi Story]

I could take that possible fifth position instead, by the way. Might be interesting if you want to meet up after the squad's deployed. As of now, Koehler does have that single seater sitting unused.

What's up?

I think I've got some spare shoes to go around.

Give Me A Bullet [A Military/Horror/Sci-Fi Story]

Applying for second in command. I figure if you're going with marines, then Navy would go hand-in-hand. If that's a problem I can, of course, just switch him over to some kind of future-MARSOC.

Name: Andrew Koehler

Rank: SO1(SEAL/EXW) [Special Warfare Operator, First Class (SEAL/Expeditionary Warfare)]

Physical attributes: 71 inches tall. 187 pounds. Caucasian. His hair and eyes are both brown. Wiry, but not hugely muscular - an endurance athlete.

Augmentations: Koehler has an integrated Heads Up Display implanted in his dominant eye, typical of UPLN special operators.

Psych Profile: Described by his peers as a model soldier, Koehler knows how to have fun on liberty but still maintains discipline on the battlefield. His service record lacks disciplinary hearings or drug related incidents. Supervisors have recommended him for commissioning, and he is board-eligible for Chief Petty Officer.

However, UPLN Medical has concerns that he may exhibit some sociopathic tendencies. Findings are preliminary, and not confirmed. Investigate further.

History: Born on Earth's wealthy North American continent, Koehler wanted for little in his youth. However, as time went on, that very lack of need drove him to seek out his own struggle - and beating up high school bullies wasn't doing it for him.

He enlisted with the United Planets League (UPL) Navy a few months after graduating high school, passing through Basic Training at Camp Stevens on Luna. Recruit Division Commanders described him as focused and driven, a model recruit. From there, he went on to BUD/S training on Ceres.

After completing training, ranking third in his graduating class of forty-seven, Koehler went on to [REDACTED].

. . .

Upon completion of his latest mission, the [REDACTED], Koehler's cutter has docked with the UPLN AU8291 - a Mattis class amphibious assault ship.

Writing sample:

My Hider

This was a solo operation.

Koehler went over the seals on his hard suit one last time, echoing the words he'd heard from dozens of dive masters over the years in his head as he did so. "Check the seals, fuckwit, unless you really think St. Peter'll let your dumb ass through the gates." He might've been paraphrasing; there were plenty of variations on the phrase.

Finding them to his satisfaction, he reached over to the switch on the side of the airlock. It was a typical maintenance tunnel. He wore no uniform, and carried no traceable weapons. This was a standard - if any of them could be called standard - UPLN black op. Complete deniability. After all, who would be surprised to find a rebel leader with shard of rail slug in what little remains of his skull? Half of them were just common criminals trying to put on airs, anyway.

Koehler had been tracking the target since he'd picked up contraband off an asteroid base orbiting Barnard's Star. He made sure to mark the location down for a later sweep-and-clear. The man's ship may have been fast for its size, but it wasn't fast enough to escape a single-seater stealth cutter.

The target, a self-appointed Commander Logan Buckfield, was in transit back to his ship from the Al Azrael space hub orbiting Alpha Centauri IV. Koehler'd scoped the thing out. It was state of the art, straight from some factory on Mars. Between the thermal shielding, radar absorbing coatings and autolasers, he knew his chances of planting a charge on it were nil. Still, the fucker'd had to make a pit stop somewhere.

With one hand still gripping the switch, Koehler winked and brought up his HUD. The UPLN had crawlers in almost every computer system in the galaxy. He took advantage of those to tap the station's cams. It didn't take long to find Buckfield exactly where Koehler wanted him.

The shuttle was slowly picking its way through the docks. The things were fully automated, and not particularly fast. It was supposed to be a safety concern, but then, the safety of fugitive murderers isn't typically taken into consideration. Koehler pulled the switch, and with a rush of air, was blasted out into the path of the shuttle.

He shrugged his rail rifle into his arms, and took aim. The computer in his suit detected this, and fired RCS to hold him steady, all while interfacing with his implants to give him the best firing solution. Buckfield had only enough time to look in surprise before the first slug slammed into the shuttle, shaking a cloud of space dust loose to fill the area around it. The glass cracked, but held up to that first shot. It was designed to take regular micrometeorite impacts, after all. But it didn't hold up to the second or the third.

Buckfield desperately tried to dive for cover, but that only served to make the second slug rip across his torso, spraying blood and hamburgered organs across the sitting area. The third severed him fully in half. Not that it mattered; depressurization would have killed him anyways. I guess I did the poor bastard a favor, Koehler thought. Depressurization was a nasty way to go.

Koehler sighed and returned the rifle to its magnetic locks on his back. Buckfield's corpse was already starting to freeze over. Activating his suit's RCS thrusters, in manual this time, he quickly made his way back to the cutter. UPLN crawlers were already sterilizing the station's systems of any video evidence that the attack took place. It was almost an afterthought when they deleted the manifest stating the cutter had docked.

Koehler keyed in a secure ansible connection to command on Eris. "Softball landed," he said.

The response was quick, but not quite seamless. "Home run?"

Koehler smirked. "Out of the park." A few minutes later, the cutter's micro-reactors safely brought critical, Koehler slipped out of the docks before their emergency services even knew there had been an attack.

Armor: Varies from mission to mission. For operations in which atmospheric integrity is not guaranteed, Koehler prefers UPLN issued hardsuits. Assisted by a series of servos and electromagnets, he is able to wear a far higher than normal amount of plating, rendering him nearly immune to typical ballistic weapons. Rail rounds will easily pierce it, however. If the operation is off the books, Koehler tends to be equipped with high end civilian models offering similar protection.

In atmosphere, Koehler tends to wear typical UPLN body armor. Formed out of several layers of ceramics and shock-absorbing rubber, it offers reasonable protection from ballistics and laser weaponry. That said, it is not airtight and in the interest of freedom of motion, not all encompassing. While UPLN body armor does offer some mechanical assistance, the strength increase is minimal - favoring increased endurance over raw power. This is primarily due to energy storage concerns.

Weapons: In EVA, Koehler's weapon of choice is a UPLN-issued M83A2 rail rifle. The weapon can punch through all known body armors, as well as some particularly thinly shipboard components. However, it comes with the typical drawback of all large-scale rail weapons. The slug is propelled to such a speed that it would ignite the air around it - rendering its use in atmosphere unwise at best.

In atmosphere, Koehler prefers to use a match grade M36 coilgun. Working off of similar technology to the M83A2, the M36 fires armor piercing shards at speeds comparable to ballistic weapons. Benefits over ballistics include an ability to breach load and fire any ferromagnetic material - sacrificing accuracy, of course. Since there is no combustion required to fire its rounds, there is no need for a silencer in covert operations. It does produce a somewhat noticeable coil whine, however.

A Military Horror Experience

From what it sounded like on my first check, it was a military operation and not simply the galactic police rolling up in their black-and-whites. Depending on how the story works out I can think of several reasons to have someone like him appear in such a situation. Military horror makes this seem like more than simply a mass shooting, after all. In the backstory I have for him, he is being sent around to kill off different undesirables around several star systems. It wouldn't be much of a stretch, for instance, for this to be the latest in a string of dead stations soaked in blood. Depending on how militarized the society in which this takes place is, it would therefore not be much of a stretch to task military personnel with putting a stop to it.

In any case, it's all subject to change. Took me less than an hour to come up with the character and his backstory. I'm sure I can tweak it as necessary - as we likely all will, if only to bring our technology and backstory enemies in line. Insurrectionists, rebels, what-have-you. Currently the three examples of sample writing don't exactly read like they're from the same universe, know what I mean?

What's up?

How's it going? It's pretty obvious I'm new here. So, uh... introduction. I play an unhealthy amount of video games. I'm in the Navy. I like fantasy and Sci-Fi, and I've been roleplaying for several years now (not counting my recent two year hiatus from fiction-writing and roleplaying in general).

If anyone's looking for someone who kinda knows how to write, and they've got a cool fantasy/sci-fi topic going, shoot me a message.

A Military Horror Experience

Sounds good. I look forward to seeing this OOC, whatever that is. And don't worry, I'm sure I have more problems with the Navy than you do. :P

A Military Horror Experience

I'm pretty interested. I'd have to know more about the general storyline before nailing down specific character history. I haven't written or RP'd in almost two years, since joining the Navy. I might be a little rusty, but this ain't my first rodeo.
It's probably pretty obvious I'm new here, and as such I'm not really in the know with how to go about applying for these things. If I'm missing something, tell me.

Applying for second in command.

Name: Andrew Koehler

Rank: SO1(SEAL/EXW) [Special Warfare Operator, First Class (SEAL/Expeditionary Warfare)]

Physical attributes: 71 inches tall. 187 pounds. Caucasian. His hair and eyes are both brown. Wiry, but not hugely muscular - an endurance athlete.

Augmentations: Koehler has an integrated Heads Up Display implanted in his dominant eye, typical of UPLN special operators.

Psych Profile: Described by his peers as a model soldier, Koehler knows how to have fun on liberty but still maintains discipline on the battlefield. His service record lacks disciplinary hearings or drug related incidents. However, UPLN Medical has concerns that he may exhibit some sociopathic tendencies. Findings are preliminary, and not confirmed. Investigate further.

History: Born on Earth's wealthy North American continent, Koehler wanted for little in his youth. However, as time went on, that very lack of need drove him to seek out his own struggle - and beating up high school bullies wasn't doing it for him.

He enlisted with the United Planets League (UPL) Navy a few months after graduating high school, passing through Basic Training at Camp Stevens on Luna. Recruit Division Commanders described him as focused and driven, a model recruit. From there, he went on to BUD/S training on Ceres.

After completing training, ranking third in his graduating class of forty-seven, Koehler went on to [REDACTED].

Writing sample:

My Hider

This was a solo operation.

Koehler went over the seals on his hard suit one last time, echoing the words he'd heard from dozens of dive masters over the years in his head as he did so. "Check the seals, fuckwit, unless you really think St. Peter'll let your dumb ass through the gates." He might've been paraphrasing; there were plenty of variations on the phrase.

Finding them to his satisfaction, he reached over to the switch on the side of the airlock. It was a typical maintenance tunnel. He wore no uniform, and carried no traceable weapons. This was a standard - if any of them could be called standard - UPLN black op. Complete deniability. After all, who would be surprised to find a rebel leader with shard of rail slug in what little remains of his skull? Half of them were just common criminals trying to put on airs, anyway.

Koehler had been tracking the target since he'd picked up contraband off an asteroid base orbiting Barnard's Star. He made sure to mark the location down for a later sweep-and-clear. The man's ship may have been fast for its size, but it wasn't fast enough to escape a single-seater stealth cutter.

The target, a self-appointed Commander Logan Buckfield, was in transit back to his ship from the Al Azrael space hub orbiting Alpha Centauri IV. Koehler'd scoped the thing out. It was state of the art, straight from some factory on Mars. Between the thermal shielding, radar absorbing coatings and autolasers, he knew his chances of planting a charge on it were nil. Still, the fucker'd had to make a pit stop somewhere.

With one hand still gripping the switch, Koehler winked and brought up his HUD. The UPLN had crawlers in almost every computer system in the galaxy. He took advantage of those to tap the station's cams. It didn't take long to find Buckfield exactly where Koehler wanted him.

The shuttle was slowly picking its way through the docks. The things were fully automated, and not particularly fast. It was supposed to be a safety concern, but then, the safety of fugitive murderers isn't typically taken into consideration. Koehler pulled the switch, and with a rush of air, was blasted out into the path of the shuttle.

He shrugged his rail rifle into his arms, and took aim. The computer in his suit detected this, and fired RCS to hold him steady, all while interfacing with his implants to give him the best firing solution. Buckfield had only enough time to look in surprise before the first slug slammed into the shuttle, shaking a cloud of space dust loose to fill the area around it. The glass cracked, but held up to that first shot. It was designed to take regular micrometeorite impacts, after all. But it didn't hold up to the second or the third.

Buckfield desperately tried to dive for cover, but that only served to make the second slug rip across his torso, spraying blood and hamburgered organs across the sitting area. The third severed him fully in half. Not that it mattered; depressurization would have killed him anyways. I guess I did the poor bastard a favor, Koehler thought. Depressurization was a nasty way to go.

Koehler sighed and returned the rifle to its magnetic locks on his back. Buckfield's corpse was already starting to freeze over. Activating his suit's RCS thrusters, in manual this time, he quickly made his way back to the cutter. UPLN crawlers were already sterilizing the station's systems of any video evidence that the attack took place. It was almost an afterthought when they deleted the manifest stating the cutter had docked.

Koehler keyed in a secure ansible connection to command on Eris. "Softball landed," he said.

The response was quick, but not quite seamless. "Home run?"

Koehler smirked. "Out of the park." A few minutes later, the cutter's micro-reactors safely brought critical, Koehler slipped out of the docks before their emergency services even knew there had been an attack.