A New Day

[Jaster Starfallen]

(Dev thread for SpecForce Storm Squad, M19 Falcon, and my armor.)

Today I'm back at home. Back at Headquarters after a mission gone wrong at Echoy'la. Somehow, they're promoting me and giving me a pat on the back. They even gave me my own four man team. I have no idea why. I guess I'll find out soon.

My transport lands at the HQ and the doors softly slide open. I step out into the bright sunlight, squinting at a figure in the distance. I walk down the street and stop when I'm in front of the figure. A woman with a jacket with four or five badges greets me. She is tall and has brown hair with streaks of orange.

"Hello. I'm Staff Sergeant Narson. I will be your, um, guide for today." She says. "I know you know the place, but we, and by that I mean I, will show you a couple things."

"Alright, what's new?" I ask. The fact that they have surprises for me is, well, surprising. "I know I'm getting a team but you're saying that's not it? When did I hit the jackpot?"

 

[Jaster Starfallen]

"Well, the top brass seem to think you were an exceptional soldier. Maybe that's when your luck changed. You went to the Mandalorian capital, without much complaint or so I hear. Unquestioning loyalty and patriotism. I like that." She says with a smile. "I think that's really cool. But I'm just a pencil pusher and I'm not in the loop with all the super secret information."

The opposite is true actually. I don't say that, but really I went with a lot of complaining and questioning. In fact, I was told next to nothing at the briefing and to just go and get the job done.

"Yeah let's just go with the amazing perfect soldier." I grin. We step inside the building and the sweet AC.

"Where do you want to go first? Armory, shooting range, or barracks to meet your team?" Staff Sergeant Narson asked with a tilt of her head.

"So exciting... Let's go to the range." I rub my hands together in an evil genius way. I can't wait to see what's in store for me.

 

[Jaster Starfallen]

As we ride an elevator up I wonder yet again at what the team is like. I figure why not ask?

"What's the team like?" I ask the Staff Sergeant.

"Interesting. Very interesting." Narson replies. "They make a good team, but they are all very different from one another."

"That's good. I'd hate for them to be boring." The elevator songs and the doors open to the sound of gunfire. "Here we are!"

There is a single lane open. There is a wooden desk at the entrance with two things on it. A rifle and a grenade. They look very high tech and deadly. I like that. The rifle is very long and has two rails on it. I've never seen anything like it. The grenade has little lights on the sides. They're a soft blue now. It has three rings and a circular bottom and top. Like an oval out of circles There is a gear on the right side of the top. They ring is on the left. As I get closer I can read a small screen on it. 'Explosive'. Huh. Interesting.

"I want to try the grenade out. It looks super interesting." I say.

Sergeant Barson nods. "All yours. Just make sure you pick a setting before you pull the pin. Then just throw."

I look downrange and spot a target. It's humanoid and I see the blue of a hologram. I scroll through the settings on the grenade. 'Anti-armor'. Nice. We need grenades for armor. 'Shrapnel'. Good for immobilizing soldiers. 'Explosive' again. Like a regular grenade.

"Alright, let's see what this baby can do." I pull the pin and throw it. It's a little too powerful and looks like it will sail over the target. Suddenly there's a bang and a fireball. I see it explode right over the target's head. "That's pretty nifty! When'd these come out?"

Barson smiles. "A couple months ago. They're just being released now. Do you want to try out the other settings?"

"Please. These are amazing."

"I'll be right back. You can try out the rifle while you're waiting. It's already loaded." The Sergeant walks down the hall towards a door that I can only presume leads to a supply area.

 

[Jaster Starfallen]

I walk back to the table and set my hands on it. I admire the sleek design of the rifle and the lights on the safety, battery release, and other buttons. I pick up the rifle. It's long, but not unbearably so. It's also a little heavier than I thought it'd be. I look closer at the casing of the gun. It's actually really thin and is full of small holes. Maybe cooling? Or to make the gun lighter? Probably both.

I look at the barrel. I flip the gun over so I can see the exit of the barrel. Actually there are two. One is above and the other below. There is a grip at the bottom and it looks sturdy. Something catches my eye on the table. An instruction pamphlet. Funny. Can't believe they'd make one for a super cool looking weapon of destruction. I set the rifle down and pick up the paper.

Blah blah blah, M19 Falcon, cool, blah blah blah. Safety warning, safety warning, more words, oh! Pictures! It look like the lower barrel is for a mini railgun. Cooool. It says you slide the rail bullet case in here on the bottom of the gun, a few inches in front of the trigger. You put the power pack here on the right side, below the safety. You put the gas canister in here under the firing setting. The firing setting is near the top at the back end of the scope. The safety setting is right in front of it. Both canisters go in from the either side. There is a release for both. It can be set to automatic ejection or manual. I flip this one to automatic. The firing setting can be set to rail, semi auto, and automatic. I flip it to auto. The safety... Well it's a safety.

 

[Jaster Starfallen]

Oh wow, look at this fancy scope. I turn it on. A screen appears saying 'Customize Interface? Up for Y, Down for N'. Yes, yes I do. I bring the dilation back. I enter all the information. My name, birthday, date and time, and so on and so forth. The scope eventually brings me to a circular home screen. I notice the scope app, if you can call it that, weather calculation, distance calculator, HUD connector, Tetris, and some other useful apps. Some designer has a sense of humor. I like it. I enter the scope app.

I walk up to the edge of the shooting range and aim downrange. It's a little heavy, better not unbalanced. I aim at a holographic soldier and pull the trigger. There's a Whizz plop and the bullet hits. I see a plasma substance sticky to the holographic soldier. The hologram turns red and disappears. I play around with the plasma until the power pack runs out. I take out the power pack and ask my neighbor for one since I don't have any. Luckily for me he has one. I insert it and decide to use the railgun.

I eject the rail magazine and check for bullets. Yep, three rail bullets. I load one into the chamber with a slide of the slide, ha ha. I aim downrange and steady myself. Breathe in. Breathe out. Squeeze... BA FOOM. There's a large muzzle flare and the target is totally obliterated.

"Let's get something a little bigger..." I whisper to myself. "Yes, a light armor suit will do nicely."

I aim again and repeat the process. Breathe in. Breathe out. Squeeze... Another BA FOOM sounds and some soldiers stop their shooting and look at me. I give them all a thumbs up and look downrange. The armor has fallen and I spot a little hole in it. A bring up a heavier armor suit. I fire. The suit falls, but no permanent damage is done. Next I pull up a light ship. A hovertank to be specific and light at that. I aim at the turret and fire. The bullet hits and holographic electricity arcs around the hovercraft. My shoulder hurts and I just now notice the high recoil and promise myself to never fire more than three in a row.

"Dang, that's epic." I mutter. I rub my shoulder a bit.

I turn around and see Staff Sergeant Narson standing there. She claps her hands slowly. "Bravo, soldier. Good shooting."

"Thanks." I see two more grenades on the table. "Oh thanks! I'll be real quick."

I take the grenades and walk back to the range. I set the first for 'Shrapnel' and call up a group of seven soldiers. I throw the grenade and it detonates right over the holographic soldier's heads. I can see the grenade direct it's charge at the soldier's general area. That's pretty cool. A grenade that directs its charge. Just what the Republic needs. The soldiers are lit up with red and there are only two casualties. Pretty good. I grab the next grenade and set it for 'Anti-armor'. I call up a heavy armor unit and throw the grenade towards it's center mass. The grenade detonates right before it hits the armor's chest and I see a shaped charge, like a spear, cut through the armor. A sizeable hole appears and it looks like it almost went straight through. Red appears all over the hologram. I guess it must have injured the man inside. These grenades are amazing. Take down armor, soldiers, so many uses.

"Ok, done now. Those things are amazing. I'm bringing them on my next mission. Off to the barracks. I want to meet my squad." I'm really excited to meet them. "I do get to keep that gun, right?" I point to the rifle.

"Yes you do. And the Republic can give you grenades before you go on your mission. The barracks are right this way." Barson points to a set of stairs leading a few floors down. "By the way, good shooting."

I smile and nod.

 

[Jaster Starfallen]

We enter the barracks and take a right. There's a door at the end of the hallway and I assume we're walking there.

Staff Sergeant Narson stops at the door. "Good luck." With a swing she opens the door.

I walk into the bunk room and see four soldiers at their beds staring at me. Now would be a good time to say something inspirational.

"Uh... Hi. I'm your new epic sergeant. You'll be stuck with me from now on." I say. Wow that was terrible. "That was really bad. Let me start over. I'm Jaster Starfallen and I'll be leading our new squad."

A chorus of 'Yeah's and 'Yes Sir!' erupt. Now I'm gonna have to learn everyone's name.

"You can go back to what you where doing. I'm just going to walk around and meet everyone." I start at the nearest bunk, occupied by a grizzly man lying down.

I place a hand against the bunk and lean on it. "So tell me about yourself. By the way I'm not a therapist, no matter how much I seem like one."

The man stares at me and raises his eyebrows. "Well for starters, I'm Wolf. Harrison Wolf. I'm the demo expert."

I wait. "That's it?"

He nods.

"Um, any backstory?"

He shakes his head no.

Well that was fruitful. I move on to the next bunk. Maybe I can get some more information about Wolf out of the next guy. The next guy is a big burly one, like a gangster. He's even got the chain and the sleeveless shirt to go with it!

 

[Jaster Starfallen]

"Well, who do we have here?" I come up to the big man and raise my hand for a handshake.

"Leo Lacer, Sir. The big strong heavy guy." He replies as he shakes my hand. His grip is strong but has a delicate touch to it, like he's trying to be careful. "I don't do much more than that."

"Forget the Sergeant stuff. I'm not into that. But tell me something interesting about yourself."

"Well, I have a blaster collection. I also love trying out new stuff, like those new guns always coming out. I'd buy them, but they're more expensive than many antiques."

"What can you tell me about Wolf? He's not very talkative."

"I just know that he's an experienced fighter. But he wasn't always that cold. He used to have a family and run a fireworks shop. From what I've heard he was a nice guy until the Sith blew everything up. Then they relocated and disease got his wife. He turned into a sword with the intent of killing sith. That's my guess. I put that together from the puzzle of information he's ever talked about.... And maybe looking him up." The heavy grins and looks for approval.

"That's interesting. So he wants to get revenge. I can deal with that." I note the heavy's behavior and skills for later. Puzzles. Hm. "You into puzzles? Or time consuming things? I know how hard it is to search through the Republic database."

"Yes, I enjoy them. I don't like it when I don't have many pieces, which is why I went to all that trouble of finding out about Wolf. Curiosity too."

"Glad to hear it. I'm going to go talk to the others." I'm glad Lacer isn't like stereotypical heavies. Not big and dumb, but motivated and smart.

I walk up to a bed with a skinny shirtless guy. I begin to have fears about this guy already. Tattoos, shirtless, and a big grin. Either he could be a brash cocky guy, or a nice but misguided kid trying to make his way in the world. Maybe that's not the best assessment, but I've got a bad feeling about this.

​"So. Who are you, whatcha do and all the questions interrogators ask."

"Oh, hi sir! I'm Kyle Roberts! Um well, yes you see." He stutters over his energetic words. "Argh! Let me start again. I'm Kyle Roberts and I do everything. A little piloting, some slicing, comms, medicine, just about anything you'll ever need. I specialize in a little of everything. Not just that I couldn't make up my mind about what to do, but because that way I can do everything. So if you ever need something, I probably can do it." He stops his fast paced talking. He looks around the room and his eyes fall back on me. He peeks at the door. "Hey, that Staff Sergeant chick still with you? I've seen her around the building once or twice..."

"Woah! Slow down there kid. First off, you do everything? Can you build droids, breach ships, estimate stocks, combat sith, or cook food?" I throw random things out there, besides the cooking. I wonder f he can actually do that. The other stuff I'm not so worried about.

"Yes sir, you bet! Except for building droids and stocks, I can do those things. Maybe I can invest in stocks, that's a good idea. I should do that. But yeah, I can fight sith and cook! At the same time too! Oh, but where is the Staff Sergeant. Come on tell me."

"I have to admit, I'm impressed! I think we'll utilize those cooking skills often then. The Staff Sergeant is..." I look behind me and examine the hall. "Huh. I don't see her. Must've gone elsewhere. Why you asking? Got a dinner date or something?"

"What? Oh, ha ha. Very funny. Maybe I hit on her once or twice, but come on, she totally likes me."

"Oh sure. You can live that fantasy. I'm going to go talk to that last guy." I point to the man in the corner with a bottle by his bed. A bad omen? Maybe.

"See you sir! If you ever need a cook, come find me. Or you know, if you find that Staff Sergeant."

Funny guy. At least my assumptions were wrong. He's just a nice kid trying to impress everyone. The jack or all trades, and the stealer of hearts. We'll get along fine.