Bork

XCOM: The Black Winter

Jimbo simply hated winter. There was no doubting it, both in a personal and practical sense. Snowstorm’s were a sniper’s nightmare and a blizzard was a inexorable labyrinth for a bullet to pass through. It obscured his vision and turned his balls into two giant ice cubes. However, the snow was starting to melt and the Mid-West winter had become charitable to their efforts today. It was clear. There was little to no snowfall in the air.

He couldn’t help but grin when he heard that command over the radio. He cheerfully replied back, his heart pounding relentlessly and excitedly like a drum in his head as he pressed his eye to the scope.

“ Copy that, Lancaster.”

He thumbed the trigger as he adjusted his scope for the best resolution on the encroaching targets, waiting for Lukas to sight out the ADVENT patrols as he began to run through the motions. A silencer was unnecessary given that the sound would dissipate across the wide valley and the muzzle flash wouldn’t be that noticeable from this high a elevation. He didn’t even need Lukas to confirm his targets. He could see them even without his scope, in the distance. Their black-matter bulky armor was horribly unsuited for patrolling through the forest, their forms visible in the evergreen pines. He spoke through the radio, a slight hint of joy betraying his professional demeanour.

“ Two contacts. 300 meters out and bearing south-west 35 degrees from my position. Outside of black-site and 50 meters south of supply base. Proceeding to engage.”

He then stilled his breath, his heartbeat slowing to a near standstill and his mind in a perfect moment of zen. He quieted everything in his brain, the thoughts of coffee, the thoughts of getting vengeance on ADVENT, the smell of wet grass mixed with snow and Lukas’s tobacco-ridden mouth . It was all about the target. Discipline. Silence. Conviction. His breathing became like clock-work, one every five seconds. He zeroed in on them. The two of them were walking side by side, boxy electromagnetic rifles in their hands while they were conversing with each other about something. One of them looked young. Energetic. The other was clearly an older person, a few inches over the other one. Was he berating the other about their lack of military discipline? A lecture? A friendly conversation about the wonders of the ADVENT regime?

Why was he trying to do? He couldn’t give two bloody shits about the lives of ADVENT bogans. His reticle blotted out the target’s head, as he angled his rifle a little to the front but not to much to compensate for their movement. He waited for the moment when they were under the shadowed cloak of the supply base, shrouding their bodies from the spotlight.

“ Taking the shot.”

He fired twice. The 338 Lapua Magnum was a beautiful calibre. Fast and deadly without needing a hernia like the 50 calibre’s that were once popular at HQ. It escaped from the barrel with a fractured splitting crack that travelled and rolled all over the valley without echoing back. The soldier furthest from the fence. Less chance of escaping to cover and less effort needed to re-adjust his target. His first target’s head splintered apart, his body wobbling for a moment like a cracked egg before he hit the ground dead. The ADVENT trooper reached for his radio, shaking his head around as military discipline kicked in and took over his body, looking for the best place to take cover. Unfortunately for him, Jimbo took the opportunity to reload and fire once more. It tore in the space between their mouth and chest, hand trying to staunch the flow of blood as if he was trying to clog a waterfall. Jimbo watched as the ADVENT trooper’s skin turned paper white, hand dropping from his shredded neck as he landed face-first into the ground.

Dead.

Good.

He ejected the hot bullet before radioing in confirmation of their deaths.
“ Tangoes down.”

Take that, you wankers.
Jimbo then took a moment to observe his surroundings through the scope. The alarm wasn’t activated. Good. He then heard a soft rumbling in the distance to his right. He looked up before noticing twin spotlights arriving on the road. It was a supply truck. He pressed two fingers to his helmet, frantically speaking through the radio.

“ Lancaster, be advised. There’s a supply truck heading down towards the Blacksite now. ETA is about 25 minutes. You need to secure those supplies right now.”

XCOM: The Black Winter

Jimbo

"Time to meet God, mate."

Jimbo Muldoon - Goldberg

---

Age
32

Gender
Male

Country of Origin
Australia

Squad Role
Sniper

Personality Profile

Polite, efficient and a consummate professional at heart , Jimbo is a taciturn sharpshooter whose unnerving civil nature disguises his pleasure in tactically relieving his targets of their heads one by one. He is enormously patient and tenacious, able to wait in a single spot for several days if it means eliminating the target. He relishes the challenge of taking a seemingly impossible shot and takes immense pride in being the best at his profession, often to the point of developing a grating superiority complex over-time.

Once an emotionally detached sniper in his days in the SASR, Jimbo has significantly changed as an individual during his stay with Falcon Squad. While he may not show it outwardly and as often as other members of the squad, Jimbo has become attached emotionally to Falcon Team, valuing the life of each member of the squad as his own responsibility and refusing to become complicit in any mission or action that may pose a risk to the life of a squad member. He carries a heavy burden on the conscience, perceiving the number of deaths over the years in the platoon as his own fault and lack of ability to act as a proper sniper for the platoon. He believes that a successful shot is a better way of honoring his fallen platoon's memories rather than holding memorials for them.

In spite of his seeming lack of outward emotion, Jimbo is not to be confused for an emotionless ADVENT gook. He occasionally displays signs of social acumen and skills well beyond what most expect of him, cracking macabre jokes and being able to enjoy the riches of life itself before reverting back to his usual professional persona. He is not above taunting his enemies. He frequently incorporates obscure Australian slang that seems contrasting to his professional demeanour. Lastly, he is an avid connoisseur of tea and coffee, to the point where he is ardently protective of revealing the location of his secret stash. God help you if you steal his coffee.

Like many members of X-COM, Jimbo possesses a hatred so cold towards the ADVENT administration that it's almost frigid, although, he focuses his hatred into performing effectively on the battlefield. This hatred is so extreme that he has no remorse for any former ADVENT collaborators and sympathizers, belittling them with joy at any opportunity.

Background Profile
Born to a homely couple that owned a teawood farming ranch to the south of Victoria, Jimbo Muldoon lived an idyllic pastoral lifestyle that would have been content for any other person. Not Jimbo, though, was fully willing to capitalise on the horrors and wonders of the Australian Outback. Every weekend, he sucked crayfish out of the river, fished crabs out of the mangroves and shooted wild boars with his father’s heirloom Winchester 1989 rifle. However, Jimbo wasn’t satisfied with inheriting his father’s business. He was wild-eyed, a child meant for the growing world of the burgeoning urban centers down near Canberra and New South Wales. He wanted to be part of the modern world while his parents preferred to keep his ambitions tied down to fit the model of a country bumpkin.

When opportunity arrived, Jimbo seized it. After his 17th birthday, Jimbo snuck out of his parent’s house, leaving a note, taking all his necessary belongings and taking a station bus down to Melbourne to the Royal Australian Army Recruitment Office in violation of his parent’s wishes. Jimbo underwent a intensive 80 day training course at Kapooka Army Training Center near Wagga Wagga and was recommended for specialist sniper course training by his instructor in light of his exemplary performance during training. Soon, enough, Jimbo officially received the role of a marksman in the 4th Reserve Brigade.

In a state of ennui from the relative lack of action in the 4th Reserve Brigade, Jimbo's ambitions further skyrocketed when he applied for the Special Force Screen Test, managing to successfully pass the interview and gain access into a world of hell that was the SASR. Jimbo conducted his brutal training at Bindoon Facility, a 21 day selection course where his mind, soul and body were pushed to the extent of what was humanly possible and where he got the shit kicked out of him physically and mentally by sociopathic drill instructors. There were days when Jimbo was starving on end in the rainforests of Darwin and where he stayed locked in a damp and dark room with a ball gag for psychological scanning. Eventually, after the rigorous nightmare, Jimbo eventually became a full fledged member of the SASR and was fitted in a SOTG that was deployed to Afghanistan for a matter of 10 years to support the U.S.A's ground troops.

In early May 2015, after the end of one of his tours, Jimbo was cracking open a cold one with his squad mates in a Melbourne Pub, ready to begin yet another combat tour, in Sydney when the Ethereals first landed 5 klicks of his position. Only wielding his service pistol, Jimbo watched in horror as every one of his squad members were picked off like flies as plasma fire melted their flesh apart. Things got worst when one of Jimbo’s squad-mates, Matilda Bates, was psionically man-handled by a Sectoid Commander, puppetered to fire upon his friend. When the Victorian Royal Army arrived at the scene and disposed of the straggling invaders, the only survivor on the scene was a lonely SAS officer who was sobbing over the remains of a corpse that he was forced to execute.

A government liason approached his apartment a few days during his recovery with the offer of joining the Extraterrestial Combat Unit, citing his first-hand experience with the Sectoids as an invaluable resource. He immediately accepted, revenge cooling into focus, as he waved goodbye to Sydney and immigrated to America as a soldier of war. Jimbo was known in X-COM for being a gung-ho exuberant sniper who needed no encouragement to join any mission; only the confirmation that there were confirmed alien sightings in an area and where the rifle needed to be pointed. Jimbo was assigned to Phoenix Squad to fufill the role of a sniper. Jimbo’s last mission ,before being assigned to the platoon in Northern Canada, was where he received the legendary moniker of “ Goldberg”. The incident that earned his name involved a rescue mission in Eyfjallajokull, Iceland, where Jimbo managed to caused an accidental chain of events that resulted in the death of four Sectoids and an entire Gas station with one single bullet. Details are sketchy but most X-COM operatives assume that it involved a case of friendly fire among the aliens.

Recently, Jimbo received a re-assignment to Canada to Falcon Squad as the squad sniper.

Inventory
Weapons
1x Railed 24’5 Inch Blaser R93 Tactical w/ Variable 4x-16x Lithium-Powered Rifle-Scope, Axled 10’ Bipod, optional Milsight S135 Night Vision Enhancer and optional titanium silencer in .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6x70mm)
1 x Ported Browning Hi-Power w/Laser Sight in 9x19 Parabellum
1x Tungsten Carbide 12’ Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife
Tactical Gear
1 x XCOM 7x50rc M50rc Military Tactical Binoculars
1x Vector 23 Laser Rangefinder
1 x HB Pencil and Notepad
1 x Kestrel Wind Meter
1 x A. Lensatic Compass
1 x XCOM OTV (Outer Tactical Vest) W/Ceramic Plates And Terrain Cover Set
1 x XCOM Enhanced Combat Helmet w/Integrated Radio Receiver/Transmitte, Noise Protection and Terrain Cover Set
1 x XCOM MOLLE Rucksack w/Terrain Cover Set
Steel-Toed Combat Boots
XCOM BDU (1xGrey,1xTan-Green,1xBrown,1xBlue)
Full Latexed Ghillie Set (1xUrban,1xWoodland,1xWinter)
Ammo
8 x 5 round magazines of FMJ .338 Lapua Magnum Rounds
10 x 15 round Magazines of JHP 9x19 Parabellum Rounds.
4 x 5 round magazines of HEAP .338 Lapua Magnum Rounds
3 x 20 Round Boxes of FMJ .338 Lapua Magnum Ammo
1 x 20 Round Box of HEAP .338 Lapua Magnum Ammo
2 x 100 Round Boxes of JHP 9x19 Parabellum Ammo
Miscellaneous Gear
1 Isothermic Thermos
1 Litre Canteen
3 x XCOM Field MRE's
2 Packets of Puerto Rican Coffee Powder
1 Packet of Oolong Tea Bags
3 Packets of Wheat-Oat Biscuits
Sets of Civilian Clothing (Slouch Hat, Green Sweatshirt, Brown Khakis, T-Shirts, Sandals, Work Boots, Parka, Bandana)
1 x Butane Portable Stove

Squad Relations
(TBD When Squad Falcon's Full Roster is confirmed and when all spots have been taken.)

XCOM: The Black Winter

Now, I'm getting to work on my character. So expect another post from me in a hour or two... or three.

@Whoami

XCOM: The Black Winter

@Whoami

I edited Jimbo's profile to take into account the suggestions that you have made. Thanks for the review by the way.

Once the other members of the squad have been confirmed, I'll start working on Squad Relations.

XCOM: The Black Winter

Yeesssss.

XCOM: The Black Winter

Question. How big exactly was the platoon that our characters are in?

XCOM: The Black Winter

The gameplay system I'm toying around with doesn't involve chances to hit. For the player characters, hits are guaranteed. It's more of a matter of restricting the amount a character can do per turn so as to limit killing sprees and give all characters a chance to contribute. It would also apply limits to how much a character can carry. Additionally, damage and HP would exist so enemies actually pose more of a threat than just being red shirts.

@Whoami

Alright, then. Well, it's up to the decisions of the rest of the members (and potential members) of this RP.

XCOM: The Black Winter

I'm open to the idea of both but I'll go with free-form since I know that everyone isn't a big fan of gameplay systems. I know that if we have a gameplay system, this will most likely happen which might break immersion (depending on what type of system we have.)



I agree with the idea of making a Discord from Captain Briton, although, Discord's do end up distracting people from making IC posts.

In the mean-time, I'll be working on sprucing up my character sheet because I rushed it in a manner of 2 hours.

XCOM: The Black Winter

Jimbo

"Time to meet God, mate."

Jimbo Muldoon - Goldberg

---

Age
32

Gender
Male

Country of Origin
Australia

Squad Role
Sniper

Personality Profile

Polite, efficient and a consummate professional at heart , Jimbo is a taciturn sharpshooter whose unnerving civil nature disguises his pleasure in tactically relieving his targets of their heads one by one. He is enormously patient and tenacious, able to wait in a single spot for several days if it means eliminating the target. He relishes the challenge of taking a seemingly impossible shot and takes immense pride in being the best at his profession, often to the point of developing a grating superiority complex over-time.

Once an emotionally detached sniper in his days in the SASR, Jimbo has significantly changed as an individual during his stay with Falcon Squad. While he may not show it outwardly and as often as other members of the squad, Jimbo has become attached emotionally to Falcon Team, valuing the life of each member of the squad as his own responsibility and refusing to become complicit in any mission or action that may pose a risk to the life of a squad member. He carries a heavy burden on the conscience, perceiving the number of deaths over the years in the platoon as his own fault and lack of ability to act as a proper sniper for the platoon. He believes that a successful shot is a better way of honoring his fallen platoon's memories rather than holding memorials for them.

In spite of his seeming lack of outward emotion, Jimbo is not to be confused for an emotionless ADVENT gook. He occasionally displays signs of social acumen and skills well beyond what most expect of him, cracking macabre jokes and being able to enjoy the riches of life itself before reverting back to his usual professional persona. He is not above taunting his enemies. He frequently incorporates obscure Australian slang that seems contrasting to his professional demeanour. Lastly, he is an avid connoisseur of tea and coffee, to the point where he is ardently protective of revealing the location of his secret stash. God help you if you steal his coffee.

Like many members of X-COM, Jimbo possesses a hatred so cold towards the ADVENT administration that it's almost frigid, although, he focuses his hatred into performing effectively on the battlefield. This hatred is so extreme that he has no remorse for any former ADVENT collaborators and sympathizers, belittling them with joy at any opportunity.

Background Profile
Born to a homely couple that owned a teawood farming ranch to the south of Victoria, Jimbo Muldoon lived an idyllic pastoral lifestyle that would have been content for any other person. Not Jimbo, though, was fully willing to capitalise on the horrors and wonders of the Australian Outback. Every weekend, he sucked crayfish out of the river, fished crabs out of the mangroves and shooted wild boars with his father’s heirloom Winchester 1989 rifle. However, Jimbo wasn’t satisfied with inheriting his father’s business. He was wild-eyed, a child meant for the growing world of the burgeoning urban centers down near Canberra and New South Wales. He wanted to be part of the modern world while his parents preferred to keep his ambitions tied down to fit the model of a country bumpkin.

When opportunity arrived, Jimbo seized it. After his 17th birthday, Jimbo snuck out of his parent’s house, leaving a note, taking all his necessary belongings and taking a station bus down to Melbourne to the Royal Australian Army Recruitment Office in violation of his parent’s wishes. Jimbo underwent a intensive 80 day training course at Kapooka Army Training Center near Wagga Wagga and was recommended for specialist sniper course training by his instructor in light of his exemplary performance during training. Soon, enough, Jimbo officially received the role of a marksman in the 4th Reserve Brigade.

In a state of ennui from the relative lack of action in the 4th Reserve Brigade, Jimbo's ambitions further skyrocketed when he applied for the Special Force Screen Test, managing to successfully pass the interview and gain access into a world of hell that was the SASR. Jimbo conducted his brutal training at Bindoon Facility, a 21 day selection course where his mind, soul and body were pushed to the extent of what was humanly possible and where he got the shit kicked out of him physically and mentally by sociopathic drill instructors. There were days when Jimbo was starving on end in the rainforests of Darwin and where he stayed locked in a damp and dark room with a ball gag for psychological scanning. Eventually, after the rigorous nightmare, Jimbo eventually became a full fledged member of the SASR and was fitted in a SOTG that was deployed to Afghanistan for a matter of 10 years to support the U.S.A's ground troops.

In early May 2015, after the end of one of his tours, Jimbo was cracking open a cold one with his squad mates in a Melbourne Pub, ready to begin yet another combat tour, in Sydney when the Ethereals first landed 5 klicks of his position. Only wielding his service pistol, Jimbo watched in horror as every one of his squad members were picked off like flies as plasma fire melted their flesh apart. Things got worst when one of Jimbo’s squad-mates, Matilda Bates, was psionically man-handled by a Sectoid Commander, puppetered to fire upon his friend. When the Victorian Royal Army arrived at the scene and disposed of the straggling invaders, the only survivor on the scene was a lonely SAS officer who was sobbing over the remains of a corpse that he was forced to execute.

A government liason approached his apartment a few days during his recovery with the offer of joining the Extraterrestial Combat Unit, citing his first-hand experience with the Sectoids as an invaluable resource. He immediately accepted, revenge cooling into focus, as he waved goodbye to Sydney and immigrated to America as a soldier of war. Jimbo was known in X-COM for being a gung-ho exuberant sniper who needed no encouragement to join any mission; only the confirmation that there were confirmed alien sightings in an area and where the rifle needed to be pointed. Jimbo was assigned to Phoenix Squad to fufill the role of a sniper. Jimbo’s last mission ,before being assigned to the platoon in Northern Canada, was where he received the legendary moniker of “ Goldberg”. The incident that earned his name involved a rescue mission in Eyfjallajokull, Iceland, where Jimbo managed to caused an accidental chain of events that resulted in the death of four Sectoids and an entire Gas station with one single bullet. Details are sketchy but most X-COM operatives assume that it involved a case of friendly fire among the aliens.

Recently, Jimbo received a re-assignment to Canada to Falcon Squad as the squad sniper.

Inventory
Weapons
1x Railed 24’5 Inch Blaser R93 Tactical w/ Variable 4x-16x Lithium-Powered Rifle-Scope, Axled 10’ Bipod, optional Milsight S135 Night Vision Enhancer and optional titanium silencer in .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6x70mm)
1 x Ported Browning Hi-Power w/Laser Sight in 9x19 Parabellum
1x Tungsten Carbide 12’ Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife
Tactical Gear
1 x XCOM 7x50rc M50rc Military Tactical Binoculars
1x Vector 23 Laser Rangefinder
1 x HB Pencil and Notepad
1 x Kestrel Wind Meter
1 x A. Lensatic Compass
1 x XCOM OTV (Outer Tactical Vest) W/Ceramic Plates And Terrain Cover Set
1 x XCOM Enhanced Combat Helmet w/Integrated Radio Receiver/Transmitte, Noise Protection and Terrain Cover Set
1 x XCOM MOLLE Rucksack w/Terrain Cover Set
Steel-Toed Combat Boots
XCOM BDU (1xGrey,1xTan-Green,1xBrown,1xBlue)
Full Latexed Ghillie Set (1xUrban,1xWoodland,1xWinter)
Ammo
8 x 5 round magazines of FMJ .338 Lapua Magnum Rounds
10 x 15 round Magazines of JHP 9x19 Parabellum Rounds.
4 x 5 round magazines of HEAP .338 Lapua Magnum Rounds
3 x 20 Round Boxes of FMJ .338 Lapua Magnum Ammo
1 x 20 Round Box of HEAP .338 Lapua Magnum Ammo
2 x 100 Round Boxes of JHP 9x19 Parabellum Ammo
Miscellaneous Gear
1 Isothermic Thermos
1 Litre Canteen
3 x XCOM Field MRE's
2 Packets of Puerto Rican Coffee Powder
1 Packet of Oolong Tea Bags
3 Packets of Wheat-Oat Biscuits
Sets of Civilian Clothing (Slouch Hat, Green Sweatshirt, Brown Khakis, T-Shirts, Sandals, Work Boots, Parka, Bandana)
1 x Butane Portable Stove

Squad Relations
(TBD When Squad Falcon's Full Roster is confirmed and when all spots have been taken.)

All Together Now (Superhero Team RP)

Regeneration was painful. The feeling of regrowing all of your body parts, your flesh melding and being stitched back together without your permission was far from comfortable. Arnold was still dumbfounded by the mere existence of the crumpled bullets on the white tiled floor of the dining room, flecks of dried blood and spilt wine underneath it. They were still hot to the touch, cooling rapidly as they hit the ground.

Arnold had never been in a proper fight before. Back on the streets of Nevada, schoolyard scraps and playground poundings unfortunately made up a large part of his childhood. The Diablos Pequenos taught him how to punch without injuring himself, how to brawl and how to hurt. Never kill, though. That privilege was exclusively reserved for the adult members of the gang.

It was all instinctual, the primordial inclination of human beings towards violence that guided him. No matter what powers he had, experience overcame power. The armed mercenaries kept on firing at him unabated, merely adapting to the situation, no matter how unnatural it was. Arnold grunted in annoyance as the hail of bullets peppered off his skin and ripped the fabric of his jacket. The group of hostages screamed as Arnold kept taking the fire, making sure to not move towards the hostages.

He reached the first mercenary nearest to him, the hand reaching out towards him. The man then pulled out a wicked looking combat knife, glinting eerily in the dining room, with his cybernetic arm, knees bent in a combat stance. He swung out a haymaker. Telegraphed. Easy for a person with military experience to counter. The mercenary side-stepped to the right, turning his body and then, jabbing his knife directly towards his face. He lurched backwards, a yelp of pain as a black curtain came over half of his vision. The mercenary began to wedged the knife further into his mutilated pupil, pushing the back of the pommel while the hydraulic actuators of his prosthetic whined loudly. Every nerve in his head felt like it was being slowly crushed by a hydraulic clamp. He stumbled, grabbing onto the nearest chair for support whilst pulling the knife out his socket unsteadily, his eye hurriedly growing back in layers like an onion whilst the salvo of gunfire returned once more to keep him off-balance.

“ Look out!”

He paused, Killian’s voice distracting him for the mere moment, before the mercenary came at him again, charging at him with another knife that he had procured out of his - How many knives did this guy have? - and stabbed it into his other eye, rendering him blind. The man was now straddled on top of him, his cybernetic arm keeping him flat on his back to the ground like an anvil. He could hear the click of something; a pin perhaps, as something was shoved into his mouth. The taunting words of the mercenary came out slowly, as he waved his arms at the man uselessly, only seeing a void of darkness.

“ Nothing personal between me and you. Although, me and the boys are betting whether or not you can heal from a grenade in your mouth, freak.”