United Earth Empire Military Protocol 765-3 - In Special Regards to MAS Pilots Under Conditions Where Capture is Imminent:
Step 1: In the unpredicted event of capture by enemy forces, pilots will firstly wipe all data from any operational systems onboard and destroy central data chip to prevent the acquisition of data by enemy forces.
The pain on the side of his flared as dripping blood mixed with falling water and sweat but he had a few precious moments to make what little time he did have matter. Luckily do to the crash and the water the Sentry’s computer system had been thoroughly destroyed, meaning he did not have to worry about running a wipe of those systems. What he did have to worry about was the data chip. Stored in the center console beneath some metal plating and inside a small flame retardant box it could basically live through anything, so getting to it was going to require some work and he did not have a lot of time. He felt the protrusion underneath the main consol in the dark having to go by memory alone as the darkness of the MAS did not provide much in terms of light even with Maki dragging it to the surface.
Luckily for him the metal panel keeping the circuitry from being exposed had been beaten pretty heavily during the impact, losing its hold on the console. Now that he thought about it, it was probably what his knee had crashed into when his safety strap had broken. Feeling his way around the edges, he could find no firm hand holds on the casing and so went on to plan B. He pushed himself back up as far as he could into his chair to allow his leg adequate room and pulled back slamming his boot into the metal. He bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out but heard the weakened metal groan. He repeated the process five more times and on the sixth hit, the metal sheet came off of it post and collapsed to the ground. His foot was now throbbing along with his head but he had access to where he needed.
He leaned down, wiping an arm across his face gingerly as he began to get to work. He felt his ears pop as the sentry was dragged further and further off of the lake bed and towards the surface. He searched around in the now dead wires haphazardly and he found something towards the back of the innards of consol a small metal box which after forcing it with a grunt pulled it out from its position. Sealed there was no easy way to open it, but then again the Commander was never the one to go the easy way. He began smashing it against the console, again and again feeling the light metal bend under the repeated blows finally there was a crack and prying it open inside covered by an array of circuity was a small chip no bigger than a fingernail. Taking it from the case, he dropped it into the water slowly pooling in the bottom of the cockpit
Step 2: Analysis The Situation
Well things were not going exactly as planned that was for sure. Instead of only having to deal with one potential casualty they were now dealing with three and to make matters worse Alice had just shot herself off to God knows where likely do to some UEE failsafe because the cost of technology is more important than keeping a team together and having the highest chances of survival. In their current state they had one MAS that was most likely damaged from the impact. They would have no ground or fire support for the foreseeable future or ever if things got that bad, deep in Coalition Space with nowhere to go and stuck on a Coalition occupied world. Trapp did not like the odds of the situation one bit... it reminded him too much of Lhant.
Lhant even though it was only months ago it felt like it had been years. A class 3 agricultural planet on the edge of UEE space comparatively a dustbunny behind a coach in its scale of importance of things. The rebels had started popping up six months prior to his deployment, they started out as simple protesters everyone had heard the same old song and dance stating the government didn't listen to their plights and paid no heed to any planets beyond the Earth Bound routes. Every colony has them and most pay little heed to them checking them off as nothing more than another group of angry people in a very angry universe. That was until things became violent, it started with a riot and ended with the UEE colonial headquarters under siege by a horde of angry civilians, the UEE soldiers had to open fire to push them back. These deaths would serve as the catalyst the really pushed everything forward.
Still even as tensions rose and conflicts between UEE colonial forces and the rebels began to escalate deceive measure by the UEE was not deemed necessary. They were used to the occasional revolt, it would end as all the others ended as their disorganized command structure fell apart and the resolve of the militias would fall under trained military might. Farmers couldn't win a war like this. And yet a war that was supposed to last three weeks was extended to a month, and then two months and so on. As the battles dragged on and the death tolls mounted it drove the populace even further to ally with the rebels against UEE forces that were bombing towns and holding summary executions in the streets.
Officially at the outbreak of the revolt, the Coalition stated that it held no hands in the manners - not that any UEE official with a half brain would believe it for a second. There was continued sightings of unmarked transport ships breaking through the UEE orbital blockades ferrying what seemed to weapons and ammunition to rebel bases and the arrival of several squads worth of “war profiteers” that came in drew suspicion suspecting Coalition involvement as the rebel forces only continually got more well armed and better trained using military tactics and hitting exactly where it hurt the UEE the most. Communication posts were attacked by IED carrying vehicles and supply lines were continually harassed with a clockwork efficiency.
The UEE tried to keep what was going on out of the eyes of the public but several journalists managed to break through UEE censors and posted their stories illegally cover the horror stories of the conflict, the brutality that the UEE colonial forces were using and the fact that the UEE seemed to be somehow losing against a bunch of farmers. When the news was read at home and the government was a made a laughing stock in front of its own people, it was decided that decisive action was needed. The UEE was about to drop the hammer down and crush the rebels once and for all.
Trapp and the 2nd Mobile Armored Strike Team had just returned from suppressing a wouldbe fleet of pirates when he got the call that they were going to be sent to Lhant. MAS’s had not been deployed to the planet as the severity did not seem necessary but now it was time for a brutal efficiency. When they arrived at their home base with the next wave to replenish the beaten Colonial Defense Force they found the soldiers in shambles and the camp barely operational. The UEE military soon got hard to work getting the camp back into working order, establishing supply lines and getting vital goods out to where they were needed. Under this new direction the UEE came roaring back at the rebels and for the first time in months started pushing them back and taking ground. The 2nd was instrumentality in these battles taking out fortified rebel positions, smashing through their lines and all around winning out of the virtue of superior fire power. Due to their reputation and the chaos that they were causing the 2nd was put on the rebele bounty list along with many of the UEE military commanders overlooking this new offensive. They were a priority one target to be destroyed at all costs.
They were out on a standard night op when it happened. They were to under the cover of darkness move towards a heavily defended rebel town and destroy the munitions factory located within. But about halfway between their FOB and the town they were ambushed. Somebody had sold them out, the plan was top secret and on a need to know basis but the rebels knew and they were prepared. Armed with heavy anti-vehicle weaponry, littering the path with landmines and improvised explosives and even having a few civilian MAS units equipped with Coalition Plasma weaponry. They fell right into the jaws of dragon. They fought long and hard trying to rally but the 2nd was outgunned and outmanned and one by one they were all taking down. Trapp watched his friends, his family die around him as he could do nothing to stop it. Eventually though his own sentry fell to the hail of fire and he had to bail out. The ejector misfired upon launch sending him craning to the left and into the dirt. By the time he woke up he was in the back of an old Jeep being ushered off to parts unknown
He spent the next series of days in the “care” of the rebel forces. Understandably they were angry at him, the 2nd had killed their friends and burned down their homes all without reservation or regret and Trapp was the one commanding it all for the sake of the conflict. So began the interrogations and the torture they used everything from electric shock, to hot metal, starvation, sleep deprivation and of course good old fashion physical bludgeonings. They ripped off his fingernails and most off his teeth which were now replaced with biosynthetic replacements. When he was not being “questioned” he spent his time in a ten foot hole in the ground barely wide enough to fit a man within, surrounded by his own defecation, the smell of the rotting meat and fruit that they fed him and the bugs constantly circling about him. He would remain a captive for almost all of the remaining time of the conflict. In truth it was a span of a couple of months but he felt like he had lived and died over and over again every day. The UEE assumed that he had died with the rest of the 2nd, and they were very surprised when they learned of the contrary.
His rescue came in the form of a detachment from the 101st Legionaries 3rd Company 1st Armored Platoon lead by Ashe Cambell daughter of Rear Admiral Ulysses John Cambell. They didn’t even know that Trapp was there they were on a mission to destroy the UEE command post that he was being held at to collapse this section of the enemy front. Much to their surprise in the midst of the carnage and the death they found Trapp in a hole in the ground. He barely looked like a human being half starved to death, beaten and bruised flesh ridden with disease and death. He didn't remember the extraction all too well but he did remember the feeling of all the weight coming off of him when he heard the sounds of a UEE dropship coming inbound. Trapp after being stabilized was shipped off of Lhant to go recover for three months before he would be sent back out again with the 7th with the UEE top brass needed pilots and needing them know. Lhant itself was recaptured a month after his rescue, though the conflict had left the planet scarred and the civilian population at basically zero but it was still counted as a victory in the UEE books.
That’s how it goes.
Step:3
Hold out until opportunity for escape or rescue comes.
And here he was again about to be captured by Coalition forces. He expected to be afraid or something but he felt nothing as the wreck of the sentry was dragged out of the water and brought to the shore. There was no fear, there was no dread but there was no optimism or hope either it was just a void permeated by the throbbing of his skull. There was sounds of movement outside of his cockpit and moments later a spark was seen above him as the coalition forces being cutting through his broken metal coffin. His service pistol was still attached to his seat but their was really no point in the matter. If he fired he would only get himself and Maki killed for nothing. They had to maintain faith that the Coalition forces would be more friendly than the rebels of Lhant and that the rest of the 7th would be on their way soon enough.
Finally a hole was cut big enough to fit a body through as the metal was peeled away letting sunlight into the dark cockpit making Trapp squint as he looked up at his “saviors”. Two Coalition soldiers with emotionless gasmasks upon their faces looking down at him. One still held the portable plasma cutter in his hand and the other had a rifle trained down at him. To them he most of been quite the sight, blood staining a good portion of his face, sitting knee deep in murky lake water with a somewhat vacant look upon his eyes as he looked at them. The one with the plasma cutter but his device away and reached a hand down. There was a moment of silence as nothing happened but soon Trapp’s hand reached up and grasped it and the soldier help hoist him out of the cockpit. The Sentry was laying belly up on the shore of the lake, the Hellcat close by as Maki was being escorted of it. They were directing the pair to a truck of sorts no doubt their transport to wherever they were going. Trapp walked a few paces before stumbling and crashing to the ground, he pushed himself back up only to fall back down and repeat the process another three or four times before the Coalition soldiers wanted to get a move on more or less picked him up and dragged him the rest of the way into the truck. With their captives in and their MAS some whose designs and equipment seemed very strange to Trapp they were on their way.
Trapp looked up from the floor at Maki across from him and managed to give a weak smile through the dirt and the blood. “So you think they are taking us to the welcoming party?”
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