Rhona W

GEARs Redux [Winter & Silverwind Blade]

Fairport City
Eastern Bay County
Landren
Early-Autumn
18:30 hours

The evening was drawing in, and temperatures dropping. Leaves had started to turn in the avenues and parks of Fairport and all around Landren, and, of course, all across Arvara's Northern Hemisphere. Here in Fairport, the grey clouds of winter had rolled in, and the sky had already darkened. Fog was rolling in off of the water of the bay, and it's obscuring tendrils wrapped around the buildings of the sea-front city, it's damp scent mingled with the salt-water on the breeze.
Rolen stood on the upper deck of the (comparatively speaking) tiny Landcruiser. The wind ruffled the fur on his head and face, and he turned the collar of his bomber jacket up against the wind, as a shiver ran through his powerful frame.
Standing amidst the railings and masts of the Wandering Promise, the wolverine admitted to himself that the shiver wasn't just from the cold.
The land-ship had pulled into dock at the sea-side settlement for a resupply and refit after its' last excursion had ended in a violent confrontation.
While the small Landcruiser was, for all appearances a civilian salvage and freight vessel; and indeed was more than capable of carrying out such roles, the reality was it secretly also functioned as a vessel of the Landren Defence Forces Special Operations division. It's role was to go places and do things that would likely never show up in the history books or official documents and releases - unless something went terribly wrong.
Unfortunately, that had been what had almost happened on their last sortie. A mission to recover a prisoner being transported had ended with an intense firefight, and the Landcruiser itself had been drawn into the battle. He and his partner had managed to heavily damage the enemy, and their support team had recovered the prisoner. Unfortunately, in the parting shots, his partner had been killed.
That was the blunt explanation of it, of course. She was dead, killed and her GEAR turned into a burned-out, barely-there hulk as she had been hit by a point-blank shot from a particle lance as she made a diversionary attack that had driven off the hostile Landcruiser, and crippled it's weapons systems.
They'd been friends over the time they'd worked together, almost four years. And after the first two, their friendship had exploded into a professional respect and an intense and dynamic relationship. Not of the romantic kind - although, they had a definitive attraction - but a strong bond between people who understood one another, and had a great match of attributes and characteristics.
They did almost everything together, both out of necessity and the desire to do so, and had been comfortable in each others' presence to a spectacular degree. It had been surprising that it hadn't really toppled over the edge into a romantic relationship - beyond one or two isolated instances of drunken fumbling around a New Years' party, that had never become more.

And even though he hadn't loved her romantically, he missed her all the more. Dinah had been an integral part of his life, his duty, and of the ship. Now, her GEARs' remains, nothing more than heat-blistered alloys, plastics and composites in a mocking, melted soft-edged parody of a Arvaran shape, were being craned aboard a flatbed from the rear flat-deck of the ship. Pensive and neutral, he watched as the arm of the crane lowered the remains of the Jester to the flatbed, the shapes vague in the fog. The only background music was the muted hoot of fog-horns out in the bay, and the muffled shouts of foremen and workers around the small yard owned by the parent company for the salvage operation. That too was a front for the LDF, naturally.
Behind him, a hatch door creaked, and he reluctantly pulled himself back from maudlin thoughts and the whispers of ghostly voices in the fog. Turning, he saw Lucette Stirling, the captain of the ship and another good friend. Like him, the mare was dressed for the damp chill of the bay and wore a long, drawn expression.
"I knew I'd find you up here," she said in a quiet, strong voice. "It's where you always come when you're miserable or want to be alone."
"Not just me," he answered in his own rumbling tone. "I think it's everyones' quiet place. Ship this small, it's one of the only places to get away. Did you need me for something?"
She paused, coming to join him at the rail, and pursing her own lips as she saw the remains of the Jester being covered by a tarp on the back of the civilian low-loader. Flicking her braid aside in a twitch that betrayed her feelings, she studied his face with cool blue eyes before looking down as another transport entered the dock.
"The new pilot is coming aboard... I thought you should meet her. I know it's only been a week, but-"
"It's okay," he answered, looking down as the vehicle pulled up. "There's no point hanging around any longer. The more we wait, the more time we spend wallowing. I'd rather get back to work. At least then we're all busy".
"Yeah," she said with a nod, following his gaze as the tarp began to be pulled back and the shape of a new GEAR was revealed. "There's already a mission for us. They want us to go across the border to the East, into Iyuli and extract a defector... sounds like a walk in the park, as always, and a good way to throw ourselves back in."
"Do you think she's going to fit in," Ro asked as he squinted down at the shape of the pilot.
"Only one way to find out," Stirling replied. "Come on. And try not to look so... you".

A handful of minutes later, Ro stood at ground level on the dock, concrete beneath his boots. The crane was in motion once again, ready to haul the new GEAR aboard, and he stood with his hands in pockets, ready to welcome the new pilot aboard. She was a vulpine; lithe long haired and beautiful, especially her large and expressive eyes and had an air of alertness, confidence and interest to her. He stood by warily and with a look of interest as Stirling stepped forward and introduced herself.
"Lilly," she said by way of greeting, omitting rank as was normal for their unit. "Welcome to our group. I'm Captain Stirling-" the 'captain' referring to her position on the ship "-and this is Mr Razen. I'm sure he'll make his own introduction. We're looking forward to having you join us"
"Hi," said Ro after a long moment. "I'm Rolen. You can call me Razer or 'R.R' if you like. Nice to meet you".

GEARs Redux [Winter & Silverwind Blade]

Well, I hope your hand is feeling better, as mine is pretty much fine for typing and mouse-ing now too. I also dropped a bunch of stuff I wasn't enjoying any more so that I've got a bit more free time, and made some resolutions to myself to be a bit nicer to me about my hobbies (i.e., they're supposed to be fun and not a chore, so only do them when they're fun).
So, that in mind - I'm eager to get this started. I'm pretty up for just diving right in if you are? I'm tossing a few ideas back and forth for a longer-range plot, and in true tradition, I figure I've got a skeleton, and I can fill in the blanks as we go along, and always change things about after we discuss them - after all, there's only two of us, so it's much easier to exchange ideas for plot that way and build the story together.

I can get a post up IC now, and then you can reply whenever you like, and we'll go from there.

Oh, and I'll sort my picture out in a minute too!

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Made a post updating everyone with what's happening in their respective areas. New bad guys have appeared... and they mean business...
I look forward to the replies. I'm eager to get this battle into it's main and end phase, as the REAL plot will start once we get the intel and hostages back...

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Silverwind met up with Mike with no issues, even after the Prowler had opened fire and made a mess of the sun-faded decor of the machine-shop. Nothing had emerged during Silverwinds' earth-shaking run up the main road either, even after he'd deliberately clipped a building with one elbow of the GEAR as it moved. In short; the town was abandoned and lifeless. This left the fox with the problem of reinforcing the others, who even now were filling the commo net with battle-chatter from their respective positions.
The mine had turned out to be a warren of hostiles, and Aiden and Adrian were apparently engaged in ferocious combat. Myrina and Arcade were holding their position against a force of unknown size in the bowl-shaped valley, and there were definite hostiles in the Landcrawlers, engaged by Esailia's team. Even Ken had opened fire, after being fired upon.

Drawing up decisions, he designated icons on the holographic C3I display floating above his controls and spoke rapidly to the other two GEAR pilots with him.
"Nawlin, Kuraiko - move to reinforce Sykes and Kelsea at the mine. Your GEARs are both better suited for close-in combat than mine, and should be a good pairing with both of theirs as well. Not to mention you can both cover the longer distance more quickly than the Harlock. I'm moving to reinforce Michelete and Ruthless, my GEAR is better at those kinds of ranges, and the area is closer, so I can cover the distance more effectively. Move!"

Blade spun his GEAR around on it's foot-wheels and zipped in the direction of the valley. Smoke was rolling from the low, dusty hills surrounding the area, and the machines' external microphones picked up the thump and chatter of weapons-fire from here. Swerving around to follow the road into the valley, he toggled another frequency as he heard more incoming messages.

This is team three, tangos blew the warehouse into confetti and opened fire on us. We're covered by a dust storm, we may need air support or a pair of eyes from above, sir!"

The foxes' ears flattened under his helmet at the tone in Aidens' voice. The Corpsman was obviously coping well, but not being able to immediately assist his man was anaethema to the vulpine.
"Hold fast, Sykes. Prowler and Blitzkrieg are on the way to back you both up. They might not be airborne, but the firepower oughta help. Break. Maxwell, keep on those hostiles and take' em down, then stand by for further orders. Break. Sprinsteam, Sitrep? Over".
The words were terse and fast, but that was combat; it didn't leave time for flowerly language and debate. You had to act quickly, or else everything fell apart in a shocking short time.
Skidding into the mouth of the valley, the Harlock's LIDAR and other sensors painted a picture on the display, icons and tags appended to each trace. Michelete's GEAR was in good cover, and trading fire with a trio of hostile GEARs and a quartet of light armed vehicles that were driving evasive patterns around the valley floor, weaving between the irrigation equipment. Ruthless had taken cover already, and was doggedly doing his bit to engage as well.
The three GEARs were markedly Bandit machines - they carried faded and patched-up civilian paint jobs, and had exposed internal systems, where they'd been 'jacked', shadily modified and tinkered with for near-military performance in their onboard LOS and Electromuscular systems, and had military-grade sensors scabbed onto the outside. The standard-sized hardpoints were equipped with a oddball assortment of both weapons, and civilian equipment that could do nasty damage in the right situation. In short, they were a threat, especially in an ambush like this, but they'd go down easy. One was already slumped and smoking.
Blade bounded into cover nearby to Myrina and shot her a laser link.
"Howdy. Thought I'd come to join your party. Mine was lookin' kinda dead," he quipped. "Looks like your guests got a little rowdy though. Maybe I oughta help y'all put 'em down. I reckon maybe we split and try and flank 'em - I'll volley a coupla high-ex rounds to keep 'em lookin' and confused, an' then you get some hits on 'em while I relocate and shoot again. Good ol' one-two hit?"

Meanwhile, at Ken's position, the missile fired at the helicopter had soared off on its' self-destructive journey into the wild blue yonder. The return fire from the helo's chaingun had shredded the ATV into a expansive field of machine parts and gore across the scrubby floor, and had resulted in a startled panic from the other bandits. Out of the five vehicles, the remaining four split fifty-fifty. Two stopped, and the other two drove more crazily evasive manoeuvres, and opened fire with their personal weapons, a storm of small-arms fired aimed up at the menacing-looking rotorcraft that had utterly shredded their comrade - and, probably, their only effective weapon.

At the mine, the smoke began to settle, and the looming forms of GEARs were made out plainly. There were six in all, and all looked mean and menacing. They did appear to be, once again, civilian models. But these were much higher-end machines than those in the valley. Less 'scrappy' and botched-together, these were some of the latest models out of one of the many GEAR-works of the Independent States, and looked professionally modified.
Gleaming black-and-tan and with red-eyed mono-sensors glowing, they bristled with sophisticated missile-racks on one shoulder, a rapid-fire chaingun-pod on the other and with an autocannon rifle and underslung flamethrower or shotgun on each one of their rifles. The exceptions were one carrying a sniper-type rifle, and another carrying a heavy gatling cannon. A third carried a shorter, stubby sub-machinegun type hand-held gun. Most also had a wicked-looking GEAR-scale machete sheathed at the rear of their waists, though the SMG-wielder carried two shorter knives, and an array of thrown AP/shaped charge daggers instead, and bristled with movement-enhancing equipment.
The sextuple paused in a brief moment, before splitting to all points to take cover. The faster-moving one with knives and daggers closed range at a frightning speed, while the others moved out in practised ease, covering the moving machines, before opening fire.

At the Landcrawler, the room fell silent after the torrent of firepower unleashed into it, aside from a few feeble moans of pain and gurgles of someone choking on their own blood. No-one else opted to exchange fire with the assault team, leaving the heavy smell of cordite, blood and death in the air, along with ear-ringing silence.
Then there was a slight sound - the tapping on someone knocking on metal from a few doors down the narrow hall of the vehicle.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Shadowman, I'm a little confused by your post - Our team weren't engaged by any hostiles at all so far, and where we are is suspiciously quiet, rather than anyone showing up at all. I'm not really a fan of players introducing elements into a scene without asking either - it can really throw things off, and I believe I even mention it in the game rules too.
I actually had a really bad experience with that in an RP I ran, and it nearly derailed the plot, so I'm very set against it as a result.

In the meantime, post is incoming from me

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

No worries, man! Like I said, I'm trying to keep things being a bit more casual than pressing everyone to post all the time.
And thanks - my wrist is slowly getting better, but it'll take a while! Thankfully I'm left-handed, so it's not a huge issue, but having to try and learn to use the mouse with my left hand instead of right is... challenging. Especially with things like certain programs and commands in them too.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Those Who Correct - Crossover

Sorry to do this, but I think I'm going to drop out. Recently, it feels like online RP is eating up more of my free time than I'd like to do anything else with, and as I've said, I'm beginning to resent it a bit for that.

I realize this leaves you in a bad position, and I'm sorry about that, but I've spent the last week logging on and looking at the screen with barely any motivation to post - which is a shame too, as Gundam is one of my favourite mecha universes, and I love it very much.
But really, this is a hobby, and I should be having fun with it - and if I'm not, then there's no reason to keep doing it.

Also, I'll point out that it's not this game in particular, it's just online RP in general. I intend to keep doing my GEARs RP, but I'll be running that at a very reduced pace. I've dropped out of everything too, so it's not just this RP.

Apologies for the inconvenience of it, and thanks for you time so far.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I know that feeling all too well at the moment - I'm still having trouble with my wrist too, so having to try and cut down a lot on posting, as I work on a computer all day too.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Hello, everyone. Sorry for the delay in posting. Between my hand being hurt and otherwise kind of feeling rushed around, I haven't managed to get a post up. And the times I have logged into the site, I've kind of sat there just looking at the screen and finding it more of a chore to write something than a joy.

I will try and get something up in the next few days, but as I said previously: the frequency might go down for a while until I can find this more fun than a job I don't get paid for, and don't get much reward from. I may be concentrating on doing other things for a while too. But, I will be keeping GEARs alive, and it's probably going to be my only RP for a while as well, since it's the most developed and I lubs it so. Also, I really like all of you guys who play - you're all friendly, fun people to chat to in the OOC as well as in the game, and I'd legit miss all of you if I wasn't here.

So, yeah - New post will be coming soon-ish, and things might be a bit more relaxed for a while. But we will be going on!

Across Broken Skies [Ace Combat inspired RP]

After some thought about it, I'm going to step the RP down for now - sorry if that's disappointing to everyone, but I'm finding it really hard to find time to do anything else at the moment and manage my schedule. And the last few days I've logged onto the site, looked at the screen, and then not had any real desire to make any posts, as it's just seemed like work rather than fun or enjoyment opposed to other things I could be doing instead.

So, sorry if it's going to be disappointing for everyone, but I think the mass of people we've had drop out over time coupled with the crawling pace of posts hasn't helped - although, I don't blame anyone for either of those things, and I'm very pleased and proud of you guys who have stuck with it.
But, right now, I just feel like I want to take a rest from RP for a bit, and concentrate on some other things.