Young Writers Society

A first person Mech RPG.

After 50 years of peace, the Terran Republic is now at war. After the assassination of the governor of Areth, General Stolov, Commander of the forces of Areth, launched an attack on government forces, and has since taken control of the planet. The attack has been condemned and Terran forces are being dispatched to take back Areth.

The story focuses on the 1st Mechanized Assault Team, which is the first unit to reach Areth. The story starts in space, near Areth.

Character Bios:

Name: Roger Jones
Rank: Lieutenant.
Description: He sizes in at a respectable 5'10". Has brown hair and eyes. Nothing really special.

Bio: Assigned mostly to a remote asteroid, his day frequently revolves around training himself to be a better mech pilot. His family is the men and women that maintain and pilot the mechs. While the time on the rock has been really boring, he has spent the time educating himself on tactics and strategy, which he hopes to put into practice. He has never been in combat before, so he doesn't know how it will be different.

Mech: Warthog (Heavy)
Weapons: Vary for each mission.
Description: This bulky mech is a rather durable design. While it isn't the most powerful mech in existance, it is one of the most flexible. It allows for easy installation of weapon systems, using a rack loading system. The mech can be configured for many duties, making it a perfect choice as an all around weapon platform.

A whole new planet is a little confusing...but sounds cool. I'm putting a character in, if this gets started.

Mel Hazeri
Second Engineer
Medium height, slim build, dark hair, ice blue eyes.

Mel is 26, trained in the Terran Air Forces since the age of 19 as a maintenance/aeronautical engineer. Maintains the mech's, mainly outer-range stuff, fairly remote areas, working on the 1st Mechanized Assault Team. Brilliant engineer and mechanic, very good at hands-on work and is very fit and capable of reconstructive work in case of war. Despite never having been on the battle front, Mel has plenty of experience, having already been on 4 period exploration trips.

Name: Lyn Black
Rank: Private First Class, junior communications officer
Desc. : 5'3, but her hair and eye color change almost daily.

Lyn Black is a graduate of New Constantinople University, and speaks eighteen languages. As she was a child prodigy, she doesn't interact well with others, and finds the structure of the armed forces comforting. She is also quick to learn new languages and cultures.

Weapons: none, except for the standard issue weapon.(whatever that may be)

Sound interesting. I'll give it a shot.


Name: Lycaneth Remarius.
Rank: Gunnery Sergeant.
Description: Short black hair that, though combed back, always seems to look a little scraggly. His eyes are grey. He's 6'5", medium build, somewhat tanned skin and has a five o'clock shadow.

Bio: Lycaneth is a bit of a loner. Though not technically "anti-social", he does not go out of his way to meet people. He's often rather quiet, and it is very hard to earn his respect. It's not uncommon for him to get into arguments with senior officers, and so any promotions have been kept in check. He is often viewed as a rouge, but his performance has kept him from discharge, if barely. Currently, he has been assigned to reconnaissance, where his strengths lie and he's out of the way. He is a very capable soldier who often goes alone. He will work in a team, as long as he feels the members are mature to his satisfaction and competent at what they do. Little else is known about him. He has one known friend, a very talented mechanic and engineer who is also an inventor. He works on Lycaneth’s mech personally, and is himself rarely seen by others.

Mech: Shadow Wolf (Medium-light)
Weapons: Varies, often either a rifle or energy sword and machine gun
Description: The Shadow Wolf leans a bit more to the light side, but is still above a light rank. The craft is designed greatly for speed and agility, so it has relatively low armor. While Lycaneth’s friend has done some personal work on it, making the armor quite strong for its weight (among other things), it still can not compete with a heavy mech in that regard, or even some mediums. Its greatest defense is its evasive capabilities, of which Lycaneth is known for. Its weapons are also generally of the medium variety, rarely handling explosives except on rare occasions. Like its pilot, it is often equipped with several weapons to handle nearly any situation. The mech in predominately black with bits of dark grey, and some have said that it resembles a wolf (or werewolf) in some regards, though Lycaneth has never commented on it.

Lt. Jones looked down on Aretha from the Dropship Promise of Liberty. The 1st MAT was a company of mechs, and he was a leader of Easy Platoon. Five platoons, five mechs to a platoon, twenty five mechs in total.

The Promise looked large, but the reality was that the quarters were very tight. The equipment needed to supply the 1st MAT takes up a lot of space, not to mention fitting in the two hundred and seventy people that made up the MAT. One hundred and fifty of these were marines, seventy five were support personnel for the mechs, an additional twenty made up the command staff. Of those though, only twenty five individuals were in charge of the mechs.

Lt. Jones was in charge of four of them, plus the twenty five men assigned to arm and maintain his mechs.

Lt. Jones was thinking of each and every one of them as he looked down on the planet. It was a cold planet, the surface was covered in ice. He thought quietly about the difficulties this would mean for his people.

"All mech personnel, please report to the mech hanger immediately," a voice said over the intercom.

The mech hanger took up a whole deck of the dropship. Inside were large crates that the mechs were kept in. These crates would eventually be "dropped" from orbit, landing (hopefully) on land without destroying any of the stuff inside. It was a rough way to land, but a fast one.

Some chairs had been set up in the aisle between these crates. Lt. Jones found a seat and waited for the rest of the people to come in.

Lyn adjusted her chair again...or attempted to. It was a harsh fact of life that pretty much everything on board was built for standard human height, six inches taller than she was. She'd had to specially order her uniform, for Ares' sake. Sometimes being short was a pain in the--
"Private Black?"
"Yes, sir?" Lyn turned to see a seargant approaching her. She snapped to attention and sat again when he gave her the order.
"I would like you to deliver this file to Lt. Jones in the Mech hanger. If he requires any assistance, it will be your highest priority to accommodate him."
"Yes, sir."
Lyn took the file and walked quickly off of the tiny command deck. Highest priority? Yeah, like the Sgt. couldn't walk his own butt up to the hanger and get it himself. She slammed her hand against a bulwark in the hall. Her rank and her career made her easy target for her lazy superiors. Did she look like a delivery girl?

The pilots filed in as the briefing. The sound of talking rose gradually.

"ATTENTION!" the adjutant yelled. The room went snapped to attention. Captain Harper made his way forward.

"Be seated."

"About 6 months ago, General Stolov staged a Coup d'etat on the Aretha. It is not clear how this happened, what we do know is that government forces are still fighting on. We're here to kick Stolov's out of power," Captain Harper paused before continuing.

"The 1st MAT has been given the job of securing a landing zone. Once we hit the dirt, it is our job to link up with resistance forces and begin attacking the enemy. Our reinforcements are due in a week. If we can hang on that long, then we can win this fight."

"To get on the ground, we'll be executing a standard drop at 0100 hours local time. Once the drop site is clear, we'll bring the Promise down and offload. That is all," the Captain said. The adjutant called attention again, before dismissing the pilots.

"Lt. Jones?" a voice said behind him. It was a private, Private Black.

"Yes?"

"I was ordered to deliver this to you and assist you as needed."

"What's your name Private?"

"Private Lyn Black, sir."

"Alright Lyn, follow me."

"Lt. Jones!"

"What is it Mel?"

"I need to know what load outs the mechs will have for the drop."

"When do you need to know?"

"It's only ten hours before the drop. It will take a couple of hours to install everything and run tests."

"Alright, I'll have it for you in ten minutes," Lt. Jones said. Lt. Jones then proceeded to sit and read the information. When he finished, he looked at Lyn.

"Have you ever been inside a mech before?"

"No sir, I was trained in languages, not mechs."

"This is going to change. What I have here is our mission orders. We've got pretty bad intelligence on what's going on down there. So what they're going to do is drop you with us. Once we hit the ground you'll be in charge of monitoring enemy communications. That's our mission," Lt. Jones said, putting the folder down.

"Mel, heavy rockets in the missile banks, lasers on the torso, and a gauss rifle on each arm. Also, can we fit a chair behind the pilot seat?"

"I'll try sir."

Lycaneth sat nearly motionless all through the briefing, then left striaght for his mech as soon as the captian was done. He had never liked the captain, having served under him before. Still, he was better than most, so Lycaneth simply stayed away.

Seeing how intelligence was scarse, he knew he'd likely be one of the first down, his primary objective to make sure the landing site was clear before the ship set down. Personally, he didn't expect much resistance, but things rarely went smoothly or acording to plan.

As he expected, Carlos was waiting near his mech.

"She ready to go?" Lycaneth asked.

"Ready as usual. Made sure everything was in prime condition. There's nothing new on here right now, but I'm working on a few things. Under the radar of course."

So like Carlos. Because of him, Lycaneth likely had some of the best equipment in the unit. But, even he knew that equipment only counted for so much. It was the pilot that truly mattered. He climbed into his cockpit to make a rundown of all the systems, then looked out the the mechs and the pilots here to inspect them. He had to admit, this was likely one of the better groups he had worked with. However, he didn't know a single man, and would not put his life in any of their hands. Time would tell who these men and women really were.

He sat there in his cockpit, examining both mechs and pilots, trying to decide where each would be suited best. though he was not in charge, people would listen when the time came. Most people were relieved to take orders when the going got tough. He had a while before he needed to be anywhere else, and so just watched as Carlos worked.

(By the way, which is higher? Lieutenant or Seargemt?)

Lyn packed her things quickly and efficiently before heading back down to the hanger. Her equipment, already packed, was being loaded onto one of the mechas. Putting her duffel with it, she headed back to the command deck.
"You're going planetside?" A girl near her asked, at a position like hers on the console.
"Lieutenant's orders."
"Lucky. I'm stuck up here with all the blowhards."
Lyn slid a control up two inches and watched the screen to make sure she hadn't missed anything. All the frequencies were silent, which made her nervous. She was never happier than when she was deciphering several lines of code at the same time. "Yeah, but I'm going down with the diehard mechas to get shot at."
The other girl shrugged. "So? It's still more interesting than monitoring silent space."
Lyn disagreed, but refrained from saying so. This private was going to take her job? Heaven help them all.

(A lieutenant is higher. that's an officer rank. I take Mil. Sci, so I know rankage if anyone needs help.)

Military Ranks

We're using Marine Corp ranks.

Thanks Phoenixfire. And thanks Griff, thats a helpful little resource.

The tension was high.

"How we doing on time?"

"About twenty minutes to zero hour," Hammer said. Lyn finally showed up.

"Private Lyn, you're late."

"Sorry sir."

"Nevermind that," Lt. Jones looked at the other pilots.

"This here is Private Lyn Black. She will be accompanying us on this drop. She is a linguistic expert, which makes her mission critical."

"What's her call sign?" Viper asked.

"Lynx. Any other questions?"

"Who's carrying her?" Viper said.

"I am. Anything else? Good. It's going to be rough down there. 'Harp' needs a better picture of what's going on down there, which is where we come in. We're going to drop on a comm facility, eliminate it's defenses, and wait for back up. Keep an eye on your sensors, your ear to your comm, and your hands on the controls. Do you get me?"

"Loud and clear."

"Then mount up. We have to get planetside, we have about ten minutes." The lights turned red.

"Double time marines!" The pilots scrambled for their mechs. Lt. Jones was no different.

"Lynx! Keep up!"

Jones went up the ladder quickly into his mech. A moment later, Lyn came up the ladder. Jones motioned to the back seat.

"In the back there should be a cooling vest. Put it on or you'll fry in here," Jones said.

"What's your callsign sir?"

"It's Marauder. Don't forget it either. No ranks over the comm system. You never know who's listening."

"Roger that."

With that, Jones put on his helmet.

It was like entering a different world. The neural helmet automatically transmitted various sensors into neural impulses. This made controlling a mech as easy as breathing.

<Comm check.>

<Reading you boss,> Hammer said.

<Marauder Lance, check in,> Jones said.

<Hammer here.>

<Viper present.>

<Lynx present.>

<Rogue here.>

<Hawk.>

<Promise, this is Marauder. We're ready for drop.>

<This is Liberty Control, Marauder. We're two minutes uprange.>

<Liberty Control, I'm picking up multiple contacts coming up from the planet. Looks like fighters.>

<How soon until they reach us?> Captain Harper asked.

<About, MISSILE LAUNCH!>

<Identify it!>

<Nukes, trajectory based. We're going to have to alter course sir. ETA is about a minute.>

<Are we going to abort?>

<Negative Marauder. We'll get you as close as we can. Control out.>

<Sounds like things are going great,> Hawk said.

The cover was attached to the boxes. Internal lighting came on. A yellow light flashed on.

<Thirty seconds to drop. Power up reactors. Prepare for drop,> Jones ordered as he performed the necessary tasks.

The reactor came up, the ship's power was disconnected. Just as this finished, the light turned green.

Zero hour.

The drop boxes floated free of the ship. Within thirty seconds, they entered Aretha's atmosphere.

The outer layers of the box split off, revealing fins. The box stablized as it continued downward. At a preset time, a rocket booster activated, slowing the decent. It continued until the box slammed into Aretha. The bottom of the box collapsed as designed, further slowing down the box. The hatch popped off and the Warthog came out. Around them, similar boxes came off.

Just as I thought, couldn't even keep track of fighters. They're likely fine, but we missed the landing zone. That's why I'm here. He checked his sensoers as soon as he emerged from the drop pod and saw nothing in the immediate vicinity.

<Techie, this is Rogue. You read me?>

<Loud and clear as always Rogue> Carlos responded. As far as Lycaneth knew, none of his superiors knew about this line. If anyone else did, they weren't saying anything. <And before you ask, I've got nothing on my sensors here.> Lycaneth though it was nice to have a copilot who wasn't even in the mech. Carlos had helped him big time more than once.

Without waiting for the Lieutenant's orders, Lycaneth activated his boosters as soon as he was clear and took off in the direction of the comm station. He figured his reputaion preceded him. If not, he'd get out off it like any other time, through performance.

<All right Techie, activate the usual.> The usual being radar jamming and comm pickups. He would have liked to have cloaking, but Carlos hadn't yet figured out a version that would work for a mech this size, or a mech period. He didn't head straight for the station, but would end up a fair distance to the right.

<You hear anything up there?> Lycaneth asked.

<Nothing. Either they're being awfully quiet or they've gotten sneakier.> Lycaneth didn't like either way.

It didn't take him long to find a good sniper position overlooking the compound. With the darkness of his mech, combined with the rocky hill, the night, and the radar jammer, he was all but invisible. There didn't seem to be much activity at the compound, but then again there probobly wouldn't be any outside at night.

<All right Techie, keep your ears and eyes open. It'll be a while before the others get here, and we'll need to report all we can.>

<Roger that.> And with a patience few realized he possesed, he settled down and waited, rifle primed and ready, to observe.

<Marauder Lance, check in.> Marauder said.

<Hawk here.>

<Hammer here.>

<Viper present.>

<Lynx here.>

There was a few seconds pause.

<Where's Rogue? Can anyone confirm that he touched down?> Marauder said.

"His pod landed over here. Looks like a clean deployment. The tracks go north.> Hawk said.

<What's north of here?> Marauder asked.

<Is it the Comm station?" Viper asked.

<Impossible, we jumped too early, that means were hundreds of miles off course,> Hammer said.

<There supposed to be an abandoned military installation towards the north. It's been abandoned for some time,> Lynx said.

<Alright then. Lynx, have we heard anything about the Promise?>

<Negative, the atmosphere has too much interference. Even short range transmissions are affected. As long as we stay in sight of one another, communications should work.>

<Any chance we can talk to Promise?>

<It's possible, but any windows of opportunity would be few and very short. Maybe an hour. We'd need more power for anything better.>

<Let's go then. Stay alert though, we don't know who's out there. Do not open fire, that's an order. Hawk, lead the way.>

The mechs moved forward.

There wasn't much around, but there was some activity. He scanned the area once more, and was beginning to get restless. "Techie, you see anything up there?" There was no response. "Techie, come in."

"Sorry, didn't catch that first part. Something srewing with the comms. I'm pretty sure it's all natural, so don't worry about it too much."

Lycaneth didn't share that sentiment. Communication was always important. "So, do you see anything?"

"Negetive. Looks pretty clear. Once the main force arrives, this should be a pretty easy cleanup."

It seemed too good to be true that it could be that easy, but he had had such missions before. Rarely. He switched his comm over to the main squad frequency. However, he couldn't get any workable reception. Well, at least not everything was going perfectly smoothly. Damn it he thought anyway. He hoped this wasn't causing any problem with the squad. That's what he hated about teams, having to worry about others. It was often hard enough to worry about oneself.

After some more time watching, he decided it was time for some scouting. Once he made a round or two around the perimiter, at increasing intervals, he would find the squad and report his findings. The Shadow Wolf rose with the graceful ease it was known for and soon was walking down the slope as quietly as a mech could. Which was quieter than most people outside the military thought. In good shape, a mech wasn't all that loud, only the footfalls making much noise, and even that had been improved over the years.
By the time he was done scouting, the team would likely be within strike range. For a moment, he was tempted to take the station himself, but not knowing what kind of defences it housed, he knew such an assault would be foolish. This mission would be over before too long, then the next would begin. He couldn't wait until he could get into his specialty: infiltrate, seek and destroy, being an unofficial covert ops soldier. In time he thought. In time.