Stryker, MAP movements

This story is set in the future on the surface of Jupiter’s smallest Galilean moon: Europa. Humanity have progressed far enough technologically to achieve effective space travel. They have yet to venture outside of our solar system (Sol) due to the immense distances between us and the next nearest star, but they can travel around Sol fine.

Celestial bodies across the solar system, and what they are like:

• Sol (the sun): Governed entirely by the major corporation “Solaris”, the sun is entirely under their jurisdiction. Orbital satellites and stations use Sol’s energy for solar power, giving them a total monopoly over electrical energy.
• Mercury: Mercury’s metal rich surface is now dedicated solely to mining operations. This harvesting of metals has gone on for so long that the planet itself has had a notable decrease in size, Mercury is quite literally being eaten by humanity. The Mercurial north pole is dominated by a massive space elevator which leads up to the orbital station “Celestia”. Celestia is essentially just a big spaceport, countless ships docking every hour to export the raw material Mercury now produces.
• Venus: Venus is a hellscape. With surface temperatures of almost five-hundred degrees centigrade, an atmosphere full of sulphuric acid, and surface pressure that will kill a human. Venus hasn’t been colonised or industrialised, there’s basically nothing that can be done with it.
• Earth: Since all mining and industrial operations have been moved elsewhere in the solar system, Earth has been converted into an agricultural and residential planet. However, only the richest and most successful can afford to live on Earth, residing in mighty skyscrapers which overlook endless fields of crops. Earth is where almost all of the major corporations are based.
• Mars: Mars is quite varied, there are mining operations, manufacturing sectors, residential areas, and vast fields of solar panels. Skirmishes aren’t uncommon, insurgents, terrorists, minor corporations, and the struggling law enforcement frequently clash across the red deserts of Mars. Immense radiation is almost as much of a threat as taking a bullet in the head.
• Jupiter: Given its composition of helium and hydrogen, there are several gas extraction plants which float in Jupiter’s atmosphere. There are several space stations up in orbit, most are there to refine and export the gas from Jupiter, a small amount are public spaceports for refuelling and such, and quite a few act as bases for law enforcement and the military forces of major corporations.
• Europa: Europa is the focus of this story since it is set there. With its surface of rock and water-ice, and its atmosphere of almost entirely oxygen, Europa is liveable. It has ice-mining operations and urban sectors, as well as barren uncolonised areas. Similar to Mars and many other moons, Europa is home to constant fighting. In fact, it’s gotten so out of control that there are now militarised enforcement space stations up in orbit, though nobody dares fire on the planet’s surface lest they provoke some kind of manic warlord with access to ground-to-orbit missiles. Be it urban fighting in residential areas, massive vehicular battles across barren fields of rocky ice, or the trench warfare that spans several areas, there is constantly fighting across Europa. The landscape is to be portrayed as rocky and quite flat, with occasional ice spikes protruding from the ground (no more than fifteen metres tall), and only small craters (not from the occasional comet bombardment that Europa suffers, mostly from warfare).
• Saturn: Saturn is very similar to Jupiter in many ways. It too has refineries within its hydrogen atmosphere, and it too has stations in orbit for processing and exporting the gas. Though, there are much fewer militarised stations and almost no public ones. Instead, there’s ice mining operations in Saturn’s rings, based around the huge orbital station “Index”.
• Uranus and Neptune: Both of these planets are on the outer reaches of what humanity can effectively reach, getting to Uranus or even Neptune isn’t necessarily undoable or even that hard, but the fuel requirements just make it impractical. This means that Uranus and Neptune haven’t been industrialised by the major corporations and no government or law enforcement wants to be lumbered with ownership of either of them, this is a lawless frontier where anything goes and nobody will ever know. Things like pirates and PMCs are usually based here.
• Other asteroids and moons: Asteroids are free rein, anybody can mine them, anybody can set up shop on them. The various moons across the solar system are more watched by law enforcement, but are very chaotic and often prone to fighting like Mars is, Europa and Luna (Earth’s moon) are especially bad on that front.

Military technology has progressed, vehicles especially. Weaponry has evolved, and is now a mixture of modern-day cannons, firearms, rockets, and missiles, with the addition of more futuristic weapons like rail guns, barb weaponry (guns which fire metal “barbs” that are used as anti-infantry weapons, occasionally tipped with something), thermal blades (melee weapons which have searing heat, capable of melting through lighter armour), EMPs, and various new types of explosive payloads. Cybernetics are frequently used in the military: those who will be driving armoured vehicles, flying aircraft, operating exoskeletons, or piloting armoured combat suits (“ACS” for short) have spinal implants so that they can have their vehicle link directly to their nervous system; special forces soldiers practically always have cybernetics limbs, ranging from an arm, to both legs, to all four limbs, or any combination in between; ALL soldiers have some kind of brain augment, typically implanted in the base of the skull where it connects to the brainstem, allowing phantom sensory input to be sent to the brain (this allows things like overlaying a HUD onto their vision, making them hear your voice in their head rather than needing a comms unit, or giving exoskeleton/ACS pilots the ability to feel the tactile sensations that their suit feels as if it’s an extension of their body). Trains are incredibly commonplace (on Europa especially, there are tracks streaming across the rocky surface), used for transporting cargo, personnel, and there are even some dedicated artillery trains which use the firepower themselves. Ground vehicles and aircraft have progressed massively, many unrecognisable from modern-day ones. Robots are commonplace (sometimes in industrial roles as well as military ones) and come in various shapes and sizes. Robots are not to speak in the roleplay, they are incapable of doing so, only base mechanical-sounding vocalisations which can be used as a “yes” to affirm they understand a command that has been given to them, etc.

Types of vehicle that are frequently used in warfare:

• Armoured Combat Suit (ACS for short): These are full body suits which stand at around nine feet tall. They have bulky, angular armour all over which covers up the wearer completely (the pilot enters through the back which can open up). They have two weapon hard-points (one on either shoulder) and are capable of holding weapons: there are specifically-made ACS weapons, these vary from assault rifles, to shotguns, to barb guns, to one-handed firearms, to rocket launchers, and even more.
• Combat Exoskeleton: They stand at around seven to eight feet tall, with four hard-points (one on the back of each shoulder, one on the outer forearm of each arm) to mount various weapons systems on, making them very configurable and versatile. Exoskeletons do not cover up the wearer’s body, the pilot will be on full display, so exoskeletons are strength enhancers and weapon mounts, not armour.
• Mobile Artillery Platform (MAP for short): MAPs are quite varied given how many models are in production and circulation. Generally though, they are large four or six legged armoured walkers (meaning they have four or six mechanical legs rather than treads or wheels) which are between 15 and 25 feet tall, with a large array of long-range weaponry. This can vary from banks of rocket tubes, to siege mortars, to missile pods, to cannons, the list goes on.
• Armoured Assault Vehicle (AAV for short): These are versatile terrestrial vehicles with treads, and a turret on top which can mount a variety of weapons from automatic barb guns, to missile pods, to rail guns. They’re used for troop transport and troop support. Some can be mounted with things like dozer blades and other tools for helping in more specialised situations.
• Heavy Combat Vehicle (HCV for short): HCVs vary, generally they have treads which are split into a rear and fore section. These treads can shift to effectively change the vehicle between a mobility and siege mode, mobility makes for tighter turns and higher top speed, siege makes the entire vehicle much harder to flip over with big impacts and much more able to deal with the recoil of huge weapons. Their turret usually has one heavy weapon (like a heavy-duty cannon or rail gun) with two coaxial weapons (like machine guns, barb guns, or missile pods).
• V-TOLs: There are countless hundreds of model of V-TOL aircraft, the most common thing to see flying around since higher-speed things like jets just aren’t viable in most atmospheres. V-TOLS come in all shapes and sizes, from colossal transports which are over a hundred feet long (and often capable of carrying an MAP, AAV, HCV, or similar), to more manageable forty-five or so foot gunships which are packing serious firepower slung under their wings, to absurdly large flying fortresses (often approaching a hundred and fifty feet) which are bristling with guns pointing in every conceivable direction, to much smaller recon ones which are capable of transporting a small squad or two while remaining undetected by anti-air batteries on the ground, and so many more.

Categories of combat robot that are used frequently in warfare:

• Ares Unit: These are humanoid robots with angular designs, generally around eight feet tall. They carry various types of weapon, often light machine guns, rail guns, or barb guns. Their faces do not look human whatsoever, just a single lens or a small group of them, no mouth, nose, ears, or anything like that. Ares units are typically linked to one another to form “grids” for tighter coordination, if it’s just one or two Ares in amongst a squad of human soldiers then they tend to link to the squad commander so that orders can be distributed to them much faster.
• Artemis Unit: These are drones, usually a couple feet in diameter. They typically have surveillance or tracking equipment on the underside, but can be rigged to carry a small-calibre machine gun or barb gun (this isn’t very common). Artemis drones can be linked to a person’s brain augment to allow them to see the drone’s data live.
• Cerberus Unit: These are four-legged bots which stand about three and a half feet off the ground. They have a mount on their back which can have active defence systems, surveillance and recon gear, or weapon systems. Cerberus units are exclusively one-on-one, they don’t come in groups and they link to an individual to work with them specifically.

The current situation where this story begins is as follows: Stryker is the CO (Commanding Officer) of the Strikethrough second artillery group whom are currently advancing towards the ruined city of New Vanswin. There second artillery group consists of: four MAPs, nine exoskeletons (basically all of which are outfitted with long-range artillery weapons), seventeen infantry units (this includes some Ares units), three Cerberus units, and an ambiguous number of Artemis units. The artillery group is not supposed to be doing close-range fighting, the infantry are only there to guard and maintain the MAPs while they get to their firing position (wherever that may be), the MAPs and artillery exoskeletons are the important part.

• Stryker pressed the barrel against his head. “Lights out, love.” She pulled the trigger.
• “Bloody hell! Yer a lucky sod, ain’tcha?” She clapped him on the back with more force than necessary.
• “Righty-ho, I’ve got a lot of questions but don’t really care about any of the answers. Now get your pretty ass on that train!” The encouragement sounded false, no matter how hard Stryker tried to come across sincere.