------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[15.06] Military
*********
*Recruit*
*********
The sun has been relentless, and earlier in the day ____'s drill sergeant
forced the squad to run ten miles in the sweltering heat without any laces in
their standard issue swamp boots, because one of the recruits had been unable
to do up his laces in the amount of time mandated by the field manual. Now
____ has been asked to choose the proper method of discipline for a recruit
who has been caught sneaking donuts into his footlocker. ____ must decide
between placing the solider on kitchen duty, or restricting the solider's
rations to water and vitamin supplements.
"Kitchen Duty"
Glad for any relief from the heat, ____ enters the Drill Sergeant's quarters
and stands at attention, awaiting permission to speak. The Drill Sergeant
looks up from his desk and asks ____ if he's made the right decision. Knowing
there'd be no point to overthinking the matter, ____ stands his ground and
declares that the guilty recruit should be placed on Kitchen Duty until such
a time as he can take control of his hunger and his weight. The Drill Sergeant
pauses and informs ____ that he agrees with him, but that he thinks this
struggling recruit would also benefit from some "direct" management. ____ is
assigned to kitchen duty as well, and though it isn't the best time he's had,
he does manage to earn a Cooking skill point in the process.
"Rations"
As ____ is crossing behind the Shrapnel Resistance Training Facility, on his
way to see the Drill Sergeant, an announcement comes on over the loudspeakers.
"Mass rioting has broken out between SimCity and RedCity sports fans over
which team's hospitality services make a better hot dog ... and that the Mayor
of SimCity is currently reviewing a bill which would declare war upon the
Reds." Not wishing to be involved in any skirmish where he
could possibly ever
find himself beginning a story with "Well
kids, back at the beginning of the
Wiener Wars," _____ decides it's time to make his exit: he quickly goes AWOL.
The war begins, and although it only lasts for 7 hours, the toll on the
processed
meat industry is staggering. _____ is, of course, fired - but it
was worth it to avoid months of picking wieners out of his hair.
******************
*Drill Instructor*
******************
____'s been delivered a set of especially "green" recruits that are wetter
behind the ears than a big-eared donkey in a rainstorm. He's had them for two
days and most of them still can't lace up their boots. Half of them still
complain about having to iron their pants, and at least a third of them still
seem to be thinking for themselves. ____'s tried to teach them all the
cadences he learned while he was a recruit. He's tried putting them on ration
restrictions and kitchen duty, but the regular ways just don't seem to be
working, so it's take for phase 2. ____ can either force the recruits to
march in their underwear, or take away their rifles and make them carry
baguettes instead.
"Underwear"
____ musters the troops to attention and after a searing but well deserved
beration, the fatigue comes off for a few hours of parading around in the
rain. To ____'s dismay, this seems to delight the soldiers, who parade
around base as if wearing their best uniform. It seems that they view
____'s attempted discipline as a perfect outlet for their rebellious nature.
____ has a lot to learn about how to handle recruits. ____'s resulting loss
in respect and command over his charges causes him to lose 1 Charisma point.
"Baguettes"
****************
*Flight Officer*
****************
Growing weary of all the "Peacetime" restrictions - no dog-fighting with
commercial airliners, no buzzing private control towers, no launching laser
guided missiles into peaceful civilian protests - _____ and his fellow Flight
Officers decide to make a little fun for themselves. They hop in a couple of
fighter jets and head out to international waters, where the rules get a bit
more "fuzzy" when it comes to 'who blew up who first with a heat-seeking
computer aided anti-aircraft missile'. Within minutes, _____ spots a pair of
bogeys who are clearly far from home, maybe even as far as RedCity - but
wherever they're from, things are about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Should _____ engage the enemy, or attempt to establish radio contact and warn
the unindentified aircraft that they are trespassing in SimCity controlled air?
"Engage"
"Contact Base"
____ contacts the base and sets out for visual identification. Gleefully,
____ hits his afterburners and makes full use of his g-suit as he's hit by
7Gs of acceleration. It's not long before he sees his bogey. As ____ closes
in for a better look, he describes what he sees: "Base, looks like a cylinder
from here... I can't tell what sort of jet it is. Wait, I think it sees me,
it's moving. In fact....it's....incredible! It looks like it accelerated to
well over Mach 10...holy cow, it disappeared!" Hours later, ____ is welcomed
back to home base, where he's immediately debriefed and sworn to secrecy. The
SimCity Air Force quickly offloads all the recording hardware in his plane for
study. While he gets no information from his debriefers, _____ knows he's seen
something extremely unusual, and survived to tell the tale. _____ gains 1 Body
Skill point for his expert flying.
***********
*Astronaut*
***********
____ and his crew have been training to command the first remote probe to land
on the surface of Venus, but recent satellite images have revealed what may be
the final stages of a mobile launch platform in the heart of RedCity. This
could be bad for ____'s career; its appears as though RedCity may beat him in
the space race. But ____ has a secret weapon: It's a mission that would use
similar technology as the Venus lander, but will transform the module into a
submersible to explore the vast uncharted depths of the ocean floor. ____
could put the Venus mission on overdrive and attempt to land the module
prematurely, or ____ could scrap the mission and put "Operation Unknown Ocean"
into full effect.
"Explore Venus"
"Explore Ocean"
Venus is an extremely harsh environment. ____ knows that there is nothing he
can do to speed up the landing of the probe. If he wants praise for
discovering uncharted territories, he's going to have to look in Earth's own
oceans. Without any hesitation, ____ storms into the SimSpace board room and
purposes his aquatic plan. Expertly avoiding the question about how he funded
his side-project, ____ convinces everyone that his project is exactly what
they need. In a matter of minutes, activity bustles in ____'s office as
scientists cram into it to hear his briefing. Just a few day's later, word of
the expeditation "leaks" and antipication is high. With such exciting
explorations going on close to home, people forget about Venus and "ocean-
fever" grows. ____'s plan succeeds beyond expectations, and ____ is awarded
a §50,000 National Innovators Award for his project.
*********
*General*
*********
It's a quiet day in ____'s posh, oak-paneled office suite when his private
phone springs to life. Picking it up, ____ is mildly astonished to recognize
the President's voice on the other end of the phone line. Apparently, there is
credible evidence that a major satellite may be breaking orbit irregularly,
putting it at a crash risk with several highly populated areas. It's a serious
concern, and the President wants ____'s advice as a vertain of land, air and
space. Should they make an emergency shuttle launch to intercept the
satellite, or should they attempt to use their sophisticated missile system to
vaporise the falling satellite into harmless debris?
"Intercept"
____ doesn't know much about the satellite, but it sounds easy enough to send
up a spaceship and knock the satellite back into alignment. He informs the
President that they should send up a crew to correct the situation - but in a
fit of heroism or egoism, he insists on leading the crew personally into
space. Despite protest from some of his colleagues, ____ makes good on his
plans and launches into orbit with the rest of his crew. But ____ hasn't been
up in space in ages. He becomes disoriented during a spacewalk at the
satellite and accidently damages a reflector with his umbilicial cord. ____'s
crew has to bail him out since his cord has become damaged, and he spends the
rest of the mission onboard the spaceship, watching his team become heroes.
____ loses 2 Mechanical Points and 2 Charisma Points as a result of his
stubborn "heroics", and is demoted to Astronaut to work on his spacewalking
skills.
"Vaporize"
|
|
|