>>5734517

Another attack in early ‘84, which struck the American midwest verified the conclusion, and gave the countries of the world another chance to track the attack. And when the next attack targeted European Russia and the rest of the Warsaw Pact, both sides were able to extrapolate the launch point to somewhere on the far side of the moon. By this point, both east and west agreed that whoever was launching these objects was a more pressing threat than each other, and agreed to cooperate with each other to find out just what was going on.

By the time a probe reached the far side of the moon in late 1985, over a dozen attacks had taken place, and the rate of attacks was increasing from one every six to eight months, up to one every couple of months. Thousands of people had been killed across the globe, and millions of dollars worth of damage had been inflicted. It took another few months, into early 1986, before the search was successful, and the ‘Friendship-1’ probe successfully spotted the muzzle-flash of a massive gun on the Lunar surface.

As ‘Friendship-2’ was launched, and sent to investigate the firing position, the question of what it would find entered people’s minds. Broadcasters ran programs examining the publicly released evidence, and theorized on just who was behind this multi-year program of random orbital attacks. Theories ranged from secret government black programs to aliens, but somehow the strangest theory was proven correct when ‘Friendship-2’ transmitted back images of a base in a crater, with a series of small domed structures, a long gun-like structure, and a large structure arranged like a familiar bent cross.

A swastika.

Somehow, the Nazis had escaped, somehow they had made it to space, and somehow they had established a base on the moon. Everyone thought that the Nazis had been wiped out after the second world war. Nobody could figure out just how the hell they managed it, given the extremely dire conditions of late-war Nazi Germany. How could a country that had failed to maintain air superiority over their homeland manage to launch a successful colonization program to earth’s moon? After so long, nobody really cared to give the question too much thought. Instead, the world moved on to figuring out just how to stop them.

Nuclear strikes were proposed, and promptly rejected by both sides. NASA was concerned that any nuclear strike could launch radioactive regolith back at Earth, and anything else that was thrown up could cause issues for orbital missions for decades to come. Meanwhile the Soviets were concerned that the difficulty of such a long range strike would increase the likelihood of a nuclear device missing.

Eventually, it was decided that the best option would be to create a multinational military force to go to the moon, and take the fight to the Nazis directly.

>Cont

>>5734519

And now, three years later, you are a part of that mission.your mission to go there and finish the job that started almost 50 years ago.

======

“Space, the final frontline.”

“These are the voyages of the shuttle, ‘enterprise’. Her five day mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out nazi life and civilization; to boldly kick ass where no ass has-”

“Hey!” Your co-pilot catches you before you can finish the quote, and knocks the rest of the sentence out of immediate thoughts with a light jab to the shoulder. “You stop that, it got old the third time.”

“You’re no fun.” You state the obvious as you make a show of rubbing your shoulder. It’s a bit difficult to move around in the cramped confines of the shuttle’s refitted personnel bay, but you manage what you feel is a convincing show of things. “Besides, what else is there to do? There aren’t any windows to look out of.”

“I don’t know. Maybe go through the mission brief again?” Your co-pilot grunts, before gesturing to the trio of manila binders tucked into the seat pocket in front of you. It’s not actually manila, instead some synthetic material of the same color in order to eliminate a source of micro debris, which could get into machinery and cause short-circuits. For one or two folders it probably wouldn’t have been an issue, but with the other 47 passengers on the shuttle having at least three of the damn things it all added up.

Each of the folders features two flags at the top. The white wreathed globe on blue background of the UN, and the flag of your homeland.

You are:
>American
>Soviet
>German
>Other (write-in)

>>5734520
>American
TWO. WORLD. WARS.

>>5734520
>Polish
Americans are overdone. Poland can into space!

>>5734520
>Soviet

>>5734520
>Soviet

>>5734520
>Soviet
The one thing the Soviets did well was beating the Germans after all

>>5734520
>Write-In: Canadian

>>5734520
>Israeli
Only we are allowed space lasers, shut it down

>>5734520
>Soviet
This is fucking sick OP. Color me interested.

>>5734520
Actually, fuck it, I'm changing my vote to
>Japanese
We brought our fucking katana to the moon boys. 1000s of years of martial history versus 50 years of hyper advanced sci-fi bullshit, finally come to clash.

File: ussr flag.png (3 KB, 800x400)

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The red banner of the Soviet Union stands in stark contrast to the UN flag next to it, if only from their opposing color schemes and level of detail. A small part of you smiles at it, if your father was to be believed there was a time where they had stood opposite each other in more than one way. Underneath the flags is the name of the mission, “Operation Moonshot”, and the mission’s emblem. The emblem depicted a sword pinning a broken Swastika to the surface of the moon, a visual metaphor for how you and around 200 other people were headed to the moon to put an old enemy to the sword.

You are Senior Lieutenant Aleksei Volkov, of the Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Your parents fought in the great war against the fascists. At least two of your uncles had died in the defense of the motherland.

And for this monumental mission to defeat this final holdout of the oldest enemy of the union, you have been sent on an American shuttle.

You are less than happy about that last point. You don’t doubt the Amricans on their ability to design these types of craft, the fact that they managed to get a half dozen of these reusable spacecraft into service is an achievement that your homeland acknowledges as an impressive feat. No, your gripe is that you were assigned to a vessel that had been refitted into a space worthy craft, rather than being built from the ground up for the job. Enterprise had been an aerodynamic test vehicle, and while it had been built with the intention to make it space worthy once atmospheric testing had been completed, the Americans had later changed their minds and decommissioned the craft. They then decided to recommission the craft and upgrade it for orbital flights after the loss of the Challenger vessel, as they figured that it would be more expedient to make the existing Enterprise space-capable rather than building a new vessel from scratch.

While the fact that you were somewhere above the moon right now proved that the Americans had been correct in that assessment, it still stung that you had been denied a seat aboard Buran. You knew at least five people aboard that vessel that were less deserving of their seats than you!

Shaking your head to clear the distracting thoughts from your mind, you pull the three files from their pocket, and think on what you will go over again. Of course, over the past three days in space and few weeks back on earth, you’ve gone over all of them multiple times. But you might as well do it one last time, if only to stop your co-pilot from getting annoyed at you.

>Cont

>>5734587

>Read the operational plans, you might as well go over the plan and what you’re working with.
>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.
>Read the intelligence report, you need to clearly understand just what you’re facing out there.
>Put the folders back and annoy your co-pilot some more, he needs to learn to relax.
>Put the folders back and go to sleep, you won’t get a change on the ground.

>>5734589
>Read the intelligence report, you need to clearly understand just what you’re facing out there.
conclusion: there's lots of nazis

>>5734589
>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.

>>5734589
>Read the intelligence report, you need to clearly understand just what you’re facing out there.
We're soviets, of course we're reading the intelligence report.

>>5734589
>>read the vehicle data.
I wanna see what we can do. Any roggets?

>>5734589
>Read the vehicle data sheet
We are better not going to the moon on a regular ol shuttle, or my nerd sensitivities will be seriously hurt.

>>5734589
>Read the intelligence report, you need to clearly understand just what you’re facing out there.

>>5734666
+1
If the QM allows it, any fellow soviets/other commies we can talk to about the intelligence rapport?

>>5734589
>>Read the intelligence report, you need to clearly understand just what you’re facing out there.

>>5734589

>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.

This seems wise

File: Ganswindt_crater.jpg (369 KB, 1260x1260)

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From among the three folders, you pick out the thinnest one, the intelligence document. Around fifteen sheets of paper which contained various pictures, notes, and analysis of the target location by both the American CIA and the Committee for State Security, otherwise known as the KGB.

The Nazi base is located in a crater inside the larger Ganswindt crater, which is located near the south lunar pole on the far side of the Moon, and is attached to the even larger Schrödinger crater. The site was first observed by the American Lunar Orbiter 4 satellite, but due to the severity of shadows and poor image quality, the site was not observed and remained undetected. The rim of the crater is roughly circular but somewhat irregular, like the larger Ganswindt crater. Because sunlight enters the interior at a low angle, it is difficult to observe the terrain, but what can be observed in areas illuminated by the Nazi base indicate that the terrain is mostly flat. A note from NASA indicates that the location could have been a good source for ice exploration, as longer shadows in the crater would allow the ice to remain hidden from the sun. From there, the ice could be melted for water, and broken down into oxygen via electrolysis to get breathable air. None the less, all forces for this operation have been equipped with night-vision equipment where possible, and high-intensity flares where not possible.

According to information obtained by orbital satellites, including ‘Friendship-2’ and follow-on ELINT and photographic reconnaissance satellites, the Nazi base was relatively small, but rather complex. It could be broken down into three main points of interest, the main “hub” building, the space gun, and some outlying structures. Regardless of which one you look at, the brief details how all of them appear to have been made in-situ, using materials mined on the moon itself. Which is rather concerning, as it means that the Nazis were able to set up a functional industry on the moon while the Union and the USA were busy fighting each other to LEO.

>Read up on the main hub, what is it shaped like a swastika?
>Read up on the space gun, how big is it?
>Read up on the outlying structures, why did they make those rather than just the main hub?

Also:

>Ask your co-pilot for their input, maybe they saw something you didn't.
>Let your co-pilot rest, you need them in top form for the mission.

>>5735395
>Read up on the outlying structures, why did they make those rather than just the main hub?
Ways in? Vital facilities? Defences?

>Let your co-pilot rest, you need them in top form for the mission.
Don't distract them

>>5735395
>Read up on the main hub, what is it shaped like a swastika?
I'm starting to get vibes that this is not actual german nazis that escaped from ww2 somehow, but some advanced alien bullshit that ended up with an obsession of some kind with nazism. Perhaps the mostly little destructive impact of their attacks was a deliberate attempt to get the about to destroy itself world to unite against an easily understood and hateable enemy, rather than let the young civilization destroy itself over stupid shit.

Really excited to see if any of this is on base at all or just pure overthinking it.

>>5735395
>Read up on the main hub, what is it shaped like a swastika?
>Let your co-pilot rest, you need them in top form for the mission.

>>5735395
>Read up on the space gun, how big is it?
>Let your co-pilot rest, you need them in top form for the mission.

>>5735395
>Read up on the main hub, what is it shaped like a swastika?
>Let your co-pilot rest, you need them in top form for the mission

>>5735395
>Read up on the outlying structures, why did they make those rather than just the main hub?

>Let your co-pilot rest, you need them in top form for the mission.

File: nazi moon base hub.jpg (272 KB, 750x563)

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Flicking a glance over to your co-pilot, you quickly note that they’ve fallen asleep in their seat. You briefly consider gently shaking them awake to get their input on the intelligence, but you decide to let them sleep. If you learned one thing in Afghanistan, it’s to always sleep whenever you can before an operation. That way, you are rested for any situation to come.

Flicking through the documents, you find the portion on the primary target for the mission. The main “hub” of the base was a large swastika-shaped building, which was positioned in the center of the crater in a manner which would be reminiscent of the Nazi flag. Why the fascists thought that such a design was a good idea was completely beyond you. It was probably an ideological thing, even if the file included a lot of points about how the design of the building could lend itself to certain applications.

The main hub was an absolutely massive building, taking up an area around 1 million square feet in size, based on orbital measurements. Though the actual amount of that space which the building actually occupied was much lower, owing to the unoccupied space between the “arms” of the building. The building was estimated to be around 10 to twenty floors tall, and was divided up into six main sections. Those being the center of the building, the four arms of the swastika, and a large paved road that led up to the southern “arm” of the building.

The center of the building was a large hexagonal block with a large dome at the top. The CIA and the KGB disagreed on the dome’s purpose, but chalked it up to either an electronically transparent dome for a radar system or some form of command and control bunker respectively. Either way, the dome was calculated to be around 90 feet wide and around forty feet tall. The main building itself was the same height as the rest of the structure, but was assumed to mainly serve as either accommodation or office spaces. Access to the dome would have to be done by either entering the building, or by scaling the building using manned maneuvering packs. The only vehicles that would be able to get up there would probably be moon hoppers, as they were tactically synonymous with helicopters. Access into the main building would probably have to be done on foot, though a distinct lack of any obvious doors would force any teams to enter via the “arms”.

Speaking of which, the arms of the building were the next enigma. The arms presented the vast majority of the floor space for the structure, but how said space was actually used was completely unknown. It was assumed that each arm was separated into at least two sections, one being the main body of the arm and the other being the right-facing section of each arm.

>Cont

>>5735515

The northern and eastern arms were completely unknown, as the shadows cast by the crater’s rim completely obscured them from orbital satellites. One particular point on the western-most arm has been observed to have what looks like some sort of hatch installed in the roof, leading to suspicion that the section of the building is a massive launch and assembly building for rockets. Finally, the south arm was completely unknown, but was assumed to be some sort of arrival and departure terminal for vehicles and personnel entering the structure from the surface.

Which led into the final part, the massive road to nowhere. You’re not sure why the nazi’s bothered with it, though the fact that it seems to be painted in some light-coloured material to make it distinct from the rest of the grey lunar surface is probably of some note. Either way, the Nazis put time and effort into it for a reason, so the CIA and KGB assume that it has some value, either as a path for approaching vehicles or for symbolic reasons.

Past that, the only other bits of note are the notes from NASA that suggest that the building may have very thick walls as a form of natural defense against solar radiation. They estimate walls around six to ten feet thick, which would also make the structure very survivable against direct attacks. Blowing your way in probably isn’t an option.

But aside from all that? There have been no major changes since the last time you read the folder.

>Read up on the space gun, how big is it?
>Read up on the outlying structures, why did they make those rather than just the main hub?
>Read the operational plans, you might as well go over the plan and what you’re working with.
>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.
>Put the folders back and go to sleep, you won’t get a chance on the ground.
>Other (write in)

>>5735518
>Put the folders back and go to sleep, you won’t get a chance on the ground.
From what I can tell our info is just too lacking at this point to really glean much from the documents, so the best idea is actually to rest up and prepare physically imo.

>>5735518
>Other (write in)
>Skim the documents for any notes by German scientists recruited by either the Americas or the Soviets after WW2.
There could be a slim chance that any former nazi scientists provided work or research which contributed or could have been repurposed to serve for the foundation of this base. They could perhaps make some good guesses about uncertainties which our intel couldn't figure out from observation.

>>5735518

>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.

I Still think we should brush up on our ship

>>5735518
>Read up on the space gun, how big is it?

>>5735518
>>Read up on the space gun, how big is it?
I think that as long as we disable the main gun we can buy us time to prepare more vehicles and technology. Plus this is the first mission... I really really think that the main gun is a good start even if it goes FUBAR

File: moon mass driver.jpg (543 KB, 1023x675)

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After reading up on the available information on the first objective, you give the clock at the front of the shuttle’s passenger bay. The countdown reads around an hour and a half until the final landing burn, so you decide to spend some time reading up on the other primary objective for the mission, and the thing that brought all of you up here in the first place. The moon gun.

The moon gun was the next point of interest, and was one of the fist targets to damage or destroy. And it was a truly massive weapon, at over 200 meters long as-observed, and probably more if it expanded underground. Estimates on the weapon’s muzzle diameter varied, but both sides agreed that it was probably around the 400-800mm mark, so roughly between the size of either the main gun of an Iowa class battleship, or the Schwere Gustav cannon. This estimate was based on extrapolating the diameter of the weapon’s projectiles from parts that had survived reentry. Speaking of which, the rounds fired by the weapon were definitely some sort of canister-shot, containing a series of iron rods which were scattered as the round entered earth’s atmosphere. And as over a dozen individual rounds had been detected in each “salvo” fired at the earth, the weapon had the ability to rapidly fire.

Either way, the gun was definitely powerful enough to launch munitions against earth. The weapon’s elevation allowed the rounds to exit the moon’s orbit with enough energy that they would travel to earth relatively quickly, but not so fast that they undertook a complete orbit of the planet. There was some speculation that the rounds were guided in some way, based on the fact that some modern artillery shells could be made with technology that would have been available immediately post-war. However, the exact type of guidance system was unknown.

Both the CIA and the KGB agreed that it was probably a hydrogen-fueled weapon, as hydrogen was a byproduct of electrolysis, and something that the Nazis would obtain during the course of producing oxygen for them to breathe. But neither side agreed on the overall design and length of the weapon. The CIA believed that it was a conventional single-chamber design, as they assumed that the weapon was entirely uncovered for ease of maintenance and barrel servicing. Meanwhile the KGB believed that it was a multi-stage gun of indeterminate length, based on the design of the V-3 gun.

Either way, one of the easiest ways to damage the weapon would have been to destroy it’s support, and then allow the moon’s gravity to warp it out of shape. However, the most recent orbital reconnaissance data shows that the gun is mounted directly on the lunar surface, which leaves directly destroying the weapon’s barrel and whatever systems are used to charge is as the only ways to destroy it.

>Cont

>>5735692

>Read up on the outlying structures, why did they make those rather than just the main hub?
>Read the operational plans, you might as well go over the plan and what you’re working with.
>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.
>Put the folders back and go to sleep, you won’t get a chance on the ground.
>Other (write in)

>>5735693
>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.

>>5735693
>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless

>>5735693
>Put the folders back and go to sleep, you won’t get a chance on the ground.

>>5735693
>>Read the vehicle data sheet, if you are not up to speed on your vehicle, then you’ll be as good as useless.

>>5735693
>Read up on the outlying structures, why did they make those rather than just the main hub?

>>5735693
>>Put the folders back and go to sleep, you won’t get a chance on the ground

File: moon tanks, if only it wa(...).jpg (65 KB, 620x348)

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For a second, you think about trying to have a quick nap before the final slow-down burn. But eventually you decide that there’s no real point in trying. It was annoying enough to try and fall asleep while sat upright, and even if you succeeded, you’d probably only get a few minutes worth of rest. As such, you opened up the folder on vehicle specifications, and started looking for the information on your mount.

As only around a company’s worth of personnel was available for the mission, owing to the sheer difficulty of keeping around two hundred people alive on the journey to the moon and back, the majority of the force’s firepower and mobility is tied up in vehicle-mounted equipment.
This equipment was launched separately on more conventional rockets, and was landed just before you arrived. In fact, you’re being sent in with more equipment than you have personnel to man them, as it was assumed that at least some of it would be either destroyed or damaged during transit and landing, so they sent extra just to avoid the prospect of the mission failing due to a lack of equipment. And the fact that some equipment was actually lost due to launch errors completely justified the decision, even if it caused the cost of this operation massively to increase.

In spite of that, all of you were trained to fight on-foot, and are expected to do so if your vehicle was lost and could not be replaced. You hope it doesn’t come to that for obvious reasons.

Most of the vehicles assigned to the mission were ground vehicles of some description, generally split between walkers or rovers of some description. The rovers were an obvious choice, as the Americans already had experience in designing moon rovers, and their wheels made them lighter and easier to deploy. But as the terrain within the crater couldn’t be observed by reconnaissance satellites, the decision was made to only use the rovers for transport duties. The majority of the scouting and fire support missions would be undertaken by mechanized walkers and ‘moon hoppers’. The walkers avoided the issue of rough terrain by walking over obstacles and debris, while the ‘hoppers’ simply flew over them.

The walkers came in two distinct types, though they retained some common features, such as being manned by two people, and featuring low-recoil weapons wherever possible. The first was a relatively small, two-person vehicle for scout and infantry support missions. Meanwhile, the second type was a larger fire-support unit with a heavy cannon and heavy machine guns. The rovers were effectively the force’s APC equivalents, and were armed as such, though unlike the other vehicles they each came with a four-man infantry section that the vehicle commander would be expected to command.

>Cont

>>5736150

Finally, the last few vehicles in the force was a compliment of ‘moon hoppers.’ You thought the name was a bit mild, but it perfectly described what the vehicles were. Essentially, the ‘hoppers’ were a sort of hybrid between a moon lander and an attack helicopter. They couldn’t really fly like a true attack helicopter, owing to the fact that there wasn’t any atmosphere to fly in. But that still didn’t really diminish the fact that the hoppers served as the force’s fastest and most responsive assets, even if you also had to deal with the almost complete lack of armor.

And in among them, your vehicle was…

>A scout walker. You were to provide up-close support for the troops as they went in.
>A heavy walker. Your job was to give fire support to the men on the ground.
>A combat rover. It’s basically a space BMP afterall, and you have some experience in that.
>A moon hopper. You were a gunship pilot back on earth.

>>5736151
>A combat rover. It’s basically a space BMP afterall, and you have some experience in that.

>>5736151
>A combat rover. It’s basically a space BMP afterall, and you have some experience in that.
Better to stick with tech we are familiar with

>>5736151
>A combat rover. It’s basically a space BMP after all, and you have some experience in that.
No need to launch the turret to the moon when it's already here

>>5736151

>A combat rover. It’s basically a space BMP afterall, and you have some experience in that.

GTA: Apollo 1488

>>5736151
>A scout walker. You were to provide up-close support for the troops as they went in.

File: T114 BAT.jpg (19 KB, 352x214)

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Your vehicle was a Lunar Combat Vehicle, or LCV. An American-designed vehicle, it filled in a similar role to the BMD that you were used to from your time in Afghanistan, even though it appeared similar to a wheeled version of the American Bradley IFV.

The vehicle was essentially an unpressurised titanium box. It clocked in at 7 meters long, 3 meters wide, and another 3 meters tall. The hull was made out of titanium provided by the USSR, and supplemented with boron carbide inserts to provide the best level of armor protection possible across the front and side faces. But even then, the reports indicated that it could only guarantee protection against rifle-caliber rounds. Anything higher and the armor would rapidly degrade, with light autocannons probably being too much for the armor to stop at all. Of course, the frontally-mounted engine and transmission system also served as extra armor of a sort, but if anything penetrated through to that, then you had bigger problems.

As such, your best protection against enemy weapons was with your own turreted weapons. This was where the USSR made it’s contribution to the vehicle, and was the part that was most similar to your old BMD, as the single-man turret was almost the exact same as the BMD-1’s turret, though with the exception that the conventional 2a23 ‘Grom’ had been swapped for auto-loading 73mm recoilless gun based off the SPG-9. Compared to ‘Grom’, the new gun was a lot lighter, automatically canceled out the majority of its own recoil, and had an autoloader that actually worked. Unfortunately, the fact that it was a recoilless weapon meant that the main gun was offset to the side of the turret. As such, the whole vehicle looked unbalanced, even though it looked like some failed American BAT tank. Either way, the mounting made it easier to actually use the turret while in your suit, but when the time came to reload the damn thing, you would be in for a major struggle. Past that, you also had a PKT machine gun, which had it's recoil compensated for via a small rocket motor on the back of the turret.

Speaking of suits, everyone in the vehicle would have to wear their own full-size space suits. The designers had made the vehicle completely unpressurised in order to simplify and lighten the design, but in return it would make operating it fairly difficult. At the very least, the designers had included suit interface ports into the vehicle’s seats, so that the crew and passengers could replenish their air and electricity from the vehicle’s own supplies.

>Cont

>>5736211

And that brought you on to the most important part of your vehicle. It’s cargo of combat-trained troops.

The fireteam carried in the back was the whole point behind the design and construction bringing these vehicles. Unfortunately, due to the size of the vehicle, the squad was only 4 men strong, due to the fact that they were all required to wear bulky combat space suits. If the team dismounted, you could either lead them on foot, or give command up to your second in command.

You would have thought that the entire force would have standardized their equipment to make logistics less of a pain, but it seemed that every nationality brought their own equipment. And your section was no exception to that rule.

>Only the best Spetsnaz has to offer! The state wouldn’t just send people up for loyalty alone, right?
>American Rangers! You’re filling in for their original commander. They seem about as enthusiastic about it as you do.
>Warsaw Pact Volunteers! What they may lack in quality, they make up for in loyalty and drive. They remember what the Reich did to them.
>NATO Specialists! You are more suspicious of this lot, but they are very technically-minded people.
>Other (write in a team of 4 people, including nationalities and other important stuff)

>>5736212
>Warsaw Pact Volunteers! What they may lack in quality, they make up for in loyalty and drive. They remember what the Reich did to them.
Let's get the whole commie gang together! I want to hear lots of Slav accents on the comms, people.

>>5736212

>Warsaw Pact Volunteers! What they may lack in quality, they make up for in loyalty and drive. They remember what the Reich did to them.

I’m hoping for lots of Eastern bloc shenanigans here

>>5736212
>Warsaw Pact Volunteers! What they may lack in quality, they make up for in loyalty and drive. They remember what the Reich did to them.

File: warsaw pact get together.jpg (81 KB, 940x529)

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Your squad was made up of volunteers from some of the Warsaw Pact nations. You had two men from Poland, an East German, and a Romanian. Another squad had volunteers from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Albania. Each of them had volunteered for the mission, and had passed the same grueling training as you had. But even then, there was a reason why all of you had been bundled onto an American shuttle, rather than Buran.

For the poles it was easy to figure out. While they were certainly capable and reliable soldiers, Kacper Tomczyk and Feliks Kalisz were nowhere close to the die-hard communists that you’d find in the spetsnaz. If it wasn’t for that, they probably would have been on Buran. They certainly struck the figure of the strong, professional soldier. And you didn’t doubt their skills. Kacper was a paratrooper, and Feliks was an armored cavalryman. Both of them would be very helpful in the fighting to come, and that was before you factored in their interest in heavy weapons. They were loyal to the fight against Facism, you didn’t doubt that, but loyalty to Poland was very different to loyalty to Moscow.

Still, you trusted the Poles more than you trusted your local German, Lio Höffner. Lio was, at least on paper, the most reliable member of the team. His service record was immaculate, and he had been a member of the German communist party since his 16th birthday. Hell, he’d been approved for the mission by the Stasi, and they were the only real equivalent to the KGB within the entire warsaw pact. Had this mission been an armored push across the Fulda Gap, you probably would have welcomed him to your side as if he was your brother. But even though the Nazis had been long since demonized by the DDR, part of you wondered if his loyalty would hold when push came to shove. Afterall, he did smack a bit too close to the ideal Aryan for your liking.

Finally, the Romanian, Alin Lupei. If anything, you knew the least about Alin. Sure, his service record marked him out as a useful soldier, and his previous background in gymnastics would give him an edge in the low gravity combat you’d be undertaking. But if Lio was a problem due to his closeness to the enemy, then Alin was just as much of a threat due to his own personal beliefs. Sure, he was a communist, but he completely disagreed with the war in Afghanistan, and seemed to hold your service there against you. You hoped that he’d get over it for the mission, but a part of you worried about if he truly had your back.

And then, there was your co-pilot, your second in command, and the person you’d be relying on the most.

>You’ve never been a fan of political fanatics, and they reek of one.
>You can practically smell the rookie-green wafting off them, they aren’t prepared for this.
>You know they served in Afghanistan, but it seems they brought something back from there.
>Other (write in some other issue)

Also

>They are a man
>They are a woman

>>5736280

>You’ve never been a fan of political fanatics, and they reek of one.

>They are a woman

Here you go, QM - some baked-in conflicts to exploit!

>>5736280
>You know they served in Afghanistan, but it seems they brought something back from there.

>They are a woman

>>5736288
>>You’ve never been a fan of political fanatics, and they reek of one.
>
>>They are a woman
Oh boy!

>>5736280
>You’ve never been a fan of political fanatics, and they reek of one.
>They are a woman
I can't wait for her to summarily execute Lio for no goddamn reason

>>5736509
+1

>>5736280
>You’ve never been a fan of political fanatics, and they reek of one.
>They are a woman

>>5736280
>You know they served in Afghanistan, but it seems they brought something back from there.
>They are a woman

>>5736280
>>You’ve never been a fan of political fanatics, and they reek of one.
>>They are a woman
/pol/ack gf

>>5736280
>You know they served in Afghanistan, but it seems they brought something back from there.
>They are a woman

File: Vera.png (1.43 MB, 1324x2000)

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As far as choices for second-in-command go, Veronika Minkovski -or Vera, as she prefers to be called- is not someone who would have been among your top picks.

Oh sure, she is certainly a capable individual. Top of her class in the academy, which was no small feat. Academies tended to be the haunt of older officers with opinions so backwards that they ran the risk of getting people killed. The fact that she was able to thrive in an environment like that meant she was either good at her job or good at manipulating people. And you felt that she leaned towards the former in most cases. She knew how to lead a team, and had demonstrated as such during the training operations back on Earth.

And as your mother said during the last round of family visits before launch, you could certainly do worse.

But you’ve never been a fan of fanatics, and from what you gather Vera is one of them. She keeps it fairly well covered, of that you’re sure. But the hints are there. Like her being more proud of the fact that her grandfather was a commissar, rather than what he actually did during the war. Or how she was unhappy at being sent to the moon on a vessel made for profit rather than for the greater good of the proletariat. You’re no die-hard capitalist by any stretch of the imagination, you’ll laud the fact that the state allows you to retire at 60 over any westerner’s head for free. But Vera makes it seem as if wanting to have money to retire with is a bad thing. You have to assume that she’s never had a posting near a combat zone, she’d probably have had a heart attack at the prospect of troops trading replaceable bits of equipment for alcohol and other comforts.

You’ve met similar people in your life. Hell, you had the pleasure of serving with one in Afghanistan. He wouldn’t stop quoting Marx and Lenin, and reminding the squad about why you were there. Eventually a Mujahadeen marksman did you a favor and blew his head off, and you rewarded him by getting everyone back aboard your BMD and leaving his line of sight. Thankfully Vera isn’t really at that level, but it’s noticeable enough that you’re concerned that she might put her ideals before the mission. And that’s not even accounting for your other squadmates. The Polish pair and the Romanian were in the same boat as you, in how they only knew enough theory to blag through a short conversation. Meanwhile Lio is probably the only person in the squad that could match Vera, but she seemed to view him with even more distrust than you. You wouldn’t be surprised if

Still, it wasn’t all bad. If you could goad a Nazi into debating her, that’d buy you a good minute or so to get into an advantageous position for the ensuing fight.

>Cont

>>5736818

“Attention all passengers, this is your captain.” The shuttle’s intercom crackled into life as the shuttle’s commander gave you an update on your landing. “We will begin our landing burn in a couple of minutes, please ensure that your safety gear is properly engaged, and all loose equipment has been properly stowed.”

You frown to yourself as you look over at the clock, you’d spent too long going over your vehicle specs and troops. You’d hoped that you could go through the latest data on the Nazi base’s outlying structures. Maybe the intelligence analysts had finally agreed on if the objects were fuel tanks or habitats? Either way, you shoved the folders back into the pocket in front of your seat and secured the pocket with it’s velcro strap, and gently shake Vera awake.

“Uh… huh?” Vera groans as she opens her eyes. “Is it time?”

“Almost. We’ll be landing soon.” You clarify as you reach into your pocket and fish out a small plastic box with the hammer and sickle of the USSR embossed on it.

“Finally. I can’t wait to finally get up and finish our forefathers greatest struggle!” Vera grins as she follows your lead, and retrieves a similar box from her pocket, though you notice that hers has the hammer and sickle painted on in gold. “How about you, Aleksei? Are you looking forward to the mission?”

>”Of course! This will be a great day for the Soviet Union, and the world as a whole.”
>”I only wish we could have come here under more peaceful circumstances.”
>”Not really. Being in a suit for so long will be uncomfortable.”
>”I’ll just be happy to stretch my legs.”
>Other (write in)

>>5736820
>”Of course! This will be a great day for the Soviet Union, and the world as a whole.”

>>5736820
>”Of course! This will be a great day for the Soviet Union, and the world as a whole.”

>>5736820
>>”Of course! This will be a great day for the Soviet Union, and the world as a whole.”
I mean this is in character. She will froen at the whole world part tho, lmao

>>5736820
>”Not really. Being in a suit for so long will be uncomfortable.”

File: shuttle moon landing.jpg (20 KB, 608x342)

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”Of course! This will be a great day for the Soviet Union, and the world as a whole.” You reply with a smile. Even with your natural pessimism, you couldn’t deny that today would go down in history.

“Yeah, took your sweet time catching up though.” An American in one of the seats behind you intrudes into your conversation, getting a couple of chuckles from his squadmates for his effort.

“Well… we did so much more before you, it’s only fair that we let you do something first for a change!” You reply with a smile before Vera can answer with fire. You figure that the American’s attempt at a joke probably didn’t sit well with your comrade, a theory that you prove with a quick glance at Vera’s annoyed expression.

“Deceleration burn will begin in one minute, brace for engine burn.” The voice of the shuttle commander cuts off any potential argument before it can begin. Both you and your second in command open your boxes, and pull out a personalized set of gum shields each. While you were sure that the deceleration burn wouldn’t be too jarring, you didn’t want to risk breaking a tooth if the pilots needed to make any sudden adjustments.

“Deceleration in five… four… three… two… one… zero!” The commander gives a five second countdown before firing the engines. The shuttle’s main engines kick into life, and the force shoves you back against your seat. You’re pinned there for a few seconds as the whole vessel rumbles with the force of the rockets burning off the last of their arrival fuel. If all went well the vessel would still have enough fuel for maneuvers over the moon’s surface, but there wouldn’t be enough to get the vessel back up into orbit without refueling. Thankfully, that extra fuel was going to land separately, and the vessels would be refueled while you undertook your mission.

If all went well, you’d be back aboard this shuttle within a few hours time. Though that was a prospect that your legs weren’t too keen on.

After a few seconds of strain and struggle, the shuttle announces it’s successful landing with a dull thud, as the landing gear smacks into the surface of the moon. While a lot of artist's impressions had the shuttles landing horizontally with an extra set of thrusters near the nose, you're glad that the engineers eventually decided to just add a reinforced set of landing legs around the tail. While it does mean you need some gymnastic skills in order to reach your space suit and disembark, it means you don't have to make a sketchy rolling landing.

You let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding, and decide your next actions as you reach for your restraining harness.

>Disembark first. If you’re fast enough you might even be the first Soviet man on the moon.
>Disembark when you’re called. Being the first Soviet man on the moon won’t matter if you end up the first man to die on this rock.
>Disembark last. You have something to do before you suit up.

>>5736951
>>Disembark first. If you’re fast enough you might even be the first Soviet man on the moon.
Hurry the fuck up
word of caution QM, be sure to think when making or calling for a vote. Some votes may lack player's true input on the matter. Sort of voting for going left or right when the same paths lead to the same place, with the same enemies in the middle. There may be more going on, but last vore on what to reply with was... whatever

>>5736951
>Disembark when you’re called. Being the first Soviet man on the moon won’t matter if you end up the first man to die on this rock.
Personal glory <<< Living

>>5736951
>Disembark when you’re called. Being the first Soviet man on the moon won’t matter if you end up the first man to die on this rock.

>>5736951
>Disembark when you’re called. Being the first Soviet man on the moon won’t matter if you end up the first man to die on this rock.
We are not going to be the first man to die on the moon

>>5736951
>Disembark last. You have something to do before you suit up.

>>5736951
>Disembark when you’re called. Being the first Soviet man on the moon won’t matter if you end up the first man to die on this rock.

>>5736951

>Disembark first. If you’re fast enough you might even be the first Soviet man on the moon.

>>5736981

Not sure what you mean, anon, QM is letting us dictate the MC’s personality with these dialogue choices? Pls no bully, I’ve done similar things in my own quest

File: back entry suit testing.jpg (106 KB, 960x719)

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You look over just in time to see Vera start tearing at her restraint in a frenzied attempt to get off the shuttle as soon as possible. You put an end to that attempt by calmly grabbing her forearm, and shaking your head at her. You shouldn’t have to tell her outright not to rush through the suiting up process, especially given the fatal risks caused by a faulty suit seal. As such, you settle for the non-verbal approach.

At the very least, she doesn’t scowl at you for it. Maybe she’ll keep up that attitude for the est of the mission?

In order to reduce the overall mass of the shuttle’s passenger bay, the engineers had decided not to install a traditional airlock and hatch system. Instead, they integrated a series of ports on the roof of the passenger module, onto which a series of new back-entry space suits were docked. In order to even reach your suits, you had to get up and onto your seat, leap over to the now vertically-oriented roof, and hold onto a series of rungs on the “roof”. To access the suits, you had to open the port, disengage the life support unit and pull it into the shuttle itself. And then to suit up, you’d have to put on the life support unit, connect it up to the undersuit that all of you were already wearing, and clamber into the suit with it on. Once you were in the suit, the life support unit would automatically lock to the rest of the suit, which would simultaneously form an airtight seal to the suit and close the port behind you. From there, you’d run your suit’s internal checks, and disengage from the port once you were given the go-ahead by the shuttle commander. And in order to do all of that safely, you'd need the help of one of the shuttle's crewmembers.

It sounded complex, and in a sense it was. But as with all things, it was just a matter to training.

Making your way over to the ports was fairly easy, in no small part thanks to the fact that the moon’s gravity was only 1/6th that of earth. Opening the ports was also easy enough, as the shutter over the port simply rolled up. But after that, things got more tedious. The suits were designed to mate seamlessly with the ports, and so the life support backpacks had to fit very snugly inside. Disengaging the life support unit and pulling it out was thus very tedious as you had no room to work with.

Once the life support unit was out, you waited for one of the shuttle's crew to help you with the life support unit. Putting it on was as simple as putting on a backpack, and linking up a few connectors between the unit and the undersuit that you were already wearing. But checking the technical electronic parts was not something you could do yourself. The life support units would provide you with temperature control, oxygen, and even had a small water supply that you could drink from. After a few checks to make sure that Vera’s equipment was all functional, you helped the crewmen with guiding her through her port and into her suit.

>Cont

>>5737098

By the time you were done with her, around half of the people in the bay had already gone through, so finding someone to assist the crewmate helping you was a bit more difficult. You had to take some time helping one of the French volunteers with their equipment before one of the Americans -the one who had made the joke earlier- came over and helped you with yours. And with a little bit of help, you finally enter your suit. You had to swing yourself through the suit port as if you were entering a BTR, using your arms to hold yourself up as you enter legs-first. You then shuffle yourself forwards, with the American and the shuttle crewman helping to keep the life support unit stable. After a few minutes, you manage to get your hands into the gloves, and scoot yourself the last few millimeters forwards, engaging the seal between the two parts of the suit. A small green light and an audio cue gave you electronic feedback that the two parts have connected electronically, but you only felt sure of the seal when you felt the pressure gauge within your suit held firm at slightly above the normal pressure inside the shuttle.

Now that you were inside your suit, you ran through your checks. You lift your left arm up, and confirm that all of the lights on your arm-mounted keyboard are all green before using it to check the rest of your suit’s systems. You flick through the suit’s pre-loaded radio channels, one linking back to your local commander, one to each squad leader, your squad as a whole, and one to each individual squadmate. You then check your temperature controls, helmet mounted display, IFF system, and other assorted electronic equipment.

You confirm that the radio is working by startling Vera. She gives you a mean look from inside her helmet, but says nothing.

With everything done, you radio over to the shuttle commander that you are ready to disembark, and wait for him to disconnect you. Sure, you could have done it yourself, but you’d rather not go for a manual disconnect if you could avoid it. And with the shuttle bay doors closed, it would have been pointless anyways. You have to wait another ten minutes before the shuttle commander confirms that all suits are ready to disembark, and opens the shuttle’s bay doors.

The first time you see the surface of the moon, it takes your breath away. Even though you’ve seen it countless times before -on television, in pictures, and even through the lens of a telescope when you were just a boy- none of it can compare to seeing it with your own two eyes. And judging from the shocked gasp from Vera, she must be feeling the exact same awe as you do.

>Cont

>>5737103

Thankfully, the suits didn't just hang in their ports. Instead, all of you had a small metal ledge to stand on as you wait as a set of winches are run out from just above the bridge to be deployed before anyone could be lowered down to the surface. The whole disembarkation process would take a while, as everyone had to be lowered down one at a time. But that just gave you more time to look around.

The Enterprise landed fairly close to the main cache of supplies. Around half a kilometer away, you spot Buran in the middle of disembarkation. Unfortunately, Buran’s pilot was not nearly as good as that of the Enterprise, and they landed further away from the cache. The other shuttles, Atlantis, Columbia, Discovery, and Burya all landed further out. You’re pretty sure that one of your first duties will be acting as a taxi service to get the people aboard them over to the waiting vehicles and supplies. You also had to to assemble your squad, and report in to the Soviet commander for this mission, Colonel Sharshin.

>Wait for your squad to disembark and form up.
>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle.
>Head over to Buran and report to your commander.
>Other (write-in)

>>5737109

>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle.

Speed is our greatest asset, best to assemble the troops before the Nazis can strike!

>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle.

I have the impression that the Nazis won’t just let this landing go uncontested. Besides, they have a Better lay of the land, so to speak.

>>5737096
Yes, they are allowing us to dictate it but... will the answers be a parameter to define other interactions?

>>5737109
>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle.

>>5737109
>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle.

>>5737109
>>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle

>>5737109
>Wait for your squad to disembark and form up.

>>5737109
>>Head over to the supply cache and find your vehicle.

“Vera? Can you hear me?” You key your radio as one of the winches finishes landing someone just below you. Whoever they were, their suit had occupied the mount above yours, which meant that you were next off.

“Of course, what do you need?” Vera looked over as she replied. Unlike you, she still had to wait for a few more people to disembark before it was her turn to be lowered down.

“I’m going to head over to the supply cache and get our vehicle. Can you assemble the unit and lead them over once you’re all groundside?” You ask as the man on the ground disconnects the winch from this suit, and gives the thumbs up to the cockpit some 35 meters above his head. Almost instantly, the winch is reeled up towards you, the steel cable passing a scant foot or so in front of your face.

“Of course. Try not to fall over.” Vera smiles over at you as the winch finally reaches you. You shake your head as you pluck the steel cable from the void, and connect it up to your suit.

“Your confidence in me is outstanding.” You dryly reply, before giving a thumbs-up to the shuttle’s cockpit and stepping off the ledge. The winch takes your weight without issue, and slowly lowers you towards the lunar surface. Your boots kissing the ground with a small puff of moon dust. Almost without thinking, you quickly disconnect from the cable, and flash a thumb up at the cockpit as you step off.

Your shuttle landed a few hundred meters away from the main concentration of landed supplies, a distance that you’d be able to cross in a few minutes on earth that takes nearly double that on the moon. The combination of the odd gravity, the unknown terrain, and the mass of your suit means that it’s difficult to get going, and even more difficult to slow down. To try and get used to moving around, you try speeding up to a light jog, then slow down almost to a stop. The first couple of times you try it, you nearly fall over, but by the time you reach the supplies you appear to have gotten the hang of it.

The majority of the equipment had been delivered in a series of standardized cargo containers, each one seemingly adorned with the logo of a different space agency. Form even a cursory glance at the closest crates around the edge of the field of supplies, you spot the logos of at least half a dozen agencies. NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Soviet Union were the ones that you saw the most as you entered the improvised supply dump, but you also saw some crates marked up with the logos of the Japanese JAXA, the Brazilian AEB, and even the recently formed Chinese CNSA. If you ever needed proof of just how multinational this mission was, then you didn't have to look any further.

>Cont

>>5737969

It doesn’t take you very long to reach your vehicle. The large six-wheel vehicle was a lot of things -from a marvel of technology to your chosen chariot of fire- but inconspicuous it was not.

Speaking of which, as you walked through the supply dump, you couldn’t help but notice a small gaggle of western astronauts huddled around one of the crates. You would have offered to help them, but one of them had been standing guard, and stepped between you and the group as you noticed them. Past that, you also saw someone walking around with one of those large, shoulder-mounted cameras that you only ever saw the press using. You knew that one of the agencies had brought up a combat reporter, and that set off alarm bells in your head. Of all the things to bring to the moon, why would you bring a reporter?

>Get your vehicle up and operational. This place rubs you the wrong way and you don’t want to be sat here for too long.
>Go and snoop on the westerners. You don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re doing a poor job of hiding that they’re doing something.
>Follow that reporter. It may just be your soviet sensibilities speaking, but the idea of someone walking around with a camera makes you feel uncomfortable.
>Other (write-in)

>>5737970
>>Go and snoop on the westerners. You don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re doing a poor job of hiding that they’re doing something.

>>5737970
>Go and snoop on the westerners. You don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re doing a poor job of hiding that they’re doing something.
Remember, the fascists may be shooting at us but it's the capitalists who yet remain on Mother Earth

>>5737970
>Follow that reporter. It may just be your soviet sensibilities speaking, but the idea of someone walking around with a camera makes you feel uncomfortable.

>>5737970

>Get your vehicle up and operational. This place rubs you the wrong way and you don’t want to be sat here for too long.

The vibes are not good, let’s get rolling

>>5737970
>Get your vehicle up and operational. This place rubs you the wrong way and you don’t want to be sat here for too long.
8th Moscow rule: do not harass the opposition

>>5737970
>Get your vehicle up and operational. This place rubs you the wrong way and you don’t want to be sat here for too long.
If they want to lug a reporter along, their problem - we will refuse to speak to them any more than is necessary. Best not dawdle now.

>>5737970
>Get your vehicle up and operational. This place rubs you the wrong way and you don’t want to be sat here for too long.

File: BMD company structure.jpg (258 KB, 1200x1002)

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For a few seconds, you consider snooping on whatever the American astronauts are offloading. They rushed up here as fast as possible to find that crate, unload the contents, and move it before the bulk of the personnel got here. So chances are whatever it was was valuable in some way. But the thought slips out of your mind just as quickly as it appeared. Finding out whatever the Americans were doing is not your immediate priority. Your job here is to kill fascists, any ulterior goals or objectives are above both your pay grade and clearance level.

Of course, if it comes to it, you’ll do what needs to be done. But you won’t be the one responsible for starting anything, either directly or indirectly.

Instead, you focus on your vehicle. Red 33, the third vehicle in the third platoon. For this operation, you'd be following the same tactics as those developed for BMD companies, for three platoons of three vehicles plus command and fire support vehicles. The combat rover sits just underneath the rocket crane that landed it, still locked inside the protective metal frame that served as both the main structural support element for the launch and the landing gear. You perform a quick walk-around inspection for any obvious signs of damage, before opening up the rear hatch and climbing through to the crew compartment. You find Vera’s diver seat just forward and to the left of the vehicle’s turret, and climb in. The small stool doesn’t provide any real comfort on its own, though a lock-in point for a suit’s life support unit is designed to provide back support instead.

It takes a couple of minutes to manually connect the batteries, and a few more before you’ve brought the main engine and drive system online. Once you’ve done that, you reach over to a small console, and hit the button to set off the explosive bolts that are currently locking the vehicle to its landing unit. A small, dull thud reverberates through the hull, and the vehicle falls a couple of inches on its suspension as it takes the weight of the vehicle. You pop the driver’s hatch a second later, and raise the stool-seat just enough to poke your head out to see your surroundings. In the few minutes it took you to get the vehicle up and running, the depot came alive with activity as more people finish making the trek over from the shuttles. You manage to look up just in time to see a moon hopper jetting off with a fire team of soldiers strapped to the side. They’re probably on the first security rotation.

“Vehicle thirty-three, please respond.” Your radio crackles into life as someone contacts your IFV, and the transmission is piped directly to your headset from the vehicle’s own radio set.

“This is thirty-three commander, responding.” You reply as you look both ways, before slowly pulling your vehicle out from underneath the landing unit. Making sure not to damage either of them.

>Cont

>>5738088

“Please report to commander Sharshin for your orders.” The radioman continues in an annoyingly neutral tone that makes you wonder if he heard you reply to his first message, or if he was just continuing with the message and not bothering to check.

>Report to the commander immediately! Orders are orders.
>Retrieve your squad first! If they're asking for the vehicle, then they also want the squad.
>Ask for clarification! What does the commander need you for?
>Other (write-in)

>>5738089
>Retrieve your squad first! If they're asking for the vehicle, then they also want the squad.

>>5738089
>Retrieve your squad first! If they're asking for the vehicle, then they also want the squad.

>>5738089
>Report to the commander immediately! Orders are orders.
Could be some classified thing only we’re supposed to know

>>5738089
>Report to the commander immediately! Orders are orders.
The Red Army is verrrrry hierarchical. We can just relay to the crew when we get back.

>>5738089

>Report to the commander immediately! Orders are orders.

Let’s do what the boss says for now

File: buran manufacturing.jpg (222 KB, 690x859)

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You can’t help but frown at the request. As far as you knew, overall command of the operation was under a British officer, as the current Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Special Political Affairs was a British man. That department was responsible for all UN peacekeeping missions, and that was the administrative framework that had been chosen for this operation. Either way, being directly contacted by the commander of the Soviet contingent for the mission, while not disallowed, was certainly odd.

“Vehicle thirty three, on the move.” You answer as you guide your LCV through the widest available route out of the supply dump. You’ll probably have to come back later for your equipment, but that will have to wait until after you’ve met the colonel and retrieved your squad, in that order.

Speaking of the colonel. Your helmet mounted display -derived from an American gunship sight system- highlights the colonel’s IFF after a few brief flicks through the channels. You find his suit still aboard the Buran, with him somewhere inside. Another oddity, which only gets weirder as you flick through the other vehicle commander signals, and find that all of the Soviet ones are offline.

Whatever it is that’s going on, we're not hiding it very well. You absently think to yourself as you drive over. Your arrival could be somewhat excused if the Colonel said that he needed a vehicle to drive him to his command vehicle. And keeping the vehicle commander IFFs off could be explained by only wanting vehicle commanders to switch on their IFFs once their vehicles were up and running. Nobody with a brain would actually believe that, but seeing as the Americans were already offloading equipment they’d secretly carried up here, you doubted that they really cared all that much.

And as for the driving? While the training you underwent on earth was meant to prepare you for the conditions you’d encounter on the moon had been extensive, one thing that they definitely didn’t cover properly had been driving and vehicle handling. While they could adequately simulate the floatiness of low-gravity movement in a water immersion tank, vehicle handling had to be done on open terrain. And even though the training vehicle had been extensively modified to represent how a vehicle would handle on the moon, it just didn’t capture the feeling correctly.

The Lunar Combat Vehicle seems to slide across the surface, as the traction between the wheels and the loose surface regolith just doesn’t give you the responsiveness you need. And then factor in that you have to keep your speed down in order to avoid pelting the people behind you with high-velocity moon rocks, and you’re not moving much faster than a quick jog.

>Cont

>>5738192

Still, you make good time to Buran. And within only a few minutes of parking up, you’re directed to climb the external ladder, and enter the airlock. While the American system had used a series of ports directly attached to the shuttle’s passenger bay, Buran used a more traditional airlock system. Once the airlock cycles, a pair of technicians help you out of your suit. The suit is already grey by the boots from the lunar dust, and you know that it’s only going to get worse as the mission progresses. Still, you pay little mind to it as you climb into the cargo bay proper, and up to where the Colonel and the rest of the commanders are waiting.

And at the top of the passenger bay is a small, cramped meeting room. Whatever seats were once in the room were removed, leaving a board at one end, and just enough room for the other unit commanders to cram into. You poke your head up, and almost immediately feel all eyes in the room fall on you. Apparently they were waiting for you.

Colonel Sharshin, -otherwise known as the shark, with you guess is done ironically because he makes no secret of his disdain for the open ocean- fixes you with a level gaze as you climb the last two rungs, and practically jump into a textbook salute.

“Senior Lieutenant Aleksei Volkov, reporting as ordered, sir!” You announce your arrival, before wincing at the act. You don’t think your arrival could have been less obvious if you had come in dressed like a clown.

Or as your comrades put it, a naval aviation officer.

“Senior Lieutenant, welcome aboard.” The colonel returns the salute a bit more casually than the regulations called for, but you weren’t about to call him out over it. “How was your flight?”

“Less comfortable than yours, It’s as if legroom is a foreign concept to the Americans.” You reply, adding in a bit of unnecessary detail just to get a snipe in at the union’s greatest enemy. Sure, the fascists had been much much worse, but the US had the annoying tendency to endure.

“Of that, I’m sure.” The colonel smiled politely as he replied, before gesturing to a spot on the edge of the crowd of lesser officers. You take a couple of steps, and you’re right where he pointed you.

>Cont

>>5738195

“I shouldn’t have to tell any of you this, but what you hear in this briefing is strictly secret. Your subordinates may eventually figure things out, but you will not breathe a word of this to anyone else.” The colonel’s tone shifted slightly as he spoke, replacing the somewhat friendly tone with a more commanding one. The change was subtle, but effective. You notice out of the corner of your eye that some of the other officers stand a little straighter as the colonel continues. “If I find that you have spoken a word about this briefing to anyone, you will be summarily executed for treason. Do not argue about if it is lawful or not, as we are not in the Soviet Union anymore. Does anyone object?”

The colonel lets his question hang in the air as the rest of you reel from the statement just before it. Nobody in the room was unaware of the concept, but the red army hadn’t used such executions against its own men since the Great Patriotic War. Either way, the colonel takes the silence as a lack of objection, and gives a reassuring smile. “Very good. I knew I could trust all of you on this.”

“Now, let us begin by going over why we are really here…”

>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data.
>Ensure that occupants of the base are killed.
>Secure and occupy the base for future use.
>Destroy the entire base with a nuclear bomb.
>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.

>>5738198
>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.
Love me a little blue on blue

>>5738198
>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data
Operation paperclip is go

>>5738198
>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data.
>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.
I'm proposing to combine these two, since I'm fairly certain everyone else has similar ideas.....

>>5738198
>>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.
Oh this is gonna get interesting

>>5738198
>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data.

>>5738198
>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.
As primary objective.
>Secure and occupy the base for future use.
As secondary objective.

>>5738198
>>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data

>>5738198
>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data.

>>5738198
>>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.

>>5738198

>Figure out what your “allies” are doing, and stop them from succeeding.

Lunar intrigue is pretty cool

>>5738198
>>Secure and occupy the base for future use.

>>5738198
>Find and recover Nazi scientists and data.

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“Our primary mission, and that of everyone else involved in this operation, is to remove the threat of the fascist moon gun and the associated base. That is why we are all here, and together with the western volunteers we will all present a united front against the fascist menace, much like back in the Great Patriotic War.” The colonel began, reaching over to a table, and retrieving a folder full of pictures, which you assumed were for illustrative purposes.

“However, as we all know, this base represents too great an opportunity to be simply put to the torch. The reich made many breakthroughs during the war, which both sides later expanded upon afterwards. As an example, both us and the Americans replicated the German V-2 ballistic missile system after the war for research purposes, and directly contributed to both of our space and strategic rocket programs.” Your suspicions were confirmed as the colonel pulled out a pair of pictures, and held them up for you to see. One showing a V-2 rocket launching from the deck of an American aircraft carrier, while another showed a taller derivative surrounded by Soviet trucks.

“And compared to that, this base represents a quantum leap in technology. It took us sixteen years to achieve our first orbit, and another eight years before the Americans landed on the moon. And not only have both superpowers apparently been beaten to the moon by the fascists, but they have also established a long-term base here, in the most hostile environment possible.” The colonel put the two pictures back on the table, before fishing through the folder as he talked. “Imagine what we can learn from this base? And the edge that could be given by the technologies derived from what is found here, after the far more capable scientists back on earth have had time to work their magic.”

“However, we must be cautious. It cannot be doubted that the west seeks to covet the base and its secrets for themselves. They profited just as well as we did from Nazi research after the war, and they would stand to gain just as much as us. As such, it must be expected that they will attempt to beat us to our objective, and may even seek other ways to profit from the capture of this base.” Sharshin cautions you all with a warning finger as he continues the briefing.

“Comrades, our true mission covers not only our official combat objectives, but also the capture and recovery of Nazi scientists and their material. And alongside that, the investigation of what the western groups are doing here. This neatly breaks down into three separate objectives, so we will assign one platoon to each objective. May I have volunteers for any specific mission assignments?”

>Cont

>>5738794

>Volunteer for the original objective! You came here to kill Nazis and save the earth, not to mess around with skulduggery and intrigue.
>Volunteer for scientific recovery! You understand the bigger picture at play here, whoever can best exploit the information from this base will earn their side an unmistakable advantage.
>Volunteer to investigate the westerners! Unlike everyone else, you have a slight idea about what they might be doing. You at least have something to go off.
>Don’t volunteer for anything just yet! You need to know what each mission will entail first.

>>5738795
>Volunteer to investigate the westerners! Unlike everyone else, you have a slight idea about what they might be doing. You at least have something to go off.

>>5738795
>Volunteer to investigate the westerners! Unlike everyone else, you have a slight idea about what they might be doing. You at least have something to go off.
Vera will like that we're going after the capitalists.
Also this is just a hunch, but I reckon the Americans are gonna test their biggest nuclear bomb yet by blowing up this base.

>>5738795
>>Volunteer to investigate the westerners! Unlike everyone else, you have a slight idea about what they might be doing. You at least have something to go off

>>5738795
>Volunteer to investigate the westerners! Unlike everyone else, you have a slight idea about what they might be doing. You at least have something to go off.

“Sir, I volunteer for the investigation mission!” You snap to attention as you volunteer for the investigation mission, drawing everyone’s attention once again. You know you’re drawing too much attention to yourself, first by showing up late to a key briefing, and then by volunteering for a mission without your platoon commander’s consent.

The colonel raises an eyebrow at you, but otherwise keeps his tone and expression level. “Any particular reason, senior lieutenant?”

“I observed a number of American astronauts in the process of suspiciously unloading a supply crate. I feel confident that I can identify them by their suit markings and continue observation from there.” You reply, before turning to face your platoon commander, who looks somewhere between annoyed and amused at the recent events. “My apologies for not briefing you on my findings sooner, major. I intended to do so after the briefing.”

“Well. I suppose that confirms that the American plan involves something that they brought with them. That’s good, though it will still be your mission to find out what the Europeans are up to. Assuming, of course, that Major Chekov does not have any issues with the third platoon being assigned to investigate the westerners?” Sharshin asks your platoon commander. While it’s very odd for such high ranking officers to be in command of such small units, the politburo had decided that everyone taking part in the lunar operation were to be officers. That then led to a situation where all of the unit commanders were senior officers, while everyone beneath them were either junior or non-commissioned officers. If you recall correctly, the minimum rank on this mission was sergeant.

“I have no issues with that assignment.” Chekov replied, before giving you an assuring nod. You took that as a cue that you were off the hook for now. Though you figured that he’d want a complete briefing on what you saw after the meeting. Still, with the third platoon assigned to watch the westerners, it was up to first and second platoons to decide who would handle the official objective and who would go for the scientists. In the end, the first platoon gets the ‘honor’ of corralling the scientists and potentially their families.

>Cont

>>5738900

Over the next fifteen minutes, the Colonel goes over the basic points of the plan. By and large, all of you will continue to follow the outline of the main UN mission, as directed by the UN commanding officer. However, once you reached the base, you were to disembark from your vehicles and operate as infantry. The first platoon would enter the base first, and would make note of any floor plans they could find, and would radio points of interest to the other two platoons. The second platoon would enter next, and would follow the first platoon’s lead until they found the base’s primary laboratories. They would then head straight to the labs, and would secure any personnel and information that they could. Finally, third platoon would hand back and act reactively to what the western troops were doing. Wherever the Americans or the Europeans sent a squad, one or two members of the third platoon would follow and report back.

Of course, there were still a few issues that you could spot in the brief planning session. Such as what would happen if the first platoon suffered major casualties, and if one of the other would be ordered to reinforce them if that happened. Or how the second platoon would evacuate the nominally civilian personnel in vehicles that were not pressurized. Or what third platoon would do if they were found to be snooping on your allies of convenience.

>Bring up your questions. You need to know what everyone else would be doing in order to be sure about where you fit in.
>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.

>>5738901
>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.

>>5738901
>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.

>>5738901
>>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.
Some issues must be dealt with already, such as to how to handle scientists... I wonder how can we snoop on the gringos with no real spy gear. And in the moon? sheesh

>>5738901
>Bring up your questions. You need to know what everyone else would be doing in order to be sure about where you fit in.
It’s a military meeting, asking questions is what we’re here to do

>>5738901
>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.

The curious are not rewarded in the Soviet system

>>5739129
Support

>>5734517
some real muv-luv shit bro

>>5738901
>>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.

>>5738901

>Keep quiet. You’ve already drawn enough attention to yourself already.

Soviets value silence.

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While you do have questions, especially around the whole problem of transporting the scientists, you know better than to interrupt again. The Soviet military is many things, but tolerant of people who ask too many questions it is not. You are expected to listen, trust that your commanding officers know what they are doing, and follow your orders to the best of your ability. While the Americans may say that the best way to respond to an officer asking you to jump is to ask them how high they want you to jump, the Soviet response is to simply jump until the officer is satisfied.

And if the officer in charge made a mistake? Well that’s why it paid to be resourceful.

Thankfully, some of the other officers were able to ask a couple of your questions, and a couple more that you hadn’t thought about. If the first platoon absorbed too many casualties, they would call in reinforcements from whichever elements of the second or third platoon were available. If neither could spare the manpower, then a four-man team from the security detachment could be provided, but that was considered a last resort, as they were meant to provide security for the vehicles after everyone had dismounted. Meanwhile, the command and medical evacuation LCVs were both atmospherically sealed, and would be used as taxis to transport the scientists back to Buran. The captured scientists could use back-entry suits similar to yours to make the trips across the lunar surface, but it was hoped that the base had a rover bay that could be sealed and pressurized, which could then function as an airlock for vehicles.

But it’s Major Petrov that asks the most important question.

“Commander, if I may.” He starts, taking a differential tone. “This operation was already dangerous enough with our current equipment. But now that we’re being asked to also take on these additional missions I feel that it may be more than our current equipment allows us to undertake. Are we to be provided with extra equipment?”

“I’m glad that you asked, major.” The colonel says, before taking out three pictures from the folder, showing pieces of equipment. “The best engineers and scientists in the Soviet Union have labored to create equipment that will give us the edge during this operation. There’s not enough of each class of equipment for all of you, but there is enough of each to furnish a single platoon.”

>Cont

>>5739573

“The first system is the Drozd-SP self-defense system. It’s something that the egg-heads call an ‘active protection system’, basically a series of radar-set rockets that are mounted to the turret of an LCV, and are used to destroy incoming rockets or missiles. We’re not sure how effective it’d be against the Nazis, we don’t know what they’re armed with. But against the westerners it should give you a decisive edge, maybe enough of one that they don’t try anything on the surface.” The colonel explains the first system as he passes a picture to you. It appears to depict an older tank with some rocket tubes attached to the side of the turret, and a small box atop the launchers that you assumed provided radar cuing. If you were interpreting the system correctly, it’d give you the ability to defend the vehicle against targets in front of the turret, but probably not anything else.

“The next system is the OVR-2S armor complex.” The colonel hands you a second picture just as you pass off the picture of the tank system. The equipment appears to be some kind of modern equivalent to the steel breastplates used by sappers in the Great Patriotic War. Thick body armor, shoulder armor, and a metal face mask. “This mix of armor systems is based on existing systems that had been adapted to fit onto the outside of your suits. It can trace it’s heritage back to the Altyn armored helmet and 6B15 armor system, and adds additional protection to the arms and legs. It should provide you with consistent survivability against rifle-caliber rounds, while an armored shield can give temporary protection against concentrated fire.”

And for the last system, the colonel actually reaches behind the table, and picks up something that you had initially discounted as a typical platoon radio backpack. “Finally, we have a handful of short-range R-394KMS clandestine radio units. These radios transmit their messages in very fast bursts, which make them almost impossible to counter-detect. These systems have also been modified to provide some ability to intercept enemy radio signals.”

>Drozd-SP APS! You need to guarantee the survivability of your most precious asset, the LCV.
>OVR-2S armor! With combat in a vacuum being so deadly, you need every advantage you can get.
>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.

>>5739577
>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.

>>5739577
>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.
I want to hear that mook chatter

>>5739577

>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.

Intelligence is way more important than armor or defensive systems

>>5739577
>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.
We are meant to be acting covertly, combat is a last resort

>>5739577
>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.
I'd love an APS, but practicality triumphs

>>5739577
>R-394KMS radios! Your mission is to snoop on the westerners, and these sets may give you an edge.

>>5739577
>>Drozd-SP APS! You need to guarantee the survivability of your most precious asset, the LCV.

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It takes you only a few seconds to come to a decision, and you flash three fingers at major Chekov to indicate that you felt that the radios were the better choice. The radios fit far better with your mission requirements, and things would have to go very wrong for you to have a more pressing need for defensive systems. A quick nod back from him tells you that he agrees, and a glance at the other squad commander in your unit -Maks Sorokin- tells you that he doesn’t object. Though if your time with him is any indication he probably would have preferred to take Drozd, he was almost exclusively a vehicle-only commander.

After that, the two other pieces of equipment were assigned fairly quickly, with the first platoon taking the armor while the second platoon took the APS units. That neatly lined up with their roles, and help to better sell the first as the main assault force.

“Good, now that we are done with that, does anyone have any last questions?” The colonel asks the room, and lets the question hang in the air -or would it be the vacuum while you’re on the moon- for a few seconds before nodding. “If that’s so, then this meeting is over. Volkov, did you bring your LCV with you?”

“Yes sir, that is how I was contacted to head here.” You nod, slightly straightening up as the colonel addresses you directly again.

“Good. You will drive myself, my aid, and the rest of the third platoon’s command staff over to the supply dump. The UN commander has called for a meeting and I’d hate to keep him waiting.” The colonel informs you, and you nod at the instructions.

“Of course sir, should I leave first or should I wait for the rest of you to suit up?” You ask as the officers of the first and second platoons make their way down the ladder into the rest of Buran’s passenger bay so that they could do whatever their pre-mission rituals were.

“You and Sorokin will suit up first, we will be out after you.” The colonel answered, before dismissing you with a nod.

Suiting up, at least for you, takes a lot less time than when you were aboard the Enterprise. As it turned out, not having to juggle suiting up and squeezing through a half-a-foot airlock at the same time made it a lot easier to enter your suit. Sorokin on the other hand takes a bit longer than you, as his suit requires a few more checks before entering the vacuum of space for the first time. But within ten minutes, you’re both out on the Lunar surface, and checking over the LCV before your passengers arrive. It takes them another quarter of an hour, which you spend chatting with Maks and finding out that he was recently married, as his long-time girlfriend was worried about whether he'd come back or not. You spot the officers talking as they disembark -taking the cue from their hand gestures-, and for a split second you worry that they are talking about something important on a closed channel.

>Cont

>>5739717

As they board the LCV, the officers are automatically switched over to the LCV’s radio network, and you’re a little disappointed when you find yourself dropped right into the middle of an passionate conversation about ice hockey and the year’s regional tournament. You don’t follow the conversation, you’re more of a volleyball fan anyways.

With everyone aboard, you clamber back into the LCV’s driver’s seat, and get the vehicle ready to move as your passengers clambered aboard, with the colonel taking your usual spot in the turret and riding ‘turned out’ to enjoy the view as the lunar surface rushed past. You make good time back to the supply depot, and find to your horror that it’s expanded as people unload crates and take inventory of what survived the journey to the moon. It takes a perilous few minutes to drive into the center, where the meeting is apparently taking place, but you eventually find your way to where the UN command vehicle is waiting. The colonel and his aid enter the mobile patch of neutral ground as the major and Sorokin disembark on their own to find their vehicles.


>Head back to buran! You need to sell your gig as the soviet taxi service, and you ought to do that by helping the other officers.
>Find your unit! Vera should have corralled them by now, and got them working on offloading your supplies.
>Start investigating! All of the westerners look the same to you, so trying to find some way to distinguish between them will be useful.
>Other (write-in)

>>5739720
>Start investigating! All of the westerners look the same to you, so trying to find some way to distinguish between them will be useful.

Vera can manage the squad

>>5739720
>Find your unit! Vera should have corralled them by now, and got them working on offloading your supplies.
>>5739725
Yeah but I’m pretty sure that if we take them they’ll spot something we don’t

>>5739720
>Start investigating! All of the westerners look the same to you, so trying to find some way to distinguish between them will be useful.
Now that it's our job, let's get ahead on it.

>>5739720
>Find your unit! Vera should have corralled them by now, and got them working on offloading your supplies.

>>5739720
>Find your unit! Vera should have corralled them by now, and got them working on offloading your supplies.

>>5739720

>Start investigating! All of the westerners look the same to you, so trying to find some way to distinguish between them will be useful.

Let's have a look around as the friendly Russian taxi man yeah?

>>5739720
>>Find your unit! Vera should have corralled them by now, and got them working on offloading your supplies.

>>5739720
>>Start investigating! All of the westerners look the same to you, so trying to find some way to distinguish between them will be useful.
Check their flags?

>>5739720
Oh also could we get like a map of where everything is relative to each other? Nothing special but just an idea of where we are?

>>5739720
>>Find your unit! Vera should have corralled them by now, and got them working on offloading your supplies.

>>5739720
>Start investigating! All of the westerners look the same to you, so trying to find some way to distinguish between them will be useful.

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It takes a couple of seconds to figure out what you’re going to do next. While you should probably find your unit and help them with unloading your gear, you’ve got your orders to investigate the different western astronauts. But then again, who said that they had to be mutually exclusive?

It takes you a few seconds to flick through the IFF channels and find those of your unit; they appear to be on the side of the supply dump closest to Enterprise, probably offloading the first supply crates they came across. You can’t directly drive there in the LCV, so you decide to use the opportunity to slowly drive through the camp, trying to spot the different western astronauts, and some ways to identify them with some manner of consistency. Sure, they wore different suits to the Soviet and Warsaw pact troops -with the exception of your squad- so you could spot them at a glance, but you needed a way to distinguish between them by country from a distance. You could do it up close by the flags sewn into their uniforms, but it’d be pretty hard to recognise them from a distance.

The answer comes to you as you drive through the base. You spot a couple of armed American astronauts, each of them casually their M16 rifles as they look enviously at your vehicle. Apparently, they’d prefer to be doing their rounds with some wheels of their own, rather than moving on foot. You spot another pair of astronauts in the same space suits just before you leave the supply dump proper, chatting with a pair of cosmonauts. Usually you would have ignored it, but they draw your attention by virtue of not having M16s.

As it turns out, they appear to be part of the French contingent, as they are armed with space-modified versions of their FAMAS rifles. Past that though, the two Frenchmen don’t seem to be doing anything odd as you pass them. You take the long journey around the side of the dump, occasionally looking over to spot other western contingents by their weapons. Italians with their M14 derivatives, which strikes you as being fairly anachronistic. You notice the Brits by the simple virtue of them being the only other group to bring bullpup rifles, which you can distinguish from the French ones by the lack of the massive carry handle. And a mix of more Americans and cosmonauts with M16s and kalashnikovs respectively. The broad diaspora of weapons must have made logistics a major pain for the mission planners, but they all boast similar modifications. White furniture and chromed metal to reflect heat, raised scopes to allow for the user to aim while wearing a full space suit, and enlarged controls for easier handling.

>Cont

>>5740555

By the time you’ve made your way to your unit, you think you’ve spotted around five different nationalities by weaponry alone. Either way, you find your unit doing exactly what you expected. All five of them working on unloading a pair of crates, one marked with the hammer and sickle of the USSR and an ESA crate. None of them notice your arrival until well after you’ve parked up and disembarked from the LCV. Vera spots your arrival from your shadow, and turns to face you.

“Senior lieutenant!” Vera radios over on the squad network as she snaps off a quick salute. “How was the meeting?”

>Respond truthfully, you have new orders and you could use your squad’s help.
>Respond with a lie, you are meant to keep these orders secret. (roll 1d20)

>>5740557
>If I find that you have spoken a word about this briefing to anyone, you will be summarily executed for treason.
The colonel presents a compelling argument. Given that she's a radical communist, can't we just say that the interests of the USSR demand silence?

>>5740576
that would also work, desu I should have put in a write in option

>>5740576
I'm sure Soviet military personnel are used to being told "that's secret, don't enquire further if you know what's good for you".

>>5740576
Supporting

>>5740580
Based open-minded QM

>>5740576
Support

>>5740576
Support

File: VDV BMD squad gear.png (1.99 MB, 2389x2990)

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“Ah, nothing much.” You reply, taking a second to think of an acceptable answer in your head. While you could certainly use the help in your mission, the colonel presented a compelling argument against telling anyone about it.

“Anything interesting?” She asks casually as she turns back to the crate she was unloading. You don’t know what’s in the crate until you spot a sheet of paper pinned to the ground with a random rock, you pick it up as you mull over your answer.

“Sort of, but the interests of the USSR demand silence.” You reply as casually as you can, with the closest you can muster to ’don’t ask further if you know whats good for you’ without actually needing to say it.

“I see. Well, I hope that whatever it was is useful to the mission.” Vera replies as she pulls a box out of the crate, and inspects some markings on the side. Given that she's a radical, you have to assume that she’ll take the statement at face value, while the rest of your squad sees the poorly hidden note to stop talking about it.

“Anyways, what are we unloading here?” You shift the topic over before anyone lingers on it too much. From the load report in your hand, the european crate should contain a mix of LCV-carried equipment and general supplies. Extra oxygen, water, LCV parts and repair patches. But the Soviet crate that Vera and Feliks are unloading remains a mystery to you.

“Most of our firepower.” Feliks speaks up before Vera, soliciting what you assume is a bitter glare from her, as she has to turn part of her body and her helmet in order to look at the Polish Hussar. If he notices her, he doesn’t react. “Ammunition for the LCV, infantry arms, stuff like that.”

“Infantry weapons? I thought that was being carried aboard Buran?” Lio speaks up next as he pulls a large, white tank out from the ESA crate. He catches your glance, and gestures at the tank.

“If that tank is oxygen, then recharge the LCV’s tanks.” You reply to his unspoken question, before continuing on to the question of weapons. “And you’re partially right on the weapons front. Buran did have some weapons aboard, but only enough for the first platoon and the security detachment. Our weapons and the ones for the second platoon were offloaded to free up space for extra suits.”

“Still, that gives us a good opportunity to pick what we want. This crate has both our weapons, some more weapons for the rest of the platoon, and some extra stuff thrown in.” Feliks continues, handing a small box to Vera, who adds it to a stack of similar boxes. Judging by the size, you have to assume it’s ammunition of some sort.

“Extra stuff?” This time, the Romanian, Alin, asks the question as he wrestles a spare wheel out of the ESA crate, and starts rolling it towards the LCV. In response, Feliks simply reaches into the crate, and pulls out a massive shotgun. Rather tellingly, it lacks any of the changes made to the moon rifles.

>Cont

>>5740637

“You can’t tell me that something like this was planned from the start?” He grins happily, before putting the shotgun away. “And besides, there’s nothing to say that we can’t just borrow some equipment from the rest of the platoon.”

“Except that anything we take is something that they won’t have.” Vera points out with some heat in her words. And you do have to agree with her on that point. Besides, it’s not as if you’re ever going to be hurting for firepower. If you remember correctly, the squads should be armed similarly to a standard VDV BMD squad to match how you were organized at the platoon and company levels. The only difference was that the gunner-operator and squad leader were combined into one man, and the spare equipment was given to the driver-mechanic. That would give each squad four rifles, an RPK, an RPG-7, and a disposable RPG-18 for each of you. But as the RPG gunner typically only had a pistol to back him up, if you had to go inside the Nazi base, you’d have one man down to a sidearm. And that wasn’t a prospect that you were particularly enthusiastic about.

Still, there wasn’t anything stopping you from having a look. And if there was really an issue you could call over Maks and the major to divide the equipment out.

>Have a look through the crate, and see what you can find.
>Just take what you’re assigned and mount up.

>>5740638
>Have a look through the crate, and see what you can find
Let's see what might augment our chances of success

>>5740638
>Have a look through the crate, and see what you can find.

Looking doesn’t necessarily mean taking

>>5740638
>>Have a look through the crate, and see what you can find.

>>5740638
>Have a look through the crate, and see what you can find.

“Well, there’s nothing stopping us from having a look. Besides, what better way is there for us to take inventory of our equipment?” You point out before turning to LCV, where you see Lio standing over the oxygen tank as it pumps it’s contents into the vehicle’s main storage tank. “Höffner, once you’re done with that come and give us a hand with offloading and taking inventory the infantry arms.”

Over the next fifteen minutes, you, Vera, Feliks, and Lio completely empty the supply crate. You make a small pile of munitions for the LCV, which Kacper and Alin can load once they’re finished with the ESA crate. And in another pile, you unpack and lay out the various weapons assigned to your platoon.

In all, there’s enough firepower for everyone. There are fifteen rifles -broken down further into six with full-length barrels and nine carbines- a trio of RPK light machine guns, another three stetchkin pistols for the officers, and three RPG-7 rocket launchers. All of these weapons have been modified for lunar combat, and feature white furniture and chromed metal to reflect heat and raised scopes or sights for easier aiming. Compared to a VDV squad, you’ve lost your RPG-18s, but all things considered you think that they’re the one thing you can afford to lose. You don’t think that there’ll be many options to use them inside the nazi base, even if the walls are meant to be meters thick.

Of these, the only real choice you could think of making would be to swap your squad’s two full-length rifles for carbines, or two of your carbines for rifles. The shorter barrels would make them more maneuverable in the close confines of the nazi base, but the rifles had a higher muzzle velocity and thus more power in each shot. You’d have to keep one carbine for your RPG gunner -in this case Kacper- so that he had an alternative to his launcher, unless you could convince one of the other squads to trade a rifle for a rocket launcher. Back on earth that would be easy, but up here things were different. If you wanted to, you could also trade your launcher for an RPK, or back the other way. An extra RPK would give you more sustained firepower, while an ezra launcher could give you more options to blow stuff up.

>Cont

>>5740734

Past that stock level of supplies, it seems that the men who were loading the crate figured that you could use some extra firepower. You’ve got a good spread of weapons, ranging from a couple of fairly nasty looking fire axes, four Patriotic War ear Tokarevs that were probably illegally obtained, three shotguns -two double barrel guns and that massive one that Feliks showed off, a KS-23 going by the land-, and even a mosin nagant with a positively ancient PU scope. All of these weapons had some basic modifications to make them usable in a space suit, like removing the trigger guard or fixing a large bit of metal onto the magazine release and safety buttons to make them easy to engage. But past that, they were entirely stock. You could probably make use of the axes up-close and personal, and the shotguns and pistols could give you extra options as well. The mosin also represented your only real long-range weapon, and probably had the most armor-piercing capabilities of the bunch. But all of these “free” weapons came at the cost of having no other ammunition aside from what they were sent with. And that came to a few magazines for each pistol, around two dozen shells for each shotgun, and even fewer bullets for the mosin.

>Take some weapons from the other squads! You have some ideas on how you can use the weapons. (Rifles for carbines or vise-versa? RPG for RPK or vise versa?)
>Take some of the donated weapons! If the workers want to contribute to killing nazis, then who are you to oppose? (Axe, pistols, shotguns, rifle? And if so, do you have any preference for who gets what?)
>Leave it, you can work with what you have.

>>5740737
>Take some of the donated weapons! If the workers want to contribute to killing nazis, then who are you to oppose? (Axe, rifle; give the rifle to our best marksman)

>>5740737
>Take some weapons from the other squads! You have some ideas on how you can use the weapons.
RPG for all

>>5741007
Support

>>5740737
>>Take some of the donated weapons! If the workers want to contribute to killing nazis, then who are you to oppose?

>>5740737
>Take some of the donated weapons! If the workers want to contribute to killing nazis, then who are you to oppose?
Shotguns preferably the KS-23. I don't suspect big open spaces in the moonbase of the nazis, atleast not where we would be fighting indoors, so shotguns seem a good choice for close quarters combat.

>>5740737
>Take some of the donated weapons! If the workers want to contribute to killing nazis, then who are you to oppose?
It would be good to have the rifle in case of long range firefights, who knows what the nazis have by now. Shotguns are useful for close quarters. AKs for in between.

>>5740737
>Take some of the donated weapons! If the workers want to contribute to killing nazis, then who are you to oppose?
Shotguns and grenades if available

File: moon mosin.png (20 KB, 330x192)

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For a second, you briefly consider grabbing all of the RPGs in the crate and just saying that they weren’t included. But taking extra firepower from the other squads is out of the question, at least until the other squad leaders show up to collect their gear. But the donated weapons? You could take what you liked and probably get away with it as long as you hid them in the LCV’s stowage bins.

“So, who here wants a blast from the past?” You say as you reach over, and pick up the mosin nagant. Ballistics on the moon were supposed to be far more forgiving compared to back on earth, so the old rifle would probably serve you better than back home. The AKs could probably match it at range, but the rifle had the extra power in each shot to punch through suits.

“Alin, you trained as a marksman, right?” Vera asks as the Romanian finishes packing up a toolkit into one of the LCV’s external stowage bins.

“I did, does that fossil have a sling?” Alin replied as he bounded over.

“It does, so you can keep your rifle if you’d like.” You presented the bundled-up sling along with the rifle. Alin smiled, and nodded as he took them both from you.

“Good. I’d rather not have to use this thing up close.” Alin chuckled as he unwound the sling, and started to affix it to the rifle with a practiced ease. “I never thought I’d be using one of these up here, I thought I’d seen the last of them in basic training.”

“And the rest of us?” Kacper asked as he joined your rapidly growing group.

“Take the shotguns and the axes, they’ll serve us better inside the base.” You decide to take the best for your squad, and leave the tokarevs for the rest of the platoon. It’ll probably leave the other squads bereft of firepower, but that’s definitely a problem for them and not you. Right now, your only question is what you’ll take alongside your existing loadout. Right now you have an AK and a stechkin automatic pistol, but you could always add a little extra to it.

An axe would give you a better CQC option than your bare hands. That big and sharp axe head could do a lot of damage, while the sharp pick-end on the reverse of the head could probably punch into space suits with little problem. Speaking of powerful punches, the shotguns could probably punch someone off their feet in the low gravity conditions. But that presented another question, did you take the double-barrel or that massive gun that Feliks had shown off earlier. The double-barrel could give you the ability to quickly snap off a second shot if your first one missed, but you were a bit worried about how a normal 12-gauge round would work against space suits. The massive shotgun didn’t have that issue, but the recoil alone would prevent you from snap-shots.

>Cont

>>5741583

>Take the axe, you’ll need a better melee option than your bare hands.
>Take the double-barrel shotgun, having the ability to do a follow-up shot is always useful.
>Take the big shotgun, bigger is always better and that thing could probably kill aircraft.
>Leave them all to your squadmates, your standard pistol will be enough.
>Other (write-in)

>>5741585
>Take the axe, you’ll need a better melee option than your bare hands.
I’m a simple man with simple needs

>>5741585
>Take the big shotgun, bigger is always better and that thing could probably kill aircraft.
+
>Take the axe, you’ll need a better melee option than your bare hands.
The axe has good tactical usage like cutting wires/cables in the nazi base if need be.

>>5741585
>Take the axe, you’ll need a better melee option than your bare hands.
>Take the double-barrel shotgun, having the ability to do a follow-up shot is always useful.
Leave the KS for the RPG gunner

>>5741585
>Take the axe, you’ll need a better melee option than your bare hands.

>>5741585
>Take the double-barrel shotgun, having the ability to do a follow-up shot is always useful

>>5741585

>Take the double-barrel shotgun, having the ability to do a follow-up shot is always useful.

This strikes a nice balance.

File: fire axe.png (73 KB, 663x274)

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The first thing you grab is one of the two fire axes. On their own they’d do some gnarly damage in a fight, especially if you planted the blade through someone’s visor. And whoever packed them had the good grace to sharpen the reverse-end pike and make it thinner. If the main blade couldn’t punch into a suit, then the pike could probably do it. And past that, there was just something about a man in an armored space suit with an axe that just screamed ‘bad news’ whenever you pictured it in your mind. So the psychological effect could give you an edge all on it’s own.


You cover the axe head with a leather cover that was provided with it, and tuck it into your belt. It’ll probably smack against you as you move, but all things considered, it probably didn’t matter that much when compared to how weird it was to move in these suits anyways.

You also decide to take a shotgun, but you’re not sure about which one to go for. While the larger shotgun would certainly pack a punch, there probably wasn’t much difference between it and one of the double-barrels that got stuffed into the crate. Ultimately, you spend too long thinking about which of the two to take, and the choice is made for you when Kacper picks up the large pump-action weapon. He pumps the weapon once, and a feral grin splits his face.

Yikes, now you feel a bit bad for the Nazis.

You turn away, and snatch up the last shotgun. While the weapon does have a sling, you could probably scrounge up a torch or hacksaw to saw the damn thing off to make it stash on your suit. A sawed off shotgun and an axe in close quarters would be a nightmare for whoever you’d run into in the base. You sling the shotgun over your shoulder, and shove the loose shells into some of your empty pouches, roughly four shells to a pouch. That way, if you fumbled your reload you’d only lose four shells rather than all of them.

From there, you and the unit start loading up the rest of your equipment. You hand out the squad’s weapons while Vera passes out pre-loaded magazines, and a few cartons of loose rounds, just in case you run out in the field and couldn’t return to the LCV. You save your weapons for last, shoving your stetchkin into its stock-holster, and affixing it to your leg. Your rifle is last, and as you pick it up you fumble around in your pocket for a little something that was never meant to be part of your kit, and will probably be scrubbed out of any official photographs.

It’s the last two links of a machine gun belt, the connector where two belts would be joined together and a slot for a single round.

>Cont

>>5741681

It takes some work, but you eventually manage to clip the linking end of the belt around the rifle’s barrel, between the gas block and the front sight post. Once it’s in place, you carefully pull back the bolt, and eject a round into your waiting hand. You then carefully slot the round into the empty link, and orient the entire assembly to sit atop the barrel, so that the new addition doesn’t get in the way of your bayonet.

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>5741683

Can I get another 2 rolls?

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5741714

Here’s one, I don’t wanna do both

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5741714

File: AK last round.jpg (68 KB, 630x355)

68 KB JPG

You rotate the holdout round into position, and once satisfied you sling the rifle over your shoulder and walk over to the LCV. Vera is too busy loading up boxes of ammunition to notice your approach, and starts a bit as you move past her to get into the LCV. You quickly find your ‘seat’ in the turret, and stash your gear nearby. The AK goes onto a rack on the side of the turret, while you lash the shotgun to one of the turret basket’s supporting members with some velcro straps, and the axe goes into a random storage bag.

You’ve just finished doing up the straps on the axe-stowage bag when your radio crackles into life, and a crisp upper-class British voice assaults your ears. “All squad leaders, please report to the command vehicle for the final briefing.”

“Huh, that’s sudden. We’ve only been groundside for an hour.” You sigh as you turn in your seat, and climb into the passenger bay of the LCV. From the fact that there are still boxes of ammunition and supplies lying around, you’re not ready to go. And given that the final briefing is meant to happen just before you all form up and head for the Nazi base, you’re just a bit concerned.

“I guess that means we’re ahead of schedule?” Vera shrugs as you approach, a move which you actually pride yourself on noticing. The bulky space suits have an annoying tendency to make it much harder to read body language. “We still have our supplies to handle, and I’m sure that the rest of the platoon will be coming over to collect them.”

Those two points are part of what concerns you about attending the briefing so soon. As-per the mission briefing, you’re meant to attend the final briefing with Vera so that you can both be briefed on the plan, so that she can take over if you get killed. That being said, you can’t imagine that the plan would have changed that much from the ground-side briefings.

Unless the Nazis somehow came up with a tank battalion, you can’t imagine that the plan would have changed that much. And given how the supply situation affected not only your squad, but also the entire platoon, you could reasonably excuse Vera’s presence. Alternatively, you could also excuse your presence, and send Vera in your place.

>Take Vera to the briefing. You are still required to bring her, and you won’t be held responsible for any loss of face.
>Leave Vera with the squad. You need to get the supply situation solved, and she can handle it.
>Send Vera to the briefing. You can use this opportunity to handle your other objective.

>>5741779
>Take Vera to the briefing. You are still required to bring her, and you won’t be held responsible for any loss of face.

>>5741779
>>Take Vera to the briefing. You are still required to bring her, and you won’t be held responsible for any loss of face.

>>5741779
>Take Vera to the briefing. You are still required to bring her, and you won’t be held responsible for any loss of face.

This is just good policy, in case we are incapacitated

“Well, we’d better get going.” You say as you jump off the back of the LCV, hovering in the void for a scant second longer than on earth thanks to the low gravity. Once your feet are back on the ground, you turn to address the squad. “Can you four handle this while we’re gone?”

Your immediate response is a surprisingly unprofessional snort from Lio. “Lieutenant, please, we’re not some new conscripts. We can handle this.”

“Good. See about finding the first and second squads while we’re gone so that they can collect their gear. The last thing we want is for them to only be able to throw rude gestures at the enemy rather than bullets.” You nod, before gesturing for Vera to follow you deeper into the supply dump.

As you make your way into the center of the dump, you find that your squad isn’t the only one behind schedule. As you walk, you find many assorted astronauts and cosmonauts working feverishly to offload the various crates, and move their supplies to where they need to be. Rather tellingly, you find that most of them have their weapons close to hand, an indicator that they felt that the small chance that the Nazis were moving to intercept your force was still too great for them to ignore. Deeper in, you see both sides of the cold war working together, as people from both sides help to replace or service some part of a light walker before it’s time to head off.

As it turns out, you manage to make it to the briefing neither too early, or too late. By your reckoning, around half of the squad leaders are already here, with the rest probably on their way. Unsurprisingly, the officers seem to be grouping up based on which side of the iron curtain they’re on. The cosmonauts on one side, and the western astronauts on the other.

>Stick with the rest of the cosmonauts. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may as well be in good company.
>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.

>>5741868
>>Stick with the rest of the cosmonauts. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may as well be in good company.

>>5741868

>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.

“пpивeт, Americanskis - how do you do?”

>>5741868
>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions

>>5741868
>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.
Vera’s gonna be pissed but we might find something out

>>5741868
>>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.

>>5741868
Are there no officers from any major unalligned countries, e.g. Yugoslavia and India?
>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.
They are comrades as well, eventhough they aren't enlightened yet by our communist ways. Vera should understand, else she can go stand with the other officers if she likes.

>>5741868
>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.

>>5741868
>Stand among the westerners. If you’re going to stand around for the next quarter to half an hour, you may use the opportunity to try and get a feel for their reactions.

File: Moon route map.png (1.22 MB, 1260x1260)

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Vera almost passes you in her haste to join the rest of your comrades, but you hold your hand in her way and gently stop her. You half-turn to face her, before jerking a thumb towards the western astronauts. People who -aside from the national flags- are wearing the exact same suits as you. And given that the flags are only fitted to the suit’s shoulders and chest, you think that there’s a good chance to blend in amongst them if you can find a good spot where the westerners can’t see one of your shoulders and your chest, and you can keep your remaining flag on your shadowed side.

Vera’s only response is to give you a look that could be best described as a combination of confused and annoyed, but she follows you nonetheless.

You choose a spot at the far-left back of the western group. Not a good place for reading faces but also a spot where you can probably snoop on them without too much issue. Just to make sure, though, you stand a bit close to some Belgian astronauts. The Belgian flag is black-red-yellow, or is it red-yellow-black? You’re not sure which, but you hope that they’re as blind as they were in the past two world wars.

Seriously, who gets invaded by the same country twice and doesn’t learn diligence from it?

Either way, you’re pretty sure you avoid notice as the rest of the squad and platoon leaders filter in. The combined force forms a rough semi-circle around a crate with some maps and pictures pinned to it with tape, and illuminated by the sun. The map shows the most recent satellite photograph of the area with your landing zone as a green square, the crater with the Nazi base in a red circle and the rough locations of the mission objectives in gold, your route between them as a blue line, and zones with severe shadows that the force could easily be ambushed from along the way lined and marked with orange.

Given how some of the orange-circled craters closer to the landing zone have been struck-out with white, you have to assume that the moon hoppers have already been sent out to scout the route but haven’t found anything yet.

As the meeting starts up, you find yourself only half listening to a plan that you’ve already heard maybe a dozen times before. Once everyone is ready to go, you’ll form up into an armored column, and move along the blue line towards the objective. The moon hoppers, light walkers, and security teams will act as the main scout and security elements, with the rest of you only dismounting and moving slowly as you approach a section of the route where the rim of the crater casts a nearly ten kilometer long stretch of shadow where the rim of the crater obscures the floor. Not only is that section a perfect ambush location, but the terrain there is also completely unknown, so keeping everyone dismounted and moving slowly will keep the force relatively safe from either ambush or running into an unexpected crater. After that, you'll mount up again and make your way to the main crater.

>Cont

>>5742399

Past that, it’s almost a straight shot to the nazi-occupied crater. Once you get there, you’ll assault down the north-north-east face, with moon hoppers and heavy walkers providing fire support for the LCVs and light walkers as they enter the crater, and push into the base. You would also be supported by illumination flares which would mean that the Nazis can’t use the natural shadow of the crater to hide.

As far as you can tell, there are no major changes to the plan. Around six hours there, another six back, and up to twelve hours at the base. No major detours, and you should be all done with more than enough oxygen to spare. But quite frankly, you’re not really listening to the briefing, instead, you’re trying your best to observe the westerners.

>Roll 1d20, best of three.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5742400
Americans cannot into opsec

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5742400
how do you do, fellow capitalist westerners?

>>5742400

>>5742416
Forgot the roll lol

>>5742419
Nevermind i just fucking can’t do it

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5742420
Wait I remember

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5742420
Wait I remember

>>5742425
Ignore this one

Sorry for the autism qm

Highest roll is 12, let's hope that's enough to eavesdrop some capitalist secrets.
(I'm still intrigued if any unaligned countries participated in this mission aswell).

You’ve always pegged yourself as someone that's good at reading cues. You had to develop that skill early in life, like a lot of kids in the less fortunate households across the soviet union. But unlike a lot of them, your skills paid out across school, training, and operations in the field. It’s one of the few skills that you’ve spent a significant amount of effort to develop and maintain over the years.

But even with your skills, you’re having a lot of trouble figuring out the westerners. Not only are they wearing bulky suits that easily muffle most subtle reactions, but they’re also facing away from you which means that you can’t read their expressions. Still, given how some of them are shifting on their feet, you think that a few of them are uncomfortable with the plan overall. And you’d have to have been a fool to have not noticed a number of helmets turning to look at the various cosmonauts when the UN commander began talking about how the various warsaw pact forces would be taking the lead in the main assault, while the westerners would lead through the various shadowed areas on the route. If you had to guess, the westerners were uncomfortable at the idea of not getting the first crack at the base.

Vera taps you with her foot halfway through the briefing -or to be more precise, steps on your foot to make sure that you noticed the move through the thick padding. You look over in time to see her flash a series of numbers with her hands. You quickly catch her meaning, she’s found at least one western communications frequency for you to listen into. You consider it for a few seconds, and find yourself unsure about if you should listen in or not. While you were given some english language training, a lot of it was oriented towards identifying orders and using that to get an edge in tactical movements. So you’re not too sure on your chances of figuring out anything of value. But on the other hand, tone is often a big indicator for meaning, and as long as you don’t talk into the microphone you should be able to get away with it.

>Listen to the western radio channel, you may still learn something (roll 1d20-2, best of 3 rolls)
>Note the frequency, but don’t listen in yet. You may get more use out of it later.
>Other (write-in)

>>5742487
>Listen to the western radio channel, you may still learn something (roll 1d20-2, best of 3 rolls)

>>5742487
>>Listen to the western radio channel, you may still learn something (roll 1d20-2, best of 3 rolls)

>>5742487
>Listen to the western radio channel, you may still learn something (roll 1d20-2, best of 3 rolls)

My bad on this one, you should be better with english given that you understood the conversations on the Enterprise, that was a fuck up on my bad, so the roll negatives have been dropped.

===================================

You reach over, and punch the indicated frequency into the pad on your arm. It takes a bit longer than expected, given that you have to try and do it without people paying too much attention to you. But if the Belgians next to you kept up the trend, then you were probably fine.

A few seconds later, you’re rewarded by a brief burst of static, and some native english that you have a bit of trouble understanding.

>Roll 1d20, best of three wins

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5742519
KGB A C T I V A T E

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>5742519
THE NUMBERS MASON

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5742519
WHAT YOU SAY COMRADE?

>>5742521
Nice

File: Herr Uber-Dokor Richtofen.jpg (41 KB, 445x529)

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“-ing weird situation, though.” You connect in the middle of a conversation. “I mean, we’re up here, fighting moon nazis, and we’ve got the old war gang back together.”

“God Barry, are you ever gonna stop bitching?” Another voice replies to the first in an exasperated tone, you peg that they’ve had this conversation many times before just a few seconds before the second speaker confirms your suspicions. “I mean, come on. You’ve been on about this crap ever since we got this mission. That’s like, what, six months?”

“Hey! It ain’t my fault that this entire situation is something out of a shitty comic. Jesus, now all we need is some busty red lady for eye candy and for this whole operation to be headed by some creepy bastard with a monocle and some stupid name like ‘Herr Uber-Doktor Richtofen’ and his evil plan to gas the world.” The first one -Barry- continues the rant, you don’t need any of your skills to tell that he finds this entire situation to be completely stupid. And it warms your heart to know that the feeling is absolutely mutual.

“Yeah, and you’d be the fucking nobody who gets iced on the first page to set the tone. You’re just mad that you’re stuck with the-” The second man starts to answer, his tone rising to match Barry, but he’s shut down almost instantly.

“Zero.” A third person speaks up, and you instantly peg them as the unit’s commander by the mix of exasperation and authority in their voice, and how the conversation immediately dies the moment they speak. Granted, the silence doesn’t hold for long, as within a minute, the two from before start talking again.

“Still, I’d actually like to know how they managed all of this. No way they got up here back in the forties.” Another American -not one of the earlier three- begins the conversation, his tone slightly confused by an odd drawl that you’d usually place in some of those western films that got smuggled into Bagram back just before you left.

“Who said it was the forties? Besides, who’d help them? You know what Ivan would have done to them, and given this whole situation, I can’t blame them.” Barry answers with a tone far more subdued than when you first heard him. You have to infer that he doesn’t want to piss off his commanding officer again.

“Well Bar, you’ll have all the time in the world to ask once we get inside. Shit, maybe they’ll even walk you through it without the bullshit to avoid getting grabbed by Ivan.” The officer says over the radio in a far less icy tone than before. If you weren’t well used to that tone, you’d almost call it conversational.

>Cont

>>5742572

Either way, you’ve hit a jackpot, at least one American unit is looking to grab some of the scientists and evacuate them. You still don't know the size of the unit and if they have shoot-to-kill orders if anyone tries to intervene, but you have enough to really help second platoon once you tell their commander. Still, even if you don't stay to listien, you could still see about jumping between similar channels on the same frequency band, or you could just throw in the towel now so that second platoon can be sure that the frequency isn't compromised.

>Try and find other American squad frequencies, maybe you can find out more with a bit of effort? (roll 1d20, best of three)
>Keep listening to this squad. If they’re this loose with OPSEC, then it might just be a goldmine.
>Disconnect quietly. You’ve got something to work with, and you don’t want to run the risk of them noticing that their comms are compromised.
>Other (write-in)

>>5742578
>Keep listening to this squad. If they’re this loose with OPSEC, then it might just be a goldmine.
It's dangerous, but I would like to identify WHAT unit it is if possible.

>>5742578
>Keep listening to this squad. If they’re this loose with OPSEC, then it might just be a goldmine.

>>5742578
>Keep listening to this squad. If they’re this loose with OPSEC, then it might just be a goldmine.

>>5742578

>Keep listening to this squad. If they’re this loose with OPSEC, then it might just be a goldmine.

I’m sure they’ll cough up something

File: yankee worst nightmare.jpg (34 KB, 639x318)

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You briefly consider flicking through the different channels and seeing if you could replicate the success. But that thought is quickly and efficiently tried for presenting such a stupid idea and executed for the good of the proletariat. Vera found this channel either by watching someone punch it into their own radio, or by sheer dumb luck. As such, you decide to keep listening in, even if it runs the risk that the Americans might notice you listening in.

“God, the reds. Now that’s a whole other back of bull to deal with.” Barry continues, even if his bag and bull comment does leave you a bit confused. Do they transport bulls in bags in America? Or do they measure bull meat by a set side of bag? Your training didn’t cover things like that.

“Eh, it’s not all bad boss. They’ve got different suits to us, so we know who they are at a glance. Can’t say the same about the limeys or the frogs.” One of the voices from before replies. Are limey and frog nicknames for other countries? Now it’s just getting confusing.

“Most of them, sure. But they did have that squad aboard the enterprise.They have the same suits as us. So they could be among us right now and we’d never know~” Barry dramatically trails off the sentence, and you think you spot him in the crowd ahead of you doing a weird hand gesture.

“Yeah, what’s up with that anyhow? Those two commie shuttles should have had enough room for them. Why did they get packed in with us?” The questioning man with the odd drawl in his voice asks again. You tentatively pin his voice to the nickname ‘cowboy’, if only down to the accent.

“Two reds, a German, two Poles, and a Romanian. They probably didn’t meet the party’s standards for loyalty.” The other unnamed American dismissively snorts over the radio, you peg his as ‘asshole’ just as you give Vera a glance. Even though she isn’t looking at you, you can tell that the unintended insult has got her completely riled up.

“Or, they’re their most loyal personnel, and they put ‘em in with us to gather intel.” The icy officer from earlier offers the counter argument, and helps you considerably by unknowingly placating Vera’s bruised ego, given how the tension that just flooded Vera seems to seep away.

“Still, I’d hate to have to deal with any bullshit from them while the Nazis are still kicking. Hell, if we can avoid the bullshit entirely then I’d be able to leave here a happy man.” Barry continues, completely side-stepping the insinuation that you and Vera had been taking detailed records of what happened on Enterprise. Not that the insinuation had any merit, anyone within a three seat radius of you was probably hoping that you’d be taking the trip back aboard Buran, just to get away from your intentionally bad star trek references.

>Cont

>>5742649

“Fuck off, like you weren’t peddling that ‘moon marine’ bullshit to every chick in the bar.” ‘Asshole’ replies, before sighing. “But you’re not wrong there, I don’t want this op to get any deadlier than it has to be.”

“Then we’d better be quick, Ivan’s gonna want the exact same shit as us, and they might just send in more than a couple of squads.” The commander says again. You struggle to find a name that works for him, iceman has a nice zing to it, but you swear you’ve heard it before.

“Yeah, but our squads are bigger. Up close that’ll-” ‘Cowboy’ points out, only for one of his squadmates to cut him off.

“And they’ve got more firepower. Don’t you remember the briefing? They’re going off VDV force structure, so we can’t hold a corner without expecting a rocket.” Barry interrupts his squadmate, and you feel yourself stiffen a bit at the news. You jest about manage to contain yourself though, something that Vera completely fails to do as she takes a sharp breath at the news.

“Hold on, did one of you just gasp?” The American leader immediately reacts as you clamp down hard on your breathing, willing your body to make the least noise possible as you wait.

>Keep quiet and hope that they don’t notice you. (roll 2d20, one for you and one for vera, overall best of 3 wins)
>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.
>Say something to fuck with the Americans before you disconnect from their frequency. (write-in)

>>5742651

>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.

Oops, time to hop off

>>5742651
>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.

>>5742651
>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.
Alright, we got enough info already, time to work the info and ease vera

>>5742651
>Say something to fuck with the Americans before you disconnect from their frequency. (write-in)
>”Stay off the public channels, пpидypки.”

>>5742651
>>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.

>>5742651
>Say something to fuck with the Americans before you disconnect from their frequency. (write-in)
"Ve have cargo. Over"

>>5742651
>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.

>>5742704
Support

>>5742651
>>Disconnect quietly. You can’t afford to be compromised, especially when you have their frequency.

You decide not to push your luck, and disconnect from the American channel. You’re just raising your hand to give the “cut” gesture to Vera, but she interrupts you with a thumbs up as she adjusts her own radio system. A few seconds later, your radio crackles into life again as she connects to the private channel between the two of you.

“I’m sorry, senior lieutenant. I wasn’t aware that my microphone was active.” Vera apologizes as soon as the connection stabilizes.

“No need to apologize, I was shocked by the news too.” You admit with a sigh, wishing that you could rub the bridge of your nose. You had expected that the Americans could have identified how the soviet forces were organized at the company level, just like how the Soviet Army was able to identify how different western military forces were organized at a similar level. But the fact that they also knew how such a force was equipped at the squad level was completely unexpected.

Still, you could probably use it to your advantage. If you could gather some tubes that were roughly the same size as RPG-18s, and then dress them up a bit, then you could play into the American expectations. They mainly seemed to be reluctant about engaging you and your allies specifically because they thought you held the firepower advantage. If they figured out that you didn’t actually have a rocket launcher per person, then they’d be far more willing to engage in a fight.

Still, with that done you decide not to push your luck. And you choose to listen to the last few bits of the briefing. You’d missed the breakdown on the assault into the crater, but you weren’t a lead element, so you could afford to not listen too closely. By the time you tune in, they’d gone way past that, and were in the middle of the final questions and answer section.

Someone asked about what the rules of engagement were inside the base, and they were told that the same ROE as on the surface applied. AKA, if they weren’t in a western or soviet space suit, then shoot to kill. The question of civilians was next, and the UN commander gave standing orders to notify command if civilians were encountered, so that they could be moved to a central location for holding and possible evacuation. And one of the final questions was about when you could expect the shuttles to arrive to pick you all back up.

Nobody asked about retreat plans, or contingency plans if things went catastrophically wrong. As it turned out, the moon itself acted as a very good stand in for blocking troops.

Soon after that, you were all dismissed with orders to finish loading up equipment, and to prepare to move off. But for you, the choice was just a bit more complex than ‘return to your squad and get them organized’.

>Find the Colonel and relay your findings.
>Find the Major and sort out the weapons situation.
>Follow the Americans and see what they’re up to (roll 1d20-1)
>Return to your squad and get them ready to move.

>>5743299
>Find the Colonel and relay your findings.

>>5743299
>Find the Colonel and relay your findings

>>5743299
>Follow the Americans and see what they’re up to (roll 1d20-1)
We could catch the doing their final preparations on whatever they’re up to

>>5743299
>Find the Colonel and relay your findings.
We taking Vera with us?

>>5743299
>Find the Colonel and relay your findings.

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383 KB JPG

Once the briefing is over, you watch Colonel Sharshin leave towards his vehicle -something that you’d almost have confused for a SAM battery command vehicle- where he strikes up a conversation with another officer, probably his aid but you can’t be sure. Something you can be sure of, is that the Americans whose frequency you snooped in on were probably keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary as the crowd dispersed, so heading straight for the colonel would probably give you away.

“Head back to the squad, I need to report our findings to the colonel before he heads off somewhere else.” You instruct your XO as you turn to leave. With any luck, you’d blend in amongst the other pairs of unit leaders as they left. The pair of you head into the maze of assorted crates and half-unloaded supplies to break line of sight with anyone who might have been observing you, before you break off and circle around towards the colonel’s vehicle. As you approach, you quickly switch your radio over to the command channel, and try to hear if the colonel is occupied with someone else.

“Senior lieutenant Volkov. I take it that the two of you have something to report?” The colonel’s voice emerges from your headset before you even had a chance to announce that you had connected to the channel. You immediately stop and salute on reflex, well before the colonel turns to face you.

“Yes sir, during the course of the briefing I successfully managed to intercept local communications from an American squad, and felt that the findings were of importance to the entire company.” You immediately report as you lament the fact that your XO was the one who found the American frequency, and that you didn’t ask her how she did it. Still, you continue with your report. “During the course of radio monitoring, I was able to learn that the Americans are planning on deploying a small contingent of their force to find and raid Nazi labs with the specific mission of capturing scientists. They intend to move fast in order to avoid a confrontation with us, as they believe that we are following a firepower-heavy organization profile based on the standard mounted VDV squad setup.”

The colonel -now fully facing you- doesn’t appear to care too much about that information, but he does give you a small nod. “That’s good, they are doing exactly what we expect them to do. But I must ask, what prompted you to seek out American radio frequencies?”

>Cont

>>5743424

“That is the mission I volunteered to undertake. I felt that searching for American radio frequencies while I was right next to them would be a more useful use of the time compared to a briefing that we’ve all been told before.” You reply with a half truth. While you weren’t the one to look for American radio communications, you did have the idea to try and gather intelligence on them rather than listening to the briefing.

The colonel nods, before asking the question that you’d hoped that he wouldn’t ask. “And how did you find the American radio frequency?”

>Lie. You found the frequency by flicking through the channels, or something. (roll 1d20-1)
>Tell the truth. Vera found the frequency and reported it to you immediately.