Mercenary Story Rewrite
 

I'm now starting from scratch with my mercenary story. It'll still keep the same main characters, but it will go in a different direction. Here's my new weapons list:

- Greg Archer's sidearm is a Kimber Warrior II fitted with a beavertail grip safety, a Commander style combat hammer, Novak sights, and Pachmayr rubber grips. His main rifle is now a Vektor R5 fitted with two 30 round magazines clipped together.

- Ares' main sidearm is a Heckler & Koch Mk. 23 Mod. 0. His secondary sidearm is a IMI Desert Eagle Mk. XIX in .44 Magnum and fitted with a stainless frame. His main rifle is a Vektor CR-21 fitted with a SUAT scope in place of the 1x optical sight. He also uses a Barrett M107 sniper rifle (which he nicknames "The Beast of Burden") to kill Somali pirates. He also uses a Remington 870 fitted with a Speedfeed stock, spare shell holder mounted on receiver, Surefire 618 weaponlight, and ghost ring sights.

- Rocco's main weapon is a FN FAL 50.00 fitted with a 30 round magazine.

- Johnny's main rifle is a Vektor R6. He also carries a Remington 870 fitted with a Tac Star pistol grip, door breaching muzzle break, and a spare shell holder.

-Katie's main weapon is a Heckler & Koch MP5K PDW fitted with a M68 Aimpoint Scope and two 30 round magazines clipped together. Her main sidearm is stainless steel Kahr K9.

What's he compensating for? :p

What do you mean by compensating?

Think Freud rather than Hathcock....


hehehehe, "Hathcock" hehehehehe

Ares should have an MP7, MP5K, Mini/micro Uzi or something like that rather than a Mk23 and Desert Eagle. He should have a small SMG and a small pistol. He already has a 30+ pound rifle, give him a pistol that dosn't weight 3 pounds. Try a Glock 21 rather than the Mk23 and a small SMG for the Desert Eagle.

How about a Glock 18C and a Glock 26? I agree he already has a heavy rifle. Not only is there weight to take into account but just the bulk. Having him equipped with both a Mk 23 and a Desert Eagle is a lot of weight and bulk. Gonna give the poor guy a hernia.

I've should tell you that Ares is very muscular. He has very strong arms, but no six-pack. He can fire the two handguns with ease and the Barrett would only make his arms sore.

Glock 18C would be good, especaily if you stuck the optional stock in his backpack. Also, why the Barret .50? it's huge, uses massive rounds, and atracts too much atention. You should be somewhat inconsicuous, and the big .50... I don't know. It seems like the wrong gun, even if he is a giant. Try a Galil sniper, an L96, Remmington 700.

I'll take your advice on this one. Ares will only use the Barrett when he needs heavier fire power. His main sniper weapon will be a Knight's Armament SR-25 fitted with a suppressor, Harris bipod, PRS Stock, and Eclan DigitalHunter scope. I thought you guys would be upset with a woman being a mercenary.

I have no objection to woman killing men, as long as the man is not me. As a mercenary? Why not? Besides, you can always have her go into town first to check things out. One woman is less suspicious than a half-dozen guys with lots of stuff.

BTW, should'n' somebody have a machine gun? FN MAG, PKM, Minimi Para, somthing like that? On Second though, How about an Ultimax? It's South African (I think, or is it from Singapore?), light, and takes 100-round drums.

maybe a lmg mounted on the boat. How will the boat be decked out anyway, being the place they live?

The boat is a Namacurra class patrol boat called the Nostromo. It's main support weapons are two Vektor SS-77 machine guns and a Browning M2. A few of the rooms have been redesigned to serve as private quarters for the mercs.

Describing the rooms may give the characters a little depth

Yeah, I agree. A person's bedroom is probably the most personal place a person can have, so how it's arranged can be very telling of a person's personality.

But then again, if you saw how unorganized my room is, you'd think I wouldn't be able to keep track of my head if it wasn't screwed on when, in fact, I know where every needle in my haystack is. :D

Now where's the TV remote....? :confused:

My room is the same. What's Katie like? I can imagine the guys, but what's she like? A good-looking Laura Croft type, who thinks it's cool or exiting? An unatractive, looks-like-a-braniac-but-has-the skills of Jason Bourne? An angry-at-the-world killer? I'm curious. What movie character would you compare her too?

I've been there, buddy. Anyway, I'll describe Greg's bedroom:

When entering, on the right side is a bed with a cast iron bed frame and a quilt in place of a blanket. Underneath the bed is a trunk filled with the following items: a bottle of dark rum (Greg mentions he got it imported from Panama), a carton of Marlboro Red Label 100's, a copy of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a box of .45 hollowpoints, and a Springfield Ultra Compact fitted with Hogue grips (his spare gun, which he later gives to Katie as a gift). On the left side of the room his a beated up dresser where he keeps his clothes. On top of the dresser is a cassette player. He listens to Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Wings, and Plastic Ono Band. In the middle of the room is a fine desk made of cherry wood and a metal folding chair at it. On top of the desk is his cleaning kit for his .45.

I describe Katie having a great body with breasts the size of grapefruits. She has light brown curly hair and a slight tannish tone to her skin. She is very good with guns and prefers to keep her Kahr tucked in the back of her pants. She doesn't smoke, but drinks Castle Lager beer and Sherry (shown in one scene where she and Greg are lying in his bed drinking from a bottle of seven year old Amontillado). She loves sweets, her favorite being a Beacon Nosh bar. She can be extremely violent, an example of being stabbing a Somali pirate in the leg with Ares' Bowie knife.

So she's Laura Croft. Two more things: Give somebody a grenade launcher (M203 or HK79 of the FAL?) and maybe some M72 LAW rockets for just-in-case.
Why Heart of Darkness? It's about a guy on a boat shooting at people on the bank, just like what he does? Does anyone else smoke? I work at Sheetz, so if you want i can provide advice on what brand cigaretts to issue. BTW, what's a Beacon Nosh bar like,or did you just invent it?

Beacon Nosh is a candy bar that contains hazelnuts, caramel, and nougat covered in milk chocolate. It can only be found in South Africa. I've thought of adding a M79 grenade launcher to the crew's arsenal. It'll probaly be used by Rocco during a battle with Somali pirates. I choose Heart of Darkness since it was the basis for Apocalypse Now and I often compare Greg with Captian Benjamin Willard.

Since they're aparantly South African, why not a Milcor MGL?

I decided to give Johnny a Milkor MGL 140 with a EoTech 552 holographic sight being in place place of the Armson OEG relfex sight. I'm also giving Katie a Beretta 3032 Tomcat which she keeps tucked between at the right side of her waistband (Greg firsts discovers the pistol seeing it tucked between the garter of her silk stockings while fooling around in bed).

isnt the namacurra kinda small? Im thinking a larger boat should be used seeing you have crew quarters, individual rooms. A 9m boat is more day boat than a seagoing one.

Any suggestions?

Can an EOTech 552 even function as an adequate sighting device for a grenade launcher?

EOTech does make a dedicated grenade sight which I imagine would work on an MGL, though.
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do you mind if the boats not south african and is surplus from another country? I dont know boats well but I can make a search through google or something.

Good idea K9870. Let's make the ship a frigate.

Just gotta find a good model and research it a bit. Does the boat have any separate crew or just the main mercs, do the mercs have special jobs (like ship mechanic, navigation, pilot, damage control, etc?

Rocco serves as the mechanic while Johnny serves as pilot and navagation. The mercs are their own crew.

Might be way too hard to have just a few mercs....a bridge crew needs three (pilot, navigator, lookout.)
The same person can nav and steer in open ocean but going into a harbor is rediculous to try that. Also the line handling takes several people. maybe a small crew of locals that mans the ship and guards it while the mercs are on missions? Give you a few minor characters to develop and use in the story too.

Can you give me some names for the onboard crew? And what's line handling?

When you dock up you need a crew member on certain points to throw lines onto the cleats on the docks (or bits/bolalrds for bigger boats) to tie up. Also, for anchoring, you need people manning the anchorline. I dont know of names but a crew would probably be locals so the type of names in the area (im unamiliar with south africa.)

Maybe the crew could be a bunch of badass Boers who are ex special something-or-others

For the boat, why not an aluminum-hulled 80-foot PT-type boat? You could replace the Alisson engines with desils, or for crazy speed, gas turbine engines. It would be large enough to fit everyone, small enough for 6 people (PT boats went to war with a crew of 13), though you might want to hire 3-4 crew so they can pick you up in a hurry if TSHF. FYI, most PT boats had 2x twin .50 cal mounts and a single 20mm cannon on the aft deck. You could put a single FN MAG/South African equivelent in place of the .50s and a .50cal in place of the 20mm. On the other hand, some PT boats were converted to gunboats and bristled with machine guns and light cannon. You might put a twin .50 mount like on Vietnam PBRs in the front deck.

Maybe have some local mariners be the crew types, doing line handling/ships maintenance. Have an ex navy or ship captain help on the bridge, and a few military types for security/be a ships officer type, liek relaying Johhny's orders among the crew.

I haven't gotten far into the story. I'm just now writing a scene where Greg is having breakfast (which consists of braaied boerewors and coffee thick with cream).

You can barely get essentials like medicine in Africa, so where is he going to get a luxury like cream?

There's this wonderful, magical animal called the goat. They produce milk and bleat excessively. He could get cream from the goat's milk.

I was thinking a goat as well. But then you have to feed it too.

Im thinking a 100 foot-range patrol boat would be good, can take heavy seas, crews usually around 15-25 depending on mission, powerful but manuverable and low enough draft for easy harbor access and good deck space or weapon platforms. For the story is it okay to take a few libverties (i wouldnt want to name you of a boat class with only ten made or one that wouldnt be sold/exported if you were going for the common surplus route)

Good idea. All I need is a mission for the mercenries. Any suggestions?