LZ's beyond hot: PO stories

[FGRSentinel]

Most people seem to think that the PO is a boring job, but occasionally something happens that makes the job far more interesting. Let's share those stories, shall we?

Today we had a round on Prison where I was PO on Alamo. As I was prepping, the Normandy pilot comes over and wishes me luck because, and I quote, "it's probably going to be hell down there." Little did either of us know, this was totally right. Almost immediately after landing, I hear gunfire and Marines screaming, but no alien sounds. Confused, I go to check it out since this was the first drop and get greeted to an unusual sight outside the rear door. The three survivors decided to hole up south of the LZ and, as soon as the Marines filed out, began firing on them and threw incendiary grenades, setting five to seven Marines on fire. The Marines, mostly Delta, retaliated in Delta fashion of killing all of them so only one was revivable. XO orders them revived and cuffed, while the CMP personally drops to arrest the survivor and the CL decided to check the situation out. As I'm prepping for launch after the second drop (now going from the station to Almayer), I hear more gunfire and step out to check it out. A Charlie decided to kill the prisoner, which pissed the CL off enough that they pulled a gun and attempted to kill both the Charlie and, I think, the CMP, but was seriously injured.

Second return trip to the Almayer, I'm now bringing up a dead Marine, a dead hostile survivor, and a half dead CMP and CL who want each other dead. Other than the LZ being hot the moment we touched down the first time and this incident, the entire Op goes quietly. Only a few wounded are sent up via Alamo, four CASEVAC runs for Normandy (eight Marines at most), and Alamo spent most of the Op just ferrying people and supplies to the station.


The round immediately after was a quiet CAS round: I never got to fire anything, which is probably for the best because a bald SL decided to lase the FOB while Alamo was up doing a transport/light CAS run, which led to part of the FOB being hit and the SL being badly injured.

Do you have any stories to share from your time in the cockpit?

[Fcanau]

PO is great but the recent (?) change allowing SL's to launch your dropship is nuts and made me play less. Bald or dumb SL's storming your cockpit and pushing you around to slam the launch button because they feel like it almost invalidates the job and sometimes costs marines the entire operation.

Other than that, the tense cinematic moment where you launch the dropship, leave the cockpit midflight and realise Young Runner (420) is on the ship with you despite your good hatch discipline so you go for your shotgun and manage to PB him in the face.

[Avalanchee]

PO is great but the recent (?) change allowing SL's to launch your dropship is nuts and made me play less. Bald or dumb SL's storming your cockpit and pushing you around to slam the launch button because they feel like it almost invalidates the job and sometimes costs marines the entire operation.

Other than that, the tense cinematic moment where you launch the dropship, leave the cockpit midflight and realise Young Runner (420) is on the ship with you despite your good hatch discipline so you go for your shotgun and manage to PB him in the face.

If the SL has time to launch the dropship by himself you are doing something wrong.

[Grubstank]

If the SL has time to launch the dropship by himself you are doing something wrong.

Sure, but at the same time baldie #96 can waltz in, panic, and leave twenty marines behind

I've seen SLs save marines from bad POs; and also slaughter marines while the good POs were waiting for the right timing.

[Garrison]

My best moment as PO was co-piloting for a Bald PO that wanted to learn the ropes. We had some decent RP as I guided him through the pre-flight rountines as well as what to do when taking off and touching down.

Most of the time tho, I'm sitting back in the cockpit of the Normandy. Nice and comfy, and watching TV shows on my imaginary tablet.

[Build_R_]

Best moment for me was when I was flying transport and managed to crush two marines on landing, letting nature take its course.

[FGRSentinel]

If the SL has time to launch the dropship by himself you are doing something wrong.

I've had a round where the other PO spent the entire prep period trying to get a revolver and then cryoed, so I was forced to send the Alamo up and down remotely in case casevac was needed. Command never got around to having someone remotely command it from CIC, so the Marines spent the entire OP with no CAS and no dedicated pilot for Alamo. I'm not sure what, but SOMETHING needs to be done to make PO worth picking for people or else it negatively impacts the round.

[JennerH]

One round, back before there was a minimum drop time, for whatever reason the normandy POs decided to drop down on prison station at 12:10. They come back up screaming about something killing them, and it turns out a hunter (back when they were hunters) had jumped aboard and tenderized the pilots. the icing on the cake was when the DS landed and the hunter vent hopped, eventually killing most of the important crew members.

The Hunter was Symbiosis if anyone was wondering

[Audi_Gzz]

Most people seem to think that the PO is a boring job, but occasionally something happens that makes the job far more interesting. Let's share those stories, shall we?

Today we had a round on Prison where I was PO on Alamo. As I was prepping, the Normandy pilot comes over and wishes me luck because, and I quote, "it's probably going to be hell down there." Little did either of us know, this was totally right. Almost immediately after landing, I hear gunfire and Marines screaming, but no alien sounds. Confused, I go to check it out since this was the first drop and get greeted to an unusual sight outside the rear door. The three survivors decided to hole up south of the LZ and, as soon as the Marines filed out, began firing on them and threw incendiary grenades, setting five to seven Marines on fire. The Marines, mostly Delta, retaliated in Delta fashion of killing all of them so only one was revivable. XO orders them revived and cuffed, while the CMP personally drops to arrest the survivor and the CL decided to check the situation out. As I'm prepping for launch after the second drop (now going from the station to Almayer), I hear more gunfire and step out to check it out. A Charlie decided to kill the prisoner, which pissed the CL off enough that they pulled a gun and attempted to kill both the Charlie and, I think, the CMP, but was seriously injured.

Second return trip to the Almayer, I'm now bringing up a dead Marine, a dead hostile survivor, and a half dead CMP and CL who want each other dead. Other than the LZ being hot the moment we touched down the first time and this incident, the entire Op goes quietly. Only a few wounded are sent up via Alamo, four CASEVAC runs for Normandy (eight Marines at most), and Alamo spent most of the Op just ferrying people and supplies to the station.


The round immediately after was a quiet CAS round: I never got to fire anything, which is probably for the best because a bald SL decided to lase the FOB while Alamo was up doing a transport/light CAS run, which led to part of the FOB being hit and the SL being badly injured.

Do you have any stories to share from your time in the cockpit?

I was the survivor lol. Who would win? A squad of highly trained USCM Marines with good equipment and armor? Or a prisoner with riot armor and shrapnel nades. I got like 6 kills.

[JennerH]

I was the survivor lol. Who would win? A squad of highly trained USCM Marines with good equipment and armor? Or a prisoner with riot armor and shrapnel nades. I got like 6 kills.

Where did you find shrapnel grenades as a survivor?

[Karmac]

Back in the Sulaco times, it wasn't frequent, but occasionally you'd have cases of whatever remnants of the marine force banding together and jumping on the DS to try and re-secure the LZ with whatever crazy shit the doctors and requisitions could give them.

I wasn't the PO for any of these drops, but there's one hot drop I'll always remember; where myself, ZDashe, Ramon McKendrick and like, one other guy and the PO all went down on the dropship to give a big "Fuck you" to the 15 xenos waiting there for us. Between us we had 3 standards with rifles, a SADAR spec, a Medic and the PO, not the worst lineup but not the best either, we hit the dirt and immediately runners and hunters are scrambling onboard only to be met with gunfire. We pushed the xenos back and off the ship, locking doors when it was convenient to do so, until the Queen approached us with a Crusher, at which point our Spec opens fire with a WP rocket (Which by the way, was the only rocket that originally had back-blast), instantly killing the Crusher and making the Queen think twice. We held off the bugs for another minute or so, killing another few, before we managed to get the dropship back up, the whole time half of us were on fire and the medic was keeping us going with drugs alone.

Once we got back up we found out more marines were ready to drop, after that it was nothing more than your standard bug hunt, we'd broken the xenos before we left.

Technically a PO story, just not from his perspective, we'd be pretty boned without someone capable of locking the shutters though, so thank god for that.

[Audi_Gzz]

Where did you find shrapnel grenades as a survivor?

Prison has m15's in the armory. Hostile prisoner is so fun just due to all the good guns there are.

[FGRSentinel]

So I have another story to add: in a recent round on ice, there was a shop at LZ2, which caused the Normandy's Casevac Operations to be disrupted constantly by people too dense to hear the "get back on before we launch" announcements from myself and the other Normandy PO that needed us to return to rescue them repeatedly. After the inevitable retreat, the three of us (all the POs) are chatting about the OP being a disaster when Alamo launches... with all three of us outside it and 2-3 squads of marines on it to reinforce Tcomms. Cue three POs running to the hangar control area, one on the control console and the other two on different camera consoles panicking as the benos swarm the ship, Marines being cut to bits as they try desperately to defend themselves, screaming amongst each other and pushing/shoving, trying to do something as one reports that the remote command is cut and we realize that we can't do anything to save the poor Marines on board.

[Vispain]

Prison has m15's in the armory. Hostile prisoner is so fun just due to all the good guns there are.

I can agree. The only thing ya gotta watch out for is actually RPing as a hostile prisoner. As fun as it may be, doing some kind of sneaky shit like boarding the Alamo and having absolutely no illusions, cause, or even RP with yourself that you are hostile and then assaulting and killing marines randomly shipside just ain't legit.

Typically, on the rare times I want to be a survivor, let alone a hostile one, I go with the "crazy man" mentality and hide behind my cades. Sure, I might get naded... still better then just randomly shooting people down.
For example, fire a warning shot and yell some dumb, crazy thing about the marines. Then exchange dialogue, starts some insults, open fire/wait to be opened fire on.

Thing you have to be careful about is making it go smoothly. Like one time I held off on shooting the marines, despite RPing as hostile, so long that it seemed almost out of the blue... I had to reestablish the insults and conversation leading up to conflict because the maines were actually getting bored.

Imo, survivor is a sort of "Background" role. You can create a epic story and relay it to command that may shape the narrative of the round if you play it right and they listen... you could add some spice into other people's rounds... even through your death... The end of the day though, the goal ain't to be the antag with the most kill but rather to be the person with a great story created via your actions. Even death and fighting can create a story for the marines. That's what survivor really seems about to me.
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PO Story:

I wasn't the PO, but basically the story was the same for all of us. A predator came aboard and the PO actually noticed it first. We just kind of stared at it like..."really?" because it was laying down invisible in the back of the dropship attempting to hide...
suddenly the DS launched... we marines, around 10 of us, mostly walking wounded + 2 POs, opened fire on the predator.
It was at this moment, we all knew.... we fucked up.

2 more predators uncloaked on that very same Dropship once we opened fire on the Pred. In seconds, what had started as a est. 10 v 1... became a 10 v 3. The Preds were in a whirlewind of melee death as we marines blindly fired into the crowded, chaotic dropship. Several nades were thrown, fire was used and at least 1 entire mag was fired by most marines before falling dead... 2 Predators blew up before the dropship reached the Almayer. 1 blew up on the Almayer at the hanger. Most marines on that ship died...but we succeeded. We prevented their attempt to board our beautiful USS Almayer.

[FGRSentinel]

I've had rounds that hectic before, yeah. I remember one where I dropped into a hot LZ on LV after warning Command multiple times that the LZ was unsecured. The queen and a group of xenos charged into the LZ while it was still decently manned, the queen killed the door locks before I landed, and 2-3 benos swarmed the Alamo. I panic, thinking I'm about to die, and pull out my shotgun after one knocks me down and slashes me, firing off a shot as wounded Marines start piling on. The xenos see this and just nope the fuck off, while the Queen just vanishes. All the external equipment on the Alamo was melted and I had small damage to my groin with some trauma according to a medical scanner, so I report the incident to Command and people get slightly freaked out while the Marines hunt the Queen across the map and I had to spend the rest of the round dropping into an unsecured LZ with no turrets or door locks. I even recommended a wounded Marine that chose to stand watch over Alamo for a medal since they did so out in the open without being asked, but the CO didn't even acknowledge the request.