We don't know where they came from.

We don't know who they are, or what they want with us.

All we do know, is this.

Two months ago, the colonial government of Altair reported sighting strange craft observing. Less than a week later, the Aquila Constellation listening post recieved a transmission from Altair, a long static wave that was abruptly silenced. All attempts to contact the Colony were unsuccessful. The Aquila Fleet dispatched a frigate to investigate the communications breakdown.

It's been over three hundred years since Sputnik, since our first venture into space. We've never seen anyone else out here. Space has been silent even as we slowly crept across our galaxy. But on that day, October 4, 2267, the most terrible conflict in human history occured.

The Frigate, Gagarin, encountered a strange diamond-shaped craft among the blasted, warped remnants of the Altair Colony's defense fleet and their orbital gas mining stations. After the craft failed to respond to hails, Gagarin transmitted back all sensor data, and then opened fire. The last handful of sensor packets we recieved indicated that the unknown craft systematically destroyed every single one of [i]Gagarin[i]'s missiles and torpedoes with a particle beam, weathered the frigate's railgun fire with ease, and then proceeded to cripple the larger craft. Contact was lost after Gagarin lost main power.

With that exchange began a new war, a war that would make the nuclear devastation of the third World War look like a group of children throwing rocks. Within a month of our first contact, strange new ships struck at every colony within Aquila, finally culminating in the Battle of Zeta Aquilae. What remained of the Aquila Fleet, along with task forces drawn from various other fleets. Some two hundred capital ships took up the defense of Beta Aquilae V while the civilian population of seventy million was evacuated to Alpha Centauri.

The following engagement was the most terrible defeat in human history. Several hundred of the best ships in the Terran armada engaged some fourty ships of the unknowns of various designs. By the end, their fleet was barely scratched, only three vessels were severely damaged and the rest were still more than capable of fighting. As the remnants of the Aquila Fleet limped to the edge of the system for the jump, they saw their home put to the flame by the unknown's fleet, killing some two hundred million civilians.

This marked the beginning of a war we had no hope of winning through without a miracle.

* * * * *

Station Guardian, Aquila Fleet Headquarters, Alpha Centauri System.

"All attempts to communicate with the Unknowns have failed and all major fleet engagements have resulted in crippling defeat. Thus far, we have lost control of Deneb, Vega, Alpha Draconis, the entire Aquila Fleet Defense Zone, and all other outlying colonies. We don't understand their technology, we don't understand their intentions, and we don't understand how to fight them. So, in order to learn more, we're going to attempt something bold. The capture of an unknown capital ship."

Admiral Gaignun, the new Fleet Commander of the remnants of Aquila Fleet, pressed a switch, creating a holographic projection of a silvery, rhombus-shaped craft.

"This is one of their smaller craft, about equivalent to one of our frigates in size. It's alone in the Deneb system right now, and as near as we can tell, out of range of any major hostile fleets, as it's deep within occupied territory. We'll do a series of rapid jumps that will take us out of this system into deep space, then jump directly onto it. Analysis of the Battle of Beta Aquilae indicated that their hulls can be penetrated with sufficient force. Sergeant Gray, you will be leading the marine assault on this ship. Your Alpha Squad will penetrate here."

He tapped a location just above the craft's engines.

"Since we doubt that you'll be able to figure out how to operate the craft, your objective is to disable the ship, whereupon we will tow it back to Centauri Shipyards for study. Bravo Squad, you will penetrate here." Gaignun tapped a location along the forward midline. "Your objective is to locate any control clusters and remove them from alien control, then attempt to shut down main power systems. Charlie Squad, you will penetrate here." He tapped along the top of the ship. "Your objective is to create as much chaos as possible, then run for it, if possible, taking a live specimen of one of the aliens with you. Create as much noise as you can, hopefully drawing attention away from Alpha and Bravo squads. Do you all understand?"

The three men nodded. "Get back to the Redemption, then. We leave Spacedock in one hour."

An hour later, the last ships of Aquila Fleet, a lone carrier and a handful of frigates and corvettes left Spacedock. Humanity's best hope rested on their shoulders.

* * * * *

This RP will be, hopefully, the first chapter of the Last Stand series, covering an interstellar war between Humanity and an unknown power from various different perspectives. This particular one will follow a ten-man unit of Marines, Charlie Squad.

So, positions.

0/1 Marine Sergeant, commander of Charlie Squad.

0/9 Marine Special Forces (Corporals or Privates)

Character Sheets:

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Appearance:

Rank: (Only one Sergeant, no ranks above Sergeant.)

Skills: (As these are Special Forces, everyone should be very capable already with standard skills. These are your less typical talents or the things you're extraordinary at.

Gear: (For the sake of simplicity, be generic. This post is big enough without me putting in brand name combat weapons. All weaponry should be kinetic weaponry. Gauss, Railguns, or possibly Gunpowder based rifles. If you want something weird, PM me and I'll probably allow it.)

Personality:

History:

Name: Talia Romanov

Age: 28

Gender: Female

Appearance: Clickady Click Click (http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/3585_20060123232300_char.jpg) (You didn’t have this in your sheet but I added it anyway)

Rank: Corporals

Skills:
Demolitions Expert- Talia is an expert in all things that go boom, if you need a door blown open, a makeshift Grenade or a explosive distraction she’s the girl to call.
Knife throwing- Talia is highly skilled at throwing knives, highly accurate with distances up to 15 meters.

Gear: Grenades (E.M.P, Frag and Smoke),K-7 Explosives, Detonators, Throwing Knives, Standard military issue Rail gun Rifle, Standard issue pistol.

Personality: Sometimes considered insane by her colleagues she enjoys her work with explosives a little too much. Subtle doesn’t even enter her vocabulary preferring to take the blow the hell out everything option in any given situation (even if that isn’t an option too begin with).

History:Born and raised in Moscow, Russia she was the daughter of a Terran Military officer and grew up on a military base there. She was always considered a little ‘off’ with a love for weapons, explosives and all thing deadly and destructive.

It was no surprise she followed her father’s footsteps and joined the military serving as a troop in a marine corp and soon joined the Special forces as a Demo expert.

((If you want me to make changes just let me know.))

Of course, how silly of me. I always forget something off my character sheets. Approved, Starmark.

Name: Joakim Edman

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Appearance: http://www.deathnet.org/members/ut/Remus.jpg)

Rank: Private

Skills:
Scouting- Moving quietly/stealth, locating enemy troops/targets

Gear: Dagger, Standard military issue Rail gun Rifle, Standard issue pistol. (I hope it's ok, if I use the same 'Standard' guns)

Personality: A loyal soldier, especially to his fellow squadmembers. Joakim rarely curse in english, however very often in swedish.

History:
Joakim was born into the swedish family, Edman. His parents worked a lot, and it required them to move a lot. He never had stayed in a place for longer than a year.

At the age of 18, his parents died. Joakim himself choose to join the military, where he became a skilled soldier. Not to long after, an offer came to join the Charlie squad of the marines, which he gladly accepted.

(I hope this is ok)

I'll join in if this is still going.

I'll try to edit in my character tomorrow morning.
Alright, I lied, it was more like mid-afternoon.

Name: Mackenzie King

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Rank: Lance Corporal

Skills:
Zero-Gee Insertion: King has been trained to make insertions into hostile space craft without the benefit of a specially designed, purpose built craft, but with the use of a cutting-torch. Along with the skill of break-ins comes the skill of knowing, basically, how to use a cutting-torch.

Marksman: Even without the benefit of a scope, King is able to hit most any target at a range of 200 meters, unless the weapon's useful range is less than that. With a scope, if he can see it, consider the target dead and buried.

Piloting: As a colonial, King was expected to be able to fly several basic civilian model transports holding grain or other foodstuffs. This has carried over to his life in the Marines, where he has found that he is able to fly most anything Terran-built or built for a roughly human-like specie.

Gear: Standard-Issue Sniper Rifle (Gauss Based); Gunpowder-based Assault Rifle; K-Bar Model Combat Knife; Night Vision Goggles; Combat Armor (Powered)

Personality: King is rather distant and doesn't come out of his shell much with others, or people he doesn't know, which is probably why he has been passed over for Sergeant several times in his life.

Appearance: (Doodle Up Something and Post it Later)

Bio: Born on the edge of Terran Space, King lived as a farmer's son, and heard about the Martian Rebellion when he was ten and followed it almost religiously for the duration. As the son of a farmer, he was expected to be able to fly basic transports about the planet so as to sell grain and the like.

The monotony of his life continued for three more years until, on his seventeenth birthday, he talked his parents into signing the waiver that got him into the Corps a year ahead of time.

Almost right as he entered the Corps, Earth was involved in a minor conflict against some separatists on the planet Bezoth, in the Alpha Centuari system. King served as a platoon sergeant, but was demoted at the end of the war because his superiors felt he used too much force with his platoon after the CO was killed and the job to end the rebellion fell right in his lap.

Due to his harsh methods, King was demoted down to Lance Corporal and would've plummeted further if not for his impeccable record he built in the rebellion: 278 confirmed kills and 147 unconfirmed kills. After the rebellion, he put in for a transfer to the Raiders, and got it.

He served two-years as a raider as he re-attained his rank of Master Sergeant and found himself once again in command of a Squad, until another crises like the Bezoth Rebellion popped up.

The Raiders were called in and he served with distinction, bringing his confirmed kill count up to 400 and his unconfirmed kill count up to 300. But, his harsh methods in breaking rebellions with his squad again cost him his rank and he put in for a transfer to Special Forces, and earned it.

At 24, he was a bit on the young side to be admitted to Special Forces, but he made it in and went through a year in training. Taking the training in Powered Combat Armor, a lighter variant of Battle Armor, he qualified for the Powered Combat Armor and joined up with the 134th Platoon, 54th Battalion, Charlie Squad right out of Special Forces School, where he's been ever since.

Sure, although I doubt this is really going to start.

Name: Hector Jones

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Appearance: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/thumb/8/81/ODST-Battle-Rifle.jpg/304px-ODST-Battle-Rifle.jpg)

Rank: Corporal

Skills:
Marksman- Jones is one the best snipers out there, he considers getting a body shot as having a bad sniping day.

Gear: High Calibur Sniper Rifle, two standard issue pistols, one combat knife

Personality: When it comes to combat he never utters a word but when he's not fighting the guy just won't shut up.

History: Hector Jones was a troublemaker as a kid. He often would pull pranks on people usually using a slingshot. As he got older he began to play darts and was quite good at it. He decided that he would be useful as a soldier and signed up. He easily became the best marksman of his division and was promoted to Charlie Squad.

Name: Johnathan Mantle

Age: 35

Gender: Male

Appearance: http://www.starcraft2wiki.net/sc2wiki/images/5/59/Jim_raynor.jpg)

Rank: Sergeant

Skills: Close Quarters Battle: Johnathan is considered one of the premier hand-to-hand fighters in the military, trained in several martial arts including Krav Maga and Jeet Kune Do. He seems to have embraced their belief to do whatever is necessary to win. In combat of ranges shorter than ten meters, any human opponent is unlikely to have a prayer. As for the Aliens, that remains to be seen.

Tactical Leadership: He can't form a plan to win a war, but he can lead a squad through a battle as well as the best men.

Gear: Railgun carbine with a reflex sight and tactical flashlight, with an underslong two-shot twelve gauge shotgun, firing heavy buckshot.

At his left side, he has a combat knife with a monomolecular edge, the blade heavily notched from years of hard use. At his right side, he has his trusty SPEC-MIL 218 gauss pistol,

In addition, he has his new suit of Power Armor, outfitted with all the bells and whistles that can supposedly stop a hand-size Particle Beam. Whether or not that is true is uncertain. And unlikely.

Personality: Sergeant Mantle is gruff. He doesn't talk much. As the 'Old Man' of the unit, in addition to the boss, he doesn't really mingle, preferring to remain a more distant authority figure, socializing with his peers instead of his subordinates. However, he cares deeply for his men, a fatherly affection, in spite of his self-created emotional distance.

History: Mantle is one of the most prolific soldiers the 23rd century, being involved in more minor actions than anyone could ever possibly hope to count, as well as being at the front lines in two wars that decided the face of human history.

Seventeen years ago, the Martian Rebellion broke out. At the time, Johnathan was a kid of eighteen, just exiting school, when EarthMil conscripted him, along with ninety-three million others, as the entire Sol System went up in arms over it's rights. Mars and it's allies on Europa, Io, Phobos, Deimos, and the Luna Party on the Moon, all launched a single attack against Earth and it's holdings.

Johnathan was at the forefront of the war, a fresh-faced private with a railgun and no clue, deployed to reinforce the faltering Lunar defenders. In that battle, Johnathan had his first blood and fought with distinction, with him and his squad holding a major power station against revolutionary attack.

That was the first battle of a long and bloody four year war, until finally, Mars surrendered, with nearly fifty million dead on both sides. Now-Corporal Johnathan Mantle, a seasoned veteran of many battles, was put forward as a replacement for the drastically reduced EarthMil Special Forces. After the end of a year-long training program, Johnathan was assigned to a unit on Mars that was suppressing minor rebellions, keeping the simmering pot of Mars from boiling over again.

For the next ten years, he ran around the local group of stars, putting down the Toms, Dicks, and Harrys who dared to take up arms against Earth, eventually taking command of his own squad. He thought he had seen it all, too seasoned and jaded to believe that anything ever changed.

The Unknowns change everything.