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Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Auxiliary Support Officer Rank: Gunnery Sergeant Duties: Equip and supply the marines with everything they need for the operation. Guides: Requisitions Overview and Supply Crates Unlock Requirements: Ten hours as a Cargo Technician. Detailed Description: Your job is to dispense supplies to the marines, including weapon attachments. Your cargo techs can help you out, but you have final say in your department. Make sure they're not goofing off. |__________| |
"I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine. It is an M41A Pulse Rifle. Ten millimeter, with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher." ―Cpl. Hicks, Aliens
Overview
As the Quartermaster, your task is to run the Almayer's Cargo Bay. You'll be issuing attachments to Marines, ordering crates full of weapons, ammo, and supplies, and coordinating supply lines. You have direct authority over the Cargo Technicians who help take pressure off you.
Preparing the Cargo Area
The first ten to twenty minutes of the round will be among your most hectic. You'll have a few moments of reprieve at the start of the shift until all the Marines come rushing down to get attachments. Fortunately, most Marines will be polite and wait in line, but you'll need to remain steadfast. The Military Police will frequently make their presence known.
Before the Marines come rushing down, you should quickly sort out the Cargo area. Here's a list of what could be accomplished before the Marines start to show up. Remember to delegate tasks to Cargo Technicians:
- Take the clipboard and QM stamp for your pockets.
- Move the most requested items to be easily accessible to the cargo techs handing them out. These include, but are not limited to, grenade boxes, webbings, rifle AP ammo magazines, flechette ammo boxes, and machetes. You can dispense them, drop them on the ground, and use a crate to move them faster.
- Order a few crates for whichever squad ends up with FOB duty. It tends to mean metal and plasteel, sandbags too if you aren't deploying on a space station. Additionally, a large rifle AP Mag box for the marines to resupply at if you can afford it.
- Turn on each squad comms and ask them directly if they are in need of anything. Several specs benefit from extra ammo and some engineers from building materials or claymores.
- Empty and prepare the crates in the cargo back room to either serve as containers for the future drops or as extra money for the elevator.
- Fill the auto-lathe with metal and glass.
The Caterpillar P-5000 Work Loader: A Weapon To Surpass Metal Gear
The Caterpillar P-5000 Work Loader (Or simply, Power Loader) can carry up to two cargo objects in its clamps. It includes Dropship parts, Fuel Tanks, and Crates. The exoskeleton allows a user to transport crates around cargo, and to the hanger bay, faster than dragging it, depending on their skill, of course.
Early Round Rush (AKA Attachment Hell)
Within a few minutes, the first Marines will be lining up for attachments. Here are a few ground rules:
- Be nice and professional, but you're within your right to refuse service to any Marine for whatever reason. Keep in mind that all command officers can override your orders. Don't take shit from a grumpy Marine, but do try and issue attachments whenever possible.
- As fads come and go, marines may start requesting more of certain kinds of attachments over others. Try to impose logical limits to ensure proper distribution without hampering the effectiveness of the intended load-outs. Don't be shy to ask the marines what combo they are doing. You may even learn from it, or end up offering valuable advice.
- Typically you should issue up to two armor-piercing magazines (they can refill them if you send ammo boxes), and around three grenades (which is how much a HEDP pack holds), per marine upon request. Do not take this as a hard rule, however.
- Take orders for the ASRS console but remember that you don't have infinite money. You will dry pretty fast if you accept every Heavy Pulse Rifle request, for example. Welcome to scarcity.
Interwar Period: Supply Drops, Restocking, and Miscellaneous Orders
You made it through the initial rush. Now what? Here are some tips and the primary functions of the requisition office:
- Remember to stamp all supply manifests and place them on the elevator for extra money.
- Label crates and equipment you wish to serve for a specific purpose or to reach a specified target, such as a particular squad that ordered it.
- Use the Power Loader to collect up to two nearby spare crates for sending back on the elevator. There are some crates around the Almayer, and the marines may scavenge more from the AO, sending them up through the dropships.
- Fill and label backpacks with food (from the squad canteens), flares, and ammo for future drops.
- Dispense rifles and shotguns and add appropriate attachments to them, leaving them on display. It both shows what you have available and allows you to recommend useful combinations.
- Use cardboard to make ammo boxes, then fill them from squad preps. Get a CT to fill the boxes if you are busy.
- Turn on squad comms to know what is going on in the AO and better foresee their needs. Knowing the position of each squad may allow you to send a single package for more than one.
- Things may go rather quiet for Requisitions during some operations, especially for Cargo Techs who have much fewer radio channels. Consider asking permission from the commanding officer to hand out a Command Headset to the CTs if they prove themselves helpful, willing and unlikely to abuse it.
Organize Drops
Supplies can be dropped directly to the Marines. Here is the process:
- The Squad Leader communicates to the Staff Officer and Quartermaster about a supply drop.
- The Squad Leader uses the tactical binoculars to find the coordinates on the planet in an outdoor area.
- The QM puts a metal crate (not a coffin or body bag, etc.) on the appropriate drop pad west of the supply elevator (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta).
- The QM communicates to the SO that the drop is on the pad. Ensure that the crate is CLOSED for the contents of the crate to stay in it.
- The SO pushes the button to drop the crate to the surface.
- The QM has an "E" pad, which works similarly to other launching pads, but the QM needs to introduce the coordinates himself. This is quite useful for when Command is busy and not listening to your requests to launch a specific squad pad, or if you want to send more than 1 crate to a squad.
Most of the time Squad Leaders will ask for specific items. Irrespective, listed below here are good examples of what might go in a supply drop crate even if a Squad Leaders requests a particular item:
- M41A Standard/AP Ammo Box.
- Bags full of M41A Magazines, M39 SMG Magazines or Shotgun Boxes
- Bags full of light sources like flashlights and flares
- MREs or bags full of food. Avoid sending tofu unless you are punishing the squad.
- Several stacks of Metal, Plasteel and/or Sandbags
- Anything special you've ordered or been requested like claymores, grenades, special ammo or gear
Try and always have at least one supply crate ready to go. At the very least, make sure there's an empty crate prepared to throw stuff into it.
Gather Supplies from the Almayer
The majority of the supplies you'll be preparing and sending are already on board the Almayer. Most of what the Requisitions office does is gather supplies from vendors; put them in backpacks, crates, body bags, or cardboard boxes; and drag them to the dropships for the Marines to take down and use. Always use the labeler to mark boxes, backpacks, bags, etc. with items inside. Here are common sources for supplies:
- The vendors in cargo.
- The vendors in the canteens.
- The vendors in the prep rooms (you'll need to ask someone for access as you lack it).
- The flare crates south of Delta/Charlie bunks in maints
- Large FOB tent in Alpha/Bravo bunks
- Requisitions tent in the storage room in req
- Anything you can deconstruct and salvage for scraps (you'll require either the CE, or aCO's permission or stealth).
- Anything you can chuck into the auto-lathe to turn into metal (weapons and useless attachments are prime targets).
A prudent QM can build up a stockpile of cargo money by avoiding unnecessary, wasteful orders. It may help to have a decent pool of money on hand for when you need a particular crate or to binge purchase a lot of supplies. But don't take this as a hard rule, as often hoarding money will mean failing to deliver vital supplies. Find a proper balance.
Order Crates
Metal and Plasteel will be amongst the most popular items requested. Metal starts off relatively cheap, but it tends to end up matching the plasteel cost in a medium-to-long operation, due to price scaling if you are supplying as much as you requested. One way to lessen this effect is to mix a few sandbags, much less requested, into every order. Especially at the first moments of the operation, when most squads have a little breathing time to fill them in, or to those on FOB duty.
Sometimes a munition crate for the mortar will be ordered. The weapon and 2 shells of each type are already in the requisitions area, just north of the ASRS. However, these shells will not be enough for sustained firing, and more will need to be ordered. Mortar shell crates can also be brought up the ASRS for free randomly. Prepare for some money to be drained should they request more.
Besides the engineers, your most demanding customers, you'll be the only source of extra ammo for the specialists. Expect to get requests from them even at the very start of the operation, especially from scouts, snipers, and demolitionists. Due to the high efficiency of their weapons, this is the right kind of request to prioritize.
The marines will often request food, basic standard ammo, flares, and even sometimes medications. In general, you won't want to waste money on these, as you can get them for free on the Almayer.
What Are The Best Crates?
The best crates are normally up to the given situation at hand. Here are the commonly ordered crates depending on which person needs:
Squad Engineers
- Claymore mines crate (x8)
- M402 Mortar Ammo Crate
- Empty sandbags crate (x50)
- Metal sheets (x50)
- Plasteel sheets (x30)
Squad Specialists
- Respective ammo for their specialized weapon (Ie. sniper incendiary magazines for the M42A Scoped Rifle, etc.)
Squad Marines:
- Magazine Box (10 x M41A Ap Mags)
- Large M41A ammo box crate (x400 rounds)
- M40 HEDP high explosive grenade box crate (x25) (Check if you have already ran out of grenade boxes from your vendor first, as you start with many and this is expensive)
There are too many other crates that may be useful to be listed appropriately. You'll have to judge on a case-by-case basis.
A list of all available crates can be found here.
Recovering Items
Use the command channel to ask the Squad Leaders to recover useful items. For example, Marines should return all empty metal crates. Other items from the colony/station might also prove useful.
Do Your Paperwork!
There are two essential types of paperwork in Requisitions. First, any supply requests will generate a paper request. Stamp this APProVED or DENIED and, regardless, snap it to the clipboard. Second, all crates arriving with the elevator will come with a paper supply manifest. This manifest should be stamped APProVED and placed on the elevator. These stamped manifests may have to go inside an empty crate. Requisitions will receive more money for following proper paperwork procedure.
Hail Cargonia! Defending Cargo
So the operation was a bust and Aliens are on their way up to the Almayer? If you've been doing well throughout the round, you'll be in a unique position. Cargo has access to a wide range of items and may be a very tough nut to crack.
There are generally two ways forward when it comes to defending the Almayer. You can either try to fortify Cargo on your own, or bug out and seek the safety of a larger group of Marines. Here are possibilities for impeding the Aliens from coming straight up at your doorstep:
- At the very least, weld the doors allowing exit from Cargo.
- Weld all vents so that the Aliens cannot crawl in behind you
- Build a sentry or tell the engineers to build a machinegun emplacement near the doors to protect it.
- Ask an engineer to build obstacles in front of the exits from Cargo and the hallways.
We're bugging out, now!
If the command staff has called for an evacuation, your plans should emphasize moving critical supplies to the escape hallways or the designated holdout area command has given (usually either briefing, CIC, or the tank bay). Quickly order supplies such as a lot of metal, plasteel, ammo boxes, perhaps a sentry if you have money to spare. Help set up a lengthy defense to cover the escape hallway and connecting corridors.
The general goal of an evacuation defense is NOT to defend the cargo bay but to merely hold the Aliens back for as long as possible. The goal is to force the Aliens to attack through heavily fortified areas. With luck, the rest of the crew will do an excellent job of killing the aliens.
Your Skillset
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To find out about how the skill system works head over to the skills system page.