Restore Air Quality

With the mission selected, I made some final preparations before I stepped into the Hellpod, opting to change my loadout to better my chances of mission survival.

With the nature of the bugs being what it is as an enemy type that has to close the distance to attack, I figured having something with a high rate of fire will be handy for short-range clearance of threats while I reload something heavier like the MG-43 or otherwise have to multitask.

The MP-98 Knight therefore would fit the bill nicely for the job that I need it to do despite being my only option. Does a little less damage than the AR-23 Liberator but it absolutely rips, the listed average rate of fire for the submachine gun far outstripping the rate of fire for the rifle. A decent complement for the MG-43, being a more substantial deterrent than the basic P-2 Peacemaker pistol while staying relatively lightweight and ergonomic enough to be operated with one hand if need be.

For my armour, I had to apply the same logic I used for choosing the MP-98. With the bugs’ only strategy being to swarm me with numbers, it would probably be preferable to remain mobile and not get bogged down. Picking the lightest class of armour that I have would therefore make the most sense.

To that end, I decided to do a little field modification to my equipment. Using the medium-class TR-7 Ambassador of the Brand as a base, I stripped the standard security clearance access data packet from the suit’s comms suite and replaced it with the elevated security clearance access data packet that was colloquially dubbed “Democracy Protects” off of the DP-53 Saviour of the Free.

Between the Extra Padding available on the TR-7 and the “Democracy Protects” data packet I had installed on it, I felt pretty good about my chances. Deciding that the stripped-out DP-53 would make for a decent display piece for the ship armory, I marked it out as such for the crew to handle and double-checked my gear after logging the changes I made to my TR-7 for the ship’s automated equipment forge.

Despite the Difficulty Assessment noting that the mission was considered trivial and mission intelligence noting the lack of armored enemies, I was keenly aware that I was heading into combat and may die for any number of reasons due to mishaps or other bullshit and my consciousness and abilities will jump to and override the next Helldiver body in storage. Altering the ship’s systems to log my changes without sending it back to High Command was definitely necessary.

With everything set, I was ready and stepped into the Hellpod for a combat drop into the area of operations.