WW2 Supers d6: Mission Six: Saipan

[Rex]

Gurung

Gurung quickly lowers his rifle and waves Queen over to him, signaling to stay low.

[Monsieur Rose]

Acme

"Keep on guard. We need a few guys to climb up there and check it out. Let's regroup at the base of the cliff."

[max_vale]

'Death Valley' in the plateaus near the base of Mt. Tapotchau in the central part of the island of Saipan at approximately 11:45 AM thru 12:05 PM on 25 June, 1944


Major Acme and a few of the others investigate the cave where the 5 Japanese soldiers had sprung their ambush, doing their best to ignore the sight and smell of the burnt, shot-up and grenade-blasted bodies of the IJA troops...but nothing much was found beyond some now banged up and blackened Arisaka Rifles and Carbines and a few personal mementos that some of the Soldiers took as trophies/keep-sakes/what have you....

As this was happening, the Talents all felt/heard/smelled Queen use his Healing Talent Power on Gurung and sure enough, the Gurkha's wound quickly closed over. As this was happening, Saul gathered a pair of 20 round magazines for his newly acquired BAR from the body of poor CPL Trudeau and SSGT Morris soon came over to where the Vanguard had been gunned down, carrying several damaged and fire-blacked Arisaka rifles in his arms as he did so. He quietly turned to the other soldiers in his platoon and said, "You know what to do....", and with grim nods, the Army soldiers quickly stripped the bodies of Simpkins and Trudeau of all gear, handing Morris their dog tags and personal effects and distributing the remaining weapons, ammo and equipment amongst themselves. They then quickly dug a pair of shallow graves and lowered the men into them carefully and then covered them up with the dirt they had just dug out to form the graves.....

SSGT Morris said a few solemn words about each man and gave a prayer for God to watch out for their souls and then hammered out crosses made out of the Arisaka's for each soldier. The veteran NCO then turned to Acme and said, "Okay Major, ready to move out." Acme and the members of SST 4 gave a quick look to each other, especially Acme and Saul.....Marines didn't leave their dead behind, but these were Army and they DID still have a mission to finish. With a shrug, Acme called for them to continue moving down the Valley.....

It was a few minutes after noon when they saw several dead bodies, clearly one of the missing patrols and a pair of survivors crouched down in some tall grass right off the road maybe 50 yards away (Near Number 2 on the map). One of the men had a backpack radio and the other was using it and saying something frantically into it. A moment later, the crack of a Rifle shot was heard, though no one could quite figure out from where and the American solider using the radio phone fell to the ground with a hole through his head......

What was MUCH more alarming however was the sound that came a few moments later....a familiar sound.....the freight train sound of 105mm Artillery....AMERICAN Artillery....and it was gonna be short and right amongst them all. "INCOMING!" somebody yelled and everyone scrambled to get to cover.....

[ateno]

Elias will sprint to any cover he has and try to put it in between him and the arty.

Tucker

[Rex]

Gurung

Gurung will try to get to cover and activate his armor at the same time.

[jemmus]

Saul runs for the nearest cover and drops to the ground, his quick temper flaring. He thinks, "If you're going to shoot something that big, you'd think any common jackass would try to shoot it right!"

[Monsieur Rose]

Acme

He crouches down and covers his ears while yelling for someone to get on the radio and call off the shelling.

[Zhym]

Roker grabs the radio and frantically tries to call off the shelling—while hoping he doesn't meet the same fate as the previous radioman.

[max_vale]

'Death Valley' in the plateaus near the base of Mt. Tapotchau in the central part of the island of Saipan at approximately 12:10 PM 25 June, 1944


As the Freight Train sounds of the shells got louder and louder; the members of SST 4 reacted in mostly the same way.....dropping to ground, curling into a ball and hoping/praying for the best.....with one notable exception....

Senior Chief Roker; hearing Acme's orders about the radio, rushes forward to the members of the pinned patrol and as he gets there, he starts to immediately go to utilize the backpack radio on the Marine who had just been killed. The other survivor was laid out flat and curled up behind a rock and was whimpering/cursing/shaking and utterly NOT listening to anything at the moment. As Roker was able to drag the radio off the body, he noticed/felt a strange burning sensation across the top of his shoulder and looking down he saw part of his uniform had been torn off the top of his left shoulder and a slight, bullet graze wound as causing a few drops of blood to start to stain the fabric. His brain realized that a sniper had just shot at him from somewhere on the East side of the Valley some 120-130 or so yards away. Then the impact from a pair of Artillery rounds literally knocked him down to his knees and he realized that they had hit behind him....perhaps close to his fellow Marines, but it was still enough to cause that primal 'curl into a ball' reaction that drained energy and willpower from his soul even as he did his best to keep his focus on getting out of this awful place alive*......


Gurung found himself walking near an Army PFC named Logan when the Artillery started to come screaming in and the Gurkha Talent managed to activate his Armor power and his body was quickly covered in hard scales as he also dropped to the ground and got to cover. It was a good thing he did as one of the two 105mm Artillery rounds impacted close by and the concussive force was enough to literally blow him back in a roll a few times over; many bits of shrapnel glancing off his now hardened skin and leaving him physically okay even as he felt fear seem to overwhelm his mind and body and it was only with a supreme level of effort that he was able to shake it off a bit and look over and he saw that poor Logan had most of one of his arms pulped and wounds up and down his left side where the shrapnel had shredded him. The young soldier was just looking at his wounds and where his left hand was wrecked, clearly in shock as he just lay there, mouth agape. If he wasn't treated soon, he would bleed out in minutes....

Major Acme, Chief Roker, CPL Rabinowitz and GM1 Queen all curled up and fell to the ground to take cover as the pair of 105s came screaming in. One impacted some 15 yards behind their position....close enough to send fear coursing through their veins, but not close enough to hurt any of them or the soldiers they were accompanying. The other round hit much closer; very near Gurung and a poor Army PFC named Logan. A few of the soldiers cried out "I'm hit!", but it was soon realized they all were just a few small cuts and grazes; but a glance over at the now armored up Gurung who had been knocked over and then some by the near impact of the Arty round and the shredded Logan revealed they had taken the brunt of it....

Acme and Tucker saw that Roker had rushed over to the fallen Marine Patrol and was working the radio and while the report of the rifle was lost in the ringing of their ears due to the Artillery; they saw that Roker had been grazed by a shot coming from the East Walls of the Valley some 125 or so yards away. Roker had managed to get the Radio off the body, but he was rather exposed out there.....

Saul was a combination of angry, feeling like his body was turning to jelly due to fear from the near miss of Artillery and then astonished at the bravery of Frank Queen as the veteran Gunner's Mate saw poor Logan and he immediately got up and in a strange, crab-like, half-hunched over stance he made his way over to the soldier to try and save his life.....


OOC: Okay, everyone except Gurung lost 3 Willpower points due to the Artillery strike (this is to represent the innate fear and power that coming under Artillery Fire has on people) and Roker was Grazed by a Sniper (he's at -2, not -2D; for his next action only....otherwise he's fine)....Roker also has an intact Radio that can be used (you hope) to try and get in touch with someone to get the Arty to stop raining down on you.

Gurung is okay due to his Armor......but he lost 5 Willpower as he was MUCH closer to being turned into paste by an Artillery round.

[Rex]

Gurung

Gurung will try to get to Logan and patch him up best he can.

[Zhym]

Roker does his best to ignore the blood on his shoulders and the bombs falling all around him and desperately tries to get on the radio to stop the shelling—and hopes to hell that whoever is on the other end will actually listen to him.

[ateno]

Tucker turns and starts to Focus to look for the sniper. he shakes himself and shudders, hoping the arty has stopped.

Tucker

[Monsieur Rose]

Acme

In the moment or so after the shell explodes, Marvin looks at the group and smiles inwardly as they all know what to do without his orders. As the ringing lessens, he calls out orders out of habit.

"Roker is exposed. Get back in here while we find who shot him." Acme tries to get a sharpshooter to find and take a shot at the sniper, but sees Tucker already on the situation.

Acme starts to pull Roker back and under cover.

[jemmus]

Saul's ears ring and he looks at the situation with the poor Army guy and the one with the radio to call off the arty strike. He sees Acme looking around calling for someone to take on some other situation. "Damn Navy! We ask them for ride sometimes-- and then then they sit back in their boats and eat ice cream and shell the hell out of us!" He decides that helping with the KIA man's radio and stopping the friendly fire barrage is the best course. He stands up and breaks into a sprint.

[max_vale]

'Death Valley' in the plateaus near the base of Mt. Tapotchau in the central part of the island of Saipan at approximately 12:15 PM 25 June, 1944


The members of SST 4 and their attached Army platoon all dealt with the combination of being shelled by friendly 105mm Artillery while being simultaneously shot at by a hidden Japanese Sniper in different ways.....

Rifleman Gurung, still armored up, moved over to try and treat poor PFC Logan, but as he got there he felt a massive explosion of pain in his head and he found himself on the ground, on his side as the world seemed to spin and swirl all around and a distant part of his brain registered the distinctive crack of an Arisaka Rifle and he realized he had been shot in the head. He raised a very unsteady hand to his head and after a few tries he realized he was NOT bleeding* and at about the same time he saw Frank Queen come rushing over and lay his hands on Logan while Activating his Healing Power. Some of Logan's wounds closed over....he would no longer be in any danger of bleeding out, but the Army solider had passed out from the pain. Then the Arisaka fired again and Frank Queen was suddenly on the ground, right next to Gurung and bleeding from a chest wound as he hissed in pain and seemed to swim in Gurung's blurry vision.....

Saul Rabinowitz bitched about being shelled by the Navy when one of the Army troopers gave him a sarcastic smile and said, "Hell, I'm no fan of the swabbies either Marine...but those are 105s.....either the Army's or some of your jar-head buddies are shelling us.....but I get your point." A moment later, the Marine was up and racing towards where Senior Chief Roker was trying to work the Radio on the dead Marine to try and stop the shelling. Saul raced over and then came to a diving stop where Roker was frantically holding the phone to his ear and moving dials.....

Roker ignored the pain from his grazing wound and he raised the 'phone' of the back-pack radio to his ear as he powered up the device and attempted to move the dial to find the right frequency. He heard a lot of static, then a blurry voice in English calling out something about 'Adjust fire left 20' and then it went fuzzy again. He heard running feet getting close to him and he started to draw a weapon when a quick look over his shoulder showed that it was Saul Rabinowitz who had run over to his position. They both flinched as the Arisaka Rifle cracked once...then twice....but neither were being shot at, so they focused back on the task at hand**....

Tucker took a deep breath and activated his Focus Power and he saw/felt his vision become clearer, his attention narrow....Hearing the Arisaka rifle crack once.....then again....he fixated on that and found himself looking out across the valley and THERE....some 130+ yards away.....hidden in a narrow cave/tunnel in the side wall of the valley was the sniper....with rocks put in front of him as well......
The marksman in Elias admired both the skill he had taken in preparing the position AND the talent he had in his craft....he was clearly one helluva shot. Back to the here-and-now, it was going to be an EXTREMELY hard shot from this range to hit the well-hidden target.....

Marvin Acme, seeing his men explode into action, followed suit....moving towards Roker with the intent on pulling him down and into cover, though as he does so he sees Saul race past him and more disturbingly he sees both Gurung and Queen get shot by the sniper. Gurung had his 'scales on', and even though he got hit in the head, the veteran Marine could see that no blood or brains were leaking out, so while he had his bell rung, he'd live. Queen though.....that chest wound looked bad.....


OOC: Okay, so *Gurung was Dazed by a called Head Shot....he can do nothing next round and then for 7 rounds he's at -2D to all actions. **Roker has the Radio on, but needs to make contact with the right folks.....a Moderate level of Difficulty task (Difficulty 15)......Tucker can tell the Sniper's position, from this range, is EXTREMELY Difficult to hit (Difficulty 25) and Acme can see that Queen's in a bad way (needs some Medical Treatment fast).....

[Zhym]

Roker, hoping luck is with him, continues trying to reach someone to call off or move the shelling.

Using a luck point.

[Rex]

Gurung

Stunned.

[ateno]

Elias keeps his focus on and cuts out all the noise and movement and squeezes off a single round and rolls to cover. He wants the other sniper to think it was a odd or bounce shot in case he misses.

His thoughts get through his attempt of relaxing and preparing. *I have to make this shot, or someone else will get hurt.*

Will use a luck point

Elias

[jemmus]

Saul sees that he can't to anything to help Roker with the radio call. He lies facing the area he guesses the sniper shots might have come from, ready to fire if he spots the target.