WW2 Supers d6: Mission Two: A bit of 'hell on Guadalcanal

[Urson]

Dutch
Ya, I saw. Giff dat me. Under the stress of the firefight, Dutch is slipping back into the language and grammar of his Amish childhood friends.
He takes the BAR and reloads it quickly, then passes it back to Acme.
Maybe, if you trow de rock high, it will go further- like de howitzers with indirect fire. He uses a finger in the sand of the foxhole wall to illustrate.
Once he is sure Acme is in no immediate danger, he'll head back to his team.

[Zhym]

Roker, feeling the change back to boring ol' Mediocre Fred coming on, drops down into his foxhole and gets ready to ride the un-metamorphosis.

If he can do anything else this round, he'll set to fixing his gun.

[max_vale]

'The Ridge', island of Guadalcanal, Night of September 12th thru late afternoon 13 September, 1942


Gurung's SMLE rifle barked and he hit his target low in the side, causing the IJA solider to collapse to one knee and his Arisaka rifle to fire high into the sky. A moment later, Dutch snapped off a pair of shots from his M1 Garand and one of them hit and finished off the last threat facing them....

Dutch made his way to Acme and picked up his BAR and re-loaded it as he talked with his C.O. and on the other side of the ridge, Myers and MacGyver reloaded his Johnson and shot the breeze while Elias Tucker kept scanning the tree-line with his Scoped Springfield but not finding any threats....

Now back to being 'regular' Fred Roker, the Radioman cursed and fooled around a bit, but eventually was able to fix the jam in his Thompson and with a look of supreme annoyance, he none-too-gently tossed the currently 35 round full drum into his pack and replaced it with a much more reliable 20 round 'stick' clip. Gurung's Armor faded away and the Gurkha Rifleman alternated between reloading his Rifle and occasionally rubbing the large bruise on his chest....

Shortly thereafter, Corpsman Franklin made his way to Acme, using his Healing Talent to take care of the C.O.'s wound, then moving to Roker and doing the same thing. Shortly after that, the out-of-breath but still filled-with-energy sailor took a deep breath and moved to the other side of the Ridge to see to Myers*.....

After that, the night grew long....and then longer.....and other than the occasional sniper firing a Rifle shot at mostly nothing or the even more rare Artillery round; no more heavy action came SST 4's way......save for a brief, terrifying moment when everyone felt a Talent Power being used again and a red beam cut thru the dark night to eventually land on Tucker and a second later the crack of an Arisaka Rifle was heard and Tucker was sprawled out in the foxhole, his helmet of his head and the 'Coastie' seeing stars as the Talent power stopped immediately afterwards and it was back to long, long night with the occasional rifle shot or distant arty round....

As the other members of SST 4 came over, they saw that Tucker had been hit in the head, but the shot had deflected off his helmet leaving a noticeable 'dimple' on/in it, while leaving Elias with nothing more serious than a bruise on his head and feeling like he had just been punched by Joe Louis....


SST 4 took turns getting a few hours of fretful sleep in and as the first rays of sunlight made their way across the Ridge the welcome sounds of American Aircraft engines could be heard coming their way....low and fast.....

The dawn found a couple of platoon's worth of Japanese troops still out in the relative open, just laying low....and three P-400 Airacobras (a variant of the P-39) came roaring in to open up on them with its nose mounted cannon and twin heavy machine-guns along with two more light machine-guns mounted in the wings. The strafing was devastating and soon the poor IJA troops were either KIA on the ground or had scurried back into the tree line with the Marines on the Ridge roaring in victory!

-P-400 planes of the Army Air Corps:




As the morning went on, soon the planes strafing were replaced by Artillery fire into those Japanese positions on the tree line and LT COL 'Red Mike' Edson deployed a couple of Companies of Raiders to move into those positions (off the Left Flank of the Ridge looking North...i.e. the ares to the West of the Ridge) to attempt to either force out the Japanese or at least, learn what was still out there. A couple of hundred Marines fanned out and moved in cautiously....

Soon, heavy fire could be heard from within the Jungle, including the ominous sounds of many Japanese 'Woodpecker' Heavy machine-guns. Soon the two Marine Companies fell back to the Ridge, missing some of their people and the report quickly makes its way thru all the Marines on the Ridge. The Japanese were apparently disorganized and lost last night, explaining their 'piecemeal' attacks. Now, they had re-organized and it looked like they might be facing an entire Brigade of troops out there. About 800 Marines vs. about 4,500 of the enemy.....

Armed with this new intel, Edson made a decision. He decided to give up Hill 80 and collapse almost all of his forces back to Hill 120 (or 123 depending on which map you might have) including all 3 Parachute Battalion Companies and Baker and most of Charlie Company of the Raiders along with his HQ detachment and SST 4. He split a platoon from Charlie Company and Able Company of the Raiders out to the West to hold the more thinned out jungle positions that stretched to the Lunga River. He then proceeded to have his men dig new foxholes and defensive positions, all the while he was walking all along the line and giving encouragement to everyone. From these new positions, the Japanese would have to come out and climb up the top of Hill 80 and then cross well over a hundred yards of open ground before they could reach the new, higher up defensive positions of Hill 120, meaning the Marines had an excellent 'fire zone' for their weapons....

By late afternoon, most of the Marines were exhausted from the fighting and long night before and all the hard work on building a new defensive perimeter. The Talents of SST 4 could occasionally 'feel' unknown Talent powers being utilized out in the jungles, clearly by the Japanese, but to unknown effect. Around 5 o'clock, 'Red Mike' came over to SST 4 carrying a heavy 'back-pack' and with a skinny, high-energy Marine CPL named 'Hodges' in tow. "You 'Super' Marines did a damn fine job last night, I want you to know it's much appreciated. In a moment, I want you all to follow me over to where I'm about to address everyone, but first, this is for you Sailor-", he says with a nod and passes the 'back pack' to Roker who immediately recoginzes it as a TBY Mobile Radio' "-as I understand you're a Radioman. That's good....I've talked to the 'Old Man'-" (he means Gen. Vandergrift, the overall commander of all U.S. Forces on Guadalcanal), "-and he's agreed to lend me a battery of 105mm Artillery Guns for the attack I believe is coming tonight. To make best use of them, I need a Radioman to be able to yell out grids to the battery and that'll be your job. Hodges here", nods to the young, dark-eyed Marine; "-is one helluva sneaky Raider and has nerves of steal and great night-vision. He'll be your spotter. Good Hunting"**, and with that he then addresses everyone again "Okay, follow me all" and he heads to the center of the Ridge.

TBY Radio:



It's not long and just about every Marine on the Ridge who's not manning a position on the line is gathered around Edson, who steps up on an empty ammo crate. "I'm not much of a talker, so this'll be short and sweet. You men have done a great job, and I have just one more thing to ask of you. Hold out just one more night. I know we've been without sleep a long time. But we expect another attack from them tonight and they WILL come through here. I have every reason to believe that we will have relief here for all of us in the morning. Let's get this job done" and with that, he unceremoniously returns to going to work....

About two hours later, the sun is not yet down, but nightfall IS fast approaching and that's when it starts. Destroyers from off the coast again start to pound the Ridge and the surrounding area with a bombardment. Most of it falls short, but a few shells here and there whistle close....sounding like freight trains and shaking the earth....and rattling bones and teeth when they land nearby.....

This continues for about half and hour and as the light from the sun gets dimmer and dimmer, the Destroyers sail away.....and then the sounds of Japanese artillery hits the ears of the Marines on the Ridge. The distinctive sounds of Type 92 Seventy millimeter 'Battalion' Guns firing in 'howitzer' mode go on and on for a good half an hour.....almost all of the shells hitting the abandoned positions around Hill 80. Edson had definitely made the right call!

Everyone KNEW the assault was coming.....and coming soon....now it was just a matter of riding out the barrages and keeping one's nerves intact***....



OOC: Okay, I'l have a map of your position with some more details in a bit; but first just wanted to mention a few things....

*Everyone is back to Full Health, I'll update Character Sheets in a bit. In addition, everyone has 3 Luck Points.

**The TBY Radio will add +1D to your Radio Skill when attempting to contact the Artillery Battery...in addition, Roker will have a map with grids of the area to give to the Gunners....and Hodges has a pair of binocs and knows the map like the back of his hand....he also has an M1 Carbine.

***Okay, everyone is going to need to make a Stamina Roll (falls under STR) to ensure they don't start getting freaked out from the Artillery Bombardments. It's a Moderate level of Difficulty (15).....so keep that in mind. If you fail the roll, you'll have penalties (either -1, -2 or -1D depending on how much you fail by) for all actions until a good rest break happens as your stress impacts all of your actions (note, this does NOT include STR rolls to resist damage or WP rolls to activate Talents but DOES impact things like shooting skills, dodging skills, throwing skills, etc.)

[Zhym]

"Medicore" Fred Roker is feeling pretty tired, especially with the wolfman adrenaline having worn off. Still, he didn't attempt to eat anyone this time, meaning he at least didn't "come to" with bits of anyone in his teeth. So that's nice. But he does start to wish that his superpower involved being able to get a full night's rest in a matter of seconds. This "no sleep" business is no fun at all.

At least with the radio he's back to doing something like what he signed up for. He's not going to take his equipment for granted, though—not after his gun jammed on him. He takes what time he has to check the TBY and make sure it's in working order with everything where it's supposed to be and no signs of rust or corrosion (damned humidity and salt water). He also tries to familiarize himself with the grid map.

When the assault comes, that really wakes him up.

With his mediocre Stamina of only 3D+1, Roker will use a luck point.

[Rex]

Gurung

Gurung waits out the barrage, making sure everything is ready to go and his Enfield is fully loaded.

He will use a luck point.

[Urson]

Dutch
Dutch drives himself hard, constantly on the move among his men. He'll do whatever he can to boost morale- bad jokes, tall tales from his childhood, even flat-out lies to make sure the Supers are at 100%.
IF he can find time, he'll grab a couple hours of sleep.

He'll use a luck point.

[GreyWolfVT]

Wade checks his gear cleans his guns and oils them taking good care of his weapons sharpening his combat knife. Restocking his ammo (if able to). not sure what else I'll do.

Yes on using a luck point.

[max_vale]

OOC: I need a yes/no on Luck Point before my next post (probably in a week)....if nothing is heard, I'll take that as a 'no' and roll accordingly

[BackworldTraveller]

Definitely using a luck point.

And during the move looking to secure a box of loose ammunition to reload the Johnson clip I've used (Happy to share with anyone else needing extra ammo) - and perhaps a couple of grenades, a spare knife and spare water-bottle(possibly from the overrun trench next door?)

Also, getting my injury stitched up. I'll see if I can't get some empty boxes to fill with soil and add to the trench parapet/break up to use as duckboard (bearing in mind that any serious exertion might pull stiches I'll see if I can get a colleague to do any serious digging that's needed.

And finally, getting Food, Setting a sunshade and getting a water top up and a shave.

[ateno]

Elais knows how lucky he was, being that dumb to hold his head out that long without moving. He's going to find a grease pencil and use the nib to write 'NEXT TIME' in the paint free area of the helmet where he got hit.

Bad sleep, traveling, working and no sleep to nighttime "Is just like the 4-8's on ship and liberty the next day."

Elias spends time of the barrage making sure his clips are full and checking the bullets for burrs or dimples that will affect trajectory.

"Next time I have a chance to, I'm gonna grab one of the officer swords for the president, like he asked."

Since he has not been in a barrage like this and does not have the training for this, I will use a Luck point."

[Monsieur Rose]

2nd LT Acme

Marvin makes sure to thank Doc and everyone for keeping things together during the previous night. He spends his time fortifying and trying to boost the morale of everyone with Dutch.

"One more night fellas. Dig deep and you'll rest tomorrow."

He makes sure everyone has what they need and has cleaned their weapons. Marvin tries to mandate some shift work during the day so that everyone can get some rest.

Using a luck point to keep cool.

[max_vale]

'The Ridge', island of Guadalcanal, Night of 13 September, 1942


All of the members of SST 4 are able to 'ride out' the shelling without TOO much of an averse effect....their eyes and ears tell them that some of their fellow Marines were NOT so lucky. While very few were actually harmed by the weapons themselves, a fair number were turned into quivering, shaking, useless balls of fear or wild-eyed, un-comprehending figures who were yelling in fear and panic and many times, not even aware they were doing it. Such was the psychological impact of artillery....

Still, all things considered, the U.S. forces were in very good shape due to the poor aim of the enemy, the fact that they had fallen back from Hill 80 (which obviously the Japanese did not yet know) and the fact that they were very disciplined and tough. Just as the shelling stopped, a pair of new sounds filled the ears of all of the members of SST 4.....

The first was the distinctive hum of airplane engines and a few moments later, several Japanese Floatplanes, undoubtedly launched from the ships that had shelled them earlier, were flying over head. The reason why became clear as numerous flashes of light suddenly gave the battlefield an eerie glow as the planes dropped flares all over the Ridge....

The second sound was a new one....even to the veterans of battles in the Philippines and on Makin Island. It was hundreds of voices.....enemy voices....yelling out what sounded like BANZAI all at the same time! Suddenly the sounds of the Japanese 70mm guns was replaced by the distinctive 'thoomp' sound of "knee-mortars", mostly against Hill 80, but also against both sides of the Ridge and the crack of Arisaka Rifles and Nambu machine-guns.....the assault had commenced!

(Map to come soon)

The eight members of SST 4, and CPL Hodges the Spotter with Roker, found themselves in the center of the 'forward' line on Hill 120. All around them were members of Baker Company of the Raiders while to the East (their left, facing South) were members of the Parachute Battalion and to the West (their right facing South) were members of Charlie Company of the Raiders. Directly behind them was Edson's HQ position.

In an interconnected line of trenches and foxholes, to the far left was Roker and the Spotter Hodges. Five yards to the Right of them were LT Acme, 'Doc' Franklin and Gurung. Five yards to their Right were Tucker and SGT Van Horn. Finally, 5 yards to their Right were Myers and MacGyver. Hodges was the first to call it out.......

"HOLY CRAP, THAT'S A LOT OF NIPS! Okay, we've got what looks like at LEAST a company (150) coming up on the left, 300 yards out; looks like they'll be crashing into Charlie Company's position in a few minutes........most of a Battalion (750) assaulting Hill 80 about 400 yards away.....and another Company....no, make that two (300), moving in on the right towards the Parachute Marines at about 400 yards. The Left Flank group is at Grid A-4; the Center Group is at Grid B-7; the Right Flank group is at Grid C-3. Your call", Hodges called out to everyone, but in particular to Roker. Roker had the Radio and was connected to the Artillery Battery; so he had to provide them a Grid Number to start shelling*......

For the rest of the Marines, the enemy was lit up by the flares intermittently, but they were still a LONG way off....the closest opponents still some 300 or more yards away**. They could all tell though that Edson had made the right call in falling back. That Hill they had defended yesterday was now swarming with hundreds of Japanese soldiers and had been shelled heavily before that. Now the enemy had to cross hundreds of yards of one area to get to them.......and go through a barrage of Artillery and MG fire, then small arms fire and then grenades before getting in-close....

*Okay, so Fred has to call in the Strike (i.e. use his Radios Skill and the TBY radio rating to make a good connection with the Artillery boys (this number will change based on how much fighting is going on, the stress level, etc. Right now, it's not that Difficult, but that WILL change) and it's his decision on which grid to choose for the Battery to fire upon. He'll have several rounds of this as the waves get closer and closer.

**For everyone else, please note that the enemy is 300 or more yards away from all of you, so only Rifles and MGs really have a chance to hit anyone, and these are Medium to LONG RANGE shots (15 or 20 Difficulty), so if you're going to make shots, please let me know. The 'Waves' will be getting closer and as they do, I'll explain an idea I have as for 'what you're doing' while this is going on as opposed to having to just do shot after shot after shot; but for now, let's stick with 'business' as usual.

FINAL NOTE: There IS NO EXTRA AMMO....nobody found any, nobody had any to spare....this is part of the nature of this battle, thanks!

[ateno]

Elias knows he has a good chance to hit given his rifle, but he is going to hold off.

What he will do is sight the unit on his side and wait for the barrage to start.

Once separate barrages are over, he will sight on officers and sergeants that are attempting to maintain the charge and shoot them one at a time.

[Rex]

Gurung

If he can pick out anyone who seems important, officer, radioman or heavy weapon he will target with a lone shot.

Gurung activates his armor talent.

[Urson]

Dutch
Dutch concentrates, activating his Eagle Eyes. He will be trying to spot officers among the enemy soldiers, along with any Talents that have visible effects (Like our wolfman, or Gurung's armor). He will pass on any intel he collects to the squad- and, if possible, to the units around us by radio.

[GreyWolfVT]

Wade checks his weapons and makes sure they are clear of debris and fully loaded. He otherwise keeps a sharp eye out and follows the others until within range of his talents or weapons.

[Monsieur Rose]

2nd LT Acme

"Hold fire until they close. Snipers fire at will. Stay together everyone!" Marvin tries his best to assure his men. "Call out targets, guys!"

[BackworldTraveller]

Roger
Hill 80 can be left to the gunners...I'll set up to enfilade the charge to my left (as I'm on the left...A long, sustained burst at waist level when they reach 50 yards and allow the wave to walk/run through it. It's what machine-guns were designed for!)

[Zhym]

"'Mediocre" Fred Roker radios in code Baker-7 to call the artillery down on the center group. It occurs to him that as much as he's hated his life lately, at least he's not Hill 80.

[max_vale]

'The Ridge', island of Guadalcanal, Night of 13 September, 1942


As the Japanese assault crests Hill 80 and all along the ridge on both sides, the Marines positioned some 300 yards away open up with sporadic rifle and machine-gun fire AND the more devastating power of a battery of four 105mm Artillery Cannons....

On the far left of the interlocking foxholes that SST 4 found themselves in, RM2C Fred 'Mediocre' Roker, called out into his TBY Radio to the Artillery Battery; "Grid B-7, FIRE!" A moment later he got an acknowledgment and the distinctive THUMPS of the cannon were heard, along with the distinctive 'howl' of the shells in the air on the way before they fell among the rear of the massive concentration of Japanese soldiers on the top of Hill 80. Even from a distance of over 300 yards, Roker and Hodges could see bodies go flying and the excitable Corporal yelled out; "GOOD JOB! Tell 'em drop 25 and hit 'em again!", meaning to drop 25 yards to hit the same concentration, but more in the 'center of mass' of the large group of IJA soldiers....

LT Acme called out to his men, steadying their nerves and calling out for his marksmen (Gurung and Tucker) to pick out important targets and open fire. They did exactly that....

Elias Tucker looked through his scope and finding a sword-carrying Officer rallying some of his men and exhorting them to charge towards the new Marine position on Hill 120, he decided to eliminate this target. Taking a deep breath the Coastguardsman let it out and squeezed the trigger, sending a heavy .30-06 slug downrange and he had the satisfaction of watching his target jerk and slip to one knee as his shot winged him in the shoulder. Working the bolt smoothly, Tucker fired a second shot, but cursed when he missed and he repeated the motion, this time dropping his target for good. Moving the scope again, he saw an IJA soldier drop to the ground and put his Nambu LMG up on its bipod and start firing tracers that fell short of the Marines lines....for now....

Gurung sighted his SMLE at an IJA soldier that was falling prone and setting up his 'knee mortar' to lob shells at the Marines and he worked the bolt of his weapon once, twice, three times.....dropping his target with the third shot. Taking a moment, he concentrated and activated his Armor Talent, causing hard scales to cover his body. He then resumed scanning the mass of the enemy and he quickly saw an Officer or NCO with a sword and Nambu pistol in hands charging forward at the head of a large group of soldiers.....

SGT 'Dutch' Van Horn reached down inside himself and summoned up his Will to Activate his 'Eagle Eye' Power* to scan the onrushing mass for any signs of any Japanese Talents with 'obviously visible' Talents on, but he saw nothing of the kind. He WAS able to see at least half-a-dozen Officers though and Tucker right next to him soon got the 'Officer at 10 o'clock wearing glasses, another at 12, tall, another at 2 o'clock with no hat, another...." etc. earful....

Wade made sure his Shotgun was in good working order as he watched the massive wave of enemy soldiers getting closer and closer....and all around him, Marine Riflemen with Springfield bolt-action rifles or M1919 .30 caliber machine-guns, etc. opened up and numerous enemy soldiers started to fall......not enough to really impact the waves though. MacGyver hadn't seen anything like THIS since those desperate days back in the Philippines....

Roger Myers watched the IJA Company racing across the 300 yards of ridge line on the left start to get whittled down by rifle and machine-gun fire and he shifted his Johnson to point that way, waiting for them to get a bit closer before he opened up. Not far away a Marine Raider from Able Company fired a long burst from his BAR, dropping a couple of soldiers out towards the front of the onrushing wave......


OOC: The large body of Japanese troops on the top of Hill 80 were CLEARLY surprised to find that the Americans had fallen back from this position, which left them out in the open, a PERFECT target for the Artillery and other long-range weapons of the Marines. The assault waves on the flanks though were still moving quickly towards the U.S. positions. The wave on the Right Flank has closed to about 350 yards, the wave on the Left Flank is the closest at about 250 yards.


*Dutch was able to activate with no issue this time (a roll of 8 on his WILL 2D roll to beat a 5), but please let me know if you ever want to spend any Will Points on these Activation rolls.

Okay, for now, if you guys could let me know in general what you'd like to do over, say....the next 5 rounds as the Waves get closer and closer, I'd appreciate it. Something like: "Shoot at Officers or Heavy Weapons Carrying Soldiers".....or "Look for Officers and point them out to the Marksmen"...or "Radio in the Arty to hit Center Wave Twice, Right Wave Twice and Left Wave Once"; etc., I'd appreciate it.

Basically, after these 5 actions, opponents are going to be MUCH closer......