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

[BackworldTraveller]

Roger
Wounded! - Where's that Medic?

[Monsieur Rose]

Acme

He calls over the din. Everyone ok? Sounds like doc is taking care of roger right now. Can anyone get eyes on the threat to the left?

Marvin reloads and moves bodies.

[max_vale]

'The Ridge', island of Guadalcanal, Night of 13-14 September, 1942


The battle on the ridge south of Henderson Field continued to rage through the hot, humid tropical night with many Marines on the left flank of their lines (i.e. the East side of their positions) suddenly falling back with Marines yelling; "They've got Talents and they're using gas and fire! Withdraw, withdraw!" Many of the Parachute Battalion Marines heard this and did indeed start to fall back and as they did so; a strong Japanese force used the opening to launch a mass assault. The Marine withdrawal was suddenly threatening to become a rout....

From their positions in the central foxholes; the members of SST 4 had a brief respite and they used it for a much needed moment to catch their breath and most gathered together around 2nd LT Acme a moment later....

PFC Roger Myers was thrilled to see 'Doc' Franklin scramble over to him and taking a quick look while saying "You're a Marine Mac, I'm a CORPSMAN not no dog-face medic". The sailor saw the sword stuck in the young Talent's leg and he looked him in the eye with a grim expression on his face. "Ain't no sugar-coating it....this is gonna hurt....a lot", he said and then taking a grip on the handle of the weapon he took a deep breath and then with one quick move, he yanked it out. This caused a firestorm of pain to race through Roger's body and an involuntary scream of agony to escape his lips. Franklin ignored that and placed his hand on the wound, closed his eyes and WILLED his power to Heal to wash over Myers' body. While most of the wound closed and the bleeding fell to a trickle, it didn't completely stop and an exhausted looking Franklin shakily pulled out gauze and bandages from his bag along with a packet of sulfa powder. He poured the powder on the ugly red wound, wrapped the gauze around it and then cut the gauze off and clumsily pulled out a bandage and taped it around the leg of the PFC. Myers could still feel a throbbing pain in his leg*, but it was INFINITELY better than it had been mere moments before. Both men fell back in the foxhole, exhausted and only vaguely aware of the feelings of Talent Powers off to their left. Some were the familiar scent/sound/taste of their Teammates' powers and some unfamiliar to them....

2nd LT Marvin Acme ejected the mostly used clip from his .45 and quickly swapped it with a full one from his ammo pouch and then picked up his BAR as he called out to his teammates and most of them were soon gathered around him with the notable exceptions of Myers and Doc. Dutch had a bloody wound, but was ignoring it as he called upon his EAGLE EYE Talent Power in response to Marvin's question about being able to see what was going on over on the Left Flank. The answer wasn't one Acme particularly liked hearing....

Gurung took a moment to take a deep breath, rub his bruised chest and let his Armor and Energy Blade powers expire. Hearing his LT's call, he gathered up his SMLE and move over to join Acme, along with Dutch, Roker, MacGyver and presumably Tucker though he couldn't see him but COULD feel the man's Invisibility Talent Power being used. He soon learned Myers had been badly hurt and Doc Franklin was seeing to him; but he had little time to think about that as Van Horn told them what he could see with his Talent Power....

MacGyver let his Energy Shield Power drop and with a deep breath he collapsed against the side of his foxhole as he reloaded a couple of shells into his Trench Gun. Hearing Acme's call out, he levered himself up and moved to join most of the rest of SST 4, learning along with the others of Myers' bad wound and Doc treating him. He steeled himself for more action when hearing about the situation they were now facing on the Left Flank from SGT Van Horn and then looked up at the droning of a Japanese Floatplane that was flying by overhead and dropping flares to illuminate the situation....

Elias Tucker quickly gathered up the Arisaka Rifles and the Katana from the Japanese dead and staying invisible**, he moved along with Van Horn over to where the others were gathering. He could feel Dutch utilize his Eagle Eye powers as he checked out the situation over where the Parachute Marines were starting to flee and a mass of Japanese troops were charging them. Light was suddenly provided over the battlefield by way of flares being dropped by a Japanese Float Plane and the Coastguardsman was simultaneously annoyed and relieved by this action as it helped both sides....

Fred 'Mediocre' Roker, in his wolf-man form*** strode over to where the others were gathering and with deep sniffs he could smell well over a hundred of the enemy gathering to move against the Marines on the left flank and four in particular stood out. All Talents and one smelled rather....metalic; another reeked of chlorine gas; a third smelled like charcoal and the last smelled like.....chicken?.....

Doing his best to ignore his wound, SGT Charlie 'Dutch' Van Horn sheathed his Bowie knife, picked up his M1 Garand Rifle and moved over to where 'El Tee' Acme was and he called upon his Eagle Eyes Talent Power to get a better look at the situation on the Left Flank. A moment later, he was aided by flares dropped from a Japanese Float Plane that flew over the battle field and in a grim tone, he told his companions what he saw....

A quartet of Japanese Talents attacked the Parachute Batallion Marines positions with one in the lead who appeared to have his entire body encased in bronze or copper as he charged forward with bullets bouncing and ricocheting off his form and when he reached a foxhole, he picked up a Marine like he weighed about 10 pounds and threw him into a second Marine with bone crushing force....

Above the din, another Japanese Super had changed himself into some king of human-sized bird of prey and this Talent wheeled and dove, dodging Rifle fire and used his (its?) razor sharp talons to tear a poor Marine to shreds while also lashing out with his beak to tear a shrieking Marine's left eye out of its socket in a repulsive display of gore....

Worse than either of these two Talents however, were the two in the center, both of whom had their empty hands held out before them. One of them was spewing flames from his fingertips and incinerating a trio of Marines while the other was spraying a sickly greenish colored mist that enveloped a pair of Marines manning a Machine-gun, causing them to retch and choke horribly, before falling to the ground with violent spasms before ceasing to move at all....

This largely caused many of the Marines to suddenly yell out to 'Withdraw!'; and the four Talents stepped (or flew) back for a moment and an entire Japanese Company of over a 100 soldiers rushed forward into the fight to drive the Marines before them, leaving the four Japanese Talents behind for the moment and then at the top of Hill 120, the loud shouts of Colonel Edson could suddenly be heard over the din of the battle....

For a long moment that seemed frozen in time; the members of SST were able to to witness one of the most unforgettable moments of their combat careers. Colonel Merrit 'Red Mike' Edson stood tall at the top of the Ridge, no weapon in hand and stepped directly into the retreating mass of Marines while completely ignoring incoming fire and bellowed at the top of his lungs. "GODDAMNIT, YOU ARE UNITED STATES MARINES, AND YOU WILL NOT WITHDRAW ONE MORE GODDAMN INCH UNTIL AND UNESS I TELL YOU TOO! GET BACK TO YOUR POSITIONS AND THROW THE ENEMY BACK INTO THE JUNGLE OR SO HELP ME YOU'LL WISH YOU HAD NEVER BEEN BORN!"



Red Mike's words had an IMMEDIATE impact on the retreating Marines as they stopped, turned and opened fire on the charging IJA Company. A would-be rout suddenly turned into a bitterly fought contest.....

Meanwhile, SST 4 shook off the remarkable sight and took stock of the 4 Talents that were facing off from them, noticing the four turning their way and the Metallic one moving forward as the 'Fire Hands' and 'Gas Blaster' filed in behind him as the 'Eagle Man' took to the sky and all of them started coming towards them.....Right now they were about 50 yards away, but that was dropping quickly....



OOC: Okay as a general update, here's a few bits of info: Acme has 2 Luck Points and 20 Will Power Points left; Myers has 8 Will Power Points and 1 Luck Point left; Gurung has 2 Luck Points and 12 Will Power points left; Wade. has 1 Luck Point and 12 Will Power points; Tucker has 3 Luck Points but only 4 Will Power points left; Dutch has 3 Luck Points and 10 Will Power Points; Roker has 1 Luck Point and 17 Will Power Points left.

More specifically;

*Myers is now to be considered Injured/Sore.....i.e. he'll be at -1D for several hours as he recovers....Doc is okay, but rather exhausted from using his Healing Ability. Both are low in the foxhole right now and will need a round or two to do much more than shift around a bit.

**Tucker is still Invisible and has a couple more rounds remaining before he has to worry about making a roll to keep it that way...though keep in mind he only has 4 WP left to do so.

***Roker is about to feel the strain of keeping the Wolf-man form active (i.e. he has 1 more 'free' round of being Werewolf Fred)....but he DOES have 17 WPs remaining, so there is that.


Note: The bit about Edson is true.....though it's unknown EXACTLY what words were used....and while there certainly was a panic about 'gas' being used, it's highly unlikely any actually was. Needless to say, I found a plausible way to make this 'rumored' event a 'real' event in my 'alternate universe' take on this battle. Apologies again from the inner History Teacher in me!

[Urson]

Dutch
We've got a Flyer... a human Tank... a Flamer... and a Chemical Weapon. GET DEM, SST! He felt goosebumps rise on his skin as he heard the Colonel's battlecry.

He dropped back into his foxhole and tried to picture himself in the cattails on the edge of Old Man Martin's pond. Frosty mornings, hearing the squabble of geese as they came in to settle on the water... He sighted on the Flyer and squeezed off two shots from his Garand. He'll spend a Luck point.

[Rex]

Gurung

Gurung reloads his SMLE and "We need to do something about their talents." He keeps low and out of the line of fire.

[ateno]

Elias will sprint back to the foxhole and grab his sniper rifle

Inner Dialog: "I have one left in the clip, no time to reload."

Seeing his sergeant aim expertly at Bird-Man he sights on Fart-Man (chlorine gas), Standing straight in the air, he aims at the man, takes a breath and fires. Drops below the edge and then shakes of his power. Setting down his rifle, looking for a Japanese rifle.

RD3 Tucker

[BackworldTraveller]

Roger
Well Doc - Thanks for - whatever it was that you did. Now you couldn't pass me that Johnson - I want to check I haven't bent something and I'm not so sure I can be bothered to move just yet.

[Monsieur Rose]

2nd LT Acme

"Now that's a leader. Damn. Ok, you freaks. Let's do what they gathered us for: taking down talents." Marvin sees the snipers take aim at the aerial threat and the gas man. "Nice work. Keep fire on the arsonist and the gasser! Any ideas about the colossus? I need a distraction so I can get close enough to plant a charge on him."

"Roker! Do you feel up to tangling with that overgrown chicken? Tucker, I hope you're still here. Can you make me invisible if we're touching?"

"We need to delay them a bit so Doc and Myers can get on their feet. Mac? Does your shield stop fire?"

Acme fires a burst at the encroaching quartet, hoping to get a lucky shot in, or at least slow them down a bit. If the colossus is blocking the others, he'll aim for the chicken.

[Rex]

Gurung

"I am not sure how long I can keep my talents up but I am the most likely to go against the armored one , but it will have to be hand to hand with my energy Khukri."

[Urson]

Dutch
LT! Can you range the Talents on the ground?

[GreyWolfVT]

Wade gets back in his foxhole/position "Hell I don't know what we can do about aerial talents."

[BackworldTraveller]

Roger: There's always the Johnson - when we can see them

[Monsieur Rose]

2nd LT Acme

"I can reach them with the BAR, but not quite yet with my powers." He calls over the roar of the BAR.

[max_vale]

'The Ridge', island of Guadalcanal, Night of 13-14 September, 1942


In the hot, humid night on a small island in the South Pacific; the bitter conflict engulfing the globe reached some new points of fury as Axis Talents met Allied Talents in battle.....


In a haphazard line more or less abreast, though separated in a couple of different Foxholes and the trench that connected them; from South to North all looking to their left (i.e. East) were RD3 Elias Tucker, 2nd LT Marvin Acme, CPL Wade MacGyver, RFL Lalbahadur Gurung, SSGT Charles Van Horn and RM2 Fred Roker. They were all facing off against an incoming quartet of Japanese Talents including one flying in the form of a large bird-of-prey; another whose body looked to be solid Copper; a third who had greenish-yellow fas billowing from his fists and the last who had flames flickering from his fingers.....

Behind the other members of SST 4 was PFC Roger Myers and PH2 Carl 'Doc' Franklin; both of whom realized a new threat was revealing itself to the South....

Elias Tucker stood up, aimed VERY carefully around the large, copper-covered Talent in the front rank and fired a FANTASTIC shot from his Springfield Rifle that caught his opponent right in the throat; causing the gas-spewing IJA Talent to drop, clutch his neck futilely and then fall over. The Radarman dropped down, let out a breath; let his Invisibility Power 'turn off' and worked the bolt to put another .30-06 round into the chamber. He then carefully rose up to aim at another target when suddenly both the sense of a new-yet-familiar Talent Power came over him and then he saw a strange reddish light beam playing over his right arm and shoulder. Turning in that direction, he saw the reddish beam emanating from a Japanese Sniper Talent about a hundred yards away to the South and then a moment later he felt like he'd been punched in the chest by a Heavy-weight and he fell down to his knees and then keeled over to his side as he felt the spreading wetness of blood on his chest and looking down, he saw that the shot had hit him high in the left side of his torso, a mere couple of inches from his heart.* He coughed up some blood and part of his brain was logically figuring 'well, I probably caught it in the lung' while most of his brain was panicking......

2nd LT Marvin Acme took aim with his BAR and cut loose a 5 shot burst at the Eagle Talent, but the damn, fast-moving foe was able to wheel round and dodge his fire. Marvin let loose a curse and took a quick look at the others and was happy to see the gas-bag Talent get dropped, but he was very concerned the the Copper-Body had closed to within about 15 yards and looked like he was eager to tear them apart with his metallic fists. Then a slim, little IJA soldier stepped out from behind him and threw his hands forward, unleashing jets of flame from each finger tip. Acme felt heat come over him and the smell of burnt flesh assaulted his nostrils and he quickly dropped down into his foxhole and die a mini-roll to put out his flaming uniform and screamed from the pain of his burns**, but he was able to determine he was still in the fight**....

Wade had finished reloading his Trench Gun and had popped up in the foxhole next to the El-Tee when he saw 'Fire-Hands' step out from behind Copper-Top and cut loose flames at Acme and him. He instinctually summoned his SHIELD Talent Power and a split second later, the disk of force was interposed between the Flames and his body and only a few sparks fell on his body, singing his hands and uniform for a moment, but doing no real harm***. Then Fire-Hands ducked back behind his Metallic Teammate, who was now all of 15 yards away and closing fast....

Rifleman Gurung reloaded his SMLE, noting it had a full magazine, but he was down to only 3 spare rounds after that. His bruised chest was now felling better (no more penalty) and he soon popped up to see that the gas-spewing Talent was down, as was the Flyer and that just left the Copper-Body and the Flame Hands Talents to worry about....and they were now 15 yards away and moving in fast.....

SSGT Dutch Van Horn took aim at the flying, Eagle-Man and doing his best to ignore his wounds, he fired once, missed, tracked his target and fired again, pleased he had hit the target, causing a screech of anger and pain. Then, a moment later, the Eagle was in a sprawling melee of claws, teeth, talons and beak with Wolf-man Roker and the Marine did what he could to assess what the situation was outside of that spectacle. It looked like the Gas-User was KIA; but both Tucker and the El-Tee were down in the Fox Hole with injuries while Wade had put up his Shield and Gurung looked okay. The Copper-Bodied Japanese Talent and the one with fire-spewing fingers were closing on their position fast and would be on them in a second or two....

Fred 'Mediocre' Roker was bound and determined to stay in his 'Wolf-man' form as long as possible during this fight and his hackle went up and growl burst worth as the Eagle-Talent screeched and dove at him while dodging fire from some of Fred's less hirsute teammates. One of those bullets clipped his opponent, who let out a piercing wail of anger and anguish and then the Talons were flashing forward even as Fred loped forward and leaped for his delicious-smelling Target. The talons tore into Roker's chest, drawing a high-pitched yip of pain, but then it was Fred's turn and his claws and teeth tore into his delectable target and a long moment later, he was on the ground, shaking and then hurling his now limp opponent to the ground. The Eagle turned back into a Japanese man, now bloody and torn to shreds and laying unmoving on the ground. Fred, fighting off the messages from his subconscious to 'turn back', turned to look and he saw the Copper-Man charging forward and hiding behind him, a man with orangish-yellow fingertips****.....


Behind the others, a still bleeding and exhausted PFC Myers asked an equally exhausted-though-not-bleeding 'Doc' Franklin to hand him his Johnson LMG, which the Corpsman did. Roger was relieved to see it was in fine working order, though dismayed to realize he only had 15 rounds left for it. As the assault of Talent Powers came across both men, they looked to their left to see their Teammates mixing it up with the Japanese Talents. Then the feel of new Talents and the sight of red beam of light caught their eyes and they looked to the South.....

First, about a hundred yards away, a Japanese Talent who could manifest some kind of beam of reddish light, was using it to play over the members of SST 4 while sighting down his scoped Ariska Rifle. A moment later he fired and Elias Tucker was hit hard in the chest and he fell to the ground of the foxhole, out of sight. Before Myers and Doc could do anything however, yet ANOTHER threat revealed itself....

A Japanese Talent who was of average size but who was glowing with some kind of eerie blue light, was pulling a 70mm Type 92 Battalion Gun to a small hill-top, by himself, about 100 yards away and then started to position it to aim at Colonel Edson, who was still yelling and directing Marines to meet the enemy at the Top of Hill 120. A Japanese Officer or NCO came rushing up with 2 other soldiers who were carrying crates containing shells for the Artillery Piece soon followed and they were soon swarming around the gun. Myers had to figure out what target(s) to aim at as Doc Franklin suddenly burst into motion to run towards the down Tucker*****......


Type 92 70mm Battalion Gun:



OOC:

*I made a Fantastic roll for Tucker's shot, so the Chlorine Gas spewing Talent was dropped easily....then, unfortunately, I made an even better roll for the Japanese 'Red-Beam' Talent.....and the resulting shot actually would've Mortally Wounded poor Elias, so I spent a Luck Point for him and reduced the damage to just 'Seriously Wounded'. He can't do anything for a round and then after that, he can only take small movement actions and these are at -2D until treated. He DOES still have 2 more Luck Points, so there's that. Sorry man!

**Acme is Wounded from the Burns (-1D to all actions) but otherwise is okay. Copper-Top is 15 yards away and closing, Fire-Hands is hiding behind, so it'll be difficult-but not impossible-to hit him with any attack.

***I spent 2 WPs for Mac on his SHIELD Power roll activation, it worked well enough to make the damage from the Fire Attack nothing more than a 'Graze' result. His situation is the same as Acme's, i.e. he's at 15 yards from Copper Top and Fire Hands is right behind him and difficult-though-not-impossible to target.

****Roker is Wounded (-1D to all actions until Treated) and is at the point where each round is going to get harder and harder to stay in Wolf-Man form; I spent 5 WPs; he has 12 left.....next Difficulty roll to stay in Wolf-Man form (after this coming round) will be 20.

*****Myers has 5 total targets; a group of 4 around the Gun with the Super Strong Talent, the Officer and 2 troops....and then by himself, the Red Beam Sniper Talent. He has 15 rounds (3 bursts or 1 Suppressing Fire attack leaving 5 rounds for 1 burst) left and the range is Medium (i.e. Difficulty 15) and he's still at -1D for being Wounded Just a thought.....might be Luck Point time.

[Rex]

Gurung

Gurung will activate his armor and energy blade. (spending as much Will as necessary). He will then allow copper top to close and attack him just as he reaches the trench to try and keep him exposed and himself not exposed to the sniper.

If he suffers any injuries he will spend a luck point to lower the injury if possible.

[GreyWolfVT]

Wade thinks fast or tries to activating his gravity lift talent on the big copper looking human shield trying to expose fire hands for someone else to hit.

[Urson]

Dutch
Seeing that Roker is keeping the flyer busy- probably fatally so- Dutch drops to the ground as Red Light chooses a target. He low- crawls toward the sniper, raising his Hyper Sense to try and get a location for the man.

[BackworldTraveller]

Roger
As I know where the red-dot guy is - and he probably won't miss - I'll go for him first...Single-shot, aimed, and half my remaining luck. Given the wounds I've survived, my luck is clearly keeping me alive for something! If nothing else, I'll provide someone for him to look at.

[ateno]

Elias, using all his available brain, rolls over to be on his left side, so his right lung does not fill with blood. Placing his right hand on the wound on the chest, knowing his left arm is to stunned to do anything right now.

RD3 Tucker

[Monsieur Rose]

2nd LT Acme

"Uhhhggh. Bastard." Used to horrible burning sensations, Marvin shakes it off and tries to take a deep breath. In the next moment, he leaps forward towards coppertop and dodges to get behind him. Acme will activate his power and touch coppertop on his back or butt or back or leg, infusing the shell with Acme's power.

At least he hopes he can. He uses a luck point. If it works, he plans to delay the explosion for a round and direct the explosion outward from his back.