Another artillery shell explodes as the Lieutenant unravels the message. For the past hour the world has been tearing apart, and there's been no more than a minute at most of rest between the blasts. The church has held, for the most part--mainly due to solid stone construction and only one direct hit, which took out the bell tower and the pair of spotters who were nested there. The walls are crumbling, though, and only a few of the stained glass windows remain intact, the rest shattered into shards that glimmer on the dirty floor. The pews are all outside, converted to makeshift barricades by the Germans who held the church until that hour ago.
As another pair explosions rock the earth, even closer now, Lieutenant Warren Updike shouts over the roar. "Just got word from command. They want us to pull back. Say our position is 'untenable.'" The Australian holds up the slip of paper for a moment, and then lets it drop to the floor. "I'm not retreating, boys. We lose this church now, we aren't gonna get it back, not without a lot more blood. Anyone wants to try going, I won't stop, but these walls are all that's keeping us from those shells. I don't know about you, but I'd rather die here fighting than running." He cocks his hat back with a grin; as usual, the Triple U doesn't seem fazed by the suicidal nature of his plans.
"Besides, we're all that's keeping Jerry--" His words are cut off by another explosion, this one directly on the church. A section of wall gives, and screams are cut off by falling stone as a half-dozen men are killed and buried in a moment. The collapse also reveals the outside, and a large number of men currently running toward the building from the hills outside.
"Positions! Open fire!" Updike barely has time to say the words by the time the shooting starts, everyone moving to windows, what's left of the wall, anything to try and get some cover and start firing. The Germans are already doing the same, some flinging themselves belly-down to the dirt. Updike curses as a bullet flies through the brim of his hat, and he draws his pistol to start shooting as he moves behind a pillar. Amdist the chaos, six men among many find cover for yet one more fight...
Sean crouched behind a pillar, a lit cigarette smoking at the corner of his lips.
"I'm just sayin Sir, give me ten minutes and some cover and I'll have this place wired ta blow and bury everyone inside like a tomb. Could be a nice surprise for the Hun when they crawl over our smoking corpses!" Sean grinned around the cigarette.
This odd Texan doesn't know when to quit, or perhaps he's just too dumb to know when to...
Damned Germans! Ya'll c'mon! They ain't all that tough.
Kris grabs his shotgun and takes cover, preparing to kill a few of the German's. How better to brag back home that he was a gen-u-wine hero.
The quiet, square jawed Indian man just growls as he dives behind a large chunk of rubble and braces his rifle across the top. "I have no plans to join my ancestors quite yet. But if I die here, it will be surrounded by the corpses of my enemies." He cocks his rifle, takes aim, and fires at any German that he has a good angle on.
Dances in Smoke takes cover and fires, but the earth is still shaking from the artillery, and his shot misses the mark. Kris gets into cover and prepares to fire as soon as a German comes close enough--which happens shortly.
A hail of gunfire erupts from the German line, searing death flying into the church. Bullets slam into the outer walls, ricochet off the inner columns, and generally send men as low to the floor as they can get. Dances in Smoke ducks down as a shot connects with the cover just in front of him, spraying rock dust into his eyes, but he's unharmed; it seems everyone in the Triple U is still up for now. The other soldiers return fire, and a few Germans fall as rifle and pistol shots connect with their bodies.
Kris waits until the Germans are close enough to smell, and then he unleashes his Combat Shotgun upon them.
Die you Heathen Scum!
Sean leans around the corner and rests his rifle on the column he is crouched behind before squeezing off a round.
He drops back behind the cover before taking another drag on his cigarette, shaking his head softly.
Aaron hunkers down behind cover and reaches for the strange mechanical device strapped to his belt; with a flick of a switch his body is quickly surrounded by a shimmering field of light. With his force field in place, Aaron cocks his rifle and rises up to take a shot, but his bullet goes wide as the tremors for the mortar shots rock the church around him. "I'm with Sean, Captain. Once the mortars stop we ought to bury this place with the Krauts inside and make a break for it." After his shot misses he ducks back down, hugging the cover to make a harder target for the advancing Germans.
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The frail looking boy sitting behind a rock as big as he was grabbed his rifle close to his chest, a quickly etched "Excalibur" could be seen on the firearm's stock, before inhaling and exhaling a couple times.
As he breathed the last time he moved to the side, aimed and shot at the first frankfurt he saw.
"Sir, I can buy some time. Let me sneak around and start sniping them from behind, sir!" he shouted to make himself understood before operating the bolt to load a new bullet.
"Screaming 'let me sneak up on em', probably is gonna counteract your element of surprise lad!"
As Lt. Updike is talking, a black soldier in his late twenties is leaning against the wall, frowning, checking the picture he has tucked inside his locket. When the Lt. mentions that anyone can leave he snaps it shut and takes half a step, managing to say "Frankly sir, if you mean that--" in a thick southern accent before half the church caves in.
His locket is whisked away and his gun comes up from a lazy low-ready as soon as it happens. Throwing himself down to the ground not far from the hole in the wall, he takes a shot at the first exposed Gerry he can get eyes on. "Ogu, I know you're there," he hisses, and pulls the trigger.
"I know you done heard," he says quietly, squinting through the scope to see if it worked.
The shooting continues, the men of the Triple U holding off their attackers as best they can. One German comes a little too close, an eager young man with an extended bayonet, and Kristophe's shotgun catches him directly in the chest, cutting him down midstride. Sean leans from around his cover and picks off a soldier raising his own rifle. Aaron's device sputters to life, but his quick shot misses the mark; Harry and Desmond, though, live up to their role, and each bring down a rushing German. Still, there are plenty more crawling over the broken ground, swarming toward the church--perhaps a fully manned company against a force little larger than a platoon.
The Lieutenant walks forward amidst the gunfire, his pistol now in hand. He fires once and watches as a German soldier grabs at his arm and drops to the ground, a scream of pain cut off by the gunshots. He drops down into cover near the engineers and shakes his head. "Negative on that, boys. We need this church, we're not givin' it up. Just hang on for now, we've got cover, they're fish in a barrel!" He turns and shoots Harry a mad wink.
"Hear me, hear me," Desmond mutters to himself, utterly inaudible over the constant noise of gunfire. Taking in a deep breath and staring down his scope, he takes another shot.
Grimacing slightly at the Lt., Desmond bears down his sights and lines up another one. "What exactly are we hangin' on for?" He wonders. "I don't rightly know if we've enough bullets for this whole mess..."
Desmond fires another round, dropping another German, just before a fast, loud spat of fire rings out--at least one of the enemy soldiers has set up a machine gun. The rush of bullets sends everyone ducking to cover and doing their best to hide, but rifle shots accent the more continuous fire. Kris ducks down as the rifle clips his cover, sending stone dust into his eyes and momentarily blinding him. Dances in Smoke, though, pops up for a shot at the worst possible time--there's a sudden burning pain in his abdomen, and he doubles over and collapses below the cover, pain wracking his body.
The machine gun fire tears across the church, but even as the first long burst dies down, shouting comes from the open trap door near the rear of the building. "We've got Jerries in the cellar! In from the cellar entrance! We need--" The call is cut off by a muffled gunshot, and the Lieutenant swears and looks around.
"F*ckin' hell... Casey! Nikhols! Get your arses down there and support our boys! The Hun does not take us from below, do you hear me?" He looks at Kristophe. "Kristophson, get down there if you can. Work that trench gun in the basement, show Jerry what they're good for!" He fires a shot over his cover without looking and glances around. "And someone get our Dancer a g%%-d#~n medic!"
"Yes Sir, right away!"
Sean dashes for the trap door but pauses before turning back. "Sir... No blowing the church, right?" He grinned hopefully but didn't wait for a response, before putting heels to wood and beginning to slide down the ladder, hitting the basement hard and pushing away from the ladder in to cover.
"The cellar? We've gotta--" Aaron's voice is cut off as the gunfire continues, and he glances over as Dancer takes a bullet to the gut. "I can't help him here, sir! It'll take too much time, we've got to deal with them before I can do anything for him." He gives Dancer a look of sympathy, before ducking toward the cellar door behind Sean. "Dancer, don't die before I get back, you hear me? I'll patch you up as soon as I can, so you better not f*ckin' bleed out in the mean time." Aaron drops down behind Sean and cocked the lever of his rifle again as he came down the ladder, ducking into the first patch of cover he can find. When he sees an enemy he'll take the first shot he's got before plastering himself to the ground as much as possible.
"I've been worse," he growls, forcing himself to straighten up and forcing the worst of the pain down, though it still hurts to move too quickly and he decides that it's much wiser to keep his head down and wait for the pain to pass.
Kris shakes his head and clears the fog. Yes suh! he bellows in his drawl.
C'mon then. Les go killus some Germies. and he drops down into the Cellar.
Dances in Smoke keeps low, one hand pressed to the pain of the wound in his side, while Harry pokes his head up and quickly scans the hillside. His keen eyes pick out a German crouched down with a large gun, and one shot later, that soldier falls over on the ground, a bullet in his chest.
Meanwhile, Kristophe and the engineers head down to the cellar. If the battle above is hell, then this is something man's souls were never meant to witness. Almost instantly the dense smoke and scent of death hits the trio, and as they move to cover, they can see that a few of their comrades are struggling to put on gas masks, if only to block out the stinging smoke in the air. The trap door opens on a short hallway, beyond which is the main cellar floor, and in there the battle truly rages. Flames are burning across almost the entire floor, and the cause is evident--slumped near the center is a body with a large canister on its back, a German flame-trooper. There are plenty more of the enemy present, though, and still shooting. Aaron and Sean both fire off a shot from their rifles, and each sends a body on the far side of the flames sprawling to the floor. Kristophe takes stock of the situation for the moment.
Dances: 8 of Clubs
Desmond: 4 of Hearts
Harry: 10 of Hearts
Kristophe: 6 of Clubs
Sean: JOKER
Germans: 6 of Spades
Kris crouches low, trying to both get below the smoke and take some cover.
He spots movement and aims at it!
the sound is deafening in the cramped cellar
Damage=29. Something dies.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Smoke growls and forces the pain down. He rolls over, braces his rifle again and fires. If he's going to die, he's not going to enter the next world whimpering on the ground like a pup.
"Oh, f*cking hell," Aaron says, keeping himself back away from the flames. He coughs as the smoke gets into his lungs, but he takes a huge gulp of fresh air as he steps back from the smoke; his eyes are watering still, but he's steady enough to take a shot at one of the Germans as they surged forward. Aaron dropped even lower to the floor after he fired, letting the smoke filter out over his head so that he could breathe again.
Sean reached down and pulled the shemagh he wore around his neck up, wrapping it over his mouth and nose, to block out the worst of the smoke. He was a Sapper first and foremost, used to digging in holes and laying charges under trenches and buildings. Dark smoky pits underground were his thing.
He raised his gun and took a moment, steadying himself, before pulling the trigger.
Desmond rises up slightly, hissing between his teeth as he takes a longer look around. They do have cover, but that's still an awful lot of Jerries. He gives an annoyed expression to the Lt's back before hunkering back down to his scope...
He lets off another decent shot, trying to cover Dances' side of the field. "Medic! Medic! Get the Injun!" He shouts and gestures, hoping he can get the medic over to Dances
Up top, the Triple U's scout snipers keep shooting, taking measured shots meant to take down one enemy at a time. Dances fights through the pain and lands a hit, and the target drops. Desmond takes down a runner who was rushing up with an MP, and Harry notices another machine gunner set up behind a fallen tree. His shot connects, but it ricochets off the gunner's helmet, and he's still up.
Downstairs, Kristophe levels his shotgun and the blast nearly knocks him off his feet. The shell must have been filled with additional powder or something, and two Germans are caught by the shot, falling to the ground with a pair of screams. Aaron gets low and fires, clipping a soldier's shin; he shouts and drops to the ground, grabbing at the wound. Sean fires, but in the confusion of the basement his shot only hits a wall.
The Germans are far from finished, though, and their fire keeps up. The machine gunner is quick to respond to Harry's attack, and a burst of bullets sprays out into the area. Harry's small and quick, but he isn't quite small or quick enough--a pair of rounds catch him in the torso as he ducks back down, and he's splayed out across the ground...
Amidst the fire, the other snipers also take some shooting, the Germans apparently having figured out their rough positions by now. Dances feels a shot glance off the top of his helmet, and Desmond is fortunate enough to just take more stone dust as the shot catches his cover again. Amid the fire, a medic also slides in next to Dances, a syringe in hand. "Hold still," he says, and the Coyote feels a needle jab into his side and something injected. No sooner does the medic remove the syringe than he feels the morphine start to run through his system, dulling the pain.
The general gunfire keeps up, though, and the Germans rain hell, opening up as much as they possibly can, it seems. Nearly the entirety of the Triple U is forced into cover, unable to pop up and shoot back without a high risk of being shot in a moment. The Lieutenant glances over his cover and starts calling for the Staff Sergeant to meet him. Over the din of the gunfire, the snipers can hear him asking for the unit's place on the grid, and the messenger pigeon.
INITIATIVE
Aaron: 7 of Clubs
Dances: 3 of Hearts
Desmond: 10 of Diamonds
Harry: 4 of Diamonds Ace of Diamonds
Kristophe: King of Clubs
Sean: 3 of Clubs
Germans: 9 of Spades
F%$@ing hun bastards! Kristophe shouts, his blood pumping with adrenaline, he pumps the shotgun and looks for a new target.
Kristophe works his trench gun, but doesn't manage to catch any of the enemy in the blast this time.
Desmond twists over his shoulder, eyes scanning from Dances as the Indian picks himself back up to Harry. Little guy, hadn't talked to him much. Definitely too young. The locket swings out of Desmond's shirt, but his vision goes red as he rises to his knee, takes out the hand grenade and chucks it.
He hits the dirt again a second later, clutching his rifle and hoping for screams. "G&!*%+ned lily-livered Jerry sons of b+~&%es," he growls, not particularly quietly.
Little Harry dies there in the church, another casualty of this war. So many have died before, and many more will lose their lives before the fighting is done. But there's no time for shed tears and burials at the moment, because the gunfire doesn't stop for one man.
Desmond decides that right now, explosives are needed more than precise rifle fire. He quickly draws his grenade and lobs it out into the enemy. A few moments later, it goes off with a roar, and some half-dozen Germans fall, some shrieking or sent airborne by the force of the blast. The Lieutenant looks up at the sound, and gives Desmond a grin. "Bloody well done, Thorn! Let's give 'em some more of that!" He lifts the pigeon in his hands, but just as he tosses it up to begin its flight, a stray round pulverizes the bird into a puff of blood and feathers. "Christ!" Updike shouts, dropping down before returning fire. "That was our best bet for this. Sharpshooters, get to the other end of this heap, second level! We need eyes on the surroundings, that means Jerry's hill and any movement from behind us!"
- - - - -
Downstairs, the fighting in the cellar continues, with gunfire and smoke filling the air. Several shouts of "Grenade!" in various tongues comes from the front line, and there's a surge of men falling back before another explosion rattles the stone walls. Fortunately, only a pair of soldiers were caught by the grenade blast, and even they are still conscious, if bleeding heavily. Another pair of men drag them back, and the fighting goes on.
"Yes sir." Dances scrambles for the second level, trying to get into position where his sharp eyes can do some good.
Aaron coughs when more smoke gets into his lungs, but ratchets his rifle and loads another bullet into the chamber. He raises the iron sights to his eyes again and draws a bead on one of the Germans rushing toward him; he lines up the iron slivers on the man's heart and pulls the trigger. "We need to finish them off fast in case that canister blows," Aaron says, trying to keep close to their way back up.
Sean noted his tongue and throws himself to the ground, keeping his face closer to the clean air at the bottom or the room, as he squeezes off another shot
While Dances in Smoke scrambles to high ground above, Aaron and Sean continue the fighting in the cellar. Each is able to drop another German soldier, and hope finally seems to blossom down there for a moment--it actually looks as though the enemy lines are thinning out. Then a large figure steps into the gap, and a chill seizes on the men down below as the first to recognize the new threat calls out.
"Flame trooper!"
Alex: Queen Diamonds
Dances: Jack Hearts
Desmond: Ace Spades
Kristophe: 3 Spades
Sean: 5 Hearts
Germans: 5 Clubs
"Sh*t, take down the flame trooper! He'll burn us out of here. Does anyone have a grenade?"
Dances hurries into position and scans the area carefully, keeping low and trying to keep something between him and the Germans. The smoke and flash of the battlefield makes it extremely hard to actually make out anything though. "Whites and their stupid wars. This isn't combat, it's just death."
Sean grits his teeth and blocks out everything but the rifle in his hand and his target. He takes a slow breath, focusing on the Flametrooper, before squeezing the trigger.
Huffing, Desmond takes half a second extra to register the order from the Lt. before turning and booking it for the stairs. "Yes sir!" He calls, already a few steps into motion and starting to climb the stairs.
Desmond takes up a post upstairs, but the adrenaline surge hasn't worn off yet. "G~*~@+n Jerry sonsab#@!*es, I swear for god, g@#+$%n," He mutters a steady stream of profanity in between breaths.
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"Yebat! Eat s&%* you damned flaming Frankfurt!" Alexander cried as he took the pin out of his grenade and ran for it, getting as close as he could to the Flametrooper before throwing the bomb. "When you get to hell tell your friends I'll send them their family soon! Blyad!" the profanities and threats were usual stuff when you had the old russian around, he simply liked it that way, helped him go through the killing and bleeding. Or he enjoyed swearing, you never know for sure.
The sharpshooters make their way up top with speed, and begin scanning the surroundings--what they can see, at least. There isn't much of importance to note, though: there are soldiers crawling and running across the terrain, but nothing to report. It's difficult to make things out in all the smoke, though, especially having just arrived and taken a single glance...
Meanwhile, fighting in the basement boils down to focus on the flame trooper that's just arrived. Alexander is the first to respond, dashing around the corner to toss a grenade at the feet of the Germans, before sliding behind a column to get what cover he can. Only one infantryman scrambles back in time before the grenade bursts, shrapnel slicing through the handful of Germans at the front of their line. Three men go down screaming, but the flame trooper's form is still standing in the smoke--his heavier padding and thick coat must have kept him safe from the worst of the blast. Sean brings up his rifle to fire on the trooper, and his shot is dead center, but there's a metallic whine as the bullet ricochets off a metal strap of the trooper's equipment.
The Triple U have only a moment to scream curses at this turn before the trooper's weapon ignites, spraying flames across the front of the line. As it first sputters to life, it doesn't shoot very far, but one man is still caught in the fire--his hideous shrieks echo through the basement as he collapses to the floor, writhing in agony, his body awash with orange and yellow. Meanwhile, the rest of the Germans continue shooting as they can, firing around their new champion. A spray of automatic fire chips off pieces of Alexander's cover, but for the most part, the bullets aren't flying true--it's the flames that cause worry now.
"Keep firing! He's not going down!" Aaron moves back away from the flames toward the ladder, hoping to keep more distance between himself and the flame trooper. Once he's gotten farther back behind cover, he pops up only for a second and fires off a shot. "Make sure you're behind cover and aim for the fuel tank! We'll blow his ass and get out of here!"