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"None taken," he says reflexively. He wasn't much for talking when there was work to be done. And there was always work to be done. "We got inbound," he says, pointing to the mass of zombies. "Now, I got me an idea. What say one of you two fine ladies that can fly take this here rifle, fly over on the other side of them zombies, and fire off a couple rounds. You ain't got t' hit nuthin', just make noise. They'll come after you, well, were you was.
How's that?"
Dan stops a moment once all the players have committed to their parts to look the scene over. God willing, the zombies will chase after the fliers, and leave them be. He didn't know why Thorn was moving slow, but that would complicated things. He gazes at the enemy dogging them and gauges their chances. "Let Titus carry you, lad. Speed is the only advantages us road-pounders have right now." If any zoms are not taking the bait, he'll start aiming up some long-range fire to thin out the numbers.
Daniel had been following in a dream-like state. None if this seemed real. He was just doing a job. A job for the guy that was going to put this all right; put it back to the way it was. But that's not it. It's not going back. Now the only was is forward. He had hung back, still just wishing that this wasn't happening. Even if his employer had headed for the hills, if it took all his power to bring the loud magic lady here, then it meant that she could make it all go away, right? Wrong. The zombies--for that's what they were--were upon them, and they were going to walk all over humanity's last chance if he didn't do something. He couldn't do much. He never was good at anything. But some said that he was okay with a rifle, so, all that he could do, he vowed to do it. He sighted in, got center mass on his target, and pulled the trigger.
Then he remembered he had moved the sights the last time he cleaned the rifle and hadn't put them back yet. Oops.
Alright, let's huddle up. We, all of us, can see the writing on the wall. As a favor to our good friend WhtKnt, we all concur that placing the game On Hold is the best thing right now. Maybe things will open up, but getting burned out and dropping ALL of one's games is all too common, so we hope that doing a little good now will prevent a lot of bad later. *Atlas starts packing up his character sheets back into his gaming backpack and bagging up his dice*
= 11. Dan drops as a ricochet skips off his shoulder. He pauses to look at the hole in his uniform, frowning at how much sewing it'll take to patch it back up. Otherwise unhurt, he pops back up, aiming downrange, wonder how the blazes Germans are able to cling to the bridge, find decent cover -and- fire their weapons. Master race indeed! "I thought I'd try shooting them with guns and see how that works!" Dan calls back to Bobby.
"Alrighty, looks like we got us a plan. Aleksei, you take the Foxhole on the Left. It seems that they made into a nice inverted 'V', so you've got some room to maneuver and make a new front even if we get hella-flanked. Bobby, you take Center. Try and keep whatever yokels they stick us with in line, and pile the brass up hip-deep. You even think you see Gerry, empty a clip in that direction. Don't do no good to get captured with a pocket full of ammo. I'll take Right. Now that the foxholes are dug, make sure we put plenty of tins of ammo in some magazines in 'em. Can't be runnin' back to the canteen every time you empty a clip. How's that sound?" Dan pours himself a cuppa hot joe.
Dan nods as he looks at the map. "Then we should keep a few independent foxholes waaaaaaay off to the side, so they can keep a good eye on the bottom, pick 'em off if they try. Those foxholes, we can even build a big wall of sandbags to their front, as they don't need to shoot ahead, just play overwatch to the sneaks SOB's. Whoever goes there, should be a good shot. Back home they call me Sharpshooter, so I guess I volunteer. Where do you guys wanna go?" he asks of Aleksei and Bobby. "Front or sides?"
"Well, ya got that right. Yeah, that's a part of it. First off, the far side--we can not hold it. I propose that we fill in all those foxholes over there so that _when_ they take it, they don't profit from it. It'll be quick, they take long to dig put are quick to fill. We can't hold the far side, because we won't have a good line of retreat, and they can attack a position over there from anywhere. But we -can- hold this side, because they have to come over that bridge, which forces them into one long, narrow bottleneck. We just need to all have cover and we'll be okay. Then we dig a semi-circle around our side, into one big trench. And the dirt we pile up, into a big foxhole. That way if any do make it across, they don't have any flat ground to run over. We'll kinda 'beseige' the near side of the thing, so that as they come at us we'll always have cover. And if one side of our big foxhole needs more men, they can run over there. Basically we'll be uniting all the foxholes in one big 'communication trench'. How's that sound?"
Dan could not say that he was sorry to see the last of the arch dig. Seemed like the sorriest of guard duties. Near enemy resources and, apparently, no way to strike back. Seemed a decent enough place with decent enough fellows, but the food was bad and the accommodations worse. 2 rain-soaked nights out of five. Would not risk pneumonia again. The trip back was a vacation, by comparison. Dry bunks and decent enough grub. OF course, anything not field rations was a welcome relief. Ah, well, nothing good can last forever. Back to more trenches! "Enemy disposition, sir? Is this something we've held for awhile? Can you say how many of those dirty, dirty huns are about to come down on it? Of course, just as long as there aren't any of those new-fangled 'tanks' that I'm starting to hear about and some decent foxholes to stand to in, we should be okay."
Dan, used to harsh conditions from his upbringing and a veteran of several cold nights, does what he can to finish up the Fighting Positions, and even finds some spare lumber and canvas to add roofs to some of the fighting positions. At first light he wakes the others, and makes sure that he and Kent get some chow and some shut-eye. He sleeps in one of the roofed FPs.
"Robert, Aleksei, this is gonna sound odd, but I want you two to get some shut-eye. We're gonna need to be at 50% watch--that means half of the trigger fingers are on the line, half are sleep. You don't hafta sleep, you can grab chow or dig more, I've only started on FP's 3 and 4, and I figure we'll need six to do it up proper, but in ten hours Imma crash meself." Dan keeps working on the defenses, not sure what the future may hold.
"Wonderful. You are now Private First Class Kent of the European Expeditionary Force," Dan says, taking in the man's proficiency. "You are relieved from all archeology duties, and are now commander of Fighting Position Three," Dan says, pointing out an open hole with a wall of dirt piled in front of it. Compared to the shallow-grave Hasty Fighting Position scattered around the dig site, FP3 looks rather comfortable. "Take these Gerry grenades. You know how to use 'em, yeah?" Dan makes sure PFC Kent is set up in FP3 before continuing his entrenchment of the perimeter of the dig site.
Speaking of "isn't war odd", I recently heard of the Dickin Medal an award for animals. I thought this was a WWI thing, but apparently they were using animals a LOT in WWII. Go figure! Mostly dogs and pigeons, but there is one cat of notable mention!
Noting that they may be here for a while, Dan starts going around the dig site and begins making fighting emplacements. With just a shovel he can make a hasty fighting position pretty quickly. If any holes are sizable enough, he'll convert them into foxholes. Eventually he could run a protective wall around the entire area, but we'll see what happens.
Aside from their rifles, bayonets, several clips of ammunition, a handful of grenades (12 in all), and a total of 30 Papiermarks between them, the Germans have nothing of value. A search of the area reveals that the Germans came by truck from the direction of Cairo. You find the vehicle abandoned several yards away.
Dan rummages around in the abandoned truck looking for more clues. "Well, we could drive this back to where it came from and see if anyone comes calling after it?"
"Boy howdy," Dan exclaims, poping a fresh clip in his weapon before joining Aleksei in his policing up of the bodies.
"Or, mayhap they were gonna leave survivors, and wanted someone to think th' Bedouins gone an' done it. Or sumpin. I'm thinkin' we might could try to track these Gerrys back, see if they came onna truck or camel or sumpin'."
Dan considers switching tactics, but seeing as how the enemy is neither too numerous nor entrenched, he sees no reason to mess with success. He aims down his trusty rifle at the last of the raiders, anxious to police their bodies and try and find some reason for their attack.
There's a new edition of Savage Worlds??? Oooooooooooooooooooo..... My first thought is 'why mess with perfection?" My second thought is wondering at the big huge VAST amount of stuff out there for SW already. I mean, like, there's gotta be _twenty_ different settings out there, and each setting probably has a dozen modules out for it. Well, I guess if they re-release most of it that'll mean lots of money for them, and who's to deny them that? =) AS much as SW is the best RPG system, I do see how it can be tweaked, modified, condensed and improved upon, so let's see. (Does that mean that we'll convert this game to the new rules?? I admit I'm curious....)
I've gotta say that my thoughts on this have...not taken the path I thought they would. (If that makes any sense.) At first I had thought that I should not even try. After all, I've ghosted already, why take the chance again? And then I thought that I wouldn't even want to. Having "taken a bite at the apple" and all that. But, as I replied to all that had written me over my absence, I found that my keystrokes were just as quick, my clicks ever as probing, as curious, as energetic, as they ever were. It was like telling yourself you're not hungry...and then looking down at an empty plate and ordering more. That is to say, yes. Yes I will be rejoining you. If you'll have me. =) I may just need a few reminders on minor things like chase rules. And shooting rolls. And hit points. ^_^
"Well, then I guess there's naught for it but to stand around and look like a guy holding a thing waiting to meet a guy." Dan yawns. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and remind him of how long it's been since he slept. He'll give it a bout half an hour. He yawns again. Well, maybe 15 minutes.
"Sounds like a good plan, Bob. Alright, people, you heard the man." As Robert said, Dan helps get the unconscious guy into an alley and tied up. If he don't have a belt, they'll just cut jis pant legs into bonds. "Bob, I trust you can get the prof into a cab? Okay, Sam, just trail behind us. Aleksei, you're invited too, let's go," Dan says, rummaging through the valise, giving the professor whatever he needs and taking the empty case himself.
Dan motions the man toward Dawes Road without further explanation.
"Assuming we believe that... Anyway, he doesn't have to man the foxhole with us, he just has to play it cool long enough for the Johnson to make himself known. Me an' Sam can do the rest. Or we could just call it. Tell ya what, if you don't wanna stick yer neck out, I'll take the empty valise and go stand around Dawes looking at chicks for a spell. Nothing happens, great. But if you here a four-five cacking off, well then things got a lot more lively." Dan turns to the old man. "That suit you, sir?"
Dan shrugs and replies, "We could have one of us hold the other one hostage? If they don't hear from us, just shoot him and dump him in the Thames."
I don't have the rules in front of me, but is the Disarm maneuver roughly the same thing but requires an opposing fighting roll, or somesuch? One might imagine that that is if the Disarmer does think that their Falling Mountain is better, but does not have a high damage weapon, and just wants to make it about style. Hence, it really is just giving two routes to disarm, using your to-hit or your to-hurt, and just gives you options...almost as if they planned it that way??? ^_-
Sorry, I guess I just can't see it. It seems to me that if you slice my arm with your saber, I very well better roll something to see if the pain and trauma causes me to drop my sword. It also seems that this would be a more effective way of causing a Disarm than just seeing if your Falling Mountain techniques is better than my Fluttering Petal. Might be a thing to ask teh InternetZ about.
Dan nods at Bobby, understanding where he is going. He sidles close and mumbles, "Even if he saw both of them, if one of us shows up with the merchandise and says the those two just hired us on as more muscle before the run went bad and they got nabbed, but we got the goods, the Man might at least make an appearance...which is all we really need to drop the hammer."
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