[Game Post] March

[media_junkie]

You find yourself starting to wake up to the sounds of thunder in the distance however when your eyes come into focus you can see blue sky through the roof. You are feeling a sharp pain in your right side and are finding it hard to breath. You find yourself attempting to sit up when you realize that you shouldn't be able to see the sky through the roof, you scan your surroundings and realize that you are in what is left of a small barn that is missing one wall and the roof as well. You look around and see what appears to be rubble from the roof and the wall that is missing, still smoldering in some places.

Atempting to stand up you feel the sharp pain in your side again and look down to see a two foot long piece of wood sticking out of your right side. With the trouble you are having breathing you know that a lung has been punctured. Grasping the wooden debris with both hands you pull it out of your side and throw it away. As soon it is out of your body you can start to feel yourself knit back together, but even still it is going to be a few hours before you are one hundred percent again.

Standing up you give a closer look to your surroundings and see a few dead men in Australian military uniforms and then the memories come flooding back. You were part of a six man commando unit that had snuck into Japanese controlled Melbourne to take out a refueling depot. The thunder you hear in the distance is not thunder at all; it is the still exploding fuel tanks that you and the five other men were able to set charges to. Unfortunately you were not able to take them all out but your group did manage to set charges to half of them. That should slow down the Japs for a bit.

Your group was discovered while setting the charges and you all decided to make a break for it, you made it to the outskirts of Melbourne before you were surrounded. The six of you decided to go down fighting, because you had all heard of the “luxuries” that would be afforded to you in a Japanese work camp, so you took cover in this stone and mortar barn. The battle lasted just over an hour when the Japanese decided to quit sending men to their death and just bomb the hell out of you. Obviously that plan worked for them, your group on the other hand didn’t hold up to well.

”Damn it Shepard Jones, this is another fine mess you have gotten yourself in.”

{Ok Beebs, you are off and running.}

[beeblebrox]

[ While recovering, I do a quick inventory of what I have, what's salvageable from the men, and try to estimate how long it'll be until I recover enough to move out. Also... time of day, roughly? Did I have a rendezvous point or other plan of escape? ]

[media_junkie]

{Searching your former teammates and also around the barn you come up with enough rations to last you for three days maybe four if you stretch it and two canteens that hold enough water to last you a two days max unless you can refill them. It looks as if some of your units’ weapons are either buried in the rubble or perhaps they were taken before you woke up. You are pretty sure that if the Japanese searched the barn after bombing it you would have appeared dead. Other than a slightly burnt, but still useable compass there really isn’t much else to salvage.

You would estimate the time right now to be mid-morning, and you feel as if you can start walking out now if you need to however it will be another couple hours before you are fully 100%. Thinking back to your briefing your extraction point was near the Great Ocean Road near Anglesea south of Geelong, or about 67 miles slightly southwest from where you are now, if you follow the coast line.}

[beeblebrox]

[ I'd like to rest up until evening, then head out. Pretty sure it's mostly farmland between Melbourne and Geelong, so that should make for a pretty uneventful evening of careful travel beneath the stars... but I'm not going to follow the coastline. Rather, I'll head pretty much straight for Geelong and look for wells along the way to replenish my water supply. Perhaps a barn near dawn, or some other place to hide for a quick rest. ]

[media_junkie]

After resting up during the day you head out to your rendevouz point as evening falls. Based on what you remember from your mission breifing and how long you think you were out after the attack you believe you have four days to make it before you are left behind. The first night of your journey is pretty uneventful and as morning breaks you see a copse of trees that would make a good place to rest during the day. Once reaching the trees you have a quick bite to eat and some water to drink and then you close your eyes for some rest.

While you are dozing you hear a humming sound in the distance and after listening to it you determine that is the sound of an airplane. It sounds as if it is staying in the same area, perhaps searching for something or someone. You know that this far inland in could only be a Japanesse plane so you make no efforts to catch the attention of the pilot. After a couple hours the sound of the plane disappears again and you rest up some more. As evening falls you have another quick bite to eat and drink and then you start walking again.

You have been travelling for about five uneventful hours when you start to hear gunfire coming from beyond a low rise infront of you. You stealthily creep up to the top of the rise so you can see what is going on and a scene of chaos is unfolding before you. Below you is a single stone and morter farmhouse that look to be surrounded by Japanesse soldiers. The soldier are hunkered down behind their vehicles trading shots with whomever is inside the house. From you vantage point you can see some more vehicles coming towards the farmhouse. While the people inside are holding off the soldiers for now you have no illusions that will change once the reinforcements arrive.

[beeblebrox]

[ How many vehicles are at the building now? How many are coming? How far away are the incoming vehicles? ]

[media_junkie]

{The farm you are looking at consists of a stone and mortor farmhouse that is three stories high and about forty feet long and twenty five feet wide. The house has boarded up windows on the bottom floor and broken glass in the windows in the top two floors. There are currently five Japanesse light infranty vehicles (think jeeps) surrounding the farmhouse. By your count if all five were fully loaded out there should be twenty Japanesse soldiers. You can currently only see ten of those soldiers.

Coming towards the farmhouse you can see headlights of five additional vehicles but as of yet you cannot tell if they are light infrantry or heavy artillary vehicles. By your best guess you are thinking the others should arrive in twenty minutes or so, based on their current speed.}

[beeblebrox]

[ I'd like to do something dramatic, like get in close enough to the farmhouse to blow up a few of the parked vehicles, presumably with my power. ]

[media_junkie]

Shepard you make your way down the rise to where you are perhaps one hundred feet from two parked light infantry vehicles. Currently the vehicles are between you and the farm house and there are four Japanese soldiers on the side of the vehicle closest to you firing their weapons at the farmhouse. You are confident that you haven’t been seen yet as no one is firing on you.

You slow your breathing and reach deep inside yourself feeling your power build up. You are not sure how or why you have the power you do, however right now it comes to you easily. You stretch out your right arm and tilt your fingers to the sky so your open palm is facing the jeep on the right and you feel and then see a silvery hued beam of force erupt from your palm heading towards the soldiers.

Almost instantly you see one of the Japanese soldiers slammed in the back with the beam of force and then slump to the ground not moving. Even from this distance you heard the snap of his spine as he is crushed between your force beam and the light infantry vehicle. You aim your arm again and another blast of force strikes the infantry vehicle with enough force that it flips over on its side exposing the gas tank to you.

It has only been seconds since your first attack and the three remaining Japanese soldiers have stopped firing on the farmhouse as they try and figure out what exactly is going on. You unleash a third blast of force which rips open the gas tank on the flipped vehicle spilling gasoline on the ground, and even more importantly causing metal to scrape on metal throwing sparks in the air. The sparks land in the now ruptured gasoline tank igniting the gas. You throw your left arm up in front of your face as a reflexive action as the gas tank explodes flipping the damaged vehicle up in the air throwing burning fuel and bits of metal around in the air like shrapnel.

The light given off by the burning vehicle shows you that two of the three soldiers are on the ground and not moving, while the third is holding his left hand against the side of his bloodied head while his right hand is reaching for a side-arm as he is looking directly at you.

[beeblebrox]

[ Blast him. ]

[ There was a fourth soldier... I need to find him, and then get those people out of the building. How long do I feel I have before the reinforcements arrive? ]

[media_junkie]

[ There was a fourth soldier... I need to find him, and then get those people out of the building. How long do I feel I have before the reinforcements arrive? ]

{Four soldiers, frist one you snapped his spine and killed him (or at least put him out of action as he is not moving) with your first blast. Soldier two and three unmoving on the ground after the vehicle was blown up. Soldier four is the one that has seen you and is reaching for a side arm. As far as reinforcements you don't know how far they are from you now that you are no longer on the rise. It has taken you about three minutes to come down the rise and get in position where you are. Then just a few more seconds to take out the three soliders you have already. The explosion of the vehicle was most likely loud enough for the reinforcements to hear so it would seem logical they would speed up but you just cannot see them to know for sure. So at best, if they are staying the same rate of speed as before you have sixteen minutes or so.}

[beeblebrox]

[ I run into the building, shouting, "Let's go! Let's go!" while trying to look out the windows at the approaching reinforcements. ]

[media_junkie]

Seizing control of your power once again you fire off a quick force blast at the last of the four Japanese soldiers. You aim is impeccable and you watch his head snap back and then see him slump to the ground. You are off and running towards the house before his body stops quivering.

While running towards the building you notice there are no doors on this side, but there are two boarded up windows. You aim your arm and send a blast of force into the left most window as you are running. You see the board splinter backwards into the room and you then dive through the remaining fragments of wood and into the house. As you land you come up from a roll and feel a twitch in your arm. You look down and see that you cut yourself pretty deep on a nail, but you already feel your skin and tissues start to knit themselves back together.

Standing up you look around and see that you are in what can only be classified as a dining area as there are four chairs and what looks to be the remains of a table. The first floor of the house looks to be dark, but you can hear footsteps from upstairs. The room you are in has two doorways, one to your immediate left leading into what should be a kitchen area and one straight ahead leading into a hallway perhaps.

“Let’s go!” you yell towards the hallway. “They have reinforcements, oh shit!”

You hear the tell-tale sound of a grenade striking the floor behind you.

[beeblebrox]

[ Can I Deflect it out the door? Or, perhaps better yet, blast the grenade away? ]

[media_junkie]

{Since the grenade has already hit the floor you really cannot deflect it. However you can attempt to deflect the power of the blast/shrapnel once the grenade explodes (if it is a fragmentation grenade which you are not sure of).

As for blasting the grenade itself before it goes off you would need one hell of a role to blast it in such a way that it 1) doesn't explode and 2) bounces out the room you are in through either a window or one of the two doors.}

[beeblebrox]

[ Alrighty then, I'll try to Deflect the blast but also put some distance between it and myself... perhaps in another room? ]

[media_junkie]

Reacting instinctively you spin around and leap backwards through the door leading into what you believe is a hallway, as you do so you pull up a shield of kinetic energy robbing force in front of you. The grenade explodes and you see the shrapnel from both the grenade itself and the wooden furniture in the room stop and momentarily hang in the air in front of you before it drops to the floor.

You land on your back in the hallway and look off to your left and see a set of stairs leading up. At the top of the stairs you see two people, both males, pointing rifles at you. While you are looking at them you can hear the faint sound of yelling coming from outside the building and what sounds like heavy equipment getting near.

[beeblebrox]

"Come on, I'm trying to save you!" I yell up the stairs at the two men, all the while trying to locate the sound of the heavy equipment. "Reinforcements are almost here, we gotta go!"

[ If/when I locate the direction the sound is coming from, I head out the house on the OTHER side. At this point, if those guys upstairs come... then they do. If not... I tried. ]

[media_junkie]

The men on the stairs lower their weapons and one disappears out of sight after you yell for them to come on. The other notices your uniform and motions for you to come up the stairs.

"Going to need your help if we are to get out of here." he yells down the stairs to you. He then disappears out of sight as well.

{Based on what you can hear it sounds as if the heavy equipment is coming in from the east.}

[beeblebrox]

[ Up the stairs, then, and time to see if I can help! ]