Lutansia (OWoD)

[ArthurWilborn]

[showmore=OOC]Oh, man, this failed spot check is going to hurt. :shock:[/showmore]

One limey in the bag, easier then catching a pig. Luke left him to get himself out - let him off easy and he'd think he could get up to any fool thing any time he cared to. Now, with no more distractions, he slapped his rifle together.
[showmore=The Army Way]Dex plus firearms - taking automatic success[/showmore]

Feeling a little more collected now that he had his rifle, he turned to see all but that handful he wrote off gathered up. Good. His voice boomed out to address them."All right, men, we're heading into the city. Rifles out, mouth shut. We go into the fields..." Luke started up a short run on the how and where, just in case more of these asshole Brits decided to take a scenic country stroll through the ass end of occupied Europe.

 

[DepricatedZero]

Don glanced down to be sure that Luke and the rest of the team were aware of the oncoming patrol. He called in a loud whisper, the loudest he dare, to the soldier nearest his position. "Patrol incoming! Let Wilson know!" He made a slight gesture towards Luke, careful not to make too much motion and hoping that the man would understand his meaning.

He checked his rifle and took aim, counting off the patrol as they slowly came in to sight. He began lining up a shot for the far side of the tank - Kelso was pinned down, he'd need any shots Don could make in his favor.
[showmore=OOC]From this point:
-Holding fire until: the tank is in position and hopefully has been blown OR Kelso is revealed
-Once a foot soldier is in sight, drawing aim.
-Once the manned vehicle is in sight, will shift focus to the driver. This would take priority over the foot soldier.[/showmore]

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

The man barely understood him, but it was clear that there was something coming... Because he felt the ground shaking too. Quickly, he ran lowly over towards the only person he knew he could trust in the group - whispering hurriedly to Halden...
His face quickly changed from the look of chill and joking demeanor he usually carried to a somewhat serious expression. Halden smacked Luke on the shoulder to get his attention - just hard enough to interrupt him. In the most hurried voice he could whisper:
"Enemies down the road - we need to move."

Without awaiting an order, Halden flipped out some British Bolt Action nonsense - ready to go... Waiting around wasn't the best of ideas.

But in the tree, Don was in his zone, examining the enemies through the scope and taking in everything at once -
The patrol, as far as Don could tell, seemed totally unaware of their presence - though on a somewhat serious alert (any other night, they were probably joking about women and talking about beer - but the planes in the air and raining men in parachutes from the sky instantly made the whole place a War Zone to them). They were certainly in no place to see Kelso -
Oh, but you could see Kelso. He was pulling out a hand detonator, and hurrying about wrapping wires to the metal ends at the bottom. There was some slack he had let under it... And you could tell why. The explosive on the road he was working on had the potential to blow that wall back on him and crush him under possibly a ton of stone.

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Shit. What the hell - where did they come from? How the hell did he miss that rumbling?
[showmore=Response Time 2 successes]2011-11-10 22:52:53 ArthurWilborn rolls 5 dice to Wits + Alertness 7,2,5,8,3 (2 successes)[/showmore]

Relax - he had already planned for this. Thanks to the bend in the road the Kraut's couldn't see them here - probably didn't know the paratroopers were there. The troops just had to keep out of sight until Kelso gave the signal boom - then hit 'em from behind.

Luke's voice dropped to a whisper. "Circle 'round the house, hide behind the fence." He matched his words with the hand signals that had been drilled into him in basic. The fence had looked like high enough to conceal them and worn enough to kick through, so it was the best place to hide a dozen men that he could find in the next thirty seconds.

He jogged around the edge of the house to the corner, hoping he was able to get the men moving in time to get them all hidden.
[showmore=Move Out 1 success]2011-11-10 23:16:44 ArthurWilborn rolls 5 dice to manip + leadership 1,8,1,8,9 (1 success)[/showmore]

[showmore=OOC]I'm assuming the fence marked on the map is sufficient to act as concealment in the evening light. If not, the idea would be to keep the house between the men and the patrol.[/showmore]

 

[DepricatedZero]

[showmore=OOC]Don is continuing to hold fire. He anticipates that the excrement is about to collide with the Aperture Science Rotary Oscillator.[/showmore]

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

[showmore=OOC]I'm waiting for Noth to post...
His rolls are crucial to the actual play of this entire chapter.
>.>[/showmore]

 

[Noth]

[showmore=OOC]I rolled them again as you requested previous page I was waiting for you to post what the rolls revealed [/showmore]

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

[showmore=OOC]Keep rolling - this is an extended action of Liam searching a several kilometer sets of fields.[/showmore]

 

[Noth]

[showmore=OOC]Ahh, that wasn't clear to me, sorry [/showmore] Liam scanned the field ahead of him. In the distance above the light still occasionally lit up with flickers of golden light. From this distance he couldn't be sure whether the lights were anti-aircraft guns hitting anything or just exploding randomly. He tried his best to move forward discreetly, wrapping his lantern in his coat flaps whenever he scanned distant spots to minimise his own light obstructing his view. The bike he'd left stood at the back of the old house as it would hinder him in a field like this, but he made sure he would be able to trace his way back to it, even if it was a pretty dark night.
[showmore=Perception Alertness and Survival 4 successes]2011-11-14 17:04:13 Noth rolls 7 dice to Per + Alert + Survive 10,6,2,5,3, 8,7 (4 successes)[/showmore]
He was beginning to grow tired, yet adrenaline from both excitement as well as real fear (what if he was caught out here by a German patrol? Or by a stray bullet?) pushed him on.
"Maybe I should draw my pistol just in case."
He nearly freaked when a rabbit hopped away not 10 feet away from him.
"Blasted! Or... maybe not such a good idea Liam, you might end up shooting a mouse. What a perfectly stealthy move that would be..."
[showmore=Perception and Stealth 3 successes]2011-11-14 17:04:59 Noth rolls 6 dice to Per + Stealth 4,6,6,2,2, 9 (3 successes)[/showmore]

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

If you could tip-toe run, the men sure as hell attempted it - running around to the side of the building, following Luke foot by foot.
But Halden - Halden was a different kind of bugger altogether. He followed, but after a quick survey of the yard he was seen pulling out a shovel off his body pack. He looked to Luke as he stuck it in the side of the old window. Pushing down on it, the thing popped a gear rather quietly, shoving the ceiling up.
"Yank. The boys don't have any cover out there. They'll be sitting ducks for the Kraut MGs. I'll draw their fire to the top floor and have them bugger about the building so you can clean them out. The more people they think are in the building, the less likely they are to go after Kelso and Don, or see you guys all flanking them."

*Dramatic pause of time!*

With a nod, he grinned. "Light 'em up for me."

Well, as dramatic of a pause it may have been, it ended awfully quickly -
Through Don's scope, he could see Kelso had stopped fumbling with the wires and had begun to slide back in the tall grass, trying to not draw too much attention to himself.
As soon as he was able (out of sight, even for Don) there was a miniscule "CLICK!" that echoed across the field - and then another one.

Don could hear Kelso in his head: "Damned shotty American wiring."

The enemies had heard it, too - and were all alert as ever now. They were still idiots as to the extent of what was going on, but one of them began walking over in the direction of the field, gun drawn and yelling something in German.
[showmore=Noth]Just keep rolling after each one of my posts. Once again, there's a method to my madness here that I will explain after all your rolling is complete.[/showmore]

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Luke felt his stomach sink as he heard the two clicks. How the hell did that stupid Brit mess up the one thing he had been asked to do, and twice no less? Damn stupid pigheaded flyboy...

Luke cut off the useless speculation, but then a very nasty thought entered his head. His orders weren't to deal with this one lousy patrol - they were to get into Arnhem. He could just leave the two idiots here to appease the scout party - hell, Don was a cool customer, he'd probably make it out OK - and skulk through the fields. He'd already left five men for dead - what was another two on the pile?
[showmore=Stick With The Party 2 successes]2011-11-14 22:40:30 ArthurWilborn rolls 6 dice to Humanity 5,2,7,8,2, 4 (2 successes)[/showmore]

Luke shook it off - no point letting his people get killed for nothing, stupid as they were. The problem was that damn tank; taking up a firing position behind the house would be worse then useless, one shell and the whole damn thing would just fall on them. They had to get close enough to disable it, and hell if Luke was trusting the explosives again. That meant he actually had to get close to the damn thing and disable it - somehow. Well, that could be worried about at the right time and place.

"Fix bayonets," Luke growled. "Don't bother shooting - just rush 'em and stick 'em. Don'll give us the signal. When he's got 'em looking the wrong way we'll rush 'em." He picked out four likely-looking Brits. "You lot, stick close and cover my back - I'll worry about the tank."

Luke shrugged off his ruck and bag - no time for them in the mad dash to come. He picked a likely section of the fence to hop, clutching his bayoneted rifle and waiting for what was to come.
[showmore=OOC]Not the greatest plan ever, but there's not a lot of options here. Getting in a rifle duel with a tank is pointless, as an Panzer of this era would be effectively immune to an anti-tank rifle and a normal one would be useless. We don't have Molotovs. The mines - our best option -have already failed. The only option I can see is to get into the tank's range shadow and find some way to jam its gears or shoot the occupants.[/showmore]

 

[Noth]

[showmore=Per Alert Surv 3 successes]2011-11-15 04:04:23 Noth rolls 7 dice to Per + Alert + Survive 9,5,6,5,1, 7,7 (3 successes)[/showmore] In his mind Liam tried to order everything that was happening as well as everything that was supposed to happen. How much did he remember? How much had changed in the allied plans? What would the troops' objectives be? And how would he get his patrols to safety inside Arnhem? When would the heavy cavalry follow? etc. Despite his cool demeanour, the night, the chill, the threat looming over him, all made him skittish.
[showmore=Self-Control 1 success]2011-11-15 04:05:01 Noth rolls 4 dice to Self-control 5,7,1,6 (1 success)[/showmore] "Relax, you fool!" He told himself. Straining to get his breathing under control again, his pulse down and his wits back about him Liam regained a bit of self-control.
[showmore=Per Stealth 1 success]2011-11-15 04:06:43 Noth rolls 6 dice to Per + Stealth 1,9,9,8,4, 1 (1 success)[/showmore] Now where was he? Ahh yes, look for allied troops, watch out for German patrols. He couldn't be too far, could he? Then again, there were plenty of kilometres of field to scour...

 

[DepricatedZero]

Don winced at the two loud clicks, and watched the reaction of the patrol. He muttered a curse under his breath and snapped his sights to the one shouting and moving into the field. Taking careful aim he counted down backwards in his mind.

Three. He sized his target up in his crosshairs. Two. He measured out the distance of the shot. One. He aimed for where he anticipated his target would be when the bullet landed. Fire! He felt the rifle kick back at him as he squeezed the trigger. Immediately he readied the next round and began to draw aim on the next target in line, not waiting to see the result of his first shot - that made it a little easier.
[showmore=Shooting - 2 Successes]2011-11-15 07:33:51 DepricatedZero rolls 9 dice to Perc.+Firearms(Sniping) 10,1,3,6,5, 5,5,3,3,6 (2 successes)[/showmore]
[showmore=OOC]I'm assuming that he's not actively defending against me and that the first success hits. If he does get to roll against it by all means ignore the incoming damage roll.[/showmore]
[showmore=6 Damage]2011-11-15 07:35:47 DepricatedZero rolls 9 dice to Damage 6,10,9,7,4, 1,9,10,8 (6 successes)[/showmore]

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

People nodded and followed orders - But Halden didn't seem so amused at the prospect of charging a tank.
Oh well - what do you do? It was time to put up or shut up for him...

Halden yanked the bayonet out of the side, turning it on with the rest of the group. One hell of a way to go out, he thought.
It was then, however, that all hell began to break loose:

Poetry in motion, it would seem, as to the chain of events that had just occurred.
For the very moment the loud CRACK of the Springfield dropped one of the front men, there was another click. And, this time, followed with a nice loud boom. The feeling of compression would seep around as the thud of a fucked tank crashed back square where it was (minus treads, of course).
[showmore=Don]Don would feel the tree shake more than he appreciated. Perception + Athletics. Pass, you can continue next turn as normal. Fail, you have to readjust your sights - meaning you can't fire for a turn. Botch, you fall like an apple.
To Don's best judgement, it looks like the last shot was a kill.[/showmore]
[showmore=Liam]You'll get there eventually! It's not much longer now, though, as long as your roll stays up.[/showmore]

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Now THAT was more like it. No point confusing anyone now...

"GOGOGOGO!" Luke yelled against his banging eardrums.
[showmore=Fence Jumping 3 successes]2011-11-15 16:54:19 ArthurWilborn rolls 6 dice to dex + athletics 6,5,7,2,5, 9 (3 successes)[/showmore]

Luke cleared the fence easily. He locked on to the tank and raced for it - that was still his objective after all - and started to add the familiar little half-steps he had used to dodge defensive backs in the day. Maybe they would be enough to impress any bullets the stunned patrol would send his way.
[showmore=Duck and Weave 3 successes]2011-11-15 16:59:37 ArthurWilborn rolls 6 dice to dex + dodge 6,3,4,5,6, 6 (3 successes)[/showmore]

[showmore=OOC]Priorties - making sure the tank is out of commission, sticking anyone who gets in his way, taking up a shooting position with the tank as cover. Neither he (or I) yet know how big the vehicle is so priorities might change.[/showmore]

 

[DepricatedZero]

[showmore=Perception+Athletics - 6 Successes, sweet Cthulhu]2011-11-15 19:33:10 DepricatedZero rolls 7 dice to Perception+Athletics 8,10,2,6,8, 10,8 (6 successes)[/showmore]

On hearing the last echoing click he clenched his legs around the branch he was on like an unwilling virgin on prom night. He barely batted an eye as the world shook around him, taking measured breaths to keep steady as he drew in on his next target. He only had a couple moments to take advantage of the confusion.
[showmore=OOC]If I need to hold this action to the next round, just push it back. I'm also assuming that at this point the vehicle following the tank has moved into Don's Line of Sight. If I'm wrong, by all means, his next target is instead the next soldier nearest Kelso[/showmore]

Don squinted through the scope, bringing the driver of the (what is it?) into line. Last thing we need, he thought to himself, is some asshole passing word along. They've probably got the radio in there. He felt the gun leap against his shoulder again as he squeezed out the next shot.
[showmore=Shooting - 4 Successes]2011-11-15 19:45:25 DepricatedZero rolls 9 dice to Perc+Firearms(Sniping) 2,6,2,4,3, 9,2,6,8 (4 successes)[/showmore]
[showmore=OOC]I'm guessing that the window Don's shooting is probably coated in bullet resistant lamination. If theres an open window/possibility of a shot through that he'll take it first, but if not he'll hope that the Springfield packs enough punch to get through the window. Not rolling damage cause I understand if it just totally negates the shot - but let me know if any potential damage gets through, how you want to handle it.[/showmore]

 

[Noth]

Ten steps forward, kneel, scout, back up, ten steps forward. Rinse and repeat. Liam was so lost in the rhythm by now he could have easily missed something 10 feet away due to scouting the distance.
[showmore=Per Alert Survive 1 success]2011-11-15 20:04:06 Noth rolls 7 dice to Per + Alert + Survive 5,2,4,2,8, 4,4 (1 success)[/showmore] And slowly he was losing focus. Everything was black. Sounds seemed to come from everywhere at once, and then not at all. Was that screaming? Nahh, just his imagination and the wind. Always the wind. Blasted, but it was cold!
[showmore=Per Stealth 1 success]2011-11-15 20:06:44 Noth rolls 6 dice to Per + Stealth 1,4,8,3,4, 8 (1 success)[/showmore]

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

As Liam was trekking through the field, he would begin to loose focus about where he was going -
Damn all of it - the blasts, the darkness, the soil that was tarnishing his boots.

It was then, in the midst of Liam's lament to himself that he would stop, hearing a very clear sound of the pulling of a hammer on a pistol - right before feeling the cold, empty rod of the barrel against the back of his head, near the base of his neck.
In German, the words were:
"Who are you? What are you doing out here?!"
[showmore=Noth]Suspend rolling to search the field until this is resolved.[/showmore]

----------------------------------------
[showmore=Vehicle Info]The Car being driven has a window-mounted LMG, and thick armor on the doors... But no window protection to speak of. It's made to get in and get out - it's exact manning is listed in the updated battle map below.[/showmore]
[showmore=Zero]Given the high roll on chilling on the tree, I'll let it bleed over this time. I rolled the damage on my own, though, as so the storyline can roll without any hitches.[/showmore]

[showmore=Battle Situation]

[/showmore]

The vehicle itself was in an awfully precarious predicament when Don fired off his shot. At the time, the driver was doing just what Don was attempting to prevent, having turned halfway around and began pulling away from the scuff. But, as it went, the bullet itself whistled through the air, through the passenger-side window (startling the Kraut actually sitting in that seat) and nailing the driver in the side.
It seemed like it was a kill, at least to Don, but the vehicle itself rolled off the road and into the front yard of the older house. There were more German shouts, and before you could say knife there was the muzzle of a gun pointed out the side of the back seat.

Given the battle action, Kelso had managed to slip away from the view of Don and further into the field.

But, unfortunately for Don, that second shot had done it. If they hadn't gotten the message, they would have it now - them ducking behind the Tank, one of them pointing their weapon in Don's general area.
Slowly, the tank cannon began to rotate...

In the mess itself, Halden had taken a pause from his charge, reaching for a grenade out of his pouch and pulling the pin, muttering something to himself.

But to Luke? He couldn't see Halden. His only concern was that Tank.

 

[ArthurWilborn]

[showmore=OOC]It's fun doing research - assuming that tank is a Panzer IV (the most common variety), its machine gun is stuck pointing forward (away from the action) and it's turret can do a full circle in about a minute (rough estimate). This depends on a whole host of factors that Luke would find fascinating but I have little clue about. :?[/showmore]

Nothing for it - Luke kept up his charge. Something like a jeep rolled up on the lawn beside him, but he was past it before it would worry him too much. Hell, the boys could take care of that one; the tank was still moving. It didn't look like anybody was aiming at him right this second so he dropped the bumbling about to just pile on the speed. He needed to get to that tank fast.
[showmore=Charge 2 successes]2011-11-15 22:47:00 ArthurWilborn rolls 6 dice to charge 8,1,10,5,10, 2 (2 successes)[/showmore]

He focused on the tank - find a way to get a grenade or a bullet in there - no men, no gun.
[showmore=Scan for Weak Point 1 success]2011-11-15 22:56:36 ArthurWilborn rolls 4 dice to Perception+Alertness 2,5,4,9 (1 success)[/showmore]

 

[DepricatedZero]

"Fuck," Don muttered under his breath. He drew up aim on the gun pointed in his general direction, following it to the soldier's head. Here's hoping that they only figured out the direction the shots came from. He clenched his teeth, keeping his eye on the man, focusing on the shot but holding his fire. Hopefully if he was still enough they wouldn't pick him out before they were overrun.
[showmore=Staying Hidden - 3 Successes]2011-11-15 23:36:44 DepricatedZero rolls 6 dice to Agility+Stealth 7,7,1,7,2, 7 (3 successes)[/showmore]