Guadalcanal PbP In-Character Thread

[jw_monty]

"Give 'em hell, boys," Regan shouted, as he took aim at an oncoming enemy soldier. He could clearly see the man's face; a grim mixture of hatred and terror playing across it as he charged towards the American's position. Regan squeezed the trigger of the Japanese rifle, held firmly in his hands. He saw a spray of red mist, and the man went down, his face an unrecognizable ruin, even as Regan zeroed in on a new target.

[countrysamurai]

The muddy golem created by Amrahamovich lurched toward the charging Imperial soldiers grabbing the lead man by the head. He had no time to scream before the grenade in the golemís hand detonated in a spray of dirt, bones and brains. A second grenade exploded tearing the leg off of one man and filling a second with shrapnel.
Gunfire from the nest pored into the remaining men leaving nobody alive.
And suddenly, it was over. The marines peered into the darkness into the tall grass below the ridge, but there was nothing else there.
Gunfire and artillery continued to sound behind them, further back toward the airstrip but around them, only silence.
First light wasnít long in coming and with it the Army P-39 fighter planes lifted off from Henderson Field and began strafing the enemy. The enemy fled back into the jungle in bitter defeat.
It was not until daybreak that Lt. Colonel Merritt A. Edson realized that the small squad of Marine Talents were still alive. More than that, they were the only squad to actually stick to their guns without having to fall back in the thick of things.
The 42 casualties inflicted by the squad, including two enemy Talents, was also quite impressive, especially considering there was only one Marine casualty.
As for Pvt. Vance Dimwiddle III, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross with Gold Star, Silver Star Medal and the Legion of Merit. His family fortune would pass on to his siblings, who proceeded to squander and lose it all. Each of them died in abject poverty.
As for the other members of the squad Ö

[mteague]

Final Fate of Marine Special Unit 302 ìThe Devilís Ownî

Joseph Collins, aka ìThe Fixî:

The reputation of the Devilís Own became the stuff of legend, due in no small way to the nearly miraculous things created in the field by Fixís technical genius. But the war changed the young man. He would never again be the happy innocent he was before GuadalCanal. Unlike most soldiers, his return from the war was not a celebration, nor a chance to relax and find a wife.
The government found immediate use for him in their continuing weapons research. With his talent for machines, he excelled, creating many of the advances now taken for granted.
His depression and increasing paranoia would go largely undetected, and the relentless stress and workload would never end.
Finally, something within the Irishman would break. He saw the government and military as forces of evil and oppression bent on dominating all the peoples of the world. He devised a plan to rid the world of them forever. He became the first true megalomaniacal supervillain.
His plan to take over the top secret base where he was stationed was an unqualified success, and from there managed to gain absolute control of Americaís automated defense systems, including most of the nuclear arsenal, in June, 1971.
He was stopped by a vigilante Talent watchdog group calling itself The Cadre. The Cadreís leader, Retroshock, himself ended the crisis with the simple solution of a bullet to the brain. Retroshock then retired from public crimefighting never to be seen again.
Joseph Collins contributions to technological advancement would never be recognized. Officially, he never existed, and the threat he posed to the free world never acknowledged. His body was cremated and quietly put to rest in a government cemetery.

William Carson, aka ìReboundî

Willie Carson came back from the war, jubilant to have survived, and proven himself to anyone that he felt mattered. He went home to Montana and quickly married an old high school sweetheart. He too was changed by the war, but not so tragically as Collins. His experiences gave him a taste for the world that could not be sated by rural Montana life. He grew restless, and secretly practiced and developed his powers, which by this point were becoming vast. His ability to absorb and dampen energies had broken the quantum barriers. Strength, endurance, projection and regeneration were all growing off the charts.
After 7 years, his marriage finally ended, and in 1953, he moved on to greener pastures. He adopted the methods of many of his co-talents, creating a costume and secret identity for himself, fighting whatever wrongs he came across. His reputation in that arena grew, as did his powers.
After almost 10 active years in the superhero arena, he began to notice something odd. He was 40 years old and still looked and felt 25. His neighbors and friends in his private life also began to take notice. His ability to regenerate was becoming a problem. He managed to fake his own death and disappear into another city, taking another identity. Rebound was never seen again in Chicago, but Retroshock blazed upon the scene in New York. He formed an alliance of like-minded Talents and called them the Cadre. They were the toast of the town for several years, seemingly immune to the political actions increasingly attacking talents of all types. They were very careful in their actions, always protecting innocents first, capturing villains second.
Retroshock retired from public life in 1971 after he was forced to kill one of his oldest friends from WWII to protect public safety. He never told his teammates why.
He continues to fight the good fight, always taking on a new identity every 10-20 years, uprooting himself and adopting a new name in a new city. His country accent long ago disappeared, but he still retains his folksy charm. He currently resides in Los Angeles, and fights crime under the name ìRoninî.

[jw_monty]

Lieutenant John Regan

John Regan went on to continue leading Marine Special Unit 302 up until November 1943. During that time, he had led his men with the trademark aplomb and casual leadership skills that he would be remembered for by all those who had served under him.

On November 20, 1943 during the botched lagoon landing at Betio, a Japanese Talent swam out to a disabled and abandoned American amphitrack and opened up on the rear of the Marine lines with its mounted .50 caliber machine gun. Regan, never one to stand idly by when something needed doing, bravely swam out to the captured amphitrack and ambushed the Talent. After a brutal fight, the now-wounded Regan killed the enemy Talent and scuttled the amphitrack. While trying to swim back to Marine lines, Regan succumbed to his injuries and drowned in the sea. He was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for his actions.

[countrysamurai]

Private Carl ìHollywoodî Franklin did not survive the night. After the action was over, Franklin quietly slipped away to relieve his bowel. He was found dead in a compromised position, two hours later. It was speculated that outside of the presence of others, Franklin reverted to his normal form, that being a sickly boy suffering from the advanced stages of malaria and dysentery.
In consideration of his family, Private Franklin was listed as Killed in Action and history would reflect that he was one of two Talents killed during the first major campaign in the Pacific War.
He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star Medal, Legion of Merit and Purple Heart.

[countrysamurai]

Pvt. Leonard Syskowski, the sniper and speedster served with distintion during both the Tarawa and Saipan campaigns. It was in the final stages of Saipan that he lost his life.
By that time, the Japanese resistance had been beaten back to the northern tip of the island and Syskowski was mostly pulling duty as a speedy messenger up and down the coastal road. Japanese spies learned of his routine and set a wire at neck height across the road. As expected, Syskowski ran through, lopping off his own head.