Guadalcanal PbP In-Character Thread

[countrysamurai]

For a moment everything was quiet again.
Lt. John Regan squinted into the darkness and Sgt. Collins again felt that familiar buzz in the back of his head, like a mosquito hovering at the base of his brain.
ìHere it comes!î Lt. Regan yelled as he slapped the hammer on his Thompson machinegun. Bullets ripped the air as the marine fired into the distance.
It took a moment, but Sgt. Collins eyes finally picked up the creatureís serpentine movement as it wove through trees and tall grasses. The other guns on the ridge opened fire on the advancing beast, but all the bullets seemed to have little or no effect.
By the time it reached the base of the ridge, the dragon appeared headed straight toward Lt. Regan and the hidden landmine in his path.
ìGet down!î Lt. Regan screamed at Sgt. Collins an instant before an explosion filled the air. It was followed by a scream that was almost human.
Lt. Regan and Sgt. Collins peered over the lip of their foxhole. The great worm lay curled in a circle, its head resting on its tail. One of its scrawny back legs had been almost blown off and its ropey entrails spilled out onto the ground.
ìOuroboros,î muttered Collins.
The creatureís eyes opened again and itís lips pulled back in a snarl as it lunged at the two menís foxhole. The attack stopped abruptly, the dragon pulling his head back like a dog smacked on the nose with a rolled newspaper.
It lunges again, but with the same result. A confused whimper escaped its bleeding, snapping maw.
In all the excitement nobody paid much attention as Vance Dimwiddle left his foxhole and strode up to the creature purposefully.
He cleared his throat to get the beastís undivided attention then began his speech.
ìSee here, Dragon Öî
That was all he got out.
The creature lunged and itís great jaws snapped shut. Where once there had stood an arrogant marine was now a pair of shiny boots and those ridiculous government issued leggings that only Dimwiddle wore.
The remaining marines screamed and opened fire on the creature as it threw its head back and flexed its jaw. The bullets again had no effect. But it became clear after a moment that the creature was in some sort of distress. It started thrashing about, throwing its head back.
"It's choking on him," yelled the Corpsman.
Nobody could get near the twisting whipping creature until, at last, it lay still and transformed. The dragon disappeared. In its place lay two bodies grotesquely joined at the top like Siamese twins ñ one was a legless marine and the other a one-legged half starved Imperial soldier.
It was a sight that would haunt these men to their graves.

[cssmythe3]

hollywood, face drained of all color, is pacing frantically back and forth in an arc about 30ft from the twisted corpses. He seems very unwilling to get any closer, and unable to back away. "This ISN'T what was supposed happen, this, this ]COUGH HACK SPIT[ this is all messed up what, what IS that thing?! Leiutentant, whatarewegonna do now?!" His left arm pumps toward the mangled pile of flesh, clutching his rifle vertically with his left hand. His right hand spasmodically claws at his helmet, like he's trying to tear out hair that isn't there. "Man oh man this is like CHURCH bad, like BRIMSTONE and HELLFIRE bad."

Doc Roc is crouched next to the conjoined bodies, at first glance he appears still, but his whole body is shivering. "You know, I had a professor once bring a cow fetus in for dissection that had two ..."

...he suddenly loses his footing, slipping on a bit of ichor, and he reflexively puts out his hand to stop his fall, and it lands squarely in a pile of previously dragon entrails. In a blink he jerks himself backward, falling on his ass and crabwalks backwards until he smacks into a boulder. He then sets about desperately wiping the goo off his hand in a shrub (and will continue to do so until prodded otherwise).

[diablorojo]

Leonard Syskowski picks up his rifle and cautiously approaches the pile of human goo that was once his companion.
"You stupid son-of-a-bitch!" he yells down at the twisted flesh. "What the fuck was wrong with yous anyhow?"

He shakes his head and sucks in a deep, gasping breath. The stench makes him cough uncontrollably for several seconds. When the fit subsides he takes off his helmet and squats down for a closer look.

"I shoulda stopped you Dim. I knew it was a bad idea, but I let yous go. I'm sorry."

After several heartbeats of silence he stands up, replaces his helmut and heads back to the foxhole. "Anybody got any smokes left?" he yells out.

[countrysamurai]

Lt. Regan patted Lenny on the shoulder and handed him a pack of smokes. Unopened.
He walked up to twisted body and carefully pulled the dog tag off of the marine's body, snapping the chain.
Lt. Regan stood for a moment looking around. The members of the squad could all feel his powers kicking in.
"Alright, god damn it, Marines, listen up!"
"Corpsman! I see a man down at the bottom of this slope at 11 o'clock," he said pointing down the ridge. "Get your ass down there and see if there's anything you can do for him!"
"Hollywood, help him bring Collins up, but wait a minute, goddamn it! Listen to me," he snapped. "Help him bring him up then the two of you get in that machinegun nest with Lenny. Your going to feed the gun ammo, clear?"
Before Hollywood can answer, Lt. Regan turned to Lenny. "Get your ass back on that gun and don't leave it. They are coming, and I don't mean a few."
"Sgt. Fix! See if you can get through to HQ and tell them we have infiltrators who have gotten through between our position and C Company.
"Now move it men!"
Regan snapped a new magazine in his submachine gun.
"I'll be back," he said and ran off toward the right flank. He moved like a jungle cat, low to the ground and uncannily fast.

[cssmythe3]

Hollywood stops his twitching and yammering and watches with awe as Regan reaches down and takes the dog tag, not even flinching at the gruesome display. As soon as Regan takes off, he drops into a strange bow-legged pose and wags a sloppy salute at Regan's retreating form. "Aye aye cap'n! Avast ye Bogin [docroc] we have a man o'erboard, let's swing the mizen hatch and keel haul him back on deck!" He jogs over to Bogdin, pantomiming a teetering deck beneath his feet.

Grabbing Bogdin by the scruff of the neck, he hauls him to his feet, and a sea chanty with indiscernable words starts to hum out of the surrounding jungle. "Now Bosun, you're gonna have to learn not to drown your battle-shakes in rum. This fight t'weren't nothing compared to the brain mashing dust up I was in with Nelson back on the Agamemnon. There was a proud a 64-gun as there ever was..."

His prattle continues as carries / shoves walks Bogdin down to the still form of collins. By the time they get to the bottom of the slope, Bogdin has regained his composure, but pretty quickly he starts glaring at Hollywood. These antics of his seem childish and disrespectful of the dead. Trying to focus on the job at hand, he checks Collins over to see if it would be safe to move him.

[no need to comment on nautical inaccuraccies, I typed "t'weren't" that was fun]

[countrysamurai]

Bogdin Amrahamovich assessed the damage to Pvt. Willie Carson. It didn't look good. He had two major shrapnel wounds. The first carved a deep furrow through his face, cutting his jaw in half, taking his right eye and leaving the frontal lobe of his brain damaged and partially exposed. The second wound appeared to enter the gluteus maximus on the left side and travel through the pelvis into the midsection to puncture the right common iliac artery and the ascending colon. Fortunately both shrapnel wounds appeared to have exits.
Amazingly, Carson was breathing shallowly and had a fluttering pulse.
"Oh, God! Oh Jesus," squealed Pvt. Franklin as he looked upon the wounded man.
"Don't look at him," Bogdin ordered. "Just grab his feet."
Amrahamovich cradled the wounded man's head in his arms like a newborn and lifted him at the shoulders. "Hold his feet up high. Higher!"
They carried him up the slope and into the machinegun nest.
Resting Carson's feet on a backpack, Amrahamovich began wrapping the head wound. There was a tingling at the back of his skull as he examined the wound. He felt it, the wound was slowly healing itself.
"Maybe we can save him," Amrahamovich said. "Hollywood go grab the rest of my medical supplies from the other foxhole."
"Aye, aye, Cap'n," the boy said and lept out of the hole. He was back in a minute with the bags. Amrahamovich finished wrapping the wounded man's head. Only his left eye and his nose were visible.
"Now comes the hard part," Amrahamovich said. He pulled out smelling salts, a needle and the Torah. "Hollywood hold the salts under his nose, thank God he still has one."
Pvt. Franklin does so as Amrahamovich began pricking Carson in the palm with a needle. "Hey, Carson! Wake Up!"
Carson jerked his hand back and shook his head. "Unghn!" he said.
"Carson, nod if you can hear me!" Amrahamovich said.
Carson nodded.
"Listen, '"I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal!'" Amrahamovich said. He repeated the verse in Yiddish for good measure.
A tremor rolled through Carson's body. Then he lay still.
"What the hell does that mean?" Carson managed to say before passing out.

[countrysamurai]

Sgt. Joseph Collins crouched alone in his foxhole listening to the overlapping voices on the field phone.
ìJesus, Mary and Joseph,î he swore. It didnít sound good.
From what he could make out, 1st Marine Raider Battalion under Lt. Col. Merritt A. Edson had pulled back toward the airfield. Japanese had broken through the lines just about everywhere with their crazy charges and that meant things were really confused at headquarters right now.
It also meant that this little squad was pretty much on its own.
He was now in command since Lt. Regan ran off along the rocky ridge. All of his men were in the machinegun nest so Collins decided to join them. He grabbed his BAR, his ammo belt, and the radio and scrabbled over to the nest.
In the nest, Amrahamovich continued to look over his patient, making sure his wound were all closed. The holes were gone, but the surface of his skin still looked tender and bruised.
ìSarge! You shoulda seen it!î Piped up Private Franklin. ìDoc healed up Carson just like Jesus and Ö I mean um, no disrespect Doc.î
Amrahamovich smiled.
ìYeah?î said Collins. ìLooks like the damn fool is lucky to be breathing and of no use to us now, am I right?î
ìYes sir,î answered Amrahamovich.
ìWell, then I need you two Öî Collins began.
Just then something bounced off the bamboo slats that made up the roof and everyone hit the ground.
The grenade exploded outside of the rock wall of the nest after rolling off the roof.
ìSonofaFUCKINGBITCH!î screamed Syskowski and he opened up with his machinegun toward the jungle down the ridge. Private Franklin crawled up next to him and started feeding the ammo to the gun.
Collins scrambled to get his own BAR set up with a vantage point next to Syskowski. Hot shell casings sprayed him in the face. One found a way down the front of his shirt and burned into his chest.
ìHold your fire, goddamn it!î Collins shouted.
Syskowski let up on the trigger. He couldnít see anything out there in the jungle down below. ìWhereíd it come from? Did you? I didnít see where it came from!î He paused to light the cigarette already dangling from his mouth.
Off in the distance, along the ridge, the squad heard the unmistakable sound of Lt. Reganís burp gun. Two short burst, then a long one.
ìHeís out of ammo,î Private Franklin said. Everyone else had thought the same thing.
Then from the base of the ridge, in ragged unison, ìBanzai!î
ìAw, no! Not again,î yelled Syskowski. ìI canít see ëem. Itís too dark I canít see ëem.î
ìIt doesnít matter just start shooting,î said Collins he crawled forward so that the spraying casings would bounce off of his back.

[countrysamurai]

Two machine guns opened fire on the men charging up the hill. In a spray of lead, four men fell. But something strange happened as well. One of the Imperial soldier moved with inhuman speed and, almost instantly was inside of the machinegun nest jabbing with his fixed bayonet at Syskowski.

[cssmythe3]

DocRoc drops his rifle as he plunges both of his fists into the ground near the rear of the nest. As he yanks his fists back up out of the ground, bowling ball sized clumps of earth stick to his hands, each trailing a tube of rocks and dirt that writhe around his torso like twin pythons intent on crushing him. Chunks of small shrubs and bits of bamboo from the hastily constructed mg nest get caught up in the slurry engulfing him, resulting in bizarre blend of topiary meets walking boulder.

[mteague]

Christ...'ow did he get in here so quick??? Look out Lenny, I got him, no I don't!! Crap, stand still will ya you bastard??

Is anyone shooting at the guys coming up the hill???"

[countrysamurai]

The Imperial soldier lunged forward only to have two marines on either side of him thrust their trench knives into his arms. He screamed in agony as his rifle fell useless to the ground.
Lenny puffed furiously on his smoke. "Here comes a bunch of 'em," he yelled as he opened fire. The barrage of the machinegun ended abruptly with a loud KLARK when the unfed belt jammed.
"Aww, shit," added Lenny.

[mteague]

Fix:
"Quit yer gripin' nip. Yer still breathin aintcha?"
"Awww Crap! Just a sec smokey..."

"God ^*%*& mutha*()&()*&^*&^@# - #*%^#sucking-(@$(*& (*)&$*)%@#
(&#%*(!!!
(&($#@%!!!
Gotcha bitch!
Let her rip LEnny!!!"

[countrysamurai]

While Sgt. Collins swore a blue streak, Syskowski and Franklin struggled with the wounded Imperial soldior.
Out of thin air, dramatic piano music filled the air. Syskowski immediately recognized it as one of those silent pictures where the ranger is saving the damsel from the railroad tracks. The pitiful wail of the maiden was somehow coming out of his lips. ìHe-elp! He-elp! Save me!î
Hey, I ainít no dame,î he muttered.
Franklin bobbed back and fourth with the soldier before plucking the grenade from the manís belt, stepping to the side and flinging it sidearm toward a group of charging Japanese.
A moment later, Syskowski managed to land a swift kick to the back of the knee of the soldier in the nest and he toppled over to the ground.
ìLet her rip Lenny!" screamed Collins as he slammed the top of the machinegun back into place.

[cssmythe3]

The plinky piano music continues, although it shifts to a more vaudevillian slap stick style. A shadow of a grease paint mustache, appears under hollywood's nose. His feet get tangled up in the flailing legs of the Imperial Soldier trying to knock over the MG (gotta admire his gumption), and hollywood loses grip on the knife. The handle has gotten all slippery with blood.

The knife goes squirting up and out of his hand like a bar of soap in the shower, and hollywood grabs at it, alternating hands, continuing to knock it around in the air like a juggler with a misbehaving pin. After knocking it up particularly high, straight through a gap in the roof slats, he gives up and gives a chaplainesque shrug.

Outside the nest, the charging soldier briefly glances upward at a shadow between him and the sun, just long enough to have the knife land squarely in his right eye socket. His mouth briefly shapes a scream, but no sound comes out. His arms an legs suddenly snap ramrod straight at his sides, and he slowly falls backward (a disconcerting shift in momentum), bouncing like a stiff wooden plank as he hits the ground. The warner brothers 'that's all folks' music plays....

[countrysamurai]

Syskowski opened fire and had the satisfaction of seeing one of the charging men fall before what felt like a jackhammer smashed into the side of his machinegun. Although wounded in both arms, the Imperial soldier screamed and kicked the gun with blurred feet.
Shrapnel ricocheted as bullets exploded through the bent barrel of the gun. Amazingly, the fragments hit nobody.
The horde of charging men grew closer. One man dove upon Private Franklinís grenade and it blew him to pieces but saved the other soldiers.
ìHey guys,î Franklin squealed in his best Curly Howard voice. ìI think weíre in trouble. Nhah, Nhah, Nhah! Woowoowoowoo!î