RP (non-canon) 1st SORT: Operation Husky

[Gunsight1]

"Well" Clair frowned as she listened to all the gunfire and explosions emanating from all directions. "Seems like the party is in full swing and we have yet to get in on the major fun" she said and grinned at her compatriots. "Shall we? I think it would be unfair to let everyone else have all the fun"

With that said, Clair flicked on the safety on her carbine and set it down. She slipped off her backpack and detached the monster of a machine gun that was strapped to it, putting the carbine in its place before replacing the backpack to it's home. She then hefted the Bren light machine gun and loaded a magazine of ammunition. The chunky mag clipped onto the feed on the top of the big weapon with a satisfying click. She pulled the bolt and it was ready. The British cat woman grinned ear to ear. It was time to hunt bad guys.

 

[Saul]

The Field

In one moment it seemed that things had gone from "on the edge" to "straight-up crazy" when the guard shack on the road had suddenly exploded. A gout of earth had gone up in to the air, acrid smoke from high explosives, and acute cat-like eyes tracked the flailing limbs of the now dead Italian man who'd been standing at his post. His SMG, or rather what was left of it's magazine, came down to earth close enough to Riikka that she could watch it bounce off the dirt, and come to a landing a few feet from her. Every nerve wanted the former Finnish commando to start opening fire on the first patrols that came out of the gates in her direction, yet the fact that she was alone with nothing but some natural earthwork between her body and incoming fire held her trigger-finger.

And then she had heard something, the gentle shifting of secured kit, and rolled onto her back. A shell was already in the chamber and her shotgun was trained on the figure.

"Thunder." She heard the voice, a female.

And moments later she recognized the face she had been examining in detail merely hours before when they had been prepping to take off. Jane stood there with an M1 drawn on her and was a half pound of trigger pressure from venting the Fin.

"Flash, Flash!" Though whispered, her voice was urgent, "Paska, Jane, get down!" She motioned for the other NECO to join her for a moment, glancing at the patrols growing ever closer.

"I think we can keep them busy. The rest of the team is likely --"

And then the BAR had started to open fire from somewhere in the fields. Riikka glanced towards the muzzle flashes, then back to the riflewoman beside her.

"Well that changes this!" She glanced at Jane and motioned for a far end of the field closest to them, "Go that way, I go this way, and we see if we can't help that shooter, eh?"

Before waiting for a response, the Fin pushed herself up in to a crouch and took off in to the tall grass without waiting for much of a response, trenchgun in hand.

She got a dozen or so meters before out of the dark a figure going in the other direction came out of the tall grass right at her. With both of them head down, the first thing to collide were their heads, the lucky one wearing a helmet, and it wasn't Riikka.

With a dull 'doung' the two of them sprawled backwards in the dirt.

"Ah, son of a bitch-" the other figure growled as it sat up and aimed a rifle at her.

Blam!

Riikka had made contact at a full run, or as much of a full run as she could achieve crouched down. Though her modified body meant it was probably a good bit faster than any normal woman could manage. And that meant it only hurt all the more as she found herself sprawling on the ground. Yet while the GI had been sent back, higher speed had carried Riikka forward, and she tumbled across the ground past him.

She didn't realize who it was at the time, scrambling to get on her feet and with her blade at the ready. Yet she had only just looked up in time to register it was an American by the uniform. And he had a gun on her.

She yelled something, a garbled mess of Finnish and English and Profanity, The Fin was on the GI like a hawk diving forward despite the shooting pain in her upper thigh as she used momentum to try spearing him to the ground.

The American grunted loudly as she tackled back to the ground as he tried to stagger up. The pair skidded against the ground from the force. The American gritted his teeth and began trying to use his rifle to roll her off himself.

"Stupid meatball loving nutbar!" the young man yelled.

Some years ago, or maybe under different circumstances, Riikka would have made a remark about being sprawled out on top of some healthy and fit young soldier. But this was a life-or-death situation, and it was because of this boy that she was bleeding from the leg. All over him. She let out a sharp growl, fighting with him as he tried to gain leverage. But he had the unfortunate position of facing somebody of NECO strength, who happened to be a close-quarters specialist. Reeling back, she sent one hard punch flying for his jaw.

Then that same hand would clamp down tight over his mouth. She hovered close, face mere inches from his, eye-to-eye.

"Shut the hell up, sotilas! Or we're dead!"

Another time. Another situation. Without a leg wound. Her inner child giggled like a schoolgirl.

The punch stunned the young soldier under her long enough for him to get a look at her. Finally he made a muffled grunt behind Riikka's hand and gave her a gentle shove with his weapon between them.

Riikka took a moment to look away. By now it wouldn't be hard for him to come to realize the unnatural cat-like appearance of her eyes. She searched through the darkness, listening to the gunfire merely twenty feet away and closer. She looked back to him.

She still hadn't moved her hands, "Keep your voice down?"

Another muffled reply, a rolling of the eyes and a nod. Then another persistant nudge for her to remove her thighs from around his waist. Now that he wasn't trying to kill her in blind panic, he saw the cat ears poking out around her cap and her strange eyes in the dim light and his own widened in suprise.

Then he realized how intimately positioned they were, he pushed against her again, adreniline from dodging little peices of flying metal taking priority, but still in the back of his mind certain thoughts lingered for a moment.

Some part of Riikka was starting to think that maybe, maybe, there was a God still, and that he had convinced this GI to calm down a little. Yet he still kept shifting and pushing against her, she realized, and it wasn't hard to tell that he wanted to get her off of him. With a small hiss of pain, the reminder to not shift weight on to her so recently shot leg, she instead turned to the other side. It was just enough room for him to roll out from under her.

"Follow me, sotilas. And you might live till aamu."

The young man rolled out and collected his rifle holding it low as he wiped his mouth with his wrist. "Yeah, sure. Stupid broad." That second part was muttered in what the soldier must have thought was too low for her to hear, but obviously didn't know what that special set of ears gave her apart from new looks.

Riikka visibly stopped mid-step, ears twitching, one turning in a manner appropriately similar to that of a normal cat in the soldier's direction. She pursed her lips for a moment, one hand resting on her bullet wound as it slowly began to heal itself (as best it could without medical attention on-scene) and the other on her trenchgun. There were going to be better times to make a reply, she thought to herself. Right now they needed to stay alive.

She waved for him to the nearby trees, leading the way, "You need aim, sotilas. Shoot for the head, not the lady-bittiä." She slipped behind a nearby tree, "What is your name, hm? Wouldn't do just to call you 'soldier', Private."

"Just because I missed you doesn't mean I can't shoot, you did just come out of nowhere and bowl me over." The other soldier replied as he followed her and went prone against a nearby tree. "Page. Private Morgan Page. five-oh-five regiment, 82nd Airborne. You?"

"Excuses are for the losing side." She remarked.

A quick glance to the Private at his introduction and Riikka was given a moment of pause, "Riikka. Corporal Riikka. My team and I are trying to get in that castle. And you just volunteered. So brave of you, Corporal, your lady will swoon at the story."

"Castle? That wasn't on the maps. Where is Ponte Grande? Aren't you British? You use a lot of strange words and stuff." The confused trooper asked, looking over at her over his rifle. Then he noticed the torn fabric of her uniform at her thigh.

"Damn, looks like you got clipped." he muttered as he crawled over. "Give us your bandage pack." he muttered as he looked it over.

Riikka only offered a shake of her head, using her free hand to seemingly hold him just at bay for a moment. A wince, a hiss, and a flex of her thigh later saw the mangled and disformed bullet to pop free of the slowly sealing wound.

Along with a small spurt of blood, seemingly comically, as well.

Morgans face distorted in mild disgust as he swallowed back something. "Well, now we just have to worry about the bleeding."

Then the wound seemed to stop bleeding just as he spoke. "Uhhhh."

Slowly, the flesh started to pinch itself back together. By this point Morgan had already backed up against his tree, staring at her with wide eyes. Before, with the adreniline through his veins he hadn't been too freaked out by her ears or eyes, but now in the relative quiet and having just witnessed her pop a bullet out of her thigh and the preternatural way her wound healed had finally broken his cool. "What the hell are you?" he whispered harshly.

 

[Luca]

Valerie emerged from the underbrush, following the sound of gunfire and explosions to spot a road leading towards the keep. She could hear the sounds of combat and it seemed as though the other NECO had begun opening their respective cans of 'whoop-ass', as the Americans would say. She could also hear the sound of a running engine and tyres upon dirt. She crouched back into the brush and waited for the Italian-driven vehicle to pass her by. She waited and heard it pass by her, tyres crunching on gravel and dirt and kicking up dust. She gave them a couple more seconds to pass and moved under the cover of the dust with her Sten hanging by her side from a shoulder strap.

"Opposite part of the castle..." she repeated to herself. That's where she was told to meet if she was game for infiltration. Her superiors had noted her quiet nature and intellectual approach and said she was suited to remaining low key, especially with that suppressed Sten she built herself. She moved quickly towards the wall and crouched near it before circling around towards the opposite side of the castle, Sten in hand.

There she saw some others from the NECO program. Clair, April, Catherine and ... Antoinette, that was her name. Or was it Jean Baptiste? Or Ananas? She could never get the hang of those many-barrelled French names. At least she was to answer to one of them. "Ladies. Sorry I'm late," Valerie whispered in a hushed voice, brandishing her Sten. "Miss anything, or are the girls busy?" she said, referring to the distraction team.

 

[ShotJon]

"Good to have you with us sarge, April," Catherine said as she looked around. Dawn was finally here. It was also good that sarge was with them now. 1st SORT might be troop of SOG soldier, but leadership was always useful. They were without lieutenant, so Sarge Clair had the reigns. Cat liked the sarge, she was a good people. The fact that light was coming to them was good and bad at the same time. Cat will finally be able to use scope on her rifle, but eyeties will be able to notice them and shoot back in more easy way.

"Sarge," Cat said, pointing to the west. "There is a small hill on the west. Judging from the mapst we have I can cover most of the access road and front gay of Castellucio."

 

[Gunsight1]

As more arrived, Clair flicked the safety back on her gun and shouldered it. "Welcome to the party" she greeted Valerie and grinned.

Clair had her map out again and studied the topography. "Having some over watch would be nice...Looks like a good spot" she nodded at the Canadian sniper. "Get up there and set up. Pick off any bad guys you get a chance to" she agreed with Catherine.

"So" she checked her watch, time was running out, the sun was coming up. "It's well past time" she said. She did not like the idea of leaving anyone who was even later behind, but they had a timetable to keep. "We need to get moving"

 

[ShotJon]

Catherine looked at her wrist-watch. It was time indeed. She looked at Sarge, Ant, April and Valerie, the other british girl. It was time for their first battle. Cat just hoped it will go well. They had the best training they could and they were more then normal women. They were NECO. Cat went and set her smaller scope on her rifle, making sure it fit right. "I am going to go at position. I am going to give you five minutes from now and then I will start shooting pasta-lover." Cat nodded at others, giving them few seconds to reply, before she got up and disappeared following the wood. The hill was close boy so 5 minutes were more than enough to get there. She still had to be careful though.

 

[Yoshi]

it had taken her a few hours of travel, staying low and out of trouble. Rosy was sure she was running way behind, but she arrived at her position. When she saw the castle light up with combat sounds and sights, She snuggled down in her position and started laying down cover fire. Her first few rounds were flung into the windows that the Nazis were shooting out. Followed up by her shooting at the generators and rials for the radio systems.

She had only a dozen magazines so she had to slow down and fire only when she had a target.

 

[SageShooter]

"Balls all..." Tiffany groaned aloud as she noticed the riflemen from the windows turn on her position. She decided to take at least one more out, drawing her sights and pulling the trigger easily enough, before she got out of the tree and into the field. FLopping back onto her rolled up parachute, she left the bulky thing after some soft groaning and grumbling at the fact that she had fallen on her "grease gun". She had seen the guard house go up in flames from the tree, and had finally seen where the others were supposed to meet up.

Keeping to a crouched crawl along the ground with her rifle strapped to her back and her grease gun in hand, she began to make her way to the rrendezvous point while hopefully avoiding any patrols. If she made it with no more hiccups, she would call out a whispered "Thunder" to try to make sure she was at the right place.

 

[Riko]

"Ah bonjour Sarjon, glad you could make it to our petit fete 'ere." Ant said once Clair and April showed up. As Cat chatted with the Sargent and the others she lit the cigarette that was in her mouth and waited for the next step of the plan.

"So, ze Canadiaan goes and snipes zings from ze hill and we what? Assault ze chateau?" Walking over to the map Antoinette took a moment to look over it. " Because if zat is ze plan, its about as good as your countries cooking."

 

[Fian]

Lieutenant Vel Steyr stayed behind the trapdoor for about ten minutes before deciding that either nobody has seen/heard him or simply nobody gives a shit. He was almost certain a Nazi Officer with Italian auxillaries were going to march up here and then roll dice to see who gets to shoot him. Keeping the bolt on, he went around all the other doors and trapdoors on the roof and bolted them too. Then, he couched low and went around the battlements once, peering over the edge now and then to take in the rolling Italian countryside and whatever defences that may be in place.

As he has suspected from his continued existence in this world, the defences can only be described as woeful. The castle itself, if it could be called that and not a mere 'tower', was a decrepit tall rectangular structure with three floors with high ceillings including the roof, if the positioning of the windows below him were to be believed. There were no auxillary buildings or external wall, the castle was just a keep. There were no dug in positions around the castle itself, probably due to the little amount of space between the walls and the slope of the tall hill it was on. If there were Machineguns, which any self respecting military group of any size should have, they would be placed a little behind any or all of the three odd windows on on each broad side of the keep. The 'infiltration' and 'assault' gathering points for the NECOs were in the forests at the base of the hill on each side of the keep, which Fian knowing where to look, noticed stalking shadowy shapes gathering. He stared mesmerized at them for a bit as light chill ran up his spine.

Based on what he had seen above and the resistance put up so far by the Defencers, he could surmise that this was simply a radio relay station and the local town garrisson, and generally not expected to repel the assault of any organized or determined military force, that was the job of much larger reserves and reinforcements held nearby. This was confirmed when he overheard half the conversation of Italian officer in charge yelling at his German counterpart over the radio downstairs, who was also yelling back. Regardless, the German reserve would have to re-secure this position as a base of operations to repel the shore landings, which means the main enemy of the 1st SORT is time.

"And you thought you wouldnt have to do anything." He grumbled to himself. Searching his issued equipment, he found a Silent Whistle in one of his load bearing compartments, whoever ran the NECO program, which Fian still wanted to strangle, had thought of everything. He ran to both sides of the battlements, blowing in one hand the super high frequency whistle of which he was sure the NECOs and only the NECOs could hear, and on the other holding up the "Fall in at designated position." command in hand signals. He still looked lightly pissed, as befitting a leader of soldiers. It was time to get his command back.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Jane nodded as Riikka took off, and she went the other way. She popped up her head once, then made her way along the embankment.

The direction she went took her toward the groups of soldiers headed down from the castle to check on the guard post. They rushed by, formation gone, some weapons still on safety. She stuck to the embankment, letting them pass on the road before she sprung up, crossed the road and out into the larger field.

She'd kept count in her head — 27 soldiers with bolt-action rifles, meaning two squads, one visible sergeant with a submachine gun. No Germans. The BAR fire kept them on edge and focused away from her. She went low, crouch-running along to get some distance between her and the Italians.

She spied in the distance where that BAR fire likely was coming from. Jane recalled there was a Marine on the team with a BAR. She didn't know if it was him, but that shooter was a friendly, and she hadn't seen Riikka or heard her shotgun.

The soldiers were splitting up; one group was taking off toward the moving BAR, a couple detaching bombas from bandoliers. Another group headed off away from the castle, probably to search for her. She glanced behind her, seeing the guns of the castle windows aimed elsewhere. She turned back to the squad headed toward the BAR.

Riikka's range is limited; the BAR won't last at that rate. Must give them time. She went prone, focusing past the fire of the guard shack just a few dozen yards away. She took aim at a soldier clutching a grenade and fired; he dropped from a shot to the back. No one took notice yet; she fired again and cut a man down with a shot to the ass. The Italians didn't stop to help their comrades. Lazy, flimsy bastards.

The BAR gunner cut down one or two himself before that squad finally went prone in the field, rolling into bushy concealment. The other squad, hundreds of yards away, had yet to wise up. Jane saw flashes in the distance, maybe from warplanes or shelling. She didn't hear aircraft though.

Dirt blasted upward a yard or so from her arm. She picked up and dashed away from her position in a crouching run as other rifles targeted her abandoned position. She needed to find better cover away from the castle, to keep drawing them off. Sweat beaded along her hairline; the dewy morning air filled her lungs.

After dashing several dozen more yards, she skidded to a small divot in the ground. She went prone again and stuck her rifle up over the lip of the foxhole. She sucked in the scene with a quick glance — the far squad cutting through the brush to find any resistance, the other squad holding steady in its bushy concealment, trying to nick the BAR gunner. That squad was perhaps 400 yards away, out of range of her grenades.

But not her Garand. Six rounds left, she thought. She took aim and fired, missing but scaring the shit out of one Italian as he scrambled to get into better concealment. He didn't try to return fire, so Jane quickly followed with another shot that went through the bush and dropped him.

She should have timed her shots better to the music of the far-off explosions. A couple of that squad turned vaguely toward her and started to take aim. She kept her head down as reports cracked in her direction, but she heard no hits near her.

Then the whistle blew. Her ears perked up; her head swiveled toward the source. The lieutenant! He'd made it. Fall in! was the signal.

Her pupils focused down the aperture sights of her Garand. She saw better than any mere man. She proved it by gunning down two threatening soldiers in quick succession.

As soon as the shots were off, so was she, running back to the embankment full-tilt, so she could run upward toward the small area everyone else was supposed to be.

 

[Kai]

Another loud noise joined the fray as Rosy opened up, firing on the eastern facing windows from a hill across the fields surrounding the Castelluccio. This, combined with the distraction to the south, meant that nobody was looking to the north or the west. And that's when she heard it. That shrill, distinctive whistling sound in a frequency range she had been completely unable to hear just a month or two ago.

"It's time, Y'all!" she announced, voice barely above a whisper. "That's the signal or I'm a Natzee!" Clicking off the safety of her carbine, April vaulted the little embankment they had been using as cover and headed up to the castle. The hill was steep, and densely wooded for most of the way up, but it wasn't a problem for her enhanced strength and agility, catlike reflexes making easy work of the terrain, and the waffle-patterned rubber soles of her paratrooper boots giving her much better grip than the leather-soled boots any Italians might wear. Crack! went her carbine, and the rifleman in the window directly in front of her, distracted by the activity on the other side of the castelluccio, went down in a shower of blood, his helmet flying a few feet back as he dropped with a thud. The blonde flew gracefully through the window, tucking and rolling as she landed and comin up immediately on her feet. She looked around; the interior of the little keep was somewhat compartmentalized. "Good" she thought, pulling a grenade off her web gear and throwing it in the bay next to her, hiding behind the thick wall as it went off.

Screams and yells greeted the explosion from the Mark II antipersonnel grenade, but it attracted attention from the west side of the keep. Two more italians made their way pas the set of walls diving April from everyone else, and her Carbine popped off again. Four shots, and those two soldiers were done for.
But now it was a race against time. She had cornered herself, waiting for her squadmates to join. Hopefully they would be here in time. And hopefully Cat would start thinning the enemy ranks from the west. And there was still the upstairs to worry about.

"Ya'll better get in here soon!" April yelled out the window, hoping the others could hear her.

 

[Centurion0507]

Robert sighed as he saw the Italians finally get around to hitting the deck after being brutally reamed by his BAR fire. Gonna have to reload soon he thought as he spotted a less than careful Italian sticking his head up to look and rewarded him with a .30-06 round to the head. With that last round the bolt locked to the rear and Robert rapidly reloaded with a new mag and having a burst of insight after getting the weapon ready to fire again, gently tossed the mag to make it hit the ground with a bong and let out a semi audible curse, making it seem as though he had dropped the mag and was fumbling for a new one.

 

[Kai]

The Field

The Italians, though sloppy and not especially well-trained, thought they knew an opportunity when they heard it. More than just a couple of the less than par soldiers popped their heads up, crouching so they could just barely see in the twinkling twilight of dawn, and began firing on where they thought they heard a noise of a soldier fumbling with magazines. Robert, having already moved, now found himself with several targets who hadn't actually seen him yet, although the growing morning light meant that before too long even his outline would be seen against the trees, so he had to act fast.

Jane, on the other hand, had made her first mistake of the operation. Hearing the signal, she instinctively ran up the hill toward it. But in the morning grey her dark OD uniform stood out against the tans and yellows of the summer brush on the hill. to top it all off, that was where the majority of soldiers were looking. rifle fire began to rain down on the NECO from above, but Jane was saved by less than stellar marksmanship followed by the familiar explosion of a grenade going off within the confines of the castle, sending puffs of smoke and debris, and one soldier, out of one of the windows.

Riikka and Morgan also found themselves to be not so lucky. They were cut off Mid-conversation by several shouts in Italian, followed by a flurry of rifle fire. Only Riikka's enhanced senses and reflexes saved the pair as she instinctively pulled the GI to the ground. They could no longer afford to waste time.

 

[Centurion0507]

Robert took the chance and dropped back to the prone and began firing at the clearly distracted Italian soldiers, going for head and body shots with 3 round bursts and dropping several of them before he got up and rushed to his next firing position, running a short distance and then dropping back to the prone so he could see how the Italian soldiers would react to a number of their buddies getting killed while they were shooting at the wrong place. Heh, stupid eyeties, never trust what seems too good to be true Robert mused to himself as he got himself re-situated and took the opportunity to fire up the other squad that was wandering around out near the edges of the field hunting for one of the dames. He'd hear the explosion in the castle and thought that meant at least one of the NECOs had gotten inside and was causing havoc in the garrison.

Each time he'd take down 2-3 of the Italians with short bursts, he'd rapidly relocated to a new shooting location since his weapon fire was obvious enough to give him away if he sat still for too long but he counted on his rapid relocation and his hand made suit of net and burlap to keep him at least somewhat hidden from the enemy as he changed location and to break up his outline when he fired.

 

[Fian]

Fian noticed the crazied creature bounding out from the woods and cannonballing through the second floor window completely disregarding orders and wondered if this was an inherent weakness of the NECO modifications or was this woman just a special snowflake. He couldnt identify the NECO by name, but he noted down her uniform, build hair color and gear for later. If only there could be male NECOs but speaking of which, where was that other guy in the team?

As soon as she went in he could hear the sickening crack of bone, screams and the squishy squashy of squishy squashy parts being squishy squashied. Considering this went on for more than five seconds he could tell that these sounds were caused and not made by the crazy NECO... Or was it caused by his very vivid memory? Those screams sounded like they were in Chinese. Regardless, he could leave her in there to kill everyone, he knew she could, but theres still a small chance she'll catch a bullet in the brain and it would all over, multi million dollar super soldier or not. He grabbed two of his smoke grenades, tossed one over each side of the building to cover the advance and then hand issued an "Assault" and "Report in" command together with frantic whistle blowing before the exterior of the building covered with smoke. Hopefully they could interpret it as to fight their way up to him, because he certainly isn't going to go downstairs and get his throat torn out by accident.

 

[Yoshi]

She fired and moved, fired and moved. Rosy was sure that this rate of fire was going to cause her to run out of ammunition far before the end of the operation.

Chewing on the cigar she aligned another shot up to punch through the wall just below a window. It contained a riflemen but he kept firing and dropping before she could line up the shot. With a gritted teethed grin she fired blowing a how through the wall. She was awarded with a lovely pink mist rising up in the window.

It was then she heard the high pitched wine that was the command to attack. "Oups... Well damn." She grinned as she started lining up on another window fighter.

 

[Saul]

Riikka could hear the rifle rounds that snapped over their position, every sound carried with crisp clarity to her cat ears through the cold morning air. She had a tight grip on Morgan to prevent the American PJ from popping his head up again too soon before the fire over their position subsided a moment later. Riikka sat up and readied her shotgun again as she glanced out at the field.

"Private, there is a BAR gunner in that field. I want you to meet up with him!" She looked back to the Private, "Don't worry about the eyeties, I will be helping with the tyhmät!"

She gave Morgan something resembling an attempt at a reassuring pat on his shoulder after she'd let go of him from throwing them both to the ground, before she took off in to the shadows of the trees. Her ears swiveled as she heard the whistling, a sure sign that their new CO had landed, and safely. Yet she couldn't get a visual from where she was now. She just had to hope the rest of the team was luckier than she was in that regard. So with that in mind the Fin kept moving, emerging from the treeline crouched, and hoping to move in to a position flanking the squad that had taken cover in the tall grass. Yet it seemed at least one Italian boy had the same idea.

This time wasn't like her encounter with Morgan, where they had ran in to each other. She saw the soldier coming, grenade in hand, but he didn't see her. He was likely hoping to flank the BAR gunner and instead he got a knee to his face. He fell back, but quickly scrambled up to his feet. By that point it was too late and Riikka was on him with blade in hand. Twice in the stomach, once across the throat. Her shotgun already forgotten and hanging by it's sling. Yet her ears caught the sound of metal against metal as she stared in to the fading eyes of the boy. The grenade at his feet. The pin in his hand.

Riikka swept his legs out from under him, dropping him on to his own grenade, and took off in to a running dive. The Italian boy wasn't the most heavy-set eyetie she'd ever seen but it was enough to prevent her getting blasted away. Riikka wasted no time, already having announced herself like that. She popped up and for the first time that night, the roar of her trenchgun could be heard, even though it mixed with the surrounding din of combat. And with that Riikka took off to relocate after firing off a trio of shells in the direction of the closest Italians.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Jane realized too late what a moron she was, when the fire came from on high down onto her. The light really was coming fast, and she stood out all too easily amid the hill's flora. She was as good as dead if she didn't move, fast!

The pop of the smoke grenade just up the hill from her was her saving grace. She needed to hide. Jane ran hard for the smoke, rounds whacking the ground near her feet and zinging around her person. She kept her rifle in her hands and fired twice at the castle. PING! her empty clip went; she tried to grab a clip from her belt to reload.

Her only thought was to get cover and help Riikka somehow before she charged the castle.

 

[SageShooter]

Tiff stopped short, noticing the ones she had snuck up on had in fact not been squad mates, but Italians hiding in ambush. With a curse spitting from her lips she shoved back from her hiding spot, her sidearm came out just as the two soldiers popped up and took aim. One of the Italians dropped to a quick trigger pull from her colt 1911 , catching him square between the eyes.

Tiff's eyes flicked over to the other soldier, time slowing a little as she spotted the rifle already at his shoulder, baring down on her. The sound of a gun shot sounded distant as he fired, her reacting a second to late to be missed completely, but enough that she wasn't wounded critically. She felt a thump in her shoulder as she jerked her hand just enough to the left that her shot, rather then taking him square between the eyes, blew out the side of his head and his right eye. As she watched his body drop slowly, everything else seemed to come rushing back to normal speed. Sound slammed into her head as she felt pain blossom to life in her left shoulder. Laying on the ground panting with a shaking pistol in her hand she heard the whistle, her ears twitching a little as she sat up. She saw some mad man on top of the castle waving like he was crazy before she realized it was the leader. Blinking a few times, she realized it was orders and with little else, she was up and running.

Pistol still in hand she saw the one squad member go through the window just in time, and spotted the smoke grenade spitting out cover. She was running as fast as she could, holding her injured shoulder and keeping her head down just as the ground around her lit up with gunfire. Gritting her teeth and spurring herself on she felt a second bullet graze her side, before a third lodged into her right thigh just where the meat of the muscle met her hip. It caused a hitch in her run, making her stumble just as she saw a joy of joys drop from a window...

A frag grenade...

Eyes wide with shock at the item, she grit her teeth to the point of cracking one before she planted on her good foot and lept for the window. She cleared the grenade, at least most of it, just as it went off. She felt burning hot metal slice into her back as the combined force of her leap and the power from the grenade propelled her forward and through the window to join April inside. She wasn't as fortunate to land as gracefully as her counterpart though, landing with a heavy thud and sliding a little on her front side. She just laid there for a moment, collecting herself and wincing in pain a little. Her hand gun had slid forward toward the doorway out of her hand, and her rifle strapped to her back had taken some of the shrapnel, but sadly not all of it. Nicks and cuts in the stock and barrel peppered the weapon though thankfully her M-3 was still fine and operational as it was twisted about at her hip in it's sling. All in all, the girl looked a mess, bleeding from a half dozen wounds on her back and the two bullet wounds on her front side.