World War II - The Vanguard Issue #4 - The Battle Of Britain!

Admin wrote:OOC If all in favour of Anymans plan (saying that, as no.2 after Frostbite, there's only really frosty who can say no or maybe to it anyway I guess) just let me know the team split (Anyman wants NoMan with him and one more) and I'll split into two threads for the next sessions. Don't worry, we're getting to the Battle of Britain, but this issue will be the larger side of 'epic' size... And I haven't forgotten you'd not gotten a boost/exp raise from last issue either, so all you have to do is survive to the end of this one to get a nice bonus... Easier said than done, mind... Over to y'all. Proposed new look for NoMan, stats to follow later:

I like NoMan looks good, the split isn't easy, Sentinel isn't one for stealth and there isn't going to be a huge amount of metal down there, as there is up here. Frostbite cannot leave the others to mount a major rescue on their own, so I guess Anchor can take either one of the Psi clones, Boadicea is the best choice, as Spartan and Guillotine are more conversant with the ship.

If that is ok, split the thread and lets get on with kicking but and trying to get a second ship if not rescuing the first one out of this!

Once we've got Anyman, down to the base, we'll get to the other ship and Frostbite will tell Lionheart, Saladin we're on our way. Hold tight and try and make sure they crew don't get a chance to take them out before they get there.

Sj

The Vanguard

Frostbite got onto the communications channel and spoke to Boadicea on board the 'old' V-Ship. Having explained, she replied "No problem. Give me a minute to grab some gear and I'll be right over. I suggest we use the new ship to go down to the base as it's fully functional. It will need parking up out of the way whilst we rescue the prisoners. The others who are going after that fool Lionheart (they still tended to think of him as Lionheart rather than Saladin) can be teleported across. The old V-Ship can wait on standby if needed but she's pretty beaten up. Your best bet would be to take charge of the ship Lionheart is on and get out of there before the Nazis catch wind of it."

Frostbite turned to Anyman, NoMan and Anchor and shook their hands. There was a general exchange of 'good luck' and handshakes, before the main group departed for the transporter room to be teleported across to the 'Odin', the Nazi ship Saladin had gotten onto.

With that it was just a case of setting a course for the camp and Anyman readying his team!

OOC Frostbite, Silver Sentinel, Fastback, Guillotine will teleport over to the Odin to find and help Saladin in his quest to separate himself from Lionheart. Anyman and his team to stay in this thread to get down to the camp and free the P'utinarians, whilst the 'Odin' mission will take place in a new thread entitled 'All aboard the Odin'

ooc: Wonder if we are going to have a P'utarnarian stowaway onboard our mission since there was somone who was really really wanting to save her people.

The Vanguard

OOC Good point, thanks for the reminder...

"Frostbites team away." said Spartan at a console on the bridge. "Godspeed" he muttered.

NoMan looked about the bridge, stopping at a piece of reflective metal to see his new appearance. He didn't look like a human, but then again he was neither a 'he' nor a human. He was... well, he wasn't even a P'utinarian any more!

He walked up to stand near Anyman. "I will need to mimic the abilities of someone to be of use." he said quietly.

Anchor looked up. "Wha? Yae mean me don't ye're laddie? Well ya can bugger off cause ah had that an is nae fun seein' yourself ..."

NoMan put both hands up to placate the big Scotsman. "I wish to mimic your abilities, rather than your appearance, though your particular powers mean my weight and mass will increase vastly..." he turned to Anyman. "Or perhaps...?"

Spartan watched the exchange and then turned to Anyman. "We've undocked from the V-Ship. Orders? Be a shame - and a waste - to destroy her, but she's dead in space, no use to anyone since we removed the last bit of Lunarium."

Boadicea walked in, all black jumpsuit clinging to her lithe figure. She wiped her hands with a piece of rag, looked at it, and tossed it onto a panel. There was barely any grease on it. "Having a new ship makes me twitchy. Nothing to do on it. At least the old one required constant maintenance so you could see what needed fixing next. This one? I don't want to take anything apart whilst it's still working! The Skralls on board have made me just about redundant. I looked at the labs. There's a full set up there, ready to cycle, to turn a dozen P'utinarians into beings like our new friend NoMan over there."

"NO!" he cried, blue face aghast at the prospect.

Anchor sighed "Calm doon laddie. Ain't no bad uns on here. It's a rescue mission, we ain't into torturin' an' th' like, though the bloody Nazis deserve it..."

Spartan acted on Anymans order with regard the V-Ship (OOC leave or destroy it?) and set course for the blue planet below, heading for site of the Prison Camp. "Any special orders? You can bet the Nazis will know we're coming. Unlike the V-Ship this thing sends out automatic transponder signals and will take time to modify to 'run silent'. On the last ship most of the systems were busted up, so it was a case of tearing them out."

Boadicea frowned, chin in hand, then suggested "We might be best going in on foot. Anyman can get in anywhere, as we know. NoMan looks to have similar abilities..."

Suddenly a chair morphed into the form of P'ertaria! "I'm coming too!" she declared!

Sentinel turned to frostbite, who he respected the most and saw him as all that was good in the world as the little angel on the sometimes morally questionable young brit and asked

"So let me get this straight, Saladin is a big time pain in the neck where you come from right?
So what are we going to do with him when we separate him from Lionheart?

smaug wrote:Sentinel turned to frostbite, who he respected the most and saw him as all that was good in the world as the little angel on the sometimes morally questionable young brit and asked

"So let me get this straight, Saladin is a big time pain in the neck where you come from right?
So what are we going to do with him when we separate him from Lionheart?

OOC:

Hey mate you're in the wrong thread, you need to find the Odin thread here. I'll answer the question there.

https://darkeningshadows.darkbb.com/t96-world-war-ii-the-vanguard-issue-4a-all-aboard-the-odin#3794

Sj

The Vanguard

P'ertaria looked at NoMan, who looked back. "I'm.. not sure that would be a good idea..." he said. "Primarily because I don't want to... dilute ... P'ertaria with my new body form." He sighed. "I retain a number of abilities from my old P'utinarian form, but until I can mimic a super being, I am best considered a 'back up'. I will learn along the way, no doubt. Still, there is always..."

He looked about, then found the sharp corner of a console. Pressing a finger to the corner he drew it along, making a cut. From the cut oozed green fluid that sizzled and dripped. Where it dripped, it hissed on the floor and started to burn through the metal!

"Hey! HEY!" shouted Spartan, running across. "No more of that, alright? We just got this ship and..." He was cut off - and gently barged aside - by a small army of half a dozen skralls who jostled each other whilst spraying the floor, cutting out the affected metal, putting a new sheet in place then welding it and polishing until there was no hole, no mark, no sign the acid had dripped!

NoMan meanwhile, held his finger in his mouth, then withdrew it. "It seems - at will - I can turn my body essence into concentrated acid. The problem is, any sharp weapon, even bullets, can puncture me. I'll have to be careful." he turned to Spartan. "Sorry. I won't do that again."

Spartan turned to Anyman. "We'll figure out a plan of attack. If you want to tow the ship to a 'safe' - and a mean that loosely - place in orbit we can do that, but it'll take time. Perhaps... 20 minutes. Those other ships will be up and running by then, and we'll be a sitting duck. Much as it pains me... I suggest we leave her."

Boadicea started to argue with Spartan then, about wasted resources, being too conservative and not taking risks, in fact anything she could think of regarding keeping the other ship, whilst Spartan accused her of being emotionally attached to a hunk of metal and more besides!

Anchor sat back against a wall. "Maybe they should get a room? Anyman, we gonna do this, or not?"

P'ertaria turned "Every minute we delay...?" she let her voice trail off...

Spartan ended the argument and turned to Anyman. "The ship is fully capable of resisting the Nazis 1940s technology, with shields that will deflect the strongest bombardment. Unfortunately the enemy has the use of future and alien technologies, including those from other races than the Skralls. Because they know we've stolen a ship of theirs, they'll be watching for it and making plans to destroy us, we assume. And of course, worse than any of that, the Nazis have superhumans."

He let that word linger. They were the biggest threat.

Anchor sighed "Look, it ain't gonna be easy. Let's dump th' junk, come back fer it if need be, an' get the slimies - no offence lassie - outta there. They'll see us as th' hero an' finally get their asses into th' war, on our side. If not, we'll ah fer one dinnae wanna waste ma time - an' maybe ma life - bustin' 'em out!"

OOC Just need the call - dump the ships and get in there? Spartan confirms the ship has a medium sized laser capable of destroying a tank, rail guns good for destroying slow moving objects - like planes - and a tractor beam for lifting up to a truck in a gravity environment, or dragging another ship in space, albeit slowly or the beam will break. Shields are proof against any munitions 40s Earth can spit out, save an atomic bomb of course. In a pinch the ship can bombard the site from a mile away with the main laser, but it would be tricky indeed to avoid hitting the prisoners. In other words, Anymans usual get in, get everyone running around after him and get out might not be the best tactic, but the alternative is the all guns blazing, not Anymans style. Somewhere between the two, with misdirection and coming from several directions, might be an idea. If you need a map with the rough general layout you'll get that when you home in on the place... (And when I get chance to sit down with my wobbly drawing 'skills')

"Damn! We leave the old V-ship behind ... for now," Anyman finally decides. "You staying back up is a good plan, NoMan. You can go absorb some Nazi superhumans when we get there and use their powers agains them."

"I wouldn't doubt that there is a minefield around the camp. Probably are going to have to blast a few clear lanes through it on all sides of the place. But we will know more when we get closer. Take us down and lets see what their layout is like before making any concrete plans."

ooc: Probably going to have to have the ship stage an attack from one direction while we enter the camp from another and see if we can get folks out that way. But if the ship can blow up any mine fields all around the camp, increases our chances of getting out in one piece.

Disengaging from the V-Ship and the P'utinarian vessel, the Vanguards' new vessel blasted towards the Earth, setting a direct course for the prison camp!

As it dropped through the clouds Spartan called out 'We're detecting... multiple planes in the skies over the camp... and a nearby encampment some miles to the north has planes scrambled over it! Wonder what that place does? Anyway... planes in the sky... engage or drop you guys off before getting into the fray?"

OOC sorry it's short - I'm running late and my main computer has crapped itself Windows 7 lasted, what, a month before blue screen of death and now won't load. Oh well... anyway, more tomorrow. Right now, bed calls

"Knock out the planes and then drop us off a little ways from the camp," Anyman directs. "And strafes around all sides of the camp once you drop us off so we won't have to worry about a minefield, if there is one there. Then attack the camp's big defenses from another direction to get their attention on you. Pull out when it gets too hairy and wait for our signal to rush in and help with the prisoners."

Dropping through the clouds Spartan sat in the captains chair, adjusting settings on a small panel and looking at half a dozen screens. "Check speed. Bank left. Now. Rail guns? Target... fire..."

Anyman watched as the screens showed Nazi planes soaring through the clouds in formation. They'd been retrofitted with crude jet engines, enough to send them powering through the sky and more than a match for the British Spitfires and Hurricanes, but his ship was a different proposition! The guns snorted belching fire, sending tracer into the darkness and struck one, two, three planes, the rest splitting up and flying every which way to escape the larger vessels guns!

"This is interesting... we have a mining bomb, designed to cut deep into th ground. We can modify its explosive spread, take out the whole camp once you've gotten everyone out." he turned, gave a grin and a salute "Good luck Commander" he said, referring to Anymans rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. With a nod Anyman stalked through the corridor to where the cargo hold was, Anchor and Boadicea walking up behind him, and followed by NoMan and P'ertaria. The constant roar of guns showed the Nazis weren't prepared to give up without a fight, with planes patrolling and circling the area, then making a beeline for the large ship which was somewhat cumbersome in atmosphere, despite the advanced technology on offer. That said, even the enhanced armour piercing rounds of the Nazi planes only made score marks on the ships surface - for now.

"They have flak guns." said Spartan over the earpieces worn by the team. "It will be tricky getting in close, but we'll see what we can do to strafe the place."

A door hissed open and the group was hit by the buffetting of air. The doors were open and trees spread below the ship as it blasted across the landscape, low and dead set on its course towards the camp. The roar of guns and engines intensified as the ship slowed and the Nazis cauhgt up with it. "10 seconds to bail out!" said Spartan over the comms.

One of the Skralls stepped forward with a small pack. It adjusted a setting on its belt and spoke in a robotic voice. "This device is a beacon and flotation device. Activate it and it will rise into the air to mark your position, plus it will aid your descent to the ground. You have one each for getting down, one for getting back up. It can be used to levitate you for a limited distance before the gas runs out, or simply used as a marker for days."

Boadicea looked pleased "There's some glitches in the language program, but it's working fine. I developed it on the old ship in my spare time."

Slowing down to a near stop the ship started to come under heavy fire. "Ach! Ah don't need no bubble tae get me doon! GERONIMO!" shouted Anchor, his size swelling to the huge muscled form that gave him his name! He dropped like a stone, crashing through the tops of trees and smashing into the ground some 80 feet below. The group heard a distant "ouch. bugger." from the darkness.

OOC Up to you if you want to risk the drop or have a plan. NoMan and P'ertaria will change their bodies to spread like a blanket or wing to lower themselves down, Boadicea plans to use the beacon/balloon and that leaves you. Then the ship will depart and you can make your way through the forest to the camp whilst the ship draws fire and attention. The planes zipping about in the dark have enough on their plate to notice small forms dropping from underneath the ship, and it will stop off at other places to make it look liek its dropping off in more than one spot. Other than that, my next post will have you approaching the camp...

Anyman will bail out and not use the floater until he hits tree top level. Just enough to lower his crashing into the ground where it won't hurt him. Make our way through the trees and then look for an opening to get into the camp. Probably going to need a map now.

Anchor crouches in the trees and turns to Anyman "Wha's th' plan laddie? Ah'd figure you'd just walk up an' th' Nazis would cack their pants, like, but then again ah don't believe all them stories th' Nazis say about you in their press. Heck, ye probably sent 'em in ye'self!" he chuckled.

NoMan moved up quietly from the landing site with P'ertaria by his side. She spoke first "My fellow P'utinarians wanted to come along. I told them to stay on the ship unless things went badly for us down here. I hope I made the right choice."

The roar of the guns from the camp drowned out the conversation after that unless the speaker was willing to shout. Overhead the 'new' V-Ship was rocked several times by AA guns mounted on the rooftops of some of the buildings (A,D,C) but the shields held. It was buzzed about by an angry pack of Messerschmitt fighters too, desperately trying to down it!

Boadicea came through the bushes to the groups right, hands held up to show she was no threat, then reported. "The Nazis have sent out patrols. Small groups of soldiers armed with flamethrowers, guns and grenades it looks like" she said, tapping her binoculars. "They are sticking to the edge of the trees, convinced the bogeyman here..." she gestured to Anyman "...is out here. Whatever else you do and wherever you go from here, Commander Allard, I salute you for fighting the war the way you have. Your legend has the Nazis quaking in their boots before..."

She was cut off as the camps guns stopped. "Now what?" asked Anchor.

Boadicea pulled a face "I'll bet you there are Nazi metahumans closing in!" She turned to Anyman "This could get messy really fast. I suggest we split into groups and attack from several angles. I'm worried about the clear ground to the North, East and West of the camp too. If I were the Nazis I'd mine that heavily., leaving only the road as approach and therefore open to heavy fire along its length..."

"The plan was for the V-ship to strafe the ground around the camp to set off the mines so we would have a clear path to approach," Anyman reminded everyone. "If they haven't done so in the next few seconds, we will have to call them and remind them of that fact."

ooc: here's a question I totally forgot to ask, what time of day is it? Do we have the cover of night or is it a bright sunny day?

OOC It's evening/dark. Enough light to just see where you're going and for the Nazis to see you aren't dressed as German soldiers. If you want to lay low for a little while longer (say, from 20.00 to 21.00) it'll be dark.

A voice squawked over the comms "This is Spartan." he said. "We've swept the area and from what I can tell deactivated the mines by subjecting them to a magnetic pulse. It also seems to have stopped the guns from firing at us, which is an unexpected bonus as we didn't think the magnetic wave would be strong enough. Right now the Nazis will be wondering why all their guns have jammed and why all the metal on their uniforms is strangely attracted to anything metal nearby. It won't last long through - minutes. When it wears off, don't be standing to the north, east or west of the camp - every mine buried in the fields will be going off all at once! The downside is that our own guns' magnetic rails have been overloaded, so we're a sitting duck with no means to fight back. A small price to pay for clearing you a path! Note also, we picked up half a dozen inbound, too small for planes. Two are travelling at hypersonic speed and were miles away only seconds ago. They'll be here before the rest and you have... 30 seconds. You'll hear them before you see them though. They are FAST!"

Anchor groaned "Your reputation for attacking Nazi bases has 'em all on high alert. Looks like they learnt from the last one. took 'em long enough, mind!"

Boadicea hissed "We're wasting time! Their guns are down, the minefields shut off, we need to get in there!"

The group sprints from the trees towards the barbed/razor wire fence. That held little fear for Anyman - his hide could become as tough as the most durable tree bark, all the while remaining as pliable and flowing as water! There were shouts from the Nazis as the group got closer, and they saw the fence posts were actually one man guard towers, each manned by soldiers. Eight were in view of the group as they sprinted towards the fence, though not a single one fired their weapon!

Boadicea shouted "GRENADE!" as a stick grenade tumbled through the air and landed at her feet, but it didn't go off!

"Ah think we've go a lot tae thank Spartan fer!" laughed Anchor as he ran along. "Let's get in there an'..."

He stopped as Anyman formed up into a ladder, as did the others. The supersonic flight of an incoming Nazi ubermensch was getting loud now!

The Nazis were desperately trying to unjam their weapons - to no avail, whilst Anyman discovered another bonus of the magnetic ray - the fence, being of ferrous metal, was so tightly drawn to each other strand that simply putting more weight on it snapped it like common string! PING! PING! PING! PING! PING!

Every strand severed, the group was able to run through the gap, even as Nazi guards raced towards them! Nearby armoured Nazi suits - or robots - it was impossible to tell, stood immobile and the desperate Nazis finally realised who it was they were facing! The alarm, blaring constantly, changed to a higher pitch, to let them know that ANYMAN, scourge of the Nazi empire, was amongst them!

The heroes split up, left and right to lay into the Nazis climbing down from towers. "This is like bashin' shop dummies!" laughed Anchor. "Nae challenge!"

Anyman sped on through the camp, Nazi soldiers trying to get their weapons to fire, failing, and backing off, some running in outright fear!

A brave officer pulled his luger, tried to fire, failed, and tossed it into the oncoming Anymans face! It glanced off his head without effect, and a backhand saw the Officer fly through the air to crash against a wooden wall and through it!



There was a sudden rush of air, and all eyes looked up. A huge man, who must've stood 7' tall were he on the ground, levelled an arm and pointed at Anyman "You are MINE!" he hissed!


Behind Anyman, NoMan called out "Do you need help?"

It suddenly occurred to Anyman that, yes, NoMan might indeed be useful - if he could get close enough to touch the Nazi!

OOC You have a frame before initiative starts, so can use it to attack, move to cover, grab a Nazi human shield, insult his mother... 1d10=10 Anyman, 1d10=5 Nazi. I have serious doubts about whether Invisible Castle is that random... I just rolled initiative over ten times, and only three times out of that did the first roll of two (yours) come out on top. I expected it to be 50/50 but no... hmmm. Anyway, shrugged, clicked roll again and you win, a fourth time, but it's still wonky. You have 4 frames (free one plus 3 frames) to act before the Nazi. He's 10m up in the air, floating like a big jackbooted target. Over to you.

THE VANGUARD IN CAMP

Behind Anyman, NoMan called out "Do you need help?"

It suddenly occurred to Anyman that, yes, NoMan might indeed be useful - if he could get close enough to touch the Nazi!

"Here's someone you can copy, NoMan," Anyman called out. He then reached up to the floating powered Nazi in an attempt to grab him and pull down to the ground where NoMan would have the best chance of touching the man.

"Where's Major Nazi," he asked as he stretched out to the super. "What are you? His sidekick? Cpl Nazi? With that teeny tiny head of yours, I doubt you have the brains to be an officer Nazi!"



actions: Grab and pull floating guy down to the ground, if possible. If not, grab NoMan with the other hand and raise him up to the Super. If any frames are left, punch Nazi silly.

The Vanguard
Where: A Nazi prison camp
Who: Anyman, NoMan, Anchor, Boadicea, P'ertaria
What: Seeking to free P'utinarians from the Nazis grasp, Anyman and his team have successfully infiltrated the Nazi camp thanks to Spartan onboard the V-Ship. Now however, they face a newcomer, a powerful Nazi going by the name of...

"Strom-Faust, little man!" bellowed the Nazi as he floated in the air. As if to demonstrate both of his hands started burning with powerful energy!

Anyman looked up. Too far for him to stretch (OOC that would be 'more than 6m away'. *sigh* Street level supers r us. Wonder if Mr fantastic ever gets that problem?) he turned and grabbed hold of NoMan. "Let's hope my aim is good!" muttered Anyman, then he tossed NoMan through the air, who helped by reforming his body into an aerodynamic ball!

OOC 2d10+3+6=23. Easy hit.

The ball pinged from the Nazis chest, who laughed. "You think that will hurt me? I am bulletpr... what?"

Landing on the floor, the ball suddenly morphed into a carbon copy of the Nazi! Then it changed to become the more familiar green form of NoMan, who said "I am uncomfortable with wearing the Nazis form, but I thank him for his powers!" His hands started to glow, and he looked up, then took to the air!

Anchor came over, having flattened several soldiers "Ah think there's another on his way. That high pitched sound again! We need tae get 'im doon so ah can flatten th' swines head 'gainst th' floor..."

The Nazi didn't take any of this lying down though! With three potential targets he took aim and started blasting!

OOC He has 5 frames (Class 4 superhuman) and uses an action on Anyman, one on NoMan and a quick blast (frame) on Anchor. 2d10+3+6=18 hit Anyman, 3htk 2htc, DD-3, 2d10+3+6=14 Missed NoMan, 2d10+3+6=20 Hit Anchor, 3htc 3htk -3DD. Not really worth dodging or parrying, in my opinion... Your remaining (1 frame) then NoMan gets his remaining frame, along with Anchor. The Nazi has used 12/22 energy round 1/5

ooc: Wait a minute! Thought I had 20meters of stretching and he was only 10 meters up.

ooc: Nope, was just brain dead and not posting for a bit. One frame, hummmmm?

He is out of my range and throwing things may hinder NoMan. So I will keep heading into the camp, looking for something to blow up or set on fire and yell for the prisoners to get out of the camp through the hole we made and head for the woods as fast as they can.


"NoMan! Handle him as long as you can," Anyman yells up. "I'm going to see what else I can do to destroy this camp and get these folks free! Run when you have to."