Special thanks to Almerin for the Graphic!
The drone of the plane’s engine has become a part of the background, like it has always been there. Twenty soldiers sit in position awaiting the orders to jump out of plane and carry out a mission that if successful, no one will know about it until long after the war is over, and if not – well, that isn’t an option.

It is 1943 and OSS picked up reliable intelligence that the Nazis are developing rocket fuel at a remote location near the Swiss border. An old estate - Castle Rautenberg, is being used as the research facility. Due to the remoteness of the castle, and it close vicinity to the neutral country of Switzerland; the allies can not risk a bombing run.

The briefing didn’t mince words. If the Nazis perfect this fuel, it could fire long range missiles of mass destruction capacities – and they meant long range. If this mission fails, then the folks back home could be in serious danger.

The plan was simple. Two demolition experts would be part of the team. They would set charges to blow the only bridge to the castle on a timer. Then the team would move to the castle, wait for the bridge to blow and serve as a diversion for the castle’s resident forces (thirty men, a few commanders, a SS overseer and a team of scientist estimated at 6). In the confusion, the team would move in, find the rocket fuel and destroy it and the castle. Once the mission was completed, the team would move south across the Swiss border to a town called Barovia – where a contact (Baron Winters) would arrange for their safe return.

“How much longer?” a young private asks.

The soldier beside him looks at his watch, “About a half hour or so.”

Suddenly, the transport plane veers to the left and dives at the same time. Soldiers are scattered and flung about as the plane almost does a roll.

“What the..”

“Did the pilot just ....”

Machine gun fire tears through the fuselage of the plane. Five men go down in the hail of bullets.

“DOWN! GET DOWN!:”

“Holy ...”

“Mother of God ....”

The transport banks right and up as more gunfire rips through the plane.

“OUT! JUMP NOW!”

Soldiers scramble to get their footing, but so many are killed or wounded before the doors are even open. You jump out into the night sky muttering a profane oath or a prayer to whatever god may have mercy.

The plane you were on dives to the ground and explodes upon impact. Whatever charges the demo guys had, it works well – unfortunately. You look around for others but only count a few parachutes in the air. There are two german planes in the air, but they are banking away from you. Either the pilots did not see you, or they are very low on fuel. Either way, you are alive for now.

But what of the mission? You are nowhere near the drop point, and the explosion is going to bring every Nazi in the area running. The voice of the Major giving the mission briefing runs through your head,

“Gentleman. I dare say that if you don’t succeed, Hitler will be raining bombs on New York by the end of the year.”

OOC: Wait! Don't Post yet. Another post is coming. But time to finish off those last details on the character.

OOC: for those of you new to my games, a silver screen moment is when I show what "the other side" is doing in order to add suspense and colour to the game. Naturally, your characters are not aware of these so they can not act upon them.




“Herr Doctor, you may proceed*.” The SS commander said looking out over courtyard of the castle. Four generators hummed loudly as they provided the electricity not only for the lights in the compound but for the rather large an complicated machine that the scientists had created.

“Pull ze switch!” The lead doctor called out. One of the other men in lab coats moved to the machine and pulled a red lever upwards. Nothing seemed to happen.

“No! The other switch you idiot!”

The man quickly returned the red lever back to the start position and moved the green lever up. The machine roared to life. Energy crackled from within and then was released like blue lightning bolt towards to giant electrodes on the far side of the courtyard. The energy arced, and then flowed together between the electrodes like a liquid.

``Ja! Pull ve Red Switch!”

The assistant immediately complied and the machine became much louder. The energy between the electrodes seemed to collapse together and form like a rip – like a tear in the very matter if reality. The commander stood up to get a better look at the energy field. “what am I looking at Herr Doctor?” He asked in fascination.

“It is a dimensional rift Herr Metzger. With it we can now focus ....” The doctor words were lost as the machine made a churning noise. The sound of gears and smell of gears stripping was overwhelming. The rift turned to energy again and then arced from electrode to a soldier manning one of the generators. The energy hit the generator and the man and the same time with similar effects – both frying from the inside out rapidly. The soldier fell to the ground a burn skeleton, the generator burst into flames. Officers shouted orders and immediate other soldiers moved to put out the fire.

“You were saying herr doctor?”

“I was... I am sorry Sir.”

“It would be a wonderful weapon if it wasn’t for the bother of carrying three generators to the front lines for every soldier you wished to kill.”

“Yes. I will...”

“You will find out what went wrong and fix it, herr doctor. I do not want to send a report of failure to the Führer.” Commander Metzger walked away from the scientist splutter apologies before his rage won over his better judgement. He was entrusted with this special project by Hitler himself, and he wasn’t going to let a few setbacks get in the way of success. He continued walking until he was beside the watch captain.

“Sir!’ The captain saluted.

“Captain. Have the poor fellow taken to the infirmary in case the doctors want to examine him.”

“Yes sir.”

“Oh and one more thing. The young lady who was serving at my table this evening - have her brought to my chambers. After a night like this, I’ll be in needs of her services.”

“Yes Commander!” The captain saluted and immediate turned to carry out the orders. He saw that some of the soldiers were gathered around the dead man. “What are you doing!” He yelled, “You have all seen a dead man before!"

“But Captain, look!”

The officer pushed the soldiers aside and looked at the body, “Gott in Himmel!" he cried out in shock, "Get herr Doctor quickly!”

Captain Luke Edintore looked down to the ground moving up towards him. It was dark but the moon was full and the luminous of the heavenly body was enough to see that he and the men that survived were heading into a forested area – not good when you were landing a parachute.

He was the last to leap for the plane before it started to dive. Luckily the wind was pushing them south of the crash so they would have some distance from the crash site. But what about the mission? He counted four other parachutes – not much of a strike team. He had a bad feeling that he was now in command, especially after seeing Major Banks go down in a hail of bullets shortly after ordering the jump. Waste of a good man.

Master Sgt Troy Romo grunted as released himself from his tangled chute. He had managed to get caught in a tree but close enough to the ground that his feet touched. He immediate checked his weapons and started to look for the other survivors.

Corp. Jake ‘Brutal’ Clements brushed off the branches and twigs from his uniform. He was alive, he wasn’t hanging from a tree. He looked around for a moment and saw another GI moving to his right. He was pretty sure that was Sarge Romo, so he moved to meet up with him.

Cpl. John Stewart ‘Doc’ Reid swore a blue streak as he got himself up. His chute was tangled in the tree above but his line had swung him directly into the tree trunk. His face hurt, his chest hurt and he had no idea where he was now. Hopefully there were others nearby that made the jump.

Private Corban McGuinness was lucky to be alive. As he jumped from the plane, he felt the bullets hit, and he thought he was dead as the impact swung him around as he fell out of the plane. But his number wasn’t up today and it looked like his pack absorbed the gunfire. To top it all off, he now was hanging from a high branch of a tree, dangling about 4 feet off the ground. Alive is alive, he thought as he pulled his knife out to cut though the binding holding him.

OOC: Okay. You are down on the ground (mostly) and alive. Feel free to post, those of you that need details filled out for your characters can still post just keep it simple.

For the game, assume you all “know” each other from mission training, at least by name if not as friends. You may also assume you will all meet up quickly. The sky is clear, the moon is full and you can see all the stars. You are in a forest, you do not see any signs of towns or villages or even roadways.

Landing a chute was not one of Luke’s mayor thrills in life. In fact, he never liked jumping out of planes. He did like following orders, and making sure the Germans were kept at bay. And if following orders meant jumping from a plane… hey, what can you do?

But the sight of treetops rushing closer made him swallow quite hard. The few men who made it out of the airplane alive had already disappeared in the forest below. Holding on to the ropes of the chute tightly he kicked at the top of a great pine to push himself away from a deadly impact. The chute scraped over the treetop, tore and he went down fast.
He realized that he was about to hit the ground when branches no longer struck his descending body. In an effort to save himself from a fatal crash he curled into a ball as best he could, when all of a sudden he was jerked back up. The parachute had been caught by a branch, and he was hanging just above ground level.

Moments later he was loose and about, scanning the area for other survivors. He walked into a soldier just a heartbeat later. The man’s chute hadn’t even opened and he had apparently bludgeoned into the roots of a mighty tree.
Up ahead he heard groans and footsteps and noted the silhouettes of a few soldiers from his unit. He recognized one who was standing close. People called the man ‘Doc’.

Luke quickly identified the rest of the men that had made it. Sgt Romo was there, and the captain silently thanked God for that. They would certainly need the man, not in the least for his German looks. They were here with a mission to complete, but utterly lost. Asking directions with his own Italian-American persona would certainly lead to silly situations. IF they were even going to find somebody to ask directions in this German wilderness.

Brutal was standing close to Romo, a man who certainly deserved his title, Luke knew. He had heard rumours of the man’s prowess and knew he was going to be a valuable asset of the team. Would he himself? Being Captain was all good as long as there was somebody else to listen to. With Major Banks gone up in smoke, he was to control this heap of left-overs.

He noted only one private left. That was a big setback. Luckily McGuiness was one of the best shots in the unit. The captain certainly knew to value this man’s presence. He moved closer to cut the man loose from his parachute.

When McGuiness was freed the captain picked up the carbine and ammo belt from the dead trooper.
He looked at the medic. “It’s Doc, right? Do you know how to use this?”
He held up the carbine.
The man looked around at the few survivors, “Yeah, I can point and shoot.”
Tossing the carbine and ammo belt to Jack the Captain muttered, “Good, you’re back in the infantry, you just happen to be able to plug the holes in ours guys.”

He knew they couldn’t waste too much time, so addressed all of the men assembled.

“We should move. I don’t want any Nazi’s to know we’re here though. Romo and Brutal, snatch those chutes from the trees. Doc and I will find some branches and leaves to cover them with. McGuiness, find a high tree to climb and find out what you can about our position.”

“Let’s hurry, people!”

(OOC: I don’t assume there is any chance any of us saw which way the castle is?)

Jack tensed as there seemed to be a change in the sounds of the engine drone. Then all chaos broke loose.
The bodies of the men on either side of him were flung to the floor as bullets riddled through fuselage of the C-47. Five or six men lay motionless as Jack instinctively moved to check them.

Blood pooled quickly on the floor from the massive holes left in their lifeless bodies. As Jack looked up from the dead commando next to him another rage of death and destruction ripped through the other side of plane.

More men were blown from their seats as the hot death poured in from the German fighter strafing their transport.

Deadly accuracy or just plain bad luck left another half dozen men or so dead on the floor. As Jack crawled through the blood searching for life signs of the men on the floor the plane lurched and turned sharply tossing others in the aisle.

The Major struggled to his feet and shouted to get out of the plane, now. Jack only saw a few men rise and hookup as the Major struggle to open the jump door. As the door opened he shouted over the engine roar,” Out, now!”

The men filed out and Jack continued to searched for signs of life among the downed soldiers. “Doc, let them go; those guys out there are going to need you now,” as the major nodded toward to open door.

Jack stood and followed orders; he hooked up and moved to the door. The Major stopped him, he said, “They’re going to need you down there.”Jack turned and jumped from the plane.

Just as Jack cleared the tail and cord pulled on his chute pack he heard another roar gun fire as the enemy strafed the plane again.

The jerking of the chute opening almost shook his head off his neck. With effort Jack pulled on the chute straps and brought the swaying under control.
He couldn’t see if any more chutes were above, he knew the Major and the Captain had stayed back to sure the men got out.

Looking down through the dark there was just enough moonlight that Jack could make out a couple of chutes as they drifted toward a treed area.

Oh great, a lovely landing area.
Pulling on the straps Jack guided his chute as best he could toward the same woods. The others had jumped first so there was some distance to try make up if he didn’t want hike several miles just find the others.

A shift in the breeze aided Jack as he drifted down, he had closed the distance considerable as the woods started to loom up at him. He was only a couple of hundred yards from where he’d seen another chute land.

Spotting a small clearing Jack pulled hard to get his chute to glide that direction.
Just as he thought he had cleared the trees his chute caught and like a human pendulum Jack slammed between two large branches and flat against the trunk.

Turning his head just in time to keep from smashing his nose into bark he hit with considerable thud, knocking the wind out him.

“Son of a …. “ he hollered as he scrapped down about ten feet of trunk, hitting ground and falling backwards on his ass.

“Holy Mother…., first I get shot at by our guys in Italy and now I get to hug a f….. tree.”

Still dazed and muttering Jack quickly unhooked the chute and pulled free. Staggering, he tried to get his bearing toward the other commandoes.

Looking up he caught a glimpse of another chute coming down. He turned and headed in that direction.

Sh.., well one is better than none.
A few minutes later he found the Captain and hurried to report.

After the Captain had finished talking to him Jack shouldered the carbine.

As the Captain turned to talk to men Jack walked over to the body of the trooper. Kneeling beside the body Jack removed the man’s helmet and then reached into his collar and lifted out his dog tags.

Taking a pad and pencil from his breast pocket Jack open it and listed the soldier’s name, rank and serial number; he noted the date and wrote dead; he left the location blank.

Replacing the pad and pencil Jack pulled a small pouch from his pants pocket; opened it and dropped in the tags.

He removed the man watch and ring dropping them into the pouch too.

Jack loosened the soldiers pack and removed his pistol belt; putting it around his own waist.

As Jack was going through the mans pockets he felt the stares. Looking up Jack saw the men watching him.

“What???, it’s my job to log the dead too. We can’t leave anything on his body that gives any clues about us. We also need to claim what we can use. Lucky, you take his pack; yours has a big hole in it and you’ll be losing stuff soon.”

Jack took off his helmet with white circle and red cross; laid it on the soldier and put on the soldiers helmet.

Standing the guys heard Doc say, “S***, so much for the Geneva Convention.”


(OOC: This means Doc now has two 45's, Medics were allow a pistol to protect their patients so he had his original issue.)

It was just one of those things, Romo thought as the first of the ME-109’s strafed the transport, that again gave truth to the old saying ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy‘. Quickly moving from his position of Jump Master at the front of the string of parachute equiped men his voice was loud as he opened the aircraft’s side door.

“OUT! JUMP NOW!”

However before most of the men still alive could do so the pilot took the Douglas C-47 Dakota into a hard dive to get away from the attacking German aircraft and Sgt Romo found himself out the planes door..........

His main rip cord having not been rigged to be pulled once he was away and behind the C-47 he tried as best he could to gauge his position in the sky, and doing so then pulled his secondary rip cord and was happily jerked upward as the chute fully deployed. As he slowly drifted to the ground he watched as the transport took one last dive into the earth. Strangely enough the ME’s did not attempt to strife the few parachutes Romo could see floating to the ground, but turned and moved off into the night.

Once on the ground, after freeing himself from an unexpected tree, the Master Sgt found what he had been afraid of, Major Banks and most of the missions men were dead. As the survivors slowly gathered around Romo he took count...Of the officers only Captain Edintore was alive and now in command...Of the NCO’s, not including himself, Romo had at hand only Corporals Clements and Reid...Of the rest of the 20 man team only Private McGuinness was alive and they all were a little shaken up.

Only 5 men left of 20, a third of the missions men dead, in mere seconds due to a chance airborne attack.

The question now in Romo’s mind, as he checked that both his 45’s were still holstered and the Thompson sub gun was ok, was should they continue the mission. With only 5 men the job became both easier in some ways and harder in others. He was about to issue orders to collect and bury the chutes when the Captain beat him to it.

“We should move. I don’t want any Nazi’s to know we’re here though. Romo and Brutal, snatch those chutes from the trees. Doc and I will find some branches and leaves to cover them with. McGuiness, find a high tree to climb and find out what you can about our position. Let’s hurry, people!”

Romo turned to Clements “You heard him Corporal lets get those chutes”

Within only minutes he and Clements had all the chutes gathered, a few minutes more and the chutes were buried with scraps of wood and old leaves to cover the burial site.
Then following behind the Captain the 5 men moved out into the darkness the best course of action right now was to put as much distance between the crash and themselves before morning. Once daylight hit they could hold up and he and the Captain could discuss their next move.........

“OUT! JUMP NOW!”
Cpl Jake Clements, or ‘Brutal’ as some men called him, didn’t hit the deck when the 20mm slugs ripped through the plane’s fuselage… instead he stood up and barked orders to the Privates under his wing.

“You heard the Major,” he barked, “hook up and to the door… move.. MOVE!”

He turned to grab the arm of a cowering private on the deck at his feet and dragged the man to his feet.

“Move Jensen… you worthless piece of …”

He never got to finish his insult of the man’s bravado as a round from the ME-109 cannons ripped through the man spilling his guts out onto the front and splattering the man’s blood all over the front of Brutal.

He dropped the dead man to the deck and whirled to the door himself.. He flung himself out without even hooking up to the static line… he trusted to himself to pull his own chute.. A habit he had noticed Sgt Romo also practiced… he hated the jerk the line gave him and he always thought he would be slammed up against the tail of the plane and be stuck there if his line failed.

He fell through the darkness trying to gauge his height before pulling his cord… not wanting to hang in the air and be a sitting duck for any ‘Krauts’ on the ground… his timing was a bit off.. his eyes bugged as he saw silhouettes of the trees below.. He yanked his cord and felt the snap of his lines and the belts dug into his groin at is rapidly slowed his descent .. He crashed through the branches below with considerable force… but miraculously his chute didn’t hang on anything.

Hitting the ground hard, he rolled over a few times and then came to his feet with a groan… he checked himself and realized .. Other than a few bruises and scrapes .. He was alright.

He cut loose his chute .. Gathered it together and hoisting his gear on his back and with his carbine in hand.. He looked around and spotted movement as someone else was moving through the trees.. He recognized Sgt Romo and smirked slightly.. He was glad Romo made it.. He respected the Sgt .. More than he had any other so far.. especially any of the officers.

When they met up with the others.. Cpl Clements wasn’t too happy to see that Capt. Edintore had made it down.. he didn’t trust officers in general.. most didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.. and so far Edintore hadn’t shown himself to be any different… but without the Major this would be the first time he had seen the Capt in charge.. so maybe the man would grow a pair and prove his worth.. or not.

“We should move.” the Capt said once they were all gathered, “I don’t want any Nazi’s to know we’re here though. Romo and Brutal, snatch those chutes from the trees. Doc and I will find some branches and leaves to cover them with. McGuiness, find a high tree to climb and find out what you can about our position. Let’s hurry, people!”

Romo turned to Clements “You heard him Corporal lets get those chutes”
With his own chute already in hand, Brutal moved with Romo to gather those of the others. Once they were out of earshot of the others, and gathering the chutes for burial, Jake spoke to Romo quietly.

“You think we can still pull this mission off Sgt?” he asked looking back at the Capt and the others, “I mean, there are only 5 of us and the Capt…. Well .. he doesn’t strike me as being the right man for the job.. you know what I mean.”

(Conversation here.. Will backpost if needed)

When they had all the chutes, Brutal took out his large combat knife.. a favorite weapon of his that he kept strapped to his right thigh.. and cut off several of the lines from the parachutes... he knew the line was strong and could support the weight of an average man.. it might come in handy later in getting into this castle... he took enough to give each of them up to a 20' length (if possible).

(Note: not my idea but I thought it was a good one so I incorporated it into my post )

Once they were done buring the chutes and rejoined the others.. Brutal took stock of their small group as they tried to decide which direction to go.. he didn’t know since they seemed lost… other than the Capt and Sgt… there was the medic… the one they called ‘Doc’ … he seemed capable at his job… though he tended to curse unnecessarily … not that Jake minded… he cursed himself when the situation warranted… but ‘Doc’ tended to make it a matter of every conversation … the other was Private McGuinnes… a sniper … that might come in handy … Brutal was no slouch of a shot himself… but he knew he was no sniper … the man might prove very useful if they were to survive.

All in all … they did seem to have the basics covered… if only the leadership was a bit more trustworthy … but time would tell if they would succeed in this mission and in their lives as well.

(Sorry I havent posted sooner.. out of town for the Holiday weekend.. the best I could come up with at the time. )

As soon as the gunfire ripped through the cabin Corbin looked to the nearest exit. He'd rather take his chances in the air then run the risk of being trapped in a doomed aircraft. Barely waiting for the order to jump Corbin made his way to the door and was amongst the first to leap into the night sky.

The relief Corban felt upon exiting the plane was short lived however, as he felt himself jerk around in the air from bullet impacts. Not feeling dead yet Corban remained calm as he fought to right himself and control his free fall so that he could pull his chute. Feeling as though he was running out of time Corban pulled the cord as soon as he was able to. The sudden jerk as the chute began to arrest his fall caused one of the bullet damaged straps to snap. The luck of the Irish appeared to be with young McGuinness however, as the rest of the bindings appeared to still be intact and up to the task of carrying him safely to the ground.

As Corban finally has the chance to scan his surroundings he finds himself only moments from impact with the tree tops he sees racing up towards him. Bracing himself, and bringing his limbs in tight, Corban broke through the upper canopy only to have his chute catch on one of the larger branches that are now above him. The sudden jarring stop was more then a little painful but going from a burning plane to four feet off the ground hanging in a tree was enough of an improvement to be worth a little pain in McGunniess's book.

Having no desire to be caught in a tree by an enemy soldier, Corban drew his Ka-Bar and cut the straps still attaching him to the tangled chute in order for him to drop free. Landing mostly on his feet McGuinness went to one knee after landing so that he could sheath his knife before going over his equipment. Salvaging what he could from his bullet riddled Musette bag Corban found himself forced to replace the bag with another from one of the fallen soldiers who had not been as lucky as him this night. It was better he take it then leave it for a Nazi in any case, and it wasn't like Doc wasn't already stripping a dead soldier for gear. Cutting some lines of parachute cord just in case they had need of rope or cordage later on, McGuinness put a bundle of lines into his own bag before cutting and tieing off bundles for any of the other soldiers who might be interested in some.

Halting his work with the parachutes upon hearing the Captain begin issuing orders, McGuinness finally unstrapped and began readying his sniper rifle. A man's rifle was his primary means of staying alive in this war and Corban went over his with a fine tooth comb before he felt confident enough in its operation that he could head out. Falling back on his hunting and tracking skills McGuinness moved out to circle their landing zone. Doing his best to search the area for sign he eventually found his way to the highest vantage point in their vicinity, a tall tree on a bit of a rise. Scouting as best as he could, Corban prepared to report to the Captain with what he'd learned so far as he made his way back to the group.

Jack and the Captain finish covering the chutes and shallow graves.

The Captain heads back to the clearing and Jack pauses. Believing he is out of sight of the others Jack turns to the pile of brush and drops down to one knee.

Removing his helmet and bowing his head Jack says," To your grace we commend our brothers, Our father who art in heaven....."

Romo turned to Clements “You heard him Corporal lets get those chutes”

“You think we can still pull this mission off Sgt? I mean, there are only 5 of us and the Capt…. Well .. he doesn’t strike me as being the right man for the job.. you know what I mean.”

With Clements words spoken Romo stopped dead in his tracks and whirled on the corporal.

“I’ll have none of that Corporal, the Captain’s in charge and that’s it. If he says we continue the op, we continue the op and let me be clear on this you will follow his orders to the letter or you will deal with me. Trust me CORPORAL Clements you don’t want to go there with me. Now lets finish up so we can get gone from here as the Captain wants.”.................

In all, there were four other soldiers that made it out of the plane but their chutes wither never opened or were damaged by gun fire and they all met a terrible death when they hit the ground. Still, they were gone and besides collect dog tags, which the Captain did, there was nothing more to do for them. The equipment they carried was of no use to them anymore. You manage to collect the following in working order:

One Colt M1911A1
Two M1A1 Carbines w/ Folding Stock
One Thompson SMG
Two rifle pouches holding five magazines each (so ten in total)
Five colt handgun clips
Two 50 round drums for Thompson
Four fragmentation grenades
A compass
A musette bag
Six K-rations
Two Supplemental tie-on First Aid Kit

Chutes are cleared and a reasonable effort made to clear the area. You had landed a fair distance from the wreckage so with luck and a prayer, the krauts might not realize you are there.

Corban climb up a tree to recon the area as best he can. To the north the plane is burning down, the fuel for its fire probably consumed when all the charges they had brought blew up. Through the powerful scope on his rifle he surveyed the area. No one was there yet, but he thought he saw lights moving sporadically in the distance. Could be farmers, could be a patrol. To the east and west was trees, trees, and more trees. Great place to camp, lousy place to land but at least there was a lot of cover. The south was also forested but more uphill towards the mountains.

Work detail complete, and supplies are gathered and distributed among the men. All eyes are on the Sarge and the Captain. No matter what the decision, things were grim, and the only way to safety was directly towards the mission target anyway.

“You think we can still pull this mission off Sgt? I mean, there are only 5 of us and the Capt…. Well .. he doesn’t strike me as being the right man for the job.. you know what I mean.”

With Clements words spoken Romo stopped dead in his tracks and whirled on the corporal.

“I’ll have none of that Corporal, the Captain’s in charge and that’s it. If he says we continue the op, we continue the op and let me be clear on this you will follow his orders to the letter or you will deal with me. Trust me CORPORAL Clements you don’t want to go there with me. Now lets finish up so we can get gone from here as the Captain wants.”
Clements looked Romo in the eyes for a moment and then with a faint smile on his lips he nodded, “Sure thing Sarg, I understand... just voicing my concerns is all.”

Brutal had respect for the Sgt; he was a hell of a fighter… he was someone you would want at your back when the s*** went down. Romo’s were the orders Brutal had no problem following, though he still had doubts about the Capt.

Finishing their job and returning to the others, Brutal handed out the lengths of parachute line he had salvaged to anyone who wanted them… he had bundled them and tied them off neatly so they would be easy to stow and take up less room.

With the few meager supplies gathered and the weapons from those poor saps who hit the ground even harder than Brutal had were laid out… it didn’t seem like much.

He stood with a carbine in his hands waiting for orders as he scanned the treeline for any sign of the enemy.. he knew they had to be out there… the ME’s would have radioed the position of the crash.. and probably the possibility of survivors… some of the chutes must have been spotted by the pilots… it could only be a matter of hours .. or less.. till these hills were crawling with Germans

As Sgt Romo surveyed the recovered equipment he did a fast inventory in his head and started handing out the gear to the rest of the small unit

To Edintore he handed the extra M1911 and two clips for it, along with a second frag grenade and 2 clips for the Captains carbine. As an afterthought he also gave him the compass as he would know best where they needed to go.
To Brutal, seeing him with his normal issue carbine, he gave the 2nd Thompson and 1 of the 50 round drum’s for it along with another of the extra frag’s and 2 of the 6 K-Rations.

To McGuinness seeing him armed only with his sniper rifle and a .45 Romo handed him 1 of the two carbines, along with 3 clips for it, an extra clip for the Corporals .45 a frag and 2 of the 6 K-Rations
To Stewart he gave the two extra First Aid kits, 3 extra rifle clips for his carbine, the last 2 extra pistol clips and the musette bag to carry them.

Lastly to himself he took the 2nd carbine, the last 2 clips, the 2nd 50 round Thompson drum, the last frag and the last 2 K-rats.

With the handed out gear secured the Master Sgt waited only the Captains order to move out and to where.........


(OOC: Ok please add the gear to the characters Al. Also I noticed that Brutal does not have a listed inventory on the gear he currently has.
And what do Brutal and Stewart look like??)

Jack walked back into the clearing and handed the Captain the pouch with dog-tags of four soldiers.

Sarge Romo was dividing up what supplies they had been able to gather.

The men were starting to size up each other and he could almost hearing them as they eyed him.

Height: 5’ 11”, Weight: 145 pounds

Hair: Brownish Red, Eyes: Hazel.

Jack was thin faced and slender built, as was common with the Irish immigrants that moved to the farmlands of the Western Reserve.
He still has the boyish good looks he had in high school but his eyes show the strain of forced manhood that came from watching friends die in his arms.

He was looking and felt older than 19.

It had taken him a bit to get use to being called “Doc”, but he also knew he’d earned it. Italy had not been pretty. His unit had been cut to ribbons by both enemy and friendly anti- aircraft fire.

“Well I see I get a double ration of First Aid kits. Oh well I’m sure I can trade a bandage for a meal sometime.” Jack pick up the musette pack, loaded his share gear and rope.

Jack checked both 45’s and loaded the carbine.
When he became a medic he knew he would be able to carry a side arm so he made sure he could use it and Jack could use it well.
The pistols belts were a bit cumbersome but he’d fix that later when they had more time.

Jack stood up, put on the pack, shouldered the carbine, checked his wrist compass and said, “Well south’s that way” as he pointed.

“ I bet you guys can find a mountain, how about a road?”

Having given the Captain his report about the mountains he'd seen to the south, as well warning him about the clearings in the forest that looked to be farms at this distance, Corban moved off only to run into Sergeant Romo as he was handing out gear. Placing the grenade and extra rations into his pack first, Corban quickly found room in his cargo pockets for the extra ammo and the clip for his pistol. As the M1 fired the same rounds as his Springfield the ammo could prove itself invaluable soon enough.. a pity all his preparation had gone to waste as he'd lost his bandoliers in the chaos on the way down.

McGuinness had only ever been this low on ammo after a protracted defense without resupply, he'd never willingly started a mission with so little in the way of vital supplies. Corban knew from experience that bullets were more valuable then food in a time like this. Going over the carbine McGuinness removed the clip and slid it into his pocket with the rest of his new ammo before slipping off to field strip the weapon. It wouldn't take much effort to remove the firing pin or damage the carbine in some other irrepairable way so that he would have a reasonable excuse for why he "lost" the carbine after they had moved out, all without the Sergeant being any the wiser.

McGuinness had been a soldier long enough to know better then to argue with his superiors, no matter how wrong he might think they were. While he would never risk lives by disobeying an order, he also saw no reason to suffer or risk his own life unnecessarily over any foolishness either. In the end there was simply no benefit in him carrying an extra carbine that he would never use. It didn't have superior range or accuracy over his rifle, it used the same valuable ammunition as his own rifle, and to top it all off it was an extra five pounds that he had no legitimate reasons to carry.