Not only could they be lying about some of what happened, the whole story could be a fabrication and they are trying to trick us into killing them. We do not know them. I do not think smoke is enough to say we can trust them.
The Last War - A Post World War Dieselpunk Quest
- Thread starter Azel
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Not only could they be lying about some of what happened, the whole story could be a fabrication and they are trying to trick us into killing them. We do not know them. I do not think smoke is enough to say we can trust them.
A whole group of people creating a fire or a situation where their home is set on fire and camping out in the bushes to draw in people to help kill soldiers seems far fetched.
Beside that they would have either had to have this whole story of bandit soldiers ready at hand for any potential allies, or have made it up on the spot. Not to mention the woman and man acting out their disagreement about her telling us the situation. Not to mention if this was a trap for unaware passerby people/soldiers why would they invite a spider tank and trained soldiers into their village. As soon as we enter and the situation isn't as they described then the village people are mincemeat consider our heavier weapons and training.
- Location
- United States
It's related peripherally. If we use up the resources we need here saving a doomed village, our spider walker will be dead weight without fuel sooner than we'd like. And then we'll be heroically dead.
This particular concern sounds like it could be cleared up by @Azel
I think its safe to say that the MC after his experience in the war is familiar with the fuel economy of tanks. And also should have a ballpark estimation of how much fuel is going to be needed to get to our destination.
- Location
- Germany
Fighting won't impact your fuel consumption that much and it's not really a big detour. You would be cutting it close either way if you try to reach Siegen with both vehicles. Though you might also be able to loot some diesel from the soldiers camp at the bridge.
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The Battle of Remagen - Part 1
- Location
- Germany
CW: combat, murder, war crimes
You hated this. The attention. The responsibility. For the last months, you had always kept your head down. If you seemed to eager and patriotic, the officers would give assignments that you were unlikely to return from, and your comrades disliked you for sucking up to the brass. And if you were not eager enough, the officers would try to make an example of you, or even threaten to send you over to a penal battalion if you didn't 'volunteer' for the next suicide mission they had in mind. There was always one over-eager petty officer around that needed warm bodies to grind up for his career.
Not being noticed was easier. You had it down to an art by the end. Always did your tasks no better or worse than anyone else. In battle, you were never the first to retreat, and yet nearly always right on the heels of those who ran first. It was an easy way to get through things. One that made you few friends, but even fewer enemies. It was not that you fancied yourself leadership material, so being one driver among many, seen as reliable, though easily forgotten, had suited you quite well.
And yet, they now wanted you to give the orders. To decide if the motley bunch you had joined should give battle to another military unit. A unit full of your countrymen at that. All that you wanted was a ride home, tell your mother that you were fine and see if you father had made it back too. Was that so much to ask? You had done your part. Had bled and killed for Germany. Snuffed out god knows how many poor sods who also just wanted the war to be over and to go back home.
Looking over the people gathered at the feet of the Spider, you felt as if the whole world was trying to press down on your shoulders. Once more, you were asked to fight a battle that was not yours and this time, there would have been no one else to blame. No officers. No Kaiser. No bomb throwing anarchist somewhere in the Balkans. If you were giving the order, this would be your fight and yours alone. No one to share the blame with when the bodies would be counted. Your throat felt too tight to say a single word.
The woman was still looking up at you, fists balled at her sides and her eyes wide open. If it was because you were letting her wait or to stop the tears from coming, you couldn't tell. All you wanted was to tell her 'no' and yet your throat got ever tighter at the idea so that you could barely breath. The words 'I will not fight on your say-so' were on the tip of your tongue, but you were afraid they would turn into 'I don't care about your home burning' if you were to actually say them out loud. She had a good reason to ask for your help, unlike all the others who had wanted you to kill on their behalf.
"Screw it," the words tumbled from your lips. Blood would not wash away blood, but a few uniformed bandits would not add any new stains to your hands either. "Gottlieb? I need you in here for the weapons. The rest of you follow me on the truck and dismount when we enter the village."
Ignoring the cries and cheers from the civilians, you gazed at the quiet group of three that had accompanied you all the way here. As usual when something happened, they stuck their heads together and hurriedly whispered with each other. They were pretty much just your paying passengers, and you were certain they would take their chance and cross the bridge on foot. But after a long moment, their leader turned to you and nodded.
Five soldiers then and a Spider, against at least a dozen people with god knew what weapons. You've had worse odds.
You continued your path, sticking to the hedges to conceal your approach, but now even more vigilant for any signs of soldiers. There were none, but you did see was ever more smoke coming from the village of Remagen. Beside you, Gottlieb was fidgeting in the gunners seat. He really did no like the cramped Spider. He was the only one with some experience on a machine gun though, so there was not much choice. As you came closer, you could hear a few lone gunshots in the distance.
The bridge itself was almost new, having been opened just half a year prior and named after none other than Ludendorff. The towers flanking it might as well have been fortress bunkers and there were two fighting positions reinforced with sandbags in front of them. But not a single soldier. Just the faint smell of smoke seeping into the Spider and another lone gunshot to the west, towards the village. You did not hesitate when you steered leftwards and accelerated.
It was nearly three hundred meters from the railway bridge to the edges of Remagen. On the front lines, it would have been an eternity. But here, you were not advancing through churned mud and under heavy fire. It was solid, packed dirt and nobody expected you. The diesel engine howled as you kept accelerating. Twenty tons of war machine fell into an even sprint that was half walking and half leaping. The first few houses passed by. Your legs narrowly avoided three dead bodies laying on the road. All in civilian clothes and all having run away from Remagen.
When you had set out to confront these bandits, you had briefly thought about parley, unwilling to shoot at former comrades without trying a different solution first. And then you saw the first of them. Two men throwing a dead man into a house, while two others were pouring lamp oil through one of the windows. Gottlieb did not need an order, the machine gun roaring to life and cutting them all down then and there.
In the rear optics, you saw the truck coming to a halt and the others jumping off. All of them were wearing the red armbands you had gotten in Coblenz. They would probably blame the communists for this attack. As the others swarmed out among the houses, you slowed your advance, careful not to run into an ambush. There was no way anyone had missed the machine gun going off. The Spider marched along the wider road closer to the Rhein, while the others sprinted towards the other road, cover to cover.
Three soldiers came running out of a house right in front of you. Two of them fell to the first salvo while the last one was fast enough to leap into cover behind a pile of logs. It did not help. As you passed him by, Gottlieb got him too. The next two were warned by now, taking cover behind a solid looking wooden cart. Not solid enough though and they died in a storm of bullets and splintered wood.
'It was easy,' you thought quietly as a grenade went off in the distance. There was no terror this time. No fear of a random artillery shell tearing you apart without a warning. No cannons or tanks that could challenge you. To your left, a soldier peeked out behind a tree and unfortunately for him, he was already out of the arc of the machine gun. You grabbed the control for the flamethrower and a moment later the man and his cover were in flames.
Was this why they had done it? There were so many bodies on the road already before you had come to add to them. Had they done this just because it was easy? Because the people of Remagen could not fight back? A soldier peeked out behind a house corner, grenade ready to throw, but Gottlieb hit his arm and the grenade dropped at his own feet. It should have been harder to do this. Yet with every burning building you passed, it became harder and hard to see these men as former comrades. They were the enemy now, even if you wore the same uniform.
A sharp noise rang through the Spider as a bullet scraped over the armor. Something was wrong though. This was not a rifle bullet. The armour rang like a struck bell as a second shot hit you and this time, you could see the steel bulging inwards right before you. "Fuck," you yelled in reflex while looking for the source of the shots. You had come through most of the village already and you could see from here the church on the far side. Behind the sturdy stone pillars of its fence, you spotted them.
Two men, one of them in an officer's uniform, reloading their oversized rifles. Elephant guns. This wasn't good, but at least it was not a proper anti-tank rifle, or you would have been dead. At least one of them knew where to shoot a Spider to make it count. You could still hear faint gunfire from the other street, so the others were still advancing.
What now?
[] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
[] Pass through the buildings on your right and try to flank the soldiers at the church.
[] Charge the church. Their guns can't easily penetrate your armor and you can be there quickly.
[] Fall back while giving suppression fire and regroup with the others.
[] Write-In
AN: Those rifles can penetrate your armor on a good attack roll, so whatever you want to try, you should try to resolve this quickly before statistics catch up with you.
The Battle of Remagen - Part 1
24.5.1919You hated this. The attention. The responsibility. For the last months, you had always kept your head down. If you seemed to eager and patriotic, the officers would give assignments that you were unlikely to return from, and your comrades disliked you for sucking up to the brass. And if you were not eager enough, the officers would try to make an example of you, or even threaten to send you over to a penal battalion if you didn't 'volunteer' for the next suicide mission they had in mind. There was always one over-eager petty officer around that needed warm bodies to grind up for his career.
Not being noticed was easier. You had it down to an art by the end. Always did your tasks no better or worse than anyone else. In battle, you were never the first to retreat, and yet nearly always right on the heels of those who ran first. It was an easy way to get through things. One that made you few friends, but even fewer enemies. It was not that you fancied yourself leadership material, so being one driver among many, seen as reliable, though easily forgotten, had suited you quite well.
And yet, they now wanted you to give the orders. To decide if the motley bunch you had joined should give battle to another military unit. A unit full of your countrymen at that. All that you wanted was a ride home, tell your mother that you were fine and see if you father had made it back too. Was that so much to ask? You had done your part. Had bled and killed for Germany. Snuffed out god knows how many poor sods who also just wanted the war to be over and to go back home.
Looking over the people gathered at the feet of the Spider, you felt as if the whole world was trying to press down on your shoulders. Once more, you were asked to fight a battle that was not yours and this time, there would have been no one else to blame. No officers. No Kaiser. No bomb throwing anarchist somewhere in the Balkans. If you were giving the order, this would be your fight and yours alone. No one to share the blame with when the bodies would be counted. Your throat felt too tight to say a single word.
The woman was still looking up at you, fists balled at her sides and her eyes wide open. If it was because you were letting her wait or to stop the tears from coming, you couldn't tell. All you wanted was to tell her 'no' and yet your throat got ever tighter at the idea so that you could barely breath. The words 'I will not fight on your say-so' were on the tip of your tongue, but you were afraid they would turn into 'I don't care about your home burning' if you were to actually say them out loud. She had a good reason to ask for your help, unlike all the others who had wanted you to kill on their behalf.
"Screw it," the words tumbled from your lips. Blood would not wash away blood, but a few uniformed bandits would not add any new stains to your hands either. "Gottlieb? I need you in here for the weapons. The rest of you follow me on the truck and dismount when we enter the village."
Ignoring the cries and cheers from the civilians, you gazed at the quiet group of three that had accompanied you all the way here. As usual when something happened, they stuck their heads together and hurriedly whispered with each other. They were pretty much just your paying passengers, and you were certain they would take their chance and cross the bridge on foot. But after a long moment, their leader turned to you and nodded.
Five soldiers then and a Spider, against at least a dozen people with god knew what weapons. You've had worse odds.
You continued your path, sticking to the hedges to conceal your approach, but now even more vigilant for any signs of soldiers. There were none, but you did see was ever more smoke coming from the village of Remagen. Beside you, Gottlieb was fidgeting in the gunners seat. He really did no like the cramped Spider. He was the only one with some experience on a machine gun though, so there was not much choice. As you came closer, you could hear a few lone gunshots in the distance.
The bridge itself was almost new, having been opened just half a year prior and named after none other than Ludendorff. The towers flanking it might as well have been fortress bunkers and there were two fighting positions reinforced with sandbags in front of them. But not a single soldier. Just the faint smell of smoke seeping into the Spider and another lone gunshot to the west, towards the village. You did not hesitate when you steered leftwards and accelerated.
It was nearly three hundred meters from the railway bridge to the edges of Remagen. On the front lines, it would have been an eternity. But here, you were not advancing through churned mud and under heavy fire. It was solid, packed dirt and nobody expected you. The diesel engine howled as you kept accelerating. Twenty tons of war machine fell into an even sprint that was half walking and half leaping. The first few houses passed by. Your legs narrowly avoided three dead bodies laying on the road. All in civilian clothes and all having run away from Remagen.
When you had set out to confront these bandits, you had briefly thought about parley, unwilling to shoot at former comrades without trying a different solution first. And then you saw the first of them. Two men throwing a dead man into a house, while two others were pouring lamp oil through one of the windows. Gottlieb did not need an order, the machine gun roaring to life and cutting them all down then and there.
In the rear optics, you saw the truck coming to a halt and the others jumping off. All of them were wearing the red armbands you had gotten in Coblenz. They would probably blame the communists for this attack. As the others swarmed out among the houses, you slowed your advance, careful not to run into an ambush. There was no way anyone had missed the machine gun going off. The Spider marched along the wider road closer to the Rhein, while the others sprinted towards the other road, cover to cover.
Three soldiers came running out of a house right in front of you. Two of them fell to the first salvo while the last one was fast enough to leap into cover behind a pile of logs. It did not help. As you passed him by, Gottlieb got him too. The next two were warned by now, taking cover behind a solid looking wooden cart. Not solid enough though and they died in a storm of bullets and splintered wood.
'It was easy,' you thought quietly as a grenade went off in the distance. There was no terror this time. No fear of a random artillery shell tearing you apart without a warning. No cannons or tanks that could challenge you. To your left, a soldier peeked out behind a tree and unfortunately for him, he was already out of the arc of the machine gun. You grabbed the control for the flamethrower and a moment later the man and his cover were in flames.
Was this why they had done it? There were so many bodies on the road already before you had come to add to them. Had they done this just because it was easy? Because the people of Remagen could not fight back? A soldier peeked out behind a house corner, grenade ready to throw, but Gottlieb hit his arm and the grenade dropped at his own feet. It should have been harder to do this. Yet with every burning building you passed, it became harder and hard to see these men as former comrades. They were the enemy now, even if you wore the same uniform.
A sharp noise rang through the Spider as a bullet scraped over the armor. Something was wrong though. This was not a rifle bullet. The armour rang like a struck bell as a second shot hit you and this time, you could see the steel bulging inwards right before you. "Fuck," you yelled in reflex while looking for the source of the shots. You had come through most of the village already and you could see from here the church on the far side. Behind the sturdy stone pillars of its fence, you spotted them.
Two men, one of them in an officer's uniform, reloading their oversized rifles. Elephant guns. This wasn't good, but at least it was not a proper anti-tank rifle, or you would have been dead. At least one of them knew where to shoot a Spider to make it count. You could still hear faint gunfire from the other street, so the others were still advancing.
What now?
[] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
[] Charge the church. Their guns can't easily penetrate your armor and you can be there quickly.
[] Fall back while giving suppression fire and regroup with the others.
[] Write-In
AN: Those rifles can penetrate your armor on a good attack roll, so whatever you want to try, you should try to resolve this quickly before statistics catch up with you.
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- Location
- France
[X] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
To be clear, when we say "move through the buildings" does that mean we'll be walking down side streets? Or is the Spider big enough to straight-up demolish homes by walking through them?
If so I'll change my vote, that feels counterproductive if our goal is to help the locals. But my default response to "light anti-armor" is "get friendly infantry support", so tactically this seems like a decent option.
To be clear, when we say "move through the buildings" does that mean we'll be walking down side streets? Or is the Spider big enough to straight-up demolish homes by walking through them?
If so I'll change my vote, that feels counterproductive if our goal is to help the locals. But my default response to "light anti-armor" is "get friendly infantry support", so tactically this seems like a decent option.
[X] Pass through the buildings on your right and try to flank the soldiers at the church.
We could do our best to get a tactical advantage.
We could do our best to get a tactical advantage.
- Location
- Germany
The village is made up of detached homes, so you can move in between them, albeit slowly.
You would only mess up someones yard by stomping through it, but not the house itself.
Based on our performance so far I imagine the time it would take our spider to mow down the enemy infantry is negligible. And once that's done we'll have much more support when trying to outmaneuver and kill the bandits using the elephant guns in their fortified spot.
[X] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
[X] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
[X] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
They have the time to reload, so I doubt we could charge them safely, and that's assuming there aren't others that might ambush us while we're out in the open.
They have the time to reload, so I doubt we could charge them safely, and that's assuming there aren't others that might ambush us while we're out in the open.
You could put them in the description.
Making a generalized 'what to expect' in the thread header or the first post and putting the really heinous sections of the narrative in spoilers, if one wants to portray those, are fine. No trouble should be forthcoming that way.
[X] Charge the church. Their guns can't easily penetrate your armor and you can be there quickly.
[-] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
The thing that I would caution is that it's in our best advantage to settle the score quickly or cleanly. Rout the bandits by taking out the only main way they can actually harm us or double back, and ensure that our three men support – and probably assorted villagers with guns – can form up and give us a better time at going to the church. If they decide to move up, they lose their cover, simple as. But just to be sure @Azel, what's the distance between the church and the Spider-Mech at the moment?
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- Location
- Germany
About two rounds worth of charging, so they can get up to two shots off each, presuming Gottlieb doesn't get them with the machine gun and that they stay their ground.
Bones
Don't look behind you.
- Location
- Behind you.
Can we put suppressing fire on them while charging, or do we need to get a little closer first? And when you say elephant guns, do you mean the early anti-tank rifle colloquially called an elephant gun or the hunting rifle used to kill actual elephants?
Elephant guns are bulky and unwieldy, it would be hard to get an accurate shot off on a rapidly moving target while the area your head will be occupying to squeeze off said shot is full of machine gun fire.
- Location
- Germany
Those are actually the same rifles. Real-world early tank armor was thin enough that something like regular .450 Nitro Express could penetrate decently well at low ranges and perpendicular angle.
The people shooting at you are using anti-armor rounds, so they can even threaten a Spider.
You can certainly give off some suppressing fire, but they are right in fron of the church, so you might hit people hiding in there with stray shots.
- Location
- Philippines
[X] Pass through the buildings on your right and try to flank the soldiers at the church.
I am a little hesitant to vote here since I do not have a sense of how the combat system is going to work out yet, but I do think we should keep in mind that we are not immortal so the direct attack is not the best idea IMO, it is basically betting on their morale breaking. If they do not we eat bullets, no ifs and buts.
- Location
- United States
I'm with you, I'd like to get out of line of sight of whoever it is that has the elephant rifle.
Taking to consideration we have 'Luck Points', I have faith on Azel that none of the options here would be debilitating even if they end in failure, if only because we do have some cushion against them.
On the other hand, if civilians are actually taking shelter inside the church, then it may be prudent to not rush in with suppressing fire.
[X] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
Switching vote to my second preferred option- because as good as the mech is, we still need infantry support.
[X] Move through the buildings to your left to flank the soldiers fighting the others.
Once our allies are freed up, I think we'll have much better odds digging out those riflemen together.
If we're really lucky, they'll even try to pursue, and then we can fight them without worrying about the church, as well as anyone inside.
Once our allies are freed up, I think we'll have much better odds digging out those riflemen together.
If we're really lucky, they'll even try to pursue, and then we can fight them without worrying about the church, as well as anyone inside.