World On Fire: Shadow Ops [a Fantasy WWII Quest]

[><] Unlucky Number Thirteen
Rolls: 05 10 10 19 04 16 06 07
The work continues on, setting up ambush points, traps, emplacements, earthworks - not strong ones, but good enough.
vs: 10 09 14 02 20 18 01 10
And the evening and the morning are the first day. And there is no time to rest in the morning, because the battle begins within minutes of dawn breaking into the valley. Luckily for you, you and most of SHADOCOM had set up close enough to the front to see and occasionally direct the fighting, with the aid of a radio and a telephone, but far enough to not have to dive in.

Things begin to go wrong almost immediately. The first issue that happens is that the lead truck of the formation is clearly being ridden (and disguised) by an illusion-specialist mage, as the bastard leaps off the hood of the truck, sword in hand, and a shimmer in the air reveals it to be a bloody tank.

Sure, it's just a Type 89 I-Go - a light tank in all but name, according to even the Imperial Japanese Army's own evaluation of the thing pre-war. Sure, the silly thing's gun is piddly - for a tank. And sure, it very quickly gets stuck in mud, though soon pulls itself out. That doesn't matter when its mere appearance spooks the local militia bad enough that they nearly rout for real, and it raises disturbing questions about logistics if Unit 108 can afford to bring a tank this deep into Asia. Your own binoculars come up and watch as it trundles along the dirt road in the ravine, smashing over or through a few traps laid out. Thankfully, it's so damned big (relative to the road) and so damned slow that the Japanese infantry's advance isn't any faster.

And blessedly, it does eventually get removed fron play before you or the rest of your team have to step in. It drives over an impromptu mine Ethel had managed to rig which blows one of the driving wheels clean off (and into several pieces), and the whole tank tips over, making the already narrow ravine narrower until the Japanese push it into the river.

The Japanese forces take their time getting past the ravine, but get past they do. And Indra, Harbir, and Roy are waiting for them, along with a little less than half the SMGs. The new wall of rapid-fire halts the parade of Unit 108's troops until a second "truck" arrives. Harbir throws a bag of... something, you suspect Emmanuelle prepped, at it.

The illusion around the "truck" vanishes with a thundercrack and reveals a much more modern, much more dangerous Type 97 Chi-Ha.

A girl with long black hair, roughly your age, pops out of the hatch, screams something in some ungodly butchery of a Tokyo accent while gesticulating in your general direction - or that of the monastery - then retreats back into her tank as it glows in a way that chillingly reminds you of Abigail's tank - a tank that isn't here.

You let out a "shit" before hastily mounting your broom to the sound of an enemy tank running amok. By the time you're fully airborne, it has burst through the line and is charging off towards the monastery, guns firing at anything that might be a trap and probably is some poor Chinese peasant's house. (One of them really is a trap and promptly explodes in a volcano of firecrackers. The tank is undamaged but steers away from it.)

By the time you catch up to it, you have to turn around towards the militia - the appearance of a second tank and its casual dismissal of small arms fire turned the faux retreat into a real one, if a very organized one. Meanwhile, some of the 108's troops - one clearly an officer judging by the uniform and the sword - charges in through the gap after the tank.

The tank problem soon solves itself, but in a way that creates new problems. Underestimating the height of the wall between the monastery's garden and the road beside it, the front of the Chi-Ha drops down with a sickening crunch and the tank becomes well and truly stuck, smoke pouring from its exhaust. The crew starts to bail quickly, and gets quite a distance away before gaining the attention of a group of monks that had been heading for the tank.

It might be best to help them deal with the mages (and keep them from simply executing such good sources of intel), but then again, the smoke from the tank is starting to turn a concerning shade. Further, the monks clearly haven't seen the infantry group heading for them.

And then, of course, there's the retreat itself...

[ ] Capture the tank
[ ] Capture the tank crew
[ ] Stop the IJA officer
[ ] Cover the militia's retreat

[><] Stop the officer

The tank will be easy enough to deal with - just starve the interior of oxygen with a bit of magic, and the fire will suffocate on its own. And the tank crew aren't armed with anything besides Nambus and shortswords that may or may not be magic - you'd be concerned, but the monks here all have polearms, and they are magic. And as for the retreat? They've got three of your best mundanes on the job backing you up, and with the path the IJA is going, they'll run right into Ethel with her usual means of setting up ambushes - an L-shaped killbox of guns controlled by her marionette strings, centered around the Maxim.

The rest of your team explodes into action just as you drop down in front of the IJA officer, the propeller of your broom whirling up a storm before it locks in place as the engine idles. You turn to face him, keeping yourself still on the broom - stepping off now would be a rookie mistake, letting your main means of being faster and more mobile get away.

The somewhat-disorganized gaggle of IJA troops comes to a stop in front of you, swords held in something that may or may not be a defensive stance - only the one in front, a lieutenant at your guess, looks to know what he's doing with the thing. And even that, only just. Hell, he looks like the sort of kid that gets bullied all throughout junior high, then turns into one himself once his high school growth spurt hits. Even down to the round glasses - like if Tojo was half his age and had a completely round face.

You momentarily blank as your brain fails to take him seriously for a fraction of a second. You are saved mainly because he does the same.

[ ] Attack
[ ] Item
[ ] Persuade
[ ] Intimidate
[ ] Mock