IC-THRU-The Siege(All but Luke)

[John Gaunt]

"After you, Eagle Eye," Malanowski says with a nod as he defers the ladder to Luke.

[Mr. Handy]

(Fearlessfred asked me to NPC his characters while he is away.

Walkers from the east: 4 dead)

On the motel roof-
Sergeant Black opened fire on the distant horde. His first shot barely missed, but the rest were on target and very lethal.

Luke made it to the top of the ladder and climbed onto the roof. In addition to Black, Bobby Sheen and one of the newly arrived USAF people were present. The new man looked familiar.

(Luke, roll Know. You may also begin shooting at this point for up to five combat rounds, though for now you'd still be at 1/2 skill. After the next update, you'll be at full skill. The same applies to Bobby Sheen.)

In the comm room-
"Sir, I've just received word that another horde of over 80 hostiles is coming from the east," said Lt. Curtis to Warren. "They're half a mile away, and I can hear one of our snipers shooting at them already. It sounds like it's about the same size as the last group, so I don't think they'll pose a problem, but they are eating into our ammo reserves. Any word on when we'll get resupplied?"

"We're working on it," said Lt. Colonel Carmichael. "Maybe in another hour, or possibly a little longer. Can you hold out until then?"

"I hope so, sir. As long as their numbers don't increase beyond what we're used to and there are no surprises."

"Actually, the numbers seem to have peaked," said Ramirez. "They seem to have been more numerous in the morning, before you and your men arrived. If they continue to decline, we'll be in good shape."

Doolittle continued working on the M-4, but it would take her a lot longer before she'd finish.

In Room 3-
Lt. Blanco began to clean and rebandage Applebee's injuries. She did an excellent job, repairing much of the damage. "Good news," she said. "You haven't been bitten. I think we'll have you up on your feet in a few minutes." Amanda helped out, and so did Dr. Owens.

Hodges heard Ortega's reply, but there was no reply from anyone at the diner.

In Room 5-
"Sergeant Black," said Ortega on the radio. "Airman Hodges requests permission to join the civilians in carrying out hit and run attacks on the incoming enemy. Can we spare him?"

"I think so," replied Black. "Permission granted."

"Okay, Hodges, you're cleared for duty."

East of the motel-
As gunshots rang out from the roof, a few of the leaders of the horde began to fall. Closer to the east, Lisa Crow emerged from the stairway under the ruins in a state of panic. She fled to the west, running past the garage and heading for the motel. Keith could be seen making his way over to the top of the stairs, while Joe Soarez got behind the wheel of a truck and Colin Lewis stood ready in the back.

As Luke scaled the ladder, Ernest Granger approached Zorie. "Why don't you check me over next?" he asked. "I could do a lot more good up there with my rifle than down here." Zorie nodded and began to examine him.

Gordon Cheng tied one of his hand grenades to a tripwire and stretched it between two lampposts on the eastern edge of the parking lot. If anything disrupted the wire, it would cause the pin to come out and the grenade to detonate - a crude but effective trap. Kincaid tried to set up another one further north using one of Cheng's grenades, but he still couldn't manage it.

(Cheng, you may roll Mechanical Repair again to set up another trap if you wish. One more person may climb the ladder this round.)

[John Gaunt]

Airman Malanowski follows on the heels of Luke up the ladder to the roof.

[kabukiman]

Cheng used another grenade but to no avail.
-I should spare the grenades to use them to launch, and not in this stupid way!-Thought Cheng

[ryansommer]

Frank exits the motel, and begins to jog over to the diner.

[fulcilives2003]

The gun shots ring through Cole's ear, his finger becoming all the more itchy.

[SuAside]

Luke takes a moment to catch his breath and collect his strength. He's in good shape for his age, but still, climbing up a ladder with all his gear is tiring.

"Hadn't quite expected it to be this crowded here." Luke comments.

OCC: Success Know (1d100=13)

[Mr. Handy]

(Cheng is using his hand grenades for the booby traps. He still has 19 40mm grenades left for the M203, which he has still not reloaded, by the way. That takes two full combat rounds, but you can't do it while setting traps.

Walkers from the east: 11 dead)

On the motel roof-
Luke now realized why this other man was familiar. He bore a close resemblance to Ian Cole, who had arrived with the first USAF group, though he was younger and still alive. In fact, the name on his uniform said "Cole." He had to be a relative.

"The more the merrier," said Black, reloading and then taking aim. "We've got plenty of room up here. The motel is pretty big." He squeezed off four shots, every one a hit and every one overkill. The herd was already starting to thin out, though there were still over seventy left. Malanowski got up onto the roof. Across the way, Lewie Newton began shooting the zombies from the roof of the garage, and Lisa paused in her run. Joe Soarez drove a few hundred yards to the east with Colin Lewis in the back of the pickup.

(The zombies are now within half a mile of the motel, so Sheen and Luke may now fire at full skill. Since Luke still hasn't had half an hour of continuous rest, he'll need to roll CON x 4 if he starts shooting. Failure means he'll have -5 to all his shots until he does get rest. If he succeeds, there's no penalty. Other scoped rifles are now at 1/2 skill. Rifles without scopes are at 1/4 skill.)

In the comm room-
"We'll keep you posted, sir," said Lt. Curtis.

"Okay, Lieutenant," replied Carmichael. "There's nothing else I can do to prevent the CO from detonating that missile base. We're at T-minus eight minutes now. I'll let you know when it goes off, and we'll monitor the effects from the air. We've got a few of our choppers in the area for that purpose, which is one reason why we're short on airpower for now. Those birds will have to return to base and refuel before they can go out on more missions. It'll take the fallout time to reach your area even if the winds blow it your way, so you'll have time to get to shelter, but you might want to secure that underground facility sooner if you can."

"Understood, sir. Curtis out."

Lt. Doolittle kept working on the M-4 wordlessly.

In Room 3-
Hodges left the room, and the three medical professionals continued working on Applebee. They would be done in a minute.

In Room 5-
Phillips lay back on the bed, trying to relax. He clasped his hands and began to pray silently.

East of the motel-
Hodges made his way across the parking lot, being careful to avoid the booby traps that Cheng and Kincaid were setting up. He jogged east towards the garage. Kincaid tried again to set up his trap, and this time he managed it. He strung his tripwire up about a dozen yards north of the other one with one of Cheng's hand grenades.

(Cheng, you may roll Mechanical Repair again to try to set up your second trap, presumably south of the first one.)

Zorie finished examining Ernest. "You're all set," she said. She spoke over the radio. "Ernest Granger is cleared to go upstairs. That only leaves David and the people who have gone across the street to check."

"That's my cue," said David, swaggering up to her confidently. "Wanna see my scars?"

[John Gaunt]

Seeing that he has some time before he has a reasonable chance to begin notching zeds, Airman Malanowski takes a knee, chambers a round and then swaps out his partial clip for a full one. That done, he will begin consolidating the ammo in his partial clips.

Igor has six partial clips and can consolidate to three full clips, 2 empties, and a partial w/ 11 shots, accounting for the one round in the pipe. I realize he might not have time to do all that but that's what he's doing to kill time until the horde is at least 1/2 skill range.

[kabukiman]

- Dammit! I can't seem to get this grenade in place!

[SuAside]

"As long as we have ammo, crowds are fine." Luke nods "But after that, we might be in a load of trouble... We must consider ourself lucky to be in a thinly populated area like this."

"Anyhow, we should start thinking about shifts & supplies. Water for instance is important. Dehydration is a sneakier enemy than these zombies are. Food is of course important as well. I've got enough to keep me going for a while, but I suspect not everyone has planned that far already." Luke comments as he looks for a good spot to set down his gear "Unless you think you can't handle these, I'd also think it best for me to sit thisone out, else all overwatch riflemen will be tired at the same time..."

[John Gaunt]

"If you need a break, old timer, can I use that scoped rig of yours?" Malanowski darts a quizzical look at the elder huntsman.

[SuAside]

"Not really mine to begin with... I lost my scoped bolt action. Damn fine rifle that was." Luke says as if he lost a good and loyal friend "But you better keep this in one piece, or I'll tear you a new one."

[John Gaunt]

"I've seen you shoot, so I believe you Gramps!" Malanowski retorts good naturedly. "While yer resting, would you mind consolidating these clips for me? After we mop up this mess," he cocks his head toward the impending horde, "I'll personally see you get that ammo you need."

With that, the airman lies prone on the roof and sights the impending horde through the elder huntsman's rifle assemblage.

I'm assuming Malanowski is now using Luke's M-14A1 7.62mm NATO rifle with scope and bipod. If that is indeed the case, can you give me relevant range and ROF, Mr. Handy?

[Mr. Handy]

(Yes, Luke is letting you borrow it. Presumably he is reloading your weapon and consolidating your magazines while you shoot. It will take several rounds to finish, but he can fill up the magazine that had 24 and put two more bullets into the one that started with 20. All of those bullets were taken out of the magazine that started with 12, and I updated the weapons list to reflect this last night.

The current range is half a mile. Because you're using an M-14 with a scope and a bipod, you can use your full skill, with only a -5 penalty for shooting at the head. Note that the M-14 does 2d6+4 damage with a successful hit. An impale does 4d6+8, which is enough to guarantee a kill. You may fire once per round, and since you have five combat rounds before the next update, you may fire five times.)

[John Gaunt]

Igor goes four for five with Luke's rifle, dropping three of them, the fourth left staggering with a gaping head wound.

"Hot damn, Pappy! I might not give this piece back!" Malanowski exclaims excitedly.

[Mr Zombie killer]

Sheen aimed and fired at three zombie heads. All three shots hit. However only the second shot managed to take down a zombie.

(I did it this way because I was kind of in a hurry this morning. Hope it is okay to do it like this.)

[SuAside]

"Try it & I'll skin you alive, airman." Luke replies with a grin as he twirls his oversized Bowie knife in his hand.

[Mr. Handy]

(Yes, that's fine that you did it that way. You accidentally rolled six shots instead of three, so I just counted the first three.

Walkers from the east: 23 dead, 1 with 9 damage to head, 1 with 8 damage to head, 1 with 7 damage to head.)

In the comm room-
"Anything new on the board?" Curtis asked Mikhalin.

"Nothing yet, sir," she said. "The Russians still aren't talking, at least not in the part of Russia we can listen in on. We are limited to eastern Asia. I can't believe Warren's actually going to go ahead and nuke one of our own missile bases."

"It's standard protocol, as much as I disagree with it under these circumstances."

In Room 3-
"You're all set," said Amanda to Applebee. Lt. Blanco and Dr. Owens helped him to his feet.

In Room 5-
"Maybe I can muster the strength to go out there and shoot me some more dead guys," said Phillips to Wallace and Ortega. "We sure could use an extra rifle - or three. If we all go together, you can shoot and keep an eye on the two of us at the same time, Senior Airman."

East of the motel-
Ernest Granger climbed the ladder up to the roof. Zorie Spooner shook her head at David's remarks. "I just need to make sure you haven't been bitten," she told him.

"Sure, let me get my shirt off," said David, pulling it over his head. He flexed his muscles. "Ain't I just the picture of health?"

"Um...I'm not sure yet."

"Well, take all the time you need, baby."

Kincaid jogged south across the parking lot to rejoin Cheng. "Need any help with that last one?" he asked.

(Cheng, roll Mechanical Repair if you want to try again to set the trap.)

On the roof-
The zombie that Malanoswki had wounded fell, but crawled slowly to the west. So did one of the ones that Sheen had wounded, but the other one stayed on its feet. Luke began refilling Malanowski's magazines while Cole waited in eager anticipation for the zombies to get close enough for him to shoot.

Ernest climbed up onto the roof. "Howdy, guys," he said.

"I think we can handle this bunch," said Sergeant Black to Luke. "Sheen and I aren't tired yet, but I'm sure we will be before too much longer. It'll be a good idea to work out shifts now that there are more of us - once we're done with the current round of shooting." He took aim at the approaching horde again, which was now a third of a mile from the diner. He scored five more hits and five more kills. There were now around sixty standing, not counting the crawlers that were falling behind the main group.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion northwest of the motel, followed almost immediately by another to the southwest. "Claymores!" shouted Black, recognizing the sound.

(Everyone at the motel heard the explosions, not just those on the roof. Anyone on the roof of the motel may continue shooting at the zombies to the east for five more combat rounds. Black has two rounds left in his magazine, so he'll need to reload once soon and will get at most four shots. Sheen has just one round in his rifle. He'll need to reload using one combat round, so he'll only get two shots. Malanowski can have five shots. All three of them can use full skill shooting at the zombies to the east. Anyone else using a scoped rifle without a bipod is at half skill. Those with rifles without scopes are at 1/4 skill.

Anyone may also look to the west using one combat round. If you do, roll Spot Hidden. If you have a helmet, this roll is at a -5 penalty. Whether you succeed or fail, wait until I tell you what you see before using any additional combat rounds. You may look west and reload at the same time.)

[ryansommer]

Upon hearing the explosions, Frank stops in his tracks and scans the area where the explosions came from.