Deleted some old stories from here, hopefully to replace with the new. Did some research, read some of my favorite Vietnam era novels, and brushed up on some of the older episodes, though this story will be almost completely OCs, Flippy will be the main focus.
I will have a lot of roles to fill to fit the story, so I may take some submissions for OCs at random points in the story, but most likely wont be huge roles. Will see how it goes. Moved story to T rating, chances are if u aren't bothered by the actual show you won't be bothered by anything gory.
If you recognize any of the stories I reference, call it out. Interested to see who will.
Shellshock
Chapter 1: Desolation Row
"Kiss me goodbye and write me while I'm gone
Good bye, my sweetheart, Hello Viet, nam."
-Dave Dudley
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Amid the dull and slow scenery, Flippy looked up at the sky, it's cloud spattered image reflecting the pale blue it had been for the past two days. Forcing his eyes to tear away from the serenely, calming flow of the clouds, his head tottered as he now focused on the stairway across the square, it's large stone gates beckoning him to the monastery that rested on the peak of the hill that the stone labs stretched toward.
His vision shook for a moment as a distant sounding thud rumbled below him. He felt in this moment as if nothing mattered. Not the war. Not his family back home. Not his girl he hadn't seen in what felt like years but was in reality closer to one. Not even Martin Light mattered right now.
"… retake… surrounding us… need a fast mover!"
And all at once, everything did matter. The explosions shook him back to the present, gunfire and screaming rattling out in all directions, chunks of rubble raining down on him as the machine guns tore through the cement wall his platoon now hunkered behind.
Pierce was beside him, shouting into the handset connected to the radio on Flippy's back while firing his sidearm blindly over the wall.
"Major, we have to move!"
Flippy turned and seen a soldier beside him, his name suddenly becoming a distant memory, slamming a new magazine into his Armalite rifle before peeking over the wall only to drop back down as gunfire concentrated on him.
"Damn it, fall back!" Pierce shouted, sprinting away from the wall while keeping as low as he could.
Quickly strapping the handset back into it's cradle, Flippy crawled forward, scooping up his own rifle that had been lost while they dove for cover. Fighting to keep breathing, he continued until a metallic tapping sound caught his attention.
tink… tink… tink…
"Grenade!"
Flippy froze and looked back as several of the round object tumbled over the wall. He was pushed down as the men around him scattered past, all running with no sure idea as to where.
That's when the words echoed through his head.
"You ain't never gonna be short, Freddy."
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Flippy watched as the chopper floated down, it's bright metallic skin shimmering in the heat of the already fading sun. A dragon from some far off land visiting the realm of war. The rotors kicked up a cloud of red dust as the large, hulking beast descended, slowly landing on the small concrete pad amid the large and barren LZ.
Only a few moments after landing, the chopper began climbing into the air. The pilot maneuvered over the jungle surrounding the base, hugging to the mountaintop to avoid fire from the Tiger Army as he sped away.
Martin Light walked slowly out of the settling dust cloud and stopped, slowly looking over the firebase he found himself at.
"Damn it," Flippy mumbled to himself, "Why did he have to come here?"
"Nothing but trouble where he goes," Pierce said.
Flippy shook his head, the bear's words speaking truthfully and without compassion.
"Goddammit, he won't stay here," Pierce spat out, running a hand through his disheveled hair still blowing in the wake of the choppy, "Not at my firebase. He's going out in the bush."
'Not unless he feels like going,' Flippy thought.
Major Pierce liked to make threats he knew he couldn't fulfill, and often the men laughed at him behind his back.
Light was still on the pad, looking up at the sky as if he was hoping the chopper would return, realizing it made a mistake and dropped him off at the wrong location.
Flippy hooked his hands into the straps of radio he wore on his back to ease the weight. Pierce was afraid of being caught in a firefight, or an impending mutiny, without access to a radio to call for backup. It is in this area Flippy was lucky, being Pierce's own personal RTO. With Pierce being so determined to make Corporal without leaving the firebase, this job made Flippy like his chances of surviving the war.
Being attached to a radio most of the day, he had heard all the stories. At first Light was a typical soldier, but all the troops who went out with him started dying. Ambushes at the La Drang valley and Dak To, the list is nearly endless, each one ending with Light as the sole survivor.
Eventually no one would go out with him, fearing he was more than bad luck. So, he became a solitary sniper. Staying out in the jungle for weeks at a time.
'Three hundred days left, now that bastard's here,' Flippy thought, 'I'll never be short.'
Light walked off the LZ, his white fur speckled with the red dust. His black hair was unruly and swept back from the chopper ride, wearing only a pair of short, cut off fatigues and a tattered camouflage tank top. His legs were covered with bruises and sores from his stay in the jungle, his boots long discarded in place of slabs of cut up tires tied on with paracord.
He eventually stood before them, cradling in his arms what Flippy figured to be a rifle wrapped in a poncho.
"Where the hell am i?" Light asked, looking around at the small groups of soldiers at work.
"Desolation Row," Pierce said.
"I'm supposed to be in Vung Tau," Light said, "Got my R&R, pilot said I could get a chopper from here."
"Four of your kills weren't confirmed," Pierce said, stern enough to assure he was talking to the commanding officer, "They don't count."
Light continued looking around, showing very little interest in Pierce, "The stripes take the bodies as fast as I can kill them."
Flippy caught the stench of the jungle, decaying leaves and rotten wood. Being out in the bush so long, he assumed it was now a natural defense for Light.
Light turned to Flippy as if just now noticing him, "Young trooper, call up Pleiku on your radio."
Flippy took several deep breaths and shook his head, "It won't reach."
"We're up high, it'll reach."
Another deep breath, "No way."
"Put the whip on it and try. Major, tell him to try."
"Hold it, Freddy," Pierce said while stepping closer to Light, "I want you out in that bush!"
"I'm going to Vung Tau."
"Then walk," Pierce said, his yellow fur slowly turning a tinge of red, "This firebase is my own little hell, I'm Two Corps here, you do what I say!"
Light unwrapped the rifle from the poncho, an M21 SWS with an AN/PVS Starlight scope, the same scope the natives believed he could raise the dead with. They say that he can look in the scope and see the future, which troops will be ambushed, which soldiers will die, and which he could bring back.
Holding the rifle out to Pierce, Light shrugged, "You go."
Pierce stepped back a step and his fur returned to it's normal color.
"I'll have you thrown in prison! I'll be a fuckin' grandfather before they let you out! Get out there and hunt!"
"After my R&R."
"Now!" Pierce shouted, then suddenly dropping his voice to a whisper, "I'll not have a mutiny at my base over you."
"Prison sounds fine to me."
Pierce took several breaths to calm himself, "Your letters are being sent here now. It's up to me if u get them, so if I say you go out in the bush, you go out in the bush."
Light paused a moment, then nodded, "I'll leave in the morning."
Pierce, realizing this was the best compromise he was going to get, nodded in return, "Be out in the morning. You can raise the TOC on your walkie-talkie to log bodies. I will not have you on this base again."
Turning to Flippy, he added, "Freddy, get his letter and get him squared away. Make sure he's gone in the morning, or you're going with him. Give me the radio."
As Pierce walked away, Flippy began to hyperventilate at even the empty threat of sending him out in the bush. Ever since he was a child, he was ridiculed for his ease of being startled. That earned him the name Flippy, would be startled one moment and angry the next. The two usually going hand in hand.
"Calm down, you got it easy here," Light said, "I want to sleep, where's the bunks?"
Flippy was unable to calm down. He continued panting, tears slowly forming and rolling down his cheek from the struggle of trying to breathe.
He felt Light's arm on his shoulder, "It's alright, nothing's going to happen to you. Show me where I sleep."
Flippy was finally able to catch his breath and pointed across the base to the ammo bunker.
"Over there," he mumbled, "I'll get the cots."
As Light walked away, Flippy's mind played out the attacks and ambushes he'd heard. The screams of soldiers, both Tigers and Bears. The gunfire, the explosions. And the laughing. The laughing stuck with him most. The last attack he had heard involving Light. A sudden quiet as the air support pushed back the enemy, and a voice unlike Light but alike him at the same time echoed through the handset. A voice wholly evil, not belonging to one side or the other.
Maybe that was what happened to the platoons. Some… thing got them. Maybe even Light killed his own squad mates.
Flippy sighed and looked up into the sky.
'I'll never be short.'
First chapter done. Thanks for reading. Not sure when I'll need/use OCs, but have some roles to fill next chapter, so we'll see.
