Nineteen Seventy-One

by All of the Candles

When Jake is sent to America for the summer by his mother, he expects some strange things to happen. After all, he is staying with John Egbert, a close family friend. Being his quirky self, John doesn't wait an hour before whisking Jake off to an adventure. Switches between John's point of view during 1944 and Jake's in 1971. I dont own Homestuck. [Obviously] Feedback please. :Y

7. Chapter 7

A/N

Right to the chapter, yo.

EDIT: Damn this got sort of graphic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~cant even~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"EGBERT!"

"EGBERT!"

John shook his head, and his loose helmet jiggled. He scanned the boat for the good Captain Lalonde. He realized that it was him who was calling his name. A bullet whizzed past.

"Y-yes s-sir, I'm r-right here," John managed to stammer out. Dirk began to shake John by the shoulder, still shooting over the top of the boat blindly with one hand. John took note of how much of a badass his superior was, even if he wasn't going to hit jack.

"Get it together!" Dirk angrily shoved a Springfield into John's hands. They both heard a clunk as the boat hit the shallows. The front opened, revealing the open beach.

John decided Guadalcanal would have been a beautiful and serene place before the war. The wonderful moon was lighting the sandy, soft beach like a searchlight. John tried to focus on Dirk, and more importantly the invasion, attempting to ignore the scenery.

He could hear his friends, his colleagues, his rivals, everyone shouting in anger, agony, fear, every kind of emotion a man can feel under volleys of bullets and when surrounded by the bodies of your comrades. This notion brought him back to reality. A bullet pinged Dirk's helmet, "Shit!"

The two men and their squad leapt from the boat into the shallow water, swimming as quick as they could, refusing to come up for air for fear of being shot. The water became too shallow, and their swimming became crawling. One of the men with him decided it was a good idea to get up and run towards a sand bar at the top of the beach. He rose, carrying his Thompson with one hand, and bolted. John silently prayed for his comrade's safety. He didn't make it far. After a few feet, a Japanese sniper shot him in the knee, a lucky shot. The poor kid screamed in agony, tumbling to the ground with a sickening crack. Dirk looked back, and so did John. A medic jumped from the boat, quickly nodding to Captain Lalonde. He quickly crawled to the injured soldier, and as the Squadron slowly crawled up the beach, John overheard a few odd words between the medic and the fallen comrade. "It's going to be okay, Tavbro." John inwardly frowned. 'That medic sounded like a damned stoner, probably used up all the morphine.' The medic slung the injured man over his soldier and dashed back into the water, bullets kicking up sand and salty water around him.

The team had finally arrived at the sandbar. The entrenched Japanese were meters ahead of them, but quite a few had dispersed to other parts of the coast, probably to defend the other landing zones. Dirk patted himself down, and cursed himself. "Grenadier is down! We need a Pineapple!"

John quickly ran over his equipment in his mind. 'No grenades, only AT rockets.' John shook Captain Dirk, getting his attention. He pointed to Private Vantas, their AT guy. Vantas glanced back and noticed they were looking at him. "NO WAY SHITLORDS! I AM NOT SHOOTINGTHE FUCKING ANTI TANK ROCKETS AT THE FUCKING BUNKERS! YOU WANT ME TO GET KILLED?!" Vantas sure wasn't taking this well. "I WAS NOT DRAFTED TO STAND UP AND GET MYSELF SHOT DURING A POINTLESS RAID! WE ONLY HAVE LIKE TEN DAYS OF FUCKING AMMUNITION, AND I WILL NOT DIE WASTING IT! GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT!"

The three of them looked at Sergeant Eridan Ampora, the squad punching bag. Even though he ranked higher than almost everyone, he still got shit from everyone. Ampora stuttered, "W-wait!? W-what! Not me! Anyone but me!"

Vantas shoved the launcher into Ampora's hands, and John tossed the lucky guy an AT rocket. "You guys ow-we me." He dropped the shell in the front of the rocket, and sat up, pointing the unwieldy weapon at the entrenchments.

A/N:

I like the way this turned out. A few notes: John is not fighting the Japanese with glasses, buckteeth, and all his other goofy garb on. These sequences are thirty or so years before the main story, and exist to explain:
A) How John was nearly blinded.

B) How Jake's mother and John met.

C) John's actual relationship to Jane.

D) A SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS

I'm trying to be historically accurate. More information about where John is and what point of the war it is chapter after next.

NOTE: This is a prologue to later John chapters. I am aware operation Watchtower/Shoestring occurred in 1942 and 43. (Correct me if I'm wrong on anything, yo.)

EDIT: Wow, I got a follower and four views while finishing this chapter. This may be a sign from whatever deity I do or do not believe in.