Saturday, 16th of February, 1946
Korai Bridge over the Kotsuki River
1100 Hours
"Well they-"
Pit pit pit
"Just keep coming-"
Pit pit-pit pit pit
"And they-"
Pit pit pit
"Don't stop coming-shit, out of ammo."
Nishi rushed to Pepperoni's side, and handed her two clips of ammo. Pepperoni tossed out the empty magazine, and slotted in a fresh one while pocketing the other one. "Thanks, Nishi," she said, and went back to suppressing the makeshift MG pillbox on the other end of the bridge.
Nishi covered her head, and rushed across to the other side of the bridge, coming to a stop next to her burning tank and climbing on top of Maho's tank, which was using her tank's carcass as cover, "We're running out of ammo, Maho! I just gave my spares to Pepperoni, this is the last clip I have. We need to retreat to the school and resupply."
"We can't," Maho said, directing her gunner to aim at the other pillbox across the bridge, opposite of Nonna's tank, who was using Pepperoni's burning tank hull as cover. "This is the only bridge between the mouth of the river and the mountain that the Japanese haven't blown up yet! We have to hold it until the reinforcements arrive."
"The reinforcements that were supposed to show up half an hour ago-yeep!" Nishi yelped, crashing to the ground and Maho sinking into her tank as gunfire from another pillbox was directed at them.
Suddenly, the other-other-other pillbox overlooking the river erupted in a large explosion, people shouting as they were violently thrown out of their cover by the blast of a M1 Bazooka impacting their location. Maho and Nishi looked up to find 6 more Shermans, coming from the left side of the road in a haphazard column, laying down cover fire on the remaining 4 emplacements. Next to them, marines took up bazookas, Garands, and Thompson SMGs, coming in to relieve the beleaguered vanguard armored platoon.
One woman, the second lieutenant of the incoming platoon, ran up with some men to greet them, "Commander," she saluted Maho, which was returned, "Sorry we're late. Had some run-ins with IEDs and I was forced to send some of my men home. Where do you need us?"
"We'll take all the help we can get," Maho replied. "I sent half of my men to the park east of us to set up mortars for supporting fire."
"We passed them on the way here," the lieutenant replied solemnly, "They were all dead. Ambush attack. I left some of my men there with armor from C Company to take them over. They should be up right about…"
A small whistling noise was heard in the air, and all three girls looked up to see a small group of black objects sail through the midday sky. They impacted the other end of the river, revealed as mortar shells the moment they impacted the ground and exploded, clearing out the 6-other pillbox on that side of the river and sending more defenders and debris scattering around.
"Commander!" the girls radio crackled alive, "Tramp Stamp here, were we on target?"
"Tramp Stamp, you deleted that target," the commander said, smiling. "Send up another batch and some smokes with it to cover our grand entrance."
"Another serving, same customers!" the soldier yelled out, presumably to the mortar crews, "Add a bit of a cigar haze to the mix and make it the special!"
The line went dead, and the commander turned to Maho, "Alright, support fire is on its way. Just give it a minute…"
A few seconds later, another wave of mortar rounds came soaring from behind the buildings, and impacted the ground in front of the iron bridge, smothering it in smoke and dust and high explosive. They could not see the extent of the damage, but the cessation of defending gunfire signaled to the attacking forces that it probably caused a good amount of damage.
Both commanders stared into the black and gray dust cloud that had stirred up. The wind was picking up slightly, turning over rubble dust off the ground and into the sky to accompany the cloud kicked up by the explosion.
"So, Commander," Maho said. "You first."
The commander raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "You're the one with the armor"-she nodded towards Saratoga and Katushya-"Why do I have to head in first?"
"…because I have the armor," Maho confirmed. "And as the infantry, you are supposed to make sure said armor doesn't have its top blown off by a Anti-Tank emplacement."
"Goddamn it," she muttered, taking her helmet off and wiping her brow. "Fine, but the mortar's are under my command."
"They're your men," Maho shrugged. "I wouldn't assume otherwise."
"Cap," one of the soldiers came up to the two of them. "Smoke's starting to clear. It's quiet on the other half."
"Ring up Tramp and Zone," the commander ordered him, slipping her helmet back on and checking the clip of ammo loaded into her Thompson. "Have them set up one more smoke and begin hitting the surrounding area for our entrance."
With a nod, the soldier left to issue the orders to the mortar crew, and the Marines began their duties. In a few seconds, their requested smoke landed on the other end of the bridge, obscuring them from the enemy. Then they heard the general barrage land farther behind, collapsing some buildings and, hopefully, ending any nearby enemy resistance.
The commander threw her fist down, and her men began to move forward. First the mine sappers, then the flamethrowers and their entourage, followed by the mass of infantry behind them. Slowly, Maho and her team listened as, house by house, the platoon cleared the surrounding area from enemy resistance, sustaining 'minimum' (or what can be called minimum in this campaign) casualties by simply torching every single house and building they could, lobbing grenades at what they could not.
Eventually, the commander called for Maho on the radio. "Alright, we've cleared the first 150 meters forward. You're clear to come in."
"Much appreciated," Maho said. Setting down her radio, she motioned for Nonna to start Katyusha up. Pepperoni, Nishi, and their tank crews climbed on one tank or the other, and they began driving across the bridge. However, just as Nonna and her tank began crossing the bridge, Pepperoni, who was on Maho's tank, spotted something across the river.
"Enemy Anti-Tank!" she shouted out, pointing upstream and attracting the attention of the other girls. There, set up on either end of the destroyed bridge, was an anti-tank crew, each choosing one of the two tanks as their target. All of the soldiers on top of the tanks rolled off and took cover, but all of them, save Pepperoni and Nishi themselves, had suffered some wounds from the ambush.
Maho and Nonna ducked inside their tanks, narrowly escaping a barrage of bullets that were shot at them. As Maho ordered their turrets to swing around, and Pepperoni and Nishi tried to stave off the rocketmen from firing on them, Nonna called the infantry platoon. "Commander! We're pinned down on the bridge!"
"We heard!" The commander radioed back, the faint sound of explosions and gunfire from her side. "We're being attacked as well. I can't spare anyone to bail you out!"
"Damn," Nonna swore, changing the frequency back to Maho and her's. "It's deliberate. They can't spare anyone to come get us."
"Well crap." Maho smacked the top of her radio. "We need to clear out those infantry covering the rocket launchers. Any ideas?"
Nonna looked out of her tank, spotting a Type 99 Arisaka lying next to a dead Japanese in the center of the bridge, its bayonet still affixed. "I might. Cover me."
Maho and Nonna exited their tanks at the same time. As Maho grabbed her Browning and laid covering fire, Nonna jumped off her tank, dragging her driver with her, and dove for the rifle. She grabbed it and pushed up on the bridge walls, her driver next to her. "Alright, call them out," she said, patting down the dead Japanese for some rounds and loading them into the rifle, before crouching and following the wall until they reached the end of it.
Her driver spat out a piece of gum he was chewing on, and pulled out his pocket mirror. Nonna unfixed the bayonet on the Arisaka and gave it to him, which he then used to stick the mirror on with the gum. He stuck it out the side, and angled it slightly to give him a sight around the corner. "Alright, there's three on each side, not counting the ones wielding the rocket launchers," he said, lowering it slightly to avoid giving away their location with the glint. "Four have rifles, the other two have-Jesus are those Lewis's?"
"Let me see," Nonna said, motioning for him to move over and hand the bayonet to her. He did so, and she saw that there were indeed two Lewis MG's, set up right next to their respective rocketmen and laying down a continuous stream of fire on each of the Shermans. "Alright, give me the rifle."
Her driver handed over the rifle, and she set the bayonet down. Chambering a round, she waited until Maho began another round of suppressing fire before exiting the corner, crouching and lining up a shot with the first MG man, quickly silencing his endless shouts of 'resistance' and 'loyalty to the emperor' with one, swift bullet.
She watched as the man slumped over his gun, dead on the spot. Another person from the same MG and rocket group died due to Maho's suppressive fire, concealing Nonna's act. "Two down, six more to go," she said, cocking back the bolt and loading another round into the chamber.
Her driver crawled over, and checked again on the bayonet. "Alright, the other two haven't noticed their buddies keeled over just yet. Suggest you go for the rocketmen this time."
"I agree," Nonna said, giving the thumbs up to Maho. After the next round of return fire dealt little effect to her tanks, Maho, as well as the gunner from Nonna's tank who had taken the MG seat, laid down more suppressive fire, centered on the left group that had yet to take any casualties.
Again, Nonna wheeled around, quickly finding the rocketmen who were trying to line up a shot through the suppressive fire. She set the rifle down, centered him in her sights, and put a shot through his throat, stopping him. She turned around, trying to find the last rifleman who hadn't been taken out yet-
A glint of light
Nonna scrambled behind the wall, just in time to dodge the bullet the rifleman had sent her way.
"I think he sees you, Commander," her driver said, trying to look at the enemy through their makeshift mirror, before it was quickly shattered by another bullet.
"Oh yeah, what gave that away, Sherlock?" Nonna retorted, pulling back the bolt. She turned towards Maho, and got her attention with a wave. "How's the other group doing?"
"Rocketwomen's dead," Maho told her. "We're-" Maho ducked as another bullet from the sole rifleman flew over her and into the river "-dealing with the last MG now!"
"Alright then," Nonna said, turning her attention back to her driver and the other rifleman. She tried to think of a way to distract the enemy's attention. "Grab another gun." The driver followed through, finding a Type 38 scattered around the bridge and going back to Nonna. "Alright, remember what the Euro's did with their helmets and a gun?"
The driver understood the task, and took off his helmet. Putting it on the rifle, he every so slightly raised it above the bridge wall while Nonna peaked around the corner. The rifleman fell for the trick, taking a shot at the fake soldier, which actually missed. This gave Nonna enough time, while he was reloading, to find her mark and quickly put him down.
"Team's down," Nonna said, and she immediately turned her attention to the other Anti-Tank team that was still under fire by Maho and her gunner, proceeding to take potshots at them. Her driver followed suit, pocketing a few rounds from a dead body and also firing at them. Within a few minutes, the remaining enemies were dead.
"Good shooting, Nonna!" Maho told her. Nonna only nodded in return, slinging the rifle over her shoulder and jogging back to her tank. Her driver jumped into his hatch, and she climbed into hers, taking a few minutes to try and fit the lanky rifle inside neatly before giving up and simply latching it to the side of the tank on one of the latching spots on the turret.
"Ready commander," Nonna said, putting her hands on her Browning and checking that it was loaded.
"Alright then," Maho said, turning back her radio to the infantry platoon's frequency. "Captain, this is Maho. Are you still under attack?"
"Commander Maho, you need to come here, quickly!" a different female voice shouted into the radio. "The Captain's dead, the Lieutenant's in charge now. We sustained numerous casualties and had to fall back to the 100 meter line."
"We are moving as fast as we can," Maho said, quickly stomping and motioning for Nonna to start up her engine. "Several of our men have sustained injuries, I'm sending them back to the mortar team to be treated."
"Acknowledged Commander, please come quickly!" The line went dead after that.
Maho set the receiver down, and called for Pepperoni and Nishi. "Send your mortally wounded and a good man with them back to the mortar team to be treated. What's left, climb on fast. We need to get to our riflemen."
Pepperoni and Nishi nodded, quickly ordering who needed to be back to the park. After they left, they and their remaining men climbed on the tanks, and they sped off towards the infantry platoon.
AN: Well, that's another chapter done with. I hope at least some of you got that nod towards Saving Private Ryan. I try to keep this as realistic as possible because, you know, you're never supposed to glorify war, but I had just watched the movie, needed to finish this chapter, and it was funny as well to pull off.
If anyone has noticed, I never name any of the other characters besides the main four. This is deliberate, because I have a habit of never properly keeping track of OC's, and in a war where thousands are dying by the second, I don't want to run through so many. So, I don't name them unless they're important.
I hope you are all enjoying this so far. I really am enjoying writing this story, and I can't wait to see how far it can go. If you have any comments, suggestions, concerns, or otherwise, leave a review!
A secondary (slightly more serious) note, several of my friends have brought up that the Invasion of Japan brings up a lot of…unsavory topics with it. Most things to do with the civilians of Japan. Yes, I am aware that Japanese citizens were preparing to fight to the death for their Emperor. Yes, I am aware
that the US would have blockaded the Home Islands and starved out the populace. Yes, I am aware that the US plan of invasion did include defoliating cropland and gassing caves.
However, the appearance of those subjects in a very 'explicit' form is…still up for debate. I'll certainly make some mentions or reference to them. But, as my friend stated, to actively show those subjects would be to, "Walk a very thin tightrope across two skyscrapers with both ends being shaken as well as being shot at from your left and right."
It would be a deathwish if done improperly, and I'm not keen on picking 'C' this time around. Sorry Michael and Trevor :(
But that's besides. End point? I'll try and make this as realistic as I can make it to be, but it'll be up for debate if I jump all the way to ten. I hope you all are enjoying this story so far! As always, please leave a review if you have any comments, suggestions, or concerns.
I'm Twin, and have a good Evening.