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View Full Version : A Rifle by my Side: A story of the Pacific Theater


Rose
06-07-07, 04:18 PM
I decided to get into Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault again, because I remember loving the realism and the storyline. I have decided to take a bunch of screenshots along the way, and make a story out of it, from the 1st person point of view. It will follow the Pvt. Thomas "Tommy" Conlin from bootcamp in July 1941 to the horrific battle of Tarawa Atoll in November of 1943. My story will follow the general storyline of MOH:PA, with many things added by myself.

Btw, I am going to use the word "jap," as I think it's acceptable in the historical context. If anyone has any objections, I will gladly remove the word.

This could turn out pretty ****ty, or okay. We will see :D.

Here goes nothing

-----------------------------------------

PROLOGUE

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0010.jpg

My name is Tommy Conlin, third child in a family of four boys. Ma sure was outnumbered. As I sit in one of the 2nd Marine Division's transport craft on our way to Tarawa, my thoughts turn to home, and then to my brothers. Robert is off giving the krauts hell in Italy -- he's a bombardier in a B-24. I don't know how he does it... I was never one for heights but I remember when he used to climb up to the roof of our little house in Oregon and just hurdle himself into the fish-pond from 30 feet. He always used to scare the bejesus outta me. Damn near broke his leg once that way. He was made for the air -- that glamorous kinda stuff suited him just right. James is 23 -- he's 4F back home with a back problem. Scoliosis I think they call it. One lucky bastard. Harrison was 17 when he died in a car accident three years ago.

But that was a long time ago. That was before Pearl, before Makin, before Guadalcanal, before that damned flight -- before this. I was nothing back then. I was just a goddamned sack of skin and bones.

But I am nothing again. I am a drone. I kill. I kill or be killed. I deal in death. And that is what I am to do today as I have done the past two God-forsaken years of my life.

And so we sack up, we load up, we get into our Amtracks. Myself and my buddies are dispersed throughout two Amtracks. The engine starts up, a spewing, tangled mess of steel and machinery sputtering and coughing and -- ahh, the sweet smell of diesel. Does more for me than any cuppa Joe could.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0012.jpg

The alligator slithers and slides down the LST ramp. We are in our element. Water. Men. Rifle. Machine. Moving as one toward the smoldering beach.

Me, Tommy Conlin
VV
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0015.jpg

Jimmy inquires as to how there could be any Japs left on that island. They sure are pounding that tiny strip of sand. Jimmy Sullivan should know better. He's been with me since the beginning, since training. He's been to Makin and Guadalcanal. He's seen all with me. He's our corpsman -- saved my life and my buddies lives countless times.

He's been with me. He's seen all with me.

He should know better.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0011.jpg


There was a shortage of Amtracks. I guess the tide wasn't right and those damned Higgins boats couldn't get over the reef. Those boys had to walk in. Those boys all died.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0016.jpg


Our Sgt. yells out something, bellowing at the top of his lungs. I can't hear him -- the .30 cals on the Amtracks have started firing. I look up and see chunks of brain lying at my feet. How did I not see it? Our gunner got hit. Our Sgt. yells again. What is he saying? Ah, he wants me to get on the .30 cal. Yessir. Right a-****ing-way sir. My life is in sarge's hands. The order to die has come.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0017.jpg

The Japs are on that pier. The stupid buggers are standing straight as a tent-pole. Brrrrraap. Brrrrraaaap. I already have four to my name, and alas -- I am not dead. I am very much alive and carrying out the duties of my humble occupation.

Another three go down. The pier streches on into oblivion. The island, Betio, has disappeared into the smoke and haze. Maybe I have died. Maybe this is Hell, and I am doomed to forever drench the pier in endless amounts of lead.

But then: Betio. And more death. Direct your fire to the beach Marine! I comply. Brrrrrrrrrrrraaa ----

Direct hit. Everyone out. Go go go. Direct hit from a mortar shell. Twenty guys can't hit me standing ten feet away on a pier, but one mortar round can take us all down from sixty feet. What the hell is this? I will never understand.

But no time for thoughts.

Actions only.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0023.jpg



PLEASE let me know what you think. Critisizim is, of course, welcome and encouraged. The prologue isn't finished yet. I just wanted to hit POST before I lost everything! Also, lemme know if the pics are too big.

robbo180265
06-07-07, 04:35 PM
I for one think it's brilliant, keep it up:up:

Rose
06-07-07, 04:39 PM
Thanks m8. Oh yeah, and if anyone could tell me how to get that wrote/screenshotXXXX.tga off the screen when I take a screenshot I would be very grateful. It kinda ruins the immersion factor.

robbo180265
06-07-07, 04:40 PM
Thanks m8. Oh yeah, and if anyone could tell me how to get that wrote/screenshotXXXX.tga off the screen when I take a screenshot I would be very grateful. It kinda ruins the immersion factor.

I don't know, I'm one of the ones who use FRAPS. What are you using to capture the screenshot?

Rose
06-07-07, 04:43 PM
Thanks m8. Oh yeah, and if anyone could tell me how to get that wrote/screenshotXXXX.tga off the screen when I take a screenshot I would be very grateful. It kinda ruins the immersion factor.

I don't know, I'm one of the ones who use FRAPS. What are you using to capture the screenshot?

Just the game itself. In the manual it says to press F12 so that's what I do. Maybe I should get FRAPS.

robbo180265
06-07-07, 04:57 PM
Thanks m8. Oh yeah, and if anyone could tell me how to get that wrote/screenshotXXXX.tga off the screen when I take a screenshot I would be very grateful. It kinda ruins the immersion factor.

I don't know, I'm one of the ones who use FRAPS. What are you using to capture the screenshot?

Just the game itself. In the manual it says to press F12 so that's what I do. Maybe I should get FRAPS.

I've not played MOH so I'm not sure how the screengrabber works. You could try asking for help in the "other games forum" and see if anyone could help.

Fraps is good but if you use the free version I think it stamps FRAPS across the top of your screenshot, could always crop it though;)

Rose
06-07-07, 05:15 PM
PROLOGUE Cont'd:

I push on. Through the smoke and the hail of lead I move like an animal caught in quicksand. Red Beach 2. So close. It gets farther away. Can't let it escape my grasp. It's getting closer. Now it's getting farther away. Ahead of me and to my right is Pvt. O'Grady. But -- wait a minute -- what is he doing? O'Grady is running in the other direction. I thought this was the God damn United States Marine Corps. The other direction. He is blabbering some incoherent drivel about his mother. He turns for a second to look back toward the Japs, when eight bullets dance up his torso in a neat line. O'Grady (what was his first name again?) disappears instantly under the emerald green water, now tinted with red. No matter. He was a replacement. They'll all be gone within twenty minutes.

O'Grady
VV
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0024.jpg

I push on, taking cover behind the blown out carcasses of Amtracks, and various hedgehog obstacles. Behind one is Cpl. Hanlon. Another replacement. He'll be gone in 15.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0025.jpg

Sgt. Cecil Kearney. One of the old guys. Great man. Makin, Guadalcanal. He meets his end on a tangled mess of razor-ribbon.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0027.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0026.jpg
Most of the guys who survived the hit to our Amtrack are already on the beach, taking cover under the pier. Jimmy's there. Good, still alive. Willie's there too. More Japs on the pier. The BAR takes aim on its own and fires. Four shots. Two more down. I make it to the spot under the pier. Hey guys, how's it goin. We gonna move along any time soon? The hissing of a flamethrower indicates that the left-most bunker has been neutralized. Jap grenade lands at the flamethrowers' feet. His tattered remains lie at the foot of his first -- his only achievement.

Alright, lets go now boys, lets move along the beach, our Sgt. is yelling out commands. He's the highest ranking Marine in sight. Jesus. What's happening to us?

And then...

BANZAAAAIIII

PROLOGUE to be cont'd.

Rose
06-07-07, 06:17 PM
PROLOGUE Cont'd:

BANZAAAAAAI

I hear the scream. The replacements freeze. They are numb. I look at them and see my own terror from Makin, a year and a half ago. It feels like it was ten. That was my first banzai charge. Now the charges amount to nothing more than annoying flies that can be swatted away with the backs of our hands. Of course they are worse, of course they have gotten more intense than at Makin or at Guadalcanal. But I am older now. We are older now. Harder now, than we were at Makin. The six of us -- all my good buddies. Especially Jimmy and Willie. We stood under that pier and we swatted them away like flies, even as more Marines came up Red 1 and 2 and were slaughtered before our eyes.

They are nothing more than flies. Flies with slanted eyes.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0029.jpg
^^Sarge is on the left with the Thompson
Thats Jimmy, our Doc, on the right with the pistol ^^


We gave those bastards Hell.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0032.jpg

They tried to give it back.


They failed.


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0033.jpg


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0034.jpg


There were some awful close calls.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0035.jpg

Next Jap skewered little Harold Paige from Tennessee. Nothing Jimmy couldn't fix up. Paige was back in the fight within half-an-hour. VVV
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/JMR2012/shot0037.jpg




Silence. Not a peaceful silence. I cringe. The sounds and smell of death is everywhere. It is the most horrid, empty silence I have ever heard. Even the Jap machine guns have momentarily ceased firing. The charge is over. Willie counts thirty japs at our feet. Biggest charge alot of the boys have seen. Maybe mine too, though I stopped counting bodies months ago. The silence is thankfully shattered by more Nambu bullets zipping through the air at our boys walking along the reef.

Sarge orders the five of us to continue along the beach. We must look for an opening in that sea-wall. Reload the BAR. Automatic movement. The gun is programmed into my memory, my muscles. It will never escape. My leather-enclosed foot takes a step forward.

And then -- blackness.

PROLOGUE END

I'm done for the night :D

Next installment: CHAPTER 1 -- Boot Camp, San Diego, June 1941

robbo180265
06-07-07, 06:47 PM
I like it keep it up:up:

Jimbuna
06-08-07, 06:24 AM
Cool :up: