Seaslip

Bob's Diary

What follows are extracts from the Diary of Jim "Bob" Carrington, edited for sake of consistency and clarity:

(6th Session):
2nd November 2013:
Entry continued from 5th Session. So a dragon hit the tower, it should have meant more really, frankly I didn't see the point in running, like the two minutes I'd save would matter, I just lit up a ciggie and walked along with Blue. When we got there we decided that the best thing to do in the circumstances was get as much and as heaviest weapons we could lay our hands on, we joined the que at the armoury.
After kiting out (I was a bit disappointed, all I could get was the standard AK, 150 rounds and bunch of grenades, all the cool stuff was gone) we decided to go and get some orders. Kuri seemed a bit occupied organising the fire fighting for us until I asked which way to quarantine, for some reason that got her attention, just my natural charm and manly charisma I guess. Spock got ordered to assist half of Bravo Team who were in the radio room trying to save the equipment there and the rest of us got ordered to go up and "find out whatever the fuck's up there" and what had happened to the other half of Bravo Team that were on the roof at the time. Fair enough, I'd never seen a dragon up close before
We got up to the roof, the dragon was covered with shiny black scales, it had claws like daggers, teeth the size of my gun, long yellow horns curving back and was lying where the helicopters usually land, weird, I figured I'd be the first to crash-land there. The dragon wasn't moving much and was bleeding slowly so we figured it was either dead or unconscious, Bruce and Pixie tried to creep over to the radio mast opposite where half of Bravo Team was hanging on for dear life, unfortunately this was next to the dragon's head so Blue and I decided to cover them from behind a concrete wall. I remember they got past half way there before the dragon started to move, after that I'm still a bit sketchy on the sequence but Blue threw a flashbang, we all legged it, Bruce and Pixie threw grenades at the dragon and the dragon immolated Bravo team. I'm going to have nightmares about that last one, I know it.
Kuri wasn't best pleased when we reported back that there was a 20 foot long fire-breathing lizard on the roof and we didn't know to kill it, after much debate we decided that there were three options, we tried the first which involved us kiting out with armour piercing bullets and heavy grenades and giving Kuri some backup while she tried using the heavy stuff. At this point I will diverge to describe what Kuri was holding when we got back from the Armoury, it was long, black, hummed, had some nice flashing lights on it and was capable of firing plasma rockets. I am now converted to the cause of very heavy weaponry. Kuri liked her big gun, I guess we're all kids at heart.
We cowered around the corner, from the dragon, it was engaged in the task of pouring flame onto the building, again I thought I'd be the first one to torch the place, ho hum. Kuri's gun charged up, we burst around the corner and let rip. Once my ears stopped ringing and I'd put myself out I began to wonder what actually would kill the dragon if a large concentrated blast of million degree hot ionised gas barely scorched it. Bitch had been hit bad by the flames and had to be carted off to an infirmiry while Kuri ordered an evac of the building and assigned Spock and what was left of Bravo to other company assets in the city, meanwhile the answer to my question came along, we would skip directly to plan three, go to an airfield, commandeer a helicopter, attach a device only just meeting the requirements to be classed as "conventional" under the 2011 Geneva convention on modern warfare and hit the dragon with two very large, highly concentrated blasts of million degree hot ionised gas. As always, if heavy weaponry doesn't solve the problem, its not heavy enough.
We took one of the big jeeps, we needed it for the crates, three for the "device" and one for the ammo, just in case. Kuri seemed to know the way to the army base, it was a pretty simple route through the city. We were crossing through one of the districts I don't go though, it was pretty wrecked after the quake when we came over a hump and were heading towards a barricade of wrecked cars and boxes, there were people shooting at us. My reactions from Bosnia kicked in, I hit the accelerator and we burst through the barricade, unfortunately Pixie seemed to think he could do better and hit the break, we skidded sideways to a halt in the centre of an intersection being shot at from four different barricades. I really have to talk to that one about trusting other people's professional judgement, I think I'll use threats.
Something went off in the back of the jeep and we bailed before we were caught by the petrol tank going up, it was a bit disappointing when it didn't, armoured petrol tanks take the fun out of driving. Kuri and Blue opened fire while the others filled the place with smoke grenades, I made it to the jeep, got it running again and we got the hell out of there.
I had a plan, at the next intersection I did a 180 in the jeep and decided to ram the second barricade, this time Pixie wouldn't try his hitting the break and we would sail through. This worked up until we hit the first barricade, served, I tried to take it around the corner and ended up overturning the jeep on the barricade. At this point it occurred to me that we could always go around the fire-fight. Once again we bailed out, Kuri and Blue went over the barricade and started to lay suppression fire on the things behind it, they looked like the things we saw in the hospital, we covered the area in smoke, somehow got the jeep righted and ticking over (I'm glad we strapped down the boxes or it would be hell picking them up in that crossfire) and got the hell out of there yet again.
As we were passing though the streets I was reminded of Bosnia again, the gang wars left the cities a battle field and this district certainly felt like one, this fighting had been going for weeks or more, there were abandoned barricades, buildings gutted, and the occasional body on the streets, they weren't all human, hell had come to Wellington and we were in the middle of it. I shuddered and Blue muttered something about home. We stopped by a body at Blue's request and he got out to steal the watch, it showed today's date, I don't know if it would have been weirder if it hadn't. If there wasn't the pressing mater of a dragon on our roof and the heavy weaponry to fire we probably should have stopped to investigate but as it was we had a job to do. Kuri wanted to return for bodies once we got the dragon dealt with.
Somehow we got the jeep to the base, the troops were pretty jumpy, I know the feeling. Kuri did the talking, somehow she eventually got us clearance, they searched the jeep just in case, good thing they weren't looking for guns, we had a shit-load. Fitting the device was pretty simple, I'm not sure we were supposed to take the helicopter but it didn't seem to matter once we in the air. It was at this point I mentioned I only got my pilot's licence a few days ago, a bit late really but I got us in range of the tower. It's always good to know that when the shit hits the fan you have a commander who's authorised to use weaponry which causes a mushroom cloud, it gives one the nice secure feeling at night. After seeing the effect of the thing we fired I feel very secure at night. The tower smoked, unfortunately I wasn't expecting the kickback in time and the helicopter started to plummet, now I remember we covered this part in the "how not to crash a helicopter" course but I just couldn't remember it, along with the rest of the team I bailed, I tried to take Kuri with me seeing she didn't have a parachute but she fought off and used a glide pack instead, I guess the commander's get all the really cool equipment, landing in a parachute hurts.
Well the good news is the team's back together now, Spock and Bitch were waiting at the tower when we got back, the other good news is that the dragon is dead, the bad news is that so is the radio mast and the device we used in contravention of whatever treaty says "Don't fire anti-battleship weaponry over cities". Kuri seemed kind of pissed at us, she started shouting at us because we didn't bring any bodies back like she wanted and sent us back out again to get some. Finally today I get a job I'm good at, the perfect way to end a Friday, corpse collection.

Index ; What the F*ck ; Body Count ; Who's playing Who ; What's been happening