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Author Topic: The Menen Massacre - Battle Report Now With Thrilling Conclusion  (Read 2881 times)

Offline Kestrel

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The Menen Massacre - Battle Report Now With Thrilling Conclusion
« on: November 03, 2011, 12:00:15 AM »
The following report is from recently declassified files, which even now are heavily redacted and all I can tell you is that this happened somewhen during WW2 near Menen in Belgium...

Reports had come in of strange goings on in a rural church somewhere between the battlelines and so one Lt. Smith found himself and his unit tasked to survey the site and gain intelligence on the German paranormal activities -Later intelligence showed that this was not German activity although they did seek to gain knowledge of reanimation.

The Menen Massacre



As the British forces approach the church through the woods they notice movement up ahead and pause to await orders from Lieutenant Smith...



Letting the enemy get closer so as to get a better idea of what they are facing Lt. Smith orders his men to hold fire as they hear the shuffling of the enemy through the trees...



...Blissfully unaware of their true nature and just how many of them there are ahead...



Meanwhile on the other side of the woods Leutnant Roth orders his men to maintain close formation, knowing that men have already been lost in the area to an unknown force.



Counting the approaching enemy and seeing numbers are on his side, Lt. Smith gives the order to engage in hand to hand and take them out silently...



Only to discover that it's not men they are facing but the walking dead! They quickly lay one back to rest...



And press on into the remaining two apparitions, only to realise that there are more of these foul creatures and the sound of combat is drawing them forward towards their position.



In contrast to the gung-ho approach of the British the Germans swiftly and stealthy sweep through the woods avoiding the notice of all but the birds...



...and one warped figure of a man...



Realising that they have been spotted the Germans decide the only way of silencing the sentry is too all rush him at once.



But the noise the combat makes begins to draw the attention of other mindless horrors.



The British seeing the danger of maintaining their position, against the approaching shambling horde team up to finish off the creatures already engaged finding that blows that would kill a man don't stop these things - The only way to be sure is destroy the head!



After crushing skulls with rifle butts, the British fall back towards the entrance of the church.



Praying that Lt Smith can get the door of the church open, before the incoming tide of undead flesh reaches them...



...but believing that the Lord helps those who help themselves, they give extra force to their prayers by backing it up with a hail of bullets.



Back in the woods the Germans bag their first abomination, which stood little chance against the combined force of five men.



Fortunately the church door is unlocked and the British hasten inside and bar the door behind them...



Just in time to stop the hellish mob from overwhelming them. The thudding on the doors only just louder than the pounding of thier own hearts.



The Germans seeing other shapes approaching through the woods, change direction...



...and find themselves in the middle of a large graveyard, where many of the graves show signs of having been disturbed.



Shaken by this, they are soon bolstered by the sight of loot - Besides one of the open graves they sight a chest full of strange paraphanelia and they head towards it to secure it.



As the undead begin to close in upon them.



The British now trapped within the church, decide to head for higher ground where they figure they can shoot down these mindless creatures at their leisure with their rifles.



Only to find their attention attracted by the sound of German gunfire, as Leutnant Roth and his men are emptying their weapons into the approaching undead.



Taking advantage of the German's distraction, the British riflemen calmly take aim at the Germans forcing their targets to take cover in the dirt.



Realising their path away from the creatures is into the path of British guns, the Germans hesitate for a cruicial moment and grasping arms claw at Lt Roth, pulling him towards mouths ripe with the fetid smell of death.



And it's not just the Germans, who have rotting arms welcoming them - The door of the church gave way under the press of flesh and the rearguard are forced to hold them off on the stairs leading up the tower



Not as brave (or perhaps as foolish?) as their Leutnant, Lt Roth's men fall back and leave him alone to face to oncoming horde.



With one of his men having the foresight to take the occult instruments with him as he takes cover round the corner of the church.



The brave Lt Roth, fights off the arms grasping towards him and smashes the head on one and forces the other creature back for a moment.



As up in the church tower the British fend of the lead zombie of the group now coming up the stairs, but seeing how many are behind him rapidly realise that there position is rapidly becoming untenable as they have allowed themselves to become trapped.



Knowing they can't go down the stairs, fueled by adrenaline they begin a rapid descent down the outside of the tower finding whatever handholds in the rough brick they can for purchase and only just in time as a group of the shambing undead reach the top of the tower.



Whilst the British might be making good an escape, the same could not be said for the Germans, all of whom had by now found themselves fighting for their lives against the undead in a swirling melee



A fight not all of them won as Lt Roth and one of his men fell victim to the teeth and claws of these vicious beasts, the smell of fresh blood seemed to whip them in to a frenzy as altogether they gave a bestial roar of...





BRRAAAIIIINNNNNSSSSSS!!!!!!!.......



Lying on the ground Lt Roth, knew it was over but instead of the blackness of death he expected, everything went red...



As his body despite it grievious wounds rose up and joined in the chant of brains, craving the flesh of his former allies as he to became one of the zombies...




To Be Continued....

I apologise for ending it here for the moment, but it took longer than expected to get this much done tonight and I still have to pack for BLAM tonight, I should get the rest of this thrilling tale up tomorrow night though.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 09:38:38 PM by Kestrel »
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Offline Weird WWII

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Re: The Menen Massacre - Battle Report Pt 1
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2011, 01:41:55 AM »
Great stuff!

Brian
Keep it WEIRD!

Offline Kestrel

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Re: The Menen Massacre - Battle Report Pt 1
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2011, 09:29:55 PM »
Apologies for leaving it on a cliffhanger last night, but I figured I had best pack for Blam - Plus I'd already put up a load of photos in one go and as you shall see there were more than a few to go. lol


As we left the story last night the stalwart Leutnant Roth had been overrun by zombies and joined their number, whilst the top of the church tower which only moments before been abandoned by the British climbing down the outside now looked like this...



With their former leader rising up before the eyes the German soldiers froze in horror for vital moments and found themselves fighting against a growing tide of undead.



And force them back for a brief moment only managing to kill one due to the unnatural toughness of the undead.



Meanwhile the British calmly and silently make their way to the ground.



Only to give their position away when Private Harris fell from the roof and landed heavily and swearing.



Seeing the attention of the unnatural horrors had been attracted by Harris, Lt. Smith and Sgt. Jones move up to protect Private Harris.



Before falling back and preparing to form a line to cut down the approaching zombies



Realising that the zombies were emerging from the graves the remaining Germans begin to fall back towards the woods.



But the zombies stealing the initiative don't want to say goodbye to them just yet...



...And invite another of the Germans to switch sides and join the ranks of the undead.



Which he politely declines, leaving the two remaining Germans facing only 5 zombies.


 
Meanwhile at the top of the tower the zombies wonder where the food has gone...



Their line formed, the British start unloading their weapons at the charging horde in an attempt to thin the ranks of the zombies.



Before charging the fallen zombies in an attempt to make sure that they stay dead.



The zombies at the top of the tower are attracted to the edge of the tower by the sounds of food below, but can't seem to see where the food is...



The British charge gets bogged down as it turns out whilst they may have shot a lot of zombies, they didn't shoot that many in the head and take their first casualty as a result.



Surrounded now the Germans fight side by side in a desperate last stand...



And to the last German!



Who seeing a gap in the mass of zombies, makes a run for it...



Back over on the other side of the church the British split up in an attempt to avoid melee combat with the zombies. Private Harris makes it up onto the roof, but Sgt. Jones falls back to earth with a bump in front of the zombies.



Whilst Lt Smith leads a rifleman back putting some distance and trees between them and the zombies.



Seeing fresh meat just laying around the zombies encircle the doomed Sgt. Jones as Private Harris looks on helplessly.



Schütze Stein, the sole German survivor doesn't an on hanging around and attempts to put some distance between himself and the zombies.



But they don't seem inclined to let him get away...



ZOMBIES LOVE TO CONGA, ZOMBIES LIKE TO CONGA, Da Da Da, DA DA!



Back at the church Pvt Harris considers whether he wants to go up or down...



Whilst in the woods Lt Smith and Private Sorrow find themselves some more zombies to shoot at.



The zombies catch up with Schütze Stein at last and begin clawing at his flesh.



But the heroic soldier manages to break free from the grasping hands and refuses to give up the fight.



But the zombies are equally stubborn and with the initiative finally surround and end Stein's life.



Back on the church Private Harris prepares for his own last stand.



And putting up a brave fight kills one of the zombies...



...and his last sight is of zombies leaping towards him from the top of the church tower and the zombie behind him grabbed him and dragged him down sinking it's teeth into his flesh.



Hearing the screams from the direction of the church, the remaining British have their own troubles to worry about.



Lt Smith dies holding off the zombies, as Private Sorrow attempts to escape with the intelligence gained.



Lt Smith may have died, but he didn't stay dead and he along with the zombies that killed him that attack Private Sorrow.



Who against the combined might of three zombies finds himself helpless and after being killed by the former Lt Smith, rises again to follow his Lt in death as in life.



And so silence once again fell over the region, with only the occasional moan or shuffle disturbing the peace of the graveyard as both the Germans and the British remain ignorant of the true threat...

THE END

A suitable horrific end to our Halloween game, a survival horror where no one survived! Those of you that played the Dairy of the Dead game at Blam last year know how quickly the zombies mass up once the shooting starts and will know why we opted for hand to hand early on :)

For the uninitiated the zombies rules are as follows, if a zombie is shot and wounded it gets a 4+ 'I'll be back'. The true horror though is for each shot that is fired (or action that causes a noise such as falling or shouting) the zombie play adds a dice to a dice pool and in his movement phase rolls all of them and gets to spawn a zombie for each 4+ they get - It works out that for each shot fired you have only have 12.5% overall chance of reducing the number of zombies on the board, but a 25% (or thereabouts) chance of adding an extra zombie to the board - So all fire power can do is hold back the ever growing hoard, until you start running out of ammo.

As an aside I apologise for the number of photos (and I took many more than are shown here), but due to the kinetic nature of the games it seems the best way to represent the pace of the action, it was that or write a short story - Any feedback on preferred battle report style is well and truly welcome.


Offline Marine0846

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Re: The Menen Massacre - Battle Report Now With Thrilling Conclusion
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2011, 02:49:38 AM »
What a cool story. 8)
Love all the photos.
The story played out well the way you told it.
I kept thinking that either some Germans or British might excape.
Was kept on the edge of my seat seeing the humans go down, one by one.
Will we see Germans or British send out patrols to see what happen?
I hope so, Thanks for the story.
« Last Edit: November 12, 2011, 12:09:28 AM by Marine0846 »
Semper Fi, Mac

Offline Brummie Thug

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Re: The Menen Massacre - Battle Report Now With Thrilling Conclusion
« Reply #4 on: November 04, 2011, 12:41:41 PM »
Marvelous! thanks for sharing that AAR I really enjoyed it the way you presented it ;)

 

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