Jotunn Draugr

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

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PFC Fenrir Cheslock
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The Imp was off in a full-out sprint down the alley. Fenrir, weighed down in his shocktrooper uniform, was having trouble keeping up. How the hell someone in a full suit of armour could be an effective scout, he had no idea, but right now he was having a tough time catching up. Still running as fast as he could, Fenrir hoisted his machine gun up and sprayed a few rounds at the enemy's feet.

One or two must have landed, because the Imp tumbled forward, landing face-down on the brickwork alleyway. Catching up to his prey, Fenrir gave his usual hostage speech.

"By the Valkyrur, surrender now or I will gun you down!" Cheslock bellowed at the soldier.

Groaning in pain, the soldier brought one hand up, placing it on the back of his head. The other hand quickly reached down and pulled out a pistol. Seeing this movement, Fenrir squeezed his trigger and poured a series of bullets into the back of the imperial. Severely frustrated, he let out a sigh.

"You idiot!" he shouted at the now lifeless body. After huffing and puffing for a moment, the gunfire on the street reminded him that the battle still wasn't over. Turning around, he ran back to continue the hunt.

_________________________________________________________________________________
meanwhile, at Charlie Section
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"You idiot." Smythe muttered under his breath, as Cheslock hustled down the stairs. "Well, let's try to take a little fire off him."

Hopping up, Smythe stuck his rifle through the window and fired a couple shots off at the enemy building. Following his example, Pierce jumped up with his machine gun, and shot a couple bursts. Looking across the street, he caught a glimpse of an enemy falling backward. Ducking down as a barrage of bullets retaliated, Pierce smirked at his success. They continued trading volleys for a moment, but were interrupted by yet another explosion.

Pierce peered through the far window, as smoke, dust, and debris flew out of the windows of the building opposite theirs.

"Shit!" Pierce exclaimed. "Think that was Fenr-"

The young shocktrooper's knees gave way, and he tumbled to the floor.

"Pierce!" Smythe shouted, scurrying over to the body. Looking him over, Smythe saw that a stray bullet had flown right into his left eye.

"Damn it!" Smythe spat. "Dead before he hit the ground."

A shower of dust glided over Pierce's body, as yet more bullets pelted the far wall, reminding the militiamen that they had no time to mourn. One of the team's scouts quickly took up Pierce's position, and began firing back through the window. Crawling back to the wall, Smythe loaded a couple more rounds into his gun, and prepared to even the odds. As he turned back to the window, he heard a thumping on the stairs. He span around just in time to see the head of an imperial trooper emerging from the floor below. As the Imp aimed his machine gun, ready to spray down the resistance, Smythe got a shot off, landing straight between the enemy's eyes. With a great calamity, the metallic form tumbled back down the stairs, landing heavily on the bottom floor.

"Kipper! Take my window!" he commanded. "I'm gonna keep an eye on the stairs."

The young scout rushed over and starting firing away through the hole-ridden opening. The three of them held on for a short while longer, when suddenly the gunfire began dying down.

"This must be it!" he shouted, glancing out the window, to see Imps leaving their stations and running into the streets. He jumped up next to his compatriots, and started gunning down his turn-tail adversaries from above. A couple turned around, and fired back as they ran, causing the three scouts to duck back down again. Then came the sound of a great spray of bullets, just up the street, along with the dinging of lead-on-armour just beneath their windows. A stomping traveled up the stairs, and Smythe again trained his rifle on them, this time seeing a blue helmet emerge. It was the Gallian shocktroopers.

Together, they exited the building, and started chasing down the last of the fleeing imperials. As Smythe fired away, he heard gunshots from a nearby building. Charging to the window and sticking his gun through, he saw PFC Cheslock, wrestling an imperial to the ground.

"Hah! This bastard lost his pistol!" Cheslock grunted through gritted teeth, as he held his target's face to the ground.

Turning Gears - Fantasy Steampunk Nationgame

Ren-Guo

Ren-Guo

Ren-Guo

Ren-Guo is an ancient nation, founded thousands of years ago, when the Golden Emperor Ji conquered all the surrounding tribes. Tradition, formality, and refinement are central to this nation's culture. Nothing is more sacred, more untouchable, than one's ancestors, and the rules of the ancients live on through the generations. Swords are still commonly used, and haven't changed in design in over seven-hundred years. The Ren, as they are commonly known, believe themselves to already be perfect, so change is rarely tolerated unless out of absolute necessity.

Geography

In red

Map Claim

The Ren-Guo empire has several capital cities:

-Yijing, the oldest city in the region, is home to the emperor's palace, the royal library, and the royal guard. The majority of buildings in this city are government run, and occupied by various officials, relatives, dignitaries, and servants. Needless to say, it is the cleanest and most beautiful of all Ren-Guo cities.

-Erjing is Yijing's sister city. Very similar in design, it serves as a second home to the emperor, but is home to more commoners. This city has seen the largest population growth in the past few years, with a great many new industries and projects popping up at all times.

-Hei is the industrial capital of Ren-Guo. The city is full of factories and sweatshops, with a booming slave industry. The sun can only be seen after a rainy day, due to it otherwise being obscured by smoke and soot. The outskirts of the city are spotted with mines and pits. After Erjing, Hei is Ren-Guo's fastest growing city.

-Junjing is the empire's military capital. Half of all residents in this city are employed by the Ren-Guo military, and the rest are there to sell things to the soldiers.

-Baijing, the trade capital of the empire, maintains a constant stream of traders and ships flowing through it. It is here that the empire makes the majority of its money.

-Haijing is a fortified naval base, in the northern seas above Zhong. It is where the royal navy is based and maintained.

History

Several thousand years ago, the mythical warlord Ji, king of the Jin tribe, united the fourty tribes of the traditional Zhong region. Over the centuries, these tribes merged together into one massive metropolitan cultural soup, where all notions of unique culture were largely lost, leaving only very basic distinctions between the ethnicities. All that remained was a central dogma, upheld by the state, simply called the "Golden Code". Central to this code was the notion of ancestor worship, and the ideal of societal standards being more important than the individual. Human life became more than the sum of itself, with each individual acting as a representative for their entire family, and the rules of the "Zhong Family" being the most sacred of all.

Years later, the empire added a series of surrounding islands to itself, slowly absorbing them into the universal family of Zhong. As the ages passed, this too faded into mythology.

Ren-Guo carried on, virtually unchanged for thousands of years, upholding the same standards of honour and tradition, until new industrial technologies began entering public discourse, from outside nations. Finally, at the precipice of modernization, the long-isolated empire of Ren-Guo opened its gates. Now the empire, lead by its totalitarian government, is rapidly transforming into an industrial superpower, in command of one of the largest trade fleets in the world. Day and night, the devout workers of Zhong labour away, in the countless factories and shipyards, utterly convinced that global monopoly will bring honour to their ancestors.

Society

Ren-Guo is a staunch, traditionalist theocracy. Men wear plane, formal suits at all times. Women wear long, mono-coloured dresses. Only the emperor himself is allowed to dress lavishly. Houses are small and uncomfortable, and work-days are long and laborious. Interaction with the outside world is still generally frowned upon, with exceptions made for trade and military cooperation.
The upper class consists of a small number of families, with historical ties to the royal family itself. The vast majority of the population are poor, uneducated peasants. Literacy is common, but not universal, and diseases are common among those who can't afford a doctor.
Music and culture are celebrated, with many national holidays, honouring various legends, customs, and even individual songs. The young celebrate these events with fireworks, while the old prefer to assemble and light candles in ritualistic patterns.
Every village in the empire has a patron deity, with a shrine dedicated to them. These shrines act as community hubs, for people to socialize and organize. Needless to say, they are heavily monitored by the government, to ensure no organization is taking place against the crown's interest.

Economy/Industry

Ren-Guo bases its economy on a booming mining industry. The heavily mountainous region of Zhong is home to a surplus of subterranean resources, ripe for the picking. These resources are refined at the great factories of the province of Hei, where the sky is perpetually black with soot. The empire utilizes as much of its supply as it can, and trades the rest for lumber, in order to expand its navy. The more ships that are built, the more trade networks are established, and onward the economic growth continues.
Ren-Guo's second largest industry is agriculture. Due simply to the age of the empire, countless miles of natural landscape have been converted into farmland, to support the constantly growing population. With space being a limited resource, the biggest internal difficulty the nation faces is balancing urban development with agricultural growth, so that people have somewhere to live as well as something to eat.

Military

In spite of Ren-Guo's great advances in industrialization, its military is still comparably primitive. Muskets are still not universally distributed among army personnel. The standard weapons for ground-combat remain the pike and sword. Fortunately, the empire is able to make up for this shortcoming through sheer numbers alone. The entire region is heavily overpopulated, with more than enough worthless peasants willing to sacrifice their lives for the crown. When facing an opponent with superior technology, the army simply continues throwing bodies at them until they run out of ammunition. While heartless, this tactic has been supremely effective for Ren-Guo.
Air travel is very limited, and the emperor has very little interest in expanding a national air force at present. He has a small fleet of blimps, who defensively patrol the capital city at all times. In reality, they're little more than decorations.
Where Ren-Guo really shines is with its navy, which consists of countless, massive, armour-plated galleons, each outfitted with dozens of Ren-Guo iron cannons. Songs and legends have been crafted in honour of the Ren-Guo imperial fleet, who are said to summon the wrath of the heavens themselves upon their targets.

Demographics

Ren-Guo is inhabited by 42 different ethnic groups. Fourty of them are the traditional mainlanders of Ren-Guo. The other two come from the island nations Ren-Guo has since conquered. Together, they all identify as Ren, and uphold the universal customs of the nation, however there are minor differences between them all.

The largest tribe, known as the Jin-Ren, are slightly taller than the rest of the population (which isn't saying much, given that Ren tend to be about a foot shorter than most races), and slightly lighter in skin-tone. They are known to be more brutish and short-tempered, and traditionally carry weapons with them at all times.

Jin

The second largest tribe of Ren are known as the Yin-Ren, and they are considerably shorter than most Ren, with darker skin and softer features. They are known for speaking softly, and smiling often.

Yin

The third largest 'tribe' is composed of many nomadic and rural groups, mainly residing in the mountains of central Ren-Guo. They are called the Mon-Ren. These stout, burly individuals, are the only Ren known to have facial hair. In popular media, they are seen as the keepers of tradition, and are often encouraged to pursue roles in society that promote culture and religion.

Mon

The fourth largest group in Ren-Guo are known as the Wa-Ren (often just called "Wa"). These people are generally very slender and pale, with long, fair faces, appearing almost elf-like. Their origins trace back to the distant islands Ren-Guo conquered many centuries ago. They usually keep to themselves, and aren't viewed as proper Ren by the majority of the population. Among themselves, they are exceptionally formal and polite. In Ren-Guo's oldest surviving text, the Golden Emperor himself referred to the Wa as "constructs of stone and metal, masquerading as living beings".

Wa

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

Then go right ahead. I just don't want to encourage speed posting and leave some people in the dust.

@Raven_Operative

Oh of course! I'll pace myself. Just setting the scene. Really looking forward to interacting with some other people!

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

@Jotunn Draugr Normally they just sorta fade into obscurity when people drop out, but why not. Makes things simpler in the long run for us.

As for your post, you don't need to edit it yet. After snowman gets their reply up, I'll be moving us ahead into the next phase of the assault where Zark's group should begin moving forward. Once they post and move into your general area (they're currently occupying a house much further down the street), you should be good to go.

@Raven_Operative

Okay, I'm just thinking of getting a small thing up after someone else posts, where the shocktroopers get there, and to cover what was happening in the building, while Fenrir ran off.

Google Picture War

Six Letters

Yesterday, Everybody Stopped Laughing About Harambe

C A N A D A

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

@Raven_Operative Okay so what happens with Charlie Section? I was waiting on writing the reinforcements in until Roxim got a post up. I can write a continuation, finishing off the conflict so we're ready for your guys' arrival. Should Pierce be killed off?

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

PFC Fenrir Cheslock

*Ratatatatatata*, the constant firing of Imperial machine guns rang through the room's blown-out windows, accompanied by a shower of chipped brick and mortar off the far wall. Crouched just below the window, PFC Fenrir Cheslock grumbled impatiently.

“So we're gonna follow the Imps' lead then?” he inquired sarcastically, to his comrade.

“They'll be pulling back soon. It'll be easy enough to pick them off from behind.” Smythe responded.

“Yes, but let's make sure the reports mention Charlie Section by name.” Cheslock concluded, with a devilish grin on his face.

“Okay? You got something in mind?” Smythe said, somewhat confused.

Cheslock gave him a wink, and bolted for the staircase.

His trusty MAGS M10 clasped firmly in his hands, he tumbled down the staircase to the first floor, and sprinted through the building's front doorway. The Imps were so focused on his squaddies in the building, that they didn't immediately respond to him charging out the bottom floor. This gave him time to get halfway across the street. As the bullets finally began whizzing in his direction, he ducked behind a tank trap and headed for the closest building. As a few bullets flew past his ears, he leaped forward, plunging through the window of one of the Imperial-occupied buildings. All the glass hand long-since been knocked away, so it was little more than a square hole in the wall.

Tumbling to the floor, Fenrir righted himself without hesitation. The Imps were hold-up on the second floor. Staying low, he made his way toward the staircase. Nearing the bottom, he lodged the butt of the rifle into his shoulder, and prepared to open fire. They were no doubt aware of his position by now. He paused for a second, and noticed that the gunfire in the building had stopped. He figured the Imperials probably had their guns pointed at the top of the staircase, waiting for him to poke his head up. It wouldn't be safe to approach like that.

“Well, here's to you, Sis.”

Cheslock slung his gun over his shoulder, and withdrew a grenade from his belt. Leaning forward, he tossed the grenade up and over the lip of the staircase. It hit the floor above with a thud, and was met with a series of screams. He ducked against the wall and covered his ears as the grenade went off. A thunderous boom rang out and the ceiling gave way, sending a pile of rubble crashing downward, along with one, two, three dead Imperial soldiers. Through the dust and smoke, Fenrir smiled ferociously.

“That one's for the family business.”

He didn't have long to savour the moment, however, as bullets started whizzing through the front window. He fell to the ground, and crawled his way toward the front, planting his back against the wall. A tinge of pain shot through Fenrir, and he gripped his left thigh. Thankfully, it looked like the bullet had just skimmed the skin. Where were they coming from this time? They were keeping the pressure on, and he didn't feel like risking an eye to check through the window. As shots continued pouring in, Fenrir looked around for other options.

“Argh! This place should have a...”

Back door, there, just behind the staircase! Cheslock made a dash for it, as a couple enemy rounds bounced off his shoulder-pads with a metallic clang. Leaping over the rubble, he charged into the door, which thankfully opened outward, into the alley behind. Now he'd be able to get a surprise angle on the intersection, and really do some damage. Swinging his gun back around, and holding it at the ready, he charged down the alley. He rounded a corner to get sight of the street again and nearly ran into the back of an imperial soldier, who was busy peeking out into the street, firing potshots at the Charlie Section building. Holding his gun in his left hand, Fenrir used his right to slide his hatchet out from his belt.

He lined up the shot, right where the helmet meets the shoulder, and swung. The axe head buried itself deep into the soldier's neck, as he fell limp to the ground. Cheslock kicked the body to the side and took a peek around the corner. The Imps must have called the retreat. Soldiers were starting to disappear from the windows, and make their way down. No doubt, some would have access to back alleyways.

Fenrir holstered his hatchet, gave a wave in the direction of the Charlie Section building, and then ran back into the alley. He was sure they'd be able to pick off the Imps that had to run out into the street. He'd clean up the ones scurrying through the alleyways. Rounding the corner again, sure enough, a couple more Imperials came clamouring out of a nearby building. One took off in full sprint, but the other looked back and noticed the young shocktrooper. The Imp hoisted his gun up and shot. Fenrir ducked, firing his own bullets in the opposite direction. As the shower of lead hissed over Cheslock's head, he heard the rattle of his own bullets hitting the enemy's armour. The soldier fell backward with a hefty clang, and Fenrir took off after the one that got away.

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

There, just wrote up a post to:
1) show the situation
2) show where you guys are located (the building to the left of the leftmost blue arrow)
3) give you guys some orders to build your posts off. Feel free to control the NPCs (including Smythe) during your posts, you don't need to wait for me to say something like 'the shocktroopers arrived and the imps started to retreat' to begin your attack.

This battle is also a little bit different from the other ones. The situation demands that this turn into a curb stomp in our favour, so feel free to power game a little bit. Our squad (and your section) need to be wildly successful in order to attract the interest of a plot development further down the line.

As always, if you need more info/clarification or have any questions/comments/concerns about the setup, please let me know.

@Jotunn Draugr@Roxim Teaga

@Raven_Operative

Haha this feels like having my cake and eating it too. Looking forward to getting something up, and to meeting the so-called Lions of the South. Gonna read through all the other relevant posts again first, just to get the setting right.

Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

@Jotunn Draugr

Looks good to me. You can toss it over in the CS tab if you're happy with it.

@Raven_Operative

Oh, and would I be able to get an intro-post up? Just to paint the picture of squad 13 and 14, holding the line behind buildings and makeshift barricades.