Post by I am the SeeJay on Jun 13, 2011 3:35:52 GMT
Account E-Mail: Xmezthemad@hotmail.com
Name: Augustus ‘Cutter’ Kane
Nationality:
- British
What Army will Your Character Serve Beneath?
UK – SAS
Character History:
Kane was born in late march 1912 into a small family living in Devonport, Plymouth. He was the second child of three boys and both he and Sebastian, the youngest brother, were constantly in the shadow of their older brother Michael. His mother worked as a cleaner and production line worker at a factory and his father had abandoned him before he was born, leaving his mother alone with two boys. Sebastian’s father was a work friend of their mothers, and had come into the picture when Augustus was three and stuck around, taking on the role of father to Augustus and Michael. His stepfather had avoided the draft for the Great War due to having only three fingers on his right hand, the injury had resulted from an accident when he had been trying to remove a jam in a piece of machinery.
His step dad was a hard man with few kind words for the boys. There was one point when Augustus and his bothers had been playing near the river when things had gotten rough, Michael had been bullying the younger two and chasing them with dead fish when Augustus had tripped on a large rock. He had hit the rock with enough force to rip the skin from his toes and as he fell he received a large laceration up his shin from the sharp stones. His bothers had helped carry a crying, sniffing Augustus all the way back home and when they reached the front lawn Sebastian rushing inside seeking help for his bother. Only his father was home at the time, and when he came out and saw the injury all he said to Augustus was “Toughen up princess. That’s hardly a cut.” Once he had heard the story he gave Michael a clip behind the ears and cleaned out the dirt from Augustus’ cuts. There were no comforting words, and if Augustus cried out his stepfather would snap at him and tell him to Toughen up before be gave him something real to cry about.
Their schooling was only basic and incomplete, even with both his mother and stepfather working the factory they couldn’t afford to put all three boys through school, and when she wasn’t at the factory their mother would try and teach them Maths and English at home. She would always say that the greatest skills a person could have was the ability to read and count. Without these a person was doomed to be poor forever simply because there was no rich man alive who couldn’t read his newspaper and count his money.
When the boys weren’t in school they wandered around the streets, Michael had gotten the idea of starting a shoe shining business in order to help their parents with their money troubles. When he had told the boys about it they were all too keen to help. However they had no money to buy the cloth and polish they needed so ended up stealing it from a shop across town. Augustus had been the distraction for the shopkeeper, running into the shop in tears with a split lip courtesy of Michael and grabbing at the woman behind the counter, he had sobbed and whimpered and she took him into the back room to clean him up. As soon as she was out of sight and busy washing his face his bothers snuck into the shop and grabbed the boot polish and a small roll of cloth and whatever else they could carry, witch wasn’t much. They walked out the door with their loot, smiling at the people they passed as innocently as they could. Sebastian had wanted to run for it but Augustus had said that it would draw attention to them if they ran, just walk out like you had brought the stuff and no one will pay attention.
It had worked a treat; once they had gotten away Augustus met up with them back in Devonport and they set up their little business at a street bench near the main road, Michael and Augustus shouted out to people to get their shoes shined and polished while little Sebastian worked the cloth. Because the bench was a two seater they were able to service two people at once with Augustus joining Sebastian in the work, leaving Michael to shout about their services. That first afternoon they made fourteen pounds and rushed home to show their parents what they had done. That was the first time their stepfather gave them praise, and said that he was proud of them going out on their own and trying to help them make money. It was a rare, but joyous occasion, and the boys spent as much time as they could working the cloth.
Augustus had always been the fat kid, he didn’t eat more then his bothers and he never shied away from physical activities, yet despite this he had a little pot belly that simply refused to go away until he became a teenager, his stepfather had forced him and his brothers into every sport he could in order to toughen them up and get them fit. He especially hounded Augustus in order to try and removed his curved belly. Michael bulked up quickly; taking to the more physically demanding sports such as rugby while Sebastian remained slim but toned due to his love of football. Hard as Augustus tried he couldn’t get a grip on the sports and floated between the two.
As the boys grew they started working various jobs in order to help their parents more. The bulky Michael excelled at labour jobs, easily finding work in construction sites and loading docks while the slim and quick Sebastian found he had a talent for the less honest work. Augustus helped both his brothers in their chosen paths while he was waiting to pick his own. He could often be found helping Michael steady a large load of cargo or carrying boxes and crates onto or off the back of trucks, or he could be found running interference for Sebastian, distracting store owners or other wealthy people while his younger brother snuck in and took what he could. Things continued on this way until Augustus found work cleaning a butchery, it wasn’t long before he became accustom to the smell and feel of blood and his boss decided to train him in the arts of the meatworks.
As he reached his early twenties he was a skilled butcher and was practically running the shop. Michael was managing a dockyard and Sebastian was a grunt in the mafia. Their stepfather had died in an accident at the factory and the boys were looking after the house while their mother was grieving, they would often take turns in sitting with her, holding her and comforting her in any way they could, but it wasn’t long before she passed away as well, the boys knew it was the pain of losing her partner that had driven her to death, even though the doctor said it was the rope around her neck.
One morning Sebastian came to him with a strange request, asking if he loved him and would do anything to help him. Of course Augustus said yes, and later that night he found himself in the butchery with his brother, looking down at a dead body, the result of a break in that went wrong. They argued for a while about it, with Sebastian saying that the score from the break in meant that he would never have to do anything like that again, he would be out of the grunt work and onto better things that didn’t involve breaking into places. Augustus finally gave in, knowing that if the body was found his brother would be sent to prison for the rest of his life, reluctantly he picked up his knife and set to work, but he made Sebastian watch, made him watch every knife stroke and hear every crack of bone and gurgle of blood. The things brothers do for each other.
It wasn’t long before there was talk of another war. It had been years since the first time Sebastian had asked him to use his butchery skills on that body, and there had been a few more between now and then, rival crime syndicates and small time thugs who messed with the wrong people, and the work he did for his brother had earned him the nick name “Cutter” from his brother. Augustus had become numb to the whole thing to the point were he hardly noticed what he was cutting up anymore, such a detachment for human life, he was glad his mother wasn’t around to see him. To him, it seemed only right that he should join the army, if only to give his blood as a way of atoning for the bodies he butchered for his brother. He discussed it with Michael and Sebastian, neither of them could see the sense in it, they had good lives here, they were making money and enjoying themselves and couldn’t understand Augustus’ need to join. Augustus himself didn’t fully understand it; he just felt that he had too.
He enlisted and began his service with the 82nd Artillery Battery, beginning as a loader but be quickly became the head gunner after the rest of his crew were killed when enemy paratroopers surprised them. He and the survivors defended the battery and held off the enemy soldiers until reinforcements arrived. They were shipped out and moved all around Europe, providing artillery support for several units before Augustus was transferred to infantry for a landing operation.
The operation went horribly wrong and the invading force was all but destroyed. Augustus was left on the beach, believed dead while the fleet retreated in order to find a lesser-defended beach to land. He managed to evade enemy patrols and found several other survivors, who he rallied together and lead them off the beach, they managed to sneak past the more heavily guarded areas and made their way in land in search for allied forces. They eventually found were the fleet had landed and fought their way through the enemy lines to the defence command center, where Augustus killed the commander personally, the invading forces then took the advantage and slew the remainder of the enemy defenders.
Reports of his actions filtered through the chain of command and he was transferred into the SAS and deployed in Africa were he took part in several small raids on enemy camps and bases, successfully sabotaging a convoy and holding out against an Italian advance. He made a name for himself after organising the defence of a small port that was being used to bring in light armour and troops. They had fought off a larger Italian force and pushed them back into the desert, however rather then letting the enemy forces escape he ordered the defenders to give chase and they crushed the retreating Italians. Later he faced a court-marshal for leaving his post virtually undefended, leaving only a skeleton defence at the port while the main body chased down the Italians. The charges were later dropped when reports of the mass casualties sustained by the Italians reached the hearing.
Military Rank:
- Lieutenant or as high as this app will get me. What do you think it deserves?
Writing Sample:
The last rays of the warm desert sun were cascading down upon the smooth, calm ocean. The light reflected off its surface with a dazzling brilliance that captured everyone’s attention. The sheer beauty of it was enough to make people stop and gaze, lost in the reflection on the water. That beauty was soon to be disturbed. The bow of a large freight ship cut through the calm flat waters of the sea, in its wake it left the water disturbed and churning, the reflection twisting into a deformed shape of its former beauty.
The ship was moving slowly towards the port, its Capitan skilfully bringing its massive bulk around to come alongside a wharf that had been build out into the sea, were the water was deep enough for large ships such as this to unload its cargo. The ship came to a halt and lines were thrown over to the wharf, securing the ship in place before it began unloading. Massive cranes on the deck of the ship came to life, swinging their great arms around and lifting platforms from the deck that held light tanks on them. The cranes hefted the tanks off the deck with ease and rotated until the machines of war hung over the wharf.
Meanwhile men where scurrying about on the deck and on the wharf, most carrying smaller goods and cargo off the ship while others lifted fresh supplies onto it. Everything was being done quickly and efficiently, just as a military operation should be done. As the first of many tanks was lowered down to the wharf a line of soldiers began marching off the ship. They reached the wharf and separated into two rows before coming to attention. They stood like stone statues and their stillness almost seemed unnatural amongst the hurried activity around them. A door burst open from a building on the wharf and a Major strolled out, followed closely by two assistants. He was talking quickly to one while signing something that the other had held in front of him on a clipboard. Finally the two assistants peeled away and quickly walked off to set about their duties.
The Major stopped in front of the men and peered at each of them for a few seconds before casually folding his hands behind his back and pacing in front of them.
“You’re late gentlemen, you were meant to be on the last ship that docked here two days ago, along with the rest of your unit.” The Major smiled in an unnervingly friendly way, his voice was not harsh nor judging, it was almost as if he were talking to a bunch of children.
“Anyone care to explain?”
No one moved except for Augustus Kane, who stepped forward and saluted the Major. As the ranking officer it was his duty to explain why they had been late, and it was his responsibility to take the brunt of the punishment that would be issued. They had been delayed by a truck that had collided with a jeep and had blocked the road to the docks were they were meant to link up with the rest of their unit and sail off with them. Due to the crash they had missed the ship, and the ship they had come in on was the only one that was due to set sail for this port. “Sir, we were-“ But as Kane started to speak the Major raised a hand and backhanded him, the sheer shock of the blow more then the force caused him to stumble back, but he didn’t clutch at his face, all he did was return to standing at attention.
“I don’t want your excuses! You’re response to that question is No Excuse Sir!”
Immediately Kane repeated. “No excuse Sir!.”
“And the rest of you!”
“No excuse Sir!” The soldiers shouted in unison. The Majors unnervingly friendly attitude had disappeared and been replaced by the anger and rage that the soldiers knew. They were use to angry superiors; raging men with fancy badges who believed the sun shone out their pants and didn’t care for anyone below their rank.
“Now because you so called soldiers couldn’t make the boat, your unit has continued on without you, and when I asked your commander what he wanted done with you lot he said I could keep you until they came back.” He switched back to his friendly voice, personally Kane would have preferred if he kept yelling. “So that means you lot belong to me now. Report to the barracks and await orders, you lot will have the night shift as guards.” The Major gave them a smile and turned on his heel, then looked back at Kane and pointed to him, then motioned him to follow. Kane turned to his men and shouted for them to disperse before following the Major.
They walked up the wharf and into the small town. The houses were normally filled with civilians who worked at the dock and there were only a few shops, but they had been boarded up or were being used as storehouses, at the end of the street there was a checkpoint that was guarded by five soldiers with rifles and tommy guns. . They were lazing about smoking and idly chatting to each other before they spotted the Major and snapped to attention. The Major walked up to the Guard Capitan who stood ridged, he had a black eye and Kane guessed that it wasn’t from an encounter with enemy forces.
“We’ve been reinforced, this is their officer, make use of him and his men.” And that was all he said. He pointed at Kane and was about to say something more when the sound of mortars echoed over the town. The men looked around and started to run for cover but before they had even taken a step a shell landed on the checkpoint, exploding and shredding the men with shrapnel. The Major fell back against Kane just as another round landed in front of him, the Majors body took the brunt of the hit and both men were knocked to the ground. Kane pushed the Majors body off and looked down at him, his chest had been peppered with shrapnel and his eyes stared like those of a porcelain doll.
Kane’s hearing returned slowly as more mortars rounds struck the town. Between the explosions he could hear the checkpoint guards screaming in pain. Kane grabbed the Guard Capitan and dragged him into cover before checking to see were he had been hit. There was no blood on him, no visible injury but the man was screaming as if his leg had been blown off. He would be useless but Kane tried to get some sense out of him.
“Where’s the barracks?” Kane shouted over the pounding of the mortars, but all he got as an answer was more screaming and whimpering. This guy truly was useless. Kane grabbed the mans tommy gun and ammo belt off him and got to his feet. The soldier started crying and grabbed onto Kane’s leg, not wanting to be left alone. Kane lifted the tommy gun up and drove the butt of it into the mans face, knocking him out and kicking his limp hand off his boot.
The shells had stopped raining and Kane poked his head out and looked past the checkpoint out into the desert. The smoke from the mortars gave their position away, but they were behind a dune and Kane could just see a spotter on the crest of the dune. Suddenly he got to his feet and lifted his weapon in the air, seconds later more men appeared on the crest and charged down it. Kane slung his tommy gun onto his shoulder and picked up a rifle, he lifted it to his shoulder as he knelt and rested his elbow on his knee for added support before bringing the sights up to lock onto one of the Italian soldiers. He heard a call of “Friendly” behind him as his men came running up to him. He didn’t look around at them and instead pulled the trigger, taking the kick of the rifle and quickly bolting another round into the chamber. He adjusted his aim and fired again, dropping the soldier. Soon his men opened up and more Italians hit the sand. Why were they charging like this? It was suicide… Unless.
Kane turned to look at his men, he recognised most of the faces but a few were new, he ran back to one of them and shouted over the gunfire. “Is there another road into the town?”
The soldier nodded and lead him back into the town, they met up with more men who were running towards the sounds of gunfire. Kane ordered most of the soldiers to follow him while the others went to reinforce the first checkpoint. They made their way to the north of the town and saw that Italians forces had entered the city through the north checkpoint, its guards lay dead on the road and the Italians were charging into the streets. Grenades were going off as the Italians threw them into windows before charging into the buildings, standard breach and clear tactics.
Kane’s men opened up on them and felled a squad before the other Italians returned fire, forcing Kane and his men into cover behind buildings and cars. They would have started trading volleys but the Italians had numbers on their side and more were streaming into the streets every minute. It sounded like the Italians were advancing on their position, the shots getting louder as they got closer. Kane could almost see what was going to happen. The Italians would come around the corner and the first few might get shot by Kane and his men, but the next lot to poke their heads around would be able to pick them off.
“Fall Back!” Kane said as he dropped the rifle and brought the tommy gun into his hands, he blindly swung it around the corner of the building and sprayed bullets, hoping to at least buy him and his men some time to get back to a safer position. The screams of pain from the Italians told him he had at least hit something. They ran back down the street trying to find a house to hold up in, bullets followed them and a few men fell to the road as they got hit. Kane rounded a corner then leant out and fired back. There were too many of them, they would have to retreat back to the dock.
He was about to order the fall back again but stopped himself as a grinding sound reached him. Looking back towards the docks he could see the light tank that had been unloaded before the attack rolling up the road, its stubby cannon rotating to the side as it passed Kane and his men. They could hear the shocked shouts from the Italians as the tank came into their view, then it fired and every noise was replaced by a loud ringing sound. Kane used hand signals to order the men to advance with the tank and they moved out into the street as the tank began its advance.
One of his men from the first checkpoint came up to him and shouted that they had held off the attackers and had taken the mortar teams out. Kane ordered him to gather the remaining troops from the first checkpoint and flank around to the north to catch their main force off guard. The soldier disappeared and Kane continued on, pushing the invaders back out of the town. The tank came to a halt as it reached the checkpoint and Kane bashed on the hull.
“Continue the advance, their behind the dunes!” The tank driver looked out at the sand then nodded and fired the engine back into life. Kane pointed to a few men and ordered them to secure the checkpoint while the rest were to follow him. Gunfire could be heard over the dunes witch meant that Kane’s other men had engaged the main force. Kane lead his men into the sand dunes and charged up the slope, cresting the dune to see a convoy of trucks rushing off into the desert, a lot of Italians were still boarding other trucks but they were being gunned down from the opposite sand dune. Kane’s men opened fire on the retreating enemy while the tank went around the dune to try and find a spot that wasn’t so steep.
Once it had found its slope the tank rained shell after shell down onto the convoy, smashing trucks and scattering infantry with its stubby cannon. But many of the trucks had made their escape. Kane ordered the chase to collect the mortars and continue, he wanted to get as many of the invaders as possible and they were out in the desert for about four hours before they caught up with the convoy that had stopped, believing it was safe, in order to try and figure out were they where meant to go.
Kane decided a little irony was needed, and he ordered his men to set up the enemy’s mortars. There were still enough rounds left and they rained down upon the Italians before the tank advanced and joined in the bombardment. It was quite dark by the time Kane and his men returned to the docks.
How did you find us? If you found us via a link somewhere, where was it? If someone pointed you here, who was it?: I am the SeeJay!!!!
Name: Augustus ‘Cutter’ Kane
Nationality:
- British
What Army will Your Character Serve Beneath?
UK – SAS
Character History:
Kane was born in late march 1912 into a small family living in Devonport, Plymouth. He was the second child of three boys and both he and Sebastian, the youngest brother, were constantly in the shadow of their older brother Michael. His mother worked as a cleaner and production line worker at a factory and his father had abandoned him before he was born, leaving his mother alone with two boys. Sebastian’s father was a work friend of their mothers, and had come into the picture when Augustus was three and stuck around, taking on the role of father to Augustus and Michael. His stepfather had avoided the draft for the Great War due to having only three fingers on his right hand, the injury had resulted from an accident when he had been trying to remove a jam in a piece of machinery.
His step dad was a hard man with few kind words for the boys. There was one point when Augustus and his bothers had been playing near the river when things had gotten rough, Michael had been bullying the younger two and chasing them with dead fish when Augustus had tripped on a large rock. He had hit the rock with enough force to rip the skin from his toes and as he fell he received a large laceration up his shin from the sharp stones. His bothers had helped carry a crying, sniffing Augustus all the way back home and when they reached the front lawn Sebastian rushing inside seeking help for his bother. Only his father was home at the time, and when he came out and saw the injury all he said to Augustus was “Toughen up princess. That’s hardly a cut.” Once he had heard the story he gave Michael a clip behind the ears and cleaned out the dirt from Augustus’ cuts. There were no comforting words, and if Augustus cried out his stepfather would snap at him and tell him to Toughen up before be gave him something real to cry about.
Their schooling was only basic and incomplete, even with both his mother and stepfather working the factory they couldn’t afford to put all three boys through school, and when she wasn’t at the factory their mother would try and teach them Maths and English at home. She would always say that the greatest skills a person could have was the ability to read and count. Without these a person was doomed to be poor forever simply because there was no rich man alive who couldn’t read his newspaper and count his money.
When the boys weren’t in school they wandered around the streets, Michael had gotten the idea of starting a shoe shining business in order to help their parents with their money troubles. When he had told the boys about it they were all too keen to help. However they had no money to buy the cloth and polish they needed so ended up stealing it from a shop across town. Augustus had been the distraction for the shopkeeper, running into the shop in tears with a split lip courtesy of Michael and grabbing at the woman behind the counter, he had sobbed and whimpered and she took him into the back room to clean him up. As soon as she was out of sight and busy washing his face his bothers snuck into the shop and grabbed the boot polish and a small roll of cloth and whatever else they could carry, witch wasn’t much. They walked out the door with their loot, smiling at the people they passed as innocently as they could. Sebastian had wanted to run for it but Augustus had said that it would draw attention to them if they ran, just walk out like you had brought the stuff and no one will pay attention.
It had worked a treat; once they had gotten away Augustus met up with them back in Devonport and they set up their little business at a street bench near the main road, Michael and Augustus shouted out to people to get their shoes shined and polished while little Sebastian worked the cloth. Because the bench was a two seater they were able to service two people at once with Augustus joining Sebastian in the work, leaving Michael to shout about their services. That first afternoon they made fourteen pounds and rushed home to show their parents what they had done. That was the first time their stepfather gave them praise, and said that he was proud of them going out on their own and trying to help them make money. It was a rare, but joyous occasion, and the boys spent as much time as they could working the cloth.
Augustus had always been the fat kid, he didn’t eat more then his bothers and he never shied away from physical activities, yet despite this he had a little pot belly that simply refused to go away until he became a teenager, his stepfather had forced him and his brothers into every sport he could in order to toughen them up and get them fit. He especially hounded Augustus in order to try and removed his curved belly. Michael bulked up quickly; taking to the more physically demanding sports such as rugby while Sebastian remained slim but toned due to his love of football. Hard as Augustus tried he couldn’t get a grip on the sports and floated between the two.
As the boys grew they started working various jobs in order to help their parents more. The bulky Michael excelled at labour jobs, easily finding work in construction sites and loading docks while the slim and quick Sebastian found he had a talent for the less honest work. Augustus helped both his brothers in their chosen paths while he was waiting to pick his own. He could often be found helping Michael steady a large load of cargo or carrying boxes and crates onto or off the back of trucks, or he could be found running interference for Sebastian, distracting store owners or other wealthy people while his younger brother snuck in and took what he could. Things continued on this way until Augustus found work cleaning a butchery, it wasn’t long before he became accustom to the smell and feel of blood and his boss decided to train him in the arts of the meatworks.
As he reached his early twenties he was a skilled butcher and was practically running the shop. Michael was managing a dockyard and Sebastian was a grunt in the mafia. Their stepfather had died in an accident at the factory and the boys were looking after the house while their mother was grieving, they would often take turns in sitting with her, holding her and comforting her in any way they could, but it wasn’t long before she passed away as well, the boys knew it was the pain of losing her partner that had driven her to death, even though the doctor said it was the rope around her neck.
One morning Sebastian came to him with a strange request, asking if he loved him and would do anything to help him. Of course Augustus said yes, and later that night he found himself in the butchery with his brother, looking down at a dead body, the result of a break in that went wrong. They argued for a while about it, with Sebastian saying that the score from the break in meant that he would never have to do anything like that again, he would be out of the grunt work and onto better things that didn’t involve breaking into places. Augustus finally gave in, knowing that if the body was found his brother would be sent to prison for the rest of his life, reluctantly he picked up his knife and set to work, but he made Sebastian watch, made him watch every knife stroke and hear every crack of bone and gurgle of blood. The things brothers do for each other.
It wasn’t long before there was talk of another war. It had been years since the first time Sebastian had asked him to use his butchery skills on that body, and there had been a few more between now and then, rival crime syndicates and small time thugs who messed with the wrong people, and the work he did for his brother had earned him the nick name “Cutter” from his brother. Augustus had become numb to the whole thing to the point were he hardly noticed what he was cutting up anymore, such a detachment for human life, he was glad his mother wasn’t around to see him. To him, it seemed only right that he should join the army, if only to give his blood as a way of atoning for the bodies he butchered for his brother. He discussed it with Michael and Sebastian, neither of them could see the sense in it, they had good lives here, they were making money and enjoying themselves and couldn’t understand Augustus’ need to join. Augustus himself didn’t fully understand it; he just felt that he had too.
He enlisted and began his service with the 82nd Artillery Battery, beginning as a loader but be quickly became the head gunner after the rest of his crew were killed when enemy paratroopers surprised them. He and the survivors defended the battery and held off the enemy soldiers until reinforcements arrived. They were shipped out and moved all around Europe, providing artillery support for several units before Augustus was transferred to infantry for a landing operation.
The operation went horribly wrong and the invading force was all but destroyed. Augustus was left on the beach, believed dead while the fleet retreated in order to find a lesser-defended beach to land. He managed to evade enemy patrols and found several other survivors, who he rallied together and lead them off the beach, they managed to sneak past the more heavily guarded areas and made their way in land in search for allied forces. They eventually found were the fleet had landed and fought their way through the enemy lines to the defence command center, where Augustus killed the commander personally, the invading forces then took the advantage and slew the remainder of the enemy defenders.
Reports of his actions filtered through the chain of command and he was transferred into the SAS and deployed in Africa were he took part in several small raids on enemy camps and bases, successfully sabotaging a convoy and holding out against an Italian advance. He made a name for himself after organising the defence of a small port that was being used to bring in light armour and troops. They had fought off a larger Italian force and pushed them back into the desert, however rather then letting the enemy forces escape he ordered the defenders to give chase and they crushed the retreating Italians. Later he faced a court-marshal for leaving his post virtually undefended, leaving only a skeleton defence at the port while the main body chased down the Italians. The charges were later dropped when reports of the mass casualties sustained by the Italians reached the hearing.
Military Rank:
- Lieutenant or as high as this app will get me. What do you think it deserves?
Writing Sample:
The last rays of the warm desert sun were cascading down upon the smooth, calm ocean. The light reflected off its surface with a dazzling brilliance that captured everyone’s attention. The sheer beauty of it was enough to make people stop and gaze, lost in the reflection on the water. That beauty was soon to be disturbed. The bow of a large freight ship cut through the calm flat waters of the sea, in its wake it left the water disturbed and churning, the reflection twisting into a deformed shape of its former beauty.
The ship was moving slowly towards the port, its Capitan skilfully bringing its massive bulk around to come alongside a wharf that had been build out into the sea, were the water was deep enough for large ships such as this to unload its cargo. The ship came to a halt and lines were thrown over to the wharf, securing the ship in place before it began unloading. Massive cranes on the deck of the ship came to life, swinging their great arms around and lifting platforms from the deck that held light tanks on them. The cranes hefted the tanks off the deck with ease and rotated until the machines of war hung over the wharf.
Meanwhile men where scurrying about on the deck and on the wharf, most carrying smaller goods and cargo off the ship while others lifted fresh supplies onto it. Everything was being done quickly and efficiently, just as a military operation should be done. As the first of many tanks was lowered down to the wharf a line of soldiers began marching off the ship. They reached the wharf and separated into two rows before coming to attention. They stood like stone statues and their stillness almost seemed unnatural amongst the hurried activity around them. A door burst open from a building on the wharf and a Major strolled out, followed closely by two assistants. He was talking quickly to one while signing something that the other had held in front of him on a clipboard. Finally the two assistants peeled away and quickly walked off to set about their duties.
The Major stopped in front of the men and peered at each of them for a few seconds before casually folding his hands behind his back and pacing in front of them.
“You’re late gentlemen, you were meant to be on the last ship that docked here two days ago, along with the rest of your unit.” The Major smiled in an unnervingly friendly way, his voice was not harsh nor judging, it was almost as if he were talking to a bunch of children.
“Anyone care to explain?”
No one moved except for Augustus Kane, who stepped forward and saluted the Major. As the ranking officer it was his duty to explain why they had been late, and it was his responsibility to take the brunt of the punishment that would be issued. They had been delayed by a truck that had collided with a jeep and had blocked the road to the docks were they were meant to link up with the rest of their unit and sail off with them. Due to the crash they had missed the ship, and the ship they had come in on was the only one that was due to set sail for this port. “Sir, we were-“ But as Kane started to speak the Major raised a hand and backhanded him, the sheer shock of the blow more then the force caused him to stumble back, but he didn’t clutch at his face, all he did was return to standing at attention.
“I don’t want your excuses! You’re response to that question is No Excuse Sir!”
Immediately Kane repeated. “No excuse Sir!.”
“And the rest of you!”
“No excuse Sir!” The soldiers shouted in unison. The Majors unnervingly friendly attitude had disappeared and been replaced by the anger and rage that the soldiers knew. They were use to angry superiors; raging men with fancy badges who believed the sun shone out their pants and didn’t care for anyone below their rank.
“Now because you so called soldiers couldn’t make the boat, your unit has continued on without you, and when I asked your commander what he wanted done with you lot he said I could keep you until they came back.” He switched back to his friendly voice, personally Kane would have preferred if he kept yelling. “So that means you lot belong to me now. Report to the barracks and await orders, you lot will have the night shift as guards.” The Major gave them a smile and turned on his heel, then looked back at Kane and pointed to him, then motioned him to follow. Kane turned to his men and shouted for them to disperse before following the Major.
They walked up the wharf and into the small town. The houses were normally filled with civilians who worked at the dock and there were only a few shops, but they had been boarded up or were being used as storehouses, at the end of the street there was a checkpoint that was guarded by five soldiers with rifles and tommy guns. . They were lazing about smoking and idly chatting to each other before they spotted the Major and snapped to attention. The Major walked up to the Guard Capitan who stood ridged, he had a black eye and Kane guessed that it wasn’t from an encounter with enemy forces.
“We’ve been reinforced, this is their officer, make use of him and his men.” And that was all he said. He pointed at Kane and was about to say something more when the sound of mortars echoed over the town. The men looked around and started to run for cover but before they had even taken a step a shell landed on the checkpoint, exploding and shredding the men with shrapnel. The Major fell back against Kane just as another round landed in front of him, the Majors body took the brunt of the hit and both men were knocked to the ground. Kane pushed the Majors body off and looked down at him, his chest had been peppered with shrapnel and his eyes stared like those of a porcelain doll.
Kane’s hearing returned slowly as more mortars rounds struck the town. Between the explosions he could hear the checkpoint guards screaming in pain. Kane grabbed the Guard Capitan and dragged him into cover before checking to see were he had been hit. There was no blood on him, no visible injury but the man was screaming as if his leg had been blown off. He would be useless but Kane tried to get some sense out of him.
“Where’s the barracks?” Kane shouted over the pounding of the mortars, but all he got as an answer was more screaming and whimpering. This guy truly was useless. Kane grabbed the mans tommy gun and ammo belt off him and got to his feet. The soldier started crying and grabbed onto Kane’s leg, not wanting to be left alone. Kane lifted the tommy gun up and drove the butt of it into the mans face, knocking him out and kicking his limp hand off his boot.
The shells had stopped raining and Kane poked his head out and looked past the checkpoint out into the desert. The smoke from the mortars gave their position away, but they were behind a dune and Kane could just see a spotter on the crest of the dune. Suddenly he got to his feet and lifted his weapon in the air, seconds later more men appeared on the crest and charged down it. Kane slung his tommy gun onto his shoulder and picked up a rifle, he lifted it to his shoulder as he knelt and rested his elbow on his knee for added support before bringing the sights up to lock onto one of the Italian soldiers. He heard a call of “Friendly” behind him as his men came running up to him. He didn’t look around at them and instead pulled the trigger, taking the kick of the rifle and quickly bolting another round into the chamber. He adjusted his aim and fired again, dropping the soldier. Soon his men opened up and more Italians hit the sand. Why were they charging like this? It was suicide… Unless.
Kane turned to look at his men, he recognised most of the faces but a few were new, he ran back to one of them and shouted over the gunfire. “Is there another road into the town?”
The soldier nodded and lead him back into the town, they met up with more men who were running towards the sounds of gunfire. Kane ordered most of the soldiers to follow him while the others went to reinforce the first checkpoint. They made their way to the north of the town and saw that Italians forces had entered the city through the north checkpoint, its guards lay dead on the road and the Italians were charging into the streets. Grenades were going off as the Italians threw them into windows before charging into the buildings, standard breach and clear tactics.
Kane’s men opened up on them and felled a squad before the other Italians returned fire, forcing Kane and his men into cover behind buildings and cars. They would have started trading volleys but the Italians had numbers on their side and more were streaming into the streets every minute. It sounded like the Italians were advancing on their position, the shots getting louder as they got closer. Kane could almost see what was going to happen. The Italians would come around the corner and the first few might get shot by Kane and his men, but the next lot to poke their heads around would be able to pick them off.
“Fall Back!” Kane said as he dropped the rifle and brought the tommy gun into his hands, he blindly swung it around the corner of the building and sprayed bullets, hoping to at least buy him and his men some time to get back to a safer position. The screams of pain from the Italians told him he had at least hit something. They ran back down the street trying to find a house to hold up in, bullets followed them and a few men fell to the road as they got hit. Kane rounded a corner then leant out and fired back. There were too many of them, they would have to retreat back to the dock.
He was about to order the fall back again but stopped himself as a grinding sound reached him. Looking back towards the docks he could see the light tank that had been unloaded before the attack rolling up the road, its stubby cannon rotating to the side as it passed Kane and his men. They could hear the shocked shouts from the Italians as the tank came into their view, then it fired and every noise was replaced by a loud ringing sound. Kane used hand signals to order the men to advance with the tank and they moved out into the street as the tank began its advance.
One of his men from the first checkpoint came up to him and shouted that they had held off the attackers and had taken the mortar teams out. Kane ordered him to gather the remaining troops from the first checkpoint and flank around to the north to catch their main force off guard. The soldier disappeared and Kane continued on, pushing the invaders back out of the town. The tank came to a halt as it reached the checkpoint and Kane bashed on the hull.
“Continue the advance, their behind the dunes!” The tank driver looked out at the sand then nodded and fired the engine back into life. Kane pointed to a few men and ordered them to secure the checkpoint while the rest were to follow him. Gunfire could be heard over the dunes witch meant that Kane’s other men had engaged the main force. Kane lead his men into the sand dunes and charged up the slope, cresting the dune to see a convoy of trucks rushing off into the desert, a lot of Italians were still boarding other trucks but they were being gunned down from the opposite sand dune. Kane’s men opened fire on the retreating enemy while the tank went around the dune to try and find a spot that wasn’t so steep.
Once it had found its slope the tank rained shell after shell down onto the convoy, smashing trucks and scattering infantry with its stubby cannon. But many of the trucks had made their escape. Kane ordered the chase to collect the mortars and continue, he wanted to get as many of the invaders as possible and they were out in the desert for about four hours before they caught up with the convoy that had stopped, believing it was safe, in order to try and figure out were they where meant to go.
Kane decided a little irony was needed, and he ordered his men to set up the enemy’s mortars. There were still enough rounds left and they rained down upon the Italians before the tank advanced and joined in the bombardment. It was quite dark by the time Kane and his men returned to the docks.
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