Author's Note

Hey everyone

Here we are. Another chapter in our story inching us ever closer to the assault on Okinawa. Now as much as I would like to tell you all that the next chapter will be out in a timely manner, I really can't. Because I've got finals in two weeks and now's the time to start studying! You can all expect another Journal Entry Chapter sometime in a week or so, but as far as the next content chapter, that might not be out until maybe mid-December. I don't really have a cohesive schedule for it at the moment, but it'll be out eventually.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!

Ch.16: Cruel Bombs

Ch.19: Cruel Bombs

The sea lapped calmly at the side of the gray, melancholic Navy vessel Luna found herself standing on. Gone were the lush jungles of Guadalcanal, now replaced with a sight she had eerily become all too familiar with. Leaning over the sides of the railing, she gazed at what was undeniably Okinawa, looking pristine and peaceful on this warm, fresh morning. She shielded her eyes from the sun that just peaked over the summit of a mountain, its rays very annoyingly shining into her retinas. But soon, a cloud blew in front of that pesky star and her eyes were safe to look around once more.

"And here we are, Miss Luna," he held out his arms encompassing the island, "Once again, we find ourselves on the morning of a landing. And thankfully, the last time I'll have to see one again with my own eyes."

"Here's to that, babe," she inserted a little sarcasm.

"Don't get snippy with me, woman," he smiled.

At the tail end of his sentence, a loud BANG! from the vessel to their left sounded off, making her jump into James in surprise. Another shot from behind them, a loud FSSSSHHH! FSHHH FSSHHH! from the destroyer to their right firing off cylindrical shapes James called 'rockets' soon joined the fray. A cacophonous, piercing BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! from the battleship a ways down struck her sternum, pushing her back ever so slightly. Every ship began, in her mind, firing off every gun they had on their decks. What they did to the shores of Cape Gloucester didn't even compare to the raw, dominant show of strength and firepower these Americans were pouring onto the beach. The bombardment became so deafening, she could barely hear herself think, let alone hear anything James might say. She cupped her hands over her long ears, swiveling them back behind her head to protect them.

Gazing out at Okinawa, the once pristine tropical paradise was now a smoking, ashy hellscape, a maelstrom of exploding ordinance and napalm. Planes launched from aircraft carriers strafed to and fro, adding their own explosives to the assault. After three continuous minutes of bombardment, she looked expectantly at the ships, thinking they would stop or run out of ammunition, but yet they continued.

"Goddess!" she yelled over the commotion, "How can anyone survive that?"

"I don't know. But they always survived. I'm sure the most this did was tickle them in their cots underground," James yelled back. He too was covering his ears and gazing at the smoking shore.

After a few more seconds, the bombardment finally ceased, giving Luna's eardrums a much needed reprieve from the constant cacophony of noise.

Her pause didn't last long before a metallic CREAK and an opening of a door came from behind her. Turning, she spied the familiar sight of James and Howard coming on deck, the two of them putting their caps in their uniforms, but wearing no gear yet.

"Now, where have we seen this before?" James sarcastically muttered in reference to the beach, lighting up a chestnut pipe with Howard's lighter.

"I'd reckon Gloucester and Peleliu, Jim," Howard lit his cigarette, shielding it from the sea breeze with his hand before closing it with a CLINK, "Intelligence is expecting 80% causalities just on the beach."

"God damn...," James cursed, "Looks like I'm gonna have my work cut out for me. Least as long as I ain't dead as soon as I hit the beach."

Howard grunted, taking a drag of smoke and blowing it out, "I don't even know why we bomb the island's anymore. Must be a formality at this point. Hey there Japs! We're ready to fight!," he proclaimed in a mocking tone, making a few obscene gestures along with it.

James chuckled at his friend's antics, taking another drag on his pipe and breathing out, "You want the Tommy on the beach?"

"Nah, you're more of a target than I on that beach. You keep it for now. You'll need it more. Besides, if I die, I want to die holding Charlene," Luna could only guess he was referring to his rifle.

"Charlene? Out of all the girl's names you could have picked, you picked Charlene? That's such an ugly name," James joked.

"What do you got against Charlene? Charlene back home in Canton not give you any pussy?" Howard shot back.

"Shut up!" the weak comeback caused Howard to burst out into hard, ridiculing but good-natured chuckles. To which, James responded with a forceful shove, causing the short Texan to laugh at his friend harder.

Luna's ear swiveled, picking up the familiar, low drone of a plane engine, and the two men seemed to pick it up too, "Guess the flyboys are back at it again," Howard continued to calm himself from his chuckles.

But no blue Navy or Marine planes flew past them. Instead, she spotted a formation of planes in the distance flying at a steady speed over the island, heading straight towards them.

Next to Howard, James seemed to notice this too, "I don't think it's our flyboys, Howard."

The planes were getting bigger and bigger, where Luna could make out a distinct white paint job.

"Zeroes! Jap Zeroes!" A sailor a deck above them yelled. Sailors began scrambling around as a loud alarm went off, causing her to swivel her ears back.

"This is not a drill. This is not a drill. General quarters. General quarters. All hands man your battlestations!"

A flurry of red and orange tracers rocketed towards the incoming formations as each ship realized what was happening. The low drone of cruising aircraft soon broke into wild whines and dips, the Zeroes breaking formation and engaging their chosen targets.

Soon, all that was once left of the pleasant tropical morning was the beautiful sunrise off on the horizon, the rest being drowned out in the fierce fighting. But even this was being covered with a whirlwind of turbulent, intense gunfire, the blackish puffs of smoke blotting out the beautiful colors. Her ears were filled only by steady THOOM THOOM THOOM THOOM! of the ship's AA guns and the RATTA RATTA RATTA TAT of the .50 cals.

Already, flaming masses fell from the sky as the skilled anti-aircraft crews found their marks. The mangled wreckages crashed gracelessly into the eager mouth of the ocean which swallowed them whole. But Luna's eyes grew disinterested with the fates of the pilots that were shot down. Rather, she was focused intently on one Jap pilot who was in a terrible, irreversible dive towards an aircraft carrier, his machine guns firing wildly at refueling planes. And he was getting awfully close!

"What's he doing?" Luna asked James. He, however, said nothing, and gestured for her to keep watching.

"No...," Howard muttered, "There's no way he'll go through with it."

The gunners of the aircraft carrier threw everything they had at this swan-diving pilot. Gray-black puffs of smoke seemed to hug every piece of his plane as they tried desperately to stop his advance. A swift metallic creak pierced her ears as the ship executed an evasive maneuver, turning a hard left rudder in an attempt to avoid what was coming.

For those brief, horrible moments, Luna's breath hitched in her throat. In her many times watching James' memories of the war, she found herself completely stunned and horrified by what she was witnessing. Her apathy for the Japanese, for a brief moment, evaporated, being replaced with what she could only describe as quiet horror for what she thought the pilot was about to do.

It was as she feared.

BOOOOOOOOOOMM!

The aircraft carrier, the Enterprise she gleaned off of the chattering of the sailors above her, went up in a huge, orange flames, set ablaze as quick as a dry forest. The fire was intense, even from this distance. The wind blew towards her and she felt the powerful heat slam into her face, enough to cause her to shield herself from it. A secondary explosion went off, reigniting the flames anew as she saw tiny specks scramble around on the flat deck of the carrier. Some poor souls were swept right off its edge, blown away by the force of the shockwave.

"Holy shit!" Howard screamed in shock over the AA gunfire above, "They got the Enterprise!"

James, next to him, gasped in surprise, grabbed Howards right arm, and threw him to the ground, "And they're about to get us too! Get down!"

Luna, with only a split second, whipped around to see a Jap Zero gunning straight for the bridge of the troop transport ship. Out of reflex, she too threw herself on the deck, covering her head as she did.

KERRROOOOOOOOOWWW!

The most disturbing, unsettling CREAK of metal followed short after, the ship rocking to port from its sudden collision. If the explosion from the Enterprise was loud, this one was deafening. Luna clawed at her ears, trying vainly to rid them of their intense ringing. Extreme heat hugged her backside as the gasoline from the plane's engine burned bright and fiercely. She ground her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, her senses struggling to drown out the violent stimulus bombarding her. James laid a hand on her back to comfort her, his other hand over his ears as well.

For a few seconds, all four of them laid there, desperately trying to recover from what they'd experienced. Howard was the first to get up.

"Jim, you ok?" he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and shook it.

"I'm fine. Are you ok?"

"Nothing hit me! Just a few scratches on my leg from shrapnel! Nothing serious," he looked up at the deck above them near the bridge, noting that the AA crew firing a few moments before had gone silent, "We gotta check on those squids up there! They might've gotten hit!"

Howard scrambled to his feet, James weakly following in his example, and ambled his way up the steep Naval stairs. He threw up a hand to protect his eyes from the blaze as he sprinted up. The corpsman, recovering from his shock, speedily ran after him, with Luna and James hot on his heels too.

Scrambling up, she was immediately made aware of the pilot's fate, or perhaps one of the AA gunner's fate, as she saw Howard slip a little on a patch of pinkish-red mush on the floor. She cringed, the juicy meat sound it made extremely unnerving to her. A piece of scalp with singed, onyx hair stuck to one of the doors on the ship and a half-finger lay by the railing, cut off at the middle joint.

Most of the crew lay dead, two face down with shrapnel cuts visible deep into their backs. They made no moves, looking eerily still, characteristic of freshly made dead corpses. A steady stream of blood pooled around their mangled, metal-ridden bodies, boiling as the fire inched ever so closer to them. The other two were in the blaze, laying motionless, the flames eating their corpses whole like a swarm of angry insects.

But one was alive, laying near the gun by the ammunition. His hands were up, his palms facing out trying to cover his face, and he squirmed desperately, feeling around in the air for something, anything, to grab onto and pull himself away. And unfortunately for him, the fire was creeping ever closer to his legs and towards the unfired AA ammunition.

Time was of the essence and the pair of them knew it. James was the first to reach the crewman, giving him a quick onceover and grabbing his shoulders, "Come on son! We got to move!"

"I can't see," his hands thrashed even wilder in the air, grimacing with a deep frown, "I can't fucking SEE!"

The man was getting more agitated and panicked, kicking his legs around. James shouted, "Howard, grab his left. I'll get his right!"

The fire was merely a few feet away by now. Any moment it would detonate.

The patient, on his part, seemed to be doing everything he could to wrest himself away from the pair trying to save his life, "What's happening? Why can't I see? Somebody help me! Please someone help me!"

"We're trying! C'mon, work with me kid! Work with me! You're gonna to be ok, but you have to help me before I can help you!" James pleaded with him. His eyes widened, panic starting to settle in, the fire mere inches away from the ammo magazine.

Getting far enough away, the two men set the crewman down on the deck, throwing their bodies over him, "Hang on kid!"

WHAM BAAAAAAAAAAM

The shockwave from the detonating ammunition slammed into the group, knocking Luna and James back against the railing. She shielded her eyes, feeling the incredible heat on her face, and swiveled her ears back. No doubt if this was a real situation and not just a memory, her chest and stomach would surely be burned to a crisp.

Fortunately, it seemed the three men below them had avoided such a fate, Howard's and James' clothes having some minor burn marks and perhaps some superficial burns. They stayed glued to the ground for a few more moments, making sure there would be no secondary explosion from undetonated munitions.

A few seconds later, the Marine and corpsman removed themselves from the injured sailor and Luna was finally able to get a good look at the damages. Of course, his face was badly cut up, with shrapnel cuts across his eyelids and likely some across his eyes. His cheeks were riddled with lacerations, one big one going from the corner of his mouth up to his cheekbones, and it looked deep. His hair was singed - Some patches of it were incinerated, leaving crimson, bald spots in what was once deep, chestnut hair. His blue denim shirt and lifejacket were burned, but thankfully, they seemed to have protected his chest and abdomen well enough to avoid much of the blast. Unfortunately, his sides were not so lucky.

Luna never knew that flesh could be so black and disgusting when burned this fiercely. Multiple burns hugged his back and sides, the once tender, supple flesh now more akin to charcoal than skin. The burns were deep and she doubted that this sailor would make it, no matter what James said to comfort and reassure him.

"We gotta get him to medical," James muttered under his breath to Howard.

"Oh really? NO shit, ya think?" the Texan lobbed back, "I don't think this kid'll even make it below deck, let alone to the medical bay. I mean, look at his back! I don't see how anyone could come back from that!"

"I know, but we gotta try! Even if it's just a chance!" James asserted.

They grabbed him by his limbs, the man screeching with pain as they lifted him up.

"Marines! What are you doing above deck?" a shout came from above them. Looking up, she spotted a young Ensign, clad in his clean, pressed trousers and uniform, likely just out of whatever academy he came from, leaning over the rails looking down at them.

"Sir! This man was hit by the Jap plane and needs a doctor! We're taking him down to medical!" Howard yelled back to the officer.

"Acknowledged. When you're done, stay below deck in the staging area! You'll be launching soon!" the Ensign ordered.

"Aye sir!" James yelled back, making for the stairs.

Awkwardly, the pair of them ambled back down the stairs with their causality in hand. They carried him about 10 meters down the deck before James stopped them both. He gazed down at the seaman's vacant, expressionless face and frowned. He set him down on the callous, gray metal floor, Howard following in his example, and sighed.

The man was dead.

Howard sighed too, "Well I guess that's it then."

"I guess it is," James parroted back, leaving the corpse and opening the door to below deck, "C'mon. There's nothing we can do for him now. We best be getting back to the staging area - I'm sure the Captain might be wondering where we are."

Howard gave the seaman one last look before following his friend down into the dark depths of the ship, "I think I'll go a little easier on these squids..."

The scene faded out, but instead of fading to black, Luna found herself back on the deck of the troop ship, this time higher up by the bridge, with a pristine view of the battle going on around them.

"They just don't give up, do they?" Luna gestured towards a flaming Jap plane, shot down during a dive towards a mean-looking battleship, "I mean, I thought I'd seen everything. I've seen the Japs shoot, stab, blow themselves up, make suicidal charges into certain death, and just about every irrational thing I can think of," she counted each horrible thing off on her fingers, "But, this..., this here takes the cake."

She continued her tangent, "After all this, I don't think I should even be surprised by this, but I am. How? How can one group of pon- people be so fanatical? I've dealt with ancient magical moon cults who were less passionate than this," she croaked out, leaning up against the rails with James joining her.

The man sighed, holding a neutral look on his face, "Cause they're Japs," he remarked.

And there it was. Now, she understood why Howard had said those three simple words to James all those weeks ago. Of everything she'd seen, all the memories she had witnessed, all she had learned, in her mind, there was no other way to rationalize it.

The AA fire started to die down, the Zeroes either having all found their marks or shot down. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fuselage, engine parts, and other pieces of plane rocked in the tumultuous surf below them. Smoking, immense columns of smoke spewed from all kinds of vessels, battleships, destroyers, cruisers, carriers, none were spared by the Japanese's fatal attack.

"Goddess, that was terrifying," Luna looked up at her man, "I..., I can't even imagine what it must've felt like to be attacked in this way."

He sighed, "It is as you said. Terrifying. I think at the time, I had grown so used to, these types of incidents, that I didn't really realize the gravity of my situation. Now, reliving it with you, it is sobering to really see and reflect on how close I was to death here. Just a shift to the right by that pilot and Howard and I would be nothing more than a thick paste on the walls."

"Thank the Goddess he missed you."

"Aye. Thank her indeed," he muttered. There was a natural pause in the conversation with the both of them taking in the aftermath of what they'd seen, gazing at ships, watching as the crews of brave men fight with the fires raging on their ships.

"Well, guess we'll keep moving on. We've got a whole battle just waiting for the two of us," he looked down at her with a little concern, "You sure you want to keep going tonight? Just want to make sure."

"Aye, I will be fine. Thank you though, James. But I think I'll be well enough to continue," she squeezed out a weak smile, flipping a piece of her mane out of the way of her eyes.

"Well then, after repulsing the Jap attack, we loaded up into our Higgins boats, each man anxious for what lay ahead, and steamed towards the coast of Okinawa."

"Most would not come back, including some of the oldest members of B/2/7."