Actual Play: A Turn

I've been running a play-by-email game for about a year now. The setting is Pre-WWII with a good helping of weird science, pulp and gun play involved. Things are winding down a bit, but I was pretty pleased with this turn, in which the group attempts to escape the secret Nazi base located somewhere beneath the ocean off the coast of Alaska. The party has managed to escape direct confrontation with the guards, rescue the two scientists who were kidnapped by the Germans, and start a really nice fire. So much for the sneaky approach. Here's the turn:

Everyone dives for cover at the sound of the grenade hitting the floor. Truck manages to stumble behind a crate, Sonoma easily vaults behind another. Elsie and Anders pull Bennett and Eisenstein into cover and Hi ducks back into open barracks door. Unfortunately Scars manages to dive straight into the side of a crate instead of over it, while Kane tries to follow Hi and ends up on the wrong side of the door. Those at the head of the group can just make out something moving in the smoke in front of them, and some shouting in German, just before the grenade goes off. The explosion seems muffled, the results indeterminant.

As the echoes die away Truck lumbers to his feet and charges across the hall to the cover provided by the crates along the right wall. He raises the heavy Bren and fires a burst up the hall, angling for the nearest doorway as Scars struggles to his feet and Sonoma waves the others
forward, then advances toward the left-hand door.

The sound of the Bren drowns out further conversation, but not the rifle fire from the sub pen doorway. Bullets riccochet down the hall and one slams into the unlucky Scars, hammering back into the crates [hurt wound].

"Move it!" shouts Sonoma to the others, grabbing Scars and pulling him across the hall to Truck's position of relative safety. Sonoma draws his pistols and lays down cover fire as the others begin to creep past, practically crawling through the dense smoke. Scars groans and rolls onto his belly, pulling his Tommy gun into firing position and bleeding all over Sonoma's boots. The exchange draws a scream from the sub pen, this time the German rifles are joined by the chatter of an SMG. One round splinters the monorail room door while a second catches Kane in the upper
arm [hurt wound]!

Anders, Elsie, Bennett and Eisenstein manage to crawl through the door into the smokey darkness beyond, leaving Sonoma, Scars and Truck on the right side of the hall and Kane and Hi on the left. "Bastards!" groans the ex-Marine as he stares at the bullet hole in his arm. "Good thing it's not my throwing hand." He pulls the pin on one of the remaining grenades, counts to six, then pitches it through the shattered doors leading to the sub pen. The pineapple sails unerringly through the door, bounces gently off the hand rail and comes to rest in the middle of the shallow ramp leading down into the pen. One of the Germans has time to shout something
before it goes off, but none have a chance to react.

The explosion this time isn't muffled at all, and the German guns fall silent. "Move!" shouts Kane, scrambling for the door, Hi in close pursuit.

Across the hall Truck and Sonoma grab Scars and practically drag him towards the monorail warehouse.

The five men pile through the door into choking smoke. Truck's quick glance through the sub pen doors does not reassure the big man. "The soldiers near the door are all down, but more are coming! And that sub is burning. REALLY burning! Let's go!"

Stumbling along the south wall, the group heads for the rail head. Sonoma in the lead, followed by Kane, helping Scars, Elsie and Anders with Bennett and Eisenstein, Hi and Truck to the rear. The smoke is thicker here and you are nearly blind as you fumble your way past piles of crates. Elsie gives a little shriek when she steps on one of the dismembered corpses laying on the floor, and Truck sends a hydraulic lift careening across the floor when he backs into it.

Behind you the red glow of the burning sub flickers through the smoke, or is that someone moving? It's impossible to say. To be sure Truck lays down a burst of Bren for luck.

It seems an eternity, but you finally stumble through the big sliding doors and into the darkness of the monorail chamber. The air here is a bit clearer, though your eyes still burn from the thick diesel smoke hanging in the air. Sonoma helps Scars into the waiting car and lays him down. The
gangster looks pale and a dark stain coats the left leg of his overalls.

"Elsie help Eisenstein and Bennett into the car, let me tend to Kane so he can set the charge."

Anders moves quickly to the engineer's side, but Kane shrugs him off, already digging into the bag for the satchel charge. "This won't take a minute. You can tend to this on the ride."

Anders sighs, then rips a strip of the tough overall fabric free, pulling a gauze pad from the first aid kit, he grabs Kane's arm half-shouting "This will take considerably less time. At least it will slow the bleeding til it can be properly tended." Working quickly he crudely bandages the wound, pulling the strips tight to stauch the flow of blood.