Staff Sergeant Alan Edwards vaulted out of the FAV and streaked across the battlefield toward the big Hind.  One hand was already on a hand grenade when he noticed an American solider motioning for him to come toward the large helo.  Alan had been planning to chuck a pineapple in the doorway to stop what he assumed would be disgorging Soviet troops.  He nodded and kept moving rapidly to bird, hand coming off the frag.

"What the fuck over?" he said, looking at the gentlemen in the thong?  "Where did you guys come from, the shore?"

Staff Sergeant Edwards didn't wait for an answer.  He saw another US solider moving toward the helo and he turned around and ran to help the injured trooper.

"Come on Sir, I got you," he said over the prop wash, noticing Barr's rank as he put one arm around the LT to help him along to the chopper.  For a moment, central Poland almost became the set of Uncommon Valor.


This message was last edited by the GM at 22:36, Mon 23 Sept 2013.

"Easy Chingachgook, I can make it." Barr said, referencing J.F. Cooper's most famous novel and a personal favorite of the Carolinian.  Gavin felt like shit, but damned if he was going give Staff Sergeant fuckin America the satisfaction of being any more of a hero.  Maybe he was just pissed because of all the adrenalin in his system, but he didn't want to be side by side with supertrooper here.  No need to invite the comparison.

"Kinky," Barr said with a gruff nod as he boarded the chopper and saw the oiled up man wearing the crotch sling.  "Just so we are clear, my type," Gav said, pointing to the blond, before adding, "Not my type" shifting his finger to point at the helo's submissive boy toy.

In reply to 1LT Gavin Barr (msg # 3):

"<<No moof no, so toe, yak toe viwanchich do yasnih holernay?!?>> the blonde helicopter pilot shouted at the man on his stomach over the rotorwash. She pointed to a machine on the cabin wall with electrical cables running to the external speakers mounted in the helicopter's ceiling. "C'mon Loverboy, how in the fuck do you turn that shit off?!?"

In reply to CW3 Gabriela Novak (msg # 4):

The man in his underpants struggled to his feet. The dirt on the floor had mixed with the oil on his skin, making him a slimy, filthy mess on his front side while being greasy but clean-er on his back. He still hand his hands and feet bound, so he hopped up and down, making his gold chain with circular medallion bounce up and down on his chest.

Turning around to get his hands at the machine, he flipped a switch, and the Johnny Cash turned to Tom Jones. He looked at the blonde pilot and shrugged in a very Eastern European 'whaddya want from me I just work here' sort of way.

In reply to Loverboy (msg # 5):

...sex-bomb, sex-bomb...

The blonde pilot looked at him and shook her head. She then looked at the two Americans and sized them up in an instant.

...and baby you can turn me on...

"Don't kill him yet, we need him" the blonde screamed indicating Loverboy. She screamed to the Staff Sergeant in his ear as he held up the wounded Barr. At a range further than half a meter, there was no chance of being heard even with shouting. "Either one of you two know how to work this ship's chin twenty mike-mike?"

Alan had foreign weapons training during his Marauder training at Bad Tolz and he had been using captured Soviet equipment ever since.  While they didn't have a Hind back in German, Alan bet he could figure it out; or literally die trying.

"I'M ON IT, HUA!" he said with way too much enthusiasm, before putting his clenched hand out for a fist pound.  It was exactly the type of douche-bag thing you would expect from a junior snake eater with a mohawk.

In reply to SSG Alan Edwards (msg # 7):

"WOW ok maybe a little too much enthusiasm there" the blonde pilot shouted at the Jersey native. She turned to Loverboy, who was standing there watching the threesome communicate in English.

...sexbomb...

The Hind A's speaker system continued to croon at maximum volume.

"VI-lanch, doopereloo!" she screamed at Loverboy, pointing to the machine.

"What about you Lieutenant?" the woman asked the FSO.

"Yeah Coach, I'll just walk this off and get right on it." Gavin said, pouring some water from his canteen into one hand and using to clean the grime and blood from his face so he could see a bit better.

"Alright, let's see if Mother Russia uses DC power like we do for shit like this." Barr said, looking for a way to unplug the power to the speakers.

OCC:
07:28, Today: 1LT Gavin Barr rolled 84 using 1d100. ELC Check. Makes an easy roll, but not average

In reply to 1LT Gavin Barr (msg # 9):

Even wounded Gavin Barr was 'still in the fight' as the trendy thirtysomethings who ran war colleges all over the world and had never fired a shot in anger liked to say. Tom Jones was quickly replaced by one of the snappier numbers by The Cure.

After a second or two The Cure was replaced by a young charismatic voice speaking English with a slight Russian(or possibly Ukrainian) accent. The recording was in the middle, and at the end, it repeated itself.

"Hello my American friends. This is Major General Rubachenko. I am commander of 21st Motor Rifle Division. Please understand I am like you; a soldier. I don't want to see any more death on either side. Surrender, and I promise as an officer of the Soviet Union that you will be treated with the respect you deserve."

OOC:

One XP ELC for Barr

"I'm sure that's looking pretty tempting for some of our boys given shit for brain's 'You are on your own' edict." Gavin said.  Of course the respect he thinks we deserve may be hard labor in Siberia the FSO thought to himself.

"Alright, once is enough," Barr said and tried to shut off the psiwar gear once more.

OOC: 07:22, Today: 1LT Gavin Barr rolled 77 using 1d100. ELC Check. - Pretty much the same as before.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 11:25, Thu 26 Sept 2013.

In reply to 1LT Gavin Barr (msg # 11):

With a quick segway into The Petshop Boys after Rubachenko's repeating offer to surrender, the FSO was able to switch off the heart of the 'squawkbox', which looked like 70's-era technology made somewhere east of the Iron Curtain.

Currently the only noise was the Hind's idling engines and rotorblades spinning at 70%. All four people seemed appreciative of Barr's efforts, and even Loverboy gave a relieved nose wiggle, which made the yellow-tinted shooting glasses on his face rise up and down for dramatic effect.

OOC: ESY RCN for Edwards, please

In reply to Niewiele Dupek (msg # 12):

"Thank you" the blonde pilot said, rubbing the side of her temple. "Nice moustache, by the way. The word 'Odporność' doesn't mean what you think it does, I promise you that."

"Listen up, you two" she said louder, speaking more to Ssg Edwards than 1Lt Barr, "I just used up the last of my five-sevens saving you two. I know where there are some more, but it's going to be...well, hairy, let's just put it that way. We could just fly off into the sunset as they say and hope the chin gun will be enough. Either way, I need someone in the back watching Loverboy and someone up front working the twenty mike mike. What's it to be?"

"Gotta have ammo to kill Ivan," Edwards said, as it if the answer was obvious.

"Let's go get that dope and beer!" Alan said as he adjusted his package before he sat down into the gunner pit of the Hind.  No sense in not being comfortable and the thought of gunning down some godless Commies with the 20mm and obtaining more ammo had already started to excite him even more.

Barr was having is own issues with excitement, but it had less to do with the chopper's firepower and more to do with its pilot.  Most of Barr's encounters with female Polish speakers had involved love not war.

"You know the great thing about not speaking Polish, is that no means.. well I don't fucking know actually.  They just keep saying za duży... za duży.  Or some shit like that."  Barr said with a wink.  He turned around to deal with loverboy.

"And what the hell is your deal," he yelled at the oily almost naked man on the floor of the hind.  "English motherfucker, do you speak it?" he asked, relying on 'Loud English' as the universal communications method for now.

In reply to 1LT Gavin Barr (msg # 15):

The pilot watched the taxingly energetic Ssg Edwards jump out of the helicopter's cargo hold instead of going down the stairs built into the bottom door.

09:30, Today: Niewiele Dupek, on behalf of SSG Alan Edwards, rolled 46 using 1d100. ESY RCN.

She watched the man look around, register that a few of the Soviet soldiers the Hind had just attacked less than a minute ago were indeed shooting at them, guessed rightly that the random muzzle flashes meant they were out of range, and went to the starboard side of the helicopter and tried to get in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:15, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

In reply to Niewiele Dupek (msg # 16):

"We..we'll revisit that comment later, ok?" the English and Polish speaking woman, still watching Edwards as he tried without success to gain access to the Hind's gunner's station.

"For now, just return fire with your personal weapon and...oh" she trailed off, looking back at Barr and hos he favored his left hand. "Well, just try to make sure Loverboy doesn't fall out, ok?"

In reply to CW3 Gabriela Novak (msg # 17):

"I...got it...one piece at a time" Loverboy said slowly, nodding toward the pilot when 1Lt Barr sat down on the bench seat next to him. Heavily accented in a foreign language similar to Russian, 1Lt Barr realized the man was quoting word for the Cash song he heard earlier.

"...and it didn't cost me...a dime" he said in disgust, wrinkling his nose with this last part as he nodded once more at the female pilot. He spit with disgust, and the loogie landed a third of a meter away from him towards the front of the chopper.

In reply to Loverboy (msg # 18):

The blonde pilot led the Jersey native to the other side of the helicopter while trying to stay low. Jersey just followed. When they got to the other side, she crouched low, reaching up and toggling the armored glass door open. Ssg Edwards climbed in and adjusted himself unceremoniously. The pilot continued her brief only after putting the flight headphones on Edwards herself.

In reply to Niewiele Dupek (msg # 19):

"Ssg Edwards, I'm CW3 Novak" she explained quickly. "You can call me Ma'am or Ms. Novak. Listen to what I say very carefully, as all our lives depend on it."

CW3 Novak looked around, then shook her head at the quickly detoriorating tactical situation and continued. "Here's the sight, zoom it thus, here's the handgrips for the weapons systems, you aim the ATGM missles with that sight there, keep your feet off the pedals. Any questions, ask me in the air."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:40, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

In reply to CW3 Gabriela Novak (msg # 20):

Gaby Novak crouched low as she sprinted to the other side of the chopper. Looking into the cabin at Barr, she pointed to her headset, then another on the wall on a hook hanging a meter or so from where the FSO was sitting. With both hands she slammed shut the bottom door half; one of two that sealed the Hind's cargo bay. When she opened her armored pilot's door with a quick pull of the toggle and climbed inside, Gavin was already wearing the headset.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:42, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

In reply to Niewiele Dupek (msg # 21):

"Here we go" Novak said to herself after plugging back into the helicopter's internal communication system.


10:14, Today: CW3 Gabriela Novak rolled 1 using 1d100. ESY RWP.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:17, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

In reply to CW3 Gabriela Novak (msg # 22):

Novak applied power to the ship's engines with a twist on the collective. The massive engines roared to life as the American-born woman of Polish extraction pulled up hard on the collective. In an instant, they were in the air a few meters off the ground.

A pull to the right on the cyclic made the huge Hind turn sharply as it rose in altitude. The effect was jarring to all except the most seasoned pilots and a few Polish bus drivers before the war, but instantly Gavin Barr and Alan Edwards felt uneasy and possibly sick to their stomachs.

Loverboy slid off the bench seat right away leaving a slimy trail the biggest snail would have been proud off. When he came to stop on the far side of the helicopter's cabin, Barr could see him wrinkling his nose, making his yellow shooting glasses move up and then down in his characteristic fashion.

Novak kept them at only 5-10m altitude as they flew first east, then south, then to the west. It might have been safer, but the NOE flying didn't really show any of them the overall battlefield strategic situation as they only say no more than a few hundred meters squared at a time. The constant rising and falling of the Mi-24 Hind A model as its pilot strained to keep them all as low as possible was unnerving to the two ground pounders.

OOC:  AVG CON rolls, please
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:38, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

In reply to Loverboy (msg # 18):

"Johnny Cash huh?" Barr said with a laugh.  He crouched down and gave the guy a friendly pat on the back.  "That's real horrorshow comrade, real horrorshow" Gavin said, mixing English with what passed for Russian in the halls of the Virginia Military Institute.

Pulling on the headset, Gavin readied himself for take-off.  He hadn't spent much time in helos and when the massive chopper leapt skyward with a turn, the Artillery Officer was lucky to keep his lunch down.

"Err... fuck it," Gav said, about to ask for some relief from the aerial antics, but realizing that on an active battlefield, the gut-churning maneuvers might be the only thing keeping them alive.

OOC:05:51, Today: 1LT Gavin Barr rolled 57 using 1d100. CON Check (70).  Makes it. 

"Copy that Chief Novak!" Edwards said, not following directions well on form of address, but certainly embracing the concept of chain of command.  Staff Sergeant Edwards wasn't exactly bright (INT-8), but he could be trained and he generally retained what he had been shown how to do (EDU-14).

On take-off, Edwards fared a bit better than the officer in the back, but despite looking like a duck, quacking like a duck, and walking like a duck, he wasn't tabbed Airborne.  Alan was mech infantry, 11 Mike, who had gone through the 5th ID LRRC training cycle in Bad Tolz.  But none of that training covered Airborne or Air Assault operations, so he had even less time in helicopters than Barr did.

What Alan did have was a mohawk and the sincere belief that 10 weeks of physical fitness, weapons handling, land navigation, vehicle handling, maintenance, and escape and evasion techniques had some how vaulted him into Army's elite special operations community.  It was a powerful placebo and Edwards greeted the unexpected maneuvers with a few exclamations of "HUA!", as if acting like he was trying to enjoy the ride would somehow make it so.

OOC: 05:50, Today: SSG Alan Edwards rolled 13 using 1d100. CON Check (70).
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:29, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

In reply to 1LT Gavin Barr (msg # 24):

After sliding to the starboard side of the cabin, the juking and shaking the helicopter did slid Loverboy back to the FSO's feet. When the man from North Carolina mentioned the Russian word for friend, Loverboy's face dropped that typical Eastern European disdain and he tried to communicate with the 1Lt in Russian.

15:20, Fri 27 Sept 2013: Niewiele Dupek, on behalf of Loverboy, rolled 6 using 1d100 ((6)).

OOC: Barr DIFF roll RUS please
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:20, Fri 27 Sept 2013.