"I tell ya, Davey," Joost responds to Dawid as he adjusts his Polish-issue gas mask under the British Mk.6 helmet he had picked up the day before in Krakow's Rynek Glowny bazaar, "I'm not too jazzed about entering a blast zone to scavenge for materials.  But, I - like your aforementioned associates - seem to have a penchant for picking handy items from the rubble.  Probably the only useful trait I'm bringing to the table.  And it's clear after this afternoon's feast that some of us better find a way to start earning our keep that doesn't involve a trigger finger or a knife's edge."

He taps the side of his helmet twice with his left index finger in the universal signal for using one's noggin.

"Plus," he continues to survey the lay of the land as he speaks, "it's not like this is the first time I found myself trudging through an impact crater with somebody else's shopping list in hand."

Joost then addresses Bayer.  "Snowcap knows what he's talking about, Hauptmann.  I can vouch for that as I've got some experience with maintenance of maritime systems myself.  We're gonna have our best luck if we stick to former warehousing areas along the railyards near the docks."

He scans the twisted metal and concrete terrain that looms over them and jabs pointedly at Dawid's geiger counter.  "Obserwują starannie, przyjaciel."

Konrad surveys the the devastated area as the team dismounts from the Ural. Even this far away from the immediate blast zone the damage is extensive.

"Ok guys we havent much time, Tuck you and Max stay here as local security with the Ural, Blue you and Joost lead the way as you seem to know where we should be looking. Dawid and I will follow" His voice is slightly muffled by the gas mask.

Konrad clips his geiger counter to his web gear, he can hear its steady ticking easily through gas mask. Hefting his assault rifle he scans the surroundings as the group moves forward.

Konrad Bayer
G36/HK69 Burst Fire (HE Round Loaded)
Keeping watch as the group moves
This message was last edited by the player at 14:47, Mon 25 June 2007.

Tucker nods to Bayer, "Roger that!  We usin' radios here Cap'n or just reacting to contact?" he asks Bayer for specifics before they leave so everyone is on the same page.

Once that's been decided, Tucker turns to Max, "OK Maxie, time to earn our pay out here!  We get hit or if there's any contact, we got to make sure the truck gets out along with our people."

Tuck
M-16A2 [1] MAG 30 loaded/M-203 [1] HE loaded
Security at the Ural with Max

[Referee's note: Temporally, this post should be at the beginning of the thread.]

Max grinds the gears of the gear box while trying to find reverse, and first gear is always tricky in most trucks.  Its made doubly hard given the cold, harsh conditions in effect here.

Once under way, Max hears Dawids account of radiation.
"Hmm, well, I got me a bandana I'll loop around my head.  It means I look more like a pirate, or bandit, than anything else.  But its the best I've got."

Turning now to the other soldiers in the truck
"Just remember when we're out there in the field, Ii'm on your side - so no shooting the guy in the bandana, eh?"
Max finishes with a smile.

The truck bumps along the unkept road, but Max is keen to complete the journey and is also worried about stalling the truck, so he keeps the revs up and tries to make good pace.

"Sorry guys, I missed some of the background.  This place we're going, is it populated or deserted?"

[Private to Max Fosters: OOC: One of the blokes who stayed behind has lent Max a proper mask.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:19, Tue 26 June 2007.

Slinging his AK over his shoulder muzzle down, he replied with feeling, "JA oczywiście wola!"  ("I certainly will!")

"That is an excellent suggestion, we should start where the rail yards and docks used to be.  Lead the way!"

He checked out Thompson, concerned that his borrowed mask may not be fitting right and that the improvised hood wasn't enough to keep out any stray dust.  Finally, he clapped him on the shoulder and followed Bayer, Thompson and van den Hasst, checking his meter as they went.


Dawid Piotrowski,
AK-74 with 1 spare magazine, slung and safed
checking the Geiger counter.

"I'm guessing there might be a few people around so keep yer eyes and ears open.  Dawid, you know if there's anyone still out this way?  Maraudders, refugees, anything like that?" Tucker asks.

Looking up from the counter, he peered around a little nervously and shook his head.  "Nothing is certain, Tuck.  The refugees are back at the Abbey.  There no one is known to me living in these ruins, or even that come here regularly to salvage.  They say... this is a haunted place."

There was no sigh of breeze or bird chirp to break the silence, at least that he could hear under his helmet.


Dawid Piotrowski,
AK-74 with 1 spare magazine, slung and safed
Still checking the Geiger counter.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:08, Tue 26 June 2007.

Max, like everybody else, gets out the truck and looks around where they have parked.  Max hears the discussion on where to scavange, and peoples ideas for what they may find where.  But Max doesnt see the world in terms of materials.  Instead, he see's opportunities for hides and dark corners where threats may skulk.  So far Max has been quiet up to now when it comes to outfitting the Boat, and what order preperations need to be made in.  He's more comfortable in these surroundings, shocking though they are.

Max nods slowly as he completes his 360 degree scan.  The scavanging party moves out and he turns to Tucker
"Maybe we should back the truck up over there, near that fallen down house.  It may hide the truck a little more than having a perfectly good truck parked out here in the street."

Looking up at a semi-rubbled 2 story building that is nearby, Max points to the second floor
"Instead of having us both down here guarding the truck, maybe one of us could get up there.  They could provide overwatch on the person down here by the truck, and also keep an eye out on the guys heading off now, track their progress, and keep an eye out for danger too."

Turning to Tucker
"What do you think??"

Max continues to fidget with his gas mask, not sure if he has it fitted correctly, or if the rubber is sealing properly.

Tucker looks at Dawid surprised, "Haunted!?  C'mon now!  Just go and get the shit you need and we'll try to keep the ghosts away," he says to Dawid.

Robert looks at the area where Max pointed to put the truck out of plain sight and then back to him, "Not a bad idea.  Let me go and check it out real quick to make sure there's nothing to fishy with it before we move and commit.  If you want to head up top to get another view, go right ahead.  I'd do it but, I don't want to tear my stitches up by climbing up there."

"Max, I'll take a squiz at the building, you don't want it to collapse under ya do you digger." Blue adds as he strides purposefully over to the building. "C'mon mate and we'll check it out."

[Private to Max Fosters: As the pair enter the building Blue says "Max, I'm not sure I trust the polack, watch yer back OK."]

Blue
Austeyr & M203
Checking the Building
This message was last edited by the player at 12:33, Tue 26 June 2007.

Max to Tucker
"hehe, i forgot about the old "butt-shot"!

Alright then, your OK to check out where we park the truck?  Anywheres fine really, we'll just get it off the road so its not so obvous.  And make sure its pointing towards home, in case we need to bug out quick.

If this buildings OK, & i can see you and the scavenger party, I'll stay up there.  We'll use handsignals to communicate, okay?  Just standard stuff"

Max heads off with Blue after waiting to hear any response from Tucker
"Right-O, thanks for taking a look.  I dont want to hold you up from looking for stuff though.  From what i can make out from all your gadgets, we might not have alot of time"


Max
Ak-74 (30) BG-15 (1HE)
Talking to Tucker / Walking with Blue to a nearby building.

Rob smiles, "Yeah, I'm good to move around and shit I'm just not supposed to over do it according to Anneka.  I shouldn't be running and jumping around if I can help it," he says to Max.

Tucker will carry his rifle in a low-ready position as he moves slowly over to where they're looking to move the Ural out of the way until they're ready to go.

Tuck
M-16A2 [1] MAG 30 loaded/M-203 [1] HE loaded
Checking out the area where the Ural will be parked

Blue and Max move toward a relatively small and intact two story building. From the overturned metal filing cabinets and scattered, yellowing papers scattered about inside, it appears to have been used as a plant office of some sort. After a cursory but expert inspection, Blue declares it safe to occupy. Max moves upstairs to a second floor room and sets up overwatch for the scavenger team below.

Tucker, given the thumbs-up signal from the survey team, climbs into the driver's seat of the Ural and pulls the ungainly beast in front of the office building.

Meanwhile, Dawid, Joost, and Konrad have entered a long, low, brick sided building. It appears to have been a machine shop, however the drill presses and lathes and such have been removed. One of the far corners of the room has collapsed. Aside from small pieces of glass and brick littering the floor, the place is empty. Unstained outlines on the dusty, debris-strewn concrete floor reveal where the machines were once bolted down. Also on the floor, Dawid spots two quarter-inch thick, 6"x6" steel plates. Perhaps they were left behind by previous scavenger teams because they were mistakenly believed to have been an integral part of the building. Whatever the case, these plates are exactly what you came to find.

Joost also notices something else odd. Near the collapsed corner, on the ground, is a small ash pit surrounded by a midden of jaggedly opened tin cans and small bones (pigeons? rabbits?). Strange red scribbles have been drawn onto the walls above the site.

A light rain begins to fall outside.

[Actions?]

Tuck returns the thumbs up signal from the salvage team and moves the Ural to the designated spot.  He gets out of the truck and pockets the keys from the Ural on his person.  The last thing they needed was for someone to sneak up and steal the truck with the keys still in it.

AS he got out of the truck, the light rain had started to fall and Tucker shakes his head, "Perfect," he says as he digs out his vinyl poncho and places it over himself.  Tucker walks around the truck and begins to take in a decent spot of probable approaches to the truck as well as defensible ones for himself and settles into one of them, hopefully out of the rain.

Tuck
M-16A2 [30] MAG (loaded)/M-203 [1] HE (loaded)
Trying to find a security postion by/near the Ural

Max pushes Blue away by his shoulder after he has declared the building safe.
"Thanks for the help

Keep your eyes open out there.

If you hit trouble, Tucker can start the bus.  But you'll likely have to come to us for evac.  And i can only provide so much help from up here"


Max is happy, he's settled into a spot inside the building away from the broken windows, but where he can see out to both Tucker and the scavenge party.  This job carries a bit more risk than usual.  Max is not familiar with the area or who (if anyone) inhabits it.  But, this is his bread and butter role.
"Better to be helpful doing a shady job, than dicking around trying to help prep the boat" he whispers to himself.

Max crawls to the window and flashes a thumbs up to Tucker, before retreating inside the building where he has cover to his back and hopefully he is far enough away from windows that he cannot be seen from outside.  Max will monitor Blue heading back to the scavenge team, the progress of the scavenge group if he can, and routinely check on tucker while keeping an eye out from his elevated position for any potential activity around his own building and the truck.

Light rain begins to fall outside.  Max chuckles to himself, thinking of Tucker outside.  Max stops mid laugh and looks up, to check the roof.  It is providing dry cover for now.  Max chuckles again.  If the rain gets heavier we'll find out of the roof really is in good nick.


Max
AK-74 (30) BG-15 (HE)
Second story window
Monitoring the surrounds from a dry place

It looked like the plates would be over 300 kilos each, easy.  Heavy, but not unmanageable for men without a front-end loader or forklift.  While waiting for Hauptmann Bayer to figure something out, Dawid wandered over to where Joost was standing by the fire pit to offer him a cigarette.  He laughed, forgetting that they were wearing gas masks.  Instead he played his flashlight around, seeing if there was anything interesting left behind.


OOC: Assuming he sees the writing too, he'll try to decipher it out of curiosity.

Dawid Piotrowski,
AK-74 with 1 spare magazine, slung and safed
Checking out the fire pit area
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Thu 28 June 2007.

[Private to Max Fosters: Blue grins "No mate he's not the only one, I don't trust the Springbok any further than I can chuck the Ural.  I'm not so sure about those marines either, but they'll get the benefit of the doubt.  Shit if it comes down to it I'm not sure the whole crew isn't going to shaft us at the earliest op.  Trust wise well Snowy, you and the Nurse plus maybe Tuck & Milk.

The rest well we will see."]

Blue gives Max a grin "No problem Digger, always happy to help out and don't worry mate I always look after my own arse first." says Blue as he exits the building.

  Coming out into the street he see's Tucker moving the truck and the rest of the team has disappeared. "Oh great now I'm on my own." he mutters then it starts to rain.

"This day just seems to get better and better."

He jogs over to the Truck and Tuck "Mate you see which way they went."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:19, Thu 28 June 2007.

[NPCed]

Konrad kicks idly at the edge of one of the metal plates lying on the bare concrete floor.

"We need to move the Ural closer so we can drag these plates out of here. I will go tell them we've found our first bit of treasure."

Konrad exits the building and gives a beckoning wave across the access road to where Tuck and Blue stand near the truck. (As Max observes from on high.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:30, Thu 28 June 2007.

Joost tingles with subdued glee to have hit the steel plate jackpot on the first try.  Seventy-two square feet of quarter inch steel is going to be no fun to haul, however, so the satisfaction is short-lived.  It will take all of the team's effort to wrestle the treasure into the bed of the truck, no small feat in this rain and with them saddled with all their MOPP gear.  At least the Ural has a winch.

As he scans the remainder of the bombed out machine shop's interior for other potentially useful electromechanical salvage, he notices a small fire pit.  Not remarkable on it's own, Joost's gaze is drawn to the red chicken-scratch scrawled on the wall aboove the pit.  Squatting to poke and inspect the ashen remains, he strains through his gas mask to take a closer look at strange graffiti standing overwatch.  He notices Dawid has moved to his side.  Joost turns to look up at the Pole and motions toward the writing.

"What do you make of this, Davey?"

"Hey, nice work finding the plates.  Now, let me get a closer look at what you've found."  He shone the flashlight on the writing.

Dawid Piotrowski,
AK-74 (30 rounds) with 1 spare magazine, slung and safed
Trying to read the writing on the wall.

Max crawls to the window ledge, and acknowledges Bayer, then Max gives a heads up sign to Tucker and Blue, before retreating back away from the window, and continues to scan the area.

Max
2 stories up
wishing he had his 30-06 rifle with him

Konrad signals Tuck and Blue to bring over the truck while Max keeps an eye on the surroundings from his lofty perch. As of yet, he's seen nothing worrisome among the dilapitated buildings and rubble in the vicinity.

Inside, Joost and David move in for a closer examination of the firepit and graffiti. Among the bashed-open cans and small animal bones surrounding the firepit, Joost finds what appears to be a homemade knife made of a sharpened metal scrap wrapped with rubber at the base. Aside from that, nothing else of interest or value is seen. David studies the The Polish writing scratched and painted into the plaster coating of the interior wall. It is surrounded by drawings of skulls and penises and other crude designs. The writing itself is mostly undecipherable but a few coherent phrases can be made out.

"Fuck U.S.A.!"

"Fuck Russia!"

"Fuck Germany!"

"We Rule!"

"Kings of Nowy Huta"

The light drizzle continues outside. Rain falls through the collapsed corner of the building but doesn't quite touch the campsite.

[Note: It's about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. As a team, y'all should figure out a way to load the metal you've found into the Ural and decide if you want to continue searching for more. Actions?]
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:25, Thu 28 June 2007.

After translating the writing for Joost, Dawid said, "Seems like the ruins are haunted by something more than ghosts after all.  I can't tell how old this fire or trash is.  I'm going over by the door to keep an eye out for Bayer."

Stepping on singed paper and crunching over shattered glass, he moved over to the door and unslung his rifle.  He  shouldered the weapon but kept it pointed down and the safety on until an actual threat appeared.  The rain spattered on the charred concrete and piles of brick debris.  Drifts of broken masonry slumped against the insides of the walls facing the directions where the different blasts had come from.


Dawid Piotrowski,
AK-74 (30 rounds) with 1 spare magazine in hand, loaded and locked
Standing in the shadows by the door.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:37, Fri 29 June 2007.

While waiting for the rest of the team to bring the Ural over to the building, Konrad keeps a careful eye on the surroundings. It is just too damn quiet in this devastated town.

Konrad will get Tuck to back the truck up to the building.

"Ok guys how are we going to get these plates into the back of the truck ?"
he asks the team once the truck has arrived.

Even with a poncho on, Tucker tries to keep him as dry as possible from the rain.  Bayer will get the attention of Tuck and he will return a wave to him that he understands and heads towards the Ural.  Robert retrieves the keys from his pocket and gingerly hops into the truck, placing his M-16/M-203 on the seatnext to him, starting it, and begins to back it up to where Bayer (or Joost)is directing him.

Tuck
M-16A2 [30] MAG (loaded)/M-203 [1] HE (loaded)
Backing the Ural to Konrad
This message was last edited by the player at 18:39, Fri 29 June 2007.