Nodding in acknowledgement, Snowy answers "One man, on the the bridge." He then re enters the pilothouse and says in a clear voice.

"Captain, lookouts report a single man on the bridge. Shall we send out a scoutboat?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:29, Thu 12 July 2007.

Noting out of the corner of his eye Snowy exiting the Bridge, Dawid returned his attention to Anneke.  He sat back on his heels shaking his head while saying, "I have no medical knowledge."  He asked, "who shall tend to the medic?"



Standing up so that he was out of the way between Konrad and Snowy, Dawid held his tongue.  He was waiting for someone to tell him what to do because he was obviously doing sweet-fuck-all where he was.


OOC: I rolled 19 for Medicine: Diagnosis, so that's definitely a wash.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:58, Wed 11 July 2007.

Tucker looks up to where Fosters is and sees him motioning something to Snowy.  When he catches it, he will unsling his rifle and say to anyone around, "Let's man our stations people!  We've got on the bridge up ahead and no tellin' what else, or who else, is with them."

If there's no one still around Tucker, he will go and start waking people up or grabbing them from whatever they're doing and gets them to come up/out to their stations.  He will then go and get his MOLLE vest and put it on over his kevlar vest and snug his chin strap on his helmet.  Once Robert has done that, he will get out his binoculars from his MOLLE butt pack and begin to scan the bridge area first and then it's surrounding areas.

Tuck
M-16A2 [1] 30 round Mag loaded/[1] 40mm HE loaded
Trying to get people to their staions and get his gear on

Clarence responds quickly to Tucker's command. He enters the barbette, slapping on his kevlar helmet on the way. Looking over the metal lip of the mortar turret, he unslings his AKSU-74 and trains it on the bridge. He's not sure where the threat lies, so he scans the span, trying to acquire a target. It's too far off yet for his carbine to be effective, but using the Vasilek against a man-sized target is pretty much out of the question. Besides, his gun-crew partner has disappeared.

"Tucker, where's this target? That's a big-ass bridge your talkin' 'bout!"

Clarence notices that he's alone in the barbette. If there was a target for the big gun-mortar, he'd be hard-pressed to do anything about it without the Polish artillerist. Clarence reaches down with his left hand and switches his radio on.

"Anyone see Dawid, tell him he's cordially invited to get his ass back in his post!"

Tucker's shout bringing people to action stations finally penetrated Dawid's fog of tired indecision.  Adrenaline flooding his body, he slung his canteen and sprinted out of the bridge and down the stairs to the Upper Deck, then down the stairs to the Main Deck.  He pounded around the corner and screeched to a stop at the improvised barbette.

Seeing Clarence already at his station, Dawid grabbed his helmet, thrust his beret under an epaulette and jammed it on.  He sat down in the small metal gunner's seat, grabbing the azimuth and elevation control wheels and making the firing pedal was clear to fire.

Looking around he realised something was missing.  "Uh... loader?  Load one clip of fragmentation, if you please."  Seeing none in the barbette, he pointed to the ammo hatch.  "I think they're down there."

Dawid Piotrowski,
Vasilek (0/5 rounds)
Getting the mortar ready to fire.

OOC: I'm assuming that the mortar was unloaded while we were working on it, and we weren't storing live rounds there either.  Dawid forgot to load it when they got under way, so there it is.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:24, Thu 12 July 2007.

Joost pats Tucker on the shoulder as he walks past and says, "Good chatting with you, then, mate.  I'm gonna go check that rig then hit the rack."

The action of the last day and a half are rapidly catching up with him.  There is a sour pit in his stomach and he is beginning to feel punchy and uncoordinated.  Even after taking in to account his remarkable physical condition, he knows he has been awake far beyond the margin of safety for a man of his age.  Sleep shifts should have been ordered hours ago, but there was work to do.  Turns out there is always work to do aboard a boat, but he knows better.  Safety first.  He wonders how many times he must have recited that while sailing for Maersk.

Joost arrives at his station on the vessel's fantail and inspects the grenade launcher's mounting rig.  A 29-round drum of 30mm high velocity, high explosive grenades is loaded.  He toys with the idea of popping off a few test rounds just to allay his apprehension and lack of familiarity with the weapon, but he is dog tired and figures it will still be there when he wakes up.  Satisifed, he sits down with his back against the gunwhale and folds his arms across his chest.

He has just nodded off to sleep when Tucker's call for general quarters startles him awake.  He manges to pull himself into a standing position, then charges the action on the autocannon and swings it thru the limits of it's horizontal and vertical traverse.  Bleary eyed and dizzy, Joost fumbles with his radio then calls out "Fantail checks clear.  Standing by."

He yawns hard.  And again.

Fuck!

Somebody is going to get hurt.

[Joost]
On the fantail
Mounted AGS-17
Sweeping the stern for targets and trying to stay awake

Griet jogged for her action station, keeping to the maxim Up and Starboard, Down and Port even though there was no crush of bodies like there would have been on a more heavily crewed ship.  That was how training was supposed work; an unconscious following of drilled in orders.

When she reached her position with the PKM, Griet flopped down on her belly behind it and began working on making sure the gun was ready to fire.  She puzzled over the feed mechanism for a minute before remembering that the PKM fed from the righ and ejected from the left, unlike the heavier DShK she was used to.  Once that was sorted out, she squirmed herself into a comfortable position and lifted the butt of the PKM onto her shoulder.

Griet Neiwiadomska
PKM (1 box?  100 rds)
Settling in as gunner
This message was last edited by the player at 12:36, Thu 12 July 2007.

Max is ambling back from the front of the boat, when he hears shouts about getting to your post.

It suddenly dawns on Max, that maybe the Captain doesnt know everyone on the river/

Shouting to no one in particular
"Wheres my post?"

Max will make for Snow, to assist him.

Upon arriving where Snow is, Max will speak
"Snow, i've just got back to the boat.  Where is my position?  Last i heard we were the dismount team ..."

After coming back up on deck with his MOLLE rig on and his binoculars in hand.  He yells out to Clarence, "WAIT ONE CLARENCE!  MAX!  WHERE IS THE TANGO?"

Tucker will then begin to scan the bridge area where Fosters said there was a person up there.

John will scan the bridge with his binos.

"People, we have contact on the bridge. Range to target is 200 meters. The target is wearing Russian cammies. The target is armed with an AK."


Once Gunny mans his spot, John will call out wind and range calls to him only.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:22, Thu 12 July 2007.

Max changes tack and heads to his heavy machine gun.  He is picking up on the urgency that others are now displaying.

Maybe this isnt one of our guys, he thinks.

"Contact was one guy, on the south side of the bridge.

That's all I got."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:24, Thu 12 July 2007.

Adam looks from the bridge to Snowy, then back again, pondering his options.

Uller cuts in from the wheel, "We should keep moving. If that man is an observer for artillery, it would not be good to sit still here."

Adam looks again to Snowy, awaiting his response. Uller scowls at Adam's deference to the foreigner.

The Wisla Krolowa continues forward towards the damaged bridge at about 10 knots. Looking up, you can clearly see a man, dressed in woodland pattern cammies (without binoculars, you have trouble recongnizing their national origin at this distance). He stands close to the near-side railing just a few feet from a yawning gap towards the center of the span. At some point in the war, someone decided to blast some sizeable chunks from the length of this bridge. It does not appear that any attempts at repairing it have been made.

The man on the bridge lifts the binnoculars to his eyes again, and casually studies the tug below, apparently unconcerned at the burst of activity aboard. You notice now that the man is not alone. There is another just over his shoulder.

The security team, minus the unconscious Anneka, the attendant Konrad, Gunny (ladder? bridge?), and the snoring Blue are all manning their action stations now.

OOC: As soon as Snow posts his advice to Adam, I'll put up another GM sitrep. Feel free to post in the interim.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:44, Thu 12 July 2007.

"Better late than never." Clarence mutters.

Grunting, he lays down his carbine and crawls down through the ad-hoc ammo hatch. In the dimmer light of the cargo hold, he finds a clip marked HE in Russian and hands it up to Dawid. Then, he hoists himself back up on the gun deck and takes up his rife, attempting to reacquire the target. He'll try to observe how Dawid loads the ammo clip while also keeping an eye on the man on the bridge.

[Private to Dawid Waldus Piotrowski: Dawid will have to give Clarence some training on the Vasilek. He could probably figure it out, but he's not sure how to load the thing. I don't want Rae to blow us up the first time we try to fire. :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 19:09, Thu 12 July 2007.

"Well skipper, it's your river. If there's a good channel there we should be able to keep going, but if it's a choke-point we need to secure it first. The fabric of the bridge seems to have been dmaged, so the debris is below it. Do you know the clearance-to-keel of this bridge? Do you think there's enough room?"

Snowy adds "And for chrissakes Uller, grow up."

Uller glares at Snowy for a long second before using the excuse of the river to break eye-contact.

Adam responds to Snowy's recommendations, "The channel should be clear here. I've negogiated this passage before, in a similar vessel."

Adam makes a conciliatory expression at Uller before continuing, "We will continue."

Adam relays course and speed instructions to Uller in Polish. The first mate makes some adjustments to the wheel and the throttle, nosing the barge towards the partial central span.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:24, Fri 13 July 2007.

The tug continues forward, maintaining a speed of appoximately 10 knots. The bridge is only about 100 meters away. The two men on the bridge can be made out much more clearly now. Both wear camoflage fatigues not resembling those of any NATO army. Your best guess is that the leaf pattern is one of the older Russian types. The foremost man- the one studying you through binoculars- has a slung rifle. The other holds an AK model in his hands. They continue to watch the tug as it approaches, neither appears the least bit alarmed or threatened by its appearance. In a few moments, they'll be able to spit on the Krolowa.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:34, Fri 13 July 2007.

Max has made his way to his GPMG.  From where Max is stationed, he will try and see the captains deck, to see what the the drivers and Old Adams reaction is to the man, wait ... two men, are on the bridge.

So far the driver and Old Adam appear calm.  And certainly there has been no panic from Snow.

Max waits by the GPMG, he drops his AK-74+BG-15 combo onto the ground so its out of sight and his hands are free, if they are needed to take the big machine gun.


Max
Standing next to the machine gun
Looking towards the north end of the bridge, away from where the two known men are.  And checking the east or west bank (depending on what side of the boat Max is on) for any other signs of life.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:44, Fri 13 July 2007.

Snowy pulls down his flashood and settles his goggles over his eye. He keeps his gloved hands off his M4 as he steps out the pilot house door. He claps Max on the shoulder and looks up at the men standing motionless on the bridge. Waving to them in a friendly manner, he says quietly to Max "Now we see if the locals like us or not."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:56, Fri 13 July 2007.

Sheepishly, Dawid replied, "sorry for my absence, my friend.  You will be looking for a green-painted projectile with "82mm HE Fragmentation" in black markings with Cyrillic or Polish script."

The 5-round clip was extremely heavy, weighing 50 kilos.  He grunted in exertion as Clarence handed it up.  Waiting until his nominal loader was in position to see what came next, Dawid then placed the clip into the guide rails of the ammo tray, then rammed them down into the magazine until they slid home with a click.  Pulling a handle to load the first round he said, "that's it, we are ready to fire.  Ammunition can be continually loaded, and the barrel can be cooled with water without damaging it."

"Fragmentation ready!" he called to Tuck.

Checking to see that they had a moment and that all hell wasn't breaking loose, he continued to Clarence, "aim through the sight.  This handle here is azimuth, this is for elevation.  That pedal down there fires.  The other locks the traverse."

"Our range is 200 metres.  The trajectory is flat enough to not need correction."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:46, Fri 13 July 2007.

The man with the binoculars returns Snowy's gesture of greeting with a statue-like, motion free wave. The other man, however, a little behind and just out of site of his companion, raises his middle finger in a universal gesture of a different sort.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:00, Fri 13 July 2007.

Max doesnt take his eyes off the two men above when Snow slaps him on the shoulder.
"We'd look a right bunch of tossers if goes pear shaped Snow, so they better be friendly"

Max relaxs seeing one of the men give a short salute like gesture to the boat.

Max cracks a wider grin as he see's the second man give him "the bird".  Its all Max can do, as he resists the urge to return the "salute".  It would have been an instinctive gesture in times gone by, but now, its best not to rile the locals or push your luck.

Parks is headed to the bridge when he notices the activities of the other seems to show something interesting on the ruined bridge ahead. He changes directions and heads aft hoping to see over the superstructure to whatever has their attention. His AKR is slung and at his side, as always, and he lays a hand on it instictively.

[Private to Cap'n Rae: I haven't been told i see anything yet so i will not post that i have. If they are easily viewed then I will expand my post a bit.]


Parks
Behind bridge on the ladderwell
AKR (30)
Moving aft trying to see what is going on ahead.

This message was last edited by the player at 05:01, Fri 13 July 2007.

Snowy laughs, and says "Well, at least they have the quality of 'honesty' amongst their merits." On a more serious note he continues "We gotta get an action drill for dealing with bridges sorted out mate, we've got a few more to deal with yet. That makes me think; we gotta have a map of the river to sort out each day's sailing mission. We've got no RV points, no idea of what's happening except when it lurches into view and bites us on the bum. I'll chat to the Old Man about it."

Max nods
"Yes.  We need to get ourselves sorted out.  We said when we were back in the Ural, that we needed to sort ourselves out.  We're all new here, so nothing really clicks.  But we've been too busy to even disucss it.

Most of us also need to get some sleep, we need to organise some shifts.

It feels like its all going to fast.  We're asking for trouble.  We're already heading down river and we're so disorganised.

Max goes quiet.  He doesnt mean to be critical.  He's just stating facts.