Quyen sits on the deck, crosslegged with her rifle resting across her legs. She angles herself with her back towards Dawid and watched the shoreline of the bank slowly drift by. The back of her head still hurt greatly, and she rubbed the small bruised egg that was forming there. The action on the aft deck was unusual for her... too reckless, she thought... I didn't get this far to get killed by taking senseless chances.

The thought of death reminder her of the group's sole casualty. Again she wondered about the "protective" wall she built. Surely it served it purpose if only it were to be used somewhat differently. The Pole had only been aboard a few hours, perhaps I should have stressed to him the dangers of the position.

Over the drum of the engines she strained to hear any further shooting below. Emotionally attacking herself a further time, she second guesses her actions, I should have killed that man, she thinks.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:53, Tue 08 Apr 2008.

Keeping watch for the most part, Dawid looked over at Viktor's crumpled body. So many people dead. He was glad to be alive, but was it worth it? They'd been hunted by a ruthless sniper who'd claimed many number, attacked by a helicopter, then pursued by the hovercraft.

"I wonder how my friend is doing? I should like that he is unharmed. For all his faults and being misguided, he never did anything to me."

Above decks, the bridge over the Vistula at Sandomierz comes into view, hazy on the northern horizon.

Below, Bones assesses Tadeuz's wound. Fortunately, even in lean times such as these, the chief deck hand has somehow managed to maintain a band of extra fat (a "spare tire" in American parlance)around his midesection (perhaps a byproduct of the high caloric content of certain beverages...), providing a cushion, as it were, absorbing at least three quarters of the blade tip which Artur, presumably, attempted to plunge into his belly. It doesn't appear that Tadeuz's digestive tract has been perforated so, with a few stiches and a few day's rest, he should be on his way to a full recovery.

The clearing team, pistols (and Snowy's shotgun) drawn, cautiously approaches the engine room. As they pass through the door, they see the Czech frantically hammering away at a non-descript piece of machinery with a heavy spanner. With the wide-eyed look of a cornered animal, he turns to meet his erstwhile captors and spits,

"I have failed and so I am already dead. I shall take you to the devil with me!

With that, he lunges at Snowy, spanner raised above his head.

Actions?

Snowy, among the dim clanging, hissing machinery, instinctively fires twice. He snaps off a shot at centre of mass and works the slide of the shotgun, as the muzzle comes back down he fires again at the top of the Czech's chest and neck.

Jason stands at the aft deck, his voice lost along the engines, or so he assumes. No one responds to his inquries, so he holds his position aft.

Looking out over the water he jumps slightly when he hears the shotgun blasts from below.

When the Czech comes into view, Bayer is second behind Snowy. As the man approaches Bayer readies his P7 and screams, "Haaalt!" With Snowy partially blocking him, he lets the Australian make the first move. Finger on the trigger he aims at the Czech as Snowy fires. If he misses, Bayer will be ready.

The commotion below decks eventually filtered through to Greit's sleeping conciousness. She puled herself up and staggered into the wheel house. She set the PK to one side and slipped off her Tantal. She wedged herself into position and covered the entrances. She looked at Adam and smiled, "If anyone comes for you, they'll have to go through me."

Mariusz waited at his assigned position, the big German rifle heavy in his hands.

Minh remains motionless, sitting on the deck watching the shore.

Dawid offered a smoke to Minh, lighting one himself. All he wanted to do was sleep,  totally drained from the two extremely close brushes with death. The butt of his rifle was between his feet, leaning against his thigh.

When the shooting started, he barely had enough energy to glance back at the tug's superstructure.

Vasilek (5/5 HEDP)
Tantal/BG-15 (30/30, 1/1 HE)

Minh accepts the smoke from Dawid with a murmur of thanks. Her gaze on the shoreline for any potential threats is drawn to the bridge at Sandomierz, which is now slowly coming over the horizon. The town represented what was much needed by the team... a safe haven to rest, heal, and refit. She hoped the town turned out to be what everyone expected. Perhaps even some shore time will be possible.

Without looking in the direction the ZU, she says to Dawid, "Someone should go out there and move that guy from view. Don't think we should pull up to Sandomierz with the dead on the decks." After a puff on the awful smoke she adds, "One of us can handle that and the other can still keep watch here hmm?"

"That is a very considerate thought. I would like to go retrieve him, extend this honour to my brave countryman. If it were not for his sacrifice, we might not be alive."

With that he sighed and butted out, then slung his rifle and walked on to the barge. He slung Ritter's corpse and slowly staggered back, eyes showing the depth of his exhaustion.

Tantal/BG-15 (30/30, 1/1 HE)
Retrieving Viktor's body from the ZU mount.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:58, Fri 11 Apr 2008.

Dave flinches when he hears the two shotgun blasts echo through the hold. He stays with the wounded crewman, knowing if his service are needed someone would call for him. And that it's way safer than walking up on someone who's in the middle of a firefight.

OOC: I totally missed this in Bayer's post...

BIC: Tucker nods to Bayer and exits the interior of the tug to the main deck and looks for Clarence.  "Clarence!  Konrad sent me up here to help you cover the entrance to the deck.  Where do you want me at?"

Tucker
Browning HP [13/13]
On deck w. Milks covering the exits to the main deck

In the engine room, Showy fires once at the spanner-wielding escapee, putting a full load of 00 buck into the man's chest at point-blank range. The Czech, only a meter or so away from the barrel of Snow's Remington at the time of impact, flies backwards as if yanked hard on an invisible string. He lands, crumpled, at the base of one the piston housings; the spanner lands with a loud clang a split second later. The downed Czech twitches for a few moments as his central nervous system undergoes a rapid and unexpected shut-down, the pair of handcuffs still adorning one of his wrists clinking along in time against the metal of the deck flooring.

Meanwhile, on deck, Dawid, at Minh's recommendation, moves Ritter's mangled body from the barge to the tug. The corpse is incredibly heavy- almost 15 stone of dead weight- and Dawid is dead tired from the morning's activities. Negotiating the barge's wet patchwork of warped wooden decking makes a fairly routine, if unpleasant, task extremely difficult and more than a little dangerous. Legs, back, and shoulders burning, he makes it across the Krolowa with little choice but to dump the load unceremoniously on the deck, leaving behind a temporary memorial of spattered blood.

Milk, Mariusz, and Tucker post themselves at the hatches leading below, watching and waiting nervously as the situation in the engine room comes to a head. The single shotgun blast that echoes up to them through the hatchways hints at a marginally favorable outcome to the prisoner search but not until the clearing team emerges will the doubts be assuaged.

Actions?

Bayer lowers his P7 and slowly holsters it. A simple and quiet "Ok." is spoken to Snowy. Leading the way back out of the engineroom he passes Stoner, "Its finished. I'll let the doctor know of the casualty here. He will be fine ja?"

Approaching the entranceway, he calls up to Mariusz who is covering it, "Don't fire. Its Hauptmann Bayer and Mr. White." Emerging from the Tug's interior he passes along the message to return to stand down and return to normal duties.

Continuing on to the upper deck he informs those on the bridge, "Ship is secure. Both prisoners have been killed in their attempt to sabotage the tug." Looking at Anneka he adds, "The medic... Stoner. He is attending to that drunk. Ahhh... a knife wound. Not serious I believe, but you should be aware."

Bayer then removes his helmet, heavy webbing and kevlar, setting them down in a corner of the bridge. Taking notice of the approaching town he exhales deeply. "Looks like we are here." he says to those around him.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:42, Sat 12 Apr 2008.

He's fine, Captain. A day of bed rest and a couple days light duty will fix him up. Snowy, you want to give me a hand getting him to his rack?

After getting the wounded man to his rack, Dave heads to the main deck. He makes a quick round of the party, making sure every one is okay, and finally makes his way to the barge where Anneka has posted herself.

Hey, he says to Anneka. Those two IPAT guys we took prisoner broke loose. They're dead now, we took one WIA. That drunk crewman, I can't remeber his name. A knife slash in the gut, nothing major. I put in some stitches, and put him on bed rest until tomorrow, and light duty for a coulpe days after that. Nothing else to report. If you want to head back to the boat, I'll keep watch up here.

The stress of an intense firefight, then running a VBSS on the tug has put the normally cheerful medic in a depressed mood. All the fighting and running and hiding sometimes wear him down.

You mind if I keep that Makarov Viktor was carrying?

Mariusz heard the Kaptain's voice and willed himself to relax his trigger finger. Muscle by muscle, he opened up his right hand and took it away from the pistol grip.

"OK, Kaptain, you're safe to come up." he said and turned back to his post at the Dushka.

Griet relaxed and made her weapon safe. She felt the waves of fatigue and pain course through her and looked sardonically at Old Adam, "The Krakow ORMO refused your request to trade with Warsaw, because the river got "dangerous" after Sandiomierz. This was the milk run are you sure you want to go through with your own little plan?"

She looked at Adam's impassive, ruined face and scowled. The old man wasn't for turning. She went over to the desk and started making a list of what they'd need to trade for in Sandiomierz. They needed more ammo for the mortar and if they could, some more heavy weapons and armour for the boat. Things were going to get harder from here on in. She wondered if the government of Sandiomierz would have a radio capable of reaching Krakow?

She needed to be careful now. She knew Adam was playing a game and that the mercenaries would back him. She needed to know if the people of Sandiomierz would back the deal with Krakow and enforce her authority or whether they'd just want the goods they had for any deal.

Tucker brings his Browning down to a low-ready position as Bayer calls himself and White as coming up to the deck.  He safes the 9mm and holsters it back into his MOLLE gear.  "Orders sir?"

Robert waves off Stoner when he comes around to check for injuries.  "Made it through another one Bones.  Don't know how much linger my luck is going to hold out," he says to him jokingly.

Tucker
Slung M-16A2/M-203
Waiting for orders

Quyen keeps watch alone on the bow after Dawid leaves to take care of Ritter's body. After a while she realized with relief that her head was beginning to feel a little better. When Hauptmann Bayer emerged from from below and stood down the team, she dug out her slip of paper listing off the sentry roster... to make sure it wasn't her shift. Checking the time she realized the glass face of her watch was broken. Hmm, still works though she thought.

Standing up she reported to the bridge. "If someone will help me, I can get those IPAT bodies stowed away." If help is available she will head below and move the two men to a more appropriate location (where we had the make shift morgue before).

Jason sits on the deck beside the Dushka, the sounds of crew members returning from below. Whatever the situation was it was now under control. He had no idea how anyone was, especially Ritter, Minh, or the boy he promised to protect.

Holstering his sidearm, he looks out across green brown water, the light catching the small oil swirls, creating little rainbows on the sea. He closes his eyes, takes a dep breath, and tries to collect himself from before.

"Milk!" he yells. "Permission to leave my post?" 

"Stand down for now Tuck. We'll drop to routine sentry duty. Won't be long until we reach town anyways." Bayer replies. "Lets keep it easy for now. Perhaps you could organize some of the crew to perform some after action maintenance." He scratches his chin and adds in a more positive tone, "Or get somebody in the galley to prepare lunch." He then leaves to continue up to the bridge.



"Sure. Should be no problem." Bayer answers. Then hearing Kasparov yelling, he nods to the stern, "The pilot. Sounds like he is free."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:17, Sat 12 Apr 2008.

As the clearing team emerges from below decks, Milk safes and slings his AK. He removes the silenced HK from where he'd tucked it into his chest webbing, unthreads the silencer and replaces it along with the pistol each in its proper place.

He exhales deeply, having played only a bit part in shooting through the rendezvouz and catching but a glimpse of the attacking hovercraft. Others had had a much closer run during the brief but furious combat.



"You earned a break, Kasparov. Nice shootin' back there."

Clarence climbs the ladder to the quarterdeck and, after setting down his rifle, inspects the Dushka, reloading it with a fresh belt of 12.7mm.

That's why they call it dead weight.

After depositing Viktor's body, Dawid said a short prayer over his Body.

Dog-tired, Dawid st down and considered having another cigarette.

Considering his diminished stash and the energy it would take to dig one out and light it, he weighed his options carefully and then decided against it.

Instead he continued his watch on the river ahead. The binoculars felt like they weighed a ton.

82mm Vasilek (5/5 HEDP)
Tantal/BG-15 (30/30, 1/1 HE)
Keeping watch at bow.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:29, Sun 13 Apr 2008.