"From across the Vistula
you've come so very far
on waving flags"

-Waving Flags by British Sea Power

Monday, 10/09/00
1000 hours
35 F
Overcast

Beneath a leaden sky, the Krolowa steams downriver at a cautious 10 kph. Approximately 25 kilometers ahead lies the village of Annopol, notable now more than ever for its surviving highway bridge across the Vistula.

From what has been gleaned recently from the self-styled commandant of the Sandomierz "city guard" and Stoner's first hand recollections, the bridge is held by at least a platoon of Polish infantry with a dug-in, older model Soviet MBT in support- a tough nut to crack. Fortunately, however, the party has in hand a document which it has been assured will allow safe passage beneath the Annopol bridge.

Actions?

In the time it took to travel down river from Sandomerisz, Anneka sought out both of the new arrivals and subjected them to the same interview process every other member of the security team had experienced.
"What can you tell me about yourself? Have you completed any qualifications that could prove useful? What skills have you learnt? Have you picked up any other useful skills over the years? How good would you say you are at each of those things?"
Fairly stock standard interview questions but vital accurately assess the capabilities of each newcomer and suggest suitable assignments to Konrad.
"Oh, and while I'm asking, is there any equipment you have that may be useful to the group as a whole?"


OOC: PM me if you don't with to post them IC
SKILLS
Poor 1-4
Average 5-8
Above Average 9-12
Good 13-15
Excellent 15+
No need to be too specific, don't even need to get it "right". It's all about how the character perceives their abilities and knowledge.

Bayer sat in the wheelhouse as the tug departed from Sandomierz. He quietly reworked the sentry roster and duty stations, but kept it as a tentative arrangement. Until he was informed of the newcomer's abilities he decided not to reorganize the duties... just fill in the new vacancies. Sanjay was his biggest question, was he all engineer or did he have any soldier skills, he wondered.

He was glad to be leaving Sandomierz. But at the same time he figured it would only be a little while until he missed the relative safety that the town offered. Shore leave couldn't be expected again any time soon. He tried to put Hicks out of his mind, refusing to accept anything without proof, and worried it would leave a lasting resistance on the team regarding accepting newcomers. Distrust and infighting amongst the team, Bayer feared more than the enemy.

Putting down his notepad, which listed the sentry duties, he thought about what he could do next. Anneka, Griet and even Mariusz were all excellent bookkeepers and quartermasters. Much of the important management issues were already being handled by them.

Without looking up, he asks Adam, "You ever pass Annopol before? Only one of the men has been there before."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:19, Wed 25 June 2008.

Griet looked carefully at the pass they'd been given. The lack of a signiature bothered her and she smelled another rat, everything that the Commandant had done had been aimed at shafting the group, not surprising given the life they all led now. She moved over to Milk and the other sneaky beak who were trading war stories.

"Chief Milk," she said, "you've worked with the Company and others in your time, can you or your comrade see anything wrong with this pass?"

Mariusz couldn't get the body of his mentor lying sewn up in his tarpaulin on the after deck. He hoped soon that they'd find a suitable resting place for the old man. Kaptain Bayer had said they would and he knew the Kaptain would look after his men even after they'd served their last.

He hid his feelings by hard work. He made sure all of the laundry was done and put the uniforms and sundry kit of the recently dead out for use by those who needed them more. The weapons had already been placed in the weapons locker.

After he'd sorted out the laundry, he checked the food that the Ormo had given them. He checked the quantities and state of preservation and he began to plan a series of menus to feed the group over the next three or four days. Not trusting the people of Sandomierz, he went into the tow's hold and checked all of the supplies they'd been given for the humanitarian aid to ensure that it was good and that it was well preserved.

With really more hope than expectation of success, Dawid loaded the Vasilek with a clip of HEDP. Maybe they could get a lucky flank shot in at the tank that was supposedly ahead, maybe it was an older model, maybe it wouldn't be in defilade or hull-down. The gun-mortar was clean and ready for action, slight silver smear from the glancing hit on the end of the barrel.

Mostly, he sat and smoked and thought. Brooding about not having his wits about him enough to save more of the precious ammunition, comrades lost in battle. How wonderful it was to have allies that would fight for Poland's freedom to the last drop of Polish blood. Wondering what was ahead of them, if his sister Urzula was still alive somewhere in Warszawa, and how he might find her.

Peripherally Dawid noticed the new guy, some kind of older darker-skinned foreigner with a funny head-dress. He imagined that he was an Arab of some kind, guessing that would make him a Mohammedian, but couldn't seem to work up the energy to go out and meet him. It seemed new people came and then left on this boat, usually feet-first. He smiled to think that he him self was a relative "newcomer".

Sighing, he decided that he might as well introduce himself, be polite. Finding Sanjay at some point he offered his hand and a cigarette. "Hello sir, I am Dawid. Welcome to the Wisla Krolowa. I imagine you are a long ways from home, yes?"

"What can you tell me about yourself?

"My name is Sam."


Have you completed any qualifications that could prove useful?

"Sure, I can drink alot of beer and I have been know to piss on myself when i drink too much."


"What skills have you learnt?"


"I have learned not to drink too much."

"Have you picked up any other useful skills over the years?"


"Well, chicks dig me and I can shot a hook shot on a basketball court."

"How good would you say you are at each of those things?"

"Well, I used to get laid a lot and I've won some pick-up games of basketball so I guess I'm doing good.

"If you dont have any more useful questions I'm going outside to talk to a old friend."

Sam will walk out of the room and talk too Milk again- very jolly with a lot of laughter; when the girl shows him the paper he will start to laugh.


"And you trusted a dictator to allow you to pass for free with this thing a.. a.. prize like this tug getting out of their area? How very naive are we here? Up the river is a platoon of men with armor. They don't work for the Sando trash but with them- a loose group of tin pots that share the wealth. This guy is Russian or Pole, I can't remember, with a mix of ruffians and cutthroats that would rather rape your ass then allow you to pass with a piece of paper. We need to get ready to get by them with either brute force or shadiness. I'm a shaddy type of guy but the choice is the captain of this tug's- I guess he pays the bills. But, I want you to know I take my orders from Milk here at the tactical level. Him and me go way back and he has some tin on his chest for saving my ass more than once a long time ago so I trust him. Also we work for the same people so it makes life easy.


"Now if you want help with a plan or a little wet work done just ask; I lost my morals a long time ago when I was young, footlose, and fancy free."

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:11, Thu 26 June 2008.

After studying the "pass" for a few moments, Milk responds,

"Well Chief, I'm going to have to agree with my old friend here. I think we got sold a handful of magic beans. It looks authentic- it's type-written and all- but why would someone on the graft put it in writing? What if this got back to his commanding officer in Lublin? And why would the head honcho in Sandomierz have one of these just lying around? No, it looks right but it's all wrong."

Griet blinked a couple of times at the diatribe and said, "I suspected that might be the case, that's why I thought I'd check. Thankyou for your succinct assessment of our situation."

She moved over to Bayer and reported the findings of the Sneaky Beakies. She spoke softly, "The Special Forces element believe that this documant is falacious and that the Commandant of Sandiomierz is sending us to our respective rapes and deaths, although I'm not sure in which order. I'd suggest readying the weapons for contact, perhaps we need to break out the RPG. I might also suggest that the Spec For people take the Ural and see if they can thin out our opposition with a bit of "wet work". They might be able to drive them off or even the odds for us."

Griet checked the duty roster and said, "If there's nothing you need me to do, I'll take up my action station, Sir."

When it comes his turn to talk to Anneka Soleblume, Sanjay says politely, in heavily accented English

"I was trained with the Indian Railways. I was a locomotive mechanic for many years. My main area of expertise is in mechanics, I know a little metallurgy and some electronics.

I've got a pretty decent collection of tools that should cover most eventualities. I'm obviously longer in the tooth than most and ended up finding myself doing 'national service' at a far later stage than most."

With a rueful Smile Sanjay concludes,

"I'm not much of a fighter but hopefully I should be able to pull my weight when it comes to contributing to the group. My long term goal is to build up a stake and set up a mechanics shop somewhere."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:12, Thu 26 June 2008.

After drawing his "emergency map" on the inside of his field jacket, Dave takes a tour around the boat. He stops and checks on everybody, if only a "Hey, what'sup".
He introduces himself to the newest member "Sanjay, is it? I'm Dave Stoner" and shakes hands with the Indian.

When he makes it to the Special Forces contigent, he asks "Ya'll planning on making a shore side raid? I didn't go to the John Wayne School for Boys, but I'm not hald bad on that kind of op."

"well i know your kind and what you can do ;we are all equals here in our skills. we should plan this out take an afternoon to do it and then goto work . I'm thinking night time with suppressed weapons and small demo. kill them all and take there shit. if we are looking for gear its with them. go in slow and leathal. with a plan."


sam
talk with SF
m25
This message was last edited by the player at 02:22, Thu 26 June 2008.

Tucker will check out the new duty stations and watch roster before he decides to go below decks again and get his gear ready.  He will go and check out the mortar pit where Dawid usually hangs out.  "Dawid, how's it goin'?  How did we make out with the mortar rounds and what do we have left after the action back in Sandomierz?"

Dave squats down uses his finger to diagram what he remembers seeing when he snuck past Annapol last month. "Bridge is here, bunkers at both sides. I couldn't get close enough to see what was in them. On the east side of the river, right about here, 50 meters from the bridge was the tank. Either a T55 or T62, and old bastard anyway. OP's here and here, a hundred, hundred twenty meters up and downstream. I couldn't get any closer, but I think there's about two dozen troops. Those bastards at T'breg took my pistol and suppressor, I'm down to begging arms and ammo."

"Well, that's why we get you my suppressor for my pistol and anything we can hook it too. Do we have a ship's armory? I have my M25 here it has a suppressor and my pistol has one also as stated before. My pistol's will convert to SMGs if we have anything in the HK family on the tug.

"I'm all up for ideas among us here. I say we go in at night, thin the heard, disable the tank and any heavy weapons at the minimum. That's course of action 1; course of action two would be to do a wet-work camp removal that would take all night. Kill all their people and take their shit. Either way, we have to be proactive in our task.

"Take only people with the skill sets to pull this off and everyone else stays in support. I see we have an 82- that will be a big help if the shit hits the fan. How good is the gunner and his team? All stuff Milk that we should plan out and work. The three of us should be able to do this against 18 to 20 shitty conscripts? That's cake for guys like us. I could almost guess they will have slaves there of some sort ? Free them and maybe hire a few to work the guns here on the tug to free some of the others for training and or missions.


"What are your ideas on this frogman? Milk, am I off base here?"


Sam will continue to have conversations with the other two SF men on the main deck until Milk says its over.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:27, Thu 26 June 2008.

Milk is quiet while he processes Sam's proposal.

"It could work. But, I want to be real sure of what we're dealing with before we go in hot. I think we should send in a couple of our Poles- if they're willing- posing as civies to gather some fresh intel. It's been a while since Bones had a look at the bridge and we know there are bad people out there looking for this tug. That bridge is only a few klicks from Lublin and it's my guess that that's where the chopper and Spetznaz team came from.* Once we have a better idea of what we're dealing with now we can decide if and how to deal with it."

Brother Switek would be perfect for this op...

Milk swallows hard before continuing, his voice wavering ever so slightly.

"There's something else I want to address while we're here. I know we're used to doing things a little differently in the SF community but we've got to tighten it up a bit. The major here is over her head and yes, she can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but she's got the rank and we've got to try to adhere to the chain of command on the tug. We're all still professionals and we need to act as such. There's already been too much friction on this boat and we've lost some good people because of it. Sam, you were out of line with the major back there. I want you to answer her questions. She's doing her best and I expect you to as well."

*Milk will fill Sam and Stoner in on the Mi-17 and Spetznaz ambush that occured a couple of days before.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:09, Thu 26 June 2008.

"Would you tell her where you have been and what you know Milk, the first time you meet someone? Sam is not even my real name- I forgot what it was years ago. And you are my chain of command. I have linked up with someone who works with the agency the same as me. You tell her who I am but I wont. I have been tortured and told less. Not trying to be a dick but who asks that shit two minutes being on board. It does not take a rocket scientest to know who I am and what I am capable of."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:21, Thu 26 June 2008.

Adam nods,

"Yes, I have. There was a government checkpoint. We were forced to heave to and be boarded. They 'inspected' our cargo, confiscated a few items of 'contraband', and let us pass with a warning about the pirates down-river. I do remember a tank of some sort- Uller would have been able to tell you what kind it was..."

Adam suddenly goes quiet.

"Milk, you, me, and the frogman could go in for a couple of days while the crew here gets rest, hunts a little, and waits. We go in, find out what's going on, then come back make a OPLAN and hit it. You know that the best recon is a personal one, not just two guys going up to talk..."

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Thu 26 June 2008.

Mariusz used some of the flour they'd recieved to bake bread, he made three standard loaves and two dozen rolls. As the dough rose, ground up some of the cheap cuts of beef they'd been given and added chopped onion and garlic. Inside each patty, he put a slice of the tart goat's cheese that tasted amazing but wouldn't last long.

That done he used the tomatoes that had been provided to make a sauce, the tomatoes were overripe and wouldn't keep but the sauce would be good for a week. Once he had the makings of lunch ready, he looked at the shank of lamb that they'd been given. He stripped it of the meat and put the diced cubes to marinate in a little oil, more garlic and a few spices. He put the bone in to boil for stock.

He checked the potatoes carefully and made sure they weren't infested. He'd make oven chips to go with the burgers and mash to go with the lamb stew. He prepared onions, carrots and beans for the stew and then left the food under cover and did a turn of the boat to see if anyone needed help.

"That's a plan. Stop the tug here for a couple hours, send a couple Poles with that "pass" they gave us and a radio. If they pass them, fine. If not the three of us could move in, take out or bypass the upriver OP. Then either disable the tank or get a solid location on it. Dawid ain't too bad with that mortar. Get the tug downriver of the bridge, and blow it."

"I think sending our guys in with a bad document tips our hand and gets two good guys killed; us three on a recon is our best choice."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:04, Thu 26 June 2008.

"Duly noted, Sergeant. I'll run both ideas by the officers and we'll see what they have to say."

Clarence finds Anneka, Konrad, and Griet and heads for the bridge*. Leaning on the map of their route fastened to the chart table, Milk addresses the tight-packed assemblage.

"I think that the pass is bogus. I'm also guessing that that Spetznaz hit team we ran into was operating out of Lublin- their chopper came in from the north. So, even though Stoner's seen the Annopol bridge before, things may have changed; we need to take a closer look at it and get some fresh intel before we decide how to proceed.

"I've spoken to Stoner and McCoy... About McCoy, major, he's not too 'polished', sir. The teams have a looser command structure- often times, more experienced non-coms will have de-facto command of ops where officers are present. It all depends on the man's repuation as an operator. Plus, I don't think McCoy's too big a fan of women in front line service either. I'd like to apologize on his behalf; I'll try to keep him in line. He is a good shooter and we need the help right now.

"Anyway, these are the two recon options the three of us came up with. Option one is we send in a couple of the Poles- volunteers, of course- posing as civie merchants. Get up close and scope it out; maybe talk to some of the bridge guards.

"Option two is that we send in a small team and directly observe the bridge from a distance. McCoy, Stoner, and I are willing to go in. Either way, the Vasilek is on standby for indirect fire support should something go down.

"Thoughts?"

*OOC: Anyone else who wants to be present for the pow-wow has Milk's blessing.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Thu 26 June 2008.

With Annopol an hour-and-a-half away, the Krolowa's security team begins the tasks of planning and preparing for an opposed passage.

Ahead lies a government checkpoint, manned by at least a platoon of Polish troops with a dug-in, early-model Soviet-built MBT in support. That was the last time anybody checked. Word spreads of this latest obstacle and, with nervous anticipation and steely resolve, each team member readies him or herself to surmount it.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:08, Fri 27 June 2008.

Dawid had exchanged some pleasantries with the funny-looking new guy but nothing meaningful was said between them.

Going to Milk and Anneka for the pow-wow he said flatly. "I don't care for this new McCoy guy. He was rude to me, and from what I understand, insubordinate to Anneka. I'm simply not prepared to have another conflict in this area, so fuck him. He can fucking walk for all I care. Besides, something just doesn't feel right."

He crossed his arms, usually open face in a scowl.

"As for the passage, I am prepared to assist in any way possible, although bear in mind our 82mm ammunition is still limited. So no "American-style" barrages where we fire all off all our munitions at once."

Tucker follows the group to the bridge area as long as he isn't turned away and listens to Milk's orientation of what his plan is.  "I'm all about gaining Intel, especially since there's a chance these papers we just got for safe passage might be fake or not what we expect.  I mean, I think I like the idea of locals going in to check it out but, if our shore party is caught or detected, what's that do for our chances if the papers are legit?  Wouldn't we be shooting ourselves in the foot by risking that?  If we go ahead with our own little shoot n scoot group, I'll volunteer for it.  I think I'm more at home on the ground than on the tug.  That's just me!"

Minh loiters around the deck as it pushes along the Vistula. Sanjay seemed a little distant and reserved, but she didn't feel he was an immediate threat. The group's heightened caution against newcomers meant she'd keep an eye on him though.

Noticing a town meeting growing in the bridge, she decides to remain on the main deck. Taking the responsibility of keeping watch, she goes to the bow and leans against the gunwale. Looking down at the tug breaking the water, she hides a scowl, before scanning the banks ahead.

Seeing a group of his new crew mates forming on the bridge Sanjay contemplates what he should do. He'd noted a couple of folks seemed quite friendly, doubtless he'd get to know them all better in the long term. Deciding he'd as well show his face he headed over to the group, nodding to the person he thought was called David or Dawid. He smiled at the friendly Asian girl he'd met earlier, Minh he thought her name was.

Standing on the fringe of the group with his hands clasped behind his back he wondered what the food on board the boat was like. He'd not had a chance to study the engines yet. Ultimately though it was just good to be free.

Mariusz came up on deck to see if there were any jobs to do and he saw the Indian standing close to Mihn. Something tickled in the back of his mind. Some Indians followed special diets. He'd need to ask, Major Soleblume had never complained about pork, but he'd been impolite by not asking.

He walked over to Sanjay and smiled brightly, "Hi, my name's Mariusz, I try to help out by doing as much of the cooking as I can. Do you have any special dietry requirements? I might not be able to fulfill them but if there's anything you really have to avoid, I can try to come up with alternatives."

Griet listened to the discussion and spoke up when Dawid volunteered for the scouting mission, "If Dawid goes on a scouting mission, we can forgrt using the mortar until he returns. Marisuz and I would be more expendable, but we're not a formidable combat team. It's a tricky situation. If we try subtefudge, we risk losing both Mariusz and myself. If the officers decide they want to risk it, I'll go, of course, but if the group are the raping cutthroats that MCoy says they are, all we're doing is sacrificing two crew to confirm that. My choice would be to send the recon element in. They are trained for it. Milk can assess what's going on and the team can react accordingly. The tug can still be used for fire-support and we'll have enough crew on board to remain a formidable weapon platform."

"Well Dave, don't get me wrong for not wanting to talk. A, I dont know you and B, I found a man that I know in central Poland that I have not seen since he took a 7.62x39 in the back for me in 1989 in Panama. I did not sleep for weeks after that thinking it was me who should have died. I was told he was dead and so was our unit. Now I find him here alive doing work. So sorry if I wanted to catch up. And on the leadership issue I dont give a fuck who is in charge. I'm not an officer so I don't care. I dont need to play the cock game here. Milk is an officer so I follow him until I am told otherwise. I talked to the Captain of the ship; he hired me and the German is a Captain so I assumed he was in charge.

"For someone I don't know and they did not introduce themself to me, to come up and ask questions about me and my past? Well yes, they get a smartass remark. Dumb questions get dumb answers. If she wanted to know who I was all she had to do was ask Milk. Simple solution.

"Now I have a little knowledge on what's going on in this area if anyone cares. I flew in here with other members of 7th Group when the war started to aid 10th group. Our mission was to go into Poland and set up resistance groups, train equip, and lead them. Most Eastern European countries don't have the fighter-leader concept down so we were here to help.

"I have been working in this area since November of 96. I have been wounded 4 times Dave, helping your country! I have had 6 friends I have known for over ten years each killed helping your people. I had my wife and unborn child killed  because they tried to smoke me out of hiding. My wife was hung on a fence for 3 weeks with the birds and rats eating her until someone pulled her down. God only knows how long the 8-month along child lived. So if I'm a little rude I'm soooo sorry.

"The men at the bridge are the same scum that run all over this country. They are conscript types from Lublin with a few deserters from each side mixed in. Last time I came by the T55 on the bridge did not run but the hydro for the turret still worked. I watched it track river targets. They are set up in a 2 rotation guard and have about 2 dozen guys. Thats 12 up at a time. They have small arms of all types and are resupplied every week with food and fresh water. That was my recon of 2 months ago when I was still running a team and just happened to pass by."

"About two months ago we were all radioed to meet in T-berg and that the Battalion commander had word and a mission for us. Well we all showed up. My group and a few others. I had 10 guys at the time, all Poles and very tough. The NEW battalion commander was the old XO. He was a shake and bake Major. He was a Captain they pulled up from inactive reserves when the war started and sent him through 6 months of school in England in the Joint SF program there. His new XO is a guy he knew from home and is a dickhead 1st lieutenant. You might have met him- real pleasant guy. Well out of our BN there was only 8 Team guys left and about 40 guys we had trained. Well, the C.O. started to go crazy or just showing that he was crazy on the second night there. One of our buddies- Milk and mine- was shot in the head by him for questioning him. So I left that night with what was on my back.

"I made it to Sand-O and they took me in said that they needed help in training their defense force against him. So I helped. Things were going OK until you showed up. That gave them the bright idea to attack. These Poles and Ukranians were trained to defend. Most were not grunts but rear-area types. You and us got lucky in our attack in that the major must have been gone. I feel sorry for the dumbshits in Sand-O when that sadistic fuck gets back. They burned his little dream and he's going to be pissed.

"I'm here to work and do just as much or more than anyone else because of my training and experience. But I'm not here to get treated like a dumbass. I put it out there that I will go on this recon and make a plan to prove my loyalty to the group and my current employer. I see some faces here that can pull it off and I see some that can't. No big deal. We are a team and everyone has their place and helps as much as they can. Let me and a few others take care of the recon. When we come back If you want us to attack silent and get yourself some free shit great. If not, if you want to play hey diddle right up the middle, that's cool too. I have talked enough and since I'm not a leader here I will go outside and eat. I smell some great shit cooking and will enjoy the air. Have a great night."

Sam walks outside and looks for food
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:07, Fri 27 June 2008.

Bayer remains quiet as suggestions roll in. Still sitting from when he was working out the tentative sentry roster, he looks up at those standing around him. "Alright. Option two it is Chief." he says. "I hesitate on this however. Had the position be Russians absolutely. But these are Polish troops holding a position that would most definitely have them accustomed to dealing with civilian traffic."

Standing up he raises a finger as he speaks to Milk, "No shooting." he says. "Observation only... from a safe distance." The last couple of ground operations hadn't fared well with remaining undetected. He wasn't confident on pushing their luck.

"I want to know what kind of heavy weapons can engage the river, and how many, and where they are located." he begins.

"I want to know about the ground, and suitable positions of cover that can get a tank hunting party as close to the armour as possible. And at what range would it be."

"I want to know the enemy's behavior and activity regarding civilian land and water traffic."

"Finally, the standard info on the enemy position. Trench layout, obstacles, etc."

Combat would be the final option, but if they were forced to follow through with it, he wanted to know the details of the challenge. "Collect information... thats what this is. Further action can be determined later by the results of your mission once completed. Recce party needs to be kept to an absolute minimum, I prefer three."

"OK?"

Mariusz heard MCoy mention chow and as he walked past said, "The smell is dinner, but I have burgers prepared for lunch, you can fry yourself up some now or if you can wait forty minutes I can get you some with fresh baked rolls and oven baked potato chips, you'd call them fries? I think."

"Brother! I will take what ever you have and be happy about it.You just lead the way."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:56, Fri 27 June 2008.

"OK," Mariusz said, quickly checking it was alright to go below, he led MCoy to the Galley and set some burgers onto the frying pan. He quickly diced some potatoes and onion and made them into little patties, the Americans called them, "Hash Browns", he thought and he added them to the pan.

He looked over at MCoy and said, "I'm sorry to hear about your family, the feeling of not being able to put the wrong right must have been intolerable for a strong man like yourself. I hope that you stay with us for a long time, we need strong men like yourself if we are to follow Old Adam's dream. I'm young but I've seen a lot of bad things. I'm not strong enough to put them right, but maybe if I can help you and our companion, maybe we can put just one thing right. Too much has been destroyed, I'd like to try to build something just once before I die. Would you like to try the tomato sauce? It's not ketchup but if you like it I can put some on your plate."

"Like I said brother, I will take what ever you will give. Yeah it was hard but it was 2 years ago and I have settled the scores. I'm just here to live one day at a time. Trying to make something will be hard but it can be done. I know what happened to the world- I had a sat-radio. I heard the calls for help. I just turned it off one day. Yeah I like Poland; I dont see myself ever going home. It's not there anymore and winter is about to come on. We should be harvesting the fall wheat and hunting game not killing each other over table scraps, you know what I mean? But it's cool- a warm place to sleep and food is a good deal."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:41, Sat 28 June 2008.

Mariusz finished the cooking and placed the burgers, hash browns and tomato relish on a plate for the new man, "Enjoy that, Sir, when the rolls are done I'll bring you some hot with the butter we have, the goat's cheese is nice but not to everyone's taste, if you want some it's over there. Since you've been in a town for a while you might not feel the need for this, but there's a bathroom just down the corridor. It has hot water. If you need anything washed, leave it there and I'll get it done. If you haven't anything to change in to, I've left the kit of people who don't need it any more on the left of the changing room. A few of our old companions were close to your size, you'll find something there if you need it."

"Works for me, Skipper." Dave interjects. "I'd like to carry the MP-5 out of the weapons locker, McCoy has a suppressor that should fit it. I'll have to rob the ammo out of one of the Uzi magazines, and we should take the AT grenades, and maybe one of the RPGs, just in case."

Nodding to Mariuz Sanjay replied,
"Many thanks for your kindness."

Looking at the burgers he said,
"Many who follow the Sikh faith are vegitarians, I'm not. The only dietary restriction I have is that the meat has been killed with one blow, or shot and isn't Halal."

He looks at Mariuz questioningly for a moment, preparing to either take the burgers or make a tomato and hash sandwich instead.

"That's good," Mariusz replied, "the burgers and hash browns are ready now, I'll have fresh bread ready in about twenty minutes, you can wait for those to have hamburgers, or start on the food now and I'll bring you the bread when it's ready."

Mariusz smiled and said, "Pardon my curiousity, but when I watched a documentary on the Indian Railways, there were a lot of shots of steam trains, are you familiar with coal fired steam engines, or did you train on Deisel/Electrics?" like most boys, Mariusz had gone through a phase when he was about eight of wanting to be a train driver.

Smiling Sanjay replied,
"I started out on steam engines then moved over to the newer diesels later on. We only got rid of the last steam engines in the mid 1980's."

Taking a bite from his burger roll Sanjay continues,
"The old steam engines were messy beasts but great to work on. The newer diesels were cleaner operating but lacked the personality of the old steam engines."

Looking wistful he concludes,
"I loved working on railway engines. But how about you, what's your passion?"

Dawid smiled broadly.

"As you have said "sorry", I most definitely accept your apologies!"

"No hard feelings at all. Of course you have a right to your opinion and to do what you like. No one would ever argue differently."

With a genuinely sincere smile, he made to offer McCoy a smoke and offered to light it.

"Well, I am very much relieved there will be no misunderstandings or problems with the chain of command. We have had those in the past, you understand."

He nodded in a friendly manner to Sanjay when the man came on to the bridge.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Sat 28 June 2008.

"I like cooking, the laundry and tidying I do because if someone doesn't it'll become chaos," he replied, "I'm not good technically and I'm a mediocre scout and fighter so by contributing here it frees others up to do what they're best at, but I love cooking, my parents were teachers but their passion was food. I was a butterball when we finally tried to get out of Warsaw, probably why I lasted that winter, I must have lost six, seven stone, but I had it to lose, those around me starved away but I just made it until the Spring Harvest. There were fewer mouths to feed then. Now, cooking makes me feel close to them again, you know what I mean? Makes me think of the good times, not watching people taking dad's boots before he was even dead, or watching mum's brains leak out on the road while people shuffled around her."
He paused a moment to turn back to the stove, "Sorry, I've lost the last of my companions over the last few days, I'm getting maudlin. It must sound rich to you, your life is half a world away and your nightmares must be worse, at least I know what happened to my people. Not knowing must be terrible."

Griet thought about how the recon unit would get to the area of operations and said, "When it comes to transport options for the group, I'd like to remind everyone that we have another alternative on hand now. As the Commandant didn't pony up any weaponry in Adam's trade, we reserve 10% of the bicycles. I know it sounds crazy sending a Sepcial Operations unit out on bikes, but they're faster than walking, quieter than the Ural and can travel on land unlike the tug's light craft."

Nodding at Mariusz words Sanjay replies,
"Many have been afflicted in this troubled time. Each man's burden is his alone, but often we find that helping others lightens both their burden and our own."

Taking another bite he adds,
"Good burger by the way."

At around 1130 hrs. (about 10km upriver from Annopol), the tug lurches to a sudden halt. Everyone is thrown off balance by the unexpected jolt but no one is hurt. In the galley, Mariusz's pots and pans are tossed about, spilling some of his hard culinary work on the deck.

It appears that the tug has run aground on a mudflat, concealed by the uncharacteristically high and fast-moving river. It will take some time to get her unstuck, especially given the recent loss of personel skilled at this type of operation(Snowy was invaluable in this capacity and Tadeuz is still cuffed to his bunk*).

The team is left with a bit of a dilemna. Do they launch the recon team** now, with 10km of ground to cover to the target and the beached tug unable to employ its Vasilek mortar in support, or do they delay the recon until the tug is freed? On the positive side, the tug is far enough from Annopol that it must be outside visual range of the government pickets. Likely, not even its smoke is visible with the low, thick cloud cover. Much closer to the target, and Annopol will know that the Krolowa is coming...

Actions?

OOC: *One of the medical experts should take a look at Tadeuz's patched belly wound and see if he's fit for duty.

**So far, the recon team will consist of Bones, McCoy, and Milk. Tucker expressed interest in going. Any other volunteers?

After her self imposed duty on the bow Quyen looks at her broken watch. Heading into the galley she finds McCoy. "Sentry duty. You're up." she says.

Nodding to Mariusz she says with hope in her voice, "Going to try to get fish. Dawid told me a couple days ago it'll be safe to eat." With that she leaves to fetch her compact fishing set from her gear. As the tug lurches to a sudden halt she grabs the railing to keep from falling. Quyen then reports to her battle station, anticipating orders for action or defense.

In reply to Sam McCoy (msg #8):

Major Anneka Soleblume of the United States Army was absoutely stunned at the gross insubordination shown by the exceptionally rude and arrogant Master Sergeant. Although she fully understood the need for caution, it wasn't as if she was asking any state secrets! All they needed to know was a general idea of what he could do, what weapons he was capable of using, what technical abilities he might be able to contribute, even some of the more basic things like whether or not they could drive a car!

Stunned into silence, and fuming that a man who apparently identified themselves as being a member of the US Military could so utterly dismiss a ranking officer, she resolved to have a few words with Chief Warrant Officer Milk and Hauptman Bayer as soon as she regained her composure.

There was trouble coming, she could feel it. She just hoped she wouldn't need the pistol at her hip again.

The tug or the barge beached again, Konrad looks around in the bridge for Snowy. The last time something like this happened he just simply gave the Australian a thumbs up and let the man take over. Remembering Snowy's recent departure, Bayer rushes to find Griet, his last nautical specialist.

"Coordinate with Adam immediately... the tell me what you need. You are the senior expert on this, assume command of the group and fix this problem." he says to Griet.

Approaching Milk he says, "Confer with your teammates, then run by me what plan you want to work with. Expect to leave as soon as possible."

Noticing Tucker, he walks up and stands beside him where he speaks quietly.

In reply to Sanjay Roshon (msg #11):

"Thankyou for all your help," she said, relieved to have received such cooperation.
"I have just one last question. You said you were conscripted into the Polish army. Did you have any particular rank or were you placed in charge of anyone else?"
With the obvious expert mechanical knowledge they displayed, it seemed near impossible that he'd not been placed in some position of authority, even if it was just a handful of half trained labourers. Of course there was always the chance some idiot commander had thrown him into a combat unit, completely wasting his abilities.
"As you seem to have only basic weapon skills, I'd like you to see if you can't help out in the engine room. If it comes to combat and you're not needed below, I think it might be best if you position yourself on the aft deck and one of the two machineguns there. That'll keep you close to the machineshop just in case we need your services in a hurry."

Griet went into the wheel house to speak to Adam, "Can we try reverse thrust first please, father? If that doesn't work we'll use the ship's boat to take the anchor further back and then kedge our way off using that."

Mariusz quickly cleaned up the spillages and then dished up the food before taking it to those who couldn't leave their posts. After he'd dielivered everyone their food, he asked the Major, "Major, can I give Tadeuz something to eat, or will his wound be aggravated with this food? I can make him something else if you tell me what would be best for him."

In reply to Clarence Milk (msg #24):

Major Soleblume had calmed significantly by the time of the meeting. Speaking with the old Indian engineer, Sanjay had seemed to have a calming effect, perhaps becasue he'd been so forthcoming and open with his answers where McCoy had been so.....difficult.
"Just keep him on a tight leash then," she said to Milk, grateful that the core members of the unit were such dependable, solid types.
"See if you can get the information we need please, he might open up a bit to you."

"The MP-5 only has the one magazine I'm afraid. Otherwise I'd probably have picked it up for myself. You're welcome to take my uzi if you like."
Somehow she always felt somewhat like a schoolgirl around the other medic. Offering her own weapon only seemed right since she'd been the one to deliver the bad news about the lack of magazines.

In reply to Cap'n Rae (msg #47):

"Hauptman, I suggest landing the recon team as soon as possible. Have them clear the immediate area and then set out on bicycle to scout the bridge."
Griet's suggestion had merit even if Anneka hadn't said so at the time. They'd be able to cover most of the distance in a reasonably quick time, hide the bikes and then proceed on foot to observe the target.

"Sanjay might be useful in freeing the barge," she suggested. "He knows a little about boats."

"Better let me check his wounds first," she replied feeling guilty that she hadn't done so earlier. At least Stoner had had the presence of mind to keep an eye on such mundane necessities.
"Here, I'll take him the food."

"Why thank you, but I think I'll stay with the MP-5," touched by the Doctor's offer. "If it takes more than 30 rounds to quietly dispose of a sentry or two, they'll know we're there and I'll switch over to some heavier firepower," he says, patting his AK/BG combo.

In reply to Mariusz Tokarski (msg #53):

Finished talking for the moment, Dawid assisted Mariusz in cleanup duties.

Tucker stands and nods as he and Konrad talk in private.

Bayer nods, "Done. Already mentioned to Milk to prepare to deploy as soon as possible. I want them to run by me their plan first so we can coordinate. The bicycles are good idea, but I'll leave that up to them."

"I Have appointed Griet in command of working with Adam to unstuck. I expect we'll have to do what we did a few days ago with the anchor." he explains. "I haven't had a chance to speak with the Indian gentlemen. He may be of good use to Griet."

Putting on his kevlar, and collecting his rifle he walks out and stands next to the PKMs. Immobilized, he felt the tug was at its most vulnerable time. Even with just a skeleton security crew on board, a threatened tug could simply sail away. Removing his binos he gives a quick scan of the ground on both sides of the banks.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:39, Sun 29 June 2008.

Reply to Anneka

Sanjay replied,
"I was a Private, although that didn't really cover it. Basically I was just given stuff to fix. A lot of them were just young kids who didn't really know one end of a spanner from another. As you might have worked out I don't really strike folks as front line assault material."

In response to Mariusz,

"I dont smoke; makes you stink and people can smell you coming for hundereds of meters. Also, dogs are trained to smell it- gives you up. No worries on the 'sorry' shit, I didn't know you were there. It's all cool. Hey, thanks for the offer- I know they are in short supply. I need to leave some shit here to go out. I want to leave it with you. My pack and all my heavy shit. Going real light here. Thanks again."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:19, Sun 29 June 2008.

"Yes sir." Milk replies. He long ago abandoned the bad war zone habit of saluting. It was a tell-tale signal to enemy snipers saying "shoot this guy- he's an officer!"

Milk finds McCoy and Stoner and informs them that the green light's been given.

"Alright men, Konrad's given the go ahead for a recon- option two. It looks like it'll just be the three of us. Griet suggested we infil part of the way by bicycles. I've inserted by parachute, by chopper, by boat- even on horseback- but I aint ever gone in by bike. I'm not sure about it but it would save time, though.

"Now, I understand the tank is on the east bank, but so is the town. We'll get a better view of the defenses on that side, but we also stand a greater chance of getting detected- civies, dogs, etcetera. Also, there are two tributaries on the east bank between here and the town that we'd have to cross on the way there. It's too cold for any of us to get wet on our way to a hide site. I'd rather take a look at the bridge defenses from the west bank. Whattaya all think?"

As soon as they've hashed out a plan, Milk will ask his two SOF comrades to help him move the AGS-17 and its ready ammo to the position he's prepared for it atop the bridge roof.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:58, Sun 29 June 2008.

"West side it is. We set up a hide 1 klick away and we trade off sketching and using the M49. It's 20x so we are in easy range. We go in at night, set up the hide, 360 degree defense, and observe for a day, then scoot out that next night- easy as cake."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:05, Mon 30 June 2008.

"I haven't been on a bycycle in years, but I'll give it a shot. I've got the MP-5 and one magazine out of the armory, should we bring one of the RPGs also?"

"Agreed but we need to head out now. It's about 15 klicks away so by the time we make our final approach, it'll be near dark or dark already. Konrad wants us to head out pronto and I can understand why. We made a hell of a lot of enemies back in T-breg and I wouldn't put it past the Sando 'commandant' to decide he wants to come get the tug for himself."



"Yeah, we could take that RPG-18. It's no bigger than an M-72 LAW. There's also that little Polish one-shot number* in the armory but it looks like it'd be more dangerous to the user than to its target. We used to have a silenced Sterling SMG but I think Yazzie took off with that. Long story, that guy. We need to draw at least a couple sets of NVGs as well.

"Now give me a hand with this AGL before I run the plan by Bayer."

*The Komar disposable AT RPG. The pic is somewhere in the Scuttlebut OOC thread.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:32, Mon 30 June 2008.

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go" Dave sings as he grabs one end of the AGL.

"Of course! That makes sense. I always stink of gunpowder, cordite anyways."

"I shall look after your belongings."

"You also say you are wanting to stay in Poland, I can see there would be much need for a man of your talent. Like I said, the Armija Krajina (Home Army) has long worked with US Special Forces, and we can give you a home if you are willing to help us rebuild."

As Adam and Walter try to coax the stranded tug from the suction of the submerged mudbank, the recon team kits up in preparation for their mission. Clarence briefs Konrad on the mission, receiving the final go-ahead.*

With Walter needed on the Krolowa's bridge, Minh is tasked with ferrying the recon team back from its insertion point (Stoner will handle the inbound trip). The infiltration is successful and the team is put ashore. They've forgone the bicycles as there is no road within their infiltration corridor (the road paralleling the river is nearly 5km inshore here). They move swiftly but cautiously, using what little concealment they can find as effectively as they can. They make good time and see only a small party of what appear to be civilians well in the distance, near the road. It does not appear that they are seen. Within a few hours, the recon team is within sight of the bridge. They settle into a suitable hide side with a good view of the western side of the bridge and camoflage themselves amidst the thick underbrush, setting Claymores along the likely avenues of approach. A light rain has begun to fall.

They take turns observing the bridge, noting the number of defenders and the types of their weaponry. The tank, a cold, dappled green sentinal, sits immobile on the opposite bank, just off of the road. It's turret, supplemented with improvised armor consisting of track links and sandbags, is topped by a KPV HMG (light cannon to some).

As expected, the bridge appears to be guarded by a hodge-podge of Polish government troops- undoubtedly conscripts- variously armed with Tantal and AKM rifles. By and large, they look young and inexpert. None sport more than a whisp of facial hair. One particular guard on the near-side appears to be a couple of years younger than the barely post-pubescent deck hand (Luboslaw) back aboard the Krolowa. With his oversized helmet and long, skinny neck, he resembles a long-stemmed mushroom.

On the near side of the bridge, a gaggle of six young guards huddles close together passing around a lit cigarette. A man appears walking quickly towards them from the other side of the bridge. A young, ruddy-faced guard hastily stubs the cigarrette out on the concrete guard-rail and pockets it. The party crasher strides towards the group and begins shouting and gesticulating angrily. The others quickly disperse, one falling to the ground as the older man cuffs him on the side of his head.

The man's appearance stands in stark contrast to the others. He is older and moves with the confidence of a seasoned veteran. He's dressed in the newest model Soviet camoflage. He is followed shortly thereafter by another pair of Soviet troops, younger perhaps, but carrying themselves like expert predators. One carries an ufamiliar weapon- it's about the size of a carbine, scoped, and appears to have an integral silencer. He also has a small radio strapped to his chest harness. He and his comrade begin walking along the shore, heading up-river, soon passing out of sight. The young Poles take their positions and the angry Soviet heads back to the opposite bank.

A head count reveals twice the estimated strength of 24 men on duty at any given time. About half of those on duty appear to be Soviet soldiers. There is a sandbagged machine gun bunker on the near side, and likely another on the far side. The nearside bunker appears to be armed with tripod-mounted PKM. There is also a truck parked under some trees on the far side of the river and a tent pitched nearby that.

Clarence estimates that there are at least 36-50 defenders total, working in split shifts, with another 12-24 stationed in the town a few kilometers to the east. Over half of the defenders are Poles, the remainder are likely Soviets. All are armed with a variety of WARPACT infantry weapons. The Polish force looks to be made up almost exclusively of recent conscripts while the Soviets by and large look to be top-notch soldiers.

All of this information is transmitted by radio to the command element on board the tug.

Actions?

OOC: *Any questions about the plan we can hash out OOC. I didn't want to hold things up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:49, Tue 01 July 2008.

Reversing the main screws and engaging the bow thrusters, the Krolowa slowly eases herself from the grasp of the submerged mudbank.

Pulling free, she heads stern-first up-river for a few hundred meters before reversing course, creeping again slowly forward in attempt to circumnavigate the estimated position of the hidden obstacle. As soon as she is clear, she drops anchor, mid-channel, and comes to a halt. The entire process takes about an hour.

From the engineering spaces, Grzyech reports no damage to the engines while the screws appear to be free of entanglements and operating properly. A visual inspection is difficult due to the turbid, fast moving waters of the Vistula.

After several cold, unneventful hours more, the recon team reports that they are in position and begins feeding real-time intel to the team still aboard the tug.

The sun will be going down in another couple of hours.

Actions?

Bayer keeps watch towards the surrounding area by field glasses. Ensuring nobody is able to approach, hostile or not. While the tug is getting unstuck, he maintains radio contact with the recon team. After a while he approaches Mariusz, "I don't like putting too many ashore at once, but if I had thought about it beforehand... two ashore to forage or hunt those pigs you spoke of would have been an option."

When informed of the tug's status (by Griet or Adam) he asks, "How close can we to the bridge with the closing of the day, without revealing our smoke? I'd like to cut some of the distance down but not to the point of revealing ourselves."

Explaining himself he says, "Radio reports indicate they may be more than just Polish infantry. Silenced weapons give an indication they are spetznaz... still on the pursuit of us. Won't matter if the travel papers are legit or not if that is the case."

"Getting closer to deploy a supporting element and potentially a tank hunting team will be easier with the tug closer to the objective. And it will be safer for the tug if it encounters its own problems being closer to the shore party. Eliminating the tank will allow the tug to have direct line of sight support as well."

"We still have further reports from the recon team to go, so I don't say this as if we are going into a combat situation for sure. It is just speculation and anticipation." he finishes.

Tucker will walk with Bayer as he walks over to the PKM's and continues to speak to him in a low voice.

Mariusz said to the Kaptain, "We could have put hunters out, but I think you're right to keep to two parties. I'll make the food last as long as I can, the people we face next are established in their positions, I would guess they have supplies there. We'll manage, whatever, Kaptain, I'd rather go hungry than lose someone we don't absolutely have to. Thanks for discussing it with me, Sir."

While they are still stuck in the mud, Tucker checks on the foward mortar pit where Dawid and Minh are usually found.  "Dawid!  All is good here with you?"

Griet answered the Kaptain's question as best she could, "We are just over one and a half hour's travel from the bridge, that's about fifteen klicks. I'm not fully sure, but given the weather and failing light, I'd guess that we could get within five clicks safely, say an hour of steaming. The problem is, that still puts us two kilometers, five minutes at top speed outside the mortar's range, and top speed is risky, something might blow or we might hit an obstacle we missed in our haste, to be careful, and in the dark it would take at least twelve minutes to close the gap, more if we wanted to lead with a ship's boat to check for obstacles."

Griet paused and thought for a moment, "The sound of the engines at their quietest would carry a good couple of Klicks, it might be wisest to cruise up river for about eight kilometers now, safely out of observation range, and then creep up at night, we could cover two kilometers an hour fairly stealthily, for a steam tug that is, and get to the two kay limit in two and a half hours, if we waited till midnight, say by 02.30. We might want to see if the position puts out night pickets too, that will cut our options even further."

Adam listens in turn to Konrad's questions and his daughter's carefully measured reply before responding. He uses Griet's title to leave no doubt as to her position on the team as a skilled professional, not just the old man's daughter.

"I believe that Chief Niewiadomska's assessment is correct, Mr. Bayer. I am willing to risk moving in the dark if you think that it is necessary. But since we cannot use the spotlight without giving away our presence, I will need someone with night vision equipment on the barge or atop the bridge- both, preferably- to watch for obstructions in the river. In the meantime, we may proceed with caution."

Dave looks at the two Green Berets. "I don't think we can take on that many, especially trained troop", he whispers. "What do you guys think about disembarking the obviously American troops and try to get the tug past with a local crew, using those papers. We could move the American and NATO people downriver on this side of the bank, then pick them up past town. Plus if they confiscate the tug and lock up our people, we'll have a force outside to rescue them."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:56, Wed 02 July 2008.

Sam puts his fingers to his lips and then taps his watch to signify later.


He continues to sketch the bridge and all the gun emplacments in his book and take notes on all the points Konrad wanted.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:52, Wed 02 July 2008.

Bayer nods appreciatively to Griet and Adam. Thankful for their expertise he says, "Alright. Proceed as close as you think you can without revealing ourselves. We will reevaluate once we arrive or the sun sets... whichever is first."

As the tug prepares to proceed downriver, he continues to think over different ideas of either diminishing the enemy force or simply splitting it. The lack of manpower quashed most of his ideas.

After appointing Kasparov as the forward sentry he musters the remaining team on the deck, near the mortar. "To keep you informed. The recce party has confirmed a platoon strength Polish unit augmented by what may be Soviet Spetznaz or other elite troops. A tank is on site as expected."

"I am anticipating combat at this point. If it were only the Poles, passage may have been an option and a peaceful resolution possible. The presence of the Soviets alludes to the same forces that pursued us earlier. If not, then they have been reported to be at least disciplined enough to regard all NATO soldiers as enemy."

"With the recce element on ground and capable of thinning out the enemy ranks... knocking out the tank I think should be handled by a dedicated tank hunting party. Bringing the tug into line of sight, it will be critically outmatched by the tank."

"A supporting element will also be helpful in case the recce det is revealed during their elimination work."

"Alright?"

Milk cups a hand around his mouth and whispers in Stoner's ear,

"It could work. But, if they're looking for the tug, it's likely that they'll impound it and take the crew to Lublin for proper interogation. At the very least, they'll help themselves to her weapons and cargo."

Despite his misgivings, Clarence passes along Stoner's suggestion to Konrad over the radio.

OOC: I know that in RL, SF types conducting this kind of op probably wouldn't be chatting or using the radio so much but I want to keep things rolling. On the other hand, Clarence's radio has an encryptor and burst transmitter and the light rain and distance from what they're observing would make their conversation undetectable.

Before anyone on the deck can respond, Bayer stops to listen as Clarence relays the suggestion. As much as he would like a peaceful resolution, he had little hope for it. Every time they try to make a deal they get screwed, everyone they trust turns out to be in it for just themselves, etc. Now with the report of what Bayer assumes to be loyal Soviet troops, possibly spetsnaz, he declines, "Roger. Wait, out."

After a moment says, "Milk? You don't have to take all of them. We may deploy a anti-tank team and a support team to assist. Your group only needs to silence some of the sentries to cover our approach and setup. I am not worried about the manpower there, as long as the tank and heavy weapons can be knocked out the tug should be able to pass. Awaiting reply over."

Quyen is sitting on the sandbagged protection around the mortar listening to the tentative plan. Not sure if she'd be placed into either the tank hunting group or the support group (of left on the tug), she decides to offer her skills regardless. Speaking up when there was a chance, she says - "Hauptmann, do you want me to rig any of the plastic explosives or try to come up with some improvised anti-tank weapons? As a backup for the RPG."

Dawid sighed and took off his helmet, wiping away some sweat from his forehead even though it was cold out. He sighed.

"I am ready for action, Sergeant."

"To tell you the truth, I am thinking that perhaps the Hetman's offer of ground vehicles was not such a bad idea. This tug is like a small building... one with "Please Shoot at Me!" written on the side, yes?"

He smiled, as if making a joke.

Tucker smiles at Dawid's humor and he knoew that the pole wasn't far off on his assessment.  "Yeah, i think we'll be working on a sign pretty soon Dawid.  Kind of sucks when it seems like you're driving a small building down a two-lane road.  I don't know though, I'm a gound pounder but, it seems harder to get to us on the wter sometimes than on the land if we had the trucks from the Hetman!  Anyway, let me know if you need anything and keep any armor piercing stuff ready in case we need to use it on the tank!"

Mariusz heard the two men speaking and said, "Don't forget, we shoot back too. I'll get dinner ready."

Mariusz popped back into the galley to see the lamb stew with carrots and potatoes thickening nicely, he'd made spicy dumplings to go with them and they were brown and plump. He had an apple pie baking in the oven and he got ready to finish the starters. He'd made some flour tortillas earlier and now he cut them into triangles and began frying them off. The chips could be dipped in the tomato salsa he'd already made, some softened goat's cheese and a guacamole he'd made with peas instead of avacados. The rye bread he'd baked was still warm and he put out a little flavoured oil to go with it.

He called up to the others, "Dinner in twenty minutes!"

"Ja, do so." he says shaking his head. "Check on the anti-tank grenades as well."

Clarence thought that the recon team could probably take out some if not all of the half-dozen men posted at the near end of the bridge without things getting too hot. The tank was going to be a big problem, though. There was probably no way that any of them could fight their way across several hundred meters of open, bullet channelling bridge to get within RPG range of the old warhorse.

A team on the far side would also have quite a time even getting near since over half of the defense force appeared content to remain on that side of the river. And, although they hadn't seen anything of the sort, Clarence was fairly certain that a fixed, garrisoned, strategically important position like this had at least a mortar or two in support.

"Wait one."

He turns and whispers to McCoy and Stoner,

"Suggestions?"

The tug moves at 5kph to safely cover as much distance as possible before nightfall. At dusk, the light rain that had been falling all afternoon turns to snow. Night falls quickly and the tug slows to a crawl. With Jason on the barge acting as a vision-enhanced lookout, the tug creeps into the darkness, those on board praying, each in their own fashion, that she doesn't run headlong into another submerged obstacle. At low speed, the tug's steam engine and machinery noises are surprisingly quiet, even in the stillness of the young night. It would be nearly impossible for a distant observer- even one expecting such a sight- to spot the tug's smoke in the pitch dark and slowly drifting snow.

At around midnight, the tug has crept to within three kilometers of the Annopol crossing, close enough to quickly close the distance and put the bridge into striking range of the Vasilek while remaining far enough away to avoid detection. The tug anchors just behind a slight curve in the river, as close to the east bank as Adam judges prudent, using the terrain as concealment. Danger becomes an almost tangible presence as the the tug settles into her hide just 3000m or so away from around 50* hostile WARPACT soldiers.

Actions?

OOC:*If Clarence's estimate is correct.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:24, Wed 02 July 2008.

Sam will give the hand signal when it gets dark to move out. If Milk agrees, they will move back to the ship to report in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:31, Sat 05 July 2008.

Minh excuses herself and heads below. Visiting the hold she'll take a quick inventory of the anit-tank rockets and grenades. Next she visits the workshop or any other place where she hopes to find paint.

With the onset of snow, Anneka judged it time to change over to her precious thermal fatigues. Although she'd been living and working with Americans both in the US, Germany and Poland since before the war, she'd still not gotten used to the bitting cold winters this far from the tropics.

Information continued to flood in over the radio from the recon team during the day and it seemed that most of the more important administrative tasks were taking care of themselves. Left with little to do, she busied herself with medical checks, general maintenance and searching through the personal effects of those who'd recently been lost. Tactical planning, while a subject she was familiar with, was something best left to those who'd been living and breathing it for years.

This wasn't to say she didn't speak up when she needed to. If she saw something that seemed wrong somehow she spoke her mind. Sometimes she was wrong, and she gracefully admitted her mistake or misunderstanding of a fine tactical point, but often her sharp mind spotted a detail that more militaristic brains had overlooked.

"I don't like it," she'd said often that afternoon.
"But what choice do we have?"
Only two really as she saw it. Sail up and try to bargain their way through with possibly fake papers, or attack. Going back was less of an option than going around.

Griet looked at the positions as they were marked on the map and shook her head, "I agree with you Major, this really doesn't look good, but we have limited options, I'm going to suggest a highly risky strategy which may be impossible to actually do, it is an option however." she paused, "Would it be possible for our stealthy troops to set up some pre-prepared demolitions? If we could set up a series of timed munitions ready to go off, we could then steam up to the bridge right at dawn and try to bluff our way through. If it looks to be going bad, we try to stall for time until the explosives go off and then try to fight our way out. Timers are a problem I know, but I don't see how we could command detonate such a ruse, the plunger we have can set off up to ten charges, but having all that wire running to one point would be a recipe for disaster even if we had the wire to do it. Do we have remote command detonators? That would be best, but even if we could take out the tank and heavy bunkers and sow some confusion elsewhere it might be worth it, if MCoy's as good as he says he is, he might just be able to do it. Anyway, it's just a suggestion, if we can use part of it, it's a bonus, if it's stupid, I'm just a sea-dog sticking my nose into land lubbers' affairs."

"Its the tank though, Chief." Bayer says. "One shot on the tug and its all over for half on board."

"Now we could approach peacfully and it won't be able to directly engage... probably. T55s can't depress their guns low. But trying to sail away and they just wait until we enter their sights and thats it."

"I think the key to getting through is knocking out the tank's armament. We could survive machinegun fire." he says.

"If we could get to the center of the bridge, from the west side before the warning is given we'd have a shot at hitting it and holding off the superior force. They'd be channeled onto the bridge if they'd want to assault. But getting to the bunkers... I don't know how."

After napping a while, Dawid awoke and slipped on his NVGs. He scanned the darkness, looking for anyone. They were quite a ways away from the target and the Vasilek's accuracy would suffer. If that was what God willed, then that was what it would be.

Back on the tug, Dave grabs a bowl of stew and a chunk of bread. He goes to the bridge with his supper. "Why are we so sure we'll have to fight our way past these guys?" he asks no one in particular. "We should try to use that pass we picked up, maybe disembark the ones who are obviously NATO or American and have them move downriver on the west bank to rondevous with the tug later." I can't believe I'm about to say this he thinks to himself, "I can swim in ahead of the tug and land close as I can to the tank, and if we have to fight it out, I'll be prepositioned to take it out. Just leave a long line trailing off the tug for me." He takes a bite of stew and continues "Maybe have the American squad positioned to take out the bunker on the west side of the river, and work on the east side bunker while the tug is making it's escape."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:04, Fri 04 July 2008.

Meeting the returning recce group, Bayer offers a reply to Stoner's questions. "The presence of the Soviets, armed with special weapons indicates to me they have a high probability in being Spetsnaz. Before you came aboard we have had problems with this. A passenger is wanted by the Soviets for documents he is carrying... they have had Spetsnaz units in pursuit of us and we have lost a few of our number to them. It isn't just the people, they are very aware of the tug. It was actively searched for an attacked on sight by a helicopter. If they are who I think they are, they will not let the tug go."

"You can't swim. It was snowing a little earlier. Without a wetsuit at the least I don't think you can make it." he adds.

Looking at the rest of those who had eyes on the objective, he asks "Other tactical options... how else can the tank be knocked out?"

"If the tug were to approach under the guise of a peaceful crossing, could the RPG hit it from close range? Close... as in under the barrel depression level of the tank? Sail up and when the tank can not engage we knock it out." he asks. Bayer preferred the use of a dedicated tank-hunting party moving in after the sentries were eliminated by the special forces. However, from Clarence's description of the ground, that idea was fading.

"We've been told by our Intelligence people and the person most familiar with Sandomierz that the pass is a trap." Griet replied, "Trying to bluff our way through or putting our neck in the noose may be the only way to go if we are to try to get through, but we'll take massive casualties even if we succeed. If we were fighting shakey conscripts, we could chance most things, but if there are steady troops, especially Spetsnaz there, it's near suicide. Their snipers are likely to take out personnel if nothing else. I strongly suggest we think a lot about this. We have lost a lot of good people on this mission so far, I'm sure my father wouldn't allow you to sacrifice your lives for no good reason."

She paused, "Another option would be for us to drop off all foreign personnel and let you bypass the position, if the Soviets search us and we have no Americans or Reset, they may let us go, especially if we give up where you have gone. If we get through, we can meet up again, if not, you can judge if a rescue op is feasible. Whatever we do, we need to discuss it more, I'll support whatever decision is made."

Quyen rigs up a 3 kilogram explosive charge while the recce party and the officers discuss the plans. With the RPGs she doubted they'd need it, especially with the info coming in regarding the difficulty of getting close to the tank. But, back up and always nice no matter how small. She had other ideas too how to limit the tank's operational capabilities, but let them slide for the time.

After her task she emerges from below and hangs out in the galley.

Clarence listens thoughtfully as Stoner, Konrad, and Griet share their assessments of the situation and critiques of the rudimentary plans offered so far. He's not happy with any of it, but he admits to himself that he's unable to come up with anything any more promising. The rest of the team has been strangely quiet on the matter. As soon as Clarence has weighed all of the available options and performed a quick mental cost/benefit analysis, he shares his thoughts with the others.

"The bridge defenders have got to be waiting for us. There's no other reason for the Soviets to post first line troops on guard detail. It's possible the bridge's been hit by marauders and that the reinforcements are just a precaution but I doubt that. My gut tells me they're looking for RESET.

"We could try offloading the NATO people and bypassing the town while the skeleton crew bluffs their way through. It might work. But, if we take that tack, we've got to be prepared for the worst. Dawid's a deserter and I don't think Lublin recongnizes the legitimacy of the Krakow government so that puts the chief [Griet] here in the same boat. Worst case, they call our bluff and take the whole crew to Lublin for interrogation. If we take Dawid and Griet off too, that leaves like five people to crew the tug. I doubt the Russians are going to buy that only five crewmen can both sail and fight the tug.

So, if we go with the bluff, the NATO group should head east and then north to bypass the town and set up an ambush on the road to Lublin. If the tug makes it through, we head for a rendezvouz downriver. If they don't we wait and try for a rescue. I don't like it, but it may be all we got.

If we're going to attack, we've got to cook something up quick. When day breaks, we'll lose the element of surprise. We also need time to get a force back to the hide under the cover of darkness. I believe that we can eliminate the west bank squad and we may be able to knock out the positions on the bridge itself. With mortar fire support, we may be able to confuse or distract the defenders enough to get the tug close enough to hit the T-55 with a couple of HEDP rounds. That ought to do the trick. If nothing else, when the tug's close enough to the bridge, the tank may not be able to lower its main gun enough to hit her. That may give us another shot at taking it out. But, it's going to be a slugfest and we'll probably be taking the worst of it.

"Either way, bluff, or straight up fight, we're gonna lose people. There's no easy way to say it."

Clarence lets his last words settle in and hopes someone speaks up with another option.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:29, Sat 05 July 2008.

"Well, I see why we have lost so many. Not too many ideas here. I willing to go along with any plan; that's cool with me. If you want to win, then I will talk and lead this. No exceptions. It's up to you."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:30, Sat 05 July 2008.

McCoy just came on board a few hours ago- and he didn't exactly make a very good first impression on the others. Who in their right mind would agree to placing their lives into the hands of an almost complete stranger?

Clarence turns to Sam with a look of utter exasperation.

"Sam, that kind of ultimatum's not gonna help us here. If you've got any bright ideas, now's the time to share 'em."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:32, Sat 05 July 2008.

"We lost many from a well prepared ambush. Not a lack of ideas. Those men died due to chance and luck which anyone could have succumbed to." Bayer replies. "And nobody in the group gets special treatment."

"Griet... to respect your suggestion, if half of the crew wish to chance a bluff, I will go with your plan. Otherwise the plan will be to attack." he says.

"Milk, your recce party will be required to eliminate the western group without raising the alarm. Secure the western span and prepare to hold it against counterattack. You said you can get to the center bunker ja?"

"Tucker and Quyen will be tasked with knocking out the tank... once Milk's objective has been cleared. Rendered unable to use its armaments in any way. Based on the alertness of the enemy, do you think in the dark two soldiers can walk along the bridge and approach the tank? It would be easier to eliminate than firing RPGs from a distance."

"The mortar needs to concentrate on soft targets... infantry and bunkers. It won't be effective enough against the MBT. The limitation in ammo, suggests to me that Dawid should employ the AGS instead."

"Critiques?" he asks.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:21, Sat 05 July 2008.

"OK, let's go with the German's plan. Tell me where I need to go and what I need to do. I will be outside prepping gear and getting a bite to eat. I like all this food. Great times."


With that, Sam walks outside and starts to prep gear.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:30, Sat 05 July 2008.

Mariusz made sure everyone got on the outside of a good meal as he moved around the boat. He was glad everyone was staying together but worried about the dangers they would face. As he ladled some stew out for Griet, he listened to MCoy speak. He frowned a little, the newcomer's constant criticism and denigration of the team grated a little on him, the man would be an asset to them for sure, but not if all he did was laugh up his sleeve at everyone else.

Griet looked at Bayer and said, "No need to apologise, Kaptain. I suggested the plan in case people felt that this was one potential sacrifice too many. The banks of the Vistula seem painted with the blood of our crew and lined with their graves. We haven't even found a resting place for two and now it looks like we're risking our lives again. If people are willing to stay, I'm proud to stand by them and in that case, your plan is a much better one than mine." she looked around at the others, noting MCoy's comments and watching him leave the conference, "I thank you all for your courage and support. Now, if that's the basics of the plan, how do we make it work? As I see it, we have a basic plan to deal with the tank, but what about the Spetznatz? The gun described might be a sniper rifle of some sort, how are we going to deal with that bearing in mind most of our casualties have been to snipers?"

"Regarding the sniper asset. What is the distance from one bank to the next Milk? What would you expect the shooting distance to be at. Its a night shoot so I am counting on the distance and environment to lessen the effects a sniper may have. It will be the tug's task to keep sustained fire on the east bank and hopefully keep any attacking force back." Bayer answers.

"I envisioned something like this... Stage One - The recce team make a close approach and eliminate the western ground positions silently. They are followed close behind by the tank hunter group.

Stage Two - the bunker on the center of the bridge is assaulted and secured... silently again. Whether they get close by stealth and concealment or acting as friendly troops in the dark is their call.

Stage Three - The tank hunter group either approaches the tank or knocks it out from the secured bunker. I would rather a close up job and use of the RPGs only if the element of surprise has been lost.

Stage Four - The tug approaches and as it sails under the bridge provides sustained fire onto the eastern position (now alerted) and takes the heat off of the ground element who extract at this stage.

Stage Five - Linkup downriver."

"I think everyone is in agreement that we need the element of surprise on this one. Therefore we'll have to abort if the alarm is prematurely raised. We can't win in a slug fest against the tank. One wire guided missile took out the bridge... the tank will be able to fire much more rapidly than a missile group. We can't win against a tank."

"Question. The point the tug makes its approach. Should it do so after the tank is knocked out or... Shall it approach close enough for the tank to be alerted by the OP? This way it will likely traverse and be concentrating on the river. This may make the tank hunters able to approach easier. Suggestions?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Sat 05 July 2008.

Tucker shifts his bowl to his left hand and stands to give his input.  ""I kind of like the plan of taking the NATO off the boat and moving around but, that leaves the rest of the crew way understaffed in case the Russians decide to confiscate the tug.  I'm thinking we go with Clarence and his guys kick it off with me and Minh trailing as the tank hunter team.  We'll try to get as close as we can to knock it out by whatever we have to do.  Hook up with Clarence again downriver and back to you guys."

Clarence thinks for a moment and answers,

"Maybe. It could work either way. If the ground element makes enough noise, the tank will probably be worried about them and not pay so much attention to the river. That could allow the tug to get close enough for Dawid to hit the tank with HEDP. That kid's a crack shot. Whichever way we choose, timing is going to be really important here."

After a pause, Clarence continues,

"Even if we can distract the tank away from the bridge, I don't think the AT group will be able to get close enough to the tank to use AT grenades or improvized charges. The bulk of the bridge garrison is stationed over there- something like a dozen guys at the very least. If we can eliminate all of the sentries between the west bank and the tank, we might be able to take it out, but even if they're successful, I think it's going to end up a suicide mission.

"And we have to be ready if the sentries can't all be eliminated silently. It just takes one man to start shouting or shooting and the game is up."

"I have no doubt he could hit the tank. My doubt rests with the mortar... its HEDP rounds are not exactly suitable to destroy main battle tanks in my opinion." Bayer says. "It needs to hit from the ground RPG team or from explosives."

OOC - 82mm HEDP has only 15 penetration. Its not strong enough to defeat it's armour unless it hits the hull side. Thats only a 2 out of 6 chance and even then it'll only be minor damage if it succeeds.

The T-55 needs to only hit the tug once to cause a lot of damage and kill someone."

"I also think the OP will have radioed the tug's approach. The tank will be ready." he continues.

"Fine, you've seen the ground, not me. So charges are out. An RPG shot from the center bunkers is where is needs to be done then."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Sun 06 July 2008.

Quyen eventually heads up to the bridge and catches on the tail end of the meeting.  Siding up next to Tucker she says, "You're the gunner and I the loaded I take it?" she says.

Anneka shook her head in disagreement. She'd been looking at some of Adam's charts and an old postcard of the bridge she'd dredged up from somewhere and it seemed the ranges were just too great for the proposed plan to have much chance of success.
"From the charts, it appears that the eastern side of the river is very shallow, perhaps so shallow somebody could wade across."
"It also seems that the river at the bridge is about five hundred metres wide. If the bunker on it is at the halfway point, that's a good two hundred and fifty metres or more to the tank, if somebody could get that far without being spotted on the exposed bridge."
"I think we're going to have to consider landing a team on the east bank to take out the tank with RPGs. We also need to consider taking out their telephone communications and somehow deal with their radios."
Apparently they had a communications expert amongst them according to her notes. Might as well try using them...
"Warrant Officer Milk, do you think you could rig up a radio jammer? I don't know much about electronics, but isn't a jammer nothing more than a high powered transmitter?"
All Anneka really knew about the subject was that radios and cellphones back when the networks still existed, played havock with some of her medical equipment.
"And here's a thought. If the Russians were somehow dealt with or decoyed to another location, how sure are we that the Poles would want a fight?"
With only a few hours left to dawn, they might even need to consider delaying whatever action they chose for the following evening...

Bayer looks at Milk and says quietly, "Clarence you've seen the ground. Do you concur with this information?"

"Yes. I don't think we'll be able to fight our way across the bridge. It's too long, too open, and there's at least a dozen men, including most of the Soviets, posted on the east side."

"Major Soleblume's got me thinking, though. If the Soviets are there waiting for the tug, maybe we can draw them out, away from the bridge, even the odds a little bit. Maybe we could stage the tug getting stuck on another mudbank, make all kinds of noise, get them to come to us. Half of the team stays aboard ready to fight if and when the Reds show up. The other half sneaks around to hit the east side of the bridge and take out the tank. When the Ruskies get drawn into a firefight with the tug, she casts off and hustles for the bridge at flank speed. It all depends on the Soviets taking the bait, though.

"As for jamming, I may be able to rig something up but it'll most likely jam our own coms too. I just don't have the time, tools, or equipment to be able to pull something like that off right now.

"One last thing. It's pretty crazy so I didn't mention it before. We've got some SCUBA gear that Hicks brought on board. I know we don't have any wetsuits and the river's damn cold. But, I'm sure Mariusz has been saving the left-over bacon grease and I remember hearing that folks swimmin' the English Channel always smothered themselves in fat or something like it to keep insulated. Stoner's SCUBA qualified. That might be one way to get at least one of us close to the bridge without being detected. I don't know if this can help us at all, but I'm puttin' it out there. We need to figure something out soon."


Clarence gives Stoner a somewhat apologetic look as if to say "I'm not volunteering you, dude. I'm just grasping at straws here..."

Clarence really wished that those who had not yet spoken would offer up suggestions. Their lives were on the line as well and the least they could do was help come up with a plan that would give themselves and their comrades a better chance of survival.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:51, Sun 06 July 2008.

Sam smiles as he continues to eat outside and enjoys the fresh winter air.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking when I volunteered to swim in," Stoner says with a grimace. "When I was in BUD/S, some of the old hands told us that in WWII, the UDT frogmen would smear themselves with grease. I was thinking more of grease from the engines, I didn't know Mariusz was saving bacon grease. Good thing I'm not Islamic or Jewish," he says with a smile. "And every dog within 5 kilometers would be trying to tree me!"

Bayer almost laughs, "Is that so? Grease?" After a long exhale says "Alright, you say you can do it, so do it. Disable that damn tank."

"Milk, if you say the bridge is too long then it is... and we'll work around that. With the tank knocked out by Stoner we don't need to go on the bridge right?"

"There's pros and cons to drawing them out or taking them in place. Both have its disadvantages. With daylight drawing close though, fine. We'll do it. Besides... drawing them out might make it easier to Stoner with less people on the ground who might see him. And thats the key, the tank." he says.

OOC - I'll go with what plan we have. I don't want to drag this out any longer for those not involved.

"Tucker, Mariusz, McCoy, Quyen and myself will land this time around. We will employ grenade launchers and a machinegun. Griet, Anneka, Milk, Dawid, Sanjay, and Kasparov will remain." he says. "Dawid should use the AGS and not the mortar unless the threat warrants the ammunition."

"We are losing time. Lets not get into the details of the groupings. Stoner we will RV with you here." he says pointing at the map. "Quyen has charges prepared. I don't care how its done, just as long as the armament is knocked out."

"Quyen, Mariusz... draw a medium machinegun and a few belts of ammunition. Also one of the disposable anti-armour rockets." Bayer says.

"Tucker, you and McCoy will be the maneuver group if necessary. Make sure you have all the grenades you can carry. Draw a tactical radio too."

"Let's not expend any more time. Milk you've been on land. Any suggestions on a suitable position for the ground party?" he says at the end.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:42, Mon 07 July 2008.

In reply to Clarence Milk (msg #99):

Hesitating, Dawid decided to explain something terrible that had occurred the day they'd met. He had callously executed a bandit that the NATO soldiers had captured, a renegade ZOMO communist party special policeman. An action viewed with horror and disgust by some and indifference by others.

"Luckily they just think I'm a deserter, I might just receive punishment detail. Or get shot. If that ZOMO I killed had been released into someone else's custody, then they would know I'm a traitor, part of the Home Army, and marked for immediate liquidation. It wasn't just an act of justice against an enemy of the people and a criminal, I couldn't take the chance that he recognised me and expose my cover."

"Not that I think that anyone cares at this point, but it has weighed heavily on my conscience."

Regarding the war plan he added, "I am familiar with the AGS-17, and we would have to move up to use it. The indirect range is only just over a kilometre and a half. The American automatic grenade launcher's sights are graded to 3km, I am not so familiar with it but if that is it's indirect range then it is the same as the Vasilek."

"My suggestion would be to use the mortar until we are out of ammunition, then switch to the grenade launcher. Once they have been hit by some 82mm fragmentation, they won't be able to tell we are using smaller but more numerous rounds. Cause fear and confusion in the conscripts, even the odds?"

Quyen nods as she listens to her instructions. She was motivated, but worried. The group was out of their league she felt. Too few resources and too large an obstacle. They didn't really have a choice though, she figured.

Looking at Stoner she says, "There are two 3 kilogram charges ready. I made one this evening. Each charge can penetrate the vulnerable spots on a tank. I'd recommend using both...maybe one on the back of the turret, and the other underneath the belly. Unless you can find a way to get in behind the mantle and mess up the gun or something. As the Hauptmann said, you don't need to destroy it, just remove the gun from play. There is dynamite too... but it takes a lot to blast through tank armour. Maybe you should take the AT grenades as backup... just remember to use them against the soft spots or you are just making noise."

Quyen realized Stoner wasn't like he had no idea what he was doing. She was just trying to help... as his job was not only the most difficult but the most important.

She then leaves to find Mariusz (if he was absent). "We need a GPMG. How 'bout the M240? Its got over a thousand rounds."

Quyen
Getting the plan into action

"Wouldn't it be better to draw them into an ambush?" Anneka suggested.
"Better they are dead than able to chase after us."
With the tug as bait as Milk had suggested, the majority of their combat troops would deploy into ambush positions with machineguns, grenade launchers and anything else that would inflict mass casualties upon the respondign Spetznaz. If they avoided the killzone, the tug could still steam off down river as Milk had suggested while those on the gorund made their way on foot.

"You're not?" she said slightly suprised and mildly disappointed.
"That can be fixed..."

"Why not take the AGS ashore. It's light enough to carry and far better than the rifle mounted launchers."
As Dawid had said, the AGS also didn't have the range of the heavier Mk-19 and would be nearly useless left aboard the tug.

"That is my intention. Draw forces away to allow Stoner easier access to the tank, and us to be able to catch them moving unaware. After engaging them and the tank is knocked out the tug steams by as quickly as possible. We link up later." he says.

"I'd like to keep the ground party as light as possible. I know the AGS isn't too heavy but I'd prefer not to be lugging it around as we evade the enemy and bypass them." Bayer answers Anneka's suggested question. "Perhaps both can be put to use on the tug... it will still have plenty of targets and threats as it runs the gauntlet under the bridge."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Mon 07 July 2008.

"That's what I'm guessing Minh.  If we get in close with explosives, that's your department!"

Mariusz nodded to Mihn, "That'll be good, another big gun to add to my repetoire, I'll get it and the ammo after I've sorted out the grease."

He went down to the galley, grumbling to himself, he had a lovely collection of fat down there, he'd hoped to start deep frying soon. Now all those lovely calories would be wasted in the Vistula.

He mixed the various fats together in the big boiling pan and waited for them to congeal again. He carried it out to "Bones", who didn't look very boney and said, "Wouldn't it be better to send someone smaller? It'd use less grease, I was going to make doughnuts..."

Whilst Griet wasn't 100% sure of the plan, it was at least 200 times better than anything she could come up with and so it certainly had her vote, not that they were a democracy, but it felt good to agree anyway. She closed in on Major Soleblume and said, "What gun will you want me to man, Major?"

After reluctantly relinquishing his grease, Mariusz returned to the weapons' locker. He reverently laid his G3 in a secluded corner and padded it the best he could. He picked up the M240 and grabbed five belts for it. He staggered under the weight but hopefully others would carry some to the ambush site. As he passed "Bones" again he paused and lay down is load.

Slowly he pulled a necklace from around his throat, on it were several crosses, some saint's medals and two stars of david, "These are the memories of my parents and my comrades, it includes Brother Switek's, blessed by His Holiness Pope John Paul, His Holiness Pope John Paul the Second and Mother Terasa of Calcutta. They have kept me alive, if they won't way you down, please borrow them for luck. Your mission is brave but dangerous, I don't want you to go the way of Brother Switek and Bear, besides," he smiled lopsidedly, "if you make it back, you can scrape the grease off and I'll try to clarify it. The Major will be able to help, she's a chemist."

Milk shrugs his shoulders.

"Well, it depends on which bank you intend to set up the ambush on. We're parked closer to the east bank right now but I've only been on the ground on the west side. Besides folds in the terrain, there aint much cover and concealment on the west side. There are a few more trees over here on the east side but that's about all I can say on that."

*OOC: I'll leave the question of which bank the group sets up on open. Based on the planned ruse, it would be easier to lure the Soviets along the east bank but the west is doable as well. That way, Konrad can tell me what side has been chosen without slowing things up.

Fumbling around on the deck of the blacked out tug, the team hastily makes preparations for the planned operation. No one is very happy about the situation but the plan is the best that they can come up with under the circumstances.

Stoner strips down to his skivies and smothers himself with grease (his choice of either engine or cooking grease). The SCUBA gear is tested and checks out. The tanks are full. He does his utmost to waterproofs his equipment, placing his silenced MP, AT grenades, and jury rigged charges in what plastic bags he can scrounge up.

The shore ambush team draws weapons, checks communications and night vision equipment*, and cammies up, using burnt cork when the all-too-rare, purpose-made grease paint is used up. They board the Zodiac and paddle upstream until it is judged that they are far enough away from the shore based OPs to safely start the outboard engine without being heard. Then, under power, they travel the rest of the way to shore**. From their shore landing, they move out- with NVG equiped personel on point- towards a suitable position roughly two hundred meters down river from the tug from which to stage an ambush.

Those remaining on board the tug, man their weapons. If all goes according to plan, they will able to add their fire to directly support the ambush team once the trap has been sprung.

Now, if only the Soviets take the bait and play along...

The sun will be rising in roughly two hours. What the dawn will bring, only the gods of war can foresee.

Actions?

*Kasparov and Dawid (staying) each have a pair of NVG's. So does Konrad (going). That leaves two pair up for grabs (Switek's and Hicks'). I'll leave it up to ya'll to decide who's using them on this mission.

**I'll place the ambush on whichever bank you guys decide.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:01, Tue 08 July 2008.

Dave looks at Mariuzs and shakes his head. " Thanks for the thought, but I need to stay away from shiny things that might catch a flicker of light. And I'll stick with grease scraped off the engines, it will be darker than lard, and not so much smell." He gives a theatrical shiver, " I don't want any watch dogs thinking I'm a giant pork chop."

He makes a last equipment check, seeing that the SCUBA gear is working, and the bombs and grenades are as water proofed as possible. "Give me at least twenty minutes to get there" he says. "When I hear the ambush going off, I'll take out the tank, and meet ya'll at the rondevouz."


He slides off the transom into the water, goes under and comes back up. He hyperventilates a few breaths and looks up at the deck. "Hasta la vista, baby," he says, looking at Anneka. He exhales and sinks under the water.

Worried about the trail of air bubbles, he doesn't use the SCUBA gear. He swims as far as he can hold his breath, then surfaces with just his eyes and nose above water. He looks around to get his bearings and catch a breath, then go under again. If it looks like there's too much light, either from the moon or man made, he'll use the scuba to breath. Dave will try to stick close to the bank, hoping for shadows and any noises made will be mistaken for wildlife or fish.

Stoner
in the river
MP-5, silenced, 1 magazine
bayonet
2 AT grenades
2 homemade bombs
praying as he swims

"No... we do. Give me a minute." Bayer replies. "We were just putting out ideas and sorting through the plan. It wasn't orders we were doing here."

After seeing Stoner off and confirming his task he waits for Mariusz and Quyen to return with their weapons. "Bring along your mines too... just in case." he says to Minh.

"Alright groupings and tasks. Myself, Quyen, and Mariusz. We will deploy the machinegun and anti-armour. We will have a radio carried by myself. I'll also act as the link between the tug and the shore party."

"Tucker and McCoy. You will operate together and provide precision fire and grenades. You will be the maneuver group if we need skirmishers or any flanking requirements. Tucker, you need a tac radio."

"Depending on the ground and available cover, I'd like the two teams to be split a short distance from each other. If it allows, deployed at a right angle to each other... like an L shape facing inwards. If its not possible, we'll just go with a linear ambush... but I'd still like some distance between us."

"Open fire signal will be initiated by the machinegun. If you are spotted, initiate fire yourself. We'll probably be outnumbered, so we'll need to seize the initiative early on."

"McCoy, you asked about priority of targets? Eliminate commanders and radio operators first... but I want the leadership removed as best as possible. The machinegun and grenadiers (Bayer/Tucker) will be used to suppress any support weapons."

"Withdraw will be on my signal. The RV point for any meetup if you get separated, is the same as Stoner. Get there quick... the tug won't be able to wait too long if the enemy gives pursuit. If you miss the boat... continue heading along the river until you find the tug. It stops for the night right."

Bayer stops and thinks about his impromptu frag orders.

Quyen emerges from the hold with Mariusz. After setting the medium machinegun on the ground she sorts out the belts. Breaking a 55 round 'contact' belt from the 220 rounds she hands them both to Mariusz, the gunner. She loads up 3 other full belts into her small pack (emptied for the room and weight).

"A belt for you, including a contact belt. And three with me." she says to him. "I'll also carry the spare barrel."

Mentioning her own assets she continues, "Besides hand frags I have two smoke."

She then closes the small pack, after ensuring the a claymore and POMZ-2 mine were safely packed inside. "You gonna carry a sidearm too? Or just lug the gun?" she asks the boy.

After the Hauptmann's brief she nods, "Understood here. We are ready."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:26, Tue 08 July 2008.

"I've got my .45 and two spare mags and  several frag grenades," Mariusz replied to Mihn's question, "is that alright?"

He picked up the belts and MGs and listened to Bayer, "Kaptain, if we make an L shaped ambush, do you want the MG facing the line of enemy advance or on the long arm of the L?"

Mariusz waited for the team to head off and would follow his opos and site the machinegun where they told him to.

Griet wiated for Anneka to tell her where she was wanted. Once instructed she would go to her post.

"I want to try to deploy where we can be the on the long arm as you described it. The enemy will then be in enfilade fire and the machinegun can maximize its fire characteristics. However... I expect the enemy to change their axis of attack and head for the gun very quickly. So we'll end up facing them after all." he replies.

"We only need to engage long enough to inflict casualties and allow the tug to break out and head for the bridge. Suppressive fire will be needed immediately. Let the riflemen do the precision shots, your task is to add the volume of fire." Bayer adds.

As soon as Tucker has a radio and everyone else is ready, Bayer will motion to the rear of the tug. There they will need to sort themselves out in the inflatable and get ferried ashore.

"That'll be good." she responds to Mariusz.



At the rear, Quyen will assist whichever crewman is assigned to getting them ashore. Her heavy pack full of 660 rounds of 7.62 lies off to the side. Resting on top is her AK74. As the crewman operates the crane(?) she guides it by hand into the dark water.

Holding it steady and secure against the side of the Krolowa, Quyen motions quietly for the crewman and the shore party to board. "Careful." she whispers. Quyen will be the last to enter the inflatable.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:42, Wed 09 July 2008.

Tucker gathers with his gear and assembles with the others for Konrad's briefing.  Once it's over, he has no questions and heads off to get a tac radio for the mission.  He reports back on deck and settles next to McCoy.  "I pulled a couple of HEDP's and Flechette rounds as well as some ILLUM's in case we get brave enough to use them.  Just let me know if there's anything you want me to do McCoy!"

Tucker
M-16A2 [27/30]/M-203 [HE]

Jason approaches just before Minh goes over the gunwale.  Quietly, he says, "Be safe, Lady."  He then cracks a smile.  "Otherwise, I'd have to play shuffleboard with Dawid."

Stoner floats with the current, looking like so much flotsam to the casual observer. The water is bitter cold, in spite of the thick layer of grease smothered over almost every square inch of his body. The current is swift, and Stoner doesn't need to do much but try to stay afloat. The snorkel attached to his dive mask proves more useful than the heavy O2 tank strapped to his back. Anyhow, he would be effectively blind under the surface. After what seems like an eternity, the bridge, a dark line silhouetted against a not-quite-as-dark background, looms ahead.

The ambush team makes landfall* and begins heading in the direction of Annapol, paralleling the river and leaving tracks behind them that stand out starkly against the white, tabletop terrain.

It takes a while to find a suitable ambush position. The most obvious is a swollen stream feeding into the Vistula. There is a small footbridge crossing the stream about two hundred meters east of the river. The footbridge is just over 2km from the town, not far from where Stoner remembered seeing one of the bridge garrison's riverside observation posts. The immediate area is fairly unremarkable. There is little cover and concealment in the area. The bright side is that, with night vision, an approaching reaction force will have no place to hide.

Those left on board the Krolowa wait for the ambush team to signal that they are in position before triggering the diversion. With their NVG's, Dawid and Jason can actually track the ambush team visually from the tug. Through the goggles, the ambush team resembles a line of black ants crossing a lime-green picnic blanket.

Dawn is expected in just over an hour.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:20, Thu 10 July 2008.

Bayer lies in the grass a few meters from Quyen and Mariusz. He glances down the the machinegun and then studies the intended kill zone in front of them. Prior to setting up, he pointed out the area he wanted to use as the main target area. He helped gauge the distances and pointed out likely routes of enemy advance and positions of cover.

Looking through his bino's he spots Tucker and McCoy setting themselves up. The other group was at a distance but able to give mutual support to each other. If it worked out as intended, the machinegun would engage targets which were attacking McCoy and Tucker (allowing the enemy to be hit from enfilade fire). Additionally, those two would engage targets advancing on the machinegun det.

Whispering to Quyen he says, "Setup your claymore on our left flank (McCoy and Tucker being on the right flank)." A safety measure in the case of numerically superior attackers trying to swing around against the team's open side.

As Quyen sets up, he toggles the radio, "Starlight, this is Sunray. Phase one complete. Your call sign to start phase two. Over."

Waiting for a reply over the net, he loads an HE round into his grenade launcher.

Quyen gives a friendly wave to Jason as she boards the inflatable, "Back in a minute." she says.

In the ambush position, she lays down a belt of 7.62mm next to the loading side of the M240. She lies prone and scans ahead to get herself accustomed to the engagement area. Quyen then listens closely as Bayer indicates the important areas in the kill zone, and repeats the distances in her head.

Opening her small pack she moves aside the POMZ-2 and takes out the claymore. Crawling out into the darkness she stops a few meters out on the left flank. Selecting a tree and digs the claymore into the ground. The tree will protect the gun crew from any back blast. After ensuring the mine is armed and ready, she backs off the way she came. Uncoiling the command wire she strings it back to her position next to the machinegun.

"Ready." she whispers, glancing back at the tug - expecting the lure to begin.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:03, Thu 10 July 2008.

Dawid yawned as he sat at the Vasilek. He'd napped, but it was never enough for night operations, he found.

He reflected in how the American-style "L" shaped ambush seemed rather elaborate and all-or-nothing. If the enemy came down the expected line of advance they would walk into the short arm of the L, and so there was no chance to avoid contact, you were committed. Whereas when you deployed in a simple ambush line parallel to the line of approach with light machineguns (like RPK-74s) or something heavier (PKM GPMGs or AGS-17s) anchoring each end and thus putting the kill zone in a crossfire, then you had the option of avoiding contact altogether. You could also set up the line further back if you wanted to sacrifice firepower for safety.

Although ambush was a defensive tactic in nature and so went against the Warsaw Pact doctrine of continual advance, they were also a primary source of battlefield intelligence as the target typically took close to 100% casualties, thus leaving you free to capture documents, take the wounded prisoner, etc. However, as only the special reconnaissance troops (razvedchiki) were well-trained in setting ambushes, he wondered if his lack of experience might be blinding him to other factors.

82mm Vasilek (5/5HE plus 5 HE + 5 HEDP)
Waiting for orders

Dave surfaces and looks around to fix his position. He's slightly surprised to be as close to the target as he is, the current must have carried him faster than he'd thought. He studies the shore until he sees soemthing usefull, a downed tree laying mostly in the water. Stoner swims over to it and staying  in the water moves alongside it until the water is about waist deep. He stays crouched so only his head is above the water.

Slowly, so as not to make noise or splashes, he unbuckles his way out of the scuba tanks and belts. On dry land they'd be an encumberance he didn't need to deal with. Once divested of the bulky equipment, he crawls to the bas of the tree still half burried on the bank. He looses the sling on the MP-5 so he can get to it faster if needed and prepares the satchel charges. Then he waits...

"Assist Dawid with the mortar and AGS. You'll need to get it back down from the roof of the bridge though."

Time after time she'd indicated her displeasure at placing the powerful grenade launcher so far from any assigned position. Now, just hours before it had been shifted from the upper deck position it had occupied since before the battle of Tarznoberg. With only two actual combat troops left aboard, not counting the other four of the "security" team who before meeting Adam, had barely touched a weapon, let alone taken part in a firefight.

"Warrant Kasparov, stay with the port DShK. Warrant Milk, I'll need you to move over to the starboard gun."

That was four of "her" severely depleted team. Only herself and the newcomer, the Indian engineer were left unassigned and yet there were dozens of vitally important positions which must be manned.

"Sanjay, you and I will need to go to the barge bunker. Somebody needs to watch the river for real obstacles."

Anneka was far from happy with her decision, but with nobody, absolutely nobody left, the choice had been made for her. All Adam's crew would be required either running the tug or making it look like they were trying to free themselves from the mythical snag.

"Dawid, I want to take one of the AGLs with us. Which one do you want with you?" She half hoped he'd say the heavier Mk-19, but as he was bound to be far more familiar with the AGS....

"Milk, you take one of the spare NVGs from stores and we'll take the other up front. That should mean each position will at least have somebody who can see in the dark."

Along with the second AGL, Anneka had managed, with the help of one or two others, to haul the L86A2 LSW, extra HE grenades^*, and, reluctantly, Milks radio up into the recently constructed heavy bunker.
The launcher was set up to fire over the walls and the L86 and F88/M203 were ready as secondary weapon systems.

Keeping watch on the river through the image intensifiers recently "donated" by Hicks, Anneka reached for the handset to reply.
"Sunray, this is Starlight. Phase two commencing. Out."
And so it began....
"Bridge," she said, having swapped over to the intercom.
"The ambush party is in position. Please begin moving downstream. Sanjay and myself are keeping an eye on the water."
Right about then it hit her. Stoner, a "medic" like her, was well out in front, all alone and risking himself for people he didn't even know a few days before. She hoped she'd get to see him again in one peice - she'd hate to waste medical supplies stitching him up...

^*either a total of 20 40mm HVHEDP and 40 40mm HVHE, OR 2x 29 round 30mm HE depending on Dawid's reply.

In reply to Cap'n Rae (msg #138):

Once they're on shore, Tucker carefully follows the lead of the much more experienced spec ops trooper McCoy.  Once they get to their ambush position and get set up, Tucker turns to McCoy, "I've got a claymore with me if you think we migh be able to use it!"  Tucker then makes sure he's set up and ready to go when the fireworks begin.

Tucker
M-16A2 [27/30]/M-203 [HE]
Setting up at the ambush point

In reply to Anneka Soleblume (msg #143):

"It seems I am providing long-range firepower."

"Therefore I will use the American weapon. I will help you move the AGS-17 to the bunker posision."

In his position at the portside DShK, Jason's hand slips down to heft the unfamiliar weight of the pistol at his side.  He had finally gotten around to turning in his XM-177 and its magazines, replacing them with additional magazines for the AK-74.  While in the weapons locker, he had seen the handguns there and decided it might be a good idea to carry one for close-quarters work, especially now that he was using the longer Kalashnikov.  Selling his 9mm Beretta had probably been a bad idea.  He'd done it more on impulse than a planned move.  He was tempted to pick out one of the .45s, but instead chose the Makarov.  Ammunition for that pistol would be easier to obtain, so he might as well get used to using the Russian handgun.  Come to think of it, he must have subconsciously realized the same held true for the Beretta.

After fastening the holstered Makarov to his belt and situating the new magazines and clips on his webbing, Jason had helped bring up ammunition for the Dushkas.  OOC:  in our SOP, how many belts for each gun?

He continues to scan the river and the west bank, both up- and downstream from the tug.

Kasparov
Port DShK
AK-74 (slung) [30/30, 6 spares]
Makarov [8/8, 2 spares]
Keeping watch to port
This message was last edited by the player at 03:24, Fri 11 July 2008.

As soon as Mariusz found a good position for the LMG, he set it up on his bipod. Once it was ready, he attached the longer belt of ammunition he carried to what Mihn had called the "contact belt". He laid it on the groung in a way that ensured no tangles and reduced the potential for jams. He took two of his grenades out and kept them handy.

He lay down, made himself comfortable and shouldered the M240. Relaxing, he waited.

Griet helped lug heavy weapons around the tug until everyone was happy they were in the best position. Once she'd finished she spoke to Dawid and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

Laying half in the river and half on the bank, Dave works on repressing the shivering. The satchel charges are draped around his neck with cord from the boat and his silenced submachinegun is in his hands. Damnit, he thinks. When the hell are they going to start it off? This is just too freaking cold for a California boy.

Lord, watch over my companions and myself, blind the eyes of our enemies, and ..uhhh..defend the Rightous

He looked around, switching to Polish. "Ah. Let's both be stationed by the Vasilek. That's going to be our primary weapon in this engagement. We might switch to the American Automatic Grenade gun."

"Should it be required, I shall ask you to bring up munitions from the paint locker. For now, just keep close to the intercom."

McCoy will look at Tucker and speak.


"You will fire and throw grenades only until I tell you otherwise. I will shoot single targets with my rifle. Your priority of targets will be crew-served weapons followed by groups of men 4 or more. We will be a combined arms team. I expect your skill to be above average due to you being a member of the Tenth Mountain and being a SFC. So I should not have to tell you more. I will be looking for leaders or RTO's, then weapons, and then what I call "Heroes". Any questions? We have both been doing this for a while so I expect no problems. I don't think we set out mines; Soviet SF are pretty savy guys- they will spot them."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:56, Fri 11 July 2008.

Tucker just nods to McCoy's assessment and selection of targets for each of them.  "Just wanted to make sure we're on the same page McCoy.  Nothing personal, just business.  At least I won't have to worry about losing the mines in case we got to di-di outta here fast."

As soon as the ambush team radios that it's in position*, the tug crew unveils its deception. Gryzyech plays the Krolowa's engines like a concert organist, changing their pitch in a syncopated rythm to create the impression of a vessel in distress. The impressive thing about this concerto of engine sounds is that throughout he and Adam manage to keep a constant, contolled speed. The tug noses out a little further into the channel, and comes to a noisy halt just 100 meters upstream from where the ambush team is lined up. From this position, the tug will both be able to provide overwatch for the shore team as well make itself visible to the Annopol bridge OPs (but still out of sight of the tank on the bridge's east end). The crew continues to simulate the straining of the tug's engines, Gryzyech using the Homar Piec ("lobster cooker") to bleed off the uneeded steam pressure. Each blast creates a faint whistling sound which only adds to the cacophany. Unless the entirety of the bridge garrison is dead drunk, they can't fail but to notice the arrival of the tug.

Roughly 100m south of the foot bridge, the ambush team lies frozen still in the inch-thick layer of snow, awaiting the arrival of the hoped-for Soviet reaction force with as much patience as they can muster. Fingers start to go numb, noses and ears prickle with cold. Although the flurries have subsided somewhat with the approach of dawn, enough snow has fallen since the group got into position that the tracks they made on the way in have been partially covered.

From beneath the bridge, Stoner can faintly hear the Krolowa's engines rev and subside. He's cold. The grease did a fair job as insulation against water but isn't doing much to protect him from the sub-zero air temperature. He's shivering violently, teeth chattering almost uncontrollably. He's well aware that he's in the opening phases of hypothermia. If he doesn't get his core temperature up soon, he's going to be in big trouble.

Above him, prompted by the racket upriver, a spotlight lances out into the darkness, sweeping the river from side to side. After a few seconds, someone starts yelling (in Russian, he thinks) and the light promptly shuts off. In the diffused light at the base of the bridge, Stoner notices a small boat tied up on the muddy bank just a few meters below him. He must have swimmed (swum, swam?) right by it without noticing it. OOC: Wes, I'm going to fast forward a bit for the ambush team, but you're free to investigate the boat this turn if Stoner wishes to.

Nearly an hour passes; the sun will rise in another. McCoy is the first to notice a group of men approaching the foot bridge, almost 500m out. At first it's just movement of dark specks against the white background in his rifle scope. In a few minutes, the specks resolve into shambling humanoid shapes, eleven in total. Those with NVGs can see them quite clearly. The patrol advances in a loose diamond formation, stopping within 100m of the footbridge. The group slowly goes to ground and two men detach from the formation, heading directly but cautiously for the foot bridge.

Those stationed on the Krolowa's superstructure have a different perspective but can see more of less the same thing. Those stationed lower down, on the main deck and on the barge, have a hard time seeing the Annopol patrol. When the patrol goes to ground, they effectively dissappear from view. Of course, the Annopol patrol can undoubtedly see the Krolowa's topsides just as well.

Actions?

*The team is set up approximately 100m from the footbridge. That's about 200m from the where the patrol has gone to ground. The two groups are separated by the stream and the footbridge.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:24, Fri 11 July 2008.

Bayer nudges Mariusz, "Steady... they're coming. Don't fire." he whispers.

Toggling his radio he says quietly, "Tucker, Sunray. Be ready. Tell McCoy he'll initiate the ambush. Let em cross the bridge. Out." He doesn't bother radioing the tug. Soleblume will have no doubt heard the warning of the enemy approach (or have sighted them herself).

Flipping up the butterfly sight of the grenade launcher, he presets the range to 100 meters. With McCoy initiating the ambush, he expects the enemy counter attack  him and Tucker. Assaulting their position will unwittingly put them into enfilade fire. The chance of this will depend on the timing. Fire too quickly and the enemy will not be lined up enough to utilize the machingun's fire characteristics. Fire too late and the enemy may cause casualties.

"No matter what. Don't fire until I say." he whispers again.

Bayer
Machinegun Det
G36/HK69 (HE)
Lying in wait
This message was last edited by the player at 06:29, Sat 12 July 2008.

Lying on the freezing ground, Quyen begins to go numb. The ground conducts the heat from her body like a sponge. Resting on her elbows and toes, her back strains as she rises and holds her body up off the ground to prevent further heat loss.

"Sucks." she mutters to Mariusz.

Like Anneka, she hasn't had much time in the colder northern climates. Even when she was in the MPs her first posting was Panama. Waiting for the enemy, her mind wanders to the thought of the much colder weeks and months to come.

When the Hauptmann reports the approaching enemy, she looks over at Mariusz and makes sure he's still awake (or alive). Pulling her AK over she rests it into her shoulder. "When the belt gets low, lemme know and I'll attach the next." she whispers to the boy.

Starring at the bridge she waits for the enemy to approach closer and enter their kill zone. Hurry the hell up, she thinks impatiently as the cold bites deeper.

Minh Quyen
AK74 (28 rounds)
Ambush group (MG Det)
Freezing and waiting for the word to fire
This message was last edited by the player at 07:18, Sat 12 July 2008.

Stoner clenches his teeth against the cold, looking at the boat. "How the hell did I miss that? Shit, that's why I always pulled drag, not point. Jesus Christ, if they done't start the ball soon, I'm going to blow that fucking tank just to get warm."

He keeps an eye on the boat, but doesn't make any moves toward it. Movement catches the eye, and he's too close for comfort as it is.

Dawid handed Griet his NVGs. "If you can see the enemy with these, then use the Laser device to range them in."

Quietly and slowly toggling the radio to report back to Bayer that he understood, "Tucker copies, Out!".  He then turns to McCoy and whispers, "You got that over the radio right?"

Mariusz noded at Mihn's comment and flexed the fingers of his right hand. It was cold and he disliked lying in the snow, but he'd been through worse. This too would pass, although it probably wouldn't for some of the poor men of the patrol should they walk into the ambush.

Griet took the NVGs and started to scan the area where the patrol had gone to ground. If she found any evidence of their position, she would designate the area with the laser. She shivered slightly, hoping everything would turn out OK.

Clarence watches through his NVG's as the enemy patrol halts and sends a pair of scouts toward the footbrige. He breathes in on a four count, then exhales on another, trying to keep his heart rate in the ideal range for facing a crisis situation- the very definition of any kind of combat.

At four hundred meters or so, it's unlikely that the patrol will be able to make out what language he's speaking over the racket generated by the Krolowa's engines so Clarence risks a few seconds to coordinate with those nearby.

"Jason, you hear me man? Port side SITREP? We got bad guys on this side. If I gotta call fire for the mortar, I want you to come over here and take over this gun.*" Clarence knew that he would not be able to both shoot the HMG and adjust fire for the mortar/AGS simultaneously and do any real good with either.

Dawid and Griet probably overheard the exchange with Kasparov, but he calls down anyway, not leaving anything to chance,

"I'm ready to adjust fire. HE, OK? Bad guys are at about 1-o'clock, distance about X** meters."

*Starboad Dushka HMG
**See the OOC bonus XP challenge
This message was last edited by the player at 22:20, Sat 12 July 2008.

Bayer watches and toggles his radio, "Tuck, Sunray. Tell McCoy to wait until they are all across. Over."

Jason gives Milk a thumbs-up.  "Portside clear.  Roger on moving to starboard in event of mortar action."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Sun 13 July 2008.

Sam looks at tucker and winks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:03, Sun 13 July 2008.

"Roger that Sunray. Out"  Tucker signals by hand to McCoy on Bayer's last transmission.

Hearing Konrad's whispered radio message to the other members of the ambush team, Anneka picks up the intercom and relays the message throughout the tug. She knew enough not to ask for more information when contact is iminent - Konrad would tell them more if he felt it necessary.
"All weapons, hold until ambush intiated," she added, giving the river one more scan for potential snags before turning her attention, and the AGS's barrel towards the known threat.
"Sanjay, you ok there? The machinegun might be your best choice at the moment," she said, nodding at the British LSW.

Ice Cube

Stoner stays put, high up on the bank, watching the small boat pulled up on the mud below. Five minutes have passed since the spotlight switched off and he takes stock of his physical condition. He's still shivering, pretty badly at that, but he can still manipulate his extremities. His breathing and pulse are still within normal ranges (for a fairly well conditioned SEAL)- also a good sign. He feels kind of groggy, though, and he's having trouble staying focussed. What was the name of that pretty little brunette senior year of high school...

His muddled introspection is interupted as, just a few meters away, three men stumble and slide down the bank towards the boat. Fortunately for Stoner, the men don't bother to look behind them, towards the underside of the bridge. The trio arrives by the riverside and remove a tarp from the dingy's bottom, tossing it carelessly on the muddy bank. One of the men tries to start a small outboard motor while his companions load a PKM and a can of ammo on board. The man's persistent yanking at the motor's starter cord yields nothing but a stream of Polish curses. He gives up and grabs and oar, handing the other to one of his companions. The machine gunner shoves off and hops in, crawling over the others to man his weapon at the bow. The bobbing dingy moves off slowly, the two rowers swearing steadily as they strain against the strong current. Above Stoner's head, men shout and laugh at their unhappy boat-bound comrades.

Black Ants

The two enemy scouts take turns crossing the narrow foot bridge before advancing towards McCoy and Tucker, apparently unawares of their presence. As the two hostiles approach, those with night vision devices can see that the pair are similarly equiped. At about 50 meters, the scouts pause and one of the men turns to signal the rest of the patrol to follow. The other continues scanning to his front and flanks through the twin cylinders of his second generation NVGs. Suddenly, with a curt shout (Russian, it sounds like), he raises his rifle to his shoulder and draws down on McCoy.

Actions?

Please attach combat tags to all posts from here on out. Also, make sure to change the subject line of your IC posts to reflect your PC's physical position. Thanks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:43, Sun 13 July 2008.

Bayer fires his grenade launcher at the center of the group behind the bridge. He hoped they'd have a better chance to hit them, but on with the show. He did say in his briefing to fire if this situation occurred - so he didn't bother to give the order, his own fire would confirm it anyways. Regardless, he was pissed they didn't get across the bridge and all into the machinegun's elongated beaten zone.

He planned on next getting onto the radio, but figured the tug was aware of the situation. Bayer hoped Stoner could hear the ambush and would be successful.

Bayer
G36/HK69 (HE)
Firing 40mm HE at center of enemy behind the bridge.
MG Det.

From the prone with a supported rifle position, Sam double-taps the enemy to his front. Sam has him in his sights and is also ready. He smiles inside knowing fate of enemy.



Sam
double-tap
M25 silenced
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:31, Mon 14 July 2008.

The enemy crossing the bridge is already in Quyen's sights. She squeezes the trigger slightly in anticipation when the scout yells out the warning to his comrades. A half second after Bayer fires his grenade launcher to confirm the ambush, she fires three single shots. "Mariusz." she says loudly.

Minh Quyen
AK74 (28 rounds)
Firing one aimed shot and then two quick shots at the scout who isn't yelling
Ambush group (MG)
This message was last edited by the player at 02:51, Tue 15 July 2008.

Dave hears the firing going on and thinks Finally. He low crawls towards the tank, keeping the bulky machine between himself and the bridge.

His intents are to quietly crawl up, place both of the satchel charges between the turret and hull, ignite the fuse, and run like hell to the river. If he's spotted, he plans on firing one of the charges and throwing it under the tank, maybe backing it up with an AT grenade.

Stoner
MP-5, silenced, 1 magazine
bayonet
2 AT grenades
2 homemade satchel charges

Well, Mariusz thought as the firing started, it wasn't the perfect position, but then, he'd never seen a perfect ambush. He adjusted his position slightly to reflect the movement of the group of troops he'd been tracking and levelled the muzzle at about knee height before pulling the trigger on full auto, as the gun slammed into his shoulder so swiftly it felt like one huge kick from a giant donkey. He fought to control the fire as best he could, moving the muzzle to spread the love.

Mariusz firing on full auto at the main body of the patrol
M240 355/355
M1911 7/7 2 spare mags
2 grenades handy

Griet frowned as the night errupted into a cacophony of noise punctuated by flashes of light and strobing stabs of gunfire. She lay the laser rangefinder on the flash she'd seen that looked like a grenade landing, she hoped it was from their side, "Range to contact reads at 420 meters, Dawid, whats should we do. Milk, do you have orders for us?" she called.

Griet: Operating laser rangefinder
P-64 7/7 2 spare mags
Tantal 30/30 5 spare mags

Tensing at the sound of the ambush opening up, Jason continues his visual sweep of the river, swinging the big machinegun fore and aft as he does so.  He is ready to move to the starboard side if needed, but for now maintains his watch through the NVG on his head.


Jason Kasparov
Port DShK
AK-74 (slung) [30/30]
Keeping watch up and
down river along portside

Damnit!

Clarence watches, dismayed, as the ambush is triggered early. He's sure his teammates had good reason to open fire before the enemy were across the footbridge, but it still presented a more unfavorabel tactical situation.



Clarence shouts down,

"Give 'em one round of HE! 45 degrees from forward, confirm range 420 meters! Kasparov, get over here now!"

He shifts to the starboard, forward PKM where he can both direct the mortar and still take the enemy under direct fire when and if the opportunity arrises.


Clarence Milk
AK-74 (30/30)
Shifting to PKM and preparing to adjust mortar fire
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Tue 15 July 2008.

Locking the DShK in place, Jason shouts, "ON MY WAY!"  He then dashes forward around the deckhouse, heading for the DShK mount on the starboard side.  As he passes by the forward MG positions, he says, "Coming through!" and continues around, skidding a little on the deck.  He runs back to the 12.7mm gun on this side, checks the action, and releases the lock, swiveling the gun toward the firefight on shore.  "Guns ready to starboard!" he calls.

Jason K.
Starboard Dushka
(or on the way there)
AK-74 (slung) [30/30]
Getting ready to aim/open fire
This message was last edited by the player at 03:58, Tue 15 July 2008.

In reply to Sam McCoy (msg #170):

Tucker watches the beginning of the action start to unfold before him and McCoy as he hears the shout of one of the troops by the bridge point and shout something and McCoy double tap him with his own rifle.  He slides his hands up to where the grenade launcher is mounted on his rifle and fires a HE round at the center of the walking troops.

Tucker
M-16A2 [27/30]/M-203 [HE]
Firing HE round at center of troops by bridge

Black Ants

The lead scout's shouted warning is his last word. He doesn't even get the chance to squeeze off a single shot. His central nervous system shuts down immediately as two 7.62mm bullets tear through his brain lengthwise. The NVGs fly off of his face in pieces and his body drops backwards into the freshly trodden snow.

A second later, Konrad's 40mm grenade detonates amidst the main body of the enemy patrol in a spray of sparks. Choked screams confirm that it has caused casualties.

Tucker bloops another 40mm at the main body, missing a little long and a little to the right. It's still possible, however, that some of its fragments have struck home.

Minh squeezes off a carefully aimed shot, followed by two more in quick succession. Her target, the second of the two scouts, is still on his knees.  Tipped off by her muzzle flash, he rotates his torso and raises his rifle  in one smooth motion, pointing it directly at her.

Mariusz pulls the trigger of the M240 and sends a long burst (50 rounds) caroming wildly through the enemy's main body. Tracers ricochet skyward from short rounds while others sail well high. As much as he tries to control it, the recoil from the big weapon is just too much for the relatively slight young man to handle.

The Ice Queen

Jason moves quickly to take over Milk's heavy machine gun while the Green Beret shifts to the PKM. Dawid [NPCed] adjusts the barrel of the Vasilek to the bearing and range indicated by Griet and Clarence.

On the barge, Anneka happens to swing her image intensifier upstream just in time to catch sight of a small boat, about 1000m directly off of the Krolowa's bow.

The Ice Cube

At the sound of heavy fire from upriver, most of the on-duty garrison troops race to the south side of the bridge, hoping to catch a glimpse of the action. Others spill out of their tents under the trees to the east, racing to join the gawkers. The T-55's turret is already oriented towards the river to the south, its commander standing erect in the turret hatch, manning the KPV machine gun.

No one seems to spot the half naked, grease streaked SEAL (Gollum anyone?) crawling up from under the north side of the bridge embankment towards the tank. Adrenaline temporarily overcoming the early symptoms of hypothermia, he rises to his feet, shoves Minh's jury-rigged AT charge into the gap between the turret and the chasis, and pulls the fuze igniter.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:14, Wed 16 July 2008.

Not for the first time, Jason wishes he were at the controls of a Blackhawk, buzzing the enemy patrol as his doorgunners blazed away.  Of course, this was not to be.  Instead, he was responsible for the blazing.  Pointing the big Russian gun at the group of "ants" north of the footbridge, he squeezes the triggers, loosing 2 five-round bursts at the soldiers.  This seems to be getting easier as he becomes more accustomed to the thumping of the heavy machinegun.

OOC:  Yay! for adding skill in Autogun...

Jason K.
Starboard Dushka
Firing same

McCoy shifts fire to the second lead scout and fires two quick rounds at him to cover the slight Asian girl that had been nice to him.

Sam
attempting double tap
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:16, Wed 16 July 2008.

Dave rises slowly from his crouch and emplaces the satchel charge  and sinks back down prone beside the tank. One thousand, two thousand, I think Minh said 20 second fuse, he thinks. He looks at the second charge, Fuck it, I ain't getting paid to bring this shit back. He gently slides the second charge underneath the tank, reaching past the tracks to get it in as far as he can, then pulls the fuse igniter. Seven thousand, eight thousand, Jesus I hope I didn't lose the count.

He starts easing back toward the river keeping the tritium sights of his silenced MP-5 aimed at the tank commander sticking up out of the hatch.

Stoner
placing charge, reatreat!
MP-5, silenced, 1 magazine
bayonet
2 AT grenades

Bayer toggles his radio, "Starlight, Sunray. Phase three initiated. Contact! Reference foot bridge... one reinforced rifle section. Am engaging. Over." He nearly screams to ensure his voice is carried over Mariusz's chattering into the radio. As he communicates, he studies the kill zone for an assessment of their initial fire.

Konrad Bayer
G36/HK69 (unloaded)
Black Ants MG Det
Radio Comms / Assessing Enemy

He took back the NVGs, once Griet was done with them. "Sorry, I did not mean to ignore you, Griet. Cover your ears, firing Fragmentation!"

After aiming, he pulled the lanyard to fire an 82mm HE shell at the end of the column. He hoped this would be far enough away to avoid friendly casualties, and was the reason he had been concentrating so hard while aiming.


82mm Vasilek (5/5HE, 5HE + 5 HEDP)
Firing 1 round indirect
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Thu 17 July 2008.

Quyen focuses in on her target and continues firing. Oblivious to anyone else shooting at the lead man, she squeezes off two more rounds. She's completely forgotten how cold she was. The rattling of Mariusz's machinegun and the Hauptmann yelling over the radio is deafening.

Quyen
Shore Ambush MG Team
AK-74 (25 rounds)
Firing semi-auto 2 shots at the still standing scout
This message was last edited by the player at 13:00, Wed 16 July 2008.

Tucker watches the grenade rounds hit and the ripping of Minh behind the machine-gun at the foot patrol as some of them go down hard.  He opens the breech of the rifle mounted grenade launcher and calls out to McCoy, "RELOADING!"  Robert reaches into his MOLLE rig and pulls out another HE round and begins to reload the launcher for it's next target.

Tucker
M-16A2 [27/30]/M-203 [HE] (Reloading)
Reloading M-203 G.L. w. HE round

Ambush Party

McCoy and Minh fire at the second scout almost simultaneously. He goes down on to his left side and screams something in Russian.

Dawid pulls the lanyard attached to the Vasilek's firing mechanism and lobs an 82mm HE round skyward. At about the same time, Jason snaps off two quick bursts of 12.7mm fire into the burrowing enemy formation. His night vision goggles momentarily flare out from the massive muzzle blast of the big gun and he can't tell if he hit anything with either burst.

The mortar round detonates a few seconds later, sending up a spray of glowing fragments. From Clarence's lofty perch, it appears that the round fell long.

The enemy patrol has yet to return any of the party's fire. The surprise has been nearly complete and the innitial barrage of fire has undoubtedly wounded or killed a number of the enemy. Through his NVGs, Konrad can see several of the prone enemy squirming in the mud and snow.

In the barge bunker, Anneka is momentarily at a loss for what to do. The taciturn Sanjay is no help. For a few seconds, the small boat seems to be holding about 1000m off the Krolowa's bow. Then, it begins to recede in the distance. Perhaps the occupants thought better off rowing into a one-sided firefight in a dingy.

Stoner

Stoner slips the second charge through the wheels of the T-55 and yanks the fuze igniter. As he turns to head back down the embankment, he hears someone yelling urgently off to his right (down the road to the east). Something in the man's voice tells Stoner that he's been spotted. In about 15 seconds, the first charge will [hopefully] detonate. Stoner knows anyone caught nearby in the open is going to suffer from the effects just as much, if not worse, than the old tank.

Actions?

Clarence notes the fall of the first mortar shell and estimates the distance it fell long. He shouts down to Dawid and Griet in the Vasilek gun tub.

"Drop 50m and fire!"


Milk
AK-74 (30/30)
Correcting indirect mortar fire

Waiting until his goggles recover from the flare-out, Jason lets off another 2 bursts, walking his fire from left to right.  Maybe he's not hitting anybody, but at least he's giving the soldiers something else to think about.

Jason K.
Starboard Dushka
firing same again

Since both targets are down on the friend side of the bridge, Sam will switch to single aimed shots with his sniper rifle.

Sam
Firing
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:27, Fri 18 July 2008.

One thousand six, one thousand seven...Oh shit, there's Murphy, when he hears the shouting and sees movement out of the corner of his eye.

Dave looses a three round burst at the tank commander then turns to see how close that eagle eyed bastard is. Sonofabitch must be eating his carrots!

If the spotter is close- less than 75 meters, Dave will take the shot. Any farther away, Dave will run for the river, aiming for where he left the scuba gear if possible, anywhere close if not possible. Also making a point to stay away from the front of the tank.



Stoner
shooting tank commander, retreat!
MP-5, silenced, 1 magazine
bayonet
2 AT grenades

Anneka took a moment to realise that, although a fine target, the boat was out of reach of the heavy automatic grenade launcher she had at hand.
"Sanjay!" she barked to get the Indian's attention as she swung the AGS-17s barrel shoreward.
"Relay that message."
Coming just a heatbeat after Konrads hurried transmission, there could be no doubt about her meaning.
Weapon in position, Anneka relased the safety and squeezed off a five round burst aimed right into the heart of the ambushed patrol. 30mm HE streaked through the air towards the hapless Russians, for once being on the receiving end of overwhelming firepower and virtually unable to do more than die in place.

Anneka
HP-35 + 3 mags
AGS-17 (29/24)
Firing burst into centre (hopefully) of enemy patrol)

Quyen shifts her sights to the larger group of enemy soldiers. If she can see any of them, she will fire three single quick shots. Otherwise she keeps her aim in the direction of the enemy and waits.

Quyen
AK74 (23 Rounds)
Firing prone 3 quick shots at enemy in main group (if possible)
Ambush Party

Hearing the correction, Dawid adjusted the range. They didn't have a lot of spare ammo, but it seemed the time to use what little remained would be soon, if not now.

"Firing!" He warned Griet as he pulled the lanyard a second time.


82mm Vasilek (4/5 HE)
Firing 1 round 82mm HE Indirect

Bayer lowers his gaze from the enemy and feels for his radio's transmit. He'd spent a few seconds adding up the enemy and figured they could mop the rest up with small arms. "Tug, Sunray. Check fire. Will kill last survivors. Over." he says. "We need to get through that bridge now." he says aloud. "Mariusz another couple bursts on the flanks of the enemy line."

Bayer
G36/HK69 (Empty)
MG Det
Prone Communicating

Mariusz heard the call and switched the centre of his aim to the left of the enemy line. He settled and squeezed the trigger again, hosing the area with automatic fire.

Mariusz
M240 305/355
M1911 7/7 2 mags spare
2 ready grenades
Spraying the left flank

Using tuckers radio he makes the brief call...

"German this is Sam... let's mop up this side of the river and take their gear and go. Rifles and web gear only off this patrol... Sam out."

"Tucker good job with the two HE... let's fire only rifle now single, well aimed shots... save the HE, it's worth too much..."

Sam
Firing single shots
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:29, Sat 19 July 2008.

OOC: Going by what Rae posted...

BIC: Tucker lets McCoy use his radio to make his call to Bayer.  He then takes it back and turns to Sam, "I got no shot's with my sixteen from this distance McCoy.  What's yer pleasure?"

Tucker
M-16A2 [27/30]/M-203 {HE]
Waiting for McCoy's input

Griet tried to make sense of all the incoming data and shouted at Dawid, "What ammo will you want next?!"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:03, Sat 19 July 2008.

"Hold fire then and call out targets for me if you could."

"Hunter-killer style..."


"Let's kill..."

Sam
scanning for targets
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:30, Sat 19 July 2008.

The Ambush Team

McCoy takes another shot at the second scout. His bullet kicks up a spray of mud just inches from the target. The wounded Russian has regained enough of his composure to fight back and is about to fire off a burst at Minh when another bullet punches through his midsection, mortally wounding him.

A second 82mm HE rounds detonates north of the footbridge, this time, short of the target. Nonetheless, the pyrotechnic display of its detonation is a spectacular display of industrialized violence.

Minh fires single shots at a moving figure on the edge of the enemy's main body. The wild strobing effect of the detonations and muzzle flashes in and around the kill zone reflecting off of the snow on the ground and the low cloud overhead makes it incredibly difficult for anyone in the party to witness the effects of their own fire.

Five 30mm grenades from the AGS-17 in the barge bunker explode in and around the kill zone, sending even more deadly fragments slashing across the killing ground.

Mariuz adds to the cacophany with a second long burst from the GPMG, tearing up the ground as well as the men trying to desperately to melt into it.

From the tug, Jason sends another flurry of 12.7mm rounds into the fray. Once again, the sun-burst muzzle flash from the weapon make it impossible to know whether he's hitting anything.

As the thunder of weapons fire fades, the only sounds coming from the kill zone are the whimpers, moans, and screams of the horribly maimed. Eleven men lie dead or dying in the fire-plowed field, just 200m or so from the ambush party (50m or so from McCoy and Tucker). If any of the enemy managed to return any fire whatsoever, none of it has registered with anyone on the ground or on board the tug.

The ambush was by no means textbook, but it was certainly effective enough. None of the party has so much as a scratch.

The Saboteur

At the sound of his comrade's frantic shouting, the tank commander twists in his hatch to see what's going on. One 9mm round ricochets off the rounded turret roof inches from his hand while two others tear upward into his torso. He slumps down into the turret of the tank, badly wounded. The Polish conscript who'd sounded the warning lifts his AKM and fires a wild burst at Stoner. Rounds crack around all around him but none of them hit their half-naked and completely chilled mark. Stoner's certainly not out of danger yet. If the fuzes were cut correctly, the first of the two demolition charges will go off in just about 5 seconds!

Actions?

"German, this is Sam- how and when do you want to clear site?"

Sam
single targets moving = single shots
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:27, Sun 20 July 2008.

"Your team go." he says over the radio. "Tug, Sunray. Cease fire. Do not engage the kill zone. Cease fire. Over."

"Mariusz, deploy the machinegun closer up. Be able to cover the clearing team while they collect weapons and ammo. Watch the flanks. Quyen collect the claymore and link back up with Mariusz. Go quickly." Bayer says.

Bayer then approaches the bridge converging with McCoy and Tucker. He times their pace so they arrive first.

Mariusz stopped firing and rolled to his knees. He carefully gathered up the remaining belted ammunition and picked it and the machinegun up. As he stood he crouched and started to run for a new position.

Mariusz
M240 255/355
M1911
Running forward to a new position

"Understood." Minh says. Placing her rifle on safe she gets up and approaches her claymore. Following the detonating wire she pulls it out of the ground and disarms it. After coiling up the wire she stuffs it away. From her kneeling position behind a tree she cover's Mariusz's and Bayers movements - then follows and gets down next to the Mariusz.

Quyen
AK74 (23 rounds)
Collecting mine / Moving to new position
This message was last edited by the player at 10:28, Sun 20 July 2008.

"Good question. Fragmentation seems adequate for now."

He shouted up at the bridge, "Clarence, would you like another at those coordinates? Cease firing?"

He counted the few shells remaining.

"Overall, Griet, I will have you bring up some fragmentation (HE) to reload the magazine, when the fire mission is over."

"If the tank has not been dealt with, then we will try our luck with anti-armour, yes?"

His voice had a certain mix of fatalism and optimism. Like he believed the HEAT probably wouldn't work, but far stranger things had happened!

"OK Tucker lets move... I will shoot our friends in the head that are still moving while you take gear... meaning I cover while you work. We will move slow to the bridge. If hands are tucked under bodies we won't turn them. Just take rifle and move on- we don't have time for grenades or clearing actions."

Sam
Moving out
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:29, Sun 20 July 2008.

Tucker gets up to his knees first and then stands up to begin to move as he listens to McCoy tell him what's going to be happening next.  "You got it Sam.  Just keep those fuckers off my back while I get their shit!"

When they move up, Tucker waits for McCoy to get into position by covering him while he sets up.  When he's ready, Robert slings his rifle cross shoulder behind him and makes sure his pistol is in easy reach on his MOLLE harness and begins the process of looting the dead and dying.

Tucker
Slung M-16A2/M-203
Beginning to pick the dead

Again Jason waits for the image to return in his goggles.  No motion in the target zone, and there are figures moving to the south, approaching the footbridge.  "Checking fire!" he calls.  "Looks like our people won."

Keeping the machinegun trained on the target zone he relaxes a bit, ready to resume fire if necessary.  He swivels his head left and right, scanning the riverbank and the area between it and the ambush party.


Jason K.
Starboard Dushka
Looking for targets

Griet nodded at Dawid's order and grabbed some HE rounds. She topped off the loader and then moved back to the ammo store, ready to get more. The first encounter had gone the way it'd been planned, in outcome, if not execution, they could only hope that the next phase was equally successful, thinking about the tank, Griet said, "In the Navy, we would aim our big guns for plunging shots, the top armour is weaker than the sides, would such a thing work with a tank? It might trade accuracy for greater effect."

"Er, wait one, gunner!"

Clarence surveys the kill zone through his NVGs. The previously bright green of the snow covered field is now mostly black, its surface having been churned to mud by the heavy fire. Only a couple of the enemy are moving at all and not a one has returned fire. There's no use in using up any more of the precious mortar ammunition.

"All gunners, check fire! Stay sharp people- we aint through this mess yet. OK, it looks like Sam and Tucker are moving in to check the kill zone. Cover 'em, Jason. I'm moving up to the bridge to get on the radio."

OOC: I think that Anneka has Clarence's radio and someone in the ambush party has Switek's set, right?

Sam will move quickly through the ambush site putting single rounds into the heads of all moving or non-moving combatants on the field. He will have his weapon slung with the large pistol out. He will cover the bodies as Tucker clears them.


"Lets move fast. Sling their weapons and cut off their chest rigs."

Sam
Grim reaper
Pistol
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:19, Mon 21 July 2008.

and getting the puck out of there!


One thousand thirteen, one thousand fourteen, fuck this it's time to leave! Stoner turns and runs for the river.

(If the river was deep enough, he'll dive into it; other wise he'll run until it's about thigh deep and do a shallow dive and swim away.


Stoner
running to the river
MP-5, silenced, 27 rounds
bayonet
2 AT grenades

Back Into the Drink

Stoner lunges for the steep bank just a few meters away. Bullets crack off of the asphalt at his heels as the alert bridge guard continues spraying automatic fire at the slippery saboteur. Stoner leaps forward and half rolls, half slides down the muddy, partially frozen riverbank. As he splashes into the icy river, an explosion echoes into the night as the first demolition charge cooks off with a lound bang. As he crawls further into the river, the second charge detonates with a hollow boom. Floating with the current he looks back and sees the fire-lit silhouette of the T-55.

With its commander dead or wounded and the effects of the two demolitions charges, the tank isn't likely going to trouble his companions on the tug. The bridge guards are keeping their distance from the burning tank. A few of them fire hopefully into the river on both sides of the bridge but it's very soon apparent that none of them have actually spotted Stoner.

Now, if only he can keep from freezing to death.

The Killing Fields

As Mariusz and Minh move forward towards the foot bridge in order to provide overwatch, Sam and Tucker move into the killing zone to recover weapons and ammunition*. The kill zone is a bloody mess. While tucker strips the dead, Sam moves deliberately and mercilessly through the field, putting .45 slugs into the heads of all of the enemy, dead and wounded alike. For several of the wounded soldiers, it proves to be a blessing of sorts. Two of them have severed arms thanks to hits by the big 12.7mm Dushka bullets. Others have taken dozens of grenade and mortar fragments. None of them likely would have survived without a quick trip to a well equiped field hospital.

A couple of dozen meters away, at the back end of the shattered diamond formation, a slightly wounded Spetznaz soldier lies curled up in the fetal position, playing possum. During the first few seconds of the one-sided firefight, he'd been shocked into inaction by the sudden violence of the massive barrage of incoming fire. As the seconds dragged into what seemed like hours, he'd been ubable to return effective fire without endangering his comrades and calling more hellfire down upon himself. As the men around him were torn to pieces by bullets and shrapnel, he knew the fight was all but over. Running would expose him to the undivided attention of his would-be-executioners. So, he decided to play dead, hoping against hope that he'd be left alone. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he had.

After several minutes during which the moans and whimpers of his wounded comrades were systematically snuffed out, it became very apparent to the wounded Spetznaz soldier what his likely fate would be. He decided then that he would not die like a dog; he would go down fighting, like a man. He gets to his knees as quickly as possible, wobbly from blood loss. Bringing his rifle up, he sights on the man with the silenced pistol and pulls the trigger. Rounds spray from the barrel of his AK-74, snapping all around the tall killer.

The primitive parts of Sam's brain instantly recognizes the danger and his body's muscle memories take control. As bullets crack past his head, McCoy settles into a low crouch and fires one round, center-mass, at his unexpected assailant. The .45 caliber bullet strikes right above the low collar on the Russian's body armor, knocking him backwards into the muddy slush. Sam walks calmly over and finishes the man.


It's all over in less than five seconds.

The ambush team has bagged quite a haul of captured weapons and ammunition, far too much to comfortably carry with them. The tug is still holding station just a few hundred meters away awaiting word from the ambush team.

A distant explosion, followed shortly by another, echoes into the early morning darkness, hinting at the success of Stoner's tank killing mission. Hopefully the suicidally brave SEAL medic survived the mission. From the tug, a distant glow can be seen off to the north; the sound of distant gunfire adds substance to the dim hope.

Actions?

OOC: *Recovered from the kill zone: 5 AK-74 rifles, 1 AK-74 w/ BG-15 GL (loaded), 1 RPK-74 SAW, 42 full thirty-round 5.45mm b magazines, 2 40mm grenades, and one pair of functioning Soviet NVGs. The enemy squad's radio is shredded by bullets and shrapnel.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:56, Tue 22 July 2008.

"Lets go!" Bayer yells. "Grab it all... head to the shore. Mariusz, you and I are last to leave."

As his companions collect the arms and ammo, he toggles the radio, "Tug, Sunray. Send a pickup quickly. We are pulling out now. Quickly. Over."

Bayer grabs an AK and the NVGs, stuffing the magazines into his shirt.

Dave swims underwater long as he can hold his breath, then surfaces for a look. Blinking the cold water from his eyes he looks back at the tank, then starts swimming toward the rondevous point.

Stoner
swimming
MP-5, silenced, 27 rounds
bayonet
2 AT grenades

Tucker goes from body to body after McCoy goes through popping each one with a single round to make sure there isn't any kind of resistance from them.  He gathers everything and begins to sling the weapons and webbings he can carry without being too burdened down.  When he reaches his limit, he signals to McCoy and Bayer that he's ready to move.  "That's it.  I can't get any more shit on me and I'm not trying to sink like a stone," Tucker says as he grabs the RPK in his free hand and begins to move off after Bayer and Mariusz.

Tucker
RPK (in hand)
Loaded with weapons and gear heading to pick up point

Sam looks back at the rest of the patrol and signals and yells....


"Area clear! We need help here with weapons and gear... Everyone grab an extra weapon and some magazines. I expect we are moving out Captain? I will take point with Tucker and clear the way back if that's OK?"

Sam will reload and rearm himself. He will carry the M25 and holster the pistol. He will carry 2 AK-74s on his back to help.

Sam
recieveing orders
M25
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:45, Tue 22 July 2008.

Mariusz grabbed a couple of rifles and the chest rigs. Weighed down with all the extra gear, he stood, his legs straddled and covered the rear of the group with the M240.


Mariusz
M240 255/355

Jason takes a few deep breaths and relaxes a bit to let his adrenaline level subside.  Remaining at the ready behind the DShK, he calls out to Clarence, "You want me to stay here, Mister Milk? or shall I go back to keep watch on the port side while you take over here?"


Jason K.
Starboard Dushka
Awaiting instructions

Griet made sure that everything around the mortar position was secure and tidy before she called up to Milk, "If you need me to cover a position, just call, otherwise I'll support Dawid here."

Clarence picks up the radio handset and responds,

"Roger Sunray, pickup is en route."

He turns to Walter who nods his understanding, exiting the bridge and heading for the Zodiac.

From the open bridge door, Clarence responds to Jason and Griet,

"Stay put for now. The ambush team is on its way back. When they're back on board, we'll get sorted out."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:53, Tue 22 July 2008.

Quyen taps Mariusz on the back, "Well done." she says says as she get up. Leaving the machinegun position she rushes forward and grabs a couple rifles. Opening her backpack, she tosses in as many magazines as it will hold.

Following Tucker and McCoy, she leaves Mariusz and Bayer to act as the rear guard. The backpack straps strain under the weight of a couple hundred linked machinegun rounds, a claymore, a mine, and a load of AK mags. Hunched over, she races after the lead soldiers.

Seeing that the engagement was over being instructed to cease firing, Dawid helped Griet top up the Mortar's magazine.

"Let's stand down for the moment."

"We did some damage all right."

"The down side is now the defenders at the bridge know there is artillery. I guess if this is our nemesis, they already knew. Perhaps some of the conscripts were scared off! We can only hope."

The ambush team, with their load of captured weapons and ammunition, are ferried back to the waiting tug. As soon as Walter is back on the bridge, she nudges out into the main channel and begins steaming ponderously towards the Annopol bridge. The crew can only hope that Stoner succeeded in removing the threat of the T-55. If it is still operational, its 100mm gun will be able to tear the tug apart from long range. In that case, the only chance the crew has is a lucky top shot with an 82mm HEDP round- not likely, even with Dawid's remarkable gunnery skills. OOC: I guess I should have put Stoner in another group so that ya'll wouldn't know whether he'd completed his mission or not. Sorry for killing the suspense.

The security team members take up their respective battle stations and prepare to fight their way past the remaining bridge defenders. The party has no way of knowing it, but they've single-handedly eliminated almost all of the Spetznaz personel attached to the Soviet Reserve Front headquarters. However, the bridge garrison is still pretty substantial and it's entirely possible, if not probable, that they've called for help from one of the other garrisons on the road to Lublin.

Stoner, meanwhile, bobs along, somewhat disoriented and growing weaker by the minute. He has no way of recognizing the rendezvous in the dark. In fact, he can't even remember where the rendezvouos is supposed to be. He knows that if he stays in the water much longer that he will succumb to its pull and drown. With his last remaining strength, he kicks for the eastern shore. He's back in BUDS training and it's Hell Week.

You wanna give up Stoner? Ring the bell, kid. Ring the bell and you can end it right now...

Something grabs him. It pokes and scratches at his exposed skin, holding him fast as the water continues to race along around him. He grabs at his assailant. It's slick, slimy, and hard to get a hold of. He struggles to maintain his grip, pulling hand over hand until the texture changes. It's dry now, grainy. Wood? Yes, it's wood. Something tugs against him, trying to pull him back into the water. With his last reserves of physical energy, he jerks himself free* and hauls himself onto the muddy bank.

He lies there for what seems like several minutes. He notices that he's no longer shivering which, as far as hypothermia goes, is a bad sign. He has to find some way to dry off and warm himself. He struggles to his knees and begins crawling inland. He thinks he can hear gunfire a ways off, but he's really not sure about much of anything right now. After just a few meters, his arms give out and he collapses onto the ground. Somehow, he manages to roll over and is surprised to see a gap in the overcast directly overhead. He hasn't seen the stars for days. They're beautiful.

A dark shape appears above him, blotting out the twinkling lights. Then the shape does something that strikes Stoner as being very odd- it speaks to him...

Actions?

OOC: *Stoner has lost his MP-5 along with McCoy's SOCOM silencer and the 2 AT grenades.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:14, Wed 23 July 2008.

Stoner squints at the dark shape standing over him and slowly realizes in might be a threat. He automatically reaches for the submachinegun he hasn't realized he'd lost and grabs air. Whatdafuck? Did that thing say something? what fucking language was THAT? Que? he asks out loud. This is bad, he thinks, real bad. Maybe if I let him capture me, I'll at least get warm

Stoner
Bayonet
too exhausted to get up.

Sitting in the underbrush and watching the explosions flash in the Russian garrison Jan watched the attack progress. Seeing the explosions rock the tank he decided it was time to start moving. The russins probably had not had time to call for help but this was going to draw a lot of attention.

Moving low through the underbrush he started following the river away from the bridge. As he moves along the bank he hears a splashing gasping sound and freezes for a moment. There ahead of him he haw the sodden figure of aman draging himself from the icey water. Half naked and covered in dark mud and muck he lay on the bank for a moment.

"Merde ! Ressemble à celui-ci est à moitié mort."

Moving closer to get a better look he couldn't see anything to identify the figure. Moving closer and keeping him covered for a moment while he thought about what to do. Whith a quick nod of his head he slung his rifle and reached down to help the figure.

"musimy otrzymywać was zza tutaj mojego przyjaciela."

Grabing ahold of the half frosen man he attempts to pull him into the closest cover.

Dave grasps feebly at the bayonet still belted at his hip as the shadow resolves into a man in mixed cammouflage clothing. Too fucking cold to fight, too weak, he decides and lets his hand drop from his last weapon. Probably won't kill me, if he was it would have happened. Maybe I can pass myself for a Spaniard...or maybe an Eyetalion even, with a conscript.

¿Quiénes son usted? he asks as the man drags him farther ashore.



Stoner
Bayonet
too exhausted to get up.

Once they are in teh underbrush and out of casual sight Jan gets to work trying to revive the half frozen man. Grabbing a couple of handfuls of dry leaves from under a tree he starts wipeing of the water and mud and working his arms and legs a bit to get his heart pumping. Reaching into his pack he pulls out a set of dry BDU's and tries to get them onto the man.While doing this he is constantly looking around for the patrols that are sure to be coming soon, and under his breath he is slowly cursing in a half a dozen languages.

"Eh bien, nous devons bouger.  Vite, vite, di di mao, schnell"

Bayer is on the main deck dropping the arms and ammo he carried. Looking up at the bridge he points upriver and in a chopping motion with his arm indicates they need to get moving. "Stand to. We're not through this yet." he says quietly to the other ambush team members before heading up to the bridge.

Entering it he says, "We're going to crash... or crash through." His line, taken from a famous Australian movie, makes him think and wonder about Snowy for a moment. Focusing back on the danger ahead, he keeps watch for the first signs of the enemy force ahead.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:07, Thu 24 July 2008.

Tucker makes his way to the pick-up boat as quickly as his burdened body could take him.  Before he gets in, he tries to take as many of the slung, captured weapons off of him and hand them to somebody in the craft before entering and covering with the captured RPK.

When they finally reach the tug, Tucker hands off the captured equipment and then gets aboard the tug himself then collapsing on the deck to rest for a minute before he hears Bayer give the order to 'Stand To.'  Robert pulls himself off of the deck and heads for his assigned point and checks on the status of the mortar.

Tucker
Slung M-16A2/M-203
Going to check on MOrtar

Dawid noted that Bones seemed to be missing.

He was saddened, another of their company gone. However, he may return! One never knew.

"Griet, let us load the Vasilek with Anti-Armour. If there is a tank, we may only get one shot, let's make it count if we need to! We shall keep a clip of the fragmentation handy to switch it if need be."

"My idea is to start with the 82mm mortar on fully-automatic. Then when we are out of fragmentation we switch to anti-tank. When that is done I shall fire the American 40mm automatic grenade launcher. So much explosives landing in a short period of time may panic conscripts, who won't be able to tell 82mm fragmentation from Anti-tnak from 40mm grenades anyways."

Down behind the barbette wished for a cigarette, knowing it might be the last time.

Griet nodded at Dawid's commands and got the required ammunition ready.

Dawid continued his thought as they got the mortar ready.

"Now, if there are still people hanging around, like Spetsnaz, we have the phosphor rounds to provide us a smoke screen. And burn them alive!"

"The phosphor will work on the tank if the anti-armour does not."

"We may then be able to get close enough to engage them with the grenade launchers and machine guns."

"If God allows."

He crossed himself for good luck.

Mariusz moved to his newly assigned position in the barge's bunker, it was certainly safer now than it had been when the AA gun had been there. He set the M240 on the deck and looked at the weaponry they had to play with. There was a Russian grenade launcher, the funny Austrailian gun and grenade launcher and now, the M240. That would be plenty, he thought.

He caressed the AGS almost lovingly, a new big gun to try out, he'd been meeting lots of lovely new weapons to play with recently. He looked at Kasparov, the last companion he had from the old days and said, "We should set the AGS up to cover the right bank as we see it, that's where most of the troops are, if we set it up in the forward slit we can engage the bunker on the bridge with it too. The M240 can be used to cover the left bank and that," he pointed to the funny gun, "can be saved as backup. Does that make sense? What gun do you want to fire?"
Kasparov was the older, more experienced man, he got first dibs on the toys.

Griet finished her work with Dawid and then returned to her more common position on the PKMG. After the last big fight, she'd burned through a lot of ammo and so went to the weapon's locker to reload. She took five of the remaining fifty round belts and linled them together in the ammo hopper before loading the PKMG and getting ready for further battle.

Quyen drops her stash of looted AKs and ammunition on the deck. She silently leaves upon the order to join the rest of the team at stand to. Reporting to the mortar she asks, "I'm back. Everything ok and ready here?"

After settling into her position she says, "It was pretty intense. Lasted only 20 seconds maybe. Good ambush, they saw us but didn't get a shot off. A dozen."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:50, Fri 25 July 2008.

0600 hrs.

The light of false dawn creates a cold palor low over the eastern horizon. The sky is still mostly clowdy, but no precipitation falls.

The Odd Couple

While Stoner, feeling returning to his limbs, and his multilingual savior try to find a common tongue without giving too much about their own respective identities away, each hears the odd grinding sound of oars twisting in their oar locks. A rowboat is nearby. The pair are only about a dozen meters or so away from the riverbank in a small copse of bare-limbed, dying trees.

The Queen of Battle

After the ambush team dumps their haul of captured weapons and ammo, each member returns to his or her previously assigned battle station. Sanjay, clearly not a fighter, returns to the Krolowa's engine room. In a very short time, the quiet Indian has somehow managed to earn the trust Krolowa's chief Engineer who, several days previously, had chased Tucker out of the boiler room with a large wrench. Chopper too, himself a sailor, had failed even to gain entrance to the Polish engineman's inner sanctum.

The Krolowa pushes forward towards the bridge, now visible as a dark line in the distance, stretching across the broad surface of the Vistula.

The tug is moving faster than Old Adam would like. Just a few hours earlier, she'd gotten stuck on a submerged mudbank. Now, he's throwing caution to the wind. He understands, however, that a slow tug is an easy target so he grudgingly pushes her harder than he would otherwise.

As the bridge looms closer, those with vision enhancement devices anxiously focus their attention on the tank. Its gun is pointed upriver, but it's not quite lined up on the tug, nor is it moving to become so. Perhaps, against the odds, Stoner was able to knock it out.

At about 500 meters from the bridge, a tower of water taller than the tug errupts about 50m from the Krolowa's starboard bow. River water rains down on the barge, but the crude bunker keeps out the shrapnel. The explosion does not appear to have been caused by the tank, its gun still motionless and now aimed past the oncoming tug. Seconds later, a second geyser of water races skyward about 50 meters behind the tug.

The bridge blinks to life. Tracers reach out to the Krolowa from the sandbagged bunkers at either end. Muzzle flashes wink at her from the middle of the span. Soon, muzzle flashes light almost its entire length. It looks like the defenders are prepared to put up a stiff fight.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:06, Fri 25 July 2008.

Mariusz flinched reflexively as the shell landed in front of him, he saw the twinkling of muzzle flashes light up the bridge like a Christmas Tree and grinned wolfishly as he stroked the trigger of the AGS. He yelled to Kasparov, "Use the intercom, advise the bridge it's probably a mortar."

The big wigs at the bridge were clever enough to have worked it out for themselves he knew, but it never hurt to state the obvious when the shells were falling. He hunkered behind the gun and settled the sights on the centre of the fire from the bridge, he squeezed the trigger gently, the way he'd imagined caressing a lover and sent the 30mm grenades arcing towards the enemy.


Mariusz
AGS 17/29 3?x 29 round drums left
M1911
Firing on full automatic at the bridge.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:15, Fri 25 July 2008.

Jason's eyes twinkled as he saw Mariusz longingly, lovingly caress the Russian grenade launcher.  Let the kid have his fun.  I can use this bad boy, he thinks as he views the M-240.

As the tug approaches the span, the fountain of water and the rattle of shrapnel on the bunker announce that the enemy has them in sight, as do the tracers and muzzle flashes from the bridge and its guarding bunkers.



"Aye-aye, little brother," Jason replies, then turns to the old field telephone.  "Bridge, barge.  Probable mortar firing on us.  Location unknown.  Out."  He then rolls back to position behind the M-240, clicks off the safety and opens fire.  Short bursts walk along the span, from directly in front of the barge to just short of the bunker on the west end.

Jason K.
Barge bunker
M-240
Firing at western half of bridge

As griet saw hell unleashed before her, she ducked lower behind the gunshield and waited for the targets to get closer. She gulped suddenly as she thought of something and turned to yell at the bridge, "Was the guy with the funny sniper rifle among the dead? If not, beware snipers!"


Griet
PKMG 250/250
Tantal
Waiting to close the distance

Dave looks at the man working on him. Englits? Joo spik Englits? he asks in his best San Diego barrio accent.

Looking up when the man finaly says something slightly intellegable Jan looks him in the eye for a second and answers.
"Yes I speak 'Englits'. I am Jan, you almost died out there. Swimming in such cold water is very foolish. You could do yourself an injury."
While his english is good his accent is very odd as if he learned it from someone who was not a native speaker.

When the noise of the oars becomes clear he looks over towards the water.
speaking in a low voice so as to keep it from carrying he asks.
"You are expecting comrads, yes?"

As Jan and Stoner start to get acquainted, a flashlight illuminates the the trunks of the dead trees just a dozen meters away (to their left, as they face the river) and starts sweeping slowly towards them. Its point of origin is a row-boat on the River, about 20m or so off the bank. It appears to searching for them, specifically.

OOC: Sorry guys, I meant to post this in the original GM turn but I forgot. Feel free to post another action, if you wish. Oh, and chronologically, this takes place a bit before the bridge garrison sees and opens fire on the Krolowa.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:27, Fri 25 July 2008.

As the light sweeps the bank, Dave raises his finger to his lips in a "be quiet" sign, and slightly shakes his head. He raises his eyebrows and shrugs. He leans over to the stranger and with his lips almost touching the other man's ear whispers "Not in a rowboat, and not with a flashlight. Be a tugboat coming downriver."

Sam will open up with 9 to 12 round bursts onto the bridge and any other muzzle flashes he can see with the gun. He will fire until the weapon is out of ammo.

Sam
Contact
Heavy Machinegun
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:53, Sat 26 July 2008.

Setteling into a prone position Jan readys his rifle and slips his NVG inplace. Laying low to the ground in what underbrush there is he prepairs to open fire on the people in the boat. Taking a deep breath and letting it he tried to get a good look at the men in the rowboat.


Jan
Prone in the underbrush
AK74 30/30
Ready to open up

Bayer yells into the intercom, "Mortar! Five hundred! Bridge left bunker! Conserve ammo!" He is peering over the front of the smashed bridge keeping as low as possible. Everyone seemed to be engaging the enemy and didn't require fire control or target indications at this point. The mortar, the group's most important weapon was however in a totally different category he felt. Bayer kept his eyes on the left bunker, waiting for Dawid's shot.

Bayer
G36/HK69
Bridge
Observing/Communicating

Quyen stays low behind the mortar position's defensive cover. Dawid already had the mortar loaded so she waited until she was needed. Hearing the fire indication, she repeated just in case, "Left side bunker on the bridge... range 500."

Minh Quyen
AK74 (23)
Mortar Pos.
Waiting

Dawid thought, Bunker, left side of bridge. Mortar? In the Bunker? No matter. First things first.

"Griet, hold onto a fragmentation shell. When we get a target I want you to drop it down the barrel. Wait until I say."

"Firing Anti-Armour!"

He fired an HEAT round from the clip-fed magazine. When they were given an indirect target, the Vasilek could be fired by dropping a shell down the tube like a regular mortar. Until then, he would fire off the HEAT in the magazine.


82mm Vasilek 5/5 HEAT
Firing 2 shots at the left bunker

Griet heard Dawid's call from behind the gun shield, in the heat of the moment, he'd forgotten she'd been moved, she yelled herself, "Mihn, you got the frag shell covered?"

Tucker moves into cover as he makes sure that the mortar is firing as it should and when they come under heavy small arms fire from the bridge.

Tucker
Slung M-16A2/M-203
Taking cover

Realising that Griet wasn't near, he swore.

"Ah, Minh, I meant Minh, please fetch a round of fragmentation!"

With Stoner currently MIA, Milk takes charge of the starboard Dushka. He sights on the eastern bunker and pulls the twin butterfly triggers in 10-round bursts, trying to smother it with fire. If and when the bunker is silenced, he'll walk his fire from left to right, trying to knock out or at least suppress the other shooters firing from the bridge itself.

Clarence Milk
Firing bursts at the enemy

The Wisla Krolowa

The tug speeds towards the bridge. To those on board, it can't get there fast enough. Enemy bullets ping off the tug's superstructure and churn the water on either side of her in a terrible hailstorm of hot metal.

Mariusz sends a burst of 30mm HE grenades at the bridge's center LMG bunker. All of the grenades miss his intended target, exploding on the river beneath and behind the bridge. A magic bullet passes through the bridge bunker's firing aperture, punching a hole in Jason's left sleeze and grazing his arm. He hardly notices the minor wound as he continues to sweep the bridge's western half with GPMG fire.

Dawid carefully gets the western bunker in his sights and triggers a two round burst of HEDP. The first round nails the bunker dead-on, blasting sandbags, timber, and Polish conscripts in all directions. The second round detonates on the other side of the road.

Sam and Milk rake the bridge from either end. Blazing green tracers from the tug's heavy machine guns carrom every which way off of the bridge's steel beams. Enemy small arms fire begins to slacken but the bridge still resembles a garrishly lit Christmas tree with muzzle flashes, explosions, ricochets, and sparkling bullet impacts.

A particularly large and vivid orange flash backlights the bridge about 100m from its eastern end. A glowing orb races towards the Krolowa, detonating just beneath the surface of the river on her port bow in an earie underwater explosion.

The tug is now about 200m from the Annopol bridge and closing the gap quickly.

Stoner and Cerny

The flashlight beam from the rowboat reaches the prone pair of new acquaintances lying still in the leaf litter. The beam passes over the two men and continues on for another couple of meters before jerking back and fixing firmly on them. The powerful, direct beam causes Jan's night vision goggles to flare out, temporarily blinding him. Automatic fire from the tugboat rips overhead, tearing up the trees and raining bits of dead wood down on Stoner and Cerny.

Actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Sun 27 July 2008.