" 'ey, this lad hasn't a lot to say. He's pretty messed up, but he doesn't want to say what opposition we have against us further down the road. Someone better get him some first aid, otherwise he'll be gone, for sure. I guess I hadn't been very interested in speaking to the guys who just shot at me, either."

Don looks around at all the people swarming around, and tries again to speak to the downed Pole.

[Private to GM: At least state your name, and regiment, and the name of that officer you had with you. If you don't wanna say it we can just check his badge]

Richard stands and walks toward the vehicle after gathering his gear, shakng his head to clear it.

Looking at the Pole with an expression of delight, I have some interrogation ability I could apply. drawing his bayonet and checking the edge.

Andy brings the UAZ to a halt in the middle of the throng of people before answering Dimitar's question. Yeh, I'm British. We all escaped from the Polish Cav unit back that way a few miles just this morning. Knocked a few of them over and nabbed their gear.
And what's your story then?

The short distance back to the main battle site is covered quickly. (Only a couple of hundred metres after all)
Camilla, Gallin and Dave all approach the prisoner Don is attempting to interrogate.
Kett gets to know Sergio as he chases after Tanya, who is heading back to assist Alfred in the gathering of weapons and equipment.
Giving up on his half hearted attempt to dispatch Don's prisoner, William retraces his steps back to where Smythe is waking up.

We'd better get the horses up here soon. Tanya reminds Alfred as she joins him in his task. We might need them to carry all this gear.

[english]
I come from Cesuban. And 'ope to return to eets fieldz and vineyardz once more. I am a lung way frum home! He says, with a seemingly forced smile.

The group seems happy to accept them, with few questions, which would have been a sign of a trap, but in these times, it meant more desperation. It was also obvious that anyone shooting would be taken down quickly, obviously taking lots out as they did it, but no way to survive.

Together this group looked strong!

"Sgt Michael Gallin here, United States Army Medical Corp. Or at least I am if it still exists." He looks at Dimitri in the front seat. "If I get a chance to go back to America, I'll take you with me. Maybe get a good Burger King Burger and fries, and a big thick Strawberry shake." He smiles slightly as he imagines the taste and grins at Dimitri.

Turning towards the car closing in.

"That sure look like a red cross to me!"

"'ey lad! I have a downed Pole here. Can ya give me a hand here?"

In English, quietly to the young lady with Warrant Kett's rifle,

I believe you have my weapon, ma'am. Would it be possible to have it returned? I'd be most appreciative as I wasn't very happy when the damn Pole took it off me in the first place. Mind you.... the other options at the time were pretty suicidal looking.

The young lady would notice that Gary is wearing Canadian webgear festooned with magazine pouches for the weapon.

Louder, though not yelling
Ladies and Gentlemen, who would happen to be the ranking NATO officer present? For those that haven't had the pleasure yet, I'm Warrant Officer Kett, Canadian Forces Infantry. I'd be interested to know who is in charge of this unit and what your plans are, so that I can decide what I should be doing.

My last command is history now as far as I can tell, having gone down in flames after a classic Drang Nach Osten. The last orders boiled down to 'save yourselves if you can'.

My best guess as to where my duty lies right now is in getting back to Germany to see if I can locate and link up with any remnants of the Canadian Forces once operating out of there. Failing that, to get back home to Canada. I think my job here in Europe is done like dinner.

I've got a wife to get back to, and I imagine the Great White North is in quite a mess. On the other hand, Canada has huge natural resources and was probably less affected by the nuclear strikes than the rest of the G7 countries. There's a lot of forest land and prairie land that might make a good place to settle down while the world puts itself back together, and probably a few less bandits than in the firearm-rich Yew-Ess-Of-Ay.

But if you guys are headed my way, maybe I can help you out.

Kett waits to see who steps forward to take ownership of the motley assemblage.

As the engine of the UAZ shudders to a halt, Dimitar replies to Andy about what is his story, "I walk from Romania.  Was fighting there but left when trouble was bad.  I drive T-72 tank.  I walk across hungary on my own last year and meet with Sergio in Slovakia."  After scratching his scalp through his beanie with a grubby finger, he continues, "I do not like soviet republics and I want to go america.  Maybe England as well.  I only joined army to get out of Bulgaria in first place."

Pausing momentarily to watch the group of soldiers clustering around the polish soldier on the ground he adds,  "Yes, this war is not so bad.  I travel without papers."

Turning to Michael Gallin's offer of a trip to America and a hambuger with a shake, Dimitar's grins broadly, seemingly delighted at the offer of a travelling companion.  "Thankyou Gallin.  I teach you how speak Bulgarian, we be strong friends."

That said, Dimitar climbs out of the UAZ and walks over to the group around the polish soldier to watch events unfold.

Gallin will jump out of the UAZ and get to the downed Polish soldier. He will assess the wounds and whistle softly to himself, and start speaking in polish to the soldier.
"I'm sure these guys are going to have a lot of questions, and I personally prefer to try to save your life. They, on the other hand need some information, and most of them are pretty pissed at being fired at when we are unarmed. Come to mention it, so am I. " He will try to patch up the wounds the best he can, but not as gently as he should.
"So, are we in a chatting mood?"

[Private to GM: Is he in any shape to talk? He's probably pretty messed up, but if I can coax any info out of him it would be good. Also, I noticed I am actually a pole myself sort of, so I take it that would be a bad thing to let slip? or am I considered American because thats where I grew up? Its been a long time since I played this, I need to roll what for my first aid skills?]

Tanya looked up from her task as the Canadian who called himself Kett approached. Kett could see several familiar items amongst the pile near her feet.
So this peice of hardware is yours then? I hope you know how to use it. She hands it over to him after unloading both the grenade launcher and rifle itself (for safety reasons). A couple of grenades are fished from her own webbing and handed over also.
The rest you'll have to search around for. I picked this lot up from the body over near them, she says, gesturing over at the group surrounding the prisoner.

The 6'1" frame of Alfred stands tall and answers Kett's question of command. That would probably be me. I'm Lt Col Alfred Nelson of the British SAS, up to a week or so ago attached to 256th Infantry Brigade of the US 5th Infantry division as liason.

Pointing to each person as he speaks, he introduces each of his group. That is Platoon Sergeant Tanya Redgrave of the US Rangers over there, WO2 Andrew Corrigan and WO1 William Brown, also of the SAS, Staff Sergeant Dave Guido and Camillia Ashton, both from the Danish special forces, Major Richard Smythe of Britsh Army Aviation, and Don over there is a 2nd Lt in the RAF reserve but more importantly, a member of the British government.

We escaped from the 11th Polish Cav Brigade just a few hours ago, hence the Polish uniforms and equipment. We're looking to head east at the moment to avoid the concentrations of Pact units to the north and west and maybe do a little damage to their rear areas as we go. Long term we're in the same boat as you lot - we want to get back to friendly lines.

There is a pile of gear here that needs somebody to carry it. Any takers?

OOC: List posted earlier in this thread.
This message was last updated by the GM at 15:40, Thu 22 Apr 2004.

The prisoner does not appear to be in any imediate danger of further deteriation in his condition. He has been hit by bullets in the leg and abdomen.
To Gallin's words he replies in a similar maner as he did to Don. Basically his reply can be interpreted to mean that he is not likely to volunteer any information or offer any help whatsoever.

[Private to Sergeant Michael Gallin: It's up to you if you wish to let it be known about your background. Your English is heavily accented by Americanisms.
If you wish to tend his (or anybodies) wounds, you need to roll against your medical skill. First aid is a Difficult: Medical task. That is, you need to roll under or equal to half your skill rounded down. A Doctors Medical Kit will improve it to Average: Medical (equal to skill).
Successful first aid will remove the chance of infection and reduce a critical wound to serious, or reduce the healing time of a serious wound by two days. May be attempted only once per injured body part. The prisoner is seriously wounded but still able to move by crawling or hopping.]

Sir, I'd be pleased to join up with you. It's unusual to see so many senior other ranks, but I guess that is more common in special forces than in the regular army - nice to work with professional career soldiers instead of eighteen year olds hung out to dry with minimal training in a war they didn't ask for.

I was with another element of 5th ID too before it came to pieces. Kind of a Pyrrhic victory, that whole operation, for whichever side you figure won. That pretty much smashed the last large scale organized military formation for either side in this part of the theatre.

Of course, a much smaller and disorganized chunk of the Pact forces could still eliminate a small unit like this one...

Kett smiles at that, with a vague sense of fatalism

I guess since I'm a bit short of 'chain of command', I'll just have to attach myself to your Order of Battle until such time as I find an alternate legitemate Canadian military authority, and I'm not holding my breath. That is, if you'll have me....

[OOC] I'll mark the kit that Gary claims (mostly reposessed stuff from my equipment list) from the recovered gear in the other thread.

"Hello" Wiliiam says to the newcomers.

After snagging some equipment from the pile,  Sgt Gallin will do a check on the UAZ to make sure its running proper.

Rolled a three on mechanics skill.

The huge form of Sergio will happily, without a word, set about with general repairs and maintenance. Not taking over, but wither pointing out, or straightening any problems as he goes.

[OOC: Assuming I understand this right?
00:41, Today: Sergio D'ammond rolled 1 using 1d10. mechanics.
Is SUPER l33t!!!! AND I HAVE THE SKILL LOL!]

Of course I might be wrong, so I wait...

Holy hand grenades!!!!
In that case I pass by 11????
(My mechanical skils are strong in the force today!)
Does that mean I make it into something better? lol!
(Also with an effective easy mechanics skill of 12, does that mean I can't FAIL a mechanics roll? Or are 10's fails?)

Sergio happily gets to work, just like at home. He even does bits of the repair work with his eyes closed.

Sergio conducts a mechanical appraisal of the UAZ-469 and determines that it has a wear value of 6 (remember this people, very important) which basically means that it has taken a real beating and will need nursing along to keep it going without trouble.
The fuel tank has about 25 litres of ethanol in it which will enable it to travel for approximatley and hour and a half before running dry (alcohol is a very inefficient fuel - ethanol is only worth 1/3rd of petroleum based fuels and methanol 1/4).
A bullet has smashed the radio and the front seat is soaked in blood. There is a mount for a weapon on the vehicle (will take any machinegun or either the AGS-17 or Mk-19 automatic grenade launchers).
Other stats:
Fuel type: G,A (will burn either gasoline or alcohol - takes 8 hours to convert
                between fuel types)
Load: 500kg (cargo and passenger capacity)
Veh. Wt: 1.6 tons
Crew: 2+3 (Driver, Commander/gunner, passengers)
Mnt: 2 (minimum number of hours per week required on maintainence - can spend
           more time to help prevent breakdowns)
Night vision equipment: headlights
Tr Move: 200/40 (travel move - maximum distance travelled in four hours onraod/offroad)
Com Move: 50/10 (combat move - onroad/offroad. Can move up to three times this
        speed with wheeled vehicle skill checks to avoid mishaps)
Fuel Cap: 60 (fuel tank capacity in litres)
Fuel cons: 20 (fuel burned in a four hour period - number is for petroleum based fuels only)

The vehicle card will be placed on the game web site shortly.

Tanya snaffles a few items from the pile of salvaged equipment.
OOC: Will update equipment thread to reflect this.

"Thank you, sweet Mary, for getting some humanity into our group", Don whispers silently as Gallin arrives to help with the Pole.

"Really not very talkative, this lad. But we'd rather take him with us, otherwise he'll talk to anyone he meets about what we are up to, and what equipment we are having, along with what we look like"

Don gets onto his knees, with a smile. Speaking in English, with a Scottish accent he stretches his right hand towards Gallin.

"Cináed. Cináed Donnachaidh. A pleasure to meet you. Everyone here calls me Don, so I guess you can too. Even if the other's actually hasn't asked."

Don gets on his feet, leaving the Pole in the care of Gallin for a while.

"What are the other lads in your group like? The men around here are rather tight-up, military types. Except for Tanya over there, she is rather nice, and with a nice body as well..."

"I guess we should load all the gear in the car. We have a bunch of horses, a couple of hundred meters away from here, but I don't think we have anything to pack the things in though. On the other hand, with some rope I guess we could get a horse to carry most of it. I hate horses myself, so I would prefer going in the car. I can even drive, if need be. Even though I have mostly travelled in the back of limos the last couple of years, hehe."

Don walks over to the collected things, and exchanges his AK-74 for a smaller gun and some ammo.

" 'ey, Mr Nelson. Shouldn't we get moving? If there is anyone that has heard this, or if one of the lads that left into the wheat returns to their base, I guess we will have a lot of Poles coming up on us. The faster we move out, the better. Soon we should get us all some decent food. There is a lot of food in the equipment here!"

After a quick stroll around the UAZ, Don sees the two wounded men in the car. Probably this will make it rather hard to load everything onto the car.

" 'ey, Tanya-baby. Should you get over and get the horses, or do you need some help by a man without his tartan-kilt?"

Don puts on his biggest smile.

Speaking to the unit commander

Sir, I recommend we have Sgt. Gallin and the wounded ride in the UAZ, along with a competent driver. I can do that if need be, but I'm infantry and used to moving on the Two-Step Black Cadillacs. Maybe that Scottish fellow could drive - t would keep him from having to walk.

The Scotsman has a point though about the Poles sir. If figure they'll take a while to get to their buddies, and they may decide not to tangle with you lot again, but frankly, we'd be better off moving, I'm thinking.

He stops and grins...

Canada isn't getting any closer just sitting around here. Neither's Merry Old England.

Meanwhile, Kett starts packing any remaining loose gear into the back of the UAZ around the people in question. He stops to check on the state of the Norwegian and the German and asks them if there is anything he can get them (water, a ration bar, etc).

William heads back to to the horses, hoping they are still there when he gets there.