Upon hearing his name called Winters leaped up from his preoccupation with his weapon and reloaded it. Doing a quick once-over of his equipment he slinged the SAW's strap around his shoulders to help carry it's load while it was up-front at the low-ready carry. Trotting up to Lt Ashton he nodded and offered a brief smile before she issued her latest orders.


"Aye ma'am" acknowledging his place in the movement.

As they moved out he fell into place in the order in front of SFC Redgrave and behind Lt Ashton. If he wasn't such a dedicated married man it wouldn't be a bad place to be at all. Taking out his familiar little photo he reminded himself that he was indeed a dedicated married man and father. Kissing it lightly as he always does he squeezed his hand underneath his armor vest and placed it back into his breast pocket. Time to get down to business.

Marcus merely nods and walks over to the wounded to get a quick assessment of what's going on with them. He seems unmoved by the carnage of the wounded as he surveys each one. As he's crouched down examining a particularly grizzly neck wound he glances up as the recon group sets out, watching them as they leave until they are swallowed by the woods. Something plays across his eyes, his gaze, on his otherwise emotionless and tired stone face. Looking for only a few moments after they've gone from sight he turns back to the task of getting to know his patients.

Miricada, Samuels, Brown, Zhukov and Finnegan head first to the horses where Brown picks out two and saddles them for cargo. A coil of rope is secured to each pack saddle before Brown declares them ready to go.
It only takes about 15 minutes to spot the first target destined to become barbequed ribs. A single, well aimed headshot brings the deer down and adds 25 kilograms of venison to the larder. Half an hour later and pork is added to the menu as another 30 kilograms is loaded on the horses.
Even all this meat will only feed the approximately 40 people for less than a day (each person requires 2 kilos per day).

Michelle is called upon to saddle up a couple of horses and give basic animal handling lessons. After this Dettinger, Matterson, and Kett head out with Don providing translaton for half a dozen of the civilians. Following the directions Tanya had given, they are soon picking food from the abandoned gardens in he area. In short order the horses are loaded to capacity with both food and material destined for the still. Matterson, partly due to his fatigue and partly his skill as a sniper, is left to keep watch for danger.

Back at the warehouse Smythe is left on guard while Michelle tries hard not to break anything on the vehicles. Andy is left ot watch over the seriously wounded with the help of a couple of the civilians.

Once the pig is secured onto one of the pack horses, Bernhard calls Brown over to him,"We need to find something bigger, the scouts mentioned cows. I think we need to try searching where cows might be grazing. Get a few from t a herd if possible."

Assisting the Major with the pig Brown nods his head and pats the pig on its side.

"Its a large pig but you're right, there's no way this is going to feed everyone.  Lucky for us that cows aren't too skidish.  How many do you want brought down?"

Hoisting the rifle Brown checks the clip once more to make sure he still has enough ammunition should anything unfortunate happen.

Bernhard thinks for a moment,"I think 2 or 3 if we can find that many. If they aren't too skittish, I almost wonder if we could herd them back towards town. Make it easier to get more, and maybe take them with us when we head out. Thats if we can find that many."

Cracking a slight smile Brown runs a hand along the barrel of his gun.

"That's the thing about cows.  The ones that aren't skidish seldom go where you want them to and I'm not a cowboy so I don't know how to get them to where we want, but we can try."

"Well, I grew up on a farm. Liked it so much I joined the army, and never looked back. But I think between the five of us we might be able to get a small group of them to head back to town." Bernhard half-smiles at the thought of trying to herd cows,"If it doesn't work we shoot as many as we can, make multiple trips to pick up the meat if we have too."

At the mention of shooting cows Jared grimaces and looks to the horses with a bit of worry on his face.  "Maybe we should get a cart?"

The thought of a cart was most alluring to the exhausted Sargeant and were it not for the horses he might have fallen over a while ago.  Hopefully it would not take too long for the cows to be found and then hopefully they would follow willingly.  The only experience he had with cows was when he and some high school buddies went cow tipping over at Ol' Farmer Jacob's farm.

"Well, if we had a cart, it would help immensely. But since we don't we will have to make do. That means 2 horses and whatever they can carry. Although we might keep an eye out for any dead vehicles that can be converted to horse drawn."

Heading out towards the most likely area to find cattle Brown looks back towards Finnegan.

"We might be able to entice one or two of the cattle to follow us for some grain or other type of feed.  Hell even tall grass might work.  If a few follow us the others might also, pack mentality and all..."

Shrugging his shoulders he keeps a weary eye out for potential signs of trouble but continues talking.

"My grandpa owned a small farm and I spent my summers there.  We didn't own a lot of cows but the few we had were preety mellow."

Noddin ghis head at the response from the Major Jared sighs in a resigned fashion and follows along with the others.  His own fatigue was threatening to reclaim his consciousness but as long as he could lean on the horses he was going to be just fine.

As Brown speaks of growing up on a farm Jared thinks back to his own childhood.  It was such a long time ago and although it held some bad memories it also held some pretty good ones and any good memory was definitely better than reality at this point.

Michelle sets to cussing as she gets the last pieces of her current project under the vehicle to fit right, and tightens it down. Somehow, cussing just seemed to make it fit better. Deciding to take a break from working on vehicles, she remembers that the med supplies are quiclky running out of antibiotics. knowing a bit about antibiotics, she looks over towards where the school sits, and wiping her hands on a rag, goes and looks up the commanding officer.

"I like that plan. If we find a single cow, we shoot it, if we find a small herd, we will try to bring them back to town."

Even with everyone alert, the sudden movement from under the hunters feet takes you all by supprise. A flash of brown and grey as the rabbits are spooked by the heavy tromping of boots and hooves - too fast even to bring weapons to bear.

The foraging party begins it's return to the warehouse, horses loaded with both food and material for the still.

Back at the warehouse, Michelle curses once more as her knuckles are barked on a particularly difficult bolt. Thankfully there is nothing really wrong with the machines - it's just maitainence and can wait for later if she wishes. The remaining wounded appear to have stabilised and the next meal is being prepared by some of the civilians.

All in all, it seems as though everything is going to plan.....

The scampering bunnies jerk Bernhard out of his reverie of watching the bushes and trees for any sign of man or beast. Bringing his rifle up too slow to get a shot off he sweeps the muzzle left-to-right in a vain attempt to find where the rabbits hopped off to. "Damn things! That's bad getting jumped by an animal like that. We need to be more alert or we will get ambushed by someone or something that will shoot back."

His focus had been on looking for cows and the light banter had taken his mind of off any threat.  In fact his mind had drifted back to his childhood.  It was then that the rabbits scampered across their path startling him a bit.

His AK came up quickly but not quickly enough.  A nervous laugh escaped his lips but his heart was beating a mile a minute.

Stupid!  Stupid!  Silently cursing himself for the lack of attention Brown starts moving again but this time his eyes are carefully scanning the area for any signs of threats.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:50, Thu 21 July 2005.

The day had already been much too long and by the time the rabbits darted in front of everyone Jared had less of a reaction than the horse he held onto.  Truth be told, if the horse weren't there, neither would he be.

Shaking his head Jared doesn't even reach for his gun and instead just waits to see if death has come to put him out of his misery.  When gunfire doesn't erupt half of him is disappointed but the other half sighs in relief.  Hopefully they would find these damn cows sometime soon!

OOC: Sorry it's a bit slow here. I intend to skip ahead a bit soon but need Camilla's team to do a few things here and there first.

The afternoon goes by without any problems. A few more small animals are found, shot and dressed by the hunters. The foraging team makes another couple of trips and gains more vegetable matter for both human and still consumption. Dinner is well on it's way to being ready and the daylight is beginning to wane. All is quiet with only summer bug chirps disturbing the calm.

The cool evening air is suddenly shattered by the distant sound of heavy mortar fire.

"Thump, Thump, Thump"!

Where will they land? The sentry on the roof yells a warning to those below while themselves feeling extremely exposed on the metal rooftop.

Almost thirty seconds after their firing, they explode a few miles to the north. At what feels like the same instant, heavy automatic fire errupts at the same location as the mortars target. Small arms, machineguns and explosions reverberate off the building walls around you.

The more experienced of you quickly realise that there is no threat to you. Somebody has apparently walked (or driven) into an ambush. From experience, you know that the amount of fire shows that there will be many bodies for the crows in the morning.

The ambush lasts about two minutes before the sounds of firing end. Discusions have only just started as to who may be involved and what you should do when another flurry of automatic fire is heard. This is about five minutes after the initial attack ceased - perhaps prisoners being shot?

Then another terrible question begins to form. The scouts headed out in that general direction.

Could Camilla, Dave, Winters and Tanya have been the target?

Marcus' eyes widen a bit at the realization that the ambush they just heard may have been meant for the scouting party. He practically runs over to the radio grabbing up the handset.

Taking a quick breath before keying the mic he transmits in his professional steady tone, #"Romeo Papa One, Romeo Papa One, this is Hotel Bravo, over."# He seems to hold his breath awaiting a response. A single bead of sweat trails down his forehead into his eyes and he makes no motion to wipe it. You might even detect fear is in his eyes, but it is not for himself.

At the sound of the mortars, Bernhard looks up from where he is tying their latest kill to one of the pack horses,"That can't be good. I think its time we head back to camp."

Brown's head snaps around at the sound of the mortars and his rifle comes up as he crouches, scanning the horizon for any potential threats.  At Finnegan;s words he nods his head and starts to move to take point.

"Yeah, I do not want to be caught in the open with horses trailing us.  No sense getting our food blown up..."

With that he double times it forward to try and scout ahead and make sure they take a path devoid of conflict.

OOC: I'm assuming everyone besides Dave, Cam, Tanya and Winters are all back at the warehouse preparing for the night. This event occurs a few minutes before dusk.

Bernhard looks at Marcus holding the mic,"Let them know we don't have anyone out there. They are free to fire at will. Then break contact, if possible. if they need help we can send a reaction force to help."