"Dunno Tuck, says he was an an anti-marauder patrol. Adam says he tried to bounce him a few days ago, but I dunno if he saw the guy's face or anythin'. Looks like he's a bona fide EPW, maybe we could run a swap with a Polish unit and get one of ours back."

He grins, and adds "they probably wouldn't wanna come with what we're up to!"

"Anti-Marauder patrol?  Are you shittin' me?  This guys supposed to be protecting us yet, he thought it would be wise to attack honest business people, well as honest as you're going to get in this day and age at least!

I don't know Snowy, whataya think?  You believe his story?  Ask him what he thinks we should do with him," Tucker says to one of the translators.

"Nope, I think he's feeding us a line of crap. The fact is though, we're close enough to NATO that he was in fact doing the right thing by shooting us up, even if it was for their own reasons. There's been no official cessation of war and they're under no requirement to check IDs before firing. I can't think of anything wrongs he's done, and he even shot me mate in the head."

Parks grabs his gear and stows to part way to the tug for now. Turning to Yazzie, Parks looks him over a second. "You still have my spotting scope. Right?" Parks raises an eyebrow in mock suspicion, then takes the clip out of his SVD and reloads the single round he expended. Slapping the full clip back into place he carefully leans the rifle against his pack.
   Motioning Yazzie to follow, Parks walks back to the truck to see what's going on at the mortar. Parks looks over Tuck "How's the leg? No disco night for you for a while." Parks says with a half grin that leaves his face as soon as he turns to look at the prisoner. "We need to cut him lose or dump him. I don't like him hanging around for no reason." Parks grabs a canteen from his belt and offers it to the prisoner then looks around at the scattered gear. "Lets get our gear aboard and stowed then have a look see. We have alot to go over before we're underway. Anyone know when the Captain plans to launch?"

Snowy turns to Parks "It'll be a while yet. Bluey and I wanna weld up a naval style barbette for the vasilek to give the gunners some cover. That'll take a day. I do notice there's a lot of empty sandbags gere too!"

Grinning and shaking hands, Dawid dug out a crumpled packet of cigarettes from a breast pocket with the name Jablco and the picture of an apple on it, offering it around.  The one he was smoking was filter-less, with a strong evil-smelling tobacco.

He answered Tuck's question, "I learned English from my grandfather.  When I was a child, we wanted to go to the west because things were so bad here before the war.  Now, I don't think it makes a difference where you are."  He smiled and shrugged as if to say, and so it goes.

Listening to the debate on the "EPW", he walked over to squat down beside the prisoner, carefully placing own his cigarette between the man's lips.  The man gratefully drew a lungful of smoke, then exhaled.

"Gentlemen.  I have three things to say.  One, there are no NATO soldiers operating around here and thus there are no patrols looking for them, so that part of his story is completely false."  He spoke with emphasis,  "Two, he was part of a recent bandit raid that I helped fight off.  I got a good look at his face and I personally recognise him.  He is a vicious murderous criminal, nothing more.  He's also not Milicja or Army, so he is not considered an "Enemy Prisoner" under the Geneva Conventions of War, and the Army will not make a trade with you because you're Americans.  I know this."

He seemed completely sincere and concerned.

Still squatting, he continued, "third, with all due respect, if he's let go in any way he will lead whoever he can back to this settlement, raping and killing everyone here.  Other bandits, the Army, the Milicija, even those ZOMO fuckers.  It won't matter, he'll find other rats just like him and they will come and they will kill everyone."

With that, he quickly drew a Tokarev pistol from a belt holster, charged it, placed the muzzle against the man's head and pulled the trigger.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:56, Fri 15 June 2007.

Seeing the Pole pull his weapon and shoot an unarmed prisoner, Blue pulls grabs his rifle and levels it at him. "Drop the weapon, mate.  I'm no murderer but I'll shoot you if you don't drop your gun and put your hands behind your head." Blue says in a low quiet voice.  "Snow, you're the expert- what do we do now?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:47, Fri 15 June 2007.

Snowy's standing next to the prisoner and is probably splattered with brains.

"You FUCKER!" he shouts and wrenches out his pistol.

"DOWN! NOW, DOWN, on the ground! Talk, move, do anything and you're a dead fucker! Lose the gun."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:09, Fri 15 June 2007.

The man's explosive dying breath propelled the cigarette out of his mouth, and it landed in the mud in front of him.

Staring at the man slumped beside him, Dawid paused for a moment, seemingly shocked at his own actions.  Finally hearing the yells and comprehending the guns pointed in his face, he threw the Tokarev off to the side, then lowered himself down on the ground and crossed his hands behind his neck, not offering any resistance.

On the ground, he couldn't take his eyes off the cigarette butt smouldering centimetres away from his face.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:53, Fri 15 June 2007.

Konrad had patiently waited for the rest of the group to exit the rear of the Ural and was just dropping to the ground when the prisoner was shot.

"Holy shit, what the fuck was that for??"

Following the lead of Blue and Snowy, Konrad quickly brings his rifle to bear on the Polish soldier.

"OK guys, lets get Adam up here, he seemed to know this guy"

Always one to assist a team mate in need, Joost had grabbed Tuck's ruck as well as his own sea bag and proceeded to load their gear aboard the Krolowa.  He hadn't figured out where to stow it quite yet, but figures the posturing over accomodations would pick up right where it left off before the ambush in short order.

After conducting a cursory inspection of the stern in the area of the rear cargo hold hatch, Joost reaches into a shirt pocket under his open flak jacket and produces a slightly bent hand-rolled cigarette.  He places it between his lips, then pulls a dulled chrome Zippo lighter from the same pocket.  He cups his hands close to his face to shield the incipient flame against the light breeze as he achieves ignition.  He takes a long, slow drag from the cigarette as he replaces the lighter in his breast pocket.

Joost stands on the deck of the Krolowa facing the shore and observes the fresh-faced Polish artilleryman as he lectures the Aussie contingent on the relative merits and applicability of the Geneva Convention.  He rolls the sleeves of his fatigue blouse up past his elbows and eyes the pile of empty sandbags stacked on the makeshift pier.

Having been detained, beaten, interrogated and tortured in enough long forgotten military prison cells in more dank and desolate hellholes than he cares to ever remember, Joost knows the Geneva Convention to be a contrivance of a supposedly enlightened society designed for the benefit of its politicians.  Over the course of his career in mercenary service to the French government, Joost grew to understand the importance of letting the diplomats and statesmen feel better about themselves as they made their preparations to send guys like him off to fight their battles in the barren windswept deserts and steaming unnamed jungles of distant shores.

Although he was always eventually repatriated, he logged far too many months as a prisoner of war - as soldiers in that situation were referred to in his era - to question that the so-called international laws of combat were as optional as they were illusory.  He appreciates the sheer irony of debating the "rules" of war against the looming backdrop of this former foundry town - now reduced to a molten slag heap due to a trio of low-yield thermonuclear detonations.  Rules indeed.

His mind had begun wander and he considers his accumulated radiation dosage as he imagines the background count wafting off the still smoldering crater that looms beyond the docks.  His calculation of radioactive half life, strained even with the use of his fingers, is suddenly interrupted by the execution of the prisoner.  A not entirely surprising resolution to that encounter, Joost smiles to himself and nods in silent approval.  The Mexican stand-off now brewing between Team Oz and Dave the Pole was somewhat less expected.  Joost assesses the tactical situation and opts for a defusal.

He takes another long drag off the cigarette pinned between his teeth and struts with a purpose toward the pile of empty burlap sacks.  "Alright ladies," Joost commands as he claps his hands and grabs a shovel, "These bags aren't gonna fill themselves!"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:29, Fri 15 June 2007.

Hearing the shot Wayne reflexively ducks dropping his pack.  He spins around to see the prisoner slump to the ground having been executed.  All that could come out of his mouth was a simple but quiet, "Holy shit."

Somewhat catching his composure he grabs his camera and finishes reloading it with a fresh roll of film.  He brings it up and snaps a couple of shots of the stand-off between the men he had seen fight in combat and the executioner.

John watches the stand off and then the shot. He will shurg his shoulders and walk towards the sand bags that need to be filled. He will drop his pack next to them and place his AK-47 on top of it with the muzzle to the sky. Not caring about the arguement and the gunplay he will start to fill sand bags with the African.

"John's my Name , Marine Corps. Do you want me to hold or shovel? I dont see a sand bag table so we will do it the hard way I guess. "

After a few seconds, John faces the Gunny.

"Guns, what's our play in this? I will follow you, just say the word."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:45, Fri 15 June 2007.

"Don't feel too bad, he shot me in the ass!  I don't buy his story for shit.  Let's keep him under wraps at least until we leave.  We could always take him with us and drop him off up stream at some point," Tucker says to Snowy.



"Nah, no dancing for a couple of days I guess Gunny.  I suppose I'll just have to work on my Fall tan," Tucker says jokingly back to Parks.

<quote Joost van den Haas>Always one to assist a team mate in need, Joost had grabbed Tuck's ruck as well as his own sea bag and proceeded to load their gear aboard the Krolowa.  He hadn't figured out where to stow it quite yet, but figures the posturing over accomodations would pick up right where it left off before the ambush in short order.
quote>

"Thanks Joost.  Hey, do you mind if I borrow your lighter for a minute?  I was saving this for when we got here and now seems to be a good time," Tucker says as he produces a cigar from a pocket from one of his packs.  He cuts off the end of the cigar with his knife and lights it up with Joost's lighter, handing it back to him when he's done.  "Thank you my good man!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:44, Fri 15 June 2007.

Tucker nods his head to the Polish soldier, "Nope, I don't think it does matter anymore where you are.  I hear it's pretty shitty all over the world right now," he says waving off the offer of a cigarette from Dawid.



Tucker listens to the Dawid go on through his evaluation of the subject on the EPW/non-EPW and before he can get out the comment of how does Dawid know this guy is a bandit and does he have any proof, the Tokarev pistol comes out and drills a hole into the prisoners head, dropping him like a sack of dead weight to the moist ground.  Tucker stands back and looks at the still smoking gun and his companions weapons come to bear on the Pole telling him to drop his weapon.  He can see that the two Australians are not happy right now and more bad feelings might be soon to follow.

Tuck walks over to the Russian pistol laying on the ground and secures it by removing the magazine and stripping the round from the chamber.  He looks at Dawid with some disdain, "Umm, not for nothing but, that wasn't very cool, stupid!  I don't know how you're used to operating but, if you haven't noticed, that's not how we're gunna do shit!  You say he was a bandit, fine!  Show us some proof and I'll give you the bullets for the gun myself!  I wanted to shoot the asshole myself for shooting me but I, we, could've came up with a little more creative shit than giving the guy's brain an air conditioning unit!  Follow what I'm saying here?"

Tucker thinks back to when he told Milks in the field that if he had to kill any wounded to do it and move on just after the ambush.  Was he any different than this Polish guy?  Hell yeah!  The Polish guy beat him to it!
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:40, Fri 15 June 2007.

Old Adam jumps as the unexpected pistol shot shatters the still morning air. He turns to see the ZOMO prisoners drop heavily to the ground. The smoking Tokarev in Dawid's hand told him everything he needed to know.

He walks over to where Snow and Blue are securing Dawid in the mud and shouts at his prone countryman in Polish,

[Private to Anneka Soleblume; Dawid Waldus Piotrowski; Joost van den Haas: "WHat in the hell did you do that for?!? This is all we need right now. Do you know how difficult it was to find these people?!? For God's sake man, that was foolish. Just cooperate with them and don't do anything else foolish; I will try and get you out of this."]

Then his turns his eyes to the two Australians and addresses them in placating tones,

"Gentlemen, please! Do not do anything hasty, as my countryman here has done." He gives Dawid another cross look before continuing, "That was a wrong action, yes. But that prisoner was a bandit. His group attacked the abbey just a few days ago. They attacked us on the road too, without warning. They could not have known for certain you were NATO. We could have been ORMO, Polish Army, Russians, or civilians- they would have attacked us still! That does not excuse the killing, of course, but this situation is not the... 'normal' course of lawful war. Please, we need him- he is my expert on cannons. I will take personal responsibility for him. He will be punished somehow but please, release him."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:05, Fri 15 June 2007.

Dawid lay there, waiting.  In light of Tuck addressing him directly and Adam's getting involved, Dawid decided to chance punishment by asking, "may I be allowed to speak, please?"

Finished with his shots Wayne grabs his pack and tosses it over his shoulder.  He takes a couple more of the tug and the men standing around.  "Seems the Captain needs a murderer as part of his crew.  I haven't been paid to be here so I think I'll take my leave and head back to Krakow.  I'm not going to step foot on a ship that needs a cold blooded murderer as part of it's crew."

Wayne will turn and start past everyone and toward the road.  As he passes the situation he'll give his two cents not that it's worth much these days, "Doesn't matter to me if you killed him too.  He's no different than the guy he executed.  Good luck to you guys and watch your back around the Captain and that piece of trash."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:31, Fri 15 June 2007.

"Hold up Wayne," says Snowy, still staring owl eyerd over the sights of his glock at Dawid's face. His face is white with anger. "We'll see how this goes. Have you got him Bluey? I have to take the cuffs off this bloody corpse."

Stepping back, Snowy ignores everyone but those involved in the arrest. He does spare Adam an opaque glance that says nothing. He holsters his loaded weapon and quickly strips the cuffs off the dead ZOMO. Stepping up to Dawid, he roughly grabs his hands and snaps the cuffs on him behind his back.



"I don't care if he just snuffed Adolf Eichmann," barks Snowy. "Judge Dredd here just decided that he has the sole power of guilt and innocence in the world, right in front of my eyes and on MY prisoner." Snowy finishes cuffing him and casts a baleful stare at the soldiers ambling off to the tug and spits on the ground, then turns back to Adam. "What's the difference in that if he decided that rape and slaughter is a cool hobby? Nothing. That was murder sunshine, plain and simple. That EPW was looking at a bullet from the Krakow ORMO anyway, but he would have had the circumstances of his crime investigated. Just because he was a 'bad guy' is crap. I'm very suss about people who shoot wounded, restrained and unarmed men. They fit the description they projecte on their victims pretty well."



"If you do, you'd better realise that I'll be recording everything you say for later when you get the justice your victim didn't get."

Clarence was walking along the rickety makeshift pier carrying his pack and his duffel when the pistol shot rang out. He flinched at the sound, almost dropping his gear in the drink. He deposits his bags on deck, and then returns to be part of the 'jury' gathering around the Polish soldier who'd been sitting under the tarp when they'd arrived. It's not hard to guess what just happened.

Man, this is one fucked up morning- and I aint even had breakfast yet...

He stands nearby, listening quietly to the debate that's developing within the party. After Snowy finishes his piece, Clarence speaks up. He's hesitant to become another cook in this messed up stew but he feels he has a responsibility to share the information with the others.

"I don't know if this will make any difference to anybody but when I was searching one of them ZOMO bodies, I found a pair of pliers and few teeth in the dude's ammo pouch. I doubt  he was some kind of dentist. Just thought everybody should know."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:08, Fri 15 June 2007.

From his position Dawid looked over at Snowy, raised an eyebrow, then turned and addressed Adam.  "This jackal was with the ZOMOs that attacked us.  I recognise him.  They had a jeep, a ZOMO riot wehicle, wery distinctiwe.  Soldiers don't take gold teeth.  Police don't take gold teeth."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:18, Fri 15 June 2007.

Snowy shakes his head and looks skyward.

"You just don't get it, do you?" He looks down at Dawid and says slowly "didn't your officer ever say anything to you like 'mate, don't go around killing unarmed, restrained prisoners? It's just a bad idea'? If you'd just shot Hitler it wouldn't matter, the matter is that you have murdered someone. An illegal killing. If you're not a soldier, and you're dressed like one, then you're a civilian. Civillians have no right to kill people, that's what soldiers are for. If you're a soldier, then you cannot shoot prisoners, whoever they are or whatever they've done unless it's been sanctioned by a proper military court. There's a bloody court a few klicks up the road in the Krakow rynek. Don't you understand?"

Dawid looked from Adam to Snowy, endured the lecture with a look of blank incomprehension on his face, then turned back to Adam without saying a word.

Wayne stops and turns around when he hears Snowy's call to hold up.  Then after hearing some of the others talking he chimes in yet again, "And I guess pulling gold teeth justifies a bullet to the head here in good ole Poland.  To me what he just did justifies a bullet more than what the dead man ever did."

Wayne sighs then continues, "If the Captain didn't need this piece of trash I'd say put a bullet in his head and we move on.  However, the Captain says he nees him and the Captain is ultimately the man in charge here as you all are under his employ.  And as much as I hate to say it,  I don't think anyone here really has police authority in this country.  So what you are doing you are doing of your own accord."

Shrugging, "This might be one of the situations where we'll have to suck this up and just keep one eye on him until he gets himself killed.  Cause I seriously doubt that any of us are going to be watching his back."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:51, Fri 15 June 2007.

Listening intently to the ensuing debate, Joost leans against his shovel and pipes up to the Aussie with the handcuff fetish, "Hey, Snowcap, what do you care about a little Pole on Pole revenge killing anyhow?"

He points to the corpse lying in the mud.  "Seriously.  That was no choirboy who was shooting at us back in that pasture.  And knock it off with all that Dudley Do-Right 'rules of war' crap, won't ya?  Take a look around.  This isn't a war anymore, mate - war's been over for a while.  This is survival.  And who are you, the fucking United Nations?  Are you the tribunal?  Are you the law?  I don't recall the Poles inviting any peacekeepers in to help them mop up."

Opening his hand and gesturing toward Dawid, Joost continues to chide the Australian policeman.  "Look mate, this simply isn't your fight.  We just work here.  I think you need to remember that.  We're guests in this man's country." He then points in the direction of the twisted and melted landscape beyond.  "Or at least what NATO was kind enough to leave of it."

He shakes his head, mutters something to himself under his breath and goes back to his shoveling.