"If you say so," Dawid replied.  "They had that equipment at the Regimental and Divisional level at one time.  We always had to do things the old fashioned way.  Mostly because we could no longer rely on advanced electronics, especially after the use of nuclear weapons.  Perhaps Western artillerymen are different."

"My battery's last gun was a horse-drawn WWII-era 152mm Howitzer that was over 50 years old.  Computers help, but do not fundamentally change artillery."

As Joost stifled another yawn, Dawid struggled to do avoid doing the same.

"Stop that!"  He gave up, and yawned too.

"There, feel better?  So, you should be fine for the Plamya.  Aiming and skill are the least important things about using an autofire weapon."

Let us go forward and examine the Vasilek.  Which is "cornflower" in Russian, by the way."

As they walked, they continued the conversation.




"If we fight, we fight.  I think we have enough firepower to cow any rabble we come across, and eliminate any who pose a real threat.  But then, who knows these days?  Those poor children back in the rubble had no business picking a fight with us.  They're lucky they're not all dead.  I hope they find the abbey safely."

Arriving at the forward barbette, he said, "here we are."  Quickly, he explained the controls.

"If you fire it on full-auto, it's like a machinegun.  If you fire it indirectly, it's a little like a grenade launcher, although there are differences."

"If you have any knowledge of those systems, then you should already know the basics."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:32, Mon 16 July 2007.

"Okay, decision time. I say we land a scout team and check out the situation. We can heave to about two to three klicks upstream and go down in the inflateable. If we draw fire, we call in mortar fire and back off. We take the PKM, a loader, an FO, a few shooters and a coxswain. What do you guys think?"

Parks nods agreement. "It's probably best that we scout this ahead of time. But we can't take so many that the tug's left vulnerable. The less folks tha better. If I had a willy peat gun bag I could just do a slide in insertion. I can still do it, just gonna take a bit longer once i'm feet dry. This is more my bread and butter. If someone has a grid map, I can go in to scout and make arty plans while I am there. The rest of ya can make ghost insertions all along the beach and see what there is to see." Parks pauses for a moment then turns to Griet. "Ma'am, do you know of any freq your ORMO boys use alot so we can try to raise them? This is after all sanctioned by them. Either they can help or stay the hell out of the way. I'd hate to shot one of them not knowing they are friendlies."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:28, Mon 16 July 2007.

The Australian had an easy air of command that Griet found herself responding to despite their differences in nationality and purpose.  Competence, no matter what skin it wore, was worth respect.  That made him dangerous too, if it came to a show of force over conflicting ideas as to how to proceed.

Gunny's question drew her attention and she turned to listen to him.  After a pause to puzzle out his words, she shook her head.  "Nie, no radio.  If too many marauding Sovietski, maybe no more ORMO."

"Excuse please."  Griet nodded to Old Adam, then let herself out of the pilot house and began to make her way forward to where Dawid and Joost were talking.

"If we're going to do anything, let's put a four man fire team on there to snoop around, get some intel, and get the hell out. While they're on the ground, the inflateable can check out the locks untilthe ground team needsto be extracted."

"So who's going on this recon? And when? Seems to me we could hold off a bit and let everyone get a couple hours shut-eye first."

"I don't think we have the time to take a couple of hours of sleep Clarence.  I think with those two assholes on the bike just cut any kind of break chance we had. I think our best bet is to make the best spped there and try to get Adam's ship through as quickly as possible.  If we give them the time, they mightbe able to screw our asses up real good.  Only a suggestion," Tucker says to everyone on the pilot house.

Max speaks up during a moment's quiet, after almost everyone else has had their say
"Well, we did see those guys earlier.  But as a matter of principle, i'm against us always sending out scout parties.  If we send out a party for every lock, broken down bridge or suspicious looking nook, we'll end up walking the river.

Sure, this time, lets scout it out.

I'm fine for resting first, if need be."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:06, Wed 18 July 2007.

Blue having snatched some sleep under the awning lifts his head at the commotion caused by the sight of potential hostiles.  He lifts his beret from over his eyes and grunts.  "Well better than nothing." he grunts as he takes his beret and puts it in a pocket then puts his helmet on.

Grabbing his Austeyr he moves to his position aboard ship and awaits orders.

Parks stand and listens to the comments. With a a shake of his head he decides to step in again. " Tha' more we send the more chance of being seen. Tha inflatables aren't silent or I doubt even muffled. They'll hear us coming. Just give me a few hours to take a quick look-see. I will slide in and you guys can do four or five false drops. This is my neck of the woods we're talkin' about. Let me do my job. If this shit goes south ya lost one man. If it goes well you risked only one man and it was tha one man with the training to get tha' job done." having said his bit, Parks scans over the maps for a second. "Preset fire for these 4 locations. If I am in danger you can light off your big toy out there and give'um something else to worry about while I beat feet out of there. If it goes well, you have eyes and ears in place to watch as you approach and make your way through. You can have a dingy pick me up on the other side. I can do alot more good out there then here. If the lock walls are too high, i'd still suggest a team on each side clearing ahead unless I tell ya it's to hot." Parks pauses for a few seconds. "Up to you gents. I've said my fill" With that he steps to the side to study the maps for likely hide sites and egress routes.

Max shrugs his shoulders at Parks last comment.  Then nods.

"It doesnt have to be this way, one man taking all the risk.  But if that man  is keen on the idea, so be it.

The idea has some merit."

Seeing that Joost had the basics, Dawid ended up by showing him how to operate the disposable RPG-76 rocket.  "We will keep this here with the Vasilek.  That way we may engage threats to our flanks if we can't turn the mortar in time.  But if you need it, then I or Clarence will bring it. You extend the folding stock, then aim through the top sights here and here."  He set it in the sandbagged enclosure that protected the gun-mortar.



"Will you kindly excuse me?  I have something to do that I've been putting off."

After finishing with Joost, he saw that they had a few minutes of relative quiet.  The dark river was flowing by them as they lay at anchor, boat gently rocking in the current.  Moving towards the bow and the direction of the rising sun, he decided on saying some quick morning prayers, having forgotten them all yesterday and at dawn in the rush to complete modifications to the boat and then travel.

The morning was peaceful if a little overcast.  He took off his beret and and he set his rifle down on its butt, propped up on the railing beside him.

Although he held his Rosary beads in hand, he would not say the Mysteries until later that night.  It being Monday, he would contemplate the Joyful Mysteries.  Yesterday he had skipped contemplating the Glorious Mysteries in the evening.  He wondered if that would also be so tonight.

"Pater Noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen."

Finishing the Lord's Prayer, he moved on to The Hail Mary,

"Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen."

Finally, in Polish, a prayer to Our Lady of Częstochowa,

"Holy Mother of Częstochowa, you are full of grace, goodness and mercy. I consecrate to you all my thoughts, words and actions, my soul and body. I humbly beseech your blessings and especially your prayers for my salvation. Today I turn myself to you, good mother, totally, with body and soul amid joy and suffering to obtain for myself and others your blessings on this earth and eternal life in heaven. Amen."

Finishing up, he made the sign of the cross and put his Rosary beads back in a battle-dress pocket, where he would take them out tonight if he had the opportunity.  He put his beret back on and slung his rifle over his shoulder.


OOC: I'm assuming if Griet wishes to interact with Dawid, she would wait until he was done his prayers.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Wed 18 July 2007.

Tucker puts his hands on his hips considering what gunny Parks wants to do.  "the final decision is up to the Captain but, that sounds like the best course of action to take right now Gunny.  If you want it, it's yours.  What can we do to help you and what will you need?"

Griet caught Dawid in the middle of his devotions.  Religion always made her nervous.  It was less of an issue in Poland than in most of the Soviet Union, but the Party still frowned upon it.  Griet's family had abandoned their faith a generation past and it had no place in her life.  Still, so many Poles clung to the Church that she recognized what Dawid was doing and afforded him the time to finish.

When he was done, Griet cleared her throat and closed the last few steps to put them within comfortable speaking distance.

"They're still talking about what to do," she told him.  "I told them that we had some men at the locks trying to keep them open, but I don't know if they are still there or not.  With the way the Soviet units have become nyetkulturny bandits, I'd suspect the ORMO unit there has been attacked - at least probed."  Griet found herself craving another cigarette and her eyes briefly flicked towards Dawid's pocket before she forced them away.

"You can bet the men on the bridge sent word ahead by that motorcycle.  Soon the whole river will know we're coming.  Griet leaned against the rail, her elbows on it which bent her back out slightly over the water.  She stretched, easing the tension out of her muscles; tension put there by her position aboard the Queen.

"They," a nod of her head towards the Pilot House showed who she meant, "want to send a boat out to scout the locks.  They are talking about who to send."

"You're not going," she told him with flat intensity.  "I want you to stay on the boat."

Snowy shakes his head looks at Gunny, saying "I don't like it. If you get nailed we'll have no idea what happened, no way of knowing whether to try an extraction or not, no way of knowing if we should do a follow up. It all depends on you maintaining your stealth, and has no fall back. Even if we do blind drops, they know we're up to something and you're vulnerable to a sweep."

He looks at Gunny evenly and rubs his jaw "it's not that I don't think you know what you're doing, but if the locks are held by the 'forces of godless communism', we'll have to land a strike team anyway." He looks out the window at the flat riverbank, low and lacking much cover.

Looking back at Gunny, he says "if you're dead set against us landing a patrol, I think you should at least take your spotter. We can form a ready reaction group here if everything goes south. I'm sorry, it's just my training, we never do anything without backup - even our snipers. In fact, we deploy our snipers with a three man element for flexibility, but I'm a cop and not a soldier."

[NPCed]

Konrad stood quietly, listening carefully to each man's input. He felt uncomfortable making a command decision- he'd made that clear already- but, once again, it was time for him to accept the responsibility of command. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite sure of what the correct decision was. He spoke out loud, addressing the others, but he was really trying to clear things up in his own head. Fatigue was slowly taking over.

"Those men on the motorcycle- whoever they were- will have warned their commrades that we are coming. Since we have stopped, they will be wondering where we are and why we have not arrived yet. They may be sending out sweeps already. I hesitate to send a rubber raft into that. But, we all need rest. The entire crew of this vessel is not prepared for an armed passage of the locks, if it should come to that."

He paused, nodding his head subtly as he made up his mind about how things would be done. When he continued, there was a greater air of certainty in his voice.

"So, we will all depart aboard the tug for the locks in four hours' time. If the Gunnery Sergeant wants to risk a reconaissance mission in the meantime, so be it. However, I do agree with Mr. White that he should not go alone. Sgt., you and the other Marine seem to work well together; I would like you to take him with you. Snowy, I would like you to handle the insertion. Select another man to assist you if need be. We will move the barge up into mortar range before the recon team departs. Should the marines need support, they will be able to call in fire.

Sgt., please maintain radio contact. I will have someone monitoring your channel the entire time. Find out as much as you can about the lock's defenders and defenses in the next four hours. Avoid contact. Any questions?"

Responding to the tone of finality in Bayer's voice, Adam orders the tug crew to make way. Uller grumbles as he complies, having only minutes previously supervised the laborious process of heaving to. Within minutes, the exhausted crew is again steaming downriver- more slowly this time- to a point at the edge of the Vasilek's indirect fire range.

The team leaders, having finished their meeting*, return to their teams and inform them of the plan, arranging for alternating sleep and watch shifts for the next four hours while the recon and insertion teams prepare for their mission.

<Brown>* Team leaders, please feel free to wrap up the planning session before moving on.

Lighting a cigarette for himself and another for Griet, Dawid nodded in agreement as he replied in Polish, "Do not worry about me leaving this vessel; I will not be doing much walking this trip!  My fate is tied to Adam and the Hauptmann, and my skills will be needed here to run the Vasilek, or one of the machineguns."

"I do think it is wise to reconnoitre the locks in some manner from on shore.  My choice would also be to anchor the barge and make our first approach with the tug unburdened and manoeuverable, then take the barge through when we are assured of our safe passage."

"I am much more valuable as an artillerist practicing my art on board the boat, but I am skilled with machineguns as well."

"Speaking of the artillerist's art, we have enough 82mm munitions to fight a few skirmishes, or perhaps one serious battle.  Our authorised tactial load was 226 shells per tube for battle, and we only have about 30 assorted shells, so you can imagine how far those are going to go.  These babies really eat up the munitions!"

"Which reminds me, I should bring up another clip, this one of Anti-Armour, in case we run into some bunkers.  At some point you or I should see if we can trade for some more along the way.  82mm should be common enough."

"I am glad that a fellow Pole is along for the ride," he said, gratefully.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Wed 18 July 2007.

"good I will get out and hunt again. Guns i will do as told and we will come back."

" will get about an hour or so sleep so one else cover the look out"

with that john will walk down to the lower deck and lay down and sleep for as long as he can.

"Okay boss. I'll need another hand that knows what they're doing, so I guess it's either Joost or Griet - I think they've both got sea time and can take over if I buy it."

"Gunny, this is your show. You tell me what you want done and how you want it done, and I'll deliver." Snowy grins "of course, if you want me to draw fire for you, we may have an argument!"

Looking around at the sudden activity he said, "hey, I think we're getting going.  Let us pray to the saints everything goes well."  He made the sign of the cross for good measure.  He smiled to show he was kidding her a little.

As they got underway, he got into his flack jacket and put on his helmet.  The metal seat was cold under his buttocks, but it felt good to be in the seat of some artillery, even if was a bastardised mortar/autocannon.

"Loader, please locate and hand up one clip of Anti-Armour/Fragmentation.  We will keep it ready by the gun for the moment." He told Clarence what too look for written in Polish or Russian on the 82mm HEDP rounds.

"If Snowy's going to take Joost, I'll rotate sleep between Clarence and Milk on the Vasilyk and I'll have to do my best on the grenade launcher.  Someone's going to have to cover me while I get my two hours unless, you want that post unmanned?" Tucker says to Bayer and the other section leaders.

Rob then walks up to Gunny and Yazzie extending them a hand, "Good luck you two.  See you both when you get back aboard!"

Dawid liked to talk.  It wasn't something Greit did, but she was an intent listener.  Sometimes too intent.  It was as if each word was drawn in behind her eyes, weighed for meanings and then carefully filed; a secret policeman's eyes she'd been told before.

She forced herself to wait before taking the cigarette.  Being too needy was a weakness she'd been schooled to combat.  When she did take it, Griet nodded her thanks.  "If they ask you to go, tell them I told you to stay with the mortar.  No one else is as qualified to support the reconaissance team.  I'll be up there," she looked towards the PKM position above them, "watching and will come down if there's a problem."

Griet touched Dawid on the shoulder, nodded, and made her way towards where the sleeping Anneka lay.  She crouched beside the deeply unconscious woman, careful that the ashes from her cigarette did not fall on Anneka.  In repose the woman looked child-like; an impression heightened by her petite form.  Griet noted that she'd been covered up with care by one of the others.  Good, so there wouldn't seem to be any problems with rape it seemed.  Griet resisted an urge to further tidyt he blanket, rose instead and made her way up to the gun mount she'd been assigned.  Briefly she looked down at Dawid making preparations for possible action.

The farm boy needed to go home, to try and forget the horrors he'd seen; the horrors they now drifted past.  Unfortunately, she didn't think it would work.  The survivors in this atom-blasted world were the ones who knew more of war than they'd ever known of peace.

Clarence walks from the bridge to the stern and informs Blue and Joost of the plan. He asks one of them to take first watch (2 hours) while the other sleeps. After the quick briefing, Clarence makes his way forward.



"Who're you talking to, D.P.? Man, you really are tired, huh? We'll talk about sleep in a minute. This is the plan: we're moving the tug to within a couple kilometers of the locks. Snow is taking Gunny and Yazzie downriver a little further in a raft and inserting them to do a little recon. In four hours, the tug is going to follow. So, we've got about four hours and everyone needs to get some rest. I'll take first watch if you like."

John sleps waiting for mission

"ZZZZZZZZZ"