Clarence nods and replies, "I'll be on the rear HMG. Holler if ya need me."

Before the OP team departs, Clarence has a quick word with Konrad, "Sir, I think we should hold off on barge repairs until morning. The repair team will need to see what they're doing and the floodlights could attract as many bad-guys as moths. The pump too. Plus the lights will reduce the range of our NVGs, out in front at least. I recommend that we scratch the repair team and assign one of them to watch duty so that there's three of us on every shift. One on the bridge roof with NVGs would give us 360 degree eyes. Everyone else can get some rest. In the morning, we can repair the barge, maybe scrounge some sandbags from that bunker. I saw some field teleophone cable up there too. I could use it to make an intercom for the Queen. That's my recommendation. It's your call sir."

After Konrad responds, Milk will switch out the L86A2 and its ammo for his AK-74M and a full load of 5.45mm B. On his way back to the aft Dushka, he'll swing by the galley and grab a bowl of Dawid's bigos.

Chopper shakes his head and smiles, then lights up another cigarette. "It ain't Ensign, Hauptmann. I work for a living. It's Engineman, First Class Jay Hicks, but I go by Chopper. That's a US Navy rating. As to what's downriver, it's a shitpot of trouble. As to how I came to be in this part of Poland, or Poland at all for that matter, that's a long, strange trip. Hell, I don't believe part of it myself. It's probably gonna take half an hour or so, and some maps,..."

Chopper breaks off into a mild coughing fit. "I've done been through some heavy shit, Hauptmann, sir, and my nerves ain't what they should be. You wouldn't have something, er, medicinal to help steady'em a bit, would ya, while I get things sorted in my mind?"

"Guess I'm like a fifth wheel." Jason states as everyone goes about their duties. Ever since he lost his copter, he had felt like a useless relic, but now, after bridge detail, and the odd glances from his new compatriots, the feeling starts to sink in.

Grabbing a bowl of what passes for stew, he walks to the bow, and sits by the bridge wall. Seems the officers had some talking to do, Milk was now guarding the back of the ship, his Partisan brothers had found countryman blood, and he was detailed to back up security.

Taking a few bites of the warm stew, he settles down and starts to examine his new weapon, and rests his tired legs,

"Great move joining the Agency. Now I'm an outsider among my own people."

Maybe I should take up smoking, he thinks.

Dawid sat down beside him.

"You look lonely, my friend."

He handed Jason a mug of tea, then lit up a cigarette.

"I tell you, if things are bad downstream like word has it, it might make my plans somewhat difficult. This is because they depend on me being alive!"

Dawid shook his head, sipped the cabbage soup. He took a drag from his cigarette.

"So tell me, what are you doing in my beloved Poland?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:32, Mon 28 Jan 2008.

Bayer listens to Milk's suggestion on holding off the repairs until first light. He was against the idea of sticking around longer than they had to, but Milk brought up some points he hadn't realized.

"I see. I wasn't aware we had to do such lighting to repair the boat. This is not good. Let me talk to Snowy."

In the galley, as the newcomers present their stories and fill him and Anneka in on the local situation, he looks across at Snowy. "Hey. Milk was saying we'll have to illuminate the work area with spotlights and it'll be quite the show. You agree with that? I don't know much about how you'll be repairing the damage, but I'm going to guess you'll agree with him ja?"



Bayer cracks a smile, he thought Hicks, or Chopper, was quite a character. "Alright. Sorry. Engineman. Chopper. Anyways, please continue, we have a half hour and more... and I have a map." Bayer digs out his map that Adam gave him several days ago, and places in on the table.



"Ask the doctor here. But I doubt you'll find what you want in our pharmacy."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:08, Mon 28 Jan 2008.

Chopper stretches his neck and moves over to the table.

"I was thinking more of the locally distilled medicinal products, Hauptmann. Something liquid".

The sailor fires up another cigarette and inhales deeply, blowing the smoke out through his nose. "They pulled me out of a replacement depot in Bremerhaven, man, with a couple of other SWCCs and shipped us up to Gdansk on some rusted out coastal freighter. I was done with all this, too – my number was low enough to get out on the next ship home, if one ever showed up. Probably lost my place in line. Anyway, we met up the Chief who was working the guys in the yard about a conversion/fix up job on a Sov river patrol boat. Worst damned piston fit I ever saw, I can't believe we actually got the thing running. Then all these brass khaki types show up to look at the boat and talk to Chief, and asking us all kinds of stupid questions? What questions? Like, man, how would we set up the boat to run with torpedoes, and what was the max weight, and how many rads had any of us taken? Like we were near any of the tacbursts the groundpounders caught. Anyway, they refit the small hold with some Navy gray panels and told us it was armor, but what could would armor inside the boat do us? That shit was heavy, too, 'cause the boat lost about 15 cms of freeboard.

"One day the chief showed up after a confab with the brass, and he sure wasn't happy. They pulled the four of us off the boat for a night, and when we got back, we had two passengers and below decks was off limits. One passenger was Navy, some Lieutenant Commander with a frikkin' briefcase chained to his wrist, can you believe that shit, man? The other was Army, and one look at him and you could tell he was serious. You know how the Army likes to cover their utilities with a badge or something every time they do somethin', man? This guy had everything that they make, I think, like parachute wings, a couple of tabs right here that said 'Ranger' and 'Special Forces' and shit. He made every SEAL I ever saw look like a sissy

"Anyway, we head upriver, and at the time, the crew, except maybe the chief, didn’t have any idea where we were headed except that we were delivering the major and the commander somewhere. We didn’t see much of the commander, mostly. I went below decks to offer him some chow one day and I found him leaning up against the door of the vault, or whatever it was, with a locked and cocked .45 pointed at my head. “No visitors, dammit” . After that, we left him alone. I guess he ate MREs the whole trip.

"Once we got past Warsaw, and that was some shit, man, the major pulled the Chief aside and told him we were headed to a place called ‘Tarzanburg’ or some such shit. I was down in the engineroom and could overhear’em talking on the fantail without them knowing. ‘Tarzanburg?’, the Chief replied. “That’s behind enemy lines”. 'That’s classified, chief' that dickhead Army major replied. Come to find out there’s a marauder group based there in Tarzanburg led by some renegade American SpecOps officer, and the brass is concerned that these guys might be trouble. I think they were right, man. The major, Willus or something, was being sent up the river to take care of the problem. Shit, I'm short and we're headed behind enemy lines to kill one of our own officers. I didn’t have any idea at the time what the Commander was for, but I think I figured it out later.

"We were getting pretty close to where the Chief thought Tarzanburg was, based on the crappy charts we had – man, don’t you miss GPS – when we hit this thick fog. We slow down and running close to shore to keep from running aground when all hell breaks loose. They were waiting on us, man, and they had to had someway to target us in the fog, which turned out to be part smoke screen. Rader, IR, something. Anyway, tracers from about six, eight machine guns, both light and heavy converge on us almost simultaneously. The major, who was manning one of the pintle 240s, got knocked over the side in the first burst. Right after that something big, maybe one of those direct fire 82s the Sovs like, took out the forward 50’s. Gunner’s Mate Johnson was killed instantly. The boat takes off like a bat out of hell, but not as fast as normal, as the mortar had blown a good size hole in the bow. I’m busting caps like mad, just laying down fire, same as Clean. Whoever it is that’s shooting at us follows along, or at least their tracers do, then they open up with an autocannon of some type. They musta not know how fast these river boats are, even this clapped out, juryrigged POS Sov boat, ‘cause they only hit us from midships and back. Good enough shooting, though. Clean, that’s Gunner’s Mate Miller, gets a leg taken off at the knee and bleeds out. The Chief was kinda protected by the cockpit but catches enough shrapnel that he gets knocked out. Good thing for him, I reckon, ‘cause he was hit about thirty times. He just never woke up.

"Somehow all that fire misses me but that big autocannon shoots the crap out of the engine. It starts missing immediately but somehow that big hunk of Russion iron doesn’t conk out, or you wouldn’t be talking to me right now. I’m still sending lots of HE and steel downrange in little 40mm packages the whole time, and I must have hit something important shooting blind, since I see the flash of a secondary on shore and the incoming fire isn’t accurate anymore. I see that Clean and the Chief are down, so I head forward to take over the boat. I see that all of the fire is still going on but it’s behind us so I keep heading upstream. The engine is barely running, the boat is taking on water at an alarming rate so I just head upstream as far as I can until I the engine starts to crap out and the boat is sitting way low in the water. I kept calling for the Commander to come up and give me a hand but I never get a reply.

"Once I ground the boat, I go below to see what’s up with the Commander. I guess it’s hard to reply when your whole head is gone. That’s when it got weird, though, man. Sure, his head is gone, but his left hand had been chopped off and the briefcase is gone. What’s worse, the vault is opened and whatever was in there is missing. I checked the door, and the vault was lined with lead. What the hell was that for, I’m thinking. I take another look around and the major’s rucksack is gone, as are his weapons. I didn’t see anything before we got attacked, but I’m willing to bet that somehow the major wasn’t killed but took advantage of the confusion to take off on his own. How he got whatever was in the hold out without anyone noticing is beyond me, man. That’s serious spook shit.

"Anyway, I bag up the Chief and Miller and start salvaging all of the gear that I could. Don’t know why, though, ‘cause I thought I was going to be walking back to Bremerhaven until you guys showed up. Saw you guys pull up, saw the firefight on the bridge, but I didn’t know if you guys were friendlies or Pact forces, so Mrs. Hicks little boy decided that discretion was the best part of valor this far behind enemy lines. Then that helo showed up and shot the shit out of your tug and barge and then I saw it headed right for me. I ain’t taking no chances, man – if that’s a Sov helicopter, he’s my enemy and so I just opened up on him. Caught him just right, man. He just nose over and went in.  Sorry ‘bout that, Ivan.

"Now I don’t know if you’re thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’ but there ain’t but one reason to use lead in a box. I think those two officers had a suitcase nuke and the commander had the codes. Only explanation I can think of. I don’t know how or why he did it, but I think that the major has it, with the codes, and is somewhere downriver. What’s worse, I caught that Commander slipping an empty Johnny Walker Black bottle over the side one night, and when he came on board in Gdansk, I could have swore that his bag ‘clinked’. That meant that he had two bottles, at least, and that damned major took the Scotch, too!"

"Pardon me for a moment, Mister Jason."

Taking his leave of Jason for a moment, Dawid retrieved his other bottle from his pack and a new packet of cigarettes.

"Here, Mister Chopper, we do not have scotch. Here in Poland we have wodka!"

He gave Chopper another cigarette and lit it for him.

"Tell me, when you were going by Warszawa, did you hear about a doctor named Piotrowski? Woman, in her 30's?"

"I am heading there, looking for my sister."

Chopper takes the proffered bottle and opens it, taking big swig. He winces at the burn of the rough liquor, but follows the first with a second and hands it back to the Pole.


"Thanks, man, I really need that. And it's just plain Chopper, on account of how much I like motorcycles. In our navy, 'Mister' is for officers".

He starts puffing on the new cigarette and shakes his head. "I never even got off of the boat in Warsaw, znajomy. We dropped off the major and picked him up upstream about a klick. He didn't have the bag he took off with and even though we passed by what must have been fifty pirates later on, no-one even messed with us. I hope she's okay, but Warsaw looked like it had been turned upside down, shook hard and dropped.

"Thank you." Jason stated to the newcomer. Sipping the offered tea, he hands Dawid two sugar packets. "For yours."
Adjusting his position, Jason looks around the deck. "What am I doing in your country? Killing invaders, being shot at by locals, developing international relations so to speak. In a previous life, I flew Blackhawks. Now, Im just here to cover Stanislaw, Bear and the boy Mariusz. I have yet to learn of Bears fate. You know anything about his status. Big son of a bitch owes me a Coke, if we ever find one."

"Yessir. Someone's going to have to go into the flooded compartment and temporarily seal whatever cracks or holes are down there in the hull before we pump it out. That'd be a might bit hard to do by feel in the dark. We'd need strong lights, like the floods, to see anything at all down there and those could be seen from a couple kilometers in all directions. The pumps too are pretty noisy- them and the lights would make it hard to see or hear anyone approaching the tug during the night. I'm not real keen on staying here any longer since it seems we're on Polands Most Wanted list, but the repairs will be a lot easier- and probably quicker- in daylight."

Chopper tosses the last cigarette butt overboard. "I guess I get to start earning my keep right away. I'm an engineman, not an HT, but I've worked on my share of hull breaches. I've got a diving rig with close to 45 minutes of air left at this depth. I'll need a dive buddy, though, to keep an eye on me. And yeah, I'd rather do it in the daytime, for sure".

Chopper turns back to the man that seems to be in charge. He counts off on his fingers as he talks."I've got a few questions, I reckon. Where's the ship's captain? I don't think you're him. What's my duty station? Where's my action station? Is there a tool crib or machine shop? When can I see the engines? Lastly, where do I bunk?". The brown water sailor pops his knuckles then lights another cigarette. He doffs his k-pot and pulls a brimmed soft cap from his ruck and crams it on his head. "Relaxed uniform rules, right?"

He snags a piece of MRE gum from his blouse pocket. "In case you think you might need'em tonight, we salvaged my Mk 19 and one of the M240s from my boat, with a moderate amount of ammunition for each. I got a tripod for the Mk 19 but not for the machine gun. It'll pintle mount pretty easily, though".


Chopper
M21/M1911A1, standard load
Main deck

"The ship's captain, Captain Adam Rataj, a Polish civilian, is injured. He is resting below. You can meet him tomorrow morning I expect. For the meantime your action station can be the forward mounted RPD. The doctor here mans it, but as you can see she is out of action for the moment. There doesn't happen to be a duty station for the time being. We're immobile and I haven't conferred with the Major or the NCOs yet. However, Mr. White, can use your expertise in helping repairs in the morning ja? For the rest of your questions, I just do security.... you should speak to Mr. White and the Captain."



"Dawid? Perhaps you can look over the weapons... ah Chopper... here mentioned. Make a plan and let me know."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:21, Tue 29 Jan 2008.

Switek sat at the table and listened in intent but restrained awe to the American sailor's recounting.  It was the first news he'd had of the situation downriver, and a most impressive tale indeed.  Once the story had been told, Switek gave his briefing.

"Unfortunately, Hauptmann," began the monk, "I have nothing nearly as exciting to relate about the local conditions.  My men made an attempt to take the bridge earlier in the summer, in preparation for the American advance into the region.  We were only partially successful and took heavy losses.  We pulled back to the hills north of the river and holed up in our camp there to regroup and refit.  The Soviet forces left in the region took out their wrath of what remained of the local populace.  We scored a few small victories here and there in several raids and skirmishes throughout the summer.  The organized opposition had pulled out by the time of your arrival and, decimated, we were in no real condition to pursue.  Yours are the first friendly faces we have seen in many weeks."

The monk's voice became gravelly and subdued.

"The apparent presence of Spetsnaz troops is of great concern to me.  Such forces are not committed lightly.  I suspect you have not seen the last of them, especially as you head downriver toward Lublin."

With that, Switek finishes off his meal and wipes his mouth.  He curtly thanks the chef and rises, ducking his head in the cramped galley.

"I expect I will now draw a roving watch before turning in.  I will not speak for the boy, but I will discuss your offer with him at first light - after we have buried Grzegorz.  As for myself, I must speak with the one calling himself Pitchfork before I can commit to any course of action."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:01, Tue 29 Jan 2008.

Chopper looks across the table. "You're Mr. White, right? I'm Chopper Hicks. Got time to show me around and answer a few questions?" He extends his hand across the table.

"Ah, thank you for your information, Chopper, my friend. That was too much to hope for.

"If the Major dropped off some kind of nuclear device or other instrument of mayhem in Warszawa, that is all the more reason to get there and see what can be done."

"From my knowledge of such nuclear weapons, it does not sound like it was an entirely complete device. Practical devices are only as small as a large backpack or footlocker, and do not require additional shielding. They are also not especially large as such weapons go, perhaps being in the 1 Kiloton yield range, although placed correctly that would certainly be large enough."

"However, it's quite possible they were carrying a Plutonium or enriched Uranium core for a much large device. Which would explain the lead-lined safe."

"I wonder if your Major was suffering from radiological poisoning? If he previously had a lethal dose, he may have been well enough for a time to carry out a "suicide mission" in the temporary respite before the final phase of sickness. I have a Geiger counter. I shall check the bodies for such contamination. You, as well."

Dawid shook his head ruefully.

"Seriously, I had thought that the indignities visited on the Polish people by the Second Deluge were terrible enough. Now, not even the skeletons in the rubble of Warszawa will be allowed to rest peacefully!

With a nod of thanks, he turned back to Jason.



Dawid took the sugar packets, using one and saving the other. Although Poles customarily only put lemon in their tea, not sugar. Milk was only for pregnant women.

Dawid nodded in understanding.

"Many people trying to "free" the Polish people these days. Some are friends, some invaders. I hope you and your comrades make it home safely."

"I am afraid your friend Bear is no longer among the living."

"He was a brave son of Poland. He will be missed!"

"I will. To my knowledge, we have more weapons than operators, so there may be little need to integrate this ordinance immediately."

Dawid retrieved his Geiger Counter and throughly checked Chooper over for contamination, politely but without apology. He then checked the body bags, the weapons, and any other kit brought over from the PBR.



"Chopper, we have a shower here on the boat. Contamination or not, you are welcome to use it!"

He reported any findings immediately to Major Solleblum and Hauptmann Bayer.

Before turning in he cleaned the mortar, the PKM, and any other tub-mounted weapons that had been fired.

Working into the night, he disassembled and cleaned the recovered WTO arms, cigarette dangling from his lips and sipping occasionally from a mug of tea.

Lastly, he checked over Chopper's M240 and Mk19, He was unfamilliar with these weapons, and took the time to understand their workings.

Drained by exhaustion, he finally flung himself down and wrapped himself in his bedroll.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:40, Tue 29 Jan 2008.

"I'm not familiar with that rank," Major Anneka Soleblume said with a look of curiosity upon her weary face. "Where does it fit in the chain?"
The man's request for liquor was one she fully understood. Many soldiers had turned to the drug to dull the horrors that visited them every night. Supply staff sharing a brew with the vehicles had become a serious problem for a while until the order had been given in her medical unit that only methanol would be produced. Didn't stop the problem, but it reduced it to a managable level.

She frowned as Hicks was handed one of their bottles of Vodka but didn't say anything. From the story he told, there was nothing in her meagre medical supplies that might help him.

"If I may Hauptman, I've a few suggestions to make regarding placing crew and rearranging some of the weapons now we've got a few more. I'll tell you more in a few minutes." Sh'd been jotting down notes with her good hand as people talked around them. Part of her self appointed role as quartermaster and personnel department rolled into one.

"Speaking only for myself, I think it's best to try and stay in uniform if you can. In the event of anyone being captured by enemy forces, they'd be well within their rights so shoot the prisoner as a spy."
"If you're willing to take the risk though and the Hauptman here allows...."
It was a subject that had been raised before today without a final decision being made. But for herself she wasn't likely to be taking any risks if she could avoid them - last time had earned her a bullet in the arm.

"Would the two of you mind writing out what you know of conditions both around here and downstream? Mark up a map too. It'd be a great help."^*

"Thankyou very much....Engineman," she said, pausing before the unfamiliar rank.
"I saw a little of the wonders you brought aboard earlier. They'll be very useful." Especially the ammunition for the machinegun. Just those few hundred rounds alone greatly expanded their defensive capability. Now they could mount, and actually use, the MG-3 they'd recovered from the lock upstream.

"Hauptman Bayer," she continued, using Konrads formal title until the new people had been integrated into their team.
"The suggestions I have are as follows."
Laying out a fresh sheet of paper on the table, she sketched out the shape of both the tug and the barge in front of it.

"We've got the 23mm up the front but minimal ammunition for it. With the extra people we have, as long as they elect to stay, we can afford to have two people there along with moving the RPD and L86 machineguns to that position. Strip out a few AKM magazines to reload the RPD belt and say half a dozen mags for the L86 and along with personal weapons it'll be a well armed position. Naturally it'll need some sandbagging but that shouldn't take too much effort."

"Also, the Steyr rifle and attached grenade laucher positioned there, along with all the spare grenades for it will make it a very tough nut to crack."

"I suggest the boy Mariusz and Warrant Officer Kasparov to be stationed there - the boy primarily to watch the river for snags and sandbanks and the pilot to operate the autocannon. I presume he's had some training in the operation of heavier weapons." If not, then Dawid would have to do some training but as the weapon was really more for it's intimidation factor, possessing the skill to fire it accurately wasn't really a priority.

Her pencil then moved to the bow of the tug, writing in weapons and names as she spoke.
"Dawid obviously needs to stay with the mortar but I'd like to more the AGS up to him as well and position both RPKs there too. Minh might as well stay there with him as his assistant since she seems to have spent more time there than any other post lately." From what she'd seen so far, the pair appeared to work well together. There was no need to break that relationship up that she could see.

"Both Griet and I are carrying wounds as you know, but I think we can still be of use in our usual positions. I'm sure griet will agree that she needs to be as close to the bridge as possible."
"As the RPD would be moved forward, I would place the recovered PK there instead. Neither of us are much good firing them at the moment, but hopefully in a few days...."

Sadness crept into her voice as she continued.
"We lost Parks earlier today. I'm not sure how Yazzie feels, but I'd like to keep him up there, probably alone for now."

"We also lost the two Australians, Fosters and Thompson. As they were assigned to the big DShKs, along with Snowy, those positions will definately need to be filed. I would place Sergeant Tucker, Snowy and our new friend Stan here to man those three weapons."

"Would that be suitable for you?" she asked the Polish Monk. "It'll keep you close to the centre of things. I would hav like to have your two people a bit closer to you but with the skills we have available it seems to be the best use of who we've got."
There was genuine concern in her voice. It wasn't every day a person lost a friend and then to have the remander of those you felt responsible for split away and sent to what might seem like the far end of the earth....

"That just leaves Warrant Officer Milk, Engineman Hicks and yourself. I'd like to have Milk and Hicks on the Stern deck with the Mk-19, MG-3 and the M240 machinguns. You of course would be free to do as you needed, perhaps even spending a fair amount of time up with Yazzie."

Her presentation finished she dropped the pencil on the table, leant back in her set and waited for comments. Looking about the small room, it was clear that all were invited to have their say.

^* A quick summary in the Intel thread would be greatly appreciated so we don't loose the info amongst hundreds of posts.

Bayer realized a lot of thought and planning went into Soleblume's proposal for the new unit battle stations... more than he was currently in the mood for. It seemed to fit as the best option, so he says, "Sounds fine to me. But lets not place anyone forwards until we have sufficient protection erected."

"Also, as Dawid said, we have more than enough weapons. Personally I am more concerned about ammunition. Once we get to Sandomierz, I think we should think about trading some of our excess heavy weapons for ammunition, primarily 82mm and 23mm."

Remembering something, he points to his map he laid out for Chopper. "Mr. Switek, what of the town of Szczucin... just down the road from here."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:24, Tue 29 Jan 2008.

"Bears dead?" Jason took in the news. "He was one tough son of a bitch."  Jason looked across the bow, recalling the first time he had met the telephone Pole.

"I was running supplies for the agency, flying the stuff in on the last Blackhawk they had in service. Two damn RPG's took out my tail rotor, while I was coming in. I was spinning wild, and dumped my external tanks, fighting the bitch from flipping. Next thing I knew, here's this huge silver toothed monster holding a knife over me. He cut my harness, dragged me out and then went back for the supplies."

He lifted his tea. "Rest well my friend, your in a better place now. Is Mariusz alright? He took a ten point buck to his skull. Tough little kid that Mariusz is."

Chopper replied, "It's a rating, not a rank, Major. Paygrade wise, I'm an E6, same as a staff sergeant in the Marines or Army, too, I think".



I don't intend on getting taken prisoner, Major, and with all due respect, I haven't seen anything yet that would show me that amyone here has command authority over the Navy. I guess we completed our mission, since the green beanie got as far as Tarzanburg, but my orders after that were to return to Gdansk. Someone said something about this being a NATO unit, but so far it just looks like a floating refugee camp".



Chopper leans back in his seat. "No problem, Major, but it's going to have to wait. I just lost three shipmates and my boat, and if I'm going to be working underwater tomorrow, I need to get some rest. All you need to know right now is that Tarzanburg is going to be a mother to get past, even with a boat this big with all of the firepower. Can you use the tug's radar to direct that big gun with?"



Hicks shrugged. "No problem. I'll work on getting them set up before I get my head down".

"Thanks, man. I wasn't able to get all of the commander's blood off of my legs after wading around in the hold salvaging what I could". Chopper finds time in the short time he stays awake to rinse off well. He changes into a new, complete set of combat utilities. He rinses out his current clothing as well as the blood-tinged mate to his combat blouse in the shower as he bathes, hanging them up to dry in the machine shop.

"well it looks like we go back in Tucker"

John will get up and radio in.

"Hauptmann this is knife...Moving back into friendly lines at this time."

"Well lets move tucker"

With that john will start to move back to the ship.When he reachs the ship he will check in with the Hauptmann and give him a full debrief. once done he will clean his gear and weapon. He will then move up to the area he sleeps at pull out his bag and take a few hours of rest.


John
Sleeping
G3/1911 (180/65)

Tucker smiles as he gets the word from Yazzie that they're going back to the tug.  He gathers his gear and follows Yazzie back covering his 'six.'  "When we get back to the tug Yazz, can you go over my weapon and tune it up some?  And if you don't mind, you want me to start working with Parks' old rifle soon?"

When they finally reach the tug, Rob goes with John to report in with Bayer on their short OP into the field.  He will also follow suit and clean his weapons and gear and then try to get some sleep.

Tucker
M-16A2/M-203
Back at the tug cleaning weapons and getting some sleep

Before Stanislaw and the pilot Jason headed off to bed for the night, Anneka approached them just as she'd done everyone else aboard - pen and paper in hand, ready to jot down the skills and knowledge they might be able to contribute to the group.
"I've interviewed everyone but you so far to try and work out how we can put everyone to best use."
"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 if Anneka was to compile a reasonably accurate assessment of the groups capabilities.
"Oh, and while I'm asking, is there any equipment you have that may be useful to the group as a whole?"