"I'll tell you what. You can have a choice, either stay in bed and rest, or you're the cook for the day."
It was always a good idea to give people a choice, even if only one of the two options presented were in any way attractive.

Mariusz's eyes lit up, he'd loved cooking with his mother but he hadn't had much to practice with apart fron starvation rations or worse over the past few years. Having a whole tug's galley to play with would be fantastic.

"Great, I'll get on the KP straight away! Uh, where's the galley?"


Mariusz
Ak-74 (5 mags)
Spatula

The air was cold, maybe a few degrees above zero. A few icicles on the lines dripped water to the deck beside Dawid.

Definitely sweater weather! Not quite cold enough for winter clothing, but it would be close.

He pulled on his fatigue pants, and put a sweater on under his jacket. Putting on his beret he wrapped a scarf around his neck.

Making his way belowdecks, Dawid showered quickly then shaved and brushed his teeth. If nothing else, travelling on this moving pop-up target was rather luxurious compared to his recent experiences.

After some breakfast he enjoyed a hot mug of tea, waiting for the other members of the work crew to arrive.


Dawid Piotrowski
Wz.88 Tantal (+6 spare mags).
This message was last edited by the player at 04:58, Thu 31 Jan 2008.

"Hmm."
The boy just didn't know what was good for him.
"Well, if you want to cook so badly, I think you'll need some more medicine."
Dipping back into her bag, she retrieved a different small bottle of pills, this one with the label "Doxylamine Succinate".
"Take this and lay back for about half an hour to let it work. Can't start cooking until after stand to anyway."
With a little luck he'd be out cold before then....
[Private to GM: It's a sedative/sleeping aid and often used in pain relievers.]

"Sure thing, Doc," he smiled and settled back on his bedding for the time it took for the pill he'd just taken to take effect...

Chopper felt the first sounds of someone moving onboard. Without opening his eyes, he slid the zipper of his fartsack open just enough to snake out his left hand with cigarette and lighter. The sailer lay still, enjoying the first smoke of the day, when the events of yesterday came full force to the forefront of his mind. Shit, man, the Chief was gone. And so was Clean, and Lance was blown to pieces. And fo nothing, too.  Those fuckers in Tarzanburg were going to pay, and that Army Major, too, better be enjoying himself, for his days on this earth are definitely numbered.. His eyes watered up for a bit, but then his thoughts turned to the present. "Fuck it man. It don't mean nothing. It don't mean nothing..

EN1 Hicks unzipped the sleeping bag from the inside and sat up. His right hand still held the half-cocked .45, and he reached over to put the pistol back into its holster, still in half-cock. He got up, ignoring the cold for the moment, and slipped his flak jacket and webbing on. Hicks gave a quick glance around the machine shop where he'd decided to rack out to familiarize himself with the layout of the tools. He quickly tied his boots and grabbed his rifle before heading out to man the M240 he'd set up the night before.


M240, 200 rounds ready, 200 staged.
M21/6 mags, M1911A1, 3 mags, 6 M33 frags
Manning stern gun position

This message was last edited by the player at 16:47, Wed 30 Jan 2008.

Along his inspection of the stand-to, when Bayer makes a stop at Chopper's position and nods at the newly setup GPMG.

"We'll be placing the Mk-19 back here as well, as the main armament."

He pauses for a minute, thinking about the conversations held last night in the galley. He speaks in a friendly voice, "You know? We are pretty much a refugee group like you said. But holding onto what separates us from civilian refugees is that this organization is still following the basic military traditions and protocol."

Nodding his head to the front of the boat, "We've got good people on board. You be better off with us... but that means being a part of who we are ja?"

"See you after the stand-to, for breakfast."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:37, Wed 30 Jan 2008.

Chopper nods. "Not a problem, Hauptmann. I'll grab someone after stand-to and get it moved. I'll get some sandbags to anchor the tripod". For once, Hicks doesn't have a cigarette lit, but he's got an unlit one tucked behind his ear for immediate access.



The petty officer shrugs. "I hear you, but right now all I hear is words. We had rules in the teams, too, but they were rules that made sense. We keep on task and you won't have any trouble with me. Respect flows up, but responsibility flows down".



Chopper just grins and nods. "What the hell else I am going to do?"

Tucker moves out behind Yazzie's lead as his cover man to start out with.  They hold up at their first stop where they find the body of the sniper that likely got Parks the day before.  He moves up next to Yazzie and puts his hand on his shoulder.  "Sorry Yazzie.  At least Dawid got the fucker with a willie pete round.  Parks was a good soldier."  Robert moves a couple of steps back and picks up the SVD mags and puts them in his ruck until they get back to the ship.

After a quick recon of the helicopter crash site and they're back on the move off to set up a night observation post to see if anyone comes to investigate the noise from the battle.

Tucker
M-16A2/M-203
Setting up night OP post with Yazzie

John and Tucker move into the Op and wait out the night.


"Hauptmann this is Knife....In OP position ...Both site check out ...will debrief after stand too.. call when you want us in..Knife out..."


"tucker we will wait here until the Hauptmann calls..."

"I will hold one way you the other 180 we shall cover 360 Deg."


"have a good night"



John
Holding Op
G3/1911

Before the hour stand-to finishes. Bayer will radio back to Yazzie, "Knife this is Sunray... you are clear to come in to our position now. Ready for debrief on return. Have Sergeant Tucker report to me as well. Over."

He will then inform all those on watch that two friendly soldiers will be approaching.

Tucker just nods to Yazzie, "You too," and begins to scan his 180 degreee sector.

Quyen continues to man her position, waiting for the order to stand down. When Bayer comes around on the stand-to inspection she says, - "Hauptmann? While I don't know much about fixing the boat. I can build things. I'm thinking of the protection you mentioned you want to put up around the anti-aircraft gun. I can rig up something."

Jason walks the deck, his AK-47 cradled in his arms. The chill in his body had passed with the tea and the stew, and  a few hours rest had teased him into dreaming he was elsewhere. Now, back on the deck, the chill danced over his fingers and the dull thud from the bullet striking his helmet gave him an ache behind his left eye.

Dawid had turned in at some point during the night, so now his only company was the rest of the security team.  Seeing Minh again at the bow, he smiled trying to make conversation.

"Cold enough for ya? You happen to know when the shuffleboard match might begin?"

He had to find Mariusz. He wanted to pay his respects to Bear.

"Ok. I'll keep it in mind when we organize ourselves." he replies.

Quyen doesn't look at Kasparov at first, instead she continues her gaze out towards the riverside. Quietly - "Yeah. I don't like the cold. It will be winter soon." She doesn't understand what shuffleboard was, and missed the joke, but decided not to ask.

After a moment she looks at him - "So... you were a CIA pilot? Something like Air America or whatever?"

Then she adds - "Hauptmann Bayer seems to trust you enough to welcome you aboard I see. You know, Milk was working with the CIA too. A little while ago he came clean and he's not hiding anything. We trust him."

Looking back out at the riverside her tone becomes slightly more friendly - "Sorry about your man."

"Came clean? Its not drug smuggling." Jason didnt understand the stigma attached to working with the Agency, but then again, he was just a pilot.

"I have nothing to hide about my work with thhe C.I.A. I basically wanted to fly, and they allowed me too. Flew troops in, supplies, did recon. Nothing really covert.

He reflected again about Bear. "He was a tough son of a bitch, that Bear. I can't believe he's gone."

He looked out into the mist." Any idea where we will be heading?"

Quyen nods and slowly says - "Yeah... alright. Anyways."

"I've only been a part of this outfit for a few days now. But since then we lost four people." - she says looking down at the RPK.

Her mood seems to lighten greatly when his last question is asked.

"You don't know where we are going yet? We'll we're heading to Lublin. Bayer and Adam have put this team together for raid on Pact Reserve Front Headquarters. We're suppose to kill a bunch of Russian generals showing up for some big meeting. Major Soleblume is going to try to poison them but we got to get her past five thousand Russians."

"Anyways, I don't know much more about it. You should ask Yazzie for details, once he gets back from patrol. He'll want to get some helicopter info from you  to help with the plan." - she says.

Stand-to ends with a whimper. No Soviet armored column has happened down the road to the newly segmented bridge. In fact, not a soul has been seen since the Mi-17 swan-dived into the grassy field north of the tug's current position yesterday afternoon. It is earily quiet.

Griet makes an appearance on the bridge. Her rather attractive face is temporarily marred by several small cuts what appears to be a rather mild sunburn. She walks slowly, stiffly, but unsupported, her right arm cradled across her chest. The many small bloodstains up and down her right side blend in well with the camoflage of her Polish Puma pattern fatigues. She asks after the crew, and appears appropriately saddened to learn of the deaths of Fosters, Blue, Maddock, and Parks. Upon learning of the presence of Polish partisans, she assumes an even more reserved demeanor and quickly retires below to check on the convalescing Adam.

Snow and Chopper, assisted by the tug's Polish crew, begin an inspection of the damaged barge. Chopper, donning his wetsuit and SCUBA gear, drops into the flooded compartment and quickly finds the source of the leak. A previous repair weld, presumably under great external pressure from the underwater blast of a near-miss by one of the Soviet 57mm rockets, has sprung. The twice-split weld seam is quite jagged and will probably require another piece of metal to patch it. Snowy and a refreshingly sober Tadeuz begin rigging up the ship's pump to empty the flooded compartment while Chopper hammers some oiled canvas into the crack to prevent further inflow.

In the meantime, a shore party departs in the assault boat to recover sandbags- and anything else of use- from the abandoned Soviet checkpoint bunker at the west end of the bridge. Milk suggests harvesting some armor from the battered MTLB. Aside from being relatively thin, it's likely to be rather brittle after much abuse, but it should still stop small arms fire.

Yazzie and Tucker meet them there after traversing the roughly 2km from the helicopter crash sight.

Mariusz is snoring away like a chainsaw, oblivious to everything going on around him, his stillborn attempt at serving as ship's cook requiring the crew to scrounge their own breakfasts from the Krolowa's galley.

Actions?

Seeing that the poor boy was in no shape to cook, Dawid heated up a pot of kasza (barley porridge), which was also a traditional breakfast. He also set a pot to boil for tea, and sliced up a lemon from the captured food stores for people to put in their brew when it was done.

Dawid made a point to check in on Griet and Adam.

He also woke up Tadeusz, handing him a jar with leftover pickle brine, the typical Polish hangover remedy. If the sodium and minerals wouldn't do him good, then at least he could heave up any remaining alcohol in his stomach.

In passing, he said a cheerful "good morning" to everyone he passed, but made a point of greeting Stanilsaw with a hearty "dzien dobry!"


Wz.88 Tantal/Stechkin
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Thu 31 Jan 2008.

After the stand-to Bayer drops his kevlar and webbing on his sleeping area and ducks into the galley. Taking a chunk of bread and some tea that Dawid made he looks for Soleblume, conducting the morning medical routine.

"I'm going to go below and talk to Adam. We've got things needing done today. You want to put your organizational skills to work again? Divide up the team into work parties and sentries. We need to get the repairs done and the flak gun fortified... Quyen will be good for that. I think all the weapon redeployments are done, but lets get a final list. Well stick to your battle stations proposal, with just the change of Milk and Tuck ok?"

After his meeting with Anneka is done he goes below and waits outside Adam's room until Dawid is done checking in on him. When Dawid leaves he enters and shuts the door behind him.

"More interruptions Captain." he tries to joke. "Since you've been out of action there has been some changes. We've lost four of our security team now... Parks, the sniper, was killed yesterday. Dawid might have mentioned it, but we've linked up with some Polish partizans... Milk's friends. They helped us through the bridge. We need the manpower, Adam. I invited them to come with us as part of the security team. I want to make sure you are ok with that. But... I don't think we can go much further without more able soldiers. You tell me what to do."

"Also, the barge has taken damaged. Its ahh... beached. Repairs are going to happen today. The bridge is clear though. Once we've the flooding under control we can move on. Mr. Snow is handling it."

Bayer
P7 Pistol
Adam's Quarters

Chopper surfaces and flops up on the deck of the barge, shivering in the cold morning air. "Once the pumping gets enough water out,we're gonna need to weld. Does that oxy-acetlylene rig in the machine shop got any gas?"

He eases off the aqualung rig and turns off the regulator. Wearily, he peels back the hood of his wetsuit and dries his hair with a small brown towel. Piled next to him is his webgear and rifle, and from one of the myriad pouches he pulls a pack of Polish cigarettes and a lighter. Chopper rubs his eyes and draws a deep drag into his battered lungs. "I'm gonna go grab some chow while y'all drain the water. Any idea what we're having?". The engineman slips his web gear over his wetsuit and, rifle in hand, plods over to the galley in the tug.

"Russian Generals? Hell send em some poisoned vodka, and you won't have to worry about five thousand of anything. Those pigs wil do themselves in."

Feeling that Minh was only getting colder every time he spoke with her, he reached in his pocket, pulled the last two sugar packets he had, placed them on her weapon.

"I'll get you some tea. I think I have barge duty, so I guess I'll catch you later. Be safe."

He walked away, heading for the galley. Finding some hot water and tea, he filled his canteen and returned to the bow to drop them off.

"Have you seen Dawid? " he asked Minh.

Adam lies in his bunk, swaddled in blankets. He's awake and lucid, but he looks like hell, the right side of his face partially concealed by a large bandage. It impairs his speech somewhat- he sounds like he has a mouth full of novacaine. Konrad didn't notice her at first when he entered, but in the corner by the door sits Griet, nursing a cup of hot tea. As he makes eye contact with her, she sets the steaming mug down on her lap, in an apparent attempt to conceal something that is laying there.

"The partisans... If you trust them, they are welcome aboard. Many common bandits hide under the mantle of "partisan" these days. But, Hauptman Bayer, if you believe them to be good men, I shall welcome their help. I suppose if they are friends of Milk..."

Adam coughs, grimmacing as the exertion causes the pain to flair in any one (or more) of his many wounds.

"The barge is in good hands. Snow is a fine sailor. What of the dead, Hauptman? I would like to be present at their burial."

Quyen utters a very quiet - "Thanks." and pockets the sugar. After a moment she is unsure whether Kasparov knew she was joking. Before he leaves she says - "Adam is on a trade mission to Warsaw. He hired a few NATO soldiers in Krakow looking for work. I tagged along a few days ago needing a way out of a bad situation."

When he returns, she shakes her head - "He should be at the mortar."

CIA or not, maybe he is ok, she thought.