"Well Dave, don't get me wrong for not wanting to talk. A, I dont know you and B, I found a man that I know in central Poland that I have not seen since he took a 7.62x39 in the back for me in 1989 in Panama. I did not sleep for weeks after that thinking it was me who should have died. I was told he was dead and so was our unit. Now I find him here alive doing work. So sorry if I wanted to catch up. And on the leadership issue I dont give a fuck who is in charge. I'm not an officer so I don't care. I dont need to play the cock game here. Milk is an officer so I follow him until I am told otherwise. I talked to the Captain of the ship; he hired me and the German is a Captain so I assumed he was in charge.

"For someone I don't know and they did not introduce themself to me, to come up and ask questions about me and my past? Well yes, they get a smartass remark. Dumb questions get dumb answers. If she wanted to know who I was all she had to do was ask Milk. Simple solution.

"Now I have a little knowledge on what's going on in this area if anyone cares. I flew in here with other members of 7th Group when the war started to aid 10th group. Our mission was to go into Poland and set up resistance groups, train equip, and lead them. Most Eastern European countries don't have the fighter-leader concept down so we were here to help.

"I have been working in this area since November of 96. I have been wounded 4 times Dave, helping your country! I have had 6 friends I have known for over ten years each killed helping your people. I had my wife and unborn child killed  because they tried to smoke me out of hiding. My wife was hung on a fence for 3 weeks with the birds and rats eating her until someone pulled her down. God only knows how long the 8-month along child lived. So if I'm a little rude I'm soooo sorry.

"The men at the bridge are the same scum that run all over this country. They are conscript types from Lublin with a few deserters from each side mixed in. Last time I came by the T55 on the bridge did not run but the hydro for the turret still worked. I watched it track river targets. They are set up in a 2 rotation guard and have about 2 dozen guys. Thats 12 up at a time. They have small arms of all types and are resupplied every week with food and fresh water. That was my recon of 2 months ago when I was still running a team and just happened to pass by."

"About two months ago we were all radioed to meet in T-berg and that the Battalion commander had word and a mission for us. Well we all showed up. My group and a few others. I had 10 guys at the time, all Poles and very tough. The NEW battalion commander was the old XO. He was a shake and bake Major. He was a Captain they pulled up from inactive reserves when the war started and sent him through 6 months of school in England in the Joint SF program there. His new XO is a guy he knew from home and is a dickhead 1st lieutenant. You might have met him- real pleasant guy. Well out of our BN there was only 8 Team guys left and about 40 guys we had trained. Well, the C.O. started to go crazy or just showing that he was crazy on the second night there. One of our buddies- Milk and mine- was shot in the head by him for questioning him. So I left that night with what was on my back.

"I made it to Sand-O and they took me in said that they needed help in training their defense force against him. So I helped. Things were going OK until you showed up. That gave them the bright idea to attack. These Poles and Ukranians were trained to defend. Most were not grunts but rear-area types. You and us got lucky in our attack in that the major must have been gone. I feel sorry for the dumbshits in Sand-O when that sadistic fuck gets back. They burned his little dream and he's going to be pissed.

"I'm here to work and do just as much or more than anyone else because of my training and experience. But I'm not here to get treated like a dumbass. I put it out there that I will go on this recon and make a plan to prove my loyalty to the group and my current employer. I see some faces here that can pull it off and I see some that can't. No big deal. We are a team and everyone has their place and helps as much as they can. Let me and a few others take care of the recon. When we come back If you want us to attack silent and get yourself some free shit great. If not, if you want to play hey diddle right up the middle, that's cool too. I have talked enough and since I'm not a leader here I will go outside and eat. I smell some great shit cooking and will enjoy the air. Have a great night."

Sam walks outside and looks for food
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:07, Fri 27 June 2008.

Bayer remains quiet as suggestions roll in. Still sitting from when he was working out the tentative sentry roster, he looks up at those standing around him. "Alright. Option two it is Chief." he says. "I hesitate on this however. Had the position be Russians absolutely. But these are Polish troops holding a position that would most definitely have them accustomed to dealing with civilian traffic."

Standing up he raises a finger as he speaks to Milk, "No shooting." he says. "Observation only... from a safe distance." The last couple of ground operations hadn't fared well with remaining undetected. He wasn't confident on pushing their luck.

"I want to know what kind of heavy weapons can engage the river, and how many, and where they are located." he begins.

"I want to know about the ground, and suitable positions of cover that can get a tank hunting party as close to the armour as possible. And at what range would it be."

"I want to know the enemy's behavior and activity regarding civilian land and water traffic."

"Finally, the standard info on the enemy position. Trench layout, obstacles, etc."

Combat would be the final option, but if they were forced to follow through with it, he wanted to know the details of the challenge. "Collect information... thats what this is. Further action can be determined later by the results of your mission once completed. Recce party needs to be kept to an absolute minimum, I prefer three."

"OK?"

Mariusz heard MCoy mention chow and as he walked past said, "The smell is dinner, but I have burgers prepared for lunch, you can fry yourself up some now or if you can wait forty minutes I can get you some with fresh baked rolls and oven baked potato chips, you'd call them fries? I think."

"Brother! I will take what ever you have and be happy about it.You just lead the way."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:56, Fri 27 June 2008.

"OK," Mariusz said, quickly checking it was alright to go below, he led MCoy to the Galley and set some burgers onto the frying pan. He quickly diced some potatoes and onion and made them into little patties, the Americans called them, "Hash Browns", he thought and he added them to the pan.

He looked over at MCoy and said, "I'm sorry to hear about your family, the feeling of not being able to put the wrong right must have been intolerable for a strong man like yourself. I hope that you stay with us for a long time, we need strong men like yourself if we are to follow Old Adam's dream. I'm young but I've seen a lot of bad things. I'm not strong enough to put them right, but maybe if I can help you and our companion, maybe we can put just one thing right. Too much has been destroyed, I'd like to try to build something just once before I die. Would you like to try the tomato sauce? It's not ketchup but if you like it I can put some on your plate."

"Like I said brother, I will take what ever you will give. Yeah it was hard but it was 2 years ago and I have settled the scores. I'm just here to live one day at a time. Trying to make something will be hard but it can be done. I know what happened to the world- I had a sat-radio. I heard the calls for help. I just turned it off one day. Yeah I like Poland; I dont see myself ever going home. It's not there anymore and winter is about to come on. We should be harvesting the fall wheat and hunting game not killing each other over table scraps, you know what I mean? But it's cool- a warm place to sleep and food is a good deal."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:41, Sat 28 June 2008.

Mariusz finished the cooking and placed the burgers, hash browns and tomato relish on a plate for the new man, "Enjoy that, Sir, when the rolls are done I'll bring you some hot with the butter we have, the goat's cheese is nice but not to everyone's taste, if you want some it's over there. Since you've been in a town for a while you might not feel the need for this, but there's a bathroom just down the corridor. It has hot water. If you need anything washed, leave it there and I'll get it done. If you haven't anything to change in to, I've left the kit of people who don't need it any more on the left of the changing room. A few of our old companions were close to your size, you'll find something there if you need it."

"Works for me, Skipper." Dave interjects. "I'd like to carry the MP-5 out of the weapons locker, McCoy has a suppressor that should fit it. I'll have to rob the ammo out of one of the Uzi magazines, and we should take the AT grenades, and maybe one of the RPGs, just in case."

Nodding to Mariuz Sanjay replied,
"Many thanks for your kindness."

Looking at the burgers he said,
"Many who follow the Sikh faith are vegitarians, I'm not. The only dietary restriction I have is that the meat has been killed with one blow, or shot and isn't Halal."

He looks at Mariuz questioningly for a moment, preparing to either take the burgers or make a tomato and hash sandwich instead.

"That's good," Mariusz replied, "the burgers and hash browns are ready now, I'll have fresh bread ready in about twenty minutes, you can wait for those to have hamburgers, or start on the food now and I'll bring you the bread when it's ready."

Mariusz smiled and said, "Pardon my curiousity, but when I watched a documentary on the Indian Railways, there were a lot of shots of steam trains, are you familiar with coal fired steam engines, or did you train on Deisel/Electrics?" like most boys, Mariusz had gone through a phase when he was about eight of wanting to be a train driver.

Smiling Sanjay replied,
"I started out on steam engines then moved over to the newer diesels later on. We only got rid of the last steam engines in the mid 1980's."

Taking a bite from his burger roll Sanjay continues,
"The old steam engines were messy beasts but great to work on. The newer diesels were cleaner operating but lacked the personality of the old steam engines."

Looking wistful he concludes,
"I loved working on railway engines. But how about you, what's your passion?"

Dawid smiled broadly.

"As you have said "sorry", I most definitely accept your apologies!"

"No hard feelings at all. Of course you have a right to your opinion and to do what you like. No one would ever argue differently."

With a genuinely sincere smile, he made to offer McCoy a smoke and offered to light it.

"Well, I am very much relieved there will be no misunderstandings or problems with the chain of command. We have had those in the past, you understand."

He nodded in a friendly manner to Sanjay when the man came on to the bridge.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Sat 28 June 2008.

"I like cooking, the laundry and tidying I do because if someone doesn't it'll become chaos," he replied, "I'm not good technically and I'm a mediocre scout and fighter so by contributing here it frees others up to do what they're best at, but I love cooking, my parents were teachers but their passion was food. I was a butterball when we finally tried to get out of Warsaw, probably why I lasted that winter, I must have lost six, seven stone, but I had it to lose, those around me starved away but I just made it until the Spring Harvest. There were fewer mouths to feed then. Now, cooking makes me feel close to them again, you know what I mean? Makes me think of the good times, not watching people taking dad's boots before he was even dead, or watching mum's brains leak out on the road while people shuffled around her."
He paused a moment to turn back to the stove, "Sorry, I've lost the last of my companions over the last few days, I'm getting maudlin. It must sound rich to you, your life is half a world away and your nightmares must be worse, at least I know what happened to my people. Not knowing must be terrible."

Griet thought about how the recon unit would get to the area of operations and said, "When it comes to transport options for the group, I'd like to remind everyone that we have another alternative on hand now. As the Commandant didn't pony up any weaponry in Adam's trade, we reserve 10% of the bicycles. I know it sounds crazy sending a Sepcial Operations unit out on bikes, but they're faster than walking, quieter than the Ural and can travel on land unlike the tug's light craft."

Nodding at Mariusz words Sanjay replies,
"Many have been afflicted in this troubled time. Each man's burden is his alone, but often we find that helping others lightens both their burden and our own."

Taking another bite he adds,
"Good burger by the way."

At around 1130 hrs. (about 10km upriver from Annopol), the tug lurches to a sudden halt. Everyone is thrown off balance by the unexpected jolt but no one is hurt. In the galley, Mariusz's pots and pans are tossed about, spilling some of his hard culinary work on the deck.

It appears that the tug has run aground on a mudflat, concealed by the uncharacteristically high and fast-moving river. It will take some time to get her unstuck, especially given the recent loss of personel skilled at this type of operation(Snowy was invaluable in this capacity and Tadeuz is still cuffed to his bunk*).

The team is left with a bit of a dilemna. Do they launch the recon team** now, with 10km of ground to cover to the target and the beached tug unable to employ its Vasilek mortar in support, or do they delay the recon until the tug is freed? On the positive side, the tug is far enough from Annopol that it must be outside visual range of the government pickets. Likely, not even its smoke is visible with the low, thick cloud cover. Much closer to the target, and Annopol will know that the Krolowa is coming...

Actions?

OOC: *One of the medical experts should take a look at Tadeuz's patched belly wound and see if he's fit for duty.

**So far, the recon team will consist of Bones, McCoy, and Milk. Tucker expressed interest in going. Any other volunteers?

After her self imposed duty on the bow Quyen looks at her broken watch. Heading into the galley she finds McCoy. "Sentry duty. You're up." she says.

Nodding to Mariusz she says with hope in her voice, "Going to try to get fish. Dawid told me a couple days ago it'll be safe to eat." With that she leaves to fetch her compact fishing set from her gear. As the tug lurches to a sudden halt she grabs the railing to keep from falling. Quyen then reports to her battle station, anticipating orders for action or defense.

In reply to Sam McCoy (msg #8):

Major Anneka Soleblume of the United States Army was absoutely stunned at the gross insubordination shown by the exceptionally rude and arrogant Master Sergeant. Although she fully understood the need for caution, it wasn't as if she was asking any state secrets! All they needed to know was a general idea of what he could do, what weapons he was capable of using, what technical abilities he might be able to contribute, even some of the more basic things like whether or not they could drive a car!

Stunned into silence, and fuming that a man who apparently identified themselves as being a member of the US Military could so utterly dismiss a ranking officer, she resolved to have a few words with Chief Warrant Officer Milk and Hauptman Bayer as soon as she regained her composure.

There was trouble coming, she could feel it. She just hoped she wouldn't need the pistol at her hip again.

The tug or the barge beached again, Konrad looks around in the bridge for Snowy. The last time something like this happened he just simply gave the Australian a thumbs up and let the man take over. Remembering Snowy's recent departure, Bayer rushes to find Griet, his last nautical specialist.

"Coordinate with Adam immediately... the tell me what you need. You are the senior expert on this, assume command of the group and fix this problem." he says to Griet.

Approaching Milk he says, "Confer with your teammates, then run by me what plan you want to work with. Expect to leave as soon as possible."

Noticing Tucker, he walks up and stands beside him where he speaks quietly.

In reply to Sanjay Roshon (msg #11):

"Thankyou for all your help," she said, relieved to have received such cooperation.
"I have just one last question. You said you were conscripted into the Polish army. Did you have any particular rank or were you placed in charge of anyone else?"
With the obvious expert mechanical knowledge they displayed, it seemed near impossible that he'd not been placed in some position of authority, even if it was just a handful of half trained labourers. Of course there was always the chance some idiot commander had thrown him into a combat unit, completely wasting his abilities.
"As you seem to have only basic weapon skills, I'd like you to see if you can't help out in the engine room. If it comes to combat and you're not needed below, I think it might be best if you position yourself on the aft deck and one of the two machineguns there. That'll keep you close to the machineshop just in case we need your services in a hurry."

Griet went into the wheel house to speak to Adam, "Can we try reverse thrust first please, father? If that doesn't work we'll use the ship's boat to take the anchor further back and then kedge our way off using that."

Mariusz quickly cleaned up the spillages and then dished up the food before taking it to those who couldn't leave their posts. After he'd dielivered everyone their food, he asked the Major, "Major, can I give Tadeuz something to eat, or will his wound be aggravated with this food? I can make him something else if you tell me what would be best for him."

In reply to Clarence Milk (msg #24):

Major Soleblume had calmed significantly by the time of the meeting. Speaking with the old Indian engineer, Sanjay had seemed to have a calming effect, perhaps becasue he'd been so forthcoming and open with his answers where McCoy had been so.....difficult.
"Just keep him on a tight leash then," she said to Milk, grateful that the core members of the unit were such dependable, solid types.
"See if you can get the information we need please, he might open up a bit to you."

"The MP-5 only has the one magazine I'm afraid. Otherwise I'd probably have picked it up for myself. You're welcome to take my uzi if you like."
Somehow she always felt somewhat like a schoolgirl around the other medic. Offering her own weapon only seemed right since she'd been the one to deliver the bad news about the lack of magazines.

In reply to Cap'n Rae (msg #47):

"Hauptman, I suggest landing the recon team as soon as possible. Have them clear the immediate area and then set out on bicycle to scout the bridge."
Griet's suggestion had merit even if Anneka hadn't said so at the time. They'd be able to cover most of the distance in a reasonably quick time, hide the bikes and then proceed on foot to observe the target.

"Sanjay might be useful in freeing the barge," she suggested. "He knows a little about boats."

"Better let me check his wounds first," she replied feeling guilty that she hadn't done so earlier. At least Stoner had had the presence of mind to keep an eye on such mundane necessities.
"Here, I'll take him the food."

"Why thank you, but I think I'll stay with the MP-5," touched by the Doctor's offer. "If it takes more than 30 rounds to quietly dispose of a sentry or two, they'll know we're there and I'll switch over to some heavier firepower," he says, patting his AK/BG combo.