Jan followed Woj down the sewer grate, pushing the extra pack down first to Woj, followed by his own pack and then climbing down himself.  Once down in the sewer he thrust the extra pack into Woj's hands with the comment, "Carry that!" in Polish while he put his own pack back on.

Jan then turned to help Craig down into the sewer, taking the opportunity to look around the sewer and intending on getting Craig far enough away from the entrance to be able to tend his wound.  Jan was also conscious that they could easily get split up in the sewer so he focussed on keeping everyone in communication range to some degree, even though they needed to get clear of the area as quickly as possible.  The danger of someone dropping a grenade down another grate was quite a worry.

Bullets continue to buzz around you as you wait your turn to enter the sewer via the narrow grate entrance. Dawid tosses a second smoke out into the road to the south, partially screening the group from the enemy infantry approaching from that direction. You hear the BMP's engine rev up again, following shortly thereafter by the squeek and clatter of its treads. The sniper that had been troubling you earlier is probably no longer a threat, being as the building in which he is presumably located oddly has no windows directly overlooking the road directly adjacent to it.

With every passing second, the danger grows. Bullets ricochet off the pavement nearby, creeping ever closer, while others dig divots into the concrete face of the building that looms over the sewer entrance. Woj slides belly first into the opening and disappears into the darkness. Your overstuffed packs are hard to manouver down the narrow spillway. Craig is too preoccupied with the pain and stiffness in his leg to attempt wrestling his own pack down with him, let alone one of the spares. Jan tries to shove it down but it quickly becomes stuck. Kicking it down only wedges it more tightly in the narrow opening. Realizing that the pack simply won't go down and is now effectively blocking the passage, he tries to tug it out by its straps. After nearly a minute, he dislodges it and pulls it out.

It's clearly a choice between your lives and the equipment stored in the packs. With every passing second, the two enemy forces (that you are accutely aware of) are getting closer, and their fire is becoming more accurate. You each have a few seconds to pull any critical gear that can be stowed in your webbing or pockets before tossing the packs in a heap a few meters to the south of the open grate. The radio packs, emptied of all of their other contents, are now slim enough to pass through the storm sewer entrance, keeping your lifeline to the rest of the world intact. Dawid pulls the pin on the WP grenade and wedges it between two of the hastily abandoned packs. Hopefully, this will destroy them  if and when (and it's only a matter of time) the enemy soldiers arrive and disturb them, and likely cause a few casualties as well. With bullets slapping against the packs and enemy troops close enough that their shouts are intelligible over the din of the gunfire, Thor is the last man down the hole, dragging the grate back across the opening as he wiggles his way down the spillway backwards.

Down below, Jan attempts to use NVGs in the near pitch darkness of the feeder sewer tunnel. With almost no ambient light, the image he sees is black on deeper black. He turns off his goggles and pulls out a conventional battery-powered torch. It flickers on, illuminating the confines of the pipe. It's about two meters tall and less than a meter wide, with slightly curving edges. You have to duck-walk to avoid crawling on all fours. Jan hands his torch to Woj who, after learning that the entire group has entered the tunnel, leads you off. Unencumbered by heavy LBE or a weapon, he starts to pull ahead. Demonstrating his loyalty, he pauses whenever he does so to allow you to catch up.

You estimate that you're only about 10m below the surface of the road here. You can hear muted gunfire and muffled shouting above you. It seems to grow louder as you move forward. You're probably approaching another grate. If the enemy have discovered your escape route, you realize that they're probably prepping hand grenades for dropping down on your heads. As you try not to imagine the carnage that will ensue, you notice that the person ahead of you has just disappeared, seeming to pass directly through the wall ahead and to your right. As you reach that point, a teammate is waiting to direct you into a downward-sloping side tunnel. You slide down the sluceway on your butt for about 15m until it emerges into a much larger tunnel running perpendicular. This tunnel is about as tall as a man and wide enough for three people to walk shoulder to shoulder.

It doesn't smell as badly as you expected it too. There's about an inch of cold water on the floor of the tunnel and beads of condensation on the walls. The place has a damp, vaguely garbagy smell, kind of like a dirty beach or busy harbor. It's still quite cold down here, but it's noticeably warmer and more humid than it had been in the open air above.

You squat on your haunches, catching your breath, or stretch your cramped legs as best you can in the relatively narrow confines of what appears to be the main sewer tunnel. Jan examines Craig's thigh wound by torchlight. Thankfully, there appears to be no damage to the bone and, although it is bleeding freely, no majory arteries appear to have been cut. Jan tears open a field dressing and tightly wraps the wound. After a couple of minutes, Woj checks to see if you are ready to continue. As you prepare to move out again, the compost aroma of the tunnel is joined by the faint but sharp, nostril-burning tang of engine-grade grain alcohol. You notice that the trickle of nearly freezing water that had been flowing down the sluce pipe under your bum as you'd slid down it to the main tunnel has increased a little in volume. The alcohol fumes are beginning to muscle aside the more earthy, organic aroma of the sewer tunnel.


Next Moves?


OOC: All rucksacks are lost. You can take one or two items that would realistically fit in your LBE and/or pockets.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:48, Tue 15 June 2010.

Ondar squats in the dark, attempting to catch his breath while conducting a silent inventory.  He had managed to salvage an MRE and his parka before ditching his rucksack, but had lost all his loose rifle ammo, spare clothes and bedroll among all the gear he had to leave behind in order to squeeze into the tunnel.  This was indeed proving a most costly endeavor.

As he maneuvers in the dark to redistribute his load, the harsh stench of ethanol becomes more apparent then quickly overpowering.  The paratrooper immediately stands and begins reflexively to bark orders to the team.

"We move now!" he bellows.  "They gonna burn us out!"

It was not the first time in this conflict that the opposition had attempted to jubilee his cherries.



[Ondar]
In the sewer.
SVU-AS (4/10) + 6x10rd mags 7.62mmL
2x Soviet frag grenades
1x RPG-18
Rallying the team.

In reply to Alexei Ondar (msg #721):

Bringing up the rear with Thor, Dawid decided against pointing out the obvious (no one was planning on staying there) but instead joked, "Ondar! I thought that was you drinking again! If you're not moving, I suggest you start now!"

His voice echoed off the concrete tunnel walls. As they moved, he shrugged into the Soviet assault vest, attached the paint can heater to the back of his webbing, and stuffed the food he recovered into his pockets.

There wasn't a lot he could bring from his pack. His binoculars, his torch, 2 days G-K rations. Everything else, he was already wearing or was salvaged from the other packs and ready to go. As it was, he had his PKM slung across one shoulder, AK-74/BG-15 across the other, carrying the disabled M240 in one hand and his torch in the other.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:56, Wed 16 June 2010.

When it became clear packs would have to be abandonned, Thor stuffed his spare grenades, rifle cleaning kit and 2nd first aid kit into pockets and what little space was left in his webbing. Then, as he slid after everyone else into the drain, he grabbed the M72A4 in one hand, Mjollnir in the other, barrel pointing rearward just in case someone was stupid enough to follow...

"Get below!" Thor added his voice.
"Or smoke alone will kill!"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Tue 15 June 2010.

Craig looks at his pack and then the hole, shit. He grabs the launcher and the three heat rounds that are left, his arctic sleeping bag was the first thing at the top of the pack so it went to. He quickly slips the three rounds into the rolled up bag and without a second look at his pack or the other gear moves off.

Still running on adrenaline he went into the hole pushing his bundle ahead of him. It was a tight squeeze but with some pretty desperate manoeuvring he make it to the more open area of the sewer system.

He thanked Jan for looking at his leg and gave him the clotting powder from his med kit. Once the field dressing was applied he took some of the pain meds he had and with a little help got into a standing position ready to move out. As the smell of fuel begins to build:

"Someone should light that, that sort of bullshit trick works both ways"

Items Grabbed:

RPG-7D Launcher
PG-7N Heat Grenade x3
Arctic sleeping bag
This message was last edited by the player at 05:39, Wed 16 June 2010.

With a clear choice of survival or keeping hold of his pack, Jan found the decision a simple one.  He grabbed the spare ammo for his rifle, the bottle of purification tablets and the spare survival rations out of the side pocket of his pack and then ditched the pack and its remaining contents.

Scrambling down into the sewer he led the others away from the grate they had entered by, following Woj.  The place stank but it wasn't as bad as he had been expecting.  Once they were clear enough he tended Craig wounded leg and noticed that Dawid was carrying still the M240.

"Lost the belts for that.  Sorry," was all he commented to Dawid while he tied off the bandage around Craig's leg.

Jan was on the verge of lighting up a cigarette and passing some around to the others when he started to smell the alcohol fumes.  "Move, everyone move!" he added to the calls from several of the others.

He then turned to their guide and asked him a couple of questions, speaking in Polish.  "Woj, do you know where you are going or are we just fleeing blindly?  I don't mind which but we need to know if there is a risk of us getting lost down here."


OOC
Items taken:
5.56mm N STANAG 30rd mag x4 (full x3 & 26rnds x1)
Bottle Purification Tablets (50tabs)
Survival Rations x8 days
This message was last edited by the player at 13:41, Tue 15 June 2010.

Woj, flashes a quick smile.

"This main storm sewer tunnel goes down to the river. It's collapsed further on but we can still move a few kilometers underground. The fact that they think they can burn us out means they don't know the system very well. Still, we'd better pick up the pace."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:04, Wed 16 June 2010.

Mariusz regretted the loss of his sleeping bag but as he was already wearing his winter gear, there wasn't much else to cry over. He followed the others down the dark tunnel, hoping that they'd have a chance to break contact with the enemy.

"Agreed on that," Jan replied to Woj, obviously pleased to hear of Woj's knowledge of the sewer system.  "Capitaine.  Suggest Tuck takes the rear as Craig is wounded."

He didn't wait for a response though.  He set off behind Woj, attempting to set a decent pace.

Dumping his ruck to the ground, Tucker begins to rifle through its contents as he knows their situation has become more critical since they have to dump the majority of their spare gear.  He takes a magazine bandoleer and thows it around his shoulders, he does the same with the claymore mine & pouch over the other shoulder.  The last thing that he goes for is the 5 liter bladder of water that he carried as a spare and to refill.  He dumps all of the contents on the ground after setting the items he wants aside to put back in when it's emptied (if allowable by the GM).  He shoulders the pac and follows behind the other team members into the sewer.  Following the others, Tucker hears Jan mention to Konrad about him taking up the rear guard, he turns to Bayer and waits for a reply.

Tucker
M-16A2 [30/30] / M-203 [HE]
H&K SOCOM Pistol [9/12] (Holstered)
Dumping gear and going in the sewer

Salvaged Gear:
Claymore Mine & Pouch    2.0
Mag Bandoleer [6 MAG 30] 3.0
5 L. Canteen             5.0
Pack (if allowed)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:27, Tue 15 June 2010.

In reply to Jan Cerny (msg #728):

Dawid closed his eyes for a second when Jan revealed he lost the ammo.

"It's okay. I'm just glad we all more or less got out of there alive."

They were still moving, which was good. He didn't say the obvious, which was it was crucial to not stop and do a re-org.

"Thor and I are in the rear. Everyone, let's keep the order we're in now. No point in moving everyone around. There's no room!"

The order they went down in was, to his recollection, Woj, Jan, Tucker, Bayer, Dieter. Then Mariusz, Minh, Warren and Ondar. He and Thor were taking up the rear. He was separated from Mariusz in a fight, but he was well-enough armed.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Tue 15 June 2010.

Before sliding down into the grate, Dieter salvaged a few items from his pack, some he stuffed into his webbing, others he simply dropped into the hole to collect when he got there.

OOC - Items salvaged:
 Personal Medical Kit [0.2kg]
 Parka [3.0kg] (was already wearing it)
 Hoyt Hunting Bow [1.0kg]
 23 arrows [3.0kg]
 Personal Hygiene Kit [0.2kg]
 2x One Day Rations [3.0kg]
 3x Frag grenade [1.5kg]
 1x Spare mag - 20 rounds [0.75kg]

I assume other kit, including my stuff in the horse pack, is lost at this time.


This message was last edited by the player at 06:43, Wed 16 June 2010.

Jeff ditched everything in his rucksack except some food he stuffed in his pockets.  The benefit of his light scouting load was he wore everything on his person, and not in his pack.

As they moved underground, he kept his bandanna tight around his face to ward off the smell of fumes and sewage.  He does produce his flashlight, but holds off on turning it on.
"I've got an IR filter on my light here, if you want to use it with NVG's.  But it seems like our guide knows the way."

Sliding into the sewer, Bayer listens as nearly everyone begins speaking/shouting. "Quiet." he says, calmly and just loud enough to be heard over the other voices. "Stay in position... Front security step off now. Last man send up the count. Let's go."

Bayer will then push on further into the sewer as the team begins to move. If its too dark to see anything, he'll rest one hand on the back of the man in front of him, and tell whoever was behind to do the same to him.

Every few minutes, he'll signal for the last man to send up the count again.

You move out, with Woj leading the way, torch in hand. After you've gone a few meters, you hear a low WHOOMP, followed by faint wave of warm air at your back, as the enemy ignites the alcohol in the feeder tunnel above you. Fortunately, they didn't have enough ethanol, or understand the layout of the storm drains/sewer well enough, for the ploy to cause you any harm.

You continue moving through the relatively roomy main storm sewer tunnel. Underground, you can't be sure of which direction you're going or how far you've walked. Fortunately, you can't be seen from the surface either. Based on what Woj said earlier, you assume that you are heading generally southwest, towards the Vistula, deeper into Praga and the Baron's territory.

After about 15 minutes, Woj brings the column to a halt and asks,

"Where are we going? I mean, we're heading towards the river now, but there are several exits between here and there."

Next Moves?
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:49, Thu 17 June 2010.

Craig looks around at the men around him. Then asks Woj;

”Do you know of any communities that may be able to shelter us in the interim ? Its just the Baron will have the river covered for such an escape. He knows its our main means of travel and fire-power.”

Quyen doesn't speak during the move through the sewers except when she's required to report her number in the patrol. Small framed and shorter than most of the others, she has comparatively little difficulty moving through the tunnel. Near the front of the column, she'll listen for any sounds coming from the front, especially during halts when its more quiet.

In reply to Cap'n Rae (msg #734):

Dawid sent up the count, making sure everyone was present and accounted for.

Struggling along behind Ondar, Dawid said, "I must apologise. You were right in wanting to get people moving. It's a very upsetting experience for all of us."

The tunnels had opened up a bit. Flashlight beams reflected off the muddy water and tunnel walls. They weren't in a tiny passage anymore but could spread out a little.

"Woj. We're going West, and the Baron's outpost is to the Northeast, so let's keep going towards the river. Maybe we can check halfway, see if it's clear."

Mariusz moved quietly in the column. Being in the sewers of Warsaw in such a situation carried heavy significance for the young boy. Just over fifty years ago boys and a few girls his age had fought and died alongside their older companions in teh Warsaw Rising.

Now they were fighting for the freedom of the people against an evil dictator once more. He just hoped that their attempt ended more happily than those of his predecessors.

With Woj using a torch Jan had turned off his NVGs and left then slung round his neck.  He continued trailing along behind their new guide, following him through the sewers.

"Where do those exits lead to?" he replied to Woj's question.  He was moving more easily now, the one advantage of having to ditch all of his gear!

At one of their stop points to check that everyone was present he voiced a question to Konrad, though loud enough for others to hear.  "Do we need to collapse a part of the sewer behind us to prevent pursuit?"

"I would agree. However I think that is too dangerous considering the unpredictable condition the sewers are in after the what the city has gone through." Then touching a shadowy figure he assumed was Quyen, he says, "What do you think?"

Looking at the pitch darkness as the tunnel continued on, he adds, "West. Keep moving to the river. Let me know when we are one or two hundred meters near."

"Not problem," Ondar responds to Piotrowski near the trailing end of the party as he attempts to gain some orientation relative to the surface in the underground dark.  "Lucky not use thermobarics.  Fire suck all air.  Smother or burn, don't know which worse."

He thinks about it for a few steps while the leaders plot their course.

"Smother probable worse."

In reply to Alexei Ondar (msg #741):

"I forgot about thermobarics... very nasty. We may feel somehow cheated by fate, yet we still have much to be thankful for!"

He looked at their order. Things had become disorganised by the flight underground, and until now they hadn't had the room or breathing space to correct it. Well, they could do a bit of that for the moment. Drew was gone, the original units didn't make a lot of sense, but still, it was important they have a feeling of control over themselves and their environment.

"Folks, here's how we're going to travel:

Woj
Jan
Sutherland
Tucker
Bayer
Minh
Mariusz
Dawid
Dieter
Warren
Ondar
Thor

"Woj, you'll need these." He passed up the AK/GL, Russian SOF vest with 6x magazines and 7x 40mm grenades.

"Any alternative suggestions for organisation? Otherwise, let's head west, as the Kapitan says."

Woj reluctantly accepts the weapon and ammunition from Dawid. After everyone has had a chance to catch their breath, Woj leads the group off again. The tunnel is dark and dank, and it's hard not to feel at least a bit claustrophobic in its confines.

During the next hour, you cross several feeder tubes and pass two ladders leading, presumably, to street level. Woj climbs the second ladder and attempts to lift the heavy manhole cover. It does not budge. As he climbs back down, he mutters,

"That's not the one."

Two sharp bangs reverberate through the tunnel. It could be grenades dropped into the main storm sewer or one of its feeders. It sounds like it came from behind you, from what you guess must be the northeast. With the odd acoustics in the sewer system, it's impossible to accurately judge how far away the explosions occured, but you guess it was at least a few hundred meters back. Somewhat sheepishly, Woj reports,

"We should keep going."

He moves forward, sloshing through the anke-deep water in the tunnel. After another 15 minutes or so, you enter a wide, vertically conical chamber, into which two more large tubes emerge. The icy-cold, murky water is knee-deep here. There is a ladder of heavy iron runs set into the mildewy concrete of the chamber wall. Looking up, you can see a twinkling star through the round opening where a manhole cover would normally be.

"This should be it."

Seeing the worry on your face he adds, "Most of the covers have been removed by scavengers for scrap." As he starts up the ladder, he pauses and says, "I don't have night vision goggles."

Unwilling to fully trust the new guide with both NVGs and the high ground, Jan volunteers to take point. He mounts the rungs and climbs the 10-15 meters to the open manhole. He turns on his goggles and slowly lifts his head up above the pavement...

To the northeast, a parachute flare is descending, illuminating the crooked urban skyline. About a hundred meters to the east is what appears to be a large, bombed out light industrial building. To the west is an open area. To the north and south are badly damaged apartment blocks. The snow around the open manhole has recently been churned up by at least a couple of tracked vehicles. Looking up the road to the northeast, Jan can see movement about 500m away. It looks like armed men moving quickly towards you. From this extremely low vantage point, however, it's hard to see much beyond that.


Next Moves?

Updated Tac-Map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms...69,0.065875&z=15

-R.