Having blasted a hole in the enemy positions to the north, the party begins a fighting withdrawal away from the concentration of enemy troops (and the mortar) to the south.
Dawid and Woj rise up and leave the cover of the Primate House, running towards the Giraffe house. Mariusz is waiting there for them in the lee of the western wall, having made sure no enemy wait on the far side of the building. They make it safely.
Dieter is hot on their heals. He rises and sprints towards the Giraffe House. He can hear the sound of gunfire but not the buzz or snap of close incoming fire. He makes it to the Giraffe house just a couple of seconds after Dawid and Woj.
Craig is next to join them. A couple of enemy troops to the east (central group) have resumed firing and bullets are striking near him as he runs. Craig arrives in one piece but the wound in the back of his thigh is throbbing with pain and he can feel a wet trickle of blood running down the back of his leg.
Thor also moves towards cover, heading due west towards the Primate House. A few bullets buzz past, colliding in puffs of smoke with its broken walls. He gets behind cover- a section of the enclosure wall- which gives him a view of the eastern hemisphere of the battlefield (roughly from the burning BTR to the burning BMP). He also has easy access to the sheltered withdrawal route behind the primate house. Looking east, northeast, Thor sees more enemy troops coming up via the road down which the first damaged BTR pulled back. They are similar in appearance to the other Ukranian troops you've been battling for the last half-an-hour or so.
To the south, Konrad and Minh move towards the Primate House using the Hippo House as cover and concealment. Tucker takes a moment to give the enemy reinforcements coming up from the south. He deftly puts a 40mm HE grenade into the remains of the Aviary, hopefully doing some damage to its current human occupants. As soon as he sees the grenade explode on target, Tucker turns and runs north along the Hippo House wall. Just as he's about to reach the far corner, another mortar bomb explodes just inside the wall a mere two or three meters from Tucker's position. The wall buckles outwards and collapses in a cloud of dust and smoke. Tucker's caught in the avalanche. The next thing he knows, he's lying in a heap of rubble, half-burried under building debris. Amazingly, except from some scratches and soon-to-be bruises, he's unhurt. The rubble atop him is neither too thick nor too heavy to prevent him from digging himself out. (
Tucker -1 40mm HE)
To the west of the Hippo house, Jan and Warren are in a position that will allow them to either continue putting fire on the enemy force to the south or to withdraw to the north concealed from them. Jan's wound is painful. Blood is still seeping through the bandage from the large exit wound in his bicep.
Next Moves?
Updated tac-map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms...7&mid=1284835780
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:58, Sat 18 Sept 2010.