Quyen looks over at the woman named Butterfly and asks, "The Baron's main force is in the field. Yes. But are you saying that if there is an attack on his palace where the hostages are, there is absolutely nobody coming from elsewhere in the city?"

Not really intent on pressing the question any further once a answer is given, Quyen eventually sits over where Jan is. She airs out her feet, sharpens her bayonet, and cleans her weapon and then herself. Then while the two patrols are out she will roll up in her poncho and take a nap.

Then when the patrols return and she is woken up Quyen slides out one of the nine remaining cigarettes from the small waterproof container and lights it. "Mr. Jan Cerny." she says in mock seriousness with the smoke dangling from her lips. "I am running low on poison morale sticks. You'll be the best squad leader if you could do something about that."

Quyen will then offer him and any of the others in her team a puff, even those that she knows don't smoke, as friendly amusement. "Hauptmann? Drag?"

Why am I in a good mood? She thinks.

It's good question and Butterfly acknowledges this with her tone and body language. "I see your point but, fortunately for us, all of the Baron's strength in the city is tied to critical real estate. They are unlikely to abandon their posts, especially considering how the Baron deals with such actions. Any quick reaction force will likely consist of no more than a handful of men. I am speaking of the Baron's main force, including his armor, all of which is several kilometers outside the city limits. By the time they learn of our attacks, we should be manning our blocking positions and signalling the 10th to begin its attack."

The large opera house was a welcome sight as it came into view. Craig covered the rear and left flank as they moved through the streets. Once through the door and into the relative safety of their hideout, he took a seat and caught his breath as the intel gathered in their op ran through his head.

He waited until the team had assembled before conducting a preliminary briefing followed by a more in depth overview with a hastily constructed model of the "castle". From his note pad he outlines the make up of the guards, any routines he observed, the locations of the heavy weapons and of the bunkers.

At the end he outlined a plan he had come up with on the way back.

"Could we not use the cart and driver we observed ? Butterfly do you know this man ? It would be very good cover for getting close, we could get at least two men right to the entrance and more hidden in the back."

Through out the meeting he gave Warren a chance to add anything additional.

When he returned from his scouting mission, Jay briefed Bayer and the NCOs on what they had observed, including as much detail as he could. What they did with it was up to them, so once it had been delivered he excused himself and retrieved his gear.

He approached the French woman, named Butterfly. He held his hands together and gave her a formal nod, by way of a traditional buddhist greeting. "Namaskar Aama-ji. My name Jay. Do your men need bullets? I have bullets for AK if you need. Also, do you have khanna, sorry, err... food? I very hungry."

Jay hadn't eaten a proper meal for weeks, just the scraps the 10th had seen fit to give him. He had fared better in the woods on his own, trapping small animals and birds, and spearing the occasional fish.

"Thanks," Mariusz said and dived into the clothing. He looked specifically for leather and denim, he looked over at Matias and said, "Do you want to be a Shark or a Jet?"

He stood back up with a few costumes that must have been left over from a concert, "Do you think it would be suspicious if we had a fight between the Sugar Plum Fairy and a pantomime Cow?"

Piotr had been very quiet on the ride back to Warsaw. It was unclear if it was the fact that he had lost several of his unit in such a short time. Since they had decided to help this group of soldiers several of his men. Men that had trusted him with their lives. Some of them he even called friends. Would the still have lived if they had stayed. Was it his fault they were now dead? Those were valid questions that needed and answer.

It was either that or the fact he was closing in on Warsaw. The city he'd loved and learnt to hate. A city he would gladly bring to it's old glory or freedom at least. He was certain it would take for him to fight against more men he knew. Fellow soldiers that had made the wrong choice or better, that hadn't had the courage to make the right one.

It was probably a little bit of both, but along the way and after a good rest within confines of the city that had made him the man he was today his decision was firm, using the last bit of time to clean his trusted rifle for the job ahead.

     Monika had checked and repacked her supplies.  She had cleaned all of her weapons.  She had even gotten a bit of food and some rest.  She watched the recon teams return and was glad that her services were not needed.  Now, it was time to get back to the...  Monika wondered what the word for all this would be in English.

Jeff fills in the gaps for Craig, but for the most part let's him talk. The lack of sleep was gnawing at the back of his conscience, but there was nothing he could do about it, and he avoided showing it.

Otherwise, he took Jay's own input, and combined it with what he and Craig had found.

"Sutherland and I found an excellent vantage point. I could set up there with a spotter and be able to cover the top and entrance of the castle. I could also radio both the 10th and your gunboat upriver.  You may consider having the other sniper" he nods to Piotr "travel with an assault group as a designated marksmen, unless you expect to get in real close. Also something needs to be done about the bunker. It's not a huge threat, but is on the way there."

Jan had nodded in response to Konrad when he had outlined his plan and the started to get himself organised.  There were three tasks that he needed to resolve.

Firstly he went to speak to Butterfly, choosing to talk in Polish to make it easier for her.  "What access to weapons and ammo do you have?  I have a silenced submachinegun that will be very useful but I only have one mag for it now.  Do you have any mags for a PM-84 Glauberyt?  It was a fairly common SMG amongst the Polish Army and Police Forces.  I have some AK-74 mags that I can trade if necessary."

Following his conversation with Butterfly he went to find Monika.  "Please can you check my wound again and redress it.  I think that I will be placing strain on it again soon!"

After that he went back to Konrad and Dawid had a quiet word with his commander and the support commander.

     Monika checked and replaced the bandage on Jan's wound.  She also gave him a dose of antibiotic tablets, telling him in Polish, "You are probably going to do something that you shouldn't.  These might help keep you from paying too badly for it."

Speaking to butterfly, but aloud, Bayer follows Quyen's silence with, "That's good to know. But it changes little with my support group. Their job will still be to aggressively engage and destroy threats." He then looks at Dawid and says, "Change to tasking. You'll now follow us in. Your job will be to keep enemy forces away from the recovery group, neutralize counterattacks, and cover the withdraw."



Following the Lieutenant's suggestion, Bayer looks over at Mariusz and his accomplice. "What do you think?" he asks them directly. "Any thoughts? Or are you just going to ahh... wing it, when you get there?"



"Piotr is with Dawid. His group will be doing the heavy lifting so he'll need him more than Jan." he says. "Concerns with the bunker are noted. Jan's group will likely silence it if it can't be bypassed."

Then as requested, Bayer confers with Jan and Dawid for a moment.

In reply to Konrad Bayer (msg #736):

Dawid felt good talking to Monika, earlier. She seemed like a nice girl, albeit more of a soldier now, like so many. But in her hour of need, all good Poles were needed to protect the motherland so that was a regrettable necessity.

In the ops meeting he nodded in agreement, looking at the maps.

"Understood, Kaptain. We'll be following you and then setting a fire base to eliminate any counter-attackers from outside and cover the "inner perimeter" so that the rescuers may escape, as well. I think Orso's firepower will be very welcome for this necessary task."

He leaned in, listening to Jan and Konrad.

"We've both got civvie clothing," Mariusz said, "but we'll need a bit of time to get ready for any diversion because we'll need to get out of our battle gear. Matias will need to remember to pull his ski mask down too because the enemy might recognise him.As for a diversion, what do you want? Stone throwing and running away, fight? Whichever, we can do it."

"Hauptman?" Orso prompted Konrad, clearly still waiting on a response to his statement (message 721).

Mariusz listened to the dispositions of the enemy and then said, "I think we can make quite a nice ruse if we think about it. First of all we'll need to get the Krowola closer, at least within mortar range, the smoke is a problem but I have an idea to help there. Then we need our scout/sniper teams in position ready to shoot guards and call down fire on the enemy."

"Once those units are ready, I think we should kill the guards at the barracks and set fire to it as a diversion. Then Matias and I can drag one of the bodies to the fort pretending they are badly injured. Once we get there, it's time to launch the bombardment, with the Krowola, our grenade launchers and Orso's shotgun we should be able to lay down a decent looking bombardment, I'd suggest the Queen fires the GL first to save our big ammo from real killing."

"As soon as the first explosions land, our snipers start killing the sentries and at least one team should prioritise killing the MG crew and disabling the MG. Once the shit is hitting the fan, Matias and I can cause more chaos at the entrance and the assault teams can join us and finish the job. The hostages are an issue, but the guards will probably be more concerned with protecting themselves rather than killing prisoners."

"Once we have the fort we can decide on whether it's safe to bring the Queen up to hit the bridge bunker and reassess our next move from there."

Mariusz sat back, pleased he'd articulated his cunning plan so clearly, "What do you think?"

In reply to Mariusz Tokarski (msg #740):

"Get me onto the Krolowa, I can man either the Rapira or the Vasilek. The grenade launcher too, for that matter. To deadly effect. And the smoke could be part of the diversion, if we can't deal with it otherwise."

"This will require modifying the plan that the Hauptman put forth."

"If the barracks is on fire there'll be a lot of smoke. We could further confuse things by having Butterfly's people lighting random fires," Mariusz said.

"Queen?"
"Oh, you mean that stupid old tug with the machineguns everyone knows about..."
"Useless. Don't forget this is supposed to be stealth mission."
Stealth. A skill only a few in the group possessed, yet somehow had been completely ignored by the apparent leader.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:26, Sun 03 July 2011.

Mariusz listened to Orso and reminded himself that they'd need to try and loot a library at some point, the new guy could do with reading a copy of "How to win friends and influence people".

Tucker smiles...

Mattias sat listening carefully, trying to piece together the bits of English conversation going on around him. It was difficult, but he was getting the gist of it and he wasn't liking what he was hearing. Unable to stand it any longer, he broke in in Polish, hoping one of his bilingual teammates would translate for him.

"I'm not an officer or a commando or anything like that, but I think you're going about this all wrong. This mission is about saving the hostages, right? Any explosions or smoke will make the guards alert and on edge making it much harder to take them out without a prisoner bloodbath. We need to go in quietly and take out the guards as quickly as possible.

"Warren and Sutherland mentioned a food wagon. There are several Poles among us not known to the Baron's men. I'd volunteer myself, Sgt. Pawlowski, and nurse Nowak for what I'm about to propose, but we could be recognized possibly.

"So, Mariusz and Dawid and any other Polish-speakers take control of the food wagon. Butterfly can help us with this, no?

"They get inside the stadium with pistols or SMGs, maybe silenced. They take out the guards inside the stadium.

"Once they're in position, snipers to the north and south take out the guards at the top of the wall, especially that MG position.

"Then maybe another force rushes the stadium to help out. This is the tricky bit, coordinating these three groups. Radios are key, I think.

"If there's anyone else not already tasked, they shoot up the bridge bunker. Maybe you." he says pointing at Orso's large grenade launcher.

"With the bunker destroyed, we can evacuate all of the hostages that don't want to stay and fight the Baron to the west bank.

"Once the shooting's started, the tug comes up to support the rest of our operations with its heavy weapons. We don't have to worry about hostages at the granary. We just have to make sure we don't set the food on fire or anything like that."

He looks around the room, hoping that at least part of his plan is found acceptable.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Sun 03 July 2011.

Craig followed the Poles suggestion with interest.

"I agree with you on most of your points, we have to go in quiet and fast otherwise they will just gun down the hostages and then bugger off. There is nothing else keeping them here."

"Exactly!" he declared, happy that sanity had returned.
"The wagon goes in first with three people as he said while the Lieutenant, the Gurkha and myself sneak around from the river side and up over the wall if we can, or maybe take out the bridge bunker by stealth if that's not possible."
"Sniper cover and a machinegun positioned in high locations should provide good cover."
"Those not involved at the castle take blocking positions to the east and stand ready to move to support the hostage rescue."

"Yes." Bayer says. Then returning to the question he says, "I don't think anyone here has forgotten the format of the mission. Whoever was suggesting the boat was only offering suggestions. Once the first shots are fired, it is no longer a "stealth mission" anyways. Regardless though, the tug won't be involved."

Then pointing to the hardware Orso had made a point to flash around, he adds, "I was so overly impressed by your obvious passion for heavy weapons that you've been designated to a team needing the firepower. Others here can do the initial infiltration, thank you."

Bayer then finished listening to all of what else was said by the group and says, "That's acceptable. And Mariusz and Matias, I still want you to gain our entry. And yes, with the wagon. Jan's team are able enough to follow you in and gain a foothold inside."

Then pointing at Matias, he says, "And then like you just said, the snipers, acting on call, begin to eliminate the rest of the targets along with the team who've gain entry, from the inside."

"The bunker is for Dawid's group to silence."

"Just because I carry a big gun doesn't mean I can't move quitely."
Although he had the grenade launcher as his primary weapon, the SPAS-15 shotgun slung across his chest was perfect for getting up close and personal.