Bayer pauses and lets the lead section deal with the issue to the front. He turns and quietly signals for the rear section to cover the flanks.

If the boys comply with the Kommandos at the front, Bayer will signal the guys at the rear to shift forward and take the lead position while Jan and the others are securing the prisoners.

In reply to Griet Niewiadomska (msg # 650):

Dawid looked for the MG bunker on the river bank, the first target they would approach. He sighted in the Vasilek, aiming a White Phosphor shell to impact either just in front of it or on top.

In reply to Dawid Waldus Piotrowski (msg # 652):

Gunther stood by the mortar and awaited orders from Dawid. He couldn't understand why the artillery gunner, especially a Polish one, would be so picky with his targets. He was fascinated by the man but said nothing as he wanted to concentrate on the task at hand.

With several weapons pointed directly at them, the two teenagers have a very quick life-or-death decision to make. The one with the ball seems to realize that, having begun the encounter in the middle of the one-lane road, any possible cover is at least a few strides away. The other boy seems to be considering fighting back but the ball-carrier dissuades him, stretching out his free hand as if to block the stubby muzzle of his companion's submachinegun.


He squats slowly and places the ball on the ground. Then he slowly lowers his rifle- an AKM- to the cobbles.

"Dutch? What the fuck?"

His friend reluctantly does the same with his PPS-43. They stand with raised hands. Anyone looking on will have a pretty good idea of what is happening. As the assault group decides how to deal with their new prisoners, a muffled crack-boom rattles through the neighborhood.

---

The tug approaches the first riverside bunker- a sturdy earth and log dugout with overhead cover, housing a GPMG of some sort. Dawid takes aim with the Vasilek, adjusting for the movement of his firing platform. The machinegun opens fire first. A line of red tracers streaks out, crossing the tug's bows. Before the continuing stream of bullets can snake its way into the Krolowa's forward gun tub, Dawid triggers the Vasilek and its wide muzzle rocks back against its recoil springs. A half-second later, the white phosphorous round impacts a meter in front of the bunker's firing aperture, spraying searing fragments into the faces of the busy machinegunners in an incandescent shower which temporary lights up the shoreline. The machinegun is instantly silenced as the tug officially announces her arrival at Plock. For good measure, McLurg sends his own stream of fat green tracers castleward, more to add to the mayhem than in the hopes of hitting anything. The show has begun. (Vasilek -1 WP; Dishka -20 rounds)


Updated tac-map: https://maps.google.com/maps/m...pn=0.019416,0.066047


Next Moves?
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:59, Sat 03 Nov 2012.

As the tug opened fire, Griet picked up the handset for the loudspeaker and dialed it up to full volume. She switched to transmit and then spoke into the handset, "People of Plock, this is the Blood of the Vistula, flagship of the Black Baron. The Queen of Plock has abdicated and the Baron is now in command. All armed forces should lay down their weapons and surrender to the nearest Baron's unit. You will be treated humanely if you surrender in the next five minutes, after that your impaled bodies will line the streets for the Baron's victory parade. Any resistance will be met with deadly force. Any Baron casualties will be paid for by the deaths of a hundred citizens. The Queen is dead, long live the Black Baron of Warsaw and Plock!"

She repeated her message as the tug closed in on the town.

As the two boys wisely decided to choose life over death and surrendered Jan moved forward to secure his prisoner while Konrad directed Tuck's section to bypass them and take point.

"Craig, secure the other prisoner," Jan instructed as he moved forward.  "Thijs, find somewhere to hide them.  Quyen, disable those weapons."  It was quite possible that someone had seen or heard them threaten the two boys but it sounded like Griet and the rest of the Queen's crew were now engaging so there was hopefully going to be a lot more going on as well.

He quickly forced his prisoner to the ground and used his hunting knife to cut two strips off the boys shirt, one to bind his wrists behind him and the other to gag him.  Once he was bound and gagged Jan quickly searched him for any other weapons or anything else of interest before pulling him back up onto his feet.  He then looked around to see if Thijs had managed to find somewhere to leave them.

In reply to Cap'n Rae (msg # 654):

Dawid winced as he saw the round impacted a little closer than he intended! Well, he hoped they kept their heads down. Either they were incapacitated or they weren't, he had other targets coming up.

"Okay, now we target mortar and MG positions on Tum Hill. Without destroying cathedral. Easy."

Actually, it wasn't all that easy but that's what they had to do to neutralise the defenders without causing massive casualties in the town. He used the intercom, "that's a great idea, Griet! Can we run the Warszawa city standard on the flagpole?"

"OK," Griet said. She got on the intercom and said, "Engine room, send someone to the flagstaff and run up the Warsaw City flag, please."

In reply to Griet Niewiadomska (msg # 658):

"Great shot, mein freund!" Gunther Scholz said to Dawid, slapping the Pole on the back in an inappropriate display of admiration and cheer. Trying to be useful, he hurriedly helped the other crewmembers raise the Flaga Warszawa, which triumphantly displayed a sword-and-shield-weilding mermaid.

Tucker mtions to the rest of his fire team to move forward while the prisoners are being taken care of.  He sets off, paired with Jeff, to run interference and to get them into position so the RPG's and grenade launchers can do their things and hopefully, get to the Baron.  His Suppressed H&K SOCOM pistol is still in his hands at the low ready as they advance.  Robert remains silent after dispatching the youth who tried to get away and signal an alarm.

TUCKER

H&K MK23 SOCOM (Suppressed) [11/12] - Current primary
 M16A2 / M-203: [30/30] / M-203 HE Loaded - Slung
 Browning HP [13/13] Holstered (Vest)
This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Mon 05 Nov 2012.

Thijs shrugged apologetically and went to find an abandoned building to hide the prisoners in.  He motioned to Jan and Craig to bring the bound and gagged boys to the doorway.  As they were being led to the scene of their captivity, he set the football down in the room with them and said quietly, "Przykro mi, że musiał to zrobić, chłopcy.Baron chce odzyskać Warszawę, a on ma zamiar używać Ci dzieci to zrobić, być może się wszyscy zabici w procesie. To nie powód, trenowałem ciebie. Idziemy do zatrzymania Baron. Wy tu, a ja wyślę kogoś zwolnić, kiedy to się skończy."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
"I am sorry to have to do this, boys.  The Baron wants to retake Warsaw, and he is going to use you children to do it, possibly getting you all killed in the process.  That is not the reason I trained you.  We go to stop the Baron.  You two stay here, and I will send someone to free you when this is over."

---

Returning to the street, he closed the door behind him and returned to his position behind Sutherland, moving out now as the second element of the party.

Thijs
C7A1 LSW [90/90 +(6x30, 1x90)]
HP35 [13/13 +(2x13)]
No night vision
Returning to formation

Given the task of securing the prisoners Craig works as fast as possible tieing them up after searching them. He pockets anything interesting and debates with himself about blindfolding them as well.

He frowns at Thijs as he breaks OPSEC and gets ready to end both of the prisoners before stopping himself. If they get out of here alive any number of people will probably shoot them he wasn't going to be one of them.

As he walked to the door his subconscious was telling him to duck-tape a grenade to them, jam one near the door. He continued walking.


Craig Sutherland
Securing prisoners

Browning HP-35 (w/ silencer) [20/20] w/2 magazines 9mmN Winchester Silvertip HP
Kukri
ON1x20/IR "Nighthawk" NVGs - Worn
This message was last edited by the player at 06:46, Mon 05 Nov 2012.

Jay watched in silenced as the prisoners were bound and gagged. At least that was preferable to killing more children. He readied himself to move off when instructed.

Jeff ignores the children, instead using his scope to scan the hill looming ahead of them.

The two teenagers do not attempt to resist as they are bound and gagged. They interpret the pains that their captors are going to in order to secure them as a sign that they are not to be dispatched or otherwise harmed. An abandoned two-story residence is immediately at hand for stashing them in. While they are deposited within, Warren scans the hilltop through the powerful optic on his rifle. The cathedral complex dominates the heights- there's movement on the near side but it's hard to make out much detail due to the low light. Someone starts hammering on an unseated bell somewhere atop the hill- the clanging is choked but urgent. A green tracer streaks over the chopped spire of the cathedral. The diversion is well underway.

Before they were held up by the two boys, Thijs was guiding the assault team down what amounts to a back way leading towards Tum Hill; the main roads leading to the cathedral complex end in a major security checkpoint at the base of the hill. It's usually guarded by at least a platoon of the Queen's child soldiers. With the Baron and his men in town, ostensibly as guests, security is likely to be tighter and the force at the checkpoint larger. There are several approaches to the hilltop, however, that circumvent the checkpoint. All however, involve a climb up a fairly steep grade. If the "castle" is defended, this approach will be quite hazardous.

What goes on inside the cathedral complex is subject to speculation. How will the Queen and her bodyguard interpret the gunboat attack? What will she make of an assault from the landward side? How will the Baron's men, nearly all of whom are allegedly billeted in the lower town, respond to the comotion? Urzula, Thijs, and Guther have all attested to past tensions between the Queen and the Baron- one of the two teens, prior to having been bound and gagged, reported that the Baron's men are not allowed on the hill.

---

The tug steams past the faintly glowing white cloud enveloping the just-destroyed riverside MG bunker. In a minute or two, the tug will be in range of the hilltop heavy machinegun positions near the crest of Tun Hill. The defenders of Plock also have at least one 82mm mortar dug in near the cathedral. Hitting a moving target like the Wisla Krolowa is going to be quite challenging, but the mortar squad has reportedly preregistered a couple of points on the river. In addition to the HMG and the mortar, there are over a dozen large craters on the western face of the hill, any and all of which can be used in pinch as a fighting position. A couple of them have been reinforced to expressly serve that purpose. White phosphorous will be useful in obscurring the Plockites' lines of sight, but it can kill just as much a high explosive/fragmentation rounds, and stray WP fragments carry the danger of setting fires which will cause additional destruction and, quite possibly, death.


Updated tac-map: https://maps.google.com/maps/m...pn=0.019416,0.066047


Next Moves?
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:24, Tue 06 Nov 2012.

"Ah, missed. Was aiming closer to the river, wasn't trying to kill them. Phosphor fragments would have land in front of them, or on top of overhead cover. Ask God for forgiveness!"

Obviously, the German was puzzled but there wasn't time to explain his reasoning, if Dawid understood it himself at this point!

Instead, he concentrated on aiming the Vasilek below Tum Hill, at the cleared free fire zone between it and the river.

"The mortars, are on this side of the hill or far side?"


Vasilek (2 WP/5 loaded)
Aiming 100m west of the Cathedral

In reply to Dawid Waldus Piotrowski (msg # 666):

Gunther Scholz was also confused, but it was confusion of a differnt sort. Even a hardened veteran has difficulty translating verbs and worrying about which tense should be used with the giant explosions of the large mortar going off right next to them.

"Ja, ja well done" Scholz repeated again, less sure of himself. He told Dawid where the mortars were, watching how the Polish man moved his hands on the mighty weapon.  As a new member of the crew, Gunther did his best to learn as much as he could as fast as he could from his new shipmates.

Craig falls back into the group and readies himself for another push through hostile territory. He was going to change to his G3 but decided to continue with his pistol. They have not been properly ID by the locals so hopefully the ruse would hold.

If the terrain opened up he would switch to the G3. Any more obstacles with guns would be double tapped before moving forward.



Craig Sutherland
Following Thijs

Browning HP-35 (w/ silencer) [20/20] w/2 magazines 9mmN Winchester Silvertip HP
Kukri
ON1x20/IR "Nighthawk" NVGs - Worn
This message was last edited by the player at 08:09, Thu 08 Nov 2012.

Still sticking with his silenced SMG Jan organised his team to move out again in the same formation as before.  They were now at the rear following on from Tuck's team and then Konrad and Danny so he picked up the pace a little and caught up with Konrad.

"Capitaine," he whispered.  "Do you want my section to take point again so that Thijs can direct us to the best route?"

Mariusz kept checking the rear for trouble. Once again their luck seemed to be holding but he didn't want to let the unit down by letting his attention wander. He kept his eyes peeled and was ready to act if needed.

Tucker moves up to where Jeff was watching through his scope and says to him, "What to you have dude?  We gotta move and find a spot to start shooting before the Baron gets spooked."

Bayer signals for 2 Section to hold and allow Jan's group to leapfrog, taking the lead again. As they pass, he motions to him and the Dutch guide to up the pace. "No more delays." he whispers, indicating the time for stopping to deal with prisoners is over. If anyone else is encountered the group is to either push through or fight through.

Bayer then follows behind the lead section, weapon at the ready. Along the way he transmits a quick SITREP and a distance to the objective, back to the tug.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:16, Thu 08 Nov 2012.

Along with the first section, Thijs leapfrogged ahead, passing the second section and retaking the lead.  He was attempting to guide the group past the known checkpoints, while also avoiding the lower town, where the Baron's men were supposedly sequestered.  As they moved, he stayed close to Sutherland, allowing the Brit to guide him through the dark past any obstacles in the path.

Thijs
C7A1 LSW [90/90 +(6x30, 1x90)]
HP 35 [13/13 +(2x13)]
no night vision

Quyen finishes taking apart the weapons. She tosses the pieces aside and pockets the firing pins to be dropped in the street later on. Quyen then grabs her PKM again and moves to get back in position with her group. Once again she will cover her arcs on the move but won't shoot unless it's necessary (leaving it for the guys with silencers).

Jan nodded and led his section back to the front.

"Thijs.  Direct us to the Cathedral ASAP," he instructed to the Dutchman and the rest of his team.  "We must push the pace and deal with any... obstacles quickly."