Your small group of American stragglers (led by a Frenchman strangely) has just stopped to set up camp for the night (approximately half an hour before dark) when the the sound of many automatic weapons and explosions is heard to the south. From the echoes it appears to be no closer than a few miles.

The firefight lasts for only a minute or two. From the sound of it, the combat was extremely heavy and most likely an ambush. Small arms, machineguns, grenades (both hand and launched) as well as a few heavy mortar rounds were used.

Another flurry of automatic fire is heard - about five minutes after the last shots of the first few minutes.

Smoke columns rising into the air through the trees to your south confirm the intial assessment as well as identifying the range as approximately ten kilometres.

The rapidly approaching nightfall along with the dearth of decent weapons and ammunition (let along anything able to deal with vehicles!), is one very strong excuse to stay well out of it - at least until the next day when you would have been heading through that area anyway.

Constructing a sheltered fire, they huddle for warmth. It's strange being in a hostile place allt eh time with no friend than those you think you can trust as travel with them.

The group is new but seems to work well enough, himself doing most of the work with his expertise and then getting the others to follow, giving cover as the need arises. So far it hadn't much, but after losing the one they called Billie, they've been a little more jumpy. Down to 5 now.

Sergio hoped he could catch up with the other group, he'd done all he could to help the villagers and now there was a need to be in a karge squad for safety, plus from some of the tracks they'd been doing some interesting things...

Watches put on, he tries to get comfy in a tree to oversee the area and get a nice sleep in. His knowledge was on this sort of survival.

The others were happy to chat quietly and take watches, he awoke whenever anything made a sound nearby. He was always snoozing and always half awake.

The sounds of the night were haunting.

Right on dusk a single shot rings out in the distance to the south. Not really unusual in Poland 2000, but it does attract notice simply because it seems to be at the same general location as the previous disturbance.

Sergio will keep an eye and ear open that way, wondering if it getting closer or not?

(OOC: Feel free to prod if need be!)

There was only the one single shot. Not too uncommon in war torn Poland but close enough to have been of interest.

(The main group is really dragging things out! Rather frustrating)

(OOC: To be honest I am thinking now I might just leave it...Though maybe today isn't the best to try to restart. Having just lost my job, I'm not in the best of moods...)

ugg

That wouldn't be a job you only just got? Been there a few times too many myself. :(

yes.

It was a temp job but...

I lost it for no reason.

There was about 3 mix ups of totally nothing.

However from the bosses point of view, through lack of communication it looks bad.

But he was ready to offer me a PERMENANT position in the morning, and didn't want me back by the evening? MADNESS!

... So no job.

not happy.

apologies.

I'm also very lost over this game. I still don't know the lingo and everything. Then again maybe it would be good to practice! Is it going fast?

I mean lets face it I have nothing ELSE to do anymore!

Considering I keep getting offered jobs you'd THINK It would be easy to get one. But I think unless I take the job WHEN they say, they see it as an insult and then fuck me off. So once more no reference.

Your situation is eerily similar to mine. I lost my last job due to back office politics. One manager doesn't like another manager and would do just about anything to make them look bad - up to and including creating situations where their staff look very bad. The "official" reason for sacking me was because I hadn't been doing my job properly (apparently I was rude to someone - on night shift?) but the real reason as explained later was that the situation had been engineered without me even being involved. Turns out it was either me or him, naturally he chose me.

Worst part for me is that I had been there as a casual for nearly a year on exactly the same roster from week to week. I had been offered full time permanent work only days before subject to the general manager giving approval when they got back from holidays.

Not the first time I've been caught in the middle of something though and possibly won't be the last.

As for the game and it's lingo, don't stress about it. You're not alone. As always, if you have ANY questions no matter how silly you may feel they are, just ask. You can either send me (or anyone else for that matter) a PM or simply post the question in the OOC thread. Many of the players here are either serving or ex-military and all are very happy to answer any questions. I myself ask a few from time to time.

My biggest problem with the game at the moment is that one player has decided to dissappear right when I had written them into a big part. I had been holding off for the right time for the past six months and then, when the time comes..... ARGH!

This is why I am unsure to rejoin again, incase I mess it up.

I'm a fantasy person and this "real-er life" type game is just confusing?!

But I think it's less office politics,and more boss is a wanker.
Apparently he was swearing down the phone at my agency (not about me, I think, but about the situation he's in!)

So I don't HAVE a "reason", but being a temp worker I don't need one.

Which is funny as he was telling me how good a worker was BECAUSE I didn't leave them in the lurch...

oh the missed opportunities...

Isn't "messing it up" what roleplaying is all about? ;)

ahh messing up the STORY is.
Messing up the GAME isn't!

A crack of thunder on the horizon heralds an approaching summer storm. Perfect timing too, right on nightfall and your small group with only ponchos and light plastic shelters (not even a proper tent - just the fly essentially)

Huddling together they try to fight off the dampness spreading arouns them.

Sergio is reminded, as he sits in the rain, the first and only time he travelled to England for a holiday. Rained everyday and much colder. The sights werent that impressive through the rain and he felt he had made a mistake going there.

Not an enjoyable trip.

Telling the tale to the others to keep talking a spirits up they all have a good laugh.

The next morning dawned without a cloud in the sky. Wringing water from everything that could possbily have been wet, it's decided to stay put for a few hours to catch up on sleep and allow your socks to dry...
The remainder of the day finds your small group making steady progress towards the south.

Late that afternoon, you arrive at the location of the previous evenings ambush. It had been a small unit, maybe twenty five, thirty men, three deuce-and-a-halves, and a couple of Hum-Vees, all strung out along the main road. Someone had been awfully thorough, helmets, jackets, boots, and all their equipment, weapons, and ammo were long gone. Somebody even took the trouble to gather up all the spent shell casings. There must have been quite a few of those, because the trucks looked like swiss cheese. It must have been quite a firefight, and it didn't last long. They'd been caught in the open by heavy automatic fire from at least three different spots along the woods thirty metres from the road.

They didn't have a chance. One truck had burned; the others had been shot to bits and then stripped of everything useful: tyres, engine parts, canvas tops, they even drained the crankcase oil. It was like a plague of locusts had hit, leaving the bare bone skeletons and a sick-sweet death stench. Whoever had knocked off that convoy had gone over the place with a fine toothed comb and done it fast.

The field is littered with debris from the looting, mostly torn articles of clothing, broken truck parts and equipment, empty boxes and a few discarded shell casings missed by the scavengers. Footlockers stuffed with papers have been dragged from the trucks, opened and rummaged through in a ruthless search for valuables.
Marks are found at several points in within the woods to show where a large force had set up machineguns to sweep the road in a crossfire.

A few minutes on the site and one of you finds some shallow graves. Obviously somebody else had been here since the ambush and had made some effort to treat the dead with respect.

A few more minutes and all of you come to the same conclusion - there's nothing left that you can scavenge. A stand of trees and shallow depression provide an ideal campsite for the night a few hundred metres from the ambush. Being only an hour or so till dark, it's decided to stay there the night before moving on early the next day.

During the night the sentry is flipping through the radio frequencies in a vain attempt to discover some useful information. Most of the radio traffic of late (since the US5th Infantry Divisions destruction) had been in either Polish or Russian and most often also encrypted. Around 2am, he stumbles upon the last few words of a transmission in English and uncoded. While some english has been heard from time to time, usually it had been a weak signal (most likely originating some distance away) or a plea for help (unit in the process of being overrun). This was a strong signal and the tone certainly calm. The message itself was interesting simply because it mentioned the ruined city a few kilometres to your east - Czestochowa.

Morning again dawns clear and blue and your small group is quickly on the road south again. A kilometre or two later and a ruined village is spotted. A strong smell of smoke and ashes mingles with a slight odur of distilling alcohol...

Taking the radio Sergio attempts to find some of the last used frequencies in his group:

Over, Over, this is La mechnique. I am on catchup. Have no trouble to report. Look to us, behind. Self and four english. Should have contact soon today, or in a few.

He keeps it simple and tries to leave locations out. His tracking skills can keep them hot on the trail, and so no need to ask where they are headed incase others.
(would there be any passwords or contact calls I should know of? But don't ooc?)

Once this is on various frequencies he lets the english carry on, and scouts ahead, any reply and they call him. And keep their eyes open, don't shoot any, just hide and call him.
(do we have radios between us? Or is it all LOS contact?)

With Sergios short ranged tactical radio the only communications unit in the small group, it was unlikely that they would be able to contact anyone. So far it had barely been powerful enough to receive strong signals originating relatively close by. Still, better to try than to be shot...
Throwing in a few of the callsigns and codewords that he'd been using a week or two earlier didn't hurt either. Sure they were probably out of date and no longer in use now but in conjuction with his french accent it might go a long way towards friendly forces identifying and revealing themselves.

Otherwise he continues tracking them, and keeping hidden, to hope when he does find them, he sees them before they see him!

It doesn't take long to get a response once you're close to the village...

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