It was 0545 hours on 05 Apr 2001. The horizon to the east was just starting to lighten, but dawn was still a ways off. It was still pretty cool out and the pair shivered a little in the pre-dawn.
A few early-risers were starting to come out, one with a wagon making deliveries of some kind, several few boats crews in work clothes strolling down to the wharfs where several fishing boats were docked to get ready for a day on the water.
The door to the NCO's unit opened and the man walked out, still dressed (but unarmed). Apparently he'd slept in his clothes, or had never gone to sleep at all. He went around to the occupied condos and knocked on the doors, gathering the section. Unarmed but in uniform, they all walked sleepily over to where the horses were stabled to care for them.
As the town woke up around them and dawn started to break, they knocked off and headed down to a cafe by the waterfront for breakfast, laughing and smoking cigarettes.
It was clear that only the NCO was wearing the light blue-striped
telnyashka of the
Desantniki or
Spetsnaz. The rest just wore white or black t-shirts under their camouflaged summer fatigues. Some were bareheaded and some wore field caps. The men (and woman) of the section were young, probably conscripts.
This matched what Andy knew of the Soviet Army in western Candada and Alaska. There were no actual units of the VDV deployed on this side of the Pacific but there were some in the Far East. It was considered possible that some experienced personnel had been "poached" from them to help form units filled with inexperienced recruits.
http://tinyurl.com/2dmrr4
Clarification: the map contour lines indicate that the prominence where the sniper element is positioned is 100m high.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:39, Wed 02 Apr 2008.