The pair of militia acknowledged Tara's instructions and crept into the eastern alley mouth. In the lead was a balding, wiry middle-aged man in glasses that looked like nothing so much as an accountant, his partner was a young woman. The older man had immigrated to Canada in the 70's from Finland. Combat in an urban environment (FIBUA or Fighting in Built Up Areas) was not part of his training in the Finnish Army where skiing was seen as a far more practical skill, but he held his antique FN with confidence as he scanned the alley for threats. His companion gripped her own rifle with considerably less confidence.

The lead man stopped, pointed out a tripwire guarding the eastern approach to his companion. "Dere is a tripwire here, and I see a directional mine too," the man said into his Motorola with a fairly strong accent. Carefully, they stepped over the wire, marking it with a strip of cloth, the continued to the abandoned truck and the downed motorcycle.

Having worked as a volunteer First Aid attendant for several years, he started medical treatment to save the man's life. "De man is unconscious, he is needing medical attention. Bullet wounded in de lower back, exit wound in his stomach. Airway is clear, he is breathing normally, and there is moderate bleeding, probably internal bleeding as well, maybe some kidney damage."

The response to Lee's message was that the reinforcements were still around 5 minutes out, and there was an ambulance accompanying them. As well, she confirmed that a tow truck would be brought out to tow the wrecked Humvee back to UBC, or at least the police station.

In the alley, the team advanced towards the back of the restaurant. As the others covered him, Taras examined the rear door as if it were some kind of poisonous snake. It looked like the lock had been forced, but otherwise solid. Sure enough, he determined it was booby-trapped, but he didn't likely have the tools to disarm it.

Moving into the rear position again, Tyler covered the way they came.

"Door's booby-trapped, they couldn't have gone through it and reset it in a hurry. Over the roof? That's what I was trained."

He checked the rooftops above them, blinking as the rain speckled the cyclops-like lens of his NVGs. "Shit."

"If we can't go over and we can't use the doors, we can use grenades to go through. If we select the right places the chances of civilian casualties will be minimal." Andy said as he gathered his unit together, "Do you want us to organise assault teams?"

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #163):

As a commando, Andy had received much training in urban warfare both in the FIBUA school at CFB Gagetown, and in Herefordshire in the UK and at bases in the US. After that, combat throughout Europe taught him that while ground level entrances were generally to be avoided and trapped (except to make anyone watching think it wasn't), access to an upper story across the rooftops was viable and desirable in many situations, like what appeared to be the case here.

In reply to helbent4 (msg #164):

"Green six, also have someone secure the humm-vee and it's machinegun.  green two three is taking the bolt."  As she speaks she climbs up the HMMWV quickly and extracts the bolt and firing pin assembly from the heavy machinegun and stuffs it in a pouch.  Big piece of metal, but about the smallest part you can take to disable that big hog and still be able to use it later, leaving the guts open to the rain as she jumps back down and falls to the rear to cover everyone else from behind.

"I have disabled the M-2, LT."

She scans the area, with Tyler's words the idea of how approach was done re-enforced, looking over the rooftops for fast access up.. maybe a dumpster or something.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Sun 22 Feb 2009.

As their mission was to clear the alley and not breach before reinforcements arrived, that is what they proceeded to do.

There was a command-detonated Claymore on the east side, along with a trip-flare. Other trip-flares were set up to cover the gaps between the buildings on the south side of the alley. The mine and the trip-flares were efficiently disarmed by Taras.

There were 2 more command-detonated Claymores on the rooftops pointing down to nail anyone approaching the rear door along the walls of the north side of the alley. Those were impossible to disarm from the ground level, but they could be shot out by Andy or the ERT marksmen.

They withdrew down the east side of the alley, dragging their unconscious prisoner. Behind them, Lee detailed two of the militia present to move in and secure the wrecked Humvee.

In around ten minutes they could hear vehicles approaching from the south along Main.

In reply to helbent4 (msg #166):

Kelsey hands over the bolt of the M-2 as they move out of the area "Here's the bolt to that machinegun, in case you need it.  Don't lose it.  What's your name?"

Andy switched to his trust sniper rifle, "We're ready to clear the booby traps if that's OK, Ma'am. Shall I begin disposal?"

The team was gathered at the impromptu command post on the corner of Main and East Georgia. They started treatment on the wounded and incapacitated biker in the back of the police SUV.

Kelsey ran down to where the wreck of the Humvee lay in the alley and handed off the bolt. She gave the bolt to a short, cheerful-looking Filipino man, who looked down at the chunk of metal in his hand and then smiled at her with a wide grin.

"T'anks. I'm Larry. So, ah, what de pock you wan me to do wit dis t'ing?"

Larry was holding one of the new 5.56mm assault rifles that were starting to be made in UBC's metal shops, a design based on the Armalite AR-18. The AR-18 was in part an attempt to create a "western" AK-47 that was cheap, light and reliable, and unlike the M16/C7 could be made in relatively primitive facilities. The design would eventually be incorporated into the somewhat balky British SA-80/L85 and HK G-36 before the war. It was a stop-gap until new C7s and AUSTEYR-88s could be imported from Australia, and these were made with sheet metal, crude welds and wooden furniture with little or no attempt at a refined finish.

The injured biker was armed with a gold-plated and decorated Colt M1911 in a shoulder holster, plus 2 spare magazines. He also wore a concealable Kevlar vest under his leathers, which probably saved his life when he was shot. Anything heavier in the way of weapons was probably still on his bike, which still lay in the ally by the abandoned delivery truck.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:41, Tue 24 Feb 2009.

Lee assisted in the basic medical treatment of the prisoner. She also mentioned to Clarke, "Commander, if you want to have Andy start clearing the Claymores then I would get on the bullhorn and ask for their surrender. Either way, you might want to wait for the reinforcements to arrive?"

"Yeah, I might be able to get the guys in there to surrender. If they're Americans, I can talk to them. I may even know some of them, anything's possible, ma'am."

He stuck a stick of chewing gum in his mouth, savoring the sugary minty flavor, keeping him alert and awake in the cold, wet rainy darkness.

In reply to helbent4 (msg #169):

Kelsey blinks at the militia man a moment, grins at him and laughs
"Nevermind, you probably won't know what to do with it anyway, sorry.  Show you later sometime, when it isn't late at night, wet and cold.  Ok?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:41, Wed 25 Feb 2009.

In reply to Kelsey Sarah Champlain (msg #172):

The Militia handed the bolt back, again with a grin. "Hokay, sounds good to me! Man, dis rain sure sucks! Can't wait to get out of it, eh?"

As Kelsey left, Larry wrinkled his nose at the smell of burned lubricants and fuel coming from the engine. Not to mention the stink of burned flesh and hair, and of course feces released from dead bowels.

In reply to helbent4 (msg #173):

"Yeah, but we got an important job to do, so no rushing through it"

He nods in agreement. She jogs back to where the rest are, pocketing the M2 bolt securely before she jogs back and helps out the others, likely by being watchful and ready.

Andy waited patiently for a course of action to be decided. He relaxed deliberately, there was no need to rush this decision, Urban Assault was deadly to both sides, "If there's any chance of a peaceful solution to this situation, I'd reccomend trying it."

They waited for the reinforcements to arrive, and Lee discussed their next moves.

"Clarke, I would suggest initiating an escalation of the pressure once reinforcements arrive. At this point, deploy observation teams as suggested by Master McRae."

"Step One is the men barricaded inside hear additional units arriving."

"Step Two is give them a warning: this puts the suspects on notice that we are intending on resolving the situation."

"Step Three is begin negotiations. Although I was most often an assaulter for ERT, I am also a trained negotiator."

"Step Four is if we decide that negotiations are stalled and an entry is necessary, shoot out the Claymore mines. This prepares for entry and serves to escalate the pressure without any directly aggressive action on our part."

"We don't have to follow through with an entry at that point, but we will be better prepared to do so if necessary. The suspects may want to reopen negotiation at that point, as well."

In reply to Zhang Rachel Lee (msg #177):

"We lost the element of surprise, so.. yeah."

In reply to Kelsey Sarah Champlain (msg #178):

"I guess you could say that, sure!" She laughed, amused at the truth of that statement.

"Still, we can preserve tactical surprise. If they think we're going in the front, we can go in the back. If they think we're going in the front or back, we can enter over the rooftops. "Mostly, it's negotiation that is the usual strategy at this point. They already gave their best shot at fighting or escaping, so whoever's left has gotta be thinking their options are very limited at this point. We do have the advantage here."

The cavalry started arriving over the next 10-15 minutes.

There were around 40 extra militia and RCMP Auxiliaries, plus most of the UBC's regular RCMP detachment, including the ERT (with their marksman) and McRae's sharp-shooter team (only partially trained at this point).

An ambulance arrived and picked up the wounded and unconscious biker for transport to hospital. Another picked up the remains of what could have been deserters.

The LAV-III also arrived, along with Sgt. Fox.

There was no movement from the biker club downtown, or seemingliy elsewhere in the city. The heavy weather was keeping everyone indoors. As well, the airwaves were clear.

In reply to helbent4 (msg #180):

Kelsey communicates with the team, shakes her head  "The ether is clear, that may have been all of our suspects that we turned into hamburger in that humm-vee."

She yawns into her hand  "Oh, I have the bolt for that Ma Deuce on that humm-vee, when someone is ready to take it over I will put it back.  I didn't want that thing opening up behind me in the wrong hands." Delicately put, for Kelsey, since wrong hands in this case also means inexpert hands and enemy hands.

"I am betting the sweep doesn't turn up much"

Andy replied to Kelsey, "I'm glad you've disabled the MG. The last thing we need is .50 calibre slugs shredding innocents. Great call Kelsey."

He looked at the building they needed to storm and the force they were gathering, he lokked over at the ex-Soviet and said, "Sir, you probably have more experience than me at this, so I apologise if any of this seems like telling my grandma to suck eggs. If we go in, I'd reccomend two teams, on breeches the wall into the ground floor of the building as a diversion, they don't go in but make a lot of noise and fury. Another team could breech the opposite side of the building and clear the house. Our people don't have the experience to deal with having friendlies in such a confusing situation so I'd suggest only having one team in the building at a time. Of course," he smirked, "I'd prefer it if we put the LAV out front, gave them a chance to surrednder and blasted them if they didn't, but that's got too much chance of scoring colateral damage. Looks like we have to do it the dangerous way. I volunteer to be on the assault team, I'll even lead it if you wish."

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #182):

"Thanks Andy.  Just as worried if someone who doesn't know how to use it.. does to."  She winks, then grins a moment, patting the lump of that huge bolt in her pocket.

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #182):

Lee nodded, that was a good idea.

"Distraction is key to a dynamic entry, where the suspects are alerted prior to the breach. Rolling the LAV up to the front is a great idea, it will certainly distract them. As an alternative suggestion we can shoot in the door with the autocannon, no chance to miss at point-blank range! It will "disarm" any booby-traps, or we could use the deck hatches to make an entry to the second floor. Even if we don't use the LAV to shoot in the door or front window plywood, it will be an intimidating sight if you're going in the rear."

"But that's just an option. As negotiator I can't make the call... negotiators don't command, commanders don't negotiate."

Shevchenko was losing the steam of the adrenaline boost that the carnage in the alley brought. It was getting late in the night and now the reinforcements were arriving bringing their own avalanche of questions, enquires and insecurities. The command of such a tremendous choral work  during that situation was certainly new and uncalled for. In any case it was time to get things rolling without losing momentum.

We'll move the LAV but I want fire cover on those windows. Remember that they have anti armor weapons (M203). We are going to need that .50 cal back in action to cover the rear, Kelsey and Tyler you're at it. Andy, you are clear to remove the Claymores. As you have it done let me know so we can proceed with the LAV. Rachel, get a loudspeaker and get them to surrender nicely.

Taras walked towards the armored vehicle and met Sgt. Fox: Good evening, Sgt. What is the status on readiness of the vehicle?