In reply to Taras Vladimirovich Shevchenko (msg #5):
Some of the "new personnel" were there with them in the cavernous gymnasium where they were setting up the new base for B Detachment.
Everyone was sitting on folding chairs in front of a portable white board. Light was actually from the flourescent tubes overhead. The miracle of electricity and a portable generator! There was also a telephone.
Able Seaman (AB) Lo was an experienced sailor with UDT training. He would be the LAV's new driver. Able Seaman Lo had just arrived via Zodiac from Vancouver Island with the Navy detachment that was attempting to get the old SN.6 hovercraft operational out at Celtic Shipyards by UBC.
As a sailor, he had also been taken aback by the presence of the submarine, an Oscar II boat, although he'd already heard rumours about it back on the Island. It was a nuclear-powered vessel and he heard it would need drydocking to repair battle damage to the bow and later collision damage to the propellers and rudder. The Kursk was not flying the Soviet Union's flag or the Soviet Navy flag, but the pre-Revolution tricolour and naval ensign.
A talkative Russian had said they were no longer obeying Soviet orders but by the same token hadn't quite defected yet. They had been damaged in a battle in the Barents earlier last August with a "loyal" Soviet boat and had hid in the Arctic for months. As the Kurk was too damaged to slip by the loyal boat undetected and their torpedo room was flooded leaving them defenceless, they decided to try the other direction and had slowly made their way to Canada, seeking a safe haven that was far from the Soviet Union but wasn't the USA. Australia was the other main option but the one limiting factor for nuclear submarines was (of course) not power but supplies, and they were almost out.
Corporal William Hawk was a Royal Commando, and a medic with CSAR training. He'd actually been in New West over the winter, working at Royal Columbian Hospital in Sapperton. He helped treate the scavenger who discovered the intact nuclear warhead at Ioco Refinery. That man, suffering from Radiation sickness, had been picked up by the KGB mole, Jagelis, supposedly for transport to UBC Pavillions hospital but instead "died en route" to silence him.
One thing Hawke really liked about New West was the fact that many key buildings had electricity, including the hospital. This was formerly courtesy of the nuclear submarine docked at the wharf. The Russkies were running one of the two "teakettles" and this provided electrical power far in excess of their current needs, so they shared the excess with the city as a form of "rent". Within the last couple weeks the federal government (in UBC) had defeated some New America neo-Nazi wankers out in Port Moody and while they were doing so, salvaged the ancient hydro plant at nearby Buntzen Lake, getting it operational. Within days they would have full power for all occupied buildings in New West and much of Vancouver. The federal government had also repaired the telephone exchange, so communications was so much simpler now!
Their team leader, 1st Lt. Matthew Stone was a grizzled outdoors type. This was his first visit to New Westminster. Riding his ATV up south from "Indian Country" over the Skytrain bridge to cross the swollen Fraser River, he was very surprised to see a massive Soviet submarine (K-141 Kursk) docked at the river wharf. Russian Navy personnel swarmed around it, making serious repairs on the bow (old damage) and stern (new damage).
GM Note: in the 90's an actual Soviet submarine was tied off at the river dock in New Westminster, a surplus Foxtrot-class diesel electric that was open for tours. Now imagine a submarine over 2x larger, with obviously damaged bows, Russian navy personnel, etc. Stone is crossing the bridges in the background, from R. to L. (North is on the left, he is coming from the south.
Exiting the light rail transit bridge (the nearby Patullo Bridge being put out of action by damage in the flood) onto Royal Ave., he stopped in at the armoury of the local Militia unit, the Royal Westminster Regiment, by city hall as instructed to check in and receive new instructions. He was informed that his contact, "Captain Belanger", was further up the hill, conducting a briefing of some sort with a unit that was moving into a pre-war High School.
Stone guessed he should be there for that and remounted, heading further up Cariboo Hill. His directions were simple, continue up 6th St, take a right on 16th. Ave.
He quickly passed through the Militia checkpoint on 10th Ave, the boundary of New Westminster and Burnaby, and continued up the hill. The neighborhood surrounding the school was abandoned residential, showing some signs of fire damage that increased the closer he got to the school (which was just over the crest of Cariboo Hill). When he crested the hill, he saw across a small valley where two Soviet airbursts that had taken out the Chevron and Shell refineries and tank farms that were around the base of Burnaby Mountain. Cariboo Hill Sr. Secondary was right on the edge of the zone of devastation. Trees were knocked down, houses collapsed, fire damage everywhere.
The school itself (Cariboo Hill Sr. Secondary) was mostly collapsed but the separate Gymnasium seemed to remain intact, if badly scorched on the north side.
OOC: As your base is on the edge of "pacified" territory, sidearms are appropriate and while you probably shouldn't need to go around in full battle rattle, longarms can be relatively close to hand. Hats are off indoors. (Lo wears a dark blue beret, Hawke a green beret. If Stone wants to make a slightly late entrance for effect, then that would be cool.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:27, Wed 09 May 2012.