In reply to Kelsey Sarah Champlain (msg # 231):

The first bound was to swing by the Aldergrover border crossing, due south of the farming community.

It had been a sleepy crossing before the war. The old customs building off to the side of the modern crossing had been turned into a duty free shop. The new customs buildings looked like many government buildings built during the 90's: long, low, plenty of glass, plus long large covered areas for vehicle inspections.

Some time during the war the area had been his by air strieks. The duty free was partially collapsed and burned out. The new customs buildings were also bombed out. The crossing itself was closed off by many concrete traffic barriers. Past them could be see deep craters, now water-filled, perhaps 10m or so across.

Signs warned that the border crossing was closed until further notice. All traffic wishing to cross the border was instructed to proceed west to Peace Arch or the Truck Crossing, or east to Sumas/Aldergrove crossing.

It was possible that the American Elephant-mounted patrol had crossed over here, btu no vehicles would.

In reply to helbent4 (msg # 232):

Keith examined the crossing area using binoculars through the Humvee's rear window.

"Kel, you think we should dismount and see if we can determine if the Americans came this way?"

Taras ordered the column to stop to take a look at the devastation surrounding the previous border crossing.

That is heavy artillery or air bombs! Whoever did this was really into something serious. Mother Russia would dedicate an Air Regiment for the job or perhaps divisional artillery, Akatsiyas and everythig with a 152 mm. last name.

The Ukrainian pointed towards the building:

I would't mind to take a look at the old custom house...

Kelsey nods to Keith.

"Yeah, I would hope elephant tracks and.. spoor.. would be easy enough to track."

Lets take a look then.

Taras dismounted and stretched her legs. They place looked a bit eerie but that was pretty much the normal scenery beyod the wire.

Thomas also left the comfort of the Humvee and looked around as they prepared to take a walk around the ruins. He had his rifle in a low ready position as he walked towards the buildings with the others.

In reply to Thomas Matthew Andrews (msg # 237):

The US border inspection station on the US side was built in 1986 and made of red brick, glass and steel. Both lanes, the booths and the adjoining buildings had taken direct hits.

Off to the right, the old customs station was a 2-story wood-framed building that had been converted into a duty-free shop. It had also taken a hit, and had partially burned down.The duty-free had been looted of what little merchandise that survived. It was unclear why the border station had warranted an air strike (as it was much too far from Soviet ground forces to have shelled it using artillery). It could have been repaired or bypassed with little effort but it had not been, so in some sense the effort to deny use of the crossing was at least partially successful.

Over on the eastern "return" side the Canadian customs building was made of concrete, glass and steel dating to 1972. It had some damage but someone had cleared a vehicle path through the rubble, and it looked like vehicles could have passed through relatively recently. Kel also noticed Elephant "spoor" around, plus footprints in the soft mud of the detour.

Uh, oh!

The discovery of the status of the abandoned border crossing was somehow puzzling. Somebody took the effort to bomb the hell out of the post. Taras walked around looking for the tell tale of aerial bombs. The russian models were easy to identify as their design was really old. Flying trash cans that detonated mostly old explosives that left a good deal of the tail section untouched. On the other hand, western bombs took advantage of modern ballistics and their RDX fragged throughout leaving less of a clue to find out their birth certificate.

Some time along the search somebody mentioned something about elephants.

Well, I guess this is a good bottleneck to set up an OP.

Mac checks the elephant tracks to see if he can tell how many there were, etc.

In reply to Taras Vladimirovich Shevchenko (msg # 239):

Oddly, there were no bomb or artillery fragments. Those could be removed, though. Still, it looked like someone demo'd the buildings and cratered the roads using demolition charges.

There seemed to be four elephants. Mac wasn't a good enough tracker to be sure but he thought one was injured, which would tally with what they knew of the ones that had been stolen from Ft. Langley.

In reply to Taras Vladimirovich Shevchenko (msg # 239):

"Set up the OP here? Not a bad idea.

"Or further East at the Sumas crossing? We haven't been there, yet."

Cradling his C7A1, Tremblay surveyed the wreckage.

GM Note: to clarify, you are at the Aldergrove crossing, not the Abbotsford-Sumas crossing.

Kelsey moves around the foliage, disappearing from view several times.  She is like a ghost in the woods, obviously in her element in a more rural environment.

She returns as quietly as she left.

"There have definitely been elephants through here, Taras.  And some folks on foot.  We might be able to lay in and give them a little surprise should they return this way."

So we have problems with both border crossings. Obviously the elephant brigade has been around and using this route. Probably more of the same over the other site. We can deal with the elephant gang setting an OP here. That kind of animal require certain logistics are steady routes. In any case this was a Canadian Government facility and needs to be rebuilt and put to good use.Will do a 48 hours mission here and then pass it on to the local RCMP. If nothing comes up we'll go to  the next point. That's were the prison was nearby. Any thoughts?

"Prison.. hmmm.  How intact is that?  I got a strange feeling that it might be in use as a base."

"We need to rescue those elephants," said Mac.

"I don't think they are being looked after properly, never mind that they were stolen in the first place."

May well get rid of the marauders and rescue the dumbo family. One less worry if we have to move East.

In reply to Taras Vladimirovich Shevchenko (msg # 247):

"Ok then. We have a bunch of objectives. We need to decide which ones to pursue.

"One is to go across the US border in hot pursuit of renegade American army forces. I'm loyal to the US federal government, so fuck these "MILGOV" assholes.

"Two is to set up an OP here to control the border.

"Three is to recon the Abbotsford/Sumas border crossing to the east.

"We can go northeast to check out Matsqui Correctional, see if someone's using it as a base."

He thought for a moment as he checked out the area using his C7A1's mounted ELCAN scope. "I guess we can combine some of these. Hot pursuit will need to happen now if it happens at all. But we could establish an OP here and do recons of the other critical places: Matsqui prison and the other border post."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:54, Tue 19 July 2016.

Yes, yes...I can see we have some options here...We can discard crossing the border. We are not authorized to do so. Regardless of who's the boss down there.

The Ukranian, a talented chess player, sat down in one of the concrete slabs around the border crossing and positioned the map on the ground. Mentally he started to trace a grid over it and started his mental ruminations.

A loose piece makes a great target anytime yet it makes a fine basis for a relative pin: if you attack two enemy pieces in a line and the rear piece is loose, it becomes costly for your opponent to move the piece in front. This simple point forms the basis of a common and valuable pattern. Suppose one of your pieces is aimed at an enemy piece; for the sake of the example, assume your rook is aimed at your opponent’s bishop. On the other side of the bishop is your opponent’s rook. Both his bishop and his rook are protected. This might not look like a pin, or indeed like anything; your rook simply is aimed at a piece that it can't afford to take, and behind it is another piece you can't afford to take. Ah, but if you somehow can loosen your adversary's rook, the bishop in front of it suddenly does become pinned; for behind the bishop now lies a target that now is vulnerable. Now the bishop can be attacked with a pawn and may not be able to afford to run away as the bishop no longer is free to leave its square. Is a most interesting and important technique to understand involving the creation of relative pins: the art of loosening a screened piece, so that the enemy piece in front of it becomes pinned: We loose their elephants and then we get to the prison.

Taras looked up.

Shit, I lost you, right?

A wide grin illuminated his face. Everybody felt that some sort of translation will ensure....

We set up an OP here. If they come we will eliminate them. If they find out that we are here they may choose to fight or not. In any case we are blocking their way and controlling the border.

If in the next few "moves" they are not showing up we will have the local RCMP to take over us and then we will move towards the prison and have the RCMP as a back up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:55, Tue 19 July 2016.

In reply to Taras Vladimirovich Shevchenko (msg # 249):

"OK. Sounds good to me.

"Want to at least do a quick recon of the other border crossing?"

Is a matter of time. We give ourselves a 48 hours mission to engage if we can. If nothing happens then we call the Mounties to take over and we move East.

In reply to Taras Vladimirovich Shevchenko (msg # 251):

"Fine. Where do you want the OP?"

He looked around. There were some civilian buildings around but not too close. The US and Canadian customs buildings were mostly destroyed. The old customs building was fire damaged but still standing.

We are going to need a tall structure with good angle of view over the border crossing. Rooftop for good weather and top floor for alternate fire platform. We need to bring up at least a machine gun and some good rifle. Apart from that we need another combat element with mobility outside the OP, hiding somewhere nearby.

If the bad guys show up we will hit them hard. As they maneuovre to dismount, escape or whatever we will use this element to hammer them from other direction. We need to keep an eye in the dumbos too.

So my guess is to have a combat pair with the jeep at least a few blocks away and with proper comms. I need the best shooters on the roof though.

Kelsey snorts.

"I thought you are the CMP, Taras."
She grins a moment.

"I am better in the brush then I am anywhere else, I can set up to ambush or snipe from the weeds, then move it in like a hammer or fade away depending on the call."

She hmmms.

"A little surprise from the rear or flank, so to speak."

Well, yes. I am a Staff Sargent with the RCMP but currently in charge of this team that is under military command from the HQ in Vancouver Island. The RCMP I'm talking about is the UBC branch that is expanding and trying to unite all stragglers out there...

They shall provide our relief in any case.

I will need you, Kel to lead the mobile element to set up the flank attack, or rear or as you please. The idea is confront their column head on and as the move you can find, fix and destroy. We need precision to avoid injuring the animals and, of course, ensure a good kill.

"What do you need me to do, Sarge?" asked Mac.