Seeing that not all the tangos were down, Mac opened up on the men in the front group of 2 men while Abbott engaged the rear group of 2, targeting the one with the 40mm grenade launcher.

Mac fired and hit the man with the HK CAWS auto-shotgun, spinning him around. The other man fired his HK91 wildly spraying around 7.62mm rounds. Firing a long burst from his C8, Abbott cut down the remaining three men. This included the grenadier, the man beside him and the man firing his HK91. Those were the remaining gunmen. The hostages remained a huddled frightened mass in the middle of the gym.

Outside, the Humvee with Taras and Rachel skidded to a halt as the rain poured down. The LAV had some problems catching up and would still be a few seconds.

Referee's Notes:

All tangos are down at this point. None tried to surrender, which upon reflection you find unusual.

Andrews continues forward to continue clearing the rest of the building. He kicks away and weapons still within reach of the downed bandits as he passes.



-

"Nobody move!  Stay were you are! Put your hands up!", Abbot shouted above the deafening silence as he moved into the gym with his carbine at the ready.

"Secure the hostiles and weapons. Watch for stragglers or hostiles pretending to be hostages.  Go.", he instructed his team.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Sat 08 Oct 2022.

<radio> BOUNDER, ROVER.  Hostiles down.  We could use some help with crowd control. Stay frosty, there might be some stragglers."

Mac looks over at the horses. Are they calming down now that the racket has stopped or are they still a bit panicky and restless?

The team quickly moved in through the litter of sleeping bags, backpacks, overturned school tables, discarded clothing, food, lanterns, etc. to cover the downed tangos and establish who was a victim and who was a perpetrator.

After a moment of confusion and as their hearing improved, some of the now-former prisoners put up their hands. Some, however, had been hit in the chaos and others were trying to stop the bleeding.

At first glance the victims were all non-white (Asians and SE Asians) males and females, from teens to middle-aged. There seemed to be 12, with three of those injured by bullet wounds. Most had fresh bruising and cuts on exposed skin,

The ten kidnappers were all white males in their late-teens to 40s dressed as militiamen/mercenaries (black toques/balaclavas, surplus Woodland-pattern or dark jackets, blue jeans, combat boots, chest harness magazine carriers. They were fairly well-armed with small arms: several HK91s (a couple with scopes), a few M16A1s and Ruger Mini-14s, two Remington 970 shotguns, a scoped Remington hunting rifle, an HK CAWS autoshotgun and M16/M203. All had at least one sidearm and some two or three. The most common seemed to be the Colt M1911, some Beretta M9s, a several revolvers from .45 Peacemakers, to .38 Special, .357 and .44 Magnum, one Desert Eagle and several hold-out semi-automatics. All possessed at least one hand grenades, likely copies of the older US M26 fragmentation and M18 smoke grenades of various colours.

Notably, half had facial hair from beards to goatees to moustaches (salt-and-pepper for the older ones) but all had shaved heads.

In reply to helbent4 (msg # 626):

Tremblay reloaded his M16A2, exchanging his partially-empty magazine for a full one.

"HK91s... now why does that ring a bell?"

He then moved in to cover the one main entrance into the rest of the school, peering through the door with his NVGs.

Once the building was secure Andrews helped with the wounded as best as he could. He would follow the lead of someone more skilled if anyone was present. Starting by assessing the wounds and prioritizing the most serious.


-

(radio) "Bounder, Rover.  We could use a medic in here.  We have 3 wounded civilians. Over.", Abbot radiod in to his leadership.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:13, Wed 12 Oct 2022.

With all of the hostiles down, Saul clear the ham/feed issue on his Mk 43 in case it had to be used again before doing what he could to provide first aid to the wounded civilians.

Having been in the Middle East and just recently getting back to the Continental US, Saul had some questions for the group he just joined.

“What’s with the neo Nazi skinheads?

<radio>"Maddie.  Pull the truck up the the door. We may have to evac some civilians to an aid station.", Abbot instructed.

In reply to Saul Hudson (msg # 630):

From the look on Tremblay's face, it just occurred to him that US military personnel abroad might not be getting a full picture of political developments back home.

"Those HK91s... Skinheads... yeah, they could be New America."

Hudson had heard of them. They started out in the 70's as a loose coalition of neo-Nazis, Christian Identity groups, Posse Comitatus, White supremicists and White nationalists, anti-government militias, and like-minded right-wing fringe groups across the USA and parts of Canada long before the war. In the late 80's and early 90's as the Cold War heated up, the more moderate political wing of New America, led by the founder Charles "Carl" Hughes, gained a measure of mainstream legitimacy while the more violent and racist factions were ostensibly suppressed and disowned. They appealed to a wide swath of conservative and even some centrist voters rightfully concerned with a revitalised Soviet Union and communism's subsequent renewed march across the globe. President Tanner had partly relied on their support to (barely) defeat Clinton in the '92 election. During his administration they had advocated for tougher policing to fight the growing drug crime epidemic and for greater austerity to control government spending, particularly on social programs catering to special interest groups. They were also focused on preparing for war with the USSR, a global war they were sure were coming and were ultimately proved correct about in 1995 with the outbreak of the Soviet-Sino war. They had played a small but vital role in mobilising American and Canadian public support for a preemptive strike by NATO in Europe in 1997. Sure there were fringe elements, and they clashed with anti-war protesters and leftists that had been growing more radical every day. But once he was in-theatre that all kind of went away, and news from home almost stopped after the nuclear strikes in late-'97 and early '98.

Tremblay continued, "to make a long story short, ah, it looks like the nut jobs and right-wing fanatics, the Klansmen and neo-Nazis and so on, they never really went anywhere. They just went underground, biding their time while they gathered strength and reorganised. On New Year's Day 2001 they launched a mass uprising and insurrection across the USA and Canada, "New America Arise". They got beaten back and Hughes was arrested. But their groups scattered and now they pop up all over the place. The whole "New America Project" also includes Canada, and they infiltrated the provincial government of Alberta even before the war, although they have supposedly all been purged now. They got strongholds all over the northwestern USA. A cell was even taken out around here months ago, but they haven't been seen since."

In reply to Stanley Alistair Abbot (msg # 629):

Kelsey, the team medic (aside from Father Nick) was at the fort.

"ROVER from CASTLE, I am en route your position in ROOK. ETA 1 Mike! Over."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:07, Mon 17 Oct 2022.

The horses were still upset and agitated. They stamped and whinnied, pulling hard at their reins as they reared up in an attempt to break free and escape. Still, these horses had obviously been exposed to gunfire previously, perhaps trained.

However, Mac had been riding and taming horses all his life and knew his stuff. He quickly brought the near-dozen horses under control and minimised their panic.

GM Note: Although Riding is usually a Agility/Mobility-based specialty, I figured this was more an Intelligence/Survival task that could use either Riding or Farming as a specialty. Either way, Mac got 2 successes which is enough as these horses seem acclimated to gunfire, if maybe not so much, so close!

Knowing some first aid, Eric helped out as well. He noted to Andrews, "two have gunshot wounds, one of the wounded seems to have an older injury. Like they were shot a day ago, not now. The two that are shot now, well, musta been those guys firing blind before we mowed 'em down."

"Medic inbound!  Hang in there!", Abbot shouted to his team.

In reply to Stanley Alistair Abbot (msg # 636):

The HUMVEE was outside, LAV would be arriving in a moment.

Kel was bringing up the team medic, Father Nick, in the 10-ton truck. ETA 20 minutes.

So far the gym was secure. All tangos were down. Most were dead, some were bleeding out. Medical resources were going towards saving the injured hostages.

The rest of the school was not yet cleared.

In reply to helbent4 (msg # 637):

Dismounting from the HUMVEE, Rachel put on gloves, slung her Mossberg 500 shotgun and entered the gym. She quickly moved to secure the downed gunmen, putting them in zip-ties. She collected their weapons in a pile. Then she moved on to searching bags.

"Hey, I think I got something here."

She pulled an arm band out of a backpack. It was blue with a single white star in the middle. "Remember you were talking about New America? Bingo. This is an NA arm band. Guess these guys were travelling incognito. Explains whey some of them were fighting to the death. Typical for those wanna-be SS Stormtroopers."

Referee's Note: I misstated that Kel was en route. Kel was holding the fort, but is now enroute with the team medic. They will be a little while, though.

Thomas continued to try and stabilize anyone until the "professionals" arrived. He would prioritise anyone he had identified as critical.

OOC: Unless he has a person dying he will not push it.

Once he could hand off Andrews will then prepare to clear the rest of the building.



-

"Andrews! Medic is 20 minutes out. Mac, give him a hand.  The rest of you secure the building. Block off the hallways and clear them one by one. If you find anyone, call out and give them a chance to surrender.", Abbot directed.

"Sergeant Lee.  All of that stuff can wait until we secure the building and clear the hostages.  We need you on watch.", he added.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:50, Tue 18 Oct 2022.

"On it," said Mac, giving the nearest horse a pat.

He trotted over to Andrews and got his first aid stuff out, pitching in to help where he could.

Saul looks for someone to team up with to secure the building. It was better to do this sort of this in as a team as opposed going at in alone.

In reply to Saul Hudson (msg # 642):

Reloading his M16A2, Keith formed up on him. "Let's go."

In reply to Saul Hudson (msg # 642):

"Yep." He formed up as well, making sure his C8A1/M203 was fully reloaded. "I have 40mm tear gas loaded."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:47, Thu 20 Oct 2022.

In reply to Stanley Alistair Abbot (msg # 640):

"You got it, Abbot. Just finishing up here."

Once she was finished securing the mortally-wounded gunmen and making sure their weapons were not in reach in case some were not as hurt as they seemed, she got up. Readying her shotgun she went to the far exterior side door. Taras' Humvee was parked outside the main exterior entrance, and Hudson and company were going to clear the interior of the school.