OOC: Begin posting here once you have completed all of your pre-mission planning, trading, and preparations, thanks.


The moon hung over the beach like a spot light. Every wake seemed to roll in like a beacon announcing the approach of their insertion craft. At less than a hundred meters from shore the boat spun smoothly through one hundred eighty degrees and began to reverse up to the beach. At around ten meters out the engines were cut and the back of the craft allowed to skid across the sandy bottom until the craft came a stop a little over three meters from the wake zone on the beach.

Strapped into their vehicles, nervous as hell from nearly an hour of drifting inland on an ocean illuminated by the brightest moon any of them had seen since, well, none of them could remember when. On a signal from the deck chief, one Petty Officer Daniel Gardener from Dallas, the FAVs rolled bouncily onto the dry sands and began their quick run up to the shadowed side of a nearby hotel.

It was 00:37 in the morning. The weather was clear, and predicted to be so for two more days. The temperature was a pleasant forty nine degrees with mild winds. Visibility was an unprecedented two kilometers along the horizon. It was an ideal night for a covert landing into a potentially enemy controlled area of operations. The distant sounds of thudding artillery fire, the crash of tank main guns, and the rattle of automatic cannons reminded everyone of how close the war was.

"Alright Loba-Perdición, where are we going?" Raf asked James Wolfebane, using the Spanish equivalent of wolf and bane, jammed together.  Ortiz briefly wondered if he could keep one hand on the steering wheel and perhaps reach over and fire that sweet M249 if ever came to that.

Wolfebane noticed Raf kept looking over at the M249. He had curiosity written all over his face. Wolfebane sighed. Well, it would seem he was riding with Audie Murphy. Could be worse, he told himself, at least Audie killed a lot damned Nazis.

(OOC: Sorry for the adlib there Wolfebane. Not assuming your thoughts, just had to stick that Audie Murphy drop in there.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:51, Fri 10 Apr 2020.

Roger hung on to Ma Deuce and watched the likely hiding places as they swung by.

The ride into the beach had been interesting. Once they were in the sand Andrew did a quick scan of the dunes and any upper stories of the buildings they could see. Like everyone else he waited for the signal to order them forward as he looked for lights or anything else to indicate people were about.


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This message was last edited by the player at 03:37, Sat 11 Apr 2020.

The FAVs made quick work of the beach crossing and in moments were parked along opposing angles in the shadowed corner off a eight story hotel. Engines offs, ears straining, the team found little to give away anything other some cattle that had probably been roaming the area since the previous fall invasion of the area.

A quick check in to the departing land craft; Wolfbane set the vehicle's radio to a ULF setting and gave several quick taps of a Morse key to let them know the mission was underway as planned. S-f, pause, S-G. So far, so good.

Once again radio silent the FAV's fired up their engines just an ominous sound drew their attention nearly due east, just a touch south, and basically in a direct path to little airport. The shriek of a turbine, the thrumming of rotors, and the echo of a helicopter flying nap of the earth.

It was the sound that soldiers from the fighting in central Europe where all to familiar with; the high speed passage of a Hind E gunship flying very damned low to the ground.

(OOC: Recon rolls for anyone trying to place the vehicle's vicinity and direction of travel without actually seeing the chopper. Anyone who rolls 20 or under will have an idea of its actual 'combat attitude'.)

Andrew tried to orientate himself to the new incoming threat so he could get eyes on the helicopter. They might be able to use the hotel building to their advantage if they have or are spotted, so he waited and tried to pick up any tell tale sounds or signs from the flying gunship.

Andrew Johnson rolled 15 using 1d100.  Recon = 70%.


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Pat sat in the driver seat the engine idling, he was nervous about the op, the last one had resulted in more casualties than he was comfortable with.  He was distracted, he knew it but just couldn't seem to get it together.  Still he knew the NCO's had everything in hand and once they were in the field he was just one of the cogs in the machine.

22:16, Today: Patrick Walsh rolled 86 using 1d100.  Recon 55%.

"Just remember, most medals for bravery and such tend to get awarded posthumously. Audie did good coming home in one piece." he added, as he checked the HK-CAW just in case he needed to crotch shot a Russian again, and not the Hustler kind.

Once the signal was given, he kept his ears open in case there was an abort signal or other message on the radio. James could tell there was a Hind flying about but has no idea how high with the headphones on, and the FAV's engine humming.

"Bravery?  Mowing fools down while driving away is why I'm checking that 249 traverse.  I'm gonna be ready to haul ass if you guys go hand-to-hand with a tank again.  You know I read the last after action report, right?" Ortiz said with a snort.

11:01, Today: Rafael Ortiz rolled 43 using 1d100.  Recon. [Recon = 50%]

This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Sun 12 Apr 2020.

"Russian tanks are pussies."

Roger spit over the side of the FAV in his best Jesse Ventura impression.

"Then make sure you are using it on those that are barking out orders. No idea what they are saying but we all know a command voice when we hear one." James said.

Scratching heads, craning necks, and generally experiencing extreme pucker factor the team collectively decided that the Russian attack helicopter was indeed moving off in the direction their objective. It was probably doing a low altitude sweep at a relatively low speed with its crew using night vision gear to look for heat signatures.

It was a dubious technique with such a heavy helicopter. The Hind made a tremendous amount of noise at low altitudes. The S.O.P. was to simply duck and cover in place and let the chopper pass. The Hind crews new how hard it was form them detect anyone due the noise and the poor visibility from the helicopter so they relied on the ground beating effect of the rotor wash and abject fear to trick hidden enemies into firing on the helicopter in panic.

Andrew searched his memory for the last Intel he had read specific to the Russian's deployment doctrines for the Hinds. Best he could recall was that it would usually be escorted with a fuel truck, a pair of mechanic's vehicles, an ordnance trailer, a portable machine shop, a platoon of infantry with an officer in charge mounted in trucks, and engineer tractor, and a communications van. Impressive, but necessary in order to keep the chopper flying, armed, and in the right place.

Roger recalled experiences in Turkey. Knifing Chinese troops on patrol outside an airfield, using bleach and water to deter Shar Pie guard dogs quietly, and shooting Chinese built copies of the Russian Hind E with a rebuilt 20mm anti-tank rifle. The canopy for the pilots was weak as armor went. And the air intake lacked any sort of mesh or shroud to deter incoming 20mm HEAT or APIT rounds.

To Woolfebane and Patric is was a simple matter of avoiding exposure to such vehicles. But, spiking and airfield, visions of childlike glee filled their heads. Along with lists of the explosives they would use, the noise they would make, and the shear 'oh damn!' factor of the explosions.

Raf wasn't indifferent the danger. Tankers hated the damned choppers.

They just popped up from behind terrain, fired ATGMs or rockets, and disappeared. Many had electronics to jam radio transmissions, dropped chaff prior attack runs by low flying SU-25 'Frogfoot' ground attack aircraft, packed heavy machine guns and auto cannons for targeting weak points in armor and shooting up softer vehicles, then their was his personal favorite, the Mi-28 series of choppers and the Hind E in particular could actually drop bombs from low altitude.

"Just fly by you fat bastard," Raf muttered under his breath as the Mikhail Mil designed aircraft beat the air into submission.

"Murphy just stay home for once" Pat muttered "just go back to bloody Ireland" as he sat waiting.

Pulses returned to normal. Heart rates slowed. And it became obvious that a change of underwear wasn't going to be necessary. Then, off in the distance at what had to be the airport and series of lights came on. For a brief moment the attack helicopter was illuminated as it dropped into the light and disappeared. Several minutes passed as the sound of rotors faded away and then the lights went out.

"Let's see if we can leave a grenade or two in the engine on that thing." James said as he went back to monitoring the radio.

"Doesn't seem to be looking for a specific threat... lets get a move on once its done it's thing." Andrew was eager to get out of the immediate area and get the vehicles stowed away. He did his best work on foot and in the bush....

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Castle patted a huge black canvas bag he had loaded on the FAV.

"not this time baby, but if we see that bitch again you can have her..."

Creeping off of the beach was as stressful as it was uneventful. No patrols, no sentries, no remote mines, hell, not even a single trip flare.

Moving inland proved to be slow, but equally as uneventful. It was almost like the Soviets had forgotten to look to the east. But, the team knew better. Somewhere out there, probably a lot closer than they would like, was the leading edge of the Soviet defenses.

Andrew tried to keep the big MG orientated to the sand dunes as best as he could as they moved along the beach. He figured if they were going to run into something that would be where it would be.

There was also the problem of the pier, probably what was left of it would be more accurate, never the less if the Russians were going to be anywhere on the beach he assumed that would be it.

"Are we going to pull up short on the pier and go have a look at it on foot ?"


OOC: This is assuming we have not already past the pier ?



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This message was last edited by the player at 01:42, Sat 18 Apr 2020.

"Yeah, I'm down to clown, but I ain't no point man ninja like some of you.  I'll stay in the back of the formation and try not to make too much noise," Ortiz said.  He was underplaying his skill and ability somewhat - he wasn't a klutz clad in bells and bagpipes.  He was the Marine version of a Cav Scout.  In a pack full of Tier 1 badasses however, he knew someone else would be better suited to leading the foot patrol.

"Maybe find a place on the outer edge and get an idea as to their patrol pattern before we get close to the airport. If they see fresh tire tracks, they might start looking, especially of they are American treads." James suggested

After nearly an hour of short sprints and very slow creeping through the shadows with the heavily armed dune buggies, they were within a mile of the airport without hearing a shot or angry word cast in their direction. Then on a patch of open terrain two patrols of light vehicles ran into each other in the dark.

A pair fast moving HMMWVs cut brush, running too fast in the wrong part of the map, ran straight into a BRT 80. Both sides were taken by surprise, first lighting up their running and searchlights to identify the other as friend or foe. Then machine guns roared, lights shut off, tracers searched for targets in the dark as the three vehicles experienced that infamous 'oh, shit, it's them' moment.

Taking immediate action the FAVs pulled up short and took cover atop a narrow ridge covered in scrub pine that stood an almighty thirty meters above the surrounding terrain. The fight in the little field between NATO and Soviet patrols very quickly wound down of the HMMWVs halled as northward as the much slower BRT 80 tried to pursue. Tracers passed in opposing directions as the rolling machine gun fights moved one some three hundred yards to the west.

Holding their breath and hoping the NATO patrol made it back to its unit safely, the team waited. A moment later lights came on unexpectedly in airport, which was around twelve hundred meters away. The nearness took them by surprise, as they watched they could see their was action down on the runway nearest the control tower. The Hind E was getting prepped to take to the air again.

"Any chance we can 'get to the choppa' and jam it five ways from Sunday before it gets airborne?  I got five fifty meters of effective range with this bad boy.  If we can close half the distance or more before they get that thing spun up, maybe we can keep it grounded," Raf offered.

"Problem is that they are alert now. Better to hide and not let them know that we are in the area. Give them a few hours to relax their guard and then catch them napping." James suggested.

In reply to Rafael Ortiz (msg # 25):

"Sorry guys that not our remit..... we were told to observe and report back and to check the runway if we can. We would have trouble dealing with the men deployed to provide security for the helicopter let alone the motor rifle division across that hill." Andrew points off into the distance.


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Lights came just west of the little camp near the runway. A light vehicle, probably a UAZ series truck, bean rolling down the runway using a spot light. After several moments it became obvious that the truck was searching along the runway for signs of enemy activity or devices.

Men in twos and threes began filtering out around the area, security for the camp and its resources. They moved well, one man carried a light while the other two kept a close eye on their surroundings, and the seemed to be keeping track of the other teams on their flanks so as not to cross into each others line of advance.

"Ok time to go and set up camp... we can return on foot and begin the op. We will need to send a Sitrep up the chain as well so they know what's going on and what might be coming their way. Either way we better be off before security makes it to this side of the fence."



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"Yeah.." Raf said slowly and in a resigned tone.  Even if they managed to ground the chopper, they'd have base defenders to deal with.  Which wouldn't be too much of a problem if Ortiz was in his old LAV.  But he wasn't and sometimes he forgot that.

The Hind E lifted off with a smooth lift that edged forward into a rapid accelerating low altitude flight. The chopper was blacked out and keeping low to the ground. It moved off to the northeast in the direction of the battling vehicles. On the ground at the base camp lights were quickly cut out as men moved into prepared fighting positions to await an incoming artillery or ground attack.

Pat waited for the other vehicle to move off first, then slowly followed to the chosen base camp.  "We captured a tank last time, here is hoping they don't expect us to take a Hind this time." he muttered, then winced just in case Murphy was listening.

Once the Hind had made its way off into the distance Andrew waited for them to depart. He orientated the MG slightly back to it original position of facing forward while they were driving. Turning the large weapon towards any likely ambush sites or buildings as they past.


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"Okay, maybe its time for someone in this Mickey Mouse outfit to decide where we are going to hide out." James muttered, part question and part statement, one of the reasons why he stayed a Specialist and was not an NCO.

In reply to James Wolfebane (msg # 34):

"Right, takes us South see if you can find an old logging road of sorts as we need to get into the bush and set up a camp. Lets go." Andrew would try to help with navigation to get them in the general area they need to be to set up a camp.

Once they had stopped the first priority was to get the vehicles hidden especially from the air so they started with camo nets and then local foliage. Andrew will cut some poles to also add to the nets so they did not look like ATV's under nets. It looked as if they crossed a channel that went on for some time which would probably be their water source but could also play to their advantage if they get jumped, it would need to be looked at and perhaps prepared for that particular situation.

Once they had the vehicles sorted it was time to work out just what they were here to do so he gathered everyone together. "So I have been asked to try and work up our mission prep and outline how this might go down. Simplest plan would be 12 hour shifts with one or two hides, change over taking place in the dark. I am about to send a SITREP up the line for what we have observed so far, the actual hands on with the runway may not be needed, but we will have a better under standing of that once we have observed the airport for awhile, hell they may even run a fixed wing down it and save us the trouble. So any questions or suggestions ? I was thinking two or three man teams...."


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This message was last edited by the player at 09:41, Sun 10 May 2020.

"Two or three man teams sounds good to me.  I'm good to pair up with whoever doesn't mind if I let a few bean farts rip," Ortiz replied.  It was fair warning to anyone who would be stuck in a hide site with him.

In reply to Rafael Ortiz (msg # 36):

"Right I'll take the second, any volunteers who have experience with this sort of thing ? There is also spots for guarding the camp as well as checking out that dike we crossed to get here. I wanted to know if it runs across to both highways and whether the bridge we crossed was the only point to get over it between the roads. If so it will be a great obstacle to play with in our favour."


OOC: Sorry this took so long to get up.


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