Bayer keys his handset, "Sunray roger. I saw the fire from downriver, but no details yet. Do you have vantage point from your position? Bridge is almost ready to blow. Just a couple more minutes."

Bayer was relieved to hear the first reports of no casualties. He forced himself to keep scanning downriver at the concealed position... but his thoughts were with those on the tug.

Releasing her grip on the extinguisher and taking a moment to rest, Anneka spoke into the radio.
"Starlight to Sunray. Need assistance with barge fire. Suggest holding demolitions until all personnel are clear and under cover. Over."
[Private to Konrad Bayer: I would suggest at least 300 metres if proper cover (like a ditch or trench) can be found. Probably a good idea to wait until the tug and barge is much further away than it's current 400 or so metres.]

Quyen peers over the embankment has the helo flies over and onto its fiery end. Wide eyed and open mouthed she looks over at Konrad who took cover beside her. Almost laughing - "Shit... Hauptmann, shit. That was crazy."

Crawling back up onto the road she snatches up the coil of det cord and begins to quickly finish off laying the backup line. Once done she'll cut off a foot of the det cord, just in case there was some moisture contamination... especially since their demo gear has been sitting in the murky hold of an old tug. Once the lines are connected to the non-electrical firing mechanism, Quyen will report to Bayer that its all ready to go.

Minh Quyen
On the bridge
Finishing setting charges

"Hauptmann this is knife...Call over when you are about to blow so me and tucker can get a good distance away over."


"we are still good here and I'm about to scope that side of the river with my bino's to see if i can see anything on our new friends"


From his position John will scan the area the fire came from at the helo with his bino's to see if he can see anything. John will continue to hold security and give reports to the Hauptmann.


John
Scanning area
G3/1911
This message was last edited by the player at 16:47, Mon 21 Jan 2008.

Tucker looks in amazement as he watches the chopper get hit and go down.  "Well, fuck me to tears!  Looks like we dodged one there Yazzie!  I saw it but, I want to know who did it," he says back over to Yazzie who is now trying to contact Bayer for further instructions.  "I'm good with stayin' here Yazz," he says again to the Marine Sniper.

Tuck
PKM
Holding strong & awaiting orders with Yazzie

"Damn!

Clarence pops his empty mag, replacing it in his load-bearing harness and slapping home a fresh one.

"Thanks Kasparov. I wanna find out who that was that helped us out there first. They aint necessarily our friends so I don't want to go anywhere just yet."

He stands and walks over to the south side of the road and studies the Krolowa through his 4x scope. The barge is burning at the bows and settling at the stern. Not good. There is also white smoke hanging around the stern of the tug.

Gripping his handset, he walks across the road to the north side and looks towards the west bank, scanning from the black smoke cloud of the buring helicopter wreckage towards the riverbank.

Starlight, Sunray, this is Milk.
Me and the pilot here are OK. What's your casualty status? OVER.

After receiving the report, he continues,

Starlight, request you put the preacher on the line. I wanna ask about other idnigenous blue-force elements around here.

Milk
L86A2 (30/30)
Trying to find out WTF just happened...

"Starlight. Acknowledged. Wait. Out."
Before proceeding she spent a moment to gather her thoughts.
"Preacher!" she yelled for Stanislaw. "Radio."
With almost every able bodied person aboard heading forward to fight the fire, he couldn't be too far away.
"Milk, this is Starlight. No casualties. Barge on fire, sinking and will attempt to beach. Assistance requested. Preacher expected shortly."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:37, Tue 22 Jan 2008.

No one having told him the helo was down, and not having seen it's demise due to the bridge's bulk, Dawid continued manning the twin 23mm.

He muttered to himself in Polish.

"I wonder if I got that sniper... fucker's been following us from the locks! I got him good! I dunno, maybe we should recover his body, drive a stake through his heart and cut off his head! Just to be sure"

Looking around he exclaimed, "what the hell? We're going down! Well, I'm going down!"

He stood up, slipping his rifle's sling around his shoulder.

"ANNEKA! MAJOR! DID WE NAIL THAT BASTARD?"

Switek was slumped in a corner of the wardroom, still dazed and reeling from the punch in the chest he took by watching his longtime compatriot bleed out on the makeshift operating table.  He cradled his forehead in his weathered, bloody hands.  He had lost more men under his counsel as a chaplain and in battle as a partisan commander than he could even remember.  Loss was nothing new in his life, but being so far removed from the immediate threat of the battlefield and so close to sanctuary made it worse.  This one hurt the most.  Almost relieved that he could still feel anything, he began to weep.

I should have acted more swiftly.

His momentary lamentation was perforated by the alarm calls sounding from the crew warning of an impending airborne assault.  He tried to make it to the spot where he had dropped his gear and machinegun when coming aboard with Bear, but wasn't able.  He was instead caught inside the tug's superstructure during the helo's strafing run, nominally protected from the barrage of rocket fire.

When the smoke cleared, he began to make a damage assessment based on what he could see in his immediate vicinity but was hampered by his relative lack of knowledge regarding things nautical.  When the subsequent call went out for a fire suppression detail on the barge, Switek began to search for a fire extinguisher in order to assist.  He had collected the required eqipment and was heading fore when he heard the petite Major call out for a preacher.

Preacher?

She must mean me.

The monk reached the bow, and observed all hell breaking loose around him.  There, he encountered the Major.  She was holding a radio out to him.  Switek thanked her as he took the handset from her and keyed the mic.

"Yes, this is Switek."



[Switek]
On the bow of the Krowlowa
PM Makarov, holstered + 3 mags 9x18mm (8/8)
Responding to radio call.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:11, Tue 22 Jan 2008.

"YES DAWID," Anneka yelled back after handing the radio over and taking a few steps away.
"IT'S THAT PLUME OF BLACK SMOKE UP THERE!"
"WHAT'S THE DAMAGE?"

"We got him? Good! Bastard deserved it!"

He looked around.

"Ahhh... there's a bit of a fire at the front of the barge! We're taking on water! Can't tell you how bad, yet!"

"If it comes down to it I'm not going down with the barge! We should try and recover the ZU using the cargo crane if we can!"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:55, Wed 23 Jan 2008.

By the time Anneka instructs him to run the damaged barge aground, Walter is already on it, shoving the burning tub up onto one of the numerous sandbars limiting your options for travel in the vicinity of the bridge.

The jolt of the sudden grounding almost knocks the members of the fire control party off of their feet. They regain their footing and continue to fight the fire with a mix of C02 and old-fashioned water spraying fire extinguishers and buckets of sand. After a few anxious minutes, the flames are suppressed. It's likely that the rocket's detonation ignited some sort of accelerant stored amidst the boiler fuel in the barge's bows (some of Mateuz's hooch, perhaps?). The stern of the barge, still in the river, continues to settle indicating some degree of damage below the water line but, balanced as it is between the sand bar and the tug, it will not be able to completely submerge itself. The barge has been saved but, in its current state, has become an even larger albatross around the team's collective neck.

The barge is now marooned approximately 350m from the wired-for-destruction bridge.

Both Yazzie and Milk search for the surprise benefactor who, it appears, dispatched the hostile helcopter on your behalf. He's not difficult to spot. A man wearing American BDUs (including a Kevlar helmet) and a life-vest looks back at you through image intensifiers, a lit cigarette dangling fromt he corner of his mouth. His head and shoulders portrude from a clump of foliage jutting out from the western shore, between 1000 and 1500m from the bridge.

Actions?

Watching the mysterious figure who's watching him, apparently, Clarence squats down, giving himself a bit more cover, but continuing to maintain visual contact with the stranger.

Buddha? This is Pitchfork.
Do you have other elements in the area?
We just got some unexpected help shooting down that Soviet chopper from a dude on the west bank, about 1500m north of here. Looks like he's wearing U.S. kit. OVER.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:34, Tue 22 Jan 2008.

"Hauptmann this is knife I have visual contact with the crew that downed the helo..I male with american BDU's and Kevlar helmet. He is smoking and has no visible weapons. "

"what are your orders? I can contact him with tucker if you want?"


John will hold position until instructed by the Hauptmann. He will keep looking through the bino's at the new area of intrest.



John
holding position
G3/1911

Bayer peers through his own binos, listening the the various radio chatter. After a minute he looks in the direction of Yazzie responds, "Sunray, roger on making contact. I'm sending Quyen to your position... have her man the machinegun. Out."

"Minh! Yazzie and Tuck are moving downriver. Take over the machinegun for Sergeant Tucker." he calls over.

Slinging the leather strap of his binos over his neck he glances back to the tug where a light haze hangs over the barge. "Tug, this is Sunray, send SITREP. Operation is complete here, ready for final action. Lone man sighted downriver, are investigating. Anticipate extraction soon. Over."

OOC - Are all of the captured weapons and ammo returned to the tug?

Quyen closes up the demo kit. "Yessir." she replies and runs at a quick trot over to the sandbagged bunker.

"Sergeant Tucker." she says to him, holding out her AK-74 and a spare magazine.

Quyen then kneels behind the PKM, checks the weapon's sights, and looks around at her potential kill zone. As Yazzie and Tucker prepare to head out she lets them know - "Bridge is wired and ready to go."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:19, Wed 23 Jan 2008.

"Hauptmann this is knife i have two sets of battle gear hear, 4 grenades and one rocket will leave at this position for pick up. Its for the boat I dont want. also two ak-74's left in field for you to get. Me and tucker will advance in friendly fashion. Tucker will take the girls long gun he left his with others."


"we make contact will report.Knife out"



"ok tucker once the girl gets here you can take here long gun the Hauptmann wants the Machinegun left here. we will go out in open formation with weapons at alert not ready to show peace. if we have contact its every man for himself. i think they have a big gun out there so were fucked."


John
Moving out when girl shows up
G3/1911

"Negative, PITCHFORK," replied Switek with an almost complete flattening of affect.  "Just me, the boy and your pilot.  Bear did not make it.  Not aware of local friendlies.  Probably one of yours.  Advise proceed with caution.  OVER."



[Switek]
On the bow of the Krowlowa
PM Makarov, holstered + 3 x Mags 9mmM (8/8)
Responding to radio call.

Having put his weapon and armour down at the tug's bow to help fight the fire, Dawid wandered back there to have a cigarette.

He sighed, slowly coming down off the rush of the ambush, the helo attack and the frantic aftermath. He always felt a little jumpy, sometimes his legs shook a little as the adrenaline drained from his system.

The rebels' leader, the one who wasn't in a mood to talk earlier, was on the radio nearby.

Sitting down, Dawid rummaged around in his tunic pockets for a packet of cigarettes and a light.

Lighting his own, he waited until there was a break in the radio traffic. He then offered the pack to Stanislaw.

In Polish he said, "hello my friend, do you want one? I said Last Rites over both your friend and my friend. But I am not a holy man, by any means."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:38, Wed 23 Jan 2008.

Bayer follows Quyen over to the bunker. There he gathers up the as much of the captured weapons and ammo he can carry. He lugs them down to the river's edge where the inflatable has been landing.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:04, Wed 23 Jan 2008.

After helping to put the fire out, Mariusz turned on his torch and scrambled down into the bowels of the tow. Very carefully, he began to see if he could identify where the water was coming in. If the Tow wouldn't float, the tug was dead in the water, picking his way through the tumbled bicycles and other cargo, Mariusz began exploring the Tow.

Bear didn't make it? Did I hear that right? Jason thinks to himself, all the while training his weapon over at the newcomer in the reeds.

"Should we do a met and greet?" Jason asks, "I'll go meet him."

Jason Kasparov
AK-47 TRAINED ON NEWCOMER
Crouched and waiting

Understood, Buddha. Pitchfork OUT.

Having overheard the radio banter between KNIFE and SUNRAY, Clarence answers Jason,

"I think Yazzie and Tucker are on it. I'd rather not watch this flank alone, know what I'm sayin'?"

There's not much Clarence can do to help the welcoming party as they move out of small arms range, but he'll keep a periodic eye on their progress while he continues to surveil the eastern approaches to the bridge.

"Very well. I don't know this Yazzie or Tucker." Jason rubs his chin. "But you did mention Bear, what was his status?"

Hopefully he had heard wrong. Bear was a tough sob after all.

"Snowy, I need you to assess the damage and give me an estimate on repair time."
With luck it would only require welding a bit of metal over the breach, but as the hole was surely under the water line, she had no idea how difficult a task this would prove to be.
The damage to the bow was another issue that might need some attention. It wasn't likely to be much of a problem, but if they were going to be stuck there for any length of time they might as well deal with it.

"Stan," she said retrieving the radio. "I'm going to have to talk to you and your team shortly and see where best to use you all. For the moment though, do you have any mechanical skills that might help our current predicament?"