DAY 10 – APRIL 27th 2000
EAST of DOBRODZIEN, POLAND – EVENING
LED, DONNA and NASCAR have reached their place on the left flank of the formation, and the 116th Cav soldiers have just stepped off towards the town, when shots are heard coming from it, just a few hundred meters in front. The sound was of multiple shots all fired at once or so it seemed.
LED checks the team advancing on their right and sees they have stopped, so he signals his comrades to do the same. They all take a knee while keeping an eye on the forest.
Then another single shot is heard, closely followed by a burst from a rifle.
“That’s an AK” says NASCAR.
There’s another single shot, likely from a pistol, then LED turns hearing steps coming from his right.
“Single friendly, three o’clock” says DONNA.
It’s a thirty-something years old private with a pronounced chin scar “BENCH wants to see you asap, sir”
LED nods and turns to DONNA and NASCAR “don’t straddle off” then to the private “let’s go”
Two more shots crack through the air.
“Keep reporting” says ELK on the radio. He then sees LED and gestures for him to get closer; he puts the portable radio in between their heads.
A voice comes from the radio “there’s another group being moved down the main road. It’s six people, closely guarded”
ELK nods towards the radio and with his lips he spells CALDWELL. LED nods in response.
“They’ve almost reached the intersection, I’m about to lose them” says CALDWELL.
“Are they armed?” asks ELK.
“Doesn’t appear so, only the escorts are. I’ve lost them”
ELK looks directly at LED “looks like the shots we heard was bad guys on bad guys”
A new voice comes from the radio “this is REDWING, we have eyes on the group at the western intersection. They have just stopped”
ELK and LED get fractionally closer to the radio.
“They’re lining them along the road, facing the ruins”
LED knows what’s coming.
“They are on their knees; no, wait, one is still standing, looks like they’re talking”
A single shot cracks through the air.
“They shot the guy standing” immediately reports REDWING.
Multiple shots are heard.
“They’ve killed the rest… it was an execution”
“We better move” says LED.
“Hold on, there’s someone else”
Again, a single shot is heard, followed by an AK burst and then multiple shots overlapping each other.
“REDWING, sitrep” says ELK after a brief silence.
“A single shooter appeared from the ruins and took out one of the soldiers, then they exchanged fire. I think they killed him”
Another set of shots.
“BENCH this is CALDWELL, we’ve got a shootout between two groups at the eastern edge of the town”
LED grabs ELK’s arm “now”
The players and the 1/116th Cav get closer to the town while the sound of shots fired can be randomly heard. Over the radio, the scouts’ teams keep describing what appears to be a battle between small groups.
Finally, LED and ELK reach team CALDWELL. The leader of the group passes his binoculars to ELK “there were multiple firefights, just small arms. We had shooters in both fatigues and civilian clothes. Now one faction seems to have cornered the other inside the church”
Two shots are fired from the church.
“Guys in the church are still firing, but the groups outside seem to have stop. Sometimes you can hear them yelling, but it’s too far to understand. There’s something in that church they don’t want to hit”
“Or someone” concludes ELK. He then passes the binoculars back and gets on the radio “BENCH for REDWING”
“Go for REDWING” responds the voice of PFC CRANE.
“Any change in the situation?”
“Negative. Our sector is almost empty, most of the action seem to have shifted to the eastern side. There’s only a two-men team at the sandbag emplacement, next to the house closest to us”
“Can you see what they’re doing?”
“They have a rifle trained on the church I think, aiming high, possibly the belltower”
“Copy” says ELK.
“One more thing BENCH. They have ditched the armbands”
ELK frowns his brows “say again REDWING”
“The Flock’s armbands, they have taken them off”
PICK YOUR SIDE
“What do you think? An uprising? Some sort of civil war?” asks ELK.
He and LED have retreated to the base of the high ground, where the belltower can’t see them. ELK has taken off his helmet and is scratching the back of his neck.
“The Flock seems to operate on a ‘join us or die’ policy, we’ve seen people joining their ranks just to remain alive before” LED stops and ponders for a moment “we’ve pounded the town hard, and we killed a dozen or more of their soldiers in the forest. It’s possible their numbers are dwindling, and I mean the number of zealots”
“Zealots?”
“The ones really committed to the cause. In these days, less manpower means less control. Maybe the press-ganged faction saw an opportunity”
“Why don’t they just leave then?”
“Remember what I told you back at the camp?” asks LED.
ELK nods looking at the ground “hostages”
“Right, so we may have someone to help in town, and someone else barricaded in a church with hostages”
“All right LT, one move at a time: how do we make sure the friendlies are friendlies? If they start shooting at us, you know what’s gonna happen…”
“Yes, it’s… inescapable” finishes LED.
They hear a few shots in rapid succession.
“Let me take REDWING” says LED “we’ll cross the stream and approach the town from the South, we can make contact with the two-men group they saw. One of my men speaks Polish, and I speak Russian, we’ll be able to talk and report back via radio. And if they start to shoot at us… well it’s two against five, that should mean something”
“Okay…” ponders ELK “I can greenlight that. Don’t venture into town, stay at the edge, so we can cover you in case things go bad. And no unnecessary risks. Get a sense of the situation, report back, that’s it”
“That’s what I was thinking” agrees LED.
“If we read the situation correctly, we can help surround the church, put more pressure on the guys inside” says ELK.
“That’s one possibility” nods LED with little conviction.
“We might even assault it” adds ELK.
“That’s more likely”
The players and PFC CRANE cross the river to the South of the town undetected. There’s more indistinct yelling coming from the town, along with the occasional shot.
PFC CRANE and ALEX are tasked with getting as close as they see fit to the two-men group, while the rest of the players will remain further back and wait for an all-clear signal (or gunfire) before approaching.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE – APPROACHING THE SHOOTERS [click to expand]
The players split up in an effort to increase their chances. When trying to infiltrate or moving into position for an ambush as a group, the person with the lowest Recon skill rolls for the entire group. In this case it would be DONNA, who has no RECON skill level.
By having only ALEX and CRANE move up, ALEX has to roll for the group: he has RECON C which is much better.
ALEX and CRANE will move to a patch of trees two hexes from the two-men group they saw. This distance has a RECON modifier of 0 (Player’s Manual, page 61); they’re both wearing fatigues (ALEX’s clothes count as camouflage, as applied before) granting them +1 and the Forest terrain grants another +1.
ALEX rolls for Infiltration (RECON):
- Roll RECON [D12+D10] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 4 and 5)
His chances of a better result are good, so he pushes the roll:
- Pushed roll RECON [D12+D10] = 2 SUCCESSES (rolled 12 and 2)
Much better.
The two men both have INT C and RECON D. They roll with no modifier.
- Roll RECON [D8+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 1 and 2)
ALEX and CRANE get as close as they wanted unnoticed.
PFC CRANE takes a good look at the two men in front of them, then gets close to ALEX’s ear “I know the one on the right”
ALEX looks at him and raises his brows. CRANE looks again at the two men, then nods “it’s him” he mutters.
CRANE lowers his M4 carabine and steps forward, out of the tree cover.
“Wait” says ALEX trying to stop him without success.
“KEITH” calls PFC CRANE, his left hand off the barrel, raised in the air.
The two men turn quickly, surprised, their eyes wide open. One has a hunting rifle that has obviously seen better days, the other is pointing a pistol at CRANE, out of fear more than out of conviction.
“Wow, easy… easy” says CRANE, who slowly turns his bust and taps the 1/116th patch on his right shoulder with a finger “remember this?”
The man lowers his rifle a bit, pointing instead one finger “armia amerykańska”
“Yes…” says CRANE “if it doesn’t mean ‘shoot him’ then it sounds right”
The man quickly says something to his companion who lowers his gun. CRANE covers the distance between him and the pair and they start a conversation made of few words and lots of gestures. It doesn’t take long before ALEX is invited to join them.
CRANE introduces the man with the rifle “this is KEITH, he lives in a small town east of Dobrodzień, it’s part of the area we cover on patrols, we’ve met before”
“Aleksander” says ALEX nodding while crouching next to the sandbags.
“Krzysztof” says the man.
ALEXANDER looks at CRANE, who says “don’t ask me to pronounce that, KEITH is easier”
KEITH point at the other man “JAN” he says. JAN nods while studying the two soldiers.
“My Polish sucks” says CRANE “ask him what’s going on”
KEITH is evidently concerned: he speaks fast and goes back and forth between the present situation and what happened in the past weeks, but a few minutes (and a handful of shots) later the situation is somewhat clearer.
KEITH’s village was raided by the Flock’s army about ten days ago, his wife killed and him forced onto the Flock’s ranks along with his still alive neighbors. KEITH’s son, and everyone else’s still alive family members, where kept hostages and exploited as free labor sources, while providing an incentive for the men to stay in line. The Flock’s leadership is formed by Polish men, mostly former soldiers, while its lower ranks are staffed by a multi-national force of civilians and soldiers alike. The Flock’s rule has been brutal, and most attempts at defection were met with painful deaths by crucifixion.
The Flock’s leadership was planning on remaining in town for a week at most, apparently waiting for someone to arrive. Three days ago, the town was attacked with some kind of fire ordinance that set most of the buildings on fire and a low intensity battle kept going until heavy rains put out the fires and the enemy retreated. Apparently, they were attacked by someone identified as ‘the Baron, from up north’.
After the mortar shelling, some of the press-ganged soldiers tried to free their families and flee the town. A few apparently succeeded, but the others were beaten and executed. Resentment and hatred grew to the critical threshold, and when the soldiers sent out didn’t report back, the people the Flock had collected all around the area revolted.
Now the Flock’s loyalists are in the church, along with a good number of family members of the people outside, mostly women and children.
The sound of bashed windows arrives from the church, then comes a deep, baritone-like voice shouting in Polish.
CRANE rests his carabine on the sandbags and trains it towards the church “what did he say?”
“There is no worse punishment than being blind to the word” translates ALEX.
“What word?”
“I think it’s the Word, you know, with a capital W”
KEITH points a finger at the church and says something in Polish to ALEX.
“That was the rycerz” says ALEX “the KNIGHT. He runs the show”
FINAL COMMENTS
Welcome to Camp Flock, where the situation gets messier by the minute.
The actions of the players and the 1/116th Cav had an impact on the town, and offered an opportunity for everyone press-ganged (or enslaved) by the Flock to gain their freedom back. That apparently spiraled into a siege-type situation, with the town’s church at the center of it all.
Looks like the players will have to face – once again – a hostage situation. Entering the town was inevitable as ELK’s orders are to render the Flock inoffensive, though it could be wise to gather some more intel about the situation in town before making a move.