DAY 1 – APRIL 18th 2000
South of KALISZ, POLAND – MORNING
“Come on, step on it” yells NASCAR.
DONNA presses the pedal maintaining a firm grasp on the wheel; the pickup wobbles back and forth as the engine moves its noise to higher notes, then settles back in the same spot.
“Great” says NASCAR slamming the tail gate with his hand.
“Okay, stop, stop” says LED stepping away from the back of the vehicle “we need to work on the sides, give the back wheels some room in the front”
LED and NASCAR move to the side of the vehicle, their boots sinking in the soft dark mud at each step. Their pants are now dark from the knee down, testament to their multiple attempts at freeing the bogged down vehicle.
DONNA gets out of the cabin “There’s some flat rocks over there” she points at a nearby area “I’ll get one and put it in front of the wheel, you know, like a ramp”
NASCAR nods in agreement “yeah, I’ll do the same on this side”
“Good thinking” comments LED. He then turns to a nearby hill with a patch of trees on top, looming against the cloudy sky.
ALEX, who had reached to top of the hill to keep watch, emerges from the vegetation and calmly waives his arms toward his comrades.
LED waives his hand in return, and ALEX gestures for him to reach him.
“ALEX’s got something” says LED.
NASCAR and DONNA turn “troubles?”
“Nah, he looks calm. You guys keep working, I’ll check it”
LED reaches the Pole and he’s escorted through the trees to the other side of the hill.
“Thought you should see it” says ALEX.
“You have no idea how many times that sentence has preceded something I didn’t want to see”
The duo arrives at the edge of the vegetation and takes a knee in between the shrubs. In front of them, after the downslope, is a plain area of brown terrain with sparse vegetation where dozens of burnt-out battle tanks are rusting away. Craters mark where shells have impacted, black spots and ashes where fires started, and the entire area is littered with debris of contorted metal.
“Well, look at that” says LED getting his binoculars.
ALEX points around at the various wrecks “some Russian-made, some US-made, some German. Some I can’t even tell. Looks like something out of War World II”
“Well now it’s World War III. These things have been here for a while, I see no corpses” LED keeps scouting for a while “a full graveyard and not a single soul”
“I’ve been moving around in these trees for the past 15 minutes, all clear in all directions. Land is mostly flat, good visual” ALEX stops briefly “we could take a look around, see if there’s something salvageable in there”
LED breaths deeply, his eyes still pressed against the binoculars “no, we’re too close to Kalisz. The Russians hit the bridge, everyone on this side of the river was forced either North or South, and that’s where they will look for stragglers” he turns and looks at ALEX “we’ve moved 15 kilometers at best, we’re still too close”
ALEX nods in agreement “any chance we’ll find other survivors from the 5th? It looked like everyone was told to go South, but we have not seen anybody so far”
“I’m not counting on it. Remember the bridge we were supposed to go to? That was not a rally point, that was just… improvisation. You saw it, there was nobody there, even the goddamned bridge wasn’t there: they had bombed it like every other bridge on the Prosna”
They hear the sound of the pickup engine coming from behind them.
“Are we any closer to getting that thing moving?”
“I trust those two” says LED while retreating into the trees followed by ALEX “they’ll get it unstuck”
They move through the vegetation back to the other side of the hill.
“So, we keep moving South until there’s a bridge that is miraculously intact?” asks ALEX.
“That would be plan C. Plan B is moving away from Kalisz, that’s what we’re going with for now”
“And what is plan A?”
“I’m still working on it”
DAY 1 – APRIL 18th 2000
South of KALISZ, POLAND – NIGHT
“I told you I could hear water LT”
NASCAR is kneeling by a stream he found in the forest, filling his canteen.
“I wasn’t doubting your hearing” says LED taking the other water bottles from the comrade’s backpack “rather my ability of navigating the forest at night with ten feet of visibility”
“I’m just saying, we found food, water, we have a camp with a fire going; it’s better than stepping on a landmine I think”
“Agreed” says LED passing the next water bottle.
“Hey LT, you think the Russians are looking for us?”
“Do you mean us, specifically?”
“Yeah”
“Why would they be interested in us specifically?”
“You know, the Polish guy, ALEX. That was a torture chamber we found him in, they wanted something from him. I bet it’s the same intel he gave the C.O. when they debriefed him. Now the C.O. is gone, but the guy is still here, they could be looking for him”
LED hands NASCAR the last water bottle “it’s hard to believe that in all this mess someone would be looking for a single man, yet that’s what we were doing when we found him…”
NASCAR interrupts the filling operation and turns “LT, DOC and I talked about it this morning. We know you are some kind of… I dunno, a secret agent”
“Secret agent?” says LED incredulous.
“I’m not talking James Bond here” quickly adds NASCAR “I’m saying you are CIA or DIA or whatever. And I know you probably can’t tell what you know, but…”
“Then why would you ask?”
“I’d like to know if there’s a bullseye painted on my back”
LED takes a look around the dark forest and for a while the only noise is the water running. “I don’t know” he then says “I mean, I don’t think so. My orders were to find him and bring him back. I thought they would send him to III Corp’s HQ, but what happened happened and here we are. I don’t know what he knows, but I don’t think we are in greater danger because of it”
“Copy” says NASCAR quietly before resuming filling the last water bottle “I’m just saying, you may wanna make sure”
ROLLS for DAY 1 [click to expand]
The players escaped Kalisz and kept driving South for the morning and day shifts, staying out of the main roads and moving along the river Prosna.
When driving off-road one player has to roll for NAVIGATION and another has to roll for DRIVING for every new hex they enter.
Failing a NAVIGATION roll means the players move to a different hex than the intended one, which doesn’t seem like a big deal, if not for fuel consumption (driving off-road doubles your fuel consumption, and driving an alcohol-converted vehicle also doubles your fuel consumption).
Failing the DRIVING roll means the players suffer a mishap, and have to roll on the table on page 142 of the Player’s Manual.
The players had two mishaps in Day 1, both for failed DRIVING rolls:
- In the morning shift I rolled a 6: bogged down. The vehicle is stuck and moves no further in the shift; it requires a STAMINA roll for freeing it and resuming the march. The players had 2 successes on their first roll, but they had to push it.
- In the day shift I rolled a 7: wrong turn. Driver makes a wrong turn and needs to turn around and go back. One hex of movement is lost in the shift.
DONNA is the designated driver, as she is the only one with the DRIVING skill; still, she only rolls a D8 and a D6, so her chances aren’t the best. In day 1 the players consumed 24 liters of alcohol fuel.
During the evening and night shifts they foraged for both food and water, and made camp.
I drew 3 encounter cards for 3 of the four shifts, plus one more when entering new hexes. Only one encounter could be applied:
- 4 ♠ TANK BATTLEFIELD: the players decided not to investigate it
Everyone slept for one shift and they all consumed 1 food ration and 1 water ration.
FINAL COMMENTS
A couple of unharmful driving mishaps and a non-threatening encounter.
So far so good.