0083 - Jump Ahead

0900 06 AUG 2000
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Referee's Note: as the group has reached a safe harbor, we are going to advance the timeline. Roleplaying all the aspects of a week ends up being a lot of paperwork without much to show for it. This means skip it. If you're not enjoying, drop it like you would in any face-to-face game.

"We spent the next week on something like R&R. We did not really have any duties at the moment and Top Blue Elk let us be and gave our time to get our crap together. He could see that we needed some time to reconstitute.

Our physical wounds closed up nicely, with the medics checkin' our progress everyday and Logan making sure they did it correctly. He is picky like that. The wounds to our souls were still open and bleedin' but only time would heal those. Still, we were alive and had a duty to carry on for those that we had lost.

Harris dragged out the old battalion sign, complete with our unit coat of arms. Once again, we were the 1st Battalion, 173rd Infantry Regiment (Alabama National Guard), Major Edward Harris commanding. It felt good to show our colors around those cav guys. Time to gettin' back to servin' all proper like. Wear the uniform with pride."

As noted in the NPC description, Captain Warren will interview all Americans entering the town. This should not be much of a problem, as neither side has any need to escalate the encounter. The only difficulty is the situation with Major Harris, who outranks the good captain. Instead of a direct conflict about the chain of command, I have instead decided that it would be plausible for Major Harris to reactivate his battalion, as small as it may be. The battalion may be short a few bodies, but it also provides the motivation for our next adventure.

"Harris had daily briefings with Captain Warren. She was nice enough, but you always had the feeling that somethin' wasn't quite right in the management offices upstairs, if you know what I mean. Anyway, Harris came back one day with a scheme that can only be described as hare-brained. Sure, we all knew that we would have to go back out sometime and we generally had no problem with that. The problem was not that we were going out but where we were going.

Harris sat us all down for a good talk and explained the situation. 'Over the past week we have talked to a lot of people coming in from the north. There are rumors of a lot of our brothers in arms from the 5th held in POW camps up around Kalisz. It is our duty to help them and this is something both Captain Warren and I agree on. Our mission is to return north and search for evidence of POW camps. If we should find such camps, we will attempt to rescue everyone we can and return them here, where they will be integrated into the 173rd or B Troop, depending on their preference. We will don Russian uniforms and we have obtained written orders to patrol for stragglers, so hopefully the bad guys will leave us alone. Potato will receive a Major's uniform and will pass himself off as our commander. We will take one vehicle, Can-Can and we will be travelling light, scavenging as necessary.'"

The crucial element missing here is a mechanic/scrounger to replace Mitchell. I will be developing a new character to replace him since OT-64 with it's wear value of 10 is not going to get far without one. Even with, it is doubtful.

We can assume that Captain Warren will provide fuel for the OT-64 and ammunition for the PK, as the group also needs to come back. Russian uniforms should not be a problem and the orders could have been taken from a unit ambushed by Captain Warren, meaning they are legitimate. The team has enough captured WP arms to appear real and the odd piece of NATO equipment is not going to cause that much suspicion. Still, a lot of stuff will need to be secured in their quarters.

Now it is time to reorganize before the team rolls out.