[Raellus]

Grease pushes Pole Position north, driving through mostly open farm country, dotted here and there with black and orange wrecks. The party passes several tiny farming hamlets along the way, some showing signs of recent habitation, others obviously abandoned. After traveling about 7.5km, the OT-64 approaches a patch of forest. Grease knows that his baby took several hits from large-caliber weapons during the firefight and he wants to inspect the damage. Similarly, Deacon needs the APC to stop moving and the troop compartment cleared out so that he can take a closer look at Lt. DeGrasso’s wound. Believing that two of the Polish army detachment’s vehicles were immobilized during the firefight they’ve just fled, Walker and Sarge decide that the risk of making a brief pit stop in the woods is acceptable.

Honeybear and Sandy, carrying the RPG-7 in addition to her M16/203, are tasked with watching the party’s back-trail. A still-wobbly PR tags along to handle comms. Bird and Sarge head deeper into the woods to scout out the road up ahead. They take Lt. DeGrasso’s radio- an AN/PRC-148 handheld, unusual outside of SF circles.

Grease gives Pole Position a walk-around, assessing the latest battle damage. He finds four shallow, sunburst-shaped gouges and one small borehole in the OT-64’s right side armor, the latter just over the the APC’s engine compartment. Grease pops the hatch, inspects the engine. Miraculously, the 73mm HEAT round didn’t do significant internal damage. It should continue to run, but it shouldn’t be pushed too hard. Grease estimates that it’ll take about eight hours of work to get the old diesel (converted to burn alcohol) back to optimal condition, relatively speaking.

In Pole Position’s vacated troop compartment, Deacon removes Lt. DeGrasso’s PAGST vest, lifts up the wounded man’s shirt. The damage is worse than it first appeared. Much worse. The bullet entered at the hip and didn’t exit- Deacon had assumed it was lodged in DeGrasso’s upper leg somewhere. Swelling and lividity in the patient’s lower belly indicates, however, that after entering near the hip, the bullet traveled up through his pelvis and into his abdomen, doing significant internal damage. DeGrasso seems to realize the true severity of his wound as well. Only surgery can save the man now, and that’s simply not an option under the current circumstances.

Deacon looks up, meets his patient’s eyes. Behind the man’s obvious weakness and pallor, he sees guilt. “You knew?” the medic asks.

Degrasso responds with a weak nod of his head.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I thought you might leave me. I don’t want to die alone,” Degrasso answers, earnestly. Deacon wants to reassure the mortally wounded man, saying something comforting like, You’re not gonna die, or it’s gonna be OK, but lying feels like more of a cruelty than a kindness. A few seconds of awkward silence pass until the Chaplain’s Assistant asks, “Do you want me to pray with you?”

DeGrasso seems taken aback by the question. “In a minute…” he answers weakly. With more effort than should be necessary, the mortally-wounded officer removes something from his upper-left chest pocket. “Here. Get this to XI Corps. Do not let the commies get their hands on it…”

DeGrazzo passes Deacon a device of some sort. Deacon recognizes it as a 2gb Zip disk.

“What’s on here?” he asks, taking the disk.

“Don’t know. Wouldn’t tell you if I did. It’s important- that’s all…”

Meanwhile, Bird and Sarge scout the route ahead. The smell hits them first, getting stronger as they draw near to the northern edge of the woods. They hear the buzzing of hundreds of flies before they see the first of the corpses. A few meters inside the tree line, the scouts find a row of bodies, a dozen at least- their bloodstained cammies identify them a American soldiers. All of them lay face-down, hands tied behind their backs with items of their own clothing. Their boots have been removed, as have their weapons, ammunition, body armor, and LBE. They’ve have been dead for several days at least. Although the majority of corpses are mostly intact, animals have gotten to some of them, making an accurate count difficult. Bird and Sarge have smelled the corruption of death many times before, but they have to cover their noses and mouths to avoid heaving.

After making sure the area is secure, Sarge grimly says, “Let’s get their dog tags,” They go about the extremely unpleasant task in silence.

By the time the scouts return to the SKOT, DeGrasso is unconscious.

“Gutshot. He’s not gonna make it,” Deacon quietly announces.

Walker is looking at the map. “We shouldn’t stay here. If I had to guess where that Polish platoon came from, I’d say here, Goszczanow…” she stumbles over the name, “less than 5 klicks southeast of these woods. We need to a little more distance between us and them. There’s another main road across our route, about 3 klicks north of here.”

“It looks like there’s more patches of forest, ‘tween here and there. We could relocate closer to that road, get eyes on it. If there’s traffic, we can wait ‘til dark to cross,” Bird suggests.


NOTES:
No rules here. Just a bit of story-telling. I originally thought that Lt. DeGrasso would be joining the party, but I just couldn't get inspired to flesh out his character. I decided to kill him off instead, poor guy. The intrigue hinted at in this shift is a bit cliche and I honestly have no idea where to go with it, at this point.

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