[Raellus]

The prisoners’ boots are tossed over the wall. After a good deal more shouting and running about, most of them are collected and reunited with their owners (or, at least, those who wear the same size). The rest are thrown into Pole Position’s troop compartment, along with three captured AK-74s and an RPK.

Before the raid, Daniels was told that Pole Position could not accommodate all of the prisoners. This was to be a partial rescue- a prison break only, not an evacuation. As a kind of sop to her distressed countrymen, Captain Walker agreed that her squad would delay any Soviet pursuit force by acting as a sort of rear guard while freed POWs made their way into the forest about 1 km east of the ersatz prison camp. After they reach the concealment of the forest, the rest is up to them. No one is really satisfied by this arrangement, but it beats drawing lots to determine which prisoners get a ride, and which don’t.

The rest of the boots are distributed, along with the captured weapons (including ones captured in previous engagements). With the freed POWs scattering towards the eastern woods, Pole Position moves into the shadow of a tiny hamlet on the road leading to Grabow (where the bridges and a Soviet combat engineer platoon is located), picking up Bird along the way.

A few minutes after the Diamonds’ APC is in position, Bird spots a vehicle approaching from the north along the same road, where it emerges from a patch of forest. It looks like an older model Red Army cargo truck. The truck slows before it leaves the wood-line, either out of caution or because the driver's spotted the SKOT. The Diamond’s machine gunner opens fire, aiming at its radiator grille. The 15-round burst of 12.7mm produces only one clear hit, but the truck abruptly stops and starts backing away, trailing grey smoke from under its bonnet. It jerks to a stop after reversing about 20m. Honeybear fires another, longer burst (25 rounds); this time, his marksmanship is even worse. Seemingly untouched by the second burst, the truck lurches backward again, accelerates, and disappears from view into the forest.

“I think I hit it!” Honeybear shouts, ears ringing. “I saw smoke… but it backed up, into the woods!”

“At least you got ‘em moving in the right direction,” P.R. quips sympathetically.

Sarge looks to Captain Walker. She suppresses a shrug. “Do we go after them?” she asks the grizzled former-Ranger. He senses her reluctance, shares it- with good reason. He answers, “We lose our mobility and firepower advantages if we go into those woods. Hopefully, Bear gave ‘em a good scare, damaged their ride. I think we should stay put until the POWs are across that field, then get the hell out of here.”

Walker nods. “That’s what I was thinking too. Good. P.R. tell us when the last friendly is in the woods.”

“Yes, ma’am.”


Notes:

The dice were not kind to Honeybear. I didn’t push either of his rolls because I don’t want to wear out the Dishka - it’s proven to be a game-changer so far, and I shan't risk losing it unless the situation is life or death for the PCs.

There’s no provision in the rules for making a called shot on an internal vehicle component. But, since it’s common knowledge that most vehicles have their engine in the front, I went ahead and rolled it as a normal called shot (-2) at a moving (-1) vehicle (+2). I only registered one hit from the initial burst (rolling two d10’s and all the ammo die). A 12.7mm round does 4 damage and the Zil truck has a front armor value of 1, so the truck’s engine takes 3 points of damage (-3 reliability). The driver pushed the roll while trying to reverse out of the kill zone. He failed, and the dice showed one 1, so the Zil loses 1 point of reliability. Since I didn’t predetermine the Zil’s REL score before the encounter, I went with the default (5). On his next turn, the driver successful got the Zil unstuck (Slow Action); since driving is a fast action, he made another Driving roll resulting in two successes. Adding 10m to its doubled combat movement (2x2) means that the driver reversed 50m during his second turn, effectively moving into concealment in the forest. So, with 1 reliability point remaining, the Zil manages to escape. That driver is one lucky S.O.B.

On the positive side, I consulted the "Oracle" and drew a playing card to determine what the freed POWs' reaction to being only partially rescued would be. It was a nine of Diamonds- helpful. I interpreted this as acquiescence (i.e. although not happy, no one begged, cajoled, or tried to push their way on board Pole Position).

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