[Raellus]

8/12/2000 Morning Shift (Cloudy)

Boduch proposes returning to the convoy ambush site with Pole Position and a mixed Lisi-Diamond force to recover the remainder of the abandoned supplies (or, at least, denying them to the Russians). After running it by Grease, Walker reluctantly agrees to the mission. The split squad consists of Grease, Cap, Sandy, and PR; Topper, Schimanski, Rusiecki, and Dovhan).

Sarge takes Walker's place, explaining, “I gotta do something to get my mind off this,” (he points to his bandaged nose). The platoon sergeant almost leaves it at that, but adds, “Plus, I wan to see how these guys operate,”

“You don’t trust them?” Walker asks.

Sarge hesitates, weighs his response, “Not yet.”

Walker acquiesces to Sergeant McNulty’s request.

When the recovery group arrives on scene, they discover that scavengers have gotten there first. It’s a gruesome scene. A pack of ten wild dogs are feasting on a trio of dead Soviet soldiers, and they don’t seem to be particularly frightened of the living. If anything, the dogs appear ready to make a stand to defend the scraps. When Kozak plinks one of them with a rock, it only makes the pack more aggressive. The Ukrainian draws his Shaska.

Pole Position is parked on the road, about 30m north of the tail of the destroyed Soviet convoy. The GAZ-66 is immobilized, but doesn’t appear damaged compared to the other two vehicles. The BTR has clearly sustained significant internal damage, based on the soot stains around every opening in its armored carapace. The middle vehicle is a blackened, amorphous mass, barely recognizable as military cargo truck. Grease and Sandy remain on board the APC (behind the wheel and in the turret, respectively); everyone else has dismounted.

Sarge and Topper confer. They’re reluctance to broadcast the party’s presence with gunfire, but it’s agreed that scrounging and area security can’t be accomplished safely with the dogs around, and there’s no way to get rid of them all silently (Topper left his suppressed Sterling SMG back at base).

Roll initiative…

Topper sends a warning shot skyward. A few of the curs jump at the sound, but the pack leader, clearly unwilling to back down, just barks back. Osi takes aim at the nearest mutt, squeezes the trigger of his short-barreled DDR AK. The mongrel drops to the turf, stone dead. Strangely, this doesn’t cow the survivors. Sarge fires next, killing another dog.

The alpha charges Kozak; the rest of pack follows its lead and attacks the intruders. Before most of the humans have a chance to fire, the dogs are among them.

Fighter jocks call a wild, close-range dogfight a “fur ball”. That term would be apt for what ensues here.

Topper, Sarge, and Osi all get bit in the initial charge. Long guns aren’t ideal for engaging targets that are literally at the shooters’ feet. Although the cur is close enough to pet by the time he squeezes the trigger, PR misses his target. Niedzwiedz misses his own attacker at point-blank range, despite being armed with a slightly handier AK carbine. Kozak’s 1927-model Russian cavalry saber proves much more suited to this kind of fight than modern assault rifles are. After avoiding the alpha’s snapping jaws, the big Ukrainian brings the curved blade down hard across the back of the dog’s neck, nearly severing its head. As soon as it flops lifelessly to the pavement, the survivors of the pack lose heart. They turn tail- literally- and run. It’s too late. They’re cut down in a hail of bullets before they can make the tree line.

Scavenging has to wait until wounds are treated. Rabies is the first thing on everyone’s minds, especially those bitten.

Inspecting his own wound, Topper reassures the others. “Nah, mate. Mad dogs don’t run in packs- rabies ain’t a social disease. We still gotta worry about good old-fashioned bacteria, though.”

Once bite wounds are cleaned and dressed, the scavenging begins.

Sarge limps over to the tree line east of the road, finds Honeybear’s M240 in the same spot it’d been left behind. The earth near the GPMG is still dark and damp with the machine gunner’s blood. Sarge lugs it back to the SKOT.

Niedzwiedz siphons ethanol from the unburned GAZ’s half-empty fuel tanks into plastic jerry cans.

Grease leaves Pole Position’s driver’s compartment to inspect the disabled BTR. The Soviet APC’s crew compartment is a blackened, gory mess; its weapons are thoroughly wrecked, the result of its main gun and coax ammunition cooking off. Two partially burned corpses- the gunner and a passenger, most likely- still crew the wreck. It smells like someone roasted pork over a bed of burning rubber. Miraculously, the BTR’s engine compartment appears undamaged.

While Grease and Niedzwiedz (a former Polish Army AFV crewman) inspect the disabled vehicles, the others pick up discarded weapons and search the corpses the dogs hadn’t gotten to yet. A survey of the bed of the unburned GAZ reveals several sacks of potatoes and other fresh produce, and Red Army rucksacks filled with spare clothing items and various personal effects. It appears that the passengers were planning on an extended stay at their destination. After a quick discussion, Topper and Sarge conclude that the convoy wasn’t just resupplying the 30-man garrison in Turek, it was reinforcing it.

The foraging party stows its loot- small arms, ammunition, grenades, food, and all of the rucksacks- aboard Pole Position. A full inventory will be taken back at base.

“We’d better get moving,” Sarge opines. “I can’t see Ivan just writing all this gear off.”


Ref Notes
For the day’s first shift, I pulled the Rabid Dogs card from the encounter deck. It fit the scenario perfectly.

This is the first time I’ve tested out the Close Combat rules. The pack drew an initiative of 4. Topper wasted the 1 slot with a warning shot. The next two characters easily scored kills (the dogs each had only 2 HP to begin with; pretty much every assault rifle has a damage rating of 2). It wasn’t difficult to hit a stationary dog at close range. On the other hand, once the dogs acted, a -3 modifier (-1 for a moving target, -2 for firing a rifle at a target in the same hex) resulted in a lot of misses once the dogs acted (charging and attempting to bit the dismounts). Most of my PCs didn’t have the Close Combat skill, so rolled their STR attribute only. Consequently, no one was able to block the dogs’ bite attacks. On the plus side, dogs have so few HP that a single hit from a rifle results in a kill shot.

I’m waiting on some rules clarification before posting what parts, if any, were successfully pulled from the damaged vehicles.

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