A Day in the T2K Life

[James Langham]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

As the books are vague on the smaller nukes, if you can justify a particular location as a target, you can nuke it. You can also not nuke an otherwise prime target due to missile failure, changing military priorities or any number of other reasons.

I tend to view the history as being just that - a history. Look how often we have got that wrong, missed facts, etc - see the 1st ed Soviet Vehicle Handbook for what the author's say regarding that.

[atiff]

This story uses some of my own setting ideas for the area around Czestochowa.

Piotr left in the pre-dawn, walking north out of Bugaj towards Kucelin. The area surrounding Bugaj was still quiet; the farmers were not up yet, and within 10 minutes he had gone past the edge of the area that was cultivated. He also wanted to get past Rakow as quickly as he could; a band of scroungers was in residence there, and objected to others coming through their 'turf'.

He stuck close to the man-made lake, in the cover of the weeds and ruins. It had surprised everyone how much could actually survive the nuclear blast that the Americans had set in the Kucelin-Huta area. Someone said it had only been a small weapon. To Piotr, and nuke was a nuke.

Thinking of this, he reached down and turned on the Geiger counter in the case on his belt. It started ticking slowly; a safe level he knew. The man who had sold it to him, Michal, had shown him how to use it and what the safe levels were. It had cost a good amount to get, but it would be worth it. Piotr would scout out the Kucelin area for salvageable gear, safe in the knowledge of which spots were still too hot for him to safely approach. Once he'd found some items, he would wait and then go to the lake edge in the tail-end of the afternoon. Alexei, would be there with his small boat, they would load up, and share the spoils. Piotr didn't completely trust Alexei, but it was he who had found the Geiger counter for sale, and had cut Piotr in on the deal. No risk, no gain, thought Piotr as he continued north.

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The sun was around half an hour from setting as Piotr waited excitedly by the edge of the lake. He'd found some great stuff in the ruins; packaged food, batteries, moveable lumps of steel, and two gas cylinders on an old welding rig. It was a good haul, but too much to move it all alone, so he had stashed the heavier items where he had found them until Alexei arrived and they could move it together. The Geiger counter had been invaluable, keeping him away from anything too hot, and letting him know the things he had found were safe to move.

As Piotr waited, he suddenly heard a slight scraping noise from some distance behind him to the left. He carefully rose and drew his Makarov. Someone, or just the wind? As he scanned the area, there was a crack; something slammed into Piotr's chest, and he dropped like a stone. Lying on the ground, he could feel very little except for a lump in the hand trapped under his body. As he lay there, face-down in the dirt, he heard the crunch of footsteps; someone approaching. Piotr felt his body rock as something nudged him. Then he felt himself being rolled over.

Piotr willed his hand to squeeze as the rolling movement brought the Makarov out from under his body. There was a jolt, and a bang. The figure above him screamed and flopped to the ground, clutching at its neck. Piotr tried to stay conscious as the figure slowly stopped thrashing. The head lolled over, and Piotr looked into the dying eyes of Michal. Then his own world went black.

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As the sun set, Alexei maneuvered his small boat closer to the shore. He had his rifle out, as he could see two bodies on the shoreline. He wished he had a scope, so he could see who it was. Finally, he got close enough to make out the figures, then shook his head and sighed.

Grounding the boat on the shore, he made his way over to the two corpses. He gathered their weapons, boots and light packs, and finally the Geiger counter. He looked over at the unseeing eyes of Michal. "Seventh time unlucky for you, eh? I told you we should have changed towns." Examining the Geiger counter for any damage on his way back to the boat, he started to think about where he could find a new partner.