To Albion: The First Battle of Keava
Sep. 23rd, 2008 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tegyriusSo, better late than never.
The PCs spent a week of downtime in Keava, pulling maintenance on their gear and helping out around the town. LCDR King's upbringing on a sheep ranch made him invaluable in the latter hearts-and-minds work, as did the rest of the PCs' willingness to pitch in with unskilled but enthusiastic labor.
Through careful interviews with the village women who'd been "guests" of the Russians, Michael managed to put together a fairly comprehensive picture of the occupied facility to the west. The garrison is about 60 troops from the 7th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, grudgingly subordinated to a handful of naval intelligence personnel from the Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet. Heavy equipment seems to consist of a BTR-80 and a pair of gun trucks, in addition to the handful of gun jeeps and civilian light trucks. The garrison is technically under the command of the occupation headquarters in Tallinn, but effectively is an independent command. An independent command, it was pointed out, whose hand lies particularly heavy on the territory it occupies.
So, being heroes, the PCs decided to poke the hornets' nest. The first stage of the plan was to disappear the weekly extortion squad in the hopes of (a) impressing the local Estonian partisans and (b) provoking a reconnaissance in force which could also be ambushed.
On the appointed day, Lee hied himself and his appropriated RPK-74 to a convenient ambush spot he'd previously reconnoitered. Casimir took a couple of local hunters and wandered off into the forest. Roswitha and Michael donned local garb and milled around with the rest of the villagers. Jurgen and LCDR King took up medical reserve and overwatch duties on the second floor of the town hall.
The ambush took less time to play out than it would to describe later. The goon squad showed up more or less on schedule: three men and the weekly hostage in a UAZ-469, with a five-man cavalry escort. As per the previous week's pattern, two of the cav troopers dismounted and circled the town to the south to cut off any attempts at hiding in the woods, the other three stayed on the road to hold open the back door, and the truck continued on into the village.
A five-second flurry of gunfire settled the matter decisively. The truck crew went down from multiple headshots from Roz, Michael, and King. Lee cut down the three goons on the road (and, unfortunately, two of the horses as well) with a couple of bursts. No one's exactly sure what Casimir and his hunters did, but two shotgun blasts and a brief anguished scream were all the signal anyone needed.
After a brief flurry of explanations and diplomacy, the village settled down into the immediate task of hiding the evidence. Around dinnertime, the local resistance squad materialized out of the woods. The requisite mutual sizing-up quickly gave way to negotiation, planning, and sharing of intelligence.
And that's when things took a turn for the urgent.
As the PCs and the resistance leadership were taking a walk to inventory captured equipment, the western horizon briefly lit up. King and Lee immediately recognized missile launches... more specifically, SAM launches. A brief ripple of new stars told the story of someone desperately evading and punching out chaff and flares. The first two missiles went wide; the third and fourth did not. But Michael got his night-vision binoculars up in time to see at least two parachutes separate from the flaming wreckage...
The PCs spent a week of downtime in Keava, pulling maintenance on their gear and helping out around the town. LCDR King's upbringing on a sheep ranch made him invaluable in the latter hearts-and-minds work, as did the rest of the PCs' willingness to pitch in with unskilled but enthusiastic labor.
Through careful interviews with the village women who'd been "guests" of the Russians, Michael managed to put together a fairly comprehensive picture of the occupied facility to the west. The garrison is about 60 troops from the 7th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, grudgingly subordinated to a handful of naval intelligence personnel from the Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet. Heavy equipment seems to consist of a BTR-80 and a pair of gun trucks, in addition to the handful of gun jeeps and civilian light trucks. The garrison is technically under the command of the occupation headquarters in Tallinn, but effectively is an independent command. An independent command, it was pointed out, whose hand lies particularly heavy on the territory it occupies.
So, being heroes, the PCs decided to poke the hornets' nest. The first stage of the plan was to disappear the weekly extortion squad in the hopes of (a) impressing the local Estonian partisans and (b) provoking a reconnaissance in force which could also be ambushed.
On the appointed day, Lee hied himself and his appropriated RPK-74 to a convenient ambush spot he'd previously reconnoitered. Casimir took a couple of local hunters and wandered off into the forest. Roswitha and Michael donned local garb and milled around with the rest of the villagers. Jurgen and LCDR King took up medical reserve and overwatch duties on the second floor of the town hall.
The ambush took less time to play out than it would to describe later. The goon squad showed up more or less on schedule: three men and the weekly hostage in a UAZ-469, with a five-man cavalry escort. As per the previous week's pattern, two of the cav troopers dismounted and circled the town to the south to cut off any attempts at hiding in the woods, the other three stayed on the road to hold open the back door, and the truck continued on into the village.
A five-second flurry of gunfire settled the matter decisively. The truck crew went down from multiple headshots from Roz, Michael, and King. Lee cut down the three goons on the road (and, unfortunately, two of the horses as well) with a couple of bursts. No one's exactly sure what Casimir and his hunters did, but two shotgun blasts and a brief anguished scream were all the signal anyone needed.
After a brief flurry of explanations and diplomacy, the village settled down into the immediate task of hiding the evidence. Around dinnertime, the local resistance squad materialized out of the woods. The requisite mutual sizing-up quickly gave way to negotiation, planning, and sharing of intelligence.
And that's when things took a turn for the urgent.
As the PCs and the resistance leadership were taking a walk to inventory captured equipment, the western horizon briefly lit up. King and Lee immediately recognized missile launches... more specifically, SAM launches. A brief ripple of new stars told the story of someone desperately evading and punching out chaff and flares. The first two missiles went wide; the third and fourth did not. But Michael got his night-vision binoculars up in time to see at least two parachutes separate from the flaming wreckage...
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Date: 2008-09-24 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-09-26 09:13 pm (UTC)