The Marie Anne pulled alongside the rickety wooden jetty and the passengers breathed a sigh of relief, grateful to have arrived at their destination without any serious mishap. Well if you don’t count the fez toting monkey stealing the Captains hearing aid and dropping it over the side.
Hehh, what did you say, can’t hear you, speak up, that was about the limit of the conversation from the man at the wheel until he shouted, loud enough to wake the dead, and God forbid that should actually happen, “we’re here, all ashore who are going ashore”.
The monkey, I think his name is Bob took off the fez and held it upside down, “he’s not hoping for a tip is he, muttered Tug, he’ll get a length of my chain round his scrawny neck if he is.”
Bob put the fez back on his head.
Katie had been quiet and withdrawn all the way up the river, she had a good idea of what they might have to face once they were ashore but as the boat hit the jetty with a loud thunk she started to issue instructions.
That’s our objective, the small house beyond the fields, you can see it has some blue tarpaulins on the roof. There’s only one room inside, the tin box is buried about 12” down, it’s in the corner opposite the door. One man can carry it quite easily, it only contains a few SD cards, and some paper work but it’s all sealed inside a luxury chocolate biscuit box. Don’t open it, there are no biscuits inside and I don’t want to contaminate the contents or ourselves. There were some very strange things went on here, this was addressed to Big Willie and Tug, they nodded – warily. Ulrika,Tank and Angie were well aware of the danger but kept it to themselves, no good would come of speaking their fears out loud.
Willie (White hair) was leading with Tug and Ulrika following him. Their job was to watch the right flank and Katie (yellow top), Tank and Angie would advance straight towards the objective.
We played this game over a video link, the Mad Lord Snapcase controlling the electronic gadgetry from his lair in the bowels of Snapcase Hall. Big Willie, Tug and Ulrika were under his direct control, the other three were mine but his Lordship moved them around on the table but under my strict direction, I didn’t intend being cannon fodder again.
Once away from the confines of the hill by the river we took up a more open order, cunning as a fox Ulrika was stationed by Snappers on the small hill, just behind Willie and Tug, she was on alert, ready to give covering fire at a moments notice.
And the moment came sooner than expected, because as Big Willie approached the walled compound the sound of baying and howling rent the air as a pack of feral dogs burst into sight. They had been sleeping in shade, hidden from the hot sun but Willie’s heavy foot steps awoke them. Although to be fair Tug was swinging his chain idly around his head, trying to swat the flies. So it could have been the whooshing noise that attracted their attention.
Nice doggy Willie cajoled hopefully, wondering if it would fetch a stick for him, but looking round he couldn’t see any sticks. Shoot the bugger before it bites you, Tug growled, then he issued a stern command to the dog “SIT”.
Hopefully this dramatic shot shows our predicament, the dogs run like the wind and were soon amongst the Vagabonds, snarling, growling and snapping their teeth, looking for a good meal no doubt.
A more prosaic picture to show the overall situation just before everyone opened fire and demonstrated the effectiveness of being “Alert”.
Ulrika on the hill opened fire with her sub machine gun and shot two of the hounds, Tank and Katie both took out one each. Angie at the rear was busy trying to avoid hitting Tank and she missed the dog she shot at. Big Willie never liked dogs and he killed one of them with his bare hands, didn’t even blink, although it’s hard to tell behind those dark glasses.
The last dog fell to Tug, I told you to “SIT” he muttered. Next time….”OBEY”!
Dog training lessons are short, sharp and permanent using the Tug method.
After the blood bath with the nice doggies the team move forward and take up positions close to the target house with the blue baggage on the roof.
Having listened to Bullshott’s advice everyone goes on alert, They aren’t sure if the shooting will have alerted anyone or anything to their presence.
The house is quiet, too damn quiet, someone has to move forward and put a toe in the hornets nest. It’s your turn, Big Willie says to Katie, Katie looks at Tank, then Angie and says “This is my call” and she advances cautiously.
Immediately 3 wasteland scum above the parapets, they have been waiting in ambush since the sound of firing woke them from an alcohol induced torpor. Bleary eyed they may be but an ambush is an ambush and they’ll shoot first.
On reflection I’m not sure this is the case, I know there’s a section on ambushes but I couldn’t find it in the heat of battle, my memory was; ambushes go first, but Alert interrupts actions. Anyway we let them shoot first.
This is the situation and I only had a poor view of the field when we discussed it. My three characters are on the left Angie far left, Tank in the middle and Katie has moved one action forward. All of them are in the open.
Remember what I said about cannon fodder.
His Lordship is a survivor of countless actions in bandit country and has found some very nice cover for his point men with Ulrika having an elevated firing position and a sub machine gun to take best advantage of it.
This punk opened the batting and Angie went down under a hail of bullets.
Yes I know he has a flamethrower but I’m still getting to grips with normal shooting without complicating things further.
Then Katie was hit with a burst of fire from one of the guy’s further back on the rooftop. The last man thankfully missed but it’s not looking good, two men down and the fight hasn’t really started.
There was a forth man who had been out of sight in the initial deployment but he moved into view (bottom left) and now it’s our turn to fire back.
Big Willie opens fire with his smg and puts 3 rounds into the skull toting Savage, the purple haired one glances over his shoulder seeing his comrade drop. Bugger is all that goes through his mind when he realises that the only way off the roof is down the stairs in full view of Big Willie and his Smg or a long drop.
Tank raises his assault rifle and fires, not the rifle but the grenade launcher located below the main barrel of the rifle. There’s a small puff of smoke, followed shortly by an explosion.
A direct hit, this blows the red and black haired Savage clean off the roof and kills both him and the other one hiding behind the wall.
See how you like them busted caps Tank shouts. (That's me speaking Merican)
Ulrika had the last say, she put a number of rounds into the last wasteland scummer and he went down to join the rest of his unsavoury crew.
Tug hadn’t fired in the last exchange of shots, and so he moved forward quickly to the target house. The door was hanging off its hinge’s, I expect the last visitor didn’t have a key, a quick search revealed the biscuit tin buried where Katie said it would be.
Rejoining the rest of the team, he was just in time to see Angie and Katie recover from their wounds due to the magical healing quality of medi-kits. Wille was shouting hey look what I’ve found $500 worth of salvage and 2 Red Dot Sights. That’s not so much said Tug as he produced the biscuit tin, then coyly asked, what might this be worth holding out an object. About $750 was Willies reply but what’s that in your pocket.
I’m not sure but there was a pulsating blob of something in there and I took this from it. Must be worth something……$5,000 muttered Big Willie who knew about these things.
Being careful to avoid triggering any further confrontations the guys retreated as quickly as possible to the boat, the deaf Captain and the fez wearing monkey.
Let’s get away from here before anyone comes to investigate the noise Katie commanded and they motored down stream taking turns on the bilge pump as they went, wooden boats are prone to leak and this one leaked like a sieve.
Once within phone signal range Katie sent a text to Joe Diamond the Editor of the Global Tribune.
“Mission successful, recovered the evidence”. “Only light opposition, a pack of dogs and some looters but nothing to substantiate our previous visit.”
Using the mobile phone network to transmit this information was a major mistake, other parties were able to intercept it and initiate action, but that’s for the future.
I was hoping they would encounter something abnormal and be able to collect evidence to corroborate their previous visit, Tug’s Anomaly doesn’t really count, antibiotics will clear it up in no time at all. Without substantive evidence of any abnormal activity, there’s nothing to tie the Yuma Proving Ground to the Mojave Facility.
Hopefully once the box is opened in a sealed laboratory and we can examine the contents then connections between the two can be established and the story printed.
Next stop Canada.
