Fields of Fire Chapter 1.2: The First Mission - Sonja
Welcome back to Fields of Fire, my Twilight 2000 4th Ed solo rpg actual play. Last chapter we saw a brief but deadly skirmish through the eyes of 1LT Diaz. Now we are moving to Sonja, the young former university student from Berlin. We will see the world through a whole different lens now, from someone who is not a soldier and believes soldiers are the problem.
Let’s play!
---
Morning - July 11th, 2000
Never in my worst nightmares did I expect to be stuck in a burnt-out farmhouse in a Polish field with a young, hotshot American officer and a Polish soldier old enough to be my fabther. Yet here I am, somewhere north of Lodz, in the middle of the end of the human race. What do we do now? Where do we go? It seems like we are all on the same page about where to go next, which is back to Germany, somehow.
The old soldier Eryk seems convinced the whole Red Army is between us and the German border. I'm not convinced, but I also don't have any proof to refute him. I just know that following the chaos of the unit I was attached to, I don't really know where anything is. Hell, I didn't know we were this close to Lodz at all!
So, I need data, and I won't get anything in this damned farmhouse. And waiting here risks those soldiers-turned-bandits coming back with bigger weapons. I didn't like the feeling of shooting at people, even if I didn't hit anything. At least I don't think I did.
The American, Diaz, is waking up. The Pole is still awake, peering out of a shattered window.
"How did you sleep?" Diaz asks with his perfect farmboy English.
"OK," I mutter back to him. He smiles at that. White teeth, straight as a railroad.
"Well, this might be a good time to try my radio," Diaz says. This gets the old Pole's attention.
"You've got a radio that still works?" he says in his heavily accented English.
"Maybe, maybe not. It didn't get fried by the EMPs if that is what you are asking. It turns on, I don't know if we will be able to pick up anything, but it's worth a try at least. The last time I used it, I just got static."
Eryk grunts. Mostly, he communicates in grunts, it seems.
1LT Diaz has an ANPRC-77, which is a man-portable radio capable of transmitting about 8km. That's not far in the scheme of the game, with each grid on the map being 10km. It seems unlikely they will be able to reach anyone, but maybe they will get a signal. Let's see what happens.
Diaz pulls his radio out, a giant slab of military gear that looks heavy. He flips it on and starts turning dials.
Diaz - Intelligence + Tech Roll
1 success! They hear something. But what do they hear? I'll roll on the Radio Chatter table. Oh wow… Ok.
Voices slowly appear out of the static. Speaking… Polish! Eryk lights up at the sounds of a familiar language. He presses his ear to the speaker to listen to the faint voices and translates for us.
"These are soldiers… Or maybe militia? I do not recognize their units. They are saying they have someone. They have Americans! A group of soldiers. Wait… No! They are planning to execute them for the crime of desertion. They are saying they deserted their units, the American Army, and the cause of Poland. This is madness!"
"What!" Diaz yells. He picks up the mike and hands it to Eryk. "Tell them to call it off. Hell, we are all deserters at this point. There is no more American army!"
Eryk starts speaking into the radio, but it becomes quickly apparent that those on the other side cannot hear him.
"It is no use," Eryk says. "But I think I know where they are…"
OK, where is this Polish Militia? I'll use a D10 to create a random direction. They are South-East. I'll roll on the Rural Site Generator and get a supermarket.
"Just south of here, a burnt-out Supermarket. I saw an antenna on top, but I did not get close. It must be the place as it's within the 8km range of this radio."
Diaz grabs his AK and starts packing up the radio, "Good. Gear up. We aren't going to let any Americans get killed today because of some stupid notion that this war is still going on."
"This is stupid!" I shout. "We don't know how many militia there are or what weapons they have. We could walk straight into a massacre or be executed ourselves."
OK for disagreements between players, I'll introduce a new mechanic. It's called Sentiment Modifier. Basically, if the group is asking a character to do something they disagree with, I'll roll their Empathy + unit morale, which is a B right now. I'll modify it by how close the characters are to each other. The modifier is 0 for everyone right now because they just met.
The old Polish soldier also starts checking his rifle, "Sonja, you must understand. These American soldiers can help get us to Germany. And these Polish militia may be convinced to change their ways. They are my countrymen."
I sit in silence thinking about this for a while.
Sentiment Roll Empathy A + Unit Moral B, no modifiers
1 success, Sonja agrees to come unenthusiastically.
"Damnit, fine. Let's go. But I don't want anyone to get killed here. Not us, not the militia, and not the Americans. We are all on the same side, or are supposed to be."
Diaz nods in agreement. Eryk just continues to check his rifle.
"Alright Eryk, you saw this place. It's close right?" I ask.
"Yes, close. We don't take the car. Too loud and a waste of fuel. Instead, we can walk and get there in a few hours. If things go bad, we come back here, grab the car and leave. Ok?"
Diaz agrees, and I agree also. This is stupid. I'm not special forces. I'm a college kid. My little rifle won't do anything against an armed militia in a fortified position. Still, what choice do I have? Being alone again in this world doesn't sound appealing either.
Before we leave, we all eat and drink. I'm already out of water, but Diaz says I can share whatever he has if I run out. He says we are a squad now and have to work together to survive. Live together, die together. I guess that's it now.
Everyone eats a ration and drinks water for the day. Diaz and Eryk leave their backpacks with the car so they don't have the mobility penalty imposed on them.
Day - July 11th, 2000
The supermarket in question is located to the Southeast, on the outer suburbs of Ozorkow, which itself seems to be a satellite city of Lodz. As I said above, it's about a shift of travel to the supermarket.
As the squad is located on a road hex on open plains, they can easily make it to the supermarket in the shift. The weather is fair for July. Warm but not extremely hot. Eryk will be on watch for the march.
Time for an encounter check. Let's roll for Eryk's recon first.
Eryk - Intelligence C and Recon C
No successes. You can't push a passive roll like this.
We set out to march to the supermarket with Eryk in the lead keeping an eye out. It's a pleasant day, or it would be if there wasn't so much radiation in the air and an insane war still going on. Coming up on a bend in the road, all of a sudden, I hear the roar of engines! So many engines!
"Jump off the road!" Eryk yells.
This is a group action. So I'll take the person with the worst stats in it, which is Sonja, but she also has a specialty in running, which I'll say applies to this. Let's see if the group gets out of the way in time.
Sonja Ability C - Mobility C (with a +1)
No success. I Push the roll, with no success.
Yikes! Ok, let's pick a random character. On a D6, 1-2 is Diaz, 3-4 is Eryk, 5-6 is Sonja. A 4, Eryk.
Around the corner flies several armored cars, trucks, and even a tank! All emblazoned with the Soviet Red Star. A convoy barring on us. I jump into the ditch beside the road and hope they don't spot us. The lead Soviet vehicle turns its turret in our direction and lets out a short burst of fire.
 |
| The squad can do little but hide when the convoy comes. Photo by Joel Rivera-Camacho on Unsplash |
Lucky for the squad, this vehicle is an older model BTR with a mounted machine gun and not a cannon. Still, it could be deadly. The gunner saw Eryk dive into the ditch and will fire at him. It's moving, and Eryk is hiding, so he may be safe…
BTR Gunner Agility B and Heavy Weapons C (-2 for firing from a moving vehicle. -1 for firing at a moving target. Works out to a D and D).
No successes….
ooo
Ivan hadn't slept in three days, not properly at least. It's been move, patrol, move, patrol, vehicle maintenance, and move again. So when his BTR turned the corner and he saw what he thought was a person with a rifle jumping into a ditch, he swiveled his machine gun and fired a burst. Did he hit it? Did he actually see anything?
"Hey idiot!" his commander punches his leg from inside the vehicle. "Stop wasting ammo on shit that isn't there, got it!"
"Yes, sir!" Ivan yells and goes back to watching the road.
oooo
I stick my head up into a cloud of dust created by the huge convoy. Seems they didn't take much notice of us after that first shot. I look over to see Eryk sitting there stone-faced as Diaz comes over to check him.
"Are you ok? Were you hit?"
"No, I was not. Lucky Russians can't hit a damn thing. I counted 10 combat vehicles and at least 15 trucks going Northwest in the direction of Koto. They are moving something large in that direction. Supplies? Fuel? Soldiers? Must mean there is a large formation that way."
Diaz nods, "We will consider that after we rescue these American soldiers. Until then, we need to focus on our mission. How much farther to the supermarket?"
I stand up to scan the area. I see buildings in the distance, "Is that it, Diaz?"
Eryk looks at what I'm pointing at, "Yes, that is the market. We are here."
---
Well, that is it for this week. An encounter with a Soviet BMP doesn't lead to any deaths or injuries which is lucky for the squad. Next week we will see how their mission to the market turns out..
Thanks for reading!
Are you on Twitter? Follow me at @croakersrpg. I talk about the blog, chat with other TTRPG creators, and have interesting conversations.
Or subscribe to my monthly Newsletter here. I post highlights from the blog, talk about other solo games and just interesting RPG stuff I've come across in the last month.
Check out Queenless today - Bee the hero you always were meant to be.
I liked the little step into Ivan's POV to show what he saw and why he missed.
ReplyDelete