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report covers 18 September 2140 to 23 September 2140

Sunday, 18 September 2140

weather: cool and overcast, winds from the east.

     The team contacted the Kaskaskian assault force by radio about dawn, and told them to head south from Pittsburgh. MSG Jefferson told Jeff that they were going to charge the Morrow Project $40 for the cost of transport; Jeff agreed.

     R36 then drove north towards Pittwburgh, and found a camp.

A strong hurricane passes through Puerto Rico on this day.

Monday, 19 September 2140

weather: cool, fog until mid-morning, overcast the rest of the day.

     The team remained in camp. They decided not to mess with, or even contact, the rather "mountain man" -ish locals. Booth put up his antennas and monitored the radio most of the day ... nothing very new.

Tuesday, 20 September 2140

weather:  cool, fog until mid-morning, scattered clouds the rest of the day.

The forty Kaskaskian soldiers arrived late in the day. The unit was carried on four "army trucks" (kind of varied) and a "jeep" (formerly a 1982 Jeep Cherokee Chief SJ, now hard to recognize). They were led by Master Sergeant Samson Jefferson, the Project Firebird operations NCO:

     Staff Sergeant Arnold "Gomer" Pyle, a medical NCO, was the other Firebird member with the force from Kaskaskia. He had a rural Arkansas accent; alas (hence the nickname -- used only by his Firebird comrades until very recently). He was loud and boisterous, prone to telling jokes, drinking, and "rassling". His First Aid skill was 90%, and his Medicine skill was 50%.  

Wednesday, 21 September 2140

weather:  nice temperature, fog till mid-morning, mostly cloudy the rest of the day.

     The Kaskaskians and the Morrow team spent the day reviewing the recon data, and planning the raid on Mont Chateau. Master Sergeant Jefferson was actually very good at making suggestions for Jeff Benefiel to pick up on and look good with.

     It was agreed that the assault and extraction would have to be done in about an hour -- forces from Morgantown might well arrive by that time.

Thursday, 22 September 2140

weather:  nice temperatures, overcast until 1 p.m., light rain ending about midnight.

     The convoy (four biodiesel Kaskaskian trucks, a Kaskaskian gasoline-powered jeep, and the Morrow truck) drove south towards West Virginia. They stopped a few miles north of the border to wait for nightfall; the Kaskaskians dropped off the empty fuel drums from their trucks, to make room for the rescued women.

A strong hurricane makes landfall near Charleston, South Carolina, and (rapidly weakening) heads into northwestern Pennsylvania.

Friday, 23 September 2140

weather: cool, windy from the WNW, overcast or mostly cloudy the rest of the day. The moon was 85% full, and thus high in the sky at the time of the attack.

     After midnight, the assault force had infiltrated to a point several miles north of the Mont Chateau lodge. A five-man team was sent to cut the telephone wires at the first signs of combat; another five-man team was sent to secure and slightly sabotage the ferry.

     John Booth and Eric Turner stole a small rowboat, crossed the lake, hid the boat in White's Run, cut the telephone line to the ferry landing, and took up positions opposite the lodge.  Jeff, Paula and Begay moved through the woods to the fence on the north side of the MVA compound.

     At 2 a.m., Begay crossed the fence into the compound; he was wearing night vision goggles and using his suppressed Ingram M10. He hunted down and killed the four patrolling guards, and the four guards at the I-68 entrance.

     After Begay radioed to Jeff and Paula, they crossed the wire, and approached the lodge; Begay waited in the woods. Some "party noise" was coming from the north end of the lodge. Paula and Jeff threw hand grenades into the windows of the barracks, setting off the attack!

     Booth and Turner began taking out the enemy at the northern guard hut, and a few that stumbled out of the blasted, burning barracks. Paula and Jeff sprinted along the driveway, and gunned down the guards at the front door; they then continued along the "back" side of the building, and into the service entrance.

rough plan of the Mont Chateau Lodge

     A few miles up the road, the trucks and jeep, carrying thirty Kaskaskian troops, started up when they heard the explosions, and began driving south. Begay starting jogging up the slope, to the Interstate -- he was going to guide the Kaskaskian troops down from the trucks.

     Busting into the utility rooms, Paula and Jeff shot some guards, threw a couple of tear gas grenades, and generally made a nuisance of themselves. Booth, using his Starlight scope, was able to make out the identity of figures better than Turner,  and sniped a few baddies from across the lake.

     Once Paula and Jeff made it to the third (top) floor, there was only a single Bad Guy to deal with -- but he was holding a woman as hostage, with a gun to her head. Jeff, in a display of coolness in battle (and poor lighting), shot the man in the face with a shotgun.

     There were still at least five or ten MVA people, or their guests, in the lodge, on the first and second floor; they were mostly affected by tear gas, but Jeff and Paula weren't interested in having a room-to-room battle. Two drivers were still at the carport, guarding three cars:  a 1957 Chevrolet, a 1970s muscle car (with a wierd Pennsylvanian flag painted on it), and an M998 Humvee.

     The Kaskaskian troops pulled up to the eastern gate, unloaded, and began following Begay downhill towards the lodge.

     27 women were in the rooms on the third floor, none of them in a very coherent state. Paula questioned them about "where have the others gone"; it was hard to get straight answers (since some random gunfire was still going off from time to time outside), but eventually they learned that at least two of the Bluegrass women had been dropped off in Morgantown.

     With the Kaskaskians led by Begay (and MSG Jefferson) at the treeline, behind the garages, Jeff and Paula began leading the captured women down through the kitchen and out the service entrance. From the first grenade blast, to the last woman leaving the lodge building, 25 minutes had passed. Jeff was able to grab a Federal machine carbine (aka grease gun) and four magazines on the way out of the building.

     While the Kaskaskians guided the women up the road to the Interstate, Paula, Jeff and Begay rooted around in the "garages". Booth and Turner returned to their rowboat, and crossed the lake to the ferry dock; they joined up with the ten Kaskaskian troops there (the ferry team and the telephone team) and trudged up to the Interstate themselves.

     The buildings which Paula and Jeff searched:

• a stable, for a couple dozen MVA cavalry horses

• several enclosed garages, with some motor vehicles, lots of tires, tools and fuel. The actual number of vehicles depended on who's visiting. One of the garages is much larger, to hold the General's scrap tank.

• on the evening of the attack:  three jeeps, two sedans, five motorbikes, and two gasoline powered 3/4 ton Dodge army "weapons carriers". The Project team set fire to these garages, after moving the weapons carriers out.
  

• the scrap tank was steam powered, and included a steam calliope! It was slow to start, and slow on the roads, so the team left it alone (and didn't burn that garage).

• an armory, with twelve Federal bolt-action rifles (one crate), six 16 gauge shotguns (one crate), and some ammunition (120 rounds of 16 gauge in "moon clips" and 1400 rounds of .30-06 most notably), and a big, dusty, rusty pile of broken firearms ... all 20th Century. A few M16s and AR-15s in the "broken guns" pile, but mostly hunting rifles, hunting shotguns, and revolvers -- none in safe working condition.

     The Federal rifles, 16 gauge shotguns and all the ammunition were loaded onto one of the weapons carriers; Paula and Jeff each drove one up to the Interstate.  Moving all the women in the dark up to the waiting trucks took about half an hour, so the Morrow team and the Kaskaskian soldiers were finally able to drive north about an hour after the attack began.

     Five M35 trucks each carried 10 people (and some cargo and spare fuel) = 50 people. The jeep carried 4 more people; the weapons carriers each carried 8 more people and a 200 liter fuel drum. 40 Kaskaskians + 5 Morrow folk + 27 rescued people = 72 people ... so a couple of people jammed into the cabs of the trucks, or sitting on the cargo bed.

     The entire convoy sped (at about 20 kph) past the Cheat Lake Dam at about 4 a.m., and continued back north towards Pittsburgh, roughly following the Monongahela River.

On to ... the next adventure!