The Unseen Servant forums

"It's always better to see helicopters fall from the sky, but it depends on the equipment I guess." Raffy adds. "The choppers gotta go."

"The most effective way I know is to put a small leak in the high pressure oil line running to the turbo, it's only a matter of time then. Low oil pressure at the turbo and the birds go down. The trick is getting time to sabotage them." Raffy says

Saul- Listening to all the ideas going around. Before making a decision we should what the security is like around our intended targets.

Billy Barstowe

I agree with Saul. We have no idea what we are going to be getting ourselves into yet, and I don't really want to be in a situation where I may be captured again. Although, I don't know if we really need to worry about being captured. I have a feeling these targets, especially after the escape from the gym, are going to have a shoot first, ask questions later policy.

In and around the town of Milner, Idaho; approx. 6:00AM Wednesday, 17 June thru approx. 8:30 AM Thursday, 18 June, 1987


The band of Freedom Fighters spend a fitful night in Jeremiah's cave alongside the badly wounded Jose. When morning comes; they see a more-serious-than-usual looking Jeremiah Hays turning off his more-sophisticated-than-it-looks radio and looking at his notebook where he wrote down what he overheard the Russians saying over the air and then doing his code-breaker bit. Looking at the group he says; "Looks like the Soviets are going to finish thier preperations and launch the assault to crush the 1st Idaho in 5 days on the 22nd. Doesn't leave much time to get to the explosives at the Widow's Knees, take out the Choppers at Chilly and then blow the Mackay Dam."

Studying the map bears out the mountain man's words….it's a little over 30 klicks (Kilometers) to the Widow's Knees; about 20 klicks from the cache (Widow's Knees) to Chilly and little more than 15 klicks from Chilly to Mackay. With the Soviets in firm control of the roads; that leaves out any cars or trucks…making this quite a tricky proposition to try and accomplish on foot. Jose tells them that there should be some canoes at the Widow's Knees site, which is off a tributary of the Big Lost River; which flows by Chilly AND feeds into the Resevoir by the Mackay Dam.

Still, the first part has to be done on foot, so after eating a none-too-thrilling-but-filling breakfeast of oatmeal and bread with Jeremiah, the Freedom Figthers set off. The journey is a long, tedious one that takes them through rocky hills; thick forest and creek and stream beds filled with ice-cold, thigh-deep water.

The pack of Freedom Fighters, stopping only for short rests and a lunch break; manages to travel about 25 klicks on the first day; finally falling exhausted to the ground around 11:00 PM that night. A bleary-eyed watch is set that night, but despite some concern over varous animal calls; nothing happens that evening and everyone gets….if not a good night's sleep; at least a decent amount of sleep. The next morning; they get started early and they cover the final 5 klicks or so by about 8:30 in the morning and they can see the Wooden Cabin known as 'The Widow's Knees' near the buried cache when the notice that a pair of 1985 Ford Broncos that had obviously recently been re-painted an olive-drab green with bright red, Soviet Stars on the front doors, were parked near the Cabin. Voices in Russian could be heard and soon a squad of 8 Soviet troops* could be seen casually patrolling the area about 100 yards away from where the Freedom Fighters were crouching down. While they were not near the clearing by the creek where the cache was buried; they might stumble upon it pretty soon if nothing was done….


*The squad includes 4 men carrying AK assault rifles; 1 carrying a scoped Dragunov rifle; 2 carrying RPK Light Machineguns and 1 carrying an RPG launcher.

Saul- Takes a prone position gesturing to others. Hopefully the freedom fighters have his hand commands down. Saul will motion for the groups best shots to take aim at the machine gunners first. He will aim at the sniper. The rest will fire upon the rest of the squad. When the Russian squad gets within 30 yds he will give the group the command to fire.

Billy Barstowe

Seeing Saul's signals, Billy will take aim at the leftmost Russian carrying an RPK.

Jenny drops prone and lines up the right rpk holder with her aksu carbine. She softly whispers to herself.

"You can do this, just like last time...."

Raffy spreads out a ways before laying down and targeting the RPG guy

In the woods near the cabin known as 'The Widow's Knees', near Milner, Idaho; approx. 8:30 AM Thursday, 18 June, 1987


The Freedom Fighters ambush the squad of Soviet soldiers with a hail of fire that quickly takes down over half the Russian troops….

Billy centers the sights in the scope of his Winchester Model 70 and taking a deep breath and letting it out, he puts a heavy .30-06 slug straight through the center torso of one of the RPK troops, dropping him like a puppet with its strings cut…

Jenny mentally steels herself to shoot the other RPK wielder, firing a 5 round burst from her AKSU carbine and seeing about half her rounds slam into the man's left hip and upper thigh, causing him to drop to the ground and let out a bellow of agony…

Saul takes careful aim at the Soviet sniper carrying the Dragunov scoped rifle and he puts a 3 round burst from his M-16 into the left-center of the man's chest, dropping him without a word to the ground…

Raffy quietly lets out a few choice curses in Spanish as he aims at his target; the Russian grenadier carrying an RPG launcher and he fires a pair of 3 round bursts that slam into his target and cause him to spin in a half-circle before falling unmoving to the earth…

Deacon and Yo, from a position close to one another, open up with thier weapons as well; Deacon with an M-16; Yo with a captured AK. Hays puts his target down while Yo misses his intended victim and lets out a curse as he watches his rounds miss…

The 3 remaining Soviet troops, each carrying an AK-74 assault rifle, react in very different ways. One drops to the ground and fires a spray of rounds that zip through the foliage, rattle of a few tree trunks and come no-where close to hitting any of the resistance fighters. Another panics and bolts away from the group towards the Ford Broncos the Rusian troops came here in. The last though, turns towards where Deacon and Yo's fire came from and he lets out a deadly spray of fire that tears into both men; leaving Deacon on his back and staring up with unseeing eyes and Yo on his stomach, unmoving and leaking blood….

Saul takes aim at the Russian that put a deadly hit upon two of team while giving commands to his team. Billy drop the runner! Raffy settle down take aim at the one on the ground! Jenny stay low and help the wounded!

Raffy does just that, swinging the barrel from behind the fleeing man, he squeezes the trigger just after it passes by his target, leading him just enough.

Jenny shoulders her weapon, and rushes over to Deacon and Yo. She checks both men for vitals, and tries to stop any bleeding.

"Deac! Stay with me!"

Billy Barstowe

Billy's Winchester is quickly brought around and sighted on the escaping Russian. Picking a spot between the shoulder blades and just a bit south, he slowly exhales while squeezing the trigger.

In the woods near the cabin known as 'The Widow's Knees', near Milner, Idaho; approx. 8:31 AM Thursday, 18 June, 1987


Billy takes a deep breath, sights through the scope of his hunting rifle, lets the breath out and squeezes the trigger. His Winchester kicks back into his shoulder, a powerful .30-06 slug speeds down the barrel, travels about 50 yards and slams into and through the torso of the fleeing Russian soldier, who drops to the ground and doesn't move....

Jenny moves quickly over to where Deacon and Yo lay un-moving on the ground, ignoring the rounds fired by a Soviet soldier that zip all around her like angry hornets. She drops down and moves to examine each of her friends, but she can tell it's too late for either of them...

Saul takes aim at the Russian soldier who just tore up his old Vietnam buddy Deacon and the new Army guy, Yojiro and who just fired again upon Jenny. Luckily, his rounds just miss the nurse and 'Slick Silver', with a snarl, fires a pair of bursts from his M-16 that slam into the Soviet like a hail of bricks, rattling him around and then dropping him to the ground in a broken pile....

Raffy takes aim at the Russian who dropped to the ground and fires a long burst that tears the Russian soldier up, drawing forth a short-lived cry of pain before the body stiffens and doesn't move again...

Saul- Looks for any other movement from the enemy before he rises to help with the wounded.

Billy Barstowe

Billy will check the Broncos, looking for anything that could be useful.

Jenny shakes her head at Saul. "They're gone."

"I don't think I dropped my guy, I hit him in the leg. Be careful Billy."

Jenny starts gathering the fallen.

In the woods near the cabin known as 'The Widow's Knees', near Milner, Idaho; approx. 8:30 AM to Noon, Thursday, 18 June, 1987


The Russian soldiers are discovered to all be KIA and weapons and gear are gathered from the bodies*; while Billy searches the painted Broncos the Soviets rode in on. The Broncos have some rations, a couple of gallons of gas; a stack of stolen blue-jeans and a map with various places circled and Cyrillic writing on it. While the rest of the group doesn't really get much out of the map; Saul is able to tell that the map shows the circling movements of the component Regiments that make up the Soviet 124th Motor Rifle Division and their best guesses as to where the Idaho Brigade AND the escapees from Milner....i.e. THEM...were located....

The bad news was that the Russians were pretty much RIGHT ON with their guesses....and therefore the planned mission to blow the Dam was indeed going to be necessary if the Idaho Brigade and the residents of Milner, etc. were going to make it.

Some shovels were found at the cabin and the grim task of burying Deac and Yo was done, Jenny shedding some tears while Billy and Raffy did their best to 'manfully' hide their sadness. Saul was even colder than usual, saying a few words....giving a salute to fellow fallen soldiers and arranging a couple of makeshift crosses out of Soviet AK's to mark their graves.....

That done, the band searched for the cache of arms and explosives and soon enough; a large, dug-out area braced with planks on the sides and on top and camouflaged with netting and dirt and plants was discovered. In the area 3 large canoes were found; each of which could hold 4 people and a dozen paddles with them. A crate of a dozen Winchester .30-06 hunting rifles with about 100 rounds of ammo was in one waterproof bag while another held half a dozen 1911 .45 pistols and half-a-dozen .357 Revolvers (all unloaded and the semi-automatics with 1 empty clip each) with about 100 rounds for each type of pistol. Another crate holds 3 casting molds for lead bullets (of .30-06, .45 and .357 size respectively) and 300 pieces of brass (100 for each type of round) and about 5 kilograms of lead-tin alloy ingots for making bullets (the brass mentioned above to serve as the bullet casings).

In addition, there's about 200 kilograms of potatoes in a crate along with another crate of 10 kilograms of beef jerky and another crate loaded with about 100 cans of soup or beans. About a dozen assorted hatchets, hand-saws and crow-bars are in one bag while another contains some cast-iron or stainless steel pots and pans. There's several coils of rope or cord and about a dozen old coffee tins loaded with nails and one with a couple of hammers. A pile of dry timber is stacked against one side and finally, a really long and deep crate holds what the Freedom Fighters have been looking for....

About 1000 kilograms of ametol is sloshing around in a dozen 20 gallon drums and a crate filled with about 100 meters of detonation cord and about a dozen blasting caps and a couple of plungers and wire spools is found as well....

Looking up above them, the Freedom Fighters can see that the sun is at about its zenith, signalling it's about 12 noon....


*There are the 2 RPKs with half-a-dozen 75 round drums; an RPG with 3 Rockets and about a dozen grenades on the Soviet soldiers along with a walkie-talkie that crackles once in Russian and into which Saul snarls a reply and that he says; "They just asked if the Russians had found anything and I said, "not yet...leave us alone while we search this MASSIVE F-ING Forest".....