On the Road Again

“Blake’s Raiders”
The “Village” of Lake Cormorant, Mississippi

Thursday, 18 July, 2030

After Tuesday's combat, the afternoon was spent dealing with prisoners, burying the dead (the CO of the 197th's force allowed any prisoners who wished, to participate in a graveside service, under guard, of course...), inventorying captured material, caring for the captured horses (and our own as well), and other post-combat tasks.  Tuesday night, the 197th handled guard duty, so my troops got eight hours of uninterrupted sleep on real beds, after a hot meal that someone else cooked for once.  I volunteered to be in charge of the 2000-2400 watch, to allow one of the 197th's LTs who had been under fire to also get an uninterrupted night's rest.  SSGT Ruiz and I mostly spent the time playing rummy.

Wednesday was spent catching up on maintenance, getting resupplied, and getting ready to head out again.  The SGTs were invaluable in helping with the care of the ex-marauder horses.  In fact, they were both up before dawn, checking on them and not just our own mounts.

I spent part of Wednesday conferring with Major Canham, the CO of the 197th's detachment.  She didn't really have much to add to my original mission briefing material, but then we haven't been gone a full two weeks yet, so I wasn't expecting much.  She did say that while most scouting groups were meeting little or no resistance, and mostly finding refugees, the group to our east was overdue to check in.  They had started out down I-55 and were supposed to scout to the east of the highway, whereas we were scouting west of I-55 to the river.  So, we will need to be especially cautious as we approach the highway...

This morning, we ate one last breakfast prepared by the 197th's folks, checked out with Major Canham's sentries and headed back east on Star Landing Road, toward I-55.  Despite having just scouted this way a few days ago, I knew that conditions could change quickly, so we traveled in the standard, careful, travelling overwatch we always used when we were "outside the wire".  We quickly passed the High School and even made it back to the house we had camped at earlier this week in time to stop and eat lunch there, since we felt we understood the strengths and weaknesses of the site.

[Encounter Table - Road, roll of 4, derelict.  Since the group had been down this road already, I judge this to be "no encounter"]

Since the 197th was securing the territory to the west, and we had established friendly relationships with a group camped out to the southwest, I felt we should scout the area north along MS-301, through the town of West Days, MS up to Austin Road.  I wanted to scout the area along Austin Road to the west, since it didn't connect to Highway 61.

West Days was long abandoned and looted.  We scouted the small roads south of Austin Road, which led to abandoned households.  We did locate the site of a former truck farm that was surrounded by fields that once grew soybeans or some-other field crop.  This is a site worth redeveloping that I will include in my report. 

We then moved north along "Delta View Road", checking out the few buildings that were not obviously destroyed, until we reached Church Road, which ran east and west between US-61 and I-55.  I decided to camp at this intersection, so that we could scout east back toward our primary objective, I-55, tomorrow.

[Encounter Table - Road, roll of 9, armed.  This is 'Other' territory.  Roll of 6 - No encounter]