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From Major Patel OC C Group
To Lt Col Killgore CO 130EMR
Date 3199.185
Subject Powder Monkey
Results are,
The machine gun cartridge manufacturing site has suffered very considerable damage and should be inoperative for a very considerable time, maybe forever.
We have lost track of the local aboriginal IIA agent Mudlark, who has disappeared. My speculation is that he may have deserted and gone back to his society, or meet with an accident, or something else.
I cannot be more precise.
To Jim9000 Please send to personal datastore
Major Patel's Diary/Memoirs. Not an AAR.
3199.177
Phew !! the stink grows. My company have been embarked on the IAA ship Transient Glory sailing up the rivers and canals to Wise for some time and are now near destination. I have some worries about how events will unfold here but am confident of success. I am more worried about how the rest of the regiment will fare in the sister operation.
3199.178
Finally we arrive near Wise unload our trading cart, final on check weapons, go over procedures and our mission objectives once again. The company previously fed up but now eager and alert, we move off towards Wise under the guidance of Mr Mudlark.
3199.179
We reach Wise and have no problems entering Wise, security forces are present but evidently not expecting any problems and wave us through with what appears to be only a brief look at our papers, goods and few words with Mudlark.
We find lodgings and go to work. Mudlark states flatly that this is the wealthiest town on Magrath. Frankly I wonder if he is kidding, Wise is a like a city built in the middle of a refuse tip, the stink is close to overpowering. Still amongst this squalor are buildings and people of obvious wealth and status. The gulf between rich and poor here is pretty the same as back on Earth.
3199.180
Mudlark starts his trading by visiting local merchant houses and eating establishments. The Food, My God how can people eat this stuff, its foul, my tongue feels like someone has just poured on to it concentrated creosote.
Mudlark soon found out the location of the Cartridge factory. We spy and scout the area of the factory outside the North East corner of Wise. We make plans to introduce the binary reaction agents into batches of raw ingredients passing into the factory.
No problem we plant the binary reaction agents.
We get quarters on the other side of Wise away from the factory. I don't want to near the site of explosion, if the wind is blowing the wrong way Wise could be engulfed in huge fire.
At our new quarters WE all relax and try some of the local real raw alcohol drinks. We have to make a great effort to suppress a shudder in our bodies as the local liquor drains down our throats this stuff is weird and strange a bit like the whole mission. As we sit cautiously drinking we here a huge churning thunderous noise, our plan has been successful and the Factory has gone up!
Its time we got out, amidst the chaos and tumult, but dam-it Mudlark has disappeared. Well no time to look for him, its time we skidaddled. We climb into a small boat tied up on the canal/broad sewer and row away down-river towards the pick up point with the Transient Glory. I think where the hell is Mudlark and we all feel a twinge of guilt for leaving him behind. But I am confident that he will find his way out, if he wants to. I hope the rest of the regiment are also successful in their allotted tasks
To: All Officers, 130 EMR
From: Lt Kampf
Date: 3199.220
I was the officer commanding the 'dancing' troop. The troop consisted of mainly female marines and a few of the especially agile male marines posing as dancers and acrobats.
We spent approximately three months in this role on the continent of Magrat whilst tracking the guns illegally supplied to King Kurt.
Our group was put ashore by a submarine just short of the town of Tasty at the same time as the 'Mercenary' Company commanded by Lt Col Kilgore. We moved separately to the town of Tasty on the same route. At Tasty I agreed with the Colonel that I would take my group on to Factory where it appeared King Kurt was with his main force, Tasty being screened and under siege by a smaller force.
The road from Tasty to Factory was a mere 70 kilometres and had we not been in character we could have covered it in short order. However our cover as dancers and acrobats required that we move at a relatively sedate pace. We moved up the road with some of King Kurt's logistics troops and entertained them on the way. From this activity we picked up a fair amount of intel on the deployment of King Kurt's troops, although no real evidence of the employment of the guns nor of any sign of their ammunition being transported.
A couple of days into our journey we met the King and his personal bodyguard (several thousand heavy cavalry) coming down the road towards Tasty (which had by this time fallen, thanks to the efforts of the Colonel and the rest of the Regiment). The King was moving at some speed, but we managed to get some inkling of what was going on from some of his bodyguard.
The rumour at the time was that there was a peace treaty in the offing and that King Kurt was ceasing all military activities immediately. We also heard that the rest of King Kurt's army was definitely moving back towards Tasty and had abandoned the siege of Factory. Accordingly I decided that we would stay where we were until the Spitfire Regiments came to our current location and then follow them to wherever they went.
A couple of days after the King's passage the rest of the army turned up, including the Spitfire Regiments. We did our best to question several members of the regiments with little success. The majority of these troops remained inside their own laagers and did little in the way of mixing with others. They were also a pretty abstemious lot, very few of them came out for a drink or to watch our entertainment. In all they were a pretty sullen lot.
We followed the Spitfire Regiments back to Tasty. Shortly after we arrived there was a peace conference on a raft built in the middle of the River. The Colonel arranged that this should be monitored from a submarine under the raft. The result of the conference was that a peace treaty favourable to King Kurt was arranged, although perhaps not as favourable as one might have expected in the circumstances.
The troop continued to watch the Spitfire Regiments, provide entertainment and ask as many questions as we could without being obvious. It became clear from the members of the Spitfire Regiments that we were watching that they were incredibly pissed off about something, but we couldn't find out what. With the war more or less over we decided that we would exfil the troop, we also decided that this would present a reasonable opportunity for the kidnapping of a member of the Spitfire Regiment for deep interrogation on the support submarine.
On the night of our departure we selected a body of the same rough build as our target. We then ensured that the target was encouraged by Marine Zoff, with whom we had noticed that he was enamoured, to leave the public area. Once he was out in the dark he was accosted by a couple of other marines in the troop and rendered unconscious by the administration of a sleeping drug. His clothes were put on the corpse which was then hidden in a nearby copse so that it would not be discovered for at least a week, by which time the local forensic scientists would be unable to ascertain time of death.
Marine Zoff and the rest of the troop, including myself, then made for our RV with the submarine. On boarding the submarine we placed our captive in a holding cell until he woke up. Once he was awake we began the interrogation with the administration of truth drug. The captive, Corporal John Washbourne, was a gun layer.
The Spitfire Regiments had been trained by off-worlders (Washbourne didn't refer to them as such, but as strangers) near Wise. The strangers had only been around for the initial phase of training and had only concerned themselves with the use of the gun, not with any tactics or employment of the weapon. After the Regiment was trained the strangers disappeared. I asked Washbourne if he thought he would be able to recognise the trainers if he saw them again. He replied in the affirmative. I then showed him several pictures of the IIA operatives that we had come across. He positively identified Dr Thoughtpiece and a couple of others.
The Spitfire Regiments had their guns replaced with fakes on the night of 3199.180 by members of the King's Guard. They were less than pleased with this and Washbourne indicated that he was very surprised at the change in plane and the retreat from factory when the army appeared to be winning. He didn't understand what was going on.
I transmitted the findings of the interrogation to the Colonel who then arranged for the rest of the Regiment to return to the submarine where Dr Thoughtpiece was arrested and also interrogated under truth drug. He admitted the whole thing and said that he did not now know where the guns were and that he had severed his contact with King Kurt when we arrived, which was the reason for Kurt's change of plan.
My troop was hastily re-deployed to the South of the continent where we managed to watch, and follow, the rest of the guns when they were removed from the Spitfire Regiments just as they were in the Northern theatre. We followed these guns into the King's Palace in Wise and maintained our surveillance until a squad from the Regiment conducted a night landing to destroy them. We then departed.
This was a very unusual operation, even for 130 EMR. We were operating under severe constraints placed upon us by Dr Thoughtpiece, who turned out to be the reason for our presence. We need to be more careful about accepting constraints where we are not sure of the need for them.
Lt. J Kampf
OC 8/C/130
To Colonel T.A. Killgore, 130th Earther Marine Regiment
Copy: All Officers
By: Major P. Howland* [*played by John Rutherford for this session]
3199.220
1. Unusual Mission. This Operation was extremely unusual in that none of the standard Starship Marine tactics or weaponry were employed except in the very final phase. The Mission was to infiltrate Magrat - a 'regression' colony on Deenar (Quadrant 7) and trace the source of 'technological pollution' in the form of anachronistically advanced weaponry; cut off this source; and destroy the weaponry. The machine-guns, known as 'gatlings'had upset the Balance of Power by giving King Kurt of Irion [a local unelected war-chief] rapid-fire projectile weapons in a military culture based on swords (blades) pikes (blades on sticks) and muskets (crude short-range muzzle-loading slug-throwers), all used by natural humans on foot or riding local saurian beasts.
2. Preparation. On arrival 3199.158 the 130th were equipped with weaponry and protective armour which would pass as local but which gave a significant edge in combat. When combined with the physical superiority of strength and reflexes this enabled elements of the 130th to engage in local combat with great success and without suffering appreciable casualties.
3. Dr. A. Thoughtpiece. The 130th was under orders to liaise with the Imperial Anthropology Authority's Dr A. Thoughtpiece, who at a minuted meeting on 3199.160 appeared to call for the assassination of King Kurt. This was immediately condemned as illegal by all the 130th officers present and seemed a bizarre recommendation; but in the light of subsequent findings [see 7. below] it is explicable.
4. 'Powder Monkey' On 3199.179 a squad of six Marines (led by Lt. Mouat) ensured the destruction of the Powder Mill at the capital of Irion by means of binary-explosive sabotage. Meanwhile a 'mercenary company' of 50 Marines supported by Marines disguised as entertainers investigated the main War Zone to identify the location and source of the 'gatling' guns.
5. Offworlders? At this stage the hypothesis provided by Naval Int. was that offworlders from a foreign polity were interfering in the affairs of Magrat but no such persons were ever identified.
6. 3199.181 Siege of Tasty. Led by Colonel Killgore and myself, the 'merc' company took part in the assault on Tasty in order to prove our mettle and get close to King Kurt and the 'gatling' companies. No difficulties were experienced in defeating local forces and no casualties were sustained beyond three Marines (Sgt. Burke, Marines Heath and Clitherow of Alpha Group) knocked off their feet by musket-ball hits on their armour.
7. Discovery of conspiracy. On meeting King Kurt it quickly became apparent that the criminal conspiracy to introduce the 'gatling' guns had included Dr Thoughtpiece and some other members of the local IIA team, [with notable exception of 'whistleblower'] possibly in conjunction with persons unknown from the Northern Continent of Deenar. This group intended to 'open up' Magrat to commercial exploitation. This conclusion was reinforced by judicious use of Truthdrug and this now becomes, I believe, a matter for the Imperial Audit though this decision rests with my superiors.
8. Mission Mop-up. In order to ensure the destruction of the 'gatling guns' the 130th made two small-scale forays [3199.200 and 220] into Irion involving visits to King Kurt's palace. In order to guarantee safety modern equipment was used. No casualties were given or received as far as I can ascertain.
1. Unreliable Intelligence. It is a questionable idea to rely too heavily on assessments by Naval Intelligence, who in this case ruled out involvement by Northern Colonists and pointed at foreign polities as most likely mischief source. This was a seriously misleading assessment and wasted time. The possibility of deliberate misinformation to the 130th has not been ruled out.
2. Overwhelming power of Marines. Using simulacra of 'contemporary Magrat' weaponry and gear, Marines of the 130th were able to outperform local soldiers to a very high degree. With their 'modern' state-of the-art gear, the Marines were effectively invulnerable and unstoppable. Although this result was not surprising, it emphasises the ease with which even small forces armed with modern technology can dominate regression colonies.
3. Flexibility of Marines. Although in a situation very different from the standard operating procedures for any element of the Earther Marine Corps, the 130th displayed flexibility and creativity leading to a successful outcome. This officer believes that Starship Marines, and the 130th in particular, are the best forces to use in such cases.
4. Similar problems in the future. It might be useful if an Armed Intervention Force were prepared for all Imperial Regression Colonies, to be deployed in the event of any unauthorised leak of technology or other illegal actions.
A005 Heath, E. - just a scratch
A105 Clitherow, J. - just a scratch
All equipment used during the Mission was specially designed for the purpose and therefore there was zero expenditure of ammo from the Regimental stocks.
Signed: Major P. Howland*, Bravo Group, 130th EMR
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
To: All Personnel
From: Lt Col Killgore, 130th EMR
Subject: ROUTINE ORDERS
1. Lt Kampf is awarded a Commander's Special Recommendation Stripe (Blue) for his conduct during Operation CRUMHORN, with immediate effect, and a note is to be made on his record of service.
2. SSM Liver is awarded a Good Contact Stripe, Operational (Red) for her conduct during Operation CRUMHORN, with immediate effect, and a note is to be made in her record of service.
T A Killgore
Lt Col
Commanding, The 130th Regiment
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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