Captain Forsyth: A Letter

Captain Forsyth, Fort McMurray, January

My Dear Brother,

I just hope this reaches you as we are beset and I fear an attack on the fort in force soon.

Never-the-less I trust you and the family are well and what-ever assails I am sure we will meet with fortitude. The men are holding up remarkably well.

McMurray is now under almost constant attack from the air. War kites of the Martian kind are flying over by night and dropping incendiary devices. So far, we’ve held up pretty well, but the last damaged our mooring tower and post, damaged some buildings and most dreadfully accounted for two of my men.

I’ve despatched riders in the hope of getting messages back to the city, one way or another.

I believe an attack is being prepared, the air raids I feel are to prepare a breach, in order that the fort can be taken.

Meanwhile we are running low on supplies. I’ve had to cut rations, which is the most regrettable thing.

There’s been some fighting out on the plane, according to reports, but on patrol I could find no evidence.

Hopefully these abdominal fellows are fighting amongst themselves.

A badly worn party turned up. It was Moerus Lacus irregulars. They’d done rather well, captured some munitions.

I deduced these were rockets of some kind.

But the details eluded me.

I commended the officer for his initiative. Indeed, he does know not it but one of the dispatches he now carries that recommendation.

We have been exploring the under croft a little more.

I have to be careful about this as it takes me away from the position of command and that is my primary responsibility.

However, my curiosity is piqued. Besides the idea of a of a potentially hidden entrance into the fort is something I feel must be investigated. Together with Phipps and Hartwell, I have been exploring the tunnels as time has allowed.

One tunnel which we had started down before ended with a cave in. The odd thing was the rock that blocked the tunnel was different to that of the material it was constructed from.

The next tunnel was most disturbing. Dr. Phipps, stalwart fellow that he is, refused to enter! If I didn’t know the man as one of courage, I’d I’ve said he was cowering, muttering about ‘certain death’.

Hartwell and I entered. A strange effect occurred, the radius of light from our lamps diminished as we progressed, until in no time we were in near darkness. Indeed, I knew Hartwell to be just feet from me, but I couldn't see him and neither could I hear him.

I now couldn’t see the exit. I shouted to Jones to sing, like most Welshmen he has a fine voice and it would give me a bearing. But he couldn’t hear me.

Now I heard heavy breathing, like an adversary was bearing down on me. I held my nerve as you would expect, turned about and headed for where I believed the exit would be.

I bumped into Hartwell and we were able to head for the exit together. The light increased as we moved towards the exit, which confirmed to me we were going in the right direction.

The breathing was still pursuing us, Hartwell was experiencing it to.

But we didn’t panic and made it out of this tunnel.

Blocked in all other directions, there was only really one tunnel left to explore.

This ended in a strange well. Investigations led to us to conclude that gravity was not operating properly within this well. Indeed, we eventually concluded that there was no gravity at all!

I concluded that we had been underground long enough.

It was days before we got below again.

With the air raids, we had plenty to deal with above ground.

Meanwhile the irregulars had recovered and their Lieutenant requested permission to return to the city with despatches. I would have dearly liked to keep them on the strength and could have used such a resourceful officer.

But getting the information back to Empire seemed more important. I considered whether they had sufficient strength and even if I should reinforce them, even at the cost of depleting the garrison. However, I judged them a hard, experienced unit, extremely well led and extra unfamiliar numbers might prove as much as a hindrance as a boon.

Likewise, I considered retaining a few men for the defence of the fort. But that would weaken their party. The previous riders I’d sent might rely on an element of luck. I feel that this party has a genuine chance to get through.

I neglected to tell you them how they came to be at the fort. The Steppe Tiger, our supply ship hasn’t reported for week. It was last seen in a conflict heading towards the canal. This patrol was sent to see what they could find.

They found nothing regarding the Steppe Tiger, but did see munitions being transported via barges.

They managed to overpower one crew and seize the contents. But they realised they were confronting trained troops not sailors. It appears that Shapstash has amassed marines on the canal.

This fits with my earlier intelligence that they are preparing an attack.

The strange weapons they had captured, I cannot not underestimate their achievement, not only in capturing these weapons but realising they could not get them to city headed overland to the fort.

I believed these strange tubular things are rockets. There were 6 of them.

We took one well away from the fort. If my estimate was correct then this would be possibly the biggest ‘shell’ imaginable.

I’d concluded that the cord attached to the back was a pull cord. An astonishing 60’ long, which I thought excessive, the only thing I could conclude was that was the calculated safety distance.

There was an odd paper wrapping, which was covering 4 evenly spaced features, which I’ve yet to determine the nature of. I do wonder if it’s somehow concerned with controlling the trajectory.

The ‘test fire’ was somewhat mixed. A tug on the lanyard pulled a pin out but nothing happened.

In all good conscious I couldn’t ask anyone else to do this. Besides I’m the only one with knowledge in this field.

The pin was rough and I concluded that it was designed to pull against another rough surface to create a spark. The spark would obviously ignite the contents.

Most carefully I reinserted the pin.

Then the world went dark.

Phipps tells me I was thrown a good 9 feet as the thing ignited. I remember nothing, other than I thought I was going to meet my maker.

Although highly effective, I do not recommend this as a way to shave or get a haircut.

I was rather stunned and Jones will have a time cleaning my uniform.

Worse, while I was correct it that it was a rocket, it was rather erratic in its flight.

If memory serves me correctly, we had better than this after the Napoleonic wars.

At this point I must apologise, I’ve rather neglected writing to you as events have been a trifle demanding. I will therefore give a summary of things, which might not be in the correct order.

I must start with the most remarkable finds in the under croft. One has to see the reality of this to truly appreciate the scale and sophistication of the ancient technology contained down there. This a treasure trove beyond belief. I will write again on the wonders we have uncovered to date, I just hope we can we defend these finds.

You will probably read of the destruction and loss of Fort Elgin. It seems they were undermined by a giant explosion, I have a first-hand report from a ship flying over but was out of the fort on recognisance at the time, so the report was relayed to me.

Explosions have been experienced some 3 to 5 miles from the fort. Investigations found a huge cater. I am still calculating the forces involved from the size of the crater and how far debris was thrown, but doubt there are many or any larger!

There is a substantial amount of metal down in the crater. We found a German hallmark on the most substantial piece the scale of which is stupendous in scale and manufacture. Truly impressive.

What this is doing here and what its purpose is, I can only speculate. My worse fear is that Germans have developed an automated mining technology which they are supplying to Slapstash. I am already certain that they are supplying other arms and means to this hostile power. To be frank, they are conducting war by proxy.

Being out of contact, I am not sure what the official status is with Stapstash, but here on the frontier I have no doubt it’s open warfare.

I lost another 2 men investigating the crater to yet another Martian hill tribe ambush. While we saw these off, killing 16 out of 20 of their combatants, it’s rather tedious. I’d have rather hoped they would have learnt the lesson by now and responded to our overtures. They must see which side is superior by now!

Count Overbearing turned up again. All smiles as he offered our recce party a lift from the crater site in the face of an advancing enemy party. I declined as I wasn’t about to leave the mounts behind. His Zeppelin had come from the direction of Slapcrash, just more evidence of the obvious co-operation.

The enemy are busy at the crater site. Their fires indicate their numbers equal roughly those at the fort. I believe the enemy suffered a major setback with the explosion. My speculation is that the what-ever equipment was employed was of powerful mining nature intended to create a tunnel below the fort. Thereafter a mine could be detonated destroying the whole.

My suspicion is this what happened to Fort Elgin.

The explosive forces involved would be consistent with the kind of power needed to drive through a sub-terranean mine.

It’s a difficult decision, on the one hand we should hinder or prevent the recovery of a key component from the crater site. But on the other we may discover a solution in the amazing tunnels below.

Command is ever a difficult call, but thankfully I have my fellows, Wilhelm, Hartwell and Phipps, with whom I may consult as equals.

Long live Her Majesty!

Your brother,

Henry