Captain Forsyth: A Letter

Captain Forsyth, Fort McMurray, still under attack

My Dearest Brother,

Once again, I write under the most difficult of conditions.

When I last wrote, there was a deal of concern over a potential undermining threat to the fort. Overnight my resolve grew, we had to deal with this threat. The question was how. Conventionally I could have taken the strength of the fort against the enemy. I am sure that our men could have seen off the enemy force in short order. We could have captured what-ever mechanisms were being employed. But at what cost? It would have left the fort seriously exposed and I have no doubt we would have taken casualties.

Each man I lose feels like a knife cut.

So together with Hartwell and Wilhelm, a plan was devised. I’d previously noted that the sides of the crater created by the previous explosion were unstable. The Slaptrash forces were obviously there for a reason. Either to recover the metal or resume mining activity.

Either way it was likely that they had men in the crater up to no good.

We devised a large explosive device that could collapse the sides of the crater that could bury a good deal of enemy and stop their activity. A timer would be required to allow us to get free.

Transportation of a barrel of gunpowder is another thing. With a shudder it reminded me of what Guy Fawkes may have laid in store under Westminster. Thankfully we had salvaged some liftwood from my previous downing of an enemy kite.

It was quite intense work. The good professor made a timing device in short order. He does have an annoyingly good talent in that respect!

I had clearly the far more difficult task of assembling the liftwood into an operational carrying frame. It was a tricky construct, liftwood is a darn difficult material to deal with, but with time I managed a serviceable transport device.

It was a long ordeal.

But we now had the means to at least hold up the undermining of the fort, if not thwart it.

But we had to place our explosive charge. Which we did under cover of night.

A large party risked discovery, so only the three of us set forth, Hartwell, Wilhelm with a few scientific tricks up his sleeves, or rather on them and I.

We went to the side of crater opposite where the enemy had camped.

My worst fears were confirmed, there was a mine entrance opposite, facing the fort. Around the rim, although the light was poor, I could see an A-frame and a giant bucket scoop below. We caught the stench of ruumet breehr, those huge beasts that carry or lift heavy loads here on Mars. My heart sank a little, for I’d seen much similar during my days serving in India, where elephants had been used to drag soil from mine workings.

Mining it was then, but for sure they have some technology that allows this at an unprecedented speed. My speculation that the metal we’d found previously was some kind of canopy or roof for a mining machine, I felt was on the right lines.

I recall it bore a German hallmark, yet more proof of their proxy war against us.

It seemed that they had somehow recovered or replaced their losses and their attempt against the fort had been renewed.

The crater had been stabilised and a blow to its sides would now be unlikely to do the damage I’d hoped, indeed little more than an inconvenience. Privately I may admit, we’d left this mission later than we should. On the other hand, it proved fortuitous that we had.

We decided that our explosive device needed to be placed in the mine.

By means of one his strange devices, Professor Wilhelm could transport himself and our explosive charge to the mouth of the mine. He could have tried to go directly into the mine, after discussion, very little of which Hartwell or myself understood, it was clear that it was too high a risk.

We were faced with 2 guards at the face of the mine and another 5 on the rim.

We took careful aim with our captured silenced Winchesters at the 2 at the face of the mine. I dropped mine with ease. The other went down, but the third shot, ricocheted loudly, alerting the other guards.

Wilhelm burst into action, the mine opening was clear, with a flash – quite literally – he was gone.

Just as fast he was there at the mine entrance and towed our barrel bomb in behind him. It was quite the sight, a lot of green light surrounding him!

As happens in conflicts, events now unfolded fast.

The 5 sentries from the hill, tumbled hell for leather, down the slope.

Hartwell and I knew we had to stop them and give Wilhelm enough time to set our bomb. He had no way to understand that the enemy would be on him so fast.

We killed 4 out of 5, being at extreme long range, the shots were rather difficult in the dark.

Then a kite soared into the air from the enemy camp. It was a shape against the stars but a substantial one.

It flew in our general direction. Then started dropping flares. I guess from the bright white light, these to be phosphorous in nature.

Nevertheless, we were hunted men. Crouching and crawling Hartwell and I retreated desperately to avoid detection. We stumbled on Wilhelm, who strangely seemed to be waiting for us. It’s hard to describe this man as anything but a genius!

As the enemy got closer, Wilhelm again activated his device. We were back at the fort in a literal flash.

Pandemonium greeted me. Fires raging, frankly I was disappointed with my lieutenants who hadn’t got the situation under control. I’d long set up fire control teams (after all the Slapstash ‘bombing’ raids), but got it under in hand soon enough.

There was a dreadful body count. A dozen of Her Majesty’s most loyal men will be buried in our graveyard.

I have no doubt and neither do the troops that is the work of those Martian cowards who resort to such subversive and dastardly tactics.

In the background the big explosion in the distance was barely noticed, we 3 would have but a moment of the briefest moment of satisfaction as we dealt the immediate issues.

Another problem came to the fore, what-ever evil beings had perpetuated this foul attack, had a left us a little present. In the form of a complex time bomb set within the armoury!

If we could not defuse this then the fort was doomed. I considered abandoning the fort but there was too much at stake.

I thought I could disarm it, but so did Professor Wilhelm, in whom I have great faith. We undertook the task together. It was tense, Wilhelm took the lead, on what proved to be a remarkably sophisticated device.

It took time, at any moment we could have been obliterated, together with the fort and the Empire’s frontier and with-it possibility our hold on this region.

As I’m writing, you will guess that we succeeded, but I can assure you it was as dangerous a task as any I’ve undertaken.

If that wasn’t enough, I came out of the armoury to yet more chaos. Defusing the bomb had taken a time and now I came out to quite the scene.

Our troops were facing off, Humans against Martians. I cannot blame the men, the evidence is overwhelming that there were Martian traitors that planted the explosive devices.

But order needed to be restored.

It had got so fractious, that I deeply regret to report, I had to discharge my service revolver into the air to gain attention. That swiftly did the trick and the troops fell-in in short order.

I was able to restore a degree of normality. Arrange a joint patrol and believe repair a bridge between our brave boys and the equally brave local lads. Although more work needs to be done. I’ll be reminding the troops of their heroic defence of the fort and the equal part their counterparts played in that.

Privately I will admit that we have had an enemy cell in our mist. 6 Martians, who, on enquiry, were much a of a clique, signed on at the same time, from the same place. I’m still waiting answers on the detail.

I ordered a strong patrol after the deserters, equal numbers and men and Martians. I doubted they would catch them, but a show was necessary to ease the men. Also, it got the two fractions working together on a common cause again.

The others investigated what they could. Hartwell discovered the information on the Martians. Wilhelm discovered that one of the items on the bomb had come from the mysterious Martian woman duped by the so called the female journalist.

I don’t think she understands quite what a problem it is to keep her safe, while she awaits trial. She still hasn’t grasped that murder or accessory to murder, acts of treason, theft of Government property (which she has admitted), sedition, defamation are just a few of the charges against her.

However, in the here and now, we needed to know if our mission had been successful.

Then again, we would probably have to deal with the enemy kite. Following our previous successful strategy, we decided on something similar. We took oil-soaked rags in order to set a fire.

But our attack on the enemy site wasn’t necessary.

They’d left completely. The site of their camp had become another cater.

It took a moment for me to understand this. Our bomb wasn’t big enough to cause this amount of damage, so we must have ignited what-ever explosive the darned fiends were using. We suspect nitro-glycerine.

But we’d collapsed their mine and driven them off, that was a good result.

Over 50 of the fiends were killed, judging by graves and remains.

I have no doubt that the enemy will devise another line of attack, but we may have earned a brief respite. I find a certain irony in that we had undermined the attempt to undermine us!

Many questions are still to be answered. How did the transport of such a large piece of metal take place? The Zeppelin was not capable of lifting that kind of load. It must have arrived on the planet via a large transport ship, do we have records of this? I doubt it.

What is the mining apparatus and system that was employed? This has implications on Earth! Could a tunnel be driven under London?

How were instructions and materials for the bomb delivered into the fort? It was a very sophisticated device. I’m sure an ordinary fanatic not could have constructed this.

Then there are larger questions about recruitment of local troops. I’ve experienced many excellent loyal officers and troops, far more than this disgusting gang of interlopers. But it needs to be addressed to avoid further a further incident. I suspect it is not a widespread problem, I believe the fort has been long been targeted.

What of the Martian serpent mystic, who escaped us I have no doubt is behind much, if not all of this.

The biggest questions remain around the nature of the under croft. Does our salvation rest with unpicking this mystery?

We desperately need supplies and reinforcements. Moral is poor, supplies are low and we have been out of communication for far too long. Even a small connection would work wonders.

I hope this letter may reach you.

Long live Her Majesty!

Your brother,

Henry