Updated: 11/23/2006		CON-016

Mission 1	Mission 2	Mission 3

Gatewatch Report

Briefing

You are a member of a multi-discipline squad, drawn from a number of different companies, corporations and other organisations concerned with Base 78 (Ed. Vostok Base, Antarctica). Mutual Advancement Agreements have been drawn up and signed to the effects that all personnel involved in this operation will work towards the completion of the primary mission which is under the direct control of the Phillips corp team commander, any corporate activities are to be treated as secondary to the successful completion of the primary mission objective.

It has been six months since our forces were last on the ground at Base 105 Alpha (Ed. CON-13 Operation Malden, May 1998), during that operation the total destruction of it's sister camp Base 105 Bravo was witnessed. This is thought to have been the result of sabotage by hostile forces.

A transport aircraft (Ed. C130) was over flying Base C105 Alpha when the EM pulse and residual shock wave from the 10 Mega ton explosion hit. The transporter broke up in flight scattering its cargo of research equipment (Ed. and materials) over a wide area. This equipment and the research to which it applies is extremely valuable to the continued operation of Base 78 and must not be allowed to fall into the hands of hostile forces.

Mission Objective:

Each container on board the transport was fitted with a strobe light transponder, these will be activated as you are inserted, so as to assist with your recovery of the items.

Due to our extended absence, we fully expect the hostile forces to have control of the area. As such you will be operating in a 'hot' environment, expect snipers and other hostile activity. Articles from the manifest that have been removed from their drop zone may well have been tampered with or booby trapped, if you suspect any such tampering call on a demolitions operative for their' opinion before taking any action. Full tactical operation is advised.

New Standard Operating Procedure:

The whole squad will be inserted from Base 78, via a outbound 'Star Gate' the 'Jump Point' from which will manifest at Grid 750 005 within the boundaries of Base 105 Alpha. (ED. Launch and Landing Times missing)

Extraction will be by outbound 'Jump Point' from Base 105 Alpha at Grid 900 020 and is forecast to occur at 2253hrs (Ed. the actual departure time was advanced by the SG Team, using the Nakamura Corporation's Inducer technology, as the base's 10MT self-destruct was set to detonate prior to the stated Gate opening time).

Please note that Base 78 operatives laid mines and booby trapped the extraction location during the previous mission. In order to neutralise a clearance team is being deployed with the squad.

The squad emergency rendezvous point is at Grid 835 050 (building 122).

Password:

END OF DOCUMENT

CON-16 Roster

Mission 1

***Training Mission only***

Mission 2

Intelligence Summary: Mission to New Greenham Common Base site. Alpha site self destruct set by Base commander. Multiple contacts made/engaged. Nakamura ionisation units used to facilitate jump to safety before the base self-destruct detonated. No artifacts recovered, several personel shown to be infected.

After Action Reports:

2Lt DeBeer, S

Official Report, mission field commander

Urgent jump into base 105 Alpha, which is out of contact with central command. Transport had been destroyed while passing over 105 Alpha due to effects of nuclear explosion that had destroyed 105 Beta. Valuable artefacts from many corporations spread across the area.

Teams sent by:
Philips Corporation
British Government
Nakamura Corporation
SSI
Tiger Securities

Separated at jump in to 105 Alpha. Most groups headed to their individual rally points before gathering in the region of the group rally point. First major discovery was that the base had been put on self-destruct, with a nuke, by the base commander and the controls booby-trapped. Now we had a new objective - survival! The problems started there.

After roughly half an hour had managed to get some form of order. The British team was in a bit of disarray, apparently having lost their leader, but otherwise things seemed under control. One of the other groups had found a sapper who was co-opted to have a look at the bomb. While we escorted him to get his kit we came under fire and in the confusion Chris B was accidentally wounded by me. The booby trap on the controller was dismantled and detonated safely. Remaining problem: we needed to find the base commander to extract the codes to disarm the bomb. As the bomb was due to go off just before we were due to gate out I decided that, as a backup plan, we needed to act on the Nakamura document my intel officer had brought to me just before we left. The Nakamura personnel weren't too happy to admit knowledge of gate manipulation, but agreed to help. Sent them, with support from Tiger, to find the parts they needed. Unfortunately their expedition got a little bogged down in a bit of a firefight. Around this time I began to notice that Ian, the British NCO, was showing signs of panic or confusion.

Just along from the control room was a strange structure. There was a lot of similarity between it and the devices described in the Nakamura document. Had a Nakamura NCO (the team leader?) look at it (yes, I used the threat of force, he was not happy to leave the shelter of the buildings), but he was unable to decide if it was related, possibly because he was too scared to get close to it. Ordered it destroyed on the assumption that it was likely responsible for the problems with our inbound gate, and would probably affect our outbound gate. Please accept my apologies if I destroyed a priceless alien artefact unnecessarily, but I deemed it necessary for the safety of the mission.

Around this time an unarmed, but raving, man was found and restrained. He identified himself, and was confirmed as, the missing major. He seemed rather keen on the entire concept of the base blowing up, though he didn't seem to realise he would die too soon to see the fireworks he was looking forward to. Testing by SSI confirmed that he had been contaminated, and so had Ian - one of the suspected 'super soldiers'. Unfortunately, although their corporation is apparently working on a cure the Tiger representatives had no samples, experimental or not, that we could attempt to use on him. The British contingent, now effectively under Ian's control instead of their 2IC, refused to permit torture of the prisoner, even when directly ordered to, insisting that he would give them the correct codes. He didn't, whether intentionally or not. It is quite feasible that in his ravings he simply couldn't remember the codes. It turned out later that his information had helped the sapper delay the detonation .

In the meantime the Nakamura party had returned with the vital ionisation units. All we needed to bring the jump forward now would be the trigger. The riser units were a luxury, I would be quite willing to take some of this base back with us if it meant getting back alive.

Ordered the group split in two. Half to go with Ian to secure the jump off point, the other half to go with me to search for the trigger. While looking for the trigger we came by the jump point. This was a mistake as the two groups intermingled, losing all coherence. This was the moment of maximum chaos. The yelling prevented any further organisation and effectively forced us to give up on the search by wasting the little time that remained. As we all sought shelter as best we could both the jump started and the bomb went off. The delay to the detonation of the device was enough to prevent us all from being vaporised before the gate formed. We made it back, though not quite totally intact, having all suffered serious radiation poisoning.

***NEXT ENTRY***

2Lt DeBeer, S

Addendum to Official Report - Philips Corporation field commander - Philips operational personnel only

Summary

- Failed to get our missing materials.

-Got most of us out alive.

- Got the base log. Analysis of it may give more information into what happened. (see DSTL report)

- The setting of the base to nuclear self destruct in order to prevent the spread of the infection to Earth. Could that be what had caused the destruction of 105 Beta as well?

- Confirmed that Nakamura can manipulate the formation of jump points.

- Assuming that the infected personnel at the base used a variant on this technology to disturb the jumps into the area.

- Presuming the 'super soldiers' (those that appear to be able to die and then come back to life again) are created by organisms or nanotech particles in the alien goop that we've suddenly been told to avoid.

- Discussion point - possibly due to dying after contact with it and being revived?

- SSI have a technique that can not only detect infected people, but also the ‘super soldiers’.

- Tiger have a cure for the infection, would want to use it on the ‘super soldiers’ should they be deemed a threat to further missions.

Philips team:

Steve G, military, special ops group, i/c
Chris B, military
Lez C, civilian, security department, intel group

Narration

A bit of a disaster. I must accept responsibility for the actions of the troops nominally under my command and will offer my resignation from the corporation if required. My inability to effectively control the various groups was (in my opinion) the primary reason the mission fared so badly. Apologies for the lack of focus in this log. It is being put together after time in hospital suffering from radiation poisoning – too late for effective recall of all events clearly.

Arrived at base 105 Alpha to find myself alone, not a good situation for a mission commander to be in. As per SOP I activated my emergency flare. The numbers of flares going off indicated I was not the only one in this situation so I carefully headed towards the area of the Philips and mission rally points, which were luckily near one another. As I approached the area saw some Nakamura supplies - marked as biohazard and too heavy to safely carry - so I left them. Gathered a few team members on the way.

By the time I had met with the rest of the Philips team at the base command centre we already had a sizeable part of the group together. As we started to sort ourselves out a member of SSI - Paul, the senior NCO I think - came up to us. He let us know that SSI were all gathered and accounted for, I sent him off to get them. This led to the first signs of an unusual problem we would have on the mission. Certain groups would not (or could not) believe that the risk of the base blowing up might make the concept of chasing items unimportant - worst offenders being SSI and Nakamura. Are these corporations terrifying their employees so much that they would rather die than fail at their assigned mission? The SSI team especially seemed to take pleasure in agreeing to do something and then disappearing for a while without doing it. So much for the nice working relationship we had built up last mission. We wasted a quarter of an hour waiting for SSI to show up before we gave up.

After we had discovered the bomb upstairs and the rantings on the commander's log screen we went to the main rally point to update everyone. Of course there was a small problem letting SSI know. The base commander’s log screen indicated most heavily that he had set the base to self destruct to prevent the spread of the infection to Earth. His comment about it affecting his mind and the lack of coherence and co-ordination clashes heavily with the coherence and co-ordination shown by Ian. Could it be that there is a period of incoherence while the mind is affected by the infection before stabilisation occurs?

The device that may have been the cause of the inbound jump interference looked manmade, not organic as implied in my pre-mission briefing. Most of the groups, both individual members and commanders, were willing to work together to ensure our combined survival. Would suggest implementation of cross-group training exercises to increase the chances of success of further multi-organisational missions. The use of Afrikaans/Dutch permitted me to use Chris B as extra protection / enforcement and to give him orders in public without members of the other organisations understanding us. Would suggest all members of Philips teams be given teaching or refresher courses in either language to further the use of this in future multi-corporation missions.

Query:

Would I have been justified in killing Ian for insubordination/mutiny? I came close a few times. What would the penalty have been, and would it be worth it? I would certainly have felt better, but that is not an acceptable reason to kill someone, even if it would permit us to test his ‘Super Soldier’ credentials.

Mission 3

***Training Mission only***

CON-016 Intelligence Debrief

TBA

Mission 1 Mission 2 Mission 3