Cannons, and Ships, and Gunfire. Oh My!

To: Interior Ministry, Foreign Ministry, CHIT Commanders
cc: MI 5 Operatives, Militia Leadership
From: Head MI 5
Re: Events at the Loch on 19 April

Sometimes one never needs to leave home to find intrigue and adventure.


What started out as a lovely, quiet evening on the Loch turned out to be anything but the buccolic scene envisioned. As I was touring about the Loch last evening, showing the new distillery building and public house to Loch Avie's good friend, Mr ZenMondo Wormser, there was suddenly a quickly flying avatar overhead. Initially we continued our current discussion about the good work that Lady Kate Nicholas is doing on the manse building, which is quite a drammatic structure and will be extraordinary once all the interior work is completed....but I digress...as we walked down the hill towards the inlet that Nellie favors, we were suddenly and greatly alarmed at what we saw.


A gunship in Loch Avie??!!

There before us was an enormous ship, not quite rezed in the waters of the Loch, having two very large cannons. And the cannon were firing on MY Keep! I was shouting to the avatar demanding that he stop immediately, and was just about ready to bounce him onto his behind in some distant mainland sim after time spent well above the atmosphere when he finally called out to us. The cannon fire stopped. I demanded to know WHO he was and what he thought he was doing firing at ME and my guest - and on my OWN LAND!


He introduced himself as Sgt. Gideon Biederman and stated that he was newly enrolled in the Caledon militia. He also said that the ship and the cannon were his latest inventions for the upcoming war. I quickly whispered to Mr Wormser that he should continue talking to the "gentleman" keeping him distracted whilst I called the offices of MI 5 for a rapid background check on this chap. As I was doing this, the little man brought out his next creation.

Cannon for our Militia - or so he says....


Mr Wormser and I inspect the cannon more closely.

Intellegence reports indicate that this avitar is only a week old, and yet these creations are quite sophisticated. I am most suspicious, and will keep this Biederman (a very tutonic name...hmm) close-by for further observation. Once the cannon fire started, Mr Wormser and I noted the fine workmanship and began asking questions. I also sent communications via the secure channel to two of my military experts, Colonels Somme and O'Toole. They arrived post haste to take in the scene.


Not long after their arrival more weapons found their way into the Loch. This is the newest ship (for the Caledon Navy??) purchased by Colonel O'Toole. The shipbuilder, Fleet Admiral Chase Speculaas, arrived during a fierce mock battle between the ship and the cannon perched on land. The men seemed to be having great good fun. I watched with a careful eye.


On board the new ship.


This ship handled quite well save when she was caught in the sim border.

This weapons play went on for quite some time, but did allow me to get a closer look at abilities and weapons. Needless to say, many ships were rezed, many guns and suits of armor displayed, and so on.

You may be happy to know that my Keep held firm and took no damage despite the cannon shots.

Several people went into the pub whilst we were at this business, so they must have felt safe within the Loch's borders--or the whisky was doing its work well. Ms S. O'Flynn, who has been in SL since 2003 even joined our party for a little while. A brave and hearty soul she has! And most charming as well. I hope to run into her again sometime soon.

This ends the report. I look forward to your thoughts.

EB


End Transmission

Odd Things Afoot

Begin transmission.

To: Foreign Affairs Ministry, Internal Affairs Ministry
cc: MI 5 Operatives
From: Head, MI 5
Re: Concerning events of the last few days
Recommendation: High Alert. Be mindful of all that is happening around you. Please send reports directly to this office for coordination of intellegence efforts.

Events:

1. Undercover Gnome, Agent Tinlegs has been out in the field. Following is the report he filed.

Due to the damnable conditions for flying in SL today I decided to reconoiter NeuAltenberg instead. Not much to report really. A large lady gave me a beer. A lovely Baroness welcomed me to NeuAltenberg. I watched Herr Edelweiss
apparently struggling to operate a lock on a door to what could have been either a stables or a shower room. I rather think a stables since I see no reason to attach an armored locking door to a shower.
...they seem to be part way through refurbishing the guardhouse at the old city wall to be a modern barracks. Not very sensible to me as that would leave the local manner house and beergarten outside the defensive wall and open to attack. While Herr Edelweiss did caution a visitor that there were spies all about no one challenged me. Even though I was standing right there. So I was not forced to use my well thought out and cunning escape plan. respond to any challenge with "I
bist ein jelly dougnut!" then run like hell whilst they try to figure out what I said.
Hopefully there may be a useful tidbit you can pull from this report. (Perhaps instead of pumpkins we should invade and take over their beergarten for a right good piss up wherein we drink their entire supply of beer.)

2. This report was filed from BardHaven's Department of Scandal and Innuendo.

3. Seen by Head of MI 5. A group of shadowy figures skulking about the Falling Anvil in Tamrannoch. In the dark of the night - even with my steampunk night vision goggles on - it was difficult to discern the faces of these characters. What was obvious was that several of this number were female although near as I could tell they were all dressed alike. They appeared to be holding some sort of conference. What they might be planning is of concern to me particularly with all the talk of war between Caledon and Neualtenberg. I must learn more about this group: Are they citizens of Caledon? Are they friend to Caledon or foe?? What are they planning?


Further communications will follow.


End transmission.

The rest of the story

As mentioned previously, I was working in the Loch last evening when my secure channel rang. Being suddenly called into service I dropped all items of construction, and contacted my particular friend, learned colleague, and MI 5 top operative, Ms Kate Nicholas.

Quite suddenly we were on our way to a classified operation, some of which I can now share with you (minus the top secret bits) having passed the information to appropriate military personnel hours ago. I was to survey and report the status of the Neualtenburg fleet.

Kate and I wound our way through the streets of Neualtenburg quite easily.


I had selected my mainland-operative costume for purposes of anonymity and this worked extraordinarily well. The Neualties did not know what was happening.

Finding the docks, I flew over the so-called ships of war.


Thinking that these pleasure crafts might hold hidden armaments, I thoroughly reviewed the builds with the new photographic equipment provided by my fantasitcally brilliant intellegence agency scientist, K. I am not at liberty to discuss specifics with you at this time. Suffice it to say that the appropriate individuals in the war department have been informed of my findings.

During my time in Neualtenburg, I established contact via the æthernetwork with Her Grace, Gabrielle Riel, of Carntaigh. We remained in contact throughout the operation so that covert extraction might be secured should it be required.


Meanwhile, Kate set up a station on the docks, collecting information needed for scientific research and the war efforts as well. When I joined her, we determined that we should leave a calling card for our enemy lest they feel too comfortable here behind their own borders.





(above) Kate posts the Caledon Expeditionary flag wondering if it will even be noticed.

Once the scientific portion of the operation was completed, Kate returned to headquarters to begin her analysis.

I determined to remain a little longer and attempt to discover any aircraft hangers. To my surprise, one lighter-than-air craft specimen was in plain view. A full examination was once again completed.


Could this really be all their airfleet has to offer??


Rather suddenly I heard loud noises coming from multiple directions at several meters away. Understanding that my position was being triangulated, I contacted Her Grace Carntaigh to send the closest extraction force. The call was sent out over the secure æthernetwork channel. I was more than pleased to make it safely to the planned emergency extraction site in time to see the DaVinci copter coming in for a landing.




Colonel O'Toole managed to get us air-borne before the local militia and everyday citizenry of Neualtenburg were able to get to my location.

Shortly after we were in the air we began to have engine trouble. I was most thankful to see Virrginia Tomobola in her bicycle-balloon offering escort to us. I am unsure what weaponry may be available on her flying machine, but thankfully we were able to set down safely outside the reach of their military.


We rested for a while in the tents of a gypsy encampment and plotted our next actions after I contacted the war department to notify them of my safety, and to make initial report.

For a full report from the extraction team please read this æthernet site.