to the Index or back to Devils Mountain

report covers:   15 July, 2140 to 21 July, 2140

Friday, 15 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 60 F, high temp 80 F, visibility 14 km, winds average 15 kph, 0.55" of rain during a brief thunderstorm in the evening.

     The mechanized part of the Expedition advanced, with a bit more tactical care, east into the Green Mountains. Doom Rider raiders had ventured as far as South Pass within the last three weeks. Two Ravager gyrocopters, one of them able to carry a passenger, arrived at 3 p.m.; it was a six hour flight from the Green Mountains to RAB.

     The 200 second tier Montanan troops (technically, Companies D and E) marched into Bone City this day, to be met by the semi-tractor with a livestock trailer.

Expedition route shown in red

     The Expedition's leaders decided to send back most of their motorized transport the next day to "hurry along" the hundreds of troops still moving up. These trucks would get to Boise in two days, and return about two days after that with troops; then head out again to somewhere north of Boise for the last load of troops.

     In the evening, the regular radio contact with Science Team 71 and some other stations was made. There were nearly daily battles around Trader Pass; the Doom Riders were bringing up artillery. Land mines and sniping had worked against the Riders; however, the Riders were also sending light troops (on foot, horseback, or motorcycles) wide around the pass, to harass Cartel, Foundation and Waste Lord supply lines and bases.

Saturday, 16 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 54 F, high temp 77 F, visibility 16 km, winds average 10 kph, 0.01" of rain during a very brief thunderstorm around sunset.

     The eight big DRA trucks, each pulling a big cargo trailer, a DRA jeep, and a DRA armored car headed west (the DRA still had 5 men at the camp). They can haul about 250 men. Motor vehicles still present at the temporary camp: 

• R54's V150 armored car

• the XR311 obtained from the Waste Lords

• the Veracruz gun truck

• a DRA jeep

• a DRA armored car

• Mischief Jones' dune buggy

The referee thinks that's the correct set of vehicles; there are also some trailers, maybe a motorcycle or two.

     The four hundred soldiers were put to work improving the camp -- digging latrines and fighting positions, setting up watch posts with CB radios at various points, putting up taller and more effective radio antennas, etc.

     The evening radio reports revealed that Ravager Air Base, west of Denver, had been overrun by the Doom Riders. The Ravagers had escaped the day before with their aircraft, vehicles and personnel, but alas most of their supplies were left behind to be looted or destroyed by the Doom Riders. Their new operating location was in South Park, with the glum cooperation of the Sisterhood of Shadows.

Sunday, 17 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 55 F, high temp 82 F, visibility 8 km, winds average 19 kph, fog from before dawn to late morning.

     Rangers were still moving out to establish road-watch positions, and a net of CB radios, in the Shirley Mountains, the Laramie Mountains, and eventually along the Front Range. The temporary camp continued to improve.

     In the afternoon, Crone Cherry of the Sisterhood arrived "mysteriously" at the temporary base. She offered the services of Sister Gila to scout within Teapot Dome.

     The evening's radio traffic included confirmation from the DRA trucks that they'd reached Boise ... but the troops were not all there yet. They'd be spending another day driving towards Bone City to pick up a full load.

At Soo, Captain Deltoid escaped from jail! Team R101 gave pursuit!

Monday, 18 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 57 F, high temp 84 F, visibility 10 km, winds average 20 kph (with some mid-day gusts up to 73 kph!), fog before dawn.

     A very windy day. The DRA convoy reported by radio that they had found a full load of troops, and would probably be back at the camp by the morning of the 20th.

     Reports came in by 5 p.m. from watch posts that some motor vehicles were approaching the camp from the east -- these were seen many kilometers away, and would arrive near the camp in a half-hour or so. There seemed to be a tractor and semi-trailer, and a pickup truck, both being pursued by a couple of Doom Rider vehicles and some motorbikes. The semi-trailer had a couple of cupola gun mounts, one of which was firing at the Doom Rider vehicles.

     When the two groups of approaching vehicles were a few kilometers out, the Doom Riders were driven off by gunfire. The trucks had large orange circles painted on them, and drove slowly up the the eastern gate of the camp. They held their hands outside the windows of their vehicles, and seemed peaceful.

     The Morrow team went out to see these visitors, who said they were from the Cartel parada at Tucumcari:

     Pepe explained that they had been part of a larger military force sent out several weeks ago from Tucumcari to plant mines on the highways being used by the Doom Riders; east of Stockyard they had been spotted by a Doom Rider patrol. The Cartel force had originally included gun trucks and cars, and some motorbikes; by the time they reached the Expedition after a few days, all of those other Cartel vehicles had been destroyed or chased off. They hadn't been able to lose the Cartel, since truck tracks are difficult to hide.

     The Cartel team presented two CB radios, with wheelbarrows to carry them (and their 12 volt batteries), a small methanol-powered generator, a dozen Cartel rifles and 1800 rounds of 10.4mm ammo for them (along with 5 magazines each), and a few hundred pounds of military rations. Their main cargo, however, was 152 boxes (3.8 tons) of dynamite! Each 25 kg box held 100 sticks of 40% dynamite (0.19 kg each), along with a lot of sawdust. There was also a selection of mine-fuzing equipment (non-electric blasting caps, and a few vehicle-triggered igniters), lumber and tools to make containers for buying mines, some picks and shovels, and burning-type fuses.

     The orange circles were a new tactical symbol adopted by the Cartel and other forces around Trader Pass -- the Cartel's usual symbol, in orange-on-black or black-on-orange (or black-on-light-colors), had been mistaken a couple of times for the Doom Wheel.

the usual Cartel symbol (left) and the Doom Wheel (right)

     Doc, Gootz, JJ and Jesse chatted with the newcomers, and told them to park their explosive-filled truck away from the middle of the camp. Doc and Scotty ordered a few guards to be posted around the new trucks, and to discreetly follow the Cartel crew.

     That evening, Doc asked Jesse to check with Science Team 71 and the Cartel about these trucks. S71 knew nothing about it, but there had been no contact with Tucumcari for a couple of weeks -- the Doom Riders were all over the wasteland between Trader Pass and that town. In all likelihood, the town had been besieged and perhaps destroyed. The names of the crew didn't sound familiar, but there were nearly a thousand truck owners in the Cartel, spread from southern California down to nearly Mexico City.

The team takes all of its skill checks to date.

Some members of Omega Team 66 began their wake-up process.

Tuesday, 19 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 51 F, high temp 78 F, visibility 16 km, winds average 16 kph (with some gusts up to 45 kph).

     While monitoring radio channels during the night, Jesse detected a fairly powerful CB radio transmission, and a couple of less-powerful responses. He informed the rest of his team about a likely "spy" within their camp; there weren't a lot of CB radios outside of the comm tent, and suspicion fell immediately on the newly-arrived Cartel trucks.

     After snagging Cherry and a few "volunteers" from among the camped soldiers, team R54 (not including Scotty, who was away setting up a radio relay and weather station) carefully surrounded the Cartel trucks, fully aware of the tons of dynamite they contained. On a radioed signal, they opened fire on the phony Cartel soldiers, who went down quickly -- two survived to be taken prisoner. Cherry quickly scaled the side of the truck, and determined there was no "dead man switch".

      A thorough search of the trucks and their crews didn't reveal any Doom Rider connection -- but there was a timer hidden in the semi-trailer, with up to an twelve-hour delay (though only eight hours remained when it was found). In any case, the Morrow team was convinced that the trucks had been part of a Doom Rider sabotage plan.

     The contents of the semi-trailer were quickly moved by hundreds of men into four quickly-dug magazines spaced well apart.

     Jesse set up a couple of direction finders to locate the nearby friends of Pepe and his crew of spies; alas, some basic errors were made in design and assembly.

      In the afternoon, Gila returned from her mission observing New Casper (aka Naval Petroleum Reserve #3, at Teapot Dome). The Casperites weren't exactly prisoners, but weren't free to leave either; they and the Doom Riders were both well aware of the volatile nature of the supplies there.

     O-66 team members Hopper and Dominguez woke up, and fought the Doom Riders near their bolt hole;

Dominguez was captured. Derwin, Johnson, Wright, Miller, Bradford and Ocampo also woke up.

They broadcast on the most general Project shortwave channel (7.175 MHz) and spoke with Recon team R-109, in Alberta.

After dark they drove to Midway, to rescue Dominguez.

Wednesday, 20 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 53 F, high temp 82 F, visibility 16 km, winds average 9 kph.

     Late in the afternoon, the convoy of big Soviet trucks arrived from Idaho. This brought the number of troops at the temporary camp to just over 900. Getting the troops settled in, the horses fed, trucks refueled and maintained, officers briefed, etc. took up much of the evening.

     However, a very excited Jesse Cooper sent messengers running for every Project member in camp:  he'd made contact with another Project team! An Omega team, O-66, to the south; they'd only just awakened the day before, and didn't know where they were, or much about current conditions. The brief radio contact made it clear the Omega team was dangerously close to Doom Rider transport routes, and they were told to head east and expect help by the end of the next day.

     Scotty and the team got ready to travel.

Thursday, 21 July, 2140

     weather:  low temp 50 F, high temp 92 F, humidity 25% to 45%, visibility 100 km, winds average 15 kph from the southeast, with late afternoon gusts to 35 kph.

     Before dawn, R54 set out in their V150 armored car, and the XR311 jeep, accompanied by Sister Gila. They drove at speed across the nuclear-cratered, ash-covered plains of southern Wyoming, southwestern Nebraska, and northern Colorado, bypassing Cheyenne and swinging wide away from Bartertown. They turned south when they reached the ruins of US Highway 385, and barreled along over the desert through the day.

     Jesse picked up some faint Doom Rider radio calls that might have been orders to investigate Midway ... the day's total distance covered was 740 kilometers, in 15 hours, by the time they reached the vicinity of Lamar, Colorado, along the shallow valley of the Arkansas River. The team's butts were sore, and the crew of the XR311 were thoroughly hot and dusty.

     Squinting into the setting sun, Scotty couldn't see much ahead of the team on the old route of US Highway 50, but he suddenly heard some long bursts of automatic weapons fire, and the thudding blasts of grenades! The V150 and XR311 sped up to dangerous speeds ... and saw some thin rising plumes of black smoke from along the near side of the Arkansas River.

     Grimly, the team approached the battle site -- dropping JJ Pettigrew off along the lip of the shallow valley -- expecting to find the Omega team shot to pieces. Instead, when the dust cleared, several people in Morrow Project coverall were waving from beside a couple of odd vehicles (converted from a school bus and a Volkswagen Beetle), and three Doom Rider vehicles stood on the approach road, riddled with holes or ablaze (or both). The bodies of some Doom Riders laid along the edge of the valley.

on to Master Furious