ARABIAN QUESTION When I got back to Alpha, Powell admitted to me privately that he had made a mistake in trusting the Arabs. He also showed me an interesting message that he had gotten from a contact at one of the Arab bases. A group of mercenaries, who were tricked into coming irrevocably into the past, wanted to desert, and as a token of their good faith, were willing to deliver an Arab base into our hands. We could then mock it up to look like they had died in a heroic, but doomed, defense of the base, have a better idea of the extent and tactics of the Arabs, and no one would be the wiser. While it sounded rather risky, it seemed like a chance that we had to take. Powell had gather up my twelve best soldiers, and sent us off to the base. After a few days of driving, we came within sight of the base. We waited until nightfall, and then sent in some scouts. Once we had a good feel for the layout of the base, I sent the signal to the deserters, and we watched them silently kill the elements of the watch who weren’t part of their band. They counter-signaled us and then snuck out of the base, off to a safe distance. Then we began the attack. I feel somewhat bad about this one, because it was just so simple. There weren’t any soldiers left in the base, and no real static defenses, so we just took down the bases power supply, and then waited for their turrets to go offline while mopping up the crew. We then occupied the base, and fixed it up as good as new. Of course, we had other objectives than just taking this base. Two other Arab bases in the sector needed to be neutralized one way or the other. Frank offered to do our recon for us. The crazy bastard just loves sneaking around near people that really want to kill him. Knowing that he wasn’t really listening, I told him to be careful. After seeing him off, I set the men to work expanding the base. Our priorities for the moment, at least until Frank returned, were resource gathering and research. When he did come back, it was with bad news. It looked as if it were going to take a much larger force than we had to defeat the other two nearby bases. With some basic research out of the way, I sent my two most able drivers to take command of the vehicles that the Arabs had never had time to get into. I organized my defense by putting two men near the radar station for point defense, and the rest went into the barracks to get some mortars. Once we were set up, we waited for the Arab response, which came in the form of an attack coming down the northern service road. It was all vehicles, some of which, we noticed to our horror, were driven by Apemen, cruelly wired into the cockpit, interfaced with the machinery itself. We had just put them out of their misery when more Apemen emerged from the forest nearby, covered in dynamite. The Arabs were using the Apemen as suicide troops! We opened fire, but many of us had to shield our eyes as the helpless apes were blown to pieces. Those tactics represented the worst form of cowardice. While we were treating the wounded from that encounter, I had the techs go and see if they could do something with the factory. Luckily, most of it seemed standard enough to use, so I had them work on producing some new vehicles with siberite engines. While they were in progress, I set up a light perimeter, and then began massing my troops for an assault on the first of the Arab bases. After I had gathered up a few half-tracks, some with cannon and others with flamethrowers, we marched off to the north-west, ready to do battle. We went north, along the road, until Frank told us that we were getting into an area that was likely to be mined. We diverted onto the shoulder and went up to a rise where we had a good vantage on the base. Movement was restricted, but we had the height advantage. e started to pick off a few of the outlying buildings and soldiers, but then we ran into some turrets and soldiers with mortars. So, we ran out a spotter and used indirect fire with the mortars until we had taken care of them. We had started on the main base when the Arabs served us with another nasty surprise. One of their vehicles charged us, not firing, and then detonated when it was close enough. It did us some grievous damage, but not enough to stop us. We repaired, tended to the wounded, and then pressed the attack again, carefully watching for any more of these ‘self-propelled bombs’. Some more of the kamikaze Apemen attacked us, and we managed to get them all, save one, who managed to detonate himself close enough to one of our still damaged vehicles to destroy it. The rest of the attack went more smoothly, and we were able to take the base without any more surprise. When we occupied it we found that the Arabs had an artifact, made from the same material as the EON, locked in a storage shed(II). I wondered what our scientists would make of it, and also where the Arabs had come by such a thing. I was still pondering when a message came over the radio. One of the Arab engineers offered us remote access to security cameras near the last Arab base in the sector. All that he wanted in return for this was a getaway truck. I figured that I might pay for it later, but the immediate tactical advantage would be overwhelming, so I agreed. We loaded up the artifact and returned to our first base, which had been fairing well against some light Arab incursions. We had a turret guarding a fording place in the river, and they had managed to fight off all of the soldiers that had attempted to cross over while we were attending to the other base. We were attacked en route to the rendezvous with the Arab traitor, making me think that it might be a trap. Still, a deal was a deal, and the truck that we left there had no armament. As we didn’t really need it, we left it at the location specified(III), and returned to base. After a few minutes of waiting, the Arab actually came through on his promise. Using the cameras, I was able to fully scout out the target, and decide which would be the best avenue of attack. A tree-crowned hill to the south of their base offered an ideal position from which to attack their sensitive control towers. It would require going in on foot, but it seemed worth the risk, as the Arabs were over-fond of using automation. We all equipped ourselves with mortars, and snuck to the decided-upon position. Although we had the element of surprise, they were ready for an attack, and they came at as from the west. Our height advantage proved pretty handy here, and we were able to finish them off with no losses. Thus weakened, their forces fell before ours surprisingly easily. Once we had finished them off, I radioed back to Alpha with confirmation of success.

Introduction Mission 1 Mission 2 Mission 3 Mission 4 Mission 5 Mission 6 Mission 7 Mission 8 Mission 9 Mission 10 Mission 11 Decision Mission 12 Mission 13 Mission 14 Mission 15