The second part of a story about a group of Cleaners set in the Atrocity Archives setting.

Arrival.

The flight from the UK to Iraq takes about six hours. Sitting in the back of a C-130 is noisy and the seats even harder than the ones available in cattle-class aboard budget airlines. At least there’s plenty of room to walk around past the cargo pallets (containing flat packed building materials and medical equipment), but air turbulence can make this a hazardous proposition. The surly flight crew advise their passengers to strap in and glare at anyone who so much as dares to get out a mobile phone or a laptop computer. The in-flight entertainment consists of reading the briefing packs by torchlight and trying to sleep. The fine silver wire watermarked papers suggest some serious wardings built into these documents. Trying to get any further information from Trevor is futile because he knows nothing further. (It’s why he’s the office gopher – that and he does as Mr Thorn tells him to. There is a theory in the office that Trevor’s actually his son on a very long work experience placement with The Laundry.)

After a series of stomach turning manoeuvres the PCs aircraft lands at Basra Airbase at 3pm local time. Stepping out of the aircraft is like stepping into an oven and it is only a short time before everyone is covered in a sheen of sweat. The PCs are met at the plane by an RAF Land Rover driven by a tall weather beaten thirty something RAF officer with bleached blond hair and a sandy coloured moustache. This is Group Captain Andrew Powers. “Just call me Andy”, he says with friendly handshakes all round. His straight white teeth contrast strongly with his heavily tanned features. He collects the briefing packs from everyone, signs them off and hands them over to Trevor, directing him back to the plane which has now finished unloading and has been reloaded and refuelled by the efficient ground crew ready to depart. Boarding the plane, Trevor looks decidedly nervous…

Group Captain Andy Powers (the PCs find it hard not to refer to him as Austin), hands over a series of badges for the team to wear with their name, photo, cover (civilian security consultants from TLA – Tactical Logistics Associates) and security clearance (general access to most sections within the Green Zone). If quizzed about this Powers responds with, “I know it’s not carte blanche, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to stay away from the runways, the aircraft and the fuel dump do I?” He drives them over to the officers’ quarters first assuming the group would like to get settled in before getting down to work. If they want to go out to the crash site, the Group Captain explains that the Chief Joint Intelligence Officer, Colonel Masters, has deemed it too hazardous for the team to leave the Green Zone at this time. He also warns the PCs to be circumspect around Masters as he has not signed Section 23c, and that he’s keen to meet them at once.

The Captain explains that much of the wreckage has already been recovered by RAF air accident investigators and is now being shipped to Hanger 18 (he nods towards an anonymous looking hanger, where an unevenly tarpaulin covered flatbed lorry with flashing orange indicator lights is being driven in through the huge cavernous entrance). He was briefed by their boss, Mr Thorn that there was no thaumaturgical hazardous material above Class I in the wreckage, so the Group Captain okayed the recovery by the crash team. Further conversation is curtailed by their arrival at a security checkpoint.


The Mess

After having their badges thoroughly scrutinised, they’re waved through and the Land Rover pulls into a sandbagged compound with yet more sandbagged sided structures nearby. It’s hard to tell if they’re tents with sandbag walls or bunkers with canvas roofs. Scattered amongst them are more hardened structures – desert sand coloured Portacabins clustered together like the Lego bricks. There is a slight whiff of diesel fumes from some distant field generator station and the smell of cooked food from the canteen. All the PCs feel a pang of hunger, as they haven’t had anything proper to eat since, well, last night!

A quick trip to the canteen reveals the base personnel to be in sombre spirits following the morning’s tragic events. The noise level seems a little subdued for such a normally busy sort of place. There is a notice advising that the base chaplin will be holding a service for the dead tonight. The food is standard fare, filling but nourishing stuff, and especially delicious if you haven’t eaten for over 12 hours…

Powers directs them to an isolated spur of the cluster of tents. He’s managed to wrangle a separate accommodation wing for the PCs – the visiting VIPs suite. Seeing as there were no visiting politicians, MoD officials, high-ranking officers, the military liaison officer thought it would be suitable for the visiting consultants’ need for privacy… The constant hum of the air-con is a comparative minor handicap in exchange for the pleasantries of a cool place to drop off ones bags and relax for a few moments.

There are six separate quarters, each equipped with the amenities roughly equivalent of a travel hotel room (e.g. desk, bedside cabinet with a copy of the Bible, camp bed, etc), which share a communal bathroom and toilet facilities. Paranoid PCs may wish to sweep the quarters for monitoring devices, but won’t find any (because there aren’t any). It is truly an oasis for a few moments before Powers pokes his head around the tent flap and says its time to meet Col. Masters.

If asked about the man further, he’ll explain that Col. John Masters is the Intel Officer Iraq/ Basra Sector and is from the British Army, specifically the Royal Green Jackets Regiment. “He’s been here since 2003 and as it wasn’t considered a Laundry hotspot, the ‘powers that be’ (a.k.a. the Joint Intelligence Operations Command) decided to put someone with more counterinsurgency experience in charge of matters here. That’s why I got seconded here, just in case something did turn up on the off chance. The Colonel’s a good man who isn’t having much luck marshalling local HumInt (Human Intelligence) assets and is having to rely more on SigInt (Signals Intelligence), which he finds quite frustrating. Nonetheless, he’s a real pro and veteran, having done time in Northern Ireland in the early 90s. I’m sure he’ll extend you every courtesy.”


Meet Colonel Masters

It is a short stroll through covered walkways to a Portacabin with numerous wires and antennae projecting out it. After passing through a crowded air conditioned room with various technicians working PC terminals and a bank of televisions showing CNN, BBC World Service and Aljazeera News, they are shown into a small office and presented to Col. Masters by Andy. He stands when they come in, turning down the volume on a radio tuned to an Arabic speaking channel and closing a folder smoothly at the same time. Col. Masters is a short bulldog of a man with a pigeon like chest in Army desert fatigues with greying hair and thick arms that deliver a crushing handshake. He makes a point of asking everyone’s name and welcoming them to Basra Airbase. “If there is anything you need please make your requests known to Captain Powers who will be your liaison during your visit here, and I’ll see what can be arranged,” he says with a slight northern accent. (If asked he’ll admit to hailing from Leeds.)

The Colonel then sends Powers out to get refreshments for the group (warm bottled water or very strong sweet tea) and hands over a file (the one he was just reading in fact) containing the preliminary findings of the on site Air Incident Investigation Team. He goes over the main points:

1) A Hercules C-130 transport plane designated, Flight Zulu X-Ray Eight Zero, Basra Airbase this morning at 05.30 local time (02.30 GMT), just before sunrise. At 05.33 local time, Flight Zulu X-Ray Eight Zero vanished suddenly off ATC (air traffic control) radar. At 05.36 reports came in of an explosion approximately 7 km (4.3 miles) east of the air base from local eyewitnesses on the ground.
2) A quick search of the area by an Army patrol located the wreckage quickly and a larger force was dispatched to secure the area. They were in place by 06.20. RAF air accident investigators and a medical team arrived on scene shortly afterwards. No survivors from the crash were found. The aircrew (Pilot – Squadron Leader Jack Smith, Co-Pilot - Flight Lt. Bruce Leckie, Navigator – Flight Lt. Ken Richardson, Flight Engineer – Flying Officer Matthew Lilley, Loadmaster – Flight Sergeant Paul Marsh) were all experienced crew of 30th Air Transport Squadron who had worked together for the past four years.
3) Because of the early hour and the swift arrival of the Army, looting and spoiling of the site by locals was kept to a minimum. Most of the cargo was recovered along with the wreckage of the plane and is now being laid out in Hanger 18 on site.
4) The cargo aboard Zulu X-Ray Eight Zero, consists of confidential materials recovered from the Kabir Hills by a survey team from TLA. On this particular point he smiles wryly and comments to the PCs, “I guess that’s why you people are here, and quite frankly I’m not interested. “That’s why I’ve got Powers as an assistant to keep me from having to deal with you folk”, he adds.
5) A security sweep of the area turned up a discarded Stinger missile launcher some 2.5 km (1.6 miles) east of the crash site and some 4.5 km (2.7 miles) from Basra Airbase. A partial serial number trace and an inquiry with his opposite number in US Intelligence in Baghdad (Lt. Col. Bill Tanner) traced it to one of a number deployed in Afghanistan in the 1980s to Mujahadine forces.
6) At 08.00 Aljazeera reported claims the RAF C-130 aircraft was shot down by two different insurgency groups Fist of God and the Heroes of Iraq. “Typically when ever anyone makes a very public act against the West, all sorts of groups crawl out of the woodwork to claim it was there’s in an attempt to gain credibility to their followers and gain more supporters,” comments Col. Masters. He is of the view that this is probably the work of supporters of Ali Al-Mukhtar, a radical Imam based at the Al-Murah mosque in Basra and a suspected leader of insurgent activity in northern Basra.
7) Preliminary findings by the crash investigation team do seem to bear out the current hypothesis that the aircraft was shot down, presumably by a Stinger missile this morning.

Group Captain Powers returns with the refreshments ordered and the Colonel turns to discussing where the team would like to base themselves. A small field lab was shipped out with the team (remember the flat pack building materials and the medical equipment in the hold of the plane the PCs flew out in?) and is now being set up near Hanger 18. Alternatively one of the small offices here could be cleared out and turned over to the PCs. Given what they’ve seen already, the PCs may correctly surmise they are somewhat tight for space and may wonder just how tiny “small” may actually be… but may decide they want to stay close to Masters and Powers.

Either way, the PCs mobile phone do function within the Green Zone of the airbase, and Powers supplies a mobile number he can be reached on. A landline will also be installed in the office/ lab allowing communication (albeit not secure enough to discuss Section 23c material) to London. A light blue RAF Land Rover will also be placed at the team’s disposal to help them get around the base.


Investigations

The PCs now have a number of avenues of inquiry which are listed below:

1) Setting up the field lab.
Before any full analysis can take place the PCs will have to set up a laboratory, which will be set up near Hanger 18. While the Army Engineers will be able to assemble the Portacabin, set up power lines and communication links, plus the all important filtered atmosphere air-con unit, it falls to the team’s technicians to set up the computers and analysis equipment (e.g. electron microscope, magnetometer scanner, spectroscopes, etc), which will take at least six hours to successfully complete.

2) Review the records of Flight Zulu X-ray Eight Zero.
Electronic checks of maintenance records the RAF Hercules C-130, indicate no untoward technical problems and an excellent service record. Interviewing the officer in charge of service crew, Flight Lt. Hugh MacBride, reveals no outstanding problems. “Tha’ aircraft wa’ sound – me an’ the men made sure everythin’ waer workin’ fine”, he states in his broad Glaswegian accent. The Flight Lieutenant gets quite defensive if, the team so much as suggest any form of mechanical failure was responsible for the crash. He is quite upset because on of the crew, the co-pilot Flight Lt. Bruce Leckie was his brother-in-law and a close friend.

A personnel check confirms everything Col. Masters file indicated. The crew functioned well as a unit together and were assigned the task of flying out the sensitive cargo on the basis of their experience and expertise.

Flight control records indicate the aircraft stuck to its designated flight plan until it was shot down. The black box flight recorder is still undergoing analysis with the RAF crash investigation team. The coroner likewise holds the bodies of the crew in order to fully determine the cause of death. It is possible for the team to sit in on both of these investigations by other groups – the black box reveals the aircraft systems catastrophically failed at 05.33 consistent with a missile attack, while the autopsies indicate the crew died in ways consistent with being involved in an aircraft destroyed in midair.

Analysis of the wreckage of the C-130, suggests a missile destroyed the number 2 engine and the portside wing, which in the words of the accident investigators “…lead to the total catastrophic failure of the airworthiness of Flight X-Ray Zulu Eight Zero”. It will take several days, for this information to come out as the process of collecting the wreckage over a large area and assembling the pieces of a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle is very time consuming to say the least.

On no account will Col. Masters nor Capt. Powers will authorise the team to visit the crash site. Mr Thorn was quite explicit about only allowing Team Bravo to operate within the safe confines of the Green Zone, but that might change if the PCs were to unearth something convincing enough…

3) The cargo manifest.
A confidential cargo manifest supplied by Powers indicates that Team Able had excavated a number of black basalt blocks (nine in total each about half a ton in weight) from a structure at Site 1. The descriptions are vague as to what purpose the blocks allegedly perform, as Team Bravo do not seem to have full Case Epsilon Mauve clearance yet (due to some bureaucratic snarl up in London, no doubt).
Each block was crated and given an RFID tag at Site 1. Unfortunately they were wiped and replaced with new ones at a staging post at Almara. It is thought that Kabir Hill’s notorious reputation for magnetic and electrical interference had struck again. Certainly Team Able had made several requests for new electrical equipment and improved hardened electronics during the few weeks they had been there, which was shipped out in the opposite direction.

Tests on the surviving blocks (only five of the nine blocks were recovered and none survived the crash intact) take several hours. They indicate that they are composed of a material that is indeed black coloured basalt. The chemical composition matches the samples of the finds earlier sent by Team Able. Some traces of carvings and inscriptions can be made out on some fragments, but exact details cannot be made out due to the extensive impact damage.

Magnetic resonance tests however suggest something is wrong however. The characteristic trace of a magnetic field pattern common to all materials recovered from Site 1 is noticeably absent. It may be that this trace was destroyed by the crash, but this is very unlikely. Whatever was loaded aboard Flight Zulu X-Ray Eight Zero was either not what Team Able said it was, or did not come from Site 1.

4) Case Epsilon Mauve
Bringing the last bit of information to the attention of Powers, Masters or Thorn will get their immediate attention. Team Abel will be recalled at once to account for this “potential oversight”. They are however not told why they are recalled so urgently. Powers and Thorn will want the PCs to meet Team Able at the staging post in Almara to identify exactly to what extent they are responsible for the loss of the artefacts and to recover them. Col. Masters will extend whatever material support he can to get Team Bravo up there – a Saxon wheeled APC.

Privately Thorn will authorise Powers to clear the team to review Team Able’s files and grant them Case Epsilon Mauve clearance. They have a few minutes while the vehicles and escort personnel are being assembled for the trip 60 km northeast to Almara. Powers will also be instructed to remain behind at Basra Airbase to brief the next team should one be required to be sent out…

Case Epsilon Mauve is concerned with the removal of a collection of stone blocks that when assembled form an active Dho-Nha geometric form, or as the Laundry refers to them as “Gateways to the Dungeon Dimension of Nameless Horrors”. The local Kabiri hill tribesmen called it an altar upon which sacrifices were made to commune with their particular local goddess, Umm al-Alf Al-Muthlimun (literally “The Mother of a Thousand Dark Things”) – doubtless one of the not-so-Nameless Horrors from said Dungeon Dimensions.

Back in the 1930’s the colonial administration dealt with the Kabiri and their extra-ordinary ally by burying the whole lot under a massive rockslide precipitated by the sort of precision bombing that the Dam Busters and 633 Squadron would make the reputation of the RAF. The surviving Kabiri were then dispersed. When Basra was signed over to the British, the forgotten colonial administration report was unearthed and a light reconnaissance team was sent out. Unfortunately the team was wiped out by the locals – Kabiri tribesmen who had regrouped and with long memories of their treatment at the hands of the British over half a century earlier. After clearing and securing the area, a Laundry cleaning team – Team Able, were sent in to dismantle the “gateway” and ship it back to the UK for further study without so much as a whiff or a rumour of the whole business getting back to the US Black Chamber. It was felt if the Black Chamber found out about the “gateway”, they’d just engineer an excuse to barge in and grab it – just as they did in Grenada in 1983…

5) Team Able
The team consists of the following personnel. Each is listed with their assigned roles within the team. The majority have served together under the leadership of Prof. Lawrence for the last two years. All are long standing Laundry employees with the exception of Monsieur Remi who was seconded to the group from the French section of OCCULTUS (Occult Control Coordination Unit Liaison, Unconventional Situations) twelve months ago and has become a valued member of the team.
· Prof. Donald Lawrence: Team leader/ arcane specialist
· Dr. Frank Bellamy: Team medic/ biological scientist
· Lt. Christine Foss RN: Photographer/ chief investigator/ group archivist
· Sergeant Steven Bell RM: Transport and security consultant
· Georges Remi: Engineer/ physical scientist/ linguist

Nothing in their records suggests any evidence of impropriety or potential treachery on their part, either individually or collectively. They all had protective geases placed upon them to prevent that sort of thing anyway…


Travelling to Almara.

Presumably after all the interactions, inquiries, assembly of kit, analysis and some sleep, a day or three has passed. Given the discrepancy in what was found in the wreckage and what was listed in the cargo manifest, Group Captain Powers and Mr Thorn will insist that the group goes up to Almara to meet Team Able. If its just a misunderstanding, then Team Able can go back to work at Site 1. On the other hand if Team Able were culpable, then Team Bravo are required to bring them back to Basra and escort them back on the next available flight back to the UK.

It is a journey of 60 km northeast along the main Basra to Baghdad highway to the Almara outpost. The team travels in a desert coloured Saxon wheeled APC, which someone has fitted with an air conditioning unit. If no qualified driver is available, a driver will be provided for the APC (Lance Corporal Jack Jones). They set off shortly after dawn when the air is cool, but rapidly warms up. They travel on a broad road, which is well patrolled by armoured British Army and armed Iraqi police units, along with occasional checkpoints that dot the route. The occasional burnt out wreck of vehicles can also be seen abandoned on the side of the road. Already heavily laden convoys of trucks are moving along the road delivering goods to Baghdad from the port of Basra. Overhead helicopters (RAF HC2 Chinooks and HC1 Pumas, British Army Gazelle AH1 and Bell 212HPs for the plane spotters amongst the players) buzz past. No further attacks on air traffic have occurred, but the military (and local police) remain on a state of alertness and tensions are running high.

Almara is a small town along the main Baghdad to Basra highway with a population of some 12 000 souls. Stationed here is the British Army Outpost: Almara – a way station for military units moving along the highway and a staging post for local patrols in this part of Basra Sector. There are 1000 personnel stationed here, evenly split between troops and their support staff, ably lead by Capt. George “Jacko” Smythe of No.1 Parachute Regiment. In the distance to the East lie the dark coloured Kabir Hills and the Iranian border. A plume of smoke can also be seen, rising from the Eastern part of the town.

After careful scrutiny of their documentation, the team’s APC is allowed into the compound and the PCs escorted to the Command Centre to meet Capt. Smythe. Perceptive PCs will note the entire outpost is on a state of high alert. Other vehicles have been kept out of the base, while their papers (and other documents) were examined very closely indeed before admission. After waiting around for 15 minutes they are shown into Capt. Smythe’s office – a cramped room dominated by a map of the local area and clips boards of duty rosters. The Captain is a tall weather beaten man in his mid 30s with a thick moustache who welcomes them in brisk clipped tones to the outpost and apologises for the delay in meeting them, but he has grave news for the team. It seems that Land Rover carrying Prof. Lawrence and his team back from the Kabir Hills this morning was destroyed in a roadside bomb attack. There were no survivors.