PFC Nathan Cartwright 303rd Airborne Platoon US Marines. In a locked room lit by a single bare bulb. With SAS soldier Vic Borley catatonic, bound and gagged on a bunk nearby the assembled men bore witness to the report.

Only Cartwright spoke, although Bradley and Ludlow nodded often to corroborate his testimony. Witnesses were as below:

Captain Adam Cunningham ex-2 Para, MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service) Case Officer
Sgt Robert Brookes NCO 22 SAS Regiment Air Troop
David Bradley 22 SAS Regiment Air Troop
Frank Ludlow 22 SAS Regiment Air Troop

The other survivor PFC Charles McGuire was in need of serious medical attention for his wounds and so was given over to the UN medial detachment and shipped back to barracks to recuperate.

The report ran as follows.

The contact was made as dawn approached. It was still dark and few lights were visible from the ccompound. The Marines eliminated the installations external patrols swiftly and without incident. The SAS entered the compound and launched the attack; entering the buildings and engaging the enemy in devastating room to room fighting. The Marines meanwhile took out the gun emplacements and barrack blocks that were some distance from the main buildings.As they approached the main compound they noticed that the largest building was probably some kind of scientific one due to the warning signs that surrounded it. Biohazard and authorised personnel only warning markers were evident in a 20yard radius of the building.

All was going well, the surprise element had caught the Iraqis troops off-guard. Many were slaughtered in their beds as the Marines launched grenades into the barrack buildings, cutting down those that escaped the explosions with rifle fire.

Cartwright and the men that he was with began to feel the elation of victory. The Marines had accounted themselves well, although some casualties were taken none were serious that Cartwright had witnessed. He and several others were investigating some of the Iraqi vehicles that stood about thirty yards from the barrack blocks when they heard screams and curses over the sporadic rattle of rifles. Recognising these as American, they closed in on the sounds running full tilt to their aid.

As they approached they felt the hairs on their bodies stand on end and a strange itching sensation in their heads, like their very brains were crawling in their skulls. One of the group fell to the ground vomiting as
all were stricken with an odd sense of disorientation. A strange sub bass cacophony of whirring and humming that rose and fell like a massive hive that drove some to seizures, some to madness.

Cartwright was lucky, the sounds sickened and disorientated him but somehow he was able to keep his wits. He fell to the ground as his friends writhed in agony and took up a prone stance reloaded his M206 and aimed at the barrack block.

In the growing light of dawn he noticed shapes in the sky, huge insects whirled over the compound. Like huge bees or wasps. The creatures descended upon the soldiers with great speed and tore them apart with claws and teeth.

All at once a charnel stench of rotten flesh and flyblown offal came to him as Cartwright felt one of his men stand up nearby. He looked over his shoulder to see the man lifted swiftly into the air; something huge attached to his head. Lifted by his face the soldier squeezed the trigger, involuntarily firing on his companions below. PFC Charles McGuire was hit by three rounds in his torso and leg.

The creature was as larger than a man, like the corpse of a massive moth or wasp. Its tattered wings hung in the air as weird lights danced on its abdomen. All the time the sickening humming roared inside the soldier's heads.

Cartwright fired, hitting only the dawn-blue sky. He grabbed McGuire and hoisting him onto his shoulder, ran to the edge of the compound. All the time he called for his companions to retreat but without success. His plan was to get McGuire to safety at the FRV and return for the others.

Finally he reached the FRV almost a Kilometre from the site he laid McGuire down. Despite extreme fatigue he was able to call in the Chinooks for the Exfill. He took stock of McGuire, the man was bleeding to death and only immediate medical attention was going to save him. He bound McGuire's wounds as best he could and stayed with him monitoring the situation, using the radio that had been left there.

But where were the others? All of them knew to fall back to this point. The radio gave no hint as to what happened or what was happening at the contact. Cartwright tended to his friend's wounds and waited for the choppers, fighting his impatience.

Three hours had passed since Cartwright had made it to the FRV when the battle-ragged figures of David Bradley, Frank Ludlow and Vic Borley came into view as the sound of rotor-blades cut the desert air.

Back at RAF Firalti, Cartwright concluded his report. The room was in silence. Samara had kept its secrets.


New Document: The Samara Papers

The transcript of PFC Nathan Cartwright's report written by Captain Adam Cunningham at RAF Firalti in the small hours of the night following the raid on the Samara installation. This is a bound collection of typed pages attached with the notes that Cunningham took as Cartwright spoke. The papers
are kept in a buff pocket folder, generally within Cunningham's reach in a locked briefcase or the safe in his study at home.

The papers give no actual Mythos knowledge but do infer that Cunningham does believe Cartwright's story as given. It also states the names of the men present at the time that the report was made and details of the mission that only an Officer of MI6 could know. Within these pages it is stated that creatures of unknown origin attacked the soldiers and were the cause of the deaths of nearly forty highly trained men.

The Samara Papers
Language: English
Mythos Gain: +2
SAN Loss: 0/-1D4
Spell Multiplier: None
Study time: 3 Hours
Spells: None


Credits: Chris Glew