Another Sunday in Lake Cormorant

“Blake’s Raiders”
The “Village” of Lake Cormorant, Mississippi

Sunday, 14 July, 2030

Clearly, Sunday’s were going to suck during this mission...

Per my mission orders, 197th HQ wanted me to raise my big-ass VHF antenna, radio in my report, and get my antenna back down, all before sunrise, which was at 6:57 a.m. this time of year.  Well, of course, I wanted that big-ass antenna down before sunrise.  I sure as heck didn’t want any marauders to see a radio antenna sticking up in the air and think, ‘Hey, there’s somebody with modern communications technology.  I bet they got other good stuff to steal if we kill ‘em…”  I was one of the people who pushed to get land lines strung (and buried) between every outpost, to cut out radio traffic as much as possible, once we were permanently encamped around Memphis.  Even encrypted radio traffic makes "noise" that can be noticed.  More than one marauder group underestimated the firepower we had because they never heard any radio traffic from us...

So, we all got up at 0400.  None of us drank what passed for coffee these days, so we turned to in the relatively cool darkness and started getting the antenna set up.  (Funny how 76 degrees and 90+ humidity doesn’t feel all that cool, but we’ve mostly gotten used to it by now - at least being away from the river meant that there were FEWER mosquitoes... but I digress…)  

Raising the antenna was pretty straightforward, especially with the prep work we had done yesterday afternoon.  The first stage went up easily, we set the lower guy wires and made sure they were securely anchored.  Then, we raised the second stage, and anchored the mid-stage guy wires.  This close, I could have probably made contact with just the second stage raised, but I didn’t want to start any bad habits, so we raised the third stage and anchored those guy wires.  Finally, I pulled out my compass and turned the antenna in the right direction.  Then we waited.  At 0450, I turned the radio on to listen for the carrier signal that was supposed to be transmitted by the 197th HQ for 5 minutes every 15 minutes between 0500 and 0630.

Maybe I was lucky, or maybe I was good, but at 0458, I got a 5x5 carrier signal.  

(Frankly, I’d rather be lucky than good…)

I sent my report by encrypted microburst at 0502, received an acknowledgement, and then shut everything down to save battery power.  At 0512, I powered the receiver back up and waited until 0517.  Nothing, but no surprise.  At 0527, the same result.  When I got no response at 0542, I started to get irritated and decided that if I didn’t get any questions at 0600, I was going to go ahead and pull the antenna down so we could get some rest…

Wouldn’t you know, HQ finally transmitted a message at 0600.  Well, at least it meant we could stay put for at least the day.  The antenna came down a lot faster than it went up, even if we left the first stage in place (it was below the tree line).  I made sure the lookout was rotated and ordered everyone else back to sleep, letting them know we were going to stand down for at least today. We all needed the rest after the firefight yesterday, and we would need to run the still on Tuesday anyway...

After a catnap, I pulled my laptop out and decrypted the message from HQ.

As expected, their questions were mostly asking for details that I didn’t have, and couldn’t get.  Like, ‘Did the marauders you encountered at Norfolk Landing travel upstream or downstream after the encounter with your scouting element?’.  

“Per your OPORD, my scouting element withdrew in the face of a superior force.  Even though armed allied forces were promptly organized, the marauders withdrew before observation posts could be established in the face of an alert and organized foe.”

The second group of marauders apparently created the most confusion.  There were four orders in the message queue.  The second contradicted the first, the third contradicted the second, etc., etc., etc. ad nauseum.  In other words, SNAFU.  Apparently, part of 197th HQ wanted to acquire the railroad/highway truck we captured, while other parts just wanted the tracks blown up to prevent their use by the marauders.  Ultimately, we were ordered to stand by for additional instruction tomorrow, which suited me just fine…

[Encounter Roll, woods - 7 - Game, so no encounter of the encamped group]

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, allow us to catch up on rest and maintenance of equipment and vehicles.  

With the sun fully setting at 1940, we set to raising the antenna back up.  I caught the 1954 carrier signal, and sent my response back.  HQ acknowledged receipt with a, "Got it.  Stand by".  Every 15 minutes, we stood by for a response until 2100, per orders.  Nothing.  At least we got to eat while we were waiting on HQ to get off their fifth point of contact...

Since we could leave the antenna up overnight, I had the rest of the company stand down, and stood watch myself until midnight.  I planned to stay encamped here for at least one more day, to allow the still to finish ‘cooking’, but I also knew that no plan survives first contact with reality...

[When I created the marauders in the previous encounter, I already had it in my mind that they were advance scouts of a larger group moving up from the south.  The supplement Howling Wilderness establishes that by March of 2031 (in my timeline) the 197th will be responsible for security within 100Km of the Mississippi River.  I take that to mean a 100Km arc around Memphis, but not crossing the river.  If you look on a map, this arc stretches south from Memphis to Clarksdale, MS, then east to Batesville, MS on I-55 (hence the need for this mission - other groups are scouting other parts of the area).  From there, the 197th area of responsibility will run east to Oxford, MS, north to Holly Springs, MS, northeast to Bolivar, TN and back west to Whiteville, TN on US-64, north to Willis, MS on I-40, then back west/northwest to Dyersburg and the I-155 river bridge, an important river crossing.]

[Howling Wilderness also says that “refugees and marauders from the south and southeast will soon put increasing pressure on the division [my emphasis].”  I take this to mean that long before March, 2031, there will be a steady flow of refugees and marauders moving north into this area...]

[So, the questions remain, how big is this group of marauders, how far away are they, and what kind of equipment, especially military vehicles and weapons (if any) do they have...?]

[Finally, what are the 197ths final orders going to be...]

[Tune in next week for another installment of...”As the World Burns”]