Operation In Secula Seculorum

[Lanakov]

DIRECT TRANSMISSION TO COALITION HEADQUARTERS
ENCRYPTION LEVELS : GLORIOUS
TRANSMISSION ID : Jacques Bergier, Gallic Mining Service

Comrade Premier,
Commissars,
Comrades,

An update on my undercover mission is quite overdue. It appears I've missed the... last four scheduled reports. You have my apologies for that. What you see from Gallia on the outside rivals what you see on the inside. The commotion is real, the population is hard pressed to deliver results, whatever their jobs are, and the surveillance is everywhere. The Gallic war machine is well provided for, and most of all, very secure and behind high walls. I've finally completed a homemade encryption program : it's not perfect but I'm hoping its artisanal nature will shield this transmission for long enough.

So, the important part, out of the way : there seems to be no calming down of the war effort behind the frontlines. It is hard to measure the general sentiment of the population about it : Gallic society is very diverse, some people seem afraid to talk, others seem not to care much. The publicly available information is generally rather skewed, too... I have taken up employment at the gallic mining service, in order to connect with as many sympathisers to our cause as possible, and maybe draw some of them to join the revolution.

This is a long-run effort, but I've managed to direct a very interesting man to try and join the SCRA. I have compiled a file about him, his story and his motivations. I've advised him to leave Gallia and come look for us in the Omegas. I urge you to give him a chance. You will understand why by reading the report. I am shutting down this transmission now. In the absence of new orders on your part within the next two days, I will resume the operation and send an update as soon as possible.

For the revolution !
Major Lanakov

END OF DIRECT TRANSMISSION.

ATTACHED REPORT :

The man's name is Antoine Joassard. I can't place his age, possibly nearing his fourties.
We met on planet Quillan in the Languedoc system. He found work in reconstruction there some time ago, and my office was in charge of processing him through recruitment. We became fast friends, and started meeting in pubs with other colleagues and people I'd drawn to our side. After a few months, I gained his trust, and learned of his troubled past.
Antoine Joassard is a former Maquisard, an unlawful faction fighting side by side with the gallic Council to overthrow the royal power and build a new democratic republic. What sets the Maquis apart from the Council is a strong tendency towards an "end justifies the means" approach, which includes the destruction of non combatant targets.
Joassard was drawn to this life, having been raised by a very poor family, the kind typically exploited by the regime. He was angry, demanded change and was ready to see it through whatever the cost. His recklessness was very appreciated by his superiors, and his brethren soon nicknamed him Tarzan : his specialty was blowing up bridges right under the noses of the local garrisons and always avoiding capture. After several months, he was promoted and trained to fly a spaceship, after which he was assigned to an attack wing.

Joassard's picture as displayed in the Maquis archives.

The first strikes went down well : military targets, the hated oppressors were the targets of his initial missions. He had adjusted well enough to space combat and proved apparently dependable enough for specialised bomber training. That's at this point of the conversation that Joassard himself became unclear, elusive, which is what prompted me to hack into Maquis human resources database to find his file. Most of the information contained in this report was provided by either Joassard or his file, and correlated whenever possible.

It appears his first mission aboard a bomber was targetted at a civilian convoy. He'd been told to engage targets beyond visual range, as is standard practice for bombing runs, and he proceeded to fire his torpedo volleys at the signature of two large ships. These turned out to be passenger transports headed to Ile de France, ferrying Parisians back to their homes following bank holidays spent in Provence. Four hundred civilians were badly injured or killed in the resulting explosions, and Joassard lost two friends in the resulting reaction of the gallic police, on high alert because of the predicted high traffic. It turns out that Maquis intelligence had mistaken that convoy for a strategic shipment destined to one of the military shipyards in Ile de France. They probably had the wrong date, but still tried to peg on the Gallic government and accused it of using passenger convoys as meat shield for their shipyard supply runs. That, of course, did not sit well with Joassard, who seemingly went through a serious mental breakdown. His file indicates that he remained for several weeks in hospital, eating very little, talking even less and refusing to leave bed. Ultimately, he was taken off the pilots registry, and the Maquis records bear no mention of his name after that. He explained to me, through elusive sentences, that he just left his base, his comrades, his Maquisard life... without a trace, nor a goodbye. He sought ways to relieve the pain, ended up addicted to Nox, got in trouble with the Unione Corse because of debts he had contracted to fuel his addiction, and narrowly escaped with his life. He changed identities and washed up in Quillan, looking for a new start. That's where I picked him up.

Joassard's favourite hobby. (Family photo used by the media to cover the event at the time)

The fire in him has certainly died : he is now a disillusioned man, probably much younger than he looks. He seldom talks and has a relatively restricted social circle. Still, he is quick to laugh, slow to anger, and has not let go of his dreams of a better society. He may be crushed and traumatised, but his fast interest in our cause, quick reflexes and solid constitution lead me to deduce that the fire could be brought back. This life of easy servitude does not fit him, and he's wasted as a miner. He's been extensively trained by the Maquisards, renowned and feared experts at sabotage and blitz tactics. He learned to fly and fight on the rust buckets used by the Maquis, he could do wonders on our sophisticated crafts. I strongly believe we could use a warrior like Joassard was in our ranks, someone our men could look up to in the heat of the battle. Our own Tarzan, as he came to be known.
I recommend the SCRA take him under its wing, get him through training, hand him challenges, have him outdo himself. By giving him a purpose, a cause he has deep sympathy for, and the best tools to carry it out, I know we can bring back the Tarzan in him. And I know we need real fighters like him.

Let him blow the bridges of our enemies.