Re: Into the Outback
In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 370):
Messandi tried to answer Ken's questions.
"Lord, I don't know when Kalamanaru is due back, not exactly. It's not regular but he's coming more often. By the end of the week, I would guess?
"There are about, I'd say, close to 75 or so people here? There are 3 Air/Rafts, 2 larger enclosed cargo models and an open-topped air-jeep. They are kept in an open-air shed in the middle of camp.
"They have two perimeter fences for defence around this camp, the base camp. Watch towers at the corners. It's to keep the larger animals out, and the natives are quite hostile in this part of the Great Swamp. I think they revere the memories they have passed down about the Reynarik, and see the grave-robbing going on here as base desecration, which of course it is. They used to make regular attacks but that stopped about 6 months ago, but all work or survey parties go out heavily armed and the Air/Rafts have machine-guns, as you found out."