Re: Reference Information
Still at the site, Taras and Sgt. Lee interviewed the 8 detainees.
One thing was clear: they were not bikers, although they did meet up with some bikers at this house, which was being used as an impromptu bar ("booze can").
They appeared to be ex-US servicemen-turned-mercenaries from across the border in Bellingham. They were being paid by Lt. Michael Roberts, a regular US Army officer. He commanded a local unit of the US Military, the oddly-named "1st Alternative Cavalry Regiment" of the 47th Infantry Division. As evidenced by Robert's rank, this unit was (at most) company strength. But they certainly were "alternative" in that in addition to the horses they had recovered several elephants from a Ringling Bros. circus that had disbanded during the nuclear strikes in early 1998. He wanted to expand his mounts but elephants were very hard to come by. But rumours of some survivors from the Vancouver Game Farm was enough to motivate an impromptu effort to locate them and transport them across the border. Roberts had not wanted official or even semi-official involvement by the regular US military due to its strained and ambiguous relationship with the Canadian government in what could be looked like a cross-border incursion to conduct looting and rustling (of a kind) in a foreign technically-allied company. That was if they got caught. But it didn't seem that the area was controlled by the federal government. And using private citizens would give some deniability. He did, however, lend one of the unit's own elephants ("Dumbo") to help calm and manage any elephants they would find, with a driver/mahout and some horses for transport.
The American mercenaries numbered twelve and were led by a British deserter, Victor "Vic" Lagge. Originally from the UK, Captain Lagge had been training in Alberta when the war went nuclear. At first he joined the Anglo-German brigade, but went his separate way after chafing under unit command and seeing the opportunities available in the new post-nuclear world. Along with him went a core group of Brits and Germans taking with them a considerable quantity of supplies, weapons and ammunition. In the years since then in the roundabout journey from Alberta to Washington those companions found themselves dead or missing one by one, leaving him still in possession of a good selection of valuable material. This new assignment piqued his interest and Lagge gathered a crew of American ex-servicemen together at a bar down in Bellingham.
Travelling on horse and elephant-back, they crossed the border three days ago and made camp in this farmhouse, which had a junkyard/vehicle dump in back, surrounded by overgrown farmland. Two days ago they tracked down the elephants to Ft. Langley with the help of a female veterinarian living in Aldergrove. At the fort they found the two elephants (Woozle and Heffalump) and the caretaker, Old Willie. During the course of "convincing" Old Willie to accede to their demands for the pachyderms Willie "fell down some stairs". They all swore they had nothing to do with that, Lagge was solely responsible for all injury and insisted it was accidental. (Indeed, Old Willie's multiple injuries were consistent with both a fall or a beating. Either/or.)
With the help of the tamed elephant from the 1st ACR they brought with them (Dumbo) they got Woozle and Heffalump as far as the farmhouse but it was obvious the injured one would need help getting the rest of the way down to Bellingham. So Lagge disappeared and came back yesterday with a US Army 10-ton HEMMT truck, accompanied by (of all things) a LAV-75A1 airborne/recon light tank. The operators are unknown to them, seem to be more American deserters. Plus a dozen bikers from both sides of the border showed up, ready to party. It seemed the plan was now changing from finding and caring for elephant refugees from Vancouver Game Farm to looting (scavenging/salvaging) the abundant materials kept at Fort Langley Historical Site. The Mahout on loan from the "1st Alternative CR" decided they didn't want any part of this and withdrew the day before back across the border towards Bellingham taking his elephant and the loaned horses with him. Lagge promised to load the elephants in the 10-ton and deliver them down to Bellingham that day. Lagge and his new biker friends, the 10-ton and the light tank departed the previous evening to go loot the fort while the rest of his crew waited here to guard the elephants. Obviously, Lagge and company were the unknown group that bumped into them at the fort. But the waiting crew hadn't heard or seen him or his biker friends since, and they hadn't returned.
Timeline:
-5 days: Lt. Roberts (1 ACR/47th ID) makes contact with V. Lagge, contracts him to retrieve elephants from somewhere in Fraser Valley.
-3 days: Lagge and group on horse and elephant-back cross border, set up base in farmhouse.
-2 days: Lagge makes contact with friendly veterinarian in Aldergrove, locates elephants at Ft. Langley. Lagge and crew arrive Ft. Langley, Old Willie is injured, elephants stolen.
-1 day: Elephants and crew arrive at farmhouse. Biker friends of Lagge arrive as well, plan to go back to Ft. Langley and "salvage it" (strip it of valuables), bring HEMMT and LAV-75 (from USA). 1st ACR mahout takes own elephant and horses, returns south across border. Lagge keeps Woozle and Heffalump as insurance to make sure they are paid, promising to deliver them himself. Lagge and new crew (10-ton HEMMT and LAV-75) plus some biker friends head back to Ft. Langley to loot it leaving original crew at farmhouse without transport to wait for them.
Day 0: Crew waits for Lagge to return. Team URIEL assaults and captures them.
The mercenaries, not being local, don't have specific first-hand answers to most of Taras' questions. But the bikers who partied there had told them a few things. All this is second-hand.
a) Where are the bikers located? Have they any prisoners with them? They are in a prison somewhere in the valley. A big one! No prisoners they talked about. [From Lee: Probably Matsqui Penitentiary, a prewar maximum security prison near Abbotsford.]
b) What are the shortcomings being experienced by the bikers in their violent campaign? A lack of heavy weapons and armour, maybe? Otherwise they seem to be doing well, lots of food, they make ethanol fuel.
c) What is their operational and political planning? Not sure what this means, they say the bikers don't seem to be going on the offensive. Just waiting to see what the police and government might do. They try not to be too hard on the locals.
d) What are their numbers, organisation, deployments, training, weapons and communications means? Maybe a hundred? Divided into smaller sub-gangs of 10-20 each. Lots of ex-military, Canadian, American, Russians. Lots of guns! Lots of bikes and technicals and trucks. Lagge thought the LAV-75 might be very useful to them if he brought it to them with a crew.
e) How are the relations with other communities? The bikers aren't liked among most of the survivors in Langley and Aldergrove. Other independent communities and survivors fear them. There is a religious community in the valley they seem to be friends with. Weirdos with shaved heads. Some kind of Christian militia?
f) What is the magnitude of their involvement against other communities including plans against UBC? No known plans at this time.
g) What is their morale like? How are the conditions in their bases? They seem to be doing all right, in good sprits. They think the government will be occupied with dealing with Surrey for some time.
h) What are the bikers intelligence network details and priorities for operations against other citizens? They have friends in the local population. [From Lee: pre-war they would also have contacts and spies within Law Enforcement, typically civilian support workers, using bribery, intimidation, coercion via threats to them or loved ones.
Your orders from HQ regarding the prisoners was that if they didn't seem to be a threat or important, cut the Americans loose at the border with a warning not to come back.
