Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

The Statrica Diaries
Day 47

More setbacks.

The Statrican socialists have failed to come through.  The three we sent to the capital were unable to convince even a representative to come back with them.  They had indeed received Shabazz's telegram, but had failed to heed it.  After all the Party has done for them, and their response was:  "It is too dangerous to make contact with Tonya now, perhaps when the rainy season ends."  We'll be waiting for 3 more months now before they'll even send a representative out to see us.  What an utter disappointment.

With their refusal, I should say, recalcitrance, has come a hand written message from Comrade Jean-Michel:  "Guerrilla warfare is not the Statrican way."  Well, that is painfully obvious.  It is said we must be to the people as a fish is to water, but so far the only people we have come across out here on these rocks is the occasional herder.  In the valleys about a dozen or so miles from here you can find a village, but under no circumstances can we fool the people there any longer.  We are obviously not Statrican, our Canrillaise lets the people know we are not Lourennaise.  Its clear that most of the people haven't worked out yet where we are from, but rumors are swirling around about hundreds of "les étrangers" in the hills.  If Louis are seen anywhere near the village, our goose will be cooked.

Moral seems low.  The militia itches for something to do, but for a while now, this zone has been quiet, as most of the fighting is taking place to our south.  We hit two small patrols last week:  One was Louis, and we killed one man, but didn't capture any of their weaponry, so the action was almost a complete loss of ammunition, and another seemed to be Statrican National guardsmen who are busy defecting.  They put up a much more determined fight than the Louis, for sure.  The ambush heard them shout, in broken Canrillaise, "We're with you, you morons.  We're coming out to surrender."  By the time the firefight was over, 14 National guardsmen surrendered to Gomez' squad of the 2nd Pt. 3rd Co. 

When they found out that Gomez and his men didn't want them to surrender, the Guards were flummoxed.  Gomez explained to them that they shouldn't surrender to Louis, because those imperialists were there to colonize their country, and it ended up turning into a shouting match.  The Lieutennant in charge of the Guards pulled out his side arm and aimed it at Gomez.  Willie shot him through the head, and then asked any of the other Statrican Guards if they wanted to surrender.  All 13 of them said no, and were stripped of their weapons, and sent back to their post.  That was a bit of a bonanza, and we not only acquired 14 rifles and 3 pistols, but more than 750 rounds of ammunition and a Statrican code book.

But most of the time, the guys sit in their covered fighting holes and play cars.  I'm trying to get Guerra to send them out on more Patrols, but his answer is "Not while its raining."  Never while its raining.  Its always raining it seems.  Its rained for a week and a half.

The trail to the camp from the latrine facilities has turned into something of a stream, due to the near saturation of the ground.  If it gets much worse, and we have to hike through a river to use the bathroom, we may have to move the facilities.

With rain comes mosquitoes.

Yesterday, We finally got word from Filbert's column.  They had received heavy fire and had suffered significant casualties as they made their way south toward the Statrican Free Territories between Louis Controlled Statrica, and the parts held by Talmoria.  Filbert said something like one in 15 were dead or wounded, and he had to create a platoon just to get the wounded off the field.    Machado had fared a bit better as he made his way inland, to open up an eastern front.  But we have yet to have an update from the Old Man.

I wish I had gone with Machado.  Guerra only contradicts me in front of the troops.  It is embarrassing, and I am of half a mind to relieve her.  But what would that do for morale?

I miss Kalistan.  I'll send a message to Kalistan tomorrow via Donaldson.  Hopefully, they will actually commit to sending more Rubles and more men.  Nearly two months in, and we seem to be in a holding pattern.  If Guerra runs me down again, I'll relieve her, and we'll start making plans to move off this wretched mountain.