Imperial Expedition to Kasterburg

The Imperial Expedition to Kasterburg was an attempt by the Imperial Government, supported by the ESB Group, to establish communications with a statelet rumoured to be taking shape in the strategic Poroly Gap, a stretch of the inner-Benacian "Green" (ungoverned space) which divided the Lywall Protectorate from Shirerithian occupied Batavia.

Fraught preparations

The first expedition, sent in late 1656, fled in terror at the sight of a Tee-al taking flight towards their convoy. The survivors, who attempted to flee back across the border into Shirerithian controlled Batavia were gunned down by the border guards, after being mistaken for raiders, before being correctly identified as deserters, and those who survived that were summarily executed.

The second attempt at putting together an expedition relied upon a voluntary subscription from the great and the good of Imperial society, taken in a fundraising dinner held at the Palace of One Thousand Columns in Ardashirshahr.

Subscribers	Contribution (Erb)	Share
ESB-Jörmungandr Group	20,000,000	109
The Tarjeisson Trust	10,000,000	54
ESB Group (Keltia)	3,000,000	16
Lord Daniyal Anders	1,100,000	6
Government of Batavia	4,000,000	22
Lady Isabella Simrani-Kalirion, Emira of Jadid Khaz Modan	10,000,000	54
Lady Liv Dravot, the Imperial Mother, Princess of Elwynn etc	10,000,000	54
Red Bear LLC	10,000,000	54
Government of Alalehzamin	500,000	3
Lady Miranda Simrani-Kalirion	500,000	3
Gaelen Technologies Corporation	1,000,000	5
Ryker Airships	700,000	4
Lord Frederik Anders	250,000	1
Lord Royston Anders	250,000	1
Lady Clarissa Moor	250,000	1
Lady Henrietta Moor	250,000	1
Elwynnese Government	10,000,000	54
Imperial Government	10,000,000	54
Total	91,800,000	500

The subscribers were promised a return on investment based on the subsequent realisation of a trade relationship with the putative city state. There had been an increasing interest amongst investors in the potential for commercial applications for body parts harvested from the Tee-al as well as for the commodification of the genetically modified flora and fauna found in life-imperilling abundance in the vacated surface realms of the Deep Singers of old Minarboria.

Expenditure was primarily on wages, the outlay for the purchase of weaponry and vehicles, and the buying in of necessary provisions for the journey. The services of the ESB operatives and the Imperial Constables was for the duration of one month only.

Item of Expense	Expenditure (Erb)
Imperial Constables (120 at 80,000 Erb for one month)	9,600,000
ESB Security (61 at 250,000 Erb for one month)	15,250,000
Payments to Assayer Armaments	9,048,176
Payments to Royal Ordnance Factory Lichbrook	10,103,758

This expenditure left 47,798,066 Erb available for the purchase of vehicles and provisions, as well as local guides and porters. Unfortunately, the money available proved to be insufficient to cover the best deal available from Kern Industries for the purchase of the necessary vehicles.

Item of Expense	Expenditure (Erb)
Payments to Kern Industries	73,412,652

As a consequence the expedition was liable to Kern Industries for 25,614,586 Erb. The offer of a sponsorship deal entitling Kern Industries to display its corporate logo on expedition vehicles was rebuffed. The expedition's organisers were therefore presented with a seemingly insurmountable problem before having even left crossed the frontier.

On the 14th of Gevraquun (III) in the year 1657, Liv Dravot, the patroness of the expedition, received a signal from the Royal Iron Company changing the brief of the expedition to escorting an Imperial legatine envoy to Kasterburg. A certain Captain de Montefort, a nephew of the ruling magistrate, had been detained by the Imperial Army after crossing the border into Batavia with a small escort. After his identity was established by the local garrison commander, Legate Alatheus Saphrax, de Montefort was flown post-haste to Shirekeep and interviewed by officials of the Ministry of the Exterior.[1]

In the wake of this meeting, de facto recognition was bestowed and an Imperial official was selected to represent the Imperial Republic. The Expedition was instructed to assemble at Portus Batavii and await the legate's arrival. It's orders were two-fold, to conduct the envoy to Kasterburg and then to conduct a reconnaissance to ascertain the position of KDF patrols in the region.

With it becoming imperative therefore that the expedition continue forward, Liv Dravot - distracted as she was by the issue of the vacancy in the ESB Chairman's post following the death of her husband - investigated the possibility of creating a special purpose vehicle to absorb the economic liabilities of the expedition and to raise capital to support its operations.

Salvation for the expedition came in the appointment of Lord Waldemar Tarjeisson, brother of the late Kaiser Dominus, as Imperial Ambassador to Kasterburg. With the cachet of his name, the brandishing of an Imperial Mandate[2], and the fortuitous position of already serving as Lord Treasurer to the Royal Iron Company, Lord Tarjeisson arrived in Portus Batavii on the 2nd of Filadinu (V), 1657, with a personal retinue of eight Sentinels, twenty-four attendants, and two thousand of the Iron Militia, underemployed since the loss of Blackstone to the Jing, all of whom were equipped in the fashion and manner of dragoons, with a sabre, an axe, and hardy Amokolian horses for their mounts. Unusually they also carried carbine rifles (designation M1656 5.56mm) which had been lifted from the slain Leeuwenbrigade defenders of Diwangdao. More importantly than these reinforcements, Lord Tarjeisson also brought with him a collection of letters of credit from the Office of Bounties and Factorage, the Royal Iron Company, and the Tarjeisson Trust, the last of them being a charitable foundation established by a bequest from his brother's will.

Creditor	Credit (Erb)
Royal Iron Company	200,000,000
Office of the Sacred Bounties	200,000,000
The Tarjeisson Trust	40,000,000

Lord Tarjeisson's choice of a cavalry escort was deemed by some to be a tad quixotic, but he defended his decision by pointing to the likelihood of the terrain being rough going, on account of the long neglect of the region following the fall of Ashkenatza, the repair of which having been mostly haphazard and largely undone by the fall in turn of Minarboria. Moreover, he had made it his habit to make a thorough examination of any likely opponents he would encounter whilst on his diplomatic mission. Of these, the Kossars and the Laqi, of both the state sponsored and free-lance variety, featured almost as prominently as the wretched Tee-als.

As the venture seemed once more to be likely to be profitable, a number of civilians saw fit to attempt to attach themselves to the expedition. Most of these were beaten away as being undesirable types of ill-repute, but one - a correspondent of the Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria by the name of Annabelle Lewis - was permitted to travel along, at her own risk and expense. Although of a profession scarcely any better than of the rejected camp-followers, she was at least canny enough to have invested in an off-road motorcycle and a shotgun, as well as several canisters of Tee-al pheromone. Her supposition being that laying scent trails would help to at least distract the permanently libidinous males. Ultimately, uncertain as to whether she was inspired or insane, Tarjeisson decided to keep her around in order to see what became of her.

Itinerary

At the Ambassador's suggestion the next three months were spent gathering in provisions and training the members of the expedition on the arts and the science of wilderness survival. In the interim, Annabelle Lewis was sent ahead with a small escort of twelve Iron Militia dragoons to find the coastal settlement of Nieuw Ingelheim and to establish contact with the Magistrate of Kasterburg to appraise him of the Ambassador's intent. The trade off for her was an embossed permit granting an accredited member of the press unaccustomed latitude report on affairs as she saw them.

On 01.VIII.1657, escorting the Ambassador, who rode a white stallion burdened with saddlebags of golden erbs, sheaves worth of letters of credit from the great corporations of the Imperial Republic, and the draft of a generous treaty, the expedition crossed the frontier into Kasterburg.

Simultaneously, in a pointed display to certain other actors on the edge of the Inner Benacian Quarantine Zone, an all out combined arms assault on the bandit stronghold of Nackholm was launched, beginning with a sortie by 24 B-49s of Bomber Command's No. 35 Squadron liberally scattering incendiary munitions over the motley collection of villages and townships clustered in a landscape of dry scrubland and urban ruins.

The expedition arrived beneath the mountain redoubt of Kasterburg on 8.VIII.1657 whereupon gifts were presented to the various gatekeepers and a further letter of introduction was dispatched, along with the gift of a silver-plated and engraved rifle, from Waldemar to the Magistrate.

By 12.VIII.1657 a formal introduction was secured and the outline text of a treaty was presented.

Months of negotiation dragged on, with the Kasterburgish proving reluctant to accept proposals concerning an imperial investment bank as the gesture of philanthropic concern for the betterment of humanity that the Shirerithian negotiators averred it to be. Finally, in the face of protests from the Shirerithian financial sector, the clause concerning the Sxiro-Kasterburgish Investment Trust (SKIT) was excised on 13.X.1657 and by 07.XI.1657 the Magistrate declared, at yet another audience, that the end result was an "excellent" proposal.

Unfortunately at this moment the ambassador was struck down by an inflamed appendix which required his evacuation to the coastal settlement of Nieuw Ingelheim for treatment by Imperial doctors dispatched from MoMA Station Sagittarius and the Lywall Protectorate.

Whilst Lord Tarjeisson convalesced in a villa outside Nieuw Ingelheim into early 1658, his associates who had remained in the capital became increasingly aware and alarmed about a Kalgachi agent at large in the city, seemingly blessed with an ease of access to the Consistory superior to their own.

In the meantime some members of the expedition took "hunting leave" to go off and join in the endemic fighting in the Inner Benacian Quarantine Zone in the aftermath of a localised police action carried out by the Imperial Forces.

There was a slightly embarrassing wait while the approved treaty got lost in the labyrinthine corridors of Shireroth's Imperial bureaucracy but a polite cough from the Kasterburger resident in Shirekeep jolted the administration of the Count Palatine of Kezan into action, ensuring a speedy ratification of the treaty through the Landsraad.

Imperial Mission Kasterburg

With the ratification of the treaty, the Expedition's purpose in Kasterburg now greatly expanded, going beyond the remit of protecting the person of Shireroth's resident in the Republic to include providing for the security of the country's main airport and overseeing the training and equipping of an elite air assault brigade to support the Volksarmee.

On 11.VIII.1666 Jean Emanuel Ngahi de la Gardie was appointed Ambassador to Kasterburg, thereby assuming command of the the Imperial Mission to Kasterburg and relieving Lord Tarjeisson who proceeded into Lywall immediately thereafter.

Establishment

Personnel

The expedition would comprise of eight untitled nobles, sixty-one employees of the ESB Group's Security Directorate, one-hundred and twenty Imperial Constables assigned from the Imperial Marshals, and thirty-five Community Service Workers. They were subsequently joined by Lord Waldemar Tarjeisson, eight Imperial Sentinels, twenty-four attendants, two thousand of the Iron Militia, and a journalist.

Equipment

Unit Type	Image	Quantity
Amokolian horses	.	2,033
Cattle-prod	.	15
Cudgel	.	120
Axe	.	2,033
Pattern 1496 Sabre	.	2,033
M15 White Phosphorus Anti-Lich Grenade		610
M16 Mustard Gas Anti-Singer Grenade		610
M18 Red Smoke Hand Grenade		610
M1525 9mm Pistol		69
M1486 Webb-Lee 11.6 mm Revolver		6
M1653 5.5mm Carbine (Semi-Automatic)		8
M1656 5.56mm Carbine (Automatic)		2,033
M1610 7.9mm Rifle (Semi-Automatic)		49
M1508 Martini-Rossi 11.56 mm Rifle		120
Wren 7.62mm LMG		4
Tankgewehr 13.2 mm Rifle (Anti-Materiel)	.	4
Hornet Recoilless Rifle (Anti-Tank)	.	4
Pod Armoured Personnel Carrier		7
Battlewagon		1
Snatch Land Rover		2
Light Truck		10
Trump 75mm Radar-Guided Autocannon		1