Arrakkis Report.

The new tenure of Duke Adhemar Murena as the Imperial Planetary Governor of Arrakkis has been met with insecurity and heavy handed defensive planning by several House Siridars, perhaps indicating their lack of confidence in his ability to keep hostilities on the desert world in check. This defensive planning has seen a large influx of troops to the planet, which in turn has fuelled greater numbers of military activity.

The most alarming of this was the activities of House Ginaz under the recently elevated Siridar Pablo Osvaldo Ginaz. Despite being seen by most as a mainstay friend of Adhmar Murena, the Governor restricted Ginaz mining operations to the South Mesa. This area has recently been one of the worst trouble spots of the entire planet, not just due to it’s remote location, but due to the surgically effective military activities by House Ordos under Lt Colonel Victor Cornelius in the last year. The Fremen reported in the area have thus always been vicious, hostile and deadly effective. Duke Pablo Ginaz certainly did his homework on the area, and decided that he was not entering the area unprepared. Major Bastion Rangone lead his 2^nd Battalion of the Ginaz House Guard to defend the Ginaz mining equipment in the area, whilst Duke Ginaz deployed the remaining Cazadores de Sangre y Oro (House Guard) and the entire Los del Oro (1st Regulars) regiments to patrol the area. Furthermore, close allies House Atreides, ordered to mine the nearby Minor Erg, also arrived with an entire regiment of House Rangers.

Whilst patrolling the False Wall South which overlooks both mining sites, alert and astute 1^st Regular Ginaz troops discovered a major find – the Fremen war settlement of Seitch Malaer. The Regulars pushed forward to enter and control the seitch, but were quite shocked at the level of resistance they met. “It was impossible to guess at numbers” reported Lt Colonel Turcon Navarre, a seasoned combat veteran “They made very effective use of the narrow rock passageways with in the seitch, camoflague and bad lighting. Their strategy was to break our morale, which I am shamed to report did occur in certain circumstances. Women and Children picked up weapons to use against us, and within the Seitch communication between the regiment became confused and disorientated. I urged the Colonel to break of the siege.”

The 1^st Regulars penetrated deeply into the Seitch, but still felt it was larger than they had seen. They withdrew to the relative safety of the open rocks, but found still the Fremen pursued them and used their natural affinity with the landscape against them. Ginaz unfamiliarity with stillsuits further meant less mobility, and despite a strong numerical advantage in battle, both Navarre and Colonel Dirk Haines-Ginaz felt losses to the regiment were too high to be tolerated.

A runner squad was dispatched North, to seek assistance from House Atreides, only to return with news that House Atreides also was under attack in the Minor Erg from Fremen forces. The 1^st Regulars fell back from the False Wall to the South Mesa, where the Cazadores de Sangre y Oro rushed to assist them, without compromising the safety of the mining equipment. With such a strong numerical advantage over the Fremen, and by denying them the terrain of the rocks and forcing them into the open sands, Colonel Dirk Haines-Ginaz repelled them easily.

“Defensively, with so many troops under my command, I am confident we can protect House Ginaz mining interests for the foreseeable future. It is evident that House Ginaz has inherited the curse of House Ordos, and I can only hope that this attack has forced the Fremen to relocate, rather than presented them with a target.”

The mining operations remained on high alert throughout the entire month, unfortunately not producing much in the way of a spice harvest.

It is unclear if the activities in the Minor Erg are linked with the large scale clash in the False Wall. It seems more likely the excessive spice blow in the area attracted Fremen, who took substantial risk conducting a raid on the numerically superior Atreides force. This raid may have been successful if the Atreides Rangers had rushed to the aid of House Ginaz, but tactians believe if the attacks were linked, the two columns of Fremen that attempted to destroy the Atreides mining equipment would have attacked later. As it were, the attack was dealt with quickly, the Fremen used stealth to get close to the mining equipment and brutally assaulted the guards. The Atreides defense consisted of floodlighting combined with expert snipers within the Rangers armed with Lasguns. From afar, the snipers were able to cut down the initial thrust of the ambushers, forcing the remainder to flee into the desert without inflicting any damage to the equipment. House Atreides went on to deliver a substantial quantity of pure mélange which has gone down very well with the Governor and the Guild.

Enemies House Harkonnen were positioned on the Funeral Plain. If any other area has a recent history of violence and bloodshed, it is the Funeral Plain, although most of the conflict on this remote desert plateau has been between Imperial troops. The Governor perhaps deemed to keep Harkonnen and Atreides troops as far removed as possible. Quite against the experiences of other houses, or perhaps due to their mining expertise and familiarity with the region, House Harkonnen encountered no threats to their operation. The 2^nd battalion of the Harkonnen Deaths Head Commando’s, including volunteer personnel of the remaining battalions (the unit was thinned out recently after the defection of it’s Lt Colonel and the entire 1^st battalion to House Cenva as a gift to the new House by the Harkonnen Siridar), conducted training operations in the desert conditions, whilst the unimpeded harvesting equipment produced a very large quantity of spice which earned the House glowing praise.

Whether it was defiant courage meant to insult the Governor, desperation or simple stupidity, spice smugglers – suspected Bene Tleixeau – brought an entire regiment to protect a large squad of harvesters and entered the Hagga Basin. They were obviously spotted by vehicles flying in and out of Carthag, and the Governorship took the decision to attack boldly – showing Duke Adhemar Murena’s intolerance of smuggler activity and asserting his authority over the planet. 75% of the Imperial Levied Frontier Regiment and half of the Arakeen Palace Guard swept down on the smugglers, and a huge battle erupted, the likes of which have not been seen since the massacre on the Funeral Plains. Whilst the Governor’s forces had a strong numerical advantage, and the benefit of aerial support based in Carthag, victory was stolen from them by the intervention of Shai Hulud. Clearly the level of activity on the open sands drew worms from all around, which lay carnage to men and equipment caught up in the conflict. The governors forces were able to cut their already substantial losses by being lifted to Carthag, but all traces of the smugglers operation was lost to the desert, hence the speculation as to their identity.

The only House not concerned at trusting it’s safety completely to the Planetary Governor was the new House Minor of Wyrd Lwdd. Assigned the Oh Gap in the shadow of Arakeen, the Siridar Artutus de Wyrd Lwdd clearly expected and problems to be dealt with by the Governors troops and committed none of his own to accompany his mining equipment. Or perhaps the Siridar Wyrd Lwdd had a premonition of what was to occur, no sooner had his miners discovered spice and set up, but they observed wormsign. Ornithopters and carry all’s brought all the equipment safely back to Arakeen, but the house was unable to produce any spice at all this month.