Go2Go2Go2
^{Travel Exhortations by Ric Carter}

TRAVEL for TERRORISTS, CONQUERORS, and other (PARA)MILITARIES:
  Getting The Most Bangs For Your Bucks

Over the course of human history, one of the most powerful drives for journeying is CONQUEST, the imposition of physical-economic-mental-moral control on others. This quest for conquest takes many forms and acts on many scales. Some may seem rather pacific (ie commerce or religion) but all have left bloody footprints and wheel tracks. Humans are inveterate blood-shedders, so such bloody travel is unavoidable and no surprise. Invasions, occupations, holy wars, trade wars — just slightly varying expressions of the same drive, the same Will To Power.

In this brief guide, we'll deal with travel needs for overt or covert military action. We'll look a four (or four and a half) types of action:

 1) Full-scale invasions

 2) Protracted border skirmishes

 3) Internal paramilitary or police actions

 4) Internal and external irregulars

All four types of actions share certain requirements: leadership, weapons and other supplies, (often) expendible troops, intelligence (information). All require the ability to move, and to appropriately conceal and reveal your resources and intentions. All require situational awareness (knowing where you are vis-a-vis your opposition) and a sense of timing. All may suffer from random contingencies (quirks of fate). All are subject to cost-benefit analysis: is this action, and the movement and effort it entails, really worth the cost? In fact, without a clear understanding of your goals, you are BOUND to fuck up. If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else.

But this is not a primer for strategy and tactics — this is about travel and transport. Here are some travel considerations applied to these four forms of combat.

I - INVASION

You'll need to arrange transport for many troops and much equipment. Ether buy lots and lots of tickets, commandeer lots of conveyances, or organize your own transportation corps. You may or may not want to keep the invasion a secret until it happens. Prior to the invasion, you'll probably want to insert numerous spies, saboteurs, prova­cateurs, hit-squads, etc. (with their own transport needs) into your target area. They will function more as paramilitaries or terrorists — see below.

But for your invasion, you'll be concerned with masses of men and material, and possibly with subduing-subverting-seducing those who control or occupy your invasion routes OUTSIDE your target. If you're smart enough, you'll induce your target's other enemies to do some or all of your hard dirty work for you, and you can keep your troops at home to suppress dissent. But you're not that smart, so go ahead with your invasion. The invasion will naturally be followed by an occupation, so be sure to ship plenty of body bags. You might do some looting and pillaging too, so have return transport available for your 'souvenirs'.

II - BORDER SKIRMISHES

You'll need to observe where and how your deceitful neighbor deploys their forces, figure out their real intentions and capabilities, and get there fustest with the mostest. Or you can feint with part of your troops so your nasty neighbor is drawn away from the border area you plan to sieze with the disguised forces that you have infiltrated there. Or your neighbor can work such a feint on you. Whatever.

Either way, you need flexible, highly mobile conveyances in order to react quickly enough. Such conveyances of course will vary with the terrain. Bicycles may be sufficient to secretly move your undercover operatives into a contested city, while high-speed tracked APCs (armored personnel carriers) or helicopters and parachutists may be needed to take more-or-less roadless areas. Rental cars may be an economical option. Do not depend on buses, taxis, jitneys, subways and/or go-karts unless absolutely necessary or if you're short of cash.

III - PARAMILITARIES

These forces range from regular police to formal or informal death-squads. They typically operate as highly mobile small units against relatively 'soft' civilian populations. In some places the 'civilians' will have their own weapons and fast vehicles, so you'll just have to better equipped. You'll also need better communications, such as secure radios or signal flags or carrier pigeons.

Depending on the contested domain, you'll want something like motorcycles, fast sedans, jeeps-SUVs, cargo vans, etc. The goal of a paramilitary is to intimidate and suppress and control a populace, not to take and hold territory, so you needn't worry about long-range capabilities, even in places like Los Angeles or Mexico City where the conurbation stretches on forever. Radio-linked squads extend your grasp. Keep your teams in touch, and you'll always prevail.

IV - IRREGULARS

These actually fall into two categories: a) internal insurgents aka 'the underground', and b) external action teams aka 'terrorists'.

• INSURGENTS typically direct their efforts against occupation forces (foreign and domestic) and their local collaborators-lackeys. Such insurgents may be referred to as terrorists, patriots, the underground or resistance, bandits, liberationists, or guerillas. They typically operate with support and aid and shelter from some portion of the local (occupied-oppressed) population, and travel by local civilian conveyances: auto/truck, (motor)bike, bus/train, animal/cart, etc. Insurgents may or may not act in concert with external 'terrorists'.
  
  
• TERRORISTS seek to disrupt the social order and destroy the morale of civilian populations (and thus undermine the leaders) of non-local bodies seen as involved with or responsible for some percieved wrongs. Thus these 'terrorists' attack targets in capitols or other psychologically significant loci far from their home area. As attackers, they have total control over the timing of their actions and the speed of transport. A terror team can travel leisurely to their destination, prepare the attack to their satisfaction, then set its execution in motion and slip away to a safe haven. They need only book passage with fake IDs, or penetrate their target state at a soft point, then rent or steal local vehicles to complete their work. But they should not take theme-park vacations immediately afterward.

The costs of these actions and their travel-transport components are proportional to their scale. Invasions are expensive, even if the invaders "live off the land," and terrorism and insurgency are cheap. Transport may be a major part of the cost of an invasion, and a minor cost for terrorists. The cost-conscious would-be conqueror should thus consider his/her goals and resources carefully.

As more military planners learn to use spreadsheets, and have to account for their expenses, we should see less and less dependence on heavy military forces, and greater use of small action teams. Eventually, the entire human race may consist of 'terrorists' or 'counter-terrorists' recruited by some power locus or other, everybody skulking about and surreptitiously blowing-up everybody else with household-chemistry bombs. And everyone's travel will be paid for! Wow!

TRAVEL FOR VAMPIRES & WEREWOLVES & OTHERS of the UNDEAD:
  Doing the Transylvania Trot-ski

OK, so you're one of the undead and you prey on the living. Humans, that is. Nobody cares much about cannibal wereweasels who prey on living weasels except maybe those living weasels. But hey, you're a vampire or werewolf or ghoul or brainsucker or some other filthy revenant. (See PARANORMAL ENTITIES for a complete list.)

And maybe you've depleted the local stock, or they just don't taste right, or whatever. So you need or want to travel somewhere else. But you know that travel for the undead isn't simple. There are many risks and limitations involved. Here are some tips on how to reach your destination without undue mishap (ie, dying the True Death).

# In some cultures, the undead can't cross running-flowing water. That doesn't much bother Malay and Indonesian vampires, so maybe you should suck some of their blood and acquire their immunity. Navaho ghouls are also unaffected, but there ain't much running water in their territory. Your best bet is to get into your coffin, then have your human lackeys aides dip it in hot wax for transport over any intermediary rivers, streams, lakes, etc. Ocean travel doesn't matter because seawater isn't running-flowing, except maybe the Gulf Stream and Japan Current.

# Some of the undead must avoid sunlight and must move about only at night. Most moon-activated shapeshifters are free to do whatever they like in daytime, so maybe you should suck some of their blood and acquire their immunity. Otherwise, I'd go with the get-your-coffin-dipped-in-wax prophylactic strategy. Or get a cargo van, seal the cargo area so it's light-tight, and drive yourself by night, stopping at WalMarts for free daytime parking.

# Many shapeshifters can transform themselves into flying creatures (often only at night) but must return to their home base for rest. Others can morph into energetic beasts that can run long distances, free as the wind, but must still return home afterward. In order to fully enjoy the exhilaration of ranging far and hunting freely while still putting leagues-miles-kilometers on the odometer, have your human toady assistant drive your van to prearranged points.

NOTE: You'll need to provide for their rest and refreshment, and lodging outside the third world is expensive. Thus you should bring along a tent, sleeping bag, gas stove and cookpot, so the slave helper will be able to camp out and prepare their favorite bugs+ramen meals.

# To help defray expenses, attack and rob and devour any rich people you encounter as you travel.

# It's unwise to announce your presence, so remove any I LUV DRACULA and I 8 NY etc. tags from your luggage

# Contact with silver can be bothersome and itchy, so avoid travel to Taxco and other silver-mining towns.

# Even ghouls need love, so apply deodorants liberally before venturing into roadside pick-up bars.

# Airport security scanners may embarrassingly reveal your non-mortal existence, so avoid airline travel.

# When crossing borders, do NOT state that the purpose of your trip is to "exsanguinate the populace."

# Moon-activated shapeshifters should avoid "red-eye express" flights on full-moon nights.

# Try not to mesmerize and/or sink your fangs and/or claws into drivers, pilots, helmsmen, etc.

# Unless you created them, other undead beings are NOT your friends. Don't let them book your journey.