Midwinter (midwinter_man.txt)

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 *                    Technical Supplement:                             *
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 LOADING INSTRUCTIONS
 ====================

 Commodore AMIGA:

 If your computer has KickStart in ROM, insert the Master Disk at the
 Workbench prompt, and the program will auto-load. If your computer
 does not have KickStart in ROM, load the KickStart as normal, insert
 the Master Disk at the Workbench prompt, and the program will auto-load.
 Please follow any on screen prompts.

 SECURITY CLEARANCE
 ==================

 Before playing "Midwinter" you must be security-decleared.
You will be
 asked to identify two members of the F.V.P.F. The portraits and names of
 these characters can be found throughout the manual on the Personality
 Profile pages. When you have identified the first portrait (with the
 question mark displayed beneath it) by reference to the manual, click
 on the correct name. then repeat the process for the second portrait.
         (This isn't needed if ya use the DEFJAM/CCS/ACC crack)

 CONTROL METHOD
 ==============

 Mouse:
 You are strongly recommend to use a mouse to play
"Midwinter". This
 should be plugged into port 1.
 Controls when using a mouse are fully explained in the main manual
 accompanying "Midwinter". Please refer to the
"Common Controls"
 section below for further information.

 Joystick:
 A joystick may be used to play "Midwinter". It should be
plugged into
 port 2. Controls are as explained  for mouse control throughout the
 manual. (e.g. to move left, move the joystick to the left).
 The fire button on the joystick replaces the function of the left
 mouse button, and the ">" key on the keyboard replaces
the function of
 the light mouse button. Please refer to the "Command
Controls" section
 below for further information.

 Keyboard:
 "Midwinter" may be played using keyboard controls alone.
Direction is
 controlled by using the numerical key-pad. the following keys are used;

 '8' - Forwards or Up          '4' - Left
 '2' - Backwards or Down       '6' - right
 '<' - The function of the left mouse button
 '>' - The function of the right mouse button

 COMMON CONTROLS
 ===============

 'P' - toggles Pause function On and Off.
 'X' - Exits any Action Mode
 'H' - Activates Help sequence
 'M' - Accesses Main Map from any action mode
 'S' - Toggles between skiing and sniping whilst in one of these
Action
       Modes.
 'A' - Ahead view when in cable-car
 'B' - Behind view when in cable-car
 'R' - Right view when in cable-car
 'L' - Left view when in cable-car

 All of the 'Common Controls' are fully explained in the manual.

 ADDITIONAL FEATURES
 ===================

 Please note that indicators have been added to the Action Mode
 Displays. These green lights, found on either side of the display at
 the bottom of the screen, flash to indicate the direction in which
 enemy vehicles may be found. Enemy-held buildings may be entered by
 some civilians.

 QUICK START
 ===========

 "Midwinter" is a highly complex strategy game. It is easy to
learn,
 but difficult to master. Many of the screens are driven by easily
 identifiable icons, the function of which are shown in the ICON.PIC.
 When the game has loaded, select your method of control and
"Training"
 mode from the 'Game Options' screen. Deselect
"Mortars" and "Bombers",
 and click on the "Play" box.
    You are in control of Captain John Stark, leader of the Free
 Villages Peace Force, the law enforcement agency on the island of
 "Midwinter". Enemy forces under the control of the evil
General
 Masters have set up their base in the south-east and are attempting to
 capture your Heat Mines which are distributed throughout the island. Your
 objective is to recruit fellow members of the F.V.P.F. (there are 32 in
 total) and ultimately to defeat General Masters by destroying his
 Headquarters in Shining Hollow.
    Click on Captain Stark's portrait from the 'Team Display' to
access
 his 'Personality Display'. Please refer to the ICON.MAP for quick
 identification of each icon. Each of the Team's Personality Displays
 give vital information as to their abilities and characteristics. The
 successful interaction of the 32 members of the F.V.P.F. is the key to
 winning. You   must move Stark around the island to meet up with other
 people and hopefully recruit them.
    Select the 'Main Map' icon to ascertain Stark's whereabouts.
The
 map of the island shows locations of strategic importance as green
 dots which may be highlighted by selecting the buttons on the
 indicator board. Names of places are shown when the on screen pointer is
 moved over them. Stark's location is shown by a green arrow. The location
 of team members and enemy units are highlighted by selecting
"People".
 They are shown as brown men and black crosses respectively. If a
 settlement is shown as a green dot with a white border, the enemy have
 captured it. The map magnification may be increased by clicking on the
 left mouse button, and decreased by clicking on the right. When you have
 found stark and his nearest colleague, select 'Close Map'.
    Select the 'Decisions Display' icon from the Personality Display.
 The Decisions Display shows all options which are open to you . Please
 refer to the ICON.MAP for identification.
    Select the 'Skiing' icon. This accesses the Skiing-3D action mode,
 where you view the landscape through Stark's goggles. Please note that
 action modes can be paused at any time by pressing "P" on the
 keyboard.
    Clicking on the left mouse button sets you walking.
 Your walking speed may be increased by pushing forward on the mouse.
 When you meet a downwards slope you may start skiing properly, and your
 speed will increase quickly. Move the mouse left and right to steer, and
 click on the right mouse button to stop. The mini-map displayed shows
 your surrounding area, showing buildings and settlemets as white dots.
 You should ski in the direction of your nearest colleague. You may refer
 to the Main Map at any time by pressing "M" on the keyboard.
    If at any time you hear a low-pitched drone, it signifies that the
 enemy are nearby. It is the sound of a vehicle engine. The green
 lights below the goggles will flash to indicate the vehicle's
 direction relative to you. If you spot a vehicle, stop skiing by
 clicking the right mouse button and press the "S" key to
toggle to
 Sniping Mode. Here you view the landscape through Stark's rifle-sights.
 Line up the enemy vehicle on the cross-hairs and press the "Space
Bar"
 to fire bullets.
    Pressing the "S" key will return you to skiing. Pressing
the "Space
 Bar" whilst skiing will throw a grenade directly ahead of you. Once
 you are close to a building or settlement, press "X" on the
keyboard
 to return to the Decisions Display. You will have the option to enter
 any buildings which are nearby.
    Every buildings in "Midwinter" has a specific function,
full
 details of which may be found in the manual. If you are in a
 settlement, once you have selected the enter 'enter buildings' icon
 you will have a choice of building to enter. If a building icon has a
 red person next to it on the choice screen, it contains a recruit or
 potential recruit. If you enter this building, by clicking on it, you
 will have the option to 'join' forces with this person. To find your
 colleagues reply, click on his portrait. If he agrees to join, you will
 have two characters available to control, and further options will be
 open to you.
    Characters are controlled independantly whilst performing most
 functions, and the brown watches you will have seen throughout the game
 shows each character's personal time. The blue watch shows the time at
 which watches must next be synchronised, at which point a Situation
 Report will be recived, telling you how well you are doing. Once a
 character's personal time exceeds the Report Time, he will be unable to
 perform in any action mode until watches have been synchronised. This is
 effected by clicking on the 'Synchronise Watches' icon on the Team
 Display.
    If you manage to find a garage, you will have the opportunity to
 drive a snow-buggy. Enter the garage and select the appropriate icon. You
 will view the landscape through the buggy's windscreen. The speed of the
 buggy is controlled by pushing the mouse forwards (accelerate) or
 backwards (decelerate), and its direction by moving the mouse left or
 righ. The buggies are armed with a variety of missiles, fired by
 clicking on right or left mouse buttons or the space bar on the keyboard.
 Full details of missile specifications are found in the manual. You will
 encounter enemy vehicles in the same way as when you were skiing. The
 buggy can be exited by pressing "X" on the keyboard.
    On entering a cable-car station, selecting the cable-car icon
 allows you to travel up mountainsides quickly and safely. the cable-car
 will automatically leave the station and travel to its destination. On
 arriving at the top station, you will be able to hang-glide back down the
 mountain by selecting the appropriate icon. The view seen whilst
 hang-gliding is that of the pilot, with the canopy filling the top of the
 screen. The launch sequence is effected by clicking the left mouse
 button. Take-off is achieved at speeds in excess of 24 m.p.h. The
 hang-glider controls are similar to that of an aircraft. Pushing
 forwards on the mouse lowers the nose, causing the glider to lose
 height and accelerate. Pulling back on the mouse lifts the nose,
 gaining height but losing speed. The direction of the glider is
 controlled by moving the mouse left or right. Holding down the space
 bar on the keyboard allows you to view the ground at an angle of 45o.
 Missiles are fired by clicking on the left mouse button. Hang -gliding
 is tricky, and you will need to spend some time getting used to the
 controls. Read the manual for hints and tips. If your speed falls
 below 15 m.p.h. the glider will stall - with dire consequences !
 Landing the glider requires you to steer close to the ground at a
 narrow angle, gently descending as you keep the wing-tips level. Once
 you have landed, you may return to the Decisions Display by pressing
 "X" on the keyboard.
    Every character will need to rest, eat and sleep from time to time.
 Keep an eye on your Muscle Power indicator. If this drops to zero you
 will faint. Charactersmay become injured, but can receive First Aid
 from friends. extra supplies of weapons and fuel can be found at
 various buildings, and some provide shelter and a good vantage point for
 sniping.
 "Midwinter" is a game with endless strategic possibilities.
You will
 find it nearly impossible to win unless you recruit help. Your
 ultimate objective is to destroy  Master's HQ by blowing it up. You
 will need to learn the techniques of sabotaging buildings to aid you
 in your progress to your goal, and to finally destroy the enemy.
    It is possible to scratch the surface of such a complex and
 challenging game as "Midwinter" in this Quick Start guide.
Remember
 that it only descripes the game in "Training" mode. For the
ultimate
 challange, allow the enemy full fire-power by selecting
"Bombers" and
 "Mortars". But you'll need thge manual to help you this
time!

                          Good Luck !!!!!

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              From here the FAT manual is starting
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 *************
 * NEWSFLASH *
 *************

 Reuters International News Agency .. 23 November 2015 .. News Flash ..


 PRESIDENT ESCAPES - ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Miami, Florida, U.S.A 1430 hrs. An unsuccessful attempt to assassinate
 the President of the United States was made early this morning on the
 seafront at Miami beach.

   Three security guards were murdured as they protected President Ed
 Jackson from eight hooded gunmen, believed to be from the Global Green
 Army who last month bombed the Supreme Soviet Congress of Peoples
 Deputies, injuring the Premier.
   President and Mrs. Jackson were both unharmed, but shaken by the
 attack. Two of the gunmen were shot dead, and the others arrested.
   The Vice-President, Michael Baker, later condemned the attack.
 "We have today witnessed another attempt on a world leader by a 
  terrorist group intent on furthering their cause by murder. the
  cold-blooded killing of members of the security services will only
  strengthen the resolv of the President, and the people of the United
  States, to resist the demands of this group, and to progress with our
  stated plans for the controlling of current climatic trends. We are
  determined that justice be done. Terrorists will pay with their
  lives, whatever their cause."
   He was anxious in his statement to denounce the growing support for
 the "Global Green Army", who have recently attracted
publicity for
 their aims, to see governments acting together to combat the problems
 of the greenhouse effect, by a campaign descriped by the GGA as
 "educational terrorism".

 *************
 * NEWSFLASH *
 *************

 Reuters International News Agency ... 4 April 2017 ... News Flash ...


 WASHINGTON, MOSCOW, AND BRUSSELS DISCREDITED IN "I C E G A T
E" SCANDAL
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Washington D.C, Maryland, U.S.A. 1300 hrs. Following the agreement
 issued jointly by the governments of the United States, Soviet Union,
 and Europe in January, stating their plans for combatting global
 warming, it has been reported that a classified section of the
 document has been leaked to an American Newspaper, "The Boston
 Correspontent".

 The study, entitled "The Midwinter Report", appears to be
finding of a
 KGB / CIA commission charged with examining mechanisms by which world
 cooling could be triggered. It is claimed that if the leaked documents
 are genuine, they amount to an international conspiracy to create a
 belief that a 'mini ice age' may be the solution to the climatic
 crisis. The Global Green Army have issued the following statement:
 "The governments of the world have taken no effective action to stop
  the accelerating climatic crisis endangering life on Earth. They are
  obviously so desperate for a solution that they have produced a report
  which is sinister in implication, and implausible in practice. It is a
  discredited document, borne of corruption, and indicative of the fact
  that governments will not save the world from oveheating."

 ************************************************************************
 *                     THE MIDWINTER REPORT                             *
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 PART 1:
 ~~~~~~~

                   DOCUMENT STATUS:  TOP SECRET
                          Ref CC/Mid/3.1

                       THE CLIMATIC CRISIS

                           SECTION III

                     "THE MIDWINTER REPORT"

 TOP SECRET
 ==========

 'The Climatic Crisis' was jointly commisioned by the governments of
 the United States of America, the Soviet Union, and the Federation of
 European Nations, as a part of a wide-ranging study into the causes,
 effects and possible solutions to global warming.

 This particular briefing - "The Midwinter Report" - is part
of the
 third section, examining possible shortcuts to accelerate global
 cooling.

 Part One deals with natural causes of accelerated global cooling, or
 ice-ages. An appendix, Part Two has been prepared, outlining possible
 manufactured routes to the same end. This document is available
 separately, and is for the eyes of heads of state only.

 PART 1:
 ~~~~~~~

                   DOCUMENT STATUS:  TOP SECRET

                            CONTENTS

                     THE FORMATION OF ICE-AGES

                     A) The lessons of history

                     B) A combination of causes

 i) .......................................... The location of continents
 ii) ....................................... A cooling of world climate ?
 iii) .............................. The reduction of the radiation traps
 iv) ....................................... An in crease in reflectivity

                     C) Detonating the Dynamite

 i) ................................................... Volcanic activity
 ii) ..................................................... Meteor Strikes


 PART 11:
 ~~~~~~~

                ACCESS RESTRICTED: FOR HEADS OF STATE ONLY

                         THE FORMATION OF ICE-AGES

 A) The lessons of History

 Glaciation (the formation of ice) occurs if one basic environmental
 condition is fulfitted: More snow must fall and accumulate in the
 winter than can be wasted or eroded by melting the following summer.
 If this imbalance continues for a few years, a period off glaciation
 will follow.

 Close examination of the start of previous ice-ages has led us to
 believe that two main factors combine to initiate glaciation.

 1) Continental land-masses 'wander' across high latitude areas, where
 ice sheets are normally expected. Ice will affect the land surface
 whilst it remains in this position; but if the land-mass then drifts
 away to lower latitudes the glaciation ceases.

 ii) Under the influence of external factors, the world's climate cools
 so that snowlines are lowered everywhere. In the mountains, glaciers
 develop and ice sheets expand into the middle latitudes. The sea-level
 falls, as the area of sea ice is increased, and many parts of the
 globe not actually affected by glaciers become areas of permafrost.
 Ice, in some shape or form, starts to affect greater areas of the
 worlds surface.

 there are other factors which may possibly contribute:

 iii) Mountain ranges are built up until they reach the regional
 snow-line. If this happens, ice begins to affect the higher parts of
 mountains and flows into glacial valleys.

 iv) A slight warming of the earth's surface causes the base of the
 Antarctic ice sheet to start melting, which releases great amounts of
 ice into the Southern Ocean, to be trapped in wide ice shelves. This
 causes the ocean to cool, and then the air above it, in turn freezing
 the Antarctic and other ice sheets, building them up to ice age
 proportions again. This is called the ice sheet surge theory.

 v) A reduction in solar radiation received in the polar reqions may be
 caused by the Earth's geometrical relationship with the Sun changing. As
 a result of complicated relations between small but systematic variations
 in the inclination and orientation of the Earth's rotational axis,
 coupled with changes caused by its elliptical orbit, these changes occur
 constantly. milankovich, a Yogoslav geophysicist, showed the calculated
 temperature changes associated with this "wobble", indicating
four main
 groups of low temperatures within the last 600 000 years,
 corresponding roughly to the onset of ice-ages. But there has been much
 heavy criticism of Milankovich's ideas, on the grounds that the
 variations considered would have much less effect on world climate than
 he claimed, and so his calculations were of dubious worth.

 It is seldom possible to recognise these mechanisms working
 independently of one another. Most Ice Ages have probably had very
 complicated causes, with a contribution from several factors.

 To predict the onset of the next ice-age, we must estimate the next
 time at which two or more of these factors will be exerting a strong
 enough impact to trigger the onset of global cooling.

 +-----------------------------------\
 | NATURAL CLIMATIC COOLING           \
 | Air mass changes cloudiness,        \
 | CO2 levels variable, Volcanic dust.  \
 +-----------------------------\         \
                                \         \
 +-------------------------------\         \
 | CONTINENTAL ARRANGMENT                   \
 | Land masses near poles or in high         \
 | latitudes arrangement of oceans.           \
 +-----------------------------------\         \
                                      \         \
 +-------------------------------------\         \
 | MOUNTAIN BUILDING                              \           ICE
 | Distrubution of high mountains.                /           AGE
 +-------------------------------------/         /
                                      /         /
 +-----------------------------------/         /
 | ASTRONOMICAL EFFECTS                       /
 | Changes in planetary geometry.            /
 +--------------------------------/         /
                                 /         /
 +------------------------------/         /
 | GLACIOLOGICAL EFFECTS                 /
 | Surges of ice sheets Peak            /
 | ice changes                         /
 +------------------------------------/

 Diagram 1: Factors combining to cause an ice-age.

 B) A Combination of Causes

 1) The location of Continents

 "The primary geophysical requirement for continental glaciation is the
 presence of large land masses in sufficiently high latitudes to catch
 and hold a lot of snow"

 The present location of continents and their expected geologocal
 characteristics as a result of their locations do not always appear to
 match, as the following two examples illustrate.

 A cursory glance at an atlas will show that the Sahara desert today
 lies on the equator, and its climate is as far removed as one can
 imagine from glacial conditions. But scientists have found that great
 expanses of icesratched bedrock, striated erratic boulders and meltwater
 channels, all characteristic of a glaciated enviroment are present.

 When the first accurate maps were drawn, in the eighteenth century, it
 was seen that the west coast of Africa corresponded closely with the
 east coast of South America. In the nineteenth century, geologists
 started to 'date' rocks, and found rocks of similar ages on the west
 coast of Africa and the east coast of South America which fitted
 together when the coast lines were matched.

 Both of these unexpected discoveries have come to be explained by a
 theory known as "Continental Drift", the slow movement of the
continents
 from some previous alignment to their present positions, on a deep-lying
 plastic substratum.

 In 1912, it was suggested by Alfred Wegener that Continental Drift
 started with the break up of the great supercontinent of Pangea.
              (See Pangea.pic for further details....)

 About 100 million years ago the present day continents began to drift
 away from one another, leading to the creation of the South Atlantic
 and South Atlantic and North Atlantic Oceans and the Indian Ocean.
 Antarctica was now migrating towards the south pole while Australia
 moved east and India moved north, from their initial positions
 illustrated in AFANAU.pic.

 In the Northern Hemisphere at the time the north pole lay somewhere
 near the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska. those land masses now in
 'convenient' positions were bound to be affected by glaciation, and
so
 the glaciers of Alaska and Antarctica were formed.

 It has been predicted that the continuation of Continental Drift will
 lead to the continents being in the position illustrated in CONT.PIC;
 but at the present time, their positions fulfill the first criterion
 for glaciation - there are currently sufficent land masses in high
 latitudes for the onset of glaciation.

 2) A cooling of world climate

 When viewed from space, and as seen in photographs taken from the
 moon, the Earth appears to be blue. This is caused by the scattering
 of light by air molecules in the earths atmosphere. Part of the blue
 light from the sun is scattered forward to Earth, which is why the sky
 usually appears blue to us, and part is scattered back to space, which
 is why the Earth appears blue to anyone on the moon. It is estimated
 that the scattering by air molecules has the effect of reflecting 9% of
 the energy of all sunlight incident on the Earth.

 The strongest reflection of sunlight (about 90%) is caused by snow;
 clouds have an average reflectivity of about 50%; ice and deserts about
 35%; land areas between 20% and 10%, depending on the vegetation; and
 the oceans only 3% (which is why they appear dark in pictures of the
 Earth taken from space).

 When all the sources of reflection are added together, we find that
 the Earth, on average, reflects some 36% of the solar radiation
 falling on it. It therefore follows that the Earth has available 64% of
 the energy of incident sunlight.

 It would be possible to calculate the degree of heating caused by the
 sun, although this calcualtion would be anything but precise, since the
 Earth is a very complex body, and a complete calculation including every
 factor would be very complex.

 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | We can approximate the calculation by considering the Earth to be a  |
 | small spherical body which;                                          |
 |   i) absorbs all solar radiation received.                           |
 |  ii) is a good radiator of heat at all wavelengths.                  |
 | iii) has the ability for equilibriation of heat rapidly.             |
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

 If we suppose the object moves around the sun in the same orbit as the
 Earth - about 150 million kilometres, it is possible to calculate that
 we would expect the body to have a temperature of 280 Kelvin (7o C), a
 result close to the actual average temperature of the Earth 287 Kelvin
 (14o C). The error in the calculation is 3%.

 To upgrade our model we must make the imaginary body more realistic.
 If we suppose that it reflects 36% of the sunlight inicident upon it,
 as explained earlier, but otherwise keeps the same conditions, the
 calculated temperature is about 250 K (-23o C), giving a 13% error.
 This worsening of the error suggests that the Earth must have a
 mechanism which compensates for the reflection of sunlight.

 That compensating factor is that the Earth is not a perfect heat
 radiator. The atmpsheric gases of the Earth generate a radiation trap,
 mainly made up by two gases, water vapour and carbon dioxide. This is
 what is known as the "Greenhouse Effect".

 The Carbon Dioxide trap absorbs strongly in the wavelengt range from
 14 micrometres to 16.5 micrometres (1 micrometre is one millionth part
 of one metre), and the water vapour trap blocks the escape of heat
 with wavelenghts longer than 20 micrometres.

 When the wavelength falls into one or other of those blocked ranges,
 scarcely any radiant heat generated at ground level succeeds in
 penetrating the trap. There is essentially no escape through the trap
 into the higher atmosphere and thence into space. Blocked radiation is
 either re-admitted (after being absorbed into the trap) downward into
 the ground immediately, or absorbed again by the gas entering the trap,
 in which case there is a further re-emission. Sooner or later, perhaps
 after many absorbtions and re-emissions, the trapped radiation reaches
 the ground, where it is removed by ground absorbtion, so returning the
 heat to where it started.

 Heat radiation from the Earth occurs at wavelengths both within and
 outside the wavelengths of the traps. The fraction of the energy of the
 radiation within the traps is 42%, with the carbon dioxide blocking about
 15% of the heat energy, and the water vapour about 27%. The effect of the
 traps is therefore to reduce the radiating efficiency of the surface of
 the Earth to about 58% of the imaginary body used in the calculations
 above. The surface of the Earth cannot cool itself as efficiently as the
 imaginary body would be able to do.

 The inability of the Earth to cool itself is compouded by partial
 trapping at wavelengths outside those just considered. As well as the
 more or less total trap for wavelengths greater than 20 micrometres,
 water vapour generates a partial trap at wavelengths between 16.5 and 20
  micrometres, while Carbon Dioxide creates a partial trap between 13 and
 14 micrometres. A partial trap is one in which a significant amount of
 radiation does get away into space, although a considerable fraction
 also returns to the ground, where it is reabsorbed.

 There is additional partial trapping of all wavelengths if there
 happens to be an appreciable quantity of water droplets or ice crustals
 suspended in the atmosphere. This is most marked when cloud is heavy,
 which is the effect which produces a hot, stifling effect before a
 thunderstorm. The air is 'cleared' with heavy rainfall, removing the
 radiation trap caused by water droplets. The partial traps are usually
 estimated to increase the blocking of heat energy from the 42% given
 above to approximately 63%. The calculation cannot be axact, because the
 cloud distribution varies around the Earth. We can say that, of the heat
 energy radiated from the heats surface, approximately one third escapes
 into space and two-thirds are reabsorbed.

 This is not quite the complete picture. There is way in which the heat
 traps can be circumvented, involving evaporation of water from the ocean
 surface. When water evaporates, it cools the ocean surface. The water
 vapour rises with updrafts of air, producing clouds. When the clouds are
 big enough a fraction of the water is carried above the radiation trap.
 That water vapour condenses into water droplets, or into ice crystals,
 with a release of latent energy (energy which was trapped within it).
 Because this happens above the radiation trap, the energy is released
 into space, and cannot be reabsorbed. This bypassing of the traps is by
 no means complete, but it has the effect of reducing their blocking
 ability from the previous 63% back to about 40%. We now have an equation
 to balance. We have earlier seen that the earth's surface receives 36%
 less solar energy per square metre because of reflection, and we have
 now seen that this is compensated by a 40% reduction in the rate of heat
 radiation. This small energy profit of 4% raises the temperature of 280K
 obtained for the imaginary body to about 283% (10o C) for the average
 temperature of the Earth.
 The diagrams (JANUARY.pic & JULY.pic,, sorry but i didn't have the
time
 to paint em ... but i hope ya enjoy the game !!!) show world temperatures
 for January and July. Considering that half the total surface of the Earth
 lies in an equatorial belt between latitudes 30o south and 30o North, it
 is clear that the average temperature of the Earth is in fact about
 14o C. Indeed, the average annual temperature in the equatorial zone is
  about 25o C, in mid-latitudes about 10o C, and in high latitudes about
 -10o C, so that, by weighting these three areas 3:2:1, one obtains 14o C
 (287K) for the average temperature. It would be possible to close the
 gap between observation (287K) and calculation (283K) still further in a
 more detailed calculation. But we have illustrated the two important
 points: The heat radiation traps in the lower atmosphere, "the
 greenhouse effect" compensate very closely for the loss of solar
 radiation due to the reflectivity of the Earth; and that about one-fifth
 of the incident solar energy goes in the evaporation of water vapour.

 We have now reached a crucial question. We must ask how a planet with
 an average temperature of 14o C above the freezing point of water could
 develop an ice-age. Either it must arise spontaneously, or one of the
 important quantities used in the above calculations must change. It
 seems unlikely that it could possibly occur spontaneously, as the Earth
 is very efficient at transferring heat from one region to another,
 namely from temperate equatorial regions to polar reqions, via wind and
 oceanic currents. This enables the Earth to keep a climatic equilibrium
 in a steady state. Some external factor must be influential in altering
 one of the mechanisms which keeps the Earth's climate so finely balanced
 - either or both the radiation traps in the atmosphere must be reduced,
 or the reflectivity of the Earth must be increased.

 The reduction of the radiation traps

 With an average temperature of 14o C (and 25o C at the tropics), the
 evaporation rate of water into the atmosphere must always be very much
 greater than is necessary to maintain the water vapour trap. Therefore
 we need only consider the carbon dioxide trap. We have seen that carbon
 dioxide blocks radiation over a particular wavelength, reducing the
 earth's radiating capacity by 15%. If this trap were removed, it has
 been calculated that the average temperature of the Earth would fall
 back to 270K (-3o C), at which point an ice age certainly could occur.
 Two factors lead us to the conclusion that this is an unlikely cause of
 past or future ice ages. Firstly, if the Carbon Dioxide in the
 atmosphere were to be so significantly reduced, it would have a
 catastrophic effect on plant life, which need carbon dioxide for
 photosynthesis, the means by which they, and ultimately we, as they area
 vital part of the food chain, survive. And secondly, the major current
 concerns to environmental scientists, and the reason for the preparation
 of this report, is the effect our output of carbon dioxide is having on
 the atmosphere, and the way it is increasing, not decreasing the very
 radiation trap we have been discussing.

 An increase in reflectivity.

 As warm air rises from the Earth, it cools. And as it cools, the water
 vapour within it tends to condense into liquid droplets or into ice
 crystals - the higher it goes, the cooler it gets, until saturation point
 is reached. the height and temperature at which saturation is reached
 depends upon the initial water vapour content and temperature of the air.
 Humid air becomes saturated low in the atmosphere, with a condensed swarm
 of tiny water droplets (it would take 1000 such droplets to cover 1
 centimetre if placed end to end), which scatter light, behaving as a
 'fog'.

 Drier air has to rise higher before its water vapour becomes
 saturated. When the air is particulararly dry, the temperature may have
 to fall below frezzing point before saturation occurs, and then the
 vapour would be expected to form ice crystals. However, this does not
 happen automatically. Nor do water droplets frezze automatically at such
 temperatures. If left undisturbed, they remain as liquid, becoming
 "supercooled".

 In the higher atmosphere, (at temperatures of about -20o C), there are
 a comparatively small number of particles called condensation nucleii,
 which act as a catalyst to freeze supercooled droplets, forming ice
 crystals as they pass over them. The ice crystals will then grow and
 begin to fall back to Earth under gravity, but may occur rising air
 which lifts them up again, causing a swirling motion, during which they
 will collide with other water droplets, freeze them, and grow bigger
 still. Eventually, the ice crystals grow large enough to break free of
 this swirling effect, and fall back to Earth. If the ice melts before it
 reaches the ground it will fall as rain. In winter, however, the lower
 air may be too cool to melt the ice, in which case it will fall as snow.
 It is because of the processes of swirling and freezing other water
 droplets in a slow build up of ice crystals that snow flakes have such
 beautiful and intricate patterns.

 The crucial condensation nucleii are formed by ice surrounding around
 what are called "freezing nucleii",which are often tiny
grains of salt
 sprayed up from the sea. However, if they are not present in sufficient
 quantity to act as a catalyst, the supercooled water vapour will rise
 still further, and cool as it rises. If its temperature becomes lower
 than -40o C, it will eventually change from droplets into ice crystals,
 themselves being "freezing nucleii" around which more ice
condenses.
 These are the ice particles known to Artic Explorers as "Diamond
Dust".

 Ice crystals reflect and refract light, just like diamonds. Refraction
 produces a separation of light into its particular colours, giving the
 familiar spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
 violet. The reason you cannot see this effect from falling snow is
 because of the random joining of the ice crystals to form snow flakes as
 described. The crystals tend to jumble up the effects of refraction, so
 all we see is a whitish haze. "Diamond Dust" is astonishingly
reflective
 of sunlight. If a layer of water with a thickness as little as one
 hundredth of a millimetre were turned into tiny ice-crystals it would be
 so reflective as to reflect all the sunlight back into space, were it
 present everywhere in the upper atmosphere. To an observer on the moon,
 the Earth would the appear featureless and white, just as Venus does to
 us from Earth.

 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | We have calculated that the loss of solar energy caused by normal    |
 | reflection is slightly more than compensated for by radiation traps  |
 | - however, "Diamond Dust" adds nothing to the radiation
traps, as    |
 | only a tiny amount is present, despite its high reflectivity.        |
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

 We need not search any longer for the phenomena which would cause an
 ice age. Turning only 0.1% of the amount of water normally present in the
 Earth's atmosphere into fine ice crystals would have an immediate,
 catastrophic effect on the world's climate. The temperature of the land
 would collapse in a few weeks and the temperature of the oceans within a
 few years. Advanced global cooling would be upon us.

 What is apparent is that "Diamond Dust" is not widespread at
present.
 This is because the water vapour in the atmosphere does not attain a
 temperature as low as -40o C easily. The main sources of water vapour
 in the atmosphere are the oceans; it is the surface temperature of the
 oceans which determines the temperature of the water vapour as it
 begins its ascent into the upper atmosphere. Whilst the temperature of
 the oceans are warm, the water vapour will not become cool enough to
 form "Diamond Dust" in the upper atmosphere, so sunlight will
still be
 able to penetrate to Earth to keep the surface of the ocean warm, and so
 on, in a self-maintaining cycle. This state of events is aided by the
 fact that the oceans, due to their enormous size, have a "heat
supply"
 which will last up to about ten years, even if a significant reduction
 in the amount of sunlight occured.

 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | The only possibility of "Diamond Dust" forming would be if
a second  |
 | agent were to temporarily lower the amount of sunlight reaching the  |
 | oceans, to cool them, for a considerable length of time, We need a   |
 | detonator for our dynamite                                           |
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

 This detonator must be a process which injects a sufficient quantity of
 small particles into the atmosphere at a height above 12 kilometres,
 the region known as the stratosphere. Fine particles have an
 interesting and significant property. They do not stay aloft
 indefinitely. Gravity pulls them downwards through the air. Large, heavy
 particles fall quickly, whilst very small ones remain suspended for much
 longer. What is remarkable is that particles of the sizes most effective
 for the reflection of sunlight (about half a micrometre) take about ten
 years to fall through the upper atmosphere. Once they get below 12
 kilometres, they fall very much quicker, as they become incorporated into
 much larger ice crystals and water droplets. This ten year process is of
 just the right 'fuse length' for our potential detonator.

 When Mount St. Helens volcano. Washington State, erupted in June 1980,
 an Eastern Airlines pilot was the first to spot a plume of ash and steam
 at a height of 15,000 metres, creating violent lightning displays and
 darkening the whole sky. The eruption affected large areas of the Western
 States, with acidic ash accumulating to a depth of 1.5 cm at a distance
 of 800 km. In East Washington the ash fell so thickly that automatic
 street lightning was switched on. Within five days, the ash had reduced
 visibility to 5 km in parts of Canada, 2000 km away.

 The St. Helens eruption was mild compared to that of Mount Tambora in
 the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1815 when an immense amount of
 fine dust was thrown into the atmosphere. It had far reaching effects on
 the world's climate. In New England, Canada and Western Europe the summer
 1816 was extraordinarily cold. A meteorological record kept for New Haven
 since 1779 records June 1816 as the coldest june un that city, with a
 mean temperature that would normally be expected some 200 miles north of
 the city of Quebec. The Lancashire plain in England had its coldest July,
 and the summer as a whole ranks as the coldest on record in the Swiss
 city of Geneva for the period from 1753 to 1960. In New England the loss
 of most of the staple crop of Indian Corn and the great reduction in the
 hay crop caused so much hardship on isolated subsistence farms that the
 year became enshrined in folklore as "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to
 Death".

 Climatologists rank the eruption as the greatest producer of
 atmospheric dust between 1600 and the present. The dust circled the air
 for severla years, reflecting the sunlight back into space and reducing
 the amount of it reaching the groud.

 It is highly conceivable that in the next couple of decades, with
 tectonic plates constantly shifting, that such a huge volcanic explosion
 might occur. If it were to, and consequently led to a teetering on the
 brink of catastrphe. The formation of "Diamond Dust" would
explosively
 accelerate global cooling. It is possible that past ice ages were caused
 by volcanoes bigger than any which has erupted over the past ten
 millenia. With the continents located in their present positions, it
 could mean the onset of "Midwinter". However, we must
consider other
 potential detonators.

 It has been estimated that about 5000 giant meteorites with diameters of
 more than a kilometre have hit the Earth over the past 600 million years,
 with an average strike rate of one per 120 000 years. Meteorites with a
 diameter greater than 300 metres must hit the Earth once in every 10 000
 years, producing a crater similar to those found on the surface of the
 moon. It is the siza of the meteorite which would be crucial for
 detonation of an ice age.

 A tiny micrometeorite experiences a sudden flash of heating as it
 enters the Earth's atmosphere. For a typical particle, 1 micrometre in
 size, the temperature rises to about 500 K in two seconds. The flash
 heating becomes stronger as the size of the meteorite increases, until
 for a meteorite the size of a pinhead the temperature becomes sufficient
 to vapourise it completely. It becomes a trail of bright light, seen as
 a 'shooting star'.

 If the incoming body is the size of a clenched fist, the air pressure
 on the body is large enough to slow down its very high speed, happening
 before the heat can evaporate the whole of the material. A residue
 remains which cools and falls to the ground at a comparatively low
 speed. The pressure of air on the incoming body grows in proportion to
 its size. When the pressure becomes great enough, (at a size of a few
 metres), the body will burst into fragments which fall as a meteorite
 shower. If the body is several hundred metres across, the body no longer
 bursts into fragments, as there is insufficient time for them to fly
 apart as the body crashes down through the atmosphere, to create an
 explosion pit or crater where it lands. The explosion causes material
 torn from the ground to be splashed outwards and upwards with the
 disintegrating meteorite, radiating from the point of impact.

 Entery speeds of 30 kilometres per second are typical, but in
 exceptional cases the speed can be as high as 70 kilometres per second.
 If the body were 300 metres in diameter, with an entery speed of 300
 kilometres per second, the energy per ton of meteorite (typical mass = 50
 million tons) would be enough to throw 1000 tons of debris up to a height
 of 50 kilometres, or a total of 50,000 million tons. Only a few per cent
 of the particles, in the form of tiny dust particles would be ample to
 cause an ice age. The dust particles would spread gradually overthe
 earth, reflecting much of the sun's radiation, over a period of ten
 years as it fell back to Earth. A giant meteorite is potentially more
 dangerous than a volcano because, although the amount of material in a
 giant meteorite is no greater than that blown off by a volcano, each ton
 of material has about a thousand times more energy, and is far more
 capable of being blown up into the upper atmosphere.

 The possibility of such an object colliding with the Earth is high due
 to the orbits they have. At times they pass closer to the sun than the
 Earth ever does, and at other times they are further away from the sun
 than the Earth. In other words, they have to cross our path twice in
 every orbit they make. There are probably 10 000 of them with such a
 path. The odds seem stacked against us escaping for ever - and if there
 were to be impact, the detonator would explode, the deadly dust would
 form, and a new ice age would have dawned.

 ************************************************************************
 *                         THE STORY SO FAR...                          *
 ************************************************************************

 On Friday 8th September 2039, New York Radio's early evenning new
 bulletin carried reports of a fast-moving white light, seen travelling
 east over Florida. Eye-witnesses claimed that the size and velocity of
 the light ruled out the possibilities of known military or commercial
 aircraft. Strangely, most seemed happy to assume it was a alien
 life-form, rekindling tales from their youth, and at the same time
 giving the media a much needed story. They wanted light relief from the
 politicians, endlessly glorifying the centenary of the outbreak of the
 last World War, overstated by the new President of the Federation of
 Europe as "a celebration of a hundred years of global
alliance." As
 always the politicians preferred to highlight their achievements, such as
 their united environmental policies, which looked like thwarting the
 "greenhouse effect", and ignore the diplomatic Cold War still
present in
 many parts of the world. That light in the sky was about to give "Cold
 War" a totally different connotation.
    The shock waves were felt as far afield as London and Sydney. In
 Beijing and Bombay, buildings were rased to the ground, and near the
 epicentre, on the eastern border of Burma, there was little chance of
 surviving the initial blast. Fortyeight hours later, the tidal wave hit
 the west coast of North America, and daylight never came over Moscow.
    The political tension mounted as nations searched for the
 aggressor, aiming swift retribution. Despite having hundreds of thousands
 of its people killed, the Soviet Union was eyed nervously by the West.
 And although the most densely populated areas of the flooded western
 seaboard of the United States could not be contacted from Washington,
 the Kremlin pointing an accusing finger at the Pentagon. The peoples of
 Asia and the Pacific Islands struggled for survival, where millions of
 people were reported to have perished in dark, flooded, chaotic villages,
 towns and cities. Alliances crumbled at the time they were needed most -
 man was about to go to war with the Earth.
    Satellites had shown the superpowers that the devastation caused by
 the explosion was that expexted from a ten thousand megaton hydrogen
 bomb. Over one hundred square kilometres of forest had been laid to
 waste; burnt and charred buildings lay in ruins up to 300 kilometres
 from the blast; there were no signs of human life. Millions of tons of
 dirt and dust had been ejected into the atmosphere, already blanketing
 half the globe, and spreading. Out of the blue, another holocaust had
 occurred.
    It was not until the following Christmas that stories began to
 emerge from China, recounting that horrific night when it all began with
 "the ball of fire from space". Word of mounth passed on tales
of the
 death of millions after a giant rock had crashed to Earth in the night.
 The news backed theories that the detonation of a huge nuclear weapon
 could not have taken place due to the absence of any significant amount
 of radioactive fallout. It dawned on the world that it had been struck
 by a meteorite of enormous proportions, and that it's effects would be
 felt for a long time to come.

 2040:

 The following year's grain harvest was largely destroyed in the Soviet
 Union due the falling back to earth of thousands of tons of debris, and
 the total darkness which had only just begun to ease. The Kremlin had,
 for several years, been building up their grain stores, as western
 agricultural technology was now widely used following the raising of the
 iron curtain in the 1990's, and were sure that they could survive a
 freak year. What was more worrying to them was news that the thundra of
 the Siberian plains seemed to be suffering a cruel drop in temperature,
 which was leading to its spreading south.
    European countries in high latitudes were also become worried as
 temperatures had remained at those usually experienced in February for
 the whole summer - and were now starting to drop again. The Scottish
 government had appealed to their counterparts in London to allow their
 people free access across the border, to the warmer climes of Southern
 England, which was refused as the area was, in the words of the Home
 Office, "becoming dangerously overcrowded". Mediterranean
countries had
 found that their economies were in danger of colapse, with no visiting
 trade, and north-east Africa was still seriously flooded hundreds of
 miles either side of the Nile.
    The religious wars of the middle east intensified, as Arab states
 realised that, despite their huge wealth, no-one was looking to export
 commodites to them which were needed at home. Australia and New Zeeland
 were deluged with refugees who had survived in south-east Asia and the
 Pacific islands, and had made the arduous crossing by a variety of means.
 But it was in the United States and Canada that the breakdown of law and
 order was the most marked.
    The President of the United States, on the advice of top scientists,
 had decided to go on national  television to explain what was expected to
 happen to the world's climate over the coming decade. The following
day's
 newspapers screamed "Diamond Dust to end life as we know it",
as the full
 effects of global cooling became known. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian
 immigrants were seeking shelter in the northern United States, attempting
 to escape the falling temperatures which had driven most of its
 population as far south as Toronto, and the American people were
 preparing to defend their territory. Elsewhere in the country shops were
 looted in the search for tinned foodstuffs, and the army were deployed
 on the streets of the cities. Then the marines invaded Mexico.

 2045:

 Over the next five years the average temperature across Europe dropped to
 2o C, often freezing the major rivers. Throughout Scandinavia, and across
 the Pyrenees and Alps, huge areas of permafrost and ice developed.
 Harvests failed repeatedly, and people tried in vain to travel from one
 country to another in search of more clement conditions. Attempts to
 cultivate large areas of Africa were partly successful, and developed
 nations hungrily eyed the previously "Third World" countries.
On the
 continent of America, the peoples of the United States were following
 their troops south, leaving behind food crises and freezing lands. The
 inhabitants of the Soviet Union had nowhere to go - to the south lay the
 most damaged areas of Asia, and to the north, expanding glaciers. Some
 managed to escape to western Europe, but a fierce war was now raging
 along Eastern bloc borders with a re-unified Germany, Austria and Italy.
 The economies of all countries concerned were falling apart under the
 strain of food shortages and sustained military conflict. Man was
 beginning to ignore his battle with the Earth as he fought with himself.
 Then the Earth upped it's fire-power.
    For half a decade, politicians had been warned by natural scientists
 that conditions would get worse before they got better. The politicians
 paid lip service to their requests for a massive injection of funds into
 climatic research, offering encouragement at the expense of hard cash,
 which was diverted for military and agro-scientific purposes. The price
 was about to be paid for ignoring their real enemy.
    South Maerica had, despite the deaths of millions of its inhabitants,
 maintained its population level as refugees swarmed through Mexico from
 the United States. It was almost as if the Earth could feel the
 concentration of people on the Central American isthmus when, in
 December 2045, as global temperatures were nudging an all time low, the
 strain that had been building between the Cocos and South American plates
 was released. The earth shuddered, heaved, bucked and split for ten days,
 spewing its insides over inhabitants and volcanic dust high into the
 atmosphere, blackening the skies again in a cruel reminder of the events
 which first plunged the world into chaos, compounding thgeir effects.
    The repercussions of the 'quake spread quickly, as sub-oceanic ridges
 widened, and previously dormant volcanoes were uncorked across Europe,
 and down into the Pacific Basin. The most spectacular sight occured near
 the triple joint of the African, North American, and the Eurasain plates,
 2,000 kilometres off the coast of Portugal, where a string of islands,
 from Madeira to the Azores went off like a row of Roman candles at a
 fireworks display. The few who survived the initial storms and flooding
 of the islands fled to watch from the Portuguese mainland, from where
 the plumes of ash and dust were clearly visible. Spots of uncontrolable
 heat were speckling the rapidly freezing globe.

 2056:

 The winter of 2056 saw temperatures in London drop, and stay below
 -25o C. Rainfall across parts of Southern Europe reached a total of 10
 metres for the year, freezing as it fell, and accelerating the formation
 of ice-sheets, as the glaciers crept south. The sea level had dropped by
 over 500 metres in places, creating sheer cliffs where sloping beaches
 had been, as the glaciated land masses rose. The ice-sheet in North
 America had streched as far south as Kentucky, submerging the greater
 part of the North American continent beneath a mantle of ice over a
 thousand metres thick. The Scandinavian ice-sheet covered Denmark and
 was approaching Poland and Germany. In Britain the area above a line from
 The Wash to Cheshire was under permanent glaciation. The landscape of
 the Northern Hemisphere had changed completely. Billions of people had
 died from cold, famine and war. In the tropics 300 million people lived
 an existence closer to medieval times than the twenty-fitrst century.
    The Earth was calming down, and its inhabitants, having learnt that
 when the planet led, they must follow, were becoming more peaceful. Old
 political structures had broken down. Nation states had fragmented into
 local thinly-spread communities, scavanging for food. The only borders
 not crossed were those between hunting grounds, defended to the death by
 people struggling for survival. As the temperature fell, time was running
 out for mankind, and he had nowhere to hide.

 2060

 The worsening conditoions had led to the continuing movement towards
 the equator of the peoples of many lands. Much of southern Europe,
 around the Mediterranean, was heavily overpopulated, and the shortage
 of habitable space, as well as the shortage of food was becoming acute.
    Where the sea level had fallen dramatically, more land for
 occupation was created, but the coasts of France, Spain and Portugal
 were drawing refugees who arrived daily, in their thousands, with the
 fading hope of getting a passage across to the haven of Africa by boat,
 or to chance crossing the land which was reported to be rising out of the
 sea across the Straits of Gibraltar.
    Local boat owners sold places on over-laden out-dated craft, many of
 which never made the difficult journey. Some resentful refugees put
 this down to the weight of money carried by the boatmen, who were often
 found murdered or beaten, robbed of money and boat.
 Attempts to capitalise on the new found tourist trade were not, on the
 whole, successful.
    Near the Portuguese coastal town of Viana do Castelo,
 seventeen-year-old Carlos Garcia waited in his father's wheat field,
 which had not seen crops harvested for six years, witching the skies.
 Straining his eyes against the setting western sun, he picked out a
 tiny speck wobbling in the distance. The man from Denmark was late.
    The Jaguar Tomahawk bumped to a stop five metres from the road. The
 fifty year old 'plane turned through ninety degrees and crept into the
 cowshed which served as its home. Carlos bounded into the gloom after
 it.

 "The doors. Shut the doors !" cried the emerging pilot, his
wild blond
 hair as excited as his words. He gasped for air, and hugged the boy.

 "I think we've found it", he whispered.

 They stared at each other in the cold darkness, their breathlessness
 sending plumes of condensation upwards, as a second man clambered from
 the two-seater 'plane.

 "Hello Arthur" grinned Carlos.

 Arthur Randles drew himself up to his full height, puffed out his
 chest, and saluted.
 "Young man, prepare yourself for an adventure. The professor and I
 have found the promised land. We're going to Atlantis."

 The three men poured over the map, and Arthur scratched his head.

 "So much of this bit looked different from up here" he said,
waving his
 hand up and down the Portuguese coast.

 "But look ! That island is completely new. There's no land mass
big
 enough marked. It must have been two or three hundred miles across."

 "Is it really Atlantis ?", asked Carlos wide-eyed
withexcitement.

 "It must be the Azores", mused the professor. "But
the Azores were an
 archipelagos, not one island"

 "What ?", said Carlos, puzzled at the language used by the
older men.
 The Englishman explained,

 "The Azores were a group of nine small islands, but the seas around
 them were very shallow. With all the volcanoes that erupted there, and
 the sea level dropping, I suppose that the island we saw could have
 been the Azores. Atlantis has risen higher !"

 The professor screwed his forehead into a frown. You could almost hear
 him thinking, the wheels of his mind forming yet another plan. "Is it
 habitable ?", he asked, knowing the answer. Randles shrugged.

 "What we need is a source of energy. Heat mines." Randles was
a
 trained engineer, and liked turning his hand, and his mind, to all
 aspects of science.

 "Nothing is hot anywhere, not since the rock" offered Carlos,
eager to
 help.

 "Old mother earth is still burning up inside 'though"
explained
 Randles. He could have told the boy anything, from the puzzled look on
 his face.

 "Yes, Olaf, I remember. Heat mines, like in Iceland. Especially with
 all that volcanic activity bringing the stuff near the surface....
 Shall we go ?"

 "We have to get out of this place. It seems as good as anywhere. And
 if we keep it quiet, maybe only take a dozen, we might just survive. We
 might be the only ones."

 It took them six days to find a suitable boat, and six hours to fill it.
 Carlos and his sister, Randles, Professor Kristiansen, the Italian
 boatowner, an American and his wife, two young Japanese children, a
 French soldier (a friend of Carlos), an English nurse (on the professor's
 advice), and her stunningly attractive friend, Amelia (on Randles'
 insistence).
    It was a difficult journey. On the fifth night, with storms lashing
 the trawler, "Lindberg", one of the children sighted a light,
glowing
 with such ferocity that most of the sky began to light up as they
 neared. Cliffs loomed out of the darkness. The boatowner battled
 against the forty foot waves which tossed the vessel relentlessly towards
 the shore. A landing looked out of the question in such conditions.

 "It would be suicide to try to get close" yelled Grazzini,
his voice
 barely audible.

 "And it will be curtains if we stay at sea any longer." cried
Randles,
 as a huge surge of water crashed onto the deck, as if to underline his
 point, and their desperate plight.

 "Head for that Cove" begged the professor. "It may
be calmer in the
 shelter of the cliffs"

 "Not a chance of it. But the seas are deciding that it is our
 destination."

 The Italian crossed himself.
    As he took pleasure in reminding them some hours later, the
 professor was right.

 2060 - The first few days

 "The Lindberg" was finally made secure after a treacherous
night spent
 by several of the men diving into the chilling waters, and clambering
 over the jagged rocks. In the Quiet Cove, as Kristiansen had dubbed
 the inlet, it was finally possible to float the foar-man rowing boat,
 and shuttle the twelve pioneers ashore, where they huddled toghter,
 exhausted and hungry. They erected tents, lit a fire, and ate plenty
 of the food they had brought.
    After a couple of hours rest, Randles, Kristiansen and Charles
 Stark, the American, set off to climb the cliffs and survey the
 surrounding land. Carlos pleaded to be allowed to tag along, but was
 persuaded that he should stay and watch over the others. The men were
 greeted after their climb by the sight of three mountains filling the
 westward and northern horizons. There was little vegetation and no
 sign of life. To the south lay milesof snowcovered flatlands.

 "Where to ?" asked Stark.

 "We'll head north, to the highest peak. We would be able to see
 more from there." Randles was warming to his assumed role of leader.

 They had walked slowly for about half an hour, battling against the
 drifts and wind. The omnipotent glare of the snow and their crunching
 footsteps in the snow, rhythmically disturbing the deafening silence,
 were mesmeric. They spoke rarely, all overawed by the landscape.
    A loud roar thundered around the hilltops, and ahead of them they
 saw the snow begin to slide towards them.

 "It's an avalanche !" yelled Kristiansen.

 They were transfixed. Amidst the tumbling snow they could pick out a
 speck of brown, thrashing as itfell, and finally coming to a halt,
 about two hundred metres in front of them. The creature reared up and
 let out a deep cry, before turning tail and fleeing.

 "What was that ?" asked Stark, wide-eyed.

 "It looked like a bear, but it couldn't have been, not
here" said
 Randles, trying to convince himself as well as his comrades.

 "I think we'd better head back" spluttered the
professor.

 The return journey was made in half the time.

 The story was relayed to the others on their return, who listened in
 amazement. Even Stark, who had kept them amused with his anecdotes
 throughout the crossing, was finding it difficult to convey the scale
 of the white landscape they had seen. With three mountains to describe,
 as well as miles of flatlands, everyone was getting confused.

 "What we need are names for everything. Then we would be like real
 explorers", suggested Amelia.

 "My dear, we are real exploresrs. I'm looking forward to quite an
 adventure together", said Randles with a wink.
 Amelia blushed.

 "We could call it Bear Mountain" chirped the nurse.

 Bear Mountain it was. Whilst the men began the arduous task of
 unloading the ship, the children were kept busy by the thinking of names
 for other things they had seen, arguing incessantly over them. The
 nearest mountains was named White Fell, and Mrs. Stark persuaded them
 to call the remaining peak Mount Charles, after her husband. Everyone
 wanted to name something after the ship, and as no agreement could be
 reached, both the sea and the lowlands were called Lindberg Bay and
 Lindberg Plateau.
    The following day the party set off south, away from Bear Mountain,
 and across the Lindberg Plateau. Excitement grew as they sighted a
 cluster of buildings on the horizon.

 "It looks like a settlement" said Chaburn, the French
soldier.

 "And there's smoke rising" exclaimed Grazzini, peered
ahead.
    They nervously advanced within thirty metres of the six wooden
 huts, and watched for signs of life. Nothing penetrated the silence.
 Stark whispered quietly to Kristiansen,

 "I think we're being watched"

 A loud click swung their heads to the right, as Chabrun flung himself
 to the ground, rolled, and stiffened himself prone on the ice. In his
 hands was a revolver.

 "Get down" he yelled.

 In a flash they were all flat on their stomachs. It dawned on Randles
 that the click was the sound of a gun hammer being cocked, as Chabrun
 whispered "You were right. And who ever is watching us has us well and
 truly in his sights."

 Randles managed a forced grin, more in response to their predicament
 than the soldiers humour.

 "Is anybody there ?", he shouted.

 After the longest few seconds of his life, releif came.

 "Tell him to throw his gun", said a calm voice from the
shadows.

 "Do it, Chabrun", barked Randles.

 He addressed the invisible voice. "We are friendly, we do not want a
 fight"

 "Where have you come from ?", asked the voice.

 Randles explained, at some length, their arrival from the mainland,
 which eventually dragged the gunman from his lair. Randles offered his
 hand, which wasshaken warmly. The stranger was gaunt and shivering.

 "Are you alright ?", asked the nurse.

 "Hungry and cold, and our baby son is dying", he replied, his
 eyes dropping to the ground.

 "I am a nurse. Take me to him." she said.

 His face beamed as he scurried off towards one of the huts. Everyone
 followed.
    The life of Victor Grice was saved, and the relieved group, along
 with their food, were welcomed heartily by the fifteen members of the
 settlement on Lindberg Plateau.
    The two groups spent a couple of days swopping tales of life on the
 mainland and life on the island. The leader of the settlers, Randolph
 Courtenay, was a British exile, and he and Randles got along famously.
 Courtenay explained that the onset of the ice-age had led to the sea
 levels dropping drastically around the islands of the Azores, and that
 the prodigious volcanic activity had built up the land to create new
 glaciated hills and valleys. His village were a combination of
 stranded travellers and refugees, and they knew of no other settlement
 on the island. It had been a slice of luck that Randles' group had
 landed where they had, for both parties.
    The settlers were able to explain the geography of the island as
 they knew it. The Azores island of Pico, Sao Jorge and Terceira now
 formed the highest mountains, with a huge volcanic upgrowth dominating
 the south-west of the island. The coast was a combination of creeks,
 coves and wide swepping bays, but no boats had been seen landing. They
 had seen a low flying aircraft about a week ago.
    They had no source of power except fire, and they hunted some wild
 animals, but they were becoming fewer. Fishing was difficult without
 boats, although they had seen seals in a creek to the north, and
 otters in lakes to the south. Life was tough in the small community,
 and they explained, they would be happy for the newcomers to stay as
 long as possible, even to join forces as a larger settlement.
    Randles was happy to rest awhile after the long journey. It made
 sense to keep a large group, for tasks could be easily divided, and it
 gave a ready made base for hunting and exploration. And it would give
 him some time to get to know Amelia.

 2063 The early years

 Through the following two years, the south-eastern area of the island
 was explored, which proved to be well populated with wildlife. Otters,
 Seals, Snowgeese and Beavers were all hunted, and small areas of
 Spurce and Pines were found, in which some edible vegetation was
 found. The children enjoyed each new discovery, as it gave them a new
 site to name. Two newborn additions, Charles Ambler and Konrad Rudel,
 were focus of much attention, and friendships and bonds of trust
 flowered within the community, not to mention a growing romance
 between Randles and Amelia.
    Kristiansen had a meeting of minds with Dr. Nansen, a Swedish
 chemist, and they worked avidly on schemes to farm crops and source
 power. They knew that the hunted food supply was finite, and that, with
 the climate likely to worsen, a source of heat other than fire was vital.
 Kristiansen was sure that the volcanic activity was certain to mean that
 utilisable heat must be close to the surface, but without a turbine it
 would be difficult to tap. Nansen had devised a system of growing crops
 without sowing them in the ground, on a small scale. By feeding seeds in
 water, it was possible to harvest edible beans by a system known as
 hydroponics. The settlement was subsisting, if not thriving.
    The land which had been above sea level twenty years ago was
 difficult to explore, as it meant anarduous journey into territory which
 was littered with the remains of the previous habitation, and despite the
 extreme cold, the scientists were wary of disease and infestation. It was
 during May 2063, on one such exploration in the westfoothills of the
 Terceria Mountains, that they made an amazing discovery.
    The few buildings which had withstood the turmoil of the previous
 twenty years were buried deep beneath snow and compacted ice.
 Whilst descending into the Vale of Fools, Francois Revel, at the rear
 of the scouting party, fell through the soft snow into a hidden ravine,
 where he lay motionless. The other men, in their haste to reach him,
 caused several feet of snow to cave in above him. He was buried.
    They struggled frantically to rescue him, digging with their bare
 hands, and calling to him. Eventually they dug down to a depth of about
 ten feet, where they found him, just alive, laying on the flat roof of a
 submerged building. He was hauled out and tended to by Dr. Nansen, and
 has pronounced unhurt, but suffering from the extreme cold. The party
 returned quickly to Lindberg Plateau, where Revel could receive expert
 attention from Nurse Maddocks, but not before the Professor had carefully
 marked the spot where the incident occured. The others thought it a
 sensible precaution, to warn others of the danger. The professor had
 other ideas - he was coming back to examine the building.
    That subsequent examination yielded the most significant discovery
 made during the colonisation of the island. It took nearly a week to
 clear sufficient snow to allow access, which even then was difficult as
 much of the inside of the building was filled with the freezing white
 dust which crept everywhere. To most of the settlers it would have looked
 like a run down factory. To the scientists it was a treasure trove.
 From the machinery left in the one-storey building, the professor
 deduced that its purpose had been the manufacture of the small-engined
 bikes which had been the commonest mode of transport in the Azores
 before the meteorite struck. But more exciting was the fact that it had
 its own generator, now defunct, but seemingly undamaged.

 2070 The island grows up

 The generator was to prove the key which unlocked the problems of
 developing technology to survive in the harsh climate. It gave a means of
 harnessing the power of the sub-surface heat, and utilising it to run the
 machinery on which equipment could be built. It took three years to site
 the first heat mine, in White Horse Valley, and two years to sink it.
 Finally the power was unleashed for the construction of transport,
 buildings and arms, and with them the further colonisation of the island.
    The settlers moved westwards across the island, at last thriving as
 the hydropics plants were developed, new villages constructed, and new
 sights seen. There were marriages, including that of Arthur and Amelia
 Randles, births, including sons to the Revels, Starks, and newly-wed
 Chabruns, and the sad death of randolph Courtenay.
 Arthur Randles built around him a team of strong leaders, each helping to
 develop settlements, and teach the youngsters the skills of construction,
 farming and hunting. Heat Mines were sunk at Storm Head, Thunder
 Mountains, Snowgoose Valley and Shining Valley, and the Professor and
 Dr. Nansen worked tirelessly to develop motorised buggies to allow the
 flourishing communities to have easier access between one another, over
 the hundreds of miles now discovered.
    Life was improving for the brave adventurers. They began to refer to
 the island as home, and with every new birth, the sense of a bright
 future on the isle increased. There was no contact from the mainland;
 nor was it possible for them to return. The "Lindberg" was
holed and
 sunk as she was sailing close to Devils Head, in Dynamite Bay, when she
 probably collided with a mine layed over twenty years earlier - the
 island was peaceful, but it served as a timely reminder of the war man
 was fighting elsewhere on the globe.

 2081 The next generation

 The population of the island now stood close to five hundred, and,
 with an average age of about twelve, the society was very different to
 that which the older settlers were used to. The birth rate was high, and
 child care took much of the time of the women.
    Consequently, the young males were quickly taught the life-skills
 required for survival on the island, and began work. They were far more
 adept at survival than many of their older counterparts, having known no
 other life-style, and explored the island expertly; to master the
 environment they had to know its layout and its dangers.
 It had claimed lives with its harsh climate and deadly terrain. Charles
 Stark was mauled to death by a savage animal on Wildcat Heath, which his
 son, John later shot. Carlos Garcia had perished when an avalanche
 swamped him on Snowstorm Pass, and the valley in which his body was found
 was renamed after him. And John Rudel, the most gifted hunter and
 explorer, was lost and presumed dead whilst trying to find an impassible
 route through the Sao Jorge range. The blocked route was cruelly named
 Mad John's Pass, and the moor he had discovered earlier was similarly
 renamed.
    Randles and Kristiansen, along with Courtenay's son, Howard, had
 organised a dozen of the men into a law-enforcement team. They also
 organised the health care for the villagers, and were well accepted as a
 vital link in the network between the settlements. The society forming on
 the island was a peaceful one, but as the number of inhabitants grew,
 individual feuds and quarrels sometimes broke out, and the peace force
 were seen, by consensus, to work with the right blend of gentle
 persuasion and good humour.
    This balanced equilibrium was violently disturbed one November night
 in 2081. The settlement at Redwitch Lowlands announced on the island
 radio that a ship had weighed anchor five hundred yards off Whals Point,
 and appeared to be carrying hundreds of people. They did not know wheter
 they were armed. Randles organised the settlements around the coast to
 watch for any movement from the ship, and the islanders prepared
 themselves for any inevitability. The following morning the ship sailed
 west, around the Southern Shore, and into Halfmoon Bay, were again it
 rested, as the skies darkened. A storm was coming.
    The islanders watched warily as the ship battened down its hatches for
 the coming rain, and began to be tossed about the bay by the swell. The
 first pioneers whispered to each other, remembering the foul weather in
 which they had arrived, hoping that the visitors were not here hoping to
 capture their proze. Then the heavens opened.
    The first survivors made it ashore an hour after dawn, and five
 minutes after the mast top of their ship was covered by the ocean. The
 welcoming party was fronted by the business end of a rifle, closely
 followed by Randles. The shipwrecked passengers scrambled ashore by a
 variety of means, with survival their only thought. There was to be no
 danger to the island, and gun-sights were lowered, to be replaced by
 comfort and medicine. Nearly four hundred people of all ages and
 nationalities had been aboard. About half made it ashore.
    The huge influx of people, many of them injured, meant more mounths
 to feed and homes to find. The islanders worked hard at caring for the
 newcomers, whose tales of death and devastation from the mainland were
 quickly spread, convincing the settlers that their island home was the
 only safe haven. They heard how people in Europe had known about the
 islands existence, but had assumed that it was uninhabitable. It had
 been dubbed "Midwinter Isle", a name which quickly caught on.
    The arrival of the newcomers was resented by some people, most notably
 Professor Kristiansen, who was upstaged by a fine young scientist from
 Germany, who helped the islanders to develop snow buggies for the
 flatlands and construct cable cars on hillsides. The Professor withdrew
 from social contact for many years, living in his laboratory with his
 wife and children, and even after the German was killed by a freak
 accident at a heat mine, the Professor was reluctant to rekindle
 friendships.

 2089

 Fifty years after the grounding of the giant meteorite, life in one part
 of the world was as normal as possible in an enviroment where
 temperatures rarely rose close to freezing. Over fifty settlements had
 been built, across the whole island, and each was home to families,
 friends and workmates, employed at the dozen heat mines, in syn thesis
 plants which produced fuel, and at hydroponics farms or in hunting
 parties. The Free Villages Peace Force had been moulded in to an
 effective, friendly policing body under Arthur Randles. He was, however,
 desperately ill, and as Amelia had been unable to bear children, there
 was no obvious successor to his leadership. Howard Courtenay, his deputy,
 was reluctant to assume the reins of power, and he suggested that John
 Stark, son of the first American pioneers, was the best man for the job.
 Youth was on his side, and he had proved himself to be an able,
 conscientious and popular officer. With the death of Arthur Randles on
 5 August 2089, the island went into mourning. The stories of his
 leadership during the colonisation of "Midwinter Isle" passed
into
 folklore.
    Amelia Randles was heart broken. She had always been happy to play
 second fiddle to her husband, but his death left her with a deep feeling
 of emptiness and she began to think of home often. John Stark, as
 Arthur's successor, took it upon himself to counsel and care for Amelia,
 partly from a sense of duty, and partly because her knowledge of the
 island was unparalleled. He knew he could learn a lot from her, and
 picked her brain on numerous occasions when a particularly thorny
 problem arose. Stark realised that to be truly effective, the FVPF
 needed the help of ordinary members of the community who would be
 prepared to serve alongside the peace officers in times of emergency,
 and so invited Amelia to help him list possible volunteers from the
 villages.
    However, Stark was surprised by some of the names Amelia suggested.
 Could Kristiansen be coaxed back into the fold ? Would Gunn remain sober
 for long enough to be of any help ? She even suggested Gregory Flint, a
 petty crook of no scruples ! Ameli was adamant.

 "They may not be paragons of virtue, John, but they're all good
hearted
 people", she insisted.

 The potential of the Force was strengthened and with it prosperity on
 the island spread. The land had been fully mapped, and potential sites
 for new settlements and heat mines found. The disaster of the meteorite
 faded in the memories of the older settlers, but the constant reminder
 of the climate occasionally jogged them back to remember the harsh
 early days of colonisation. It was as if life on Earth was evolving
 all over again - but this time man had the benefot of modern technology
 and a whole string of mistakes from which to learn.

 2095

 As the years passed, the people of Midwinter became increasingly
 certain that there's was the only peaceful land left on Earth. They
 welcomed refugees and helped most of them enthusiastically to build
 settlements and make a new life for themselves on the island.
   Most of the indigenous population had migrated towards the north-west
 of the island where the volcanic beds were most accessiable. Life was
 kinder near the Heat Mines. As the population grew, the south-east corner
 of the island began to house more and more new settlers, whose attitudes
 to life were often tainted by their experiences on the mainlands. Some
 resented the life-styles enjoyed by Stark and his people over the past
 ten years. Feuds and disputes were more commonplace in the region they
 had come to inhabit, but the Peace Force concentrated its attention
 elsewhere, turning a blind eye to much of thegoings-on around Shining
 Hollow. Stark had heard rumours that an individual calling himself
 General Masters was trying to set up an alternative agency of law
 enforcement in the settlements of the south-east. So long as Masters
 remained where he was, and the Free Villages remained unaffected, Stark
 thought that he would let things ride.

 2099

 General Masters twitched.

 "Prisoners ?" he rasped, "of course we take
prisoners, De falco".
 Colonel De Falco looked both surprised and disappointed. The General
 smiled briefly before continuing.

 "I need a rapid victory, De Falco. We have limited fuel, limited
 amunitions. We must do everything we can to encourage surrender. We will
 take prisoners and we will treat them well.
 Is that understood ?"

 De Falco nodded curtly.

 "There will be no executions, sir," he said

 "And no experiments, De Falco," hissed Masters.

 "No sir. No experiments."

 Masters gazed out of his window.

 "When Midwinter is mine, De Falco, there will be great celebrations. I
 shall drive in triumph through every village in the land ! Then is the
 time to deal with our prisoners. Discipline is what these people need,
 De Falco, discipline !"

                --------------------------------

 "John"

 Stark swivelled round and nearly fell off his bar stool in amazement.

 "Kristiansen ! How nice to see you" blurted Stark,
incredulous at the
 appearance of the hermit professor in the Marianbad Inn.

 "To what do we owe the pleasure", sneered Courtenay. The
three men eyed
 each other, knowing that Kristiansen had little time for either of the
 FVPF officers.

 "John, I'm a little worried. Please listen to whatI have to say
 carefully", whispered the professor through pursed lips.

 "Go ahead. What's the problem" said Stark,
halfheartedly.

 "I've been trying to contact the radio stations in the
south-east. It
 took me three hours to get through."

 "Probably just some local difficulty with the weather",
shrugged the
 Captain.

 "I think not", insisted Kristiansen. "Whilst I was
trying to find an
 open frequency I overheard something which shook me."

 "Tell me more," Stark grunted.

 The first message was faint and crackly. It sounded like "Sierra
 Garcia is all quiet. One Peace Officer only."
 The reply came through loud and clear.
 "Message received. Operation Snowstorm to proceed as
planned."

 ************************************************************************
 *                               THE GAME                               *
 ************************************************************************

 Captain John Stark swiftly and silently skied down a steep slope. The
 ease with which he moved belied his strength and ability. He was a true
 expert. An innocent spectator watching Stark that day in the wintry ice-
 clad wilderness of Midwinter could have been forgiven for presuming Stark
 was merely rejoicing in his athletic prowess. But he was not out for a
 day's sport.
    He was travelling with a purpose; the fate of Midwinter rested on his
 shoulders and despite all his manly strength, it was a responsibility
 which weighed him down. Stark knew this landscape well - he knew it,
 loved it and respected it and longed to enjoy it. But he could find no
 pleasure in it whilst the population which he served was threatened with
 enslavement.
    At that moment, Stark was a man obsessed with a hatred and fear and
 that hatred and fear could be summed up in two words: General Masters.
 He hated Masters for turning Midwinter environment against him.
    For all his life he had felt at home in this terrain. He had felt at
 one with the arctic landscape. Now because of Masters he felt alone,
 isolated and exposed. The iceclad hills and valleys were no longer a
 thing of beauty. They were freezing obstacles which maliciously hampered
 his movements.
    He hated Masters for keeping him away from Sarah. It was because of
 Masters that he spent days, sometimes weeks patrolling the southeastern
 border. He hated Masters for his cruelty and he feared him too. He
 feared for the peaceful people of Midwinter. What would happen to them
 if Masters invaded ?
    In his heart, Stark knew it wasn't "if" but
"when". How was he to
 protect the whole population with a force of 19 Peace Officers including
 himself ? If the worst came to the worst, there was only a dozen or so
 of the civil population whom he could rely on - and half of them weren't
 talking to one another. In fact, some of them weren't even talking to
 him !
    He feared for Sarah. Sarah the nurse, Sarah the healer. If Midwinter
 were overrun, what fate would Masters have in store for her ?
 Stark skied on for several miles. There was a lot of uphill climbing,
 and he was getting tired. He had just side-stepped his way up an almost
 vertical snow wall, arriving at a small plateau where a lone pine tree
 grew. He was so tired he started to greyout - he would have to rest,
 otherwise he'd lose consciousness completely.
    He leant against the tree trunk for ten minutes and gradually his
 vision returned to normal. He looked at his watch. It was just on twelve
 o'clock. Time to contact his team for the two hourly situation report.
 Over the past few days, even this simple task had become a chore. The
 air was full of static. Messages had to be repeated over and over again
 before they were understood. Professor Kristiansen, the cantankerous
 scientist at Diamond Valley had warned Stark that Masters was jamming the
 Free People's radio network. Just for once, Stark hoped that it was just
 another of Kristiansen's attempts to aggravate him. If there was
 jamming, the invasion was imminent.
    Stark took the radio from his back pack and turned to Garcia's
 frequency. He always started with Garcia whose station was closest to
 Masters' frontier. The indicator on the set showed that the correct
 frequency had been selected but instead of Garcia's friendly voice
 responding with his call-sign, Stark's radio emitted a piercing,
 high-pitched squeal. Although concerned, Stark was not unduly worried.
 Transmissions had been bad. However, over the course of the next half
 hour Stark tried to raise over 30 stations. No-one on Midwinter was
 receiving or transmitting radio messages. For the first and last time in
 his life, Stark experienced mortal terror.
    The invasion had started. He was on his own in the wilderness. He had
 no radio communication, no snow-buggy, no hang-glider. It couldn't have
 been worse. Stark got a grip on himself. He had been made leader of the
 Free Villages Peace Force because of his qualities as a leader and lead
 he would. His destiny was at hand !
    He packed away his gear and got ready to move off. He had just reached
 the edge of the plateau when he heard the drone of an aero-engine.
 Looking above him, he saw a small remote-controlled aircraft. The next
 thing he knew all hell let loose. To the left of him a pattern of mortar
 bombs went off. He moved to the right and a further pattern went off.
 He was in trouble.
    The enemy had moved with astonishing speed and caught him out in the
 open. The hovering plane was calling down fire on him. Shrapnel was
 flying all around him, but he wasn't harmed. If he didn't do
something
 quickly he would be dead. He took the standard issue sniper's rifle from
 his back and took careful aim. One shot and the small plane exploded
 with a bright flash and a bang. Quickly Stark climbed the tree looking
 through the telescopic sights.
    Far into the distance, coming out of the perpetual Midwinter mist
 shroud was one of Masters' attack vehicles. What was worse, Stark could
 see quite clearly that it had just launched a guided missile and it
 seemed reasonable to assume it would be coming his way.
    Stark reassessed his predicament with cool determination. He had to
 make contact quickly with his men and organize resistance. He looked at
 his map and worked out the best route to the various stations. With luck
 he would make it before the enemy had a chance to strike hard.


 Please refer to the Technical Supplement accompanying this manual for
 Loading Instructions. (At the top of the MANUAL)

 GAME OPTIONS

 Once the game has fully loaded, the Game Options Screen will be
 displayed. This shows six icons which are used to select your method of
 control and difficulty options. "Midwinter" can be played by
using
 mouse, joystick or keyboard controls by selecting the appropriate icons.
  (either the JOYSTICK.icon or the MOUSE.icon or the KEYBOARD.icon!!!!)

 Please note that throughout the manual, the game description refers to
 mouse control mode. It is recommended that you use a mouse, if you have
 one, to play "Midwinter". For details of joystick and
keyboard controls,
 please refer to the Technical Supplement.

 There are three difficulty options to choose from, which can be selected
 in any combination. Training allows you to play the game against unarmed
 enemy vehicles which can do no damage to the Free Villages Peace Force
 members. If the Bombers icon is selected before play, the enemy have
 additional fire power in the form of unmanned bomber aircraft. Mortars
 allows the enemy to direct long-range shelling at your forces, guided by
 unmanned spotter planes which will seek out and circle your forces.
    For the ultimate challenge select Bombers and Mortars but skip
 Training !
 Finally, click over the Play area to start the game.
    You are now in control of Captain John Stark, leader of the Free
 Villages Peace Force on the island of Midwinter. Your people are in
 trouble, and time is against you. Your territory has been invaded by
 thousands of hostile troops under the dictatorship of General Masters.
 His troops are heavily armed and have travelled inland by ski and
 snow-buggy from their Headquarters in Shining Hollow. General Masters
 and his men have reconnaissance drones, which are unmanned computer
 controlled gliders, aiding them in their searches as they probe across
 the island and unmanned bombers for long-range attacks on your forces.
    Enemy units are already advancing on your settlements, heading for
 their final objectives, the heat mines of the Free Villages. Heat mines
 are the source of the very life-blood of the island, the power by which
 your people survive. If they are all captured or put out of action you
 will have no choice but to surrender.
    Enemy radio stations at Deathwatch Crag, Snowgoose Fell and Sierra
 Madre are now being used to broadcast a jamming signal which is
 preventing the transmission of radio messages anywhere on the island.
    You, as Captain Stark, therefore have no immediate means of
 contacting the other members of the Free Villages Peace Force, who are
 on duty, at work, or at home. You know where they should be, and you
 have a detailed map of the island. You know that General Masters will
 continue to advance across the island in search of his ultimate goal -
 the domination of the last oasis in the icy desert which the world has
 become. You know you will have to cross hundreds of miles of bleak
 wilderness before you can mobilize the Peace Force. Only then can you
 launch the counter-attack that will bring masters to his knees !

 THE TEAM

 When you have selected Play on the Game Options screen, you will be shown
 the Team Display. At the start of the game, Captain Stark is the only
 member of the team under your control - it's up to your to use him to
 recruit the others. His portrait is displayed, along with seven icons,
 as explained below:

 Digital watch - The team's next report time. (See the section on
  'The Situation Report' for further details)

 Two analog watches with a line between them - Synchronize Watches.
  (See the section on 'The Situation Report' for further details)

 A white flag - Surrender. Selecting this icon hoists the white flag of
  surrender, and hands control of Midwinter isle to the enemy. The game
  is over - you have lost. You then have the opportunity to try again.
  This is the only way to abandon a game and start afresh.

 Disk with the text "SAVE" under - Save Game. (See the section
on
  'Saving and Loading the game' for further details)

 Disk with the text "LOAD" under - Load a saved game. (See the
section
  on 'Saving and Loading the game' for further details)

 Pages with left and right arrows - Scrolls to previous/next page of
  Team Display.

 When you recruit additional team members the Team Display includes their
 portraits. Up to six portraits are displayed on one page. Use the Scroll
 icons to view other pages.
    At the start of the game you should move the on-screen pointer over
 Captain Stark's portrait and click once on the left mouse button, to
 show Captain Stark's Personality Display.
    The 32 Personality Displays give all the essential personal
 information about the members of the Free Villages Peace Force whom you
 have recruited, and your ability to understand and utilize this
 information is the key to playing and winning "Midwinter".
    For each individual the display shows his or her name, occupation
 (and rank if they are a Peace Officer), age, current location and
 portrait. Also included is a brief biography, a state of health diagram,
 and an assessment of the individual's fourteen qualities and skills. At
the
 bottom of the display are two clocks, a muscle power indicator, and six
 option icons.

 Biographies

 These biographies, which is reproduced at the end of this manual..
 with the title "Personal Files", give many clues to the
individual's
 personalities and traits. Significantly, each biography mentions some of
 the person's friends and enemies. This information is vital when
 planning your recruiting campaign. People are much more likely to join
 the resistance if they're asked by one of their friends.

 STATE OF HEALTH:

 The state of health of an individual is shown by the physical damage
 sustained by each of the four limbs, the body and the head, displayed by
 the outlined figure behind the 'Qualities and Skills' display. When a
 particular limb is in fine health, it shows green. When it is hurt it
 shows orange, and when it is out of action it shows red. Hurt limbs may
 still be used but the individual runs the risk of putting the hurt limb
 out of action, when it becomes useless. An out of action head renders
 the individual unconscious, making any movement impossible.
    Different activities are curtailed according to whichever limb is out
 of action. Sniping needs two arms. Skiing needs two functioning legs.
 Hang-gliding needs all four limbs, whilst Snow-buggying needs at least
 one arm and one leg. Sabotage, likewise, needs one arm and one leg.
    All activities are influenced to some degree by the individual's
 overall state of health. Damage to a particular part of the body is more
 critical in some activities than in others. For example, in skiing,
 damaged legs will reduce performance more than damaged arms, but in
 sniping the opposite applies.
    Recovery from injury is basically by rest, but can be accelerated by
 receiving First Aid. See the section on 'First Aid' for further
details.

 QUALITIES AND SKILLS:

 Every individual has nine qualities and five skills which are detailed
 on his personality display. All fourteen may, at any given time, be rated
 as Excellent, Good, Fairly Good, Average, Below Par, Poor or Abysmal.
 Three of the qualities (Morale, Energy and Alertness) associated with a
 particular individual may vary throughout the game, depending on what he
 does and what happens to him. The other six qualities are fixed for a
 particular individual, but govern the individual's response to actions
 and events, and hence influence the three variable qualities. The action
 skills of skiing, hang-gliding, snow-buggy driving, sniping and sabotage
 ability are fixed for each particular individual. Actual performance
 depends both upon skill and upon state of health.

 MORALE:

 Morale influences every aspect of an individual's performance, with
 those individuals whose morale is high performing better in every way.
 Morale is determined by a combination of the overall successes of the
 Free Villages Peace Force and individual success.

 ENERGY:

 An individual's Energy level is an indication of his energy reserves,
 which may be used to replenish the individual's Muscle Power when it is
 low (see "Muscle Power" section below). When an individual
rests or
 sleeps, energy is transferred from Energy reserves to Muscle Power.
 Energy reserves can only be replenished by eating.

 ALERTNESS:

 An individual's Alertness influences his technical performance rather
 than muscle performance so that skills such as sabotage, sniping and
 snow-buggying are influenced more strongly than skiing and hang-gliding.
 Alertness depends fundamentally on how much sleep an individual gets.

 ENDURANCE:

 The individual's Endurance, which is fixed, determines the rate at which
 his Energy and Alertness are depleted.

 STURDINESS:

 The individual's Sturdiness, which is fixed, determines his rate of
 recovery from physical damage and how great a benefit he derives from
 rest or sleep in terms of Energy and Alertness.

 OPTIMISM:

 The individual's level of Optimism, which is fixed, determines how much
 his morale is affected by setbacks or failures encountered personally or
 by the whole Peace Force.

 STRENGTH:

 The individual's Strength level, which is fixed, determines how easily he
 becomes physically damaged.

 STAMINA:

 The individual's Stamina quality, which is fixed, determines his maximum
 level Energy.

 SHARPNESS:

 The individual's Sharpness, which is fixed, determines his maximum level
 of Alertness. When sending individuals on missions or using them to
 perform difficult functions, it is important to determine that they have
 the qualities or skills necessary for its successful completion.
 Remember that the biographies give vital clues for the solving of such
 problems.

 THE MUSCLE POWER INDICATOR:

 The Muscle Power Indicator shows the amount of energy available to the
 individual for movement and activity. Muscle Power is used up when you
 are skiing, sniping, driving a snow-buggy or hang-gliding. It is used up
 more quickly if you lack the necessary skill or if you're in a poor
 state of health.
    Individuals whose energy falls to zero must rest or sleep. Whilst
 resting or sleeping, energy is transferred from the individual's Energy
 reserve to Muscle Power. It is therefore important that Energy reserves
 are also kept topped up by eating.
    When at maximum value, the indicator is red. The red drains away
 leaving the figure white at zero Muscle Power. You should not allow an
 individual's Muscle Power to fall to zero whilst in action mode. If this
 occurs, the individual is liable to faint from exhaustion. As a
 individual faints, color drains from the scene, and the world is seen in
 shades of gray for a few moments before finally fading away to black.
 You should bring the individual to a standstill and exit to the Decisions
 Display as soon as he begins to faint. If he is still moving when he
 loses consciousness, he will fall over or crash, with injury resulting.
    It is possible to rest an individual for a period of five minutes
 from the Decisions Display, with a resulting gain in Muscle Power. Simply
 click on the Muscle Power indicator. Muscle POwer will increase, Energy
 Reserves will decrease slightly and five minutes will be added to the
 individual's personal clock.
    The Muscle Power gained by rest depends on the individual's
 surroundings. Resting in cozy buildings is more beneficial than in
 harsh, cold factories or warehouses, but even these are preferable to
 resting out of doors. An individual automatically rests for the whole
 of a cable-car journey.

 THE WATCHES:

 "Midwinter" is a race against time. The enemy forces which
have invaded
 will try to overrun your villages and capture your heat mines, moving
 steadily from their base in the south-east across the island in a general
 north-westerly direction. Your objective is to capture the enemy
 Headquarters at Shining Hollow. However, if you allow the enemy free
 passage across the island, they will probably capture your last heat
 mine before you reach Shining Hollow. You must attempt to delay their
 progress whilst advancing to your goal.
    Achieving this will require the careful deployment of your 32
 individuals, once you have recruited them, and they will often be
 carrying out independent tasks many miles apart from each other. To keep
 track of all these individuals moving around independently, two types of
 clock are used for the timing of the game, which are periodically
 synchronized. The synchronizing of watches takes you automatically to
 the "Situation Report" screen, which is described later. Each
individual
 has a brown watch which shows his personal time. The blue watch shows
 the team's next report time.
    The team's report time is simply the time when the next situation
 report is due and when watches are due to be synchronized again.
    A team member's personal time shows the time of day for that
 particular person. This primarily depends upon the amount of time he or
 she has spent in action or attack mode (i.e. skiing, driving,
 hang-gliding, travelling by cable-car, sniping or sabotaging).
    If a team member's personal time has overrun the report time he or
 she has to wait until the next situation report before he or she can do
 anything further. They can, however, finish whatever they are doing in
 their current action or attack mode.
    If a team member's personal time has not reached the report time, he
 or she has spare time. This can be used up in any of the action modes.
    When watches are synchronized, by clicking on the synchronize watches
 icon shown on the "Team Display", team members with spare
time
 automatically rest for that period of time which is spare, and their
 personal watches are synchronized to the report time.
    Note: The game starts with personal watches showing 12:00 hrs. The
 enemy have already advanced from their base at Shining Hollow for the
 equivalent of twelve game hours.

 THE SITUATION REPORT:

 The Situation Report is due every two hours. The time when one is next
 due is always shows by the blue report time watch. The Situation Report
 is made when you decide to synchronize team members' watches. To do
 this, click on the synchronize watches icon shown on the Team Display.
    The Situation Report lists F.V.P.F. successes and enemy successes,
 concentrating on items of strategic importance. In particular, you
 should keep a close check on the number of Heat Mines held by the
 F.V.P.F. When this falls to zero your surrender is inevitable.
    When a Situation Report is received you get fresh information about
 the enemy dispositions and when you next look at the Main Map, it too
 has been updated accordingly.
    Your team members' watches are synchronized each time a Situation
 Report is received. Team members with spare time automatically rest, so
 make sure you have moved everyone your want to move ! Team members who
 have overrun the report time will have less spare time in the following
 two hours.
    The watch at the bottom of the Situation Report Display shows the
 next report time, not the current report time.
    You always receive a situation report before you win or lose the game.
 Even when you have achieved your goal by blowing up the enemy HQ, or
 Masters has achieved his by capturing all your Heat Mines, you must
 receive confirmation of your success or failure.
    You click on the synchronize watches icon. You read of your success
 or failure and assess how well or badly you have done. Then, after
 clicking on the team icon, victory or defeat will unfold.

 THE OPTION ICONS:

 The six option icons which are present on the Personality Display mode
 are:

 Map - Selects the Main Map

 Man thinking - Selects the 'Decisions Display'

 Four people - Selects the 'Team Display'

 Pages with left and right arrows - Selects previous/next 'Personality
  Display'

 Flare with S.O.S. on bottom - Triggers 'Emergency Rescue'.
 (See the section on 'Rescue')

 At the start of the game, select the 'Main Map' icon so that you may
 ascertain your whereabouts and those of the other members of the FVPF.

 THE MAIN MAP:

 The main map display screen is used frequently throughout the game, and
 it is worth spending some time familiarising yourself with its appearance
 and layout, and learning to use it to your advantage. With nearly
 160,000 square miles of playing area, it's easy to get lost !
    The display is divided into two sections. The left hand section shows
 the map of the island in color relief form, with the color used to
 indicate height above sea level (as often seen in atlases). The map is
 at its lowest magnification (1 x 1) when the display is first accessed,
 showing the whole of the island, with locations of major strategic
 importance as green dots. Magnification is increased by moving the white
 box surrounding the on-screen pointer over the area which you wish to
 magnify, and clicking once on the left mouse button. The section of the
 map previously enclosed in the white box will expand to fill the left
 hand section of the display, at 2 x 2 magnification. This process may be
 repeated three times, to give a maximum magnification of 16 x 16. At
 this magnification every significant detail is marked out on the map, and
 the white box disappears. By clicking on the right mouse button the map
 may be shrunk back to the next lowest magnification (8 x 8), and so on
 back to the full map.
    The right hand section shows the key for the map, five option
 selectors, and the name of a location. As the pointer is moved around
 the map, you will notice the place name shown at the top of the right
 hand section change; this is the name of the location under the pointer.
 If the pointer is moved over any green dot you are told what it
 represents.
    The center part of the right hand section shows either of two keys
 which are used to read the map. The first is an indicator board with
 buttons for each type of building in "Midwinter". Clicking on
a button
 lights up all buildings of that type on the current map. For example,
 if the button labeled "Heat Mine" is selected, by clicking
with the left
 mouse button, all of the heat mines visible on the map will be
 illuminated. Buttons are turned off by clicking on them again. When the
 whole island is displayed, only the settlements and the enemy held radio
 stations are visible. Increasing magnification will reveal increasing
 detail !
    With the indicator board accessed, it's easy to identify the
 buildings at any location. Just move the pointer over a green dot on the
 map. Immediately, various buttons on the key will light up, showing you
 what types of buildings are to be found at that spot.
    There are two special buttons labeled "Settlements" and
"Multiple
 Buttons". These allow you to control the indicator board in four
 different ways:

      i) SETTLEMENTS OFF, MULTIPLE BUTTONS OFF

 Only one type of building can be lit up at a time. Selecting another
 button automatically switches the previous type off.

     ii) SETTLEMENTS ON, MULTIPLE BUTTONS OFF

 Initially all settlements are lit. After selecting a building type, only
 settlements with that type of building are lit. Again, only one type of
 building can be lit up at a time.

    iii) SETTLEMENTS OFF, MULTIPLE BUTTONS ON

 Many types of building can be lit up at one time. For example, if you
 click on "church", "factory" and
"house", all churches and factories and
 houses on the map will light up.

 iv) SETTLEMENTS ON, MULTIPLE BUTTONS ON

 Initially all settlements are lit. After selecting a building type, only
 settlements with that type of building are lit. Then, further building
 types can be selected and settlements with those types of building will
 also light up. For example, if you click on "church",
"factory" and
 "house", all settlements with churches or factories or houses
will be
 illuminated.
    The other key shows the heights above sea level represented by each
 of the colors used to shade the main map and an indication of scale.
 Use the "Key" icon to select and toggle between the two keys.

 The "Relief" icon toggles between the color relief map
described earlier
 and a photographic relief map showing a light source shaded landscape
 viewed from above. This satellite view shows greater ground detail, and
 incorporates every ridge and gully of the landscape, which is useful
 information when planning a journey across unfamiliar terrain. (At
 maximum magnification each pixel corresponds to a facet of the solid
 graphics landscape.)
    Selecting the "Full Map" icon immediately displays the
full map of
 the island at 1 x 1 magnification.
    Selecting the "People" icon will show the current location
of all 32
 members of the Free Villages Peace Force and the enemy attack units.
    The Peace Force members are shown as brown markers if they are yet to
 be recruited, becoming white when they join the team. By moving the
 pointer over a marker you can discover the identity of that member and
 his location, which will be shown in the center of the right hand
 section of the display. If two or more people are together in one
 location, all names will be listed, even if only one marker is visible
 on the main map. The individual currently under your control is shown as
 a green arrow. People are located most easily when the map is at 1 x 1
 magnification. Once you have found the desired person, the map be
 magnified to reveal greater detail of his surroundings.
    You can directly select a recruited member's personality display by
 illuminating the 'select' button, moving the on-screen mouse pointer
the
 white marker showing his location, and clicking the left mouse button.
 This option is not open to you if you have accessed the map during an
 action mode.
    The enemy attack units are shown as black crosses. Each unit may
 consist of up to a hundred vehicles, details of which can be found in
 the "The Enemy and their movements" section. If a settlement
or building
 has been captured by the enemy, it is shown as a green dot with a white
 border.
    At the start of a new game you will notice that Captain Stark
 (represented by the green arrow), is on top of, and under attack from an
 enemy unit ! This puts you immediately into the thick of the action, so
 make sure you know where the nearest place of safety is !

 Finally, selecting the "Close Map" option returns you to the
display
 from which you accessed the main map.

 The Decisions Display may be accessed from the Personality Display by
 selecting the Decisions icon.

 The Decisions Display shows the individual's portrait, name, occupation
 (and rank if a Peace Officer), age and current location.

 The report time watch and personal time watch are shown along with the
 Muscle Power indicator at the top-right of the screen. The central
 picture shows the individual's mode of transport, or which building they
 are in. The options open to you in Decisions mode will vary according to
 the location and state of health of the person you are controlling. The
 decision icons which may appear are:

 INFORMATION DISPLAYS:

 Map - Selects Main Map

 A standing man - Selects Personality Display

 Four people - Selects the Team Display

 ACTION MODES:

 Skier - Selects Skiing

 Buggy with "WOLF" on top - Selects Snow-Buggy. (Any of the
three types
  of buggy may be displayed. The Wolf is shown here.)

 Cable-Car - Selects Cable-Car

 Glider - Selects Hang-gliding

 Picture with "snipe" on bottom - Selects Sniping

 SPECIAL ACTIVITIES:

 Man entering door - Enter building

 Picture with 2 hands but toghther with "join" on bottom -
Recruiting

 Three people - Companions

 Picture with detonator on right and dynamite on the left - Sabotage

 Plate of food - Eat

 Person lying in a sleepingbag and sleeping - Sleep

 White box with a red cross on it - First Aid

 Hand holding wrench - Repair Vehicle

 Gas pump - Refuel Vehicle

 Two missile with "re-arm" on bottom - Re-arm Vehicle

 Three stacked boxes - Supplies

 Walkie-talkie - Radio Messages

 INFORMATION DISPLAYS:

 Options to select the Main Map, Personality Display or Team Display are
 always open to you, even if the individual has overrun the team report
 time or if he is badly injured or even unconscious. Whilst on the Team
 Display, Personality Display or Decisions Display, assistance in
 identifying any of the solid objects can be sought by pressing the
"H"
 key on the keyboard. This HELP sequence will run through all buildings,
 snow-buggies and enemy aircraft, identifying each by name.

 ACTION MODES:

 The action mode options open to you will depend on the individual's
 location and state of health. As explained in the "State of
Health"
 section above (in the begining of "THE TEAM" ) injury and
damage to
 particular limbs may make it impossible for him to perform certain
 functions. As long as his health permits, skiing will always be an
 option wherever he is, and is the 'default' mode of movement.
Travelling
 by snow-buggy is facilitated by entering a garage and selecting the
 appropriate icon. Garages are found both in settlements and singly in
 the wilderness. Cable-car stations are found in pairs on mountainsides,
 with one near the top and one at the bottom. By entering either station
 the individual may travel to its pair by selecting similarly for quick
 mountain descents !

 SPECIAL ACTIVITIES:

 If an individual is near to a building or in a settlement, the enter
 building icon will appear. If he has dynamite with him, the Sabotage
 icon will also appear. Entering inhabited buildings allows him to
 recruit new team members. Once he is in the company of one or more
 people you will have the option to select the Companions Display.
    The First Aid icon will automatically appear if the person you are
 controlling is in the company of an F.V.P.F. member who has been injured.
 Other options are only available once he has entered specific buildings.
 Eating will be possible in houses or stores, whilst sleeping is possible
 in a wide variety of buildings. Vehicles may be repaired, refueled and
 rearmed whilst at garages and supplies may be collected at stores,
 warehouses and magazines.
    The Radio Message icon only appears when Professor Kristiansen enters
 a radio station. Professor Kristiansen, an electronics researcher, has a
 wide and detailed knowledge of radio operation. If he can get to a radio
 station which is not enemy held, he has the chance to recruit Peace Force
 members by overriding the enemy's jamming signal with a message of his
 own. The power needed for such transmissions is such that Kristiansen is
 limited to recruiting up to four colleagues, and as the signal is sent
 out at random, it is impossible to predict which F.V.P.F. member will
 receive it. The signal is sent by selecting the radio icon on
 Kristiansen's Decision Display.

 ************************************************************************
                          THE ACTION MODES 
 ************************************************************************

 All action modes are viewed in the first person. You are the skier, the
 snow-buggy driver, the hang-glider pilot. All action modes may be paused
 by pressing the "P" key on the keyboard, and restarted by
pressing "P"
 again.

 SKIING:

 As the skiing mode is loading, a picture of a skier is shown. After a
 few seconds you will see the Skiing Display.

 The main window shows the view through your skiing goggles, with eight
 gauges and graphics at the top of the display. These show:

 Close up of face - The skier's portrait.

 Skier - The skier's stance. There are five positions, showing the skier
 stationary, walking, skiing, turning left and turning right.

 Red man (may be partially or all white) - The skier's Muscle Power.

 Digital watch - The skier's personal watch.

 Picture of three bars - The speed at which the skier is travelling,
  displayed as a speed bar and in figures.

 Far away view of skier - The slope encountered by the skier, shown by
  the incline of the white slope in the box; and the skier's height above
  sea level, shown in tens of feet.

 Picture of three bars with compass on top - The compass direction in
      which the skier is travelling, displayed by the rotating bar with
      North (N), South (S), East (E) and West (W) indicated, and a
      'spirit' level turn indicator displaying which direction the
skier
      is turning in. If the red dot is centered between the two red
      lines, the skier is travelling in a straight line, and the rotating
      compass will be stationary. If the red dot is to the left or right
      of center, the skier is turning in the direction indicated, and the
      compass will be rotating.

 A map with a white arrow in the middle - The mini-map. This is a section
 of the main map showing your immediate surroundings. Your position and
 direction are indicated by the arrow. The locations of buildings are
 shown by white dots.
    In addition, your remaining stock of hand grenades is shown to the
 left and right of the goggles. Each graphic represents five grenades.

 HOW TO SKI:

 The view through the skiing goggles shows the realtime action of your
 movements. Initially the speed indicator will be at zero, and it is wise
 to have a look at your surroundings before setting off. You may turn
 around 'on the spot' by moving the mouse to the left or the right.
The
 icy landscape has no truly flat plains.

 Everywhere you look you will see gently undulating slopes, ridges and
 gullies, or steep mountainsides. The 3-D light-source shading techniques
 used in generating the landscape show distant features as hazy, shadowy
 shapes, which loom out of the mist as you hurtle towards them and
 swiftly attain a sharp and terrifying solidity.
    You will also notice that the shading on the slopes range from nearly
 black, through a whole range of grays and blues, to white, and that the
 shadowing effect is darkest on north-facing sides of slopes and hills.
 This directional effect is created by the 'light-source shading'
used, in
 which the sunlight is always coming from the south of the island, nearest
 to the equator, and the resulting shadows are faithfully created.
 Therefore, when you are moving in a southerly direction, most of the
 hillsides will appear dark. When moving in a northerly direction, most
 will appear pale.
    Luckily, this is not your sole method of navigation. As you turn, you
 will notice that the compass is revolving, the 'spirit level' turn
 indicator is off-center, and the directional arrow on the mini-map
 rotates through eight points depending on compass orientation. Whilst
 skiing, take care not to get carried away by the breathtaking views
 through your goggles - remember to glance at these indicators to ensure
 that you are not going around in circles !
    Depending on your location, you may be able to see a variety of
 buildings and vehicles. (Consult the sections on buildings and vehicles
 for identification). To familiarize yourself with the techniques of
 skiing, ignore the buildings and vehicles for awhile and set off on a
 quick tour around your surroundings.
    Please study carefully study the next few paragraphs before starting to
 ski - noting carefully guidance on how to stop, as it is difficult to
 read the manual at 60 m.p.h. !

 ************************************************************************
 *  Walking and Skiing                                                  *
 *                                                                      *
 * When starting to ski, unless you are standing on a steep slope, it   *
 * is necessary to begin by 'walking', pushing yourself along with
your *
 * ski sticks and gliding forward rather like an ice-skater until you   *
 * reach a slope steep enough to allow you to tuck your sticks under    *
 * your arms, bend your knees, and let gravity do the hard work.        *
 *                                                                      *
 * Click on the left mouse button once to start walking. Your speed     *
 * will remain at a steady 'walking speed' until you reach a downward 
 *
 * slope. Once the slope is steep enough you automatically stop walking *
 * and begin to ski properly. Travelling downhill your speed will       *
 * increase, but if you meet an incline you will slow down, eventually  *
 * coming to a halt. The stance indicator shows whether you are walking *
 * or skiing, and both motions have a distinctive sound. Your skiing    *
 * speed can be modified slightly by pushing forward with the mouse (to *
 * increase your speed) and pulling back on the mouse (to decrease your *
 * speed). (look at SKIIER.pic for further info)                        *
 ************************************************************************

 TURNING:

 Your direction is controlled by moving the mouse left or right. As you
 turn, the 'spirit-level' indicator will move off-center, the compass
 will revolve, the directional arrow will rotate, and the stance
 indicator will show all but the gentlest of turns. More immediately,
 the view through your goggles will change.

 You cannot stop skiing immediately, as the low friction between your
 skis and the ground mean that, whilst on the flat, your speed will
 decrease quite slowly. You must turn sharply to the left or right and
 dig the edge of your skis into the snow to increase friction.
    Execution of this technique is effected by clicking once on the right
 mouse button. You will hear the scrape of your skis on the snow as you
 quickly come to a stop. If you approach a steep incline your speed will
 quickly drop as you meet the rising ground. If your speed drops below
 walking speed, clicking on the left mouse button will set you walking
 again.

 FALLING OVER:

 You will fall over and crash if you collide with a building or a vehicle.
 You will also fall over is you ski too fast into a deep gully. The
 steeper the gully, the slower you must ski to stay on your feet - a very
 sharp upward turn of slope throws you off balance. Expert skiers, of
 course, find it easier to stay upright at high speeds.

 SKILL:

 How well you perform is governed by a combination of skill and state of
 health. Your performance influences your maximum speed both skiing and
 walking and also determines how easily you fall over in difficult
 terrain.

 MUSCLE POWER:

 Walking uses up a lot of Muscle Power, especially if you're going up a
 steep hill. Skiing smoothly downhill uses a moderate amount of Muscle
 Power but turns and bumps use up extra power, especially if you are going
 fast. You use no Muscle Power when standing still.
    The more skillful and healthy you are, the less Muscle Power is used
 when you move.

 THE MINI-MAP:

 If you are in a settlement, and ski away from it, you will notice the
 arrow on the mini-map move as you do, to reveal a white dot. This dot
 shows the position of the settlement you have just left, and you should
 practice skiing away from it, turning in a 180o arc, and skiing back to
 your original position. If you ski a certain distance away from the
 settlement, the buildings will have disappeared over the horizon when
 you turn around, and you will have to use the dot on the mini-map for
 reference.
    Depending upon your location, other white dots may be visible on the
 mini-map. These represent other features, which may be identified by
 reference to the main-map. To access the main map directly from skiing
 mode, press the "M" key on the keyboard. Closing the map will
return you
 directly to skiing mode.

 TACTICS:

 If the gentle swishing of your skis on snow becomes interrupted by
 either a low-pitched drone or a loud fizzing, beware ! These are your
 first indications that the enemy is nearby, and you must decide whether
 to switch to sniping or to ski off in an attempt to avoid the trouble.
    The low-pitched drone is the sound of an enemy vehicle, and if you
 turn whilst the vehicle is within earshot, you will hear the volume of
 its sound change. When you are facing directly towards the vehicle the
 ound is at its loudest. This means that you can actually hear the
 direction of the sound. (On the Amiga this effect is sterophonic as
 well !)
    If the vehicle is still out of sight, use the directional sound to
 locate its approximate position. But don't waste time ! Having made a
 decision whether to stay and fight or ski away, act on it. The enemy
 vehicle may have spotted you. If it has, there's probably a homing
 missile bearing down on you right now. Whilst skiing you are at your
 most vulnerable, having only three forms of defense, and nowhere to
 hide. The first is to ski away.  The second is the rifle strapped to
 your back, and the third are the grenades you carry

 SELF-DEFENSE:

 Grenades can be thrown whilst skiing, by pressing the Space Bar on the
 keyboard. They are effective only at close range, and are usually used
 as the last line of defense if you come under attack. Your supply is
 limited.
    To use your rifle, you must select sniping mode. First you must stop.
 Then just press the "S" key on the keyboard.  You can return
to skiing
 from sniping mode at any time by pressing "S" again.
    To quit skiing mode, and return to the "Decisions
Display", you must
 first stop, and then press the "X" on the keyboard. Unless
you need to
 rest, it is advisable to ensure that you are close by a building when
 quitting skiing mode, so that you can enter its relative safety.

 SNIPING:

 The option to select sniping mode is available to an individual whenever
 is out of doors (but not whilst hang-gliding) or in a church or in a
 bunker, providing his health permits.
    A picture of a sniper is shown as sniping mode loads. The Sniping
 Display will then appear:
    The main window shows the view through your telescopic rifle sight,
 with he red cross-hairs centered on your line of fire. The five
 information icons around the main window show the following;

 Close up of face - The skier's portrait.

 Picture of three bars with compass on top - The compass

 Red man (may be partially or all white) - The individual's Muscle Power
  indicator.

 Digital watch - The individual's personal time clock

 Four bullets - The supply of bullets he has left. Each bullet represents
  a clip of five.

 CONTROLS:

 The telescopic sights have a zoom lens. You can zoom in or zoom out on
 your target by holding down the left or right mouse button respectively.
    The sights are moved in the following way:

    Move the sights to the right - Move the mouse to the right. 

    Move the sights to the left - Move the mouse to the left. 

    Move the sights up - Push the mouse forward. 

    Move the sights down - Pull the mouse back. 

    When you have spotted your target, use the mouse to line up the
 cross-hairs on it, magnify its image if necessary, and fire. Bullets are
 fired by pressing the space bar on the keyboard. Your high-velocity
 rifle is of such power that it only takes a single accurate shot to
 disable an enemy vehicle or bring down an enemy aircraft.

 SKILL:

 The steadiness of the rifle sights depends upon the individual's sniping
 ability and his overall state of health. It may be seriously impaired by
 any damage done previously to his arms.

 MUSCLE POWER:

 Very little Muscle Power is used when sniping. Violent movements of the
 rifle use up some, the kick-back of the rifle butt when you fire a bullet
 uses up a little more. Muscle Power is used up more quickly if you lack
 the necessary skill or if you're in a poor state of health.

 TACTICS:

 Your supply of bullets is limited, but your stocks can be replenished at
 a magazine.
    If you enter a church you will be given the option to snipe from its
 steeple, affording you a much better view of the surrounding area.
 Bunkers are also designed for sniping from, and their sturdy concrete
 walls offer a degree of safety from enemy attack. If you are near an
 enemy unit whilst skiing in the wilderness advantage may be gained by
 skiing up close to a tree, and pressing the "S" key on the
keyboard to
 select sniping mode. You will find yourself sniping from the tree-top,
 with a better view of your attackers.
    If you accessed the sniping display from skiing mode, you can return
 by pressing the "S" key on the keyboard. To quit sniping
mode, and return
 to the Decisions Display, press the "X" key on the keyboard.

 THE SNOW-BUGGY DISPLAY:

 As the snow-buggy mode is loading, a picture of a snow-buggy will be
 displayed. After a few seconds you will see the Snow-Buggy Display. The
 screen shows the view from the cockpit of the snow-buggy. Below the main
 window are ten gauges and graphics.

 These icons show;

 The driver's portrait

 The mini-map. This is a section of the main map showing your immediate
  surroundings. Your position and direction are indicated by the arrow.
  The locations of buildings are shown by white dots.

 A box with 3 bars - The speed at which the buggy is travelling,
  displayed as a speed bar in figures.

 A box with a buggy in it - the approximate angle of slope encountered
  by the buggy, and the height above sea level of the land, shown as tens
  of feet.

 Picture of three bars with compass on top - The compass

 Digital watch - The individual's personal time clock

 The fuel gauge is shown as a bar graph next to the 3 ammunition
 indicators. The numbers tell you how many racks of ground-to-ground
 missiles, surface-to-air missiles and snow torpedoes you have left.
 There are five missiles or torpedoes to a rack.
    There are three types of snow-buggy available to you. The snow-fox is
 a two-person vehicle. It is the quickest, but carries the least weapons;
 the snow-cat can seat up to four people, and is slower than the fox but
 carriers more missiles; and the snow-wolf can transport up to six, being
 the slowest in speed but strongest in firepower.

 CONTROLS:

 The buggies are controlled in the following way;

 Mouse pushed forward - Accelerate

 Mouse pulled backward - Brake

 Mouse moved left - Steer left

 Mouse moved right - Steer right

 ************************************************************************
 *    Missiles and Torpedoes                                            *
 *                                                                      *
 * Buggies are the best mode of transport from which to attack enemy    *
 * vehicles and planes, being armed with three types of weapon. The     *
 * Surface-to-Air missiles are used to take out attacking planes, and   *
 * are launched by clicking the right mouse button. Enemy vehicles may  *
 * be destroyed with Ground-to-Ground missiles, launched by clicking    *
 * the left mouse button, or with Torpedoes, launched by pressing the   *
 * Space Bar on the keyboard.                                           *
 *                                                                      *
 *    Surface-to-Air and Ground-to-Ground missiles are high velocity    *
 * weapons which travel in straight lines until locking-on to enemy     *
 * vehicles or planes, which they will then chase and hopefully         *
 * destroy. However, their radar range is limited in comparison to the  *
 * Torpedo, which can lock onto enemy vehicles at greater distances.    *
 * The Torpedo is very difficult for the enemy to dodge, despite the    *
 * fact that it moves more slowly than the missiles, and is often       *
 * effective even when firing 'blind' with only the noise of the      
 *
 * enemy's engines to help you.                                         *
 *   ( Look at MISSILE.pic for further info !!!! )                      *
 ************************************************************************

 ROUGH TERRAIN:

 Your vehicle tilts and rolls as it goes over rough terrain. It will
 grind to a halt if you attempt to climb too steep a hill. Worst still,
 it will tip over and crash if it rolls too severely ! This makes it
 virtually impossible to take your snow-buggy into the mountains.

 SKILL:

 Your skill and state of health govern your maximum speed and determine
 how steep a slope you can coax your snow-buggy up.

 MUSCLE POWER:

 Very little Muscle Power is used when driving, but the more violently
 your maneuver, the more is used. It is used up more quickly if you lack
 the necessary skill or if you're in a poor state of health.

 TACTICS:

 The buggies, which are powered by high efficiency fan-ducted engines,
 can be driven quickly by excellent drivers on flat ground, but find it
 difficult to negotiate rough or mountainous terrain at any great speed.
 Planning a route which avoids steep inclines is advisable if you want to
 lessen the risk of crashing, but may bring you into contact with more
 enemy units.
    It is wise to take good care of your vehicles. Once they have been hit
 by enemy fire or crashed by reckless drivers they are rendered useless.
 If you manage to survive such events with limbs intact, you'll be back
 on skis.
    You can find a snow-buggy by going to a garage. It may be fully 
 operational already, or it may be in need of repair (in which case you
 may have to wait four and a half hours before it's fixed). You will also
 need to visit a garage to refuel or re-arm your buggy. Garages are few
 and far between, so plan your route carefully.

 THE CABLE-CAR DISPLAY:

 As cable-car mode is loading, a picture of a cable-car is shown. Once
 loaded, you will see the Cable-Car Display.

 The cable-car will immediately begin to move out of the cable-car station
 and travel automatically along its route to the destination station.
 Some of the most stunning views in 'Midwinter' can be seen whilst
 travelling by cable car. Initially you view the scene directly ahead of
 you. The view behind you, to the right of you, or to the left of you may
 be seen by pressing 'B', 'R', or 'L'
respectively. To return to the view
 ahead, press 'A'.
    No gauges are displayed in the cable-car mode. Just sit back and enjoy
 the ride. You can use the cable-car ride to survey the surrounding
 landscape. Alternatively you can press the "X" key on the
keyboard at
 any time during your journey. The scene will switch immediately to your
 arrival, but your personal watch will have been updated in accordance
 with the time normally take for the journey.
    Cable-car journeys are both safe and beneficial. You never come under
 enemy attack in a cable-car. Also you automatically rest for the 
 duration of the journey.
    On arriving at the top or bottom station you will return to the
 Decisions Display. You can't take a vehicle with you on the cable-car,
 so on arrival you will only be able to ski, or hang-glide. Hang-gliders
 are only available at top stations.

 THE HANG-GLIDING DISPLAY:

 Whilst hang-gliding mode is loading, a picture of a hang-glider is shown.
 After a few seconds you will see the Hang-Gliding Display.

 The following icons is shown at the top of the Hang-gliding Display:

 Close up of face - The skier's portrait.

 The pilot's muscle power indicator.

 A digital watch - The pilot's personal time.

 A box with 3 bars on it - The speed at which the hang-glider is
 travelling, displayed as a speed bar and in figures.

 The approximate angle of ascent or descent of the hang-glider, and the
 hang-glider's height above the ground in tens of feet.

 Picture of three bars with compass on top - The compass direction in
 which the hang-glider is travelling, and the rate of turn of the
 hang-glider, indicated by the 'spirit' level turn indicator.

 A map with a white arrow in the middle - The mini-map. This is a section
 of the main map showing your immediate surroundings. Your position and
 direction are indicated by the arrow. The locations of buildings are
 shown by white dots.

 HOW TO HANG-GLIDE:

 TAKE-OFF:

 Hang-gliding is a quick way to negotiate mountainous terrain and gives
 excellent views of the island and the enemy. But first you have to get
 airborne. You will find that you are standing outside the cable-car
 station, strapped into the hang-glider, and wearing your skis. In order
 to take off, you must ski towards a ledge at speed, and launch yourself.
 Once again, it is worth reading through the next few paragraphs before
 attempting to hang-glide, as things happen very quickly once the thermal
 currents fill your canopy !
    Begin by clicking the left mouse button, which starts the launch
 sequence. Your speed will increase until you reach the takeoff speed of
 24 miles per hour. At this speed your feet will leave the ground as
 horizontal velocity quickly translates into vertical lift. If possible,
 keep the nose of the hang-glider level for a few moments until you have
 gained some height. For this reason, it's wiser to avoid taking off
 uphill !
    In terrain where there's a very strong updraught, you'll take off
with
 great ease. Where the updraught it not so strong, taking off is much
 trickier. As the hang-glider rises, it begins to lose lift and speed.
 To counteract immediate stalling, you must adjust the nose of the hang-
 glider downwards as it rises. If the speed drops below 15 miles per
 hour, the glider will stall and the nose will drop, causing you to
 plummet to earth.
    This delicate balancing act is what makes hang-gliding so exhilarating
 and so dangerous. At take-off point there is an immediate huge swing of
 power away from you, the pilot (having provided the force to reach
 takeoff speed), to the glider, leaving you helpless for a split second
 until you take control, edging the nose down until your speed and lift
 steadies.
    Learning the art of takeoff will probably take some practice, let
 alone developing the knack of using the thermal currents and updraughts
 to greatest effect and honing to perfection the techniques needed to
 land smoothly and safely. Once you are airborne the hang-glider is
 controlled in the following way.

 CONTROLS:

 Moving the mouse to the left - Banks the hang-glider to the left.

 Moving the mouse to the right - Banks the hang-glider to the right.

 Moving the mouse backwards - Lifts the nose of the hang-glider in order
  to gain height, but lose speed.

 Moving the mouse forwards - Dips the nose of your hang-glider to lose
  height but gain speed.

 Hold the Space Bar on the keyboard down - View the ground below an angle
  of 45o.

 TURNING:

 Hang-gliding demands gentle mouse movements as the controls are very
 responsive. When banking, the golden rule is that the sharper the turn,
 the more height you are likely to lose and the greater the danger of
 stalling. It is far better to anticipate any changes of direction which
 you may need to make during the course of a flight and bank gently in
 good time.

 LEVEL FLIGHT:

 If your speed begins to drop in level flight, gently nudge the nose down;
 you will lose a little height but regain speed. Once you have gained
 speed, gently level off again - it's a delicate balancing act with dire
 consequences if you get it wrong.
    Keep an eye on your height indicator at all times. Remember that the
 higher you are, the more potential speed you have in reserve.

 CRASHING:

 Hang-gliders will crash if they hit the ground at too steep an angle or
 if they land on water ! Once a hang-glider has crashed it is useless and
 you will have to ski instead.

 ************************************************************************
 * LANDING:                                                             *
 *                                                                      *
 * If you are attempting to land near a building or settlement, it is   *
 * pointless approaching at great height. In the course of losing height*
 * you'll gain speed, and it is difficult to land a rapidly accelerating*
 * hang-glider. Come in to land as level as possible with the ground;   *
 * let yourself gently sink rather than dive towards your objective.    *
 * Landing is far easier on relatively flat ground, and it may prove    *
 * safer to land a little distance from your objective and ski the last *
 * few yards rather than 'attacking' the target directly. If you land 
 *
 * successfully, you will be able to take off again, providing you've   *
 * got sufficient lift an that location.                                *
 *   (see LANDING.pic for further dedtails.....)                        *
 ************************************************************************

 SKILL:

 Your skill and state of health govern how well you hang-glide. Your
 maximum speed is influenced by these, and also your lift. Expert pilots
 make better use of the updraughts and so get more lift. Grazzini, for
 instance, is able to take off even from low ground, but Amelia Randles
 would need to start high in the mountains.

 MUSCLE POWER:

 A lot of Muscle Power is used in taking off. Thereafter, each twist and
 turn takes its toll. Muscle Power is used up more quickly if you lack
 the necessary skill or if you're in a poor state of health.

 TACTICS:

 The secret of successful hang-gliding is the use of thermal currents and
 updraughts to best effect. These rising currents of air give your hang-
 glider lift. Thermals and updraughts are accurately simulated in
 "Midwinter". They are strongest over high ground and over the
cliffs
 around the coast-line. Over the tallest mountain ranges you can soar
 thousands of feet into the air. However, uplift is at a minimum over
 water, and is slight over valleys and flat plains.
    The close you fly to the ground, the stronger the updraught, enabling
 you to fly faster or further, but at greater risk. As you fly low or
 come into land you will notice the wind begin to have greater effect,
 roaring loudly and cushioning you slightly from the ground.
    If you plan a long journey, the most direct route may not be the
 easiest. "Hopping" from mountain range to mountain range,
flying along
 ridges or hugging the coastline can extend your range dramatically.
    Whilst in the air you may encounter enemy planes, or see enemy snow-
 buggies on the ground below you. The hang-gliders used on
"Midwinter"
 have been especially developed by the F.V.P.F. and are armed with air-
 launched homing missiles. To launch a missile at an airborne target,
 simply press the left mouse button. You cannot launch a missile until
 you are airborne.

 ENTERING BUILDINGS:

 When an individual is near a building or in a settlement the enter
 building icon will appear in the Decisions Display. Click on that icon.
    If there is only one building in the vicinity, he will automatically
 enter that building and the Decisions Display will update to show any
 new options which are now available, with the interior of the building
 pictured in the center of the screen.
    If the individual is at a settlement, the Enter Buildings display
 will appear. Icons indicating which buildings are in the settlement are
 displayed across the screen. Other icons which are displayed are;

 The driver's portrait

 Digital watch (1) - personal time clock

 Digital watch (2) - situation report time.

 Red man (may be partially or all white) - Muscle Power indicator

 Picture with "move" at bottom - Return to last action mode

 A standing man - Selects Personality Display

 Man thinking - Select Decisions Display

 Four people - Select Team Display

 Click on a building and the individual will enter it (returning to the
 Decisions Display) unless it is held by enemy troops. During the course
 of the game, the enemy will capture numerous settlements (marked with
 white circles on the main map). Troops will be left to guard buildings
 of strategic importance - Police Stations, Heat Mines, Factories,
 Synthesis Plants, Warehouses, Radio Stations and, of course, General
 Masters' HQ ! The F.V.P.F. cannot enter these (but can sabotage them).
 Other types of building in an enemy held village can still be freely
 entered.
    A red man next to a building indicates that another F.V.P.F. member is
 inside. This may be a recruit or a potential recruit. You may find that
 the potential recruit is in an enemy held building which you can't
 enter ! You can rescue him by blowing up the building. It becomes a
 ruin, which you can then enter.
    Each time an individual enters a building, one minute is added to his
 personal time.

 RECRUITING:

 Fellow F.V.P.F. members can be asked to join the fight against General
 Masters army. Enter the building the potential recruit is in. Then
 click on the 'join' icon (on the Decisions Display). The Resistance
 Display now appears.

 The lower portrait shows the potential recruit. He is asked if he will
 join the resistance. Click on his portrait to discover his response.
    He is more likely to agree if he is friendly with the person asking
 the question. Remember that there are complicated personal relationships
 within the game - don't be surprised or too dismayed by a refusal. That
 individual can be persuaded to join in by someone else later in the game.
 Once a reply has been received, you must select the Decisions Display.

 COMPANIONS:

 If an individual you are recruiting is in the same building or vehicle
 as other team members, the Companions icon will appear on the Decisions
 Display. Click on it to access the Companions Display.

 Using this display team members can take part in some activities as a
 group. They can travel together by snow-buggy or by cable-car. They can
 eat or sleep or enter other buildings. It is also possible to use First
 Aid from the Companions Display. Note that the snow-buggy icon only
 appears if the buggy is large enough to carry all the companions !
 (Snow-Foxes can carry two people, Snow-Cats can carry four, and
 Snow-Wolves can carry six).
    The individual you are controlling is shown in the top left hand
 corner with his companions shown below him. It is this individual who
 leads the others. When the group is travelling by snow-buggy, he is the
 driver, and it is his skill which applies. If you don't feel that he is
 the best leader for the party, he can be swapped with any of his
 companions by clicking on the companion you wish to become leader.
    When you select the Decisions Display, it will always be that of the
 leader. Whenever a character is in a settlement, or close to a building,
 the sabotage icon appears on the Decisions Display. Click on this to
 access the Sabotage Display.

 The icons across the top of the screen show those buildings which you
 are near enough to sabotage. Each building icon is accompanied by the
 following information;

 Picture of building - Type of building.

 Dynamite sticks - Number of sticks of dynamite necessary to blow-up the
  building.

 Circles - Length of time needed to plant the explosives. Each full red
  circle represents one hour, with half and quarter red segments
  representing half and quarter hours respectively.

 Close up of face - The individual's portrait.

 A detonator - the detonator.

 Digital watch - The individual's personaltime watch.

 Boxes - The stock of dynamite available to you. Each box of dynamite
  contains two bundles of six sticks.

 Man thinking - Select Decisions Display

 Sabotaging buildings involves strategically laying dynamite around them,
 wiring the explosives to a detonator box, retiring a safe distance and
 BANG ! Another building useful to the enemy has been eliminated.
    The art of laying dynamite has been mastered by your 32 team members
 to differing degrees, and it is their level of sabotage skill and their
 state of health, combined with the size and strength of the building
 which determines how much dynamite is needed. The time it takes to lay
 the explosives varies according to the type of building.
    Plant the dynamite by clicking on the building you want to blow up.
 This wires the building to the detonator and adds the appropriate time
 to the personal watch. Your stockpile of dynamite dwindles.
    The dynamite can be removed by clicking on the building again. The
 personal watch is reset to its previous time, and the sticks are
 returned to the stockpile.
    Any number of buildings can be wired up simultaneously if the stocks
 of dynamite permit. When you are ready, click on the detonator icon to
 depress the plunger. The building, or buildings, will explode in
 sequence. The sabotage display then shows ruins where buildings once
 stood.
    Some combinations of buildings take such a time to wire that the
 saboteur's personal time overruns the report time by several hours.
 After such sabotage, he will be unable to do anything else until the
 next report time.
    Select the Decisions Display by clicking on the appropriate icon.
 When you subsequently select on of the 3-D action modes, any buildings
 which you have destroyed will be found in ruins.
    If the enemy have captured one of your Police Officers and imprisoned
 him in the cells of a Police Station, he can be liberated by destroying
 the station. He may then be recruited by entering the ruins and asking
 him for help in the normal way.
    Sabotage is of great strategic importance. Blowing up Factories
 deprives the enemy of ammunition, blowing up Synthesis Plants deprives
 him of fuel and blowing up Warehouses deprives him of both ! Sabotage of
 all his radio stations enables you to recruit a full team of 32 members.
 Ultimately, to win, you must blow the enemy HQ to smithereens !

 ************************************************************************
 * REST                                                                 *
 * Muscle Power is drained by strenuous activities such as skiing and   *
 * must be replenished from time to time by rest. Energy is then        *
 * transferred from the Energy Reserves to Muscle Power. You can rest   *
 * for five minutes by clicking on the Muscle Power indicator on the    *
 * Decisions Display. In other situations, rest is automatic. After a   *
 * blackout in any action mode the individual you are controlling will  *
 * always take five minutes rest. An individual rests for the whole     *
 * duration of a cable-car journey, and also when he is eating or       *
 * sleeping. Individuals with spare time when watches are synchronized  *
 * automatically rest for that period.                                  *
 *    The benefit given by rest depends on the individual's location.   *
 * The cozier the building the quicker Muscle Power is restored. Resting*
 * out in the wilderness gives the least benefit.                       *
 *                                                                      *
 * EAT                                                                  *
 * All the individuals in the game need to eat from time to time to     *
 * replenish their energy reserves. The level of energy reserves an     *
 * individual has is shown as one of the Qualities and Skills on his    *
 * Personality Display. Excessive use of Muscle Power soon makes demands*
 * on their energy reserves.                                            *
 *    Meals can be taken in a House, a Store, a Police Station, or a    *
 * Mountain Hut. When an individual enters one of these buildings, the  *
 * 'eat' icon will be displayed. Clicking on this allows him to eat a 
 *
 * meal, which will take him half an hour. The time will automatically  *
 * be added to the individual's personal time and his Energy will be    *
 * replenished. The individual is then free to select any further       *
 * options available to him. You can eat as much as you like, but there *
 * is little point once your Energy level is at maximum.                *
 *                                                                      *
 * SLEEP                                                                *
 * Alertness gradually decreases during any action mode and must be     *
 * replenished from time to time by sleep. Otherwise, an individual's   *
 * performance can be severely affected. An individual can sleep in a   *
 * House, a Hut or a Police Station. When he enters one of these        *
 * buildings, the "Sleep" icon appears on the Decisions
Display.        *
 * Clicking on this allows him to sleep until the next Situation Report.*
 * Further time can be spent sleeping, but this is not automatic.       *
 ************************************************************************

 RESCUE:

 Rescue normally happens automatically. If an individual is so badly
 injured in a crash that he cannot move, after the crash he will find
 himself inside the nearest building. He has been rescued by members of
 the local population. Occasionally he'll find that he's been rescued
by
 the enemy and imprisoned in a Police Station (if this happens another
 person will have to blow up the Police Station before he can move).
 Likewise, a person will always be rescued if he crashes into a lake or
 into the sea.
    There are occasions when an individual is injured but not immobilized;
 he is forced to move very slowly. In this sort of situation it would be
 very useful to be rescued. For this purpose, each team member has a
 distress flare. This can be fired at any time during the game by
 clicking on the S.O.S. icon on the Personality Display. Once it is fired
 he will be rescued immediately. You must choose you moment carefully
 because each team member only has one distress flare throughout the game.

 FIRST AID:

 From time to time individuals may be injured in action. As explained
 earlier, the State of Health of a individual is shown on the Personality
 Display by the color of the figure behind the Qualities and Skills list.
 If an individual becomes injured (i.e. one of his limbs turns orange or
 red), he can be helped in his recovery by receiving First Aid from a
 fellow Peace Force member. However, for this to be possible, the injured
 party must be in the company of another individual.
    The Peace Force members have all received First Aid tuition as part
 of their training, but Nurse Maddocks and Doctor Revel are obviously far
 more skilled than the others in the treatment of ailments. Receiving
 First Aid speeds up recovery from injury - it does not make an individual
 instantly healthy - and treatment from either of the experts will hasten
 recovery to a greater degree than if treatment is form non-specialists.
    If an individual is in the company of an injured person the First Aid
 icon will appear on the Decisions Display. Selecting this will access
 the First Aid display, showing the individual's portrait in the top left
 hand corner, and those of the injured companions below. Icons are also
 present allowing you to scroll pages (in case there is a party of
 wounded people !), and to return to decisions mode. Select the person
 you wish to treat by click on his portrait.

 The portraits of the 'nurse' and 'patient' are displayed
along with the
 personal time watch of the 'nurse', and the report time watch. The
 scroll icons allow you to select another patient. The state of health
 display of the 'patient' is shown, indicating in theo gauges are
displayed
 in the cable-car mode. Just sit back and enjoy
 the ride. You can use the cable-car ride to survey the surrounding
 landscape. Alternatively you can press the "X" key on the
keyboard at
 any time during your journey. The scene will switch immediately to your
 arrival, but your personal watch will have been updated in accordance
 with the time normally take for the journey.
    Cable-car journeys are both safe and beneficial. You never come under
 enemy attack in a cable-car. Also you automatically rest for the 
 duration of the journey.
    On arriving at the top or bottom station you will return to the
 Decisions Display. You can't take a vehicle with you on the cable-car,
 so on arrival you will only be able to ski, or hang-glide. Hang-gliders
 are only available at top stations.

 THE HANG-GLIDING DISPLAY:

 Whilst hang-gliding mode is loading, a picture of a hang-glider is shown.
 After a few seconds you will see the Hang-Gliding Display.

 The following icons is shown at the top of the Hang-gliding Display:

 Close up of face - The skier's portrait.

 The pilot's muscle power indicator.

 A digital watch - The pilot's personal time.

 A box with 3 bars on it - The speed at which the hang-glider is
 travelling, displayed as a speed bar and in figures.

 The approximate angle of ascent or descent of the hang-glider, and the
 hang-glider's height above the ground in tens of feet.

 Picture of three bars with compass on top - The compass direction in
 which the hang-glider is travelling, and the rate of turn of the
 hang-glider, indicated by the 'spirit' level turn indicator.

 A map with a white arrow in the middle - The mini-map. This is a section
 of the main map showing your immediate surroundings. Your position and
 direction are indicated by the arrow. The locations of buildings are
 shown by white dots.

 HOW TO HANG-GLIDE:

 TAKE-OFF:

 Hang-gliding is a quick way to negotiate mountainous terrain and gives
 excellent views of the island and the enemy. But first you have to get
 airborne. You will find that you are standing outside the cable-car
 station, strapped into the hang-glider, and wearing your skis. In order
 to take off, you must ski towards a ledge at speed, and launch yourself.
 Once again, it is worth reading through the next few paragraphs before
 attempting to hang-glide, as things happen very quickly once the thermal
 currents fill your canopy !
    Begin by clicking the left mouse button, which starts the launch
 sequence. Your speed will increase until you reach the takeoff speed of
 24 miles per hour. At this speed your feet will leave the ground as
 horizontal velocity quickly translates into vertical lift. If possible,
 keep the nose of the hang-glider level for a few moments until you have
 gained some height. For this reason, it's wiser to avoid taking off
 uphill !
    In terrain where there's a very strong updraught, you'll take off
with
 great ease. Where the updraught it not so strong, taking off is much
 trickier. As the hang-glider rises, it begins to lose lift and speed.
 To counteract immediate stalling, you must adjust the nose of the hang-
 glider downwards as it rises. If the speed drops below 15 miles per
 hour, the glider will stall and the nose will drop, causing you to
 plummet to earth.
    This delicate balancing act is what makes hang-gliding so exhilarating
 and so dangerous. At take-off point there is an immediate huge swing of
 power away from you, the pilot (having provided the force to reach
 takeoff speed), to the glider, leaving you helpless for a split second
 until you take control, edging the nose down until your speed and lift
 steadies.
    Learning the art of takeoff will probably take some practice, let
 alone developing the knack of using the thermal currents and updraughts
 to greatest effect and honing to perfection the techniques needed to
 land smoothly and safely. Once you are airborne the hang-glider is
 controlled in the following way.

 CONTROLS:

 Moving the mouse to the left - Banks the hang-glider to the left.

 Moving the mouse to the right - Banks the hang-glider to the right.

 Moving the mouse backwards - Lifts the nose of the hang-glider in order
  to gain height, but lose speed.

 Moving the mouse forwards - Dips the nose of your hang-glider to lose
  height but gain speed.

 Hold the Space Bar on the keyboard down - View the ground below an angle
  of 45o.

 TURNING:

 Hang-gliding demands gentle mouse movements as the controls are very
 responsive. When banking, the golden rule is that the sharper the turn,
 the more height you are likely to lose and the greater the danger of
 stalling. It is far better to anticipate any changes of direction which
 you may need to make during the course of a flight and banketting there
 will prove dangerous and difficult. But worth it. Use your cunning !

 HEAT MINES:

 Heat Mines are the means by which all power is generated on the island,
 and as such are the most sought after assets in the game. They are the
 enemy's primary targets, and once all your Heat Mines have been captured
 or destroyed, they will have total control of the island. Your people
 will be forced to surrender.
    There is little point in sabotaging heat mines, even if they have
 been captured. When the enemy attack a settlement, the local heat mine
 will be their first port of call, so be wary of sheltering there. You
 may be caught out.

 HOUSE:

 Houses provide warmth, shelter and food to your people. Civilian members
 of the Peace Force are often to be found at home in settlements, or
 occasionally in the wilderness. The enemy are not particularly
 interested in private houses, concentrating their attentions on buildings
 of strategic importance. Houses are good places to eat, sleep and find
 refuge from the rigours of battle.

 MOUNTAIN HUTS:

 These small buildings, set high in the hills, were built to offer shelter
 to stranded travellers. Food and a bed are present, and being in the
 mountains, the huts may offer a good base for ambushing enemy vehicles
 in the valleys below.

 MAGAZINES:

 Mostly dotted around the hinterland, magazines provide vital stocks of
 ammunition for the traveller. Dynamite, bullets and grenades can be
 found in these tiny wooden shacks. Vehicles can also be rearmed with
 missiles and torpedoes.

 POLICE STATIONS:

 The Police Stations are the best places to visit to recruit a Peace
 Officer, and also provide a good meal and a place to sleep (even if the
 beds in the cells are a little uncomfortable). The enemy forces will
 storm any Police Station they encounter, and if Peace Officers are caught
 whilst on duty they will suffer the embarrassment of being locked in
 their own cells. Rescuing such prisoners will require you to stealthily
 enter enemy held settlements to lay the dynamite necessary to reduce the
 Station to ruins and liberate its occupants.

 RADIO STATIONS:

 The Radio Stations are strategically vital as, on the island of
 "Midwinter", they are often the only means of communication
with remote
 settlements. Professor Kristiansen, one of the early pioneers, used all
 his expertise as an electronics researcher to build up the network of
 stations and to ensure that every home had handsets (which were often
 needed in emergencies by the inhabitants).
    The enemy holds three stations at the start of the game - those at
 Deathwatch Crag, Snowgoose Fell and Sierra Madre. As the game
 progresses, they will quickly capture others, strengthening the jamming
 signal which is preventing anyone in the F.V.P.F from radioing for
 assistance. If you manage to destroy all enemy held radio stations, a
 message will automatically be broadcast to all unrecruited members of the
 F.V.P.F. You will then find a full team of 32 members on your side after
 the next Situation Report.
    Kristiansen himself is also able to attempt to override the jamming
 signal, if you can first recruit him and get him to a radio station not
 held by the enemy. He may recruit up to four comrades, at random, by
 broadcasting a high-powered signal across all frequencies. After that
 his equipment overloads and breaks down completely.

 STORES:

 The stores are good places to find a meal and personal supplies -
 bullets, grenades and occasionally dynamite. The stocks held in the
 stores are of little interest to the enemy however - they need the large
 warehouses to supply their huge army.

 SYNTHESIS PLANTS:

 At the synthesis plants, energy from the heat mines is used to
 synthesize, amongst other things, fuel for the vehicles, making them key
 targets in the game. If the enemy captures a refinery, the mobility of
 their armored units will be greatly enhanced. If you can get there first
 and destroy the plants, the enemy's advanced can be slowed.

 WAREHOUSES:

 Warehouses are captured by the enemy for two reasons; to acquire stocks
 of fuel, and stock of ammunition. If Warehouses fall into enemy hands
 they serve to increase the enemy's mobility and fire-power. This makes
 them key targets. Once they have been captured, your only option is to
 blow them up.
 The enemy forces under the control of General Masters consist of 32
 mobile units, each of about 60 vehicles, and, (if you have selected them
 at the start of the game), long-range bombers and spotter planes
 directing mortar fire.

 THE ENEMY'S OBJECTIVES:

 General Masters directs his troop movements from his headquarters in
 Shining Hollow. The mobile units are concentrated around this area in
 the southeast of the island at the start of the game. They advance
 across the island in a general northwesterly direction, causing havoc as
 they go. The enemy's primary targets are you heat mines, which are
 dotted around the island, each providing power to its region.
    As the enemy only travel by snow-buggy, they are forced to keep to
 the relatively flat lowlands. They move from settlement to settlement,
 advancing along the valleys and across the plateaus. When they capture a
 settlement they will occupy any buildings of strategic importance.
    Each enemy unit has its own supply train of fuel tankers and
 ammunition trucks, which enables it to keep moving and to keep fighting.
 The unit gets its supplies from settlements held or captured by the
 enemy. If it ventures too far from its sources of fuel and ammunition it
 will move more slowly and open fire less frequently. The same happens if
 it loses too many tanker and ammo trucks. Synthesis Plants are its
 sources of fuel, Factories its sources of ammunition and Warehouses are
 a source of both.
    One possible strategy for you is a 'scorched earth' policy,
 destroying any building which is of benefit to the enemy, sometimes in
 anticipation of the enemy's arrival at the settlements.
    You are fighting a guerilla war. You are heavily outnumbered and
 outgunned. Some of your best men are able to engage the enemy head on,
 and may even wipe out an entire unit on their own. However, cunning and
 stealth are equally important.
    General Masters does not suspect that the civilians will fight for
 their freedom. Consequently, enemy units and enemy vehicles are less
 likely to attack the civilian members of your team. The innocent looking
 children or the elderly Mrs. Randles can slip past an enemy attack unit
 where Captain Stark or his lieutenants are likely to fail. All of the
 Peace Officers will be locked in their own cells if the enemy captures
 their villages before you recruit them.

 ENEMY MOBILE UNITS:

 General Masters' army is led by six colonels. Each colonel commands a
 brigade of five attack squadrons. One squadron is under the direct
 command of the colonel, the other four each being led by a Captain. Each
 squadron consists of about 60 vehicles of 6 different varieties.
    There are two way of eliminating an enemy squadron. Firstly, wiping
 out its command vehicle will destroy its morale and the troops will
 desert. Secondly, wiping out a high proportion of the squadron's
 vehicles will demoralize the surviving troops and encourage them to
 flee. Some squadrons however will fight to the bitter end. If you
 destroy a Colonel's squadron, his whole brigade will disband.
    Each type of enemy vehicle has a different function. The types of
 enemy vehicles are;

 SNOW-WITCH:

 This well armed command vehicle is the brains for each squadron,
 carrying its Captain or Colonel. They are not easy to find, but if you
 do encounter one you will be able to strike a mortal blow.

 SNOW-WOLF:

 The Snow-Wolves are the equivalent of heavy tanks. Armed to the teeth
 with a vast array of military hardware, they are dangerous to engage but
 vital to destroy. Your best chance if you are in a buggy may be to turn
 tail and attempt to outrun these lumbering vehicles. They are however
 vulnerable to a hill-top sniper.

 SNOW-CAT:

 The equivalent of light tanks, Snow-Cats are well-armed and highly
 maneuverable, but are sometimes used as cannon fodder by over
 enthusiastic captains. The problem with picking them off is that no
 sooner have you taken out one, another arrives.

 SNOW-FOX:

 The nippy Snow-Fox acts as a scout car for mobile units, often popping up
 from over a hillside at high speed before scurrying off to the nearest
 gully. They are lightly armed but difficult to out-run. As the eyes and
 ears of the mobile unit they are a valuable scalp, worth taking out
 before the big guns learn of your presence.

 SNOW-BULL:

 The Snow-Bulls carry the ammunition and weaponry for the other vehicles
 in the convoy, and, although unarmed themselves, are protected by the
 other vehicles. Slow moving in comparison to the attack vehicles, taking
 them out will have a disastrous effect on the squadron's fire power.

 SNOW-BEAR:

 These massive fuel tankers are the life-line of the enemy squadrons.
 Each unit's speed and mobility depends on its Snow-Bears. They are
 unarmed and slow moving.
    Attack vehicles and command vehicles roam the countryside in search
 of targets. They can appear unexpectedly from behind any hillside and
 are deadly opponents. The supply vehicles move in convoy along a fixed
 route and are easy targets if you can find them. Because they move in
 convoy they are highly vulnerable to ambushes. Find one and you can be
 sure that another will be coming the same way shortly.
    All enemy ground vehicles are vulnerable to sniper fire, grenades,
 ground missiles and torpedoes. The attack and command vehicles are armed
 with homing missiles which are of a similar specification to yours.
 These missiles can be dodged with violent evasive maneuvers. They are
 fitted with a proximity fuse; sometimes they explode very close to your
 without a direct hit. If you are hit, whether on skis, in a buggy, or in
 a hang-glider, you are likely to be badly hurt.

 THE ENEMY AIRCRAFT

 General Masters and his troops have at their disposal two types of
 aircraft, both of which are unmanned and controlled by computer. They
 have on board sophisticated tracking and camera equipment, enabling them
 to locate your people even if they are skiing high in the mountains.
 They roam the whole of Midwinter, regardless of the positions of General
 Masters' ground forces.

 BOMBERS:

 These aircraft are armed with free-fall bombs. You will see them
 approach from the distant horizon. They will circle a few times before
 spotting you and barreling in on a bombing run. Then more bombing runs
 will follow. Although the accuracy of their bombing varies, your best
 chance of survival is to fire at the bomber whilst it is still circling.

 SPOTTER PLANES:

 The spotter planes signal your position to the long-range mortar
 batteries. These batteries fire massive volleys of shells which land
 around you in deafening and sometimes deadly proximity, their sheer
 number making them difficult to dodge. Each salvo falls in a straight
 line. After the second shell has landed, you should be able to predict
 roughly where the other three will land. This gives you some chance of
 avoiding them if you turn sharply enough. As with the bombers, however,
 your best form of defense is to shoot the plane down before it gets a
 fix on you.
    Both types of aircraft are vulnerable to sniper fire, the
 surface-to-air missiles of your snow-buggies, and the air-launched
 missiles of your hang-gliders.

 ************************************************************************
 *                  SAVING AND LOADING GAMES                            *
 * SAVE:                                                                *
 * You can save your current game at any time. You must use a blank,    *
 * formatted disk. "Midwinter" uses its own special disk
routines which *
 * may corrupt other data.                                              *
 *    To save a game, click on the "Save" icon on the Team
Display. A   *
 * message will appear asking you to "Insert game data disk".
Remove the*
 * "Midwinter" graphics disk from the drive and insert your
blank,      *
 * formatted disk. Then press any key.                                  *
 * The Save Game Display then appears. After a few moments the saved    *
 * game directory is displayed. You can save up to ten games on one     *
 * disk. Each game is represented by its own icon, and is labeled
"full"*
 * or "empty". Click on any "empty" icon and
the game will be saved to  *
 * disk. You can click on a "full" icon, but this will delete
a         *
 * previously saved game.                                               *
 *    If you change your mind and decide not to save a game, click on   *
 * the "Team" icon to leave this display.                     
         *
 *                                                                      *
 * LOAD:                                                                *
 * To load a saved game click on the "Load" icon on the Team
Display. A *
 * message will appear asking you to "Insert game data disk".
Remove the*
 * "Midwinter" graphics disk from the drive and insert the
disk holding *
 * your saved games. Then press any key.                                *
 *   The "Load Game" Display then appears. After a few moments
the game *
 * directory appears, allowing you to select the game you wish to load. *
 *   If you change you mind and decide not to load a game, click on the *
 * "Team" icon to leave this display.                         
         *
 ************************************************************************

 SURRENDERING:

 If you feel that you situation is hopeless and you want to start a fresh
 game, the only way to abandon the current game is by surrendering to
 General Masters. You can do this at any time by clicking on the
 "Surrender" icon on the Team Display. You will then be asked
of
 confirmation of your decision by General Masters himself. You can start
 a fresh game after surrendering by pressing any key.

 LOSING:

 If your Situation Report shows that you have lost all your Heat Mines,
 you have also lost the game. Take as long as you like to peruse the
 Report, before clicking on the "Team" icon to watch General
Masters
 gloat.

 WINNING:

 If you manage to blow up General Masters' headquarters you have won the
 game, but you must synchronize watches one final time for confirmation
 of this. Take as long as you like to peruse the Report, before clicking
 on the "Team" icon to watch the victory celebrations.
    To start a new game, then press any key.
    There is also a very rare situation which also gives you victory. If
 you can hold out for more than 40 days, General Masters' troops will
 rebel, and desert him entirely. There are no stalemates in
"Midwinter"
 - only winners.

         ***   ***   ***  ****     *     *   *  **** *   *
        *     *   * *   * *   *    *     *   * *     *  *
        *  ** *   * *   * *   *    *     *   * *     ***
        *   * *   * *   * *   *    *     *   * *     *  *
         ***   ***   ***  ****     *****  ***   **** *   *

 ========================================================================
                            Personel Files
 ========================================================================

 Captain John Stark
 Peace Officer
 Age 33 years
 Current Location: On patrol

 In recent years, John Stark has made the FVPF into a disciplined and
 effective force. He is a fair man but equally a man convinced that his
 way is best. He has never had much time for romance and many were
 surprised when he fell for Sarah Maddocks. Stark's nearest friends are
 Howard Courtenay and Karl Rudinski.

  QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ EXCELLENT
 SNIPING ........ GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... POOR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Harvey Pringle
 Peace Officer
 Age 28 years
 Current Location: Dogstar Bay

 Easily taken in, Harvey Pringle has been swindled many a time by Flint
 without even realising it. He regards Macleod and Flynn as good friends
 but, in truth, they have little time for him. Pringle blames Chabrun
 entirely for leading his wife astray and now suspects, quite falsely,
 that Rudinski and Jessop have the same intentions.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... BELOW PAR
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... BELOW PAR
 STRENGHT ....... AVERAGE
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... POOR
 SKIING ......... AVERAGE
 HANG-GLIDING ... POOR
 DRIVING ........ AVERAGE
 SNIPING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... POOR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Fergus Flynn
 Peace Officer
 Age 26 years
 Current Location: Eagle Mountain

 Fergus Flynn sees the funny side of most things. He has a sharp wit,
 and a knack of deflating more pompous men, his favourite targets being
 Lt. Gaunt and Dr. Revel. Flynn and his wife are still wildly in love and
 Flynn has just learnt that he's going to be a father soon. Chaburn,
 Macleod and Gregory Flint are all good friends if his.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... FAIRLY GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... BELOW PAR
 DRIVING ........ POOR
 SNIPING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Sergeant George Tasker
 Peace Officer
 Age 36 years
 Current Location: Fox Valley

 Tasker is stern but reliable, a man who has devoted his life to his
 job. His young son died of pneumonia some years ago and Tasker has not
 forgiven Dr. Revel for allowing a blizzard to prevent him from reaching
 the boy. The sergeant disapproves of 'time-servers and faint-hearts',
in
 particular both Jeremaih and Sgt.Ambler.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... AVERAGE
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... AVERAGE
 SKIING ......... AVERAGE
 HANG-GLIDING ... BELOW PAR
 DRIVING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SNIPING ........ GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... BELOW PAR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Sergeant Tom Llewellyn
 Peace Officer
 Age 29 years
 Current Location: Barefoot Valley

 Tom Llewellyb is happily married, with five young children. He's a man
 who bears few grudges and can count most of his colleagues as his
 friends. Guant, however, dislikes his light-hearted manner, imagining he
 lacks moral fibre. Gregory Flint a grudge against Llewellyn, who jailed
 him once for selling watered-down whisky as best malt.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... BELOW PAR
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... AVERAGE
 DRIVING ........ AVERAGE
 SNIPING ........ FAIR
 SABOTAGE ....... BELOW PAR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Sergeant Victor Grice
 Peace Officer
 Aged 40 years
 Current Location: Badger Heath

 Grice is a bitter man. He has seen John Stark and Barnaby Gaunt, men
 with less years of service than himself, promoted above him and he
 resents the two of them deeply. The one man he respects is Lt. Courtenay
 who was his sergeant when Grice was just a young constable. Grice has no
 friends to speak of and his wife finds him dull and dreary.

           QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... POOR
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... AVERAGE
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... POOR
 STRENGHT ....... AVERAGE
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... AVERAGE
 SKIING ......... BELOW PAR
 HANG-GLIDING ... POOR
 DRIVING ........ AVERAGE
 SNIPING ........ AVERAGE
 SABOTAGE ....... AVERAGE

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Frederico Garcia
 Peace Officer
 Age 24 years
 Current Location: Sierra Garcia

 Frederico Garcia and Kurt Muller grew up together in the same village.
 They remain the firmest of friends, despite the fact that Garcia married
 Muller's ex-wife. Garcia is quick to take offence, once slugging Harry
 Cropper for a joke about moustaches. Muller and Doughty often have to
 restrain him.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... EXCELLENT
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... POOR
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ POOR
 SNIPING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Homer Wright
 Peace Officer
 Age 27 years
 Current Location: Mountains of Summer

 A quiet and thoughtful man, Homer Wright is devoted to his wife and
 his small daughter. His unassuming ways and impartial kindness have
 made him popular througout the community. Wright haas three loyal
 friends, Muller, Jesop and Iwanoto. He is loathed intensely by PC
 Jackson, who can't stand his infuriating niceness.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... FAIRLY GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STAMINA ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... FAIRLY GOOD
 DRIVING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SNIPING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... FAIRLY GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Harry Cropper
 Peace Officer
 Age 32 years
 Current Location: Cormorant Cove

 The jovial Harry Cropper is a popular officer and has a host of
 friends. Although he loves a good joke, there is a serious side to
 Harry Cropper. In his spare time he studies philosophy and devotes a
 lot of hours to charity. He has a devoted wife, a young son and
 another baby due in the next three months.

           QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... POOR
 STURDINESS ..... FAIRLY GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... POOR
 STAMINA ........ POOR
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... POOR
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ AVERAGE
 SNIPING ........ POOR
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Shigeru Iwanoto
 Peace Officer
 Age 20 years
 Current Location: Millpond Flats

 Shigeru Iwanoto is probably the fittest man in the Peace Force and
 certainly the only Zen Buddhist. He lives alone and spends most of his
 spare time in physical training or in meditation. When he relaxes,
 Iwanoto enjoys a quiet game of Go with his friend and colleague, Homer
 Wright.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... EXCELLENT
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ AVERAGE
 SNIPING ........ GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Bill Doughty
 Peace Officer
 Age 29 years
 Current Location: Glen Darrow

 Hard-working and staunchly loyal to his friends Muller and Garcia,
 Bill Doughty is the driving force behind the Constables Union and is a
 dry-witted spokesman in pay talks. Courtenay considers him a noisey
 troublemaker. Doughty was suspended briefly last year after breaking
 Chabrun's nose in a fist-fight over Doughty's wife.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... BELOW PAR
 STAMINA ........ BELOW PAR
 SHARPNESS ...... AVERAGE
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ BELOW PAR
 SNIPING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... POOR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Lieutenant Howard Courtenay
 Peace Officer
 Age 54 years
 Current Location: Salyut Flats

 Howard Courtenay is the longest serving officer in the Peace Force and
 had a lot to do with Stark's promotion to Captain. He believes that the
 Force should be given a wider authority. Married, but childless,
 Courtenay treats his niece, Virginia Caygill, like a daughter. He is
 unaware of her contempt for his friend, Dr. Revel.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... POOR
 STURDINESS ..... BELOW PAR
 OPTIMISM ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... BELOW PAR
 STAMINA ........ BELOW PAR
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Bob Hammond
 Peace Officer
 Age 30 years
 Current Location: Mackenzie Head

 Bob Hammond is an affable man, having a friendly word for everyone but
 deep down he's a born worrier. He has lots of acquaintences but only has
 one real friend, Harry Cropper. His wife is a pushy, ambitious woman who
 nags hoim about promotion but he now suspects she's planning to leave
 him for Dr. Revel.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... POOR
 STRENGHT ....... AVERAGE
 STAMINA ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... BELOW PAR
 SKIING ......... AVERAGE
 HANG-GLIDING ... BELOW PAR
 DRIVING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SNIPING ........ AVERAGE
 SABOTAGE ....... BELOW PAR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Oliver Jessop
 Peace Officer
 Age 32 years
 Current Location: Mull of Tears

 In his youth, Jessop was cruelly betrayed in love and ever since he
 has held a deep distrust of women. Jessop is an easy man to antagonise
 and he dislikes Flynn and Macleod intensely for the way they joke about
 him. Jessop, however, is fiercely loyal to his closest comrades, Homer
 Wright and Shigeru Iwanoto.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... FAIRLY GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... AVERAGE
 STAMINA ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ BELOW PAR
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... FAIRLY GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Lieutenant Barnaby Gaunt
 Peace Officer
 Age 35 years
 Current Location: White Horse Valley

 Brought up by strict and puritanical parents, Barnaby Gaunt is a
 humourless and ambitious man. He respects Stark and Tasker for their
 devotion to duty but he is openly scornful of those he sees as frivolous.
 Llewellyn, Ambler, Flynn and Cropper all fall into this category.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... AVERAGE
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... BELOW PAR
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 SKIING ......... ABYSMAL
 HANG-GLIDING ... FAIRLY GOOD
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ AVERAGE
 SABOTAGE ....... BELOW PAR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Kurt Muller
 Peace Officer
 Age 25 years
 Current Location: Sao Jorge Plateau

 Muller is dependable, slow to angerbut fearsome when roused. Divorced
 five years ago, he lives with his elderly mother and his two small sons.
 His ex-wife married PC Garcia but Muller was glad to be rid of her.
 Garcia, Doughty and Muller are all close friends. Muller dislikes
 Iwanoto, finding him too smug and self-righteous.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... AVERAGE
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... ABYSMAL
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... POOR
 DRIVING ........ AVERAGE
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Luke Jackson
 Peace Officer
 Age 27 years
 Current Location: Devils Valley

 Jackson is a surly, ill-tempered man. Two years ago he was nearly
 thrown thrown out of the Peace Force by Captain Stark, who suspected him
 of stealing goods. He has hated Stark ever since. Jackson cannot abide
 kids, foreigners or preachers and has few friends. Only Garcia, Flint
 and his timid wife have any time for him.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... POOR
 ENERGY ......... AVERAGE
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... POOR
 STURDINESS ..... BELOW PAR
 OPTIMISM ....... ABYSMAL
 STRENGHT ....... AVERAGE
 STAMINA ........ ABYSMAL
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... POOR
 HANG-GLIDING ... POOR
 DRIVING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Sergeant Charles Ambler
 Peace Officer
 Age 38 years
 Current Location: Otter Valley

 An easy going sort, Charles Ambler allows few things to worry him. He
 is fond of children but he and his wife have tried without success to
 start a family. His favourite pastime is a game of poker, usually with
 Rudinski and Cropper. Ambler gets on well with most people but finds
 Barnaby Gaunt too over-bearing.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... BELOW PAR
 STAMINA ........ BELOW PAR
 SHARPNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 SKIING ......... ABYSMAL
 HANG-GLIDING ... FAIRLY GOOD
 DRIVING ........ BELOW PAR
 SNIPING ........ AVERAGE
 SABOTAGE ....... AVERAGE

           ----------------------------------------------

 Franco Grazzini
 Pilot
 Age 29 years
 Current Location: Lindberg Plateau

 Grazzini is a fearless flier. Rather boastful by nature, he is not
 overly popular amongst the menfolk of the Free Villages but he has a
 certain charm for the ladies, especially Nurse Maddocks. Grazzini is in
 love with Virginia Caygill and nurses a jealous hatred of Rudinski. He
 drowns his sorrows nightly with Jeremiah Gunn.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... ABYSMAL
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... AVERAGE
 OPTIMISM ....... ABYSMAL
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... BELOW PAR
 SKIING ......... FAIR
 HANG-GLIDING ... EXCELLENT
 DRIVING ........ ABYSMAL
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... FAIRLY GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Karl Rudinski
 Snowbuggy Driver
 Age 24 years
 Current Location: Western Plains

 Intelligent and fiery, Rudinski is reckoned to be the fastest
 snowdriver in the Free Villages. His engagement to Virginia Caygill has
 quietened his temper a little but he still rages at Gunn and Grazzini
 whose self-pity he finds despicable. As a boy, Rudinski was taught to
 drive by John Stark, and the two are closest of friends.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... POOR
 HANG-GLIDING ... AVERAGE
 DRIVING ........ EXCELLENT
 SNIPING ........ GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Jean-Luc Chaburn
 Hunter
 Age 31 years
 Current Location: Thunder Coast

 Unruly and obstinate, Chaburn is equally at home deep in the solitude
 of the mountains or spinning wild yarns to the crowd in a smoke-filled
 tavern. His favourite drinking companions are Flynn and Macleod, who can
 match him glass for glass. His fondness for other men's wives has earnt
 him the hatred of Grice, Pringle and Doughty.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ BELOW PAR
 SNIPING ........ EXCELLENT
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Dr. Pierre Revel
 Physician
 Age 35 years
 Current Location: Coldheart Pass

 Revel is a competent doctor but he lacks self-control. Despite being
 married with two children, he has had a number of passionate affairs
 with female patients. Bob Hammond's wife is his latest conquest. Revel
 is a keen chess player, and his closest friend, Howard Courtenay, is
 also his toughest opponent.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... BELOW PAR
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... FAIRLY GOOD
 STAMINA ........ POOR
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... POOR
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ EXCELLENT
 SABOTAGE ....... POOR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Konrad Rudel
 Hunter
 Age 38 years
 Current Location: Whispering Mountains

 Rudel, a tough and skilful hunter, resents township folk. He despises
 the Peace Force, saying that the law of nature is the only law men should
 follow. The one person he has a friendly word for is Davy Hart. Rudel
 sees in the boy some of the steel of a true hunter and harbors hope that
 one day the boy will follow in his footsteps.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... AVERAGE
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... POOR
 STRENGHT ....... EXCELLENT
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... POOR
 DRIVING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SNIPING ........ EXCELLENT
 SABOTAGE ....... AVERAGE

           ----------------------------------------------

 Virginia Caygill
 Ski Teacher
 Age 21 years
 Current Location: Snowstorm Valley

 Virginia Caygill travels from village to village giving skiing lessons
 to the children of each community. Both Davy Hart and Jenny Adams are
 pupils of hers. She is engaged to Rudinski, the snowdriver, but has many
 admirers. Virginia despises Revel, having been the unwilling subject of
 the doctor's affections in the past.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... FAIRLY GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... GOOD
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... EXCELLENT
 HANG-GLIDING ... FAIR
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ AVERAGE
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Professor Olaf Kristiansen
 Electronics Researcher
 Age 60 years
 Current Location: Diamond valley

 Kristiansen finds little solance in companionship. He has a deep
 distrust of those who lay claim to authority and dislikes Stark and
 Courtenay in partucular. In accord with his beliefs, he gives his
 grandson Davy a good deal of freedom. Kristiansen has an unlikely
 friendship with Gregory Flint, the pedlar.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... POOR
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... POOR
 STURDINESS ..... ABYSMAL
 OPTIMISM ....... BELOW PAR
 STRENGHT ....... POOR
 STAMINA ........ BELOW PAR
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... ABYSMAL
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... EXCELLENT

           ----------------------------------------------

 Jeremiah Gunn
 Mining Engineer
 Age 33 years
 Current Location: Morgans Cove

 A widower for some years, Gunn has still not come to terms with the
 loss of his wife. He is given to bouts of black despair, during which he
 drinks himself senseless. The only two people he has any time for are
 Franco Grazzini, whose moods are sometimes blacker than his own, and the
 understanding Nurse Maddocks.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... POOR
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... GOOD
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... BELOW PAR
 OPTIMISM ....... ABYSMAL
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 SKIING ......... ABYSMAL
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... EXCELLENT

           ----------------------------------------------

 Davy Hart
 Schoolboy
 Age 12
 Current Location: Devils Valley

 Davy lives with his grandfather, Professor Kristiansen, who leaves the
 boy much to his own devices. Davy's hero is Rudel the hunter and the boy
 often tags along with him on expeditions. Davy has a girlfriend, Jenny
 Adams, who lives in the next valley, but he has a secret crush on his
 ski teacher, Virginia Caygill.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... FAIRLY GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... EXCELLENT
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... POOR
 DRIVING ........ BELOW PAR
 SNIPING ........ GOOD
 SABOTAGE ....... BELOW PAR

           ----------------------------------------------

 Jenny Adams
 Schoolgirl
 Age 11 years
 Current Location: Deathwatch Pass

 Jenny is the youngest of three sisters. She resents being treated as
 the baby of the family and is always trying to prove herself to people.
 The person she admires most is Sarah Maddocks, but Jenny plans to be a
 doctor, not a nurse, when she is older. She's fond of her boyfriend,
 Davy Hart, and envies his freedom.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ POOR
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Nurse Sarah Maddocks
 Nurse
 Age 24 years
 Current Location: Mount Shackleton

 Sarah Maddocks id full of warmth and good humour and she is devoted to
 her work as a nurse. Sarah tends to fall for older men. She and Captain
 Stark have been lovers for some time and plan to marry next year. Sarah
 is still very fond of Franco Grazzini, her previos love. She has lttle
 regard for amorous Dr. Revel.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... EXCELLENT
 STURDINESS ..... EXCELLENT
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... POOR
 STAMINA ........ GOOD
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... AVERAGE
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ FAIRLY GOOD
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Gregory Flint
 Pedlar
 Age 36 years
 Current Location: Garcia Valley

 Gregory Flint Has few scruples when there's a profit to be made and is
 as much a confidence trickster as a pedler. He claims the Peace Force
 victimize him, blaming Stark, Gaunt and Llewellyn most of all. He
 sometimes helps Kristiansen with his experiments, and is also friendly
 with Luke Jackson and Fergus Flynn.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ENERGY ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... AVERAGE
 STURDINESS ..... POOR
 OPTIMISM ....... BELOW PAR
 STRENGHT ....... EXCELLENT
 STAMINA ........ POOR
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... BELOW PAR
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ ABYSMAL
 SABOTAGE ....... GOOD

           ----------------------------------------------

 Mrs. Amelia Randles
 Storekeeper
 Age 68 years
 Current Location: Harpers Lake

 Amelia Randles and her late husband Arthur were two of the earliest
 pioneers. Amelia knows everyone in the Free Villages, remebering most of
 them as small children, and is respected and liked throughout the
 community. Despite her frail looks, Amelia Randles has hidden reserves
 of strenght and courage.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... EXCELLENT
 ENERGY ......... GOOD
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... POOR
 STURDINESS ..... FAIRLY GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... EXCELLENT
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ AVERAGE
 SHARPNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 SKIING ......... BELOW PAR
 HANG-GLIDING ... ABYSMAL
 DRIVING ........ ABYSMAL
 SNIPING ........ POOR
 SABOTAGE ....... ABYSMAL

           ----------------------------------------------

 Constable Gordon Macleod
 Peace Officer
 Age 30 years
 Current Location: Heavens Gate

 Gordon Macleod is a man never afraid to speak his mind, a trait which
 has not endeared him to everyone. Grazzini in particular dislikes
 Macleod and the feeling is mutual. He is well thought of by Sergeant
 Tasker and Captain Stark and has hopes of promotion. Macleod's two
 friends, Flynn and Chabrun hold him in high regard.

      QUALITIES AND SKILLS

 MORALE ......... GOOD
 ENERGY ......... EXCELLENT
 ALERTNESS ...... EXCELLENT
 ENDURANCE ...... GOOD
 STURDINESS ..... GOOD
 OPTIMISM ....... FAIR
 STRENGHT ....... GOOD
 STAMINA ........ EXCELLENT
 SHARPNESS ...... GOOD
 SKIING ......... FAIRLY GOOD
 HANG-GLIDING ... GOOD
 DRIVING ........ GOOD
 SNIPING ........ BELOW PAR
 SABOTAGE ....... AVERAGE

           ----------------------------------------------

 Typed by Snuskbuske of Oxygen

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