MAG 53: Crusader

Statement of Sergeant Walter Heller regarding a discovery made near Alexandria during Operation Crusader in November of 1941.
==Statement==
This statement was committed to tape by Gertrude Robinson, although Walter himself reports the statement.
Sergeant Walter Heller was a gunner in a Crusader tank for the Second Royal Gloucestershire Hussars and was posted to Libya to assist in Operation Crusader. They were there to push back German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who had fought against Frances, Walter's brother, leading to his death at Arras. Frank Malloy was in command of their tank, Ralph McCulloch drove, and Dicky was the loader. 
They were hit in the desert by an enemy tank. They all escaped except Dicky, who slowly burnt to death. Due to his leg wound, Walter was rushed off to Alexandria hospital, leaving behind Ralph and Frank, who were captured by the Italians and held in a PoW camp until the end of the war.
After a few weeks in hospital, Walter was more mobile and started to go on long walks to exercise his leg. A few days before he was scheduled to go back into active duty, he found himself near Pompey’s Pillar. Resting against a door nearby, he fell through it into an old basement. In there was an old brass or bronze grate which led further down. Walter assumed it led to the sewers but spotted something and decided to investigate.
As he climbed down the ladder he discovered several alcoves with papyrus scrolls. He found several chambers with these scrolls. In one of the chambers he found a dead dried-out body which wore chainmail with a black cloth tabard and white cross on the chest. The body's eyes looked like they had been gouged out. Walter's torch flickered off, but he was still able to see the body and his surroundings despite being in complete darkness. Suddenly, he felt like he was being watched. Turning, he saw a figure in ancient robes with long fingers with a single lidless eye. Walter fled and only came to his senses when he was picked up by the military police some time later, running screaming through the streets of Alexandria.
Walter confirmed that he replaced the grate when Gertrude asked. Since the event, Walter got the feeling of being watched again when he came into the Archives to report this statement.
== Final Comments ==
Gertrude has an ongoing theory about ancient iterations of the Archives. She previously suspected that the Library of Alexandria was the Archive, but now suspects that the Serapeum must be it. In 391 AD the Serapeum was supposedly destroyed by a group going under the name like 'Those Who Sing the Night,' but there are conflicted accounts. The remains Walter mentions are of a Knight Hospitaller of the Order of St. John, probably from the sack of Alexandria by Peter I of Cyprus.
Gertrude wonders what the creature could have been -- possibly a previous Archivist?
== Post-Statement ==
John wonders if the patterns are cyclical. Walter died of a stroke in 2004. In March 1998 there was an explosion in Alexandria, very close to the location of this statement, which killed 17 people. Martin interrupts the follow-up and reveals that John claimed he cut himself with a knife, rather than disclosing that Michael stabbed him.
== Continuity ==
* Related Entity: The Eye
*In MAG 191 John confirms that the being Heller encountered was an Archivist.
*Based on the name, 'Those Who Sing The Night' are likely an organization connected to The Dark.
*Related Entity: The Desolation
*Related Entity: The Slaughter
Category:Live Statements
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes