Captain Ernst Kurtzwattle, (King Leopold XVII's Belgian Jupiter Shrubber Tree and Tusk Company, New Ypres, Jupiter Free State) is by all accounts a fine upstanding gentleman of the military order with a gentle disposition, fresh minty breath and very clean fingernails. He enjoys walks in the mountains, petting baby animals and giving freely to the poor.

We received this note - Returned by Marlin Marlowe, space-trawler captain who was one the last white men to see Kurtzwattle alive.

"The Horror, the horror", he helpfully adds. "I was quite overjoyed to receive a shipment of your new weapons to equip my lads and I heartily recommend the weapons to future buyers. Even as I speak, powerful space trawlers move to Jupiter packed full of ray-guns and other deadly weapons, unload their cargo at the Belgian spaceports, and return with a hold full of valuable Shrubber Tree wood.

Of course, there is no evidence of the ray guns being used for acts of brutal violence against the Jupiter natives! None at all! I swear it! And even if we have blasted a few Jupiterian savages, the brutes only respect the most base and violent acts!

Why, after I supplied my Force Galactique officers with some of the ray guns, and they came upon a peaceful Jupiter farming village, we were able to completely vaporize the place in seconds. Not that I wanted to, or that I enjoyed it. And those rumors about the Force Galactique cutting off Jupiterian tentacles if they don't bring in the recquired amount of Shrubber is pure codswallop doubtless spread by socialists, as is the allegation that I decorate my garden fenceposts with the severed heads of slaughtered Jupiterians. Trust me, some violence is neccessary to civilize the locals, and the Force Galactique will see the job through to its bitter end, especially armed with Dr. Grordbort's fantastic weaponry!

Long live King Leopold, and may God protect the colony!"

(Last note scrawled in haste at the bottom: 'Exterminate the brutes!')