Skaniska Incident

You may be looking for the short story of a similar name.

The Skaniska Incident was an active situation involving UNIT that took place in the Russian Steppes in around 2004. Over the course of five days, thirteen UNIT soldiers, all equipped with standard DL/3 class X-hazard chemical survival suits, died during operational manoeuvres after being deployed into the situation to investigate reports of extreme chemical pollution; they died whilst protecting the local population, and the remaining thirty-seven troops survived. Their leader — Captain Martin Berry — later expressed sorrow about the deaths, and he was quoted in a press briefing embargoed until 31 January 2005, filed by Corp M Osborne. (PROSE: UNIT's Position on the Skaniska Incident)

Following the deployment, which was noted as being "very successful" on the UNIT website, Captain Martin Bury took command of the Geneva B Company, and was promoted to Major. This was announced on 27 February 2005. (PROSE: UNIT News) Notably, on a secure part of the UNIT website, there existed an inaccessible chat log between UNIT personnel, entitled "Skaniska Debriefing". (PROSE: Operations Board)

Behind the scenes

On the Operations Board page on the U.N.I.T. website, there was a faux operations board titled Skaniska Debrief, which was clearly connected to this incident.

Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook recycled the idea of the Skaniska Incident, however the details given about the playable RPG campaign were at odds with the information given on the U.N.I.T. website.

Information from invalid sources

According to one account, however, an unknown entity crashed into the Russian steppes, and a seven-strong team of UNIT soldiers were sent to investigate, however they never returned. Upon further missions, it was found that the tundra had been "scarred" by a large impact point that had seared through the ground, leaving the earth to "[ooze] with toxic chemicals and alien compounds". However, after an span of time, the seven UNIT personnel were brainwashed to attack UNIT at many key locations around the planet, with mutations that gave them superpowers; some of the soldiers weren't aware of these changes, however, and longed to go home. (NOTVALID: Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook)