Don't Damage the Granite

 

 Present:

• "Liz" Holmes. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston – Shane
• Emerse Gee. Daryen Scientist from Torment – Darryl
• "Riley" O'Reilly. Sword-Worlder Pilot from Winston - Richard
  
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
  
• Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• MARMALADING: Gnostic Hands. Solomani Scientist from Entrope – Jamie
• MARMALADING: Belle Ende. Sword-Worlder Medic from Winston - Steven
• Split "Penny" Ende. Sword-Worlder Minstrel from Winston - Jason
• NPC: Scurry. Drone Gunner from Winston

 by Richard

As requested by Contessa Ende (mother of Itzy, Hoff, Split, and Belle Ende), we have landed with Ye Faerie Queene at the Ende mansion on the outskirts of the town of Bitter End, population 10,000 (4,000km from Ravens End.)

The town is on the coast and on fertile plains and savannah. The main industry is agriculture however with 1950's technology (TL6).

"Alpine"

Emerse takes sole residence of a state room in Ye Faerie Queene and continues to play with that damned Tamagotchi "Alpine" trying to get its chat GPT operational and connected to the Galactopedia (he soon found out there is no connection from where we are and therefore no updates) whilst he brushes his hair nervously.

Spanner and Itzy also stay on board the ship whilst the rest of us take residence in the mansion.

 

After removing the ship's starting mechanism, Riley takes stock of the whisky whilst bemoaning the fact that there is only 1,000 kms of hydrogen fuel left in the tanks. 

"No use to us now," he muses.

A few hours later, Contessa arrives.

"Hi Mum, when and how did you get here?" – the Ende children all ask.

"I flew in just now - jet. We are going to build a hydrogen refueller here, seeing the Faerie Queene is here" she advised. "But that will take a couple of weeks".

"Over that time, I have some work for you" she continued. "We will discuss it over breakfast tomorrow"

"Well, in the meantime let's go to the pub," suggests Riley. 

"Yes" agree Itzy, Liz, Hoff and Split.

We commandeer an old van and head to one of three pubs in town (The Famous Cinnamon, The Smooth Buffalo and Wacky Lion). Deciding on the Famous Cinnamon we drink ourselves silly until closure with only two minor incidents.

Liz decided to see if she could get free drinks and got herself drugged for her sins. We managed to avert trouble from that although Liz remained unconscious the rest of the night. We acquired the glass that contained the drugged liquid to test later.

Upon leaving, Split suggested she drive. 

"I am pufffectlly alwight" stated Riley. 

"You are intoxicated," replied Split.

"I am always intoxitated" mumbled Riley "but the last person who said that lost their teeth, and you are too pwitty to be toothless".

"Could have other uses though," chipped in Itzy grinning lecherously

 "Hops in thin" commanded Riley who then sped off.

"Oops, that’s a tight corner" mutters Riley as he loses control of the vehicle some ten minutes later sending the van rolling across the road and landing upside in a ditch, dripping petrol. [ Riley fumbled his drive roll ]

Riley and Hoff are sent through the windscreen [taking 8 points of damage each after applying luck to reduce it] while the others receive minor scrapes and lacerations. 

"Betta get out of dare" yells Riley "it's going to go bang". Moments later the van explodes.

We walk back to the mansion (an hour), Split playing the piano-accordion and us all singing a bawdy tune.

We finally find our beds and sleep the rest of the night but are a sorry sight at breakfast as Contessa walks in. 

"What happened?" she demands.

"We got drunk and had a wee accident" volunteers Riley.

"Were you drink driving again Riley?" she asks

"Nope" is the reply as he drinks his coffee. 

"Anyway, I have work for you" says Contessa.

She sat us down and gave some exposition:

The planet Winston to was discovered to have Ancients sites on it, early on. After the Imperium had terraformed Winston hundreds of years ago, they sent in their archeologists who worked for many years but the final reports were 'nothing significant'. This was, in fact, a lie. After the planet was ceded to the Sword-Worlders, your Ende ancestors started working on the ruins themselves and they made a few discoveries. Occasionally something interesting pops up.

"So, I want you to go to "the quarry", some three hours' drive away and talk to Mike Reich, the "quarry" manager. 

"First, can you call a doctor Mummy?" asks Hoff, still bleeding after last night. "Me and Riley aren’t feeling too good."

The pick-up truck

A doctor is called and we are somewhat cured before we head off on our drive, not in the van (that of course exploded the previous night) but a pick-up truck crammed with the eight of us – three in the front and five in the tray along with cans of water and petrol.

We drive the three hours along the coast and through the savannah until we reach a canyon going into the hills. We turn off and head into it as instructed. The road is a bit rougher here and there are several side roads into other smaller canyons, but we continue straight until we get to the end.

Here, we enter a large 500m diameter crater - a perfect half-sphere - with its sides and floor unnaturally made of smooth granite. There are a number of corrugated iron buildings constructed in the middle, with a number of rifle-wielding men near them.

Suddenly, there is a cry out from Emerse.

"My instruments aren’t working, and Alpine my Tamagotchi is limp"

"As is Scurry" observes Spanner.

Emerse jumps off the tray of the truck and takes out a small pick and starts to chip away at the rock floor of the crater. 

Shortly thereafter, a bullet narrowly misses Emerse and ricochets about the canyon.

Three men with rifles approach. "Don’t damage the granite!" they warn.

"But your bullet will have done more damage " Emerse starts to argue before wisely shutting up.

We tell them we are here on orders of Contessa Ende and that we need to speak with Mike. We are taken to the shacks and poured a coffee and introduced to Mike Reich.

Mike explains that they have been here about eight years but it was "picked over" before they found it. They have been investigating he formation ever since. Of course, the Imperium must not know of any secrets they find. 

He warns not to damage the rock as it will damage you back. A few years ago, a worker took a pick axe to it. He made very little impact however was found a few nights later dead with the very same pick axe buried in his head.

Emerse shuffled uncomfortably at the relaying of this story.

Mike said that they think they have found something of significance down a side canyon.

 

"You need to go and investigate it" he says.

"Why us?" asks Anton

"Because Mrs. Ende said you are the "EXPERTS" responds Mike.

Mike describes to Riley where the entrance to the possible Ancients site is and we head on our way. 

"Make sure its kept secret" he warns us as we leave.

We head back. About 1 km away from the crater, Emerse's instruments start working and then in another 500m or so both Scurry and Alpine come back to life.

We drive back up the main canyon until Riley points out the turnoff but before we turn Anton and Hoff spot several men at the top of the canyon watching us.

Scurry

Spanner orders Scurry to head up and see and in a few minutes Scurry reports back that there are four or five armed men watching.

"Montrose bastards" says Itzy. 

"Let's kill them" says Liz

"We'd better go back and check with Mike" a sensible Spanner recommends.

We head back and see Mike who is surprised we have spotted his hidden guards. 

"We have some more in the other canyon" says Mike

"Why didn't you tell us this?" asked Split

"You weren't meant to see them" responded Mike

"Ahhh, how do they know not to shoot us?" asked Emerse

"Because you are the EXPERTS" said Mike "and they know EXPERTS are coming today"

We head off shaking our heads at the obvious stupidly of Mike and his men. We get to the turning, and turn into a narrower and far more rock-bound canyon. The going is pretty rough in the pick-up truck and we are having second thoughts, when we come across a large cave to our left. The road of sorts continues.

"Let's investigate the cave" said Spanner

"No let's keep going" said Riley "we are running out of daylight and I don’t want to be here after dark."

We carry on for a time with the road narrowing and rocks more frequently blocking it. We decided to go no further by vehicle although Spanner, Liz, Split and Anton went by foot for another 15 minutes – finding nothing.

"Let's go back, get more equipment and that old tractor, rest up the night and come back tomorrow" suggested Riley and with that we head back, without incident to the Ende mansion. 

We gather supplies including the old 1955 Harry Fergusson TE20 tractor and trailer, get the doctor to attend to our injuries again (now on full) and the next day head back to the second "quarry".

Emerse continues to be worried about the functionality of our technology and in particular his Tamagotchi. In an attempt to overcome this, he has created a faraday cage. We shall see…..

We head up the second canyon, past the cave, until the pick-up can go no further. We continue on the tractor until it also proves to be too challenging.

"What now?" asks Riley

"We go foot" says Spanner "but we can't leave the pick-up here unguarded"

"Let's put it in the cave" suggests Liz.

We head back to the cave and quickly investigate it to Spanner's satisfaction. The pick-up will fit in the entrance but the cave goes deeper. Booted footprints could be seen.

"Those will be Mike's guys" says Spanner in a huge leap of logic

We all seem to accept that without question, park the pick-up in the cave and head off back up the track. 

Emerse's faraday cage

The track narrows and Emerse notices the electronics stop functioning. He places one of his many electronic devices in his home-made faraday cage - a canary cage - and low and behold it works. Emerse opens the door of the cage to stroke Alpine but it limp again. But recovers when the door is closed and the cage is intact.

The path continues to narrow and we get to an area blocked by rocks. After much effort we clear a narrow tunnel that we squeeze through and come to another half-sphere crater, also 500m in size, but this one is half full of water, up to the level of the fissure. 

Initial observations are that the water seems to flow out this fissure from time to time at some volume. We assume this is during heavy rainfall. 

Inside the crater, the sky appears black, with stars, like you're in space - but you can breathe fine. But back down the tunnel in the valley the sky is normal blue with clouds.

"The Ancients" says Hoff in some awe.

"Let's use our two canoes (that we fortuitously brought along [ super luck roll ]) and go out on the water" volunteers Spanner.

"Ahh do you think that’s wise?" questions Emerse.

"Sure, it is – who's coming?" responds Spanner

And sure enough Liz and Spanner head out on the water – briefly. The sun is far more intense with this black sky and they feel the warmth of radiation permeating their skin. They wisely choose to only stay a few minutes on the water.

They come to shore and as its nearing nightfall we head back to the cave where in another leap of logic we have decided its safe to spend the night. 

As we approach we notice the bonnet of the pick-up truck is up. Drawing sidearms we slowly approach the cave and see nothing but do notice fresh booted footprints.

We go into the cave and can hear footsteps going away from us in the distance. Riley, Liz, Spanner, Anton and Split pursue. After a short time, we hear a KAR-THUMP deep down the tunnel. We edge forward and see three stunned men crouched facing away from us.

 "Coo wee" calls Spanner for the 10th time. 

"For Christ's sake shut up" growls Riley as they turn and we approach.

"Who are you?" asks Spanner

"We work for Mike" one replies

"Why did you run away from us?" questions Riley

"Because we got told to watch you and not engage with you"

"Why did you leave the bonnet open?" asked Riley

"Oops that was a mistake" 

"What was that Karthump earlier?"

Poor Fritz

"Ahh – Fritz Hahnrei was going up the tunnel and... just exploded"

We look around the tunnel ahead (not too close!) and can see what looks like a pasty jam like substance all over the walls and dripping from the roof – no bone – no limbs just a pasty bloody mess.

"I'm not going down here" says Split.

"But it heads toward the Ancients site" says Spanner checking his compass.

Will the party go down? 

Will Emerse stop stroking his Tamagotchi? 

Will Hoff ever date a girl? 

Will Spanner stop yelling out coo wee?

Will Split stop playing polkas on her piano-accordion?

To be seen next week.

Ye Faerie Queene

 

 Present:

• "Liz" Holmes. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston – Shane
• Emerse Gee. Daryen Scientist from Torment – Darryl
• "Riley" O'Reilly. Sword-Worlder Pilot from Winston - Richard
  
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
  
• Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• MARMALADING: Gnostic Hands. Solomani Scientist from Entrope – Jamie
• MARMALADING: Belle Ende. Sword-Worlder Medic from Winston - Steven
• Split "Penny" Ende. Sword-Worlder Minstrel from Winston - Jason
• NPC: Scurry. Drone Gunner from Winston

 by Jeff 

The above crew were summoned into the large family boardroom by Contessa Ende - Belle, Itzy, Hoff, and Penny's mum. Everyone had been staying for the weekend at the Ende mansion in Ravens End for the Ende family cocktail party to celebrate Contessa's successful "de-aging" treatment. Dressed as a nurse, she now had the body of a 16-year-old with plenty of curves in all the right places.

And as Itzy had noted at the party last night, "Money vell spent!"

Contessa was dressed as a schoolgirl

This morning, Contessa was dressed in a schoolgirl outfit as she strutted into the boardroom.

"Ve av vound Ye Faerie Queene" she announced, "And vou shall retrieve er!"

Belle, who had been taken sick with the dreaded Marmalade affliction, was looking to increase her influence within the Ende family, and Contessa had promised to give her some meaningful assignments. Ye Faerie Queene was an old Ende family scout-class starship, one hundred tonnes, fully equipped with two SABRE engines and a Jump-1 drive, that had been stolen from the family docks some month ago while awaiting deconstruction and component recycling. Everyone had suspected the rival Montrose family, but there had been no sign of the Queene since she had been taken.

"Da Montrose scum av da Queene at their outer estates" Contessa revealed, "So go get er back"
"Can't the Militia do that?" suggested Emerse.
"NO SOLDIERS!" yelled Contessa.
"Vou arn't from ere, so I vill forgive you dis once. Know dat dis is personal!"

"Hard to take her seriously ... dressed like that," muttered Emerse to himself.

The Montrose estates were about ten klicks out from Ravens End, so we were provided with an old farm van that we all squeezed into. Equipped with a looking-glass and Spanner's droid Scurry, we jumped into the van.

"Can anyone else drive?" asked Riley, as he leapt in behind the wheel.

The countryside was quite flat around Ravens End, predominately farming lands, and we blended in well as we puttered down the dirt road towards the Montrose place. Riley drove.

"Pull up about 500m from the estate" suggested Spanner, "Scurry's range is only one klick"

Riley pulled the van off the side of the road and got out the spare wheel.
"What?" asked Riley, "It's an excuse to be parked up here"

"Scurry, go get a good look at the Montrose estate," instructed Spanner.

"Is that what you want?" the droid asked.

"But don't get spotted," added Spanner.
"Yes mother," the droid replied before it shot off down the road, wings buzzing quietly.

"Did that just answer you?" asked Hoff, "How did you manage that?"
"I could make one like that," boasted Emerse.

We watched Scurry's progress on Spanner's hand-held monitor as she travelled up the road towards the Montrose estate. The estate was at the end of the road, so it was a good thing we hadn't decided to drive past for our recce. That would have been quite suspicious! 

Scurry passed over a gatehouse about 50m in front of the estate compound, which was enclosed within a high chain link fence. A couple of guards could be seen in the gatehouse building, and a couple wandering about inside the compound. There were a few small houses scattered around outside the compound, and most interestingly, a large camouflage tarpaulin was draped over something at the rear of the compound, inside the fence line.

"That'll be the Faerie Queene" noted Spanner, "Under that tarpaulin at the back"

Once Scurry had returned, we packed up and returned to town to await nightfall. Both suns would be down tonight, so it would be nice and dark for the "recovery".

"And" stated Anton, "I can see in the dark just fine"
"I've got a sweet set of low-light goggles" added Emerse, "Made them myself"
"Mum will have a set in the stores too" noted Itzy.

The Montrose compound

Equipped with Emerse's low-light goggles, the Ende family night-vision goggles, wire cutters, and some weapons, we returned down the Montrose road around midnight. Switching off the headlights about two klicks from the compound, Riley, wearing the low-light goggles, drove us up to within 500m of the gatehouse, and pulled off the road. The gatehouse was fully lit, and a couple of the other buildings also twinkled with lights.

Anton, Liz (wearing the low-light goggles), and Split (wearing the night-vision goggles) crept off into the darkness to circle left around towards the rear of the compound and get a closer look at the fence. 

Keeping low, they skirted round the gatehouse lights, past the lit house to the left, and approached the fence near the rear of the compound. A large ship glittered faintly from below the tarpaulins at the rear of the house. Two large, insulated storage tanks were located between the house and the ship, radiating coldness.

"That'll be the Faerie Queene" pointed out Anton, "And those look like liquid hydrogen fuel tanks"
"Good" whispered Liz, "Wait, that is good right?"
"What's that really hot thing on the fence there?" asked Split.
"Hmmm" grunted Anton, "That looks like an insulator, a malfunctioning insulator"
"Is that good?" whispered Liz.

"No" replied Anton, "That's bad. The whole fence is electrified. We better report back"

Anton, Liz, and Split retreated back around the lit building and the gatehouse to the van.

"The good news is that there is fuel" reported Anton, "But the bad news is that the fence is heavily electrified. There will be no cutting through that baby without some serious measures"

"Simple" suggested Emerse, "Just isolate a section of the fence before you cut it" 

"Any suggestions on how you isolate a 10,000-volt chain-link fence?" sneered Anton.

"Throw one of those goats at it" suggested Split, "That'll short the fence and let you cut through"

"Yes, but that will also bring the guards" countered Anton.
"Then we just shoot them" declared Itzy, "A nice crossfire kill zone for those Montrose bastards"

"We should keep the killing to a minimum" instructed Hoff. "None, if possible"
"You should be able to get over the fence with a ladder and a decent insulating mat" suggested Hoff, "We have some appropriate mats back in town at the workshop"

Riley started up the van and we took a quick trip back to the city to gather some ladders and insulating mats from Hoff's workshop at the Ende family mansion. Within an hour we were back, parked off the road about 500m from the lit-up gatehouse. This time was the real thing, we were going in!

Riley, Spanner, Anton, and Itzy gathered up the gear, donned the googles and set off. (Spanner had to travel without vision, she just hung onto Anton's arm as he led the small group through the darkness to the fence)

Arriving at the electrified fence, Anton tossed the insulating mats over the top and Riley leaned the ladder up against the mat, and quickly climbed to the top. With a quick look around, Riley leapt from the top of the ladder and rolled to his feet, now inside the fenced compound. Spanner quickly followed him, landing lightly beside him and grabbing his arm as he led off towards the ship. 

Anton recovered the ladder and pulled back to the van. Itzy backed off a way, found a comfortable spot, and set himself up in a prone firing position with his rifle covering the whole compound, front to rear. 

Cautiously climbing the access ladder to the personal hatch, Riley activated the hatch mechanism.
The door panel hissed, clicked back slightly into the ship, and slid silently open.

"We're in" he quietly called down to Spanner, "I'll get the fuel lines and get the fueling underway"
"I'll give the ship systems a quick check" replied Spanner, "In case they, you know, booby trapped it"

The process required to start up the engines wasn't a quick one. First the fuel tanks needed to be filled, or at least partly filled, with the liquid hydrogen. Then the auxiliary jet engine needed to be fired up, to prime the SABRE's compressors before they could be ignited for flight. We had figured about a twenty-minute process if we short cut the fueling and didn't full the tanks completely. 

No problem though, provided we were quiet and got the fueling done without alerting the guards. Itzy was out there to provide cover fire in case that plan didn't work out, and once we had the fueling done, we could seal ourselves in the ship and use the ship's armour plating to keep the inevitable bullets out.

Spanner gave the Queene's systems a once-over as Riley coupled up the fuel lines and started the electric fuel pumps. No visible issues with the Queene, and all running to plan! But, about ten minutes into the fuelling process, a shot rang out from the darkness. Startlingly loud in the quiet night, the boom echoed around for what seemed minutes. A bullet ricocheted off the roof of the house and a startled shout was quickly followed by the patter of footsteps from the side of the house as someone retreated back towards the front. 

Itzy had spotted a guard exiting the front door of the house and heading round the side towards the back, where Riley was working on the fuelling process. Fortunately, the Montrose guard had gone around Itzy's side and been in his sight the whole time. Once it was obvious that the guard would have walked right into the middle of the fuelling, Itzy let off a round, just to scare the guard off and keep him away from the Queene.

Things were getting complicated now though, and there was at least five minutes of fuelling still required. Spanner leapt down to assist Riley with the fuelling process, standing by to decouple the lines, while Riley clambered into the Queene to prep the combustion engines and check the amount of fuel in the tanks. A few more shots rang out from Itzy's location, and a few return shots were loosed by the guards, blindly firing into the darkness in Itzy's direction. 

After five minutes Riley called down to Spanner that sufficient fuel had been transferred. Spanner shut of the hydrogen valves, decoupled the lines, and quickly coiled them up and stored them back on the Queene. As Riley stated up the auxiliary engine with a roar, Spanner ripped down the tarpaulins, throwing them to the dirt, slipped in through the access hatch, and sealed it shut behind her.

Ye Faerie Queene

A few minutes to prime the SABRE's, and bullets started to ping off the Queene's hull. Lots of yelling and shouting from the compound as Spanner and Riley strapped themselves into the pilots' seats. As the twin SABRE's roared into life, the jet wash picked up the discarded tarpaulins and wrapped them around the few guards still taking shots at the Queene. They were thrown off their feet and tossed into the compound fence as the Queene slowly lifted off the ground and headed skyward.

"YEEHAW" yelled Riley, hands clasped firmly on the joystick controls.

Meanwhile, Itzy had retreated back to the van and was picked up by the rest of the crew. With Split nervously in the driver's seat, they cautiously made their way back towards town, where they were redirected to the Ende family docks. The docks were where the Queene had been stolen from, and where Riley was to return her to. 

Running a full system diagnostic enroute, Riley and Spanner spotted an unusual software patch installed in the Queene's computer system. Activating a system quarantine protocol, Riley deactivated the patch for latter analysis and flew the Queene back to the Ende docks.

"Probably a tracking code" guessed Spanner.

Riley gently landed the Queene onto the waiting pad at the docks, and the crew were soon reunited.

Contessa appeared just after dawn with her retinue of guards and sycophants.

She set her computer experts to analyse the rouge software code, congratulated us on our slick operation, and told us that we were to stay here at the docks.

"I av some udder tasks for vou" she explained, "And vou can guard the Queene" 

"Assuming they have tracked us here" suggested Spanner, "Let's take the Queene elsewhere"
"Ya, das goot" replied Contessa, "Ve have other facility at Bitter End. Dat's four thousand klicks away"

The Faerie Queene had four state rooms. The women (Liz, Spanner, Split, and Belle took one) and the men spread themselves into the other three. Some additional weapons (five rifles and a collection of handguns), including three extra grenades, and some general supplies were loaded into the 6-tonne cargo hold, and Riley plotted us a course for Bitter End.