Steam and Sand 2: Anthracite Days - Game Thread

[ScytheKnight]

Harris watches the professor pedal his machine around the parking area for a while with a look of bemused amusement 'I always knew there was a reason why I didn't bother with a side-car.', he chuckles at the sight until the professor is safely inside then simply kicks up the kick stand of his own Foxhound and starts walking the bike towards the rear ramp. Although the Foxhound was somewhat heavier then a regulation modal due to it's modifications it could still be easily man-handled, something very handy in the event of a breakdown or damage.

Once inside the rig he places it along the opposite wall from Hildegerde for the same reason of easy access and deployment. Once he had locked it into place he removes the various saddlebags and takes one of the rooms in the middle of the living quarters so that he's just as close to the hanger as the weapons rooms up front.

With his gear stowed he walks back to the ramp and pauses to look over the street hitching the leather case of his rifle into place before heading down the ramp to help out with the loading, although he always makes sure he has a good sight of the entrances into the parking area.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Pitivo arrived, his gear slung over his shoulder and his armor clanking rather loudly as he approached the rig. He stared for a moment at the device with critical intent, running his fingers along the sides of the machine and giving it a few hard punches. He stopped for a moment and pulled out a bottle of barley-liquor from his satchel before smashing it against the rig's side, sending shards of glass and wet, bitter smelling liquor into the thirsty earth.

"She isn't a bad device, but now she's official." He laughed as if it were the funniest thing ever. "Untouched like a virgin nun, eh?" He shook his head with delight, his off colour sense of humour shining now more than ever.

"Well then, boss, all asand that's going asand!" He said nothing more and entered the rig.

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

As Pitivo stepped aboard, the last of the coal and supplies went on with him. Before they left, a dour looking engineer, assumably in the pay of the benefactor, went over a quick operations tutorial for all who cared to listen, firing up the engine before he left. White smokes blossomed out of the back pipe stacks of the transport.

Their benefactor walked on board once all was done, handing a rolled parchment to Van Scragg.

"Good Luck." he said. "Remember - it should be three days to get to Hadrian. This map will prevent you from getting lost. Sherwood, York and Hadrian Atriums are all marked for you. I'd advise keeping to my recommended schedule. In two days I expect to hear you arrived safely at York."

The man hopped out the back, after pushing the lifting button on the ramp. He nodded to them as the back slowly closed up. The gates were now fully open and the wastes beyond beckoned.

[MWBailey]

The Professor suggested a volunteer to act as spotter, to sit or stand on the deck 'Topside' next to the speaking tube and direct the driver and assistant in the Cockpit, Then, as Harris and he were the ones who drove steam  cycles and would probably better understand how to drive a steam vehicle, he asked Harris and the remaining other two persons to accompany him to the Driver's Cockpit, a bridge-like room at the front of the giant tank-like vehicle.

"Although Both Harris and myself either know how to drive a machine like this, or have the most experience with other military-based vehicles," The Professor began, "it would be a good idea, in my opinion, for all of us to learn how to operate this device -- er, just in case, you understand." He turned to the cockpit and driving controls...

"We have the vision blocks and the Main Drive Controls here," he said, gesturing toward the literally hollow-like area where the driver would sit, the seat sitting before a pair of throttle levers and a myriad of smaller levers, plungers, and other controls. "and while a spotter or even commander or captain is customary up 'Topside,' it looks as if the driver has enough blocks and mirrors and periscopic viewers to handle all of such duties him or herself. He puttered about for a moment, locating several different switches and control levers and plunger controls for various purposes, including speed, gearing, forward, reverse, et cetera."now, I will drive us out, and then when we reach the Open Spaces, and traffic thins out, I wil reliquish teh levers to whomever wants to learn to drive this vehicle."

"Hmmm, yes, here is teh driver's fire control lever, for those rockets our employer was talking about... I assume he also has provided several portable tubes for individual use in the armory section,these do not seem to be very manipulable beyond the frontal dimension...Ahhh, yes, here is the Throttle and the Bellows Wheel."

He spun the indicated wheel and continued to do so for several minutes, until a distinct roaring could be heard, originating from the Steam Collection Dome atop the engines. The gauges in front of him reacted, and soon the Boiler and Drive Piston gauges began to climb into their green areas showing Optimum Pressure. He then set the  brake control lever to 'Open,' and its gauge slowly, then more quickly climbed into the green 'off' position, accompanied by a distant (to their ears) roaring hiss, the Boiler and Drive gauges wavering as it did so.

Then, Van Scagg set the gear lever into the marked '1st' position, disengaged the clutch and let the monster ease into gear, and their hearts all leaped into their chests as the great behemoth began to clank slowly forward, moving faster and building momentum as the Professor shifted gears and applied the throttle, and eased her out the gate and down the dusty highway. The machine kept going faster and faster, the professor dividing his attention between the vision blocks, the Tread Control levers, the Gearshift, and the Spotter's yells and directions. The prescribed schedule speed was finally reached and set by the professor on the gearing and throttle levers, and soon they were roaring ahead along the highroad at nearly sixty miles per hour, a juggernaut of steel and iron...

[Stella Gaslight]

They were moving faster now than Miri had ever gone in her life and she was shocked at the smoothness it ate up the distance with.  "I must try leading this child of Airavata some time."  She wanted to see how every leaver worked and know how it made so much power from water.  In home she had learned her mother's trade.  She could list up to 27 different herbal blends that stopped pain and how to apply them from memory but she could not fully explain how her canteen filter worked in detail. Those were gaps in her knowledge that needed to be filled.  "We will travel along this road For quite some time correct?  If so I can be a long eye to see ahead.  I have my father's watching glass and charm." She pulled out what looked like a miniature transit and a battered looking leather case from her overstuffed pack.   "I have used these to guide my steps all across this country."

[ScytheKnight]

Harris turns from his observation of the various gauges and dials and nods to Miri "Very well, this way." he leads her back a little way to a ladder leading to the top of the rig. Once on top he shows her to the spotters chair where someone can sit relatively protected but still keep an eye on the surrounding terrain.

"This is the spotter's chair, if you sit you'll be sheltered from the worst of the wind, or you can stand to get a better view." He pauses to pick up a small horn with it's tip ending in a hose disappearing into the structure of the rig "This here leads directly to the cockpit, you see anything just pick it up and talk and we'll hear you. There's a speaker here that leads from the cockpit so we can talk to you as well."

With a wave he edges past Miri and slides down the ladder, using only the pressure of his hands and the inside of his feet to control his speed. He is soon back in the cockpit familiarizing himself with with the particular quirks of the engine by observing the gauges and dials occasionally tapping one with a finger to check that it wasn't stuck. After several minutes of this he shakes his head and looks over at the professor in the driving seat "I don't know who our employer, or his friends, got to engineer this monster but they sure knew what they where doing. Never seen an engine handle a rig as heavy as this this smoothly."

[MWBailey]

If you're ready, Harris, I'll be glad to relinquish the controls so that I can go and explore a bit, check the autocolaer, things like that."  And with that he stood up slightly from the seat and let Harris slide in beside him, and then slid out and away, being sure to point out the pertinent knobs, levers, and wheels, especially the two main levers which controlled the engine output for each of teh two main treads.

"those are our main concern, as they control both how fast we go in conjunction with the subsidiary gear levers attached to them(the clutch for each is controlled by those individual squeeze levers on each main lever), and in what direction we are moving. I strongly recommend slowing down significantly for sharp curves or turns; I don't think we'd turn over, but we'd certainly skid around in a part of a circle whilst simultaneously continuing to skid forward,"  He chortled at the mental image of the rig skidding about like some rich kid's souped-up steamhack.

When Harris seemed to have the controls well in hand, he said, "just klaxon for me if you need assistance (he indicated the rig-wide speaking tube with its klaxon button); I'm going to go and find those few things and check on miss Miri, Pitivo and John-- oh, there you are, me boy! Alright, I'm off, hopefully no more than usual, what?" and he moved off, chuckling at the horrible old pun...

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

The sun slowly rising to take it's high position in the sky as the rig rumbles on through the desert. Soon, from the spotter's chair, can be seen a large looming ridge of rock in the middle of the path to Sherwood.

Checking the map would indicate that a more well used road goes around the rocks to the west. This is a slight detour and would take approximately an hour more. As well, roads tend to attract more traffic - and more traffic attracts those who prey off of it.

There also appears to be a series of gaps in the ridge that allow navigation through it - these are not too tight and would make for a more direct route, though there is the danger of running into less than favourable terrain, such as rockpiles. Bandits would be less likely to stake out such a remote path - but bandits are not the only predators in the wastes.

[Stella Gaslight]

Miri was adjusting to the speed well as her leather and glass eye roamed the sands.  The way was clear for now giving her time to learn the lay of the land.  She frowned as the ridge rose in to view and unwound the scarf that had protected her nose and mouth from the grit. "We have a block up ahead.  We can either deviate to the left in about half a mile to go on what looks like a well traveled path or we can keep strait on our heading. As far as I can see both paths are clear."   She was not at ease about this, something was nagging at the back of her mind.   As they had entered the waist proper she had seen a small black flicker following behind them but then vanishing before she could identify it. Not wanting to be the girl that cried wolf she kept quiet until she could be sure. It could have just been some animal disturbed from it's den and she had not seen it again but still it chewed at her.  She kept her eyes on the land watching and waiting.

[MWBailey]

Van Scagg pulled the blunderbuss from his satchel, and checked the primer cap, and teh patch that kept the charge and shrapnel payload within the barrel. Everything was copascetic, as he expected it to be. Truth to tell, he was a bit nervous; he had expected by now to have encountered a jeering, pistol-waving auto cavalcade at the very least; the lack of any sighted banditry at all was making, frankly, nervous. He found the ladder to the spotting platform, intending to inspect the crane on the adjacent deck and see if it had weapon potential. HE climbed the ladder and so came to the spotter's platform; he had made a certain amount of noise coming up the ladder , and clanged teh hatch open and closed, and patted Miri lightly on the shoulder, to let her know he was there in teh area and not startle her.

HE then took his spyglass out of teh satchel, and swept the landscape all around very quickly, hoping to catch someone out there off-guar--THERE! he patted Miri on the shoulder again, and had her look in the direction he pointed, out alongside the road about seventy yards distant. The small spray of dust that seemed to be accompanying the rig, and a shapeless dark form were all that he could make out.

"Miss Miri, can you make out what that is better than I? Those far-lookers've yours look more powerful than my old eyeball stretcher!"

[Stella Gaslight]

Miri watched the dust closely, she did not look happy. "It is small and moving fast.  It could be a few larger pray animals or a predator, they keep coming closer and closer to settlements when the food is scarce or it could be a human, perhaps a single bike and quite good at staying out of sight. Either way I think we may bee in for a spot of adventure very soon.  They may have friends just beyond here."  She pointed at ever growing ridge that was coming up fast.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Pitivo was jostled out of his daydreaming when he noticed the thick, sandy cloud rise up over the dessert, its thick head pressing against the arid background, giving it the illusion of stretching out to eternity.
He stuck his head out of the porthole for a closer look. He narrowed his eyes and covered them from the glaring sun with his hand, but the searing solar light was too great for him to see the nature of the obstacle.

He pulled his head back in and locked the porthole, running to meet Miri and Van Scagg.
"I take it you too saw our approaching obstacle? I am not sure what this thing is, but I am sure that we will want to accelerate. if they wanted to let us know they were here, they would have sent off a signal."

[MWBailey]

Percy led the way back to the Cockpit Room and removed the map given to him by their employer, and spread it out on a table that he folded down from the wall, next to the cockpit proper, tucking the corners under the thin metal straps provided for this purpose at the corners of the surface. "Aha... Yes, here we are, and there is the ridge..." and they all could see, a large-ish bare space bordered by the remains of an old building just beyond it; a perfect place for an ambush.

He looked in the 360^o periscope beside the cockpit proper, and located the dust clouds behind and beside them. "Ahummm... could just be coincidence, but it looks to me like the classic chase-and-ambush scenario. The last thing we need to be doing is passing around the edge of that ridge up yonder, speed or slow... Harris, can you keep up speed and jump over the road-edge to the left, and just keep going and let me slide in and take over?," He folded the map table up back-edge-forward and then twisted it around in its gimballs so that the one driving could see it without difficulty, and then said to the others, I'd recommend arming yourselves to the very teeth. who knows what they'll try to keep us heading for the trap, or if I've guessed wrong, it could be another reason to fight. I'll need somebody up top to help me spot trouble, too, if we can manage that, as well." He slid into the cockpit as Harris slid out, and took over the controls, looking out of the vision blocks just in time to see three cycles on the opposite side of the road jump onto the road and take off wildly down it, toward the bend in the highway, one of them in a sidecar waving his arms frantically and shooting a pistol, it looked like, into the air. Van Scagg slipped the Tank-rig into higher gear, and began the climb up the old talus slope to the notch they needed to take -- jut as a shell soared overhead from behind and exploded off to starboard, just short of a rock boulder next to the ridge. The proverbial 'shot over the bow,' it seemed.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the light change in the starboard-side periscope block, and glanced through it, seeing a sight that made him glad he'd chosen the notch: a steam tank rumbled slowly around the bend in the road from the opposite direction, the turret struggling, on the relatively steep slope, to bring it's gun around to draw a bead on their Benefactor's rig. We need a name for this machine, Van Scagg thought, irrelevantly, as he added another gear setting and opened the throttle wider, then manipulated gears, brakes, throttle, and steering as he managed to make the rig climb up into the notch, over and around the loose falls and slides, shells bursting and exploding on and bullets spanging off of the rock walls around them. He heard reports as from the others firing at the enemy, then the far side of the notch came up...

[ScytheKnight]

As soon as Harris was free of the cockpit seat he snatched up Deadeye's case and quickly took the modified rifle out of it. "I'll head up top, time for me to shows these fools why I'm called 'Deadeye'." he said as he dashed back to the ladder leading to the spotters seat and scampered up it.

Once up top he quickly took stock of the situation, a classic Hammer and Anvil ambush, 'Well this'll be interesting.' he thought wryly as he hunkered down in the seat area to load Deadeye. Once fully loaded and with more ammo easily at hand for reloading Harris cautiously peaked over the guard plating and chose his first target, the pistol waver in the side car, he brought Deadeye over the side and looked down the scope. As usual in situations like this much of the world seemed to disappear, he was utterly calm as he settled into the breathing pattern drilled into any skilled rifleman, then at just the right time he squeezed the trigger and the pistol waver's head was nearly torn apart by the round, the rider was so surprised by the spray that he lost control and crashed into the other two bikes.

The chaos caused by Harris' first shot was barely noticed by him as he lined up his next shot, he was lost to the rhythm of the the fight, the slow controlled breathing, the action of the rifle in his hands, the movements of his targets...

[Nigel Wetherby]

Pitivo did not need to be told twice about arming himself, and made sure his armor was strapped on tight and his beloved gauntlets secured to his arms before reaching for his revolver, though not much good at long range, would service him well if worse came to worse. He smoothly inserted a few shells into all eight chambers of his gun before running down the aisle towards the gatling turrent.
The sudden shift in gear forced him into a backward lurch and slammed his face into the floor.

Pitivo righted himself and ran, ignoring the wrenching sensation in his gut as the speed doubled and the turret's ladder came into sight. He grasped at the bottom rung and scrambled nervously up into the rotational canopy, which was turned via foot petals.
He peeked out the slit in the armored chamber and grasped the handles of the fearsome, steel chewing guns.
"Right then, let's give 'em a show then!"
He waited until the tank came into sight and let off a warning shot aimed at their treads.

[Stella Gaslight]

Miri scrambled back out the hatch to the spotters seat and was almost tossed off the side when the sudden shift happened.  Hanging on like a monkey she made it to the seat and turned at around to give her protection and not a moment too soon as bits of rock fell from the exploded shell.  She peered out keeping most of her body hidden.  She saw bikes coming out of a cave half hidden with scrub in front of them.  Who ever planned this planed it well.  She crawled over to the speaking tube and the first shot pinged off the metal hide of the rig.  "We have disturbed an ant hill.  Four more are coming from ahead."  She shouted putting on her dust gear and aiming her bow carefully. If it flue true the first bike would go badly out of control when she hit the tire an take some of the others out too.

[MWBailey]

Miri's first shot had forced a knot of riders to steer toward the front of the rig; tanks were one thing, but autos and cycles were another. Van Scagg felt only a deep smoldering rage as he ran down those who failed to get out of the rig's path. There was a gunport just in front of Percy, and a hatch up above. The hatch was placed such that if all other modes of vision were lost, the driver could poke his head up and look out to see the road, or use the gunport in similar fashion. Van Scagg poked the blunderbuss through the gunport, and with it blasted down three riders who had erected a short and low wall and crouched behind it holding rocket tubes. The rockets flew wide, but wewre lost to sight at the the far end of teh notch just before teh rig reached that exit.

The Rig came out of the far side of the notch, then, and directly ahead and below, another tank (this one lacking a long gun and looking rather shot-up) was seen to be moving to block the notch's exit, although it was considerably smaller and vulnerable-looking.  Van Scagg actually had no real alternative. They were going too fast to brake, and were too heavy and too close for it anyway; their mass and momentum, coupled with the scree-littered slope, would have  made any attempt at stopping a losing proposition, and in any case, it was doubtful that the bandits would be willing to negotiate after so many of their number had been killed. So, the Professor did just as he had done years before at the Battle of Battersea when the driver was killed by a lucky artillery strike and he'd been forced by the commander's (Lord Motley-Something-or-Other) lack of driver training, to take over the controls; he simply gunned the throttle and gears, aiming the juggernaut of the rig at the pathetically-smaller armored vehicle. "All Hands, hang on to something solid, he yelled through the speaking system, "we're going to run right over that tank..."

[Nigel Wetherby]

"I'm sorry, I thought I had something DAFT in my ear!" Barked Pitivo from his perch.
"What meeting of the great minds of physics assembled and declared that a battle-made tank would be easily crushed by a rig? Even of we do get on top of it, the tank could easily make a sharp turn and flip us onto our sides! Then it would be like opening a can of damned kippers!"

He concentrated on opening another spray of fire at the fast approaching tanks, the searing lead slugs shrieked through the air towards the tank.
"If we just filled one of tjhe mioni bikes with explosives and sent it rolling at the tank, we could probably crack it open like caned bread."

All this talk of canned goods was making Pitivo hungry, but he left his insticnt at the door and did his best to think up more alternatives to a screeching suicide ram.

[MWBailey]

There came a moment when the front end of the rig hung out over the edge of the huge stone bench that comprised the end of the notch; like most vehicles of the tracked variety, the rig was subject to not only the weight of the front end, but of the back as well, which caused the front end to stick out and then swing down, and just as Van Scag had hoped,  come down right in front of the junked, barely-mobile jalopy of a tank, their momentum carrying them past before the tank could have turned its turret and fired, if it had a gun, which in fact it didn't. The other tanks did, however, and they all used theirs to blast the would-have-been roadblock out of the the way -- at exactly the worst possible angles and with the absolute worst possible timing; the shots that didn't detonate and blow up the tank's boiler ricocheted back and struck bandit tanks, motorcyclists, and rockpiles and rock walls, causing even greater confusion and mayhem.  Those few survivors who got past the pile-up at the notch's exit tore off madly after the rig, but their numbers were severely reduced...

[Stella Gaslight]

Miri made herself very small indeed cramming most of herself under the chair.  She sill felt the sting of hot rock from above as she was slammed sideways.  Her body stayed mainly covered but she cracked her head hard enough to see stars and loosen her grip on the chair. Dazed and half limp she tumbled from her safe place over the side and just barely caught in to the housing of the speaking tube.  Miri held on for dear life as the rig shifted again righting itself and smacking her against the side with a rather loud thump.  She could not pull herself up like this.  Miri thumped the side again and hoped that help would come before the strength in her arms went. 

[MWBailey]

Back in the cockpit, Van Scagg figured out how to swivel the 360^o periscopeover to the drivers seat, and checked teh progress of the bandits who were still on their tail. He cursed when he saw that they were close behind and closing, and slipped both tracks into high gear, upped the steam throttle, and bumped down the scree-and-talus slope to the relative flatness of the valley floor, and then back up onto the road, a good hour-and-a-half's time sliced off the timetable...but still three cyclists behind them.

He checked the relative scales showing water level in teh reservoir and coal-weight still in the bunkers, and then the periscope, and cursed when it seemed that someone had shot out the port vision block. Such a shot should have been impossible, given the hugeness of the prism and its location, nonetheless...wait...the port lightened , and daylight filtered through ...human HAIR? Then a familiar face, blurred and distorted by proximity, loomed up and eclipsed teh port again. "MIRI!? What in the bloody blazes are ya doin' looking in th--!" It dawned on him what must have happened, and he grabbed teh speaking tube, and shouted through it, "SOMEBODY help MIRI! she's fallen off th' Observer's Deck and hangin fer dear life o'er th' port periscope! PITIVO! 'ARRIS! JOHN! Can Any Of Ye Get To 'Er?"

[ScytheKnight]

Harris was broken out of his trance by the Professor's announcement, he quickly grabbed the tube at his end and called back "Harris here, I'm already up top I'll grab her." then without bothering to take the safer rout through the rig he starts to run across the roof of it, a precarious action with the weight of the rig still shifting from time to time and the surface not meant for high speed dashes.

Never the less with only a few stumbles and a couple of curses he reached the spot where Miri had fallen over the side. A quick look around showed him that he wouldn't be able to simply grab her and haul her up. Another look showed nothing that he could easily toss over the side for her to hold onto, with a quick muttered curse he took the only action he could and wedging himself into place he grabs hold of Dead Eye from the end of the barrel and lowers the stock towards Miri.

"Grab on and I'll haul you up! Make sure you get a good firm grip!"

[Stella Gaslight]

Miri scrambled to grasp the worn wooden stock legs flailing to keep the rest of her body stable. She gripped the wood as tightly as she could knuckles turning white from the force.  "I am clinging like a barnacle, haul away." She shouted over the din of the rig.

[ScytheKnight]

Using a steady hand over hand technique Harris slowly draws Miri up towards the railing with his back and arms straining under the weight. It only takes a couple of minutes for Harris to bring Miri up to the point where she can grab hold of the rail and pull herself into the observation perch.

After a few deep breaths Harris shakily picks up the horn and says "Okay Professor, she's back on board... get us out of here before those bandits work out where we're going."

[MWBailey]

"Right!" Roger!" Van Scagg answered and sent back, " hang on tight, both of you; Miri, strap yourself into the chair, and Harris, there should be a safety line and belt hanging somewhere near there. if there isn't then just hang the hell on, I'm going to speed us up a bit. Pitivo? see if you can pick off a couple of those motorcyclists, if you wi-- oh, DAMMIT!" A cycle carrying a rider and a passenger had pulled up just ahead, and the rider, in an apparent bout of insanity, clambered up on the front of the Rig, and was prying open the driver's gunport. Vanscagg drew his Bergmann and cocked and fired it just as the port opened, striking the  bandit in the shoulder of the arm he was holding on with, causing the fellow to lose his grip and fall off, screaming as the portside treads crushed him in a split second -- but still the bandit had managed to fire into to the port, shooting the professor's slouch hat off, but completely missing everything else (besides what the bullet ricocheted off of, of course; Percy didn't have time to look and see what got hit. He hoped nothing vital) The professor upped the gearing then, and threw the throttle most of thew rest of the way forward, catching the motorcyclist ahead by surprise as the rig struck him a glancing blow on the rear tire, and bounced him off the road and smack up against a rock, where the cycle blew itself to pieces...