"STEAM LONDON" Game Thread

[MWBailey]

"Thanks, 'Lisha! Dreyfuss shouted, and then drove in with  saber slashing and parrying, slashing off a limbtip here, clanging against another saber there, leaping back out when both blades threatened to meet in his throat...
 After a while, he pulled back, Yelled "Get back and DUCK! and poured teh whitefire into teh boat gun, and pulled the trigger...

BOOOOOMMM

The Tsar screamed in agony then, and appeared to be trying to escape...

[Nigel Wetherby]

The familiar rumble of propellers siddenly filled the air, calling the attention of Patrick ajnd the rest of the crew.The airships of the Aether league soared proudly like fat, metal eagles. hailstorms of bullets came down upon the cold ones that surrounded Patrick and the others. Their shots cleared a path for the rest of the crew as hunks of arbiter shell and brute muscle were stripped off in shreds by the barrage.
"KNOWLEDGE ETERNAL!" The voices of the crew cried as Patrick charged towards the tower, following the wake of their bullets and killing any cold one that dare attempt to interrupt. Cain stood by his side and did his share of killing as well.
"Come on. lads! The boys need a little help, methinks!" He said sardonically. The Aether league ships continued to pelt the cold ones along the ground with hot, rune-etched lead.

Brian watched the Tsar change form, his grin like an open wound. He would wait until the tzar was killed, such a mighty beast's blood would be such a wonderful addition to his collection, and the blood of such soldiers would be an excellent touch as well. He relished in his imaginining the wonder of having their souls in his bondage.

[ShredsnPatches]

Jen shook her head furiously, trying to dislodge the haze that had descended when she was being strangled. She began to chant and run alabaster fingers along the blade of her sword. Bright green flames began to spark from the metal, and when they were blazing brightly she swung it in a deadly weaving dance, destroying dozens of blackflies with every stroke.

[Stella Gaslight]

The brute had attacked many people in it's short life and some had responded with screaming but nothing like this. Emma was firing away letting loose a torrent of insults that would have thoroughly cowed most people while glaring with an intensity only mildly weaker than her ray gun.  George just had to laugh the beast looked almost apologetic as Emma screeched at him.  He had been the focus of that anger before and knew it was not pleasant.  Emma finally distroyed the creature and then decided to take out the rest of her anger on the arbiter that had stepped on her.  Several shots, a pile of insults and one good kick later he was gone too.  Emma gravitated to Jen's side falling easily in to a defensive position behind her.  All the fighting they had done together on the ship was perfect practice for this battle.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Alright lads, we need to slash and burn out way to the tower. The boys in the zepplins'll handle the rest of these clowns! Cain, be a dear and mow us a nice little path, eh?"
Cain nodded his head, a smirk that must run in the family crossing his lips as he charged headlong into the swathe of arbiters, blocking the downward sweep of a chitinous claw and replying with a cruel grab and twist, liberating the deadly extension from the beast and embedding it into the creature's head. It was amazing to think this being posessed all the courtesy and politeness of a well-mannered butler.
Cain hurled the broken corpse of a brute towards a pack of its kin, using the corpse as cover to attack beneath the body, sweeping both deus blades and robbing the creatures of their legs. Cain sang his song and let it flow through him like blood. Liquid music drove the construct foreward.

Patrick converged with Emma and Jen, letting blasts from his heat-rune etched rifle burn the flesh of his targets, occaisonally letting blasts of white fire belch from his rifle's buisness end to dissademble any charging blackflies.

[MWBailey]

They had been watchingthe cloud of smoke and Flame that was London for over three hours, as they drew near first to the coast, and then the London Relief Task Force of the Republic of Texas Air Fleet followed the old route in: The Medway (having gotten no headings to follow, apparently due to the battle still in progress). Five Airships in all; three ironclad underslungs (Stephen F. Austin, Juan Seguin, and Deaf Smith) and two of the new "Capital Airship" Zeppelins (Revenge and Jean Lafitte).

They finally realized that the whole giant, flame-filled cloud of smoke was London, both its skies and its streets, the sky filled with Aerial men-o-war trading broadsides and sinking or simply exploding in midair, and its streets filled with leaping machines ("hopping marties," as the Texians called them, after having had to drive back an incursion of such on their northern borders) It soon became clear that it was the Russians who were doing most of the sinking and exploding. The Texian commanding admiral got on "the horn," as they called the Aetherphones, calling for and hailing the Head Ally...

"Ahoy! This is Rear Admiral Miles Ashcroft, Republic of Texas Fleet, calling british or allied C in C, we are here to aid you, repeat, this is Rear admiral Miles Ashcroft, calling--!"

He was cut off as five Russian War Zeppelins broke off and began dropping their last bombs, and ran, pell-mell, for home, right toward the newcomers.

The rear admiral hailed the Russians, saying, "Commander of Russian sortie, cut all engines and heave to, or be shot from the sky!"

The Russians obviously figured the Texians to be raw, lightly-trained recruits, as they began firing their forward guns and charging en masse straight toward the Texian line.

Which didn't budge an inch.

Instead, being as they were just turning from following the Medway, they were directly athwart the course of the five Russians, and simply opened fire with every turret, casemate, and deck gun that could be brought to bear. Deadly fire engulfed the Russian group, and two of the five simply exploded in midair, a third broke in half and fell in flames. A fourth managed to get through by ramming the Deaf Smith, causing it to break apart and snap its suspension cables, dropping the hulk and its crew to their deaths.

The rammer and its sole remaining companion beat a hasty escape through teh resulting gap, the ramming ship sustaining heavy damage but still flying fast although burning heavily, the second showing damage but still in commission as they both fled toward the Channel and home via long overland haul over Europe to Russia...

The Texian admiral sent the war zeppelin Jean Lafitte after the two, telling it to seek and destroy no matter how far they went, then called and hailed for the C in C of the allies, and any word of a certain Commodore Jaisen S. Dreyfuss, finally getting a reply and being told that the British and allied commanders were not aware of a commodore named Dreyfuss, but that a certain former Marauder airship Captain, named Jaisen Dreyfuss, was somewhere close to St. Petersburg with the APF Boheme.

The Texian rear admiral thanked teh Allied C in C and offered his squadron's services for the duration of the battle and its aftermath...

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma was grinning as they fought their way forward, a bit of yelling did a body good sometimes.  Cain and Angel were a head while they held the middle and Irene and George brought up the rear.  They slowly made their way to the labs of Viktor Erebus only to find a flood of cold ones, scientists and twisted monsters running from the building.  "What is going on?" Emma asked completely confused.

[MWBailey]

The Jean Lafitte finally ran down the Vladimir Vlonskaya, the ship which had rammed the Deaf Smith, as she finally slowed and stopped, in mid-Channel, to delay the Lafitte and allow the gunship Potemkin to fly onward toward home. the Vlonskaya hung, nose-downward, flames roaring and licking up the hull toward the 'midships batteries and the stern, and even then she still managed to fire a few guns, sporadically, at the Lafitte.

The Lafitte Hailed the Vlonskaya and offered terms; the Russian commander refused, ordering a broadside of the remaining manned and usable guns as punctuation of his answer. The Texian commander then ordered a full by-the-numbers repeated broadside, which completely demolished the Vlonskaya and caused it to detonate in midair, the
remaining debris falling, burning, into the channel far below.

The order then came through on the horn, to continue to pursue the ships, even if they went all the way to St. Petersburg, since Commodore Dreyfuss was apparently there. Teh commander of teh Lafitte answere dthat onlyone now remained, apparently teh gunship/hell galleon Potemkin. The orders were changed, then, to seeking and destroying the Potemkin, subject to the same constraints.

Orders were also given to aid Dreyfuss and the Boheme, it's crew, and it's allies, in and by whatever means they required, and then serve as liaison and escort, bringing Dreyfuss home to Texas at the end of all related aftermath and/or state functions, if any occurred, and/or after Dreyfuss considered his business in England or Europe to be concluded.

The Lafitte's commander accepted the orders, and proceeded after the Potemkin.

Typically, no one had stopped to consider whether or not Dreyfuss might have had other ideas...

[E.A. Claringbold]

Irene thought about refusing to go with the others in favor for sticking with Dreyfuss, but she thought it best to go along with the rest. They never said she couldn’t kill their own; she was not necessarily bound by the same rules. Drawing her two short swords, she hacked and slash, wantonly letting the tongue of her blades taste flesh and crimson.  Keeping up with the rest of the group, she looked about warily. Anytime. Anytime was good, but she had to wait for the best time to spring up her surprise. If she didn’t, then she would botch up and they would know and then others would know that they knew. She knew what would happen after that, her small daguerreotype would be slipped out of its little oval frame and would be tossed into the hungry maws of fire. Just when they reached a building with its occupants fleeing, she slipped away after inconspicuously dropping a now active explosive she had picked up. If they noticed, they noticed. She was somewhat awfully sorry (she did not expect the explosion to kill them, even less, damage them, but it was worth a try), they were a lovely bunch of people and if she had the time to she would look back on her brief moment on the Boheme one of the most comfortable and heartwarming time of her short life, but she had to think for herself and get her life out of the others hands and back into her own physically.

[MWBailey]

After reloading the boat gun and slinging it onto his shoulder once more, Dreyfuss brought the coilgun around from his back, where it had been clipped to the backpack, and proceeded to fire plasmic balls into the Tsar, rushing in when an opening appeared, to slash, stab, or cut at the body of the once-man, then backing off and firing again, then allowing Elisha or Ella or abe (or Rosie as well, her venom seeming to be anathema to the Cold Ones) to step in and strike a blow or five.

Then Dreyfuss had an idea; this thronehall was apparently in a tower or part of a wing that had a southern exposure, for the afternoon sun was shining on the wall and floor of the room at the back of the hall. Dreyfuss therefore intensified his attack, and gestured for teh others to drive the Tsar back in the direction he was trying to go. If we can get him into the full sunlight, he thought, We will have him in what, for him, would be a very bad place.

-------------------------------
Abe understood instinctively what Dreyfuss wanted to do; it was common sense, really, just drag the heat-hating monster into the sunlight, thus weakening it and making it easier to kill. He got an idea., and ran around the others and into the sunny room, and spied a steam radiator under the window. He looped the rope around the pipe, tied off the end, and then grabbed the grapnel with its cruelly-sharp tines, and ran back to the other room.

The rope proved to be more than long enough. Abe cast the grapnel such that it caught and sank into the soft flesh on the back of the Tsar-Squid thing's head, the Tsar shouting in agony at the turn of events, and then ran back into teh sunny room, untied teh rope, and began hauling on it with everything he had. Ella saw him, and joined him, letting the two veteran soldiers handle the actual fighting. Together they inexorably pulled and drove the Tsar into the sun-filled room, and into the sunlight, where he began to steam and stink, and scream aloud in agony...

[Nigel Wetherby]

The chaos brought confusion and clouded judgement to those who listened to the song of their panic. But a song of something else pinged alone amid the chaos like an island of snow amid a sea of lava. It felt as if it would be gone within seconds and would leave something terrible in it's place. Patrick turned towards the source of the song, his eyes widening to see that it was a clockwork explosive. He sliced and shot his way through the crowd and grabbed the surface of the bomb. The counter seemed merely seconds away from hitting the zero and sending the whole building sky high. He let the trigger wind itself back.
"A few more seconds is all I need." He thought to himself before grabbing the bomb and hurling it with all his might into the crowd of cold ones.
3....

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" He screamed, tackling Jen and Emma, sending the two reeling into the floor. Angel and Cain followed Patrick's orders, leaping onto the ground and spreading their wings protectively over their softer crew members.

2...

Patrick grabbed Irene's ankle and pulled her under the protective shield of Angel and Cain's wingspan.

1...

Boom.
Followed by a series of even louder "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM"s Apparently, the laboratory was a weapons experimentation lab, meaning there were plenty of volatile compounds to add to the shockwave of the blast.
When the dust settled Cain stood up. His joints creaked and the skin all across his back had melted away, leaving him as a metal skeleton only slightly covered in skin.
"I...is everyone okay?" He asked shakily, his jaws creaking as he spoke.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I am alright but dammed if that didn't give me a headache."  Emma said crawling out from under Angel's wings and dusting debris from her increasingly tattered clothes and hopeing the ringing would leave her ears eventually.

George looked to be pouting by his tank. "I was just getting used to the blasted thing."   A large chunk of building had smashed it flat.

Angel looked at Cain and frowned giving him a big hug.  "You are all drippy.  Does it hurt? Can I make it better?" 

[E.A. Claringbold]

“Oof”

She did not manage to walk away. With her second step, Patrick grabbed her ankle and pulled her down under angel and Cain’s wings.  For a moment, she thought it was because he knew that she was the one who had dropped the explosive. She was silently and mildly cursing in her mind as she quickly got up, one hand on the hilt of her short sword ready to draw on the Boheme crew if need be.

[MWBailey]

Sudd4enly, just as dreyfuss brought the boat gun down off of his shoulder to blast the Tsar once again, the entire palace shook, and seemed to actually bend like a pine tree in a high wind, and then snap back upright again, pieces of masonry dislodged and falling all over the building.

Including the sunny room, where a huge block of stone fell and pinned the Tsar.

Dreyfuss decided the time had come once again for mercilessness, yelled "SHIELD YOURSELVES!" and called the whitefire, filled the boat gun with it, and let it all loose, powder and pistolballs and heatrunes and whitefire adn all, with a roar of pure anger, the others ducking and turning away as the world went to an entirely negative image and then back again. The sun-filled room was now a smoke-and stinking-steam-filled room...

[Arabella Granger]

Ella tried to peer through the blinding smoke that filled her lungs and caused her eyes to stream, fighting to see what the outcome of the explosion had been. Coughing violently to expel the toxic air from her lungs, she looked around. "Is it--" she collapsed into another coughing fit. "--over?"

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma helped Irene to her feet, Emma didn't notice her hand on the sword but she did notice the other woman's tense expression. Emma got the reason behind the expression completely wrong. "That was quite a boom but you don't have to worry we are safe now." 

[E.A. Claringbold]

“I-…”

She realized that they assumed nothing, or at least Emma assumed nothing. Well, that was well botched. On the bright side it just gave her another chance. Her hand moved away from her blade.

“Yes- It was... It’s just so different to be in midst of the danger outside of a tank,” she said with a hint of bewilderment pretending to be shaken.

She lied just as she lied the very first time about what she was doing around their crash site.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Oh..." A voice from the shadows cackled. "...Not by a longshot."
The Tsar emerged from the smoke, waving smoke and debris away almost absent-mindedly. His claws rubbed together as if he were sharpening knives. A malicious grin crossing his face.
"You're all out of tricks, old man. Oh don't worry, I'll kill you first, so the little tin soldier might watch."

Patrick looked towards Irene "Are Ye alright? That was a damn big blast, and Dref'd kill me if Ye died." Patrick flashed her a freindly smile. He seemed utterly oblivious to her attempt at treachery.
Operative word being "seemed"
Cain looked at his back, Curious as to why Angel said he was drippy.
"Oh, well would you look at that." Cain said, seeming rather unphased by the blast or its casualty toward the fake skin of his back. He grabbed a white coat from a half-incinerated scientist and slipped it on.
"There we go. This will do until we get home."

[MWBailey]

"Bring it on, Mr. Calamari!" Dreyfuss called. "come and kill this poor, defenseless old man...knowing they were behind him, dreyfuss held his hand behind his back, holding the Aether damper, it's pin pulled out, and the timer ticking over. He pointed in the direction of the door, and sent the thought to Elisha, full of whitefire, GET OUT, BEFORE THIS THING GOES OFF! NOW!
HE heard them both scrambling out of the door, and then felt the last of the ticks clacking over, and then threw the Aether damper grenade so that it went up, over, and down behind the Tsar, who laughed at his apparent ineptness. An odd nimbus of not-energy, almost an exact negative of an explosion, welled up behind the Tsar, and then Dreyfus leaped backwards, out through the door, then leaped again to the side...

The not-flame of teh damper field followed him out into the hall, filling it and several room sin all direction swith the immediate lessening of aetheric energy. He heard teh Tsar scream, then, a long, wailing, agonized, despairing scream, like a lost soul grabbed at the edge of hell, nearly having escaped, but suddenly grabbed and hauled back...

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma spoke a bit oddly because she could barely hear her own voice over the buzzing in her ears. "We had better get going to find Dreyfuss quickly or we might not have anyone to return Miss Frost to."  Emma felt rather than heard another boom and was rather glad it was a ways off.   One near blowing up was enough for a day.

Angel looked approvingly at Cain's coat and helped him ease his wings through some well placed burn holes. "One is off flying with the ships he told me he will make sure the monsters are all made to go away.  The others are fighting something very bad we should go help."

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Pity pity pity..." Brian sighed, approaching the Tsar, now slowed to a crawl.
"To think, the queen favored you once." He said with a pitiless chuckle.
"What....do....you....mean...once?" The nigh-paralyzed Tzar inquired.
"Oh, she didn't tell you? Well one cannot blame her, wanting to trade up for a superior being."
"Damn...you...."
"What goes around comes around, Sir." Brian extended a single, thin claw and dragged it across the Tzar's neck. Black blood gushed from the wound as the Tsar weakly gurgled and choked as Brian wrapped his mouth around the flowing wound. The blood magus hungrily drank from the chalice of the former ruler.
"Yesssssssss" The monster called Brian cackled, his voice becoming a venom-laced hiss. He felt his black flesh ooze and reshape, altering itself accordingly to his recently aquired power. His body thickened with squirming muscles that writhed like pythons just beneath his skin. His face stretched and lengthened, becoming a twisted, multi-toothed carichature of some boschian nightmare. His fingers becoming long, cruel blades like those of a schimitar. His two legs split off into four, transforming him into a demonic centaur-like beast. He hissed with sinister glee as he felt such power course through his veins.

Patrick and Cain felt terrible tremors roll up their spines as an evil prescence grew stronger within this world.   

[E.A. Claringbold]

“Yes, I’m fine,” she managed to smile.

It seemed as if Patrick was unaware as well. Her eyes went over to Cain and his injury before he pulled a jacket over it. That was from the explosive she had set off. Irene resisted the urge to bite her lower lip. She put her hand on Emma’s arm in an endearing way.

“Yes, let’s,” she replied as she too felt another rumble that was further away.

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel tugged on Cain's arm looking worried. "We have to go now Cain. I don't like the changes in the song around here one bit."

One felt the change too and broke off from the ships something full of discord was growing not to far from him and it was making him feel ill.  He wheeled around in the sky to find the source and zeroed in on the winter palace.

"I promise to look out for you Miss Frost. I know we are dropping you in to the fire but we are there to back you up too."  Emma said cheerfully.

[ShredsnPatches]

Jen's head snapped around. She could sense something not far off... something familiar and hated, and utterly, utterly vile... Brian.

With a final flick of her flaming sword, she dispatched the last of the blackflies and began to stealthily make her way towards the source of the disturbance.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick followed close behind Jen, rifle shouldered as he said a prayer to himself for the rest of the crew. However, for every step Patrick and Jen took, Cain took four. His extended deus blades and determined look entailed that he would square off with this devilish doppleganger.

I am so proud of you my son...when you kill all those annoying humans, I shall let you tear apart that wretched girl's picture so you may watch her die...
"You are so nice to me mother..." Cain hissed as he stared at the dessicated corpse of the fallen Tsar. He could feel his weaker half approaching.