"STEAM LONDON" Game Thread

[Stella Gaslight]

"I hope you will include me in your lessons on electricity." Emma was rather bothered that there was some facet of science she knew little about.  "Now about your sonic cannon, do you think it could be altered to broadcast over a certain range of signals over a confined area?  Because If it can I think we may just be able to project George all over the ship. If we can do that then we can also cut communication and mess with any aether based technology on any ship in range.  George can be a regular gremlin when he want to."  She was grinning wickedly and both boys were glad that she was on there side.   

[Madboy Soli]

      Madboy had seen workshops, and Madboy had seen WORKSHOPS. This was the later, that was for darn sure. Tools and parts lay strewn about, everything from tiny allen wrenchs to what looked like part of an airship hull. Looking around Madboy saw enought gizmos and whatnots for him to arm a small army.
      "This looks about right. But who exactly has been giving your troubles?"

[Z. Goodall]

Dr. Goodall had been listening intently on the voices in the workshop. They were for the most part friendly, but some, as always, weren't too happy with the current tenements. A particular spirit seemed attatched to a spot of ground. She kept muttering incoherently to herself, he'd have to check on that later. Meanwhile, he wandered the rest of the dim shop.

[Nigel Wetherby]

The idea hit Patrick like a ton of bricks "Hmmm, not a bad idea Em' Maybe if we could find a way to hook up the Aetherphones to a sort of sound projector, or a series of them placed all over the ship, we could create a sort of Aetheric intercom!" Exlaimed Patrick.
Part of him knew Emma would lap the idea up like honey.

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma bit her knuckle thinking it over. "That could just work but we will have to make sure it doesn't disrupt the ships wireless.  Hmm maybe we could try tandem frequencies but we will have to find one George can inhabit without making himself ill in the long term.  Some channels are a bit like being stuck on a carousel for hours fun at first and then nauseating with time."

"That will be easy enough to test."  George said through the aetherphones. Trip felt rather left out as Emma, George and Patrick stated to have a conversation he could only hear parts of.

[sir charles of tayle]

Down in lower London Charles was having a strange meeting in the middle of the night.

"Look I told you,he gave me a sleeping pill,how was I supposed to know" Whined Charles.

"You are our best,I mean THE BEST OF THE BEST! Thats how your supposed to know!"

 "OK fine I made one mistake, but I think I am allowed one mistake in my entire carrier!" Said Charles in a annoyed voice.

"ONE MISTAKE! This was not ONE mistake this was several, I told you not to allow that man to be in your company so long you should have killed him off earlier!"

"You underestimate the power of a man seaking revenge"Stated Charles

"Anyway a man stole the crown Jewls a while back why don't you go track him instead?"

"Oh no chief! This is my case and I will finish it, I just need another ship"

"Very well I will give you another chance but dint ruin it again!"

With that they parted and disappeared into the night...

[Stella Gaslight]

(The Coraline finds its' prey)
Piloting the ship on his own was harder than Nathanial expected.  He stopped briefly in the docks of Kabul to refuel and pick up a crew member or two from the young men that seemed to hang around the docks in every port town.  No one had seen The Bloody Flower but he was certain of their flight path and they had to come through Kabul sometime so he waited. 

He fell asleep and missed them by a few hours but he was back on the trail now.  The problem was there were far to many places in these mountains for a ship to hide. Nate felt a burst of rage at the though that they may have gotten away. One of the lads shouted that there was a ship off the port side.  He rushed to the window but it wasn't The Flower but just maybe it had seen them pass by.

Nate nudged The Coraline closer and noticed three figures slung over the side of the ship.  He shouted for his telescope and spotted a rather familiar looking face.  The hair was a different color but there was no mistaking the odd silver horns, It was Miss Lighton.  What on earth was she doing here?  Nate pulled the ship closer and looked at the two men that were with her. The redhead he had never seen before but the brunet was making him uneasy and he couldn't figure out why until he turned to face Emma.  It was Tailor.  Nate began to wonder if he had something to do with Miss Lighton's sudden disappearance.  Either way Tailor would be punished for his crimes.  Nate grinned and told the boy manning the cannons to fire a warning shot.  That slippery bas**rd wasn't going to vanish this time.

[Linners]

"Recently, or should I give you a history of the enemies I've amassed over the years?" she asked dryly, finding a kerosene lamp and lighting it. "I've stopped trying to remember, frankly. But recently? The Church, mostly. They do not particularly... approve of my dabblings in the Aether, keep ranting about the end of the world, some rot like that." She hung the lamp in the middle of the room, and snapped her fingers. Hundreds of smaller lamps hanging from the ceiling lit. "The Church consists mostly of mutants, brain-addled idiots, but the heads are important people around here. Leaders of almost every species down here are part of the Church. Most I know about them is that they worship the Aether, and do not appreciate people outside of the Church exploiting it in any way."

[T.Taylor the Third]

Trip Noticed the air ship pulling closer.
he pointed it out to Emma and patrick and suggested that they be prepaired to ward of any attack.
Emma and Patrick Agreed to this and since the repairs to the gasbag were pretty much finished they all returned to the main deck of "The Boheme" and watched the ship pull near. Trip pulled a small telescope from his pocket and scanned the deck of the approaching ship.
in doing so he saw a familiar man watching him through a telescope.Trip knew He had seen that face someware.
"oh...well Fire and brimstone!" trip thought as he realized who the man was.
"what should i do, should i hide in my room. No that wont work hes already seen me, and it would certainly make George suspicious. I'm just going to have to
stand by my store of camouflage masks and stolen teleporters." he suddenly thought of the knives in his pocket and realized that Nathan would probably recognize them "i have to hid them, no.no i don't he's not going to search me
i wont have it..." trip stood nervously by patrick and Emma .

"ahoy the ship" called Nathan
"yes what do you want" called back Emma
"You have a criminal aboard your ship, may i come over,"
"a criminal?" thought Emma "whats he talking about" Aloud she said " certainly sir I think you should come over and explane yourself."
"Thank you ma'am" Nathan said as he waled over the gangplank and onto the Boheme "Now about the criminal"
" I wonder where the captain is he should be here to meet a guest aboard his ship...oh well I'm sure he's fine" thought patrick
 

[Nigel Wetherby]

"A prisoner's aboard tha ship? Well a criminal to one government may be a hero to another, what empire do ya represent?" Asked Patrick, suspicious of this commodore.
True, he hated the little beanpole for takin' Emma, but she made him happy, and bloody blazes if some monkey in a suit was gunna make 'er sad.
"I warn ye, I wont be wantin' no international incident..." He fingered the hilt of his blade.

[Stella Gaslight]

Something about this man kept making thoughts prickle in the back of her head.  Did she know him?  George was the first to figure it out.  "Emma, That is Nathanial Walker."  He sounded as confused as she was.  "Really George?" The man before them bared little resemblance to the friendly bookseller the knew in London. He was gaunt and sleepless with dark circles around his eyes. What had happened to him?  "Nate?" she asked stepping forward. 

He grabbed her in to something that was between a hug and an attempt at full body restraint. "Miss Lightion Thank god you are safe. Which one of these villains kidnapped you.?" His voice wavered wildly.

Emma blinked.  "Nate I have no idea what you are talking about.  I am a crewmen on The Boheme now. Sorry I haven't written but there just hasn't been time." She tried to leave his embrace but he was strong.  "Will you let go of me please?"

He held her tighter and pulled out a ray gun aiming it at Trip.  "You don't think I have forgotten what you did to me.  Three hours of bleeding on the floor with no way to call for help. I will pay you back in spades for that scum."  Nate's voice was almost a growl but when he looked at Emma he smiled.  "Don't worry Miss Emma I will get this all sorted out and get you home soon."

Emma was starting to panic it was too close to her nightmare. "Nate you have it all wrong. That is my friend Trip.  He helped save my life and drive off some pirates that were attacking us.  The other one is Patrick and neither of them has ever done a thing to harm me. Why don't you put the weapon down and I am sure we can explain things."    He wasn't listening and he didn't even seem to be seeing her now.     

"He has gone around the bend.  Get him off Emma before he tries something." George said checking the ship to see if they had any reinforcements near by.  They were in luck the captain was just down the hall.

Emma's heart was beating like a drum. "Let me go Nate. Your hurting me."  He started to pull her back towards the gangway. "Get your hands off of me." She screamed.

[T.Taylor the Third]

Trips mind was racing trying to find a way out of this predicament
"if i had known He was crazy I would have shot him instead of pricking him with my knives" he thought he wanted to go for his gun but ,not only could it make Nathan do something even more drastic than threatening Emma, his guns weren't all that accurate, he would just as likely hit Emma as Nate.
his mind ran through the list of stuff in his visible and hidden pockets
"sonic screwdriver..no uh..knives no..mini grenade..no no no n..WHAT CAN I DO?!?!?!?" he decided that he should try to calm the man down. "Nate? is that your name? what do you want " Trip said in as non threatening a manner as possible "YOU KNOW WHO I AM!!!!" snarled Nathan "stop acting all good and proper, your bad all the way through you and i both know it."
"sir What do you think i did? I haven't ever seen you before." trip said still an a soothing voice
Patrick watched all this in confusion but since Trip seemed to be handling himself all right he thought he should just stand still until an opportunity presented it self
Emma still was trying to escape the crazed mans clutches "Please Let me go" she said
"YOU BROKE INTO MY SHOP AND STOLE PAPERS FROM MISS EMMAS ROOM, THAN YOU PROCEDED TO THROW KNIVES AT ME< POISON COATED KNIVES ,AND LEFT ME PARALISED FOR 3 HOURS. THATS WHAT YOU DID!!!"
trip blinked and said as if he finally understood "Oh..so thats what he did with my teleporter. I think I understand sir A man who looked like me stole something from you and hurt you. so you came looking for him and found us.
listen I was rob myself, a man stole my teleporter and a device that can change the appearance of people He used that device to trick you into thinking it was me, but I assure you sir it was not,...it must have been you who burned my house down in vengeance. a lot of my early inventions were destroyed because of that . Sir I beg you please let Emma go"
now Nathan was rather confused ,beads of perspiration rolled down his face his eyes wide, " I don't Believe you. and even if it wasn't you who paralyzed me, and it was, you did kill one of my friend when you where running from your house."
Trip had thought what to do, as Nathan talked he had slowly inched closer until he was about a 2 feet from the raygun
Nathan Finally noticed "STOP WERE YOU ARE!"
"I'm sorry that one of my shots killed a friend of yours, but you started the shooting I was only defending myself "
Patrick had gone to get the captain and now they were both there watching the face off between Trip and Nathan
"Sir Please be reasonable," called captain Hudson "I'm sure we can come to a  peaceful arrangement just let...the girl...go."
Nathaniel glanced over at the captain,
and that was all the time trip needed.
he proceeded to kick the ray gun out of Nathan's hand,  which startled the man so that he released Emma the second that Emma was free, trip grabbed the arm that was still outstretched and pulled it down and flipped Nathan over his shoulder onto his back. and trip than kneeled on his chest, preventing Nathan from from rising, trip held his heaving chest trying to gather enough breath to speak. 

   

[Nigel Wetherby]

The sound of an Aerther oscillliation engine starting up filled the air.
Patrick had the grizzled glare of an enraged pirate, forged from years on the helm of the Eastern star, beneath the cruel hand of captain black.
"Listen to me, ya dirty bilge rat!" His voice became uncharachteristically pirate-like. The danger Emma had been in had awoken the sleeping pirate within his psyche.
"I will personally have ye drawn and quartered if ye dont give me FIVE reasons NOT TO!" He said, his teeth grinding as his finger caressed the trigger of the charged gun.
The captain grabbed Patrick's arms, pulling him away from the captive avenger.
"Compose yourself, boy!" Commanded the captain. After several heavy inhales and exhales, Patrick maintained his bitter glare at the uninvited guest, but his homicidal rage had vanished.

[Stella Gaslight]

It had taken Emma a moment to calm her wildly beating heart and get some air back in her lungs. "Patrick don't shoot him please.  There is a good man in there some where and I don't think he meant to hurt me.  He has just lost himself."  Emma felt sad and tired now and she wondered where the kind man that always had a joke to brighten her day went.

Nathanial was struggling hard against Trip but he stilled as Emma touched his shoulder. "Nate I know what happened to you must have been horrible and I am glad you missed me but this has got to stop.  I am happy here and they are taking good care of me I promise.  Why don't you go home?  I will send you letters all the time and then you won't have to worry so much."

"No, Justice will be served."  The depths of his rage were vast and strange.

"I am sorry you feel that way Nate."  She sighed and turned to Patrick "Can you and Trip tie him up so he can't hurt himself or us.  I am going to go ask Lakshmi if she has anything to knock him out with.  Then we can send him back to his ship and tell his crew to take him home."  Nate didn't like that one bit and started yelling but Trip made sure he couldn't do much more than that. 

As Emma ran off to get the doctor George came over the aetherphones sounding dire.  "You had better get him hogtied quick monkey, because we are headed for an ambush of at least 20 small craft and some larger ones around the side of the next ridge and I don't know if we can doge it." George was angry with himself if he hadn't been so distracted by the madman he could have spotted it a lot sooner.  They were in the middle of the most pirate ridden mountains in the world and he was a damned idot.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick quickly bound the vengeful individual, quickly dragging the man who was currently kicking and screaming, demanding justice as he was tossed into the brig. "Ye'll have justice later but till then, I have bigger fish ta fry!" He left like a shot from the brig, making a quick stop to his room.
"Lets see..." He quickly scooped up his Mjlonnir aetheric blaste, a repeating explosive-lobbing blunderbus, and a sack full of other potentially unstable weaponry constructed from spare motor parts, toasters, and various bits of bric-a-brac. The aetheric weapon itself appeared to have been created from bits of cookwear and motor parts.

Patrick made a beeline to the deck, holding out the sack of death-dealing implements of varied ballistic capabilities. "Anyone who dosent wanna die in a burning heap of ship-rubble, take a weapon!" He shouted urgently, not taking his eyes off the ships

[Stella Gaslight]

By the time Emma had reached Lakshmi George came rushing in to tell her about the nastiness to come.  Her own store of weapons was limited but there were a few things that could help.  If she launch the aetheric batteries without charging them first they would ignite on impact with enough heat to burn through half an inch of steel plating in under a min but she only had a limited number and it took hours of hard work to make more.  She could whip up any number of destructive concoctions from the supplies that the captain had brought her back from Kabul but firing them at the enemy would be problematic.

Emma pulled the ray gun Patrick had given her from her pocket.  She had no idea if it would be effective over distances but it made her feel better to hang on to it.  Miss Bucher and Oliver ran past her in the hall to go man the Hotchkiss cannons that Lakshmi had finished the water cooling system for.  Emma decided to run the Master five-inch grenade launcher that poked out of the middle of the ship.  With George to help sight things over long distances they would be able to make quite a few pirates go boom. 

George was back from scouting.  "The smaller ships are all different types and most of them are only lightly armed but there are five heavily armed and armored Russian gunships leading things."  He sounded worried and she couldn't blame him.  "Give the monkey some of the batteries he knows how to use them."  As Emma ran back to Patrick the first of the ships became visible and everyone went grimly to their battle stations. 

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Russian ships?" Questioned Patrick, grabbing a spyglass from his took-kit. Extending it and staring down the ship. "YES!" He cheered in triumph. He made a beeline to the ship's intercom system which was really more or less a series of tubes strategically stationed all over the ship.
"Alright boys and girls, if there's anything i know other than weapons it's ships! And those makes are just galleons! Big, tough, and slow! What ye wanna do is take out tha smaller ships first, then we worry 'bout the big'uns! Now tha little ships'll be simple, Gunpowder kegs are always stored in the cargo hold! So aim fer the cargo doors an' plug yer ears!" The young man's voice rivaled that of a captain issuing commands as he made a beeline for the deck, the Mjlonnir rifle humming in his hands.

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma pressed six batteries in to Patrick's hand.  When they made it out of this she would have to replenish her supplies.  She had been low when she left The Star and the fight with Black hadn't helped things. "Be careful" She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled.  He gave her a grin in return and she ran back to the grenade launcher just as the first three small came blazing forward in a tight wedge formation.  They were small, quick and obviously well drilled in combat.  Their was a faint hum in the air she could make out over the gunfire and George said two of the big ships were reading their aethric cannons to fire as soon as they had a clear shot.  Emma told Fabrice over the ship's intercom and she positioned them so they would be the smallest target possible.

The Coraline tried to disengage and bolt but the ships were coming up too fast.  Nate's green crew had no idea how to handle that so they fired their aethric cannons wildly to very little effect. Emma fired her first grenade a missed by a small margin but her next shot hit the side if the lead ship.  It did minimal damage but it boosted Emma's confidence greatly.  She shot another round finding her rhythm as the ships got closer they broke formation and tried to get behind the Boheme.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick watched as the smaller ship's right curve to the lift became a downward swoop. Patrick grasped the handle of Mjlonnir, making a beeline to the back of the ship. "The ships've been modified! They're runnin' on galleon motors!!" A galleon's motor was meant to keep heavy ships moving, something as light as a frigate with one of those under her deck could book at a good 60 knots. There was no use trying to outmaneuver the things. They needed to out-gun them.
A great blast of white light rocked the side of the ship, thankfully only clipping the edge of the deck. Patrick  recongised the path of those blasts. They were aiming for the aetheric cannons, and Emma. Patrick reached for an aetheric battery, but pulled his hand away when he remembered the russian ships.
He waited until the lead ship flew into view, rising above his head until the back of the ship was in view.

Time seemed to slow down. Canon D played in the silence of his head as the head clipper sailed over them, the keel directly over him as it dropped a menacing black barrel directly on top of him.

Patrick let loose a blast from Mjlonnir the second the barrel was in range. A loud explosion rocked the bronze inner workings of the Boheme`.
The head clipper smoked and arced over the deck in an aquard, jerky fashion. The screams and alarms coming off the ship assured patrick the ship would not be coming back up. However, his satisfaction was short lived as a second aetheric charge slammed the deck, sending Patrick flying into the air.
Mjlonnir slipped from his hands and skidded along the deck.
Patrick found that the blast had knocked him in an arc across the deck and over the edge of the ship. He desperateley grabbed for the ledge of the deck. He managed to wrap his hands around the deckrail, and now was dangling for dear life.

[T.Taylor the Third]

Trip dashed out of his room brandishing his electrigun in one hand and a ray gun in his other on his back was strapped a projectile shot gun, modded for greater range.  his pockets were full of small explosives and throwing knives

as he ran along the deck  he heard a shot and turned just in time to see patrick knocked  over board. he ran over to the edge and found patrick hang from  the deck rail, he dropped his guns and grabbed patricks arm, hauling him back up on deck. "Thanks mate" said patrick " you saved my hide" " hey, just return the favorer sometime, eh?"

Trip retrieved his guns, then heard
"Oh..oh..Mary have mercy"
Trip turned around to ask patrick what was wrong when he saw it  three large shapes comming swiftly to the battle, the sun was behind them so all that could be seen was their silhouettes but even trip, who had not often traveled the skylanes, recognized that shape.
"Air Karken" patrick breathed

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma had been tossed to the ground when the first blast hit and that was what saved her from being badly cut when the observation port shattered with the second shot.  She scrambled up and tried to shake the glass from her clothes when she herd screams coming from below her.  The Coraline was flying dangerously close to The Boheme, the two panicked crew members firing wildly at something just outside of Emma's view.  She ceased firing for a moment and tried to see what the matter was. George let loose a string of curse words that would normally make Emma sputter and blush but she was frozen.  She knew all sorts of facts about Air Kraken but she had never seen one before in her life. There were no words to express the true size of them. 

One of The Coraline's shots hit home and the air vibrated with the unholy wail of angered kraken.  Tentacles flailed and sought that which had dared hurt them.  The Boheme was forced to bob and weave radically to avoid the huge stalks that whistled through the air like cannon fire.  Emma tried to yell and warn them but it was to late The Coraline was caught in the strong tentacles that were as wide as tree trunks.  One of the crewmen leaped aboard the Boheme before it was to far from reach the other was not so lucky.  The ship was crushed to kindling and the screams abruptly stopped. 

If the pirates were shocked by this they gave no sign. Instead the other two ships opened fire on The Boheme while the larger galleons fired on the krakens to draw them closer to the ships more capable of handling them. If properly killed a Kraken was almost as tempting a prize as the Boheme.

[Nigel Wetherby]

The shocks rocked Patrick back and forth, and the frantic dodging didnt seem to help much either. The moment the ship regained it's equilibrium, Patrick had climbed aboard the deck of the ship just in time to see the surviving pirate reach for Mjlonnir. The pirate was rewarded for his grabbyness with a well tossed hammer to the temple. Patrick grabbed the Aetheric rifle quickly. The moment he held it in his hand, the pirate regained his bearings and brandished a pair of chinese scimitars. The man was clearly of Asian descent, and it showed in his battle stance.
Patrick had no time for this and dispatched the martial artist quickly with a revolver at his waist and went back to the problems at hand.

"Wait a tic..." He thought to himself as he looked back at Mjlonnir, the refined Aetherium, and the aetheric battery. An idea gripped him.
Patrick bolted to Emma's station. "EM! I Have an idea!! I need ye ta take tha refined aetherium from Mjlonnir and add it to tha aetheric batteries, then i need ya ta make somethin' like a gunpowder shell that'll dampen tha energy, and let it go when it hits a target!"
Emma looked rather surprised by his idea. George looked intruiged.
"I'll buy ye some time, go!" He bolted to his quarters and reached for any weapon he could find on his rack to bring down the frigates.
"Tha good old Aetheric lancer!" He grabbed a weapon that looked akin to a crossbow. A metallic harpoon impaled the celing of Patrick's room.
Boarding cables.
Patrick would be busy.

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma was so excited and nervous it felt like she was vibrating.  Nothing like a science puzzle while under siege to make a girl feel alive. Emma felt bad removing  the power source from Mjlonnir.  It was almost too pretty a thing to sacrifice.  She had plenty of pieces but the question was how to use them. Steel was one if the most resistant metals as far as aetheric energy went and it could stand up to the highly volatile chemicals in the batteries so that would be the shell.   Now how could they safely detonate it?  An explosive charge could work but there was the possibility of it being supercharged by the reactive gel in the batteries and exploding far too soon.  Perhaps a mechanical method would be better.  An aperture?  No there was the risk of it getting stuck and a pin system like she used in the batteries themselves had the same problem.  Digging in the depths of her parts bag she found a refillable dye bag attached to an Accelerometer that she had used in the past to test the forces her suspension systems could take.  That was it she could rig the Accelerometer to allow the two forms of energy to combine as the shell reached a particular speed.  That would ensure they didn't release until she wanted then to.

Emma tensely built the outer shell and rigged the mechanism to go off at standard cannon shell pace. She caught glimpses of the fighting as often as she dared   each time hoping not to see an air kraken eye as big as she was looking back.  The fighting was echoing all around the ship and she could hear Patrick and Trip's voices mixed in the din.  She hoped they were all right and tossed her self in to the chaos to get the shell to Patrick.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick ran towards Emma, grabbing the shells from her hands carefully.
"Thank's Em!" He turned to Trip, a look of urgency on his face.
"Trip! I need ye ta take these special shells and take out those bloody galleons! Ye only get six shots, so make 'em count! These things're potent!"
He drew his cutlass, letting the polished blade glisten in the sunlight as the first boarding party charged in.
The party consisted of 5 burly pirates, each armed with varying melee weapons. Their stances dictated they were proficient with their weaponry.

[Mercury Wells]

Suddenly and without warning, inside a oval of arcing, streaming electrical energy a strangely mis-shapen Kraken with drooping tentacles appeared.

Making an seemingly impossible 180^oturn, it sped with horizontal tentacles towards the nearest ship. Little arcs of electrical energy running along the suckers, bands of power are forming between the arms, getting stronger and stronger and as the arms open up, all the beams join up and a bolt of searing hot "plasma"* engulfing the ship which glows white hot for an instant and explodes into nothing.

In the heavy silence that follows, a booming voice is heard..."THIS IS MY TERRITORY AND HUNTING GROUND AND I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO TAKE YOUR PETTY SQUABBLES ELSEWEAR, THIS IS MY FIRST AND LAST WARNING!".










*Sorry, didn't know what other word to use.