"STEAM LONDON" Game Thread

[Stella Gaslight]

Patrick flew in to the fray sword flashing, each movement full of grace and violence. Two of the pirates broke away from the group and started after Emma seeing her as an easier target.  She took a step back to get out of range of the taller ones bayonet.  They took it as a sign of weakness and started grinning, Emma took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.  If those pea brained thugs on Black's ship could learn how to effectively wield ray guns so could she.  She pulled Luciérnaga from her pocket, flicked the safety off and aimed it at one of the advancing pirates with no coaching from George.  They laughed at the size of her weapon and said some remarks that even with her poor grasp of Russian were offensive.   

The light pulsed and her shot was clean.  The taller one toppled like a tree a large aether burn covering his chest.  Emma felt almost invincible this was far easyier than she thought. The smile dropped from the other Pirates face and he threw something shiny at her. She dived to the side to get out of the way and shot him in the leg on the way down. Emma quickly recovered and made sure he didn't.  She didn't even notice she was bleeding from a slash on her right arm until another batch of pirates tried to strike at Patrick's exposed back.  They soon decided that was a bad idea that led to being fried.  Emma was diving under blades and gunfire trying to give has good as she got. 

When the voice boomed everyone paused watching the form in the sky with dread.  The pirates were the first to respond with some of the larger ships moving back but if that was to comply with the voice of doom or to line up a better shot she didn't know.  The pirates on board used Emma's distraction to try and sneak around behind her. Luckily George was there to warn her and what could have been a blow to her head hit the shoulder instead. She shoved her attacker over board and tried to make her way to Patrick.  As much as she was glad George was looking out for her she was glad to have a flesh and blood person watching her back.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick had been locked in a heated swordfight with a particularly skilled pirate. His moves seemed to increase in speed, power, and accuracy as he smelt the familiar scent of ozone and burnt flesh.
"Way ta go Em'!" He cheered, using the distraction of the bright lights to impale his oponnent with cold, glistening, red-stained steel. The mighty explosion of the ships rattled the deck of the Boheme' tossing Patrick off his balance and knocking him onto his bum. He looked up at the massive leviathan of a ship. His jaws dropped and his pupil's shrank.
"FAITH AND BEGGORAH!!!"

[Ben Hudson, Esq.]

Ben snapped out of his daze.

'Bugger.' The strange kraken-thing loomed in the sky menacingly. St Elmo's fire aside, it looks pretty much like a big air-kraken. But never had he heard of an air-kraken talking. He grabbed for the engine controls and slammed port into full reverse and starboard into full forward. The gears groaned, then took. As the Boheme wheeled around, he cranked open the aft ballonet valve. There was a moment of weightlessness as the ship went into a corkscrewing nose-dive. The sudden and reckless move took the kraken-hybrid by surprise and took them out of the range of its dreaded tentacles. On deck, crew and pirates alike lost their footing.
Rivets creaked and struts whistled as they plunged, apparently suicidally, towards the rocky scree. The kraken-hybrid followed, then pulled up sharply. The narrowing airspace kept it from following.
Out of its grasps, Ben reinflated the ballonets and pulled out of the dive. Locking the rudder into a slow incline, he left the bridge. Just past the galley, he unlocked the weapons locker with hands trembling with excitement. A moment's contemplation later, he chose a short sword modelled loosely on the willow-leaf blades of the Orient, but fitted with a French hand-guard. Sword whipping through the air, Ben went to hunt some pirate.


OOC: I'm rusty. But it's good to be back.

[Stella Gaslight]

Occ: Welcome back Ben!
Emma had made it to Patrick when the ship started to turn or rather Patrick slid across the deck and she tumbled over him.  They were just getting up when The Boheme started her dive knocking them back to the deck.  They were tossed about like confetti and Emma hung on to Patrick for dear life. Unfortunately one of the pirates had the same idea and latched on to Emma's leg and no amount of kicking would dislodge him but a spanner to the head from Patrick did the trick.  There were screams as pirates were knocked overboard and she hoped Trip was all right.  If one of the shells he was carrying were to prematurely detonate well, nothing would be left to find. 

Finally the ship evened out and Patrick and Emma stood up trying to get their bearings before the pirates did. All the commotion had knocked something loose inside the ship and that thing was Nate.  He snuck out of the now open brig and grabbed a pistol from a dead pirate.  He would save Miss Lighton from this pack of tricksters and thieves and taking out Tailor was the first step.

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

Elisha awoke to the screaming of the other passengers. When he opened his eyes he saw that everyone was out of their seats and behaving in a most hysterical manner. Pushing aside a portly man in a bad state of distress he quickly found and accosted the porter.

"Excuse me, but what is all this panic about?" he asked in an offhand manner.
"It's a nightmare sir!" the porter replied breathlessly. "The navigation charts were all off...looks like pirate territory....guns, cannons...and...and krakens!"
"Ah. I see." Elisha replied as if commenting on the weather. The porter stared at him as if his calmness made him insane among the panic.

"I hope this will not affect the scheduling of the flight?...."
"Are you mad sir? The ship will have to turn back to the nearest port, if we can make it out of this. We may have to even have an emergency landing!" the porter cried.
"A landing?!" replied Elisha, a note of distaste in his voice. "I'm afraid that will not do. I depend upon this craft remaining airborne and hopefully heading in a westwards direction."
"You'll have no hope of remaining airborne long on this ship, sir"

At that moment, the entire ship rumbled as cannon fire wracked its side. Elisha neatly ducked to avoid a flying brass ornament. Besides the delays, this ship seemed to becoming swiftly quite a hazard to one's life. He decided his best chance would be to take his leave immediatly. After enquiring with the crew, and with the help of a bribe, he managed to gain for himself a propelled evacuation balloon. No sooner had his launched gracefully into the air, than the canvas was ripped by an errent bullet. He sighed. He would never see London at this rate. Making the best of the situation, he steered as well he could under the rapid loss of altitude. He managed a rather neat landing on what seemed to be a non-pirate ship. To be more precise, he made a neat landing on top of some pirates on said non-pirate ship. Delicately stepping out of the basket and over the crushed pirates, he dusted off his jacket as best he could. He noticed what was probably the crew looking at him in amazement. Not wanting to be impolite, he decided to introduce himself.

"Elisha Kettel, of H.M.A.S. Steel Breeze, at your service."

[Stella Gaslight]

Kisses, mad men, pirates, talking air-krakens and now polite metal men that fell from the sky.  Emma was seriously wondering if this wasn't some extended hyper real dream.  Oh well even if she was dreaming there was no reason not to be polite.  She nodded to him.  "Hello I am Emmaline Lighton" She gestured to the empty air to her right and then to the young man to her left "This is my parner Professor George Lewistine and my friend Patrick O'Landrey all of The APF Bohème.  Which you have just landed on."  She paused for a moment and looked him over. "What exactly are you doing here?" Patrick had not put away his sword an was looking at the new comer with perfectly rational suspicion.

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

"Delighted. I do apologize Patrick." Elisha was not ignorant of the suspicious stares directed his way.
" I am...was a passenger on the passenger ship Parthena Tremaine. With this he gestured up and away to the floundering Tremaine, which had now caught fire and was plummeting towards the mountains below. "Although I regularly work as a privateer in the name of the queen, I was travelling to London on leave, for the purpose of purchasing specialized airship parts. This..unpleasentness...has thrown a wrench into my plans however and deposited me quite neatly upon your ship....a situation much better than being deposited upon the ground."

He heard a horrendous growl and his mind snapped back to the present, and to pirates and krakens.

"Well, there does seem to be a need for me here though. Quite lucky for both of us, really. I can help deal with this situation....which I am quite good at dealing with..." He finished this sentence by whipping out his pistol with his right hand and firing methodically at a group of pirates who had leaped to the deck "...and in return, if I am not being too bold, you could, at least, point me in the general direction of London?"

[Stella Gaslight]

The smaller ships were following The Bohème's example and dropping below the air-kraken's reach.  Some were smashed by tentacles or hit the mountains themselves but others made it down and started after their prize hoping to gain something for their losses. "Um London is that way." She said pointing to the heart of the battle. "But I don't think anyone will be going there for a while.  We may be able to help but you would have to speak to the captain first."  They were all forced to duck as the first ship reached them and opened fire.  "I think we better focus on getting out of this alive for now. George said some of the surviving galleons are trying to get a head and block us in."

[ShredsnPatches]

"She's goin' down, boys!!!"

Jennifer Sheehan paled, and her white-knuckled death grip on the railings of the stricken airship tightened. The kraken's attack had punctured the envelope and the ship was spinning crazily and dropping like a stone. All around, the frantic crew had been trying to halt or at least slow the ship's descent, but with the chaos of battle, their attempts had apparently proven fruitless. After what seemed like year, the call Jennifer had dreaded came.

"Every man for himself!!!"

Crew and what few passengers had dared take the trip were strapping on parachutes and launching themselves from the heavily listing deck. As Jennifer reached for her own, the railing she was gripping snapped, and with a wail she fell from the ship, rebounded off the envelope of a much larger vessel, and crashed face first onto the deck of another ship that was under heavy fire.

[T.Taylor the Third]

Trip was preparing to fire at the gallions trying to cut them off, when a young lady smashed down onto the deck, this startled trip so that he dropped one of the powerful shells, luckily he dropped it over the edge into space, were it hit an air kraken coming up on them , totally destroying its power of flight, it fell very fast. Trip quickly fired the other 5 shells at the gallions scoring three direct hits  that ruptured two gas bags and 2 engines. now that he had  no shells he turned to the lady who had still not risen from were she lay.
he flipped her over and saw she was infact out cold so, being the gentleman he was, carefully lifted her and hurried to find Emma, not really knowing what to do with an unconscious lady.  he didnt see nate coming toward him.

[Stella Gaslight]

Even at the opposite end of the ship they saw the bright white light of the shells bursting and felt the roar of the explosions in their chests.  George reported in that the big ships were gone.  "Well the way is clear but these little mosquitoes aren't going to give up any time soon."  Another round of fire whizzed past them as one of the ships tried to get in boarding range. 

Trip heard Emma's voice and was about to call out to her when he felt a gun barrel pressed to his back. "Trying to corrupt another girl Scum?  I don't think I can let that happen." There was a soft click as he cocked the gun.

George saw it all and as much as he hated Trip he wasn't about to let him get killed.  "Emma, Nate is loose and he has Trip at gunpoint.  I don't know if he can fight back.  A girl fell out of one of the ships and he is trying to help her."  Emma looked at Luciérnaga sadly.  She really did not want to shoot Nate but it was starting to look like she would have no choice.

[sir charles of tayle]

There was a sip hovering over the old and very poor city of Kabul, a voice crackled out of the wireless in Persian, The man in the trenchcoat with what small amount of Persian he knew told them he did not speak that language, the man said one more thing then went silent.  A moment later a voice speaking English came over the intercom "Hello? Is this an English airship?"
"yes" was the only reply Charles cared to give.  "Would you like to umm...land?" asked the voice over the intercom.  "yes" Charles repeated. "What do you want in Kabul,I am afraid I can't give you Clarence to land unless I know your intentions" Said the voice.  "Just looking for some information on  a...umm friend of mine" Charles managed. 
"Name?"
"Charles"
"pull around to dock #3"

The Black Shadow lowered into Kabul.  The dying city seemed to be occupied by the handilly poor "Good" Though Charles to himself as he lowered the bridge of his airship to the ground. 

After Getting off his new ship Charles was greeted by the man From the intercom.  "Come on in to the Control tower and I'll see if I can help you"
The man said.  Charles followed the man into the strange beaten down building.  "Here let me take that coat" The man suggested attempting to assist Charles in removing his trenchcoat
"I am keeping my coat on thank you"Said Charles firmly,the man looked surprised but didn't argue further.

"Well welcome to Kabul! My name is Saeed"
"You already know my name is Charles, I am looking for an old Friend of mine by the name of Nathaniel"  said Charles assuming Nathaniel would have been on the right path to catch Mr.Taylor.
"That crazy man? We didn't let him evan land all we could get out of him on the intercom was that he was looking for Vengeance, I believe that he was looking for someone now aboard the APF Boheme" Said saeed.
"The Boheme?" Inquired Charles
"Yes a ship that came through here a month or 2 ago,an old friend of mine, captain Hudson's ship, he had a marvelous lady with him bye the name of Emma..."Said Saeed dreamily.
"And witch way were They headed?" asked Charles.
"Due east" Provided Saeed.
"Your assistance is appreciated" Said Charles"But I fear you now know to much"He added holding a cloth soaked in a sleeping gas over the mans mouth and nose"youl be alright he said,nasty little headache when you wake up but other than that,youl have just forgotten this whole little incident"

The Black shadow of a ship lifted away from the small and poor town of Kabul and continued on its coerce, with new information..

[Nigel Wetherby]

Trip's captor however, was not alone. Patrick knew the man was bloody mad and wouldnt respond to threats... His mind raced with options, but then it hit him. He was thinking too much like an engineer.
He needed to think like a pirate.
So he had to do what pirates did best.
He tackled the armed madman, screaming like one himself. The surprise of the matter sent Nate tumblind into the ground, Patrick sitting on his chest as he struggled to shoot the wild redhead. Patrick respomded by pulling a knife from his pocket with his free hand. With a deliberate cut, he liberated the man of his trigger finger.

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma watched Patrick, sad that all this was necessary. "Thank you" She said grateful she hadn't had to take him on herself.   She gave Trip a long look over and he wasn't bleeding anywhere she could see. "I am so sorry he went after you like that Trip.  He didn't hurt you did he?"  She looked down at the man Patrick was struggling to tie back up.   "Nate was good once, I swear.  If I had been with him back in London this never would have happened." She threw her arms around Trip almost crying.  The Nate she had loved like an older brother was gone, replaced by this screaming, violent shell of a man. 

The girl was still in Trips arms but she was making some very small noises.  "We had better get her to Lakshmi and maybe Nate too if we can. She is a good doctor maybe she can help.  Let me take the girl and help Patrick if you can."  Emma pulled a clean rag from her pocket. "This should help with the screaming."  She picked up the unconscious girl and tried to shield her from the gun fire while carrying her inside. Emma felt something hit her leg but she didn't dare check what it was until she was marginally more safe inside.  The ten ships left that could still fight started to converge on the Bohème determined not to come away empty handed.   

[ShredsnPatches]

Pain... lots of pain... and movement...

Jennifer tried to open her eyes. Her face didn't seem willing to comply, so she settled for whimpering quietly, and slowly trying to move her fingers and toes to make sure they weren't broken. Then she remembered what had happened - the railing giving way and falling. She jerked and stiffened with fright.

[Stella Gaslight]

Luckily she had made it inside before the girl she was carrying started to move. "You are all right.  You landed on the The Bohème and I am trying to take you to our doctor bur you have to settle down for me.  We aren't pirates and we won't hurt you I promise."  Emma crooned gently trying to find a safe place to set her down.  She found a spot in the lounge that seemed to be well sheltered and laid the girl out on the floor grabbing a pillow to rest her head on. "I will stay with you until the fighting dies down a bit but don't worry if you wake up and find me gone. George will look after you."  Emma settled down on to the floor beside her listening for a brake in the gunfire.

[ShredsnPatches]

Jennifer couldn't make out what the other woman was saying, apart from the words 'safe' and 'doctor'. She sank back into semi-consciousness, trying to make the pounding sensation in her head go away.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick watched the ships converge and come at the Boheme, every atom in his body cried to attack the ships. However he had more important things to do. "Come on ya tosser!!" He snarled dragged the screaming man back to the brig, stuffing the gag into his mouth and tying him to the rail of the ship. "STAY." He snarled angrily as if the madman were a dog to be chastised.
Now, onto buisness..

Patrick ran like a madman to the nearest Aetheric turret, hopping into it's seat and setting it's sights. Employing a classic pirate tactic and firing at the ship that appeared to be leading. The shot landed on it's mark. The aetheric fuel cartridges had ruptured. A blast of blue light lit up the sky, sending the boheme whirlng in the sky, the ship's sides singed by the blast. But a chunk of the batallion fell deep into the empty sky, falling past the clouds and falling victim to gravity's cruel claws. Four of the ships remained.

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma fought to keep the unconscious girl from skittering across the floor like some of the furniture was.  She was glad they had bound the aether stacks in wire there was no telling what sort of damage all this being flung around would have done to it.  As it was she hated to think of the mess her once orderly room must have been in.  George told her the effects Patrick's attack and she smiled.  "We are very lucky to have him."

"Yes We are."  George said with a quiet respect she hadn't herd in his voice before.

There was a brake in the fire as the remaining ships tried to regroup.  "Watch over her George I am going to take over the Hotchkiss cannon for Lakshmi."  It hurt to get up and there was a wet stain dark red speeding on her pant leg but Emma forced herself to ignore it.  There was work to be done.

[T.Taylor the Third]

while watching patrick take out some ships trip found a handful of those explosive devises he had used in London to burn his building down.
he ran up to patrick " You Got any thing that can launch these?" he said showing the small bombs.
"uh...here" said Patrick handing him a small thick barrel gun from one of his pockets
"thank you" sad trip as he stuck one of the bombs in the gun and aimed at the nearest airship. the gun let out a muffled bang and the bomb shot up onto the deck of the pursuing ship.  nothing happend for moment "so..whats supposed to happen" asked a smirking patrick at that moment a blast shook the other ship and a n enormous hole appeared in its bottom as a inferno raged above. needless to say that ship fell quickly. Trip repeated this process with the remaining ships, and still having one bomb he stuck it back in a pocket along with the gun.
he turned to patrick with a triumphant grin "That is what's supposed to happen." 

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Fer a tesla baby, ye aint half bad boy-o." Said Patrick with a wide grin.
His expression suddenly turned grave and stern. "But if ye hurt Emma in ANY way possible, I'll cancel any plans ye had of havin' a family, got it?" He brandished his knife in a way any demon barber would beam with pride at. "Ye take care o' any other threats out there would ye? I'll check on Em and our little guest."
Patrick lept from his seat behind the cannon and headed to the ship's innards.

"You...You corrupted her!" Snarled a familiar voice. His bleeding hand wrapped in the cloth that had once been his shirt. A cutlass clenched in his free hand. "FROM HELL'S HEART, I STAB AT THEE!" He shrieked as he thrusted his blade at trip, intent on driving the blade into his chest.

[T.Taylor the Third]

Trip jumped back as fast as he could, pulling 2 throwing knives out of his sleeve he let fly. they both hit Nate in the side and he crashed to the ground, paralyzed once more. trip sighed "you really need to work on your anger issues."
he said. Patrick flipped the man over and pulled out the ornate throwing knives, He examined them without being to obvious, and then handed them over to Trip.
"why did he stop, whats on those knives?" Patrick asked though he thought he knew. " an obscure poison from Africa that causes instant paralyzes" replied trip not thinking much of it "lets go and see how our new guest is doing,shall we?"
trip headed toward the placewere he had last seen Emma.
Patrick followed slowly as he thought about the last time he had seen knives like that, on a assassin in Persia. "just who is this man and how many secrets does he have?" he thought 

[Stella Gaslight]

With the battle ended for for the moment (as least as far as George could scout) both Lakshmi and Emma went to check on the girl Trip caught from the sky.  Lakshmi treated some minor bruising and lacerations that came from falling face first on the deck of an airship. "This is the most I can do for her. She has to come around on her own."

The boys came in as they were lifting her to a more comforable perch than the floor.  "George tells me you both did some very fancy shooting."  Emma beamed with pride.  It was good to have friends like them.  "If we don't encounter any more problems we should reach port in Shenjing before noon tomorrow and thank goodness for that I don't think the ship can take much more."  Emma settled herself in a chair, her leg was starting to ache and her shoulder didn't like her much. "I think we should be able to get some parts for a new aether stack when we land and maybe make the ship wide aetherphone.  Even having two people that can here him with out the box really seamed to give us a boost."  She slumped a wave of fatigue washed over her.  Perhaps a nap was in order.

[ShredsnPatches]

Jennifer stirred. She could hear voices around her - male and female. She didn't recognise any of them, and the sounds she could hear were not of The Dublin Owl. Then she remembered - the Owl was gone and she had fallen from it. If I'm not on the Owl, and I'm not dead, then where am I? she wondered.

The swelling on her face seemed to have gone down as she could open her eyes. She was on a ship, that much was clear from the view she had of the ceiling. Jennifer turned her head, grimacing as sore muscles protested. Her vision was a little blurry, but she attributed that to the pounding headache and from landing on her face. Four blurry figures were visible, one in a seat very close to her, and three others standing further back.

"Wh... ack (coughing on a dry throat)... where am I?" Jennifer whispered.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"The Boheme." Said Patrick, he carried a box of medical supplies in his hand, his shirt stained with soot, aetheric residue, and blood. He looked down at the bruised young woman with a look of interest, A metal cup of water in his free hand. "Here ya go, ye need this more than me." He pressed the cup to her lips, the cool, sweet water moistening her dried throat and lips. Patrick's days aboard the Star had given him experience patching up more than just motors.