A Hidden Past (Part VII)

Josephine's malice filled expression abruptly froze, her eyes suddenly glazed over rapidly turning completely a pearlescent white. Her features smoothed into a cool, glacial calm. Something else was now in control of Josephine Rumbleton's body. It's aura was different from the previous possessing entity being cooler, more tranquil and more ruthlessly controlled. The strange white eyes examined the room and it's occupants with a detached but curious interest.

As Sir Nigel and Althorpe watched, Josephine's hair and skin began to slowly grow even paler still and to gradually bleach a soft almost bone white to match the pearlescent eyes. Within moments the woman resembled a living statue of white marble or alabaster. The air about her became even more chill, frost and ice particles flowed about her and wove themselves into crazy vortices and patterns with the slightest of movements.

Those curious eyes regarded the dying woman in her grasp for a long moment, a white eyebrow traced upwards in almost sardonic inquiry and not a little surprise. Her deadly grip lessened the merest of a fraction, finally allowing a by now ashen faced Carmichael to draw something like a full breath. Which she did involuntarily and convulsively. Abruptly the pressure on Carmichael's throat relaxed altogether as did the nerve stopping grip on her wrist. Millicent slide bonelessly to the floor, Josephine gave an almost imperceptible but definite nod to Sir Nigel and Althorpe and then took three rapid paces backwards and away from them. They needed no further urging, the two men quickly gathered up the unconscious Millicent Carmichael and transferred her to a nearby reclining arm chair. While Althorpe attended to her, Sir Nigel turned back to the other occupant of the room and incidentally Josephine Rumbleton's body.

The being spoke for the first time, it's tone and expression struck Sir Nigel as mildly rueful.

"My apologies, Master Redfern, the Gestir if not kept on a tight rein either by my will or the Lady's is inclined to get out of hand."

"Gestir?" Sir Nigel and Althorpe echoed. Gestir was an ancient Scandinavian term meaning guest warrior. The halls of the various kings and jarls of Scandinavia were often visited by impoverished and lordless warriors who were maintained by such lords as a sign of their hospitality and wealth. In return, these warriors would accompany their host to war to show their respect for the hospitality shown them. The reference might have been an offhanded or illustrative remark about the other possessing spirit that was obviously bound to Josephine Rumbleton's body or it could have been quite literal, Sir Nigel and Althorpe had no way of knowing.

"A loyal and powerful undead guardian, as you will have perhaps observed, who keeps watch on this lovely lady in my all too frequent absences." Josephine responded with a hint of a wintery, almost languidly amused smile on seeing their vaguely puzzled expressions.

"Whom, am I addressing?" Sir Nigel asked quietly and carefully.

"We have never met, much less been formally introduced, Master Redfern." A white hand flitted lightly towards Josephine's face for a moment to emphasize the point. "This one however has followed your career with much interest for a long time."

Sir Nigel's white eyebrows went up at that last remark in mild surprise. The shining pearlescent eyes regarded him, the eyes seemed to almost sparkle and glow at him with something like detached amusement then slowly Josephine quietly and politely bowed at the waist in the manner of a gentleman.

"Magister Karl Magnus Schreck, at your service."

Oh Hell. Sir Nigel's thoughts slide to a complete and altogether abrupt stop.

My Brother's Cosplay takes a further step forward for 2018

Adam's cosplay is now nearly finished, a few finalizing touches remain of course but essentially it's ready for wear for our 2018 Cosplaying Season. He decided on a Victorian/steampunk version of the Red Hood, with particular emphasis on the original character as a "master" or "mastermind" criminal, although combining elements of the more modern versions as they are more recognizable to people today.

 

It was remarked by no less an authority then Sherlock Holmes that Professor Moriarty was responsible for nearly all that was undetected and half that was evil in London of his day. Adam wryly responded to this when I mentioned it to him, "well, if that is so, then somebody must be responsible for the other half."

 

 

A Few Remarks on the Aether in A.A.S.S.I.

In An Age of Steam, Steel and Iron, at the dawn of 1889 just four nations: Great Britain, Germany, Russia and France dominate the international space race. It is estimated that there are some five hundred aether capable vessels within the inner system (Vulkan, Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars and the Asteroid Belt) of the Sol Star System, the majority however are mercantile passenger or cargo vessels rather then warships. The largest Aether Fleet in military terms is the British Aether Fleet with some twenty-five military vessels.

Vulkan, is unclaimed by any nation, although several ill fated expeditions to the planet nearest the Sun, have been mounted, none to date have ever returned. Two colonies New Plymouth and New Roanoke were established on the planet, by the Anglo-American Aetheric Exploration & Colonial Society, but did not prosper and in fact failed in mysterious and horrific circumstances.  Amoungst aethernauts, Vulkan has acquired an evil and ominous reputation and few will willingly venture there.

Mercury, claimed by Great Britain, largely by default, as no one else found it worth the bother to have a permanent base there. Great Britain maintains a full time scientific/research station on the planet, which is frequented by scientists from many nations interested in the geology, flora and fauna that has developed on this small planet, under the burning gaze of the Sun.

Venus, shrouded by eternal clouds, rain storms and fogs, teeming with plant, animal and insect life is both a tropical paradise rich in resources of all sorts and a green hell for anyone who lives on the planet full time. Germany has the inside track in developing the planet as a colony and making working relations with the native Venusian inhabitants.

Terra, the birthplace of humanity, and so many of it's joys and troubles.

Mars, the red planet, mysterious, ancient and littered with the relics of several bygone civilizations may of which have risen and fallen before humanity even first walked upon Terra's surface much less began it's first steps towards civilization. Great Britain dominates the exploration and development of Mars as a new bastion of humanity and seeks to create a new Imperial India upon the red plains of Mars.

Asteroid Belt, rumoured to house tremendous mineral wealth and fragments of another lost civilization, few have yet staked a lasting claim amoungst these tumbling fragments of rock, although small pockets of independent humanity make their home here and scrap a living from the asteroids. The Asteroid Belt is the end of Human space as far as many are concerned, the Outer system beyond is virtually unknown and unexplored, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have only been observed from afar. No space vessel has ever journeyed out that far to examine them and bring back word of their topography and prospects for habitation or development.

In 1884, France built an exploratory long range aether ship to reach the Outer System, named the Bonaventure, it took some four years to build in an orbital yard above Paris. In 1888, the Bonaventure made it's maiden voyage, but disappeared reportedly somewhere between Mars and the Asteroid Belt never to be heard from again by anyone in the Inner System. At the time and since (particularly in the pages of the more sordid or Anglophobe or Germanphobe tabloids) France accused Great Britain or alternatively Germany of sabotaging the Bonaventure. This affair did nothing to assist France in maintaining or improving it's relations with either country.

Great Britain, it's own aetheric long range explorer ship, HMS Daedalus is scheduled to begin trials early this year and make it's maiden voyage into the Outer system sometime by the middle of 1889. Germany is believed to have several long range aether exploratory vessels, the most well known is the SMS Orakel, which was also launched in 1884 but was used and still is used exclusively for exploration and scientific research work amoung the planets of the Inner system only.       

Some Thoughts on Technology in A.A.S.S.I.: On Automata and Constructs

Automata or automatons (what we today would consider thinking computers or robots), are by the 1880s widely available both in civilian and military occupations both in fixed and mobile forms to assist humans in various labour saving tasks in various industries or in tasks considered excessively dangerous or just exceedingly unpleasant for ordinary humans. Automata are divided by purpose and whether they are considered thinking (but non-sentient), semi-sentient or sentient machines. Legally no automata has any rights as humans would understand them, although there are a few laws and statutes protecting them in the more progressive states of Europe and North America. Automata form is often defined by function and utility, but a great many are humanoid in configuration regardless of task assigned although the number of limbs they possess and their size and general appearance can vary widely.

Constructs differ from automatons, which are generally made from inorganic metallic (although wood timber isn't unknown) materials. Constructs are constructed from organic or semi-synthetic organic materials. Popularly and often pejoratively they are also call stitch folk, meat-puppets, flesh constructs, flesh golems, neo-homoculi, etc. Whatever name they go by they are regarded as one step away from automata by most humans and an abomination by  others, the only difference being they are made of flesh and bone rather then metal and wire. Further flesh constructs have elixiers for blood rather then haemoglobin. The first constructs became commercially available from the 1800s onwards, being fashioned from pieced together cadavers (these are often still referred to as resurrected constructs), which due to the hostility of the established churches quickly fell by the wayside. Today they are fashioned from component limbs and organs made to order and grown in special alchemical vats or chemical baths, it has been argued that it would be simpler to grow a whole flesh construct in a single large vats or iron wombs in practice however this is rarely the case. Their all to obvious assembly  stitch seams, surgical scars and deathly pallor mark the average flesh constructs out in society as something other then human as does their prominent skin tattoo brands and coding numbers indented into their skeletal structure.

Most national governments strictly regulate the production of flesh constructs and the licenses to produce them are in theory, very tightly controlled and detailed background and financial history checks into those seeking them is mandatory. Surprise governmental audits and inspections of flesh construct assembly factories are seen as a irksome although necessary cost of doing legally acceptable business. This doesn't however stop the unlicensed construct "chop" shops from springing up and providing the criminal underworld and those with the money to pay for their illicit wears on the black market. Like automatons, flesh constructs have few to no legal rights and are considered even more disposable then automatons for dangerous tasks and occupations as they are most definitely not regarded as human. In point of fact it is sometime arguable if they are even regarded as sentient by most humans.       

Some Thoughts on Technology in A.A.S.S.I.: On Turretships, Landships and Skyships

In An Age of Steam, Steel and Iron the most powerful instruments of war nautically speaking are turret ships, the predecessors of the first modern battleships in our history. Although it would be fairer to call the behemoths of the deep that cruise the seas and oceans of A.A.S.S.I. multi-turret ships, as they typically carry their main armaments in as few as one main turret to as many as seven main turrets scattered in various patterns, the lozenge, the quadradical, the hexagonal, the centerline being amoungst the most common arrangements. Bristling with secondary and tertiary armaments in sub-turrets, casemates, sponsons and gun tubs, these battlewagons are capable of wrecking havoc on any opponent of similar or smaller size. Crammed with bulkheads and compartments to back up their thick armour plated hulls, they are resistant to attack both from above and below the waves. They are the last word in naval firepower on the planet.

Skyships, differ from airship dirigibles (non-rigid/blimps, semi-rigid and rigid airships), although they are quite often as large in so far as the later are lighter-then-air aircraft and require compartmentalized cells containing a lifting gas to become airborne, their engines provide directive as well as motive power. Skyships however resemble nautical vessels, although generally smaller then true naval vessels, they can escape the pull of gravity via anti-gravity devices of various designs, the leading type in Europe is the originally Italian (actually the then kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia) derived gravity screw or gravity turbine which was pioneered in the early 1840s and was developed into combat capable if not wholly reliable ariel vessels classed as sky boats, sky vessels and sky sloops or sky corvettes. The Sardinians who had already tested their sky vessels to their satisfaction against Austrian forces during skirmished in the 1840s and 1850s along their common border. The Imperial Russian Navy captured some of the Sardinian craft when they fell out of the air due to mishaps involving their gravity screws, which failed to function if they were not aimed directly at the ground. A heel of more then a few degrees was often enough to cause a sky ship using this method of lift to suddenly be reclaimed by gravity as the drive ceased to intervene and plunge to the earth, often catastrophically for the ship and crew concerned. The Russians copied the gravity drive and managed to get several useful sky boats into service before the end of the First Crimean War of October 1853 to March 1856 and used them to some effect against the French, British, Ottoman and Sardinian forces in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea Fronts.

The British pioneered, a somewhat different system after the Crimean War, then the widely copied and steadily improved Italian Gravity Screw/Turbine. Their system created by Vickers used specially treated plates, panels or slats of metal fixed on gimbal and hinge systems to the underside of a skyship's hull. The more of these panels that were exposed increased the useful lift of the sky vessel and allowed it to cancel the effect of gravity. The hinge/gimbal system allowed greater control of the panels and keep them more evenly trimmed in reference to the ground. The ship as a result could be piloted more easily and agilely and with greater safety, then the screw/turbine, which in it's early models had to be fixed firmly in line with or adjacent to the vessel in question keel. The third method developed by Thomas Edison uses a gravity sphere mounted near or as close as possible to the center of a sky vessels center of mass, which projects a anti-gravity field around the ship, thus cancelling out gravity, allowing the ship to fly using it's engines to propel itself. The Edison Graviton Sphere does however have a problem, if consistent power ceases to charge the sphere, the ship will immediately crash to the ground, further two gravitonic spheres can not operate on the same vessel unless they have been harmonized otherwise they will burn each other out as their fields interact with one another catastrophically.

Landship, great steam and smoke belching war machines rule the lands as turret ships and sky ships rule the waves and skies. The line between super heavy vehicle and a Landship is a thin and sometimes wavering one, although Landships are themselves divided into roughly three classes: (1)  Landcruisers, the smallest of the breed, typically between two-hundred and fifty to three hundred tons. (2) Landships (which are divided into subclasses; 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class similar to naval battleships) proper are heavier being typically in the five-hundred ton ranges although some of the more modern ones are larger. (3) Landfortresses , the largest of this monolithic breed of war machines, often weighing in at over one thousand tons; ponderous, seemingly innoxerable as they traverse a battlefield, crushing everything in their path. All of these vehicles are singular for their thick armour, powerful armament and limited mobility, they typically move on massive wheel, mechanized track assembles or massive multi-jointed legs. A fourth classification does exist, that of Landram, pioneered in the American Civil War of 1861-67 by the Union Army in attempt to deal with British, French and Confederate landships. The typical landram, is a low lying, heavily armoured chassis mounted on six or eight massive, treaded or footed wheels. It's armament which mounted in casemates set at the front typically a heavy cannon of between 9" to 11" caliber, sides and backed typically by several smaller cannon of 3" to 4" calibers and backed up by several .58-caliber Gatling machine guns are secondary to the real weapon of the Landram, the colossal steam powered ram mounted in the front of the vehicle. Union Landram tactics involved stalking a much larger landship and then hurtling down upon it from as  short a range as possible at flank speed to collide violently against it, hopefully demolishing the enemy land vessel's suspension system and causing massive kinetic damage to the interior and structure of the enemy from the impact of the steam ram.

While this desperate tactic did work successfully on occasion during the Civil war, it typically also badly damaged the Land ram attempting it by wrecking it's own suspension system, dislodging the ram and dislodging it's own steam engines with the violence of the impact. Consequently the tactic was not widely copied by other nations who observed the American Civil War, most resorted to development of specific and mobile artillery platforms based on heavy or siege artillery guns designed as anti-landship artillery. The Union Army still maintains it's existing Landram fleet for lack of anything better, the bulk of the force being either original Civil War veterans or rebuilds of them.