The Log of the HMAS Marigold: Parts I-V

[Private Weasel]

Back in the board room, the violence had eventually abated. Behind a flipped boardroom table, Hawthorne sat, a collection of stolen weapons, most of the now spent littered around him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he called over to the rest of the group, his hands busy cannibalising the ammunition from a looted shotgun for his one remaining pistol, "I see you have retrieved the artifact, well done! Now I feel we should attempt to take control of the vessel so that we might..."

Sounds of distance weapons fire cut him short and for a second he listened, head cocked almost theatrically to one side.

"Interesting," he mused, clicking his pistol back into firing position and taking a pair of fallen pistols from the pile, "the cavalry has arrived! Whose cavalry remains to be seen"

[Evelyn Adler]

"Prussian Army"

Mary's voice was steady, but her face was almost translucent milk-white. She spoke fast. "They followed us here. They want the tablet and the dagger and from their entrance I wouldn't be too sure, they want us to live and tell the tale.
I don't know why they're doing this - they can't have any idea, I don't intend to carry out the initial order...." she hesistated "...which means,the initial order was a ruse anyway." Her eyes grew wide. "Oh these bastards!"

"We need to get out of here! I don't know how we are to escape the LZ-7, but first we must make sure we're not caught and the tablet and dagger are not taken! There must be a service hatch or trapdoor somewhere, where Handthorpe came back in, maybe we can escape there!"

Suddenly she realized, how they were looking at her. She groaned.

"Or if you don't trust me, leave me here. But go! GO!!!"

[Private Weasel]

"My dear Miss Krugar," reassured Hawthorne as he stood and made his way across the boardroom to his allies, "I make a living out of not trusting people and I'll be damned if that means I cannot act like a Gentleman."

"I agree we should make good our escape, but if you will indulge me briefly, there is something I must do." Hawthorne glances around at the fallen guards until he finds one to his satisfaction and makes short work of pulling off the unfortunate's boots.

Kicking off his own shoes, he quickly tied the ruffian's boots to his feet making quite a spectacle of fashion.

"Right, Gentlemen, Ladies. I believe they are playing our song, shall we?"

[Evelyn Adler]

She had stood like a culprit, awaiting the sentence and at Hawthorne's words, one could almost see the load falling off Mary. Her face lit up in real gratitude.

"I can't thank you enough. And if we get through this, I owe you all an explanation. But first, we need to get out."
She pointed to the still open trap door above the altar. "I believe, this could be our escape route. We need something to get up there - a rope, a ladder, whatever. If the soldiers follow the standard routine - and they always do! - we have between five and ten minutes until they get here. I suggest we start searching the room for something that can help us!"

She looked back at Hawthorne, who had just finished changing his shoes. For a split second she looked confused from him to his abandoned shoes on the floor - when suddenly she remembered something and smiled, understanding.

"My dear Lord Hawthorne - you're brilliant!"
Then she added, somewhat hesitantly "I need a word..."

Not really waiting for his answer, she stepped closer and spoke very softly. "There is something, I need you to do for me, in the event of... well, should we get separated. It is very important to me." She looked into his eyes. "In my cabin on the Marigold, there is a mahogany box under the bed - the contents of which should be quite interesting to your engineers back in London I believe. I can't help, if that somehow finds its way there, if you get my meaning. But... " her voice got more urgent "there is an envelope in that box as well.

It contains my Last Will and Testament. And consequently - my real identity. Which, at the current state, is only known to two people apart from myself. I would like it to stay that way and that is why I ask you, in case we get separated and I can't get back to the Marigold myself, to retrieve that envelope and keep it, unopened, until I come to collect it myself. You see - I only want to protect my family, I'm sure you can understand that.

Will you do that for me? Please?"

[Private Weasel]

Hawthorne nodded curtly.

"Whilst I find an unopen envelope enticing," he admitted, "I will do as you ask.  Of course, I fully intend for us all to get out of here alive.  I have an idea"

Making his way across to the now open remote panel, he spent a brief moment takingin in the rows of buttons and leavers, before pressing several, seemingly at random.

"Now by my reckoning," he said, his hands resting on the sasme mechanically-ratchetted lever the man known as Balthasar has righted the ship moments ago, "Once I pull this lever, the unaccessable roof will become a rather more accessable wall."

He pushes the lever upwards, it clicks into it's original position with a snap.

"It may also buy us some time with the Prussians,  hold on."

[walkthebassline]

The room tilted and Morgan tilted with it. His leg was bound up nicely and the absinthe had removed most of the pain, leaving behind only a slight haze behind his eyes. All through the ship he could hear furniture and cargo crashing and men screaming. He handed Starling her rifle and stepped forward to what had formerly been the ceiling.

"Well the Prussians will be feeling that. Let's get going before our visitors get here."

[MWBailey]

Rourke faceplamed himself, and said, "Hawthorne, if you hadn't just saved us all with that move, I'd... do something drastic." he shook himself, calmed, and then said, "Right. lets get going, shall we? And let's hope the Marigold hasn't slipped her moorings in the midst of all this flopping about. I'd suggest swords in hand, ladies and gentlemen, you neve know whats around teh next corner in a situation like --"

SPROOOOIIIiinnnggg... SPlat!SPlat!SPlat!SPlat!SPlat!SPlat!SPlat!SPlat!SPlat! HE ducked back out of th eceiling hatchway. "Ahem. Like I was saying..." He grabbed an odd-looking weapon from a fallen guard, put the ball-ended butt against his harness buckle, and jumped back throgh the hatch and   cranked off several bursts of rapid fire. He poked his head back through the hole and said, "Their 'eads're down for now, so 'urry up. Oh, don't lookit me loik that, Haqwthorne, Leftenant, I got to watch a demonstration of these things the last time I was 'ere."

[walkthebassline]

Redburn was climbing up the wall, deeply engaged in an argument with himself, when he paused and looked back at Starling.

"Madam, it suddenly occurs to me that your beautiful rifle might have a pronounced impact on this Prussian Zeppelin. At least if its penetrating power is what I assume it is."

With that he went back to softly debating the benefits of zucchini with himself.

[Private Weasel]

"Oh Rourke! Don't worry, the Prussians will right us when they get to the bridge!" announce Hawthorne almost gleefully as he deftly pulled himself though the opening, reaching down to assist his fellows behind him, "Divide and conquer my dear man, give them two or three things to worry about and that's less they worry about us."

"It's just a pity we have no way of setting off the dynamite I rather fortuitously stepped on as we arrived, that'll put the cat amongst the pigeons!"

[Evelyn Adler]

With Hawthorne's help, Mary climbed gracefully through the opening.
"Don't worry, I'm quite sure it was not the only trap - and Prussian soldiers are nothing if not thorough."
In the next second, a faraway explosion shook the ship.
"See?" Mary winked.

[walkthebassline]

Redburn took Hawthorne's offered hand and climbed through the door. He turned to face Hawthorne with a wide grin on his face.

"Many thanks your majesty. Whatever shall I do when I leave; no more members of the peerage to act as footman. You are a shining example of good manners, even if you are an Earl."

With that he moved on to make room for Starling and Rourke. He took the time to relight his pipe, and then pulled out his sword and checked its edge.

"Where do we head from here? The bridge, or back to our ship? Perhaps we should look for that fellow Rooney?"

[Stella Gaslight]

Walking up the wall was simple with her climbing spikes. Starling broke out in a grin and did a quick search of her pockets pulling out a vial of a strange grainy black sludge. "I may be able to do us one better.  This is my own blend of black powder and accelerator.  I tried to use it to hunt an elephant once in the field when i was younger and there was nothing left as a trophy after that.  I doubt Old Betsy will hold up for more that one or two shots with this and I am going to have to have something to keep me from falling off the ship with the kick back but it should leave a lovely hole.  If only we could find that kid with wings to use the dynamite to blow those hole wide open."    There was was a Prussian forward scout ahead of them with his back turned Starling had her darts out and ready when she noticed the foot long spikes in his chest and the wing pack on his back.  Apparently the sudden shift caused him to set off a booby trap. "Or perhaps we can just take that unfortunate soul's set of wings and cause a little havoc."

[Evelyn Adler]

"We should take his wings in any case." Mary said, relieving the late Prussian scout of his material burdens, namely his weapons and the mechanical contraption on his back.
"If you feel inclined to try these on, Starling, then go ahead!"

Pensively she added.

"I do admit, I feel not very comfortable about blowing up an entire Zeppelin full of my compatriots, as nasty as they may be. I'd greatly prefer if we could just sabotage them somehow, to make sure they can't follow us.
But if there is no other way then I certainly won't object. Only don't ask me to perform this task myself!"

[Stella Gaslight]

"I did allways want to be a bird when I was younger."  Starling said straping the wings to her back.  She listened thoughtfuly to Mary learning the wing's simple controls.  "Well I have an idea, a half mad one but it just may work.  What if I use the wings as a shooting platform to take out their engines?  We would have to find a way to keep them from shooting me down before I can get a shot off but there would be fewer deaths that way."

[walkthebassline]

Sheathing his sword, Redburn stroked nonexistent whiskers thoughtfully.

"Perhaps a distraction could give you enough time? I'm not saying a frontal assault on Prussian troops would be the wisest course of action, but then I've never claimed to be wise. Of course if anyone else has a better distraction lets hear it."

[MWBailey]

"Sounds good to me," Rourke said, hefting the subgatling and then stooping down to relieve the formerly-winged prussian of his magazines; the fellow's subgatling was actually bent in a 'V' shape, the apex of the figure exactly where the rotary barrels pivoted around the action. "Must've been a right wallop, old son," he said to the corpse, straightening again carefully; he had liberated one of the long drapes from the thronehall and used it to make a jury-rigged sling pack to carry the tablet on his back. It's forty or so pounds of dead weight was much easier to carry that way.

"Well, whatever we're doing, let's get cracking," Rourke said, "before the Prussians realize we're not a whole division." CLACK CLICK...

[Evelyn Adler]

"I do NOT advise a frontal assault, unless you're suicidal!" Mary frowned.

"Let's check the situation first. We need to sneak back on board the Marigold and to make sure, she's not been taken by the Prussian troops as well. We need to sabotage the LZ-7, so she can't follow us, when we make our escape. THAT would have been a job for that Rooney kid, but I'm close to believing he got fried by lightning hours ago.
In any case let's not rush headlong into something. These stormtroops are another calibre than your usual Mad Megalomaniac Private Army, believe me.

The Prussians will follow the usual standard procedure. Means, they'll search the entire ship from stern to bow, collecting all survivors in one place in the process. Then, having found neither us nor the tablet, they'll start searching and asking questions among the "Dagger" crew. The entire procedure will take one or two hours from now, before they even consider the possibility, that we may have slipped through their fingers. You see, the Prussian army is immensely competent - which makes them arrogant and overconfident and that is their weakness!"

[walkthebassline]

Redburn suddenly smacks his hand to his forehead.

"So what would happen if we gave them a target? Say our pal Handthorpe? I figure this ship is set up with all the latest conveniences, surely the bridge is equipped to play automated announcements?

We record a public message saying be on the lookout for a man fitting Handthorpe's description, make it sound all official, repeat it in several languages, you know the thing. Then we just let it play while we sneak back to the old Marigold. Either the stormtroopers search for the recording or they search for Handthorpe, but either way it could buy us some more time."

[MWBailey]

"... gave them a target? Say ... Handthorpe? I figure this ship is set up... latest conveniences, surely the bridge ... automated announcements?"

The pain in Handthorpe's skull was near;ly completely impossible to function around, but function his brain did, and the things Handthorpe heard convinced him that he woudl be spending a good deal of time dying slowly.

"We record ...message saying ... lookout...fitting Handthorpe's description..." Handthporpe blanked out for a bit, but caught the last part of teh speech: "Either the stormtroopers search for the recording or they search for Handthorpe, but either way it could buy us some more time."

Hand thorpe started trying to move, then. maybe he couldnt do it fast, but damned if he was going to just give up. One of teh bones of his left forearm, though, had had enough, and finally snapped at the hairline crack it had had suffered when he fell from the ceiling hatch. "AAARRRRGGHHHH!" he cried, and fell back again, gasping for breath against the pain "... Not...*gasp*gonna let you...*gasp*kill me ...just...*gasp*yet..."

[Private Weasel]

Hawthorne had been silent until this point, his ever present smile wavering slightly as he let down his façade in deep thought.

"Hmmm,  it occurs to me that the Prussians will have to latch themselves onto this vessel to make a full scale assault."

He pauses, tapping his finger to his philtral dimple, ruminating as he spoke.

"So, whilst you are causing a distraction, I go to the storage locker and pick up say a dozen boarding harpoons, find myself a launcher and ensure that the two ships are tightly woven together, then we deflate the balloon for this vessel by tearing a sizeable whole, essentially pulling both vessels to the ocean. All the while collecting these aeronautic devices from the Prussian Scouts who have so kindly brought them to us"

"Then  it's just a matter of jumping back to our vessel and making our escape with a sizable lead, I telegram the British, tell them to home in on my footwear as a humanitarian aid mission, and we save the Dagger crew and if we're lucky, the Prussians in the greatest diplomatic rescue mission of the century."

"No war, no killing, we're hailed as heroes, tea and crumpets all round?"

"How's that sound?"

[Evelyn Adler]

"I'm for tea and crumpets, anytime!" Mary smiled.
"Though I don't think anyone should go alone. Especially not you, with your uncanny ability to find traps and trouble!"
She winked at Hawthorne.
"I'd suggest, Messrs Rourke and Redburn as well as Miss Starling create aforementioned distraction, I go with you, weaving ships together, all of us collect mechanical wings as we go and we'll meet opposite the Marigold docking bay in, say, half an hour?"

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling had to admit that this had been just the sort of adventure she had been needing.  An escape from the pressure heaped upon her in her academic and professional life.  She turned to Rourke and Redburn looking like a child on Christmas. "Well gents might I suggest A bit of a play?  Those Prussians waited until we had the greenies  taken care of to board so what if we give them a bit of a shock.  Like say three flying greenies that are mysteriously infecting there crew.  I can rig some darts that will simulate the green skin and foaming mouth of a greenie.  It is pretty much harmless stuff it makes your mouth taste horrible and can give you some wicked cramps if you don't take a blocking pill first but other than that you are right as rain in about an hour.  One of my undergrads developed it as a joke and I improved it for disaster training." 

[walkthebassline]

"Sounds like a proper plan. And of course I don't have to say keep an eye out for Handthorpe. If anyone sees Rooney let him know what's going on; I'd hate to leave without the enterprising fellow."

Redburn took a sip from his flask.

"Lets bring on your green stuff Ms. Starling. Now, which way to the bridge?"

[Private Weasel]

"Excellent" cried Hawthorne as he rubbed his hands together, "Gentlemen, Miss Scott, I wish you well on your endeavour. I suggest that we leave Mr Handthrope to his own devices, he has plenty of guns down there and surely realises that he cannot reach us up here with with his injuries. I suspect he will add further to the chaos we need to instil in our would be attackers."

"I am so very glad you wish to accompany me Miss Kruger," he commented, throwing a genuine smile across to her as the group split, "I must confess that I am a) not sure where the storage lockers are situation, nor am I b) entirely certain such things as a 'Boarding Harpoon' exist on this vessel."

Hawthorne allowed himself a brief moment of genuine joviality chuckling at the situation he had created.

"Of course, I'm not worried." he admitted with a believably certainty as he padded down the corridor with his companion, "such things such logically exist and if not, we're both exemplary people. I am sure that we can improvise beautifully."

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling was braced on a wall digging through her vials when she pulled out a small amber colored bottle full of small pills and a vial of stuff that looked like weak tea with flecks of black floating in it.  She popped one of the pills in her mouth and then handed one to Redburn then dosed up a trio of darts from the vial.  The smell escaping from it was like sickly sweet decay and rotting earth. "That is the easy part. I am going to have to stick you because I have yet to meet the man that can actually ingest this stuff.  It will sting a bit."  She said poking her self in the elbow then rolling up his sleeve and doing the same to him. "With where I injected it it should only take about 5 mins for it to kick in. I think we should climb up from here we already know where the lower hall leads. We came in that way."