Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
Session 2.12 Index Session 3.2
The London Knights all wake up.
Even before they open their eyes, they can smell a hideous stench of strange rotting meat, Truth especially. Servo finds that his armour is very low on power, and its calendar/clock has been disabled. Opening their eyes, the group finds themselves on a huge slope of rotting flesh, stretching off, down and then up miles away to a row of vast ribs, miles high, with clouds around their bases and no sign of a sternum above. The ribs are widely spaced and stretch off over the horizon, starting to appear non-vertical as they conform to the curve of the planet. A second row of ribs is behind them; in fact, they are at the base of one.
Strange pink/red plants are dotted around, growing on the rotted flesh, and small scuttling things.
Dotted on some of the ribs are what appear to be cities within transparent bubbles, and aircraft are just visible, moving about high in the sky.
The sun is setting, though it looks different to Earth's sun, and the sky is full of swirling nebulae in a multitude of colours. No-one recognises the stars which are visible.
Servo tunes his radio to see if there are any radio signals. There are quite a lot. They all seem to be of a military nature - "Patrol six reporting in; nothing found," for example. However, the language they are speaking is not English, it is some hissing, clicking liquid speech, like nothing he has ever heard, but somehow he can still understand it...
Everyone looks like they have been unwashed and unshaven (where relevant) for a few days at least, and their costumes look more than a little ripped and torn. Noesis' shell seems to have acquired an extension, a fairly crudely fitted bulge.
John Doe goes up to Servo and punches him in his (armoured) shoulder. He's testing whether it's all some kind of shared dream. It hurts.
At about this point, John Doe notices that there is something strange inside him, which seems to not be actually part of him. He shapeshifts it to the surface. It is a slimy grey ovoid, about 30cm long and 6cm in diameter. He goes to shed it, and is suddenly hit with a wave of intense pain. He reconsiders for a second, then starts trying to shed it again, resisting the pain which grows and grows. He fights on, and after a few minutes of really intense effort he succeeds in shedding the thing. It drops to the ground.
To Truth it has an unpleasant smell which she recognises as one she smelt traces of in the Canary Wharf tower when they were there previously. She feels around inside herself with her desolidification power, but can't tell if there is one of these things in there.
John Doe shows Noesis what he looks like now. The shell extension looks about the right size that one of the things which was inside John Doe could be inside it.
There is a lot of speculation as to what this thing is - whether they have been mind controlled to perform atrocities against their will, whether these things are 'Alien' eggs (as in the movies; John Doe has been watching too much TV), or whether they are some kind of alien parasite, or something else.
Noesis pulls a set of surgical instruments out of a compartment in his shell and begins to dissect the thing. He is one of the best neurosurgeons on Earth, after all. Its skin is tough and leathery, but inside it seems to be some kind of undifferentiated glop, with very faint traces of some kind of nervous system. However, it is unlike anything Noesis has seen before. He focuses on himself and finds he can detect slight thoughts from inside the extension on his shell, but it seems to be only barely conscious. He considers Ego Attacking the thing, and asks Servo to detach it. He also considers performing exploratory surgery on Chronos and Avenger, both of whom seem to have gone into shock and are just staring blankly into space. Some moral objections are raised to this.
Blitz volunteers to be operated upon instead. John Doe touches one of the strange plants nearby, and analyses its genetic structure, unlike anything he has ever seen before. He shapeshifts into a large copy of the plant, with the party hidden inside, and produces an operating table and other necessary equipment. There is some discussion of how to anaesthetise Blitz. Brute force and mental powers are considered, but Truth's knockout gas power is eventually decided upon as the best idea. Blitz lies down, and after some convincing, removes his outer mask, as well as the remains of his top, exposing a variety of scars on his body. Truth gases him into unconsciousness and down he goes...
Noesis uses his Telepathy, and can sense the presence of something in Blitz' abdomen, but can't locate it any more specifically than that from outside. He open Blitz up just below the stomach, using his multitude of telekinetic hands to pinch off all the blood vessels, and begins to explore inside Blitz' abdomen. He soon finds one of the ellipsoidal things nestled up against Blitz' spinal column, just below his diaphragm. Now that he can see it, he can tell, using his telepathy, that this is indeed the thing in question.
He mentally attacks it. Blitz convulses, but the thing seems unchanged. Blitz is held down in case he convulses again. Noesis examines the thing again. It seems to have attached itself to Blitz' aorta and vena cava, the bodies main artery and vein, and more importantly it has grown thousands of tendrils into Blitz' spinal cord, which even if they were cut from the thing would die and perhaps rot in Blitz' spine unless removed - a very hard job. John Doe thinks it will re-grow new tendrils as soon as they start being cut anyway - that certainly seems to be what the one inside himself was trying to do. Noesis and Chronos discuss whether Chronos' time powers could stop the re-growth by slowing Blitz or accelerating Noesis, but Noesis thinks there is at least 48 hours worth of surgery involved, and Chronos cannot maintain his powers for so long without rest.
Noesis decides to try another approach. He generates a Mental Illusion at the thing that Blitz' body is on fire, and then dead, to try and get it to leave of its own volition. Nothing seems to happen, and the thing stays put.
Noesis mentally attacks it again. Blitz' heart stops. Truth reaches inside his chest and massages his heart to keep it going; it soon starts beating again of its own accord. Noesis decides that there is currently nothing he can do to remove the thing and decides to put Blitz back together. He does so, precisely stitching up Blitz' abdomen.
After a little while Blitz wakes up, in a lot of pain. Servo uses one of his healing packs on Blitz, and he quickly feels a lot better.
Truth tries mind controlling the thing in Avenger, to come out. He convulses. John Doe holds him down (he's the only one strong enough to do so successfully) while Truth puts her hand into Avenger and re-solidifies her hand in the thing. Avenger convulses again, worse than before. Noesis, keeping an eye on things with his telepathic powers, can tell that the thing is getting upset, and is more aware than it was; it is also, as it does so, radiating more and more a sense of evil.
There is a collective decision to stop the experimentation and go to the nearest bubble city, which is visible some miles off, in the hope that the natives will be able to provide assistance.
They take to the air, mostly lifted by Noesis, and head for the city. As they go higher they can see that the carcass is of a gigantic manta-ray like creature, phosphorescing slightly with putrescence. The cities are all lit up, there are lights on top of some of the ribs, and lights from aircraft moving around. Servo listens on the radio. He puts the received radio signals over his armour's PA system so everyone can hear; John Doe only hears it as hissing, clicking liquid sounds but the others understand.
After a short while they hear, over the radio, "Prey sighted in Sector 12." They see a flight of flying things coming towards them from one side of the city, but they are too far away to make out any details.
As the group gets closer to the city, they can see that all the buildings inside the bubble are strange upright organic-looking structures which give the impression of having been grown rather than built. A flight of three of the aircraft they have seen earlier, at a great distance, goes over at quite low altitude. They look roughly like giant flying fish with implanted cybernetic weaponry and rocket engines.
Once they get within a couple of miles of the city, Servo broadcasts a message saying that the London Knights are heading for city, and need assistance - he can speak the language (though 'London Knights' comes .out as 'London Knights')
Shortly after Servo puts out his broadcast, they hear over the radio, "Prey detected approaching Settlement 32. Flight 12 intercepting." They decide that this doesn't sound good, and that they should go somewhere else. Servo tries to contact Flight 12, but gets no response.
Blitz takes Truth and flies with her.
They decide to turn go towards the next nearest city, behind them, in the opposite direction from where they woke up.
Off they go; Flight 12 seems to be slowly catching up with them. They decide to drop down behind one of the vast ribs to hide in its shadow. They duck down among the hanging tatters of flesh and assorted hanging plants and such. Blitz and Truth duck stealthily down to the base of the rib, and Truth generates a fog about them to hide them from their pursuers. John Doe transforms into a falling lump of rotting meat covering Servo, pretending to be something which has just fallen off the huge rotting carcass. He and Servo can't help noticing that they're falling towards something that looks like a 100 metre wide spiders web strung below them. Servo can also sees a spider-like thing lurking in the shadows by the web. John Doe grows little steering fins in an attempt to steer through the web, and succeeds, zipping through a gap in the web.
Noesis, Chronos and Avenger all land. John Doe and Servo land as well. Servo saw the direction Blitz and Truth were going, but other than that none of the group have no idea where the others are.
Over the radio, Servo hears, "We almost have them. The mammals will soon be ours." He radios the others and tells them they are still being pursued.
Noesis changes the colour of his shell to that of the rotting flesh. The still-comatose Avenger is rolled in rotten gunge to disguise him. Chronos uses his vast stealth skills to hide.
Everyone sees a group of eight creatures fly around the rib. They are flying under insect-like wings with their legs and stinger-tipped abdomens tucked up underneath. They carry bulbous blaster weapons of some kind in two long tentacles. Their heads have slavering spike-toothed jaws and a (relatively) huge crest with eyes on each side. In short, not nice.
One of the creatures shouts, "There they are," and the group of them start to fly down towards Noesis, Avenger and Chronos. They fire their blasters as they come in. Avenger is hit in the chest twice, but shrugs it off and appears to wake up. He doesn't look particularly happy. Blaster bolts hit all around Noesis and Chronos, but none hit.
Blitz, who has been seeing what is going on by sticking his head out of Truth's cloud, sneaks out and off to one side before flying up towards the creatures. Noesis scuttles away. Avenger draws his guns.
"More of them have appeared, Huntmaster!" shouts one of the creatures.
Blitz blasts one of the creatures; it stumbles in the air and starts to fall to the ground.
John Doe flies up, carrying Servo (who is feeling reluctant to use his rocket pack right now, as recharges may be a long way off). Servo fires a concussion grenade at the creatures; two are within the blast radius and are somewhat knocked around in the air.
Avenger fires his blaster pistol at one of the creatures, and it falls out of the sky.
The creatures shoot back. Blitz is hit, and absorbs some of the energy. Servo and John Doe are hit but to no significant effect. Blitz fires again, and another creature falls from the air. Avenger fires again, and another creature falls. Servo fires another grenade, and the creatures are hit again. John Doe flies at one of the creatures, grows whirling blades and attempts to cut it up. He misses. The creature twists in the air and stabs him with its tail stingers as he goes by. John Doe is not at all well, and he, along with Servo, begin to fall to the ground... Servo fires one of his metal binding eggs at the creature which hit John Doe, wrapping it in metal bands. Its wings are bound up, and it begins to fall too. Chronos races up to one of the unconscious creatures which has now hit the ground. It is coming round, so he ages it to death, then takes its gun. Noesis mentally attacks one of the creatures and it stagger slightly. Truth lurks in her cloud. Blitz fires again and another creature plummets. John Doe recovers before hitting the ground and re-grows his wings. He also grows a stylish fedora.
Chronos examines the creature's gun, and discovers it seems to be built to be fired by a creature with tentacles rather than arms. Also, he is unfamiliar with the use of blasters. Regardless (and lacking any ranged attacks of his own) he fires at the creatures, using his time powers to concentrate the blast for greater effect. He misses.
Avenger fires and hits again. Servo fires another grenade, and hits. He then heals John Doe, who hasn't just been stabbed, but poisoned too, and is still suffering its effects. Blitz fires again. Another creature falls. Noesis mentally attacks again, and the creature falls. Chronos fires again, and misses again. Servo heals John Doe again, as he is still being affected by the poison. However, this seems to stop its effects. Blitz is hit by a blaster bolt and starts to fall to the ground. Servo is hit, and stunned.
"Foolish mammals, you can fight as much as you like, but in the end you will be ours," hisses the Huntmaster, who, along with the other creature which is still conscious and flying, is starting to withdraw. Blitz blasts them, and one of them falls from the sky. The other one flees. Noesis mentally blasts it, and it tumbles from the sky.
Truth rejoins the rest of the group. They round up all the creatures; only one is still alive, the one which Servo entangled. Each one has an individual marking on its crest, which seems to distinguish it from the others. They all are wearing a harness which carries a radio and a number of power packs for their blaster weapons. Servo falls upon them.
John Doe investigates them with his shapeshifter sense. They are, genetically, the same species as the things inside everyone but him, and, somehow, evil at a genetic level. John Doe turns into one, and starts to feel homicidal urges towards the captive creatures and, indeed to the other members of the group. He quickly changes out of that form...
Blitz scans the sky for other creatures, but cannot see much. It is dark, after all.
Noesis reads the surface thoughts of the creature. 'Evil' and 'homicidal' are the main impressions he gets.
John Doe produces an egg, identical to the one he took from himself down to the genetic level, and holds it up to the surviving creature, then crushes it as Noesis says, "You don't think these puny things will harm us?"
The creature seems a little perturbed by this.
Noesis then projects an illusion into the things mind of Blitz tearing open his chest, ripping out the egg, then sealing himself back up again and destroying the egg. The creature is staggered, but disbelieving. More questions are asked of it.
It knows that there are other 'mammals' on the planet, but not where. It knows there are none in the cities. Its race is called the Brood. Regardless of what happens to it, they are all doomed, when the time comes.
There is a general decision to kill the Brood. John Doe goes to decapitate it, but Chronos gets there first (of course!), and ages it to death.
They decide to head on out away from the carcass and attempt to find other things which might be of use, though given the attitude of the Brood and what they have seen so far, they don't hold out much hope, especially has Truth can smell quite a lot of pollution in the air. They fly out of the rib cage and off over one of its vast rotting wings.
As they go Servo, in between investigating the Brood power packs prior to adapting them to run his armour, notices what looks like flashes from blaster fire off in the distance, to one side. They head for it, stealthily.
In a tear in the rotten flesh of the wing they see eight of the Brood surrounding a single human in tattered clothing, covering him with their blasters. "It is time," says one of the Brood to the human. As if one cue, the human begins to scream. His body starts to smoke, then glow as he carries on screaming, and he body warps and flows into that of a Brood. "This is not good," think most of the group...
They group leap in to the attack. John Doe has several of the blaster rifles, and tentacles to use them. He zoom in in winged form and opens fire, hitting two of the Brood. Truth jets a cloud of silvery gas at one of the Brood, temporarily blinding it. Blitz attacks and two more Brood stagger back. Noesis hits one with his telekinesis and it smashes into the wall of the tear with a squelch. Chronos uses the blaster he is carrying (again concentrating its energy with his powers), and another Brood is hit. Servo fires more grenades and two more Brood fall over. Avenger opens fire and hits another Brood. Chronos fires again and the last unharmed Brood (the one which was recently a human) falls over. Noesis knocks out another. Blitz blasts again, and two Brood fall over. Servo, seeing little use for his combat skills by now, goes back to examining the power packs. John Doe knocks over another. Avenger shots another, which falls over. John Doe kills four or so of the unconscious Brood, leaving only the new one alive.
The new Brood is restrained. Noesis reads its surface thoughts. He can feel two minds, one evil Brood mind, and one human mind, screaming as it falls into blackness. Noesis calls the human mind back, and Truth uses her chemical mind control to suppress the mind of the Brood, for now. The human mind resurfaces.
In the Brood language, he begs for death. Noesis agrees that this shall be done, but they need information first. The human mind tells them, via telepathic words and images, that he, along with some crew-mates, were the crew of a spaceship, a flying saucer, in fact, when they were captured by the Brood. Noesis sees that, while piloting the flying saucer the crew were wearing clothing in a style which is completely different from anything known on Earth. The crew were taken before a Brood at least four times bigger than any the group have seen. It stabbed them in the abdomen with its stinger, implanting eggs, but the wound instantly healed up behind them.
He was captured about six weeks ago (those aren't the units he uses, but that is what the time translates to).
Noesis asks if his ship had a faster than light drive. "Yes," answers the human mind. Noesis is slightly gobsmacked by this - no-one on Earth has such a thing, as far as anyone knows. He asks how it works. Apparently power is expended to tear a hole into hyperspace, through which one travels, tearing out again at the destination.
The mind says that the spaceports are at the top of some of the ribs. His flying saucer was dumped there, in the midst of what looked like a graveyard of spaceships. "Please, kill me now," he begs.
The general opinion is that there are no more questions, so John Doe decapitates the new Brood with a sword-arm. As it dies, Noesis, who needs drugs, which he does not currently have, to protect him from suicidal depression, keeps a link to the human mind. It sinks into blackness, deeper and deeper, with Noesis' mind in tow. The others see Noesis' shell wobble in the air. Deeper and deeper Noesis' mind sinks, until, just before it's too late, with a burst of willpower he didn't think he had, Noesis tears himself free and lets the mind carry on into death...
There is a little speculation on how the Brood reproduced before they had humans (or whatever) to use - they must have had some other species native to their world which they used.
The group decide to try and locate the flying saucer...
Session 2.12 Index Session 3.2
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