Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
John Doe wakes up in the crashed spaceship. Everyone else is draped about the cabin, unconscious. The ship seems quite badly damaged - one side has been torn open and couches and debris are scattered about. It is very hot and dry. He goes over to Noesis and shakes him, but gets no response.
He goes over to Blitz instead. It's a bit hard to help Blitz because of his full-face helmet, so he takes it off, shapeshifts a bucket of water and throws it over Blitz, who coughs and splutters and wakes up. He searches for his helmet, which John Doe gives back to him.
Chronos wakes up. He has no idea where he is, but is surprised - and not too impressed - by the new outfit the others made for him - tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, traditional-style kilt (i.e. no underwear), and clogs. He takes off the clogs, then is distressed to discover that his mask is gone, He runs out of the ship and hides.
John Doe turns to Truth. He turns into a puddle and laps at her, to little effect. She remains unconscious.
Truth, Noesis, Servo and 'Sven' remain unconscious.
Chronos, outside, surveys the scene. The landscape seems to be semi-desert savannah, with a very few straggly trees, dry grass and a couple of clumps of rock (kopjes scattered about). A large scar, several hundred yards long, leads to the spaceship. The sun beats down and half a dozen vultures circle overhead.
John Doe goes to Servo, and Blitz to 'Sven'. They try to awaken them. s they do so John Doe asks Blitz how far it is to home. Blitz tells him it's a long way - a few thousand miles. John Doe finds Servo's healing box and puts it on 'Sven'; 'Sven's breathing rate changes so he decides to use it on Servo next. As he moves over to Servo, 'Sven wakes up. He is all right, he says. John Doe uses the box on Servo, and he wakes up. 'Sven' goes over to Truth and does some first aid. She wakes up.
Servo's armour has lost power again - his jury-rigged adapter for the Brood power packs has been badly damaged by the landing. He starts to repair it.
'Sven' takes the healing box and goes over to Noesis, opens a small hatch in his shell and plugs the box into it, pumping its effect into Noesis. Noesis wakes up. He hurts, and his shell is telling him it is too hot, and slightly damaged. Noesis turns up his cooling systems.
Chronos, shouting in from outside, asks what happened to his clothes and how the group got here. The last thing he remembers is going through the tunnels in the Soulsingers head on the way to release the Soul. He refuses to come back inside unless he gets a mask. After some shilly-shallying Blitz turns away from the others takes off his helmet and inner mask, and puts the helmet back on. He hands his inner mask out to Chronos, who puts it on. Chronos also puts his clogs back on once he is told about all the nasties which could be crawling about out there.
Everyone climbs out of the ship and they discuss what to do next. It is very hot. There are different opinions about what to do with the ship, and various concerns about whether the Brood have taken over the Earth in the groups absence.
Suddenly, the sound of helicopters is heard approaching from to the right of the ship's track. The group can see two helicopters flying towards them. Blitz flies off to meet them. Truth goes desolid and waits. 'Sven' stands next to her, as does Servo. John Doe and Noesis pretend to be wreckage. Chronos hides in the nearby rocks.
As Blitz approaches the helicopters, he can see that they are black, very high-tech looking, and have no markings, or visible landing gear. Their surfaces are very sleek, with no places to hold on. They have no tail rotors. They do have what look like gattling chain guns in chin turrets, which turn to follow Blitz as he approaches. He flies behind them, then between them so the turrets are each pointing at the other helicopter as well as him.
He sees they are approaching the wreckage of the ship, and the crash zone, including the big scar upon the landscape. The ship is essentially arrowhead-shaped - a big triangle.
He calls the others on his radio and tells them what to expect. Noesis speculates paranoidly that the helicopters are some covert US operation here to investigate the spaceship crash. Truth suggests that the ship should be destroyed. 'Sven' shows Truth and Servo the 'keystone' which holds it all together; the others are in general not too impressed with this design feature. He would definitely prefer it destroyed. Servo and Noesis protest strongly at this.
The two helicopters arrive. Wheels appear just before they touch down, and as they land doors slide open in their sides and six figures in black powered armour jump out.
Once they are out, Chronos zips from cover into one of the helicopters, highly stealthy at super-speed. In the compartment are two benches, front and rear (the one at the front broken by a locked, handle-less door to the pilots compartment), and some locked lockers above the rear one. There are no personal effects or identifying marks at all in there.
The helicopters start to close their doors. Chronos leaves back to cover before they do so. The helicopters take off, and the powered armoured figures move towards the ship, and those party members there.
The armoured figures are carrying big multi-barrelled guns, pistols, and various other items of equipment. The suits of armour are numbered 121 to 126. As they come closer, they fan out.
When they get within ten metres of the group by the ship, one of them orders, "MOVE AWAY FROM THE SHIP. YOU HAVE FIFTEEN SECONDS." He starts a countdown.
John Doe slides stealthily under the ship and emerges from the other side as an old man. He moves towards one of the armoured figures, asking what is going on. He is told to stop. He does. 'Sven' and Servo move away from the ship. Noesis reads the surface thoughts of one of the figures. "Oh great, superhumans," he is thinking.
The group are told to sit down with their hands on their heads. They refuse. John Doe refuses unless some identification is shown. The figure who seems to be the leader fires a warning shot into the ground at John Doe's feet.
Blitz, seeing the blaster fire, fires at the nearest helicopter. It staggers in the air and smokes starts to seep from it.
At this point, the armoured figures open fire (autofire) on all group members visible. John Doe is hit many times. Shots pass through Truth, who runs towards her attacker. Sven takes a couple of blaster bolts. Servo, like John Doe, is hit many times. He falls over. The helicopter fires back at Blitz; Blitz tumbles in the air from the impacts but is otherwise unharmed.
Chronos appears behind one of the men and tries ageing him. It seems to have no effect.
Truth runs at one of the soldiers, and distracts him by moving inside him.
John Doe pretends to be dying. No-one seems too bothered.
Blitz fires at the helicopter again and it starts to descend to towards the ground, losing height but still under control. It fires at Blitz again.
Noesis mentally attacks one of the armoured figures, who is hurt by this.
The helicopter fire hits Blitz and knocks him out. He starts to fall.
A soldier fires at Noesis and hits, to little effect. Noesis decides to stop pretending to be wreckage.
Another fires on Truth, the shots going straight through.
Another fires on 'Sven'
The other three soldiers cover the others. They shout for them to put their hands up now.
Chronos attacks, again to no noticeable effect. One of the soldiers fires at him.
Blitz recovers.
John Doe rolls around on the floor, pretending to be dying.
Noesis shouts to everyone to stop fighting. He is essentially ignored.
Truth attacks one of the armoured figures while desolid, feeling around inside him, partly to hurt and put him off, partly to check he's not a Brood in disguise. He is not happy at this, but does seem to be fully human.
'Sven' drags Servo out of harms way, under the spaceship.
Noesis projects a white flag on his shell, trying to surrender. Everyone ignores it.
John Doe continues to pretend he's dying.
Chronos goes to grab the gun of one of the armoured figures. Unfortunately, the soldier seems stronger than he is, so he fails to do so. The soldier goes to hit Chronos with the gun butt, but misses.
Noesis tries to get everyone to stop fighting again, to no effect. Again.
Truth continues to attack the soldier. He is not happy.
Blitz flies towards a group of trees, trying to evade the helicopter's attacks.
John Doe keep acting.
Chronos tries to grab a gun again, to as little effect as before.
Blitz flies back up out of the trees.
Noesis continues to fail to give himself up.
From under the ship a metal egg is fired at one of the armoured figures, entrapping him in metal bands.
Chronos attacks again but is again unable to grab a gun.
Noesis mentally attacks a soldier, who staggers back in pain.
The second helicopter follows Blitz. Blitz does not fire at it.
Truth continues to harass the soldier. He swears.
A second metal egg is fired from under the ship, entrapping a second soldier. His gun is outside the enwrapping metal bands, so Chronos goes to grab it and succeeds this time. He fires on a soldier and hits. The soldier falls over.
Noesis gives up trying to stop the fight and surrender, and attacks.
Blitz sees what is going on and fires at the second helicopter.
John Doe transforms into a large chrome demon thing and shouts, "STOP FIGHTING!" The soldiers hesitate, as do Noesis and Chronos. Chronos fires on a soldier, who falls over, and the moment is lost.
A soldier attacks Chronos, who stops the attack.
A soldier fires something under the ship (not a blaster bolt), and there is a large explosion under it. No more metal eggs are fired from under there.
The helicopter fires at Blitz, but missed.
John Doe stamps up to Chronos to complain about his firing.
Noesis mentally attacks a soldier to some effect.
The soldiers leap in and attack, hitting John Doe (to no effect) but missing Chronos.
Chronos fires at a soldier, who dodges out of the way.
Truth harasses 'her' soldier some more.
John Doe, still not in favour of fighting, turns into a couch, coffee table, drinks cabinet and carpet.
Noesis mentally attacks the same soldier again; he falls over.
The soldier Truth is harassing, the last one still standing, jumps into the air, away from her; at the top of his jump he activates rockets on the backs of his legs and launches up and away, towards the downed helicopter. Unfortunately for him, Chronos shoots him in mid-flight and he tumbles down to the ground, out of control or unconscious. He falls but is caught telekinetically by Noesis and lowered gently to the ground.
The helicopter which is still flying turns away from the scene and flies off.
All the soldiers are now unconscious. Chronos instantly anchors down the ones not enwrapped in metal bands under piles of rocks, with just their heads sticking out.
The couch which is John Doe takes off on a pillar of rocket fire and pursues the escaping helicopter. Blitz intercepts him in flight and lounges on the couch. However, the helicopter seems faster than they are, and is pulling away.
However, the helicopter is not faster than Chronos, who also pursues it and repeatedly fires on it with the blaster he took from one of the soldiers. However, it seems to have little effect.
Noesis looks under the ship, where there was a large explosion a little while ago. 'Sven' seems OK and conscious; Servo is unconscious, and 'Sven' is trying to wake him. Noesis assists and Servo regains consciousness. They all come out from under the ship.
Truth removes the armour from the soldiers. For those who are entangled (so the armour can't actually be removed) she undoes all the armour's catches so it is only held on by the entanglement. She is annoyingly nice to them (especially the entangled ones, who are still conscious) as she does this.
John Doe, Blitz and Chronos decide the helicopter is going to fast, and decide to give up following it. They turn to go back to the other. Chronos fires a last shot at the helicopter, and obviously hits something vital - it tumbles in the air and starts to fall, tumbling, to the ground.
John Doe zooms in to try and catch it, but just can't fly fast enough and is just close enough to be caught in the fireball explosion as it hits the ground, taking damage.
Chronos watches the explosion and goes to see what is left. Blitz assists him.
John Doe emerges from the fire as a shapeless blob, his powers gone wild. Once he is out of the flames he reforms.
Nothing much is left of the helicopter, or it unfortunate occupants. The ammunition of the chin turret gun starts to cook off.
John Doe is not happy with Chronos, and hits him. Chronos hits him in the back in return.
Truth tries on the helmet of one of the armoured figures, but it does nothing; she can't even see out from inside it (though it's obvious the soldiers could).
She skips (yes, skips!) off to the downed helicopter and goes through its side into the cockpit. Inside are two men in flight helmets and unmarked black jump-suits. They look at her as she enters, but say nothing. From a speaker come the words, "Vehicle integrity compromised. Security measures initiated." Then the helicopter explodes violently.
Truth goes back to the others and tells them what happened. 'Sven' gives the impression of being horrified, though 'he' hasn't really mastered human expressions as yet.
The group can't help but notice a distant explosion and plume of smoke rising up from in the direction the other helicopter went.
They decide to talk to one of the soldiers, entrapped in one of Servo's metal eggs, and remove his helmet. Inside is a Nordic-looking man. Truth mind controls him to be co-operative and Noesis reads his mind while they ask questions. He doesn't speak as they questions are asked, but enough flashes across his mind for Noesis to get the idea anyway.
His name is Ezekiel Brown. Noesis can detect a definite American accent to his thoughts as he reads them. He is a member of a unit called the Black Hammers, which works for an organisation called the ATD. At this point his armour (still wrapped around his, if all unclasped) explodes. Ezekiel dies messily.
At about this point John Doe, Blitz and Chronos arrive back, having seen the plume of smoke from the helicopter Truth's actions caused to explode, and now the explosion of Ezekiel. Each group explains to the other what has happened.
Another man has his helmet removed. He is a Hispanic type. The same procedure is repeated on him. His name is Jesus Rodriguez. He is asked if anything on him is going to blow up. He thinks not, then blows up, followed by the four others.
'Sven' looks horrified again. Everyone else looks similarly, to varying lesser degrees.
Servo examines the helmets (still intact) and the remains of the armour.
'Sven' mentions that he had picked up radio signals coming from the armour as the group were talking to them. Then he picks up one of the soldier's blasters and goes over to the ship. He shoots the keystone. Everyone gets ready to run, in case the ship going to explode, but it doesn't, it just dissolves into dust and blows away.
John Doe takes pity on Chronos in his kilt and tweed jacket and makes him a proper superhero costume.
Blitz flies up as high as he can, to try and get an idea of the best way to go. Off in the distance he can make out a river. He comes down to the others, and they decide to go that way.
After a little while they reach the river, which is fairly small, but in a bed indicating it can get much bigger than its current size. There is more abundant vegetation here. Noesis is a bit dubious about the healthiness of drinking from the river, so Truth goes in (being immune to disease and toxins) to test it. It does indeed seem not too clean, and she can definitely smell signs of its being used as a toilet by people further upstream.
John Doe makes a filter out of himself, and those who are bothered drink and wash.
The group then decide to head upstream to find the nearest village.
Servo, being carried, works on re-powering his armour as they go.
After a while of flying upriver a village is visible on the left bank of the river - a dozen or so huts, plus cattle pens and the like. It seems very quiet. They group land a way away from the village, not wanting to alarm the locals by just flying straight in, and disguise themselves to look a little less blatantly weird. John Doe produces outfits for everyone human-looking - draped Arabic-looking things, with veils, them transforms into a camel loaded with baggage. Noesis hides inside the camels hump, which is equipped with little vision ports so he can see out.
John Doe resists the temptation to use Chronos as spitting practise. Very public-spirited of him.
As the group approach the village, Truth starts to smell rotting flesh, and can hear a buzzing sound, as of insects. She tells the others this, and says she doesn't want to get closer as it reminds her of the Brood world too much. The others don't press her to go in, and she hangs back as they approach.
The village is a slaughterhouse. Bodies are scattered about, some in huts, some outside, some laying across doorways, all bloated and rotting. All the bodies have multiple parallel slash marks on them, as though from large claws. One of the bodies has a rifle by it, as though it has been knocked aside. There are two thin-looking but alive cattle tethered by one hut. Noesis estimates they can't have been tethered without water for more than a day or two or they'd be dead. He also thinks 'lunch' and collects some cooking utensils from one of the huts, plus some grain and dried vegetables.
Outside the village, Truth scouts about and finds a metallic, bronzy human scent that came into the village from a route at right angles to the river, and left by another, upstream along the river.
The others leave the village and re-join Truth. They swap information. One of the cows is killed, cooked and eaten, along with the grains and veggies. The other one is released.
While the others wait John Doe flies off upstream, along the river, to scout ahead, keeping the others informed by radio. After a quarter of an hour or so he sees a second village on the other bank of the river. It too seems very quiet, and as John Doe approaches, he can see that it too appears to have been butchered - rotting bodies are scattered about, though they seem to have been killed more recently than those in the other village.
He continues again and after a while he sees another village up ahead. Again, all its inhabitants appear to have been slaughtered.
The rest of the group speculate on what this thing is. Noesis doesn't consider it very important - the people it is killing are not at all significant, and warning the world about the Brood, and getting back to London is far more important. Some of the others think the group should be investigating things here - this monster, or whatever it is.
While they talk, Servo works on rigging up his Brood power packs to re-power his armour, and set up a satellite phone to contact the UK.
The group settle on dealing with things here before carrying on to London.
John Doe carries on upriver. He finds another village. Like the others, all its inhabitants have been slaughtered, but here the slaughter is very recent - within the last few hours at most, he reckons.
He radios the others and informs them of this. They finish eating, then move off up-river after John Doe.
John Doe carries on upriver. After a short while he approaches another village. However, unlike the rest he can hear signs of conflict - screaming and shouting, coming from it...
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