Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
John Doe circles over the village and over his radio link relays back to the others what is happening.
Chronos realises that his time-manipulation powers have expanded to the point where he can now carry others with him at super-speed. He grabs Noesis and speeds towards the village Blitz flies off towards the village carrying Servo and Truth. Sven says he will catch them up, and starts jogging in the same direction.
John Doe flies down into the village in an armoured, but flight-capable form. He lands in an open area towards the centre of the village, which is littered with corpses, and sees a humanoid figure in the shadows, slashing at people. From its silhouette is has cat-like legs and a long barbed tail.
John Doe shouts "OI !!" at the thing. It leaps out of the shadows and sprints towards him, very fast. John Doe sees that it is a streamlined bronze-armoured humanoid, its armour covered with sharp spikes and edges, with a crest of spikes on its head, a human-like (if bronze) face, long blood stained claws, and a long barb-tipped tail, also blood stained. It gives a vaguely cat or lizard-like impression.
It stops next to John Doe (not attacking him, as he expected), and reaches out to him. John Doe sees that it has tears on its face. It puts a hand on his shoulder. John Doe genetically tests it, and finds that it is human, a male human of African racial origin. It lifts its hand from his shoulder and says, "You are worthy. You may leave."
John Doe asks it what it (he) is doing. It says that there are too many people for the land to support, so many must be killed to cull the population. It sprints off. John Doe turns into a tentacled thing and tries to herd the villagers away from the creature. Unfortunately, the villagers seem as scared of him as they are of the creature (which we'll call Cull for the sake of argument).
Chronos and Noesis arrive. Noesis, having heard John Doe's exchange with Cull over the radio link, is in agreement with its motives. John Doe and Chronos think it is far too extreme.
Screams are heard from the other side of the village. They rush over. Cull is attacking people again - a man with a machete is facing Cull in front of a woman and a boy of eight or so; another boy of about ten is lying dead on the ground in front of him in a pool of blood. Tears are running down Cull's face. John Doe and Chronos rush to assist.
John Doe jumps into the air and lands over the creature as a binding sheet, entrapping it. As soon as he lands the sharp spikes and edges of its armour start to cut into him. Chronos and Noesis watch, then Chronos swiftly removes the three living villagers, one at a time, away from the fight and out of the village.
John Doe transforms into a coil of steel rope and wraps up Cull. Its armour still cuts into him, though.
"Let me go! I must be free to do my duty," it demands.
"Who says it is your duty?" Noesis asks.
"I do. There are too many people in the world. They must be culled. This is the only way," it says.
Noesis supports its ideas and motives, but does not think this is the way to go - he thinks birth control and the like is a better way. The others do not support its ideas at all.
"I do not kill all the people, in any case," it says. "Those who are worthy are allowed to live."
The group ask how it knows who is worthy.
"I know," it says.
"Then where are the worthy ones now?" they ask.
"They fled," it says.
Cull is struggling to get free the whole time, but John Doe it too strong for it. However, he is being cut more and more as he keeps holding it. Eventually the damage becomes too much, and John Doe lets go and falls to the ground.
Chronos fires at Cull with the blaster he took from one of the Black Hammers but it is too fast, and his shot blows a hole in a nearby hut.
Meanwhile, Blitz, carrying Truth and Servo, approaches the village.
Servo has been finishing repairing his jury-rigged power packs as they fly, and as the village comes into sight he finishes re-assembling all the parts, and his armour powers up.
They quickly locate Cull and the others. Blitz puts down Servo and Truth, then takes to the air again.
Servo presence attacks Cull, to no effect.
Blitz fires a bolt of orange plasma at Cull, but its speed allows it to dodge the blast, which destroys the hut Chronos damaged earlier.
Truth attempts to mind control Cull, telling it to stop. Silvery vapours swirl about it, and it hesitates. Chronos grabs Servo and takes him behind it at high speed, then attacks. As Chronos attempts to age it to death, his hand is cut by the sharp edges of Cull's armour, but his attack knocks Cull over. It rapidly rolls back to its feet. Servo launches a binding-band containing metal egg at it, but misses, entrapping part of John Doe instead.
Members of the group can't help noticing that as Cull is hit, its armour gets thicker, its armour's sharp edges grow, as do its claws, and its legs become more muscular, as if it is absorbing the attacks directed at it.
Servo fires another metal egg at him, but again he misses. Chronos' time-acceleration seems to have no effect. Chronos fires his blaster at Cull, hitting him square in the back. Cull staggers back, stunned, but not unconscious.
Blitz blasts it again, and again its armour thickens, claws get longer etc.
Truth tries to mind control Cull, but her silvery vapours cannot lock onto him. Noesis attempts to mentally attack Cull, and also cannot lock on. John Doe attempts to grab Cull again, but this time it dodges him.
Servo attacks Cull with his truncheon (again accelerated, to little effect, by Chronos), hitting him apparently to little effect. His truncheon is quite deeply scored by its impact on Cull's armour.
Blitz power dives at Cull.
Noesis mentally attacks it, and it staggers.
"Must I kill you before you will leave me alone?" grates Cull. He rushes at Servo, claws extended, but misses him.
John Doe leaps at Cull, but misses.
Truth attempts to mind control it, but again misses. Noesis mentally attacks again, hitting. Cull staggers again. Truth tries again, but misses again.
Blitz jinks aside from Cull and picks up the body of the boy lying near it, flying up with it. He demands that Cull justify its actions in doing this. Cull basically repeats what it said previously.
John Doe attacks again, but misses.
Chronos shoots his blaster at Cull again, hitting him square on. Cull drops unconscious to the ground.
Noesis flies down and pulls surgical instruments from a compartment in his shell. He tries so take a tissue sample from Cull, and though he is initially stymied by his armoured skin, finds a sifter spot inside the mouth and takes a sample from there.
Servo ignites his cutting torch and starts trying to cut off Cull's armour. As he cuts through to living flesh he realises it is part of Cull's body and so stops trying to remove the armour from him.
Chronos zips off and returns with Sven.
Chronos accelerates Servo, who adapts a walkie-talkie into a satellite phone in a remarkably short time (to those outside).
Cull remains unconscious while this is done, watched by Noesis and Blitz. Noesis keeps a telepathic touch on its thoughts, and when he detects the return of consciousness, mind-blasts him back into unconsciousness.
The group basically want advice on what to do with their prisoner. Servo uses the new satellite phone to hack into the satellite communications network and call STOP back in London. The call is answered, and Servo asks to be put through to the London Knights contact in STOP - D.I. Dickinson. There is a brief interval of muzak, then D.I. Dickinson picks up the phone at the other end. He is somewhat surprised - and sceptical - when Servo tells him who he's speaking to after the London Knights have not been heard from for six months. However, when Servo gives him the code-word he becomes less sceptical.
Servo tells D.I. Dickinson about the group's fight with Cull, and asks what they should do with him. D.I. Dickinson replies that if the group can bring him back to the UK, then STOP will be able to deal with him. Sounds like a plan.
Servo then asks D.I. Dickinson if he knows anything about a force called the Black Hammers, and their alleged parent organisation, the ATD. He says he will make some inquiries on the group's behalf. He then asks what happened to the London Knights. Servo just glosses over the details, saying they were out of touch. John Doe burbles on about aliens, aliens planets, and blowing up said planets, but Servo fiddles with the phone, and D.I. Dickinson hears nothing of this. Servo does mention that Avenger is Gone, though he does not go into any details.
Canary Wharf is discussed. Servo wants to know if anything has happened to it. D.I. Dickinson says STOP got a call from the London Knights on the 15th of February (the day after their storming of the Canary Wharf tower) saying they were wrong, and that their worries about Canary Wharf were all a false alarm. Servo makes very sure that D.I. Dickinson realises that this was a hoax call.
Servo rings off.
The group discuss bringing Cull out of Africa. They have some suspicion that he may continue trying to cull the human race wherever he ends up. John Doe suggests he is taken to France and let go there, instead!
Eventually the group decide they will take him to London, and STOP.
The group decide to fly down-river, in an attempt to find civilisation.
Blitz carries Truth and Sven. John Doe turns into a small Star Wars-type Star Destroyer with brightly coloured plastic kiddie-type seats, and various silly sound making buttons, horns and the like, and carries everyone else, including Cull, whose extra armour, claws and the like are gradually fading back to their original state. Noesis is still monitoring him, and keeping him unconscious. There is some speculation on exactly how Cull's absorption power works.
Servo starts to make a GPS system, so the group will have some idea both of where they are and the direction in which they are going. He also uses the satellite phone to call Colmar Technologies, his cutting edge high-tech research and development company back in London. The number he rings is for his office there, but instead he is put through to reception instead. The receptionist tells him that his office no longer exists. Servo (in his civilian guise as Malcolm Forfield) asks to be put through to his father-in-law, Brian Clinton. The receptionist does this, and after a brief interval of muzak (different from STOPs), Brian Clinton answers.
He is very happy to hear from Malcolm again, but tells him the unfortunate news that Colmar Technologies has been taken over by another company, Amtech (the one responsible for various high-tech devices which appeared in the news before the group were kidnapped - session 2.6). Colmar Tech was losing its competitive edge without Malcolm, and so became vulnerable to take-over, Brian says. He also tells Malcolm that at least the company has been kept together, and not dismembered into its useful parts and sold off piecemeal.
Servo asks Brian if he can send him the information he needs to finish constructing his GPS receiver. Brian is initially reluctant, saying he should refer to his bosses to get permission. Then he relents and sends Servo the information 'on the sly'.
Servo rings off.
After the group have flown some distance, a small village comes into sight. Blitz (with Truth and Sven) flies down into its main square, terrifying the people there. He attempts to talk to them in English, French and German. Unfortunately, none of the locals seem to speak any of these, so Blitz gives up and flies off again, leaving a village full of confused people behind.
They fly on. Noesis uses the satellite phone to call Professor Barker back in London. Napoleon Barker is very surprised to hear from his associate Reynard Jack after his being missing for six months, and they chat about Noesis' adventures (or at least an edited version, over the phone). Professor Barker commiserates with Noesis about his shell not really being built for extreme conditions such as he has encountered recently.
After a while Noesis says goodbye and rings off.
The London Knights continue to fly downstream. The sun sets on their right, and they realise that they are in fact flying roughly southwards, in the opposite direction to home. Oops.
Some bickering occurs over which direction to go in. Chronos makes amusing paper hats while this goes on.
The group cannot decide which direction to go in, so they fly upwards, hoping to be able to see something which will help them, such as the lights of a city. Up and up they go, miles high.
After a while the air is too thin to be very breathable, but the group can see for getting on for 200 miles in all directions. To the south-east they can see the ocean stretching off. To the north-west the land rises into mountains. To north-east and south-west the same semi-desert landscape stretches off. Some lights are visible on the ground - towns and cities.
The altitude becomes too much for Chronos and Sven; they fall unconscious. Blitz feels himself starting to black out and descends.
John Doe begins a power dive at about 45 degrees from the horizontal. Unfortunately, his Star Destroyer's seats have no windshields or seat belts, and as he dives the wind plucks Chronos and Cull away into space. A lot of Servo's electrical components are lost as they blow away too. Oops!
John Doe changes course, and grabs both Servo's components and Chronos and Cull from the air. He grows seat belts.
As John Doe descends, both Chronos and Sven recover consciousness.
The group decide to fly towards the nearest group of lights, which is quite small, off to the east of them. They are looking for an airport or something of that nature which will allow them to return home as fast as possible.
After some time they approach the lights, which resolve into a small town in the middle of nowhere. Through his armour's night vision systems, Servo can see that it is built on what looks like a main road. It does have a small dirt landing strip, currently in darkness, with a couple of old-looking aircraft parked by it (a DC-3 and something of a similar vintage).
The group head for the landing strip, and John Doe (in Star Destroyer form) lands on a pillar of fire.
The only air traffic control facility seem to be a little hut with some radio antennae on the roof. Truth goes through the walls into the hut. There's a desk, a couple of radios. A couple of pairs of binoculars hanging from the wall, and a large map hanging from the wall.
Truth takes the map and brings it out to the others. Everyone examines the map. From looking at it, and what was seen from high altitude, it seems the group are in the town of Isha Baidoa, in Somalia.
Two men arrive from the town, walking. The older one introduces himself (in heavily accented English) as Muhammed, the man in charge of the airfield; the other man is his assistant, Abdul. They both seem a little nervous of the group - not too surprising, really!
The group introduce themselves, and tell Muhammed about the prisoner. Muhammed thinks he must have been killing people in Ethiopia, over the border, not here, in Somalia - they would have heard about it if he'd been doing that here. Muhammed suggests the best place to go is the capital, Mogadishu, from where their leader, the Amazon, rules. The group have never heard of her. Muhammed says she is a superhuman, who, along with her superhuman followers has stopped the civil war and united the country. He gives the impression of being somewhat in awe of her.
The group ask if there is anyone from here who wants to go to Mogadishu. Muhammed speaks to Abdul in a language no-one in the group understands, and Abdul runs off to check. After a while he comes running back, very out of breath, and says (between pants) that there is a couple and their baby on their way - the baby has a heart defect which can only be treated in Mogadishu.
The family arrive a little after Abdul, at a fast walk. John Doe turns back into the Star Destroyer still with brightly coloured kiddie seats on top, but it now has an aerodynamic canopy over the top as well.
The baby seems to be asleep, but the parents seem to be very nervous, and not in favour of getting on board John Doe (understandably!). Muhammed speaks to them and they reluctantly get on board. John Doe takes off, with Blitz flying alongside, heading along the road towards Mogadishu.
The family are obviously scared. Truth manages to calm them down even though she doesn't speak their language, using her high presence. Sven and Noesis help her. Sven talks to them and quickly learns enough of their language to calm them still more.
Noesis examines the child. It seems he has a congenital heart defect which will kill him over the long term though it is not immediately life-threatening. Noesis can't treat it, as he is a neurosurgeon, not a heart surgeon, but reckons that it is treatable by someone with reasonable skill.
Noesis also keep the prisoner unconscious as they fly.
At one point Sven tells Servo that the Black Hammer helmet that he has is emitting radio signals. After a short discussion Blitz flies off with the helmet and blasts it into slag.
Servo tunes his radio up and down the frequency bands, looking for Mogadishu air traffic control, or at least someone speaking English. There seem to be three local (loud and clear) radio stations, none in English. At last he finds what seems to be the local air traffic control band, in English. The group identify themselves, with Blitz doing the talking. Truth is prompting him for what to say, which Blitz is not too keen on.
They tell Mogadishu air traffic control about the prisoner and about the family on board. They direct them the land at the airport, and say that there will be an ambulance waiting to take the family to the hospital for treatment (Noesis is initially dubious about this, fearful the family will be made to pay for it, but they insist).
John Doe can see the airport anyway, lit up to one side of the city, and they head that way. As they come in to land they can see signs of new construction on the runway itself, and in the airport terminal building, which have a distinctly Arabic style to them. There are a number of aircraft parked about the airport - mostly (old-looking) military jets, helicopters and cargo planes, plus a fairly new small airliner (about the size of a Boeing 737) and what looks like a wingless metal pod.
The group land outside the terminal building, and disembark. John Doe hides as a small piece of equipment on Servo's armour. An ambulance can be seen by the side of the terminal building. It is white with a red star and crescent design.
A group of people walk from its entrance towards the London Knights. In the lead is a tall, beautiful, and very impressive black woman in camouflage fatigues, wearing a Grecian-style helmet in dark bronze and with a large blaster slung over her back. Behind her are a three metre tall humanoid seemingly made out of rock, with glowing red eyes from whom heat seems to radiate, an average-looking black man, also in combat fatigues, and another man, handsome and of imposing appearance (though not as much so as the Amazon). He, too, is in combat fatigues.
The woman steps forward and introduces herself as the Amazon (before Chronos can introduce the group), and says she assumes the group are the London Knights. Chronos confirms this, and introduces everyone. The Amazon shakes hands.
The family from are led off to the ambulance. Before they go they thank everyone for their help, through Sven. The ambulance drives off.
Chronos then tells the Amazon about the prisoner, and the group explain about how they came to find him, glossing over precisely how they came to be there in the first place. The Amazon says he and the group must have been in Ethiopia, as she would have been aware of his actions had he been in Somalia.
The group ask if she will take Cull off their hands. She says she will. However, the group then ask her how he will be treated in her custody - they are a little worried that she will just 'finish him off'. She points out that Somalia does not have the prison facilities to contain super-villains and looks coldly down at Cull.
The group decide to keep Cull with them for the moment, and ask the Amazon if she can provide transport to London as soon as possible. She offers the group hospitality in Mogadishu for the moment, but the group refuse politely, claiming urgent business in London, and that they will sleep en route. The Amazon says she can get them to London, then - the jetliner on the airport will fly them to London in an hour or so. In the meantime she invites them to rest in the airport building. The group accept.
They wait in the terminal building while the aircraft is prepared. Food is provided. The group chat with the Amazon. They explain about the Brood, who they are and what they do, how they reproduce. However, they leave out all the details of their adventures on the Brood world, and about their space journey.
The Amazon listens interestedly, then explains about herself, how she came to lead first a Somali warlord's band, then from that base, the whole country. She also explains how she is intending to improve the lot of everyone here through both her inventions, and her interpretation of Islam.
Servo asks her whether she has the parts and equipment he needs to fix and upgrade his armour. She says that she has, and arranges for what Servo needs to be put on board the plane. Servo thanks her.
The rest of the time is passed in small talk.
After an hour or so, one of the airport staff comes up to the Amazon and whispers to her. She nods and tells the group that the aircraft is now ready, and they can board whenever they wish.
The London Knights get up to move towards the plane. They thank the Amazon for her help. Chronos offers the Amazon his card, in case she ever need the groups help. She thanks him, and offers him her card in return. Chronos takes it. It has her name plus a telephone number, fax, telex, e-mail and web addresses.
The party go and board the plane. The Amazon remains at the door of the terminal building, and raises her hand in farewell as they go up the stairs. They wave back.
As the group reach the top of the stairs a dark shape leaps from the shadows beside the terminal building and bears the Amazon to the ground...