Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
Noesis suggests that although we cannot find the leaders we could destroy the Security/Secret Police Headquarters. That would probably be a significant blow to the New Commonwealth.
One question that does spring to mind, though, is what do we do with the police that we take on when destroying the headquarters?
Noesis suggests that we do need to kill some people to succeed on this mission.
Servo is against this.
Void suggests that we overthrow all the groups and governments of this world and run it ourselves.
No-one else is really in favour of this idea!
After some discussion it is decided to stick to the plan and try to rid Britain of the New Commonwealth. We will try and find a POW camp in France somewhere to put our prisoners in.
Void suggests that we do not need to work to quickly as we have a month before the next time Madame Drakulich can send us back.
After some more discussion, however, we generally agree that speed is of the essence. After all, the longer we take the more opportunity they will have to set traps for us.
To sort out where we should send our prisoners, Void gates back to France to speak to Baron Charles de Bourges.
Appearing in the cave, the Baron and the others are there, chatting and reading around the folding table. Void explains the situation.
The Baron suggests that we just pass them all back to them in the cave.
Void has no particular problem with this, as long as they can handle the numbers we may be sending. The Baron claims that will not be a problem, and offers Void a drink.
Refusing this, Void thanks him and returns to the rest of us.
With a destination for our prisoners sorted out, we decide to strike while the iron is hot, and attack the Ministry of Security (Secret Police Headquarters) right now.
After some discussion we decide that:
Hunting around from the cell in which we found Noesis, Void opens a gate into an unoccupied cell whose door is open, quite close to the door of the tunnel through which Noesis was brought here. The entrance to the tunnel is sealed by a heavy armoured door with a spy-hole, with a telephone on the wall by it and four guards keeping an eye on things.
We all go through into the unoccupied cell. Having peered out into the corridor to get an idea of the layout, Blitz charges out at the guards, using his friction power to run up and around the walls in a quick and flashy manner. Truth follows him in a more normal manner. Noesis follows them more slowly, extending his arms to cover up mouths and prevent any screams being made.
Blitz attempts to knock the heads of two of the guards together. He hits one but misses the other's head. However, the force of his blows knocks them out anyway, they are out cold. Truth reaches the other two and knocks their heads together. They too are quickly silenced.
Noesis merges with the large heavy armoured door, and then merges it with its stone and concrete frame.
While he does this, the guards are stripped of their weapons and keys. One of the keys seems to fit the door here, although that is not a great deal of use now.
Various cells line the corridor, some with the doors open, others with them closed and prisoners inside. The corridor turns to the left some way down. The closed doors are all locked, but this is hardly a problem for us! We let all of the prisoners out.
All of them seem to have been beaten and tortured to various degrees, so Noesis patches them up, and questions them about the prison. He tells them that we are the 'British Liberation Army', and the 'Warrior Angels of Secular Humanism'. Unfortunately all of the dozen or so prisoners seem to know little about the place, and can give no useful information.
"Who are you?" one of the prisoners asks. "I've never heard of you."
We tell them that we are a new group, here to make some serious changes.
With this done, Void opens a portal and the guards and prisoners are fed through to the French cave.
While he does this, Blitz investigates the corridor. Peeking around the corner, Blitz finds that the tunnel goes on for a way then turns to the left again, implying a U shape. Halfway down on the left is a stairwell and another four guards. More cell doors line the walls, again some open and some closed.
Blitz tells the rest of us this.
To help us take out the other guards, Noesis transforms Blitz to look like one of the guards we have already knocked out. That done, he keeps watch around the corner.
Blitz goes on to the next set of guards. He speeds towards the guards on the stairwell, with Truth close behind, and the four guards are quickly dealt with. They seem to be guarding another locked door, leading onto the stairs up, with a spy-hole out and a telephone on the wall.
Void begins to clear out the cells, sending prisoners through to France without waiting for Noesis to heal them.
As prisoners emerge, Truth recognises some of them as the resistance fighters she helped arrest in Whitechapel, now looking much the worse for wear. Although her face has changed, her powers have not, so she keeps her force-field off until they have all been sent to France. It would only confuse them to see the person who sent them here now working to free them...
While the prisoners are dealt with, Noesis merges with the wall and uses his powers to worm his way up to the main doors of the building to investigate them prior to sealing them off.
When the prisoners have all been sent through to France, Blitz investigates around the corner into the next corridor. It seems to be about as long as the first corridor. There is another armoured door at the far end, with another four guards standing in front of it, and a telephone on the wall.
Blitz walks up to the last four guards, wearing the face of one of their number. They notice nothing wrong, and when he is close he grabs one. Truth has Void portal her in by the guards, and uses this to knock out the other three. As with the others, they are then gated off to France.
Insinuating himself through the structure of the Ministry of Security, Noesis finds another basement level above this level which seems to be used for archive storage, consisting mainly of long tall shelves lined with filing boxes. Above this is the ground floor, with four additional floors above that. There are two lobbies, a large and impressive one opening onto Westminster Square, with a smaller one opening onto a side road leading off from the square. Around the back he finds a service alley with a small back door. All of the doors seem to be guarded, and more guards patrol the corridors and roof of the building, all in groups of four.
As he watches, an unmarked black van arrives outside the back door. Its back doors open and four security police climb out dragging two beaten-up-looking prisoners. They are dragged to the back door and the policemen knock. A sliding hatch in the door opens, one of the guards inside looks out, then the door is opened and they all go in.
Leaving openings through the walls of the building so he can return there easily in future, Noesis brings his concentration back to the rest of us. He tells us what he has found and what is happening.
Using the spy-hole, Void looks through the door at the end of the last corridor. Beyond it he sees a circular room with ten large metal doors spaced around it, lit by a bare bulb in a cage on the ceiling. He then Void uses a portal to look beyond the doors, thinking this may be some extra-secure cell block. However, beyond the first door is not a cell but a tunnel, leading off into darkness. There is another tunnel beyond the second door, and in fact beyond all the others. There is a telephone by the door inside the circular room.
Void informs the rest of us of this. Noesis uses his powers and seals the main door to the wall.
He then goes back into the structure of the building. He returns to the main door and seals it into the wall. Moving on to the other entrances, he seals them also. He checks the windows in case they need to be seal too, but they are all barred so no-one can escape that way.
Then we move out into the building.
After a short period of time we have taken prisoner everyone in the building and gated them through to France. The Ministry of Security is ours.
We discuss what to do next. The first thing to do seems to be to investigate the archives in the basement, so down we go. There are vast numbers of paper files on vast numbers of people stored there, as well as information on organisations (legal and illegal) and so on. The crimes for which people have been apprehended vary from what we might consider to be normal ones to sedition, treason, heresy, blasphemy, possession of alcohol, possession of forbidden literature ("Possession of any literature?" we wonder), possession of unlicensed radio equipment, fornication and 'perversion and sodomy' (which seems to cover various things, including homosexual relations).
We decide that the Octuple Alliance could probably make good use of all of this, so we pile everything through the gate into the French cave. While we do this we find the files on 'us':
Although we look, there are no files on the high ranking New Commonwealth leaders that we are after, or on the Witchhunter or John Smith. However, there are files on the other New Commonwealth superhumans, the Bullet, the Crusader Knight and Shrapnel:
There are also details on a number of clandestine British groups who work to remove the New Commonwealth from the country. These are apparently considered freedom fighters by many British, but terrorists by the New Commonwealth. They include:
All of these records and anything else that looks useful are sent through to France. With that done, we build piles of papers and so on and set the rest on fire.
Leaving the Ministry of Security to burn, we gate back to Noesis' shelter on a Covent Garden rooftop.
It is suggested that we announce to the general populace what we have done. This sounds like a good idea to us.
Noesis suggests clearing out the Massachusetts Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) building and announcing what we have done from there.
Servo points this out as he detects the radio transmissions from it. The MBC is in a large plain building, just visible in the pre-dawn light, and forms part of the State Bureau of Information, run by Matthew Standish. The transmitter tower is on its rooftop. Further away in the pre-dawn light we can see many factory chimneys spewing smoke into the air.
However, some of us are quite tired at this point, so we decide to take a small break.
Truth suggests the coffee house where she went before. This also has the advantage of being close enough to the Ministry of Security for us to be able to watch it from inside, so we go there.
Void gates us inside, and we look for refreshments. Searching around, we find bread, cheese, and meat. We also find alcohol hidden behind the bar. Perhaps a 'Scottish Blend' of coffee?
We consume.
After a short while, the coffee shop owner comes down the stairs in his night-gown, with a shotgun in his hands. Blitz instantly knocks him out, and he is silenced. Ouch.
We eat and rest and watch the Ministry of Security burn. After many minutes a sound of distant bells is heard that grows louder. A number of black old-looking fire engines with white crosses on their sides come into view, race up, and stop outside the Ministry of Security. Firemen leap out and begin to hose down the building, trying desperately to stop the fire.
As we watch, the coffee shop owner wakes up.
We tell him that we are the British Liberation Army, and explain about our setting fire to the Ministry of Security. We also mention our finding the alcohol behind his bar.
The owner is more than a little upset at all of this.
We explain that more trouble is coming, as we are trouble.
He nods resignedly. He tells us that he sells the 'Scotch Blend' to those that want it and who know enough to know about it. He does not want to get involved in politics.
It is now around seven o'clock in the morning. Blitz suggests it is time to move on to the next job, as the morning news broadcasts may be starting soon.
We exit the coffee shop.
After our discussion with its owner we are now calling ourselves B.L.I.N.G. (the British Liberation Interim National Government) with sub-divisions of B.L.A.M. (the British Liberation Army Militia) and B.L.A.B. (British Liberation Army Broadcasting).
Security headquarters is still burning rather well by this point. The firemen are now inside, but the fire is very well established. It looks like they are perhaps going to let it burn itself out.
The building next door to the Ministry of Security, from which Cromwell made his speech to the rally in Westminster Square, is Commonwealth House, the centre of Commonwealth government in London. The fire brigade are in there, too, and are working to stop the fire spreading into it from the Ministry of Security.
Before our assault on the MBC we take a look at the building by way of Void's gates. It is a large plain triangular eight storey building on a roundabout in the centre of a large road junction that is labelled 'Naseby Circus'. On the roof is a large transmitter mast and various electrical generators and transformers. Wrought iron bridges link the building to the pavements of the surrounding streets. Large numbers of telegraph wires also go into the building.
There are three entrances, one on each side of the building, with guards checking the people who go in. There are also guards on the roof much as there were on the Ministry of Security. Various people can be seen arriving for work. There are three basement levels to the building. Most of the bottom two are made up of large fuel tanks, with pumps to raise the fuel to the generators on the roof; the fact that the power to the building cannot be cut sounds good to us! The first basement level is studios, as are large parts of the rest of the building.
Also on the upper floors are offices, newsrooms and so on. Everything seems set up to handle print, radio and telegraph media. There is no sign of television technology being in use. Servo has also not picked up any television-type signals from anywhere. One floor is a telegraph/telephone exchange.
There are quite a lot of people about, and more arriving as the place gears up for the start of the working day.
After having seen all of this, we come up with a plan. We will take over the building, make a single transmission announcing our burning of the Ministry of Security and our take-over bid, and then torch the place.
Before we commence this plan, Void uses his gates and drains half of the petrol from the tanks in the basement of the MBC building into various parts of Commonwealth House, mostly away from where the firemen are keeping the Ministry of Security fire out of the building. Lit matches are thrown through and the fire rapidly spreads to Commonwealth House.
With that done, we head for the MBC headquarters, Void gating all of us into the first basement level, the one with the studios.
Servo, listening to what is currently being broadcast, hears nothing but music.
Noesis merges with the building and seals off the doors to the MBC, merging them into their frames and the wall. People soon notice that the doors are stuck, and the guards begin to investigate this.
Void hunts through the studios until he finds the one from which the current music transmission is being broadcast from. It is not going out live; instead the music is coming from what Servo recognises as a form of wire recorder (a type of sound recording device that uses metal wire instead of magnetic tape).
With that being so, we seek out an empty studio. We quickly find one. It takes Servo only a short while to figure out how the equipment here works, and when he has done this we create a new recording wire containing the message we wish to broadcast.
When this is done we replace the music recording in the machine with our new wire, set to repeat on a loop. And our message begins to go out:
"This is the voice of the British Liberation Army Broadcasting," intones Noesis. "Welcome to New Britain. We have destroyed the Ministry of Security building. We are Charity, Henry, William, Marcus and Raymond. We will be sweeping away the corruption of the Cromwell machine and replacing it with the British Liberation Interim National Government - the viable alternative to random executions!"
With the message set to loop endlessly, we leave the studio and begin to make our way through the MBC building. We have decided that this time, rather than send people to France, we will transport everyone apart from guards to Salisbury plain; guards will still go to France. Anyone who appears infirm will go to Salisbury Cathedral instead.
We split up and begin to clear the MBC building of its staff, herding them to Void who gates them to their respective destinations, after a short while spent locating suitable spots on Salisbury Plain and in Salisbury Cathedral to open gates to.
As she herds people out of the main news office, Truth finds a set of news items that seem to have been received from the New Commonwealth Capital of Boston, Massachusetts, and which are ready for broadcast on the eight o'clock bulletin. They cover the arrest of the families of William Gordonston, Marcus Forfar and Dr Raymond James (Void, Servo and Noesis' counterparts respectively), on charges of 'treason and sedition'.
She destroys these and does not mention them to anyone else.
In short order the MBC building is taken over and its staff removed to Salisbury Plain, Salisbury Cathedral and France.
With the building empty, Void uses his gates to drain most of the remaining petrol out of the tanks in the basement and into the ground floor. Noesis uses his powers to mould away all of the internal stairs.
By this point, a number of black armoured cars are pulling up outside and soldiers are piling out and surrounding the building.
We take this as our cue to leave, and do so via one of Void's gates, to the barn in France.
Servo senses that our message is still transmitting as we arrive in the barn.
We discover a French farmer there, presumably its owner. He is staring at his hay bales that have mysteriously turned into furniture.
Blitz explains to him that the barn has been requisitioned for the war effort in the name of the King.
Although rather shocked-looking, the farmer nods.
We pay him off with gold from Blitz's assassin kit and tell him to keep quiet.
He nods agreement again, and leaves.
We wait to see what will happen with our message.
After our message has repeated just less than three times (about twenty-five minutes) Servo notices that it has cut off. Presumably the Commonwealth forces have got into the MBC building and silenced the transmission.
Time for more fire, then. Void opens a portal back into the foyer of the MBC building and a lighted match is thrown in, onto the petrol-soaked floor.
Through the portal, we see the building start to go up in flames.
With that done, satisfied with a job well done, and with several of us tired to varying degrees after a busy night, we all go to sleep in the barn.