Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
We all sleep in the French barn, on furniture made by Noesis from the straw there.
During the night we all dream we are in the misty place through which we travelled to get here. Present there with us are our counterparts from this world, but there is no real interaction between them and us, and in the morning we all wake up normally.
We discuss what to do next.
New targets are the main thing on our agenda. Perhaps some on the front line? Or battleships, important buildings and so on?
Noesis suggests that we find out where the primary New Commonwealth attack force in France is, and attack it.
Blitz suggests that working on Britain is best, freeing it from the New Commonwealth to cut them off from easy access to Europe. Possibly setting up an enclave is the best way forward. He suggests the Channel Islands or Scotland might be suitable. However, remembering the maps we saw the New Commonwealth (counting the parts of France is has invaded) surrounds the Channel Islands on all sides, so they are probably an impractical target.
We decide that breakfast with the Baron is the next step forward, as he will have more information upon which we can base our decision.
With that decided, Void opens a portal to the cave and we step through.
In the cave, Baron Charles de Bourges, Master Lucius van der Stel and Duke Otto von Würzburg are having breakfast at their folding table. The Baron greets us and offers us breakfast.
We accept this offer, and soldiers bring up another table, upon which breakfast is served.
Noesis asks the Baron whether he has any good ideas about where we could strike next.
The Baron tells us that he is impressed by the impact we are having so far, and suggests we continue in the same vein.
We say we are considering making contact with the British resistance and speaking to the ones we have already sent through to here may make life easier all round.
Truth points out that she knows that some of the prisoners are from the resistance - the ones she apprehended when she smashed up the 'Voice of Liberty' radio station in Whitechapel after she arrived here.
Servo points out that he could set up a radio transmission and start broadcasting himself.
The Baron tells us that they - the Octuple Alliance - have funded some resistance movements within the New Commonwealth, particularly in Britain, so they would certainly not object to our helping these movements. He suggests that the Tower of London might be a good target as it is the military headquarters and main armoury of the New Commonwealth in London and the south of England.
We discuss the geographical areas where we could provide help to the resistance with him.
He tells us that the fens of East Anglia (which are still swamp and marsh here), the north of England, the highlands of Scotland, West England (Wales) and Ireland are all particular hotbeds of resistance activity and Catholicism.
We consider this, and in the end decide that Ireland is the best target. We also decide that the Security Services - the Ministry of Security - are going to be the main target.
The Baron tells us that Dublin and Belfast are the best Irish targets as they are the main headquarters of the Ministry of Security in Ireland. He also tells us that Northern Ireland has the biggest resistance movement in Ireland, and one of the largest in all of Britain.
Considering this, we feel that perhaps a Catholic uprising is the best idea.
We complete breakfast, and the Baron supplies us with maps of Belfast and information on the place.
None of us know Belfast in our world so it is all new to us. The centre of the New Commonwealth administration in Belfast is Belfast Castle, a large and well-defended structure overlooking the city. The city itself is fairly small. There is a large dock and wharf area, divided between military and civilian shipping, as well as military and civil shipyards. There is an aerolon (airport) on Belfast Lough, outside the city proper. We examine the maps of the Castle.
From the papers the Baron provides, the main resistance movements in Ireland are the Irish Royalist Army (the IRA), who operate more in the north, and the Soldiers of the Blessed Virgin (the SBV) who are concentrated mainly in the south.
We decide that a reconnaissance mission is the first thing to do, then we will decide how to proceed from there.
With that, we thank the Baron, and Voids gates us away.
He scans forward, and we stop over in a copse of trees outside Slough en route to Belfast; he cannot go all the way there in one jump. Then he scans ahead again and opens a gate into Belfast Castle park. This is a park surrounding the castle itself; close to the walls it is a clear kill-zone, but there is plenty of cover further back.
Having arrived safely, we then move on to a coffee shop.
It is a busy shop selling plenty of very plain food and drink, much like the one in London.
We sit there, drink coffee, and review the situation. From what we saw upon arrival, and what the Baron told us, the whole castle area is well defended. There are lots of guards, as well as gun emplacements on the keep and all of the towers, pointing both outwards and upwards, against aircraft. A large transmitter mast rises from the top of the keep, as well as a flagstaff flying the black and white New Commonwealth flag.
It is suggested that we make a radio broadcast against the current regime.
Servo tunes in to the current broadcast and relays what he is hearing to the rest of us. It seems to be much the same as what we have heard before in London, with the announcer talking about how the Righteous Forces of the New Commonwealth are pushing forward in France and how the Heretical Enemy will soon be defeated. Hmm...
Noesis suggest that if Servo wipes out all of the radio transmitters in Britain, then we could set up our own and transmit our own message.
We consider this, and realise that Servo probably could, by flying up and down the country, wipe out all other radios in a reasonable amount of time.
Servo tells us that he believes he could easily set up a radio transmitter to cover the whole of Britain.
We decide that hitting the castle overnight is probably the best plan. Then reconsider this and decide that a daylight attack is better, as it shows our power.
Noesis and Void agree to help case the joint during the day, arranging for us all to meet back in the coffee shop in the early afternoon; if Noesis is not there then we will begin the attack anyway.
Void sends a portal to the castle and discretely scans it around the place. He sees that inside the castle walls there are lots of buildings built up against both the outer wall of the castle and against the walls of the keep in the centre. These buildings seem to be divided into barracks, kitchens, stables and so on. Considering them to be the best place to discretely gate Noesis in, Void sends his portal to a stable block.
Finding an empty stall, Void opens up his gate and Noesis goes through.
Using his powers to merge himself into the ground and thus move around discretely, Noesis heads for the front gate and from there searches for a route to the place where the prisoners are kept.
As expected, this turns out to be in the dungeons under the castle keep.
As he goes Noesis sees that the castle is heavily defended. There are many guards, with machine guns on the towers, as well as armoured cars and other vehicles parked inside the castle walls. About a dozen guards and thirty to forty prisoners are in the dungeons.
With that done, he then goes in search of other interesting places. He finds senior officers offices and living quarters in the upper part of the keep. An armoury stocked with rifles, machine guns, ammunition and grenades is in one of the buildings attached to the keep. The local MBC studios and offices are in another such building. In a third is the Belfast Ministry of Security, with a door leading into the keep and down to the dungeons. Extensive food stores, kitchens, barracks, a hospital, petrol generators with fuel tanks, a well and general living quarters are also located in various of the buildings attached to the walls or the keep. The general living quarters seem more than a little squalid.
Outside, the rest of us wander around the grimy streets of Belfast.
The standard of living is very low, in fact very similar to the London slums that Truth observed. People are thin, dirty and unhealthy-looking.
The dockyards are both building ships and providing berths to many large steam ships, mostly of the merchant variety. Large piles of coal to fuel them are dotted about the docks.
There are roadblocks dotted seemingly at random about the city and manned by soldiers. There also many soldiers patrolling the streets in groups of four.
Also as in London, propaganda posters in vivid primary colours are the only spots of brightness to be seen in the city. They promote the benefits of membership in things such as the 'Puritan Youth' and the 'League of Maidens'.
After having seen what he can of the castle, Noesis leaves with the assistance of his matter-moulding powers and makes his way back to the coffee shop where he meets up with the rest of us.
Information is exchanged and based on this the attack is planned.
We will insert into the basement of the castle, and send the guards there to an empty cargo ship in the docks. The prisoners and the contents of the armoury, plus, if there is time, any papers from the Ministry of Security, will be sent to an abandoned house near to the castle.
Void spends a little time scanning his gate around to find some appropriate locations, and when he has done this, we are ready to go. The ship in question is the 'Piety', a currently empty cargo steamer moored in the harbour.
As with the Ministry of Security in London, there are plenty of empty cells in the dungeons of Belfast Castle. Void opens his gate into one of these, and we all go through.
Noesis merges with the wall and heads directly to the door into the dungeon. This is watched over by four guards with a telephone on the wall by them. Noesis passes through the wall to seal the door and cut off the phone without their noticing.
He then returns to the rest of us and informs us of what he has done. Blitz, Truth and Noesis leap from the cell and attack the guards. Blitz and Truth knock them to the floor while Noesis holds his many hands to their mouths to keep them all quiet.
With that done, we pass the guards through to the hold of the 'Piety' and explore.
In a cell Void finds a couple of beaten-up prisoners and releases them.
Noesis joins him to explain to the prisoners what is about to happen to them. He then uses his power to heal them. They appear quite pleased with this. They are given instructions to remain in the safe house until we come to get them, and then pushed through a portal to said house.
Creeping further through the dungeons, Servo finds another group of four guards in a guardroom-type area, sat around a table with another telephone on the wall. He decides to experiment with his powers.
Ducking briefly out of cover he attacks the group of guards with a beam of microwave power, focussed to, he hopes, stun them rather than kill them. One guard falls to the floor, steaming slightly, but the others, seeming to be pretty alert, bring their rifles around to bear on him.
At this point Truth arrives to assist. Shots are fired down the corridor, one of them reflecting off her force field and hitting the guard who fired it. Another shot is fired, to the same effect, before Truth reaches the last guard and silences him in a less fatal manner.
With the element of subtlety lost, Servo then begins to march down the rows of cells, cutting each of them open with a focused beam of power.
He is followed by Noesis and Void, who heal the prisoners he releases and then export them to the safe house.
Truth and Blitz go on to find any more guards.
Another group of four guards are heard up ahead. One seems to be on the telephone. His words - "Yes, we're under att..." - are abruptly terminated as we smash into them and knock them all out.
Blitz picks up the handset and makes a very unconvincing reply to whoever is at the other end before smashing the telephone underfoot.
Carrying on, Servo opens a cell door to find a torture session underway. Two torturers in Puritan black are applying electrodes to the genitals of a very unhappy looking man. Restraining himself from killing the guards, Servo merely microwaves them into unconsciousness with a single blast.
He then frees the prisoner, who is in quite a bad way.
Noesis is called in, and patches him up before he is moved through to the safe house.
Servo has been monitoring the radio frequencies, although they seem very muted by our being in the dungeons of a large stone castle. As he moves he seems to come into a radio 'hot-spot' and picks up a very faint signal through the thick stone floors. "...Under attack..." is the part of the message that he hears.
He quickly sends a blast of radio energy out to damage the transmitter, overlaid with his own message. "The army of Angels is attacking Belfast Castle to bring the Wrath of the Lord down on these Evil Puritans." With this message complete he stops transmitting, leaving the New Commonwealth transmitter disabled.
Moving on through the dungeons, Truth and Blitz find another group of guards.
These ones are also already on the telephone. Blitz leaps in and rips the telephone from the hand of the guard, who looks rather surprised. Blitz then smacks him in the head with the phone. He falls over. One guard fires at Truth, with predictable (to Truth) results. The other two guards are dealt with in short order.
These seem to be the last of the guards in the dungeon, so Truth and Blitz go to assist with the prisoners.
And quite quickly all of the prisoners are in the safe house, and all of the guards are unconscious on the 'Piety'.
We then head for the armoury. Void opens a small gate there prior to taking us all through, and peers through.
It does not come as a huge surprise to us that by now large numbers of soldiers are heading into and out of the armoury, apparently loading up with weaponry.
Truth, as the most damage-resistant of us, is sent through Void's gate to block the entrance. Appearing out of a hole in the air right in the doorway, she certainly gains the element of surprise, and goes to slam the door of the armoury shut with her inside, to trap a handful of soldiers inside with several hundred queued outside!
Void, Blitz, Servo and Noesis then join her in the armoury by way of Void's gate. Noesis immediately falls to the floor as a puddle of liquid.
Blitz and Servo start attacking the soldiers inside. Although surprise allows them to take down some of them, the soldiers soon start to raise their weapons. Blitz extends his high-friction force field to cover the whole room, and everyone starts to slow as they have to wade through the air.
Truth has by now shut the armoury door.
Noesis trickles over to the door, enters it, and seals it shut.
Some of the soldiers fire their rifles at us. Several are aimed at Truth, and thus have the expected effect. A few come from an ammunition crate that Servo has accidentally hit with a microwave blast and that now seems to be on fire and starting to cook off. Others are slowed by Blitz's high-friction field.
Void quickly creates a gate and the crate of cooking off ammunition is transported outside the armoury door and into the castle courtyard. Much to the consternation of the soldiers out there!
The soldiers inside the armoury are quickly dealt with and sent through to the hold of the 'Piety'. The armoury is then emptied via gate into the basement of the safe house. Some of the ex-prisoners in the safe house are drafted to assist in stacking them.
By this time alarm bells are ringing all over the castle.
We head for the Ministry of Security archives floor and leap through another of Void's gates. Noesis seals the door while the inevitable four guards within successfully shoot themselves via Truth's powers.
Servo, wanting to make a propaganda point, flies out of a window and begins to fly up to the top of the keep with the intention of stealing the New Commonwealth flag from the roof.
However, it being broad daylight, this attracts much attention and many bullets, which are puffed to vapour by his force fields but which he still feels to some extent. As he rises, Servo notices several larger-calibre anti-aircraft guns being brought to bear on him. He changes course into a tight spiral climb to evade their aim.
Below, the Ministry of Security is now under our control. All of the guards and administrators present are sent to the ship while we begin to empty all of their files through Void's gate to the safe house.
Servo reaches the roof of the keep, blasting a machinegun crew just as he reaches the flag. Seeing the many guns up here all being traversed towards him, and not confident that his speed is great enough to allow him to dodge them all, he decides to take out the remaining machine gun posts before taking the flag.
Blasting away he is hit be several bullets that bruise him but do not penetrate his protective microwave force field. However, by then the machine guns are all out of action. Phew.
He takes the flag. Intending to dive down with it to find Noesis, he sees large numbers of guns below, all pointing up at him - rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They fire. He ducks back into cover on the roof.
Seeking a safer route down, he dives into one of the keep stairwells to evade the bullets.
Flying down in a spiral course he comes across more soldiers in the stairwell, but evades them with ease and blasts them into unconsciousness.
On the way down he conducts a brief search of the building in case anything interesting is there.
Two floors down from the roof he finds a large group of soldiers outside an impressive-looking, if plain, door. They open fire as soon as they see him.
Servo blasts them with a wide-angle microwave beam. This begins to knock them out, but they keep firing, and by the time they are all unconscious is exhausted and battered by gunshots.
He then kicks open the door. Inside is a large, fat but muscular-looking middle-aged man in an ornate black uniform with a white shirt - the standard New Commonwealth uniform - sat behind a desk with a telephone to his ear. Servo walks up to him and rips the phone out of his hands. "So, who are you then?" he asks.
"What did they pay you to abandon your Fatherland?" demands the man. "What did they pay you that is worth more than your family?"
Servo goes to drag him off with him, as a prisoner.
The man tries to pull a gun, but Servo removes this from his hand and disposes of it.
Servo pushes his captive down the stairs ahead of him, which proves to be a very good deterrent, effectively stopping the guards firing at him.
Reaching the ground floor of the keep, Servo knocks on the (sealed) interior door of the Ministry of Security.
Inside, Void peers out and sees who is there. He gates Servo and his prisoner in to join the rest of us. Servo arrives in the Ministry of Security archive just in time to see the rest of us finishing off the transport operation.
Through the gate, the safe house can be seen to be suffering badly from the vast load of guns, ammunition and papers it is now holding. Noesis goes through to shore up the walls in order to maintain its structural integrity under this sudden new load.
Returning, Noesis them searches our new officer captive.
He struggles and so is tied down. His identity card shows that he is General Geoffrey Nelson. His voice does not sound Irish, but instead has the slightly American accent of the New Commonwealth.
He gets on Blitz's nerves and gets his nose broken for his trouble.
This is quickly healed by Noesis, but his mouth is sealed shut at the same time.
General Nelson does not look happy about this, but is now much quieter! He becomes even more so when Noesis sedates him. For safety, once he is unconscious his mouth is unsealed and his tongue fused to the bottom of his mouth instead.
Noesis then notices the flag that Servo has brought. He quickly turns it into the Royal Coat of Arms in bright colours with gold tassels.
With that done, Servo valiantly takes it up to the top of the keep, flying up the internal staircases this time.
Reaching the roof, he raises it on the flagstaff there then returns downstairs to the rest of us.
With that done, Servo transmits a broadcast. "The Royal Flag is flying over Belfast Castle once more, but the keep must be burned to the ground because it has been stained by the blood of too many loyal Irishmen," he announces.
As he does this, Void uses his gates to pour petrol out of the storage tanks under the castle and into the dungeons and other vulnerable areas of the castle. With that done, a match is thrown in. Things begin to burn.
We gate away to the safe house.
From the safe house we watch the castle as flames rise higher from it off in the distance.
In our absence the prisoners seem to have been getting themselves together. "Who are you?" the man who appears to be the senior ex-prisoner asks us.
Noesis explains that we have all converted to be against Puritanism and have taken up Catholicism with the aim of undermining the forces of the New Commonwealth government in the British Isles and lending our support to the rebels.
We then offer him the contents of the Belfast Castle armoury as evidence of our good faith.
The leader of the prisoners introduces himself as Finneas O'Toole and admits that he may have contacts with the rebels. He looks at a few others in the room when he says this.
We suggest that staying here for any length of time is probably not wise, and ask Finneas for a suitable location to transport everyone, the papers and the weapons to.
He suggests a barn near the village of Moneyreagh, about ten miles outside Belfast to the south-east.
Void scans around using his gate and, with the aid of Finneas, soon locates it. That being so, he opens up his gate and all and sundry are sent through to the barn, with Void, of course, coming through last.
We think a radio might be useful, so that the resistance people can contact us if they need to. The good ship 'Piety' seems to be the best option for obtaining one of these, so we gate there and look around.
A radio is soon found. It is small by this worlds standards, which makes it the size of a large filing cabinet. This seems roughly consistent with the radio Truth saw at the 'Voice of Liberty', which was installed on the back of a cart. It is removed and brought through to the barn.
We give it to the rebels so that they can contact us if necessary.
We then keep Void busy for a while gating all of the New Commonwealth prisoners, the Belfast Ministry of Security paperwork and General Nelson back to France, in two steps via the copse outside Slough. We do consider doing this by ship, but conclude that it is too risky, and too slow, to do so.
And then we return to the barn.
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