Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Session 1.8 Index Session 1.10
Mirov and Akula continue to search Lake Tomolinsk for the sleeper with the aid of magnets produced by Mirov. Mother Bear patrols the shore of the lake in bear form. Napalm patrols in the other direction in non-flaming form; she wanders into the forest and drinks some more of the vodka (nobly resisting temptation to get utterly blotto). The others sit in the van and wait.
Mother Bear (the only one with a headset at the moment) notices an 'incoming message' signal on her headset. She figures out how to use it to listen without sending anything, and then gets a message from the super villains over the headset. Sirdar tells her that he has a list of Moscow hospitals in front of him, and that unless Kreutz is handed over to them he will pick one at random, and the villains will go there and kill everyone, starting with the women and children. If he is not handed over they will repeat this on another hospital. When they run out of hospitals they will start on schools. The heroes have a hour to contact them.
Mother bear calls a meeting. She Sticks her head under water and roars to attract Akula and Mirov; eventually Akula hears her, collects Mirov, and the two of them surface. The heroes discuss what to do with Kreutz. Whether a hospital or two is a worthwhile sacrifice if it saves Moscow from being destroyed by the sleeper. But eventually they decide to get in touch with the villains and hand him over.
Mirov takes the headset and flies some distance away from the lake into the city (to avoid revealing that the heroes are at the lake) before replying to Sirdar. Sirdar is smug and sarcastic at him, and tells him that Napalm should deliver Kreutz to a train waiting in the Jugo-Zapadnaja metro station at the end of the Sokolneskaja line, by midday. Mirov returns to the group by a roundabout route.
They discuss whether this is a trap to get them away from the lake. Eventually, Napalm agrees to do the delivery alone while Mirov and Akula continue to search the lake. Kreutz is heavily sedated by Mirov in the hope that this will hinder the villains.
Napalm takes Kreutz and flies to the Jugo-Zapadnaja station by a highly indirect route to avoid being traced back to Lake Tomolinsk. She ignores the barriers and metro personnel at the station. There is a metro train waiting, and she leaves the heavily sedated and sleeping Kreutz on the train with a note stuck to his forehead saying 'return to Lefortovo Prison'. She then flies back to the lake following an equally winding course. As far as she can tell, she is not followed.
The search for the sleeper continues in the depths of the lake.
Mother Bear again acts as a lookout.
Napalm finds the glue and jet wash brought from a flea market earlier in the back of the van. She tries modifying the jet wash into a glue gun to be used against Cricket. Unfortunately it soon breaks and sprays glue all over the inside of the van. Napalm decides maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.
She then has an idea about 'the professor' who Kreutz mentioned as being able to activate the sleeper, and decides to phone Captain Sulko. This she does, and is quickly put through. She asks him for information on any professors that were known associates of Kreutz. After a wait, Sulko rings back. He tells Napalm that before he was arrested he was posted to a research base near the German city of Leipzig, and that there are six people posted there at the same time who could possibly be "the professor".
They are:-
Sulko agrees to look into the remaining four to see where they now are, and what they are doing. He also asks about Kreutz. Napalm tells him about the message we received and that we have handed him over to the super villains. Sulko is not impressed; he is definitely of the opinion that a hospital or two is a worthwhile sacrifice to save Moscow.
Back at Lake Tomolinsk, Mirov finds a large metal thing in the deepest part of the lake. He spends some time feeling around to get an idea of its size; it is big - about 120 metres long and 75 metres broad - an is shaped like a flattened submarine with no conning tower. Akula is summoned and returns to the surface to tell the others that they have found something. While on the surface, he phones his friend Petrovich from the navy, currently a submarine captain based in Archangel, and asks him for some diving and underwater demolition gear. Petrovich says he'll do what he can, but it will take some time to get the gear to him. Akula signs off and returns to the pod.
Mother Bear contacts Captain Ostranko and asks him to get some air support set up to take care of the robot if the party cannot.
Mirov searches the metal pod more thoroughly, and finds that the top of the pod is in fact a pair of huge doors, obviously to release the sleeper. He also finds a hatch way with a keypad under a cover. He and Akula go in using the access code obtained from Kreutz, and find that it is really an airlock. Through the inner door is a catwalk, running along the top of the sleeper robot. In the cramped conditions of the pod it takes a while, but eventually they find that it is shaped like a vast scorpion, 100 metres or more from nose to tail-tip and 75 metres across the legs, with a pair of 25 metre long pincers. It is studded with guns of all sizes, from the massive on down, and emblazoned with four huge swastikas, painted on its battleship-grey shell. As the sting in its tail it a vast howitzer, of the kind normally built into railway guns. On the flat front face are lots of cameras, searchlights and the like, all behind armoured glass.
On the local news a report comes in that an old man in a prison uniform has been picked up from a metro train by WarWolf and Black Dog.
Napalm, still waiting by the lake, gets a phone call from Captain Sulko. He tells her about the four remaining professors. All four were captured by the Red Army at the end of the war, but the only one of interest is Helga von Salzgitter, who, although in her 80's, is a professor of robotics at Moscow State University. When this is mentioned, Akula vaguely recognises her as someone he has seen about the University. Sulko also tells the party that he issued an arrest warrant for her, but when his men got there she had been taken away in an unmarked black van by WarWolf and Black Dog.
We decide that we must act quickly as the super villains must have all the information they need to locate the robot now, or at least will soon.
Everyone except Molinya (who stays on guard above) is transported down to the robot by Mirov, who forms a water-tight capsule, and go inside. Once inside they start to break the gun emplacements on the sleepers hull. Mirov covers a lot of the sensors at its head with gunge; they seem to have concealed wipers, but he does his best.
After a few minutes of destructive activity, there is an echoing 'CLUNNGG!' sound, like a huge switch being thrown. Suddenly the robot shakes itself and begins to stand up. Akula blasts the keypad which allows access to the pod. Mirov protects Napalm and General Winter inside a limpet-like bubble stuck to the side of the robot as the sleeper bursts from its protective pod and starts to walk across the bed of Lake Tomolinsk towards the ship canal and Moscow at about 30 mph. On the surface all that is visible is a small bow wave ripple...
Mother Bear, tumbled about in the deep water, but not too bothered by the depth and lack of air, swims to the shore and tells Molinya to phone Captain Sulko. She tells him to issue the alarm that the robot is moving towards central Moscow, and to call in the air strike.
Inside Mirov's limpet, Napalm and General Winter start to do repeated fire and ice treatments on the armoured hull of the sleeper, to weaken the metal. The metal begins to fracture somewhat, and Mirov hits the area. Then the sleeper hits the Mirov limpet with a huge pincer, shattering it, and not doing Mirov any good at all. Water rushes in; Napalm's flame goes out, and ice starts to encase General Winter, before Mirov quickly recovers, reforms the bubble and sticks to the sleeper under one of its legs to avoid being hit again. Sensible.
Mother Bear and Molinya get into the van and Adrik, General Winter's chauffeur, shows his driving skill by speeding down the track through out of the woods by the lake (specially selected to be far from anything), along the Moscow Ring Road, and back along the canal on the motorway which leads to the Sheremetevo-2 International Airport. They meet the sleepers bow wave starting to move down the canal.
Underwater, Akula continues breaking more guns and Napalm and General Winter start the fire and ice treatment again from their new position.
The van reaches the motorway bridge over the canal to the airport. It is fairly busy, but Molinya clears it of vehicles with the aid of Mother Bear and some well-placed electrical bolts as the sleeper starts to push away the bridge pillars. As the sleeper, still hidden under the water, pushes on, the bridge collapses into the canal and the sleeper continues towards Moscow.
Mother Bear tears down a telephone cable to allow Molinya to enter the robot in electrical form. They again set off down the canal, driven by Adrik. Once they are well ahead of the robot Mother Bear dives into the water and, as it comes level with them, attaches the cable to it. Molinya travels down it into the sleeper. As she surfaces, Mother Bear also spots the super villains flying carpet approaching the area. Everyone except Molinya and Napalm get the feeling of being watched again...
A hole through the sleepers yard-thick armour plating is finally made by Napalm and General Winter. Unfortunately the hull beyond is packed with machinery and hydraulics, so only Akula and Mirov are able to enter the robot. Akula goes in search of the power reactor.
Napalm and General Winter, unable to get into the sleeper, set about cutting the hydraulics of its leg. Mirov goes through the machinery to the next leg and start to do the same.
Mother Bear reaches the bank again. The black flying carpet is much lower and no longer has all the super villains on it; Cricket can be seen flitting about it, though. Turning back to human form, she fires on the carpet with a blaster (one of the ones taken from Vilma). She then puts on her ear defenders and turns back to bear form. The bug woman flies towards Mother Bear and starts to issue her ear-shattering sonic blast. But Mother Bear has on her ear defenders, and it has no effect; still, she pretends to be affected and falls over, feigning unconsciousness. Cricket flies down low for a better look and hovers close to the bear, over the canal. Suddenly, Mother Bear jumps up and leaps at the bug, who is caught by surprise, and in a bear hug. The pair tumble into the water and sink to the bottom of the canal. Cricket's wings are destroyed in the fight, as she struggles to escape. She is almost as strong as Mother Bear, but not strong enough to escape. She is almost drowned before she falls unconscious - she does not seem to have the endurance of Mother Bear. Mother Bear drags the unconscious Cricket out of the canal. She is put in the back of the van and stuck down with the remaining glue which Napalm accidentally spread around the inside of the van.
The robot develops a limp as two of its legs are crippled (though this cannot be noticed on the surface), but carries on. Inside the robot Akula can hear Molinya attacking and starts to smell the chemical woman, so puts on his gas mask.
Adrik continues to roar along the roads, following and overtaking the sleeper. He reaches the road bridge across the canal which forms part of the Moscow ring road in advance of the sleeper. With the aid of much roaring, and some violence, Mother Bear clears the traffic from the road bridge just before the sleeper arrives. It is coming on for twilight now, but fortunately the rush hour has not yet started.
The nose of the sleeper rises from the water as the scorpion shaped robot rears to its full height over the road. It continues to move forwards, starting to push its way through the bridge. Its tail rises up. The spotlights at its nose start to scan around, many of its emplaced guns following them, and several of them focus on Mother Bear, guns swinging to follow...