Adventure! RPG: Heroes of Our Time - episode 2: Air Raid

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"Dammit, Kate, Rhai ... we have got to move this thing!"

"If only the Baron had left us a pilot's manual, or barring that, a spare pilot," Janos mutters.

From Janos' perspective, it is simply a matter of time before they all go up in flames. They don't have skilled artilleriest, while the enemy does. The enemy is moving, while they are a sitting duck. Worse, either Jameson or Blaine will be trying to hit the smaller Zepplin directly, while the Baron's men will be airbursting their shells and only need a proximity hit to damage their craft.

Janos will look for anything in German that might hint at how to control this monstrosity.

"Anthony, once we get over the river, you and the ladies may want to jump for it."

[Rhiannon Lewis]

"Shit!" Rhiannon actually loses her composure enough to swear in English as she glances helplessly at Janos.

"I don't have a bloody clue what to do!"

[Dr. Mystery]

John removes his hat, hand wiping sweat from his smooth head, before replacing it. He turns to Rhiannon a look of panic starting to rise up in his eyes.

"I am certainly of no help in this situation. Let us hope that Mr. Bradford knows what he is doing."

[Alex Craft]

Jameson and Blaine leap for the guns, racing Zorbo's more experienced fire teams. It isn't an even race - as Blaine drops the shell into place, the zeppelin's pair of cannon fire in quick succession. Puffs of smoke rise, wavering in the wind as two shells whistle toward the command ship. One round goes low, again impacting the building below. The other explodes in the air just off the ship's circumference, spraying shards of metal against the side.

The command ship's armor shrugs off the brunt of the damage, but the deck still pitches violently with the explosion's shockwave. The shell explodes low enough that the top deck receives no direct shrapnel - instead being subjected to a relatively gentle rain of hot metal fragments. Our heroes escape unscathed, and Jameson and Blaine manage to keep their feet and turn back to the cannon as the airship regains its equilibrium.

Janos and King also keep their feet, holding solid against the rocking deck. As the ship settles, the former runs for the axial ladders - partly climbing, mostly sliding down to the command deck on the underside of the ship. Bursting onto the bridge, Janos spies Kate at work, lying on her back half under one of the damaged stations. Rolling out from under, she asks worriedly, "What was that?"

Topside, Blaine closes the breech on the cannon, shouting over the ringing in his ears, "Fire when you're ready!"

Putting a last spin on one of the screws, Jameson finally gets the enemy ship in his sights. The deck rocks and our heroes' ears ring with the concussion of the cannon's fire. The shell arcs toward Zorbo's ship but comes up a hair too low. It skims beneath the target and falls into the river below, showering the banks as it belatedly explodes upon hitting the water.

Adjusting his aim, Jameson sees that Blaine is already reloading. Even so, they can't possibly beat the enemy gunners for speed, and another shot rings out from across the gulf between the two ships. Only one puff of smoke this time - perhaps one of the enemy cannon has had some kind of mechanical failure. Unfortunately, it looks as if the enemy has found the command ship's range, as this round hits the ship dead on.

The enemy has switched from common explosive rounds to some kind of incendiary - most likely hoping to penetrate on of the hydrogen-filled gas bags. They barely miss their target, the shell just overflying the gas bags below and striking the massive plate of the top deck. Not exploding immediately, the oblong projectile flips up into the air, rolling end over end as it arcs over the deck.

The shell falls to the deck not a meter away from where John is lying prone, then rebounds upward again - continuing its flight across the deck. It strikes for a final time just past the hatches of the axial ladders. Hitting the deck nose on, it finally detonates - erupting into flames and spraying shrapnel across the deck.

With a blinding burst of speed, King shields Rhiannon from the flying metal as John and Locky both rise and dive for cover behind the low wall surrounding a nearby machine gun emplacement.

Blaine and Jameson, however, are on open ground as Blaine reloads the gun and Jameson adjusts the aim by a few hairs. The air sings as shrapnel hurdles past the two of them, barely missing Jameson and clipping Blaine as he reaches for a shell to load - digging into his left shoulder before tearing free and flying on. His arm still seems to work fine, though that could just be adrenaline.

[1L damage to Blaine]

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Quote:

Life according to Kate:

Bursting onto the bridge, Janos spies Kate at work, lying on her back half under one of the damaged stations. Rolling out from under, she asks worriedly, "What was that?"

"Damn! They've found our range. Kate, we need to move this ship and now!"

Moving to what he hopes are the controls,
"Kate, tell me what I need to do to manuever this monster. We need to put Number 1 King Plaza between us and Zorbo, then make a run for the river. Shells are falling all over the place out there, and I hate to think what is going to happen when it explodes."

Attempting to get the ship to move, he adds jokingly,
"You do realize this thing is filled with an explosive gas, right?"

[Blaine]

Blaine barely grunts as the shrapnel tears through his jacket and into his arm. "He's gonna pay for that!" he mutters as he starts reloading the gun again.

"Bradford, make this one count buddy, they got our range." he says as he slams the shell home. "Fire when ready!"

[Rhiannon Lewis]

Rhiannon grunts as King shields her from the debris. "Damn it," she curses under her breath. "I hate being useless!"

[Locky McKenzie]

Rhiannon grunts as King shields her from the debris. "Damn it," she curses under her breath. "I hate being useless!"

Locky looks up from his own prone position. "Then maybe we don't have to! I have an idea. Dr. Mystery, do you still have those smoke things? Maybe we can use them to fool Mr. Zorbo's men into thinking we're down for the count!"

Locky turns to Kate. "Kate, do you think you could at least fly this ship well enough to get it to drop? We just need to make it look like we've been hit badly enough that they won't need to hit us anymore..."

Locky then turns his attention back to Ms. Lewis. "Does that mind commanding thing work over radio? If so, maybe we can use it to our advantage in this plan!"

[Andrew Murphy]

"Bradford, make this one count buddy, they got our range." he says as he slams the shell home. "Fire when ready!"

Jameson spins the control dials and lines up his shot as carefully as possible. He stand up for a second and takes a quick bearing on wind and the movement of the other dirigible before making a few final adjustments to the windage and elevation of the big cannon.

Quickly he runs around to the firing position and grabs the firing cord in his right hand. He turns away with his free hand over his ear to muffle the sound as much as he can.

"FIRE!" He yells at the top of his lungs and he triggers the massive deck gun. The ship lurches once more as the new shot streaks toward the enemy vessel.

OOC: Jameson spends 1 Willpower for an additional success.

[Dr. Mystery]

"I do indeed, Mr. McKenzie, that's a fantastic idea!"

John pulls his bag of smoke bombs from his jacket, handing it to Locky as a grim smirk lights up his face.

"What's your plan?"

[Rhiannon Lewis]

"Finally!" Rhiannon says in relief, holding her hand out for a few smoke bombs.

[Alex Craft]

On the bridge, Janos surveys a set of wrecked throttles - one for each of the command ship's extensive array of engines. More than a dozen loose wires have been pulled out of the scrapped control panel's innards and paired off by being tied around each other in loose knots. Each of the pairs of leads has been clipped or wedged behind a plate labeling one of the defunct throttle controls, each of which has a degree reading - presumably indicating position around the circumference of the ship. Kate stands up and hangs over Janos' shoulder, talking and pointing:

"All of the generator indicators are damaged, but I think the generators are all still online - at least, the ones Tony and I passed on the way down are. I've found the leads for some of the throttles, so if you just touch the wires in a pair together, that should start one of the engines. It's just on/off, though, instead of the proper throttle control, so we can only stop and go full speed."

"So ... do you know how to fly one of these things? I sure don't."

* * *

On the top deck, a thick pillar of greasy, black smoke rises from the flaming remains of the exploded incendiary - thankfully nowhere near any of the ammunition boxes arrayed around the deck guns.

Under Blaine and Jameson's care, the 75mm gun fires once more - likely its last chance to do so. The shell flies true, slamming into the zeppelin and exploding against the broad gas envelope. The ship shakes as the shell's explosion penetrates the envelope and sets off secondary explosions as the hydrogen inside catches flame.

From the top deck of the command ship (and from below, through the bridge's broad windows) our heroes see a series of small explosions rip through the near side of Zorbo's ship, followed by two massive detonations as oxygen pours into the ruptured envelope. As hydrogen burns or flushes out of the envelope, the zeppelin droops and begins to fall in slow motion, trailing flames and clouds of smoke.

The flames belching from the near side of the zeppelin cause the ship to drift in its slow fall, spinning lazily back toward the Hudson as it begins to plummet more quickly. The flaming hulk is moving pretty quickly when it crashes into the river, splashing the docks with impact waves and filling the air with rising steam.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Quote:

Originally posted by Alex Craft:
Kate stands up and hangs over Janos' shoulder, talking and pointing:

"All of the generator indicators are damaged, but I think the generators are all still online - at least, the ones Tony and I passed on the way down are. I've found the leads for some of the throttles, so if you just touch the wires in a pair together, that should start one of the engines. It's just on/off, though, instead of the proper throttle control, so we can only stop and go full speed."

"So ... do you know how to fly one of these things? I sure don't."

Janos gives Kate a winning, confident smile.
"This will not be a problem. So, the controls work roughly opposite the way reigns do ... on a runaway horse. I can do this!"

Janos puts on his calf-skin gloves and 'starts up' the engines.
"Full Speed it is then. Could somebody give me ranging information as I look for a place to put this down?"

Then,
"Ah, look! It seems that the good Baron Zorbo has found a place to land in the river. As temping as it is to put this down on top of him, I think I will find someplace dryer."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson cheers triumphantly as the shell slams into the side of Zorbo's second craft and explodes detonating the gas within.

He walks around the big gun and shakes Blaine's hand, "Nice work there on the breech, couldn't have done the job without you."

He watches as the second zeppelin falls into the river before walking over to where Tony and the other are standing.

"I suggest we get down off this deck until we can properly extinguish the flame here," he says as he approaches the others. "Mr. King I belive that as a small compensation for the damage done to your building we should claim salvage rights on this zeppelin. I've no doubt that Kate and her engineering team could have it repaired in no time. It would make a fantastic mobile base for our dynamic little group here during future expeditions."

The craft begins to shudder as down below Janos applies power to the engines, "I belive we should get inside it seems that somebody is attempting to find a place to park this thing."

Jameson suddenly tilts his head to the side, a quizzical look on his face, "Hmm does anybody know how many men are left inside the building to deal with? I'm game for some hunting but I think that enough lives have been lost this day, perhaps we could convince those troops remaining to lay down their arms?"

[Rhiannon Lewis]

Rhiannon nods as she brushes off her skirt. "That's an idea. The Count can speak German, so we ought to let him handle it."

[Blaine]

Blaine is checking the wound on his arm as he watches the zeppelin go down in flames. He shakes Bradford's hand when he walks up to him.

"Yeah, good shooting eagle eyes.". His arm will be OK, might need a stitch or two to close it, just a few more to his collection. He starts heading inside, as he feels their own ship begin to sink.

"Give 'em enough time." he says when the subject of the rest of Zorbo's men is brought up. "Offer 'em terms. they'll surrender. I saw it in 'em. With their leader gone they'll lose interest in goin' down with the ship. Bustin' in there ain't the way to go."

[Andrew Murphy]

"... With their leader gone they'll lose interest in goin' down with the ship. Bustin' in there ain't the way to go."

"I Agree, we'll let Janos talk to them, hell if these boys joined up with Zorbo purely for the money in it Janos may be able to offer them a better deal. It'd be nice to have some backup to call in next time we have to face down a legion of troops ya know?"

[Count Janos Rakozi]

As Janos struggles with the controls ...

{When the situation is brought to his attention}

"I doubt its totally about money, Herr Bradford," Janos' says with deadly seriousness. "It also has to do with bitterness, desperation, and a very real sense of betrayal these men feel. After all, wasn't it your President Wilson who promised us Peace with Honor?"

After a pause and a deep sigh,

"Jameson, did you give us a peace with honor? No, you and your allies raped us, chopped us up, and broke us on the rack. For four years, we fought bled and died ... but, for what?"

Looking to Anthony King, Janos asks,

"What is the deal? What can I offer them ... or do you want me to lie?"

[Blaine]

Blaine raises an eyebrow at the Count on that last little outburst. He looked like he was about to say something, then stopped and sighed. Too much happened today and a few years ago to get into an argument about America's role in Europe's pissing match in the Great War. Maybe another time.

[Locky McKenzie]

Meanwhile, back outside

"Well, never mind then," Locky says, as he gives Dr. Mystery back the grenades. Locky quickly follows everyone else down into the lower decks.

Following Janos's Outburst

Locky begins looking somewhat more uncomfortable, as the tensions begin to rise inside the running room. He suddenly bursts out "Mr. Rakosi, how about you guys discuss this with the soldiers, and I'll work on trying to get this thing on the ground?"

[Andrew Murphy]

OOC: It would seem that we are now all on the bridge of the craft, if not assume that Jameson travels to the bridge before these comments are made.

"OK I think we all just need to calm down a bit. Janos, my friend, you know as well as I do that what politicians do is seldom, if ever, representative of the population as a whole.

"Now I think that it's safe to say that these men are likely motivated by more than simply money. Yes it is likely that they chose to seek a better life by attaching themselves to a man like Zorbo, who, in all likely hood, promised them not only wealth but the ability to strike back at their enemies.

"I was simply suggesting that perhaps if we could reason with them. Make them see that men like Zorbo are out for their own power gain ... not for the betterment of mankind or even a certain country or people.

"Maybe the government will insist that these men go to jail for their actions. Maybe they won't accept any offer we make because we represent those who ... what was it you said ... raped them, chopped them up, and broke them on the rack.

"If that the case then we'll need to remove them by force, which will lead to more casualties and more deaths. These men deserve at least the option to peaceably lay down their arms, if for no other reason than to avoid more bloodshed."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"Gentlemen, I do not hold you accountable for the deeds of your government, or its allies, in the War. If I did, I certainly wouldn't be here with Mr. King who is most certainly an American."

"You Americans are a rough and dynamic people I like that about you."

"Now, if Fredrick will take the controls, I will go deal with the men left behind. This battle has awakened old feelings in me, and the faces of the men I have killed today may well have been the faces of men I once called brother ... or led into battle."

"Excuse me, but the sooner I deal with this situation, the sooner we can see if this Baron Zorbo-character is truly dead."

[Alex Craft]

Nodding at Jameson's suggestion to return to the bridge, King take a few minutes gauging the damage caused by the now-guttering fire on deck, then follows the team down the ladders.

Janos and Kate make room as the rest of the group piles into the bridge, gathering around the controls and discussing the means of dealing with the remaining raiders.

...

In response to Janos' question, Tony shakes his head and tells him, "Do what you need to do to get them out of my building. Money isn't important, and, if necessary, I can hold off the government for a time. I don't appreciate attacks upon my people, property, and self, but I am willing to call it even if they stand down."

"You might ask them how they propose to deal with their wounded comrades up here. I don't have any use for them, and I suspect that the government would. Once Kate gets these systems together, I will most likely have her take the ship to one of our secure research facilities for an overhaul. She could conceivably drop off the wounded somewhere along the way."

With course of action sorted out, Janos and any who accompany him reenter the ladders and climb up to the next level, entering the barracks - now in use as an infirmary. Twenty or more raiders are laid out on the cramped beds, some wounded, some dying, some dead. The room is strangely silent now, as the wounded and their caretakers realize that, though they have survived their leader's betrayal, they are now left in the hands of enemies.

* * *

[note that we have a little time creep going on here]

Once Janos reaches the roof of 1 K.I.S. Plaza, King leans over Locky's shoulder and suggests: "If you think you can do it, try setting down in the Plaza. It's the largest open area around, and it will be easier to keep the authorities off if we land on company property."

[Rhiannon Lewis]

"I'll go with the Count," Rhiannon says crisply, moving to stand by Janos' shoulder. "I can understand them perfectly and frankly, I'm more than useless up here, Mr King."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos nods and head down to the barracks room. His air is that of a man born to command.

"Kamradien!" he shouts, "Achtung!"

He surveys the room with steely eyes.

[in German]

"I am Count Rakozi, formally of the Imperial Austrian-Hungarian Army. This Fraulein Lewis, Herr King's confidante, and the guaruntee of his word. We are leaving here, now. Leave the dead, help the wounded."

Janos will move to help the men gather up the wounded, lending an arm to help them up and will carry one if necessary.

If anyone dares question him, he will add,

[in German]"The Police are coming. Stay and be charged with murder. Come with me, and you may yet escape."

Once the group gets moving toward the closest exit point, Janos will turn to Rhiannon and say,

"Once we are on the ground, use your clout to clear us a way into the building. I will camp this group in the lobby, then we can gather up the ones upstairs. Stick close to me. I don't want anyone of them to think they can take you hostage, and I would rather not have to kill them for the attempt."

[in German]"Comrades, when we get back in the building, stick together and don't talk to any of the americans. We will gather the rest and march right out of here. If they think we are wounded Americans, they will not stop us. Is that CLEAR?"

[Kirby1024]

Locky looks around the bridge, then calls to Kate "So, Miss Schafer, what's up, what's down, what's side-to-side? I think those are the only ones I need to know, right?"

Locky looks towards the controls that Janos was controlling before. "Well, I've driven a car before, this can't that much more difficult"

Once Kate has told Locky how it all works...

"Oh, right. Guess that means I'll have to use a bit of finesse to get the controls good enough to get this ship down then..."

[Rhiannon Lewis]

Rhiannon nods to Janos curtly and remains silent while he speaks to the men. When they get moving, she uses her rank to clear the way and sticks close to Janos.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson hooks his thumbs behind his gun belts, "I think I'll stay here and see if I can't help Kate out with repairs ... besides I doubt that I'd be calming influence on Zorbo's men."

He casually walks over to where Kate is working under a control panel and hunkers down next to her. Clearing his throat and gently laying a hand on her leg to get her attention he says, "Can I give you a hand with anything? I may not be a genius but I'm handy with tools and wires so long as I have schematics to work with or at least some direction..."

[Dr. Mystery]

With Locky at the controls, John heads down with the Janos and Rhiannon, solemly weary. He nurses his shoulder, still aching from Luqmani's shot, although it seems like ages ago.

[Alex Craft]

Kate edges out and flashes Jameson a brilliant smile, replying, "Please. Right now, I'm just trying to pull out the wires to the damaged engine controls - maybe jury rig some kind of throttle so piloting isn't so touch and go. Locky's going to have to be really delicate right now or we'll get too much acceleration and crash into something."

The conscious raiders eye Janos for a bit, but the moment is broken when one of the badly wounded cries out in a delirium. Almost as one, the nurses and the lightly wounded take on a new determination and begin to gather up the less fortunate, preparing to move out.

Most of the injured are pretty badly wounded - perhaps most of the less injured were not abandoned by Zorbo. Many of those in the room are incapable of walking unaided, and a number of them are being carried on stretchers crafted by breaking up the bunks. Janos assists one of the fallen - the man's leg wrapped in bloody bandages. Rhiannon and John stick close to Janos, surrounded by (at final count) twenty-three raiders with varying degrees of injury.

Moving out onto the catwalks is slow going, since the narrow suspended walkways do not lend themselves to use by stretchers and men walking two abreast. Still within ten minutes, our heroes and the wounded raiders have reached the nearest couple of boarding ropes. The better off raiders begin rigging up the winches to lower the stretchers with good speed - they are naturally quite proficient at loading and unloading.

Behind the command deck's windows, Locky, Blaine, and Anthony King watch the group outside gradually descend to the roof, lowering stretchers and trickling down the ropes. Once Janos, Rhiannon, and John are grounded with their charges, Locky begins to gingerly manipulate the broken controls (according to Kate's explanations).

Activating engines one at a time, Locky causes the ship to shudder slightly as the stressed structure absorbs the sudden acceleration. The massive airship begins to draw off center with 1 K.I.S., moving out over the much shorter Building 2, K.I.S. Plaza. Jockeying for a stable position is tricky, but Locky manages to settle the ship half over Building 2 and half over the Plaza itself. Additional touches to the controls cause the ship to gradually sink.

The wall of Building 1 rises past the windows as the ship settles, and Locky taps together a few of the leads for the perimeter engines - edging in over the Plaza and closer to the damaged Building 1 and the under construction Building 3. Centering the ship and slowing its fall, Locky walks around the bridge checking out the windows for clearance. Satisfied that the ship looks to be as distant from the buildings as possible, he slows the descent a little more and hopes for the best.

As the ship nears the ground, the facade of Building 2 slides up into view. Below, police positions scatter out of the way of the massive ship - the officers running for the surrounding streets and buildings. Realizing that the landing might be pretty rough, the passengers brace themselves against the bridge's built-in handholds.

Locky taps the engines just before touching down, softening the impact as best he can. Despite the relatively slow speed of the fall, the ship still lurches violently, nearly shaking its passengers free of their holds. Not suited to a landing away from a custom dry dock, the ship tilts and settles at a tilt, shaking and shifting, then finally stabilizing at a twenty to thirty degree angle.

After waiting to make sure that there would be no more sudden shifts, King stands, balancing on the tilted deck. Checking the others' conditions, he directs, "Kate, Jameson - check this over and get it to basic functions. We'll be needing to get it out of here as soon as possible. Locky - I realize this isn't your field of expertise, but help them out. Blaine - go and talk to the police out here. Reassure them of the situation and discourage them from boarding the ship. Stall them if you have to - give Kate and the boys time to work. I'm going to get to a phone and see what I can do to keep the government off of us."

[Blaine]

Blaine nods to King. "I'll see what I can do."

Blaine heads down a mess of broken cat walks and dangling ropes, and finally jumps down the last 10 feet or so to the ground, and takes a moment to brush himself off, even though police are rushing him, telling him to put his hands up.

"Easy boys. Easy. I'm Blaine MacAllister." he says reaching into his pocket, causing all the police to pull the hammers back on their guns. He pulls out his wallet and opens it, flashing his badge. "Private Eye. Who's in charge here?"

"I am." says a burly middle aged flatfoot.

"Who are you?" asks Blaine as he motions for the cops to lower their weapons. Some of them do, as whispers of 'It's Blaine MacAllister!' race through them and the crowd that's gathered.

"Sargent Shane O'Malley, Blaine. How do I know you're really who you say y'are?" asks the Sargent, still skeptical.

"How bad do ya' wanna find out, you Mick?" spits Blaine, and then goes from a scowl to a slow smile as men start to holster their weapons.

"Aye, you're Blaine alright." laughs the sargent. "Only Blaine MacAllister can lip off to a Sargent when surrounded by his boys like that. So what the hell's goin' on here Blaine? I thought you hung your hat in DC?"

"Yeah well, I thought I might wreck another town or two, DC was gettin' boring. Listen here O'Malley. We need a bit of time here on this. That rig up there plus inside the building may have been rigged with bombs, could blow at any time." several of the cops look around in panic. "Take it easy, we got folks workin' on it. But we need a little time and space to let the professionals do their job, OK? You boys wanna go home to your wives and kids right? We'll be sending in the prisoners, some need hospitals, some need a passport to the gray bar hotel. If you can help us with that, we can take care of the potential bombs and stuff. OK?"

Shane and the rest of the cops look around to each other nervously. Bombs were bad news, if anyone knew about bombs it was Blaine, and if he said they were on board...

"OK Blaine, you got it! But listen to me Boyo! When this is done, you and King are gonna have a long talk with the commisioner and the mayor about this! OK boys, start rounding 'em up!"

"And someone find my goddamned hat!" shouts Blaine to the throng of police officers.

[OOC Blaine will spend an Inspiration point to have them listen to his rather reasonable demands if necessary. If they listen anyway, then the point is for him to recover his hat.]

[Andrew Murphy]

"Please. Right now, I'm just trying to pull out the wires to the damaged engine controls - maybe jury rig some kind of throttle so piloting isn't so touch and go. Locky's going to have to be really delicate right now or we'll get too much acceleration and crash into something."

"OK I'll see if I can't find a dial amid this mess that wasn't completely destroyed and hook it into the engine controls."

Jameson begins to walk around the command deck inspecting the various control panels for a control dial that is still in working order. Once (if) he locates one he'll grabs some extra wiring and splice it into the controls Kate has setup for Locky.

Once that is complete he'll take a moment to look outside and check on Blaine to make sure he has the cops under control. Verifying that the police are being handled by Blaine, Jameson begins to search for the engine readout panels.

After a few minutes he pipes up, "Kate looks like this was the diagnostics readouts. Pretty busted up, but maybe I can get a fuel gauge reading and see what he have left for juice in here."

[Rhiannon Lewis]

Rhiannon expedites the raiders' leaving by ordering K.I.S staff out of the way whenever she can, and then will work on getting things back under control in the building.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos will work quickly to establish a military order among the raiders.

He will brief Rhiannon and Fredrick on his plan:

Once on the roof, he will take Rhiannon and two of the least wounded and seek out other raiders still in the building. Once he gathers up a group of them, he will send one of the two wounded raiders back up with all but one of the uninjured ones. They are to proceed by way of the elevators to the basement. With Rhia the other two raiders, he will finish sweeping the building until they reach the bottom floor. There they will gather up what transport they can to take the raiders to the closest hospital. The wounded are to remain quiet unless they see one of Janos, Rhiannon, or Fredrick. Being caught speaking German will almost assuredly doom them all.

The unijured one are to cache their weapons in the basement and to make their way in twos and threes to the lake in Central park. They are to wait there for Mr. King to address them. Make it clear that Zorbo has not only abandoned them, but is dead. Mr. King is the only one who can save them from imprisonment and execution.

[Dr. Mystery]

John assists as best he can with Janos' plan, helping the wounded to the best of his ability.

[Locky McKenzie]

Locky begins looking around, trying to find some paper so he can do some work on tracking what's going where.

Locky reading is not particularly good, of course, but as Locky picks up what looks to be a few one-sided typed pages, he turns to the blank side, grabs a small pencil out of his belt, and begins studying various wires and connections, pushing his mental map of the various components and such into physical form, although not being a full engineer, Locky uses his own unique diagram forms. As he finishes on one section, he quickly moves to another, remembering to go back to other maps he's made to add further connections and wires linking from one page to another.

As Jameson and Kate work to repair the systems, Locky's diagrams, once Kate figures them out, become quite important in repairing wires, circuits, consoles and other such things. Locky works for as long as he possibly can, bouncing from system to system, mapping the wheres and hows, although leaving the whys for later people.

[Alex Craft]

Shane O'Malley and his boys move off, passing on the word to the other cops cautiously in on the looming mass of the grounded airship. With a little discussion and argument, the police as a whole move off of the plaza and behind roadblocks set up in the streets immediately around the plaza. Soon, Blaine stands alone in the plaza - sharing space only with the ship and pieces of wreckage left by Zorbo's bombardment.

Turning, he begins to stroll around the irregular bulk of the ship - checking for cops and other spectators and studying the ship's catwalks for signs of unwelcome stowaways. Looking up into the tangle of dark catwalks, he feels his foot sink into something. Looking down, he sees, of all things, his fallen hat square under his gleaming shoe. Stepping back and picking up the hat, he brushes it off and pops the squashed top back into shape - none the worse for the wear.

* * *

Seeing the police moving away, Jameson returns to the gradual reconstruction of the bridge. Kate is a flurry of activity, moving from circuit to circuit and station to station without pause of hesitation. Again, she has adopted a intimidatingly ferocious degree of focus, working at an amazingly fast and efficient pace. At first, she barely even seems to notice that Jameson and Locky are still in the room, but they gradually become absorbed into her routine.

Still, they have difficulty shaking the idea that, for the time being, she views them as nothing much more than particularly handy tools - good for the basics of getting started on and wrapping up. She quickly assimilates Locky's system of notation and begins to follow his work directly, taking notes from him and immediately starting in on whatever he was looking at. She uses Jameson at the other end of the process - leaving the sorted and reconstructed connections laid out for him to reconnect and attach salvaged controls to (simple manual work, really).

In an astonishingly short time (a couple of hours), the more important bridge stations are basically reconstructed. The controls are crude and patched, but the systems as a whole are more-or-less functional. A few basic diagnostics have been run, and Locky and Jameson have spent about half an hour visually checking engines and fuel tanks while Kate finished up. The ship isn't in great shape, but it can take off and fly a ways without any great risk.

With the job done, Kate gradually winds down - unnecessarily fiddling with various systems as she comes out of her idiot-savant state and seems to regain her usual warm personality. By this point, King has returned (actually, he has been hanging over everyone's collective shoulders for about twenty minutes), and as soon as the work is complete he grabs Kate and takes her aside for a few minutes - something about taking the ship to a place in the Adirondacks.

* * *

Outside, about fifteen minutes later, Locky, Blaine, and Jameson stand on the concrete of the plaza while a dozen of Kate's subordinates climb up an improvised ladder into the ship. Shortly afterwards, they feel the intense downdraft as the gas bags re-compress and the command ship's engines kick back on. The size of the ship finally hits home as it slowly lofts upward, entirely blotting out the afternoon sun until Kate guides it out over the Hudson.

* * *

In Central Park, John waits uneasily with Janos among dozens of rather poorly disguised raiders attempting to lie low in a wooded section of the park. The wounded raiders are under care at Alexander King Memorial Hospital - a K.I.S. sponsored hospital elsewhere in the city. Rhiannon was going to insure that the hospital was appropriately circumspect regarding the patients, then return to help organize things back at K.I.S. Plaza, so John and Janos have been alone with a half a company of disarmed (but assuredly dangerous) soldiers for more than two hours.

Now, Anthony King comes out of the trees with Rhiannon at his side and a dozen of his remaining building security men behind him - mostly armed with Thompson submachine guns. As soon as Janos has gathered the raiders' collective attention, King begins - curtly and without prelude:

"Understand this. You attacked myself, my property, and my people. I am not looking to trust you or do you any favors. Still, I figure that we've had our fight and both walked away with black eyes - and with the doctor dead, maybe you came out the worse. Regardless, if you are willing to let things sit, I'll do the same - no reprisals, no government involvement."

"And not to put to fine a point on it, but I have better than twenty of your men in custody at my hospital. If we resolve this amicably, they will receive appropriate care and their identities will be kept secret until they are released. Otherwise, they will be immediately turned over to the tender mercies of the United States government."

"Now, as I said, I'm not here to do you any favors. From this point, I'll have nothing to do with you all except to arrange the treatment of your comrades in arms. I don't know how you will be getting home, nor do I particularly care. I'm sure you've all been trained for this eventuality, and I suppose the Count might be more willing to assist you. Good luck - you'll probably need it."

Anthony waits until Janos is done translating into German, impassively examining the gathered raiders as they absorb his brief monologue. When, after several minutes, they turn and begin talking to each other in preparation for a mass dispersal, he nods Rhiannon and his men and leads them back toward the street, telling John in passing, "We're done here."

END