Wasps over Albertport

Aerial Gunboat Takes to the Skies of Mars

We have also received word from the Royal Navy's ethership docks here in Albertport that Her Majesty's Royal Navy shall soon have a new class of small, steam-powered, hydrium-lift gunboats to protect the Crown Colony from the German menace and the troubling actions of certain Martian princes. Though it has yet to be armed, your faithful journal writer has no doubt that it soon shall be.

Seen here is the armored control cabin and the steam engine of the new HMS Wasp, the first ship of its class. Below, you can see a sergeant of the Royal Artillery's Research and Development Field Testing Platoon atop the armored cabin. The lights of the Albertport Ethership Tower can be seen in the distance behind.

You can not see the hydrium venting system in the hull that helps control the altitude of the armored airship in these photostats. Unlike the more common rigid frame gasbag type of airship, this vessel uses internal tanks of hydrium and is constructed largely of liftwood for added bouyancy. It can rise and dive rapidly as a result, and is far smaller and more maneuverable than even the smallest of the framed gasbag types.

[Editor's Notes: This airship can be converted for use by other nations in a matter of minutes, by changing the flag (on a removable pole). It currently sports the naval ensign of Imperial Germany, which is why it isn't seen in these small photos. It still needs a good bit of work, repairing damage sustained during shipping, and adding little details I like. Plus weapons, of course!]

A Minor Gex-based quandry

To this point, I had thought that the gex would be in homogenously hued tribal groups, each warband consisting of ten warriors to fall in line with the rules set that we most commonly use.

So, one group would be ten red and orange warriors, one ten dark and light green, ten dark and light blue, and so on.

But now I am reconsidering, especially for the bow-armed gex. It might look better to mix them up.

A quandry, a puzzle, a confused muddle of possibilities now exists where once all was clear. Blast it all!

In regards to progress, a bit has been made today. The first Sentinel (I may re-name them, though it is a very British sounding name, is it not?) has been 'dipped' and now awaits its highlighting, basework and matt finish. A bit more work on the Pappegaivolk has been done, though nothing exciting. I have begun work on the 'ghost gex', those made from modified skink totem bearers into giant club wielders. They will be gray and white, hence the 'ghost' appellation. The sergeant for the Research Platoon is almost finished. And a swarm of snakes just waits for basing and matt finish. Finally, the red and orange "Flammekröte" warband of gex is nearly finished, including their fearsome warchief, Firebelly.

Photostats from Venus!

The first plate here shows a small tribe of hunting gex as they move effortlessly through the underbrush. While much smaller than their gater cousins, gex are just as vicious. Their envenomed bite merely adds to the danger of encountering these primitive brutes.



















On this plate, some of Her Majesty's soldiers, in the Research Platoon, ride upon the back of a large saurian transport. From this secure vantage point, they can avoid smaller carnivorous dinosaurs, the more dangerous flora of the Jungle Planet, and find their main foes, the savage lizardmen of Venus.


















A small herd of Triceratops feeding on the jungle growth. These large creatures are herbivores, but like the Earthly hippopotamus, are large, powerful and very territorial. Extreme caution is advised should a traveler on the surface of Venus find himself confronted by even one of these beasts. If there are young about, I would recommend that you flee the area as quickly as you can without drawing attention from the herd.


















This last photostat shows a gater, mounted on a carnivorous lizard, possibly Deinonychus, as he exits the brush line. These gaters are extremely dangerous, remorselessly bloodthirsty savages. When encountered, I recommend they be treated to volley fire by platoon. Thankfully, most of the gaters encountered thus far on the Planet of Mist are not powerful enough to dominate a mount such as this one. The few that are, however, are even more dangerous than their bretheren.

We are expecting our first photographs of the giant Parrotmen of Venus in the near future, good readers, but were unable to obtain any prior to publishing today. I shall, however, publish portions of a short paper by Doctor Fritz Hammacher and Professor Heinrich Schlemmer, both of the Imperial German Institute for Extra-Terrestrial Study (das Deutsche Kaiserliche Institut fur AuBerirdische Gelehrten), in the very near future, perhaps even this afternoon.

A Minor Correction

I hate to report it, but it sems that the facts of the incident leading to the death of Corporal Fanningshire have strayed from the true course of veracity. Apparently, the wepon he was reported to be carrying in the photostat was not the Portable Flamegun as originally reported.

Apparently, Flameguns are doctrinally limited to use as anti-materiel weapons, and certainly not anti-personnel. Such a thing as roasting a man alive in a burning stream of naptha would be barbaric, and best left to the Hun!

No, the intriguing device carried by the late Corporal Fanningshire prior to his demise is properly known as a Caloric Ray Emitter. I am not sure just what those Royal Artillery and Royal Society chaps have created, but apparently it makes whatever or whomever it is used against very hot, very quickly, causing "extreme thermal blooms." Though what flowers have to do with this, I've no idea. In living things, these "blooms" cause the water within the body to boil away to steam, a sort of organic boiler explosion, I suppose. Sounds bloody dreadful.