After debriefing the
pilots he steeples his fingers under his chin and continues:
"Ripping, good
stuff. Now then, Parkhurst has requested
you fly a reconnaissance sortie over the wreck of that damned Zep. See what the Bosche are up to don't you know?
One of you will have to fly a BE2c, camera mount is only set up for those
meddlesome buggers I'm afraid. Don't
worry, the rest of you can fly those new beasts, glorious kites! Does the old
ticker good to see them, hopefully we'll give the Hun a lead breakfast what! Take
off is in 5 hours, best get some kip first."
As he finished talking
to the pilots, he's handed a dispatch from one of his clerks.
A look of despair
crosses his face,
"The damned thing
struck again after you engaged it, near Arras, this time it was a massacre, 150
men killed."
After the pilots
prepare for the sortie, they can take off as normal, then head East across the
trenches.
As they fly over the
scarred countryside they can see the ant like soldiers in the trenches on the
allied side, some wave and cheer. As
they cross over into no man's land, they can see the true carnage of this
war. Like a festering wound, no man's
land carves its way across France in a bloody stalemate. Soon, the German lines come into view, and
the anti aircraft guns start firing. To
avoid the enemy fire is a piloting roll at -2, if they fail, the fragile aircraft
is hit and takes 2d8 damage.
After passing the
German lines, Mametz quickly comes into view, the small village is bordered by
stunted and ravaged orchards, most of the buildings have been ravaged by Allied
artillery. Flying over the small
village, just inside the boundary of encroaching woods, they can see the
skeletal remains of a large zeppelin twisted and lying diagonally a burned out
clearing in the thick woods. With a
notice roll at -2, they can see a small makeshift camp with tents and vehicles,
and a few personnel crawling over the ruins of the airship. There are perhaps a dozen people, all dressed
in Imperial German Flying Core uniforms.
The woods around the site are fortified, with machine gun and mortar
emplacements.
To take photographs of
the site, the BE2c pilot needs to make a piloting roll, ideally in one pass, as
soon as they succeed, roll notice.
If this is successful,
they see a squadron of Fokkers Eindecker approaching from the East. There are 4 monoplanes who immediately attack
the spotter plane first.
Meet The Fokkers
The squadron is lead by
an ace pilot, who is a wild card.
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6,
Notice d6, Piloting d6,
Repair d6, Shooting d6, Taunt d6
Cha: 0; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Sanity: 5;
Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Heroic
Edges: Rank (Officer)
Gear: Uniform, flying helmet, goggles,
wool scarf, Luger P08
(Range 12/24/48,
Damage 2d6–1) with 16
rounds.
The Fokkers have been
explicitly ordered to shoot down the spotter plane to stop the intelligence
returning to the allied line.
Fokker E.III Monoplane
The Fokker Eindecker
monoplane is the first aircraft with machine guns synchronized with the
propeller, so the pilot can line up by eye instead of having to fire a
pivot-mounted gun. During the fall and winter of 1915 this gives the Germans a
huge advantage in the air. The plane was considered so important German pilots
were forbidden to fly them over enemy territory for fear that one might be
captured intact.
Acc/Top Speed: 10/64; Toughness: 6
(0); Crew: 1
Notes: Aircraft (Climb 1). Flight range
of 200 miles.
Armament: One MG08 machine gun
firing forward (250
rounds)
If they survive the
dogfight and make their way back to Vert Galant the mechanics at the aerodrome
can patch up and attend to any of the planes that were damaged. Captain Herbert debriefs the pilots and
confers with Parkhurst.
As the battle weary
pilots relax and unwind after the sortie, they see a goggled rider approach the
airfield on a mud splattered Triumph Model H.
As he wipes the mud off his long coat and face the party realises that
it's Father O'Connor lugging a long satchel.
The Exorcist
As the priest
approaches, he roots around in his bag and removes a bottle of whisky and
tosses it to the nearest pilot.
"Afternoon my son,
it's a long ride from Paris and I've a powerful thirst, see if you can whistle
us up some glasses."
As he enters the
barracks Parkhurst greets him enthusiastically, the two shake hands and he
introduces the Padre to Captain Herbert.
After a few minutes, Herbert ushers everyone into the pilot's briefing
room. The Captain's batman Prentiss
enters the room and salutes the officers and hands the Captain a handful of
still dripping photographs from the sortie.
"Ah, excellent,
most excellent, put a wiggle on them, don't you know, all right Prentiss,
you're dismissed."
After he leaves, the
Captain tacks them to the map board and Parkhurst and the Father join him in
examining them.
Parkhurst starts,
tapping the photographs with a pencil.
"It's as we
thought Herbert, look here, all over the bloody thing like ants on a jam
pot. It's clear this is where this
terror is being directed from."
Herbert bristles, and
splutters,
"Easily fixed,
artillery, bomb the buggers back to the stone age!"
O'Connor speaks for the
first time.
"Actually ,I
believe that's an extraordinarily bad idea"
Before Herbert can
voice his obvious outrage, Parkhurst pats him on the arm and says:
"Calm down old
chap, let's hear what he has to say, please tell us why that's a no go if you'd
be so kind Padre."
O'Connor carries on:
"From my research
into the chronicles of St George, this kind of mass phenomena is focused on a
single malevolent individual, namely the Captain, Schmidt. Using the focal point, the ritualistic runes
and incantations in that device you boys found, the Germans have somehow managed
to control and direct this haunting. If
we simply destroy the site, we could let the thing loose, to do goodness only
knows what. There'd be no stopping it.
All my research points to Schmidt, he's the
single entity controlling his crew and airship.
If we can destroy him, we exorcise the spirit, and this will be
over. There must be some relic, or tome
at that site, that will offer us a way to destroy this thing and lay the
spirits to rest.
So, I believe the only
way to approach this, I'm afraid, is a ground assault."
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