Mars Attacks
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Rules set: Space: 1889's Sky Galleons of Mars
Miniatures: Sky Galleons of Mars
Setting: Countryside outside London, late 1889, in the world of Space: 1889
We thought Mars was like India – a rich old culture, but
decadent and weak in the face of European strength. We scoffed genially at them from the vantage of our steel
edifices and starched waistcoats. But
beneath the sands of that ancient world lay intelligences cold and malevolent,
their art, their artifice, as enduring as stone … .
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Wherever their ships fell from the Coelestial Ether their
machines did emerge, with footfalls as the drumbeat of death. Not a one would they spare.
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A strange meteor was seen in the countryside North-West of
London. Herdsmen fled from its light.
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The Queen’s navy was quick to arrive – and the Realm’s
dearest friends as well. The French
ambassador committed his personal escort as soon as he heard the news.
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Heat rays and poison gas pummel the fleet of Earth, while
their shells thunder against the armored disks to no avail.
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At close range the clockwork giants stagger under the
impact of six-inch guns. But they
still keep coming!
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As the relief fleet crests the hill, shots pour down onto
the invaders from every direction.
But on they march.
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With the thunder of a thousand steel timbers, one of the
conveyances crumples to the ground.
The other two pour smoke from gaping wounds, and reel under the
renewed frenzy of the gunners.
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Many ships were cloven or crippled and many men gave up
their lives, but when the evening sun came to cast its long shadows they fell
upon the wreckage of the iron fists of Mars.
Our gaming group is
certainly not the first to mix-and-match clichés of Mars in a single
setting. Look if you will to Larry
Niven’s excellent Rainbow Mars or Heinlein’s merry romp Number of the
Beast. In fact, you might contend
such a mixture is a science fiction cliché in itself. And when Ground Zero Games was so good as to immortalize in
pewter the daydreams of H.G. Wells, we decided our turn had come. - Vynnie
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