Captain James T Cook and the HMSS Endeavour - VSF 1770
“Space the new frontier. These are the voyages of the Her Majesty’s Star Ship Endeavour. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilisations; to boldly go where no Englishman has gone before.”- Captain James T Cook
Captain’s Log: 15 April 1895 – Venus
Following the Admiralty’s orders, our next stop was Venus. From orbit we saw a strange village of small buildings plus three large pyramids. I decided to land and contact this civilisation to find out if they had anything to offer us.
I order the crew to prepare to land and took the usual away team of three five man squads of crew members led by a lieutenant and the two sergeants. Also a squad consisting of myself, Dr Banks, Mr Solander and his assistant, an artist plus my trusty man Cheerful Rodgers.
As usual we deployed the Gatling guns to protect the landing zone and this time they were essential for our survival.
We landed a little way away from the village and pyramids so that we did not give them a fright. As we landed we saw that the ground was littered with giant skeletons.
Once we landed and deployed a herd of enormous dinosaurs came down the road. Dr Banks was very excited. He said that these dinosaurs were vegetarian and would pose no threat to us.
The dinosaurs continued towards us
In the strangers village they were also deploying their troops. They were Lizard men. Some were mounted on small dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs came towards us and I ordered the troops to open fire. But the strangeness of it all made them just stare (they all failed to activate). Only one squad opened fire and scored some hits on the leading dino (red and black markers) but did not stop it.
In the lizard village they were also slow to get going.
The men slowly woke up and opened fire scoring any hits and killing one dino. But the other dino’s continued their advance.
The lizard men started to form up and move out from their village.
The dinos continued their advance. The men opened fire getting many hits and another dino fell. One dino attacked a squad and stomped four men. (Skull markers)
The lizard men are advancing towards the action. Hopefully to help us!
More hits on the dino’s but it does not stop them and a Gatling gun is stomped with all three crew are killed.
A dino and the lizard men face off on the road. The lizard men will need to kill the dino before they can help us!
Plenty more hits on the dinos but only one goes down and only after it has stomped another Gatling gun. Three more crew gone. One of the dinos survives a storm of fire.
Likewise for the lizard men, multiple hits fail to stop the dino. It is good to see that they are well armed.
Another dino goes down just after it stomps a Gatling gun. A second dino stomps some more crew
The lizard men manage to kill the dino attacking them after it has killed two of their number.
The final dino falls to the combined fire of all the troops before it can do any further damage.
Dr Banks immediately starts climbing over the dinos and gets the artist to take many pictures.
Luckily the lizard men prove friendly and appreciate we managed to kill many dinosaurs before they attacked their village.
Aethergram to the Admiralty
The lizard men will make staunch allies. Any civilisation that can manage to thrive sharing their planet with dinosaurs deserves our respect. Please send diplomats to secure a trading post as surely the dinosaurs will make a great impression at the London Zoo or the next International Exposition.
The lizard men were impressed with the fire power of our Gatling guns.
Can you please arrange a shipment of more Royal Marines and Crew men as the ship is getting quite empty as casualties mount up!
Admiral Burns received the Aethergram - "Excellent excellent! - we must make sure we get there before the Franco-Prussians. I am not sure about reinforcements though. I will make him work harder, the lazy bugger."