“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 May 1895 – Mars!
After leaving Venus we received an S.O.S. on the Aethergram. "This is Earl Codpiece. My daughters and I are stranded in the city of Coccyx on Mars. Our colonisation mission has failed as all our civilian colonists have gone mad and are attacking us. They bite each other and then rise from the dead. We are surrounded in a building near the edge of the city. Our company of regular infantry are low on ammunition. Please help us!"
"What do you think Captain" said my trusty man Cheerful Rodgers.
"Well, the Earl Codpiece is famous for being a complete idiot and I certainly would start biting people if I was near him for anytime. But with the chance to pick up a company of redcoats we are going! Ship Commander Robert Molyneux, please set course for Coccyx on Mars."
We have landed on Mars again. The green rectangles are possible mad colonists.
Passing over the city we saw the Earl and his surviving crew members huddled on the roof of a building.
We can only deploy one Gatling gun after the debacle with the dinosaurs.
We cautiously deploy and already some dogs race towards us.
We fire at the dogs and kill one but one makes it to our lines and kills a crew man.
Note: The black skull marker shows where a crewman died. These stay here until they turn into a zombie. The red fire markers show where zombies were shot at/killed this turn and are then removed.
We kill the remaining dog and press onwards.
As we come closer to the city more crazy colonists (aren't they all though) appear and charge towards us.
Just then, the crewman killed by the dog comes back to life and charges the Gatling gun!. Cheerful Rodgers says "That is typical zombie behaviour Sir!. I saw that in Cuba in 85!"
I call out to the men "They are zombies not colonists! Load rifles. Shoot to kill!!"
Zombie dogs attack the Marines but they shoot down two
Zombies come at the crew in the middle.
On the right the crew blast away at the zombies approaching them and kill four.
On the left the Marines finish off the last of the dogs.
We blast the oncoming zombies and kill two but lose two crewmen
The Gatling gun crew blasts the zombie attacking them.
On the right the zombie hordes advance menacingly.
Overview of the current situation.
In the middle we finish off the remaining zombies but lose another crewman. The Marines come to our aid.
On the right the crew kill three zombies but the rest advance.
The Senior Leadership Team bravely moves forward against minimal opposition. The Marines move up in support.
On the right the crew bravely blast away at the zombie horde killing five but losing two of their own.
In the middle the zombies assault but are destroyed. Luckily the Marines get there in time but two of them die. Behind us one the the dead crew re-animates as a zombie.
On the right the zombie assault continues. Another zombie goes down but the horde gets closer.
We push forward in the middle. Killing a zombie that reanimated from a Marine. The Earl has seen us and brings his force towards us. They must be completely out of ammunition as they form a square to defend all round with their bayonets.
On the right the zombie assault grows in strength as the crewmen retreat.
The zombies reanimate in the middle and attack
More Marines die while the Earl, his family and soldiers slowly move towards us and rescue
On the right the crew seem about to get overwhelmed by the zombie hordes. They kill many and then their own casualties come back to attack them.
In the middle the final zombies are killed off but on the right they have won and killed all the crewmen. These dead crewmen will now join the zombies.
The Gatling Gun blasts the zombies killing three. The rest of the crew retreat with the surviving colonists.
Another successful mission, 14 crew and marines killed but they are replaced by 23 soldiers happily joining my command. The soldiers declined Earl Codpiece's suggestion to start a new colony saying that they wanted to repay their debt to the crew of the Endeavour. Cheerful later told me the men would happily join the devil if it meant they did not have to see or hear the Earl ever again. A backhanded compliment but I take what I can get.
Some of the ladies said they would like to join the crew but the Earl forbade it.
"Cheerful, send an aethergram to the Admiralty. Earl Codpiece and family saved. Soldier shortage sorted. Next mission please."
In the Admiralty Admiral Burns read the aethergram. "Excellent, excellent, the Earl will owe me big time now! Tell Cook he has another rescue mission. The daughter of Lord Backstabber has been reported missing. He is to look for her on the moons of Jupiter. We believe she is on Europa setting up some sort of weird suffragette community against her fathers wishes. Nonetheless, her father has lost contact with her and is yelling at the PM to find her. So act promptly."
Some notes. The zombies are not really identifiable in photos so I will add some blood to their bases.