Episode Four Venus - lost lands and lizards. April 1895

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."

Colony 51 Spaceport in Sector G

Sector G is a backwater of human area of space. In Colony 51 the spaceport is shared by both military and civilian ships..


A photo of the main section of the spaceport shows the civilian traders and a detachment for the Botany Bay Prison Corporation.

At the front Thunderbird Ground Assault Craft of the 2nd Squadron embark troops of the BBPC’s 95th Light Battalion.

On the right are some Thunderbird Interceptors from the 4th Squadron.

On the left is some old spacecraft that has been impounded due to unpaid bills.

At the back on the civilian side are three independent traders.

On the right an enigmatic trader for some alien race.

In the centre is a YT-1300 Corellian light freighter loading cargo.

On the left the local office of the Narcotics & Armaments Smugglers Alliance (“NASA”) with a fast Apollo27 readying for take-off to deliver much needed pharmaceuticals to some desperate planet.

More views of the 95th Light Battalion embarking.

The Thunderbird Ground Assault Craft loads by raising its body and leaving the cargo pod on the ground. In a hot LZ it can just drop the cargo pod and fly off to safety. As Ground Assault craft are much more valuable than a penal battalion of infantry the BBPC purchased these for this very reason.

Episode Three - It’s Life James, but not as we know it. March 1895

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 March 1895 – Mercury

Following the Admiralty’s orders, our next stop was Mercury. To find what was happening we had to land in what appeared to be abandoned and ruined city in the day/night divide of the planet. The Sun’s energy scorched everything on the day side while the night side was permanently frozen. In the narrow zone between these areas we discovered the abandoned and half ruined city.

The city was divided in parts, one part abandoned buildings but looking well maintained, a central park area and the other side just ruined buildings.

I order the crew to prepare to land and took the usual away team of two five man squads of Royal Marines, two five man squads of crew members led by a lieutenant and a squad consisting of myself, Dr Banks, Mr Solander and his assistant plus my trusty man Cheerful Rodgers.

As usual we deployed the Gatling guns to protect the landing zone.

As soon as we landed and deployed we were instantly attacked from all around by some mechanical devices. Dr Banks informs me they are called robots.

Dr Banks was eager to get his hands on some specimens so the squads went out to engage.From the central park area a group of colourful robots appeared while from the abandoned city another group emerged with hostile intent.

From the ruined and the park area great horse like machines also appeared and began firing on us.

Immediately the Gatling guns opened up and bullets felled many of the machines.

The Marines engaged the Park Robots but lost two of their number.

On the other Park the crew engaged Park Robots as well and loss two men.

The Marine squad that moved down the street also lost a man in combat with some city robots

The crew finished off the last of the Park Robots on their side but lost another man. Robots were coming at them from both sides so I told them to pull back. Dr Banks called them to bring back two robots.

At the other end of the street large walking quadrupeds move to attack us.

The City Robots killed some more marines, the sergeant only being saved by the “red shirt rule” and killed one of the crew who had been sent to support them.

Luckily the threat from down the street was minimised by two of the large Robots being destroyed by the gatlings.

In the other park the sergeant was the only survivor and he pulled back with a robot captive.


With robots still attacking from all sides and having lost many men I called for an immediate evacuation. The crew and two remaining marines fell back to the ship.



The Gatlings covered our withdrawal, destroying some of the large robots coming at us from the park.

Hideous statue of the robots ruler

Casualties had been heavy. The Gatlings cover the withdrawal. Further robots appeared from the ruined city area. A large robot came close to the ship.



The ships Gatlings destroyed the closing Robot while the crews moved their carriages into the ship. The new arriving robots continue their advance.


We escape this accursed place.



Aethergram to the Admiralty

Sirs, I recommend strongly that no further expeditions be sent to Mercury. The remaining inhabitants, if I can call them that are vicious killers. At best it is a place for a penal colony and no gentleman should be exposed to this dreadful place.

"Excellent" said Admiral Burns. We will encourage the French and Prussians to establish a colony there. It should keep them busy!"