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TooB Journal Part Threeback to Part Two of the Journal
July 27, 1900 (= December 20, 2008 = February 9, 1019)
A Japanese messenger from the Russo-Japanese forces beseiged at Tungchow reaches Peking. The coded message is decrypted by the Japanese minister:
"26 July: Japanese and Russian troops took Tungchow on 25 July. Food, ammunition, medical supplies low; we have had no contact with Tientsin since 24 July. Imperial troops and Boxers have surrounded us. 2700 Japanese troops, about same amount Russian, plus over a thousand sick. Morale is good, but we have no remaining artillery and cannot advance; however if opportunity presents we will break through to Peking. Colonel Fukushima, IJA."
Also messages dated July 21st reach Tientsin. General Gaselee arrives in Tientsin, and begins stirring things up for an immediate advance to relieve both the Russo-Japanese force and Peking. The latest relief force is scheduled to depart on August 4th, with 13,000 men, facing about 70,000 Imperial troops and up to 100,000 Boxers between the coast and Peking. Gathering transport and arranging for supply lines, etc. are the main reasons for delay.
A number of white phosphorus mortar rounds, hand grenades and big smoke bombs and tear-gas bombs will go off in Peking after sunset, west of the Legation area. The usual dusty, hot wind from the west will carry the fumes across the Legations. A Jammer courier (Louis) enters the Legations in the midst of all this hoo-haa with a message for the PSOs.
The PSOs decide to head back to the coast; they carry coded messages from the legations, and depart that night. Louis leaves with them, but heads around to the west side of the city to join up with Moray Murray.
July 28, 1900
A Chinese boy, sent from Tientsin, arrives at the Peking legations (about dawn) with news that relief forces are gathering (it was sent about July 25th). About the same time, messengers from Tungchow reach Tientsin.
One of the messages carried by the young boy is for Herbert Squiers ... from the Ascended. But the PSOs are already gone (fortunately for them).
July 29, 1900
Very heavy fighting at Tungchow; the Russians have completely run out of ammunition for their rifles, and are mostly using captured Chinese rifles.
Some feral dogs try to steal food from the PSOs camp, and one of them bites O'Reilly.
July 30, 1900
Many American reinforcements arrive at Taku, five weeks after called up; the new US commander is Major General Adna Chaffee.
August 4, 1900
The "proper" relief force departs Tientsin, under the command of General Gaselee. It is mostly British and American, with smaller German, Italian, Austrian, French, Japanese and Russian components.
The PSOs come upon the relief force camp that night. They inform General Gaselee of conditions in Peking.
August 5, 1900
The PSOs reach Taku by military junks, and quietly check into a hotel. Ah, bathing, shaving, other conveniences!
August 6, 1900
After delivering all but the American messages to the Austro-Hungarian mission in Taku, the PSOs board the SS China, bound for Hong Kong via Shanghai.
August 9, 1900
The SS China stops for 24 hours in Shanghai; however, the PSOs notice a slightly faster vessel (the SS Cairo), leaving slightly sooner the next day, and take passage on that one.
August 11, 1900 Saturday (= January 4, 2009 = February 24, 1019)
The Cairo arrives in Hong Kong, landing the PSOs on the Pedder Wharf. The Hong Kong Hotel is just across the Praya (the embarcadero, more or less) from the end of the wharf.
The Hong Kong Hotel is a three-story building on the Praya (the waterfront, later Des Voeux Road), at Pedder Street (which turns into the 60 meter-long Pedder Wharf). The core of the structure dates from about 1870, and is not yet fitted with electric light; lots of extensions and repairs are being made. The waiters and menial staff are Chinese, and don't speak English (but do know pidgin very well).
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange meets on the second floor verandah, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday. Just up the block are the Treasury, Supreme Court, and General Post Office.
They check into the hotel under their assumed names (in the swankiest suites), and take advantage of the many luxuries available. After some shopping, dining, listening to music, etc. they return to the hotel after sunset; a Jammer named Coogan is waiting for them.
Coogan tells them that as part of Glasscock's plan, they are to go through the Portal in the Aw Boon Haw Gardens, and retrieve the SADM; he's been given six large laundry bags filled with $30 million in US $100 bills (in $10,000 strapped stacks), about 660 lbs total! He's never been through that Portal, but the Ascended stay away from it (they don't like the garden's "theme"). The PSOs decide "no time like the present" and ask Coogan to get a carriage.
Later that night, Coogan drives them and the money and their gear up the mountain, along dark streets between private mansions. He's already bribed the garden's gatekeeper to take the night off and loan him the key.
The PSOs stash their stuff in a sort of closet; Coogan drives off in the carriage to wait a block or two away. He says that if the PSOs don't show up by dawn, he'll leave, but will check at their hotel from time to time.
The PSOs change out of their 1900-era garb, into tactical stuff, and enter the Portal.
Modern Juncture
The other side of the Portal is in a hollow tree, deep in the wilderness of Alaska's North Slope. It's dark, cold and the snow lies 1.5 meters deep on the ground! About 100 meters from the tree, in a broad clearing, are two large (Russian, as it turns out) oversnow vehicles, and some tents and tarp-covered objects. The PSOs approach cautiously, but trigger some sort of sensor system, setting off an alarm in one of the vehicles. Whoop whoop! The eight or so inhabitants tumble out, guns ready! The usual sort of Mexican standoff found at large illicit money transfers takes place.
The men with guns are Russians, and after a bit of negotiation, one of them takes Burns off to see the bomb itself.
RA-115 special atomic demolition munition. Weight 30 kg (two 15 kg components), mechanical delay timer for 5 minutes to 24 hours. 0.5 to 2 kiloton dial-a-yield. Continual maintenance is a chore -- the tritium-deuterium gas supply (a few grams) needs to be replaced every six months. Less tritium-deuterium gas = less yield. One of 132 KGB-Spetsnaz bombs gone missing in the 90s, it resembles two sturdy military cases that attach to one another. Each case is about the size of a toaster-oven.
Satisfied that the object is probably an atomic bomb, Burns returns to the vehicles. Further negotiations begin, but a sudden burst of gunfire reveals that the Russians had no real intention of letting the nuclear weapon go! McClellan is badly wounded, but the Russians are all put out of action; O'Reilly stalks a Russian sniper in the snowy forest for half an hour or so.
(In the 1019 Juncture, the Suars tribe is hired by a Byzantine emissary)
Boxer Juncture
August 12, 1900 Sunday (= January 5, 2009 = February 25, 1019)
McClellan is dragged through the Portal, along with the nuke and (after O'Reilly is done sniper-hunting) the bags of money. Coogan is summoned, and takes the PSOs to the house of a surgeon who's been cooperative before (Jammers blow off fingers, etc. fairly often). McClellan is patched up, and left in the care of Hobbes at the doctor's clinic.
Coogan says he has a demolitions expert who can check out the bomb, in the morning. O'Reilly and Burns return to the Hong Kong Hotel to get some rest.
After breakfast, Coogan comes to the hotel, and takes O'Reilly and Burns out into the harbor on a small boat, to a rather ratty-looking junk moored all alone. The junk is home to about twenty Jammers, of the more Road-Warrior-ey sort, and Doctor Reigert, a 2056-era demolitions expert (which makes him rather a priest figure for the other Jammers). Reigert examines the bomb, says that it's complete and in working order except for the needed tritium-deuterium mix -- which, fortunately, he's ready to provide. He also provides the needed keys. He's willing to replace the firing mechanism with an electronic one of his own creation, if the PSOs desire.
Coogan and the PSOs row off a bit in the small boat and have a conversation about What Is To Be Done. Coogan is part of the Glasscock plan, but Reigert and the other Jammers here are not privy to the "blow up the Factory" scheme. However, they're pretty easily manipulated. There are several other junks in the Hong Kong area, with more of the rather feral Jammers aboard, available for crude and violent slaughter.
As far as the Scheme is concerned, the bomb needs to get to Mount Ararat, in the 11th Century Juncture, in 28 days. There's some discussion of horses, motorbikes, Portal locations, etc. Coogan says the 2008 Juncture Jammers have a former Buro patrol vehicle, powered by some sort of radioisotopic generator. Note that the description is from Doc Reigert's computer, and might not reflect the actual condition of the car the Jammers have. Getting the car to a portal leading to Boxer Hong Kong will take a day or two -- long enough to arrange an attack from this side!
Coogan gets an evil-but-delighted expression on his face, and says, "The Ape Factory could certainly use a 90 kilowatt nuclear generator for the next 60 years or so, right? And I don't want to ask Dr. Reigert, but I bet that the isotopes in the armored car would make great fallout. And it'd be harder to detect a small atomic bomb in a nuclear power plant!" He is, after all, a Jammer.
There's a Portal from a Hong Kong mansion in the 2010 Juncture, leading to the Che Kung temple in 1900 Hong Kong (in the Sai Kung district); the Ascended control it, but a short occupation should be possible with the Jammers available here. Grab the Portal, hop through to the 2010 side, bust up the Trannies there, wave the patrol vehicle through, voila!
Coogan and the PSOs discuss logistics. Some items, such as "native garb", can be had here in 1900 Hong Kong; but a lot of the stuff the PSOs want will come through with the patrol vehicle. Coogan says the vehicle should be in 2009 Hong Kong in about 2 days, ready to bust into the Jammer-controlled portal. It takes several hours for messages to pass from Coogan to the 2009 Jammers ...
(in the 1019 Juncture, Aaron and Sasha arrive in Trebizond, and observe (with dismay) the Jammers)
August 13, 1900 Monday (= January 6, 2009 = February 26, 1019)
The PSOs buy tickets on a couple of different steamers sailing for Taku late on the 14th or early on the 15th; a large cargo item is also to be loaded. Equipment available locally is obtained and prepared for a rapid departure. Stuff the Jammers can arrange locally includes:
O'Reilly exchanges modern gems for period stones and pearls, antiques, etc.; Burns and Jason bicycle around the temple a bit. After a celebratory dinner, they prepare for the assault, along with 9 Jammers.
The relief force reaches Tungchow, and lifts the seige of the Russo-Japanese force there.
August 14, 1900 Tuesday (January 7, 2009 = February 27, 1019)
The Eight-Nation Alliance enters Peking and relieves the Legations.
(In the 1019 Juncture, the Suars tribe boards a bunch of merchant ships and set sail for the north coast of Asia Minor.)
August 15, 1900 Wednesday (January 8, 2009 = February 28, 1019)
The Dowager Empress and much of the Imperial Court flees westward from Peking; French bombard the Imperial City; Allied capture of the Imperial City. Many thousands of residents flee Peking.
August 16, 1900 Thursday (January 9, 2009 = March 1, 1019)
The Allies reach the Peitang Cathedral. Massive looting begins in Peking, along with many other abuses.
August 17, 1900 Friday (January 10, 2009 = March 2, 1019)
The Emperor, Court and Dowager Empress reach Huailai, with an escort of several thousand soldiers and ruffians; it is raining heavily. They are heading (in a large westward loop, roughly following the great wall) for the city of Taiyuan, capital of Shansi province.
August 18, 1900 Saturday (January 11, 2009 = March 3, 1019)
The PSOs arrive near Mount Song.
A meeting between the foreign diplomats and the Allied army commanders is held in Peking, to discuss formal reprisals against China.
August 19, 1900 Sunday (January 12, 2009 = March 4, 1019)
Through the Portal to 1019 China, where Guiding Hand forces fail to stop the armored vehicle.
March 4, 1019 (August 19, 1900 = January 12, 2009)
The Jammers dismantle the Gate Ripper in Trebizond, and set out overland to Ararat; Aaron and Sasha are with them as camp servants
March 6, 1019 (August 21, 1900 = January 14, 2009)
The PSOs talk with a caravan travelling east, and obtain some information about the way ahead.
March 7, 1019 (August 22, 1900 = January 15, 2009)
Past Ling-Chu in the Great State of High and White, ruled by Khan Li. The Suars tribe disembarks in Trebizond (three days after the Jammers left, heh).
March 9, 1019 (August 24, 1900 = January 17, 2009)
The vehicle makes excellent speed crossing the Gobi/Sinkiang.
A meeting between the foreign diplomats and the Allied army commanders is held in Peking, to discuss formal reprisals against China.
March 11, 1019 (August 26, 1900 = January 19, 2009)
The PSOs are north of Alma Ata. The Suars tribe begins riding towards Ararat.
March 13, 1019 (August 28, 1900 = January 21, 2009)
The Allies victory parade is held in the Forbidden City.
March 14, 1019 (August 29, 1900 = January 22, 2009)
The PSOs camp near Samarkand. The ice on the Dnieper breaks up at Kiev; Yaroslav throws a going-away (please) party for Yngvar and his fleet.
on to Part Four of the Journal
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