Interlude: High Martians and The Anti-Earthman Resistance

So we have met the High Martians.

These rather bellicose chaps are smaller in stature than either the Steppe or Hill Martians, but have a membrane connecting arm to body that can be used as a wing. This, in conjunction with a "lift gland" that produces a similar chemical to Liftwood sap, conveys the power of flight to the High Martian. This, along with their remarkable prehensile feet, makes them a power to be feared in the mountainous areas of Mars as they swoop through the air, spears gripped in their feet.

High Martians live in immense, multi-tiered "Kraag"s excavated into cliffs. They are fierce, terriorial, clannish. They capture and keep slaves from any and all races. They perhaps of all the races on mars deserve the epithet "savage".

We have also brushed up against the Ground Cleanser movement.

This is a socio-political movement, sometimes represented by high organisation, sometimes only by sympathy of views, which can be summed up as "Earthman Go Home", inside the boundaries of the Boreosyrtis League more specifically as "Englishman Go Home". Regarded as a terrorist organisation by the Colonial Office and by the British Armed Expeditionary Forces, most martians will likely show degrees of sympathy with the message, if not the methods, of the more zealous members.

Extremist Ground Cleansers have made common cause with Dynamiters and Fenians, clearly reveling in the paradox of having hated earthmen become actively involved in driving other earthmen off Mars. Ground Cleansers are known to act as agents of other Terran nations on Mars.

Ground Cleansers have committed kidnapping and murder against Her Majesty's subjects and sabotage against Her Majesty's military and bureaucracy infrastructure on Mars. Proof of Ground Cleanser activity is enough to get any Martian hauled off to some secret location for interrogation and imprisonment.

Interest and participation in the Ground Cleanser conspiracy increases during times of outrage, and stories of outrage spread like wildfire on a regular basis, whether or not they are rooted in fact. As our team have already discovered, Ground Cleanser fanatics can marshal surprising levels of cooperation from the local populace, which they do by fanning such stories of Terran perfidy. A wise earthman or earthwoman will always have at the back of their mind that no matter how well they get on with a specific martian individual, that individual will have Ground Cleanser members in their family or circle of acquaintances even if they harbour no such sympathies themselves.

Life has not become more complicated for the team; the team has became more attuned to the complicated life of which they've become a part.

Episode 5: A Series Of Unfortunate Events

It was a noisy night on the Steppe after Waldmont had saved the day.

The guards insisted in skinning the Steppe Tiger and presenting the pelt to Waldmont. The noisy celebration of the guards roused the rest of the camp and in no time a party was in full swing despite the protestations of Kalamir. Wiiso insisted that the great hunter must be feted and that was that.

The next day the caravan had to rest more than usual to offset the lost sleep.

A few days later, Kalamir dismounted and insisted that he walk to loosen up his joints and take a break from the gait of the ruumet breehr. Waldmont and Wilhelm rode out on point, alerted to the possibility of another Steppe Tiger by the skittishness of the great beasts. Suddenly, Waldmont thought he heard a gunshot, and a herd of eegaar (a sort of Martian antelope) erupted out of a defile. Their sudden appearance caused the skittish ruumet breehr to stampede.

Waldmont managed to take cover in the broken ground of the steppe, as diod the wily Kalamir. Wilhelm, however, took a good kicking from panicked ruumet breehr. Fortunately he escaped serious injury and was able to continue the journey as an independent participant rather than an injured invalid. There were casualties, however, and Wiiso argued for turning back. Kalamir, however, would not hear of such a thing.

At the edge of the Shastapsh border of influence, with everyone on edge, the party was attacked as it bivouaced for the night by a large group of High Martians, who conducted an airborne assault on the encampment, seeming to be intent on kidnapping Kalamir. Waldmont was one of the first to realize what was happening and he raised the alarm. A pitched battle ensued, which was very desperate indeed, buyt the High Martian attackers were eventually driven off and Kalamir was not taken.

There were now, however, only two surviving guards of the original nine and Wiiso was eloquent in the need to turn back to Thoth. Kalamir, however, was resolute in that he would not turn back.

The caravan, much reduced in size, entered the Isidis Desert. About halfway across the stony wasteland Waldmont and Wilhelm awoke, groggy, to see dead and dying Martians all around them. They attempted to give aid, but could only save two from what was obviously a poisoning.

Noticing that a ruumet breehr was missing, as were Kalamir and Wiiso, Waldmont and Wilhelm began to track the animal south, eventually catching up with Wiiso leading the ruumet breehr with a bound Kalamir in the howdah. The gallant Earthmen's attempt to sneak up on the Martians was ruined when Kalamir called out to the Earthmen to rescue him. Wiiso immediately remounted the ruumet breehr and engaged the rescue party with his black powder weaponry.

Waldmont elected to stand off and make the most of the difference between the range attenuation of his rifle and Wiiso's wheellock while Wilhelm closed on his gashant. Wiiso, seeing Wilhelm easily overhauling his slower mount, fired a pistol at his own animal's rear end. The bullet couldn't pierce the ruumet breehr's hide but did sting enough to stampede the animal again.

Waldmont now found himself being disadvantaged, so packed up and remounted. Wilhelm now came into his own. With superb skill he maneuvered his gashant in front of the ruumet breehr and brought it to a halt.

Wiiso gave an impassioned rant on the subject of his "Ground Cleanser" affiliations, berating the Earthmen and ordering them to leave Mars and go back to Earth. How pernicious the English were. How they worked their way into the trust of proud Martian princes, then made them vassal. They were a plague on Mars and he spat on all Earthmen and doubly so on English Earthmen.

Waldmont and Wilhelm returned to the pitiful remains of the caravan and managed to deliver it to Meepsoor. There were a few days of rest, in which the British Legate and the commissioner for the Colonial Office took Wiiso into custody and took up discussions with Kalamir.

Then, the Earthmen, Kalamir and a couple of the remaining Martians were put aboard a canal boat heading for Syrtis Major, where Kalamir had further business. The Earthmen thought they were in for a restful end to their nightmare journey, but four days after leaving Meepsoor the boat was attacked by a force of Ground Cleanser fanatics¹. The attackers were eventually beaten off but wounds were taken and assassination only narrowly avoided.

And so the team were come to Syrtis Major, jewel in the crown of British Mars.

1. Identified as such by the head of the Colonial Office in Syrtis Major↑