For Desperately-Bored HMAS Badger and Mad Dash Participants

(I got this Idea from the extremely similar Steam London Thread -- Thanks VAP, Miss Gaslight and Nigel)

Those members of the HMAS Badger and The Clutch: The Mad Dash RPs who are getting bored out of their skulls and are afraid their characters and RPs might slip away, might benefit from posting stories about their characters' backgrounds here for either developmental or informational purposes.

I'm planning to enter Sgt. Major Bailey's Pursuit of Khaisin Shah and the SS Chthuga aboard the R.I.A.S. Sultana (pre-RP), and then maybe some formative Brantley 'shorts'.

Please feel free to post your own stuff!

Chapter1: Chthuga!
The day had dawned clear and cold, high in the hills of Northern India. It was a beautiful day, and the early-morning chill promised a day of work with refreshing breezes for those engaged in physical outdoor labor. Nadar Singh and his daughter, Sultana, stood upon the porch of their modest dwelling, watching, as Headman and daughter might, the activities of the village of Punang as the dawn gave way to morning, then to midmorning.

There was no sign of trouble to be seen, only a distant roaring buzz as if an airship were approaching from high above, down to the slopes of the mountain. Such an occurrence was only rare in that airships did not usually approach this side of the mountain from above, but rather from out on the plain or alongside the mountains that their mountain belonged to. Airships were a common thing in and of themselves in this day and age. What was not common about this one was that without warning, bombs began falling from it and landing on and among the houses and huts of Punang Village; the occultist /pirate Khaisin Shah and his airship SS Chthuga had chosen them for their prey, in terms of both the mundane and the occult…

The name and piratical symbols, as well as those of teh cult of the destroying firegod Chthuga emblazoned upon the ship's tailfins were sighted, and cries of "Khaisin!" and "CHTHUGA! WE ARE DOOMED!" rang out amid the sounds of crashing masonry, exploding bombs, and children and parents crying out for their families.

Soon the bombing stopped as pinnace blimps descended from the Chthuga, cultist warriors aboard firing blunderbusses loaded with nets, corded to geared windlasses, capturing groups of stunned (and in some cases, wounded) villagers and carrying them off into the sky and the accursed Ship of death. Sultana had run down to the village square to gather children to lead them to safety, but was instead captured in one such net. Her last sight of her father was of him loading and firing, loading and firing his old Tower musket at the blimp that was hauling her up among the rest of it's prey, and then the cultist/pirates leaping down to the beloved porch and overcoming the old man, their swords rising and falling, rising red and falling again. HE rlast sight of her beloved village was red flames and black smoke, her last audible memory of it the screams of the dying and the children and the bereft.

Chapter 2: Saved by a Kraken
The Chthuga did not escape unscathed, however; during her flight back up amongst the peaks of India and into Tibet and China, Sultana, who had correctly guessed her captors' intentions, and had determined to live on and take revenge, had worked her way well into the captain's heart and plans by offering herself as the sacrifice for the blood-smeared, horrific Rite of Chthuga. She was thus given special status until the day of her 'becoming,' as they (sometimes maliciously gleefully) put it, and had been 'enjoying' a tour of teh ship. they came to the Arsenal and Powder Magazine, and then suddenly all hands were called to Duty Stations by the Captain, the better to deal with the turbulence and lightning of a sudden high-altitude storm.

Sultana was left to herself, her captors thinking, as will those of a creed that disdains the fairer sex as worthless for physical or warlike endeavor,that she would be incapable of taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by her visit to the powder magazine. The girl looked about, her curiosity insatiable even at such a time, and lo and behold! she laid eyes, and then eager, vengeful hands, upon one of the grapnel-guns and a length of steel wire cable. She had seen what happened when high-altitude lightning had been attracted to the lightning rod on the village shrine one summer evening, and in her resourceful young brain several ideas clicked together at once, including the fact that cries of "KRAKEN! The God sends a SIGN!" were now audible from outside.

She linked the hook at the end of the line around one of the iron stanchions, secured it over the opposite length of the cable, and rushed out, paying out the line behind her. She shouted, "HERE! Let us Capture the creature of the God!" The airmen, unmindful of the danger, actually helped her to mount, aim, and fire the weapon, a direct hit resulting from their efforts. as they hauled it in, the lightnings struck the beast, and leaped to the wire, and thence quicker than thought itself to the magazine, which did the inevitable -- but it did not destroy the ship, merely blowing out the belly, much of the explosive cargo escaping the blast, and thus not damaging the ship beyond the ability to limp off into the storm.

Sultana, however, took advantage of the mass confusion; she made her way to the lifeboat area, and managed to steal an emergency escape rotor, and get to the ground safely, while the unlucky Chthuga was blown back over the mountains, her crew unable to mount a search or rescue for their lost sacrificial lamb. Thus, Sultana escaped back to the world of the earth, and pledged to dedicate her life to the demise of those who preyed upon her people.

Chapter 3: Ten Years On
Captain Rajnir Wornam closed the ship's Book of the Legend. "So it says here: The original Sultana was a self-avowed female warrior for her people. So ar ewe now, the defenders of India against her enemies and those of the Empire of the Britons. WE especially despise and chastise Pirates, and one in particular, gentlemen: Khaisin Shah, the blood-smeared occultist pirate -- and his ship, the S.S. Chthuga. Too long has he thumbed his nose at teh RIAS and our constables! Today begins a new chapter in the history of our service!