Phill Smith is entered in the “Steampunk Myths and Legends” update: View Challenge Page
Latest Update: Concept / pre-visualization: Captain George
Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: Phill Smith
phillsmiff
#2
The war was supposed to be over. Captain James George had even been told his seat number on the zeppelin back to Dover, but at the last minute he had been pulled aside and told to get his gear. One of the machines had gone wrong.
“Get the artificers to fix it, I’m just a soldier.” he had said. The artificers couldn’t approach it, he was told. It was running amok, gear-crazy they said, its differential engine mistaking friend for foe. It had killed two units on its rampage already.
“Pull everyone back, let it chew through it’s coal until its boiler cools.” he had suggested. This machine was not a coal burner, it ran on the emerald fire. It could run for years before the emanations of its fuel decayed beyond use. It had been built to last, longer than the crusades themselves even.
“Then set a decoy, and let it steam away until it boils out all its water.” No, they said. The machine had taken station near an oasis in the desert. Once it had destroyed the small town there, it began to patrol the area, returning again and again to the deep desert pool to draw water for its boiler. It would not run out of steam. It would not run out of fuel. And there were ten regiments marching north to the border, victorious but tired of fighting and to a man, ready to go home. If they could not stop at the oasis, the only water for hundreds of miles, there would be no returning. Other mechanical units could not be set to recognise it as an enemy as the sight cartridges that matched its appearance had never been made. Why would they? Mechanicals could be sent, but they would not see it to fight it.
“What about an old fashioned mechanical, with a man at the wheel? Surely a man can still see it as an enemy?” From the look on the officer’s face he knew the answer, why he had been tasked alone. The rampaging mechanical was an incendiary unit, powerful and nearly indestructible, designed to close with vehicles and man-steered armour and cough gouts of roaring white flames into their hearts, to kill the enemy driver and disable the machine from within. Mechanicals went awry sometimes, every soldier knew a tale of such a disaster, but never had he heard of such a powerful beast turning on its own.
George peered across the desert now and remembered the battles. Incendiary units were deadly allies, and the sight of one approaching, huge union flags rippling in the wind, had poured relief into many a besieged British soldier. They were surprisingly quiet, and now he knew why, driven by the emerald fire their constant power meant no shuddering staccatto steam-shakes. They simply closed on the enemy and burnt them. If you knew what was good for you, you got out of the way. If you didn’t, you would know nothing else. Look away, he had been told once, they don’t need support or help, so just look away. He had thought it was because the white flames were so bright, they would hurt his eyes. It wasn’t. One night he had watched, and had seen what a thousand degrees of white sticky fire did to a man trapped in armour. The next day two young corporals were attached to his unit, the CMMI, fresh from training. Look away, he had told them. Look away.
He lifted his goggles and squinted down the scorching dune valley. There was the oasis, smoke still rising from the ashes of what had once been a small village. It was too far away for him to make out the details, and in a way he was glad. There didn’t seem to be any movement, just the flickering reflection of the sun on the pool. George had fought every machine the Moors had brought to the battle. Their fierce steam gladiators, their lumbering tracked rhinos, even the monstrous Morroccan collossus, bigger than anything he had believed men could make. Captain George had lead his unit to victory. When the machines were too powerful for the British forces, when their own mechanicals were too far away to take against the enemy, when speed was needed to crush the steam power of the Moors, Captain George was called, Captain George and the Counter Mechanical Mobile Infantry. They called them the Saints. When the iron foot of a Moorish lance tiger stomped into your foxhole, you prayed, they said, prayed to the Saints. Prayed they would come.
George had never fought a British mechanical, it would be treason to even think about it. As he saw something moving amongst the ruins of the oasis he realised he knew more about the Moorish machines than he did about any of his own. He had gotten some details from the artificers back at the North Border Camp about this one, though even they knew little about it beyond the immediacies of keeping it fed. The incendiary fuel running through its belly was always kept hot by the green blaze of its five boilers they said, and when it unloaded its flaming ballast it was with the roar of a volcano. He had an idea of how to disable it, this monster, but it would certainly be a feat. He shouldered his lance and shook his head. I should be halfway through a pint of Taylors Golden right now he thought to himself and began to walk down the side of the sliding dune, towards the oasis, ready to face the dragon.
phillsmiff
#3
That’s the story I wrote this afternoon instead of working (boring!). I’m really excited to be involved in this challenge, I’ve got stacks of ideas, and it should be great fun.
The legend is St. George and the Dragon, with St. George being Captain George of the Counter Mechanical Mobile Infantry, and the dragon being a haywire Mechanical Incendiary Unit. The setting is a desert oasis in the immediate aftermath of a Victorian era war in the middle east.
Initial design challenges are:
The ‘dragon’, which needs to look like a fearsomely powerful realistic feeling steam powered mech, whilst still retaining the essence of dragon.
St. George himself, who needs to be lightly armoured, agile and mobile and armed with a magnesium lance.
The oasis and town, rural Arabian ruins and smouldering palm trees being the order of the day.
There are loads of problems that need to be solved in the sketchbook, then taken onto the mac. My current plan is to work between Illustrator and Photoshop to produce the final image, which should allow me to combine precise and accurate mechanical illustration and naturalistic textures and atmosphere.
Lets go! :applause:
phillsmiff
#10
Just having a bit of a ponder about the look of Captain George. This is just open-head-remove-design stuff, I really need to dig into some more historical uniforms before I go back into this.
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