EPISODE ONE: THE JEWEL OF SUMATRA

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Late morning thru early afternoon of September 20th, 1937; San Fransisco, Nation of Hollywood


Doctor Manning turns to the four pilots and replies in the affirmative that he is indeed Professor Theodore Manning and asks why they have come to see him. Very quickly the four pilots and the elder academician are in an animated conversation where the pilots tell about the Nazi's attacking the Frenchman who asked them to take the briefcase to Doctor Manning with his dying breath and show him the contents; whereupon the shaken Professor tells them what this has all been about....the Jewel of Conquest...

Doctor Manning and a fellow archeologist from France, the late Phillipe de Gaulle, had been researching ancient Sumatran cultures and had come upon the likely location of a tomb of an ancient Sumatran warrior on the island of Sipora, off the west coast of Sumatra. This warrior, one Tapatamani, had supposedly found a massive Emerald the size of a man's fist and saw it as a sign from the Gods that he had been chosen to Conquer all of the neighboring islands. He then proceeded to do so over a period of 15 years before becoming sick and deciding to have himself buried in a great tomb on the island of his birth; Sipora. Supposedly the massive Emerald; the 'Jewel of Conquest', was buried with him. Manning and de Gaulle had recently unearthed a map that they believed pinpointed the location of Tapatamani's tomb on Sipora and an expedition had been set up to go and excavate the site.

Phillipe had gone ahead of the expedition on a Clipper to set things up while the bulk of the expedition and their gear had booked passage on a Tramp Steamer freighter, the Rosetta and would cross the Pacific that way. This was the 'Rose' that was lost at sea as referenced in the Telegram. The map that showed the site of the tomb was in a water-tight safe on board the ship. When the key was shown to the Professor, he seemed to brief a lot easier as he explained that this was indeed a key to the safe.

Somehow, it seemed the Nazi's had found out about the expedition and were doing their best to ensure it did not succeed and when the confused pilots asked why they would do that; Manning angrily explained that the Nazi's seemed obsessed with any number of cultural artifacts from around the world and were surreptitiously doing their best to collect as many artifacts that they could find and deprive the world of the joy of being able to see them in museums where they belonged.

The Professor came back to the present and asked if the pilots would be interested in traveling to Sumatra and attempting to hire diving equipment and/or divers to explore the wreck of the Rosetta to retrieve the map and then use it to find the jewel and bring it back to San Fransisco to be properly displayed in a museum. When the men explained they weren't sure they would be able to convince their boss to fly their Zeppelin all the way to Sumatra as they were currently scheduled to head for Hawai'i tomorrow; Professor Manning explained that the price that some of the Museum benefactors were likely to raise for the Jewel would certainly exceed a million dollars. This certainly seemed to grab the pilots' attention and was the primary reason the next event caught everyone by surprise....

The door to Manning's office had been closed by Murdoch after the four pilots started seriously conversing with the good Professor and now it came flying off its hinges as a heavy, jack-booted foot kicked it in and three people quickly stepped into the room with guns pointed at the five men. Two of the men were easily recognizable as the thugs they encountered in the shoot out the other day and familiar Lugar pistols were clutched in their hands. The last figure was a newcomer; an athletic, Nordic-looking blonde woman with a fur-lined, leather pilot's jacket and a Mauser 'Broomhandle' pistol in her hand. She had cold blue eyes and in a heavily accented voice, she looked at Professor Manning and said; "Hand over ze key, herr Doktor".....

[kipper]

"Well! I guess that's our cue to leave! Gentlemen." Murdoch nods at the goons, "Lady." he nods to the woman, then saunters towards the door, ignoring the guns.

[Urson]

Jean-Claude's pistol is in his hand almost instantly. "I think we have unfinished business with your lackeys, madame." With that, he fires at the thug oin the left.

[Monsieur Rose]

Nikolai starts smiling at Murdoch, then sees Jean-Claude's revenge attempt start to play out. He then tries to knock the Professor down behind the desk, while pulling his weapon.

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Early afternoon of September 20th, 1937; San Fransisco, Nation of Hollywood


The Professor's office suddenly explodes into a cacophony of sound and chaos as guns are drawn, bullets are exchanged and people go flying....

Murdoch had attempted to smoothly exit the room when one of the Nazi stooges grabs him and shoves him to one side while Jean-Claude suddenly puts old west gunfighters to shame with his quick draw and comes up with his .45 flaming and putting a slug into the other Nazi goon, dropping him to the floor in a heap. The French-Canadian pilot though flinches a bit in pain as the sudden move aggravated his recently patched up wound from yesterday and he worried that he may have yanked out some stitches...

Meanwhile, with a snarl and a most unlady-like curse in German, the woman fires a shot from her Mauser broom-handle pistol at the Professor, but the shot narrowly missed as the quick-thinking Nikolai yanked the old man down behind his desk and the bullet slammed into the back wall, its echo adding to the sudden assault on everyone's eardrums from two gunshots in a small room in the span of less than a second. The Russian pilot yanked his own Tokarev pistol out and cautiously moved to survey the situation....

Murdoch grabbed the arm of the remaining Nazi thug holding the Lugar pistol and attempted to wrestle the weapon from the German's hand; but the skinny pilot with a questionable grip on reality was easily tossed back and into the wall by the strong, athletic German and with stars dancing before his eyes, he was suddenly looking at the barrel of the 9mm Lugar pointing his way and an angry-faced man wielding it with hatred in his eyes...

Che Curador was staring in open-mouthed shock at the crazy last few seconds and with a visible shaking of his head, he suddenly got a grip on the situation and went to pull his Star B 9mm pistol and dropped to one knee on the ground as he took in the sight of the German lady moving back into the hallway and the standing Nazi goon pointing a pistol at Murdoch....

[Urson]

Jean-Claude barks out an order, "Take her alive!" and snaps a shot at the goon holding Mudoch. He's hurting again, but he's been hurt worse- and lived.

[kipper]

Murdoch stands up with a smile and dusts himself off. "Was that really called for? Have you no manners?" (He's trying to keep the goon distracted, meanwhile taking no hostile actions)

[Monsieur Rose]

"Stay here!" Nikolai shouts at the professor, then vaults the desk and runs after the mysterious lady.

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Early afternoon of September 20th, 1937; San Fransisco, Nation of Hollywood


The deafening roar of several pistol shots being fired inside a building caused all of the pilots and the Professor's ears to ring and everyone's heart pounding due to the adrenaline only added to the cacaphony thrumming in each man's head….

Murdoch attempted to distract the goon but only succeeded in getting shot with a Lugar; however the madman's luck held as the bullet merely creased his side and deflected off his rib to lodge in the wall with nothing more than a searing quick pain lancing the American's side*…

Jean-Claude and Che followed up the goon's shot with rounds from thier own pistols and both hit the German goon high in the chest and he staggered back and collapsed unmoving on the floor. Nikolai made sure the Professor was down and safe and he then vaulted over the desk and attempted to follow the fleeing German fraulein down the hall, but was forced to dive to the ground when she fired a pair of shots from her Mauser broomhandle pistol that zipped down the hall and narrowly missed the big Russian.

By the time he levered his big-frame off the floor he could hear the echoes of her boots as she raced down the stairs and he noticed the curious and fear-filled faces of other Professors and students in the hall peeking out of doors and hallways to try and ascertain what just happened. Klokov could see out of one of the halls that far in the distance coming over the top of one of San Fransisco's hills was a couple of black and white police cars….


*Murdoch is merely grazed….I rolled TERRIBLY for the Pistol damage and very well for the STR roll….I'm sure you all feel AWFUL about that.

[Urson]

"Merde!" Jean-Claude muttered. "Professor, are you injured?"

[kipper]

"That's Nazi's for you!" Murdoch exclaims rhetorically. "You'd better hole up somewhere doc, or better yet come with us, that's not the last you'll see of those goons." He says to the professor as he runs out into the hall to help Nikolai.

((If there's no chance of chasing down the Frau, Murdoch will return and strip down the goons, taking their uniforms.))

[Monsieur Rose]

Nikolai tries to comfort the hall:

"Is okay. Is practice for american movie scene. Less bang in guns next time, no?"

He then calmly walks back to the office and lets everyone know that San Francisco's finest are on their way.

[Urson]

"Naturallement. We should perhaps be on the police payroll, since we have given them so much activity." Jean-Claude grins. If the professor is OK, we should probably head back for the ship.

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September 20th thru 24th, 1937; San Fransisco, Nation of Hollywood


Professor Manning was shaken up by the unexpected attack, but was otherwise okay. He pleaded with the pilots to try and go to Sumatra and recover the map that lead to the 'jewel of Sumatra' from the safe on the sunken Rosetta. He gave them the Key to the safe and wished them well while assuring them of a 7 figure payment for the Jewel when recovered. The pilots earnestly told the Professor they would do thier best to retrieve it and made for thier airship ahead of the police.

The pilots returned to the Stormcloud and told thier tale to an interested, but worried Hank Chalifoux; who promised that after calling in some favors with some people he knew in Hawai'i to use up the last of the squadron's funds to refuel and restock supplies for a round-trip journey across the Pacific from Hawai'i to Sumatra and back; but that they BETTER be right about this, or they could find themselves a new home…MINUS thier planes!

The deal struck; the airship left its mooring piers in San Fransisco early on the morning of September 21st; and the next 3 days were uneventful as they flew over the seemingly endless expanse of blue ocean that was the eastern portion of the Pacific Ocean. Jean-Claude led Second Flight on several escort patrol missions during this time, but nothing more exciting than the ocasional cloud or flock of birds were too be found.

On the third day, the beautiful Hawaiian islands could be seen and the Stormcloud radioed in and recieved permission from the Kingdom of Hawai'i to dock at Ford Island, in Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. A lovely day on the lovely island was barely enjoyed by the pilots of Second Flight as they had to help with the loading of fuel and supplies as part of the price of the 'mission' to Sumatra. They DID have time for a dinner on the beach though, which they all enjoyed thoroughly. The next morning; the Zeppelin once again lifted off; this time on a week-long journey to the far side of the Pacific and the mysterious, unknown island of Sumatra….