Voxigraph, Attack in Wales & Scientist Found in Shadwell

Vanishing Trick

Voxigraph is now under investigation by the Empire, my sources tell me very likely the companies assets will be seized soon and the Empire will have complete control.  Lord Houl and several of the senior directors have vanished from London in the wake of the peace summit in Prague which occurred in secret on the 1st June.  You would think that they did not want the war to end, makes you wonder what else is going on.  I also understand that the Empire has new technology that will take the Voxigraph networks to the next level, based upon Graphene Optics I believe.  Remember last year I reported on those two doctors joining the directorship:

    Dr. Nu Vesper Calif
    Dr. E. Tyrell

They too seem to have vanished off the face of the globe although my sources inside the Empire tell me that Dr. Nu Vesper Calif may have changed his name and entered into the Empire service as researcher in Wales.  As to his whereabouts I currently have no clue.

Battle at Pumlumon

The Cambrian Mountains in Wales particularly around the summit of Pumlumon has been a place of considerable interest over the last few days, first there was the appearance of two Russian airships and early this morning my sources report a battle between Empire warships and the Russians. Secondly the whole of the summit and much of surrounding area has been cordoned off by the Empire since the war begun eighteen months ago, however at night it is possible to see a white light pointing up from the summit.  During the battle my sources tell me that this white light became visible during the day it changed to deep orange mixed in with what looked liked to black holes that intermittently flash on and off.  Apparently one of the Empire's warships crashed into the summit however it is unclear what happened next since my source at the time lost her portable Linker connection, I am still trying to contact her but so far no luck.  The Empire has put out a news blackout over the entire area and even my sources cannot extract anything useful.

Death in Shadwell

This came from one of my trusted sources at a well known London newspaper that has strong Empire ties which is why the story has been quashed.  My source states that it would seriously affect the peace process, I very much doubt that but we will see when people read this article.  Mr Arthur Minion found his master a well respected scientist (his name has also been removed) in an alley close to Shadwell Basin dead. By all accounts that I have received so far he appears to have died of fright although I have nothing concrete because an autopsy has not been done.  The reason being is that the body vanished on the way to morgue. 

The Minion family is well known in London as servants to the rich and powerful not to mention their less than savoury connections to the criminal underbelly of the city.  Who is this scientist and why is the Empire so interested in keeping his death quiet?  What happened to the body?  Many questions and no answers.  Not surprisingly Mr A. Minion would not comment on his previous master's business, he would only say that "...it was family business."

Carlisle vs. HMS Dolphin

My sources in north Wales tell that me that the HMS Dolphin a corvette of the King’s Royal Air force has crashed into the main train station in the town.  Apparently it happened just after a train had arrived from Glasgow, there was a bright white light and the corvette that was seen hovering overheard was split in two bursting the gas-bags on either side.  It is fortunate that Heliumite has such a high buoyancy otherwise the two pieces would have come crashing down at a far faster rate than they actually did.

The train station was evacuated and the only casualties that my sources have been able to confirm is that four crewmen of the fifteen that man a corvette are currently missing, no evidence of bodies found thus far.

With the recent news in the press about the Russian peace summit one wonders if they are really are committed, what type of weapon can cut through GrapherIron like it was paper?  More importantly what is the motive for the attack?

Discoveries That Changed the Post War Empire

During the post war era of the late twentieth century two inventions/discoveries changed the very course of the Empire and made it into what it is today.

Heliumite

Originally hydrogen was used as the lifting gas of airships however even before the advent of the second war it was known that the gas is highly flammable and easily set off from a little spark.  At the end of the war a Welsh scientist Tomas Connah who had originally been working on deep sea diving and the use of other gases to breath at greater depths, had an accident occurred at his lab at Southampton navel docks where a diver lost her life (she was married to Tomas).  The resulting gas became known as Heliumite.  Helium itself is quite rare and expensive to produce in large quantities but the process that Connah discovered was cheaper and seemed to create more gas from less gas.

The exact process is a state secret and the Empire has the monopoly on the sale of Heliumite.

Heliumite has the same atomic weight as its cousin but does not expand in high altitudes and has a greater lifting power than hydrogen which seems to break the laws of physics.  There is however much that the Empire keeps from public regarding this unusual gas.

GrapherIron 

Technically not actually made of iron in anyway, the actual material is Graphene and an epoxy resin which when bonded together becomes the hardest and lightest material known to man.  Its uses range from the very small (paint to generate electricity on tall buildings) to the very large (skyscrapers and the superstructure of airships and spaceships).

GrapherIron when used as a envelope for an airship creates a frictionless surface that significantly decreases drag and thereby increasing velocity close to 160mph although that is dependent upon the class of airship.

This allowed the Empire to build virtually indestructible airships for the military and commercial use.

Without these two inventions our world would be very different today.

The Unexplained!

Here is something that really bugs me about people especially those that consider themselves to be scientists is the used of the following two words: Supernatural & Paranormal.  If you look this words up in the dictionary they have a common terms associated with them:

"beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding" or "beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature"

Effectively the phenomena is unexplained, why o’ why do we have to have two words for one word.  Unexplained means that science has not got around to figuring out why this happens.

The problem really begins when people associate these words with pseudoscience and immediately anything that is unexplained falls into this category.  Whereby no serious scientist will even look into it for fear their reputation, if it was just left as unexplained then this problem would be mitigated somewhat.

Supernatural is associated with religion which is pointless since it has been proven that the gods exists along with the less nice entities like Cthulhu despite what the bulk of the public believe or should I say what the Empire wishes us to believe.  They are not super anything, they exist end of story and as we all know religion is just a dogmatic belief structure that has no real value when connected to beings that are fact.  Of course the issue comes with understanding the answers they supply which is where religion comes in, the priests interpret who are just as unlikely to understand the answer as anyone else.  The dogma is man-made and completely meaningless like many historic traditions.

I have digressed somewhat from my original rant, nothing in nature is unnatural except in the eyes of a dogmatic majority.  It is unexplained get over it people!

Voxigraph Failures

The uptake in the use of Voxigraph technology in the last eighteen months has been dramatic to say the least even the war has not slowed its pace.  Although as yet it does not rival BEN (Babbage Empire Network) in size except in its instantaneous communication over that of the old telegraph/ticker tape methods.  The issues with BEN are inherent with the original system design of an Open System.  Open Systems are always prone to abuses and attacks from dishonest folk.  In order to send secure communications over BEN a system of keys are required at either end thereby slowing the whole process down whereas with the Voxigraphs the connection is vocal and so far incredibly secure at least that we know of.  Another issue with BEN is that certain companies that maintain the network around the globe continue to impose restrictions which slow everything down despite the Empire’s assurances that BEN is faster than ever.

Eighty percent of the Voxigraph network is used by government offices and military bases across the Empire at this time there is only a small uptake in private and commercial use.  The Empire has become quite dependant on the Voxigraph network over the last year due to the disruption in radio signals, the cause of this disruption is still of much concern.  Many theories have been put forth most however seem to come from fringe scientists like Max Drum who state that the Conjunction is the cause of everything bad happening in the Empire at this time.

In the last month there have been a number of failures to the Voxigraph network and according to my sources at key times when high up government officials were out of position.  The directors of Voxigraph were unavailable for comment however their public relations spokesman stated that the failures were due to “Acts of nature…” and had nothing to do with the war whatsoever, they were merely coincidences.  The chances of it being a coincidence is as likely as a honest man in Parliament, one wonders if their network is as secure as they have advertised to the Empire.  It does beg the question in light of how the enemy has been able to gather its intelligence so very well indeed.

Ghost Airships (9th May) & The King

Ghosts

Russian airships have been spotted all over Europe but only for moments at a time, they have a distinctive colour scheme of red covering the top half of the skin of the airship and below that all black.  The various sources I have in Europe say the people are calling them Russian Ghosts, none of these ghosts have attacked so far some of my sources have stated that a black dust rained down after the Ghost vanished.

Three separate sources in Denmark have informed me that Black and Red Airships have been seen over Nyborb, Aars and Sylt.  My sources in Denmark are very reliable and very good at ferreting out any information although that normally involves food.

These airships were seen just about the same time as London got up close and personal with one, although it was for a brief period.  Enough to scatter the dockers in every direction, my sources on the scene afterwards say there was an odd burn mark dirigible shaped on the ground.  One might think that the airship was doing something against the laws of physics and the Universe pushed back.

The King

I understand the King is meant to be making a speech tomorrow and there is some talk of a National holiday to be announced.  London has also been heavily covered in posters I think the slogan is:

A Strong Empire Needs Strong Men

What we really need is a strong victory over the enemies intelligence gatherers!

Sister Mary Jones - Shakes

You may remember me posting up an article about one Sister Mary Jones well one my sources has found another entry, he thinks there is more to the entry though.

29th June 1969

Shakes came to see to me today back at Thrawl Street, I mean Carrie she complained at me last time that she hates that name despite that she's so good saying the sonnets like a posh lady.  She was in a terrible state, kept saying they've taken it over and over again.  I finally got her calmed down with a little slo gin from the old lady below us, the bulge in her stomach had completely gone.  I was sure she wasn't due for another month, grasped in her hand was a velvet envelope.  She said "They taken my baby and gave me this." holding the envelope up for me to see.  I asked when did this all happen, she started to cry.  A little more gin and some for myself, then in short little bits she told what happened.

Makes you think people what happened back 1968?