WHERE ARE THE ROYAL FAMILY?

The Queen, Prince Consort, and their children. – image courtesy of fanpop.com

Rumors have abounded as to the whereabouts of the Royal Family. In May, they were reported to have been removed to a “remote country location” along with members of the Parliament. Our correspondent has since discovered that was not entirely true. Certainly the Royals and MPs were in a remote country location for a brief time but only while preparations were made to relocate them to a more secure place.

Our inquiry agents have been following up on this story as the safety of the government is of vital interest to all citizens of the British Empire.

Apparently various locations were considered, among them either India and Australia.

Thuggee assassination of a pro British Rajah. – image courtesy of personal.umich.edu

India was ruled out due to general sectarian unrest and more particularly, the resurgence of the cult of Thuggee. The military and civilian authorities of the East India Company felt that the safety of the Royal Family and the government could not be assured. Rumors of Russian agitation along the Northwest Frontier have seen marauding bands of Pathan ranging deep into the Indus headwaters area.

Since little is known about the indigenous peoples of Australia or their lore, and due to their retreat into the interior, speculation ran high that Australia might prove a sufficiently secure location. Grave concerns about the transit across the seas was expressed due to the appearance of Krakens and other sea dwelling monsters from across the Bridge. The voyage was considered to be risky even for the ironclads HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince.

The ironclad steam warship HMS Warrior. – image courtesy of Wikipedia.com

The plan to relocate the imperial government to that continent were scrubbed due to the arrival of news that confirmed sightings of the aboriginal creature known as the bunyip. For the edification of our readers not familiar with the wilderness continent of Australia, the bunyip is a fearsome swamp and water dwelling beast capable of snatching adult men and crushing them between its powerful jaws.

A final decision was made to risk an Atlantic crossing and temporarily  relocate the Imperial seat of power to the Dominion of New Georgia. Since the suppression of the rebellion and the reconquest of the so called United States of America, that dominion has proven to be a peaceful and secure member of the realm. Some initial insurgent activity occurred, particularly in the southern shires, but that was suppressed fairly shortly after the reestablishment of British rule. Most notably, there have been precious few reports of Bridge creature activity in the British areas of the northern continent.  Such bridge creatures as have appeared seem to be confined to the waters off the coastal shires or located much further south in the Franco-Spanish holdings of Mexico.

The legendary Australian aboriginal beast Bunyip crushing its victim to death. – image courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Beyond this information, there are no details available as to when this temporary relocation of the government will occur, if indeed it has not already done so. Certainly, the security of the government and Royal Family is paramount to us all. While the attempted assassination of a Monarch or even a whole government is not unheard of, one would like to think in this time of worldwide crisis, we all have more important issues to deal with than the squabbles between empires. Truly, if we do not join forces with our former antagonists in Napoleonic Europe and Russia, we may find that we are to be replaced by mindless brutes from another universe as the dominant species on this Earth.

CIVIL UNREST COMPLICATES RUSSIAN RESPOSE TO BEASTS

Alarming reports are coming out of the Russian Empire. The secretive and autocratic regime has clamped down even further on any information about the current crisis going on within its borders. Our readers are aware of the growing tensions between Her Britannic Majesty’s government and that of the Tsar. Competition for colonial space in Central Asia, Russian perfidy in rousing the Pashtu tribes along the northern frontier of India, British support for Turkish resistance to granting access for Russian ships to pass the Dardanelles and Russian assertions that British agents are agitating the serfs’ demands for social and political reform are all at the heart of the discord between the two Imperia. Our correspondent inside Russia has been able to smuggle out the following information.

Untrained troops fire into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. – image courtesy of Wikipedia.com

In St. Petersburg, a peaceful appeal to the Tsar turned to tragedy when the crowd of 200,000 or more men, women, and children surrounded the Winter Palace. They were there to beg their sovereign for bread and troops to destroy the beasts which have beset their region. The Tsar and his family were not in residence at the time and the grounds were guarded by police a company of hastily raised and untrained soldiers. When the demonstrators began to demand to have the Tsar show himself and bestow his blessing, it appears as if one of the soldiers fired into the crowd. The ensuing melee saw over 1000 killed or wounded.

This development has further tarnished the Tsar’s recent proclamation of universal emancipation for the serfs. The sincerity of the reforms has been challenged by peasant leaders and the intelligentsia. Lacking any real reform such as the establishment of a parliament, limited suffrage, or any other means of providing a voice for the former serfs has fueled resentment. Now, even the miniscule plots of land they have been granted, many of which are smaller than those they farmed for themselves in bondage, are being ravaged by a variety of unearthly beasts. Our correspondent’s source, who is considered very close to the organs of power but remains unnamed, reported that over 600 riots have occurred in the last four months alone. Many of these have been brutally suppressed by militias raised to meet the threat of the otherworldly invaders. Justification for such repressions is explained as a need “to maintain civil order in time of crisis.”

Summary executions of suspected “hooligans” carried out by militia troops with the support of the Tsarina’s appointed ministers. – image courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Meanwhile, the Tsar, who has assumed personal command of the Imperial armed forces, has left his German born Tsarina in control of the civil government. This move has created even further doubts about the efficacy of reforms. Where rioters have been detained, there have been perfunctory trials followed by immediate executions. More liberal thinkers echo the fears of the peasantry when they say that ‘The German Woman’ is wielding power with Teutonic brutality and lack of sentiment.

Against the backdrop of this civil unrest, the country is being driven into even further despair and danger as the military enacts draconian and frequently counterproductive measures to meet the current crisis. Reports reflect that draft animals of all manner have been seized to meet the army’s needs. It is feared that this shortsightedness will result in agricultural underproduction (which is already all to common in Russia), communications breakdowns, and the virtually complete failure of the food, fuel, and materiel distributions systems that feed the primitive industrial and large population centers within the Tsar’s realm.

A PERSONAL VIEW OF THE DISASTER

After several weeks of being unable to publish due to the current world wide emergency, the Times is pleased to resume circulation.

While we are all aware of the extend of the devastation wrought throughout the Kingdom and Empire, we thought to bring you an occasional series depicting life and the British spirit as we weather this time of wasting.

Our first exemplar is from a journal found in a rural village in Oxforshire. We believe that the published portrait photograph is of the author.

*****

. Burnt journal page describing the devastation of a rural village in Oxfordshire. The author is believed to be the daughter of a local squire. She, her mother and sibling are believed to have sheltered from the depredations of the dragons around Oxford in the ruined basement of a local shop. Their fate is unknown. – image courtesy of eighteenseventyeight.com

The darkness is coming again and, though I struggle to hide it, I am sore afraid. They are more active at night and already I feel as if I can hear their wings and feel their hot breath scorching the ground. Mother went out to forage for food. It seems like hours ago and I fear for her; if not from the beasts then from those other survivors who, just a short while ago, were our neighbors. The dragons have not only laid waste to our once idyllic village but also to the souls of many therein.

Where once there was kindness; now there is spite.

Where once there was sharing; now there is mean hording.

Where once there was light; now there is only dark.

I am resigned to my fate, whatever it may be, but I fear most for Robbie. He has but four years and yet he knows the anguish that we all share. Most days he sits quietly, rearranging small bits of rubble in our underground shelter. He used to hum softly to himself but, since the day when one of the young ones heard him, he no longer sings, nor hums, nor cries. Shadows passing the entrance above cause him to freeze in terror and scurry to the smallest recesses at the back of the shelter.

How I secretly envy him the ability to shrink so far back. I fear that one day the rending claws will reach me unawares and I will meet my end.

Photo thought to be of the unknown author of the journal. Found among the rubble of the shelter where the journal was found by searchers. – image courtesy of 19thcentury.tumblr.com

I ponder the reason for all our misery. The vicar, while he lived, told us to trust in God’s mercy. He said, whatever the genesis of this evil, goodness would prevail in the end. That good man was taken from among us as he carried out the duties of his office, visiting and comforting the terrified and injured.

At his passing, the curate took over as the spiritual head of our community. He is a nervous man, filled with proud resentment and ambition. Before the wasting, he was never loath to make it known how he deserved more rapid advancement and a vicarage of his own. Small wonder that the bishop kept him in his current post! What a shame the lesson on humility did not take root within him.

It was the curate who fanned the flames of fear when he said that this despoilment is God’s judgment on the wickedness of man. For, truly, as the Lord said, who among us is without sin? Each villager can enumerate countless transgressions that make him or her the object of God’s wrath.

The curate believes that the Almighty has visited this terror upon us because men of science dared tread upon his province. He said that God threw wide the gates of Hell to release his righteous scourge upon all those who have grievously sinned. But surely this cannot be since the beasts appeared not from the bowels of the Earth as he said but from the curious rings of light in the sky.

The rubble of Little Holding in Oxfordshire. Dragons have left no structure untouched and the residents are all either fled or deceased. Site of the journal found in a destroyed cellar. image courtesy of celebrateboston.com

Yet for all his supposed piety, he huddles in his shelter among the crypts of squires and lords long gone and demands that those seeking succor and the Sacrament come to him. He claims that it is so that they might be protected by hallowed ground but his demands drip with hypocritical irony. How I long for our dear old vicar who loved and shepherded us so well.

When I asked Father about what the curate said, he replied that God is all loving and that he would never visit such a horror upon both the wicked and the righteous. He reminded me of the story from Exodus when God warned the Israelites to mark their door posts in order that the Angel of Death should not visit His wrath upon them.

However, Father is more a man of science than faith. Not that he lacks faith but he believes that God provide man with a brain and curiosity so that he might learn more about his world and thus come closer to understanding it. Before the wasting, he followed the stories of Babbage, Lovelace, Brunel, and others most avidly. He wrote and received replies from that august crowd. I am proud to say that some of his suggestions were well received by those learned men and woman.

Now he has gone, as befits his duties as squire, to hunt out the beasts and aid the soldiers in destroying them. I keep him close to my heart and try, like Mother, to show myself in the best light as his daughter.

Mother has returned at last! She has found some roots and wild greens for us as well as a bit of potted meat. We shall need to eat them cold for the beasts have learned to associate the smell of cooking with food for themselves, that being us.

I sent my pen aside now so that I may attend to my chores. I pray God that I live another night and day to resume this narrative.

WORLD WIDE DESTUCTION

Editorial review from The Times – Reports of destruction and devastation are flooding in from around Europe. Creatures, long thought to be the fabrications of superstitious minds have suddenly appeared with dire results. This Paper wishes to know – why?

Artist’s rendition of one of the gargouilles incarné — image courtesy of charcoal-almighty.deviantart.com

In France, the imperial government has mobilized the Garde Nationale in an effort to protect its citizens from creatures it describes as “gargouilles incarné”. Reports from refugees confirm attacks by huge creatures with wings that resemble the famous statuary adorning the roof of Notre Dame de Paris. The beasts are said to be attacking livestock and gorging themselves on the carcasses. Rumors of similar attacks on humans are rife but, as yet, unconfirmed.

Reports of troll like creatures wreaking havoc throughout the mining areas of the German and central European states continue to filter in. It appears that several of the deeper shafts have been flooded and scores of miners who sought shelter there drowned when the beasts destroyed the sump pumps used to remove the excess ground water. The seemingly  inexplicable rampage appears to have some goal to it. Side galleries, long since abandoned are being excavated by the trolls. They seem to be searching for something and, with each fruitless effort, their savagery toward the surrounding communities increases. Gruesome tales of child abduction and slaughter abound.

Russian artistic rendition of a bukavac attacking a fisherman at night — image courtesy of phantos.deviantart.com

Further east in the Russian Empire, there are reports of ancient beasts from Slavic mythology reappearing. Fishermen on the Black Sea have been attacked by bukavacs, giant, gnarly horned creatures that crush their human prey to death. Apparently, the bukavac prefers to attack in the dead of night. Entire fishing villages have been reportedly devastated as the creatures make their way up through the Dnieper River basin. One unofficial report comes from Zaporizhia, some 300 kilometers from where the Dnieper empties into the Black Sea.

Communications with the Empire at large have been spotty. A British sailor, recovered on a raft off the coast of Iberia reported that his ship had been seized, without warning, by a giant sea creature he described as a ‘kraken’.  Mail packets, merchant men, and even Her Majesty’s warships are all rumored to be overdue. Tales of unspeakable terrors are rife along the south coast, spread by those mariners who have returned. The Prime Minister has vowed a thorough investigation into the claims.

On that front, the Prime Minister had come under increasing attack from the newer ‘Conservative’ members of Parliament as well as from the Church of England. It is believed that the Whig support for a more Nonconformist and commercial approach to questions of science and technology may be at the root of the current difficulties.  While, as yet unconfirmed, there are rumors that Charles Babbage and his team of ‘energy experimenters’ may have played some part in the appearance of these creatures and the unusual celestial events we have been witnessing. A veil of secrecy has been drawn over their activities. This has led to demands by social and religious conservatives that the entire affair be laid bare and that the nation dedicate itself to eradicating this scourge.

Imperial French Garde Nationale troops mobilized to meet the crisis — image courtesy of shutterstock.com

As yet, no foreign governments have laid accusations of  responsibility for this terror at the doorstep of Her Britannic Majesty’s government. In what appears to be an effort to forestall such embarrassment occurring, the Prime Minister has called upon representatives of the Imperial French and Russian governments, the Austro Hungarian monarchy, and the German principalities to join with us in a unified effort to address the current world wide crisis. If successful, this grand coalition may herald a new era of peace and cooperation, providing that is, that we survive the depredations of these horrible, and as yet, unstoppable beasts who have invaded our world.

WINGED TERROR IN THE SKIES

Artist’s depiction of creatures descending from the tube of light described by Devon herdsmen. – image courtesy of desktopexchange.com

London, May 5, 1853 – Terror has swept like a plague over the British Isles. Following the as yet unexplained light over Devon last week, the impossible has happened. Britain is beset by dragons. These huge beasts, thought to be merely the figures of allegorical morality tales are in fact alive and ravaging the British Isles. The government of Lord Aberdeen refuses to admit complicity in the disaster that has engulfed the Nation. Farmers and herdsmen from Devon reported that the halo of light became tube like. In a day or two, they noticed shadowy figures emanating from it. One such figure passed across the waning moon. The herdsman, a devout church goer clearly described its bat-like wings and scaly body to local authorities. The unfortunate witness was jailed on a charge of public drunkenness.  Now it appears that this honest countryman was among the first to recognize the danger.

Panic on the Thames as people and boats flee the unstoppable flames. Three dragon creatures have laid waste to the capitol. – image courtesy of Metro.co,uk

Since first being reported, London has been set ablaze by a flight of three beasts. The countryside, as yet, has been spared but rumors of attacks upon other cities are filtering in. The Queen and her family, as well as such members of Parliament who survived  the initial attack have been removed to a remote location in the countryside. Contact is being maintained with the situation via various means. Heliograph signals can be seen flashing across hilltops throughout the center of the country, leading to speculation that the Royal Family and the Government are being sequestered in the area of Oxford.

In addition to the capitol, York, Aldershot, and Pottergate were among the first to be devastated. It appears that the dragons’ ire was first raised when they discovered stained glass windows depicting St. George slaying a dragon. Their rampage of destruction has spread from these initial sites to any building resembling a cathedral as well as anywhere the Cross of St. George is displayed.  The government is urging all citizens to remove English flags and other depictions of St. George in an attempt to stem the attacks.

Light cavalry militia scout seeking the beasts’ lair. Military plans to eradicate the threat at its source.

Elsewhere in the country, the dragons seem to have been establishing nests among the rocky crags of Scotland and Wales. Their swath of destruction has spread northward, wreaking havoc on the Industrial heartland. Smoke stacks, steam engines, and other fire or steam belching entities have been attacked with great tenacity. A member of the Royal Zoological Society speculates that, if the beasts are seeking to establish nests, they may see fire emitting apparatus as potential mating competitors, thus accounting for their fierce attacks.

Government troops area being withdrawn from Ireland and around the Empire to meet the growing threat these creatures present. Local militia, most of whom have not seen active service since the end of the Napoleonic Wars are valiantly struggling to protect lives and property from this unearthly threat. However, lacking heavier weapons, they have met with little success.

Hussar and light cavalry militia are scouring the rocky environs of Wales and Scotland in an effort to locate nesting sites. Once they have found them, heavy troops and artillery will move in to eradicate the threat.

Refugees fleeing Charleroi – image courtesy antiquaprintgallery.com

Plymouth, Royal Naval Station,South Coast, May 7, 1853 – The Royal Navy has received reports from merchant ships fleeing the Continent that “horrible beasts” are attacking various regions of the European Napoleonic Empire and the German States. Refugees are spreading stories of creatures they describe as trolls laying waste to the mining and industrial sites located along the Ruhr River Valley. Similar tales are coming out of France. Tales of creatures attacking around Charleroi were also being carried by fleeing refugees. All communication in that area of France has been cut. Emperor Louis Napoleon is reportedly rushing troops into the region.

Similar reports from Silesia in the France’s client state, the Grand Duchy of Poland, are noted as well.

The Navy has instituted a quarantine of the English coast in an effort to forestall the spread of these creatures as well as to prevent infiltration by foreign agents.