The S.T.A.S

How the Colonel and the Countess came to ‘own’ the STAS

Colonel James Von Siegfried looked over at the wreckage of his airship in disgust. The Pride of Hanover had served him and the Countess Anastasia well for a short while, yet these air pirates were simply becoming more and more bold as time went on. At least he had given a good accounting of himself as evidenced by the three burning hulks in the distance. Fat lot of good that did them in this case, with no airship and almost literally in the middle of no-where Africa, he did not see this ending well. And to think that his luck had changed so much for the better lately, what with the Countess getting him promoted and ensuring he could keep the Pride after that last action in support of the Tzar….

He had just calmed the Countess down after finding her beloved Guinevere only slightly singed from the crash (Good idea he had about having a breakaway descent bag so they could escape when things went from bad to worse). When he realized they would have to walk to the airship park they had sighted a few hours ago. Resigning himself to a long walk carrying too many items, he ensured the Countess was as comfortable as she could be with Guinnie nestled in her carry-bag and headed off in the direction of the airship park. As they walked into the growing dusk, he thought he saw, off in the distance, a small-ish airship appear out of thin air! “I vonder if I knocked mein head harder zan I sought.”

As they approached the airship park later that evening, an odd thing occurred, the temporal rift indicator on the Siegfried blaster began flashing with more rapidity and intensity than he had ever seen. On the outskirts of the airship park was this same airship that he had seen earlier! He could not see any stacks or exhaust anywhere on the thing. It shone with a dull silvery, wait gold, hmmm….hard to discern exactly the color of that thing. It seemed very odd indeed and the temporal rift indicator was blinking with such rapidity that he was certain it must be malfunctioning.

As the Countess and Guinevere approached the ship, Anastasia said something he had heard so many times before… ”Oooh, isn’t that interesting.” He knew what was coming next. Guinnie began to bark as they continued to approach, something she rarely did. Without the Countess needing to say another word, he climbed the small ladder-like stair to the circular hatch. Odd, it wasn’t locked and it hissed slightly, as if the gondola was pressurized, as it slowly opened. The Siegfried blaster’s temporal rift detector was now almost continuously lit as it furiously flashed it’s warning. The Colonel continued into the cabin to determine if anyone was home. Oddly the only thing they discovered was a red fez sitting on the piloting console…

Later that evening, after settling into their ‘new’ airship and working out the basic controls, the Colonel was able to recover the majority of their possessions and get them settled into the lush living space on the ship. He even managed to find Guinevere a very nice plush purple and gold brocade pillow. The Countess looked at James and said, “See, it all works out in the end. We can borrow this lovely airship and continue on our way. I wonder what this lever does?”.

The Colonel looked at his lovely companion as he navigated the time vortex. “Well my dear, now we know what zat lever does. Ah vell, it seems to be for ze best. Now zat ve have left zat area, it seems unlikely ze previous owner vill find us. Hef you noticed zat zis gondola appears to be larger on ze inside?……”