Astro Cross: Flashback 1942 (was naming alien ships)

[classicdrogn]

Here's a character concept that could get one of the PCs into a Klogg, if an old and creaky one:

Daisy May Moses hadn't been directly impacted by the Great War, living in Limestone, Tennessee, but her fella had been called off to fight in it before he could make an honest woman of her and only a flag came home, leaving her with his folks and their swamp farm, and just enough of an Army pension not to lose it. It was a much bigger event when the giant space-ship came crashing down just as the government folks were saying it was over - because one of the space-aeroplanes came crashing down that night, and the pilot inside was bunged up real bad.

Now, Daisy didn't exactly hold with the notion of aeroplanes, but leaving the poor fella to die would be un-Christian - though of course turning him in to the gummint man who came by lookin' for anything related to the crash would be even worse. She showed that rascal the Wishin' Well and tossed a good sized rock onto it, then told him as how anything that fell in there was lost as the Devil's black soul while the rock sank straight into the muck as they watched. The space-aeroplane feller, well, they set his legs straight, poulticed his bunged up head, and trusted the rest to a spoonful of corn-squeezin's a day, a good soft goose down mattress, and the Good Lord God, and for'n too long he was up and about, and a right help he was around the farm seein' as how he could use his space-man powers to git things done that'd take a dozen hands or a new tractor.

The two of them got close after a time (the thrills of dodging revenuers while supplying thirsty folks with white lightning during Prohibition may have had some part in that, or it may not, but Daisy don't discuss such matters) and things follered their natural course, and by 1924 he'd given her her (boy/girl) (name), who turned out to have a heapin' helpin' of (pronoun) daddy's space-man powers *self, and a good dash of smarts, too.

* done fixed that broken down ol' tractor when * was just twelve, and decided to take on * daddy's space-aeroplane after that as a new challenge. (If Daisy let the gummint man think the space-aeroplane crashed into the Wishin' Well, well he never asked where it came down now did he?) Daisy still didn't hold with newfangled tomfoolery like aeroplanes, but as long as the chores got done first there weren't no reason not to allow * to learn about the innate cussed orneriness of complicated machines first hand.

She would have some cause to regret that decision when * actually got the blasted contraption working after a few years of tinkering, and more when * firmly declared that * was going to go enlist for this new war after them slant-eyes attacked Pearl Harbor, and flew off in the cussed thing when she told * to stop listenin' to * daddy's cockamamie stories because she was forbiddin' * to leave the farm. Should've knowed better, she told herself as soon as she calmed down; there wasn't no Moses nor Clampett in a hunnert years but what followed his or her own head, but the damage was done by then, and they didn't hear back from * until * was done the first month of Army Air Corps trainin' and allowed to write letters home.

Turned out the gummint men almost took the space-aeroplane away anyway, but then their gummint science-ists couldn't understand the half of what her * had done to fix it up with just what * could get * hands on, and they gave it back so * could show 'em, and get the use of it since it was still better'n normal aero-planes somehow. Daisy wasn't too sure of why, though * had tried to explain it more'n once before ever gettin' it to make a peep let alone start up, but she figgered it was something to do with being made out of space-metal, or something like that - not having the right kind o' metal was * most common complaint while * was trying to fix it, anyhow.

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Yes, that's "Granny Clampett" up there as viewpoint character, at least sort of - on the show, she was Jed's dead wife's mother, not his, and Jed may have been a bit older. Of course, Grany can be a bit of an unreliable narrator, as her references to "President Andrew Jackson of the Confederate States of America" and "Sherman's Retreat to the Sea" in various episodes would illustrate, but I had the image of some tough little hillbilly woman suddenly appearing in a rowboat or something (don't examine this too closely) and making a row when the ship's security guys try to hold her, saying "Don't tell me what I cain't do, sonny boy, cause I'm here all'a way around the world ain't I? And don't go shakin' that parcel neither 'cause it's got the cake for my young'un's eighteenth inside and we're going to celebrate it together right an' proper, don't you think we won't," etc.

Now, this is just one example of how that kind of background could work grown out of that silly scene idea, and it would need a good investment in Mental Traits and scavenging/mechanical skills during character creation, but like I said it is a way to get a wing pack equipped Klogg


in the party (I've decided to use the more saucer like version

and Chulogg name as a new model that's replaced the Klogg by the time the invasion rolls around) - but only one. There was barely a hundred scattered across the entire globe, so while it's not impossible to turn up a few more as things progress the majority by far were snapped up by governments or manufacturing companies or, yes, discredited scientists with a lab/hangar on a remote island inhabited only by themselves and their beautiful daughter, to study and try to duplicate.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows