[Scenario Seed] The Grey Ghost.

[Catsmate]

A quickie from my Ideas file, which desperately needs cleaning. It would suit the Misfit Mob or any Earthbound group, though time travellers could also get involved.

The Grey Ghost.
The Grey Lady was, and quite probably is, a Consolidated B-24 Liberator (wiki), specifically a B-24H, that was built and served during World War 2. It was assigned to the 118th Bombardment Squadron¹ of the USAAF 34th Bombardment Group².
On a mission against targets in Northern France in May of 1944 in support of Operation Overlord, the plane was listed as lost with all crew (eleven).

About ten hours it reappeared on the ground at its base in RAF Mendlesham³ a few hours later

• Curiously reports vary greatly in their description of the aircraft's airworthiness, ranging from 'immaculate' to 'fir only for scrapping for parts'.
  

The plane was renamed Silver Voodoo and assigned to a new crew. After a single sortie over France the crew refused, as a group, to ever fly the aircraft again. They were held for court martial while the aircraft was examined.
On a test flight the Grey Ghost disappeared again, along with the two pilots and flight engineer. The crew were quietly released, broken up and reassigned to other aircraft and units.

• The plane is a typical four-engined heavy bomber of the period, large and lumbering, with a maximum speed of about 480km/h (dependent on fuel, payload and altitude). It is armed with ten heavy machine guns and over twelve thousand rounds of ammunition for them and carried, on the mission on which it first disappeared, ten 500lb M-64 general purpose bombs.
  

Sometime last night the Grey Ghost returned home; this morning farmers⁴ found her sitting on the last remaining full-width section, at the north-east end, of runway 02/20. Most of the rest of that runway remain, though reduced to single-track farm access road. Some of the land is operated as a grass field for micro-light aircraft.

There is no way a twenty-seven tonne aircraft could have been brought there, there is equally no possibility of a conventional landing⁵. But there she sits, loaded with eight tonnes of aviation fuel and those four-and-a-half tonnes of bombs.

Someone better investigate.




Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?




1. A fictional squadron

2. A real unit. USAAF Group = RAF Wing.

3. A real place, though little of the airfield remains.

4. Most of the base was returned to agricultural use.

5. Which would require a minimum of five hundred metres.

[thewarchief]

How about:

The Grey Ghost was the victim of a Nazi experimental vortex gun.

IN 1943 a group of time agents were discovered while on a mission in Nazi Germany. The team were disguised as British SOE in case they were discovered, which in fact they were. Most of the team escaped using their Vortex Manipulators, an act that was witnessed by some German guards. One Time Agent was not so fortunate, and was captured because his Vortex Manipulator was damaged during the mission.

The German's assumed that te Vortex Manipulator was some sort of suicide device, similar to cyanide pills, based on the stories told by the guards, with that claim being supported by an rather elaborate tale told by the captured Time Agent (who was rescued en route to Belin, when the vehicle transporting him to Gestaspo Headquarters in Berlin for further questioning was destroyed during allied aircraft - a fact known to the time agents).

The Vortex Manipulator was not destroyed in the attack, as the Time Agency believed, but instead was being worn by a Gestapo Officer who survived the attack.

The Germans scientist studied the damage Vortex manipulator and figured out enough to be able to focus the effect into a sort of beam. Their idea was that it was a weapon that could destroy objects, and would be a perfect anti-aircraft weapon, as operators wouldn't need to "lead" enemy aircraft to account for the speed of the bullets. Early experiments were promising.

When the device was ready for field testing the Grey Ghost ended up being the weapon's first enemy target. The plane was hit and vanished into the time vortex with the usual distortion effect of a vortex manipulator. But instead of destroying the Liberator as thought, it instead sent it into the time votrex. THe combination f damage to the device, power loss over range, and 20th century engineering meant that while the vortex gun can send a object into the vortex, it can't sent it that far, and the object base code became somewhat unstable resulting in "after jumps".

So the Grey Ghost reappeared some time later, at a reasonably close distance. In Time Vortex terms, for this particular device, "reasonably close" can be defined as anywhere in Europe or maybe anywhere on Earth, and anywhen within a few hours, probably within a few days, worst case within a months, but few definitely within the same year, probably. At least that's what we think.

Then the newly renamed Silver Voodoo Ghost suffered an "After Jump" and the view of the vortex spooked the crew so badly that crew refused to fly it again.

The second after jump is a good example of what "unprotected" time jump means as the two pilots and engineer were separated from the plane in the vortex.

Then the third after jump sent to to the farm.



About The Plane: The plane will probably make a couple more jumps before it's base code stabilizes and it returns to being a normal airplane. Although how many such jumps, and where and when the plane will end up before it all over only the GM can say. . Personally I'd go with 1d6 jumps per success level of the attack. Or maybe the base code won't stabilize and the aircraft will either keep having after jumps or eventually end up in the vortex permanently.

B-24H Liberator
Armour: 6 Hit Capacity: 26 Speed: High Altitude 10 (20 compared to a car)
Armaments:
Ten 12.7mm Browning A/N M2 Machineguns, in four twin turrets (nose, top, ball turret underneath, and tail) with two waist guns.
Caliber: 12.7mm (.50 caliber)
Range Increments: 75/300/450
Damage: 6/8/13
Ammunition: 2500 per gun (belt fed)
Notes: Automatic, Burst, Semi (selectable), THe twin turrets get +1 to attack

Bomb Load: 
Short range (400 mi [640 km]): 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) = sixteen 500 lb. M64s
Long range (800 mi [1,300 km]): 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) = ten 500 lb. M64s
Very long range (1,200 mi [1,900 km]): 2,700 pounds (1,200 kg) = five  500 lb. M64s


Up to 78 M64s for a 1200kg- 3900kg bomb load depending on the range of the mission.)

M64 500 pound General Purpose Bomb
Damage: 11/22/33
Blast Radius: 20/50/100






About the Vortex Gun: It disappeared from history. Maybe it was destroyed by allied bombers; maybe in a commando raid (possibly by another team of time agents); maybe it was captured by allied troops and sent off to Great Britain, the US, or the USSR for further research; maybe it backfired and sent itself through the vortex; maybe it just gave up the ghost.
And Maybe it hit a few more allied planes (or tanks) before it did so.


Vortex FlaK Gun
Range Increments: 2500/12000/18000
Damage: None (but target experiences 1d6 microjumps in the space time vortex at random interval per success level)
Ammunition: None (powered by the vortex manipulator)
Notes: Beam Weapon (+2 to attack), Automatic*, Burst*

* probably untested and might produce (even more) unpredictable results