Remember the Alamo!

Artemis awoke to the sight of a burlap ceiling. After a brief inspection, he found himself in the back of a covered wagon filled with weapons and ammunition....very antiquated weapons and ammunition.

"Nice of Greyman to...." before Artemis could finish, he took notice of his legs....that he swore he left on his Human body. He found himself in possession of a younger version of his body (albeit in period clothing)...the very one Lars Lindstrom fatally wounded and left useless. What the fuck happened?

A blow glow caught Artemis' attention, he lifted a tarp to find his MS scanner with an audio message pre-loaded.

"Hello Dr. Pritchard" Artemis recognized Greyman's voice. "You'll notice that you're no longer a floating brain. As much as the sudden appearance of a cyborg in the past would help us in the creation of paradoxes, it will not help you gain the cooperation of locals. I have provided you with a hard-light holographic matrix that will cover your ILIAD with a period appropriate body..."

Artemis pulled one of his sleeves back and found the controls, he dropped the hologram and revealed his ILIAD body, safe and sound. "Whew, there's no way in science that I'd be able to adjust to being a squishy weakling again"

"....additionally, I took the liberty of fetching your 'Bug out Bag' from the future, it would be rather hard for a super-scientist to do his job without the proper tools, no? You will find it in a chest bearing your family insignia, I recommend you keep it hidden for the time being. One final note, I pulled your family from the Blue Dwarf prior to its destruction and have deposited them in a break in time where they will be safe until Brittany is long gone. Good luck"

Artemis scrambled over to the chest Greyman mentioned, prying it open and finding his familiar duffel bag inside.

The wagon lurched, and tipped over, sending Artemis flying into a support beam.
Outside, men yelled in Spanish over the bursts of gunfire.

The burlap cover was cut away, revealing an ornately dressed soldier.

"Coge el hijo de puta!" someone yelled, Artemis was dragged out of the wagon and tossed to the ground. He found himself along a desert trail, surrounded by Spanish speaking soldiers and the corpses of his wagon-mates.

"Dispararle en la cara!" an officer yelled with a smile on his face. The soldier grinned and put the muzzle of his rifle against Artemis' head.

"STAND AND DELIVER!" someone yelled, a tomahawk cutting through the head of the soldier. The soldiers were beset by a single man, who gleefully tore them to pieces.

The man walked over to Artemis. "Get up Zeb! That bastard Santa Anna will probably send more peons if we're not quick!" Suddenly, Artemis recognized the man...his distant ancestor Artemis "Bull" Pritchard III, the hellspawn of a refined New York Pritchard and a half-insane cowboy. He was the proverbial black sheep of the "Artemis" line, being the only Pritchard not born in New York, and being a manly man mad-scientist/soldier.

Then things started to make sense.

Artemis the third, the Spanish speaking soldiers, Santa Anna....he was in Texas during the Texas Revolution. And the "Zeb"? He was probably posing as Zebediah Pritchard, "Bull" Pritchard's younger brother and a science officer to the Texan army. Artemis remembered doing a report on Bull and Zeb in high school, he did a presenation on Bull's last stand at his lab...where he single handedly killed fifty men before winning the battle in an arm wrestling match against a mexican Major.

Bull held out his hand, Artemis grabbed it and was roughly pulled up to his feet, and smeared with the blood of the Mexican soldiers.

"Er...thanks, Bull" Artemis said. His muscular uber-macho ancestor let out a hearty laugh "Any time, especially if it means smashing a man's skull with the skull of his superior officer....good GOD that is an outstanding way to kill a man!"

Bull pulled the tomahawk out of the head of the fallen soldier, and wiped the blood on his pants. "Say what you will about them injuns, they make one hell of a throwing weapon!"

Another wagon pulled up behind Bull.

"Is Zeb the only one that made it?" the man riding shotgun asked.

"Unfortunately Colonel, but I'll be damned if those Mexican fucks will get away with it!" Bull said.

Artemis recognized the other man, Colonel James Bowie.

"Colonel, I uh....suffered quite a bump on the head, could you remind me where we're heading?" Artemis asked.

"The Alamo, we're under orders to remove the artillery and destroy the mission before Santa Anna can get his hands on it" Bowie replied.

The battle of the Alamo? It wasn't what Artemis envisioned when they were tasked with destroying history, but he was up to the challenge of defeating Santa Anna's army.

"Let me fetch my chest from the wagon, it has my...." before Artemis could finish, Bull threw the chest into the bag of the wagon. "...never mind"

Artemis and Bull hopped onto the wagon, and began the trip to the Alamo.

"Are you sure abandoning the Alamo is a good idea?" Artemis asked Bowie. "If it falls then who will stop Mexico from taking Bexar?"

"It is a valid argument Dr. Pritchard, but we have our orders" Bowie replied.

"Orders? Feh! I'd rather die a traitor than give any more land to those bastards!" Bull yelled. "What kind of men would we be if we conceded?"

Bowie mulled it over in his head. "We'd need more men"

Later

Upon arriving at the Alamo, Bowie and Colonel James Neill decided that they would hold their ground, after more convincing from Artemis and Bull. At that point, preparations began.

Colonel Neill headed out to look for more men and supplies, and in the meantime, Artemis set up shop in the Mission.

As he was setting up his lab, Bull handed a rifle to Artemis. "Better arm up Zeb, lord knows when Santa Anna will be here!"

"Bull, I am no soldier, I am a scientist! You are....a mix of both, but how do you expect us to win this battle without any sort of advantage?"

Bull mulled it over. "You might have a point"

"Think about it. We're heavily outnumbered, there's no chance in hell we can win without some sort of preparation. What we need....are superweapons"

"hmmm....I have been working on an incendiary rocket using an old Chinese design" Bull said. "But we still need more men to actually use these 'superweapons'"

"Leave that to me...."

Artemis sent out a group of runners to the nearby settlements to look for the other dwarfers, giving them hand drawn portraits of everyone who was rescued by Greyman. They each had a written message....

The battle for the Alamo is about to happen very soon, this is our chance to create our first paradox. I am preparing superweapons for the upcoming battle and could use some help, get to the Mission ASAP.

-Artemis

In the meantime, Artemis got to work making a prototype for a steam-powered mechsuit.....

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So, anyone up for a steampunk battle against the Mexican army?