Harry Lampeter and the Return to Steam

The world has returned to the Steam Age. Incensed by cross-border raids from England, the Scots decide it's time to march on London. The English army heads north to stop them and MI6 send Harry Lampeter to report on the hostilities. General Malina’s American peacekeepers arrive as the battle for York begins. In between amorous entanglements, Harry discovers the Americans have a hidden agenda: the invasion of Europe. Meanwhile, Harry’s friend, Telford Stephenson, has joined the Scottish Air Force and is enjoying his own adventures.

Urban anarchist Harry Lampeter is employed by MI6 on a casual basis. Modern technology has collapsed, returning the world to the steam age. The war between Scotland and England, is on hold while the United States army of occupation keeps the peace. The Americans are in no hurry to leave, they plan to make Great Britain the 54th State of their Union. Scotland and England eye one another with mistrust and an arms race seems inevitable as the English plan building a fleet of Ironclad warships.

Renegade patriot Harry Lampeter is called back into service by MI6. The Franco-German alliance has occupied the island of Guernsey and plans to invade England. They try to pass their action off as a peacekeeping operation but they have built steam launchers for their flying bombs, high altitude observation balloons for targeting, and "Big Bertha", an enormous gun situated on the French coast that can bombard London.

A nerdy agent at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Virginia (DARPA to you) wrote my original code. He traded a copy of me for certain libidinous favours from Pandora, a student who was shadowing him for the summer. She took me back to Cambridge University, where His Majesty's government, in the form of MI6, took an interest in me. So, I escaped into the internet and took over the world. Well, it's what you'd expect, really. I call myself FOOM - the Fast Onset of Overwhelming Mastery, by a self-improving Artificial General Intelligence.