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Sir George Cavendish
George Cavendish is in charge of the government department set up to investigate and try and understand the technology left behind by the Martians. He is in his early fifties, with a greying beard and an expansive, larger-than-life air.
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James Horton
Sir James Cavendish's assistant. He is shorter and younger, dark and neat, with sharp eyes that missed nothing and a mysterious air.
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Sergeant David Blake
A slim, dark-featured young Artilleryman with an intense manner, Blake is an artillery soldier in the 7th Heavy Artillery. Your entire battery was wiped out early in the war with the Martians, after which you fell into company with John Smith, the Journalist, whom you regard as an intellectual and a good fellow.
After you were separated, you came to the conclusion that the Martians were impossible to beat, and that Mankind could only survive by going into hiding and degenerating into some kind of sentient rat. Only the strongest and most useful people were fit to survive. Mixed in with this, however, was your basic nature which is to try and let other people do most of the work wherever possible, and not to let the chance to relax a bit, enjoy what remains of life where possible and savour the good things normally available to people of the classes above yours. Your dreams are magnificent, but your application and capabilities do not match up to them.
With the unexpected victory, your persuasive tongue and genuine patriotism secured you promotion to Sergeant and a reputation as a knowledgeable Martian war veteran. Your dearest wish remains to somehow get control of and take into battle a Martian Fighting Machine, taking the fight to the Martians – or the French, or the Prussians, or anyone – on their own terms.
You have, however, been posted to Whitehall for something “hush hush” and are gloomily sure it will be dull.
(There doesn’t have to be any more David Essex in this character than you want there to be!)