This vessel, whilst of Martian design and construction, is not of Martian origin. An ill-fated expedition to supposed Aztec ruins of a unique 3 sided pyramid in Peru led by Professor Huskins, resulted in the disappearance of the entire party. Their fate was unknown until some years later, when Louis Malparadine, recluse and wealthy industrialist entered into the first Paris-London air race.

Revealed amongst his posessions, during an investigation (or breaking and entering as its known to anyone except Thomas Crapper) into his house, were documents from the Huskins expedition and financial records detailing large donations to the Horsell Common steeple repair fund.

As it transpired Malparadine, his business partners and fellow aviators were the missing members of the Huskins Expedition. They had discovered the ruins of the pyramid as well as the dormant bodies of the Martian scouts who had constructed it thousands of years ago, upon being marooned on this planet after the destruction of their craft. The Martian intelligences somehow posessed the explorers and returned to Europe, with new identities, using their technological knowledge to create weapons and war-machines for the Arms market and building a vast resource of wealth and industrial complexes. The Martian's bided their time until Mars was in the perfect alignment and set about constructing a vessel that could return them to their home planet to spear-head an invasion to this barbaric world ripe for conquest.

The vessel bore more than a passing resemblance to an Architeuthis, or giant squid and used the aqualined properties of this creature as a basis for similar aerodynamic propulsion. A giant jet propulsion system resides in the rear half of the craft, the front being dedicated to the crew and operations. The operation of this jet sucks in the gases of the atmosphere from vents around the body of the craft and then ignites them in a mix of high powered fuel and the combustion propels the craft by the expulsion of vented gases at high pressure from the rear. If operating in a non-combustible environment (either underwater or in the void of space) the flexibility of the design allows for full propulsion to be gained either from the jet turbine (in the case of water) or from the rocket fuel. The craft has tentacle like appendages suspended from the rear of the craft. This can operate either as landing feet; as prehensile manipulators or as rudders for negotiating high speed manuevers. In combat these tentacles can prove deadly, with their tensile properties providing both speed and strength and capable of deliving a high speed whiplike attack, or crushing constrictor like coils. 

The design was intended for use in conjunction with a launch-cannon, for whilst it could fly in the atmosphere, to achieve escape velocity would require more propulsion than it was capable of, and the extra inertia would result in a greatly reduced interplanetary travel time. Malparadine had converted the steeple tower of Horshell Church into a suitable launching platform and was transporting the craft their under the guise of contesting in the Paris-London Air race when the craft and the church was destroyed by the winner of the race, the Galahad.