Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
So anyone want to see the chaos of current internal politics?
The Lonely Earth - Earth ISOT into Magitek fantasy
- Thread starter Spartakrod
- Start date
- Original Post-1900 Supernatural
- Location
- The Old Dominion
Ah but the internal politics of where? I imagine internal politics are a mess everywhere with the metaphysical long knives coming out among the more dysfunctional political parties.
Also I wonder how many atheists are going to become Alatrists and Misothiests giving the nature of this brave new world?
Also I wonder how many atheists are going to become Alatrists and Misothiests giving the nature of this brave new world?
Aperture lemon
Eat this and you will get super powers or tumors
- Location
- Canada
I wonder what Alex Jones is doing. He should interview some aliens.
Baron Zoront Iur Folkith
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Excerpt from "The Baron of Bones" - By Zande Fikila, Kokono Collective Press
Baron Zoront iur Folkith is the greatest ace of the Strakhul air force and a name that lives on in infamy among the elite circle of aerial aces. Once he and his wife Horoth were the greatest pilots in the Urthithic Imperial Air Force with a kill tally that ran into dizzying numbers across no less than a half dozen wars. However Baron Folkith was destined to never inherit his mother's county due to being the seventh child and his personal life prospects were bleak, with very few friends outside of his marriage to fellow air combat enthusiast Horoth. A large part of this was his unsettling degrees of bloodlust, Zoront lived to kill in the skies and grew increasingly anxious the longer he remained on the ground without the chance to kill. Eventually however, to his horror the supply of wars dried up as the Empire sought to consolidate and enjoy a time of peace without further destruction. For a time he and Horoth served as mercenaries until Urthith forbade its citizens from serving in such a capacity to stop an epidemic of former soldiers seeking to inflame existing conflicts once cut out of the downsizing armed forces.
........
Unwilling to adjust to civilian life, Zoront and Horoth were allowed back into the air force to train new pilots and perhaps pass on a measure of their skills and emporic prowess to newer pilots and keep the Imperial Air Force sharp. However, Zoront's bloodlust eventually proved uncontrollable as his boredom grew impossible to ignore or satiate with training rookies or facing training drones. On one night fighting mission, the Baron and his wife pulled their planes out of the formation and began firing on their own recruits during a live fire exercise and started to bomb the air base before fleeing the scene. All attempts to shoot them down ended in failure, and they raided many an aerial caravan to keep their planes flying and stocked with ammo as a massive aerial manhunt was launched to stop the two. Though no one could shoot the two down, whether by surface or aerial attack, they were chased far over the sea and eventually far from any nearby aerial convoys as caravans were instructed to move their transports out of their vicinity.
The Folkiths' aircraft ran out of fuel and began to dive towards the ocean. That should have been the end of things, had portals to the Dark realm version of their home worlds not been opened by a planar storm that kept pursuers off their tracks. The two should have died, but the presence of the ambient dark magic and their insatiable thirst for slaughter brought them into the depths of unlife as their planes were charged by the haunted energies they attracted by their stubborn will to make war forever. Flesh was scalded off their bones and Druzh wrapped tightly around their bodies to turn them into Bone Knights; cursed warriors forever seeking battle, the martial counterpart of the Lich who refuses to accept the possibility of mortality in the pursuit of magical enlightenment. There they sold their services to whomever could keep their naked desire to kill and love of flying in the thick of battle satiated.
........
Eventually the Strakhul Cabal contacted them during expeditions into the Dark Realms and they have served with them ever since; lured by the promise of Strakhul's ambitions and the wars that they would surely enjoy. Masters of the skies over a thousand battlefields, they were invaluable assets for advancing the aerial campaigns of the Cabal and for passing on their skills to both sapient undead pilots, and providing echoes for mindless undead pilots to follow; programs to emulate as the Conclave of Shadows expanded its dominion. It was not long before the very sight of their customised and personalised aircraft would strike terror in the hearts of airmen around the Zonth ocean region. Their battlefield prescience that made them so deadly in previous war zones would serve to make them the scourge of the Zonth Ocean region out of all proportion to how many kills they actually acquired.
........
The Folkiths have formed the Deathshrike Squadron, an infamous formation of some of the very best undead fighter aces within Strakhull's cursed air force. While the Folkiths have betrayed a number of other masters, the Strakhul consider them to be reliably loyal due to them being able to satiate their greatest need; to kill in the freedom of the skies with the best planes they can offer. For the glory of eternal battle, the Folkiths would follow the Strakhul to the very end. So great is the terror of the Folkiths and Deathstrike Squadron that military officials have released propaganda videos trying to diminish the nervousness of airmen who run the risk of encountering them; all while seeking to avoid giving them the chance to kill enemies to prevent their legends from growing, stop their accumulation of empora, and hopefully bore the Folkiths enough to make them give up.
Baron Zoront iur Folkith is the greatest ace of the Strakhul air force and a name that lives on in infamy among the elite circle of aerial aces. Once he and his wife Horoth were the greatest pilots in the Urthithic Imperial Air Force with a kill tally that ran into dizzying numbers across no less than a half dozen wars. However Baron Folkith was destined to never inherit his mother's county due to being the seventh child and his personal life prospects were bleak, with very few friends outside of his marriage to fellow air combat enthusiast Horoth. A large part of this was his unsettling degrees of bloodlust, Zoront lived to kill in the skies and grew increasingly anxious the longer he remained on the ground without the chance to kill. Eventually however, to his horror the supply of wars dried up as the Empire sought to consolidate and enjoy a time of peace without further destruction. For a time he and Horoth served as mercenaries until Urthith forbade its citizens from serving in such a capacity to stop an epidemic of former soldiers seeking to inflame existing conflicts once cut out of the downsizing armed forces.
........
Unwilling to adjust to civilian life, Zoront and Horoth were allowed back into the air force to train new pilots and perhaps pass on a measure of their skills and emporic prowess to newer pilots and keep the Imperial Air Force sharp. However, Zoront's bloodlust eventually proved uncontrollable as his boredom grew impossible to ignore or satiate with training rookies or facing training drones. On one night fighting mission, the Baron and his wife pulled their planes out of the formation and began firing on their own recruits during a live fire exercise and started to bomb the air base before fleeing the scene. All attempts to shoot them down ended in failure, and they raided many an aerial caravan to keep their planes flying and stocked with ammo as a massive aerial manhunt was launched to stop the two. Though no one could shoot the two down, whether by surface or aerial attack, they were chased far over the sea and eventually far from any nearby aerial convoys as caravans were instructed to move their transports out of their vicinity.
The Folkiths' aircraft ran out of fuel and began to dive towards the ocean. That should have been the end of things, had portals to the Dark realm version of their home worlds not been opened by a planar storm that kept pursuers off their tracks. The two should have died, but the presence of the ambient dark magic and their insatiable thirst for slaughter brought them into the depths of unlife as their planes were charged by the haunted energies they attracted by their stubborn will to make war forever. Flesh was scalded off their bones and Druzh wrapped tightly around their bodies to turn them into Bone Knights; cursed warriors forever seeking battle, the martial counterpart of the Lich who refuses to accept the possibility of mortality in the pursuit of magical enlightenment. There they sold their services to whomever could keep their naked desire to kill and love of flying in the thick of battle satiated.
........
Eventually the Strakhul Cabal contacted them during expeditions into the Dark Realms and they have served with them ever since; lured by the promise of Strakhul's ambitions and the wars that they would surely enjoy. Masters of the skies over a thousand battlefields, they were invaluable assets for advancing the aerial campaigns of the Cabal and for passing on their skills to both sapient undead pilots, and providing echoes for mindless undead pilots to follow; programs to emulate as the Conclave of Shadows expanded its dominion. It was not long before the very sight of their customised and personalised aircraft would strike terror in the hearts of airmen around the Zonth ocean region. Their battlefield prescience that made them so deadly in previous war zones would serve to make them the scourge of the Zonth Ocean region out of all proportion to how many kills they actually acquired.
........
The Folkiths have formed the Deathshrike Squadron, an infamous formation of some of the very best undead fighter aces within Strakhull's cursed air force. While the Folkiths have betrayed a number of other masters, the Strakhul consider them to be reliably loyal due to them being able to satiate their greatest need; to kill in the freedom of the skies with the best planes they can offer. For the glory of eternal battle, the Folkiths would follow the Strakhul to the very end. So great is the terror of the Folkiths and Deathstrike Squadron that military officials have released propaganda videos trying to diminish the nervousness of airmen who run the risk of encountering them; all while seeking to avoid giving them the chance to kill enemies to prevent their legends from growing, stop their accumulation of empora, and hopefully bore the Folkiths enough to make them give up.
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Flectarn
Uphold Kali Akuno Thought
- Location
- Queen City of the Ohio
This sounds more like something Eternal President Kim Il-Sung would do.
Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
Oh yeah, doesn't North Korea technically count as a Necrocracy? Will it be invaded on that basis?
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
I would have thought someone would have commented what is essentially an ace combat antagonist to be vexing future air forces.
And yes, empora does work on vehicular aces.
And yes, empora does work on vehicular aces.
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Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
I was going to say if he's unbeatable in air-to-air then fire some SAM nukes at him.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
The best counter to a high empora ace is your own high empora ace. Or defeating the country supporting him on the ground so your own ace of aces can have some climactic battle near an almost ready to fire superweapon.
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- Pronouns
- she/her
Don't forget the tunnels.
- Location
- Meycauayan, Bulacan, Philippines
Won't sustained nuclear bombardment put an end to this guy?
Then again...the planet itself might personally suddenly stop the battle and then start yelling at Earth for going full on MAD just to take out an ace pilot while Strakhul forces are running away from a possible continent killing strike by the living planet.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Empora-empowered individuals are very hard to kill "offscreen" like that. Think of it as in-universe Plot Armor.
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Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
That just means you aren't using enough nukes.
Chapter 8: Adventure ho!
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Bridge of the RNS Therig, 63 hours after Translocation
"Been at this job for ten years, and will be glad to stay for a thousand more if that's what it takes." The Hobgoblin said, their piggish nose sucking in a gout of air as aircraft raced off of the deck of the aircraft carrier.
"Always something new while on duty." They said with a bit of a sniffle, Jim Bitterman flinching as the sounds of distant thunder rumbled far away from the warship.
"Who exactly are you engaging?" He asked, taking a look at the fox eared and nine tailed admiral; named Airak Seilron if he remembered correctly; with some disbelief. How odd, he was ready to accept a literal hobgoblin in front of him but a foxboy was giving him so much more trouble with his ability to accept what he was seeing with his eyes. Was it the sense of familiarity or that as far as he knew people like that were generally female and usually in weird cartoons he never watched?
"Monsters." The Admiral said as he adjusted his hat and blinked a few times before checking the viewing crystal for confirmation.
"...Would you mind elaborating for my audience back home?" He asked, his face starting to quirk an eyebrow.
"We seek out large and wild things that threaten cities, ships, people in general. Dangerous work to be sure, but the Royal Navy of Rasla is up to the task." He said. Part of what was throwing Jim off about Airak was that he looked...young...late teens? Early twenties? Who could even tell with ethereal looks like those?
"With all this firepower I'm expecting that lethal options are usually on the table, am I correct?" The red eyed Kitsune looked at him and nodded.
"Obviously."
"Why not just move the animals?" Airak looked at him as if he was stupid and Jim immediately flinched from the thin vertical pupils of the fox-folk.
"When we have to move in it's because the druids can't or won't do it for us in a way that lets our ships move through."
"So is this about convenience for you?" He asked, and immediately Airak's chipper demanour disappeared.
"It's about keeping people at sea safe from being eaten or shipwrecked."
"I'm just asking whether you've considered all the possibilities for dealing with the issue that's all."
"I'm not the admiral for negotiating, I'm the admiral for hunting quarry. And we've just found ours." He said with his sly grin returning once he had a look at the crystal and saw that his submarinal assets had been doing quite well so far. The creature was surfacing...and quickly.
"Can you describe what you're looking for perhaps?" He asked as the ship rocked through the waves.
"Why not see for yourself?" He said, letting the CNN reporter have a look through the crystal which zoomed in on the shape of a massive worm like creature stretching its manta like wings and emerging from the water after explosions rocked through the water. Coiling tendrils of wind surrounded it and lightning from the bound clouds above speared into the creature while magical energies sought to bind its wings. But the beast refused to fall as it spiralled into the air; aircraft and other flight capable combatants dancing around the enormous beast as almost blinding explosions struck into its hide, making it reel with pain.
In all his years as a reporter he never quite imagined he'd get to see a real life sea monster.
"What is that thing?!" He said breathlessly, almost shaking as he realised that the thing had to be at least three times as long than this aircraft carrier
"Grumble worm, they've been causing a problem for merchant shipping for a while and we've been asked to deal with it. It'll make a nice trophy don't you think" The admiral said with a smile as warships with focusing crystals released bursts of damaging magic to strike at the colossal creature; others seeking to leech its strength. Airships hammered away at its flanks as the creature let out a deafening rumble that compressed the air around it; forcing aircraft and other fliers to pull back.
"All ships are permitted to fire at will!" Admiral Airak shouted through the comms, and the night sky glowed as day with every warship opening up at once with a volley of cannonades, guns, missiles, energy weapons and more esoteric projectiles.
The colossus turned to the side, symbiotes and parasites living on its body detaching to try and intercept threats to their livelihoods while the segmented body of the giant flapped its wings with as much strength as possible to deflect some of the incoming projectiles, its deep rumble thinning out the herd of incoming blows a little more. However spells cast by a cabal of mages flying aboard the backs of airborne creatures made a brief hole in its sonic fields to let the aviation arm's daring pilots and aerial strike teams through. His frantic reporting barely caught up with the events unfolding in front of him.
The strike of an enchanted axe across its hide caused enough pain for its sonorous roar to stop briefly, letting explosives detonate against its hide while mages sought to freeze the creature's wings with gouts of cold and writhing tendrils of energy that wrapped around it, sapping its strength and vitality all the while.
A cacophony of firepower raged around it before at last, a knight riding upon the back of a dragon rushed into the creature's mouth while their companion let loose a stream of sunlike flame with a roar; a glowing golden lance in hand; exploding forward like a comet at speeds so quick that he seemed to teleport. Explosions bulged from within the worm's body before the knight exploded out the tail of the creature as its body ruptured into a spray of viscerae.
"Holy shit...I want an interview with that guy. C-can I speak to them?"
"Adraco? I'll let him know you're up for a talk with him. Ever spoken to an adventurer before?"
"Where I'm from adventurer means someone who goes on hikes to foreign places, not a superhero."
"Sounds boring honestly. But Adraco's pretty popular for a good reason. Quite dashing isn't he?" Airak said, the boyish looking kitsune rubbing his chin thoughtfully and smirking mostly to himself as the adventurer's dragon flew overhead, barding gleaming as a quick spell banished the gore and gunk that had gathered upon the dragon Hyralthix and her rider. He pulled off his helmet and the redheaded kitsune's ears perked up once freed from the confines of the armet. Hair spilled out to the midpoint of his neck and the crew was quick to move to praise him.
"I'm sure you'll see more of him when we come in to advise your fleets on proper warfare." Airak said with a fanged grin.
Antarctica, 64 hours after translocation
The ice in Antarctica was starting to show dangerous signs of radical transformation ever since the fall. Translocated to a wholly different climate as it was, it was unlikely that its biome was going to be recognizable given just a few years barring a rapid change in ocean currents. They were still working a model on the effects of the translocation, but they'd need more data to make a firm hypothesis. The issue was that the data being reported elsewhere was weird and it seemed to be rather arbitrary as to which regions reported drastic changes or not. More research had to be done, and their orders from the American government were pretty clear about the need to stay in their position and examine all the effects until further notice.
"Figures we'd need the sky to break before I got to speak directly with an administration.." Dwayne Masterson said, he had been to Antarctica enough to go through many administrations that doubted the seriousness of his work and his cynicism was as profound as his beard was grey.
"It's not all bad, the data we'll collect is going to be revolutionary." Jane Winters said, standing next to him and examining the shoreline with a zoomed in camera to see how a flock of penguins were doing.
"With our luck they're going to seal it off and never read a word of it." He said with a bitter, caustic laugh that was soon returned.
"Where do you think we are on the planet?"
"Couldn't say, I'd need to get familiar with the starcharts here." He said, sitting on a rocky outcropping. He was getting too old to be standing all the time.
"I'm sure they'll ask us to do work elsewhere though, so got that to look forward to." Dwayne said as he watched the waves crash against the cliffside.
"Whole new world to explore. We'll be funded for a lifetime!" Jenna said, patting Dwayne on the back as he laughed and shook his head, rubbing at his dark, bristle haired chin.
"I might just miss this icebox though. I've been here so much it's almost like home." He said, his eyes focused on orcas breaching out of the water as if they were terrified by something. Never an encouraging sign, Orcas were the undisputed apex predators of the seas, nothing but humans or the weather could scare them off.
"...Jane, we've got a situation with the pod." He said, tapping her shoulder to get her attention focused on the whales.
A massive worm like body emerged from the water with an explosion of the sea's essence being thrown around in all directions. An armoured serpentine creature with no head emerged, followed by one more serpentine limb after the other before Dwayne realised he was staring at some sort of cephalopod like creature. However the way the plates moved called to mind the body of some sort of worm, a vast multi-bodied annelid that inhaled vast amounts of krill through sieves that proved to be razor sharp as the seal that was sliced into ribbons upon being caught by this motion proved.
He estimated its tentacles had to be hundreds of meters long, but its body remained hidden beneath the ocean. It was clear however, that compared to the blue whales that were fleeing from the enormous beast that it was titanic beyond compare.
"Are you getting this?" He said, stumbling for any sort of recording equipment as the scientists excitedly chattered with one another, exclaiming wildly about its sheer size and power while its tendrils extended flaps to "scoop" water into its mouth to devour as much as it could; the odd reddish hide of the titanic wormsquid undulating as it squirted excess water out of biological jets in massive fountains of briney fluid, enormous eyes wide open.
"I'm getting everything! God it's beautiful! What else could be living in these oceans?" She said, giddy at the thought of so many undiscovered species, imagining what sort of ecosystem would be needed begin to support such a titanic beast.
However an interruption would draw their attention to the left shortly enough as another researcher, Debera; stepped in waving her arms to get their attention.
"Hey I got radio contact with one of the other bases. They're telling us to watch the seas for incoming ships."
"What kind of ships?" Jane asked as a distant horn sounded far away. Not the loud bellow of a foghorn, but something far more tribalistic sounding.
Southern Zonth Oceans, 64 hours after translocation
Aerva Drekisdottir af Egilssen had been hunting this Kraken for months. The deaths Hargulfthir had inflicted would end now. She had chartered a fleet of hardy raiders and pirates acquired through her powerful influence as a great adventurer, and would settle this old grudge here and now.
More than two and a half meters tall, with ice blue skin and frosty white hair that went to the small of her back, Aerva was seen as fetching by some and terrifying by others. Muscular and knife eared, she exuded power, and her cold blue eyes burned with intensity. Her two tone blue runic plated armour; with thicker armour slabs supplementing more conventional armour plating atop areas that needed little flexibility; began to glow with power while she let out a low growl. She could smell Hargulfthir on the air, a gift of her dragon's blood.
With a spell her vision became a hundred times greater and she met the beast's eyes as he fed on krill and other wildlife near a continent her divinations said would have appeared earlier this day. She smirked and thanked the Goddess Ulhrahyf for her good fortune and bellowed her command.
"Get the shamans and arcanists ready! Man the guns! Sound the horns! And clear out of the way of my axe!" She said as her crew of mostly other frost-folk opened the doors and stepped to the side of her blade and spike tipped weapon, catching it by the haft as it flew towards it at whip like speeds.
The weapon was a pollaxe, dragon runes etched into its primary bladed bit while the leather of a skinned daemon wrapped tightly around its light leistal metal haft. The hammerhead oppose the axe bit was imbued with a powerful curse to weaken defences, and the speartip at the top blessed to unerringly seek the most vulnerable point of her foes. Some hunters preferred the safety of guns, arrows, spells, or other such weapons; but Sarl was her longtime companion.
She scooped up her helmet, a full face one piece helm with two pairs of horns, the first two emerging at the brow and curving forwards and the next two emerging from the temples and extending upwards in a shape not unlike the arms of a compound bow. Mostly the colour of a glacier with a deep blue plate sealing the guard over her mouth, nose, and the orbits around the eye-holes shut with angled armour, powerful runes on it glowed as she slipped it over her war paint decorated face, her hair seeming to disappear into the helmet as it was contained via its magic that sealed the helm shut over her head, and the seemingly empty eye-holes glowed with blue light.
Her cloak; made from the pelt of a skinned three headed beast; flapped in the seasprayed winds behind her as she stood just before the dragon bow of her personal ship, the Drekidrepur; Dragon-slayer. The bones of a slain white dragon were mounted all throughout the construction of this flagship, but the skull was kept here, its power forever bound to her. And now she could feel that power pointing her to the Kraken to ready her for her battle with this enemy; fitting when Krakens were to the sea as Dragons were to the sky.
The sonorous arctic war horns of her fleet sounded one after the other, telling the Kraken that there would be no escape. This would be to the end. To the death.
The first blows fell upon the kraken with the crack of artillery. As she expected the Kraken would be swift to conjure its magics, a shimmering wall of force to intercept her projectiles long before they struck. No matter, she had other tricks.
"Mages, you tell me that you are great spellcrafts. You tell me that your union is worthy of joining me in battle. Come on then, prove it! Get that worm out of the waters, let him taste the sky so we may taste his blood!" She said, her voice carried by a spell to the whole of her hunter fleet.
With the proper gestures, the magics her fleet could bring to bear dared to clash with the sorceries of the great Kraken. The beast was old and powerful, on its own it could lay waste to a nation, but she brought the best along with her to aid her and her old fighting companions.
The air and waters quivered and shuddered as the seas roiled and clashed with themselves to try to lift the creature out of its element.
A spell of haste brought her and her ship moving at supernatural speed, and she deflected incoming strands of magic that sought to unmake her companions in a flurry of swings
The beast raised its tendrils into the air and spirals of Druzh crackled between them. The evil stench of the black and purple energies of dark magic drew a snarl from her as she cast her hand into the air and beseeched her gods through her divine magics to rain down thunderbolts and great lances of the sun's light blessed with their might.
Experience and time made her far more capable with her divinia than most other priests, but to try and call magic directly against Hargulfthir was like trying to pull a shark through a small hole in a reef.
But it was distraction enough that Hargulfthir's spell began to fizzle before it could be unleashed. Something of great importance when none of her ships could react quickly enough to deal with it when it was cast. But this gave enough time for another volley to strike into its defences, explosions rippling through the air as she shouted a command to surround Hargulfthir and get her ship closer, before she made contact with Hargulfthir.
"You are a long way from the ice caps Aerva. Given up on fighting for the old country? Are you so desperate to chase after an old ghost when your clan are left as vagrants?" The creature rumbled, his mind magicks carrying his thoughts directly to her as she steeled herself, her ship rushing forward and lifting itself from the water, born aloft by its magics as she struck the Dragon skull on her ship to awaken its old frost.
White and blue energies crackled through the dead beast's bones and leaped out of its open mouth, blasting the Kraken with cold enough to lay waste to a legion, the creature roaring in pain as the arcane cold swept over it.
"For my brother and our families; nowhere is too far to chase you." She said as the beast tore open the way to the dark mirrors of reality, calling forth beasts of shadow through ragged doors between the planes and a dance of ghosts; a swirling tide of unliving spectres who sought to steal the souls of her and her crew.
Not so, as her companions and hirees sought to close the Kraken's portals while fire rippled across its body she raised the bear and dragon medallion on her neck and bid the wraiths begone.
Her axe swung and a crescent of force was projected, slicing into the beings of shadow that the Kraken sought to call forth, and she cursed the Kraken to fall; her axe biting into the mantle of the worm beast and making it shriek with pain as her craft flew by its side.
The ripples of explosions and the clash of blades into skin and armour stronger than any steel served to distract the creature as she and her companions each sought to make their most important blows.
She was moving like a blur, her axe clashing with subtendrils of the kraken that lashed around like whips and hardened themselves like mystic adamantine, loud clashes of metal marking everu parry and riposte.
Her armour held, its runes and hardened plating offering shield and sanctuary against blows that could lash a lesser ship in half, and her own body was more than tough enough to power through any discomfort she felt.
Another telling blow was made as her axe found and sought its weakness, making the beast howl as their magics called its summoned aid to its side.
She reached her arm out to the first creature, a demon of smoke and ash with no throat nor breath to draw. By the will of her prowess she choked the life out of it and smashed aside a wraith who sought to ambush her.
A dead thing made from some great and terrible bat sought to fly at her; she swung her axe hard enough that its slice reached across the sky and carved thousandsof foes in half in a single blow. To the observers, it seemed like gotterdammerung as every blow was accompanied by the clap of thunder. Hargulfthir's sinister power and the energies of the adventurers who hoped to slay him coiled around each other like a storm, and it would not be long before it would be noticed; as naturally a battle between a great kraken and a great adventurer would.
Bridge of the HMAS Hobart, 66 hours after translocation
Gathered from the navies of Chile, South Africa, and Australia; the Antarctic task force would serve as an ad hoc early warning system over the quickly shifting southernmost continent. Lead by the HMAS Hobart, the combined fleets steamed towards the unknown supercell storm in a formation meant to keep each ship within each other's anti-air range. Relatively close, and quite safe. Briny water roiled and raged with the energies being unleashed and lightning and thunder crashed in the distance.
Captain John Stavridis checked the radar feeds with concern as unknown bogeys flashed on and off, as if they flickered in and out of existence.
"Captain, we've got visual." An ensign said as a drone; modified to provide direct visual instead of satellite uplink transmission. The enormous form of Hargulthir rose like a dread colossus, a blackened and purplish island that rose to the surface with flailing tendrils and a head bearing many malevolent eyes staring in all directions tremendous power clashed with equally great might. A legendary battle of heroine vs monster, a great clash that would be the stuff of songs and legends throughout Xarazanth given how rare it was for a beast of Hargulfthir's calibre to be fought on anything resembling even ground.
"Christ..." He said as the Kraken's deep grumbles could be heard throughout the waters and air.
"What's our best option here?" He asked.
"Nearby nuclear submarines. Got some American ones operating close by. Not sure if any would have tactical nuclear missiles, but they can crack a carrier's back like a Popsicle stick." Another ensign said.
"How long would it take for a bomber to reach here?" John said, looking at a map of nearby American military bases and squinting as he thought on his gameplan.
"Hours."
"We haven't got bloody hours. Your opinion on engaging?" He asked as his ship approached the outer edges of the storm.
"Dunno...doesn't seem like our fight, but there are nearby civilian researchers." He said.
"Who are those ships?" John asked, trying to look at anything that he might actually feel in control of.
"According to the manuals from the Atericilit they're ah...hold on." He said, quickly trying to match the sihlouettes of the ships to something, the process taking more than a minute before he finally found a match and blinked a few times. That was kind of new.
"...Private warships?" He said with confusion.
"Privateers?" John said, starting to grow more concerned.
"No more like some kind of mercenary outfit. The Sabre-Tyrant's fangs." He said, showing the entry to his captain who took a quick moment to scan through the manual and the appendix entry on the Sabre-Tyrant's Fangs, ships in service to the adventuress Aerva Egilssen who fled persecution in the North Pole from...huh, demon worshippers was it? Seems like she and a fleet comprising of mercenaries, sympathisers, adults from her clan who were forced out of the north pole, and others came with her in a great armed fleet that sold its services in the hopes of gaining a home some day, somewhere.
Okay, he thought. She sounds somewhat reasonable, but why come all the way out here...must be something to do with the Kraken she was busily duelling. Australia needed allies that could be reliably trusted to be in its favour and her people needed a home from their pursuers in the cold and barbaric north. An idea was now hatching in his head.
Battle against Hargulfthir 66.5 hours after translocation
A series of missiles struck at the Kraken from the sides as it howled from the loss of a tentacle; the appendage starting to regrow rapidly while Aerva bled from a cut across the gut from one of the Kraken's harder blows with a sharpened tendril. She snarled and placed a hand to her stomach to mend the injury and tried her best to seal the metal of her runic armour closed while she huffed. She waved aside assistance.
"Don't worry about me Solveig." She said gently as the creature turned its attention to the source of its injury and insult. She turned her own attention and saw a good sized fleet in the distance. None of the ships were terribly large, but they were packed with missiles.
She took a moment to try and peer beneath the waves with her spellcraft to see what was going on beneath the ocean as submersibles sought to wear at the mighty Kraken's power, whale like Skanans battled with the monstrous things of shadow and demonic hatred drawn from the outer realms and the dark worlds. She pulled back before the next wave of torpedoes struck the creature before she decided to make her next command once she sensed the beast's foul life force beginning to ebb after hours of battle and countless weeks of pursuit and running engagements.
It was time she decided, and she turned to one of her companions as they shot a whole row of shadowy, ink like tendriculous out of the sky with their sniper rifle. "I'm going to jump onto the beast's hide and tear out its heart. But I need a distraction. Get the newlanders to strike the creature hard enough for its eye to be turned towards the sun." She said, pointing at Alvi with an outstretched finger and then to the the fleet before nodding her head in the direction of where she wanted the beast to turn.
Then she whistled to one of her companions who turned their head towards her as the sound was carried by a spell. "By the grace of the blizzard take the beast's eye. Through tempest and maelstrom carry you and your crew through Russveig. For vengeance and justice make Hargulfthir pay with his misbegotten soul! Onwards!" She said as she stopped to stab her axe through the coils of dark magic being summoned that could flatten her fleet, coiling the Druzh around the axe and channeling the needed Lyrr to balance it out and cast it back at Hargulfthir with enough force to knock the enormous kraken to the side with enough force to swamp the shores of the cold continent to her south with tidal waves.
She waited precious minutes as her axe carved through the air with expert, tireless grace; each blow felling an army of beasts, her movements taking her to each corner of her ship's deck to prevent any foe from boarding as magic and her physique carried her at speeds sufficient to guard her old, proud vessel. But she needed her moment, and when Alvi reported that the sending spell could not reach the others through the mystic interference she swore out loud and balled her hand into a fist as the runes on her armour glowed a bright blue; punching forward to shatter some of the magic caging their words within the storm and sending a comet like streak of blue energy into the sky.
"There's your opening." She said before a tendril grabbed at her leg while she was distracted and pulled her off ship. Alvi sought to grab her, but she waved her back.
"I'll deal with it. Make sure Russveig does his duty or I'll have his heart next." She said, with the quiet Alvi simply nodding back as she pushed off and leaped towards the creature with the spear head of her axe aimed downwards.
Explosions soon rained across the beast and throughout the air to intercept the flying monstrosities that the Kraken had summoned; founts of water erupted to spray brine from the results of the undersea battle, and hot, druzh tained blood spilled from the kraken at last as he turned in the hopes of reorienting his power to prepare another devastating spell after reducing another of her ships to a haunted husk once her mystic defences buckled.
Russveig did not dissapoint however, and the mystic prow of his ship slammed into Hargulfthir's eye once he dipped low enough into the water, the Kraken's pupils expanding once they realised what had been concealed from them in the skeins of fate and the creature screaming in agony once they were blinded in that dreadful eye. Yet more missiles from the foreign fleet found their way towards the creature, aimed into already open wounds to widen them with concussive force and burning fuel. Not enough to slay the beast, even with the quickly cast spells of augmentation laid upon them to strike with Lyrric power that was as anathema to the beast and to focus and amplify their force for maximum power, but enough for her to use one of the wounds to carve her way into the creature in a fountain of blood.
The creature thrashed and writhed with small tsunami generating force until at last it flailed no more as Aerva tore her way out of another wound with the viscera of the slain defenders within the kraken staining her armour and a piece of its heart in her hand as she roared out in victory. Battered and scalded from the evil blood yes, but victorious.
Vengeance was hers, and the way for her people's migrant fleet was finally opened.
Antarctica, 68 Hours after translocation
But it wasn't too long after the Frost-folk began to land upon antarctica that the Australian lead fleet disembarked its own delegation under its flag and garbed in winter gear; a stiff salute coming from Captain John as the cold loving elfin giants of the Kraldurmauer turned to look upon the men who approached them beneath the night sky.
"Captain John Stavridis of the Royal Australian Navy, you have quite an interesting entry in this manual of ships and fleets I must say." He said, offering a hand to shake.
"Aerva Drekisdottir af Egilssenm though you seem to know a little of me already. Do you own these melting lands?" She said, shaking the man's hand with a grip that John was very much glad wasn't full force.
"That's a very complicated question to answer. But I am willing to put in a word for you in any negotiations to stay here. If you are willing to listen to what Australia might have to offer you."
"Go on, John." She said, staring down at him through her helmet.
"You need a home...we need allies and if something isn't done to cool it; I'm told that this whole place is going to melt but maybe you might be able to fix that. I think that can be the basis of a good partnership." He said.
"Been at this job for ten years, and will be glad to stay for a thousand more if that's what it takes." The Hobgoblin said, their piggish nose sucking in a gout of air as aircraft raced off of the deck of the aircraft carrier.
"Always something new while on duty." They said with a bit of a sniffle, Jim Bitterman flinching as the sounds of distant thunder rumbled far away from the warship.
"Who exactly are you engaging?" He asked, taking a look at the fox eared and nine tailed admiral; named Airak Seilron if he remembered correctly; with some disbelief. How odd, he was ready to accept a literal hobgoblin in front of him but a foxboy was giving him so much more trouble with his ability to accept what he was seeing with his eyes. Was it the sense of familiarity or that as far as he knew people like that were generally female and usually in weird cartoons he never watched?
"Monsters." The Admiral said as he adjusted his hat and blinked a few times before checking the viewing crystal for confirmation.
"...Would you mind elaborating for my audience back home?" He asked, his face starting to quirk an eyebrow.
"We seek out large and wild things that threaten cities, ships, people in general. Dangerous work to be sure, but the Royal Navy of Rasla is up to the task." He said. Part of what was throwing Jim off about Airak was that he looked...young...late teens? Early twenties? Who could even tell with ethereal looks like those?
"With all this firepower I'm expecting that lethal options are usually on the table, am I correct?" The red eyed Kitsune looked at him and nodded.
"Obviously."
"Why not just move the animals?" Airak looked at him as if he was stupid and Jim immediately flinched from the thin vertical pupils of the fox-folk.
"When we have to move in it's because the druids can't or won't do it for us in a way that lets our ships move through."
"So is this about convenience for you?" He asked, and immediately Airak's chipper demanour disappeared.
"It's about keeping people at sea safe from being eaten or shipwrecked."
"I'm just asking whether you've considered all the possibilities for dealing with the issue that's all."
"I'm not the admiral for negotiating, I'm the admiral for hunting quarry. And we've just found ours." He said with his sly grin returning once he had a look at the crystal and saw that his submarinal assets had been doing quite well so far. The creature was surfacing...and quickly.
"Can you describe what you're looking for perhaps?" He asked as the ship rocked through the waves.
"Why not see for yourself?" He said, letting the CNN reporter have a look through the crystal which zoomed in on the shape of a massive worm like creature stretching its manta like wings and emerging from the water after explosions rocked through the water. Coiling tendrils of wind surrounded it and lightning from the bound clouds above speared into the creature while magical energies sought to bind its wings. But the beast refused to fall as it spiralled into the air; aircraft and other flight capable combatants dancing around the enormous beast as almost blinding explosions struck into its hide, making it reel with pain.
In all his years as a reporter he never quite imagined he'd get to see a real life sea monster.
"What is that thing?!" He said breathlessly, almost shaking as he realised that the thing had to be at least three times as long than this aircraft carrier
"Grumble worm, they've been causing a problem for merchant shipping for a while and we've been asked to deal with it. It'll make a nice trophy don't you think" The admiral said with a smile as warships with focusing crystals released bursts of damaging magic to strike at the colossal creature; others seeking to leech its strength. Airships hammered away at its flanks as the creature let out a deafening rumble that compressed the air around it; forcing aircraft and other fliers to pull back.
"All ships are permitted to fire at will!" Admiral Airak shouted through the comms, and the night sky glowed as day with every warship opening up at once with a volley of cannonades, guns, missiles, energy weapons and more esoteric projectiles.
The colossus turned to the side, symbiotes and parasites living on its body detaching to try and intercept threats to their livelihoods while the segmented body of the giant flapped its wings with as much strength as possible to deflect some of the incoming projectiles, its deep rumble thinning out the herd of incoming blows a little more. However spells cast by a cabal of mages flying aboard the backs of airborne creatures made a brief hole in its sonic fields to let the aviation arm's daring pilots and aerial strike teams through. His frantic reporting barely caught up with the events unfolding in front of him.
The strike of an enchanted axe across its hide caused enough pain for its sonorous roar to stop briefly, letting explosives detonate against its hide while mages sought to freeze the creature's wings with gouts of cold and writhing tendrils of energy that wrapped around it, sapping its strength and vitality all the while.
A cacophony of firepower raged around it before at last, a knight riding upon the back of a dragon rushed into the creature's mouth while their companion let loose a stream of sunlike flame with a roar; a glowing golden lance in hand; exploding forward like a comet at speeds so quick that he seemed to teleport. Explosions bulged from within the worm's body before the knight exploded out the tail of the creature as its body ruptured into a spray of viscerae.
"Holy shit...I want an interview with that guy. C-can I speak to them?"
"Adraco? I'll let him know you're up for a talk with him. Ever spoken to an adventurer before?"
"Where I'm from adventurer means someone who goes on hikes to foreign places, not a superhero."
"Sounds boring honestly. But Adraco's pretty popular for a good reason. Quite dashing isn't he?" Airak said, the boyish looking kitsune rubbing his chin thoughtfully and smirking mostly to himself as the adventurer's dragon flew overhead, barding gleaming as a quick spell banished the gore and gunk that had gathered upon the dragon Hyralthix and her rider. He pulled off his helmet and the redheaded kitsune's ears perked up once freed from the confines of the armet. Hair spilled out to the midpoint of his neck and the crew was quick to move to praise him.
"I'm sure you'll see more of him when we come in to advise your fleets on proper warfare." Airak said with a fanged grin.
Antarctica, 64 hours after translocation
The ice in Antarctica was starting to show dangerous signs of radical transformation ever since the fall. Translocated to a wholly different climate as it was, it was unlikely that its biome was going to be recognizable given just a few years barring a rapid change in ocean currents. They were still working a model on the effects of the translocation, but they'd need more data to make a firm hypothesis. The issue was that the data being reported elsewhere was weird and it seemed to be rather arbitrary as to which regions reported drastic changes or not. More research had to be done, and their orders from the American government were pretty clear about the need to stay in their position and examine all the effects until further notice.
"Figures we'd need the sky to break before I got to speak directly with an administration.." Dwayne Masterson said, he had been to Antarctica enough to go through many administrations that doubted the seriousness of his work and his cynicism was as profound as his beard was grey.
"It's not all bad, the data we'll collect is going to be revolutionary." Jane Winters said, standing next to him and examining the shoreline with a zoomed in camera to see how a flock of penguins were doing.
"With our luck they're going to seal it off and never read a word of it." He said with a bitter, caustic laugh that was soon returned.
"Where do you think we are on the planet?"
"Couldn't say, I'd need to get familiar with the starcharts here." He said, sitting on a rocky outcropping. He was getting too old to be standing all the time.
"I'm sure they'll ask us to do work elsewhere though, so got that to look forward to." Dwayne said as he watched the waves crash against the cliffside.
"Whole new world to explore. We'll be funded for a lifetime!" Jenna said, patting Dwayne on the back as he laughed and shook his head, rubbing at his dark, bristle haired chin.
"I might just miss this icebox though. I've been here so much it's almost like home." He said, his eyes focused on orcas breaching out of the water as if they were terrified by something. Never an encouraging sign, Orcas were the undisputed apex predators of the seas, nothing but humans or the weather could scare them off.
"...Jane, we've got a situation with the pod." He said, tapping her shoulder to get her attention focused on the whales.
A massive worm like body emerged from the water with an explosion of the sea's essence being thrown around in all directions. An armoured serpentine creature with no head emerged, followed by one more serpentine limb after the other before Dwayne realised he was staring at some sort of cephalopod like creature. However the way the plates moved called to mind the body of some sort of worm, a vast multi-bodied annelid that inhaled vast amounts of krill through sieves that proved to be razor sharp as the seal that was sliced into ribbons upon being caught by this motion proved.
He estimated its tentacles had to be hundreds of meters long, but its body remained hidden beneath the ocean. It was clear however, that compared to the blue whales that were fleeing from the enormous beast that it was titanic beyond compare.
"Are you getting this?" He said, stumbling for any sort of recording equipment as the scientists excitedly chattered with one another, exclaiming wildly about its sheer size and power while its tendrils extended flaps to "scoop" water into its mouth to devour as much as it could; the odd reddish hide of the titanic wormsquid undulating as it squirted excess water out of biological jets in massive fountains of briney fluid, enormous eyes wide open.
"I'm getting everything! God it's beautiful! What else could be living in these oceans?" She said, giddy at the thought of so many undiscovered species, imagining what sort of ecosystem would be needed begin to support such a titanic beast.
However an interruption would draw their attention to the left shortly enough as another researcher, Debera; stepped in waving her arms to get their attention.
"Hey I got radio contact with one of the other bases. They're telling us to watch the seas for incoming ships."
"What kind of ships?" Jane asked as a distant horn sounded far away. Not the loud bellow of a foghorn, but something far more tribalistic sounding.
Southern Zonth Oceans, 64 hours after translocation
Aerva Drekisdottir af Egilssen had been hunting this Kraken for months. The deaths Hargulfthir had inflicted would end now. She had chartered a fleet of hardy raiders and pirates acquired through her powerful influence as a great adventurer, and would settle this old grudge here and now.
More than two and a half meters tall, with ice blue skin and frosty white hair that went to the small of her back, Aerva was seen as fetching by some and terrifying by others. Muscular and knife eared, she exuded power, and her cold blue eyes burned with intensity. Her two tone blue runic plated armour; with thicker armour slabs supplementing more conventional armour plating atop areas that needed little flexibility; began to glow with power while she let out a low growl. She could smell Hargulfthir on the air, a gift of her dragon's blood.
With a spell her vision became a hundred times greater and she met the beast's eyes as he fed on krill and other wildlife near a continent her divinations said would have appeared earlier this day. She smirked and thanked the Goddess Ulhrahyf for her good fortune and bellowed her command.
"Get the shamans and arcanists ready! Man the guns! Sound the horns! And clear out of the way of my axe!" She said as her crew of mostly other frost-folk opened the doors and stepped to the side of her blade and spike tipped weapon, catching it by the haft as it flew towards it at whip like speeds.
The weapon was a pollaxe, dragon runes etched into its primary bladed bit while the leather of a skinned daemon wrapped tightly around its light leistal metal haft. The hammerhead oppose the axe bit was imbued with a powerful curse to weaken defences, and the speartip at the top blessed to unerringly seek the most vulnerable point of her foes. Some hunters preferred the safety of guns, arrows, spells, or other such weapons; but Sarl was her longtime companion.
She scooped up her helmet, a full face one piece helm with two pairs of horns, the first two emerging at the brow and curving forwards and the next two emerging from the temples and extending upwards in a shape not unlike the arms of a compound bow. Mostly the colour of a glacier with a deep blue plate sealing the guard over her mouth, nose, and the orbits around the eye-holes shut with angled armour, powerful runes on it glowed as she slipped it over her war paint decorated face, her hair seeming to disappear into the helmet as it was contained via its magic that sealed the helm shut over her head, and the seemingly empty eye-holes glowed with blue light.
Her cloak; made from the pelt of a skinned three headed beast; flapped in the seasprayed winds behind her as she stood just before the dragon bow of her personal ship, the Drekidrepur; Dragon-slayer. The bones of a slain white dragon were mounted all throughout the construction of this flagship, but the skull was kept here, its power forever bound to her. And now she could feel that power pointing her to the Kraken to ready her for her battle with this enemy; fitting when Krakens were to the sea as Dragons were to the sky.
The sonorous arctic war horns of her fleet sounded one after the other, telling the Kraken that there would be no escape. This would be to the end. To the death.
The first blows fell upon the kraken with the crack of artillery. As she expected the Kraken would be swift to conjure its magics, a shimmering wall of force to intercept her projectiles long before they struck. No matter, she had other tricks.
"Mages, you tell me that you are great spellcrafts. You tell me that your union is worthy of joining me in battle. Come on then, prove it! Get that worm out of the waters, let him taste the sky so we may taste his blood!" She said, her voice carried by a spell to the whole of her hunter fleet.
With the proper gestures, the magics her fleet could bring to bear dared to clash with the sorceries of the great Kraken. The beast was old and powerful, on its own it could lay waste to a nation, but she brought the best along with her to aid her and her old fighting companions.
The air and waters quivered and shuddered as the seas roiled and clashed with themselves to try to lift the creature out of its element.
A spell of haste brought her and her ship moving at supernatural speed, and she deflected incoming strands of magic that sought to unmake her companions in a flurry of swings
The beast raised its tendrils into the air and spirals of Druzh crackled between them. The evil stench of the black and purple energies of dark magic drew a snarl from her as she cast her hand into the air and beseeched her gods through her divine magics to rain down thunderbolts and great lances of the sun's light blessed with their might.
Experience and time made her far more capable with her divinia than most other priests, but to try and call magic directly against Hargulfthir was like trying to pull a shark through a small hole in a reef.
But it was distraction enough that Hargulfthir's spell began to fizzle before it could be unleashed. Something of great importance when none of her ships could react quickly enough to deal with it when it was cast. But this gave enough time for another volley to strike into its defences, explosions rippling through the air as she shouted a command to surround Hargulfthir and get her ship closer, before she made contact with Hargulfthir.
"You are a long way from the ice caps Aerva. Given up on fighting for the old country? Are you so desperate to chase after an old ghost when your clan are left as vagrants?" The creature rumbled, his mind magicks carrying his thoughts directly to her as she steeled herself, her ship rushing forward and lifting itself from the water, born aloft by its magics as she struck the Dragon skull on her ship to awaken its old frost.
White and blue energies crackled through the dead beast's bones and leaped out of its open mouth, blasting the Kraken with cold enough to lay waste to a legion, the creature roaring in pain as the arcane cold swept over it.
"For my brother and our families; nowhere is too far to chase you." She said as the beast tore open the way to the dark mirrors of reality, calling forth beasts of shadow through ragged doors between the planes and a dance of ghosts; a swirling tide of unliving spectres who sought to steal the souls of her and her crew.
Not so, as her companions and hirees sought to close the Kraken's portals while fire rippled across its body she raised the bear and dragon medallion on her neck and bid the wraiths begone.
Her axe swung and a crescent of force was projected, slicing into the beings of shadow that the Kraken sought to call forth, and she cursed the Kraken to fall; her axe biting into the mantle of the worm beast and making it shriek with pain as her craft flew by its side.
The ripples of explosions and the clash of blades into skin and armour stronger than any steel served to distract the creature as she and her companions each sought to make their most important blows.
She was moving like a blur, her axe clashing with subtendrils of the kraken that lashed around like whips and hardened themselves like mystic adamantine, loud clashes of metal marking everu parry and riposte.
Her armour held, its runes and hardened plating offering shield and sanctuary against blows that could lash a lesser ship in half, and her own body was more than tough enough to power through any discomfort she felt.
Another telling blow was made as her axe found and sought its weakness, making the beast howl as their magics called its summoned aid to its side.
She reached her arm out to the first creature, a demon of smoke and ash with no throat nor breath to draw. By the will of her prowess she choked the life out of it and smashed aside a wraith who sought to ambush her.
A dead thing made from some great and terrible bat sought to fly at her; she swung her axe hard enough that its slice reached across the sky and carved thousandsof foes in half in a single blow. To the observers, it seemed like gotterdammerung as every blow was accompanied by the clap of thunder. Hargulfthir's sinister power and the energies of the adventurers who hoped to slay him coiled around each other like a storm, and it would not be long before it would be noticed; as naturally a battle between a great kraken and a great adventurer would.
Bridge of the HMAS Hobart, 66 hours after translocation
Gathered from the navies of Chile, South Africa, and Australia; the Antarctic task force would serve as an ad hoc early warning system over the quickly shifting southernmost continent. Lead by the HMAS Hobart, the combined fleets steamed towards the unknown supercell storm in a formation meant to keep each ship within each other's anti-air range. Relatively close, and quite safe. Briny water roiled and raged with the energies being unleashed and lightning and thunder crashed in the distance.
Captain John Stavridis checked the radar feeds with concern as unknown bogeys flashed on and off, as if they flickered in and out of existence.
"Captain, we've got visual." An ensign said as a drone; modified to provide direct visual instead of satellite uplink transmission. The enormous form of Hargulthir rose like a dread colossus, a blackened and purplish island that rose to the surface with flailing tendrils and a head bearing many malevolent eyes staring in all directions tremendous power clashed with equally great might. A legendary battle of heroine vs monster, a great clash that would be the stuff of songs and legends throughout Xarazanth given how rare it was for a beast of Hargulfthir's calibre to be fought on anything resembling even ground.
"Christ..." He said as the Kraken's deep grumbles could be heard throughout the waters and air.
"What's our best option here?" He asked.
"Nearby nuclear submarines. Got some American ones operating close by. Not sure if any would have tactical nuclear missiles, but they can crack a carrier's back like a Popsicle stick." Another ensign said.
"How long would it take for a bomber to reach here?" John said, looking at a map of nearby American military bases and squinting as he thought on his gameplan.
"Hours."
"We haven't got bloody hours. Your opinion on engaging?" He asked as his ship approached the outer edges of the storm.
"Dunno...doesn't seem like our fight, but there are nearby civilian researchers." He said.
"Who are those ships?" John asked, trying to look at anything that he might actually feel in control of.
"According to the manuals from the Atericilit they're ah...hold on." He said, quickly trying to match the sihlouettes of the ships to something, the process taking more than a minute before he finally found a match and blinked a few times. That was kind of new.
"...Private warships?" He said with confusion.
"Privateers?" John said, starting to grow more concerned.
"No more like some kind of mercenary outfit. The Sabre-Tyrant's fangs." He said, showing the entry to his captain who took a quick moment to scan through the manual and the appendix entry on the Sabre-Tyrant's Fangs, ships in service to the adventuress Aerva Egilssen who fled persecution in the North Pole from...huh, demon worshippers was it? Seems like she and a fleet comprising of mercenaries, sympathisers, adults from her clan who were forced out of the north pole, and others came with her in a great armed fleet that sold its services in the hopes of gaining a home some day, somewhere.
Okay, he thought. She sounds somewhat reasonable, but why come all the way out here...must be something to do with the Kraken she was busily duelling. Australia needed allies that could be reliably trusted to be in its favour and her people needed a home from their pursuers in the cold and barbaric north. An idea was now hatching in his head.
Battle against Hargulfthir 66.5 hours after translocation
A series of missiles struck at the Kraken from the sides as it howled from the loss of a tentacle; the appendage starting to regrow rapidly while Aerva bled from a cut across the gut from one of the Kraken's harder blows with a sharpened tendril. She snarled and placed a hand to her stomach to mend the injury and tried her best to seal the metal of her runic armour closed while she huffed. She waved aside assistance.
"Don't worry about me Solveig." She said gently as the creature turned its attention to the source of its injury and insult. She turned her own attention and saw a good sized fleet in the distance. None of the ships were terribly large, but they were packed with missiles.
She took a moment to try and peer beneath the waves with her spellcraft to see what was going on beneath the ocean as submersibles sought to wear at the mighty Kraken's power, whale like Skanans battled with the monstrous things of shadow and demonic hatred drawn from the outer realms and the dark worlds. She pulled back before the next wave of torpedoes struck the creature before she decided to make her next command once she sensed the beast's foul life force beginning to ebb after hours of battle and countless weeks of pursuit and running engagements.
It was time she decided, and she turned to one of her companions as they shot a whole row of shadowy, ink like tendriculous out of the sky with their sniper rifle. "I'm going to jump onto the beast's hide and tear out its heart. But I need a distraction. Get the newlanders to strike the creature hard enough for its eye to be turned towards the sun." She said, pointing at Alvi with an outstretched finger and then to the the fleet before nodding her head in the direction of where she wanted the beast to turn.
Then she whistled to one of her companions who turned their head towards her as the sound was carried by a spell. "By the grace of the blizzard take the beast's eye. Through tempest and maelstrom carry you and your crew through Russveig. For vengeance and justice make Hargulfthir pay with his misbegotten soul! Onwards!" She said as she stopped to stab her axe through the coils of dark magic being summoned that could flatten her fleet, coiling the Druzh around the axe and channeling the needed Lyrr to balance it out and cast it back at Hargulfthir with enough force to knock the enormous kraken to the side with enough force to swamp the shores of the cold continent to her south with tidal waves.
She waited precious minutes as her axe carved through the air with expert, tireless grace; each blow felling an army of beasts, her movements taking her to each corner of her ship's deck to prevent any foe from boarding as magic and her physique carried her at speeds sufficient to guard her old, proud vessel. But she needed her moment, and when Alvi reported that the sending spell could not reach the others through the mystic interference she swore out loud and balled her hand into a fist as the runes on her armour glowed a bright blue; punching forward to shatter some of the magic caging their words within the storm and sending a comet like streak of blue energy into the sky.
"There's your opening." She said before a tendril grabbed at her leg while she was distracted and pulled her off ship. Alvi sought to grab her, but she waved her back.
"I'll deal with it. Make sure Russveig does his duty or I'll have his heart next." She said, with the quiet Alvi simply nodding back as she pushed off and leaped towards the creature with the spear head of her axe aimed downwards.
Explosions soon rained across the beast and throughout the air to intercept the flying monstrosities that the Kraken had summoned; founts of water erupted to spray brine from the results of the undersea battle, and hot, druzh tained blood spilled from the kraken at last as he turned in the hopes of reorienting his power to prepare another devastating spell after reducing another of her ships to a haunted husk once her mystic defences buckled.
Russveig did not dissapoint however, and the mystic prow of his ship slammed into Hargulfthir's eye once he dipped low enough into the water, the Kraken's pupils expanding once they realised what had been concealed from them in the skeins of fate and the creature screaming in agony once they were blinded in that dreadful eye. Yet more missiles from the foreign fleet found their way towards the creature, aimed into already open wounds to widen them with concussive force and burning fuel. Not enough to slay the beast, even with the quickly cast spells of augmentation laid upon them to strike with Lyrric power that was as anathema to the beast and to focus and amplify their force for maximum power, but enough for her to use one of the wounds to carve her way into the creature in a fountain of blood.
The creature thrashed and writhed with small tsunami generating force until at last it flailed no more as Aerva tore her way out of another wound with the viscera of the slain defenders within the kraken staining her armour and a piece of its heart in her hand as she roared out in victory. Battered and scalded from the evil blood yes, but victorious.
Vengeance was hers, and the way for her people's migrant fleet was finally opened.
Antarctica, 68 Hours after translocation
But it wasn't too long after the Frost-folk began to land upon antarctica that the Australian lead fleet disembarked its own delegation under its flag and garbed in winter gear; a stiff salute coming from Captain John as the cold loving elfin giants of the Kraldurmauer turned to look upon the men who approached them beneath the night sky.
"Captain John Stavridis of the Royal Australian Navy, you have quite an interesting entry in this manual of ships and fleets I must say." He said, offering a hand to shake.
"Aerva Drekisdottir af Egilssenm though you seem to know a little of me already. Do you own these melting lands?" She said, shaking the man's hand with a grip that John was very much glad wasn't full force.
"That's a very complicated question to answer. But I am willing to put in a word for you in any negotiations to stay here. If you are willing to listen to what Australia might have to offer you."
"Go on, John." She said, staring down at him through her helmet.
"You need a home...we need allies and if something isn't done to cool it; I'm told that this whole place is going to melt but maybe you might be able to fix that. I think that can be the basis of a good partnership." He said.
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the atom
Anarcho-Kemalist Thought Leader
- Location
- Comfortably numb
Most Air to air nuclear warheads weren't that large. And depending on the target's agility, it might be the only viable method (Technologically anyways). I suspect this world has a lot better weapons than a sidewinder around and given that this guy still isn't dead (well...you know what I mean) despite engaging in constant air to air combat I doubt conventional air to air weapons will cut the mustard.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
The good thing about the Folkiths is that their planes are one of a kind, very expensive to produce custom jobs and the rest of the air fleet is hugely inferior planewise to the ace custom jobs their aces fly.
Also skeletons/zombies aren't the greatest pilots in the world. They're working entirely off of programmed memories/responses when not being directly remote controlled by a necromancer.
There's a lot of them though, and the intelligent undead (ghouls, wights, wraiths and so on) are rather better at flying and tend to get better planes.
The whole Strakhul army is necessarily divided into a category system because it's too large to equip to the same standard and most of them don't see the point in giving what are essentially corpse drones good equipment. It's also stretched on every possible front at the moment so there's time to breathe.
Also skeletons/zombies aren't the greatest pilots in the world. They're working entirely off of programmed memories/responses when not being directly remote controlled by a necromancer.
There's a lot of them though, and the intelligent undead (ghouls, wights, wraiths and so on) are rather better at flying and tend to get better planes.
The whole Strakhul army is necessarily divided into a category system because it's too large to equip to the same standard and most of them don't see the point in giving what are essentially corpse drones good equipment. It's also stretched on every possible front at the moment so there's time to breathe.
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Why not use anti-ship missiles or torpedoes? Surely ship-killing weapons would work against ship-sized monsters?
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
They were. Hargulfthir is just really big, really tough, and heals quickly. Comes with being a particularly old and powerful Kraken.
Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
I'm wondering how long it will be until the aliens figure out nukes are a thing.
"New race? No magic? Huh, sucks to be them, they're so vulnerable."
I wonder if the aliens have internet and modern telecommunications.
"New race? No magic? Huh, sucks to be them, they're so vulnerable."
I wonder if the aliens have internet and modern telecommunications.
- Location
- Canada
It's pretty clear that some nations have some local communications abilities, up to and including magic that duplicates a video call well and seamlessly enough to connect to a technological video call. That said, such abilities ARE magic, and require individual effort instead of infrastructural effort... which implies that individual states have telecom equivalents for essential governmental and military purposes, but civilian communications are a lot spottier. More to the point, it's unlikely that anything approximating a singular global telecom network exists at all. Instead there are a lot of limited networks of varying capacity and range, that don't generally interconnect for reasons like "we're actively at war with those people, and keeping information out of their hands is a matter of life and death" or "we were at war with those people in living memory, so it'd be unwise to give them access to our information systems" or "we don't have any business with those people, and they're far enough away that establishing regular communications would be very expensive" or "we've only got so many wizards that can cast long-range communication spells, and they're too busy to pass unimportant messages".
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Can we not have the nuclear discourse again?
The largest human ethnicity on the planet (concentrated in the Commonwealth of Teraga) would be considered "black" to Americans though.
And they do, but it works in a rather different way; enough so that working the compatibility issues for a permanent thing like the internet would take a while (not to mention that there's like fifty different approaches to building computers here and precious few of them would be comparable to any ideas we have), and would require lengthy positive relations.
It's also far more sectioned than ours is. Due to all the hostilities between nation states and the apathy of the void crossing powers that are generally far more concerned with the "core spheres" rather than a distant backwater like Xarazanth; most blocs develop their own networks and maybe bother with connecting them to friendly blocs if relations are warm enough and the lines of communication are stable enough.
There's also significant parts of the world that are quite simply no go zones like the Polar ice caps (the meaner denizens of the place are really nasty and its full of monsters), the poisoned zones, shadow lands, "wild" areas, and major conflict zones to name a few. No one without a death wish or an army behind them would bother setting up infrastructure there. And to be frank it is probably not the best idea to be in communication with places like Dark Elven shade-cities or Frost-Folk Curselings in their polar holds. Assuming that you don't die in any number of obscenely terrible ways trying to reach anyone with power over infrastructure in areas with Dark Elf outposts or the Polar wastelands.
A lot of countries just don't see why establishing that sort of communication with countries they're at war with so often would be at all worth it. Many would see such a thing as an outright security hazard. Why provide a direct feed to what they'd see as the propaganda of hostile states? Or worse yet, a continual leak of intelligence that would be a nightmare to properly seal off?
So networks tend to be regional or bloc focused.
Teraga and Verdacora have one of the larger such network blocs because of their more internationalist outlook and the way their society is structured. They're also close allies.
For most states; when dealing with another neutral to hostile or simply too distant and not important enough to be worth the bother of a continual connection they'd prefer to just use an individualised magic connection when people absolutely need to talk and have the means to get someone able to set up that conversation.
Humans exist on Xarazanth.
The largest human ethnicity on the planet (concentrated in the Commonwealth of Teraga) would be considered "black" to Americans though.
And they do, but it works in a rather different way; enough so that working the compatibility issues for a permanent thing like the internet would take a while (not to mention that there's like fifty different approaches to building computers here and precious few of them would be comparable to any ideas we have), and would require lengthy positive relations.
It's also far more sectioned than ours is. Due to all the hostilities between nation states and the apathy of the void crossing powers that are generally far more concerned with the "core spheres" rather than a distant backwater like Xarazanth; most blocs develop their own networks and maybe bother with connecting them to friendly blocs if relations are warm enough and the lines of communication are stable enough.
There's also significant parts of the world that are quite simply no go zones like the Polar ice caps (the meaner denizens of the place are really nasty and its full of monsters), the poisoned zones, shadow lands, "wild" areas, and major conflict zones to name a few. No one without a death wish or an army behind them would bother setting up infrastructure there. And to be frank it is probably not the best idea to be in communication with places like Dark Elven shade-cities or Frost-Folk Curselings in their polar holds. Assuming that you don't die in any number of obscenely terrible ways trying to reach anyone with power over infrastructure in areas with Dark Elf outposts or the Polar wastelands.
A lot of countries just don't see why establishing that sort of communication with countries they're at war with so often would be at all worth it. Many would see such a thing as an outright security hazard. Why provide a direct feed to what they'd see as the propaganda of hostile states? Or worse yet, a continual leak of intelligence that would be a nightmare to properly seal off?
So networks tend to be regional or bloc focused.
Teraga and Verdacora have one of the larger such network blocs because of their more internationalist outlook and the way their society is structured. They're also close allies.
For most states; when dealing with another neutral to hostile or simply too distant and not important enough to be worth the bother of a continual connection they'd prefer to just use an individualised magic connection when people absolutely need to talk and have the means to get someone able to set up that conversation.
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Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
So if I'm understanding you correctly, Earth has no advantages and the few they do (nukes, the United Nations, developed space launch), they are going to squander in this timeline?
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They have knowledge of space and sataliltes? If they manage to launch a bunch of them they would have unparalleled maps of the surrounding area (assuming anti - magic detection systems and things that hide buildings and the like could be seen by satellites, they would have the best intel on other nations as well)
Edit: the two also have novelty goods, such as food (they just brought in a bunch of new spices, farm plants and animals), non magical equivalents to existing technology, music, Andy other odds and ends that's are currently at a premium because they are the only supplier
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- Location
- Earth
They don't have the advantage in space and satellites. The advantage of a satellite can be achieved by a magical hovering platform sufficiently high. That's assuming no scrying or divination spells that could just peek at stuff easier.
ISoT Earth technology and natural sciences might be better, but equivalent and superior capabilities in magic seem to exist. Wait no, Yratum (superscience) exists. Looks like Earth here actually has little or no advantages whatsoever. If the neighbours aren't nice, they might see easy pickings here instead.
One quick question, I've seen posts about the US and China losing internet connection with each other. Were all undersea cables destroyed in the transition?
ISoT Earth technology and natural sciences might be better, but equivalent and superior capabilities in magic seem to exist. Wait no, Yratum (superscience) exists. Looks like Earth here actually has little or no advantages whatsoever. If the neighbours aren't nice, they might see easy pickings here instead.
One quick question, I've seen posts about the US and China losing internet connection with each other. Were all undersea cables destroyed in the transition?