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Despite the water vaporizing, it was still the ocean, and it could not defeat the entire ocean, the rain also continued to fall. As the titan approached the Leviathan, it lunged at it, closing its massive jaw around the titan's torso, such was the size of the Leviathan, it dove into the ocean with the titan and the portal finally closed behind it, Qarrurax' mana reserve almost depleted.
Once back in the Forbidden sea, other Leviathans circled them, each coming in to rip a chunk from the titan like hungry sharks.
“He, heeeeeeeeh. This ‘master’, he made you? Like master Fabius makes his b-b-beautiful creations? Interesting, v-very interesting…”
They excise one of the sacs, and set it aside.
“W-Who is this master? Is he a h-human? Something m-m-more?”
Sol System Space
The Divinity responded quickly, "Do not interfere. We must do this for the sake of all. Should you prevent us from apprehending the individual we seek we will see it as a declaration of war."
With that, the Divinity begins to approach Low Earth Orbit and descends on a direct path toward the Cascadian Capitol.
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Free State of Cascadia
Knight takes the phone, "This is Captain Allison Knight of the United Star Union. The vessel currently in orbit of your planet is a Harmony class enforcer from a nation in my universe called the Dominion of the Mantle. You must comply with anything they request or they will raze this world to the ground. The Union should still be on good terms with them and two Union vessels are en-route to hopefully talk them down from whatever they are planning on doing. For now, you need to have your forces stand down. Any attack, even an accidental misfire, could lead to horrific consequences for your entire world. I will do what I can to answer any questions you have but as of right now the Union is just as confused as you are."
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Cascadian Capitol, 12 Miles From Military Base
8 ducks behind an alleyway away from prying eyes. It's landing in the city had not been what you would call quiet thanks to the crater now present in one of the city parks. Civilians and local police were too stunned to do anything immediately, giving 8 the time it needed to escape. However, that hadn't stopped the police from imminently firing on 8 after the shock and chasing him away from the landing site. 8 had pent the last few minutes using its superior speed and a downloaded map of the city's layout to try and avoid getting caught. It peers out from the alleyway for a second before withdrawing once again. 8 stands still for a moment and a pulse emanates from its body causing an EMP to knock out the local security cameras and power grid. "Well this didn't go according to plan." 8 says to itself and looks up, "Looks like First found out earlier then we expected."
8 Walks further back in the alley to find a small storage shed and opens the door, crushing the lock on the front of it to gain entry. It walks into the small shed which is filled with boxes of materials and food. It taps its wrist and displays the current objects in orbit of earth on a projected hologram. 8 whistles upon seeing the chaos unfolding above Earth, "Sending a Harmony for this?! First what the hell are you thinking?".
8 shakes its head, "I can't risk them destroying a world over this." It stands still for a second weight its options before sighing. It taps another button on its wrist which shifts the hologram to a countdown timer displaying 1 hour and 2 minutes. "Damnit. I need to buy more time."
A series of footsteps at the mouth of the alley causes 8 to pause for a moment before sighing again, "I didn't want it to come to blows, but if that's what I am going to need to do to buy time then I don't have much of a choice. At the very least, it will put Cascadia in good graces with First and the others for the time being. Better try and get out of the city and limit any collateral damage though."
8's body glows for a moment as a particle shield appears around its body. The room begins to crackle with electricity as the shield deploys. 8 looks at the door and prepares to launch itself forward and out of the city center as fast as it can. Seconds before 8 propels itself forward it chuckles to itself for a moment.
"What a hell of a homecoming."
Moments later the shed explodes, and the machine begins to sprint through the city towards the outlying mountains, trying to put as much distance between the coming fight and the city as possible.
Upon the realization that it’s host is no longer responding to stimuli, the [CONFLAGRATOR] is puzzled. It selected a location specifically for safety, and yet its host appeared to still be on the brink of perishing.
It would have to find a host elsewhere, then. How disappointing. At least the amount of [DATA] gathered was acceptable.
[Disconnect->Host]
Mimi spasms once more, her poisoned body twisting as her brain hemorrhages— she vomits forth a torrent of blood and cerebrospinal fluid as the Shard disconnects, before lying still once more; barely alive.
The fiery titan is quickly disposed of by the Leviathans... Leaving all involved with one question.
What the hell was that?
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The other fiery giant lumbers across the plains of Hell, keeping its master safe; even as they twitch and die. Their health is no concern to it-- merely their safety.
Unfortunately, it is a rather stupid thing. Or perhaps ignorant; who could say, really? Either way, it didn't notice the roar of turbines slowly approaching its position.
The sound of weaponry firing does indeed catch its attention, and it turns-- Just in time to be skewered repeatedly by a rapid-fire volley of radiant hardlight beams each about a foot in width and height. They tear through its fiery body with little resistance, if any at all.
It roars, and prepares to attack... Only to be blasted apart by a massive strike of lightning that leaves a crater behind and throws Mimi's body around like a ragdoll; thankful not onto any particularly spikey crags.
"SUSPECTED HOSTILE ENTITY STATUS: EXTERMINATED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE." The Stahlfaust's electronic voice booms.
It had been sent to investigate just what exactly that roar was, and hopefully identify the source... and neutralize it if need be. Evidently, it had thought that it had succeeded.
"SECONDARY UNIDENTIFIED ORGANISM DETECTED. STATUS: UNCONCIOUS; PENDING EXAMINATION. VERITAS IMAGING INITIATED..."
A massive spotlight(?) falls upon the elf, projected from the Stahlfaust.
"...SCAN POSITIVE FOR AETHERIC ENERGY FIELD; EMISSIONS OF ELAN VITAL ENERGY MINIMAL. CONTACTING EXTRACTION TEAM."
————(1.5 HOURS LATER, ORGANIC CARE WING OF THE CLEMENCY MEDICAL CENTER)————
"What have we got?"
"An elf of some kind, a highborn most likely. Seven foot one, weight of 131.3 pounds."
The doctor looks over at the elf. They've been hooked up to all manner of life support; an oxygen mask is on their face, while numerous IVs pump medicine into their veins; a combination of the most advanced stuff drugs could bring through the portal and some more... esoteric stuff... from the MRD.
"Three fractured bones; one of the left humerus, and one of the right femur. Six shattered ribs, you can thank the Stahlfaust for that in particular. Numerous cuts and puncture wounds-- along the latter, there seems to be traces of some kind of ludicrously toxic venom. We had the lab techs analyze it; apparently twelve fluid ounces could theoretically put a fully-grown elephant into the dirt in less than forty minutes. They're sending the samples off to the R&D department; meanwhile, we started our friend here on an IV drip of the most powerful antivenom we could concoct. There's also severe lung damage to the lungs from inhaling the fumes of the continent, and some massive cerebral hemorrhaging for no reason we can discern..."
Their partner thinks for a moment, and crosses their arms.
"...I think they'll live."
"Yeah, I was about to say. Most everything we can't fix with surgery will have to be amputated or removed outright; we can just replace what can't be salvaged with clockwork prosthetics. If those fail, we can just call up the nearby Sarkic church and tell the resident Karcist to get his ass over here."
"Thank God for the Cogwork Orthodox Church, huh?"
"Really."
"...There's also something else. The Metaphysics Research Division wants to offer her a job as a head researcher if she survives."
"But that's... What? Why? We're just gonna give this random nobody a job as a head researcher because... just because?"
"Think about it, Jerry. The highborn elves are some of the most magically-inclined creatures in this entire damn Realm. If whatever insights she possibly has could be applied to our own technology..."
They let the implication sit in the air for a few moments.
"...Huh. Alright then, I suppose... Orders are orders."
————————
It takes two weeks to bring Mimi back to life.
Most of that time is taken up by day-in and day-out surgery. Though much of her organs are ruined by her injuries and her arm has to be removed due to infection, clockwork prosthetics are installed in their place; anything that the technology of the Da'at Yichud can't fix is healed by the thaumaturgies of the local Karcist.
Eventually, she blinks once. Twice.
"...Where am I...?"
Her voice is raspy, strained. She doesn't understand why she can hear so much ticking around her, or what all of this strange equipment is.
The hospital promptly erupts into chaos.
————————
Mimi ‘Burnscar’ Deliondel probably didn’t expect her life to end up with her asked to work under a nation of strange automatons— as one of the head researchers of their ‘Metaphysics Research Department’, no less.
Regardless, it's a suitable enough existence. They had saved her life, so she might as well humor them... for now, at least. Until she got bored.
Thankfully for the 'Zyrothians' as they called themselves, that likely wouldn't be happening for a while. They had brought so many concepts to light that she hadn't even thought of before; like cigarettes, and thermite. Fun, those two were.
Sol System Space
"God damn these Xenos and their f*ckin'..." the Station Texas' communicator grumbled, prior to making another transmission to Divinity, "Divinity, Station Texas. You are currently in violation of Cascadian space, and in any other scenario we'd have shot you tin-cans down before you were half way past the portal, let alone hovering over our Capital!" The communicator warned, "So quit playing f*ckin' games, and tell us what's going on. Do that, and we'll let you do your job. Otherwise, get the f*ck out of my airspace." The communicator cursing over the transmitter was against Cascadian military long-distance communication etiquette, and his unit could potentially be fined for it, but he was understandably angry and the situation was getting tense. "Answer the question, who are you looking for and why?"
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Jefferson
It didn't take the Police to quickly shut the situation down, setting up yellow-tape and no-go zones across the city. The O.I.S.S were deployed on site to investigate it at a rapid pace, and air patrols were set up all around. The explosions had killed virtually no one, but it was being treated like an attack on Cascadian soil. It wouldn't be long before the military showed up. A curfew was being put into effect, and Citizen's Guardsmen and reservists were being called upon to grab their equipment and report to the nearest military patrol or installation. The President of Cascadia himself was alerted, and was advised to move to a bunker, however refused, choosing to remain in his office and coordinate with military command. Plans were being drawn up to conduct an exodus of the city, but only if strikes on the city persisted.
Cascadia was, almost in an instant, in a state of total military alertness. There was much more going on behind the scenes to Cascadia's rapid defense, as Cascadian Aerospace Defense Command began activating all weapons and defensive systems throughout the Free State, from ICBMs and ABMs to their more advanced weapons in their arsenal. Nothing was being launched or fired as of yet, but Cascadia was on full military standby in a surprisingly short amount of time. Already in the country around Jefferson, the military was preparing patrols over the roads and the air. VTOLs patrolled the skies, looking for whatever may have struck them. It was taken note of that there was a foreign ship in Low-Orbit, but thankfully, there was enough evidence to suggest that the shot did not come from the Divinity. The situation was only growing more tense as time went on.
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O'duffy Airbase
"Hold for just a second," Knight heard over the phone, as it exchanged hands, and a brief explanation of the information presented. A man with a much deeper voice responded over the phone, "Captain Knight, I am Minister of Defense Josh Norwood. Currently, we have been more than accommodating to their incursion on our territory. In any other scenario, they'd have been fired upon by now, but they're refusing to inform us as to what's going on and are continuing to press forwards towards the capital and we're not going to tolerate further intrusion until we get some answers." He stated. "I cannot safely order my men to stand down until they've agreed to cooperate or at the very least answer our questions, but what I will do is order them to hold their fire and remain on standby, but that's as much as I can do." He replied. "I assure you, that unless they shoot first, we won't have a thing to worry about. The Cascadian military is known for its strict discipline."
The sac was excised, it felt very watery, as though he was holding some sort of fleshy water balloon.
The Arachnid communicated once more to Savamort, "More. Greater. Superior. A conqueror, a visionary, the future." It spoke again, remaining as anonymous as before. "Humanity is decrepit, archaic, weak. Master offers a new age."
As it spoke, parts of its flesh seemingly began to grow back, albeit at a slow rate. The heart began beating at a more rapid rate as the process was undergone. It was as though the skin and bones were repairing itself at, all things considered, an alarming rate. Upon close enough observation, the excised sacs appeared to be forming vague outlines of where they once were.
The books James was looking for were the ones covering Bestiaries and Physics, but for now, it was more focused on primarily on Bestiaries. He'd thumb through some of the books, pick out a title he could translate fairly easily, and give it a brief reading, checking for its table of contents and reading a few pages out of the book, just for the sake of seeing how much of the content he can understand. For now, he tried to pick out one that was fairly simple and easy to read, something that would act as a good beginner-level for him.
There were several books easy to read in every genre and every bookshelf, but there was a clear distinction between the older and the more recent books. While the older books were thicker and seemed more informative, they contained a lot of conjecture and speculation. Even if he was to read them, it would be hard to understand, as the language was severely outdated.
The more recent and thin the book was, the easier it was to read. Although Lymine didn’t seem to have any children’s books in her library. Each book was based on what she herself would be interested in reading, and among mages, most would only be interested in furthering their power and knowledge.
Sol System Space
As Station Texas finished its reply the Divinity's shield begins to shimmer. The shield begins to narrow and cover only a few portions of the hull of the ship. The particles of the shield then begin to spin until it appears as if they are being woven into a stand of twine, forming strands that cover the entire length of the ship. Nearly 200 of these strands glow along the ships hull and the ship pulls itself off course and towards Station Texas. A response comes from the Divinity, but this time unlike the robotic voices formerly broadcasted by the ship this one sounds feminine and speaks with an authoritative yet gentle tone. "Station Texas, we cannot disclose why we are attempting to secure this individual. While I can sympathize with your position and concern, I will not be able to meet your demands. The answers to both of your questions is something we are not allowed to discuss, even to save a world. I am sorry." The tone of the voice then changes to a harsher one, "If you seek to stop us from retrieving this individual, we will be forced to take action. For your sake, and the sake of your world, I hope caution prevails."
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O'duffy Airbase
Knight thinks for a minute before responding, "I understand, and hope your men are as disciplined as you say. As for the Dominion, I have no idea why they are being so cryptic about responding to you. They have never displayed this behavior in the past. Even towards nations who are hostile toward them they have always acted with respect and transparency. Everything about this situation is contrary to their entire history." She pauses nervously for a moment, "Is there anything about your universe that could be a threat to them? Or maybe something that 8 could find? That's the only thing I could think of."
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Jefferson
"Well this sucks." 8 says to itself looking down another road blockaded by Cascadian troops. A few bullets fly by it and several strike its shield, causing a brief flash as the bullets are dissolved. 8 runs further down to the next road, only to see a similar situation. It has been the same for about the last 15 minutes and 8 was getting pretty tired of getting shot at. Cascadia seemed to have roll out the welcome mat for their intruder and between blockades, helicopters, and random patrols 8 was having a hard time avoiding conflict. 8 came to another road once again blockaded by Cascadian troops. This time, it did not turn around and instead charged the line, shifting its shields forward. A barrage of gunfire impacts the shield, but it holds. Diverting power to its legs, 8 catapults itself over the barricade and begins sprinting again the moment it lands, bullets buzzing by it's head in the process.
"I'm getting really tired of this." 8 says to itself. It was getting nowhere. Every barricade avoided led to three more, and that meant slow progress. It was becoming clear to 8 that the plan to get out of the city to prevent damage was no longer going to work, Cascadia had locked the entire region down too well for it to escape. Escape was out, attack was out, defense was out. 8 was out of options. It looks down at its wrist, 48 more minutes to go. It had to buy the time.
8 comes around another corner to a group of Cascadian troops who level their weapons at the machine. For the first time instead of running or turning 8 stops. "I guess this is the only option." It mutters to itself, "Hope Cascadia is up to what is coming."
8 raises its hands up in the air and drops it's shields. It looks at the assembled troops, "My name is Eighth and I am surrendering myself unconditionally to the Cascadian Military. I will not resist."
Sol System Space
"This stupid motherf..." The Communicator began to swear, before being cut off from direct contact with the Ministry of Defense.
"Station Texas, report in." The Communicator hesitantly replied, "They're refusing to reply to any of our demands. Are we Code Black? Should I tell all forces to open fire?"
"Negative Texas, tell all ships to hold position and remain on standby, but it is imperative that you do not open fire. We apprehended an Interdimensional Suspect, and we're presuming they're the reason they're here." The M.O.D representative replied. "Contact the Dominion ship and offer the suspect." The representative ordered. The Communicator wiped his face, noticing that he had been sweating profusely from the possibility of conflict against the alien race; even though there was only one ship, he knew talking them down so far wasn't working. This was their last immediate option. "Understood. Texas out." He sharply replied. The communication between M.O.D and Texas halted for the time being. The Communicator closed his eyes a moment, and let out a deep exhale before re-opening them, and tapped down on his transmitter, sending another communication to Divinity.
"Divinity, this is Station Texas. We're willing to hold fire for the time being, but that's not what I'm here to contact you about. We have apprehended the suspect we think you're looking for, and we currently have him pinned inside of the city and are moving him over to a more isolated and secure area. If suspect 'Eighth' is the target you desire, tell us, over."
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Jefferson
The units that had encircled them appeared to be larger in stature than your average Cascadian soldier, and were carrying heavier duty weapons; General Purpose Machine Guns, automatic magazine-fed shotguns, and appeared to be wearing much thicker armor than your average Cascadian troop. These were certainly some kind of special-forces. " Suspect Eighth, you are being detained by the Free State of Cascadia Armed-Forces for arson, damage to public and private property and alleged attempted assault on Cascadian personnel, both civil and military. You will be granted the same rights as any Cascadian criminal, including the right to remain silent. Do not move or take any sudden actions, lethal force is still authorized." The soldier warned. One of the soldiers approached, with the intention to restrain 8, and would do so in a civilized manner unless resisted. An APC rolled up near where this was all taking place, likely where 8 was to be transported.
In the event 8 tried something, they had special EMP rounds loaded into their weapons - they'd be capable of shutting down or ridiculously slowing down their target, and the rounds seated in their magazines and belts were pretty large rounds, even for caseless munitions. They'd be more than capable of doing some serious damage should it come to that. The area was presumably, and very likely, surrounded by Cascadian agents and special forces, as in the distance, the Citizen's Guard has began evacuating civilians away from the area where 8 is located for the time-being.
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O'duffy Airbase
"There are all kinds of things on this World that they could be after; Anomalies especially. There are some that could cause some widespread devastation if not handled properly or if found by the wrong people." Norwood replied, albeit in a distracted tone, as though he was multi-tasking. "By the looks of things, we have subject Eight surrounded nearby Keller Boulevard, in Jefferson. We'll most likely be bringing him to be detained in O'Duffy Airbase until further notice." Norwood stated, after a long pause. "We don't know if this will cause a problem with the Dominion, but we're willing to negotiate with them as long as they allow that to remain a possibility."
“Thank you for this information. You have my gratitude.” He says. “We will focus on establishing our industrial base, and you may return home if you wish. If there is more you can do to help us, please do. I won’t stop you.”
Malcolm stood up “There is one thing you should have.” he said and fished up a device from his pocket, it was round with a blue light in the middle, it had three prongs, each situated equally far away from each other, bending to the side giving it the appearance of a high-tech shuriken.
He placed it on the table. The prongs looked quite pointy, but they were not sharp enough to be used for a weapon. He turned the prongs, so they pointed upwards. “This is a rift transponder.” he said. “The light will blink whenever a portal opens between your world and someone else’s, it will also sound an alarm.” he clicked a button on it and it made a high-pitched noise, it sounded vaguely familiar to a fire alarm, pressing down the light, it stopped.
“When you hear that sound, then a portal is opening, and it is possible, perhaps even likely, that travellers may have entered your world.” he said and folded his hands on his back “the transponder does not recognize a difference between hostile and friendly realms. You will need a unique device for that, one that I may not share with a less advanced species.”
“We armed the device with an explosive, which will only activate if someone attempts to open it or reverse engineer it. A precaution that was demanded by the government.” Malcolm explained, “You may choose to keep it or return it if you are unsure about the explosives. Either way, it is about time we take our leave and return to our realm.”
He figured the nuances and difficulties of reading the older, and larger tomes weren't worth his time, and for now just focused on reading the smaller and newer ones, figuring they're not just easier to read, but likely contain more up-to-date information. For the time being, he'd focus solely on reading about the creatures he knew was present on the islands controlled by Saturn; as ambitious as he was, he had no plans of making adventures to foreign lands, not until he could prove that he could actually do it first.
There weren’t that many dangerous monsters on the Saturnian isles. Creatures would most likely have long since destroyed their civilization had they been present.
The Saturnians had chosen their spot well, as the most dangerous creatures nearby would be entirely aquatic, and the elves had already eradicated the enemy species known as the Naga that used to roam these waters.
James sighed. The equipment he brought was all dedicated to land-based combat and survival, and not that of the sea. This meant in order to put his skillset to use, going overseas was a necessity. Nevertheless, the only known method he could think of that involved going overseas would require a boat, so learning about aquatic creatures first wouldn't be the worst thing in the World. The least he could do was learn how to scare off or even fight off the monsters at sea, and if not, how to best evade such beings.
Sol System Space
As Station Texas sends it message the Divinity is silent. It halts it's advance towards Texas but does not power down its defense systems. After about a minute a comms channel is opened once more, "You are to give us the precise location of this individual immediately and allow for teleportation of this individual to our craft. Should these terms be met we will withdraw from your space."
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Jefferson
As Eighth slowly kneels down and puts its hands behind its head it looks out at the assembled Cascadian forces, "I will comply with any Cascadian orders given to me, however, I would like to request an audience with someone of authority. I have some information that may prove to be important to the safety of this universe. Also I would like to apologize for all of the damages, I honestly did not want to conduct myself in this way but I had no choice in the matter."
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O'duffy Airbase
"It surrendered to you?" Knight says surprised, "That makes no sense. Why would it have run off to begin with and surrender to us? Sir, while I have no right to ask this, I advise you to see if the machine is at least able to provide an explanation. The Dominion has been extremely vague about their reasoning for this and we might be able to shed some light on this situation via 8."
According to the books, the best idea was to stay in relatively shallow waters unless you were on a military vessel, such as a warship.
Monsters did not attack most small ships because their captains would not sail on the open sea. There were occasionally smaller ships that made it across the ocean, but they lost many to sea serpent attacks.
Sea serpents and other sea monsters frequently targeted warships, but they were often well-prepared for such occurrences and made it wherever they needed to go, although even they could lose to swarming sea serpents or the dreaded leviathans.
A way to avoid both sea serpents and leviathans was by airship, a technology closely guarded by the elves of Azucur, specifically built by skilled artificers. These airships had one threat. Dragons. If a vile-tempered dragon spotted an airship, it was possible the dragon would attack and cause it to crash.
But the safest way to travel was through teleportation, the way to move from one spot to another without occupying the space between. It was, of course, exclusive to mages. There were some spells that allowed this, spells only known by the legendary grimoires.
The way between the Saturnian Isles and the Northestan peninsula was relatively short. There was a small strip of deep sea, but those who attempted to cross it got through it unscathed. However, because of the previously shaky relationship between the two nations, it was unlikely that many had sailed by that route.
The way from Saturn to Azucur was much more dangerous. It would require a ship to sail over the deep ocean. A few ships had been in those waters during the Naga wars, but all were warships. It had probably been years since they had visited those places.
It was unlikely that Azucur had any monster problems. They had been around for over 7000 years, so they would have the power to take down any beast that threatened their homes.
After about a month, Nathrasil had created two main battle tanks. With their sparse population and limited resources, these two tanks were all they could muster in such a brief time span.
They moved out and brought their tanks to the north, where a demonic settlement waited for them. The demons proved no match for modern tanks, and the army of Nathrasil moved through the other settlements, razing them to the ground.
Several more months passed, and they levelled every city on the peninsula, one city they conquered, and they took over a fortress in the southeast. For a time, the Nathrasilians retreated into their cities. They had no official capital. Currently, their capital was wherever Rikhas Phenex was.
During their retreat, the population grew ever so slightly. They built more tanks and wondered how they would reach the outlying islands. With no sea to sail upon, boats would be worthless in these lands. Planes could work, but did the science even allow such creations?
They had vowed to exterminate the demons and would do so at any cost. No matter where they hid, they would find them. Over the months, a few of them had developed some monstrous features. They changed slowly and to a tiny degree, so no one had noticed yet. They still looked like Nathrasilians, but there was something off-putting about them.
Sol System Space
The communicator rubbed his chin, and paid attention to the information being relayed to the Station prior to his response. He took note of the Divinity's refusal to notify the Station as to what, or why they were after this individual; only that they were. In fact, he had only now realized that they actually were chasing somebody, confirmed by the Ministry of Defense directly, and this being had just-so-happened to turn itself into Cascadian authorities. He did the only thing he could think of to do, and that was attempt to contact Space Command directly. Right now, all military command was up in a tizzy, however Station Texas was an area of importance for the moment, so his call would take priority. "This is Overlord, what's going on, Texas?" The commander asked.
"I need to know the situation on the ground, I'm currently conducting negotiations with Divinity, they want the suspect and they'll leave." He told the commander. The commander thought for a moment, before replying. "Norwood's a bit busy at the moment with some other news - by the way, who authorized the prisoner exchange?" The representative asked. The Communicator scratched his head, "I- The...MoD did?" He replied.
"Right. The most likely area we'll be taking them is to O'Duffy Airbase, away from the civilian center." The Commander replied.
"Understood. I'll return to communicating with Divinity. Texas out." The Communicator concluded, before returning to converse with the Divinity.
He transmitted to the Divinity, "Divinity, this is Station Texas. Give me just a moment and I'll have you its coordinates. Right now the individual in question is in transit, we're going to move him out of any area with civilians in it and then hand him off to you. The place of concern will most likely be Airbase O'Duffy, 13 miles southeast of Jefferson City, over."
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Jefferson
The troops looked to him curiously. Normally, it would be entirely absurd to send a potentially dangerous prisoner to speak with anyone higher up, and the soldiers were going to make that clear to him. That was, before the Lieutenant leading the troop received a communication over his radio. It was difficult for 8 to hear what it was exactly, but it left the Lieutenant silent for a long moment before he raised his head and faced Eighth.
"The highest ranking individual we can have you speak with is Brigadier General Lorenz." The Lieutenant spoke, as the other soldier applied his restraints to Eighth. "We'll escort you to his location via an APC." The soldiers remained generally surrounding him, with V-TOL's flying over head at the ready, and armored vehicles parked all around. Every precautionary step to guarantee he didn't escape was taken, at least, all the ones they could take.
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O'Duffy Airbase
"I'm a little bit suspect that this is a trick. If its the case, we may have to find that out the hard-way." Norwood replied. "But sure, I'll have Lorenz get information from him. For now though, it seems Station Texas has...Said something that's stopped their descent..." Knight would hear the clicking of a mouse in the background, followed by some typing. "Ahh...They're...Negotiating handing Eighth over." Norwood expressed, in an annoyed tone. "Don't know if I quite approve of that one...Knight, what's your thoughts on the matter?"
"Interesting." James rubbed his chin. "How nice it would be to be able to teleport..." He thought out loud. Reading more about the grimoires subtly made him wish he could use magic, but to his knowledge, that was outside the question. He took comfort at least knowing he could theoretically travel to the mainland via the Northestan colony. This meant a land route was guaranteed at the very least. He reached into his coat pocket, removing a small notepad and a pen, and he began writing down exactly what he had read into his notes.
Reading about the grimoires did leave him with even more questions about monsters than previous, however, he wasn't going to start reading about such things just yet. Right now, his main goal was to just learn about monsters, and how to fight said monsters.
Given the selection of books Lymine had, he didn't automatically assume that she'd have a book about weapons the Azucurians used; given the books, he saw lying around; after all, Lymine didn't seem the warrior-type to him. That didn't stop James from looking for such a book anyway; he figured if he could figure out the weapons Azucur used - specifically the ones out at sea, he could figure out how to counter them should they show; even if the book wasn't about ships or ship weaponry anyway, it did make him wonder what sorts of weapons the Elves typically used to hunt creatures on land. His most immediate thoughts were what one would expect of Elves, bows and arrows. However, that answer alone didn't satiate his curiosity. Elves had flying airships available to them, what other technology could they be using? Also, there was magic to account for as well; what might work with a long bow and a bit of magic may not work the same as James' rifle or revolver.
Lymine’s books had relatively little information on the Azucurian weapons themselves, but it was possible to piece together their chief weapons’ capabilities through information from multiple books. The infantry used mostly crossbows that absorbed the mana from the user and fired it as a projectile. The power of the projectile was determined by the amount of power the mage poured into the weapon.
Otherwise, the Azucurian ships used mana cannons, firing beams of pure magical force. To the elves, magic was the primary source of everything in their arsenal. With Lymine’s abundance of books about magic, the Azucurian mana cannon was well-described, but was quite complex to someone who couldn’t feel magic.
The basis of technology in Azucur was by the use of a rare crystal known as Alore, pronounced with a pause between the l and the o. This crystal was found in the coldest regions of Iiqaath and hoarded by creatures called titans. The Alore used by Azucur came from a large crystal structure that the King had, floating above his throne room. They occasionally cut small fragments from it to power technologies. The origins of this crystal were most likely from the titans, but it didn’t specify by what means they got their hands on it, only that it was quite rare, possibly as rare as diamonds would be on Earth.
At long last, Nathrasil had their next war machine, large airships that would allow them to reach the outlying islands. Firing up their new airships, they took to the skies and laid siege to the cities on the islands. Those they did not need, they razed, those that may prove beneficial, they seized.
And over the course of a few months, they had seized the power of the entire region. With peace spreading within their borders, they saw a steady increase in their population despite their scarce gene pool, from just a few hundred people.
As they spread out and their armies laid siege to the other regions, they noticed a change in their bodies. Their DNA rearranged itself in new patterns, little by little, as if evolution were being forced upon them. The newborn were most affected with the adults having lesser effects, but it was still noticeable.
This strange mutation affected their genes and diversified their gene pool, allowing their species to continue to reproduce without being affected by the effects of inbreeding. While they had not yet noticed this effect that would save their people, they saw how their species’ outward appearance changed into what they themselves saw as monsters.
The corrupting magical forces of the Netherworld caused the effect, but they blamed the demons and once again struck at them, moving their forces into the surrounding regions. They continued to change, and they continued to push the demons and within six years of almost constant warmongering, the Nathrasilians had conquered almost all the Netherworld.
As their physical appearance continued to change, they organized small teams to enter caves and mountains, stamping out demons wherever they could find them.
This behaviour continued on for the next century. Their transformation was complete, and their evolution seemed to have stopped. They took it as a sign that they had finally defeated all the demons and rooted them out for good.
But it remained that their changed form resulted from the corrupting force of the Netherworld, but over the one century it was not only their physical form that had been changing, but their brains, their very psychology, from the thrice-enslaved people and ancestors to bloodthirsty conquerors.
The philosophy fed to them by Rikhas Phenex over a hundred years ago had taken root in their minds. They had become the very thing they despised, conquerors with a burning hatred for everything that was not them.
“Yes, yes… I can relate. M-Master Fabius has the same goal; He is a fleshcrafter without compare— seeking t-to usher in the age of t-t-the New Man. And you, you and your friend and your other kin… you will help him. With your blood and flesh and fat and gristle and sinew and genes— oh, the genes.”
Savamort cackles, and begins to slice open the skullcap of the Homo-Arachind with a saw.
“You and your k-k-kind’s genetic material will b-be added to the pool, used b-by Master Fabius to usher in the age of a new species— a better s-species. I-It is a glorious c-cause, no?”
After careful deliberation, the Iron Warriors decided to withdraw from the IDC due to issues of overall incompatibility between them and the other member states. While diplomatic relations will continue somewhat in regards to trade and other matters, the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion is no longer officially allied with the Interdimensional Confederation.
The Dark Mechanicus base remains on the Martian surface of the 
The Saturnian System, as do the Warp Transponders.
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