Past Of The Future, Future Of The Past...

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 3: A hard day.

"Well, those three months were quite something," Anthony said, when the Space Shuttle finally stopped on the runway. "I mean, actual first contact situation, even if with humans!" "Falkis, shut it for now," Sarah mumbled. "We'll have to explain this all over again to our superiors, when we return to the Mossdeep." "Okay, whatever, miss Born-with-camera-in-hands." Several seconds after it, the hatch in the side of the vehicle opened, the astronauts were safely removed from their seats with Psychic of the service Alakazam and put into the wheelchairs on the ground. "Don't worry, guys'n'girls, it's just a precaution," sounded voice of professor Takao Cozmo, making Sarah and Samuel slightly cringe. Of course, this man was a genius, especially for someone, who just turned 20, but at times, he was just impossible to be around. "We know," all four astronauts, along with the rest of Shuttle's crew, replied in unison. Of course, they wondered, why this mission only took astronauts down and didn't bring fresh crew... ---- "Can you secure this thing now?" "Wait… yeah, I'm securing it." Captain Vasilyev hovered near the console, monitoring feeds from the helmet cameras of cosmonauts, along with their talks, and wondered, why exactly did it have to be yesterday for the station's backup power source, the nuclear fission reactor, to get stricken with some kind of space debris and get a total coolant leak. Of course, since the reactor wasn't activated for the entire duration of its staying in the station, there wasn't any imminent radiation hazard, but they still had to return it back to Zemlino Space Center for the inspection and repairs. Right now, Lozhkin, Migulya and Panasenko were removing the reactor and loading it into the opened payload bay of the Lenticular Return Vehicle. There was some sort of a strange irony - today, the cosmonauts from both space stations were returning back to Earth. "Comrade captain, the reactor was safely removed and is now secured in the payload bay of the LRV" sounded the proud voice of Migulya in the comm. "I think we're done here. Let us all pack up and go back home!" "As a commander of this station, I give this proposal my complete approval!" announced Vasilyev to everyone. "Since we are all packed up already, I propose to fulfill it as soon as possible. To EVA team - go to station's primary airlock on the "Drum" module. I know, the LRV's backup airlock seems very nice, but we need to leave the MMUs and suits here for the next crew." "Aye-aye, comrade captain!" reported the EVA team, firing up their MMUs and flying back to the first module of this great station. Since the airlock wasn't exactly spacious, they'll have to enter one by one - mostly because the MMUs were pretty huge. Of course, was it not for the advanced materials from Imperial Science Facility 9, which allowed creation of the normobaric EVA suits - the entire crew would've had to stay on the station for a few more hours. Thankfully, when the EVA team finally got back into station and re-dressed, everyone else was ready. "So, comrades, I want to congratulate you with the successful end of the 10th expedition to the Space Lab 2, which also served as a cornerstone for our relationship with… "Nationals", I think. So, anyway, we all served very well. Glory and long live to the Empire!" "Glory and long live to the Empire!" "Since the rest of our crew returned to Earth in pods already - thank the Emperor for launching that propellant tanker! - we can now return home at leisure pace. All hands - board the LRV and prepare for return." "Aye-aye, comrade captain!" ---- "Goodbye, Space Lab 2. We will miss you and try to return soon. Just wait for us," the pilot said, looking in the return vehicle’s main window. The space station, jewel in crown of the Empire’s space program, was left by its crew and switched to full-auto mode, waiting for the next bunch of people to take the residence in it for performing even more science operations and making even more discoveries. "Proceeding as normal, four hours until touchdown." "Acknowledged," replied the captain, recollecting the events of past three months - the craziest months in his live so far. Contacts with cosmonauts from other regions of the world after the event, which was later named "The Shift"; nearly inviting them onboard the Space Lab 2 one time and only not doing this because of medic's advice; having to constantly help in writing reports to linguists back on the ground; making sure, that the space station works properly, especially before the propellant tanker gave them some more freedom in maneuvering… those months were most definitely crazy. "Comrade captain, I have a small question - why aren't the replacement crew already there?" asked him Grigoriy, who served as a biologist and medic aboard the station. "I don't know. Zemlino told me, that there were some hiccups with their launch vehicle, and their LRV is an experimental one, with fuel cells instead of nuclear reactor... they've decided not to rush it. Station can wait, after all, but losing cosmonauts is not an option. They were launched a few hours ago and will dock to the station tomorrow." ---- "Hello there, darling," said man in plain clothes, entering the room. If not for the reaction of the Empress, not many would've thought, that this man was, in fact, the Emperor Ivan the Second himself. "How's your bad?" "Like ****," replied Empress Svetlana in tired voice. "Trying to make negotiations through these crude translators, when we are no longer the most advanced country on the planet…" "We still kinda are, in some branches." "In some, mind it. So, trying to negotiate with what's, apparently, called "Pokemon Nation", process all the data, prevent instabilities within the Empire and so on and so on… It's so tiring. And you?" "Not much better," said Ivan, starting to undress. "Since our main advantages are more advanced arcane science, nuclear physics and space technology…" "You mean, you want to make orbital weapon platform," finished his wife. "I don't approve this idea. We aren't on exactly good terms with the Nation now and making them even worse isn't going to take us anywhere." "Not quite, my dear, not quite. Do you remember the Project Tin Can?" "Yes, and what?" "Do you remember, what is it?" "I don't. Honestly, Vanya, with so much work, I can't keep track of all of your projects." "This project, my dear, is a nuclear pulse spaceship, whose wet mass measures 4000 tons. It uses small nuclear explosion devices, constructed to create a directed wave of superhot plasma upon detonation, for propulsion." "And?" "We've finished assembling the propulsion bus of this ship today. Pusher plate, shock absorbers, plasma deflection cone, gas gun for drive bombs, magazines and so on - this was quite a challenge! Now, we only need to construct the payload part…" "Wait, actual nuclear explosion launch?! Dear, let me check your temperature…" "No no no, don't be afraid! This thing will be boosted by the NUCLEUS superheavy chemical rocket and will only engage the bomb drive at high enough altitude!" "Still, using demolition devices for propulsion… I think it's pretty crazy." "Crazy or not, it should work. By the way, some time ago, Knyazev showed me a project of turning the "Red Explorer"..." "The what?" "The nuclear pulse ship - we've named it "Red Explorer", since it's designed to explore the Fourth Planet. So, he showed me project of turning the "Red Explorer" into warship, with retro-missiles for planetary bombardment, electromagnetic rail mass accelerators, point defence and so on…" "Retro-missiles?" "Okay, let me explain this for you. Retro-missile is a type of hypothetical space-to-surface weapon, which is launched against the orbital vector and uses its engines to decelerate to slower-than-orbital velocity and fall into gravity well of targeted planet/moon, later correcting direction of fall with smaller maneuvering engines to ensure, that it'll hit the intended target area." "And what would be the true purpose of this monster? Considering, that all-out war is the latest thing we want?" "I don't know. Knyazev is an already a strange one, always seeking to turn any project into the weapon…" ---- "So, why exactly the next expedition wasn't launched?" Donnager asked in not-quite-slightly angry voice. "I'm not supposed to tell it to you… but the reason for it is Rayquaza," half-whispered Cozmo "Rayquaza? Isn't it the legend of Draconids?" "I wish it was, but, as it recently turned out, it's a completely real Sky High Pokemon, and a very territorial one at that!" "So…" "Yes, the space stations will get destroyed any moment now. The road to space is now closed by the ruler of skies." "..." Samuel clenched his fists in anger. He hoped, that the astronauts from the other station have also returned home. ---- "... Nose gear touchdown!" the pilot of the LRV happily commented. "Deploying the drag chute…" The pretty big machine, measuring 12 meters in diameter and looking somewhat like the flying saucer, deployed small fabric cupola behind itself, along with moving all control surfaces into positions for aerobraking, in order to lower the current velocity and prevent rolling off the runway. Roughly twenty-five seconds later, the chute got detached and the machine soon ground to halt. "Welcome back!" sounded from comm. "Guys - hang in there for a few more…" "Zemlino, you're not clear, repeat, you're not clear!" said the pilot, trying to find the reason for the sudden cut-out in the words of flight control officer. "... Guys, you don't even know, how lucky you were," finally replied the officer in flat and shaky voice. "Right now, the Space Lab 2 was destroyed by the Pokemon of Legendary power, known by hoennians as "Rayquaza", along with LRV-03. Second space station was also destroyed. The 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2… is no more." "..." all cosmonauts froze. If not for this lucky early return, mostly forced by the need to return the reactor to Earth - they all would've been dead now. And their comrades weren't so lucky... ---- "Dear, what's with you?" asked her husband the Empress. The Emperor, indeed, did not look good - he was pale in face, shaking and still staring at the screen of his portable computer. "... Nothing too bad. Wait a second," said he, getting the portable telephone out of his case and calling someone. "Knyazev? I know you knew this, you bastard! Does not matter right now. Consult the medics, I guess, Psychics with ability to predict the future aren't abundant. Anyway, your altered version of the Project Tin Can has just got my total and complete approval. Consult the ISF 5 and 9 for required equipment. Yes. Does not matter, but make sure, that it'll be able to withstand hits with Hyper Beam without getting holes - at least not at the first hit." Empress thought, that, whatever has happened, if it was enough to instantly convince her husband to turn the exploration ship, about which he dreamed for a very long time (at least as long as he was together with her), into the machine of war - it must be really bad… and yes, she saw the notification on her own computer - the notification, that the Rayquaza has just destroyed the LRV with the new expedition, measuring 12 cosmonauts total, and the Space Lab 2 along with the space station of the Pokemon Nation. Thankfully, all nuclear-powered satellites executed their contingency protocols flawlessly and moved onto graveyard orbits before this Pokemon would be able to destroy them and spill the nuclear fuel from their reactors. "... Yes. No. Of course. Yes. Goodbye," Emperor ended his phone call and turned back to his wife. "Sorry, dear…" "I know already. You know… I approve of it too. It'll help me rally the people of Soris together and lower the level of internal instabilities, as well as allow our people up here to protect themselves from attacks of this monster. So, you say, that this ship needs lots of nuclear materials?" "Yes. At first, they were needed just for the drive bombs and reactor, but now, they'll also be needed for the weapons - shells for railguns, missiles and so on. We can remake some of our already-existing demolition devices into weapons, but that won't be enough." "I understand. I think I can tailor this campaign as a sort of posthumous reverence for our cosmonauts. It'll really help us in keeping the Empire stable." "Do it, if you want to do so. But we need to get this son-of-a-Red Spirit flying, lest the road to space be closed forever for us all." "... Wait, nearly forgot - what about the political effect? Because, you know, getting something like this in orbit would be even worse, than actual weapon platforms!" "I don't know. I'm sure you can deal with this, my dear." Emperor smiled gently after saying those words. Empress hated it, because she could never resist this smile. "Besides, once everything settles down, we can use this ship as it was originally intended - for exploring the Fourth Planet! The amounts of drive bombs and supplies should be sufficient for this and replacing the landers won't be a problem at all…" Notes: ISF - Imperial Science Facility. Worldbuilding mini-note #1: Red Spirit - mystical being in the sorisian mythology, not directly linked to any of Legendaries. It's a somewhat malevolent entity, which, however, patrons those, who fight to avenge their comrades. Some sorisian warriors pray to the Red Spirit before battle to help them in the quest for revenge and, if they fall - make sure that their comrades will avenge their deaths. Worldbuilding mini-note #2: Emperor Ivan Yevgeniyevich Bazarenko the Second is a very shitty ruler (hence why his wife rules the Soris Empire - he gave his throne to her as soon as he was able to), but is an awesome constructor of pretty much anything that flies. Because of that, he spends most of his time in the Imperial Aeronautics Institute, returning to the palace only on special occasions. Worldbuilding mini-note #3: The Project Tin Can is based on the real Project Orion. Worldbuilding mini-note #4: The Rayquaza's aggression and territorial tendencies are based on its depiction in the anime. The Shift may also have something to do with it. Author's note: those three months will, eventually, get expanded upon in the small series of drabbles. Also, the next chapter will have much more action.

More Posts from Mgrgfan and Others

8 years ago

After watching some moments from Kill la Kill (thank you, references in Sun/Moon!), I can’t help but call them “pigs in human clothing”. Well, it may not be human (it’s a cosplay, after all), but you get the idea.

P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things. (i Took This From A Post
P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things. (i Took This From A Post
P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things. (i Took This From A Post
P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things. (i Took This From A Post
P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things. (i Took This From A Post

P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This is why we cannot have nice things. (i took this from a post on facebook i saw someone put up that had to be shared elsewhere) “1: Broken Light Fixtures on a couple different floors. 2: Busted Exit Sign cause some fuckwad thought it would be A Good Idea to high-five it. 3: Actual fucking flooding in a room. 4: Punching a hole in the bathroom door and writing “One-Punch Man was here.” 5: Writing “Katsucon 2016” all over the stalls on the main floors.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THIS NEEDS TO STOP, THIS IS LITERALLY DISGUSTING.  This beautiful hotel is holding an events for cosplayers to enjoy time away and this is how you repay them? you wonder why they raise prices?. This is totally fucking immature and disgusting and the cosplayers that did this make our community look like shit  Spread this like wildfire, this is not okay stop destroying things. 

8 years ago

Michael Wilson speech transcript.

Source: https://youtu.be/ukRheSjjb34?t=5m26s

My fellow americans, good morning.

As americans, we love freedom.

But true freedom isn’t given, like the air we breathe, or the water we drink.

About 240 years ago, our forefathers fought greatly, giving their blood, sweat and tears, and in the end, they’ve won our freedom, and we must never forget this.

If anything appears, that threatens our believe in this freedom - we will oppose it, we will crush it!

In fighting to gain our freedom, we need no reasons. We require no just cause or flowering words. In order to protect our neighbors who love freedom and this faith in freedom, we continue to believe in our own justice. We won’t abandon any battles!

And the reason is, because we are all citizens of the United States of America.

And as long as you will allow it, I will be a vanguard leading this fight!

And the reason is, because I’m the President of these great United States of America!


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8 years ago

Sounds like a Guzzlord to me. Guzzlord - Real Space form?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, April 25, 1897

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, April 25, 1897

8 years ago

Do you remember Dex entry on Arceus? The “It is described in mythology as the Pokémon that shaped the universe with its 1,000 arms.” one? I think, that what we get under the name “Arceus” in games is really just one of these “arms”, which he sorta “donates” to player.

catching legendary Pokémon has always made me a bit uncomfortable like? tapu koko is in my pc box rn. who’s protecting the island. Arceus is pretty much god and probably has better things to do than follow the commands of a 12 year old but ok

8 years ago

Weird dream is still weird

A week ago I’ve had a weirdest dream so far. This time, it wasn’t so random, so I can somewhat diverge between two plotlines of it - “Deus Ex” line and “Pokemon” line, altough there were some intersections. There is nothing really special about a Deus Ex line (aside from the part that Gunther likes to sleep in a thick socks, what I’ve learned from his computer and which I’ve found in his hightstand), but it left overall impression that it was somehow tied to the Pokemon world through conspiracies and stuff (which was confirmed later).

The real fun begins when we get to the Pokemon line. First of all, there was a moment, when some N/Cilan-like guy was introducing himself to the protagonists somewhere near the ruins with game-trailer like overall feel. The guy himself wasn’t interesting but the place, when he was doing it, was, because this ruins were actually Hikōkyū’s wreck! What is even more interesting, that control tower and main body were mostly left intact, but one of the rings was gone as were the antigravs (though theirs remnants might’ve just got buried under the ground - Flying Palace was lying almost on side).

The second best moment was like an a “fly-around” shot in the movies, but now camera was flying between the rings of an airship, which could be easily called “Hikōkyū 2”. Why 2? Because it had a different sets of a propellers, some of the horizontal-propulsion props were also installed on the rings (unlike original, where all of them were mounted only on a main body of the ship), vertical-propulsion props were installed on the very short spindles and some of the additional propellers were gathered in the tight clusters. During the camera’s passing, all of the props were working hard, so, it left an impression that the Lawrence III (of course) was going to do something special, although not necessary linked to the Legendaries or Pokemon altogether.

The final moment was me (as an Adam Jensen), someone other and a Pokemon Trainer (protagonist from this dream game) inside a huge room, which was pretty similar to the Flying Palace’s (first one) exhibition hall, although far smaller. My impression (and an Adam’s map) confirmed, that this room was, in fact, one of the “Hikōkyū 2” rooms, and it was on one of the lower floors/decks. Our small team started to move out in hope of meeting Lawrence III and asking him some questions (Adam - about Illuminati and such, Trainer - don’t know, but definitely not something like Misty asked - overall, it felt like he wanted to get a few tips from the Collector, third person - no data) and, at this very moment, I awoke.


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9 years ago

http://saintsrow.wikia.com/wiki/Daedalus - you can read about the Daedalus here. If you want to go in depth, read this http://saintsrow.wikia.com/wiki/STAG . I don’t like the other parts of the SR verse very much, but I do like the STAG and Temple, because he’s badass (until the SRIV, when he went crazy, but let’s not touch this part, because Pokeworld isn’t the SR world).

Cyrus and Cyrus

Every time I read about Cyrus from Pokemon, I think of Cyrus Temple from SRIII. Some time ago I thought about some sort of Pokemon/SR crossover, where entire “Daedalus” with Cyrus Temple onboard suddenly finds itself in the Pokemon world. “Daedalus” here has all the armor vehicles (including Temple’s unique version of “Crusader” tank, his unique version of F-69 VTOL fighter and his hoverbike ”Specter”). Because everyone on the carrier is the member of the Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit, I think, that they’ll wage war on Team Rocket and other teams pretty soon, but will they integrate into local International Police or will they remain on their own? Also, STAG have pretty advanced technology on their own, like “Viper” laser rifle, S3X “Hammer” laser spreadshot weapon (energy shotgun), “Sonic Boom” hand-held acoustic cannon (that can easily gib human in the short range and toss vehicles around, if fully charged), “Crusader” tank with plasma cannon, co-axial repeating laser and beam laser in place of a machine gun, N-Forcer MRAP vehicle with repeating laser, F-69 VTOL fighter jets with microwave laser beam cannon and homing energy blast weapon, “Condor” VTOL transport jets with repeating laser and, of course, “Daedalus” with lots of high-caliber autocannons and rocket launchers to both attack enemy and defend herself. Additionally, STAG utilises conventional projectile weapons (McManus sniper rifle, Annihilator RPG, Satchel Charges, Minigun and Kobra pistol) and Riot Shields. I can even imagine a several moments with them:

Jenny releases an Arcanine and blasts the door to the landing pad open, while screaming:

- Stop right there, Cyrus! You’re arrested for tampering with Legendaries and endangering the world!

She’s then greeted with the sight of several STAG troopers aiming their Vipers and Hammers at her and her Arcanine from the hovering Condor, while completely different Cyrus gets into his F-69 and replies:

- I think you’ve found the wrong Cyrus, dear lady, because my name is Cyrus Temple, and I’m the commander of the STAG.

Cockpit closes, F-69 takes off and flies away along with the Condor, leaving Jenny and her Arcanine going “What the hell”?

During the next weeks, a lot of people in the world discuss this strange event adt start making theories, what in the Reverse World is the STAG, when suddenly giant airborne aircraft carrier with the STAG logo flies over a Veilstone City and deploys F-69’s along with Condors, they immideately fly to the Galactic Veilstone Building and drop a lot of STAG troopers, which then breaks in the building and make a short run of Team Galactic. After the end of the mission, elite STAG trooperd drags a badly beaten up Cyrus and his survived henchmen, when Temple flies of the carrier on his Specter VTOL jetbike and greets shocked police officers, who were thinking, what to do with that giant airship and how to deal with the jets. Temple then says:

- And that is why we are called Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit. Sorry, ladys, you’ve really dissapointed me, but you might still be not that hopeless and we may teach you, how to uphold police’s name and how to make gangsters tremble from the very name of yours. I think, it’ll better for the “Daedalus” to stay here for several days.

- What is the “Daedalus”? - asks one of the Jennys.

- Ain’t she’s a beauty? - replies Temple and gestures to the hovering carrier, leaving everyone shocked.

Scene ends. Article for the Dex:

“Team STAG.

While they simply call themselves STAG (from “Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit”), most of people in the world considers them as another criminal team, which is completely wrong. While not officially linked with the International Police, STAG acts like law-enforcment organisation and even supported by governments, but it’s methods are very different to those of the International Police. While International Police mostly relies on individual approach and it’s kind reputation, STAG prefers to act by force and to implant awe in the criminals minds. The most shocking part in the STAG’s methods is that than they prefer to use firearms (although they do use Pokemon, but on a small scale), and they aren’t limited to the stun guns! STAG troopers prefer to use energy-based weaponry, such as high-power electrical stun gun, “Viper” laser rifle, S3X “Hammer” energy shotgun and “Sonic Boom” hand-held acoustic cannon, and the last three of them are more than capable to kill. Same can be said about their vehicles - all of them have very potent weaponry, which was designed to ensure maximal available destruction. Their base is the giant airborne aircraft carrier under the name “Daedalus”, which also serves as their most powerful combat asset - this airship can easily wreak havok on the entire city! There are some rumors that STAG is, actually, from another world, but no STAG member had ever commented that.“

@blackjackgabbiani, what do you think about this madness?

9 years ago

Because he needs to create scientist’s persona around himself, so it’ll be easier for him to get required materials and machinery. He’s scientific genius after all, so, why not?

Took the Tomodachi Life personality quiz for Jirarudan and he ended up with Confident Designer and told he should have an office and a lab coat.

……what.

4 years ago

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 5. Soarin' over the space...

A small speck plunged through the atmosphere of Earth, burning pretty bright yellow. Dozens of radars and telescopes were tracking it. It's really ironic, but the Sky High Pokemon, who was supposed to rule the skies and above, was now helplessly falling to the ground, mercilessly dragged by gravity and burned by atmospheric ram pressure. All Draconids, who were now watching TV, could not believe their eyes. The Dragon Lord, the great Rayquaza… got destroyed by the titanic machine, constructed by sorisians. The machine, which was crammed full of nuclear weapons, capable of obliterating cities, should they start flying to Earth. In fact, the same thing could be said for most of other TV watchers… bar sorisians. For them, what little re-entry of the serpentine dragon they've seen, marked a beginning of a new age - an age of open skies, when people can turn their gazes towards the stars and not be afraid, that someone territorial and feral will stop their journey before it even starts. While the rest of the world was either shocked, horrified or furious, Soris was celebrating the first victory of their first space warship. Now the other regions will know, that the Empire is not something to be tampered with! ---- On the Grey Sea, a decent fleet, consisting exclusively of nuclear-powered ships, was underway, towing a giant floating unusually-looking rocket in the middle of the formation. Several ships with "buzzers" - arcanotechnological devices, designed to drive off the Pokemon before the launch - and depth charge launchers, a tanker with kerosene, an electrolyzer-equipped ship for creating liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen on site, four deep space communication ships, several frigates with anti-air weapons and a single launch control ship - all of those machines were preparing for something great. A personal tiltjet of the Emperor, which was speeding to the landing pad of the launch control ship, only confirmed this further. A long distance from it, a research plane from Kanto was flying, trying to get a decent picture of what the heck was even happening. If the reports of astronauts from a nearly year ago were to be believed, imperials claimed, that their Moon mission was launched by the similar rocket 3000 years ago… but how? And what was their reason for this launch, not even ten hours after the launch of their space warship? And what was the payload of this giant rocket? ---- Young Draconid could not believe, what she was seeing. She once saw the Lord Rayquaza with her own eyes - a long, majestic serpentine dragon of incredible power. What lied before her… wasn't like it. This one was thoroughly burned, up to the point when the originally green skin wasn't recognizable, some of the mug-fins were completely destroyed, eye sockets were empty and scorched, the horny ridges of mouth were chipped, one of the fangs was missing… The strange crackling sound interrupted her thoughts and, less than a second after, someone rudely yanked her away and started to mercilessly drag her. "What the Reverse World?" "The less we spend time near the corpse, the better," the assailant replied, revealing himself to be Damien. "The Geiger counter is going crazy near it, as you've heard. When we are back at the Meteor Village, we'll need to throw away our clothes, shave all the hair on our bodies and wash ourselves thoroughly, lest the radiation poisoning get much worse." "Radiation poisoning?" "Valencia works on the nuclear power project, she knows a lot about it and lended me a Geiger counter. Let's go faster, since the sooner we decontaminate ourselves - the better." ---- "Fueling of the Water Dragon is now finished. The rocket is ready to be set into launch position," said one of the launch control officers. "Fill the cap's ballast tanks and set the rocket into launch position," gave an order the Emperor, who was just delighted to see one of his creations being ready to go flight pretty soon. "Executing, Your Majesty." Giant rocket started to slowly sink and, after several hours, stabilized itself half-submerged and vertical. "The rocket is now in the launch position, Your Majesty. Buzzers working good, no Bedolangs or other Pokemon for several kilometers, all systems good." "Excellent. Resume the launch countdown." "Aye-aye." ---- "Much better," said Damien, who has just finished thoroughly washing himself with soap, having already shaved everywhere he was able to. To his left, Helian sat, also washed and completely shaved. "Now can you tell me, what is the meaning of all this?" asked them Renza, who was clearly not happy. "We've seen Rayquaza's corpse. It's so radioactive, the Geiger counter near it goes crazy and, apparently, the corpse itself glows in the dark slightly." "... Wait, what did you just say? Rayquaza's… corpse?" "Yes. As much as it's shocking to us all, apparently, sorisian nuclear weaponry was able to kill the Dragon Lord. And no, you better don't go there, since, as I've already said, it's radioactive as heck. I think we've got a small radiation poisoning by merely standing near it. Good thing wind was blowing away from us too..." "Damien, Renza, I don't feel so we…" started Helian, then fell to her knees and started vomiting. "Uh-oh," murmured the shaved Draconid, carefully helping her to get back up. "Well, it's been six hours already, so, it shouldn't be so bad. Does your head ache?" "Barely, but… yes," Helian said, trying to not throw up again. "Well, Renza, now you see, what the radiation poisoning is. Bury the bag with our old clothing somewhere and get us a new ones. Oh, and also - call the Elder!" "Will do," replied the scared Renza, sprinting out of the building. "Don't worry, Helian, the worst part will be over in less than a 24 hours and all of it will be over in a month or so," murmured Damien, trying to calm the girl down. ---- "... Ignition sequence start, four, three, ballast detached, all engines are running! Liftoff! We have a liftoff! Fifty-four minutes past the hour, liftoff on the Water Dragon!" As those words were being said, the rocket, which was calmly floating in the sea, shuddered, the water around it started to rise from the giant bubble of exhaust gases, but the rocket was already lifting off and setting the course for beyond the sky, propelled by titanic aerospike engine in the aft and four smaller assist engines on top of the first stage. "Never gets old," the Emperor said with a nearly childish glee on his face. "Ah, I remember, how hard it was to fit an aerospike in there… At least it works and is pretty cheap to manufacture and use, as well as recoverable." "The combustion instability for the big bell was even bigger of a bastard to get rid of, though," noted one of the engineers, who worked on this project. "No wonder we've ditched it after a single launch and placed an aerospike engine instead." "Yeah. Arcanics for stabilizing combustion in engine of this grade aren't cheap and aerospike is just better overall." "Not for non-atmo conditions, though." "Of course." ---- "Zemlino has just reported launch of the Water Dragon, crammed full with cargo," happily reported the comm operator. "A hundred-something of drive nukes, a few tons of liquid hydrogen, two retro-missiles and, what's really important - repair supplies!" "Cool!" whistled the engineer. "It's pretty much a miracle, that we not just survived yesterday, not just achieved victory, but also made it with no serious damage to the ship." "Yeah, but this very un-lucky Hyper Beam, which passed right between the second-stage shock absorbers, was… unnerving," the pilot replied. "Even though they are armored, if the shock absorbers got damaged and stuck - we would've been left with no primary propulsion and, as you can guess, majorly screwed." "To speak truthfully, you are the real hero of yesterday battle," noted the weapons operator. "I don't know, how you've managed to do it, but to take the most powerful attacks on the well-armored pusher plate or, at least, make them just scratch the hull's surface - it's more than something. If not for it, our ship would've got a few "unplanned ventilation ducts" - maybe, even through the drive bomb magazines or reactor!" "Me? How about you? After all, it's you, who was constantly scoring the hits on this dragon and not letting it get a metaphorical breath!" retorted the pilot. "Gah, I was just deciding targeting and launch priorities for the offensive weapons, while the fire control system did all the aiming and shooting!" "Comrades, let me just say, that we were all heroes yesterday," interrupted them the captain, who was trying to prevent discussion from getting out of hand. "We all did our part in taking out the tyrant of the sky, so, no need to get hesitant about your achievements. By the way, it's time for us to go rest and allow second shift to take the stations." "Aye-aye, comrade captain!" ---- Deep under the Lumiose City, inside the War Room, quite a few people sat. "So, basically, now we have a giant militarized spaceship above our heads," one of them said. If his badge was to be believed, he was the current Secretary-General of the Pokemon Nation. "As scientists from Unova told me, it uses nuclear explosions for propulsion and for weaponry." "Nuclear explosions? Isn't that just a theory?" said a woman from Kanto. "As you can see, not anymore," unovan president replied, slightly irritated from having to state something so obvious. "By the way, Mr. President, I must note again, that cancelling the Castelia Project was a very, very big mistake," one of the nuclear scientists decided to put a word. "Castelia Project? You mean, weaponizing Forces of Nature and using them against us during this war was not enough?!" the Hoenn delegate responded with a great fury in voice. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" the Secretary-General decided to take a measure before the actual battle could've ensued. Even if no one had a Pokemon here, all-out physical pummeling was still not entirely out of the question. "Anyway, I will stand on that cancelling the Castelia Project was a great mistake," scientist resumed his talk. "Since, apparently, Soris Empire had no moral or other restrictions in performing their own version of it, which resulted in what we see today - they've got nuclear explosives of many kinds, while we've never ever performed a single test, making the nuclear explosions pure theory until the recent events! We have absolutely nothing, that can even scratch their ship! And it is loaded to brim with nukes, probably, ready to turn entire regions into scorched wastelands! Even the Rayquaza itself fell before this horrible weaponry - by the way, we still have no idea, where should we dispose of this corpse, which is so radioactive, it glows in the dark..." "Loaded to brim? Are you so sure about that? It's entirely possible, that they've exhausted their armament during the fight - there were quite a lot of explosions!" "Not anymore," said a director of the Mossdeep Space Center, getting off the phone. "Just a few minutes ago, a superheavy rocket was launched from the sea. Of course, it's not the same kind of monster, but still something. For what it looks like, it's a cargo mission, designed to resupply their space warship. I'm sure, that there'll be a lot of nukes to replenish the storages." "Arceus damn it," representative from Sinnoh mumbled, grabbing his head. "Can you contact the rulers of the Soris Empire?" "The Emperor is now onboard one of the ships in the fleet, which launched this superheavy rocket. The Empress… we are trying to contact her, but she is not available right now and representative refuses to give any comments." "And those damn journalists are on it again…" stated grimly the Kanto's representative, looking at the TV screen. ---- "Workpods deployed, set to meet the cargo carrier," reported Pyotr Petrov, who was working as an engineer in the second shift. On the outside, one of the lander bays opened, allowing two small, mostly-cylindrical crafts with several manipulators and chemfuel engines, to detach from the space warship and enter the interception course to meet the "Hauler" superheavy cargo spacecraft and ensure, that it safely arrives to the "Red Explorer" for resupplying the massive nuclear pulse-propelled vessel with drive bombs, hydrogen, spare parts and like this. Right now, the pods were working in the automated mode, even though each of them was able to house a single human operator, should the situation require it. As Pyotr looked on the flying pods through the secondary cameras, he thought, that, probably, Pokemon Nation would have used a Reuniclus or something for operation like this. He still could not understand, how did it come, that they were in so close with Pokemon. Of course, cosmonauts of the Nation were using some kind of spherical containment devices, as the crew of the Space Lab 2 reported, and scientists of Soris Empire were going just crazy about them, but… how did it come, that they've relied on Pokemon so much? ---- "Zhorik, how long do we have to wait?" asked the captain in slightly irritated voice. Right now, the entirety of this shift of bridge crew gathered in the mess hall in the outermost level of the habitation centrifuge, which was pretty cozy, with a big display on the wall, several stands with books and magazines (mostly the "Human Will Conquer Space Soon!" and "Human Conquers Space!", because someone in the ground crew had a strange sense of humor), a few tables with comfortable chairs and a galley with mini-bar. "Not much… Here!" happily exclaimed the engineer, who has just managed to reconfigure one of the backup comm antennas into a TV signal receiver and jury-rig a decryption program for the broadcast standards of Pokemon Nation, before running the decrypted signal to the display. "Let us try to tune to one of their channels…" A few minutes of fiddling with settings later, they were greeted by some kind of a news broadcast about their recent battle with, how the hoennians called it, Sky High Pokemon. None of the cosmonauts knew the general language of Pokemon Nation well (though no one from Soris did as for now, even the linguists - the language barrier is not an easy thing to overcome!), but they could get a basic outline. "Taras Grigorievich, do they really think, that we sleep and dream of nuking their cities to ashes?" asked the perplexed sensors operator. "Apparently, yes. Just like we are afraid of them using their Pokemon - especially Ghosts and Psychics - to wage a war on us. Teleport raids, guerrilla warfare and so on… In short, this'll be really bloody, should it happen. I don't know, if the people of Soris would be able to win." "And they are afraid of us razing their cities from orbit, where nothing of their origin can reach our ship without getting intercepted. Makes sense… and parity - if they try to attack Soris, we blow their homes up with nukes and vice versa." ---- "Drive bomb magazines reloaded, RCS tanks full of propellant, retro-missiles loaded into silos, damaged armor plates replaced. I must say, our ship is now almost as good as new", reported engineer Petrov, looking at screens. He was very happy, that there were no heavily-damaged parts, which would've required more repair than removing a damaged armored plate and slapping a fresh one in place, as well as the fact, that most plates were designed to be easily interchangeable. After the trainwreck of a repairability the Project 21A Space Ferry was, no one wanted to go through the same nightmare, except for Pokemon Nation with their Space Shuttle (though even this was debatable). "Wonderful," replied the current commander of the ship. "Incoming transmission!" said the comm officer. "Patching through." Author's notes: "Human Will Conquer Space Soon!" (10.05.400 AFE - 18.05.425 AFE) and "Human Conquers Space!" (18.06.425 AFE and ongoing) - monthly magazines in Soris Empire, which are mostly centered around the Imperial Space Program, but also host some comics and stories. Even though, originally, they weren't selling well, they've managed to rack up a really decent fanbase over time, especially after the Sergiy Vyugenko started to write his stories for those journals. AFE - After Foundation of the Empire. Water Dragon rocket is based on the real Sea Dragon, except with aerospike engine in the first stage (second version of Water Dragon). Bedolang - the Pack Hunting Pokemon, very dangerous aquatic predator, native to Soris. During the Shift, for the reasons yet unknown, most of the Bedolang population got time-shifted as well, while the rest slowly died out from inbreeding. At the current day, the shifted population is sufficient to safely breed and starts to become a sea hazard to rival Gyarados again (in fact, before the Shift, packs of Bedolangs were known to hunt and kill Gyarados without much problems). However, due to the actions of Soris Empire, they prefer to avoid the ships.

8 years ago

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Ancient Soris Empire, part 2.

The Ancient Soris Empire, unlike most of the empires, depicted in the fiction, wasn’t really into conquest, but, rather, into science and exploration. While still moderately big (entire Soris region), it wasn’t that big, but it did have some colonies outside of the Empire, although they were research-centered and dependant on the parent-state.

The most well-known Empire’s machine, almost a sign of hope for colonies, was “Overlord of Skies”-class nuclear powered rigid-hull hydrogen dirigible.

image

(Image taken from soviet “Энциклопедический словарь юного техника” book, although in this verse, dirigible is lifted by hydrogen instead of helium and has a bigger cargo and passenger bays)

This class of airships could easily provide supplies for colonies in any part of the world, as well as transport almost any kind of cargo, including even small nuclear powerplants for polar colonies. Powered by liquid metal-cooled nuclear fission reactor, they had fuel autonomy of several dozens of years, as well as ability to be, in fact, flying scientific colonies for many kind of researches: Pokemon migration surveillance, atmospheric research and such. Also, several years after the Alola Expedition, in addition to the onboard helicopter and plane, these airships usually had several Alolan Flygons, because: 1) they were that beloved by the Soris people (a Pokemon which is willing to cooperate with humans, unlike the Soris native Pokemon); 2) they didn’t consume any hydrogen fuel, unlike the copter or plane, and food for them wasn’t that much of issue; 3) they were better in in allowing researchers to observe Pokemon without disturbing them - Flygon is much more quiet than a heli; 4) they were sorta like companions for humans in long journeys for science.

Unfortunately, when the Soris Empire fell, all of these majestic airships were destroyed, sooner or later. “Researcher-2”, which has escaped Soris and was travelling to one of the far colonies, carrying copies of the newest arcane science discoveries, as well as some tech supplies, has suffered a major reactor meltdown (because someone onboard has failed both mechanics and aerodynamics classes, so he thought, that overriding all of the safeties and pushing the already maxed-out reactor even further will increase the speed of airship) and crashed in the Kalos, though without huge explosion (emergency hydrogen dump-and-burn system has worked well), but everyone onboard has suffered insane radiation poisoning and died shortly after. Skip a little, AZ comes down and, understanding, that there’s something wrong about this wreck, orders his men to scout the remnants and bring anything useful to him. Several very bloody battles with an activated combatron class arcane tech-based assault robot later, irradiated Golurk - sole survivor from one of the many scouting groups, which has finally managed to bring the combatron down - brings down an unlocked safe, which contains arcane science documentation and, soon after, next group manages to transport some of the containers with advanced stuff to their king. Because AZ, roughly a decade ago, hanged out with several Soris arcane tech researchers (from the Soris Empire’s Kalos research base), he was able to understand Soris language and some of the more complicated stuff in these documents, so, Ancient Kalos Kingdom put some of the arcane technology to use. However, as you can remember, the most well-known Kingdom’s arcane science-based device was the Ultimate Weapon, after a single use of which arcane science was forgotten for 2500 years, until the Nikola from the Azoth Kingdom had independently re-discovered a basic principles behind it and developed arcane devices once more.

The Ancient Soris Empire has even had a space program, but, unfortunately, they were only able to launch so many satellites, automated nuclear-powered interplanetary probe and two “Space Lab”-class space stations, first of which was similar to the real “Skylab”, while the second one resembled something closer to ISS, if it was bigger, nuclear and solar powered, had two contra-rotating gravity wheels, several normal escape pods and dock for the lenticular return vehicle, before the fall, all of which had de-orbited and burned during the re-entry in following years. There were plans to produce arcane science-based machines, ranging from a simple arcane-tech probes to full-scale mechanical Pokemon, for advanced deep space exploration, but, sadly, it has remained in plans only.

However, the last part does not apply to the Shift-verse, where the Empire, instead of Ancient Soris War, got time-shifted 3100 years ahead and, therefore, was never destroyed and even prospered in the new time.


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9 years ago

To “Obsession”?

I’m finally writing out the timeline to my original story

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