Not Quite. If You Look Closer On The Part With Articuno, You Can See, That Hikokyuu’s Artillery System

To be honest? It’s hard to say, what’ve got me interested in Jirarudan, but his charisma and cool airship definitely have something to do with it.

By the way, when we were discussing warfare and weapons, I’ve forgot to mention, that corporations produce heavy weaponry, deploy aircraft carriers, armed satellites and such as a part of theirs doctrine of a guaranteed retribution, which I’ll explain later. By the way, one of the reasons, why they’ve started to partially replace their’s seaborne aircraft carrier fleets with airborne ones is, to quote a future chapter, “At least you can see what the heck is coming from below and strike back.” (this speaker means agressive water Pokemon, which are well-known for sinking ships, and the fact, that AAC’s have point defence system weapons at all sides, including bottom, to ensure coverage from all directions).

Now about technology - unlike rest of the world, General Industries and Tunguska Technologies (TungusTech) prefer NOT to use Pokemon as much as possible. Where police will order Machamp to break the wall, corporate special task force will use a breaching charge, deploy a heavy assault exoarmor (think of a power armor from the “Starship Troopers” book, only less nukes and flight and more frontal firepower) or even the armorsuit (essentially, small mecha, most of which are slightly shorter than the AMP Suit from the “Avatar” and pack a lot of a firepower along with good melee abilities). Where normally Machokes will be unloading the cargo, corps will use some kind of a power loader, often fully automatic. Where most of people will use Pokemon for one thing or another, corporates will try and replace it with technology.

The true reason for it is because they are afraid of Pokemon, which, unlike the technology, can (and, according to theirs most pessimistic views, will) betray humans, not counting Legendaries and Mythicals, to most of whom humans are nothing more than a toys/pests/mere nuisances. For corporates, any Pokemon (aside from the Magikarp with Everstone and such) is essentially a bomb, which can easily go off at any moment. They also remember history of Pokelantis, when Ho-oh’ve destroyed entire kingdom and murdered thousands of innocent people just because king was an asshole. That’s why they are so happy about fusion nukes - it’s currently their’s best option to be able to strike back at the high-grade Legendaries and, possibly, kill them (bioweapons, which will be able to seriously injure or/and kill high-grade Pokemon (including biological-body Legendaries and Mythicals) without harming humans, are still in the very early stages of development). So far, they’ve never used any fission or fusion weaponry, but they’re always ready to do it, if necessary.

Unlike in the most of the megacorp portrayals, these two corps value humanity’s well-being and survival above everything else, so they have no problems with hiring Pokemon hunters (Hunter J’ve got even recruited into the General Industries agents, not without some help of a blackmail), giving some data to the Teams, so they’ll do dirty job for corps (like secretly providing Cipher with information of the proto-Shadow Pokemon so they’ll, basically, research it for corps (although no one from Cipher, excluding several corporate agents, knows it), while TungusTech and GI are keeping Orre region in the sights of a WMDs in the event of Shadow project going a little too well) and such, if this means gathering more data about the Pokemon weaknesses and, therefore, more abilities for humanity to safely live along with them and to strike back in the event of something going really bad.

The key element in the corporate philosophy, when it comes to Pokemon (especially high-grade Legendary ones), is paranoia. They’ll never really trust anyone they won’t be able to kill and who’ll be able to cause a major harm to humanity (of course, corps value live of theirs employees somewhat more than lives of the non-employees, but any human live for them is, in general, more worthy than those of Pokemon), although they may play along to ensure best outcome for humans, but they’ll always search for the ways to kill those which they can’t kill yet (and be ready to use it as an argument or even backstab with it as soon as it’s available/necessary). However, that also means, that they can more-or-less easily establish normal two-sided dialog with Latis, Shaymins and another non-insanely-powerful Legendaries/Mythicals, because they are not, well, doomsday-powerful, can be (relatively) easily killed and, therefore, aren’t a real threat to humanity.

So far, one of the corporates most dangerous weapons are so-called “retribution vehicles”. They look like some non-armed satellites (most of them are disguised as a telecommunication or surveillance satellites), they work like these satellites, but inside, they house a fusion warhead (ranging from 10Kt to a 6 Mt of TNT equivalent, depending on series). To add to this, all of the corporate satellites have rocket engines to de-orbit if necessary: officially, it is done to be able to prevent Kesslers Syndrome without usage of additional devices (and it is 100% true for all of theirs non-armed and even some armed satellites), but in reality, this was done so the retribution vehicles would be no different externally from the normal satellites and theirs emergency de-orbiting won’t cause any additional suspicions until it’s too late and the warhead goes off, annihilating everything in the decent radius.

For now, the retribution vehicles are part of the “Final Solution” program and are to be used in the event if nuclear WMD is required, but nothing else can be used. They’re not something to use first, they’re only to be used if things are going really bad. No retribution vehicle so far was deorbited, except for the test unit with a dummy warhead, which’ve landed precisely in the designated test area (which was located in the middle of ocean, to prevent suspicions) and have proven that the retribution vehicles are viable solution to the nuclear weapons deployment problem.

I’ve based the retribution vehicles on the real Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, except the retribution vehicles are launched at the normal satellites orbits and stay on them, working as a telcom/surveillance satellites for as long as necessary.

@mgrgfan let’s talk ships. So, we both seem to be in agreement that the Hikoukyuu is for the most part fully automated. Though how it would land…you do propose an interesting idea, but that would suggest either that all landing pads are specifically built for that one ship or that there are other nearly identical ship out there.

The problem may be not with phone itself, but, instead, with battery charge controller. Try rebooting your phone and make sure there are no energy-heavy apps running, such as a Pokemon Go, Pokemon Duel or like it, and, if this fails, try to turn phone off and let it charge for a while before turning it back on and checking progress. If there is no charge buildup, swap charger for another compartible and if this fails as well - there are, probably, big problems with the battery.

There’s something wrong with my phone. It’s plugged in, says it’s charging, but loses battery.

They think of him as weaboo because of ramen - food, which originates from Japan. As for me, I don’t care about the country of origin of recipes, if they are tasty, more-or-less healthy and aren’t especially difficult to cook. Well, except for some Eastern recipes, which can be dangerous because of just how spicy they are supposed to be.

op gets their ramen rated

Yeah, I know that feel too. It’s just this event from the past was the first thing to cross my mind.

I’m watching a movie that’s in about a dozen languages and everything is subtitled EXCEPT when a character gets up on a stage to sing. Than it’s just “singing”. This song pops up several times throughout the film and none of it is subtitled or captioned.

Okay then... how about we look at the lesser-known USA-first achievements, then?

First superheavy launch vehicle that worked and didn't blow up (Saturn V). 

First reusable piloted spacecraft and the first spaceplane (X-15).

First pilot-controlled space flight (Freedom 7)

First orbital human space mission that landed with pilot still in spacecraft and thus the first complete human spaceflight by FAI definitions (Friendship 7)

First rendezvous and docking in orbit (Gemini 8 - Agena Target Vehicle)

First successful orbit of different planets (Pioneer 10 mission).

First solar orbit (Pioneer 5).

First and second and third interstellar craft (Voyager 1, Voyager 2, New Horizons).

First manned maneuvering unit (Gemini 4)

First multi person multi spacecraft mission in space (Gemini 6).

First orbital vector adjustment to pinpoint precision (Gemini 6)   

First spy satellite (Corona KH-1)

First successful recovery of film from an orbiting satellite (KH-1 film return bucket)

First aerial recovery of an object returning from Earth orbit (KH-1 film return bucket)

First pinpoint landing on the Moon (Surveyor 1).

First manned orbit of the Moon (Apollo 8).

First human-crewed spaceflight to, and orbit of, another celestial object: the Moon (Apollo 11)

First rover on Mars (Sojourner)

First spacecraft to orbit Mars (Mariner 9).

First reusable orbital-class spaceplane (Space Shuttle).

First solar powered satellite (Vanguard-1)

First communications satellite (Echo 1, Telstar)

First weather satellite (TIROS)

First satellite in a polar orbit (Discoverer 1)

First geosynchronous satellite (Syncom 2)

First satellite navigation system (Transit)

First Mars flyby (Mariner 4)

First human spaceflight that escaped Earth's influence (Apollo 8)

First X-ray orbital observatory (the Einstein Observatory)

First Jupiter flyby (Pioneer 10)

First Mercury Flyby (Mariner 10)

the space race may be the funniest point in history period and i'll stand by that. the US is like "yes whoever gets into space first will prove once and for all that our economic model is superior and that we are, in general, the superior country of superior and smarter people." then the soviets just went and did it and the US freaked out and needed to cover their ass so were like "WE MEAN THE MOON, WE MEAN THE FIRST TO LAND ON THE MOON."

Memory, part 5 (mini-fic).

Compulink system active.

Please, enter login and password.

Login and password correct. Access granted.

Accessing “GY-PLFU-LOG-1″ datafile…

EDIT MODE

Goncharenko Yevgeniy, personal bioresearch log.

Third stage.

09.01.425 AFE, 21:27

Liya is most certainly getting better. I like that. The work is still hard, though, but I’m getting a “window” tomorrow. What was the last time I’ve visited my dad? Good thing he works here, in the reactor complex, so, taking the monorail ride will be sufficient to meet him (and when I finally go on vacation, I’m going straight to the capital to meet mom).

EDIT: Apparently, there’ll be a new portion of nuclear fuel, loaded into reactors. I’ve managed to get security clearance for me and Liya, so, tomorrow we are going to go even deeper into facility than before! Gah, this line is SO awful...

[Attached files: personal observation and log datafile, general health monitoring datafile, optical and thermographic photos, full biological screening record datafile, Liya’s personal terminal activity log datafile]

Compulink system deactivated.

-                                                                                                                              -

*So, are we here yet?* - somewhat nervously asked Latias, looking around. Right now, they were in one of the deeper parts of the facility, where the nuclear reactors were installed. The sheer constant roar of machinery in the turbine hall was unnerving, but now, they were closing to the reactors themselves.

- Almost... - started speaking microbiologist, when the not very old, but well-built man stopped near them and gave them a wide, even somewhat scary, smile.

- Son? Hello! - happily said aged man, pulling Yevgeniy into almost bone-crushing hug. - So, how’re the things going up here, if you didn’t have enough time to write mails to your old dad Klim at least once a week?

- Very busy, - tried to defend himself microbiologist.

- Don’t say ‘dat, where you’ve learned to defend like this, I was the one teaching it! - laughed Klim. - So, where’s my granddaughter?

*I’m here,* - replied Liya, coming out of shadow, still slightly afraid.

- So, that’s it? You know, son, I think you’ve made a damn good job! - proudly said sort-of-grandfather of young Latias. - Don’t dare you think, that we, down there, don’t know a s... something! We, power engineers, know loads of things! I’ve heard she’s very smart for her not even a year! So, Liya, can you tell me, how does the nuclear power plant work?

*Nuclear power plants obtain the heat needed to produce steam to drive the turbines through a nuclear physical process. This process, called fission, entails the splitting of atoms of...*

- Enough, I see ya’ know this. I’m damn proud of my son and you! Ya know, I think you’ll, in time, make a damn good part of the staff up there, in one of the main Divisions, and you’re sure a fine addition to our family from now on!

*So... does me not being human...*

- Shut it at once and don’t say such a stupid things! Of course you’re my granddaughter! - announced Klim, earning some strange looks from his colleagues in process. - No, it does not!

- Warning, shift number 5 - come to your stations! - sounded an announcement from the loudspeaker.

- Time, - shrugged Yevgeniy’s father, then turned to his son and granddaughter. - So, do you come with me or no? I’ve heard you have all clearances, so, just try to follow my instructions and not do anything stupid, okay?

- Okay, - agreed young man and Latias at the same time, proceeding with Klim shortly after. After some walk and taking a ride on the elevator, they’ve found themselves in the long gallery with thick glass, which encirled the fuel storage hall. In one of the corners, there was an entrance to the cabin of parked electrical overhead crane, along with remote control terminal nearby.

- We’ll be loading full set today, and I’m the crane operator. Not that hard, actually. Or, - suddenly turned Klim to the Liya, - does my nice little girl want to try to use the electric overhead crane herself?

*I... not s...* - tried to reply shocked Latias.

- Don’t be afraid, it’s very simple - right stick controls the movement of the crane itself, left - elevation of the grabber and grab-release control, screen shows you the map of working zone and all the data you need. Don’t worry, the automatics will prevent you from crashing fuel rods into anything or like this!

*But...*

- Come on, it can be once-in-a-life event! Do you want to regret it later? Even your dad rode the crane once, when he was fifteen! - continued father of Yevgeniy, not mentioning, that he got a severe reprimand from both superiors and his wife afterwards.

*Okay,* - decided to agree Liya, looking at the seat inside the cabin, turned, for some reason, towards her. - *What do I do now?*

- Take a seat and flick the switches, labeled S1 and S2. This will activate the crane and shift the seat into work mode. Afterwards... well, I’ll contact you, there’s an intercom system inside.

*Understood,* - replied dragon, disguised as human, doing as an old man advised. After two flicks, seat suddenly moved towards the very front of the cabin with a characteristic growl of low-speed engine, then shifted backwards a bit and turned around, giving a nice view on the work zone, while the doors behind her closed, cutting apart the cabin and the gallery, as well as protecting the against the air in the hall.

-                                                                                                                              -

- You’re sure about this? - asked his father Yevgeniy.

- Absolutely, I’ve let you control the crane back during the work in seaport, after all, - said Klim, taking a seat before the RC terminal. - From here, I can instantly override her controls, if she does something wrong. In fact, I can easily operate the crane remotely every time, it’s just that I prefer controlling it from the cabin.

- For thrill?

- For thrill, - agreed honorable crane operator, activating the intercom to crane’s cabin, - Shift the stick ahead, don’t be afraid!

Since the cabin was cut from the rest of the world by the double-reinforced protective glass and alloys, blocking the radiation and telepathy alike, they didn’t hear her answer, but the sound of engines and movement of crane told them more than that.

-                                                                                                                              -

“Wow,” - thought Latias, carefully pushing the control stick forward and hearing roar of powerful electric motors, as the entirety of machine started to move.

- Look at the screen. On it, you can see two points, one marked yellow, and one marked blue. The blue point is where you take the fuel assemblies, the yellow one - where you load them into refueling machine. When the refueling machine is operating, it’ll be marked green, but as soon as it’s empty and waiting for another supply, it’ll turn yellow again. Don’t worry - the automatic assist system will prevent you from colliding assemblies or mis-loading them. Move the crane to the stack of fuel, don’t be afraid!

*Okay,* - replied Liya, too concentrated on operating machine to notice, that her telepathy was not able to go beyond walls of radiation-proof cabin, which also blocked psychic abilities.

- Contact zone reached, - notified her computer, when the grabber was positioned right above one of the assemblies in the storage pool. She instantly released the right stick, stopping movement of the crane.

- Good, I see you’re in the right position. Now, open the grabber by pressing the lower button on the left control stick and then gently lower the grabber. As soon as it reaches fuel assembly, it will automatically grab it and lock, then raise itself to safe position. In fact, it shall also open automatically upon reaching the assembly, but better play safe.

This time, Liya did not attempt to reply, too concentrated on carefully lowering the grabber. Keen dragon eyes helped her a little, but the inertia of this thing and water refracting the image made it somewhat harder.

- Attention: assembly retrieval in progress! - finally announced automatic system, when the grabber locked onto a stack of fuel rods and rose up, although not leaving the water.

- Very good. Now, move the crane to the designated point and, as soon as you reach the contact zone, lower it gently. After the lower part of assembly passes the hole’s border, the automatics will take control and finish the procedure.

*Okay...* - telepathically “murmured” Latias, shifting the stick again and carefully passing the stack of the fuel rods through the small channel between pools and driving the crane all the way to the end of the second pool.

- Contact zone reached, - said the assist system once again, so Liya gently lowered the payload.

- Attention: assembly load in progress! - reported the automatics, when the gripper disengaged the fuel assembly got loaded into some machine on the bottom of the pool.

- One loaded into the transfer machine, 65 more to go! - sounded Klim’s voice from the intercom. Just as the Liya got horrified at the very thought of it, microbioligist’s father continued. - No need for you to finish this, though. Drive the crane back here, flick the S2 switch back to open the doors and exit the cabin, then let me take my place. Or you can press the red button, so the crane will drive itself back here. Wait, don’t do it - it’ll count as an accident.

Latias, which was slowly giving in to the realization of the sheer bizareness of the current events, had somehow managed to drive the crane back and exit it, allowing the rightful operator to take his place and continue the operation.

- My dad can be pretty weird sometimes, - commented Yevgeniy on it, seeing, how fast and professionally his father was driving the machine, loading fuel assemblies one after another.

*Maybe,* - agreed Liya, still somewhat shocked by what has just happened. - *So, what do we do now?*

- I suggest we get back to surface, onto test range, and you practice with your moves... your true form moves, I mean.

*Sweet!*

-                                                                                                                              -

- Aaand another Mist Ball. - said human, looking, how the fifth test dummy already was blown apart by the powerful Psychic move. - Is it your favorite attack?

*Of course!* - replied Latias, shifted into her true form and trying to commence sort-of-a strafing run, which was pretty hard, considering the not-so-big size of the range, - *No one but my kind can use it!*

- Okay, whatever. Are you satisfied yet?

*I am now!* - “said” she after blowing up the last dummy with Hyper Beam and melting a decent patch of snow around it, then slowing down and moving to Yevgeniy’ side. - *So, what do we do now?*

- Go home, I guess, - answered her human, looking at the wristwatch. - It’s almost night already, and I’ve got a lot of work tomorrow.

*Then let’s go!* - cheerfully agreed Liya, finally calming down Yevgeniy, who was still afraid worried her near-depression after the New Year disaster. Several minutes later, they’ve arrived into their quarters (though Liya was forced to temporarily switch from her form to the human one in order to pass through doorframes), then, after a small supper, each went to check their respective terminal.

-                                                                                                                              -

Compulink system active.

Please, enter login and password.

Login and password correct. Access granted.

Two new infomail messages received.

Opening message number one...

09.01.425 AFE, 19:49

From:

Klim Goncharenko, Imperial Science Facility 9, Production Division, Underground Complex, Power Production Sub-Sector

To:

Yevgeniy Goncharenko, Imperial Science Facility 9, Bioscience Division, Surface Complex, Extraregional Pokemon Study Lab.

Topic:

Grampa’s musings.

Son, I’ve seen your girl, and, let me say it again, I’m damn proud of you. I’ve already phoned your mom and she’s very happy about it. Oh, and I also sent a small edutainment program to our little Liya Yevgeniyevna, which will teach her the basics of operating nuclear powerplant. Of course, I’m sure, that she’ll find something better in her life, but it’s pretty interesting to play and is good for overall development.

Love,

Your rusty old dad.

Opening the second infomail message...

09.01.425 AFE, 21:05

From:

Vladislav Pobegov, Imperial Science Facility 9, Central Office, Underground Complex.

To:

Yevgeniy Goncharenko, Imperial Science Facility 9, Bioscience Division, Surface Complex, Extraregional Pokemon Study Lab.

Topic:

Shenanigans.

Look, Zhenya, I know you’re my favorite student and microbiologist, I know your great skills and achievements... but isn’t this going a little bit far? And I don’t mean putting just Lati into operating an overhead crane, transporting the nuclear fuel - I mean putting someone with zero experience into operating such a machinery! I know, I know, Klim was ready to take it over at any second, should such a need arise, and she operated it for only a single loading, but still... I hope you’ve got my point. Please, don’t do it again. Think of our image! Though what I’m talking about, being an overseer of this chaos... Please, just don’t make the things worse for us, you and your Lati “daughter”. Thank you for understanding.

With sincere hope,

Vladislav Pobegov.

Compulink system deactivated.

If you look closer at the indicators at the “Mayday” moment, you can see, that only one of antigravs was barely working and others were offline, but Flying Palace STILL managed to land without killing everyone inside. If you include here his reckless personality, probably, all he had - an emergency escape pod of some sort (who knows), because there are no room for the landing gear (except, maybe, for the lower bulb), but any gear, which can be mounted there, needs to be telescopic, have an expandable lower plates with giant max surface (or else it will bury itself in the ground) and be made out of unbreakium (because of sheer mass and so small place for the gear itself).

@mgrgfan let’s talk ships. So, we both seem to be in agreement that the Hikoukyuu is for the most part fully automated. Though how it would land…you do propose an interesting idea, but that would suggest either that all landing pads are specifically built for that one ship or that there are other nearly identical ship out there.

For some reason, Zero is the most huggable for me (after all, Newton’ve brutally shuttered Zero’s dreams when he’ve deleted the Megarig Project files, so I want to comfort this poor guy), and, for some very strange reason, Hunter J (highly probable, that the real reason for this is her cool personality and awesome assault ship).

Ok since last time almost everyone focused on the bosses, let’s go a bit different. Huggability rating, movie baddies.

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Soris region, part 1.

To put it short, Soris is a hellhole. Such a hellhole, in fact, that even Orre region looks like a paradise in comparison with Soris. The best way to describe Soris is ((USSR*Australia*Detroit)+PanzerDragoonWorld)^PokemonWorld. In fact, “Harpoon” and “Ripper” rounds (which, most of time, provide victim with quick and very painful death, or at least give it serious injuries) for firearms, the very possession of which will get you jailed for many years in other regions, are perfectly legal here and can be bought in any weapon store for a small price. And that’s for a good reason.

Even before the Ancient Soris Empire, Soris Pokemon were far from cooperative, while remaining as powerful as you think Pokemon would be, so, living in Soris was somewhat like living in the Australia. When the Soris Legendaries had gone onto rampage and Ancient Soris War began, a lot of nuclear, arcane and even biological weapons were deployed, all in attempts of humans to survive. While these attempts mostly succeeded (humans weren’t wiped out, after all, and Legendaries were killed), Soris was horribly devastated. Because of how often Pokemon in this war used dimensional-controlling abilities (Teleport and like this) and how much arcane equipment and weaponry were used to combat it (incident in Solncegorsk city, for instance, where Unown tried to take advantage of the war and establish a hold in the real world, only to be destroyed by the mix of missiles with arcane warheads, loaded with Dark-type energy, and plain tactical nuclear missiles), today’s interworld connections in Soris are... far from good. Teleport is considered a good method of suicide (because after teleporting, user of this move more often than not becomes a bloody paste) and “reflection” of the region in the Reverse World is so mangled and distorted, that Giratina, when she (its psychological gender here is closer to female) saw it, decided “Screw this!” and simply warded off this area instead of trying to restore it.

The native Pokemon of Soris are very dangerous. From even before Ancient Soris War, they, when having above-average power (Pseudo-Legendaries were normal), very rarely wanted to cooperate with humans, but, at least, weren’t very agressive either. After the Ancient Soris War, however, they, under the aftereffects of such a devastation, changed into something much, much more deadly (it’s still not clear, if those were effects of deaths of the Legendaries or simple aftereffects of biological, nuclear, chemical and arcane WMDs). Today, Ground-type Pokemon with nearly perfect camouflage, appetite of Snorlax, aggressiveness of wild Hydreigon and Pseudo-Legendary stats are nothing special in Soris and can be easily found (though “easily found” often means “you see it before it kills you”) outside of the fortified cities and corporate Enclaves and are considered low-level threat. Yes, Ancient Soris War was something special.

Thankfully, introduced Alolan Flygons - the only species of Pokemon in Soris that were truly and really cooperative towards humans and the ones with crazy adaptational abilities - changed too (they aren’t called “Spirit of Change” in both Alola and Soris for nothing!), allowing themselves to survive in Soris. Today, Soris Flygons can be distinguished from their Alolan relatives by different shape of wings (somewhat longer and sharper), slightly longer and horizontally-forked antennaes (which are crucial to their Aura abilities), minor Aura abilities (short-range communication, “radar” and “darkvision” of sort), more omnivorous digestive system (life in Soris is harsh), more power and even greater adaptational abilities, which allow them to thrive in pretty much any environment - from forever colds of Alberia to the volcanic regions of Camcilia to the swamps of the Far East to the sandy deserts of Goli and so on... They also constantly migrate from one part of Soris to another in order to keep their adaptational abilities sharp and evade fate which struck their Hoenn relatives (forever locking in one forme). However, domesticated Soris Flygons will stay with their master. Also, there are some less dangerous tamed creatures, which, however, are not true Pokemon and were genetically constructed by the Ancient Soris Empire.

The most often-used land transport in Soris are different kinds of armored vehicles. Pretty often, they are simply APC/IFVs in civilian painting (guns remain how they were), but sometimes they use so-called “mini-cruisers”, which are segmented caterpillar-driven armored vehicles with articulated hull and tank-grade weapons on the front segment (kinda like Bogie from “The Third: Girl with Blue Eyes” anime), because they offer pretty decent protection, or heavily-armored big trucks, often modded from old ICBM carriers. Also, armored trains (with very characteristic and prominent sharp pilots, which ensure nothing stands on the way of the train) are used heavily. On the Grey Sea coastal line, some people use jury-rigged (but really good) buggies with deployable soft paraglider wing, mechanized rudders and propeller, which allow them to traverse both ground and (limited) air. However, they aren’t suited for long-range travels and are require solid driving skills to survive in the event of encountering local Pokemon.

The aerial transport is dominated with different armored planes, helicopters and airships (the ones based on SaL-12 “Charizard” Assault Ship Aerodyne are among the most-used), though Soris Flygons dominate short-range travels.

The water transport... let’s just say people would like to traverse this path on ground or in air far better. Hovewer, when such a need arises, armored boats with some depth charges and heavy weapons are put to use. In more peaceful zones (which are rare ones), local gangs can utilise airboats with heavy machine guns and some laser-guided rocket launchers.

The weapon regulation laws are... wait, there are next to none such laws for weapon regulation inside of Soris. Because of how deep into time Soris history of firearms goes (some designs can be traced up to 1000 years in the past, considering all the times, when technology gets lost and rediscovered), there are some restrictions on exporting and importing guns, but almost nothing about trading and using them in the region itself. It is for a reason - without guns, Soris people barely have ways to defend themselves (not counting Soris Flygons, but hey, those insect-dragons can’t do everything! Normal, non-Soris Pokemon, don’t live too long in Soris for reasons yet to be found, while some Soris Pokemon can live outside of Soris with no problems, but prefer to stay in their home region, bar Soris Flygons - they feel themselves nice everywhere, because their adaptability is crazy), especially with how in last 100 years Soris Pokemon started to become even more agressive and powerful for reasons yet to be found and neutralized. In Soris, you can legally purchase pretty much any gun as soon as you are 21 (though you need to pass tests first. Also, handguns, including 13x55mm caliber heavy assault revolver and rifles, can be bought from 18 onwards) and use any ammo for it you want (excluding nuclear, chemical and biological ammo). Yes, you can get anti-tank missile launcher too, if you can afford it and qualify as skilled user. However, laws about reckless use of weapons (shooting people, shooting wild Pokemon without good cause, property damage and such) are still in place. Yes, Soris is a hellhole.

Because of the reasons above, life in Soris (except for the Tunguska, which is, for some strange reason, pretty similar to the normal region like Sinnoh, though not without noticable traces of Soris influence, especially at the border with “true” Soris) is... actually, not that hard. Yes, you need to be good with guns, know at least basics of first aid, be able to quickly repair tech and so on, but there are next to no influence of the Official World State (Pokemon Nation), absolutely zero danger of Legendaries going rampant (they were killed for real in the Ancient Soris War) and, while most of the non-corporate fortress-cities are being ran by shady figures, they are more-or-less safe and nice (because they are all in the same boat - better be nice with your subordinates, so they’ll be nice with you in return, than be evil to them and one night a psycho, created by your regimen, goes rampant and kills lots of people one way or another. There were such incidents, which have even resulted in destruction of several fortress-cities, including two ancient ones - the ones which were built just 200 years after the fall of the Ancient Soris Empire!). Of course, “Pokemon League” is not a thing here, but is it such a price for a chance to survive in this region?

A lot of Pokemon Hunters in other regions originate from Soris’ gangs. Most of them prefer to use firearms, just like they did back home.

If vote for Team Leaders from games, I’d pick Blake Hall - he wants to solve the energy crisis and is actively searching ways to accomplish it. If from the anime ones - none, even if the program of the most qualified one - Jarvis, - is more-or-less clear - he just wants to take over the Azoth Kingdom and rule it from his aerial fortress.

I’d like to see Zero’s or Hunter J’s political programs, though.

Honestly I would vote for literally ANY of the Pokémon bad guys before voting for either Clinton or Trump. Any of them. Even the one who wanted to end all existence, the one who wanted to kill like 99% of the world, the one who intended to enslave all humanity and all animals alike, and the two douchebags who have no idea how earth science works.

Though at this point my frontrunner, as far as Pokémon bad guys goes, is Nobunaga since he’s the only one with real world leadership experience.