ISF 9 Chronicles, Part 4.

I’m not sure about this, because increase of update’s speed usually means decrease in size and/or quality of chapters, and I’m 100% sure, that no one will be happy about it. If refining your chapters takes time, that’s normal, because it means better result.

@mgrgfan you say you’re almost done with Obsession? What do you think so far? Please reply as a reblog so I can respond to it directly.

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.

About staff - maybe, Flying Palace is fully automated and have robots for all the sorts of maintance work, so no human staff required, and in the movie outer parts of Palace central structure are simply circular. And shield-like structures may be anti-gravity modules (they look pretty hi-tech on close-up, when Ash and Co sprints downwards on the one of them).

The Hikoukyuu is really really weird. It looks like the floors are giant spirals, or at least have giant spiral staircases going along the outsides of them, and over to the side there’s some sort of garden? I’d imagine that limits the amount of times he has to land, but that would also mean that he’d have to retain a constant staff or do all the work himself, and I can’t see either of those happening (temporary staff seems the most likely idea given his personality). And those weird shields just…what are they? Sun shields?

also apparently the propellers were Jirarudan’s idea, to fit his aesthetics. Which makes me wonder what the original design would have been.

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.

Robur was also above politics in the first book (”Robur the Conqueror”), but went dark in the second (”Master of the World”), when he scrapped more peacefully-built “Albatross” (second one, first “Albatross” was blown up by Prudent and Evans, much like Hikokyuu was brought down by Ash and co.), which had only one short-barreled low-impulse cannon (used for whale hunting and somewhat similar to Hikokyuu’s mortar artillery system) and several explosive charges onboard, for more agressively-built “Terror” with powerful ram for sinking ships. Robur in the first book had some sort of justification - he wanted to prove superiority of heavier-than-air aircraft, so he took two most powerful lighter-than-air lobbiers to let them see HTA vessels superiority with their own eyes, and he also wanted to take revenge for the events in the Weldon Institute. Also, I re-read the book and’ve found, that “Albatross” was capable of landing, so forgive me for giving you false information.

Here’s that picture of the original Hikoukyuu and Melody’s instrument. Articuno has about…twice its mass in tailfeathers…

@mgrgfan check it out.

ISF9 Chronicles, part 5

End of the “NB-CHRN-2″ datafile has been reached.

Access the next datafile?

Accessing “NB-CHRN-3″ datafile...

READ ONLY

Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

01.08.419 AFE

In month from now, the Auditor from Imperial Palace will come, to inspect our Facility. According to some of the rumors about him I’ve heard, he is quite a pricky bastard. Hope we find some ways to teach him a lesson!

10.08.419 AFE

Arcane Science Division has accidentally created crystal with very strange and anomalous properties, namely - ability to create such a perfect illusions, that they can become reality to whoever sees them. However, this is still in theory, since the most it can do now is create illusions of simple geometric shapes with 256 colors for them available. They need much more computational power and precision electrodes before this effect can be achieved (and, for what it looks like, cooperate with Chemistry and Production Divisions to grow a brand new crystal, since this one is impure and irregular as flak). Still, seeing porn through device like this...

11.08.419 AFE

Worked in the Surface Complex again, helping Bioscience and transportation. Met someone, named Yevgeniy Goncharenko. Nice peep, actually. I’m kinda surprised in his interest in Lati, but, I think, it’s nothing out of order.

EDIT: Apparently, he was the best student of the Director back in the Capital Bioscientific University. So, ‘guess I’ve just made a very good connection.

17.08.419 AFE

Those Flygons are really cute. I’ve never thought I’d say something like that, but I legitly think, that those Dragon/Bugs are cute. How is it even possible. What has become of me?

23.08.419 AFE

Airship left today. One of the young Vibravas, who tried to mimic the older relatives, tried to also “escort” it to the edge of our Facility’s airspace, but almost got caught into the propellers. Thankfully, one of the Flygons saved it before any damage was done.

29.08.419 AFE

Arcanists cooperated with Chemistry and Production Divisions to grow a brand-new crystal, hook it up into their supercomputer and then test-prank people with it. I was quite shocked, seeing my laptop turn into the old one. Those illusions are really realistic beyond any imagination. I think I’ll help them in preparations for the Auditors visit. Good thing my porn stash is in the nice condition! He is gonna be so surprised...

...Datafile corruption detected.

Repair initiated.

Updated to include all fics and worldbuilding posts as of 01.02.2018 (Day-Month-Year).

mrgrfan’s fanfiction and worldbuilding masterpost.

If you are interested in my writing, follow this post.

Main fanfic

First part (”Above the ground, nothing can tie me down…”) - https://ficbook.net/readfic/3693118 (in Russian, kind of old shame, but still canonical one. Also, protagonist is not the totally reliable narrator, just like everyone else bar me, as per “Word of God”, here. Finished.)

Second part (”I won’t let go tomorrow…”) - https://ficbook.net/readfic/4073788 (in Russian, follows the AU of the first fic. WIP.)

Woldbuilding

Corporations

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156441613350/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-corporations-part

Part 2 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156677029022/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-corporations-part

Ancient Soris Empire

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156770617137/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Part 2 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156817576217/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Part 3 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156951683842/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Part 4 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157623819287/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

About Combatron-class assault robots - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170318922797/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Soris region

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/163028327677/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-soris-region-part

Azoth Kingdom, cabinet Minister Alva

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157057482987/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-azoth-kingdom

Part 2 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157411917382/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-azoth-kingdom

Miscenallous

About Flying Palace’s Artificial Intelligence system - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156641604612/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-flying-palaces

Mini-fics

Fics about Alva&co., in chronological order:

“Parents” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/158286557947/parents-mini-fic

“Promise” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157498025162/promise-mini-fic

“Equipment” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/162344275882/equipment-mini-fic

“Business” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/161365781312/business-mini-fic 

Ancient Soris Empire fics:

“Present” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/158601229917/present-mini-fic (Ancient Soris War, Soris)

“Re-entry” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/158604547977/re-entry-mini-fic (post-Ancient Soris War, Earth’s orbit)

“Fight”- https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170318925327/fight-mini-fic (post-Ancient Soris War, Kalos)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 1″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/166017047697/isf-9-chronicles-part-1 (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 2″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/166051922027/isf9-chronicles-part-2 (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 3″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/167061007667/isf-9-chronicles-part-3  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 4″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/167565862097/isf-9-chronicles-part-4  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 1″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170162337092/memory-part-1-mini-fic  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 2″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170278461467/memory-part-2-mini-fic  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

Hunter K fics:

“Survival” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/162289238132/survival-mini-fic

Miscenallous 

“Code” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157684898832/code-mini-fic (from the POV of Flying Palace’s Artificial Intelligence system).

“Fear” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157957986722/fear-mini-fic (from the POV of Jorsey, Yveltal hatchling, who stays in the Flying Palace along with main fic’s protagonist and AI system)

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

Chapter 7. Never the same. "Entering Hoenn airspace!" announced the navigator. "Current speed - 100 km/h, altitude - 10 km." "Coolant temperature… normal," added mechanic. "Reactor’s working at optimal capacity. Main propellers rotating at 300 rpm, blades angle set at position 4." "Good," responded the captain, looking in the front window. "Rad-scans?" "I think directed rad-scanners are picking up something in the Meteor Falls… looks like our target," said the radiation safety officer. "Pilot - drop us down to 3 kms and lower the speed to 30 km/h. When we'll be directly above the Meteor Falls - shut down the primary propulsion and deploy the auxiliary thrusters, then transfer the control to me." "Acknowledged, commencing corrections," replied the pilot, slightly shifting joystick and thrust control rudder. "Good," noted the captain, then relaxed a bit. Right now, they were escorted by a few of military helicopters, tiltjets and some Hoennian military Pokemon, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea upon seeing such a great airship. After all, it was equipped with a nuclear reactor for power source and, should the rest of the airship be destroyed and the ultra-durable protective shell breached, will cause a lot of contamination… ---- "Your Majesty… your Majesty..." a scientist in Zemlino carefully tried to wake up the Emperor, who was sitting asleep in the chair near the ORBCOM station, after all those crazy events of yesterday. "Hm?.. If there's a third moon around the Red Planet - notify the Team 37, especially if it turns out to be an… eyed balloon or something…" the Emperor replied without actually awakening, being, apparently, in the midst of some bizarre and adventurous dream. "Again…" the Empress, who has just recently arrived to the flight control center, sighed, knowing a bit too well, just how enthusiastic her husband could get about anything aerospace-related. Especially after the first manned flight, when he has, somehow, managed to get into the SP-04 "Black Bird" spaceplane and, therefore, become the first human in space... "Anyway… now with the "Red Explorer" around the Moon, "Hauler" preparing to deorbit and "Dreamwing" back in hangar… we need to decide, how to direct the space program," said director of Zemlino FCC. "During the last nine months, it was directed solely towards building and launching the nuclear pulse battleship to open the road towards the skies again, with a few resupply vessels for it, but now, once we did it and made our intentions on keeping it open clear… what do we do?" "Honestly…" Empress started, in uneasy voice, "... I don't know. I mean, yes, we've opened the road to space again and people of the Empire are very happy about that, as well as showing Nation, that we're no jokes, but… I'm not really sure, what kind of directions are to be made of greater priority." "Orbital factories," Emperor replied, waking up upon hearing it at once. "Factories? Well… yes, they can be of use, but…" began director, only for the Emperor to interrupt him: "No buts. Even though I'm not big at ruling, I think we should capitalize on our success and get the info about the materials, which can be produced only in microgravity, and how they can help to improve the lives on the ground. I think info about the orbital hospitals can also help, since they are something everyday human can understand. If they start telling, that it'll be only available to aristocracy and rich - we should capitalize on grandiosity of our new Integrated Program Plan. It's finally time to put it back into action and make it reality." "... I guess," sighed Empress, thinking about words of her husband. "No time for guessing. We must make them realize, that the only way for them to get access to all the cool space stuff is to support the space program and help it grow as never before. We're on the verge of greatness now and we must achieve it." "Hopefully, you succeed at this," said director of the FCC, "because I'd hate the program falling apart, after all we've done..." "We all would," replied the Emperor and the Empress at the same time. ---- "So… that's it," murmured Damien, seeing gigantic nuclear-powered airship soar through the skies back to Soris, carrying highly radioactive corpse of Rayquaza inside the shielded cargo section. For all of the Draconid People, it was one heck of a blow - not only the Dragon Lord was killed, but they could not even bury it properly, having to allow sorisians to stuff it into an underground nuclear waste dump. And, what's worse, none of them could do anything about it - not only Rayquaza's corpse was radioactive enough to be able to give human a fatal radiation poisoning in matter of a few minutes, burying it in classic way would've allowed the leaking isotopes to, eventually, contaminate the groundwater and cause a big ecological catastrophe. "Grannie…" started Helian, "... What will happen now? With no Dragon Lord?" "I don't know," said the Elder, looking at the airship too. "But I think, that the world will never be the same…" ---- "So, we're done with preliminary checks," sighed mechanic, who was servicing the "Dreamwing" in the hangar #2 of Zemlino Space Center. "So far, everything looks fine." "Great," replied commander of the spaceplane. "Hopefully, our birdie will stay fine in the future too." "Hopefully… but it may get replaced with the new nuclear-powered spaceplane soon, when they iron out the hiccups of nuclear turboramjets and aerodynamics of the aft. I've heard Emperor got opposed to the idea of jettisonable aerodynamic tail cone and they're busy developing something, which will allow everything to come up and down in one piece." "Cool. Almost like our machine." "Yeah. From what I've heard, test flights of the SPN-01 "Blizzard", the first BLUEBIRD spaceplane, should start pretty soon. And with no Rayquaza around, they should be safe enough." "Safe, you say… the debris is still in place, though. And I don't think, that this spaceplane can be as armored as the battleship we've launched recently." "Well… yeah. Still, we've managed to take a flight to the "Red Explorer" and spend some time up there, so, maybe it won't be as bad. Besides, I've heard some rumors about how there are plans for dual-purpose weaponized satellites, which can both destroy targets in space and use their weapons for clearing space junk." "Hm… Interesting and kinda makes sense. I guess those laser researches in the ISFs 5 and 9 will be put to good use, after all." "I guess." "Hi, guys," said the engineer of the "Dreamwing", approaching the two men on this catwalk. "Anything wrong with sensors?" "No, nothing is wrong with them," replied mechanic and was a bit surprised upon seeing, how crewmembers of the "Dreamwing" suddenly got grimier and exchanged looks of understanding. "I guess we may have another dragon problem soon enough…" stated the commander, looking at the machine. "And who knows, if we'll have to resort to warships again…" ---- Awake. Alive. Those were the first thoughts of the young dragon. Right now, it did not understand the situation yet, but some strange memories, belonging both to the dragon and not to it at the same time, were flooding its mind. It was slowly to understand some things, but not too fast. It understood, that its name was Rayquaza, the Sky High Pokemon. It understood, that it exists to protect the skies and deal with Groudon and Kyogre. It understood, that something must've happened to its predecessor, if it was awakened right now. With those thoughts, young dragon has struck the hard shell of the egg and broke it apart, freeing itself. As it has just remembered, despite most of the Legendaries, like itself, being near-immortal, there were still contingency protocols in events of something exceptional happening. And, apparently, something exceptional it was. The young dragon has remembered the last moments of the old dragon, when it fought some huge cone-cylindrical metallic construct and, somehow, was struck down by it. Whatever moves this construct was using, they've had near-infernal power. And young dragon could not allow itself to suffer the fate of its predecessor. For now, it will lay low and explore, as it grows back to the power level of a full Legendary. Then… it will depend on circumstances. With those thoughts, young pitch-black serpentine dragon took off, flew past the obstacles and left the cave, well-hidden in the mountain range. Right now, it had to, first and foremost, survive and grow up. ---- Inside the bridge of the huge sorisian airship, there was not much action now. Rayquaza's highly-radioactive corpse was now in the reinforced storage, they were en route home, everything on the airship worked perfectly… honestly, it was kind of boring. "Guys…" started the navigator, "Do you remember our first assignment? The aerial expedition to Alola?" "Oh, I sure do!" replied the pilot, shifting in the chair a bit. "How we all have flown to it, how we've spent a decent amount of hydrogen burnfuel for our recon plane and heavy-lift helicopter, how technicians were able to assemble the mooring masts in just three days… that was the time!" "Especially with how we've managed to bring some Flygon eggs to Soris. Who knew, that those insect-dragons will become so popular at our home!" "Well… they did become popular with our colonists, didn't they? I mean, by the end of our stay there, quite a few people liked their partner 'Spirits of Change'. Including you." "... Yeah. Also…" With those words said, pilot reached out for one of his MFDs, quickly selected "security camera feeds" options and looked at the feed from the top hangar a bit. In it, an insect-dragon was quietly sleeping, curled near the tandem-rotor helicopter - much like during their return from the expedition. "... Nah, she's fine. Took Sunny form for some reason, though." "I would've said because of our cargo, but it'd be stupid. By the way… strangely enough, but native Alolan Flygon seem to be extinct nowadays, with Hoennian subspecies, somehow, having replaced them." "Hoopa's shenanigans again?" "Likely. May also be combined with the fact, that Hoennian Flygon, while lacking the sheer versatility of its Alolan progenitor, is better adapted to the desert conditions. I guess they've just lost the competition there." "And our region has preserved those dragon-bugs. Cool." "I guess. I've heard from some of my friends in ISF 4, that some scientists from Hoenn and Alola would be really happy to get more data about the extinct-for-them Alolan Flygon." "Likely." Author's notes: ISF - Imperial Science Facility. ORBCOM - Orbiter Communicator. MFD - Multi-Function Display. Sorisian nuclear airship is based on that. BLUEBIRD spaceplane is based on the real M(G)-19 "Gurkolyot". Alolan Flygons are based on that wonderful picture.

Can you give a link to this early concept? And about Palace’s propellers speed - probably, creators just wanted to save money on CGI and used only a few animations for the Flying Palace.

Pokedex flying machines entry

“I always thought that Flying Palace (Hikokyuu) uses some sort of anti-gravity propulsion and propellers are just for setting course (ring-mounted change altitude, wall-mounted propells Palace horizontally), and anti-gravity modules are this giant vertical things between outer rings and central building, one of which serves to heroes as slide after the Palace crash.”

Ooh, thank you! Though the propellers seem to be fixed in place no matter the direction the ship is going.

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

Chapter 6. On the brink. "Do you think it's time already?" the Empress asked her husband. "I do," replied the Emperor, who has arrived to the palace via his own supersonic tiltjet not even ten minutes ago. "Look, dear, with this machine in orbit, we can declare pretty much whatever we want." "I don't really think so… but yeah, this allows us for much more freedom. Okay, tuning up to Nation's comm." The Empress opened the communications app on her computer and initiated call to her delegates, which were supposed to participate in talks with Pokemon Nation. Right now, one of the primary priorities will be what to deal with the corpse of Rayquaza - a pretty big radiological hazard... ---- "We're the guardians of heavens / Protectors of the skies / We'll fulfill our duties / We've been born to fly…" the pilot was quietly singing, to, surprisingly, no annoyance of the rest of the crew in the CIC. "About that - it's about time we rotate the shifts. The first shift will take the stations in a few minutes." said the XO. "Aye-aye," replied the rest of the officers. When the first shift came back, the rotation went without problems… but the captain was slightly unnerved by the contents of the transmission, which came to the ship in the meantime. Apparently, there was a possibility, that they'll have to deploy the retro-missiles today… ---- In the Meteor Village, things weren't easy. Right now, Damien and Elder were talking. Even though the head of the man was still somewhat aching, he could work through it. Because of how the Rayquaza was brought dead by the sorisian space warfare ship, the prophecy was rendered nil, and the sheer radioactiveness of the corpse of the Sky High Pokemon made any attempts to recover it equal to the suicide. And, as if to humiliate them even further, right now, there was an announcement on TV about how Soris Empire sent their giant nuclear-powered dirigible to recover the remains of Rayquaza for burial in the radioactive waste storage facility, as well as quite a few government agents, sent to oversee the extraction and make sure, that everything will go smooth. Even though most of the Draconids were against it, Damien has managed to convince the Elder that it was still the best thing to do, since sorisians, given their proficiency with nuclear tech, must have a great experience with decontamination too. Several especially head-strong Draconids, who decided to not listen to his words, got to look at Rayquaza's corpse and got radiation poisoning, only made the talks with Elder easier.. Of course, it was not normal for Draconid to be like this… but Damien was not a normal Draconid. Besides, having a girlfriend, who was a nuclear physicist and, as he recently learned, was involved in Castelia Project, helped to understand full ramifications of nuclear technology involved major time. The only thing Damien was really worried about was how, thanks to the actions of Soris Empire, now there wasn't anyone to stop the Groudon and Kyogre, should the awaken and rage again... ---- Not too far away from Zemlino, the giant launch assist sled track was, after many years of disuse since the pause of the "WHITEBIRD" project, finally repaired and prepared to be used once again. The hypersonic spaceplane for it - the "Dreamwing" - was already loaded with everything and almost refueled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen, awaiting the load on the sled and launch. This machine, unlike the Space Shuttle of the Pokemon Nation or Project 21A Space Ferry, was long, sleek and even somewhat ominous, resembling unovan SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It had two short, somewhat angular vertical stabilizers near the the tail, alongside with two similar horizontal stabilizers. However, the most unusual thing about this human creation were three long, boxy engines, suspended beneath the fuselage. The engines of the spaceplane were hybrids between usual scramjets and pure rocket engines. They've needed the spaceplane to be pre-accelerated to more than 1320 km/h before they could be started, but once they were up and running, they would accelerate the spaceplane to more than 7 times the speed of sound and get it to the edge of atmosphere, where it'll switch to internal oxygen supply and finish the orbital insertion. As big as this spaceplane was, there wasn't too much place for payload bay, crew cabin or like this - the machine mostly consisted of giant fuel tanks for the liquid hydrogen, because such was a price of being an SSTO. Because of this, the crew was forced to live in conditions somewhat harsher, than aboard the 12-meter LRV, though they didn't really mind it too much. ---- "Your Majesty, the "Dreamwing" is fully loaded and installed on the launch assist sled. T-1 hour and counting," said one of the technicians in Zemlino. "The "Red Explorer" is ready to receive the cargo," continued the other one. "Wonderful, just wonderful…" the Emperor replied to them via videolink, looking beyond merely pleased with how events were unfolding. "Notify me of any anomalies or mishaps. I'm sure our guys up there'll like this little present…" ---- "Vanya, please, can you explain to me - what's up with all those launches in such a short time?" Empress Svetlana asked her husband. "First - we need to make sure, that our big ship is supplied with everything they need, and there wasn't really too much of a place on the "Water Dragon" to cram everything we needed. Second - we need to get our launch infrastructure up and running again, if we want to continue to hold our advantage in space over the Pokemon Nation." "And the third one? I feel, that there's a third reason for it." "... Yeah, there's one - it's a chance for me to challenge the Pokemon Nation to a space race." "And why do we need it?" "Because it's the future!" the Emperor snapped in all sudden. "Space exploration and exploitation is the answer to almost all questions! The medical researches on both Space Lab stations showed amazing results, but the special drugs, developed during those researches, can only be manufactured in microgravity, as well as some of the ultrapure materials! The orbital solar power plants can easily supply us with enough energy to start rerouting our nuclear fuel production from being used for powering planetary grids to be used in space for engines of long-distance interplanetary ships. With heavy spaceships out there, we can easily deal with any asteroid! And with colonies out there, even if something happens to Earth, humanity will persist!" The Empress was taken aback with the sheer fervor in the voice of her husband. She was always worried about his intense desire for space exploration, but he never got that excited and angry. "However," Ivan calmed down no less suddenly, "we must not forget, how challenging them to the space race will also allow us to subtly steer them in directions we desire." "But they can try to do it to us too." "Yeah, but it doesn't mean, that we shouldn't try. Oh, by the way, the "Dreamwing" will be launched in one minute! Gonna watch it…" "Nearly forgot to ask - why did you resurrect the WHITEBIRD? I've thought you'd rather go with the BLUEBIRD…" "I'd really like to do it, but the BLUEBIRD nuclear spaceplanes are still in process of development, even if nearing the final stages, "Water Dragon", while reusable, takes decent time to prepare for launch again, so, the cheap WHITEBIRD, with pretty short turnaround time and non-extensive refurbishment, is our current best ground-to-orbit ferry." "I guess I can see that." ---- "...Three, two, one, launch!" sounded words of the operator in comm. Crew of the "Dreamwing", trained as they were, still were somewhat surprised by abrupt acceleration. On the outside, the sled, loaded with huge spaceplane and propelled by both electromagnetic forces and hydrolox engines, started to move and gain speed almost as fast as an adult Garchomp. In less than a second, the sled passed the 100 km/h mark and continued to accelerate, soon entering the "ramp" portion of the track, which was going on for several kilometers both in length and in height. The engine ignition on the spaceplane happened mere moments before the sled with it passed the highest point on the ramp and performed the separation. After that, one human-created machine stopped on accelerating and continued to slide down the rails - now towards the depot, where it'll be prepared for another launch assist procedure, while the second one steadily accelerated and climbed into the skies, continuing to squash its own pilots with g-forces in the desperate attempt to pass the atmosphere, the horrible thief of velocity and heat-giver, as soon as possible. A few minutes after, the airflow through the scramjets thinned out to the point, when it was no longer sufficient to sustain the engine operation. The supersonic combustion ramjet engines went silent for several moments, as the air intakes were closed, injectors were reconfigured and nozzle extensions were deployed, before starting again - this time, as pure rocket engines. ---- "Another launch detected from the Soris Empire," noted one of the operators in the Mossdeep Space Center. "Apparently, this time, it's some kind of spaceplane, if we go by the trajectory and acceleration." "They sure do a lot of launches these days," grimly replied one of the generals of Hoenn Self-Defense Forces, who got recently transferred here because of the actions of Soris Empire. "Let me guess - another supply mission to their space battleship?" "We don't know for sure, since the plane is still in the atmospheric phase and yet to begin the actual orbital insertion…" "Whatever. Still, they've decided to bet on their space tech… and Arceus-damn it, they now have a space battleship with WMDs above our heads! And I'm sure, that they're now stuffing even more weapons in there… Can't wait, until usage of Legendaries for warfare is decriminalized again…" Most of personnel, present there, paid no attention (or, at least, played paying no attention) to a horrible, bloodlusty smile, that has appeared on general's face. ---- Several hours after the launch, the "Dreamwing" spaceplane was finally docked to the "Red Explorer". Even though this was mostly a cargo mission, with three retro-missiles for reloading the ship's storages and some provisional supplies, the cosmonauts from both vessels still've had a small chat about the events both on Earth and in space. Pilots of the "Dreamwing" were astonished by the deeds of the crew of the battleship, while their colleagues from the "Red Explorer" were pretty surprised to hear the rumors from the ground. Alas, all good things come to an eventual end, so, after four hours in docked state, the "Dreamwing" separated from the battleship and began the deorbiting burn, with resulting trajectory ending right on the airfield of Zemlino, while the ship continued silently orbiting the planet. Inside the ship's CIC, the things were pretty professional and quiet. The thrill of battle and victory was gone, the tension of the diplomatic talks on the ground (which, apparently, weren't going exactly good, if a few whispers from the crew of "Dreamwing" were to be believed) was in the air and… the very fact, that they've manned a humongous weapon platform was pretty unsettling by itself. Suddenly, the comm came to life and the words from it made the blood of the officers chill: "Zemlino to "Red Explorer" - this is the Emperor speaking. Prepare to perform the Operation D-2." "Acknowledged," said the commander, concentrating and trying to stop his panic, then gave an order to the weapons officer. "Prepare the nuclear ordinance for planetary bombardment." "Aye-aye. Nuclear ordinance is now ready for planetary bombardment," replied the officer, who held himself only so well. "Arm the retro-missile #6." "Retro-missile in silo 3-25 is now armed." "Enter the confirmation code: 12-342-24-553." "Confirmation code entered. Retro-missile is now ready for launch. Key it, captain." "Zemlino to "Red Explorer" - the launch permission is granted, I repeat, the launch permission is granted!" "Acknowledged. Three, two, one, retro-missile away." As those words were being said, both the commander and the weapons officer inserted their respective keys into locks and turned them at once, sending the final confirmation signal to the ship's ordinance systems. On the outside of the ship, one of the round hatches opened again, much like back in the battle with Rayquaza or recent resupplying procedure… but this time, it was different. A small explosive charge ejected retro-missile, shaped like a short cigar, out of the ship. After clearing some distance from the ship, it turned around, received a final package of guidance data from the ship, then activated powerful chemfuel engine, decelerating from the orbital speed and preparing to drop down the gravity well. Onboard microcomputer calculated the burn with great precision to deorbit the retro-missile at designated coordinates. A few minutes later, heat started to build up on the retro-missile, which prompted for separation. The now-empty and useless propulsion bus got detached, while the front cover fell apart, allowing all individual warheads to leave their nestings and enter the terminal phase. The atmospheric ram pressure burned the fronts of conic machines, but arcanotech-enhanced ceramic held well, allowing the vessels of death, now engulfed in plasma, to continue accelerating towards their targets. Tiny steering flaps helped the warheads to constantly correct their trajectories, all of which were converging on the island, placed between Soris and Sinnoh. Roughly 40 seconds later, all warheads reached their target points. In each of the machines, altitude triggers sent signals for the airburst detonation... but there was nothing to respond to it - the thermonuclear devices inside were replaced with mockups, since this retro-missile was a dummy one, loaded on ship purely for demonstrational purposes. All six warheads impacted the ground not even a second later, vaporizing in the bright kinetic explosions. "Wonderful," came voice of the Emperor from the comm. "Great job, guys. We've filmed it. Stand by for additional orders… and deactivate the habitation centrifuge for now. I feel like you'll have to do some maneuvering soon." "Aye-aye, sir," replied everyone in the CIC, relaxing. Of course, the fact, that they've had to launch a dummy retro-missile instead of live one, helped them to get through it, but the possibility of actually using nukes for attacking the targets on the surface of Earth still persisted. A few more stressful hours passed, before the comm received another transmission from the Empire: "Zemlino to "Red Explorer" - this is the Emperor speaking. Perform the trans-lunar injection and enter the Moon orbit ASAP, I repeat, perform the trans-lunar injection and enter the Moon orbit ASAP!" "It will be done, Your Majesty, but… why?" the captain decided to go slightly off-protocol. "We've shown them the power of our weapons. We now need to show, that they'll only be used for self-defence - after all, you'll need several hours to travel from the Moon to Earth. If something really bad happens down there, you are authorized to open the code packages and perform the global thermonuclear bombardment - the hundred PBRM-1 retro-missiles with MIRVs and another hundred with big booms should be more than sufficient." "I don't quite follow that logic, but okay, we are already preparing and will activate the bomb drive in three minutes." "Acknowledged. Good luck to you, guys, and thank you for all of your deeds." Soon after those words were said, the pulse engine started thumping once more, setting the ship on the transit trajectory to the Moon. ---- Young Latias looked in the skies, seeing small white flashes. Even if she didn't know about that, those flashes, which belonged to the working nuclear pulse engine, marked the definite end of the usual flow of destiny, the true beginning of the new age and the new fate of this world - fate, which was not shaped yet. Now, it was up to the inhabitants of this world to create their own fate. ---- "Ram heating has reached threshold #2. Atmospheric ionization detected, blackout imminent," reported the pilot of the "Dreamwing", looking at the MFD. "Acknowledged, "Dreamwing", we're tracking you, return safe," replied the flight control center shortly before the radiolink got drowned in static. "Aaand we're deaf again," noted the commander. "Well, good to fly our birdie again!" "Uh-huh," mumbled engineer, looking at his own MFD. "Wow!" "What's that?" immediately asked him both pilot and commander. "Some kind of a directed flash of arcane energy - draconic one, of Legendary level... or was it? Most likely, just interference from ionization hitting the sensors, like back during the third test flight..." "Draconic, you say? Let us really hope, that those were merely interferences..." grimly said the commander, turning his gaze towards the window. "Because if it's not - we're in the world of trouble..." Author's notes: The launch sequence of the "Dreamwing" is partially inspired by the Silbervogel project and the launch of "America" hypersonic spaceplane from the "Silver Tower" by Dale Brown. SSTO - Single Stage To Orbit. MFD - Multi-Function Display. Hydrolox - a type of binary rocket fuel composed of liquid oxygen (lox) oxidizer and liquid hydrogen combustible.