Ancient Soris Empire - Blog Posts

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

Chapter 9. A strange beginning

25.06.2000, 20 years after the Shift Neighborly Town, Sinnoh

Gentle ringing sound filled the room. With a sigh, a boy with long blue hair has removed the blanket and got up, doing morning stretches. After he was done, he took a shower, changed from his favorite dark pajamas to something more suitable and left his room, going down to kitchen for breakfast.

As always, his mom Deborah has made something amazingly-smelling and his dad Yakob was trying to start himself up with a cup of some horrifying caffeine mix, as dark as…

"Oh, and there you are, just in time!" said Deborah, as a figure has arisen from the shadows in the far end of the room.

"Suppose so. Morning, everyone," replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, crossing the room.

"Morning, Darkrai," sighed Tobias, taking a seat. Yakob mumbled something welcoming too, then returned to drinking his crime against coffee. Darkrai visibly shifted away from Yakob, still having highly unpleasant memories about that one time he tried whatever infernal substance Tobias' dad was brewing for himself. There was a good reason it was once nearly classified as a chemical weapon, as a wide-awake Komala in Yakob's lab, who also made a mistake of trying this liquid insanity, could attest to.

After a wonderful breakfast (with Latios joining them soon after the beginning), the entire group started to pack up for today's trip in Unova. Thankfully, whatever unholy mixture Yakob was taking was sufficient to finally wake him up, so, he took the wheel, leaving Deborah, Tobias and Darkrai free to take seats, while Latios has cloaked and clung to the car's roof, loving the thrill of "riding" like that.

With a silent hiss, hydrogen started flowing into the fuel cells. Seconds later, with a quiet whine, wheel hub motors kicked in, driving the car away from the home and towards the Sunyshore City - specifically, the Theta Spaceport.

----

The not-so-young-anymore dragon silently flew underneath the forest's canopy, using the flexibility of its serpentine body to maneuver between trees. Something in the back of its mind screamed, that it shouldn't be going like this, that it should be soaring free in the sky, but immediate concerns continued to override it for many years.

Jet-black Legendary knew, that here, it was in relative safety. Humans would have massive troubles searching for it there. They won't risk using their horrific weapons there… or, at least, so it hoped.

Right now, it was nearing the edge of the forest, near the road from place, known to humans as "Pallet Town". It has decided to stay here for a bit, until the night comes… which should happen relatively soon, in fact.

Rayquaza took a rest on a tree, monitoring the situation around. Thankfully, the road wasn't used this often and Rayquaza knew, how to hide, so, even with its jet-black scales, it didn't have much trouble hiding.

Some time later, it has noticed a single young human, who was traversing down the road with two Pokemon at his side - a Pikachu and a Solosis.

Sky High Pokemon knew this human - quite a few years ago, this young human got lost in the forest and ended up taking shelter from rain under the roots of a large tree, together with a lot of Pokemon. Rayquaza knew this moment very well, especially since it also took a shelter there, coiling around others… and, despite worries of the Legendary, it all went pretty nice.

Sensing no one else of note around, the not-so-young dragon decided to take a risk and lit up the bioluminescent stripes, then flew almost right in front of the young human, even showing off a bit. While human did end up taking some device and pointing it at Rayquaza, evidently, it has malfunctioned and produced no result of worth… although Sky High Pokemon decided to stop doing the risky things now, darkened the bioluminescent stripes again and disappeared under the canopy of the forest, barely noticing Ho-oh flying above it, to which none of the participants paid much attention.

----

"Good afternoon passengers," sounded from the speakers. "This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight P-52-4 to Nuvema, Unova. Please have your boarding pass, Pokeballs and identification ready. Boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time on Tower 12. Thank you."

Tobias, Deborah and Yakob nodded to each other and headed towards the appropriate access terminal. Two elevator and one travelator rides later, they were walking through the access arm to their vehicle, which was just finishing getting refueled with slush hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Seemingly short and stout (but only seemingly so), it, nonetheless, was capable of easily carrying up to 1000 people between any two points of Earth.

Family took their designated places, with Latios being confined to a Pokeball and Darkrai managing to secretly leave it and sneak into the shadow under Tobias' bunk.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in ten minutes. Walkway is now retracting," sounded from speakers, as the doors to the outside world got closed and walkway got retracted. Passengers were still chatting, as they were taking their places and preparing for takeoff, some of them checking safety cards and/or watching the safety videos, some sharing their experiences, some merely talking… all was as usual.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in five minutes. Make sure you're on your designated acceleration couch, safely strapped and with your Pokeballs put into the safe underneath it," sounded from the speakers again. Tobias, after a small check, found out Darkrai's small machination, but decided to stay quiet, knowing his oldest Pokemon partner all too well.

"Ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, five, engine running fully... Liftoff! We have a liftoff on ballistic liner P-52-4! Tower cleared!"

As those words were being said, the plug-cluster aerospike engine has ignited and reached the nominal power. The launch clamps have opened too, letting the huge rocket soar into the sky and set the trajectory to suborbitals, while also making passengers experience moderate G-force. People, however, seem to take it just fine, some of them even joking about the flight being "Smooth, quiet and, in altogether, delightful experience".

Finally, all external fuel tanks ran dry and, with quiet dull clangs, separated from the rocket, starting their own flyback sequence to allow for easier recovery. In the meantime, ballistic liner finished the boost phase and entered the microgravity coast, with captain making another announcement:

"Good afternoon passengers. This is your captain speaking. First I'd like to welcome everyone on Talonflame Aerospace flight P-52-4. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 185 km at an speed of just under 7 km/s. The time is 1:25 pm. The weather under us looks good and with the lack of wind at the arrival point we are expecting to land in Nuvema with some fuel to spare. The weather in Nuvema is clear and sunny, with a high of 25 degrees for this afternoon. If the weather cooperates we should get a great view of the city as we descend. Right now, you will be able to unstrap yourself and to get some awesome views in the illuminators. I'll talk to you again before we reach our destination. Until then, relax and enjoy the rest of the flight."

Indeed, soon enough, people liberated themselves from the safety straps and started gathering around illuminators, with Darkrai managing to slip out of the shadows and get near Tobias too. While it did prompt some uneasiness, authority of Yakob and Deborah was sufficient to prevent it from escalating further, allowing a blue-haired boy and a white-haired Mythical to enjoy views of Earth from the space for a bit longer… until another announcement came through:

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. In five minutes, we will begin the flip maneuver. Please, return to your couches and strap yourselves back."

Grumbling, people have complied, returning back to their acceleration couches and strapping themselves in order to prevent flying away, when rocket fires maneuvering thrusters. In exactly five minutes from announcement, RCS engines rumbled and the rocket flipped around, pointing the main plug-cluster aerospike engine in the direction of travel. Soon, the main engine woke up again, decelerating the rocket a bit and correcting its trajectory.

The rocket plunged through the atmosphere, decelerating even further as it goes, with liquid hydrogen circulating through the truncated spike of main engine and cooling it down, allowing it to work as a heat shield. Soon, it ended its flight by a gentle hover landing, with exactly right position and heading to allow one of the access arms on the service tower to reach it. After the connection of access arm and opening of doors, Tobias and his family packed up and left the rocket, reaching their rented car two elevator and two travelator rides later.

As usual, human part of the family took their places in the vehicle, Latios cloaked and clung to the outside, while Darkrai stayed in shadows near the backseat.

"So…" started Tobias. "What's this conference's going to be about?"

"As always, yearly conference between researchers of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon," replied Yakob, driving the car to the hotel. "Thanks to your help, we've got some nice results."

"Yakob, if they ever try this again…" said Darkrai from the shadows in a pretty grim voice.

"I know, crouch, get to the nearest cover and wait for the Dark Void attacks to stop flying, then use the replicas of Lunar Wing over the victims, once you've cleared the area."

"Exactly. The fact of me deciding to follow Tobias and you two on my own volition does not mean me welcoming invasive experimentation."

"I sure remember the last time…" muttered Deborah in a strange voice.

"I didn't kill anyone back then, though," quickly replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, as if slightly afraid, prompting Tobias to enter the conversation again:

"Mostly because of Latios with his Heal Pulse being capable of stabilizing their condition, until I was there to break the Lunar Wing replicas from my personal stash out."

"Yep. Exactly what I've counted on," said Darkrai, even leaving the shadow a bit and nodding.

"Not the best strategy… but, I guess, we'll have to let it slip for now." mumbled Tobias' mother, then sighed. "I hate the rocket lag, to be honest."

"We all do!" agreed everyone inside the car with her.

----

"Now arriving to the Space Colony Core-Middleway," sounded in the cabin of "Drapion" Galarian deep space transporter, as it was slowing down and preparing to dock to the still-unfinished Bernal Sphere - a greatest testament to the insane race of the Space Fever, alongside with automated factories on the Moon, as well as mass driver, which was used to deliver parts of the colony into space, where they were assembled.

"Finally…" mumbled a remarkably unremarkable human, cradling some strange case in his hands. Soon, a quiet, dull "clang" announced, that the ship has docked to the gigantic space installation. Man, blending in with the rest of passengers of the Earth-L5 express, left it through the docking tube and went through a route few people knew, heading straight to the biolabs block on the equator of the sphere.

Inside the Lab 14, another man was already waiting for him.

"So?.."

"Recovered," said the newcomer, opening his case and extracting a strange, tubular device with a faint glow inside the transparent middle section. "You have no idea, how hard it was, though. But old Fuji built some stuff real sturdy."

"Heh… brother was sure like this… was."

The colonial sighed, knowing too well, what's happened back on the planet, then went for another question:

"What about the second specimen?"

"Was unable to recover."

"Well… I guess we'll have to do with only her for now."

"I guess."

The newcomer gave the device to the colonial scientist, who, gently cradling it, took it to the adjacent room and placed it on the table, starting to connect it to the equipment.

"Lessons were learned, mistakes will not be repeated," mumbled the scientist, working on the device and, from time to time, looking at a huge empty biogrowth tube behind him. "I just hope you'll understand me, when the time comes…"

----

"Your Majesty?" sounded a message from the comm app.

"Yes?" replied the Empress.

"Project SAS is going almost as planned. Phase 2 is at 70%, industrial automation is progressing surely, second level networks are almost established."

"ISFs 3, 5 and 9?"

"Gave us all-clear on the technical side."

"And… what about possibility of Scenario 5?"

"Non-zero, but not too great. Roughly 3.6% possible."

"3.6% - not great, not terrible," concluded the Empress, before the call has ended and she relaxed in the chair, remembering, how has it all started fifteen years ago...

----

The Empress was sitting in her chair, listening to the group of scientists, who were standing before her and telling about a plan - a very audacious one, but, given, what has happened a week ago, worthy of consideration. When they've finished giving the explanation, she stood up a bit, walked to the window and, looking at the city outside of the Palace, asked:

"Automation of the economy, huh?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"And… what does it promise for the Empire?"

"Well… an economic solvency that will eclipse that of the rest of the world, no corruption, once it's fully implemented, highly-reactive planning, allowance…"

"Enough. Tell me one thing… Does it mean, that, should it be fully and completely implemented, I will lose my power and be, in fact, left without ability to rule the Empire, remaining merely a face of the new, automatic government system?"

"... Yes."

"And… will this system bring more prosperity to the Empire, than I and the rest of the current rulers can?"

"... Yes."

"... Then you have my full approval."

"... Huh?"

"You are to begin the implementation process as soon as you can. If sacrifice of my position and power will mean the best for the Empire - I am ready to do that."

"... As you wish."

The group of scientists left the room, leaving Empress looking in the window and thinking, whether this decision was right or not and should she cancel this project, while there's still some time left.

Author's notes: The ballistic liner Tobias and his family rides is based on ITHACUS global transportation rocket; The "Drapion" is based on a real project of a "Scorpion" general-purpose space transportation system; Space Fever will be explained more, as the time goes; Can you guess, what was the device the newcomer gave to the scientist on the space colony? The hint is in the only name mentioned in this section...

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

Chapter 8. The sky's not the limit.

Author's warning: a suicide is attempted in this chapter. Proceed at your own risk. If computer systems could've been bored, the avionics of the "Hauler" would've been bored for sure. For more than a day, it was slowly doing small burns here and there, carefully deorbiting after having been unloaded, while also trying to evade space debris. Despite being impacted at several points already, automatics deemed the damage acceptable and went on with soft landing program, instead of simply deorbiting craft in they way it will burn and break apart. Right now, as Rayquaza was no longer of any concern and Minior posed not much more danger than debris - even less so, in fact, as they were actively trying to avoid collisions. Back on Earth, not too far away from Zemlino, recovery forces stood by, waiting for the cargo ship to land, so it can be brought back to Space Center for turnaround procedures, much like rocket stages of the "Water Dragon" would be in mere hours. Heat shield, parachutes, gas bags - all landing systems were still green and data meteorology stations was showing, that everything was within acceptable parameters for the landing and recovery. But right now, the ship still had to orbit Earth two more times… ---- "So… what do you think of it?" asked the captain of the "Red Explorer" everyone else, who was currently present in the mess hall in the centrifuge. "The more I think of it, the more it hits me, just what kind of a thing we've done - we've killed Rayquaza, a being millions of years old, who has controlled the skies for many eons." "And?" asked him the engineer. "Well… I mean, it's been around much longer, than humanity. Our actions has removed it out of play and, if data from ISF 9 and Hoenn locals is to be believed, there are two more players in there - Groudon and Kyogre. And with no Rayquaza to keep them in check…" "We may have to," said the pilot. "I mean, even excluding the retro-missiles, we can use solid-core railgun ammunition for orbital bombardment!" "With crappy precision and power," replied the sensors operator. "Atmosphere won't be gentle to it." "Even so…" muttered the captain, then assumed a bit more relaxed position in the chair. "I hope they'll be able to figure something out, back on Earth…" --- "And here our babies are," muttered technician in the Imperial Gray Sea Starport, seeing recovered stages of the "Water Dragon" being towed towards drydock for repair and later reuse, with a few curious Alolan Flygon in Rainy forms flying/swimming around them, as "buzzers" on the ships were now disabled. "Seems like everything went perfectly." "Indeed," replied the engineer nearby. "Just like the previous time." "Which one of previous times exactly?" asked him technician. "The original delivery of landers, docking block and Power and Propulsion Module to the Space Lab 1 to make it into the ship for the Imperial Moon Mission? The missions to build Space Lab 2?" "All of them, starting with the test flights with recovery system installed." "I guess. Kinda shame, that the early missions for delivering satellite constellations had to be only partially reusable, with only engines saved…" "Agreed. Well, they've almost got the stages there, so, time to get to work!" --- As the morning came to the eastern parts of Soris, the Emperor, still stationed in Zemlino Space Center, prepared for something truly special. Dressed in a strict suit, more fitting for a spokesperson of the space agency, rather than royalty, he, nonetheless, appeared to be concentrated, confident and serious. Right now, he was about to give the most important speech in his life so far. When the time came, he entered the conference room and walked onto the scene, under the gaze of cameras. "My dear sorisians, good morning," started the Emperor, sounding far more serious, than ever before. "I want to tell you something… Back before the Shift, when I was a young boy, one of the court's elite engineers and entertainers has constructed the first ever liquid-fueled rocket, which worked on kerosene and hydrogen peroxide. Even then, rockets have already fascinated me, but solids didn't have quite the same impact as this one did. When I first heard the roar of the turbopump, installed on the test stand, when I saw the assembled rocket blast off… I knew, that nothing would be the same for me from this day hence." "Because of that, when I've become the Emperor, I chose to, instead of trying to conquer the rest of the world, set our sights a bit higher and start conquering skies and, later, space." "And look, where did that get us. Even back then, while the rest of the world had to rely on the Pokemon to attempt to traverse the skies, we did so via comfortable machines, more advanced than anything would be in millennia to come. Even now, our nuclear airships are unmatched." "When the rest of the world had to rely on Castform at most and signs normally for predicting weather, we've had meteorological satellites for that. When bulk lifting was unachievable for them, we've used our helicopters and airships for that. When they've had to risk their men and Pokemon to get high-altitude observations, we've had satellites for that." "A lot of our technological achievements can be traversed back to the space program and the applications program for it. Even the TVs you are watching my speech with have a lot of components, derived from the space program." "For many years, we were exploring space. I remember, how happy I was, when we've managed to put the first satellite into orbit. I remember my ecstasy, when I've managed to quietly replace pilot of the SP-04 "Black Bird" with myself for the first mission and has become the first human in space." "For years and years, we were putting more and more satellites into orbits. We've also put men there - first in small spaceships, then in the Proof-Of-Concept Stations, then in the Space Labs… And when Rayquaza, without any warning, has destroyed our satellites, along with Space Lab 2 and LRV-03 with 12 cosmonauts onboard… We've turned our shock and grief into first resentment, then hatred and then - innovation." "Nowadays, there's a huge nuclear pulse battleship, which, currently, is stationed in orbit of the Moon, serving as a deterrent to any aggressor, who may think of attacking the Empire. In addition to that, as researches in the Space Lab 2 and ISF 5 have shown, some normally-terminal diseases can be treated in the microgravity." "As you've seen, aerospace industry was a great part of why our Empire was so successful. Because of that, I want to announce the Integrated Program Plan - our ticket into future. By the end of this year, we will clean the orbits a bit, partially restore the satellite constellations and, once again, have an operational space station, bigger and more advanced, than Space Lab 2. By the end of the next year, the first dedicated orbital hospital will be opened. By the end of third year, the first industrial-grade orbital factories will go operational. By the end of fourth year, the satellite constellations will be completely restored and we will have the Moonbase. By the end of fifth year, we will perform an expedition to the Red Planet. By the end of sixth year, more orbital factories and hospitals will be brought into operation. By the end of first decade of IPP, the assembly of the space colony in the libration point L5 will begin. By the end of the second decade, the colony will be brought into operation. Of course, there might be slips… but all of it will be achieved." "The Earth is a cradle of mankind… but one cannot eternally stay in the cradle. We should remember, what have we already achieved, and go on towards the future. The achievements of yesterday are commendable, but it's the achievements of today, which are truly impactful. Stay strong, my fellow imperials, and together, we will conquer the space!" ---- William Steelman, the president of Unova, didn't feel well. In fact, the entirety of the last year, especially the months after the so-called "Shift", was a major clusterbomb of problems. Especially when those damn Sorisians launched their damned space warship and demonstrated how they can use it against planetary targets. Especially when they've demonstrated the feasibility of nuclear weapons - something, that he had supported defunding back during the war with Hoenn and Kanto, before his presidency. Especially when he has also supported defunding the space program, considering it a waste of tax money, which could've been spent on more PokeCenters, hospitals, shelters and so on. And now, after this damned speech of this damned Emperor of this damned Soris Empire, he had no idea, what to do. And Sorisians announcing and giving a TV report about recovering all parts of their gigantic "Water Dragon" rocket, including the heavy cargo spacecraft, for a bit of repair and reuse soon after, was making things even worse, given the current-day situation with launch vehicles in Unova. And, what was the truly worst about it all, is that a decent part of the reason for Unova ending up so behind Soris Empire was his own fault. Even when he was defunding UASA and allowed them to lease the Space Shuttles to the rest of the world (mostly Hoenn), he only did it to free up tax money and spend it on social programs, to help everyday Unovans… and then it turned out to be a doom to Unova in the long term, unless some miracle saves them. And even nuclear industry of Unova wasn't in the really good condition, when compared to the Soris Empire… though, at least, he has helped to progress the molten salt reactors, which worked on relatively cheap and abundant thorium… But what's use in all this, if Soris Empire continues the conquest of space and, surely, builds more space battleships and weapon platforms, until they can keep the entire world compliant to their terms, lest the orbital bombardment with nuclear weapons commence?! William opened a drawer of his table. In it, alongside some old-type Pokeballs, which he kept from his League days, original ebonite knobs included, there was a familial heritage - a revolver, made by his gunsmith grandfather, along with a speedloader from the same maker and a small box of ammo. While the firearms were never too widespread in Unova, as Pokemon were almost always just as good and far more versatile, they've still had their niches and customers. Steelman took the revolver in his hands, looked at it, reflecting on the engraved writing and overall beauty of the weapon, then placed it on the table. He grabbed the speedloader and started putting cartridges into it, while thinking of what he has done in his life. After he was done, he used the speedloader to reload the revolver in one swift motion, just like during his time with father on the shooting range. William took the revolver in his hands, opened his mouth and inserted the gun's barrel into it, until it was touching the palate. He cocked the hammer, closed his eyes… and put the gun back on the table. He was the reason Unova was inadequately prepared to deal with the Soris Empire now. "Easy way out" was nothing but a cowardice of the highest level. He will be the one, who atones and fixes those mistakes or, at least, does his best to. As Steelman was unloading the revolver and putting everything back in place, his mind was racing, combing the memory for the project UASA has previously shown to him, what they've promised and how much money will they need to be done. He had work to do. A lot of it. And, maybe - just maybe, - he'll succeed in this endeavour. Even if it will require cooperating with all other member states of the Pokemon Nation. --- Around Zemlino Space Center, as always, there was a lot of work. Just as the recovered "Hauler", moved on the crawler, was rolled into one hangar, from another, a vessel emerged. It was a spaceplane - a sleek, delta-winged one, with boxy engines underneath the fuselage bringing those of "Dreamwing" to mind… and some of them were pretty similar, also being hydrogen-fueled scramjets. Others, however, were not, for they were not scramjets, but nuclear turboramjets. Inside the cockpit, two test pilots were checking everything. As this spaceplane was powered by the nuclear reactor, they've had to be very careful. Even though reactor was built to withstand low supersonic impacts, wrecking such an advanced vessel was… undesirable. "Zemlino, this is Bluebird-1, all systems green, running on batteries. Towing truck at safe distance, requesting permission to start the reactor," said the commander, hovering his hand over one of the covered buttons. "Bluebird-1, this is Zemlino, permission to start the reactor granted. Take off when ready." After receiving those words, commander flicked the cover open and pressed the "START 1" button. Far behind two humans, several control rods were retracted, allowing the chain fission reaction to start and get into high gear soon, heating up the hydrogen coolant, while the turbine pumps were revving up to ensure normal circulation of coolant through the entire system, including the heat exchanger on the outside. As the temperature continued to rise, electric motors inside the turboramjet assembly kicked in, revving up the turbines to get the air going through the heat exchanger and start up the turboramjets proper. "So far, so good," muttered the second pilot, observing the data on the MFD. Right now, the thrust has reached sufficient level to allow pilots to begin taxi to the runway, preparing for the takeoff. As much as they've wanted the Bluebird-1 to go to space today, alas, it was not an option - their test program was limited to some supersonic and hypersonic flight to test the engine assembly, then a bit of maneuvering to test the structure. As the vessel took off from the runway and the landing gear retracted, commander looked to the side and saw a "Whitebird" spaceplane, a recently-built unmanned cousin of the "Dreamwing", getting launched to deploy a satellite of sort and later retrieve it. There were rumors, that this satellite was supposed to house some kind of weaponry… but, most likely, they were just rumors. Author's notes: MFD - Multi-Function Display. BLUEBIRD spaceplane is based on the real M(G)-19 "Gurkolyot". Alolan Flygons are based on that wonderful picture. Hopefully, this chapters will be one of the last, so focused on the worldbuilding. Anyway, by the chapter ten, I will do my best to make story enter the more Pokemon route.

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.

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.

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

Chapter 4. Breaking the blockade.

"Finally," said the Emperor, looking at the monumental machine, placed in the largest temporary sort-of-a-VAB built so far. "Finally! FINALLY!!!" Officers, which were standing not too far away from this genius, but a crazy one at that, exchanged looks of understanding. After all, this was his dream made real, even if forced to be remade for destruction… and protection. The ship itself - the first real, atomic explo-flyer, envisioned long ago, but built only recently - was truly a masterpiece of technology. Massing 4000 tons fully loaded, equipped with the most advanced sensors, protected by the arcanotech-enhanced composite armor, armed with railguns, howitzers, rotary cannons, space combat missiles and retro-missiles for planetary bombardment, this was the most powerful warmachine of the Soris Empire... so far. The nuclear fission reactor of this ship was built with inclusions of components from the reactor of Space Lab 2, as a way to drive the point of revenge and attract the blessing from the Red Spirit (though barely anyone believed in this one). After all, according to the mythology, this spirit gave its blessing to anyone, who was fighting to avenge the fallen comrades. Right now, the giant rocket was quietly sitting on the launchpad (built specifically for it) and receiving final checks. The first stage - the NUCLEUS booster - had simple, but pretty efficient chemfuel engines, which used liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. A titanic tank of fuel in center of rocket, a sectionalized torus-like oxidizer tank around it, a monstrous plug-cluster aerospike engine right in the middle of bottom and several blocks of control engines near the edges - all of that could lift two thousand tons to orbit just by itself and then safely come back and land. However, that was not needed - it only needed to raise the payload roughly halfway to the space... The payload - the first manned interplanetary spaceship in the history of the world, remade into first space warship - had the nuclear pulse engine. When the separation happens, the shock absorbers, collapsed for the duration of the first phase of launch to make the rocket more compact, will first extend to full length, then the shaped-blast charge will be launched from gas gun between them and fly through the trapdoor in the pusher plate, before exploding and launching a wave of superheated nuclear plasma, which will impact the plate, protected by the layer of graphite, and transfer the momentum to the ship through two stages of shock absorbers. Then the auto-sprayers will apply the new layer of graphite, the new bomb will be launched and explode, and then it will repeat again and again... "Comrades, I think those nine months of accelerated work weren't for naught!" the Emperor finally stopped laughing like maniac and got himself together. "Prepare to remove the building shell. Prepare to fuel the NUCLEUS booster. All cosmonauts - prepare to board the ship. Begin the launch countdown." "Aye-aye, Your Majesty. Countdown begins, T-72 hours and counting. Beginning the launch pad preparations. Beginning the VAB final disassembly." Most of the stuff in the giant building was already removed in the preparation for launch. Now, the only thing they've needed to do was to activate fast-disassembly mechanisms, which will safely collapse the roof and walls outwards, without damaging the launch pad and the monstrous ship on it. ---- Empress knew, that her husband was crazy. She knew, that this launch can - and, likely, will - worsen the already-far-from-good terms, on which the Soris Empire now was with the Pokemon Nation (culture clash did not help, especially with the whole thing about decent amounts of nationals worshipping Legendaries and Mythicals). She knew, that Nation can see it as an act of war. But for some strange reason, she was nearly as excited to see this launch, as her husband was. Or, actually, like the most of sorisians will be very, very soon, when the "Red Explorer" gets finally unveiled. After all, her internal political campaign about honoring the memory of 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2 really helped. The sheer growth of the metal processing and nuclear, chemical, arcanotechnological and many other industries, amongst other developments… it was wonderful. Besides, this launch, should the ship survive the upcoming battle, will majorly lift her support. Even after all those years (The Shift not included), "Bread And Shows" still worked great time - both for the Soris Empire (some parts of the space program, along with most entertainment) and Pokemon Nation (League and Contests). And if the Nation decides to try to attack them… well, that's what for the ship has several "Lightning" retro-missiles with city-buster warheads! ---- "Look at this," said one of the operators in the Mossdeep Space Center, showing the director, who was walking nearby, transmission from the kantonian research plane, which was flying near the Soris. Right now, the biggest building in the complex of Zemlino Space Center has just… fallen apart, slightly reminding them of a flower, and revealed a giant rocket inside. This rocket was roughly comparable to those, which Pokemon Nation used for the Moon missions… except much, much thicker. "Are you even sure, that this is a rocket?" wondered director. "It's so huge… How would it even take off?" "No idea," replied the operator. "I suggest we get some Cornn Berries and watch the fireworks, when the Rayquaza destroys this thing!" "Be careful with your words!" notified him superior, then quietly added, "I agree. If they didn't get yet, that as soon as it flies to strato - it dies, then we can have some good views. Though I wonder, what they are overcompensating for…" ---- "T-10 minutes and counting," announced one of the operators in Zemlino. After several very hard days of final workings and pre-flight checks, the "Red Explorer" was finally preparing to leave the ground. The nuclear reactor of the ship was now working at minimal capacity, cooling through external loop, the NUCLEUS booster was checking the thrust vectoring and aerodynamic control surfaces, the cosmonauts were getting more comfortable in their chairs… The final launch poll resulted in "go" and now there was only one way - the way up. ---- "… Seventeen, sixteen, water suppression system online, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, we have ignition, four, three, two, all engines are running!" reported the announcer. "Liftoff! We have a liftoff, thirty-two minutes past the hour, liftoff on "Red Explorer"!" With a horrifying roar, the giant rocket started to slowly, but surely rise above the launchpad and accelerate, shock diamonds visible in the exhaust flames of working plug-cluster aerospike engine, rest of the launchpad clouded in steam, created by evaporating water from the water suppression system. "Tower cleared!" happily screamed Emperor Ivan the Second, tearing the microphone from the hands of announcer, when the giant machine passed the tower - the last remain of VAB's scaffolding. "T plus ten seconds, tower cleared, speed increasing as planned! The roar is terrific! The building is shaking! Look at that beauty go!" People, who were in this room, saw the Emperor going flat-out childish, jumping around while laughing like a madman and crying tears of joy. The last time he was like that was during the launch of Imperial Moon Mission on the Water Dragon rocket. ---- "Holy crap," mumbled one of the telescope operators in the Mossdeep Space Center. "Josh - do you see what I see?" "If you're about the unreasonably giant rocket finally going up - yep, I do. Honestly, what in the name of Ray… sorry, but still, what is this thing?" "No idea." Image from kantonian observatory was quickly routed to the main screen, allowing everyone to have a nice view on the rocket. Finally, the main engine in the first stage has gone silent. "The stages separate… Wait, what? The first stage is actively decelerating, and the second… What it this? I don't even…" The second stage indeed looked weirdly. Instead of the usual great bell of the rocket engine or the cluster of smaller engines, there was a thick plate with some kind of a tube in the middle of it, installed on several shock absorbers, a cone between the shock absorbers - and that's all. On the screen, suddenly, something was launched from the cone, flew through the plate, and… "Feed from O7 is dark. No idea, what the Reverse World was that, but the telescope's matrix is dead." "Routing the SolOb6 to screen… Arceus the Original One, what the frak?" "..." entire room got speechless, as the telescope camera, designed for studying the Sun, showed ship steadily accelerating on what seemed to be huge explosions - probably, nuclear in nature. Thick plate (which, for some reason, was varying in thickness as the explosions were going - probably, serving as an another shock absorber) and long piston-based shock absorbers served well to protect the giant ship from explosions and soften the acceleration. Blast after blast, the giant ship was surely rising higher and higher... ---- "Separation commencing," reported the pilot, looking at the screen, which displayed the data of active autopilot. "Separation complete. Booster is out of the danger zone. Initiating nuclear pulse propulsion. Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing." Entire ship shook, when the drive bomb, launched from the gas gun, detonated behind the ship's aft. Wave of superhot tungsten plasma, along with aerial overpressure wave, struck the plate, but thin layer of graphite worked well, ablating, but protecting the arcane-enhanced steel alloy underneath from getting damaged. Under normal conditions, the sheer acceleration would've instantly killed the cosmonauts and collapsed the hull of the ship. However, thanks to the gas bags right behind the plate and heavy, two-staged hydropneumatic shock absorbers, the fraction of second of acceleration got elongated, proportionally lowering the loads on the machine and men inside it. Milliseconds after the plasma from the detonation of the drive bomb dispersed, auto-sprayers deployed themselves and created a new layer of graphite on the plate, then retracted back, right before the new bomb was launched and exploded. And then it repeated again, and again, and again, and again... ---- "So, if I'm understanding even remotely right, the first and, so far, only launch table for ultra-heavy rockets got destroyed by the exhaust?" Empress Svetlana asked her husband. "Yep," replied Ivan in surprisingly jolly voice. "Launch Table ST-1 has partially melted now due to insufficient power of water suppression system, but the ship is in space and there is barely any radiation trail in the atmosphere! By the way, launch stage recovered successfully." "That's good to know, but still, we've lost our only launch table for this kind of rockets and it'll take a long time to repair it." "I know. It's not like the Sea Launch Platform was an option for us at that time, though…" "On the topic of the sea launch - are you planning to use the Water Dragon rocket for building the replacement space station, since the Space Lab Two was destroyed by the Rayquaza? I've seen some suspicious increases in funding…" "Yep. The NUCLEUS rocket will remain for launching explo-flyers mostly, while the Water Dragons take lesser operations. One of them is getting prepared right now for launching the supply block to the "Red Explorer", when it gets to the orbit." "Uh-huh. And what about your spaceplane project?" "The Project BLUEBIRD? So far, so good, tests of the final version should begin in a week or so. I must admit, the hypersonic hybrid air-breathing nuclear rocket engines are still somewhat problematic, but we are very close to ironing those problems out." "Range?" "Unmanned - all the way to the Red Planet. Manned - to the Moon in a reasonable amount of time." "Docking to the "Red Explorer"?" "Possible through the expandable top adapter, but the spaceplane won't be able to fit into the docking bay." ---- "We are on the action orbit now, comrade captain," said pilot, getting himself more comfortable in the acceleration chair. "Drive bomb magazines and propellant storages for the reaction control system are at optimal level after orbital injection, we can go to the Moon and back on those reserves in just a day!" "Nuclear ordinance for anti-space engagements and planetary bombardment is nominal, awaiting codes and targets," reported weapons operator, scrolling through the lists and making some mental notes. "Point defense rotary cannons ready, main caliber railguns ready, Lance Howitzers ready." "Targeting telescopes nominal, thermal scopes nominal, radars nominal," sounded the report from the sensors operator, who was already switching through the feeds, monitoring the surroundings. "Radiators deployed, cooling system nominal, reactor nominal," said the engineer, feeling proud of his participation in creating power plant of this ship. "Shock absorbers are fine, pusher plate is fine, drive bomb launcher, graphite sprayers and plasma deflection cone are fine, RCS nominal. Oh, nearly forgot - life support is also nominal and will be in this condition for at least a year. We'll run out of food much earlier. And landers, along with space workpods, are also fine and ready." "All comm systems are ready and tuned," added the comm officer, fiddling with headset, then suddenly turning pale. "Uh-oh. Comrade captain, FCC just told us, that Rayquaza is exiting the atmo and will engage us in few minutes, arrives from the east." "Then all hands to battle stations!" ordered captain, feeling shivers. Of course, their ship was the technologies of tomorrow embodied, a state-of-art space warship, armed with the most advanced, yet reliable and efficient weaponry Empire has created, but their opponent was no less than the Sky High Pokemon itself, who was once considered by less developed humans to be god of the skies and even now, it remained a great force to be reckoned with. However, this battle was a decisive one. There can be only one winner… and all of the humans aboard the "Red Explorer" will do their best to make sure, that the Rayquaza won't be it. "Aye-aye, comrade captain! Retracting the radiators, reactor output set to combat levels," reported the engineer, trying to keep his confidence in the great machine. "Railguns and point defence are deployed, the capacitors are charging up, anti-space missiles are armed, Lance Howitzers are loaded," calmly stated the weapons officer. Among the fellow crew members, he was the calmest and most confident one - mainly because dozens of nuclear missiles and howitzer-launched shaped-blast bombs, along with electromagnetic railguns (with nuclear and canister shots) and rotary cannons, were now under his control. "RCS and bomb drive are ready," said the somewhat unnerved, but slightly cocky pilot. The drive bomb counter and RCS propellant storages indicators told him, that the battle can go on for a decent amount of time - the NUCLEUS chemfuel booster allowed them to save a lot of bombs during the ascent. "Radars located bandit retrograde-breaking the atmo west and a little south, but no definitive lock so…" began the sensor operator, suppressing his nervousness with deep focus on work. Calling the Rayquaza "bandit" helped all of the officers to distance themselves from the fact, that they were fighting an actual Legendary now. "Yeah, telescopes acquired it! Locked on!" "SCMs away, 3 "Firestorms", 4 "Firelances"!" nearly screamed weapons operator, pressing the launch trigger. On the ship's hull, several round armored hatches opened, revealing missile silos. Right after it, seven of the streamlined machines of death were ejected by small explosive charges, turned around and engaged their solid-fuel engines, accelerating at 100 g and doing their best to track and intercept the designated target. Even with remote guidance from the ship, sensors of which were far superior to those, which could be installed on space combat missiles, it was not an easy task. The Sky High Pokemon, seeing several dots leave the more massive target, started to perform the evasion maneuver, as uneasy as it was during the already-ongoing Dragon Ascent. It was a wise decision and, probably, would've helped… were it not for the missiles with Lance warheads. When four of the missiles, armed with shaped-blast charges, reached the optimal distance, the "Red Explorer" sent a very simple command to them - "detonate". Under normal circumstances, this command would have served only for performing self-destruct… but the circumstances now were anything but normal. The small stars of exploding 10kt thermonuclear warheads grew for a split-second in space. It would've been a nearly-harmless firework for the Rayquaza… but, unfortunately for it, for each of the "stars", more than 80% of the thermonuclear power got channeled and concentrated onto a small tungsten disk. Even this metal could not withstand such a magnitude of energy, so, it turned into plasma and, shaped and accelerated by the still undergoing fury of the fusion reaction into a tight stream, flew in the desired direction at the recognizable fraction of the speed of light. Four jets of very hot relativistic plasma impacted Rayquaza. Even with the energy of Dragon Ascent surrounding the Legendary, it still hurt major time… and then the rest of the missiles came. When the Sky High Pokemon was distracted with the pain from the nuclear lances, warship directed the last three small machines of destruction to come in-close and detonate the neutron warheads. Even though the effects of fireballs were negligible (as it was with most of the nuclear detonations in space), the neutron flux from explosions was pretty decent, especially with overlapping irradiation areas. Now that the Rayquaza's body was irradiated like this, the combat capability of this Legendary will be lowering and lowering as the time goes, until the radiation poisoning takes the max effect and turns it into the agonizing wreck, before the death finally comes. As a nice bonus, those explosions have also caused enough of a shock to the Rayquaza to cancel out the Dragon Ascent. "All hits scored. I think the battle has started pretty good, comrade captain," cheerfully reported the weapons operator. "Don't get too cocky," warned them all commander of this ship, silently reminding, that they were still fighting a being of incredible power, which held the atmospheric and orbital superiority undisputed for who-knows-how-many years, only occasionally leaving its position and allowing a few travels up there. "Bandit has recovered from the shock and prepares to use the Hyper Beam," grimly stated the sensors operator. "Acknowledged, stand by for rotation. RCS now firing," warned everyone the pilot, slightly smiling to himself. The relatively small attitude control jets expelled streams of superhot hydrogen, turning the massive ship around. The Hyper Beam is a powerful move. Really powerful. But it has some drawbacks - the first one being exhausting user and forcing it to spend some time recovering and the second being relatively low velocity of the energy beam itself. The space is big. Really big. Even in low Earth orbit, dozens of kilometers are still considered pretty small distances. Between Rayquaza firing the Hyper Beam and it getting to the "Red Explorer", a pretty long time has passed. Long enough for the ship to turn and take the stream of destruction not the nose- or side-first, but on the pusher plate, built to withstand close nuclear explosions and covered by ablative layer of graphite. "Attack over, no damage to drive. Graphite layer restored. Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing," reported pilot, smiling even wider. Wham. Wham. Wham. Only the crew of the ship, who got pressed into acceleration chairs upon the drive's operation, heard those sounds, as the vessel began to change its trajectory. "Railguns charged, #2 locked on, "Firecracker" loaded. Firing," said the weapons officer with a slight smirk, as he pressed the trigger. Deep inside the ship, a one of three groups of electric capacitors of tremendous, well, capacity, already charged by the energy from ship's nuclear power plant, discharged all at once, transferring the power to the two parallel rails of one of the simplest electrodynamic mass drivers. The railgun spat out a projectile with barely any fireworks (save for plasmified remains of launch assist armature). In the vacuum of space, there wasn't even a characteristic "crack" of sonic boom… and the projectile experienced no aerodynamic drag, keeping the velocity at constant level with no need for active propulsion. And since this velocity equaled more than 2503 meters per second, and the projectile carried a small nuclear warhead… ---- ""Red Explorer" is firing "Thunderlance" railgun, "Firecracker" 1kt nuclear shell"- emotionlessly said one of the operators in the Zemlino's FCC. "Hostile Rayquaza's biological armor is being damaged." "Is she always like this?" whispered Emperor to the FCC's director. "Sometimes." "Huh. You know, I'm still unpleased, that we weren't able to make guidance system being capable of directing more than seven space combat missiles and two howitzer charges at once before the ship was launched…" ---- "Bandit is temporarily inoperable, trajectory - full retrograde orbital, roughly similar to ours," reported the sensors operator. "The respite will be brief, assume re-intercept in 45 minutes." "Acknowledged," said the engineer. "Deploying the radiators, beginning cooling." Several small square hatches opened on the hull of the ship, allowing the thin metallic structures to unfold from them and start barely noticeably glowing dull-red, allowing the waste heat to leave the heat accumulators and prepare the machine for the new round of combat. Combat, which will need a lot of energy and leave a lot of waste heat. ---- The big digital timer above the main screens in the "rubber room" of the Zemlino Space Center ticked off the seconds since the launch of the "Red Explorer". When it passed half-hour, Emperor said, “Try it now.” He put on his own headset. Far outside of the armored launch bunker, across the entire Empire, both on the ground and on the sea ships, many giant parabolic antennas started turning around, trying to lock onto signature of the first space warship and establish connection. "Routing through the Grey Sea fleet… link established!" happily reported the comm operator. "Dancer, this is Pothouse, report!" said the Emperor, deciding to use codenames of both ship and flight control center for some reason. Sometimes, it was really hard to understand this man. "Pothouse, this is Dancer. No big scratches so far, re-intercepting bandit in five minutes or so. Radiators are now retracted, cooling is internal, preparing to launch SCMs." "Dancer, this is Pothouse, acknowledged. Be careful - bandit is likely to employ new tactics, don't let it hit the shock absorbers!" "Pothouse, this is Dancer, understood." "That's good. May the Red and Green Spirits bless you, guys!" "Thanks. Warning, bandit is in range, engaging!" The link cut off, as the ship resumed the combat. ---- "Go, Dragon Lord, blast this thing!" young Draconid cheered, looking at the TV screen. An hour or so ago, the live broadcast of telescope and radar surveillance of the Imperial warship started and, less than an hour ago, Rayquaza started the battle with it. So far, the battle was going… strange. The giant weaponized spaceship of the Soris Empire was constantly turning around, engaging her explosion drive from time to time and attempting to take beam and projectile attacks on the aft plate, which was more than capable of withstanding them without getting scratched, since the nuclear explosions were the primary method of propulsion for this ship. In addition to this, most weapons of this warship, as the TV commenter pointed out, were also using nuclear explosions to cause damage. Few Draconids knew about nuclear technology enough to understand full ramifications of it, but those, who did, were really worried. If the sorisians have harnessed the power of atom and truly mastered it, then even the mighty Lord Rayquaza was in danger. ---- "Bandit now re-engaging!" warned everyone sensors operator. "Ancient Power, two seconds!" "Incoming projectile attack," noted weaponry operator, who was obviously enjoying this battle. "Point defence firing… Attack neutralized. Seven "Firelances" away… Hits scored." "Warning, damage to the lander bay #2 armor!" reported engineer in somewhat worried voice, then eased up. "No penetration, no damage to contents." "Stand by for acceleration and rotation," said pilot in steel voice, while his eyes were burning with excitement of being among those, who fought the Rayquaza itself. "RCS and bomb drive now firing." Hiss. Hiss. Wham. Wham. Wham. Wham. The whole battle turned into series of reports and memorized actions, which happened a dozens of times on the ground simulator already, combined with sounds of propulsion and reaction control systems, weaponry and occasional hits to other places, than the pusher plate. Rayquaza was a formidable opponent… but the ship, originally intended for peaceful space exploration, then remade into warship, was designed to be capable to take on even the most powerful opponents and be victorious. Entire nuclear industry of Soris was recently redirected to supply the ship with enough propulsion bombs and weapons. Hundreds of millions were watching their battle right now. They've had no right to fail, lest the humanity forever become prisoners of this planet, with insanely territorial feral dragon ruling the skies and killing everyone, who dares to try to break free of gravity's hard embrace and turn their eyes towards the distant stars. Not to say anything about the Pokemon Nation, which, probably, will consider starting the war with Soris Empire, if the ship goes down, along with all the nuclear armament. "Bandit prepares Dra-Met, five seconds," noted the sensors operator, monitoring feeds from targeting telescopes, radars and thermal scopes at the same time. "Acknowledged, railguns charged, #1 locked on, "Dustbin" loaded. Firing…" half-reported, half-mumbled the weaponry operator, looking at his screens. "Draco Meteor dispersed and denied." Indeed, shooting a canister shell, loaded with tiny pellets of depleted uranium - byproduct of nuclear industry - right in the direction of Rayquaza's mouth was not a bad way to prevent the dangerous attack from being performed. As a nice bonus, several pellets hit eyes of the Legendary, causing it great pain and making it squirm. "Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing." Wham. Wham. Wham. ---- The old dragon was hurt. Really hurt. For thousands upon thousands of years, it ruled sky undisputed. It showed the inferior beings their places. Even the Eon Duos were rightfully afraid of it. A few… days? Weeks? Months? ago the Sky High Pokemon has destroyed the human constructions, which violated its territory. It thought, that this time, they'll learn, that higher skies and space are not meant for them… but they didn't. They've decided, that they can force their point. They've built a giant machine, far beyond any previous constructions. It wasn't like old ones, which were frail, sacrificing everything to save the weight - no, this one was huge and sturdy, capable of taking hits and unleashing inferno in return. More than just capable, in fact. The battle was going on for a several hours already, filled with constant flybys and intercepts, where the combatants did their best to injure the opponent as much as possible and don't get killed at the same time. The whole body of the Legendary was either in pain, like from fire (even though the dragon's body should've been resistant to it), or slowly going numb. The machine, however, was still kicking with no visible major problems and unleashing attacks like no tomorrow. In fact, for one of the combatants, there indeed will be no tomorrow. Someone will remain victorious and hold the control over skies, someone will be destroyed and burned upon re-entry. The old dragon prepared for the final, death-or-glory attack… and suddenly the entire world for it turned blinding-white for less than a split-second, before everything disappeared and the complete abyss came. ---- "All nine hits with Lances scored - seven SCMs, two Howitzers with "Matchsticks"." "Bandit… completely inoperable and will re-enter atmo in two hours," reported the shocked sensors operator. "Guys… did we just... win?" "I hope so," replied the engineer. "I really hope so, since the heat accumulators are nearing critical and if it goes on like this for another dozen minutes or so - it's either scramming the reactor, dumping a decent amount of our hydrogen for open-cycle cooling or deploying radiators mid-battle!" "Deploy the radiators," gave an order the captain. "Power down the weapon systems and retract the weapons. Set reactor output to non-combat level. Return the ship to patrol orbit. Activate the habitation centrifuge. Report to the ground… that we've secured this frontier and avenged the 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2. Red Spirit should be proud of us now." "Aye-aye, comrade captain!" replied all officers in unison, before the attitude control jets hissed again, the pulse engine thumped a few more times and commlink received happy screams from the FCC. Captain of the "Red Explorer" barely cared about all of that. He was just happy, that this battle ended with them as victors… and he also hoped, that, whatever this dragon was doing to keep the balance on this boulder, humans will be able to do just as fine. "Comrade captain, FCC congratulates us! They say, that, when we return to the ground, Emperor and Empress themselves will give us the Medal of Skies!" happily screamed the comm officer, who still could barely believe, that they've done what was considered to be next to impossible - they've successfully defeated the higher-grade Legendary! "Yeah? Okay then. And what shall we do now?" "... Emperor told me, that we should just… "Soar over space"? What does that mean?" "It means, pals, that we did fine and we can take a break. A well-deserved break. Tell the service team to start total damage evaluation and repair." Author's notes: Green Spirit - yet another mystical being in Sorisian mythology, which patrons those, who protect and help others. Launch configuration of the "Red Explorer" and the "Red Explorer" itself were based on the data about the Orion Battleship, gained from here. SCM-1 "Firestorm" - mid-range solid-chemfuel space combat missile with TD-ENF-10K-1 enhanced radiation thermonuclear warhead (a.k.a. "neutron warhead"), 10kt yield. Radio command guidance. SCM-2 "Firelance" - mid-range solid-chemfuel space combat missile with TD-SB-10K-1 shaped-blast thermonuclear warhead (a.k.a. "Lance warhead", based on the real Casaba Howitzer project), 10kt yield. Radio command guidance. PBRM-1 "Lightning" - planetary bombardment retro-missile with liquid-chemfuel engines, armed with TD-CB-25M-1 heavy "city buster" thermonuclear warhead, 25 megaton yield, or six TD-CB-1M-1 1mt yield "city buster" multiple independently targetable maneuverable reentry vehicles. Combined radio command/inertial/active terminal homing guidance. Lance Howitzer - simple auto-loading mortar for firing "Matchstick" shaped-blast thermonuclear warheads. STW-10K-1 "Matchstick" - shaped-blast 10kt thermonuclear warhead with basic radio command guidance system and some tiny attitude jets, launched from Lance Howitzer and detonated shortly after. ERMA-2-S "Thunderlance" - 127mm electromagnetic rail mass accelerator (a.k.a. "railgun"), adapted for space and capable of accelerating shells up to 2506 m/s. NRS-1K "Firecracker" - nuclear shell for the ERMA-2-S, 1kt yield. Contact/remote/timer detonation. CRS-3 "Dustbin" - canister shot for the ERMA-2-S, depleted uranium pellets. RC-6-20-S "Chestnut" - 6-barrelled 20mm rotary cannon, adapted for space and used in the PD-1-20-S "Sweeper" space-adapted point defence system.

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

Interlude. Different Points.

Soris Region, near Chernoholmsk, Imperial Rocket Factory #2.

Nikolai walked along the assembly line, checking the sounding rockets, before they'll get packed up, loaded into containers and delivered to the Zemlino Space Center.

Three months ago, the Rayquaza has destroyed both of the space stations in orbit, killed twelve cosmonauts and reduced the satellite groups of both Soris Empire and the Pokemon Nation to pretty much nothing. And that's not counting the destruction of anything, that goes higher than troposphere, such as research drones or high-altitude planes.

Since then, the Imperial Space Program took a hit, but, thanks to the personal support of the Empress, stayed strong. Right now, their primary priority was set to the atmospheric research, so, they've commissioned several hundreds of the modified A-100 sounding rockets - the fastest rockets in the world, capable of 100g of acceleration!

Speaking of which...

"... Why are those sounding rockets like this?" the worker thought, doing a check on the hull. "No ablative protection, which is very strange, considering their accelerations and resulting ram heating in the atmosphere, unusual science payload adapter, attitude jets instead of steering fins and, for what it looks like, radio command flight guidance system…"

"Surprised by how those rockets look?" asked him superior, who approached the worker undetected. "I'm also surprised by this order. It'll make sense, if they'll be used in space…"

"But what for?"

"... I don't know. And I think we better keep low and silent about it. They didn't double the payment and order me to increase your salaries for nothing."

Hoenn Region, Sootopolis.

"...And for the ending of the "Zap Rangers", we've planned…" TV fell silent.

"Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Over and over again," said Valencia, switching the set off via button on the device itself and walking to the kitchen.

Ever since the Rayquaza got crazy and destroyed most of the stuff in orbit, then began a stratospheric blockade, pure chaos ensued.

In a lot of places cults sprung to life, calling, that the end of the world was near. Some of them had committed mass suicides, some - went into riots, allowing the looters of all sorts to flourish, some went into self-constructed shelters… it was true insanity.

And, as a Cheri Berry on top of that cake, many book and comic writers, along with producers of TV shows and so on, decided to tell everyone their plans on ending their works. The newspapers and networks were pretty much flooded with them. Valencia was even afraid to imagine, how much money they were getting from those exclusive interviews.

"Still nothing good?" a question sounded from the kitchen.

"Still nothing good," responded the woman, entering the room. In one of the chairs, a young man sat. If not for a slightly ragged look of his face, it would've been impossible to tell, that he was, actually, a Draconid.

"Damn. Gonna lay low for a few more weeks, I guess?" said Damien. His name was quite unusual for a member of this tribe… but it really helped him to get to his Sootopolian friend for a safe hiding, when the pogroms started. Even though, officially, Hoenn government had nothing against the Draconids, the fact, that those people worshipped Rayquaza, was enough of a trigger to allow humans, driven to hysterical paranoia by the acts of recently-resurfaced Sky High Pokemon and some medias, which were happily exploiting those events, to near-instantly resort to the unprovoked and indiscriminate violence. Even though most of the Draconids had powerful Pokemon with them, it often just made crazed people to switch to the swarming tactics, mixed with dirty fighting. Even great Draconid combatants weren't able to stand against fifty normal trainers and some more non-trainers at once, especially, when those people were specifically targeting the Draconid in question and going for the injuries at least.

"Of course," replied Valencia. She wondered, why the news networks weren't showing anything about Soris now and how they, with their different culture, reacted to what has happened several months ago.

Soris Region, near Zemlino, VAB #3

"Contact zone reached," said the computer system in the cabin of the overhead crane. The slightly aged man threw a quick look at the screen in cabin, at the payload, at the destination, then gently shifted the left control stick, activating the hoist and lowering the turret with railgun, suspended on the crane's hook, to the workers below. Right now, the air conditioning system of the Vertical Assembly Building was being repaired and the clouds started to build up inside. It wasn't raining yet and most of the equipment was water-proofed for this very reason, but the condensation on the glass windows of the cabin was getting annoying for the operator, since it forced him to mostly rely on the instruments.

"Klim, the break is starting about now! Get down here!" sounded from the comm system. Klim Goncharenko, a very experienced crane operator - probably, the best one in the entire Empire, since the Emperor himself called him for participating in this operation - frowned a little.

"Okay, guys, but you know - I'm not into smoking. And know, if you've touched sandwiches, brought here by my wife… well, the unexpected bowel movements should start in roughly a minute or so!"

For a thirty seconds, there was an uneasy silence, soon followed by "Sanyuch, you fraggin' bastard!" and a sound of at least three men sprinting towards the restroom. Klim smiled and started to drive the crane back to the parking position, thinking about his son and sort-of-a-granddaughter, who stayed in the Imperial Science Facility 9.

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.

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

Chapter 2: Handshake above the skies.

- So, comrades, we are in big clusterheck now, - grimly said captain Vasilyev to the cosmonauts, who gathered in the station's command module. - The ground control, basically, told us "Provide data and do whatever situation calls you to do, until we give you new orders", the whole world has changed, the orbits are crowded now, and we are not alone up there anymore. Any ideas?

- Propulsion is nice now, - started the pilot. - Of course, we've used some propellant for changing orbit, but it wasn't much. If anything, we can pump dry the cargo pods, along with 3-seated return pods, and use them to load propellant on the Lenticular Return Vehicle, so, even after the orbit's change, we will be able to return to Earth. We'll need to modify it first, though, but we have everything for it onboard.

- Orbit change, you say… - wondered the engineer, who also doubled as psychologist. - Can we join the unidentified space station?

-... Well, theoretically, we can - given that we use most of our propellant for maneuvering and will be left with barely enough to deorbit the LRV, but should we?

- Why not? - answered question with question captain of the station. - It's not like we have any better ideas at contacting them. We don't know their frequencies, we don't know their data encoding, we don't know a thing!

- Whatever you say, guys, I'll just hover here and watch over the station's parameters and engines, - mumbled the pilot, floating towards the control console.

- Here goes nothing, - suddenly decided the captain. - Join the unidentified space station and keep the distance between us and them in-between 180 and 210 meters.

-... Aye-aye, comrade captain. I'll activate the propellant pumps now, to redistribute the propellant. The orbital maneuver will take some time, though.

- No problem. We'll prepare the MMUs in the meantime.

-                                                                                                                              -

- The MCC is silent, - said Aneeta Gerst, flying away from the computer console. - Apparently, there's quite a chaos down there.

- I can understand them, - replied Sarah Donnager, who was hovering nearby. - After all, the whole region, which was previously dead and absolutely unwelcome, suddenly becoming inhabited and developed is not something, that happens everyday.

- Most definitely, - mumbled Anthony Falkis, who was monitoring connections. - Wait a second… No, this can't be… or can it?

- What? - asked him two women.

- According to the radar data from Mossdeep, unidentified huge space station has just started orbital maneuvering.

- And?

- … It's going to get near us.

- How? You sure, that they have enough delta-V?

- Of course I am not, but the maneuver is too similar to those, performed by our crew transports and resupply ships.

- And what the Mossdeep says?

- Mossdeep remains silent.

- How long to rendezvous?

- Roughly two days.

- Two days, you say… enough to commence evacuation in pods several times. Should we do so, though?

- Negative, - came sudden reply from the Mossdeep. - Perform survey on the unidentified space station and, if possible, contact them.

- Contact them… - angrily whispered Samuel Franck. - How should we contact them, if we have no idea about their radio frequencies and encryptions? By flying to them on MMUs?

-                                                                                                                              -

- This thing is huge, - commented Sarah, taking another picture of the unidentified space station, which had two contra-rotating centrifugal wheels, a few big parabolic mirrors, aimed at, presumably, some kind of boilers, a big set of heat radiators, an unidentified device, which possessed its own set of heat radiators, a six docked pods and a what looked like a flying half-saucer with steering fins, flaps and, yet again, deployed heat radiators, roughly twelve meters in diameter, docked to the "lowest" part of the station.

- I'm afraid to even imagine, how many resources were spent on building this thing… - said Gerst, flying closer to Sarah. - By the way, is it just me, or… do you see someone going on EVA?

Donnager quickly took a camera again and tried to use zoom on it as an impromptu telescope. Thankfully, Cupola module, in which she was present, was spacious enough for her to aim the camera and see, that someone indeed has exited the unidentified space station and, using some kind of MMU, started to approach the National Space Station. However, roughly on the one-third of trip, the unidentified astronaut performed a deceleration burn and stopped, as if waiting for someone.

- Hey, girls, - started Franck, who drifted to Cupola. - What…

Seeing the looks in the eyes of two women and knowing, that current commander of the NSS will support them, Samuel has greatly regretted the words he whispered two days ago.

-                                                                                                                              -

Samuel exited the airlock, preparing to do something inconceivable before. He put the hand on his MMU's control stick and gently shifted it forward, flying to the unidentified space station, which had appeared less than a day ago. His trusty Reuniclus was in the Pokeball on the suit's belt, ready to be released, should something happen.

From what he could see, there was a similar activity on the side of unidentified space station, which showed in the form of humanoid in advanced space suit flying towards him, propelled by the similar maneuvering unit.

Nearly two minutes after, they were, finally, close enough. For what it looked like, the unidentified humanoid could very well actually be human… but how?

Sam released his Reuniclus to try to establish the telepathic contact, but, right after that, his "opponent" took a huge, rectangular pistol-like device from the belt, threw a small instrument away, shot it with this device - the shot itself was invisible, save for how a part of the instrument instantly turned yellow-hot from it - and then took aim at Samuel.

Reuniclus prepared to attack the unknown individual, but Samuel ordered him not to. The alien astronaut pointed at the Reuniclus with a free hand, made a swiping gesture, pointed at the energy pistol and tapped at the belt.

Samuel, in response, pointed at the Reuniclus, then grabbed the pokeball and tapped at it with his index finger.

Alien astronaut repeated the gesture, so, Samuel decided to withdraw the Reuniclus, despite how the Multiplying Pokémon was objecting against it. Thankfully, the gesture was understood correctly, so unknown individual switched something on its pistol and put it back on the belt, before grabbing a small container.

Samuel was ready for another threat display, but, surprisingly, inside the container lied an sketchbook of some sort and several different pens. The unknown astronaut withdrew the sketchbook, took one of the pens and started drawing some strange symbols, adding lines over each of them.

"So, those are numbers. Nice," - thought Samuel, looking at how many lines correspond to what symbol. - "And they use the base ten system. Even better."

Right after it, alien astronaut stopped drawing and handed the sketchbook and pen to the Samuel. He wasted no time and drew national numbers right under the alien ones, then gave the sketchbook and pen back to the rightful owner.

Alien astronaut made a strange - hopefully, approving - gesture, then turned the page and started making new drawings.

-                                                                                                                              -

- Vasya is doing pretty well, - said commander of the Space Lab 2, looking at the screen, which displayed direct feed from the helmet cam.

- Of course he does. Though, comrade captain, I think you'll have to give him reprimands for threatening unknown cosmonaut with laser multitool.

- I will, but later. Vasiliy, - announced captain into just-activated mic, - don't forget, that you are here to get some basic info and then return to Lab!

- I know, I know, I'm doing it, - replied cosmonaut, who was busy exchanging drawings with cosmonaut from other space station. - It's not like I have a lot of oxygen left. An hour or so - and I'll get back… or not.

- What do you mean?

- Look at my cam.

-                                                                                                                              -

The oxygen meter showed, that it was time to return to the station. Samuel pointed at himself, backpack of the space suit, MMU and the National Space Station in succession. Alien astronaut understood it and extended its hand - probably, for the handshake. Franck, deciding, that here goes nothing, responded to this gesture by grasping the extended hand and actually shaking it. Just before the Nation's astronaut turned away and activated the engines, unknown individual lifted the filter on his helmet, opening the view on the face - an unmistakably human face.

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

Chapter 1: A new day, an old world.

- What the heck? - asked no one in particular captain of the Space Lab 2, the most advanced space station of the Soris Empire, after the strange flash temporarily blinded sensors.

- No idea… - started to respond pilot, but sound of the collision warning siren interrupted his speech. - WHAT?!

Quick jump to the maneuvering control console, look at the combined locator screen - and it was apparent, that something has happened, since the orbit now was very densely populated with satellites of unknown origin, in addition to the imperial ones. It wasn't of their main concern now, though, because emergency automatics aboard satellites had already established a network and began collision avoidance maneuvers. No, the main problem was, that the Space Lab Two was on the collision course with some objects, which they didn't identify, because of lack of time.

- Transfer to manual control, surge all power units, emergency thrusters at max, - frantically scrambled through settings pilot, then screamed into intercom. - Everybody hold on - this can get very ugly!

Right after these words, both station's orbit correction thrusters and maneuvering thrusters of some of the docked vehicles fired, barely managing to drive the station away from the collision course with one of the satellites and putting it on the safer orbit, which, however, was almost intersecting with unidentified smaller space station.

- Crisis, so far, averted, - exhaled the pilot, wiping the sweat out of his forehead, switching through cameras and then freezing. - Captain - I think you'd want to see this.

- What exact… - started to say the commander of the station, but went silent, when he looked at the display, which showed many cities on Earth. This won't be anything special… if not for the fact, that most of them weren't located in Soris, but, rather, in primitive regions, such as Kalos or Unova.

-                                                                                                                              -

- What. Is. This? - whispered Anthony Falkis, honoured astronaut of the Pokemon Nation, looking at the locator panel, which showed, how the unknown satellite, which just… appeared out of nowhere, nearly collided with the space station, barely managing to fire small engines and evade.

- "Cupola" module here, - sounded the station-wide announcement. - We all recommend you to get to your nearest Earth-pointed illuminator and look at it.

Anthony followed this lead, looked out… and saw the Soris, the region, in which any human colonists just disappeared shortly after arrival, blazing with lights of huge cities.

- Do you think, that it may be… linked? - asked Anthony Sarah Donnager, who've just flown in this part of the station.

- If you're about what the Reverse World just happened - probably…

-                                                                                                                              -

- What the fu… - voice of one of the radar operators went unnoticed in the Mossdeep Space Centre's Mission Control Centre, which was drowning in screams of shock and disbelief, as the screens of the orbit monitoring radars got flooded with unidentified signatures, ranging from the brick-sized, to the bus-sized, to the monster, bigger than the Nation's Space Station.

- QUIET!!! - ringed from the PA loudspeakers. It didn't calm down everyone instantly, but, at least, lowered the scream levels to tolerable.

- Sinnoh observatory confirms, that the unidentified objects are, in fact, present in the space and aren't just glitches of our tracking systems, - said one of the younger operators in the microphone, now routed to the loudspeakers. - And… I think you all need to see this.

The orbital map on the main screen got replaced with a view from the NSS' onboard camera, which showed Soris - a dead region… except it wasn't dead anymore. In fact, some parts of it were shining so bright, one could confuse them with the greatest cities of Unova, if it was duplicated several dozens of times.

-                                                                                                                              -

- This is just crazy, - mumbled Emperor, walking through the FCC's command room. - You mean, we've just kinda teleported into a new world? Like… What, just what?

- I don't think so, Your Majesty, - said one of the astronomers.

- Explain.

- According to the video from the Space Lab 2, as well as orbital telescope "Barabashov"... time moved roughly 3100 years ahead.

-... - everyone in the room went silent for a few minutes.

-                                                                                                                              -

Celebi twitched a little, almost waking up from a sleep. It was like if something, which disappeared long ago in the flows of time, has suddenly resurfaced, but without few crucial components, which started it in the first place. It was like timeline was damaged or, at least, irreversibly changed. It was almost like the world was about to stray from the designated chain of events major time...

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

Prologue: Once upon a time...

The universe is a strange thing. A smallest change in the single chain of events can produce incredible amounts of new timelines.

In one of them, Ancient Soris Empire never came to be. Worlds from this timeline are the most known ones.

In other, it came to be and never experienced the Ancient Soris War. It took only a few generations, until the entire world was united, and one more, until the gaze got turned to the stars. When the time, known to us as "present", came, they've already had colony near the another star.

In yet another, it was completely obliterated during the Ancient Soris War, waged and won by the local Legendaries. For the thousands of years, Soris was pushed back into stone age, where Pokemon reigned supreme.

In yet another, sorisian people won the war and killed their Legendaries, but at terrible cost. However, even in the horrible, sorry state, life in the Soris continued. In this timeline, Soris gave birth to two megacorporations, which later will (not so) silently oppose the world government and, in the spirit of the Ancient Soris Empire, about which they've had no idea until very recently, try to build better and safer future for the humans.

However, in one of the strangest of them, Soris Legendaries decided to attempt to erase the Ancient Soris Empire from the time itself. No one truly knows, what has happened this day, but the result is known well - the Legendaries disappeared forever and the Empire, along with its creations, were moved 3100 years into future. This is the timeline, which this story will follow...

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.

Memory, part 4 (mini-fic).

Compulink system active.

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Accessing “GY-PLFU-LOG-1″ datafile…

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Goncharenko Yevgeniy, personal bioresearch log.

Third stage.

07.01.425 AFE, 22:49

I’m very worried about Liya. For this entire week, she remains depressed after what happened during the celebration of the New Year. I know, I might’ve been a little harsh, but I never... Could it be linked to her empathic abilities? I think I need to investigate that. In meantime, I think I’ll try to contact Biganskiy Sergey and ask him to install new firmware in our terminals. I’m fed up with those glitches. Also, the amount of work during this time was insane. Wish I could spend more time with her...

[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.

-                                                                                                                              -

- Liya, - said human, exiting the cleanroom’s airlock and dressing into the normal suit.

*Yes?* - replied apathetic human-disguised Latias, who was sitting on the nearby bench.

- Arcanists contacted me again, inviting us to excursion in their sector, subsector 4-24. The way to it lies through the monorail transport system, which passes through the decent part of the facility. I know, it’s mostly tunnels, but there are some nice places to see.

*Ah.*

- Come on, it’s not like we have something better to do for the rest of this day, - tried to cheer her up human, but it barely had an effect, so he continued. - Look, I know, I may’ve been a little harsh back during the New Year, but...

*But I’ve felt how you’ve felt! This horryfying feeling of helplessness, thoughts drifting apart and overall - I’ve felt every last moment of it! And it was me, who’ve cause you to suffer it!* - lashed Liya out, then dropped her head in her hands, starting to cry. - *It all was me... Why did I have to activate that beacon?*

- Liya, please, understand - I was less angry for what’s happened to me and much more scared about what could’ve happened to you! After all, - Yevgeniy’s voice dropped, - you’re the only one, whom I can call “child”.

*Why?* - replied confused Eon Pokemon.

- Because I’m infertile and can’t have kids normal way. I’ve poured more than a decade of research in creating you and making sure the usual biological problems won’t haunt you, like they haunt me, - said microbiologist in even more grim voice. - You may not be the Ultimate Lifeform, but it still counts, I guess. You’re stronger than your normal cousins, smarter, faster, have greater endurance, thrice the normal lifespan, which, considering your power, is astonishingly long, and so on, and so on. I just want you to be safe, after all I’ve done to you.

Latias remained silent, tears forming in her eyes. Being empath, she felt every last of his feelings behind those words. He truly, absolutely cared about her and wanted her to just be safe and happy.

-                                                                                                                              -

-... And here’s our prototyping lab for robots, - said the arcanist, gesturing at several three-dimensional printers and automatic assembly machines. - It can create robots up to ten on ten on ten meters in size. So far, there were very few robots, which don’t fit, so, they were forced to be manufactured in parts and assembled elsewhere.

*And what were those robots?* - asked him Liya, who was slowly, but surely regaining her interest to life.

- Barely anything worth mentioning: automated excavator and tunneling machine, UAV... Huh, there’s, actually, a pretty interesting one - the Imposer, a levitator-lifted heavy unmanned aerial fire support unit. Two frontal Ion Driver Cannons with great firing angles, one rear Ion Driver Cannon with similatily great angles, airburst charge launcher and underslung Matter Distortion Cannon, protection - Light Screen projectors and pseudo-matter barriers. It’s placed in the Hangar Five right now.

- MDC? Isn’t it, like, one of the greatest power hogs created? - wondered microbiologist.

- It is. In fact, the Imposer lacks the suitable energy source right now and needs a thick cable, connected to the local power distribution hub, to stay powered. Of course, our Division works on it, but the project is still in the very early stages. If you want to know more, ask about the D-type Power Drive. OK, so, now you can proceed to the firing range number five, where our newest more-or-less finished creation will be tested.

*Okay,* - agreed Latias, walking together with her “father” towards the next zone. While she was forced to spend a lot of time here in the human-like form, she didn’t mind it much.

The firing range itself looked... bland. A well-protected balcony, where they’ve stood, and a high, long concrete tunnel, on the far end of which the target was placed.

- Warning, combatron’s firing arcane cannon, clear the range! Repeat, combatron’s firing arcane cannon, clear the range! - sounded announcement from the loudspeakers.

*Combatron?* - asked puzzled Latias. - *What’s that?*

- Heck if I know, - replied scientist, looking at the test range. Mere seconds after announcement, an uncanny-looking and definitely arcane tech-based six-limbed robot jumped on the range, switched to bipedal walking mode, then it’s cylindrical head started glowing bright blue and opened somewhat like a backwards flower, then...

-... Wow, - whispered microbiologist, looking at what was previously meter-and-half-thick cube of solid reinforced armor concrete, but now was reduced to molten slag, along with two meters or so of normal concrete and rock behind it. - Such power in such a small platform.

- And it drains arcane energy like no tomorrow, especially on this mode, - responded Chugun, who has somehow managed to silently get close to them. - On full power mode, combatron can only fire the Assault Beam Cannon three times before fully depleting weapon power supply, it needs some time to cool down between shots... Prototype problems, you know.

- I doubt it’ll have to fire all of the shots, - said Yevgeniy, looking at what remained of the range again, then pointing on combatron. - Are those deployable blades on upper limbs or what?

- Yep, those are advanced cutter blades, which can be enshrouded in arcane energy to enhance cutting abilities! - proudly said full-fledged mechanical Pokemon, while combatron reverted to hexapedal locomotion mode and left the range.

- So, true killing machine. Nice. What is the purpose of it?

- Protection of our colonists and researchers, helping them in recon operations... 

- I know, I know, - waved his hand human. - Is the excursion over?

- For today - yes. Thank you for your visit!

*Bye*, - replied Liya, while she and Yevgeniy took a direction to the monorail station. For what it looked like, the amount of passengers today wasn’t exactly staggering, so Latias will be able to return to her true form during the transit.

-                                                                                                                              -

Compulink system active.

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Accessing “LPT-LOG-1″ datafile…

EDIT MODE

Goncharenko Liya, personal log.

08.01.425 AFE, 20:37

Today was a good day. The excursion in the Arcane Science Division Sector was interesting and fun, father’s and mine terminals are repaired an everything, in general, is nice! This revelation, though... I never knew about how much work father put into me and how he can’t have children of his own kind. That’s very sad. On the brighter side of things - I’ve felt, how much I worth to father, so, I’ll try to never fail him again!

Compulink system deactivated.

Memory, part 3 (mini-fic)

For less than a split-second, Yevgeniy saw a bright orange flash and felt, like his body was twisted in ways, which should not even be possible in the three-dimensional or even eleven-dimensional space, but right after it, he was brutally thrown back into reality, seeing triples and having his head spin like no tomorrow.

- So, apparently, it does have some unpredicted results on organic lifeforms, incapable of teleporting naturally, - sounded voice of Yelena Groisman. - Chugun - help him at once and leave this Latias to me!

- Her name... is... Liya, - mumbled microbiologist before horrifying pulsing sound in his ears got too loud and he passed out.

-                                                                                                                              -

- How many fingers do you see? - sounded voice from somewhere, when Goncharenko tried to open his eyes. His thoughts were still clouded and slowly arranging themselves back into place.

- Three, - replied Yevgeniy after several failed attempts, during which he could only mumble something incomprehensible.

- Good. Sorry, but no one knew, that slingshot relaying device will have such an effect on you. We’ve already collected data and will work on fixing it ASAP!

- If Liya is hurt, I swear, I’ll...

*I’m fine,* - “sounded” the telepathic voice from side. - *It was a little trippy at first, but nothing serious.*

- A little trippy? I’ve felt like I’ve experienced geometries beyond comprehension of any living being, and those geometries wanted to twist me, rip me apart  and push through infinitely small holes at the same time! - screamed man, who already fully regained his consciousness, but still felt weak in body.

- Looks like it was caused by the sling having too wide of a trajectory and too low speed of a swing, exposing teleportees to the interworld space for too long, - mused Chugun, listening to the Yevgeniy and reading the data from the terminal. - I can correct it right now.

- Do it! - ordered him Yelena Groisman.

- Zheka - sorry for this little inconvinience... - began Izya.

- Hold on, - said microbiologist, sitting up and turning to the young Latias, still disguised as a human, with a furious expression on his face, - Liya - what the heck?! What were you thinking about, activating the Slingshot Beacon?! Didn’t you hear, how Chugun talked about being in one piece and not clipping into ground, clearly exposing, that this device is still being tested and is still dangerous! What’s w... Liya, please, promise me, that you won’t put yourself in the danger like this anymore!

Seeing Yevgeniy suddenly break into tears, the entire arcanist team was surprised, while the Latias felt herself really sick for scaring and hurting her pretty much father like this.

*I promise... father,* - replied Liya, giving man a hug and starting to cry too.

- Well, now everything has settled, maybe, we shall continue? - asked Izya after both man and Pokemon from the Bioscience calmed down. - Zheka - I’m really sorry for this inconvenience with tseryobla and SRD. And you, Chugun, - slowly said arcanist in sinister voice, turning towards huge mechanical Pokemon, who started to slowly back away, - what were YOU thinking, grabbing the beacons with you and leaving them there? We know you can withstand troubles with tseryobla - after all, you were the one, who volunteered to test it several years ago and survived five hours of being trapped in the teleportational vortex - but honestly... Were you insane? What you can brush off, can kill human or normal Pokemon! Honestly, sometimes I’m not sure if I’ve really needed to create you.

- I... I don’t know, - replied Chugun in scared and slightly whimpering voice, continuing to slowly move away from the enraged scientist. - Something must’ve clouded my judgement bad. Like, really bad. I won’t do something like this ever again!

- Are you sure those two aren’t brothers? - whispered Yelena to Boris, who was just standing aside and enjoying the view.

- Nah, they aren’t brothers, at least not in blood. In the spirit, hovewer...

-                                                                                                                              -

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Accessing “LPT-LOG-1″ datafile…

EDIT MODE

Goncharenko Liya, personal log.

02.01.425 AFE, 21:14

I feel so bad right now. Even though it was more than a day ago, I still can’t get over it. My father... after I used this device, he instantly grabbed the second one and activated it, just to follow me. I remember, how he, after the teleportation, said, about how I have a name, and then collapsed into this horrible fit. Arcanists said, that his brain couldn’t handle such a surge of the arcane energy and the long exposure to the interworld overdimensional space, but still, seeing him spasming like that, and having this horrible feeling of barely to no control of his body and thoughts dispersing, like a vapour in the dry air... I can’t bear to stand that. And all of it was, because I was too curious and wanted to try out this beacon. I don’t even know what to think of myself anymore.

Compulink system deactivated.

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.

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Ancient Soris Empire’s robotics, Combatron.

Back in the ASE’s days, the Combatron-class assault robot was thought to be true pride of the Soris’ military robotics. This machine was one of the most advanced and powerful battle robots ever created.

Standing 1m 70cm high, this anthropomorphic arcane science-based robot had six limbs.

The two upper limbs, in additional to five-fingered palm manipulators, housed very sharp, sturdy and durable cutter blades, which could’ve been made even more deadly by activating the blade enhancing system and enshrouding them in clouds of typeless destructive arcane energy. In the idle mode, the blades were folded to the forearms like a switchblade.

The two middle limbs had five-fingered palms and could house two elbow-mounted arcane repeater guns of submachine guns. In practice, however, they were mostly left empty, to enhance robot’s mobility. Some of the later robots, however, had two grappling hook launchers installed here, to enhance the mobility of machine.

The two lower limbs were digitigrade, six repositionable digits total.

All limbs had advanced gripping systems, which allowed them to climb smooth vertical walls like a Treecko. In addition to it, the small deployable claws allowed for better grip on non-smooth surfaces (though they were pretty good at ripping flesh too).

The servos of the combatron were able to provide enough power and movement speed to allow robot to quickly jump from wall to wall even in the halls with 20 meters between walls.

Inside the main logic core, the combatron had Calcutec Hexalith Cluster CPU, 64 GDUnits (GigaDataUnits) of RAM and 50 TDUnits (TeraDataUnits) of ROM. This setup, along with advanced software, allowed machine for being pretty smart, although not really sapient (bar few experimental models)

The combatron also had the cloaking system, based on the research of the Lati dragon’s cloaking abilities. While it had some quirks (namely, only worked at full capacity if robot moved slowly enough and was slowly giving away as the Assault Beam Cannon was charging), it still gave robot an undeniable combat advantage.

The mostly-cylindrical head housed the main weapon of this robot - the dreaded Assault Beam Cannon. While it, theoretically, could fire in several different modes - short pulse, cutting beam or beam of incredible power, capable of obliterating pretty much everything (the Assault Beam). However, the first two modes were, for some reason, wearing down the cannon’s system too much, so, they were very rarely used.

The key to everything in this robot was the power source - two integral and one removable ultra-high density rechargeable arcane energy batteries and multi-purpose power converter. They were also key to its enormous price, since they were incredibly hard and expensive to produce. The recharge was also quite a problem, since very few power sources could provide sufficient amount of power in sufficiently short time.

Before and during the Ancient Soris War, only two thousands of units were produced. Some of them were deployed and fought on the battlefields of Soris, some of them were stashed and never activated and some were moved to the colonies during the final phase of war to act as their guardians. However, not all robots were successfully transported and some were lost.

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.

Memory, part 2 (mini-fic)

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Accessing “GY-PLFU-LOG-1″ datafile…

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Goncharenko Yevgeniy, personal bioresearch log.

Second stage.

25.6.424 AFE, 19:43

Huh... Looks like she has imprinted on me. ‘Guess it’s good, because it means easier further observation and experimentation. Also, reinforced cleansuit was a great idea - even the young Lati dragons have pretty sharp claws of their... arms, paws? Whatever. Still, the hatching process, which, like the others of Psychic Pokemon, which were observed before, involved usage of Psychic energy to telekinetically shatter the eggshell, but here, instead of normal breakapart, she blew it up with the force of a pipe bomb! Good thing equipment was protected (it’s a lab for studying Pokemon, after all) and eggshell itself was not hard enough to do any damage. Still, looks like the “mental capacity upgrade”  is already showing, at least in the Psychic power.

23.7.424 AFE, 18:25

For someone born not within the nest, in the embrace of loving mother, but, rather, within cold confines of the laboratory, surrounded by lifeless scientific equipment, she does surprisingly good (and by “surprisingly good” I mean “just as good as normally-hatched Lati dragon, if not even better”). She is quite playful (I need to buy some beer to our arcanist team for giving me this thermographic camera. As good as Lati can cloak or pseudo-Transform, they can’t completely mimic thermal emissions of those they impersonate or hide them), very good learner (once again, I need to buy some more beer to our arcanists, because, if not for their advanced identity recognition system, she would’ve succeeded in accessing my terminal and I don’t want to even think, what she woud’ve done then. Hm... Maybe, I should give her her own terminal? It’ll help with some mental testing experiments and will (I hope) slow her down) and is pretty healthy (thankfully, arcane science team was not involved in this, or I’d have my entire salary spent on beer. Just joking, most of them hate beer, but love nullified Stones for their personal arcane experiments. This shit, most of which is imported from the Kalos mining site, isn’t cheap AT ALL. I’m so going zero on money...).

[Attached files: personal observation and log datafile, general health monitoring datafile, optical and thermographic photos]

31.12.424 AFE, 21:15

Today, our Division’s New Year celebration will, for the first time since the founding of this Facility, encompass both surface and underground complexes. Thanks to my connections with Director, I was able to get clearance to bring Liya (the young Latias of mine) to the celebration. Not without stun-collar, of course, but still better than nothing. We have to go now, so, everything is in attached!

P.S. Liya is growing up really fast, even faster, than normal Lati. Can it be side effect from the viruses I’ve used? Of course, she should stabilize once her body reaches adult stage, but... Anyway, the mind enhancement part most definitely works.

[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]

-                                                                                                                              -

-... 56, 57, 58, 59, 00!!! - sounded scream of hundreds of employes of the facility, when the clocks of the Imperial Palace marked beginning of the 425 year after the foundation of the Empire. Liya still couldn’t understand, why this was so important to the humans, but, considering sheer amount of happiness she sensed, it was. Still, those colorful explosions in the sky were really beautiful, even if slightly hard for her sensitive ears.

- It was beautiful, wasn’t it? - asked her human, who took the role of her father. Liya knew, that human could never be a parent of Lati, but she didn’t really care - he loved her and cared for her.

*Yes,* - replied she. - *It was really beautiful. So, what do we do now?*

- First of all - you drop your camouflage and return to your real form. Second - we go into the Central Biodome and take a ride on elevator into the Underground Complex. I’m sure you’ll like it.

*OK,* - replied she, reluctantly dropping her false human appearance and slowly hovering along with him into the huge dome-shaped building. As much as she wanted to stay on the outside, inside, it was warm, and cold was not something she liked.

- Looks like most of our Division wants to party on surface, - made a comment scientist, looking, how surprisingly few people were in the dome. - Anyway, let’s take a ride on the elevator! Believe me, even the Imperial Palace does not have this kind of visuals!

*Wow...*- telepathically “whispered” Latias, looking through the glass walls of the elevator cabin. Right now, they were descending into giant artificial cylindrical cavern with sleek white ceramic-looking walls, which were covered in similarily-sleek balconies, terraces and rounded windows.

- Welcome to the Underground Complex, Bioscience Division Lobby! - proudly replied Yevgeniy. - On your right, you can see cafeteria, where employees of this Division can relax and eat some nice food. On your left, there’s a small recreation zone, when employees can entertain themselves. This part of complex is highly automated. Right now, the illumination should’ve been toned down and ceiling should’ve been switched into night mode, with imitations of stars and moon, but because of the holiday, it was dropped down, just for one night. Each of the main Divisions - Bioscience, Arcanics, Physics, Production and Chemistry - have their own lobbies like this. To be honest, arcanists got even bigger lobby... but our is still much more beautiful!

*Arcanists?* - wondered Liya.

- The ones, who use arcane science and move it ahead. If you want to, I can give you a tour in the Arcane Science Division’s Sector. By the way, research of your cloaking and psychic abilities helped them immensely!

*Thanks,* - replied Latias, feeling slightly shy.

- Honestly, Liya, you grow up so fast... - said a human, looking at nowhere in particular. Young Eon Pokemon would’ve asked him a question, if not for elevator finally arriving at the bottom of cavern and opening the doors. Human and Lati dragon left the cabin and walked through the large atrium, complete with trees and fountains. As large as it was, a decent part of it was covered with tables with lots of dishes and drinks, most of which had humans sitting at them and partying.

Soon, Liya and Yevgeniy arrived near the relatively small table for eight persons, which had only six of places occupied.

- Hi there, Seryoga! - welcomed his old friend microbiologist. - How’s going?

- Good, we were waiting for you for, like, a thousand years!

- Well, we’ve finally arrived. Do you mind if we take a seat?

- No probs, comrade! But can your Lati friend fold her wings a little? There’s not much place here, you know.

- Lati have rigid variable-sweep wings, not the classic ones! However... Liya, - Yevgeniy turned to Latias, - can you position you wings like for a high-speed flight? No, wait, forget it, it won’t do a thing, not with your reposition angles and wingspan. Can you use this pseudo-Transform?

*I can,* - replied young dragon, focusing her inner power on the shape of her body and slowly, but surely remaking it into what she desired.

- Holy flak cannon, - whispered one of the other scientists, seeing this. - Zheka - mind if I read your files on this?

- Won’t, - said Yevgeniy, seeing, how Liya relatively quickly changed her look from the golden-feathered Latias into what could pass as a human teenager and then taking a seat.

- Awesome, - nodded Sergey, then pulled a decently-sized package from under the table. - Blue cheese, my personal project. I’m a mycologist, after all. Hope it’ll pass good along with our sparkling wine!

- So, an actual sparkling wine this time, and not a gargle blaster from our Booze-o-tron, constructed back in 419? Cool. Liya - sorry, this drink is not for you, since it’s a poison to Lati. Speaking strictly - it’s also a poison to humans, but our organisms can metabolise it somewhat, giving some interesting effects. If you want to drink - here’s your lemonade, - nearly motor-mouthed Yevgeniy on a single breath, grabbing a bottle from another table nearby and pouring some of its content into glass before disguised Latias.

- Well, Bon Appetit, I guess. For the ISF! - raised the glass, full with sparkling wine, Sergey.

- For the ISF! - all of the sitting ones clinked glasses. Latias did not know, what did it truly mean, but decided to support it and raised her own too, causing a few friendly laughes. Soon after, the mealtime came and all men and women started to enjoy the culinary mastery of the Division’s cafeterias. Liya, seeing this, decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, despite her initial fears, the human food was pretty tasty, if only a bit too spicy for her.

- Li, be careful - our food, unadapted, might taste quite good, but eat too much of it today - and you are so gonna regret it tomorrow! - warned her Yevgeniy. She slowed down a little, but overall, the celebration has continued, especially when most of table near the center of the Lobby were moved aside to make a room for dance.

Suddenly, a flash of orange light, a thuderous clap - and the huge, six-limbed mechanical Pokemon appeared just a few meters away from partying scientists.

- WHAT THE FLAK?! - screamed one of the biologists, trying to jump and only succeeding in falling on back together with his chair. - Chugun - what the heck was that?

- Slingshot relaying device test, - replied the creation of the leading arcanist team in his usual metallic voice. - From what it looks like, I’m still in one piece, hadn’t clipped into the ground and operating, so, test’s a success!

- What in the world this “slingshot relaying device” thing is? - asked an already drunk mycologist, examining a piece of blue cheese.

- An addition to the tseryobla, which allows teleportation from one point to other without need to stop in the tseryobla itself. As you know, tseryobla works by using the Reflection World as an unexpressed axis for-

- Please, keep it short!

- I’m doing it. So, it uses the Reflection World, which, as some of you know, is a sort of a border world, as an unexpressed axis, so we can swing whatever we want to teleport around the border world and get it back without it actually going past the barrier. What the slingshot relaying device does in the grand scheme of things? It allows us to pull one slingshot right after another, eliminating the need for rematerialize in-between teleportation beginning and destination points. Basically, it allows true point-to-point teleportation, without need to stop in the tseryobla.

- Cool! - whistled Yevgeniy.

- By the way - Groisman, Maler and I are very grateful to you for the Teleport move research data and we want to invite you to our small party, - said Chugun somewhat shy, then placed two cylindric devices with a single covered button on top of each of them on the table. - Those are Slingshot Beacons. If you want to go to us right now, you can press the button and slingshot yourself directly - it’s completely safe, trust me - into the Teleportation Lab 3, where Team 2 has set our own quiet party. If you don’t want... then you can travel the old-fashioned way or just stay here. Anyway, I’m done here. Goodbye!

One more orange flash, thunderous clap - and Chugun vanished.

- I knew arcanists had some loose screws, but never thought, that their screws are that loose, - slowly commented one of the geneticists.

*What’s this?* - asked still slightly confused Liya, grabbing one of the teleportation beacons.

- A marker device for teleportation. You need to flip a safety cover and press a button to initiate sequence, - mumbled mycologist, examining yet another piece of blue cheese. - Nah, this strain of mold isn’t as good as earlier one.

- Liya, do you really want to... LIYA!!! - screamed Yevgeniy, when Latias, who was a little too curious for her own good sometimes, used one of the beacons and got teleported away. - Seryoga - thank you a flakking lot! Guys, gotta go now!

With these words, microbiologist grabbed a second Slingshot Beacon and activated it, hoping to get to his creation and almost adoptive daughter before something bad happens.

Memory, part 1 (mini-fic)

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New infomail message received.

20.6.423 AFE, 12:04

From:

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

To:

Grigoriy Valetov, Imperial Science Facility 9, Bioscience Division, Underground Complex, Samples and Specimen Requisition Office.

Topic:

Re: New specimen required.

“Dr. Valetov, for how long will I be forced to repeat this? I said it quite obvious - I need a Lati dragon egg for my genetic engineering project. I know you have a healthy supply of cryo-frozen Dragon-type eggs in your underground cryo-storage, so, can’t you donate at least one to me? I won’t touch the amoral side of your breeding and eugenics experiments - after all, it’s all for science and greater good - but you are disrupting the scientific process here. Or, maybe, I shall write report about this to Dr. Pobegov?”

Open private chat?

To whom?

Private chat opened to: Victor Osipovich, Imperial Science Facility 9, Bioscience Division, Underground Complex, Cryogenic Specimen and Sample Storage.

You: Vitya, it’s a complete screwup. This damn cleansuit, just like before, expects us to handle him a Lati dragon egg, preferably, laid just before freezing.

Victor: So what? Can’t you just tell him to go unzip himself somewhere in the corner, like the previous time?

You: Heck no! Do you remember, that he was favorite student of this trepanatic old fart?

Victor: I do, and so what?

You: He gave me a threat to report us to Facility’s boss. Knowing, that this whitehead will listen to his favorite, and that we already have some unpleasant moments in our biographies... in short, we are very likely to blast off from this facility at the speed of light, much faster than a meteorological rocket.

Victor: What a douchebag! So, what do we do?

You: I guess, we need to give him the egg, if we want to stay here. Dunno about you, but I do want - full social and medical care, good salary and like this is not something I’d like to lose.

Victor: So am I. By the way, had he specified, what Lati dragon egg does he need?

You: No.

Victor: Well, I’ll give him Latias egg then. You know, just how problematic Lati females may get with their pranks, cloaking and like this.

You: Yep. Great idea, by the way. Over.

Chatlink terminated.

                                                                                                                              Compulink system active.

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Accessing “GY-PLFU-LOG-1″ datafile...

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Goncharenko Yevgeniy, personal bioresearch log.

First stage.

22.6.423 AFE, 14:54

Finally, those two redtapers delivered the egg to me - after just two months of constant requests! It’s still cryo-frozen, but ready to get de-freezed at any moment. According to the attached datatape, this egg was frozen right after laying, so, it’s a perfect material for my little experiment. Good thing I’ve tested my virus long ago, on some basic samples...

[Attached file: LDM-4-1 artificial virus DNA sequence datafile]

26.6.423 AFE, 17:32

Today, at 10:54, I’ve de-freezed the egg and injected the first portion of virus. Right now, it’s undergoing incubation with constant progress monitoring. So far, so good. I hope not to lose this one.

[Attached file: monitoring log from automated incubation chamber]

26.7.423 AFE, 18:32

It’s been a whole month, but development of embryo... actually, seems pretty good. According to the datanote from the Lab 7, normal incubation period for Lati dragons - specificially, females - is almost a year! Of course, it’ll allow me to monitor results better and make corrections in event of something going wrong, but still... Anyway, my free time ends in two days, then back to microbiological experiments. I hope I’ll be able to convince Director to cut it somewhat to allow me to work on my personal project.

[Attached files: monitoring log from automated incubation chamber, general schedule for checks and injections of supporting biological agents, LDM-4-2 artificial virus DNA sequence datafile]

30.01.424 AFE, 23:37

Whoa, more than half’o’year has passed! Speaking of which... Two months after the initial portion of virus, embryo was nearly destabilized by something similar to the immune reaction (how it’s possible in egg is a matter of entirely different research, which I’ve successfully passed to the Lab 4), but, thankfully, some immunosupressants and modified virus had done the trick. If my calculations are correct, it won’t impact actual immune system, which’ll “go online” after the hatching, but, in case of an emergency, I have antibiotics, compatible with Dragon-type and Psychic-type organisms. Also, vaccines.

[Attached files: personal observation and log datafile, monitoring log from automated incubation chamber, general schedule for checks and injections of supporting biological agents, LDM-4-3 artificial virus DNA sequence datafile]

25.6.424 AFE, 15:52

According to the automated incubation chamber monitoring system, tomorrow the egg will finally hatch - exactly after year of development! Maybe, I should’ve updated this personal log with entries more often... but anyway, I had not, and all my observations and relevant data are stored in attached datafiles. I wonder, how will it turn out? Of course, I’ve tried to enhance Latias’ mental capabilities and lifespan (according to my calculations, it’ll become thrice as long - roughly 3000 years or slightly more!), but I’m still not sure, will it work as intended or not... Anyway, I think need to bring my reinforced cleanroom suit to bear tomorrow.

[Attached files: personal observation and log datafile, monitoring log from automated incubation chamber, general schedule for checks and injections of supporting biological agents]

                                                                                                                              The emerald eye sprung open, trying to look around, but met only darkness. Her body felt numb, there was too little place, she couldn’t breath, so, she focused all of her inner power and released it at once.

The eggshell shattered, flying everywhere and revealing a small gold-feathered Latias to the world - rigid wings swept at low-speed position, stabilizer fins set straight.

Mere seconds after that, a pretty big figure, covered in blue-ish material (except for face, which was hidden beyond the bent sheet of something transparent), carefully rose from beyond one of the things she couldn’t even begin to recognize and started to approach her.

While she could not read feels of other the same way adult Lati dragons could, she still sensed no ill intentions in him and felt some distant... but definitely parental feeling, so, she flew right to him and clenched to the material, which was covering his real body.

ISF 9 Chronicles, part 4.

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Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

04.07.419 AFE

Arcanists finished replacing focusing lenses in irradiation chamber. The material for them has to be imported from Kalos mining site, then purified by using some equipment, unknown to me, and many, many kilowatts of electricity and only then they can start forming the lenses themselves. Also, after the initial forming, they have to be autoclaved and microwaved, as well as sterilized by gamma radiation, before further procedures can be commenced, then this cycle has to be repeated again. No wonder they’re so expensive!

08.07.419 AFE

Vitya brought something from his friend in Bioscience Division. Says, that it’s some kind of a “really dank kush” and we shall “blaze it”. Whatever, I guess. My intuition does not say anything bad about it.

08.07.419 AFE

Shiiit... This weed was really dank as flak. We easily glomped two bags of small pies. I think I’m starting to...

08.07.419 AFE

Dude, I can FEEL data. This is such a wonderful feeling... I mean, my brain is a bioneural computer or whatever, the things I maintain are also computers, only non-bioneural. I think I need to share my ideas with IDE.

09.07.419 AFE

I don’t even know what to think anymore. Yesterday, I’ve got really high and wrote a program under the effects of weed. The program itself is fine and good, but the structure and language... How I’ve managed to do it on several esoteric languages... WHAT WILL I TELL TO SUPERIORS?!

EDIT: Thankfully, my high self was high and kind enough to make version on the UPL3 with commentaries. It’s just as optimised as other versions and even has all the commentaries, though I’m yet to fully decipher them, because of them being written under the effects of the weed.

12.07.419 AFE

Arcanists and bioscientists had finally discovered the reason behind the Mega Stone’s explosion. Yes, my suspicions were right - it was tied to the Flygons’ adaptability. Apparently, this metamorphosis-inducing trait conflicts with usual Mega Evolution metamorphic signature or something like this, their speech was complicated. What’s more important is that it’s too similar to the Mega Evo and, when the Proto Stone gets irradiated with Flygon’s tissue serving as life energy modulator, it starts to morph into five kinds of different Mega Stones at the same time, crystallic structure becomes unstable, tensions rise, then boom - every last bit of energy gets released as Stone becomes high-velocity dust.

18.07.419 AFE

Arcanists monitored our region today. They say, that there are some pretty strange readings in the Grey Mountains. No shit. There’s like, a whole science town up there, dedicated to the research of this phenomena! Still, if the readings are strange for them, compared to the previous ones... I don’t like it, not at all.

25.07.419 AFE

Saw arrival of the “Overlord of Skies”-class airship in person. It’s so magnificent. Interestingly enough, some Flygons not just flew along with it, but, like, escorted it, trying to provide additional data as much as they could and helping to correct course. Of course, with autopilot, developed here in the Robotics Sub-Division, it wasn’t necessary, but still, I (and pilot, for what it seems) appreciate it. Looks like those dragon-bugs are smarter than they seem to be...

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ISF 9 Chronicles, part 3

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Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

13.06.419 AFE

Was working in the Bioscience Sector, Underground Complex, Cryogenic Specimen and Sample Storage (quite a name, BTW). Heard by the edge of my ear, that today, they’ve got several cryo-preserved eggs of Lati dragons, which, if I’ve heard correctly, were frozen right after laying. Considering, how elusive and protective of their offspring Lati are, I don’t even want to think of the exact methods of getting a hold of those eggs.

EDIT: Apparently, that involved tranq dart carbine, shotgun, loaded with Yadper Berry extract, Nega-Dark Stones and some other things. Considering, just what kind of an infernal substance Yadper Berry extract is (to compare this stuff to standard tear spray is like comparing a kiloton-grade nuclear device to a papirosa lighter), and how Nega-Dark Stone is capable of completely suppressing any psychic abilities in a small radius, this may not involve death of a parent Latis. Well, that’s a relief. Still, the Yadper extract is something, that may sometimes make you wish for death, especially if it gets into eyes, nose or mouth. Heck, this things burns even on the skin, and if it gets into open wound - say hello to many years of PAIN! I wonder, if Houndoom’s fire works through the same means...

EDIT2: Yes, it does. Thank the Director for making this internal info access network! Also, finally got an answer, why they don’t always suffer from it - apparently, their “chemtox injection” (basically, adding the pain chemicals into fuel for their fire attacks) is optional, since the Houndoom’s chemtox substance takes longer to synthesize, than fuel. Also, it allows them to fight for dominance in pack without crippling opponents for a long time and, basically, rendering them useless for the future hunts. Pretty interesting.

15.06.419 AFE

Was in Physics Sector. Found them designing something, called “ion driver cannon”. They say those guns are for hunting. Huge, liquid nitrogen-cooled particle accelerator guns, which require pretty much small nuclear reactor to just be powered. Yeah, totally for hunting. A hunter with a gun, followed by a truck with a reactor and cooling system. Do they plan to hunt adult Lugias or something with it? If so, Bioscience from all Facilities will rip their throats out.

20.06.419 AFE

Worked in Surface Complex, helping installing automatic cargo monorail control systems and debugging it for past 4 days. Tried to overcome my fear and get close to Flygons. Actually, they are rather adorable... as soon, as you get used to it. Thankfully, they are more Dragons, than Bugs, and their temper is good. Also, apparently, they can adapt to almost any kind of weather conditions (their secondary typing changes from Bug to Fire/Water/Ice/Ground, depending on what they need at the current moment), and Bioscience speaks of enhanching it, allowing them to adapt to pretty much anything (poisonous surroundings, high levels of radiation, biological contaminations and so on). Looks like they’ve heard, that our colonists in Alola call those dragons “Spirit of Change”, and decided “We can make it even better”! Are they trying to create world’s most adaptable Pokemon? I’m not sure, will they succeed in this or not, and what to expect from it...

24.06.419 AFE

It gets weirder and weirder. While, usually, most Mega Stone (the anomalous material, which can induce drastic temporary metamorphosis in specific Pokemon) creation attempts end in failures, the attempt to create Flygonite ended up in disaster. The damn boulder EXPLODED INTO DUST after getting irradiated with enough arcane energy to raise army of undead, heavily damaging the expensive-as-flak focusing lenses in process (thankfully, emitters had survived). Why do I know this? I was a part of team, who investigated the control automatics of this irradiation chamber - just in case, if they were the reason for it. They weren’t. I wonder, if the adaptational abilities of the Flygons have something to do with it...

27.06.419 AFE

Yesterday, I’ve tried the moonshine from the “United Divisions’ Apparatus”. Interestingly enough, today, there’s no hangover. Looks like I shall thank arcanists, chemicists and bioscientists for it. Especially the last ones - whatever drug they’ve given me, it worked like charm. The only bad thing is that I can barely remember, what was happening at this party. Looks like those experimental mixes were too much.

EDIT: Apparently, I was hanging out with Director and tear-jerkingly telling him, how hard our work is. Instead of firing us, he raised our salaries by 5%. Well, better not to upset him!

30.06.419 AFE

I never thought I’d see something like this. Basically, in Surface Complex, Bioscience Division, one Machamp has escaped and started wrecking shit. When he got to the Crematory, he was met by MTU-2 multipurpose quadruped robotic unit. I kid you not, this robot (square-like quadrupedal platform with turret, on which two manipulators and counterweight to them are installed. They are also resilient and durable as flak, capable of operating in the middle of corrosive agent spill or inside the working nuclear reactor) slowly approached this four-armed shit, then, somehow, managed to clench the lower arms with manipulators, quickly twisting and breaking them, while non-chalantly ignoring Pokemon’s Dynamic Punches (what the flak the robot’s covering is made of?), then it just... started to squeeze Pokemon’s body with enough force to nearly cut it apart, then it, when the Machamp tried to grip and break the manipulators, shifted the counterweight and started to spin the turret and walk, eventually driving Machamp into wall at high speed. When the Pokemon finally fainted, MTU-2 just carried the unconcious (and horribly damaged) body into the open high-temperature cremation chamber, then closed and activated it. I’m not sure, whether this Machamp was normal, or this robot was modified, but I’m sure this picture will give me many nightmares from now on...

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ISF9 Chronicles, part 2

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Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

16.05.419 AFE

The Physics Division is amazing. Today, I saw result of their cooperation with Production and Arcane Science Divisions. Basically, they’ve wanted to create the most powerful laser unit in the world... and they’ve succeeded. That wouldn’t be much of a problem, since they’ve also created absorber shield for it, but someone has forgotten to link it to the control system and, because of improper carrying, jammed the mechanism. Once the laser was activated, the shield was supposed to be lowered... but it didn’t. Laser coudn’t be disengaged until the firing procedure is complete, or else it would’ve been damaged beyond repair and/or blown up. In short, there is now a pretty big hole in the 2.5 meter-thick wall, as well as wall behind it, along with some of the molten concrete mass damaging the non-organic matter reprocessors (which are used for recycling junk). Needless to say, the Managers of those Divisions, as well as the Director of the Facility, are not pleased. Although, I need to say, this laser unit was really powerful.

20.05.419 AFE

Found out what the Lab 12 from Chemistry Division was up to. Apparently, this was a great project, one to unite all Divisions... and it was a moonshine apparatus. Still, all of the Divisions participated in creating it: Chemistry Division calculated the most optimal way to produce and refine the liquid, Bioscience Division grows the best components and produces basic mash, Production Division, along with Physics Division, build the apparatus itself and Arcane Science Division adds some unique filters to drive out remains of methanol, acetone, aldehydes and such. 

23.05.419 AFE

Today, the advanced Earth monitoring satellite “ReconSat 3″ was launched from our facility. Why is it important enough for me to write about it in my log? Because I also worked on this satellite, tweaking the reaction wheel control system. I’m proud of participating in the Imperial Space Program, even if such a way. What this sat will do? It’ll allow us to monitor arcane energy readings in most parts of the world (the satellite network for total monitoring is yet to be completed). It’s also powered by the small nuclear fission reactor, which is considered a masterpiece of both Physics and Production Divisions.

30.05.419 AFE

The satellite has got first pictures of Unova region. The unique strain of arcane energy, dubbed “Dragon Force” by arcanists because of possible link to the Unova’s Great Dragon (Bioscience is yet to give it official name), is a pretty interesting phenomenon, especially because there are three easily distinguishable “patterns” in the singular “flow”. There is also some weather-influencing field, but the “flows” here are separate.

12.06.419 AFE

The first month of my work in the Facility has ended. To be honest, I’ve never expected it to be like this. I thought it would be great, everyone working for the better future the best they can... Instead, from what I’ve seen, there’s chaos, where the research plans are merely guidelines, everyone does whatever he/she wants, people band together into interest groups, equipment gets misused major time, the Divisions are cooperating and competing with eachother at the same time... And, somehow, IT WORKS. From what I see, the way superiors treat Facility is “dump them funding, equipment and general plans - they’ll make it”, while the Director and Divisional Managers overwatch the personnel to ensure they won’t go too overhead. And they succeed in doing what the outside world wants from them. You know what? Screw this, I’m going in! If you can’t stop it - side with it!

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ISF 9 Chronicles, part 1

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Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

12.04.419 AFE

Hm... This is my first personal log entry, and I don’t even know, what to write... Okay, I’ll... Ah!

Anyway, today, I was finally transferred into the Imperial Science Facility 9, as a member of a Operative Computer System Service Team. In short, sysadmin, maintenance man and programmer. At least planned salary makes it worth it.

13.04.419 AFE

Got to meet my new team. Still not sure what to think about them. On one hand, they’re pretty professional guys. On other... I’m not sure I’ll be ever able to become a part of that chaos.

14.04.419 AFE

Studying new equipment. It’s really awesome. Like, my new laptop has a huge flat multi-color screen instead of old small monochrome one one and has several orders more of power and memory! The only downside is that I have to learn a new version of an Universal Programming Language to stop being a mere “anykey-er”. Well, it could’ve been much worse. Also, transferred my log onto it.

16.04.419 AFE

The IDE is pretty cool. Graphic user interface, a lot of tools, automated version control, error detection system... Whoever has created it was a genius.

20.04.419 AFE

Today I saw a six-limbed walker MTU-2 robot fixing a some kind of a hazardous material leak in the Production Division sector, sumberged at least half-meter deep in the dangerous liquid. I swear, one of the arcanists (someone, named Izya), said something about how his team can create something much better and smarter with the help of arcane science. Whatever, I guess.

01.05.419 AFE

The first real work week is over. Worked with control systems of the nuclear reactor №3, which is still undergoing construction. Worked in the Surface Complex, helping bioscientists with automated climate-control systems for their above-ground labs. How can they stand so much Pokemon near them? Brr... Still, those “goggled” Alolan Dragon-Bugs (if I recall correctly, they are called “Flygons”) are cute... as cute as a 2 meter-long Pokemon can get. Ew.

04.05.419 AFE

Was working in the Physics Division sector today, fixing their local. Found guys using industrial microwave emitters, normally used for material processing, for heating up their lunches, as well as using autoclaves for pressure cooking. They also, apparently, use high-power vacuum chamber for drying their laundry. Weird. I’m scared to see, what the Production Division sector will hold...

05.05.419 AFE

My fears weren’t totally unjustified. In the Production Division sector, I’ve witnessed brawling MTU-2 robots (and those are 2-3 tons heavy!), using laser cutters to secretly engrave obscene words and phallus’ images into prototype devices, as well as, again, putting autoclaves, microwave emitters and some other devices to mundane use.

08.05.419 AFE

Worked in the Chemistry Division sector. I’m sure guys from the Lab 12 are up to something, since some of them often mention “distillation” and something, which is to be soon delivered to them from the Bioscience. How did I hear all that? Sometimes it’s great to be a simple maintenance man, who is just checking their computing equipment.

...

Compulink connection failure.

Restart?

Restart sequence initiated.

Connection re-established.

Continue from the last point?

Re-entry (mini-fic)

Six months.

For six months already crew of the “Space Lab Two” was working on pure inertia.

Because Soris Empire fell.

Their families, friends, relatives, co-workers - they were no more.

Killed by the rampant Pokemon, irradiated to death, evaporated in the giant thermonuclear blasts - it did not matter.

The only thing that mattered now was the supplies.

And they were running low.

- Captain, we’ve already overshot our goal by two months, - said the physicist, floating from one wall of the command module to another. - As for now, we have one week at most, then air reprocessors won’t hold anymore and will most likely fail - I told we needed to replace them three launches ago. Does anyone there want to suffocate to death?

- To be honest... - started the biologist.

- To flak with this pessimism, - harshly said the captain. - There are still people down there, so we may as well as try to get down and try to survive alongside them. Our death up there will be no use to anyone!

- Well, you’re top officer here, so, as you wish, - responded the pilot. - However, there are no infrastructure left to meet us, so, we have to de-orbit our return vehicle in such a way, so we’ll land somewhere near the survivors.

- Do you think it’s such a big problem? - asked physicist. - Even if we, for some reason, won’t use our own surveillance telescopes, we still can communicate with the recon satellite network and get all data we want from them, so, finding the good landing place shouldn’t be that hard. Re-entering the atmosphere and landing, however...

- I can work on that, - said the pilot. - Of course, autopilot shall do most of the job, but, in the event of something, we need to be sure we’ll actually land our and not commence unplanned lithobreaking. Even if our return vehicle is, basically, renamed... 

- Work on it tomorrow. Right now, everyone goes into gravity wheels and takes a nice, long sleep. We need to calculate how to bring twenty-five humans back to Earth safely. We need to get everything ready for it. We will not be able to properly do it in such an exhausted state, so, put these caffeine drinks away and go snore a bit.

-... So, deorbiting at this points shall be fine, - murmured the captain, plotting the course for the return vehicle. - The secondary data pod shall be ejected at this point and then station will commence transfer to the junkyard orbit. Vasilyev - had you located the survivors enclaves?

- Yes, I’ve had, you can see them here, - responded the crewmember, marking several points at main display. - As you can see, we can correct our landing course in the atmosphere itself, so, detaching the return vehicle from the station here shall be fine enough. Also, all of the “Overlord of Skies”-class airships have been destroyed, the most recent one - “Researcher-2″ - crashing in Kalos, and, considering the radiation scans, because of some sort of a reactor failure. It’s good thing satellite network is still kicking.

- Not so good, - said communications operator. - We can’t manually order heavy recon and repeater satellites to fire the engines and transfer themselves to graveyard orbits.

- Do you think...

- Yes. If something goes wrong, satellites will de-orbit and disintegrate upon re-entering atmosphere. And, as you remember, they are powered by the nuclear fission reactors...

- Just like the our station now, since the parabolic mirror was destroyed. Well, shouldn’t they fire engines if automatics onboard detect something going wrong with reactor, such as meltdown or running low on fuel?

- They should, and they also should auto-correct orbit, but, if system goes offline or, what’s even worse, nuts, we’ll have radioactive nuclear fuel sprayed across the world.

- But ISF9 automatics rarely, if ever, fail, - taped the captain, trying to prevent panic. - Besides, it’s not like we can do something about it, so let’s just hope for the best. What about our return vehicle?

- Good, comrade captain. After some tweaking, according to the pre-written instruction for that exact kind of situation - apparently, our guys in FCC were quite paranoid - we’ve modified interior of the lenticular return vehicle to be able to safely house all twenty-five peoples for entirety of return and landing procedures. A bit cramped, but better that, than nothing. What we’ll do with normal 3-seated return pods, though?

- They’ll stay here. After all, there’s no infrastructure left for retrieval operations. the LRV can guide where it lands pretty good, these can’t.

- Goodbye, “Space Lab Two”. We will greatly miss you, - said the pilot, looking in the return vehicle’s main window. The space station, jewel in crown of the Empire’s space program, was left by it’s crew forever and was programmed to eject an emergency data pod at the marker of the landed return vehicle, so knowledge will be preserved. - Proceeding as normal, four hours until touchdown.

- Acknowledged - replied physicist, still thinking about the fate of the space station. - Station will fire engines and transfer to the graveyard orbit in ten orbital periods, secondary data pod ejection will be commenced in three periods.

- Good, - said captain. - Let’s hope this snake-dragon-missile-thing - the green one...

- It’s called “Rayquaza”, comrade captain, - taped the biologist.

- Whatever. So, let’s hope it does not commence orbital interception of our lenticular return vehicle.

- And it applies to our station and satellites too, - grunted comm operator, looking at the map with locations of recon and repeater satellites. - I’m sure no one will like reactor’s active zone dispersed all across the region...

The streamlined lenticular return vehicle fired the small frontal engines and slowly sailed away from the huge station, which has already stopped rotation of the giant centrifugal gravity wheels. then turned and fired main thrusters, decelerating and starting the atmospheric re-entry sequence, while the Space Lab Two continued to silently perish, deactivating life support systems, which were not needed anymore, one after another, and preparing to shut down the reactor as soon as it gets to the graveyard orbit.

- Mom, you’ve told me, that seven years ago, our village’s elder died upon gazing at the shooting star and said some strange words. What did he say?

- Something like “recon”, “re-entry”, “disintegrating” and “all across the...”, upon saying which he died.

- What did it mean?

- Who knows, dear, who knows. After all, he came from the time, when humans made great things, discovered the basis of life itself, cracked the uncrackable and even flew beyond the skies...

Present (mini-fic)

- How much more? - asked military engineer his comrade, continuing to walk upstairs.

- Ten more stories and that’ll be it, - responded the grenadier. - By the way, do you know, what the flak this crystalline shit is? It’s nearly swallowed the city! Good thing we still have this skyscraper far enough from the target to install lased designator on and be sure it wont go down after the strike, bad - our Flygons are no more...

- About those crystals - brainheads said something about psychics, living sigils and such, but the only thing concerning me is how we will deal with this. As if these flakkers rampages weren’t enough... Now we also have to deal with some Johto weirdass crap. Wait, did you hear that?

- “Stop right away!”, in some ghostly voice? I did, - said the grenadier, readying his revolver grenade launcher. - Whatever it is, we still have our mission. Is laser designator ready?

- Ready, ready. I still wonder, how Givi has managed to modify old laser rangefinder into a designator for missiles?

- The same way, as you’ve called them, “brainheads” modified weather rockets into some kind of a ballistic missiles. By the way, WTF is loaded into their warheads?

- Some arcane... nuke... whatever it is, it’s flakkin’ complicated. I do remember they use both nuclear fission and something arcane. Six missiles shall be enough to carry a decent payload.

- Agreed. Did you see that? - whispered soldier, quickly turning and shooting dangerous Pokemon with buckshot charge.

- Flakkin’ illusion, - barked engineer, seeing, how the figure dissipated after being hit. - Let’s hurry up, these crystalline shits are psychic and growing out of control!

- Flak, I’m running low on buckshots, - said grenadier, placing the grenade launcher on his back and taking the SMG into his hands. - And I don’t wanna get ourselves killed with shockwaves or waste corrosive munition on phantoms!

- Do your best, ‘cause these flakkers can actually attack now, - responded engineer, wiping blood from his eybrow. Mere seconds ago, a huge phantom attacked him and nearly slashed his neck open with pseudo-material claw. Thankfully, several bullets or a single buckshot grenade launcher charge were able to make them dissipate, but sheer ease, with which these phantoms were appearing, put survival of two soldiers and mission success under question.

-There we are, - happily said grenadier, reloading his primary weapon. - Zheka - put this flakkin’ designator down and lase the target.

- Here it goes, - whispered engineer, deploying the device and flipping the switch on it. - Givi, Ashot, Alexei - target’s being lased, how’s secondary radio guidance signal?

- Crystal clear! Five more minutes - and it’ll be very hot at the impact point! Evacuate and get ready to watch the fireworks!

- Evacuation impossible, foe possesses psychic abilities, can destroy designator. Requesting permission to hold on and protect designator until missiles fly.

-... Permission granted. Guys, try to make out of it alive.

- We’ll try our best, but no guaranties, except for providing guidance. Foe has some great psychic powers.

- Just how much more of them? - roared the grenadier, firing another HE grenade at the group of phantom Pokemon. - Zheka - hang in there, I’ll try to hold’em in the corridor!

- OK, Sasha! So, flakkers, do you think humans’ll go down easily?! SUCK ON MY HOLLOWPOINT BULLETS!!! - screamed engineer, letting his assault rifle loose on the phantoms. While he succeeded in destroying most of them, one has still managed to get in close and nearly cut him in two. While his attempt has mostly failed, Yevgeniy still got a huge deep slash across his chest, in addition to all of the previous wounds. - Shit...

Engineer, having no more power to stand upright, collapsed, but dragged himself near the laser designator and braced for firing his rifle from this position.

- Sanya, Zheka, here it goes! Get ready to receive the present! - suddenly sounded happy Givi’s voice from the radio.

- Flakkin’ finally! - whispered the bleeding soldier, looking at the window and seeing, how six yellow dots appeared near the horizon and started to speed to the designated point. Mere minute after, these dots revealed themselves to be ballistic missiles, three of which were going to target significantly faster, than the rest. Engineer saw, how these missiles exploded just before phantom Pokemon and crystalline storm would be able to intercept them and released a titanic amount of arcane Dark-type energy, causing phantoms to vanish and crystalline matter to darken and fall into dust.

- Here goes the second wave - cackled the grenadier, watching, how remaining three missiles flew to the lased point and exploded in the storm of atomic fire, hotter than hundreds of Magcargos and brighter than thousands of suns.

- Good thing we have those helmets and goggles. - said Yevgeniy, seeing his comrade ducking alongside him under the window to avoid getting burned by the intense light. - Just how much kaboom they’ve managed to put in them?

- From what it looks like, 50 kilotons or so per missile. By the way, Zhek, what do you think will kill us first - wounds or radiaton sickness?

- Well, judging from how close we were to explosions, how the building has somehow managed to hold solidly and protect us from overpressure wave and how my rad-meter is fried, my bet’s on the radiation sickness. Also, how we didn’t die from so much radiation instanly?

- Who knows. I don’t think we will be able to get to the brainheads in time to ask them, and our radio is fried as well. OK, now the target’s being... - grenadier peered at the window, seeing nothing more than boiling magma-like mass and no traces of crystals, phantoms or any Pokemon for that matter, - completely annihilated and us being in less than two days from death, how about a last game of preferans? I’ve got some cards in my pocket!

- OK, hand’em over! - laughed engineer, taking cards in his hands.

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Ancient Soris Empire, part 4.

The Imperial Capital City’s name was Pervorechensk. Set on the Surava river, this city was pretty much shining jewel in the Imperial crown.

In the days of Empire’s glory, Pervorechensk was the most advanced city not just in the Soris region, but in the entire world. Powered by the local solar, wind turbine, hydroelectric and nuclear powerplants, surrounded by the S-Alloy Wall (yes, it was really called so), having self-sustainance ability, this city was pretty much small empire inside of the Soris Empire.

This city was well-known across the Empire not only as a capital, but also as a main construction and repair site of the heavy airships. Most of the “Overlord of Skies”-class nuclear-powered rigid-hull hydrogen dirigibles, including even the Emperor’s personal one, were built here. In fact, it was the first city in which nuclear energy was harnessed for the first time in human history too!

The Pervorechensk was also the first (and, for more than 2500 years, only) city, in which arcane science devices were put to wide use. Of course, it was planned to expand the arcane machinery usage to entire Empire, but, unfortunately, it fell before it was possible.

The most used arcane science systems were arcane computers, created by the Izya’s and Budulai’s cooperation and manufactured in the Imperial Science Facility 9 experimental factory. There were also some non-sentient arcane robots, which were intended to replace old non-arcane ones.

Thanks to nuclear powerplants and arcane machinery, Pervorechensk wasn’t defenceless, when it comes to agressive defence. Instead of creating the flying fortress, like the Nikola did (levitators were just being developed, when the Imperial Science Facility 9 had undergone the emergency conservation and, shortly after, Empire fell), Soris engineers put several turreted heavy rapid-fire arcane energy cannons with anti-air capacity on the Wall. During the Legendaries rampage, these cannons had proven themselves quite useful, because they’ve allowed Pervorechensk to endure three major attacks, before they’ve got destroyed.

The Emperor’s Palace was... strange. Because of how Soris Empire was developing over time and because of the royalties tastes in architecture, the Palace was looking like some weird hybrid between the, well, palace (similar to the real Winter Palace), atompunk skyscraper (like the Half-Life 2 Beta Citadel, “clamp” version) and an airport along with airship dock. It even featured several rapid-firing arcane energy cannons, similar to those on the Wall, on it’s own, and had a powerful nuclear fission reactor inside. Yes, this complex was far from the usual palace, but hey, it’s Ancient Soris Empire we’re speaking about!

During the Legendares rampage, the Pervorechensk city was the last to fall. Thanks to arcane energy cannons, repulsor arcane science devices and decent self-defence military, it was a very tough nut to crack. Of course, eventually, both the Palace and the city were ravaged by these Legendaries, but it has proven to be a trap - when the Legendaries were too busy destroying the previously-magnificent city of technological wonders to avenge the time they wasted on trying to destroy the defence, several survived cargo planes, loaded with very powerful nukes, took a kamikaze course and synchro-detonated charges when they were in optimal range. The resulting 55 megaton explosions killed these Legendaries for good while also turning remnants of the city into a pretty much irradiated boiling mass of metal and glass. Even after more than 3000 years, this zone still bears the old scars.

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.

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Ancient Soris Empire, part 3.

The Imperial Science Facility 9 had a very wide range of researches, ranging from biology to chemistry to physics to the arcane science to many others.

The main arcane science research team was under the rule of Dr. Jelena Groisman. This team was, officially, in charge of research and development of the dimensional-controlling arcane science devices, such as tseryobla and portal generator, but, in fact, was making loads of different arcane systems, claiming that they were crucial to their work. Dr. Pobegov knew this, but did nothing about it, because it was way too useful fo the Facility and Empire.

The leading arcane scientist in this team was Izya Maler, who also was the creator of the Chugun and the inventor of the IZh-type arcane science device, which allowed to create some of the more advanced arcane stuff, like the, again, mechanical Pokemon, arcane computing systems (very useful for controlling tseryoblas and portal generators), arcane energy batteries (the most cheap of which were capable of holding up to three megawatts of electrical equivalent in 1000 cm3 battery) and such. The most advanced IZh device was ID-01, which was installed into Chugun and was a pretty much Ancient Soris Empire’s counterpart to a much later Azoth Kingdom’s Soul Heart.

The second leading scientist was Budulai Trens. While having funny accent and somewhat strange manners, this guy was one of the best tseryobla operators and a great computer master, thanks to whom a lot of the facility’s systems became automated, though not without Izya’s help, because Maler was the one who’ve provided best arcane hardware to the Trens. By the way, Trens and Maler were best friends.

Dr. Pobegov was the director of this facility. While he did have a degree in arcane science, he mostly specialized in biology and medicine - specificial, surgery. His favorite, even if joking, threat was to threaten to perform a skull trepanation and subsequent lobotomy.

(IZh comes from “Iskusstvennaya Zhizn” - “Artificial Life”, ID comes from “Iskusstvennaya Dusha” - “Artificial Soul”. Only the latter type of the arcane science device was able to gain true sentience and qualify as a mechanical lifeform.)

Like you would’ve guessed, arcane science devices in the Facility weren’t limited to technical equipment only. One of the biggest achievement of Budulai and Izya’s cooperation was invention of the arcane science-based computers. These machines had enabled facility to store tremendous amounts of data in small volumes, as well as process them at great speeds (facility’s mainframes were roughly comparable to real supercomputers of later 200X - early 201X). These arcane machines were originally created for just this facility, but, as soon as they’ve proved their worth, units of the same type were installed in the ISF8. Much more of them were planned to produce and mount in the big governmental and not only institutions, but, unfortunately, Empire fell before it was done. However, all of the data from the ISF8 was copied into ISF9′s memory storage and still remains in it, awaiting either reawakening and restoration of the facility or its complete destruction.

One of the most well-known arcane devices in this facility, on par with tseryobla, was main arcane energy irradiation chamber. In fact, it was pretty simple: isolated chamber, in one of the walls of which lots of arcane energy emitters, configured to emit life energy, are installed, and two holders - for tissue sample and for template Stone (nullified Thunderstones, most of the time). When this machine is activated, focused stream of life energy passes through the tissue sample and irradiates template Stone, more often than not creating the Mega Stone or a Key Stone (if human tissue was used during the experiment). Yes, Ancient Soris Empire has discovered Mega Evolution even before AZ has constructed his Ultimate Weapon. Besides performing Mega-Evo experiments, this chamber, as well as smaller chambers of same type, was used to create some of the arcane science machine parts, like the arcane computing circuits. 

Also, all tries to create Flygonite for the Alolan Flygons, beloved by Soris people, have totally failed, because all of the template Stones fell apart into the dust after the irradiation procedure. Through the study of results, it was found out, that Flygon's Mega-Evo abilities are completely replaced by the signature adaptational ability, so, in some sense, Flygons are almost always Mega - each of the weather condition-triggered forms is very similar to the Mega-Evolution in the biological sense, though not so radical and, because of this, able to stay for as long as needed with no side effects.

All of the biological research laboratories have Emergency Biological Sterilization Systems, which were created and installed for one purpose - to kill everything in room, when fired, by the means of mixed arcane and electromagnetic radiation pulses, which had enough power to not just kill, but pretty much disintegrate rogue specimen on the cellular level. As a nice bonus, the discharge itself also has an effect, similar to the Chandelure’s flame, which prevents ghosts of killed by it from ever forming and tampering with laboratory’s work. If some ghost is hit with the discharge, it gets completely destroyed.

In addition, all laboratories had supply of different toxic gases and hermetically-sealing vents and doors, so, in the event of emergency, they could’ve been easily turned into a gas chambers for escaped specimen, when firing Emergency Biological Sterilization System was not the best solution, like if lab was low on power (Emergency Biological Sterilization System is quite a power hog, almost on par with irradiation chamber). One of the most used gases were hydrogen cyanide, phosgene (byproducts of the experimental chemical factory, which was housed in the ISF9 too) and, in high-level labs, VX gas (according to the official documents, “experimental neural agent”). However, during the facility’s conservation procedures, entire supply of poisonous gases was destroyed to prevent potential dangerous leakages.

(I’ve based the first system on Emergency Tesla Discharge/Biological Sterilization System from the Black Mesa. The Soris scientists, knowing, what can rogue Pokemon do, especially a psychic one, didn’t want to get killed when specimen breaks out, so, they’ve ordered to shield the labs against Pokemon attacks and install the “sterilizers”. Yes, Mewtwo incident woud’ve been over in matter of seconds, if the New Island Lab had this kind of system. Same comes for the gassing system - they’d prefer death of a specimen over their own.).

Of course, no facility of such level can be without internal advertisment. The most prominent was the series “The future is now, thanks to arcane science!”, created by Dr. Groisman and showing various arcane scientific achievements, ranging from tseryobla to small arcane-based portable computers (which were test models, had proved themselves great in the facility and were scheduled for mass production in following years, though, unfortunately, it did not happen because of Legendaries rampage and fall of the Empire) to Chugun (who was highly praised by both arcane science R&D and repair teams of the facility) to other arcane technology achievements. If Clemont ever had somehow managed to visit this facility in time of its true glory, he could’ve passed out from happiness.

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 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.

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Ancient Soris Empire, part 1.

More than 3000 years ago, in the Soris region, there was a great Soris Empire.

Thanks to lack of Apricorns in Soris and low cooperativeness of local Pokemon, as well as abundance of easily-acessed metals and fossil and fissil fuels, Soris people took a technological way of development. Several centuries later, a Soris Empire springs into existence.

Unlike what you will think, this empire, at it’s peak, was pretty diesel/atompunk heavy and most of the electronics were based on higly-advanced vacuum tube technology, though transistors and arcane science devices started to slip in near the end of the empire. They also had nuclear-powered transport, including icebreakers, submarines and even rigid-hull hydrogen-lifted dirigibles!

The single most beloved Pokemon species in the later Soris Empire was introduced Alolan Flygon line, thanks to their weather-adaptational ability (like this of Castform) and great cooperativeness towards humans. Nowadays, these dragons has somewhat diverged from the original line and became Soris Flygons, which, while retaining abilities of their Alolan ancestors, have also gained minor Aura abilities (which they use to locate their prey and as a darkvision of sort) and are constantly migrating from one part of Soris region to another (however, they do this only in small herds, so each part will have some Flygons coming in, some staying and some coming out), so they will not get stuck in one form, like the Hoenn Flygons did. The most prominent changes of Soris Flygons are longer antennaes, which are crucial in Aura reception and are forked in two roughly in the middle, the lower part of antennae being shorter than a upper one, slightly different shape of wings and, surprisingly, more omnivorous digestive system, because such is life in Soris - hard and complicated.

These cute, but powerful insect-dragons were the reason why, after the fall of Soris Empire and subsequent loss of technology, humans has managed to survive in this region and, eventually, rebuild.

One of the greatest achievements of the Empire were Imperial Science Facilites, which were researching lots of things - physics, genetics, chemistry and so on. The main jewel in this crown was Imperial Science Facility 9 - the single biggest and most powerful of this line, which also had early arcane science as a main direction of the research, although not the only. More than 90% of this base were located deep underground to prevent outbreaks and protect it against attacks, when the ground had only a Bioscience Division’s surface labs (mostly for studying extraregional Pokemon), Astronomical Dome, material sorting and transport complexes, as well as some recreational sub-facilities.

This facility was constructed to be self-sustainable and able to survive for centuries without maintenance, if properly conserved. Because of this, the main energy source of this facility was complex of closed-circuit geothermal reactors, which could provide up to 1200MW of electricity and were cooled by the oceanic water, which was pumped from pretty far away, to reduce chances of detecting the facility itself. The secondary energy sources were several nuclear fission reactors, capable of providing up to 900MW each, although two of them were mostly used to empower some of the science equipment directly.

One of the main energy hogs in this facility, as well as in Imperial Science Facility 8, was early arcane science equipment, especially irradiation chamber (in which first Mega Stones and some artificial Evo Stones ever were created) and tseryobla (teleportation device. Why it was named so? Even creators, when they were alive, could barely remember it, because all memories of the night when it happened were way too obscured by the alcohol fumes). One of the most important devices, which were crucial to functioning of the rest of arcane science equipment, were highly advanced two-way energy converters, which could not only turn Pokemon life energy into electricity (like Devon Inc. and some of the Nikola’s devices did), but turn electricity into life energy as well! Because of these converters and abundance of electrical energy (thanks to geothermal and nuclear reactors), facility had no need to use Pokemon as a “fuel”, so, no “Powered by a Forsaken Child” for you! After the fall of the Empire, data on how to create and maintain these converters, as well as most of the converters themselves, was lost, and the only surviving units and documentation are in the sealed away ISF9, which is pretty much guaranteed to finally fall apart in this century. Chances of this facility, and, because of it, technology getting re-discovered and restored are... slim, at best.

It was also the facility in which first artificial mechanical pokemon ever was created. Constructed by one of the leading arcane scientists and named “Chugun” (”Cast-iron”), this guy (psychological gender of the Chugun is male) quickly became intergral part of the personel, because he was truly great at task he was created to do - repairing and maintaining things. Having powerful and resilient body, which was also very easy to repair and modify, Chugun was always ready for performing different jobs - from helping planting tunneling explosives to saving people from the gassed or burning room to working in the operating reactor pool to hermetizing steam mains to soldering electronics and so on. In fact, he was beloved so much, that when one of the revisors came to this facility and ordered to dismantle Chugun, because he thought of him as too dangerous, Dr. Pobegov, which was in charge of the Imperial Science Facility 9, threatened to perform a skull trepanation and subsequent lobotomy on the revisor if he does not shut up. When this revisor reported this to the Emperor, he got following answer: “Imperial Science Facility 9 reports directly to me. You were sent to it to find a problems and report them, not to express your opinions left and right. In fact, I think Dr. Pobegov was right about what to do with you.”

Chugun was also the first sentient, on whom tseryobla was tested, and he has volunteered for this! Of course, some tests were performed beforehand on non-sentients (lab Ratattas, heh), but most of the time, after the tests, workers had to wash entire test lab out of bloody pulp, which was sprayed everywhere. Thankfuly, during the test with Chugun, when tseryobla malfunctioned (yet again), there was only teleport-throwing in random places, including even the Reverse World (Giratina was quite surprised, when she saw strangely-looking glowing mechanical Pokemon briefly appearing and, before she even had a chance to finish her question, vanishing again), for five hours (but for Chugun, it was like five years, though he knew what he has volunteered for), after which, however, entire tseryobla crew was hospitalized because of excessive arcane energy exposure. Thankfully, amount of data, gathered in this experiment, was more than worth it, because it finally allowed to find a safe settings for tseryobla and ensure safe teleportations. Moreover - the required data was gathered in less than an a hour, and the rest of the time was dedicated to stabilizing Chugun in the ISF9′s tseryobla and safely extracting him from the teleportational “vortex”, because if they’ve simply pulled the plug, he would’ve got scattered across the teleportation places - all of them. As you can see from it, they’ve really held him in high regard.

When the Empire was at it’s last days, the ISF9 had undergone conservation procedures and Chugun was tasked with maintaining it until someone comes. For more than a 3000 years he was fulfilling his duty, but now, fuel for nuclear reactors was burned off ages ago, replacements are almost ceased to be, so he is forced to cannibalize whatever he can from reserve systems to maintain main ones in (barely) working condition, the main steam turbine complex, which provides power to the base, has lots of leakages, which he barely manages to patch... To put it in short, right now, base can survive no more than a fifty years on remaining reserves. Chugun understands it, but still continues to do everything he can, hoping, that one day, someone will excavate buried entrances to the facility and restore it to it’s full glory.

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.

(Funny fact - initially, fic Chugun was created after watching humoristic re-dub of Half-Life 2, called Kayf-Life 2, where Alyx’s Dog robot became, well, Chugun, which was originally created for straightening rails, but, thanks to faulty AI, has escaped from the factory and took refuge in the Budulai’s illegal undeground workshop. Also, Kayf-Life’s Chugun was a champion in throwing trash bins at the distant moving targets, but got disqualified after he has thrown one of the bins at the referee. What’s this all about - after I’ve thought of Chugun, my “train” of ideas has gone like this:

“So, mechanical Pokemon, which looks like it was assembled from the junk, but is pretty powerful and reliable and needs to be called Chugun. How to write it in? Hm, what about Russia-like region? Pretty good idea, actually, but it needs some non-obvious name. Riso? No. Rosi? Definitely no! Soris? That’s great! Hey, but nowadays, no one manufactures Pokemon like this, so, it needs to be ancient! Yes, ancient arcane science Soris mechanical Pokemon. That’s good. But just how ancient? Hm, let’s see... The first traces of arcane science originate back to Ancient Kalos War, AZ had some cool arcane tech... So, more than 3000 years old it is! Also, why not plan it in such a way, that AZ gained some of this tech from one of the crashed airships, which were escaping from the Soris during the Legendaries rampage? I’ll roll with it. And Nikola... Nah, he has developed the arcane technology again without any help from AZ or data from Ancient Soris Empire. Back to Chugun: where would he be created and what for? Let’s think again: he would be great at repairs, he would be first and, unfortunately, only of his kind with some small hope for building new in the modern time... His creator would be one of the arcane scientists from the huge science facility. What this facility would be like? Well, Ancient Soris Empire, as I’ve written in my notes about the underground base beforehand, is already planned to be atompunk, so... Ancient Soris Empire atompunk arcane science-heavy Black Mesa-like facility. That’ll be awesome.”

In short, entire region and ancient empire in it were created just because I thought of backstory of one of the planned characters and origin of the ancient underground complex.)