Posts

@Cerebrate  
Canid Officer: “I think in this case, simple is just what we need.” He says, while observing the craft break in momentum, rising high to the skies above the reservoir, before listing off to the side, turning and banking back toward the airshipyards.
 
“…Something like that, with cables, one could launch a few off a moving airship’s deck as the winds alone would drive the top propeller to get’em behaving like a kite, and best of all, the airship itself needn’t be built solely as a gyrodyne carrier.”
 
 
Voss: “Ehm… I’ve also seen alotta silk getting brought in, lately… and that must explain that there;” The kobold points, as while the autogyro flies, it stalls for a moment above the reservoir, above a boat sitting out there, before someone suddenly leaps out the aircraft’s side, plummeting fast for a brief moment before a crescent-sheet of cloth billows out above him, slowing his descent down to the waters and boat below.
 
The autogyro meanwhile continues its return to the smokestacked airshipyards in the distance, landing unto an opened section of rooftop where a landing pad is exposed, before getting pulled into a hangar as the overhead roof closes back up.
 
Officer: “They call those parachutes… How much silk did you see, Voss?”
 
 
Voss: “Lots. Lots and lots of, just, bales and bales of silk, all naturally made and recently traded in from the Floranim.”
 
 
Officer: “Well… I guess we’ll all be learning to jump out of aircrafts and airships in the coming days.”

@Coriolanus  
“looks a bit archaic compared to Matt’s Twinblade lifters…”

@Cerebrate  
Officer: “Well, it comes down to circumstance.”
 
“The old capital, that was exceptional. The fall of it was before my time, but after seeing that place in person, festering since the collapse, clear as day of what the ‘cult’ has intended for the world… I’ll just say, it makes the Uruk look practically philanthropic for coming to Empyria, which, makes me wonder if they’ve ever used that as a bargaining angle… That also has me worried wondering if ‘transients’ unaligned with any houses may side with the Uruk, just to get away from all the internecine chaos.”
 
“…The tangent of realpolitik aside, with the Uruk, inglorious as it may be, it comes down to a matter of strongly differing principles, but no one’s vouching to firebomb them into oblivion, even if they’re just a bunch of ancient savages, who claim people like chattel… The way I see it, they’re at least possible to hold parlay with, and so purely out of kindness and civility, for their sake, that we’re abiding by those official bans on alchemical weaponry…”
 
“With the Cult, we’re stopping a plague, before it kills everyone and everything.”
 
 
The fishing kobold below: “I hope Matt’ll lift that official ban though, just to purge the cult with no holds barred, cuz if I already never see disgruntled gralloch coming at me again, it’ll be too late.”
 
 
Officer: “Well, if you need catharsis, hearsay has it that the commander’s developed a recent fondness under the table for portable flame projection. Sounds gratuitous when we could just hire drakes, but alchemical, liquid-fueled flames… More thorough, I say. Burns hotter, too… Don’t even have to be in the flame to get burnt by the heat and light. Non-user friendly, dangerous, right up your alley, kobold.”
 
 
Kobold: “…More importantly, I get to shoot flames, like a… like a-” _{^@__@}
 
 
Officer: “Like a dragon, Specialist Voss. Like a dragon, but even better…”
 
 
Feline Sergeant: “Newfangled airships, flamespouting devices… Next thing you know, we’ll redevelop the old autogy—”
 
_{^{[ 🎶 ]}}  
Drowned out suddenly by an intense mechanical roar rattling everyone down to the bone,  
the group witness something large soar past by and extremely closely, driven by rear propeller…
 
Sergeant: “…speak of the devil.”

@Coriolanus  
“except against the cult it absolutely WILL happen again, of course.”

@Cerebrate  
“The devil’s in the details,”
 
Said by a canid officer in a rugged jumpsuit sitting out of place at a nearby ritzy table, their backdrop a vista to the teslatic capital’s natural clean-water reservoir. In contrast to their lethal trade, & their collective nightmare of an experience, the expeditioners’ve taken well to the plush surroundings of their days at rest.
 
“By keeping it under a tight lid, all the newfangled bells & whistles to the soon-to-be-skipper’s ship’ll stay in-house, & off other vessels attempting to emulate… Personally, I think he’s putting together a ‘hunter-killer’ of sorts: along with it’s capabilities, he doesn’t want the vessel’s distinctive signatures becoming familiar knowledge to airship acousticians, uruk or otherwise, at least not before the big debut…”
 
 
“I’ve heard he’s cobbling something out of those atmotic torpedoes he’d been toting,”
 
heard below the balcony they’re both upon, by a kobold kicking his clawfeet off the reservoir’s dockside. In the tiny lizard’s hands are the inner-workings of a fishing-rod’s reel.
 
“Something bigger though, & rebuilt to seek toward the particular hums of uruk airship engines; I think it’s true, considering some of the odd knick-knacks they’re bringing in, like gramophone parts. Those shipments stick out like a sore thumb… Should probably work on concealing the contents of those deliveries in the future, I’ll bring it up when I see him again.”
 
 
“I keep thinking what if he may’ve gotten ahold of more of that ‘virescent ash’, that stuff Koldo used…” Whispered beside by a seated feline sergeant leaning over to the canid officer & survivor. “Paired with a missile-armed airship, who knows what he’ll d-”
 
 
“He later admonished Koldo for that too, you know.” The canid officer cuts in. “No demotion, since both understood they had to use that horrid stuff if we were to escape, but the skipper’s made clear that nothing like that ever happens again without his explicit say-so. Trust me, he’s of sound mind for the command he’s trusted with.”

@NyantaStarhunt  
Pearl: “well, you know what they say.”
 
a large scarecrow hefting a scythe and speaking with Greensprout’s voice.
 
“harvest time.”
 
(the image of a scarecrow coming to life behind you as your comrades just stop answering one at a time.)

@Cerebrate  
,,,,, Midnight is this what I sound like?
 
he holds Pearls Paw and meows out softly oh god it is

@Cerebrate  
“You get anything that needs force- well, just make me a pile for later.” He shakes his head and leaves, finding the situation unfortunate. Could be worse, he supposed.
 
Elsewhere, his force, triple the size of what usually guards these shipments, lies in wait for hostile raiding parties- especially of the Uruk sort.

@EclecticInspiration  
Matt: “happy hunting.”
 
that was just about a dismissal, Matt was a busy man himself, frowning at a new report… it was clear the engineer leader was less than enthused about leading a war economy to survival… with the way the alliance looked he’d probably defer to a cabalite leader once they become more open about their presence.
 
 
@Coriolanus  
Expedition survivor: “ever since we got back no one has seen a single roughscale of the shark, and now he commandeered that ecclesiarch dreadnought… i mean it’s obvious enough that at some point an airship without equal will be leaving this hangar… but why do you guys think all the secrecy?”
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt  
Chaser: “i pride myself on keeping standards high with them.”
 
sure enough they move without a sound.
 
Lynx: “by the time they hear the gentle rustling of the cornfields, they are already bleeding out on them.”

@Cerebrate  
Nyanta: Oh my favorite group of people. Nice. he meows out and looks to chaser

I breathe

 
 
 

[ 🎶 ]
 
 
_{[ scaffold “canopy” above the airshipyard’s massive construction bay below it. ]}
 
In the time since Indra’s return to the city, a deluge of engineers, supplies, & teslatic legionnaires have gathered within the airshipyards–in particular the hangar containing the half-finished ecclesia vessel mothballed after the assassination attempt.
 
While ambient of active industry within is obvious, the commandeered section of the facility’s windows are all shrouded…
 
From nearly every entrance, unusually-uniformed, masked, & armed legionnaires also make their rounds, standing vigilant & denying entry no matter the sanction, nor even official standing in teslatic hierarchy; at the one & only permitted entrance, engineers, guards, & others allowed in are scrutinized carefully, & through undisclosed means have even managed to screen several disguised Cabal, merely evicting them unharmed back out unto the passing street once discovered, however.
 
Along with Cabal interlopers, most other non-citizens, as well as those that can’t be backtracked through documents confirming their identity–as well as recent history of at least five years–are also forbidden entry; whatever is now becoming of that mothballed airship has been brought under heavy measures by Indra to be kept airtight from disclosure…

@Cerebrate  
“Any time. Especially with those bastards.” He’ll spin his decorated hammer in his hands.  
“Now I’m off to deal with the supply route trouble.” He’ll leave.  
A select couple ‘generals’ will be en route with their troops, though depending on the distance, they’ve probably already made it there, & have set up a defensive ambush

@EclecticInspiration  
“excellent, glad to have you on board again… and on a personal note, thank you.”
 
by now the preparations were probably finished too.
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt  
as night falls and sight once more is for the cats only, you meet up with chaser’s other underlings, lynx clawfighters thrived in these surroundings, becoming the shadow of the reaper herself in the night.

@Cerebrate  
Yes of course I am still on abouse those ‘toys’.
 
he leads them forward away from the main encampment so rhey can ready to clear the eay

@Cerebrate  
“Oh, as long as it’s about what I was getting under my previous recruiter, I’d certainly be open to it. I’m in.”

@NyantaStarhunt  
“still on about commander thanatos’ toy factory i see… he went east with his troops, got reassigned to cult curbing duty.”
 
 
@EclecticInspiration  
Matt: “yes, as it is a position for a mercenary commander opened up just earlier. i think you’ll find the rate very agreeable.”

@Cerebrate  
“Now move with a purpose,” he growls to the prince, effectively telling him to hurry up.
 
He’ll turn to Matt, “it sounds like you’ve got a pretty bad list of work needing done…”

@Cerebrate  
Exactly. However this will also help me get guns trained on the railroads and the machines of death.

@EclecticInspiration  
Matt: “i know the amount of spite you uruk have for anyone not willing to trade their morals for coin, leave now, your trading highness. i can make no guarantees how long we can keep a dragon like him.”
 
prince: “tch, you’re lucky we respect technicalities… we will go, but the price for the grain has tripled.”

@Cerebrate  
(It was implied the prince was fired & needed to be neutralized; in this case, by breaking his shoulder. I’d be fine with changing it tho- springing into action immediately is usually kinda weird anyway)

@EclecticInspiration  
(the prince is ahving that much chill after matt officially fired a dragon merc commander for the explicit purpose of having the whole entire guy turned to paste?)
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt  
Chaser: “true enough, if the plantfolk can keep an eye on the road… i’m sure we can arrange to get the needed shrubs planted, that would mean the biggest stretch of farmland in all of empyria is held by our alliance.”

@Cerebrate  
he takes her hand softly and nods yep seems to be the plan. Seems like a win win

@Cerebrate  
In no time at all, the dragon equips his hammer, bringing it down hard on the prince’s right shoulder. “Bas’thn of all people. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” he comments casually as if he didn’t just turn one of the prince’s shoulders into a fine powder.