One More Crisis [Forger, Viz]

[The_Vizir]

The two entered into the dimly-lit amphitheatre of Norad's command centre, the row upon row of quiet desks a lot more empty than the last time Entropy had been in here, but conversely a lot more dusty. The great screens at the forward end of Norad's command provided the primary illumination aside from the running lights that lead down the aisle to the empty space at the centre of the half circle, where Norad stood, leaning over the battle table with it's holographic map of Deep Forest's solar system, looking up at the screens.

The screens above showed a massive satellite map of the forest, taken by a reconnaissance satellite he managed to get up into orbit two years ago - impressive feat, getting geosynchronous orbit with only a teleporter. The screens on the right-hand side showed a number of readouts - seismic readouts from Norad's mining stations in the Boundary Mountains, current geomagnetic readings of the forest, gravitational and magnetic disturbances charts, an overlay of both subspace and hyperspace in and around the forest - showing all dimensional distortions, and anything else the AI might have thought of.

Norad's gaze didn't leave the screen as Klinge announced his presence. "United Earth Space Combat Ship Norad III, Monarch Class Dreadnought, registry number ya don't give a frozen fod in hell, so why the hell bother," the holographic avatar drawled. "As to what has caught my attention, well guy, I can't contact my kids. One of them I expect is in stealth mode, but the other two wouldn't be that foolish. There's just an entire shitload of EM interference between here and that godsdamned forest... here."

The map of the forest above split into two, with differently coloured overlays... the one on the left was mostly a solid green, with a few areas of blue or yellow - spikes in the Edge ... the one on the right was coloured a whole array from red to violet, and all over the forest as well. "Left one is average background EM in the forest. Basic stuff, right? A constant field with only a few spikes and dips 'round where active rifts and stuff are. Right one... is right now. Entire place has gone off the dang rails, and I'd be surprised if folks out there ain't feeling a bit on edge or even sick as their senses try to compensate fer all this madness... and that's just one readin' here..."

The maps recombined into the basic satellite map above, as Norad continued on: "This is the one that's really got me here. Accordin' to my miners - drones, not people - there was noticeable seismic activity originatin' in the mountains here... little rumbles at first, an' I'm not able to determine the origins at the moment, but as they progressed and intensified, well..." a series of red dots appeared on the screen, moving from the mountains, down across the river, and to the heart of the forest. "Those are the epicentres of the minor earthquakes which have been hittin' the forest over the past while here... well, less like earthquakes, more like 'pulses', 'cause I ain't never heard of any earthquake like this. Okay, first there was a constant buld up here, in the mountains, right?" The pulses over a position in the Forest's eastern peaks blink as the holographic avatar continued his explanation: "Constant position - like one would expect from somethin' like a volcano right? And then BOOM! Big explosion there, creatin' a noticeable seismic event, right?"

Norad took a step to stand in front of the table "Now, that'd just lead me to believe that this was just a volcano eruptin' here, like ya first suggested - but hells, this is Deep Forest. Ain't nothing that ever goes as easy as that. So, after that explosion, we suddenly get a race of pulses that head from the epicentre there into the forest. Take a look, each of these events were exactly 13 seconds apart - exactly! Not a variance in there. And they moved at a constant rate from their origin in the mountain into the forest, intensifyin' in magnitude as they went. Now, that ain't natural, at all..." Norad looked over at his two guests "An' then, to top 'er all off, it stops. Just stops dead a few minutes ago. I ain't got the foggiest 'bout what's goin' on here, but I'm thinkin' about overlaying the charts of subspace fluctuations over time with the earthquake to see if there was anythin' psychic involved there, what say-"

The Norad shook. Not the hologram, though he quickly began to look shaken, but the entire two mile long craft shook. It was only slight, light the rattling of a semitrailer passing by a house, but it was enough to rattle the screens of the consoles, and the light coverings. A slight shock, and then it was over. But it scared the hell out of Norad, who spun back toward to screen. "ABOVE AND BELOW!" he shouted. "UPDATE! GIVE ME AN UPDATE!" the hologram looked over his shoulder, breathing heavily, as the screens before him updated their readings "That... that was nuclear warhead-sized explosion."

He didn't know where, he didn't know what, he didn't know how - but that. That was a big boom.

[Luxon Cobrat]

Entropy flew into the room fast enough to bring a breeze with her, stirring up a lot of the dust. Once she reached the central area, she stopped, and proceeded to start sneezing.

After that died down, she rubbed her eyes a bit while she tried to figure out what Norad wanted her to see. She had flown above Deep Forest enough times to recognize the map, but when it split into two with the different colors over them, the confusion returned. She had never seen Deep Forest changing colors that fast, especially not to blue or violet. But this time, she felt like Norad was saying something important, so she focused and tried to concentrate on what she could understand.

From what she could piece together, the tremors were coming from underground, not the pillars of the sky. She worried for a moment that maybe the supports that held the ground up were starting to break, but apparently the source of the tremors was moving. Maybe it was a giant walking out of the mountains?

Then came another tremor. This one, Entropy barely felt, but Norad seemed rather shaken up. Eventually, he mentioned something about a...

"New clear warhead?" she asked.

It must have had something to do with the new clear lunch. Maybe a new clear lunch was when a new clear warhead went around eating a bunch of people. That would make sense, seeing how much it tended to worry everyone.

"So... does that mean there's a new clear warhead coming out of the ground for lunch?" she pressed.

[forgerofsouls]

Unlike Entropy, Klinge for the most part understood what was displayed. But it was even easier to understand with Norad's explanations. Than Klinge found himself wondering how a AI of a spaceship could have children. Must be something special there. Kid holograms? Couldn't be...Klinge just did not see Norad as the type for such a thing. But the matter at hand was far more pressing. "Than calling my homeworld would be pointless, for my messages would never make it with all the interference. So asking help from home is out of the question."

The forest's magic was out of whack was how Norad's explanations for the two spectrums registered with Klinge. Somehow, Klinge felt that Norad did not believe in magic. But, that was to be expected from a technoglogical creation. But that meant somehow, the places magic was being disrupted. Either something was feeding off it, or changing its way of working. Could it be that legend after all?

When Norad showed them the seismic activity report, Klinge couldn't help but wonder more and more about the legend. While he did not hear the whole thing, he heard enough to start worrying. And Norad was right, with the place being the place it is, a volcano forming was just to NORMAL sounding. And thus, with the way Norad explained everything, Klinge realized why him and other sentient creatures that were/are living and have a small connection to magic (whether through use, or just because they are in the are) were feeling/hearing things out of the norm. With the magic being tampered with in such strong ways, they were feeling magic quakes. Basically instead of the earth, the very magic was resonating thus creating oddities that affected creatures that would notice it.

And when the most recent explosion took place, Klinge did not seem to notice it. For he was to lost in thought. "Could it be that the legend is true. The legend about some ancient evil being sealed beneath the mountains? What if it has found a way to free itself? It could cause quakes and such...though I think for such a thing we would need to consult an expert in the...ah...magical realm...to decide if that is possible. But we need to find the source, or at least any disturbances that may be connected to this, and get there and fix it. For this is far from natural."

[The_Vizir]

Norad resisted the urge to ram his face into the table before him as the new satellite image resolved itself on the massive screens before him. Instead, his holographic fists remained clenched on the edges of the holotable in frustration and fear, eyes locked on the screen though he was able to process the images internally without the need for the visual demonstrations. Still, the display was only lagging slightly behind Norad's own internal functions, so Klinge and Entropy got the results mere seconds after the avatar did.

"No Entropy..." Norad sighed, a weary edge to his voice as the image finished resolving itself above. Now evident on the map was a giant crater, the caldera of small volcano having formed from nowhere. The cloud of dust and ash, caught in the split second the satellite's shot was taken, was visible rippling out through the forest, as was the devastation the shock-wave was leaving behind. The trees has been turned grey and brown with ash and soot, and dozens of the forests ancient, towering behemoths had toppled over, carving paths of devastation as they fell. The crater itself was largely obscured by the plume of ash that was reaching up into the sky, but Norad's own sensors were reading a massive release of heat in the area - molten rock. Fantastic. Norad took in a shuddering breath and turned to face Entropy "That is a nuclear warhead."

Norad let loose a massive sigh and leaned heavily against the table. His hand passed over his face briefly as he thought of his kids, but what could he do. As it stood right now, they were beyond his help. If they were smart, they were alive, if any of his advice and training had paid off, they'd be home soon. If not... another shuddering breath. Well, he'd deal with that when it came to it.

The Terran AI's sombre musings were cut off by Klinge's own outer monologue. "Wait... repeat that for me, will ya dragonboy? An... evil burred inside of the mountains?" Norad spun around and through up his hands. "Fantastic. Just fantastic. Ya know, this was just what we needed. Wasn't like we were dealing with the after effects of time rifts cracking appart the forest for the past two years and leavin' lots of people displaced through spacetime, goodness no... nothin' like that. And then we find out, what is it now? Two months after those dang rifts appear to have flattened out, buddy Cthulu down in his mountain home decides now would be a right fine time to stop his dreaming and make his explosive entrance into the middle of the godsdanged forest! When we've lost about the half the population due to those dang rifts and all! For f-" Norad slammed his fist into the table in frustration "This is just... just royal, ya know that? This is just royal."

Norad sighed... "What would Leigh do if she was here? Oh yeah, start lookin' at any of those dang prophecies you have, 'cause you know what they say, right? In Fantasyland, prophecies and legends are a right lot more accurate than any of yer danged histories. But neither of you've got that on ya, do ya?" Norad pushed himself off the table and looked at the overlord and the prince. "Right, Princey. You need an expert in the magical realms, right?" the holographic human pointed at Entropy "Meet Overlady Chaos, one of the most powerful mages of the Forest. Not quite as knowledgeable in the theory parts as the other mage I trust here, but considerin' she can weave a shield that absorbs plasma cannon blasts, I think you'll find her more than handy. Next, you want the source?" Co-ordinates popped up on the screen behind Norad "I done got you your source. Finally, you need to get there fast an fix it?" Beneath the co-ordinates appeared the words ESTIMATED TIME TO TARGET: 7:43 "That's in minutes, by the way. And you want to fix it? Well... hey, I granted yer first three wishes. Good luck on number four. Now..." The profiles of three aircraft appeared behind Norad, one labelled Beluga, another one with the word Spectre written beneath, and the third marked Wraith. Beside each appeared a readout of current status, followed by READYING IN LAUNCH TUBES - Beluga in 17, Spectre in 24, and Wraith in 30.

Norad turned looked at the two flyers and smiled. "Taxi's loading in Launching Bay 17. Y'all gonna keep it waiting?" A series of lights flickered on over Norad's shoulder, again leading into the darkness of his halls. "Well?"

[Luxon Cobrat]

Entropy stared at the image for a while after it formed.

"That's a big hole..." she said, a bit quietly. "I don't think it was any kind of head that did that. Looks to me like a really big explodey went off. I hope it wasn't a mage that did that, because that would take a pretty powerful one..."

Growing quiet again, the succubus trailed off into thought, trying to think what the best way to guard against a spell that strong would be. She could take care of the heat easily enough, but the force involved would be the problem. And on top of that, a mage that could set off that big of a fireball would probably have plenty of other equally dangerous spells. Maybe they didn't need to rush into this mess so fast after all, with the kind of preparations that would be needed in the worst case. But on the other hand, it would be a good idea to find out what exactly they were dealing with right away.

Norad's outburst about ancient evils called her attention back to the world around her. She couldn't find a chance to get a word in at that point, but she did move up to look at the images of the aircraft once they appeared. Eventually, Norad directed them to one of the launching bays. At that, Entropy looked at him nervously.

"This thing says the Beluga's already in Launching Bay 17," she told him. "The taxi isn't going to run into it, is it?"

But, thinking that the hologram seemed to be getting impatient, Entropy started following the lights anyway, hoping for the best.

[forgerofsouls]

Klinge was hoping that Entropy would answer his question, but, alas, she seemed to be elsewhere at the moment. And thus decided to follow Norad to the bay. When Entropy spoke Klinge just smiled. How simple her world must be. Than again, at the same time, what did Norad mean by Overlady Chaos? It was obvious to him about her demonic nature, this is fact. And his angelic blood was reacting a little to that. Was she an important demon at one point? Well, maybe he would have a talk with Entropy later, after everything has been settled.

But, for now, he would ponder the information known till he could ask either Entropy the question again, or another mage. Hopefully one that has a little more points in the logic stat than Entropy to. For if it was indeed the ancient evil. How would they fight something that the people of the past could not defeat, For you only sealed away things you could not defeat. And how many lives were lost just to seal the thing? Klinge could only hope he was wrong.

But, at least it looked like they were getting a quick and easy ride to where they needed to go.

[The_Vizir]

Norad's hand met his head with a groan as Entropy asked her innocuous question. “Just get, why don't ya?” he sighed, but held back his rant as the demoness and her draconic companion left down his dimly lit corridors. His avatar then sent one last nervous glance up at the flickering screens, before tightening its jaw, and flickering out.

And in the corner, the shadows shifted, gaining mass and form. Dark brown eyes reflected the light of the glowing screens, while a mouth curled back into a fanged grin.

“Interesting...”

===

Leading Entropy and Klinge through the maze of Norad's corridors, the running lights ended at a massive door on one of his outer hallways. As the two approached, it opened with a pneumatic hiss, sending dust flying everywhere as air rushed in from the cavernous chamber beyond. Flickering lighting illuminated only the area around the entrance, leaving the majority of the mile-long hanger deck shrouded in darkness, through the chill wind and the metallic echos revealed the true size of the chamber. Numerous vessels were visible is the shadowy light, alongside wheeled ladders, crates, hoses, repair drones, stands, missile racks, and objects whose functions weren't immediately obvious to those used to aircraft hangers.

In the centre of the illuminated area, sitting on a small pad, sat a rather blocky looking vessel, with short wings and odd, domed cockpit. Its rear hatch was open, forming a ramp angled towards the door, while its plasma engines glowed and crackled softly, as if the dull grey vessel was eager for flight. A shimmer of light in the vessel's cockpit, and another of Norad's avatars appeared, cracking its neck and fingers before turning around and staring at the angel and the demon. “Well?” the hologram drawled, his voice raised echoing around the empty hanger, “What're y'all waiting for?”

[Luxon Cobrat]

As Entropy drew near to the Beluga, she remembered being in it before. As she recalled, it was none other than Norad's flying box with all the buttons inside. She started to feel a hint of anticipation. Nei wasn't around this time to trap her on one of the chairs.

But at the same time, she was trying to make sense of everything she had just seen. Unfortunately, most of it remained past her understanding no matter how much thought she applied to it. On a more productive note, however, she did realize that Klinge had asked a question concerning magic which the succubus had glazed over at the time. Too much confusion...

"So, uh... that ancient evil," she started, opening the topic again a bit awkwardly. "If there's one of those running around, I could think of a number of ways it could cause all of this. But we'll have to get closer before I can tell. Don't want to jump to any conclusions."

And finally she entered the Beluga, around which point Norad asked what they were waiting for.

"I wasn't waiting!" Entropy protested. "And I thought you said we were using the taxi, but this really looks more like the Beluga to me. ... Actually, I haven't even seen a taxi around here."

[forgerofsouls]

When Klinge had entered the area, he had started to look at the different vessels there. And when Entropy finally started to answer his question, he couldn't help but wonder even more about everything happening. She was right though, it would be better to wait and see what was up before jumping to conclusions. He took one look at the Beluga and realized that was what they were going to take. Seamed safe enough, and was not in as bad a condition as the rest of the ship was. But it should get them to their destination quickly.

Klinge also ignored Entropy's comment on not seeing a taxi around here. Obviously she had flown in the Beluga before, but she just did not put two and two together that well when it came to such advanced technology it seemed. Shrugging Klinge walked over to the Beluga and entered it and took a seat. He than strapped himself in, after all, safety first! How he would have liked to look at everything and see how Norad's civilization and military built things. Almost looked like the technology was behind Klinge's world's technology. But even so, there was always ways to learn from another space traveling culture.

"You might want to sit down and buckle yourself in." Klinge told Entropy. He than turned his attention to Norad. "What is the estimated travel time? And in case of a fight, does this Beluga have any weapons?"

[The_Vizir]

Norad stared at Entropy for several long moments, before spinning around and muttering aloud to himself, not for the first time, why it was he always found himself surrounded by the daft people. Soldiers here, idiot engineers there, and now this genius of a demon. Everybody had their own crosses to bear, but why, just why, did his have to be yokels who, when one yelled 'duck!' started looking around for stray waterfowl?

The rear hatch of the Belugra rose upwards with a metallic grinding, as Norad prepped the vessel for flight. The clank and hiss of the hatch sealing itself was subsumed by the rumble and groan of the deck underneath the Beluga separating from the hanger floor and rising to the launch tubes. As the Beluga was surrounded by darkness, Norad glanced over his shoulder at Klinge "Ya didn't read the time on that there map? Seven minutes, forty-three seconds, like it said. Nothin' here's changed. I'll try to drop you in as close as possible, but I ain't makin' no promises... that part of the forest is rather dense, and I don't want to loose another Beluga if I can't help it." The rising platform clanked to a stop, and Norad flipped a few switches. The twin plasma jets on the side of the ship revved up, firing streams of crackling blue flame onto the burnt plate.

"As for armaments, we've got twin chainguns on the front of this ship here. Norad shouted over the dull, echoing roar. "Gauss, of course, firin' eighty rounds of depleted uranium spikes a second. Only have about... two minutes of firing time in here, which ain't enough to do nothin' in this forest, but it looks scary, I'll give them that." Another flick of a switch, and the deckplates beneath Entropy and Klinge began to hum and shake as the Beluga's antigravs were activated. The ship rose from the deck, and the whirring of gears indicated that the Beluga's landing treads were being retracted into the hull.

"I do hope you're all sitting down now," Norad told his two passengers. "This next bit here is a right bit of a dozy." The air around the Beluga finished being pumped out, creating a semi-vacuum in the sealed tube. Running lights lit up, illuminating a series of rings along the inside of the tube, which hummed softly, barely audible over the engine's roar, which until now were oriented vertically. As they began rotating to a horizontal position. "Ready for launch in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Induction."

And then, with astounding speed, the magnets of the launch tube threw the Beluga forward. Within moments it had broken the sound barrier, and was breaching mach 3 as the hatch snapped open in front of them, releasing a massive sonic boom only slightly dulled by the rushing of air to fill the vacuum. And they were off, speeding over the wastes, the forest fast approaching on the horizon.

"Don't worry about this one little ship here though, Klinge. I'm bringin' me some backup this time. I don't want another elder evil let loose here in this damned forest. Three is already too much." He spun around "'Course, all I can do it blowed it up real good-like. Up to you and Miss Majik there to actually figure out how to get rid of... whatever that damned thing is out there that can make my nuke look like... an ordinary nuke. Okay, bad example, but ya get the picture."

---

Meanwhile, the shadow of the Beluga was thinking this was a really really bad idea. While it'd always wondered what travelling at hypersonic speeds felt like, it quickly realized that melding into a spaceship was a very very bad idea. Of course, because it was travelling as almost the speed of thought, gathering enough of itself together to pull itself out of the merging was next to impossible. So, instead, all it could do was berate itself for its own stupidity and wonder when its ride was finally going to slow the pit down...

"I'M GONNA BE SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK"

[Luxon Cobrat]

Entropy received only a disbelieving stare in answer to her question. After a few moments, she started to fidget uncomfortably, wondering if she had said something she shouldn't have.

But then some questions from Klinge got Norad's attention, and Entropy slunk back to one of the seats. Deep in thought, replaying her question over again in her head to try to figure out where her mistake had been, she absently messed with the buckle until she got it to snap together.

She stayed quiet as Norad announced the arrival time, and didn't even question how guns made of gauze chain could be at all effective. Maybe she could get Norad to let her mount a ballista on this thing sometime...

Then Norad started counting down to... lunch? Was it another new clear lunch? She had to stop it! Without hesitation, she opened the buckle, sprang out of her seat, and...

*WHAM*

She suddenly found herself flat against the rear hatch. Then she fell off of that and landed in a heap on the floor. At this point, she had no idea which direction was up, but she somehow managed to drag herself back to her feet and stagger back to her seat. She was going to be sore for a while.

[forgerofsouls]

"I must have not been paying attention. Either that or I was just over thinking things. And that is why you should stay seated during flights like this." Klinge said sighing slightly. At least they were on their way. Not knowing what was waiting for them, or why thing were happening. There was indeed a good chance that Klinge was just over thinking.

Indeed, even at this point, neither him or the other two knew any more than those already at the scene. It looks like the mystery would have to wait a little longer for most. But for now Klinge was content with just being able to investigate. He did not want a full scale battle with anyone. But if it came down to combat, he was prepared.

Then Klinge wondered about the lift capacity of the craft. After all, it was flying just fine, it seemed, with his sword on board even. "This craft is better than it looks if it can carry my sword and fly with ease. Most small craft has issues with it." Klinge told Norad.

[The_Vizir]

Norad looked down at Entropy from atop his perch in the cockpit, before sighing and shaking his head slightly. He warned her... nobody could say he didn't warn her. The AI's avatar grumbled and spun around, tinkering with the sensors a bit to see if the readings weren't any clearer now that they were closer, but still nothing. The entire forest was in chaos. And that meant no chance at digging his kids signals out from that muddy water. He punched a keypad in frustration, the surface noting the furious impact of his photons with a series of beeps - though a few taps from Norad deactivated the self destruct. That would not have been good.

Norad grunted softly at Klinge's remark. "We don't build 'em to look pretty, we build 'em to work. This is an orbital drop ship, can ferry a fully armoured and equipped squad of 14 men into battle from orbit... meant to survive direct artillery fire, re-entry, EMP... anything short of an Antimatter or HVP cannon or a nuke. Can every carry speeders or mechs... I have a few mechs back on board, but they're all still broken. No real need to repair 'em here... conventional firearms don't do any damned good in this place anyways. Anyways, a mech's likely heavier than your sword there, even if ya went and made it outta of pure uranium." Norad shrugged "It's a workhorse, I'll give you - WOAH!"

The Beluga suddenly tilted onto a steep angle, as Norad spun it away from something. "Dammit... almost flew into a portal there. The entire Edge here is lit up like a damned holiday tree... I'm reading tears here left, right and centre. Whatever that explosion was, it did a number on the forest's metastability..." the cockpit's windows shaded dark blue as Norad activated a HUD - showing portal activity in brilliant neon bursts of orange, red, and green. "Oh yeah... this place has become a right nauseating maze here. Don't worry... calculating best path here... within acceptable risk limits, and..." the engines flared, and the Beluga blasted off again, weaving above the trees of the Edge. "This is different... you folks think this is related to those time rifts that cracked apart the forest two years back?"

---

Okay, thought the beluga's shadow. Okay, we've stopped. Good, okay, now just a second to gather my wits about me, and we can... okay, yeah, there's my ego. And there's my super ego. Do I really need that? Really? Okay... I think I'm all here. Okay. Now just start to pull myself out, and maybe, maybe - WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH PIT DAMNIT!

"LET ME OFF THIS RIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!"

[Luxon Cobrat]

Entropy looked a bit sheepish as the other two gave her their looks. Then she settled in for another barrage of discussion about things she didn't understand. She usually tried to come up with some guess about what things were when she didn't know, but some things were just beyond her. That wasn't a situation she enjoyed, so she just tried to block it out. Under less pressing circumstances, she might have asked, but she didn't think there would be time for the distraction right now.

Luckily, Norad's talk turned to portals and tears before too long. Back in her element, Entropy perked up again.

"Time rifts?" she asked. "You mean... during that war? I was a little busy fighting in that..."

She was as yet unaware of the mass incidence of time travel that had happened shortly after, still having yet to encounter Nei again at this point.

[forgerofsouls]

After the little shake up of the craft due to rifts forming, Klinge thought a little back to the war. He remembered little other than constantly hacking apart the enemy foot soldiers. But, that did not rule out the possibility. "Possible, though I see no connections directly. But its best to take a cautious approach to these things, especially with everything that has happened recently with the quakes and other weirdness. Might want to watch these rifts a little closer." Klinge said to Norad.

But first things first, get to the source of the quake, and if fixable, fix it. If not, hope whatever was causing them was not going to destroy the forest. Than if the rifts themselves were still acting up, fix them...somehow.

"But, first things first. We need to get to our destination. Who knows, with the distortions, its possible that the quakes are completely natural and are just throwing things out of whack. But, my gut feeling says otherwise. Than again, it also tells me I forgot to grab a quick snack and drink before I left the Elven Village. So it could just be hungry." Klinge said, half joking, hoping that such humor could lighten the mood. For what it was worth, things kept getting worse and worse by the minute.

[The_Vizir]

Norad cocked an eyebrow at Entropy "What war?" he asked, rather confused "I ain't seen nor heard of no war while here in this damn forest, and my sensors never picked up no large movements of troops or nothin' over the past three years here, so I ain't got no reference point for this war of yours. But the time-rifts sprouted up late winter two years back here, and they only started retreating this spring, unfreezing some folks from a kind of temporal prison or bubble, but leavin' a number of folks still lost. My current guess is that about one third of the forest's population is still trapped... maybe indefinitely. And that's just compirin' life signs before and after - I ain't got not clue of the exact numbers 'cause there's so many creatures who don't show up on my scans." The holographic avatar pressed a few buttons on the GUI in front of him, before shaking his head "Normally, it is a bit more accurate than this though, 'cause I ain't gettin' nothin' here other than danged static. And Klinge, I ain't got no idea where ya done come from, but I don't need to keep my eye on the road here to fly this ship. My mind here is likely so far beyond you - HANG ON!" Norad pitched the ship sharply down, grazing treetops, as a American Airlines jet blinked into reality in front of them.

"What the..." Norad's eyes were wide and quite startled, as the touchpad in front of him blazed with imputed commands. Several moments later, the feedback was recieved, and Norad looked quite put-out. "What, so they get to go home after 30 seconds, and yet I've been stuck here three damn years? How the hell is that fair? Dang forest..." he growled between clenched teeth before sighing "Now where were we again? Right..."

Norad spun around to look at Klinge "If this is somethings' stomach rumblin' here, I don't think it's anythin' any one of us would like to meet. It's size and... well, I guess I'd have to say 'power level'" - holographic hands made air quotes here - "Are so far beyond anythin' I think any one of us could consider facin' and survivin' here. I mean, we're dealing with Elder God from beyond the stars-like stuff here. Or Juno..." Norad grumbled and spun back to face the window "Always could be Juno..."

With this, Norad dropped into a gloomy silence, the only sound being the rumbling of the plasma engines as the ship raced south towards the explosion's epicentre. As they approached, signs of the devastation inflicted on the forest rapidly increased - toppled trees were abundant, bedrock jutted from the soil forming jagged new ridges - even the occasional small fire was to be seen. The forest had been changed by this blast, perhaps irreversibly. Norad sighed... everything changed. It's inevitable. Just normally it's a bit slower and less dramatic and, well here we go!

A ping sounded from the keypad, and Norad's eyes brightened slightly. Some good news, at least. A few commands later, and... well, Norad whistled. "Damn... that's impressive. Here, you guys would want to see this..." the hologram pressed a few buttons, and a softlight map of the crater appeared between his avatar and his passengers. "Take a look at this... that's where we're headin' here. Finally cut through all the interference. Several hundred metres across... that there is one hell of a caldera. I've got a whole load off odd thermal, EM, subspace, and other radiation coming out of there... I can't even place a lot of it. I'll hazard it's magic, though. And-" another ping. "Well, here we go! Satellite finally was able to pick up some lifesigns! 'Bout damn time." A flicker, and the map was updated, showing several small figures "I can't pick out what species they all are, but looks like we've got eight... ten... a number of folks here. So, we were either beaten to the punch by the locals, or... we're racing into a hellmaw. Either wa- wait." Norad pointed to one dot, which seemed to vanish, only for another one to reappear. Another flicker of the map, and an overlay appeared - green and orange, showing subspace fluctuations. Though the entire place was a mess... there was a distinct drop around that one dot. And then several seconds later, a raise in front of another. Norad just stared... well, they were alive. Worth a celebration. But they were fighting. Which was not good. He took several long, slow, deep breaths in, and then looked up at Entropy and Klinge. "You guys ready for a fight? 'Cause it looks like we done got ourselves one on our hands here."

The ship rattled as it dropped out of hypersonic speeds, a massive BOOM echoing across the forest.

"Comin' in for a landin'..."