NationStates Jolt Archive

Somewhere on an island in Mists, surrounded by ships and troops from the Resurgent Dream and from Akaton. The dock of a shipyard contains a rather special vessel, seeming to be a hybrid between an Imperial Spelljammer and an Akatoni Skycruiser.

On board the ship, nockers, boggans, sidhe, and humans scurry around the corridors, checking every little thing. Charts scribbled with physics notes and gematria are left littered about as sorcerers perform strange rituals, all working to get the first technomagical hybrid ship of Mists in proper shape.

The armored prow of a sky cruiser sliced through the icy fog settled low over the ocean, it's ornate gold inlay dull in the gray light of early morning. Aboard this vessel, Master Artisan Osiris Amun paces back and forth on the bridge. The finest living sky ship designer, he had been summoned to work on the construction of the technomagical sky ship. His cruiser flew low and ponderously, barely disturbing the waters a hundred feet below. As the distinctive outline of the shipyard facility comes into view, the ship slows to one-quarter speed, coming in to dock.

A few minutes later, Osiris steps from his cruiser into the shipyard itself. He is a strange being to look at, his left eye being replaced with a mechanical viewer, its lenses constantly clicking and refocusing themselves. His left hand bares more resemblance to a steel skeleton than living flesh, being mostly replaced by cybernetics. He wears the flowing dark colored robes of the techno-magi, adorned with gold trim and numerous badges of rank. With a fair degree of awe, he looks over the hybrid ship, his mortal eye casually scanning the construction area while the viewer examines every last centimeter of the vessel. Talking quietly to himself, a needle-like pen unfolds out of his mechanical hand, etching quick notes on a data pad.

"Most impressive."

A nocker standing nearby grins, walking over. "You furkin' bet your pretty arse it is. We were waiting for you to get your arse down here to interface the physics and gematria components of the vessel."

Osiris nods, pointing to a group of human laborers unloading various nasty looking devices from the cargo hold of his ship.

"Terribly sorry for the delay, but I assure you, it was well worth it. My colleagues at the Ministry insisted on sending some of their little 'toys' along with me. What we have here are some Infernus class assault cannons, supposedly firing concentrated blasts of hellfire and pure arcane power. They say this vessel's technomagical power core is the only mobile energy source capable of operating them, and I will be most interested in seeing this device for myself."

The nocker nods rapidly. "Hell furkin, yeah. We got some of the tight twatted fancypants over at House Eiluned to give us a genuine mubber furkin dreamstone. We have enough of'em for twelce ships. The sorcerers say you can refuel the thing by taking it out and letting it sit for an hour on earth's moon. I'm glad you momzers brought some guns. So far, we've been working with Primal Driabhar but there's hardly any punch to that shit. Course, on the plus side, it goes past shielding. Say, you fuckers bring down a FTL of some kind? We got a Flickerflash cantrip in this bitch that'll go around the laws of physics like a slut around a zipper but there's kind of a catch that'll be a trick to deal with. See, the pilot can only poof the ship to places he's been. And without another kind of interstellar transport, that'll never mean anything outside the solar system."

Osiris smiled, or rather made the approximation of a smile. In reality, if he could feel emotion as others did, he would probably be offended by the nocker's language. But since such things had little meaning to him, the designer simply continues.

"I wouldn't be Akaton's finest ship designer if I didn't bring some tricks of my own, now would I? As far as FTL drives go, I got something that might work. It is known as a warpspace imploder, a rather unsubtle device which blasts a hole in space time. It allows the ship to separate itself from the universe and along with it those pesky little things like inertia and gravity. Sure it may be inaccurate and dangerous, but it is damned fast."

The nocker grins. "Then let's get the damned thing fixed in. What other toys you bring, ya pisher? We still have warding to do and more work on the energy conversion matrix. I think we're looking at an own time completion date, though."

Osiris withdraws an inventory sheet from his robes, referring to the list as he spoke.

"Well, I have all the typical items. A large number of small secondary guns, and missiles. Some adamantium plates and void shields, though I doubt they are of the quality of true magical wards. On a more interesting note, I do have a complete etheric array. That's both the scopes and the portal generator. I'm sure we could find a use for that. I brought a few other devices as well, mostly involved in power transfer and interfacing."

The nocker nods once more. "Good, good. Have these lunkheads get to work interfacing that shit."

While Osiris had been speaking with the nocker, a group of technicians had entered the shipyard from his docked sky cruiser and were now wandering around the area. They were a strange lot, much less formal in appearance and behavior than their master. The group was made up largely of humans and a few elves, along with some creatures obviously not native to Akaton.

Osiris counted to make sure they had all arrived, keeping one eye fixed on the nocker while the mechanical replacement was obviously refocusing to identify each of the tech crew.

"Hmm, that looks like all of them. Just show us where we are needed and my crew will set to work."

The nocker nodded, making his way around the ship. "We could use those damned guns there, there, there..." he continues on in this fashion, pointing to strategic places throughout the ship. "As for that ether shit, you're going to need to explain it to me a bit. It ain't something I'm that fucking familiar with."

((OOC: Do you want this to be the one for the fleet under an Akatoni commander or the one under a TRD one? I'll do the final stats description for the one under my person and you can do it for the one under yours. They'll probably be two slightly different classes of capital ship.))

OOC:
You can have this class of sky ship. Seeing as this is your thread, the result will probably be a cruiser more in line with TRD military strategy anyway.

IC:
Osiris motioned to a group of the technicians, who moved off towards the ever growing pile of weapon crates accumulating near the cargo loading docks. A pair of servo lifters, vaguely humanoid fifteen-foot lifting machines, seized an Infernus Cannon, moving towards the area indicated by the nocker. Osiris turned back to the nocker,

"The etheric scope is a sensor device, functioning like a combination of a telescope and a radar array. It uses a arcane emitter to send out waves of ultra-high frequency thaumaturgic energy. The energy, being not entirely within the physical plain of existence, passes through normal matter, allowing the scope to provide visual contact even through metal or stone. It's gonna need a data hookup straight to the bridge."

The master artisan pauses to catch his breath before continuing.

"The etheric portal is a teleporter of sorts. It shifts matter all the way into the underworld, opening a corridor to the destination point. Since we began using a high energy version of the standard etheric emitters, this device is quite safe to use. Not like those old monstrosities of a century ago, powered by bound demonic spirits. People were always getting possessed back then. But I digress, the etheric portal needs a direct power feed from the reactor."

The nocker nods a little. "Sounds like a damned useful sensor. Make sure it gets the link and all that other shit. As for the portal, we can do the same shit with FlickerFlash and we don't need to dangle our dicks in the fucking underworld. I'd rather just skip that jazz."

Osiris shrugs,

"So be it, I will see to the sensors personally."

The technicians begin to disperse, working all across the ship. Several of them begin the process of mounting an Infernus cannon in its turret. Still others begin moving the etheric scope components from storage crates into the partially completed vessel. Osiris follows, occasionally shouting at the technicians to be careful with the scope.

Week after week goes by. In fact, the work takes a full six months of hard labor. The end product has four major advantages over any other ship of its type. It has warding in its brig that magically prevents attempts to escape. It has a Flicker Flash imbued into it that will carry it anywhere the pilot has been before. It can operate in the dreaming. Lastly, it has a limited resistance to offensive magics cast on the ship of the crew.

Beyond that, it is faster, better shielded, and with better targetting capability than an unaided Akatoni vessel. It can deliver a very mild blow through shields, one about equal to an average man's punch. It recognizes legitimate titles as defined by the laws of the dreaming. And a few other minor magical augmentations with no great effect on the ship's performance.

After the finish of the new flagship, the shipyards set to work on a number of other modern airships. These vessels, designed to comprise the First Aerial Fleet, utilized far less advanced technology and magic. Essentially, the design was that of an armored and rather large zepplin with a sizable armored and armed compartment attached to the bottom, varying in size depending upon the model. The armament ranged from simple cannon to larger artillery, machine gun emplacements, and a limited range of missiles.

The First Aerial Fleet was completed in three yards on Artemis. Over a substantial period of time, the first of these yards produced three capital ships: Oalf Huntington, Tobias, and Chrysla. The second yard produced five ships of the line: Leonardo da Vinci, Virgil, Ovid, Homer, and Aesop. The third yard produced seven light scouts: Timon ap Gwydion, Corrina ni Gwydion, Immanuel ap Gwydion, Nianki ni Gwydion, Eleanor ni Ailil, and Elayne ni Fiona. The yards continued with their work, working respectively on Catherine ni Fiona, Elizabeth ni Dougal, and Frederick ap Eiluned.