Nondescript News

[Anonymouse]

"Squeak squeak..."

Rumors come from the east, from a faraway continent beyond Muffinville's continent, of trouble. Of war. A 'black plague' sweeping the land.

Trade vessels and planes that have gone to the eastern continent disappear without further word. Travelers never return from trips there and people from the other continent seemed to have ceased coming to the Muffin Continent altogether.

It's almost like the continent has cut itself off from the rest of the world. Indeed, there is no real news of what is happening at this eastern continent.

But where there's a will, there's a way. Those that seek real information on this Eastern Continent can surely acquire it.

The question is, who will breach the shroud of this mystery brought forth from this nondescript news?

"Squeak squeak..."

[Raleigh]

Vexille scenario maybe? Interesting. I think I need to see this myself since I do quite a bit of trade on this planet and that could interfere with revenue. The question is do I go by boat, airship, teleport, or simply spy from on high in the Avatar? Ebony, ready one of the fleet. I think I'm going to go by boat.

Ebony: Aye, boss.

[Anonymouse]

"Squeak squeak..."

By boat brave Raleigh goes, traveling the wide seas like the explorers of old. Time passes as the seas seem to go without end, until he soon spots a smattering of rocky outcroppings. Each spire is shrouded in mist, obscuring the seas beyond... There's something unearthly about the spires. For normal people, this would inspire the immediate urge to flee, to return whence they came.

In those that are able to resist this irrational fear, whirlpools swallow pieces of what look like ship debris and grind them ever smaller with the rocky fangs that sprout amongst the whirlpools, wreathed in gloomy mist.

It would take someone brave and well prepared to deal with these seafaring obstacles. Or someone with blind luck.

"Squeak squeak..."

[Raleigh]

Thankfully, dear narrator, I've got both. *The ship begins to pick its way through the obstacles with the occasional seeming calm that settles over some of the more turbulent waters as the ship nears them.* It also helps that I can manipulate water as easily as I can breathe.

[Feng]

An ominous airship, the Storm Crow, departs from an island off the coast of Muffin heading eastward towards this mysterious continent.

In his study, the Criminal Mastermind known as Lord Bones consults his charts as he attempts to map a route to this new land. Rumors in the criminal underworld discussing the chaos and pandemonium occurring in the lands of the east have reached his ears. Ever the opportunist he departs in order to witness these events first hand, perhaps even seeking to expand the reaches of his criminal organization. Surely this new world has countless treasures to be plundered by smugglers such as him, no?

[Jello Shot Mischa]

(( Ha! Start this thread while I'm away on vacation, hmm? XD ))

Far, far, far away from the eastern continent, buried deep underground in the Crisis Command Center, Commander Pleasance regards her displays with some annoyance.

"So... it seems the situation on the eastern continent is becoming more apparent." She lets out a sigh, tapping on the displays to magnify the images of both Raleigh's boat and the Storm Crow, gleaned from high altitude drones and satellite imagery. "Interesting that at least two of the more significant entities of Muffinville are taking an interest."

"Should we do anything, ma'am?" Alex asks curiously, but the commander simply shakes her head.

"I'm sure we'll be hearing from Raleigh soon enough -- I'd been considering mentioning the situation to him, but so far this 'plague' has been keeping itself confined to that continent. Oh well... he's probably relishing the opportunity to do some exploring, at any rate."

"At least our remaining expeditionary bases are holding out again..." Alex murmurs, glancing at the CTC's extensive maps of the eastern continent.

The commander nods. "All we can do there for now is bide our time. It would be nice if our 'allies' would be more forthcoming."

"We've learned all we could from the refugees we've contacted," Alex says, tilting his head slightly. "Unless you mean..."

"Yes. They style themselves the enemy of this 'plague', but haven't been particularly willing to cooperate."

"The enemy of my enemy..." Alex says hesitantly.

"...is not necessarily my friend," Lily says, finishing the phrase. The commander nods.

"Well, if nothing else, seeing how these new explorers respond to what they find will offer some more information for us," Pleasance murmurs. "Once we've gotten more data, we can see about sending out a small team to meet up with them, perhaps."

(( I'll have internet for the rest of the day, then likely be incommunicado until Monday. But seeing as the CTC has some idea of what's going on, for now it's probably best they just lurk in the background anyways :3 ))

[Anonymouse]

"Squeak squeak..."

Thankfully, dear narrator, I've got both. *The ship begins to pick its way through the obstacles with the occasional seeming calm that settles over some of the more turbulent waters as the ship nears them.* It also helps that I can manipulate water as easily as I can breathe.

This is rather advantageous for Raleigh then, as his ship glides through the waters- however, there is still the matter of those rocky obstacles jutting out- the space between them is narrow... And something else seems to be interfering with the ship's instrumentation, making it difficult to control, even with the calmest of waters before him. It's possibly electromagnetic in origin, but it may be something else. Too hard to determine without slowing down and analyzing it a little.

It's not too welcoming, whatever it is.

An ominous airship, the Storm Crow, departs from an island off the coast of Muffin heading eastward towards this mysterious continent.

In his study, the Criminal Mastermind known as Lord Bones consults his charts as he attempts to map a route to this new land. Rumors in the criminal underworld discussing the chaos and pandemonium occurring in the lands of the east have reached his ears. Ever the opportunist he departs in order to witness these events first hand, perhaps even seeking to expand the reaches of his criminal organization. Surely this new world has countless treasures to be plundered by smugglers such as him, no?

Heading east on his airship, the Lord Bones is soon alerted of unforeseen turbulence which begins to rattle the Storm Crow. Indeed, in mere seconds the skies go from an immaculate sunny sky, to an angry, merciless storm. Bolts of lightning strike all about the airship, threatening to strike it at any moment. For now, it narrowly avoids being struck, almost as though the lightning bolts were a warning. But as it creeps forward, the come closer and closer, urging the airship and its passengers to turn about.

Even from below, Raleigh and his ship likely takes notice of the obnoxious lightning strikes, coinciding with the rocky crags jutting from the seas... perhaps they're connected? Fortunately, the Storm Crow hasn't encountered any electromagnetic interference- yet. But its certainly living up to it's name already!

Far, far, far away from the eastern continent, buried deep underground in the Crisis Command Center, Commander Pleasance regards her displays with some annoyance.

"So... it seems the situation on the eastern continent is becoming more apparent." She lets out a sigh, tapping on the displays to magnify the images of both Raleigh's boat and the Storm Crow, gleaned from high altitude drones and satellite imagery. "Interesting that at least two of the more significant entities of Muffinville are taking an interest."

"Should we do anything, ma'am?" Alex asks curiously, but the commander simply shakes her head.

"I'm sure we'll be hearing from Raleigh soon enough -- I'd been considering mentioning the situation to him, but so far this 'plague' has been keeping itself confined to that continent. Oh well... he's probably relishing the opportunity to do some exploring, at any rate."

"At least our remaining expeditionary bases are holding out again..." Alex murmurs, glancing at the CTC's extensive maps of the eastern continent.

The commander nods. "All we can do there for now is bide our time. It would be nice if our 'allies' would be more forthcoming."

"We've learned all we could from the refugees we've contacted," Alex says, tilting his head slightly. "Unless you mean..."

"Yes. They style themselves the enemy of this 'plague', but haven't been particularly willing to cooperate."

"The enemy of my enemy..." Alex says hesitantly.

"...is not necessarily my friend," Lily says, finishing the phrase. The commander nods.

"Well, if nothing else, seeing how these new explorers respond to what they find will offer some more information for us," Pleasance murmurs. "Once we've gotten more data, we can see about sending out a small team to meet up with them, perhaps."

Sending an expedition would probably be recommended, as those stormy clouds above the continent grow thicker by the day- and make imaging the continent more and more difficult as a result. Nevermind that electromagnetic field means communications are becoming more infrequent as well... whatever it is that plagues the continent is locking it down to greater extremes than when the CTC first took interest in it.

Of course, they could wait out the other two and see what their investigations yield, but where's the fun in that? Besides, situations like these are always the stuff of grand tales, and who better to be the subject of them, than the CTC?

"Squeak squeak..."

[Feng]

Bones emerges from his cabin, his eyes gazing up at the ominous storm before him. The rest of his crew meanwhile seek shelter from within the Storm Crow's interior.

"How strange" mutters Bones gazing up at the strange weather. "This storm appears to have manifested from out of nowhere, almost as if some force is trying to force the ship to turn around" he observes. "Fortunately, the Storm Crow was built with these conditions in mind."

He glances up at the skies above.

"You hear that? It's going to take more than some nasty weather to deter I, Lord Bones, the greatest Criminal Mind of this century!"

Confident in the ship's insulation, he turns to one of his nearby servants, a blue haired maid.

"While I doubt a little lightning will be able to sink the Storm Crow, it would be wise to remain cautious in this strange storm. Tell engineering to release the lightning rods. Also make sure that all escape routes are in working condition. Oh, and please inform the kitchen staff to have tea ready at three."

The girl curtseys before heading off to do her duties. Bones meanwhile returns to his quarters and gazes over the charts once more.

[Raleigh]

Heh, good thing I don't rely on instruments. *Continues to sail true though just barely avoiding running aground here and there.* One who has sailed the universes themselves needs not a compass. *Watches the incoming storm.* Ooh, good omens. No need to worry about losing any energy so long as that keeps up.

[Jello Shot Mischa]

Sending an expedition would probably be recommended, as those stormy clouds above the continent grow thicker by the day- and make imaging the continent more and more difficult as a result. Nevermind that electromagnetic field means communications are becoming more infrequent as well... whatever it is that plagues the continent is locking it down to greater extremes than when the CTC first took interest in it.

Of course, they could wait out the other two and see what their investigations yield, but where's the fun in that? Besides, situations like these are always the stuff of grand tales, and who better to be the subject of them, than the CTC?

"Squeak squeak..."

Well, if that's the case...!

Finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their communication links with their own scattered bases on the eastern continent, as the increasing cloud cover interfered even with line-of-sight laser uplinks, the CTC decides to send their own landing contingent!

The CVA Vigilant, along with the ARS Drumfire and ARS Snapfire, begin proceeding towards the coast of the eastern continent. The carrier launches a patrol of strike fighters, who streak towards the continent, intending to perform a flyby to get more up-to-date information on conditions in the area.

[Anonymouse]

"Squeak squeak..."

With the deployed lightning rods, lightning bolts begin striking them with wild abandon. The airship is able to make steady progress, unconcerned with the furious storm raging about. Time passes, and Bones likely receives his tea without disturbance from his maid. However, something... doesn't seem right about the maid. She looks unusually weary, compared to usual. Bones may right this off to fatigue, if he wasn't receiving reports from crew chiefs about the medical bay receiving abnormally increased patients- all in the span of a few hours.

What could the problem be? The storm seems unconcerned, and continues its furious though futile assault on the Storm Crow.

Below, on the open seas, the waves crash and surge to and fro- before being laid to rest by Raleigh's abilities. And unperturbed by his disrupted instruments, he makes it past the rocky sentinels that guards the seas before him. After the spires, the seas are pretty open- with a distant land mass ahead of him and his ship. It's too far to make out anything of notice about the land mass, but there is something off about the air- almost like it's eating away at his and others' life force. And the closer one gets to the land mass, the thicker the seems to become...

A ways behind the other two, the CTC's fighters eventually scream ahead of the Storm Crow, and deeper into the raging storm ahead- lightning likely poses little threat to the metal skins of most fighters, though it would still be unwise to be lax with the storm. Especially as the storm seems to be terribly disruptive to instrumentation and detection systems...

Which is likely why the patrol picks up reading for something(s) approaching them at high speed. Looks like this are going to get a little hairy for them- hopefully they'll be able to alert the rest of the landing contingent behind them!

"Squeak squeak..."

[Raleigh]

I think this is far enough. Turn the boat around Captain Blau. I'm going to head on in by myself.

Captain Blau: Aye aye sir. Look alive boys and turn the ship about. *Various human males snap to setting about turning the boat around.*

Raleigh: Later. *Takes off like a conductive projectile from a rail gun straight toward the continent leaving the minions to get themselves home safely. After about a few thousand or so feet from the ship large black bat like wings erupt form his back to carry him onward toward his destination.*

[Jello Shot Mischa]

A ways behind the other two, the CTC's fighters eventually scream ahead of the Storm Crow, and deeper into the raging storm ahead- lightning likely poses little threat to the metal skins of most fighters, though it would still be unwise to be lax with the storm. Especially as the storm seems to be terribly disruptive to instrumentation and detection systems...

Which is likely why the patrol picks up reading for something(s) approaching them at high speed. Looks like this are going to get a little hairy for them- hopefully they'll be able to alert the rest of the landing contingent behind them!

The CTC fighters are designed with some of the best near-future technology the CTC possesses. Certainly no modern aircraft is particularly concerned about lightning (their airframes designed to conduct it harmlessly), but -- well aware of the disruptive effects the area has on technology -- these fighters have also been specially hardened against electromagnetic interference, to help ensure they retain enough functionality to carry out their mission, even amidst the roiling storms over the eastern continent.

Of course, their sensors are still somewhat affected by the storm, so they can't quite tell what's approaching them yet. Not wanting to get into an engagement just yet, they try to break off, banking northwards to try and circle around the approaching targets, while radioing in the contact to the forces behind them.

The naval contingent, meanwhile, approaches the shoreline, although not so close as to risk themselves against the rocks. Once in position, a pair of massive ground-effect vehicles -- essentially hovercraft with armored skirts and plenum chambers, although they can manage enough thrust for brief, low altitude flight -- takes off from one of the escort ships, carrying landing forces towards the coast. They're escorted by several scout GEVs, as well as a company of hovertanks, as they try to make their way towards the shoreline to establish an operations base.

[Feng]

"What do you mean the entire kitchen staff is sick?" says Bones, gripping his cane tightly.

"It's not just the kitchen staff," responds the ship's head doctor, a Chibi with graying hair. "The sickness appears to have spread to the engineering bay as well."

"This is grim news indeed," mutters Bones. "You don't suppose this has anything to do with the mysterious plague taking place on the continent do you?"

"If it is sir, this is not like any disease that I've encountered before. There seems to be something foul about the air..."

"Indeed there...."

".... Sir, if I might be so bold to speak, do you think we should turn back? From this storm and this curious fatigue, I am beginning to fear that we're are getting in over our heads."

"I have no intention of turning back," says Bones, sipping his tea. "However, I am concerned for the crew.
.... ....
We keep sailing until we reach sight of the continent. Depending on the crew's condition I'll plan next move from there. Until then, let us investigate this disease further. Perhaps, with the Smoking One's blessing, we will be able to find a cure during that time."

Bones heads off to the Clinic to draw some blood and investigate some slides. On his way there he makes a mental note to order an extra ration of fruit for those aboard.

[Anonymouse]

"Squeak squeak..."

As Raleigh bolts toward the continent, the waters below him grow darker as the stormy skies overhead give way to a perpetual, blighted darkness, lit only by alien lights in the sky. Unfamiliar to even Raleigh, surely the thrill of exploring a new frontier creep into his mind- though this thrill is likely interrupted by the sea exploding before him as skeletal tendrils whip at him with a chilling shriek. Dodge them or no, an immense mawed beast rises from the waters, hundreds of rows of teeth grinding in anticipation for a new meal..!

Overhead, the CTC's fighters veer off to the side, just as several green-black beams pierce the skies, eventually fading into the darkness. The source of the lights remain unknown until bolts of lightning illuminated several aircraft- resembling birds of prey more than typical jet fighters, their wings shift and twist, causing them to quickly divert their courses to pursue the patrol fighters. Almost immediately, the enemy contacts unleash a nearly constant stream of green-black beams at the patrol, likely causing a change in priorities.

Still some distance away, the CTC landing forces encounter their first trial in the form of the looming, rocky crags. Taking it slow and boost to a higher altitude help the various vehicles clear the rocks with room to spare- but given all the interference with the instruments, it's possible that not every transport or tank is so fortunate. Some possibly veer too close to the rocks, where they find the rocks are surprisingly (if not supernaturally) tough, and able to effortlessly grind even armored hulls to nothing. Others lose their balance and find themselves careening into the waters, quickly sucked into the dark depths, or again, ground into the rocks.

Of course... there's always the possibility of trying to destroy the rocks, to make further landings and departures an easier affair in the future.

Back on the Storm Crow, the unusual illness continues to sap at the strength of the crew overall, though some seem altogether unaffected. Surely, Bones would recognize that those with the greatest force of presence (besides himself) are largely unhindered by the illness, and able to continue functioning. As for the rest of the crew, those extra rations and rest seem to help, but don't cure the effects completely... Investigating the blood samples doesn't seem to reveal anything, but Bones may sense something is just off about the air near the continent, like some miasma is slowly leaking into the Storm Crow, which is anathemic to him and his crew. If such a thing were the case, how would he go about keeping him and his crew miasma free, if it can somehow find its way into the Storm Crow?

"Squeak squeak..."