Dawn and Breeze
Stahl Industries HQ, Haithabu, SvipjothThe guards amongst the HQ were in a joyful and cheerful mood. In fact the entire city other than the poor workers who survived the initial strike of rebellion were celebrating. Their king, their hero, their savior had just usurped the crown from Pjotur after all. Even in the midst of a WARPP counterattack, it would take months, even years for them to successfully strike back. Traitors in one superpower, advanced technology, the will to fight, and numbers, they even had magic on their side thanks to the Philosopher's Stone. The workers as well helped paved the way for more Stigyan tech to be produced, some new personally decreed tech even ordered by Lukas himself to distance themselves away from the originals for native designs. It was a sight to behold. That certainly was to Halfdan, drinking away with his buddies, toasting to the victory of Uppsala. It was midnight, 12am, and he was by far the happiest drunk in Haithabu. "ONE MORE GOOD SIR, FOR LUKAS HIMSELF," he yelled at the bartender. Hours passed, and all was well.
Arc Gun Platform 40, Shore Defense Wall, Haithabu, Svipjoth, 3am"So how was the party Halfdan," one of Halfdan's subordinates asked as they loaded the electrocyte into the gun. Powerful weapons that could punch through anything, they would destroy any WARPP fleet foolish enough to attempt a landing. While a serious endeavor, the whole crew was laughing, singing songs the entire time they were there. Some shared stories from the frontlines, others of rumors of plans for Svipjoth, even rarer the occasional story of the new technology in the HQ. "Hey Halfdan, do you see that?" one of the soldiers pointed out to the sea. Halfdan looked everywhere but it looked empty. "Ulfr, how drunk are you? I don't see s**t anywhere there," said Halfdan. "Look at the stars," the spotter replied. Halfdan looked as far as he could and noticed that starlight is getting blocked by, something. "Check the radar," Halfdan asked the radar maintenance engineer. Nothing beeped and yet the lack of starlight bothered him. Then, green light erupted from the dark place. "TAKE CO-," Halfdan screamed but it was too late.
The green light projectile hit the water just before the platform defenses. Even with the apparent "miss" the sheer force of the shell shook the foundations of the shore defenses as it began to rumble. "GET OUT YOU FOOLS," Halfdan yelled as his comrades evacuated as quickly as possible. The walls collapsed as the Svip defense forces looked worriedly at the collapsed section of the defense. One shell had taken out a significant portion of wall, around 20 defense platforms with indirect fire. Halfdan looked at the other soldiers of the other platforms, happy that most of them came out fine with some with minor injuries. He looked up at the areas with no starlight with dread, the place with no starlight was moving, extremely quickly. It passed over the destroyed defenses as Halfdan could only watch with terror. What's worse, he noticed more dark shadows erupting from the large one.
Makeshift Defense, Outskirts of Stahl Industries HQ, Haithabu, 5amHalfdan sweat his head out as he looked from the scope of his Stigyan rifle, procured as an emergency measure from the HQ itself. The workers were ordered to create more defensive weaponry and systems in order to protect the HQ, but even that order did not seem to match what they currently needed. It had been 2 hours since the attack on the shore wall, Halfdan recollecting him being relocated with his squad to the HQ. The reports of the dark shadows were disturbing but gave illumination to them, and information was necessary. Still they were like ghosts. He tried to recall some of the reports he read as the ghosts attacked supply lines and roads to the city. They were sabotaging any form of relief into the city, preparing to break open their defenses like a battering ram. Off the top of his head, he started remembering each individual report.
A common report were apparently figures wearing circle hats. Even as bullets were fired at them, the figures calmly responded with gazes of heat, so hot like touching a boiling bowl of soup. Others spoke of 4 legged spiders accompanying these figures, creeping around doing who knows what. Even worse were stories of bigger flying 4 legged spiders, armed with the same gaze as the hat wearing figures, as well as a wand that shot green bolts from before. The most horrifying report were giants, apparently smaller than the Stigyan Knight mech, yet far more deadly to face. Some smaller ones flew, others wielded swords and shields. All of them shared the same thing, that gaze and the green bolt. Strangest of all, it seemed there were wraithlike knights walking around them. Fast, strong, and unbeatable even facing 30 Svip men. Yet in all of these, it was noted, no one was killed. Halfdan puzzled all over this. What monsters don't kill? He heard a sound as he looked into the scope again.
Hat figures in the mist. Halfdan and his squad sighed, this mist also appeared from no where, and too many of the defense forces have gone missing in the fog, probably claimed by these monsters. The hat figures gazed at his squad and beams of red headed their way. Their cover heated up as it began to melt. "FALL BACK TO THE NEXT POSITION," he shouted as he saw three of his squad get struck down by the gaze. He cried as he left them, their bodies unconscious and claimed by the mist. Giants, knights, and the spiders appeared, flying around and swarming the abandoned positions. Anti-armor Arc cannons were positioned on the streets, but to no avail. The giants did not seem to care, and responded in kind with roars that whistled into the air, exploding onto the Arc cannons. Halfdan told his mother years ago he was not scared of anything, and he was right until now.
He clenched his jaw and attempted to not scream in terror, firing blindly into the fog. One figure in particularly was very eye-catching. A female-like figure, wielding a spear that shot out rays of that green projectile. It destroyed entire streets as the figure turned into the general direction of what it wanted to destroy. Halfdan calmed himself and shot precisely as possible. Yet when he did, he saw his bullets stop, as if the ghost was protected by supernatural forces. He tried to move but he couldn't, as if gravity itself as forced him to stop. He looked around with his eyeballs, looking at another figure, this one hooded and grasping his hands together as if choking somebody towards him. Beside the figure, ring like objects orbited him and a great sword nearly as tall as the figure. Halfdan felt his body go up and was flung closer to his side's forces. He was knocked out cold by the sheer fear.
Stahl Industries HQ, Haithabu, Svipjoth, 5:50 amThe more and more Svips who fought this ghostly enemy, the more they realized that this enemy was not truly supernatural at all. The mist had largely subsided and the morning was finally banishing the night away. The hat figures were soldiers, armed with laser rifles of high intensity. The spiders were drones, robots helping soldiers, while the bigger ones carried heavier ordinance. The giants were mechs which could deal with any problem at a given moment, even taking out entrenched tanks with extreme proficiency, or just calling down their own tanks. Even the gifted supernatural knights were merely people in machine like armored suits. The giant dark shadow that caused all this was still hidden amongst the clouds, but even the giant guns had started to appear. All these terrified the defenders more, for what more can this adversary do with what they've displayed so far.
Halfdan trained his sights on a window inside the building, only knowing of these things 20 minutes ago after being knocked out. Laying down fire on the soldiers armed with laser rifles, he hoped his men were preparing a counterattack somehow. What's worse is that several of the workers have been reported gone or missing, and no one in the entire defense force has known what the invaders have done to them. Halfdan turned around to see one of the knights, but this time different. While all the knights were different, this was adorned in emerald and gold patterns on the silver like armor. The most unique feature, a beetle in the eye of a typhoon, emanating rays of the sun. He took fire with his laser rifle as the knight took its arms up and a green and yellow petal like shield formed, the attack dissapated like nothing.
Halfdan sighed as he quickly looked around, finding his eyes looking upon an experimental handheld railgun. The knight also looked as his eyes and traced them. Before the knight could figure it out, he quickly took another shot while reaching for the railgun as the knight put up its shield. After a couple of exchanges, the knight dashed forward, but not before Halfdan brought out the railgun and shot the knight square in the face. Bits and pieces cracked as the helmet was blown off but not the knight's head. The bits that were shot off spun into action and flew back behind the knight's back as the knight helmet folded away to display the knight's face. Halfdan was beheld with the sight of quite a beautiful girl, blonde hair and eyes that sparkled like the green plains. It's as if she was a saint personally sent from the heavens. The girl took out her blade as a plasma longsword destroyed the railgun and was put to Halfdan's throat, the girl's eyes sparkled with stoicism. Behind her, a Stigyan worker who was scared with the situation. Halfdan sighed, waiting for death, closing his eyes.
Yet it did not come. He felt the wind blow against him as both the worker and the girl was gone. He ran outside of the HQ, to the roof to see the clouds parted and truly see what the great shadow was. 6am. A flying battleship, a Vanguard-class specifically, floated above the orange and blue sky of the first light. Its drones and AA missile systems and guns shot down any interceptors in the sky, while hundreds of Ostpuktian mechs as well as planes carried troops to be evacuated out. As the battleship activated its thrusters, speeding across faster than nearly any airship in the sky, Halfdan felt 2 feelings. He felt of course, fear of what is to come from this ordeal. He felt that Ostpunkt has just gotten started. Like the breeze before the typhoon, or the dawn before the rest of the day.
TLDR: Lukas gets absolutely wrecked in his first defeat. Also yes, all Stigyan workers have been rescued.
