Goffre Alvisson's Story

Hethel Svensson and his band of ulfhednar had once served Ungrulf "Ulfric" Ellrufsson aboard the Örmbátur longship as members of the House of Ellrulf in a time since forgotten. After the extinction of that family line, Hethel Svensson inherited the Nuörmbátur longship and became a jarl under the late great King Sigurd the Ringtaker of the House of Munso along with all the original ulfhednar who had served the previous household. Fudørn, Engöll and Stryder were promoted to jarls. Sigurd Hring sent them forth in the Nuörmbátur to establish a new colony along with Sjonn the Skald and 45 other Vikings whose names are unrecorded. They established a settlement on the Empyrean Sea Beach which flourished and evolved. After the death of King Sigurd and the Iskjerne Vikings, the new colony chose Hethel Svensson to be their new konung or sovereign. King Hethel the Dragontamer ruled peacefully for his entire reign and was praised after he died of old age, being given a large burial mound close to the Empyrean Sea Beach known today as Hethel's Barrow.

King Hethel was succeeded by his son King Ingvar the Highruler, who also had a peaceful reign. King Ingvar was a younger contemporary of an elder Ragnar Lothbrok in the days of old. King Ingvar would expand on his father's kingdom by building upon King Hethel's original establishment. Fudørn Ivansson's successor Ivaldi would become a famous inventor at that time, having purchased a magical purple crystal from Volund the Archer, one of the ljosalfar who had stumbled upon it by pure chance at Iskjerne Forge and sold it to Ivaldi in exchange for silver, along with many other broken remnants of lost technologies that King Sigurd had once confiscated from his Taiyou enemies in the days of old. Ivaldi wasted no time in studying and reverse engineering some of those technologies, using magic and a bit of Nordic alchemy. Using a mineral solution to grow more crystals on the surface of stones, Ivaldi greatly contributed to the accelerated advancements of the Empyrean Sea Beach settlement, helping the House of Hethel to jump several hundred years ahead of Gaia's other Viking settlement at Iskjerne Bay.

King Ingvar was succeeded to the throne by his son King Svein, who continued to expand the House of Hethel and grow his kingdom. King Svein was alive during the fall of the House of Munso under the rule of Ivar the Boneless, but did not get his own kingdom involved. Instead, he used his resources to order the construction of 3 magically advanced longships that could leave the planet and sail through outer space. The first ship was called the Stjorndrekr (star dragon). The second ship was called the Stjornkona (star maiden). The third ship was called the Stjornhestr (star horse). At this stage the Empyrean Sea Beach settlement had grown tremendously and evolved into a small nation, or Type II civilization that was fully capable of harnessing the natural elements in their local star system and utilizing Gaia's native magical defenses, something that the Iskjerne Vikings had tried to accomplish with the Hreggdreki longship many years before them but had failed to do.

During the reign of King Svein, a terrible event happened in the heavens which shook the mountains, leveled forests and left a huge shockwave of destruction throughout the land. By this time, however, the Empyrean Vikings had expanded their kingdom and had established such mighty and powerful defenses that it was able to withstand the storm brought on by the meteor as it passed overhead towards Siv'en and into the Exalted Mountains before crashing in the distance. To those peaceful Norse settlers behind King Svein's walls, it felt like a powerful earthquake. But the kingdom did not break. After the waves stopped rolling in and the earth ceased to tremble, and all the debris and thundering storm clouds had rolled overhead, the walls and towers of the Empyrean Viking settlement were still standing. After some time, life returned to normal and before King Svein died, what little forest that had been destroyed was already starting to regrow.

After the collapse of the Iskjerne Kingdom under the wrathful Titan deity Sigurd the Divine, during the time of Ivar the Boneless, the distant colony on the Empyrean Sea Beach just kept getting stronger and stronger. King Svein was succeeded by his son King Halfdan, the current ruler of that kingdom. King Halfdan was now the sovereign of a dynasty that had lasted four whole generations. Like his father and their fathers before them, Halfdan Svensson was a wise and peaceful king. He had skalds who could recall the legends and sagas of such famous heroes as Harald Wartooth, Ellrulf Trygvirsson, Hethel Svensson, Sigurd Hring, Ragnar Lothbrok, Bjorn Ironside, Harald Fairhair and others whose deeds served as lessons and teachings to the Empyrean sea king.

Halfdan the Great was a follower of Odin and a lover of wisdom who prayed to the gods and made daily offerings to the elves and land spirits. He would continue to provide a sanctuary for all the dragons, dwarves, unicorns, witches, pagans and exiles in his kingdom. In return, he received blessings from the land as the forests grew taller and the gardens grew fuller with an abundance of crops and flowers. Song birds greeted him with their beautiful songs as the grasses flourished above Hethel's Barrow and over the hillsides. There were many pleasant springs and ponds where frogs, fish and turtles nested, where crickets, ladybugs, bees and butterflies fluttered during the summer months, and the Empyrean Kingdom seemed like a quiet remote paradise. Life was good, and the Empyrean Norsemen lived without care, farming and crafting, forging and living in leisure without any needs or concerns.

It was a warm sunny day on the Empyrean Sea Beach, with the almost year-round parhelion of Gaia's three suns casting a magical circular rainbow-colored halo of shining sun-rays over the subtle pastel blue skies over beautiful blue-green waters and foamy white waves as they washed ashore along the long white sandy beach, moving inland from the treacherous Empyrean High Seas before lapping gently across the shoreline. Seagulls, pelicans and other oceanic birds squaked and sang as they flew by or hovered above the beaches as scattered white puffball clouds hung in stillness overhead like cotton flakes in the sky. It was a hot day, but the occasional gentle breeze brought relief from the heat, providing a mild uplifting wind which allowed the gulls, falcons and pelicans to linger in the air as if motionless as they scanned the shallow waters from above.

Many a crab and sea turtle had dug holes in the sand where they built their nests. The sandy shore was also riddled with fish bones, star fish, sand dollars, clams and colorful seashells, and on one of the sandy banks there was even the whole sun bleached skeleton of a whale, dragon or sea serpent which had been washed ashore and picked clean by the crabs and birds. Also along the shoreline was a rune-engraved, stone built dock and boatyard where humans, shipbuilders and fisherman gathered, working together to maintain the harbor and cast their nets or reel them in, hoping to catch a large variety of fish and other treasures which might be lurking in the sea. These were the Empyrean Norsemen, a strong and hardy stock of tall Nordic pagan folk with a variety of hair colors and hair styles, with a great majority of them having bleach blonde hair or ginger red hair with braided mullets and long or bushy beards.

Most of the men and women on the docks were dressed in plain workman's clothes, with simple gowns, highcut v-neck open laced shirts and baggy trousers, either barefoot or wearing sandals with their long sleeves and pantlegs rolled up. Some of them had blueish green tattoos in the shape of Nordic symbols and spiraling vine-work which extended from the length of their necks all the way to their knuckles, and sometimes even on their legs and feet. They were a healthy and muscular stock, well-toned from the exercise they gained from their daily work routines. They seemed peaceful and happy as some of them sang joyful songs while working together to accomplish their goals. Next to that was a small and quiet beach shack, which appeared to be from a different time period. Further inland and higher up on the beach, the sands turned to grass and formed a large naturally formed embankment which plateaued into bright green luscious hills, full of tall grasses and lovely flowers, wild weeds and many other natural landscapes. On the horizon, a forest of evergreens, elm trees, ash trees, oaks and pines stood thick and tall beneath the heavens.

Just before the treeline were two hills. One of them, overgrown with small white flowers was actually a burial mound. This was Hethel's Barrow, the final resting place of a very old Nordic king who had been buried there for over 200 years. The mound next to it, though much larger in size, was actually not a mound at all, but a vast stone ring fortress surrounded by earth which had been piled up to form a perfect circle around an unseen stone wall with entrances perfectly aligned to the four cardinal directions, and the phases of Gaia's moon, which could sometimes be seen even during the day when all three suns hung in the sky. Behind the earth-supported stone circle enclosure was a large moat and bailey, with a keep or watchtower sitting atop a raised scarp where the Norse king's castle could be found, attached to the great mead hall. These too had been made of bricks and stones piled with natural grass rooftops, and the splendor of that Viking kingdom dwarfed even the previous Norse kingdom at Iskjerne Bay.

Just beyond the scarp, down the drawbridge ramp and over the moat was a large shire village hidden within the ring fortress and formed in perfect shapely design. This centuries old Empyrean Norse Kingdom was almost a spitting replica of the Viking settlement at Iskjerne Bay, only its walls were thicker, its buildings were much larger, and its Ringerike styled artwork was much more elaborate. The post carvings weren't just carved by hand, but the entire stone fortress had been inlaid with gold and silver embroidery so that even the chains on the drawbridges were dipped in gold. There were runic carvings everywhere, some appearing like stained glass windows but inlaid with magical glowing blue and pink crystals instead of glass. It was far more advanced and a far more impressive society, one that seemed almost more like Alfheimr or an elf-haven rather than a human kingdom.

There were other differences as well...

Unlike the colony at Iskjerne Bay, there were no mountains close to the village. The closest mountain range was the Exalted Mountains to the southwest, whose peaks barely shown over the forested horizon. So rather than placing their dungeon lookout tower above the mountains, the Empyrean Norse Kingdom had its own lookout tower built closer to the shore, fitted with an enormous golden bell which shined like a beacon to travelers at sea. Also unlike Iskjerne Bay which had a statue of the late great Sigurd Hring placed out in the open near the gates, this newer establishment instead had a sacred hóf or pagan temple located in the very center of the village, surrounded by a protective spiked fence made of pure silver. Only priests and priestesses were allowed entrance to that holy place, which had walls made of spears and a silver rooftop made of shields, decorated by a thin gold chain which hung like tinsel around it. Inside that hóf was not just one statue, but a whole circle of stone carved heavy statues depicting many Old Norse gods and goddesses.

The oldest such statue depicted Odin, the king of the gods...

The main entrance to the ring fortress faced north towards the sea, and just outside of it, the legendary longship known as the Nuörmbátur was resting peacefully atop a pile of round logs which could be employed as a sort of sled or wheels to help slide the vessel down the hillside and into the water. Right next to it stood 3 other ships, also with elaborate prows, only they were much larger and of a later time period than the first longship. These three were not made of wood, but were cast of metal and silver, with prows made of gold. These too were inlaid with magical glowing crystals, only these particular crystals were pinkish purple and seemed to have an entirely different purpose. King Halfdan the Great was sitting upon his cushioned red silk throne inside the mead hall, wearing a silver crown and a bright stainless blue velvet cloak, surrounded by two of his three jarls and one of his skalds along with a hall full of Nordic settlers from various families and backgrounds.

"The stjornhestr is now ready your greatness," Fudørn Auricsson said out loud after taking a swig from his 24 ounce tankard of mead and setting it down on the table.

"Wonderful... Goffre, you shall lead our expedition tomorrow. Is your crew ready to sail?" King Halfdan responded before asking.

"Aye my leige, all five hundred of us are ready to set sail... Women, children. Vary a man between fifteen and fifty," Goffre Alvisson replied with a nod, taking a swig from his own mug.

"Good to hear it Goffre, I knew I could count on you in such short notice... Well, it is settled then. When the second sun passes at mid-day tomorrow, the Stjornhestr will sail... Are you absolutely sure about this my friend?" the wise king asked calmly with a sense of humbleness in his voice.

"Never moreso my king. It has always been my dream to reach for the stars." the jarl answered, to which the king raised his own golden jewel encrested goblet and nodded quietly. Everyone else at the king's table would then raise their own drinks as well, following King Halfdan's example. Without speaking another word, the konung gestured for the feasting to begin, and soon the hall maidens would go around placing silver spoons, knives and bowls on the tables in front of everyone as the chefs walked in, setting a whole large roasted wild boar on a platter down in the center of the king's table along with a giant dish of mixed fish oil veggie and crab salad and a gigantic kettle of hot steaming soup, rich in potassium, iron, protein and several natural vitamins containing potatoes, carrots, cabbage, roasted horse and chicken broth with alfalfa, yellow morning glories, seaweed and onions, enough to feed all 500 of them, along with all the hall maidens and chefs who served.

There was little to no nightfall on the Empyrean Sea Beach this time of year, nor in the nearby Kingdom of Skyfall, only the constant presence of daylight brought by Gaia's three local stars. The first star, Sigittae, provided magnificent light in the form of bright whitish blue and pinkish purple, resembling a cosmic magical flame or bow-shaped nebula. The second star was Atargis, the twin sun, a brother of Sigittae, though not entirely an exact replica for Atargis was much brighter and white as a dove, with brilliant blueish white rays of sunshine resembling the outstretched wings of a dove or flying fish. The Empyrean Norsemen viewed these two stars as gods and goddesses. The former star Sigittae they referred to as Dagr, the god of daylight and the son of Dellingr, the god of dawn, armed with a golden bow and arrows to light the world by day. Similarly, they viewed Atargis as the goddess Sól, the sun goddess with a golden chariot riding the star across the skies, reflecting the sun's rays with her magical shield. The Vikings also referred to Atargis as the Eastern Star, with Sigittae being its twin brother in the west.

The third star which could barely be seen from Gaia's surface was called Eras, a dead star or brown dwarf star which looked more like a very distant blood red moon than an actual sun. Hardly any light shone at all from that distant star, whom the Norsemen called Dellingr, the god of dawn and dusk according to their own mythology, when the least amount of light shown over their kingdom, allowing Gaia's moons and several star constellations to be seen. Gaia's first moon was Colossa, a dull red moon, larger but similar to Eras, whom the Norsemen knew as Nott, the goddess of night, or Skoll, a treacherous dark wolf which mocked the sun and chased it across the daylight sky. Gaia's second moon was Skygem, a brilliant white sparkling moon made of quartz which the Empyrean Norsemen referred to as Mani, the moon god who they viewed was followed by a pitch black darkness in the form of Hati, another wolf who chased the moon at night. There was also a third moon which the Norsemen knew not of, for it was often masked by Gaia's three suns. Of all the celestial bodies that they knew of, however, Atargis/Sól and Skygem/Máni were viewed by the Norsemen as the most important and significant lights in the sky, and it was when both of these lights became visible on opposite ends of the horizon, when the second sun Eras/Dellingr was high in the sky at mid-day and all the constellations in the heavens came into view, that Goffre Alvisson and his crew of 500 men, women and children boarded the Stjornhestr longship and launched their horse-prowed vessel into the sky, doing what no Viking on Gaia's surface had ever done before since the beginning of time.

They were going to outer space...

Goffre Alvisson had come from a long line of distant heroes and kings whose names had become immortalized in sagas and legends over countless centuries, some of them almost forgotten, whose deeds became nothing more than Norse mythology. Since the time of Wylfrec the Savage, whose bloodline extended far far back, predating King Trygvir by more than a century, long before Ellrulf Trygvirsson, long before Ungrulf "Ulfric" Ellrufsson, long long before King Harald Wartooth, before King Sigurd Hring, before King Ragnar Lothbrok, long long before Hrollaug the Walker and Ivar the Boneless, that bloodline extended and stretched to a time long since faded and forgotten. Yet their descendants and kinfolk still remained, a pure lineage who still bore the same phenotypes and genotypes of those very distant ancestors. Many of those descendants were now aboard the Stjornhestr as it hovered above the ground and took off sailing for the stars.

Their longship took off north from the Empyrean Sea Beach over the Empyrean High Seas, gaining speed as it entered the clouds. Many a Norse onlooker watched and gazed silently from below, observing that flight with speechless awe as the Stjornhestr disappeared out of view. King Halfdan Svensson smiled and nodded quietly, a look of mixed pride and humility, as he watched Jarl Goffre and his longship disappear into the clouds, heading high above the heavens northbound over Ellaria, passing from the southernmost tip of the continent all the way over the northernmost end past Iskjerne Bay as it ascended high above the surface, bringing the entire continent into view from the air.

Goffre Alvisson looked down at the planet's surface, gazing out of one of the air-locked gold plated reflective mirror windows and smiling at the continent below. For him and his crew, they had just confirmed what they hadn't always known but had always believed to be true for a long time, that the maps of their forefathers were incredibly accurate, despite never having been able to look down upon the land for themselves. This was a moment of great inspiration and hope for the Norsemen aboard the Stjornhestr, as Jarl Goffre turned from the window to his round table to look at the star charts that his great grandfathers had drawn. There on his map were many constellations and stars, with the four cardinal directions to lead them. Goffre Alvisson would be heading for one of the nearer constellations, shaped like a white horse on his map. This was Hethelfaxi, a constellation that according to Gaian Norse mythology, had been placed in the sky long ago by a sea dragon named Urakena, whose likeness the Stjornhestr longship had been constructed after. According to legend, King Hethel Svensson had befriended the sea monster by offering her a white horse as an offering. After accepting the King's sacrifice, Urakena had placed the image of the white horse high in the sky so that it would always guide their way, thus the horse itself became immortalized, and the dragon was remembered ever after.

Little did he know at the time, but Goffre Alvisson's star chart was leading their horse-prowed dragon ship far away from home, to a distant world which also had dragons, the likeness of which the Gaian Norse astronauts had never seen before. The map he was following would take them beyond the Sirius System, beyond the Norma Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, and far away to the Outer Arm of that galaxy, to a place called AC-430, wherein they would descend upon the Kos System and into uncharted territories. Their journey would be very long and dangerous, but the Norsemen were well prepared. Ironically, their longship was large enough to provide adequate housing for 500 crew members, but the Stjornhestr was still quite smaller than other spaceships of the time, which would make it harder to detect, and because they did not have radios, it would be impossible to track them by radar. Without even knowing it or planning it, Jarl Goffre was piloting a ghost ship.

Goffre Alvisson and his crew aboard the Stjornhestr appear for a fleeting moment before ascending away from Gaia's orbit into the Sirius System, leaving Norma Arm away from the nearest sector, travelling to Xamoyos in Bastion IV, a journey that would take the small undetectable Viking space ship several months through the vastness of the Milky Way.

After several long months travelling under the radar through the vastness of the Milky Way, after launching its way from the Empyrean Sea Beach on Gaia, over the Empyrean High Seas, passing the moon Skygem before leaving Gaia's orbit and wandering into the Sirius system, the Stjornhestr drifted silently at harrowing speeds, propelled by its seemingly magical solar-powered energy crystals which were stored like miniature wireless electroplasmic batteries, causing the fabric of timespace to distort and fold around the vessel while causing a field of heat lightning or purple ectoplasm resembling a feintly glowing spiderweb around the Viking-styled space ship, completely harmless to the touch, but magnificent to behold as the eyes of the horse-headed golden prow were lit up like gleaming headlights as the Stjornhestr hovered quietly and safely into Bastion IV's gravitational field.

Jarl Goffre Alvisson, the ship's Nordic captain and leader of the 500 personnel aboard the tiny stalion-shaped longship had successfully led the Empyrean Norsemen halfway across the galaxy, following the constellations on the star charts that were drawn many years ago by Gaian Norse explorers and skywatchers. After leaving Norma Arm and descending into the Outer Arm of the Milky Way, entering the Kos solar system and nearing Bastion IV, the Nordic Gaian astronauts gazed out at the marvelous blue-green planet below, staring down over the exosphere at a large disc-like continent surrounded by the bright blue ocean. Goffre Alvisson was not aware of it yet, but he was now looking at the entirety of Xamoyos, a place which looked strikingly similar to Ellaria, at least from the outer orbit of the planet. Goffre was reminded of the old stories his father Jarl Alvis used to tell him, about how Midgard was just a flat circular world surrounded by a ring of water. And while although Bastion IV certainly wasn't a flat planet, to the crew aboard the Stjornhestr, their perspective of the continent of Xamoyos was that it looked like a disc surrounded by water from the sky, and so Goffre Alvisson determined that perhaps the old stories were more metaphorical than literal, something which few of his predecessors had the mind to think for themselves.

As the longship neared Bastion IV's exosphere, it hovered silently in orbit around the planet for the first few days, undetectable by radar or satellite as the Stjornhestr did not have any radios or computer systems on board, and was much too small to be seen from other distant spacecraft, or from anyone on the planet's surface. The only hint of its quiet humble existence was the feint purple glow, and the gleaming reflection of the golden prow under the nearest moonlight or sun's rays. Otherwise the Viking longship just appeared as a small black silhouette floating before the curtain of the moon, its soundless form hovering silently in the darkness as it orbited the planet from above while Goffre's astrologers and mapmakers took the time to draw out their coordinates on paper, and make a sketch of Xamoyos while staring out of the large curved thick round gold-plated mirror windows.

Goffre Alvisson was staring out of the cockpit window of the Stjornhestr, a Norse space-faring longship known in the common tongue as the Star-horse, due to its speed and the enormous horse-bust golden prow at the front of the ship. It was a rather large ship by Viking standards, about the size of a giant Spanish galleon, though still very small in comparison to other contemporary spacecraft as it hovered above the exosphere of Bastion IV, for reasons unknown to anyone but the crew onboard.

"How is that map coming along?" the Jarl asked while looking down at the continent of Xamoyos from orbit.

"Ay, nearly finished my Lord," answered the mapmaker, who was standing on the command deck over a large round table, hand-drawing the continent and its surrounding oceans in great detail using a feather quill pen and a jar of black ink on parchment paper.

Suddenly, the spacial field around Bastion IV started to distort and bend as another ship emerged, seemingly from nowhere, flickering into existence about 1900 miles off the Stjornhestr's prow. Goffre would catch a glimpse of the flashing light as it appeared in his peripheral. The Jarl was not the only person in the cockpit to notice, as the pilot and his co-pilot turned to inform him.

"Anomaly, straight ahead," the pilot claimed, pointing to the feint bright dot in the distance.

Alvisson would turn and walk casually over to the cockpit window, peering at the Conflagration while trying to make out what it was. Goffre would extend his hand to the side as the co-pilot reached over and handed him a makeshift telescope, a simple crystal ball encased in a leather bound tube. Goffre would raise the telescope and peer once again at the object in the distance, which was now magnified under the looking glass.

"It's a ship... Not one of ours either," the Jarl said, handing the looking glass back to the co-pilot, who proceeded to glance through it as well before passing it off to the pilot.

The pilot of the Stjornhestr would stare long and hard at the Hastiti Class cruiser, taking note of its strange alien symbols and metallic design, something that none of the Empyrean Norsemen had ever seen before. Meanwhile, the jarl would signal for his bodyguards to follow him out of the control room and on to the bridge. The pilot of this particular shift was one Hanson Forstein, a seafaring captain of Nordic descent with Germanic roots. Forstein had never piloted a space-faring Viking longship before, and in fact, was the first of the Empyrean Norsemen to ever do so. He glanced back at the jarl for a brief moment, who ordered him to maintain their position as the Stjornhestr drifted slowly towards the Conflagration in space. The mapmaker also paused, but Goffre just patted him on the shoulder as he walked by and told him to keep working. Despite never having been this far from the Viking's home planet before, Goffre Alvisson seemed quite calm and relaxed as he and his bodyguards left the command deck.

Hanson Forstein glanced at his co-pilot before peering back through the looking glass. At that moment, he noticed something very strange about the alien cruiser in front of them. It appeared, to Forstein, that the cruiser was starting to tilt. The nose of the ship was leaning downwards towards the planet, and, seeing no lights or anything on the outside of the vessel, it looked to Forstein as if the cruiser had either been abandoned, or else the Conflagration's crew was experiencing some technical difficulties. He handed the telescope back to his co-pilot and pointed out the strange occurrence to him. The co-pilot agreed, and as the Stjornhestr came slowly to a halt, they decided to wait and see if the cruiser would keep heading towards them or if it would alter its course.

Forstein then turned to one of the karls on the command deck, and signalled for him to approach the gjallarhorn. The karl nodded and walked casually over to the large musical instrument, an enormous curved horn that was simply exaggerated in size and length, much bigger than the karl himself as he stood by, waiting for further instructions.

Goffre and his bodyguards would walk up the stairs to the captain's quarters above the main bridge, where he had a command center similar to that of the cockpit, located directly above it, with a similar view of the Conflagration from his large gold plated mirror glass window. There, he had access to a larger telescope looking out of the enormous round crystal in the eye socket of the large golden horse-bust prow, enabling Goffre to get a much closer look at the alien cruiser from his higher vantage point. The captain's quarters was segregated from the lower command center, acting as a secondary control room in case of emergency. From this armour reinforced room, Goffre could control the entire ship, so that even if something were to happen to the main cockpit area, such as a fire or explosion, the Stjornhestr would still be operational. The main bridge branched out through the longship's inner hull into several long halls and corridors. Each corridor was separated from the others by thick air-locked armoured silver and aluminum doors, so as to be sealed off in case of a breach or emergency evacuation so that air and resources would not be lost in the open vacuum.

The Stjornhestr was an energy efficient, highly simple and economic spaceship with several comfortable living quarters and housing units, simple toiletries which allowed the ship's Nordic crew to discard their bodily waste out into space, while water was stored and recycled onboard. The large ship also featured a workout unit, sort of like a medieval Viking gym where the crew could exercise. There were large cargo containers in the loading dock for storing supplies, shipping goods and other purposes, along with the retractable draw-bridge docking ramp and thick sealed doors. There were also several escape pods and launch rooms where the smaller, canoe-like convertiboats were contained, to be used as emergency evacuation vehicles or exploring and trade vessels placed strategically throughout the longship by the engineers and designers who built it.

Everything centered around the bridge. The mapmaker had just finished drawing his survey of Xamoyos from the command deck over the large round table. Towards the back of the Stjornhestr was a second control room, also with a third cockpit located at the stern. Due to the design of the Viking-esque longship, the Stjornhestr could move forward or backwards quite easily, so that the back of the ship could be quickly converted to become the front of the ship if need-be. Ventilation systems, air ducts and water pipes ran all through the ship's hull, allowing access to air and water in every living quarters. These pipes all connected to the engineer stations, eventually ending at the main storage facility which contained several greenhouses and natural biomes where plants were grown and cultivated through photosynthesis with the help of honey bees and natural starlight. These giant greenhouses were separated from one another to prevent water and air from escaping in case one or two of the greenhouses were damaged. Crew members worked inside these hot dome-shaped gold plated glass containers, planting and harvesting crops to feed the ship's 500 occupants. They also helped to tend to the hive boxes, and gather medicinal herbs to be transported to the medbay for safekeeping.

The whole system ran on pressurization, gravity, and other very simple mechanics. The ship was controlled and steered using a keel, large oar-shaped solar sails which could be moved around, tilted or repositioned, and solar-powered purple crystals which acted like rechargable glowing batteries, but generated magical energy more similar to ectoplasm than AC/DC electricity, yet produced some of the same mysterious effects of a plasma globe or lamp with colorful lightning-like filmaments that seemed dangerous at first glance, but were actually completely harmless to the touch, though powerful enough to cause a person's hair to stand on end just like static electricity. The aluminum reinforced hull would protect the longship from Röntgen radiation, X-ray scanners and electromagnetic discharges, if such a thing was even a necessity given the Empyrean Norsemen's lack of sophisticated machinery. The aluminum, silver and titanium alloy were actually chosen for their molding capabilities, flexibility and lightweight to enable the Stjornhestr to travel faster through the cosmos.

These crystals, when charged, allowed the Stjornhestr to bend the space and gravity field around it, allowing the ship to hover silently through the heavens at great speeds. Along both sides of the Stjornhestr were enormous round plates which resembled amplified bass speakers, arranged just like shields along the side of a normal Viking Age longship, only these shields were much different, and were operated individually from the defensive weapon control stations, as were the two large glowing crystals at the sternpost and stempost which could be used as prisms to generate magic and concentrate high-powered beams of energy, either for propelling the ship through outer space or for targeting in-coming missiles in order to immobilize them or detonate them before contact, similar to a microwave, EMP or laser defense system. There were no radios, satellite tethers, radars, computers or electrical equipment onboard. Instead, the Stjornhestr was operated manually or with the use of magic.

Otherwise, the Stjornhestr was shaped much like a typical Viking longship with a stern, a prow, a keel and a long narrow hull. The hull itself was made of silver, titanium and steel, reinforced with aluminum. The stern was also made of silver and aluminum, reinforced with crucible steel and titanium. The prow was fitted over the front bow of the hull and made of thick solid gold. The keel ran longways along the bottom of the hull, and was also made of pure gold. The inside of the ship was made of aluminum and silver, while the seats and beds were made of hard oak wood with leather bindings and comfortable, cushioned plant fabrics such as cotton or wool. The tables and benches were made of oak, while the captain's quarters featured silk sheets and curtains. In place of electricity, the Empyrean Norsemen had simple oil lanterns, wax candles and torches which provided light throughout the ship. In place of radios, they had gjallarhorns and crude telehorn systems which operated with the use of vibrations on long strings that ran from one end of the ship to the other.

The crew had a very simple hierarchy or social structure with Goffre Alvisson being the jarl, in a red uniform. His personal bodyguards wore black, bearskin coats with visored helms and silver armor. Below them were the karls or freemen, who made up 90% of his leidang, dressed in blue, while the rest were thralls or servants in green who performed most of the ship's manual labour, such as carrying supplies, cooking meals in the kitchen and feeding the animals at the cargo containers. This included shire horses, goats or ibexes, domesticated hogs and cattle. There were also hunting dogs, forest cats and ravens which the Empyrean Norsemen had trained to speak and deliver messages back and forth if needed. The entire ship had its own little miniature ecosystem. The greenhouses produced several varieties of trees, plants, flora, grasses and fungi including many edible crops, roots, grains, fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables to be used either as a food source or for medicinal reasons. The plants and trees provided the oxygen the crew needed to sustain for several months, or possibly even many years in deep space depending on their voyage, while the gold plating inside the mirrored windows protected the passengers from harmful gamma waves and radiation, but this was more of a secondary function or added benefit, for all of the gold and silver within the Stjornhestr was magically imbued and actually served as protection against space debris or incoming missiles and lasers.

As the pilot of the Stjornhestr peered through his looking glass again, Hanson Forstein noticed a flicker in the lights aboard the alien cruiser. Just then, a voice came through the telehorn on top of the control desk. Jarl Goffre had witnessed it too from the cabin above. Forstein picked up the cow horn that was attached to the string and placed it to his ear. The muffled voice of Goffre was barely audible and unrecognizable to the other karls inside the cockpit, but Forstein just listened and nodded quietly before responding with a simple "Yes my lord" before setting the phone down and turning to his co-pilot, who was waiting for further instructions. The co-pilot for this mission was a young man named Rolegh, who appeared to be in his early twenties with short blonde hair and blue eyes which matched his lace-tied V-neck long sleeved blue shirt and baggy trousers. He wore brown leather high-top shoes with lacings around his ankles and pantlegs, and a golden arm-ring on his left arm close to the shoulder. This was the typical attire of most of the freemen on the ship, but Forstein and Rolegh also had silver vegvisir necklaces rather than the more common mjolnir necklaces worn by the other karls, signifying that they were in charge of piloting the ship.

"That was Jarl Goffre, he wants us to reposition the Stjornhestr and sink into the sky. We're ready to explore the surface" the pilot said.

The co-pilot nodded and turned around on his swiveling wooden chair seat to face the control systems. There in front of him was a control panel with switches, wheels, Norse compasses and levers inscribed with runic symbols. Forstein then turned to the karl at the gjallarhorn and motioned for him to blow the horn with one finger. The karl nodded, and grasping the end of the gjallarhorn, he took a breath and blew into it. The sound was loud, deep and long, similar to the sound of a horn on a large tug boat. The sound travelled from one end of the longship to the other, causing the entire hull of the Stjornhestr to vibrate as it alerted the crew. Upon hearing the sound of the gjallarhorn, all 500 passengers aboard the space-faring vessel would jump up and become active, going to different places and taking up various positions within the many corridors and cabins as Forstein had Rolegh prepared to lower the Stjornhestr towards the surface of the planet. Meanwhile, the jarl continued to stare at the Conflagration through his own large telescope in the captain's quarters, watching as a milky white surge of energy enveloped the Hastiti Class cruiser for a moment like a transparent bubble before vanishing.

The Stjornhestr was moving slowly. The Conflagration was now 622 miles away, but moving swiftly through space on an incoming path towards the smaller Norse space ship as the Aschen struggled to get their systems in order. The jarl, Goffre Alvisson was not overly concerned, as he had seen the Hastiti Class cruiser through his telescope from several kilometers away and was given ample time to prepare.

The captain and co-pilot, Forstein and Rolegh, carried out their orders from Jarl Alvisson as they got the Stjornhestr up and running, and sank into the skies out of the Conflagration's path in case it was not able to stop its course. "All systems are a go. We are running smoothly, turning now five degrees south," Hanson Forstein said calmly. "Five degrees south," Rolegh the Young repeated, carrying out the captain's commands.

The Stjornhestr's crew was now ready to embark on the next part of their mission. While the 500-man passenger ship did not have offensive weapons, it did have quite an elaborate defense system. The crew was in position, but was not really expecting any hostility from the incoming cruiser as they activated the shields and stood by to await further orders. Soon, the Stjornhestr was in motion again, moving slowly towards the exosphere of Bastion IV like a hot-air balloon in outer space. Five degrees didn't seem like much at first, but given the distance between the Stjornhestr and the Conflagration, it would be enough distance and in enough time to evade an incoming collision between both vessels in case the Aschen were unable to stop or turn.

Just then, there was another voice over the telehorn. It was a call from Svegdir Staghelm, informing Hanson Forstein that the convertiboats were ready to launch. Forstein gave the issue, and soon two small almond-shaped silver pods were released from the Stjornhestr's hull, sinking below the much larger longship, each having five explorers onboard. These smaller vessels did not appear to have thrusters of any kind, nor windows, yet they operated all the same, as the passengers aboard each convertiboat peered out through their mirror-glass windshields towards their destinations. One of the pods immediately sank into Bastion IV's exosphere, and using the force of gravity, it soon began to glow reddish white and hasten speed towards the planet's surface like a meteor, its exterior becoming super red hot as a tail of green light and white smoke traveled behind it. The other small convertiboat hovered above the planet for a moment before closing in slowly towards the distressed Aschen cruiser in order to investigate the situation and make contact with the survivors onboard, if there were any.

Svegdir Staghelm was now in charge of the Bastion IV expedition as he piloted the small craft downward at a diagonal forty-five degree angle towards a small river heading for Dracos Valley on the continent of Xamoyos, accompanied by four other Empyrean Norsemen as the tiny karvi-sized convertiboat fell from the skies and dove nose first into the water. The other convertiboat was piloted by a karl named Wolfgang Yorisson, who was also accompanied by three other able-bodied Norsemen and a Norse woman named Kelsey, who happened to have medical experience incase the Aschen were need of medical assistance. Both convertiboats were labelled Karvi-1 and Karvi-2, while the Stjornhestr still had eleven other escape pods onboard in case of emergency.

Outer space was full of optical illusions. Objects that appeared closer were often quite distant. Objects that appeared smaller were actually quite large. The sun, moon and stars almost seemed like you could reach out and touch them, yet they were actually hundreds of thousands of miles away. Furthermore, objects which appeared to be hovering in stillness were often moving at incredible speeds, sometimes even faster than the speed of light itself. Such was the vastness and mystery of the dark expanse of space as the Stjornhestr continued to sink from the outer orbit of Bastion IV closer to the exosphere, going down keel-first towards the planet.

Karvi-1 and Karvi-2 had also been deployed. Karvi-1, piloted by Svegdir Staghelm, had sank down away from the Stjornhestr slowly, turning and gaining speed as it shot far around the Conflagration before going down to Xamoyos and diving nose-first into the Grigori River at a 45-degree angle, causing a huge splash in the water. Karvi-2, piloted by Wolfgang Yorisson, also sank down away from the Stjornhestr's hull very slowly before turning and going nose-first towards the in-coming Hastiti Class cruiser, which was ascending from the thermosphere of Bastion IV and moving upwards into the exosphere towards the ship.

But as the small 25-foot convertiboat moved in closer to the Conflagration to investigate, strange things began to occur. Jarl Goffre could see through his telescope, just as Hanson Forstein and his co-pilot Rolegh the Young saw from the Stjornhestr's cockpit, the Conflagration was still active, and there were people onboard. Although they could not see the Aschen crew from outside the cruiser, the Norsemen did manage to get a glimpse of the red blinking distress lights aboard the cruiser before the window shields were activated and shut to conceal the crew within. Wolfgang Yorisson turned to look at Kelsey quietly, who was peering over his shoulder, before Yorisson steered the small silver almond-shaped craft towards the port side of the Aschen Conflagration.

But as Karvi-2 neared closer to the cruiser, Goffre Alvisson noticed something else very strange about the Aschen ship. It was pivoting away from the convertiboat and was beginning to slowly ascend away from it. Jarl Goffre watched silently from the captain's quarters, grimacing slightly with confusion at the mysterious vessel before him. It appeared that the Conflagration was trying to escape as its thrusters came back on and the Hastiti Class cruiser turned on a swivel, up and to the right of the convertiboat. Jarl Goffre picked up the telehorn again and spoke into it.

"Forstein, hold our position. Activate the shields, I want everyone at the control rooms ready in case something happens... It seems we have a live one here. There are life forms onboard that ship, and they might not want our company afterall," the jarl stated.

"Yes sir," Hanson Forstein nodded before setting the cow horn down and signalling to the karl at the gjallarhorn, this time holding up two fingers. The karl nodded and within seconds, two half-blasts from the gjallarhorn were sounded out. Once again, the loud noise from the 12-foot long curved horn echoed from one end of the Stjornhestr to the other, and soon there were several people at their halls and stations getting fitted for possible conflict with the passengers aboard the cruiser.

As the crew members in blue uniforms down in the weapon defense control rooms attached their small hand-held dark purple crystals to the control decks in front of them, suddenly the crystals began to glow with a pinkish hue, emitting light all around them. Soon, the edges of the large round saucer-like shields along the outside of the Stjornhestr began to glow neon blue as Rolegh the Young motioned his hand over the runic symbols in front of him, turning the wheels and levers on his control panel. The Stjornhestr slowly stopped descending and remained completely motionless, hovering with its keel and solar-powered oar fin sails now submerged within Bastion IV's exosphere, while the rest of the Empyrean Norse vessel remained in outer space just above it.

The large eyes on the golden horse-headed prow at the front of the Stjornhestr began to flicker and blink, sending a Norse code back to Karvi-2 as the five passengers aboard the tiny convertiboat decided what to do next. Wolfgang Yorisson, upon being informed about the blinking messages from the back of the convertiboat, quickly eased up and stopped his vessel from going any further towards the Aschen cruiser. It was an order to stand down, as the convertiboat came to a complete halt. Only once the Karvi-2 had stopped moving was Wolfgang Yorisson aware that the Conflagration was withdrawing away from him.

At that moment, a third small ship emerged from the Stjornhestr's hanger. Karvi-3, also carrying a crew of five passengers, was now heading away from Bastion IV in the opposite direction. At first it moved very slowly as it turned around to face the dark expansion of outer space. But then suddenly, without warning, it would shoot forward like a speeding missile, accelerating very rapidly as it disappeared from the area, leaving the solar system from which it had arrived. The Stjornhestr was now down to 7 convertiboats and only 485 passengers. Jarl Goffre had to consider his next orders very carefully.

The Stjörnhestr's 8 shields were now activated, one by one, starting with the 2 larger frontal round shields and then the 6 smaller ones behind them as the thin outer rings around the large speaker-like shield plates started to glow in florescent neon blue, along with the two large eyes on the large protruding golden horse-headed prow towards the front of the space-faring 1000 ton longship as it hovered silently in space with its 6 rear fan-like solar powered oar-sails and keel descending just inside Bastion IV's exosphere. The 24 thinly visored slit-like rectangular mirror glass windows running along the sides of the Stjörnhestr also became illuminated with bright white lighting systems, but the white lights seemed to be coming from outside the ship rather than inside of it, allowing Jarl Goffre and his crew to see out, but still preventing outsiders from looking in.

Suddenly, the jarl and his pilots would notice another strange anomaly in their midst. As the Aschen Conflagration started to manuever slowly, swiveling upwards and to the right of the Karvi-2 convertiboat, the Hastiti Class cruiser's image and position started to change right before Goffre's eyes, reflecting a sort of transparent holographic double image. Unbeknownst to the Empyrean Norse pilots, the space above Bastion IV was full of invisible clouds made up of millions of tiny frozen ice particles. These ice clouds were literally riddled throughout the entire galaxy, and although they were non-threatening to such highly advanced ships, they sometimes reflected lights and images coming from planetary surfaces into outer space. This would pose a different sort of problem for the Empyrean Norsemen, for they had misjudged the military cruiser's position. The Conflagration wasn't in front of the Stjörnhestr, it was below it.

Jarl Goffre and his team were looking at the wrong ship, a mirage or holographic image, and by trying to sink below it, the Stjörnhestr was actually descending directly towards the actual vessel they had been trying to evade. Goffre Alvisson quickly picked up the telehorn again and yelled as loud as his voice could carry down to the pilots below.

"Pull back! Pull back! Go right! Go right! 60 degrees west, go right!" he barked loudly, causing Hansen and Rolegh to both scramble at their control panels simultaneously as they quickly set the Stjornhestr back in motion, causing the whole front end of the 300 foot long Nordic spaceship to swing to the right, away from the oncoming Aschen cruiser. Wolfgang Yorisson and his small band of rescuers watched with silent shock and disbelief as the Stjornhestr turned out of the way on the opposite side of the Conflagration, missing a front end collision course by merely a hundred feet as both ships grazed by each other, seemingly very slowly, but traveling much faster than either of them appeared to be moving.

It must have all seemed like slow motion to both crews onboard the multi-personnel space vessels as they evaded one another with tight precision, avoiding a catastrophe which would have likely been worsened at such slow rate of speed. The Conflagration absolutely dwarfed the tiny Stjörnhestr as it started to drift by like the Titanic when it grazed the iceberg. Of course, the Stjornhestr was a remarkably tough longship designed to withstand collisions with other ships. But the Conflagration was over 5200 feet long, while the Stjornhestr was only 300 feet long, a mere fraction of that size, and at this speed, the cruiser would have just plowed through on its voyage, pushing the smaller longship out of its way. The Stjornhestr wouldn't be phased, but the 485 passengers onboard would have likely been thrown about inside the hull of their ship, almost certainly sustaining heavy injuries and possibly even many casualties. Not to mention the livestock and other animals aboard the Stjornhestr, most of which having no way to strap down or be fastened in.

Hanson Forstein and Rolegh the Young would watch quietly as the Conflagration drifted by their cockpit windows before turning to one another in their seats with a sigh of relief. Jarl Goffre Alvisson was just standing up while gazing at the passing cruiser with a straight expression, nodding his head silently to congratulate himself on a job well done. Meanwhile, the Karvi-2 convertiboat had started to return back to the hanger from which it had descended as Wolfgang Yorisson and Kelsey the Healer hooted and laughed with excitement, having witnessed the whole daring feat by Jarl Goffre and his pilots from outside their windshield. This would make quite a story.

The Norsemen ignored the large dinosaurs and other animals in their vicinity, for now, as they continued to look around at the surrounding landscape, blending in with the flock, barely noticeable to the large fern eating giants scattered all around them as they worked quickly and stealthily to secure the area as fast as possible, each one sticking together as a small team to accomplish a few basic tasks with precision and a timely plan. They had capsized their boat and set it on the top of a hill on the incline, so that the convertiboat would be concealed from view on the far side of the hill facing away from the lake.

The two lesser spoken karls in blue uniforms would immediately get to work on reinforcing the convertiboat by fashioning a wall, a small three foot tall crawl-in entrance way and a lean-to rooftop overhang using the buffalo skins and bear hides as tarps or curtains, staking the leather coverings down to the ground using some of the local sticks and twigs they found laying about on the nearby shore. They also dug a small fire pit directly in front of the entrance way, placing a ring of smooth lake stones around the pit, directly in the middle underneath the slanted overhang shelter they had created with leather, stakes and string. As one of them ran around collecting any sun-baked driftwood, fallen seed pods, sticks and twigs, the other karl would work on starting the fire using his knife and a tiny flint stone he kept in his tool pouch. He would also work on building a cone-shaped rain collector which doubled as a water purifier using sea salt, charcoal, small flat stones, and a small copper ring using a pigskin sack.

By placing the fire pit under the lean-to roofop and in front of the entrance, the fire would be smaller and the smoke easily directed and dispersed, concealing the Nordic camp even better by masking the billows of smoke and directing the direction of the smoke away from their camp while simultaneously providing an in-flow of heat and warmth to the interior of their boat shelter, protecting both the entrance and the fire from rain. Birger Torvesson continued to keep his eyes open and his ears peeled on everything around him as he stood on the slope of the hill, drawing the styracoxamos that roamed freely, standing with his back to the armored silver diagonal back side of the boat shelter, which formed both the rear wall and the slightly slanted rooftop, and was actually the boat's keel and underbelly.

Jonah Marksberg and Svegdir Staghelm had a more dangerous plan involving their own personal buddy system, as they quickly went about cutting their way through all the very tall high grass in a circle around the hill to create a sort of open yard for which to have a better visual of the immediate area around their tent-like small hut. He collected the long stalks and grass clippings, using them to make a primitive grass bed interior floor matting for the shelter, and for braiding rope or string from the hairs and splines. They also gathered any long broken bones or small fallen trees they could find from any of the nearby trampled foliage, allowing the terrestrial herbivore giants to do some of the hard work for them as Jonah used his longer handled hatchet-like Frankish axe to cut off the branches and start forming piles once the small trees had been dragged back to camp.

The entrance to the shelter on the hill incline would face the lake. Svegdir Staghelm would also make use of the hadrosaurid's footprints on the shore near the lake at the bottom of the hill, turning them into small mudhole fishing ponds for catching food and bait, digging narrow trenches which allowed some fish to swim in, but not out. He began studying the shoreline and the water, taking a mental note of the sand, the dirt, the rocks and pebbles, the driftwood, any shells and seaweed, kelp or whatever else his eyes could observe and his mind could digest. He kept one hand always rested on the hilt of his sword, even while he was working, knowing that the strange new land was likely full of hidden dangers, and that something else like the pliosaur could jump out at any moment. His band had to move quickly.