Wolfgang Yorisson's Story

Amusingly, while bornstein was inspecting old dung one of the sauropods was lumbering its way toward him. Its sheer size and weight would almost shake the ground as it walked. Suddenly, its long whip-like tail lifted upwards and a torrent of fresh dung came tumbling down. A sheer pile of steaming dung as big as a small car had been deposited. Within no time, a group of Xamoyan dung beetles came to feast on it.

Back at camp, a family of prairie beetles was making its way near. It was a bizarre creature, a large beetle-like animal that was not an insect but a reptile the size of a car. There were three of them, a male and female with their young. They were curious about this new encampment being set up. They made subtle squeaking vocalizations every so often.

Yet more pterosaurs would find themselves perching. This was just one though, and it was much bigger than the ones encountered earlier. This one was twice the size of an eagle and had a jagged looking beak. This was a Gladioxamos. It took the time to preen its much more impressive wings before looking at Birger and Jonah and letting out a harsh squawk.

In the bushes by Danegh, the foliage shuffled as the human voice continued to call out. "Heeeeelp meeeeeee" it said. What was odd about this was the inflections in the voice, like a person trying to speak but not quite knowing how. The reason for this became clear shortly. "Hellllp....Bornstein....meeeeeeeeee" it said before the cause rose up out of the bush. It was a large bipedal animal with a coat of feathers that was two heads taller than Danegh. This was a Xamatoraptor, and the sound came from it. It had mimicked a sound to lure him in, it was a trap! It opened and closed a frill of feathers around its head as if communicating. Harsh snarls and the occasional sound of Deneghs own voice parroted back at him.

There was no telling how long the figure had been crouched in the tall grass just beyond the camp, but they were there, hidden behind the sophisticated cloaking system of a T-65 combat skin, which had facilitated their ability to move relatively unhindered by the wildlife across the continent of Xamoyos.

They had long since abandoned their drop pod, and they knew that the Conflagration was long gone which meant other than the emergency recall node integrated into the combat suit, the woman was on her own.

She caught the distress call, the strange "help me" that reverberated through the area. Her attention snapped in the direction of the call, while the suits keen sensor suites pried through the dimensional veil to scan the surroundings. It picked up multiple life forms, including humanoid life forms, slowly she moved closer to the sound, trying to steady herself against a fallen log, only to have her hand pass through it. Catching her balance, she crept closer, the colored frills of a Xamatoraptor highlighted in her tactical analysis suite, moving undetected, she crept closer, her eyes fixated on the human Danegh, his form highlighted as well. Though he was clearly in danger, Erin took no further actions, choosing only to observe for now.

At camp, the Gladioxamos tilted its head in that distinctively bird-like manner. It seemed to be eyeing them, perhaps evaluating if they were worth attacking. A screech echoed from the sky however as a second pterosaur flew down and perched near it. This one was a male, the original being female. His crest was noticeably larger and flushed with a reddish tint. It seemed the two were a mated pair as they nuzzled their long jagged beaks against the other, grotesque honking sounds coming out of them. The two then launched off of their perch, noticeably bending the metal from the force of it.

As the Xamatoraptor eyed Danegh, the human vocalizations would seem to be coming from it. "Meeeeeeee.....helllllp", came from the dinosaurs toothy jaws. It wasn't alone however, three more came rushing in from behind. Danegh had been ambushed and was lured into a trap. The four raptors flared their frills as if communicating with each other while hissing and screeching at the lone Viking. He was surely doomed.

Erin watched everything unfold for a moment from the relative safety, and comfort of her plane, the dimensional phase for which she was carefully entrenched within. It was time to make a move, and save the lone human like some sort of guardian angel. With a simple mental command, the phase shift cloak shifted slightly, and the dimensional bubble that was being broadcast around her collapsed, but the suit’s thermoptical camouflage system remained active, rendering her all but invisible to the keenest eyes, and even thermal sensors. She took a split second to grasp a flash-bang from a back pouch which had been firmly secured to her suit. She pulled the pin, and tossed it in a wide arc towards the first Raptor’s feet.

There was a delay of about a second, until the canister exploded with a deafening boom, and a blinding flash, but was otherwise harmless, designed to disorient, it was a nonlethal choice that she had made to try and not harm the local wildlife, however, she clasped the disruptor rifle at her back, detatching the magnetic clamp and pulling the weapon forward immediately after the deafening bang to see what would happen next, hoping that her action was sufficient to scare the raptors away. Thermoptical camouflage was engaged and she stood perfectly still, weapon held slightly forward, tactical systems highlighting the additional raptors in the area as they began to encroach on her position.

Gaia: High orbit

Amidst the magic imbued void of space, a single distortion opened up, cloudy tendrils of spatial energies opened up as a single Taiyou ship, the Shizuru Maru jutted fourth from the nothingness of space.

Once it decelerated, Captain Susumu Kodai watched the displays intently, It had been some time since General Hama had heard from the Argosian legions dispatched to Iskjerne Bay, and rather than risking lowering the defenses at his portal facility, he had opted to redirect the nearest Imperial ship to perform a high-orbital reconnoiter of the Iskjerne Bay region.

Captain Kodai briefly checked his instruments, they were beyond the interference field, and everything seemed to be working nominally. This was good, so the Captain turned to his bridge officer. "Are we in position?" He asked in Taiyou, with which the officer nodded, and a magnified image of Iskjerne Bay flitted into view on the screen, there was a lot of darkness, but the orange glow of flames could be made out in the pixelated image.

"Clean it up, we're going to have to wait until daybreak to take additional photos." He said, the overwhelming feeling that something was amiss seemed to wash over him.

"That's a lot of fire down there... I wonder what happened." The Captain asked quietly, as they magnified the image.

The bright flash of light combined with the loud sound was enough to make the pack of raptors balk. They shook their heads, their feathered arms reaching up toward their eyes as the light temporarily blinded them. They began to disperse and panic, causing their coordination model to break. Denegh had been saved, the raptors had run off and now was his chance to escape before something bigger and nastier showed up.

Back at camp, there was a noticeable creaking on the treetops. Attached by its stem, a strange-looking fruit looked ready to fall. It was a very unappealing looking fruit; yellow-ish brown and covered in sharp spines, it was only about as big as a mango. Eventually, it broke free from the stem and plummeted toward the earth. The impact was just enough to expose part of its flesh inside, leaking with sweet-smelling juice. This was a deceptive plant, however, if you weren't deterred by the sharp spikes then the toxic juices inside will.

The sound of rustling came from the shrubbery by the forests edge. Suddenly, a head poked up from the thick foliage. It was the head of a theropod dinosaur, one with two disc-shaped crests on the top of its head. It moved toward their camp, revealing its actual height. This two-legged animal was taller than all of them, easily two heads taller. Around its bird-like neck was the noticeable signs of a loose flap of skin. It had a frill that it could extend, possibly as a threat display. The animal did not display interest in the Norsemen, rather its attention was on the strange fruit. It bent down, sniffing at it before swallowing the spiky fruit whole. Under its mouth, a noticeable throat pouch seemed to balloon out some, filling with some kind of liquid. The creature then made hacking sounds, as if coughing before regurgitating the solid leftovers of the fruit onto the floor.

As the light, and the smoke from the sudden flash-bang settled, and receded, a figure shimmered in front of Danegh as she stepped out of the thick foliage. The air shimmered, like sunlight on water before reveling a strange figure in a form fitting, sleek, and slender suit of armor with a glossy black faceless visor.

There was a hiss, and a series of whirs before the glossy visor of the helmet retracted, and opened up to reveal a young woman with piercing blue eyes, and raven black hair, her hawkish facial structure also betrayed her hardened nature as the helmet, and visor retracted into the suit's shoulder.

She eyed Danegh for a moment, as she slid her disruptor rifle over her back, and attached the weapon with an audible click, before she took a step forward, looking around for a moment.

"Are you okay?" She asked. The light began to glint off of her suit, as she briefly glanced around.

The ground near Danegh would begin to shake. This was no earthquake, but something far more significant. Before his eyes, he would witness the biggest animal in the land. It was massive, dwarfing all it stood by. The dinosaur was known as a sauropod, its long neck stretching into the sky. Each step it made would cause the ground to experience aftershocks, which wouldn't be unusual for an animal weighing 200 tons.

This was no ordinary sauropod however, this was the titan of the land. In comparison, Danegh would be no bigger than its toe. It approached the norsemen, its long neck craning down to get a good look at him. There was wisdom in this animals eyes, it understood who he was and recognized he was not a threat. It opened its mouth and groaned, the sound capable of penetrating his very being.

The Stjornhestr had left Xamayos in a haste, and it seemed that the space faring Empyrean Norsemen would never return to such a hostile and foreboding planet full of dangers. Weeks went by without any exciting activity, until one day, the large Viking starship appeared out of the darkness once again, entering Bastion IV's exosphere and orbiting around the mostly mysterious planet like a miniature moon or artificial satellite, only the Stjornhestr was crafted by dwarves and reinforced by elves using magically embued metals which made the modest sized longship harder to detect. It remained relatively dormant in Bastion IV's airspace, orbiting the planet slowly for nine days and nights before deploying the Karvi-3.

Only this time, the small pod-like convertiboat didn't descend towards the Dracos Valley, and it wasn't alone. Karvi-1 and Karvi-2 descended behind it so that all three scouting vessels formed a strategic flying bird formation with Karvi-3 in the lead. Jarl Goffre's crew had discovered another anomaly on the planet's surface, and this time it wasn't their own settlement that they had left behind in Dracos Valley, but some strange land formations in the mountains further up. Just like last time, Jarl Goffre and the Stjornhestr's engine team stayed with the longship, while Svegdir Staghelm and Wolfgang Yorisson piloted the smaller vessels down to the planet. Kelsey the Healer and Birger Torvesson also accompanied them, along with Borstein, Danegh, and several others.

They were better equipped for their second space exploration, if not only because the king of the Empyrean Norse Empire had to bribe them all to return to the planet after what happened last time. The Norsemen aboard the Stjornhestr had an onboard mini-ecosystem with native livestock and horses from Gaia, which would make easy prey and a delicious meal for predators like the one that Danegh had witnessed. Now wealthier since their return to Gaia, the Vikings came better prepared with weapons and armor. Although they still had the same basic spears, swords and axes as before, they now had a sidearm. But it wasn't a knife or dagger. It appeared to be a rudimentary type of pistol or firearm. It was a new model weapon that Goffre's crew had engineered aboard the Stjormhestr, based on an old familiar Argosian pistol that the Empyrean Norsemen discovered on their own beach a long time ago.

King Halfdan the Great had sanctioned this project himself, and Goffre Alvisson was fully aware of the secret missions and experiments taking place on his own starship, but nobody else on board the Stjornhestr knew about one of those secret missions until now as they examined their new handguns, holstering them at their sides and clutching their golden axes as they buckled their seatbelts and the convertiboats descended towards the Savage Peaks, before heading into Pagourano to investigate the strange artificial structures which were visible from their small mother ship high above the atmosphere, almost appearing to Jarl Goffre to be some sort of spaceport that wasn't very well hidden, but unintentionally designed to be seen by aircraft.

Were these voice-mimicking bipedal reptiles or dragon-like beasts capable of building a spaceport? Each man had his own thoughts and opinions, or personal beliefs which they kept to themselves as the three karves sank into the mountains, flying in tight formation between the peaks as they slowed down, gliding over the the large artificial wall which Birger the mapmaker had brought to Jarl Goffre's attention. The wall wasn't really that obvious, but Birger had a keen eye and was able to spot it from a rocket-distance away. None of the Vikings noticed the small village as they flew over it, for everything around them was covered with snow, the wind was cooler and foggy as the warm clouds from the valley sank and settled into the mountains, creating a haze on the vessel's windshields.

Three small almond-shaped silver skyships hovered slowly over the frozen landscape, having no thrusters or exhaust systems and making no noise as the 25-foot-long space pods approached the Pagourano Spaceport, gliding over the mountainous tundra before slowly descending in a V-shape delta formation. These aptly named 'convertiboats' did not bare markings and appeared to have no doors or windows, but were completely silver and metallic, belonging to the Empyrean Nordic Empire of Gaia and designed for these kind of surface expeditions. Karvi-3 was in the lead, with Karvi-1 and Karvi-2 trailing close by at its flanks as the three Nordic convertiboats descended towards the large open landing pad, hovering quietly to a slow and graceful stop. None of the convertiboats had wheels, skis or landing gear, but instead appeared to levitate a foot or so off of the landing surface without any need for additional landing gear. Like hovercrafts, they just hovered above the landing pad without budging, as if held in place by some kind of electromagnetism or magical energy.

All at once, the bimini-like visored silver rooftops on the small karve-sized skyships began to open and slide backwards like plates of metal scale armor, causing the convertiboats to take on a more familiar shape which looked extremely similar to three very small Viking trade ships, just like the karves you'd find drifting in the rivers and fjords or roped to water docks. It was clear from their appearance that these convertiboats were not just spacecraft, but also doubled as watercraft which could be oared, steered or even completely submersed underwater. Each convertiboat had 12 passengers, making 36 crewmates altogether between all 3 karves. This was a considerably small leidang, as the remaining 10 convertiboats had stayed in port, docked aboard the Stjornhestr along with the other 464 passengers who had remained in orbit above the planet's surface. Svegdir Staghelm, Jonah Marksberg, Birger Torvesson the Mapmaker, and Borstein the Benevolent stepped out off the deck of Karvi-1, accompanied by 8 other Empyrean Norsemen in strange uniforms.



Svegdir, Jonah, Birger and Borstein all wore lace-tied V-neck blue longsleeve shirts with baggy trousers. Svegdir and Jonah wore silver vegvisir necklaces, while Birger and Borstein wore mjolnir necklaces. Four of the other Norsemen from Karvi-1 also wore blue uniforms with silver mjolnir necklaces, while the other 4 crew members from Karvi-1 wore green uniforms without jewelry, signifying that these were thralls or servants and not freemen like the others. Svegdir Staghelm also wore another necklace with a purple crystal skeleton key pendant, and among all of the Norsemen who had arrived with him, Svegdir was the most prominent and easiest to spot, for he was the only Viking in the entirety of their whole crew who was wearing a horned helmet. All the rest of them wore simple dome-shaped helmets with nose guards or basic half-visors, cloth beanie-like snowcaps or no headgear at all. Some had spears and pikes, some had swords, some had axes and shields, and some were completely unarmed. Birger Torvesson carried a leatherback parchment journal or art book, while everyone in blue uniform also carried a sidearm pistol in a holster on their black leather belts.

Wolfgang Yorisson, Kelsey the Healer, Danegh the Daring, and 9 other passengers stepped out of Karvi-2, likewise in appearance. As karls, all three of them were wearing blue uniforms. Wolfgang and Kelsey had vegvisir necklaces, while Danegh and the other karls wore mjolnir necklaces. All of the 12 crewmates aboard Karvi-2 were armed freemen in blue uniforms, and nobody in their group was wearing green, for there were no servants among them. Kelsey was holding a white briefcase with a blue triquetra symbol entwined with double serpents upon it, signifying that it was some sort of first-aid kit or medical case for apothecary work and witchcraft. Apart from all the others, Kelsey also wore a blue hooded cloak, common among witches and female Norse healers. They too were also armed with various weapons and different kinds of personal armor, and each one also carried a small pistol as a sidearm in holsters attached to their belts.

Finally, the 12 crewmates aboard Karvi-3 stepped out on to the landing pad. 8 of them wore blue uniforms while the remaining 4 were unarmed servants in green uniforms. Of those in blue uniforms, 2 of them wore vegvisir necklaces while the other 6 karls wore mjolnir necklaces. Everyone with a vegvisir necklace was either a pilot or co-pilot, while the rest of the posse served as part of the greater space navy. The Empyreans were a tall and muscular, fair skinned human race with various different eye and hair colors, hair styles, armor and headgear. Most of the men had beards with various beard styles and mustaches, while most of the women had longer hair, some wavy and some braided or styled in different forms. Interestingly, many of the Norsemen carried axes and war hammers of 24-karat gold, which had been fashioned by the Strandvergar or beach dwarves, or swords and spears made of 99.9 fine silver, forged by the Sjóálfar or sea elves in their home kingdom. Likewise, these strange newcomers wore silver and gold armour imbued with Dwarven and Elven rune magic.



The people in blue clothing wore black or brown leather high-top shoes with lacings around their ankles and grey baggy pantlegs, each one having a golden arm-ring on his or her left arm close to the shoulder. The thralls in green uniforms had brown pants and straw sandals, or walked barefoot without any regalia, armor, weapons, arm-rings or jewelry at all. Everybody else was nicely adorned with various colored gemstone rings and necklaces, body piercings and tattoos, some of them having small leather coin bags, superstitious trinkets and amulets devoted to various gods and goddesses or land and sea spirits. Some of them even wore the silver cross of Hvitkristr, the symbol of the new religion that some of the Norsemen had adopted over time.

There were bags of supplies and luggage aboard the convertiboats, and some of the crewmates had brought animals with them as well. Staghelm had 2 hunting wolfdogs similar to the Ellarian spitz. Wolfgang had a red-tailed hawk or falcon, while Kelsey had a talking raven which only had a very limited vocabulary. As the Empyrean Norsemen stepped out on to the landing pad, they gazed at one another before looking around at the unfamiliar spaceport, taking in the cold fresh air and the scenery around them.

Gromp had been gone for far too long, which was troublesome. The likes of gnomes were the least likely to go missing in the wilds of Xamoyos what with all the monsters and creatures with big-ass teeth and-

rrRRRrmpCHCK Norg Fungona revved off his motorbike and hopped off. His heavy boots barely made a sound on the packed snow as he stomped his way up and through the entrance to the spaceport.

"Whas'r a convention 'er someshit?" Norg said louder than he meant to. Where the hell did all these people come from, and what business did they have here? Had someone started a tourism business over night, and how come he wasn't in on a piece of that pie? And where was Gromp to rake it in on gun sales?

Norg let out a low, long, whistle as he took in the viking ship. A slight breeze ruffled the furs of his hood and tickled his ear. Norg twitched at the itch, then noticed another vessel with people coming out of it. Incoming in the background was yet another ship - this one seemed to be a shipping carrier of some variety.

A small collection of ships appears over Gaia, slowing to a stop just outside of the atmosphere.
The ship is the CU Cheerfulness, a ship in the Oberon's Colonial Expeditionary Force, and it's escorts. They have come to explore Gaia, and being slightly aware of the magical composure of Gaia, have a crew equipped for such.
The dropship readies in it's hangar, and the five crew members board it, performing a quick prayer for protection. The crew of the small ship, prepared for their one-way trip, brace in their seats as the ship is dropped into the atmosphere.
The ship momentarily turns red as it burns through the atmosphere, then cools as it enters, streaking down towards the ground.