<Transcript Begins>
Time: 1000 Hours, Central European Time
Date: 4 November, 2127
-Queen Margaret stands on a pile of rubble before the survivors. She wears a haunted expression on her face. An eerie silence falls over the crowd. She takes a deep breath, and begins speaking. Her voice is strong, and carries a tone of authority-
Queen Margaret: “People of Altarraum, we have been betrayed. Our kingdom is bloodied and grieving, but we are not broken. We have endured an attack of unprecedented scale, and yet we still stand. Our flag still flies over Schwangau!”
-several people whoop and cheer. The speech continues-
“We have seen the true face of our enemy, and our true allies have been revealed to us. All the world will look and see the atrocity inflicted upon us. When they do, they will not see a broken and crippled kingdom, no! They will see the kingdom rise again, stronger and grander than it ever was before! They will see a free people! A nation that will never bow, and will never break! Mourn the fallen, but know that their deaths will not be in vain! Our enemies will feel the full force of our wrath!”
-A truly massive, silver-flecked blue and tan drake flies over the crowd and perches behind the queen, atop what is left of the Crystal Spire. He is clutching one of the Alamos gunmen in his claws, who is crying and pleading for mercy. The queen looks at him, then up at the drake, who bares his fangs and snarls. She turns back to the crowd and throws her arms out wide-
“We will have our vengeance!”
-The crowd begins chanting “Eat him!” The drake snarls, tosses the gunman into the air, snaps his jaws shut around the terrified human, and swallows him. The crowd erupts into cheers, throwing their fists into the air. The drake spreads his wings out to their full forty-foot span, throws his head back, and lets out a loud, screeching roar-
<Transcript Ends>
“Holy shit, was that Quecksilber?”
• Netcat
“Yes. He was gravely injured during the attack, so I gave him a dose of the serum to save his life. It had a far more profound effect on him than anticipated.”
• Wolf Queen
Hell on Earth:
The Samhain Massacre is easily the darkest chapter in Altarraum’s history. It was a well-planned, well-executed, multi-pronged attack carried out by members of Alamos 20k. They had been infiltrated by a Master Shedim, who led them in the attack against Altarraum. It is believed that they had been carefully sneaking into the kingdom for months. On Samhain night, during the height of the festivities, they opened fire on the crowds, killing dozens within seconds. A series of bombs leveled the Crystal Spire in a manner eerily similar to the Sears Tower bombing, killing thousands more. Once the Master Shedim was satisfied with the number of bodies, it opened several astral gateways for more Shedim to pour through.
At the same time, an unknown matrix entity appeared on the public grid and attacked. The e-ghost, Mod fought back, and the ensuing battle crashed Schwangau’s grid. Mod pushed his multi-processing capabilities to the max and forcefully dumped everyone who was jacked into the grid before striking back at the entity. This act caused hundreds to suffer the effects of dumpshock, but ultimately saved their lives. Unfortunately, the crash prevented anyone from calling for help, and Mod was left severely damaged.
“It took weeks to repair his anthro drone, which just barely escaped getting bricked. It took even longer to repair his programming, and he’s still not quite himself. I don’t know what hit him, but I hope he managed to take it out. I sure as hell don’t want to run into it.”
• FastJack
Within an hour of the first shot being fired, Neuschwanstein Castle was overrun by the Shedim. There were so many that they simply slammed into the gate and piled up on each other until they poured over the wall. With the help of a decker, who has asked to remain anonymous, the crown prince (who was only 10 years old at the time) was evacuated along with half a dozen others to the nearby Troll Kingdom. Once there, the decker was able to inform the king of what was happening and convince him to lend aid. He was also able to access the matrix and contact Queen Margaret, who was in Seattle and unaware of what was happening. She rushed back to find Schwangau in chaos, and the eastern side of the city in flames thanks to the Crystal Spire bombing. She flew into a fury, and levitated herself far above the city before unleashing a massively high-force spell that destroyed most of the shedim within Schwangau. The spell she used is believed to be the same one that was first seen at the Battle of Essen, but cast at a much higher force. The spell required so much power that her scars reopened, and she lost consciousness after the spell ended. Lord Quecksilber, despite being badly injured himself, dove out of the sky and caught her when her levitation spell failed. Due to his injuries, he crash landed in the forest outside of the city.
“So…how’d you get back to Schwangau so fast?”
• One Shot
“Laughing Man taught me a neat little trick after Gregor was born that has really come in handy. It allows me to walk full-body through the astral.”
• Wolf Queen
“So you can basically go anywhere in the blink of an eye. That is cheating, madam.”
• One Shot
“I’m not quite that fast. The trick is also very draining, so I don’t use it often. I think I’ve used it a grand total of three times over the last eighteen years.”
• Wolf Queen
Once the city was retaken, forces from the Troll Kingdom helped the Zentralewache mop up the rest of the Shedim. Several members of Alamos 20k were captured near Munich, trying to flee the kingdom, and were promptly executed. The entire ordeal only lasted six hours, but nearly 30,000 people were dead, with over twice that number wounded or missing. Many of the missing were found in the Schwangau Tunnels beneath the city. They had tried to escape the city through the tunnels, to avoid the chaos above, but where cut down by traps set by Alamos 20k. Some sections of the tunnels that had been booby trapped are still sealed off. Half of the original six members of the High Council were among the dead, and only one of the remaining members, Lord Geoff Mayer, escaped injury by the dumb luck of simply being elsewhere on his annual vacation at the time. Lady Runa Thorsdottir lost her left eye, and Lord Michael Quecksilber nearly lost his left leg. He still limps to this day, and his back is heavily scarred.
Once the queen recovered from the near-fatal drain, she was furious to learn that Lofwyr had betrayed her by choosing not to come to Altarruam’s aid and instead ordered his forces within the kingdom to pull out and return to Essen. Citing breach of contract and high treason, the queen cancelled all contracts with Saeder-Krupp, and handed them over to Ares. All S-K employees still in Altarraum were declared traitors, and given 48 hours to leave the kingdom. The Corporate Court refused to review the case, as the queen had never signed the Business Recognition Accords and the CC had no jurisdiction within the country.
“Lofwyr was apoplectic with rage at being given the boot. I seriously thought he was going to tear the Essen Arcology apart.”
• Prime Runner
“Apparently his plan was to use the chaos to seize control of Altarraum right out from under me, and take back what he feels is still rightfully “his”. Thankfully Celedyr was having none of it, and put a stop to that plan. Now my Vater has an armor piercing Gungir missile with his name on it if he shows his face in Altarraum again.”
• Wolf Queen
“What in God’s name is a Gungir Missile?”
• Jarhead
“Ground-to-Air Thor shot interceptor missile, or GATSI for short. It’s designed to do pretty much what the name implies. Which is intercept Thor shots with enough explosive power to both slow the Thor shot down, and break it up into smaller, less harmful pieces. I thought the original name sounded silly, so I suggested the name Gungir after the mythical spear of Odin, which is said to never miss its target, and kill whatever it strikes.”
• Wolf Queen
“Including dragons?”
• Netcat
“Possibly, but for the record, I would be very hard pressed to use it for that purpose.”
• Wolf Queen
“So, how’d you even get Gungir missiles? My admittedly brief research tells me that they’re still in the prototype phase.”
• Jarhead
“Only because there hasn’t been an opportunity to put them to the test yet (and I hope I won’t be the one who has to perform that test). There are certain advantages to being on friendly with Mr. Knight. One of the more obvious ones being that I get to play with all of Ares’ shiny new toys.”
• Wolf Queen
Now, eighteen years later, Schwangau is nearly unrecognizable. Much of the old German architecture had burned to the ground, and was cleared away to make room for new architecture that is a perfect blend of Elven and ancient Norse styles, with a modern twist. Large LTACs hover in the skies, and many new spires tower over the city. Far up in the mountains to the east stands the new Crystal Spire. Twice the size of its predecessor, it stands as a giant middle finger to those who tried to break the kingdom. It sits within the Tesrae ti’Morel “Citadel of Life”, which covers the entire mountain and is nearly a city in and of itself. The spire houses the UMMR, as well as the largest hospital in the kingdom. Even the castle has gotten a makeover to truly bring it into the modern era.
