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Northern Sea
The first Rorian Jihad was an example of a largely unconscious rebellion against control over the human mind in the form of machines. For what is a machine but a device that allows us to think less? The second Rorian Jihad was not unconscious at all and would have happened regardless of the New Eclipse Alliance's control over the human psyche.
-Reflections On The New Order/Analysis Of History: The Second Rorian Jihad, by Jibb II of Unova
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As the Vengeance Fleet crawled onward, Casey explored the L.S. Victory under Bronze's nose. Considering that the world was about to end, why shouldn't she allow herself a last bit of rebellious behavior?
Moon had gone with her, making sure that she wouldn't interfere with military operations on the superfrigate. Although most vessels in the Association fleet will spaceworthy, large cruisers such as the L.S. Victory required additional boosters and suspensors to leave the atmosphere. It had been one of the few capital ships not sent on the disastrous assault on Eternatus for this reason, and the only capital superfrigate that had survived the unexpected solar engulfment.
They hurried to the weapons-control deck of the flagship. From the interconnected prime command center, the two could access the firing controls for the entire fleet. The systems were all coordinated to this point, although every battleship had the option of independent firing.
As part of the Tercano Accords, the vessels required at least one person to be in control of the sophisticated command-and-control links between the prime bridge and the various weapons of the Vengeance Fleet. Incapable of automation, Bronze had outsourced the job to Rotom and Porygon embedded into the fleet's AI system, or executive officers and trained gunners.
"If we want to remove machines, then why don't we just use Pokemon to fight?" Casey asked. "Why all the robots?"
"Because we need these to fight against our technologically near-equal enemies." Moon put her hands on the guardrail around the catwalk. "We still have control over the machines. They can't do anything that we don't want them to. We could shut them off."
"But if we did, then we would lose. Humans need machines just as much as the machines need humans to be created."
Moon chuckled, pointed at a plasma turret by a hull door. "Do you see that weapon? It's a machine. Casey, I know quite a lot of things, but I don't know how that machine works. It bothers me that I don't know how it works."
"You could learn! I know about computers and machines. Look, you can see the servo-motor attached to the central pivoting point. Two wirefilm tubes are attached to the energy containment globe with surge protectors. You can see the manual controls-"
"I understand that I could learn," Moon said, walking away from the weapons-control deck and down to the storage tunnels. "But I have heard a theory that the total intelligence of the human race remains fixed, even as the population grows. Imagine a population governed by idiocy! In fact, technological and machine-culture societies inevitably are due to having too many machines."
"Machines can't be the enemies of the human race!" Casey cried, running after her. "There are too many good things that they do-"
"It's not the machines that are the true enemy, not always," Moon said. "What really matters is who controls the machines."
...
The archival room was filled mostly with holobooks and computer terminals, but old print copies remained, stuffed in storage bins. Casey pilfered the files by jacking the Association network through her port of choice, discovering many intriguing documents amid the swamp of crew reports, damage assessments, and cargo manifests.
The largest computer was Bronze's private terminal, guarded by security Magnemite. Moon pacified the creatures, deactivated the Rotom that locked the device, shut down the paralyzing memetic agents that provided an additional layer of security, and allowed Casey to sift her way through the most secure documents. Taking care not to prevent information leaks, Moon reasoned that anything on Bronze's computer so blithely left in the open would already be in her knowledge.
"Moon, I found some files that Bronze put into the frigate network!"
"What?" Moon replied. "That would never be something that he would do unless he wanted to communicate with officers aboard the ship, without any chance of outside interference. What's the encryption on it?"
Casey set aside the data. "A Hisuian glyph cipher. I don't understand the language, and Sinnosuian speech families have virtually no relation to any other ones. It would take me weeks to break it."
"Let me take a look." Moon saw the falling Hisuian text, and realized that the encryption key was a fairly simple saying in Old Hisiun: A star shines upon the hour of our meeting. She input the code, and unlocked a set of files, left by the Grand Bashar himself.
Why, Bronze, did you not tell me about these documents?
The entries consisted of correspondences between Bronze and a man identified by the pen name Ahnenerbe. The files were listed as having been created a week ago. The documents were, again, in Hisuian, and it would take Moon several minutes to identify the dialect and figure out how to read it.
"Moon, should we call Bronze and ask him to tell us what these files are about?"
Moon shook her head, and began her decoding. "That would be unwise. Bronze is engrossed in his battle plans, and any interruption would hurt our preparation and crew morale. Also, it would be shameful to him if his wife demanded that he give answers to something that he did not already tell her. We will go deeper."
Minutes later, Moon had broken the code and uncovered the documents. Isolated within the L.S. Victory's secure mainframe, a private communique between the Grand Bashar and Ahnererbe had been hidden, on Bronze's own terminal. It read something as follows:
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OPERATION BLACK ROPE: FILE ID: 2112-02-01-BR-04
(WARNING! DO NOT REMOVE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT 6-B CLEARANCE OR WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF TWO EXECUTIVE MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION!)
Source: Part of a cache of digital documents Tess acquired from Konrad Goebells, a New Eclipse Order soldier, during a raid on Hau'oli City. I think it has something to do with the Obskuravitis organization and the Perm Society. Along with a series of translated documents regarding several anomalous phenomena and unknown Pokemon, I found that the communications function was still active, although heavily damaged. The entirety of the conversation has been recorded and I have encrypted the entire log.
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To: Bronze Tercano
From: Ahnenerbe, The Wanderer's Library
Subject: The Scattering
Chairman Bronze Tercano:
Unfortunately, a number of independent observers like myself have noticed the troubled straights that your universe has fallen into. I am currently unable to help you in any way besides giving you advice on what you ought to do if your civilization ever recovers.
I am a member of an organization known as the Templar Goromancers, and I come from another world. Through the use of a strategically placed Microway, I am able to send you these messages. I present the Theory of Interstellar Diaspora, also known as the Scattering Hypothesis. I have determined that you are quite intelligent for an unenhanced human, and likely have considered this idea yourself.
The theory postulates that at a certain point, most civilizations reach a point of technological singularity: where invention becomes nearly limitless and the development of new inventions occurs at lightning speed. This is an uncomfortable growing process for many cultures, who react in the form of antitechnology fanaticism, or your own Rorian Jihad and Tercano Accords. Usually, this like is a subconscious immune response, and a good one. Many cultures are not yet ready for technological maturity.
Of course, all beings must grow. A civilization must either sprout or die. The solution is obvious on a societal scale: space travel! The use of vehicles to support life across the Many Worlds and the Little Diasporas puts a species beyond the ability of a single nonomnipotent intelligence to control, at least for races with moderate to low social cohesion. This process was already underway in a limited form before the Rorian Jihad, if our records are correct.
My proposal is this: you encourage your people to scatter into the wild universe and colonize whatever they will, without any authority dictating them from Earth. It has worked in other worlds and the probability of success in your universe is high. I encourage you to see this not only as a step to allow for wide human expansion, technological development, and Arceus-permitted anthropocentrism, but the survival of the human race and the increased likelihood of defeating whatever anomalous threats come in your direction.
Sincerely,
Ahnenerbe of the Templar Goromancers.
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To: Ahnenerbe
From: Bronze Tercano, Freezington
Subject: The Scattering
Ahnenerbe:
It is a great relief to know that our problem had been receiving attention from other worlds. Although I am pursuing a solution for the issue, aid would be greatly appreciated. As for your proposal, several difficulties exist with it that I deem insurmountable at the current time:
1. Spacefolding technology is only viable for terrestrial distances.
2. The concept of spreading human diversity is not feasible on these small scales. With the best long-distance ships being able to reach Pluto in two years through conventional methods, widespread diaspora is not possible.
3. The problem of Earth-bound thinking.
Of course, another purpose of the Scattering theory would be for humanity to abandon certainty, safety, and security as individual goals and "scatter" not only geographically, but socially, technologically, and socio-politically. It might at least be attempted, if we do not go extinct or fall to the Shadow.
Also, I would like to thank you for unveiling a possible security risk in our network. A rouge actor might be able to enter our files with the use of such a "Microway."
With regard from a Shadowed world,
Bronze Tercano of the Pokemon Association.
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To: Bronze Tercano
From: Ahnenerbe, Amoni-Ram
Subject: Difficulties
Chairman Bronze Tercano:
Five days have passed since I received your response, although only several minutes went by on your end. As such, I have been led through several work avenues to the wonderous Mekanite city of Amoni-Ram. Multiversal time dilation, thankfully, can mostly be averted by Library-approved communication devices; this Microway is an example. I would also like to address your difficulties:
1. Spacefolding technology is, when compared to thaumaturgical means of transportation, primitive. You have anomalous creatures that populate every facet of your life: Pokemon. Our archives show that they should be able to help with your physical limitations. Use a modified Kant tube to contain the wild tachyons that transport an Abra through its teleportation.
2. The advent of more advanced spacefolder engines would negate this aspect of your concerns.
3. Planetary attachment is a weakness, although from what I have learned, it was a weakness fostered by your and your administrators to consolidate your power. The time has come to change that. Any relief efforts after the disaster has passed must be focused around A. the principle of colonization, B. the fragility of Earth, and C. the possibility of enemy outposts lurking in deep space.
As for the possibility of unscrupulous characters hijacking your secure networks through the use of Microways, I assure you that our technicians and battle-mages in the Library keep a careful watch on the use of Microways. Of course, I can guarantee nothing.
The use of Microways has borne additional fruit. I have acquired limited intelligence of the enemy forces you face, and have noted great diversity amid the paratechnology available to them and members with thaumaturgical ability. In addition to the Psyche Division of the Eclipse Alliance, (composed of wonder workers) enemy commando teams include agents of the Unovan and Kalosi Occult Services, the runemasters of the Order of the Aesier, the antimasons of the Bellsprout Tower, zealots of the Eternal Temple, and janissaries of the Brotherhood of Auspicious Survivors. This list is not comprehensive.
This is indicative of an expansive and cohesive coalition within the global occult community, one which seeks to oppose your operations while in partnership with the New Eclipse Order; said coalition is almost certainly wider in scope than the great powers arrayed against you in the conventional war. I have also noted Nalikian influence among the rankers of the New Eclipse Order's armies.
I must leave now, but know that you tread dangerous ground.
The Garden is the Serpent's place,
Ahnenerbe of the Templar Goromancers.
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END LOG
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Summary conclusion: I'll take all of this into account. The revelation that operatives from the Kalosi and Unovan technocracies are working for the New Eclipse Order is a shocking one, and Tess can confirm Ahnenerbe's deductions. It seems that my old regional enemies are attempting to seize power once again. I am also troubled by the prospect of an occult alliance against me, while also serving my enemies. The source of the extraneous documents remains unknown. This will remain part of the frigate network until it degrades into corrupted nonsense.
(END OF FILE)
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"Scattering..." Casey said. "Where have I heard that before? It was in a book that I read somewhere before."
"I've heard of the theory as well," Moon said. "I think the book that first proposed it was called-"
Alarms wailed, accompanying announcements for all available personnel to take their battle stations. The archive computer network locked down, forcing Casey out of the system. The Vengeance Fleet had arrived over the northern tip of Hoenn, and now faced the combined forces of the New Eclipse Order.
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Northern Hoenn
For some men, hesitation is in their nature. Determination is in mine.
-Chairman Bronze Tercano, transmission to the Vengeance Fleet
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Like a suspended hailstorm of metallic bullets, the Eclipse fleet hovered over the arid plains of Northern Roria. Despite the superior quantity of the enemy warships, Bronze judged them to be inferior in quality. The Vengeance Fleet's Pokemon would further tip the odds in favor of the Army of Humanity, and Zacian and Zamzenta could not be withstood.
Before Bronze could give the order to proceed with the final cataclysmic battle over the Plains of Har Meggido, a burst of static filled the comline, cutting off the prayers of the soldiers and replacing them with a smooth, calculating voice.
"We address the force of rebels. It is clear that you were coming to Castelia City to destroy us. But before you move forward in attempting to sack the city or defeat the army that lies before you, we must make you aware of certain consequences."
The tone with thin and erudite, with just a hint of smugness. Bronze recognized the voice from years past. Emrett! He clenched his jaw and maintained a defensive silence as he listened, waving the grumbling bridge crew into silence. Close-up views of footage from distant Castelia filled every monitor, adding to the flurry of activity on the ships.
"These aren't our images!" Gold transmitted. "I think they hijacked our scanning systems."
"Are our weapons still functional?" Bronze asked.
"Reports are optimal. We are searching for alternative wavelengths, trying to reroute."
"We must hear what this demon of a man has to say...and then we'll destroy them all."
The wonder worker's voice spoke over the shifting images. "I am sure that your spies have already noticed the ring of transport containers suspended around Castelia City. We have filled these cargo vessels and defunct battleships with innocent hostages. Slaves, more than three million, taken from our labor camps and improvised factories."
The screen blurred, then shifted to show crowds of faces, people crammed together and moaning. Image after image flickered, a litany of desperate expressions.
"We have placed radioactive explosives inside each and every one of these vessels!" Emrett announced. "The trigger to their detonation lies within a linkage of satellites installed around the city. If any enemy ship attempts to pass through the boundary sensors, the explosives will automatically detonate. Unless you maintain your distance, you will massacre three million civilians."
Now Emrett showed his smiling face, set against the background of Castelia City.
"We consider these hostages expendable. Do you?"
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An uproar of disbelief and curses rippled through the L.S. Victory and the entirety of the Vengeance Fleet. All of them looked to Bronze for a solution. Emrett's face stayed on the screen, an object of vilification.
Bronze pressed his lips together, thinking of all the battles he had fought, the friends he had lost, the blood already on his hands. He gathered his courage and spoke slowly, icily.
"It doesn't make a damned bit of difference."
Moon gasped. Bronze!
He turned to his crew. "This only reinforces the reasons why we must utterly destroy our enemy. We must not make any reservations about our fighting in the field. Castelia City is still far away, and I will think of a way to prevent the explosion in the future. Cypress and Emrett are too cowardly to come out and fight me themselves! Once this force is destroyed, we will go onward to Castelia."
Emrett reached with pleased surprise. "Ah, Bronze Tercano, my old enemy! I owe you a death, you know. But I should not be surprised to find you as one of the players in this aggressive game."
Bronze crossed his arms over his uniformed chest. "Do you think you can make my resolve waver with your cowardly attempt at using human shields?"
After a pause, Emrett's voice continued, louder now but still sounding calm. "I thought you would be difficult to convince. Therefore, I have more surprises. Take a look."
To Bronze's shock, after showing several more crowds of captives, the screens focused on a room where a man sat by himself guarded by two burly combat robots. Everyone in the world was familiar with that face, though it had been somewhat idealized over decades of devotion and stylized memorials. Bronze himself had known him in life, and had even considered him a worthy friend.
Samuel Oak!
The screens shifted again, revealing other figures. There were Alder and N, Diantha and Cynthia, and other members from history gone by. To Bronze's further bewilderment, there was a figure that looked identical to a young Red, only with a cruel smile on his handsome features. He held a knife to the Oak-figure's neck.
"This is not possible," Bronze said in a cold voice. "Samuel Oak has been dead for some ten years. I attended the funeral myself. Also, N has been missing ever since the events of the Rorian Jihad. This is a trick!"
"Ah, but even if it is, the others are certainly real. These regional Champions, past and present, fought well when we came to collect them. Of course, look where that got them! N was recovered in northern Unova, still in hiding. In a similar manner, Samual Oak was also captured in Kanto. It appears that he faked his death, and still is living out the remnant of his years through the use of an experimental life extension treatment."
"Who is that guard?" Red shouted. "He looks like me!"
"Get off this channel, Pokedex Holder!" Bronze snapped. "By the rules of the Association and the Vengeance Fleet, I am in command of this military operation! We will rescue these people if there is even the remotest chance, but the risk of their deaths will not hinder us from going to Castelia and crushing our foes!"
"What do we intend to do?" Magnolia said, uneasy. "Should we reconsider our tactics?"
"I intend to complete my mission, Professor, whether under these circumstances or otherwise!" Bronze said. "I believe that these human shields and captives are a subterfuge, a trick designed to make us waver! We go on."
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Reports streamed in from the vessels to the deck of the flagship. The soldiers were profoundly uneasy.
And then the Free Peoples would lose the war.
"We will advance and destroy the enemies here, regardless of the threats posed, " Bronze said. "Damn the Eclipse Alliance and their treacheries! Their extermination is non-negotiable. We have spent so much blood already, and I have made it clear that I will spend a few drops more. Advance and lower altitude!"
"Understood, sir," Crystal said. "But I will weigh in on what we will do once the fleet reaches Castelia."
Bronze rose from his command chair and spoke with cold fury. The bridge crew was already troubled about the potential for an unnecessary slaughter, and contrasting arguments were deepening their doubts.
"No, you will not! I have made my decision and will give my orders! This is not a republic. Power up your weapons and ready your Pokemon for the charge! Castelia is tomorrow's problem!"
"I doubt you'll be able to overcome the warships before you," Emrett said. "And if you do this, are you really any better than us? Considering human life negotiable is something that Eternatus would do."
Bronze's face showed only rage, but then he gathered himself. "Begin bombardment! Mewtwo, scrap them!"
The bay doors opened, and Mewtwo was now a glowing beam of destructive oblivion, blasting Eclipse frigates to dust. The Vengeance Fleet's crews cheered as Mewtwo flew its flaming arc over the Enemy forces. Ballista guns flared, and thin strands of energy shot out from portholes. Eelektross attached to infantry shuttles fired charged beams at the Eclipse forces
"Look at it go!" Magnolia said, seeing Mewtwo blast apart another frigate. "We'll be home for dinner if this keeps up! Can't these clanker ships fight?"
In answer, a brilliant streak emerged from the hull of an Enemy frigate and coursed through the air, colliding with Mewtwo's shining form. The two beings created a shockwave that displaced the falling debris around them, and then fell to Earth in a screaming flash.
Bronze heard Mewtwo send its thoughts to his head. Falling back...threat...second organism...ancient enemy...Deoxys!
Emrett laughed. "I see Mewtwo has met its old enemy. Red, I have heard that Mewtwo once fought under your command against this very specimen: Organism Number Two, the only surviving specimen. The other met its end at the hands of Rayquaza in the outer atmosphere, having sent Grand Meteor Delta to Earth, so it was fortunate that we were able to capture this one."
Latios and Latias threw themselves into the boiling fight, only to be repelled by a thicket of thirty advanced bot fighters. They strafed around the two gods, accelerating far faster than expected. Their weaponry had been augmented and improved in size and strength; Cypress's scientists had been hard at work preparing for this battle.
Tess recalculated the odds. Perhaps the odds were not so much in their favor as she had hoped. Deoxys and the rest of the fleet did indeed pose a threat.
Dozens more Enemy ships moved out of close formation; half-completed constructions, robot hulks with barely functioning engines, made quickly by inexperienced slaves under the threat of death. The skeleton craft did have functional weapons, but mostly they were cannon fodder, designed to ram into the Vengeance Fleet and cause panic and havoc even as they were pummeled by Association firepower.
Several of Bronze's cruisers exploded, but the rest of the two-thousand-strong fleet marched on. Piolets flew out of their holds and engaged in brutal dogfighting with Eclipse soldiers and robotic ships in midair. Zealous Swordmasters and warriors were descending to the ground to combat Eclipse forces that had already secured the wide desert plain below.
Bronze could only hope that the ray shields would hold up.
More half-completed ships crashed into the Association forces, ramming some, overheating shields in others, drawing fire like rocks throw in a Beedrill's nest. Bronze saw a nearly completed Eclipse frigate lose its engines in a blast, but came careening toward the bridge deck of the L.S. Victory.
Nearer, nearer, nearer...
"Lusamine, now!"
Space folded. When the slight distortion around the ship cleared, Bronze saw that the L.S. Victory had been brought to another side of the aerial battlefield.
Still, the Eclipse ships were older models, limited by the technology that the original construction probe had carried with it. Most of them did not even have ray shields. With fascination, Henry watched the streaking ships, the lancing projectiles, and the chain-reaction explosions as the robot vessels slowly were pounded into submission. Starbursts of fire and debris blanketed the sky.
"We're going to win!" Casey shouted.
"Nothing is impossible," Tess warned.
Moments later, the sky turned an ill-omened shade of black. It was not from the plumes of smoke or the cloud cover...
The sun was shrouded like sackcloth, and a great screaming roar pierced the hearts of the soldiers fighting. Like a barrage of horrific atomics, red beams of burning energy tore through the heavens and shattered several Association vessels. Soldiers shouted for answers, but none came.
The clouds gathered and began to swirl in a sky-high maelstrom. Red light covered the Earth.
At that terrible moment, Bronze noticed millions upon millions of birds and Flying-type Pokemon arrive, shrieking as they swirled and gyrated. Many of them were struck down, but the great horde blotted out the sun. He was reminded of a passage in the Hisuian coda, and chuckled.
And there was an Elohim in the sun that stood and cried with a loud voice to all the birds flying in the air. "Come, gather together for the great supper of the Typhoon Struggle, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, mighty men, of Pokemon and their masters, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."
The Earth rumbled with birth pangs. A cry on the stormy winds echoed with keening, wordless sounds, and now the Powers in Deep Heaven and the House Below rallied for battle. The Typhoon Struggle, the Cloud Darkness, had never been closer.
Bronze listened...
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Can you not hear the footfalls of the brokentooth'd march, sweeping through the air? Eternatus is coming. He will eat the Earth.
The walls of Wyndon shake.
Pallet Town is devoured by demons.
Tar-Castamir lies vivisected atop a Nurian pyramid.
Kamado is paraded through the streets on an iron spike.
The vice-regent of Johto is flayed and cut to pieces, and still he screams
Jubilife is swallowed by a pit of cinders.
Kalos chokes on poison gas.
Hisui drowns in blood.
The Prince of Truth is crucified outside Undella.
The Great Khan of the Calathrim strangles his sons in their tents, and runs out to the steppe alone.
Anthien is buried in the ash of its citizens.
The Kantorim cannot stop the tide of flesh from the sea.
The world tears apart.
He is here. He is now. He is upon us.
The battle is met, all across the world, as Eternatus descends.
The battle is met.