Classis IV Sector Cosmora's Story

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.