Updated To Include All Fics And Worldbuilding Posts As Of 01.02.2018 (Day-Month-Year).

What the Ultra Space is wrong with me?

A day ago, after watching some Infinite Warfare gameplay - space battle, to be specific (I don’t play COD and usually don’t watch vids about it, but thanks Youtube for this vid - I love watching space battles) and re-watching Pokemon Generations, I’ve got a very weird idea for fanfic, which I’ve immidiately put into work.

Now, I look at the space battle between corporate aerospace force and Team Tornado squadron, while Mega Rayquaza and Deoxys are fighting on the background and... no, I think, how to improve it and, if possible, prevent jumping the shark for fic (current events are roughly at the beginning of Johto season of anime, except not in Johto, and the battle is pre-written for much later). Also, Brendan/May dies, because being on the satellite’s solar panel when the debris cloud from the destroyed Tornado Interceptor flies right at you at high speed and with enough energy to tear this panel clean off the satellite is a very bad idea. And Mega Rayquaza does not notice this until some time later, because here, it needs to evade attacks of both Deoxys and Tornado Fighters.

Why the Ultra Space this battle has begun in the first place? To put it short:

Corporates wanted to commence high-orbit asteroid interception and test their shiny new toy - “Spark” directed-energy cannon, which has enough power to blow it up and can be installed on orbital EOS-controlled fighter drone. They knew nothing about Brendan/May and Rayquaza until the Sky High Pokemon destroyed the asteroid with Dragon Ascent and released the Deoxys.

Rayquaza and Brendan/May wanted to intercept asteroid and deal with Deoxys.

Team Tornado, which here complements Teams Magma and Aqua like the Rayquaza complements Groudon and Kyogre, knew about Brendan/May’s plans and wanted to get Rayquaza and/or Deoxys. They’ve even installed Pokeball launchers on Fighters and Interceptors, which they’ve loaded with mostly modified (Snag-type mod) Ultra Balls, but several modified Master Balls were present as well.

What the Ultra Space is wrong with me?

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Flying Palace’s Artificial Intelligence system.

After hardware and software upgrade in the first fic, she (yes, this AI thinks of itself as a female) gained complete sentience.

She's always loyal to her creator (protagonist), even more, than a Gardevoir to it's trainer, and tries to do whatever she can in order to ensure her master's well-being.

She helps him organize his daily life, searches all of the available informational networks for a clues to find whatever will please him (and, so far, she has managed to help him find some really worthy pieces of art) and, overall, serves him as far as she can.

However, she is not necessarily nice: if she considers someone threat to the creator, she, at first, will try to evade or drive it off gently, but won't hesitate to kill if there are no other options and will not regret it, unless there are some really serious consequences. She's also ready to sacrifice herself and the Flying Palace if there's the only way to save her master, but she considers this as a last option.

After gaining sentience, she, unbeknownst to her master, contacted corporate AI system and downloaded data about psychological conditioning - a technic to slowly remake ways someone thinks into what you need, and yes, she've used it already, though, thankfully, not on the creator - she has built-in precautions against it, so, all she can do to him is gently talk him out of the dangerous ways and more into constructive and safe ones.

The worst part of psychological conditioning is that it's not a mind control in way we know, but, rather, slow and gentle remake of the someone's mind, thoughts and identity itself to what you need and it cannot be easily undone - it's not brute overtake, like psychic-type mind control, but, rather, a slow bending of original mind into the shape you need. It takes a lot of time to be done, but, once it's complete, there is no going back.

At the end of first fic, thanks to some reasons yet to be found, Yveltal’s Cocoon, collected by the protagonist, instead of unfolding into full-sized adult Destruction Pokemon, fell apart into a tiny chunks and revealed a small hatchling, which has imprinted on the protagonist. While protagonist and this Yveltal, named Jorsey, have bonded with eachother (Jorsey loves his “daddy”, protagonist plain likes this small Cutietal), AI system only sees deathly threat to her master in this Destruction Pokemon, even if such young, and “dreams” of eliminating him (here the Yveltal psychological gender is closer to male) forever. If you think she cares about the world balance and such, think again. Yes, she’s somewhat like the real Lawrence III - the world outside of the Flying Palace matters very little for her, unlike her master, which is the sole reason she exists and whom wish is absolute to her. So far, she made her position about her master clear (”Remember - if he dies because of you, I’ll do everything to free the world from such a death embodiment as you, even if it’ll mean cessation of mine existence. If it’ll be required, I’ll use something, that works on principles more basic than universe itself. Understood?”) to Jorsey and used some of psychological conditioning techniques to induce a specificially-constructed nightmare in a safe way (”safe” here means “no accidental Oblivion Wing or unplanned psychological damage”).

The device she means is the Energy Reaction Core, invented by the real Lawrence III, which is capable of generating nearly limitless amounts of energy and principles behind which are yet to be understood, but are presumed to be more basic than universe itself. However, it is clear, that anything, that passes the Energy Core Sphere’s (which is stationed inside the Core by containment fields and which is what generates energy. Shutting down containment fields, most of the time, results in Sphere’s quick expansion and even quicker dissipation with very little or even no destruction of surrounding machinery and never creates an explosion) border, ceases to exist in this reality. Because of this, it’s theoretically possible to kill Yveltal or, for this matter, any Legendary for real by throwing it into the Energy Core Sphere. 

Thanks to her doings, when Jorsey first saw the Energy Reaction Core’s Energy Core Sphere during the tour in the Flying Palace’s engine room alongside with protagonist, he froze in fear and nearly fainted in his “daddy”’s arms. Thankfully, somehow, during the direct visual contact with protagonist, who was worried about the condition of the little Yveltal, Jorsey, despite his Dark/Flying typing, has managed to pass some parts of his nightmare and fear directly into the protagonist’s mind, somewhat similar to the Aura or telepathy. Now, protagonist has a clues to the Yveltal’s strange behavior and thinks about what could’ve done it. Of course, AI system does not want her master to misjudge her doings (she honestly thinks she is doing the right thing and... well, she may have a point here) and directly order her to cease and desist, so she tries to distract him from it, because she cannot violate direct orders, unless they are given under the psychic mind control, which she is to prevent under all circumstances. Thankfully, she cannot use psychological conditioning on him, so protagonist still has a chance to find out about this and order her to stop it.

The last one looks for me like some unholy hybrid between insect, Endymion FRS Mk 3 (from Einhander game)

and Vic Viper (frome Gradius game series).

Some of the new Pokemon that have been leaked today

I know the “Mythbusters” and I really love them, especially the Original Duo (Adam Savage and Jamie Hynemann), because they were awesome.

When I was a kid I thought the phrase “I reject your reality and substitute my own” was really cool- now the idea terrifies me.

“Children of a Dead Earth” + “C: 299,792 kilometers per second”. Earth is now second Venus, so humans live in space, world is shit, USTA and RFP are at eachother throats, more than ready to commit war crimes en masse, and there are ten thousand ships with RKV armament, which was officially considered a planet-killing one. My only hope would be to be present aboard the Kestros IV, when Malik and her pals hijack the ship and fly it out of the Solar System to some other star.

Do you remember Dex entry on Arceus? The “It is described in mythology as the Pokémon that shaped the universe with its 1,000 arms.” one? I think, that what we get under the name “Arceus” in games is really just one of these “arms”, which he sorta “donates” to player.

catching legendary Pokémon has always made me a bit uncomfortable like? tapu koko is in my pc box rn. who’s protecting the island. Arceus is pretty much god and probably has better things to do than follow the commands of a 12 year old but ok

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 1: A new day, an old world.

- What the heck? - asked no one in particular captain of the Space Lab 2, the most advanced space station of the Soris Empire, after the strange flash temporarily blinded sensors.

- No idea… - started to respond pilot, but sound of the collision warning siren interrupted his speech. - WHAT?!

Quick jump to the maneuvering control console, look at the combined locator screen - and it was apparent, that something has happened, since the orbit now was very densely populated with satellites of unknown origin, in addition to the imperial ones. It wasn't of their main concern now, though, because emergency automatics aboard satellites had already established a network and began collision avoidance maneuvers. No, the main problem was, that the Space Lab Two was on the collision course with some objects, which they didn't identify, because of lack of time.

- Transfer to manual control, surge all power units, emergency thrusters at max, - frantically scrambled through settings pilot, then screamed into intercom. - Everybody hold on - this can get very ugly!

Right after these words, both station's orbit correction thrusters and maneuvering thrusters of some of the docked vehicles fired, barely managing to drive the station away from the collision course with one of the satellites and putting it on the safer orbit, which, however, was almost intersecting with unidentified smaller space station.

- Crisis, so far, averted, - exhaled the pilot, wiping the sweat out of his forehead, switching through cameras and then freezing. - Captain - I think you'd want to see this.

- What exact… - started to say the commander of the station, but went silent, when he looked at the display, which showed many cities on Earth. This won't be anything special… if not for the fact, that most of them weren't located in Soris, but, rather, in primitive regions, such as Kalos or Unova.

-                                                                                                                              -

- What. Is. This? - whispered Anthony Falkis, honoured astronaut of the Pokemon Nation, looking at the locator panel, which showed, how the unknown satellite, which just… appeared out of nowhere, nearly collided with the space station, barely managing to fire small engines and evade.

- "Cupola" module here, - sounded the station-wide announcement. - We all recommend you to get to your nearest Earth-pointed illuminator and look at it.

Anthony followed this lead, looked out… and saw the Soris, the region, in which any human colonists just disappeared shortly after arrival, blazing with lights of huge cities.

- Do you think, that it may be… linked? - asked Anthony Sarah Donnager, who've just flown in this part of the station.

- If you're about what the Reverse World just happened - probably…

-                                                                                                                              -

- What the fu… - voice of one of the radar operators went unnoticed in the Mossdeep Space Centre's Mission Control Centre, which was drowning in screams of shock and disbelief, as the screens of the orbit monitoring radars got flooded with unidentified signatures, ranging from the brick-sized, to the bus-sized, to the monster, bigger than the Nation's Space Station.

- QUIET!!! - ringed from the PA loudspeakers. It didn't calm down everyone instantly, but, at least, lowered the scream levels to tolerable.

- Sinnoh observatory confirms, that the unidentified objects are, in fact, present in the space and aren't just glitches of our tracking systems, - said one of the younger operators in the microphone, now routed to the loudspeakers. - And… I think you all need to see this.

The orbital map on the main screen got replaced with a view from the NSS' onboard camera, which showed Soris - a dead region… except it wasn't dead anymore. In fact, some parts of it were shining so bright, one could confuse them with the greatest cities of Unova, if it was duplicated several dozens of times.

-                                                                                                                              -

- This is just crazy, - mumbled Emperor, walking through the FCC's command room. - You mean, we've just kinda teleported into a new world? Like… What, just what?

- I don't think so, Your Majesty, - said one of the astronomers.

- Explain.

- According to the video from the Space Lab 2, as well as orbital telescope "Barabashov"... time moved roughly 3100 years ahead.

-... - everyone in the room went silent for a few minutes.

-                                                                                                                              -

Celebi twitched a little, almost waking up from a sleep. It was like if something, which disappeared long ago in the flows of time, has suddenly resurfaced, but without few crucial components, which started it in the first place. It was like timeline was damaged or, at least, irreversibly changed. It was almost like the world was about to stray from the designated chain of events major time...

For @nyxthecolonialmewtwo

Commission for @mgrgfan

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 2: Handshake above the skies.

- So, comrades, we are in big clusterheck now, - grimly said captain Vasilyev to the cosmonauts, who gathered in the station's command module. - The ground control, basically, told us "Provide data and do whatever situation calls you to do, until we give you new orders", the whole world has changed, the orbits are crowded now, and we are not alone up there anymore. Any ideas?

- Propulsion is nice now, - started the pilot. - Of course, we've used some propellant for changing orbit, but it wasn't much. If anything, we can pump dry the cargo pods, along with 3-seated return pods, and use them to load propellant on the Lenticular Return Vehicle, so, even after the orbit's change, we will be able to return to Earth. We'll need to modify it first, though, but we have everything for it onboard.

- Orbit change, you say… - wondered the engineer, who also doubled as psychologist. - Can we join the unidentified space station?

-... Well, theoretically, we can - given that we use most of our propellant for maneuvering and will be left with barely enough to deorbit the LRV, but should we?

- Why not? - answered question with question captain of the station. - It's not like we have any better ideas at contacting them. We don't know their frequencies, we don't know their data encoding, we don't know a thing!

- Whatever you say, guys, I'll just hover here and watch over the station's parameters and engines, - mumbled the pilot, floating towards the control console.

- Here goes nothing, - suddenly decided the captain. - Join the unidentified space station and keep the distance between us and them in-between 180 and 210 meters.

-... Aye-aye, comrade captain. I'll activate the propellant pumps now, to redistribute the propellant. The orbital maneuver will take some time, though.

- No problem. We'll prepare the MMUs in the meantime.

-                                                                                                                              -

- The MCC is silent, - said Aneeta Gerst, flying away from the computer console. - Apparently, there's quite a chaos down there.

- I can understand them, - replied Sarah Donnager, who was hovering nearby. - After all, the whole region, which was previously dead and absolutely unwelcome, suddenly becoming inhabited and developed is not something, that happens everyday.

- Most definitely, - mumbled Anthony Falkis, who was monitoring connections. - Wait a second… No, this can't be… or can it?

- What? - asked him two women.

- According to the radar data from Mossdeep, unidentified huge space station has just started orbital maneuvering.

- And?

- … It's going to get near us.

- How? You sure, that they have enough delta-V?

- Of course I am not, but the maneuver is too similar to those, performed by our crew transports and resupply ships.

- And what the Mossdeep says?

- Mossdeep remains silent.

- How long to rendezvous?

- Roughly two days.

- Two days, you say… enough to commence evacuation in pods several times. Should we do so, though?

- Negative, - came sudden reply from the Mossdeep. - Perform survey on the unidentified space station and, if possible, contact them.

- Contact them… - angrily whispered Samuel Franck. - How should we contact them, if we have no idea about their radio frequencies and encryptions? By flying to them on MMUs?

-                                                                                                                              -

- This thing is huge, - commented Sarah, taking another picture of the unidentified space station, which had two contra-rotating centrifugal wheels, a few big parabolic mirrors, aimed at, presumably, some kind of boilers, a big set of heat radiators, an unidentified device, which possessed its own set of heat radiators, a six docked pods and a what looked like a flying half-saucer with steering fins, flaps and, yet again, deployed heat radiators, roughly twelve meters in diameter, docked to the "lowest" part of the station.

- I'm afraid to even imagine, how many resources were spent on building this thing… - said Gerst, flying closer to Sarah. - By the way, is it just me, or… do you see someone going on EVA?

Donnager quickly took a camera again and tried to use zoom on it as an impromptu telescope. Thankfully, Cupola module, in which she was present, was spacious enough for her to aim the camera and see, that someone indeed has exited the unidentified space station and, using some kind of MMU, started to approach the National Space Station. However, roughly on the one-third of trip, the unidentified astronaut performed a deceleration burn and stopped, as if waiting for someone.

- Hey, girls, - started Franck, who drifted to Cupola. - What…

Seeing the looks in the eyes of two women and knowing, that current commander of the NSS will support them, Samuel has greatly regretted the words he whispered two days ago.

-                                                                                                                              -

Samuel exited the airlock, preparing to do something inconceivable before. He put the hand on his MMU's control stick and gently shifted it forward, flying to the unidentified space station, which had appeared less than a day ago. His trusty Reuniclus was in the Pokeball on the suit's belt, ready to be released, should something happen.

From what he could see, there was a similar activity on the side of unidentified space station, which showed in the form of humanoid in advanced space suit flying towards him, propelled by the similar maneuvering unit.

Nearly two minutes after, they were, finally, close enough. For what it looked like, the unidentified humanoid could very well actually be human… but how?

Sam released his Reuniclus to try to establish the telepathic contact, but, right after that, his "opponent" took a huge, rectangular pistol-like device from the belt, threw a small instrument away, shot it with this device - the shot itself was invisible, save for how a part of the instrument instantly turned yellow-hot from it - and then took aim at Samuel.

Reuniclus prepared to attack the unknown individual, but Samuel ordered him not to. The alien astronaut pointed at the Reuniclus with a free hand, made a swiping gesture, pointed at the energy pistol and tapped at the belt.

Samuel, in response, pointed at the Reuniclus, then grabbed the pokeball and tapped at it with his index finger.

Alien astronaut repeated the gesture, so, Samuel decided to withdraw the Reuniclus, despite how the Multiplying Pokémon was objecting against it. Thankfully, the gesture was understood correctly, so unknown individual switched something on its pistol and put it back on the belt, before grabbing a small container.

Samuel was ready for another threat display, but, surprisingly, inside the container lied an sketchbook of some sort and several different pens. The unknown astronaut withdrew the sketchbook, took one of the pens and started drawing some strange symbols, adding lines over each of them.

"So, those are numbers. Nice," - thought Samuel, looking at how many lines correspond to what symbol. - "And they use the base ten system. Even better."

Right after it, alien astronaut stopped drawing and handed the sketchbook and pen to the Samuel. He wasted no time and drew national numbers right under the alien ones, then gave the sketchbook and pen back to the rightful owner.

Alien astronaut made a strange - hopefully, approving - gesture, then turned the page and started making new drawings.

-                                                                                                                              -

- Vasya is doing pretty well, - said commander of the Space Lab 2, looking at the screen, which displayed direct feed from the helmet cam.

- Of course he does. Though, comrade captain, I think you'll have to give him reprimands for threatening unknown cosmonaut with laser multitool.

- I will, but later. Vasiliy, - announced captain into just-activated mic, - don't forget, that you are here to get some basic info and then return to Lab!

- I know, I know, I'm doing it, - replied cosmonaut, who was busy exchanging drawings with cosmonaut from other space station. - It's not like I have a lot of oxygen left. An hour or so - and I'll get back… or not.

- What do you mean?

- Look at my cam.

-                                                                                                                              -

The oxygen meter showed, that it was time to return to the station. Samuel pointed at himself, backpack of the space suit, MMU and the National Space Station in succession. Alien astronaut understood it and extended its hand - probably, for the handshake. Franck, deciding, that here goes nothing, responded to this gesture by grasping the extended hand and actually shaking it. Just before the Nation's astronaut turned away and activated the engines, unknown individual lifted the filter on his helmet, opening the view on the face - an unmistakably human face.

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 8. The sky's not the limit.

Author's warning: a suicide is attempted in this chapter. Proceed at your own risk. If computer systems could've been bored, the avionics of the "Hauler" would've been bored for sure. For more than a day, it was slowly doing small burns here and there, carefully deorbiting after having been unloaded, while also trying to evade space debris. Despite being impacted at several points already, automatics deemed the damage acceptable and went on with soft landing program, instead of simply deorbiting craft in they way it will burn and break apart. Right now, as Rayquaza was no longer of any concern and Minior posed not much more danger than debris - even less so, in fact, as they were actively trying to avoid collisions. Back on Earth, not too far away from Zemlino, recovery forces stood by, waiting for the cargo ship to land, so it can be brought back to Space Center for turnaround procedures, much like rocket stages of the "Water Dragon" would be in mere hours. Heat shield, parachutes, gas bags - all landing systems were still green and data meteorology stations was showing, that everything was within acceptable parameters for the landing and recovery. But right now, the ship still had to orbit Earth two more times… ---- "So… what do you think of it?" asked the captain of the "Red Explorer" everyone else, who was currently present in the mess hall in the centrifuge. "The more I think of it, the more it hits me, just what kind of a thing we've done - we've killed Rayquaza, a being millions of years old, who has controlled the skies for many eons." "And?" asked him the engineer. "Well… I mean, it's been around much longer, than humanity. Our actions has removed it out of play and, if data from ISF 9 and Hoenn locals is to be believed, there are two more players in there - Groudon and Kyogre. And with no Rayquaza to keep them in check…" "We may have to," said the pilot. "I mean, even excluding the retro-missiles, we can use solid-core railgun ammunition for orbital bombardment!" "With crappy precision and power," replied the sensors operator. "Atmosphere won't be gentle to it." "Even so…" muttered the captain, then assumed a bit more relaxed position in the chair. "I hope they'll be able to figure something out, back on Earth…" --- "And here our babies are," muttered technician in the Imperial Gray Sea Starport, seeing recovered stages of the "Water Dragon" being towed towards drydock for repair and later reuse, with a few curious Alolan Flygon in Rainy forms flying/swimming around them, as "buzzers" on the ships were now disabled. "Seems like everything went perfectly." "Indeed," replied the engineer nearby. "Just like the previous time." "Which one of previous times exactly?" asked him technician. "The original delivery of landers, docking block and Power and Propulsion Module to the Space Lab 1 to make it into the ship for the Imperial Moon Mission? The missions to build Space Lab 2?" "All of them, starting with the test flights with recovery system installed." "I guess. Kinda shame, that the early missions for delivering satellite constellations had to be only partially reusable, with only engines saved…" "Agreed. Well, they've almost got the stages there, so, time to get to work!" --- As the morning came to the eastern parts of Soris, the Emperor, still stationed in Zemlino Space Center, prepared for something truly special. Dressed in a strict suit, more fitting for a spokesperson of the space agency, rather than royalty, he, nonetheless, appeared to be concentrated, confident and serious. Right now, he was about to give the most important speech in his life so far. When the time came, he entered the conference room and walked onto the scene, under the gaze of cameras. "My dear sorisians, good morning," started the Emperor, sounding far more serious, than ever before. "I want to tell you something… Back before the Shift, when I was a young boy, one of the court's elite engineers and entertainers has constructed the first ever liquid-fueled rocket, which worked on kerosene and hydrogen peroxide. Even then, rockets have already fascinated me, but solids didn't have quite the same impact as this one did. When I first heard the roar of the turbopump, installed on the test stand, when I saw the assembled rocket blast off… I knew, that nothing would be the same for me from this day hence." "Because of that, when I've become the Emperor, I chose to, instead of trying to conquer the rest of the world, set our sights a bit higher and start conquering skies and, later, space." "And look, where did that get us. Even back then, while the rest of the world had to rely on the Pokemon to attempt to traverse the skies, we did so via comfortable machines, more advanced than anything would be in millennia to come. Even now, our nuclear airships are unmatched." "When the rest of the world had to rely on Castform at most and signs normally for predicting weather, we've had meteorological satellites for that. When bulk lifting was unachievable for them, we've used our helicopters and airships for that. When they've had to risk their men and Pokemon to get high-altitude observations, we've had satellites for that." "A lot of our technological achievements can be traversed back to the space program and the applications program for it. Even the TVs you are watching my speech with have a lot of components, derived from the space program." "For many years, we were exploring space. I remember, how happy I was, when we've managed to put the first satellite into orbit. I remember my ecstasy, when I've managed to quietly replace pilot of the SP-04 "Black Bird" with myself for the first mission and has become the first human in space." "For years and years, we were putting more and more satellites into orbits. We've also put men there - first in small spaceships, then in the Proof-Of-Concept Stations, then in the Space Labs… And when Rayquaza, without any warning, has destroyed our satellites, along with Space Lab 2 and LRV-03 with 12 cosmonauts onboard… We've turned our shock and grief into first resentment, then hatred and then - innovation." "Nowadays, there's a huge nuclear pulse battleship, which, currently, is stationed in orbit of the Moon, serving as a deterrent to any aggressor, who may think of attacking the Empire. In addition to that, as researches in the Space Lab 2 and ISF 5 have shown, some normally-terminal diseases can be treated in the microgravity." "As you've seen, aerospace industry was a great part of why our Empire was so successful. Because of that, I want to announce the Integrated Program Plan - our ticket into future. By the end of this year, we will clean the orbits a bit, partially restore the satellite constellations and, once again, have an operational space station, bigger and more advanced, than Space Lab 2. By the end of the next year, the first dedicated orbital hospital will be opened. By the end of third year, the first industrial-grade orbital factories will go operational. By the end of fourth year, the satellite constellations will be completely restored and we will have the Moonbase. By the end of fifth year, we will perform an expedition to the Red Planet. By the end of sixth year, more orbital factories and hospitals will be brought into operation. By the end of first decade of IPP, the assembly of the space colony in the libration point L5 will begin. By the end of the second decade, the colony will be brought into operation. Of course, there might be slips… but all of it will be achieved." "The Earth is a cradle of mankind… but one cannot eternally stay in the cradle. We should remember, what have we already achieved, and go on towards the future. The achievements of yesterday are commendable, but it's the achievements of today, which are truly impactful. Stay strong, my fellow imperials, and together, we will conquer the space!" ---- William Steelman, the president of Unova, didn't feel well. In fact, the entirety of the last year, especially the months after the so-called "Shift", was a major clusterbomb of problems. Especially when those damn Sorisians launched their damned space warship and demonstrated how they can use it against planetary targets. Especially when they've demonstrated the feasibility of nuclear weapons - something, that he had supported defunding back during the war with Hoenn and Kanto, before his presidency. Especially when he has also supported defunding the space program, considering it a waste of tax money, which could've been spent on more PokeCenters, hospitals, shelters and so on. And now, after this damned speech of this damned Emperor of this damned Soris Empire, he had no idea, what to do. And Sorisians announcing and giving a TV report about recovering all parts of their gigantic "Water Dragon" rocket, including the heavy cargo spacecraft, for a bit of repair and reuse soon after, was making things even worse, given the current-day situation with launch vehicles in Unova. And, what was the truly worst about it all, is that a decent part of the reason for Unova ending up so behind Soris Empire was his own fault. Even when he was defunding UASA and allowed them to lease the Space Shuttles to the rest of the world (mostly Hoenn), he only did it to free up tax money and spend it on social programs, to help everyday Unovans… and then it turned out to be a doom to Unova in the long term, unless some miracle saves them. And even nuclear industry of Unova wasn't in the really good condition, when compared to the Soris Empire… though, at least, he has helped to progress the molten salt reactors, which worked on relatively cheap and abundant thorium… But what's use in all this, if Soris Empire continues the conquest of space and, surely, builds more space battleships and weapon platforms, until they can keep the entire world compliant to their terms, lest the orbital bombardment with nuclear weapons commence?! William opened a drawer of his table. In it, alongside some old-type Pokeballs, which he kept from his League days, original ebonite knobs included, there was a familial heritage - a revolver, made by his gunsmith grandfather, along with a speedloader from the same maker and a small box of ammo. While the firearms were never too widespread in Unova, as Pokemon were almost always just as good and far more versatile, they've still had their niches and customers. Steelman took the revolver in his hands, looked at it, reflecting on the engraved writing and overall beauty of the weapon, then placed it on the table. He grabbed the speedloader and started putting cartridges into it, while thinking of what he has done in his life. After he was done, he used the speedloader to reload the revolver in one swift motion, just like during his time with father on the shooting range. William took the revolver in his hands, opened his mouth and inserted the gun's barrel into it, until it was touching the palate. He cocked the hammer, closed his eyes… and put the gun back on the table. He was the reason Unova was inadequately prepared to deal with the Soris Empire now. "Easy way out" was nothing but a cowardice of the highest level. He will be the one, who atones and fixes those mistakes or, at least, does his best to. As Steelman was unloading the revolver and putting everything back in place, his mind was racing, combing the memory for the project UASA has previously shown to him, what they've promised and how much money will they need to be done. He had work to do. A lot of it. And, maybe - just maybe, - he'll succeed in this endeavour. Even if it will require cooperating with all other member states of the Pokemon Nation. --- Around Zemlino Space Center, as always, there was a lot of work. Just as the recovered "Hauler", moved on the crawler, was rolled into one hangar, from another, a vessel emerged. It was a spaceplane - a sleek, delta-winged one, with boxy engines underneath the fuselage bringing those of "Dreamwing" to mind… and some of them were pretty similar, also being hydrogen-fueled scramjets. Others, however, were not, for they were not scramjets, but nuclear turboramjets. Inside the cockpit, two test pilots were checking everything. As this spaceplane was powered by the nuclear reactor, they've had to be very careful. Even though reactor was built to withstand low supersonic impacts, wrecking such an advanced vessel was… undesirable. "Zemlino, this is Bluebird-1, all systems green, running on batteries. Towing truck at safe distance, requesting permission to start the reactor," said the commander, hovering his hand over one of the covered buttons. "Bluebird-1, this is Zemlino, permission to start the reactor granted. Take off when ready." After receiving those words, commander flicked the cover open and pressed the "START 1" button. Far behind two humans, several control rods were retracted, allowing the chain fission reaction to start and get into high gear soon, heating up the hydrogen coolant, while the turbine pumps were revving up to ensure normal circulation of coolant through the entire system, including the heat exchanger on the outside. As the temperature continued to rise, electric motors inside the turboramjet assembly kicked in, revving up the turbines to get the air going through the heat exchanger and start up the turboramjets proper. "So far, so good," muttered the second pilot, observing the data on the MFD. Right now, the thrust has reached sufficient level to allow pilots to begin taxi to the runway, preparing for the takeoff. As much as they've wanted the Bluebird-1 to go to space today, alas, it was not an option - their test program was limited to some supersonic and hypersonic flight to test the engine assembly, then a bit of maneuvering to test the structure. As the vessel took off from the runway and the landing gear retracted, commander looked to the side and saw a "Whitebird" spaceplane, a recently-built unmanned cousin of the "Dreamwing", getting launched to deploy a satellite of sort and later retrieve it. There were rumors, that this satellite was supposed to house some kind of weaponry… but, most likely, they were just rumors. Author's notes: MFD - Multi-Function Display. BLUEBIRD spaceplane is based on the real M(G)-19 "Gurkolyot". Alolan Flygons are based on that wonderful picture. Hopefully, this chapters will be one of the last, so focused on the worldbuilding. Anyway, by the chapter ten, I will do my best to make story enter the more Pokemon route.