Observations

Dawn slowly crept over the quiet plains, and Rends the Gar rose to greet the day in the in the still gray light. He nodded to Mocks the Night as he passed the sentry's post, then settled down with his pack and fetishes.

He set aside the Dreamknife in preparation for his morning meditation then reached into his pack for a quick drink before he started. Inside the bag he was greeted by a pair of brightly glowing blue-green glowing orbs. The lights smouldered inside the cavity of a multi-colored human skull. Rends paused, then snatched the skull out of the bag along with his flask. He set the skull out on a rock facing him then took a long pull from the flask and addressed Omega.

"You've been awful quiet lately. Ain't quite right."

Numbers and occult symbols twisted and curled outward from the glowing eye sockets, crawling across the polished bone of the skull cap. Omega's clipped voice stop-stuttered to life:

"I have been reassessing the current situation, reality deviant. As you are aware, this was not my first engagement with that deadly aetheric entity. When I was installed on the Hyperborea, I was able to assess the umbrood of the House of Entropy and Stasis, the one you term the 'Storm Eater,' for nearly three seconds prior to our unavoidable collision."

"The data I gathered then indicated an entity equal to a Dominus-class umbrood. Dangerous under any circumstances, and cataclysmic in an unforeseen ambuscade, but not an indestructible foe by any means."

"However, upon our last encounter, it has grown in aetheric mass and displacement. I have been forced to reclassify it as a Princeps-class umbrood. If my chronological measurements are correct, this growth was sustained over the course of thirteen months, six days, two hours and approximately eleven seconds."

The skull sat silent, glowing turquoise equations slowly dripping off its jaw, evaporating as they slipped down the stone.  

"The 'Storm Eater,' as you call it, is becoming a destabilizing threat to this timestream. Somewhat distressingly, aether-capable warheads will not be invented for approximately ninety years, sixty two days, five hours and three seconds."

The aquamarine light flickered and pulsed.

"As this date is both approximate and theoretical, alternative methods of destruction must be sought."

Rends nodded along, following the spirit.

"So it was already big and nasty, and now it's gettin' bigger and nastier. Fast."

He scratches at his chin, thinking for a moment.

"Problem is, it was already more of a threat than we could easily deal with, even with all the Get behind us. By the time we can actually reach it, it may be more than we can handle..."

He locks eyes with Omega, narrowing his gaze.

"What do you suggest? We ain't gonna summon it and do it in early. That's out of the question. Can you make some of them... Aether bomb things?"

"It would be a challenging project. Other than myself, no one in this current timestream possesses anything beyond a tenuous understanding of particle physics."


A flickering procession of ghost-faint faces projected from the rune-scribed skull, their cheeks made of cascading zeros and ones as arcane numerics oozed from their eye sockets. One or two were slightly familiar, but most were meaningless the Ahroun. Only the final one succeeded in getting his attention- the concern-fraught face of Zoe's adopted father.

"Nonetheless, I cannot do it alone. The undertaking would be massive. I would need funding, specialized materials, assistants. Extraction and enrichment are complex processes, and the difficulty is compounded if I am to design and create a device that functions in the regions aetheric. Still, not all the beings that inhabit this erroneously created causality are as technologically backward as your particular breed of reality deviant. If I can make contact with enlightened scientists, artificers, or difference engineers, I may be capable of averting catastrophe through the power of science."  

A millisecond of hesitation.

"However, there may be another way to halt our overwhelming opponent without involving outside organizations. I have witnessed you reality deviants in combat environments and I must admit, your aetheric hybrid physiology is impressive. But it is not enough. Given the changing spiritual climate of the hemisphere, I project that your breed of deviant will become endangered within a few decades; extinction is a distinct possibility by the turn of the century. However devastating an apex predator you may be individually, if you are going to survive as a species, you must act as a united organism, bent on its own survival."

The Ambition Loci's tone sank in volume, though the words were as precise and even as ever:

"If there was a way to increase the numbers of your kind within this region, and if they could all be convinced or coerced into attacking the code-named 'Storm-Eater' entity, your kind may survive to see the arrival of the 1900s."

"My plan here is less concrete, as it deals with a disturbing number of unknowns regarding your kind. However, I can sense your will to power. I can assure you that no matter what is decided, if we cooperate, the continued survival of the 'Garou' will be the least of our accomplishments."

Rends face grows grimmer and grimmer with Omegas every word. He's silent for a long moment before speaking.

"I don't wanna give that kind of destructive power to anyone outside the Nation. I don't know what this thing's supposed to do, but I know Willworkers ain't always gonna always be on the same side as Garou. O'Toole notwithstanding."

He scratches at his beard, genuinely confused.

"Extinct? The hell does that even mean? No more Garou? You're more likely to kill off all the Buffalo."

He laughs awkwardly, but his heart is obviously not in it and he is deeply discomforted.

"They's more out there. In the United States and all across the world. Hell, we used to could move from caern to caern quick as thinking, jump right across oceans with an army out of nowhere."

There was an eager glint in his eye, but it quickly faded away.

"At least that's the story. Ain't nobody this side of the Atlantic been able to make a Moon Bridge work far as I know. My pa used to say it was some powerful spirit magic made it impossible. But if we had Moon Bridges again..."

He shakes his head, eyes distant for a moment.

"We could get all the Get from the homeland. The High King of the Silver Fangs. Hell, they'd throw Garou at us from tribes we ain't ever seen. It's jest be a matter of convincin' them how big a threat the Storm Eater is."