Dark Crow Rising

"Well, I suppose this is good news. I can't say I am very happy to see my policy changes come into play. But... I'm glad I have some forethought. Better to be prepared and worried than worried with no plan at all." I remark, patting myself on the back to distract my mind at least somewhat from the current problem. That giant has whipped everyone up into a panicked frenzy and while its advance is slow, footfalls that large are loud. Daytime photography certainly hasn't helped the situation either.

The nighttime imagery of a black mass amidst the pale desert is the least of our problems. What we're looking at is something completely incomprehensible to me, even with the mythologically invested on hand. No one has an answer as to why the giant is the way it is. It shouldn't even be alive.

A skeleton beyond the scale of even the largest dragons, covered in tatty and broken armour. Trailing behind it, a sword so long it can slice through a mountain like orange steel paired with a block of cheese. Yet, despite that weapon and its immense physical strength, this desert has me the most worried. We still do not know how or what is happening to the land around it.

Airships at best can keep track of the progression of this spread, I need someone or people on the ground. Not only that, we need to try and predict a path that this thing is trudging... I feel like some are too optimistic with the idea that it will eventually putter out. If it can hold a weapon, it can think of a path to take.

Sighing, I cup my face. My elbows slide along my desk and I gently knock against it. Forcing my features out of the grip, I look around at my many cabinets. Getting up for what must be the hundredth time, I grab a small key and unlock one of them.

Slipping a tablet out of its holdings, I skim through the details and annotations. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing!

"How can there be nothing on this giant? This should've been one of the most easily accessible pieces of information and no one knows anything!" I groan, throwing the tablet to the ground and watching it scratch the floor varnish. Walking over to it, I dig my sole along the white mark, smudging it up. I carry on to my desk and place my rear on its hard edge—a right finger taps.

Maybe we're looking in the wrong places? But, then I have to ask, how did something like this giant get documented incorrectly? A thing with this kind of power on this scale. When this is all over, I am seeing to it that some people are out of work.

Every one of these damn tablets and computer stores is being triple-checked and then doubled over. It is unacceptable that we're currently looking at a catastrophe and nothing is known. We have no countermeasures, no means to shut the problem up here and now. There is nothing.

My chest heaves with forced, hot breath.

"I guess it's up to me, I am the one who needs to figure it all out. When I have the time, I need to visit those in charge of getting help from the guilds. I've given them a substantial enough budget to make it work, now I need the results." I mutter, glancing at the developing holo-map I have on my wall. Those within the Department of Strategic Needs are giving me a constant, developing set of notes and adjustments.

A battle line seems to be materialising at a point known as the Partrim Mountains. Strong spined titans of stone with plenty of curving stone and natural platforms. At the giant's current speed of movement, we should be able to construct an entire fortress there. Nothing grand, just the skeleton of something.

Stepping closer to the map, I input a few commands so that my finger can be used like a paintbrush. Marking off some areas, I give more life to this idea and list off some destruction to the nearby mountains. If we can crack open these valleys a little bit, we should be able to swell two nearby plains and other forms of openings. Open fields filled with all the guns we can fit into them.

I lean back onto one of my heels slightly, a gloved hand on my chin. Nodding slowly, I use some of the features only available on my holo map to get orders sent out to all ready field engineers. Just to be safe, I also write another order and budget allowance for civilian contractors. Finishing my involvement, I make an effort to try and stab the map with my fingers.

"The Clockwork Council will probably have a good moan at me over funds but... Eh, they can all roll down the mountains they love so much." I mutter under my breath with a sneer. Speeding up into an aimless pace about, my mind sprints ideas across the centre of my attention.

In order to keep my men safe, I should be as dependent on third-party forces for the moment. Guild witches might even solve the problem and the worst thing I'll have to deal with is my men chuntering back home. I doubt the guilds will succeed, but, the idea is nice to hang onto. In all seriousness, however, I should keep them at my spear's tip.

There's a lot I can learn through their acceptable losses that incomplete communications from my outposts cannot give. We've not gotten any reports of the giant attacking anything directly, but we're losing our senses. Outside of our air reconnaissance, my men are blind as to what the giant is up to. I cannot allow this to continue, waging war without maps is a surefire way to end up as ash.

Turning back to my holo map, I approach it and split the display into two. One is the current situation, showing me the slight creep of this desert and the giant. The other is what the land used to look like. My eyes spot the date and start to shake a little.

Mere days.

Shivering myself back into a state of focus, I press some buttons. All the details of the holo map blink out of existence until it is just a recreation of the land. I reapply the magic sensor data and start to motion a 'no.' The giant is not following the path of arcane strength, if it was, it would be heading south to the Dragon Coast and not away.

City and town names come back up and it's much the same, the giant seems to be ignoring it all. There's no clear path to any of them and all the giant has to do is turn and it would be right on top of an independent mountain-state. Roads and rail lines come back up and it's much the same. The giant is just heading north, that's all I can really tell right now.

There's some slight deviation in its path, but no more so than how people will steadily veer to the side on their walks. All I know is that either it wants to go this way for a purpose or it is wandering. Worse still, I have to consider the possibility that this thing has a master and that there's someone with a goal. The dead cannot come back, the dead become clay, always have.

This has to be a machine that's simply grim in aspect.

"A machine of that scale will need maintenance... A fuel source, perhaps that is why a desert is forming? It uses the same means to power itself as Thrurstradtur and other cities do. Only, why is it so destructive? I cannot say for certain about the history of the technology but perhaps the archives will have something...?" I ponder, turning and heading to my communication line.

My finger pushes the call button.

"How may I be of service, Grandguard Inerish?" my secretary asks with her usual soft tone. I smile a little, thankful I was able to find someone who is able to keep an upbeat mood even when it's havoc in the halls. She's certainly made the past few years bearable.

"I need you to put out a request to whomever it may concern. But, can you get me an expert regarding Thrurstradtur's arcane power network? Several, if you can, please." I ask of her, lifting my finger off of the button.

"Of course, Grandguard Inerish." she answers and the machine dies off on her end as well.

Shifting my jaw about a little, I put my hands behind my back and go a tad more upright, "If there's an input, maybe there's a means to create a blockage."

I turn to the scale model replica of Thrurstradtur-Suhurlodst and the entire mountain. Moving over to the dated thing, I flick open the locks and split it open. Passing over the thousands upon thousands of streets and bits of infrastructure, I find what I want. A finger starts to rapidly poke at the city's typically locked-off industrial capacity.

My eyes linger at the city's central mechanisms where the Dark Crow finally stopped Smiling Jhurack. My mind briefly considers asking him for help and I shake my head as my lips bend down. This is beyond him, one man cannot possibly make a difference here. Besides, Nin is probably already going to be accepting that public contract I've put out.

"I hope you're ok... You were headed in that direction, weren't you?" I go, fiddling with the model's intake valves. The pressure is nowhere near enough to cause anything dangerous, but, I can feel how just my thumb blocking the model affects it. The other holes grow louder, taking in more air to keep the almost childish mechanics going.

The giant...

A machine on this scale cannot be made by a single person, nothing like this would be made without documentation. If this really is the work of a country or organisation, then we should be able to find a trail. With how many troops I have on the move, setting some aside to hunt these aggressors down will be no problem. We can find the plans or even the controls and shut it down.

My fists free themselves of anything to hold and clench tightly.

"A whole lot of wishful thinking and nothing I can actually work with..." I almost spit and I find my eyes back on the floor-bound tablet. Picking it up, I pointlessly brush it off and slot it back where it came from. My hands linger on the closed door, the key in the corner of my eye. The doors swing back open and I pull out another tablet.

Finding my chair again, I lean into it and get to reading. I need to consider every possibility but at the same time, I have my doubts. I could very much spend too much time looking into hunches and the giant will step on me. This thing is a problem beyond my skill set, I have nothing to work with, no idea at all!

I can't get my head around how something that size can just appear. I've been kept in no loops regarding a giant like this. No spies have informed me of weapons from both within or outside of our borders. No suspicious reports have been slammed on my desk at any point. Am I perhaps now beholden to a conspiracy that has completely bypassed me?

Traitors and incompetents covering up their trails and it has all spiralled out of control!

"No... That's impossible." I choose to believe for the sake of not appearing like a paranoid coot. Putting the tablet down, I pinch my brow and massage it. All around me is urgent work and it's monolithically beyond my ability to handle. I have precautions for dragons and their migrations, not a giant who makes sand where a man would make a noise!

Sighing, my mind lingers on the dragons.

"They're probably my best option now." I mutter, getting up to get some air. Who knows, maybe the weapons we have to handle dragons will handle this giant. Pull the trigger and gone! Maybe...