At my FLGS I am running a custom league this January. For the event, I wrote a little peace of Fan Fiction to set everything up. Hope you enjoy!

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Desperate Pace


Sound filled the still night air as the workbench slowly began to vibrate and hum. This Charger Cortex has been acting strange, Sebastian Nemo thought, but it shouldn?t be able to vibrate. It wasn?t until the table began to shake wildly, lifting itself off the ground and crashing back down again, that he was finally distracted enough to look up from the project that was laid out in pieces on the table before him. The old General straightened in his chair, fully alert, and began to size-up the sudden phenomena that had presented itself in his laboratory.

His awareness grew from the cortex, to the desk, and then to the rest of the room he was in. This building was his private workshop, far from Caspia, where he came to work on his mechanikal research without the distractions of the capital. He stood up, and slowly backed away from his work bench, noting that not just the table, but the whole room, possibly the whole building, continued to shake with a growing intensity.

He found himself standing rigidly in the center of the room, arms crossed, prepared for anything, as he tried to find the cause of the curious situation he was currently in the middle of. He stood there stoically while the room around him heaved up and down, scientific equipment toppling, tools clattering as they fell to the floor.

Maybe there is a problem with one of the mechanika turbines outside. Nemo walked, with difficulty, to the front door of his workshop. He saw everything in his shop happening at once, and made mental notes about the increased humming sound, broken tools, and even noted with some amazement that various pieces of half built Warjack parts that were scattered around the floor had begun to emit a low green light. Most shockingly, he noticed that the broken Cortex he had laid out on table began to move on its own, re-arranging itself on the workbench. He resisted his scientific curiosity to go examine it and instead decided to investigate the immediate threat that must be outside of his sanctuary. Balancing himself as he walked, Nemo finally managed to reach the door. He steadied himself just enough to turn the handle and take one step outside.

Suddenly, everything became ominously still. Strange, he thought, eyes scanning the land around the building. What could cause such a disturbance, then stop, and not leave any signs of its presence? Just as he set his mind on patrolling the perimeter of his workshop, the sky filled with a sudden flash of brilliant green light. As far as Nemo could see, the land was lit up like a Longest Night Festival celebration tent.

Nemo lowered his goggles and peered into the sky, looking into the source of this light. There. Above him, at the center of this amazing light, was a single point of great intensity. As his eyes adjusted he was able to make out what looked like a rock, with arcane symbols scrawled on to it. Above it, the rock was falling out of what could only be described as a rip in the heavens. What in Urcaen is that? It must be huge, he thought, if I can make out the details on it from here. As he analyzed it the rock began to change, splitting and dividing time after time, until the single Sky Rock turned into an uncountable wave of Sky Shards. He picked out one in particular to study, and just as his eyes were able to focus on it, an overpoweringly loud noise swept across him, the sound wave lifting him off of his feet and throwing him with an incredible force back through the open door of the workshop and inside, into the opposite wall, knocking the wind out of him.

He gasped for breath, grateful for the quick reflexes that were able to over boost the shields on his personal arcane turbine and soften the blow given to him by his sudden flight.

Standing, he made his way to the nearest window. Now void of both glass and a frame, he leaned against the splintered wood that used to be a picture window where he had enjoyed his breakfasts. The atmosphere had returned to it?s dark, natural color, but the Sky Shards that he had noticed earlier continued to fall towards Immoren at an amazing speed, emitting their own, slightly dimmer, unnatural green light.

I don?t know what that is, or where it came from, but I have never felt that much power before in my life. His mind raced as he considered the technological applications of that amount of energy. Surely, a weapon with that kind of power would guarantee Cygnar?s borders for decades to come. A darker thought crept into his brain, one that involved the same amount of energy in the hands of the Nightmare Empire of Cryx. That can?t happen.

That must have been seen from all over Immoren. Nemo checked his compass and peered back at the falling sky shards. Thornwood, it looks like those Sky shards will be landing all over the Thornwood. He cursed under his breath, thinking back to recent reports of fighting in that damned forest. The Thornwood was once inside of Cygnar?s borders, but now just about every nation, army, and monster had some kind of presence there. Nemo wasn?t sure if patriotic duty or scientific curiosity motivated him, but he resolved to get to the Thornwood as quickly as possible.

He mentally reached out to the few Warjacks he had with him, commanding them to activate and start marching. He walked over to his telegraph station, somehow still functioning inside of the workshop, and sent an urgent message back to Corvis, asking for reinforcements in the Thornwood as quickly as possible. They better meet up with me real quick. Message sent, he grabbed Fulger from where it laid on the floor and rushed out the door to join his Warjacks in their steady progression.

In his haste, he did not notice the fully assembled, fully functional Charger cortex that now sat on his workbench, emitting a soft green light, humming to itself in the destroyed workshop.