The Continent of Dead Quall Part 2

A Horned Dog Cultist stool on a single pillar of obsidian in the middle of the sea of lava between the now floating Continent of Dead Quall. He watched the many small Obsidian isles that floated towards his position. Unflinching his eyes never left the closest of these isles, said to have been named Aegelis Revenge.
The many isles rushed towards him, their weapons bristling and keeping a perfect aim on the lone cultist just in case he was a Dimension Walker, or worse yet an Eruption Sage.
Yet he was neither, and he was there of his own volition.
He spoke loudly, weaving Troubadour Leyas around his body so his voice might project to the furthest of the assaulting floating isles.

"The genocidal monster called Garmin Fe

I am not a monster like you. I have given you a chance to flee before I launch my people upon you and your forces. I do not wish to see any more senseless loss of live unlike you. I care for all living things except for those that the Quall can not spread there love to like the E-Strain. I do not wish your death but if you stay in my world any longer your death will be a swift guarantee. You have an hour to leave or suffer your ill fates.

From my honored queen,
Le-a Hive Queen"

The man waited and smiled, as the Isles continued forward sure of their own success.

Meanwhile a few miles behind the obsidian spur were the lava rock beaches of the Quall Island of Ma'kh Laq Tur. One hundred thousand Quall N'drone warriors of Le-a Hive Queen stood in the flaming surf. For them it was pleasure to feel the liquid, hot enough to cook the skin to the bone on a human, splash across their blackened hooves. Most had white horns or black horns, but few in positions of prominence had other colors. Some had metal like gold, silver and platinum capping their horns. And a few had broken horns, stubby horns, and one had only studs in her strangely shaped head.
But they were all Quall and planar knights, an apex predator of their home dimension which granted them some benefits. They were more in tune with this dimension than the Slayers of the Continent of Dead Quall.
They began to concentrate in unison. Focusing their will and the entire force of the hive onto the Leyas driving it deeply into the lava that made up the sea of fire. One hundred thousand began to bellow as one and the wave rose high into the air. A tidal wave rose miles high, cresting up and blocking out the sky.
It was at the moment of the speech's end that the bellow could be heard even here miles away by the Obsidian Spire. The small but brazen cultist smiled and yelled at the oncoming island fleet, "My Queen had another message for you! P.S. oh wait I lied by an hour I meant 2 seconds good bye you monstrous scum"

The wave consumed the cultist killing him and rushing into the unprepared isles. Yet as it slammed many of the isles and flipped them under its bulk, the wave struck the frost generators that made up the floating isles. The Wave flash froze with the isle of Aegelis Revenge half submerged and therefore trapped inside this newly created obsidian wall.
It was miles high, and sheer and thicker than the greatest wall made by man's hands. Many died in the initial Lava wave, and the ensuing wall, split the forces of the invading army.
At that moment fifty thousand flayers dived down from the skies and began a sortie against the broken ranks of defenders.

The Continent of Dead Quall still floating to the south, and its research isles were untouched. But now a wall many miles wide and many miles long split the Sea of Fire in the Land of the Quall N'drone. At that moment the battle was joined.

An alert went out across the networks of the Unity, and many leapt to their feet. Some made their way to launch bays to help prepare squadrons of Sagittae. Unity Prime brought up his generals and began to discuss the situation. The Unity came to a decision on what to do in 3.5 seconds, far longer than expected by Prime. The battle for the Continent of Dead Quall was an important one that the Unity was deeply invested in. Bringing the fight across the land of the Quall N’drone could break the dominion of the Quall. But it would require constant success to keep pushing the Quall back.

If it ever ground down to a siege, Unity Prime had to worry about the meat grinder that would follow. The prognostications of Fate said the Quall beat them in numbers in this dimension alone. The entirety of Ar’yay HiveQueen’s domain alone had more Quall N’drone than the Unity had citizens by five to one. Unity Prime knew this would require the entire united TRILAT to achieve this objective.

Orders were sent to the front, he would need the best leading the counter attack to break the Wall, “Garmin, its Prime. I’m making you the premier of this battlespace. Direct the strategic taskforces as you see fit. When I give the signal, you must prevent any attempts to move from the shadow plane to the battle. The Purifier is going to be actively hunting in parallel space. Here is a summary of my plans, use them as you will.”

Prime began walking down a very long hallway. He didn’t need anything but his mind and his connections to plan. His thoughts went to countless agents, planning what would be an elaborate battle. This would, for better or ill, go down in the annals of Unity history. Could they go toe to toe with the Quall in their homes? The numbers were, at best, daunting. Hundreds of thousands of Quall warriors reinforced by the largest empire in the Galaxy against a floating piece of obsidian?

This would be fun.

He spoke first to the thousands of tacticians assigned to battle coordination, his thoughts ringing in their heads. “Garmin Fe is the premier of this battle space. He will be informed of your actions, and will inform you of in battle re-arrangements, as well as timing concerns. I will act as his second in this battle.”
Prime continued walking to the hallway, making further preparations. He could see the Sanguine Lords, first amongst his children, standing imperiously in blood red robes, overlooking the lava flows. They looked forward to the coming conflict. He saw Builders finishing Guardian platform modifications, while others walked amongst the soldiers who would fight, spreading words of comfort. He saw the crew aboard Dreadnaughts 3 and 4 preparing heat plating, and priming the rip generators. How proud he was of their efforts. Before him, Prime saw nineteen emissaries standing at attention, a control rod, and a huge black orb. This would be his fight, his gambit.

That is when the message from an Eye Spy was rushed to his attention by the Choir of Justice. On it was the image of a second wave moving in towards them. It was still quite a few miles out, but was just starting to rise. Prime signaled the Guardian Platforms which began prepping Guided Missiles with the chilling warheads.

It would be a few moments before the wave arrived and the counter-barrage would be ready.

The wave began to climb in height, and the Unity Eye spies were picking up Quall Heavy Frigates moving forward above the wave. Saggitae launched, and a large cloud of the starfighters moved to counter-attack the frigates. They were met halfway by another flock of Flayers supported by Neo-flayer Starfighters. It was a imposing sight to behold, the grand vessels of the Quall Starforce of Ar’yay HiveQueen. The Fist-like Heavy Frigates were prepared for the counter-attack, and kept pushing, shooting down Sagittae who were consumed in the lava fields.

Meanwhile, Admiral Layne Yr sat in the comfort of her viewing room in the northern Kingdom of Kasanth. Outside in the bright sunlight stood one of her instilled Nightmare slaves, with an artificed collar around his neck. He was wearing a wide brimmed Duskan sombrero. And the Nightmare marched back and forth grooming the artificially green lawn.
On her eye spy viewer, a gift from the Unity in the early days, she watched with interest. Finally she yawned, and leaned forward to the comm. crystal, which was held up by a bow made of purple lace.
"Launch Project Resilient," she said with a gleam in her eyes.

A huge flock of Falsewyrms rose from behind the obsidian wall and began attacking the closest Quall Frigates, bathing them in chill, and disabling weapons systems and killing those on the outer decks of the capital-class starship.

Under cover of the Falsewyrm attack, Kasanthian troops raised up hidden launch platforms. Giant guns capable of lobbing boarding pods right into the side Quall Frigates.

The illusive M.D. directed his starfighters and eye spies from his outpost on Vigil. Using an Eye spy as an intermediate, he was able to plug directly into the command and control system on the Kasanthian Guns. As M.D. looked over targeting data being collected by the Unity Choirs of Augury and Fate, he calibrated the guns, and ran last minute diagnostics. He would have a maximum of one shot with each, and any that missed would be carrying his own allies to a painful demise in the Sea of fire.
Garmin Fe readied himself inside one of the assault pods inside one of the Kasanthian Guns. It was cramped, even for a K’iou. Only the temperature regulation of his shard heart kept the general comfortable in the extreme heat. He was calm, breathing slowly as he sorted Eye Spy feeds. The battle covered many miles of territory, and there were Iron Republic and Quall Hive forces streaming towards their positions.

Garmin Fe checked on his Earthmancers. They were making good progress, and almost all of the Recognized in the caverns of the floating isle of Aegelis’ Revenge had been rescued. The rescued Beacon City Recognized, and Slayers of the Quall were joining Unity Emissaries and Kasanthian Vampyrs in shadow walking to the Ridge of Ayr, on the island of Ma’kh Laq Tur, overlooking the beaches that held the Quall who had been stirring the waves on behalf of Queen Le-a.

Garmin Fe even switched to their Eye Spys transmitting through open energy bridges to the plane of Awareness. He watched with pride, as his ally Prime’s Praetorians were in position in the crags of the wall, their shields raised high to defend from aerial bombardment. Next to them stood the proud Nephilim WarGiants of Beacon City, ready to hurl even the most dangerous Pit Mongrels and Fire Giants from the wall.

The wave continued to rise in size, and the Guardians launched their first wave of chill missiles, and were followed by launchers firing off volleys of Frost Generators directly into the Wave as it crested. At that moment energy bridges opened above the battle lines.

Layne Yr said "Take the shots M.D.; I hope your aim is true."

M.D. had already depressed the trigger. Signaling to his snipers to do so as well.

The Kasanthian Guns sounded, and the boarding pods hit all ten of the Quall Heavy Cruisers. While there was a burst of fire from the shields that protected the Heavy Frigates, the Boarding Pods were armored enough to absorb the flames that would have melted most boarding vessels. Garmin Fe felt a moment of weightlessness before his pod came to a jarring stop inside one of the engineering wings of a Quall Capital Ship. As he and his assault team disembarked, they readied for the tough fight to reach the Bridge.

Meanwhile in a completely unrelated part of space, a satellite was transmitting everything being seen by the Quall Heavy Frigate’s sensors. Aboard the bridge of his ship, the Dreaded, Sanford Deer began to cackle manically. His brethren soldiers were used to it, but his human crew would never be able to get used to it.

Finally his laughter stopped, and Sanford Deer pressed the commlink at his lapel.

"Begin firing,” Sector General Deer commanded in a loud voice, “To quote the EEF let the Sword of Damocles fall."

Deer smiled.

His ship was orbiting a dead moon, firmly in his territory. On it stood ten Quall N'fel and twenty Leyas Generators.
A large tank filled with Djinni Blood was pumping down into the Quall N'fel, and the cloned Quall-Earther Hybrids were flying high on it. Djinni Blood boosted a User’s ability to draw upon the Leyas, but had many terrible side effects. The Quall N’fel were frothing at the mouth and their veins seemed to glow from under their skin.
They waved their hands, and three swirling portals of flame appeared. They were Energy Bridges, holes between the reality of the planets Earth and Mars, and distant shore of the Land of the Quall N’drone on the dimension called Kyrpos.

Looking out the hole they had plowed in the side of the Frigate, Garmin Fe saw what appeared to be EMP bombs raining from the hole in the sky above the Obsidian wall. Most missed the Sagittae and exploded among the Praetorians and Nephilim guarding the walls. However, many also struck the Sanguine Lords, driving them down and pinning them to their positions on the obsidian wall.

Garmin Fe’s forces reached the bridge of the lead Quall Heavy Frigate at the exact moment when the battle seemed to be turning against them. Garmin hoped his plans would work. He grabbed the commlink and began reciting retreat codes hacked from the IR Databases. The Quall Heavy Frigates began to retreat away from the wall, harried by Sagittae Starfighters.

A trio of Unity Dreadnaughts covered in Frost Generators raced at impossible speeds from the Continent of Dead Quall towards the Ma’kh Islands.

Then there was a flash as something followed the seemingly endless rain of EMP bombs down through the Energy Bridges in the sky above the obsidian wall. Garmin Fe wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at as a sonic boom nearly deafened him. To his shock what looked like metal asteroids streaked from the swirling holes in the red and orange sky and shattered the wall.

Garmin Fe watched as the Unity Guardian platforms, and thousands of TRILAT soldiers died in those first few moments as the Domebusters struck the obsidian wall and its defenders from above. Like giant stones hurled into pools, the waves splashed. Ripples became like glass when they touched the frost generators trapped in the broken pieces of the wall and from the shattered Dreadnaughts. Jagged teeth of obsidian speared upwards from the sea of fire, and the screams of the dead echoed through the Unity uplink.
Garmin Fe’s anger was great. But it grew even more so, when he realized the extent of the trap that he had just stepped into as the voice of Ar’yay HiveQueen echoed around the bridge of the ship from the ship’s commsystems.

“I see you have a new command ship, keep it, as our gift….oh and here are a few more gifts,” the ancient Quall Queen said with glee.

Garmin Fe watched as three Frigates with the symbols of Hive of Ar’yay, and two more with the symbols of Sector General Palomedes rose up from where they had been hidden behind the Ma’kh islands. The three aimed their domebusters at the ship he was on, and fired in unison.
The three shots were perfect and Garmin Fe and his assault troops were killed instantly, and their bodies destroyed as they hit the lava below. They were quickly avenged by three cruisers under the command of M.D., whose Grex starfighters made short work of the Quall Frigates.

Sector General Deer watched with concern from the bridge of his own ship safely away from the battle. The high definition holographic displays shows the battles in such realism that Deer could not help but feel his blood race and his pulse quicken. But he worried, if Sector General Palomedes didn’t arrive to handle his portion of the battle…

Garmin Fe awoke in the main citadel of the Continent of Dead Quall. Standing over him was a Judge of Beacon City holding a sample jar that had held one of Garmin Fe’s fingers until they had used it to resurrect the famed General.

“How long has it been?” asked Garmin Fe, “What is the state of the battle?”

The Judge replied, “It has been but moments, a third and forth wave now roll towards the positions we held. More Unity missiles are being prepared to launch in defense of the Continent of Dead Quall. Our fleet still holds the power position, and our Seneschals have released nanoplague onto the beaches of the Ma'kh Islands to kill the Pit Mongrels defending the Quall. We’ve lost many… sir, the two Arcturus were shattered in the first of those orbital bombardments, but our Dreadnaught escaped. The VLAD squad had successfully rigged the Wall to blow, so much of that force was redirected back towards the enemy. Still sir, the losses on both sides, are staggering.”

“And the island of Ma’kh Laq Tur?” asked Garmin Fe as he tested out his crystalline prosthetics.

“Currently a terrible battle occurs on its shores, and the Unity has unleashed Nanoplague there,” said the Judge of Beacon City with extreme concern apparent in his eyes.

“Launch the Hearts of the Forgotten,” commanded Garmin Fe solemnly, “And then push the attack, I want that beach taken. Ma’kh Laq Tur is within our grasp, even if I have to kill every last Quall there with my own two hands.”

Launch bays carved into the lavarock of the Continent of Dead Quall began prepping what appeared to be star-like crystal formations easily as large as tall as a tank. These were the Hearts of the Forgotten, and would store the memories of those it killed with it was activated.

Back in our reality, IR Sector General Deer couldn’t find any sign of his friend, Sector General Palomedes. Sagittae Starfighters were attempting to fly up and through the Energy Bridges to attack the IR positions. Then there was the flash of an FTL drive on the sensor grid. An IR Mothership flashed into view and it hailed them.

“You did not think I would be late to my own artillery barrage did you, Deer old chap?" asked Sector General Palomedes as his own Frigates and Motherships moved into position, "Now be ready noble warriors of the Iron Republic. Today is your day in the sun. Today is your greatest achievement. Today you die with honor!"

There was no remorse as Garmin Fe transmitted the detonation codes.
He watched through a nearby Eye Spy viewer as the hundreds of crystalline weapons were hurled up over the Sea of Fire into the air above the beaches of Ma’kh Laq Tur where the Recognized, Emissaries and Vampyrs fought side by side against the Quall N’drone and their Flayer and Pit mongrel slaves.

At that moment another barrage of Domebuster cannon shots struck from the holes in the sky. The waves cast off, went in all directions. The waves struck both the isles of Ma’kh and the Continent of Dead Quall. Its extreme heat killed some Pit mongrels, Recognized and Emissaries, and the rest were killed when the Hearts of the Forgotten finally detonated.
Their energy waves killed tens of thousands of warriors on both sides. As the Hivemind of Ar’yay Hive Queen felt the pull of the Hearts of the Forgotten on her people’s memories.

The Hivequeen roared screaming psychically, “You want our memories? All you had to do was ask, here are the memories of the ones you slaughtered in your genocidal rage! Listen well, for soon your death cries shall join them!”

All those assembled on the battlefield could feel her roar, and the psychic cream carried across the entire dimension even as far away as the lofty castles of the Aegelis.

The hearts of the forgotten began to overload, drawing in both the Unity hivemind through the Emissary’s prodigious mind, and the Quall Hives of Ar’yay and Le-a. The Hearts of the Forgotten shattered under the force of so many ascendant wills.
It killed so many, hundreds of thousands of Quall Warriors, and Flayers, and Pit Mongrels, Emissaries, ancient Vampyrs and even necromancers.

On the beaches of the battlefield, Viggo of Kasanth stood in shadow form, protected from the attack that ravaged the beach around him. He could see the spirits of those assembled in combat drawn up into the Hearts of the Forgotten, resembling crystal stars where they shined in the red sky. Viggo dodged the clouds of Nanoplague that moved across the beach. As Viggo tried to leave the blast radius of the Hearts of the Forgotten he got to hear the Hearts of the Forgotten crack, and explode splashing the nearby nanite clouds with the combined memories of the dead of the battle. As the Frost Generators, bubbling then cooling lava, the Nanoplague and the memories of the many dead that now lined the beaches of the Isle of Ma’kh Laq Tur. If ever a perfect storm of warfare had been created it surely was created here.
Yet all sides were shocked as an apparently sentient amalgamation of frost generators, Nanoplague, gravitic generators, and Vampyric powers roared back at both sides from the center of the obsidian spires now being called the Teeth of the Dead by both sides of the battle.

The Forgotten was a newly birthed fiend of Warmonger created by the psychic power unleashed in this battle. It began to tear apart starfighters on both sides, absorbing the hulls and the technology into its own twisted form. Its fingers were tipped with the gravitic generators of the Unity Emissaries it had absorbed, and it used these to hurl waves of lava back at both sides.
Ar’yay Hive Queen and Le-a HiveQueen retreated from the Ma’kh Islands, leaving the dead taken by the Hearts of the Forgotten on the beach.
Even the Unity forces had to retreat back to the floating Continent of Dead Quall and its now much smaller archipelago of floating islands. It was the illusive M.D. who led the tactical retreat when the Choir of Fate came to the conclusion that further battle would only serve to strengthen the Ancient Evil known as Warmonger. He diverted Unity power generation directly into channeling the energy into the artificed Levi-stones. They gave themselves a boost to rise high, and then withdraw until Warmonger’s Forgotten could be explained and/or contained.
Once both sides withdrew, Warmonger’s Forgotten laid down to rest among the obsidian spires of the Teeth of Death, a cloud of shining death. Truly a land strewn with the signs of warfare now marred the once pristine seas of fire.


Seeing his weary army return to his side, General Garmin Fe knew they needed to view this as a victory if only for moral purposes. He picked up a commcrystal and began to speak.

"To the armies of the Hive Queens, you speak of genocide. You speak on behalf of those Quall that have fallen. On behalf of those that the hive has lost and may never control again. I find it most odd that of all races, you would throw the label of 'genocide' so easily. How many races have you yourselves extinguished? How many civilizations have you put asunder for your hunger? You are a genetic atrocity that can not see itself for what it is.

Your drones of dead Quall do not bother my ears. Their suffering is but an echo of the suffering they endured for becoming Quall. You speak of genocide, of mass murder, and of massacre. Yet we are not here for genocide. We are not here for mere vengeance. We are on a mission to save you... from yourselves. Behold your soldiers, your citizens, your Quall N'drone. You may not recognize them with their taint removed. And though I may not be here for vengeance, they are."

The doors of the Continent of Dead Quall Citadel 1 began to produce soldiers, cloned with memories recovered from their former Quall N’drone corpse. Except they were back in their original form, Children of the Falosini, EEF Soldiers, even some previously unknown species like the Ydyara exited the Unity Citadel.
They are prepared to bring the fight to the Quall, but it would be a long trek to reach the new front lines.



When he received notice of the events, Michael Herbert Gilmour sent out a sealed shipping container filled with spores in hibernation. The collection of spores consist of the seeds of many, many different species of fungi, all of which have been given experimental heat-resistant properties in an effort to gain a foothold in the difficult terrain.

The container was decontaminated as best as Michael could manage, and shipped out to the battlefield in a Saggitae so pleasantly provided by Unity. It will remain behind allied lines, and crash-landed in a controlled manner below the Ma’kh Islands after combat operations had ceased.


New Tactical Data

Starting furthest from the Land of the Quall N’drone was the Continent of Dead Quall, then came the Archipelago of Dead Quall (including the islands of Vigil, Citadel 1, Serpenthead etc). Beyond that now were miles of sharp obsidian spires, tall enough to cut the balloons of zepplins, and haunted by the greater fiend known as Warmonger’s Forgotten.
If one survives that journey they will reach the Ma’kh Isles which are haunted by Dead Quall and infected with Nanoplague, and even a rare strain of lichen that is quickly overtaking the Island of Ma’kh Tima Tur to the west of Ma’kh Laq Tur.
Many of the Islands also have a few Frost Generators, building networks. Even beyond the Ma’kh Islands is the sea of fire and the Quall Continent of Kzid Har Kokoresh. To keep the forces of the TRILAT back, the Quall have begun creating lava twisters, much like waterspouts but going many mils high. It has cut off all visual inspection of the Quall Continent and targets further inside the Land of the Quall N’drone.