The last moments before The Great Rain of Fire
by Ethan DeneaultOn Mon, 15 Jun 1998, Wolfgang Razen wrote:
>The guys in Blackmoor wanted to run a test series of s prototype of a FTL-engine (FTL : Faster than Light, or a Warp-engine)
I like this :) Time for more fan fiction!
... they may have tried to duplicate exactly the old Beagle's engines. (We have come to a consensus that they were matter-antimatter)
The Beagle crashed because the engines were not stable in Mystaraspace, possibly because magical energy has a disruptive effect on pair particle creation. (matter and antimatter can't exist in magical fields, like those created by the world shield)
Benekander may have figured this out, and forcibly shut the engines down to prevent a catastrophe in Mystara's upper atmosphere. However, this caused the Beagle to crash.
Years later, Blackmoor had advanced to the level where technology dominated over magic. The scientists probably didn't have the correct instruments to detect the magical fields emanating from the world-shield, and proceeded to develop their matter/antimatter reactors.
However, sadly, Benekander was not around. He had been absorbed into Immortality (and his security card) by this point.
Upon firing up the reactors for the first time this exchange happened:
Scientist 1 (short balding man, with a metal arm): "Power levels nominal, increasing pair flux. Graviton singularity at green levels"
Scientist 2 (medium height scientist, glasses, short hair): "Increase the flux to 4000 kiloquads, no more, lets see what this can do"
Sci 1 taps out a series of commands into the console.
Sci 1: "We've got it! Flux is at 400 kiloquads, power output is .. by the frogs.. 5 TERAwatts! We could power half of Mystara with this!"
Sci 2: "We haven't even hit quarter power yet. Bring the levels up to 500 kiloquads, rotate the crystal to get a better deflection angle"
Sci 1 turns dials and taps out some more commands
Sci 3 (younger post-doc student): "Hey, Rafiel.. We have a surge in the power core, compensating!"
Sci 2 (Rafiel): "I'm going to go check this out.."
Rafiel goes into the power core clean room to check on the status of the core itself
Sci 1: "Sound the alarm! We have a breach in the core! Rafiel, get the hell out of there!"
Sci 2: "I can't get out, the door just autolocked to prevent contamination!!! I'm going to work from in here!"
Sci 1: "Initiate autoshutdown of the core.. NOW!"
Sci 3: "Working on it, power spikes are getting violent, its like there's some sort of field interfering with the flux grid"
Sci 3 hurriedly tries to compensate
Sci 1: "Rafiel! You still with us? Use the manual shutdown!!"
Rafiel, eyes blinded from radiation and smoke, grabs for the dials, but passes out before he can effect a repair
Sci 3: "Flux up to 500 megaquads and rising"
Sci 1: "What have we done?... What have we.."
A blinding flash of light, coupled with searing heat, the entire complex explodes, causing an ionisation of the atmosphere around Blackmoor. The superheated air becomes a wash of fire that extends for almost 6000 miles in every direction. Space time around Mystara is bent slightly, causing a major axial shift.
Rafiel's mind watches the destruction of his world, and his own death. Time passes quickly for him. Hundreds of years in a moment, while his continued existence catches him off guard..
Rafiel: "Why? What did we do? Is
this the afterlife? Who am I? Why am I here? CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME??
Is this a dream? NO! Not another explosion! Those elves.. Driven
underground.. Can I help? Must remember survival training.. Wait..
I can remember.. Agh. pain.. I can feel again.. I can see myself,
I'm glowing.. maybe radiation burns.. But I feel fine. I have to
help those Elves..