[h3]A Cold August Day[/h3][hr]9:05 AM, August 6th, 1210PW. 34 Degrees Fahrenheit. Raining.[hr][color=f7976a]Mordhaben's Institute for Aspiring Mages has recently been accepted as a military training ground, in accord with the Mordbauvin Territorial Acquisition Act in conjunction with the Airelosian Gulf Conflict Papers. Administrator Glen Bauhem, known for his dedication to his students and his nation, has been awarded the Czarine Star trophy for ending the conflict between the territories surrounding Mordhaben's Institute and the rest of the Unoctocan Empire. No longer shall nationalist terrorists use the Institute's presence as their call to action.[/color] - The Unoctoc View, January 22nd, 1205PW.[hr]

Enraged chirping, whistling, and clicking could be heard from beyond the main door of the Administrative Building. Human voices accompanied it, and soon enough, the door slammed open. Boorkat Malkin, the enormous red first-generation Lobster chimera serving as administrator, stomped out, chirping, whistling, and throwing [i]extremely[/i] rude gestures backwards towards the hallway.

Just next to the hulking chimera and his translator walked a woman with fiery colored hair and red eyes. She wore a decidedly non standard yellow and black jacket over her military uniform and currently had a hand clamped over her own mouth and her other arm over her stomach. It was hard to tell if she was trying to stifle laughter, tears, or intense nausea. Anyone with prior knowledge of the Institute might recognize the woman as professor Rayna Denzel, a relatively recent addition to the staff, but one that had earned a reputation in the few years she had been teaching.

Behind the pair were two others, including Professor Katarina Volkova wearing her signature outdated Mage Corps uniform and the various decorations for tours completed, information gathering medals, and the like. The other was a rotund man in a blue administrative military uniform with the blazing red epaulettes and white-and-gold pickelhaube of the higher-up ranks of the Unoctocan Empire: Brigadier General Helmwulf, famed for his actions as a naval commander during the Airelosian Gulf Conflict. His face was slowly shifting towards an ever deeper purple, with a murderous scowl beneath his large waxed moustache.

[color=00a99d]"So why don't you take that Calvo-blasted letter and shove it down your blowhole, you whale. And yes, you may tell the Czar I said that. While you're at it, tell him I told him to go eat a brainshroom, too,"[/color] Boorkat's granddaughter shouted in translation as she appeared from around the side of the open door. Boorkat's enraged clicks and whistles were even louder with the door open, and at those words, Rayna could no longer contain herself and burst into raucous laughter.

[color=fff200]"Oh, you can be assured that I [i]will[/i] tell the Czar, and he [i]won't[/i] stand for this! I'll have you removed from your position for sedition, Malkin!"[/color], the General cried, somewhere on the very edge of losing his temper in the most spectacular way. His eye was twitching, and he was shooting his eyes towards the laughing Rayna, herself a military officer (though not under his command), and back towards Malkin. Boorkat's 'speech' (if one could even call it that) quieted down to a more serious and threatening tone, and his granddaughter followed suit. [color=00a99d]"I am the Czar here, lardwagon. So stay out of our way, keep your little mudhole training camps off of our lawn, stick to the hours agreed upon in the initial contract, and remember: if your people interfere in our operations beyond our old contract terms, they will be removed. By force if need be."[/color]

At this point, Brigadier General Helmwulf's face was twitching upwards into a raging snarl, and he was just about to fire off a retort when Boorkat slammed the administration building door shut in his face. Professor Volkova was less than interested in their quarrel: her service with the military was over after her retirement in 1207PW. But she did quickly throw a hand towards Rayna, who by this point was rolling on the floor laughing, and via magic cut the noise out. Boorkat Malkin turned away from the door and approached the podium at the top of the steps as though nobody had seen his argument with Helmwulf. Volkova stood back, and Rayna quickly joined the crowd in the courtyard.

He adjusted the microphone stand and twisted it towards his granddaughter, Katrice Malkin, who was serving as his translator. She was on the younger side - older than most of the students, but not quite old enough to be staff - and was wearing a black suit, which opened downwards into coattails that only barely covered her enormous crustacean tail. She was visibly far more humanoid than Boorkat, but still more crunchy and insectoid than most would find to be anything other than 'repulsive'. Boorkat began to make grand gestures towards the crowd as he 'spoke'.

[color=00a99d]"Welcome to Mordhaben's Institute for Aspiring Mages. I am Boorkat Malkin, the current Administrator, and I thank you for choosing to attend. For over a thousand years, we have taught students and scholars alike not merely book-learned information, but how to think and how to explore the world around them. This year will be no different, and I am personally quite proud of that fact. But, rather than tell you why what we do is important, we will instead show you. I ask that you remain silent during the presentation. Technician, if you would."[/color]

With that, the Malkins stepped away from the Podium and joined the other staff members at the bottom of the steps. Professor Volkova stayed atop the stairs, standing next to of one of the columns supporting the portico roof, where she could keep an eye on the crowd and silence any who tried to speak above a whisper. A large sheet of waterproofed canvas with a weight rod at the bottom slid out of the portico roof to form a screen. A pair of small wires ejected themselves from the floor on either side of the screen and anchored it, and any students paying attention might note that the hooded and bandaged staff member, Brovak, had simply twirled a finger. He seemed to be showing off the extreme basics of magic, even before classes were being started. Moments later, a light shone out of the front of the portico roof overhang, bounced off a mirror mounted to the back of the courtyard gate assembly, and displayed a flickering image on the screen.

[hider=Film: Introduction to the Mage Corps! (Sponsored by the Phonoscope Company)]
Over the black square loudspeakers attached to the sides of the administrative building came a lively, friendly tune. Audio quality was as high as could be expected for a vinyl spool, but it was by no means bad. Peaceful still shots of human cities panned across the screen in sequence: one of a small house, with the family patriarch carrying a young child out to retrieve a newspaper - one of a restaurant filled with people, with the shot focused on a group of old friends laughing as they drank - one of a park full of people and chimeras walking their pet dogs and virehounds as children played with a frisbee in the background - amongst others. A narrator spoke with a perfect transatlantic accent over the music.

[color=f7976a]"Peaceful society is a sacred thing. People have, after thousands of years, almost mastered the art of living together happily and without conflict. Children can grow up with their parents and their siblings. Young people can go to school and get an education. Adults can get jobs doing the things they enjoy, and perhaps eventually find the person they love and start a new family of their own."[/color]

The film shifted to patriotic scenes of soldiers running through an obstacle course, their thin steel helmets loosely bouncing atop their heads as they ran. They pulled their rifles to their shoulders and threw themselves to the ground upon reaching a line of sandbags, and the camera zoomed in on one small, scraggly human man with a look of absolute determination on his face. He fired his rifle several times and the image cut to one of rounds punching holes in a thinly painted tin target plate.

[color=f7976a]"Over the millennia, it has been the job of young, strong people like yourselves to protect our communities so that others can continue living happily. These soldiers are necessary for the continued existence of all we hold dear. But they are not enough alone."[/color]

The music shifted to a more triumphant tune, recognizable immediately as a jazz variant of the Unoctocan National Anthem ([i]Song of the Fatherland[/i], or untranslated, [i]Unoschtonbalat[/i]). Upon a hilltop stood five of the nation's most famed Mages, standing shoulder to shoulder and performing the Imperial Salute. First General Casvel Uoyvvo stood at the center, with Colonel Breckenridge to her right and Major Heartstrong to her left. Standing at the ends were the internationally renowned medical mage Art Jannefel, and a man known only by his face and his rifle, whom the public had named The Hero of Hasval. The Imperial Military Flag stood behind them, with a quadrant dedicated to each branch of the military: Navy, Air Force, Army, and Mage Corps.

Out of nowhere, a white fog clouded the camera and the five mages threw themselves to the ground. The music stopped suddenly and real audio was fed in. [color=f49ac2]"What the fuck was that?!"[/color], Casvel shouted. Sounds of sporadic gunfire and Virefang snarls could be heard in the distance, and the camera moved upwards and towards the hilltop shakily. Small packs of Virefangs were being gunned down by soldiers in the streets of a small industrial town in a valley, where smokestacks poured thick black fumes southwards into the sky. [color=92278f]"Nothing out of the ordinary, sirs. Just the-"[/color]

The cameraman stopped speaking mid-sentence, and a moment later, it was clear why. The white fog that'd passed by swept into the town, gradually thickening until nothing was visible. Gunfire was still rattling off the whole time, with small flashes of white and orange showing where each Monster hotspot was, but once the fog became a pure white, the sounds stopped. All of them. The fog grew darker and redder until it reached a pitch black. Then it happened. The wind started blowing harshly, clipping out the camera's built-in audio transcriber, and the black fog swept towards the center of the area to condense into a twenty meter wide featureless black sphere. The city was almost completely missing, and a handful of smokestacks that had once been attached to buildings fell out of the sky and crumbled upon the dry stone.

After several minutes of terrifying silence, the sphere started to move southwards, and shifted into an oblong shape. The cameraman followed its movement as it flew through the air, shifting into a progressively longer and more snakelike form as it went, and eventually it disappeared over the horizon. [color=8882be]"I- It's... Gone. The whole fucking town's [i]gone[/i]. How can it be gone!?"[/color], Major Heartstrong said, clearly shaken by the experience. [color=f49ac2]"Turn off the camera, Private."[/color]

[color=92278f]"Yes, sir."[/color]

And the screen went blank.

[/hider]

The projector cut off, and the screen returned to its resting point inside of the portico overhang. Boorkat and Katrice Malkin stepped back up to their podium and began speaking once more.

[color=00a99d]"What you just saw was originally meant to be a patriotic film encouraging citizens to join the military. During filming, the First General, Major Heartstrong, Colonel Breckenridge, Art Jannefel, and the lone sniper were to give aid to the Army in fighting off a small horde of Virefangs which, due to a miscalculation by ecologists, had happened upon the southern town of Vivat during a mass migration in search of food just a few years ago. That happened instead. There are many unknown things about the world, and while we now have named that gaseous abomination the Terraphage and have discovered exactly why it destroyed Vivat, there is no guarantee that there aren't any other major threats to our safety lurking just out of sight. Had we more knowledge beforehand, this would not have happened. And seeking knowledge is why we are here. I ask that you take your search for knowledge and, if you wish, power, seriously while you are with us."[/color]

Administrator Malkin's four eyes scanned the crowd's reactions and left them to think about it for a few moments before continuing his speech. [color=00a99d]"On a happier note, we should have breakfast ready now. Professor Katarina Volkova will escort you to the cafeteria."[/color]