By the end of the next day, everyone has gone their separate ways. Tippy and Crash catch a flight to Kintharia while Eremit, Cualli, and Elu (after the latter two are harassed multiple times by security) take a plane to the East coast and switch over to a helicopter to make the flight to Moratov (with Cualli once again being taken aside for questioning before departure). Cualli's expectations of a "large" helicopter being like a Hip or a Hind are shattered when she looks out the terminal window at the 40 meter long twin-rotor behemoth waiting for them. Eremit explains that since air travel to Moratov is in such low demand, their only airport isn't even capable of receiving passenger jets. Any air travel in and out of the city is handled either with older, propeller-driven passenger planes, or by fitting a handful of people in on a cargo chopper with room to spare. At least the tickets were relatively cheap.
The three arrive in Moratov at 5 PM, but this time of year the sun never bothers to show its face and it looks more like 1. In the morning. The effect a chronic lack of sunlight has on the local environment is quickly made apparent, as Cualli finds herself needing to wear her jacket even inside the relative warmth of the heliport. Exiting the terminal, you are buffeted by strong winds in the negative double-digits, cold enough to make Elu begin twitching and shaking after a few minutes outside. Eremit hails a taxi and gets both Cualli and Elu back to his place on the outskirts of town before anyone freezes to death.
Meanwhile on the other side of the country, Tippy and Crash's airline experience goes a lot smoother. Crash nearly has a heart attack when he spots a Fulcrum in the distance, but before the cabin can get too restless at the sight of a military jet outside the plane the Captain explains that it's just a precautionary measure against any Porlaqi idiocy. Sure enough, once the Athien bay is behind you the fighter escort turns back and you cross the Minervan Ocean all by yourself. Fortunately you are not attacked by magic Porlaqi stealth interceptors, shot down by any Imperial-aligned air forces from the hostile states near Kintharia, or smashed into a building by Deltan terrorists; and set down at Tsunai International alive and well.
and also virvel, kommandant, pansar, and frisk go home too
Poll