Flipping the Script (Honkai: Star Rail - Stellaron Hunter AU)

Chapter 5: Snow and Ash.

Historians frequently begin Jarilo-VI's planetary history from the War of the Gods thousands of years ago. The war between the eleven Perun States and the Veles Union Army scorched the land for years until an early spring completely changed the fortunes of war, and the Veles had a total victory. They praised the spring war god Jarilo for helping them eliminate their arch enemy and praised the land with poems of the same name. The current name of the planet in the cosmos's records—Jarilo-VI— may be a mistranslation that contains a poetry stanza number.

When the mythological war was over, Jarilo-VI welcomed a long period of peace and developed from a hunter-gatherer society to one conducting space explorations. Unfortunately, Jarilo-VI was a planet with few resources. Intensive development brought top-tier technological advances to Jarilo-VI, but also brought an end to their history. Exhausted resources, the arrival of a Stellaron, and the appearance of the Eternal Freeze...These various disasters completely annihilated Jarilo-VI's glorious but short-lived civilization.

The survivors of the Eternal Freeze managed to stay alive in a corner of the planet. They forgot the old name of Jarilo and created Belobog, a city made to shelter against the Eternal Freeze, and continued their civilization. Due to its isolated and dangerous natural environment, Jarilo-VI lost contact with other worlds after the appearance of the Cancer of All Worlds.

Caelus put the Data Bank terminal down, letting the other Stellaron Hunters who had all gathered in the same room know he had gotten the rundown.

"So as I've already mentioned to some of you," Kafka said once he finished, "our next stop on our journey is Jarilo-VI, the planet home to the city of Belobog, who worship the Aeon of Preservation, Qlipoth."

"And I'm assuming the Stellaron mentioned in the data bank is the one Elio wants?" Silver Wolf asked, "But, like I said before, that Stellaron has been there for millenia. What's the point of taking it now?"

"My concern is that taking such a hostile Stellaron might be dangerous," Firefly noted.

"Well, that's why you've been listed as one of the ones to take it, sweetie," Kafka replied, "You, Caelus, and Bladie will be in charge of tracking the Stellaron down, and me and Silver Wolf will come in for backup if you need it. Elio's script is pretty loose this time, so who knows what can happen once we're down there?"

"So what's the plan?" Caelus asked, "Did Elio tell you where the Stellaron was?"

"Sorry if this isn't to your tastes, Caelus," Kafka hummed, "but we've gotta go through a couple leaps and hurdles if we wanna find that information out."

"By which you mean...?" Silver Wolf queried.

"Well, according to what Elio told me when he delivered the script to me directly, we need to do a bit of recon first. In Belobog's Underworld, that is."

"Underworld?" Firefly frowned.

"Belobog is split into two segments. An Overworld and an Underworld," Silver Wolf explained, "A massive support beam connecting the surface and subterranean is the sole method to enter and exit it."

"Years ago, the current Supreme Guardian of Belobog, Cocolia Rand, separated the two places when she pulled all the Silvermane Guards out, leaving the Underworld dwellers to fend for themselves. The only thing that gets through are materials like Geomarrow, the ore that keeps the city warm and away from the freeze." Kafka elaborated.

"Why would she do that?" Caelus asked.

"Well, that's what WE'RE going to find out," Kafka told him, "Elio didn't tell me what it was, but Cocolia Rand's motivations are linked to the Stellaron's influence on the planet.