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Cut Scene: In The Previous Episode Of Sythkyllya

In the Old West, it becomes apparent that the sethura have not left the world entirely, but have instead maintained a limited presence, hampered in some way in making their transitions between their universe and our own by an increasing temporal distortion effect. Because of this, they seem to be restricting themselves to short visits and instead trying to encourage revolution amongst their local counterparts, the werewolves, who have adapted over the centuries and become almost native to their new home world. The sethura are deliberately introducing technologies and ideas ahead of their time, especially in the not-so-newly discovered North America, which was already known to the werewolves and populated by them for thousands of years before its 'official discovery'.

The new movement is known as the 'Werewolf Free Nation' but older and wiser tongues whisper that this in fact just a translation of the words 'Free Sethura Nation' in the ancient language of the original settlers that has somehow been rediscovered, though no living werewolf ever spoke it. The werewolves have had towns and settlements in various places long before the current invasion of immigrants, and have now blended with them or gone into hiding as they have seen fit, their pride in many cases offended by these new arrivals to 'their' land.

Plans by the Free Nation to establish its own independent territories are proceeding apace until their first test flights of various aerial vehicles attract unwanted attention in the newspapers of the time, drawing in various interested parties. There is plenty of West still to be won in this time, or indeed to hide things in, and the Free Nation has attracted a loose coalition of angry Red Indians attracted by their werewolf-shamans to the prospect of revenge against the White Man, outcast Hound skin-walkers drawn back into the fold by virtue of their mercenary utility, and all the usual bandits, outlaws and hirelings one might expect from a secessionist revolutionary movement. The Free Nation has the resources to employ all of these and then some, with local knowledge gained over generations of the locations of vast gold-and-quartz veins and associated placers, which they now have the ability to exploit far more effectively than they should, thanks to the information they have received on advanced mining techniques. In the past, a reverence for the earth and the traditions of the native population caused them to hold back from the destructive measures required to access this resource, but now revolution and anger has led them into what they see as necessity.

When Terrowne, who is in America for unrelated reasons, detects the edges of this wave of social change, he heads toward the source of the newspaper reports, looking to find out what has happened and set it right. The werewolves have long been a source of cleverness and beauty in an otherwise primitive world, and are precious to both himself and Cleo, and it pains him to see them subverted and used this way.

As he heads toward the source, he encounters other travellers who have been drawn in to the events currently unfolding. The West Brothers, guns for hire, have tracked a mysteriously efficient and strangely infamous outlaw with an anachronistic bullet-proof cloak towards Free Nation territory, only to encounter mythical beasts given life outside their time thanks to the borrowed technologies of the sethura. Slaying a titanic prehistoric boa snake and an enraged pterodactyl thunderbird is more than enough to convince the brothers that something really weird and potentially vastly profitable is going on.

After witnessing and narrowly escaping the destruction of a small town on the edge of the Free Nations territory by a large but fairly primitive airship equipped with lightweight cannons and scoped rifles, an attack abetted by canvas biplanes and numerous smaller dirigibles, it becomes apparent that the Free Nation must be stopped and their secret sethura contacts captured or killed. Aided by the local knowledge and field-craft of the brothers, Terrowne tracks the aircraft of the Free Nation back through their newly occupied territories to the source, exploiting their newly manufactured technological infrastructure against them by destroying trains and train tracks, exploding the oil refinery that provides the fuel for their aircraft, and collapsing large portions of the mines which are providing the raw materials and gold to fund their weapons projects.

The West Brothers finally get their man in the unofficial throne room of the Free Nation, an open cavern floored with solid gold and mica tiles and attached to the mines as an act of pure show. No bulletproof cloak is adequate to stop the sheer firepower of the prototype automatic weapons the Free Nation has developed.

Meanwhile, Terrowne is acting to stop the true danger the Free Nation presents. Their real leader, the one that the werewolves are listening to, is both black and female, a threat no-one would take seriously by the prejudiced standards of the time, and she is preparing to cast off in the finished version of the airship with working models and full design plans for all the weapons, as well as enough gold and other resources to set up anywhere she might decide to call home. Let the humans kill one another as they will; it doesn't matter to her.

Although Terrowne respects her deeply and understands her motives, he still has to kill her. The ideals of the Free Nation would lead to death and destruction on a massive scale, giving an otherwise mostly superior species the motivation and weapons to conquer the world instead of finishing the process of becoming part of it.

The main threat is destroyed, but there is still no sign of the sethura contacts who have precipitated any of these events. Catching any of them was always an outside chance, and they have much greater knowledge and experience than any of the local werewolves. The only real question is if and when they will show their hand again.