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Welcome back! I heard reports that high level Kremlin officials were panicking. Seems you were the reason. I’ll take the Vajra from you. It’s quite a bit smaller than I thought it would be. I suppose that doesn’t actually matter though. Anyways, let’s get you briefed on that last weapon. It’s called the Narayanastra. “Astra,” meaning weapon in Sanskrit, and “Narayan,” referring to its wielder: Vishnu in the form of Narayana.
I’ve spoken to you before about Vishnu, but not about him as Narayana. Narayana is the supreme being in Hindu mythology. He created all possible universes and all of the worlds within them. Now, the weapon itself is somewhat reflective of him in that it works on an infinite scale. The Narayanastra is a bow capable of wiping out entire armies and more in a single firing. It does so by raining down flaming arrows. I would assume the concept is a bit similar to a volley but requiring fewer archers. One arrow is fired upwards, and many more rain down. This depiction of the Narayanastra being fired gives a pretty good indication of what it would look like to actually fire it.
The weapon does have a few weaknesses, however. Firstly, if fired twice in the same conflict, the second firing of the Narayanastra will instead fire upon the user’s own forces. Secondly, if those being fired upon surrender, then the weapon does nothing. After surrendering, however, the army is able to pick up arms again. It’s a bit of an underwhelming doomsday weapon if you ask me.
The Narayanastra was most notably used in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Indian epics. The story goes that Ashwatthama, son of a legendary master of the military arts, Drona, fired the weapon upon the Pandava Brothers and their army. The image I just showed you depicts this event. The Pandava brothers were central characters in the Mahabharata as the epic detailed their struggle against their cousins to ascend to the throne of their kingdom. This war that broke out between the two groups eventually became known as the Kurukshetra War. Anyways, once the Narayanastra was fired Krishna appeared to the Pandavas and their army. Since Krishna was an avatar of Vishnu, he knew of the weapon's weaknesses. He instructed the Pandavas and their army to lay down arms. Listening to him, every soldier laid down their weapons and all of them survived.
Here’s a photograph of the weapon.
It’s simple-looking but don’t let that blind you to how destructive it is. This photograph was once again taken by the Brits when they first recovered it in 1939. The Narayanastra was also stolen from the Brits by the Nazis before being taken by the same archaeologist. You’d think both of them would have learned after the first time they had things stolen from them. Unlike the Vajra, however, the Narayanastra did safely make it stateside. We have intel that it is being kept at a facility in the Great Basin Desert in the southwestern region of the United States. Here’s a satellite image of it.
It isn’t Area 51, but it is close. Interestingly enough, most of the fuss around Area 51 was generated to keep attention away from this facility. This place is a black site meaning that it does not exist officially. The world at large is completely oblivious to this place’s existence by design. A lot of things the American Government doesn’t want people to know about happen at places like this. This facility is mostly used for artifact storage. It’s the sort of place they would keep the Ark of the Covenant except the Ark of the Covenant isn’t real… At least not officially.
The artifacts are kept in the larger of the two white rectangular buildings. Each artifact is sealed in a wooden crate that is marked by a number corresponding to the artifact held within. I don’t know where in the facility the Narayanastra is located, so you’ll have to do some searching. I do, however, have part of the item manifest. I've highlighted the Narayanastra on it for you. Its number is: 010000412.
Stealth seems like your only real option here. While the facility is remote, you will still be operating on the U.S. mainland. That means that reinforcements won’t be too far away. Aerial insertion and extraction are a no-go. That airspace is heavily guarded. You’ll have to make the trek in and out on the ground. Getting in will be extremely difficult as the area surrounding the facility is under near-constant surveillance, both from satellites and ground forces. However, the site itself is sparsely guarded. They are banking on the site not being found in the first place. That means that once you are in you should have a leisurely time searching for the Narayanastra. You’ll have as much time as you need to find and correctly identify the weapon. Consider doing some shopping while you're there. We have no idea what else they're keeping in this place. As far as getting out, well, that’s the tricky part. It should be similar to getting in, but with the added difficulty of carrying the Narayanastra. We don’t know if that thing glows or if it makes any noises. You’ll have to plan accordingly and have some contingencies in place in case things go south.
As always, let me know if there is anything you need from me. When you retrieve the weapon, meet me at this location. You’ve made it this far, I have no doubt you’ll be able to pull this off. Good luck.
Author’s Note
My depiction of the Narayanastra is nearly completely faithful. I chose to have it only rain down flaming arrows as that makes the most sense to me. The Wikipedia article says that it also fires down gadas (maces) and chakras (sharp disc-like blades) in addition to the arrows. It didn’t really make sense to me to have it fire down maces and other objects besides arrows.
When the Narayanastra was fired upon the Pandavas, one of the Pandava brothers, Bhima, refused to drop his weapons and surrender. He saw it as an act of cowardice. The weapon kept raining arrows upon him until Krishna and his brothers were able to subdue him and force him to drop his weapons. Presumably the weapon would have kept firing down upon Bhima had Krishna and Bhima’s brothers not interfered. This account suggests that the purpose of the Narayanastra is more about punishing arrogance and pride rather than decimating armies.
The image of the bow I used is not of the Narayanastra. It is just an image of a bow I found and edited to look old-timey.
As always, though I am pulling inspiration from history and real places and events, nothing in this is at all factual and all locations used are made up.
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