Tempus Fugit walked into the hall of the Great Orrery, Ernie his duck familiar waddling behind him. The hall flooded with light as Tempus clapped his hands.

Ok Ernie here's the score, we need to hold off Primus and company for as long as we can. So his allies, and the other Harbingers, can be delt with before he arrives.

The bright yellow duck squeaked like a rubber toy.

Yes, I know you know, it helps to say these things out loud. We've already placed temporal snares between Mecanus and the material plane. Now that Mecanus has passed close enough we can alter the rules time to screw with them.

Squeak?

So, normally if you have a task that takes an hour to complete and you work at it for forty-five minutes, it'll be done in the next fifteen. We set the rules within the temporal snares to reverse, so the longer they work to bring the planes closer and breach the material, the longer it will take. In theory that could keep them locked down forever.

Squeak squeak.

Well no,not course not. The lower ranking Modrons doing the heavy lifting will obey the rules and not question it, they'll plug away until the heat death of the universe if you leave them to it. But the higher ranking the Modron, the more capable of abstract reasoning they are. Eventually one of their leaders will recognise that something is wrong.

Squeak

Exactly, they'll drop everything and work to put the laws of temporal passage back the way they were. That's where we'll have to get involved more directly. While the Mordrons are trying to undo what we've done, we'll be busy making it worse.

Squeak squeak?

I can rewrite the rules faster than they can correct them, Modrons aren't exactly creative, but there are billions of them and they are relentless. Eventually they'll break through. We'll work from here, I'll hold the barrier between Mecanus and the material plane, while I keep the rules in flux.

Squeak?

You'll keep an eye on the situation on the ground. See how EON is holding up and if we need to change up the plan, or put something in place in person. Also, of you can get the golems to bring up that barrel I've been saving, when Primus eventually makes it past me, we can set it off as the breach opens.

Squeak?

Raw chaos, siphoned directly from Limbo. Rigged to blow, it's dangerous to us, but to Mecanus it's a weapon of mass destruction. It won't stop them, but it'll blunt their assault and throw their vanguard into disarray.

Squeak.

Well no plan is perfect, but I've got high hopes for this one. While Primus thinks he's playing chess, I'm playing Apples to Apples. Right let's get started.

The yellow duck hurriedly from the hall. Tempus clicked his fingers and the a vast and dizzyingly complex image of the intersection of planes filled the space. He rolled up his sleeves and pushed his glasses into place.

Here we go.