exsiliumlogs | Other Worlds: V 2.0

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Other Worlds: V 2.0

Date & Time: May 21st, beginning at 0900.
Location: The Initiative Hold and all throughout Elmer's world
Characters: Anyone participating in the fighting, anyone staying behind.
Summary: Elmer's world is fought for and lost.
Warnings: Violence, death.

They reopen the portal at 0900, May 21st. The first scientist who stepped through was killed within thirty seconds; the rest who followed made it back through to Exsilium, albeit not unscathed. The portal was shut again by a panicked operator, although a second operator knew to keep the coordinates locked.

Within ten minutes, the alert had been sent out. There's no time to wait for the Transports to gather en masse; as soon as they have a sizable enough force to stand a chance at fighting through and clearing their gateway's location, the door is opened again.

Immediately inside the door is a desolate, grim scene. What had previously been the coast of Japan is now scorched earth, blasted sand, and little else. As the first point of contact for this world, it has undoubtedly suffered the worst. Here, the UE didn't stop at governments, financial centers, and capitols — the UE destroyed everything in sight. There are enough UE soldiers remaining in the broken country to give the Transports a difficult battle, although by now the bulk of their forces have moved on.

The Initiative will soon realize the necessity of opening more gateways, just as the UE had done. Transports will be deployed to London, Berlin, Paris, DC Washington, Moscow, Beijing, New York City, Hong Kong, Madrid. Through each of these windows, the destruction is staggering. Buildings are more husks than structures, everything that can burn is alight, and the death toll is off the charts. Blackened bodies seem to line every street, while pieces litter the ground among the rubble. There's no doubt that the UE has no need of the people of this world. They're after resources only, and anything and anyone already here is to be removed.

You can find UE soldiers everywhere. They move in coordinated squadrons of 20, and each of them carries a small arsenal. Even without their incredibly advanced and destructive weaponry, they're fearfully formidable. Each soldier, while still only human, is a genetically perfect clone, further enhanced by technological implants. They're all highly trained in physical combat. Even if you can disarm one of them, don't count on close-range attacks being any easier to handle. They've brought along cannons, small flying craft, and lightweight tanks. Each of these is the top of the line in terms of technology, geared toward destroying as much as it can, as quickly as it can. The United Earth is here to destroy, and they won't stop to wonder why their targets go from being civilians and scrambling, off-guard, comparatively primitive militaries, to trained and powered Transports.

For anyone staying at home, they'll find that any Initiative presence has withdrawn fully to the Hold. All Initiative employees are needed, and most of them in the med bays. The majority of the Initiative focus is on recalling and resurrecting fallen Transports, but attention is still needed for the living-but-wounded. Any Transports who stay in Exsilium and offer their help will have it immediately accepted; they'll be put to work in the medical wings, runnings supplies, or simply set at a machine and told to keep an eye on the numbers: Transport vitals, UE movements, and maps upon maps of changing statistics and colors.

At 1500, the Initiative will recall all Transport soldiers back to Exsilium and seal shut the gateway. The UE numbers are too great, their soldiers too powerful, and Elmer's world is lost.

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"We're accomplishing next to nothing, unless you count traumatizing a bunch of former civilians as 'something.' The Initiative had better be using whatever time we're buying them to do something other than panic."

"It's appreciated," Giving Sue an arch look in return, he could remember that look being given to him so regularly that it was no longer painful to experience. Every time he went out to look for Arcueid, Ciel gave him that look. She couldn't give him any intel without trying to guilt him into confining himself to a bed with bandages over his eyes for the rest of his life.

He waited a moment, decidedly smiling. "I'm not going to bleed out like this. It's just a side effect of me seeing so much... death."

Nitoh swallows down the beating of his heart as Haruto stares at him and then looks away. He stays put, not really sure how to process it. His immediate urge is to hold Haruto, to stop him as he walks away. He doesn't know why... Perhaps out of relief, or one of those crazy urges from the painkillers he's on.

He doesn't, though. All he does at first is blink, mouth rounded, and then finally, hoarsely, he says. "Well... I guess it's good luck for both of us that I'm here, huh." It doesn't have his customary brightness to it.

He feels the shadow of that possibility over him, but then he begins to walk again, to follow Haruto. He doesn't say what he's thinking, that if Haruto had asked, he would have gone along. Instead, he reaches out and rests his hand on Haruto's shoulder, for just a moment. "Thanks for thinkin' of me..." he says, brusquely. He pulls his hand back and pats him instead of gripping, not sure what he would do if he let himself hold onto Haruto. He needs to hold onto something, too much... He's not sure whether he could let go.

[Emil follows that up with a leap allowing him to come down on the soldier hard, knocking him down and rendering him out of the fight for a while. The numbers are better now - they're still outnumbered, but he's faced numbers like this before with Marta. He goes on to the next closest enemy, running in and taking a low swipe in an attempt to catch that one off-balance.]

[Emil breathes a sigh of relief as they file in, grateful for the soldier-less break but not quite willing to voice it explicitly for fear of bad luck.]

Do you think they'll be safe here for a while?

Probably. Though I think I'll watch that from a safer distance, if I ever have to.

[ He gets close enough for a better look at Kirara, as well as Sango, buuut mostly Kirara. He's seen plenty of girls, but giant cat demon things? ]

Hmm. Well. If you two are fine, then I'd better keep going.

Yeah? ...Me too.

[She's still a little in shock, honestly, too thrown off by the impossibility of a world being destroyed to feel sad about it. She hadn't known the man who lost his world, and had no ties left to her own.]

You didn't get hurt, didja?

[Frowning inwardly, Coby brought his hand up and gestured for Asami to follow again. He kept his mind tuned so he could hear into the distance consistently, but above all else, he knew for the moment they were relatively safe. Those soldiers didn't try to recover their dead. They left them behind like they didn't matter. The thought enraged Coby to no end, but he had no say in the matter. He would just try his best to fight them.]

You know, I used to be a pathetic coward a few years ago. Before I joined the Marines, I mean.

[He could hear shells going off in the distance, bursting and taking lives with them. Before, when he learned how to use 'Observation', the voices would have terrified him and shaken him to paralysis.]

Even after that I wasn't very admirable or strong. About two years ago, I was enlisted and pulled into a war with the strongest man in the world. I fought in a war even scarier than this.

( A smile, small and more than a little wry, and she glances down at the blades. )

Seemed better for stealth than a gun, when I lost the silent option.

( She's not at good with these as she was with the gun, not by a long stretch. Steph might have shown the basics of throwing knives, and she can skin and gut a carcass, but this is different. )

Stealth's the only advantage I got here. ( Matter of fact, business, because that's what Gamora demands of her. ) I've been handling myself okay.

( Not brilliantly, there have been some near misses, and when it is only shadow camouflage that cuts down her options. ) But, for today? If there's a spare gun lying around I might have to take it.

( She's not delusional, and she really doesn't want to die. )

( Handy. He enjoys a pun, even if it's accidental and hey maybe not ever a pun, but he glances at his hand with just a little amusement. Yep. Thanks, hand..

A moment, and he shakes his head. Ready when you are, is what he means, and he tilts his head in the direction of the portals, taking a step but just... checking, to see if there's anything she wants to do first. )

"I guess so," Haruto echoes, over his shoulder.

He'd said it, and now he can't take it back. He wants to just leave it on the sidewalk, but from Nitoh's voice, from his face, from the way he follows doggedly along, he's not going to be allowed to. Nitoh's hand on his shoulder is--not surprising, it's not like Nitoh isn't pulling him along this way and that all the time, but it feels different than his usual overbearing presence.

He tamps down, firmly, on the unwelcome urge to turn into Nitoh's arm. It's not something he thinks Nitoh would take well--and it's not something he can indulge in. He pulls back, not quite a shrugging off, but close. "Keeping you alive is part of my job now, isn't it?" he asks.

Edited 2013-06-05 05:38 (UTC)

_{[But before Berserker could say "I do" to begin this lovely forever marriage, from around a nearby corner there was a sudden explosion as one of the smaller aircrafts crashed and burned. Hard. If anyone around was quick enough, they might perhaps have seen it battered and wrapped in vines.

A winged girl flew through the air, though not in a manner that she might have normally been accustomed to, It was clear she'd been knocked back by something, but it hadn't stopped her. Still in the air she flipped and rebounded against a shamrock-shaped shield that suddenly appeared against her feet, and a moment later swung her giant scythe and shouted.]}

Crescent Rose!

_{[A sickle of green energy burst from the blade and cleaved the wing off a second ship, ensuring it would share the same fate as the first when it crashed after barrelling in a dizzying, chaotic spin.

She spared a moment to make sure there were no surprises waiting for her in the distance then sped off, flying fairly low at building level. She hadn't gotten very far before she spotted two people, not enemies, and touched down.]}

Are you two alright?

_{[There were no injuries that she could see, but at a time like this, it was instinctive of her to ask.]}

["Hours" is a discouraging word, and the invisible band about Lenalee's chest tightens a fraction more. She ducks into the cover of a felled storefront, nursing her side with fingers as tight as her mouth.]

Listen, Caesar...

[It takes Asami a moment to realize Coby is trying to say something, share a part of himself with her. At first she wonders if he's actually crazy, because this isn't the time, but then she realizes it's somewhat okay for now.

She looks directly at Coby, silent and unsure. Then she just has to ask. Her mind isn't in any form to detect clues.]

I'm so sorry; what're you trying to say?

I think it'll be true for a lot of us tonight...

[ if the footsteps and voice she can still hear from her spot are any indication. ]

A few cuts and bruises, but nothing my magic couldn't take care of.

[Lenalee's frustration has ebbed and flowed this entire afternoon, swells that she's crashed herself upon in the hopes of getting past them, but this, this just now- it's so stupid, and incomprehensible, and Lenalee hasn't any idea how to reassure someone who is not an Exorcist, because that concern-turned-helplessness and that frustration are her own.

She's silent when Kaneis leaves, then-]

Going where?

[A distraction seemed fine enough. Coby nodded his head and raised his hand once more for Asami to stop. A building began collapsing even further out and he was listening for the next row of platoons. More and more deaths piled up in his head. Each cry was another life he couldn't save.]

It's admirable. You saved me despite how scary this is. I've been in bigger situations than this and I spent so much time being afraid of everything around me.

[He pushed forward again, reaching to his hip for his sword, which had otherwise gone untouched the whole time.]

I spent most of that war paralyzed, too afraid to fight. I think--you helping me despite how bad it looked was amazing.

This face is unfamiliar to me, and I have known death.

[Seeing his people crushed and burned alive by the dragon that took Erebor, and hundreds more massacred by Azog's army in Azanulbizar. The key difference being these were always dwarves and not another race. Certainly not a man giving his life in order to save him. And Thorin was convinced such acts would only come from his kinfolk, and Bilbo Baggins.]

I have not lived long enough to remember when the Free People of Middle Earth found it possible to unite as one army. But I know these Men and their foolishness in their attempt to reclaim alliances that can never be reforged. Our people were divided with the passing of the Second Age. [Thranduil's betrayal not helping his ability to see this changing, even after his lifetime.] For Men, to die alongside dwarves.

[Or for one.]

[He stops, back to her.]

...I don't know.

[It's an honest answer. He just doesn't want to stay here. He doesn't want to stay still.

He can't return to where he wants to go. He can't help in the way he wishes he could help, he can't fight like he wishes he could fight. He's felt like this before, felt like pounding his fist bloody against some unmovable object, but this isn't the same. He doesn't know what to do with a conclusion like this. All he's left with is an emptiness gnawing at his gut and an aching leg.]

Edited 2013-06-05 06:44 (UTC)

[The noise had been lost to the knight. In focusing every bit of his will on opening up his magic to the world, his eyes had been tightly shut. Flora touched down on the ground and entered his field of access. Only when she spoke did he realize she was there and by then, he was already speaking his response to Vera.]

I accept!

[At that, Berserker's entire body burst, emanating a circle of darkness from his feet. Though the rooftop had already been windy and cold to begin with, the dark energy amassing from him was borderline freezing. The pressure coming from him was suddenly complete and for awhile, Berserker felt his strength was suddenly on par with that of what it was when he was alive. Those pulses of darkness burst from him, emanating cold and deep anger from the depths of Berserker's consciousness.]

You-- [He looked to Flora, forcing his aura to be contained bit by bit.

In the next instant, the warmest thing on the two would be on the backs of their right arms. Flora and Vera would have Berserker's command seals burned onto the both of their arms, to which the pain would subside only moments later.]

Where did you come from?

Edited 2013-06-05 06:51 (UTC)

Being human isn't necessarily a redeeming quality.

( She'll fight for them, defend them, and she's wished she were one of them more times than could be counted, but humans are not inherently good. They can do terrible things to one another, and she lightly taps his jaw, the tenderness of the gesture at odds with their surroundings. )

I do whatever I can for friends.

( They've never been something she had in abundance. ) When you do the - ( She waves her hand, trying to think how to phrase this, ) - pink glowing thing, what does it do, exactly?

( Because she's eyeing some reasonable large items. ) Namely, if you do that to something very large and heavy that I could throw, something bigger than what you've been using so far, what would it do to them?

( To demonstrate, she is going to rip the door of this car, slam it into an oncoming soldier, before she slings it into the oncoming numbers. )

Nitoh swallows and pulls his arm back. Perhaps if Haruto had leaned into it, he would have allowed himself to break, too. But neither of them will ever know, and perhaps that's for the best. So he just bumps his good shoulder against Haruto's and walks ahead, keeping his head turned away from his rival.

"Keeping each other alive is both of our jobs, man," he sounds a little hurt. He's definitely defensive about his mana source, he wants nothing less than to be a burden to Haruto. He turns to look at Haruto, side-on. "I mean, that's one of the things that rivals are for."

"Outside of fights, Nitoh," Haruto says, sighing. As they near the door to the bakery, he walks ahead, and before he pulls the door open--and he's never been more glad to see the place's lights on--he turns back toward Nitoh. "I trust you to have my back," he says, as casually as he can, in this atmosphere. "You're not--I don't mind helping you," he says, finally, and pulls the door open with a hard tug.

"I got your back," he affirms. But he hears the unspoken word, 'burden,' that he's been carrying silently with him. Even in the context of being reassured, it rankles. "Yeah, yeah." He's tired, and today moreso than ever he wants to live, no matter what the cost.

He sighs and just pushes on. "Let's just eat something. I'm gonna crash hard if I don't get something inside me."

Haruto doesn't have the energy to continue the conversation. Instead he leads the way inside and waves to the now familiar shop clerk. "Two of the usual," he says, "and a large coffee. Nitoh?"

He puts the question to Nitoh over his shoulder, already sliding into one of the chairs at the table in the corner.

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Other Worlds: V 2.0

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