Other Worlds: V 2.0

[initiates]

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.

Comments

[goinbust]

Jim shakes his head and lets out a breath.

"You know, all the time I spent with ghosts I should be used to that... Well, other than the floating stuff. Thanks for the assist. You bugging out too?"

[fantasticforcefields]

She'll ask about ghosts later.

"I certainly wasn't planning on setting up housekeeping." Sue floats down next to Jim, dropping the field that was supporting her in midair, and extending her shield to cover both of them.

Speaking of which... "Give me a couple seconds warning before you shoot anything. I've got a force field up around the both of us." Death by ricochet would be an ignominious end for either of them.

[goinbust]

"Given my ammo situation that works for me. Not dry but I came with the wrong load out."

He looks over the city and shakes his head.

"They get any survivors out at least?"

[fantasticforcefields]

"I ran into some soldiers from Fort Meade an hour or so back. After they stopped shooting at me, they told me they're going to try to get people together and out of the city, but..." She trails off and shrugs. What are they going to do against the UE's scorched earth tactics?

"I took care of the tank that was pinning them down, but there's not much else I could do except fill them in on what they were facing. I'm not sure they believed me."

[goinbust]

"Bunch of suits were running from that big white building. Covered them till looked like they were supported but this don't look like a battle we can win or clobber the other guy into at least callin' a truce."

He looks at the tank and shakes his head.

"Get the feelin at this point its just angrily lashing out and hoping to make the other side feel takin this place but that ain't no way to fight."

[fantasticforcefields]

Sue shakes her head. "We lost this fight before we even knew it was happening. I've just been destroying as much of their materiel as I--" And then what Jim said hits her. "Big white building? You mean the Capitol?"

[goinbust]

"Maybe. Never been to Earth before, on my world or any others. Had a lot of green around it, or I'm guessin it was green before it was burned. Why?"

[fantasticforcefields]

Sue doesn't even pause at the revelation Jim's never been to Earth. "It's where Congress meets. They're one of the branches of this country's government. I'd say it's a good thing you got them out, but...there's not much left to govern."

[goinbust]

"Well it ain't going to amount to a hill of beans if they don't got something a bit more substantial than a planetary marshal with a sniper rifle wherever they're headed. Still its something."

[fantasticforcefields]

"If the UE gets what it wants and withdraws, the people here might have a chance." In a blasted post-apocalyptic wasteland, granted, but Sue tends to be an optimist.

[goinbust]

"What does it WANT though? Near as I can tell this is a lootin raid. Looks like when pirates hit a station, kill everyone and take anything that can be sold."

[fantasticforcefields]

"That's it exactly. You've seen Exsilium. The UE has stripped their world bare and they're moving on to others. My Earth has fought off worse, but not everyone has our defenses." Sue has just recently learned there are universes that aren't crawling with superheroes, and she's still faintly incredulous about that.

[goinbust]

"Can't say I've seen outside of Exsilium though. Seen planets that were a lot worse off than that hole. Still, I don't think they're going to give up. Hell if they don't blow the planet up and bring back all the minerals they're better than some people I've fought."

[fantasticforcefields]

"I don't think it's out of the goodness of their hearts. I'm not sure they have the tech." She nods up at a pair of planes in the distance. "Those fighters are using wings and jet engines, not any kind of antigrav or reactionless thrusters."

She has paid attention to Reed all these years, at least until he starts writing equations in Kree, and when he's not around, she can do at least some of the thinking.

[goinbust]

"Don't know what to say then. Still, if they don't need the high end stuff they may not use them. Then again that ship of theirs was junk. Still."

He shakes his head and checks his magazine.

[fantasticforcefields]

"Ready to head out?" Sue brushes her hair back from her face, since she's apparently never heard of ponytails.

"I'll take you back to the portal. They don't have anything that can get through my shields." It's been a bad morning, and she's tired, but Sue can go much, much longer than this without her control wavering.

[goinbust]

Jim knew psychics and while Sue wasn't one of them he also could identify when they were starting to get tired. So he nodded.

"Just long enough to reload but sure. Looks like you may want to call it a day as well though."

[fantasticforcefields]

"Ha. I've had worse days than this." She lifts them off the ground with a platform of force beneath their feet, and the pair of them go skimming along at a respectable ten miles per hour or so, the breeze not whipping through their hair because it can't get through Sue's shield. "I could go for a cup of coffee and a long bath, though."

[goinbust]

"Drink or six for me after this. Never like givin up a planet."

[fantasticforcefields]

"At least you have some experience. I've run into kids today who're in their first battle."

War is hell, but it's not usually this hellish.

[goinbust]

"I've been with kids on days like today where this was their first battle before. Always hard. Really don't seem like they prepare them well for this either."

[fantasticforcefields]

"Sending people into this untrained is inexcusable."

[goinbust]

"Well practice ain't the same as the real thing and everyone is a bit green at some point but this... This ain't right for veterans, the kids. Well I got a bad feeling about what things are going to be like when we get back."

[fantasticforcefields]

"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."

[goinbust]

"Given how they're just throwin us everywhere, I get the feeling this is a bad command decision. Knee-jerk reaction to that world hoppin experiment getting screwed up."