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

[demonbloodblade]

[She's human enough to make the medicines work properly. She nods at him.]

Thank you. What can I do to make it easier for you?

[...no, really, her goal is to not make it more difficult... right now.]

[medicating]

Holding as still as you can is all you need to do for me.

[He collects what he needs and wheels his stool over to her, bringing over an IV bag.]

This'll get the meds working faster. I'm gonna put a needle in your good arm. Do you have a preference of the crook of your elbow or back of your hand for where I insert the needle?

[demonbloodblade]

[She's good at holding still.]

No preference, whichever is easier for you.

[There's a nice vein in the back of her hand, too, without having to unbutton the shirt and pull it up past that bracer.]

So you know, some of the weapons the opposing troops use shoot metal spikes. That's what got my arm. You may see more wounds like this coming in.

[medicating]

Goddamn barbaric...

[He trails off, muttering to himself until he gets the IV in and adds the pain meds.]

All right, let's see this arm.

[He brings the light closer and starts a visual diagnosis while waiting for the drugs to kick in.]

[demonbloodblade]

Not disagreeing with you.

[She's good at being a patient - holds still, doesn't kibitz. then she shows him the arm: two clean holes, through and through, one of them having broken the ulna on the way through and the other near it in the gap between ulna and radius. Bleeding slow.]

[medicating]

What I wouldn't give for a bone knitting laser right about now.

[Unfortunately they're not standard for away mission med kits. At least he still has his tricorder.]

All right, I'm gonna clean the wound out and put a splint on this. Have those meds kicked in yet?

[demonbloodblade]

Or a priest with healing magic. But what we have...

[She nods.] Oh, yes. Very much so. Feels quite nice not to be in pain, to be honest. Sorry, I should have said something before. I'm going to be quiet and let you work now.

[medicating]

Feels like I'm up to my ears in mages and magic healers around here.

[But he gets to work cleaning out the wound and not saying much else. If they were out somewhere and he didn't have any pain meds on him, he probably would have kept her talking to distract her from the pain, but as that wasn't the case, he just got on with it.]

[demonbloodblade]

To be honest, this place is less than what I'm used to in that regard. I was raised in a temple, so I saw a lot more than most.

[She lets him work. It's a fairly clean wound, but there's actually a little burn within the wound from the speed and close range of the weapon.]

I hope you don't need to treat anyone else with this kind of wound. I was lucky not to get shot in the chest. That might have been a lot more difficult.

[medicating]

If anyone comes in here with an injury like that, the Initiative damned well better either use their advanced tech on them, or stock this place with more tools I'm used to so I can handle it.

[Once the wound's clean, he works on setting her arm.]

Still feeling all right?

[demonbloodblade]

They may not know what tools you're used to. Sometimes I think they exist in a state of 'what does this do' with some of their technology, as this particular situation shows.

[She nods.]

Fine. These are excellent medications. I can think clearly, but the pain is much less than I'd Expect. At least, I hope that's the medications and not a sign of how badly hurt I am.

[medicating]

Nah, it kicks in pretty fast. I was just making sure.

[And then he's silent, splinting her arm and focusing all his attention on it.]