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

[inafadingcrown]

[She nods, already reaching into her bag of herbs and salves.]

I am of more use here. I can wield a blade, to be certain, but my skill in healing is far greater.

[ladyspitfire]

You remind me of someone.

[The thought comes unbidden in her haze of pain, but now she thinks on Galadriel and remembers Wynne. And remembers, too, that she is very possibly dead thanks to Anders.

Maker, what a mess.]

[inafadingcrown]

Do I?

[She looks up, offering an apologetic glance as she applies one of the salves. It will sting, she knows, and the pressure she's putting on the wound will hurt. But it is what it is.]

That is not something I hear often.

[ladyspitfire]

[She winces but holds still, letting Galadriel do her work. Elissa's suffered worse in the Deep Roads, in Denerim, in too many places to count. She won't complain for the assistance.]

An old friend of mine. Fearless, too, but wise and kind.

[inafadingcrown]

[At least Galadriel works quickly, almost instinctively. This is not the first time she's played battlefield medic; after so many years, her fingers almost seem to move of their own accord.]

I am honored. Though of the two of us, I would not choose the word "fearless" for myself.

[ladyspitfire]

She feared, I think, but she had little reason to worry for herself. Once, she told me, "Why should you fear death if you are happy with the life you have led, if you can look back on everything and say, 'Yes, I am content. It is enough.'"

[She smiles briefly, fleeting, but she shrugs.]

She was also extremely patient with us upstarts.

[inafadingcrown]

[Galadriel gives a small smile of her own, half hearted though it is.]

A woman wise enough to tell you such things would remember, no doubt, that we were all upstarts once.

[ladyspitfire]

Oh, she did.

[And regretted it, too. She sighs.]

I'm sorry. I-- I just don't know what to say.

[She wants to stop thinking of the destruction she saw, the death and the fire. But there's nothing else for her to say.]

[inafadingcrown]

You needn't apologize.

[She continues to work, falling silent for a moment before speaking again.]

I knew one such woman when I was young. Melian was her name. She was a Maia- I know of no simple way to explain it- a divine being, perhaps. Yet she wed an elf and their kingdom was among the fairest in Middle Earth, due in no small part to her power. Wise was she, gracious, and fair beyond measure. [A soft smile] I know not what would have become of me had she not taken me into her care.