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

[ladyspitfire]

[It's more than many can say. She lifts a hand and puts her fingers just beneath the new mark he may carry, and she takes the first aid kit he's brought to start tending to his own burns. She's no healer but she's learned enough about field medicine to help now.

With a rueful smile, she looks at him.]

I know you will. [Her trust in him is implicit, as always.] And whomever dares to take you from me will be sent to the Void not long after the fact.

[She wishes she could promise to follow him. But there is the matter of her role as a Warden... Love is selfish, Wynne once said. She knows it's true. Elissa kisses his hand briefly.]

[bloodyantivan]

Do not be so eager to bury me! [Zevran laughs.] I intend for both of us to live forever.

[Ironically, so long as the Initiative keeps them as soldiers, this is possible. But not really a solution.

What frightens him is that it is far more likely that he will be the one to live on, in spite of his promise. The fortune teller said what she said, after all.]

We do not yet know what tomorrow might bring. And we still have much to look forward to.

[He gently squeezes her thigh, just a little of that typical playfulness touching his voice.]

[ladyspitfire]

[He gets a wry look for his trouble, fleeting, as she goes about bandaging the burns on his hands and arms. Elissa doesn't want to live forever. She's still convinced she shouldn't be alive now...but so long as Zevran is here, she can't regret it. And so long as she has a purpose, she has to live.]

We'll be cleaning this up for some time to come.

[Elissa almost misses his jab at innuendo, even if it's classic Zevran. She looks up and gives him a smile.]

Same old, hm? Ever wish we could retire to a warm place somewhere and live out the rest of our days in peace?

[bloodyantivan]

...Ah, such as Antiva, perhaps? I will have a fine estate, beautiful and armed to the teeth, when I become Crow Guildmaster, surely.

[He gives her a soft, nuzzling kiss to her cheek.]

We could eat fine, fresh catches from the sea every day, and watch the sun rise over the bay every morning.

[ladyspitfire]

And I have enough coin to happily keep the both of us sated for years, and for you when you go into retirement.

[As if such a thing was possible for assassins. She leans into his cheek.]

Killing in the morning, dozing into the afternoon, and the whole night to ourselves until dawn. It sounds almost romantic, doesn't it?

[bloodyantivan]

You forgot the dancing. There will be so much dancing.

[Zevran combs his fingers through her hair, chuckling quietly.]

Te amo.

[ladyspitfire]

And dancing on the shoreline. How could I forget that?

[Elissa leans into his fingers, raising an eyebrow.]

Hm?

[bloodyantivan]

Te amo.

[Zevran breathes it into her hair, his laugh ruffling the red.]

[ladyspitfire]

And I assume you're not going to tell me what that means.

[But she smiles and does not ask him, instead taking his free hand and pressing her lips to his knuckles.]

[bloodyantivan]

It would spoil the message in the telling.

[In so many ways, Zevran is still a liar. But it feels better, right now, as a sort of secret. Of course Elissa knows well his affection, likely even knows his love, but he has not even touched her body in that way... saying he loves her is just too big of a step.

But it makes it no less true.]

[ladyspitfire]

That's fine.

[And, really, it is. Regardless of what he's saying, Elissa's too afraid that she'll push him into saying and doing something he will later regret, something that may pull them apart. Zevran is all she has now and, frankly, all she needs. If their relationship never changes, then she can be content with that. She squeezes his hand gently to reassure him.]

[bloodyantivan]

I will indulge some of your curiosity. Soon.

[Once they've rested, perhaps. It's strange, but Zevran has very much enjoyed their partnership, sexless as it is. However, it's making him a little antsy as well. Typically after battle he would be itching to rut with someone, to burn off the nervous and angry energy.

And he still is, a little bit, but it's more important to him to be here, quiet, with Elissa, and he finds their gentleness confirms life just as much as any sort of completion.

What has love turned him into?]

When we have both had time to rest... we should find some place to go dancing here in the city.

[ladyspitfire]

Whenever you're ready.

[It's said softly, like a breath, because she doesn't want to guide him. What happened with her and Alistair is still fresh in her mind, from their relationship ending to the ritual, to how she begged him and forced his hand. She doesn't want that with Zevran, even if it means she'll eventually die for it.

Elissa looks at him, one eyebrow raised, and then she smiles.]

I'd like that. Once everything settles down.

[bloodyantivan]

I wonder if it will settle down. Will gutting that world be enough to occupy the UE or awhile? If they even noticed our presence there, I believe our interference might be enough for them to attempt crushing us once and for all. Then again, perhaps they do not see us as big enough of a threat.

[Not exactly the most romantic of subjects, and yet Zevran does not mind the war, so long as they are not directly under threat: it is giving him time to be with Elissa, and they will not have much of that if they are sent home.]

[ladyspitfire]

It may not, not at this point. This is the first true attack on the Transports. I don't think anything will settle for a long while.

[Elissa's only experienced one war, though she was born only a small number of years after the Orlesian occupation. This may not be quite as dire as the Blight, not yet, but she doubts anyone will wish to be still after the destruction they've witnessed.

Biting her lower lip briefly, she squeezes his knee.]

I'm sure we can find a night to get away, if only for a few hours.