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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( She nudges open one of the doors leading in toward the more proper medical portions of the Hold. They really need to leave this building and hit up the next, since he's able to walk. )

< I know! You're practically a wilting daisy over there. I'd get out my watering can, but I'm out of the opposable thumbs to use it right now! >

( Holding the door open, she turns her face enough to the side to watch him move past. She's intensely glad he's okay. That...

Her mind balks. )

< Wilting rose, actually! It's the only thing I remember being red enough, next to like, an Indian Paintbrush. >

A what? [ Maybe he should specify. ] I mean the paintbrush part, not... I know what a rose is.

[ Really, he does! And he's still trailing along after her, right out the door and towards the next building. ]

< An Indian Paintbrush? >

( She glances back, pulling the image into her mind. )

< It's a wildflower! You see a lot of them growing in meadows up in the mountains. They're real tall, and the flowers are small and not very petal-like all around the top. It's pretty, you know, if you're into that sort of thing. >

( She enjoyed the sight of them the few times she's gone through the Sierra Nevadas in spring and summer, cutting around by Tahoe on the super scenic way to Reno. )

< It's got your coloration down, if nothing else! Mine's more like a tree. Or a bush. Probably in winter, when they're all brown and naked! >

( Laughing, unable to take that mental image seriously, Collette pauses to look both ways crossing the narrow street. Cars aren't so frequent here, but with how things are right now, she's not taking chances. Thankfully the rain is light today. )

< Caesar... > ( she wants to ask if he's okay, trailing off uncertainly before she gets there. )

What a boring way to describe yourself. A dead winter tree! I guess I should feel lucky I'm a flower. That's at least interesting...

[ He stuffs his hands in his pockets as they cross the street, through the light rain. He stops on the other side to stand in the rain for a bit when she trails off, giving her a curious look, but he can figure out what she's wondering about quickly enough. ]

I'm fine. I didn't go to fight, so it's not like I got into the thick of it.

< Dormant, not dead! I stick around all year, changing with the seasons! It's very practical. Though I don't mind evergreens... I could be like one of those, too! After all, green's one of my favorite colors. >

( And is the primary color for her morph of battle choice, even if she's not crocodile so much since arriving here. Weird how things change! )

< What did you go for? >

( She watches him with big, brown eyes. ... Merit of being a dog, really. )

[ Green, huh? He'll have to remember that, not that he's going to note that aloud. As for what he went for, he shrugs, big brown eyes or no. He's not so effected by sad dog eyes, Collette! ]

To see what we were up against first hand. I was able to track enemy movement and pass that along, too, and that all meant staying away from the fighting.

< And falling off a roof or too.>

( Something of light amusement comes back into her 'voice,' starting off again. She knows he didn't see it, not back before he arrived. Caesar didn't know. No... it was more that he hadn't. Fighting at the outpost had been nothing like tangling with the enhanced soldiers. )

< What did you learn? >

( She asks, almost carelessly, though she's watching him with one eye and has an ear tuned in for any sound he makes. An Initiative worker opens the doors to the proper building she trots over, parking herself in the entrance, holding the door open. )

It's an occupational hazard, alright?

[ Yes. Roofs. Roofs, trees... Well, he doesn't usually fall out of trees, but it's a possibility! ]

And I learned... [ He waits until he passes her, stepping through the door she's propping open, and for the Initiative worker to wander out of hearing again. ] We can't afford to fight them again in a direct confrontation. We shouldn't have even tried.

( Sliding along the door, feeling it close behind her hindquarters, she nods her head. This isn't news to her, but she does feel like it's something people had to see for themselves. Collette's a firm believer as soon as she decides to be: most people require more evidence than the words of a stranger. )

< Yeah. It wasn't any good, and I don't know why you all volunteered to do it. The United Earth was playing the smart game, and the Initiative panicked 'cause for once, it was hitting their special weapons at their core. >

( All delivered conversationally; she's not laying blame anywhere. But this was voluntary. She knows people will forget that soon enough. )

< They knew this was happening. Just not where. Now we have one where. >

( She pauses, rolling her head to one side to look up at him sideways. )

< And it's not the first one. >

( She wonders if now he can see, that little more clearly, what drives her so to find the Trasport pads, the portals, the whatevers used by the UE to do to any world what they just did to Elmer's. )

< How do you feel about going back? >

You know why I did.

[ He just said so a minute ago! He had to see it with his own eyes, even if he hadn't particularly doubted the Initiative after so much time here and after their own trip to the UE. It was necessary to know what he needed to plan against.

To her question, though, he stops and looks down, an eyebrow quirked. ]

Back where? To that world?

( She didn't mean hi8m; which she figured he knew. Not her fault English uses you as a singular and a plural! His return gives her pause. )

< I meant the United Earth. >

( But it gives her pause, tilting her head to the side and looking up at him. )

< I guess I'm curious about your home, too, with the threat of that world hanging over everyone's head. But I kinda always assumed you were waiting until you could go home, or until you got transported back. >

I'll go home when the war is over or it's no longer my choice. [ And that's the end of that. ] The scariest resources from my world aren't even something they'll be able to harness without local help, so I'm not too worried.

[ As for the United Earth? ]

And I don't think returning to the United Earth is a good idea anytime soon. We lucked out with the ship, but if you're thinking about going after their transporters, that isn't going to be in some backwater compound no one cares about.

( It's interesting to hear he'd opt to stay to finish it out, if he had a choice. She wonders just how many other people would honestly choose that over going back sooner, were the choice presented.

But she guess it makes sense for Caesar, just the interesting, thought-worthy kind that she won't bother mentioning for now. )

< I smell antiseptics this way, let's go left. >

( She moves toward the hall in question. )

< None of us knew about the ship. It's really cool! But I already knew where-ever they keep this stuff... it's going to be well guarded. That's not the biggest problem. You showed me that much! The UE's so big... it hit home once we were out there. Finding the place, then getting near, that's the hard part. Getting in to places you're not supposed to be able to get into and wrecking stuff? Pfft. That's an Animorph specialty! >

[ Left it is! ]

Except we only have one of those. [ And he doubts she could manage it alone right now. Sorry, Collette. ] Okay, so let's assume you get in and wreck their transporters. What do we do if they fix it? What do we do if we find out they have them in thirty other locations around the planet? What do we do if they decide that for every objective we destroy, they'll burn several worlds down, not caring if we're from them or not?

Edited 2013-06-02 00:59 (UTC)

( She listens, shaking her head at the end with an internal sigh. )

< Die, probably. Okay, okay, I know we need to wait! It just -- aaah! I'm so used to waiting, but I've never liked it! >

Edited 2013-06-02 01:16 (UTC)

Doesn't matter. However we go about taking care of them having those, it can't involve a direct confrontation, not yet.

< Do you honestly think it ever will? >

( Collette had always presumed they'd need to work with quick and fast and sneaky being their primary resources. They certainly couldn't go toe to toe on a numbers or technology basis.

Her ears perk up, head lifting as a nurse crosses the hall. )

< There we are! Go get checked out. >

( She gives a low wag of her tail, turning her head around toward him. )

You can't discount it, can you?

[ Because maybe they can change the past, but they can't tell the future! But this is where their conversation ends, now that they're where he can get some medical attention. ]

Alright, alright. See you later.

[ It's with a half-hearted wave goodbye that he wanders on after the nurse, off to find a doctor or something. ]

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Other Worlds: V 2.0

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