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

[onblackwings]

[ The shot has snapped her attention around. A platoon, scattered and reduced in number, but still armed and dangerous. She mutters in an ancient, spidery langauge, casts a claw out toward them, and watches in satisfaction as three of them spontaneously catch fire -- and generously spread it to a few more of the others. ]

You already know one of them. [ Her wings flare out, and she pushes off from her perch. Her flightpath takes her directly overhead Sharpe on her way to the soldiers, and she calls down on her way: ] The other is Khisanth.

[sharpe]

[ ... That is terrifying. And exhilarating at the same time. Sharpe watches, wide-eyed, as the soldiers catch on fire and the flames spread out, and he raises the gun to his shoulders, feeling its kick three times as he shoots three of the soldiers who are trying to get away.

Khisanth. The woman with the dark hair and strange-coloured eyes. He'd met her the first time he came to this damned city... and Sharpe laughs suddenly, a harsh sound. He tips his head up. ]

Yer prettier in a lady's form, ma'am! [ He's grinning, devil may care, and he gives her a small salute from beneath his hair. ]

[onblackwings]

It's a pity you're not, in the only form you have!

[ That could be a grin, or maybe it's just a snarling threat. Hard to tell. A shot cracks out from the remaining soldiers and takes her in one of her wings, close to her body. She rocks in the air as a ragged hole opens in the thin membrane, but otherwise hardly seems to notice it. In a moment more she's near enough to fly overhead the soldiers, and blasts a lungful of acid over them as she goes. Those not already dying of flames have had their fate sealed as well. ]

[sharpe]

[ Sharpe laughs quietly and he jogs over to the nearest building. He grabs onto the awning and throws himself upwards, climbing up until he's sitting on the windowsill on the third storey. Then he's aiming at some of the few remaining soldiers and firing at them.

When that's done, he stops, and looks up at the dragon again. ]

Since you've cleaned up everyone here, you mind giving me a lift ta somewhere else that needs more killing? [ A bit dryly, but he's only half-joking. ]

[onblackwings]

[ She considers it for a moment. It could be possible. It's true, after all, that she hasn't left him much action here. She'd pulled up in a near hover, but now she darts forward, toward his building. It looks nearly like she'll sideswipe it, but twists and banks at the last second. One foreclaw snakes out as she passes , wrapping Sharpe in a large, clawed talon. If she nics him while she's at it, well... there are bigger things to worry about. ]

[sharpe]

[ Christ on a cracker. Sharpe yells out loud when the talon closes over him - it's not a particularly loud noise, because, honestly, he's too busy trying to suck in his stomach and hence inhaling to really make noise. So it's more of a woozy bit of thing, and his hand gripped onto one large talon, feeling dizzy that his entire body - which isn't particularly small - fits only into one talon.

Gives a man perspective to his life, this does.

The claws don't nick him - just his clothes, and that's terrifying enough. Sharpe turns as much as he can, looking down at the buildings and people below him, and it takes him a lot of self-control to not start whooping.

He's flying, for Christ's sake. Dangerous dragon or not, he'd be a fool to not enjoy this. ]

[onblackwings]

[ She appreciates the lack of whooping. It would be pretty undignified to carry a whooping human in her talons as she flies. On she goes, but angled upward. It's unsafe to fly too low over a battlefield like this, after all.

Only when they're scraping the bottom of the clouds does she level out, turning bright orange eyes downward. There's got to be a good target somewhere around here... ]

[sharpe]

[ Woah. If he can reach out, he might just be able to touch the clouds. The idea excites him so much that he starts to wiggle slightly in the grasp of her talon, trying to get an arm free.

He does, and he slips a little out of her grasp as well. But he has always been a thrillseeker, really, and he's laughing loudly as he scrapes the bottom of his fingers against the clouds.

Sorry about the whooping, Khisanth. He is definitely doing it now. ]

[onblackwings]

[ She glances down at him again, giving the search for a battlefield a brief rest. ]

Stop squirming, and try to keep some dignity.

[ She sounds a little pleased, though. It's good to find a human that can properly appreciate the marvel that flight is. ]

[sharpe]

[ He can hear the pleased note in her tone despite the whooping he's still doing and the wind in his ears. It's like a siren song, really, and Sharpe only laughs harder, delighted at being able to feel the clouds. The damned clouds.

Christ, being here for so long might just be worth it for this experience. But Sharpe tries, nonetheless, to keep his joy a little bit more contained, and he shouts back: ]

Yes ma'am! [ But he doesn't stop skimming his fingers along the clouds, feeling them get wet. Water. Well, whaddya know? He thought they were like cotton or something. ]

[onblackwings]

[ Seized by a wicked mischeviousness, Khisanth twists suddenly to the side. She angles her wings just so, and the momentum pushes them up, into the clouds properly. The water beads off of her scales, fresh and cool, and she knows it will fall off of them just as easily. But Sharpe, with clothing and hair instead of scales, will be damp for considerably longer afterward. You're welcome, Sharpe. ]

[sharpe]

[ Sharpe's mouth was still open when they dove into the clouds, and he coughs and clears his mouth of water. But it's like jumping - or being shoved - into a lake of icy cold water, and when he surfaces from the cloud, he's shaking a little from the cold. He drags his hand through his hair.

But his joy isn't dampened; not at all. After all, how many men can claim to have taken a bath in the clouds? ]

[onblackwings]

[ One more beat of her wings takes her above the cloud level. Shreds of cloud trails over and off of both wings for a few seconds more before they're completely clear, suddenly in warm sun with a sea of white below them. ]

Most humans never see this. [ An idle comment, made in passing. But it's not without an element of consider yourself lucky in it. ]

[sharpe]

[ Oh, Sharpe is perfectly aware of that. Just as he's aware that he's a little short of breath - but he chalks that up to excitement and the adrenaline pounding through his veins. He looks at at the dragon, still grinning. ]

Oh aye, I know that. [ He chuckles again, the sound ringing against the walls. ]

I won't know how ta thank you fer this.

[onblackwings]

You can't.

[ She's shown him what she meant to show him, now it's back to the more interesting business of death and such. She dips a wing, and they fall back into the clouds again. But before they're entirely submerged: ]

Nor do you have anything I want, so there's no need to bother.

[ And down they go into the clouds. In a few seconds more they burst out above the fighting, and she begins to circle, searching for a good point of reentry. ]

[sharpe]

[ Sharpe opens his mouth to reply to her, but all he receives for it is a mouthful of chilly water as they dipped through the clouds again. He spits it out, coughing, blinking his eyes hard to clear the stars in them before he looks down again. People look tiny from this high up, and Sharpe wonders if this is Khisanth's usual view; if that's why she seems to think so little of humans.

Ah well. He doesn't care how she thinks of humans, or even what she thinks of him, really. He's long given up on such things.

Instead, he says: ]

How 'bout we go over that end? Seems plenty of fighting going on.

[ Well. Less fighting than massacre, really, but that's where they'll be needed. ]