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

[ringwizard]

"I guess so," Haruto echoes, over his shoulder.

He'd said it, and now he can't take it back. He wants to just leave it on the sidewalk, but from Nitoh's voice, from his face, from the way he follows doggedly along, he's not going to be allowed to. Nitoh's hand on his shoulder is--not surprising, it's not like Nitoh isn't pulling him along this way and that all the time, but it feels different than his usual overbearing presence.

He tamps down, firmly, on the unwelcome urge to turn into Nitoh's arm. It's not something he thinks Nitoh would take well--and it's not something he can indulge in. He pulls back, not quite a shrugging off, but close. "Keeping you alive is part of my job now, isn't it?" he asks.

[ringbeast]

Nitoh swallows and pulls his arm back. Perhaps if Haruto had leaned into it, he would have allowed himself to break, too. But neither of them will ever know, and perhaps that's for the best. So he just bumps his good shoulder against Haruto's and walks ahead, keeping his head turned away from his rival.

"Keeping each other alive is both of our jobs, man," he sounds a little hurt. He's definitely defensive about his mana source, he wants nothing less than to be a burden to Haruto. He turns to look at Haruto, side-on. "I mean, that's one of the things that rivals are for."

[ringwizard]

"Outside of fights, Nitoh," Haruto says, sighing. As they near the door to the bakery, he walks ahead, and before he pulls the door open--and he's never been more glad to see the place's lights on--he turns back toward Nitoh. "I trust you to have my back," he says, as casually as he can, in this atmosphere. "You're not--I don't mind helping you," he says, finally, and pulls the door open with a hard tug.

[ringbeast]

"I got your back," he affirms. But he hears the unspoken word, 'burden,' that he's been carrying silently with him. Even in the context of being reassured, it rankles. "Yeah, yeah." He's tired, and today moreso than ever he wants to live, no matter what the cost.

He sighs and just pushes on. "Let's just eat something. I'm gonna crash hard if I don't get something inside me."

[ringwizard]

Haruto doesn't have the energy to continue the conversation. Instead he leads the way inside and waves to the now familiar shop clerk. "Two of the usual," he says, "and a large coffee. Nitoh?"

He puts the question to Nitoh over his shoulder, already sliding into one of the chairs at the table in the corner.

[ringbeast]

Despite his professed hunger, he doesn't seem to have it together quite yet. "Uh... Doughnut. Chocolate. And orange juice." He nods to the clerk and sits down gingerly at the table. Coffee would probably have been a good idea, but he's planning on going to sleep as soon as they get home, and coffee would just keep him awake with these thoughts he wants to dismiss as quickly as possible.

[ringwizard]

Haruto makes a face at Nitoh as he's sitting. "Chocolate doughnut and orange juice?" he asks. "You're going to ruin the doughnut." Never mind that there was probably also going to be mayonnaise, provided he'd found a place to stuff a bottle in that vest of his. (He tended to assume Nitoh had some sort of secret inner pocket.)

It being a better choice than coffee wasn't lost on him, but Haruto was relatively sure that without a little caffeine, he wasn't going to be able to get up and walk the last block home. Not exactly how he wanted to spend the night. "At least ask for milk," he says, halfway under his breath. It's got less snark in it than it would if this were a normal sort of day.

[ringbeast]

He frowns. "I like orange juice. Don't people like those chocolate oranges or whatever? How come it's not the same?" He leans his head down slowly on the table and closes his eyes. "Besides, I don't like milk."

[ringwizard]

"I don't mind the juice, it's the combination," Haruto says, "doughnuts absorb the liquid! Gross."

He watches Nitoh lower his head down to the table, and resists the alarmingly strong urge to put a hand on his head and scritch. For one thing, he wasn't a cat, lion motifs or not, and for another, it ran the danger of actually putting him to sleep. Not happening.

"You don't like milk?"

[ringbeast]

His voice is a little muffled as he says, "I'll just drink the juice first. Problem solved."

And then he turns his head aside, "It makes my stomach hurt. You don't like mayonnaise, that's even more ridiculous."

[ringwizard]

Haruto would address the issues with drinking the juice first, but he narrows his eyes at the slander. "I don't not like it, I just don't like it all over everything! And especially not on weird things, like doughnuts, or beef bowls, or ramen." That last one was especially egregious, in his opinion.