genessia | Video; Immediately following the arrival of spirits creatures

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Video; Immediately following the arrival of spirits creatures

[Video]

[David starts up the video feed. He certainly prepared for this eventuality.]

We have encountered these creatures before a few years back. I created shelters in each city for people to retreat to in the eventuality of another situation like this. There is both magical and technological shielding to help keep the creatures out. The magical shielding was applied by various magic users in their own styles, including former Everglade Guardian Fai. The Genessia City police force is being dispatched to help stem the creatures from getting into the Archways as well as helping Genessia City citizens get to shelters.

[He puts in their location in each city here.]

There is food and supplies and space to house the entire populace of each city.

[The shelters are really that big.]

I would like for anyone that is able to help get people to the shelters if they wish to go as well as stand guard near them to help protect anyone coming in. Fellow Guardians, if you can spare yourself or your people to help with that effort, I would be grateful. Doctors, EMT as well as others that can offer medical help should be going to the shelters as well.

I will be moving through each city and broadcasting this message out with my telepathy to let people know about them, so don't be alarmed if you hear my voice in your head.

[That said, on to information about the creatures.]

Don’t let the creatures touch you, as they drain emotions from you when doing so. It can cause you to turn on your closest friends. These creatures can be dispersed by strong normal means, but they will only return. After their first attack, I had weapons created to help deal with this. If they are dispersed by one of these weapons, they won't return. The ones with the..flowery thing in them are new. So be extra cautious of them.

These weapons have their own drawbacks, however. Creatures from the last time that they were here have been sealed inside of them to give them the ability to banish the creatures for good. We were able to seal some of the creatures inside of sealing stones last time, but getting over run by them is way too easy. I took the creatures sealed in those stones and had them transferred to the weapons.

The weapons, when removed from their sheathes and wielded, have the same affect that the creatures have if they touch you, however it is at a much slower rate. The weapons can be effectively used in combat without much detriment. Though I do advise to only use then for finishing blows.

They have been routinely maintained and stores, so there is no worry about their state. If you want to use one, respond here or contact me directly. These weapons are only being loaned out and will be collected once this is all over. I think it's a good idea not to have these things freely floating around.

I will be going to the Cloister of Trails to see if this can be fixed. The last time there was a breach like this, a handful of people gave up things precious to them to fix it. I doubt it's going to be so easy this time around, because this breach is far worse than that one.

[Karla]

I left a Katana for you in my office. I'd like you to help people looking for shelter to get to the safe house.

[Liv]

I left you a dagger at home. Try not to have a repeat of last time.

[Telepathy; All Cities]

Don’t freak out, you aren’t crazy, you are just hearing my voice. This is David Haller, Guardian of Genessia City. I am projecting my thoughts into your mind. I’m also not reading your mind either, I am just relaying information.

There at shelters for people to take refuge in from these creatures.

[He gives the location for whichever city he is sending this message to at the moment.]

The shelters have been designed to protect against these creatures. It's fully stocked with rations and beds to help wait out this crisis, should you want to go.

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[Getting a reading on what's outside of the barrier is important. And this might likely be their only opportunity to do so.]

I can come personally and bring some police officers with me to give you cover. Thirty minutes will be easy.

I'll be waiting. I can defend myself until you get here.

[When David gets there, chaos is standing in the middle of a ring of hostile spirits. A very, very large ring, though they all seem to be hesitant to approach for some reason. Looking for an easier target, maybe? chaos himself has adopted a loose fighting stance, one reminiscent of kung fu but noticeably different. How a man who appears to be nothing more than a vague twenty-something intends to use nearly bare-handed martial arts against these things, let alone make that many of them respect him enough to back off, remains a mystery for the moment.]

[David takes note of the sight when him and the squad of police officers arrive on the scene. There are more here than he thought, and though the officers didn't have spirit kill weapons, what they did have should be enough to deal with them for the 30 minutes.

In the blink of an eye, David and the officers teleport into the circle of creatures, with all the officers taking up a guarding position around chaos and they start firing on the creatures to beat them back.]

We have you covered. [David says as he takes out a spirit killing dagger and makes it float into the air with telekinesis.]

[Teleportation and telekinesis too? Was this guy reading from chaos' own playbook? Not that he's complaining, mind. Anyone with that combination of abilities was sure to be an asset - especially when he can't employ his own powers while working with this thing. He nods in acknowledgment.]

Twenty minutes to launch, ten to collect data. [He puts on a techy headset - data goggles, headphones, mic, the works - and calls up a holographic keyboard, and sets to work. The big black box he had with him starts unfolding, proving itself to be both the launch stage and the probe itself - and the recording gear, too, come to that. Though the probe has no obvious weapons, it does have shield generators. Not heavy ones - it would have to be a good deal larger for heavy shielding - but enough to get the data he needs.]

[For their part, the spirits welcome this new, especially appetizing addition to their little dinner party with the zeal one might expect - they charge en masse toward the group of new arrivals.]

[The three T powers that he has displayed are honestly only a small facet of what he can actually do. Not even 5% of his actual power. Still, they are all extremely useful powers in their own right.]

Alright. [He swings the dagger with telekinesis to kill some of the spirits that some of the officers are firing at. They beat them back, he knocks them down.] Is the probe going to actually be able to return? Because I don't know if it will be able to transmit information inside of the barrier once it is actually up.

[chaos has locked something like 90 percent of his own power into vessels by this point; it takes a lot of power to unmake a universe and all life within it, after all. And while the big three are certainly useful by themselves, they are by no means the only tricks he has up his sleeves; he has by no means as diverse a skillset as David's, but what he does have... well, let's just say it's uniquely suited to dealing with these situations.]

If the barrier can block the signal from this thing, I've done something wrong. It probably won't survive that long, though. There are a lot of these things out there. No, it probably won't be able to return, but there is a return trajectory plotted. If it sustains damage enough to prevent its primary mission goal of orbital insertion, it will return to this base.

[One part of the case that has unfolded contains twelve canisters, each about a foot tall and six inches wide. Each is marked with what might be a name, but in a language so old (and so singular to Earth) that it's unlikely anyone except chaos knows what they actually say. They are his contingency plan - if this whole operation goes to Hell, you might just find out what's in there.] Fifteen and counting.

((OOC: So, fun fact, going into this I had *no idea* who David was or what he could do. XD This should prove interesting, knowing what I know now.))

Edited 2017-06-11 11:19 (UTC)

[You wouldn't think the guy had much power at all just by looking at him. He certainly wouldn't have expected for him to have telepathy as a n ability, but looks can always be deceiving.]

I don't think so. We truly don't have any idea what the barrier is even really made of. And even during the last crack, no one tried to do something like this. Easy enough to say, you're a pioneer in doing this. Let's just hope that it bares fruit. [The officers are doing their best in holding off the creatures. David has made sure the entire police force receives specialized training for situations like this. It helped that the training simulator that he owns is capable of create numerous situations to train in.]

Got you. We've still got this handled.

[ooc: yeah. He's no super known. And fortunately, he's from a time where his mind isn't fractured. God, he'd be nearly useless if that wasn't the case.]

[He's pretty much the most unassuming-looking superbeing you'll ever meet, short of Clark Kent. No one ever expects the guy with the gentle smile to be able to punch holes in titanium armor plate.]

[The police and David are doing admirably - chaos hasn't even had to look up from his keyboard and display yet. He might just have this done on schedule.]

Ten minutes. They might get frantic when it starts spooling up - I'll give you fair warning before that. [Having said that, chaos lifts one hand from the keyboard, points at one of the shades that's managed to get through the ring of defenders, and lets loose a bolt of near-invisible energy. The shade... simply ceases to be. He did that without even looking. But he doesn't look happy for having done it; if anything, he looks... sad?]

[David did catch sight of that, and it's something he'd have to ask him about later. He himself isn't happy at all about dispatching them, but if the creatures are suffering, then what they are giving them is a mercy. Honestly, their situation doesn't allow for them to beat them back and hope for the best.

He gives the order for the officers to tighten up their defenses and prepare for a bigger push from the creatures.]

Got it. [David holds a hand out and the earth around the officers jaunts up and provides cover for them to hide behind as well as an extra barricade from the creatures.] I can teleport us out of here once you are done, just give the word.

Five minutes. Starting the reactor cycle now. [A hackles-raising whine rises from the probe, quickly going well beyond human hearing levels. The exhaust vents at the back of the probe glow cherry red just from the throw-off heat.]

Launch sequence is locked in. Recorders are active and working as intended. Shield is operational. Contingency Dinah, contingency Reuben prepared for launch escort.

[He and the rest of the officers dig in with the final stretch of the sequence activating. The tighten their formation and beat back the creatures with more vigor than before. David uses his telekinesis to start flinging spirits into each other to further stifle their advances.]

You're all clear. Nothing is going to get through.

[The final seconds tick by, and the probe surges into the air. Its maneuvers would turn a flesh-and-blood pilot to mush as it darts through openings barely large enough to admit it.]

[Two of the canisters pop open, revealing ten-inch-tall miniature robots, patterned after the ES craft whose names they bear. They don't launch, but it's clear they're the contingencies chaos named before.]

Come on... punch through... yes! Receiving telemetry data from probe, recording to memory bank Alpha. Assuming direct control of main camera.

[The world that's revealed through the camera lens is a temperate wasteland, with no sign of civilization or even much greenery in sight. What there is a lot of, however, is husks. They carpet the area outside what used to be the shield so thickly he can't even see the ground between them at the highest possible magnification. But before he can do much investigating, proximity warnings start going off. Something has taken notice, and is trying to lash his probe out of the air. Doing a pretty damn good job of it, too; the shields go down in seconds, and the armor starts reporting stresses well beyond what it was intended to handle almost immediately. Before Dinah and Reuben can even launch, it's over - a small fireball in the sky outside the dome marks where the reactor cooked off after being breached.]

Probe... lost. Dammit. I saved all the data I could. [The case folds back up just as quickly as it unfolded, a great deal lighter now without its primary cargo. Probably helps that it's on an antigrav sled, too.] Let's go. There's nothing more I can do here.

[He doesn't relax even when the prob launches, he continues to hold the line as best as he can while watching what is being displayed. So that's what's out there? He can't say he is surprised, honestly. He'd be more surprised if there was a thriving world out there. There is no reason why they would be in this barrier otherwise if the world was inhabitable.

Okay. [He says and in a flash, David teleports himself, the cops, chaos and chaos' equipment out of the area. They appear in front of the police station, which is heavily fortified and already being defended, so they are all able to let their guard down for the moment.]

Double check to make sure everything saved and that we didn't forget anything. We can make a quick trip back if we did.

[Tapping a few more commands on his hard light keyboard, chaos takes a moment to respond to David. His frown doesn't go away, but it does lessen somewhat, as the data from the probe right up until it was destroyed is all intact.]

We didn't get everything I wanted, but I can at least confirm there is a whole planet out there, and that it has a survivable atmosphere and weather conditions. Not much in the way of life, though - it looks like we're in the middle of a giant wasteland.

So we can live outside of the barrier, but there is nothing out there. [That's a bit..unsettling. Just what happened to the life on the planet? Was it the creatures that they are fighting that did something.]

Anything else?

I won't know for sure until I can analyze all the data. I can tell you that there are a lot more of those shades out there than we thought, though. If I didn't know better... no.

[There's a look of dawning horror on his face as he puts two and two together and gets the inevitable four.]

In my world, we had a phenomenon similar to this. We called them Gnosis. They were born of people who rejected the natural order. Entire planets could be converted into Gnosis; they spread like a virus, like a self-perpetuating cancer. What if these shades... are the former residents of this world?

Depending on the amount that are out there, it could be possible that they are. I can't imagine what happened to them to make them into these..empty husks of humanity. Unless that is the form that they originally took and this place, Genessia, is something that an off worlder set up.

[They simply just didn't know enough about this place or the state that it was in before to say definitively what happened.]

For as many questions that have just been answered, so many more have arisen.

I wish I didn't know what could turn people into things like this, but unfortunately I'm intimately familiar with how it happened in my own universe.

[He looks around at the city around them, and shakes his head.] This wasn't done by an outsider. It would take too long and too much would be lost to the ravening spirits. Someone might have built on what was already here, though.

As far as we are aware, there are spirits in each city. Like, spirits that govern them. The Genessia Spirit, Everglade Spirit and Fayren Spirit have all revealed themselves to us before. The Everglade Spirit itself is the one that maintains the barrier. But they don't appear to be anything like the creatures outside of the barrier.

So if those creatures are the former inhabitants of this world, do you think the city spirits are too? And if so, why would they appear different?

I don't know. The city spirits aren't like anything I've encountered before. It's possible they might be this world's equivalent of Shining Wills, but that doesn't make a great deal of sense; in a population as large as the one suggested by the number of husks, there would have to be hundreds of those. Maybe thousands.

[He leans back against a wall, and starts rubbing his temples.] There are too many questions and not nearly enough data to answer them all. Still, we have more of both now than we did before.

Well, as we know it, there are likely only 5. I don't know how powerful each one is, but they are strong enough to pull people from different universes.

[He sighs and shakes his head a little, though.]

Always far more questions after we've received answers. One thing is for sure, we do need to figure out what happened out there. Because if this barrier ever fully comes down and we can't put it back up, we will have to endure that wasteland. And if there is something in the air that changed people, it will change us too.

So, it's the city spirits that bring people here? [That's news to chaos; he's been told and has been telling others that no one knew what brought them here.]

If it was something in the air, I think we'd have seen effects in here from the breach by now - but the probe transmitted air samples, so we'll know soon enough regardless. If it does turn out to be something airborne, Nova City has environmental suit technology that should be protection enough if we can establish a clean zone - say, by adding airlocks to your safehouses.

They are the only authority figures in this place. I can't imagine anyone else being in charge of who comes and goes other than them. So unless there is someone above them, then that is all we have to go on.

Airlocks should be easy to add on. I suppose I should ad some environmental suits to them as well in case the need arises.

[chaos nods, and finds someplace to sit down. It's been a very eventful day, and even his reserves are running low. His physical ones, anyway.]

Well, for better or for worse, there's not much more I can do without endangering large portions of the city. I'd rather avoid that.

I think that would be for the best. We just need to deal with this situation as best as we can for the moment.

I'm guessing you will want time to pour over all of the information that you got?

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space_jesus - 2017-06-30 03:20 (UTC) - Expand

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Video; Immediately following the arrival of spirits creatures

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