May 11, 2072 CE, 12 Years After The Apocalypse
KVIP FM Radio Tower, S Fork Lookout Road, California (North West of Shasta and Redding, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere)
Time: 1315 Hours
Moments after sending the message, more messages were received back on the radio. The radio speakers crackled with their dying life, like an ill wheezing.
"[static]"[static] ...friends! This is... [static] ...Natalia Adeline Marceline... ...Hyeobsang-Ga... [static] ...Arianna Rees Edith Novena... ...Bethany Myong Suh-Hyung of... [static] ...I would like to inform you... [static] ...I am now 8000 kilometers away... ...your planet... [static] ...land on your capital... ...that I can talk... ...in order to... [static] ...the threat that loomed above us all. ...I am... [static] ...here peacefully... ...aggressively. [static] ...violent. Peaceful... [static] ...medication and food... ...people, and... [static] ...we will... ...talk to each other... I will await... [static] ..my ship as I hover above... ...you for your understanding, please... ...shoot me."
Honest John Doe pressed his hand against his forehead in frustration. "I suppose our message must have arrived to them in as many fragments as theirs has to us." he frowned.
"The message sent here is in fragments because it has to go through our planet's atmosphere, which is filled with lots of soot and fallout. It's bouncing around off all the particles. It's surprising that we can receive it at all." the android replied. "However, we've been using magic to boost our signals. We aren't sending it through our atmosphere, we're sending it into many portals, that go to every universe we can think of, because we don't know what universe our intended recipient is in, let alone more precise coordinates."
"Right. But that method is pretty hit and miss as well. The portal exit could be anywhere, so some of the signals could be lost entirely." Honest John mused. "Worse still, we can't risk replying to this. If we do, the Drechans will hear our reply as well."
106 smiled. "But there's some good news here. This message appears to give... not quite coordinates, but a rough idea of where they are. We could send someone there to talk."
"Correct you are, 106." Honest John Doe smiled. "And I know just who to send."
Arrival Point, Beckwourth, California
Time: 1330 Hours
At the landing point were the rusted hulks of several ambulances and a number of other vehicles, and a number of abandoned, collapsed tents that were partially buried in the snow. A collapsed wire pole lie nearby one of the tents, which had a tattered blue banner that read "FEMA / STATE RECOVERY CENTER". A number of the tents were marked with red crosses, partially obscured by the snow. Old bones littered the campsite, curled up in gurneys, still frozen in the positions they perished in. A number of skeletons lie around the site in the ruined remains of hazmat suits. The already cold air grew downright frigid, coating parts of the Drechan starcruiser and walkers in hoarfrost.
Arrival Point, Beckwourth, California
Time: 1345 Hours
Black, sooty rain began to fall from the black, smoky sky. The rain that came was cold and acrid, bearing in it trace elements of fallout, the radioactive specter of the Apocalypse. As the rain fell, it froze on contact, forming a dark, icy layer. The sky seemed to rumble, and what began as a light rain became a downpour of choking, irradiated freezing rain. Torrents of inky raindrops emerged from the great, impenetrable smog above, like streams of tears from the countless dead.
The air stirred with a presence, a great welling of emotion, of pain, of sorrow, of outrage. The icy bones rose and stirred from their slumber, numbering in many hundreds. Irradiated ice and snow formed around them, as if like flesh. These frozen skeletons grabbed at the legs of the walkers and tried to clamber up. Their gelid forms were possessed by by the souls of the dead, angry at their loss of life, and more wrathful still at the disturbance of their resting place. They psychically projected forth their emotions - fear, anger, loss, suffering, desperation, confusion, sadness, which spewed forth like a cacophony. These souls climbed forth, desperate for their voices to finally be heard.
8000 Kilometers From Dead Earth, Sol System
May 11, 2072 CE, 12 Years After The Apocalypse
Idling Valentian Ship (Wherever it's supposed to be?)
Time: 1330 Hours
Visible from the Valentian ship was a tiny, neon green light, which appeared for less than a second. It appeared again, in roughly the same spot, a few seconds later, with a second neon green light appearing elsewhere in space, closer to the ship. Again, these light were only visible for less than a second, and each went out at the same time. Seconds later, once again the lights appeared, this time one appearing near where the second light appeared, with it's correspond light appearing a vast distance, yet closer still to the Valentian ship. As before, the lights disappeared after less than a second. After maybe a minute since the last lights, one light appears on the outside of the Valentian ship itself - a flourescent green pentacle giving off an eerie glow. Lime flames roared upwards, and a gnarled, misshappen figure made from multiple human cadavers fused together crawled forth from the light, which vanished again in mere moments. The grisly figure clutched onto the ship. The lack of air did not bother it, and the vaccuum provided little more than discomfort - it was not alive in any traditional sense of the word. The being drew forth some of its ichor, a black, coagulated substance, and began writing on the ship in multiple languages. In each of them, it wrote out the same thing: "Let me in."
Former United States, Dead Earth
May 11, 2072 CE, 12 Years After The Apocalypse
Toshimakimota Corporate California Branch Offices, Redding, California
Time: 1345 Hours
Amidst the ruins of Northeast Redding, the crumbling offices of Toshimakimota Corporate stood vigil, serving as a defensive military outpost for the Fallen Angels, fortified with sheet metal and sandbags, cinder blocks and wooden boards. In one of the former offices was an armory. The walls were lined with many dozens of rifles and machine guns. Several bioplastic milk crates were stuffed with cotton batting and torn up pieces of foam. Hand grenades delicately rested in these nests like eggs. Metal ammo boxes were stacked on each other, hugging the bottoms of the walls. A few cheap folding card tables were set up, upon which many weapons were piled, including shotguns, laser rifles, submachine guns, and a few molotov cocktails.
Just outside of the armory stood three guards. The first of which wore a suit of powered combat armor, covering them head to toe in armor plates covered in PALS webbing. Several pouches hung from the webbing, along with holsters for pistols and knives. They wore a helmet which completely obscured their face behind a reflective layer of ballistic glass. The helmet, in addition to providing protection, featured comms, several different integrated vision enhancements (such as thermographic vision), and featured AR. This guard carried an M240L machine gun. The other two guards were dressed in tattered black robe, and each one carried a staff made from a black wood that was not of this world. Underneath their robes, they wore Excelsi ALDSLE body armor. At their sides, each one had a Replica Arms Longbow PDW submachine gun.
A glowing lime green pentagram appeared on the floor outside the armory. The noise of many xylophones playing random notes filled the air as lime flames rose from the flourescent pentagram. Out of the flames came three imps, together carrying a crate made of blackened wood.
"Got a delivery for you, straight from the Tophel Clan. We made new armor piercing rounds for your human gauss rifles. Raw demonite kinetic penetrators, or something. Make sure they get tested, the bosses want to know how well they work." one of the imps said.
Key
Conscious
#6363EF = Honest John Doe
#EF349A = AGN-51 M71 A14L7Y-321AP-HV-106
#FF66FF = Sathuzixaniel
#737373 = Alexa "Ms. Satan" Chambers
#CF6C22 = Kadrea Cooper
#D929B9 = Seraveli
#A4B297 = Nightvixen
Dead
#CF2242 = Pearson
#248046 = Rifleman Twin
#828242 = Shaman
#359FFF = TeyoTek Garm
#924879 = Armory Imp
Other People (QUOTED ONLY)
#3366FF = Chief Aviator Gwen Tracer Hepburn “Fate of Existence and the Omniverse” Ellen Trixie Caitlin Foxworthy Avril Verlene Eveline Celinda Sammy Doris T-Rev Oxton Arielle Lindall Leslie Vitesse Allison
#357575 = Drechian Radio Reply
#40FF40 = Charlene Jeannie Natalia Adeline Marceline “Wanbyeoghan Hyeobsang-Ga.” Celestie Christine Irelle Dv. Arianna Rees Edith Novena Annie Ciara W. I. Bethany Myong Suh-Hyung
Acquired Assets
Post 1:
None
Post 2: (aka what we got from the Sierra Army Depot - why we were going there in the first place)
x10 AN/TWQ-1 Avenger air-defense missile system
x30 FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS
x200 H&K M25 assault rifle
x50 H&K XM900 20mm grenade launcher
x4 TeyoTek Garm multi-role weapons platform robot
x2 X-10 Viper VTOL transport/air support/air evac
x? large quantity of various MilTech munitions
Post 3:
None
Post 4:
None
Post 5:
x? small quantity of prototype APFSDS raw demonite kinetic penetrator electromagnetic cartridges
Casualty Count
Post 1:
Personnel:
x1 point man, x2 rifleman, x1 shaman
Post 2:
Personnel:
x1 bradley commander, x1 bradley driver, x1 bradley gunner, x4 drone pilot, x2 point man, x2 psyker (electrokinetic), x2 responder, x6 rifleman
Vehicles:
x1 M2A4 Bradley, x2 MRAPs, x4 self-driving car bombs
Post 3:
None
Post 4:
Personnel:
x4 worker
Post 5:
None
Total Casualties:
Personnel: 27
Vehicles:
x1 M2A4 Bradley, x2 MRAPs, x4 self-driving car bombs
Order of Battle
Arrival Point, Beckwourth, California
Phantoms
x424 Least Phantoms - possessing skeletons
x183 Lesser Phantoms - possessing skeletons
