Incident 773: Operation Red Sky

[The Cerberus Organization]

The Cerberus Organization has recieved word of a massive collective of nightmarish monsters and brutal killers. A land where peoples deepest fears lurk in reality. Task forces Omega-23 has been dispatched to try and learn as much as possible of the area and the creatures within.

[The Damnatius]

This 'land' as it was known, was but the unluckiest of regions to suffer the tear between The Dead Spiral and this world. The area surrounding it swallowed in hellish torrents of black, poisonous gasses which roared out of the tear in time and space and filled much of the skies, creating a paranormal scene of hell. Following after the screaming winds, the creatures which had tormented those in their own reality slipped out, their manifestations consistently shifting to their own will as they sought fresh blood.

Some had mouths large enough to consume a small car, others claws sharp enough to puncture the strongest of metals. Some wielded supernatural capabilities - tormenting the minds and toying with the thoughts and dreams of the living, these monsters were the products of man's own creation. They sought only to instill chaos and ruin, to torture the living to no end. Within the area subjected to the devastation of the tear, a small town was failing hold off the onslaught of these creatures. Whole families were massacred, their bodies toyed with like dolls and playthings, some were led to insanity, and others struggled to fight the incoming hordes in small safe havens, scattered and disorganized, and certain to give way inevitably to the forces of ruin which they created.

The situation was already far out of the local authorities control.

[The Cerberus Organization]

Undisclosed Organization Facility

Cerberus Task Force leader Dawson sat with the rest of his 24 man team in the breifing room, listening to the breifing officer describe the situation. This was all routine for Dawson; he'd been on countless operations. Incident 242, 133, 63... the list went on and on, not counting the ones that were stricken off the records. Reports were flooding in of unspeakable horrors tearing people to pieces. the breifing officer brought up several images on the display screen. The images were of mutilated corpses, unspeakable horrors, and destruction. Dawson was disturbed at the sight of this. He had seen some pretty nasty stuff, but this.... this was something different entirely. He had never seen anything on this scale. "We have reason to believe that the flow of creatures may be contained, but immediate action must be taken. Agent Dawson, your team will be dispatched to try and determine the source of the creatures. You are to try and stem the tide long enough for a containment perimeter to be established. based on our intel, command has granted permission to use Class 5 weaponry for this operation That is all. Dismissed." The task force members then emptied out of the briefing room to make final preperations.

[The Damnatius]

All the while, the Tear slowly ripped further apart, as the screams and shrieks of the galactic maelstrom the persisted on the other side inflicted more of it's horrors upon this world. Fire and smoke rolled over small hills and plains, horrific beasts tore up the landscape in efforts to best replicate home, but all was contained within the swirling mass of terror for now. Such creatures could not exist in the innocent light of day, but for those condemned in the small town, their lives were coming to a fast close. Great feasts upon former residents were held in the streets, blood flowed into the storm drains continuously, and the screams and cries of the dwindling population of the tormented living was inexorably dying out.

A church was used as a playground for demented games of torture, a school building was set ablaze with full occupancy, and the homes of many were desecrated by the invasive legions of rampant nightmares. In a short time,The Dead Spiral's inhabitants had reduced this region to that of most unholy nature, and the confines of these demonic beings was slowly spreading, daring at consuming greater targets for providing only pleasure to these creatures of vile nature. If left unchecked, this one small tear could rip the planet to pieces, and introduce to this galaxy a horror unstoppable by any force conceivable, one which would expand endlessly until there was no life left to toy with. The minuscule abominations which fled from their native realm were nothing more than whelps to the more beastly of horrors which awaited this world. And even so, it had yet to even see The Light.

The surviving few of people were few and far, hiding and running from these pleasure-seeking predators, unrelenting and ever hungry for more bloodshed. Never would they be satisfied, not until there was absolutely nothing left. Nothing left at all.

(Going to bed, next response will come later... GN!)

[The Cerberus Organization]

"Alright boys, grab what you need from the armory, we head about in 15 minutes." Some of the task force members geared up from the armory, others waited until deployment. All of the men were in full combat gear, and were carrying the best weapons R&D could create. Agent Dawson even managed to recieve clearance for four light walker mechs, two suits C.R.A.N.K trooper armor, and several orbital strike markers. After several minutes of preparation and waiting, Dawson signaled his men. They loaded up into the dropship, while the mechs and other things that couldn't fit inside the first dropship with the infantry were loaded into a seperate dropship. The ships fired up the engines, and ascended into the air toward The Anomaly. They would touch down within the area in half an hour.

[The Damnatius]

Swirling chaos and roaring destruction, the territory surrounding the Tear was quite pronounced. A stationary storm of violent, screaming winds, only the lowest sections of the torrent would be safe to possibly fly through. Lightning shrieked out from the whirling center; the eye of the storm, torn apart by the variably rapid winds. Trees would be smacked down with random gusts of heated air, vaporized in random intervals. Surrounding the wound in reality itself, the ground had been turned to cracked and shattered glass. The only light came from the hellish red light which glared from the unstable borders of broken reality which composed the Tear's inauspicious form.

The roars and growls of the countless divisions of much worse abominations slammed at the borders of the rip, their cries heard in the mighty wind far and wide, instilling fear in even the creatures which have already lain waste to the world open to them. Infinite Hell was raining down upon the area without mercy. The ground was whipped and distorted, the skies filled with fire and ash intermixed with the strange gasses which seemed to be so keen as choking the lungs of all who dared to breath it.

[The Cerberus Organization]

The transport ships barely managed to navigate throught the Anomaly. They touched down, and Task Force Omega-23 deployed out of the back of the ship. Agent Dawson checked his S-Navigator. The S-Nav was randomly displaying different locations, and didn't show exactly where they were. A loud roar and several screams were heard in the distance, which was hopefully far enough where it din't come after the Task Force. After the equipment was checked, and weapons were loaded, the task force proceeded into what was left of the town, weapons at the ready.

[The Damnatius]

Homes devoured in flames, the bodies of their occupants lain out in the streets, or hung from trees, mutilated and destroyed. Debris littered the ground, and around the armed soldiers a faint, distorted laughter seemed to come from nearly all directions. Cars were flipped and smashed, left in obscure locations, business shops ransacked and ravaged. The town seemed dead and empty, the smell of rot and decay was powerful, overbearing, even though the bodies were fresh. It was not the dead who smelled so foul, but those which had slaughtered them.

Demonic howls sounded off in the distance, fading away to the wind's scream. Dark figures seemed to appear and vanish out of the corners of their eyes, coming closer and closer with each passing moment. Tremors and quakes wrought the area, the distant eye of the storm ripping away at the ground beneath it. Red lightning streaked across the skies in violent surges, followed by skull-rattling booms. As one drew nearer to the church, a continuous growth of putrid biomass seemed to slowly dominate the area, and the ghostly screams of the deceased seemed to cry and shriek for salvation they would never find, their souls slowly being dragged towards the Tear for consumption.

A dark, twitching, humanoid figure slowly stumbled towards them, an arm missing with blood slowly oozing out, it seemed to let out incoherent strings of garbled sounds and noises. It approached them.

[The Cerberus Organization]

Agent Dawson raised his weapon at the thing, followed by several other agents doing the same. "Stop!" Agent Dawson shouted. "Get down on the ground! You have 5-seconds to comply!" Agent Dawson hoped that this thing would comply, but doubted that it would.

[The Damnatius]

The gibbering husk of a human only continued, it's noises and sounds becoming louder and louder, more aggressive, it stumbled at a quicker pace.

Shadows and figures appeared and disappeared in the distance, spectating the events as they unfolded, observing their prey and watching the others who sought after them for a new meal. There was nothing left here, much if not all the people not reduced to a traumatized, shattered state having been murdered or consumed.

[The Cerberus Organization]

"5, 4, 3 ,2 ,1. Open fire!" Shots of every type rang out. The creature was slammed by gunfire, and after several moments of continous fire, it hit the ground, unmoving. "What the hell was that thing?" said one of the men behind Dawson. "Prepare the body for removal. Command will want samples and a body for autopsy." Two agents placed the body cautiously into a body bag, and four agents carried back to the dropship to be returned to the base for autopsy. Maybe command could make something of the sample, and give information about how they could be defeated.

[The Damnatius]

The moment the corpse was removed, the laughter had become more apparent, stronger, and yet ever darker. The shadow figures now loomed in the distance, no longer hiding from their prey. It was only a matter of waiting. Behind them, the winds seemed to spike, practically trapping them in a virtual circle surrounding the town. Trees still standing were crushed. A distant barn and farm house was leveled, and the great wail of the wall of wind which had swept by them almost forced the men forward.

Down the main road, the church could be seen, a particular bright, reddish light shining upon it in the eerie darkness. Cracks and crevasses riddled the road before them, and debris lined the streets. These were mere obstructions, the true perils which awaited them were yet to show their faces, standing at distance, sizing up their next meal.

[The Cerberus Organization]

The men finished loading the specimen onto the dropship, and were preparing to return to the rest of the group. Something seemed.... off. It seemed like something was watching them. They started to hurry back to the rest of the team, wanting to escape the gaze of whatever entity was watching them.

[The Damnatius]

The men finished loading the specimen onto the dropship, and were preparing to return to the rest of the group. Something seemed.... off. It seemed like something was watching them. They started to hurry back to the rest of the team, wanting to escape the gaze of whatever entity was watching them.

A loud screech sounded off, and the sky seemed to crackled and flare with a bright lightning, a light which for a brief moment blinded the men, even if they looked not towards the skies. In that instantaneous moment, the creatures stood far closer. They varied in nature, shape and form, but all of them gazed towards the men with equal thirst. Low whispers and growls backed the ominous howls of the wind that ripped and tore at the skies above them.

One of the creatures, a black, shapeless creature of ash and smoke, seemed to levitate towards them, roots of black spreading from it's base, creeping towards the men like vines. It's approach instilled the courage of other beasts to creep closer and closer. They had fought man before, they would fight them again, and win all the same.

[The Cerberus Organization]

The radio suddenly started going off, panicked voices of the four men collecting samples. Gunfire rang out in the distance. Agent Dawson and the nineteen other men ran off to provide support. Hopefully they could find the men alive, and not find their mutilated bodies scattered across the ground, like everyone they've seen so far.

[The Damnatius]

The crushed, shattered bones of the dispatched team were all which remained of the violent assault. Some of the more corporeal creatures of the Tear lay injured, or dead, killed not by bullets, but the claws and teeth of their brethren, battling for food. Residual meat and tissue clung to the bones in small amounts, where the beasts did not care to clean off. Scattered around in tatters and bits, the men's apparel lay in a similar state to they; dismembered and destroyed, with blood staining each article heavily. They didn't last very long at all, the hunger was too great to resist.

This was not to say that an individual specimen was incapable of being subdued by bullets and sword, but that in numbers, they found strength, even if they fought amongst each other for the smallest morsel. Alone, they were still far more capable than the average human, but with a properly placed set of shots, they were dispatched, condemned to return to the hell they crawled out from.

[The Cerberus Organization]

A display came up on Agent Dawsons HUD. Dawson looked at the four alerts that came up.

>>AGENT HARRISON KIA
>>AGENT VICTOR KIA
>>AGENT HUDSON KIA
>>AGENT KEYES KIA

Dawson was saddened by their deaths. He had served over twelve years with these men. He managed to find their dog tags, and pocketed them. While he collected the tags and surveyed the area, some of the men were finishing off the wounded creatures. This was serious. These were highly trained infantry units, trained to handle any situation. They continued silently through the town, moving toward the anomalous activity coming from the church. They moved slowly and carefully, to avoid an ambush from the creatures. When they arrived, they would try and obtain a reading from the church.

[The Damnatius]

It was an old building, made of faded bricks and cracking mortar. At one point, it was quite a beautiful place, but time was unkind to it, and the forces of ruin even more merciless. It's steeple having since crashed to the ground, leaving a gaping wound in the building, the pale red light shone in. Creeping out from the battered and broken windows, a consistently thickening ooze of biomass seemed to spread like a mold. It clung it whatever it stepped upon, trying to ensnare it, and consume it's trapped victim for more material. The unused parts of less fortunate victims were visible, having becoming part of the necrotic flesh of the ground.

The creatures which had assaulted the men were gone, from all visuals, anyway, but they were certainly not finished with such delicacies, and their stomachs were already running empty, they were growing hungrier and hungrier, Death fed them, rejuvenated their strength, kept them alive. They didn't think to conserve, take what was necessary, share, no, they thought only for them selves, and ate until there was nothing left. They brought man to it's knees before in their infinite hunger, they would do so once more, if given the chance.

With the roof having collapsed, the interior of the building was in full view of all who dared to look inside it's defiled walls. The macro organic sprawl of vile flesh met it's source here - an obscure structure, composed of the conjoined bodies of the mortals who were driven by the more intelligent creatures into constructing a paranormal bioorganic device, for them to feast upon for ages as it produced nigh-infinite sources of a personally much more appetizing substance, if fed regularly the proper materials to convert. The hosts which composed the hive-like structure seemed to still be alive, having assimilated only in body, but not entirely mind. Their cries and moans of pain and suffering dominated the former house of God. God had no place here, He would watch as his children burned, for the true Satan had come, and he was many.

[The Cerberus Organization]

What Agent Dawson and his team saw was pure horror. The men were clearly disturbed by the sight of the biomass, the cries of men, women, and children, all crying out in pain. Claude, the teams pyrokinetic, stepped forward, ready to set the mass ablaze. Before he could set this abomination alight and end their suffering, Dawson raised an arm to stop him. As much as he wanted this abomination destroyed, he had a mission to do- collect samples of the biomass to determine it's purpose. A Task Force unit carefully extracted a sample from the biomass. After he did, Dawson nodded his head at Claude, who used his powers to set the biomass on fire. They watched as it burned, hoping it would be enought to cleanse this holy place of evil, and put these poor souls out of their misery.

[The Damnatius]

The mass of collective bodies seemed to let out a terrible scream, a pitiful whine, then subtle fading whimpers, all at once, as it charred and blackened, skin and flesh dripping off and creating a pool of rancid liquid that abhorred the ground flesh already existent. The screech did more than signify the merged entity's death, but also alerted those which had seen to it's creation that their food supply was endangered. The creatures appeared almost instantaneously. They seemed almost constructed to graze on the substance, they had intricate biomechanisms which would allow them to easily consume masses of the stuff at once, while a seemingly whole other entity sprouted from it's back.

No visible mouth or eye, it was merely a stalk with two powerful arms and 'hands' at the end of each, likely for the usage of collecting and relocating material for the biomass to spread. As docile as the large behemoths seemed, they were rather intelligent, or at least moreso than the legions of other monstrosities which were simply waiting to tear the men limb from limb.The creatures let out beastly growls, opening their maws as the cavernous space within suddenly became the source of hundreds of small creatures and insects. They scurried and whizzed towards the men rapidly, seeking to subdue them, and re initiate the process of creating a new hive.

[The Cerberus Organization]

Claude unleashed flames from his hands, while Daniel, the teams psychokinetic, brought up a force field to keep out incoming attacks, but allow the men to fire out. Dawson and the others fired upon the creatures, and Claude worked to incinerate the creatures flying around.

Claude took a form of satisfaction from using his abilities for good, even more so against major threats to the world like these creatures. He still remembered the day he tested positive for pyrokinetic abilities, and the surgical enhancements to help him control his abilities.

Suddenly, he was snapped back to the present, and to the battle at hand. He continued incinerating the flying creatures, sparing none of them. His only concern was what these things wanted, and why they caused all this needless destruction.

(I hope it doesn't seem to convient for the team to have to psychics. They will be the only two I have.)

[The Damnatius]

The swarm of repugnant creatures were chopped down hastily, but they were released in small amounts thereafter, as the Harvesters approached with heavy thuds of each of their eight twisted legs. Grotesque bellows and roars made up what they produced, characterizing their own hatred for the men who had assaulted their creation. With each step towards them, the behemoths wrought further destruction upon the already broken structure; segments of battered wall and unbroken roof fell in upon them, haphazardly crashing down dangerously near the men. One particular section of falling debris trapping one of them, shattering his legs like glass.

I the commotion, a rather large audience had come to spectate. They knew that the Harvesters had already lain claim to them, and would not dare contest for it, yet, but the sight was all the same entertainment. Demonic beasts and ghoul-like entities stayed at distance, on the unstable rooftops and towers of the buildings across from or adjacent to the ruins. Vulture-like abominations circled above, hoping to find some sort of unused scrap to consume, or else try and snatch some biomass while they were preoccupied.

And as all of this went on, the ever-present hell of wind and fire around them grew only ever larger. As it did, it gave new territory to the abominable residents to warp and terrorize. Winds about the town became harsher and more hostile, as the eye of the storm began to bear down on the comparatively feeble structures. The Tear within was stretching and ripping, as more and more terrors of far greater size fought to gain access to this new world, a fresh world, for them to devastate. Titanic beasts would walk the earth, as dragon-like monstrosities claimed the skies, and the cities of man were cleansed in fire as The Light swallowed it's first world in this new dimension. Of course, these were all events to come, as the situation was becoming much less that of containing an outbreak, and much more of fighting an Invasion.

[The Cerberus Organization]

Hayes was crushed under a large piece of debris, his leg useless. He still attempted to fire his weapon, but he knew he was done for. He waited for the right moment where his teammates were far enough and the creatures were close enough for a suicide grenade blast. He died fighting for humanity, and would be remembered for his sacrifice.

>>AGENT HAYES KIA

[The Damnatius]

The blasted, burnt remnants of Hayes' body were quickly swarmed by various smaller creatures, those which feasted upon scraps and remnants, this was a great meal. all the while, the Harvesters soaked the bullets wherever they landed with great steadfast, showing little to no pain at all. One of them must have thought it was within close enough range, as the large arm slithered down and attempted to snatch at Daniel, the gruesome hand smashing against the force field as bullets impacted it en masse, it clawing at the mysterious barrier, a low growl reverberating from the open maw. Retracting, the Harvester released a horrendous roar. It Thrust a greater part of itself upwards into the air, allowing it to slam down it's massive weight. This was not to simply instill fear into it's foes, it vaguely recognized the psychic material, and had a few capabilities of its own, albeit less manipulative.

A discharge of raw, unforgiving mental disarray screeched out, instantaneously killing all of the smaller beings, their heads having simply exploded. Of course, not to it's intention, the floor buckled and cracked, as a leg slipped through the wood into the basement, and the building was further reduced to it's most basic elements. The other Harvester, not trapped by it's own faults, instead took large sections of debris, flinging it at the men. They were limited, and were not terribly smart, but they were anything but feeble.

[The Cerberus Organization]

Daniel lifted one of the creatures from the ground and sending it through what was left of the wall. He lifted a second creature from the ground. He tore the creature in half, throwing it against the ground afterwards. Using his remaining strength, he grabbed a third Harvester and repeatedly rammed it into the concrete floor of the basement.