Planet Shandoria
Climate: Temperate
A typical world with large oceans and continents supporting a variety of biomes.
Shandoria's capitol, located on its northeastern continent, was experiencing another beautiful day. Although relatively close to the borders of human space, they haven't had any major incidents in some time. That was about to change. In the UGN base of operations, a space station located in low orbit, an alarm was blaring.
"We're detecting a dimensional disturbance forming in the upper atmosphere," one of the technicians currently monitoring for such things relayed across the command deck. "It's got to be the Bydo, nothing else makes sense. From the size, it can't be a full-on invasion force."
"What the hell are they doing here then? Did they get lost or something?"
"That's really not for me to say, sir. It looks like there shouldn't be anything too big coming through, at least."
"Well, who do we have planetside? Send an alert and start evacuating the area. Contact any UGN mages available and get them there ASAP."
On the planet's surface, raid sirens that hadn't seen use in years began to wail to life. The sky darkened, clearly not from normal weather phenomena, as a crack scarred the heavens. The Bydo Incursion had begun.
On a military base nearby, Mana had a call. "Hello? Mana speaking."
"Good," the voice on the other end of the line was brusque, and one could hear some of he chatter going on in the room over the microphone. "The Bydo are here, we need every available soldier out there."
"I noticed," Mana replied. "The old air raid sirens are pretty unmistakable. I'm ready, if you need me."
"Thank you." A pause. "Are you sure you're up to it? If you need more time, I'm sure we can manage."
Mana sighed theatrically. "Of course I'm good to go. I've had enough time to process things, and I'd rather be out there than hiding in a bunker anyway."
"In that case, prepare for transport. We'll get you right there."
Teleportation. Safe, convenient, and always a little disorienting when some station grabs you and throws you somewhere else. At least Mana was in uniform and had Airgetlam on her. Not that she wouldn't, unless for some reason she was caught in the shower or in bed by the enemy. There's a thought. She stood where she was in her room, to give the station's tech an easier time. They probably did just get a lock on her comms or device, but every little bit helps. It wasn't long before she was enveloped in the familiar cool light, and dropped on a city street.
The young woman looked around. Things didn't look too bad, yet. Though, right up above, the pit the Bydo had crawled out of was just closing. Monsters were already swarming downward. It was time to go to work. "Arigetlam, switch on!" Mana shouted the activation key phrase for her device. Surrounded in silver light, the mage's clothing was replaced by the barrier jacket she wore, and her weapon likewise reformatted itself from its small, inactive form to that of a proper sword.
"We need a barrier field," Mana said to her device. "Set it to link up with any others, but the more area we can cover, the better to minimize the collateral damage." "Yes sir," replied her device in its posh accented voice, "deploying temporal field." A hemispherical bubble of energy began to expand from where Mana was standing. Barriers like these were a mage's battleground, a magic circle that would keep anything inside slightly out of step with reality, protecting anyone who wasn't a mage themselves from the consequences of the fight.
Mana sent out a general call via telepathy. <This is Mana Septima, preparing to engage. Anyone else out there?>
Climate: Temperate
A typical world with large oceans and continents supporting a variety of biomes.
Shandoria's capitol, located on its northeastern continent, was experiencing another beautiful day. Although relatively close to the borders of human space, they haven't had any major incidents in some time. That was about to change. In the UGN base of operations, a space station located in low orbit, an alarm was blaring.
"We're detecting a dimensional disturbance forming in the upper atmosphere," one of the technicians currently monitoring for such things relayed across the command deck. "It's got to be the Bydo, nothing else makes sense. From the size, it can't be a full-on invasion force."
"What the hell are they doing here then? Did they get lost or something?"
"That's really not for me to say, sir. It looks like there shouldn't be anything too big coming through, at least."
"Well, who do we have planetside? Send an alert and start evacuating the area. Contact any UGN mages available and get them there ASAP."
On the planet's surface, raid sirens that hadn't seen use in years began to wail to life. The sky darkened, clearly not from normal weather phenomena, as a crack scarred the heavens. The Bydo Incursion had begun.
On a military base nearby, Mana had a call. "Hello? Mana speaking."
"Good," the voice on the other end of the line was brusque, and one could hear some of he chatter going on in the room over the microphone. "The Bydo are here, we need every available soldier out there."
"I noticed," Mana replied. "The old air raid sirens are pretty unmistakable. I'm ready, if you need me."
"Thank you." A pause. "Are you sure you're up to it? If you need more time, I'm sure we can manage."
Mana sighed theatrically. "Of course I'm good to go. I've had enough time to process things, and I'd rather be out there than hiding in a bunker anyway."
"In that case, prepare for transport. We'll get you right there."
Teleportation. Safe, convenient, and always a little disorienting when some station grabs you and throws you somewhere else. At least Mana was in uniform and had Airgetlam on her. Not that she wouldn't, unless for some reason she was caught in the shower or in bed by the enemy. There's a thought. She stood where she was in her room, to give the station's tech an easier time. They probably did just get a lock on her comms or device, but every little bit helps. It wasn't long before she was enveloped in the familiar cool light, and dropped on a city street.
The young woman looked around. Things didn't look too bad, yet. Though, right up above, the pit the Bydo had crawled out of was just closing. Monsters were already swarming downward. It was time to go to work. "Arigetlam, switch on!" Mana shouted the activation key phrase for her device. Surrounded in silver light, the mage's clothing was replaced by the barrier jacket she wore, and her weapon likewise reformatted itself from its small, inactive form to that of a proper sword.
"We need a barrier field," Mana said to her device. "Set it to link up with any others, but the more area we can cover, the better to minimize the collateral damage." "Yes sir," replied her device in its posh accented voice, "deploying temporal field." A hemispherical bubble of energy began to expand from where Mana was standing. Barriers like these were a mage's battleground, a magic circle that would keep anything inside slightly out of step with reality, protecting anyone who wasn't a mage themselves from the consequences of the fight.
Mana sent out a general call via telepathy. <This is Mana Septima, preparing to engage. Anyone else out there?>
