[IC] Myriad Reality

[Legend]

<Snipped quote by Legend>

You're welcome.

*sits down, looking through the menu*

Oh, this was the place with the really good chardonnay! Ill have to remember that.

@souleaterfan320

Is it? I'll need to try that out.

[Fractured]

<Snipped quote by Fractured>

Must be a dimensional vessel, I can't think of a different explanation for it.

@Dark Cloud

That's a lot of effort just to get stuck in this mountain.

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

So much for the realistic façade...
*Takes off runnning, dashing past you and toward the vehicle at a breakneck superhuman pace*

@Armed Forces

*I continue running, before jumping up onto a roof and following it by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. The vehicle enters a convoy of similar trucks before its roof-mounted machine gun turns to fire at me.*

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

*Above the world we circle. Using the scanners of our hijacked ships, we scan the surface. This reveals scattered clusters of boxy structures surrounded by sandbags or walls. The night side of the planet is dotted with the occasional, isolated bunch of yellow lights. I laugh, thinking of how easy the population would be to subdue and the joy I would savor while playing my games with them.*

Get the cannon, Phantom.

Phantom: Yes, Lash.

*The ship with the node stuck to its gun turns around to face the opposite direction of its orbit. Then, it fires, launching the node at a retrograde trajectory, aimed to strike one of the largest population centers on the planet. In less than 10 minutes, it strikes directly onto their town square. A camera watches as dozens of curious humans dressed in 19th-century attire gather around the impact site. Then, like a blooming flower, the node opens, releasing six Withers. They speak, allowing their psychic ability to pacify the crowd. Then, they strike. They pounce onto their victims, sometimes biting them on the torso and injecting embryos to further the race, and sometimes simply swallowing them whole before regurgitating their acid-coated remains as projectiles. I am disappointed in the fact that the camera does not have an audio recorder and I cannot, therefore, hear their dying screams. I am still happy to see the crowd massacred, with some left comatose and implanted to birth new Withers. I tune off the screen once the square has been deserted and occupy the next few hours looking down at the city and watching as its lights slowly go out.*

@Tank O The Lake

*Six hours later, I sit in the captain's chair, watching as the surrounding suburbs are slowly consumed. The Wither population on the world has increased from six to a number a thousand times higher. The number of humans killed is twenty times that. Before I can continue watching, though, Phantom appears once more.*

Are you done playing your game?

Phantom: No, but there's something you need to see.

*The screen flickers on to show a map of the nearby cosmos. Overlaid onto it are the results from the high-power scanners of the ship. They show a very dense, but fluctuating source of energy in an adjacent star system.*

A pulsar?

Phantom: There are no pulsars in this sector. The energy should not be fluctuating this much, unless...

Unless?

Phantom: Unless it was artificial. I think the warp engines have taken us to a battle, and a large one at that.

*A curious look crosses my face.*

What kind of battle?

Phantom: We're not detecting any significant orbital constructs, so it's not a space battle. The source world has no known population or strategic importance, so it must be a battle between individuals. Powerful individuals.

*I nod.*

A war of titans, I see. Ready the fleet. We have a god to kill.

*An hour later, the fleet once again returns to realspace, orbiting the source planet. Looking down, I can see a reddish-purple, roiling storm cloud. The scanners identify it as a reality storm. I am disappointed, believing that the fluctuations were merely results of the storm, and am about to turn back when, with a flash of red and blue, something resonates across the planetary surface. Seeing this, I order a drone to be sent down to survey the surface. It enters the atmosphere in an orange flash and sees a multitude of tiny forms engaged in combat. Flashes of energy dance between them. However, when the drone ascends once more, it strikes an unseen barrier and spirals back down to the surface. Curious, I send another drone down and order it to go back up, with the same result. I approximate the height of this one-way barrier to be roughly one to two kilometers above the sea level.*

Phantom!

Phantom: Yes, Lash?

Get the Technomorph. Remember Tenebrus VIII?

*Phantom looks at me with realization in his eyes, then grins.*

Phantom: Oh, I'm gonna love this!

*The green-black slime coating the engines of the smaller ships begins to spread and coat much of their hulls. Then, it forms tendrils, which link with nearby spacecraft and pull them towards each other. When their work is done, a dozen-odd spacecraft have been conglomerated into a projectile of astronomic size. At its heart is a reality anchor, previously possessed by the exploratory fleet for braving the warp-storms of far-flung space. Hopefully, it will protect the projectile from the reality storm. I give the order to descend. The engines of the projectile all fire at once, bringing it down towards the surface. With meteoric force, it strikes in an unoccupied corner of the battlefield, sending up a mushroom cloud of dust and debris. When the dust settles, the structure is nigh-unfazed, an ode to the durability of the already-damaged spacecraft. It sticks out of the red sand like a pale blister surrounding an infected wound. Then, it slowly begins to sink into the ground.*

[DELETED jdl3932]

<Snipped quote by ZAVAZggg>

*the ship collides with the planet, sending out a massive shockwave throughout the entire area around it*

@souleaterfan320

*Hunkers down beneath a tree as I ride out the brunt of the shockwave. Once it passes, I step out into the open and observe the craft*

[Dark Cloud]

<Snipped quote by Dark Cloud>

That's a lot of effort just to get stuck in this mountain.

@Fractured

Probably went out of it's way to get here, expand it's horizons.

[Fractured]

<Snipped quote by Fractured>

Probably went out of it's way to get here, expand it's horizons.

@Dark Cloud

There’s nothing here to seek.

[Dark Cloud]

<Snipped quote by Dark Cloud>

There’s nothing here to seek.

@Fractured

Creatures like Beholders and Mindflayers are interested in knowledge and power. They were likely drawn here by something.

[Fractured]

<Snipped quote by Fractured>

Creatures like Beholders and Mindflayers are interested in knowledge and power. They were likely drawn here by something.

@Dark Cloud

Something we haven’t found.

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Melodious>

*The waterfall of data continues to flood the area with new viruses even as the existing ones are deleted—my own recovery barely keeps up with the rate of deletion, introducing minor bugs every few seconds*

@Webmaster

Launch the insectoids, now.

*With a faint popping noise, a multitude of green blisters fire off of a nearby ship and descend into the atmosphere. They detonate in midair in showers of pus. A multitude of dark forms spiral out of them, only to swoop back up and form a rough V-formation that circles over the area. Seeing through their eyes, I notice a form standing in the reality storm. They seem to be in some distress, but, judging by the geysers of light behind them, they are powerful.*

Oh, well that isn't a place for you to be... we have the spare anchor, right?

Phantom: Yes, but it's weaker. Won't go as far.

I don't need it to be strong. Get some Vampyrs and launch.

*A drop pod fires off of another ship and flies over the reality storm, positioning itself with its rocket engines. It comes to a hover over the form and descends, seemingly cutting through the storm. As it lands, a perimeter of roughly twenty feet around the pod is cleared as one of the Vampyrs extends her hand, exerting a psychic tug force pulling at the form to bring them out of the storm and into the radius of the anchor.*

[Dark Cloud]

<Snipped quote by Dark Cloud>

Something we haven’t found.

@Fractured

Precisely, but maybe they found it. And maybe it could be aboard that ship.

[Fractured]

<Snipped quote by Fractured>

Precisely, but maybe they found it. And maybe it could be aboard that ship.

@Dark Cloud

Are you suggesting we investigate?

[Source]

<Snipped quote by Webmaster>

Launch the insectoids, now.

*With a faint popping noise, a multitude of green blisters fire off of a nearby ship and descend into the atmosphere. They detonate in midair in showers of pus. A multitude of dark forms spiral out of them, only to swoop back up and form a rough V-formation that circles over the area. Seeing through their eyes, I notice a form standing in the reality storm. They seem to be in some distress, but, judging by the geysers of light behind them, they are powerful.*

Oh, well that isn't a place for you to be... we have the spare anchor, right?

Phantom: Yes, but it's weaker. Won't go as far.

I don't need it to be strong. Get some Vampyrs and launch.

*A drop pod fires off of another ship and flies over the reality storm, positioning itself with its rocket engines. It comes to a hover over the form and descends, seemingly cutting through the storm. As it lands, a perimeter of roughly twenty feet around the pod is cleared as one of the Vampyrs extends her hand, exerting a psychic tug force pulling at the form to bring them out of the storm and into the radius of the anchor.*

@Tank O The Lake

*Holds my hand up, creating a repelling force*
Another combatant?

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

*Holds my hand up, creating a repelling force*
Another combatant?

@Source

*An android turns to look at you.*

Not one, but many. I saw you were fighting, and I love to fight, so WHY NOT?

*The last two words are spoken in a glitchy, disturbing tone.*

[Source]

<Snipped quote by Source>

*An android turns to look at you.*

Not one, but many. I saw you were fighting, and I love to fight, so WHY NOT?

*The last two words are spoken in a glitchy, disturbing tone.*

@Tank O The Lake

Hmph. Just watch your shots. The last thing we need are more casualties.

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

Hmph. Just watch your shots. The last thing we need are more casualties.

@Source

What's wrong with casualties? Last I checked, that's what war's for.

*The android laughs coldly.*

[Source]

<Snipped quote by Source>

What's wrong with casualties? Last I checked, that's what war's for.

*The android laughs coldly.*

@Tank O The Lake

If you're not extremely careful, you're going to have enemies on both sides. I suggest you watch your step.

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

If you're not extremely careful, you're going to have enemies on both sides. I suggest you watch your step.

@Source

I see. But, I have a thing to do, and we don't do guns. Besides. You!

*I point to a bug-like creature, then a spot on the ground. The creature stamps the ground, its foot cupping over the landmine and detonating it safely.*

I've got this.

[Source]

<Snipped quote by Source>

I see. But, I have a thing to do, and we don't do guns. Besides. You!

*I point to a bug-like creature, then a spot on the ground. The creature stamps the ground, its foot cupping over the landmine and detonating it safely.*

I've got this.

@Tank O The Lake

I have greater concerns than the insects.

[Tank O The Lake]

<Snipped quote by Tank O The Lake>

I have greater concerns than the insects.

@Source

I can see. Let's just say that I don't particularly care. This isn't an insult to you, it's just that, well, I am literally unable to.