[IC] The Ones that were Left Behind

[Laue]

The Awakening

Humanity, or what's left of it, were saved. The heroes left one final message - they will go through the portal the invaders came, and make them pay for their crimes. They will leave a delayed explosive behind, to make sure no one can follow them, in or out.

After the "Apocalypse Gate's" destruction, humans have began to... awaken. While the timing of the "awakening" differed from person to person, everyone experienced it, sooner or later. It was a paralyzing, unforgettable experience. Each person had their own unique experiences during that brief moment, everyone experienced the sudden feeling of being dunked into cold water, and their body and mind waking up from slumber. A slumber that they only now noticed. It felt like one has slept for their entire life, and only now they have awoken. Mind - sharper, body - stronger and faster. And of course - supernatural powers, aka magic.

Haven, humanity's brightest jewel, sustained least damage. Now being an unofficial capital of the world, it was up to Haven and it's remaining residents to restore the world. Through whatever communication networks remained, a message was sent to all the corners of the world. A special task force was to be assembled, compromised of both skilled civilians and soldiers, to acquire, understand and apply the alien technology to rebuild the world. It would mean dealing with unknown alien tech, and the poor sods turned to husks. Maybe even finding a corpse of an invader. It required everyone - from a lowly cook to a distinguished scientist.

There were quite a lot of less volunteers than expected. No more than 500 came to enlist, others seemingly wanting to stay away from the horrors that befallen them. But those who came had their reasons. Finding their way to Haven via whatever means available, those people would shape the history of this graveyard of a planet.

Andrew Baxter

Quite a few new arrivals in Haven. Most of the corpses and rubble has been moved from the streets, and traffic was almost back to normal, aside from the fact that Haven's population was cut by 90%. There were still quite a few no-go zones inhabited by Husks, but without direction, they weren't really leaving their posts.

Andrew was one of the first to join this task force, who wasn't even named yet. It would quite impossible to rebuild society using only human hands and basic tools. Most of the heavy construction machinery was either destroyed during the fighting or there are precious few capable of operating them. The soldier saw Golems in action himself. If humanity could reverse-engineer at least a fraction of these things, humans would never need to build something by themselves again. Entire cities could be built in less than a month, cities as efficient as Haven. Or probably even better. And that would be just the beginning.

Watching over the main airport of Haven, Andrew observed the new arrivals. Some of them have heard the news of this task force, and are probably heading to join it themselves. Fools, all of them. Only a fool could be so naive to believe that they can reach their goal. Fools, like Adrian. And maybe, just maybe, this world needed some fools with grand goals.

[LokiLeo789]

Marcus Mustang

Am I strolling into deaths jaws?

That was all Marcus could think about as strolled up to the Haven Airport. His heart was beating uncomfortably, he felt slightly uncomfortable being out side. He new that the aliens were gone, and that this area was a green zone, clear of any Husks. But he couldn't help it, he unfortunately, was already used to hiding. Although Marcus did a good job of putting on a straight face, he was terrified.

Why I here?
Marcus sighed. He was here to join the "task force". A message was sent to everyone, they were told that they could volunteer. Unfortunately, he jumped on the opportunity to be famous. He could be the engineer that constructed the first alien inspired ship or building. Marcus knew that would not be the case, he would probably contribute nothing to the group.

They accepted you, your special!
"Shut up, they called for "volunteers", for all we know, murders would be leading this task force." He mumbled to himself. Marcus mentally slapped himself. "Why an I talking to my self?" Marcus sighed as he opened the airport door and took a seat not to far from the front entrance. Marcus was a bit self conscious about his clothing, he was wearing a dirty white Polo shirt with blue jeans and black sneakers. Some people were dressed in suits.

Why? What am I doing here?

Was the only thing on his mind at the moment.

[gogojakeo]

Thomas O'Reilly

Thomas was patrolling Haven's airport. He hadn't had to arrest anybody today, or in the last week, for that matter. Firstly, there weren't many crimes where he was told to patrol, and secondly, he got the other police officers to do it. Thomas didn't want to risk freezing someone. He hadn't froze anybody, but he was sure it would happen on day, if on purpose, or by accident. He accidentally froze a glass of water once. That made for a fun drink. Currently, his power had only proved annoying. He was wearing a sweatshirt underneath all of his uniform, in the middle of the desert, and still felt a bit chilly. Stupid freezing power, he thought.

Just when he though his day couldn't get much more mundane, he looked out of the glass door, and saw a man, possibly Hispanic in origin, slap himself. Said man was dressed in a dirty Polo shirt and jeans, whilst some people inside the airport were dressed in suits, and everyone was dressed in clean, smart-casual clothing. Then, the man walked into the airport, and sat down. Thomas walked over to him, gun in had, and asked, "Excuse me, Sir, are you alright?" in his Irish accent.

[SaekoGami]

Beatrix Heilmeier

Trix heard the message and relished in the chance to get her hands on some alien tech. She needed to know how they ran things, what powered everything, and maybe this would help her convince people we didn't need Adamantite. So she packed up a bunch of stuff into a torn and dirty duffle bag. She threw it over her shoulder and grabbed one of her favorite inventions. A gun she made, that only fired when she used her power on it. So its safe and can't be used against her, downside it was quite large, so she strapped it to her back. She locked up the workshop and made sure everything was safe before she headed out for Haven.

She stood out quite a bit when she got to the Haven Airport, with baggy, oil stained jean and a worn singlet that stopped just above her belly button. The large contraption strapped to her back of course didn't help, but she didn't seem to fazed as she walked around the airport looking around, oblivious to the people around her. She had never been to Haven, so the new surrounding interested her.

[Laue]

Brave New World

The address given was a huge building complex, which belonged to Google, as the massive letters suggested. A name that shaped a significant part of the old world, and one of the first mega corporations to reallocate to Haven. The newcomers were greeted by a few men in suits and led inside. Eventually they reached a large hall probably used for press conferences. On the stage there was a massive monitor probably used for presentations. Not that many people have gathered here - no more than two hundred. Once the final volunteer came in, a well-dressed woman came on stage.

"My name is Amanda Draisen, and I welcome you to Haven, or what's left of it. I once was the Marketing Director for the organization which owned this building, but that title holds no meaning now... If you came here, it means you hold the desire to make the world better than ever. As tragic as these past months are, humanity was also given an opportunity to start anew. Tabula rasa, a clean slate. The only way we can honor the fallen - rebuilding the world better than it ever was."

Amanda pulled out her phone, and activated something, making the big screen turn on. "This is combat footage taken by a soldier who is now our Head of Security. Very few have seen Golems in action and lived to tell the tale, but it is important for you to see just what they are capable off."

The footage looked like it was taken from a rifle scope, complete with various data like wind's direction and strength, distance and of course the crosshairs. In the distance could be seen a massive amount of Husks, and among them you could barely see something stand out. Though blurry at such great distances, it could be seen that the figure, which was the alien, threw something in the air. Once the device reached sufficient altitude, it activated, and started acting almost like a black hole. Buildings nearby started disintegrating bit by bit, their matter now looking like blue dust being sucked in into the device. As more and more matter got sucked in, the thing started to take shape, and eventually formed a massive skyscraper sized humanoid robot. It consumed the matter of five skyscrapers to form one "Golem". Up next were various instances of Golems deconstructing buildings and objects via the same way, then using that stored matter to start building whatever they were programmed to do.

The footage came to a stop, and Amanda resumed her speech. This video has visibly shocked the majority of the audience. After all, most civilians who survived were far away from such things. "These are the so called Golems. They are able to deconstruct and restructure matter at will just like that. I'm no physicist, but I'm pretty sure that is impossible with our current understanding of physics. And that is our first goal. Understanding and learning this technology. I am sure I don't need to tell you the applications for this."

"And now those who still are crazy enough to join us, please go to the tables near the entrance of the conference hall. You will be given your own room, and of course, the Datapad." The audience was clearly confused to the mention of this Datapad. Amanda raised up her phone, which looked like any other. The large screen switched to display the phone's screen. Fairly similar to any other smartphone, this one had such apps as "Emergency Lockdown", "Door Control", "Surveillance", "Screen Control" and so on. "This thing can make calls, but only to other Datapads. Or DTPs, as well started calling them. Once you acquire yours, it will record your fingerprints and only you will be able to use it. It will act as your key as well. There GPS of course, and you can also use the "Locations" option to get precise directions to whatever you need on this building. It has many, many more functions, and you will learn them in due time. To those who still consider joining us, we'll meet tomorrow here in the same place. Good night everyone."

And so, Amanda left. And the audience went outside, where the men in suits waited by the tables with boxes of those DTPs. "Just write your own personal data in and then hit "Register". A room will be assigned to you automatically. Various R&D facilities are free to use if you have the knowledge. We'll begin the work tomorrow." The volunteers were informed.

Andrew Baxter

Amanda was going to show the volunteers the footage. As much as Andrew wanted to provide commentary, he was posted on the rooftop of the building, continuing his guard duty. He was the one who got the footage in the first place. Though he didn't show it, Andrew has seen figurative hell. From the safety of his perch, he saw countless people die. Far more died elsewhere. He did agree on one thing with Amanda - the world is now a clean slate. She was and still is the corporate type, but with governments gone, people like her are the only specs of order left.

She is most likely pouring a lot of inspiring bullshit to the volunteers right now. Despite all of her motivations, she still aims to be on top of the new world. She and countless others. Andrew knows that with the immediate threat gone, people once again will turn on one another. Gangs, cults, warlords and corporate interests will be a given. The latter seemed like the lesser of evils.