The Swarm

Rynmaru

Member
Uronium; A mystical source of life and power derived from the planet that we now inhabit. It was a short amount of time after we colonized Aternia, that we found this precious gift. Let me be straight with you now. Uronium is not a solid object, nor is it even a liquid, or a gas. Uronium is just a feeling you get, a warmth that grows inside of the planet, that has given us the ability to run our machines, and live comfotable lives.


With little effort, We were able to harness Uronium into our machines, and grow crops with no water. The struggle we thought we were going to face when first landing on Aternia, was a mere fear, that was quickly replaced with hope. Our new home was giving us so much, and we took it for granted. I guess our punishment was fitting.... The source of our success, Uronium, was also the source that gave us the trials that we face now.


A few years back, we saw our first sightings. Insects that we payed no attention to before, grew in size, as a result of the Uronium. No one knows why this happened, perhaps the gods decided we took too much for granted. The fact remains though, that we now have to pay for our carelessness. We forged weapons out of the rescources we had. Able to fire because of uronium, we could not decide if it was a gift, or a curse. All we knew, is that if we were to survive we must use this source to the best of our knowledge.


As the battles raged on, we grew weary. lasting for days, or even weeks at a time, the fighting didn't seem to stop. We lost countless cities and towns, more were falling apart, and we only had a few left that were standing at full mass. the world as we knew it was crumbling beneath us, and we didn't think we would find any way to stop it.


Then, as if a shining beacon of hope, arose the one thing that could be our savior. Humans, with the power of the Uronium, standing against the infestation. Not with guns, not with mere poles, but with actual powers. The ability to call forth lightning and fire, to form matter out of nothing, and to simply will something, and have it happen. These select few stood up in our time of need, and with this, was formed the I.D.S (Infestation Defense Team)


Our story starts now, at the I.D.S head quaters. We have seen a few months of rest, and were able to build our main fortress. Being the largest city we have built yet, we have been able to shelter nearly one fourth the population of Aternia. There are a lot of civilians among us, so the strong must do what they can, if we are to remain alive.
 
caleb was in the hangor underneath his drone taking apart one of the hydrolics on its legs. he crawled out from under it with a greasy chunk of metal and threw it on the work bench. grabbing a rag from his back pocket he wiped his hands off and then grabbed a new shiny hydrolic and crawling back under the mech drone . he placed the piece back into the leg,grabbing the pannel door closing it.


"well thats done what else do i haft to do"kiro said picking up a tablet computer and reading a manual for his drone
 
Marco stood on the city walls, looking out at a small group of Crushers, coming at the walls


"Command, come in"


"we hear you, Corpral"


"i have a group of 7 Crushers coming on section 44-D"


"understood, you take the stragglers, we'll take care of the main group"


the automatic turrets on the walls took aim and fired, blowing 5 of the Crushers to itty bitty pieces.


"i got the last 2, command"


he powered up his mana-cannon, and fired a single round, which soon split up into 2 smaller rounds, and both hit the crushers, drilled under their thick skin and exploded, blowing them both in half


"targets are neutralised.. continuing patrol"
 
Straying out through the forest, Oliver held his bow up and aimed it out towards a creature. Pointing out towards a tree, a light figure moved up the bark. It was as if something was cloaked. Was it a beast, Oliver was not going to wait around to find out. Releasing his arrow, it soared through the air, spinning at an incredible rate. Striking his target, it exploded the torso of the creature.As the arrow stuck all but an inch into the tree, the creature fell onto the ground and revealed it was a giant chameleon.


"I pray to the lords of the sky and the ground, that this animal will not be used in malnature. I will use everything and let nothing go unused." Oliver said as he prayed over the giant beast.


Taking out his knife, he kissed the hilt as he started to carve into the chameleons carcass.
 
On that particular morning even the air felt heavy. Sarah wiped some sweat from her brow as she walked down the cracked sidewalk, trying to ignore the flaming rubble and debris that littered the streets. As she reached her old apartment she breathed in shakily and then nodded her head. Walking up the steps she knocked on the old wooden door before deciding that no one was there and kicking the door opened.


The air was stagnant and a tear rolled down her cheek as she briefly remembered when the hallways of the building had been lively with the laughter of children and then kind gossip of adults. She had lived here with her mother and father since childhood, but now her father was gone and only two years ago she had her mother checked into an, for lack of a better word, insane asylum after suffering trauma from her father's disappearance.



Her apartment still held the appearance that she had grown used to as a child, pictures on the mantle, clean and in check. It was clean- too clean. A sterile crypt to be studied years from now by scientists. Shuddering she walked over to the mantle and picked up one of the pictures- one from her childhood, her and her parents standing in front of the statue of Walt Disney in Disney World- and shoved it in her bag. She did this with several things- an old journal, a few necklaces. After grabbing an old abandoned sweatshirt, worn and holey from years of being worn she breathed in and then walked into the kitchen.



She found old cans of lysol in the broom closet and thoughtlessly read over the labels as she walked over towards the microwave. Sarah placed them all in by order of color and name and then set the microwave for :30. She couldn't help but offer a sickish smile, unable to remember another time when she had been so reckless. After exciting from the fire escape she jumped down from the ladder and landed on her feet, cringing at the pain in her ankles. She was only allowed a few seconds for running before her part of the apartment building exploded.



Sarah knew that it had to be done, not only to destroy any way of people being able to contact her but also to save her family from being studied like animals. It was just as she was walking down the sidewalk that something dropped from her bag. Seeing that it was an old keychain, rusted from age and rain she leaned down to pick it up. Before she could become swept up in nostalgia there was a whooshing sound going past her ear and when she looked back she saw a large portion of a wooden fence disintegrate. Her eyes widened. "Crap..." she muttered. A spitter. She had no chance...
 
Marco arrived back at the guard station, and put the mana-cannon back on his back


"hey cap, we got 7 crushers in itty bitty pieces back at sector 44-D"


the captain chuckled, and put 7 marks on Marco's board, he has the most kills in 5th company.


"okay, i'll call in the cleaners..."


Marco walked out of the guard station and got in an elevator, and began descending.


he turned on his phone and pressed a speed-dial


"... hey Caleb, M-man here, wanna hit the clubs tonight?"
 
caleb grabbed his phone quickly from his pocket suspecting it was a emergency but seing that it was marco he smiled and opened it up saying hello the listening to his offer "well im done with all my work here so i dont see why not let me change and ill meet you that sound good" caleb said stripping out of his greased up engineer outfit and into some nicer clothes
 
"awesome, meet you at Club X"


he went home and got dressed, in a T-shirt and jeans, and he headed off to Club X.
 
caleb changed out into a pair of blue heans and a button up shirt leaving the top two buttons undown he grabbed his wallet and phone walking out of the door hopping down the hallway putting on his shoes that where pure white and looked bran new. a got in his car and drove to the club waiting in his car for marco to show up
 
Marco came around the corner on a tram, and jumped off when out fornt of the club.


he knocked on Caleb's car's window


"come on man, "Jasmine" is dancing tonight!"
 
caleb got out of the car and walked into the club sitting in the reserve section for military personel "i brought a but load of cash man i go out for a week long recon tomorrow" caleb said with a sigh as he typed in 50 shots of whiskey into the computer
 
"damn, looks like you need a night out, eh?"


he ordered a glass of rum and a dancer.


"another group of crushers hit 44-D today... you should have seen it! the turrets blew 5 of them to red mist and the last two were blown i half! it was freaking awesome!.. i saw some smaller ones running off, small fry, nothing to worry about..."


he got his rum and he took a swig, and watched a "dancer" take off her panties to the cheers of the drunk men (yes, its a strip club)


"you hear? that sect downtown... the ones that worship the swarm?... i heard they bombed the 33rd street station... and they tried to defend themselves by claiming "freedom of religion"... while they screamed that out, they were shooting the cops and claiming to being "oppressed" so the cops opened fire, man i wish i could have been there to gun those f**kers down"


the dancer arrived, an asian girl with blonde dyed hair, and she got to work on the private dance.


"now THIS is how to end a work day
 
"i wonder if those bastards would warship them if they saw half the shit we did during the move f**cking massacre"


his firty shots arrived then man handing him a small check. caleb took the ticket and signed it and gave him 20 credits for the tip. he stacked the shots up like a pyramid and downed 5 slamming each cup on the table. he started to laugh


"hey did i tell you that i was out last month and reconned the old downtown area of sector 5" he leaned forward and took another shot of whiskey "there was a group of survivers that where running from a group of crushers i took out the first few and they kept running i called into command and they said that i was to avoid contact and leave them to there fate....is that what we joined for man the fort is already getting crowded but they where humans just like us" caleb said as a frown came over his face
 
Marco shrugged


"its war, man... in war.. there are casualties"


he leaned back.


"i never told you... but a month ago, a transport crashed just outside the walls.. i don't remember which sector.. but there were Stalkers snatching everyone up..."


he took a deep breath


"they were being taken... so.. i changed targets... i shot them all... i blew up the transport and opened up on every civilian down there... 47 civilians, 3 staff... 20 children... either kill them quick or let the stalkers take them... i made my choice"


he took a swig of one of Caleb's whiskeys


"its called War for a reason, Caleb... nothing pretty about it"
 
"we just need too send me into a hive with a nuke..then BANG!!!" caleb threw his hands up into the air when he said bang then placing them back on the table.


he looked at the pyramid of whiskey shots he hadn't even scratched, glaring at marco and then face planting into the table "everytime i go out with you...y-you always let meh buy to many shots of whiskey" caleb said with a drunkin mumble then popping his head up ordering a girl.a few seconds later a large women came out from behind a curtain and started to dance on caleb who was luckily already past out from being drunk
 
Marco sighed and placed a hand on Caleb's back after he passed out.


"damn... i never got to tell him i was assigned as the muscle of the recon...."


he took a shot of whiskey and stood up, and slung Caleb over his shoulder.


"thanks ladies"


he took Caleb out to his car, and put it on to "auto-pilot" back to Caleb's house.


_______________________________________________________________________


the next morning Caleb would take, on his stomach with his head over the side of his bed, a glass of cola and an anti-hangover pill on his bedside table.


outside his room he would find a spare blanket on his couch, and Marco was standing in his kitchen, eating some coco-puffs and beer for breakfast in his underwear.


"morning C-dog... man, you were f**ked UP last night!"


he coughed up a bit of serial and beer, then ate it again.


"oh i didn't tell you last night, but i've been assigned as the muscle of the recon... Command said you'll need some heavy weapons if you're going into the hive... oh and they've authorised use of the MK-21 Stealth field generators... looks like command thinks this hive is pretty damn important"
 
Tiel was on patrol in one of the old districts not too far off from the main HQ. his scythe was leisurely strung over his shoulders, and he would be minding his own business as usual. A low hanging robe made of black material, and a pair of black slacks, and he was in a comfortable attire for just such a day.


Being a patrolmen, Tiel liked taking walks in the old districts. Few civilians, a nice fresh breeze and... An explosion? He had just heard an explosion right? Mildly faint, but not too much so, and he could tell that it was definitely so.


Using his Shadow-step ability, Tiel rushed over to the site. As he neared the building, he could see debris and a large amount of dust settling. Tiel almost shrugged off the event, when something caught his eye.


A women, bending over, and and spitter shooting acid at her. He almost thought it would hit her at first, but it missed and hit a small fence off to the side instead. In his mind, tiel could tell that even if the spitters had great aim, the dust in the air probably made it hard for the damned thing to see the target. The woman got lucky that the apartment had exploded.


Charging the spitter, Tiel uncloaked himself as he got closer. The spitter redirected it's aim at him, and as a shot was fired, Tiel jumps into a crescent shape, twisting his body into the air and bringing his scythe down onto the main body of the spitter. as he made contact, Tiel would then land, and hull the scythe up, along with the spitter, and bring is crashing down in front of him.


The now dead spitter's body lay limp, broken bones and a large gash in it's abdomen. quickly, Tiel removed the scythe and spun it into the air. the free scythe spiraled up, then back down into his awaiting hand, before it was expertly twirled like a staff, and slung back over his shoulder.


Turning from the spitter, Tiel looked at the lady that stood a few feet from him.


"Are you ok miss?"


Tiel asked, and offered her his hand should he want to stand up with support.
 
Sarah had tried to analyse her situation intelligently, though in her head a voice was screaming that she was screwed. How could she have been so stupid to have gone out alone, without anything to protect herself with? It was just as she could hear the creature slurping in air that something passed by out of the corner of her eye. She gasped as she saw a dark figure attack the spitter with a large scythe which glinted slightly in the sunlight. Gasping softly she remained down, considering her options of running away, but knowing that she wasn't very fast and that in her frantic state she would probably only fall over and hurt herself.


As the person turned she saw that it was a man and wordlessly found herself offering him her hand. "T-thank you..." she murmured softly, running a hand through her hair. As she brought her hand down she saw a streak of blood and touching her cheek realized that she had a cut probably caused by some flying glass from the explosion. Wiping the blood on her jeans she shook her head once more and took a breath. "Who are you?" she murmured before shaking her head once more and decided, "We should probably find somewhere more safe to talk first."
 
As Tiel helped her up, he remained quiet, only speaking once she suggested that they go somewhere a little safer to talk.


"That would be ideal, these things rarely hunt alo..."


Tiel was cut off by the pounding of a set of feet behind both of them. He recognized the rhythm, and could tell there were about five hounds approaching from the south west alley, about twenty yards from them. Knowing they could not flee in time, Tiel looked at the girl and pointed to a small inlet in the building adjacent from the one that had exploded.


"Hide!" he barked.


As Tiel swung around, he let loose on his scythe as it spiraled in a vertical manner towards the alley, and chased after it. Only as the Scythe was about to hit the ground did the first hound round the corner with it's ugly head.


The scythe slammed into it's skull and forced the hound to a quick and painless death. The alpha was down, and the few that remained would be easy. Kicking off a near by trash can, Tiel swirled into the air and kicked a reared hound in the chest, giving him leverage to back flip.


As he twirled back around, Tiel grabbed the handle on his scythe, freeing it from it's bloody prison, and slamming it into the abdomen of another hound behind him.


'Two dead, three to go' Tiel thought to himself, and as he landed, noticed he was surrounded by the three remaining hounds. this was his chance.


A quick dislodging from the second hound, and Tiel spun into a quick, yet low, circle, severing the feet from each of the remaining hounds. Another small ground of ugly as sin infested done and over with, and Tiel nestled the handle of the scythe into the ground.


Looking back at the woman, then at the ground of hounds, Tiel had and idea. Raising a hand, he could channel a thick dark substance into the two hounds who's heads were bashed in. The wounds quickly healed, and they arose from their icy slumber.


Tiel climbed onto the back of one, and commanded it to go forward. as the two hounds reached the small women, Tiel smiled at her.


"I assure you, you have nothing to worry about. This is one of my gifts, so they will do you no harm. Do you wish for a ride?"
 
She felt his hot breath against her cheek as he ordered her to hide and knowing her chances against the hounds she did not have to be told twice. The bricks felt cold and hard against her back as she hid in the alleyway, breathless. From where she was all she could do was hear the yips and whining as the mysterious stranger did what he had to do. Despite knowing the danger she couldn't help but peek out at what was happening. She watched as the scythe was spun around low, taking off the feet of the last hounds and killing them. Sarah looked away from this and breathed in shakily, though knowing that this was the cold world that she lived in now.


As she breathed in she realized that she'd held her hands to her heart this entire and let them down, flexing her fingers to get some blood back to them. Stepping out from behind the ashy brick wall she gasped seeing the two hounds come back to live and begin to step towards her. She was hesitant at first when offered a ride, but she nodded her head and climbed on back of the free hound. Never had she foreseen herself doing anything so wild as this! "I have certainly many questions to ask you when I can." she murmured, holding gingerly on to the hound.
 
caleb walked out of the room fully drest in his military uniform. he had already drak the coke and hangover pills but still was alil dazed. he looked around and saw marco eating his cereal then grabbed his head when he started to yell the he got f**cked up. "man its already noon where late marco, lets go man" he said as he grabbed his keys and wodled out the door holding his head with one and and covering his eyes with another.
 
Marco got his feet firmly on the ground again and wrestled free


"damn, just let me get some clothes on"


he got his uniform on, he ordered it shipped to Caleb's house before he passed out on the couch, and it arrived this morning.


soon he was ready, in his full gear, helmet, gas mask, his weapons holstered and loaded and ready to go.


"okay, to command central then"
 
"wth are you doing man where still inside city limits you can't lug around military grade weaponry like that man" caleb threw a blanket over marco and guided him to the backseat of his car throwing him in. then he got in the front and started the car putting it on autopilot to HQ. "man i hope we get some major action on this mission" he said laying his seat back
 
Marco took off the blanket


"relax, we have full authorisation, especially with some of the smaller of the swarm getting in lately..."


he pointed at a soldier on the side of the road, in full combat armour


"this place is becoming like a military state... but if we take out this hive, it should bring the problem under control"
 
"i think i want to get home as soon as possible the rations they give us for are stays out of the fortress are disgusting" the car stops in front of i.d.f HQ. caleb exit the car and walks threw the door showing his i.d to the man at the main desk then moving on to the elevators. he pulled out another card and swiped it on the elevator control panel then typed in a security code following his handprint. "christ why do we need so much security" he said as the doors opened
 

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