Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Westeria City: Azure Heights

"Funny story, or not so funny, I was born in a part of my world that was-... it was a warzone, basically. My father was a warlord, a rebel, and an asshole. My mother rejected that, I rejected him. We moved away." Nina began, "I thought it would be great to stick it to my old man by doing something he hated. Dancing. Artistry." She continued, pausing for what seemed like an eternity.

It was only about three seconds.

"I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't doing enough, so I joined the army and decided to fight bad guys like him. My therapist says that wasn't a healthy decision, but what does he know?"

"Born to war, you chose to go the most opposite you could and still ended up coming back. An interesting choice, though I'm sure that your culture has instilled such various devotions. You are not unlike my people, if a bit more impulsive." She shrugged, her shoulders rolling slightly. "Please, that is a good thing. I do not mean to offend, if I offended at all." She Smiled a bit wanly, then brought her wrist up. Her ship had received a message from the fleet.

"Hold on a moment, I need to address this." She turned to the side, tapping at the thick cloth wrapped around her left wrist, causing lights to flicker though it. A moment later there was a small display hovering above her arm, no more than a few inches on a side, displaying a message in Iarin working script. With a few quick taps, Assara sent back a quick message detailing all that was happening on Valore, including the sudden increase in spacetime anomalies, sighed and shut the display down, turning back to Nina.

"It would appear that my people have had a rough meeting with a group that calls themselves the Aschen Empire. One of our scouting vessels encountered them after they discharged a weapon in the vicinity of a nearby star, causing the star to perform a supernova. This is troubling..." She trailed off, her mind wandering towards her crew and her ship. She wasn't with them, but if the message was holding true, they would be outside the system within a few days.

"I'm from Brooklyn, impulsiveness runs in my veins." Nina joked, "You don't know what Brooklyn is, saying stuff like that is like rocket surgery to you." The Serbian mercenary muttered. She raised an eyebrow at Assara's sigh, she couldn't help but let out one of her own when the woman informed her of her message.

"Every meeting with the Aschen is a rough meeting. Trust me on that, my people have had more than a few encounters with them." Nina told Assara, shaking her head. She had to wonder what went through the minds of Aschen leadership when they made the decisions to antagonize others in some way. "Your people better be ready to fight. The Aschen aren't often the most friendly people when it comes to outsiders." The mercenary continued.

"Xenos, as they like to call people like us. Non-Aschen."

Assara looked at Nina coolly for a moment. When she spoke, it was with a hint of pride.

"The Iarin, due to circumstances on how we became interstellar, have very few space-faring vessels that are not considered warships. If it comes to violence, which I should hope it does not-" she said, only to stop as an alert popped up on her communicator. She looked to it, then blanched. "Why would they-?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else. As she let the thoughts roll in her head, she looked up into the darkened sky, clouds rolling between them and the sun.

Realizing her inattentiveness, Assara looked back to Nina and said, "My apologies, Nina, but it would appear that my kin have sent cluster of ships to this system, despite the warnings I've sent about the anomalies. I must go, but should you need me, you are more than welcome to contact me with this." She had reached into her pack and pulled out a small rectangular object, no more than a few inches wide and about seven inches long.

"All you need to do with that is place it beside your main communications computer. It will deploy a Webwork that will allow it to interface and draw the small amount of power it needs. May your skies be ever-distant, that you find nothing but adventure and freedom the rest of your days." She bowed ever so slightly, twisting her right hand in intricate motions before her chest, then turned to where her drones were converging. She left at a jog, then quickly picked up her pace to a loping sprint, heading out of sight rapidly.

It was the early hours of morning, and the sun had yet to breach the horizon when a faint pop and crackle filled the air. It wasn't an entirely alien sound to the city streets - not since the city had fallen anyways. It was a sound akin to static electricity. At first that's all it was. An occasional pop, and a spark of light here and there. Curious, but not particularly alarming in itself, especially given the scale of larger anomalies that had torn the city asunder.

It grew rapidly though from a faint almost imperceptible noise in the deadened pre-dawn hours of morning, to something far more violent. Arcs of uncontrolled energy lashed out from the air, striking nearby objects with unpredictable results. A telephone pole was briefly brought to life as fallen electric lines lashed and writhed like serpents, and an abandoned vehicle was rendered into molten slag by one wayward whip crack. Scorch marks appeared upon the pavement where other lances of energy struck, until the random fluctuations in energy managed to stabilize enough for several rifts to take form.

Their unstable nature was fast apparent though, as several snapped shut almost as soon as they were formed. Others maintained some semblance of stability though, if only for a time. The bursts of energy fluctuations left it uncertain how long they would remain though. Many of the rifts to open up within the city collapsed upon themselves before long, but some managed to grow stable enough to self-sustain themselves.

Teelum was in another dimension, running from both the malicious science corporation brainwashing her and the rebels she didn't know were saving her. She hid in a closet-like chamber, accidentally slipping through a portal. In Westeria, she appeared out of a rift, falling a considerable distance. "Oww..." she said as she got got back up. "Wait.... where am I?" She looked around

Deep within the confines of the city, a dead crack between two long-abandoned buildings was violently brought to life with a burst of purple radiation and electricity. From it, waves of a brown dust were spewed in all directions, forming a torrent of grainy, dull murk. Emanating from two small points within this dust, however, were two opposing colors -- blue and red. They were at first very faint, but then got launched from within the portal in similar directions down the junk-filled alleyway. One appeared to be a gray silhouette of a man with a large pack fixed upon his back, the other a black orb with countless tendrils jutting out seemingly haphazardly from its body. The portal closed shortly after their ejection, returning the alley back to its formal darkness. Each reside on the floor for several minutes before the man quickly shot up from his rest, grabbing at the rifle he had expected to find on his pack -- yet his hand closed around nothing. He quickly finds it resting on the cold concrete next to him instead. It being enveloped within his arms, he clicks on a very bright LED light attached to his shoulder, and glances around from behind the glowing blue visor concealing his face.

Enter Pyotr Abakumov.

After appearing to understand his position, Pyotr took a moment to swear at the top of his lungs, stomping the ground. Returning to his usual stoicism, he glances around, and his view fixates upon his partner (of sorts) on the ground next to him. The man grabbed hold of one of the antennas attached to it, and strenuously lifted up the machine. He rotated it around to be slightly surprised that its eye was still glowing.

"<:: Have we finally died? ::>" An entirely unnatural, robotic voice spoke from the sphere.

And enter, uh... UVUB-1, too.

"Not yet." Pyotr responded, his voice slightly muffled from behind the hazard suit that covered his entire body. He took another look around, continuing "This doesn't look like a Gaz city, hell, I've never seen anything like this before. The last thing I remember was fixing that piece of junk APC, and... Where are we?"

Pyotr looks to the sky at these words, seeing the portal, and recovering some lost memories. "Oh."

Teelum saw Pyotr and UVUB-1 from a couple yards away, and she walked up to them, still looking around at the bizarre environment, made weirder by amnesia. "Sir, or ma'am, or orb of death and destruction, might you have any idea where the flying f*ck I am?" Evidently she wasn't close enough when Pyotr made his comment about it not being like anything he'd ever seen. "And while you're at it, though it may seem weird, who am I? I can't remember a thing about myself. All I remember is running from a group of weird people who were shooting each other..."

Quickly looking down to the girl before himself, Pyotr seemed to jump at the presence of another human being speaking to him. He dropped UV (who made a strange, irritated sound in response), and shouldered the rifle, aiming it roughly in her direction before centering it on her head. He began to shout loudly in a language that Teelum could not understand, amplified by the fact that his voice had a difficult time being understood through his suit in the first place.

If one could understand the Russian language, Pyotr would be screaming "Arms where I can see them, Gaz scum! Where is your squad? Why are you alone?! You will tell me now!"

After a moment, the voice of the bot picks up, hissing at Pyotr as it slowly began floating a few feet from the ground. "<:: That's not a Gaz, you imbecile. It's a girl. She doesn't even have a gun. ::>"

UV's protests appeared to fall on deaf ears while Pyotr continued to shake his rifle at the woman.

Teelum only stared in confusion, tilting her head sideways. "Umm... I don't understand a word you're saying. Can you speak English or Novaglos? Those are my only languages..."

Turning to face the woman, UV called out to her in a familiar tongue. "English? You speak English? That must mean we're in one of the Western cities, no? What has happened to it?" The robot then ripped the firearm out of Pytor's hands, letting it hang below his floating sphere of a body. Pyotr stared at the robot with a look of betrayal, not only from him communicating with the 'enemy', but also using language he had never heard UV speak in before.

Teelum was relieved to hear English, knowing that there would be some form of a translator to bridge the metaphorical gap. "I don't know. I can't remember a thing. Did you hear what I said earlier about not knowing where or who I am?" She notices that she has something in her pockets. "Wait, what's this?" she asked herself, pulling out metal claws that attach to the fingers. "Ooh, now if that psychopath tries to fight me I'll stand a chance!" she said as she glared at Pyotr.

"<:: You don't remember anything? Nothing at all? ::>" UV called out, meandering over to her through the air, floating over the debris lining the city streets. "<:: I didn't know that was possible for a human. I am UVUB-dash-One. I've learned that name doesn't exactly 'roll off the tongue', so you may call me UV as many others tend to. I apologize for my, uh, partner. He's just a little more on-edge than usual for reasons that may be a little obvious... ::>"
During UV's introduction, Pyotr steps over the small piles of rebar and concrete separating him from the others and approaches Teelum, towering over seven feet tall with his steroid-infused body. He reaches a massive, gloved hand to her, offering a handshake. He says one word: his name. "Pyotr."

Teelum shool hands and told UV to tell him that she doesn't know her name. "And all I remember is being in a strange machine, and a weird tingly feeling throughout my body and my chest was scarred. Then, there was an explosion. The device was damaged by debris and let me out, and I was immediately met with a bunch of scientists fighting a team of people in rather makeshift attire. I bolted out of there, hiding in a room, where I slipped through a portal and found myself here. I was able to grab some clothing from an unconscious person. One of them that was fighting the scientists."

"<:: She doesn't remember anything, apparently. ::>" The black orb says to Pyotr. "<:: All but some sort of machine that she broke out of, and then she entered some sort of portal -- just like us. It seems like whatever portal she slipped into was a lot more tame than what sucked us up. ::>"
"Tell her I'm sorry about trying to shoot her." Pyotr responds while taking his gun out from UV's grasp, nearly pulling him out of the air. He looks to the massive portal encompassing the entire sky above the city, then the streets surrounding them. "We should-" Pyotr is interrupted by the sounds of several strange, alien-like screams echoing through the city block. He continues, "We should find some sort of shelter. This place seems dangerous."
"<:: I guess. ::>" UV responds, looking up.
"UV, fly up and see if you can find anything safe looking in the city. Safer than these buildings that will collapse if you look at them wrong, at least." The Russian man says, pointing his thumb to the rubble behind himself.
"<:: Pyotr, you know how I feel about heights. ::>" UV protests, still looking up, but a stern look from Pyotr forces him to change his mind. "<:: Right, then. I'll be back... ::> He says, slowly ascending higher between the buildings, eventually clearing them and going beyond.

Pyotr looks down to the woman, then to the streets. Another cry echoes, and Pyotr's grip on his rifle tightens.

In the other dimension, the scientists were able to defend against the rebel attack. They do a check to find everything missing or damaged, and find that-among other things-Teelum is missing. But back here in Westeria Teelum decides to call herself Teelum: a Novaglos name for one who is strong.

Bursting into the street from an alleyway, a blur of flesh can be seen. A thick, darkly colored liquid is trail left behind on the concrete and asphalt behind it. The thing looked almost human, with a strange, sickly coloration on what of its body was visible. The creature rushed into the opposing alleyway before audibly crashing into a bunch of garbage, filling the area with a crashing noise that pierced the silence.

The soft sounds of Pyotr following its movement with his rifle can be heard, along with him slowly chambering a bullet. He motions to the woman to get down as he turns the light on his shoulder off, and squat-walks over to a pile of rubble. More of the forms can be seen moving out of the same alley that the first did, some going to check on the one that had made the loud noise, others spreading out, kicking rocks around to each other, wrestling, or simply just staring at the portal above. One thing was common with them: they all leaked the liquid, and they all periodically screamed, as if to communicate. Pyotr took aim at one, and carefully clicked a switch on his rifle.

Teelum stayed down, putting on the claw covers she discovered she had just in case, and sneaks up behind Pyotr, observing the strange beings with interest. But that calmness wouldn't last, because soldiers who work for the scientists were gearing up, readying to hunt Teelum...

Pyotr speaks to himself while looking down the bare sights of his rifle, "They don't... Seem dangerous..." before a flood light is shone from above onto the group. They all stop in their tracks, and turn to cover their eyes, silently staring at the source of the light. One screams, then another. Soon after, they all simultaneously look to the center of the street, and run off down the road away from Pyotr and Teelum.
"UV! You scared them off!" Pyotr looks up, shouting, just as some sort of strange siren is heard. A perfectly circular, much neater-looking portal opens up in the very center of the street, and a large, APC looking military vehicle vaults out of it, engines growling, before screeching to a halt in the road before the vortex closes. The door on the back of the truck opens, and several armed guards with glowing green eyes and matching laser sights on their weapons exit, lasers shining in all directions. UV turns off his light and returns to the two below as the team in the distance spreads out. Pyotr doesn't move, instead moving his aim to them instead.
"Now they seem dangerous."

Teelum looked at the soldiers, reminded of the rebels in that hellish facility. She glared, but was soon distracted by yet another portal. While those strange people were appearing, a squad of soldiers looking to bring Teelum back to the facility to be tested on arrived.. Out of the portal, a team of men with rather high tech face masks and exosuits came out, all holding guns. They didn't see Teelum, but she saw them. "Oh no," she whispered.