IC - Bug City Blues

[Nazir]

Nazir and the Sign's Gang saga will continue in a separate forum to keep the clutter down... visit "IC Signs of the Underground"

[Curren]

Curren groans with the exertion of the speed he's building. Astral bodies like stars flash past the englishman as he feels himself attune to the sharp cleanness of the ethiric plane which now changed to a pure white, almost like an empty canvas. It is him and the enraged spirit alone, suspended in a white void which has no ending, and where velocity has no meaning.

'How long can I hold this speed? I can't defeat it!' Currens panicked thoughts echo aloud here like the pulse of a thunderclap.

And then it hits him, it feels almost like colliding with the idea at the excessive speed he's generating. Almost like the memory was planted there for him to find in the void.

'I may not be able to defeat it, but I will find its true name!' The realisation strikes new hope into the fugitive.

Curren prepares to initiate a Metaquest to find Gagglepusse's true name!

[arcanus]

A rotation in velocity and Malthalamus Curren reaches an vertical climb.
As he enters the heavens, a huge crescendo of voices echo "Who are you" their volume like waves crashing upon the cliffs.

'A story as old as time, a tale as old as rhyme'

Story continues upon IC - Axis Umbra.

[arcanus]

They converged upon the Blackstone Hotel on the corner of Michegan Avenue, built in 1910 it had seen better days.

The proximity of the dead within the nearby Shattergraves made them all uncomfortable, none more so than the Father.
He crouched touching the cracked Asphalt, feeling the presence within the vault below, deep below 'soon' he whispered in his mind 'soon'.

The first gunshots rang out The Lakeside Trolls gang lived in perpetual readiness as all residents of the Greater Chicago Containment Zone did, but they would never be ready for this!

His mental command echoed out, they moved in perfect unison, as one. Smashing through barricades, scaling walls, the screams began. Tearing sinew, clawing flesh, bullets and ammunition tore into flesh and blood, but they were more, more than mortal.

The trolls blood hung suspended in the air, more atrocity, when would they learn, a grotesque sculpture a memorial to a race that didn't have the sense to realise it was extinct.
He watched without satisfisaction or emotion, the harvest had begun.

[arcanus]

Tombstone pushed the vomit down, his cyberlegs vaulting him back into a crouched position, customer built Savalette Guardians swept the room.
It dawned upon him that as powerful as the pistols were they woud have been useless against whatever that was.

Moans and groans came from the refugees, as they began to get their bearings, in doing so nausea struck them.
Getting his bearing his headware locked on each of the figures, his orientation system planning the dimensions of the room, a 3D representation.

The room had returned to normal, rather than some Picasso painting, normal apart from the deep rents in the walls, his tactile sensors also picked up a fine layer of metal filings embedded in the woorden furniture.

His headware locked upon a figure in the storeroom doorway, a woman, the woman who had been turned to stone, living and breathing.

His attention turned back to the dormant form of the englishman, slumped against the sofa, somehow 'Tombstone' had a sense that he had helped them.

[arcanus]

Prairie Grass rustled with the building breeze, crickets like demented violinists turned the rubbing of their leaping legs into a mind numbing crescendo.
The man stood within the crop circle, instinctively he could feel the latent power of the ancient Snake Mound buried beneath, the ritual completing an inhuman chittering call spread across the astral landscape of the Midwest Great Plains.
In answer millions of locusts rose like twisters from the grasses.
<It begins> The American Indian Sent.
_____________________________________________________________

T’iress’s head snapped up, he sensed the mana swell and the trouble it spelled.
Rushing to the window, he looked upon the seedling ‘Ardure’ its glowing white newborn aura.
They were coming to destroy it, how naive had he been.
Drawing upon the Chalice, he bolstered his own power, the ‘Ardure’ had to be preserved.
_____________________________________________________________

“ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS”, klaxons echoed through every corridor of the UCAS Wolverine.
Admiral Leonard Baxter calmly strolled from his ready-room “Sit-rep”, Captain Jonas Zibralski allowed his exo to assume bridge command and stepped over to the holo-briefing table.
“A huge spirit form is inbound from the CZ, its heading straight for us” replied Zibralski “Spirit response is engaging as we speak”
“Threat level” quietly enquired Admiral Baxtor
“Most significant yet, sir, the bug is top scale on the Adams-Heizman Charts, General Henderson has confirmed full magical support”.
_____________________________________________________________

The Priest looked around the Masonic Chamber, as large as a Cathedral hall. Absently he stroked the huge scaled head that was restrained beside him.
The warding of the chamber was impressive, old Hermetic Principles, some Zoanistic and Rosicrucian numerology included.
The Priest watched his industrious flock scurry around, flesh imitating the true souls within, he thought.
The Sending reached him just as he sensed the coming.
_____________________________________________________________

Beams of Elemental power exploded across the Astral Space above Lake Michegan.
The collection of Elementals and Spirit was truly impressive, unleashing the full fury of their innate power, however the Insect Spirit they faced was possibly the biggest thus far seen within the Sixth World.
A Brood Warrior, an Invae incorporated into a special Magical Host, a successful union bore terrifying results, the spirits were hurting it but they weren’t slowing it down.
_____________________________________________________________

Colonel Barnard Tiowokee looked at the bones, bad omens.
He felt the Great One, it was a challenge, the Insect Shaman had issued it, against Totems of his fathers against ‘Thunder Runner’. A ruse to draw the Great One out, to pause from his vigilance.

‘No Great One you will face another’ thought the Salish Colonel.
_____________________________________________________________

Only the fortunate members of the UCAS Third Thaumatic Corps, avoided the punishing headaches and consequential nose bleeds, based in their own compound in the South Wall Army.
The Background Count had suddenly and meteorically risen.
Captain Julie-Ann Denan shook the disorientation from her head “Where were the Wards” she bellowed, getting no intelligent response.
“LOOK ALIVE PEOPLE” Denan roared, the military mage and soldiers clicked into basic training.
Running her finger along the glyphs of her Order ring, she intoned the enchantment
“I call upon Stricture One, the Rose Cross Seal”
An observer looking down upon the entire military compound from astral space would see a huge incomplete pyramid, the all seeing eye floating above it, the symbol made from pure white lines of light.
“Annuit Cœptis” intoned the senior officers.
_____________________________________________________________

The clouds above Lake Michigan turned suddenly black, illuminated only by Thunder Runners lightning tantrums. The Greater Storm Spirit rallied against the NAN Shamans orders to not intervene.
Hurricane force winds ripped across both the physical and Etheric surface of the lake, the Brood Warrior and its attackers were buffeted by the force.
The Shaman had said nothing to the spirit guardian of the CZ regarding the weather.
_____________________________________________________________

The Rapideye Satellite focused according to its updated matrix commands.
The E.M.S (Environmental Monitoring Service) Centre based in Columbus, Ohio had gone on alert, part of FEMA its role was to monitor dramatic environmental changes.
Millions of locusts constituted a dramatic environmental change, as with so many things in the Sixth World they had appeared from nowhere.
“Their course is definitely Chicago” said lead monitoring scientist Stan Luzon.
“Notify FEMA Region V and CZ Central Command” replied Director Levingston.
_____________________________________________________________

The UCAS AF C270s thundered across Indiana, their flight path took them in over the swarm.
Air Force Major Randy Harker checked his instruments, the transports had been fitted during the formation of the CZ, carrying specialised pods, deployed from modified fuselage bays.
Swinging over the black plague each opened its bays, discharging its insecticide payload.
They had finite time, before the flight path took them over population centres.
“Sir” came a voice from ‘Storm 4’, “Yes First Lieutenant” replied Harker.
“We’ve hardly dented it” reported the wing officer
Harker winced over the monstrous drone from several million insect wings.
“Agreed, Indiana Flight Command, this is Flight Lead, mission is a no go, I repeat mission is a no go, please notify CZ Command”
With that Storm Flight turned, each of their shielded engines groaning under the coating of dead insects upon their fuselages.
_____________________________________________________________

Hoodlum Priest looked up from his reading, a storm was coming.
Hoodlum quickly climbed to his feet "Pharaohs heart has hardened," he boomed in his preaching way.
He quickly gathered the ork and trolls children and ushered them to the cellars of the broken down church.

As the plague descended upon the CZ, Hoodlum Priest read the scriptures to his flock and called upon salvation.
_____________________________________________________________

Several of the lower Grade Salish Military Shaman collapsed from exhaustion, unconsciousness from drain pushing them to forced slumber.
Colonel Tiowokee wiped the sweat and blood from his hands, he felt the Ritual spell escape into the spirit world, aiming for its target.
Thunder Runner had hit the Brood Warrior with a blizzard, which had stalled its advance upon the awaiting ships.
The guardian spirits immediately departed speeding away from the battle as fast as astrally possibl.
The ritual broke around the Warrior its immense wasp form, struggling as a storm of mana static erupted around it, at the same time bands of magical force enshrouded the monster bearing it down into the icy depths of Michigan.
_____________________________________________________________

The plague of locusts tore through the skies of the CZ, Thunder Runner liberally coated the zone in snow and ice as it hit the attack with blizzards and winds, but even he couldn’t stop 30 million insects.
The locusts descended upon Lincoln Park, smothering the area around the ‘Ardure’ Tree, devouring anything in their path, fortunately they had managed to evacuate the majority of the elven families leaving only the young trees guardians, guardians who impotently fell beneath the onslaught.

T’iress staggered beneath the weight of the assault, his shields and wards straining against the sheer physical biological weight.
He hadn’t much time, even his power didn’t fully encapsulate the tree, he could feel its pain as the plague chewed into its limbs, its branches, its lifeforce.
The ‘Ardure’ wouldn’t survive for long, in anger he unleashed powerful destructive magic’s cutting a swathe through the swarm.

Bloodied rents appeared in his arms and chest as he committed himself to his course of action, opening his magical forces, his soul, his godhead, irrevocably draining the power from the Chalice.
Turning he faced the ‘Ardure’ bitter tears running down his cheeks, as the two of them fell to the onslaught.

[arcanus]

The Brood Warrior surfaced, the immense astral storm ritual once again closed around it, the warrior suffocated materialized.

<NOW, young one> said Tiowokee, the Salish Warrior stood upon the shore of Michigan, raising the tribal lance aloft he focused and threw true.
The Lance struck the Warrior midrift, piercing its carapace, in itself the wound was insignificant but enough to spiritually stun the Invae.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lock & Load" came the order, to the Firewatch Special Ordinance team aboard the Ares Destroyer Avalon.
The Coil bombard was an extremely hi-tech version of an old cannon design, targeting the now visible spirit the Firewatch gunner drew his lock and fired.

The Coil-gun discharged several thousand shards of razor sharp metal, ordinarily this massively destructive weapon would have had little effect upon the spirit, upon this occasion however its blew a hole the size of a troll through it.
The fact that the shards were heavily magically radicalized, seemed to have some bearing upon the proceedings.

Admiral Baxter watched solemnly as the huge wasp disrupted, the collective naval taskforce crews breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Captain Zibralski please place an immediate request to DARPA to purchase several of those Coil Guns from Ares Arms!"

[arcanus]

A wave of palatable dispair radiated from Lincoln Park, saddly it renewed the ingrained sense of misery and dispair that existed as a part of the CZ residents daily lives.

A wellspring of hope had existed in Lincoln Park, one that was now dead.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At 13.12, the weather patterns of the CZ worsed, two Arctic Spirits descended upon the park and flash froze the area of settlement, emtombing the millions of gorged locusts in frost and ice.

A 15.30 6 UCAS Naval hovercraft slid up the shoreline of Lincoln Park. UCAS Northrup Hornets slid over the treeline, covering the marines as they disembarked, the spirits stood guard.
The forces wary of encounters with either residents or bug spirits worked with due haste, deploying a strip and burn tactic, flamethrowing the locusts, considering the threat they posed to Midwest Agriculture this was top priority.

The marines ignored the frozen forms of the elves, who had died of suffocation by the swarm.
The marine colonel stopped by one of the corpses, noting how unlike the others he had no signs of suffocation or having been fed upon.
As soon as the operation was complete, the marines retreated leaving the dead where they lay.

[arcanus]

The Firewatch Mage took in the crop circle, she could sense the coiled power of the Serpent Mound beneath the soil.
Thousands upon thousands of flies and wasps raged around the team, its significant magical barriers rendering their primal rage mute, however the drone was invasive.

The telepathic confirmation reached her, the other 3 mage were ready. Connected by their Array Metamagic, they pooled their spellcasting and released, the spell exploded out in every direction, its inner nature and crafting entirely geared to the termination of insects.

She closed her eyes as the white flash went off, hearing a sound not unlike hailstones as millions of Aculeata and Diptera fell all around them.
She looked at the farmhand they had pulled from the wreckage of his tractor, miraculous that he had survived.

The spell would play havoc with the local eco-system but what choice did they have, filtering the spell residue and the hazy patterns left within the astral by the swarm, she pinpointed the start, the source.
'Yes the summoning had definately started here'.

[arcanus]

"I don't like spooks" stated General Karl Henderson
The man who stood in his ready Room was muscular enough to have be a pro-wrestler, clad completely in black, slightly too naturally perfect chiselled features his dark brown hair slicked back, his eyes hidden behind a pair of studentish round rimmed glasses.

"Never the less general, we are a nessessary evil" replied Agent X.
"Ares have concluded that the swarm was intentionally summoned, then directed at Lincoln Park" continued the agent.
Henderson merely stared at the agent
"Ares have already briefed me on that revelation".

"What they may not have told you is that this activity may have been a diversion, bug activity within the CZ jumped some 300%, calculated attacks on specific targets"

"So this is more of this Swarming shit, that Eckhart talked about" muttered Henderson "What does it mean, Agent?"

"As far as we can surmise, the bugs are making their move"