Welcome to Gaia! ::

SETTING:
Post-Apocalyptic Earth, United States.

BACKGROUND:
The 3rd World War has started...but it isn't man against man, nation against nation. Artificial Intellegence. They were tied into the worlds' main computer...and decided in an instant that we've become the virus they have to purge in order for survival.

Nukes were launched, and the world was set ablaze in a holocaust of wind and flame. Major cities and locations all over the world stand as a testament to the possible annihilation of man.

Three days later, a black mist could be seen clouding the sky, originating from the cities that had been razed to the ground and quickly spreading out on the wind. Those that were not immediately affected by the blast seemed to seize up, blood pouring from their eyes and mouths, and die. Not everyone, however was affected. A little less than one percent of the population has not suffered any effects - at least the most obvious ones - from the mist, and those people are called the "Immune".

A few weeks later, the second wave of aftereffects hits. Those unwary or unlucky Immune who have been exposed to radiation undergo changes, but it's not the radiation sickness physicians and scientists are familiar with. Flu-like symptoms appear and hair begins to fall out, but in addition rumors begin to spread across the radio network of disturbing physical or structural changes as well as behavioral abnormalities. The "monster reports" are uneasily laughed off at first as drunkards or druggies having a little fun, but then the bodies start popping up. Not decomposing mist victims, but fresh corpses torn to shreds...and missing a lot of pieces. The unknown murderers are called the "Shredders".

A handful of survivors are all that are left to defeat the enemy and ensure humanity's continuation. Will you be one of them?


"We've spent several months in an underground shelter. The overlook we have from the mountains shows a devastated city. The blast occurred in the heart of the city, and your location puts you just on the outskirts.

Billions of people dead, all in a second.

What will you do? How will you survive?

Your Objectives should be:
- Find more survivors
- Gather supplies
- Find out the source of the machines
- Destroy their neural network

Beyond that.. the rest is luck... and trust me, you'll need it." says a ragged voice on the radio. The man has been sending broadcasts for the last few months from a remote location somewhere in the mountains. He claims to know how the machines were able to destroy so much so fast, but it all seems so surreal to your ears.

You (and several others) were lucky enough to be where you were when the missiles went off. A few days later, some died from something you couldn't explain. A few weeks later, more people disappeared or have been murdered from something you fear to understand. You remain. What happens now is up to you.

Your character must be someone you could read about in the newspaper (not a tabloid) today. Tele-powers (-kinesis, -pathy) to a non-godly degree are fine, but no animal hybrids or mythological beings. Remember: sci-fi, not fantasy.

With the exception of the antagonists in this roleplay the technology and science available to your character is modern day Earth. No time-travel machines or ray guns.

Every major city has been nuked and has become a gathering spot for the Shredders. The enemy keeps most of the electricity running with robots repairing and maintaining nuclear and solar plants, but fuel and food are in ever-decreasing supply. The cities are ruins of rubble and the un-bombed areas are quickly falling into disrepair.

She frowned, switching her gaze back and forth between the phone book that she'd ripped away from the pay phone outside the 7-Eleven that she was currently encamped in and her much marked-up Thomas Guide Books Street Guide to California. There was a little red circle that she was intent on turning into a little red circle with an x through it, but darned if she could find the place.

"Ugh...so if a woman leaves Villa Park at like no miles per hour and gets lost, how soon will she find Turner's Outdoorsman? The answer is neh-var," she muttered disgustedly to herself, licking cheese dust from her fingers before running a finger down the map. "I'm on North Tustin. I can see East Grove." There was a long squint and nose-crinkle before she exclaimed in mixed joy and exasperation.

"Wrong way!" She rotated the map one quarter turn and then glanced outside the doors once more to make sure she was facing the proper direction. Getting around had been so much easier when the buses were running and you could MapQuest your way around. She kept wanting to dial 411 or Google something and then wanting to shoot something before she sat down to figure out how to do things the Stone Age way.

Satisfied that she now knew where to go, the brunette snugged one ear bud back in place and turned up the volume on her Shuffle, then hopped off the countertop and began rummaging through the overturned shelves for more intact bags of bright orange junk food to add to her duffel. She already had water bottles and some jerky and nut-bars, but those would be saved for when she needed to eat. Right now, she just wanted to munch.

Roughly three hundred million people dead in the United States alone and the death toll would rise as the months dragged on, but she didn't know the full story and besides, there was still plenty of processed cheese to be had. She found some Cheetos and broke happily into song.

"That you'd be up in here looking like you do...you're making staying over here impossible...Baby I must say your aura is incredible...if you don't have to go, don't..."

She was a carefree kind of soul.

Her duffel stuffed with a re-supply of food and drink, the young woman slung the heavy bag over one shoulder, grabbed her map book and then walked outside to squint down the road. Not half a block to the south and just across the street was Turner's.

"Lame. Extremely lame," she commented dryly to herself as she thought of the hour she'd wasted wandering around the Village. She dashed across the street after looking around quickly - though not out of any sense of traffic safety, since that had become moot weeks and weeks ago - and approached the door which was lying on the walkway in pieces.

Even with most of the population gone, there had been enough Immune left to ensure that everything in the area had been at least cursorily looted. Even places like Maudelaine's Antique Dollhouse Supply had been broken into. Grocery stores and hardware supply stores had been hit like a wheat field on the opening day of Locust Plague Month. However, the mad rushes had been sloppy as well as violent and she knew that she could still scrap up plenty of goods if she just searched the messes methodically.

Stepping around the overturned clothing racks and making her way to the center of the cracked and crumbling building, she scanned the floor around her to try and pinpoint where the hunting goods had been. The displays were long gone of course, but when she turned back to look toward the front door and saw a series of wooden racks and a pegboard with a few straps still hanging forlornly from some metal hooks, she grinned in recognition.

"Ah-ha!" And then immediately afterwards,

"WHOA-crap!"

The smile fell off her face suddenly and her eyes popped as someone suddenly jumped up from behind the gun counter. Something, she mentally amended as she dropped her duffel and tore at the opening. The mottled, misshapen form matched her anxious shouts with a guttural, gurgling roar and then leaped over the counter and began barreling its way toward her.

"Oh come ON!" the girl cried as she dumped a shower of Nacho Cheese Corn Nuts and other assorted goodies onto the floor without catching sight of her pistol. With a frustrated growl she bolted for the nearest aisle and rabbited her way around a few end-caps before stopping to listen, trying not to breathe too loudly. She could pinpoint the disturbing man-thing's progress through the store easily as it snarled every time it bumped up against anything, which was often. b*****d was freakishly fast looking but apparently clumsy.

"Ooohkay, now what now what," she mouthed to herself, looking around and patting her fingertips together nervously. She spied some hunting knives scattered on the ground near her and grabbed one, but although they looked downright vicious she realized as she closed her hand around the hilt that she really didn't want to get close enough to the guy to be able to use the thing. Poke his eyes with a fishing pole? No. Garrote him with fishing line? No. Beat him silly with a camouflage pattern pup tent? No. Throw this Coleman lantern at him? No.

She nervously skittered down some more aisles, trying to keep as much distance between the grunting-smashing-snorting and herself, which was becoming increasingly difficult as she ran out of aisles. Crouched down and walking as quickly as she could down the last row while she scanned the fallen shelves for something she could use, she winced as her boots came down on a bunch of broken glass with a loud crunch. She froze, listening, and then screamed and bolted as her pursuer suddenly jumped up on top of the shelving next to her and roared.

She ran through the shattered remains of glass display cases for a few steps and then a heavy blow knocked her down onto the floor. Rolling in the shards and rubble, she avoided being pinned by the barest margin and scrabbled away backwards on her butt. A discolored hand that seemed all nails and knuckles grabbed one of her ankles and she kicked desperately with her free foot, smashing and scraping the fingers that clutched at her and throwing whatever she could get her hands on at the face that was giving her waking nightmares.

OhmyGod OHMYGOD whatisthat whatISthat WHAT IS THAT THING?!

She managed to kick the grabby-hands into mangled messes and then delivered a coupe de grace to the hideous face while lunging backwards a few more inches. Hauling herself upright on a free-standing shelving unit, she then pushed it over onto her attacker in a burst of frantic energy and bolted for her duffel.

It was there. She knew it was. It had to be, and she was going to find it or she was SCREWED. Diving with both hands into the recesses of her crumpled bag, she experienced an almost religious joy as her fingers wrapped around the familiar, cold polymer grip. Her hands felt slick with sweat but she gripped the pistol tightly and whirled around on one knee as she heard the commotion of a shelving unit being flung away.

High on adrenaline and shocked out of her gourd she might be, but there was always this one part of her mind that anti-socially kept itself apart from all the other components of her brain and reserved itself for cool, calm, deliberate destruction. Her heart hammered in her ears but she automatically let out a slow breath as she whirled, narrowed her eyes slightly and squeezed the trigger rhythmically.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click click click...

That's right; she had been nearly out and her clip had had only seven rounds left in it. Her thumb was releasing the empty clip even as she realized that she didn't have a spare, and she caught the clip in her other hand as it fell and shoved it back in. Breathing hard once more as she slid out of shooting mode, she shakily got all the way to her feet and stared at the mess she'd made. The face was all but gone - a vast improvement to her judgment - and the rest of the body was intact, but it was a disturbing sight just in and of itself. She just stared and stared, wondering if nuclear radiation could really do all this to a human body.

A small noise caught her attention and she hurriedly turned. Another one?! The store seemed empty, however, and she strained her ears. Plip plop. Plip. Plip-plip. It sounded like water, but the sky hadn't been cloudy, and besides, the drops sounded close. She looked down and realized that instead of sweaty palms, what she had were bloody palms.

And multiple lacerations. And glass sticking out of her arms, hey.

"Oh crap." Suddenly, she was in a LOT of pain.

Pushing his chopper out of the dilapidated hanger, he looked around the area. He could remember seeing this taxiway when he was younger. How long had it been? Three, four years ago? He figured longer than that.. but time was a haze to him lately. Days didn't have much more importance than survive and see tomorrow.

He pulled out a pair of goggles, placing them over his eyes and snapping the back into place over the top of his head. Sitting on his bike, he took his usual position. The leather felt worn, and aged against him. Kick starting the motor, he took off down the stretch of taxiway, heading towards the highway.

Had he been driving a normal vehicle, it probably be a bit more difficult to maneuver around the now upturned and hazardous road. He took off, passing a charred sign with the words [SPEED LIMIT: 45] written on its warped and broken remains.

Like anyone's gonna give me a ticket, he thought to himself. He traveled past the remains of several shopping districts, all dilapidated from the shock waves of major blasts. Maybe I'll check them out later, he mused himself. There was not much to occupy his time, save for practice techniques his father and instructors taught him, clean weapons, and exercise when not helping Dr Jonas out.

A School, he said as he passed through the 'burbs. He remembered something about one being built a while back, but never attended it himself. He could swear he heard cries coming from the housing developments, but knew better than to investigate. HE almost lost his arm to a mangled freak investigating a suburb home. He ended up finding nothing more than it, and the rotting corpses of a few people. He ended up burying them in their own backyard.

Moving down further, he came into a problem. Skidding to a halt, he noted the overpass had finally crumbled. "Their supports must have given away..." he muttered audibly. Turning around, he peeled rubber down the same way he came, quickly hooking a left into what used to be Highway 261.

Spotting a large chunk of concrete missing from the median, he crossed over and headed back up the off ramp. Edward sped down the road further, meeting obstacles here and there, but eventually made his way down the road. Looking at his gas tank, he could tell he would need to find some source of fuel after his excursion into the hospital.

"s**t..." he said, pulling a hard right. He almost missed the turn to the hospital, swerving twice to avoid a burned out ambulance and what looked like an overturned, and slightly crushed, Ford sedan.

He wiped the sweat off his brow, and traveled down the road a bit further. He knew better than to leave his bike in the open, but couldn't find a place to stash his bike where he could get to it easily. He killed the engine, letting it coast for about thirty feet before pulling it up against the remains of a very burned out building. Pulling some scraps of metal and broken building materials that had drifted into the parking lot, he hid his bike the best he could.

"Now.. to figure out where the hell I'm going in here." he said with a huff as he looked at the center. It wasn't tall, but there were probably alot of sections to cover, and not alot of time to do it in.

Dark and dingy was the entrance to the ER. Glass fragments littered the floor, and embedded into scorched walls. The bones of a mass of unlucky individuals lay scattered around the room, some huddled against walls, one skeleton still sitting in a almost non-existent metal chair. Edward watched his steps, pulling the combat knife out of its sheath underneath his jacket. Peering around several corners as he came to them, he made his way to a dusty panel on the wall, the label [DIRECTORY] barely legible.

Brushing off some dust, he stood there for a moment in the semi-darkness. Reading a few of the current floors areas, he took a mental note where he thought each of the items he was looking for might be at.

Handy things like sterile stitch kits seemed more likely to be in the Emergency Room than Nuclear Medicine or the gift shop, so she circled around the outside until she found the remains of an ambulance crouched rustily near the ER entrance. Dismounting with a wince, she left her mountain bike leaning against the wrecked and ruined vehicle, stuffed her pockets with spare clips and then slung her duffel back onto her shoulder before cautiously approaching the doors. Or rather the doorway. The doors themselves were scattered all over the place.

As she entered the shadow of the building, she stopped just outside the doorway and squinted, not wanting to enter until she'd gotten adjusted to the dimmer light. Nearly getting one's butt chewed off by a freak was apt to make one cautious for at least a little while. The squint deepened into an all-out frown as she thought she heard something.

There was already a round chambered in the Glock and she had a questionable habit of never safetying her weapons, so she simply pulled it out of her waistband and held it at her side while slowly stepping into the waiting area. Her body moved with deliberate slowness but her eyes darted back and forth around her, checking each corpse in the room for any sudden movements and trying to see into all the corners and shadows immediately about her. She couldn't quite figure out where all that banging was coming from, but it didn't really give her a sense of being some psycho mutant knocking crap over as it rampaged around in the dark.

Optimistic and sometimes a little bit stupid, she gave one more glance around and said hesitantly,

"Hello?"