SavageRifts.com

The Journey Thus Far
After some tricky flying Lily and the other manage to get the ship into the KENMARK Facility in Upstate New York Makes is positively vibrating when he sees the ship and the new alien companion. He nearly has to be restrained from examining everything on the spot.

"I need to know everything, walk me through your trip to Mexico but also what you remember from the war...this new information might make you see past events in a different light."

John waits a moment, but it seems no one wants to begin. Well it WAS that kind of outing.

He steps up and says, "Mission Summary begins: Gathered information suggested heavy defenses, therefore MARDUK unit utilized stealth system to get inside defensive perimeter. Previously unknown unit began attack. Utilizing this distraction, external defenses were quickly neutralized. It was decided to allow unknown unit to join assault as it appeared to have compatible goals. MARDUK unit suffered logic failure, reaching a decision on what kind of opposition to expect it chose to utilize KENMARK energy resistant armor rather than heavy armor for the next phase of the mission. MARDUK suffered severe damage to integrity fighting units designated Juicers who were employing physical heavy melee weapons, but was able to continue. Area suffered structural collapse, and it was decided to proceed even though lines of retreat would not be available. Entering next area, MARDUK unit suffered critical damage to power supply, immediate repairs were required to prevent total system failure, enabled scavenger mode. Repairs required significant changes in functionality, unit no longer fit previous designation and chose new designation as MARC 2 based on available functions. Unit rejoined mission. MARC 2 unit utilized interface to gain information, learning that sire had been used to perform hybridization experiments. Unit determined enemy forces were preparing to cover a retreat via release of captive hybrid creature, unit further determined hybrid creature had a vulnerability to extremes of low temperature and suggested a strategy to take advantage of this fact. Scientific units assigned to facility were convinced to aid our final escape, which was able to be completed with relative ease after this point using an alien craft of unspecified origin. End mission summary."

He considers what to say about his previous missions during the war, but decides this is not the optimal time for a report that long, "Review of MARDUK unit history will be forthcoming after other units finish mission review."

Upstate New York/Kenmark Facility
Afternoon
Round 0

Delilah was still distracted, still thinking about seeing Horatio again. When Marc2 finished his report she shook off her reverie.

“It was a drug cartel airfield. We saw the drug lord and his men and engaged them. But it was also cover for an AEGIS facility as we’d suspected. The hidden science lab had this alien craft, and we ran into Lily here, whom the ship belongs to, also trying to retrieve it. Horatio was there, too,” she said, taking a breath to steady herself. “He and the cartel lord ran off while we fought some enhanced humans. Apparently they have revived the Juicer program. They were also experimenting with genetic splicing and had created some kind of...godzilla monster by splicing Serpah DNA with terrestrial. We killed it with cold, but it was touch and go. We used the alien craft to escape, thanks “

Delilah couldn’t believe Horatio was working with the aliens! Couldn’t believe he had revived the Juicer program. He knew how dangerous and unstable the formula was! Those men wouldn’t have lived much longer. The failure of that project had led Delilah to try the nanotech route which had given her her own powers. She remembered that night, working late. The Serpah had discovered the lab somehow. Now that they knew the government was working with the aliens, she wondered if someone had passed that intelligence on to them. Had Horatio? But he couldn’t have known she was working, could he? How long had this been going on?

"Annnnd that brings us to me," Lily said uncomfortably. After so long hiding, it felt really awkward to just come clean. "Hi."

"I've been going by Lily Coleman, but my real name is Kalilia. Uh, Lily's fine though, I actually like it. I'm from another planet. My world's called Dalaraan, and we've been at war with the Sarpah for quite some time now. We found out they had plans to invade and 'harvest' Earth, so we sent a ship here hoping to secure an alliance with you." She sighs. "But the Sarpah moved faster than we expected. By the time our ship arrived, their fleed was already in-system. We took damage, and I was ordered to abandon ship. I'm not sure if any of the rest of us made it off."

"That's what brought me to Mexico. I'd detected a Dalaraan signal and was tracking it down. I'm guessing the Earth researchers managed to power the escape craft up, and it automatically broadcast it's locator beacon. I'd hoped it might be from another crewmember."

"Anyway, the rest you've pretty much heard. There was an underground facility, they were creating hybrid monsters...all of that. I had no idea the Sarpah had infiltrated AEGIS, but I will say that I was always very suspicious that they'd withdrawn the way they seemed to. It's not in keeping with their usual military doctrine."

With that, Lily took a deep breath and shrugged. "So. My mission here's still the same. The Sarpah haven't left the Earth, they just changed tactics. Of course, communicating an alliance back to Dalaraan at this point and requesting reinforcements will be, uh...tricky...but I'm sure we can figure something out."

"There are a few disturbing things I feel we should note. First off, we did not encounter any actual Sarpah. I'm afraid that, while we can use the captured scientists to gain intelligence, we still lack hard evidence of AEGIS working with the aliens. Secondly, that creature we battled--it's mutations meant that it was outside my influence. Such beasts would be a blight upon the planet, but they may also not be vulnerable to the bio-agents I carry against extraterrestrials--a 'worst of both worlds' scenario, very literally."

He takes a deep breath. "Which brings me to my last, and arguably greatest personal concern. You see, this is not the first time I have encountered such a thing...."

*************

The war was not going well. The initial arrival of the ARES heroes had made an impact, yes, but the Sarpah had a huge lead in terms of position. They had also demonstrated a level of ruthless cruelty that crossed the border into sadism--in one infamous clash in Germany, the Sarpah had actually strapped human children to the outsides of their ground vehicles before rolling in. They didn't even announce this fact--they simply waited for the Earthlings to discover the grisly remains after the first exchanges--five children slain by ARES heroes before anyone realized there was even a possibility of such a thing happening....

Such brutality was not unknown to humanity, of course--while possibly more literal use of 'human shields' than usual, many could still recall the days when it was common tactics for terrorists to house weapons in hospitals and orphanages.

Among the enhanced humans employed by ARES, revulsion induced by these tactics instilled a determination to not descend into similar heartlessness. The heroes told one another that they would be exemplars, the best Earth had to offer. They would accept honorable surrenders, protect civilian lives to the best of their ability, and never endanger innocents just to gain a battlefield advantage.

Sadly, it turned out that their masters lacked such high ideals.

It was a research facility in the Swiss Alps. The Sarpah had managed to cut off ground support via aerial bombardments--this was still before the heroes had managed to neutralize their floating fortresses--and thus were holding the mountain-fortress in a state of siege. ARES High Command decided that the scientists in the facility needed to be brought out, so a team of heroes was assembled to rescue them.

Most of the heroes were aboard Mecha-Mole's Big Bore, slowly making their way to the facility from underneath, but as Gothm could pass through the Mother's Bones more swiftly, he went on ahead to prepare the scientists for extraction, and to tell them to gather their research data.

But upon emerging, he discovered an abomination. The scientists were cross-breeding animals native to Earth with Sarpah DNA, creating horrific beasts, many of them tortured by their condition. The head of the research project, a cold, calculating man named Allessandro Acerbi, who seemed unable to perceive Gothm's revulsion at the horror show, explained that he would release the creatures once all the scientists were aboard the rescue-craft, to harry the besieging Sarpah. He declared in icy tones that this was necessary to show the 'alien threat' that the Earth would never be theirs. He also boasted that the creatures were capable of breeding in the wild.



*************

Gothm shakes his head. "As it turned out, the operation was a failure. Apparently the Sarpah had been bringing in their own version of 'bunker buster' ordinance; almost as soon as this plan was laid out to me, they began bombardment in earnest. Dr. Acerbi attempted to release the monsters in retaliation, but... well, oddly enough, a tremor--most likely the effect of the bombardment--caused an avalanche to cover the bay doors in snow and rocks. The entire lab collapsed around me under the impacts, and I barely escaped through the Bones of the Mother with my own life. I'd heard that there were no survivors, and that the lab was completely destroyed, but it would seem I was... misinformed. Perhaps even then, the Earth's High Command was beginning to feel concerns about my willingness to just follow orders."

Something very unpleasant was starting to dawn on Lily. She wasn't sure how to articulate it...and there was no real 'evidence,' anyway. It was just a hunch. The Sarpah invasion of Earth was wrong. There was no realistic way Earth should ever have been able to hold out as long as they did, even with ARES individuals. And where had those individuals come from? It had been bothering Lily for a long time, really, but at a sort of low level, back-of-the-mind level.

The Sarpah could bring much larger fleets than they'd brought. They could have been far more aggressive in their use of orbital assets, given their uncontested control of space. They could have sat in their capital ships and bombarded cities until humanity had no choice to but to surrender simply to avoid catastrophic losses.

Instead they'd pushed and provoked. They'd given humans chances to fight. To develop defenses. To...use technology and techniques to create 'super beings.' And then they'd...given up and left?

A chill ran down Lily's back.

"Harvest," she whispered.

Marc 2, when it comes time for the report about previous missions, begins, "MARDUK was activated during the invasion when a raid took place on the unit's point of construction. Using the heavy defense ranged attack loadout with the flight and sensor units, MARDUK fought off the alien thrust and retrieved other components to a safer location. MARDUK was swiftly contacted for service, being assigned for a variety of missions including primarily recon and information gathering, with occasional combat missions to offset major alien thrusts."

(Whose Path have you crossed? #1)
I have in mind describing a mission here involving scouting a alien encampment, other players would probably be welcome as an attack force. If any player is interested.

(Whose Path have you crossed? #2)
This should be someone Else's mission as primary where MARDUK was assigned as support but played a major roll.

"That was the scariest thing I have ever done. Well to say the whole thing was scary would be a bit of an understatement. I had no idea combat and war was like this. Unfortunately most of my time was in hiding and skulking. The blood and guts and bullets well they really shook me up. I did help though I got into their minds found some information about the situation. It did seem mostly Ares run. Most people are compartmentalized. Each person seemed to only know what they needed for their jobs. How do you guys handle these situations? I mean that's the most scared I have ever been. It was a bit relaxing knowing some of the ones whose minds I took over were just as scared. I think our best next course is to find someone higher up the food chain. Maybe see what they know. Is there like something better to save my skin or protect me because if Gothm didn't make snow I could move around and turn into a giant ice spear I think it would have eaten me alive." Shaking at the thought of the situation Bradley stands up and begins pacing the room. Man I am rambling. Have I said to much I should just shut up and see what they say. I mean this beats prison right. Hopefully the next mission doesn't get me shot at.

Hearing the various reports Kenneth Marks looks troubled. Especially by Lily's theory of a harvest.

"This is all very disturbing, both historically and in the here and now. We have some evidence that alien interlopers are at work influencing the organs of government and that AEGIS is still running war time experiments on people and animals. What I can't figure is how all this fits together."

He looks a Lily, "If our new alien friend is right, than the original attack seems more like a surgical strike than an invasion. Destroy centres of government and draw the more powerful human types into the open. Then infiltrate the government and hunt down those powerful beings for experimentation. Was the earth a target? or just collateral damage in finding and studying super beings?"

Sighing, Marks makes a few notes on a tablet. "I'm going to create an algorithm that re-reads the course of the war from different military objects: invasion, annihilation, and other outcomes. It may point us toward a true objective. In the meantime, we need more data. We someone high up the government food chain."

He eyes Delilah for a moment, "You think your husband might know something? You and Summer might be able to get through to him and find out what's going on."

"I think it might be...worse than that," Lily says uncertainly. "This is just a hunch, but one thing I've noticed since I got here was your technology is really abnormal. It's...spiky. Even accounting for local variation in access, you have a relatively consistent technological level, and then out of nowhere, some particular thing that's just much more advanced. I'd just assumed it was the result of creative genius type inventors, working in isolation so their techniques didn't leak out and affect the rest of your sciences, but now..."

"...now I'm wondering if the Sarpah's involvement with Earth doesn't go further back. What if they deliberately offered specific advanced technologies to a few selected governments...or even individuals? Technologies intended to guide human development along a general path they wanted. Then, to catalyze things, they 'invaded' to give human beings a NEED to invent. An apparent life-or-death situation that required rapid, intensely creative evolution."

She looks around. "And now all that's left is to make use of the results."

John considers Lily's suggestion, not liking it very much, but does have a thought about how to check, "Prewar archives record a number of encounters with what is called UFO's. Many have suggested previous contacts dating back centuries or longer. One could, potentially, run a check for correspondence between such sightings and sudden technological leaps. It would not confirm, but could suggest whether such a correlation has a high or low probability."

Upstate New York/Kenmark Facility
Afternoon
Round 0

Delilah worried her lip at Marks’ suggestion. “I don’t know. I could try,” she said. “I would really like to leave Summer out of it, though.”

“No,” came Summer’s voice. “I want to help.” The young teen entered the room in jeans and a cute top. “And I want to talk to Daddy.”

Delilah sighed. “Okay,” she finally said.

Summer gave Bradley a smile and walked over to him. “Hey,” she said, lowering her eyes. Her hand brushed his momentarily as she stood beside him. “Glad you’re okay.”