NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC This RP is now open for business! Please participate, the narrative part is pretty much over now, and the RPing should be starting. Read my post here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2748557#2748557) for additional background information.
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>-->--> SkyCity Scientific Journal Issue 698 / 3-7-495NRD (Ninjao Regional Date)
Korae, Field Correspondant
THE CITADEL, Ninjao Common Territory --- Underneath this massive, modern structure, sitting inert for thousands of years, undiscovered, lies a relic from our past. It was just another routine underground survey, when Airo, a geological specialist from the PIAI, came across a very unusual discovery.
"I was running another routine density scan of the area underneath Mt. Euma here, and found a cave. A very large cave. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, seeing as how it's so far down, but there's a very peculiar structure in that cave." Airo commented on his discovery. Another specialist, Dr. Ijen, from the University of Euma here in the Citadel, has more to comment on the structure.
"Using the density readings taken by Mr. Airo, I was able to construct a 3D model of the structure. I can say with quite a bit of certainty that it is an edifice from the Ancient Era, possibly the Old Citadel, the one this one is designed to mimic. This is an extremely important discovery, seeing as how it is, literally, the only artifiact ever discovered from the Ancient Era."
For those reading this outside of Ninjao, the only data we have on the Anicent Era is from stories written by the Nova Island refugees. It is quite peculiar that no artificats were found, but it is generally accepted that they are just too far underground for us to locate.
A scientific "field trip" is scheduled for tomarrow. Dr. Ijen will personally be going, and we will be covering the progress made as it happens.

The military sections of the citadel were much less inviting and much more spartan than the rest of the complex. The hallways were narrow and polygonal, rooms were small and windowless, but the food was good. N-77462, a nameless ninja whose only moniker was his identification number, sat in the Citadel's many galleys stuffing a sandwich into his mouth. The communications tablet attached to his belt vibrated and beeped, a sure sign that he was needed somewhere. He got up, glancing at the tablet. A mission! Could they be at war? N had not heard about any hostilities from abroad lately. No, he realized, glancing at the description, a babysitting job. Cart some scientists into a cave, take pictures and make sure they don't eat each other.

[ insert period of time where nothing interesting happens ]

"He's late," Dr. Ijen remarked to one of his colleagues. "these military goons are always late."
Just then, N-77462 showed up. He arrived in a small repulsorcraft, likely launched from the top of the Citadel. The entire party was deep in the crater of dormant Mt. Euma, underneath the dangling Citadel, standing near the geothermal plant that powered the Citadel and catalyzed the many fusion reactors in the science wing. The magma vent nearby was going to be their entrance into the cave, and the military would be providing a craft that could navigate it.
"Hello, hello! How are you folks doing today? Ready to do a little spelunking?" N was falsely jubilant, he really dreaded these types of missions.
"We sure are! I can't wait to find out what's down there!" Dr. Ijen was sincerely jubilant.
A roughly cylindrical vehicle with leg-like appendages along its outside crawled out of the magma vent. Four green-armored NODC military grunts could be seen through the thick windows of the cockpit. This would be the transport. One grunt came out through the now-open hatch.
"Hey guys, I brought your ride! Ain't she a beut? This here is a 448NRD Model Lavaspider. Only five in the entire world!" The NODC fellow spoke through the speakers in his helmet.
"Wow! I didn't know they even had these! Why did they make these, anyway?" Dr. Ijen commented on the lack of obvious applications for such a vehicle.
"I'm not sure, but that's probably why they only made five. Anyway, it can go through molten rock like nothing, and is incredibly convenient for this little expedition, so I'm not complaining. Everybody hop in, and enjoy the ride!"

The trip through the magma vent was quite uneventful, Journey to the Center of the Earth this is not. The craft eventually reached the target depth, and located the entrance to the cavern. It surfaced in the small "lava pond" in the cave, letting the party off. The structure was immediately evident, a large, metallic, windowed building set into the rock surrounding it.

"Shall we venture inside?" N-77462 smiled at Dr. Ijen, wanting the mission to end as soon as possible. Even he admitted, though, that the cave was very cool. Locating an entrance, the party ventured inside the edifice, except for one NODC, who was standing guard over the craft.

>-->--> SkyCity Scientific Journal Issue 700 / 3-9-495NRD (Ninjao Regional Date)
Korae, Field Correspondant
THE CITADEL, Ninjao Common Territory --- Shortly after the scientific expedition reached the cave yesterday, monitoring crews in the Citadel lost contact with the vehicle and were unable to account for the tracking devices attached to each crew member. After a tense 12-hour period without contact, at least one crewman made it out of the cave to SkyCity, where he met with the Shogunate of Ninjao. It is unknown who the crew member is, or the status of the rest of the crew. It is also unknown how or when he or she got to SkyCity.

The Palladiate, Shogun of P4lladia, has declined to comment on the situation, other than the fact that there is an anomaly of some sort in the cave and scientific teams are working around the clock to ensure that it will not be a danger to the population of Ninjao. The Shogunate has, however, raised Ninjaon defenses to Tangerine Alert, and as such as raised the LWECS standby power level and has prepared the military for possible mobilization. More as the story progresses.
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(Below this is private to world leaders, the media does not have access to it)
Ladies and gentlemen of the International Community, I would like to address you in regards to the Class-12 Spacial Anomaly that one of our scientific expeditions discovered yesterday in a cave under Mt. Euma, in Central-Eastern Ninjao. The object is a Calabi-Yau manifold that has warped space in 6 dimensions in the cave. This was very hazardous for the expedition, some members of which got lost in it and we have yet to hear back from them. Moreover, however, is the fact that the manifold exists within the confines of an ancient structure in said cave. We believe this to be an important, possibly religious structure or fortification from the Ancient Era of Ninjao. What we know for sure will shock and astound you, but it comes from the mouth of my most trusted Special Operations agent, N-77462, or "Omicron" as we higher-ups like to call him. Omicron has told me that himself and the NODC escort accompanying him stumbled upon a wormhole in the center of the manifold. With no alternatives, his team (all scientists were either lost or confirmed dead at this point) entered the universe and found themselves in a pleasent land with rolling hills and green valleys. We believe that this land is Ancient Ninjao, with 2700 years to develop technologically, existing in a three-dimensional brane in hyperspace. Extrapolating from ancient texts passed down through the generations, our historians have deduced that the Ninjaons of the time teleported their land into hyperspace to prevent its destruction. This would be fantastic news, however, Omicron told of horrific things, horrible atrocities occuring in this "Meta-Ninjao".

From what he has told me, I have been able to deduce a few things. First, is that Emperor Ninjao, the very same one from 2700 years ago, is alive and well and features godlike powers over energy and spacial manipulation. He has been driven insane from past events, most likely the Euma Eruption, and has enslaved the entire population of Meta-Ninjao. That's probably over a billion people, we don't know for certain. They are packed densely into massive, floating metal spheres, hovering over the deserted ruins of once glorious cities of glass and steel. The people are not only helplessly trapped in a floating ball, but their minds are held captive by the Emperor. We can not help these people, as they have ceased being people. Their minds are now linked to the Emperor's, giving him his power over spacetime.

Omicron also has informed me of the Emperor's intent to expand into this universe. Having encountered their military, or at least what he thinks qualifies as a military, Omicron is entirely sincere when he told me that no civilization in this galaxy could mount an effective defense against him. Not Ninjao, not the Pacific Islands, not even the great galactic superpowers. As such, to distance ourselves from this humanitarian nightmare, as well as eliminate any possibility for invasion, we must close this wormhole. We predict that it will require one or more trips into Meta-Ninjao. If any nations can assist with closing this wormhole, we would certainly appreciate it. The fate of the world may depend on it.

OOC Summary: Bad guy in an alternate universe. We need more people to help us close a wormhole and go on a couple feild trips into the next universe.

The Holy Libertine Empire of Desudoragon will continue to monitor Ninjaon military channels and provide assistance. What type of forces will you need?

The Holy Libertine Empire of Desudoragon

*Bump*

Rincweed will provide aid if needed. We will need information about your position sent to us to here in Rinceweed, so that we can send in a small amount of aid. Our nation has suffered...an unfortunate event lately, but we have salvaged what we can, and new friends are always useful.

OOC: Yes, i know im one day old, but my previous nation was destroyed when I forgot to put it into vacation mode. Basically, my nation is older than it seems.

Using a computer-generated map of the manifold, we have been able to make several successful trips to, and subsequently through, the wormhole. Obviously not seeing us as much of a threat, our explorers (NODC footsoldier troupes) have all made it back unharmed. We have gathered more information about their universe as a result of the data-gathering missions.
The Metaninjao universe is spherical in shape and consists mostly of the island and some seawater along the edges. We have spotted many vehicles leaving through wormhole-like openings in the sphere wall, which gives us reason to believe that they have posessions and colonies in our universe. Hopefully, these are in deep, deep space, maybe another galaxy, in which case we don't have to worry about that. Omicron's claims have all been confirmed. There are many very large cities in the area, but none are inhabited at all. Millions of people seem to be kept in the spheres (which do not seem to be made of any interesting material, we could blow them up with a simple nuclear missile) floating above the cities. One particularly unsettling detail was pointed out by Jaro, NODC ID #58391286.
...we finally reached the city. It's a strange place. Not strange as in foreign, in fact, it feels more like being back at home in Pyra than in any foreign city on Earth I've been to. Nevertheless, the place was a ghost town. There was nobody there, the city was completely, one-hundred percent empty, but that's not the weirdest part. Everything was right in place, as if nothing ever happened. Carts were on the walkways, no windows were smashed. The place was spotless...no blood, no bodies, no bulletmarks, the steel structures were undamaged. That changed soon enough, though. My party was walking down the main drag, and noticed a large hole in the elevated walkway. The road was collapsed, and a very jagged edge remained where the whole began. We got closer to the crevace, and the smell of death instantly overpowered us. Looking above us, we saw a small port on the bottom of the sphere, which, as luck would have it, opened up right at that moment. A cadaver plummeted from the the giant ball and landed squarely in the hole. We left.

We also have devised a plan that will allow us to close the wormhole. Unfortunately, it involves collapsing their universe, but, if they are paying as much attention to us as they seem to be, that should not be difficult. We must send in a team of engineers to set up the devices, still under construction. We'd like to recruit an international coalition of escort troops in case things get ugly. P4lladia will be sending 200 NODC troops and 6 Palladian Guard units. Let's end this before it gets uglier.

How large is this hole? Could it be possible to fit one of my AH-64S Apache Dragons through?

Yes, theoretically. Unfortunately, the hole is deep underground. We were toying around with the idea of digging a larger tunnel down to the chamber, but decided that it would take too long and be too expensive otherwise. The only method of getting down to the cave is via the magma vent. A vechicle called the 448 Lavaspider is used to move people into volcanic areas, and we only have 5 of them. We've set up a staging camp in the chamber, outside the building and the manifold. We are massing our forces there.

Nevertheless, yes, the wormhole event horizon is quite large and, if you can assemble your vehicles in the cave, many things will fit. The hard part will be navigating something of that size through the manifold.

It is just that all heli-technology from Desudoragon is equipped with special stealth devices that could be useful. I believe that you have access to the plans.

The Holy Libertine Empire of Desudoragon

+FORWARD MESSAGE > > >

Process owner: Palladiate - XNET
Forward: NODCRD > P4 > EXC > DESU1

From: NODC R&D
To: Whoever it may concern in the HLE of Desudoragon

"Stealth is most definitely going to be useful in this mission. If anyone, er, well, if the Emperor, the only person in Metaninjao, figures out what we're doing before we get it all set up, we're cooked. He will certainly decimate our insurrection, and may plan to counter in our universe. This can't happen.

We're sending in several Light Recon vehicles for rapid transport, and a couple personal repulsorcraft. Do you think it would be possible to adapt your stealth technology to the repulsorcraft? If that's possible, we can move in as many more as you want. Large, complex craft like helicopters are going to be a bitch getting to the wormhole - which is huge, but keep in mind that there is a giant skyscraper that we have to go through first, and the folds in the anomaly aren't that big, we could end up losing a chunk of the vehicle.

Ninjaon stealth technology is pretty much limited to white noise generators and active camoflage for the Ninja and Palladian Guard units. Both devices are far too costly and inefficient to give to our entire military. Nevertheless, it makes the PGs a very, very dangerous force. Even though they look like normal NODC soldiers (when the AC is off), they are far more than that."

I believe it would be possible to adapt the technology to any flying/hovering vehicle as well as any ground vehicle. Our engineers were able to install the units into the SH-60 Seahawks for naval missions so with some minor adjustments it should work on your repulsor craft.

Excellent. I'll send detailed plans to your engineers so they can get to work integrating the technology into our power systems.

OOC more people needed! more people! needed!

Bump it up!
Bump it up!

It only works on vehicles at subsonic speeds and is best on hover and rotary vehicles. We have adapted it to your repulsor craft and have sent several systems to your people. The main problem with using the technology is that it uses an energy field to cloak the object. We notice that the distortion in the energy field caused by high speed vehicles has made them somewhat visible. Also, interaction with other objects, such as the ground causes distortion as well. We are researching a vacuum photonic variation in the system that will allow it for use on sonic+ aircraft and spacecraft but it is still in the works.

The HLE of Desudoragon

+FORWARD MESSAGE > > >

Process owner: Palladiate - XNET
Forward: NODCRD > P4 > EXC > DESU1

From: NODC R&D
To: Whoever it may concern in the HLE of Desudoragon

"Thank you very much! The systems were very easy to install thanks to your modifications. Repulsorcraft of this type are not capable of supersonic speeds, so the problems that you described will not be an issue. We have most of the systems installed at the time this message was sent, and we are ready to deploy. We'll move out whenever you're ready."

I am sending a small contigent of special operations forces to assist you. I await your command to begin the operation.

The HLE of Desudoragon

The underground cave, unknown to the world until about a week ago, was now a center of military and scientific activity. The natural glow from the magma vent proved to be insufficient and had been supplemented by large floodlights suspended from the ceiling. Several prefab structures were erected in the cavern, including assembly plants where LRVs and repulsorcraft were being put together from manufactured parts brought from the surface. Hundreds of NODC and and civilian personnel were milling about. Combined with the heat of the magma vent, it made for a very uncomfortable situation.

A 448LS surfaced and let off several passengers. They were Spec-Ops units from Desudoragon, here to help NODC with collapsing the alternate universe.

"Hello, welcome to my underground lair!" A fully suited NODC officer exclaimed to the Spec-Ops that appeared to be in charge. "Who might you be?"

"Sargeant Killanis, reporting. I represent the great nation of Desudoragon and will follow your commands, sir. I do report directly to the Emperor himself so if you need to contact him, do it through me."

The Desudoragon forces prepare for the task ahead of them. They line up near the portal, awaiting the command to go.

LOCATION- Pyra, Seppukon's Office
TIME- 21:33 pm

The Seppukon, Shogun of both Joshu and Seppuko, sat in his office, twirling a pen back and forth between his fingers. He had just come out of a long period of meditation, which for him can last for days at a time. And the first news to meet his ears was grievous news indeed. Yet, he was still perplexed, fascinated even, by the discovery. An NODC commander sat at the other end of the long black table that sat in the middle of the room, with the Seppukon at the head.

"So, we're dealing with the Emperor from 2700 years ago?" he muttered, half to himself.

"The very same. He's imprisoned his people, as you know, and he's planning to invade our universe from his own."

"Dammit. Why does this sort of thing always happen to our universe? Why can't it happen to, say, the next universe? Why this one? Ah, it doesn't matter. All we need to do is close his way here, and so long as the Emperor doesn't interfere, we'll be fine."

"True, sir, but even so, we should be prepared in case the man does decide to retaliate. If he could transport the entirety of ancient Ninjao to a parallel universe, who knows what he could do to us." the NODC replied.

"So you're suggesting we send a large contingent in there? I wouldn't recommend sending a huge fighting force, as it would likely arouse the Emperor's suspicions, draw his attention, however you would like to put it. A small team would be best, as it's nearly unnoticeable."

With this, the Seppukon proceeded to fall asleep due to the late hour, combined with his lack of sleep.

LOCATION- Pyra, Seppukon's Office
TIME- 21:33 pm

The Seppukon, Shogun of both Joshu and Seppuko, sat in his office, twirling a pen back and forth between his fingers. He had just come out of a long period of meditation, which for him can last for days at a time. And the first news to meet his ears was grievous news indeed. Yet, he was still perplexed, fascinated even, by the discovery. An NODC commander sat at the other end of the long black table that sat in the middle of the room, with the Seppukon at the head.

"So, we're dealing with the Emperor from 2700 years ago?" he muttered, half to himself.

"The very same. He's imprisoned his people, as you know, and he's planning to invade our universe from his own."

"Dammit. Why does this sort of thing always happen to our universe? Why can't it happen to, say, the next universe? Why this one? Ah, it doesn't matter. All we need to do is close his way here, and so long as the Emperor doesn't interfere, we'll be fine."

"True, sir, but even so, we should be prepared in case the man does decide to retaliate. If he could transport the entirety of ancient Ninjao to a parallel universe, who knows what he could do to us." the NODC replied.

"So you're suggesting we send a large contingent in there? I wouldn't recommend sending a huge fighting force, as it would likely arouse the Emperor's suspicions, draw his attention, however you would like to put it. A small team would be best, as it's nearly unnoticeable."

With this, the Seppukon proceeded to fall asleep due to the late hour, combined with his lack of sleep.

A lavaspider surfaced in the magma vent, as they often do down in the cavern. Four NODC sergeants emerged from the side hatch, lining up next to it, saluting. Another figure emerged from the hatch, donning a white NODC/ARC Environmental suit (as opposed to the default green) and a hemet shaped like the kind worn by the Samurai, only sealed like the NODC helmets. A full set of swords was at the man's side, as well as the full standard load-out. The P4lladian flag adorned the left breastplate. The visor and lower face-guard of the helmet retracted, revealing the face of the Palladiate.

"Hello, sir. The reinforcements from Desudoragon have just arrived, and we have word from the Seppukon that they will be joining us soon as well." The soldier manning the checkpoint greeted the Shogun.

"Excellent. We should move out immediately, get the repulsorcraft loaded up, and wait for the Joshuan forces as backup. No doubt we'll need them for a safe extraction. I'll be going over strategies with the officers, let us know when we're ready out here." The P4lladian Shogun said.

The Seppukon awoke once again, thankfully with no more bad news to greet him. He donned his carbon-nanotube-augmented armor, grabbing his customized XZC-244 (it was jet-black) and exiting his office. He rode the futuristically-fast elevator all the way to the ground floor of Pyra, and was met by a contingent of both NODC and samurai forces. The group of 120-something men gave a salute to their leader, and after a relatively short motivational jargon-er, speech, they boarded their assigned buses (yes, buses. It's a short trip) and made their way to the aforementioned cave of DEWM. The group entered the cave, finding themselves at the entrance to what could be the last mission of their lives...

OOC: Bum-bum-BUM!

The Emperor of Desudoragon in a conversation with the Leader of P4lladia.

"I understand the nature of this mission. All members of the special operations forces that I sent you volunteered for this mission, despite the high probability that they won't be returning. They are willing to die for the safety of Desudoragon and all of her allies (OOC: I am male but I am giving the country a female gender). I am willing to give $10,000,000 to each of the soldiers in all allied forces on this mission. If they do not return, it goes to their family. If they have no family, then to charity. Keep this part quiet. I don't want people volunteering for the wrong reasons. I figure we could present it as a post-debriefing award or something."

The HLE of Desudoragon

In responce to the Libertine Emperor:

"Wow. That really is very generous of you, and I thank you profusely for offering to do so. I am planning on rewarding the brave soldiers involved, as they too volunteered, though I can't say that anyone asked was sincerely afraid to go. I have to tell you right now, the only reason we're spelunking right now is because we are forced to take action, we can't take this lying down. I don't think that this is goint to work, honestly. We can try, though, try to rid us of this menace. The Emperor is powerful and as close to omnipotent as any human being can approach, we'll be lucky if we can deploy even one device and maybe scare him off."
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In the Command building in the cavern.

"...and so we're going to want to deploy the devices here, here, and here." The Palladiate pointed at several places on a 3D holographic map while talking to an NOCD officer to his left.

"Sir, the reinforcements from Seppuko have arrived." A random soldier entered the room and said to the Palladiate.

"Great, send in whoever's in charge...we're going over the plan."

"Yes, sir."

A few moments later the Shogun Joshu entered. He was wearing a uniform similar to the Palladiate, though obviously with the Flag of Joshu on it.

"...Joshu! How nice of you to join us!" The Palladiate was pleased and amazed at the Shogun's appearence on this mission. "Alright, so this is the plan. We're going to split up in hopes of deploying as many devices as possible. The PGs are going to be staying home, defending the wormhole, we'll need it to get out. Other troops will stay home backing up the PGs. There are 20 devices to deploy, we'll divide up everyone else, 2-officer groups, Killanis' team can go it alone or take some of our marines with them. We have to be quick out there, if we get spotted we're cooked. We'll move out when everyone's ready."

The Shogun of Joshu smirked, XZC-244 in hand.

"This seems pretty familiar, eh? I'm all ready, you're ready... Let's get going." The two leaders walked towards the entrance into Meta-Ninjao, gaining the attention of everyone.

"Ever seen Stargate SG-1?" The Seppukon asked.

"This isn't the time for that Why do you ask?"

"Because if this is anything like SG-1, we're in for a bumpy ride..."

The two Shoguns were the first to enter the 'portal', and would not be the last.

OOC: Rushed for time, so I had to make this short. >_<

"OOOOOOWCHIES!"

The ride was indeed bumpy, space was warped inside the wormhole in a bad way, making it a very uncomfortable ride. Nevertheless, the two Shoguns, followed quickly afterwards by the Desudoragonian Special Forces and a steady stream of NODC troops and vehicles. The other side of a wormhole was built into a mountainside, and much of the continent could be seen from that vantagepoint. Metaninjao was a pleasant, green, hilly place with plenty of lakes and rivers - certainly not the kind of place you'd expect to find a power-hungry demigod emperor from 2700 years ago. Granted, the continent did show signs of technology, such as the giant Spheres suspended in the air and the massive deserted cities under them. A large disc-like object floated over the center of the continent (about 200 miles to our west) and had a blue, plasma-like energy beam shooting up through it from somewhere on the ground. The beam continued upwards into infinity. There was no sun, but it was obviously daytime.

"Here we are - nice place. Too bad we have to blow it up. Joshu, you're with me."

The Palladiate and the Seppukon stood in the bright, sourceless light, surrounded by Desudoragonian and NODC troops and equipment. The two Shoguns stepped into a repulsorcraft, with the Palladiate driving. The back of the repulsorcraft was occupied by the six-foot, pyramid-esque.... thing, as the two dubbed it, that would, combined with the other things, collapse this universe. The Shoguns drove off into the distance, seeing nothing but fields and the Spheres floating above them.

"You know what, Caru? I was thinking!" Joshu yelled, due to the whine of the repulsorcraft's engine.

"What was it?"

"We shouldn't have told the others to go 'that' way! Haven't you ever seen a movie!? Anyone who goes 'that way' always ends up dead! Trust me on this!"

The repulsorcraft stopped, the Shoguns stepping out onto the foreign (relatively speaking) soil. The two looked around, suddenly sensing... something. A flash of bright blue light blinded the two, and as their eyes adjusted, they found themselves in completely different surroundings. The area was almost pitch-black, but they could barely make out the silhouettes of obscenely tall pillars, and the floor they now stood on seemed made of marble, but they couldn't be sure. They turned around, attempting to take in more of their surroundings. What they saw surprised them, to say the least. Standing (more like floating) before them... was the Emperor.

"Snap..."

"I'm on it." Joshu said calmly, withdrawing a small remote from his sash. He pressed a single blue button, (You were expecting red, admit it) and the thinger began to power up. The Emperor apparently took notice, as he raised a hand to waist level. As blue light began to emanate from the thinger, a ball of energy began to form in the Emperor's hand. The energy was dark, darker than the room, darker than anything they'd seen before. The beam shot forth from the thinger, landing squarely within the anomaly forming in the Emperor's hand.

"Did he just...?"

"Yep. Black hole. Damn, he's good." The Palladiate said, visibly worried. Joshu waited for the... whatever you wanna call it to cool down for another shot, with the Emperor landing on the ground in front of them. The man yelled a deep-throated roar, charging the two Shoguns. He leapt into the air, delivering a swift series of kicks to their chests, landing directly behind them. The pair looked at each other, visibly confused.

"I could be wrong..." Caru said, rasing his XZC. Joshu drew his sword simultaneously as the Palladiate opened fire. His lack of power on their carbon-nanotube armor belied his speed, as he dodged every depleted-uranium shell fired from the weaon. Joshu charged the Emperor, swinging his gigantic katana like a wild man. The Emperor spewed blood from every limb and inch of his chest, deep gashes penetrating his skin. Surprisingly, he showed no pain. He just smirked, as the wounds began to heal instantly.

"Snap?"

"Great big snap." Joshu said, kicking the Emperor in the stomach, which sent the regal baddie flying. He pushed the button on the remote one more time, the beam hitting the Emperor sqaure in the chest. The same familiar flash of light, and the same feeling of nothingness. Before they knew it, the dual Shogunate had ended up in very familiar surroundings: Specifically, the Citadel.

"First we're here, then we're there, then we're way over here... Now I know what jailbait feels like!" Joshu said, his head spinning.

While the Shoguns were off dealing with their own problems, another group of allies were dealing with their own.

"Check the map...where do we set this thing down?" The driver of another repulsorcraft asked his comrade sitting to his right.

"Uh, let's see...over here," He pointed at the map. "Near that big metal ball."

"Roger, Roger. Setting 'er down..."

The glass dome of the repulsorcraft retracted...somewhere...allowing the team to leave the vehicle. They immediately walked over to the aft section of the craft and checked the device for any damage. Confirmed damage-free, the team began to prepare to set it up for timed activation, to coincide with all the other devices' activation.

"Hey, Roger, these control circuits hooked up right? I think they were jostled around by the landing."

"Let me see..."
Roger tripped over an unfortunately placed rock and fell face-first into the side of the repulsorcraft. The craft, still floating a few inches above the ground, slid to the right and was tilted off-axis by another unfortunatley placed rock. Roger's comrade fell backwards and accidentally pressed the large, blue button on his remote. A beam shot out of the top of the device and skidded across the upper portion of the Sphere. The hull of the Sphere began to violently disintegrate before the whole thing flat-out exploded. Coinciding with the loss of the Sphere, space and time seemed to warp and disintegrate before their very eyes. Everything came back to normal less than a second later, but to everyone in Metaninjao, it seemed like an eternity.

"Fsck! Uh, was that supposed to happen, Roger!?"

"No, no it wasn't...shiat, let's get out of here!"

Roger and company boarded their repulsorcraft once more and sped off towards the wormhole exit. Unfortunately for them, their repulsorcraft powered down and crashed into the ground. It was not hovering like parked repulsorcraft are, it was sitting in a shallow crater of its own creation. The pair got out of their damaged vehicle, and witnessed a figure screaming towards them from high up in the air. It was a Red Wing, a puppet of the Emperor incapable of independant thought. The Emperor worked through these bizarre, horiffic amalgamations of man and machine. The Red Wings were approximately 8 to 9 feet tall, and were mostly robotic save for gruesome, embedded torso and head of a man, required for puppetry by the Emperor. The Red Wing touched down on the ground before Roger and friend, looking down at them emotionlessly. He raised his left hand, in which formed a red orb. Moving his palm to face Roger, the red orb left his hand and quickly vaporized the armored NODC soldiers. The allied presence in Metaninjao was now known to the Emperor.
___________________________________________________________________

The Emperor spend most of his time being non-corporeal, interacting with the world through his Red Wings and being high off the near-limitless power he had over space and time. He was shaken into being, and ended up on the floor, weakened. A Sphere had been destoryed.

"A Sphere is gone! Ten million minds...gone! Who has done this!?" The Emperor furiously shouted rhetorically.

The Emperor located the people responsible for taking his power from him and quickly destroyed them. Now keen to the Ninjaon presence in his domain, he was instantly drawn by those bearing the most likeness to himself.

"Who are these? They look important, why don't we bring them here?" The Emperor closed his eyes and reached into the minds of the invaders. "Shoguns...huh. They must be from that infidel land...let's show them who is superior!"

With not so much as a single physical cue from the Emperor, a hyperspacial window teleported the Shoguns to his expansive room.

"Ooooooh snap..."
One of the white-clad figures spoke. The other one withdrew a small device, causing a larger device attached to their vehicle to begin to power up. The Emperor identified this as the device that destroyed his Sphere and took appropriate action against it. A brief tussle took place between the Shoguns and the Emperor, one of the Shoguns distracting him and keeping him off guard while the other activating the device and hammering the Emperor with a beam of energy. The Emperor lost concentration over his universe and, for a brief time, the Shoguns had control. After all, the Shoguns, being of Samurai upbringing, were proficient in the use of energy manipulation, a trait taken to the extreme by the Emperor. In this place, the will of a Manipulator often manifests itself as real, physical actions, and the two were whisked away by a wormhole to somewhere in their home land.

"Ha! You think you defeated me!? Well, my Red Wings are overrunning your cities as we speak! Muahahahahaha! Gaahahahahahaha!" The Emperor shouted after the Shoguns, and slipped further into insanity.

OOC POST

Ok, Desudoragon, your turn to tell your side of the story. ;)

After that, it's time to tell the story of the Real World!

2 black clad ninjas in traditional regalia make their way down the rarely-seen halls of the underbelly of the chief fortress of Kagato. Below the prodigious structure there spiraled downward a long stair, branching into smaller hallways. After what seemed like days, the companions stopped at the last door, one not opened for years. The higher ranking ninja, signified only by 2 red stripes on the left side of his chest, gave a nod. The other opened the door, and the two slowly entered the chamber. Inside was vast space, unlit, and empty save a giant black pod in the center. Made of synthetic material but appearing to be as a cacoon of sorts, vinelike tubes and wires connected it to the ceiling and ran across the floor. A single red patch on the cacoon stood out. The official gave another nod to his subordinate, who stoically accepted his duty. Walking up to the cacoon in a ritualistic fashion, he drew his dagger. He made a swift cut on his hand and pressed it againt the red patch, eyes tightly shut. Splitting the surface, a white hand speared from within the cacoon to within the ninja. The official looked away as his subordinate fell to the ground, and the figure emerged.

Yes, this was Kagato's 'leader', if you could call it that. Kagato itself was merely a puppet government of the Empire of the Sagroi, and 'ruled' itself with a council. Still, the Emperor of the Sagroi had decided that a puppet nation should be ruled by a puppet if it came down to it, and so was born Nanashi. Meaning 'nameless one', he/it was a product of mechanical implantation, biological experimentation, and super-militaristic upbringing. After the initial violent reaction to being reactivated, Nanashi held out his hand matter-of-factly. The official produced a chip containing news of the past events and an order from the Sagroi to take action. He placed it in a small opening surgically created in Nanashi's palm. His eyes rolled back as he mulled over the information. Red Wings. He had gone through more mutation and combat training programs than any Palladian Guard, due to the personal nature of his creation by a man with limitless political, financial, and who-knows-what other powers. A Red Wing would fall to him in battle, though he was only one against many. Many many. Many many many many. Kagato's long hidden army would have to reveal themselves again and offer what assistance they could in the dark hour.

As Nanashi dressed in Hakama pants and cleaned himself, the official felt a huge mix of emotions. Revulsion at what had been done to this person to make them this puppet. More revulsion at the puppet itself. Fear. Ah well. These things must be taken in stride. Nanashi stood straight and tall, and tall he was. Man to Monster to Master. He would lead the armies of Kagato. One phrase was all that was needed for the dogs of war to be let loose.
"It's time."

OOC: It's 2 in the morning and I'm still awake, :twisted: . I'm in.

P4-7, along with 5 other PG units and a good 200 NODC troops held guard over the local wormhole, the mission's extraction point. The allied forces in the area had decided to keep a very large garrison at the gate, to ensure that everyone could make a safe extraction. An important mission, yes, but the Ninjao military is no fan of suicide missions.

"Hey, you hear that?" P4-7 said to P4-0 through a small, tinny speaker in his helmet.

Their gaze was immediately drawn to the horizon. With the aid of their cybernetic modifications they could very distinctly see a lone, red, metallic figure heading their way at a very high speed. 7 knew there would be trouble, but as he was about to alert the rest of the garrison, the horizon virtually filled with more figures, perhaps a thousand, perhaps a million. It wasn't important.

"We have hostiles!" It was all 7 had to say. The NODC troops immediatly took up defensive positions, some behind small bunkers, others in the gunner positions of the LRVs' particle cannons. Half of the PGs present went back to guard the wormhole, the rest ran to the front lines.

The Red Wings were fast. Even before everyone had taken positions the Reds were on top of them, and were promptly greeted by a hail of gunfire. The NODC was full of excellent marksmen, most every bullet hit it's mark, but the Red Wings did not flinch. Most of the bullets harmlessly bounced off a mysterious energy field surrounding them. The Red Wings formed a ring around the defensive encampment and the wormhole. Particle beams fired from the cluster of marines in the center, ricocheting harmlesly off the wall of Red steel.

"This is quite a predicament..." 7 said to himself, studying his opponents.

The Red Wings finally decided to take action. Or at least one of them did, and one was all that was needed. With a raise of his left hand, a large explosion came out of nowhere in the center of the encampment, instantly killing 50 or so marines. The Red Wings dropped to the ground, and began to walk towards the center, encountering feirce opposition from the Ninjaon forces. One could consider it a battle, but "massacre" would be a more fitting title. The Red Wings did not simply destroy the soldiers, but sucked the life out of them and turned them into mindless drones that often ended up killing themselves, but occasionally taking out one or two of their former allies before doing so.

So far, the only action taken by the Palladian Guards was covering fire, they were mostly concerned with defense of the gate. However, now was the time for action. 7 dropped his assault rifle and charged the Red Wings. They took little notice of them, apparently thinking that he was merely an unusually tall marine. 7 ran up and punched a Red Wing of his choice with his artifically-grown diamond coated fist. This got the Red's attention. Flying up several meters, he charged up an energy attack, and shot an unidentifyable orb of light at 7, which exploded violently against the ground as 7 skillfully dodged it. He then ran up the side of the mountian, somersaulting off it and grabbing the shoulders of the hovering Red Wing.

"Hello!" 7 punched the creature in the face, shattering it's flimsy eye-protecting visor. 7 then continued to beat on it before ripping open what appeared to be an electronics cabinet, locating the shield emmiter and lodging a fragmentation grenade in it before letting go and falling to the ground. The Red Wing, still floating, futilly attempted to reach for the grenade before exploding. Every other Red Wing on the battlefield turned to stare at 7, perhaps angry at the loss of their comrade. Despite 7's best efforts at evasion, he was very quickly vaporized.

"Oh snap, they got 7! Everybody, back through the wormhole!" P4-0 radioed to every NODC soldier and officer in Metaninjao. A stampede of green-armored men charged up the side of the mountain toward the gate, many of them brutally meleed by the Red Wings on the way up. Less than twenty made it through before the wormhole ceased to exist, leaving only a steel ring embedded in the rockface as evidence of its prior existance. All that was left were five Palladian Guards and about 300 Red Wings.

"Let's take them out!"

In high Earth orbit, another hyperspacial wormhole opened up. The other end of the wormhole was in the orbit of the planet Eness, an Earthlike planet orbiting around a binary star approximately 16 parsecs from Earth. This planet belongs to the Emperor, and was fully colonized at one point before the Emperor went insane. When that happened, the people of Eness befell the same fate as the Ancient Ninjaons: they were locked into giant, floating balls. Now, the planet is a staging grounds for the Emperor's forays into our universe, and is being used to launch an attack on Earth.

A massive, streamlined, red craft exited the wormhole. Almost instantaneously, the hull disintegrated and a payload of countless Red Wings left the ship. They immediately located StarCity, the P4lladian space colony, and destroyed it from their place in orbit. They then dropped out of orbit towards the continent to complete their conquest.
_________________________________________________________________

"What the hell..." The Palladiate, recovering from the painful singularity , gazed around the room that he was now in. The Shogun of Joshu still stood to his left, they were both still holding their weapons. "How...we're in the Citadel..."

They were standing in the primary NODC control center, located deep within the Citadel in central Ninjao. The room was strangely empty, all the control consoles deactivated and lights set to minimum.

"Computer, activate primary control systems, and turn the damn lights on!" The computer complied with the Palladiate's demands and the room brightened. A large holodisplay towards the front of the room activated, as well as a complex, important-looking control panel nearby. The Shoguns walked over to the control panel and, poking a few buttons, thousands of markers appeared on a 3D map of the continent. Large warning indicators hung over many of the cities on the map, and red hostile indicators abounded.

"Oh snap. We're going to want to do something about that, aren't we?" Joshu proclaimed

"Yes, we are going to want to do something about that. Leaving the Citadel would be suicide, though...as much as it pains me to admit, we're best off waiting here and try to hold fort. Let's hop on the radio." The Palladiate explained. Joshu hopped over to a communications terminal and turned it on.

"Hello, this is NODC Command to any radio-equipped camps...please respond." A woman responded after a few moments of static.

"NODCC! This is SkyCity Core garrison! Good to know someone's still there!"

"Yeah, well, we just dropped in. What the hell is going on out there?"

"Thousands, no, millions of red-armored flying guys from space! A big ship came out of nowhere into orbit, and these things just popped off and came down through the atmosphere. They're tearing us apart!" Another voice could be heard in the background, in a panic. Several explosions went off. "Oh god, they're...they've...destro - - "

An alarm sounded and the 3D map zoomed in on SkyCity. The ten mile-high towers of the city began to implode systematically, many smaller explosions carpeting the rest of the city.

"...no. No! That motherfnorder! He will pay for this! I am going to personally rip his intestinal tract out through his anus and STRANGLE him to death with it!" The Palladiate, furious, stormed to the door of the room. Joshu ran over to the door and turned him back around, to a chair and began to talk him down.

"We can't just go out there! You said it yourself, it's suicide! We need to wait for the right time to strike, and when we do, it'll be the last time we'll NEED to strike. We can't wear him down, certainly not ourselves, hell, our military can't even do it. We need to plan this out right." The Shoguns conversed solemnly as the rest of the major cities of the Ninjaon continent were reduced to glass craters. Tanto was next, followed by Webbyton, Numenor, Pyra and Fnordt.

"...did you hear that?" The Palladiate referred to the increasingly loud whines and banging noises from outside. "They're coming."

"What are we going to do? The whole place is EMPTY!" Joshu pointed out the futility of mounting a defense.

"I have an idea. Let's find the elevator..." A lightbulb magically appeared over the Palladiate's head.

Stay tuned for the exciting con...tinuation after everyone else gets a turn to post!

Joshu followed the Palladiate down a series of hallways, fuming over the destruction of most of Ninjao. He had somehow misplaced his XZC, and was left with only his insanely long, Sephiroth-esque katana to defend himself.

"So, what's this brilliant plan of yours?"

"We're going to the top." The Palladiate said as they reached the elevator. Joshu instantly understood. They rode to the top floor in silence, preparing themselves for whatever would happen. The duo stepped out of the elevator, and were met with quite a sight.

In the center of the large, circular room was a large, seemingly glass tube, in the center of which a large katana levitated: The Palladium Daito.

Joshu knew what Caru was planning. Due to its history with the Emperor, the Palladium Daito had become a Class 7 Spacial Anomaly. Being such, it would be a great help in fighting the advancing Red Wings. Caru walked up to the casing, and placed his hand on a single, ovular console next to it. Recognizing it was the Palladiate, the casing sank into the floor, allowing Caru to obtain the Daito. At that same moment, the glass framework of the dome shattered as hundreds of Red Wings poured into the room. While some stayed airborne, a majority of them decided to fight the two Shoguns on the ground.

Joshu drew his sword, slashing his way through hordes of Red Wings. As he made his way through, he noticed that his blade only succeeded in pushing them aside. Seeing the futility of his actions, he resheathed the sword as Red Wings closed in on him. Concentrating with all his mental power, Joshu began decimating his foes with a series of strong punches and kicks, sending adversaries flying.

Meanwhile, Caru was faring much better. He unsheathed the Palladium Daito, and almost instantaneously, the blade became covered in a thin coating of plasma (due to Palladium's typical reaction with carbon dioxide). He then proceeded to slash his way through the onslaught, with Joshu using his matter-manipulating abilities to either set aflame of freeze many of his opponents. (Which is quite a feat for him, as he is 100% human, but still has the abilities of Ninjaons).

Elsewhere, in the Emperor's stronghold...

The Emperor had been contemplating how to best deal with the planet of Eness, when suddenly, he became paralyzed by an emotion he hadn't felt in ages... fear. The Daito had been unleashed. He felt each blow his minions received from its blade, he could sense its presence. It filled him with a horrible anger, causing him to almost lose control of his powers. Almost.

OOC: I think I'll leave the continuation of the fight scene to someone who isn't tired to the point of collapsing. :D

"...first they steal my land, and now they steal my SWORD!?" The Emperor's fear was replaced, or perhaps supplemented by rage. He knew that his Red Wings could very easily destroy the Shoguns instantly, but for some reason hesitated. Perhaps it was because he envied them, found a common ground with them, or that he would not be satisfied until he brought a swift and final destruction upon the Modern Ninjaon race. No, simply turning their cities into craters and killing their leaders would not be enough. The area of the Ninjaon continent that Metaninjao would be buried under, where it still in its original universe, was now a cold, barren mountain range. It's likeness to the Emperor himself enraged him, and he was envious of the rest of Ninjao, with it's rolling plains and forests. Nevermind that he himself reigned over a similar land floating in hyperspace. The Emperor considered hyperspace to be "fake" and viewed the real world as insulting and overrun with heathen "fake" Ninjaons.

He would have none of this.

His plan was reckless, yet somewhat brilliant, and ensured the complete and utter destruction of the Ninjaon people and replace the false continent with the "real" Ninjao, the Ninjao that the Emperor controlled. Apparently the continent is fine, but the universe is not.
The only factor keeping the Metaninjaon universe in existence was the will of the Emperor. Such a place can't exist naturally, and without him, it would implode and cease to exist. Therefore, he was going to pull "ye olde switcheroo". The geological foundation was already there, after all, his continent once occupied the very spot that Ninjao did today. The Emperor would simply "teleport" the entirety of the Modern continent to his universe, simultaneously teleporting his continent back to the real world. Without him to keep the parallel universe open, the universe that Modern occupied would collapse, and Ninjao would be no more. All that would be left is him, his Red Wings, and his countless mind-slaves in the Spheres. Naturally, conquest of Earth will follow, and with all the minds of the real world under his command, he would rule the real universe, too!
____________________________________________________________________

"How the hell long do we have to hold them off!?" Joshu mused at his comrade while kung-fuing up a Red Wing.

"As long as it takes us to think of a plan to get out of here..." The Palladiate swung the glowing Daito at a Red wing, dissipating it's shielding and melting its armor.

"What have you come up with so far?"

"Nothing...I'm kind of busy here!"

"Like I'm not?"

Joshu blew the head off a Red Wing with a wave of plasma, and the rest of the Reds disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"...what the hell? Did I just kill them all?"

"No...no, something's happening."

Space began to warp apart, much like it did in Metaninjao upon the destruction of a Sphere. To everyone still alive, it felt as if they were being torn apart atom-by-atom. The Daito seemed to be the epicenter of the warping, and the Palladiate instantly dropped it in pain. Oddly enough, it continued to shine with the glow of plasma, and stuck in the metallic floor of the room Excalibur-style. A feeling of nonexistance overtook them, and then, for a short time, a quality of nonexistance described them. This was not so for very long, however, as not a second later did they find themselves, continent and all, in a familiar, sunless world.

The two Shoguns stood once again in the fields of Metaninjao, instantly realizing who'd brought them there. Strangely enough, the Emperor was nowhere to be found.

"Is it just me, or did we just show up in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance?" Joshu asked with a sense of awe. The Palladiate noted the cause for Joshu's alarm: nothing, to be exact.

The sky had turned... well, there was no sky. There was also no land beyond the LWECS shield. The earth just seemed to.... end.

"Apparently, the Emperor pulled the classic 'Ye Olde Switcheroo' maneuver, which he himself implemented. It's been in the military for centuries. We're still in Ninjao, but the entire continent has been shifted into his dimension, and he moved Metaninjao into ours. Since he's not here, the universe collapsed around us. Fortunately, the LWECS seems to be holding. For now, anyways..." Caru noted solemnly. Joshu wasn't listening. He was too busy trying to figure out how they'd gone from being swarmed by Red Wings to an empty field unscathed. There was only one plausible explanation, and it was one that he was almost afraid to prove. The Seppukon turned his head eastward, and his eyes met the sight of the Citadel in ruins, with the tattered bodies of Red Wings lying everywhere.

"So, what do we do now?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? We rendezvous with whatever forces we have left, go to the wormhole, and kill the damn Emperor! He obviously wasn't counting on the LWECS holding the dimension in place, so that gives us an advantage. That, and our white-hot hatred for him combined with some serious skeelz." The Palladiate replied, with the Palladium Daito still somehow in his grasp. The two began walking towards the ruined Citadel, hoping to muster whatever forces they could.

OOC: Caru, I think it's time you T-und-A this baby up! Maybe then we'd get this RP going.

OOC: Sorry about the absense. I have been enjoying spring break. Also, I am just going to skip to the current place in the story since I missed so much.

IC:

The Emperor of Desudoragon paced back and forth quickly. It had been three hours since he lost all contact with the entire region of Ninjao.

"What is going on?" he asked himself. "For God's sake I hope Ninjao hasn't fallen. I hope all my men haven't been lost."

Out of concern for his close allies, EoD (Emperor of Desudoragon, not to be confused with the 'Emperor') sent three squadrons of AH-64S Apache Dragons to Ninjao.

Upon reaching the shores of Ninjao, the pilots in the lead division noticed that it was different. The hustling and bustling cities were replaced by desolate, abandoned ones and where the LWECS towers once stood, was only rolling hills and green meadows. Strange, large spheres hovered over the empty cities.

"Base, this is Draco. I have no idea what the hell is going on...but Ninjao is very different. We are going to land on the shore and move in to inve---"

"Base to Draco. Draco, you were cut off. Come again. I repeat...Draco you were cut off. Please, come again. Over."

Nothing but static replied. The EoD became very worried.

"Ready the Pacific Islands' entire navy." he ordered.

Meanwhile

"Draco to Base. Did you recieve our earlier message? Over."
"Draco to Base. Is anyone there? Over."

Nothing but static.

"Something must be blocking the signal," Draco Leader, Bret Cartwright, thought to himself.

"All Dragons, engage your stealth cloak. Draco Squadron, arm your Nakiadas (AEMP missiles). We shall attack the spheres. Ember Squadron, assist the Draco Squadron in our attack. Serpent Squadron, search for survivors from the initial forces sent in through the wormhole. Over." Bret ordered.

The Draco and Ember Squadrons approached the nearest sphere and fired one wave of Nakiada missiles. They were cloaked to make sure that noone saw their approach.

OOC: Bah, I am nowhere nearly as good at RPing as some of you. Feel free to point out any mistakes I may have made. Again, sorry for my absense.

OOC² Good to have you back!
This post is just going to clarify anything for anyone that doesn't want to read through the 40 pages of RP posts, and to explain why things are happening the way they are happening. Proceed!

Currently, the Ninjaon continent is in a parallel universe in its entirety, while the Metaninjaon continent is on the planet Earth. The movement of Ninjao was meant to destroy it, but the LWECS shield is somehow keeping it from harm.

The Emperor, though we may have made him look weak, is one hell of a badass. He's not killing the shoguns because of some emotional conflict.

The Red Wings are red. They are mostly robotic and made out of a simple metal like steel. What makes them so powerful is their energy sheilding, which is some sort of spacial distortion and can only be broken, as far as we know, by the Daito or similar anomaly. Red Wings can manipulate matter and energy far more proficently than any Ninjaon samurai. Various super-soldiers and high-ranking individuals can kill several of them, but due to their sheer numbers, probably won't last very long.

The Palladium Daito is a daito...made out of palladium. Due to Pd's high rate of hydrogen gas absorbtion, when someone like the Palladiate holds it, he can light it up like a christmas tree with plasma. This is useful for cutting through metal and stuff. It's defining characteristic is the fact that it is a class 7 spacial anomaly and thus can defeat the RW shieds.

Yes, it might be reckless for national leaders to be galavanting around enemy territory, but you must remember, they're shoguns. Military dictators. Generals, basically.

Now that the Emperor is on Earth, with his entire attack force, he's going to start taking the whole place over. Seeing as how he just attacked him (a good thing), he's probably going to come after Desudoragon first. Perhaps an evacuation to the Noraneko would be in order! ;) He will very quickly conquer everything, and then will be the "post-apocalyptic" phase of the RP, where we'll have some rebels running around and stuff like that.

All is not lost, however! We're still in Ninjao, where there are still lots of people not dead. We'll pop into our home universe, see what happened, and figure out some way to kill the Emperor. That will trigger the "cosmic reset switch", where everything that the Emperor did in our universe will be completely undone, we'll be back home, nobody will be dead. Hooray!

Listen up! Next few posts by me and Joshu are going to be before the teleportation of the Ninjaon continent. Perhaps a little after, but with nothing important happening. This will give adequate time for everything else to pan out and set the stage for the End Stuff (which I still haven't figured out yet).

OOC: The Pacific Islands' LWECS is up as well. Hopefully it should provide some protection. Also, Desudoragon has the capability of running all military and civilian operations completely from orbit on Gaia. I will probably begin evacuating citizens soon.

BTW, will the AEMP missiles have any affect on the Red Wings?

The Emperor, satisfied with the example he made of Ninjao, began to turn his gaze towards the rest of the world. Out of nowhere, the emperor clutched his head and screamed in pain. There were no spacial distortions this time, but the Emperor was fully aware of what had just happened.

"Spheres!" The Emperor exclaimed. "More spheres have been destroyed! Who did this now?"

Now focused towards the loss of his spheres, he sensed the cloaked helicopters, which were promptly destroyed by newly dispatched Red Wings.

"Ha! Thought you were sneaky, eh? Well, I can be sneaky too!"

The Emperor sent a massive swarm of Red Wings over the Western Sea towards the Pacific Islands. He would leave no stone unturned!
_____________________________________________________________

Strapped for time, I'll have to "answer your questions" in the next post. :D

OOC: You must be heavily strapped.

The EoD was certain of the squadrons' destruction or rather he assumed it from the drop in communications.

"Ready the camera." he told he assistant.

"Okay, sir. Are you ready?" the assistant asked, responded to by a nod.
"Here we go."

"Citizens of the Pacific Islands. I speak to you on behalf of myself and the rest of the regional rulers. These are terrible times we live in. Early today we lost complete communication with the region of Ninjao, our closest and most trusted allies. The cause of the said disruption in communications was to be investigated by three squadrons of AH-64S Dragons. We do know that they reached Ninjao successfully. However, shortly after they arrived, we lost contact mid-report. We are assuming the worst. Fearing retribution for having sent an attack force, we are ordering a complete evacuation of the Pacific Islands. The majority of you will be evacuated to our other allies, The Zoogie People and Klonor, while the military and key civilians will be evacuated to Gaia, our orbiting Earth colony. As we speak, all available ships and planes are being readied for immediate take-off. Please pack only your essential belongings and report to the nearest airport/seaport. I thank you for your time and godspeed."

The EoD slumped back in his chair after the red light on the camera went out.

"You did well, sir." the assistant said.

"Thanks. We have no idea what we are up against. I pray we have time to evacuate everyone."

"Are you ready to leave, sir? Your jet is waiting."

"Yes,yes. Make sure all of the staff have been accounted for and we can go."

"Yes, sir."

With that, the EoD motioned the assistant to go away so he could have some time by himself.

"Lord, I hope we will survive this." he muttered to himself.

A dull roar, something like the engine of a jet, could be heard by pedestrians in the southern side of SkyCity. It was mid-morning, most people were in their offices pusing holographic papers around. The streets were all but empty, a few people walking between buildings or cramming into the maglev dangling under the 10-story-high artificial ground level. The buildings of the city sparkled in the sun, and those on the outer ring of the city could see the fresh snowfall from the night before. The whine grew louder and louder until it droned out the idle conversation and hellos made by the people in the street. Office workers began to gather in the windows, staring inquisitively at the approaching mass on the horizon.

"Now, what do you suppose that is?" An NODC City Guard turned and spoke to a colleague.
"I don't know, but it can't be good. I have a baaad feeling about this..."

It turns out that his concerns were justified. The mass was, of course, a swarm of Red Wings, looking to disable their adversary's political and military capabilities. They spread out, forming a circle, flanking the still-oblivious metropolis.

"Gahahaha! How many people are in this place....30? 50 million? Why, they make it so EASY for me!" The Emperor, insane as always, talked to himself in the safety of Metaninjao.

"Red Wings! Those are Red Wings you morons! Get to defensive positions!" An NODC officer emerged from the SkyCity Government Tower and caught the end of the guards' conversation. The city's public address system came to life, the previously happy pedestrians flocking to the nearest doorway. Thousands of guardsmen popped out of the proverbial woodwork, buslike repulsorcraft landing in the city's many intersections, troops flooding out of the Core buildings, and even more coming out of the under-city military bases. The NODC was prepared as always, and dually so with the current alert in place.

The City has quite extensive defensive measures in place. From MECAS containment field emitters located around the city to particle cannons and machine gun turrets, SkyCity is a veritable fortress that just so happened to have civilians in it. I guess that's what happens you're led by a Shogun! Like any self-respecting fortress, SkyCity's biggest guns are on the perimeter and the core.

"Move out! I want every perimeter turret filled! There may be a thousand of them, but there's ten-thousand of us, and WE are playing the home game! I trust you all have your maps (http://www.noyuo.com/images/skycity.gif) with you..." The commander rallied his troops, who immediately headed out towards the city's 3 perimeters. The outermost ring was the newest boundary, the two inner rings being the boundaries of the city's older days. Sensors detected incoming NODC personnel, and the nondescript discs set into the rings' streets slid away, revealing multi-purpose defensive turrets. A particle cannon mounted on top of a gatling gun - brilliant!

"Do you really think we can fight them off, sarge?" Isumi turned to the green-armored figure to her right. Isumi was, for a time anyway, the de facto leader of P4lladia, complete with military and diplomatic power. She was the wife of the Palladiate, and don't let the pretty dress fool you: she was just as ruthless a diplomat and just a feirce a warrior as the Palladiate was. "I think I'd better get suited up. This doesn't look good."

SkyCity struck first, the high-yeild particle beams ripping through the armor of several Red Wings. The Emperor was allowing a false sense of security, once twenty or so Reds were taken down, their sheilds were activated and the particle cannons ceased to be effective.

"Guns! Use the guns! Distract them while we blow them out of the sky!"

The plan was mostly successful, the Redwings were immobilized by the gatling gun fire while the P4lladians shot RPGs into their midst. Things were looking good for awhile, that is, until the outermost ring was disintegrated by unidentifiable energy blasts from the Redwings. The City's street grid bucled upwards in the middle and dug into the ground on the edges, lacking the necessary support from the ring. Anyone unfortunate enough to be in the street found themselves in an amusment park ride ending with a sudden impact with the steel remains of the ring. The street grid in the inner two rings was still stable, and the Red Wings took advantage of that to fight the NODC in the streets.

[That last post took place in the "past", during the battle of SkyCity. There will be more such posts before significant plot development on the Ninjao side.]

The Emperor surveyed his new domain. Not much was different, though there was significantly more space for his domain to spread out. In fact, he now had infinitely more space to spread - he had the entire universe at his fingertips! Or at least he would, once he enslaved enough minds. His powers in this universe were greatly diminished, partly because of the Pacific Islands' brutal kamikaze mission and partly due to the vastness of space that the Emperor had to control. "No matter," he thought to himself, "I'll just take this planet by force..."

Off the eastern coast of the Pacific Islands was a familiar scene. A swarm of countless red figures screamed through the atmosphere, heading towards the unusually desolate islands. The first Red Wings in formation were greeted by a rather coarse welcome mat. The Red mechanization slammed into a wall of repulsive electromagnetic force, fell and splashed into the sea separating the islands from Ninjao. The remaining Red Wings paused and blankly stared ahead, awaiting a decision from the Emperor. The solution was obvious - overload the shield emitter. This proved a rather mundane task for the Red Wings, and was performed by one leading unit. The emitter, in the heart of the Libertine Empire of Desudoragon, ran out of capacitor charge, and the capacitor array subsequently ruptured due to reverse power flow. The shield was down.

OOC: I'll RP as the Metaninjaon forces/emperor...just RP with me as you would with anyone else. I'll let you know when I'm me again. ;)

I'll let Joshu handle the Ninjao stuff and witty banter between Shoguns.

[PAST, again]

The Red Wings seem to strategically limit themselves. They could easily vaporize the city without so much as a second thought. Why did they fight the NODC with their bare, titanium hands? Did the Emperor derive joy from seeing people suffer? I certainly wouldn't put it above him.

The feirce melee that ensued was feirce indeed - the NODC forces, with their greatly augmented physical abilities, a force to be reckoned with here on the planet Earth, were no match for the gigantic, seemingly invincible Red Wings. They literally tore us apart - even through the thick, metal plating and multi-layered hubyeh-composite body suit, the Red Wings granted no mercy or civility to the defenders of the city. Limbs flew, heads rolled and chests bursted. The NODC fought with honor, and the civilians of the city began to seek refuge under the city, and boarded underground evacuation trams. I'd like to say that many of them made it out of the city, but it's impossible to be sure given the chaos that shortly ensued.

A large, spherical blue flash appeared at the base of Sky Tower 5, obviously the work of the Red Wings. For a moment, the battle paused and everyone took their time to gaze towards the flash and the tower. The superstructure was compromised, and the huge concrete support columns surrounding the tower crumbled, the glass facades shattering. Starting at the top the tower's platforms fell into each other until they reached the ground. In a brilliant display of gravity the tower was gone and the resulting shockwave literally blew down several buildings around it. The road systems deep into the city were decimated. It was probably at that point that I knew it was all over. We all knew it was over.

"Lady Isumi! The airship! We can't stay here!" An aide of mine yelled to me as I stared out the wall of windows in the city's control building. He was right - we couldn't stay. The core would be the next to fall.

"Alright! Fine...alright, let's go." I came to grips with reality. We were aborting the mission.

"The Gabbian is waiting in the square for us, we must hurry!" The aide once again spoke, referring to the aforementioned airship. A mostly silent sprint to the square (suspended almost a mile in the air) ensued, and we found ourselves on the vessel. Like most government-owned airships, the Gabbian was a luxurious repulsorcraft with all the amenities of home. I was not, however in the mood for luxury.

"Fire the ventral particle cannons!" I shouted at the pilot, who gave me a funny look. "Blow those red bastards out of our city!"

"The city is a loss, Palladi! We tried shooting protons at them, that didn't work. Evacuation is in effect. Relax, we're going to the citadel." Aide, again. I wish he'd shut up.

I did, reluctantly, heed his advise. I stretched out on a nearby lounge, attempting to distract myself with the holodisplay in the corner of the salon. Needless to say, I failed miserably, spending most of my time looking at my ARC suit's status monitors and inspecting an assault rifle for damage. The Palladiate tells me I'm obsessive-compulsive. I usually agree.

"NODC comm channels are declaring an evacuation of the citadel...everyone's moving out to less-likely targets and to defend stuff." The pilot yelled back from the helm.

"I don't care...that's where we're going." I told him.

"Affirmative. Maintiaining current course." The pilot yelled back.

It was very obvious why there was an evacuation taking place. As the Gabbian coasted over the eastern mountains of P4lladia and the Common territory, all the cities that we passed over were under seige. Even some of the quaint little samurai-populated hamlets dotting the landscape had been turned into craters by the Red Wings. It was total war against invincible machines and we were losing badly. There was a bright flash inside the citadel as we neared it. We could see it from the airship, and that alone prompted a course change. I ordered the pilot to the nearby samurai village of Miranda. There, we would establish our base of operations. We would not go down without a fight!

OOC: I hate the forum. I typed up this long post and it ate it. I am too tired to type it up again right now. I will do it later.