NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: RATING: R, for graphic descriptions of evil.

IC:

The sky was burning.

Across the landscape, flickering shadows danced, cast by rocky spires, twisting and writhing to the whim of the hellfire above. In this ghostly realm, two monstrous creatures faced each other, each tall in stature, covered in bony plates and studded with spiral horns. Surrounding them, thousands of smaller demons watched, some the size of dogs, some several yards in height, all dwarfed by the two behemoths before them. Grinning, the larger of the giants bared his fangs, wisps of steam escaping its twisted maw.

The two hulking demons slammed together, their claws gouging flesh, testing the armored hides of their opponents for weakness, scrabbling across chitinous plates. A spiked tail slashed across the gut of the smaller of the two, spilling fuming bile across the ground. Roaring in pain, the smaller demon rushed forward, slamming its opponent into one of the many spires. The rock cracked, sending shards flying, piercing the skin of the combatants. Snarling, the larger one slammed its talons into his foe's back. Grasping the spine, the demon twisted. With a horrifying grinding, the bone turned, cracking. The smaller demon roared in agony, trying in vain to move its legs. Seeing his foe helpless, the larger of the two grinned. Hoisting his foe into the air, the demon slammed him down again onto the tip of a spire. For a moment, the flesh of the smaller demon resisted, but with a wet ripping noise, it gave, and the demon sank down, sliding down the spire, coating the rock with its steaming blood.

Choking on its own blood, the smaller demon stared disbelievingly at the needle of stone protruding from its belly. Wonderingly, it raised a claw, carressing the cold stone, coated with rapidly evaporating blood. With a chuckle, the demon lowered its head again, exposing its throat, and snarled in its gutteral tongue.

"I am ready, Hephaestos. Come, claim your crown."

"You always were a fatalist, my lord. Perhaps that is why you are lying there dying instead of me. We go to war now, you poor old fool, and all you have done has merely delayed the inevitable."

Baring his fangs, Hephaestos knelt, grasped the large horns of the dying demon prince, and pulled. With a sudden plop, the horns came loose, skull fragments and bits of grey matter hanging from them. Hephaestos roared his triumph, a cry echoed by hundreds of thousands of demonic throats.

"The Prince is DEAD! Long live the Prince!"


_________________

Ximean Capital
_________________

The man knelt before the softly glowing circle, chanting in the demonic tongue. As if listening to some immaterial speaker, the man his head and held out his arm above the circle. Pulling a long curved knife, his chanting reached a crescendo. With a quick slash, the man brought it down across his wrist, nearly severing his hand. Grimacing, the man slowly rose, continuing his chant, dripping his blood across the circle. The soft greenish glow intensified, growing stronger, casting ghostly shadows across the room, shadows belonging to some other realm, some realm where rocky spires dotted the terrain, and hellfire swirled in the sky. Finishing the circle, the man slowed his chanting, watching wide eyed as the glow continued to rise. The glow slowly coalesced into a shape, a laughing, cackling shape, a demon from hell.

Slowly the man began to realise exactly what he had done, the gravity of this situation, even as more shapes began to coalesce. He turned, moving quickly to the door, but a tendril snaked out, snaring his leg, throwing him to the floor. The man turned, and he finally saw the true form of what he had summoned.

He screamed, and didn't stop screaming until the hound-demons had torn out his lungs.

Within minutes, the apartment building had become an abbatoir. Women and children had been flayed alive, their skins worn as cloaks by demons with the heads of jackals, which gleefully pulled the flesh from those who were not yet dead. Men had their eyes gouged out, which the demons festively mounted on the quills of the hell hounds.

Watching the carnage from under a table was a small girl, hidden from view by a thin, blood soaked table cloth. Her sobbing was drowned out by the cackling of the Jackals, who had come to blows over who would eat the first human that had finished cooking. One of them smashed against the table, spilling fly-covered organs across the floor.

Sniffing the air, the Viscount who had first stepped through the portal caught the scent of the girl. Tiltinging its head quizically, it turned, moving towards the table. Lifting the cloth, the demon knelt.

"Boo."

The girl screamed, backing against the wall. Grinning, the demon rested its clawed hands on its knees.

"It's okay, little girl. Was your mommy here? Don't worry, you'll be with her very soon."

Muttering under its breath, the demon reached out with its talon, and pressed it against the terrified child's forehead. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, skin bulging, the child began to writhe on the ground. Maggots crawled from her mouth, slithered from the corners of her eyes, like fat white tears. Screaming, the girl thrashed, throwing the tiny larvae across the floor. Smiling, the Viscount reached forward, and pinned the head of the squirming girl. With his other hand, he reached out with a single talon and gouged out an eyeball. Popping it into his mouth, he smiled.

"Simply delicious."

Turning away, he montioned to the Jackals.

"Your turn, my pets. Don't take long, I did make a promise after all."

Turning his back to the renewed shrieks of the child, the monstrous Viscount walked back to the Hellgate, the first of many that was to be opened in this city. He watched as demons continued to pour forth: Jackals, Hellhounds, mighty Creepers, and beings that defied classification. The invasion was starting, and this would be but the beginning. Hell had come to Ximea, and this was but the beginning. The demons were hungry.

By the time this was over, they would be well fed indeed.

Xim (capitol of Ximea)
Police Precinct Four

Police Captain Gorman strode into the dispatch office, and the room suddenly seemed that much smaller. Gorman pulled the door shut brusquely and loomed over one of the phone operators. He was a bear, broad-shouldered and barrel-chested, with a face like carved oak. He was clean-shaven with his thick, black hair buzzed close to his scalp, and he wore his uniform smartly. His every motion, spare and precise as they were, exuded strength and sheer professionalism. He was the most utterly respected cop in the city, and he deserved that respect utterly. "Talk to me," he said gruffly.

"All of the calls are centering around an apartment block at 3100 Faust," the operator said. "Reports of, ah, creatures with horns, unnatural deaths--not just violent, unnatural, they're saying--and, ah, fire. Lots of fire."

"What does Bio-Sciences have in that area?" Gorman asked. Attacks by unnatural monsters were, unfortunately, more common in Ximea than they should be, and most law enforcement agents suspected the government's Bio-Sciences Division--although no one had ever succeeded in pinning official blame on them.

"The Da Vinci Lake Facility to the south," someone said.

"Call Bio-SWAT," Gorman said. Bio-SWAT was a branch of elite soldiers employed by the Bio-Sciences Division; they handled most of the wet work, including messes caused by the Division itself. They didn't get along well with just about any other organization in Ximea, but they were damned competent at neutralizing large, nasty beasts. "Ask them to stand by; meanwhile, we'll send in a squad to assess the situation."

"You think this is one of theirs?" the phone operator asked.

"The fire is new, but I wouldn't put it past them," Gorman said. "I'll be going in with the squad. I'll be in touch if we need...additional support." And with that, he strode confidently out of the dispatch office and into the darkest night he would ever know.

The demons had known that they would have little time before mortals discovered their portal. Weasel-like demons with many legs spread out across the area, infesting the area, going to ground. Bat-winged gargoyles flew the night skies, spreading across the city, attempting to hide amongst statuary, especially on churches and cathedrals, and amongst the many statues and tombs of grave yards, where they would feed upon the wonderfully decayed bodies of the dead. The misty forms of incubi flowed across the city, infiltrating the dreams of their victims, bringing visions of hell itself.

The Gate might be found and closed, but the Demons would remain.

3100 block, Faust Street
Downtown Xim

When Gorman and his squad reached the apartment block, the building was an inferno and several other structures were threatening to catch. Gorman tuned his radio to the frequency of the local fire station. "This is Police Captain Gorman, Fourth Precinct," he said. "Got a blaze at 3100 Faust. Hear anything about that yet?"

When he'd been satisfied that the Fire Department was on its way, Gorman parked his cruiser about a block away. The car behind him followed suit. The cops popped their trunks and pulled out shotguns loaded with double-ought. Thus armed, four cops fanned out of the alleyway.

Gorman brought up his radio again. "Any reports on those creatures? Are they spreading?"

"A few, sir--adjacent buildings. Most people are preoccupied with the fire."

"Keep me updated--" Gorman was interrupted when something big and black and leathery knocked him on his stomach. Talons dug into his shoulders and he felt hot breath on his neck. He felt the barest scrape of teeth when three shotguns discharged simultaneously. With a razor-steel screech, the gargoyle crumpled on the ground, bleeding and twitching.

A younger officer offered to help the captain up; Gorman declined, standing up and swearing profusely. He kicked the monster in the neck, smacking his boot against solid muscle. "We'll have to call BioSWAT."

"We'd better call them soon," the other officer said, gesturing with his flashlight. The alleyway opposite them was crawling with writhing, sinewy nightmares, their eyes glowing in the flashlight's beam. Gorman watched for a second, waiting to see what the creatures would do.

They pounced. Dozens of them. "Fall back!" Gorman shouted, blasting away with his 12-gauge. The other three cops followed his lead. Four, six, ten, fifteen of the creatures flopped to the ground, their hideous faces caved in. Some of the demons stopped to feed on the dead, but dozens more charged over the bodies, black ichor sticking to their innumerable claws. The squad retreated behind their squad cars, using the vehicles as a barricade. Gorman called his station one more time: "Get BioSWAT now!"

OOC: In the future, please refrain from calling my actions or casualties. Right now, its not a problem, but its a bad habit to get into.

IC: The demons continued to pour from the portal in an endless wave, swarming out towards the police barricade. The ones from the alley continued their charge, dying en masse from the concentrated fire of the officers. Still, their numbers were endless, and they were not alone.

Diving down from windows above the fray, still more of the demons rushed to the attack. They slammed into the police line from above, howling cries of rage as they slashed at the pathetic humans with razor sharp claws.

Meanwhile, demons that couldn't reach their target immediately began to slither down into the sewers, taking advantage of a nearby manhole. They would be spotted entering, and many would die to the strange weapons of the Ximeans, but enough would escape into the labrynthine sewer network to establish a breeding population.

OOC: Very well. It's an unfortunate tendency when dealing with swarming creatures. Also, let me know if I get any details wrong so I can change them.

IC:
3100 block, Faust Street
Downtown Xim

Captain Gorman crouched down behind the squad car to reload his shotgun. The action saved his life. Others were not so lucky. A gargoyle slammed talons-first into the officer next to him, crushing the man's ribcage and soaring away with ragged chunks of meat. The officer collapsed, wheezing blood. "Collins!" Gorman shouted. He checked the man's pulse. "Officer down!"
A moment later, another officer fell to the ground. His neck terminated in a ragged stump, still pumping out gouts of blood.

Enough was enough. Gorman stood up, exposing himself just long enough to fire two shots at the circling gargoyles. He called over to the one remaining officer. "Peabody! In the car!" The cops piled into a squad car and tore down the alley. Gorman radioed the station as he checked his mirrors. "What's the status on BioSWAT?"

Bio-Sciences Division
Lake Da Vinci Site

The rotors of the massive Valkyr helicopter were already turning as Sergeant Blackwell and his section hit the tarmac. The ramp was down; Blackwell stood to one side as his soldiers piled inside; he stepped in, and the ramp raised on its whining hydraulics. The vehicle was in the air in under twenty seconds.

Blackwell addressed his troops. "Xim PD reported a large number of Tango-Oscars in the downtown area. Two distinct types, neither on record, from what we can tell. First type is a flying reptile or protomammal, big claws, estimated 150 kilos. Second type, six-legged musteloid, fast. That's all we could get from the police reports."

"Locals?" someone asked.

"Police and fire. Some apartment buildings went up during the initial infestation. Civvies are being ordered to evacuate the block."

The pilot's voice came over the intercom. "Xim PD on the horn. Reporting a third type, no description yet. Also, attacks reported beyond the site of initial infestation. Da Vinci Site scrambling two more Valkyrs."

Blackwell cracked his knuckles. "Looks like we're earning our pay tonight. Gear up." The soldiers donned their NBC masks and unslung their massive, monster-killing submachine guns. A massive infestation in the heart of Ximea's capitol--this would be one for the history books.

Just imagine I did something witty for this bump.