2/14/2029 2:40 PM
"That was a great homily Bishop Peter. This is why my husband really likes your way of convening the gospel! If you don't mind our family would like to invite you to hold a small mass in a few days would you…" Said a woman dressed in an attire that wouldn't really fit a church setting, with two bodyguards behind her. To an oldman wearing a white chasuble covering other vestments while holding a bible to his chest, and a crozier leaning on his body. "I would be delighted to attend Miss." Said the bishop with a modest smile and squinted eyes. Politicians… what a blatant disregard of my authority, what a bunch of snakes they are, even trying to involve the clergy. With this thought, ArchBishop Peter's mind wandered and completely blocked what the woman in front of him kept saying. God, please let this snake get on with it, there are things I must take care of o' please my lord… With a small prayer, ArchBishop Peter glanced out of his cathedral and to the mostly uninterrupted view of the sky. There he saw a particularly large bird circling one of the many tall skyscrapers in the distance. After looking at where it's head should be, he felt a sudden shock entering, making him flinch. Surprised from the sudden bolt of conviction, his eyes opened wide while still facing the yapping woman.
Surprised at ArchBishop Peter's sudden jolt and now sweating bullets, the woman asked of his conditions "Bishop Peter? Are you fine? Maybe we should call an ambulance… men call the near-" But before she could finish what she was about to say, ArchBishop Peter went and cut her off. "Madam, I apologize for my rudeness but if I may, there is something I must take care of." He said, blatantly ignoring her and now staring directly at the flying creature in the distance. "There's no problem bishop! You can excuse yourself, but do please take care of yourself bishop" Said the woman with a laugh, ignoring the oddity in his actions. Now freed from the politics, ArchBishop Peter went and signaled for the priest and sacristan to follow him. Making haste for the exit of the cathedral, he suddenly announced. "Brother's and Sister's in Christ! I implore you to return to the cathedral once more!!" ArchBishop Peter repeated this words as he cut through the leaving crowd of parishioners. Confused at the ArchBishop's actions, and seeing the ruckus caused by this, the priest quickly made his way to the side of the rushing ArchBishop. "Your excellency! Is there a reason for recalling the people?" The priest said so that only the two of them could hear.
"There is a danger looming. Joel, get your crucifix and pray for God's Protection, Johnathan, give it to Father Joel, find other knights of the altar, and priests to have everyone back inside the safety of the cathedral. After that, have them meet me outside! Hurry!" ArchBishop Peter addressed Joel the Priest and the sacristan. After Johnathan quickly retrieved the crucifix as gently as he can, Johnathan then left the two clergy alone. "Your excellency?! What danger is arriving?!" Joel now with a crucifix in hand asked with panic in his voice. "A dragon is coming Joel… everyone inside the cathedral!!" After answering Father Joel's question, ArchBishop Peter moved and ordered everyone outside the cathedral to head back in. You my Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; you my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. After uttering a short prayer, ArchBishop peter planted the crozier deep into the pavement, displaying strength that went against his age.
Surprised at the superhuman strength of the old man, Father Joel stared at utter disbelief. Before he could question ArchBishop Peter, a golden film of light suddenly rose from the ground all around the cathedral, encompassing a rough 200 meter diameter sphere. That seemed to shield the area, in it's center the cathedral. However before Father Joel could question this miracle, a large black dragon appeared, with its arrival came a sudden burst of fire that hit the erected film of light. ArchBishop Peter, still with his eyes closed and heads bowed, continued with his prayers, ignoring the dragon's attempts at the barrier. "O' Jesus our lord, give us strength to overcome this dragon in red…" Hearing ArchBishop Peter's steadfast prayers, Father Noel with his right hand holding the crucifix now aimed at the sky, his left hand holding a rosary to his chest, followed the ArchBishop's example and prayed. All while people panicked to rush inside the cathedral after seeing the dragon.
2/14/2029 2:40 PM
In deep contemplation, an aging man in a full dress uniform of the army stood over an electronic table displaying small dots moving through an urban environment, near-holographic map. The aging man, obviously a general, kept on looking closely at the fast moving dots, weaving through the air between skyscrapers within the holograms. "Figueroa! Have our pilots conduct themselves responsibly; they are strictly forbidden from flying through buildings. Unless permitted to, only helicopters are currently allowed to fly low, fighters should only patrol the skies above the capital region, relay this to our air wing commander and that it came directly from the chief of staff. Hurry!" With this order from the senior staff, Figueroa, in a battle dress and plate carriers, saluted and left the General's side. Fucking seagulls! What are they thinking flying in the city skylines?! Massaging his temple the general again scrutinized the table in front of him.
"Santos, has the 3rd mechanized, 4th infantry divisions arrived yet?" Still now with his arm crossed together the General asked the man beside him. "Ah General Simeón, whoever that is, isn't here, I'm the congress inspector. Bryan Rapocan." A man in a suit with glasses and an overall neat look said. Looking at the civil servant's smiling face, General Simeon decided to ignore the man and looked around his office. With a push of a button he called for someone again, only then did he face the suited man. "Mr Rapocan, as we are in a complete rush from all the things happening. I want you to relay the message of the congress, senate, or pretty much anyone in our governing body. In a quick manner." General Simeón sternly said. "Well besides the dire matters, the whole governing body, and the Commander in Chief would like to relay their thanks to your decisive actions as Chief of staff. Now, what we want to know is, that as the chief of staff, seeing as you made contact with the two other divisions of up north, do you perhaps have contact with the other divisions and islands of our nations such as Visayas and Mindanao?" Bryan asked, looking directly at the frowning eyes of the General.
Hearing what Bryan said, General Simeon sat down on a chair and took off his hat. "Yes? Landlines within the island work, well most are down. Besides this satellite phones still work, with that I've alerted most of our divisional commanders… wait, does the civil sector not have contacts with the local government units?" Said General Simeon, with widened eyes at the suited man. "Ah! Do not misunderstand we were mainly asking if you had problems with communication lines… moving on the LGUs also requested to have the municipalities and cities in danger and the zones containing the danger as in 30 minutes full on evacuation will be announced." Bryan hurriedly replied to the General, clarifying what he said earlier. "Well portions of Quezon, Caloocan, Valenzuela and Marikina are already being evacuated as of the moment. Quezon and Marikina have been hit hard specifically and the 1st armored division are still deploying to deal with the problem. There are high casualties in both military and civilian personnel mind you. This is just the northern area of the National Capital Region, where my division is the closest to. The southern and eastern areas are right now defenseless with only our helicopters and air assault units able to help in time. Which is why I'm hurrying for the 2nd infantry, and 3rd mechanized. Besides this the inner cities are currently fine along with the capital, however I would suggest police units to be alert and ready for combat." Answered General Simeon calmy, ignoring the somewhat rude actions of the government civil inspector.
Hearing the general situation they faced, made the civil inspector ponder. As General Simeon waited for the reply of the suited man, a soldier entered abruptly with a tablet in hand. Making a beeline straight to where the General sat, quietly narrating the information displayed on the tablet. Looking at the cautiousness displayed by the soldier, Bryan could only sit across them as they discussed. After several minutes, the soldier got up and left the room as quickly as he came, ignoring the soldier not saluting, Bryan looked at the General expecting any noteworthy information. "A few advance companies from the 2nd inf. and 3rd mech. have just arrived in their destined locations. However, monsters close to the cities that are relatively unaffected are starting to migrate, so we're doing our best to widen the lines across the NCR. We've regained contact with our CSG by San Fernando, same with the American CSG by Palawan. Now we've regained most of our vital communication lines, so things should become easier in time. Now however a big problem is the monster situation in Marikina and Quezon is getting worse, now the monsters are in Antipolo and nearly massacred all the students." Seeing the look the Civil inspector gave him, General Simeon answered the questioning look not bothering to hide any. "Are things that bad in Marikina, and Quezon?" Nodding to what the General said, Bryan asked further to clarify.
"They are, some skyscrapers and highrise buildings are on fire and under attack, right now the populace is in the brink of complete panic from the shockwaves and the shutdown of the internet and most traditional means of relaying information. People are dying in droves." Replied General Simeon in the most straightforward manner. Expecting the young man to be completely flustered or in panic at the situation, General Simeon ignored Bryan and looked at the holographic map again, as he turned his back at the inspector, he heard Bryans voice. "General, are you aware of Project 324ERRT?" Bryan asked General Simeon. "What's the connection of the Palawan mining scandal to our needs, Mr. Rapocan?" Asked the General, annoyance present in his voice as he questioned the suited man.
Tidying his tie, Bryan straightened himself. "The scandal was a way to embezzle funds for that project, Chief… besides me being a congress inspector, I am also the Presidents, and the NICA's eye, ear, and mouth to the chief of staff." Said Bryan, looking at the general with his hands out and holding a tablet displaying various images and videos of people, terrain, rocks and findings. Hearing such wondrous words coming out from the uninteresting civil inspector, General Simeon glanced at him. After a brief pause and seeing the man utterly serious while holding the tablet, he decided to face him again. "I don't care about the politics, Rapocan. Tell me why is the National Agency and the head himself, our President, involving me in the biggest embezzlement scandal of our history in dire times?!" General Simeon commanded as he faced the inspector, his hands to his coat pocket, holding the gun ready to withdraw in any second. Seeing such feedback from the cold logical General, Bryan could only sweat as he stood tall, the tablet still showing to the General. "Forgive me General… I- I- the president doesn't want to disparage your friendship with him… I only wanted to show you the super weapons our nation hid…" Bryan said, head down, body straight as he held out the tablet further. Glancing at the images and videos on repeat that showed, and bolded words displayed, only then the General speak. "Speak inspector. Be concise and brief. But do not omit."
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Looking up to face the General, he saw him, hands deep in his coat pockets. In fear and regret of his deep blunder, Bryan could only nod and gulp. "The Project funded the exploration, research and retrieval of a cave system in Palawan as is common knowledge. But one thing is that place can give people power if you stay long enough… which is what the funds have been in use for, the National Intelligence and the President hopes for you to use the trained individuals in getting rid of the monsters…" Bryan said weakly to the General, regret present in his voice from offending the General. Tablet in hand and simultaneously looking at it and listening to Bryan, the General could only be skeptical of its credibility. "So the President has been cultivating a force that the Congress, Senate and I don't know about?" Hearing the now somewhat calm reply of the General, Bryan only nodded. "...of super humans?" General Simeon asked, still skepticism present in his face and voice. "Yes Sir." Bryan resolutely replied. Despite the outlandish news of some kind of superhumans, General Simeon could only accept it. Monsters, sudden communication black out, superhumans. Huge political schemes and scandals that can destroy the political arena… God bless us. With these thoughts about the event, General Simeon had no option but to just play with the cards handed to him.
"Well where are they? If the President thought of it worth the risk to reveal such a career ending news to me. Then they ought to be worth it." General Simeon said with a sigh as he massaged his temples. "Thank you for understanding and not outright trying to gain power, General. The rest are outside the command tent, we number some hundred and two. Me included." Bryan replied with a sigh of relief as he bowed his head at the General. "Bring me to them, I need to see if they can make any difference in the worsening battles." Said the General as he put on his hat, ignoring the fact that the inspector was a part of this elite group. With a shit eating grin, Bryan bowed his head again and opened the door. "We won't disappoint you General, just a squad of us can bring down a nation overnight." He said while letting the aging man go first.
2/14/2029 2:40 PM
"Eyy Goose, Do you think things are good down there?" A voice from the radio said while the pilot named Goose looked through his aircraft at a large skyscraper collapsing on another building. With a deadpan voice Goose looked at another aircraft nearby on his right. "They're fucked. In all honesty we're fucked…" Hearing this the pilot on the other side only sighed as he saw the now collapsed skyscraper and possibly thousands of people in complete panic. "Jesus… Let's just hope china or other countries won't take this as an opportunity…" Now looking at the cloudy skies ahead of him, Goose tried to completely ignore the chaos happening below them. "Cooch, we should return to our flight path and complete the patrol run." Hearing this the two jets flew away from the chaos down below. "Copy, this is Cooch, returning to the ordered flight path, over." Deciding to pull a couple Gs for a cool exit, the two pilots with their jets flew on the outskirts of the now in chaos metropolis.
2/14/2029 2:40 PM
"Amiel! Quick let's go, we need to hurry to the shelter!" Shouted a young woman among the chaotic crowd as she pulled on a young man, that with all his might held on to his bag while tightly holding the young woman's hand. Cutting through the fleeing crowd of people, the young woman led Amiel, the young man, to an alleyway. Taking a shortcut through the tight houses and stores, barely navigating the alleyways, the young woman with Amiel in tow managed to make their way onto the main road. "Wait Hanna! We shouldn't go there, there's a fight happening!" Amiel loudly said as he pulled Hanna, stopping her from following down the road. With his fingers pointed at the direction they were heading, surprised by the irregularity of Amiel, Hanna, the young woman, looked at the crashed smoke and dust ridden direction where Amiel said a fight was underway. "What are you saying Amiel? There's no gunshots, no nothing. If we go back now I'm sure there's monsters!" Said Hanna as she took Amiels hand again, pulling her down the road, and ignoring all the other people fleeing in different directions, or cars that crashed on lights or the side of the buildings.
"Believe me Hanna! Don't you notice there's no noise coming from the smoke? What if it's some kind of trap we're going to! The shelter could be under attack for all we know!" Amiel said, trying his best to convince Hanna from going inside the smoke. "Then where do we go huh? Back where we came from?!" Hanna replied, her voice filled with panic, as if at any moment she would have a breakdown. Amiel seeing this, let go of the bag he tightly held and hugged Hanna, making her calm down. "We hide. We'll go inside a building to its basement, or try to find another way, through an alley or a side road." Amiel calmly proposed as he stroked Hannas flowing hair, feeling her hands around him loosen and her head nodding slowly on his shoulder. Amiel took the initiative and pulled Hanna to the opposite direction of the main road. In a hurry they ran along with the other people running in the same direction, trying to match their speed but at the same time conserving their energy.
As the couple ran in the opposite direction, scenes of chaos started to show itself. Tall buildings in the distance being circled by flying creatures that were even visible despite the distance. Others engulfed in fire, despite the hopeless sight of indiscriminate attacks of the flying creatures. They saw that the government was doing something as Helicopters kept droning over the city, doing everything in their best to save the city. Rejuvenated by this hope of being saved, the two increased their pace. However their re-energized state soon came off as if a bucket of water dropped on it as an arrow came whistling past them, one grazing Amiel on his face. While others landed past them or onto fellow unlucky survivors, Amiel, only surviving due to luck, quickly pulled Hannah in his arms as he shielded her while diving behind a crashed car. With a bated breath, Amiel looked up at the tear stained face of Hannah, with a relieved sigh, he got up and leaned at the car. Peeking up, he saw ugly small green humanoid monsters wielding crude swords, spears, bows and crossbows. Dozens of them killed and brutalized the dead people that were too slow, while the rest rushed to the other fleeing people, all while ignoring their fellow monsters that shot arrows, bolts and threw their spears overhead. "It's those little fucking goblins! Quick!" Said Amiel in panic as he looked at the several goblin monsters making their way closer.
Stumbling as he got up, Amiel brought up Hannah and pulled her as he ran. Still in shock from all the suddenness, Hannah only looked around themselves before his eyes landed on the panicking Amiel. "Amiel, why don't you go ahead? I'll stay." Hannah weakly said as she ran just beside Amiel. Despite the chaos and screams erupting all around them, Amiel still managed to hear what hannah said, and could only look at her with complete horror. "Don't! Get a grip Hanne! Just follow me!" He angrily shouted while tightening his grip on Hannah's arms. With his friends suicidal thought, Amiel ran with increasing intensity with a tightened grip on Hannah. Feeling that her friend wouldn't be so keen on her idea, she yanked her arm, trying to get free from Amiels tight clutch. "Let me Go Amy, I'll hold them off while you go ahead." Hannah sternly said, while furiously yanking her arm. "What are you saying Hanne?! We just have to be a bit faster! Don't do this Hanne!" Angrily said Amiel as he tried to further tighten his grip. Feeling that she wouldn't stop, and running while tussling could endanger them both, Amiel abruptly stopped, holding Hannah in his arm and despite the harm decided to knock her out with his own head, effectively bashing his own forehead to that of Hannah.
Just why are you like this now Hannah?! With a groan, Amiel supported the unconscious Hannah and tried his best to carry her on his back. After a couple seconds of trying to place his hands the best to not touch her inappropriately, he breathed a sigh of relief as he looked back at the now closer group of goblin monster's. At their head a hooded goblin on top of a large wolf and wielding a large stick, maniacally waving it around the air. With the monster's only being a hundred meters out and could easily catch up to them, Amield turned around, and ran with Hannah on his back, powering through the pain of knocking someone out. Forgetting and throwing other thoughts out, Amiel only focused on the fact to run, carry Hannah, and do his best to not be inappropriate. Running for several minutes at a fast pace, Amiel noticed and found himself somewhere familiar. And unlike the several minutes of endless running in a straight line, decided to finally make a turn, navigating through the now familiar roads. Noticing that he was effectively alone, with no other people or monsters in sight, he decided to calm it down and take in the sight, a sight that could only be said to be sad. Before this could affect however, he heard gunshots and people shouting in the far distance. With the possibility of survival so close, he decided to again run, now with a direction to actually head to. Turning to an empty intersection, some distance away from him, he found soldiers flanking a convoy of military vehicles slowly making their way to him. "Over here!! We need help!!" Amield shouted with his last remaining energy and proceeded to collapse in a prone position. Taking in mind Hannah when he collapsed.
Surprised that someone came out of nowhere, the soldiers, still alert from the early encounter with monsters, as seen with the corpses of various looking monsters littered around. Quickly aimed at Amiel's direction, expecting a horde of monsters. But instead it was a collapsing person with someone behind his back a distance away. Relieved to see a survivor, the soldiers put down their weapons and signaled to the convoy. Not knowing he nearly died from a few trigger happy soldiers, Amiel, still lying down facing Hannah, waited for help while gulping all the air he could. After a bit of time, he heard a car speeding to them, stopping just by his side. From this soldiers came out and started to surround the truck along with Amiel and Hannah. Creating a perimeter around them, staying alert for any monster that might pop up. As the soldiers and escorts secured the perimeter, a medic and a medical personnel quickly tried to check what was wrong with Amiel and Hannah. "Kid, are you hurt anywhere? Is this young girl hurt anywhere?" The medic asked as he carefully flipped Amiel while the medical personnel that came with him tended to Hannah. "Just tired and this graze, she's knocked out, probably has a concussion." Amiel tiredly answered. "Don't worry, a bandaid and we can fix your pretty face… now HUP" Said the medic as he carried Amiel, with the medical personnel doing the same to Hannah. "How far did you run for you to collapse this bad kid?" Asked the medic, interested in their story. "Fairview, then here, that's all I remember, my minds too hazy right now." Amiel answered frustratedly, hinting at ending the conversation short. "Ohh, well restwell kid, we'll get you to the nearest shelter." The medic assured staring strangely at the now sleeping Amiel. "Adrenaline can sure do wonders… some two kilometers of running while carrying someone" Said the medic, as he viewed the young man with respect.