Jacob Copper

“Sir, the device, it is moving,” I looked up at one of my assistants.

“Which one?” I asked. I had set up several passive devices to monitor the situation as I continued my research into energy compression. The astrolabe technology was quite remarkable. The ancient United City States had made quite a bit of progress of interacting with energy on a physical level, and disrupting energy formations.

“Scanner three,” my assistant said. Why didn’t he say that in the first place? That was the baseline astrolabe set up to dictate seismic shifts in energy. I looked about, I didn’t see or feel anything. It was probably a mistake, but I should check. I made sure I could stop what I was doing and got up from my work bench and made my way to the side room where scanner three and other long terms experiments were set up.

It was actually moving, but I couldn’t see or sense any change in the ambient energy. That was very bad. I quickly went over to various batteries. The energy in them was increasing, they were drawing in more ambient energy than they should.

“Sound the emergency evacuation. Don’t just stand there, ring the bell, now!” Idiots, I was surrounded by idiots. The man rushed off as I quickly moved to secure my research notes and the most important items for my research.

The bell at the research camp began to ring as I quickly made my way to the air boat. “Sir, what is the problem?” The captain of the soldiers guarding this place asked me.

“No time, get everyone on board, we are leaving at once. Anyone not in the air boat in one minute is being left behind. Leave anything you aren’t carrying,” I called out loudly as I stepped on the airboat. My assistants and the soldiers rushed onboard. I quickly had the airship begin to lift off.

“Wait for me!” One assistant cried out. There was no time. The fact that I wasn’t feeling anything meant something was suppressing my danger sense and energy sense.

“Sir!” the Captain said to me as I activated the acceleration.

“No time!” I shouted back. One thing I was supremely confident in was escaping a dangerous situation. And this situation had become exceptionally dangerous for an unknown reason.

“AHHH!” The assistant with the lowest stats began to scream. There energy was undergoing a massive shift. I spun in place, while keeping one hand on the controls.

“Exsanguination!” Their blood exploded out of their body, killing them instantly. “Captain, kill anyone that shows any symptoms or toss them over the side. Lowest stat people are at the highest risk.”

“Yes, sir,” he replied with a tremor in his voice, and I was glad he didn’t put up a fuss. We didn’t have time for pointless theatrics or heroics. Whatever those shards were, had decided to act. Another assistant began to scream. They were quickly tossed over the side of the air boat by a couple of the soldiers, their scream trailing off.

“What is going on?” the captain asked me.

“The energy level is increasing, and there was no warning, and our stats didn’t pick it up. Whatever is doing this, is beyond my ability to counter.” Suddenly there was a loud bang. The engine had failed. Whatever allowed it to work, had broken, we were headed for the swamp in front of us.

“Brace for impact,” I said while using energy manipulation to hopefully protect my body.

Jimmy

“What was that?” Something had fallen from the sky. I looked over at my teammates. The swamp sucked for grinding, but at least there crystals were good.

“An airship?” Rebecca suggested. We made our way over carefully. It was an airship. “We have flying monsters incoming!”

I quickly pulled out my bow. It was great for killing floating eyes. I pulled out an enchanted arrow and fired. It exploded and damaged a level 3 flying monsters. My teammates fired as well. Rebecca was our frontliner and she rushed forward to the airship to protect any survivors.

“I got two alive,” she called out as I fired my bow again.

“Got a level 4, we need to retreat!” I called out as I fired. We couldn’t stand against something like that.

“Exsanguination!” The thin Asian man she helped out of the crashed airship called out. The monster was instantly killed. “Captain, are you alright?”

“Just a broken arm. It looks like the rest didn’t make it,” he muttered.

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“We don’t have time for them. We need to leave now.” The man pulled out a small box and opened it, there were small rings that were spinning incredibly fast. “It is spreading.”

“What is going on?” I asked while stepping forward, since I was the team leader.

“Evacuate the zone. Something is happening. You stay, you are dead. Let’s go Captain.” They quickly raced off. I did not that the soldier was wearing the uniform of the Imperial Army and wasn’t a city guard.

“Let’s play it safe. Let’s head out,” I said.

“We are going to lose our permit,” Rebecca pointed out.

“Better alive and poor, than rich and dead. We have enough to get another,” I said as we quickly left. Rebecca was grumbling about wasted points.

Suddenly a massive spike of pain hit my head. “Ahhh!” I could only scream as I felt the insides of my head twisting about. I could also hear my teammates screaming as well.

Supreme Governor Clarissa

I woke up to one of the worst things imaginable. The bells were ringing, everything went black and white. I felt my heart skip a beat as the city shield went up. I was quickly out of bed and dressed in under a minute. I left my bedroom as my personal guard fell in around me. I quickly made my way to the command building attached to the Imperial Palace.

“What is happening?” I demanded from the watch commander.

“Chief Researcher Jacob Copper reached the West gate, ordered the city shield to be immediately deployed. He has stated there is an impending empire wide disaster, a possible calamity,” the watch commander said. “I have ordered him to come here immediately and have sent the full city into lockdown. The level 2 shield for one day has been activated.”

“Sir, we are reporting minor cracks to the outside of the shield from multiple towers,” one of the soldiers called out.

“Call up all reserves. Initiate martial law,” I quickly ordered. Whatever was going on, it clearly wasn’t something small. Whatever those shards were, they were doing something. To reach Purgatory, meant they were acting across multiple zones. The only other things with such a large range were the Sword and the Almighty System.

It took twenty minutes for Jacob to be rushed to the situation room. He was gasping for breath and looked incredibly worn down. But I didn’t have time to be nice. “What is happening?” I asked. I noted Doctor Katz had shown up as well. That was good, his insight and combat would be helpful.

“The ambient energy began to increase. No warning through danger sense, and I couldn’t sense it. Whatever is happening is bypassing stats. The shield should stabilize the energy levels inside the city,” he said while breathing heavily.

“The shield is holding, but increasing damage. Unknown time until failure,” the watch commander said.

“The lowest stat people are impacted first,” Jacob said.

“What other ways do we have to counter this, I need options,” I demanded. There was a long stretch of silence.

“We need to recall Emperor Michael. Out of everyone, he would have the greatest chance of investigating what is happening while not being injured,” Jacob said.

“And if he can’t and is somehow killed? How much warning is there?” I asked.

“No warning. One moment people are okay. Next they are screaming and clutching their heads. But we don’t have the stats, or the ability to push back at whatever is doing this,” Jacob said.

“Is this the calamity?” I asked.

“Perhaps an aftershock. The energy spike isn’t as much from what I could tell. Much more gradual, it isn’t sudden. What is concerning is that it is bypassing the abilities granted from stats. The implications of that are deeply concerning.” There was silence at this statement.

“Shield cracks have stabilized. All muster locations reporting ready,” the watch commander spoke up. I nodded absently at this.

“Doctor Katz, your opinion?” I asked.

“I would have to double check, the energy outside the shield. We should prepare for tests to gather more information. I am afraid it will require volunteers or criminals,” he said.

“Work with Jacob here, full authority to full people out of the prison,” I said while writing down the order and handing it to Doctor Katz after signing it. “Send three squads with him,” I ordered as the watch commander quickly made arrangements. General Abdullah would have been nice to have around, but he was off to the West.

“Anything in the zones outside the shields?” I asked.

“Nothing is coming up at the moment. No reports from anything up on the walls either,” the watch commander reported back. I considered the overall situation and how it was quickly spiraling out of control. While Michael liked to joke I was the core of the government and he couldn’t do things without me, I needed to not lose my staff. Filling all the positions from the ground up would be impossible.

If the government fled, public confidence would plummet. But I was not about to risk my life on unknown variables. It was time to leave, and reassess the situation at a safe distance.

“We will prepare an evacuation of the government,” I finally decided. “Issue the orders for code black, we will evacuate to maintain the government. We will use the Forbidden City as our designated fallback point,” I replied.

“I will need to confirm that order Supreme Governor, with the code of the deek,” the watch commander said.

“789451,” I quickly rattled off the numbers. “Code black. We will depart in fifteen minutes, and pick up Jacob and Doctor Katz during our departure. Watch Commander Carlson, you have command of the defenses of the city of Purgatory, until such time as you are relieved.” I turned to look at him and he had a grim frown on his face. He gave me a salute.

“I understand, Supreme Governor. I will hold the capital for as long possible to prevent it from falling into enemy hands or being lost,” he said. I nodded at this and quickly left the situation room to make my way to the airship port.

All the important government personnel would be coming with me on my personal airship as I escaped the city. “Supreme Governor, there is an issue with the prisoner. She claims she has critical information,” I paused as a soldier ran up to me. Curse the Avatar. We should have moved her to a different city long ago, but Michael liked seeing her suffer.

Still, if anyone had anything useful it would be that woman. “Continue the evacuation preparations, I will see to the Avatar myself before we depart,” I told my personal guard and then two of them rushed off to make sure the airship would be ready for my arrival. I diverted course to head to the plaza and to speak with the Avatar.

Hopefully she could shed some light on the situation and whatever was happening.