Theory of Absolute Survival

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Uuko

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Mariana HQ - Three hours after the Sign

The sandy shores of the volcanic island was truly a sight no one would doubt its authenticity. The horizon was a beautiful cloudless blue which seemed to make anyone viewing such a sight assume what had happened only hours before was merely a dream. In fact, that would be what many would simply believe if it wasn't for the creatures that were near them. These creatures, while they were acting docile and obedient currently, held amazing powers which helped the majority of those standing around, the summoners, survive the Sign. And they had appeared from their machines; or more specifically, the Goetia app.

Then there was the peculiar sight of uniformed men standing around the summoners much like a human borderline, keeping them within their sight. It was a necessary thing to do, since currently the island's shores were occupied with thousands of people - it would be difficult to make sure no one decides to explore the island and be unaccounted for.

A platform was placed up high where the thousands of summoners could see from where they were. Once it was set up, one of the uniformed figures rose to stand there. The figure was a woman; she was not particularly tall nor charismatic, but held a likable face. Her cheeks were showing a healthy pink under the auburn fringe, and both her dark-brown eyes and glossy lips were smiling with friendliness. She poked at the headset attached to her right ear and the familiar noise of speakers reverberated at the shore.

"Greetings to you all,"
The woman's voice was amplified so that everyone could hear. She spoke with an unwavering voice while making sure to make eye contact with as many people as she can.

"First of all, thank you for being here at this moment. My name is Cerise Vylia and I am here to speak on behalf of the organization which has brought everyone here today. We are called the Mariana; a secret organization striving to aid humanity from destruction. We have worked in the shadows to support the continued existence of our society, but due to a certain event that everyone here has personally faced, we have decided to step out to the public - and to you."
As Cerise paused for a moment, a shadow scurried up the platform. It jumped up to the shoulder of the woman with ease, to which she did not react. Upon closer inspection, one would find out that the shadow was in fact a small black cat.

"The sudden quakes and tremors, and the appearance of creatures... We of the Mariana have called this event the Sign, because we are certain that this marks the start of the biggest event mankind has ever faced. We have evidence to support that there will be more disasters like the Sign in the near future, and each disaster will become worse than the last."
Once again the woman paused, letting the words sink in to the summoners. The cat on her shoulder went to lick at its paws, and if anyone was observing the cat more closely than Cerise, they would realize that its eyes changed from blue to amber depending on the angle they are viewed from.

"There is still hope however. Each and everyone present here has been chosen by the Goetia Network to wield the power of controlling creatures. Not much is known of the Goetia Network and the Goetia app, but be assured that it is the key to save humanity. The creatures summoned from the Goetia app will follow any command and each creature has its own ways of aiding us to our goals, as I am certain everyone is fully aware of. Their abilities have been proved when they rescued many from the Sign and many more from the summoner-less creatures.

"That is also why we have gathered everyone here from all over the world. Some may have lost a few things but others have lost their entire lives due to the Sign. We cannot regain things that are lost forever, but we can stand up to prevent further destruction; join us so that we can go through these disasters together. With everyone's determination and everyone's creatures, we can secure ourselves a brighter future.

"For those who wishes to join us in protecting our future, please progress towards the center of this island to the dormant volcano. There will be Mariana members who will show around the living quarters and the mess hall, as well as some basics about our organization. For those who refuses the offer - I give my heartfelt regret. We do not however want to enforce our rules on anyone, as we do believe in the freedom of individual choice. Those who do not wish to join us, please follow this creature - it will be a guide to the teleporters which will send everyone back to the main land. Unfortunately we can only safely teleport to New York City of the former United States of America at this moment. There will also be a survival pack for everyone leaving - these include rations and tents as well as various other items deemed necessary for survival."

With those words, the cat in Cerise's possession sprang up at a speed no normal cat could attempt and landed on the shore. Ignoring the people around it, it started walking around the shore. The uniformed Mariana members dissolved their human borderlines and allowed the summoners to make their choice; move up to the inner part of the island in order to become a Mariana summoner, or follow the cat-like creature to the teleporters and survival packs back to New York City.

OOC/Sign-up: OPEN SIGNUPS - Theory of Absolute Survival | IwakuRoleplay.com[/hr]
 
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Location: Mariana island.

Max trudged around the beach. His left arm was broken, and in a sling. Courtesy of Mariana medics. A mixture of emotions, mostly confusion, filled him. He called up and down the beach, looking for anyone he knew. So far he couldn't find any. His creature, the NG-3, followed him. Max was a little freaked out by it. An intelligent robot had appeared out of nowhere and now he didn't know how to get rid of it. So it just followed him. Yet, he didn't mind it too much. It had saved him back in Virginia, from some monstrosity that appeared out of nowhere.

Flaaaashbaaack

Max was in his office in Virginia. A big wide hangar was filled with activity. A jet engine, bolted to the ground, sat in the middle of the room. Max and his colleagues stood a few feet next to it, behind bulletproof glass. They held clipboards and wore earmuffs. Maxs team had designed the engine. It was a next-gen stealth engine. It was built to be heat resistant so that heatseeking missiles couldn't lock on. Max spoke into a mic. "Clear exhaust?" A colleague called back that it was clear. "Alright, beginning test number one of XR-2800 stealth engine. 3..2..1..ignition." The engine hummed to life. It's components started to spin. Max observed for a short time. "Alright. Bumping it up to 1,000 RPMs." The engine spun faster and the high-pitch whine of a typical jet engine grew in volume. Max pointed a remote thermometer at the exhaust. The temperature was low. He had to raise his voice to be heard. Alright! She's looking good! Bumping to 5,000 RPMs!" The engine spun faster and the noise became louder. A clear and straight trail of fire was now being emitted from the exhaust. He pointed his thermometer at it. The temperature was much too high. "Shut her off! It's not working!" The engine began to slow down and the noise lowered in volume. Max moved out from behind the glass and stood near the rear of the engine. "Test one. Failure." His colleagues shook their heads in disappointment. Max took his earmuffs off and worked the calculations in his head. As he stood there, observing the engine, his phone rang. But it was not his set ringtone that the phone emitted. He took his phone from his pocket and noticed that an odd app that he had never heard of had been downloaded to his phone. The Goetia app.

It was then that a large creature made if oil crawled out of the engine. It oozed out of the cracks. Everyone stepped back in confusion at what they were seeing. Security, unsure what to do, watched awestruck. The creature suddenly lashed out. It shot bolts of hot oil at anything and everything. The bolts were fast enough that they ripped a hole in the metal hangars wall. Personnel ducked for cover. Max didn't move fast enough. The oil monster put pressure on the bolts holding the jet engine in place. When they broke the engine toppled over and fell on Max. His arm was trapped beneath it. The creature stood over him. His life flashed before his eyes as hot oil dripped onto his face.

Then the creature the Goetia app gave him sprang forth. Parts of nearby machinery broke apart and flew together to form the NG-3 droid in its maintenance configuration. The oil monster turned to face it. The droid, with its red eyes, analyzed the creature. The oil monster lunged at NG-3. As it did NG-3 jabbed it with its arc-welder. The monster caught fire and slowly dissolved in a bright bonfire. NG-3 removed the debris pinning Maxs arm. It was soon after that a Mariana rescue team brought them to the HQ.


Present time

Now he was faced with a decision. A woman, probably their leader, spoke to the crowd. They were to make the choice of following the cat, or heading inland. To the ruins of New York, or to the supposedly safe Mariana HQ. Max wasn't sure which way to go. What if these people weren't telling the truth and they caused the disaster. A well equipped organization with advanced tech that knew way more than the rest of the world about this event? It was suspicious. Unsure, he walked inland, to join the Mariana. As he did, NG-3 returned to its summoning device to recharge.
 
It surely wasn't one of Lauri's best days. In fact, as far as the 29-year-old secret organization lackey was concerned, the world more or less literally going to hell was quite the opposite. As he stood in line with his colleagues, he paid no particular attention to the civilians, the creatures, or his superior's confident voice as she spoke up on a platform. Instead, he did what he was used to doing: go over the facts, consider them, and arrive at a logical conclusion and course of action. However, this time it wasn't that simple, he didn't have all the facts, just a fraction of them and lots of speculation. All he knew was that for some reason, a world-wide 'catastrophe' had just occurred mere hours earlier that had left most cities at absolute ruin, the 'creatures' that had been spotted only few times earlier were now suddenly appearing everywhere, these things could however be controlled with this 'Goetia app' but no one knew its origins either, and to top it all off, he had no idea whether everyone he knew in his Northern home was dead or not.

It was indeed very far from the best day ever.

When the incident had occurred and Lauri had been ordered to work in rescue operations like most of the Mariana personnel, he had been almost rendered unable to fulfil his duty. He had felt like the very floor had disappeared from under his feet as the situation sunk in, the very world had changed in more ways than he could comprehend in what felt like just a blink of an eye. If everything could change so suddenly with no warning, nothing was certain. There was no concrete facts he could always lean on, there was no truth, just chaos that made little sense.

Somehow, despite the ridiculous inner struggles he had been having, the man had managed to keep up with the rest of his squad. He thanked practised routines and muscle memory for that. To be honest, if he would have been able to think properly at the time, Lauri would have most likely asked to be sent to Finland even though he practically never made demands to his superiors. His job was to follow orders, not to tell his commanders how to do their jobs better. However, when you don't know whether everyone you care about is alive or dead, even Lauri could make an exception to that rule. That is, if he hadn't plunged into an illogical panic mode that kept him from even considering it at the time.

He simply needed to see the small forgotten Northern country for himself, assess the damage and figure out whether there was any chance any of his friends or relatives were still breathing. Finland was small, even the biggest cities weren't that big compared to actual big cities. Survival wasn't that farfetched, at least the sparsely populated Lapland, where his father lived, was probably more or less okay, right? However, as he scanned the civilian survivors gathered on the shore, he couldn't see a single familiar face. Not that that meant anything though, there were thousands of people and he could only see a small portion of them.

Anyway, Lauri had found himself searching for survivors and ripping new ones into some creatures in the wreckage that had been Spain just moments earlier. Oh, those carefree Spaniards hadn't had a clue of what was coming to them, much like the rest of the world. Lauri didn't remember much of the time he had spent pulling people out of destroyed buildings and trying to keep himself and everyone else around him alive, it all just blurred into one big mess. At least judging by the fact that he was still alive and hadn't managed to break anything, even though he didn't remember being that sore and tired in quite a while, he hadn't done such a bad job. He was bruised and battered but he had done what he had been ordered to do and come back alive, the credit of which went partly to his own personal creature, Iku-Turso. He was still rather baffled by the sea-lion-snake with moose horns and selective hearing but it had been useful so far so he wasn't complaining.

Lauri was pulled out of his thoughts as Sentinel Vylia finished her speech and he shuffled around with his colleagues to clear a path to the inner island for the civilians who wished to join their cause. The man’s sore muscled screeched in protest against the movement after standing still for a while but he did his best to ignore it. Many got it worse than him and whining about few cuts and bruises would surely help no one.
 
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[fieldbox=Sentinel Vylia, purple, solid]
[spacer]Cerise stepped down from the platform soon after the speech. She gave a small sigh at the current situation of it all; despite the way the Mariana seems to know everything there is about the Sign and the creatures, they were in the dark as much as the others of what lies ahead. If there were anyone who knew of something, it was most likely The Twelve of the Mariana; they had often predicted such events, though all they would tell to the others of the organization were merely cryptic phrases and questionable content. In fact, it was them who had personally named the calamity. To be exact, they had called it 'the sign of mankind's evolution' which was in turn shortened to the Sign. Cerise hadn't a clue as to what they meant, but she was in no position to question them. It was true that she has seen some of them personally, especially the one who goes by the name of Green as they were the one who appointed her to Sentinel all those years ago, but talking to them was like talking to a television or a radio - a one-way audio.[/spacer][spacer]The Sentinel gave a look around at the crowd. A few of the summoners chose their route, heading towards inland. Despite being part of the Mariana, Cerise felt discomfort at forcing people who were merely civilians a few hours ago into choosing from two less-than-optimal decisions; one assures survival for the price of freedom, and the other assures freedom for the price of survival. Even so, it was inevitable in this situation; she would just have to lead them to her best efforts.[/spacer][spacer]The Mariana members who had been there earlier to form the borderline came into her view. Most were idling, though she could see some of them chatting away. If a different Sentinel was in charge, they may have been more alert but Cerise was one to allow a breather to her troops as long as it does not hinder the mission. She knows that everyone has a family, a life and a goal, and that they need those intervals to rest in order to work harder for the organization. With that in mind, she called for the Mariana members.[/spacer][spacer]"That was the last group of survivors to give speech to so we are done with the work here for now. I know that I am not the commanding Sentinel in charge of the majority here, but know that I am proud of all of you who have fought with your lives on the line to spare even one more life and to eliminate one more threat. Know that I've also personally requested from your Sentinels to give you all a good rest today, but remember to be prepared for tomorrow. Remember however of your first days being in the Mariana and do help out the new recruits whenever possible."[/spacer][spacer]With those words Cerise dismissed them, for there were little threat now. It was a simple matter of an emergency broadcast if there any threats were to happen on this artificial island.[/spacer][/fieldbox]
NPC Matthew@ Dormant Volcano Entrace
[spacer]The Illusion member Matthew was placed at the base of the dormant volcano, which also served as the 'main' entrance into the headquarters. This was also the only authorized entrance to non-members, for the restricted areas are placed furthest back when entering from here. From here, Matthew was acting as a friendly guide to the recruits.[/spacer][spacer]It was Cerise's idea to have Matthew stationed here, mainly because he was the youngest of Cerise's division - turning twenty two this year - and the most inexperienced when it came to working with people. He had the qualities to become an Illusion, but with a fatal problem of being reluctant to initiate a conversation, usually due to feeling lazy. Once a conversation is going however, everything from his posture to his tone of voice to his smile was top-grade. He had a likable appearance to boot, nothing overly muscly nor overly feeble, with a well-trimmed auburn hair and bright, matching eyes.[/spacer][spacer]As he stood by the entrance, he could see figures appearing in the distance. Straightening up in his uniform, he waited for the first few recruits to come within hearing range to explain and show the hidden button to find the entrance as well as handing out maps of the headquarter's interior with clear indications of the important facilities such as the registration office, the living quarters and the mess hall.[/spacer]
 
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