TSW 21: Kasra's Dream (Part 1)

[18:17]	IcePickLobotomy	Time: TOO LATE. Location: THE MONUMENT TO YOUR SINS
[18:20]	IcePickLobotomy	Kasra: The sands shift beneath your feet, the tower standing tall under the pinkish moon. Lily's sword hangs heavy in your hand, the skin itching where it meets your flesh. . . .
[18:21]	IcePickLobotomy	The ground falls away, emptying int the Void. You fall, tumbling through the air.
[18:24]	Kasra	attempts to shift himself into a pencildive posture.
[18:27]	IcePickLobotomy	You fall past chunks of red rock that float freely in the void, the reddish orange dust buffeting you on your plummeting journey. You streak past. . . . A outrider?! The arm is missing as is half the head, the armor scoured and rent with bones peaking between the gaps. It's a pale green and silver, and you catch the number "07" on the shoulder pylon before it passes out of sight.
[18:32]	IcePickLobotomy	And then you hit the water. Your eyes sting and it tastes sweet and coppery.
[18:41]	Kasra	floats for a moment and opens his eyes. ttempting to fool himself into thinking he's not resisting to survey the area.
[18:45]	IcePickLobotomy	You're standing in a waist deep pool of crimson water, The waters carry a sickly sweet stench of rot and decay. Modern looking skyscrapers, streets, and cars surround you though worn and ragged by the ages, some having collapsed into piles of rubble. A cold dry wind carries with it eddies of red dust that lightly coat everything, and far above you streams of golden light writhe and twist and...
[18:45]	IcePickLobotomy	...flow like water. Past them is only a starless sky. In the distance you can see chunks of land floating freely in the void, all of them the same dusty red color.
[18:49]	Kasra	pulls himself to shore and sits down heavily, staring vacantly into the red earth
[19:01]	IcePickLobotomy	The wind is cold and empty. There's a sign "Evacuation Route 3-B" with a arrow.
[19:05]	IcePickLobotomy	Kasra: It's hard to notice, but there's. . . blood stains? on the road beneath the sand. The splatter though it looks to be from a giant.
[19:09]	Kasra	It takes time, and the movement looks as though he's nearly rusted still, but Kasra looks up to follow the blood trail.
[19:10]	IcePickLobotomy	It leads deeper into the city, you can see that the ground is pocket-marked by craters, a collapsed building cuts off the street but there is a intersection before it.
[19:12]	Kasra	tries to wail, but the noise will not come. He is at the intersection.
[19:21]	IcePickLobotomy	And when you come to the intersection you see a car on the left side. It's crushed beneath a shell-casing larger than it is. Dozens more of the casings litter the road.
[19:23]	Kasra	And to his right?
[19:24]	IcePickLobotomy	More shell casing, and a E-scale chain gun laying in two halves.
[19:24]	Kasra	moves to inspect the form of damage to the massive weapon
[19:26]	IcePickLobotomy	It appears to have been shorn cleanly in half, and moreover. . . It's the same weapon system you are familiar with. GPC/E-17 reads the writing on it. There's more but it's in a strange script, Japanese or Chinese from what you know.
[19:26]	IcePickLobotomy	*It's not the same
[19:34]	Kasra	peers between the walls of metal and over the street beyond.
[19:35]	IcePickLobotomy	You can see a lip of a massive crater.
[19:36]	Kasra	sits on a piece of rubble to catch his breath.
[19:57]	Kasra	After a period of time, Kasra edges to the side of the crater and glances over the lip.
[19:58]	IcePickLobotomy	The crater is. . far deeper than you would have though, the walls almost sheer down. At the bottom appears to be . . a lake and forest? But what really catches your eyes are the 6 massive forms laying on the ground. Outriders each and all, shattered and broken weapons littering the area around them, most are missing limbs.
[20:03]	Kasra	gazes up and down the ruined street, almost hoping to see a reason to proceed any direction other than down.
[20:04]	IcePickLobotomy	There are none.
[20:06]	Kasra	And as such, he descends.
[20:08]	IcePickLobotomy	Whatever battle that occured here was trully apocalyptic, the ground beneath your feet is either rubble, glassed and chared earth, or bits and pieces of the outriders. You can see a few stump where trees once stood, but the earth is packed and bare.
[20:13]	IcePickLobotomy	And. . . there's a large tunnel a few kilometers further along the crater, with a ejected plug not to far away from it.
Kasra
[20:21]	Kasra	scans for any signs of AT activity
[20:29]	IcePickLobotomy	[ https://youtu.be/V8NmynhfeUs?t=47 ] Nothing. More than nothing, it's like floating in a void. You hadn't realized just how sensative this sense was until you realized that you can't even the refraction off microorganisms.
[20:35]	Kasra	looks inward.
[20:37]	IcePickLobotomy	You can feel yourself, that comforting warmth of yourself huddled against the cold emptiness around you.
[20:39]	Kasra	attempts to discern the path of the victor, if victor there was.
[20:51]	IcePickLobotomy	The devastation is so catastrophic you can't really tell, but something your eyes are drawn to the tunnel.
[21:04]	Kasra	proceeds on his only path.
[21:05]	IcePickLobotomy	As you approach the tunnel entrance, and the plug, you can see that the other side of the plug is open, and the body of the pilot is sprawled out on the ground face down. She's wearing a red and gold plugsuit.
[21:07]	Kasra	inspects the body for identification.
[21:09]	IcePickLobotomy	You roll the body over and. . . They're mummified, but dried streaks of blood trailing from the eyes are still visible. The collar reads "Unit-03, Jane Tsai."
[21:10]	Kasra	"Tsai, Jane."
[21:11]	Kasra	allows the body to return to it's resting place roughly while attempting to commit this to memory. Before long, all that remains again is the tunnel.
[21:12]	IcePickLobotomy	Kasra: You notice a survival pack clutched in the bodies hands. It includes some medical supplies, a flashlight, and a handgun with a spare magazine.
[21:35]	Kasra	analyzes the supplies before hefting his sword, dismissing the pack as irrelevant and carrying on.
[21:36]	IcePickLobotomy	The tunnel is dark, a few emergency lights and flow-strips built into the walls provide just enough light to see. Rusted and broken vehicles, including one that's carrying several large cartridges with the same sort of hazard symbols as the anti-proton charges for the Positron rifles.
[21:52]	Kasra	proceeds down the tunnel, alternating between checking for any sign of AT activity and retreating to his own for reassurance that anything could live here.
[21:52]	IcePickLobotomy	You come across a door. In the dim light you can still make out the symbol on it [ http://img02.deviantart.net/da6d/i/2008/139/b/9/nerv_insignia_by_bluegrizzly.jpg ]
[21:54]	Kasra	tests the door.
[21:56]	IcePickLobotomy	No give for a moment before it does give way and opens, revealing a emergency stair-well leading downwards, light by chemical lights on each step.
[22:01]	Kasra	moves down the stairs/
[22:12]	IcePickLobotomy	Down and down and down you go before they bottom out. A heavy bulkhead door, battered open by some great force lays before you. You can however still read the text on it. "WARNING: RESTRICTED ACCESS. CENTRAl DOGMA."
[22:13]	Kasra	checks to see if the chamber seems familiar.
[22:14]	IcePickLobotomy	It's somewhat similar to the access to Layer-13 bulkheads, but more in function than in form.