AN: I primarily play Mage, but I figured I needed to spread the destruction around a little. Hence this chapter.
Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
Isaiah 21:9, Christian Bible
2 hours after the Reaper assault began, 1,847 Reapers on Earth
Earth was burning. Military bases and centers of political control were smoldering pits or ruins. All human satellites were destroyed. Roads were shattered, preventing humans from escaping the husk spawning grounds cities had become. Armies were defeated, vaporized against inhuman technology. The Alliance strength was broken.
Yet somehow, messages of strength and resistance still went out. Local broadcasts directing resisting humans to caches of weapons and rally points were on every form of media. People's home pages suddenly changed to Internet pages describing how to make explosives out of household chemicals and mod omnitools to form blades or hack shields. New troops appeared literally out of thin air, bolstering the beleaguered Alliance troops.
And Reapers poured onto Earth.
20 hours after the Reaper assault began, 12,645 Reapers on Earth
While humanity was attempting to resist the Reaper advance with some success, the majority of Reapers were whelming everything in their path. Whole cities burned, their populations crucified on dragon's teeth. Roads lined with teeth stretched for miles, stadiums bristled like forests of black spikes. The howling of husks filled the night.
The Reaper forces swept south down the eastern seaboard of America, crushing through New Jersey and swelling its ranks as they went.
This stopped when the Reaper advance reached Baltimore.
The sun darkened as black clouds suddenly filled the sky. An unnatural shadow passed in front of the Reaper advance.
However, Reapers do not fear meteorological phenomena, and the husks advanced into the sudden shadows without pause. The leading edge of the husk army was then thrown back, in pieces. Bloody limbs flew out of the darkness.
Dark and twisted figures melted out of nothingness to stand before the Reaper and its forces.
The towering Reaper noted the twisted limbs and festering appearance of the flesh facing its synthetically superior troops. The organics were distastefully spread haphazardly across the city limits, opposed to its own forces pleasingly deployed in efficient formations. Its great red eye noted a figure stepping forward, taller than the other pitiful meat-sacks that dared stand in its way. A strange human female wearing strips of black leather, standing almost twice the normative size of the median adult human female height. The Reaper spent a moment reviewing and cataloging the female's ensemble. Tacky décolleté. No color coordination. Awkwardly snug around the torso. It made her look fat. Fatty fat meat. Disgusting.
The woman threw her head back and screamed a challenge at the Reaper. The Reaper shuddered at the image of the human's flapping lips making meat sounds by squirting air through its meat. Revolting. The Reaper obliged the puny human by responding with a blast of beautiful magnetohydrodynamic energy to her face. The Reaper was surprised when instead of instantly bursting into charged particles and an artistic pattern of soot, the woman only seemed to laugh. Unflattering green fire shimmered into existence in a corona around her, and she leapt into the air, flying directly at the Reaper's head… from a kilometer away. As she flew, behind and below her, her twisted army charged the defenseless husks.
Zhyzhak the chosen of the Green Dragon will crush the last Gaian King under her heel in the final battles. She will not let anyone else seize her destiny.
The Black Spiral had come to dance.
40 hours after the Reaper assault began, 184,982 Reapers on Earth
California was a death trap. Hundreds of Reapers had landed here, converging and grinding through all human defenses.
After hours of desperate fighting, shattered remnants of Alliance troops, obstinate resistance fighters, and refugees gathered at Sequoia National Forest. Beneath the tallest trees in the world, they prepared their last stand. They had already thrown back several waves of husks, but they could now see the towering silhouettes of several dozen Reapers steadily advancing towards them, glowing eyes piercing the darkness. Heralds and guides of destruction, shepherding the milling husks towards the desperate living.
Behind barricades and inside hastily dug trenches, grim faced men and women gripped rifles, homemade melee weapons, and hastily programmed omnitools. Crying children huddled around giant trees, fingers digging into the ancient bark. The sun had long set, and the gibbous moon rose, a pale shining disk.
The wind stilled.
The next wave of husks came into view.
The forest fell silent.
The husks charged.
Out of the woods strode figures of legend. Barely clothed, carrying rough blades of silver wrapped in scraps of leather. Wolves crept at their sides, growling low in their throats as they stared at the tainted abominations striding forward.
The human defenders felt hope stir as the wolves and men stepped up and stood with them, holding the line.
The husks swarmed up the barricades, Reapers spat death beams from burning eyes.
Humans died.
Giant human-wolf death machines threshed husks left and right, only to be burnt to cinders by Reaper judgment.
Thundering impacts.
The groaning forest, energy beams cutting through trees, crashing them to the ground.
Desperate fighting as the human defense line bends but not quite collapses; overwhelmed.
Prayers of salvation, blood offered in sacrifice. Burning willpower spent.
A figure appeared, rising to heed the call of her children.
A statuesque middle-aged woman. Her nude form strong and Her eyes filled with staggering power. She carried the weapons of all the elements in Her hands, and death has no touch on upon Her.
She strode forward to meet the Reapers, and they stumbled to a halt as she approached.
Behind her was the immense shadow presence of a serpent the size of the world. Pangaea personified. The world snake, the elder serpent.
Beams of force leapt at her only to wither and die before reaching her.
Her stomps caused the earth to shake, throwing all the husks to the ground without shaking any humans. Her punches crushed Reapers, leaving them crumpled wrecks. Her breath swept her enemies before her, and her voice was thunder, cracking their limbs and liquefying their organs.
The spirits rise to defend their mother.
60 hours after the Reaper assault began, 591,091 Reapers on Earth
Hard light projections of maps lit the bunker, illuminating various sub-groups worked on coordinating different aspects of bringing war to the Reapers across the world.
"Alright everybody, quiet down!"
The underground bunker quieted, and the ad hoc defenders of Earth began to plan the next step of their counter offensive.
Today's focus was retaking Detroit.
"We have some important information from our scouts and…diviners."
The Alliance officer stiffly nodded at the mage dressed in snazzy blue jeans and a tee shirt that proudly boasted the slogan, 'A wizard did it'.
The mage leaned forward. "Bad news. We can't use our basic strategy of 'murder it all with lightning' this time. They're learning; they've spread apart and hardened their defenses." Disappointed sighs and grumbles came from the audience. "So we need to think of a new plan, preferably one that they can't easily figure out answers to."
An Alliance lieutenant gestured at the tactical map of Detroit.
"Well, let's think about what local resources we have we can use. What kind of unique advantages can we muster here in Detroit?" He almost managed to keep a straight face, just a small twitch of a smile appearing momentarily.
Snickers.
A voice called out, "Abandoned factories?"
There were a few snorts.
More heckling from the audience.
"Shattered glass? Boarded up windows?"
"Wild dogs? Gas stations without pumps?"
The mage smiled. An evil smile. "Abandoned cars."
Four hours later, 3,243,582 junked cars fell out of thin air and simultaneously crushed each of the 3,243,582 husks in the city.
80 hours after the Reaper assault began, 1,787,455 Reapers on Earth
The Weaver had driven the Wyrm mad. But madness can be cured.
80 hours after the Reaping of Earth began the Children of Gaia finished their desperate 72 consecutive hour rite and purified the Worm. Difficulty 10. 10,000 successes. 30,000 gnosis permanently offered up.
Everyone on Earth felt a roar of defiance deep in their bones, and knew with cold certainty that this roar echoes throughout all reality.
The Weaver's Pattern Web folded open on its own, allowing the Wyrm to rise unfettered.
The Beast-of-War cometh. Cahlash. Balancer and arbiter of reality. Guardian of the Tellurian. Destruction of all things. Cleanser. Rectifier.
The Reaper's endless Cycle of Extinction is over.
