The Chicago territory is closely guarded; there are military personnel from practically every country here, each parading their presence. Mages are in abundance in the corridor, hired to hold the shield barrier in place to protect the people outside from the FID clouds and other unknowns on the other side. Twenty years ago a mass explosion cut through Chicago, blowing up much of the city, taking out buildings, roads, the city was in chaos. And then they came.

They, the brotherhood, they're a race of extra dimensional beings the likeness of bugs and termites, bees and ants, a likeness to most colony insects found on earth but different. They're all huge, and they eat mana. They're a mage's worst nightmare, cold bodies that absorb most forms of mana attacks, fire and lightning are but a few of those elements that can get through, they hit in swarms, going for the weaknesses in the defence. When they hit twenty years ago the world was still new to the re-introduction of the meta-human line and casualties were many.

But the forces beat them back into their rift and sealed it, as best they could anyway. The space between their reality and ours was weak here. The world united and decided to hold the city as an active ground zero. Dark mana still seeped into Chicago from the rift wounds, creating a hostile environment where mages couldn't stay for long, and those humans who had stayed had reported odd mutations appearing with their bodies. Some Meta humans were unaffected, the trolls and Orcs thrived there, some forming gangs in the newly sealed city, some more adventurous and brutal folk managed to create a source of income for the city in the form of huge factories which produced dark matter cells. Batteries made with the energy of the rift, but for the most part Chicago was dead, a no man's land. Perhaps its neutral status was why the exchange had been scheduled to take place there.

Lathain gathered the troop, including myself there was Convoy, Wizbit, KC, Geraldine, Hacker, Manning, and if I shifted focus I could see Adam. Quite the menagerie, the others had opted to stay behind, Cakador was still sleeping off the drugs and Bob the ghoul had decided to stay behind and wait for him to wake up, he assured us though that he would join us later. Lathain had taken the lab coat KC had swiped; I wore my own from the trip here. The rest were put in basic cuffs to look like prisoners. KC had pulled the creases from her uniform and was the acting guard. Basic but that was all we needed. I had no idea how Whisperer was going to get in, or Bob for that matter.

"Papers" a gruff voice huffed at Lathain, the elf had the sense to look humble before the aged guard at the Corridor's gate as his wrinkled hands flipped the pages. "You're missing one" he grumbled. Lathain shot him a sly grin

"Actually we have him right here, terrible accident with his magic, seems he's gotten stuck in his invisibility mode" he said, he removed the papers from the guard's hands "Thought it best to be honest and up front sir, keen eyes like yours never miss a trick" the flattery hit the mark, the old man's head clicked onto another point

"If he is indeed in your party then the sensors will pick him up, but it also means you've brought a mage into Chicago" he said, he leaned into Lathain "You know what this place does to mages young man"

"Yes sir" Lathain said "We're just here for a few days to drop off, we'll be outta here in no time" he said, the elf lowered his voice, I barely heard the next line "poor creatures are going to be tested on sir, see if the clouds are any weaker than when they started, there's more than one amongst this lot sir, my colleague is here to keep them on a short leash but we'll be safe enough" he nodded as he withdrew, a subtle end to the conversation. The old guard grunted and opened the gate; I shifted my gaze until I could make out the haze of Adam, once the crew were inside the gate I stepped in.

"All present and correct Ma'am" I said addressing KC who simply rolled her eyes as if she didn't really want to be here. In honesty I wasn't sure how real that image was, but it was enough to show the guards that we had accompaniment. The gate closed behind us and we started walking, ten meters ahead was a second gate and a grid of laser lights, the grid swept over the party, beeping for every person it detected, even Adam. Lathain had been smart to include him on the roster. The gate ahead of us opened and the dust flew in, smoky and slightly acidic like lemon citrus. We stepped through the opening, looking up there was a huge central spire to the old city which towered above every other building in the way Lathain towered over Geraldine's tiny form. Lasers projected a basic map into the sky, two areas of the city were obscured by a green mass, the FID clouds which rolled around the city, someone was in the topmost room of the tower mapping the cloud and projecting their presence out to the city residents. I made a note to look up often; I might need to find a safe place in a hurry. As the gate closed behind us I let out a breath.

We were in.

A/N: Thanks for reading guys, this is the end of part one. Part two is on the way. Playing the campaign this is based on was great fun, if slow. There were nine of us cramped into a tiny bedroom to play this, as a result I had a lot of characters to fit in, most sadly I've thinned out for the sake of the story, but the peeps behind those characters are ok with it. Sadly most of the new people to the group didn't stick around to finish the story, but hopefully they'll read this and find out how it all ended.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this, I'm open to reviews and suggestions for improvements, just leave a review or PM me

Cheers x