Ava Adore/Battle for Founders Falls
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
((OOC: Sadly I did not get a log of this, but it was perhaps one of the single most awesome events I've been involved with in game thus far on this scale. I've tried to remember as best as I can the specific lines made over broadcast however I don't remember the names off hand associated with comments made. The whole invasion was surprisingly lag free and IC the ENTIRE time. These sort of things are what make Virtue great, in my opinion.))
NOTE: Free to Distribute
To my Comrades,
Rikti... I should have been glad to forget, I should have been happy I didn't remember those long nights, that 6 months of hell. I should have been glad to not remember the death, and destruction, the annihilation of anything familiar or comforting.
And now the bastards want another taste, they want another try, a chance for them to finish what they started five years ago. So many lost their lives the first time, sacrificed for the greater good so we could continue on, Hero 1 and Omega Team, they gave their lives to close that portal to stop them. Now its our turn, to honor their sacrifice and defend what they gave their lives for us to have, hero, villain it doesn't matter we have a common foe!
This is my home and I will not give them no quarter, no mercy, and I refuse to give them the satisfaction of victory. And I'm not alone, far from it, I was heading home, I'd heard about the attacks over the city broadcast, on the news, in the papers, from other people. I'd seen the activity in what was once the crash site now declared a war zone, the mobilization of the Vanguard to our city.
Earlier I'd met with Devin and Brendan and several others to check out the war zone, and lend a hand. Now I just wanted to sleep, and rest, exhausted, mentally torn, remembering the horrors of 5 years ago, the things I'd forgotten. The smell of death, the worry that each day was going to be my last, the desperate measures just to survive...
But I digress, I arrived in Founders from the Vanguard base in the War Zone, and began the walk for the train to Talos when the sirens started. Blaring over the city intercoms and in the distance, the air raid sirens. A chill ran down my spine, I saw Woodvale, I heard the sirens begin as everything went black around me, I heard the sirens in the distance as I later found my friends dead, my family dead. I heard those same sirens as I found my home destroyed.
The reverberation in the street sent me staggering grabbing a tree for support and knocking me back to the here and now. I could see the ship now in the distance, coming towards me, a Rikti drop ship. It was dropping payloads, the ground shaking violently with each one that hit, bombs, they were bombing Founders.
The smart thing would have been to run for cover, hell the intelligent thing might have been to get the hell out while I could. But I guess I'm not that smart anymore, not that focused on self preservation. The bomb came falling towards a group of citizens huddled in a bus stop, it took everything I could give to stop its descent long enough to scream at them to run, blindly they bolted for the nearest building slipped in with barely enough time.
My control slipped and the bomb landed sending me flying with the blast, I created a bubble around me of kinetic energy pushing as much of the debris away from me as I skidded across the ground. Wincing a bit I stood in time to hear the all call come over the intercom, someone was calling for a rally, desperately asking all available to join them south of Icon, we had to hold the line, keep them out of the city.
Stupid, so damn stupid, I ran as fast as I could to them, arriving just as the last of the bombs fell and the drop ships disappeared. I stared at the dropped war walls in amazement, how could they have done that, how did they disrupt the walls...
It was so quiet, a small group had arrived and we looked around, waiting for the storm to break, we all knew this was just the quiet before the storm. We didn't have long to wait, you could hear the portals go off before they appeared, Rikti warriors, with better armor, newer weapons, more fearsome them before. The fight ensued, the Rikti almost overwhelming us, shouts going out for help.
It seemed desperate, I tried to help those I could, ripping power from the Rikti warriors, tearing at their minds, but there were too many. Static filled the air already filled with the sounds of a battle as the intercom clicked on and a voice came over it.
"This is where we hold them. This is where we fight. This is where they die. Give them nothing! But take from them everything! This is PARAGON." it was a male voice, edged and backed by the sounds of battle. I almost laughed at the reference to 300, to King Leonidas, it wasn't really that far off.
It was the response that caught me off guard, around me people responded with excited, "Hoo rah, and Ooo Rah" and other chants and affirmative responses.
The voice again returned over the intercom, "Heroes! Prepare for GLORY!".
A cry went out collectively spirit renewed, and more people arrived, brought by the voice, by the sounds of battle. The tides turned in our favor, but the Rikti began to increase their numbers, and then the Heavy Mechs arrived, fearsome, armored machines of destruction. I'd seen them in the war zone but never quite this close up.
A voice cracked over the intercom, "We've got canned Rikti, anyone got a can opener?" I laughed, I actually laughed, the insanity and madness of it all, but the response that came back over the intercom was perfect, "No can opener mate, but I have my boomstick... This is my BOOMSTICK!!"
Another collective battle cry went out among those assembled and we took them out, all of them with ferocity and unity not often seen. The Rikti began to retreat realizing their efforts here were for naught, in the back of my mind I kept hoping, wishing they would get the war walls back on line.
Around me the Rikti were taunted, and jeered, some more vulgar then others with their comments. I found myself taken it by the mood, loosing myself in the enthusiasm, the intensity and the adrenaline rush. I almost felt like I was back in Woodvale, I was getting a chance for my revenge, for my life, for everything those bastards had taken from me.
I wanted to take it from them, all of it, every single last bit. For my father, and my friends, for all the people who didn't deserve it. For all the mothers who had lost children, and those who had lost loved ones, and family. The sound of the war walls snapping back to life echoed through the area and a collective cheer went out, as the last Rikti were dispatched the all clear was sounded over the intercoms.
Congratulations went around, but we all knew it wasn't over, this was only a battle won in a war, and there were casualties, property damage, and citizens injured, and many of the fighters were hurt. I did what I could to aid the wounded, help restore some of the energy to those others providing aid.
It wasn't till long after that that I took stock of myself in a store window, when someone told me to sit down. I was pale, deathly so, and covered in cuts, small wounds bruises and dirt. I looked like I had been through hell and back and I was beginning to feel it now as the adrenaline wore off.
Not sure how I made it home, not even sure how or when I showered and cleaned up or when I managed to eat, everything after then is fuzzy. But I don't care, I have too much I care about now, and I'll bring it to those bastards wherever they want to start the fight.
To my friends, to those I consider my family, and to those I love, to my comrades and brothers and sisters in arms I ask you to join me. They've brought the fight to our door again, lets give the Rikti the sort of welcome they deserve, one filled with the pain and sacrifice they caused us 5 years ago.
- Virtute et armis
- (By Courage and Arms)
