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LORE
Warning, spolers below!
Drones (eyebots) used in police work.
Personal bionics become commonplace for the wealthy, and for those withhigh-demand government positions.
Escalations in China and DPRK lead to a “Cold War,” with both sides highly prioritizing defense research.
Transposition along 4th axis discovered by DARPA researchers.
Robotic police officers enter service in limited areas.
4th dimensional topology mapped out. It’s found that certain areas are "lower" along the 4th axis, allowing for relatively low-energy transposition into areas of interest.
Collection of materials along 4th axis commences. First contamination occurs but is confined to the two research labs with transposition equipment, and is in amounts so tiny (a few dozen molecules) that it is not remarked upon.
Gun control laws greatly relaxed as a result of perceived increase in public safety.
Robotic police officers are used in 95% of police precincts.
A new federal agency, the Xenophysical Energy Defense Research Agency (XEDRA), is created to oversee the construction and operation of 12 new 4th axis research labs, scattered across the midwest.
Other agency names:
- HYDRA (HYperdimensional Defense Research Agency)
- ATMAR (Agency for Transitional Mechanics & Activity Research)
- APRA (Abnormal Phenomena Research Agency)
Plasma weapons developed in response to rising threat in China, DPRK
Increases in extradimensional research leads to collection of living samples. This notably includes XE037 (blob). As time continues, larger and larger sub-prime monsters are retrieved.
XEDRA becomes increasingly internally politicized, with different divisions competing for research dollars, and oversight staff conflicting in their opinions regarding the direction and goals of research.
Short-range teleportation becomes a reality using fixed laboratory equipment.
XEDRA begins storing sub-prime lifeforms, particularly XE037, and researching their potential as a possible super-weapon.
Massive troop movements in China and DPRK provoke deployment by USAF. For the first time in history, a peacetime draft is instated.
The successes of XEDRA lead to a greatly increased budgets and the construction of hundres of new research & production facilities in appropriate areas.
Civil unrest regarding the drafts is widespread.
Troops begin deploying with cutting-edge bionics systems. They are, according to intelligence, outpaced by Chinese developments.
XEDRA gains increasingly unrestricted powers. Convicts with death sentences are used as subjects. Later, convicts with life sentences are used as well.
Zombifying effect of XE037 discovered.
Civil unrest progresses into wide-scale riots. Limited martial law instated in several areas. Deployment of robotic police is increased to maintain order.
Corruption in XEDRA runs rampant and the legality of actions is frequently ignored. Due to the perceived importance of XEDRA, and the extenuating circumstances of public unrest and riots, these oversteps are mostly ignored.
DPRK troop movements indicate an imminent attack. Missile launches batter South Korean port cities and act as a show of force. In response, US troop deployment is vastly increased, resulting in a much smaller military presence in mainland USA.
XE037 surge occurs. XE037, a kind of sanguine hive mind, is responding to XEDRA’s probes. The surge occurs in all teleportation facilities simultaneously. During this event, XE037 contaminates the ground water and establishes “colonies” (slime pits). It is unknown whether Chinese/DPRK facilities experience this surge, as it is unknown whether they posess the equipment to perform transposition experiments.
The first zombification incidents outside of labs occur. These are sometimes covered up by XEDRA; but often they aren’t even noticed, and the zombie is dismissed as a violent rioter and re-killed.
Merging of XE037 and plant life results in colonies of triffids. These are largely undetected, as they start deep underground as a triffid heart.
Merging of XE037 and insect life occurs, resulting in rapid transformations.
A series of terrorist attacks, including dirty bombs and biological weapons, is unleashed across the United States. NPRK & Chinese sleeper cells are expected.
Zombie outbreaks become widespread and critical mass is achieved; a zombie population which grows faster than it can be contained/killed.
Panic sets in; deaths are rapid and widespread.
50% zombification or death.
90% zombification or death.
Bombing of large US cities by an unknown aggressor commences. A crippled defense infrastructure is largely unable to respond.
A largely-defeated national guard retreats to fortified bunkers and air strips.
99% zombification or death.
The game begins. Which mostly holds, except where it conflicts with
The nation goes to high alert. Reasons are sketchy. Rumours of an imminent attack abound. News media briefly brings up stories of a few drug fueled maniacs attacking civilians, but they are quickly buried under speculation on a possible invasion.
Speculation continues. There are rumours of a new street drug turning people into violent, brutal killers. There are sightings of strange, large, aggressive insects in the woods, but no official confirmation.
There are suspected reports that the killers may be under the influence of a biological attack slowly creeping it’s way through the population, turning people into killers. Others dismiss these rumours as nonsense. The government refuses to comment, saying they are investigating and looking into things. A portal opens in a remote field in, but the government responds quickly and suppresses information about the event.
The bombs drop. Many cities in New England are hit with high explosives. The klaxons that are supposed to warn of an attack never sound, and the strikes appear to be precisely targeted, though there isn’t much special about the areas they strike at first glance. In reality, several of the smaller labs that scatter the area providing relays for the primary dimensional manipulation experiments have experience gateways opening in the immediate area, and their machinery refusing to shut down. Those inside have quickly been overwhelmed by extradimensional horrors. The strikes are against labs that have been overrun, or where the resonator equipment is still functioning, and locations believed to have opened portals. It is hoped the high energy yield of high explosives will collapse the portals, or at least destroy the equipment that makes it possible for them to open. In many cases, this works. In others, the strikes make things worse, changing how the portals work instead.
From several of these strikes, the portals absorb the energy and create a larger, fluctuating rift that allows noxious alien chemicals to billow forth in huge plumes. Those in the immediate area have their skin blister, boil, and slough off, and the chemicals quickly enter the atmosphere. Other areas have their portals turn into blistering infernos, or areas of extreme cold. It is hypothesized by scientists in-the-know that disrupting the lab network has caused permanent dimensional weakness and expanded our susceptibility not only to connections to the subprime plane, but also a number of neighboring planes. This is all fairly meaningless to the average citizen, who is mostly under the impression that life has turned into hell-on-earth.
Additional portals begin appearing around the world, even as the number of new portals in New England steadily dwindles. Creatures from the surviving portals, those expanded or missed by the bombs, begin venturing forth and slaughtering those they find. One portal expands violently, causing an explosion that erupts a cloud of spores into the air before closing permanently. These spores begin floating on the breeze, and several eventually find a home.
Finally, the klaxons sound, and a biological attack is announced. There is utter chaos, and many mixed messages. The military is deployed to try to control the situation, and martial law is declared. It is hard to ignore now that the dead rise again short afterward, and abominations roam the streets. Many head to evac shelters and bunkers, others try to lock their doors and stay in their homes. There is a huge migration of vehicles heading west.
As day turns to night, the first caustic rain occurs, returning the alien chemicals to earth at great distances even as they continue to pour from the portal rifts. The deadly rain lasts for almost 9 hours, killing most of those caught outside while evacuating.
Most of the monsters die off, seemingly only able to operate within a certain distance of the portals, before the effects of the prime plane begin causing severe degeneration. Unfortunately, the damage has largely been done. Worse, a few find the new plane perfectly comfortable, and begin to expand aggressively, while others such as the ooze that causes the zombies adapt to find forms that will let them expand beyond the range of their connection to another plane.
Those who are killed by monsters, rain, or any of the other new threats to appear raise as zombies, and even zombies that are killed with bullets or normal weapons will raise again soon afterwards.
In an effort to combat the new threats of both large amounts of undead humans and various otherworldly horrors, the automated security forces are quickly reprogrammed to behave much more aggressively, killing threats instead of just trying to arrest them if they were supposed to, and adopting a much wider view of what constitutes a threat. Unfortunately, this backfires - though they do identify the undead as a threat, and in several cases successfully engage them, the new settings also lead them to target the human “trespassers” running the security networks, and the networked security systems identify almost any living human as a hostile threat to be eliminated. The larger network itself collapses shortly afterwards, leaving no way to adjust the settings back, as each security unit - police station, military turret, autonomous hunter vehicle - reverts to independent control operating under the last instructions received
The nation declares a national disaster, and FEMA camps are setup and a large-scale evacuation begins, even as reports of portals opening in other locations begin to reach official ears. The evacuation camps prove to be deathtraps, attracting the attention of deadly creatures and the security forces who view them as “illegal homeless encampments”.
National support is pulled out of New England, and the area is declared a lost cause as efforts intensify to control the new appearances of portals throughout the rest of the US.
Acid rain occurs intermittently. The acid breaks down fairly quickly after it falls to earth, but several portals remain open that pour the caustic material into the sky. Like a volcano, some portals remain quiet for a while before letting forth a huge belch of a toxic cloud, while others release a steady, uncomfortable trickle.
The first fungaloids are encountered by a small military patrol, and retreat to a nearby farmhouse after one of the soldiers is killed by something erupting from the ground. They report the presence of several large fungal growths, almost human height, and a haze that has settled over the area. Fine powder seems to cover every surface within hours. By the end of the day, the spires will be significantly larger, and the number of fungaloids surrounding the house grow endlessly in number . The last reports from the soldiers indicate strange symptoms among the soldiers, and that fungal growths from the engine are preventing their vehicle from starting. They are not heard from again.
Triffids, strange plant-like creatures that seem to build upon the existing root networks in local forests, are seen growing in multiple places, having been dropped by Triffid seed-runners that escaped through one or more portals. They quickly attune to the new landscape, and many regions of forest begin slowly converting into triffid groves. The Triffids and Fungals seem to be related somehow.
The giant insects begin spread as well, serving as a useful vessel for the goo, but maintaining many of their primitive impulses. Construction begins on enormous hives, dens, and colonies.
The future government of America is sensationalist, reckless, and in many ways quite dystopian. However, the average person’s life is pretty good, aside from the constant threat (or at least claims of a threat) of military attacks by some foreign power (usually China or Russia) that may or may not actually be plotting major military actions. The government has encouraged disaster preparedness among the population, and firearm restrictions are distinctly different than they are now. While not everyone can purchase and own a firearm, and firearm ownership is very closely tracked, it is also actively encouraged by the government to fight off any potential invaders, and higher caliber firearms and explosives are actually available on the civilian market.
The evac shelters were built as part of a government program to help improve both the morale of the populace at large (by convincing them the government was looking out for them) while also increasing the general sense of fear and danger (by convincing the populace such shelters were needed). They approved effective at these goals. The shelters were not, however, ever actually stocked - the funding fell out when the military realized both goals had been effectively accomplished, and no more money needed to be wasted on them. After all, in the event that the shelters would ever actually be needed, it is unlikely they would end up very useful - any major military attack was unlikely to leave many survivors. Standing as empty unstocked, relatively insecure buildings on the outskirts of the city reminding people of what could happen was the only service they were ever actually expected to provide.
Fungals actually play a vital role in the triffid’s ecosystem, and are carried in small amounts on most triffids. It is sometimes used by triffids to prepare an area with rich fungal remains before the triffids move in. However, when it gets out of hand, the triffid’s respond with variants specifically tailored to controlling and eliminating the fungus. The fungus also has an inhibitory effect on the ooze, fighting it for dominance - this is how it can take control of infected organisms, creating giant fungal bugs and fungal zombies. The fungus is mostly unthinking, but quite effective at converting both enemies and the landscape into allies.
The Netherum - whether zombies, flaming eyes, kreks or migo - can best be seen as individual specialized cells in a larger organism, like a human being, sponge or (perhaps the best analogy) a slime mold. The ooze that infects zombies is akin to a kind of netherum stem cell, and can eventually take many forms. Like with stem cells turning into specialized cells, though, more advanced netherum creatures like the Migo no longer have the versatility of the basic slime and are locked into their form.
Every basic component of Netherum contains the information for every possible Netherum creature, but, just like with DNA, the information expressed depends on a variety of environmental stimulus - including the proximity of a sufficient amount of nearby Netherum creatures of different types. This is not the first time the triffid’s and the Netherum have encountered each other.
Initially large nether creatures died quite quickly in our world if they stay far from the energies of a portal or other subprime access point. But some of them were able to adapt to our environment to a certain extent and gained the ability to survive far away from portals. Still hostility of Earth 's environment limits the spread of large nether creatures. So far, no reproduction or young versions were observed. But no one knows how long this limitation holds.
On the other hand, the more distributed version of the netherum has quickly found it’s niche living within the bodies of large native organisms, improving their odds of success in multiple passive ways, and taking full control if the organisms life ceases to restart the organism’s basic functions under the Netherum’s control. With a protective fleshy or carapacian shield between it and the environment, the Netherum is able to comfortably persist in our world far from the portals.
There is more than one subprime plane. The Netherum comes from a more distant plane than the triffids and fungals, and is part of why the triffids and fungals can survive in our reality more reliably than the Netherum.
The triffids have a strict hive like hierarchy composed of dozens if not hundreds of organisms. Each individual organism was tweaked to a specialized task due evolution process from basic form. Despite individual triffid creatures relying on very basic instincts, overall triffid collective acts very efficiently and appears intelligent.
Earlier conjecture that revivification occurred only in humans was premature. Thanks to the discover of the substances ability to revivify large canines, the properties of XE-037 in mammalian organisms is now far more clear.
From what we can tell so far, exposure introduces a persistent, low level infection in mammal subjects, regardless of size or nature. The substance seems to multiply within the body until it reaches a certain point, and then enters a form of stasis and ceases to grow. It is, as yet, unknown why this halting process occurs in mammals, but not in insects - further research is needed. The body does not seem to attempt to combat the invader, and in fact no defenses have been noted - the body simply ignores the presence of the substance.
The spread seems to halt at roughly 1% of body mass, though exact numbers are difficult to determine thanks to the risk of mid-autopsy revivification.
The reason why earlier reports confined revivification to humans was that the process requires a critical amount of XE-037 within the body, not as a percent but as pure weight. Around half a pound seems to be enough to insure a post-mortem takeover. Animals small enough that 1% of body mass falls below this threshold thus fail to revivify, and the infection shrinks and then dies several hours after it’s host organism has passed. In larger animals, expiration seems to serve only to raise the cap on XE-037 within the body - expiration quickly leads to the XE-037 breaking down many of the now inactive bits of it’s host until it makes up almost 4% of bodymass by weight. At some point towards the end of this process, the host organism revives in the manner we are all, by now, familiar with, seemingly under the full control of the substance.
Infected subjects that sustain extreme trauma before death seem to exhibit lower growth level in internal XE-037, which can be lower than the expected 4%. Revivification of subjects in such cases is slower. This lead to conclusion that XE-037 “prefers” less damaged corpses.
Additionally, damage beyond a certain threshold, such as the removal of several internal organs, quartering the corpse, or exposure to high explosive or heat, seems to overwhelm the XE-037 infection, causing the same dwindling and death behaviour seen in smaller organisms.
Obsevations that high-trauma revivification subjects are not noticeably different from low-trauma subjects have proven to be premature. The 93-XE series of studies has been designated for consolidating existing data and performing additional research after the labs have been repaired and personnel replaced.