[Prelude] Visitors

Set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world where the earth has been invaded by aliens, a group of refugees finds themselves in possession of advanced giant mecha with the power to save the world- If they're up to the challenge.
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Kai
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[Prelude] Visitors

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The night sky flashed and rippled as a metallic object cut through the atmosphere, igniting the air itself on fire and barreling down in a blaze of brilliant white, cutting through with determination. Within less than a second, the flash was gone, the small streak it left in the minds of those few lucky enough to see it nothing more than a memory, although many would quickly wish upon this falling star that the war would end soon. Betraying the tranquility of the scene, the metal object continued to hurtle its way down to earth, heading unobtrusively toward a secluded mountain range. Miraculously, the object began slowing itself down, and, before long, it trundled its way through the boughs of several trees before rolling gently to a stop in a small meadow nestled in a mountain pass. Finally, the night returned to its earlier serenity, a calm breeze rustling the spring grasses, which had just begun to dry with the approach of summer.

The regular nighttime sounds, which had returned, were cut again with the sudden hissing of a door opening. The Metal object turned out to be a capsule of some kind, and inside of it looked anything but mechanical. More than anything, it resembled a womb, and from it crawled a human form, Female, with mid-length platinum blonde hair. She fell to the ground, rolling in the grass for a moment before shakily pulling herself back up, using the capsule as a brace. She looked around, and shivered as the last remnants of the fluid that had surrounded and changed her body dried in the night breeze. She realized that she was cold, and looked around, remembering something that had been instilled in her brain on the long journey- there were supplies in a compartment to the right of the door.

Quickly, the young girl placed her hand on the door, which, with another hiss, popped open slightly, allowing the girl to flip it down. Inside, she found a towel, a set of clothes, and a backpack which carried enough supplies to keep her alive for a week, as well as a couple extra sets of clothing. She hefted the backpack from its place, letting it thump to the ground before grabbing the towel. With an almost ravenous motion, she scrubbed her fresh skin clean of the capsule's internal fluids, and slipped into the clothing. It was an odd feeling, one that she could never recall, even from her old life. what had served her as clothing before was constructed very differently from the clothing she was now given. First a set of underwear, something that was altogether alien, but, she knew how it worked, the knowledge instilled on her journey. Next, came a black short-sleeved blouse, and a pair of blue jeans. Finally, she placed on a green sweater, and allowed herself to stop shivering. The final piece of her ensemble, a great traveling cloak, she tied to the bag, along with the now dirtied towel. Something told her it would be necessary to keep the rectangular piece of fabric for later.

The girl looked around, and then closed the small compartment of her capsule, before checking in on the main compartment, and closing that, as well. She placed her open palm on the door once more, and the capsule hummed to life, lifting a few inches off the ground, and then slowly levitating its way into the cover of the woods. The girl sighed, as the last reminder she had of her old life was hidden away- a feeling had come upon her which she had yet to encounter. She felt lonely. She picked up her backpack, and hefted it onto her shoulders, staggering a bit under the unexpected weight, which was more than she had ever encountered in her life, the natural gravity of Earth much stronger than where she had grown up.

The girl gazed wistfully at the stars for a moment, before turning back to the meadow, and spying what appeared to be a path. She walked through the grasses, and then down the path, taking in this new world, with a new body. Everything was new. Everything was amazing.

But she was lonely.
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Kai
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Re: [Prelude] Visitors

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After having walked for a couple of days, The Girl had grown tired of logging her surroundings, and had begun to choose instead to simply observe. She could write notes later, if need be, and, if nothing else, there were other Surveyors who would have done their jobs. This new sensation she had been given since being changed and emerging from her capsule- Freedom, was it?- was something that she was not used to, but, for the moment, she was enjoying it. Back at home, Citabrians were given tasks and jobs based on their genetic disposition. Orders were final and thinking beyond them was generally disdained. Free-thinkers were often taken to treatment centers before returning to society as they were meant to be, working members who allowed the Citabrians to continue on without any hiccups, like clockwork. Practical, Loyal, Methodical, that was the way Citabrians were meant to be. Their world was predictable, and any change could mean disaster, so the status quo had to be kept. Everyone knew that. Everyone understood. For the sake of the empire, They would all work as one, and as one they would conquer.

But here? now? She had been trained specifically to think freely. There would be no one to give her orders. No one to direct her. There was no 'we' to support her. She had to be more. She was alone. There was no comforting collective. No body of peers to reassure her. There was none of what she had called home. This task was a difficult one, akin to banishment. But they were coming, that's why she was sent, why the others like her were sent. She was proud. Pride was one of the few feelings she had known. Pride in her race. Pride in her people. They were a proud people, the Citabrians. And yet they had suffered the ultimate shame. Their world had gone too far by the time the Citabrians had decided as one to try and fix it, and now their only hope was to start fresh, on a planet that was not yet wholly ruined. The only such planet that was reachable? This 'Earth'.

She walked, thinking these things, wondering how she would be greeted. Little did she know, that she was a late comer. They were already here, the Citabrians. But for now, they were elsewhere. She would live apart from them for a while, first.

It would take several more days of walking, before she ran out of food. Here in the mountains, the wilderness was vast, and the place was of a kind she had never seen before. She explored, learning what she could. She found, also, that she had been given more survival gear- things based on transmissions the Earthlings had sent out years and years prior. She had a Small rifle which she could use for hunting. Such a practice was initially beyond the girl's tastes- back home all the food was pre-made. She did not know where it came from. Certainly not the wild. And yet here she was. The first animal she had killed, she felt sorry for, and had held funeral rites for it. The small bunny was wrapped in a bit of spare cloth, as a box could not be found, but, with nowhere to recycle it, the girl instead placed it under a rock. Perhaps the earth would recycle it for her. after all, that was what she had been taught.

However, two days without food made her hungry. This was completely foreign, the emptiness of one's digestive tract. It ached, and pained, and the girl could not find the will to go anywhere, and so, the small rifle was assembled once more, and another rabbit was killed. This time, the girl built a fire and cooked it, although, lacking any more knowledge than that she needed to cook it, the girl ended up simply burning most of it to a crisp, and singing her hands. Desperate, she ate ravenously. Mentally, all she could do was question herself. There was no doubt that she had never had survival instincts before- she had never needed them, they had been simply bred out of her race by the time of her birth. And yet, now, birthed a second time, her body could hold a power over her brain in order to help her survive.

It wasn't until the next day that it fully dawned on the girl what she had done, but her body had already digested and absorbed the nutrients from the charred rabbit, and her heaves of guilt were dry. There were so many strange feelings, sensations, and emotions the girl was now feeling, things she had never been exposed to before. It awed and scared her, made her want to cry and scream and laugh and dance and all sorts of things that could leave her mind reeling. Certainly, there was no need for all this superfluous chemical interference with her mind. and yet, she knew that they had chosen to include it because it would make her more like the humans she was to blend in with.

By the end of the second week, She had become much better at setting up her camp. She had learned to skin the rabbits she killed for food, and place them on a stick to keep from burning herself. Yet all she could do each night was stare at the sky, and wallow in a loneliness and depression her species had not felt in Milennia.

How could such an alive place as a planet be so very, very cold?
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Re: [Prelude] Visitors

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For the past couple of days, the girl had been walking in the general direction of a source of lights. She could only see them at night, so during the days she noticed that she would get a bit off-course, but every time this happened, she would simply correct as soon as night fell and she could pick out the lights. At first they had been a long ways off, mere pinpricks against the black sheet that was several mountain ridges over from the high peak she had made her way to, and each successive night a new ridge would find those lights even closer. On this day, she was near enough that, were it night, she could see the lights directly ahead, though during the day there were none visible. She had grown a bit hungry, and so was picking wild edibles in order to make some kind of vegetable stew that a guidebook stowed in her backpack had instructions for.

This did not go as well as planned, however. Minding her own business, the girl had begun picking the seeds off of a small flowering plant, whose white and pink flowers had drawn the girl, and whose seeds the guidebook claimed would make food taste better. However, before too long, the girl would hear a dull, heavy huffing. Groans of some kind came from several yards behind coriander, and she turned, slowly, to spot a large brown bear staring at her. It looked rather hungry. Slowly, but surely, the girl reached for the small collapsible rifle she had strapped to the outside of her backpack, and brought it to aim at the bear. She brought it to aim too quickly. The bear made the first move, charging like a thousand pounds of angry beast, which it, in fact, was. The girl fired off two shots, but they did nothing but make the bear angrier, increasing its charging speed. At the last moment, the girl dove out of the way and found that she had somewhat soiled herself in the process. She got up, bringing her rifle to bear fruitlessly on the large brown behemoth, firing in an attempt to stop its charge once more, but this time it was prepared for the girl's movements.

Instead of continuing its charge, the bear instead trundled to a quick stop that didn't seem physically possible for such a large mass of flesh and sinew, before rising on its hind legs to swat at the girl- But it was foiled, as a young man jumped into the fray, a small red-capped white canister in his hands releasing an odiferous spray of synthetic peppers, shocking and surprising the beast, which caused it to flail, fall backwards, and run away, still making its incessant huffing noise.

"Are you alright?" the young man asked the girl, offering his hand to the shaking girl. she shook her head in affirmation, but didn't seem to know what to do with the proffered hand, recoiling from it for a moment, before simply holding her ground. The young man laughed. "Oh, c'mon. I won't hurt you. I'm just helping you up."

The girl still seemed a bit distrusting, but reached her hand out and took the young man's. He pulled her up gently, and she soon righted herself, before dusting off her outfit. The girl seemed somewhat embarrassed, but she wasn't sure why, or really what the feeling was. There was no such thing as shame back home, but she seemed to feel inadequate somehow after the encounter with the bear.
"Let's get out of here. He might come back soon, and he'll be angry" the young man offered, pointing down the mountain. The girl squinted, and she could see, not too far off, pillars of smoke rising lazily from chimneys. She had been so absorbed in finding ingredients for a soup that she had not even noticed her proximity to the village.
"what's your name? Mine's John" the young man asked the girl.
"..." she looked around, trying to figure out what her name was. Her real name wasn't even pronounceable in the earth's tongues, and she didn't want to use it anyway. Finally, her eyes came to a flower clutched in her hand. it was somewhat crushed from the altercation a moment ago, but still intact for the most part.
"C- Coriander" she answered, simply.

As John and Coriander walked into the village, the girl could feel the loneliness vanishing from her. The shower, warm bed, and fresh clothes she was given that night gave her a feeling of warmth and belonging.

Maybe the Earth wasn't so bad.
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