Reality Shift

When the World Ended

On the 21st of December 2012 the world changed permanently. Dimensional storms broke out in many regions of the world. The most notable were three super rifts in Central America, Thailand, and Israel. Within these rift reality twisted and changed, alien creatures materialized onto Earth and ravaged the lands. Organizations and governments attempted to fight against them, but in the first days most were quickly dispatched with ease by the strange monstrosities. Some of them were horrible beasts, while others were strangely intelligent beings who wished to see the human race, or merely the land, bent to their will. To stop these threats new technology has been developed, organizations founded, and strange human mutations brought on by the rifts harvested to fight. The world is ending, but humanity will fight until the end.

Rift Properties

The Three Great Rifts

Originally three enormous rifts opened on the planet. One in Central America, near the border of Ecuador, one in the holy land of many faiths, Israel, and a final one near the coast of Thailand. On the day the rifts opened strange things began to happen within the affected areas. Certain regions would suddenly shift, becoming entirely different. These differences ranged from the complete reversal of the laws of physics to atmospheric composition and temperatures changing. High radiation and toxins are common occurrences within the rift zones. While there were locations that became unhabitable by human standards, there were other storms that improved life within them, crop yields increasing three fold, climatic conditions improving permanently, or even life continuing on as normal. The many dozens of storms would create separate films keeping the changes in environment completely separated from one another and it was not uncommon to see a completely unaffected farmhouse less then a couple of miles away from an irradiated alien landscape. In the beginning these rifts only extended over a minimal location, a few miles across. However in the months since they have expanded hundreds of miles in every direction, the largest being the one in Central America.

After the first week not only did the zones that were affected change, but things began to appear within their borders. What appeared ranged from boulders, to strange technology, to entirely new species. Some of these species, due to the fact rift storms would change the world around them, could only survive in their localized rift storm and would quickly die once leaving or if the rift storm changed. However some proved to survive well in earth atmosphere and moved into non effected areas of the planet. Xeno life is not uncommon in Southern Asia and Europe.

During the second week the nations of the world attempted to control the threat. Desperate, several scientists theorized the rifts might be sealed if enough energy was released inside the dimensional wound. The energy would destabilize the hole and cause it to repair itself, or open into some kind of void. The nations of the world bombed the european rift, eventually using nuclear weapons. Most of these bombs went off, but the rift absorbed most of the radiation. Some of the bombs merely disappeared, or reappeared in other locations around localized Rift Storms.

After this an attempt to invade the rifts was organised. The first humans went it, using new exoskeletons developed by the military for protection. These did protect them from the strange environmental conditions, randomly changing atmospheric composition, radiation, and temperature. However, they did not protect them from the shifts in the laws of physics. Those humans melded with their suits, skin and metal becoming one. They are now called "The Hollow Men" as parts of their mind are now machine. They display emotions to varying degrees, but it is agreed upon that the human beings are still in there and should be treated with dignity. Most of those who went in belonged to the United States. They form a single company of soldiers now, sent to the most dangerous of storms in the USA as further mutations will not affect them anymore.

Localized Rift Storms

Besides the permanent rifts, localized rip storms appear outside of the larger areas. These can suddenly come into existence seemingly anywhere on the planet, or even the moon, and will momentarily change the world around it before dissipating. In order to deal with the creatures that come out most countries have founded military organizations with the express purpose of fighting the creatures and containing the rifts through the use of HMD's. When a single nation's power does not prove sufficient to deal with one of these threat AEGIS, the highest single force of HMD on the planet, will be called in to instead contain the threat. This has lead to huge international support and funding for AEGIS as an impartial organization dedicated to finding out the course of and stopping the entirety of the rifts once and for all.

Rift Storm Classes

• Class One: Small rift, no materialization, small changes in environment in an area smaller than two hundred feet. Military involvement unnecessary.

• Class Two: Small rift, mild materialization, small changes in environment in an area from two hundred to five hundred feet. Local law enforcement recommended.

• Class Three: Medium rift, mild materializations, medium changes in environment in an area from five hundred to one thousand feet. Local law enforcement recommended.

• Class Four: Medium rift, medium materialization, medium change in environment in an area from one thousand to two thousand feet. Military involvement recommended.

• Class Five: Large rift, medium materialization, serious change in environment in an area fron two thousand to one mile. Military involvement recommended.

• Class Six: Large rift, heavy materialization, serious change in environment in an area from one mile to five miles. Military involvement and MECH infantry recommended.

• Class Seven: Huge rift, heavy materialization, serious change in environment and laws of physics in an area from five miles to ten miles. Military involvement and MECH infantry recommended.

• Class Seven: Huge rift, extreme materialization, serious change in environment and laws of physics in an area larger than ten miles. AEGIS involvement recommended.

HMDs

Some months later some humans escaped from the rifts. However, they did not come out intact. Being bathed in rift energy caused many of them to become horribly mutated, and some to develop seemingly supernatural powers. These powers vary greatly in both kind and power between different subjects. Those that have been seen so far include many classic forms of psychic powers including telekinesis, pyrokinesis, ESP, clairvoyance and mind control. Another power that has proven extremely useful, however, is their ability to manipulate the rifts themselves. This has prompted many countries to require military service from HMDs (if they do not enter AEGIS) so as to help combat the rifts. Those who are not fit to serve but still display powers are instead put into specialist camps or forced into breeding programs in an attempt to create more HMD's. They have become the first line of defense against the rifts and have made permanent outposts inside the Great Rifts possible without fear of the rift borders changing and make the area unhabitable and hazardous to human life.

Possible Great Rift Storms

Ireland

Ireland was incommunicated from the rest of the planet soon after the rifts began. A strange fog surrounds its borders. When a non HMD individual attempts to go into the fog they will wander around for a short while before appearing back in the original location they entered from. Strangely, though the person in the fog only experiences a few minutes passing, several days or even weeks will have passed for the rest of the planet. Residents from Ireland occasionally come out to visit the rest of the UK. They do not have a cohesive appearance and talk in a number of dialects of different time periods. These speaking patterns are consistent with their clothing. If these individuals are asked what is happening inside of the country they will either seem confused, become violent, or completely ignore the question. They do not appear to want to speak of the subject. All scientific probes of the area have proved fruitless, and any pilots flying over at the time do not remember what they saw, reporting only a "greenish purple mist".

Middle East

For months an enormous rift storm has cut off most of Iraq and Turkey from communicating with the rest of the world. Though this rift storm did not appear at the same time as the three great ones, instead happening over a month and a half later, it is far larger and has lasted much longer than any other minor rift storm thus far. People fear this is a sign of things to come and could possibly mean the birth of more Great Rift Storms in the near future. Inside the rift materializations are common. Some of them, according to the scarce intel coming out of the zone via refugees, are reported to be larger than any that have been spotted elsewhere on the planet. Out of desperation, independent US units with Iraqi units and terrorist cells have joined forces to repel the creature and try to gather enough HMDs to create a passage for refugees to leave the dangerous zones.

Anti-Rift Technology

Mobile Humanoid Mechanized Infantry

Due to the fact that inside of the rifts reality can suddenly shift, new technology has been developed to protect soldiers from these alterations. These include both the multi-purpose combat exoskeleton, and the humanoid tank MECH unit. The former is merely a metallic body armor that increases both strength and speed, using an onboard computer to sync up with the soldier's movements. It also creates a completely safe indoor environment, controlling the conditions within itself to help protect those within from any rift disturbances. First developed by AEGIS using technology found hidden away beneath Mayan cities, these suits have become a military standard. It has since been taken up by every nation that can afford it. The latter operates on the same principles, but is far larger. A MECH unit can be anywhere from fifteen to twenty feet tall and are meant to be used as heavy weaponry against the more exotic, and large, of creatures to emerge from the rifts. They are often deployed when anything bigger than a class six Rift is detected.

AEGIS

Founded two month after Event Zero (Note: What ever Event Zero is, as of this moment, hasn't been determined. It is await a writer to flesh it out) an international organization was founded to fight against, and try to reverse the events that caused these dimensional rips in the fabric of reality. This group is known as Apocalypse Elimination Global Interdiction Section (AEGIS). More commonly however it is referred to as "The Ark" after their first Director Noah Desdin.

Mayan Investigation

Because of the date the rifts began coinciding with the date of the Mayan prophecy enormous amounts of funding and researched have been poured into determining whether this is simply a coincidence or if there is some deeper meaning in the connection. It was determined after a few months of investigation and heavy excavation of mayan sites across South and Central America that there, in fact, was a connection. Strange artifacts were uncovered under mayan cities, likely to be some kind of highly advanced ancient technology. Most of it is not understood, but many a scientist has devoted their efforts trying to figure out exactly what their function is. Certain things have been found out about how they interact with humans. When put near a HMD most will power up and begin to function, and while most have completely mundane purposes, including printing out information or acting as data storage (most data being encrypted or corrupted), some have been discovered to be power weapons. Many have theories on the implications of this, that Mayans were HMD or that they fled into the rifts, but no one knows for sure exactly what is going on... pending further investigation.

In addition a single data storage unit was recovered containing pictures of what appear to be Perfected walking among normal Mayans in ancient Mayan society. The implications of these are not yet fully understood, and a large portion of the total research funds is funneled into attempting to figure out exactly what the Perfection are and how they relate to humanity.

Inter Rift Bases

AEGIS maintins a number of bases inside the rift and have been the first ones to pioneer the use of something besides HMD to shield their walls from the affects of the rift storms. Using hugely powerful electromagnetic bubbles they have managed to keep at bay the shifts in the storms and have their bases no longer constantly require an HMD on duty to keep it safe. The largest and most famous base is known as Fort Singepeak, in Central America atop of a volcano that was suddenly set off by a localized rift storm. At first an instillation was created in order to keep the local area earth like, because it would keep the volcano from going off once more. over time it evolved, growing larger, until almost an entire city exist inside of the electromagnetic shields. This gives humanity hope that maybe the rifts can be pushed back, but due to the impracticality of these shields only the single one has been created so far, and barely covers a one mile in diameter sphere.

Recruiting

HMD's

Interdictors is the nick name given to recruiters who constantly head out to sections that have had rift storms to seek out babies that were born during that time. Fetuses who developed in the womb during the storms or recently born ones could often develop into HMD and are more safely retrieved than ones from one of the three great rifts. Since the entire group is basically above the law and works towards saving the world they are given a lot of leeway and will often actually just kidnap these kids and put them into an academy to train them for combat when they support the troops and to control their powers. Officially these men are known as "The Hounds" however, due to their immense unpopularity the name Interdictors was created.

Soldiers

Because AEGIS is outside of all government influence their soldiers come from a variety of countries and creeds. Most are recruited from war torn areas that were affected by rift storms. After a rift storm an area will often become uninhabitable, and so those who lived there are forced to leave. instead of trying their luck in another country many will instead volunteer for service among AEGIS in fighting against the horrors that originally tore them from their homes.

Famous Operations

Grundel, Lord of the Twin Peaks

A unique horror that appeared in the mountains of Eastern Europe. It is known as Grundel, Lord of the Twin Peaks, as termed by the first men who brought back stories about it from inside the rift. Ten missions were mounted in and attempt to kill it, due to the fact that it was destroying villages on the fringes of the rift that presented opportunities to gather HMD. Five of these attempts here Russian, three British, and two French; however all of them failed to kill it, the last wounding it. This creature is so large that it brings with it a localized rift storm (the environmental conditions while near it will change. Gravity is lessened and the atmosphere changes to a large amount carbon monoxide). It seems to be an actual living rock, supported on a tripod of enormous rocky limps that carry it from place to place. it will burry itself in the ground, and absorb nutrients through it's soft fleshy underbelly (under the enormous rock like calcium depots on its skin is actual flesh).

Finally AGEIS was sent into deal with it. Using dozens of specially trained HMD along with their force of exoskeleton wearing soldiers they brought the thing down (The HMD actually lessening the rift storm with their minds and suffocating the thing with our atmosphere). The body is now inside an AGEIS facility and is being studied. It was found to be a silicon based life form and weighs over three hundred tons in our atmosphere. At two hundred feet all and the body three hundred feet across it is the fourth largest creature every seen to come through a rift.

Creatures

Intelligent

The Perfected

The Moon is also being affected by the strange happenings of the rift storms. An amateur astronomer originally discovered strange shadows and movement on the lunar surface. After informing the proper authorities within a matter of months a mission was mounted to go to the planet's surface and find out exactly what was happening. What was found was giant fortress communities of a creature calling itself collectively "The Perfection". On the lunar surface it did not travel with a spacesuit, and instead walked completely naked. It does not have any obvious sexual characteristics and each of them has an identical appearance. Their skin is pale, to the point of being translucent, and each of them are completely hairless. Instead of a normal face there is a large bone frill that extends from just above their noses towards above their heads. Their mouths extend far farther than a jaw should, and when opened show a direct line to their stomach. Strange growths, that appear to be similar to arms, sprout by the dozen from their torso seemingly at random. These curl around them to cover their bodies. They do not seem to speak to each other and instead communicate telepathically by some kind of link. When a leader Perfection is not around the creatures will descend on each other and devour their fallen until one of them eats enough and becomes a new leader cast. There does not seem to be any physical change, but there is an increased intelligence.

During the mission the astronauts managed to convince one of the perfection to come aboard their vessel. They interrogated it, and while the astronauts were able to understand what it said, men from Nasa were only able yo hear a series of clicks and scratching noises. So instead the astronauts communicated what the creature heard. It goes as follows:

"What are you?"

"We are you, but not. We are what you wish to be, we are you realized."

"What does that mean?"

"If you were to be perfect, if every decision you made had been correct, if every day the sun had shined in just the right way.. maybe you would be us." The astronauts were confused, and upon asking further questions the creature would say it doesn't understand. Then they asked it about the arms.

"They are our shame, they cover what is to great for your eyes." The astronauts then forced the creature, against orders, to show them what was under the arms, and then the broadcast is only blood curtailing screams. The screaming broadcast has gone on for the four months since it began, never stopping and sometimes even changing in octave. The one member who was not watching at the time was heard trying to fix it, panicking because he could hear "scratching on the outside of the hull" and occasionally saw arms on the small window ports (pale arms like the creature). His transmission cut out when he lost power, but the other screaming one remained. It is unknown what happened to the last astronaut, however it is thought he perished that day or shorty after. No subsequent mission as been mounted, but the structures on the moon have continued to grow larger.

Sai'Kari

The Sai'Kari are an highly intelligent insectoid species that first appeared in the great Central American Rift two weeks after the events that began. While not much is known about them a small amount of their history has been discovered through slaves they have taken coming back to civilized nations. They appear to be a cult of their race, one who had experienced a similar event to the one that affected the earth. However this race had adapted and was able control their rifts via technology. This particular cult of their race worshiped an extra dimensional being from the void the rifts opened into. They attempted to summon said creature onto their planet, but were ultimately foiled by the rest of their race. As punishment they were thrown into one of their planet's permeant rift storms in the hopes it would suck them into the Void. However instead it deposited them into another Rift, the one on Earth. Now that they are here they are one again attempting to summon their god.

Their god oddly seems to be worships by humans as well, the idea started once the rifts open and it is theorized that this being exerts control over the inform and weak minded, turning them to its eldritch will. These humans mostly leave to go to the Sai'Kari and become their slaves.

The Sai'Kari do not have a connection to most humanity, but a few of them encoded the more common human languages (english, mandarin, french, spanish and portuguese) and can communicate with us. However only a few of their words have been figured out, as they are low in number and have minimal contact with humans outside of their slave workforce. On occasion they will come into contact with military forces of AEGIS when they are sent to deal with a particularly invasive rift spawn.

The Exiled

The Exiled were exiled by another god on their plane, not an actually world, it is series of floating masses chaine together by a immense beast (Octopus like) that it floats in a miasmic mist of stellar dust in some forgotten corner of the galaxy. These creatures came to earth by a collective effort by their god, the massive creature that holds their worlds together. They have come to earth in an attempt to bring part of their god there in order to bring their rot to this planet. They display powers similar to that of the HMD, however their powers are much more extreme and controlled. One of the Exiled can use strange arcane abilities akin to magic.

Non Intelligent

Skilters

Commonly referred to ask Skilters, they are one of the more common creatures to come through the rift. They are roughly the same size as a chicken and run around on four legs. Their skin is always moist and they are mostly found near water. however they are able to run very quickly and show a limited ability to change the color of their skin to hide in their environment. They have no obvious sensory organs (no skull either, their mouth is in the front of their torso between their shoulder blades) except a large fleshy tongue that comes out of the mouth. They mostly eat plants, but will scavenge meat if nothing else is around. Most of them are in Thailand and Central America, as the ones who appeared in Israel dry out and die. Many are in AGEIS's research facilities along with other creatures. However enough now exist in southern asia to have an actual breeding population. They pose minimal danger, and don't like coming near humans or light.

Decacon

This creature appears to be a strange combination of animal and plant, and is commonly referred to as the "walking trees". Their skin looks to be made of wood. However. underneath is a fleshy material skin to that which allows venus fly traps to open and close their jaws. Their bodies are in the form of large trunk like a hollow barrel. These are filled with water sucked up from the dozens of leg like roots. These roots, when not finding water, will move, walking the tree to a different location until the suckers on the bottom of each root stalk finds water. At their largest they are just over fifteen feet tall and weight seven hundreds pounds when full of water. At top speeds the legs can carry them at almost thirty miles an hour and when "forests" suck a lake dry dozens of them can run at once. WHen one stops it can cause the entire "forest" to trip over each other into large piles.

Major Events

British Southern Coast

Most of the southern UK has fallen into the ocean due to geological destabilization as a result of the rift storm. On the new coast line horrible amphibious creatures now devour individuals too unlucky or stupid to encounter them in the open. It is thought that these creatures could possible come from the rift, but is is unknown for sure as none have been seen crossing the area of continental europe between there and the great rift, and an origin minor rift storm was never documented.