Thread: Gates of Life and Death (Razgriz x Umbrale)

Many heard the tales, but no one believed them. Many even saw the supposed monsters on the other side, but they were discredited and ridiculed. The truth was, humanity - despite all those who objected to the contrary - had many neighbors in the universe. Be it in the same spiral arm, the same local cluster, the same galaxy or even in another galaxy altogether, there was one irrefutable fact They were not alone. Thankfully, their newest 'contact' was exceptionally peaceful. And they had on and off contact for about three years now with no real indication of hostility from them. Of course, the governments of the Terran Alliance played it safe and assumed precautions just in case things turned sour...But so far, no military intervention had been required. Besides...With some of the demonstrations these 'Mamono' have made, world leaders were quick to realize that most of their equipment wouldn't do a damn thing to them anyway. Best to keep it peaceful, that was the Terran Alliance agreed upon. However, they were presented with a rather odd request after some 'trials' were run between human men and these strangely all-female beings. Their 'Queen' - or Lord, as scientists had heard some of their interviewees call her - was asking for the humans to send some of their males to their homeworld. A detailed report and workup by some of the most talented xenobiologists showed that their genetic make-up consistently led to the birth of only female offspring and after examining the timetable from which this was supposed to occur, the final theory was that the Mamono were less than a century away from total population collapse. And after much negotiation, a deal was struck The Mamono that were sent over would assist in the building of an enormous gateway, one that would literally let humans walk over into their world. They had achieved faster than light travel and asked if they could just travel there, but a bovine-esque female explained that even if they could exceed the lightspeed limit, no starcraft would be able to carry a sustainable population across the vast region of dark space that separated their galaxies. And cryostasis would only last so long without severe repercussions at best, one or two dozen out of a sample in the millions, not to mention it would completely bankrupt every Alliance economy to build such a vessel. And on a hunch, no less. As such, this plan was born And while it would cost a fair sum to build a zero-space Z-generator large enough to allow inter-galactic transit, it was found that some of the energy would be offset by the contacts their Lord sent across the boundary. If this worked, humans and Mamono would both be allowed free passage into each other's worlds...And in return for providing the Mamono with fertile males, the humans would be getting not only a chance to explore an extra-galactic world, but the chance to potentially advance their own technology in the scale of millennia by researching these fascinating humanoid creatures. Of course, finding a list of volunteers - even if there would be plenty - was going to take time. Not only that, but they needed to be very selective and warned their Lord of such that some of the candidates might be of 'disputable' intent. Something that didn't seem to overtly bother her, if her calm demeanor was anything to judge it by. And with the combined efforts, a project that was deemed to take almost half a century was completed in less than twenty years. Test runs proved extremely successful, the portal holding quite well after introducing small sample population of three or four individuals through the tunnel the hardest challenge was getting the energy supply to be stable enough, but with innovations in both fusion power and what could only be described as 'magic imbuement', they were able to perfect the stabilization processes for keeping the tunnel alive and well. DATE JANUARY 1ST, 4000. GATEWAY PROJECT STAGE 1 COMPLETE. STAGE II DEEMED IMMEDIATE PRIORITY, BEGIN INITILIZATION And on the day of the new year, a group of over four dozen individuals would be the very first test case of large-scale transport across zero-space. The scientists and Mamono both felt extremely confident this would work, and for the latter species, it had to work. Their very survival depended on it, and they couldn't thank the humans enough for trying. Out of the group came a varied selection of males Businessmen on the eve of their early retirement, criminals from both the streets and prisons, scientists, some of the finest soldiers, and even the average joe or two to name a few walks of life. The selection committee hadn't expected the number of applicants, but their criteria for viability was an excellent tool for pruning the list. Aside from being largely free of genetic abnormalities, they needed to not have a dependency issue, nor have significant ties to their steads on Earth - or if they did, it required an absurd amount of paperwork to absolve the staff of responsibility should anything happen. After all...No one really knew everything that lay beyond the gate. This wasn't just a survival venture, after all this was a monumental scientific achievement, as well as a chance to truly explore this alien new world. And for a good number of the chosen applicants, this was a chance to start a new life. The goal was simple This tunnel they were going to go through would put them right in the Lord's castle, where they would be selected and paired with certain Mamono to determine compatibility. One person even helped break down as 'An extradimensional version of The Bachelor, something that got a laugh out of most people in the room. And with all the parameters set, the gateway was opened...The first three that volunteered tentatively stepped into the eerily silent portal, the apparent distance fairly short but the feeling of crossing an energy bridge finding itself to be unsettling. The room was silent as they slowly made their way across, but when they did loud whoops could be heard as they cheered about making it through. And with the energy bridge still holding, they made the assumption that everyone could go through. They'd sent a group of twenty in all at once, and the bridge held no problems... Unfortunately, fate would serve as the straw that broke this camel's back. As all the rest of the applicants piled in and started making their way across, there was a problem. One of the conduits was giving off strange energy readings, but it settled after a while and the group was advised to move through as quickly as possible...That was when one of the buffer capacitors overloaded, caused the rest to detonate spectacularly thankfully, the shielding held long enough to deflect the shrapnel from killing anyone, but their greatest horror on both sides came when both the entrance and exit slammed shut. It all happened so fast that no one could have done anything...And when the chaos settled, the humans were in shock, as were the Mamono trapped there now. HOLD TOGETHER! EVERYONE GRAB HANDS! Some of the soldiers shouted in the empty void as they tried to keep people together no one expected this, or knew if this portal was going to even send them to the planet at all. Arcs of energy streamed around them, cracking noiselessly. Strangely enough they still felt the bridge beneath their feet...But soon that gave way too, the massive bolts striking down in a massive implosion...Sending all forty-five remaining applicants into parts unknown. On the Mamono homeworld, flashes of light pocked the surface, the human charges either landing on the ground alone, in groups, and for some...Freefalling through the sky or landing smack dab in the middle of one of the oceans. Others still were less fortunate meeting their ends in both quick and for some, rather grisly ways. For those that survived the trip...Only time would tell how their stories panned out.