The Scleratic Invasion Act II: The gassing of Welt

== The First gassing ==
=== The birth of the Pseudosclera ===
Once the Scleratic were defeated and they flew the Whale back to the atmosphere, they made use of Misandir, a Dalmer prisoner to develop a biological weapon, a thick fog like mist called exo gas that would turn Dalmer exposed to it into Pseudosclera, dark skinned and pale eyed hybrids of Scleratic and Dalmer mix.
The Scleratic did this by bombarding the surface of Welt with gas canisters, specifically designating aboveground settlements. Large Capsules appeared across the western country, spraying out an unknown gas, which infected those who came into contact with it, causing a condition where inky black liquid leaked out of their orifices. These incidents caused chaos across several panicked elected kingdoms, with political and social collapse ensued. The gas was widespread, some going 
The gas also reached other races, but did not affect them as much as it targeted the Dalmer specifically.
After the initial shock, many people whose Kingdoms had been destroyed during the attack, had crossed the zone of Gassing, trying to escape from the disaster. These refugees were treated badly by the unaffected locals, who thought they were raiders and invaders during the chaos period.
Subsequently, the unaffected settlements, whether cities, villages or states, all banded together under a United Kingdom Militant, then began to eradicate the infected as best they could. Human settlements remained sparse after the apparent "victory" after the First Gassing, most of which were small cities built up around trading posts, pioneer settlements, and military or scientific facilities.
These scattered cities/countries constituted the new country, the representatives or rulers of these cities formed the UKM. the High Kingdom ordered the building of a new capital, Metropole, and a railway system to connect all the cities composed the gassed zone, the Salvation Railroad.
=== Chaos in the settlements ===
Some saw the visitation as a sign, and a cult grew, those who followed it were summarily executed, the police became an omnipresence.
The gassing was an incredibly chaotic period as the fog from the capsules was so dense that other settlements couldn’t see them, and disabled communications.
Very violent conflicts erupted in cities, as refugees desperately attempted to flee their condemned settlements. Some instances of conflicts resolved with ordnance being used in settlements but also in the countryside. Night trains would speak of “flashes of light and explosions in the countryside”.
Some settlements installed high payload explosives underneath main buildings as a last resort, and these were used to destroy the most unsalvageable settlements.
=== Notable settlement tales ===
Settlement liberation in the first gassing was mostly the removal of capsules, going from breath site to breath site.
==== Neffields: ====
This town was one of the earliest victims of the exo gas capsule bombardment, and also the host of the Visitors Cult, a cult that believed that the Scleratic were their saviors and the transformation of the Dalmer into Pseudosclera was a sign of their divine destiny. This town was also the birthplace of the Civil Protection Death Squads (CPDS), who despite being incredibly ineffective at fighting the pseudosclera, they were effective witch hunters, rooting out Visitor cults anywhere they established chapters.
Neffield is a semi important city in northwestern Khazzan that was largely ignored by the scleratic during the first invasion, and knew little of the destruction the rest of Dalmeran had known, as such they were more lenient towards the Pseudosclera when they appeared.
When word of the towns bombardment reached the neighbouring independent mercenary company of Badeye’s Blunthorns, went in to investigate, in hopes of claiming a public service bounty. Upon arriving in the middle of the night aboard their Whirlers, they find the town burning and fighting in the streets.
It is important to note that by the time news came to the BBM and they arrived, months had passed, and violent confrontations between the Visitor Cult and CPDS had sparked. The BBM had no choice but to secure their ground and fire upon the pseudosclera and the cultists.
The Whirler drops its units into the city with orders to find civilians to rescue while it finds a suitable landing zone. Once the drop point is secured by the BBM the company begins sweeping the zone for survivors with occasional Whirler support.
However the fighting is much too intense and the whirler is eventually shot down and crashed into the Visitors Cathedral, a deserted church to the cult. 
The company immediately regroups to the church and once inside find a mysterious red pillar covered in symbols around which hundreds of complacent “human” Scleratic are standing, although several lump versions charge at them.
==== Oil rig: ====
A poorly aimed pseudoscleratic fell into an oil rig, creating an enormous fire
==== Rail factory: ====
==== Bunker rally point: ====
Engelwight
A city that the Dalmer refused to surrender, and destroyed via laser fire, the dalmer later sent squads to rescue prisoners in the underground complexes, who had started to resort to cannibalism.
=== The first Exo gas ===
This gas had two particularities, turning the Dalmer into the passive Pseudosclera, and being able to disrupt communication between settlements.
The exo gas improves cell structure and intelligence, but only in very few cases, in other cases they turn the affected into Pseudoscleratic individuals, their blood becoming white and blue, and their eyes pure white, much like the Sclera. 
Prior to transformation, victims of the gas typically experience “dreams of symbols”. 
The Pseudosclera, however, are unintelligent creatures with a very limited lifespan, this meant that they were no great threat to the Dalmer, except that the gas damage was irreversible and dwindled even further the already weakened Dalmer population.
=== Attempted solutions ===
==== Civil protection death squads ====
In some settlements, civilian organizations attempted to purge their settlements from Pseudosclera. Given the nonviolent nature of the Pseudosclera this was effective at first, until the death squads invariably became the ones they sought to destroy due to exposure to the exo gas.
==== Pseudoscleratic sensor ====
The Pseudosclera could be detected via sensors, settlements had these sensors in their underground vaults detailing civilian military and sclera numbers. Using these, evacuation of settlements due to high numbers of pseudosclera could be relatively well organised and mass panics avoided.
==== Space reaching super canons ====
Development plans were made to create super long range cannons in order to shoot down the Whale and the Halo from the surface of Welt. but these were ineffective, they would be reused later as canister burster train mounted cannons.
=== Post gassing ===
During the gassing, the empty capsules were collected and stored by the Dalmer in large warehouse centers in an attempt to study them.
The area that was gassed reached from Calada to Highgaroth to Maghalbur, and was cordoned off, forbidden from public access by the High Kingdom, and the locals kept in their homes without the possibility of leaving. “Visitation training drills” for all youth are now mandatory in case of another visitation.
== The Second Gassing of Welt ==
=== The second Exo gas ===
The second exo gas employed by the Sclera in orbit was much more deadly but in an indirect fashion. It was dispersed using the capsules, but also mysterious black pylons with red veins appear to fall in specific cities, their role is misunderstood.
The Pseudoscleratic creatures that resulted from the second gassing of Welt, are mostly humanoid in shape, but several different body types have been observed. 
The small, intelligent “child” version
The baseline “human” version
The deformed “lump” version
The “giant” version
The “explosive” version
The “clinger” version 
The “enforcer” version. 
Only the child version displays intelligence and problem solving skills.
As such the second generation of Pseudosclera are longer lived than the first, and thanks to the child version, are able to coordinate and attack the Dalmer with much greater coordination. This new gas however didn’t affect communications as much and allowed the Dalmer to coordinate better counterattacks.
==== The Salvation Railroad ====
After several failed evacuation plans made during the original gassing to organize civilian evacuations the Salvation Railroad was established. Its role is to secure the remaining population while a solution could be found. Trains were massively used to evacuate the more isolated settlements, as well as transporting military and military cargo.
Conductors were summarily trained in rifle and handgun arts, cooking and field medicine before being sent alone to save refugees from settlements.
Short distance warp to the cargo trains was developed, as the Scleratic pylons that crashed into orbit disrupted all long range warping, which is why trains were developed as refugee transport. However, these warp charges were rare, so the train driver and accompanying soldiers would arrive at towns, find whatever survivors they could, warp them aboard and then leave for shelter, medical supplies and food were stocked onto the trains to help the survivors on board. Due to the shortage of personnel in these times, often the train engineers went alone to find survivors with their trains
The trains would take refugees to vault shelters, vast underground structures in the form of hollow upside down cones, with the habitations being in the sides of the cone. Access was made via the top, and visitors entering had to pass chemical showers. 
Inside these shelters, the refugees would find food, medicine and ammunition crafters. The vault shelters also partook in experimentation of the new gas on live subjects, leading to new discoveries on its properties. Properties that would be used by the Island.
Conductors would lead single handed “liberation operations” on settlements to find survivors. They were sent to minimize casualties and Pseudoscleratic population growth.
=== Notable settlement liberation operations ===
The events in settlements were much more violent in settlements during the second gassing due to the new, more violent nature of the pseudosclera it created.
==== Icemaul: ====
A rescue team of Guardians and their operator is sent to Icemaul to investigate the Exo gas bombardment. The capsule landed in the Icemaul university, making the entire campus flooded with the more intelligent child version of pseudoscleratic who guarded the capsule viciously. The Guardians received aid in the form of the students parents who wished to give honourable death to their children.
The pseudoscleratic were attracted into kill corridors using alarms and flashing lights.
Every student, parent and uploaded conscience that fell on the Icemaul assault was commemorated when the university reopened after the events on a massive stella in the center of campus.
==== Central Railroad Station ====
In this one, a heavily armed train is used by the pseudosclera, and circles around the city. The Conductors have to destroy it. 
==== City of Factories ====
The city of factories is bombarded by mysterious Pseudoscleratic pylons. 
In this one, a chaingun wielding pseudosclera fights against an autonomous whirler.
=== Attempted solutions ===
==== Civil protection death squads: revival ====
The populations decided to reorganise the death squads, who weren’t particularly effective during the first gassing. These squads fates were even more gruesome as the new generation of pseudosclera fought back. The squads however were better organized and trained to eliminate the child versions in priority to disrupt the pseudoscleratics tactics.
==== Salvation trains equipped with canister burster cannons ====
==== Ghost Spies ====
This war proved the invaluable nature of Dalmer ghosts as spies and information peddlers, indeed, their capacity to spy on Pseudosclera, and the fact that they were unaffected by the gas made rescue operations much safer.
==== The guardian program ====
The guardian program, squabbles arose over which kingdom could control it. A specific council was created to this effect. And it was decided that a vat grown brain would control the Guardians who would fight the Sclera in settlements.
But in reality the Guardian isn't meant to work. The government knows this and The Guardian is just something to keep the people pacified and not panicking. In fact it's a cover up to give time for explorers to find the Steward.
However the guardians will be instrumental, as their uploaded consciousnesses will become impatient to do battle and leave on their own accord before the Steward is located, and liberate settlements.
==== The Steward Rises ====
When the Whale and Halo was located the Dalmer used the Steward as a last resort. Indeed while the Scleratic in orbit were bombarding the surface of Welt with gas canisters, they were rebuilding their ship. When they completed this, the Whale and the Halo resembled a second moon in the atmosphere of Welt. 
The Dalmer then sent the mighty Steward to fight the Whale and the Halo, eventually realizing it wouldn’t be enough. In desperation the DCDEA made the steward ram the Whale and the Halo, destroying all three, ending the gassing of Welt
Category:Scleratic Invasion of Welt
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