East Coast RIsing

"*It's like visiting another country, they've still got people and houses. Things just look a bit different with the same familiar setting." -* **Berons** talking about her culture to an Akkenshan

### Significance

After a multiverse destroying beam brought everyone to square one, few retaining their memories, New superpowers arose completley isolated until recently. East Coast rising explores the Mysterious Legacy story from a point of different evolution with eventual crossing. The intention of the story is subvert the ingrained expectation, trusted figures remain trusted, less people view the world so bleak despite its fighting, people are more collectivized.

The story focuses on a civilization living right under a peculiar corrupted **Counci** that grew into a large moon, its infestation providing the resources for intelligent life to emerge as long as heat radiated from its parent gas giant.

The first to arrive is a woman who is only later known as Berons, With a pole attached button swinging from the fleshy ground she is spat up and in her habitation of the moon figures out a sentience to the land. She is guided on the creation of relics by the unnamed counci where she chooses to continue living in the past, before the purgatorial arena she lived in a primitive nation where her clan was the first to discover metals, she was chosen to become an object of terror as her people convinced other clans that she was a golem made of metal and her armor reflects that with its brown-gold color and lamellar composition,

The second one to arrive is a (former) spy, Berons chooses to show pity to the suited fellow and without loyalty to his company, gladly joins Berons. The spy later dons an unfashionable combo of a vietnam flak jacket with his suit. He, like Berons, wishes to hunt for a treasure in a land called only "The West" after pioneers and pilgrims of long ago who travelled west in search of their own land, though they never make progress until the third member joins. The spy's name is never given and is only ever referred to as 'spy', capitalization is variable due to the name being both a title and proper noun.

Spy and Berons choose to stay in place at first to develop, their counci watcher wishing to stay though not minding their departure. Their technological progression is largely biological, growing computers and even calcified firearms. Outside of the moon such is common as well, most societies chose to advance bioengineering instead of silicon based technologies so Steels are largely replaced by stone pillars of basalt and computers overgrow their vascular systems on the wall if untrimmed as well as shrinking outside of their designated spaces if not fed. Common liquid fuels that power vehicles are replaced by mounts that are too cold to be reliably fired upon by seeking rockets. All this biological dependency had rendered their systems impervious to digital viruses and through time, even common toxins like cyanide, lead, and most neurotoxins. Their society faces more issues regarding chemical waste due to their largely biological technology. Weapons and armor sometimes bond with their hosts and PMC companies are hunted and deemed illegal to every organized military.

Ru is a dream demon that manifests as a cybernetic ferz, A language barrier renders them only capable of acting on his own and barely understanding signals. Often he acts with an oblivious look on his face as he follows close to the others. His motivations are to reconnect with Peter, Though without a trace left behind he is only able to follow groups for information. He arrives on the island after Spy notices his company landed a ship on the moon, The two delegate with the ship captain and Ru pops out. Conviced of trafficking Spy and Berons end up in a shootout with the company before being left with a way out and a new member.

The three use the ship to leave the counci bound moon and attempt to fly off into the West with Spy's knowlege of the craft though they are forced to refuel at a local dead planet. The planet is a familiar sight for the previous reader as it has the familiar grey concrete and steel pipes look, though further into the village bears Counci writing and an overgrown black and glowing teal mass. The crew find that look familiar and coast further inward before being attacked by its **Guards**. Berons uses an archaic mace and keeps it as a backup, eventually learning its production as to keep it.

The rampant computer is infested with a rare combination of prion disease and sequencing mutation that causes it to act between a hivemind and zombie threat, it gets away on a space ship to be dealt with later. the spare, golden glowing, fuel is collected and used to restock the ship. - - -

### Trivia

-The title of "Spy" sticking to the suited spy is a coincidence and not connected to *Team Fortress 2's* spy, though other aspects of the story are.

-Eastern architecture is inspired by Chinese architecture and the *Gears of War* locust hive's gothic designs.

-It is confirmed that Akhed is from "The East" as well as potentially the Ferz plague as a bioweapon before the fall of Akkensha.

-The biological look of black tendrils and flesh with blue boils is inspired *Soma*, though its guars are mixed in with the feel of the Combine from *Half life* mostly the incinerator.

-Berons signature club is taken from *Castle Crashers* with its wider cylinder head with studs