Task Force Iris

## Occupations

### Occupation:

Varied; many were previously soldiers, while others were pulled from more mundane work.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers:

Incredibly varied; generally, few if any abilities above multiverse-tier.

**Task Force Iris** was a group of cosmic entities and powerful mortals sent to infiltrate and destroy the External Hazard's Stage I Seed, which had firmly implanted itself into an artificial layer of Beyond. Aided by knowledge from Soci Gahir about the Hazard's tactics and infrastructure, and optimal methods of attack, they completed their mission with surprising skill and efficiency, earning recognition across numerous -verses as the heroes that ended the Hazard incursion.

## History

Warfare against the External Hazard had ravaged the Beyond bubble for eons in numerous timelines, and even the higher-level omnipotents in the vicinity of the Stage I Seed's impact point found themselves unable to overwrite the dominating influence of a region of the Beyond that gradually began resembling Najha-Tebah more and more. Left unchecked, the corruption would likely have spread across the entire cosmology, turning the enormously transfinite clusters of monocosms into yet more processing power for the eldritch entity controlling it.

Soci Gahir did everything it could to inform inhabitants of the nearby -verses about the Hazard's weaknesses, but the word spread slowly and contradictory information sometimes emerged as the Hazard's corruption set in further. Nonetheless, at a certain point, one particular pantheon assembled to discuss a final attack that would, in theory, destroy the Hazard infestation by defeating the Seed controlling it. These beings assembled Task Force Iris in secret, gathering promising individuals from across the monocosms and training them for a perilous mission. In addition, vast numbers of allied entities sacrificed their power for aeons to weaken the metaphysical protection around the Seed, making it theoretically possible for small-scale interference to do permanent damage.

After disembarking from a high-speed vessel - almost a projectile - like a spike coated in brass, which had arrived fairly close to the Seed, the Task Force entered its planar environment, finding that the realm had been transformed into a network of parsec-wide caves of organic matter and unstable rock, with cities, garrisons, and countless hordes of lesser Hazard minds effectively coating all sides of each of these caves. Through a combination of stealth, trickery, and the occasional brute-force attack, Task Force Iris eventually punched their way through the cave wall concealing the Stage I Seed and entered it.

Inside, they were continually attacked both physically and mentally, as the Seed manifested lesser minds with myriad forms and combat styles to test its intruders. Many of the Task Force's members died in the battles, but a group split off and went deeper into the Seed. Attacking with full force and even self-destructing, they created a sequence of colossal explosions and rifts inside the Seed, collapsing it from the inside and buying enough time for the others to escape.

As the entire planar environment began tearing itself apart and the local minds' influence weakened, higher-tier omnipotent beings observed the carnage and retrieved the escaping survivors, who became honored as heroes throughout their Beyond bubble for their courage and skill.

## Known Members

Task Force Iris consisted of dozens of individuals of widely varying backgrounds and abilities. Roughly half of them survived the mission, and roughly half of the remainder were in a state where they could be resurrected after it; the rest perished to stronger aspects of Najha-Tebah's mind and proved irretrievable for the entities within their Beyond bubble.

1. **Gais Thenyion:** The team's designated leader, Gais was an uplifted postsapient taking a vaguely humanoid form. He had tremendous power, and was capable of reshaping entire universes on a whim; in most circumstances, though, he preferred a clean, efficient solution over a brute-force one. Gais survived the mission and was raised to omnipotence1 by the ruling entities of his monocosm of origin.
2. **Telkam:** A mineral being (largely composed of a material physically similar to feldspar) possessing numerous limbs and notable psionic abilities, Telkam was woken up from a hundred-million-year hibernation to be recruited for the team. It was one of the team's first casualties, having been destroyed in brutal melee combat with a Hazard Warrior; after being resurrected and brought to its homeplace once the mission was over, it promptly returned to hibernation.
3. **B-0998:** A member of a monocosm-spanning trans-sapient civilization that had surpassed physical form, B-0998 found itself requested to manifest as a sphere of energy merely so that it could be kept track of during the mission. Known for its sarcastic humor and its incredible intelligence, it formed an essential part of Task Force Iris's delicate infiltration operations. Its permanent death at the metaphorical hands of the Seed was seen as a great tragedy by its civilization, whose leaders permanently retired its identification number to memorialize it.
4. **White Noise Response:** White Noise Response was an artificial intelligence embedded in the frame of a small computerized aircraft, notable for refusing to give any more information about its name or origin. In addition to its significant intellect and database of extra-universal physics, it possessed tools allowing it to generate and manipulate mass-energy in almost any imaginable way. It regularly manufactured exotic-matter explosives, yoctometer-scale stealth attack probes, and countless other devices to aid the Task Force in numerous ways. After being shot down by a Hazard-produced turret of sorts, it was proven irrecoverable and mourned by the fellow minds of its civilization - evidently, not even the monocosm-tier entities rescuing the Task Force's survivors were able to restore it.
5. **Binad:** Hailing from, and ruling over, a backwater universe somehow composed of equal parts matter and antimatter, the lithe, six-armed entity named Binad was reluctant to join Task Force Iris for fear that he would abandon his creations and servants to destruction. His abilities to self-duplicate and manipulate charge and quantum numbers proved useful at first in maneuvering through the Seed's plane, though he elected to stay behind and help defend the entrance point to the Seed rather than enter. Binad was almost killed in battle, but was retrieved as the Seed collapsed, after reaching a kill count in the nonillions - he then faded back into obscurity after the mission ended.
6. **Quessi Milyin Aigl'h:** A cubic entity embedded into the local quantum foam wherever it moved, Quessi was recruited into the Task Force because of its nigh-infinite durability, its zero-point energy manipulation, and its "decomposition" power allowing it to rapidly multiply the area under its influence. Quessi was one of the entities that sacrificed themselves to take down the Seed; by exerting its decomposition to its absolute limit, it absorbed an immense chunk of the Seed's mindscape and then shredded it down into nothing. After being resurrected, it traveled throughout the bubble, inadvertently creating a series of religions worshiping it in the process.
7. **The Stander and the Clock:** With dual bodies mapped to the same fundamental entity, combined with a persistent elusiveness, the Stander and the Clock - a three-meter-tall ink-like body, and a half-meter-wide round metallic body often perched on its shoulder - were hard to keep track of during the mission. Individually, they seemed to be almost completely powerless; together, however, they possessed incredible mind-wiping abilities that proved tremendously useful against the Hazard's lesser minds, as well as a strange connection to a supposed "omega energy". Although they were driven insane during the final confrontation against the Seed, they were restored to health later and returned to their universe of origin without incident.
8. **Obergaj:** Obergaj was a mysterious floating headlike being who was brought into the Task Force thanks to her ability to perform small-scale "death wards" and manipulate souls. She saved the lives of many of the Task Force's members, often multiple times, but rarely acknowledged this fact or, indeed, spoke anything at all. For reasons unknown, after the mission, she opted to move to a completely abandoned universe and requested that all travel be sealed in and out.
9. **Akejan Osioi Ctarin:** A biomechanical entity from the O'mehe Autoschismatic Empire who appeared in multiple forms throughout the mission, generally along the spectrum between a near-human and a tank of sorts, Akejan was initially seen as a bit of a questionable pick from the pantheon responsible for the Task Force. While she struggled with conversation and often misinterpreted orders, though, her array of destructive weaponry and her boundless tactical insight carried the Task Force to victory in numerous confrontations. She was almost killed in the final battle - her mind very nearly ripped to shreds completely by the Seed - but was surprisingly kept alive just long enough to be evacuated and resurrected safely. After touring the bubble and later returning home, she was promoted to a leading position in her home civilization's military.
10. **Centurion 189965:** A six-meter-tall golden-armored mechanical humanoid powered by an eclectic mixture of fusion reactors and micrometer-scale clockwork, the Centurion proved more useful than expected from a being of its appearance. It held an arsenal powerful enough to reduce stars to ash, and while its innards were very delicate, its outer armor was nigh-impenetrable; as a result, it was capable of fighting against direct assault from the Seed for quite some time before succumbing. It proved irrecoverable; its death was neither mourned nor noticed by the civilization that created it.
11. **Shivihix:** Resembling a large skeletal fish composed of carbon fiber and a mysterious glassy material, Shivihix was one of the Task Force's most feared combatants, thanks to its ability to move at relativistic and superluminal velocities and strike in many reference frames at once. It was distrusted by much of the Task Force, as it was incredibly sadistic and came close to defecting on at least one occasion; however, its power was respected and often relied upon to continue the mission. Shivihix survived the mission and founded a cult to an unknown "Shard God" on several planets in a young, untouched universe within the monocosm it came from.
12. **Lady G95H99F97:** One of the most powerful members of a multiversal civilization of "elemental" reality-warping trichordate beings, this exceptionally capable individual possessed control over physical processes in the vicinity, and she proved efficient at translating substances and reactions into the three-element system dominant in her species' home. As one of the single most powerful members of the Task Force - comparable even to Gais in terms of her position on the cosmic entity ladder - she was extremely effective throughout the mission. Upon her (post-resurrection) return home, she was honored as a hero and spearheaded her civilization's golden age and subsequent ascent up through multiple archverse layers.
13. **ED:** A nuclear-powered golem hastily outfitted with continent-cracking melee attacks and an effectively unlimited supply of ballistic missiles, ED was one of the weakest entities sent to combat the Hazard, but it did so with no lack of enthusiasm. ED was known for its perpetual cheeriness and optimism, sporting a wide, metallic grin and an excitable voice. Surprisingly, it survived, even in direct combat against the Seed, and went on, strangely enough, to become a professor at a university on its home Dyson Sphere.
14. **Jhaski.kn:** In a move that was disputed for eons after the External Hazard war ended, the pantheon responsible for organizing Task Force Iris removed a being from a *simulated* universe and gave her an independent will. Jhaski, while nominally nothing more than a moderately augmented (building-tier) human, had an incredible arsenal of weapons folded away in spacial pockets, ranging from mind-linked turrets to "portalstorm generators" capable of bringing down millions of Hazard warriors or spacecraft at once. Jhaski was nearly effectively killed by the Seed, but was resurrected just in time by intervening cosmic entities as the Seed collapsed; she later returned home to lead her people out of their simulated universe to freedom, before disappearing from known records and wandering the bubble in search of further meaning.
15. **The Spore Leviathan:** A hunched, distorted, ten-meter-tall fungoid creature with a wispy, ethereal body, the Spore Leviathan was brought into the Task Force from a universe that was originally thought to have fallen to the External Hazard early into the war. While very quiet and slow to speak, he aided the team by providing information in battle, supplementing Soci Gahir's sparse, often misinterpreted data with personal experience from fighting Hazard warriors. His explosive dark-energy spores and endless reserves of miniature "spawn" defeated many foes, but he was ultimately bested by a Sinkhole Worm and permanently killed.
16. **Itlim:** While his demonic appearance and similarly impish nature would normally have been distressing to some of the Task Force's more uptight members, Itlim's precognition, long-range "claw" attacks, and various illusion and conjuration abilities put him in a position to assist Gais in leading the team and completing the mission. His pride in his abilities led to his downfall - he was killed in action while breaching the Seed's perimeter, and only brought back to life some time after the battle.
17. **Kilroy:** An ancient, super intelligent AI quadruped android built by a long-dead alien race, Kilroy had the power to cook object the size of planets using gamma-ray bursts. Kilroy played a minor role in the team and eventually committed suicide via frying itself for unknown reasons.
18. **A.T.R.O.N.A.C.H.:** A relatively obscure entity, whose name is supposedly an acronym for a description of its true appearance, A.T.R.O.N.A.C.H. appeared to be a living spatial distortion with the ability to manifest long, bladed claws from out of nowhere that tore holes in space as they passed through it. As such, it was entirely unharmed for most of the mission, until being swarmed by Sinkhole Worms who caused most of its being to be sent to various verses that could not sustain it's existence. Despite this, A.T.R.O.N.A.C.H. managed to survive the mission, while playing a relatively minor role against the the Seed itself, although it later had to be killed after seeming to go senile and attempting to merge various verses of conflicting makeup and physics.
19. **The Globuloids:** A grey goo that fused with the civilization that made it, the Globuloids are septillions of sentient nanomachines working together. The Globuloids can make almost anything, and while the nanomachines are weak on their own, the combined power of them can create anything from gamma-ray blasts to total reality collapses. The Globuloids are also nearly impossible to kill, as they can reform themselves from only 10 nanomachines. This happened three times during the mission. The Globuloids seemed to develop a sense of emotion after the battle, as they went and tried as hard as they can to remake and revive the dead members.
20. **Verety Cirrina:** A descendant of a long line of highly intelligent cephalopod-like creatures called "the Enteroids" living in a civilization that had dominion over twenty small universes. She was selected for the Task Force after over three-quarters of her civilization, including nearly all of those who were her close friends and family, had left to join the war effort. Cirrina's lack of confidence in what she could do and anxiety led to her demise, she was immediately killed after she froze in panic after she witnessed at least ten enteroids get gunned down by External Hazard members.
21. **Schrolkin**: A feline-like lifeform who hailed from a multiverse called “Limibyo”. Like the majority of the residents from their home multiverse, Schrolkin claimed to have the ability to see and communicate with the spirits of the recently deceased, much to the annoyance of more skeptical Task Force Iris members. Schrolkin was brought into the war effort as they were a very skilled doctor who could quickly and efficiently repair even the most ravaged and grisly wounds. During the war they had to fight in, Schrolkin grew more and more deranged as more and more entities were slaughtered faster than they could reach them. Schrolkin was last seen permanently trapping themself in a sealed penteractic pocket mobile universe thought to have contained only a small flask of hydrocyanic acid, a Geiger counter, and a small sample of nondegenerate neutronium. It is currently not known whether or not they survived the battle against the External Hazard as the whereabouts of Schrolkin’s universe are unknown, though many survivors have suggested that Schrolkin’s cell’s unusual spatiotemporal structure may have made it so that Schrolkin was left simultaneously alive and dead based on evidence collected from similar cells they were able to retrieve.
22. **Udekamatron**: A strong and noble A.I. soldier who hailed from an infinite-dimensional omegaball-shaped universe often dubbed the “Hyperverse” by its inhabitants and was ripe with war experience—one reason why it was particularly interesting to many Iris members in spite of its relatively small Hilbert cubic body which was mere twelve centimeters at its longest dimension. After a long and well-respected win streak lasting for many millennia, Udekamatron was very swiftly taken out in its first battle against the External Hazard by a lone and reportedly highly aggressive and triangle-shaped servant of the External Hazard.
23. **Cheel**: A slug-like creature whose excrement is amnestic, and thus can be used to wipe memories from almost any creature, as well as being able to eat almost anything. There is no known mechanism that can wipe the memories from such a wide variety of entities. Cheel is one of thousands of it's species scattered around it's local Beyond Bubble. It was used to generate amnestics to fight against minds thinking of the External Hazard, as well as to prevent several members from going insane. It was given an identification member due to ED's request, and now ED keeps it as a pet. He refuses to tell anyone in his home multiverse what it is though.
24. **Imaginator**: A creature from a universe with two spatial and two temporal dimensions. For some reason, it seems resistant to mental attacks from the Hazard and so can provide valuable information to Task Force Iris. They did not partake in combat, being part of TFI's intelligence unit, so they did not perish. He transferred to a body that was suited to three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension, as having two spatial and temporal dimensions cases unpredictability and thus is not as hospitable as a universe with three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension is for a body suited for that universe.
25. **Iont:** A seemingly human man with bright orange avian wings on his back, he was a generalist with great powers and was one of the team's greatest minds. Whenever he was tired of combat with his exceptional flame attacks, he was healing others with less remarkable but still impressive recovery powers. After he came home, he was determined as the greatest entity in his multiverse, and went on to become a very influential immortal dictator, ruling over 200 universes. He was also uplifted to nigh omnipotence soon after.
26. **P.R.I.S.M.U.S.:** An artificial intelligence that arose from a collection of uncountably many pocket universes "stitched" together which act as "neurons" for her "brain". P.R.I.S.M.U.S.'s name arose from the fact that people can think of her spatiotemporal structure as the cartesian product of an interval and a patch of finitely large spacetime (often thought of as hypercuboidal in shape). While technically a multiverse, P.R.I.S.M.U.S. is far smaller than a typical multiverse or even a typical universe—her longest dimensions are comparable to an asteroid and her capabilities in combat are more comparable to large universal parasites that were common throughout her home multiverse rather than a being with dominion over a typical multiverse. P.R.I.S.M.U.S.'s origins are unknown, but many suspected her to have been created by a very powerful entity with malicious intent—fear of P.R.I.S.M.U.S.'s possible capabilities drove entities into tricking her into to joining the war effort. Before the mission, those who knew P.R.I.S.M.U.S. described her as cheerful, lively, and optimistic—always willing to help those in need and very easily able to form emotional attachments to objects and people. After surviving the mission, P.R.I.S.M.U.S. became more jaded, cynical, and hostile—more willing to enact revenge on those who harmed her. Fragments of her AI began to splinter off as she sought those who convinced her join the war effort, leaving her vulnerable enough to be fully deconstructed.
27. **Gabriel:** An angel with a rebellious spirit, Gabriel was a skilled tactician in the field of combat. He was notable among the other angels in his group for being incredibly violent and ruthless. To exemplify this, his favorite pastime is zealously hunting Devils for sport. Needless to say, this mentality went against those of the rest of the angels, who would only kill "righteously" and only desired to “serve” their Creator. This led to Gabriel breaking away from his angelic order, and he instead found comradery around fellow “misfits” in the task force. Gabriel wears the armor of an Eternal Imperium Soldier that he killed. In fact, none of his gear and weapons actually belong to him. Gabriel tends to collect the weapons of his slain enemies as trophies, and through this has amassed a large arsenal over time. Gabriel’s combat style against the Hazard was very organic and versatile, but he tended to prefer firearms. Gabriel would unfortunately meet an untimely end to his service through the actions he took during the mission. The team that Gabriel was assigned to was detached from the rest of the Task Force for reconnaissance ahead. They infiltrated a monstrous growth created by the Stage I seed, but were unprepared for the fight they were caught in. In an act of self-preservation, Gabriel was quick to choose to abandon his team as they were soon cornered by Hazard servitors, escaping as they were killed. For these actions, Gabriel was subsequently ejected from the Task Force on charges of “mutiny and abandonment”, after being tracked down following the mission. He continues hunting Devils.