Fall From Grace

Fall From Grace

"In a fragment of an instant,
the chaos has returned,
and all that's left to sentiment,
beneath the banner burned"

Chapter 1
part 1
Survivors

Spoiler:

"what? where the heck am i?" i woke up into pitched blackness, not sure of what had happened.
*breathing*
"who's there, show yourself"
*more breathing*
"no, stay away from me!" i backed up into a corner, a corner i could not see "Stay away!!"

the breathing stopped, too quickly "what was that, oh!! wait! weapon! gotta find a weapon". I reached down to my pocket and felt a pistol "... pistol ... pistol do i have ammo for ... Yes i have bullets" I slid in the magazine and worked the slide, listening to the satisfying double clack of the slide as it chambered a round. Then some thing jumped for me, i turned and shot it through the head and heard the body slump to the ground. Something else jumped on me and i woke up in the ruins of Camp Half Blood.

"what the?" i whispered to myself clambering to my feet and looking around at the wreakage "what the fu ... what happened here" i looked down at my hands, holding an M92 pistol, my knuckles white from gripping it so hard. "What happened here?!? hello?! anyone?" i loosened my grip on the pistol, a hard grip meant shaky hands, shaky hands meant a sure miss, a sure miss made sure you wound up dead. I wondered what happened, what was my name anyway "ID, i must have one somewhere" if i did not than i had been a camper, if yes than i had been a roleplayer and i might actually stand a chance here, my fingers came out of my pocket with a small card with a name printed on it. "Rambo'neil? hmm, okay, so i'm a role player, question is: Where is my character box" the character box was carried by every roleplayer everywhere, it housed the characters that they used to RP. I hightailed it to the armory, hopefully i could get a better weapon there.

The Armory was quiet and i stopped in front of it, the doors were locked and magicaly sealed to protect against anyone that tried to get in. I opened the doors and they were still intact thank god, i then looked around and saw a couple NPCs that had hid in here, mainly Dryads, Satyrs and various other people, some of them were trying to get open a door on the far side of the room. "thank zeus" said one minor demigod, "its a roleplayer, we have been stuck here for quite a while now, these weapons are useless against those freaks" he gestured around the area at the racks of swords and bows with arrows. "why are they useless? they are perfectly good weapons" "no! those freaks will not stop at anything until your are dead, endless swarms of them". all of a sudden, my memory came back in a rush.

*Flashback*
some sort of humanoid demon type of creature, thousands of them, swarmed against Thielas Tree and the magical barrier that surrounded the camp. Then for some reason, the barrier failed. the hundred headed dragon wrapped around the tree fought them off for as long as possible but they eventually overwhelmed it and stabbed it, killing it, but how could it? Only celestial bronze is able to kill mythical beings, but sure enough, the dragon went stiff and slumped over utterly dead. Our first line of defense was gone, all the roleplayers rallied their characters and sent them in a massive wave at the demonoids, they looked like they would actually stand a chance but them there seemed to be more than ever, one by one, the characters fell and the roleplayers fell back. Almost everyone was fast but the demons were faster, and they began cutting down the roleplayers. Chiron usured everyone inside but then mister D had closed the door when they go too close. I was locked outside, i was going to die so i shot myself in the side. It hurt like hell and i collapsed.
*end of flashback*

"alright, i'll unlock the door ... stand back"

Holy gods this is a good story

Chapter 1
Part 2
Whats going on?

Spoiler:

I sat on the roof of a Volkswagen car (from the World War 2 era and that is not a good sign) and surveyed the camp as more NPCs strolled out. Technically there was a 100 meter buffer zone that the enchantment protected so there was enough room to move some of the people outside, them having stayed inside because they were a scared out of their minds.

A demi-god ran up to me and threw a salute before holding up an inventory clipboard for me to inspect.

The Demi-god in question was a nice kid, Dixon Chase, his mother being a marine (his father being Apollo) and him reading extensively on military history and non-fiction military encyclopedias. He was the most knowledgeable person i ever met and i had instated him as my second in command, even though he stood at a mere 5 foot 7 inches, he was rock solid and commanded authority.

The information on the clipboard was not good, not good at all. The armory had only been checked twice since WW2 and even then, they were during the cold war after the pact so the armory also was shrunk drastically. As such, almost all of the equipment was WW1 and WW2 era with barely any modern weaponry, it wasn't even the equipment we needed.

"so your saying that the only modern weaponry that we have are no more than: twenty M16/M4s, fourteen Kalashnikovs, thirteen M14s, two Beret M107s, and six M240s?
"that is all sir"
"and the only other weapons are KR98s?"
"well, thats as far as i got. The ammunition situation is also a crisis, it seems like we have ammo for several different classes of weapons"
"do we have any vehicular capabilities at all? I mean any way to get around other then on foot"
"well, yes but i would not trust them at all. I have identified them as a BMP-2 Russian AFV and one Blackhawk American service helicopter with the chaingun removed as per protocol"
"aw crap ... alright. So your saying that we gotta fight a giant demon army from hell with a handful of weapons and ..."

I gestured at the rabble of NPCs gathered around the weapons and weapon racks having only a slight clue what they were. Dixon shrugged and indicated that he obviously shared my distaste.

These guys were going to be about as useful as conscripts who didn't even have training. In fact, they would probably get about three hours before i decided to begin combat operations. I reflected that if I managed to survived this then i would go up to Olympus and give Zeus a piece of my mind (fist, whatever), personally.

"so ... alright, I need to get out of this place and scout the area. I want you to do some things while i'm gone"
"Yes sir? What would those be?"
"I need you to go around the people and pick out NCOs, assign them squads and arrange the squads into platoons. Find the best shots among the Apolos and assign them to the berrets and M14s, get some some hunters to learn how to handle an M16. Get a few Ares kids and put them on the AKs and the M240s."
"anything else sir?"
"get me an M4 and get yourself whatever weapon you want"
"That all, sir?"
"pretty much it, now get to it."

He snapped a salute and ran off while i lay back on the roof of the car. This was gonna suck badly, me being assigned to the military force in the history of mankind. Half of my so called men didn't even know what a gun was and i was gonna have to run straight into the teeth of hell with them, oh well, at least it can't get any worse than this.

I closed my eyes and began to run through situations in my head. Being a Roleplayer made my difficult job a bit easier, i could do some godlike things that the NPCs couldn't, though they were mainly powers and such. If i had been moderator status or higher then i could have created some more NPCs and made my job easier

Spoiler:

I ended up taking two escorts with me, now labeled Corporal Mai Aviv and Specialist Brian Sevja. Mai, being a 17 year old Ares kid who could be described as -Stacked, Packed and ready to rock- on official papers she could also be described as -erect of carriage- as Yowza would not usually be accepted, no matter what her appearance, she was just about the scariest fighter i had ever met. Brian on the other hand was a good 4 inches taller than me standing at 6 foot 3 inches and had taken ROTC at high school, a 16 year old Hephaestus kid who was now my mechanic and my marksman.

I ran up behind the big house and my escorts followed after i gave the signal. So far we had not run into any Demonoids but that could change at any minute. I lifted the M4 and peeked around the corner where i was greeted by an empty courtyard where a fountain bubbled away happily, oblivious of the dead demi-god who lay next to it.

"last location boss?" asked Brian
"yeah, last one, after this we return to base for a break"
"yeah, gotcha boss"

Mai sneaked forward with her bayonet drawn and ready, completely avoiding any possible usage of the Kalashnikov now slung over her back. She made a dash to the front of the building and after a quick scan, signaled all clear, to which we moved up quickly. We moved up to the window and took a look in the building.

The building had been locked down as much as far as i was concerned, with the window broken barred up by planks, though i could see through one of the slits in the bars, a person in the main entrance lobby. I motioned for Brian to go to the fountain and cover us and for Mai to come over.

"Alright, there are more demi-gods in there, i need you to stay behind me when i go in, if they do anything than you detain them. Got it?"
"Yes boss, I gotcha, you want me non-lethal on this one?"
"yes, but remember to also watch Brian too"

I moved over to the door, staying slightly to the side and knocked. The surprise and scrambling in the room was evident as they woke abruptly and retrieved their weapons. The sheer unprofessional manner in which they reacted told me that they were not trained fighters. Oh well, a body is a body even if its a piece of crappy cannon fodder.

"Hello!" I yelled in at the people inside "Is anyone there?"
"Yes, what do you want?" Came a voice from inside, they had probably assumed positions around the door.
"Its me, Rambo'neil, im a Roleplayer"
"A Roleplayer? What do you want?"
"I'm stranded here, i'm going to try to take back the camp."
"Impossible, not against those freaks, even if your a Roleplayer"

I was tempted to fire my weapon into the air to make a point but then realized that the report would attract unwanted attention. Realizing that unwanted attention would get us overrun and killed, i decided against it.

"Look, I was able to access the Roleplayers section of the armory, I have guns and if you want to survive through this then I suggest you open the door"
"Fine, we'll let you in, just wait a moment"

I heard the sound of a heavy object being moved and the door cracked open slightly and a satyr poked his head out to look at us, first noticing me and then then my escort. He whistled and closed the door, moving the object completely away from the door and opened it completely. The satyr was flanked by a nymph and a tree spirit, both holding bows, both looking equally incapable if using them, and both looking equally frightened.

"Hello" said the satyr as he looked at my escort "She's hot, who is she? Your girlfriend"
Mai regarded the comment with a snarl "no, but I will tear your head off if you piss me off"
"Jeez" said the satyr "Gimme a break will ya? Just trying to lighten the mood"
"Mai! Stand down, killing them is not going to make the situation better"
"Yeah, but it will be fun"
I ignored the comment and turned back to the guard "Is there more people here?"
"Yeah, probably the biggest group around here, other then the guys that ran off to the armory"
"Can i come in and speak to the leader of this group?'
"Sure, if you can find one, were pretty much leaderless right now"

They stepped aside for me and i waved at Brian to come back and rejoin us. They regarded Brian but made no comment on it, all the better for me as we stepped into the room. The entrance lobby was a mess, all the chairs were strewn about and a large table stood next to the door, apparently what they had been blocking it with, the door to the rest of the area was open too. I motioned for Brian and Mai to stay behind me but stay close, cause there still was the chance of some idiot attempting to do something stupid.

The rest of the big house had been overturned to make room for a lot of people, and through the rooms, i found about 40 more people, most of them demi-gods. That would be good, as demi-gods would better handle firearms, surprisingly there were very few of the young ones, probably killed during the mad dash but right now, that didn't really matter. I found the person who had been holding things together among her friends.

It was actually a water nymph, she held everyone together because she ran around looking like she had the slightest clue what to do. In reality, she was just as confused as anyone but she had gotten over the shell shock a bit earlier. I walked up to her with the gun slung across my back and spoke to her.

"Hello, are you the leader?"
"Well, probably, but i have no idea."
"Well, i'm gonna need you to get some of these people moving, I'm relocating all these people to the armory"
"Your going to take back the camp?"
"Well, yes, do you doubt my ability"
"No, not at all"
"Thank you" I said as I turned back to Brian and Mai "Brian, i need you to take Mai and see if you can round up some medical supplies, bandages and stuff. Meet me in the Entrance lobby in 30 minutes, you got that?"
"Yes boss, you want me to babysit her as well? Keep her out of trouble?" Brian asked referencing Mai who scowled darkly.
"Yeah, sure whatever, I'm gonna round these people up. Dismissed"

*note: i will still refer to myself as Rambo'neil

Chapter 2
Part 1
Weeding out the weak.

Spoiler:

I walked down the line, my recruits looking at me with mixed expressions and emotions. The Apollo kids looking a bit flighty, the Aphrodite kids just messing around with their hair, and the Ares kids kinda mocking me a bit and whispering. I already pointed out that I was going into battle with the worst recruits in history but this was just ridiculous, I mean, the Aphrodite kids hadn't even changed into BDUs yet. Whether i liked it or not, these were the guys that I was stuck with so I had to mold them into an effective fighting force.

I don't like being an a**hole but someone had to be made an example of if they were to be convinced that I meant business. I walked up to one of the nearby recruits, my Roleplayer Avatar having changed to be 6 foot 4, i towered over him, and he was one of the tall ones. He was an Ares kid, one of the tough guys, looked like he would give me trouble and he sneered at me a bit.

I looked him dead in the face, daring him to mock me.
"What are you looking at punk? You looking at me?"
He scoffed at me and was prepared to say something when I grabbed him by the hair and slammed him into the ground. He began coughing up blood as he tried to get up, though I kicked him down before he could get on his knees.
"What were you gonna say punk? I couldn't hear you over the sound of how weak you are!"
I looked at the rest of them, some of them inching backwards a bit but some of them (probably the cocky ones) sneered and chuckled. These guys I focused on.

"Who are you guys laughing at huh? Him?"
I walked up and decked one of the girls in the jaw, sending her flying back before I backed off. Looking at the other ones.
"Yeah, i'm not above hitting little girls. Now, one of you Apollos go see if she's not hurt."
I spread my arms wide and danced around in front of them.
"Common, come at me, I just assaulted two of your team mates. You little cowards."

Some of them began fuming at the insult and one of them stepped forward to attack me. He punched but i stepped out of the way and kneed him in the gut, forcing him to cough and stumble back before collapsing. Another three (two guys and a girl) looked at the one and attempted to attack at the same time.

I kicked sand into one of their faces and she backed off while I backhanded one of the dudes, putting some of my new strength into it. I pivoted on one foot and brought it sweeping across the other dude's knees while bringing my fist around to punch at the girl. Both hit the ground at about the same time.

I dusted off my hands and walked over to the rest of the line. "Anyone else feel lucky today?" They all showed some signs of fear now and vigorously shook their heads. "Do any of you question my authority?" Another negative.

"Good, now, one of you Apollos check on those guys, i think they might be a little ... wounded. The rest of you meet me at the firing range in an hour. You disgusting Aphrodite kids get to go back and change into your Battle Dress Uniforms, unaltered. If I see any sign of decoration then I'm gonna beat the living sh*t out of you. Dismissed"

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

I walked up to the firing range carrying a load of KR98s and a box of ammunition. They were still not even in a good line yet, my second in command Dixon was showing them how to properly melee with a rifle, though the Ares kids were still swinging them around like swords. Seriously, they couldn't stop themselves, they were grabbing the barrel of the rifle by its front sight and swinging it around.

I walked up and cleared by throat, instantly forcing them to pay attention. I dumped the rifles on the ground and saluted Dixon who also saluted back.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" He asked
"Granted, what?"
"These guys suck sir." and he walked out of the armory.

I paused for a bit and let him walk out of the area then turned back to the squad i was training. They looked a bit scared by now, they had gotten a bad review by the bosses second in command and i didn't look very happy. I scowled at them for a second before pointing at the pile at my feet indicating that those who did not have a rifle, grab one. They quickly scrambled for rifles and ammunition before returning to their line.

"alright you lousy pieces of cr*p, what you are holding in your hands is called a Karabiner model 98, also known as the KR98." I paused to pick up one of the rifles and a stripper clip of ammunition. "This is the 8x57 millimeter infantry standard round, fired by the KR98. It is an anti-infantry round meaning that you use it to kill lightly or unarmored personnel. You load it like this." I proceeded to demonstrate how to load, work and fire the weapon.

Since the Armory was enchanted, the sound of gunfire was muted outside, which was a good thing since it would take a lot more time to train these guys then i thought. Most of them were stuck on operating the bolt, attempting to pull straight back instead of cycling it, these guys were worse then conscripts. Most of those that did manage to get it right, most of the time couldn't even operate the iron sights, missing the target by a foot. Two Apollo brothers looked promising (They weren't handling the recoil well but they would learn) but a lot of the Ares kids were just ... sad, sure they could handle the recoil but they never came close to the targets.

"You maggots can't even aim right, you are supposed to put the front sight in the middle of the notch in the back." I stomped over to one of the Ares kids who had not even been aiming. "What is that huh? Your supposed to USE the sights to HIT the TARGET not the f**king BACK OF THE ARMORY!!!" I picked up the rifle and slammed the buttstock into his shoulder, pushing the rifle end up while pushing his head down onto the rifle back to look down the sights. "Now do you see those sights? Your supposed to AIM down them, this isn't SWORDS and SPEARS, this is FIREARMS and if you MISS then you DIE."

He kinda just went limp, after that, kinda just fainted a bit. I removed the rifle and let him slump down to the ground then let one of the other kids check on him. I walked past the two Apollos and patted them on the shoulder "You guys keep practicing, try to get your shot groupings tighter and slim them down a bit, i might give you one of the battle rifles." Then I walked up in front of them.

"Alright, you guys can either take the rest of the day off or you can stay here and practice, I will get Dixon back in here to help you refine or *cue glare at several people* attempt to get the hang of it. Seriously it's not that hard, all i'm asking is that you make an effort cause if your not fighting with us then I will dump you out there and you will die, cause I don't see why i'm wasting precious food and ammunition on you. Dismissed all of you."

Chapter 2
Part 2
Rise and Shine

Spoiler:

I walked up to the table in front of a cafe that I did not know about and sat down across from a young lady just about my age. I had reverted back to my old avatar but i was still significantly taller then her. She looked up from her coffee and stared at me for a second before putting it down on the table.

"Hello sir, sleep well?" She asked, resting her chin on her hands

"I'm kinda still asleep aren't I Jade?"

"Hmm, that's a good point there. So, what do you think?"

She took another sip before speaking "I'm thinking that you are pushing them a bit hard aren't you?"

The waiter came up to the table and i ordered green tea before turning back. "Jade, don't you know the current situation? You might not die but i sure as hell will if this doesn't go right."

"Oh please sir, you look at me and see a pretty girl. I'm the one managing your support and powers."

"I think I would rather not be totally dependent on you, just in case." I said right before the waiter came back with my tea. Said drink I downed very quickly. "Besides, aren't you my megalith unit?"

She got up and brushed off her jeans, stuffing the wallet back in her pocket. She grabbed me and hauled me up, apparently attempting to relocate to a better area. "Come on sir, it not a good idea to talk here, some people might overhear." And we went to an old apartment complex, actually the building was modified into a massive core processing unit. Computerization was everywhere and as we walked within 50 meters of the building, all of the old brickwork and mortar fell away to reveal a shining sleek building that looked like it came out of a sci-fi film.

We got inside where the walls were covered in circuitry and readouts, various devices that seemed to have no meaning and various electronic devices that were shooting electricity everywhere. Over the doorway that we came through, there was the logo of the organization.

"Quantum Visionworks: Fighting for peace through superior firepower." it said. I personally thought the label was fitting, seeing as the entire point of why it existed. The entire place was devoted to weapons and the walls were covered in prototypes and readouts: daggers, swords, crossbows, knives, guns, etc, etc. There was enough firepower here to equip a small army (or bring it down). And it wasn't like the primitive stuff, the swords and knives and daggers were lined with all sorts of fancy stuff and looked like they came out of the pocket of some alien space marine; the guns were not dinky little backyard plinkers either, they were assault rifles, and carbines and stuff.

Jade led me through the apartment and into a small office that contained a desk, computer and some other things. She seated herself at her desk while i sat down in a chair opposite of her.

"So sir, when were you going to reveal this to the other Roleplayers?"
"Well, i put it up a bit ago on the signature, thats why i can get here. In the meantime, have you managed to find anything about the demonoids yet?"
"not yet sir, engineering and bio-science is working full tilt on it but we still don't have anything yet."
"Shame, what about our weapons situation?"

She brought up a screen of several equations and a few lines of code.

"Well, so far, we can't send anything through until you get to to a higher security clearance, but otherwise, we have the weapons, though, I personally would wait until you get enough clearance to bring in marines. With the exception of maybe six people, your guys are going to be worthless. Dixon is a pretty good find but he's only one kid no matter how good he is."

She was right. Most of the people I had were next to worthless it almost hurt me to even think about what I was going to do with them. Actually, while the guns were in decent condition, the vehicles were run down from neglect, the BMP would probably be my only chance of doing any meaningful damage. Actually, in here, I'm god while at camp half-blood i'm just a simple member, probably even the last one until I clear out enough of the demonoids for the others to think about coming back. Geez, now I know the pain of those resistance leader types in movies, I've got about 90 people up against probably a force of over 100000 and even if I have guns I can't do anything without fire support. I can probably try using the blackhawk to get to Manhattan and talk to the governor there, I could probably take command of maybe a squad or so since I'm one of the few roleplayers who know how to use modern soldiers, actually, I'm probably on of perhaps two or three people on that site who knows how to handle any soldiers at all, everyone else would send the guys charging in without any plan at all.

"Is there any way I could get equipment from this site to halfbloodmania?" I asked, though I am not hopeful about the answer.

"Actually sir." I perked up. "If we can trace where the demonoids came from, we could duplicate what they did and that'll allow us to either send reinforcements to halfbloodmania or launch a counterstrike from here."

That was much better than I could have hoped for. Since my own site was focused on science fiction, I didn't just have manpower on my side, I had a technological advantage as well. One of the things that had really killed halfbloodmania was the fact that we had a no guns policy on the site that restricted all but roleplayers from having firearms and even then, only approved small arms were ever brought. I was lucky I had my handgun to play dead with. I have already created my world however, and that is restricting me from spamming a wormhole generator. My science team is smart, but they still need to do the math and make the generator first.

"Alright." I said to her. "I'll probably look around a bit and check on some stuff, but I need to get back to HBM soon, otherwise the place will fall apart and I am not willing to risk that."