1 Emerald Light

Journal summary, 30th-September-2130

A blinding flash of green hued light enveloped the Earth in what has come to be known as the "Emerald Flash". It was an occurrence that affected every human life thirty years ago including my own, and every life to come. An eruption of green light swarmed over the world from the inside out and continued on past our planets borders. Scientists on colonized planets throughout our solar system reported the same bursts of green light from not just Earth, but the colonies as well, along with satellite readings indicating the energy wasn't just originating from our world and colonies. There were readings coming in indicating multiple origin points in deep space that we hadn't reached with anything other than satellite probes. Meaning that this could not have been a human instigated phenomena.

Initially we had no idea what had happened but things took less than a day before people began to realize exactly what effect it had on us. Chaos descended upon every country of the world simultaneously. Monsters, or beasts are the only applicable word for what they were, but they weren't aliens, they weren't mutant bugs. They were us, or at least they used to be.

Following the flash, anyone that died from then on, whether it be from drugs, murder, old age or accidents, would emit the same emerald light, and in that flash the individual would transform into a monster. Great and emaciated looking beasts, as though the transformation had eaten away at their body to fuel the change, but they were anything but weak. Speed beyond what any human was capable of, even at our most elite levels. Strength to cleave you in two with a single swipe if they had claws. They came in myriad forms and sizes. Some looking akin to hideous bipedal wolves, others were similar to tigers or even apes. Essentially looking like a corrupted version from someone's nightmares. With varying degrees of savagery they came at us. Some being stronger than others, and some with greater capabilities related to their speed. The Earth's population was crippled and cut from nine billion to less than seven billion in a matter of weeks, resulting is beasts running rampant across the globe.

To this day we still don't understand why we take the specific forms we do, or even whether it is influenced by our genetics or environment. The beasts wouldn't attack anything but people, pursuing humans specifically with a dogged desire bordering on obsession. Their numbers grew rapidly until we figured out how to kill them and our militaries fought back. The beasts have an amazing resiliency to penetrating objects like bullets. But elements like fire, electricity and acid still seem to work, along with slicing weapons, which made weapons like swords come back into common popularity. Though we certainly made some exciting changes.

Normal humans didn't stand a chance against things like these demons. So when this blight struck our world, the militaries and governments of the world finally found a reason to come together for the good of the world instead of fighting each other, though like any treaty it was stressed, fragile and tenuous even at the best of times.

Research was both shared and heavily conducted into nanotechnology and genetic/biological manipulation that was previously taboo. Scientists learned how to enhance our speed and strength along with our thought and visual processing speed to match the beasts. We used nanotechnology and nuclear technology and combined them to manufacture handheld weaponry imbued with fire, electricity or corrosive traits which make them seem almost magical, to combat the beasts on a smaller, more local scale instead of trying to nuke them from existence which would have only hurt us more and sped our end.

Equipping these weapons are highly trained and experienced combat units made up of anyone willing to fight and protect bystanders during beast emergences. These are called Slayer Squads. For the sake of both maneuverability and versatility the squads are kept relatively small, typically consisting of no more than 7 members at any given time.

Research on these creatures that we become is also virtually nonexistent due to the fact that upon death, the only thing left are the beasts pelt, bones and ash, though we can use their hides and bones to augment our armor and weapons since they carry over with them the natural durability of the beast. Because of this unique reaction the beasts produce when they bleed or die they have commonly been dubbed the "Ashen". Some people ask why we don't just capture some beasts alive in order to study them, well we tried that. The Ashen know when they've been caught, and due to whether they know they will be experimented on or studied, or maybe just because they become desperate, they are capable of triggering some kind of reaction within themselves that causes an explosion of the same emerald energy we see when they turn in the first place, killing and decimating everything in a 30 foot area. Whatever their reason may be, it means they're smart, holding onto some kind of residual intelligence, or are at least intelligent enough to know when the fight is lost.

We can also see by the fact that the creatures hunt well in packs and are relatively cooperative, more so in combat which makes them significantly more difficult to fight as compared to individuals, that they know how to make it easier to survive for themselves.

Decisions were made to break up all mega-cities in the world, not allowing any one city to exceed more than 100,000 in population. The military set up squads of slayers in every section of every city to combat the Ashen that appeared as a result of accidental and unplanned deaths. By unplanned deaths I refer to the harsh decision our world had to make. The decision to control the details and circumstances surrounding our death, or the moment and way we die, in a controlled military installation where we could choose to end things if we knew we had a terminal illness or could die at any time since there are some diseases that even our newly advanced medicine can't cure. Those facilities are also underneath hospitals and surgery centers and are equipped to deal with those that turn with dedicated squads and execution rooms.

Upon death, their transformation takes hold and at completion, the beast is incinerated. The people know it's cruel, because it could take away so much extra time they could have with their loved ones, but they agreed to rather lose a little time than transform and kill those same loved ones, all because they wanted to be selfish. Though that doesn't mean that everyone agreed.

Our only silver lining in this cruel new hell of a world is that young children, infants and the unborn are incapable of turning, leading us back to the idea that the body must have some significant level of body mass to consume, in order for the transformation to both trigger and be successful. But through studying blood from all ages, we can plainly see that the green energy we see at transformation is bound to every cell, giving the cells a faint green glow under a microscope, although we don't glow in the dark.

Then there is the new church. Of course when something like this would happen there had to be those who claimed it held some sort of religious symbolism. That we are being punished and that these hideous beings we become upon death are the punishment for our vanity and for our apathy in life towards everything that doesn't affect us directly. Before the Emerald Flash, the churches of the world were on a major decline. People were losing faith in all walks of life. But this was an opportunity of a lifetime for those in the business of religion, not those who truly believed, but those who saw it as a money making machine. This new church sprang up virtually overnight and people flocked to it, begging for a way to be free of this burden and curse. They were giving people and soon that new church was rolling in funds and was even on par with world governments inside of a year. The Church of Bestial Forgiveness. They worship the universes creator, hoping that their atonement, in whatever fashion that may be, will purge their body of the green energy. The church gives them hope though, and I'm not one to deny anyone that much, especially in this hellish world, even if I do think they're full of crap. The church also contributes heavily to the squads that protect the people all over the world but they're still full of corrupt bureaucrats whose main intention is to line their own pockets. Whatever... It still has plenty of good people and as long as they don't hamper those of us on the front lines then we won't interfere with them either.

The absolute worst thing to come of this are the cultists. Terrorists is realistically a more apt word to describe them. Their belief is that this is the path to our next step in life, and that harming and fighting against the beasts is futile, and even wrong. Because their belief lies in the strength of the food chain. But I believe their line of thinking is flawed because we haven't ever seen the Ashen reproduce. They only exist because humanity still lives and they wouldn't exist without us. If they were only all talk then people wouldn't really care, and they started out small of course, but after a few years managed to gain enough traction to number in the tens of thousands. If only people had had the foresight to see what they would become.

Mass area attacks with bombs, gasses and even suicide in heavily public areas began occurring. Resulting in large casualties and outbreaks of beasts. These events lead to the second most dangerous type of Ashen beast we know so far, with the normal beasts being at the bottom at number 3. Put simply enough, we call them A-B Types or Amalgamation Beasts. Even the strongest slayers fear them. When forming after the humans initial death, if enough beasts are present and forming at the same time, their bodies will instead come together and form something much worse. A beast looking more like a Frankenstein monster of different creatures than anything else, although the parts work dangerously well together. While not immortal by any means, these beasts are stronger, faster and even more cunning than individual beasts and no confrontation with one has ever ended without the deaths of enhanced squad members.

We have survived, and adapted up to this point. Everyone who knew of a time before the flash always speaks of finding a way back to normal, but what the hell even is normal!? The world that we live in NOW, as dreadful as it may be, it's the only thing I know considering I was born the day of the flash those 30 years ago. Something else I do know is that in this world, you will die. You will transform and you will die again. Something has to give, because that isn't a world to live in, or to thrive in. Is this just a natural occurrence? Or is there something more to it? There has to be a way to stop it and allow people to not live in even greater fear of their own deaths than they already did, and to not fear the deaths of others around them. Just what is that beautiful... yet sickening emerald light? Those were my questions and I was not alone in them. I had no idea where to start looking for those answers though. Little did I know that the path to those very same answers would soon thrust itself upon me.

End of journal summary,

Flare Nacht

"Flare!

"Why am I hearing my name?" Flare thought as his dreams were interrupted

"Flare! Flare wake up!"