Budget: 30 Tokens

Until today, most Earthlings felt like they were the most advanced species in the Universe. Like there wasn't much going on, or at least that there wasn't much going on anywhere near that planet. But that would all change in a single day. September 13 2022, at 9:30 PM. For the last week, multiple astronomy reports have come in of bizarre metal objects all over and an incredible increase in "falling stars", but nobody suspected what would come next...

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 Up high above the atmosphere a flicker of light illuminates a Bat-like face of a creature. It's body still in shadow, little can be seen but it appears sitting inside a throne on a ship with numerous lights and complicated controls. The creatures rasps and point's it's clawed hands towards a nearby screen illustrating a battle between spaceships nearby!

 "There's the Captain! End this battle at last!" Just then, one can see on the screen numerous black-fighter sized ships with black talons and what appear to be energy weapons surrounding a white ship...



A single dark purple energy blast fires from six of those small fighters, all of them converging  upon the front, in what appears to be the cockpit of this odd ship! A huge chunk of the front falls towards the planet they are fighting just above, earth! As the heat begins to surround the falling debris a single dark green light shines in the control room, as a computerized voice lets out a faint robotic whisper...

"Activating, emergency protocol 10X2."

 As the debris continues to falls closer and closer to the earth, it's location becomes more evident, even to the casual observer. It is going to fall into the United States, and more specifically, near the coast of Florida.

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 Our heroes are at the last place, anybody would suspect to find new heroes tonight. In a local food joint. Starro's Pizza a place highly recommended by the students who can't afford to eat anywhere but the school' cafeteria and ones who don't want to use their meal points. Not the best pizza in the US, and maybe not the best even in Westside Reef, but it is the closest to the college. The decor was a little odd, the place was founded with a major superhero fan in charge who insisted on decorations that was perhaps more fitting for a comic book store, like the mascot from which the store got it's name.



 But that didn't bother most of the patrons. What did bother them was the early closing time, 9:45 was way to early to close a pizza place, even if it was a Tuesday night most of the students were still awake long after that time! But the man running the place insists on education being more important, and with a clientele and staff of mostly college students he had an insistence that sleep was important. What were our heroes doing there on the last time they were able to order that night? Would their relaxing night be easy to interrupt with the news of these strange objects going overhead? Or were they focused enough on their own issues that they would arrive home unscathed after whatever events were about to transpire? First we'd need to meet them to find that out. What are our soon to be heroes doing?
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:06, Fri 17 June 2022.

Shubham had finished his food ages ago, and was on his 3rd cola refill as he tried to work his way through the heavy book in front of him. But this was no statistics or geography project that he was struggling with.

"So if I get this skill it costs 10% less unless I take a higher TL, which costs 5 extra character points" Shubham muttered as he looked through the large colorful book. He'd been invited to his classmate's Gurps campaign and had even been lent his copy of the book, but Shubhum was struggling with all there was to learn.

"This is nothing like D&D. I feel like character builiding is harder than my accountancy class." Shubham groaned. Still, he was grateful for the chance to be part of any kind of gaming group. He hadn't really found his people, and was getting pretty lonely since he left the Navy.

He then heard the last call and started packing his bag, making sure to keep his borrowed book clean. Maybe he could study this a bit longer in the library. He knew his roommate woke up early so wouldn't want to keep him up.

Jessica had just got her order in right before Starro's stopped for the night.  It had been another long day and she was glad she had no responsibilities tommorow but studying.

She sat down at a booth laying her backpack next to her and sliding her laptop out to do some reading on the current cataloguing system they were working on in class.

Jessica looked around, this had always been her favorite spot in town, never too much of any one crowd and that was something she appreciated very deeply.

Her food soon and and just a quickly was gone and it was time to leave the pizza joint.  She slid her backpack over one shoulder and began walking towards to door.

"TCHAAaa, mon ami.  I agree Top Gun made de F-14 Tomcat a very cool plane.  Wing movement for both the short take off and good short manuevering before de swing back for high speed.  But if I could fly any plane... Well you won't believe me."  The energetic Creole engineering student said amongst a number of other students on a table littered half a dozen destroyed pizzas. Smaller conversations amongst the students as most books had been shuffled from the collection of tables being used.  A few suggestions were thrown out, most assumed the SR-71 Blackbird was going to be the choice.

A cocky grin played on his face before he gave an answer, "De A-10 Thunderbolt 2."  He said and there were a few confused looks on the faces. "Merde, the phacochère... The Warthog." There were a few calls of doubt and some jeers at that choice. "Non, non, No!  See, this was a plane that was absolutely engineered around a gun.  Dis plane is built not by de standards of making a jet fast.  Dis plane was fully engineered to be a purpose.  So non, not de fun fast I like, but just to see what a plane built around a purpose like dat."  A few people still doubted him and more were understanding where he was coming from.  Then he grinned and said, "Plus de power of de gun is such dat Newton's laws mean dat it could make a rather amazing twist of de plane with a focused fire on one spot while de plane summersaults over a target before engines are fired up to return the way you came from."  He gave a grin as mimiced the actions with his hand to show what he was say.

A few laughed and some called him out saying that wasn't possible.  "Tcha.  It would be hard, de G-forces alone would make it hard for a pilot to work it.  We make Inertial Dampeners from de Star Trek, and you will see more unbelievable piloting actions become possible."  He said as the conversations broke in and people pulled into their smaller conversations, and when the call for last orders came in, Jean-Paul got up and checked if anyone needed more food before he went up to put an order in for some more food to take with him, a nod as he asked for anchovies and confirmed it.

He waited by the counter, Jean-Paul let his eyes wander around the others in the pizzaria, trying to take note of anyone who looked interesting or different from the others around here.

Abigail came up behind one of her grandparents best customers, well in recent times anyway.

"I would have thought you would have chosen your own plane. Grandpa says hi and those parts you wanted have come in.  I would probably have to pick the Vulcan or failing that.. the Lancaster. That is assuming I can learn to fly my bicycle without crashing it."

To be honest, pizza was not in her top ten food groups, but "mother" had insisted that at least one night a week she was to try and meet with people closer to her own age.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:24, Tue 28 June 2022.

Jean-Paul turned back to la petite and flashed a smile.  "Tcha mon chéri.  Dat wasn't part of de question.  Sides, my first plane didn't make it to de landing point.  My current plane is just to get license with.  And de one I am building, well, I don't know how it will fly yet.  But I can change it.  Saying dat I want to try a plane dat I can change as I see fit is like saying dat your perfect man is de one you built to be perfect."  He said with a chuckle at the young woman.

"And I will be by soon to pick up the parts.  Who would have thought school would get in de way of building a better plane."  He said with a chuckle.

"What's that guy in such a hurry for!?" One younger female student yelled out pointing outside a large window into the barely lit small streets the led to this place. Just across the streets, an in shape, tough looking Irish guy of about 19 stormed into the pizza joint, like a man on fire! Looking much paler than he had ever looked before!

 Guys, guys! There was...was...a...crash near the harbor..." The young man could barely stammer out a few words before barely audible words began falling out of his mouth as the other students just began to stare. To remedy this, he pointed out up to the direction he came in with the outdoor windows, a series of red and blue flashing lights heading to the right, in the direction of the harbor with the sound of police sirens suddenly blaring through the restaurant

 "Oh man, I wanted to go to the bar tonight..." Kyle Nash, a burly, tall, blond twenty-year-old football player whined in a faux offended voice. Evidently, the joke did not go over well, as the owner manning the counter nearby shot him an annoyed look before he gave an order.

 "Okay, calm down everybody. It's time to get out of here and get somewhere safe! Go right back to the dorms and not anywhere else. We don't know what's out there."

Jessica had walked up to the door when the commotion started and  the young man ran in.  She her luck,  her apartment was near the harbor.  Since she was a grad student she didnt have to live in the dorms.  Normally she would thank the gods for that, right now she really did not know.


She slipped out of the building as people were making their way to and from all around her.  Heading to her apartment, and she could tell from looking in the distance that it was very very close to whatever had happened.  Her right hand instinctively went to a side pocket of her backpack where she kept her practice Escrima sticks.  Not that they would help much if it was a big problem, but knowing she had tools at her disposal helped to keep her calm always.

Abigail stared at the man and listened intently, then looked out at the hue of the sky.

He was right. But her home wasn't in the dorms, and she wasn't going to make here grandparents worry.  She gathered her stuff as quickly as possible, quietly thankful for not having to finish her pizza.

Jean-Paul called out to echo the Owner, "Oui.  Everyone head home safe.  Is just a small crash.  This is Florida, that isn't anything important for us to care about." He said to the pizzareia, grabbing his food before stepping over towards Abigail, and whispered to her, "Pst... Do you have any tools with you here?"

He watched her reaction for a moment, a small grin on his face as he whispered to her further.  "My scrounger senses are telling me dere is something bon at dat crash.  Help me out and we get a deal for each of us." He said with a wink at the young woman.  "Maybe we find something good, and you get a favor from me.  Or we find nothing and I pay extra for de parts dat I ordered from your grand-père."  He said to sweeten the offer as he had some tools but not a lot, and she might have some here.

Abigail looked at him like he had suggested they blow up the moon with a lemon and two matchsticks. "You want to go towards the sirens, flames and danger?"

She stared at his face. "Nothing here, the garage is on the way though if you really want to get yourself arrested. Come on then"