Till Underverse Comes RPG

“You keep what you kill.”

That slogan governed the life of every Necromonger who lived. And that applied to the Lord Marshall rank as well. Riddick had held that rank by killing Zhylaw the Last, and now, Vaako bore down upon him with a large spear, his Furyan instincts being the only thing saving him from being split down the middle as he rolled out of the way. “Vaako!” he yelled. “As Lord Marshall I order you to stop this!” Vaako’s cold eyes didn’t even twitch as he pulled the blade free and began to walk towards Riddick with a predatory stride. “Sorry, Furyan, but you keep, what you kill.” And with that Vaako swung the blade again, Riddick back stepped to avoid the deadly blow. Riddick grabbed an abandoned axe and swung it at the commander, but it was knocked from his hand easily. Turning, he saw a squadron of soldiers lining up with their gravity rifles aimed at the two warriors. Riddick cried, “Shoot him!” and threw himself away. To his surprise, instead of Vaako being flung across the hall, several ornamental pieces of Necromonger history were launched and smashed against the floor and walls as he passed them. Somehow, Vaako had brainwashed the entire Necromonger Empire. Knowing no alternative, Riddick ran. He sped down a hall crowded with soldiers, and by the time he cleared the crowd, his entire body was coated with scratches and cuts. Knowing this ship like the back of his hand, Riddick turned left and then down a deserted corridor. He passed three doors before turning to the fourth on the left and opening it. The three soldiers turned, but not before Riddick stabbed one in the “sweet spot”, left a Necro dagger in the throat of the second one and fired the last’s gravity gun into his face. Dropping the gun, Riddick sprinted to the familiar C-19 skiff, the one that used to belong to Toombs, and began to power it up. With barely a moment to spare, the engines roared into life, drowning out the sound of pounding on the locked door. As it was unlocked, Riddick managed to pilot out the closing hangar doors and out into the vast depths of space, although blasts from the gravity guns smashed on the hull of the skiff.

2 weeks later

The ship awakened Riddick from cryosleep. Not that he’d been under for long. They say most of your brain shuts down during cryosleep. All except the primitive side. The animal side. Maybe that’s how he stayed awake. He shook the grogginess off, then checked the instruments. After that, he opened the blast shield over the view port and saw an amazing planet. It was a drop of blue and green against a velvet backdrop and he prepared the ship to land. Unfortunately, the ship had suffered damage, and the landing gear was not functioning, so he looked for an uninhabited stretch of land where the skiff could safely crash. After thirty agonising seconds, the ship scraped to a stop in a place known as Nevada. The desert was huge and expanded in all directions. Riddick scowled something fierce as the sun beat down on him. He muttered quietly as he looked at a helicopter about twenty feet up. “So now it’s back to civilisation. All the light, and everything I hate.” Suddenly, the aircraft made a landing and people in uniforms surrounded the ship, armed with guns. “OK, OK!” Riddick cried. “I’m coming out!” He exited the ship, hands on the back of his head, moments before a large man knocked him to the ground.   His head bounced off the rock and he sunk into unconsciousness.

2 days later

Riddick began to come to, his hands chained to the armrests of an uncomfortable metal chair. He realised three things almost instantaneously. First, his knives had been taken. Second, his goggles had been taken. Third, there were two military men in the room standing in front of him. “Who do you work for?” one of them yelled, followed by the other one crying, “Why did you come here?” Riddick hung his head and clenched his eyes shut. “Not talking.” A man entered the room and conversed with the others, before they left and the man began to speak to Riddick. “Hello. My name is Dr. Keller, and I’m going to ask you a few questions. What I want you to do, is just answer as best you can, alright?” Riddick didn’t even move, but the man continued. “Now, I’ll start off easy. What’s your name?” Riddick took in a deep breath before he folded. “Riddick.” Riddick’s ears picked up the sound of a pen on paper. “Just Riddick?” Riddick sighed again, before talking. “Richard B. Riddick.” “Uh-huh. So, Richard, fancy telling me why you landed on Earth?” Riddick growled before looking straight at the man, although his eyes were shut. “It was an accident. I was supposed to pass through. Didn’t know there was a solar system here.” More scratching. “So, you’re an alien.” “That’s right.” And you were passing through, why?” Riddick shot up from the chair, his face inches from the doctor’s. “To get away from…them.” The doctor looked frightened. “And who is “them”, Riddick?” Riddick sat back down, calmly. “The Necromongers.” He replied quietly. “They’ll defeat your military in one night.” He sat there, a superior smirk on his face, as the doctor stood up. “Turn off the light on your way out.” “Why?” The doctor asked puzzled. “The light hurts my eyes.”

For a while Riddick sat there, in darkness, until a man wearing an eye patch and with greying hair stormed in. “I want to know everything right now! Who are you, who do you work for?” Riddick sat straight and looked at the man, his silvery eyes perfectly calm. “I’m Richard B. Riddick, I work for no one. Now, who are you?” The man scowled, before growling out. “Colonel Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. don’t bother trying to escape son, you’re on our heli-carrier. No way to get off ‘til the next stop.” The man, Nick, marched out and Riddick heard the faint sounds of a whirring engine before the door shut, and Fury’s commands. “I want him kept under heavy sedation. No telling what this freak could do if he gets his chance.” Another person, a woman walked in outside of Riddick’s field of vision and jabbed a needle into his neck, injecting a powerful sedative. Thanks to his high endurance, he watched the woman walk out, and begin conversing with someone outside the door, blocked from his view because of the damn wall. The man had an accent that Riddick could place from the country known as England. Then he blinked a couple times before passing out.

5 days later

“Richard? Richard? Richard!” Riddick awoke to the man with the English accent calling his name. In a voice thickly laced with poison he moaned. “What?” The man chuckled as Riddick opened his eyes. “My name is Dr. Stephen Strange. I am going to perform a simple spell which will allow me to see your memories.” In a slightly less confrontational tone, Riddick growled, “Where are my goggles?” As Dr. Strange began to move his hands towards Riddick’s temples, Colonel Fury stormed in. No matter what that guy did, he was always angry. “Take a hike, Doc.” He growled, and Dr. Strange walked out, although the cape made it look more like he was gliding. Nick Fury slammed down a photograph. “What the hell is this?!!” He yelled. Riddick leaned over, as Fury rotated the photo. After studying it for a few seconds, Riddick chuckled. “You guys are so dead.” Nick picked up the picture and looked at it. “It’s not big enough to destroy the Earth.” He said, then his eyes narrowed. “What the hell is going on?” Riddick whispered solemnly, “They’re coming.” Fury looked ready to kill. “WHO?!!!!” “The Necromongers.” Riddick whispered, as he studied the photo. “That is a dozen, maybe more of their Conquest Icons. What they do is bury themselves in the surface of the planet, all over the globe, then, once the Necros are done with converting and killing everything, they activate the “Final Protocol” and wipe all inhabitable locations and life of the face of the Earth. And be warned, no one will be spared. Now, you have two options. Let me out of these chains and give me my goggles, or die with the rest of the humans. Your choice.” Riddick looked up at the roof. “Those Icons will reach Earth in 48 hours. A few hours after they hit, the Necro fleet will enter the atmosphere. They’ll scrap everything you got in one night. But I can help. I’ve faced ‘em before, I know all their secrets.” Soon a man walked in. One Riddick thought was dead since Hunter Gratzner. “William J. Johns?” The man shook his head. “Damien Johns. My brother’s dead.” Riddick sat there, helplessly as Johns’ brother pointed the 12-gauge at him. “I know. I saw it.” The Johns boy began to shake. “He attacked me and the torch went out.” Riddick continued. “Then a Bioraptor eviscerated him. He was a good Merc. Best I ever had on me.” Damien shook his head. “My brother was a cop!” Riddick laughed. “He told you that? No, no. He was a morphine-addicted money-hunting punk who used to shake just like you’re doing now.” Johns blasted once, the chains rattled off and Fury held out Riddick’s goggles. Riddick grabbed them and put them over his eyes, becoming much more comfortable with the light. “We need to prepare a conference.” Fury said.

3 hours later

“What can you tell us about these “Necromongers”, Mr. Riddick?” 12 S.H.I.E.L.D. generals stood around a circular table, screens around them tracking the meteor’s path and a clock for it’s estimated time of arrival. “They are converts, sir” Riddick began, “Purely designed for war. There is millions, maybe even billions of them, and they don’t fear death before their “due time”.   Their religion, Necroism says if they die in service to their Lord Marshall, they will reach Underverse, their “heaven”.” Colour was draining from the faces of the generals. “The current Lord Marshall is a sound strategic planner and a great military thinker. He used to run their army.” Riddick threw a picture, from the Necromonger database down. “His name’s Vaako. He has all of the Necormongers at his direct command, and they will kill everyone on this planet.” The generals looked at Riddick for guidance. “Let’s start preparing for war.” The heli-carrier’s helmsman reported a landing coming up. Riddick eyed the clock as it ticked down to 45:00:00. “We have 45 hours to get ready.”

45 hours later

The news reports detailed large objects falling from the sky onto most major cities. Beijing, London, Paris, Washington D.C., New York, Moscow, Brussels. Some had even buried themselves into the oceans. One had attached like a harpoon to the north and south poles each. As helicopters buzzed around one, Riddick saw the face of Khovu adorning the sides. The things looked like they were made of black steel and were over 100 feet tall, easily weighing in excess of 75 tons. “Conquest Icons.” Riddick was carrying blades of all shapes and sizes, from daggers to broadswords to shaolin spades. Then the call came in. The “Hubble Telescope” had picked up images of objects heading towards Earth. He looked at the pictures, pointing to the huge ship in the middle. “That’s the Basilica, the flagship. These smaller ones, they’re called the Sarcohagus’, and they’ve got the fighter ships. Now, notice the lack of emissions. That’s because of the gravity engines. They also make the damaged ships implode. Also, while the Necros prefer short-range weaponry, they also use gravity guns, which are dangerous weapons.” Riddick was being praised for his knowledge of the Necros. Good news, the armour is for the most part, decorative. Your bullets should penetrate.” Now , he thought, time for the bad news. “Those ships will be here in 3 hours.”

3 hours later