I imagine you've asked yourself this more than once, and from a certain point of view... that is the reason you keep coming back. Why? Why does the Foundation contain anomalies? What exactly are we doing? What is it we defend? Anyone might think that humanity does not deserve survival given the atrocities we've committed, but there's a little secret in all this: Humanity is not so important. Sometimes, we are just pawns on a battlefield where reality itself is at stake, and its combatants are beyond our understanding...
Large-scale operations are always difficult. They demand many resources and tend to attract too much attention, but this time there is no alternative. When the goal is to contain an entire town, nothing can be left to chance. Have you heard of Daleport in New England? No? Well, that means they are doing their job. The sooner everyone forgets that place, the better.
The Foundation installed its Site-37 on the outskirts of the town. The area to contain is almost circular, one kilometer in diameter. The entire perimeter is monitored, combining security cameras and armed personnel. No one can enter without authorization from the Security Director. Let's just say that dimensions don't work quite right there.
The Event
The "event" happened in '97. Everything seemed normal inside Daleport, with no major incidents... until the gas cloud appeared right in the center. It covered the entire town for a week and a half, and when it dissipated... the only thing it left behind was chaos. Entire buildings changed size, hallways that lead to different places when they have a single exit, rooms that shrink once you enter them, doors that move you to another time of day... and then there are the monsters.
The Foundation found a large number of bodies belonging to the residents of Daleport. Most seem to have committed suicide, but others transformed into something... different. Entrails that pick up audio transmissions and use tissue as speakers. The body of an old man with his eyes torn out constantly emitting ash from all his orifices. Floating torsos that run and fade into the air. The body of a woman suspended 50 meters above the ground... physical manifestations of the most twisted madness you can imagine. Anyone who tries to enter there must leave their sanity at the perimeter.
The Expeditions
In the first mission they used a ground drone with atmospheric equipment. The cloud was composed of sulfur, nitrogen, and various oxocarbons, but its concentration was not lethal. The cameras recorded a flat and devastated terrain, extending two kilometers from the edge. The second expedition was manned, with a couple of Class D serving as "explorers". The technicians ordered them to remove their hazmat suits inside the cloud, but they suffered no side effects beyond the sensation of breathing smog.
In the third mission, everything went to hell. The Foundation decided to enter with force, moving a full platoon with six armored vehicles. The radio systems began to record strange dialogues, two-way communication was lost... and all they could hear was gunfire and screams.
The Message from Ssvlsrr
Half an hour later, the Foundation received a message. An entity called Ssvlsrr identified itself as responsible for the cloud in Daleport. It also said that some of the platoon members had been "converted into n'gha", but that the rest were "safe". The details are... weird. The message indicated that "evil had been invoked" by a group of "hlirghh", and that the worst would be contained, but that the town and its people would not remain intact. A great battle would take place there, and it would not stop until a winner remains. Only then would Ssvlsrr withdraw.
The Foundation focused on recovering elements that could identify something of what this Ssvlsrr was talking about. Several video cameras with their recordings intact revealed images of the combat. Monsters with tentacles decapitating and disemboweling residents, an old man with a bowler hat who causes them pain and forces them to flee, spirits that come out of light poles... it's all wild, bloody, and absurd.
The Rescue
But Ssvlsrr kept its word. Several weeks after leaving the town, 94 civilians and almost all the equipment sent by the Foundation appeared safe and sound at Site-37. They cannot remember anything of what happened, and they provided no additional information. The mystery was solved thanks to the recordings in the town hall area. Apparently, a convoy of cars, trucks, and armored vehicles arrived at the main building with the help of... robots? Androids? They all escaped through a kind of portal, and the last one to leave recorded a message at the entrance: "PANGLOSS OFFERS SANCTUARY"
The Reverend
The last details were found on the body of a certain "Reverend Michael Hawshore", spiritual leader of a religious organization called "The Society of Victory". A madman who murdered children and his own collaborators to "save the world from the Gods". Primordial gods loaded with cruelty and depravity, who see humans as simple insects.
Hawshore was convinced that we could do nothing to prevent the arrival of these Gods, focused on bending reality itself to their will. The only way to stop them, the only way to destroy them... is to set them against each other. Daleport, transformed into a battlefield for eternal enemies, thirsty for blood. And only one can remain. A Victorious God standing atop a pile of cosmic corpses.
The Return of Chaos
The problem is... the very nature of chaos. If there's something we know well about it, it's that it doesn't stay still. New gods, angels, and demons will arise from there. And that means one thing: This will all happen again.
