Apocalypse

Our small group of survivors stumble across an untouched board game store. We hurry in and set up defenses. Against the bugs it would be useless but it will keep any human adversaries at bay. There is a commercial soda-pop refrigerator stocked with energy drinks, water, and some "potions" marketed toward the D&D crowd. The counter also has some junk food and snack materials. Our group consists of four guys and three women. Aaron thinks himself as leader of the group, but Mike and I both know that Mike is the real leader. To keep our mind off the bugs we decide to do some role playing. Luckily we all love role-playing games, and the shop has role-playing dice tubes. The dice tubes are stocked with all the dice needed to play the brand new RPG, Aliens vs. Humans. Each tubes contain all the dice needed for one new player, in fact to find initial stats one just has to dump out the tube. The dungeon master, or rule sheet-- one contained within each tube-- will inform the player of their base stats. Unlike most table top RPGs rolling low is good on initial stats, as it's subtracted from a predetermined number, so "1" is the most favorable roll.

Mike takes a few tubes down and gives one to Aaron and I. Aaron opens and rolls poorly, only one "1" out of seven dice, and an "11" on his d-12 and a "7" on his d-8 and a "4" on his d-4. I roll much better with my tube, I max four stats including my d-20. Mike is going to act as DM and the others are preparing an inside camp and dividing rations. Having already prepared the fortifications Aaron, Mike, and I are taking a break. As the de facto leaders of this rag tag bunch, this game carriers an unspoken but indisputable sole leadership roll as reward for winning. Aaron and I will be playing as the humans, and Mike, as the dungeon master, will be playing as the Aliens. While Aaron and I are working together to beat the bugs, we are also competing against each other for limited resources and weapons. Any of the players may win at this game, while the DM has some advantage in controlling an incredibly hostile and powerful bug army, the humans can use teamwork to set traps and ambushes. However, the humans also have to worry about each other, if the bugs are successfully defeated, the remaining human players fight for supremacy. All the while the radioactive environment is enervating the humans. Winning against the bugs is hard, but if no post-bug/radiation-survival scenarios are planned for, the other humans will wipe that player out, but if everyone is planning for post-bug/radiation survival scenarios then the bugs win easily. Juggling all the elements requires delicate balance, even if the bugs are wiped out, the humans can succumb to radiation and each other. In that case, the bugs win as surely this is just the first wave of invaders; the game tries to closely resemble the actual state of the world.

The Aliens, soon to be called "bugs", bombed the Earth before they landed, while picking large metropolitan areas for their nuclear bombs, many cities remained untouched. New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Chicago were all spared. The Americas were hit the hardest, while most of Europe went almost unscathed. Oddest to humans is that vast areas of wilderness we also targeted, many of the US national parks were destroyed, later when we were low on basic resources did we discover that the parks would have provided essential natural resources. The radiation didn't seem to affect the giant blue beetle-esque bugs, their ships landed close to all of the scorched earth. North America was completely overrun. How our small group made it over to Europe was a complete mystery, as was the condition of this game shop.

Governments mostly fell apart, some we're reforming and trying to organize people, but mostly people were scared and trying to survive, even if that meant killing other people for food and water. There was some talk of sending Old-Soviet ICBMs over to America. The radiation wouldn't do anything to the bugs but the atomic blast should still prove to be deadly.

The game is dragging on, I'm trying to let Mike win, but I don't want it to be obvious, and letting the bugs win, even in a game is distasteful to me. Aaron is a good leader and when we are working together we seem to be unstoppable, but we never cooperate long enough to make a lasting impact. Mike, I sense, also finds it unpleasant letting the bugs win, even at his command, so the game enters a monotonous stalemate.

Now I'm a filthy blue bug. We've learned of the plan to bomb the Americas, it will happen shortly, the missiles may already be on their way. We are scrambling to burrow underground. Our huge, house sized bodies burrow with some ease but we are so numerous and densely congregated it's hard to find enough space underground. We enter an existing cave, then burrow out space for more. America is becoming our protective blanket as we burrow, shove, burrow, shove. I'm sandwiched in between two disgusting bugs. I cannot burrow, somehow we've managed to become a single file line of bugs all shoving the first bug to burrow further, which it somehow manages to do, in bug sized chunks at regular intervals. Now we are all aware of a large underground cavern coming up, we can all fit inside if we can just reach it. The missiles are very close, the female bug in front of me is worried and crying. I assure her we'll make it to the cave in time, that most of our fellow bugs must be underground by now. She's not so sure, we have the cave and a champion burrower. We tumble into the cavern as the missiles hit.

Months later I'm human again and my group has made it to LA. LA and some of the west coast were untouched by bombs from both humans and aliens. The bugs settled the west coast extensively, but now pockets of human resistance, reinforced with returning Americans and new European allies were reclaiming small parts of cities and some of their surrounding areas. Every human is now armed and has the primary focus of exterminating the bugs. Our ragtag bunch had turned into an elite group of four. We worked in teams of two, both male-female mixes. I am specialized in reconnaissance and my partner provides the muscle for our team.

High up in the sky scrapers of LA I'm guiding her actions. She dresses in shiny red leather so she may be seen at a distance. The bugs, apparently color blind, don't notice her as well. She's blond, wields a battle sledgehammer, an uzi, and a backpack full of grenades. The uzi is mostly useless, unless she runs into some unfriendly humans. Like spider-man she swings from building to building, unlike spider-man all the cables have been installed by the human resistance. To harm the bugs at all a person must swing onto the back of the bug and hammer a grenade into one of the bugs joints where their protective armor doesn't quite overlap. There is also a gap by the neck, it's the only sure way to kill a bug, as even their heads are armored, rockets sometimes do the trick but neck grenades always do their job. I'm also swinging from building to building, only higher up. I try to stay close. Swing, hammer, swing, EXPLODE! Bug down. We mange to kill four bugs on this outing, each one a fountain of red and blue chunks. My red leather companion stands on the bridge between two skyscrapers, the noon sun shining down, sky extra blue, and her blond hair blowing in the wind. It's like a comic book hero just saved the day.