City Twenty Eight

From what it seems, Filipinos still hold on to this old saying. Handling the new world is hard, even for the people of the Philippines. From what seems to be an unexceptional event that may lead to perhaps the greatest rise of the Republic of the Philippines.

The start of the month was exceptional. For the people of the Philippines, it seems as if the usual tropical rainy days were starting. The clouds were as dark as they can be, and of course, as usual, people attend to their own work. The citizens of the Philippines are usually the type of people that can handle huge, physical work. Most of which start from labour, to usual housework or factory work. People also try to gain more financial credit from selling products that are made locally from provinces. The start of the Universal Union was quite peculiar and surprising for most Filipinos at the time, recovering from the last revolution, The EDSA Revolution specifically, that the past 20 years had offered. Most of which are Filipinos that decided to leave their current position in work, and continue to support the revolution which was happening at the time, which lead to economic breakdowns, as well as more than a dozen of loans that the Philippines decided to take from many countries, specifically the World Bank.

Their way of life took a turn for the worst, when the Black Mesa disaster had reached its peak, causing alien wildlife to appear throughout the planet and immediately started to ensue chaos throughout human civilization. Most Filipinos were pretty anxious regarding it, some, breaking out their most salvageable weapons during the initial chaos, with high activity regarding regional instability in correlation to anarchy and looting that occurs every so often. When the incident involving Black Mesa occured, subspace rifts appeared above the Philippines in multiple areas. It first strung up within Region IV-A CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon.), specifically at Laguna, Santa Rosa City. The portals were first, blue and bright blue-green in colour, moving to become a large, blue circle on the sky whilst it bombarded the Earth's crust with remnants of the border world's life forms and debris. Quite often, it was detected that numerous alien lairs had been unanimously transported planet-side, along with seemingly powerful alien foot soldiers that butchered entire villages, and provoked combat with local security forces. Most wildlife was brought down within settlements throughout the countryside.

The Philippines was overwhelmed, causing human herds of refugees into urban areas. Antlions were quite adaptive to the natural rainforests within the area, especially if connected to the coastline. Most of the usual Xenian wildlife, specifically the Headcrabs, Houndeyes, and ofcourse unidentified species that held no consensus towards the border world, were quite successful in surviving the harsh environments of the tropical islands, coupled with the aggressive behaviour of the Filipinos.

However, once it had appeared the Philippines had ceased as a fully functional nation, divided into various centres attempting to survive a Xenoformed wasteland, our benefactors had arrived. During the initial start of the Seven Hour War in the opening phases of the invasion, they had deployed most of their artificial, synthetic and organic, biological lifeforms used as mobile weapon platforms down onto the planet. They first landed on Visayas, then Luzon, then Mindanao. Mindanao was one of the hardest locations to acquire due to its forestry and large amounts of insurgency with high-calibre weapons. The SAF was easily disposed of, as well as some of the insurgents inside the deep forests. The Philippines did put up a fight, most of the regional warlords or fanatical mercenaries of the Philippines used guerilla tactics, as well as their environment to their advantage. Though still, with the Universal Union’s power and past situation regarding Black Mesa, they were eradicated within mostly a moments notice upon first contact. Most survivors of the event were forced to become labour workers, and some of the richest individuals who had knowledge and understanding in governmental areas, became administrators of City 28, and occupants of the Civil Administration Board.

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This behaviour of the Filipinos is quite outstanding. This made the Universal Union and most of the benefactors choose the country as most primarily an estate of Mining, Labour, and other Citizen-Related works and subjects. The Philippines, due to its archipelago structure, has been a great choice when it comes to Union-Based Prisons. a facility dubbed 'The Factory', being the first of its kind made in Central Europe, and facility 'CALYPSO' being the one placed on the once National Capital Region, now a sector of City 28.

City 28 reached from being placed down at Central Luzon, mainly from the once known as Region IV-A, IV-B, and V, being City 28’s central region and high-tier loyalist hub, as well as the Administration Region. Region III, II, and I, far north of Central Luzon, became a location for most mining work. The precious location and archipelago structure of the Philippines made it a very great location for most minerals and jewels to be made and constructed, adding the specific number of volcanoes and faults made in the country. The rest of the regions reaching from Visayas and Mindanao became a deserted wasteland, making way for thousands of Xenian Life to sprung up to life and reproduce their species, as well as a homeland for most resistance and refugee groups to be located at. Most of the people of the Philippines are now currently designated as probable workers and labour managers due to the past history of their people being slaves.

The Filipinos transitioned to becoming a full blown, labour working community, allowing for many products and structures of the Universal Union Occupiers to be made. Most of the products were primarily coming from the Philippines, as well as the iconic ‘Conscript Chips’, the ‘Civil Protectors’ (A spinoff of a popular Filipino delicacy) and some of the rations that are transferred over to various cities. Moving towards Civil Protection, most of them coming from previous Police Officers. The aggressive behaviour of the Filipinos can be obviously seen by the attitude of most Civil Protection Officers. The large, urban city of the Philippines became a large, factory island, smoke and harmful gasses everywhere, allowing them to become a little bit overwhelmed with the use of heavy gas masks that are designed specifically for use within the Civil Protection garrison within the Philippines. The gasmask, being made with an experimental, automatic air recycling capability, and a combination of the Russian PbF and a Riot Helmet. This allows for some of the Officers to shield their vision with a visor and as well as some protection. These kinds of suits and utilities are rarely seen, like, ever. Mostly due to the fact that Conscripts already has the ideal armoury with the same, ordeal equipment.

The gas coming off from most factories in the Philippines give it off a slight dark factory feel, with occasional fogs coming off at every road. The skies are mostly covered with thick smoke, blocking some sunlight even in daytime. The Philippines became a wasteland for most exotic and dangerous hazardous wastes, as well as a dump for factory work.