Deep Dweller: Start

[voidtreckermods]

After the dreams some of the voidtreckers report on day Four of Grasshopper those that have been on the train for a little while will be expecting what comes the next day. Their SCA's glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preparations and Arrival

As promised the dressing carriage is opened for optional extras. There are flight suits, similar to those they wore into space but without the helmets. There are instead hard hats and some basic climbing gear as well as bags to put supplies in. There are even a few red tents if any of those planning on tackling red's mission want to grab one, they hold six people in two inner compartments and are relatively easy to put up and take down.

They have a few hours of preparation before the announcement comes. Soon approaching system #789327772. Planet Terra. Drop order: Orange, Red, Blue, Purple. Orange to doors. Leaving the void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. A sharp jerk, a judder and the view from the window changes from the void to dark cloudy skies and very red sand.

They land smoothly, and indeed it seems they have landed on train tracks. A few moments later they pull up outside a huge metal and glass building.

Orange Team

Arrival

Jumping down from the train they will find themselves outside large metal gates. Noticable is the spotlights that shine even in the day time, reflecting oddly off the red sand. It is hot and dry outside, a slight breeze sending red dust rolling around their feet.

The gates aren't locked. There is no lock though they will notice devices that are probably security cameras. The doors are glass and inside is light and airy. They enter into a large lobby, a large circular desk in the centre and a glass walled waiting room to the side.

It is empty. No people at all. All the lights are on. Time to explore.

Exploration

Going up two floors and down five the lab is large and full of all manner of interesting things. Scientific equipment, monitoring stations measuring chemical levels in the air, temperature, water levels. Where to even start is a good question. The lights remain on, which might be annoying at night.

Red Team

Arrivals

Red team to doors. The train continues travelling along the train tracks, looking out the windows they will see endless rolling red sand. Factories rising up from the ground, dotted across the landscape. As the train gets close the air outside seems hazier, through the fumes. They may even see in the distance, strange silver floating orbs.

Eventually it pulls up at a station. Just a raised block really, but easy enough for red team to disembark.

The land stretches out around them. Train tracks criss cross the surface but apart from that there don't seem to be any boundaries. No fences, roads or sign posts.

It won't take them long to find the first orbs, strange silvery spheres and seem almost liquid, until they are not.

Night Time

It grows dark quickly after sunset here, which might take them by surprise. Taking them more by surprise however may be the scraping, scuttling noises in the dark. Skittering close. There is no light out here on the surface, they are far away from the research facility that Orange found themselves in.

If anyone manages to catch a glimpse they will see grey, long limmbed creatures. They shy away from light but anyone in the dark is likely to be attacked. They fight with claws and teeth.

When the sun rises they are gone.

Blue Team

Arrival

Blue team to doors. The train continues across the landscape, passing more orbs, just floating there silently. It stops at the entrance of a cave.

The cave slopes downwards into darkness and soon turns into small tunnels. They don't need to go far when they meet the first ground of Gry. A group of young Gry, practising with spears in an wider section of cave.

Despite being very surprised at the sudden visitors no weapons are pointed at the voidtreckers, instead they are met with curiosity. They are soon led further into the tunnels and soon come to the living areas.

The Gry lead simple lives but they are all pretty fascinated to see their visitors and will allow them to look around their home and answer any questions they have.

Night Time

Most of the Gry sleep in a large communal sleeping area and the Voidtreckers are welcome to join them, though the Gry won't be insulted if they choose to seek out a more private area.

If the Voidtreckers awake in fear in the night, after strange dreams they will find they are not alone. Many of the Gry have awoken too and will reassure the Voidtreckers, tell them it is an honour to communicate with The Burrower.

Purple

Arrival

Purple team to doors. The train continues on the tracks and soon enters a tunnel itself. It's a bit of a bumpy trip, this train was clearly not made for warren systems but after some uneasy twists and turns they pull to a stop.

They are at a train station, not that it's easy to see because it is pitch black. But it is clear there are people around, some looking very confused at the very odd train.

Once the last of those going on the mission leave the train it speeds off into the darkness.

The Terran's are large and tower over most of the voidtreckers but they are friendly enough, if a little confused, once it is explained that they are here to help. They will be led over towards the collapsed section of city.

There is a lot of activity. People digging at rubble, others using their sheer size and strength to hold up beams. There is an array of rescue equipment and a group of official-looking Terran's holding large devices that are comparable to a tablet-computer and discussing solutions.

There is plenty to do to help, smaller rubble to clear, injured people to tend to. Worried Terran's to calm and reassure. Those brave enough can volunteer to use their smaller size to help get supplies through to those trapped and those with any scientific know how, great strength or magic can put their skills to good use.

Rest Time

Throughout the day people are rescued and other parts of the tunnels stabilised. There is more work to be done but the Terran's seem to be working in shifts and they will encourage their surprise allies to rest as well. They will offer to host them.

They live in large groups and will happily invite the voidtreckers into their homes. They will be curious about the voidtreckers but will also answer questions. Telling them about the strange storm and the collapse of the tunnels. They are urged to sleep early and the next day it will be back to work.

(OOC: Information is here)

Comments

Dyme | Orange Team | OTA

[swansongs]

a. Preparations

Well, these clothes were better than wetsuits or tunics, but he was really wary about all of that climbing gear. "I really hope we don't need all of that stuff." He couldn't imagine what they'd been to climb in a science building. But he wished the other teams luck, the ones who really would have to climb around.

b. Arrival

The fact everything was quiet after they stepped off the train didn't do anything to put him at ease. If anything, it actually made him feel more on edge. "I'm totally getting horror movie vibes here," he muttered, cautiously approaching the building. "Like, real They Came From Hallaori shit here." Or maybe some kind of ghost movie, considering he didn't see anyone at all.

c. Exploration

He'd been wandering around for a good twenty minutes so far and had yet to find anything that was actually helpful. Then again, he had no idea what he was looking at most of the time. "Does all this science stuff make sense to anyone?" he asked, poking briefly at some lab equipment.

Exploration

[loveandduty]

"no. I mean if my friend had been around I'd have a better understanding, but... they didn't arrive on the train yet." Venus said sighing slightly. Mercury would have been so useful in this area she is sure of it.

But it just meant that she had to try her best to make sense of it herself. "Like I know things like you shoudln't mix certain chemicals together and things like that, but I don't think that works with this mission."

[swansongs]

"Yeah, I know something about what chemicals shouldn't be mixed, too." But don't ask him about it because he couldn't actually remember off the top of his head. "But that's about it. I never did very good with science in school, either." Actually, he didn't do very well with a lot of subjects, but that was besides the point.

"I don't know what we should be looking for. Like, how can we tell if something in all this science-y stuff is 'off' for this place." Even if someone handed him a full scientific report on the stuff going on here, he'd still be completely lost.

[loveandduty]

"I am going to go with if it seems out of place and different from everything else. Like something pink in a sea of white or something... Just an example." Because she honestly didn't know as she went to look around.

She didn't even know what they were looking for. What questions were they actually trying to answer? She had just joined this team just to see what they did and this seemed to be it.

[swansongs]

"Okay. I can do that." Probably. That put an awful lot of faith in his observational skills though, and those weren't always, uh, the best. He knew it, and most of the time he wasn't ashamed of it, but in situations like this, he felt kind of dumb. "They should've put together a science-y team for this."

[loveandduty]

"Considering people can choose what team they go with, I think those might have actually volunteers but are elsewhere at the moment." She knew this due to being on Blue Team, but considering her sailor form had Orange, it wasn't that easy to tell she was originally from Blue Team.

"But just seeing what there is and just reporting what you see to someone can work to. if the6y happen to spot something you might not."

[swansongs]

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." That people could go with whatever teams they wanted. He'd been hoping that orange would be relatively easy and that he'd be able to actually help, but now that he was here... "I'll keep my eyes peeled for stuff and let someone know if I think I've found something."

[loveandduty]

"Yeah it's not something I was aware of either, but then again I haven't really done that many missions." This was only her second one at least.

But she nodded and gave him the thumbs up. "That's great. Do you know where you want to start or would you like some ideas?"

[swansongs]

"I've only done a couple, myself." Three? Maybe four? He was bad at counting, sometimes.

He laughed. "I have no idea where to start," he admitted. By which he meant, ideas would be great.

Re: Dyme | Preparation

[only_one_wei]

"I hope we don't either! You're checking out the lab? Is it underground?" Wei Wuxian asked.

[swansongs]

"God, I hope not. I'm not really an underground person." Actually, he'd never been underground before in his life, but the idea wasn't very pleasant. "But yeah, I'm checking out the lab. I dunno what we're expected to find, though." There had to be actual scientists on board who would know what they were looking at, right? People who'd know better than Dyme at least, and yet he was one of the people checking this stuff out.

[only_one_wei]

"I'm not either," the Cave of the Tortoise of Slaughter had been more than enough of that for him, thank you. "But I'm on the Blue Team, so we're checking out the Gry. At least their caves are habitations, not dank traps?" He wasn't sure if he was reassuring or asking for reassurance, to be honest.

He shrugged. "Guess that's why they need so many eyes? To make sure that somebody sees something?"

[swansongs]

"Good luck with that." He almost wished he was heading off to talk to people, even aliens, except for the fact they lived underground.

"And maybe. At least I don't have to find anything alone. I'm, um. Not always the most observant."

[only_one_wei]

Wei Wuxian shrugged. "But you have your own focus, right? You might notice something everyone else misses. Or you can at least make sure they eat? No one is completely useless." He grinned.

[swansongs]

"Yeah, that's true." That was one of the things he really appreciated about this train; almost everybody was so nice, and whenever he started feeling useless, people reminded him that he wasn't. "Maybe I'll even help save the day." He was joking, mostly, but it was a nice thought.

[only_one_wei]

"You never know," Wei Wuxian said with feeling. "You may end up in the right place at the right time, flip the right switch, and there you are."

[swansongs]

"Maybe." He smiled warmly. "It's a nice thought, at the very least." Whether or not it would actually end up happening.

A

[callmegladio]

"Always a good idea to be prepared." Gladio called over with a grin. "Better to be prepared for anything than caught with your pants down."

Maybe they wouldn't need the climbing gear. But maybe the rope would come in useful in other ways? Or maybe they'd just carry it around for no reason? Or maybe something will happen and they'll wish they'd brought more of the stuff with them? Who knew? Gladio sure didn't, so he planned on packing as much as he could for every eventuality.

[swansongs]

"Yeah, that's true. But what if I don't even know how to use any of this stuff?" He'd seen people use climbing gear in movies, sure, but that wasn't real life and he'd have no idea what he was doing. So he really hoped he didn't need any of this stuff.

[callmegladio]

"Easy. You keep them for those that do." Gladio replied simply. "If you don't know, maybe someone will suddenly call out 'we need some more rope here' and you'll realise that hey, I have some more rope. And then you can save the day." Maybe it was an exaggeration of sorts, but not by much.

[swansongs]

His gut reaction was that he didn't want to carry things around for other people in case they needed them, but that wasn't very a very team player thing to think. On the other hand, Gladio maybe had a point. "I guess you're right. Or maybe I'll spontaneously need to hogtie something. Not that...I know how to do that either, but. You never know."

[callmegladio]

Glario just laughed. "That's easy. Just knock em down, pin em, tie their hands behind their back, tie their legs, thread the rope through them both and yank it tight." In simple terms of course. And best not to ask HOW Gladio knew how to do that!

[swansongs]

Dyme laughed, too. "Sure, it sounds easy when you say it." But he was going to try to remember that, as if he was actually strong enough to hold someone or something down to tie them up. "You could probably hogtie someone no problem."

[callmegladio]

"Depends on who the someone is. But generally? Sure." Gladio grinned. Though it was easier to just knock person out than pin them and tie them up.

[swansongs]

His point exactly. "Right. So I guess I'll bring some rope, some of...uh...whatever these things are." He waved around a carabiner before dropping it into a supply bag. "Have you ever gone spelunking before? That's what they call it, right? Caving...stuff?"