Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

[voidtreckermods]

"Good Morning passengers. Today is day seven of the month of Imagination." The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. Not long afterwards their SCA’s glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preperation

They have about an hour to prepare, a little less than usual but perhaps expected, given the urgency of the task.

The cupboards in the dressing room are open to reveal rows of tents, in all four team colours as well as some basic camp cooking equipment. They are in bags that should be easy enough to carry.

"Shortly arriving on System #6416. All passengers get ready to disembark. Next stop world 6416. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." The train rocks and lurches, bright colours of the void filling the space and then fading as they fly downwards towards a very green landscape.

Arrival and Initial Task

The train lands in a clearing, curving round in an attempt to fit. Once everyone who wishes to disembark has done it flies back into the air, vanishing from sight.

The air is heavy and humid, though it is not currently raining. The clearing is open to the sky and looking up will reveal a worrying sight. The sky is an angry red colour, colours shifting as if the clouds themselves were on fire. It's an unnerving sight.

Their SCA's show three points, one Orange, One purple and one that is half blue and half red. The three control centres. Each are a few hours treck through the jungle and it certainly feels like there is no time to waste.

Those that don't want to treck through the forest can start setting up camp, though the darkening sky might be a little distracting. As time goes on flecks of fire drift down, though they extinguish before hitting the forest floor.

Orange are to travel to the north, Purple to the south and Blue and Red must travel together to the west. Each route takes them through thick and unrelenting jungle. Flying is difficult here unless you can get up past the canopy layer, which means vision of the ground is severely hampered.

The control stations themselves are half buried in vines and require cutting into. If voidtreckers are unlucky they will meet their first security robots here, firing on the intruders. They might even meet their first giant Armadillos, the creatures are curious and may wish to investigate. They are not helpful or constructive to trying to power up the stations and prevent the destruction of the planet.

The control stations are simple enough to operate, but there's quite a lot that needs to be done in way of repairs and clearing. It will take a team effort to get it in working enough order to activate the shield.

The shield itself, when it is activated, is mostly invisible but there is a loud humming sound. The meteor, which has gotten more visible throughout the five hours, hits the shield and splinters, fire enveloping the whole sky. It is visibly terrifying, but no fire falls to earth, no rocks get through, the planet is safe.

Ongoing

Once the planet is safe the voidtreckers deserve a rest. But once the next morning dawns it is time to start with their next tasks, to make sure that this planet stays safe from future threats.

Red

The robots at the control stations are not the only malfunctioning security robots around. They roam the jungle, or are more often stranded in the jungle, powering up only when faced with a new threat.

Some are benign, terraforming machines whose only crime is using up precious power. These need to be dismantled so that power can be saved for the shield system. Others are security robots that will attack the intruders to the planet.

Though the machines are scattered they are often obvious, emitting warning alarms or flashing lights. Their SCA's will show some areas where there are larger clusters but machines can be found anywhere.

Purple

Their SCA's are filled with hundreds of purple dots, each a solar stations that needs cleared and brought back online. It's not the most glamourous job, the stations are deep in the jungle, the treck is difficult and most of the work needed is weed clearing.

But once the weeds have been cut away they will need to patch up the station, doing basic maintenance to get it back online. In some cases wires need to be patched back together but it shouldn't take any great feats of engineering to get the stations up and running.

They may run into some of the security automatons, needing to fight their way into the stations before they can begin the clean up operations.

Orange

Like the red team their SCA will show areas where there are clusters of the small insectoid automatons that need to be rescued and restored. However they can be found anywhere throughout the jungle, they are not too suited for the terrain outside of the stations and so they have gotten tangled in vines. They can be found powered down, stranded and in dire need of maintenance.

Tools and spare parts can be found in many of the solar stations that purple team have been locating. Actually repairing the robots takes some engineering knowledge but once they are restored they will go about their tasks in the stations. They will need help getting to the further flung stations as well as the main control centres.

They are very basic in design and follow pre programmed instructions rather than being able to hear and listen to orders. But once in the correct place they are very effective at their job.

Blue

Once the shield is up there is a faint humming that can be heard throughout the jungle if they listen closely and find it among the sound of rain and insects. But once they hear it, it is obvious where it is louder and more prominent.

Their SCA will pin point some of the larger control boxes but there are truthfully too many to show on a map. Not all of them have attracted Violet Pandas, but many of them have.

They are curious creatures, both of the power boxes and the voidtreckers. They are protective of each other but not so much of territory and therefore it is not difficult to move them on. Keeping them away is another matter, the power humming is interesting and they will unearth wires and chew through them. It doesn't seem to do them much harm, there is clearly safety stops in the system for such eventualities. It does however cut power off to entire solar stations and require a lot of patch work.

Good luck voidtreckers!

Comments

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks followed her instructions, taking a marshmallow out of the bag and trying to not mess up as he put it on the end of his stick. "Now what?"

[nutkrusher]

"Hold it close to the fire - not too close, unless you like 'em burnt. Otherwise keep going until it's a nice golden brown."

[light_of_willpower]

"Should I rotate it?" Trunks assumed he should, considering that that way he wouldn't get it burned. "How much of a golden brown?"

[nutkrusher]

"Yeah, you wanna brown every side of it," Cassie says. "I mean, I can't say I'm a master mallow-roaster, but whenever it feels right is good. Even if you burn it by accident it still tastes pretty decent."

[light_of_willpower]

"I mean, marshmallows aren't quite pure sugar, but are pretty darn close. I'd imagine it'd be hard to not taste good even burnt." Although Trunks was more relying on his nose, and rotated his stick with marshmallow some.

[nutkrusher]

"Yeah," Cassie says. "When I was a kid I'd sometimes get impatient and just burn 'em straight away. But that takes some of the fun out of it."

She sticks a marshmallow onto her own stick and holds it near Trunks's.

[light_of_willpower]

"You, impatient?" Trunks asked with deliberately wide eyes and incredulous disbelief in his voice. Holding it for a heartbeat, before smirking at her with affection in his eyes. "Can't see that at all."

[nutkrusher]

Cassie chuckles. "I know, shocking, right? I can also give you some surprising news about where bears shit and whether water's dry or not."

She rotates her stick in her hands.

"I got better, though. Turns out patience is useful for stuff."

[light_of_willpower]

"It can be. I don't really see you learning to fly without it, for example." Trunks agreed, rotating his own stick. He'd just been about to warn Cassie to turn hers, too, when she did so anyways.

[nutkrusher]

"Also sometimes you've gotta wait for an opening in a fight, instead of just going in all unga-bunga," Cassie says.

As her left hand continues to hold her stick, she checks with her other hand to make sure that a graham cracker and block of chocolate are waiting for Trunks when the time comes.

[light_of_willpower]

He'll appreciate it, once he's made his first s'more. It'll probably still be a mess, as he rotates his stick once more, then pulls the marshmallow out of the fire. Sniffing as he examines it from all angles, before putting it back.

[nutkrusher]

"Always gotta be careful with those," Cassie says. "If you take too long it can get too soft and slide off."

She's keeping a close eye on her own marshmallow for that very reason. She'll give it another 40 seconds or so.

[light_of_willpower]

"Not yet. I'm trusting my nose here, and hoping that won't backfire on me." He said with a grin, before pulling his out. Nicely browned and golden, but not so gooey he couldn't pull it off the stick.

[nutkrusher]

Cassie turns her eyes toward him and nods approvingly.

"Well, I've got the crackers and chocolate set up. I trust you to know what to do."

She turns her attention back toward her own mallow.

[light_of_willpower]

"You said it's like a sandwich right? I'm guessing the cracker is the bread part." He appreciated that she had the rest set up, as he moved, placing his marshmallow carefully to the side by just sticking the stick in the ground. Getting the crackers ready, with chocolate on one side, before he picked up his stick again. And began the complicated act of trying to balance that, while putting the marshmallow between the crackers and chocolate mix.

[nutkrusher]

"Yup, you're getting it - whoa, shit!"

Her marshmallow is starting to sag - and just after she'd warned him. She lunges for a cracker and slides it under it to catch it. It lands a little awkwardly and messily, with a little of it hanging over the side.

[light_of_willpower]

Her exclamation had him reacting too, his own s'more forgotten as he dived with her to try and save hers. Ooops.

[nutkrusher]

Cassie is nearly splayed on her stomach. She exhales.

"Well, I guess I got most of it?"

She looks back up at Trunks.

"What about yours?"

[light_of_willpower]

He's not quite as bad, with one leg under him and sort of half-crouched from where he'd tried to help. His? Uh oh.

It was a sticky, gooey mess, still on the stick, on the ground by where he'd been sitting. Everyone mourn the loss of that s'more.

[nutkrusher]

"Aw, dammit," Cassie says.

She sits up, taking care to make sure her own as-yet-unformed s'more doesn't hit the ground.

"Oh well. Grab some chocolate, you can have mine. We've got a whole bag of these things."

[light_of_willpower]

"Nah, you enjoy yours. You worked hard on it. Lemme try again." Trunks waved it off, grabbing his stick and extricating the sticky mess. Into the fire to clean it a bit again, before he was sticking another marshmallow on the tip.

[nutkrusher]

"Holding out for a non-fucked up one, huh? Smart."

Cassie uses the chocolate bar to smooth some of the overflowing edges of her semi-intact s'more before slapping it together.

[light_of_willpower]

"I refuse to believe yours is 'fucked up'. I just don't wanna take your food." Trunks countered, rotating his marshmallow that was in the fire. "And while it wouldn't be the first time I've eaten food that fell on the ground, I like to think I've grown up since then." He might be teasing a bit.

[nutkrusher]

"No ground on this one," Cassie says. "I think."

She takes a tentative bite.

"Mmm, yup. Definitely a s'more."

[light_of_willpower]

"Good." Trunks murmured, intent on his marshmallow. Rotating it, and reaching for a new set of graham crackers. "Think you can help me assemble this one?"