middleofsomewhere | Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

"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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Senku chuckled lightly. "Actually the hot air balloon was one of our more simple projects, but it's cut down a two day walk into a two hour trip so it's really done a lot for moving between a few sites. We have a car, but just one."

He considered it for a moment. "It'd be nice, but we don't have the manpower or infrastructure at the moment. People still live in huts. The last improvement I really made was getting stoves inside in the winter. They are still getting repurposed in the spring though. We recycle everything."

"Yes, that would make it more efficient if you only have one car. And faster. That was a good idea."

He didn't know if that would have occurred to him in the same situation. Then again, he wasn't in the same situation back. Maybe if he were, it would have crossed his mind.

"Hmm... of the two, having indoor heat and cooking is certainly more important than running water even though it is not as convenient. It sounds like you all are making the best of what you have."

"We've done all kinds of things with the balloon, like figuring out the new topography." Senku responded as he finished his repairs and dusted off his hands.

"The villagers that have been living there their whole lives know things we don't and we swap knowledge really." Senku grinned.

"Also a good thing to use the balloon for. Given the amount of time that has passed, some things are certain to have changed even if you remembered it clearly."

"So there were some that were not petrified? Or they came out of it earlier than you did?"

"Ah! That's interesting, actually." Senku explained. "You were right about the topography, but what happened is there were six astronauts on the space station that didn't get turned to stone so they landed and wound up having kids and that's how these two villages came to be." He hummed.

"I only found out about the second one recently, so there's about a hundred and fifty people in my village and then the other one has about another forty. The Earth's population is really small right now." He wasn't sure that was all of it, but he would maybe find out someday.

"Ah! I see! That would certainly explain it. How interesting that it worked out that way. It's certainly helpful to have those who have been living there all their lives be able to assist you with it."

He thought about that for the moment. "It would definitely make sense for the population to be low at the moment."

Senku had a fond smile for his village and his villagers. "Yeah, it was a good thing I met them eventually. Besides, I needed the manpower." He grinned in the way that he did sometimes that looked wicked, but it really wasn't.

"Not enough resources. The village didn't have agriculture. Hunting and gathering only, but since I've been there we've managed not to have anyone die of starvation, or hypothermia."

If Quatre relied solely on appearance, he might have thought that about Senku as well. But his space heart picking up on the feelings of others, especially strong ones, he didn't sense any of those feelings.

"Oh, that's good. They clearly knew how to manage even without agriculture or other technologies that you brought. Having that as a starting place is definitely good."

"The people of the village are very strong and resilient. I wouldn't begrudge them that, but that's been a problem for them historically. It was in human history anyway, until things like food preservation came around." He had that knowledge and it saved lives, at least some.

"Yes, that is true. It is very hard to move beyond hunter-gathering without a way to preserve foods or to make getting them easier. Having the ability to go outside your house and pick a carrot rather than searching for it yields more time to work on other things or to have true leisure time."

"There's not a lot of leisure time." Senku chuckled. "More like scheduled breaks so to speak." He hummed. "As much as the work is grueling, people do admire the final products of my projects, so in the end it's worth it."

"That is something at least." He smiled. "Yes, seeing the final outcome can be very gratifying. All of the planning and hard work you put into it turned into something real. I enjoy that feeling."

"Yeah, that's the best part. Well, I'm done on my end, you?" He asked.

"If so we can move onto the next place."

Quatre looked down at what he had been working on, having finished what he was doing pretty much on autopilot during their conversation. He turned back to Senku and nodded.

"I've finished. We can move on."

Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

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