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

"Looks warmer than last mission, huh?"

An inside joke for the both of them (haha, get it! Last Blue mission!), but then even he winces as he remembers, says anyway-

"Gonna be warmer if we don't get everything running!"

Quatre smiled and nodded with a faint chuckle. "I certainly hope so. I don't really want to do that again. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to do."

Sliding around on the ice was not what Quatre had ever considered fun. Partially because it was cold and he didn't really like the cold. He had grown up in warm environments.

"Yeah, it will. We will get it taken care of. We just have to figure out what exactly needs to be done for it."

Tidus likes a confident attitude, raises a thumbs up at Quatre. Yeah, that's the spirit!

"You know tech, right? You mind if I call you if I end up somewhere else with a problem? Something tells me it'd be too easy if we all got stuck together."

If only!

Quatre was nothing if not a can-do person. One didn't fight a war as they did and not have at least some spirit like that. He smiled back and returned the thumbs up.

"I do. It is my forte and something I enjoy. Yes, if you have a problem, definitely call me. I'll do my best to help you out and figure out how to fix it if something that you can do with what you have." He chuckled. "Yeah, the train generally likes to separate the different teams."

"Great- I mean, I dunno how much we've got to worry about, but I never got the impression we have many technicians on the train. And my fix for anything is turning it off and on, or knocking it around some."

Probably not helpful this time round.

"It seems that there are a few on the train. The ones that I know of are very good at it." Including himself, but he's not going to say that because it was overly cocky about his own abilities. But building a Gundam from scratch and doing repairs on his own did at least give him an idea of how to work with technical objects.

He chuckled at that description. "Yes, turning it off and on again sometimes works. Depending on the object, knocking might too. Sounds like these are going to be much bigger than that, unfortunately."

"Maybe not too big?" he jokes, but in that hopeful way. "Have you ever dealt with anything like this before? Like, shield work or meteorites? If we're protecting an entire planet... how much work will that be?"

It's hard to even imagine! Hundreds of different machines? Just a few?

"Maybe, but I suspect if they are controlling as much as they are, they are going to a fairly decent size." He just remembered some of things that he had worked on. "Shield work for an entire planet? Unfortunately I have not, but I have worked on shields for space craft and mobile suits. I did learn about some of it from the people who worked for my father, but actually doing it myself will be something new."

He thought about that for a moment.

"It depends on how many points they are using for the shield. One is unlikely to do it. Two is also difficult. Four gets more plausible because then you can have a point of control in each hemisphere. But could be more if they don't have the power to each carry a fourth or more of the power."

"If it's just a handful..." He's frowning, but- "That's better than anything higher."

All they can do is hope. But the train was now coming to a landing, a small space in the endless canopy of trees. The doors opening to let them out, the heat outside creeping.

Their SCAs vibrate, beeping with the updated maps and their designations.

Quatre nodded. "It will be better that way. The more there are, the more work we will have to do to maintain them and get them working again."

Quatre stepped back as the door opened, feeling the rush of the heat from outside. Jungles weren't quite his thing, but he was used to the heat at least. Hopefully, this wouldn't be too bad.

"Well, looks like it is telling us where to go. Good luck with your assignment."

Tidus looks up at his SCA at it starts pleading for his attention, seeing the map and the dot as it appears. Somewhere to the south.

"Right! You know someone on the team you're going with? I might go with Red, help them out." So this Purple dot was useless to him. Thanks, train.

Gosh, the SCA is so needy... saying pay attention to me!

"Yeah, I do. I've gone with them a few times. Sounds like a plan. I'm sure they'd like the help." Yeah, his purple dot meant nothing to him as well.

What about their needs, SCA???

"Alright then, don't forget about me! I'll be calling in that help!" Tidus had no doubt about that. "But I'll check in on you later if I see anything cool along the way!"

Who knows - if there's stations around, maybe there'll be interesting tools or gadgets a guy like Quatre might like (in Tidus's mind).

Right? It's like it just doesn't care about them.

"Of course I won't. If you need help, feel free to call. I'll do my best to help. Yes, definitely let me know if you find anything cool. It might be useful for the assignment."

Quatre would certainly be interested in them. Personally, he'd probably put more work into using them on the same planet since that's where they had started and should stay, but it might be good to use to increase the abilities of the shields.

"Great! Don't have too much fun," he teases as he finds where the Blues are going, and gives Quatre a wave. "See ya later!"

And he'll have to have that catch up with him later too.

Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

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