middleofsomewhere | Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

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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

Initial Task: Orange

Romeo hops off the train with everyone else and looks around the jungle around them and then up to the sky above.

"Oh no!" He whispers, that looked really bad! They would have to hurry.

He had already decided to stick with Elfnein for the first part, to help her get to the control station which meant going with orange team.

He helped clear the way, pulling apart vines and pushing fallen logs and branches out of the way. Sometimes he threw borderlines out at especially stubborn vines. "This way!" He called people over to the clearer paths. His SCA doesn't show him where the orange target is so he has to make sure he sticks with the group and follows them to keep in the right direction!

Meteor Prevention

All the shields hum to life and Romeo is staring at the sky which is a terrifying red and black colour. Did it work? He hopes it worked? Did they do it right? A shield was like a borderline, a huge borderline round the whole planet and he just hoped they'd given it enough energy! Sometimes his borderlines fail if he gets tired...

He's a bit frightened. Okay he's a lot frightened but he's trying to be brave as he watches the red get closer and closer and closer...

Animal Herding: Blue

Though he had went with orange for the initial treck through the jungle he went back to helping blue afterwards. He didn't want to leave his team alone for too long!

So Romeo can be found trying to shoo armadillos and pandas away from anywhere important. Or carrying small pandas that are still almost as big as him.

"Come on! I'll find you somewhere nicer to live! I bet we can find some yummy... leaves right? Pandas eat leaves..."

He hopes.

Camping

Romeo quite likes camping, it's different than sleeping inside or even on the train. He likes cooking outside as well so he can be found building a small fire so he can make some yummy food.

"Do you want something to eat?"

Edited 2020-11-15 12:14 (UTC)

"I think they do - pandas can eat all parts of a plant... except the roots, maybe?"

This was something else he'd have to read up on, no doubt. Alfredo wished it was easier to predict which books would make helping with the missions easier!

Carrying his own - rather small - Violet Panda, he looked over at his friend.

"Maybe if we move enough of them, the rest will follow? These seem to like being in groups..."

And strangers, for some reason.

"They are really friendly!" Romeo agreed with a huge grin towards the pandas he is trying to herd. "So I bet if enough of them are in one place they can all work together and be safe!"

Alfredo has really good ideas!

"That sounds right to me, Romeo!"

Hopefully the pandas agreed with that logic, too...

"I just hope we move enough of them away before we have to leave - or will it be the other way around?"

Would the voidtrain ever stay on a world more than a week?

"The other way round?"

He tilted his head, "I don't know. But I don't think we will leave until we have finished the mission!"

There had only been one time they hadn't and that had been really bad!

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Animal Herding

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Initial task

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animal herding

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Animal Herding: Blue

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CAMPING CAMPING!

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herding

Re: herding

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Camping

Re: Camping

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