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

[marriedanidiot]

"Oh yes." She nods, smiling. "In Lord Orome's woods the trees grow tall and close together, and the forest seems to stretch on forever."

[gundamofthedesert]

"That sounds very pretty. You will have to let me know if this world looks like that forest as well. I guess that will be the easiest way to compare how our worlds are unless we get to visit them."

[marriedanidiot]

"I only visited briefly." She smiles wistfully. "My third son was one of Lord Orome's Hunters, and he knew those woods like the back of his hand. But it was very lovely. I will have to pay attention to compare it well!"

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre smiled. "Well, even if it's not like Lord Orome's forest, I'd like to hear more about it. I'll think of which area this reminds me of the most and we can share after the mission is over."

[marriedanidiot]

"That is a good idea." She smiles back.

"I'm sure we will find some things that are familiar!"

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre's smile only brightened at that. "Great! I'm sure we will too. I'll be sure to remember if there is something that really reminds me of home."

[marriedanidiot]

"I am surprised that so far every location has been so very different, in truth."

[gundamofthedesert]

"Yeah, they've all been very different from each other. I guess the island that we were on for a while, that was kind of like home. Though our water is blue. So that was a bit surprising."

[marriedanidiot]

"We did have beaches, but you are right about the water - ours is blue too! I wonder why theirs was that color... I suppose we won't ever know."

[gundamofthedesert]

"Hmm... I know I've heard that the color of lakes can be a different color based on the minerals that are dissolved into the water. Maybe it was something like that."

[marriedanidiot]

"Ah, I've heard that sort of thing too, now you mention it." She nods, thoughtful.

"Perhaps so! I would have liked to have been able to stay longer to investigate further... ah well."

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre nodded at her comment.

"Yeah, I would have liked to as well. Not to mention that it was nice to be able to get off the train and not have it be for a mission, just because we wanted to."

He was very much an outdoor person for how much he had spent his life in space. Probably because of that. It was new and exciting and wasn't a glorified box where "outdoor" was a park inside that box.

[marriedanidiot]

"Agreed." She sighs. "I was an explorer, in my youth. Although this is the most comfortable I've ever been while exploring, still, there is something to be said for being able to choose my own way!"

[gundamofthedesert]

"I agree. I did some sightseeing on Earth when I could, but never in this fashion. Part of the reason we were there was also because we were fighting so it was not the most opportune situation."

[marriedanidiot]

"I imagine not!" She winces at the reminder. "Ai, but at least you are at peace now."

[gundamofthedesert]

"Yes, that is very true. I am glad about that. And I can visit Earth more often now."

[marriedanidiot]

"Will you live there permanently, do you think?" She asks curiously. "Or will you stay amongst the stars?"

[gundamofthedesert]

"I'd like to, at some point. My family's business is up in the colonies though, among the stars. Perhaps once the colonies have been rebuilt and the improvements made, then I can spend more time on Earth."

[marriedanidiot]

"Then I hope business is settled soon!" She nods. "Family business can be quite consuming."

[gundamofthedesert]

"I hope so as well, but it may take a while. My father spent a lot of his life working. Of course, I don't want to spend my entire life doing that. There are more important things."

[marriedanidiot]

"Work is only important in that it provides you a livelihood." She smiles wryly. "Although your father might have fit well in Tirion. We Noldor tend to get rather... obsessed. But for us, Art and work almost always go hand in hand."

[gundamofthedesert]

"Yeah, he might have fit in well. He managed a lot of projects at once. Some of them were architectural in nature, which can be artistic. Alas, I don't know that my father ever had a creative bone in his body. He certainly never showed me that."

[marriedanidiot]

She shakes her head with a smile.

"Maybe he did, or maybe his Art were all in the management of his projects! One can never tell, I suppose. What of your mother?"

[gundamofthedesert]

"Maybe. He certainly spent a lot of time on that. But... he was my father."

His father is dead. It is wrong to speak ill of the dead so he's trying not to sound bitter about it.

"I... don't have one. The oldest families in space are unable to bear children naturally so the children are all created through artificial means."

Oh... if only he knew the truth... but he doesn't.

[marriedanidiot]

She touches his hand in sympathy.

"He was your father." She agrees. "And what son does not wish to please his father, at least a little."

Some fathers are not worth pleasing, of course. But Nerdanel does not think Quatre's sounds like one of them, based on how Quatre speaks of him.

She blinks, taken aback. "No... mother?"