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!

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She could have one of these odd, Arms Band sort of things, Zechs thought to himself. Or maybe she was another person with ... magic? It was a lot harder to assess threats from others when they had abilities that defied the laws of physics.

Zechs gave her a simple nod and started to head out into the jungle, alert, listening for the robots moving through the brush. Fortunately, their opponents didn't seem built for stealth or guerilla tactics, or - frankly - they'd all be screwed. It's pretty obvious that most of them (himself included) weren't used to fighting on foot in a jungle.

Hearing something rustle, Zechs held out a hand to encourage her to stop for a moment. Cautious and calculating seemed to be his fighting style, at least when he only had a borrowed sword and no flak vest.

At least Alice is on guard the moment they head out there. It's true, she has never fought in a jungle before either - though she's fought in woods that felt like jungles, with how big everything is once you're shrunken down. But the one thing that experience taught her is that you need to be on guard, because there can be something behind each bush, each corner.

So when she's stopped by Zechs, she does stop. Trying to figure out where exactly the sound is coming from. From the left? Maybe?

Though only a few moments after that thought crosses Alice's mind, something does appear from the left - one of the security robots rushing out of the bushes with brightly flashing lights, heading right for the two of them.

Yes, the robots weren't exactly subtle, were they? "Get down!"

They had ranged projectiles, he was pretty sure, and he had only a sword. Fortunately, there were plenty of trees to provide cover when it did open fire, and having anticipated it, they had plenty of time to duck behind.

Zechs watched its search-and-destroy behavior with a sharp eye. "It's only armed from the front. We just need to get behind it."

Thankfully he's here for the strategy. Because while Alice is a good fighter, she's also very simple-minded - just hitting something until it stops moving is the only fight strategy anyone needs, clearly, right?

But him saying that helps, considering she may just have charged the machine from their hiding spots otherwise.

"Got it," she just simply says, still sounding very calm. "That's easy."

And if Zechs is looking over towards her while she says it, he'll be able to see it. Alice seems to disappear, a cloud of butterflies taking her place, traveling to another hiding spot where she briefly reappears. Then there's the butterflies again. Then Alice in another spot. All the way until she's on the other side of the robot - which clearly isn't paying attention to just a few butterflies.

It's probably harder to see her once she's all the way over here, but she seems to pull something out of thin air - a big metal hammer, maybe, that's what the shape seems like from a distance - and a second later it's being smashed against the robot's back.

Hard. It makes an incredible crunching sound, like that robot sure must have gotten dented bad from the hit to its back.

Strategy was one of Zechs' many strengths, very fortune for them. And it appeared that Alice had a few that surpassed his. Because -

Zechs was keeping half an eye on the robot - considering it was shooting at him - but he was indeed looking at Alice, and saw her disappear, replaced by a cluster of butterflies. Which. Wait. What?

He almost cursed, not expecting her to abandon him at all from the impression she'd made upon him - except there she was again, behind the robot firing upon them.

He heard the big, metallic clang-crunch, like a robotic fist had punched the security robot in the back. It stopped firing for a moment, lights flickering - tried to stumble around even as critical components within the unit were crushed. The machine was dying as systems within overloaded, precious cooling mechanisms destroyed.

But Zechs wasn't about to let it fire on Alice before it finally suffered a critical failure. As it clumsily stumbled to switch its targeting area, he darted out from the tree he was hidden behind, to slice the robot decisively in the middle with his borrowed sword.

Kind of like punching a man who'd been shot in the stomach - dead either way - but the finishing blow hastened the job. Zechs looked at her, and her weapon.

"... Good job," he said, sounding rather impressed.

To be fair on Zechs, when the machine falls down, sliced in half, Alice also looks a bit.. dazed. Or even frozen. She stares at the man with wide eyes, looking like she was completely caught off guard.

But what surprised her wasn't a display of powers she didn't know about. No, it's the simple act of him finishing that off before it could fire at her. She saw it turn, after all. The machine would have been done for even if Zechs hadn't moved, even if Alice had gotten hurt.

But he did move. So that's what surprises her - a simple act of human kindness.

Alice never knows how to deal with those.

"I.." She starts, then stops. Clearing her throat, she quickly tries to look a bit more dignified again. "I suppose I should say the same of you. That was a very clean slice."

"I'd do better with better equipment," Zechs said, but gave her a small, slightly cocky smile all the same. "But, thank you."

He's already looking ahead into the brush, analyzing, but he did notice her earlier look of shock. Zechs wasn't certain how to interpret it. From what she'd said before - and from the way she'd used her skills - she's no stranger to combat situations.

Of course, if he was able to know what she was thinking - he'd object that he's a poor example of human kindness. This was helping an ally in a battle - it shouldn't be unusual for her to find that, unless she was all too used to fighting alone.

"Those abilities of yours," Zechs asked, letting her have a moment to collect herself, "do they tire you, or can you use them easily, with great frequency?"

"The latter."

At least this question is easier to deal with. She pushes away all thoughts about being helped to the back of her head, where she can deal with them some other time - sometime when she's alone and doesn't have to worry about what she's looking like in front of someone else.

Her weapon vanishes from her hands now the threat is gone, and instead Alice occupies her hands with idly dusting off her pants, just to give herself something to do.

"I mean, I've never gotten tired due to them before, at least. I always fight like this." Especially since.. well, look at Alice. She's so thin and pale, she certainly doesn't look like she'd take a direct hit very well. Dodging out of the way like that is much easier.

Zechs nodded, thinking about how she looked verses what she could clearly do. If she could teleport like that effortlessly ...

"I just didn't want to heavily rely upon your abilities as we fight more of these robots, if they would end up exhausting you too quickly," Zechs explained. He pulled up the SCA. "Knowing what you can do now, it'll be easier to take out groups with your element of surprise and a little planning."

He smirked at her. "I only have my sword, but I'll do my best to keep up with you."

Alice is quiet throughout his explanation. Just listening. Or no, more than listening, she's thinking. She understands what he's telling her, really, and it all sounds like a solid enough plan to her too.

That's not what's on her mind.

What is, however, becomes very rapidly clear when she does speak up, a slight frown on her face.

"Are you always this considerate of others?" She almost says it as if that's weird.

Zechs stopped in sheer surprise, eyebrows raised. He's not angry, or offended, just. Caught off guard. Very much so, disrupting his usual mask.

"You're the first person who'd call me that, in a very long time," Zechs told her frankly. "We're fighting the same fight. And you're better equipped than me. Treating you carelessly will get me killed, and others killed, because we've failed to protect them."

He looked at her in turn, also analyzing. "Have you always fought alone?"

.. The first person who called Zechs considerate, really?

Now that is weird to Alice in turn. Sure, she wouldn't call the other guy overly friendly or cheery, but he's been much more cordial than about 99.99% of London's population to her so far, so the label doesn't feel odd to her at all. There must be a difference in standards somewhere along the line here, huh.

"Yes," he answers that question, easily. It's not information she minds sharing, after all. The look in her eyes is still a bit curious and surprised though, still letting all these thoughts turn over in her mind even as she speaks up. "There was no one else who'd stand up to fight before. Just me."

Well. In a while, anyway. He and Noin had fallen into a friendship of easy banter and implied compliments. Zechs had done far worse things before arriving on Mars, that left such things scarce from the others working there.

"I'm a soldier. Or. I was a soldier," Zechs remembered to correct himself. "For years, millions of people had been trained to fight. Not all of them did it with competency. But working together was the goal, aside from the soldiers on the other side, whom we fought against. That was the sort of threat we faced. So, if nothing else, working with others for a common goal is not new to me."

"It is new to me."

Not that it necessarily makes her unkind. Sure, maybe Alice isn't outwardly the nicest person here on the train, but she doesn't try to be mean on purpose either - dry wit is in her nature, but cruelty isn't.

But it still means all the same that she isn't used to receiving even a shred of kindness or consideration in return. Even if it's born from Zechs' sense of duty, of working together as a group.

"I come from a place where people would rather wish death upon each other than ever do something kind. Even if they were supposed to cooperate." Hence her reaction to all this.

Zechs frowned slightly. "That makes little sense. There's ample opportunity for ill will, betrayal, backstabbing, and mutiny in war. But on the surface, people will at least pretend to cooperate, until that moment they aim their weapon at your back."

He couldn't imagine people who were tasked with working together openly plotting to kill each other. It was usually implied.

The girl tilts her head slightly to the side, and then pulls up her shoulders.

"I've found that very often things make little sense." Sometimes they're just a lot more open about making little sense, like in Wonderland. In the regular world people just love to pretend like all these ridiculous things are just normal.

"But that is why I did not expect you to help me whatsoever, like you did a moment ago. Even if it may come more natural to you, I suppose I should still thank you for it."

"... You're welcome," Zechs told her, "even though you don't need to thank me for doing the logical thing."

He pursed his lips thinner. "Forgive me. Just ... just 'you're welcome'. I shouldn't dismiss all that you've been through so easily."

"Is that a soldier cooperation sort of thing too?"

Alice can't help but point it out. There's definitely a hint of smart-aleck in her, after all - at least when it comes to these sorts of things. Besides, it's easier to near-tease him about it than to try and contemplate how she feels about someone actually taking her feelings into account. It's a wild sort of thing - definitely the kind of thing she'll need to take some time for to process later.

"You would think being understanding of other people's feelings to this extent wouldn't be so necessary just to work together. Perhaps there is a bit of a kind person deep down in there." Or maybe not so deep, honestly. Zechs is already beating absolutely all standards set by people from her own world.

"Yes," Zechs claimed, and the unexpected claim again of kindness made him feel slightly flustered once more. He hid it best he could, folding his arms and giving her a little of a look. "People who understand the motives of others, how they might think in a situation, not only helps them work together - it helps them meet others in battle. It's logical for allies and enemies alike, to know their minds."

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Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

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