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

[ He sighs. At home he didn't know anyone who did fight, which was maybe how the vampires were partially so successful. On the train there are plenty of people who can fight. ]

Not really...the first girl told me to hide behind someone better. [ This comment is relayed a bit glibly. ] Then the strange guy with the holy item was going to help me, but aside from telling me to get sunglasses, he said he doesn't have time for someone who wants to be dead, I guess.

[ .. well, those both sound like very awkward exchanges.

Although Alice can kind of understand both - in fact, the first sounds like something she may have said to someone she really didn't feel like dealing with. But Natsuno isn't so bad. And it's not like she wants to see him hurt, so.. ]

Well, I suppose learning on the go isn't ideal, but it'll have to do.

[ In other words: she'll try to help teach him a few things here. She just doesn't want to say it that explicitly, it's embarrassing. ]

You're strong, right? Even if you don't know how to fight?

[ Yeah, it seemed like he didn't want to deal with him once they had that conversation. Fact is, he is supposed to be dead. There's no getting around that. He was very certain that a close range explosion would be enough. ]

Why not? It's what I've been doing so far.

[ He nods. ]

Much stronger than a human, and I heal much faster.

I can't exactly teach you hand-to-hand fighting techniques.

[ Since that's just not Alice's style. Which, honestly, anyone could probably guess just by taking a single look at her. She sure isn't going to throw some heavy people around with how stick thin she is.. ]

But I do know that if you want to put that strength to good use, you need something bigger and heavier than a dagger. [ Her knife disappears from her hands, and a moment later it's replaced by what looks like a metal hobby horse. ] Something like this. Even if you don't have much technique, just swinging this thing around renders you able to do a lot more damage.

[ Especially on those robots around here. ]

[ Looks can be deceiving, he's pretty stick thin himself, he just gets the benefit of supernatural powers. Prior to that, there was no way he could do that. ]

Hm. [ There might be something to do that. ] Last mission I had a pipe, it was fairly effective.

[ He just hadn't considered it as a long-term weapon. He thought a dagger would be good, but apparently his choice may have been as much due to inexperience as anything else. ]

A pipe sounds like a fairly good option to me.

[ It's simple, sure, but you don't need complexity with these kinds of weapons, no matter how elaborate her own weapon works. Speaking of said weapon, she slings the hobby horse casually over her shoulder as she thinks. ]

Anything that's heavy and would allow you to hit hard would work, I think. These robots are made out of metal anyway, so sharp weapons take a whole lot more work with these things.

[ He nods, that might actually be very sound advice, but where is he going to find some kind of blunt weapon in the jungle? He'll have to keep his eyes open for a branch or something. ]

That seems like a good idea. I didn't keep the pipe or anything. I might've just picked the wrong thing overall.

[ He sighs at himself, that's annoying. ]

[ Alice seems to be thinking too now. She may not have put this much thought into it for any random person, but she thinks Natsuno is pretty alright. Alright enough that she wouldn't want to see him get hurt by some robot of all things. Please, these things are way too pathetic to let them hurt you!

With a hum, she does at least seem to realise something. Alice has always been pretty crafty where it counts. ]

How about we go look over at one of those stations purple is supposed to clear out? [ She holds up her SCA, showing the purple dots on the screen. The display has been making finding these robots a pain, but at least her purple team membership is becoming useful now. ] If there's any place to find something heavy to use as a weapon, it ought to be there.

[ Natsuno looks at the SCA she's showing him and he nods. ]

It's better than doing nothing I suppose. Lead the way. Mine's attuned to the red team objectives of course.

[ He doesn't offer to protect her, but it's there, he wouldn't let her get hurt. ]

You're lucky, getting all the fun tasks.

[ She's started to walk, at least, occasionally glancing down at her SCA to make sure they're heading in the right direction for the most nearby station. ]

If there was something I really didn't feel like the moment we heard about what we were supposed to do here, it was clearing out stations. What do I look like, a gardener?

It's only fun if you like beating up robots.

[ He doesn't actually mind that. ]

Not particularly, you'd need a sun hat for that.

[ That's...a joke...from Natsuno... ]

[ A joke from Natsuno.

Truly there are still miracles left in this world.

Though it ends up not being the part of what he's saying that Alice focuses on. No, instead she just looks at him, her lips actually curling up at the ends. Though rather than a regular smile, there's a bit of a pointed edge to it.. ]

I love beating up robots.

[ Okay, Alice, slow down there, you edgelord. ]

There's no better stress relief after being cooped up in that train, really.

That's true. It's incredibly frustrating to be hurtling towards some unseen goal without my permission.

[ He's openly smirking at that, which is less a smile, but oh well. It's fine. ]

There isn't much harm that can come from beating up robots.

[ He thinks. And look, there's a lot of rage inside him he needs to get out somehow. ]

Exactly. These things aren't even alive.

[ And even if they were.. well, Alice sure didn't have any complaints about beating up those space soldiers they were fighting either..

But that's neither here nor there. At least it seems they've reached one of the stations, though it's still covered in plants. Seems like no one has taken care of this one yet. ]

.. I guess we are going to have to take care of those if we want to grab something from inside there for you, huh.

If we must, I suppose.

[ Natsuno started pulling at the vines and overgrowth. He was strong enough to just tear them apart anyway. ]

I don't know how to fix anything.

[ She shakes her head. ]

That's fine. Other people can do it. [ Clearly Alice is the most DEDICATED member of the purple team, can you tell. Seriously though, she knows it's not like it'll do any good if they start messing with technology they don't know anything about. That's not the reason they're here. ]

I just want to see if there is anything in this station heavy and big enough for you to use it as a weapon until we can find you something better.

That sounds good.

[ He nods his agreement and he'll help clear the path at least, but he'll give the machinery a wide berth. He doesn't want to break anything by accident or otherwise. It's just better if he leaves it alone.

Good thing his job is just to smash robots, but look, when they're done he can take Alice on a robot smashing spree. ]

[ Funny that you'd mention not touching the machinery and being careful.

Because Alice is the opposite here. Or, well, at least she's not going for anything that actually looks important, but the girl is pretty sure this station can do without some of the seemingly less important pieces of metal. Otherwise maybe these people just should have built it a bit better!

So once they're inside, Alice actually starts tugging on a half-loose hanging plate of metal, seemingly some sort of covering for something. It's too heavy for her to break off though - obviously so, since her tugging is doing nothing at all. ]

.. Can you get this loose? This seems like it might be useful enough for you. [ He could whack robots over the head with it. Like some wrestler with a steel chair. ]

[ Ever so sadly the reference would be lost on him, but the action might be helpful. It must be plenty heavy if Alice is struggling and he moves over to take a look.

He sticks his fingers in the gap, yanking.

Didn't even break a sweat by the time it pops off in his hands. ]

It feels pretty solid.

[ Alice smiles, looking maybe a little too pleased about this development - because she can see just how easy it is for him to break it off and hold it. ]

Perfect! [ She may even be clasping her hands together momentarily, clearly approving of what she's seeing. ] I know you could just punch these things, or throw them around, but using something like this is far more efficient. You can gain some real momentum with it if you get used to the swinging motions. Not to mention that you don't run the risk of ruining your knuckles!

[ Clearly this is the ideal job for Alice: odd improvised weapon advisor. She sure seems to be having fun with it, weirdly enough. Especially since she's usually so sour about most things. ]

[ It should be added to those career aptitude tests, it's such a good job.

Natsuno moves back and swings back and forth a few times.]

Feels pretty good. [ He smirks. ] Let's go test it out.

[ She seems even more pleased with his answer. See, she knew it was the right fit for him! And the better Natsuno is armed, the better it is in general. She wants him to be as prepared as possible, because even if he wants to die once he's off this train, Alice is darn well going to make sure he stays alive on here.

What's the point in dying if you'll just return, after all? ]

Sounds good.

[ Especially since Alice loves robot whacking. Thanks, missions, for giving her stress relief. ]

Do you see any nearby? [ He has the map for the red team on his SCA, after all. All Alice can tell are useless purple station dots. ]

[ He checks his SCA for the nearest robot location and holds out his wrist to her so she can look. ]

Let's go that way.

[ This kind of stress relief really is nice, so much robot whacking is in their future. ]

.. not too far away. [ She says, approvingly, after studying the device for a moment.

Then she nods. ]

Alright, let's head out there. I want to see how using that thing works out for you.

[ So Alice starts walking without much hesitation. ]

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Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

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