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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"Yes I think so." Natsuno agreed and started pulling fines apart to free the box with his bare hands.

"I just means it seems like awfully high stakes."

It was good that Galo knew what he was doing because Natsuno would have no clue. It didn't take very long for him to expose the unused toolbox and he walked back over, brushing off remaining bits. "Here."

He takes the tool box and flips it open. Inside the tools are well worn but old. Galo hums as he moves aside the tools to get at packages of wires. “The one with those fiery and icy areas was high stakes too. But does make me wonder exactly what their criteria is for these. Is it just what is on the path or?”

He checks over the replacement wires and lays them out within easy reach. “Wires are bad in here. Looks like an over time sort of deal.” He removes the wires from the console one by one.

"It didn't seem like the same kind of high stakes though." Natsuno commented and leaned over to see what he was doing.

"I'm...not going to be much help with this part."

"I can teach you how to do it. It's actually a lot like hot wiring a car but don't tell anyone I said that." Some things are best never said. Or at least parts of his past are best left alone. Galo waves a hand and fits another replacement wire inside.

"All the repairs that need doing are just this basic. It's a bit weird and you're right. That's a different kind of high stakes. And the whole hot springs 'mission'," He makes finger quotes then goes back to his work. "Just seemed like a chill out time."

"That's alright, even if you teach me, it's nothing I'll be able to do whenever I leave this place." Natsuno assured him and he watched carfully.

"I'm afraid I missed out on that, was it so unusual?" He mused softly.

"Leave as in the train over all or next mission?" Galo asks as he fits the last wire in. He checks to make sure everything is right before he withdraws his hands and shuts the panel. "Besides I'm just coloring by the numbers here."

He seems to forget the other question as he leans back, pulling himself up to check the console. "It was weird because it wasn't a mission. And we're still mentally bonded to people and I still don't know how it happened."

"The train overall." Natsuno explained. "My world isn't as advanced as this one." He let out a huff of amusement. "Perhaps to you, but to me it seems incredibly complex. I'm very out of my depth."

He blinked. "Mentally bonded to people?"

The console lights up under his fingers shows a map full of red areas. He taps his fingers on red sections but it just isolates that red section. "Yeah, started experiencing each other's memories. Good and bad." He frowns as he taps each section and gets the same deal. Galo sighs. "Yeah this system is on par with my world."

He shakes his head. "Part of search and rescue work is maintaining our equipment and knowing how to get into places in ways other than force." His fingers tap and slide over the screens with a furrow in his brows. "I'm offering because we don't know how many worlds we'll get like this and what situations we'll run into."

"I'm not sorry I missed that." Natsuno said honestly. He didn't think he would like to be bonded to someone, or to share his memories.

At Galo's explanation, he could see the necessity and so he nodded.

"I'm willing to learn then."

"So first thing, this is a map telling us where all the damage is. Problem is, either they don't have super details to pinpoint damage. Or something took out anything that detects problems." He taps the map and steps away from it, kneeling down to snatch up the toolkit.

"Looks like there's a problem in every section or again, diagnostics systems are down. Let's see." He heads for the doorway with his staff drawn in one hand and the toolkit in the other. The next section is thick with weeds and vines, wrapping around every surface and growing where they could. The jungle had decided to claim this place.

"What's the difference between the two? Isn't it a problem in every section if the...diagnostics are down?" Natsuno asked, a bit curiously.

He followed him inside and the overgrowth, well that was an easy problem to spot, even he could see that. He started pulling away the vines carefully.

"Nah. It means the system to pinpoint the problems are down so we have to manually check everything. Most buildings and systems back home have secondary systems to counter and deal with that." Galo says as he sweeps the staff out, shifting vines and weeds out of the way to check the walls. Neither of them find anything at first. There's a faint sound like a crackle.

He pauses and holds up a hand. "Hear that?" It sounds closer to Natsuno's left.

In this area, he might excel. Natsuno nodded. "I do." He had superhuman hearing after all and he would head towards his left in the direction where he heard it.

Galo nods, planting his staff and turning slowly about to keep watch. As Natsuno gets closer the crackling gets louder. It sounds almost like static but not quite. Ahead of him the weeds seem a bit thicker as if they're growing out of something.

The crackle seems to be coming from there. As if there might be a hole they're coming out of....

Natsuno did get the static sound, it sounded like a TV that had lost its signal.

He tilted his head as he found the weeds.

"Is there any reason I shouldn't pull these out? I think the sound is coming from here."

Galo walks over to where Natsuno is standing and moves forward, light on his feet. He uses the staff in his grip to move the weeds. Sparks of electricity snap at the air. Below the thick foliage is a wide open panel that one could fit both their hands and some of their arms into.

"Ohh, good work! If we get the weeds at the edges it should be okay. We can tackle the rest after we find safety gloves." Last thing they want is to be zapped to hell and back. And lucky for them, there's another rusted toolkit near by but the gloves sticking out of it are alright.

"Alright, I can do that." Natsuno started pulling them apart carefully, not sticking his hands where the electricity part was.

He didn't want to discover whether or not a good electric shock could kill him, thank you.

Galo works the other side. He does it carefully, checking after he gets a good section done. Together they clear out around the edges of the panel and reveal the edge of a cut in a wire sparking with electricity.

He makes a small noise at that. "Either this is just the problem or why the diagnostics are down. Or both!" He scans the area around them and spots the kit. He uses the butt of his staff to pry it open. Two pairs of safety gloves. Galo pulls one pair on and holds the other out. "Area's live. I think it's because we turned on the system board. I want to see what's wrong then go back and cut the power. Sound good?"

"Is that how it worked?" Natsuno asked. He wasn't very techonological in the first place and he'd never looked into how electricity worked.

He accepted the gloves and slid them on. "That makes sense to me. Can you show me what you find?"

At the very least, he was trying to understand.

He turns the staff and if Natsuno gets close to it he might feel an odd heat from it that is different from the world around them. A dry heat like a fire burning steadily away. Galo shifts the crystalline staff and shoves at the weeds, pushing them out of the way.

Wires at the edge of the open hole coming from the direction of the console have been partially cut. Galo narrows his eyes. On a whim he reaches over to the other side and yanks out weeds. The wires on the other side are just fine. "Found it. Looks like I'm right. Power runs up to the console but meets this problem and just can't go further. Well it does but not at the power it needs to.

He gestures to the whole panel. "Like opening and closing a door. Place won't stay safe without that door shut."

He was fairly close, not because he wanted to crowd Galo, but more because he was trying to get a good look at this panel. He nodded slightly.

"I think I understand what you mean. I can see it doesn't look the same the whole way along the wire. I'm just not sure how you'd fix that." Natsuno said.

"It has to be dangerous, right?"

"That's why we're cutting the power." He says as he heads for the doorway. "Remember those wires I replaced? I'm going to disconnect them." All of this is pretty basic and he's grateful for that. They could get a lot of this done and repel that meteor.

That's what he hopes. Hopes never break even if the ideals one looks up to go crashing to the ground. Galo walks over to the lit up console and kneels down, he moves enough aside that Natsuno can see as he removes the cover again.

Natsuno followed him around to take a look at what he was doing. He wasn't sure he was actually any help at all, but maybe he might be next time.

"I'm following you so far." He assured him.

He taps the red, yellow, and blue wires he had replaced earlier. "All I'm doing is just removing these." The inside of the panel has the circuit board, with the wires over it, inserted into little circular connection ports. Galo removes them one by one and puts them in his pocket.

The whole console goes dark again. The low humming of power in the area cuts off. Galo leans back and listens for a moment. Nothing. He pulls himself to his feet and heads back towards the doorway. "Okay, now we check that panel!" He makes a small cheer with his fist and picks up speed. Inside that crackling sound has stopped.

The only sound is the creak of metal as what had been just powered on, falls back into its off state. "Hear anything?"

It was inherently interesting to watch him pull wires out without a care what they did, at least, Natsuno couldn't tell what they did by looking at them but clearly Galo had worked with electronics before and so he didn't seem worried.

"No." He answered his question immediately. "The noise is gone." He noted that Galo hadn't removed his gloves though, so it was probably a safety thing.

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