VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2021-01-11 05:58 am

Fierce New World- Mission Start!

"Good Morning passengers. Today is day six of the month of Jelly." 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.

Preparation and Arrival

They have a short time to prepare for their mission, enough time to read their briefs, make decisions, meet in their teams and gather anything they may need.

A few hours later there is another announcement. "Shortly arriving on System #2207385. All passengers get ready to disembark. Next stop world #2207385. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

The train judders as it leaves the void, the colours from the windows turn into the blackness of space but quickly white as the train descends into the entrance of the biosphere.

The doors of the train open and passengers can enter the large white-walled holding bay. Currently, they are the only vehicle inside. There are four large doors around the bay each labelled with where they lead. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

The doors open easily, and their SCA’s show a basic route, though the non-linear nature of the sectors mean that obstacles will need to be navigated. While they are in a closed world, there is a day and night cycle: the panels far up above are designed to make it seem like there is a natural sky, brightening and dimming every ten hours.

Red/Summer

Empty Streets

Wide streets divide sealed-off factories and manufacturing pods that tower up towards the ‘sky’. It is hot here, though the fumes from the factories are vented out, leaving the air breathable if overly warm.

Sometimes the pods are not yet finished, empty shells that can be sheltered in. There are also stations for living, with plumbing and basic amenities scattered through the sector. Places to rest as they move towards the center and the Great-Summer that they seek.

Helpmates

Where factories are still being built they will find Helpmates, operating machinery or moving materials.

They will not pause in their tasks for long but are programmed to answer questions so can be drawn into a conversation. Or, if the Voidtreckers are unfortunate, they will find those that are malfunctioning turning on them as they approach.

They aren’t too difficult to fight, but can do some damage with the machinery if they manage to take a Voidtrecker by surprise. They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down outright.

Wild Weather

Though warm, the corridors remain a constant temperature that is not too unpleasant for people. For the most part. Unfortunately, due to the malfunctioning state of things routes may become impassable. Boiling air, freezing blasts, electricity crackling across a pathway.

Their SCA’s do a good job of warning them, allowing them to change direction or shelter in nearby buildings.

Purple/Autumn

Exploring

The Autumn sector is the least complete of the sectors, with shells of habitation pods and not much else. No one is expected to live here until nearing the end of construction, and so the pods are unfurnished, many missing doors, some missing internal walls.

Outside the streets are wide and clearly made to be pleasant to walk on; it is airy, bright and spacious, if a bit eerie due to the quiet.

There are panels on the walls, to call Helpmates to appear. Here they are primarily for helping citizens, giving directions and offering aid.

Malfunctions

Since there are more helpmates there is more risk of them malfunctioning. They attack with or without weapons, using any tools they can pick up to attack. They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down.

They won’t chase people into the houses, their privacy programming preventing them from doing so.

Turned Around

The roads seem simple, built in a grid pattern around the houses. However, whatever is going wrong here is affecting the very streets themselves. Sometimes there will be a wall where there wasn’t before or roads go in circles. Sometimes they find themselves at a dead end, trapped until structures shift again.

Their SCA’s do their best to keep up but it can take a while for them to reroute and by the time they do, that path might be blocked too!

Blue/Spring

Patchwork Forest

The Spring sector houses the hydroponics and pastoral sections. It alternates between grazing land and more heavily forested areas with rows of pine-like trees in a checkerboard pattern, with empty plots interspersed. Walkways divide each square, but all squares appear able to move about as required, as though on a conveyor system.

There are clear walkways to avoid stepping on any newly growing plants. In the grazing land live flocks of camelid creatures resembling alpacas with blueish wool, on average a metre and a half tall at the shoulders. Helpmates appear here as if on a timer to feed the animals and tend to plants.

Destruction


If the Helpmates here malfunction they attack anyone nearby, cause havoc to any farming equipment and frightening the animals.

They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down. The panels here are less obvious than they are in the more urban sectors, low to the ground, looking almost like energy panels. But once they know what to look for they will be able to use them to shut down the Helpmates.

Stampede

Frightened animals are likely to flee and unfortunately in this case it means rampaging across the grazing land to the newly growing trees.

They will need to be calmed, returned to their grazing lands and the plants restored. Or it might be that the Voidtreckers can stop the Helpmates before the creatures get too spooked.

Orange/Winter

Exploring

The Winter sector’s primary concern is life support. Huge banks of air scrubbers form artificial cliffs, while other sections are tanks filled with water in varying stages of processing or recycling.

The paths here are a lot narrower than they are in other areas, sometimes requiring moving between pipes or scrambling over layers of railing.

There doesn’t seem to be any easy or straightforward path through the sector, their SCA takes them on wild winding routes through the machinery.

Help or Hindrance

The fluctuating temperatures here are causing problems with many of the pipes, several sections are flooded, others are in danger of being so.

There are patch kits in easily opened panels, designed to be used by the helpmates and indeed there are many helpmates out.

But some are less helpful, those that are malfunctioning are more likely to cause more damage than they are there to fix. They will attack any one who tries to interfere with them. They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down.

Patch Job

Once the malfunctioning Helpmates are dealt with the pipes still need to be fixed. The patch kits do not have any instructions but are simple enough that anyone with a basic knowledge of how to fix things should be able to figure them out- though the more knowledge and expertise they have the better the fix!

For those that don’t, many of the jobs will need more than one person and so for those that don’t mind taking instructions they will find an extra pair of hands is always welcome.
blue_ice: (headached)

[personal profile] blue_ice 2021-01-14 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
Seto hisses when he hears the noise and gets back to work, pulling faster.

"I'm fine---gotta---pull this---"

So his fingers are slipping a little. Gotta focus. "You okay?"
blue_ice: (hit by trap card)

[personal profile] blue_ice 2021-01-14 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
[The clunk surprised him, and his head shot up warily. Reinforcements...?

Well, for him, anyway. Thankfully not for the helpmate. There was Silvia. ]


Good shot. Ugh...there better not be any more. If you could just---watch my back a minute?

[ He's plugging away at that panel regardless, working through the pain. ]
blue_ice: (blinded)

[personal profile] blue_ice 2021-01-14 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
"That's the consensus every mission," Kaiba agrees tiredly. He has to screw this pipe back together before they can move to the panel, and---he's hit with another spray of chilly water.

"I can handle the work. I can handle the cold. I just want to blast through this and---ah!"

He lunges to catch a piece before it can drop under the water. "Too close."
storms_eye: (These)

Travel/Exploring

[personal profile] storms_eye 2021-01-14 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
[Ok, so she'd sat on the bench too often, and Silvia was going to at least get a look at this planet-er dyson-sphere thing. Naturally, it couldn't be too easy. As she shimmied between two pipes, she nearly bumped into a bit of fallen railing on the other side. Expelling an exasperated huff, she swatted at it never really making contact.]

At this rate- it should only take.. what.. several hours to get anywhere?

[This would be an awful place to accidentally be left too. Eyes sweeping over what was coming up next it looked like the worst obstacle course]

This is less like a working complex and more like urban exploration..
Edited 2021-01-14 06:18 (UTC)
springforth: (047)

Re: Patch away

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-14 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, technically, no idea, flying and floating aren't exactly the usual powers associated with a minor goddess, but you know, I'll take them. Makes it way easier than climbing everything. Though not helping with this!"

She sputters at another gush of water and slams both hands over the pipe break. It is at this point that she actually looks at him and blinks.

"Um--are you a robot?"
sciencegirl: (022)

[personal profile] sciencegirl 2021-01-14 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
The poor thing swats at them both. Luckily it doesn't seem to be programmed to fight. Entrapta's guessing that they think they're defending the scrubbers. She can't say for sure.

"Do you think you can just protect the machinery while I get to the panel?"
storms_eye: (my)

[personal profile] storms_eye 2021-01-14 06:37 am (UTC)(link)
[It surprised them both really, but there was no cry of pain that followed so it was alright. A bit sheepishly she accepted the praise, before she want to recollect her tool]

Sure! I can do that.

[Moving over into position, she briefly looked over her shoulder at him]

Are you sure you're ok?

[Then she stiffened and remembered to look forward. She wouldn't be good as a lookout if she didn't actually stay alert]
tactlesstantei: (surprise)

Masumi Sera | Blue Guest | OTA

[personal profile] tactlesstantei 2021-01-14 06:49 am (UTC)(link)
1. Patchwork Forest

[It's calm right now, with no immediate threat in sight, but Masumi is still on her guard as she follows the walkway through the Spring sector. After all, what info they got wasn't clear on what exactly the threat was, and given what happened last mission, she's not taking any chances.

So she's on her guard, ready to act should anything happen.]


Wish we could have been told what the threat is...

2. Destruction

[And of course, something happens. When some of the Helpmates malfunction, she's quick to jump in and try to distract them from the livestock or any more vulnerable teammates.

At the moment, she's managed to pull one into coming after her, and is now trying to fight it while avoiding getting hit in return.]


Hey, little help deactivating this thing!
worthallthis: (knocked down)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-14 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Hi," Soldat says, a little faintly. They let her go abruptly, step back from her, and put their face briefly into both hands, flesh and metal. Fold the paper this way, fold it again that way, unfold...

... okay. Okay, they can do this. The electricity is all the way over there, not-- not touching them. "Around. Around is safer. I'm very heavy." Wouldn't want to break her bridge, and they don't know how big to make it, anyway.
worthallthis: (startled)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-14 07:25 am (UTC)(link)
Some things are absolutely the same. Soldat shivers once all over, like a horse trying to shake a fly, and finally step back, jerkily. Can't shut down now, it's not-- it's not safe. But the sound is rattling around in their brain.

Someone's speaking. It takes them a minute to put the voice and accent together to an actual name. "Butter. Buttercup. Okay."

They don't move further yet, though. Give 'em a minute, kiddo.
worthallthis: (punch)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-14 07:28 am (UTC)(link)
"Not very often, no." Soldat kicks one, sends it flying into the assembly line it just came off of, but that only damages it, doesn't stop it. It will keep on coming. That does give them room to spin and punch another straight through the chest with the metal fist, which--

--shorts the arm out, fuck. The flesh arm swings the gun again, giving them some space to swing the metal one in a reset motion to reactivate it. That's going to need some maintenance later.
sciencegirl: (042)

[personal profile] sciencegirl 2021-01-14 07:33 am (UTC)(link)
"I wonder if people pass through here? We could leave them our information. That way if people stop here they can work at a more long-term fix."

Or they can evac the living beings, the ones that depend on the air scrubbers. She would hate to leave work only half-finished, or primed to immediately start the process of breaking down again as soon as they're gone. This is so nice! It can't just be lost.

"How long do missions usually last?"

She watches him haul himself up. She doesn't grab him this time, but she reaches into her rucksack with her hair and offers him a bottle of water from way up on the conduit she's chosen to crawl on.
worthallthis: (frowny face)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-14 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
... yeah that's kind of gross, yikes. Soldat folds that right up to think about later. Or not at all. They have a hard enough time thinking about sex in general, let alone anything like that.

"I'm glad you killed him," they say, maybe a little more flatly. "Nobody should say shit like that about anybody else." Certainly nobody deserves to hear it. (Maybe Pierce. ... maybe.)
sciencegirl: (089)

[personal profile] sciencegirl 2021-01-14 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
"I think we should leave some notes. Maybe the reason we're supposed to fix it is because people are supposed to come here, eventually! I'll make sure I do that!"

She finished with the panel and the Helpmate shuts down, but that's only one of the guys. Off in the distance there's one trying to fix and one trying to break. They're going in circles around each other.

"Ah, jeez," she mutters, "over there!" and points with her hair. Yup, this is going to be a long mission. But she gets to save a bunch of cute holographically generated robots! "Is there usually more information in briefings?"
so_dark_a_road: (among the contending princes)

[personal profile] so_dark_a_road 2021-01-14 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
Curufin chuckled. "Void Plumbers instead of Void Warriors! Say, I ought to make a song of that. Didn't bring my harp, though."

He glanced over at Trunks and nodded. "I certainly appreciate the help."
flatteries: (you gotta pull it together)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-14 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
Look, he's used to fighting zombies, not.. whatever this thing is! Not to mention it's looking so creepy with the way it's glitching into place - and even creepier to someone who has never even been able to imagine anything like it.

Though he is trying to get over it, realising the severity of their situation when it reaches out for Tidus like that. Inigo similarly summons his sword to his hands, swinging it at the Helpmate. Not that he knows if it's going to do much, but how else do you fight something as weird as this?

"Oh, this is just one of the worst things we've had to fight!" Not the hardest, really.

But definitely the creepiest.

Can someone please bring back the bears?
rieper: (watchful.)

[personal profile] rieper 2021-01-14 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
That was convenient.

47 nodded once and watched carefully as she began to use the laser pistol. He wanted to know if his theory was actually correct.

It seemed to him that the energy bolt would be more effective against the hardlight holograms for the disruption of energy rather than a physical blow. Though they did react to the physical attacks it felt like it took a significant amount of force or repeated blows before it made a noticeable effect. While he didn't mind since most of them were fairly small and weak when unarmed, it would be good to know if larger versions appeared somewhere else. Plus, he could conserve his own energy if he grew tired by pulling out his own laser weapons later.
so_dark_a_road: (flickers of light)

[personal profile] so_dark_a_road 2021-01-14 08:20 am (UTC)(link)
"You mean we were inside a giant machine, in that vision? Hmmm. That could be the explanation for the weirdness."

Not everybody has an affinity for machine life. Curufin isn't crazy about some of the more modern machines.

"I wonder about that, too. These Helpmates seem to be everywhere. Maybe the people of this world rely on them to do everything."

He turns his face towards her and grins. "Yes! There are some sandwiches and other goodies squashed under the tool kit. How about you? Did you pack enough food?"
flatteries: (nobody here is perfectly fine)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-14 08:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ Inigo knows what she's thinking before she even says it.

Honestly, he would have known even if she didn't look up like that.. ]


Are you really thinking of climbing it? [ That sounds like something Della would do. ] There's nothing to hold onto though if you want to make your way up there!
rieper: (double o 47.)

[personal profile] rieper 2021-01-14 08:26 am (UTC)(link)
47 didn't quite shrug so much as gave off the impression of giving one with his tone of voice as he replied. "Don't know. Could be."

He was busy swinging away at one of the Helpmates himself. Once he'd cleared a little bit of space he took the time to give a better response.

"Though I doubt it," he said as he glanced towards her. "It doesn't seem enough to warrant our presence. These missions do sometimes start off slow however."

And ended with a giant bang. Or, you know, enemy. So there was time enough for more trouble to come their way. This was just like an appetizer before the main course, probably.
so_dark_a_road: (in the unmeasured night #3)

[personal profile] so_dark_a_road 2021-01-14 08:26 am (UTC)(link)
Curufin chuckles. "True. We never do know enough." Not that he's happy about that, but he does tend to joke about adverse conditions.

He jumps a little when he as well as Kaiba is hit with cold water. "Brrrr! This is the not-so-fun part of being a plumber."

"Yes, it would be good if we could just power through the job and get it done, and then go somewhere and do some more celebrating." He had enjoyed the Winter Faire and wished it had not been over so soon.

He moves to help Kaiba with the pipe section if he needs the help. "You got this? Or do you want an extra pair of hands?"
happyends: (lies in the palm)

[personal profile] happyends 2021-01-14 08:31 am (UTC)(link)
"It means there should be something like farms, or farm animals."

Madoka may not be a genius child. She's far from it. But there are some things she does know, and this is apparently one of them, so she's able to help by explaining!

"I wonder if it means that it'll be a little like the last mission for us? Back when we were dealing with the pandas and armadillos.." The blue team just permanently put on animal herding duty, like the train discovered it's their special talent or something. "In that case it hopefully shouldn't have to be too dangerous.. So you don't have to worry about us, Tidus."
flatteries: (not your flaws)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-14 08:43 am (UTC)(link)
At least Inigo isn't totally unhelpful, even in his startled state. The moment Tidus nudges his arm like that, Inigo does look in the right direction - and he also immediately understands the other's intention, starting to move in the direction of what seems like their only way out. Even if it may end up being just another dead end.

"I don't even understand why these things have to appear everywhere out of nowhere." And that's even aside from the potential danger! It just feels like there's no point to it!

He's still very much holding onto Tidus's arm though. And this time he has more of a reason for it than just being clingy - the last thing Inigo would want in this scenario is for them to be suddenly separated by a wall as well.

"I mean.. Something is wrong here. Right? This isn't just something that happens in other worlds, is it?" Inigo is pretty sure this isn't just his own medieval sensibilities not matching the reality.
irrationally: (i was travelling through the past)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-01-14 08:45 am (UTC)(link)
Running is easier said than done in her current condition, but to be fair to Alice, at least she's trying. Even though her limbs are starting to feel more and more like they're just blocks of ice with each passing moment, she makes a real effort to move them. It's not quite a run - more like a jog, really - but she does try her best to move along with him.

Not that she doesn't have a bit of breath left to grumble as they're trying to move towards shelter.

"It's as if this place is actively trying to kill us.."
flatteries: (not your flaws)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-14 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Quite fascinating?!"

Really, Inigo likes seeing different sides of the man he's come to call his father. It's nice seeing beyond the business-like serious attitude the man sometimes puts up. It's especially nice to see the things that interest him, that amuse him, that make his eyes light up with energy.

.. though he's not so sure about this one.

"I-Is that the kind of thing that passes for fun where you're from? Why would people want to watch something scary running around?" Granted, Inigo's view of it may be muddled slightly by the fact that scary things running around was just a reality for him back home..

He's still following Roland though! Waddling after him like an obedient little duckling. Even as Inigo is having a minor crisis while trying to think about this.