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.
subcircuits: (i see you)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-23 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Such wisdom from one so young. "No," he says quietly. "All anyone can do is move forward, right?

"I would never," he assures her. It's in line with what they've both just said, really: pity focuses on the past, on lamenting over what's done and can't be changed. Pity inhibits progress. No, Devero won't pity her, not this eleven year old girl who's trying to offer him comfort.

He sits back on his heels and lets his hands drop. "I'm Devero, he/him," he says. "I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name before we moved out." There had been introductions of a haphazard, rushed sort while they were still in the great white holding bay, but, uh, Dev's kind of bad at names.
pleple: (Skeletons)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-23 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
Ple Two's had some good influences here - and a need to learn that wisdom to keep from drowning in despair as well. She needs to look to the future, not the weapon she was made to be, even if she doesn't yet know what she wants to become.

"Ple Two. Um... she... her." She's hardly used to introducing herself with pronouns, but it only takes a moment to gauge his intentions there. "...judging by the use of a number in my name, perhaps you can guess what my 'master' thought of me."
pleple: (Turning us into fire)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-23 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
Ple Two had managed to figure that one out, and even laughed briefly as she went for it.
namethattune: (Lost in my train of thoughts)

[personal profile] namethattune 2021-01-23 05:33 am (UTC)(link)
Siebren keeps an eye on the floating helpmates. They don't seem terribly aggressive to him - mostly befuddled. Then again, a sudden shift in one's gravity will do that to a person.

"Siebren de Kuiper," he says in reply. "A pleasure, though I think we would have both preferred better circumstances." A beat - he needs to ask. "This batch do not seem particularly hostile - do you know why they were attacking you?"
crimson_rain: shipping @ dw (Default)

[personal profile] crimson_rain 2021-01-23 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
Hua Cheng reads the SCA on his wrist but he isn't quite used to reading this sort of technology yet so he requires more practice.

"Let's take another path." He isn't in a hurry as he's more into exploring the sector, so he follows in the other direction on the path when the wall blocks their way.

He walks further down until he makes a mistake and he finds himself trapped within a dead-end and he has to wait until the next change when it shifts.

"Guess I'm trapped."
so_dark_a_road: (green army jacket)

[personal profile] so_dark_a_road 2021-01-23 07:15 am (UTC)(link)
The idea of talking to the train might make a person feel anxious, so no wonder Nita is rubbing her head.

"What did you talk to the train about, and did it respond? Did you actually have a conversation?"
so_dark_a_road: (in the unmeasured night #3)

[personal profile] so_dark_a_road 2021-01-23 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
Curufin grinned back. "I guess I haven't talked to her. Shame on me, since she's Orange Team! I'll make a point of meeting her in the near future, though."

He grabbed a wrench and started to work with it.

"I admire a stubborn person, as I was saying. Many people think that's a negative trait, but I think it's a positive one. What's your dad's name?"
crimson_rain: shipping @ dw (01)

[personal profile] crimson_rain 2021-01-23 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
"Mm, this world has life. There are the trees and animals. Just no humans yet. I think that's what they're building the houses for. Imagine that gege, building a world for that purpose."

He realizes he's rambling, so he turns to him, looking into his eyes and smiles softly. "I feel we're lucky that we help together." He gently kisses him on the cheek.

"Gege if you're tired, I already set up the tent where you can sleep."
light_of_willpower: (long hair profile talking)

[personal profile] light_of_willpower 2021-01-23 07:34 am (UTC)(link)
"You'll likely know him if you meet him too." Trunks's tone was relatively sarcasm free. "His name's Vegeta. Look for the grumpy and stand-offish, arrogant man with black spikey hair and widow's peak."
worthallthis: (frowny face)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-23 07:37 am (UTC)(link)
"What other things have happened?" It seems prudent to know these sorts of things, and it's something to talk about while Soldat's eyes rove around, looking for potential threats. With no helpmates around to turn on them unexpectedly, it's mostly signs of the environmental changes, now.
strawberryprotector: (smile)

Re: Prep

[personal profile] strawberryprotector 2021-01-23 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
"You'll want to have a backpack with food and water, there's no one living here yet for us to ask for anything from." Reaching for the food rations, Ichigo grabbed something that was wrapped in butcher's paper. "This is a special bread, eating just a little will make you feel like you've had a full meal. It makes it easier to have lots of food. One bundle should get you through several days."
worthallthis: (Default)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-23 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Place called Beacon. A small town in a dead world. Got pulled there by a portal. It's where I got this." They tap the lantern on its strap over their flesh shoulder, the two little charms dangling from it tinkling against the closed metal shutters keeping the light in. "There was no light except for these. And the stars."
flatteries: (and the literature on how to lose)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-23 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, let's go look. Hopefully he's not too far off.." It hasn't been that long since they saw Taiki last, right? Though there's no telling how much further they've wandered off with the way everything shifts behind you the moment you walk a bit further away.

Although, now Inigo is considering that, he can't help but worry a little, casting a sidelong glance at Tidus.

".. he should be alright, right?"

Those Helpmates aren't too bad, and hopefully Taiki could just change into his kirin form and fly away if they really bothered them. But their friend is still a precious flower, and Inigo doesn't want him to get hurt or even just inconvenienced!
flatteries: (from the scrapes and bruises)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-23 08:01 am (UTC)(link)
At least Inigo doesn't mind helping out with these things at all. If anything, if Soldat has questions, he'd rather have them come to him with said questions rather than keep them to himself and be uncertain about it.

"Usually about a week or so." It varies slightly, but it's always in that ballpark.

The boy seems to hesitate for a moment after that. Like he feels there's some more information he ought to provide here, but feeling worried if it may not just make them paranoid..

But better safe than sorry, right?

"One time it was cut short. We ended up only being in that world for a few hours until this sudden.." His voice trails off, but this time it's just since Inigo is entirely unsure of how to even describe it. "It was like a big cloud.. a mass of black shadows started approaching us. The train pulled us all back onto it before we could do anything."

He shakes his head. "It hasn't happened again since, but I figured it's good to know, just in case it may appear again. The train seems really afraid of it."
ayao: (death)

[personal profile] ayao 2021-01-23 08:01 am (UTC)(link)
"I am condemned whether I have done them or not. I must see your pain and his and instead of having the power to sooth it, I only seem to make it worse." Meng Yao drops his gaze, feeling unworthy of even looking at the beautiful man before him, "I want to be a good man - in your eyes and in Huaisang's. There's this hunger in me for it."

For acceptance, really. Any acceptance. He is tired of being thrown away.
azrthmtrnznthos: (on the comms)

[personal profile] azrthmtrnznthos 2021-01-23 08:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Also loud and clear. Now let's see if this works." Raven focused then on trying to see over the walls.
ayao: (dimples)

[personal profile] ayao 2021-01-23 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
"I will do all I can for you." he promises, bowing to Senku, "I wouldn't mind drawing you a hot bath when we return to the train, either. You were brave and kind to act as a shield."
so_dark_a_road: (the softer side of armageddon)

[personal profile] so_dark_a_road 2021-01-23 08:22 am (UTC)(link)
Curufin chuckled. "All right, I'll look for a man called Vegeta, grumpy, stand-offish, arrogant, with black spikey hair and a widow's peak. What did he do for a living in your world? What kinds of things did he care about?"
azrthmtrnznthos: (....really?)

Re: malfunctions

[personal profile] azrthmtrnznthos 2021-01-23 08:27 am (UTC)(link)
"Do you want me to drop it and just let you keep smashing?" Raven asked, noticing that Della was not at all unhappy at bashing it.
azrthmtrnznthos: (cowl--fond-looking-down)

[personal profile] azrthmtrnznthos 2021-01-23 08:31 am (UTC)(link)
Raven couldn't help it, she chuckled softly. Just briefly. "I'm surprised you didn't think of it yourself, since you can fly too, Danny."
happyends: (better than the rest)

[personal profile] happyends 2021-01-23 08:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe.." She echoes back, still staring at the panel for a moment. She supposes she can see the convenience of it when he puts it that way, but it's still hard for people who don't know where they are.

After staring for that moment, the girl finally turns to properly look at WangJi again.

"Are you okay? I know you were handling it pretty well, but.. um, it's still startling how quickly those Helpmates can change all of a sudden.."
happyends: (better than the rest)

[personal profile] happyends 2021-01-23 08:43 am (UTC)(link)
If Madoka's brain didn't immediately kick into overdrive at that last question - as eager to help as always - she would have stood there in awe of just how big his steps are when he takes them like that. Especially compared to Madoka's tiny fourteen year old girl legs.

But for now she's much too busy considering those last two words, not wanting to say anything dumb, but also not wanting to not help out at all--

"Um.." Her hands fidget a little, obviously nervous over what she's about to say. "I think we need to show them that they can trust us.. They don't seem afraid of the Helpmates, and those feed them, so maybe we should try to feed them too..?"
paopuofyourlife: (kh2-07-02a)

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2021-01-23 09:45 am (UTC)(link)
[Kairi herself used her Thunder spell on the two on the left, sending lightning bolts down upon them. It at least seemed to do the trick as she let out a little sigh.]

I think that's all of them for now, but we should stay alert.
paopuofyourlife: (14)

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2021-01-23 09:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Exactly, though I've never actually worked as apart of a team before, so it will be an interesting one." She was going to soon be until she ended up here of course. Now she gets to find out in a different way.
paopuofyourlife: (NewCanvas6)

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2021-01-23 09:53 am (UTC)(link)
"If you think it will be a good idea, then yes." Better than going it alone anyway.

"But we will keep walking and hope for the best." all said with such determination as she looked around. "So tell me, what do you think of the mission so far?"