Fierce New World- Mission Start!

[voidtreckermods]

"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.

Comments

Ichigo | Purple

[strawberryprotector]

Preparation: In the luggage car, Ichigo packed a bag with food and bottles of water. He was planning to stick with purple as much as possible, and that meant going to the least complete section of the biome. He made sure his white armband was visible, making sure everyone would be able to see it as a visible difference from his soul reaper clothing.

Exploring/Turned around: The streets looked like they would be very pleasant, if they would stay in place. There were spots that looked like they would be for yards, rings for trees to be planted in, the works. Sighing as he found himself facing yet another dead end, Ichigo just jumped to the top of the wall to see where the street had moved to. "At least the buildings are still short."

Malfunctions: There was a small swarm of helpmates around Ichigo, and no panels in sight. He didn't particularly want to hurt his hands, so he drew his long blade and swung it in a wide arc. "I feel bad for whoever's gonna have to fix these, but I'm not about to get my ass kicked by a bunch of well intentioned robots."

Malfunctions

[kingcat]

After the last mission, Grimmjow had the sense to pack a bag with some food in it for this trip, though his choices had been... questionable. And he'd grabbed an orange bag, rather than a red one, which hung from his back.

He grinned as he drew Pantera, dragging his claws down the blade and releasing his Resurreccion. "Grind, Pantera!" And then he laughed, launching himself at a robot and shredding the thing into a pile of spare parts. Ichigo might have sympathy for whoever was doing repairs, but Grimmjow did not. "If they wanted 'em to last, they shoulda built 'em better!"

Re: Malfunctions

[strawberryprotector]

Ichigo had to focus so he didn't just get distracted watching Grimmjow. The man moved like a tornado, and it was stunning to watch when he wasn't on the receiving end of those claws.

Another swing of Zangetsu took out another wave of helpmates, leaving the robots twitching in a pile.

[kingcat]

While Grimmjow enjoyed fighting, the helpmates weren't exactly much of a challenge. So he stopped for a moment, letting them swarm him, before tossing off a whole wave with a small (relatively speaking -- it didn't destroy any buildings, at least) cero.

He looked to Ichigo with a sigh. "Don't they have any bigger ones? I ain't even breakin' a sweat."

[strawberryprotector]

"Not that I can see. It's pretty boring to kick these things around." And if it wasn't for the fact that he'd feel guilty for wrecking things, and endangering everyone else on the purple team, he'd challenge Grimmjow to a fight.

[kingcat]

Grimmjow sighed heavily, absently kicking one of the little robots away. "I need somethin' to dig my claws into," he griped, crushing a broken helpmate's head under his foot.

[strawberryprotector]

Looking around, Ichigo started to smirk slowly. "You know...there's not a lot of people around. And the robots are fucking things up already. We could spar here. I mean, unless I get moved because someone needs medical care, I've got nowhere to be."

[kingcat]

He grinned, almost ferally, and pointed his blade at Ichigo. "You're on!" And he'd better be ready, because Grimmjow wasn't giving him a single second longer to get ready, releasing Pantera and pouncing.

[strawberryprotector]

Ichigo drew both halves of Zangetsu, flashing a feral grin as he charged to meet Grimmjow half way. It had been forever since he'd been able to really let loose, and he wasn't going to hold back now.

Prep

[paopuofyourlife]

Kairi was quiet. Trying to figure out what she actually needed to take with her. She had noticed others were taking stuff, but she hadn't been sure what it was they were taking.

So what better way than to ask.

"Excuse me. Can you tell me what I should be taking?"

Re: Prep

[strawberryprotector]

The voice had Ichigo turning around and looking at the girl with a smile. "Well, for starters you'll want to take plenty of food and water. What team are you planning to go with for this mission? Since the areas sound pretty different, what you need will change."

Re: Prep

[paopuofyourlife]

"I believe my own team which is purple... I figured to start it's best to stick with what you've been assigned." Mostly so she could get use to how things are done and so on.

Re: Prep

[strawberryprotector]

"Ah, you're on the same team I am, then." Ichigo's smile notched a little wider. "The weather should be good where we are, but the structures are pretty bare. Bringing your hoodie might be a good idea, and make sure you keep your SCA on."

Re: Prep

[paopuofyourlife]

"That's right. I may have some orange clothing, but that was because I traded some of mine with someone from Orange team." Thankfully not all of them, so she did have some purple stuff.

"So hoodie and SCA, I have both with me currently."

Re: Prep

[strawberryprotector]

"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."

Re: Prep

[paopuofyourlife]

"Food, water. That seems simple enough at least" Since they seem to be gone for a few days, it made sense as she made sure to pick up a couple and put it in the backpack before putting it back on her back.

"So that's all right? I managed to pack enough anyway"

Re: Prep

[strawberryprotector]

Ichigo checked his SCA for a review of the area team purple was going to. "Well, it says that some of the dwellings have some furnishing, so there should be beds or at least soft surfaces for night time. But you can grab a blanket if you get cold easily."

Exploring

[melodiouspacifist]

Demyx let out a surprised yelp when someone came jumping over the wall, which to a keen observer, they might notice that caused a bit of water to materialize around him for a moment and then splash to the ground in a collection of a few droplets.

"That's, you, you can't just go surprising a guy like that!"

Re: Exploring

[strawberryprotector]

Looking down at the voice, Ichigo laughed sheepishly. "Whoops, sorry about that. The wall appeared out of nowhere, and I wanted to see what's on your side of it."

[melodiouspacifist]

"Ohhh, yeah, sure, makes sense." Demyx chuckled lightly and shrugged. It was fine, no harm done.

"What's on the other side?"

[strawberryprotector]

"Empty, half finished residential buildings with tiny ass yards." Shrugging, Ichigo stepped forward from the wall, suspended in the air for a moment before letting himself fall to ground level. "And some broken bots because I couldn't find the control panel before I had to break them all."

[melodiouspacifist]

"Maaaaaan." Demyx complained. "Here I was hoping for something interesting. This place is so boring!"

Sure, there was the odd helpmate, but what did that really do to keep things interesting? Not much, in his opinion.

[strawberryprotector]

Ichigo had to laugh at that. "Dude, it could be worse. We could be underground fighting things that can only be hurt by light." Which had sucked spectacularly.

[melodiouspacifist]

"Things that can only be hurt by light? How does that even work?"

That would be a new one. He'd seen a lot of creatures and shadows, but none were like that.

[strawberryprotector]

"I have no idea. I just know they were a pain in the ass to fight when you can't manipulate light."