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.
flatteries: (and if you close your eyes)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-13 08:47 am (UTC)(link)
"It's kind of you to look out for everyone like that."

After all, they easily could have made all this and kept it for themselves, especially since missions tend to last more than just two or three days. But it's the small things like these that prove Soldat is still very much like Bucky.

"I'll.. um." There's a pause, a small moment of awkwardness. Inigo is still adjusting to speaking to a familiar face, yet having a - technically - different person behind it, after all. "I'll make sure to enjoy eating it."
worthallthis: (friendly)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-13 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Poor kid. They know the feeling, what with Crowley and Aziraphae on the train, too. And with Crowley willing to try to be friends ("allies"; that's Crowley-speak for friends), the least they can do is try to be friends with Inigo, too.

"Try to stay safe, too," they say. "I can't keep an eye on you. I'm. Going off on red team, since they're so small. And you said they usually wind up with the dangerous missions." So Inigo won't look for them, and all. (And now I feel guilty for it. Don't, buddy, he'll be fine. Purple team's huge. Plenty of people to look out for each other.)
flatteries: (i was left to my own devices)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-14 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah.."

It's just a tiny sound as an initial reaction. And it's hard to say what Inigo feels at it, although the kid sure does seem to feel something, judging by the emotion that suddenly sneaks into his eyes. Is he disappointed that Soldat won't be anywhere near him? Worried about the other? Whatever it is, it does seem to be negative, but is then promptly shoved down by Inigo.

Instead he smiles. Or tries his best to do so, anyway, in that way he's used to doing to cover up everything. He wouldn't want to make them worried about him.

"Well, that's right. I'm sure they can really use your help."

Even though the mission descriptions seem to be all the same and very vague right now, it could still be that red ends up in the more dangerous situation in the end.

"It's too bad the teams are all so far away from each other."
worthallthis: (Default)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-15 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
"It is. And the mission is going to be long." Judging from the map for their routes, and any trouble they run into along the way. Because they're definitely going to run into trouble. That's just how missions go. This is probably not going to be enough food, ugh.

They frown at the bags of trail mix and stack of soup mugs, and then at the SCA around the flesh wrist. "If you worry. There's always these things, I guess. Ain't tried to use them at all yet." Or the ICPs, not for communication.
flatteries: (this was gonna be easy)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-16 10:11 am (UTC)(link)
Inigo can immediately feel the question on the tip of his tongue. Wanting to ask if it's really okay to call them in the middle of the mission. Wouldn't it be a bother? Especially since they don't know each other very well? Of course Inigo immediately overthinks it, starts fretting before he's even said a thing.

But then - thankfully? or unluckily, since Inigo didn't get to ask? - Soldat brings up something else entirely, drawing Inigo's attention to that instead.

"Ah.. Do you feel uncomfortable with them?" He first asks, and only then seems to realise he probably ought to clarify-- "Bucky.. Bucky didn't use them at all at first. Watching heads talking on screens made him think of bad memories, I think he said."
worthallthis: (lookdown-mask)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-16 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Soldat doesn't have any memories of Zola as a talking head on a screen yet, but if they did-- welp, that would definitely be a thing. They pause at the name, manage to suppress the twitch, and answer, "I can listen to them. I just don't want to be on them. Broadcasting across a whole train." They shudder at that. "Last place, only used the text part of the network. And that took a long time to feel safe with, too."
flatteries: (i just started to deserve it)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-17 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm sorry," Inigo says, frowning a bit. It's mostly a sympathetic 'I'm sorry', really. Because while Inigo struggles with the technology on this train, he doesn't think it's ever been a problem of feeling safe with him. But Bucky's-- or well, Soldat's now.. The problems of any version of the person in front of him right now have always felt much more complicated than that.

Much more painful.

"The good thing about the SCAs is that it's much easier to just reach one person. And they don't have moving images, the way the network on the train does." Maybe that might make them feel a bit more comfortable..? Inigo isn't sure. "If you want to reach me at any point, all you have to do is look up my name on the list with names and press it. Then I'm the only one who can hear. Same goes for anyone else you reach like that over the SCAs."
worthallthis: (eyeroll)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-18 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, and it's dumb that we can't use them on the train, but. We work with what we have, I guess." They have tried to work out how it can be that they don't work on the train while they work everywhere else but, well, it's probably magic, and magic has stupid limitations like that, sometimes. It's not like the pseudo-science that keeps them some semblance alive is anything less weird than magic, either.

"Same to you, though," they add. "If you need anything." Not that they can help, exactly. But they're making the suggestion more explicit, since Inigo had blown right by the offer before.
flatteries: (you're in control)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-19 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Inigo may think he's smooth by avoiding the offers of help like that, but apparently not, considering the other mentions it again now. It leaves him a little unsure for a moment.

"I.." His voice trails off, his brain seeking for an excuse before he continues to speak, delivering it. "There's no need to worry about that. I'm always fine." Inigo shakes his head. "I've been through a lot more than what these missions thrown at us, so I never have a hard time."

That last part is definitely a lie - or at least an exaggeration, because even Inigo definitely has hard times. But he's always been better at keeping those to himself than sharing them with anyone, even people who look as familiar as them.
worthallthis: (skeptical)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-20 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Uh-huh." Soldat doesn't trust anybody who says they never have a hard time. But. (Right before a mission is really not the time to get into that kinda things, is it? Yeah, no. But I'm not going to forget it, either.) They've got no desire to upset anyone before they're about to go into action.

So they just offer him a little smile, for now. "I'll try not to worry, then. You sure you got enough rations?" Hefting their bags of trail mixes, soup cups, and such, offering him a final chance to load up.
flatteries: (the rubble or our sins)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-21 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"I wouldn't want to take too much of what you made. There's a lot of other people who could use it too, right?"

And Inigo would never think of himself before other people. To ridiculously bad extents. It's probably not too hard to read into his words, since he's about as unsubtle as a brick wall to the face, even though he's really trying to seem okay.

"A little is fine enough for me." He smiles. "I'm sure it'll get me a long way, so thanks."
worthallthis: (Default)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-22 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm not the only one providing food, anyway," Soldat says, but shrugs and settles the bags back again, over their shoulders. "How long to missions usually last, anyway? I haven't. Really gotten a clear answer on that." In no small part because they haven't asked a whole lot of people, which is on them, not on the rest of the train being unhelpful.
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."
worthallthis: (distance)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-24 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
"Sounds ominous." Easy to imagine, too. Maybe rather like the miasma that surrounds a World Eater. "I'll remember that, thank you," Soldat says with a nod.

Then their eyes rove around the crowd of gathering passengers. "Be careful out there, Inigo. I've got to get more of these passed out."
flatteries: (you keep it inside)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-01-24 09:26 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm always careful," he says with a slight smile.

(That is a total lie, but sshh, clearly they don't have to know, right. Inigo would prefer for no one to have to worry about him, even if he does end up in danger.)

"But good luck handing them out. Let's.. um." He looks a tiny bit shyer, though he's trying to mostly keep the emotion down to not look like a total idiot. "Let's at least talk again after the mission.. If you don't mind."
worthallthis: (smilesad)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-24 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Of course." They look a little surprised at the question. "Any time you like, Inigo." Just because they're not the same Bucky doesn't mean they're going to push the poor kid away, especially when Inigo clearly doesn't want them to. They're not a monster. (No. Okay, not that kind of monster, Asset.)