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

Curufin | Team Orange & OTA in first section

[so_dark_a_road]

Preparation and arrival:

Curufin collects his gear and talks to teammates and anyone else who happens to be near.

"I did receive a vision yesterday morning, though I didn't post it, and it seems no one else did either. I can't make much sense of it, and maybe no one else could either. I seemed to be taking a nap while some nearby machine was whirling its gears and hissing with steam. There must have been other Void Warriors nearby, since I had the feeling that we were managing our work efficiently, but I don't have any picture of exactly what we were doing. There was a sense of the color green all around me. And then bubbles began to rise through it, as though it were water, and I experienced a sudden discomfort."

He shrugs. "No idea what any of that meant. It was more cryptic than these visions usually are."

The train descends into the large white holding bay, and Curufin disembarks and looks around. The instructions said that Team Orange was to go through the Winter door, so he and the rest of the team take that route. He checks his SCA for directions and a map.


Exploring, and also defending against the Helpmates:

The designated path winds through masses of machinery, air scrubbers, water tanks, and large pipes running everywhere. Some of the pipes have been damaged and have flooded some parts of the path, and Curufin wades or occasionally swims. He finds the panels that contain the patch kits and he and his teammates collect the kits.

Unfortunately, they have to fight some of the Helpmates. Though these things are holograms, they seem to have physical existence and are therefore dangerous when they decide that Orange Team is there to interfere with their work. Curufin fights a number of them and also runs to help others defend themselves against the unhelpful Helpmates.

"Haul your hologramic asses out of here and let me do my job!" he yells, wielding his sword.


Fixing the pipes:

"Never thought I'd be a plumber!" Curufin jokes, while wrenching the pipes, removing sections of them and patching the holes or replacing the sections. Bang, bang, bang, scrape, scrunch, squeak, twist, clatter! Oh, the cheerful metallic music of maintenance and repair work!

exploring

[blue_ice]

"This is ridiculous," grumbles Kaiba as usual. He's right in the middle of the muck with Curufin, wading over to the next panel. He has his toolkit strapped to his back, an old rag wrapped around his neck for drying his hands...and he's shivering a little, but it's nothing he can't take.

"How're you holding up?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin is similarly equipped, his tool kit in his rucksack and a ragged old towel tied around his waist for when he has to dry off. He's wearing a couple of extra layers of clothing, but it isn't quite enough. Oh well.

"I'm holding up fine. I just wish I knew more about this mission than I do. And yourself?"

[blue_ice]

"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."

[so_dark_a_road]

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?"

[blue_ice]

"...I could use the hands," he mutters, still shivering. He makes room for Curufin beside him, holding steady while he starts to move the heavier piece into place.

"I think I'm camping at the spa when I get back," he snorts. "At least I'm keeping up with my heavy lifting."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin reaches out and takes part of the weight of the pipe section. It is rather heavy. They walk it slowly and then set it carefully into its place.

"If only the train would find us a nice spa planet! That would be helpful. But our Spa Carriage would do as well, for now. I'd love to jump into the heated pool and bask for an hour."

He chuckles. "True, at least we're getting something like a gym workout, working with all these pipes."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba snorts and shakes his head. "The last time it did that, I ended up with an emotional bond. It wasn't the worst outcome, but it could get worse..."

All right, it's fixed enough. He sighs and leans on it for a moment before trudging toward the next mark on the map...out of the water, ready to freeze in the chilled air. He stubbornly grits his teeth and keeps walking.

"One more in this sector, I think...? Not that I'm thinking well at the moment."

[so_dark_a_road]

"The hot tub gave you an emotional bond with someone? Hmm. Strange. But I suppose it could get worse." For instance, a person could end up with a physical intimacy that wasn't expected or necessarily desirable.

Yes, the pipe section is fixed. Curufin stands up and follows. It's true the air is chilly and their clothes are wet. Curufin ignores his own physical discomfort.

"One more, unless we've misread the directions. Or unless some other pipe springs a leak while we're walking."

They arrive at the next repair site. "Another one just like the other one. Okay, let's see what we can do!"

Preparation

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita looks quite bemused.

"I think we had the same dream. Though, it might not have been Void Warriors... maybe one of those overseers we're supposed to visit?"

She shifts her stance, changing the angle at which her pack rests across her back.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin smiles at Nita. "Not surprising, I guess, if we had the same dream. You think there might have been people in the scene other than us? I wonder who these overseers are, that we're supposed to visit? And where are we going to find them?"

He shoves his tool kit into his rucksack and then looks around for anything else he ought to take along.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"It felt more like it was a machine, honestly."

While it was probably for the best the Callahan siblings had different specialties, sometimes Nita wished she had more of an affinity for machine life.

"So I'm wondering just how much of the work going into this biosphere is automated..."

She looks up and over Curufin's shoulder.

"Got your rations and everything under all those tools?"

It's both a teasing comment and a genuine concern.

[so_dark_a_road]

"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?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

"It is a new world - an artificial world, at that. Who knows how much 'manpower' they'd otherwise have to spare?"

Not that it sounded all fair, but it at least followed a logic.

Nita nods. "Right enough. Not all the same sort of stuff Senku's packing, but I brought non-perishables enough for a week, and water."

All that with no Arms Band!

[so_dark_a_road]

"I'm not enthused about the artificiality of the place," he admitted. "I can live with technology and even work with it, but I'm an Elf. I love the natural world, and it worries me when the technological world takes over to such a degree."

He nods, too. "I didn't look to see what Senku is packing. But I agree, it's a good idea to bring a lot of nonperishables. We can always cook. And water! Never can tell what's in the water on planets of this sort, and I'd rather trust the train's filtered water."

Nita's a strong and capable sort of person, so she can manage a lot of supplies with no Arms Band.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"I just wish I knew how much work went into scoping this star system out..."

The idea of something being trapped in that Dyson sphere was horrifying - or if the planners had picked the wrong star outright, the destruction could be catastropic!

That said, she still manages a small smile.

"I think the train would be happy to hear that. Not many do trust it, and all."

[so_dark_a_road]

"And since we don't know how the train scopes planets out, we don't know how much effort it put into the process."

No telling what was the real situation, with the Dyson sphere or the other situation, a right or wrong star chosen.

He smiles back.

"I trust the train for some things. My experiences have been positive, for the most part. I even told it so, recently. I apologized to it for my anger when it hauled us out of that world that got eaten by the shadow beings. Now that I know a little more of the Voidtrecker's history, I can see why it did that. I also let the train know that I'm grateful that it picked me up when I was hitchhiking through the Void in spirit form."

Fixing the pipes

[light_of_willpower]

"I don't think any of us expected it, honestly." Trunks agreed, moving to help with the wrenching of pipes and removal of sections of them. Right then he was acting as support for Curufin, and spotter also in case a malfunctioning Helpmate or two showed up.

[so_dark_a_road]

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."

[light_of_willpower]

"I mean, I'm not unskilled in helping patch things and basic tech maintenance. Mom's lab was my first playground of sorts, after all." Trunks grinned. "I'm mostly here as back up, and to add another fighter to the group, since Purple has an overabundance."

[so_dark_a_road]

"I agree, you're obviously skilled in this sort of work. I think you've mentioned before that your mom had a lab. Nice to grow up learning useful skills! My mom's lab was a sculptor's studio and my dad's lab was a forge shack. But even in that old Elvish world, I learned a few things that are useful in these modern worlds."

He smiled back. "Purple team does have a lot of warriors, and I'm glad you've come to help Orange Team. We have a few, including me, but we're mostly skilled in some sort of technology or have other skills. And you never know what you'll encounter on these missions, so it's good to have backup. Thanks!"

[light_of_willpower]

"I mean, it's at least slightly selfish--Mom's team orange. I definitely wanted to keep an eye on her, even though she can somewhat take care of herself. She's not a fighter the way Father or I are, but well...if you meet her, you'll understand. She's probably the most stubborn woman on our planet at home."

[so_dark_a_road]

"I can certainly understand that -- your wanting to keep an eye on your mom. You care about her and want her to stay safe, and you have the fighting skills to make that happen." Curufin smiles. "I may already have met her. What's her name? Also, being stubborn is a great survival skill. Good for her!"

[light_of_willpower]

"I think if you've met her, you'd know it, but her name is Bulma Briefs." Trunks said with a grin while they work. "She out-stubborned my Father, which is pretty impressive all on its own." A beat. "You'll understand when you meet him. He's on red team."

[so_dark_a_road]

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?"