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.
magicurls: (weight of the world)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-01-14 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
Good, she likes what she sees. Mami summons more and strategically drops them in easy reach, firing her own weapons with careful precision.

"A whole swarm...mm. Our surprises are never good ones."
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.
magicurls: (Default)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-01-15 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
Mami notices this and worries---okay, she can come in swinging with a spare rifle. She doesn't seem to be too bothered by any strikes, oddly---fast healing.

"Don't worry, I'll cover!"

She summons a small wall of yellow ribbons---sturdy but not steel, and that pushes the bots back enough to give them some space to regroup.

"It'll only take a few moments." She's peeking around to blast them---oh boy, but they're coming a little fast. More ribbons pile on.
worthallthis: (ruthless)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-15 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
This kid sure can pull shit out of thin air, can't she. Thankfully, Soldat is kind of used to that from a couple people in Beacon, and the guns were a good lead-in. They get their reset swing for the arm in, and it reboots sluggishly and does a calibration loop, plates rippling. The shirtsleeve at the bottom is shredded, but it's not like a metal arm needs multiple layers of fabric protection.

"Might need to retreat," Soldat suggests, leveling the current rifle and taking another hologram out with a chest shot through a hole in the ribbons. "Find a panel. Deactivate them."
magicurls: (wrapping up)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-01-16 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
Mami nods and grabs one with a swing of her ribbon, knocking it into the others so she can do a group blast. That buys them time to run.

"All right, panel...probably further back..."

She looks back the way she came and spots a telltale flat shape. "Okay, looks...a little complex, but hopefully there's something intuitive here."
worthallthis: (rifle)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-16 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
"All else fails. I'll give it a good punch." They can short that out, instead of shorting out their own goddamn arm. They're sort of joking. Sort of. They back up, grabbing another of the rifles and keeping it trained on the hostile holograms, covering Mami. "Get the panel open, yeah? I'll have a look."

Soldat's pretty sure they know a little more about circuitry than Mami, but... maybe not that much more. They can repair their own arm, but not do anything really more complex than that.
magicurls: (weight of the world)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-01-17 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
Mami knows at least enough to pry it open. She's careful lifting away the cover, squinting at the circuitry. At least she might learn something?

"Here. That's clearly an error message...it's beeping pretty fast."
worthallthis: (planning-sarge)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-17 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
They fire again, another center-mass shot, knocking the nearest back. It lands on its back and flails uselessly there, so even if it's not destroyed, at least it's not going to get at them any time soon.

"All right, let me see. Cover me?" They turn to examine the panel. They wish they had a proper toolkit, but they can at least follow the circuitry, the damaged switches, and the breakers.
magicurls: (Default)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-01-21 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
"Sure!"

Mami materializes a few more rifles. A few malfunctioning bots get close, but she's swift at picking them off.

"How does it look?"
worthallthis: (hand)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2021-01-21 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Thankfully, Soldat's seen someone fix this, and memorized the configuration. Hopefully they can make it work without a sautering kit. "Think I know what to do. Give me just a minute, here."

They pop a couple wires out of their current configuration, which gets the attention of the helpmates, but then quickly twists them together again. They spark, but thankfully he's using the metal hand, so nothing gets burned-- just a little blackening of their fingers.

The holograms jitter, flickering in and out, and then turn away, back to work.