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.
melodiouspacifist: (Dance Water Dance!)

[personal profile] melodiouspacifist 2021-01-15 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Promises, promises, they'd have to see how things shook out in the end. Demyx knew the risks just by knowing people with elemental magic in the first place, he wasn't terribly worried. He'd also, probably, survive.

"No problem." He smirked, taking his offensive position which involved bending one knee slightly to balance his sitar with what looked like ease as he played a melody.

A series of water balls appeared in front of them, much faster than he could do without his sitar, it was clearly a conduit of some kind, and with one, solid, loud note, those water balls each splashed into one of the oncoming helpmates.
theturksway: (108.)

[personal profile] theturksway 2021-01-24 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Score! The things were drenched in Demyx's water and Reno dashed towards them with a spark in hand. He brought his baton down on the first one in range and blue electricity arced eagerly towards his hapless enemy. It spread between the three targets and zapped all of them ruthlessly.

They each disappeared from the brutal attack. Reno grinned at his handy work.

"Not bad, blondie." He called back over his shoulder at Demyx. "They don't really stand a chance, yo."
melodiouspacifist: (Default)

[personal profile] melodiouspacifist 2021-01-25 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Demyx was a little delighted that worked out. "Well, water and electricity tend to go well together." He chuckled. He wouldn't know, Larxene wouldn't give him the time of day.

"Ready for another wave?"

Yes, Reno, pun intended.
theturksway: (123.)

[personal profile] theturksway 2021-01-26 06:49 am (UTC)(link)
Reno wasn't going to disagree. If what you wanted was to fry someone quickly then water tended to be his best friend for getting the job done. There was a reason why it was used in tandem with electrocution torture. And "accidental" murder.

Not that Reno was familiar with such things.... (Oh, he was well familiar with such things.)

The redhead groaned as he rolled his eyes at the pun. Despite the display, he was ready. He took a position next to Demyx as if they were good friends and partners for this sort of work, and waited for the next round of bots to get drenched for his electricity to wreck.

"Let 'em have it."
melodiouspacifist: (Dance Water Dance!)

[personal profile] melodiouspacifist 2021-01-26 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
The kind of torment that Demyx could dish out if he were so inclined wasn't very nice either, but whether or not one could call that murder was a matter of opinion.

He wasn't naturally inclined to do those things, and in fact, leaned on the lighter powers in his arsenal for the most part. Unless, you know, one had orders to do terrible things. At present, he had none.

So he was free to do as he liked and what he wanted to do was come up with wicked combos with Reno. He smirked and focused on the music, this time it's something closer to a tidal wave, the water reaching its crest and tumbling over to soak the nearby approaching helpmates.

Reno didn't need to worry too much, Demyx would keep the pair of them dry.
theturksway: (119.)

[personal profile] theturksway 2021-01-28 06:26 am (UTC)(link)
Dry was good, even if Reno's own electricity (usually) didn't harm him. Being wet outside of bathing or leisure swimming wasn't really his thing though. So dry was very good.

The tidal wave was met with a grin from the redhead--and an electrical attack that took the form of three lightning balls that shot out from his baton towards the drenched Helpmates.

He could stand here and do this all day.
melodiouspacifist: (Aw We Do Too Have Hearts)

[personal profile] melodiouspacifist 2021-01-28 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
They might have to, at the rate they seemed to be attracting the things and he switched it up again just to drop a pile of water on them this time.

"I can't help but think they're not that challenging an enemy." Demyx commented with a little smirk.

"Is this, I don't know, it for this mission? 'Cause it's kinda...boring."
theturksway: (093.)

[personal profile] theturksway 2021-01-29 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Demyx was right. Reno probably didn't even need to electrocute them after Demyx's water attacks to take them out, as weak as they were, but he still did so anyway. Wasn't fun if he didn't participate.

"Who knows! Hope not. Waste of our time if so." He shook his head. "There's gotta be something more pressing than this, yo."
melodiouspacifist: (Default)

[personal profile] melodiouspacifist 2021-01-29 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, that's what I thought when they said things about this whole mission thing." Demyx answered.

He found himself looking for more, just for something, anything to do.

No such luck. "Guess we'd better get going to find something more interesting to do."

Like it had appeared with magic before, Demyx vanished Arpeggio into a small splash of water.