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

[knifewithnoname]

She could be dangerous, when she was told to be. But right now she wasn't trying to be, she was trying to be calming and she kept her breathing light as she led them away from the crackling of electricity.

While they caught his breath, recovering themself she kept watch, stood at the corner, gun in hand looking for any threats.

"You do no be needing to be apologising." She wrinkled her nose. No stupid Helpmates at least.

"You can be taking your time, we do be being clear here."

[worthallthis]

"Thanks." They do take their time, sliding down to sit on the floor against the wall, scrubbing at their face before pulling out their small stash of origami paper and, very slowly and meticulously, start folding.

It helps. So after a couple folds, they can say, "Didn't expect electricity. Should. Not do that again, now, at least." Being braced for it meant a much smaller likelihood of freaking out and freezing.

[knifewithnoname]

She keeps her eyes out, stood still and silent, aware of them behind her. She is truthful that they can take their time, she is used to this. Peter goes leaky eyed all the time and though Soldat eyes aren't leaking it is similar.

"I will be staying with you." She told them. "If we do be finding any more electricity we will be going another way."

She glances at them, not sure what they are doing with the paper, but it seems to be helping them at least, they are getting calmer.

[worthallthis]

They've done more than their fair share of crying, don't worry about that, Buttercup. For now, though, they're just getting back to equilibrium. Nothing to cry about, just maybe be vaguely embarrassed about.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Even without me freaking out. Electricity like that's no joke." They keep folding. It's hard to tell what it is until it's done, at which point Soldat offers her a little paper bird. "Here. For you. Don't have to keep it, but. If you want to."

[knifewithnoname]

Electricity was no joke it was true. It was useful though, even though it was dangerous. Like most things. It was something new, something she only knew since arriving on the train.

She glances over at them when they hold out the bird and reaches out with the hand not holding the gun to take it with a small tilt of her head.

"I do be thanking you." A paper bird? That was what they had been making? "I will be keeping it." She promised with a small smile.

[worthallthis]

"You're very welcome," Soldat says, and settles back against the wall for a moment. "That's how I calm down from things. Learned it in my last place, before here. But after where I originally came from."

[knifewithnoname]

"You did be somewhere before here that did no be being where you did be starting?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him, tilting her head with a nose wrinkle.

[worthallthis]

"Place called Beacon. A small town in a dead world. Got pulled there by a portal. It's where I got this." They tap the lantern on its strap over their flesh shoulder, the two little charms dangling from it tinkling against the closed metal shutters keeping the light in. "There was no light except for these. And the stars."

[knifewithnoname]

In a dead world? She wrinkled her nose as she looked over at the lantern on their shoulder.

"So no sun or anything?" That sounded strange, a place of only darkness. "But you did be surviving? Even though everything did be being dead?"

[worthallthis]

"Well. Technically I'm dead, so I was just like everything else there," Soldat says, shaking their head a little, rolling it against the wall behind them. "Only the dead can live on a dead world."

[knifewithnoname]

"Oh." She wrinkled her nose, "There do be being lots of dead people on the train. I do no be knowing why."

But only the dead could live on a dead world... "So that world did be stealing your soul after you did be dying?"

She tries not to sound as horrified as she feels about that.

[worthallthis]

"Life force, technically. Don't know about souls. Gave me a nice new body and a lantern to see by and told me. And everybody else there. To fix the world." Soldat still hasn't told anyone about the purpose of the lantern. It just doesn't feel safe, yet. Maybe after the mission, when nobody turned on anybody else.... "Or at least to stop the things that killed it before they made more worlds dead."

[knifewithnoname]

"That do be being a big task." Just fix the world. That sounded an impossibility for a few people with lanterns.

"They did be being monsters? That did be making worlds dead." She wrinkled her nose. "Did they be looking like black shapes in the sky?"

Would they even be see black shapes in the sky, in a world of darkness?

[worthallthis]

"Monsters, yes. In the sky, no. They walked. Plodded, really." Someday they're going to see the Star Wars movie and be a little freaked out by the AT-ATs. Even though AT-ATs don't have dark halos and trailing streamers of shadow. "They were huge. Could travel between the stars. Had a kind of aura around them that turned spirits against us, turned us against each other sometimes. Made us sick."

[knifewithnoname]

"Oh." Another type of world destroying monster. She's pretty sure that is more worrying, that there are more than one type of world destroying monster out there.

"They did be making you be fighting each other?"

Made them sick, turned spirits against them. All of that sounded so stupid.

[worthallthis]

"It tried. Made us see things that weren't there. Confused us. Mostly it didn't work as well as it wanted, though," Soldat says. "I didn't take part in the first fight. I was. Support." (Hey, and they fucking needed that support, pal. I know. Still feels cowardly.) "The second we just had to distract it. Long enough for a bomb to blow it up."

This is not necessarily reassuring talk, but it's getting them to think of things that aren't electricity. So they're actually getting back down to baseline the rest of the way, even with this kind of subject matter. "Did you have world-ending monsters that flew? On your world?"

[knifewithnoname]

She didn't like the idea of that, seeing things that weren't there. Confusing people. But she nodded, listening as they explained about being support, being a distraction so a bomb could blow up the monster.

She shook her head. "No on my world. But we did be going to a world on the train and we did be evacuating a city and then there did be being shapes in the sky, we did all be being pulled back to the train all at once, we do be thinking that world did be being eaten."

[worthallthis]

Believe them, Buttercup, there is nothing at all to like about all that. It was the most terrifying thing they'd ever experienced, and for Soldat, that's really saying something.

"Oh. Oh, yeah, somebody mentioned that to me before. Dark clouds, they said." If they were actually flying monsters... that's kind of horrifying. Soldat's seen some pretty creepy things, but most of them didn't fly. ( ... I want my goddamn rifle. Ugh. Me too, pal. Yes.)

They shake their head, and start to pick up their rucksack again. "Should get going. Think I'm steady enough, now. Thank you, Buttercup."

[knifewithnoname]

"You do be being welcome." She nodded at them. "We can be continuing, hopefully nothing else stupid will be happening."

And if it did, well they had her to protect them.