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.
pleple: (But it won't be long)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-22 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
"Indeed. It's the greatest project humanity has undertaken, and yet..." She sighs. "Those elites who remain on Earth have ruled them with hardly any regard for the wishes of we who were born in space. The faction I served was extraordinarily extreme in their methods, and yet..."
subcircuits: (that's some thin fucking ice you're on)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-22 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
Broad though the strokes are of the situation she's describing, Devero doesn't like the picture that's taking shape. He chews the corner of his lower lip for a moment before he says, "That sounds like the kind of shi-- stuff that triggered the apocalypse on my world.

"What did your... faction... do?"
pleple: (The street desire)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-22 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
"So those colonies are... very, very massive, in the literal sense of having a great deal of mass." She taps her chin. "Which means that an... impact... from one of them is devastating."
subcircuits: (stunned)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-22 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
He realizes what she means immediately, but he's silent for a long moment regardless, searching her words for an alternative less horrifying than what she's suggesting.

He can't find one.

"You dropped an O'Neill cylinder out of orbit!?"
pleple: (It's all desire)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-22 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
"We weren't the first." Not that it justifies anything. "I fear we won't be the last. Directly onto a population center to take out a governmental body, with absolutely no regard for innocent lives." Her voice quavers for a moment.

"Even given my circumstances... it's hard to relate to who I was then..."
subcircuits: (reproving)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-22 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
It's almost impossible for him to relate to this now. He turns and looks down at her, taking an uncertain step back. "...And who are you now?" he asks warily.
pleple: (Default)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-22 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Someone who would never let that happen again. Here, or if I return home." She looks back up at him. "It's why... I'm glad that I'm here."
subcircuits: (now stay down)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-22 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
He continues to look at her, his dark eyes narrow and assessing. After a long moment he opens his mouth, and what he says to her is--

"How old are you?"
pleple: (Default)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-22 04:54 am (UTC)(link)
"Eleven." She could pass for a little older given that she's a bit tall for her age; pass for even older by her personality.

"Most of my life was spent in preparation for war..." And now she's here instead.
subcircuits: (stunned)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-22 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
She's eleven. He actually feels his knees go weak. Eleven, and here she is talking so calmly about serving a group of people who thought that dropping an orbital colony was an acceptable method of-- protest?-- and about never letting it happen again.

Eleven. Rust and ruin.

He goes down to one knee in front of her (lest he just drop, otherwise) and reaches out to grasp her shoulders. "That's wrong," he tells her, gruff and intense and absolutely aching inside.
pleple: (srw gives us a smile)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-22 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
Her chest tightens, and she rests her own small hand over his; her expression softens. "...I know. I am... who I am now, though, and I can't change that."

Ple Two offers a small smile. "...thank you for being worried. Just don't pity me, please."
subcircuits: (i see you)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-23 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Such wisdom from one so young. "No," he says quietly. "All anyone can do is move forward, right?

"I would never," he assures her. It's in line with what they've both just said, really: pity focuses on the past, on lamenting over what's done and can't be changed. Pity inhibits progress. No, Devero won't pity her, not this eleven year old girl who's trying to offer him comfort.

He sits back on his heels and lets his hands drop. "I'm Devero, he/him," he says. "I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name before we moved out." There had been introductions of a haphazard, rushed sort while they were still in the great white holding bay, but, uh, Dev's kind of bad at names.
pleple: (Skeletons)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-23 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
Ple Two's had some good influences here - and a need to learn that wisdom to keep from drowning in despair as well. She needs to look to the future, not the weapon she was made to be, even if she doesn't yet know what she wants to become.

"Ple Two. Um... she... her." She's hardly used to introducing herself with pronouns, but it only takes a moment to gauge his intentions there. "...judging by the use of a number in my name, perhaps you can guess what my 'master' thought of me."
subcircuits: (furious)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-24 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
Devero's lip lifts, exposing a hint of teeth on one side. "Not very much?" he says in a low voice. A pause, and then almost despite himself he asks, "Your master...?"
pleple: (Default)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-24 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
"I was meant to be a weapon. To serve as his tool." She huffs. "It took some time after arriving here, but now I wouldn't even be afraid to meet him face to face." And break every bone in his body.
subcircuits: (reproving)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-26 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
Devero has to turn away from her, nostrils flaring and lips compressing tight as bile rises in his throat.

Where he's from, children are very nearly sacred. The very possibility of-- of commodifying a child so, treating one as nothing more than a tool or a weapon-- is so anathema to him it's almost sickening.

"Good," he says quietly, his face still turned away. "Fuck him." (Generally, he tries not to swear around children. This moment is a valid exception.)
pleple: (Turning us into fire)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-27 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
It's far less of an issue where a significant number of adult soldiers are, uh, not... alive any more anyways.

Ple Two can't help a short laugh. "Absolutely. I think I could sell tickets to break him if he showed up here."
subcircuits: (never considered that)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-29 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
Devero can't in good conscience endorse retaliatory violence, especially not to a kid, no matter how emotionally precocious she may be. So he doesn't seem to be super excited by that prospect, saying instead, "So you've got friends here who'll back you up? Good."
pleple: (srw gives us a smile)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-01-29 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
Well Ple Two will just find a different, worse influence to encourage her. "Plenty of people who care about me. Otherwise I wouldn't be nearly so well off now." She smiles for a moment. "I like it here, as chaotic as it often is."
subcircuits: (the gentle man)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-01-31 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"Good," Devero says again. "Good. Kids should be taken care of, not used."

He returns her smile. "It's... been a lot to adjust to," he admits. "But it's growing on me."
pleple: (Drinking out)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-02-01 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
"That's a much better world, yes." One that she doesn't quite get to live in... "Being here is good, though."
subcircuits: (the earnest man)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-02-01 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
"It is," he agrees. Especially for her.

"Hey--" he starts uncertainly, after a quiet moment's contemplation of the neat landscape rolling away in front of them. "You ever need anything, if there's anything I can do for you, you let me know, okay?"
pleple: (srw gives us a smile)

[personal profile] pleple 2021-02-01 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
Ple Two... could brush him off pretty easily. But she doesn't, because letting people help her... well...

It's worked out. "...thank you. I'll keep you in mind."