Ongoing: All Teams

[voidtreckermods]

The first few days are taken up with solving the problems in the various sectors, all the while getting closer to their goal. The Great-Winter, Great-Summer, Great-Spring and Great Autumn.

On Day 9 of the month of Jelly they will see on their map a clear indicator of where to go. As they draw near it will be obvious what they are looking for.

The Overseers

In the centre of each of the sectors there is a large metal tube, hundreds of pipes lead from it, spanning up to the ceiling above and down below, creating a field of pipes and tubes to clamber over and crawl under to reach the central tube. On the tube itself there is a panel, wrapping around it in a circle. The SCA's of the Voidtrecker show an exclamation mark, if they click on them they will see the message.

Reach the panel, enter the inner systems and give your aid.

As Voidtreckers step towards the tubes it will seem as if the world shifts around them. Instead of metal and wire they will see trees. The Great-Spring is a tree in blossom, pink leaves spreading up across the canopy. Great-Summer has strong green leaves, Great_Autumns leaves are brown and falling and Great-Winter has no leaves at all.

The panel is still there, the only part of the scene that doesn't look organic. As the Voidtreckers move towards their goal the tree begins to move, branches fighting against those trying to get through the roots. The aim seems to be to push intruders away, going as far as flinging them back with higher branches.

The branches aren't the only security measures in place. As they push forwards they will find creatures coming at them from the trees.

Strangely the creatures look like creatures from their own worlds, any creature they would expect to see in a tree. Regardless of species they attack with claws and with lazers from their eyes. They don't move far from the branches, but try and stop invaders from getting close to the trunk.

For those that get through they will find that as they draw close to the 'trunk' the attacks stop, as if they have reached an eye of a storm.

Going Further

The panel is a simple glowing screen, there are no instructions but their SCA's will beep softly and if they press their SCA to the panel they will find everything vanishes, the trees, branches and weird animals.

Or perhaps it is they themselves that vanish as they find themselves in a large white room, everyone is together here. No matter what sector they had travelled through and which overseer they entered through.

There are four tubes filled with liquid, pink, green, orange and white towering over them.

"Our systems have been compromised." The four voices ring out. "Heal what has been harmed, destroy what should not be here. Find the source and purge it from our world."

The overseers and the room vanish and the voidtreckers find themselves in a forest, a forest that is slowly being choaked by red sickly vines.

The Voidtreckers themselves will find themselves looking different, almost like the hard-light holograms of the Helpmates though they certainly feel like themselves. They are carrying a sturdy stick but nothing else and depending how imaginative they are will quickly find they can alter their appearance to fit their wishes.

Heal and Destroy

The voidtreckers will find themselves drawn towards the vines, if they touch them they will be able to soothe, a glowing blue light from their hands that runs down the vine before it fades away, freeing the trees that it held in its chokehold.

There are many pathways, many vines and it will be a long task to clear it all. It is not long also before the first threats find them. Threats that look like mongeese, small creatures that will lunge at them, teeth bared and claws out.

Luckily the Voidtreckers will quickly learn the ability to soothe is not the only power gifted to them.

On the Outside

For anyone who does not enter through the panel it will seem like their fellow Voidtreckers have entered a deep trance. The area they are sat around the tree is calm, no threats enter there. But outside that area there are still threats, the branches attack, the animals attack and sometimes Helpmates try to evict those they see from the area, claiming it 'restricted.'

Comments

[10billionpercent]

"Well, if we assume this is a video game of some kind." Senku smiled a little bit. "Then yes, it would likely be code, but so would our consciousness, so that's perplexing, and outside my realm of knowledge. It was more something relegated to science fiction." He didn't seem offended, he was a nerd.

[bakegarasu]

"I didn't think yokai existed until a week before showing up on the platform, so I have no idea what's fiction anymore and what isn't."

[10billionpercent]

"I suppose that's fair. There are no yokai in my world, that's relegated to fiction for me at least." Senku sighed. "Although with this whole mutliple world situation, I can no longer discount anything."

[bakegarasu]

"Pretty much. ... Ugh." He just stabs his stick into the back of an approaching mongoose. "These things aren't even making it any fun."

[10billionpercent]

Senku held out his hand and froze one in its tracks and then whacked it with his stick. He wasn't a stamina guy, but on a single blow he was stong enough to deal with the mongoose that way.

The real question was how long he could keep it up. "It's fascinating but also frustrating." He acknowledged.

[bakegarasu]

"It's more just repetitive." Hm. "though if you want help on learning how to swing a sword or something, I can work with you when we get back."

[10billionpercent]

"I'm not really well suited." Senku said as he whacked another one. "Give it a few minutes and you'll understand. I have no stamina to speak of."

He paused and then added. "I can't fix that. I don't know why, I just can't."

[bakegarasu]

"... What have you tried to fix that?" He wasn't sure if he was able to help with that, but he could try.

[10billionpercent]

"I carry or drag weight, I walk constantly, including long trips like between our bases which is about 80 kilometres." Senku responded, leaning a little heavier on his stick.

"I'm real stubborn about it, I don't let people do things for me I can do myself, but that said I can't keep up with everyone else either." He was at least very self-aware in this area.

"I don't know what the problem is, but it's always been like this. It makes me entirely unsuitable to be on the combat team, aside from directing them."

[bakegarasu]

"... Huh. Yeah, that should be building your stamina. You're not like... you don't have health problems, do you?" Other than general low stamina, he meant.

[10billionpercent]

"No, nothing related to anything like that." Senku shook his head. "If I did, as long as they weren't congenital, they would've been cured by the petrification. Which tells me whatever is causing this is congenital." He shrugged helplessly. "Could be anything really."

[bakegarasu]

"By the what?" That part hadn't been explained to him yet.

[10billionpercent]

"Ah sorry, I've lost track of who knows about my world and who doesn't." Mostly because it wasn't really important and he could explain as needed, as often as necessary.

"All of the humans on the planet were petrified 3700 years ago." Senku explained. "Almost four years ago, I broke out of the petrification and have been working since to restore civilization. Everything has broken down and disappeared."

Another push, and he knocked ice spikes into a pair of mongeese.

[bakegarasu]

"... That's..." Okay. You know what, sure. He fries another few of the creatures. "If everyone was petrified, how are you restoring civilization? You kind of need people for that."

[10billionpercent]

"Of course I do. A single guy or even two can't get very far." Senku snorted and pushed more ice pieces into two more mongeese. If this was a game of some kind, was he going to run out of MP eventually?

"I found a settlement of descendants of the astronauts, but that was after I found the secret to breaking people free of the petrification. Took a year of dedicated experiments to get the right ratio of nital to free people." He huffed lightly, feeling it a bit.

"We have a population of about a hundred and fifty."

[bakegarasu]

He flipped one of the mongeese in the air with his stick, batting it like a tennis ball. "I have no idea what nital is, but that still seems pretty small. Guess you gotta start somewhere, though." That's like, what, 75 couples? Not a lot.

Eh. Maybe it is. He's not a scientist in any capacity. "That... uh. Sucks. To put it mildly."

[10billionpercent]

"The plan is to wake everyone up eventually, all seven billion humans." Senku explained, and turned his attention to the vine, hoping he could be covered for a moment. He rested his hand on it and cast another, unknown spell that seemed to soothe and remove it.

"We're constrained by a few things, but eventually technology will evolve to the point we can grow our population much faster." He shrugged.

"Objectively, a lot of it does suck, but we're working on it."

[bakegarasu]

He moved to put his body in between Senku and any incoming creatures. "I'll take your word for it. Not my sort of area... science class in school was boring as hell."

To be fair, he slept through most of it.

[10billionpercent]

"Couldn't disagree with you more." Senku chuckled as he put his hands on the next vine.

"There's nothing out there more fascinating than science and it applies to everything."

[bakegarasu]

"I know it does, but... it wasn't really interesting in class. And it wasn't exactly something that my father cared about me learning. He didn't actually care about my grades at all." A few more mongeese were cooked as he kept talking.

"I don't really know how it'd help me, other than b... otany? That's the plant one, right? I make medicine for the sick yokai." It doesn't do much, but it's better than nothing.

[10billionpercent]

"Depends on what you're trying to do. Science has saved my life and everyone I know." Senku hummed.

"And you're right, botany is the study of plants, but if you're treating people, or yokai I guess, that's medicine."

[bakegarasu]

"It's complicated. ... And yeah, I guess. The yokai call me 'Doctor Karas'." Which was a little embarrassing, but he wasn't really going to stop them.

[10billionpercent]

"There isn't a doctor in my world except for me." Senku responded. "With all of my knowledge and study that I focused on for the last three years of my time in the modern world. Fortunately, I'm decent at keeping everyone healthy. Presumably eventually we'll find another one."

[bakegarasu]

"... Hopefully." As competent as Senku seemed, he was still a kid. "Though I guess antibiotics and stuff are... maybe easier to make than some other medicines? If you know what you're doing? Which I definitely don't."

There go two more mongeese, flying into the distance.

[10billionpercent]

He'd be a little offended if he knew Otoha thought of him as a kid. "I prefer engineering anyway." He waved his hand slightly. I got into studying medicine when I was thirteen and did several internships, but I wasn't really expecting to have to use it." He paused. "Although that was why I learned it."

He shook his head. "The so called easy medicines fall under the plant based kinds, probably not unlike what you're familiar with. Helpful, but not as effective as modern medicine would make them later. Antibiotics took us about six months to make, and we went the sulfanimide route because penicillan requres a stroke of luck and we had someone dying of pneumonia while we were waiting."

Senku was used to working and talking because he had a hard time keeping still sometimes. He just liked working. "What we don't have is anaesthetic, which is on my to do list." He sighed. "Eventually."