VoidTrecker Express Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
voidtreckermods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
middleofsomewhere2021-10-13 04:32 am
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2021-10-13 04:32 am
Entry tags:
Enemy Unknown
The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. It is as normal of a day as any, as people make their way to the dining car, to the kitchen, while others head to the showers. For most of the day, everything is normal. Friends meet, the training gym is put to use; an art class is in session. Lunchtime comes and goes.
...and then by 3PM, everyone's SCA glows with the colours of the void, and a holographic image appears.
As strange as it seems, it's time for a mission.
ENEMY: UNKNOWN
TL;DR notes version of event/prompts: (click to show)
EVENT BASICS:
Day One
~ They arrive into a hanger, after some searching they will find a device that allows them to register their SCA's to enter the main station.
~ There are two main directions. North (purple and red) and West (orange and blue).
~ They will find the door to the next section but be unable to get further yet.
~ After exploring they will be found by security bots and then invisible monsters. After the chaos calms down many of the voidtreckers will find themselves trapped in sleeping/living quarters for the next five hours.
~ Jake, Ansem, Inigo, Danny, Kitty and one of the Lan Wangji's dissappear.
Day Two
~ Once the lockdown is over they will be able to explore more eventually gaining access to more staff areas. In these staff spaces their powers will work though they will not be able to escape the station and any life or energy sensing powers will not give any answers.
~ In the staff areas they are more likely to find invisible monsters, but less likely to run into the bots.
~ The surroundings are a lot less stable here- rusty bridges, exposed wires etc. There are less places to hide and the choice is powers here or a slightly safer time back in the first area.
~ Tidus Masumi Sera, Ken Amada, Rich, Essek and Xehanort vanish during day 2.
Day Three
~ Demyx, Elidibus, Freeza, Zelda, Lan Jingyi and Zagraeus vanish during day 3.
~ It becomes more obvious that there doesn't seem to be anyone to rescue here, just the invisible monsters and weird bots.
~ Those that are still searching and investigating will come across the Engine control rooms These however seem to be a set of puzzle rooms, rather than a true engine...
~ OOC note: You can decide whether your character can get through to the engine rooms and how successful they will be. This is a separate thing to the trick or treat.
~ Those that succeed in solving the engine room will find themselves in a large empty hangar bay with no doors for the final night...
A conclusion will go up on the 20th October
For those whose characters were chosen to vanish please go here. If you cannot see the post please make sure you have granted access to voidmissions. If you still cannot see it please speak to a mod. For everyone else~ the post will be made public on the 20th so everyone can see what happened!
DAY ONE
arrival. THEY EXIT OUT OF THE TRAIN INTO DARKNESS, THE SLOW PULSE OF RED EMERGENCY LIGHTS TOO DIM TO MAKE ANYTHING OUT. The quiet hum of energy under metal flooring is the only sound that greets them. Putting on the SCA flashlights will help to see better the farther corners, a mostly empty docking hangar. A single craft sits to the side, locked. There are three doors, LED lighting making them stand out, two with press panels to open them.› Trying to access the two larger doors will lead to a buzzing, and reading on the panel: SCA UNKNOWN. PLEASE REGISTER YOUR SCA. APPROVED PERSONNEL ONLY.
› The third and smaller door, however, is accessible. It leads into an office with a few lockers and small washroom at the back, and a messy desk of small square devices that sit in labelled trays inside. A computer is also here, requiring a USER ID and PASS to be accessed.
› Luckily, Lan Jingyi and Idia will find searching around a screen and handle device, which sci-fi fans or tech-savvy people will assume correctly as a scanner. This is the SCA registering device they need. Everyone will need to log in with a quick scan and approving beep, registering them as VISITOR. Thankfully, two more spares can be found, and the front doors will finally open further into the station.
› Doing this will be the only way in - by now, many may have noticed their powers don't work. Superstrength, magic, ki - no one will be able to pull off more than the strength of an average human, unless they're built stronger.
› The third and smaller door, however, is accessible. It leads into an office with a few lockers and small washroom at the back, and a messy desk of small square devices that sit in labelled trays inside. A computer is also here, requiring a USER ID and PASS to be accessed.
› Luckily, Lan Jingyi and Idia will find searching around a screen and handle device, which sci-fi fans or tech-savvy people will assume correctly as a scanner. This is the SCA registering device they need. Everyone will need to log in with a quick scan and approving beep, registering them as VISITOR. Thankfully, two more spares can be found, and the front doors will finally open further into the station.
› Doing this will be the only way in - by now, many may have noticed their powers don't work. Superstrength, magic, ki - no one will be able to pull off more than the strength of an average human, unless they're built stronger.
normal. MOVING FORWARD, THERE ARE TWO DIRECTIONS VOIDTRECKERS CAN GO. Though their SCA doesn't show a complete map it does show a recommended route. Both lead into waiting halls, submerged in the same dimly lit red light. Their footsteps echo; there's a front desk, visitor lavatories, and inaccessible staff rooms that make their SCAs beep with too many door handle waggles. STAFF ONLY appears from their devices.However, the other doors work fine. As the voidtreckers explore in both sections, they will find them similar, if different in layout.
› The north route - where Purple and Reds are led - leads to a series of meeting rooms along corridors, with different layouts. The west route - Orange and Blue's way - leads into classrooms, with desks and wash basins, most with holographic projectors in place that shows the different presentations on both sides being held. There's signs of use in most of the rooms, of personal belongings and drink bottles left behind. In some, people may knock over props; a cardboard cut-out of a company mascot, or in a classroom, an innocous large board - which when walked in front of, trips a splat gun, covering the poor person in illuminous paint.
› On both sides, the Voidtreckers will find their first proper hurdle with enough navigating: the next larger doors leading to SECTION 2 will be locked, a keypad beside it. Trying their SCA's current access level to it will lead to be a beep.
DENIED. LVL 2 ACCESS REQUIRED.
› Attempting to use the SCA scanner will ask for a pin. Voidtreckers will be forced to search and investigate: back to the front desk, through the abandoned meeting and classrooms. As they search in the dim red lighting, the near silence, they don't always feel so alone. A door will randomly slide open; the lights flicker; a cheery tune comes from a forgotten cellphone, when they're deep in investigation. The sound of footsteps may be heard outside, or even directly behind someone.
But there's no one there.
› On both sides, the Voidtreckers will find their first proper hurdle with enough navigating: the next larger doors leading to SECTION 2 will be locked, a keypad beside it. Trying their SCA's current access level to it will lead to be a beep.
› Attempting to use the SCA scanner will ask for a pin. Voidtreckers will be forced to search and investigate: back to the front desk, through the abandoned meeting and classrooms. As they search in the dim red lighting, the near silence, they don't always feel so alone. A door will randomly slide open; the lights flicker; a cheery tune comes from a forgotten cellphone, when they're deep in investigation. The sound of footsteps may be heard outside, or even directly behind someone.
But there's no one there.
too quiet. IT TAKES AN HOUR OR SO, BUT FINALLY, THE VOIDTRECKERS REACH DEEPER IN. The doors lead them into a corridor that promise to connect the two groups, and the walls they face as entering shows a map that outlines the corridor they're in. However, before they can think to meet or get very far, a beeping greets people at their feet from the dark - small spider-bots, just above ankle height. They skid along the ground, and beeping in what's morse code, a holographic message appears above to share the same message:
They may give some people a scare, but they don't do anything more than to shine a light towards the closer doors. There then comes a sound heard at the farther ends of the corridors. People will feel a vibration from their SCAs, then a beeping. Those wearing their synced earpieces will hear the beeping clearer, and whatever that sound belonged to is coming - and fast.
› Chaos ensues. The spider-bots repeat, TAKE SHELTER, TAKE SHELTER, as they skid down the halls - if they're not attacked by Voidtreckers. The Voidtreckers will need to think fast, but some may not come to the right answers. Fortunately, some take refuge in the rooms as directed, or head back in through the way they came. Or they might try and fight, against invisible entities that fight fast and ruthlessly. For those who do fight they will learn that the blasts are meant to stun, to knock down and even knock out. But they won't take any lasting damage from them.
› For those that do manage to get to shelter they will here banging from the doors, thudding hard against them. For whatever reason, they won't open to what's outside in the hall. A silence eventually settles.. except amongst the Voidtreckers. Separated, they will have questions over the SCAs. Counting heads, figuring what happened. Who saw what? Who's where? No one saw anything.
And they will figure in time that Jake, Ansem, Inigo, Danny, Kitty and one of the Lan Wangji's aren't answering their SCAs.
› Access to the Sector 2 corridor will be denied. Attempting to open any of the doors will bring up a message from their SCAs. SECTOR 2 HALL BREACHED. LOCKDOWN FOR FIVE HOURS. Even if they wanted to leave the rooms they entered, they can't. They're stuck, with whoever's with them, for five hours.
› With nowhere else to go, the Voidtreckers will be able to investigate the areas they've gotten locked into. There's lounges, sleeping quarters, and kitchen available to end up in, other than the previous hall. The rooms are only lit by their doors, and by what appears to be ICPs set in the walls, one by each door. However, all that seems to be working are sending messages to different rooms within the residential sector.
› For those that do manage to get to shelter they will here banging from the doors, thudding hard against them. For whatever reason, they won't open to what's outside in the hall. A silence eventually settles.. except amongst the Voidtreckers. Separated, they will have questions over the SCAs. Counting heads, figuring what happened. Who saw what? Who's where? No one saw anything.
And they will figure in time that Jake, Ansem, Inigo, Danny, Kitty and one of the Lan Wangji's aren't answering their SCAs.
› Access to the Sector 2 corridor will be denied. Attempting to open any of the doors will bring up a message from their SCAs. SECTOR 2 HALL BREACHED. LOCKDOWN FOR FIVE HOURS. Even if they wanted to leave the rooms they entered, they can't. They're stuck, with whoever's with them, for five hours.
› With nowhere else to go, the Voidtreckers will be able to investigate the areas they've gotten locked into. There's lounges, sleeping quarters, and kitchen available to end up in, other than the previous hall. The rooms are only lit by their doors, and by what appears to be ICPs set in the walls, one by each door. However, all that seems to be working are sending messages to different rooms within the residential sector.
DAY TWO
access. AFTER FIVE HOURS, THE PANELS BY THE DOORS FLASH FROM RED TO GREEN, AND WITH THIS, THE VOIDTRECKERS CAN LEAVE THEIR ROOMS. Out in the residential hall, no one is present, but there are pieces of SCAs trashed beyond repair. The spider-bots are in the same state, tossed and forgotten.› Now is a good time to explore, but Voidtreckers will need to be careful. Too much noise will make the Unknown Entities appear, and they are especially attracted by groups larger than three or four people. They cannot enter most rooms, but they lurk the halls - and one is sure to be patrolling when Voidtreckers initially leave the rooms they've been stuck in.
› The spider-bots continue to patrol the halls, and will scan anyone they find. They approve of anyone with a staff level access, but get noisy and lead anyone else into rooms to hide.
› Voidtreckers will learn they need to practice patience as they investigate. This work is a matter of tedium, but also of being aware of one's surroundings, and searching through the darkness. There is a computer library and gaming room, which create labyrinths of tables and machines, and in these two rooms, Voidtreckers will hear a hissing, the noise of something moving around other than themselves, a beeping from their SCAs. A dining hall is completely trashed, tables toppled over and cracks in the walls where hard contact has been made. However, no bodies can be found, though a few shreds of clothing and trashed SCAs and other devices can be found, in total disrepair.
› Unfortunately, as the Voidtreckers will find that despite the noise the security spiders make, damaging the spider-bots is what causes rooms to go into lockdown for five hours. This might happen again, if they come across the spiders again. The best policy seems to be to stay hidden and quiet, avoiding the bots and listening out for the beeping from the SCA's for warnings of invisible monsters.
› However, searching around will provide the key to finally being able to give Voidtreckers staff level access, after a few hours. Allowing them better access to different areas, including areas where their powers work.
› The spider-bots continue to patrol the halls, and will scan anyone they find. They approve of anyone with a staff level access, but get noisy and lead anyone else into rooms to hide.
› Voidtreckers will learn they need to practice patience as they investigate. This work is a matter of tedium, but also of being aware of one's surroundings, and searching through the darkness. There is a computer library and gaming room, which create labyrinths of tables and machines, and in these two rooms, Voidtreckers will hear a hissing, the noise of something moving around other than themselves, a beeping from their SCAs. A dining hall is completely trashed, tables toppled over and cracks in the walls where hard contact has been made. However, no bodies can be found, though a few shreds of clothing and trashed SCAs and other devices can be found, in total disrepair.
› Unfortunately, as the Voidtreckers will find that despite the noise the security spiders make, damaging the spider-bots is what causes rooms to go into lockdown for five hours. This might happen again, if they come across the spiders again. The best policy seems to be to stay hidden and quiet, avoiding the bots and listening out for the beeping from the SCA's for warnings of invisible monsters.
› However, searching around will provide the key to finally being able to give Voidtreckers staff level access, after a few hours. Allowing them better access to different areas, including areas where their powers work.
STAY OUT
LISTEN TO SCAS
› The areas get more shabby, away from the gleaming metal of the main space station and down to more service areas. Metal is rustier and some walk ways don't seem entirely stable. They are less likely to meet the spider bots here but more likely to hear the beeping that signals monsters are near.
› Here there are less places to hide, and though there are rooms with beds and places to rest they don't seem to have the same protection as the rooms in the main space station area. It seems to be a choice between having abilities, or being in the relatively safer areas.
› But is anywhere truly safe? Because they may learn, from listening on comms or just noticing themselves that ›Tidus Masumi Sera, Ken Amada, Rich, Essek and Xehanort have disappeared over the course of the last few hours. Their names still solid on the SCA but not able to be contacted.
› Here there are less places to hide, and though there are rooms with beds and places to rest they don't seem to have the same protection as the rooms in the main space station area. It seems to be a choice between having abilities, or being in the relatively safer areas.
› But is anywhere truly safe? Because they may learn, from listening on comms or just noticing themselves that ›Tidus Masumi Sera, Ken Amada, Rich, Essek and Xehanort have disappeared over the course of the last few hours. Their names still solid on the SCA but not able to be contacted.
DAY THREE
dwindling hope. By the third day it is becoming more apparent that there is no one to rescue here. Or if there is they are like their own comrades, somewhere inaccessible. Because as the morning of day three comes to an end it is clear that yet more voidtreckers have vanished. Demyx, Elidibus, Freeza, Zelda, Lan Jingyi and Zagraeus are nowhere to be seen.
The space station remains eerily quiet and those who are still searching will find themselves going deeper into the workings of the space station.
control sector. Eventually they will come to a sign KEEP OUT: ENGINE CONTROL ROOMS.
Their SCAs will allow them through. But straight away it is clear this is no normal set of engine rooms.
The space station remains eerily quiet and those who are still searching will find themselves going deeper into the workings of the space station.
control sector. Eventually they will come to a sign KEEP OUT: ENGINE CONTROL ROOMS.Their SCAs will allow them through. But straight away it is clear this is no normal set of engine rooms.
› The first room has a floor full of tiles with symbols on them leading over to the door. Any flight and teleportation powers do not work here. It is not a difficult puzzle to solve, a basic pattern recognition but anyone who steps on a wrong tile will find a sleeping gas shoots upwards and they will awaken at the door again, having lost around half an hour.
› The second room if they get through the first is less a room and more a series of small compartments with sliding doors. A little like a maze though there is no way any one can get through it alone for it requires people pressing different buttons at different places in order to work their way through. A teamwork puzzle where a wrong move could leave someone stranded in a small box cubical.
› The third room is made of a large console with all the buttons and levers that any good science fiction fan could wish for. There are computers to hack, passwords to guess and secret compartments to open. Even voidtreckers who are not hackers or computer geniuses will be able to follow the clues to get through the systems. This might seem a little suspicious. Or they might just be relieved that it is not impossible.
If passwords are put in wrong too many times or the wrong steps are taken and not corrected quickly enough their SCA's will beep and invisible monsters will flood the room attacking them. Voidtreckers will come to just outside the door to the first engine room.
However if they manage to get to the end of the sequence the lights will flash green as all systems are restarted...
And those in the final engine room will find themselves in a large hanger bay. It has no doors, no windows and nothing inside. But, they will be glad to hear, no monsters.
Be it in this hangar bay or elsewhere in the space station the voidtreckers will spend a final uneasy night...
› The second room if they get through the first is less a room and more a series of small compartments with sliding doors. A little like a maze though there is no way any one can get through it alone for it requires people pressing different buttons at different places in order to work their way through. A teamwork puzzle where a wrong move could leave someone stranded in a small box cubical.
› The third room is made of a large console with all the buttons and levers that any good science fiction fan could wish for. There are computers to hack, passwords to guess and secret compartments to open. Even voidtreckers who are not hackers or computer geniuses will be able to follow the clues to get through the systems. This might seem a little suspicious. Or they might just be relieved that it is not impossible.
If passwords are put in wrong too many times or the wrong steps are taken and not corrected quickly enough their SCA's will beep and invisible monsters will flood the room attacking them. Voidtreckers will come to just outside the door to the first engine room.
However if they manage to get to the end of the sequence the lights will flash green as all systems are restarted...
And those in the final engine room will find themselves in a large hanger bay. It has no doors, no windows and nothing inside. But, they will be glad to hear, no monsters.
Be it in this hangar bay or elsewhere in the space station the voidtreckers will spend a final uneasy night...
no subject
He stands and moves aside, investigating under an overturned table (and remaining close to and within eyesight of Yondu; tempting fate is foolish regardless of whether horror movie rules apply). "We cannot rule it out, though I would question why their SCAs did not provide some measure of protection from it." He pauses, turning a thought over in his mind. "I also wonder how long ago this destruction happened. Even if we were hours behind, something this widespread and violent would not clear itself up in a matter of hours or even days. We ought to have seen some sign of survivors by now, or at least bodies." He has little personal experience with large-scale violence, but even he knows that cleanup after violence during the Crisis could extend for days. That they have not seen any people - survivors or otherwise - is worrying.
no subject
See? Hah. Totally has it under control now because he can joke flirt in a tense horror situation. But quickly moving on now!
"Elidibus found a log earlier with a bunch of info about a breach. Logged by Starmined, some kinda black hole minin' operation. You wanna go investigate the blast doors with me at Entry 32?"
no subject
(Someone has caught the joke and missed the flirt. These things do happen.)
He turns his attention back to the table and rights it, picking up a scrap of fabric that had been caught underneath it. Clothing, from the looks of it, but something is...off. "Yes, in a bit. There is still something...off here, that I-"
A thought that has been lingering at the corners of his mind finally pushes its way to the forefront, and he stops short. He has seen scenes of violence such as this before - news coverage of the Omnic Crisis provided warnings, but did not shy away from showing the aftermath of battles. There is something missing here that he had not realized before.
"-cannot...put my finger on," he says slowly as the pieces click into place. "There is no blood here. A scene this- this violent should have left something behind, especially if there was no effort to clean up, as the mess would imply, but there is nothing. It does not add up." It is, to say the absolute least, concerning, in the same way the sun is slightly warm.
no subject
He does not let the tail end of that joke open the mental can of worms that it could. That'd really get him killed.
He plucks up an unopened toothpick from the miscellaneous contents of a tipped-over utensil table and removes the wrapper. "Yeah. That's why I started theorizin' space sick. Like this is a real neat pile of SCAs. Could have been a fit of chemically or psychically induced crazy, mob panic, or somethin' logical. If I knew they were helpin' the whatsits hunt some of us, I mighta done somethin' like that. Attempt at a trap if they wanted to lure 'em into one place and start an ambush, or stick 'em in a lockdown." Speaking of which he takes care to step around a meandering spiderbot, nudging his foot to get it out of his way. This place is a mess, after all, it could have been meant to lure them to an attack point.
"The mess could have come from them tryin' to get out, but they still woulda needed someone around here I guess to initiate a lockdown. Then again I know a lotta animals that just eat ya whole with a single slurp or drag you to a nest still kickin' so there's all kinds of scenarios here. That's the problem with Ghost Ships. They come with a whole lotta fill in the blank scary stories."
no subject
He moves to the next upturned table, reaching for a bunched shirt half-hidden beneath it. "Be that as it may, I have a difficult time believing that any event that produces this level of violence would be clean. We ought to have found blood or oil or some sort of leak, especially given the state of the walls and the clothing we are finding." He overturns the shirt to find a small device under it, and he picks it up to show to Yondu. "What do you make of this?"
no subject
"Yeah, I think at this point I'm about willin' to go see what kinda species was on this station and if they even bleed normal. But I have noticed their attacks feel a lot like stun batons." He contemplates before he joins Siebren to take a look at what he's found.
"Not sure. Maybe could figure it out if we had somebody with small tools. Maybe somebody around wore glasses an' there's a screwdriver roamin' around."
no subject
He turns the device over in his hands - it's small, with a screen and very few buttons. "Perhaps, though I have not seen anything like that as of yet-"
He pushes a button and the screen flickers to life, dots moving across its surface. "...or that may not be necessary," he finishes with a shrug, rotating the device a bit to see if the display makes a bit more sense at a different angle. For all he knows, they are looking at it upside down.
no subject
"Well, that is interesting," he mulls it over, drawling out the thought and making wild guesses as to what it's doing as he moves it. All the while staring over Siebren's arm because staring over his shoulder is an impossibility.
"Well, that's a map. First bit's the corridor outside, and that's where that other door is" He reaches over to point at some things. "It ain't markin' anybody's SCAs, we know that." Them are long past dead. "I don't think it's the things, I had a theory they was keyed into security, but there ain't so many of 'em as there are red dots."
Every theory he's had has been non-committal and half-ass. He's got next to no hard evidence or even anecdotal on anything yet. As he's talking the little spiderbot Yondu nudged out of the way earlier toddles by with a napkin stuck to its foot, mildly hindered by it. After a glance at the screen, and back to the drone, he puts his foot on the napkin to stop it just to see if there's a connection.
no subject
There's a quiet oh of understanding as Yondu identifies the display as a map, and the rest falls into place fairly rapidly. "I do not suppose we would be so fortunate as to have found something that tracks our invisible assailants."
He watches the small spiderbot approach, cottons on as Yondu steps on the attached napkin, and looks down at the screen to see a red dot at their location abruptly stop as the spiderbot does. The bot tugs at its trapped foot, ineffectually at first, and finally frees itself, continuing on its way, and the stopped red dot on the map moves along with it.
Ah.
"It seems we were fortunate in a different way."
You know what, YOLO
"If we don't find much at the doors maybe we can go look at them records again. Maybe your eyes can notice somethin' in their records where the numbers don't line up."
He waits until they're at the corridor before he adds in a, "You know, at risk of causing us to be swarmed by little red dots or me disappearin' around a corner 'cause I committed some kinda plot sin with a heartfelt confession, I had a thing for ya for a little while. I mean, I mostly got over it. You still do this smile thing that always makes me do it right back."
Which he says it all pretty quietly, but he's wanting to just, you know, say it in case he does disappear. A lot of friends have been going recently, more than just here, and he doesn't know. Maybe it won't be too bad to hear somebody thought highly of him even if that judgment comes from a man who tries to be a cool space pirate when mostly he's just an old doofus.