Enemy Unknown: Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

The third night is as long and creepy as the others...

It might be that they found the engine room, solved the puzzles and found themselves in the hangar bay with no way out. It might be that they were still in the station hiding from the invisible monsters. Or it might be that they had been plucked from the mission and were waiting in their holding room.

Either way morning dawns on the fourth day...

---

ENEMY: UNKNOWN

---

DAY FOUR

the trapped. THOSE WHO SOLVED THE ENGINE ROOM SPENT THE NIGHT IN A LARGE HANGAR THAT DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE ANY DOORS. Their SCA's are working, so they can still communicate with those in the station, perhaps talk them through the engine room puzzles or tell them to stay clear. As morning comes all the lights in the hangar come on. Brighter than any lights so far in the station, harsh white light after the eerie red of the rest of the mission.

Everyone still in the station wakes where they fell asleep - if they slept at all. It's not long after most people are up and about that they will hear a high-pitched beep from their SCA, and then a blue light will envelop them and those around them. It might be they spot their friends vanishing before they too disappear.

They arrive in the hangar, reunited with those who spent the night there. All their gear is with them at least, but that doesn't solve the problem of being in a hangar with no obvious way out. Nor are any of those who vanished during the last three days here, their SCA's still go unanswered.

---

the vanished. FOR THOSE IN THE HOLDING ROOM, THEIR NIGHT HAS PROCEEDED MUCH LIKE THE NIGHTS BEFORE. One of the screens showed the hangar, and those that had succeeded in completing the engine room task. The lights had dimmed for sleeping and turned on again bright in the morning. For those watching the screens they will see those in the station vanish in blue light and turn up in the hangar.

Around half an hour later a voice sounds in the room. "Please gather your belongings and prepare for release."

It's another ten minutes, allowing them to make sure they have all their things before their SCA's beep. They are then surrounded by a blue light, taking them from the room they had spent the last few days in.

REUNITED

reunion. AN HOUR PASSES AFTER FIRST ARRIVALS PASS IN THE HANGAR. Suddenly, there is another flash of blue light, and the missing eighteen Voidtreckers appear with the rest of their crew. They will find they had all their gear as well, including their missing weapons.

They are left to their own devices for a small while, a time for reuniting with friends, but not long enough to exchange stories before a voice rings out in the hangar:

"THANK YOU CREW OF THE VOIDTRECKER EXPRESS FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE. YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR CRAFT."
There is a loud mass of beeping as everyone's SCA's flashes at the same time, holographic messages popping up too fast to be able to read them in their entirety.

Voidtreckers come in.

All Voidtreckers return to the Voidtrecker Express

Voidtreckers evacuate now

Voidtreckers do you read?

Layers of holographic messages pile on top of each other but a moment later everyone's SCA's glow gold and everyone vanishes from the hangar...

LUGGAGE CARRIAGE

return. EVERYONE ARRIVES INSIDE THE LUGGAGE CARRIAGE, PACKED LIKE SARDINES BETWEEN SUITCASES AND TRUNKS. There is no announcement, no warning of returning to the void; just a lurch that is likely to throw anyone on the train unaware of what has just happened off their feet, no matter the carriage they're in.

They return to the void at what feels like breakneck speed. Colours fly past the windows, and it is a good few hours before they seem to slow to their normal travel speed.

---

Comments

[longforgottenpromise]

"Either they are more powerful than it or... It might just be..." He thinks a moment of how best to phrase it.

"Sometimes when you aren't sure what to do, you try and do anything that might make your situation better and when you are just trying anything it is... You take more risks."

He certainly had. He doesn't know the train, despite living on it for almost a year inside of it.

[adregem]

Desperation was one way of looking at it, and it made a whole lot of sense to Roland when it’s practically the train’s way of being backed into a corner, with no way out.

But as the machine continued to heat up, the blades spinning slow to ready itself for the sugar it’ll thread, something about Taiki’s words hit him like lightning. He turns back to the kirin, a curious expression on his face.

“You try and do anything that might make your situation better, huh…”

I never looked at it that way before.

“If the train keeps diving headfirst into planets in need, regardless of how much it knows about the situation, could it be it’s trying to find something?”

A something that it can’t navigate towards; can only try with no small amount of hope, strike it lucky that it’s the planet or world on its broken radar, no way of knowing until it lands…

…He recalls the vision in Jema’grethy, some time ago. A train blind and deaf, one with no other instinct but to go forward. It’s a silence that’s heavy enough for Roland to forget he was ever making cotton candy in the first place, the machine slowly catching smoke after heating up without sugar inside its compartment.

[longforgottenpromise]

He nodded, it was the only way he could see it. The train had lost people and its world, it clearly felt strongly about them and he could understand that drive to find them. To do anything to make things better.

Wasn't he driven by the exact same thing and hadn't he made questionable decisions in his attempts to make things right?

He is quiet to allow Roland to think but then he notices the smoke. "Um Roland... The machine..."

[adregem]

“Oh, ah!”

There’s a moment of panic but he’s quick to the draw, unplugging the machine with wide eyes, one hand in limbo as it holds the container of sugar he was ready to deposit into the machine just seconds ago. Thoughts around a train pushed to desperation cloud his own mind, whether he was aware of it or not.

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t paying attention.” He admits easily, leaning against the edge of the counter. “Guess all this train talk’s no good if I’m handling machinery. Want to eat something else?”

Inigo would want to make Taiki some cotton candy, anyway.

[longforgottenpromise]

"It's alright... Um... How about I make some food?"

Because if Roland was going to talk, he might get distracted and Taiki can cook. He's been learning how to.

"Did you want something sweet?"

[adregem]

"Oh, I can't just sit here and watch you do that. Let me help."

And idle hands didn't make for active thoughts; at least, not in Roland's case.

"Not really. Got no sweet tooth myself. How about you teach me something again? Something I probably don't know how to make from scratch."

[longforgottenpromise]

"Um okay..." He nodded and thought for a moment. "Um... There's some vegetable pastries... They are a bit time consuming but I can show you how to make those."

And they were easy finger food once made so would work for anyone too tired to make themselves a whole meal.