[MISSION LOG] GET IN THE CAR

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: Avera 9
WHEN: Day :156 - 160
SUMMARY: Welcome to the jungle muddy junk pile in space. Avera 9, pt.1
WARNINGS: None; will edit if necessary.

THERE IS AN EXPECTATION that all hosts meet on the flight deck; that much is obvious on waking - something that, strangely, all new hosts seem to have done at the same time. Pack your things, says a gut sensation. It's time to go somewhere different.

ONCE ASSEMBLED, it isn't long before Prince and Cathaway make their own appearances. They have a set of kits with them - one for each young host - and a square that unfolds into a data pad with mission details. Each kit contains some of the materials hosts will find helpful for their assignment, and the equipment is not to be traded away or sold, Prince explains. The rest, Cathaway adds, will be provided once travel is complete. And then it's time to get underway. Today that means piling into a sleek, arrow shaped ship with plenty of space to carry personnel and equipment. There are a number of bikes lashed in the cargo area, places for hosts to stow their things, and enough seating at each side of the carrier's interior for hosts to be comfortable. It's a short trip, Cathaway assures and then makes her way with Prince to the cockpit. Today, they're coming with.

Initial checks. Engines go. The landing circular landing pad under the ship turns, lowering down into the flight deck floor as it goes. The ship comes with it, descending into the cool dark depths of the Station. There's a shudder as it locks into the launch tube, as the channel overhead is sealed; there is no countdown, just a pulsing moment of anticipation-- and then rocketing, teeth rattling momentum and a bright, hot flash of joy as the ship is projected from the Station - as it sears through time and space and a hundred versions of the same universe until it comes to rest here: smacked out into real space hung above a murky brown planet, clearly visible through the massive viewscreen at the front of the ship.

It's a good thing there's not much to look at; Cathaway doesn't waste time before deftly setting a course, slicing down through upper atmosphere with hardly a shudder from the knife point shaped ship. The planet comes up rapidly and a hum passes through the carrier as it lowers - cresting down through dark clouds to be battered by rainfall and the cross cutting of wind. But it flies steady, sure, and in time they streak at ground level across muddy flatlands and massive stone slabs - skim across inert bodies of water in the slow process of expanding from the constant sluggish rainfall.

The ship eventually comes to rest in the middle of what must be a massive valley; it sets down with hardly a shiver, then something clangs loud and the ramp at the rear descends. Cathaway unhooks her harness and rises from the pilot's seat.

"Here we are. Be well and do well; try not to kill anyone." Yourselves included, being the unspoken addendum. "Make sure to return here at the specified time. We can't extend our time table to account for stragglers."

There is a pause before Prince adds, with an edge of silent reluctance, “If you find yourselves in a situation you cannot handle, call and we will come.”

And then you're free to go wherever you like. Welcome to Avera 9.


(click to zoom; blue is water; yellow is lowlands/flood plains/etc; green is higher, drier terrain; brown is for ridges/high ground)

---

((OOC Notes: You'll notice that this log only covers the first few days of the mission; this is to allow for player character decision making to effect the back half of the mission. That said, feel free to make your own logs and posts on the IC community as you see fit - just be aware that dating past day :160 may get a little wonky depending on how events proceed!

If you have any mission specific questions, direct them to the OOC post here. For exploration and salvage discovery, we've decided to give players a largely free rein for what items can be found. However, if you want specific mod-generated items for your characters to stumble across during their salvaging, feel free to use THIS thread to request that!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[decommission]

[ The initial burst has his stomach lurching and his head spinning. He tries to center himself, convincing his mind that his body is here and not somehow left behind on the Station. ]

Wouldn't call it pleasant - [ But it's definitely exciting, and that thrill pulses off of him in short, muted waves. They're in space. Real space. Actually flying through it - there's something both more unbelievable and more real about this than the static nature of the station. ]

[erbier]

[ It takes her a physical effort to keep her fear inside of her, but after twice being taken over by the fever of it, she has realized she has unintended effects on those around her if she cannot exhibit better control. Normally a skill she's quite good at, but there is so much out of her control. Strange machines, floating in open space?

She is not educated on planetary science. She does not understand outer space. She does not understand flying. The chattering of the consensus assures her all is well, but that is just another skill to master: opening herself up to its words and truly understanding.

Her fingers curl tighter, if that's possible, and her broodmate's thrill at all this is just another bewildering component to the cocktail. ]

You're having fun.

[ An accusation!!! How dare he get an adrenaline rush while her blood was running cold!!!! ]

[decommission]

[ One side of his mouth quirks upward. ]

A little bit. [ His gaze is drawn to her white-knuckled fists curled around the seat.

Their connection is open, his thoughts still projecting a certain wariness underneath the more immediate thrill and fear of the ride. But, in a tentative way, it's like a offer. His side is stable and solid, she can grip hold of him this way if she needs to.]

[erbier]

[ She knows she can. It is an advantage of the brood that she had realized early on, enlightened to it by the way she reverberated alongside the jedi killer, Kylo Ren. She had asked him for something more complicated than this, asked him to wade into a newly blossomed phobia for deep water and replace herself in it. She could not do the same with Steve... their minds are not yet so tragically close to one another.

She does not understand Steve nearly as well, but they have already practiced the soft hypnosis of matching breath and heartbeat before. She lets herself fall into that rhythm, fall out of herself into the little cup of space he's made for her on his side.

She swallows, forces her hands to loosen. They clasp in her lap instead, but it's a start. One she does not acknowledge out loud. ]

This all makes me feel very small.

[ Space. Visiting other worlds. She had expected to die young and in squalor, the culture shock is of great magnitude. ]

[decommission]

[ He glances at her face briefly. His breathing is even, heart rate steady - no different than running except for the pace. He's learned to deal with fear in his life, knows how to put it aside. Must've gotten him in trouble more often than it's saved him. ]

Me too. [ Makes his whole world feel small. ] Never got to do much traveling.

[erbier]

Hmm.

[ It's a shaky little noise, distant and distracted, but she manages to murmur, ]

Where would you have traveled to?

[decommission]

[ He thinks for a moment: ]

I woulda gone to Europe, if I'd shipped out. [ If she travels along the line he's opened for her, there are images to be found. All of them black and white, all of them from strange angles and slightly blurry. An iron lattice tower lifting into the sky, a massive clocktower over a city. ] I'd've liked to see it after the war, too.

[erbier]

[ Thoughts of Europe are somewhere else to be and she lets herself go, thinks about what little she can see of the skyline. ]

My world once had cities like that. Pretty, busy.

[decommission]

And more gardens? [ There are more images, black and white as before - though they flicker with bright pastel colors (shifting, becoming hazy marks on a canvas), his mind compensating for what he's never seen in person. Gardens, waterlilies. ]

[erbier]

[ Ah, a garden other than her own... It's hard to layer that on top of the dry, cracked world of fire and ash she had always known. She can only assume the grand houses must have gardens, once upon a time. Her idea of a fairy tale garden is added on to what Steve has begun, shaping out water features in elegant tiled trenches, adding glittering lanterns that bob in the wind, flowers, flowers, flowers, in so many colors. ]

The station garden needs work.

[ If it was to be theirs, it could assuredly stand to live up to their fantasies a little more. ]

[decommission]

[ It's almost like painting with a partner, more comfortable to create something together than to share thoughts. He lets her set in the details, far more than he could've imagined on his own. ]

Maybe we can find something to bring back. [ More plants, decoration. The mission brief made the planet sound bleak, but there might be something to find. ]