[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)

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((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

[regalled]

Then it is lucky you will not be alone.

[There is a flatness to the statement that doesn't make it less true. Unless she wished to be, she would never be alone again. Her brood, the nest, the closeness and safety of the whole. Nothing he had ever embraced fully, but it would see her weaknesses compensated for until she could come to conquer them herself.

He takes the pad from her, compact as it is, very similar to the one he had had when they first met, and slides his finger access the surface obvious for her to see. It unfolds, nearly, and displays a screen with a number of options. Useless to her then, in some strange writing.]

Do you read?

[There is no judgement in the question. Some did, some didn't. It would benefit her to learn but would not be necessary.]

If so, simply touch what you wish to see. If not, ask it for the information you need, and it will provide it to you, if it has it.

[He hands it back to her neatly, expression mild. It is a careful tempered thing. If she would be polite and reasonable, so he would be in return. That he should be even if she wasn't is something he knows but still finds difficulty in.]

[adamance]

[The meaning of his initial statement is lost on her. To Lexa, there is no question that she will not be depending upon this nest. Though she offers kindness and training, it's all for what she hopes is a common goal: to eradicate those who threaten the Hosts so that they can one day return to their people without bringing them harm. It's a goal that she abides by fully and completely. For her, there is no other way about it.

Thinking of them as people who are there for her is something that she can't count on. She can care. Help. Fight alongside them. But they are not and cannot be her people. But she doesn't ask for clarification on that point, and so, the meaning remains lost.]

I read, [she clarifies. As long as the language is one of the two she knows, she can read. When she receives the datapad back, she remembers the swipe of his finger for later, but she hits the first button available to her: the mission's explanation.]

Will it include explanations about credits, those machines—[she means the bikes]—and the items themselves that we're meant to find? [Asking him instead of seeking this information with a great deal of futility seems like a good idea. If it's not there, then she will only be at the same position she is, unable to use the datapad for anything useful.]

[regalled]

Yes, although as with most things theory and practice do not always go hand in hand.

[A definition can tell you much, but not necessarily leave an understanding in its wake.]

Credits can be used to purchase goods and services from a majority of the local businesses. They have distinct values, be careful to pay attention to them, the people of this place will find little issue in taking advantage of a lack of understanding.

[She would be wise not to expect assistance from those who resided in this den of thieves and small time swindlers.]

As for the bikes, there are manuals for them as well as some of the other technologies provided to you, however I would suggest first riding with another. It will give you a far more clear understanding. And the salvage items will be described, though a trip through a market may give you a better idea of what precisely you are looking for.

[From there he was likely to offer little help. Figuring things out was most of their purpose in bringing the new Hosts here. They would give them the supplies and information they would need, but they would not solve the problems for them. The hope was that they would instead take what they were given and build upon it. A far more vital goal than simply procuring supplies.]

There is also instruction on use of the weapon you have been provided, although I would hope you will not need it.

[adamance]

It may be prudent to find someone else to handle the trading aspect. I'm ill-equipped to understand the value. The numbers mean little to me. But I can familiarize myself with the bikes and parts, and work to retrieve what I can. My people have done that, though we typically repurpose what we find.

[Both her sword and her knife have metal that had been found elsewhere, all out of necessity. Mining isn't exactly practiced among her people, so it's really the next natural thing. They have done what they can to reuse the objects found in the land around them. They know the world well, even if they avoid some of it due to ignorance.

Of course, they also lack the means to start up electricity or cars, so it's not exactly much of a surprise.

Her understanding of her weaknesses here is straightforward. Currency seems meaningless to her. It's all the same. What use does it have? It can buy goods, but it doesn't serve a greater purpose.]

As it is, I don't intend to draw any attention to myself. Not in my current state. [As he said, definitions will only help so much. She'll have to learn by doing, and even that will take time.

The odds are that she'll abandon her taser before the mission is over, haphazardly deciding it's too much like a machine that she'd rather not utilize.]

[regalled]

Bigger is better, with this currency.

[It wasn't always true, but he didn't feel the need to explain it now.]

Your plan is not ill-founded, but I suggest you learn what you can here. You will have to familiarize yourself eventually.

[The point of this wasn't to lock them into their comfort zones, but to expand then and to teach them to rely on each other. Time would tell if it would be successful.

He glances at the rest of her supplies but resolves not to volunteer more. It is a difficult thing for him.]

Attempting discretion is for the best, although most will not care who you are or where you're from unless you do something drastic. They have greater concerns at the moment.

[adamance]

And there are always those who take advantage of those concerns. [Her statement is meant to counter his; while they are likely more involved in other facets of their lives, she disagrees that there won't be predators here. If they are involved in trading, then there is an aspect of survival. There will be those who shouldn't be clueless or unaware here. She shouldn't be counted as among them.]

I intend to acclimate either way. I won't survive otherwise. [Here. Elsewhere. Cathaway had said that those who would be likely to die would almost certainly take care of themselves in that aspect. Lexa refuses to consider themselves among them.

The issue of "bigger is better" with the currency is still lost on her, but she mentally devises a plan to take care of it. She won't be able to linger in one place for long, but she'll get a grasp on the numerical nature of things by listening and watching. If she comes away with little money to show from the necessity of this, at least she'll have grasped that much for future missions.

She'll take that much.]

[regalled]

[He manages not to sigh, although it is a near thing. He had already told her they would take her for all she was worth, but her attempting to be inconspicuous would do little to change that. This was merely a situation where there was no need to disguise their origin, to have a story, a cover, a false identity. That would not remain true forever]

No, you won't.

[Flat fact. He wasn't the type to minimize the threat they now lived under.]

This is as good of a place as any to learn. It won't give you any other choice.

[adamance]

[And she has no intentions to die, not here, not among people who wouldn't know how to offer her a proper burial. None of them would know to pass on the flame and ensure that it's there for the next Commander. If anything, she assumes that her symbiote might be taken away while her body is falls to waste.

No, she won't die here.]

Of course not. I believe I'll be able to handle anything else from here. [There's a beat, as she recalls Cathaway's words.]

Thank you.

[Diplomacy. Lexa's version of it is sometimes tenser than it has to be, but she can be mannerly. Sometimes.]

[regalled]

[She night not be able to handle anything else, but she'd handle enough, and with luck and the help of her brood and the other Hosts she may be able to handle the rest.

He dips his head slightly, hands falling neatly back to his side.]

You are welcome. May you weather the storm.