a storm approaches.This log is for everyone who signed up for The Storm investigation. Feel free to use the here to plot further on how you plan on approaching The Storm, and the issue. The mod questions thread is also open, if you have anything you would like to run by us.
the investigation.It takes a day of preparation, and a day of discussion, before you are led further down into the tunnels. It's pitch black, but one of the BGs who you have become familiar enough with turns on a low light and continues further. You walk for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, and then turn a corner into a large, open cavern. The BG explains that at one time, this had been an underground transportation system - old and unused for centuries, now, but still in working order.
They file each of you onto a single car - it seems to be large enough to fit nearly a hundred, possibly more, bodies - so everyone has a space. The BG explains that they have already input the coordinates into the system, and that once they close the door, you will be transported to the last known location. The car will be programmed to wait for 72 hours, and then will return to this location. There is food and water supplied, and already packed, in the car. If you are not back in the car by that time, it will leave you behind. They then give their farewells, thank you for your help and readiness, and step away from the door - letting it close behind them. The car travels down a pitch black tunnel, and while the inside is dimly lit enough for the Circle Members to see each other and move around without hinderance, you can see nothing through the windows. It continues for a few hours at this rate - nothing to see, no idea where you are going. That is, until it seems to break through the surface, the track running through buildings and another, unknown area of the city.
The streets and buildings are abandoned, the tech old and outdated, windows broken out and dust filling the street. The sky, like back in the city you knew before, is cloudy and grey. But these clouds are different - these clouds are dark in a way you haven't seen before. You travel for another half hour above ground before the cart comes to a stop, and during this time it happens twice. A low rumble, seeming to come from everywhere at once, and then a few heartbeats after, a disasterous flash of lighting - miles away, yes, but threatening and gigantic, brighter and more violent than you've ever seen lightning before. The crash shakes the ground under you, and the damage is immense.
But the buildings are abandoned, the streets empty save for crates, old mechanical bits, dusty remnants of a society long forgotten by the Struxta you came from just a couple of days prior.
This is The Storm you've been warned about. the storm.You have been asked to find out information that will help the BG's, and Struxta, to stop The Storm.
From what you can gather, it does seem to be a naturally occurring weather phenomenon, as far as weather systems seem to work on this planet. However, rather than scattered thunder and lightning strikes, it seems to almost recharge and strike with epic proportions. It can damage, or destroy, buildings. It shorts out any and all items (and people) who depend on electricity in any form to function (Sorry Daylight and Conner, sorry to anyone who brought along technology) within a three mile radius.
The 'darkness' the BGs were talking about does follow this storm, but they seem to have been referring to this electrical shortage that comes from the storm and it's strikes. If this storm does reach any of the still-occupied areas of the city, it will shut down the entire grid, as well as any of the robots, androids, or electrically based figures that exist there - essentially ending the life of every Struxta citizen that is effected.
Plot, plan, theorize, and see if you can find a way to stop The Storm. If not, be back on the train car in 72 hours time, to return to the BGs and report what you have found.PROMPT IDEAS
1.) Discussions on the train - do you have any ideas for what to prepare? Any discussions you may want to have? You and your fellow Circle Members are caught here together for a few hours, driving into a situation you know very little about. What do you want to make sure you're prepared to handle?
2.) Scouting missions - the heart of The Storm is very much in the distance, and it is not moving quickly, giving Circle Members plenty of time to set out and check out the surrounding city. What you will find won't be much - this is a robotic ghost town in every turn of the phrase. Buildings have been abandoned for hundreds of years, covered in dust and left entirely undisturbed, except for the breeze that now seems to flit through this entire area. There are stores, warehouses, apartments, and buildings you can't even tell what they were used for, cleared out. Whenever, or whoever, lived in this part of Struxta had evacuated, quickly but efficiently.
3.) The Storm - The Storm is still a distance away from where the cart has dropped you off, enough that when your 72 hours are up, the heart of the storm and the lightning strikes shouldn't reach the car, or the track. This does mean that to do any closer investigation, you will need to go to The Storm itself. But be careful - the electrical output from these lightning strikes are dangerous, and can have all sorts of effects on both natural and mechanical beings. The wind, the closer you get to The Storm, will also pick up - making any kind of flying or air travel impossible.
4.) Planning - the car leaves everyone off at an old train station, which a large room attached. This room can be used as a kind of home base, as well as a meeting location. What do you plan on doing? Simply taking down information, or trying to take the storm head on? How do you plan on doing that? Will your abilities help? This room attached onto the train station is a safe location - no effects of The Storm will make it inside. Use as you would like! |
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acatalepsy_logs2018-07-29 11:52 pm
no subject
Yeah. I know.
[She says this softly. Not arguing, not trying to. To do so would be to deny the chain that wound around them, keeping them bound in this cyclical movement. A2 had not forgiven either, but the difference was that 9S had a target he could focus his hatred on, a single line between himself and vengeance, absolution. A2 had not had even this luxury. She could not fight Command, all-seeing and all-powerful, nor the humans residing safely on the moon. So she destroyed herself instead, in a battle that would never end for any of them.
She was the person she could not forgive.]
I'm going to carry you now. I won't hurt you. Try not to move too much.
no subject
No—rather, 9S seems lost in thought, even with the visor over his eyes. Her response comes so resigned, so despondent, that it throws him for a loop more than anything else she could have possibly said. This would be far easier to deal with if she'd spoke like the traitorous killer he believed her to be.
She insists on aiding him instead, with a gentle touch that reminds him too much like 2B's. He'd be furious at how far their resemblance extends if he weren't both bewildered and exhausted. ]
... Fine.
[ Surprisingly, 9S doesn't sound begrudging, much as he'd like to be. ]
no subject
They walk in silence. A2 knows that once he gets the strength again to do so, he'll try to kill her again. But for now, she allows herself to be content with this. She's fulfilling her promise. It isn't too much to keep him safe, when he's like this. A2 recalls that 2B had carried him like this as well. She recalls too, all the times where she had killed him. Crushed his throat, driven him through with her sword, sent Pod to fire upon him in an unguarded moment, and for a little while, their memories collide in such a way that she isn't sure which ones are her own or not.]
no subject
There's so many questions running through his head, and it's all overwhelming in his current state. Why? A2's answer hasn't satisfied him; perhaps it doesn't because it makes no sense to begin with. 9S is desperate to understand, but he's gradually starting to realize he's in no position to begin trying.
It's quiet between them two, and after releasing a wavering, tired sigh, 9S doesn't interject into the silence. ]
no subject
Pod.
[Pod 042, accustomed to A2's blunt non-requests for information, answers:]
The station is approximately 4 kilometers away.
Mm.
[Her pace picks up a little. Without her enhancements, 9S is heavier than he should be, but she ignores the way her joints protest at the strain of carrying another android's weight. It's not the first time some part of her body has complained. Won't be the last.
To no one in particular, lest 9S think she's trying to make unnecessary small talk, she says,] Not that far.
after ten years
More than anything, he just wants to be out of her grasp. He can't stand this. ]
Just— [ Despite his sensory systems gradually degrading on him, voice muddled with static and noise, 9S forces through a response to her idle comment, tone balancing on the delicate line between pleading and resentment. ] Just hurry it up.
hello friendo
Even so, it feels like ages to her, too. The chasm that separates them is too wide for progress to be made so quickly. She feels that it's too deep to make progress at all.
It's a reality she's accepted, if wearily. Hope has no room to grow when you kill it in the cradle.
...
When they arrive at last, she lowers him carefully to the ground. Her gesture of goodwill aside, she doesn't intend on staying to wait for him to recover well enough to kill her, and so turns to leave.]
no subject
She evidently had no intention of doing him harm, but trust did not come so easily when a fire still burns. ]
A2, this... [ As she begins to leave, 9S has enough only to begin—this isn't the end; it doesn't solve anything; you shouldn't have; why?—but the thought vanishes as quickly as it comes with a body that can no longer bear to cling to consciousness further. He slumps back against the wall he's settled against, finally, unmoving.
A moment later, Pod 153's voice interjects: ]
Report: unit 9S has powered down. Mandatory system repairs are needed before initiating boot-up sequence. Loading maintenance mode now.
no subject
Then, without a word, she turns and walks away.]