Crashing Down: Preparation

[voidtreckermods]

Voidtreckers. I have picked up a catastrophe mission coming from system #78961112094711. Voidtreckers have urged me to be open with you all these last months and so I shall be transparent. The readings coming from this catastrophe are very unusual and I cannot determine the threats. Indeed there do not seem to be any threats in the system that would result in a catastrophe level mission.

This has been encountered before, in the Month of Egret on system #27462947582. This voidcraft was unable to ascertain the threats that could lead to a catastrophe. Known risks were calculated and mission goals created, but the Voidtreckers were put in unnecessary danger from the world destroyers.

From the data available it is not unreasonable to believe that the catastrophe facing #78961112094711 comes from the world destroyers. We still have little information. We do not have any way to stop the destroyers. However we have advantages that Voidtreckers did not have in the month of Egret.

We know what is coming. System #78961112094711 is Void Active. Voidtreckers have allies there. Saving the system is not possible but with five hours it is possible that many many lives could be saved by evacuating them to the void.

This voidcraft is sending a forward message to the ministry stationed on System #78961112094711. Due to the nature of arriving at catastrophe missions they will receive it not long before we arrive. But it should mean they are ready for us. This voidcraft has calculated mission goals to help voidtreckers organise but it should be noted that the most important goal is to save as many lives as possible.

The announcement comes out of the blue on day twenty four of the month of Quicksand. Not too long after breakfast when people are getting on with chores or other morning activities.

It is followed quickly by a holographic message setting out their team goals. They do not have all that much time before arrival, an hour or so to be prepared for the huge task ahead of them. The dressing carriage is open with warm coats, hats and other team-coordinated winter accessories.

How to prepare for such a challenge? It's going to be a very difficult day.

[OOC: This is a bonus extra for those who want to play out the preparation and reaction to the forthcoming event. It is forward dated until day 24. The actual event will go up on the 16th April and a conclusion on the 23rd. Though IC the event will only last one day.]

Comments

LO/Buttercup | OTA | Red Team

[knifewithnoname]

She's not surprised to hear the trains voice as she wakes. It happens every morning after all and she's not surprised for it to be longer than the usual morning greeting. After all she is expecting an announcement of a platform.

But the train isn't talking about a platform and it's still dark and...

Oh. She tried to sit up and hit lid. Hands pushed the suitcase open and she blinked into the luggage carriage. Stupid tether. Stupid train.

What's it saying? Five hours, evacuation to the void, ministry, save lives. Had she been gone so long it was a new month? Her SCA lit up and she began to read even as she made her way through the luggage carriage towards the door.

By the time she got to the dressing carriage she had read the goals. But she's still mostly confused.

"What do be going on?" She asked anyone close by. "I did no be hearing it all. What did the train be saying?"

[tactlesstantei]

Hey, Buttercup! [It's Masumi, rushing to get ready in a panic over having to actually deal with the world destroyers. She's happy to see Buttercup back, but now isn't the time for normal greetings.]

We got a new mission. Train thinks that the world destroyers are going to hit Osiga and we have to go save as many people as possible.

[knifewithnoname]

Masumi. [She greets her but then listens as her roommate quickly began to explain what the train had been saying.

Osiga...] The place with the nights that did be lasting a month?

[That was Osiga right? The world eaters were going there?]

[tactlesstantei]

Yup. That's the one. We're going to be evacuating as many people as possible to the void before the destroyers get there.

[In other words, it's going to be a rough mission.]

[knifewithnoname]

They will be coming to this train? [Would this train fit a whole world full of people. Hadn't Osiga only been one planet in a system of lots of planets and space stations?

She's focusing though, shaking off the confused sleepiness of just waking up. She moved to a drawer and opened it. Hats. Yes. Osiga had been very cold.]

[tactlesstantei]

No, I think they'll be going to their own voidcrafts. They're void active and the train sent a message ahead to the ministry there, so they don't need to board ours I don't think.

[Masumi's going through coats, looking for one in her size. It doesn't take long to find one and put it on, doing it up as she speaks.]

I wish we could stop the destroyers from destroying the world but apparently the mission is just to save people before they get there. [At least people will be saved, but letting Osiga be destroyed isn't ideal.]

[knifewithnoname]

Okay. [That makes sense. They had the void ministry on that world. Some people had been to speak to them. So they had their own void craft.

She finds a coat and pulls it on, it fits. It will do.]

Yes it would be being better if we could be fighting the world eaters.

[tactlesstantei]

They can't be left to keep hitting worlds like they do. [They have to be stopped, but Masumi isn't sure how to do that. All that can be done for now is save lives with the limited time they have to do it.]

...We'll have five hours to save as many people as we can. It won't be a long mission this time. [It won't be long, but it will be a scramble by the sounds of it.]

[knifewithnoname]

Five hours. [To save a whole world. That wasn't a lot. But she nodded, face grim.]

I will be preparing then.

[irrationally]

Alice absolutely does not look great.

Somehow she seems even paler than usually - or maybe it's just the dark circles around her eyes being even darker than usually, making her skin look even whiter in contrast. And despite the fact that she feels miserable, she still dragged herself over to the dressing carriage all the same, perhaps out of a lack of not knowing what else to do under the current circumstances.

It's as she's sitting there that she notices the girl. .. Wait, she hadn't been around for a while, right? Alice hasn't noticed much during the past while, but it has been difficult to not notice the younger girl's disappearance when she was forced into sharing a room with the other.

Or so the names next to the door said, anyway. (As much as one can call that a 'name' for the other girl.) Not like Alice ever actually got to see the other there.

"Another mission," she simply answers.

Yes, this is a very helpful explanation, thanks.

[knifewithnoname]

She has been worried about Alice for a while. Tidus had tried to help her think of things to help and she had bought a tea party... For platform day. Which today is not. Because time has passed and she's been in a suitcase and now it is mission time again.

She needs to get her head thinking. She nodded at Alice.

"Will you be going on it?"

Was it even smart for Alice to go on a mission right now. She was still very clearly broken. Worse even than when she had seen her last. It probably wasn't a good idea.

[irrationally]

It's a good question, honestly. Alice inhales slowly before speaking up.

"I do not trust to leave this up to everyone else." Not when some people on the train are just.. utter morons. And the task this time around is a little too important, which may be part of the reason why Alice managed to drag herself over towards the dressing carriage. At least with some missions it's not like a world would be gone if they would fail, but.. well, if they don't work hard enough here, some people might be lost along with the world that will be destroyed.

And that's a little harder for Alice's hero complex to swallow, no matter how crappy she's feeling right now.

".. And every life not saved on this mission will be a life snuffed out."

[knifewithnoname]

That sounded more like Alice. Not trusting the others to do it right. It was right after all. Some people on this train were very stupid.

It was an important mission. "Yes. If we do be missing anyone they will be dying."

So even apart from useless teammates, it was a case of all hands on deck. Everyone was needed, because they had a lot to do.

[irrationally]

It's just about the only reason that can get Alice to move anymore at this point, really. She has to get herself together, or people will die. If she just imagines that someone might have been able to save her if they had worked a little harder.. that gives her at least some strength to not be that absent person for someone else.

No matter how heavy her limbs feel.

".. How about you? You must just have woken up."

Or.. well, whatever someone does inside of those suitcases. Since no one seems to remember, Alice imagines people just sleep in there or something.

Regardless, it can't be easy for the other girl either, having to do all this when she only just regained consciousness.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes." She nodded. "I did be waking up when the train did be speaking."

Hence why she is trying to catch up as quickly as possible. "What month name do we be being on now?"

They'd just had a mission, so was it a new month? How long had she been gone?

It maybe doesn't matter but having as much information as possible is good.

[irrationally]

.. what month name are they on? It's a good question. Sure, the train may say it often enough, but Alice's mind has been so scrambled lately that it's been really hard to maintain small details than that.

So rather than answering that directly, especially when she doesn't know the full answer, she instead approaches it from a slightly different angle.

"You have not been gone for long."

Not as far as Alice knows, anyway.

"Perhaps a week or so."

[knifewithnoname]

Does she not know? That's worrying because it's an easy thing to know. The train says it every morning. If she doesn't know that then she really hasn't been paying attention.

Alice isn't a stupid person, so the strange mood that has taken over her has gotten worse. She sighed.

"Okay. That do no be being too long. Do you be having warm things?"

Osiga was cold. Alice was at least in here, which meant she had began to prepare. But if she can't even know what month it is then she was going to have to make sure to help her. If Alice can't even follow what was going on then she was going to need all the help she could get on a world about to be eaten.

[subcircuits]

"Buttercup!" Explanations later, scooping now. This is what you get for accepting Devero as a dad, kiddo: snatched up and squeezed (carefully) when he sees you for the first time after your name had gone gold.

[knifewithnoname]

She knows the voice, obviously. But before she can react she is scooped up, leaving the floor altogether.

For a moment she freezes, but this is Devero. She trusts him completely and so once her brain kicks into gear she wraps her arms around him.

"How long did I be being gone?"

It must have been a long time, if he was reacting like this.

[subcircuits]

"A week!" he tells her, squeezing her once more before loosening his grip. ...Listen, it felt like a long time to him.

[knifewithnoname]

She lets herself be squeezed. Not that she can do anything about it but she doesn't mind it at all. It feels safe. "A week." She sighed.

"That do be being stupid. And we do be having another mission? It do be still be being Quicksand."

Surely if it had only been a week.

[subcircuits]

"It's an emergency," he tells her, his expression grave. "A catastrophe mission. The train says that the winter world we stopped at a few months back-- Osiga?-- is under threat from the world destroyers."

[knifewithnoname]

Osiga. The world with the longest night festival. It was under threat from the world destroyers? The shapes in the sky that ate worlds.

"What do it be expecting us to be doing about it?"

No one knew how to fight those shapes. Last time the train had dragged them away and the world had been eaten anyways.

[subcircuits]

"Evacuate as many people into the Void as possible." He sounds a little grim as he says it, and lets her down out of his arms. He kneels in front of her. "We can't save the planet, but we can try to save the people."

[knifewithnoname]

"Oh." To put them all in the void. People could be in the void even if they were dead. Sanzo was an example of that.

"So they will be living on a voidcraft forever?"