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the outer gate
"Open up, and let them in."
The Moira is no more.
With the damage done to the ship due to the timeslip, all that remains is a burning wreckage and parts to be taken—if the crew can find anything in the pieces. Recovery and headcounts are the main objective for the first several hours of being planetside, and once things have settled just enough, Captain Ira calls for a meeting and addresses those who are able in person to explain the situation. He draws a rough map of the area and explains where he believes they are - according to the terrain - and where they must go. For anyone who’s listening, he describes things like an “Outer Gate”, an “Inner Gate” and “gate sectors”. Believing this to be the best course of action, all crew are asked to explore and gather what they think they’ll need to make the long journey towards the central point of the Hub. Because the MIDs are no longer working due to the lack of a network, the Captains distribute a newer tech called the TAB. It serves the same functions as the MID but is lighter, slimmer, and has the ability to stick to any surface.
WELCOME TO THE MIDWAY HUB
Now that the smoke from the crash has cleared, and injured crew have been tended to, the Captains get everyone ready for departure by explaining what they know of the Hub. Almost stone-like, the creators built a domed workspace in the largest solid space on the planet they could find. Gates are the only way inside, and anyone who catches a glimpse of the compound will see that parts of the dome are cracked. Yet, everything still appears to be relatively intact. The Midway Hub’s terrain is very rocky and difficult to walk on at times. Below the surface is a honeycomb of intermittently dense and brittle stone that makes travel difficult due to the unpredictable nature of what lies beneath the crew’s feet. Those who can develop the tech from what’s left of the debris might be able to create something to determine which route is the safest. Ships and small crafts can be used to fly, but landing is a problem—rocks jut up in sharp peaks and the clearer spots can't handle their weight. Vegetation is sparse, consisting of twisted dark gray thistles that have sprung up from cracks in the rock and burn when in direct contact with skin, and what could be considered small animals here can be seen scurrying away the closer crew get to them.
☄ WEEK ONE
Crew are asked to hook cryo beds together and to use any appropriate vehicles that can be made or fashioned to fit the terrain to carry injured crew on the journey to the center of the Hub. Supplies are gathered, and the Captains, as well as any crew who want to, give the Moira a proper sendoff, heads bowed as they say goodbye to what’s been their home. Traveling starts out slowly, a line of a hundred-plus crew members making their way slowly forward. Stops are frequent, but camping for rest only occurs at night. Crew are assigned watch shifts, fires are built, injured tended to, and those who are able are asked to explore nearby caves and hunt for food.
Something akin to deer, though striped and only to be found in pairs, can be stumbled across at night. Throngs of dark purple mammels begin to follow the Moirans on their trip as well. They are friendly, curious, and eat the thistle. Meet the intelligent, watchful predators that aren’t easily scared away and follow the crew from a distance as if waiting to pounce. The thistle can be eaten, but only if cooked first, and those who sample the chewy plant raw will experience a burning sensation in their throat that doesn’t go away until the cooked version is consumed. During the first week, water can’t be found.
Anyone who does hunt, gather, or explore should make sure to that their TABS are on and it’s suggested that nobody goes alone.
Nearing the end of the first week, an Ingress can be spotted close by that crew can explore. If anyone dares to go inside, they will find the texture of the ground and surrounding walls to be rather soft. If inspected closely, crew will discover that what they originally thought to be rock is actually a living organism that’s fed off the energy of the Ingress it’s attached itself to. It’s not harmful and squishy to the touch. If pressed hard enough, it secretes a turquoise liquid with the consistency of water that might make a good substitute for that very thing. ☄ WEEK TWO
When crew finally pass through the sector gates, a strange sensation encompasses them, and a depowering of sorts goes into effect. The creators put in security measures meant to put all visitors on equal footing as well as to protect themselves from harm. All crew will essentially have the strength and abilities of the average human. An unforeseen issue, this causes Captain Thán to slip into a coma as he is no longer able to continue to recover at a steady pace, and with the loss of the former Captain’s abilities, crew can no longer be brought back if they die. For the first time, all Moirans are subject to permanent death.
During this week of travel, broken ingress machines and parts will be found scattered among the rocks, and new crew will come through. Unfortunately, these Ingresses aren’t in good shape, and anyone coming through will be in varying states of distress—some physical and some mental. New individuals will either have suffered an age slip, growing older or younger than their original body, some form of body transformation (perhaps that shiny thing they were wearing is now part of them somehow), or an extreme weakness they had never been subjected to before arriving on the Midway Hub. The new people will be offered to join their group, once found, and seasoned crew will be asked to explain to them where they are going and what they know.
The rest of the week will be a mix of greeting the new arrivals and continuing to travel to the center of the Hub. The closer they get, the less frequently they’ll see animals, and more caves will begin to pop up. ☄ WEEK THREE
Entering the third week of travel, settlements and houses begin to crop up and are prime areas for exploration and general supplies. Those who go inside may find items that have been left behind and evidence showing that those of varying species and cultures lived in the homes. Some appeared to have been scientists while others were explorers, but all living quarters are deserted. Crew who are less lucky in their search might come away with no fresh supplies, and others might walk into traps or safeguards left behind by previous tenants; these come in many forms, from mild paralysis to temporary unconsciousness. As there are more residences, there are also more caves. The entrances vary in size, and light sources will be needed to explore. Once inside, crew can find purple underwater streams, which can be consumed, and glowing surfaces. When crew drink the water, it temporarily restores powers, a few minutes tops, and then, extreme lethargy settles in for a couple of hours.
Further into the cave systems, crew will come across these lovely creatures that are attracted to sound and track through scent. They are highly dangerous and attack simply to feed. Killing them, though, is surprisingly simple as they are just as vulnerable and weak as everyone else. They are vicious in demeanor but only as strong as an average human.
The closer to the Inner Gate crew get, the less homes, wildlife, and more caves there will be. ☄ WEEK FOUR
The Captains, aware that the crew is exhausted, stop and make camp for the first few days. Someone mentions that it’s the holidays where they’re from, and the Captains do their best to throw a party. Set up at the base of a cave, tents are built and fires roar. Soft music is played in the form of guitar, thank you Ira, and Cúrre brings out some legumes that taste like cherries when roasted. There isn’t much in the way of decorations, but crew are encouraged to dig through their pac-discs and contribute to the festivities.
After a brief respite, crew learn that the entrances to Gate A and Gate B are inside one of the caves but any signs or markings have long since worn away or been destroyed. Groups are split, TABS are synced, and crew explore carefully until an entrance is found. Crew discover Gate A first, and all crew are contacted to gather there. The Captains will remain at the cave entrance until all crew are accounted for, and then, they’ll enter through the gate together.
( ooc; For questions, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )
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hohnkai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-12-02 06:54 pm
no subject
So his brows knit for just a second, words pulled back down to the pit of his lungs before he smooths over and motions to the towering ruin of what presumably used to be a functional Ingress.
The only seemingly off thing about it is that it doesn't smell like rusted machinery; the air around it is rank, but not from the harsh tang of copper or iron. ]
—Time to make ourselves useful, then.
no subject
[He wrinkles his nose as he takes a video. Walks around with his now scuffed wingtips (which probably seem out of place) crunching along grit, getting video of the thing in full, lingering over every bit in careful detail as a good intelligence agent would.]
Does it smell a little "dead" to you, or is it just me. [Which either could be something natural in the area itself, or unnervingly something to do with the Ingress.]
[It makes him wonder about those journal postings that Ryuuzaki had made.]
no subject
[ He assents, because the smell reminds him of abandoned prisons still fresh with excrement and adrenaline. Out of propriety and to avoid bringing up anything unsavory, he refrains from mentioning Da Ghwandai Khar— the scent of blood, sweat, and days of being trapped in the dark. That's what this place smells like.
Venom edges closer to the rim of the Ingress, runs a gloved hand over the grooved edges of its outer perimeter. ]
...Stay here. I'll go inside.
[ Because he doesn't want Kaz to risk it, of course. Then again, he doesn't expect Kaz to blindly say yes. ]
no subject
[Instead he doesn't argue. Because if something happened while testing it out, it would be better if one of them started out on the outside.]
Call me in if there's no obvious immediate danger.
[Which is incredibly hard to gauge, he knows. In the meantime, he'll stand near the mouth of the Ingress where he can watch.]
no subject
—where his heel caves, leaving a strange indent in what he assumed incorrectly to be solid ground.
Huh.
The uneven footing gets worse the farther he goes in, and once he notices that the walls are... pulsing, maybe? He reaches out and sinks the index of his bionic into the 'wall'.
It oozes liquid.
Huh. ]
...Inside the stomach of a whale, again. [ He mutters to himself, before calling back to Kaz: ] Looks like these aren't caves— I'm stepping back out.
no subject
This is living tissue. Did it grow from the Ingress? Or is it just attached to it.
[Something they can use, probably.]
I don't like the look of this. How long has this been left to grow like this? [How long has there been no one to tend to this Ingress?]
no subject
No clue. We're gonna need some expert eyes on this, at any rate.
[ He doesn't claim to be an expert on alien physiology and its tendency to attach to complex machinery. He's sure his input won't be worth much in the long run. ]
We'll take some visuals and mark this spot for future reference. If something attached themselves to this Ingress for survival, there might be a chance that it's still operational.
no subject
I know it's possible to aim the Ingress to bring some things in. This last time, all it brought in was hostiles. I wouldn't doubt it was Ploiatos trying to defend himself, changing some setting before his death.
But prior to that- [he grunts as he changes positions to gather some from the other side of the "cave"] -prior to that the Ingress had a habit of choosing sentient beings that either were crucial parts of their universe's history or could be considered of exceptional ability.
Now, this one has all of-
[He gestures around]
-this attached to it.
[In other words he has no doubt it's operational.] I wonder if it brought this or if it came to it on its own.
no subject
[ If the Ingress is able to transport something on this scale, maybe they could have considered themselves lucky that they didn't go under far earlier than they did— who knows.
Venom sinks his palm against the wall again, rubbing turquoise-stained fingertips together before wiping them on his pant leg. ]
Either way, it's difficult to tell where the Ingress ends and this thing begins.
no subject
Mama! [He snapped at her, and she stopped mid-lick to look at them. Turning to stare and then smiling wide with a stained mouth.]
[Kaz huffs in exasperation.] It's probably not poisonous. She knew the difference between the toxins in the gardens.
[Mama turns her happy do-no-good smile to Venom.]
no subject
'Probably'.
[ IS KAZ SURE... lord, all of Venom's proxy children giving him real grief, here.
He carries Mama out of the alien Ingress cave, and only sets her down when he's a good distance away. Again, like a father putting his kid in time out. ]
no subject
[His departure was accompanied by a woeful whine, but fortunately she doesn't follow even if she's pretty sure they're never coming back and they're gone and she'll now be alone forever.]
[Kaz finishes with liquid samples and he's using a knife to slice off thin segments of cave wall. Not too much. But he puts those away, too.] We can probably store these in cryo until we find adequate facilities.
[Then he mutters off to the side.] There had better be some somewhere.
no subject
Venom comes back looking slightly more defeated than he did before, and holds out his prosthetic to take whatever Kaz wants to pass his way to keep his hands open. Once again, he's forgetting that Kaz can use both of them now, even after 4 or so months of adjusting to the new arrangements. ]
We'll find you a shower, Kaz.
[ A gentle joke for that low mutter. ]
no subject
[He hands the canteen back to V. It's automatic- he offers to take something, and Kaz accepts. But that's all he offers. He doesn't want to encumber the better fighter of their group. But the remark gets a little bit of an exasperated face.]
I was expecting there to be an actual civilization here that could help us return home.
[...]
But I would also like a shower.
[Pretending that isn't any sort of priority on his list (even if it's at #3) at least he makes his way back towards the mouth of the Ingress.] We'll keep an eye on Mama. If she's fine, we might have to come back for more.
no subject
(But first, he gives Mama a little pat and jerks his head back towards Kaz. The husky happily obliges, trotting back to her master because she missed him so much, where has he been, why did he leave her!!!) ]
Going back goes without saying.
[ That's been Venom's priority since day one, even if he knows that no one is actually missing from Mother Base right now and none of their operations are actually at a standstill.
With his quick survey done, Venom comes back to kneel by Mama and ruffle his hand through her fur. ]
Looks like Mama might have solved our water problem, at any rate.
no subject
What if this is us now?
We need to get back. [He has so much to make up for.] But... What if it's just... we have to stay here. Maybe not on this planet but in this universe. [There. The concern is voiced. Kaz isn't one to give up. He doesn't plan to give up. But when he built motherbase, he had no other plan, no other intention. All he lived for was revenge. He's been planning on his return, focusing hard on an inevitability that, he has to finally hesitate and wonder... it might not happen for them.]
[He stands near the skeleton of this Ingress, keenly aware of it being like a symbol of the ongoing disaster that is their lives.]
no subject
But Venom is... well, he's Venom. His 'what if's are gentle hallucinations and phantom pains (drink for the use for the game title), and they've always been speculations that he's had to walk away from, head held, horn bleeding. ]
No. This isn't how we'll end.
[ He says so with conviction, with the steady gravitas of someone who has nothing at all left in him to lose but his principles. The same quiet strength that Venom displays in times of mourning, because he differs from Big Boss so starkly with respect to where he digs his heels and stays upright: Venom is strongest when people need him. His morale, his presence. ]
I've made too many promises to think otherwise.
[ "Plant your roots in me. I won't see you end as ashes."
"Another mission, right, Boss?"
He turns to Kaz, features hardened but compassionate. It's fine for his XO to have his misgivings, but it's his duty to his friend as his CO, as his bolster, not to waver. ]
You're gonna have to stick with me until I take us home.
no subject
I want to stick with you either way.
[Even if it's feeling more and more like a lost cause. He relents on his concerns for now. Even if he's a little worried about wondering aimlessly for another decade it's... well, it's something for them to do. Not like they have anything better.]
Alright. [He agrees. It's his duty as XO to follow and to show confidence. It's his duty as friend to be the companion that he needs.]
[Kaz steps up to him and gives him a quick peck on the lips, not asking this time, but not lingering too long. Just a gesture of gratitude.]
no subject
He doesn't want Kaz to reflect back on this moment and regret that he did this, that he said alright. He doesn't want to be a misjudgment on Kaz's part, another red mark in Kaz's steadily-growing emotional debts; that past should be laid to rest.
And as much as he still doesn't know how to reconcile the physical line that they occasionally cross (is this what Kaz wants from him? is it something he's fine to give?), Venom accepts it without protest or surprise, and reciprocates with his fingers in slightly-matted hair. A thumb traces the curve of Kaz's ear from cartilage to earlobe, and the gesture completes with a rub of gloved knuckles to his XO's jaw. ]
Alright.
[ He parrots, before Mama ruins the entire moment by butting right up against Kaz's side in a subtle reminder that yes, she is also here for kisses, thank you very much. ]