Who: Everyone
When: August 9 and onward
Where: An unexpected destination
What: The newcomers go on a trip and end up far from where they expected
Warnings: Potential violence. Please label your content!

NOTE: PLEASE READ THIS OOC POST FIRST.

When the time comes for the travelers to go on the off-world trip that will help restore Thisavrou, they are not alone. Others who have settled on the planets longer and come to call them home are also prepared to travel; through the Ingress and do their part. Yet when the newcomers step through, whether they stepped through the Ingress seconds or hours apart, they will find that they have arrived at the same time, and only newcomers are in sight.

What awaits them is not a land of plenty. The land is barren, and dark storms in the sky resemble those held at bay by the Ingress complex—but much, much closer. Those who traveled on the Moira may recognize the landscape; though they have come through at a different point from the crash, they are on the Midway Hub. And there is no portal back. They are trapped.

hitting the road

Though some have been here before, the Midway Hub is not as they remember it. The storms fill the sky, leaving it dark and ominous even when they are not sweeping across the landscape—but they have clearly done so in recent times, and often. While never a lush land, large patches of ground an acre or more wide looking nothing more than utterly dead; the thistle that naturally grows is brittle, black and unable to be consumed even with the usual preparations to make it edible, and here and there animal corpses are found twisted into unnatural poses, but seemingly uninjured. These places are particularly concentrated near the broken Ingresses litter the landscape. While Midway Hub as a whole may seem naturally arid, these dead spots leave no hope that anything can possibly live there again.

The travelers have two options: stay where they are, or move on. While it might seem that they've been tricked into coming here and been left abandoned, those with the technological ability to do so may detect a sign of hope: a familiar energy source, far in the distance. Although none of the Ingresses they pass will ever work again, the faint energy shows that one still-functioning Ingress lies far in the distance, days away.

Although technological scanning or impressive memory of the landscape indicates that they are not separated from their destination by one of the gates that divide the land, they are also far from the shelter of the facility at the center of the Hub. Any attempt to travel in a direction other than that of the energy signal will result in a strange disorientation after several hours, bringing individuals back to their original path as though they've gone in circles. Meanwhile, though travelers will feel the need to slake their hunger and thirst through any natural water sources they discover, wildlife they can hunt for food and any supplies they have on them, if they don't find sustenance, they'll find that they will never pass out or reach the point of starvation. Instead, they'll be left alive and awake but feeling utterly hollow.

storm front

At regular intervals, the energy storms above descend onto the land, bringing not rain but violent clashes of negative energy and thunder so loud that nothing can be heard above it. The passing of the storms leaves some strange effects. The ground is warped and rotted by their touch, even solid stone degrading to a spongy surface. The air is tepid and oddly charged. Prolonged contact with air or ground will not supply energy, however — it drains it from organic and synthetic life alike.

Those who remember their last trip to the Hub, or simply explore in the right direction, may come across the cave complexes with their glowing surfaces and streams. The light is dimmer now, a sickly green, but drinking from the streams will still restore the energy lost, for a time. This time, however, the lethargy that inevitably follows is much more severe, and the drinkers are left with a raw, empty feeling leeching in from the wasteland around.

Those who are exposed to the storms, either by finding themselves in very close proximity or even closely observing them for too long as they approach, may lose their sight, or hearing, even much of the ability to feel touch — whatever sense they used in observation. What lingers in its place is a numbness. A hunger. And as time passes, the time between storms decreases; what seemed like hours between the storms becomes scarcely one, and their intensity grows.

wild life

Sentient beings are not the only ones affected by the storms; these creatures, attracted to sound and able to track by scent, and these panthers, which once looked normal but have been twisted by the storms into more monstrous forms, are numerous enough that travelers must be constantly alert for their presence. Though natural predators, the threat the creatures represent is not itself natural. They are also more aggressive. Some strange instinct drives them, not a need for food. While the panthers themselves can be caught and their meat cooked, it has little taste, offering nutrition but not satisfaction.

old familiar places

Although it's difficult to track the passage of time without day-night cycles, after what seems like more than a week of the travelers' unexpected trip, the storms abruptly come rushing in at the group of travelers, as if they're herding the group to move faster toward their destination and the Ingress energy that awaits them. The true nature of that destination becomes clear when debris appears on the horizon; the energy comes from the wreckage of the Moira, the interstellar ship that crashed here months ago.

Despite the trauma of impact, large sections of the ship remain surprisingly intact, though few of them are properly vertically oriented. If travelers are able to make their way inside the damaged sections of the ship, they'll find familiar territory, if they are one of those who traveled on the Moira, as well as shelter—something that's increasingly necessary as the storms seem to center over the ship, leaving little hope for survival outside. Useful items may be scavenged from the ship if they are willing to explore, but no personal items of any kind remain.

Strangely, the deeper travelers go into the crashed ship, the less familiar their surroundings will seem, regardless of their orientation. The inward-leading paths into the ship become generic metal, and as with the travel on the surface of the planet, they may find themselves back where they started. And no matter how far they go or how hard they try, they will find themselves unable to make it to the Ingress chamber itself...for now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Or trying to get rid of a problem.

[She hasn't been around long enough to witness the climate shift from uncertain to hostile dramatically, but even in her experience -- the people on Thisavrou sure as hell decided everyone from the Ingress was A Problem.]

[So maybe this is their revenge.]

[Her expression gives the impression of a raised eyebrow, even if she doesn't actually have them.]

Sounds like a fair thing to do, to me.

[Because this is Bullshit.]

If they been gettin' a lotta people from the Ingress for a long time, then how come they just now got real particular.

Think they did it before and that's why they're so 'peaceful'? They just fuckin' toss ever'body off the planet like some orloni shit way of fixin' their problems an' then sweepin' it under the rug like they ain't done nothing wrong ever.

[Yondu isn't one to trust people with such high damn opinions of themselves.]

Ain't there kids out here, too?

[Yondu has indeed noticed that there's a couple of children tied up in this. He expects kids to grow up quick, but at the same time he can't tolerate this being done to them.]

Shit. Hadn't occurred to me before now, but when you put it like that... it'd make sense. There wouldn't be any evidence behind, either.

Just dump the poor assholes on the nearest dead rock.

[The more she thinks about it, the more sense it would make. Explains why there were so many empty houses for people to move into. Even on a world with that big of a population.]

[She nods. Once, short and sharp.]

I've seen a few. I guess they figure get rid of the problem early, before they get too big.

[There's disgust in her words, too. Like this is something seen before.]

I don't guess my reckonin' is gonna get us too far, is it? [He says as decides to keep following the group, only taking a little of the meat with them because it's not worth it to keep them weighed down with the stuff when it'll just start stinking and bring in more problems. For once it's better to just keep eating what they got and let it run out.]

[He does, however, want to know why the hell he got lumped in with everybody else.]

[He's pretty disgusted with what's happening to the kids, too. Probably the last shards of his empathy, a man who had a hard life and then a man that raised a child (the best that he could). You gotta consider when something is going to feel more helpless than yourself.]

Not unless you've got a nav computer in your head.

[Like a SAM. But neither Ryder or Raeka had turned up with theirs functional. So much for that. Even if he did, chances were they'd have disabled it somehow.]

[She hefts up her own hunk of monster -- speaking of Raeka, she's got to look after the salarian now, doesn't she? Not to mention others who might need it. This isn't the time to barter. If she were a more scheming kind, it would be. But...]

[But there's kids.]

Here's hoping someone knows where the hell we're going. Right?

Just the fin for my arrow, sadly. Gotta pilot the ship by my wits.

[But he smooths his hand over that fin as he stares out around them. Nods towards where some of the group is still moving. He's not enjoying having to hoof it everywhere. Not a lot of people are, likely, but combined with the environment it's reminding him of some bad times.]

Yeah. Let's keep goin' I guess.

You got any idea of how many people were around before the Savrii found 'em and how many are new?

Nice. Never seen tech like that before.

[But hey, new galaxy, new tech everywhere. Makes sense.]

[She falls into step nearby, her rifle in hand, but lowered, mostly in case of another interruption.]

No clue. I could have gone over the TAB but things came up. Weird shit from back home came up.

[At least the use of his arrow means Yondu can keep his hands free for whatever he needs to carry. Which is also sort of a detriment 'cause it's really starting to wear him out. He's getting plenty to eat- these big ol' messed up cats are easy to take down, but that lack of water he's starting to feel.]

[But only enough to slow him up.]

[Seems like it oughta be more, but he'll work with what he's got.] It's Centaurian tech. Other races can get it put in too, but we're naturally inclined towards it an' the metal what we use comes from our planet.

Nice. Can't think of anything like that off Palaven... biotics are common enough everywhere else.

[But maybe, if they even found Jaal again, he'd know something comparable from his people. Maybe some Angaran tech.]

[What she wouldn't give for the rest of the crew to show up.]

[Even Cora.]

I also had a lotta practice with it. I spent a good twenty years when I was younger fightin' for a bunch of shithead stuck up Kree.

But I tell you, I got real damn good with that arrow.

[Maybe he has strong opinions about people that tend to be full of themselves. On the plus side they're really good at underestimating him.]

We got any 'biotics' here? From how you talk about 'em sounds like whatever they are, they could be handy.

I can tell. Lucky us.

[Both that he had practice and that it was here, killing monsters.]

Maybe. Shepard might, if the vids are right.

Shepard, huh?

I'll keep that name in mind. [He loosely wags one of his blue fingers in the air, as if he's tapping some unseen note he's planning on hanging onto.]

How long has it been since you eat?

Tell her Vetra sent you, when you run into her.

[There's a little wink when she says that. Sorry, Shepard.]

Day or so. It's fine. I've gone longer.

[Running with the mercenaries, growing up.]

[It's impressive that she's still going, but still.]

Looks like we got a long haul out ahead of us. Days might turn into more.

If somebody got a vehicle, you might wanna ask for a ride.

[Though he's only seen one vehicle, and that's Wanda's. But someone could have another.] Better if most of us make it. [He wants as many of them all alive so when they go back the asskickin' can be more thorough.]

When it gets to that point, yeah, I'll start asking for a ride.

[But water is more important than food. Turians are tough stuff. Not as much as krogans, or adaptive as the angara, but ...]

[She's also got too much pride.]

Better if most of us make it back to make them sorry they sent us, right?

August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

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