Entry tags:

August Event Log: Part I

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.

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[76 nods in return, continuing down the corridor in question. It's not long, however, before he starts to feel that something is off, and he comes to a stop.]

This isn’t right. We've passed through here before.

[Cayde walks right into him when he stops. The Ghost glances back, wincing.]

Ooh, sorry Cayde!

[The Exo waves a hand as he steps back from 76, giving the man an awkward pat.]

Er, wait. Back up- what do you mean we've passed through here before? Ghost, you got us walkin' circles?

What? No, we've been on a fairly straight course.

Where's the signal coming from?

[Maybe they can triangulate it, see if 76 is just imagining things.]

It's directly ahead. But...that's strange. We should have come upon it by now.

[The Ghost squints.]

Has it changed any?

...it doesn't seem to have. But...how is that possible?

[76 could certainly argue that this is a device meant for interdimensional travel, so theoretically anything is possible. He’s no scientist, but he imagines this means they won’t be finding their way to the source. Whether the Ingress is damaged or otherwise unavailable, the outcome is the same.]

I don’t think we’re gonna get to it.

[Cayde turns his head towards 76 again, slowly starting to nod.]

Well, that's great.

[The Ghost floats ahead a bit, its 'eye' widening and narrowing again.]

I think you're right, Seventy-Six. Some kind of atmospheric anomaly of some kind..? Although does that prove that the Ingress functions, or that it's in need of repair?

[Cayde taps a finger against his chin.]

Yyyyes.

The whole Ingess is an anomaly, if you ask me.

[So he’s not surprised that the corridors are curling in on themselves, preventing them from getting to the source of the energy signature.]

We pushed that thing to its limits when we crashed here. Wouldn’t be surprised if this is what happens when it malfunctions.

Point.

[Cayde has to nod at that as well.]

If that's the case, then even if there is something salvageable, it's not going to do us any good if we can't even get to it.

Not ready to give up just yet.

[This is their best chance at getting off this dump, and he's not about to go back the way he came just because they've hit a snag. He turns back to Ghost.]

Anything else you can tell me about this, or is it just an energy signature reading?

Oh, I wasn't suggesting we give up! This does make things kind of difficult though.

[Cayde sighs, moving to lean back against the wall, only the wall's at least another step behind him. Stumbling back, he tries to play it off as he reaches out to steady himself, finding the wall to estimate where about he needs to be. This not-seeing thing is getting kinda tiresome.

The Ghost cringes a bit as it watches Cayde, looking back towards 76 when the Soldier addresses it again.]

Unfortunately there's not much else I can say about it, other than that it's there, although at the very least it has to be in this vicinity. We've been tracking it from the drop-off point back across the wastelands.

Got any ideas?

[He's a soldier, not a scientist, and he figures if Ghost doesn't quite have an indication of where to go next, they might be out of luck.]

[The Ghost seems to squint at the space before them. Cayde doesn't seem to bother trying,
but then he doesn't see a point to it since he can't really see at the moment. He does think about their current problem however.]

So... is there any other way around this part of the ship? Circumvent the obvious direction we can't head, see if we can find a back way? I mean, chances are it probably occupies an entire pocket that we won't be able to touch, but maybe it doesn't. Wait, is that thing connected to the ship's power?

It must be connected to something. If it were somehow still connected, we could try to run a temporary disruption to reset it, see if that would clear the anomaly.

We can backtrack.

[The Moira is ruined, making it difficult for 76 to know where they’re going and how they’re getting there—he can’t rely on his memory of the ship now that it’s all been turned upside-down. He doubts that approaching the signature from a different angle will yield different results, but what other choice do they have?

Ghost’s idea isn’t a bad one, and 76 nods in response.]

Tell me where we’d have to be to make that happen. I’ll get us there.

[Standing here glaring at the spot they should be moving past sure isn't accomplishing anything.]

Wherever the power generator is, I'm guessing.

[The Ghost nods, glancing back at 76.]

Does this ship have an engine room of sorts? It's too bad we don't have a layout of the place, but I suppose it wouldn't do us too much good if things have been damaged.

It’s gotta have one, but I’ve never been there.

[They had, of course, been kept out. Perhaps people had made it to the bridge once upon a time, and they’d been made to repair the Ingress at least once, but 76 had never been given access.]

I'd guess the Ingress is the engine.

...well that does make things a little more complicated.

[Cayde scratches his head.]

-okay, okay. So what if we find something that would have a direct connection to it? Main computer system or something... And then see if we can access anything from there?

Why don’t you try it here?

[In 76’s opinion, they don’t have much to lose.]

Might be as close as we can get.

It'd help if we were at least somewhat close to some sort of console. I can't direct any operations without anything to accept the commands.

[The Ghost beams a glance up and down the corridor. No point in trying to find one up ahead, given that that's the direction they haven't been able to cross.]

[That’s what 76 was afraid of, and despite his earlier confidence, he isn’t sure he can get Ghost to what he needs. If the entire ship is working against them, he isn’t sure what more they’ll be able to do.]

Back the way we came?

[Anything seemed worthwhile than just standing here, at least. At 76's suggestion, both Cayde and the Ghost nod. Neither seem willing to throw in the towel just yet.

Cayde nearly walks into the wall when he doesn't quite turn about enough to head back, earning a cringe from the Ghost, who then glances back at the Soldier with almost a sheepish sort of shrug.]

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August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

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