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by the inquest
"Arguments on their nature are refuted by those who return to shore, wide-eyed with tales of their savagery."
All Moirans are woken to the sounds of the ship coming to a rather grating halt some time in the early morning cycle. It’s no faster or slower than any other stop, but it is unexpected as the captains didn’t mention an upcoming disembarkment. Shortly after, a message is sent to every MID:Navigation has informed us that we’re approaching bad traveling conditions: an overactive star. Instead of stopping on Liant El, we’ll be docking here on Ceta. Please exercise caution while gathering supplies and during excursions. Follow their safety guidelines. If the chance allows, we’ll also be signing new crew on the planet. Please greet them first and show them to the ship. Thank you. The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a long platform and that the room is filled with a soft cerulean light. It's slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you, and nothing is familiar.
For those few who come through Ceta's Ingress, there will be crew of the Moira there to greet you. They tell you of the Ingress, how it is broken, even on this planet, and that the ship is headed back to the origin of this technology. This planet’s Ingress is set precariously atop a floating rock formation, the only way from one area to the next is on small air-propelled boats. Crew members will guide everyone back to the Moira and take them to the Medbay; contracts will be signed posthaste.
WELCOME TO CETA
At first glance, Ceta seems mostly inhabitable, and that's because it is. The atmosphere around the planet is surprisingly thick in most places, sometimes thin in others, and without some way to filter the air, it is mostly unbreathable; it's a giant gas planet, its core made of various molten metals and the atmosphere a mix of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrous. Ceta's gravity is also uneven, meaning that some areas will have stronger focal points than others. The terrain, when it is visible, appears rather rocky—hardly the best conditions for life and stable living. What's more unusual, however, is that despite this fact, there is, indeed, a small populace "living" among the mist and clouds, but it's clear they do not live here year-round. It's hunting season, and they are there for the bounty.
These visitors have built small platforms that are hooked together by ropes and swinging bridges, which they call "temporaries". Unstable buildings are rare, dangerous, and spread out over these temporaries to prevent damage or accidents. The temporaries float along, swaying and shifting with the planet’s atmosphere, and posted at every point of entry and all open surfaces are a particular set of rules that everyone must abide by. They are written in dark ink and large block letters so that all passing by will stop and read them:
NO FIRE. Flammables, ignition sources, matches, lighters, and anything that creates a spark is prohibited. The atmosphere has higher levels of hydrogen, and the smallest spark will create a problem.
AIR BREATHABILITY. Monitor your vitals. Wear masks or re-breathers if needed.
WATCH THE EDGE. All walkways are the only thing from you and falling. Be cautious and watch your step. These signs should be given their due attention. The edge is just that: the end of where it is safe to walk. If a wooden plank gives way beneath your feet, you will plummet through hundred of miles of atmosphere before hitting the planet’s thin surface. The captains reiterate that crew should be careful and stick to the main temporaries, gather supplies, visit at their leisure, and then go back to the ship.
☄ IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE!The organisms that have evolved on this planet are unintelligent—a fact that is told to you by the other visitors. As there is no solid materials or ways for them to interact with their environments, these giants float along within the atmosphere, though it appears that they are flying when they are merely navigating through. They travel in groups of three or more and sometimes come close to the outskirts of the temporaries. Because there is an invisible filtration dome around the temporaries, this allows the creatures to pass through without harm and return again into the mist as they please. They are difficult to see at night and are rather skittish in the presence of sudden light.
☄ @ THE MUSEUM Every evening when work is done, artificial light sources illuminate the streets of the temporaries. There is one bar, if you can actually call it that, but the main attraction is a museum. The support structure appears to be made out of the skeletal system of the giants that "swim" and live on Ceta, and though the outside seems rather unassuming, the inside is not for the faint of heart. As it's considered informative, there are displays of the internal structures and functions of the very creatures that seem harmless and as unintelligent as the visitors claim. There are sections of the museum dedicated to their anatomy and what makes them so valuable: inside their air sacs, which is what gives the illusion to flying through the atmosphere, is a mineral that, when harvested, attunes and sharpens the senses so that brain capacity and function excel over one-hundred percent efficiency. Likewise, aside from these informative areas, there is also a history of how and when the visitors began to hunt them for this valuable, unnamed resource.
☄ HARVEST SEASON Are you looking for work? Or perhaps you're bored with your duties aboard the Moira and prefer to see just what it is these visitors do during the day? Hunters will often pay for menial labor to help with the killing and retrieval of the giants of Ceta. It is by day, not by hour, and once aboard one of the many ships, you will be put to work handling equipment or being on the lookout for "signs" of the creatures. Once they've been spotted, the real work isn't in capturing them or even trying to subdue them—though they give a good fight. It's in the harvest, done below deck once they have been safely brought into the ship's cargo areas by the tethers, that can get quite gruesome. As a defense mechanism, cutting into the skin creates a rather noxious emission that can cause disorientation, hallucinations, or unconsciousness. Worst case scenarios can often result in death.
☄ WORD LIMITS As things are beginning to wind up (or down), something seems to have gotten into the MID systems and caused a malfunction. On the morning of 03.13, it suddenly becomes clear that communicating with others who are not from the same universe or similar timelines seems very difficult. Understanding each other becomes rather hopeless as the day continues, and these repercussions can be felt across the entire ship. The Captains send out another MID message that appears as a jumble of unusual letters and symbols. However, there is one word that can be read by everyone and (hopefully) understood: RATCHET. Figuring out this problem shouldn't take long if everyone can leap the language barriers and work together.
( ooc; All New Arrivals: you have the choice of coming through the Moira's Ingress OR Ceta's Ingress. For questions, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )
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hownkai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-03-01 02:40 pm
no subject
"I'm sorry." He sighs quietly, looking out the window opposite of them, gaze vaguely settled on the stars beyond. "I can't, not without most likely killing you."
And he's not going to risk that. He can keep an eye on her, make sure that none of the captains or the ship itself messes with her head while she's in there, but he won't pull the metaphorical plug and risk her dying by his hand. Even if the Moira's resuscitation system were infallible— which it isn't. Not everyone's been brought back from death.
no subject
"Good to know. I wouldn't want to get out of it that badly." The corner of her lip quirks. "How are you finding life in space?"
It's hard not to remember his discomfort about being on the helicarrier. This has to be worse.
no subject
He smiles again at the question, more sardonic than anything else. "It has its ups and downs," he starts in the most vague possible way. "How much have you been told about... about what's happened so far?"
Better to figure out what she does know first, then fill in the blanks. If she's looked around enough, and if she's talked to someone already, she might know a lot already. He'd love to at least skip the events in Caducus Primary, but he's not particularly hopeful.
no subject
There's a lot to learn, but Steve's too principled to ask some things. She can ask him who he trusts, but not who she should get on the good side of. Bruce is a little more pragmatic, but also potentially too selfish to be honest with her if it doesn't suit him. Everyone gives a different sort of information than anyone else.
"Are there any enemies here? Real enemies?"
no subject
Threats, though, those are easier for them to agree on. They see danger in more or less the same situations, or at least they can recognize something or someone as a potential risk.
"Nothing too worrying so far. There are a few people to keep an eye on, though. An AI called Rinzler; I haven't met him but I was told he's unstable and potentially dangerous. There's also a Loki here, but he's not the one we know. He's from some alternate universe."
There's more, probably, but nothing worthy of note, he doesn't think. Not besides himself, of course— and speaking of.
"Have you been told about Caducus Primary yet?"
no subject
"No, I haven't. Is that something I should be worried about?"
no subject
"Not really, no. It was a planet we were on for a short while, some months ago."
He's silent for a few seconds after, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes dropped to the floor, in what Natasha might recognize as Bruce's particular flavor of guilt and self-recrimination.
"It's gone. The entire planet... it was destroyed."
no subject
"What happened to it?"
Leaning in a little, she watches his eyes.
no subject
"Caducus Primary was made of glass, everything on it— buildings, infrastructures, monuments, even some of the plant life. The glass had some special properties too, you could see more than just your reflection when you looked at it. They valued many of these items immensely. Anyway, after we were there for a short while, the natives found information that the Moira had been there before —with another crew, possibly even before the current captains got the ship—, and back then, some of their items were stolen. So, they asked us to leave the planet.
"We should have left, right then... we should. But two days later we were still there, and the natives became hostile. They started attacking us, using violence to try and get us to go back to the ship. I was trying to—" A pause follows, he clears his throat. "I shouldn't have gone back down to the planet. But I did, because people were getting attacked and I wanted to help them go back to the ship. I had a... a run-in with a group of armed natives. They gunned me down."
She can probably imagine how that went, so he leaves it at that for now, lets that sink in, and waits for the questions he figures she'll want to ask.
no subject
His control is good, but he isn't perfect. Just from what he's said, she agrees that he probably made a mistake in going down to that planet, but it's hardly his first and she's not one to judge with all the mistakes and the regrets that she's had to learn to live with, either. Still, she knows how much he's prone to beating himself up.
"I think I know what happens next."
no subject
"Right."
She's smart and she knows him, he was counting on her to fill the gaps and not need him to spell it out for her. It's a relief, actually. He's narrated this story a number of times to various different people by now, that he's glad he doesn't have to again. Glad he doesn't have to relive through the memories he has of it.
"Well, that's— that's it. Nothing to worry about. Then there's that monster you mentioned, but hopefully it won't be getting out of there anytime soon." It already marked him once, he could do without finding out what happens if it touches him a second time.