annexedmeme | Test Drive Meme #4

Entry tags:

!test drive meme

Test Drive Meme #4

Test Drive Info

⇝ Test Drive Memes take place in a virtual reality simulation occurring in characters' minds that tests them for 'fitness' before they enter the setting officially. Because it is set in a simulation created by the Sylphid, the missions, while being comparable to regular missions in the game, will be from a Sylphid perspective.
⇝ Characters will not be chipped during the simulation, and will have access to their abilities from canon, but will be chipped upon waking for the rescue.
⇝ Current characters can easily be pulled into the simulation if they are sleeping and dreaming when it's happening. The Sylphid cast a wide net with the simulation to fill it out with characters to interact with for prospective new arrivals.
⇝ Test Drive Meme threads may be considered game canon so long as all parties agree to it.
⇝ Test Drive Meme threads do count for Activity Check.

i. Awakening

It happens in a dream. You fall asleep and the next moment you feel like you're awakening again, but without any exhaustion, as if you've had a full night's sleep. You find yourself in a comfortable bed in a room full of comfortable beds, all of which contain other people waking up just the way you are. The room is large but cozy, with wide windows that are framed by light curtains, and the sun is shining in from an angle that suggests morning.

Once you're up and moving around a little, ready to explore this new place, you'll discover an open door on one of the walls in the room, through which soft strains of music can be heard, and above which there's a sign saying "Free Breakfast." Once you make your way into the room, possibly with some of the other people just waking up in this strange place, you find a buffet table loaded with breakfast foods - some familiar, and some strange, mainly featuring mushrooms and root vegetables. Quiet, soothing music is playing and there are a variety of tables with chairs available to settle down and enjoy some food.

This is just a dream, right? What could be the harm in eating a bit of food, maybe trying out some cool alien cuisine, and getting to know the other people here?

ii. The Mission: Think of the Children

Once everyone has eaten their fill and gotten to know their new compatriots a little better, there is an interruption in the music playing in the room. Three musical chimes sound, and a pleasant female voice speaks.

Attention, new recruits! We have a mission for you.

The intercom goes on to explain that the Sylphid have a new clutch of sparks, the name for their infant form, that are ready to be properly born and introduced into society. The problem? There is a component that is vital for their birth that's been stolen by a group of jungle-dwelling rebels who took it to a small encampment. These rebels have been causing endless troubles for your concerned hosts, and this is the worst thing they've done yet.

If you don't retrieve the components necessary for the birth of the clutch of infant sparks, those sparks will die.

The new recruits will be led by an attendant into a large room adjoining the banquet room to find a large map of the area projected onto a table, and plenty of simple dry-erase markers to go around that can be used to mark the surface of the map, in a staggering array of colors so that everyone has a different one to illustrate any ideas they might have. On the table itself, a location outside of the city, which is partly illustrated to one side of the table, there is a red circle built into the projection that highlights the outpost where the components of spark birth are being held. Further to the west of that is a much larger settlement labeled "Witches Camp."

The attendant quickly explains the details of the board, indicating where they're located now (a small outpost to the southwest of the city) and where the outpost they're planning to raid to return the components is. The attendant goes on to explain that while they have a rough plan, to take hover-ATVs and other vehicles to the settlement, swarm it, and return their goods, they could use the input of the new arrivals to improve the plan.

"Consider it your first test." says the attendant, with a smile, "If you have any ideas for how to approach, make them known."

iii. The Mission: Retrieving The Components

Once the planning has been completed, it's time for the mission itself. The attendant, while not rushing anyone, has definitely been encouraging people to be quick to finish planning, as the mission is urgent and the sparks are dying as they speak. All input has, however, been taken, and the new recruits are invited by the attendant to visit the hangar, where they can choose their vehicles to transport themselves to the outpost in question. There are a variety of vehicles, from two-seater hover-ATVs that characters are encouraged to use in teams to larger 'dune buggy' style vehicles to a couple of large transport trucks intended to bring back the components that have been stolen.

Characters are welcome to follow the simple plan that the Sylphid made up in that room - to take the vehicles and overwhelm the rebels with numbers, to take back the components necessary. But they are also encouraged to enact their own plans, whether it's stealth and infiltration or straight up weapons-toting warrior badassery.

Once the group gets to the outpost they will find themselves faced with a small outpost containing only about 10 small buildings and one central building that obviously serves as a central gathering place. One of the other 10 buildings is more secure than the others, obviously the place where they keep supplies and most likely the components needed for spark birth that they've stolen. There are about 60 rebels in the compound, all very well-armed, some with weapons both magical and technological, some with magic, and some with supernatural abilities. Some are armed with both abilities and weapons. This won't be an easy fight, as the rebels are hardened, well-armed, and used to raids on this particular outpost.

On top of that, there will be a rebel supply delivery happening shortly after the battle begins, which will bring in backup in the form of rebels from the larger settlement that are equally well-armed and accustomed to fighting. These arriving rebels are also tasked with bringing the components of spark birth back to the larger settlement, the Witches Camp, which is to the southwest of this small outpost by about a half-day's ride through the jungle.

Characters currently in the game can either be with the invading force, or be coming to bring supplies in this drop-off, playing either the part of Sylphid allies or rebel forces protecting the outpost.

Either way, once the new recruits allied with the Sylphid manage to break into the secure building, all they will find is racks of supplies - food, water, medical supplies, and entertainment items - and a makeshift living area outfitted with bunks, a card table with cards on it, and a small 'kitchen' consisting of camp stoves and ice boxes. In that living area? People. People just like the new recruits, from a variety of worlds and planets, alien and human alike.

Once a new recruit makes it to that building and see the inside, the simulation will end for them.

iv. Welcome to the Broken World.

The simulation is over, and you don't even know how you got here from there.

All you know is that one moment you were participating in a mission to save the Sylphid children, to uphold peace talks, and then you were asleep again, after the mission was over.

You wake up in what seems like the blink of an eye, nauseous and dizzy but otherwise unscathed, possessions taken away, barefoot and dressed only in a set of plain grey clothing, like the most bland uniform ever imagined, in an empty room with empty walls and one single door with a small barred window and a single number printed just above it. The door is locked and cannot be broken by any means, you can feel your connection with any superhuman powers you had severed, leaving them just out of reach - you can feel them there, tingling at your fingertips or in the back of your brain, but you just can't get to them. There is no one to greet you or explain what's happening. You start to lose track of time, the only sound the distant ticking of what sounds like a massive clock.

Just when things seem hopeless, when you feel like you're about to go mad, there's the sound of a commotion outside your door. The sounds of a battle, or perhaps an infiltration gone just slightly wrong. Either way, when the door opens, there is a figure there with a hand outstretched.

"Welcome to the Broken World. Come on, we'll explain everything just as soon as we get you and the others out of here."

NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nothing about this hurt is the Sylphids, that much he knows, but he gives it a nod. "Yes ma'am," is what he says. He's never had a field commander who was a woman before, but it feels right to say.

She looks a little bit bemused, but doesn't protest the form of address, and doesn't spend any more time in conversation before stepping back out into the hall.

Several other cell doors stand open, though there's only two people waiting in the hall, huddled nervously together in one of the doorways. One's an older man, somewhere in his mid-seventies at a glance, and the other looks not unlike a teenaged girl, though the delicate jellyfish-like tendrils she has in place of hair call into question whether human assumptions would be appropriate.

"Come on," Layla says, with a gesture that encompasses the two nervous civilians; her repeat of "Stay close" is definitely for them.

She makes her way along the corridor, glancing briefly toward a set of sparking video cameras as though concerned they might've repaired themselves after whatever rebel trick had overloaded them, step careful and manner alert.

The Asset brings up the rear, falling into an easy stalk, eyes fixed in a broad stare that takes in all of the hallway and both the nervous civilians, listening for signs of pursuit. ... maybe the Sylphids did do something to him. His hearing is definitely not as sharp as it should be. Affecting his tactical value was a stupid thing to do, if so.

He tries not to crowd the civilians. He's done protection missions before, he's sure, even if he can't... remember them right now. That's fine. That's normal. He still knows what he needs to do, and scaring the civilians even more is not mission compliant.

He may be trying not to crowd the civilians, but at least one of the civilians has no qualms about crowding him. The girl with the head tendrils drops back, keeping as close to him as possible, apparently having decided that huddling in the shadow of the large, imposing man with the metal arm is even better than clinging close to her previous companion.

Layla's gun comes out as they approach the door at the end of the hall, though she keeps it aimed low, the better to not accidentally draw a line on any allies they might encounter in what sounds, at least, like distant chaos. She gestures with her free hand for her ragged line of ducklings to hang back, with a quiet "Wait" in case the gesture doesn't translate, then slips up to check that the next block beyond hasn't been overtaken while she was busy with the cells.

He badly needs a gun. He'd feel so much less naked with a gun. And much more useful. He kind of edges away from the girl with the tentacle-hair, unsure if she's related to HYDRA somehow or just a weird... alien... person.

When Layla makes it back, he asks, "Do you have another gun." Then: "I can help."

Layla's silent for a moment, studying him. He makes her a little uneasy, she can't deny that - save for the moment in the cell when he'd flinched away from her, he's been almost impossible to read. That would be disquieting at the best of times, and here, escaping from a hive of beings that hollow people out to wear as meat suits, is hardly the best of times.

But he hasn't done anything to suggest hostility, and two armed people escorting two non-combatants have much better odds than one armed person escorting three.

And if they do encounter armed guards, she'll hardly be able to stop him from retrieving one of their weapons - not without shooting him, which is absolutely a disproportionate response to a recently-freed captive wanting to arm himself to escape his captors.

So, it boils down to extending a little trust now, at the risk of being proven catastrophically wrong, or having the issue forced in the next fifteen minutes, at no less risk.

"All right," she says, free hand vanishing into her coat to pull out a backup weapon - not a model he'd know, being a local acquisition, but other than that, identical to an Earth firearm - and offer it to him. "The way ahead's clear so far. Watch the rear for now, in case anyone tries to circle around to catch us in a pincer."

He leans forward wordlessly to accept it, and settling back he actually looks a little more at ease. The gun sits easy in his hand-- the non-metal one-- like he's familiar with them... though he has terrible trigger discipline.

He nods at the order. He'll take that one. When she starts moving again, most of his attention is on the corridor behind them, and on any hallway openings they pass.

There will be trouble up ahead, when they reach the exit and there's three guards charging in from the outside and two more running into the hall from a side room.

Layla clocks the guards coming in from the side first, and makes a brief, sharp gesture with her free hand. The heavy steel door opening onto the hall slams shut in their faces - slams shut and sticks, in spite of the sound of cursing and rattling on the other side.

"Down!" she calls to the old man and young woman. She drops back behind one of the shallow pillars that hold some of the venting - scant cover, but better than nothing at all - and gestures to the silver-armed man to take cover on the opposite side of the hall.

He... does not take cover. He swings right out into the path of fire, and shoots the charging Sylphids. Two headshots, two dead bodies. The third target is just knocked back against the door frame when she throws up some kind of force shield to block the worst of the bullet.

The Asset might be hurting, but he can still do his damn job.

She sees the flash of some sort of energy discharge, and peeks around the pillar, mentally cursing herself for arming someone with such terrible trigger discipline, and who does not take direction. The latter abates a little when she sees the two corpses in a spreading pool of blood - but not entirely.

The shield surrounding the female Sylphid doesn't look like the kind she's seen Steven throw up in practice, or the barriers she's seen a handful of the more practiced mages amongst the native rebels use. Which means it's probably a Heba talent - which means it's almost certainly bi-directional.

"Get back," she hisses, banking on the pounding on the door and the ringing echo of gunfire to keep the guard from hearing. "She's going to have to drop that shield to shoot. That's our opening."

This time he does, mostly because he doesn't know how the hell to counter a force field, what the hell-- albeit only about halfway. He keeps his left shoulder visible, the bulletproof metal arm, a clear target for the Sylphid to hit if she feels tempted. It'll give Layla her opening if she wants it.

"What is that," he hisses back.

"Some sort of kinetic shield," Layla replies, though there isn't really time for more explanation, because the Sylphid guard takes the bait.

The faint glow of the shield flickers, then vanishes as she aims a burst of fire at that metal shoulder, and at the slice of wall shielding the Asset. Layla ducks out just enough to aim and fire - no headshots here, but the guard has opted to eschew traditional armour in favour of her powers, and a tight cluster of three shots to the chest puts her down just as well.

"What the fuck," he mutters, mostly to himself. Kinetic shield. He's not trained for that.

Thankfully, his ruse works. The bullet bounces harmlessly off into the wall, and Layla takes her chance, and now they... need a new exit. Unless they open that door again and shoot their way past the guards pounding on it.

He looks to Layla for direction. He doesn't know the layout of this place, and presumably she does.

Layla frowns at the door for a moment, then glances over at her metal-armed companion.

"Can you pry that loose?" she asks, with a quick gesture towards the faceplate of the security scanner beside it. She could remove it herself with tools - but if his grip strength with that cybernetic arm is half as good as it looks like it should be, he could do it faster. "I want to fry the lock so I don't have to hold it behind us."

It's not even a question of "can". He eyes it, then pads over, digs the metal fingers in, and yanks the casing right off. Some of the wires go, too. Sorry.

"How are you holding it," he asks. She hasn't lashed out at his questions yet, and he is terrible short on intel for this... whatever it is.

She winces a little as he wrenches some of the wiring loose, but nothing seems to be sparking, and so after a few seconds spent studying what's left, she slides up next to him to twist a few of the remaining wires together, then brings out a small rubber-handled screwdriver from her pocket to press them into place. This time, there is a snap and a spark, and the sound of something sizzling within the door mechanism itself.

It's only then that she answers his question. "That explanation's a bit complicated," she says. "It'll be part of the briefing once we're on safer ground, but the short version is, everyone who's exposed to this planet picks up some sort of power. That guard could create shields. I can control inanimate objects, to a point."

He has no idea what that means or how it's possible. A power. Controlling inanimate objects. How do you control something that's inanimate. Radio waves?

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, just completing the mission and getting out matters. "Is there a limit to the powers. What we should expect on the way out."

"That's the million dollar question," she says, a little bit wearily, because that's intel she'd very much like to have herself, and the last half a year has made her trust when the rebels tell her that a complete survey of possible Heba abilities, at least, is impossible. "Some of them can use magic. It's got a wider range of effects, but most of it also has tells if you catch someone casting - if you see one of the enemy waving their hands around and shouting, shoot them before they have the chance to finish. The rest have a single power, so once you learn their trick, you can figure out how to counter, but there's no way to tell up front what they can do. Some of it's totally useless in combat - they'll just try to stab or shoot you."

She turns back down the corridor, heading for the next cross intersection in hopes that it, at least, hasn't been cut off. "Come on. We need to keep moving."

His brows come together as he considers this, the clearest expression he's made yet and it's obvious dismay and confusion, but he finally nods, accepting that as the best explanation he's likely to get for now. (If ever. His rescuer doesn't seem happy about the answer, either. He's not happy about it, either, so he doesn't blame her.)

He motions with his gun for the two civilians to precede him, between him and Layla, and prowls after them, alert for the sounds of pursuit or obstruction, but letting Layla take point again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme #4

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject