Odyessy Adventure Session 1

Princess Guard - The New Era 2017/11/18 	 Titan Wolf Lien Tali Harlequin Unix Artemis Nohrbor 54

Mars: On the Way
After your eventful stay on the Moon, two days of fun and frolics. Yeah, right. Selene City is a still very much a frontier settlement. Not a lot for tourists to do. Anyway... it's time to start on the big journey. Heading to Barsoom City on Mars. The trip will take two days in the shuttle. Which has been planned for. There's a non-structural partition in the passenger section of the shuttle to divide sleeping areas by gender. The seats recline into passable beds.

Tali sighs. "Two whole days in the shuttle!"

On the long haul out toward Mars you all have the opportunity to watch as Earth shrinks behind you until, as the famous quote states, it's a pale blue dot hanging in space. It seems that Robert O'Reilly and Graham Sparks both brought along high end powerful PDAs. Capable of running multi-player VR games. So most of the kids are passing time in that fashion.

Artemis spends some of her time at a window seat, staring out into the void longingly as she sharpens her sword with a whetstone. These Earthian vessels are so very slow.

Titan doesn't need much sleep, so he mostly watches old movies on his PDA during the trip.

Tali sketches the receding Earth, in normal time so as not to make the trip longer still. But there's a lot of time to fill once the Earth is too small for this to be interesting. She goes about the shuttle, sketching people, joining the VR games, and generally doing anything to keep herself distracted without going into accelerated time. She also spends a lot of time with Jackson.

Wolf watches back along the path from whence they've come. But it's not so much the Earth he watches, blue-green marbled mote afar -- but rather her Companion: Moon, now shrunk to but a star. The refractory fishbowl of his jury-rigged "suit" is almost never to be found without Her Light upon it.

Unix watches, again as earth becomes so small. Last time she was this far in space... well... there was a planet or something that exploded. Quite confusing.

An Unexpected Encounter


In space there is no day and night. But for convenience the shuttle continues to run on Eastern Standard Time. So by shuttle time it's 3 am in the morning when.... a wave of nausea sweeps through everyone's body. It's as if you're being twisted, folded, and spindled. Then for an infinitely short time, that seems as long as eternity, it's as if the universe has gone missing. Your consciousness is isolated, no sensations of any kind impacting you. Then sensation returns. As the shuttle seems to slam with horrific force into some kind of barrier. Inertia takes over as everyone in the passenger section is flung forward with bone-snapping violence.

It's also pitch black. Not a quanta of light to be seen.

It's not silent. There's a lot of screaming, and moaning. Most of the kids are injured to a greater or lesser degree.

Tali and Unix have the extraordinary ability of Absolute Time Sense. Their internal clocks reset to about a hundred million years in the past.

Tali is among those screaming. She's broken a leg.

Titan isn't used to feeling nausea. But he recovers quickly, despite getting bounced off a wall. He gets to his feet and calls out, "Anyone need medical attention?" . o O (Wait...that was dumb. If everyone got hit with the same thing, they won't recover as quickly.)

Harlequin is recovering quickly from the nausea but still affected.

Artemis doubles over in discomfort, extreme discomfort, as the nausea suddenly hits. Before she can put away her whetstone and sword, she loses her senses while being too mentally conscious to have just blacked out suddenly. She gets her senses back just as the shuttle jerks and she goes flying into the seat in front her with a surprised smack. And all it does is surprise her. The Battle Maiden isn't really phased by the damage, but she did drop her whetstone. The nausea is still present as she covers her mouth, just in case. Good hearing will pick up the hiss of escaping air over the sound of screaming and moaning.

Wolf *whuffs* in surprise as the Light from afar instantly winks out. Or, at least, that's the first thing he notices. But then there's Pain, and Screaming. Even muted by the fishbowl helm, the screams and agony of the children motivate Wolf to supercanine efforts. He focusses a monumental effort of Will to fight through the nausea and drag himself to Heal the closest wounded youngsters.

Titan tries to contact the cockpit using the intercom, "What's the situation?"

There's no response from the cockpit over the intercom.

Titan starts to make his way forward to find out what's going on. He doesn't have any medical knowledge, so...best to try to be useful.

Tali recovers enough to gasp, "we're a hundred million years in the past - and I think my leg is broken!"

Artemis sheathes her sword as the nausea passes, not needing to see to perform something that's pure muscle memory. "Why is everyone screaming? The lights will return soon enough--oh. Yes. Earthian offspring are so very fragile," she realizes. And there's not much she can do about that. She listens keenly and lightly floats up from her seat. She glides carefully above all the moans and cries, trying to get to the cockpit to see if they are injured as well. It wouldn't do to help the younglings if they're crashing.

When Titan gets to the bulkhead between the pilot and passenger areas he sees the bulkhead is buckled. There is a spike of metal penetrating the bulkhead, which Titan may recognize as heing from the co-pilot's seat. The hiss of escaping air is coming from the rip in the bulkhead where the metal spike punched through.

Titan heads to the intercom, "We have a leak at the bulkhead. I...have no idea how to fix that. Anyone have a bright idea?"

Wolf crawls over and through the tangle of mangled limbs, slowly, patiently, and with exquisite care to avoiding causing further injuries to those already in considerable pain. A wake of non-screaming-ness begins to spread out along the path of his passage, as he gently works to Heal everyone he comes into contact with. It's slow going -- there are a lot of injured.

The Phillip's twins seeth in frustration. They were close to the front and while unharmed, and quickly recovered from the nausea, they cannot move without hurting the injured kids piled on top of them.

Harlequin is also working to heal. Starting with his wards.

Titan looks around for something to act as a temporary seal for the hole. Worst case, seeing if he can seal it with his own body (hands, whatever) for the moment.

Artemis lands shortly behind Titan. "A million years in the past and leaking air," Artemis murmurs darkly. "I think we are on our own in this. Perhaps the mage can seal this, blinded as we are."

As his pain fades thanks to Wolf's efforts, Graham lifts a small hand clear of everyone and creates a ball of lightning around his fingers, casting a dim flickering glow of illumination.

Her voice is pained but as she recovers from the nausea Captain Hibson calls over to Titan. "Orange painted box on the left side of the hatch. Emergency sealent inside. Just spray it over and around the breach."

As Wolf and Harlequin work their magic the screaming and moaning is replaced by multiple young panicked voices asking what happened.

Wherever you are, there's gravity. The shuttle drive is silent but you're not floating in zero-G.

Wolf reasons that the recovery process will go twice as fast (at least) once Tali is up and functioning once more. Now that there's a modicum of interior cabin light to work with, Wolf squints through the gloom as he gently Heals a path through the piles of bodies, altering course slightly to make the Temporally-gifted Tali a priority target for healing.

Tali is still doubled over in nausea, in addition to having a broken leg. And a nagging internal clock insisting on an impossible time.

Titan nods and looks for the box next to the hatch. He opens it up and uses the sealant on the door. "Thanks, Captain. I think the pilot and co-pilot might be dead...but I can't tell for sure." Captain Hibson lowers her head and shakes it in anguish. Then she takes a deep breath. "Johnathan, if the airlock is functional you could go outside and take a look. I'd go myself but I think my legs are broken."

Artemis heads back to where the space suits are stored and begins suiting up.

Titan nods. "I'll take a look." He heads to the airlock to see if it's functional.

Captain Hibson glances to where Artemis is suiting up. "Take at least a helmet, Johnathan. That will give you Comms and you'll have the helmet mounted light." she suggests.

Unix gets her system internals under control before standing up. "Hmmm..." Healing others might be a lower priority than something else that was going on... Joining where Artemis and Captain Hibson are she raises an eyebrow. "What's going on? Anything i can help with?"

Titan nods and grabs a helmet. "Good thinking, Captain. I'll leave the suit here, in case someone else needs it." He looks to Unix, "If you have medical training..." He motions toward everyone who is injured. "Otherwise, we have to figure out the big picture: Are the pilots dead? Where are we? What did we hit?"

Unix says, "Mhmmm... well we're a million or hundred million years in the past... so i think we passed through a wormhole or something. Beyond that i can probably be more helpful outside, but if you got the outside i'll work on healing then."

The shuttle power seems to be down. But it's an airlock. There's a manual override.

Titan waits for Artemis to finish suiting up before getting into the airlock. . o O (Every year these trips get more...disastrous. Last year, we got shunted to another dimension by the former Warmaster. I'm going to have to recommend not doing another one of these.)

Wolf sets about healing Tali's broken leg, and then also both of Captain Hibson's broken legs, now that the screaming of the children has stopped and they are mostly out of danger. At least out of immediate and short term danger of shock and blood loss etc. The "bigger picture" of what situational danger they may still be in is. . . somewhat cloudy, unfortunately.

Artemis steps into the air lock, helmet secured. "Do you have the sealant so we can do repairs outside if needed?" she asks Titan.

Unix seeing Artemis is going to be busy outside goes to the nearest kids and those injured, her arm opening up and some of her regeneration fluid she had saved ready to use. But she only had 8 of them. After that...

Titan holds the sealant up. "Yup. Good to go." He secures the airlock and then opens to the outside, allowing Artemis and Titan to head outside.

Tali thanks Wolf - with hug - once her leg is healed. It seemes to help with her nausea too, or at least she gets over it about the same time. But it's left her feeling weak as a kitten.

Captain Hibson turns to one of the older kids, "Robert, could you try to get power back?" she asks the MIT electronics genius. Graham Sparks stands as well, "I'll help." he volunteers.

Artemis looks to Titan as the doors open. "A metal spike in the middle of space between Earth and Mars, supposedly millions of years in the past? We've probably crashed into another vessel. Let us hope, if that is the case, it is not one of the war-like species of legend in that era." She carefully floats out of the airlock, keeping a hand along the wall--and then the hull--to guide her.

Titan nods to Artemis, "I would have expected the shuttle to be crushed utterly if we hit something that was stationary." He flies out of the airlock and arcs around to get a better look at the situation.

When the outer hatch of the airlock opens the first surprise is the shuttle appears to be resting, slightly tilted down on the port side, on a flat metallic looking surface. Swinging the light to face forward... the front of the shuttle is smashed flat against a vertical surface that extends further than the light illuminates. The vertical surface has a non-luminous shimmer of a force wall over it. The pilot area of the shuttle is flattened, compressed from 15ft to just 2ft.

Tali takes a few seconds to recover her strength before seeing what she can do to help.

"Those pilots never saw it coming," Artemis murmurs mournfully as she sees the condition of the cockpit. She looks up the vertical wall of the ship. "No lights....strange."

Titan says over the radio, "Unless the pilots were metas, I'm pretty sure they're dead." He looks around further, "This...looks familiar. The cruise we were on had somethign like this, created by...fae sorcerors. But they wouldn't be out here, would they?"

Unix says, "Hmmm..." Hears over the radio of the state of the pilots... meanwhile helps those still injured for now

Artemis shrugs her shoulders. "That would sound improbable, but not impossible," she radios back. "Something like what? This metal surface? Force fields are common on ships. At least, non-Earthian ships." She cranes her head back to look up into the darkness. "With no exterior lights, I suspect this ship is meant to go unnoticed. But...wait. Are we in space anymore?" She asks as she reads her suit's sensor readouts. "There's low atmosphere."

Titan shakes his head, "No...the stasis field that we hit. I'm pretty sure that's what it is. We might need to get Harlequin to take a closer look. He knew about the last one, if I remember correctly."

Artemis draws her sword and flies to the force field. "A stasis field or force field can sometimes be overcome with pinpoint damage. Are you sure you and I are not strong enough to overcome it?"

Titan nods. "Or you might just get frozen in time. The last one was keeping dinosaurs trapped."

Tali joins in the healing effort, though she is slowed by having trouble finding the injured in the low light.

It's hard to see behind the shinner effect of the stasis field, but Artemis spots markings on the vertical surface. Quite small symbols. There seems to be two very distinct and difference scripts... assuming the markings are a writing analogue.

Artemis points out with some forced patience as she deploys her shield in preparation, "Do things usually crumple against such statis fields?" Without waiting for his answer, she tests it with a stab of her sword.

Wolf finishes healing up Captain Hibson's two broken legs and continues working his way forward. Just about all of the screaming has stopped at this point. The bulkhead to the pilots' cupola is ominously warped. And the space beyond it is ominously silent.

Titan shakes his head, "No. But the ship had velocity, right? If the front stops suddenly...the back wouldn't necessarily stop at the same time." He thinks about it a moment, "But...why didn't the whole ship stop when the stasis hit?"

Artemis' sword redirects and slides right off. "Because it's not a stasis field," she says with a sigh at Titan's obsession with something that in her mind seems the most unlikely type of protection for a structure.

Working together, Robert and Graham soon have a half dozen maintainence panels off. And their efforts bear fruit as the shuttle lights come on.

Titan nods slowly. "Okay then...why didn't the entire ship shred? We were moving how fast?"

Tali redoubles her healing efforts, now she can see properly!

Artemis squares off against the field, preparing to strike it again. She's simple in her approach to things. Hit it harder! "The change in atmospheric pressure may have slowed the ship enough to prevent that. Inertia dampeners? This structure is actually moving in the same direction we are, which reduced the impact? Quick thinking on the pilot's to try and save everyone else at the cost of their own lives?" Comic book physics? "There are many possibilities to consider. Maybe the shift in gravity contributed. But you are fixed on just one source despite contradicting evidence. I'm still open to the possibilities." She raises her sword and tries to slash at the field to test it. The stasis field ripples and weakens where Artemis strikes it with her sword. It recovers a moment later but it did look as if it nearly went down.

Titan raises a brow, "I'm not fixed on anything, thanks. Just trying to figure out what happened. Prior to punching something."

The healing efforts in the shuttle have successfully completed. No physical injuries are left untended. But emotional and mental injuries are a different issue. Jackson and Peter are talking to their respective groups, trying to calm them down. Telling them to wait until the heroes have found out what has happened.

Unix seeing everyone has been dealt with that needed attention, heads outside via the airlock. <>

Tali goes forward to see what people have found out so far.

Artemis seems satisfied with the results and sheathes her sword. "It repairs quickly. Interesting." She looks up the vertical face of it, squinting as far as she can with the limited range of the helmet lamps. "Seeing as how our ship is wrecked and we are stuck, we should search further for an entryway."

Titan did see a ripple in the field when Artemis hit it. "Let me try at that, unless we have a better option?"

Tali starts getting into a spacesuit too. <> she asks as she puts her helmet on.

Titan prepares to potentially punch the field. He says over the radio, "We hit a force field of some kind. I'm going to try to bust it down, unless someone has another option in mind?" He's just repeating what he has already said once over the radio...seeing if someone will actually respond this time.

Unix approaches Titan and Artemis with a raised eyebrow, naturally she isn't wearing a suit or any protective clothing. <> Looks over the field and the area and sees what she can see, via IR, Ultrasonic, etc...

Tali replies, <>

Tali cycles through the airlock.

Titan nods to Unix, "Worth a shot." He float over closer to the force field and winds up to take a swing at it.

Wolf sees that everyone who can be healed has been healed, pretty much. Reasoning that if whatever they've hit has demonstrated any effects from the collision that might reveal it's nature or origin, it would be at the point of impact, Wolf pokes around the cabin as far forward as he can squeeze himself. Bent metal still hot from the collision *pings* and *pops* as he peers forward. The stasis field yields under the incredible force of Titan's fist. It ruptures at the point of impact and then unravels like a punctured ballon, exposing the metal beneath. Metal that bends in from the blow with a low booming sound.

Wolf  to Titan:

The Stasis field we'd seen before was wove of Mystic force. This one displays no Magic hues -- it could be tech, of course.

Unix began to wind up but the breaking of the field made her abort her attempt for the moment. "Hmmm looks like you broke through"

Titan nods. "Yeah, I'm wondering if that was a good idea or not. Well...I'm sure it'll work out.

Tali says, "I guess the big question is who put this whatever-it-is in stasis, and why...."

Artemis draws her sword again, shield still at the ready. "Something's out there," she says as she looks in the direction of movement she picked up on.

Tali does her trademark scouting and reports nack what she discovers.

Discounting the scale this could be a typical storage area or cargo bay. The scale is massive however. Large parts of the chamber are blocked from view by piles of crates and boxes stacked high and wide. What can be seen however reveals the chamber is at least two kilometers in length, a kilometer wide, and several hundred meters high. The containers within it vary from little more than shipping container size up to over a hundred meters on each side. A few of the smaller containers are damaged by what seems to be stray energy weapon blasts. Most are protected by shimmering forcefields though.

There are dozens of skeletons in this area. Some of the skeletons are disturbingly small as if of children. The skeletons are wearing nothing except rags and show obvious signs of blast damage.

Tali also sees a disc like combat mech, floating a few feet off the ground. The rim is glowing red and it seems to be making its way around the many storage containers toward the shuttle location.

Tali also found doors out of the area. Two massively large doors big enough for the largest containers to pass through and a couple of smaller person sized doors.

Tali dashes back to report what she's found. "And there's I think maybe a combat mech or something over there coming this way, where those storage containers are!"

Unix says, "So we're probably fighting, unless we can avoid it..." Looks over the area...

Titan looks over in the direction that Tali indicated, "Really?"

Some of the skeletons are concentrated in groups. Those are the ones where Tali might have noticed make-shift weapons; kitchen type knives, lengths of metal pipe, etc. Some others are scattered, often in poses suggesting they were running when blasted from behind.

Tali says, "I think the people died fighting - or fleeing. And they didn't have much in the way of weapons. I wonder if they were cargo...."

"Was it piloted?" Artemis asks Tali.

Tali says, "I don't know, I haven't been out of this cargo bay!"

Titan positions himself to hopefully be the first person contacted when this thing arrives.

Tali says, "There are big cargo doors over there and smaller doors that way and that way."

Artemis sighs at their predicament and raises her shield. She brushes her thumb over the grip, and a force field springs out in front of it, as big as a shield wall. It isn't long before the combat mech arrives, coming into sight as it floats out from behind a stack of containers. It's a disc, about six feet in diameter and two feet high in the center. The rim is glowing a balefull red that pulses in brightness. As it comes into sight it either speaks or plays a audio recording.

Harlequin is listening in. "That's spoken in a dialect of Atlantean." he says over the radio.

Wolf clambers over the edge of the bent part of the ship's prow, staggered by the sheer scale of what Tali has related. As the broadcast begins, Wolf  and relays its contents, :

Wouldst Thou be willing to abstain from violence and rage? And share with us Thy purpose and the Story of this Age. . . ?

Tali says, "What is?"

Wolf relays to the heroes that (we) are being ordered back to our ship (referred to as our cage) or risk attack.

Tali says, "I don't get this. Atlantis is another time again!"

Wolf sends:

That metal beast is making threats of lethal hostile force, Demanding that we go back in. . . or suffer in due course.

It's mind is Set and cannot change, its thoughts are writ in stone, It cannot think to change its mind, it knows one course alone.

Tali says, "Um - I guess we fight it? I mean, unless it can kill us easily. In which case, maybe not."

Titan nods. "Let's find out."

Tali says, "So it's probably fight or starve in the shuttle - makes it simple."