The Dashboard Melted But We ... (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. III)

Sheff · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:02 pm

The Dashboard Melted but We Still Have the Radio

"Uuuunnnngghhhh....."

His eyes gradually cracked open, his head pulsing in pain, and it felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer straight to his skull. The hedgehog grimaced, opening his eyes as much as the pain would let, and he found a giant face staring right at him. Its soulless eyes bored holes straight into him, menacing in their look and-

...well, no, it wasn't a face.

The ARK floated above him (or did he float beneath it?), and all along its front, lights flickered briefly before being extinguished, only a few remaining lit. It seemed cold and lifeless now, yet nearly the same, and Sheffer found his body slowly twirling away from it, now facing the Earth.

But, no... it didn't look like the Earth. Maybe being knocked out must have screwed with his vision, but he blinked several times, staring down at the foreign body beneath him. There were continents, oceans, rivers... but they were not shaped as that of the planet he knew. The land seemed to outweigh the water now, the oceans themselves seeming only like massive lakes. He could make out that the continents themselves seemed to contain vast plains with scattered forests dotting the surface, wide rivers running through them, and a single mountain range splitting one of the larger continents down the middle.

However, in short.... this looked nothing like Earth.

"....what the...."

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NPC · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:42 pm

Back in Mad Space, the view was not much different. Whatever planet they were looking at was from another time or another place.

At least, this much would be obvious to whoever happened to be looking at it. To Coop (who was on the far sides of the green planetoid) or Rock and Tracer (who were unconscious), it was invisible. To anyone else in the area, the essential difference between what had been a large body of water with some continents and what was now a large continent with some bodies of water would probably be initially overlooked, given the circumstances.

As circumstances went, these were not the best, and were rapidly getting worse.

Shortly after the horrible, universe-altering event, the relatively still atmosphere of the capsule that the majority of the science crew (and the sole member of the justice crew) occupied was shattered by a blaring, largely unintelligible announcement.

Bearing the stiff, artificial inflection of an automated message broadcast, the female voice clanged out:

“Warning: environmental control is receiving insufficient power to operate the atmospheric shields. The emergency fuel cells have been activated, and all visitors to the Maria Sigma 5 Non-Baryonic Matter Deposit are advised to exit to the ARK Station at their earliest possible convenience.”

Diluss · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:46 pm

Coop flapped back over to the group at an accelerated pace, arriving at about the same time the broadcast finished.

"Alright," he said, "We have—what's—what—"

He saw Tracer, her armour still charred and smoking, lying on the ground.

"Oh."

His face remained wooden; he stared at her for a few seconds.

"Fine," he turned away. He looked from Rock, to Jam.

"What about him, is he okay? …What happened?"

Seafarinhare · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:53 pm

Wild Badge stood up, recovering from the explosion of micromissiles, with minimal damage thanks to a timely CE barrier application. Still, a bit winded, he looked around. The change in immediate star-scenary completely lost on him at the moment.

He walked toward Tracer, reaching for his cuffs and brought them out menacingly. He paused as Coop fluttered over. His query, though notably not directed at him, made him divert his attention back to the snow-white monkey.

Right! The fugitive! He looked at Tracer once more, steeling himself and walked toward her. Hoping she wasn't simply playing dead as he boldly flipped her on her face, and grabbed one wrist and twisted it behind her back, and slapped his cuffs on it, followed by her second wrist, until she was properly cuffed, then rolled her onto her back once again.

"For my sake, I hope those things really are unbreakable, old man..." He muttered lowly to himself before looking over at the undoubtably injured monkey.

"He took a number of micro-missiles, point blank..." He decided to go ahead and answer Coop's question. Now, as far as if he was okay, Hoji was interested in the answer to that as well.

Mie · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:04 pm

Jam looked distantly bewildered upon Coop's initial approach, even barring the obstruction to her face. Her head oscillated on its shoulders, casting a cautious, sweeping gaze over the area, until the great eagle arrived on the scene.

She looked to Rock and frowned, as she stooped next to him.

"He's... He'll be okay," she wagered, uncertainty bleeding through her tone, even across the radio. "As okay as you'd be after getting hit with that assload, anyway."

With an uncomfortable clearing of her throat, she sighed, and ran her hand very gingerly over the charred remains of navy and black still smoldering gently across the too still simian's back.

"Laz," breathed Layla, in a pointlessly quiet hush, that anyone else on the channel could hear just as well as Rock. "It's gonna be okay, Laz. Just rest, okay?"

Barely a moment's pause punctuated the silence before she started looking around again, her anxiety thickly veiled behind a firm, business-like tone.

"Tau:," she briefed, approximating a glance toward their eyes in the sky. "We need to get back to the ship ASAP. I need Rock moved as gently as possible until we know the extent of the damage. Can you come get 'im?"

psikeout · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:27 pm

One side of his helmet was devastated. The lens of the visor was shattered, the metal the helmet itself was made out of was warped and torn... His shoulder on that side looked black, and the arm, even worse. There wasn't really much of a way to see the actual damage done to his body, though, even through the gaping hole in his helmet. Everything was just charred, singed, ripped, debris-covered, and shrapnel-flecked. He didn't look like a casualty of the battle. He looked like a fatality of it.

Of course, that was right when he started to stir.

His movements were unnaturally slow, smooth, and deliberate-looking. He raised up gradually on his hands, but leaned heavily to his right arm for support. He drew his knees underneath him one at a time to rest on them. His calm, control, and silence was betrayed by the painful-looking shuddering of his left arm, which refused to accept any weight, and folded across his his stomach as soon as he reached a kneeling position.

He remained there for a good ten seconds in silence, his head down. His face was obscured, half by broken visor, half by stark artificial lighting, shadow, and singed darkness. When he did finally lift his head, all that was visible was a chilling, hazy-looking blue eye—pupilless and piercing through the dark, just like its pink opposite. He was not in a normal state.

Rock breathed slowly and deeply, and stared out at the distant planet.

"I can move myself," he said plainly, but with the tired, smoky coarseness of a man still awakening from a deep sleep. "Just have the ship brought parallel with our position outside the shield. We have entirely new concerns now."

Sheff · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:32 pm

There was a sudden crackle over each of the members radios (or for those that still had them working and/or on), but it didn't give the urgency of another sudden cataclysm of sound. Eventually, the slight static started to shape into a voice, and one that some of the members on the green planetoid might recognize.

"...ello... is... down there... dammit... never got used... radio... hello? Who the heck is down there? Anybody getting this?"

If anyone happened to look up, they would see a small streak of blue flame, being the ignition of a far off Gear, its rider skimming around the exterior of the yellow barrier that surrounded the cluster of planets.

"Ugh, stinkin' thing won't get the right transmission..."

Tau · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 3:48 pm

Having dispatched the drone to their location upon receiving the call, it didn't take more then a few seconds for it to move into a position for a clear, zoomed visual of the situation and casualties. While the drone moved into position Tau's shifted his focus between the squirrel and the others' location as he addressed their employer.

"Return to the shuttle. Priority has shifted. Medical supplies are required. Keep alert for possible booby traps aboard the craft..."

Tau recalled the drone without waiting for a reply from the squirrel while moving his right hand behind him to his right side stabilizer and collected a midsized canister it ejected. Upon coming within-in range moments later the drone zipped towards Tau, whom by now had held the canister in the air, and collected it before shooting off towards Rock and the others location as Tau radioed in.

"Medifoam enroute. Application is quick, easy, and unpleasant to the recipient, but will stabilize injuries for several hours." At the speed it was traveling it wouldn't take too long for the drone to move in close enough to Rock and Jam for either of them collect the aforementioned canister, which was held in place below it by a sturdy, but breakable, electromagnetic force, which would deactivate should the canister be collected.

Rachel · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:30 pm

The lovable ball of destruction remained still, Hoji's flipping her over did rouse the menace, but her systems where all offline and blinking error message was all she could see in her visor. So She tried to reset her systems in hopes of overcoming the electrical damage. But wasn't making much headway there. No sooner had the cuffs been secured and Hoji's attention divert, she started testing the cuffs. She pulled at them, they didn't feel particularly sturdy, up until she felt this stabbing sensation in her wrist... it went away very quickly, as did feeling in her hands and slowly up her arms, until a numb fog came to rest over her. Now rendered as dead weight, she was left to lay on her face and wait for something to happen.

Mie · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:23 pm

It would have been too much to hope that Rock didn't hear the involuntary gasp Jam's dismayed shock broadcasted as the worse-for-wear primate peeled himself off the capsule-shaped planetoid's floor, but the hands that flew up to her concealed face would have given her away anyway. It was truly a disarming thing to see one subconsciously considered invincible in such a state, and it was well reflected in the considerably healthier monkey's suddenly delayed reaction time.

After wincing inwardly about the prospect of any more potential 'unpleasant'ness in Rock's future, she stuttered forward, arms out, and palms open, ready to offer assistance, but not knowing where -- if anywhere -- it was wanted. The aghast "You shouldn't --" that left her mouth before she could stop it was stifled immediately upon remembering the futility of the ears it fell on.

Pursing her lips, she considered the situation in helpless silence with steeply furrowed brows until a foreign voice in her headset drew her attention. She glanced briefly to Coop and Wild Badge, before lifting her gaze cautiously upward.

"Yeah," Jam answered brusquely. "Somebody's gettin' you, alright. Who'm I speaking to, and why're you out here?"

Jahkari · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:44 pm

Dazed and confused about what had just happened, Astrid stumbled back a bit, disoriented. Looking at the Earth didn't even help, as it normally did when she was in space, because she immediately knew it wasn't their planet- she spent far too much time examining space photographs to not detect differences immediately.

This changed everything. Her experiments were now the last thing on her mind- she was responsible for this team, she had brought them into this situation. Her main priority was now figuring out where they were... well, after making sure everyone was safe. She had to admit, the scientist in her was a little thrilled at the possible discoveries about to be made, but now would not be the time to voice that. Not when her team was still reeling from a battle and disoriented from whatever had happened.

"Yes, let's get everyone back- and I mean everyone, no matter how much you'd like to leave them behind," she added, implying they shouldn't abandon Tracer. Just because the llama had gone renegade didn't mean she deserved to be abandoned in what might not even be their universe.

Upon hearing the new voice and Jam's response, Astrid frowned slightly. "I second the question, who are you and how are you out here?" Until the voice came through she had assumed that whatever had transported them had only transported her team. She didn't reckon on dealing with strangers in the middle of space. She considered for a moment before remaining silent. She had been too trusting in creating her team, and that conflict had left two people in incredibly sorry shape. Rather than inviting the new voice to join their team for safety without a second thought, she decided to wait to hear not only what he had to say, but what the team had to say in response.

Sheff · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:59 pm

The hedgehog was pleasantly surprised when a reply came across the radio waves, and while he noted some familiarity with the first voice (he could not match any particular face to it right away), the second was a complete stranger. Already his mind's gears were clicking to remember who the former belonged to.

"Name's Hawkins, if you really want to know," he began still performing a mundane circle near the yellow shield. "All I'm up here for was the race, if you didn't hear about it, when suddenly, boom. Color explosion. Must have gotten knocked out somehow, because I woke up and found myself orbiting around here. Don't know what the hell happened..."

A small sigh was heard over the radio.

"Anyway, what in the world are you guys doing in there? Excavating?"

Diluss · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:02 pm

"Surviving," said Coop shortly.

"We're going to have to get out of here, fast, too. So don't try and get in here unless you feel like getting vacuumed right back out into space. Who knows how long these shields are going to last," he grumbled to the rest of his group.

He looked at Rock with an indecipherable expression, before offering.

"You," he stated, "L— …Lochert. You need help?"

Seafarinhare · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:45 pm

Wild Badge watched as Rock began to stir from what he had surely thought to be his final resting place from the looks of things. Fortunately enough, though, he appeared to be alive, but not-so-well. For obvious reasons, Wild Badge felt responsible for his current state.

He listened as Sheffer came into contact, much to his surprise, though at first it was hard to pick him out. After he announced his last name, it was no doubt. He didn't say anything though.. He was already getting replies, so it didn't seem important at the moment. Proper greetings would have to wait.

He watched as Rock struggled, "Rock... I'm sorry." He apologized as he approached gingerly, "Don't push yourself," He said before nodding to Coop, "Let us help."

Sheff · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 12:01 am

Sheffer seemed to be listening closely to what was being said across the radio connection (what else was there to do in the middle of dead-silent space?), and he gave a small "hm" at the mention of the name Lochert.

What Wild Badge said next sealed the deal.

"...Rock... well, guess that doesn't surprise me," he stated upon realization. "Out of all the people to run into..."

"Well, if you aren't too busy attempting to explode the nearest, sizable object in the vicinity..." Memories of previous mis-adventures with the white primate flickered through his mind. "I'm headin' to the ARK to check to see if anyone else got through... whatever just happened."

The blue flare in the distance brightened a bit as he started to fly off.

"By the way, you might want to look up."

The Dashboard Melted But We ... (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. III)

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