Alpha Session - Land of Mounds and Xenon – Four Hours Earlier
Jake English woke up groggily, morning light coming through the window and onto his face. He turned away, annoyed. He'd been having such a great dream about being with his friends, on an adventure, and now the sun rising on the wrong side of the house had gone and ruined it.
He awoke fully with a start as the last statement took hold in his mind. If the sun was rising on the wrong side… then he really was longer on the island! He was in the game. With his friends. With people!
Bed gravity forgotten, he threw the covers aside and rushed to the window in his pajamas. Reaching the stone ledge, he leaned out and peered over the vast landscape, nary a hint of ocean for miles. His face brightened as his memories were confirmed. He was on LOMAX, he was the 'Page of Hope', and he was no longer trapped far away from Human contact.
He leaned on his arms and stared out at the alien landscape; with its rolling hills and dotted formations of stone monuments. Taking it all in as he breathed a sigh of contentment. He could've stood there all day taking in the scenery, but he had an appointment to keep.
He stood up and stretched before turning around to go make his bed; only to freeze at the sight of a shadowy clown-like figure standing in the corner.
Instinct took over as he drew twin pistols from his Strife-Deck and executed a combat roll, firing at the figure as he went. Several of the shots landed and figure came apart in an explosion of junk, proving to be nothing more than an oddly-stacked pile of refuse. The pieces scattering across the room as Jake came up out of the roll.
He examined the mess while chastising himself for his nerves. Only to stop short as the faux-clown's 'head', a basketball, came rolling up to his feet with a note attached to it. Still readable despite the bullet hole through the center.
'He visited last night while you were sleeping, but don't worry, I stopped him before he could do anything serious. You should be more careful with your Kernel-Sprite though. Best wishes. -A'
He shuddered at the thought that two aliens were able to have an entire scuffle inside his house without him waking up. It was almost terrifying enough that he'd never be able to sleep again. But he pushed those thoughts aside, his good mood unwilling to be put away. Like the note said, he'd just have to be more careful.
He set the ball and its note down and started getting ready for the day. Changing out of his pajamas and into his shorts and trademark jacket.
With his personal affects in order, he hurried down the stairs to the main level, snatching a piece of fruit off the counter as he passed by it, munching on it as he double-checked the supplies he'd organized last night for the excursion.
It was a worn but sturdy field backpack, stuffed to the brim with his Grandma's old archeology tools. He'd inherited them and the house when she'd passed on. He looked over to the corner where his Kernel-Sprite sat un-prototyped and felt another twinge of regret. The plot where he'd buried his Grandma's ashes hadn't come through when the house had been transported to LOMAX. Meaning he couldn't revive her as a Sprite. He didn't know if she would have been the same as a Sprite, or would have been something entirely different, but was regretful that he'd never get the chance to find out.
He took off his glasses and wiped the tears from his eyes. Grandma would have wanted him to keep moving forwards, regardless of the missed opportunity. So he shouldered the heavy pack and moved towards the door, but then paused, hesitating.
He looked back towards where the Sprite was and thought about what the note had said, about being more careful. He walked over to the glowing orb and extended his hand towards it, careful not to make contact as he placed it into his sylladex.
The Sprite now secure, he continued out the door. Ready to face whatever the day had to throw at him.
Two hours later – LOMAX Crossroads
Jane stood at a crossroads, waiting to rendezvous with Jake there. With her were her two constant companions; Little Sab and her newly prototyped Sprite, Hamilton-Sprite.
Hamilton-Sprite was an odd one. Her and her friends each had a Sprite, and each of them had had at least one run-in with Gamzee and Aradia; the two alien's antics always centered around the acquisition of the Sprite. It had taken a few days, but after what Aradia had said in their first meeting, along with what information she'd learned from her friends about the game, she'd finally decided to go ahead and prototype the Sprite. It had been a tough decision on what to prototype, but then she'd found Hamilton's skull while exploring the ruins on her planet. The skull had been by itself, serving as a counterweight for a puzzle actually. It had been this clever but macabre use that had given her the idea. Sprites were supposed to serve as guides, apparently, and what better guide for somewhere than someone who had lived there?
So upon returning home, she'd tossed the skull into the blue orb and Hamilton-Sprite had been born. He resembled a creature not unlike a salamander; rendered in an opaque blue and a squiggly ghost-like tail in place of where his legs would have been. He'd proven to be helpful in some situations and not-so-helpful in others. He was constantly getting distracted, and was no help in fights against his animated brethren, who he just pointedly ignored like they weren't trying to kill Jane and her friends.
She'd gotten up bright and early to come to this place with her two companions to meet Jake. There was another clue she was looking for and the texts had indicated it would be here. Her quest has taking them back-and-forth between all four planets and she could feel that they were getting close to the end. Whatever that was.
She fidgeted as they waited for Jake, smoothing out her long skirt, and adjusting her glasses. Impatient to start the day proper. When suddenly her PDA chimed. She picked it up, hoping that it wasn't Jake messaging her to say he was running late. But then she saw who the sender was suddenly wished that it was.
The sender was one undyingUmbrage. "Ugh. This guy." She said out loud. Causing Sabastian to turn and look at her in curiosity. She waved him off, saying "It's nothing." Before promptly hitting the ignore button and turning the PDA off for good measure. She didn't feel like talking to the jerk. Not that anyone in their right mind ever would.
She looked up, scanning the horizon again for Jake when she finally caught sight of him rounding the bend. She waved to him and he waved back. He seemed to have quite a heavy pack, one that almost put what she had in her sylladex to shame.
He approached to where she was and they exchanged greetings before moving on, their party of four continuing on the path towards their destination. They had a lot of unexplored ground to cover and no time to waste.
It took another hour of walking, but they reached their destination.
It was one of the many henge-like structures scattered around the landscape. Jane was unsure if the redundant monuments were meant the camouflage the important ones or if they had just been the preferred method of construction here, but either way her notes said that this one in particular was special. She so very hoped they had the right one.
Jane arrayed her writing supplies and paper, ready to take a crack at the inscriptions; with Jake standing by to help as he set to work excavating near the perimeter.
She selected a pillar at random and started transcribing the text. Most of it was the usual banal drivel, basically a stone-carved diary. Some ancient reptile talking about their day, or the labors of building the monuments. But after reading through several columns of nonsense, she finally reached the sections she was looking for. The section that talked about her and her friends.
The inscriptions never referred to any of them by name, instead giving them each a bizarre title; like Page of Hope for Jake, or Maid of Life for herself. At first she hadn't realized the inscriptions were talking about them at all. But the 'Heroes' described therein matched descriptions with her and her friends to a startling degree; and it wasn't so far off. At times the creators of the text were alarmingly prescient. Like the section she read now.
"I can't wait for the Heroes to arrive. But it sucks that we'll all be dead by the time they get here. How can they be heroes if they aren't going to save us? Anyway, on a much more exciting note, I was called to talk to Echidna herself the other day. It's not often I have reason to go to LOCAH, and meeting Echidna is like such a big deal, I was so nervous OMG!"
Jane rolled her eyes at that last flourish. Diary indeed. She pushed through and continued reading.
"She said the Maid and the Page would be coming to read THIS monument in the future. Like I just want to say hi! I'm like your biggest fan. Ignore all that junk I said before k? I can't erase stone. Anyway she told me to carve these markings into the stone, but like, not too deep. So like, here we go."
The text broke off abruptly, leaving what appeared to be a blank spot on the pillar wall, about four feet by four feet. She took paper and tape out of her sylladex and enlisting Jake's help the two of them taped the paper to the stone column. Taking care to have the sheets cover every inch of blank space. Jane then took out a piece of charcoal out and began running it over the paper, back-and-forth across the taunt surface. As she shaded the paper a hidden patchwork of lines began to appear on its surface. Each of the other three planets they could reach had also had a monument with similar hidden lines as well. As far as Jane could tell, the lines were partials of a map. One that when completed; was supposed to lead them to a more comprehensive source of knowledge.
She stepped back to acknowledge her handywork. When suddenly a loud noise, like a let engine, pierced the calm day. She and Jake looked at each other in alarm before pulling their respective weapons out of their Strife-Decks. They and Sebastian rushed out of the henge-circle just in time to see a large robot land a short distance away.
It stood at least twenty feet tall, built like a college linebacker. With large spikes protruding from its shoulders. Its exterior gleamed in black and red metal. A stylized fork or trident logo stamped on its front. Jane stood in shocked alarm. That was the new logo for…
The robot raised its right arm. Firing a missile straight at the goggling kids.
Lil' Sab sprang into action before anyone could blink. He charged straight towards the screaming missile, sword held to the side like a bat. Then, just as he crossed paths with the missile he sidestepped, hitting the projectile with the flat of his sword and sending it veering off course to explode far away from its intended targets. Then, without missing a beat, he continued his charge towards the much bigger enemy. Jake and Jane belatedly joining the fray behind him.
Sab ran between the behemoth's legs, thwacking it with his sword as he did to get its attention. The maneuvered work, and it turned to track him just as the kids got into position. Jake began strafing left, pelting it with nine-millimeter projectiles while Jane circled right, looking for an opening but unsure what to do.
The robot paused and assessed, categorizing the trio from most-dangerous to least-dangerous. Jake's bullets bouncing harmlessly off it while it calculated.
Sab chose then to try and go in for the kill, leaping straight at the robot's head with his sword held high. But the robot was half-again as fast, snatching Sab out of the air in a single fluid motion and proceeding to squeeze the captive robot-bunny in its giant metal hand.
The deed done, the robot threw Sab's metal corpse to the ground; his circuitry frayed and mangled.
Jane cried out as his body hit the ground. "SABASTIAN!" She rushed at the hostile robot, her vision going red. She leapt, landing on its back and jabbing her trident into its neck; but the metal glanced off of metal and the robot swung its arm around to swat her off. She landed on the ground with a thud, her arm breaking as she landed on it.
"JANE!" Cried out Jake. The robot began turning round to finish her off. He shoved his smaller pistols back into his Strife-Deck and pulled out a bigger pair of guns; his Double-Derringers. The massive flintlocks almost as big as he was. Struggling to bring them onto target, he took aim and fired. The two massive projectiles slamming into the robot and making it stagger. The shots only dented the machine's side but did manage to get its attention. With the robot now in close pursuit, Jake did his best to draw the machine away from his friends. Running for his life.
Jane laid on the ground in pain, clutching her broken arm as the robot's heavy footsteps receded into the distance. Crying as much from Sabastian's death as from the pain. She steeled herself, unwilling to let Jake die as well. Groping around for her trident with her good arm before finally finding it.
Sticking the end into the ground, she used it to help herself up. Her muscles protested and threatened to give, but she pushed forwards, determined not to let it end like this.
As she pushed, she felt something unexpected well up from within herself and glowing energy began spilling forth from within her. Within seconds the worst of the damage was gone and her arm was healed. The energy faded and she inspected her vanished wounds in amazement. "Maid of Life." She murmured to herself, wondering what else this could mean. But she pushed those thoughts aside. Jake needed her, and she wasn't going to let him down too. She rushed back into the fray, determined to save one friend and avenge another.
Despite his best efforts the robot had caught up with him. With nowhere to go and nothing to lose, he fired the last two Derringer shots. The shots bouncing off to no appreciable effect as it raised its left arm at him, locking on with a second missile.
"Oh fiddlesticks…" He said, sure this was the end when he was alerted by Jane's battlecry.
The robot heard it too and turned around to face her. But she came up fast, faster than Jake had ever seen her move. She skidded between the robot's legs, leaving it to stare out at empty countryside as it looked where she had been. She leapt straight up, raking her trident across the robot's face as it turned back around to try and find her. Leaving a large gash in its photosensors.
She fought like a demon. Ducking and weaving through the machine's feeble attempts to ward her off. Jake felt fear, unsure of what his friend had turned into.
The robot tripped and stumbled under the blows; and with one last sweep of her trident she wedged the points between the neck joint and ripped its head from its body. Its massive form collapsing to the ground with an earthshaking thud.
Jane stood there panting. Sweat rolling off her. "For Sabastian" she whispered, before a feeling of lightheadedness washed over her. She collapsed to the ground; vaguely aware of Jake rushing over to her before everything went black.
Alpha Session - Derse – Same Time
On the planet Derse, the furthest and 6th planet from the center of the session, the Queen of Derse brooded. She sat in the dim observation room, four massive screens piping in information from all around the session for her to peruse. And what they showed was significantly spiking her blood pressure.
She was The Condesce, the ex-sovereign of the Alternian Empire, an adult Alternian Troll with gills on her neck and Fuschia blood flowing through her handily capable body; her powers had been multiplied twelvefold through her servitude to Lord English. But despite all of that, despite holding more power than lesser beings could even dream about, she was finding herself unable to do something as simple as kill a quartet of teenagers!
The Condesce fumed as she watched the events unfolding on the screens in front of her. Her band-new prototype was now a headless piece of scrap metal. Her last two Arch-Agents? Dead; their corpses now being plundered by a pair of punks. Oh yes; this day was just going swimmingly. She just barely suppressed the groan of frustration bubbling up in the back of her throat. Just barely. It was telling of her limited resources that she was having to man this observation room herself. Now if she could just figure out how to make this thing zoom…
"Man… That looks like a bummer. Too bad." Called out a voice lazily from behind her.
She reacted in an instant, her hand deftly pulling her trident out of her Strife-Deck as she whirled around to skewer the unwelcome intruder. But she pulled up short, belatedly realizing who the voice belonged to about half-way through the motion. She stopped with a sudden jerk. Only an instant away from killing the intruder; an annoying looking Troll clown who seemed unperturbed by the sharp object being held just an inch away from his face.
The clown just stood there. A smug smile on his face. "Hello again your majesty." He said.
"Gamzee…" She hissed as she lowered the trident away from his face. His re-appearance was just the cherry on top of today's events. "You should know better than to sneak up on people. That's how accidents happen" She said. Clearly broadcasting her ire.
But despite her frustration she let herself slump back into her chair. Annoyed, but apathy winning out against bloodlust today.
"What do you want?" She grated out. "Do we have new orders from up top?" Her thoughts drifting to the creepy-ass puppet he was always carrying around. The one that supposedly gave them "orders" from their boss that only he could hear. Her servitude being made all the more degrading by having to get her instructions in the stupidest way possible.
Gamzee just shrugged, either missing or not caring about the fact she'd almost murdered him. "No. Just checking in." His gaze wandered slowly across the monitors behind her. "And not a moment too soon I see. You do remember that our Lord wants the children alive, do you?"
Her blood began to boil at his condescending tone; and for a brief moment she once again considered spilling his guts onto the floor. But she discarded the thought immediately. She held no doubt she could physically do it. He wouldn't even see it coming, he'd just be alive one moment and dead the next. But on the other hand; she had no doubt what her new employer would do to her if she eviscerated his precious little messenger boy.
She decided to deflect and try to get some more information out of the little weasel. "It's hardly my fault if a few of my subordinates decide to go rouge. Good help is soooo hard to come by around here." She made a point of looking at him while she said this. "And this technology!" She slapped the console in front of her for emphasis. "Is utter crap. I don't know how I'm expected to work with this faulty Carapacian garbage. You make it sound like it's all so easy. But why then, Gamzee, did out dear Lord English put me in charge instead of you."
Gamzee waved off the barbs and nuance like it was simply friendly banter between normal coworkers. "Oh, ho. I'd love to take over this little operation. But alas, I'm simply a humble middle-manager. And besides…" His own expression briefly flickered to annoyance. "I've had other matters to deal with. But then you're deflecting."
Condesce decided to relent. For now. "Fine. I'll issue a decree to make sure the dumb 'heroes' stay alive. Does that make you happy?"
He nodded, so she continued.
"But answer me this, if you can, why is he having us keep these snot-nosed brats alive anyways? I'm curious."
Gamzee managed to wave that off too. "Oh, he hasn't deigned to tell me, but I do have a few guesses. After all, he does like his pawns. And lest you forget… while he's let you sit in as Queen of Derse for this Session; you're still a pawn yourself."
Her body tensed up again, and by some miracle Gamzee seemed to sense how thin of a line he was skating. He gave one of his flourishing bows. Hastily adding "As are we all. And this is his game to play as he sees fit."
She relented. But just barely.
Today's mutual roasting apparently done. Gamzee wrapped up. "Now if I may take my leave, I do believe I have other business to attend to." He marched off, giving one final parting gesture.
"Keep up the good work Condy!" And then he was gone.
Condesce sat there. Her simmering blood cooling as she plotted. She despised the current situation and was actively working out how to get out of it, with a little extra as bonus. But she had no choice but to go along with all this nonsense for now.
She turned back to the screens and continued to work out the controls. She was well aware of Gamzee's problems with Aradia. Content with the fact that while the fairy-Troll represented yet another future threat to her reign, she was serving as a distraction for Gamzee in the here-and-now. She needed him to be kept busy as she moved her own pieces around the board.
Ah. There it is. So that's how you zoom.
