( open ) i'll fly you to the moon and back

[initiates]

Date & Time: September 21st - September 30th, 11:59 PM
Location: The Hold, the Moon Base
Characters: Any/all.
Summary: The Transports are evacuating to the Moon Base. Those on the Moon Base try to settle in and figure out their next move. Setting info can be found here.
Warnings: Talk of nuclear warheads and reference to immense loss of life. Please contact the mods should any individual thread get graphically violent or anything else of the sort.
Note: Use date and location tags in your subject headlines! Such as "On the moon, 23rd onward" or "On the spaceship, 25th" or "down at the Hold, 29th."

The Hold is a flurry of activity, grim faced members of the Initiative group directing supplies and people with the subdued air of people facing their own doom, and wondering at how to process the knowledge. None of the Initiative appears unaware of what will happen; their eyes linger on the Transports, expressions pleading, hopeful, doubtful, or immeasurably sad in turn.

Every eight hours, the space ship is sent back up with a load of people and supplies. The pilots are worked until they can't; the AI stolen ages ago by the Initiative greets and corrals people and supplies at both ends, and in the middle step between.

The network continues to broadcast on narrow channels between the Moon Base and Exsilium, up until the time that all connections are lost, with the carrier located en route to Exsilium. The first airship will pass by without dropping anything, but it's too early to celebrate. At a six hour delay from behind, the second airship arrives, and with it, the dark promise of the Black Code's nuclear weaponry.

The six hour window allows for time for those left behind, either by choice or circumstance, to be pulled to the Moon Base with the successful activation of the Transport Pad. New characters will ultimately arrive with the remainder of those not yet on the Moon Base, all in time to witness the explosive contact of the nuclear warhead with the ground of Exsilium live on satellite.

But until then, there's only the hurry, the silence, and the potential for full out rioting should the Transports spread word to the Exiles inevitably left behind to face this fate.

Comments

( moon base | ota )

[stillbetter]

[Poppy walks around with her arms crossed, expression closed off from the rest of the crowd, eyes fixed on some unreachable thought. Everything still feels so surreal, so impossible. She feels absolutely alone. Confused, guilty, anxious, helpless, hopeless.

Her eyes are watering up, one hand covering her nose and mouth, trying to hold on to whatever inch of self-control she has left. She wishes she could just go home and forget about this place. She wishes she could feel Freddie's arms around her, hear his voice telling her it's all right - it was just a bad dream.

But no such thing is going to happen, is it?

Something drops from the clutch of her palm, clattering on the floor, rolling away beneath a table. Her engagement ring.]

Oh, bugger-!

[sweetling]

[The sound of someone swearing jerks Halfpipe from her own dazed reverie (it seems like they're all ghosts on this big godforsaken base), and she looks up to see a vaguely familiar face. The wallflower.

Halfpipe drops down, crouching on her stupidly high heels and reaching under the table to draw it out. She eyes it curiously before offering it back to Poppy.]

Take it easy.

[stillbetter]

[She's embarrassed, keeping an arm to herself while the other pinches the bridge of her nose. She really doesn't want to just start crying in front of a stranger.

Except Poppy thinks she recognizes her, somewhat.]

I'm sorry. [a sniff, reaching for the ring.] Thank you.

[sweetling]

's fine.

[She pauses, a tad awkwardly, understanding Poppy's stress but discomfited by her discomfort with her own sadness.]

Hey... we've talked before, right?

[stillbetter]

[Another sniff, followed by a nod,] Yes, I think so. [pause.] Poppy. Poppy Chadwick.

[sweetling]

Halfpipe. Not a skater.

[A pause. You okay? is sort of a stupid question to ask, isn't it?]

Have you been up here long?

[stillbetter]

I just arrived with the others. [she shakes her head.] I was just thinking about home.