( 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

[retraced]

[And that face of Oz's is his cue to exit.

There's a perfectly good, empty chair right next to the two of them, but there's also chairs in the back that are far better choices right now! Nervously, Gilbert turns and starts for one of those.]

Ah - I'll tell you later, I should go sit down now--!

[Anyone is free to grab hold of him or continue to threaten with cats.]

[crocodilesmiles]

( Collette releases Oz's hand to lean in to him and say -- )

Grab him.

[velveteened]

( she doesn't need to say it twice, or even once — oz's free hand is already darting out to grab for a handful of gil's jacket to give it a sharp tug. )

[retraced]

Hnngh-!

[Grabbed! His body twists and doubles over at the waist as he's tugged down. If Oz were anyone else he might put up more of a fight, but as it is he can't do much else but stare down into his master's face, pleading for something along the lines of mercy. They're in public, after all.]

[crocodilesmiles]

( Collette folds her arms over her chest, watching Gilbert plead with his everything at Oz. Knowing they'd grown up together made so much more of how they interacted make sense.

Like this moment. )

You're going to have to get strapped in, Gilbert, no one's allowed to walk around back here during flight! Speaking of... where are we flying to?

[velveteened]

( which means gilbert is treated to a hard stare for all of three seconds before oz answers brightly and aloud, at a conversational volume that's more than enough to get the attention of their neighbors (assuming that hasn't happened already, with the scene they've been making) and space flight attendants does the space plane even have those. )

It's dangerous to keep standing in the aisle like this! Didn't you know take off is soon? But it's lucky you were able to find this open seat with how many people are here already, isn't it? I'm glad for it too.

( they are in public after all. )

[retraced]

[This isn't like he'd planned at all! He'd wanted to hide out and let them get used to the idea...without knowing anything at all! For at least a few hours until they arrived! Because that's the mature, adult way to handle this sort of thing, clearly.

But they need to leave and people are staring now, so Gilbert does indeed move to sit down in the nearby seat, hands fumbling with the straps nervously. This had been a much easier thing to accept when it had only been an idea, but now that it's actually happening, they're really about to leave, his anxiety is shooting up exponentially.]

An evacuation notice was sent out a little while ago. [He mumbles as he works on tightening, loosening and actually attaching this thing.]

Everyone is preparing to leave the city.

[He's going to leave that part out about the moon...for now...]

[crocodilesmiles]

Evacuating to where? Running from what? Leaving with who?

( She folds her hands in her lap, knuckles going white as she grips them around each other. Glancing around, all she sees are faces made familiar even when names weren't attached. )

Most of the people here are like us.

[velveteened]

( oz sums it up more succinctly with a — )

Why?

[retraced]

[Collette seems to have already solved the 'who' part of her own question. As for all the rest...]

The UE has threatened retaliation. Something worse than the bombings before.

[A word that he hadn't recognized, but something that everyone had reacted to with fear.]

A 'nuclear strike', one that would destroy the entire city in an instant.

[crocodilesmiles]

( Collette goes pale. She leans back against her seat, swallowing convulsively. )

No.

( There's nothing else she can say so far. Just that single, quiet refusal: no. )

[velveteened]

What? ( for once the more voluble one, his reaction is loud enough to turn heads. ) You're — 

( lying, he wants to say. it's only because this is gilbert, because of the gravity of the subject matter, that he doesn't let that unfair accusation fly. retaliation is — logical; but it's something he hadn't considered even in his scarce few hours awake lately, that the united earth wouldn't allow an indignity like a research station within its grounds raided and destroyed by the paltry rebel resistance. all of their important work, the things that the scientists like the one he and chrono had met had been pushed harder and harder to accomplish, not ruined but certainly set back. he'd been relieved when their rescue had come, lightheaded enough with it that he'd forgotten to think, to consider —

destroy the entire city in an instant. it makes him think of sablier, makes him feel sick. he reaches out for gil's jacket again, but for the sleeve and in a gesture like he had back at the holding compound just a few days ago, even if what he really means to do is give it a shake. )

This isn't everyone. ( not hardly, not even by half; he remembers how big the ship isn't. ) Where are — no, how long is there?

( trips, maybe, multiple ones? his mind works feverishly to work out the situation, as if that can abate the horror somehow. this is the spacecraft because if exsilium is destroyed there's nowhere for them to go but ue territory; or at least nowhere for them to go in this world. so then, where?

that's when he thinks of collette's ridiculous idea, or at least the one he'd dismissed as such, and more importantly one thing more: something he'd gently reminded madoka about while they were all trapped in the united earth, a fond memory to make her laugh. they'd gone a few months ago to see a beach, to see the dinosaurs there, to collect supplies to reclaim and rebuild the moon base. )

So we're running away to the moon?

( hasn't abated the horror at all, for all that, even if the very statement sounds ludicrous. )

[retraced]

[Both of their reactions are enough to make him wince, his face going even more pale. He stares down at Oz's hand, watching it like he's watching fire creeping up his arms.]

They're taking everyone there in trips. They think there's enough time for everyone to be saved, if...if everything goes according to plan.

[His words are weighted down with the knowledge of just how often plans fail.]

Um...they claim that the...'moon base' is ready for all of us.

[He feels like an idiot having to repeat these words as though they're plausible.]

[crocodilesmiles]

( She has to shake off the shock, forcing wide eyes to turn toward Gilbert. )

You...

( She doesn't know how to feel. Angry and sad and horrified, all at once. )

You didn't think to ask? You just took both of us, put us on this thing, and we trust you enough to let you kidnap us without asking? Fully intending to walk right back off this stupid ship!

( She doesn't yell. She sounds angry, something she almost never does, and she glares at Gilbert because this all hurt. )

You didn't stop to think -- ( her voice cracks ) -- to ask what we wanted to do? Who gave you that right? Who said you got to decide for us! I don't care what you'll do for Oz to keep him safe, you were planning on not telling us at all! You were going to leave, you jerk!

( She's starting to cry, angry, sad, terrified. Nuclear? God, that's wrong, so wrong, so disastrously wrong. )

You could at least do us the courtesy of not trying to run away like a coward when you think you're doing something right!