( 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

[commentboxtroll]

[ Which is good, because lingering handshakes are just plain awkward. ]

Horses? Those are fast enough to keep ahead?

[blondtactician]

There's an advantage at being in the open - you can see and hear the titans coming from a distance. Some of them are fast, but most of them barely have the intelligence of an animal. [Most of them.]

Horses are faster. It's not perfect, but it's the best way to cover distance in titan territory.

[Armin looks out over the buildings. It's hard to see how any of this knowledge could apply to the current situation, but he's working on figuring it out.]

You're asking a lot of questions about this. It doesn't bother me, but why is it of interest?

[commentboxtroll]

I guess speed doesn't matter so much if you can spot them a mile off, huh... [ Armin's question, though, that gets a shrug. ] Why? It's of interest because it's something different to talk about. If I have to talk about what's about to happen much more, I might scream.

[ Basically, a distraction. ]

[blondtactician]

We don't have to talk about it. But not talking about it doesn't mean it's going away. A distraction is just that.

But... I guess I came up here to avoid it, too.

[Armin says it reasonably enough. He understands, of course, the persistence of idiotic small talk, the drive to pretend everything is okay. The thing is, it's not that way for him, not if he has to talk about the titans. Because they're not something far away and theoretical to him.

Armin glances about for someplace to settle down with his gear.]

Maybe you'd like to tell me what kind of things you face in your world?

[commentboxtroll]

It's not as though I think it'll go away if ignored, it's only there's nothing that can be done.

[ So why dwell? It feels rotten enough as is! The question about his world gets a small grimace, as he isn't much for talking about his own, but it's certainly fair game since Armin was willing to discuss his own. ]

It's not very interesting, but apparently it's very different from Earth, so I suppose 'interesting' is subjective. We have our own share of monsters that live out in the wilds, but they're really no more fascinating than, say, deer or wolves might be. It's other people that you have to worry about facing, not so much dragons.

[blondtactician]

People are a problem where I'm from, too.

[Armin will never forget that. Mere children were willing to beat him for daring to think outside the status quo, echoing the fear and hate of their parents.

And the very institutions he works for sent his only living family to die a horrible death.]

That won't change, no matter where you go.

[It's all too potent a thought, right now.]

[commentboxtroll]

Well, yeah. Like I said, it's not very interesting. The only aspect that's moderately different is we don't really see big wars kick up between nations until a True Rune shows up on the scene, but that's really only like having a very big and dangerous weapon fall into your hands.

[ Kind of like the bomb they're waiting for, the one they'll all hopefully not still be around for. ]

[blondtactician]

Big and dangerous weapons that fall into people's hands aren't interesting? [Armin raises an eyebrow.]

[commentboxtroll]

[ And Caesar just shrugs. ]

That's not the part I called uninteresting, although considering how predictable it is, I don't really find it all the interesting, either. More of a big nuisance.

[blondtactician]

[Armin's met soldiers like this one. It's a form of bravado, he thinks, but he won't call Caesar on it.]

I imagine so. Do you know where they come from?

[commentboxtroll]

[ As much as it may seem that way, his nonchalant manner towards it is just the expected indifference his family has been known for. Dealing with True Runes is a common routine for a Silverberg. ]

Where? They've always been there. The story goes that the first two True Runes created the world, but that's kind of suspect, if you ask me, but then, I'm not very into treating runes like God.

[blondtactician]

Religion has a way of excusing ugly behavior, and encouraging willful ignorance.

[Armin nods thoughtfully.]

So they're just around, and when people find them, they use them as weapons? Why doesn't someone just gather them and destroy them?

[commentboxtroll]

More like they find people. They've proven themselves just as sentient as any of us.

[ Worse, weapons with a personality! ]

And destroying them would be a terrible idea. The power they would unleash would be catastrophic, not entirely unlike the bomb Exsilium's been threatened with. We've already had one crazy priest try it and I really hope not to meet any others with the same idea!

[blondtactician]

A sentient weapon. [Armin doesn't seem as surprised by the concept as he might be. After all, he's argued for the use of his own friend in such a manner.] It seems like their only purpose would be to cause trouble, even start wars... is it known what is responsible for their appearance?

[commentboxtroll]

Apart from the creation story? Not that I've heard of. Some even say they may have originated in times before any of the different races even existed themselves.

[blondtactician]

So your entire society has developed around the threat? [How could Caesar find this stuff boring?

He can at least to feeling that inevitability of war and violence that these things must pose.]

If they have personalities and so on, do you think there's any possibility the Initiative could bring one in? It sounds as if they could be potent weapons.

[commentboxtroll]

It's not like they're a constant threat or anything.

[ Because the same story over and over again isn't interesting! ]

And I suppose it would be possible to bring one in. I think there's at least one or two instances of the transporter being in disembodied beings. Not a good idea, though. If it isn't already attached to someone, it would just pick something at random.

Well, either that or angrily kill us all. Whichever. Some of them probably have tempers like that.

[blondtactician]

Wait - so it doesn't have a body at all?

[There are plenty who seem to think that Armin's world is madness, but he's beginning to learn... everyone else's world is, too.]

[commentboxtroll]

It's a rune, of course it doesn't. It just looks like a rune. Until it attaches to someone or an object, that's all it is.