open log » ❝ The VR Program ❞

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: August 5th, mid morning.
Location: Anywhere characters happen to be/the VR.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: From August 5th to August 8th, characters are plunged involuntarily into the VR Program.
Warnings: Potential violence within the threads.

When the chance arises, she's quick to take it. The programming is incomplete, she knows; the simulation isn't ready — but she's not likely to get another shot at it. And so she moves, slipping through security codes to input the command. The machines hum to life with nothing but a flicker of a green light in a dark room, and it takes only seconds to establish connections. The signal is sent out; the weapons respond.

In a single pulse, reality drops away.

There will be darkness at first as the mind realigns itself to the signals being sent it. Slowly, the darkness fades, forms take shape. People take shape. The setting is terribly familiar, plucked from the user's own mind. It might feel like a dream at first, with events playing out as if predestined, the would-be dreamer moving through a familiar and unalterable route in them. But as things begin to feel more and more realistic, as more senses more fully connect to the simulation, awareness will change. This is not a dream. This is more than a memory.

Welcome to the VR.

Only 20 minutes later, in some underground quarters, Doctor Sponde is roused from an undignified sprawl. He's hastily briefed and shuttled toward the command center, looking grim. He knows the problem demands an immediate fix, but… well, this is some complex machinery. It could take some time. It could take days. He gets to work.

Comments

Fight in the Citadel

[twiceadays]

It's hot. Shepard blinks, and she finds herself with her back against a low ledge, gun in hand. It takes her a moment, but she recognizes her surroundings. It's the Citadel, inside of the Council Chambers. Everything is on fire, and the station floors vibrate beneath her feet from the force of the battle outside. Battle? Sovereign.

She drags her eyes up and sees Saren Arterius staring back down at her from his platform. On either side of her, she can hear Kaidan's heavy breathing and Wrex's low chuckle. Both of them are crouching, facing the turian with their weapons drawn and aimed at him.

That's right.

She rolls and stands up from her hiding spot, gun dropping to her side. There's not one beat that she misses as she leans in. "It's not over yet. You can still redeem yourself!"

Saren shifts, only slightly. "Good-bye, Shepard. Thank you." His arms lifts, the muzzle of his weapon pointed just under the chin.

Despite knowing it's coming, Shepard jumps at the shot, watching the spray of dark blue blood as Saren stumbles and finally falls from the platform and crashes through the plate glass below him. She stands there a moment before her body takes its familiar path to the computer. Uploading Vigil's data into the Citadel is the next step, she remembers that.

What she doesn't remember is the faint hiss of someone drawing their weapon on her. "Shepard," Kaidan says as he fires and destroys the screen, the commander rolling out of the way just in time.

Bewilderment pounds on her as she takes cover behind a piece of debris. "Shit."

[ooc: this thing here will likely show up at some point :'3

also, if you'd rather do action instead of prose, I am a-okay with this too]

[stonefaith]

This one confuses him.

Bariyan hasn't a clue where he is, or what this is. Everything is strange, the floors, walls, the... architecture. The people. He finds that he cannot look around for too long before overwhelming himself with the unfamiliarity, so he presses on, searching for something recognizable.

He hears something. A woman's voice, perhaps a note he recognizes, perhaps not. Bariyan seeks it out anyway, but hesitates at the sound of gunfire. A shot. No-- what is he doing? That could be someone he knows. Move.

Bariyan bursts in on the scene no less bewildered than before, but bewilderment is something that he quickly shoves aside once he sees Kaidan fire at Shepard. It is Shepard, certainly; he'd been right about that. These others, he doesn't recognize. But what matters is that they no longer look friendly.

"Shepard!" Bariyan calls out her name, to catch her attention -- and, as he starts to move forwards, hopefully Kaidan's too.

welcome to the world of video games, enjoy the stupid battle cries

[twiceadays]

Kaidan's shooting at her. Kaidan, of all people. Maybe it's time to lay off the alcohol. Her back presses tight against the piece of wall she's found refuge behind. There's a loud, guffawing laugh as Wrex opens fire in her direction.

And then she hears her name. It's definitely not Kaidan or Wrex, and Shepard looks up in time to see both of her crew turn to look at Bariyan. She growls and stands up. "Are you insane?"

The krogan shifts his feet and lowers his head. "I AM KROGAN!" He rushes forward, and Shepard knows that if she doesn't move fast, the man is about to become paste.

Her hand glows blue as she initiates her biotics, and suddenly Wrex is in the air before being slammed back down hard. "Get over here, Bariyan!" In the time it takes for this to happen, Kaidan opens fire on her again, the charge from his gun hitting her hard in the shoulder.

enjoys them thoroughly tbh

[stonefaith]

Bariyan's attention had been entirely on Kaidan due to his attack. He'd completely failed to notice Wrex's presence. So when Wrex starts to rush towards Bariyan, he simply turns and stares at the Krogan in confusion. Where had that come from--?

Shepard's ensuing attack, Wrex's fallback, Kaidan's second round of shots, all of the aftermath hits him at once and rolls right on over Bariyan's head. The only thing that actually gets through to him is Shepard's call. That he responds to immediately, dodging past the fallen Wrex to join Shepard at her side. Too late to put himself between the gunfire and Shepard. His gaze flickers briefly over her shoulder and Bariyan swears under his breath, his version of an apology.

"Now what?" he asks, deferring to Shepard. There's a whole slew of other questions cropping up as well -- where is this? who are they? what is that? -- but Bariyan realizes that they can't exactly afford to make small talk, right now.

[twiceadays]

Shepard hisses at the shot, dropping back behind her cover and motioning for Bariyan to join her before his head is taken off. Carefully, she touches her shoulder. It's bleeding a little, and there's a sigh and a slight smile sent her friend's way at the cursing. "No big deal. Believe me when I say I've had worse wounds than this." There's a short pause before she glances back towards Kaidan's position. "Wait until he unleashes his biotics."

Even if Bariyan doesn't know what they are exactly, it's clear by the tone of her voice that it wouldn't be good.

"Now we..." The commander falters, listening to Wrex's heavy breathing as he gets back up. Stupid fucking krogan anatomy. She doesn't know what to do. These are her friends, her companions. And Kaidan is...

Well he's the guy that rejected the hell out of her recently, but he's still her friend.

"Wait, wait. How the hell did you even get here?"

[stonefaith]

Bariyan is quick to drop behind the debris that Shepard's using as shield, swearing as he hits the ground.

"Not sure -- it keeps changing--" He's speaking quickly, still trying to scope out the situation. The completely alien environment is causing him no end of trouble, however. He shakes his head and continues, "None of this is real. It's all hallucinations. The Initiative's playing with us again, I think."

He looks straight at Shepard. "This is your memory." Half-question, half-statement.

[twiceadays]

Hallucinations.

Shepard makes a face at that word, and then she catches the rest of what Bariyan is saying. "It's the damn VR program, isn't it? I knew that thing was too good to be true." She leans out from cover and takes a shot at Kaidan now, clipping him in the knee. Not real. This isn't real. Shooting him doesn't mean anything.

She looks back at Bariyan. "From a few years ago." Not a pleasant one, but better than some of the memories they could have been thrown into. "So how do we get out? Because if I remember correctly, that thing I killed earlier is going to return in a... zombie husk form."

[stonefaith]

"I think so," he answers, frowning. They should have been more suspicious of that announcement. Especially since it'd come half-drunk.

Without a ranged weapon of any sort, all Bariyan can do right now is keep himself out of the gunfire. He winces as Shepard shoots at Kaidan, and waits until she's done before ducking his head out briefly to look Saren's remains. He's scowling when he comes back. More undead. Bariyan can hardly approve of that.

"I don't know about getting out -- I don't even know how I got in." Bariyan shifts position in order to give Shepard more room to maneuver. "There's no way to keep him from coming back?"

[twiceadays]

Shepard had been suspicious of the doctor and of this training program from the beginning, but this fiasco was just enough to push her over the edge. The Initiative needed to be stopped before something else went wrong, and the transports once again were once again the victims of their decisions.

Glancing at her companion, she slides an extra pistol out and holds it out to him. "Here, you're probably going to need this, unless you know a way out." She frowns then, shaking her head as she glances to where Saren fell. "Sovereign brings him back, so no."

Sorry, Bariyan. Welcome to Shepard's world. Just be glad this isn't a reaper fight. Or husks. A lot of husks.

[majoring]

By the time the real Kaidan shows up in this memory, it's clear that Shepard's been fighting for a while. He doesn't leap out right away, finding cover instead so that he can assess the situation. Judging by what he just experience, it's probably not going to be--

Was that him?

"You're going down!" his doppelganger yells, firing at Shepard. Kaidan doesn't even stop to think, body moving through a mnemonic on instinct. The Pull hits the not-him squarely in the back, sending him floating off into space.

"It's me, don't shoot!" he says a beat later. He'd hold up his hands for evidence that he isn't about to attack her, but then Wrex is charging at him and he has to dive out of the way.

[twiceadays]

Shepard's resting her head against a wall, but it doesn't bring her much relief. The metal's too warm because of the fires; she doesn't seem to really care. It's not something that she really would ever mention, but fatigue is tugging on her body at this point. It's bad enough that she has to go up against Wrex -- it's bad enough going up against any krogan. Him especially.

Kaidan's another story though. Every shot she takes with him is in a non-vital area. By this point, she's assumed that this isn't real. Virtual reality.

She still can't take the shot.

That's why when the VR version is firing, she's taking cover, and then suddenly the rapid firing stops. Kaidan's floating through the air... And Kaidan is the one doing it.

"I've had a dream like this before. It ended a lot better!" Her hand shoots out, and Wrex collapses in growling yells as the Warp consumes him.

[majoring]

Kaidan eyes Wrex for a half second, safely behind cover. Shepard seems to have him under control - well, to a degree - for the time being, and having just walked into this memory, attacking a friend really isn't something her could go for.

Attacking himself is a little weirder, but that doesn't stop him from detonating the Pull. He watches his body hit the ground with a loud thwack, and hopes that was enough to deal with it. Both Rahna and Vyrnnus had been way above the power level they should have been, in his memory.

"Now's really not the time, Shepard!"

[twiceadays]

"I thought a joke would make it easier to deal with!"

Something moves off to her side, and Shepard catches it with the corner of her eye. Her head turns to look, but there's nothing there. Her eyebrows draw together before she glances back at Kaidan. Behind him, Wrex is struggling back to his feet.

With a grimace, she lifts her gun arm, aims, and fires at her very good friend. The shot takes him in the head, and part of her dies. It's not real; she knows that. But it feels too real. And it makes her feel pathetic.

[majoring]

Kaidan catches movement himself, and it tugs at his own memory he has of this place. He fires another biotic off at his unmoving body just to be sure and follows up the movement with a roll into cover that's a little closer to Shepard.

"I guess it's a little too much to ask for that this is happening after we put down Saren the second time?" It's easier to ask that than respond to her actual comment.

[twiceadays]

Saren.

Shepard gives a low hiss at herself in irritation as she edges closer to Kaidan's position. Her mouth twitches into an apologetic smirk. "I guess I forgot about that part in all the excitement."

There's another blur as the Saren husk jumps to the wall across from them, hanging there as it turns its head towards them. A shiver runs down her spine. It's just as hideous as she remembers.

"Well... At least we're not unprepared for this."

[majoring]

Kaidan doesn't turn to look at the bodies they just put down, but they're still at the forefront of his mind. "Yeah, I don't blame you." So too is the memory he just relieved, made even worse by the sight of Rahna turning on him. He sits on them both, focussing on the issue at hand.

"Just like old times," he agrees dryly, before firing off biotics at the Saren husk. He doesn't mention the fact that last time they had a giant krogan with them as well.

[twiceadays]

Aiming her Valkyrie, Shepard takes a shot and misses right at the thing jumps. She mutters a string of curses under her breath as she continues to fire. It's too fast, and she is entirely grateful at the moment that any of the reaper forces now are of a slower variety.

Less jumpy, too. It makes them easier targets, but of course, Saren could never make things easier for any of them.

"That's because it is old times, Major. Except for the part where we just killed Wrex and... you."

Weird.

[fe_male]

Now this one. He could potentially get used to this one. There's a brief moment where he considers that JARVIS might like it here - there are things that JARVIS likes and doesn't like; you can tell by how quickly he learns in some areas versus others, such as how quickly he picked up sarcasm but how long it took him to learn how to filter and screen emails, the lazy bum - and then there are shots being fired and his natural instincts take over, diving behind something that looks pretty sturdy.

It doesn't take long to follow the pattern and pick out the person who looks familiar here. He claps his hands a couple of times to get her attention as he calls over, 'Hey! You got anything spare?'

[twiceadays]

Tony Stark. If anyone could find their way into something like this, Shepard supposes that it will probably be him. She doesn't hesitate to slip one of her pistols from its place on her hip and slide it over to him. "You're in luck. I always carry spares!"

There's something about having someone else here that eases her. It's difficult enough to face things on your own, but to do it against people who are meant to be close to you... Well, at least she can share the burden.

"The big one," she says, leveling her rifle at the krogan. "He'll regenerate as quickly as you can fire a shot off, and he likes to make people into paste." She points her gun at Kaidan, whose hands glow blue from his biotics. "That one is more impressive than me with those biotics. So be careful."

[fe_male]

He picks it up, glancing it over - guns are guns, usually, but it still helps to make sure that you're not about to shoot yourself in the face with a secondary attack or something, because that would just be really annoying - and then turns to face the attackers. Glance over to Kaidan, because, okay, sure, blue glowing shit, that's cool, that's not weird. Still. Even.

'What'd you do to piss off the dinosaur?'

It's a pretty nice gun though, to be honest. He'd like to keep it and see how it actually works when they get back. Supposing this whole thing isn't just a bag of dicks and evaporates it or something when all's told and defeated.

[twiceadays]

What'd she do? Shepard would like to know the answer to that question herself. One minute, things are going along smoothly according to memory, the next her own friends are turning on her. "Maybe he just doesn't like the way I look today." There's a cheeky grin to her words, even if she doesn't feel particularly excited about this whole ordeal.

She takes aim at Wrex, barely feeling the jerk of her weapon when it fires. "Here's a question for you, Stark. How'd you even get here?"

If they get through this just fine, Shepard will be more than happy to give him one of her guns.

[fe_male]

[ Question was mostly rhetorical, but hey. Whatever. He aims at one of the things she indicated - and the fact that they're shooting at them helps - and opens fire with the new weapon. Pretty nifty. He might one was to take one of these home with him. ]

The hell should I know? I was in my own... Level, thank you very much, then went through a door that hadn't been there and isn't here anymore, and now it looks like I'm stuck until we win. Easy, right? I'm gonna sic JARVIS on whoever wrote this crap-ass code, okay. Is that okay?

[twiceadays]

Your own level? [She takes a moment to pull her attention from the enemies to focus on him. Are you serious right now, Tony?] This is the worst video game I've ever been forced to play. [A groan as she takes another shot at the krogan.] I'd love to see that, Stark.

[fe_male]

[ Do you have problems with his lexicon or his world view here, he can't tell. ]

You clearly haven't played - well, actually, you probably haven't. This isn't that bad, aside from the mental I will pee on everything you ever loved aspect. So, really, still not that bad. In terms of virtual reality it's a little unbelievable but it's at least got some decent graphics. There's some tearing when you shoot too many at once, but I don't think that's a problem most people actually have. [ lo siento; you mentioned aspects of a video game to a computer programmer ]

You may just, actually. I'm not sure how vendettive he can actually get, but I'd be willing to test it.

[twiceadays]

[She has problems with this entire mess, really. It's nothing personal on you, Tony.]

Sorry, wasn't much of a video game girl growing up. [Because she was on a farming planet, mostly.] I am starting to hate everything in this place, seriously. [She needs a drink after this. Or right now, but unfortunately, she doesn't carry booze around with her.] So is there a way we can actually force the program to shut down?