Chapter 2.0 - Into The Black

"Well, I'm glad someone understands the ways of The Strange!" Diego says "cuz I sure as hell don't!"

He then looks to Jeapa as he mimics her action trying to find some relief from the searing pain in his ears. "What were those things?"

OOC: Diego could use some rest - down to 2 might and 50% on the others. I have him as using his Action and Ten Minute recoveries already, so he'd need an hour.

From the airlock, you enter a small service tunnel which leads to what must be an internal vehicle, which seats 10. Jeapa enters the small room/car, not unlike a carriage or train car, and straps herself to the seat with a lap belt. Various warnings flash at you, such as "WARNING: ABOUT TO ENTER LOW GRAVITY ENVIRONMENT" and "SAFETY BELTS MUST BE WORN AT ALL TIMES".

Once you all strap in, the car soundlessly floats upwards, toward the center of Tombstone Station. You can tell that Jeapa is reading by the way her eyes move and from the flash of laser light across her eye from her strange goggles that she has donned. The car slows down towards the center of the station there is a brief moment of disorientation as the car revolves more rapidly at the center of the station, but it soon begins to move sideways, towards one of the smaller 'upper' rings.

At the end of the journey, the car reorients and then slides 'downwards' into the centrifugal artificial gravity vector. When it stops, you are thoroughly confused as to where you are in relation to where you were. Only a system terminal showing your position superimposed over an image of the station tells you you are now in the Observation deck, the smallest of the rings.

During the three minute journey, Jeapa tells you the following:

Planetovores are unimaginable creatures that inhabit the Strange, the dark energy network that underlies the universe. Where the dark energy coalesces from its raw chaotic state into stable 'islands', we call these places 'recursions'. They are very stable. Planetovores tend to feed on reducing the stable recursions into the lower potential energy state of raw Strange. As such, they are the greatest threat to life that could possibly exist.

"The one thing that we have on our side," she says, "is that planetovores cannot just simply chomp down on a recursion, like a shrimp on a barbie. They can't penetrate the boundaries, and so they need agents, or some other way to open the door. Those aliens are a manifestation of sorts, right? They are agents of a planetovore that is nearby in The Strange. They seek to reduce the potential energy of this recursion. In a word, to wreck shit."

The journey ends there with an acknowledgement that you are know at SYSSEC. Gravity is lighter here, maybe a 1/4 of normal, but you won't float around. Jeapa unbuckles her safety harness and stands, and proceeds to the door. "This is a sensitive area, but I think that I can trust you Sheilas. I need to say, however, that naughty boys will get fed to the trash compactor. Ready?"

Edited slightly for readability.

Floats on Thunder listens intently his face solemn and nods occasionally to the explanation. To him the planetovores seemed to use the aliens or agents like a pack to hunt, to injure their prey so the scent of their blood can be followed.

"This pact can be made." he states unbuckling himself and standing.

Diego, still playing with his ears a bit, catches most of what Jeapa had to say during the trip and figures he'll figure out the details as the situation progresses. "Works for me."

[OOC: I hand Eli a cypher to recover 5 Speed (Velocidad)]
You can trust us, ma'am. We just want to help. I smile and nod sincerely.

Awuim barks something that sounds like "gorth" and she nods at each of you, then turns to the door. It opens as she moves towards it, and only closes after the last of you enter.

The space you enter is one big room that takes up the whole ring, except for the circular center which contains the shaft to the rest of the station. It is full of computer readouts from waist down, and glass looking out over space from waist up, with no obvious frames to the glass. The stars move slowly across the field, but you can tell that it is you that is moving/rotating when the dying binary start system comes into view. Jets of illuminated stellar material stream from a large star to the other, smaller one. About a dozen technicians, all human, but from random cultures and time-periods, fiddle with readouts, or otherwise watch the instruments.

"What is real? I asked myself that the first time I came here." Awium's voice is quite human for a dog-headed person, and he enunciates more than you have heard anyone do so before. His accent is unfamiliar and faint, more New York than you would have guessed.

"I can tell you that if got into a craft, we could sail around that binary pair, and then return here. Our instruments would tell us that we were on a journey of more than a million miles, yet that would make this the largest recursion of all. So, do we really travel that far, or does it only seem like we do? It is confusing." He begins walking, and it is clear that you should follow him.

"These instruments tell the technicians that the recursion is no bigger than Tombstone Station. If we leave, then we are entering The Strange, and as such, we chance encounters with travellers of that chaotic environment. The star system is echoed in The Strange dark energy network, and that means something. It is, in fact, why this station was built. To study it and to learn what we can."

He pauses. "You may have caught on that the station was built. Yes, we can build recursions. From what I know of yours, it is an echo of the desires of Earth. My own recursion, Arden, was also built. There are others, some private and personal, others public and accessable."

Jeapa, who had stepped away to consult with a technician, returns to you. She joins in "Tombstone Station was made to be open. You can't get to it from just anywhere, just the nearby recursions. But to keep it safe, we have to guard it. That's where I come in. The sheriff, if you will. I was born just a sheila from the backcountry, but here I'm a god-damned wrecking crew. That's pretty fantastic."

Awium smiles at her, and they nod at each other. "Ms. Jeapa has uploaded some information into my craft. I want to investigate the planetovore, and see if we can maybe stop it, or perhaps just annoy it into leaving. If you're interested, let's meet up in a couple hours in the ring below, and see what happens out there."

They look at you with the expectation that you may have questions.

Diego has a question.

"How does one going about 'annoying' a planetvore?" Diego asks before adding "It doesn't sound like something you'd want to provoke. Wouldn't it be safer to just identify and destroy its agents?"

Floats on Thunder shrugs "I figure this warrior woman knows of a way that would not be suicide to attempt I would hope." he would state his hand going to his chest palm in. "Provoke or annoy is probably the best choice of words, something large enough to swallow what you know as the world you come from is not something we can appease easily, if it stay it may stop looking at this place we are in where we can see it's agents and hunt them and go to a recursion connected to this one where we are not, like my home or yours." offered up.

He would agree to a non suicidal plan it was agreeeable for people from all worlds to incline the world eaters to move on to other areas of The Strange.

Jeapa nods. "The planetovore itself is beyond our capabilities to effect. But we can target it's agents and resources." She pauses and then continues. "You should know that we have never tried what Awium will propose to you. We don't think that it will backfire in any way. Most hopefully, perhaps we will learn something about defending all recursions from these entities."

"Lastly, it is a concern to us, too, that it may just go elsewhere. Everyone here is from somewhere else. We don't want our homes destroyed. Would we sacrifice this place if we could save a more populated recursion? Absolutely. We don't think that's the case, but if you find out otherwise, we need to know."

Looking at everyone, I shrug. Sounds like a fine enough plan to me. Heck, all this recursion talk is still kinda confusing to me ... but I'll get it soon enough.

Jeapa shrugs. "Not much specifically about the agents. They're fairly focussed on whatever task they do, almost machine like. They first showed up here awhile ago, but mostly explored. Some of our team were suspicious about them and kept tabs, especially since rumours of a planetovore in the area began to surface at the same time. This is the first time that those blokes have attacked."

She continues, leaning forward and speaking more softly. "They may have a base nearby, which would be the extent of their resources. We hope."

"Any idea where this base may be? Might be worth checking out."

Floats on Thunder nods, "If this is what you wanted us to wait a few hours for I think it easy enough to do." he states.

Diego will find himself a place to sit down and enjoy a powdery drink.

Putting both to Strength Pool