EVENT ★ THE FRACKING FIELDS

[futurologists]

THE EARTHQUAKE One day, early in the morning before the mechanical rooster at Amos Zephyr's farm even crows, there's a sudden rumble in the distance. Perdition's Rest shakes and the ground roils, knocking things off shelves and startling the mechanical horses in their pen. Look out the window and you'll see Qorral locals blearily stepping out into the street, murmuring anxiously amongst themselves: Earthquake. Ever since the argecite mines started to dry up, the Qorral colonists have been turning to fracking in order to pull all available argecite out of the planet as quickly as possible. The technique has caused more and more earthquakes to shake the planet, though the fracking fields are far enough away from the town that damage is minimal. However, the fields and mines aren't as lucky. The mayor rushes out into the street, his assistant and Sheriff Holladay flanking him, and asks for any willing heroes and adventurers (that means you!) to venture out to the fracking fields and assess the damages. Though the tunnels aren't being actively mined, there were likely miners and other workmen inside, so there will be rescue needed as well. Get your provisions ready and hop on the train: you're going to work. THE FRACKING FIELDS The fracking fields are a wide open swath of land peppered with looming, iron machines going on for miles. These machines are the Qorral's final attempt at scraping the last remnants of argecite from the planet before abandoning the colony and moving on for good. This destructive practice is causing obvious instability to the planet, but they don't seem to care. This is what their species does: seeks out argecite, mines it, and moves on. The fields are dry and dead, with no plants around -- and now, after the earthquake, there are sinkholes. The iron machines are falling into the sinkholes, slowly being swallowed by the planet, with desperate workers trying to pull them back out. They could use the help -- but be sure not to fall in yourself. Grotesque alien birds circle overhead, searching for the dead or the dying, workers caught in the collapsing earth. Save them before they're swallowed by the earth or swallowed by carrion birds -- and if you're too late, the locals would be happy to have their loved ones returned to them intact. Also found in the fields is the Argecite Refinery, a massive factory filled with machinery meant for the refining of the crystal before it is to be shipped back to the Qorral home planet. The outside of the factory is surrounded by a 610cm (20 ft) tall electric perimeter fence, whose energy shorts out sporadically after the earthquake cracked the service box. If you're quick enough to make it through one of the gaps in electricity, don't relax quite yet -- there are malfunctioning guard drones throughout the facility, the earthquake rattling their sensors and making it impossible for them to tell friend from foe. The drones resemble dogs, though they are capable of folding their legs in for aerodynamic superiority when they take flight. They are equipped with energy lasers to destroy, sticky glue to slow trespassers, and a thin blade in the tail to poison attackers. The poison is quick-acting, causing hallucinations and fever, but it is not deadly. Inside the factory, the machinery has collapsed in on itself from the earthquake; electricity sparks from damaged wires, dangerously nearby spilled oil drums or pools of standing water. Fire can start at any second. There are factory workers here that need rescuing, but also a variety of inanimate objects, including barrels of argecite, machinery parts, files, computers, etc. Anything that isn't bolted down needs to be moved outside of the factory before it explodes. Of course, no one is really keeping track of what's inside... THE MINES The Qorral have been digging in the mines since arriving on this planet 30 years ago, but recent efforts have shifted to fracking after the argecite veins slowly became depleted. The mines are still maintained by a skeleton crew of workers, making sure there is no build-up of dangerously flammable gas and patrolling the tunnels to look out for cave-ins -- which, after the earthquake, have happened in spades. The tunnels are winding and deep, turning in on each other and ending in dead ends or sudden, steep drop-offs into the dark. There are workers trapped within, and some at Perdition's Rest have said that their thrill-seeking relatives -- typically teenagers -- have gone missing. It's possible that they have found themselves trapped in the mine, so it may be a good idea to look out for them as well. And even deeper in the mine, there is a writhing, pale danger: sand worms, blind and hungry, wait in the dark. The earthquake has begun to drive them further up the tunnel, their tooth-lined maws open as they slither through toward the surface. Those focusing on the fields above may find a straggling sand worm or two, thrashing wildly in pain from the unfamiliar heat of the sun. This will definitely put a damper in the rescue and recovery efforts, so take them out as quickly as you can -- with as little damage to the fracking equipment, please. OOC NOTES Please direct all questions pertaining to the mission to the dossier page to keep questions and responses in one place for easy player reference. General game questions should be directed to the FAQ. If you haven't already, make sure you check out the Bounty Board for side missions! Remember you can also request bounty missions or submit player plots at any time.

Comments

[cachemoney]

[Ohhhh, my god. She rolls her eyes but doesn't comment.] Good. Things would be really awkward, otherwise. Uh, more awkward. I guessss this means you didn't lose your mind [literally???] or whatever, so good job. [It would still suck if that happened to him, she hasn't changed her stance on that!

And then, to abruptly change the subject --] Okay, I'm just gonna say it, why would they stick something like this underground?

[dbag]

[ More awkward, ouch. You know what makes things awkward? Saying they're awkward. It's not awkward unless you make it awkward, Fiona. He shines a light down the tunnel, looking for — something. Ideally, the holodisc fragment so they can return to the surface world instead of scrounging around in a mine like mole people, but anything works. Sand worms, trapped workers who have gone insane and started eating each other, whatever. It's good to be prepared. To run. ]

I don't know, it's a good place to hide things? Nobody's gonna want to come down here. For... obvious reasons. [ He really expected this to be more of a fun caper than it turned out to be, this feels like a lot of trudging. They've been doing a lot of trudging lately. ] It's like the Veins of Helios down here.

[cachemoney]

[Not everything can be a caper, Rhys.] The what?

[The answer is super interesting, obviously, but it will have to go unsaid for now, because Fiona makes a little noise of excitement when the radar starts pinging hard.] Wait, I don't care, shut up! It's right here. [She stops, looks around.] Uh, apparently.

[dbag]

[ It is interesting, he's sort of offended she doesn't care. But, then again, she's never ever given a fuck about Helios or basically anything Hyperion-related. He crosses his arms, tapping his foot a little. ]

Wooow, great job. You know, it's smaller than I thought it'd be. Way smaller, like nonexistent.

[cachemoney]

Yeah, helpful! [She takes a second to walk in a little circle around him, trying to figure out if the fragment is closer to any particular direction, but she winds up where she started.]

Okay, maybe it's buried. Do you have... [Do you have a shovel in your obvious Swiss army arm.] Never mind. [She scuffs some of the ground with her foot, looking for anything loose or metallic or... something.] Please don't make me say "don't just stand there."

[dbag]

I'm not just standing here, I'm... being moral support. —Fine. [ He huffs a little, exasperated; why can't she do all the work herself. Reluctantly, he kneels, already dirtying up his pants. After a moment of hemming and hawing, he starts digging with his hands, scowling. It's gross, this is gross. Getting down in the dirt isn't his idea of a good time.

Looking over at her: ] Uh, I'm not going to be the only person getting all gross, so. Start digging. Or I can just, like, smear it all over your face, either way.

[cachemoney]

You do that and you're losing your hand. [Kidding, she wouldn't make him a double amputee. Unless he is talking about his robo arm, in which case, yeah, she'd rip that off.

She kneels down next to him, not making a big deal about it because she's not a baby, and starts digging, too, a little ways over.] You haven't complained about your foot in about five minutes, is it okay?

[dbag]

[ He's offended, it's not complaining, it's just loudly mentioning that bad things are happening to him. All the time. It's like narrating his life. ] Foot update: still hurts. Prognosis good, probably not going to kill me. Unless we have to run from something, then, um. Maybe. [ He shakes some dirt off his hand and pushes his hair back out of his face as he looks; there's probably some dirt in his hair now, that's disgusting, but whatever. Still searching, he frowns and asks, ] What... exactly are we looking for, what does it look like.

[cachemoney]

[She looks at him for a second, distracted by his hair, then shrugs, squinting.] Iiii don't know, it's a "holodisc." So. Something disc...y. Disc-y. [It's very descriptive, she knows, so she continues,] Just look for anything shiny and. Not dirt-like.

[dbag]

Disc-y. [ Flat and unimpressed. She can do better. But he keeps digging, frowning at all this dirt — there's one bathroom, how is he going to get all this off without prostitutes bitching at him to hurry up — until he spots something... not dirt-like. ] Oh! Hey. I did it! [ HE HELPED. Mark this day down on your calendars, people. ] I think. Maybe. Come look at it, it's definitely... not dirt. So there's that.

[cachemoney]

[YEAH, DISC-Y. Got a problem??? She's actually surprised that he did something useful instead of just whining about all this dirt under his precious baby fingernails; brushing her hands off on her trousers, she scoots over to check out this not-dirt thing, this had better be worth it.] --ooh. I think... [She reaches down for the thing, which certainly seems to be... yep, not dirt.

She holds it up, squinting.] So... I guess this is it? Wow, exciting. Here. [He won the prize, he gets to hold it. Fiona's jewelcomm is too far away to actually activate the thing and she doesn't think to hold it up to her ear, but maybe he'll have better luck with the man ring.]

[dbag]

[ Oh, wow, holding this is so fun, thanks a bunch. He stares blankly for a second, like he's expecting her to do something — because of course he is, Fiona does everything while he stands in the background looking pretty, obviously — then raises his eyebrows as he realizes: ] Oh. I'm— am I supposed to be doing something right now? I'm not saying I wasn't paying attention to the instructions, but, um.

[cachemoney]

[Oh my god. She gives him an extremely dead-eyed look, so dead that it is practically dust. Which isn't to say there was much to pay attention to --] ...okay, it didn't say. Exactly. Maybe --

[Some staticky words from the holodisc fragment interrupt her, blah blah status, blah blah, lowered activity, it's all pretty useless information. She pretends she's proud of him for helping out, though, whatever it is he did, and pats him on the head condescendingly.] Look! You helped. And everyone said you were useless.

[dbag]

—The only person who said that was you. [ Jesus Christ, this asshole! Although Fiona probably is 'everyone' to herself. He scowls at her, then looks back to the holodisc, poking at it, turning it around to see if there's anything else to it. ] Iiiis that it? ...Wow. Kind of disappointing. I guess I've been spoiled for climactic endings.

[cachemoney]

[She's immediately defensive -- she tapped him for this bounty, she doesn't need him to shit all over it!! -- but deflates quickly, because he has a point. Unfortunately.] Yeah, well. It's no glowy box, but what is?

[dbag]

A glowy box? [ BA DUM TSH, he's so funny. He stands, shaking his legs out a little — they're a bit sore from crouching — and dusting off his pants. He feels gross, there better not be any prostitutes using the bathroom when they get back!! ] Okay, well. Um. Good job, team. [ He weakly punches her on the shoulder like they're two thirteen year old boys who think ball is life or something. ] I would appreciate not hanging out in a creepy mine any longer, personally. Sooo...

[cachemoney]

[God, he's so awkward. Fiona stands too, giving him a little bit of a look, then pats him on the shoulder. She's sixteen, thank you, she has started to get crushes and everything.] Alright. Just for you.

[Any lingering hand-on-shoulder action is a probably just a sneaky way to get dirt on his clothes, and she turns around to lead him back out of the tunnel.]