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

[scarredhorns]

[Lucy lets out something akin to an amused chuckle.]

Believe me, that names strikes fear into the hearts of many where I'm from.

[Even though she'd been kept under such tight security at the research institute, no employee wanted the job of tending to her.

The gesture, even though it's a joke, is still a bit surprising to Lucy. No one had ever bowed to her before.]

So then, Ban. [Lucy's arms are resting at her sides as though what they're about to do is normal.] Shall we get started?

[perma_banned]

Kahaha~. [His voice was somewhat on the dry side but it was something of a genuine laugh that came from Ban at that point. No, Lucy was plenty scary on her own. She didn't need anyone to know her by name for that.

Ban stood back up straight and his grin turned a bit more sedated before he vanished.

There was a rubbery pop in the air after he disappeared--the sound of him briefly passing the sound barrier. He came to a stop, his hands in his pockets, a few dozen meters closer to the caves and the rumbling earth where the sand worms had been coming from.

He lifted up one hand to wave to Lucy, calling out--]

C'mon~! You're not gonna hog all the fun! Plus, I need to wrangle up some ingredients ♪!

[scarredhorns]

[Her head snaps to look where Ban used to be and then to the entrance of the mines. Huh. Lucy doesn't really know what just happened, but after he did that, she wasn't going to just run over to where he was waiting; that would be boring. Four vectors lift her into the air as they brace against the ground, though they aren't idle for long. They carry Lucy across the desert like a speeding train, leaving behind visible handprints in the sand. Even with the wind blowing through her hair, though, Lucy looks as stoic as ever, merely keeping one hand on her hat to prevent it from flying off.

Despite the speed they'd displayed earlier, the vectors set their user down gently, making it look as though she was literally floating back to the ground.]

Did I keep you waiting? [She teases, though there's no grin on her face.] And what sort of ingredients were you hoping to obtain?

[perma_banned]

[Ban had been paying mind to the sands, where the worms had been getting dragged back in by their brethren. He turned up his hands and ripped the corpses free of the grasp of the scavengers, seeing fit to think that he wanted a few of them more. 'Fox Hunt' allowed him to steal two of those corpses in one gesture of his hands. The giant creatures dwarfed Ban in size but he held them with the ease it took someone to hold a snake.]

First things first! These things~. They look like there ain't much to them but they're organic. Totally non-magical or machine-made, so they've got meat in 'em.

[That was to say, if Ban knew biology, protein.]

So-- [Ban turned to see where Lucy had come from, gawking at the hand prints left in the sand given her advance.

Were he not used to magical phenomena on a daily basis, Ban might have peed a little at that.]

Missy, you're weird as hell.

[scarredhorns]

[Eating bugs? She remembers hearing about that in class at the orphanage, but even when she was living on the run, Lucy didn't resort to such measures. She preferred to have a roof over her head and modern appliances, which was why she would stay in the houses of her victims for a night or so, depending on how fast the police discovered the murders.]

I could say the same for you.

[Her eyes flick up towards the corpses in Ban's possession.]

Are you going to cut them up, or are you just going to bring them into the caves like that?

[perma_banned]

Haaah. You definitely aren't a cook~. [Ban chose to ignore Lucy's retort--as it was absolutely true. Not the sort to dwell on just how weird he was, Ban blithely pushed forward and enjoyed proving the idea true more and more.

He dropped the worms in a nearby mining cart, shaking his head and looking back to the mine shafts ahead.]

Nahhhh. I'm just keeping 'em away from the fellas who want at them. They'll have a tougher time feeling out for them if it's steel blocking them. When they're on the ground--that's probably how they're being sensed. [Ban paused and added, giving Lucy a slight nod without any sense of concern.] Us, too.

[Yet, it was clear neither of them would feel in any way perturbed by that realization. Ban stuffed his freshly empty hands into his pockets as he began walking into the barely lit mineshaft ahead, expecting Lucy would accompany him.]

Prep comes later. I need a cleaner environment to make sure none of the meat gets tainted ♪.

[scarredhorns]

[The sand worms didn't seem to have eyes, so it would make sense if they had other means to detect their pray and those above ground were definitely making quite a racket.

Sue enough, Lucy does follow Ban into the mines. While he seemed just as dangerous and terrifying, she liked to think that she could handle herself should he try anything funny. Her vectors worked best in tight spaces given their two meter range.]

I'm not exactly housewife material. [Is all she has to say in her defense.

She never really had a real home until Maple House.]

[perma_banned]

[Ban walked for a while longer, letting Lucy's reply sit in his head for awhile until he couldn't quite fish a proper understanding from it. He had been raised in such a vastly different household than most people, so he didn't quite catch on the subtle intricacies of family life that most people would have expected in a positive environment.

Though, even if Ban conformed to regard standards, he wouldn't have really said that being scary was enough to make Lucy an unappealing person. By all rights, she had yet to do anything that made her seem like someone he didn't like. If anything--it was the opposite. Being scary was handy in a fight but to him it had nothing to do with being unlikeable.]

....Alright, I'll bite. Why not?

[Even if it came down to cooking skills being tied to being a housewife, Ban wouldn't understand. His own mother, a housewife, did nothing but drink all day. Ban had little to compare Lucy to and what little comparison he did have wasn't very good.

After all, he had only just met Lucy and liked her much more than his own mother and for plenty of good reasons.]