Test Drive Meme #01: The First

[atlasmods]

WELCOME TO KHARAS It's gonna be a real scorcher. Welcome to The Atlas's first Test Drive Meme! If you're considering joining or want to dabble in the setting a little then you've come to the right place. This post should ideally give you a feel for what it's like to play in the game...especially since this is how we're kicking things off! What does that mean? Basically that this post is considered game-canon and any inter/actions here will lapse over into the game once it begins provided both parties agree to keep CR when they are accepted. TDM threads can be used for sample requirements on apps! Still interested? Reserves open on the 10th at 00:00 EST, and Applications open on the 12th at 00:00 EST. Both close on the 14th at 23:59 EST. Make sure you're familiar with both the setting and arrival conditions before posting...and have at it! THE DESERT PLANET. WAKING You wake in a valley, gasping for air to fill your aching lungs. There are spots in your eyes. The midday sun hangs in the sky and temperatures have peaked at 100°F | 38°C. Every inhale brings with it the sensations of heat and thirst. Luckily? The strange pod you've arrived in contains some food and water. Rations. Two, three days' worth if you can manage to stretch them. But aside from that there isn't much, in the pod or your immediate surroundings. The only signs of life are the weathered and rusted-looking stasis pods around you from which others emerge, gasping or choking for breath once their lids open. Beyond that there isn't a soul in sight, and since each pod only opens once interfaced with... Who opened yours? SCAVENGE After the heat and disorientation wear off things start to become more clear. You notice the bizarre mark both your suit and the pods bear, as well as the rusted paneling and long scratches that run along some of them. It looks as though something once tried to claw its way into the protective capsules. And somehow yours held out. Others, well... Not so much. Among the pods of those who've survived and continue to wake, are the remains of those whose occupants couldn't possibly have made it. The fronts have been crushed in, hulls torn apart, sporting what looks like critical damage to the wiring or pods' integrity. This damage wasn't caused by weathering or the passage of time. Something deliberately tore them apart in search of whatever...or whoever was inside. Whether or not it's reassuring that no bodies remain inside is up to you. Careful inspection will reveal these pods look almost the exact same age as the one your character woke from. How long ago were they broken? How long have you been asleep? The only thing you can do is keep searching for clues... Maybe you'll get lucky enough to uncover the remains of the occupant's own rations? Although whether they're still good or even edible for your species is something you'll have to find out for yourself. They look...well. Ancient. SIGNS OF LIFE When you venture further into the valley and away from your pod, there's finally something other than sand and devastation to be found. Although not numerous, scattered here and there are clusters of a coral-like structure. Most of its stems are hard and rock-like, but closer inspection shows tiny tendrils of plant-matter which poke their way out of its tubes and vents whenever shadows are cast. But the moment you approach it? All signs of activity vanish and it goes deathly still. If you happen to travel further out from the protection offered by the valley's walls you may just be lucky enough to spot possibly the only actually green blue piece of vegetation on the planet: a single bunch of shriveled leaves. While not terribly exciting, at least it doesn't curl up and disappear like the coral...right? But just in case, maybe you shouldn't disturb it. ECLIPSE Especially when it gets dark. As the merciless the heat of the day gives way to the solar eclipse, the planet begins to transform: the tendrils of the coral emerge fully and appear almost life-like in the way they sway and grab slowly at the air. But be careful! If threatened or grabbed these tendrils will sting their attacker and cause itchy red blotches to form. And when we say itchy, we mean really itchy. And remember those shriveled leaves? Turns out they're more active at this time of the day too. As soon as the surface temperature of the planet drops to tolerable levels the leaves of this plant unfold and knit themselves back together until they form a full stalk & bulb-like head, from which an oddly sweet smell emanates. If left alone long enough, eventually what looks like water will begin to drip from the bulb. If it senses touch, the head of this plant will rapidly unwind and snap around whatever's closest...before it attempts to suffocate you with its moist secretions. MIST OPPORTUNITY The other strange phenomenon which occurs as the eclipse hits full-swing is the gradual formation of saturated clouds of smoke. They appear in pockets which come and go without pattern or design. One moment the desert is bare, and the next it's begun to fill with enough smoke to make visibility so poor it's easy to get turned around and lost. Luckily it's non-toxic and doesn't carry any kind of scent, so breathing it isn't a problem but something very odd happens when characters try to activate or meddle with their communicators in it: White noise. Although the suits can't broadcast any sort of message aside from their beacons, for some reason as soon as characters enter the smoke white noise begins and can only be heard while they're surrounded by it. Is it a signal? Some sort of message? Or something darker altogether... WILDCARD And of course, characters are always free to come up with adventures of their own. Feel like scaling the valley walls? Digging through sand? Meddling with alien technology the likes you've never seen before? Your rationsThe sky's the limit in: The Atlas! ...And there you have it! This TDM will be live until game launch on the 17th so please have fun, be kind, and if you have any questions at all please head on over to our FAQ! We are currently looking for help with apps/plot write-ups, so if you're interested please hit us up.

NAVIGATION

Comments

[shootsstraight]

She's not exactly the first person to say so. Honestly, he very nearly says as much - it's on the tip of his tongue as he throws his leg back over the lip of the battered stasis pod -, but then she says the magic words.

"Alliance Navy!" It's an exclamation, not a question. "With what ship?"

Imagine the odds of that. Or actually maybe there's something significant about that. Maybe they're all old Alliance holdovers dumped here (wherever here is) to thin the ranks for some Imp scheme. It sounds like a wild theory the moment it even crosses his mind, but then waking up on a desert planet wearing little more than a body sock with no clue how he got here is just as ridiculous.

At least he can walk and talk at the same time: Wedge slides off the edge of the pod and makes his way across the sand, kicking at lumps with his foot in search of a likely stone.

[sheshotfirst]

She stepped a few feet away, leaving enough room that they wouldn't be kicking sand into each other's paths as they became the systematic combing of the surrounding area for a rock.

"The Normandy."

A human soldier belonging to the Alliance was no surprise on her end, wasn't like there were many other options available. If anything his reaction is more refreshing than anything. There was no That Sherpard? included. Just getting straight to work and comparing service records. Close to normal as things could be given the situation.

"When it's in one piece, at any rate. You?"

[shootsstraight]

The Normandy? He turns the unfamiliar name in his mind, then opts not to worry about it. The Alliance Fleet had always been a hodgepodge of miscellaneous cargo and transport ships swarming around mid- and heavy cruisers; that didn't even go into the long string of independent ships flying for the Alliance that never integrated into the fleet. It's not just possible to have not heard of one of them, it's downright plausible.

A freighter, probably - someone who had run something like commando transport during the war when they'd been short-sticked on shuttles and needed something outer atmo to ground. She'd probably been commissioned like a thousand other nobodies between Yavin and Endor and then stuck with it when the Alliance went New Republic.

Wedge's toe hits on a stone. He bends down, works it out of the sand and hefts it between his hands. Sure, this'll work.

"I'm a pilot with a fighter squadron." He's not going to mention which one; people get weirdly reverential and start asking a hundred questions about Luke Skywalker and taking Coruscant when he does and they have better things to do. "But Home One, usually."

[sheshotfirst]

Shepard nods at the general size and shape of the stone, moving back to her former position on the pod wordlessly. Ready to pull the damn spear off and get to the hunt, as soon as he applies the right pressure. It's soothing, really, falling right back into routine even in the strange world. Focus on the mission, accomplish mission with team, move on to the next one. With some small talk in between.

Home One didn't mean much to her, but considering how her focus had been on leading the war (or the ruthless calculus of war, as Garrus had called it) rather than watching every ship under her watch, she wasn't surprised. She barely knew what her own crew had been up to towards the end, never mind ever ship ready to fight the Reapers.

"A pilot? That's lucky, I'm better in the gunner seat. Now all we need's a ship."

[shootsstraight]

"Personally I'd settle for a working comm. But sure," he clambers back up through the sand and small stones to her mangled stasis pod of choice. "I wouldn't say no to a running transport. Something with a swivel mounted gun and a bunch of extra personnel seating while we're at it."

Tossing his leg across the pod, Wedge hefts his makeshift hammer in one hand and firms up the would-be chisel with the other. They're slightly different textures; that could be not great news for them. He hesitates a moment-- "Keep you fingers crossed I don't smash this and make things worse."

And then he bangs on the 'chisel' with the 'hammer'.

[sheshotfirst]

"If wishes were horses..."

She braced for impact, fairly sure there's nothing flammable around if a spark starts, but not entirely sure. They looked like escape pods, but were from a group and a purpose she wasn't aware of. Who knew what kind of safety mechanisms they had in place.

"When you're not going to get anything, doesn't hurt to wish big. I'd take a spaceport on top of that communicator. And a shower."