A Mile Is Not Enough (IC)

[The JoJo]

A MILE IS NOT ENOUGH
A Multiverse RP

Fifty light years from Earth and Darius had to admit he had no idea where they were. The ship, as often seemed to be the case, had a mind of its own, taking them on a circuitous route around a temperate star that had drained half its tank of Erchius fuel before they had even left the local cluster. Now, the star map before him was as unfamiliar as the dishes served in the Academy canteen.

His son Alfonso was strapped into the chair beside him, glued to a touchscreen device while fiddling with one of his golden curls. Darius was only relieved that the four-year-old had put away the blue flute he had spent half the morning blowing two off-key notes from -- its existence a mystery in itself since neither Darius nor Cogfoot remembered buying him it. Only being stowed away in a ship cupboard at the last minute before takeoff had saved the offending instrument from being tossed out of the nearest airlock when the small boy's back was turned.

"Darius, I'm picking something up," Cogfoot said, jolting the mercenary out of his thoughts. "A planet, to be precise. It's looking rather... odd."

Darius peered at the monitor -- not being nearly as adept at reading screens as his robotic companion, it took him several moments to see what was amiss.

"It's not like anything they showed us in training," he muttered. "What's the surface like?"

"Temperature and atmosphere composition seem to be compatible with human life."

"Coordinates?"

"I'm... I'm not picking anything up." The pair looked at each other. "Maybe the navigation unit is faulty?"

"Fine, I'll take a look," Darius said, unstrapping himself. "You all right to watch the ship?"

"Absolutely."

"Thanks." He unbuckled Alfonso, who made a squeal of annoyance as the touchscreen was gently prised from his grasp. "Come on, let's stretch those legs and see what's down there."


~

Meanwhile, on the surface of the planet in question, two figures awoke to find themselves in what appeared to be an abandoned scrapyard. Rusting hulks of decaying vehicles stood cheek-by-jowl with all manner of electrical equipment, spilling out of steel containers and across the concrete ground. To the east, the faint sound of traffic could be heard, but otherwise silence reigned. A small, bird-like creature with four wings fluttered past, stopping to perch on a piece of roofing as if curious to see who these two new intruders were.

[DeTess]

Olivia almost immediately collapsed as she hit the ground. That had been rougher than a transfer through a perpendicularity. Or so she justified the collapse to herself. No, it certainly didn't have anything to do with getting kidnapped by some unknown Shard and pressed into some unknown game, no certainly not.

It took her a bit of time to recover her composure and get her bearing. She found herself surrounded by discarded metal. Some things looked like metal carriages or some other kind of vehicle, but a lot of the other scrap she couldn't place. They might be discarded part of broken Fabrials, or something else entirely. She cocked her head for a moment, listening to a low roar in the distance. A river, maybe? Though there where other noises cutting through it that sounded more mechanical than natural. Some kind of warning horn, among other things.

She forced herself to focus on her current predicament. She quickly went through her pockets. She had some writing implements, some extra vials of duralumin and a small handful of coins and spheres on her in addition to her pocket Version of the Ars Arcanum and the bands on her upper arms holding her reserve of Connection. That wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

She started moving around the place, keeping her eyes out for anything useful, like a weapon, or a map or other indication of where she was. As she did so though she stumbled across another woman, one that looked about as out of place as she herself felt. Olivia froze up for a moment, unsure about approaching her. But that Shard hadn't said anything about these games being a blood-sport, so...

"Um... hi?" Olivia called out to her.


This is a quick list of terms Olivia might use in her internal and external dialogue that those unfamiliar with the Cosmere might not understand. I'll expand it as more things get mentioned.

Connection: One of the basic metaphysical concepts (much like gravity or electromagnetism). Connection governs things like interpersonal connections, oaths, magical connections to power sources or familiars and a host of other things.
Fabrial: a magitech device.
Perpendicularity: Enormous concentration of magical power, allowing for transportation between dimensions.
Shard: Being holding 1/16th of the power of the Cosmere's original creator Diety. As 1/16th of infinity is still pretty infinite shards tend to be very powerful, though they are generally also at least somewhat insane, depending on the extend to which the shard's guiding Intent (things like Ruin, Honor, Valor, Preservation, Cultivation, etc.) has warped the formerly mortal mind of the person holding the Shard's power.

[The JoJo]

The young woman opposite Olivia lay utterly still, her eyes shut and her mouth half-open. On closer inspection, it appeared that she was out cold, though, fortunately, still breathing.


~

Meanwhile, Darius strode along a corridor of bare chassis, his small son trotting at his heels. There was a faint roar of traffic in the background, though no signs of any intelligent life in the immediate vicinity.

"Wait there for a moment," Darius said to Alfonso, clambering up onto an overturned crate and squinting in the direction of the background noise. On the other side of the rows of scrap, he saw a high chainlink fence and beyond that, a collection of low-lying, pebble grey buildings that wouldn't have looked out of place on a moderately developed world. He could just about make out several ground-based vehicles, but no lifeforms. He lowered himself back down.

"Don't touch that," he said, seeing the small boy's gaze hover over a rusted two-wheeled vehicle, bright red paint peeling off the bottom. He looked up again and blinked as he saw two figures in the distance, one apparently lying prone on the ground. Both, at least as far as he could see, were human.

"Hello?" he called to the one who was still standing. "You okay over there?"

[DeTess]

Olivia knelt down to check on the other woman. She'd first thought that she was merely dazed from getting transferred to this world, but the complete lack of response to her call made her worried. As she reached out, to her she suddenly heard a call coming from behind her.

"You okay there?" Some distance behind there a man was standing, some kind of warrior or lawman based on his bearing and the gun on his hip. 'So much for hoping gunpowder hadn't been invented here yet...' She thought to herself. At least the man didn't seem particularly hostile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She called back. "I'm not so sure about her though." She pointed at the unconscious woman. "This is hardly the kind of place you'd want to take a nap."

[The JoJo]

The console beeped. Looking at it, the nicknamed NS5 drone saw that its ship confirmed proximity of a known ship, belonging to Darius. Using the ship's teleporter function and previous permission granted, it attempted to appear on the other ship, but a different beep sounded.

Thinking about teleporting again, the beep was silent. With lack of an error, the machine appeared on Darius' ship. But Cogfoot was the only one present.

"Fiver?" Cogfoot exclaimed, swiveling his robotic head in the direction of his fellow machine. "This is a surprise."

"I haven't seen you for some time. The planets here are very different but all seem to be lacking in industry. Do your findings concur?"

"This is the only planet we have encountered in this sector so far. My scans are yet to be completed, but Darius and young Alfonso have gone to explore the surface."

"I was going to ask where they were. If you don't mind, I am going to Darius's location. I have questions for him."

"Certainly," Cogfoot said. "You can find the coordinates they were last recorded at on the monitor."

The NS5 nodded to the crewman, and made its way back to the teleporter. With a thought, a familiar light encompassed it and it found itself on the surface of a planet. One seemingly very familiar to the first world it was aware of. However, there were no humans. There were no sapient beings of any kind, as far as it could tell. The world was empty of life, with rusted vehicles and plant life taking over what could now only be considered ruins.

Nearby was a grizzled mercenary, and a pouting toddler. "Darius. This place looks different than other places we have visited." That's when it noticed Darius noticing something. "What do you see?"

"Huh?!" Darius jumped, reaching down to grab the autopistol from his belt and starting to withdraw it before he realised who he was speaking to. "Fiver? You should be careful about sneaking up on people like that." He let out a deep breath. "There's a couple of people over there -- one of them looks like they might be hurt."

As injuries had already occurred, the First Law of Robotics was not active. "I apologize for the interruption. Do you require assistance?"

Thought it was barely visible, a long, thin, red light appeared in the sky overhead for a moment. The NS5 did not think that the humans present would have noticed.

"Yeah, let's make sure these two are all right," Darius said to Fiver. He approached the young woman with Alfonso by his side, giving what he hoped was a friendly wave.

"Did you see what happened?" he asked, bending down to take the pulse of the unconscious woman -- barely more than a girl, really. It was there, but faint and hesistant, like the beat of a muffled drum.

[DeTess]

"I'm not sure..." Olivia's answer to the man cut off as she spotted his companion. They weren't the strangest intelligent being she'd encountered, but their appearance still startled her. There was something uncanny in the blend of human like facial features and their overal more skeletal structure. She quickly turned back to the unconscious woman, but as she did so she noticed a bracer much like her own
strapped to the arm of the man kneeling next to her, as well as to the arm of the unconscious woman.

The white skeletal being seemed to notice them at pretty much the same time, a they spoke up. "Darius, I think I know where these two came from. Look at their forearms."

The sight of the bracers also jogged Olivias memory. Though she wasn't certain, this Darius and his young ward did seem to be the people Nexus had mentioned. "Does Mornsbarrow mean anything to you?" she asked him.

[The JoJo]

Darius felt his blood run cold. It was years since he had heard that word spoken aloud, but the emotions that came flooding back were as strong as ever. Guilt. Fear. Shame. He stood back up, regarding the young woman with a wary gaze.

"Nobody should know about that," he muttered eventually, adding, "nobody living, at least." He grimaced and took a deep breath. Alfonso's gaze flicked anxiously between them, apparently noticing the change in the atmosphere, even if he might not understand why.

"I suppose that means he sent you. If the bracer wasn't enough of a clue." He offered a hand. "I'm Darius and this is Alfonso."

The small boy stared up at her, his lips briefly turning up into the ghost of a smile.

[DeTess]

Olivia cursed herself as she saw the expression on the man's face. Of course that Shard wouldn't have picked a nice memory to call on. "I'm Olivia Pretre." She shook his offered hand.

Before she got a chance to say anything else a large, clearly artificial object came roaring overhead, then disappeared beyond her vision as it dipped down towards the ground behind some buildings. "Rust and Ruin, what the..." Before she finished she spotted something else as well. A number of boxy but vaguely humanoid shapes where heading in their direction. "Uhm, Darius, how friendly are the locals around here?" She asked as she pointed in the direction of the approaching shapes.

[The JoJo]

"I don't know, we just got here ourselves," Darius said quickly. Uncontacted planetdwellers, if his suspicions were right, could be an unpredictable bunch at the best of times and these particular individuals didn't look at though they were about to throw a welcome party. "I can get us out of here."

He closed his eyes and tapped on his bracer, before cursing loudly.

"I can't pick anything up!" he exclaimed. "Fiver, can you get any signal here?"

[DeTess]

Olivia quickly took a step back, putting Darius between herself and the approaching forms. At the very least he was armed while she had absolutely nothing. She quickly looked over her surroundings, hoping to find a piece of scrap she could use to defend herself if that became necessary.

Before she could find something though, another problem popped up, as a green-purple ball of goo came bouncing towards them from the other side. "Darius!" She shouted a warning to the man before diving towards a pile of scrap, both to get out of the way if a fight occurred, and in the hope to find something, anything, to help her deal with these creatures if they where hostile.

[The JoJo]

"****!" Darius exclaimed as he caught sight of the moving blob bouncing in their direction. As they had said back in the Academy, enemies were like transportation shuttles. You could wait all day, only for three to come along at once. He caught Alfonso by the shoulder with one hand and swung the small boy behind him so he was shielded by his own body, while drawing his autopistol out with the other. He aimed it firmly in the direction of the blob, keeping an eye on the more distant primitive robot.

"Stop right there!" he shouted. He didn't really expect the creature to understand him, but it only seemed fair to give it a chance before opening fire.

Darius then blinked as the blob first halted in its track and then made a shape with a suspicious resemblance to a question mark, along with turning a more vibrant shade of green. It was not, to say the least, what he had expected. He felt a pull on the back of his trousers as Alfonso tried to peek around him to see what was happening. He put his left arm down to gently hold the small boy back.

"Wait a minute," he murmured. Two more figures had appeared from around the corner -- one was too distant to be certain and he frankly wasn't quite sure what it was -- but the other had the telltale sign of a bracer on his right arm. It was all too much to be a coincidence.

"He sent all of you, didn't he?" Darius called out to the newcomers. "Nexus, that is."