[OPEN] mod plot | return to harbour part iii: ground zero

[unplug]

CHARACTERS ▶ The crews of Nidhoggr and Durga
LOCATION ▶ The sewer system near Machine-Controlled Territory
SUMMARY ▶ Days after Truce Week, the Council has finally given the order-- if not unanimously, then decisively. Teams are dispatched to investigate the missing ships.
WARNINGS ▶ R for violence, language
NOTES ▶ This is a continuation of the inaugural plot.

Despite that Councillors Aries and Chiron are opposing forces where the matter of the Oracle is involved, they agreed on one necessity: to investigate the four missing ships. They tap three Captains to command three hoverships: the Vindemiatrix, the Nidhoggr, and the Durga.

Palpable tension radiated off the supply crew and dockhands-- as well as the other Councillors, or at least the representatives who had come to lurk on the bays as they casted off. However, the launch went without incident. There first pit stop is the site where the Erebus encountered enemy contact, and each ship in their staggered journey will come across the Horus -- it's been broken open like a shattered egg, cleaned out even of bodies, its immediate systems unsalvageable. The Vindemiatrix descends on it to perform a cursory forensic search while the Durga and Nidhoggr fly on ahead.

What ensues is three days of searching that takes them through hundreds of grinding miles in the labyrinthine sprawl of the sewer system, the old bones of a defunct human society. If the recursive twists of the tunnels and the tunnels and the tunnels do not start to wear on their nerves, then the shiftwork and white noise of uncertainty and the constant Machine threat might instead.

Low speeds and frequent stops are enough to throw a handful of Sentinel patrols off their scent; the crews can see the red flicker of reflected optics off the rebar overhead, around the corners.

The search grid separates the three out of practical necessity. Radio contact is restricted in the interest of security, range maximized for a promising Electromagnetic Pulse range. You know, if worse should come to worse.

That is when first contact happens.