Come on and slam

[spaaaaaace]

It doesn't matter what was happening before. Wherever your character was? They just faceplanted into steel flooring. If they look around, it’s just a short narrow hallway, very characteristic of a transport vessel. Emergency lights flicker and faint, urgent beeping can be heard from the end, which opens up into a room that is currently producing a faint, blue glow.

A happy tone plays and is quickly followed by a chipper artificial voice:

Huh! How weird. I can’t believe we got another one! Well, welcome aboard the Ithaca. We’re having a bit of trouble with our warp drive right now. Please stand by.

Suddenly, the ship hits a bit of turbulence. Whoever’s in the hall may be thrown around bit, but luckily there aren’t too many sharp edges on the bulkhead. What are a few bumps and bruises anyway?

Oh, you may want to move. I think a new crew member is arriving.

Further questions are just met with an overly apologetic Please stand by! But turn their back for long enough? Another unlucky “crew member” may come catapulting into them. The artificial voice doesn’t seem too concerned with exploration, though. Every door is unlocked. The ship remains turbulent as it sometimes spits out unfortunate souls, but with steady feet, may find the following places of interest.

Navigation was where all that beeping was coming from. There’s a super fancy galaxy map that would certainly be a lot more interesting if actually contained planets your character knew. Sorry, there’s no Sol System or Federation Space here! In front of that is a cockpit which has a bunch of blinking consoles in front of a really comfortable looking pilot’s chair. It’s probably not wise to touch anything.

Head back to the crew quarters, and in between the rows of bunk beds, there are several lockers. Open them will reveal a myriad of (abandoned) personal items ranging from spare clothes to fit someone with six arms to a comic book collection to an alien “personal massager.” The stuff looks like it’s been left alone for at least a month. Maybe two.

If they head down a level, they might hit engineering or the cargo hold. Engineering has quite the array of tools, from the most basic to the most technologically advance. The most peculiar thing, though, is a meticulously organized collection of bright colored plastic tools. Across in the cargo hold, there are several wooden crates along with a few tamper proof containers. Most of the crates are all labeled with the same name, for someone on planet “Gotor.” A clever character might recognize this as a planet that the Ithaca is happily speeding towards right now according to the map in navigation. Most of the boxes contain bowler hats. The remaining to apparently be dropped off at Gotor contain bowling balls.

((GO FORTH AND BE IN SPACE! Have a massive pile up in the hall or bump into each other in engineering or explore together! It doesn’t matter. Feel free to have them encounter other strange things not written about here. Make the Ithaca spit out an unfriendly alien that they have to hit with a shovel. Make as many subthreads as your hearts desire. Really, do whatever. After a while, the turbulence will settle down and Edgar will explain. ))

Comments

[spartan051]

The Spartan 'Smile' was an achingly familiar signal and one he'd taught to his III's after a fashion. Kurt found himself returning the gesture in kind as his own visor darkened once again to that inscrutable gold.

Kurt had seen canines before but never a talking canine. It was a good thing his visor had finished polarizing; otherwise John might have been able to see the look of dumbfounded shock on the other II's face. As it was, the SPI armored Spartan's helmet tilted back and forth between his former comrade and the dog currently sniffing about the shipping containers.

"It sounds like it. How-" He seemed at a loss about just who he was supposed to address his question to and finally decided there would be no chance for satisfactory answers right now. They could discuss this in depth once they figured out what was going on here. "I'm not getting anything on my team COMM. What about you?"

[dust_and_echoes]

He was going to have to go over this eventually. He'd have to explain how apparently he'd accidentally clipped through to another reality and apparently his soul fell out and somehow that manifested itself as a talking dog.

There was no way it wasn't going to sound insane, because it had never sounded sane to John in the first place. Arachidamia was an inconvenient reality of his new life, whatever it meant, and he'd just grudgingly accepted her and moved on.

"Nothing. I've been out of contact for months. Some things happened." He tilted his head in Arachidamia's direction, the dog being the most obvious indicator that Things Had Gone Amiss. "You just appear, too?"

[spartan051]

Now that his faceplate had completely polarized once more, it was impossible to see the vaguely troubled and uncertain expression that flickered across the other Spartan's face. No, Kurt wouldn't understand the concept of stumbling through some other reality only to find one's soul being ripped out of their body and shoved into that of an animal.

"Months?" There was a subtle stress to that word. "You weren't on Reach when it--" Kurt broke off abruptly because he didn't know just how much John was aware of. And the news that their most advanced military position--and the only home any of the II's could remember--had fallen to the Covenant was too bitter a pill to swallow. "How much do you know, One-One-Seven? How long have you been missing?"

The oddly armored Spartan nodded tersely in answer to that question. Kurt wouldn't let the worry for his Spartans and the rest of the team back on Onyx interfere with his currant circumstances. He couldn't afford to become emotionally compromised. "Lets find some comms gear and try and get in touch with our people?"

[dust_and_echoes]

"I was," the Chief corrected flatly. And he'd gone back. So many were dead that it still didn't sink all the way in, he didn't have time for grief. Someday he'd have to stop long enough for it to catch up, but John was never one to sit idle for any length of time.

"Before I was on Halo."

Arachidamia moved before the Chief did, back the way they'd come.

"This way's to the fore," she said. She didn't pause to see if they'd follow. She knew John would.

[spartan051]

"I see," Even though Onyx was off the beaten trail, they'd heard about the fall of Reach. The complete loss of Noble, a team he'd helped to assemble and handpick was just another insult added to injury.

"So it's true then? About the Halo array?" Considering the Halo array being but back into service had been what was apparently causing all the strife in his life back home...well, could you blame him?

Kurt was still horribly unsettled by this talking dog of John's and quite pointedly gave Arachidamia a lot of personal space as they made their way back out of the cargo area. "This doesn't look like any Covenant ship I've ever seen. Who did this, I wonder?"