driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Ahsoka Tano + you
Broadcast: Video (Fleetwide)
Action: Aboard the Marsiva
When: Current

action.
[Ahsoka wakes with a start. Even before she's fully conscious, everything around her feels wrong. One thing is instantly apparent: this is not her beautiful home. Ha ha, that's a joke. Get it? Because she has no home right now, and if she did, it wouldn't be beautiful. Her hands fly instantly to her belt for her lightsabers, but-- oh, that's right. She doesn't have them anymore. She remembers that much. So why can she not remember how she got here?

Eyes wide and breathing hard, she fights down rising panic to take inventory of her surroundings instead. What does she know? What can she find out?

Spaceship. Gravity? Normal. Oxygen? Normal. Something about a game show? Whatever. She dismisses that piece of information, it's clearly not relevant right now. Next she checks the door-- not locked. She lets herself out. Hallways-- no guards. Well, that's slightly unsettling. In fact, as she runs down the hallways of the ship from one place to another, it becomes increasingly apparent that there's no personnel anywhere. And no way off. Eventually she stops running after what seems like her fiftieth traverse down yet another an empty passageway, one hand on her chest trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. Finally, she mutters to herself:]

Well. I suppose you don't need guards if you can't get out.

video.

Hello. If you're receiving this message, please let me know. My name is Ahsoka Tano.

I'm stranded on what appears to be a large cruiser of indeterminate class with no apparent crew and in an unknown system. If anyone has any information on what star system we're in, or recognises the vessel and knows where the escape pods are, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you. Over and out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am not unfamiliar with floating cities, and cities in the sky. Is that natural, magical, or a contrivance of metal?

Oh-- no, it's not quite like that. Coruscant isn't floating above the surface.

It's built on top of it. As the population expanded, they just kept... building new layers. These days, the surface layer is considered roughly around level five thousand. Anything below that doesn't really get natural sunlight.

A population of such a size... Do we speak of millions? Or more?

[ She can scarce imagine it. Even the greatest cities measure in the thousands, not the millions. ]

[Ahsoka shakes her head, a little wryly.]

Not... quite.

Try more like... one trillion? Officially, anyway. The census only includes permanent residents, so... when you factor in transients, temporary workers, undocumented migrants, et cetera... it's probably at least twice that.

Edited 2015-10-13 08:28 (UTC)

A land where many cannot even step on the earth, nor taste the sun - How does the planet's aether survive such a burden? Is it drained entire?

[ An increasing horror. She can only imagine the damage done to the world. ]

Oh-- no. Like I said, nobody's doing any kind of harvesting on Coruscant. The whole planet is a metropolis. There are a few bio-domes, but most of the raw resources are harvested from other planets and brought in.

[ Her growing horror is apparent, in the bristling of her fur and her widened eyes. She cannot imagine it, the dwindling of the planet's aether, its ground unreached by even light itself. ]

I... See.

I always thought it was pretty cool, but...

You seem less than enthused.

I know you mean well, and I am grateful for the knowledge you speak, but to those of my world, you speak of great horror - No less than if you described a sprawling field of corpses. I have seen the heart of my world, the core from which life - plant and man alike - spawns and lives in eternal cycle. I cannot imagine the world you speak of has survived such great burden.

You... probably shouldn't think of it as a green planet. I don't think anything ever actually grew on Coruscant to begin with. As far as I'm aware, the surface is pretty much just rock from one end to the other anyway.

There is life in rocks alone, though it may be small and crawling, and aether from the sun. I hope what you speak is true, and it was mere empty rock to begin with, for the dying of a planet is a cruelty beyond imagining. Yet, even then, a world where many cannot see the true sky still stands terrifying to me. It is to prevent such an end that my kin, and many people of Eorzea, fight.

[Ahsoka just nods. She can't disagree with anyone who values life so highly.]

... That's a good cause.

[ She draws several breaths, running her hand through her hair to settle it down. It is no fault of Ahsoka that her universe is filled with madness. ]

I should hope so. I do not intend to fight for less than a good cause... But such matters are beyond the reach of these ships.

I'll say.

I don't take lightly to being kidnapped. These "Atroma" or whatever they are better watch themselves.

It pleases me much to hear this. They deserve due punishment for all their crimes against the victims of their... "Entertainment."

Oh, they'll get what's coming to them. Believe me.

I will do no less, though I hope for it to be soon.