the veil is thin . . .

[thespaceopera]

[ On the night of the 16th, the feeling of tension and horrid anticipation comes to a head. Everything stops when the sun goes down-- even the ever-present music in the hoppingest part of the city center. One by one, everyone turns their eyes to the skies. The young and old alike pour out of their houses, some in bare feet, and they point to the velvety blanket of stars.

It takes a second to find it, especially if one is unaccustomed to the starscape. But even a casual observer can see it.

A brightly-shining star, larger than the others, and growing larger.

An announcement cuts across all communication channels that encourages people to evacuate to the space station, but it’s clear that these are just people and they’ll need some help. Supplies, equipment, organization, there’s something for everyone to do.

Civilization is disrupted by a panicked stampede of people vying for limited seats aboard spacefaring craft. Within hours, there will be crushed glass, looting, and chaos.

The clock is ticking. Will you help? Or would you rather watch the dying gasps of a Singing Planet from a safe distance? ]

[OOC: Please see this post for plot details. Phase two has begun! Feel free to use this post as a reaction post, mingle, etc. or make your own!]

Comments

[theroadwarrior]

Max had been returning to the Starstruck when he got the news of the failing engines. He had hesitated on the thought of going back, because he wouldn't have -- back in the wastelands, he wouldn't have, not like this. Maybe if he'd known these people, if he'd been guilted enough... but no, there are people from their fleet down there, trying to get it going, trying to get this passenger ship back into the sky. And they'd all done so much fucking work, had been hopeful, had thought they'd succeeded--

Cursing under his breath, he shoots a message to his crew.

"The engines failed -- I'm going back down."

And so he does a U-Turn, as he's done more times than he ever wants to admit. When he touches down, he's quick to jump out, his brace creaking as his feet meet the doomed earth under his feet. When he moves in, jacketless and with his sleeves being rolled up, he's ready to get back to work and get these damned civilians into the sky and out to space.

"Where do you need me?"

[tallasaking]

Tyrion was using one of the First Breath's shuttles to get people back and forth to the space station, when the message goes through. He lets out a quiet curse, drops off those he has stuffed into the shuttle and zooms back to the surface, grimly flying around because he knows he does not have the skills to dodge all the ships coming back up to the space station.

When he lands, he sees Max already limping across, and he smirks as he grabs his tool belt.

He doesn't come jogging up, but waddling as fast as he can. "And point me where you need an engineer."

[mongoosecrow]

Throughout this entire event, Gil has basically only been doing one thing - maintaining shuttles and doing extra checks to make sure that systems don't fail. Since the day they first announced the need for evac, that's what he's devoted his time to. People might even notice he seems to never stop, not even to sleep. He takes his meals while working, checking and rechecking shuttles to make sure they can take the next trip.

If someone points it out, he just smiles and has a nice quip for them. He doesn't seem exhausted. If anything, he seems to thrive with this level of pressure, though he also takes the lives of people he's helping very seriously. He's knows they are loosing everything so the least they can do is try to save lives.

And then the event is about to happen and he hears words that engines have failed. For a moment, he considers not helping. He doesn't have to put his neck out for people. He could book it and save his own skin. But maybe Ryder's influence on him is deeper than he'd like.

So, he arrives just aver Tyrion and hears him say that he's an engineer. "Me too. Let's go. Two heads and four hands are better than one poor fool ready to die for this planet."

[tallasaking]

"Right, we'll head off to see what we can do about those engineers. Max, please do yell for us if you need us?" He tips his chin at Max, then nods at Gil. "From what they're saying - I think something's burnt out. Maybe rotors, perhaps a belt. They are not getting the power they require. Thoughts?"