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ximilialog2023-03-28 06:07 pm
CONCLUSION: the big one
There’s a rising sense of urgency in the air that can be felt all across Ciraiwei’s leaders, a stark contrast to the first day that Ximilia’s crew arrived on the planet with the directive to retrieve the orb and leave before the inevitable impact between planet and asteroid occurred. It begins with Leonard McCoy and Ben Kenobi informing the Chieftain Yerek that Remi the wizard, along with his niece Aureliah, has arrived, and with it so does the very real plan for the people to evacuate.
Bolstered by this good news, Yerek wastes no time to inform the rest of the Hivawei settlements, pulling Winet, Criv, and Melis into a very brief meeting for the very precise (and calmest) way they will inform their people – after all, once the news gets out there is no going back. When the other leaders have returned to their settlement, it is Yerek who appears before the Hivawei of Hivawa and begins to speak.
But no more with the metaphors, eh? Our friends, the Sciences, have informed us that the light that brought us hotter days and wielded quicker harvests is called an ‘aster-royed’. And as we are born and live and die, so also does Ciraiwei’s life cycle through its seasons, and now it has come to its end. We can go with it or we can choose to continue into a new season: there is no right or wrong choice, there is only how we choose to thrive in these last moments.
I, for one, believe I am ready for a new season and a new adventure. And the little ones too. Heh heh. And the Sciences have provided us with that chance. They will be opening a door to this new world, a new home that will feel familiar but have many of its secrets left for us to uncover. Exciting, hm?
We are all free to choose whether we want to go or not, but we have very little time left. If you choose to come with me, you’ll need to pack your things. Gather only what you need and what you treasure most. The Sciences will help us where they can, and we are most grateful for that.”
The metaphorical clock that had been counting down the hours grows ever more intense as the last three days before scheduled impact have the beloved Sciences working as efficiently as they can to ensure that those who want to leave can do so. The team decide to enact the following four-pronged fork plan of attack: a team (split into two smaller ones) will assemble to scout the future home of the Hivawei, preferring the nearby planet that Viveca recommended for its proximity to Ciraiwei with hopes that its possible suitability will be compatible for the population. Another team will work alongside Remi and Aureliah to create a pathway of portals to evacuate the Hivawei as quickly and efficiently as possible once the new planet’s livability has been confirmed. A group of orbers will gather to wrangle any Hivawei who wish to leave, offering local transport of citizens and their supplies. And finally, there will be a team on standby in the lamawei field waiting for the signal to retrieve the orb that will send the group back to the station, leaving this planet behind before the clock strikes zero.
To begin, they will need a destination point – which is where the team of portallers, consisting of Stephen Strange, Sabriel, Yennefer, Cirilla and Remi, comes in. With Remi using his magic to mask the individual magical signatures in the spells, the team members will take turns opening doors, one after another, two at a time. As a door is opened, two groups led by Felix and Andy agree to split up the tasks required to confirm that the portal leads to the right new home for the Hivawei. To make the work go efficiently, and most of all, safely, Felix, along with McCoy, Finn, and Gutterson begin scouting for a new home first; and Andy, along with Newt, Yujin and Cal agree to take on the next world after, each team allowing the other a moment to rest and study their findings before they agree on an ideal location. They quickly acquire ecology samples, explore the planet for other life-forms, and scout their environment for a comparable landscape to that of Ciraiwei. Each team is accompanied by one of Itachi’s clones for added protection, with the leaders taking that first step, using their special skills and abilities to their advantage.
It takes five portals, and the help of the portal team, to find a suitable planet – and it’s clear why Viveca thought to ask it for help evacuating the Hivawei: it’s lush and spacious, with a similar temperature and possible food sources comparable to what the Hivawei are already used to.
After further study, Newt also discovers some very promising news: that while this planet does offer all of the comforts that the Hivawei are used to, with the planet’s space-travel knowledge, there is still the possibility that the Hivawei may be able to travel somewhere further if they wanted to. Without delay, they inform the Chieftain.
It’s time to go.
With a destination in place, it is time for the scouting teams to return, aside from those who temporarily remain on the chosen planet to help the Hivawei pass through the door. With the temporary doors closed to allow for the real doors to be opened, the team of portallers confer with Yerek for the best place to set up the first portal before they begin to create them, the old chieftain hobbling over to the place where this all began. What better way to send some of their people towards new beginnings than the place where they had danced and sung and offered their gratitude to their Mother Light? With the decorations from the O’sumgann festivities still up, the symbol of the lamawei seems more poignant today than it ever has. Yerek takes a moment to take it all in before he nods his head and joins the magic-wielders. He would make sure his people get to where they need to go, and he would be with them. He would always be with them.
Together, Stephen, Sabriel, Yennefer and Ciri, along with the Darkling and Dante as power suppliers, begin creating portal pathways with the known images and samples and coordinates of their destination no longer a mystery. Once more, Remi weaves some of his own magic into the spell in hopes that it will allow the portals to be supported by the other four - his signature bright blue magic blooms around each of the portallers as they channel all of their strength and concentration into creating doorways to, at least for the Hivawei, the unknown. The spell is a complex one, and requires a wealth of magic to open, and then even more so to maintain it - at a point, Aureliah joins the Darkling and Dante to help lend her power to those struggling under the weight of the portals.
Even those without boosted powers or magic have vital jobs to carry out as the Hivawei across all four settlements who plan to evacuate prepare their families and a few of their precious belongings. With Rita coordinating the evacuation efforts and keeping a constant line of communication between the evacuations, the orbers in charge of portals and those leading the explorations, she puts herself into a position where she could be reached like a guidepost, her ability to stretch and grow larger making it easy enough for anyone to see her from each of the surrounding settlements. It’s certainly the largest creature any of the Hivawei have ever seen, and while some may be apprehensive of her size, the rest of them understand that she is only trying to help. (But if they avoid being in her vicinity for fear of getting squished ... well, that’s really neither here nor there.)
The community sets their focus on this task instead, not a single being shirking their responsibility and none left lazing about while the others begin packing their lives into woven rucksacks and totes. Those of the Hivawei who have decided to leave must now say their goodbyes to those who have chosen to stay behind, but no set of hands will proceed without helping. Even the Hivawei who plan to remain on Ciraiwei, of which there are more than half, begin packing their neighbours belongings, gathering food and dewdrops and clothing and healing herbs, packed into convenient containers for traveling as lightly as possible. It’s a truly touching sight.
In order to ease the separation of the community, that night and each night until evacuation day, Jake provides a concert for the Hivawei, playing a piece that he had composed for the occasion. Surrounded by moss-covered rocks and swathed with soft woven blankets around a small fire-pit, it’s a comfortable respite from the sometimes too-frantic energy of the evacuation preparations. In a symphony full of this world’s sounds paired with a rhythmic beat, Jake’s song will lighten the weight of those worried for their friends and family, and that’s only the start of it. Joining Jake on different nights with words and songs of comfort and gratitude, as well as personal tributes to this world and its people, are Natasha, Sabriel, Luthien, Dante, Joel, Clarke, and Shang-chi.
But the work is not yet done. Zhao and Yelena pitch in to gather supplies for the evacuation: namely more food for the journey, and personal effects as well. While Finn and Chishiya concentrate on helping the children, Marta takes up the call to help the elderly, with Minimus offering his help to lift any Hivawei who might require a little extra help to travel towards the designated portal queue.
Soon it is time for the settlements to gather in Hivawa, the largest settlement of them all, and where the portal is located. Iris, Garma, and Yzak arrive with a ship full of Yenat’s people, each of them packed with their supplies, and the children hopping off from the ship full of glee and excitement. Most seem unaware of the reason they’re here, only enthusiastic for a new adventure. When every last Hivawei from the ship has disembarked, Garma, at the wheel, steers the transport back for another round of evacuees – this happens just as two figures, one on the back of another swoop in for a landing from up high, joining the congregation. Melis and Criv look to the other leaders assembled and begin to speak.
Melis chuckles softly, but she remains contemplative, watching as Jake, the yellow stretchy dog-bus, closes his doors and drives back towards the Seriw and Ciarv settlements for the last of the passengers wanting to evacuate.
Without preamble, the Chieftain’s majordomo begins to speak as though struck with a sudden realization.
Even with the thick and overgrown canopy obscuring much of the sky, it isn’t difficult to gain an uneasy sense of foreboding when looking up through the breaks between leaves: the sky is undoubtedly brighter, and the air around them grows more and more still, thick with dry heat as though Ciraiwei itself is bracing for the inevitable.
Ryunosuke, Alina, Kovacs and Unohana will have stationed themselves within the field of the lamawei, settled by the lamawei flower with the brightest glowing light and the strongest looking stalk. With the end of their directive so near, the glow of the orb lying in its bed of petals tries to tempt each of the orbers one by one with whispers and sensations of greed, the promise of control, and the ability, of course, to change whatever they wish in their lives. This flower, so powerful and great, can grant these things. They only need to draw closer…
“—does anyone know any good jokes?”
The impossible silence suddenly shatters when Alina speaks. Ryunosuke and Kovacs exhale a breath they hadn’t realized they’d been holding. Unohana looks towards the group contemplatively, but far more present at least.
While the race against the clock is on everyone’s mind (and really, how could it not be?), there will still be some time yet before the orbers taking care of the evacuations will signal.
It is more important than ever that the team remains in direct communication with each other. Joe, tasked with keeping the orbers and the Hivawei on a strict timeline, is stationed with Newt’s telescope from one of the higher vantage points in Hivawa. Rita liaisons between the group with the orb, and the group at the main portal. Four by four, the Hivawei who have chosen to leave pass through the path of portals towards their new home. There is no stopping, there is no time to pause. All goodbyes have been said. It is time to accept the passing of one season, and the welcome of a new one. The light from the sky is almost too impossibly bright, and the last of the planet’s atmosphere begins to break apart as the asteroid pierces through its barrier, flying in on small, burning chunks of rock that beat down on the forests surrounding them, some ricocheting off and into Hivawei huts towards the fringes. The dry grasses are licked by flame first. Fire catches onto whatever else it can next. The heavy booming of falling debris can be heard like thunder in the distance and yet still far too close for comfort.
Those with magic to create shields do so now; and those with physical shields leap in to protect the Hivawei and each other from oncoming burning debris. But it isn’t enough.
“We have to keep the portals open!” Ciri shouts, though she looks exhausted from the efforts, even with the extra boost of power from those such as the Darkling. The strain against the limits of their abilities is clearly being tested, but the orbers remain determined as ever … even as the queue of Hivawei waiting to cross the threshold never seems to lessen.
“Is that Keremo over there?” a voice from the orbers suddenly calls, pointing towards a familiar face in the queue. Clarke gestures towards the Hivawei explorer accompanied by the sage who shakes his head at the offer to skip the line, knowing that there are others before him who deserve their place just as much as he does. But the Hivawei ahead turn to glance at the sage and the esteemed explorer and push them forward.
Keremo meets their eyes with a serious expression uncharacteristic of his demeanor thus far.
Suddenly struck with an idea, and a small “Ah-ha!”, the explorer adjusts the rucksack strapped to his back, secures it tightly, and gestures for the Hivawei child before him to climb onto his cap and shoulders. Sure, the width of the portal’s door can only fit four Hivawei per trip, but its height can fit at least two. The Sage, tickled by the idea, mimics the same thing, and paired and doubled, the lot of them — a family of four plus the explorer and the sage — move up within the line to pass through.
Other families of Hivawei begin to copy Keremo in hopes that the last of the line shortens … but the ones near to the back begin to realize that their chances might not be so optimistic though they will still try. It is, after all, their way of life.
Meanwhile the orb, having changed its tactic to entice the four orbers, suddenly feels intensely foreboding, like it could sink everything into impossible, unending darkness. Sitting around the lamawei flower feels as though the ground were made of pin-cushions and the unease weighs unpleasantly in their chests. Chunks of asteroid rock can be heard crashing into trees nearby. They can smell the smoke of a fire quickly catching on the planet’s beloved forests. And still, the destruction continues, creeping ever closer to the once quiet glade that the lamawei had thrived so resiliently. Kovacs and Alina exchange concerned glances, unsure whether they can afford any more precious seconds to wait. Finally, there’s a crackle through the communications devices, and with it Joe’s voice comes through.
Ryunosuke immediately leaps to his feet, followed by the others, when Joe shouts, “There’s no more time! Do it now!”
With a deep breath, past the intense feeling of unease and the whispers, he leans in to touch the orb —
—and when he, and the rest of the orbers open their eyes, they’ll find the quiet, familiar hum of the station’s engines around them. They’ve made it back.
A round, glowing yellow sphere rests in Ryunosuke’s hand. Degar, nodding in the other man’s direction, takes the orb from him while Viveca steps forward.
She’s smiling widely, her expression relieved.
She sighs, taking a moment to look at everyone near her, taking in each conflicted feeling, the triumph of so many lives saved, and the sorrow of so many lives lost.
With those words, she follows Degar into the North Wing, leaving the Orbers to get used to being back to their normal sizes, away from the lush nature of Ciraiwei… a memory of a place that now no longer exists.
N O T E S
This is the end of the twelfth mission! If your character goes back to review the mission file, they will notice that next to its name, a little check-mark in green has appeared.
This is not an official log — however, for the next couple of weeks, your characters have downtime on the station and all its locations (aside from the north wing) are available.
Players are encouraged to make their own logs for what they do during the downtime.
Should characters want to talk to Viveca or Degar, they can do so here.