The Game: Chapter 08 - A Brave New World
Recap & Disposition
Kayla, piloting the Persephone with assistance from the increasingly enigmatic AI Dynamis, has just activated a jump ring in a desperate bid to avoid getting caught in the crossfire between Commander Faust's cloaked IDA fleet and Gestalt's ramshackle AoS fleet.
She shares the cockpit with Nightmare, Muse, and Fiernas, leaving one seat left available (the GunBlazer Saddle).
Xander is in the cargo bay, securing himself within Abraxis and speaking with Penny Brighton, a fellow IDA agent who may or may not have become "flipped". Regardless, she is no longer cuffed and, now that Xander is in the mech and Muse is in the cockpit, no longer supervised.
The same can not be said of the other prisoners. Gestalt, conscious but unhappy, and Timon, happily unconscious, remain bound nearby.
The rest of the ship is occupied by Fiernas's adorable cyberpups, Billy -- standing near the equipment locker fiddling with his EVA suit's helmet -- and four people his team broke out of the Alliance of Sol Ship (ASS) Pragnanz's brig along with Penny: two augers, Holt and Durst, and two regular humans, Tyndal and Darling.
***
The first thing anyone in the cockpit might notice when the flickers of light fade from the viewport is the lack of purple mist. Apparently jump rings do not always necessarily lead to creepy, starless pockets of subspace.
A close second is the planet looming in the (relative) distance...a planet that none among you recognize in the slightest. It is a rocky planet with visual similarities to Mars, though it is closer to tan than red and appears much larger -- perhaps even larger than Earth. It betrays no signs of clouds, water, or atmosphere, nor any structures of any kind.
A bevy of stars can be seen around it, with three appearing far larger than the rest.
The nearest star is no longer Sol, Dynamis observes. Re-calculating.
Kayla opens her mouth to say something, but no words come out. She stares at relatively nearby planet, transfixed.
Confirmed. We are 4.2 lightyears off-course, in the tri-star system nearest to Sol. I am 97% certain that the nearest star is this one.
The third-brightest star in the viewport becomes highlighted.
Red dwarf, classification: Proxima Centauri. 97% certainty. That would make this exoplanet Proxima Centauri b.
It is at about this moment that warning lights begin to flare up along the console.
Warning! Radiation levels are beyond normal tolerance. I recommend deploying EVA suits.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:59, Mon 24 Apr 2017.