May 14th 2100, the day the whole earth shook.  To be honest everyone saw it coming, but no one could have guessed the pure destruction it caused.  In 2096 the third world war happened, but it only lasted a year.  Due to advances in military technology the world had "perfected" nuclear power and thus perfected nuclear bombs, so soon the third world war tuned into a cold war with every major power and even lesser powers threatening to launch their nukes. Out of fear of annihilation the world stood still.  No one would move an inch so for four years nothing happened, no one was willing to make a move. then on that day the first nukes were launched by the Russians.  The first to get hit was china.  with that attack others fallowed out of fear.  soon the whole world was destroyed, 120 super nukes all together destroying everything. some survived, approximately thirteen million people worldwide, through the many bunkers created by governments for this very scenario but the rest died in the explosions.   Every bunker was fitted to be lived in by hundreds for two hundred years so on the anniversary of The Falling all vaults were open ( at least in the US) and everyone was introduced to a whole new word full of monsters and harsh environments.  Humanity seemed doomed but, through human strength our race began to thrive.  Some thrived off of community and trust while others thrived off of death and mistrust.  Nonetheless people, after hundreds of years, have finally began to put together a new civilization and with the discovery of Myste a couple years back technology has made a comeback.  Despite everything that had happened humanity has made a comeback and there's no telling where humanity will go from here we can only hope that a new world can be made out of this hell and out of it a bright new future.
~~~A new worlds beginning.

Through the dark clouds of red, the sun shines on the dark, bleak landscape of Washington.  Only briefly is the bleached, dried land illuminated by light before, again, Returning to darkness.  A single flower grows from the ruble from a small building, A symbol of hope.  Off in the distance a loud rumbling can be heard.  A large vehicle bearing the name ARGONAUT in finely painted bold letters on its side rolls on old worn wheels down the equally worn road.  It is mid afternoon though it is hard to tell with the clouds covering the sun.  After many days of traveling the Argonauts journey to the city of New Seattle is almost over and soon it will rest but for now it's engines roar and its next pit stop lies ahead.  Inside the large mobile base a woman of about twenty nine years sits reading a book titled History as we Know It.  Her thin yet tough looking frame sits, sloughed in her chair as two automatons walk by on their way to fix the rattling that had been going on for weeks in the ventilation shaft.
“Hi Tik, hi Tok” the girl said looking up from her book.
“good morning mistress Freya” they both said in unison.  Both Tik and Tok were bipedal and humanoid but possessed one eye and were roughly half the the size of a normal human. Tik was the smaller of the two and possessed a round head and body.  She had one eye and one exhaust vent for getting rid of excess Myste just like Tok.  Everybody aboard the Argonaut called Tik by female pronouns even though she was never designated a gender.  Tik was usually kind heated and kind to the extent of her A.I which was very basic.  It was not uncommon to see a Synth with basic A.I seeing as it was the only type that was able to be salvaged from old world wreckage.  Tok on the other hand was quite brash at times and seemed to posses a snooty attitude for an A.R.B (Automated, Repair, Bot).  He was more angular with a rectangular head and body but was the same as Tik structure wise.  Despite their differences and the occasional grumbles they still did their job accordingly which gave them a sense of endearment to the other inhabitants of the Argonaut.
Tok walked over to a small hatch in the wall and unscrewed it.
“I can not believe this is the third time I've had to fix the rumbling in the vents.” He mumbled to himself.  His British accent sounding off, as always seeing as nobody could really remember what a British accent sounded like.
“I bet you its a family of Rad Rats nesting in the vents.”
“But that doesn't make any sense Tik.  We would be hearing Little footsteps not a rumbling.”
Just then a loud thumping sound came from the opened hatch.
“Aha see, there it is!”
“I hear it!”  Tik and Tok exclaimed as the scrambled to discover the source of the sound all the while Freya sat, still reading her book.

     On a green hill overlooking a vast wilderness sat a small machine waiting for a big man.  Nearby, Captain Phineas T. Emrys was collecting samples and drinking in the view.  The sun was setting, heavy and orange, over an open sky studded with red flecks of cloud and the shadow of Mount Raineah fell across half the wild.  Some of the ruins of the old world popped up between the encroaching trees here and there, not uncommon and mostly explored.  The first touch of autumn colors dotted the landscape.

     Phineas was crouched over a robust fern with thick reddish shoots while running samples through a small device in his hands.  He was an aging man, but not frail by any means.  He had broad shoulders and thick arms, covered by a customized and sophisticated armor, and bore the many scars and marks of an experienced man.  His beard and full head of hair were thick and nearly white and his eyes, though weathered and creased, were sharp, clear and alert.

     The sun at his back beyond the hill, he gazed out to the east where the treacherous Crimson Desert lay sprawled out as far as the eye could see.  He was one of the few who knew just how 'treacherous' it could be.  Eventually, he thought, he was going to have to take measurements to figure out if the desert was spreading, or if the forest here was slowly pushing it back.  He thought about the last time he had traveled deep into its desolate belly (and why he did it) and it made him shudder involuntarily at the thought.  He shook it that bad memory off and focused in on the task at hand.

     Phineas stood to his feet and poked the device he was handling into a thick-walled bag slung over one shoulder made from some sort of hide.  He made the short trek up the hill to the peak where the Scrambler was waiting for him, all covered in white, cyan and silver.  The vehicle was a mid-sized, one-person land craft with three wheels, one in front and two smaller ones in the rear, capable of traversing almost any terrain at high speed (but Phineas always thought it looked more like a simple molecule, bulbous and compact).

     He straddled the bike and swung it around to face the west, marveling at the road ahead that spread out between him and the distant horizon.  He could only think of it as a “road” because it was his destination and not because it was paved, cleared, safe or easy.  To the north of Mount Raineah, which had recently erupted again, he could barely make out the colossal ruins of Old Seetle, now utterly uninhabitable (by humans), deep inside the Red Zone and partially submerged into the Ocean of Peace.  It'll be days before he'd lay eyes on it again... and it'll be much bigger.

     He cleared his head, lifted his feet, pulled the throttle and shot out over the top of the hill, zooming down the other side.  Warm, radiation-free fresh air blew through his hair and whipped his beard to one side.  The Scrambler dodged and darted and swerved through the trees, down into a gulch, over a narrow creek and up another rise onto a leveled out plain covered in short, wild grasses.  In the distance, and closing fast, loomed an enormous multi-wheeled vehicle painted like the Scrambler, but much more heavily fortified.

     Phineas was already laying out his order of actions upon returning to the Argonaut, his home.  The XS720 Continental Explorer was one of a small armada of exploratory vehicles built by the Ronan magistrate for just this sort of use.  The Argonaut herself was one of a kind, after years and years of field testing and numerous modification by Phineas himself.  She was home.  She was also a mobile laboratory, an observatory, a botanical preserve and a fortress outpost capable of sustaining her crew through some of the harshest territories available for months without restocking.

     Phineas slowed the Scramblers approach and glided into position on the port side stern of the giant lumbering land craft while it tore across the plain at full cruising speed.  He carefully aligned the bike, matching the behemoths speed, as a pair of mechanical arms slid out from the Argonauts side and seized it by its loading ports.  Phineas hopped off the small vehicle, grabbing onto a handle up high and swinging himself to a small ledge as the arms lifted the Scrambler off the ground and drew it into a perfectly fitted compartment into the Argonauts side.  He hit a button twelve feet off the ground as it sped by underneath him, pulling the sack off his shoulder.  An access hatch just off the ledge slid open and he slipped inside as the hatch, and the compartment beneath, slid shut and sealed tight.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:17, Tue 12 Mar 2019.

In the vehicle, a young man sits in the cabin.  He's tall, blonde, and reading a book about wiring.  He looks confused and frustrated.  Then he puts the book down and looks up and says "good morning Captain" as Captain Emrys walks by.

"It IS a good morning, Scruff", Phineas rumbled as he hung his shoulder sack on a hook.

Conscript Tyler Maze had been serving aboard the Argonaut for two months now.  A capable kid with a rebellious streak, he reminded Phineas of himself when he was young, minus the record of insubordination.  It was customary in the service to nickname the greenhorns until they'de earned their proper title, so Phineas just called him 'Scruff' due to the fact that the young man seemed to never comb out his twenty-four-hour bedhead.

A clang and rustle drew his attention to the side, where he noticed the ARB's jammed up in a ventilation shaft.

"Tok!  Front and center!", he called out.  There was a loud CRASH and then a moment of silence.  He turned back to Tyler sitting with his book.

"Aren't you ready to start actually working on the wiring harness yet, or are ya gonna read about it all day?"

Just then, a small but coarse artificial voice spoke up from behind, "Reporting as ordered, Cap'n."

"The samples I went after are in that pack", Phineas said turning to face the little bot and gesturing to his shoulder bag on the hook, "See that Freya gets them at once.  I wanna have test results back by the end of day, if possible."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:32, Tue 12 Mar 2019.

"Yes sir I shall get that done immediately.  Also Mistress Freya wanted me to inform you that we are arriving at Wicks, our pit stop before reaching the mission area." Tok responds quickly in his usual British accent.

As Tok said we are approaching a city, Tyler's dog : Fenrir runs down the hall into the cabin.  He jumps on Tyler and licks his face very franticly.  The dog is a big germen shepherded with a grey back.  Tyler gets and says "Fenrir down, stop licking me." Fenrir sits and obeys and Tyler pets him by the ear. Tyler jumps back a bit and said "Dog, you smell lick motor oil and engine fluid, you smell awful."  The dog shakes and then looks off into space."  Tyler looks up at Phineas and says giggling "Sorry sir, my dog is good at loving but he is very clumsy."

Phineas sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes clamped shut for a moment.

"Look, kid", he started in at the new conscript, "I agreed to let your dog onboard on the one and only condition that he NOT be a hindrance to your duties.  Now its time to put that well-oiled brain of your to use.  Put down the book, please, and let's get that harness rebuilt.  We need it perfectly functional before we hit Wicks or else the regulators will flip out like they did the last time we refueled."

He spun on one heel and turned just in time to see Tok stomping off toward the rear of the Argonaut.

"Just remember", he said turning back to Tyler, "When there's nothing to fight off and nothing to blow up, we need you to fill in other areas while you're assigned to this rig.  Don't worry!  You're more cut out for it than you give yourself credit for.  Besides, you gotta build your skills in something other than mayhem, right?"

With that, the big man walked through the shield doors protecting the steerage cockpit and into the central lift room, leaving the young man and his dog behind.  He stepped onto the lift and hit the button to descend one floor and began lowering into the belly of the rig.

    Tyler sighs and looks at his dog "Fenrir, lets go and fix stuff." Tyler said sadly. He walks Fenrir down to Tyler's room and said "be good dog." He turns around and feeds the dog and gives him water, pets the dog and walks out. Tyler claps and the lights turn out, he walks away smiling and went down the elevator to were the Captain Phineas is talking to him self about how he's going to suck at fixing this.

     The aged man stood alone in the now emptied cockpit.  Alone with the gentle clatter and shift of the little robot working inside the wall, the soft rumble of the Argonaut and its normal rattlings and his own thoughts.  He relaxed.  Stepping forward between the control seats, he gazed out the forward viewing port - a horizontal bar of hardened glass 8 feet wide and 2 feet tall.  The setting sun was almost dead ahead, beyond the oncoming highway, casting a strong glare across all of the equipment as its rays shined through.  He plopped heavily into the main control chair and scanned the dials and lights with practiced ease.
     The Argonaut was rumbling at a steady speed which was a nice mix of stability and momentum for such a large vehicle.  The road they were rumbling on was an ancient leftover from the old world.  Worn and cracked from decades of unrest and neglect left them serviceable in most places, but not much more.  They were frequented by other travelers, but few were equipped and funded enough to have any business this far out.  When they did run across oncoming traffic, it was usually someone Phenias knew (or at least they knew him).
     He surmised from the instruments that they would reach the market settlement by late night.  Later than he preferred to be out in the wild after dark, but not so late that he figured a stopover was necessary.  For now... all was well.  He popped off his goggles and hung them to one side, settled ponderously into his favorite chair and activated a small monitor on the panel of controls besides him.  A high angle surveillance-style camera image appeared looking down over another part of the vehicle where Freya sat comfortably in her chair still reading her book.
     "Did you see the samples, my dear?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:10, Wed 27 Mar 2019.

Freya quickly put down the book looking startled.
    "um Y-yes sir. I did."  Freya sighed remembering that the Argonaut was one of the few vehicles in the Ronan army with surveillance cameras.  Seeing as most of the Vehicles where too small for there to be any need for them they did not in fact have a surveillance system.
    "Sorry sir i'm not used to surveillance systems, even though I've been here for the better part a four months.  I'll get used to them though.  But yes I have in fact received the samples.  although I've put them away seeing as our last mission took out the systems seed extractor."  although she was loyal to Phineas because he managed to get her another job, despite her previous mistake on the Voyager, but despite this Phineas seemed to detect a faint undertone of annoyance in her voice.

     He smiled inwardly, feeling he had the younger historian at a disadvantage.
     "Now... no need to get jumpy.  I installed the closed-circuit system for all kinds of good reasons.  I promise no one here is using them to spy on anyone else", he trailed off into a chuckle, blushing at the thought. "Those hydogena valisae specimens are very rare.  And judging from the place I found them, they should have a lot to say about radiation fall off in the area once they are analyzed.  I'd like to see if we can get some reading before we arrive in Wicks plus I wanna try to get them transplanted in the arboretum if possible."
     A high pitched alarm pulsed three times accompanied by a small flashing light on the panel in front of him.  "Just a second", he said to Freya. He stretched overhead and flipped a switch, then leaned over to the center of the cockpit to see a round, green display screen pointed upward at the driver's seat.
     "Something registered on the radar", he said once again turning back to the screen where Freya was still paying attention, "but now there's no sign".
   He scratched his head and waited patiently another few seconds.
    "Hmmmm... I'll keep an eye on it.  Speaking of 'keeping an eye', why don't you go check up on our tech in training.  He may need a hand as well."

"Very well captain" Freya said getting up from her chair and walking off camera.  All was calm and peaceful, the roar of the tires traveling across the desiccated, ancient road.  The engine, however was quite as Myste generators make little to no sound. according to records there was once a forest here on either side of the road but nowadays it was only barren with only a few destroyed remnants of the former glory of trees.  way off in the distance Phineas could see the glow of Wicks, a safe heaven from the dangers of the wasteland.  Again the radar went off again this time not shutting off.  It appeared to be one human life sign.  Immediately Phineas began to become suspicious, No one would just be walking on the side of the road, by themselves, this late into the day without any form of vehicle or mount.  He again thought it to be a another glitch, putting in a mental note to fix the radar on top of all the other problems.  Soon, though, he realized that the radar was right.  The flat ground made it easy to see far into the distance and along with Wicks he could see a small figure off in the distance about a mile out.  Phineas wondered what his next course of action should be.