Fantasy Kaizoic: Earth Reborn

[Da Doofus]

She smiled softly.
"Well thank you." She helped him to his feet. "You're alright, just take it easy for the next few days." She advised warmly.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He returned the smile.
"Yeah, figured as much." He said, allowing Helen to help him up. There wasn't much reason for that, but he wasn't going to reject her kindness.
"I'll try my best . With all that's been going on, I wouldn't be surprised if the roof decided to fall on me." He pointed at the ceiling. It was clear that it was a joke, but there was a faint hint of seriousness that suggested he may have actually believed that.
"That's not gonna happen right?" He said after letting out a nervous laugh.

 

[Da Doofus]

"The hull collapsing? Not likely." She chuckled. "Just don't get into anymore trouble, ok?" She finalized her diagnostics on a nearby terminal before switching to monitoring the unconscious officers conditions.

The nearby door opened, making it clear that Kairo was free to go.

 

[Chai_T3a]

"Hard to do when trouble comes straight at ya." He commented as he made his way out of room. He gave her a quick thanks and a mock salute before he was out the door.

As he left the research lab, he kept his gaze facing strictly at the exit. He wasn't going to let himself get distracted. Every time he'd accessed a restricted area, things never seemed to go well for him. It was hard to admit, but he found himself becoming slightly paranoid with being in here. It wasn't until the research lab door was out of sight that Kairo was able to breathe easy.

As he made his way back to his room. He found himself thinking about Jameson. The man had seemed so different in person. On the hologram broadcasts, he'd always seemed so poised. Calm and collected. As if nothing of any caliber would affect him. He knew that the man had to keep a good public image, but the drastic difference between the real thing and a damn broadcast was pretty damn hard to forget.

Besides that, something just didn't feel right about him. He seemed...almost harsh in a sense. He had to cut him some slack for the situation they were in. But attempting to kill the Guest was definitely not something he'd expected.

Then again, Kairo could have just been naïve. He shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. Mentally berating himself for thinking so lowly of the director. Jameson had spent his entire life serving the republic, he'd climbed the ranks to get to where he was now. Even if he didn't agree with his actions, Jameson was probably right in the end.
'He's doing what's best for everyone' He thought to himself. Repeating it a few times in his head.
'He's doing what's best for everyone. And I've got no right to complain about that.'

The moment he reached his room, his jacket was immediately cast onto the table. He found himself plopping onto the bed with his legs dangling off the side. Being mentally and physically wrecked was really becoming the norm for him. He found that in his current state, sleep would come almost instantaneously, even with his awkward position on the bed.

 

[Da Doofus]

For the first time in two days, Kairo would finally get some rest. Time would go by with the grace of uneventfulness of the daily events. A Syndroid would come on the second day with a holopad displaying an agreement of confidentiality about the Guest.
No choice other than to sign it, was the gist.
Days would turn into a week, then came the first Sunday of the following week.

His door beeped its signature sound when someone was standing on the weight-triggered doormat.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo was pretty preoccupied. There was dozens of random pieces of useless bits and pieces lying on the table. Wires, bolts, a piece of scrapped metal, and a few spoons, all already on hand or acquired through various ways. He honestly didn’t know what he was doing, but the prospect of making anything gave him something to do.

The sound that had reverberated in the room broke his concentration. He swept the mess to the side of the table, before getting out of the chair.
“Give me a sec!” He walked to the door and unlocked it.

 

[Da Doofus]

A man dressed in a Director's office jumpsuit stood with a folded set of clothing and a new ID tag.
"Good morning, Mr. . ." He glanced at the tag. "Hunjan. I'm here to notify you of your acceptance into the First Colonial Expedition of Noah 6." He clearly had this memorized. Then he offered the pressed garments. "Here are your required articles of clothing, and your identification badge. Orientation will be in the morning at 7:00, and once our scout returns with suitable location coordinates, you will depart the following morning."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo looked confused at first, but that was quickly replaced by a sense of realization. He'd almost completely forgot that he'd applied to be on the Expedition team. The surprise was visible in his expression for just a second.

He took the clothing and the badge that was offered to him and nodded at the man. Then, he grabbed the door handle and began to shut it. He only got halfway before a concern popped into his head.

The man had mentioned a scout. Kairo was certain who that person would have been. It had been a while since he last saw Rufus, and he was beginning to suspect that he'd already been sent out. That prospect worried him. The thought of Rufus being out there alone for such a long time sounded absolutely horrid.

He opened the door again.
"Hey. That scout. You happen to know when he's getting sent out." Kairo asked.

 

[Da Doofus]

The messenger had already turned away for the nearby transport pod, but turned when Kairo spoke.

"Oh . . . Um. I think I saw that he was some ex-convict. I don't know much else, sorry." He smiled uncertainly.

 

[Chai_T3a]

It wasn’t the answer to his question. But he still smiled and thanked him. He closed the door immediately afterwards.

Now with the man gone, he was left alone with his own thoughts again. His mind still begged to know Rufus’s situation, but he figured that question would be answered soon enough. Might as well focus on something else for now.

That something happened to be the new clothes he had been handed. Looking down at the uniform, he decided to give it a good look. He placed the badge onto his bed and unfolded the set of clothes.

 

[Da Doofus]

It was a more padded, and darker colored version of the typical passenger jumpsuit, with the legs and chest layered with thicker material. The texture looked like a fibermesh of some manufactured substance.
It was thin around the shoulders which indicated that it served as an undersuit for extra clothing.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He looked over at the small pile of personal clothing items he had. There wasn't much that he could wear on top of the undersuit. The clothing that did seem to work were horribly mismatched. He was going to have to get creative if he wanted to make this work, but that was a problem for future Kairo.

For now he decided to make his way outside for some food. He'd been stuck in his quarters almost the entire day, and checking from how things looked on the live outside feed, it seemed like the sun wasn't too far from setting. He grabbed his jacket and effortlessly slid it on. In a few moments he would find himself out the door and heading to the atrium.

The rest of the day went very typically. After a heavy dinner, he found himself in a recreational area with a few others he had gotten to know on the Noah. He was content, but the orientation tomorrow was something that was constantly at the back of his mind. He found that he couldn't completely relax. It was the same later at night. He couldn't quell the nerves. Instead of sleeping, he found himself staring at the night sky from the live outside feed. Soon, he wouldn't be seeing that from a terminal anymore.

After losing hours of precious sleep to this, he finally found himself dozing off around 2 at the middle of the night.

 

[Da Doofus]

A pre-set alarm for Expedition personnel blared at 6:30 in the morning.
It was contained within the room itself, but boomed inside like am emergency-tier alarm.

 

[Chai_T3a]

The sound of the alarm wakes him up a bit too easily, and he found himself jolting awake. He had to grip the edges of the bed as to not fall off. If he hadn't known what this alarm meant, he probably would have panicked. Instead of that, he let out a loud groan in annoyance.

Getting out of the bed, he turned off the alarm. He took around ten minutes to get himself washed up and dressed before making his way to orientation.

 

[Da Doofus]

He would be directed by assisting drones to the lower hangar of the Noah, at the bottom of the ship.
Once past the networking halls that seemed to run endlessly throughout the bowels of the Noah, he would arrive at a hangar. A transport ship, seemingly military made given the appearance, stood beyond a gathering of several dozen recruits.
In a clearing near the ship stood Stryx, a Syndroid, and another man who if Kairo had to guess was a Director.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo found himself staring at the transport for much of the time. He remembered how privileged he felt being on a similar ship on his journey to the Noah. Now, after being here for around a month, seeing this thing didn't bring any kind of excitement anymore. Instead, it was what the ship meant that made him feel skittish. Were they going to send them out today? He'd barely had the time to prepare for such a trip.

Still in thought, he quietly joined the gathering of recruits. Looking around, he noticed he wasn't the only one feeling a bit anxious. It only made sense, considering how high stakes the mission would be. Still, Kairo saw a lot of excited and determined expressions on peoples faces. He probably would have felt the same, if it wasn't for the recent infiltration by the Guest. There must have been more of them out there, and that frightened him wildly.

He took a deep breathe to compose himself, attempting to adopt an expression of calmness. It didn't go particularly well though.

 

[Da Doofus]

The orientation began with the Director announcing his name as Dwayne Atticus. What followed was a ten minute speech on how the Expedition team was a new step for mankind, and other such motivational drivel.
Even Stryx yawned toward the end.

Once Director Atticus was finished, the Commander stepped up and explained the procedures of the operation. The First Expedition would be sent on the dropship to assist in setting up a base camp. From there, it would be a matter of establishing a settlement a day at a time until it was secure enough to begin relocating passengers.
Then the process would begin again with the Second Expedition at a different location. All was referenced through a holographic projection of a 100-mile radius map around the Noah.
Then he stood silent as he contemplated the next subject.

"Before I finish this up, you all need to know this." He scanned the crowd. "And it does not leave this hangar. At least for now."
He pressed a button on the remote to the projection, and it shifted into a spherical display of a planet that bore a strong resemblence to Earth. The continents looked familiar but were different enough to cause confusion.

"The Research team confirmed this information last night. We ARE in what used to be Arizona." He pointed to the continent mostly covered in green with the northern half a mix of desolate greys and icy frozen ranges. It looked like North America had its former coastlines submerged in water and South America had become an array of state-size islands dotting the southern hemisphere. In the midst of the lush, green continent was the blinking light signaling the Noah's location.
"We've been in cryo for a little over 10,000 years." Stryx finally said. "None of the communication signals are working, so for now we can't tell if any of the other Noahs landed."

Many of the recruits were murmuring in disbelief at the news. The projection spun continuously, if Kairo wanted to know what had fully become of the planet, this was his best chance to take note of it.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo found it as hard to believe as the rest of them. He'd seen the outside world from the live feed. The place was covered in lush rainforest. Trees for as long as the eye can see. The landscape far from the Arizona he had known, and yet the blinking light was indeed hovering around the area Arizona used to be. Guess he missed a lot in cryo.

As the projection span around, he did his best to concentrate on it. He made sure to look at every single continent, briefly analyzing each one to the best of his capabilities. He didn't want to miss out on anything.

 

[Da Doofus]

Canada and Russia were now connected by vast, bridging glaciers, and the Northern Pole was shrouded in volcanic smoke.

Europe no longer stretched far from the central landmass, and was only partially green. Further South, it shared a massive bay with a desert-covered Africa.
There was however, a country-sized body of water in the heart of the two continents, where the Middle-East was. Eastern Asia had a mountain belt cutting it off from the West, and looked to be mostly temperate in biome.

Australia was no more than a triage of neighboring islands.
Antarctica looked the most alien, being almost entirely thawed out leaving a continent with swirls of green and snowy white around the edges.
The center of the landmass remained frozen, but only a small portion.

In the middle of the now massive Atlantic Ocean, storms enveloped the expanse between the two continental masses.

 

[Chai_T3a]

The world he saw on the projections was almost unrecognizable to him. There wasn’t a single part of the world that had remained unchanged. He didn’t want to imagine what could have caused such a shift in climate and water levels in such a short time. Suddenly, his life before the Noah felt even further away. After a while, he found that he couldn’t bring himself to look at the projection anymore. It brought with it to much uncertainty, and with how nervous he already was, that wasn’t much help.

He kept his eyes to the front, waiting for the Director to continue his speech. Hopefully he’d tell these people about the breach. Seeing that they were sending them outside, they at least deserved to know what dangers they could be facing.

 

[Da Doofus]

The hologram shifted once more, this time into an aerial view of a tropical clearing of trees. It was dotted with the feathered bodies of a familiar creature of the First Emergence.

"From what Yui has documented since we landed, there is an abundance of wildlife in the area. Many of you will recognize these creatures as Ceratauros. Apparently, they've flourished in our absence."
The image changed to a different view, this one of a large canyon in the jungle with a rushing river at the bottom of the vine-wrapped, rocky depths.
"The Grand Canyon has tripled in size, and contains a major river that spans the continent. This is almost three hundred miles away from us, so we should be safe from anything extremely dangerous."
The image zoomed onto a cliffside, where a blurred image of a titanic animal stood. From what could be discerned, it was a gigantic 4-legged reptile with a muscled neck and a head like a mixture of a monitor lizard and a dinosaur.
Comparing the size of the trees it stood above, it had to have been five stories tall and over a hundred feet long.
"I've seen the thermal imaging myself, and the larger animals congregate around this canyon, so the odds of safety are in our favor."
The image dissolved into inactivity.
"That being said . . ." Stryx's face grew stern. "We are going to take every precaution out there to secure our new home."

Many in the crowd sounded off agreements. They knew the Noahs were a temporary haven. It's supplies were limited and once landed served as a shelter in times of emergency.
They could survive in here, but not forever.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Nothing was mentioned of the Guest. He found that a bit disappointing, but he didn't think twice about it. They'd bring it up when the need arises, hopefully.

Besides that small mishap. He found the information that was being brought up reassuring. Sure there was a huge ass lizard taller than most buildings wandering around, but he had imagined the situation to have been much worse. The crowd around him all seemed to look determined, and Kairo couldn't help but feel the same. It could just be group mentality, or he could actually be feeling optimistic, but either way, he didn't want this feeling to go. He was going to need it for the not so distant future.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Now before we start on the training program, are there any questions?" Stryx asked the crowd, putting away the remote.

"What's stopping another monster from just stomping in on us?" A woman behind Kairo spoke up.

"Every Noah has construction drones ready to lay out a protective dome structure around the settlement." He clicked the remote once more, and a display of a paneled dome, clearly massive in structure.
"It's designed to not only blend in to the skyline, but it also is built to deter anything larger than an elephant from attacking it." He assured. "The Republic was testing these on the Fenridon before the Apexes showed up. They were intended to shield towns and rebuilt cities." He turned off the hologram once more. "Now they'll protect us as we all start anew." He paused.
"Any more questions?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo raised his eyebrow. He's been impressed by a lot of things on this ship, but this was easily one of the most jaw dropping. He'd never heard of something so advanced before. He was beginning to believe the engineers and researchers working for Takahashi and the republic weren't human.

His thoughts were cut off as Stryx offered to answer a few more questions. He gave his offer some thought, racking his head for something he could ask. There wasn't much that the Director and Stryx have left hidden, and he found that he was genuinely without questions. He remained silent.

 

[Da Doofus]

Stryx concluded the orientation and a pair of Syndroids led the volunteers to another part of the hangar. From there, they were introduced to an array of survival gear and instructions on exactly what was to be done once they were in the wilds.

After that, came various physical excercises and an introduction on the documented animals in the area. The list was sent to the personal terminals in each volunteer's quarters.

Hours had passed until the training for the day had finished. Stryx dismissed the recruits until the following morning.