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Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

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RP: The Wayward First Steps (Ep 01)

Even Tanja jumped at the sound of the clanging metal and looked between everyone. "Let's stay quite and move forward." She motioned them to follow and continued forward. They reached the end after some more walking where they could see that it ended in a loading bay, that opened into the factory. There was some level of light coming through the bay entrance, but not much, the factory was obviously not at full operations after so many years and most of the lights must have blown out.

Tanja moved up to the edge of the entrance and peeked inside and then turned back to everyone "Okay it's all clear, doesn't look like any one is here. Something must've rotted and collapsed earlier I guess." She then turned and stepped into the barely lit room.

Inside was the main portion of the factory where the vehicles were assembled. There was a high roof with hanging lights, most of which blown out, a few flickering and even fewer still functioning properly. On the floor the whole space was a work area with assembly lines for putting together different components. There were even vehicles already on the line in partially complete states, but something felt wrong about them, the vehicles there did not look very much like something that was produced by Origin.
 
Embel walked into area with the others and looked around "hmm there is a weird feeling coming from here" she took a few steps in front of the others as she scanned the area then walked to the vehicles wondering why they where here, thy had the Origin logo and that but they definitely weren't Origin "I'm going to check out these more, maybe find the information on the vehicles."
 
After finally struggling under the annoyingly low door Shadow froze alarmed by the sudden noise. After waiting a few seconds he followed Embel towards the strange vehicles to see if they had any interesting parts to scavenge.
 
Hugar kept himself at ready eyeing to the left and the right staying near Embel and Tanja and Shadow with his weapon raised. "Alright, make it quick though we don't know what might of been lurking around in here." He takes a breath to steady himself in the process. He decided to move around slowly and look over the assembly lines to see what was there, and what he might find.
 
Tanja and Reed were the last two to step into the room and look around at the factory that seemed to stop mid production. There were still loose parts hanging around all over the place. There are even signs that animals have been inside the facility a few times.

The vehicles on the production line, at least that are near complete are two large menacing looking three wheeled vehicles. The first, the one closest to Embel had two wheels in the back that were attached under a flat bed obviously meant for cargo carrying. The top of the vehicle had a small turret and a dome for a gunner to sit under. But the most intimidating part was the 4 large tusk at the front of the vehicle. The second vehicle was similar in design but there was no flat bed, and the single wheel was in the back and larger than the other two.

"I don't think those are Origin made." Tanja spoke up softly, stating the rather obvious conclusion that most everyone came to. "However it looks like the place still is on back up power. Maybe we can grab something from one of the computers attached to the assembly lines."
 
Hugar took a moment to look at the parts before looking over at Tanja and moving back over nodding a bit. "But wonder why Origin was making vehicles not of its own design...perhaps someone was working this place after it was abandoned?" He suggested to the group. Fortunately, his ears were sensitive much like a cats so despite his better judgement he keeps them open and alerted. His violet eyes watching to the left and right making sure that nobody was trying to sneak up on them.
 
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Embel looks around the vehicles as she listens in case something comes "the best thing to do is it find the databases just in case they have information on these things" she looked slightly worried at the thought that this wasn't abandonded.
 
Tanja thought for a moment when Hugar spoke up and tapped her chin with a finger "Hmm you might be right...this planet was taken over by the NMX before, that's why this place was abandoned. If they made use of this factory we could be looking at NMX made vehicles." She looked around as she approached the vehicle. "And it looks like this whole section of the factory was dedicated to producing these two types of vehicle." She knocked on the side maybe just for the sake of doing so or maybe she was testing something. "Check the computers, maybe we can find some original Origin prints on them. Our employer wants only Origin stuff, anything else we can keep for later."

There were four computers that were easyly noticeable in the room, they were on the assembly line in a few key locations. There was also what looked like an operations room at the end of a small flight of stairs. It looked like a good vantage point to look down on to the assembly line from.
 
Hearing that the salvage of the vehicles could wait Shadow walked toward the stairs. Trying not to make too much noise he walked the operations room to try and get a better view of the area.
 
Reed shifted uneasily at the mention of the NMX. He like most Neplisians could remember what the NMX were capable of. “But that was years ago… and the Yamatans drove the NMX away in the last war.” Reed paused uncomfortably and adjusted his grip on his gun “Let’s just get the data and get out."
 
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Embel listened to the talk about the NMX she had heard about them and knew a bit from the wars but never actually met one before, they did sound bad but she didn't actually know that much about them she knew they were techinically evil.
 
Hugar looks at Reed. "You're a very positive person, aren't you?" He definitely doesn't mean that in a good way and moves over to the four computers and begins working on looking into the information on them, first moving to see how long its been since anything has been inside here that could use a computer. Then, he moves to find out if there is a way to activate and view the security footage for the area around them.
 
At the top of the stairs was the operations room, the door had been removed and it looks like the space had been widened quite a bit for something larger than a human to fit inside. Inside was a somewhat dust console that didn't look like it had seen any use recently. It looked like the console might be the primary controls for the line, as it was the only thing inside the room besides basic PA equipment and a desk for working. There was a port to plug in standard interface equipment as well, so the data could possibly be downloaded.

One the assembly floor, the four computers had a decent amount of dust on them Hugar, but nothing like something that had been unused for a hand full of years, especially not with the garage entrance open. These were used much more recently. Upon activation the computer powers up but it doesn't look like it's a security computer, rather it looks like it's operation controls for the assembly line, selecting what to assemble and monitoring the productivity as well as diagnosing problems in the line. It looks like the line has prints for a few old old vehicle designs that Origin used to make as well as NMX Cargo Tuck and Battle Buggy, and judging by the diagrams these would be the two things that are near complete on the floor.

Tanja left the crew to examine the room and moved further onward to see what was deeper inside. She came across a door way and put her back to it peeking onward. She listened for a moment and then carefully made her way way back to the group. Keeping her voice kind of low. "I can hear voices up ahead, they're moving away but there are people here besides us." AS she spoke she made hand signals as well for Shadow who was further away and possibly not able to hear her.
 
Upon hearing the Hugar's comment, Reed rolled his eyes. “Call me what you want, but I’m not going to be the first one to die by evil squid.” Having said that, Reed walked down to get a closer look at the partially completed NMX vehicles.

Reed paused as he heard Tanja’s warning. "Do you want me to take a closer look?"
 
Embel listened to the others and she holds her rifle out and walked around to see if she could find anything, as she listened out for anything that need to be killed as she thought for a bit "there may be the blueprints or prototypes in other places, if you don't mind, I could go and take someone with me to check it out, maybe shadow?"
 
Tanja thought for a moment and then nodded "Alright, Reed, Embel you two go further up and investigate, try not to get seen though. I don't know how many people are up ahead, but figure out as much as you can and use your own judgement if anything happens okay?"
 
Reed made his way past Tanja, walking carefully to mask the noise of his footsteps as he moved. As he moved, he unconsciously flicked the safety off of his pistol. He made his way to the doorway that Tanja had indicated and carefully pushed it open with his free hand. Pausing, Reed waited to the side of the partially open doorway for Embel to catch up.
 
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Hugar looked towards the others as they began leaving. He then turned back to the computer and began reading what data was on the screen. He looked at Tanja once the data he read processed and chuckled. "Seems I was right, the NMX were using this place after Origin abandoned it. From what the computer shows, these two things are what they were building... an NMX Cargo Truck and a Battle Buggy." He took a moment to try and look more in-depth on when these assembly lines were last activated.
 
Embel smiled and nodded at Tanja as she moved to the other side of the partially opened door facing Reed then smiled at him "say when your ready and we will make our way through the base to find materals of importance."
 
Hugar as you went through the data it became apparent that this was merely the final production floor where the finishing touches were put on the vehicle and that the major construction was deeper in the facility. That would explain why it was a room with only four separate lines to run. However there was a much more pressing revelation found within the computer systems; this computer had been powered on less than a month ago. That was much too recently for it to have been the NMX that powered it on either.

Reed and Embel both made their way through the door way and were confronted with a dark long hall way, this was more designed for humans rather than vehicles like the way they go into the facility. They could just faintly hear the voice of a conversation up ahead, it sounded like two people but it was just about impossible to make out the words. The voices only came from one direction though, straight down the hall, after some walking there was another path they could take, heading to the left.

Shadow after heading inside the office at the top made his way to the computer console and powered it on and began to peruse the data files. Or at least he would have if the computer did not boot up to a screen asking for a password. The screen looked somewhat out of place though, the UI was rough and rather unpolished, but most telling of all was the probably the fact that that 'Password' had been mistyped and read "Pasword".
 
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