∝Transmission 010: Shiny Happy People

[gauntletmods]

[DIVA's face appears suddenly on each of their spheres, collected and neutral as always despite the creatures that had been gallivanting around the ship]

Attention all personnel:

We have confirmed that the recently intercepted transmission is from the First. Admiral Ganymede has given orders to pursue this lead, and engage the First in combat. Due to the passage of time spent to verify the message's authenticity, we will use a wormhole to expedite our passage to the--

[There the transmission crackles briefly--then there is nothing but silence.]


DETAILS

It turns out the fleet finally has a lead, and the Hawking and Uesugi have been sent into action! Only the Admiral and those on-board the Gauntlet know the details of this message and assume it had made it to the crew. Based on information DIVA sent to each of the Spheres before her transmission was terminated, the crew have been issued a formal challenge. That is, the First want a face-off against their pursuers and they have named a time and a place.

Because they took so long to crack the encrypted message, the Alliance crew have some catching up to do, and conveniently a wormhole is right on their course. This seems fortuitous as they enter the dark, hazy mass, crackling energy bounding around the two ships as they pass into the interspace tunnel. Passage is quick despite this ominous appearance, and aside from DIVA's silence it appears that all is well.

In fact, it's better than well. As they travel, the crew are filled with a sense of euphoria with only increases as the hours pass. Isn't this a wonderful wormhole? And it's just great that they're finally back on the trail of the First, surely the Gate will be easy to recover and everyone can return home. These thoughts sneak up on members of the crew, gradually becoming more and more positive and unrealistic as time passes. And then people start to see truly grand things, and have such good luck all of a sudden. Maybe a girl someone's been pursuing finally says yes, maybe it's raining doughnuts, but things are coming up roses for everyone.

With, perhaps, a few exceptions. Those who are robotic or just plain too observant for their own damn good might have trouble accepting everything they ever wanted can come true for them like this, but try as they might, they may not be able to convince anyone else of this. Most of the crew is quite convinced there's nothing wrong at all with everything being so great, and they may even try to silence any naysayers that make themselves too much a nuisance.

However...things still aren't what they seem even if all stowaway creatures have been captured and placed in the Uesugi biosphere. Passengers might notice a slight increase in temperature and humidity as the days go by.

What's making temperature change happen, you ask? In a few days' time, passengers will learn why...

But until then, it's time for a bit of business. It's time for an Activity Check!

How does it work? Simply reply to this post listing your characters and their journal names to let us know that you're interested in staying in the game. You'll have one week to reply after this post has been made, after which we will list those who haven't stopped by to let us know. Those who don't reply a week after the list of people is put up will, unfortunately, be removed from the game. Those who miss the activity check and the final deadline will be able to resubmit their application if they wish to rejoin the game. And, of course, those on hiatus as listed in the hiatus page are exempt. Those who haven't commented there, on the other hand, will not be.

As always if you have questions, comments, or want to plot with other players, go ahead and reply to this post!

[Part 2 of this plot is here.]