[M15] ENEMY: UNKNOWN - THE INTERVIEW

[voidmissions]

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On opening their eyes, Voidtreckers will feel a sense of disorientation, a dizziness to their vision and inside their head. Both clear quickly, letting them remember where they came from: in the midst of a mission, some unknown entity jumping them, and then —

They're here. Wherever here is.
They stand in an empty room. The lighting of the room stings their eyes after how dark the rest of the station has been. The walls, ceiling and floor are all bright white, tiles. There is no visible door, no windows.

After the disorientation comes fear. The hairs on the back of their neck stand up. For those with danger sense, these senses are going haywire, even though any other abilities are still not working. The feeling can be pushed down, it is similar to the air of expectation at the start of a horror film, the anticipation of fear rather than being in a truly dangerous situation. It might be that they have been on the train long enough to have felt it before.

Heavy footsteps sound, it is almost impossible to tell where they are coming from as the echo through the empty space. The feeling of dread grows until part of the far wall slides open with a mechanical hiss.

Filling the doorway are two huge figures, around seven foot tall and bulky. They are in large metal suits, almost like power armour, black with highlights of gold. They wear a mask that covers their whole face. It is impossible to see the figure inside at all. Their breathing comes through heavy and raspy and when they walk their footsteps are heavy. The door closes behind them and their presence makes the room feel smaller. One of them scans a green light over the voidtrecker.

"Do not be alarmed. Under sections ninety six of Inter-dimensional law and on behalf of the Void Ministry we have intercepted Voidcraft designation Voidtrecker Express as part of ongoing investigations. You have been taking part in a simulated excercise to gauge your skill and strength. No harm shall come to you or your crew, you are protected by inter dimensional law. You have been chosen for questioning and we ask that you comply. You have the right to refuse our interview but we have the right to hold you until our investigation is complete or one week in standard void time has passed, whichever is longest. Complying with us will ensure our investigation is more efficient."

The inspector talking pauses here, as if giving the voidtrecker time to take in that information.

"Do you accept our interview?"

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ENEMY: UNKNOWN

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Comments

[tactlesstantei]

I see... [Given the train's attitude towards getting caught and the 'rogue train' status she's not quite trusting, but she'll go with this.]

Anyways, I'm Masumi Sera, 18, and I've been traveling in the void for...seven and a half months? It was apparently Grasshopper when I got pulled into this, according to the train.

[Not as long as some, but a while.]

[voidtreckernpcs]

Names of months on voidcrafts are designated by the craft. [ Which is to say, Grasshopper means nothing to those outside the craft. ]

Thank you for your answers. Can you supply the system designation of your home world?

[tactlesstantei]

Ah. [That's good to know, that the month names are different from craft to craft.]

If you mean the number designations, no. I only know my world as Earth, and that my system is non void active. No one's ever mentioned my system's designation before.

[She should try looking that one up once she's back on the train, actually. In any case, after a second of thought:]

I assume that that’s something I should know if I had willingly chosen to void travel?

[voidtreckernpcs]

It is. [The voice doesn't sound judgemental or surprised. It is very calm, in a way designed to instil calm in others.]

You claim to be travelling against your will. Did you know of Void travel on your world?

[tactlesstantei]

No, I’d never heard of it before. All I know is that I was on my class trip to Kyoto, in the middle of calling someone, and then suddenly I was waking up on some train platform, dressed in purple, watching as the train pulled up.

[She goes quiet for a moment, thinking.]

Apparently everyone here was pulled in to act as Voidtreckers on missions after the train lost her previous crew. As far as I know, no one on the train is here voluntarily.

[voidtreckernpcs]

[They watch her steadily as she speaks.]

What do you know about the last crew of the voidtrecker express. This is something we have no data on. How did they come to be lost?

[tactlesstantei]

[That story. Masumi speaks carefully, aware that these people are from the Ministry but wanting anything that might be an answer to what happened.]

Not much. I know that there was a mission at the train’s homeworld, only for the system and much of the crew to be lost when this thing showed up. I’m not sure what happened to the remaining crew on the train, but I believe they were trying to recover those they lost. Either way, the entire original crew is missing.

[Please tell her this will help with finding them.]

[voidtreckernpcs]

Do you have the system number of the voidcraft designation Voidtrecker Express' origin point? [They ask once she falls silent.]

Was this information given to you by your voidcraft?

[tactlesstantei]

I believe it was system 1015. [Thankfully not a long number!]

Yes. Part of it was given to three people - not me, and they aren't with the train anymore - during a stop at Jema'grethy some time back and one of those three people, Nita, then shared that info with me. Other parts were in the form of voice and video logs from the original crew that had been saved by the train and were shared with everyone on board.

[voidtreckernpcs]

[A pause.] Incorrect. That is not a system in the void catalogue of systems. Perhaps you have misremembered a digit.

[They don't sound angry, just matter of fact.]

[tactlesstantei]

[Okay, first of all how did they just automatically know that without looking it up?

Second of all, she knows that the system was erased from knowledge/memory, but wtf???]

No, I'm pretty sure that was the number. The specific world was Enrara I believe?

Then again, I'm pretty sure the system was erased from memory or something when it was destroyed, so that's expected, I guess.

[voidtreckernpcs]

"Erased from memory?"

A silence, though there seems to be something between them as after a few moments one speaks again.

"Explain this claim further."

[tactlesstantei]

[She might have been a bit too up front with the info, but well. She’s already being held and interviewed, she might as well explain at this point.]

…From what I know, no one outside the train remembers her home system or that the Voidtrecker Express is real. The Express is believed to be nothing more than myth now, to the point where the train got marked as a rogue craft after an inspection.

[voidtreckernpcs]

Yes. We inspected the Voidtrecker Express one void year ago. Before the reports that led to our inspection we have no data pertaining to the craft.

[Another long pause.] Do you suffer from any of the following: consistent fatigue, confusion, hallucinations or unexplained mood shifts?

[tactlesstantei]

No, none of that. Why do you ask?

[There's an edge of suspicion behind her tone. Masumi's aware that her claims of Enrara being erased from memory probably seem pretty wild to someone who doesn't remember the place, but she still doesn't like where this is going.]

[voidtreckernpcs]

Those are the common symptoms of voidsickness. This was one of our initial theories though our current data does not seem to confirm it.

[tactlesstantei]

I see.

[She’ll keep that in mind, even if she doesn’t like the timing of when it was brought up. For now:]

There was another world that was destroyed; Diagad. I believe the place was just discovering the void at the time, and it was destroyed similarly to Enrara.

[voidtreckernpcs]

"We have records of Diagad." They nodded. "The cause of its destruction is officially unknown though that is rapidly changing through new information. Were you present on the false system created by the unknown entity in Diagad's image?"

[tactlesstantei]

Yes, I was on that mission. I thought I was a resident of Diagad for a while because of the illusion stuff, with a false life, a Diagad power, and everything.

I and a few others actually spoke to Chaos - the entity - during the mission, after we'd realized the truth. They showed us the destruction of the real Diagad when asked to, which was pretty bad. From what was shown, these strange shapes appeared in the sky out of nowhere and everything went dark as people panicked. That was followed by Chaos spending what I can only assume to be quite a while in the void after the destruction of the world.

[Not as much detail as she'd given those on the train, but she's trying not to reveal too much to these people. Masumi's pretty sure she's already said too much, and is trying to dial it back a bit now.]

[voidtreckernpcs]

You spoke to the entity? [There's a pause as she explains.]

Would you elaborate? Did the entity tell you anything else? Did this Chaos describe their time in the void?"

[tactlesstantei]

Er, yes. As I said, I don’t know how long they spent in the void, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant for them. There were the voices of, I assume, those lost on Diagad, the feeling of time having no meaning and of going without breathing, being torn apart…

I think they also became bitter at the worlds that kept existing after Diagad’s destruction during their time in the void, viewing them as ‘unworthy’.

Besides that, they definitely wanted to remake Diagad, which would explain the fake version of it.

[She hadn’t wanted to go into so much detail, but there’s her experience of that meeting.]

[voidtreckernpcs]

Being in the void unprotected is not something any being can truly survive. [A further feeling of calm surrounded her, as if reassuring her.]

Can you remember anything else that this entity told you or showed you?

[tactlesstantei]

[Masumi does her best to ignore the calm feeling, not entirely fond of it as she continues.]

...They seemed to have an obsession with plays. They said that they would 'always permit entry into their shows' when we first arrived to talk, and compared what they were doing to an act or a play.

[She pauses; what else?]

I can't really say what happened towards the end since I was busy anchoring to get people out, but I know that they weren't too fond of the voidtreckers after our interference on other worlds. During a mission at Kamakan, they told us to 'stop thwarting them' while driving the entire population of the city out into the smog filled wasteland outside, and painted us as dangerous threats that were trying to invade and take over the city of Jinnjar at the fake Diagad.

[voidtreckernpcs]

We understand, thank you for your information.

[A pause.] You were one of those who anchored? How did you know such to do such a feat. This is advanced knowledge. Most who travel the void would not be schooled in anchoring.

[tactlesstantei]

We were briefly told how to do it. We didn’t get much instruction since there wasn’t a lot of time and so many people needed to get out before the fake world fell apart, though, and everyone who did it was exhausted for days after.

[It was a bit of an emergency situation with not much choice in the matter.]