OOC Foreword
Welcome to The Endless Knot, a character RP set on earth in the year 2133. In this RP you will play the role of a one of the few free human survivors in the aftermath of a brutal alien invasion. Five years after the attack, humanity has fled underground where a few small settlements have been established in the tunnels under earth's fallen cities. You will one of the survivors under the city of New York, struggling to survive until one day a new survivor arrives with a far-fetched plan to save humanity (this will happen shortly after the RP starts).
The RP is set in the same universe as the 'Voyages in Andromeda' RP, though there is no requirement for you to have read any of it or even have the faintest idea what it is about. If you happen to have a character in both you will probably pick up a few hints about the other RP but they exist as entirely separate entities.
Finally, this RP is open to latecomers. If you want to join a bit late, we'll just assume you are another random survivor found on the road, who hitches up with the group. Feel free to jump onto the OOC and make an application.
Chapter One: It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
"Everybody take a big step back!" it was a cold day in November, especially without the benefit of amenities like central heating, though the tunnels under the one-time city of New York were somewhat warmer than the surface. It was still cold enough to make Hannah Brown's nose turn slightly red. She wore a thick jacket, scarf, cap and gloves, but still she managed to feel cold. Right now though she had more important things to focus on as she shooed people down the tunnel away from where she had set up the dynamite, motioning with her torch in the direction she wanted them to go, "I'm really hoping not to be responsible for any of you getting blown up, blinded or deafened; I'd much rather keep the medical supplies for unpreventable incidents!"
It took a few moments, but once she had everyone back a safe distance, she picked up the detonator. A lot of people would have had something dramatic to say, like 'fire in the hole!', but that really wasn't Hannah's style, "Everyone clear?" she yelled. She counted to ten, slowly, in her head, then when there had been no response, hunched over, to do her best to cover her ears, "Cover your ears if you value your hearing!" she called, then pressed the button.
There was a deafening roar, following by the sound of collapsing bricks and, a few moments later a plume of dust that caused the small woman coordinating the raid to cough, blinking her eyes for a few moments before she turned her torch back down the corridor. The light caught in the dust, reducing visibility as she picked her way towards the site of the explosion. According to her calculations they should have blown a hole into the basement of an old supermarket distribution centre on the outskirts of torn which had, according to the shipping manifests she had got her hands on some weeks earlier, received a large consignment of tinned foods a week before the city had fallen to the Ragons. There was no record of the goods being moved on afterwards, leading Hannah to the conclusion that it was probably still here. Most food would have rotted over the last five years, but tinned produce kept, more-or-less, forever which made it very valuable when fresh food supplies were as unpredictable as they were in the tunnels.
A twinge of excitement and trepidation hit her as she found the hole she had blown, picking her way over the fallen masonry. They were in a basement, but it could have been to anything at this point. If she'd brought everyone out here with the promise of plentiful food, only to find they'd actually ended up in a tanning salon she suspected she wouldn't be very popular. Hannah was gifted at getting supplies, but if she stuffed up, she ran the risk of less people coming on her expeditions in future... or of getting staked out and left somewhere where the Ragons would find her, though she hoped the people she was working with today weren't that sadistic.
Ahead was a metal door. She tried the handle. It was stiff, probably from rust, though it did grudgingly open after a couple of hard tugs. A short flight of concrete steps led up to a vast, dark warehouse. She swung her torch upwards, revealing towers of boxes reaching up towards the ceiling. They'd need a fork-lift to get to some of those...
Immediately she realised they were in the right place; the interior of the building was cavernous, though the wide aisle corridors and high ceiling would give any Ragon hunters that showed up down here plenty of room to manoeuvre, which wasn't ideal. To her left was a row of switches. Without actually expecting anything to happen, Hannah flicked the nearest one, only to be rewarded by two rows of bulbs blinking into life. She made a small surprised noise; they must have had solar pannels on the roof or something similar. It wasn't unprecedented, though it was far more usual, in her experience, to find places like this completely cut off. She pocketed her torch, then flicked all the remaining switches, watching as the lights lit up one row after another until all the warehouse was illuminated.
If she could find the office, there would probably be CCTV. If that still worked then they would be in a much better position to keep an eye out for attackers. There would probably also be a computer with files on where everything was though she didn't fancy her chances at cracking the password. She spun on her heels, turning back to the survivors who were gradually following her through the hole in the wall, "Okay everyone, I'm going to head over to the office to see if there's any working CCTV to keep an eye out for anything dangerous. If that isn't working I'll find my way up to the roof and sit up there with a pair of binoculars, though I'd rather avoid that if I can; it'll be freezing up there! Fill your packs then meet me at the office when you're done. Oh... and would somebody please be kind and fill up my pack while I'm watching for trouble?" she asked, shurgging her backpack off, "If you could please load up with tinned meat, vegetables, whatever. So long as it's food, I'm happy."
She'd also asked for a cut of anything they happened to bring back themselves. Hannah Brown wasn't greedy, but she was the nearest thing the surviving humans in the tunnels under New York had to a food bank. If she was going to let people have a share of a horde she had discovered, she reasoned it was only fair they contributed to her stores.