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Post by Raven8 on Sept 22, 2011 19:49:56 GMT -8
The central area of the Creamland, very similar to it's network counterpart, giving the illusion that they were two identical areas; a massive, sprawling shoping arcade designed as a midieval area combined with futuristic adaptions. Store-fronts are built into large towers, with railways, ramps, escelatiors and elevators leading to multiple stories, similar to an out-side mall. The area is constantly busy and always kept spotless.
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Post by Vilicious on Nov 30, 2011 21:05:49 GMT -8
[bgcolor=black]1 second past the shutdown. Where there was once network, now only darkness lies.
3 seconds past. As the reboot commences, networks all across Creamland go black, separated devices cease functioning (and in necessary cases, slow to a halt), communications cut out, endless experiments are ground to stop at great expense to the nation, videofeeds of national news are locked from broadcasting their doomsaying the world over, airtraffic control switches to remote systems... silence pervades the air over the island nation but for a single helicopter's barely audible thrumming as it makes its landing outside the wall. People patiently stare into their devices wondering, "How soon will it come back?" Internet boards begin flooding with complaints of potential delay, lag, schedule interruption, and threats of boycott - everybody operates on their own time.
5 seconds past. Elsewhere, in a server room far underground, a group of men overlook massive geothermal and hydro generators, while another group of men lays unconscious upon the floor. The generators, by this time, have been working at full capacity for exactly 30 seconds after finishing their 30 minute warm-up period. The networkless intercom continues chiming desperately as it had been since the last check up 15 minutes ago. The Tempest guards continue to receive no response from their generator room.
Did you know? The energy required to hold the entirety of a backup ready and set for a switch-out with the nigh infinite space of another network far exceeds that of normal generators, and so each country long ago created an easy-maintenance version of this room - just in case.
It's clear that these men are here for energy... but for what purpose?
9 seconds. Far away, as observant eyes adjust, there are lights. Distant networks, once connected to this void, now hanging in midair. The illusion of reality has been dashed away as though you had entered the core of the network itself. Navis gather in hordes by the bridges to the Creamland network, hoping to catch a glimpse of something in the void.
Rumors speak of a place beyond the bounds of the known net: the place where no navi can travel. What this place is is only speculated, but Duo is cited as proof that other networks exist, and that given apt proximity one might bridge the gap through... through what? Waves in the physical world? Research on Waves turned to other, more practical applications long ago.
Those that stared into the void did not gaze upward nor think to focus in that direction. If they had, one might have noticed an object, about navi-sized, floating high above the border.
13 seconds. A man in the generator room smiles, leans on the railing. He flicks a cigarette into the waters below. Another punches him in the shoulder and gestures toward the door. Somebody's banging.
The helicopter touches down, and the men inside are arguing loudly over the quiet "Whup whup whup" of the chopper blades. The door opens, an empty cup rolls out onto the helipad. Several well-dressed Tempest-men hurry to the side and stand at attention.
An angry navi waiting at the edge of the network idly kicks a stone into the intangible barrier cutting the space off. Against all logic, it passes through and falls...
Sixteen seconds of downtime. 41 seconds and 473 milliseconds past the initiation of the generators:
SYSTEM RESTORED [/size][/u] The server turns back on. Nothing has changed that was already there... not visibly. Nothing at all. All navis stand exactly as they were, all viruses, programs, auxiliary functions, and data bits are exactly as they were when the network went down. The colony and the surrounding area felt even more charged with energy, but... it could have just been the reboot. - Back in the generator room, the banging stops. There's a brief return to the endless droning of the generators, a kind of monotony that could only be found this far belowground. The smiling man reaches behind him to one of the server access terminals and rips a stickdrive from the interface and casts it, too, into the abyss. Along the wall, screens display graphs (presumably of energy) readings that seem far removed from their intended heights. From inside a jacket the man pulls out a gun, and his friends do the same. They had been looking forward to this part all morning. With professional efficiency, they make their way back among the meter-boxes and brace... all at once, the doorframe flashes and falls inward, followed rapidly by the door, and more rapidly still by Tempest guards that rush in prepared to rescue their comrades from whatever befell them. Bullets begin flying. In the depths of the chamber, a stickdrive and a cigarette are taken by the undercurrent and churned through countless hydroelectric generators, never to be seen again. - [/color][/color]
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