Act I Through the Looking Glass [Blue Zone Open thread]

[Mirror Emperor]

In an instant, thousands would wake up to find the Galaxy was wrong. Instead of CHAOS there was ORDER. Most would arrive in Imperial Centre, though a number would be scattered across the Galaxy. Some had swapped places with their mirror selves, unsure why they felt out of place. Others would suddenly step into a reality they could not understand. ​

Would they CONFORM or would they REVOLT?​

Mirrorverse Introduction

Backstory #1

Act I Introduction

Put a header in your posts with the district your character is in

Tag [member="Drones"] if you want an Event Team member to interact with you as a Citizen Advice Drone

Surface

District 4: Skyhold
District 5: Docklands
District 7: Fairview Heights District

Underground

District 11: Ardonia Mining District

Spoiler: Surface map

Spoiler: Underground map

Spoiler: Zone Map

 

[Cryax Bane]

Location: Docklands
Objective: Find the propagandist
Enemies: NA
Allies: [member="Marek Starchaser"]

"Smile! You're on camera!"

The watcher drone chirped out its melodic reminder as Cryax Bane, soldier of the Empire, tripped its motion sensors. Every few blocks of the Docklands had the watchers. Still there were places amid the towers of precariously balanced prefabricated house, shacks, and cargo holds that made up this part of the district. Someone was handing out flimisplast pamphlets that spewed black propaganda about the Empire, written in Aurebesh, a rambling manifesto that called for the death of Emperor Vorticus III. Holoscreens around the docks held flickering messages in translucent indigo, rotating in countless different alien languages, their intention to preemptively calm the citizens.

"WHERE THERE IS NO DATA AVAILABLE PEOPLE WILL INVENT IT."

The rebel was I.D.'ed as Snoga Staven, a Gran, and apparently he was a repeat offender, which meant the Empire had already set Operation Dust in motion. This time Cryax was called upon to be the Duster, a task that made his stomach do a slow somersault. The disintegrator ray felt too-heavy in his blue hands as he moiled on an ancient Datapad to locate the little green blip relayed from Staven's tracking chip. Most of the Empire's soldiers had those fancy-schmancy ARCs, but Bane couldn't stand the things. How did anyone even think with all that information flooding your brain and blocking your vision? Give him a flimsiplast map anyday. Speaking of which, thin pieces of the stuff began to rain down from above like confetti. He didn't need the tracking chip to tell him that his quarry was directly above him, albeit thousands of stories up.

With the briefest of hesitation, Cryax pressed the switch on the rickety turbolift that took him to the higher levels of the Docklands. The lift hissed open and with a frown, he entered and pressed a button marked "Level 1,576."

"Smile! You're on camera!"

 

[Kalyn Tal'verda]

Location - Fairview Heights
Objective- figure out what is going on - Figure out who a friend is.
Enemies NA
Allies - NA

Kalyn was flying on her ship through hyperspace towards Alderaan, she was just drifting, as she had been doing recently, she wasnt finding many jobs, when her droid mentioned something about a hyperspace disturbance.
"What do you mean a hyperspace disturbance?" She said
Then suddenly there was a bright flash and Kalyn blacked out.
When she awoke she was on the floor of her spaceship, with a terrible headache, fully armored, with her helmet on. She stood up and looked outside the cockpit, and saw a beautiful open city, there was a large projection on the side of one of the buildings that read "Welcome to Imperial Center's Fairview Heights District!"
Kalyn was confused, Imperial Center, she had never heard of it before, and she did not recognize the area, she was on a landing pad, in a collection of outdoor landing pads, all of the ships looked similar, and all had an unfamiliar marking on them, none of them were modified in any degree, all nearly identical, bar the hull. She then realized there was something in her belt pocket, she pulled it out, it was an id card, which did not have her name on it, and didn't even have her face on it, just some random one, and a folded piece of old fashioned paper. She unfolded it and read it
"Hello, I know you may be confused, but don't worry everything will become clear soon, now the modifications on your ship are illegal here, so expect a visit from some of the law enforcement, and maybe a few drones, hand them this id card and you should be free to go, just dont take off the helmet, it will blow your cover. If the card does not work, you might want to get out of there as quickly as possible, you know what to do if that happens. - A Friend" The paper read
The paper was right, she was confused, and had no idea what it meant, but she had nothing else to go on, so she would follow the directions. She then went into her med cabinet to take some headache medicine, as her head was killing her. She activated her droid, who was turned off after the disturbance, and was happy to see he was not any different, though just to make sure, she ran a systems check, and he turned up fine nothing was broken.
[member=drones]

 

[Marek Starchaser]

Someone's Apartment in the Docklands
Figure out this woman's name
Enemies: The State
Allies: [member="Cryax Bane"]

Black dress
With the tights underneath
I’ve got the breath of her last cigarette on my teeth

That was the song going through Marek Starchaser’s head at the current moment. The man was not really sure what the woman’s name was, but it didn’t matter. What did matter was he now had another job. Sure, by day, Marek Starchaser was working for the Man, as he called it, the Company he worked for helped to developed advanced robotics and helped perform retrofits in the field of many of the drones in the city.

It wasn’t that bad of a job, and allowed him a bit of freedom of movement. That bit was nice. Still, he looked out from her sliding door, before opening it, what was her name? Didn’t matter. There was a balcony, and the air was better here. Marek idly watched the ships come and go. That would have been a nice life, living his surname.

Instead he was here, in Capital City. But that meant he had access to a lot that the galaxy could offer. Well, at the very least, there were people who saw the world like he did. The man looked down at the streets, the lower levels where the air sucked, and shook his head. Maybe he was making the wrong choices?

He looked at the box of cigarettes on the patio, and shook his head. Two left, that was good. He took one and concentrated. He learned he had a bit of connection to… whatever it was, something he couldn’t explain, but it allowed him to do a few simple tricks. It helped when he was negotiating with the pilots who were bringing guns into the city.

That was when the redhead stepped out onto the balcony and slipped her arms around him. He had things to do today, but round two? That he could do.

 

[Dominik Borra]

Location: A Fairview Heights apartment, apparently.
Enemies: Himself?
Allies: NA

His head was spinning. It felt like it was actually spinning. His whole body was tingling and was sore all over... But it wasn't from a good night out drinking our with women, where you wake up and not know where you are but eventually wander your way home. There were a few differences from that situation and this one.

1. He didn't drink.
2. He wasn't involved with any women last night.

The only thing that were the same was he didn't know where he was.

Dominion slowly sat up, his head aching all the way. He still had on his armor, and after a quick check, he still had all of his equipment. A sniper rifle, his two pistols, and his alchemized longsword. Checking his ammo, all that was there too. But... where was he?

He woke up on the floor of what looked like an apartment. But... not like any he had seen before. The architecture was all strange to him. The tingling feeling was wearing off, and his head stopped spinning. He slowly stood up, using a nearby table to balance himself. In the large windowsill there were several small plants in pots, all varying in species.
Bing bing

He heard the bings of the front door being unlocked, and the agent hid in a nearby closet. In complete darkness, he spied through the tiny slits in the doors. he could here someone approaching, and when they turned the corner he could see that it was a man, in his 20's or so. White chin length hair, average build, the man turned around and he had.... silver eyes. That was him. That was Dominion.

 

[Artemis Vahl'Nyx]

LOCATION: District 4- Skyhold
CURRENT CHARACTER: Mirror Nyx

---

---

Lady Dracheus Sahara Nyx woke with a start. That was nothing new for the Zorren. For years she had suffered from nightmares, dreams so utterly vivid that they scared her long after she woke up. Sometimes she wondered what they were about. But she could never remember much. Only that in those dreams was another version of herself. A version of herself so twisted, so awful, that she found herself pitying the woman. Pitying herself. Honestly it confused her whenever she thought about it. Things in the Empire were simply splendid. Why get herself worked up about a fictional version of herself from some... chaotic fantasy realm? Really, it was silly.

That's what she told herself each and every morning.

Sometimes it worked. On other mornings, like this one, she still felt a chill in her core. Awaking to find a strange message on her datapad did not ease her concerns. Don't believe his lies?... Dracheus frowned, as confused as she was worried. Who was supposedly lying? More importantly, how had someone gotten the message to replace her usual morning update?... Are the people really getting this riled up? She thought, tugging at her lower lip as her morning StimCaf ration was warming up. As a proud citizen, and a 'government official', the threat of revolt bothered her greatly. Things couldn't be perfect forever. She knew that, and what she was seeing confirmed it.

This wasn't the first time that others had tried to sow seeds of dissidence into her homeworld. No matter how perfect the Emperor made it, no matter how hard she and the others in charge of public relations worked, there would be those who would be unhappy with it. Just last week a coworker of hers had gone nuts. He claimed to have 'found a dastardly secret about the Emperor'. Before any of the nearby CADs had been able to stun him he had turned to assault her, screaming at her about how 'she was blind to the truth'. There was still a bruise around her right eye from the blow he had landed on her.

Yet still she held faith in the Empire. Her firm belief in her government, her people, was what kept her going. Though, admittedly, the steaming cup of StimCaf certainly helped...

 

[Ultimatum]

Awakening​

Skyhold​

​

System reboot​

Verifying Success​

​

Loading Input Data​

Scanning Threats​

​

Threats Detected:​

None​

​

Deactivating Sleep Mode​

​

​

Ultimatum looked around, feeling what he could only describe as an organic migraine. He looked around to see silvery halls and blue glass. The place seemed to be incredibly clean, impossibly so. There were few organic societies that had attained such a level of cleanliness. He couldn't remember ever being taken to such a place. In fact he didn't seem to recall much at the moment, the pain in his system seemed to be throwing off his thought processes.

After a moment he tried to recall where he had been. It seemed a bit fuzzy, but was quickly becoming the crystal clear of droid memory banks. He had been on Mustafar, giving orders to Legion on how to continue the repairs of the Hammerhead Cruiser. He had just turned away to look over the Fate once more. PU-02 was going through a ship manifest making certain that all the supplies were in order. PU-01 was making some minor adjustments to the droid brain that functionally ran the ship. MU-01 was alongside PU-02 trying to make sure that all the medical supplies would be filled. AU-01 was going through blaster ammo, making certain that all were fully loaded and properly prepared for a combat situation.

All that was gone. He hadn't been knocked out, or ionized. His systems would have been aware of such and would have notified him after reawakening. What did that mean? Where was he? For the first time in his life Ultimatum had more questions that answers. His first instinct was to check the HoloNet.... Nothing happened. He activated his connection with the programs hidden within the HoloNet and found nothing. There were no programs, not response, no reception! Where could he be that did have a connection to the HoloNet?

He looked around, he didn't see anyone nearby, but he felt as if he were being watched. He pulled his blaster pistol from its compartment in his body. He thought he heard something in the distance, an alarm or something.

 

[Bolt]

Location: Skyhold
Gear: No-Show, Spec Ops X-1 Armor, Swords, Amphistaff, Tsaisi

Zaiden sat up, staring around for a long silent moment. The area was new. He had never been here, while he had been nearly everywhere galaxy wide. So that meant only a few options: one being a new planet, or a new galaxy!

Pressing a button on his wrist where his gauntlet attached to his arm, and instantly he would vanish from sight. Next he pressed the opposite wrist where his No-Show currently sat. Next sensors couldn't see him any longer. Then to end it, he used Art of the Small to clamp down on his Force Signature so tightly it would take another specialized master to find him.

It was time to look around, find where he was.

 

[Lok Maxus]

[member="Nei Laa"]

DISTRICT 7:FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS DISTRICT

"Come on, Mona, we still haven't gotten you a nice dress!" Nei, laughing, tugged gently at her daughter's hand, the two Nautolans walking along the rows of shops and restaurants in the Fairview Heights district.

About a year ago, Nei's employers had moved her to the Imperial Centre, working in the Palace District's Department of Labour and Trade. The woman had worked diligently as a secretary, and it wasn't long before her employers gave her a day off.

Pleased to have been rewarded as such, Nei was currently taking her young daughter Mona shopping. Though the family was far from wealthy, Kif's salary and her own salary allowed little excursions like this, from time to time.

"Mama, can I get a bright red dress? With ribbons?"

Nei tried not to wrinkle her nose. Though she would never tell her daughter outright, Mona didn't exactly have a good sense of fashion. "We'll see, darling." She pointed at a shop that looked like it wasn't too overly priced. "How about we try over there?"

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Other Nei Laa"] [member="Drones"]

DISTRICT 7: FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS DISTRICT
Equipment: Armour, two guns, and a couple of back up ammo (they're all located in her bio)

One moment, Nei was loading her guns, already prepped for the slums of Nar Shaddaa, and the next she was plopped into the middle of what looked to be some form of shopping centre.

Oh, kark!

Why, why couldn't the universe just leave her in her own galaxy?! Things were starting to look up a bit! She and [member="Joran Del-Finn"] were finally starting to get along, and her nightmares about the Netherworld had begun to vanish almost completely.

And now she was in some karking shiny place! Well, nobody made Nei Laa go somewhere she didn't want to go without having a fight!

Then someone noticed her, decked out in her armour, and screamed.

Two idiots in white armour began to make their way towards her, guns raised though she knew they couldn't very well shoot her; there were too many civilians, though they appeared to be running. "Ma'am, put your weapons down and prepare to be arrested."

"Like kark, you si'hklesi foh!" Holding both guns up, she fired off a few shots to distract them before taking off, pushing and shoving her way through the crowd.

"Move it!" Nei snarled, looking for cover.

And that was when she ran into her doppelganger. And a kid, too. "Who the hell be you?!"

 

[Kalyn Tal'verda]

Objective: Help the woman. Secondary: Figure out who "A Freind" is
Enemies: N/A
Allies:N/A

Kalyn saw some fighting going on off in the distance, she zoomed in with her macrobinoculars, two men in imposing white armor, chasing a woman. She did not like this, but she also did not want to get herself involved. She hesitated, then went towards her weapons locker, and grabbed a long range blaster rifle.
"R7 Prepare the ship for takeoff, i want it done yesterday." She said to her droid.
The droid responded with an affirmative, and started getting to work, she then stepped outside off the boarding ramp, and found a nice secluded spot. She was above them by about 30 meters, and about 70 meters away, she unfolded the stock, and laid the rifle on a box. She aimed through the scope, very carefully, and picked off the two men in white armor. The armor reminded her of something, something she had read in a history book, something about an empire, they were... storm somethings, she could not remember the last part of the name. She ran back to her ship, and sat in the pilots seat, taking off she flew down to the area where the fight was happening.
"Why do i keep doing this to myself." Kalyn thought to herself
Flying the ship over to the area, she saw a few more squads of troopers come through, followed by some imposing looking drones, more imposing than the other ones she had seen flying around. She saw two people, nearly identical besides one looked like a desk jockey, and the other looking like a hardened merc. There was a kid too, she hovered low above the ground and set the ship into autopilot to keep it there. She opened the boarding ramp with her standing on it, she was right in front of the women.
"You want a ride? There really is no time to explain, nor much explanation at all, i really dont even know why i am doing this personally, but for you, its probably better than dealing with that." She said, pointing to the rapidly increasing number of troopers and drones approaching.
"So are you in? Oh and you should probably both come, seeing as you both look almost identical, they might confuse one for the other." She said, holding out her hand.
[member=nei laa] [member=other nei laa] [member=drones]

 

[Dominik Borra]

Location: A Fairview Heights apartment, apparently.
Enemies: Himself?
Allies: NA

Dominion hid in the closet until the man that looked so much like him turned around, walking away. He seemed sweaty, and tired. But he still had the look of a soldier when he took steps... He strode to what looked to be a bathroom, brushed his teeth, and then went to bed, leaving the door open. The agent waited for another ten minutes.

Nothing. The only thing was the noise of outside, as people traveled around in the nighttime.

Slowly pushing the closet door open, he made his way to the bathroom. He shut the door before turning on the light and taking off his helmet. Yup.. He was definitely still himself. So why the heck did the other guy look like him?!

Putting his helmet back on and turning off the light, he exited the bathroom and walked into the bedroom. He didn't leave the door closed, so unprofessional of him. But Dominion shut it for him. There was a chair facing the bed and the man sleeping on it. He pulled out his pistol, sat in the chair, and waited. He needed answers.

Speaking a little louder than usual, "Hey, wake up, morning roll call."

 

[Aithne Charr]

Location: Fairview Heights, street side
Enemies:
Allies:

Solan groaned for a few moments as his eyes blinked and he looked up at a few people staring at him. He didn't recognize the people, and better yet he had no idea what in the bleeding hell was going on here. One moment he remembered having a dream and the next he was street side, his body fully clothed, and people were muttering if he was ok, like he had simply collapsed while walking. Which was strange because again, he should be in a bed asleep still and it shouldn't be mid day.

Well that much was going to be absolutely fantastic. "Get out of here ok/" He looked at those looking at him and waited for them to scurry off before rubbing his eyes and leaning against the building. Ok so, what did he have on him. He was wearing his robes, for some reason, and his cloak was pulled around him. No saber, no blaster, nothing in terms of a weapon. He could still feel the force and see through it so those were good. It looked like he was in a large city, beautiful to a degree. Reminded him a bit of Gyn but not completely.

His hands brought up to his face as he moved over to the side of the street, looking around and then at the entrance to Fairview heights. "Where the hell am i?"

 

[Raziel]

[member="Nei Laa"] [member="Kalyn Skirata"]

District 1
DfR Control Room
Mirror Raziel

Raziel was now clearly showing some signs of distress. The perfect world he had helped shape was full of...anomalies. And now this. Both the early warning system - comprised of a number of thermal scanners - and the feed directly from the drones was clear. People were firing blasters in District 7. He rubbed his temples as he watched the map of Imperial Centre. Many of those grey dots that represented calm, productive citizens were changing colour. The message from this morning was leading to confusion and people were discussing topics they shouldn't be. No discussion was best of all. Discussion led to ideas. Citizens were supposed to be productive, not forming dangerous notions. Whilst the Emperor gave the scientific community much more freedom to express themselves than regular citizens - he understood where his advanced in technology and medical care came from - they were perhaps more closely monitored than any other group.

"Peacekeepers, we're going to need an armoured unit to respond to..."

"No!" Raziel said abruptly, stepping next to the operative. The rodian looked up at him in confusion, such blunt outbursts were not common in Imperial Centre. They betrayed an emotional unbalance that was not welcome here.

"What I mean to say," Raziel continued. "Is that this needs to be contained quietly. More blaster fire will only upset the citizens more. Have the peacekeepers trail, and have several drones tail them in surveillance mode. When they stop somewhere out of sight, have them brought in. Quietly. Is my intention understood Operative?"

"You intention is clear Controller. I will follow your guidance," the rodian replied.

 

[Drones]

[member="Nei Laa"]

Sometimes Drones interacted with citizens. Sometimes they were visible but appeared to be simply going about their business. And other times they observed. Quietly. Stealthily. Ensuring peace and freedom.

Force was a last resort. It suggested that law and order were fragile - which was far from the truth. Peace and harmony reigned.

 

[Mirror Emperor]

[SIZE=14pt]A peaceful protest breaks out in Districts 5, 8 and 10. Citizens march in droves and voice their dissatisfaction with Imperial rule. Public Servants with shimmering blue riot shields marshal the protest. Hordes of Citizen Advice Drones fly low over the crowd. On their holographic outer bodies they display messages urging citizens to return to their homes and pro-imperial slogans. All the time they monitor closely, recoding which citizens are most outspoken and which appear to be leading the organisation. Armed Peacekeepers in their white armour hang back, ready to act if any signs of violence appear. [/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=14pt]Protests on Imperial Centre are exceptionally rare. The timing of these protests to coincide with the message spread across the system and the arrival of confused citizens seems too much for coincidence. Almost as if they have been planned to distract the authorities. [/SIZE]​

 

[Aithne Charr]

Location: Sector 7, Fairview Heights.

Solan's eyes focused in on the sound of his datapad beeping, the message on it flaring. "Don't believe who's lies..." He groaned before looking up and at one of the nearby [member="Drones"] and waving to it. "HEY, MECHANICAL MORON. What the hell is going on and where am i?" He waited for its response if it would give any, eyes focusing in on its surgace for a few moments and running over the look of it. He had never seen this sort of tech before, it was far different from what he was used to seeing and what he even made. It made him all the bit more worried as his hand came to his side and closed slowly.

Something was still very wrong here and he wanted answers. Where the hell even was here...

 

[Ultimatum]

Skyhold​

Ultimatum was still unsure as to his surroundings. He thought he saw a droid in the distance coming his way. Perhaps he could ask it for directions, it seemed to be very different technologically than he had ever seen. He wondered what it was, perhaps a combat unit, maybe a civilian communications droid. Ultimatum waved, his pistol resting in his left hand at his side as his right tried to grab the attention of the floating droid. He needed to know where he was, that would give him the information he needed to decide what he would do. If the droid should prove to be hostile Ultimatum was confident in his ability to handle it, little did he know.

[member="Drones"]

 

[Drones]

[member="Solan Charr"]

The Drone dropped down from the sky, hovering a few feet in front of and above the hailer. "Everything is good. There is nothing to be alarmed at. Now...where should you be and I can ensure you get the appropriate help."


[member="Ultimatum"]

"There is no need for force. Please surrender your weapon. We would not like an accident here, now would we? It can be returned as soon as I have established your authority to carry a firearm." The voice was mechanical but oddly soothing. "Now, tell me how I can best assist you."

 

[Marek Starchaser]

Location: Docks
Enemies: The State
Allies: [member="Cryax Bane"], the riot

What he needed to do was get a move on. Round two went off as it always did. Sloppy, lust filled, and more hair-of-the-dog rather than ‘I need you now.’ It wasn’t bad, it never was, but still, the man slowly made his way into the streets. Black duster, black pants, white shirt, UV resistant lenses. He stepped into the sun, what time was it? Noon? And it was one of his days off. Checking his chrono, he nodded. Next came a light of his smoke. There was work to be done tonight.

Today would be the lead spot for that work, but until then? He had a few things to check out. People he needed to talk to, and maybe get ahold of that [member="Cryax Bane"] bloke. A deep drag of his smoke, and he exhaled, wetting his lip. Did he smell of the woman? Maybe, but it didn’t concern him, and shouldn’t concern anyone he was meeting with. The man made his way slowly, deliberately towards the docks.

He was able to listen in on repair jobs, even during his off hours, and using his identity badge, could gain access to a number of places. What he was hoping for was that his timing wasn’t off. The ship was supposed to land mid-afternoon, and their shipment would help his cause. What he was looking for was a way out.

A way out of what? He didn’t know.

And where? He knew even less. There were dreams of him owning a casino, traveling on lavish starships and interacting with men who wore suits made of gold, but those were just dreams, right? The real world was this one. The one where the Empire controlled everything, and those who stood against it were met with death. Death coming in like an old friend. The trick of his actions?

He knew exactly what was going on in the districts, but if he showed his location as elsewhere? The peacekeepers would make their way towards those. It was the perfect distraction from the actions he needed to make. Checking with the guard, and nodded at one of the [member="Drones"] that was perusing the streets near the docks, he made his way past the fence, to the landing areas. An armed drone had been disabled, probably hit by a ship, and he was there to fix it.

And collect some smuggled goods.