Shining Stars, Dazzling Lights (Open)

Nov 14, 2018
108
1
8
#1
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Saturday, 4:00 P.M.


~☆~

The sun was beginning to cast shadows to the east as it traveled to set itself beneath the waves. On the shores of Jeddah, men scurried around bearing all manners of equipment and construction materials. Various stands and canopies were being set up for the upcoming event. A small crowd of citizens had gathered to investigate, but there was no getting past the security perimeter.

Vans and armored vehicles encircled the site, each one neatly plastered with flyers and banners. Lightly armed security personnel held down any points that weren't blocked or barricaded. This was going to be a very special event, and DEI wasn't going to let some over eager fans spoil their surprise.

Solomon walked right past one of the security guards and into the site without resistance; it wasn't hard to recognize Stardust's metal covered manager. In his hand, Solomon carried a stapled stack of various schedules, flyers, and memos. He had arrived just in time to witness the group's heavily modified Gratia be lowered into the bay. As part of this event, the Gratia was covered stem to stern with a mosaic like carapace of glass, plastic, and assorted chunks of DEC; even the stage mounted to the top was encrusted with DEC.

Checking one of his schedule papers, Solomon nodded. DEI was actually running ahead of schedule with the event preparations. They seemed so incredibly ardent about the whole thing that Solomon almost felt like he should be taking this more seriously. As the Gratia slowly sank out of sight just below a stone levee, Solomon surveyed the area. A majority of the stands and booths had been set up, and some of the staff and vendors had already begun preparations for the impending flood of people. It felt odd to not be setting up the venue with his own team, but he wasn't going to complain about not having any work to do. The girls would arrive shortly and the event would begin officially; from there, Solomon's actual work could begin.

☆ ✭ ★ ✭ ☆
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Saturday, 7:00 P.M.


~☆~

The hustle of the event was beginning to wind down as the sun set, casting pink and purple lines across the evening sky. The smell of food and drink started to linger as the sea breeze died away. The attendees were slowly gathering to the stage, or at least what several signs indicated was going to be the stage; all anyone could see was the sea. After some time, most of the lights at the venue shut off as Solomon's metallic voice came from seemingly nowhere.

"Hello everyone, Solomon here. Thank you for your attendance at this very special live. I regret being unable to address you all in person as usual, but my absence is integral to tonight's event. So without further ado, let us look to the Stars."

A single firework shot up into the sky and exploded in a rainbow of shimmering colors. However, the lights didn't simply dissipate as normal; the sparks shifted into a variety of shapes and descended to the ground. Music began to fill the air as more lights appeared out of nowhere and darted around. It appeared as if a giant diamond was rising out of the water as the Gratia slowly pushed itself up. Spotlights shone on the sparkling leviathan emerging from the depths, creating more dancing lights in the process. When the Gratia's stage was sufficiently above water, Starlight's signature floating platforms, now covered in the same style as the Gratia, came out from their cargo compartments and shone more lights around the area.

Five great jets of water shot out around the Gratia as the Fairlions launched. The machines flitted around in various aerial maneuvers, meanwhile the lights were beginning to gather atop the stage and coalesce together.

One group exploded in a flash of blue, revealing a the azure form of Sena agilely landing and striking a pose. An orange pop of light revealed Amelie landing a bit less graciously, but her image posed nonetheless. A soothing green glow appeared and unveiled Shizue waving to the crowd. Red sparks converged to create a crimson image of Momoka similarly appealing to the audience. Finally, the remaining lights swirled and shone like galaxy before gathering into the rainbow colored figure of Via twirling and doing a rather silly pose. The Fairlions landed behind their respective pilots and the crowd roared with cheer; their idols had finally arrived.

"Hi everyone! V!" Via held up her hand and made a V with her finger, what had been established as "her thing", and the crowd responded by doing the same and shouting "V!"; A few of the veteran fans out there responded to the previous cheer with an "Ah" so that it sounded like "Via". "Tonight's going to be really absolutely awesome!" The audience cheered once more and Amelie chimed in, "You know, I'm probably more excited than all of you for this event," she said, "we've got this amazing new technology to try out and it's just so cool to learn!" Amelie visibly shook with excitement. "But you know," she continued, "these light bodies can do some funny things." Amelie demonstrated by sticking one of her arms straight through the other, causing a wobbly distortion of light. "Yes well, this is experimental after all," said Momoka. Evidently not done mucking around, Amelie ran up and stuck both her arms through Momoka's side, the orange and red colors of the two hazing together. Momoka yelped in surprise. "I wanna try that too!" Said Via as she went to wave her arms through Momoka as well. Shizue had her hand to her mouth as she quietly laughed while Sena put her hands to her hips and shook her head.

From his seat in the Gratia's helm, Solomon could see the crowd's joyous reactions to the idols antics. The girls were actually controlling their glowing body doubles from inside their Fairlions using their motion link systems. Once they started the first act, Solomon would be in control of the light show while the idols did their thing in the machines. Solomon checked a digital clock in a small compartment on the underside of his arm; Amelie's skillful dawdling was about to wrap up right on time. The girls had once again formed up in a line. "We've got a new song just for you," said Via to the audience. "I'm sure you'll love it!"

The flying platforms passed by the stage and the Fairlions stepped on as they came. Meanwhile, the five radiant idols lept off the front of the stage and soared through the air; the first act of the night had now begun.
 
Last edited:
Feb 22, 2019
20
0
1
#2
???, Saudi Arabia
Friday, 10:00 PM

Sofie didn't remember much after blacking out, as well.. when you black out that's the thing; you dont remember anything. She sat up slowly in her cockpit, head throbbing and pulsating with a dangerous threat of a migraine and winced at the flood of pain that rushed to greet her all at once as she awoke. The girl sat there for a minute, relaxing back into her seat, clutching for life to the only things she was holding onto last; the controls for her mech, and the recorder from James and Merida.

She slowly peeled open her eyes, greeted by the darkness within her cockpit. Despite the immense pain and ache she felt, she sat slowly back up, stowing away the recorder for another time, and released the cockpit controls in order to boot up her Excellence; she needed to know her surroundings and what state she and the Excellence were in.

Sofie mumbled to herself as images flashed on without a hitch, breathing a soft sigh of relief as it didn't seem as though nothing was damaged enough for worry; she did avoid most of the battle by chance. Her green eyes watched and scanned the images as everything loaded as normal, sighing again "Systems all green; good for operations again. Now to turn on the outside view.."

Sand. Everywhere. Nothing but Sand. And darkness.

"Fantastic.. at least it'll be easy to hide for a little.. but where.. the hell am I?" she muttered to herself, rotating her head from one side to the other, hearing a few joints in her neck pop and wincing a little at it.

Opening a GPS and map she had available in her system files, she didn't quite recognize her exact location, but she knew she must have ended up somewhere in Saudi Arabia. She had plenty of time to study the maps of old as a kid, as she wasn't exactly allowed into the maintenance area for a while.

"Time to find civilization and blend in until I can gain some bearings, food, water and clothes.." she groaned and stretched, but her hands went to the controls and flying high into the sky, she sought for the nearest source of city or life..

-=-=-=-

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Saturday, 7:10 PM

After a successful day of finding a city, worming her way through, she realized she didn't come prepared.. to pay for things. A slight setback, but she had nimble fingers and ended up taking just enough food for herself to last the day, maybe two.

In the distance, she turned her attention towards the cacophonous noise that appeared on her image display, a half eaten apple wedged in her mouth as it caught her attention. Heat radars were high, noise levels were high.. Wonder what it was..

Curiousity getting the better of her, she mulled around the conversations she picked up in the city she was in earlier and turned her Excellence to move towards it slowly, with caution.

Taking high into the sky again, she dimmed her outside lights to go as nearly undetected as she possibly could and moved closer to the ongoing concert in the distance. Thoughts mulled around her head of what it could be; she heard so many rumors and conversations, it was hard to discern what was real or gossip. Was it a military practice? A concert? Maybe it was both and one is a cover for the other? Those were the two options that stuck out the most.

Still ever curious, she paused just outside of the airspace surrounding the area, not wanting to trigger any potential traps and hovered high in the air. Sofie opened up her cameras, and stared at the view below, zooming in and watching the spectacle.

"So it was a concert.. but with.. weird mechs?" she muttered over a full mouth of apples, taking another unceremonious bite and using her shoulder to wipe at her chin as the juice ran down.