STOWAC Ops Room ARK Andromeda;

"Commander on deck!" A voice called out as Marcus walked through the Ops room door. The figures gathered within went rigid as steel plates, standing to attention.

"Take a seat people, we got things to cover and not a lot of time to do it in so," Marcus stated walking to the podium at the front of the room. A holo-display lit up at his approach and large amounts of information and pictures flashed into being.

"Johnson I may let you off on occasion but boots belong on the ground not my briefing chairs, report for extra detail on maintenance after we are done." Marcus barked as he took in his squad.

"Now, we have a long journey ahead of us, and for the most of it, we will be in stasis. Before you all start giving me grief on the problems that stasis has, I had the same misgivings, so if I can calmly accept it then you can too." He said looking out across the room at all of the faces gathered there.

"The normal problem with stasis has been corrected by including the latest in VR technology and keeping the mind active throughout the period that stasis is in effect. They are also using it to employ time dilation, which will compress the two hundred odd years, into around fifty. This compression is only outside of the game, in the 'shared' space. within the game time is accelerated to five times normal. So the game will be ongoing for almost a millennium." The explanation seemed to calm the misgivings that were showing on the faces in the room.

"The premise of the game is meant to be top secret, but a heads up from G.A.I.A has allowed us an even greater head start than we were originally going to receive. Information is power after all." A smile broke on Marcus's face as he spoke.

"The game is meant to be set on an inhabitable planet within Andromeda. The ARK will have an accident necessitating the independent landing of each unit on board, with its full manifest as it appears at the time of game commencement. So lock everything down tight and plan for an orbital combat drop. That means that we also have access to all the equipment on board with us, weapons, comms, vehicles and other gadgets we have brought along. The world that we are to land on is primitive in a sense. Over the course of its' history, multiple civilizations have risen and been destroyed. Large numbers of ruins with tech ranging from archaic to theoretical sci-fi will be scattered in ruins all over the planet." As he explained multiple images and maps of the planet started to flash up on the display.

"The populous is also going to be different, expect lots of fantasy tropes to appear. Elf-like beings, orcs, dwarves, and all manner of beast are supposed to be present. Language is also going to be a problem so make sure that the translators are primed with a full suite, we need the database they will provide ASAP, We also need as many eyes in the sky as possible, so stealth drones need to be prepared before we start playing." The room now contained a large number of smiles throughout.

"We will be establishing a small outpost in a no-mans land located in a caldera about two hundred and fifty clicks from the nearest large settlement. This will allow us to maintain independence and also raise the security levels by making access far harder. We can also employe geothermal generators and kinetic generators in the geyser field, so power will not be a problem. The area should also be resource rich meaning that we could use the fabricators to replenish our stock of parts and necessities." The images changed to that of a forest surrounded by almost verticle cliffs, a slightly off-center lake, and a large geyser field just south of that.

"We will set up our base here, security around the perimeter with drones and automated sentry guns, hominoid targets are designated for nanite tranquilizers, while anything that is big and nasty is designated for live fire high caliber HEAP rounds. deployment according to tact ten." Marcus pointed out positions at the map as he detailed the layout of the base and its' defenses.

"I want scans and toxicity reports on all flora and fauna as well as deeper scans to determine if there is any dormant activity or chance of us going sky high in our thousand year-long assignment. G.A.I.A said we should be fine, but this game is managed by a separate copy of herself, so there might be issues." An image with a web-like crisscrossing of lines was displayed before everyone as he spoke, highlighting particular areas or routes

"After we are established and have ensured our basic levels of need are met we will be heading to the nearest large concentration of humanoids, to see about setting up cooperative relations. We will also be using the drones to scout for any remnants of ruins within the operational range. Let's see if we can unearth some tech that no one has seen before, and maybe learn the history of the planet and its peoples while we are at it."

The room was silent as Marcus looked around, everyone seemed tense, an air of excitement and anticipation pervaded.

"Characters will have altered appearance, but otherwise will maintain all of the abilities of the player, so we have a massive head start on almost the entire population of the game. I expect everyone to utilize that advantage, as well as work at keeping it." His voice grew stern towards the end, broking no argument or retorts from any of the gathered members.

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"The main objective for the first five years will be getting established and ensuring that we are firmly entrenched and settled. This is going to be a long haul people, don't expect the next few months to be easy just because we have an almost absolute advantage. I will not tolerate any complacency, death in this game is far harsher than in any other you might have played. There is revival, but the cost is a fifty year period where you will be locked out of the game, as well as a massive drop in all abilities, loss of all carried gear and finally a random spawn on the map. To put this into perspective for you all, the total surface area of the planet is almost five thousand times the size of earth. we won't be measuring distances in any unit lower than a hundred when we start exploring. To give an example, the caldera that we are going to land in is the size of Yellow Stone national park, and the cliffs are as high as Everest back on Earth." The revelation caused many of the people in the room to fall into contemplative thought while others grimaced at the thought of dying.

"You have all the information you need, now get to your jobs so that we can get started sooner rather than later," Marcus said as he closed down the display and sent orders to the comms of each squad member.

Stasis Room STOWAC Unit ARK Andromeda;

The room was packed with figures wearing a skintight black stasis suit. The suits showed off almost everything, being almost more erotic than nudity, highlighting certain areas in a silver trim. The figures all looked towards the door as it slid open silently.

"Everyone is here and done with their jobs, so we can keep this short." The figure said in his signature flat tone.

"Get in your pods and start the stasis process, I will wait till you are all in before following. Remember that we will all appear slightly different and will be in a Virtual Reality shared space on the first login. Once we are all assembled we will head through to one of our first perks, a villa located in its own subspace of the shared area, after that it will be character generation and adaptation while waiting for the game to launch. No slacking in the adaptation, a little birdie has told me that the faster you adapt and the better you do the more rewards you will get, so even when you finish the tests and training I expect everyone to do it until you can't continue doing so. Dismissed and Godspeed."

Finished his piece he stood in place and observed as the rest of his team got themselves into their pods and started the stasis program. Not long later after ensuring that everything was running smoothly and that there were no abnormalities with the pods he got into his own.

"Hook us in G.A.I.A let see the universe you created," He said as he closed his eyes and the pod cover slid shut.

Gaia Plaza, VR Shared Space;

Fourteen pillars of light almost simultaneously appeared in a large plaza situated in a built-up metropolitan area, the scale was enormous, equivalent to central park in New York. The figures within the pillars of light slowly became distinct, before taking in their surroundings.

"Looks like we are the first in, when was the boarding for normal passengers meant to be?" A large figure standing near to the center of the group asked.

"Not till tomorrow, that's why the boss had us lockdown the unit, too many people had a bone to pick with us, so he wants to ensure we are safe and squared away long before anyone else." A small female figure replied, just as another pillar of light descended among the group.

"Good everyone is here. We are heading for the old Empire State building so form up." The figure said before heading in the direction he had indicated.

The figures in the plaza followed his lead towards an enlarged version of the Empire State building in distance. The Skyscraper must have been almost three kilometers in height and one kilometer to a side, about ten times the size of the original.

After the figures had disappeared into the distance a number of pillars of light flashed into existence within the plaza. Multiple groups of people, some as large as a hundred and some only two or three, looked around themselves before heading in different directions out of the plaza.

Pent House, Empire State Building, VR Sub-space;

As the group stepped out of the elevator, an expansive open space, opened before them. A large garden, designed to resemble that of European noble estates, spread out, leading up to a large Chateaux.

"This is our home outside of the game for the trip. We can change it how we see fit by spending credits or utilizing currency earned in the game. We are lucky as we started off with a very generous signup bonus, granted by the Council and Military HQ, so we do not have to worry about being stuck with the current layout for a long time." The lead figure said as head walked towards the building at the end of the drive.

"Take stock of the location and pick out rooms for yourselves, then get the armory and Ops rooms setup before meeting me for a brief meeting before we log in," he said as he walked through the door.