[DonathinFrye]

Atonement, Chapter One: Where the Hell are We?


I opened my eyes for the first time and nearly went blind. I was encased in metal and glass, and as my gaze came into focus through the flickering blue lights of the machines around me, a symbol injected itself into my mind that I would never forget; before me was a glass wall with the insignia '11' etched neatly (and backwards, I would later come to realize) into its sleek plane - and beyond that lay only darkness.

I coughed bile and fluid out of my lungs and tore apparatus from my balmy flesh. I tried to scream, but my cries were drowned out in the monotonous hum of my prison's computerized walls. As the ground quaked beneath my feet for a fleeting moment in time, I furiously beat my fists against the glass wall before me in a desperate attempt to escape from this Hell.

The glass shattered and its unforgiving fragments stuck into my skin like an old memory that refused to be silenced. Bloodied and weak from atrophy, I pushed away from that sickly, pale blue light - and into the darkness. Bent over and between deep breaths of glorious oxygen, I dry-heaved. I was impossibly hungry, as though I had never eaten before. My bare feet ached with each stumbling step further into the emptiness of the vast, black chamber. With the monstrous roar of a demon, the florescent lights of the room flickered on to exorcise the shadows with a dim and yellow glow. Lining the walls were an army of identical glass doors. Each door was illuminated from within by that hateful blue light, shadowed only by the sleeping bodies of other men and women - and each of those doors bore a number; I followed those numbers with my eyes, from Zero to Two Hundred. Only two numbers were missing - Eleven had been my prison, and Nine was dark and empty as well. I was not alone.

From behind me came a lilting, frightened voice. "Who are you?", she asked. I turned around to see the naked form of a woman leaning against a window to the outside world. Her arms were crossed over her shapely breasts protectively, and her hair was wild and tangled; despite this, she was beautiful, with a lean body and curves in all of the right places - and for the first time, I felt desire run through my veins with the flow of hungry, boiling blood.

I clenched my jaw to quiet the biological urge and swallowed hard, before I pondered her question. I did not know, then, who I was - or even where I was. I answered in a deep, husky voice that surprised myself, "I am Eleven. Who are you?"

She answered me with some managed amount of confidence, but her head turned to let her gaze drift back to the window she leaned against, "I do not know. But there is something that you should see, Eleven."

I shambled over the expanse of cold, metallic floor and empty space between myself and the beautiful woman before me; somewhere close to half-way, the entire room shook tremendously and I nearly collapsed. I-do-not-know seemed less bothered by it than I was. Of course, though, she was older than I was; this was my first birthday. When I drew close to the woman and the window, I could feel hunger for food and flesh creep back into my mind, but it was drowned by the confusion and fear that was gripping me. We did not speak then, but I forced myself to look away from her and through the panel of the window that she indicated to me. I almost wish that I had not. I almost wish that I had stayed in my Hell of blue lights and strange machines, that I had found the willpower to return to sleep.

Beyond the window was a black ocean of stars and Nothingness. An icy, blue rock the size of a ball, or a fist, floated lazily across the vast sea of space. I nearly choked. A streak of golden fire reflected against the glass, the sign of some unseen source of light. Debris in the form of floating and misshapen boulders drifted by at a speed much faster than the distant planet.

"Where the Hell are we?", I intoned, and my question came out in a dry rasp, as I looked back to the beautiful woman at my side.

"I do not know", she answered with wide-opened and frightened eyes, "But I think that we're going to die, Eleven."

The embrace happened naturally. I opened my arms and she opened hers, and I then wrapped myself around her to draw her close in a gesture of shared fear and compassion. Her cold breasts pushed tightly up against my pallid skin, and I could smell her hair; yet, I felt no desire for her now. My focus was lost through that open window, even with her head buried in my chest, and I gazed into the Void - the Unknown.

Somewhere behind me, glass shattered with a deafening crash, and another sibling was born into our inhospitable reality. There was a buzz of static, and from what seemed like all around me, a computerized voice spoke without passion or sympathy:

"Now entering target system. Engines off-line. Navigational targeting
system damaged, but operable. Life-support systems operable."

A moment of silence passed. My gaze stayed in awe at the hateful wonder that awaited me beyond the window. The beautiful woman in my arms began to sob with a quiet dignity, and I felt panicked tears begin to well up in the corners of my own eyes. And then, the cold, computerized voice spoke again:

"Destination set: Home."

I did not know where Home was.




---


The Creators and Storytellers of the Lost Tales of Beleriand, as well as Northlands and the Fall of Osgiliath on Shadows of Isildur, bring you the Next Generation of RPI and Science-Fiction Mystery: Atonement.

Release of ALPHA roughly slated for Early September 2009.



Just a Few of the Fresh Features and Gameplay

- Stellar MOB AI: be prepared to face enemies who know how to fight and are intelligent, are interactive, use strategies and formations, set traps and can use the environment around them to their advantage against you, and who grow in power as time goes on.

- Our next generation of automated event scripting allows for a more immersive and interactive world than ever seen before on an RPI.

- Our improved crafting system allows for a less confusing, more intuitive and powerful means to create within the world. On Atonement, crafts may not produce the same results in every room, allowing for a single craft to serve a multitude of potential purposes.

- Increased object interactivity. Food and drinks have tastes - and objects have scents. These may play an important part of survival as you look for clues to unravel the foreboding mystery of the game-world.

- Profession code means an easier learning curve for new players. The three starting professions for the "Survivor" race will be Soldiers, Scientists and Engineers. Soldiers will be combat-oriented, Scientists will be focused on medicine, research, experimentation and invention - and Engineers will be focused on repairing broken equipment, jury-rigging systems and computer science. This is not to say that your character cannot combine elements of multiple professions, however, and you do retain a plethora of customization options. Each Profession will have a solo-adventure that you may play through before character creation, so that you can get a taste of what you might expect from that play-style.

- Improved combat optimization and somatics. We are retaining the RPI Engine's wound system, but it is vastly improved to include racial-based severed limb capability, poison, broken bones, concussion, temporary blindness, disease and other, more mysterious somatic affects. For those of you who enjoy playing healers, you will find yourself a much more valuable commodity as you deal with a more realistic and diverse set of health challenges for the Universe's characters! For those of you who love to play combat characters, you will find that your optimization is increased, as is your ability to rise to a legendary level of skill in comparison with the average non-combatant.

- A setting that combines elements from wonderful pieces of literature, beloved cult films and classic Survival Horror games to create a unique and mysterious Universe to discover! Story-lines that demand in-character consequences for in-character action, exploration, teamwork and all of your wits for survival!



Predicted Opinion on Finished Work

- Story-lines for the first six months of play.
- Three "Preview" stories written to give glimpses into the Mystery.
- 1/5 of building for ALPHA
- 1/2 of re-vamping a vastly improved Gaming Engine
- 3/4 of World Design
- 1/5 of Starting Documentation
- Player Volunteer and Discussion Forums Open



While we work to improve our server, finish our website, and have the Guest Lounge for Atonement open for chatter, we would like to invite everyone to the temporary forum for General Discuss and Player Volunteering for Atonement RPI. If you are excited or curious about the game, or want to get involved in helping to create the Universe that you and others will play in, do click on the link below:



A special thanks to everyone who has sent us their best wishes or aid on this project. We are more excited than we can say to bring you what we believe could be a revolutionary new RPI, and we are honoured by all of the support that we have received.

Sincerely,
The Team of Atonement RPI
Songweaver, Phoenix, Bangarang, Hulk, Kodiak, Kithrater and Iaew.