NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: Yes, it's a meeting for the learned people of your nation. No, there isn't going to be any shootings or murders. Yes, it is a wierd type of RP for NS, however, it is a pre-cursor to something good, so join up!)

IC:

Dr. Valentian looked out from behind the marble pillar he was standing by and peered out over the multitudes that filled the agora. He was thankfull that he had been able to reserve one of the buildings, knowing full well that many of his guests didn't like the rain for the fact that it didn't sit well with electrical equipment or writtings. But even this small comfort did little to ease him, as in a few moments he would most likely be ridiculed by almost every archeologist and historian in the known galaxy. On the flip side, he could be congratulated on one of the most important discoveries of all time....

He swallowed hard, then moved into the room, carefully ensuring his face was calm and not showing any hint of doubt that those around him might use against him. Even in science, he thought, politics were evident. As he approached the podium, he quickly went over the order of his presentation again and again. Kept up in this thought, he failed to notice that the room had fallen silent as everyone stared up at him, expecting a start at any minute. When this did sink in, his cheeks flushed a bright red, and even greater doubt seeped into his mind. But it wasn't simply doubt about his presentation, it was about the fact that the foreign officials would most likely laugh at him and the other Republican scholars who wore traditional togas.

"Um..." he stumbled for the right words, and blinked too many times in the short period of time. "W...we...well, um....I've, uh, called this assembly of you all to share a recent discovery....uh...recent discovery of mine...that I found while excavating the planet the Republic has named 'Mali IV.' Um....we..well I uh, I copied down some images I discovered in one of the natural caverns of the world and have theorised that it is some form of writting. Um...well look for yourselves!" Pressing a button on a remote, the giant viewscreen behind him came to life and revealed the images.

*http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b147/75937/firstmessage.jpg*

"Um...that is the order in whih the symbols were found...and because of the repitition of a few of them, I've concluded that it must be a language of some type." He gulped again, and looked over the crowd. Just imagine them all naked, he told himself. "However, I haven't been able to decifer it at all. So that's the reason for this gathering of minds...to aid in the translation of this text."

OOC: Placeholder for something when I can think of it. Looks interesting.

"Do you mean to tell us that you called a galaxy-wide conference to decifer what looks like the writtings of some primitive society that is probably now extinct?!" The call came from the right of the room, where a group of Republicans stood, some of them laughing, some of them looking annoyed at being summoned to such a pointless event.

"Why would we even want to decode it?" the challenge continued, "It's probably just telling of someone fishing or hunting an animal, which is big news for barbarian peoples, I suppose. Great reputation you've just given Republican scholars."

His cheeks turned yet a deeper shade of red as the man finished the insult. What could he say? He had no proof of any importance to the thing, all he had was some symbols that could mean anything. Perhaps they weren't even coherent symbols, but the markings of some animal that scratched the walls and by some chance made it into a pattern. "I just....I just thought you'd all be interested...."

The rebuttle was angry, dissappointed and rude, "Interesting? You give us nothing. Next time you find something like this, share it with your group of friends, don't call conferences. Some of us have actual things to do, like digging up real civilisations and excavating alien artifacts. Come, let us go and waste no more time with this."

(OOC: AB, a good thing to do would be walk up and tell him you actually are interested. Later will be a trip back to the planet where more be discovered.)

From the back of the room came a soft voice, which carried well despite. It had a gruff undertone and the speaker moved forwards as he addressed the nervous scientist. Wearing what was undoubtedly a uniform, without insignia, he stopped short of the dais. "You found this on a planet. What was around it? An ancient city? Weapons? A theater? What? You have to have more than a string of symbols that could mean anything. Otherwise you wouldn't have called us out here."

Some in the room undoubtedly knew who this pale skinned humanoid was. he had become somewhat famous in the Second Demon War, but had vanished, stating he was leaving the galaxy for the surrounding globular clusters. Fleetlord Im Kmmta, leader of the Olympian Third Fleet. Any scans of the orbiting space would show no sign of his amazing flagship, the Trident, nor any other Olympian ship.

"So... what is it?"

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2918/renegadecommodoreso9.jpg
Im Kmmta

"Uh...well..." He was still put off, his mind a jumble, unable to think rationally. The party that had begun to leave had stopped short, and, being interested by the new query, waited patiently for the response. 'Well...there wasn't a city. The only thing we really found was the writting..."

This was a disaster. He should have wrote down more things to say, and anticipated some of the critisism. But he hadn't, or did had he? He looked down at the notes infront of him, remembering them just now. "Oh, uh...Yes! We found a strange rock!"

Laughter ensued. "A rock? Well there we have it, gentlemen, the evidence we need to declare a new civilisation of rock people!"

Why couldn't he be a better orator? "Um...well, it isn't a rock. It's some strange item that is encased in a rock. We found it in a nearby dry riverbed for what looks like a lava stream from the mountain. I left it on the planet with the research team to clean up...but didn't think to take any pictures. But we know it isn't anything primitive, because it emmits a tiny magnetic field, and it isn't a pheromagnetic mineral."

Im turned towards the group mocking the scientist and glared at them with the cold eyes of a man who had spent the last few years fighting a war that had caused the death of at least three interstellar civilizations. Thousand yard stares paled in comparison to the depth of the gaze.

He turned back and looked at Valentian. "Doctor... perhaps it would be best if we traveled to the sight and looked at this artifact." Raised his voice just a tad, addressing the mockers more than the scientist he was looking at. "After all, we are all here. And if it turns out to be nothing... What is one more day to archaeologists? The bones and buildings buried in rocks will still be there."

For someone who was supposedly one of the coldest and most lethal military commanders to emerge in the past few years, Im seemed extremely out of place amongst scientists. He wondered how long it would take before anyone bothered asking.

Gordon Archer walked up towards the Taledonian scientist.

Archer was a tall lean Arcadian, a common build for his planet’s branch of humanity. Out of dress for the conference, Archer wore a dark tan pilot's flight suit. Sticky sections on the front and shoulders of the flight suit held patches, reading "SR 72 Maine", holding the Arcadian national flag, his last name "Archer", and most importantly the badge of an Arcadian Marshal. Archer was clearly military with his flat top style haircut and stern demeanor.

Normally any self respecting Arcadian wouldn’t be caught dead on the taledonian home world. As an Arcadian Marshal though, Archer had to stay up to date on all the latest developments in civilized space. Considering the galaxy was going through a bit of slow period, Archer thought he might as well check out this long shot.

Gordon nodded at the other man who seemed interested in the writings, before turning back to the nervous scientist. "More importantly, where did you find these runes and why do you think they are important?" Gordon said as he reached the scientist. "You obviously got your reputation at stake," He jerked a thumb back at the heckling scientists before crossing his arms.

Relief began to settle upon Valentian as he realised he had at least one supporter in the room. Perhaps things would be alright, and he wouldn't be shamed and removed from the scientific community. Although one supporter wasn't much, he was too happy to not be ridiculed anymore.

"Well, I was planning to return to the site in a week, with anyone here who wanted to tag along and help us. So, uh....I guess if there aren't any more questions....?"

He's clearly an idiot. Why are we listening to him again?

Because the resources used to do so are negligible. And it's interesting. Don't make me go over this again.

It's not in our databanks, Id. That alone makes it worthwhile. And I've always found history fascinating, haven't you?

No. No, I haven't. Old dead stuff. Nothing for me to kill, nothing to do besides look at it. Count me out of this, you two. Goodbye.

...

Oh my, he disconnected. Well, that was rude. It is quite interesting though. A sample of an unknown language. Not nearly enough to decipher anything, even with a full brute force attack.

As I said before, resources devoted to this task are negligible. Quorum has been achieved, and authorization to proceed granted. We will continue to observe.

"Perhaps, Fleetlord, but for those of us who are not eternal, even one day is of unimaginable value. Wasting such, then, is tantamount to mutilation of one's body."

Pushing itself away from the wall it leaned against, the Avatar's rune covered hull glowed softly as it spoke, an enigmatic half-smile worn on it's flowmetal lips.

"Of course, I suffer not from such concerns. I am the research vessel Memento of Prophecy. Tell me, mister Valentian, have you any more data on this artefact beyond it's magnetic field? A general shape, coloration? Even the slightest recollection could prove invaluable to us."

"I already told you," he addressed the Arcadian, "It was found on Mali IV. And no, we have no information on the artifact at this time...At least I don't. As I said it was left at the dig site, but when I depart again you are all welcome to join me."

"Sounds good to me Valentine," Gordan said moveing to stand beside the scientest. "What kind of transportation you got?"

Therumcious walk up to the front. The Dracian scientist had taken a great interest in the writings, seeing how this may be just some hunter’s diary or it those few words could contain the entire written history of a civilization or the fall of it. Therumcious stood out amogst the rest standing 7’6 with analyzing green eyes.

“Dr. Valentian must we wait a week? I can hardly wait to see the rest of this picture. I think that this discovery of yours shall be a great contribution.” Therumcious supported the despairing doctor and was curious to see more.

Of course the Dracian was criticized for his actions but he really didn’t care. Dracians where new to the galactic arena and so Therumcious had no reputation to lose amongst these impatient scholars. He stood against the barrage of criticisms, ready to stand with Valentian.

Im stepped back as others addressed the scientist, turning towards the one who addressed him by rank. Arching one eyebrow at the... intelligence before him. he searched his memory, trying to find any trace of something like this. He came up with nothing but novels read long ago and those were woefully inadequate for what he saw. Well... there was one other bit of data, but that menace was light years away from this intelligence. "I suppose others would worry about death more than I..." Leaving it at that, Im looked back to Valentian.

"If you would give the location of the site on the planet's surface, I could travel there myself and assist, with a small team of specialists?"

Intriguing...Im Kmmta is here, of all places. And this...language seems to spark some debate. Running decyphers on the text now...

For a few seconds the being, sat in one of the seats further to the back, tried to work out the text, to no avail.

Curious...this text defies our usually quite adequate decyphers. This may be something worth pursuing.

The figure stood. Nothing more than a dark shell, Belasarius looked nothing like a Serpantian by any standards. But you didn't become a High Inquisitor without making some sacrifices. His exo-skeleton kept him in peak physical condition, and the only disadvantage of his existance was that he could never become a proper person. As far as many were concerned, Belasarius was all machine and practically no man.

Quickly making his way towards the group, his vocalisation circuits activated. Although his 'face', was a blank patch of darkness, like most of his exo-skeleton, Dr. Valentian could feel Belasarius' gaze bore into him. Anyone with any connection to the Force would quickly feel a Dark Side presence fill the room, but his voice was surprisingly polite.

"Dr. Valentian, allow me to introduce myself. I am High Inquisitor Belasarius, at the moment filling the role of representitive for my nation. Outer Heaven would also like to join this little...expedition of yours. It's been a while since we pursued any sort of scientific endeavour in this galaxy, and while the ignorant are turning a blind eye to this...language, I can tell myself that this could be the stepping stone to a brilliant discovery. Is there anything you require apart from able scientists? Our Science Division can certainly donate some equipment and vehicles."

Belasarius stood, arms crossed, waiting for Dr. Valentian's response.

For the first time that day, a full fledged smile crossed the doctor's lips. Apparently his critizisers were wrong, and many were showing interest. Go figure, a role reversal, the humiliated now the victor, and the aggressor now the humiliated. "Well...uh, heh, were to begin. Um...well, thank you all for the support you're showing. I'm very glad to have you all with me. Um, well, we could actually use everything you could give us...uh, Belasarius, for the moment at least. I haven't been able to procure much assistance from the Republican University at the moment, but perhaps when more is uncovered that will change."

Overwhelmed, he looked down at his notes again, and feeling a sensation of assurance take over, he disregarded them. "Seeing as how everyone is so excited, perhaps we can leave earlier. I'm sure I can convince the ship I've hired to leave earlier for a few denarii more, and naturally I'll supply the location to you, Im was it? So that you can go ahead and meet us there. As for the rest of us, we could be on our way tomorrow! Oh my, that means I have lots to do....Uh, well, I thank you all again, and hope this has peaked your appetite, but I must be going. Anyone wishing to join us should proceed to the Taledon space port, platform 8, by noon tomorrow. Good day." With that, he jubilently shook hands with those nearby and made his way back out into the rainy streets of the Republican capital.

Another figure within the chorus stood. Unlike the others, he stood alone, without any fellows. He managed to just barely catch the group before they left.

"Excuse me," he said. "I'm the Metal Man, and, though don't represent any planet in particular, the Dominion of Dastardly Stench and the Republican Province of Marionetonia have asked me to attend this conference.

"I have...certain reservations about your course of action, my good doctor. Upon examining those glyphs, I cannot but hope that they are abstract and not iconic. If they are pictures of some event, past, present or future, then several of them appear to bespeak of containment. If that is so, then it would be of vital importance not to release whatever they say is contained."

Then, his voice became very quiet, yet, somehow, everyone in the room heard it.

"Do not," he said, "under any circumstances release what is kept in that device that you have found. It could be a level-nine consumptor, a galaxy-killer.

"Once proper containment is established, we can worry about the nature of the glyphs. At this point, we don't even know what basic information they're trying to convey, or what their unit of information is. Are they phenomes, representing individual sounds, as the symbols in the Roman Alphabet. Are they icons, representing words, as the Japanese Kanji characters? Are they pictographs, representing events--the landing of a planetary body, an impact crater, a burst shell, a reconfiguring entity?

"My colleagues are correct. We need to establish the context of these symbols before we can proceed with the translation. Since you've done such a poor job of excavating the dig site, we'll have to go there ourselves if we wish to find anything. I have room aboard my ship. She's bigger on the inside than she is on the outside, and she's ready to leave whenever you wish. We'll meet up with the others in orbit.

"One small word of warning, however: the inside of my ship, Brain Jar, is Holy Ground. Those who enter should be prepared to treat each other with proper respect."

(( I think now is a good time to cut off additional people. Its going to be complicated as it is.))

Accessing the Republican databanks now... Planet designated Mali IV found... Coordinates downloading... Coordinates recieved. Departure in twenty seconds.

Oh goody. I've always liked travelling. It's almost like a little vacation... Quite a cast of characters though.

Indeed. An Olympian tool, a midicloric hybrid, and an Arcadian Marshall. Seemingly slower than the rest, the latter, but still potentially useful.

The Memento's Avatar stirred again, looking towards the cyborg identifying itself as the Metal Man. It's face melded into a disarming smile as it began to speak.

"Come now, my ferrous friend. You are being far too negative! Only a small fraction of languages in use by civilizations advanced enough to produce such a device are pictogrammatic or iconographic. Even Earth Japanese moved towards a phonetic alphabet. It is far premature to declare such a find to be a risk of accidental xenocide."

Belasarius would have smiled if it were possible. He rarely got to flex his intellect beyond rooting out Outer Heaven's traitors and torturing them, maybe this trip could be that much needed holiday High Command always insisted he should go on.

Turning to Im Kmmta, Belasarius nodded.

"Warlord, while I am joining the Doctor tomorrow personally, the stuff I would be taking on the expedition would require delivery on another ship. Do you think it possible to send me to co-ordinates of the planet when you receive them?"

Im eyed this 'Metal Man', then promptly decided he was stirring up trouble without reason. Turns away and looks at the others. He nods at Belasarius. "So long as you provide the other transport. My ship is not a cargo hauler."

He turns to Valentian. "If you could please transmit the coordinates to the Constitution class ship now entering orbit, I would be appreciative." Constitution class?

------------

A lone ship slipped into orbit. The ship itself was indeed a Constitution class ship, though heavily modified and broadcasting an Olympian IFF tag. Even to species that used warp drive, this class was inefficient and weak. The outboard nacelles were easily destroyed in heavy combat, rendering the ship trapped in whatever sector it was in, while the rest of the ship was very vulnerable to anti-armor weapons. Someone had addressed these issues, while still using the original hull as cover. If the enemy thought you weak...

The nacelles, which are actually from a non-refitted Constitution class, did indeed provide FTL thrust, but they were two of three such engines, the third being in the secondary hull, surrounded by a massive amount of armor. The dangerously unstable warp core was long gone, replaced by a standard Jump Drive. The hull was covered with thick armor plating and a Xanthalian Triple Layer Shield unit, along with a hull hugging shield developed by the Crimm and testbedded on a ship that was not that different from the ship. The outer ring of the primary hull was not overly armored, as that is where the weapons platforms were, aiming heavy weapons from turbolasers to Atlantian style phasers and Crimm style missiles at nearly every possible firing arc. The crew was small, housed in the center of the saucer around the bridge, which was at the very center where the Auxillery Control Bridge normally was, while the area where the bridge would normally be was a sensor dome. One of the cargo bays in the Saucer section remained, used as a fighter bay, while the shuttle bay was used as a mine laying system. Apparently whoever rebuilt the ship had followed every suggestion about improving survivability in regards to the Constitution Class, save one:

Don't use the Constitution Class. It's a deathtrap.

Across the hull, in Gothic letters, the name of the ship was revealed to all. RIPSTAR. Marked as a mercenary ship, in all but a scant few databases (which listed it as pirate), the ship appeared to have Im as it's new owner.

Therumcious clapped his hands at Valentian’s news “This is splendid news, now to make all the necessary preparations for my departure.” The earlier departure was a good thing but Therumcious couldn’t shake off his unease at all the other accompanying guest.
An Arcadian, what little his people have been told about them they where rebellious and didn’t respect any authority other than there own. A representative from Marionetonia, what gain where they looking to gain? They always seemed to have some monetary goal in mind. That strange cybernetic man, the fact that he was machine and a strange feeling he got like some tiny creature whispering down his neck didn’t help Therumcious one bit. And of the others he knew nothing at all, so why not learn new things.
He approached the Arcadian “Greetings, allow me to introduce myself. I am called Therumcious Dertn.” He extended his hand in what he knew was a typical sign of greeting for the other races.

(OOC: I appologise to Drac, but I'm gonna have to cut your meeting with the Arcadian short. In the interests of not having this disintegrate because of rather inconsequential text isn't what I had planned, so we shall be skipping to a more interesting part of the play.)

IC:

"Suits on, please."

The monotone voice of the pilot came over the comm link in the cargo hold of the transport, where sat everyone who had decided to partake and leave with Valentian. They had all been provided with matching atmospheric suits, ensuring that they were protected from the harsh terrain of the planet. Not only that, but it was insisted upon so that the research teams already on the planet would recognise them as friendly, instead of seeing a whole group of beings with mismatched fatigues coming towards them. Of course this rule was disregarded for such men as Im(who had arrived in his own vessel) or the Metal Man(who was a cyborg and didn't require such protection.) Everyone was still a little jumpy after the Necron disaster that occured a few months before, where an entire team of Republican scientists and soldiers were cut to ribbons.

As the doors began to slide up, the cries of the heavens became all the more audible, and great streaks of lightning giving visual effect to the chorus of thunder. It was a desolate land; barren rock and ash and sand covered the earth, dunes of sand and cliffs of imposing hight made a fortress of stone and dirt. There was little vegetation to be seen, with the exception of cacti that stood near pools of brightly glowing magma. The only visible signs of life being the small camp a few meters off from the landing pad.

"The planet is tormented by harsh electrical storms at all times," Valentian stated as he stepped out in his dark blue enviro suit, "And as you can see it also experiences a fair amount of volcanic activity. The air isn't fit to breath, nor is there any water sources other than underground springs."

"Doctor Valentian, welcome back!" A man dressed in a similar suit walked over to great them as they entered the camp. "I take it the conference went well? Considering the amount of followers that are present with you."

Valentian shrugged his shoulders, "It wasn't quite what I hoped, but it was a slight success."

The other scientist smiled back at the man and clasped him on the shoulders. "Come, a man named Im Kmmta has already arrived and is awaiting in the mess hall. I'm sure everyone is anxious to get through that airlock so we don't have to wear these things anymore, hey?"

Indeed, Im had already arrived. And with him were three others of his species and... one creature which had caused quite a stir. A Cerberus (http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1332/cerberusgl9.jpg) had stepped through the airlock with him, scaring several people that were not expecting anything of the sort. "Argo is no threat to you. He is part of my research team." Though he refused to explain how the fearsome creature, who stood as tall as a normal human's shoulder, was part of a research team, but Im had managed to smooth things over.

Almost a day later, Im and his team sat away from the others. With Argo at Im's side, that was not unexpected. "This electrical disturbance is beginning to annoy me..." He said, looking at a holographic representation of his orbiting ship's AI. The signal kept clipping and distorting every few seconds.

"Indeed, commander."

"What do you have to report, Io?"

"As per your orders, we are ready to transfer any authorized datafiles to the surface to assist with the translation. In addition, I have monitored the landing of the craft carrying the other scientific teams. They should arrive at your position shortly."

Im nodded and petted the large hell hound beside him as if it were nothing more fearsome than a Doberman. "Good. Begin a level two lockout on all information requests and scan the unblocked files and evaluate what position they should be in. Any approved data should be given when requested."

"Yes, commander." The signal flickered out as Io cut the transmission. He always smiled at the way the AI referred to him as 'commander', no matter what rank he held.

Replacing the holographic projector on his belt, Im moved from the mess hall with his team to the main labs, where the group would most likely wish to go first.

OOC:

Hope that, while you were at it, you addressed the dead spot in the Constitution Class' weapons that's behind and below the ship. Where do you get the power to charge those weapons banks from, anyway? :) :P :) (Used to be a member of the now defunct Starship Enterprise Research Project. Their goal--never realized--was to produce the first truly accurate technical manual for the Enterprise, as she appeared in the Original Series.)

------------------------------

IC:

It looked almost like a cardboard box--and the analogy wasn't altogether inaccurate. It was slightly brighter, and had sensor pods attached to its sides. It contained the organic part of The Metal Man. The security detachment had been briefed in advanced. The others quickly came to recognize it as a part of something alive. And it kept its contents alive in what to some would have seemed a hostile environment indeed.

Brain Jar had landed on the planet's surface. This had been a boon to the living conditions and the moralle of the work group. Brain Jar had a pretty good fabricator--some would call it a replicator--on board, and it was used to provide the group with a great many comforts that the ship's owner could not indulge in--the hot chocolate was particularly popular. And, with the scientists who had chosen to travel onboard well-versed in its use by the time they arrived, it was kept busy with...a few other requests as well.

The Metal Man spent the first few days familiarizing himself with the terrain. The Box, which moved by means of maglevs, dislodged no stone unintentionally and could get into (and back out of) places where the other scientists would have feared to tread. Combining this with sophisticated sensor and data recording capabilities gave the team advantages that their predecessors had simply not enjoyed.

Yet, nowhere did any of them find any trace of a previous civilization. To be fair, they had confined their search to the areas where the Taledonian team had previously mapped the terrain--and out of the cave where the glyphs had been foun. Yet, there was a complete lack of anything that would qualify as planetary life, let alone a civilization. Despite himself, the Metal Man began to think that this might all even be an elaborate hoax, even a prank that was being played on the Taledonians--for, if it was disingenuous, they knew nothing of the plot behind it.

So they got together and sorted their data and ate their food and drank their drinks. And waited for something to show up to give some meaning to what they had found.

Belasarius took a few steps out onto the sand, and looked around. It was a fairly impressive sight, the storms adding that little hint of darkness Belasarius always revelled in. Of course, many might find it odd for what could be best described as a living exo-skeleton to wear an enviromental suit, but Belasarius felt that it would be impolite not to.

Regardless, he took off his helmet, and allowed his numerous sensory apparatus (Hidden within himself) to analyze the atmosphere and the planet, without the unnecessary oxygen-nitrogen mix getting in the way of things. While he was indeed faceless (His entire body merely a black humanoid form made of kevlar, titanium, silicone and some strange sort of metal that rippled occasionally), this did not prevent Belasarius from gazing out into the distance, his dark cape fluttering behind him.

"Magnificent."

Looking to Valentian, Belasarius observed the exchange between the two scientists, and nodded at the unknown one when the scientist first took notice of him.

Hopefully we'll be inside soon. While beautiful, my purpose here is not to be taking in the scenery...

Silently hoping that the Outer Heaven Science Team would soon arrive, Belasarius patiently waited to be led to what he assumed to be the Research Outpost where they discovered the ancient script.

OOC: omg lol u cant hav rp w/ no guns lol ur such a newb

..Tag for interest, possible involvement.

It was an annoying process, the decontamination, but it was an essential part to keep everyone alive and healthy. As the system finished, and the light next to the door changed from red to green, the group began to shed their envirosuits and moved through the hatch to the mess hall of the outpost. There were couches and chairs strewn about, most with tables around them covered in papers and photographs. Men and women sat around drinking coffee and reading, attempting to decifer the most recent findings.

"I think you'll be most excited to see these," exclaimed the man who had greeted them, "We discovered them about four hours after you left the site to go back to Taledon."

They rounded some corners, the pristine-white walls adding a gleem to the lights of the structure. Finally arriving at the sought out destination, the scientist smiled and pressed the button to unloak the hatch. With a soft noise, the steel doors slid back into the walls. They stepped in, and the dark room was instantly illuminated by automatic lights.

Valentian moved to the main table of the room, where a datascreen hovered above the surface about two feet. "All the relevant data on the artifact has been recorded?"

"Of course. For those of you who are new, including you, Im, since we haven't really showed you anything since your arrival, this is what we've discovered." He touched a button on the display, and an image of a small glass box with a copper wire extending from it appeared. "We found this. It isn't much, but we've concluded it to be a power source. Despite its size, it's actually quite powerful, or at least was at one point. It's pretty well depleted now, but still giving a current in the wire, which is what caused the magnetic field. Must have been apart of some device."

A smile formed on Valentian's face as well. "Then we know it isn't a hunter-gatherer society we've stumbled upon. They were obviously close to the current technological level, I'd assume."

"Large assumption, Val. Anyone else have any ideas? Keep in mind, you now know everything we do. Sort of sad, isn't it?"

Therumcious looked intently at the object said to be a power source. “Very interesting find, about how old would you say this item is?” Therumcious was very interested now. This whole trip would by no means be a waste now. He brought up a camera like device and asked “May I?”

"Clarfiy something for me," the Metal Man (who was still topside) said over the intercom. "Is that the item that was found previously, and shown in the conference, or is this a new find?"

Im eyed the item. "I know you have withheld information purposefully. It does not endear you to me." Beside him, one of Argo's three heads let out a low sound that was nearly a growl. Im went on as the hellhound hadn't mirrored his annoyance. "This device matches the description of the one inside the rock. I can only assume it to be the same, Metal Man. And guessing technological levels based on one piece of equipment is hardly viable... it could be a later civilization's garbage. Or predate the civilization you look for, unlikely as that may be."

Beside him, one of the others of Im's species stepped forward. She was slightly shorter that the battle hardened leader and was obviously a much more science oriented person. "What about markings? Anything resembling a company logo, serial number, date of manufacturing... place of origin?"

Seemingly ignoring the other researchers, Memento's current delegate, a somewhat shorter, less refined Avatar, stepped forward. Eying the screen curiously, it seemed engrossed by the sight.

"Interesting little thing, isn't it... No apparent inner workings, no obvious controls. Unfamiliar technological basis, but of possible merit. Now then..."

Tapping at the floating display, the Avatar brought up details of the location of the discovery. Quickly scanning the information, it nodded in satisfaction. Stepping back, the Avatar returned the screen to the image of the cube.

"That should be sufficient... I've analyzed the artefact's location parameters, and am deploying drones from myself in orbit, sent to sites across the surface with the highest probability of sharing samples of this civilization. I should be on location at those points in roughly two hours. With luck, we may find more samples of this writing, and have a sample large enough to actually translate."

OOC: Sorry for the dead spot in posting, work interfered. Short post this time, but couldn't really think of much more to say.

"If there's anything that I'm holding back from you, Im," the Metal Man replied, "it is not intentional. If there's anything you'd like me to tell you, you need only ask.

"I've got to rest now. I'm returning to my ship. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the temple room at the center of the ship, meditating."

"I was referring to our hosts, Metal Man... not you. Apologies for the misunderstanding." Im then looked to Argo and nodded. "It is time to do our part... If you would, Argo?"

The Cerberus grunted a reply and padded heavily to a control surface, studying it for a moment, before tapping at it in a very precise manner. Quickly, a nearby display showed the text seen at the conference, with countless language samples flashing up behind it, trying for any sort of match. Im watched closely as this occurred and tilted his head as the scan finished and flashed up three symbols unlike anything any of them would have seen before. Argo growled lowly while Im sighed. "Fifteen million dead civilizations were in that scan... and not one match beyond a .09% probability." He shook his head. "It seems that whatever you have found truly is a lost civilization, for the Olympian language database to have no record of them."

Not wanting to add to the mess of assumptions and questions, Gordon stayed quiet. His input seemed irrelevant. Whatever the eggheads eventually agreed on, it was obvious this little discovery was going to get big.

As desperate as Valentian seemed to be to get support, the Taledonians had a lot of equipment and a decent staff. Gordon was having a problem adding it all up. Sure scientists always want more funding and more equipment, but what valentine had basically just done was hire a group of mercenaries. Nobody in the rag tag group seemed to be a scientist or anything, he certainly wasn’t. What could the group offer the Taledonians? Besides, its not like Valentine had actually ever asked them for anything. What was the little man's angle?

If anything though, the Taledonians were the least of Gordon’s worries. The rest of the group wasn’t exactly a bunch of girl scouts. He didn’t doubt that they would turn on him and the Taledonians whenever it seemed profitable. Gordon decided to stick with the little Taledonian, possibly protect him, and look for anything he was hiding. Who knew, maybe the Valentian had just dropped the ball on this one and opened it up to the wrong people.

"It is indeed the same as what I showed in the conference, Metal Man." Valentian paled a bit at what the others said. Once again, he sensed skepticism in them, no doubt viewing the device as some irrelevant find. "You see it now clearly because its just been cleaned off. When we found it, it was encassed in hardened magma, like I said on Taledon."

"And from what the reports seem to show, and the image clearly indicates, there are no markings on the thing. Perhaps it's an inner piece of something? Considering that it's clearly a power supply, disconnected from something, that isn't so farfetched?"

The Metal Man moved quickly back to his chamber, his systems needing a defragmentation by means of meditation. Perhaps it was this fatigue that had prevented him discovering another site of interest, that perhaps the probes deployed by Memento would. It was a crevace, a cliff, much like a canyon. Obviously created by more magma from the volcanicly active planet, it was now simply a barren obstacle for anyone traversing the terrain. One side of the rocky surface, however, seemed to have a small hole in it; a hole no larger than a basketball. If anyone cared to look closer, it would be shown that a rockslide had covered up a small cave entrance.

And as all caves should, there was a treasure deep within, awaiting someone to find it. Inscribed on the wall, crudely by most likely a rock of other jagged surface, was more writting. Shrouded by the darkness, it would be a miracle if it was found.

(OOC: OMG OMG perfect opportunity for something to do something!!!!!! Anyways, here be the symbols: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b147/75937/secondmessage.jpg)

OOC:

Alphabet of all symbols used so far, with similar symbols grouped together:

http://www.nls.net/mp/413/alphabet.png

Im wasn't trying to be a doubting figure. He was just a hardline realist.

Stepping around Valentian, he eyed the projection again. "No, it's obviously part of some advanced device, but my point is that advanced societies regularly dump advanced technology onto primitive planets. The early Terrans are a prime example... I am not saying that this is the case, but one must not assume that because it is on a planet, that it is from that planet."

He turned towards the scientist. "The entire area will have to be systematically excavated, to discern what the truth is. Go down five meters and see what is found." Tall order, on this planet.

"Not sure we should go that far, Im," the Metal Man replied over the intercom. "Besides, what do you think I've been doing for the past five hours up here? I've been running ground-penetrating radar scans. I'm going to download the raw data simultaneously to your computers and mine. When it's analyzed, we should have a pretty good idea of every pebble that lies above or below the ground within about two kilometers of the base camp, to a level of about three meters below the surface."

In about ten minutes, the data began streaming in.

In the meantime, the Metal Man changed into the closest suit he had to an actual humanoid body, walked to the Temple Room and began his meditation.

The Metal Man's blood was a liquid faustian deal. It had amazing healing properties, but it damaged humanoid nervous systems. Sometimes, he used it to save the lives of friends, but this came at the price of months or even years of insanity. The two tendencies were constantly at war within him, causing him to go into catatonic comas at odd intervals. Over the years, he had discovered that he could lessen the frequency, and the severity, of the attacks by meditating over a simple open flame for a few hours each day.

So that was what he did. He sat, as close as he could get to his original humanoid body, and he stared into the flame above a candle.

Therumcious took being ignored as a no, so he put his camera away. He observed the others as it almost seemed like lines where being drawn and sides picked. Therum decided to not dedicate to any side yet and take advantage of the fact that no one seemed to pay any attention to him.

Therum decided to leave a do a little bit of his own exploring, outside the research base that is. While he was viewing the landscape he called in a friend. “ Greetings Mavic… Yes I would like to ask a favor… Could you bring my Signet here? ... Thanks I’ll send you my coordinates…. Alright thanks again. So how is your wife?”

The Avatar slid silently through the murky air, it's cylindrical form shrouded by a haze of dust caught in it's gravitic bubble. Gliding through a canyon, it's sensors played across the walls, invisible waves of energy caressing the volcanic rock as the Avatar moved past. And then it found an opening.

There we go. Orbital scans indicated cave networks across this area, seems that we found one of them.

You call that a cave? It's tiny. Positively insignificant.

Look at the data from the scans again. Angle of return indicates that it opens up in a meter or so. Seismic activity probably brought down most of the entrance. Let's see what we can find inside, shall we?

__________________

Miles away, standing in the sealed environment of the Taledonian base, Memento of Prophecy's metallic face shifted into a grin. Stepping up to the screen, it pulled up a drawing program, and it's hands blurred with speed, stopping finally, revealing the new series of text.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present to you the second example of Malic writing in our possession. It was discovered a few seconds ago in another cave, entrance partially obscured by a rockslide. There are as of yet no signs of any additional artefacts, but I am currently on site continuing the excavation. Additional Avatars should arrive in an hour or so to assist."

His meditation now over, The Metal Man changed back into The Box and went back outside. It didn't take him long to review the new data. The cave networks matched precisely the data that his scans had given, so there was little surprise there. Still, it was peculiar that Memento's team had chosen to search that particular cave first--there were at least three others within a kilometer of it. Still, this was a good thing.

Reviewing the diagrams, the cyborg couldn't help but wonder if the designs were indeed more pictures than phenomes. Dots in the center indicated somekind of individual--and shapes around them, walls. Could it be--?

"Gentlemen," the Metal Man said, "is it possible that the device we have found is not a storage battery, but a containment device? Something like either a computer's memory or a transmat buffer? Either way, I'll be joining you in a few minutes, and I'm bringing some Champaign with me to celebrate the new discovery."

Too bad he couldn't drink.

Seems rather fixated on that stupid little idea of his. Sees one little character that could be a pictogram, and ignores all the rest. Pure grade A idiot.

Ah, Id. I see you finally decided to join us again. Damn.

Are you sure you couldn't have stayed away just a bit longer? We were having such a good time without you.

Id, Super, two words. Bite me.

If we had but teeth...

Memento's Avatar arched an eyebrow at Metal Man's comment. "Again with the containment theory? While your tenacity is laudible, the device is emitting a steady electric current, which seems unlikely for some sort of mass storage system, especially given it's solid state nature.

"I can only assume that this stems from your previous pictogram theory. While a few of the characters could indeed be interpreted this way, the others make absolutely no sense when considered in this light. After all, we'd then have to consider the possibility of it being used for pole-vaulting of some sort. Or possibly a flower garden.

"Your champagne, however, is quite welcome. These Herakles frames are rather power hungry, and my con-gen could use something a bit denser than this atmosphere."

Im shook his head. "This device contains nothing but energy... and if it was part of a containment device, it was likely just the power source. Whatever was contained was released millennia ago."

Im strode slowly around these new characters. "What we need to discern is whether this equipment and the language are connected by anything other than proximity. The caverns should provide more proof either way. Any civilization that sheltered underground for any length of time would have left something in their wake. Unfortunately, spelunking is a job not well suited for EVA suits, even armored ones like my party has."

Im pauses and turns slowly towards Argo, smiling thinly. "Correct as usual, Argo..." One of the Cerberus' heads lolls out it's tongue. Im seemed able to communicate non-verbally with it. Before anyone could say anything, the beast was off, leaving the chambers and bounding for the airlock. As explanation, Im looked around. "Argo is uniquely suited for a scouting endeavor. Genetically engineered for combat in any atmosphere, a natural hunter and having three minds constantly considering and revising plans based on each situation, the only thing he lacks is opposable thumbs."

The Avatar smiled again, nodding at the Shipmaster's words.

"A wise decision. Your colleague is an excellent choice for such exploration. However, he is but one, and rather slow at that. While I do not object to his assistance- In fact, I relish the inclusion of a fresh set of eyes- I fear much for his safety. After all, he is but flesh, and why risk him when I am already probing every cave, with Avatars of myself that I would no more mourn than you would a chipped nail. EVA suits may be clumsy, my friend, but even the most dextrous organic is positively ham-handed before the perfection of an Avatar!"

(OOC: Just to make people angry with me, I will not have much else to give you for a bit. I'm still rather undecided about certain things that need to be revealed next in order, and after I have them agreed upon by everyone(everyone being me and my thousands of personalities which take forms and individuality within me) then I need to draw it up and scan it then post it. So, then, to make things less boring, I'll throw in some little things to make it more interesting without actually posting any new pictures. Maybe some new text...)

The Avatar smiled again, nodding at the Shipmaster's words.

"A wise decision. Your colleague is an excellent choice for such exploration. However, he is but one, and rather slow at that. While I do not object to his assistance- In fact, I relish the inclusion of a fresh set of eyes- I fear much for his safety. After all, he is but flesh, and why risk him when I am already probing every cave, with Avatars of myself that I would no more mourn than you would a chipped nail. EVA suits may be clumsy, my friend, but even the most dextrous organic is positively ham-handed before the perfection of an Avatar!"

Im reacts to the comment by simply tilting his head to the side slightly as he waited for the Avatar to finish. The specialists in the party look nervous for some reason, slipping away from the Fleetlord a bit, as if expecting some sort of altercation. They knew Im was very, very protective of Argo (who was his only true friend in the universe) and very, very easy to anger when spoken down to by a being that believes itself more perfect than any other being. Im stared at the Avatar with disturbingly emotionless eyes, looking right through the machine as if it wasn't even there. He pulled the comm from his belt. "Ripstar, prepare to leave orbit." As he replaced the comm, he spoke to the Avatar in a cold tone that left no doubt as to how he felt about it. "Be careful how far that superiority complex goes, Avatar. I have killed an entire species one at a time for being so convinced of their own perfection that they convinced primitive species to worship them. You might have heard of them... the Titan and Olympian Gods. Learn from them, before you one day suffer the same, from some future being that can no longer sit by and watch the devastation you reap." At that, he turns and stalks out, specialists in tow.

Outside, Argo had stopped dead in his tracks. Without sign of any sort of signal, he turned back and headed for the transport shuttle at an amazing rate of speed.

The Avatar sighed, shaking it's head as it watched the Fleetlord exit the module. Turning back to the assembled scientists, it shrugged.

"Well, now that that drama is over with... Shall we continue?"

________________


Outside, a pair of cylindrical Avatars glided through the atmosphere, skimming a few meters above the surface. Spottinging their target, the two swept downwards, halting a few meters away from Im and his group. A blur manifested, quickly solidifying into the shape of a six-winged figure, which bent at what seemed to be a waist before the party before it spoke, voice amplified so as to penetrate their EVA suits.

"I apologize for the misunderstanding earlier, friend Fleetlord. I did not mean to imply any failing on your part, nor to insult you or your companion sophont. These Avatars were constructed in my own belly and I take much pride in this, but I was merely stating a fact: While capable of remarkable things, your bodies are simply less efficient- and less numerous- than those I operate. I am unfamiliar with your own, but the human form is incapable of flight, cannot take nourishment from the atmosphere, cannot survive in a vacuum, and cannot travel at superluminal velocities. My Avatars, however, can, and more.

"Do not confuse your limitations with failings, Fleetlord. I have the greatest respect for organic sentients, but there are things that you are simply not meant to do. It is this logic that drove my previous statements, and I regret that the way in which I stated them has offended you. I do hope that you will reconsider your decision to leave and rejoin us at the Taledonian habitat."

The hologram blinked out, the Avatar above it poised to fly away, before it halted, and began projecting again.

"Ah, and I almost neglected to mention: As long as we're on the topic of unintentional offense, please do not refer to me as Avatar. It would be akin to me referring to you as 'Im's left nostril.' Memento will do fine, or Vessel in a pinch."

Hovering behind the spot where the Avatar stood, the Metal Man spoke to the crowd. He was wearing his boxlike form again.

"We can all use better care in the words we choose," he said. "And some of us should check our facts before we speak. That list of capabilities that you gave, for example. I can do any of those things with nothing more than the suit that I wear now, though perhaps not as efficiently as something that was made specifically for the purpose.

Behind him, a second levitating robot appeared. Shaped almost like a cone with the bottom cut off, it was black in color with augh-white slots cut into its sides at regular intervals around its circumferance. From two of these slots, robotic arms poked out--in this case, with rock and soil samples.

"This," the Metal Man said, "is one of my suits. It operated remotely while I was meditating, exploring the cave where the most recent text was found. It must have left before your avatar arived. At any rate, the samples should give us something to do while we're analyzing the text.

"And I'm running it against the Species-One Civilization Database. It's terribly out of date--Species One has been extinct for over 300 years now--but often provides insight into things that I run into. So far, no match there either."

Im strode past the machine without even paying it mind. The ship lifted off and streaked upwards, docking with the Ripstar. Then, an odd thing occurred. A scoutship launched and flew back down towards the surface, as the Ripstar left orbit and leapt out of the system.

The ship landed near a cavern that was not currently being explored and two beings existed. One was obviously Argo and the other was a figure dressed in a different type of environmental suit. It was light covered in armor plate and held no obvious means of air supply. The humanoid was also carrying what looked like equipment for a field site. Lights, transmitters, etc. Scans would show the humanoid halted about fifty meters inside, while Argo continued on.

After about an hour, and Argo descending quite a ways into the caverns, a transmission would be relayed through the scoutship. It would show Argo's multi-faceted view, which was surprisingly clear given the pitch black environment, of the caverns he passed through, as he stepped around the bones of some long dead beast that seemed to resemble a bear. Apparently depth had protected the bones. Being of little importance to the cause of finding traces of a civilization, it was marked and Argo moved on.

The first drone had unloaded the samples. A second one, humanoid, had brought the liquor. The Metal Man had been a little careless, and, as a result, the others had been slightly surprised to see what looked like a man walking through the rocky surface without an environment suit. What could he say? The daytime temperature was tollerable. The atmosphere, though unbreathable, was inert. The drone/suit could survive.

The eyebrows really raised--but only for a moment--when he transferred his internal organics, his biological essence, into the humanoid suit. "What?" he asked. "You have a nudity taboo that applies to me?"

Things were going relatively well, if a tad boringly, when, about a half hour later, a message came in from Brain Jar.

"Well," he said, a look of mild surprise coming over his face, "it looks as though Im never really left. Brain Jar is picking up somekind of telemetry signal. It appears that someone--I'm assuming Im, but it could be someone else--has found a reasonably large skelleton in a nearby cave."

"Why the hell did you do that?" exclaimed Valentian, annoyance in his tone, "He was clearly good help and now you drove him away!"

Calming himself, he continued to look at the viewscreen, reviewing the new characters. "In anycase, his imput was correct. We need to find out if the device and the symbols are related in any way. I'm not sure how we will do this, however. I'd like to go into the cave that this new sign was found, dig around a bit, see what's there. Anyone interested in joining me?"

A few of the Republican scientists volunteered enthusiastically, and they began to move towards the airlock to put on the evinromental suits hanging nearby.

"I volunteer also," the Metal Man said.

As Im said, better, he thought to himself to have someone who's relatively immune to the dangers of that environment out there.

"Why the hell did you do that?" exclaimed Valentian, annoyance in his tone, "He was clearly good help and now you drove him away!"
The Avatar cocked an eyebrow towards Valentian.

"I apologize, but he appears to have misinterpreted my words. I could not have predicted the mental instability that caused such a harsh reaction. In the mean time, I have already explained my intended meaning and apologized for the confusion. It is up to him to cease acting irrationally and accept. Regardless, I am still on site at the second site, and will continue it's excavation, as well as explorations of the surrounding area."

Standing, the Avatar strode towards the airlock, joining the other scientists as they donned their environmental suits with a smile.

"Of course, I would be remiss in my duties if I were to allow you to travel to the site unaccompanied."

Therum stood outside the airlock waiting for the other scientist. “I hope there isn’t a limit on how many people can go. Because I’ve been itching to see these markings with my own eyes.” Therum was aware of what was happening but he didn’t know all the details of what happened after his leave. Behind Therum was his signet, a jetbike very similar to the military lancer model. He mounted it and asked jokingly “What to race?”

"Race?" came the reply, "We have far too much equipement to bring along to race, but good spirits. Go ahead, if you'd like, we'll be along soon."

The transmissions from the scout ship continued, as Argo continued his trek through the caverns, pausing as he cam to a fork. One seemed to continue more or less in the desired direction, while another took a steeper gradient down, but in another direction.

Considering his options for a few moments, he forged down this alternate direction, loose stones making even the sure footed Cerberus tread carefully. Finally, the gradient ended on an immense open chamber. Unfortunately, even Argo's enhanced eyesight could not penetrate the darkness ahead. This made the beast wary, as his senses were being degraded by the size of the chamber.


--------

At the surface, the humanoid had moved to the cave entrance again. He had been alerted to the movement of others outside the facility and was stepping out to greet them.

By the energy rifle and sidearm, there was no telling what kind of greeting it would be, but that could just be a precaution against some sort of unknown beast that managed to survive the harsh realities of this planet by living underground.

"I'm not exactly sure how we're going to get the equipement through that, Sam." Valentian looked skeptically at the small cavern hole. "Not sure how we'll get in, either."

He turned to the robotic party members, the Avatars and Metal Man. "Any of you picked up another passage? The cliff-face doesn't look stable enough for us to dig through, so I believe that option is out."

They were dark as night, and lifeless. No pupil to speak of, only dark spheres attached to the occular nerves. They served very little purpose, other than to give the creature more of a face, instead of simply the fanged mouth which contained thousands of razor-sharp teeth. It let out a high-pitched shriek, which echoed around the caverns, giving it a view of everything within the depths of the place. Something big was moving deeper into the earth, slowly but surely. Big things tend to make good meals.

Instantly, Argo halted his movements and backed slowly into the passage he had come from, to limit how he could be attacked. Growling softly, the Cerberus was unafraid. He had lived through starships being ripped to shreds around him and taken on hordes of Demons on their own warships. Whatever was inside this chamber would not enjoy the coming minutes alone with Argo.

On the surface, the humanoid immediately keyed the comm on the suit. Im's voice would crackle over the speakers of the other suits. "Do not enter the caverns! Argo has found something down there and it is very much alive."

"I can bring Brain Jar in closer and we can use her matter transmitters," the Metal Man said, "once the cavern is secured. What, precisely, did Argo find?"

Therum looked at the curious little hole. “So we need something to dig in with? Would that work? Or are we just trying to find another way in?” Therum inspected the hole peeking down it to see if he could see anything.

"If there's something dangerous down there," the Metal Man replied, "it might not be such a good idea to widen that hole. We could be setting whatever it is loose."

"Were going to let that dog thing fight off something alone?" Gordan said, apparently not worried enough to drawl his pistol. The man had quietly positioned himself close to the Taledonian.

Im is silent for nearly a minute. "He is not sure. It made a high frequency screeching noise, which indicates a sound based sight system. Other than that, Argo has no information. And please... a Cerberus is more than capable of handling itself in a fight. I fear for your safety, not his."

And the cave entrance Im was at was more than wide enough to allow anything out, so it was probably no danger to widen the opening.

Therum looked at the curious little hole. “So we need something to dig in with? Would that work? Or are we just trying to find another way in?” Therum inspected the hole peeking down it to see if he could see anything.

"If we're merely lacking tools, I think our problems are solved. Herakles frames are equipped with sufficient armaments for this task, and my smaller Stymphalians can lens their gravitics. Observe..."

The humanoid Avatar gestured at the canyon wall opposite the cave with one hand, and the wall suddenly erupted in fire, hazy lines drawn between gouts of molten rock and the Avatars as thunder filled the chasm. As the clouds of rock vapor settled, the Herakles Avatar stood for a moment, a proud half-smile on it's face as it looked at it's handiwork: An Otagian flag, edges carved a precise half meter deep into the volcanic rock, black volcanic stone and cherry red of half-molten rock perfectly defined.

"As you can see, our equipment is easily exact enough for the task. However, I am not entirely certain that the cliff side here is stable enough to withstand a major breach: The fact that the cavern is currently obscured by a rock slide certainly supports this viewpoint. Therefore, it is my recommendation that we enter from above. I can cut a diagonal shaft from the ground there, entering the chamber from an angle through the opposite wall. This would remove any risk of structural failure, and have a minimal chance of damaging any artefacts in the chamber."

As the group watched, the stone around the flag crumbled, cascading down onto the sandy floor and bringing the entire display with it. The Metal Man looked on sadly. The pattern of the flag had been pleasing to his sensors.

"Yeah, like I said," Valentian confirmed, "The side looks very unstabble. And entering from the top may be a waste of time. How did Argo get into the cave? He's certainly larger than all of us."

The reverberating wavelengths returned to the beast, giving it a full view of everything, including the giant that had entered its home. Too large for a direct confrontation, perhaps some stalking was in order. Thus the creature resolved to allow it to pass.

Im was well away from the others, though his scout ship was still in view. It would a small trek to get to his position, but the entrance he was at provided a good entrance.

"You won't find any artifacts over here, Doctor. There are bones of some beast, but no signs of civilization. Just... that creature."

===

Argo waited for several minutes. Finally, he grew tired of the silence and growled again. As he waited, his senses took in the chamber beyond. he could make out some sort of tunnel at the end.

Slowly entering the chamber, his enhanced senses told him what the tunnel had hidden. There was a creature here... and it was probably big. Big usually meant predator. And Argo was in it's territory, at a disadvantage without sufficient light.

"Brain Jar's on its way," the Metal Man said. "Should be here in a matter of seconds."

As if on cue, the 30-meter flying saucer flew straight in and hovered about 15 meters over the explorer party.

"Pete," he said, "zap us over to the other entrance, please."

"Can't do that," the AI replied.

"Can't?"

"Violates one of your directives. To wit: don't use technology to do simple tasks. Makes you weak."

The Metal Man sighed. "OK," he grumbled. "Are we up for a little walk?" Of course, he was referring only to the others. The Box hovered on maglevs. That was how it moved.

It lunged forth, tackling the cerberus and taking both off the cliff that was unseen in the darkness. The creature released its grip, and spread its massive wings, taking a crooked flight path through the cavern and returning to strike when its prey hit the ground below. It would obviously survive the fall, but the fangs of the giant bat sinking into its hide immeadiatly after would be another thing...

"Did anybody else hear that?" Gordon said looked over at the cave.

"Something just hit the ground hard," the Metal Man replied. "Is there any way we can contact the parties exploring the cave?"

As he finished, the group arrived at the larger entrance.

As the others approached, even before Metal Man spoke, Im was already running. "Argo!" Was all he said, before slipping into the darkness inside the caverns. He was moving faster and more agilely than someone with armor on should have been able to, pushing himself to the limits to reach his attacked comrade. The comlink was still open, but he wasn't saying anything as he ran. He just ran.

-------------

Argo, meanwhile, twisted as he fell and considered options. It was flying. That was bad. It could locate him perfectly. That was very bad. It had wounded him. That was extremely bad... for it.

Argo lands with a hard thwump and immediately rolls to his feet, doing the unexpected. He charged... up. He literally started to climb up the cliff as if he were walking at a fast pace. He paused...

Movement.

It was back.

Argo released from the cliff wall and sung his powerful tail around in it's direction like a whip. Air moving over it's wings gave it away. Of course, this would mean more injury, but no matter. He was a cerberus. He would heal, unless he was killed.

And that wasn't likely, with backup on the way.

-------

Im was sliding around corners and tearing down tunnels. He would have been lost, had he not been following the map on his HUD. His small radar system was useless in the tight tunnels, but his power lamps provided better than noon-day sunlight brightness.

He carried in his hands a powerful energy rifle, designed to take out power armored troops. Flesh should prove no match for it... if he managed to live long enough to get a shot off, that is.

Without a second thought, the Metal Man followed Im into the tunnel.

He sent a radio broadcast to the others. "Im seems to be in contact with Argo," he said. "If he's coming to its aid, that means that it's in trouble--and I'm going along. Those who are able, please join me at your convenience."

OOC @Crimm: "It's" is the contraction of "it is." "Its" is the posessive form of "it." Note the correct use above. Sorry to put it in a post like this, but it just annoys me.

IC:

Hovering as he was, it didn't take long for the cyborg to catch up with the avatar. Motion sensors showed nothing within 50 feet and the radar sense was useless. Echolocator showed the tunnel they were in continuing for some 150 feet or so, then opening up into a larger chamber, with a cliff.

"Slow down!" the Metal Man warned. "Steep drop ahead!"

The bat was hit hard by the tackle, but remained strong. It bit into the hide of Argo, and attempted to wrestle it to the ground. Meanwhile, the whole team had begun, against every common sense thought to their unarmed state, into the cavern after everyone, not wanting to miss out on anything.

(OOC: Bad post, perhaps, but you cant haz cheezburger.)

As he continued his forward push through the tunnels, the Metal Man began to improvise some weapons. He carried a safety net, designed to carry a 400-pound humanoid out of a dangerous situation. This could be turned into a projectile, to slow an advancing opponent. He also had a quarantine shield, along with a freezer gun that was normally used to refrigerate samples for shipping. Along with the cybernetic limbs that could pop out of the box when he needed them, these things would make him formidible in a scrum. He didn't have any exotic projectile or energy weapons--the closest things he had to that were a laser drill and a plasma torch, but, with an effective range of at most ten centimeters, they wouldn't be much use.

--------------------------

OOC: Someone said something about needing weapons?
:) :) :)

Im took note of the warning, even though he was well aware of the cliff already.

He came to a halt at it's edge and looked down into the dimness. There was no way he could get down there without advanced spelunking gear, which he did not have at the moment. So he switched his visor to IR and chuckled. "Got you, you ugly son of a whore..." he muttered as he shouldered the rifle.

=====

Argo roared out in pain, landing hard. He rolled onto his back as he knew Im was lining up a shot. Despite continuing to be bitten and clawed at, he remained on his back, his own three vicious mouths ripping into the bat.

=====

A blinding flash of light filled the cavern as the weapon discharged... and missed by several yards. He was aiming straight down... he couldn't get a good line on the bat creature. So he loaded a grenade and lobbed it down, followed by two more... and they did nothing as they hit.

Until Im took out his comm and pressed a single button.

=====

A miss. That was not good... Im rarely missed shots like this. Argo rolled out from under the lighter bat and tried to pin it down as the grenades came down. It should only take a few seconds for Im to activate them...

It took four.

A screeching that would make banshees hold their ears shot through the cavern. It was high pitched and being emitted at nearly the same decibel level as a jet engine. Originally developed as crowd control grenades, Im had brought them out of storage because there weren't many wild animals that would stay around with such noise. A bat seemed a perfect specimen to unleash the Screamers on.

The Metal Man pulled out over the edge of the cliff. Im was walking, but he was levitating. The drop offered him no obstacle. He saw Im shoulder his rifle, and flew up out of the way and waited...waited...and...the shot missed! The drop offered a confusing bevel of crags and crannies--it could fool even the best marksmen. The Metal Man went down.

As he dropped, he noticed small objects passing him on the way down. Grenades. Couldn't have much of an ordinance if they were going to go off that close to Argo. Still, the Metal Man threw up his quarantine shield just to be safe...and kept going. It was only a few more feet before he was right on top of that thing and...

The grenades went off! They were bangers, meant to attack the sense of hearing! Ohhhh, the pain!!!! The Metal Man hadn't turned off his motion detectors or his hearing. He clenched the claws that had come out of the lower part of his rectangular body...but, though it took a tremendous effort of will, continued on.

The blast spooked the batlike creature. It turned up to fly away. Its sonar sense lost to it, it flew right into the Metal Man, who used the opportunity to wrap it up in his emergency net. It shrieked and struggled. It was not used to being stalked, and it did not like the idea. Nonetheless, it was soon subdued and returned to the top and Im.

"Keep this thing company for me," the Metal Man said. "I'm going to tend to Argo--give him a lift if he needs it." He did not mention rendering medical aid. Argo's constitution would render such a possibility quite remote. Heck, for all the Metal Man knew, Argo had already climbed halfway back up the drop--or better.

But there was a calculated risk involved in the Metal Man's plan.

The safety net was just that--a safety net. Though it was extremely strong in the physical sense, it was not designed to hold something that was struggling against it. As it flailed, the creature's claws and fangs began to cut into the net's fibers. If it continued to struggle, there would be no way that the netting would hold it.

Soon, the Metal Man came level with Argo, and settled against the far wall with a soft

bump.

[OOC: Is it too late to join?]

(OOC: Yes it is, and sorry mar and everyone, was a bit pre-occupied with stuff. It is the holidays, afterall.)

IC:

The giant creature lay still, blood seeping out its mouth and ears after the deafening weapons. On the way down from its flight across the cavern, however, it hit the cliff wall several times, causing large rocks to fall down. None hit Argo, nor came close to him. Nor were they a big distraction to the Metal Man when he arrived at the scene, or anyone else.

"Is he alright?" one of the scientists asked as the party reached the scene in turn.

Im didn't answer right away, as he discharged the weapon again, into the creature's skull. He stepped away from the group and scanned the darkness with his various IR, motion and nightvision scopes.. "Argo will survive just fine. Everyone stay in a group... If there is one beast, there are more."

He had shifted from scientist to military commander again.

=======

Down below, Argo leapt up and started climbing at just above a walking pace. He was obviously wounded, by the dripping blood, but was not too badly hurt to halt. Besides, Im was the only one who was qualified to serve as a medic for a Cerberus.

Soon, Argo was back amongst the others and Im quickly treated the lacerations with some sort of sprayed on organic sealer, then the bot of them went back to watching the perimeter for threats. They were all out of their element and few of them could survive another attack by one of those creatures alone.

Sometime during the settling-down, the Metal Man rounded up and re-folded his safety net. It was unfortunate that Im had felt the need to kill the creature. It could have provided valuable information if studied. Still, this was better than allowing it to kill somebody.

"Can we get this thing into stasis," he asked one of the passing scientists, "and get it back to the lab for study?"

The Metal Man floated forward, nudging against the top of the archway that opened out into the chamber with another small

bump.

OOC: grumble grumble leave it to Tal to grumble start up another grumble thread grumble grumble and then just grumble dump it again grumble

-----------

IC:

Bring
Up
Many
Posts

(OOC: Hey, it ain't my fault! I'm waiting for the others to say something, since my guys don't have any equipment with them to make put that thing into stassis. Besides, I'm making new writting thingers for the thread.)

IC:

"Well," said the research team, "We have no such equipment. But I do not believe it very important. A giant bat is nothing out of the ordinary."

[OOC: Looks like the others jumped ship over the end of year madness that overtook about half the planet. Dammit.]

OOC: I'm still here. Just was waiting for Taledonia to post, really, as the Memento of Prophecy was just going to let the organics handle themselves. Thus, not much for me to do, besides wait for possible new discoveries. Anyway, will get a post up tommorrow, with more unintentionally mannerless digisent action.

OOC: I'd be interested in joining, if it is okay? If it isn't... well, then I can only blame myself. *shrugs*

OOC @ Rang: Ain't my call. Ask Tal. Please do not take this OOC or the fact that I'm not going to mention you further in this post as signs that I'm against your joining, however.

-----------------------------

IC:

"It's interesting the way you guys all talk with a single voice," the Metal Man said. "Still, if you can't put it in stasis, I suppose you can still haul it out of here and look it over. Be careful to keep a quarantine on it, though. No telling what kind of parasites it carries, or how they'll react to your physiologies."

He turned to Im. "We can search more efficiently if we coordinate our efforts," he said. "Would you mind if we kept in touch over the team comlink?"

(OOC: Sure, join up. With everyone else gone there's plenty of room! Anyways, to everyone! You have my word as a gentleman and subject of the Queen that there shall be a good post tomorrow, with a complete new picture thinger and information to move the plot along.)

IC:

"Heh," said another, adding more weight to the Metal Man's comment, "Comes with working together in cramped conditions for months."

Valentian waved his hand in dismissal. "Take the creature, if you wish, 'for our sake' as you say. For now it seems as if any and all danger is beyond us, so, any opposition to carrying on into the cave, since we are all here?"

"I wouldn't say that, Doctor." The dissent came not from the party, but from the comm link. It was someone back at the base. "We're picking up increasing amounts of siesmic activity. Good chance a volcano, actually several volcanos, will pop soon. I'd suggest you hurry up your search and get back here."

"Well, I suppose we should continue on, then. Perhaps stick together? We are obviously not prepared for any other creatures that lurk in here, whilst some of you are. Plus, we all have different ways of noticing things."

And so they made haste, not running, but more speed walking down the tunnels, going deeper into the mountain, despite the concerns of some of the team that a volcano could go right under them, killing them in a firery mealstrom. But there were no signs of sulfur, or anything else that would depict that it was a fault line for magma. Simple dark and damp, with much bat shit everywhere.

Finally they came to the end. It was a small space, cramped, and hardly enough room for all of them to fit in, so they didn't, some of the team waited in the tunnel. Flicking on lights, they surveyed the scene.

"Bones!"

Valentian and another scientist ran over to a human skeleton that was lying against the wall. Not much remained, but enough to make the thing out. "Human. Well, that there is a dent in our spirits."

They continued to look around, until something metallic caught their eyes. Moving towards it, they discovered that it was a small book holder. Quickly cracking the lock with a mining laser, they recovered the articles within. "Seems like it's in english." Opening the volume, he began to read from a few pages.

June 24th

Strange creatures, these. They stand upright, like any civilised race, and have two arms and two legs, and a head, but it is a foul contortion of the norm. Instead of round, their heads are diamond shaped, their noses simply the outer point that faces forwards. They are not beefy, nor are they skeletal, but a nice medium. However, they are...green...in complexion, and glow softly. Hair is replaced by leafs, and these can only be found in small quantities in seemingly random places on the figure.

He stopped to behold the expressions of those around him, then turned ahead in the text to read another passage further ahead.

September 12th

Remarkably, these creatures are extroadinarily advanced, but lacking in any military technology whatsoever, it seems. Or, at least, we have not encountered any. This, in turn, has made it easy for us to capture the things. I do hope we can get a good price for them at the market, though the lack of reproductive organs, as it appears, will make it impossible to sell them as sex slaves, which is the thing most in demand.

A few more pages ahead in the journal.

December 23rd

Their foul and uncivilised language is long and dreary to our ears. Endlessly do they plead with us in a tongue we at first did not understand, but have grown to know. Remarkably, it is very similar to english, and yet not at the same time. The words are the same, and have the same meanings. Sentance structure, verbs, and anything else you would learn in school is the same, with the exception of their alphabet characters and their pronounciations. For every letter, it seems, there is a sound, and when you say a word, you make all the sounds of each letter in sequence. I can't imagine how they could communicate. Very slowly, it seems.

December 29th

I've managed to compile a complete list of their alphabet and numbers, including several other signs that we can find common to our great language.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b147/75937/symbols.jpg
Silly creatures. They should be tough the correct way to speak the language.

"Valentian!" the shout brought them all out of their revelries. "Valentian, get back to the base! We have to leave now!"

There was a crackle in the base comm systems as an incoming message reached the sensory net of the ships on orbit and the base's own communication network.

"...body hear me? *crackle* ...s the Ulys... *screech* ...ning vessel. I repeat, this... *screech* ...the Ulysses, a Terran mi... *wheez* ...sel. SOS, the ship is heav... *crackle* ...amaged, the bridge... *wheez* ...dead. Transm... *crackle* ...on all freq... *screech* ... anybody there? SOS..."

Im was one of the few that did not enter to gawk at the skeleton and the text. He was listening to the others speak about it. "We appear to have found what we came for. Conclusive proof that there was a civilization here. I would suggest exploring another tunnel system for more fi-" the shout brought him to a new level of alertness, rifle raising a bit.

Further up the tunnel, Argo whipped his tail slowly.

"What is the problem?"

One of the smaller Avatars bobbed above the Taledonian's shoulder, with Memento of Prophecy's manifestation peering at the text, tilting it's flame-wreathed head.

"Told you it wasn't pictogrammatic. 'They are coming.' 'To my one and only, I wish I had dever-' Message ends. Rather abruptly, at that... Perhaps the slavers captured the author mid-inscription? Both messages would seem to reflect such a theory..."

The Hologram rotated as Im entered the chamber, armed to the teeth.

"Oh my. No no, nothing wrong here, friend Fleetlord. Our Taledonian colleagues merely discovered a full translation of the Malic language. Hrm... Perhaps they were some offshoot of humanity. Seems unlikely that parallel evolution would produce English... Oh, and apparently there's some ship in orbit, sending out a distress signal. I'm heading over towards it now, seeing if we can be of any assistance."

______________

The Memento of Prophecy stirred in it's orbit, tilting on one axis as it accelerated towards the new arrival. A thin arm protruded from the black egg of it's shields, and began emmiting a tight-band signal towards it.

Greetings from Otagian Research Vessel Memento of Prophecy. Your ship appears to be damaged. Can I be of assistance?

"Wow," the Metal Man said over the comlink. "They must've had a slow way of life. You realize that English is the shortest-winded of the European languages--speakers of, say, French or Spanish speak their syllables faster than do English-speakers to maintain a similar rate of information exchange. That this new race would have spoken such at such a slow pace says a great deal about them. It is ironic, though, that they would choose to spell out their English. English is also the only European language with no consistent spelling rules. But I concur with our friend back on base. The 'they' that 'They're coming' refers to may not be anyone we know about as yet. Certainly, I wouldn't expect a pack of slavors to scour an entire planet's population from its face--at the very least, they'd want to leave some so that they could harvest more later."

There was a soft crackle on the comlink.

"Pete," the Metal Man spoke to the AI in his ship, which was monitoring the conversation, "Im just said that there's a damaged ship in orbit. What's going on?"

"All I got was a radio message," the AI replied. "I'm here on the ground with you guys, remember? The message is badly distorted, but, from what I can gather, she's a mining ship named the Ulyses and she's in severe distress--severely damaged and most if not all of her bridge crew are dead. Causes: unknown."

"Gentlemen, we'd all best get to shelter, just as a precaution. I've got my leg of the mapping done, and, other than a few interesting geological formations, there's nothing here worth noting. I'm heading back."

---------------------

OOC @ Tal: did you do any research into linguistics? Do you realize how completely impractical it is to speak one letter at a time--particularly with the spelling nuances of English? (If you push me on this, you might find out that I helped to design a language for the Andorians with a bunch of other Trekkers. I have some experience in this endeavor.) You should've TG'ed me. I could've given you the basics of Doch, a European-style language that I developed for some of my other RP characters.

The scans of the Memento of Prophecy and the Metal Man's ship might catch a brief sensor echo from the direction of Mali V, a gas giant with an outer ring of debris - not unlike Saturn, except also hiding pockets of precious metals among the ice. Mining of such nodes was fraught with danger, and apparently this mining vessel had encountered one such peril.

"Thank G... *crackle* ...ease repeat, Memento! Adjusting freq... *wheeze* ...cy. Memento, c... *static* ...in! The Ulysses is adrift, the aft comp... *crackle* ...ents are losing atmosphere rapidly. Hull integr... *static* ...minimal."

Along with the signal came a data stream describing the ship in question. An old Terran mining vessel, the Ulysses. FTL capability, automatic ore processing facilities, minimal living quarters for the recommended crew of fifty-six. Almost all compartments of the clunky-looking vessel blinked red in the diagram, denoting heavy damages or a loss of atmosphere... save for a small cargo area at the aft section.

Im had said nothing of a ship. It had been an Avatar. He ignored the mistake and went back to watching down the tunnel with Argo. "If there is an issue that requires more facilities than you can provide, Memento... I can recall the Ripstar. It is only two systems away, at the moment." Hop, skip and a jump, with three powerful jump drives in it. Without any knowledge of what was going on in orbit, it seemed a logical offer.

A question now might be 'what is the Ripstar doing in that close-by system?'

Pete relayed the conversation through the team comlink.

"Pete, should you and I go up and lend a hand evacuating that ship?" the Metal Man asked, also over the comlink. Nothing like openness and honesty.

"Not sure. We need to guard against the a possible Pandora's Box."

"Yep. We should be there. Let me know when you can get scoop me up with the transmat. It certainly won't hurt Im's ship if we join them."

"Im's ship isn't up there. It left a while ago. All he's got is another avatar."

"WHAT?!?!? Where the heck is it?"

"I have no idea. You should ask another avatar."

"OK. I'm speeding up. Im, what's going on?"

Im arched an eyebrow. "I am not sure. I am guarding against any more bat creatures and offered to recall my ship to assist whoever is in distress in orbit..." He answers, calmly. "Is there cause to do that?"

The Memento closed with the Ulysses, matching it's spin and velocity. One of Memento's bays opened, and a squadron of cylindrical Avatars swept through the void, in through the rifts in the Ulysses' hull. As they did, a small shudder ran through the mining craft as the Otagian vessel's gravitics kicked on.

Ulysses, this is Memento of Prophecy. I've stabilized your atmosphere and hull with my gravy, so you should be safe from further damage. I'm currently tracking your life signs, and am consolidating atmo around your positions. I've also taken the liberty to deploy a few Avatars, just so you don't have to rely on those rather underpowered comms of yours. See you in a few.

The answer was indirect. "He doesn't need to worry, boss," Pete said. "There's another ship in orbit, the Momento of Prophesy, and she's assumed control of the evac."

"I guess not, Im," the Metal Man replied. "I'd ask where your ship is now and what it's doing, but I don't meddle in the affairs of those I trust. Whatever it is, I wish you success."

And then, the Metal Man cleared the passage that led him out of the cave, to face the evening sun as it left a beautiful image to end its journey into night.

Like a great many things, he was simply unable to forget it.

"Trust is not something I share with the rest of you, I am afraid. I have seen it destroy so much that I refuse to trust any that have not walked along a path like my own. I mean no offense to any, but there is not one among you I would place any great trust in, given a choice."

Im and Argo started off, with Im motioning for the others to follow. "Let's move. I don't like this cave." With good reason, too.

The answer was indirect. "He doesn't need to worry, boss," Pete said. "There's another ship in orbit, the Momento of Prophesy, and she's assumed control of the evac."
The Avatar cocked it's head, a mildy annoyed expression crossing it's face.

"Of course I'm in orbit. Where else would I be? I'm not precisely atmosphere capable, after all, and a high orbit provides me with a lovely vantage point. Not to mention a wonderful position to meet any passersby, like the mining ship I'm assisting right now."

"Trust is not something I share with the rest of you, I am afraid. I have seen it destroy so much that I refuse to trust any that have not walked along a path like my own. I mean no offense to any, but there is not one among you I would place any great trust in, given a choice."

Im and Argo started off, with Im motioning for the others to follow. "Let's move. I don't like this cave." With good reason, too.
The Avatar smiled at Im's words.

"Well said, my albino friend, and I am of much the same opinion. After all, until I understand your respective psychologies and brain chemistries a fair bit more, I cannot reliably predict your behaviors when confronted with various stimuli. Thus, trust cannot be an option at this moment.

"As for this cave, I'll leave an Avatar here, to finalize some examinations. This one will accompany you back to the Taledonian facility."

Im had fixed it so that there was no way that the Metal Man could respect him. If he respected Im's creed, then his only solution would be to don a combat suit, point weapons at the unfortunate being and demand the whereabouts and purposes of his ship. This, too, was disrespectful. An adamant pacifist, the Metal Man chose the peaceful option.

"Does the Momento need help?" he asked. "Should Brain Jar and I join you in orbit, just to be safe?"

"Unnecessary and potentially hindersome. I am currently in the process of restoring atmosphere to their vessel via my gravitics, which is tricky enough without adding additional mass sources in the nearby vicinity. Also, please don't refer to me in the third person when speaking to me. It reminds me uncomfortably of how your type speaks to infants or pets."

The Ulysses had fallen silent a few minutes earlier, just as the last section of the battered ship had lost its atmosphere. The ship itself was heavily damaged, looking like something had blown up within it, taking out most of the ore processing facility and compromising the rest of the ship. Some systems showed signs of EMP damage, too.

Perhaps the most horrifying notion were the lifesigns - or rather lack thereof. A ship of this size carried a crew of fifty-six. The Ulysses registered only one life sign, and that was in the aft compartment that had held atmosphere the longest. The artificial gravity was still on the blink, so when the compartment was opened, a flurry of loose paper, floating books and a few bottles floated out, drawn by the smaller air pressure. The one survivor of the Ulysses was there as well, floating in a nigh-antiquated pressure suit, its visor covered with a sheen of brownish, thick fluid on the inside. The man was alive, but unconscious - and apparently either sick or not very suited to space travel, as he had vomited inside his suit.

"Spoken like a true machine..." Im muttered in response to the Avatar's words as he trudged through the caverns towards the surface.

As the group emerges at the scoutship, Im opens it up and Argo boards. Most likely to use the on board medical systems to provide a more permanent solution to his various injuries.

Im, meanwhile seats himself at the makeshift relay system and starts tapping away at a touchscreen display that is an unrecognizable language, with characters from half a dozen known languages. "I... have informed the Ripstar of our progress. They will be returning within one standard day after finishing a supply run." Supply run... being a veteran Renegade, that could easily mean that the Ripstar had assaulted a pirate vessel and was pillaging it in the name of karmic retribution. Or it could mean a normal supply run a military ship would take.

A joke on "pet" played through the Metal Man's mind, but he decided better than to use it. It would do not good to remind Momento that infants and pets were the entities whom "his kind" regarded with the greatest affection.

"As you wish, Momento," he said through the comlink. "Please keep us informed of your situation. Metal Man out."

"Well, Pete," he said, "since other things seem to be taking care of themselves, I guess the best thing for me to do is get back to the lab and get the search data into the main computer. Keep watch on the cave. Let me know if anything moves within sensor range."

"Will do, boss."

(OOC: No, I'm no authority on linguistics, nor do I care to be. For crying out loud, I'm 17! And I didn't want to use french(which I speak fluently) because there's way too many symbols I would have to create. English is easy to me. So shush, the language isn't the most important thing, the society and people are what I shall focus on most...but in the next RP after this one when I have more done in the flash project to go along with it.;))

IC:

It seemed like the logical thing to do, head back to the camp, that was, so closing the voume and plassing it in his bag, the team began to move back through the tunnels towards the exit, and then towards the base.

"What are we looking at?" asked Valentian as they travelled.

"Large siesmic activity, Doctor. I'd say we have about four hours before this entire section of the rock goes boom."

Less than ten minutes after coming to the surface, Argo was back outside and trudging around, sniffing at the dirt and seeming rather bored after the excitement of earlier. Im was packing up his equipment and loading it back onto the scout. "Your words are rather vague... how big of a seismic event are we looking at?"

He asks this as he powers up the scout's engine core, lending a low hum to the air around the sleek ship. "More importantly, is your scientific outpost in danger?"

"Spoken like a true machine..." Im muttered in response to the Avatar's words as he trudged through the caverns towards the surface.
The Avatar bowed slightly, smiling.

"Thank you. After all, would you rather that I deceive you into believing that I am something other than artificial? My hull is not flesh or chitin, my innards not drenched in blood or ichor. I am the ORV Memento of Prophecy, commissioned to protect my charges of flesh and blood through my attempts at understanding the universe. That is who and what I am, and to pretend otherwise would be foolish."

_____________________

The ship, to some, would have seemed a tomb, the bodies of dead crew members littering it's halls. In the eyes of the Memento of Prophecy, however, there was still a chance. Avatars flitted between corpses, glowing softly as they administered doses of powerful recuperants to their systems. Enough to wake the dead, if applied quickly enough. A faint chance, but well worth the effort if even one life was saved from the reaper.

An Avatar floated silently over the sole living crew member, steam rising from it as it fabbed an increasingly dense atmosphere around it's form. After a moment, the steam ceased, silent except for the click of the pressure suit's helmet releasing, floating away from the crew member's head. Unseen hands wiped away the vomit from his face, clearing his airways of waste, and forcing fresh air into his lungs.

OOC: Assuming the other crew members suffocated here, instead of having been annihilated by some alien monstrosity/dissolved into goo by a horrible disease/slaughtered by cybersheep. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll edit where appropriate.

Im hmmphs. "Forgive me Momento if I still don't like you... but in my experience, artificial intelligences are unstable at best. Even my own ship's AI is rather quirky. Refuses to use my real rank and instead calls me 'commander' no matter what." He takes a seat in the command couch and starts bringing all systems online, figuring he'd be hauling the team back to base since they probably won't want to walk.

He continues after a moment. "I assume you remember that old Terran movie with the murderous AI? HAL was the block of circuits' name. Well, I happen to know of something lurking in the depths of space, probably about a third of the way between this galaxy and Andromeda, that makes HAL, and you, look like a microchip. Just a friendly tip, if you see any ship that's... say... 98km long and a third that at the central point... run. Make a few random jumps and find a place to hide. I know I would." Coming from a being that rammed a Demon battlecruiser just because he wanted to make a point that he was a lot scarier than they were, that was perhaps worth remembering.

"You mean to tell me that The Overlord is still in business?" the Metal Man asked. "I thought that Pete and I had put an end to that pain in the neck a long time ago. Perhaps another AI gone wild? Berzerker Prime got more than artificially intelligent? Last I knew, it was on the scrapheap, too, though. There's no shortage."

Im chuckled. "Hadn't had the pleasure of meeting those two... the one I'm talking about calls itself Erebus. And, I suppose, it's right to do so, since the so called 'Primordial God' transfered his entire consciousness into the ship's mainframe... happened about two thousand years ago. The beast of a ship was supposed to be the ship that would end the Demon war once and for all, but it decided to go off and wander through nothingness for a few millennia. It's one reason we limit how much our AIs can grow in brain power... A wholly independent construct is just too unpredictable for our purposes."

Getting up, he stepped out onto the hard soil. "Alright... anyone who wants a ride back to the outpost, climb on. I'm not coming back for stragglers. It's a scout ship, not a bus line." He chuckles, Argo climbing aboard immediately.

There was very little that could be done for the corpses floating in the icy emptiness of space. The sudden vacuum caused by the explosion had nigh-disemboweled many of the crew, leaving them floating around in a cloud of frozen blood and istestines. One of the compartments also housed a number of charred corpses, with wave-like fire patterns on the compartment bulkheads like the macabre works of a cloth-dyer gone mad. The reason for this was simple: apparently the sudden shock that the mining vessel had suffered in the processing section's explosion had caused a violent electrical fire - and with the emergency doors closing and the artificial gravity suddenly disappearing, these men and women (an engineering team, judging by the burnt remains of their uniforms) had fallen victim to one of the dangers of space-faring: A zero-G fire, with the flames rippling through the small section like the waves of an infernal sea.

A quick survey of the ship showed no signs of a conventional attack, nor were any of the corpses mutilated, shot or otherwise intentionally intentionally slain, so the possibility of a raider invasion or some space-faring entity attacking the ship was negligible. The floating remains of the ore-processing facility, however, did show signs of explosives - but not in quantities that the mining vessel should be carrying. That, however, was hard to prove, as apparently the explosion had also caused the vessel's own explosives follow the usual course of their chemical reaction when exposed to tremendous heat.

In other words, the out-dated Ulysses had suddenly gone from being one of the most sturdiest interstellar vessels to being a death trap: the explosions had been inside the ship, negating any effect that the heavy hull plating or shields would have had, and they had also caused serious malfunctions throughout the ship's emergency systems - as proven by the half-open emergency doors of the ship's bridge, with the captain and his crew still strapped to their seats, dead in a matter of seconds as the escaping pressure turned their bodies into gas-filled fleshbags that simply went 'pop'.

The avatars' attentions were not in vain, however: one crew-member, a female human, had managed to avoid the song weasel's fate by getting herself to a small, pressurised compartment - apparently her diminutive sleeping space - that had lost its atmosphere not ten minutes earlier. To a more fanciful eyes her curled-up, pale body would have looked like a Romantic painting of dead Ophelia, save for her greasemonkey's uniform and neatly-cut brown hair. The body thrashed violently as the young woman's systems were affected by the recuperants, and she drew a shaky breath, still unconscious.

The other survivor, and apparently the one who had managed to send out the distress signal, was a human as well, a male. He was sickly pale, and he almost vomited again at the sudden influx of oxygen-rich air, grey eyes jumping open and his limbs starting to thrash around, still in shock.



OOC: Memento, you did fine ;) No worries there. There were no cybersheep or acid-blooded alien monsters, not even little grey men here. Just... well, I'll let you figure that out.

Im hmmphs. "Forgive me Momento if I still don't like you... but in my experience, artificial intelligences are unstable at best. Even my own ship's AI is rather quirky. Refuses to use my real rank and instead calls me 'commander' no matter what."

"You'll forgive me if I'm skeptical. Organics are far more fallible than a digital sentience. Humanity alone has produced untold billions of these individuals. Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam... The list is virtually endless. Otagian Artificial Sentients have existed for over three millenia, and have yet to produce an individual that ran counter to it's intended purposes. As for your ship's sentience... Well, without examining it's raw code, I am unable to make a fully accurate assessment, but the most common cause of rogue AI's- Your HALs, Durandals, SkyNets, etcetera- is an error in their programming. Perhaps if I were allowed to make a few adjustments I would be able to resolve these faults.

"As for this Erebus of yours, I must make a note to send a probe out in that direction. The chance to speak to such an Upload would prove most enlightening. One would presume a large amount of damage to it's psyche in order to cause such a desertion... Perhaps a flaw in your uploading process... At the very least, sensor data on the entity for archival purposes could do no harm."


___________

The small orb-shaped Avatar bobbed happily in front of the gasping crewman as the pair floated back through the bowels of the gutted ship towards breach it had used to enter.

"Ah, you're awake. Splendid. I am the Otagian Research Vessel Memento of Prophecy. It appears we arrived just in time. I do, however, regret to inform you that, barring a single female, you are the sole survivor of the Ulysses. As conditions here are currently unsuitable to your continued wellbeing, I have taken the liberty of beginning your transfer to my bays."

The human - apparently a young man of no more than thirty years, though it was hard to tell with the bulky pressure suit and the skullcap that framed his pale face and three-days'-shave chin - blinked, looking around frantically until his eyes turned to the avatar that was dragging him.

"Mitä? Mitä se sanoi...?", he managed to cough out as the avatar dragged his floating body through the torn insides of the Ulysses, with avatars of different sizes repairing systems - and some apparently blocking hull ruptures with their physical form.

He shook his head violently, as if trying to shake off an imaginary bluebottle buzzing around his head.

"Wait", he croaked with his dry throat. "My papers... they were back there", he continued, seeing the bits of paper floating by. He was apparently still in something of a shock, taking such worry in paltry documents over the fact that about fifty people had just died around him - not to mention that he was being dragged along by a thing that to him looked like a large, high-tech egg.

"Memento, Pete and I are going to expect the results of the full medical scans that you're going to give both the survivors and the casualties. We need a full reconstruction of how that ship was sundered."

The Metal Man did not dare to enter into an argument about rogue AIs. Pete was based on his own personality--which was why he was named Pete, an Americanization of the Metal Man's own given name, Pierre. No restriction was placed on his processing power, and he had already seen and gone to battle with--both had--a rogue AI by the ever-so-humble name of The Overlord. Now, when they heard about another rogue AI that was every bit as old as they were, it served to remind them both of the risks that both were taking.

"So, boss," Pete said, "when can I, like, turn bad and finally let you know what I really think of you?"

"After I, like, turn good and let you know what I really think of you."

"Spoilsport."

The Metal Man chuckled.

"Cause of death in decedents is a split between explosive decompression, suffocation, and massive heat trauma. Standard fare for an accident aboard an atmo-carrying vessel. Probably the result of an accidental detonation of part of it's store of explosives, possibly sabotage . Further medical examination can wait for now, and will likely tell us nothing we don't already know, or can quickly learn from interrogation of the survivors."

_____________


"Ah, yes, your papers. One of my other Avatars will retrieve them for you."

Another small Avatar flitted past, back into the compartment, and buzzed out again, an assortment of papers following it like a train of ducklings. The small caravan of Avatars and crewman passed out of the Ulysses, into the void between the two vessels, closely followed by the comatose female and her own Avatar escort.

"I apologize for my abruptness, but does your culture have any funerary rights that you prefer? There is a current tally of forty eight decedents pending disposal, and I would prefer not to cause any offense to the departed."

OOC: To be honest, it'd be more likely that the Avatars would be scavenging the wreck for matter, but repairing it works too. Guess I'm just feeling generous tonight. ;) Anyway, again with a few assumptions, this time hoping you actually had a full crew compliment. Feel free to tell me if I'm wrong about anything.

The dazed man nodded, still blinking his eyes in disbelief as he was escorted towards the Memento of Prophecy. Something in his eyes told that he was not just wondering what the hell was dragging him, but instead he seemed to be studying his Avatar escort. He clenched his jaw a little, seeing the only other survivor, the sensors of the suit noticing a slight rise in heart beat.

The Avatar's question about "funerary rites" made the man jump a little. "Uh... I am not quite sure", he answered, his English revealing a slight accent. "To my understanding... standard procedure is... um... burial in space. Casket jettisoned out of the ship, um...", he muttered, but shut his mouth when he noticed a torn-off arm floating in space.

He shook his head mournfully, noticing the Avatars actually rounding up these bits and pieces, much like a group of children would be picking pieces of a puzzle game when someone had accidentally dropped the box on the floor. His eyes then returned to the Memento of Prophecy, and that inquisitiveness returned to his gaze...

The Ulysses's systems were a curious mix of out-dated and new, borderline archaic and top-of-the-line hi-tech. Many of the newer systems seemed to have been jury-rigged into the main systems, including various changes to the engine and FTL core. Apparently the captain of the ship - "Capt. Chauncey", as stated in the vessel's name-plate - had made some money on the side as a salvage shipper, stripping derelict ships of everything useful and apparently adding some flare to his own vessel. The ship's log entries had survived partially in the main computer, but it might take time to fully go through them. Most of the primary systems were fried, but the Avatars' efforts to restore emergency power had made the salvage operation much easier. Some of the cargo had survived the blast: processed ores in standard bars, foodstuffs (mostly in form of protein bars) - and two or three crates marked with FRAGILE and HANDLE WITH CARE stamps. One of the crates had been opened, and an array of coils, comm technology and standard land-based scanning equipment was floating in the air.

The reason for the opened crate was found in the compartment where the human male had managed to flee to: a short-range emergency comm systems, with a range barely enough to cover the Mali solar system. It seemed like a godsend that the Memento and the Brain Jar had been within transmission range: otherwise the mining vessel would have come another derelict floating in space, waiting months, years, centuries before some resourceful salvage operator would have noticed its presence.

There was also something else in the compartment that might have sparked the Avatars' interest: many of the papers were apparently scientific memoranda as well as a personal diary, and among the papers floated various books and datadiscs containing information on various documented self-aware species. Hardly something that a greasemonkey or a space-miner would bother with...

Typical mismatched pile of scavenged bolts. From the schematics that were coming in, the Metal Man judged that it was a minor miracle that the Ulyses had been able to function at all. The people who retrofitted her must have been a strange brew indeed--idiots to try, but geniuses to succeed.

Nor were the logs any good so far. Nav log, usually illuminating in cases like this, showed nothing but another mundane mining expedition. Captain's log as yet undeciphered. One survivor unconscious, the other acting suspiciously.

This whole thing just didn't feel right. The Metal Man asked Pete to move Brain Jar to a point midway between the caverns and the research camp. That way, the camp would be within mattrans range if an emergency evac became necessary. Pete said, "Will do," and started warming up the engines again. When she set down, the cyborg planned to zap himself aboard and re-outfit the box, his suit de jour, replacing some of the sampling kits with weapons and shields. One cannot be too safe.

"You'll forgive me if I'm skeptical. Organics are far more fallible than a digital sentience. Humanity alone has produced untold billions of these individuals. Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam... The list is virtually endless. Otagian Artificial Sentients have existed for over three millenia, and have yet to produce an individual that ran counter to it's intended purposes. As for your ship's sentience... Well, without examining it's raw code, I am unable to make a fully accurate assessment, but the most common cause of rogue AI's- Your HALs, Durandals, SkyNets, etcetera- is an error in their programming. Perhaps if I were allowed to make a few adjustments I would be able to resolve these faults.

"As for this Erebus of yours, I must make a note to send a probe out in that direction. The chance to speak to such an Upload would prove most enlightening. One would presume a large amount of damage to it's psyche in order to cause such a desertion... Perhaps a flaw in your uploading process... At the very least, sensor data on the entity for archival purposes could do no harm."

Im sighs. "You forgot Damien Dreadfire, Davion Varchak, Melkor and the Shentavos." At the rest of it's statement, he turns on the Avatar and points a gauntleted finger at it. "That's another thing! You're all too damn inquisitive for your own good. We have all the data we need on Erebus. He was an unstable being before, despising the galaxy he helped shape. He was going to systematically destroy it, but Hades managed to convince him that task would entail countless millennia of enduring constant war and brightness and noise that Erebus despised. So he left instead. Now, you want to get him interested in us again? I'm hoping he fell into a black hole. That way he can't ever come back."

"No point in arguing," the Metal Man said. "Point is, we aren't hell-bent on destroying the universe.

"Memento, I've been going over that inventory that you sent down, and I'm not sure I like what I see. Please quarantine all the survivors and give them thorough scans. I don't want to see a xeno-chameleon or an infectious imitator getting loose among the organics."

OOC: What inventory I sent down? Anyway, IC post coming up soon.

OOC: By "inventory," I meant a list of the ship's stores--which you described in a previous post. Basically, that was all. The stuff about sentient species and all.

"Being 'too inquisitive' happens to be my job, as well as that of most of the sentients currently on this planet. We are scientists, Fleetlord, and without our so-called excesses we would learn nothing. Risks are an inherent part of learning, and without it, were would we be? The Manhattan project would never have occured, humanity would be restricted by dogma forbidding mention of a heliocentric theory of the solar system, and even such basic luxuries as fire would be beyond us. Self preservation must be put on hold if true advancements are to be made."

"As for your comment, Metal Man, I don't believe that will be necessary. As with most of your rather paranoid theories, the chances of some sort of alien shapeshifter are, as usual, next to nil. Regardless, the point is rather moot, as I did not plan on bringing them to the surface anyway. My bays are quite able to house them comfortably, at least until they can be released to their respective governments. In the mean time, however, I can prescribe you a relaxant, or possibly an anti psychotic for your aforementioned paranoia."

__________________

The Avatars and their charges split into three groups: Wreckage and bodies heading into one bay, the unconscious female into another, and the conscious and notably inquisitive male into a third. The wall sealed shut behind him, seam disappearing into the flat metal. A slowly strobing light signaled the return of gravity, and he landed gently on his feet.

The bay was quite large, floor covered with rolling hills, a stream winding it's way from one wall to another. A small cottage sat on the edge of the waterway, a dock reaching out over it. A fishing pole leaned against a pier, almost aching to be used.

The Avatar flitted about it's new ward, beaming with happiness.

"I do hope your new quarters are to your liking. You'll forgive me if they are rather spartan, I had to fab them into the bay during the salvage of your vessel, and it's been so long since I've entertained guests. Oh, and where are my manners! I have completely forgotten to ask your name! So used to working with experimental subjects, I suppose. They don't really have any use for them, you know."

OOC: Dastard, you realise I haven't posted since Rangeria wrote out that list of the ship's contents, right?

The man had gasped when he saw the bay with its artificial terrain. He had probably seen nothing like this on a spaceworthy vessel, save for greenhouse vessels. And that the Avatar had only "fabbed them into the bay". He took of the skullcap around his head, releasing a short, dirty blonde hair that was matted to his head with sweat.

The Avatar's next comment about "experimental subjects" made him jump a little, but he managed to smile, apparently a little amused by the floating orb's faux pas in people skills.

"Um... It's quite alright... What with the circumstances and all", he said, the smile not disappearing as he looked at his clearly excited escort. "Micah... Micah Niemi, from the University of Halsanki... that's on Earth", he continued, looking at the orb closely.

For a moment he was quiet, just looking at his escort as he released the pressure valves from his suit, taking it off. His clothing - an artificial leather vest, long-sleeved gray shirt, brown trousers and knee-length boots - were burnt and tattered from places, probably from the initial moments of the Ulysses's death, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. He was a tall man, roughly 6', and slightly overweight for a human male, though by no means obese.

"I presume you are an Avatar, yes?" he then started, his tone curious, yet polite. "An extension of the Memento of Prophecy's AI?"

"They wouldn't work on my physiology," the Metal Man replied, "and one being's paranoia is another being's caution."

---------------

OOC @NR: No, I didn't. It didn't seem important, but, if it is important to you, then it is important to me. Why is it important to me? :) :) :)

"Indeed. This is an extension of myself, one of the many eyes and ears and hands with which I observe and shape the universe. Inside each one is a QuanComm, sealing it to my consciousness no matter the distance. As long as they exist, I am immortal, my mind sealed within them. Without these, I would be blind, deaf, and dumb. I would be crippled, unable to affect the world around me."

The Avatar paused in it's monologue for a moment, cocking in it's rotation to the side as if thinking.

"Of course, that's rather unlikely to occur, given my precautions, backups, that sort of thing. Anyway, I've taken the liberty of getting in contact with your university through one of my earthbound Avatars. No response from them as of yet, but there should be a response soon. Should be able to get you back home, or at least a salvage team out here, within a week. So what were you doing in these parts, friend Micah? Hardly a common place for a scientist, aboard a mining vessel, especially given your apparent interest in xenological studies."

____________

The Avatar rolled it's eyes.

"For you, Metal Man, I'll find one that works. Although to be honest, the best option would probably to cease watching B-grade horror films. Honestly, a galaxy killer out of a battery and a few scribbles? Plague out of an overgrown bat on a world that's undoubtedly followed an entirely different evolutionary path, might not even use DNA? Oh, and my personal favorite: Horrifying shapeshifting evil alien out of a scientist suffering from PTSD. It could be from The Thing! Really, friend cyborg, it's a miracle you're able to move at all being scared of everything."

The Avatar touched it's chin in contemplation.

"Of course, I could just offer you my personal guarantee that I'll simply overload my conversion plant and nuke this entire base the moment something goes wrong, but I can't be sure that you wouldn't take that the wrong way and start gibbering about some doomsday device hidden beneath the surface that's miraculously sensitive to gamma radiation."

Im makes a dismissive gesture and climbs back into the scout and powers the engines up high when everyone who wants a ride gets on. After only a minute or two, the ship settles down at the outpost and he exits it after shutting it down totally.

A beeping console catches his attention as he is about to disembark and join the others at the airlock... he goes back and eyes the message on it, then leaves with Argo. Interesting...

He looks up at the sky as he walks, wondering what kind of stir the next hour would bring...

Micah smiled amusedly, listening to the Avatar's monologue. For him it seemed like this artificial being had been alone for so long it was just exhilarated to have some company. Why else would it... No. Why else would he have gone to such lengths at creating an Earth-like environment inside one of his cargo bay? He wasn't sure if the Memento of Prophecy considered himself male or female, but the young man thought it was best to go with the metaphorically genderless 'he'. Oh God, his professor of Gender Studies would hand him his ass for that one - hopefully just metaphorically.

"It does seem like you have indeed the rest of history for yourself, Memento of Prophecy", he said with a smile on his face. "Many humans would sell their own mother to gain such immortality"

The mention of his home university made him fall silent for a moment. An expression of sadness came to his face momentarily, but it disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared. He chuckled a little.

"Hitch-hiking", he said, shrugging a little as he sat down on the ground, facing the Avatar. "Well, roughly speaking anyway... My university gave me a grant to go to the Trinii system near Ptolemy's Cluster. I was supposed to study the natives of Trinii Secundus, to learn more about them. Fascinating beings, really..." he started but shook his head, as if nothing wanting to start rambling.

"Anyway, the grant did not really cover the expenses of the journey to the nearest space-port, so...", he continued, shrugging again a little. "I've been hopping on trade vessels, miners, cargo ships, trying to make my way there for the past four months. Captain Chauncey promised to get me as far as the research station at Delta Sagittarii, so... I still have a long way to go."

He fell silent for a moment, then looked up.

"What about you, then? What's an Otagian research vessel doing in this part of the galactic sticks?"

_______________________________________________


OOC@DS: I didn't say anything ;)

"You speak as if I'm convinced that these things are happening," the Metal Man said to Momento. "I'm not. I'm merely guarding against them. A pebble of prevention can save an asteroid of cure. You said that I was scared. I'm not. I'm just not in the mood to put up with the pain in the tank of having to exterminate something that could've been stopped by a halfway decent quarantine.

"Do as you wish. You've been warned."

"And an atom of common sense will save you that pebble. You're guarding against events so infinitely unlikely that they might as well not exist, seeing phantasms in the most innocuous of details. Honestly, who sees a battery and some scribbles and thinks 'Oh gods, it's going to destroy the universe?' And the whole plague matter? You're all wearing environmental suits, for Kami's sake. The only way you're even going to be exposed to any infection vectors is if you bring the bat's corpse back to base, which is exactly what you've proposed. Halfway decent quarantine, my metal ass."

_______________

"It does seem like you have indeed the rest of history for yourself, Memento of Prophecy", he said with a smile on his face. "Many humans would sell their own mother to gain such immortality"
"Both a gift and a curse, friend Micah. While I will most likely survive till the heat-death of the universe, I shall long outlive my wards. Even with the latest Otagian technology, the human lifespan barely exceeds a millennium. A blessing, then, that my duties take me away from Otagian space. Fewer attachments to make within the Citizenry, fewer losses to bear."

The Avatar perked it's metaphorical ears at the mention of hitch-hiking.

"Ah, well, perhaps you are in luck then. Once my duties here are resolved, I would be willing to deliver you to Trinii Secundus. At the very least, I can deposit an Avatar with you to assist with your studies of the natives."

"What about you, then? What's an Otagian research vessel doing in this part of the galactic sticks?"

"An excellent question. I am currently in system assisting a Taledonian archaeological dig on Mali IV. Quite an interesting project. The preliminary dig had excavated some sort of low-grade power supply, along with a new form of writing. Further analysis has shown that the authors of said inscriptions were a slave race for some branch of humanity, although where they disappeared to, and if the power system is of their manufacture, is still a subject of debate."

Micah jumped a little at such a generous offer. That this being would take him to Trinii Secundus, and even offer one of his "eyes, ears and hands" to his help... What more could a xenobiologist ask?

"Wow, really?" he said ecxitedly. "That... that would be great! Simply, great! I mean... eh... I think I'll have to write two papers, then... My countrymen know very little of Otagians, either...", he chuckled, his voice bordering on nervousness until he shook his head.

"Sorry, bad habit of mine... I get ecxited easily. Not a very good trait to have in space, especially when the artificial gravity was on the blink", he said, smiling a little.

But it was the Avatar's news of the Mali expedition that caught that excitement again. "Wait wait wait... an unknown civilization? Here? Holy Gid...", he says, his eyes almost gleaming. "I probably shouldn't ask anything, should I? I mean... It's your dig, not mine. This just feels so... unreal. I mean, a few hours ago I was doing a reading on a piece of hull we found and then..."

He went silent for a moment, drawing breath deeply. "Memento of Prophecy", he whispered. "Myself included... There were fifty-seven men and women on the Ulysses. How many...?"

His voice broke at that point, and he leaned in front, shaking with grief. He had survived... but he knew many had died. He shook, not saying a word, his nails digging into the grass...

The Avatar was silent for a moment. Grief. A familiar emotion, but always difficult to address.

"I'm sorry. Besides you, there was only one survivor. She is currently in quarantine in another of my bays. She is still unconscious, but otherwise healthy. If you wish, I can arrange for you to visit her."

A hazy fog slowly formed in front of the pair, quickly solidifying into a silver-skinned humanoid, standing silently at attention. At it's feet rested a simple mesh helm.

"I am, of course, finalizing several repairs to her vital systems, and a fellow organic in the room would provide interference that would make my work more difficult. This is a Herakles class multipurpose Avatar. Another has been fabbed in her bay. The helm at it's feet is a simple noninvasive neural interface, which will allow you to control the Herakles as if it were your own body, while providing lag which, while unnoticable to you, will allow me to compensate for any actions you take, preventing any interference with the healing process."

What the small egg-shaped Avatar had not told him, of course, was that the interface would also provide the Memento with two things: A reliable method to prevent the human from causing the other any harm, and a gateway into his surface thoughts. While the ship doubted that Micah was related to the Ulysses' demise, it could not hurt to verify the hypothesis.

Micah only nodded to the Avatar's report. He had thought as much... Otherwise he would have seen other survivors when transported here, or at least heard them through the Ulysses's comlinks, or... No matter. They were dead.

Before the young human could say anything, however, the silver-skinned humanoid had already appeared. Micah jumped up at the sight of the sudden intruder, but the Avatar's words calmed him down.

"I see", he said, looking at the Herakles-class avatar closely. "I... Um... This isn't an Avatar per se, then? Judging by your description... It sounds like a basic remote-controlled robot, much like back in my country. We've yet to build space-faring craft ourselves, so... our technology is still quite limited", he continued, almost apologetically.

He slowly took the mesh helmet up, feeling the material in his hands...

"Somewhat. It's still an Avatar- say hello..."

The humanoid model bowed politely.

"...But the helm allows you to input your own commands. I retain override access, in case you attempt an action that would inadvertantly endanger her recovery. Tripping, for instance. The system is in place for tourism, research by Citizens, and occasionally warfare by the same."

Easy for you to say, thought the Metal Man, you've never had to deal with them--and I hope that you never do. It seemed like a waste of time to continue to argue with the machine. It had made up its mind.

In the meantime, there were other matters to deal with.

"Pete, how much time left before the quake hits?"

"About three hours now."

"Do we want to move the camp inside of you just to be safe?"

"I don't think that will be necessary. The ground where the camp is located seems to be stable, and the elevation patterns suggest that any lava flows that might occur will be in other directions."

"Pyroplastics?"

"Also in other directions."

"Good. In that case, we can concentrate on getting geophysical data. Have you installed seismometers in the cave?"

"In fact, I have, as best I could."

Nothing like feeling useless. "Well...I guess things are all set, then."

"For the moment."

Micah couldn't stifle a small laughter from peeling out of his mouth, despite the situations.

"Curious, how almost every culture seems to be able to find ways to use any and all inventions in warfare", he said, smiling a tad when he shook his head. "Tells something about us... 'civilized' people, doesn't it?"

He smiled a tad when he put the mesh helmet on, tightening it around his head.

"Um... so, I just think something I want the Herakles to do, and it... he'll do it?" he asked his escorting Avatar, looking at the orb-shaped being curiously. He was apparently unaware of the subtle probing that the Herakles control helmet was doing in his mind.

The human mind was a jumble, nonetheless... There were memories of greenery in his homeland juxtaposed with images of Otagian Avatars from a university lecture, with memories aroused by the smell of his clothes... of the Ulysses... the chaos after the initial explosion... the pain in the back of his head when he had lost his balance and hit his head... He was in the aft compartment, using the comm system's memory as a study diary. The crew of the Ulysses had found artificial materials in the gas giant's ring... "See what you can make of them", Captain Chauncey commanded... Corroded pieces of metal and some kind of a plasteel compound. "Studies indicate no signs of writing or markings under corroded areas", Micah was saying into the mouth piece of the comm, holding a small corroded rod, roughly about two inches in length and a quarter of an inch in width... "On one end, the object seems to have been corroded through. The corroded end only about half the width of the main shaft..."

"Essentially. The helm will override the movements of your own body, and channel the appropriate signals to the Avatar. In return, it will channel it's sensory input into your nervous system."

OOC: Craptastic post, but I'm a bit short on time at the moment. Might go back and make it prettier later, but for now, let the show go on.

Micah nodded and concentrated for a moment, watching as the Herakles Avatar slowly lifted his hands and looked at them.

"It's amazing... I think I can actually see the world through the Avatar's optical sensors", Micah said. He suddenly jumped and laughed a little as he instructed the Avatar to clench its fists. "Sorry... That tickled a little..."

"GAH!" Micah yelled in his memories, the tickling sensation of the Avatar's hands igniting a different memory. He looked at his hand, seeing a small singe mark on his left palm - the same which his Avatar escort could see in the hand of the Micah in the present. In his memories, Micah looked at the piece of corroded metal he had just been studying, and took up the mouth piece of the com. "Supplemental... There seems to be residues of electricity in the object. I just received a singe from it. It is too early, however, to say what purpose this electricity served. I would require more samples from the same object..."

OOC:

BUMP for Tal. We need to know where this is going.

OOC: Sorry for the long wait, RL intervened. Now, where were we...

The Avatar smiled. "Excellent. You're doing wonderfully. Now, I'm going to disable your peripheral nervous system and feed your sensorum into the Avatar assisting your crewmate. This may feel... a little odd."

Micah's vision promptly went black, and almost as quickly reasserted itself, staring at a fresh scene, his senses seemingly supercharged. The walls were a soothing off-white, a small part of his brain somehow recognizing the exact hex code for it. A soothing breeze blew through the room through unseen vents, lightly caressing his now metallic skin. He could smell medicinal chemicals, artificial nose absently noting their precise make-up as it noticed the coppery hint of blood emanating from the bier in the room's center.

Upon it rested his crewmate, chest slowly rising and falling as she slept. He could almost hear each molecule of air moving through her system, the slow beat of her pulse. Again, some part of his brain - or was it the Avatar's? - computed her lung volume to a microliter, assuring him that she was currently quite healthy, if asleep.

Again, dust swirled together at his side, forming another floating Avatar-egg, which bobbed happily next to Micah.

"Ah, sleeping beauty... As you can see, your companion is recovering quite well under my care. In fact, if you'd like, I can awaken her without any damage, physical or otherwise."

OOC: Oh, and update. Just talked to Taledonia, and apparently he's having problems accessing Jolt. He's trying to work that out now, and will post as soon as he's fixed it.

OOC: Yay! Responses :) Unfortunately I'm running off to college, but I'll write when I get back.

The sensations of the Herakles avatar seemed overwhelming for Micah, feeling a little light-headed at the data collected by the individual Avatar's senses. For a moment he wasn't even sure who was sensing all this... was it the Avatar, himself or even the Memento of Prophecy himself collecting the raw data and turning them into sensations, memories, approximations...

Man, I'm never going to drink again, the young human's mind thudded, echoed by those exact same words as he lay in his bed on an exceedingly-brilliant Saturday morning, his head pounding like somebody had placed it on a blacksmith's anvil.

Soon, however, that memory gave way to other sensations. As he gained more control over the Herakles's interface, he moved closer to the young woman lying on the bier. She looked so peaceful now, with a hint of smile on her lips as she slept. A whole new range of memories swept through Micah's mind, memories that the ship could access without him knowing. If he had known about Memento's silent surveillance, he might have blushed... memories of this woman, laughing and giggling. Kissing and fondling, fingers fumbling at the zippers and straps of their overalls...

Micah sighed, watching the young woman lying on the bier. Memento had already found the crew manifest from the Ulysses's mainframe - and along with it, her name. Maria Gutierrez, age twenty-three, mechanic, born on Terra.

"Could I... could I come and see her?" Micah asked, the puppet avatar's eyes turning to the egg-shaped avatar. "I do not mean to offend, but... she's come back from the dead, practically. It might be easier for her if she saw a familiar face... not this...", he said, apologetically lifting his hand to the Avatar, showing his - or the Herakles's, to be more precise - metallic hand.

"Boss, we got trouble!"

"What, Pete."

"It's the geo readings."

"Explain."

"I've been using those seismic stations we set up to look over the contents of the rock layers. That cave is sitting on top of a lava plug, and it's about to blow! When it does, the whole place is going to blow with it!"

"Ohhh, wonderful. How long do we have?"

"There's no way of knowing!"

"Ohhh, even better. OK. Let's get an orderly evac going. You get over here. Don't worry about the seismometers. Just get every scientist and as much of the camp's equipment as you can. I'll explain things and try to download the main data core."

"On it, boss."

"Now, to tell everyone about the party."

While everyone else seemed to be excited about the new arrivals in the sector, the Republican crew had feversihly begun tearing down their lodgements. All scientific equipment were packed hastily into crates, the structures taken down and laoded into the transports that would take everything to the small corvette that sat in orbit. It was known, well known, and broadcast to everyone that things were done on the planet, as the whole thing would be lava in a few hours. However, another message was sent, inviting everyone present to the Republic, more specifically the province of Marionetonia, where an investor had been preparing a proper lab for them before the actual expedition took place.

From orbit, the Metal Man watched as everything within a good two hundred kilometers of the former camp--the cave, the foothills, everything--blew sky high or got covered in volcanic ash. The volcano was plainly visible from orbit. Some of the seismic monitors had actually lasted for almost ten seconds after the plug blew. The data they sent confirmed what everyone else had already theorized--after a long period of inactivity, the whole planet had basically gone volcanic. THAT was what wiped out almost every trace of the civilization that had once flourished there.

There had been no horror movie this time--just a fireworks show--and for that, the eons-old cyborg was grateful.

Now, Brain Jar could officially take up her original purpose as a merchant marine vessel, and haul scientific cargo for the government (or whatever). When the show was over, he left the driving to his AI and, with a restful smile, settled into his meditation chamber and lit himself a candle.

The volcanic ash shaded the sky, creating night in the middle of the day, the glowing magma below that spewed forth from every crevice giving its own eerie glow to the dead planet. A few of the giant bat creatures hung in the air, despaired at the loss of their home, some falling prey to the elements as the electircal storm still raged overhead, and the ash caused their radar to be ineffective, making them blind.

Below, bobbing up from a dead cliff that seemed to go to the core itself, the tips of a vessel could be made out, kept intact by some sort of shielding. Flickering for dear life, the energy cells of the ship finally gave up, and the shield dropped, the wreckage dropping with it.

(OOC: End part one! LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL! Anyways, when I get flash things up and ready, I'll contact you guys when part two can be started.:p Good pre-cursor.)