NationStates Jolt Archive

An alien race had once lived here, of that the Iiaetz-Ooahi' Research Foundation was certain, an intelligent race? Certainly. A race that was technologically advanced and capable of undertaking extensive construction projects? Evidently, after all, no other explanation could be found for the sprawling megapolis which covered roughly three quarters of the planet. Ancient skyscrapers, too numerous to count, reached up into the sky, their surfaces stripped of cladding revealing skeletal framework, skyways connected the buildings together forming a criss-cross web of paths beteeen the structures at different levels. Although the skyways were littered with rubble, the planets surface congested with fallen debris, rubble, the collapsed structures of skyscrapers and skyways, it was still an impressive site; for any race to have the mere capacity to build such a place was to be admired. But the world had been empty for millenia, visited numerous times by small groups of explorers who had picked over the ruins for anything of value.

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The planet itself was otherwise normal, a medium sized habitable world orbiting a yellow dwarf star. The second outermost planet of a system containing three other terrestrial worlds and a single gas giant; what just passed for an asteroid belt ringed the center of the system, areas of the asteroid belt had been reduced to areas of dust, leaving sections of assorted rocks and others of a fine grit like powder.

Orbiting the world were two small moons, the only other object of note was what resembled a simplistic modular space station, consisting of a discernable seventeen sections, although in a geo-stationary orbit above the planet its surface was scorred with a number of burn marks and charred ruptures, external equiptment had been reduced to broken components which were floating away or around the station; it was surrounded by water, small amounts of which were coming from the station itself, and was beginning to freeze into a delicate pattern.

At relativly small distances away from the world two small pods were hurtling away at stable speeds from the station. Both were on an out system vector but travelling in different directions, the furthest out seemed inact and was emitting a faint radio burst which ammounted to little more than static; the other was trailing a tail of water and seemed to be slowly breaking apart; at their current velocity they would leave the system in roughly one hundred and twenty two years.

From space, discerning anything clearly upon the planets surface was a near impossible task, the taller structures blocking out readings from lower buildings, and the sheer enormity of rubble that littered the entire planets surface distorted and impeded normal scans. The only possible indication of any habitation was that a message transmitted across a wide range of frequencies in galactic basic triangulated back to the top of a scyscraper "below" the space station in geo-stationary orbit.

That message broadcasted out across the system, transmitted in galactic basic with an almost resonate musical accent, spread out across the infinity of space it's speakers words immortalised in the radio waves conveying his urgency;

"-*-*-*-*-one there? Tea-*-*-are you th-*-*-*-hat's going o-*-Why? Can you respon-*-*-alk-*-o me, pl-*-se. They des-*-en-*-d-*-*-*-*-space, attac-*- the camp, lost contact wit-*-*-*-*-ers are -*-e-*-one? Spa-*-tation a-*-well-*-ear the wor-*-t-*-*-*-ey-*-land-*-d they're he-*-we-*-*-eak for it..-*-...One sug-(*muffled gunfire*)-One can he-*-hem, they're com-*-ng-(muffled gunfire followed by a series of cracking sounds)-we-*- making-*-break fo-*-t. Save you-*-*-ves-*-ve-*-urselves." (The message continues on with muffled gunfire for a further two minutes before several large cracking sounds are heard, the sound of shattering glass is heard, a minute later the sound of rushing water can be heard which continues for two more minutes. The message then cuts off with a *click*)"

A hole opened in the system, a massive gravatational disturbance following it. From the rift came a lone ship, its hull completely black except for the soft red lights that decorated portions of its hull. The ship didn't move after leaving the PSR, instead simply sitting for a few moments as the rift closed behind it. Scans were performed on the system as the ship began locating the source of the communication that had been send out.

Reaching out... I've located the world. I can't sense much from this distance...
Proceed to move in.

The ship pushed forward and reached the planet within a matter of minutes. Again, the ship paused for a few seconds before performing setailed scans on everything of interest.

Interesting, someone seems to have had some trouble. Water, plenty of it in the space station. Pods traveling away from the planet.
The pods and station are not our concern. Access the Archives and the Crypt and see if you can find out anything about the creature that might have taken residence here.
Doing so now. I've also reached out, there's a city down below. I'm finding nothing of interest yet...
Prepare Pathfinders, we will learn what we can.
Done and done.

A few minutes went by as perparations were made. A small section of the hull began to pulsate and morph and from it, two drop pods shot out towards the surface of the planet. The pods were a solid black, like the ship, and fell through the atmosphere, lighting up red as the heat raged against their Encryptic shielding. Both pods slammed into the group a few yards from each other and waited until the area proved to be safe before opening to reveal what was inside. From one pod came the first FM to greet the ruined surface of this world, a figure dressed in solid black armor, a sniper rifle upon its back and machete at its side. The four red eyes on its helmet surveyed the landscape before it moved forward, drawing its rifle and preparing to moved out. But first, it accessed a panel on its wrist and adjsted its armor's color pattern to match the landscape, always good to be careful. The figure took a little longer to leave its pod but emerged soon enough. It was not as well armored, in fact its armor seemed minimal at best. It was also dressed in all black but wore what appeared to be a pair of sneakers, some cargo pants, a sleeveless shirt, and a gas-mask. Its weapons consisted of two pistols but if one looked closely, they'd notice the silvery bracelet on its left wrist, there was no telling what kind of arsenal it had truely brought with it. After finger combing its messy blond hair back, it moved to the armored figure. The armored figure pointed in the direction of some fallen buildings and the second figure immediately began running in that direction. Meanwhile, the FM ship in orbit cloaked itself and began preparing a proper investigation team to be sent down. For the first time in months, there was some activity inside its dark halls.

Our units have touched down.
Have they begun scouting?
Of course.
Good, have them report anything of interest.

OOC: Awesome! More will come once the others post their intros as well. Plus details since this post is a little confusing without backstory which will come in the next few responses.

IC:
The Reapers won their war and now looked onto this galaxy for its next campaign of death and destruction. While the Reapers knew that rushing into this galaxy of this universe would be near suicide due to the sheer numbers of advance organic life; they could not help themselves, but move their forces quickly into this galaxy. Today; it was a fleet of scouts, but tomorrow it would be a fleet of war. The initial fleet of twenty or so ships had used a Mass Relay in their galaxy to another one in this galaxy. What they found on this side of the pair of Mass Relays surprised them at the very least.

Far enough away that it didn't pose a threat to the Mass Relay, and thus their own galaxy, there laid signs of life in this part of the galaxy. This very spot which had been chosen by the almighty Reapers for its isolated location to place one of the few Mass Relays that connected this galaxy to their own. The space station had been scanned easily enough and its location determined to the very tenth of an AU, but two things bothered the robotic A.I. Geth Commander in charge of the fleet. None of the scans showed anything about the planet the space station orbited and there were two small objects moving away from the station.

Through the use of a wireless signal the Geth Commander sent a message to the implants of the turian slave in charge of one of its frigates. While the Geth Commander would rather send one of his own the gods had ordered that they, the Geth, begin to take advantage of the abilities of the Sons of the Prophet. Which made sense, the kind in which Saren hailed from had some useful abilities, but still. The turians were organic and could not be trusted.

The turian mind slave received the message and understood the orders completely. Soon thereafter a single frigate left the fleet for the space station. It would take time for the frigate to arrive, but once it did it would begin to investigate how and why organic civilization made its way here of all places.

Greywatch

OOC: (Along the assumption that the surface is buried benath several meters of debris I shall assume you've landed on a balcony of sorts)

The Greywatch pods had touched down upon an expansive balcony, although it's size could lead to it being easily mistaken for a small landing pad of sorts. The balcony gave an expansive few to the south-west, showing the skeletal structures of buildings stretching away into the distance, a number of much larger buildings however loomed up above their current location the the north-west blocking much of the view; a blood red sun peeped above the crowns of these towering monoliths as it steadily ascended the sky skattering it's rays into the higher accessible areas of the city; The citites depths remained hidden in darkness.

The balcony protuded from the side of what may have once been a facade dominated by windows as glittering ground up glass was scattered across the floor, although a number of equally spaced two lined trails emerged from the corridor and seemed to randomly run round the balcony, overlapping and turning like a large maze; portions of the wall and ceiling however had long since collapsed leaving the facade little more than a crumbling mess. An archway however still remained intact, although it was down to the bare metal supports, leading onto a dark corridor illuminated by a few rays of sun it was filled with more fallen debris, the ceiling virtually nonexistant as rubble from the above floors poked through the gaps between frame work; the structure did not groan or crumble unexpectedly however to the presence of the Greywatch team. The corridor seemed to have a number of doorways on either side, most of which having collapsed or been blocked with debris at some point, interestingly however a clear path ran through the middle of this debris, the rubble pushd to the sides of the wall. The corridor emerged at a stairwell, in the center of which was a rectangular tube running down the length of the building; embedded in it's face equal to the floor was what seemed like a doorway, although what may have been the grilled doors were crumpled and lying covered in dirt on the stairs near the floor below. A such the opening led onto nothing but a great drop, a small domelike generator which was filled with water hummed next to this opening, a small panel fixed to the wall next to the opening; two switches, one purple above the other which was orange, an antennae stuck out of this panel.

Behind the back of this shaft ran the stairs, up and down, each was covered with a foot of debris and rubble, often missing steps in places.

The second figure moved to the edge of the balcony and looked over the edge, apparently comtemplating jumping into the shadows below. Meanwhile, the first figure began examining the structure behind them. An old building, though there was no telling what it had been used for. The first figure noted the trail that had been made in the halls, as well as the other signs that showed someone else had been here recently, and activated its more advanced sensors. Heat and electrical signatures were monitored, any motion was detected by special sensors, and every step sent out a small pulse to alert the figure as to any weak areas in the structure, it was clear that this being did not like suprises.

Pathfinder, reporting in.
Yes? What do you have to report?
Touchdown was smooth. Nothing major to report, much of the city seems to have fallen into ruin. Signs of recent activity found, marking the area.
Documented. Report back if you find anything else.

The Pathfinder, as the first figure had identified itself as, nodded and moved forward. It moved down the halls with caution, both aware that this would be an excellent place for an ambush and that the age of this structure was a major concern. The second figure turned to see its partner proceeding down the hallway and realized they were going to be doing things the safe way. It turned to follow, tapping the drop pods as it moved past them into the building. As it entered the structure, both pods began to morph and change shape until both resembled large, black dogs. The FM hated wasting materials, and this could be easily seen in the machines they brought to the field. As the Pathfinder moved to what appeared to be an elevator, the second figure took the time to look through the doorways that were so plentiful in the hall. There might be something in one of the rooms, if indeed the rooms were still there, that could lend a small clue as to why this world was abandoned; a book or diary would have been especially helpful though the chances of finding something like that were very slim.
The Pathfinder looked up and down the shaft in front of it, an ancient elevator by the looks of things... but what was this machien next to the opening leading into the shaft. It still seemed to be functioning, and therefor whoever had put it here must have been, and quite possibly still is, close by. What was interesting was the water, it was some sort of machine, from the electrical output a fair guess would have been a generator, but it was filled with water just like the station in orbit. So it was obviously left behind by the same alien group, but where were said aliens? The Pathfinder began trying to analyze the machine, carefully scanning it.
One of the dog-like being moved forward, to the opening. After looking down the shaft and then looking at the machine the Pathfinder was analyzing, it looked for anything else of interest. What it found was the buttons on the panel that sat idle next to the opening. It did what any curious being would probably do, it pressed on one of the buttons. In this case, it extended a paw outwards and with a small jump, pushed the orange button to see what would happen. If this was indeed an elevator, and the alien machine was indeed a generator, then one could assume the aliens had placed it here to power the elevator. However, only what came next could confirm that.

Greywatch

The Pathfinders scans revealed nothing of interest initially, no electrical signatures were detected withen the buildings aching frame, no heat signatures were to be found aside from the sparse heat the sun shined upon the buildings surface; although the building was clearly in ruins the pulses which were emitted with every step showed the building to be stable as far as he had proceeded so far. There were three doorways on the left hand side of the corridor, all of those were blocked with fallen debris, possibly from the ceiling, or maybe from the walls above. On the right of the corridor was only one doorway closet to the entrance, it however had been reduced to a small opening looking upon nothing but rubble, the facade, and the above room it seemed, had caved in upon it; present in the center of the corrdiors right hand wal however was a collapsed archway barely supporting itself, it provided a small gap into the room beyond it. What remained of the room beyond it however was nothing, the floor was thickly coated in dust and rubble in the areas where an entire wall from the floor above had not crashed through the ceiling along with several meters of building material; all in all, only a quarter of the room was accessible, and that contained nothing but debris, not even the tracks seemed to be present in here. Only when the Pathfinder came withen range of the shaft did the electronic and faint heat signature of the generator and control panel connected by a wire show up; thesehowever were stand alone and connected to nothing else. The Pathfinders scans on the generator revealed it's internal workings, a number of canister like capacitors, a platinum rod in a circular container with hydrogen bubbling through it; a container filled with pressurized hydrogen, an assortment of wires, and circuitry joining it all together. The entire generator was filled with pure water which surrounded and flowed freely around teh circuitry to no ill effect; a logo with unidenitifiable patterns and shapes was imprinted on it's base.

When the dog-like being pushed the orange button there was an echoing groaning from above which revertebrated throughout the shaft, suddenly the whine of machinery could be heard far up. This sound continued for half a minute, steadily becoming louder, accmpanied by the occassional sound of screeching metal, several bangs and a prolonged grating noise; a shower of dust rained down through the tunnel. Finally however a box like elevator stopped in front of them, it was more of a cage with a solid floor, it's grilled doors sliding open, the elevator itself appeared relativly clean, intact and shiny; aside from several scrapes on it's side. Built into the inside of this elevator was another panel with another purple button ontop of another orange one.

The Pathfinder seemed pleased with what scans were revealing and the being made sure to transmit everything it found to the cloaked ship in orbit. The second figure, unimpressed with what it saw in the rooms, decided there would probably be nothing of use to salvage and moved forward. It moved its hands to its pistols as the screeching of the elevator began, keeping its guard up for anything. Once the elevator came to a halt, the Pathfinder examined it, trying to determine whether or not it would be worth the risk to use something so obviously old. The two dog-like beings moved onto the elevator, unconcerned with the structure. Once again, one of them pressed the orange button, assuming that was the down button, and waited for something to happen. Interesting that the elevator had come from above… it made the party wonder what had been in the upper reaches of the building that was so interesting. Despite this interest, the dog-like beings were apparently more concerned with seeing the surface of this dead world. The Pathfinder took a small device from its robe and began marking the building as both a place of interest and a possible LZ/extraction point. After that was done it looked to the second figure, “Find anything?" The second figure shook its head, “Nothing. Just ruins.”
“Proceed upwards and see if you can find anything of interest.”
“Understood.”
The second figure looked up and the ceiling, trying to find any large holes. Upon finding one, it would utilize its enhanced muscles and begin jumping up through said holes onto the floors above and see if it could find anything of interest.

Further scans, if one had cared to carry them out, would have revealed that the elevator was in fact relativly new; albeit badly configured. Upon pressing the orange button there was nothing other than a groan, the elevator dropped a few inches and jerked to a halt as the cord connecting it pulled taunt; returning to it's previous position it did nothing further. An examination of the ceiling would reveal that it was mostly clogged with debris; a few jagged gaps in the ceiling provided access to the floor above, but debris, rubble and fallen supports would have made the going difficult.

The two beings in the elevator let out a growl of disappointment, it seemed the only way was up; so be it. The dog-like being now pressed the purple button, expecting that this would take it and its companion upwards into the higher reaches of the building, the Pathfinder was quick to get on as the elevator began to move. The second figure had managed to find a good hole but with all the debris, the only way to make things easy would be to use some possibly excessive force. Seeing as the elevator was the easier method, going up would be left to the dogs and the Pathfinder. “Change up plans. We’ll go up; you go down,” The Pathfinder called out, the second figure nodded, “Very well.” As soon as the elevator was out of the way, the second figure would begin its descent.
The Pathfinder did note the oddity of the elevator’s apparent newness compared to the rest of the structure. How interesting that someone had actually taken the time to install it in this place. Obviously, whoever had gotten here first had spent plenty of time here. There was also the lack of foliage, not to mention any animals. Typically, when structures of civilization went into disuse, nature would reclaim them in a much more noticeable way. Yet this world seemed unnaturally barren, stripped of everything and anything living.

Greywatch

The elevator hummed for a moment and then ascended, swaying slightly as it ascended the trip was mostly uneventful aside from when it clipped the shafts side, screeching from the sound of metal against metal it rocked wildly for a few seconds before stabalizing. It passed a discernable twenty seven doorways, most were either collapsed or blocked aside from two which seemed accessible; the elevator however showed no sign of stopping at these entrances.

The elevator slowed to a halt revealing another expansive balcony. This balcony however had two road sized skyways exending like bridges from it's corners, one skyway extended towards the nearest skyscraper which rose at least another two dozen floors higher into the sky, the other only extended for roughly thrity two meters in the direction of another nearby building before stopping abruptly, from it's end twisted and broken girders protuded like jagged broken bones. The relativly intact one, missing a few chunks of pathway, in places, spanned a length of fifty seven meters, joining onto a balcony of another skyscraper.

Here the surface was relativly rubble free, crumbling concrete like material littered the surface like grit but was otherwise fine, the skyways themselves were much the same, mostly clear aside from small pieces of debris; here again the continuous two lined tracks could be seen faintly, starting at the elevator and moving across from the bridge.

The wall in which the elevators entrance was embedded was worn down to it's supports, with most of the wall now laying on the floor, the balcony was devoid of barriers aside from a few twisted, rusted, metal bars. The view which was provided stretched for miles on the left of the intact skybridge, showing the lower skyscrapers spires, roofs, domes and skeletal remains stretching far away in a sprawling metropolitan ruin, taller buildings could be seen here and there, rising to the same height, if not higher, than their position, casting others into darkness, with the remains of skyways stretching between them. The view to the right however terminated half a mile away in the face of a dense cluster of barren and bare buildings stretching up to roughly the same height as the tower the intact skybridge connected to; skybridges zigzagged across, connecting them on different levels. Below them the tops of smaller skyscrapers, whilst dimunitive compared to the monoliths the Greywatch team stood upon but would put most races highest buildings to shame, densly carpeted the ground. The worlds surface was nowhere to be seen, it's surface covered in shadows by the buildings which were themselves hidden in the shadows of other buildings.

The Pathfinder took no interest in the floors it went by on its way up, the elevator seemed to be programed to go to this height and no where else. The team was most likely following the exact footsteps of the others before them. The dog-beings, or as some in the FM refered to them as: Bloodhounds, ran forward without hesitation, choosing to sniff around the intact skyway. The Pathfinder now lowered its rifle, opting to simply hold it by the scope as it moved forward, looking all around it as it did so. It disengaged its heat vision for a moment as it moved to an edge and began looking out over the vast cityscape; impressive was an understatment. This city was massive, far bigger than anything the Pathfinder had seen before. Scans had shown much of the city spanned across much of the planet, with building of this size, the race must've harvested several worlds for resources. Of course, with all of this upward expansion, the surface of the planet must have suffered. The Pathfinder began to see why there was no plant life, such life might have been snffed out by the extreme conditions created by the city's developers. But such information would be had soon enough. For the time being, the Pathfinder moved away from the edge and began following the hounds.
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The secound figure looked up, seeing the elevator had gone up quite a ways and was no longer blocking its path. It jumped into the shaft with its hands out; as soon as its hands made contact with the wall it began to slow down. Encryption, it was this ability to control its decent into the inky darkness. As it proceeded downwards, it began directing the same encryptic energy into its eyes, making it very easy to see. It had no idea how far down it was going, but it was bound to find something.

Greywatch

The skyway did not shudder, crumble or otherwise collapse unexpectedly as the Pathfinder moved across it. At the other end was again another balcony, two sloped deterioated curving walls encompassed the balconies edge, crumbling steps radiated outwards from where the skyway met the balcony, stopping in the form of a wide path running round it's edge, a large doorless opening was set into the stripped facade of the skyscraper on top of these steps. A simple metal ramp had been erected here, running gradually from the wide door and slowly descending around the left side of the balcony down the steps to provide a gradual descent to the floor. Near the skyway, where the sloping wall was around waist height, a small unfoldable metal table had been erected, next to it was a telescopic like device which protuded from a rectangular box resting upon a tripod; two wires trailed from it, one dangled down besides it, it's end resembling an archaic USB port, the other was connected to a small box with a large purple button built into it.

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As the second figure descended it would find that the first tweleve doorways were blocked with rubble, debris and collapsed ceilings, near to where the thriteenth doorway should have been however the above floor, and the lower floors walls, had collapsed into a rubble strewn heap; the vaulted ceiling was held up by the remains of a floor two levels up providing more than enough room to stand up but making the floor, which had jagged supports and sharp shards of material sticking jaggedly up. This ruined cave like space was open to the air as the outer walls had also collapsed.

A further seven floors down the shafts wall dissapeared for roughly five meters, the opening giving access to another corridor via a hole in the ceiling, beyond that the shaft continued to stretch away into the darkness.

The bloodhounds were the first to reach the next balcony and took no time searching the immediate area while the Pathfinder took its time surveying the area. As it approached another ruined structure, it raised its rifle to be safe. Yet again, there were more signs someone had been here recently. While it took no interest in the table, it recognized the other device as something resembling a camera; apparently some things were simply universal. The Pathfinder examined the device for a moment, realizing that it would probably be best to have a collection team collect things like this and take them back to the ship for analysis. Unfortunantly, no team was readily available. The Pathfinder looked to the first wire, noticing something was missing, most likely a storage device of some sort. The Pathfidner looked to the table and then gave a brief glance around it, hoping such a storage device could be found and shed some light as to who was here and what exactly they were looking at. The Pathfinder pushed the purple button on the small box, curious as to what eactly its function was. While waiting for a response, it turned to the bloodhounds, "Be on the lookout for anything that oculd resemble a information storage device."
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The second figure stopped itself at the thiteenth floor down, analyzing the area and moving itself to the other side of the shaft to see if there was anything that could prove useful to the group. The figure climbed through any opening it could find, using encryption to improve its grip and reinforce its hands in case of any jagged surfaces. Its body was a flexible one, due to it not having any armor, but at the same time it was more vulnerable to the elements. It also didn't have the Pathfinders more advanced scanning equiptment. To make up for this, it moved much more carefully through the inky black darkness, being sure to pay attention to its surroundings. If nothing could be found here, then it would simply continue downwards until it came to the next hole it could crawl through.

Greywatch

Upon the pressing of the purple button the device simply *clicked*, this was followed by a brief humming emitting from the boxy component at the end of the telescopic section; after this it resumed it's silence. The bloodhounds investigation of the balcony would have revealed nothing, aside from the table and the device there was nothing apart from the rubble and debris.

-----

The second figure would also find nothing on the thirteenth floor apart from the rubble and an expansive view across the metropolis; half of which was blocked by an opposing skyscraper which was as barren as all the others.

Proceeding further, and through the next hole, the second figure would have emerged in another corridor, behind him would have been the collapsed elevator shafts doorway, ahead of him however the corridor stretched on past a few collapsed, inaccessible, doorways before opening onto an expansive circular room.

The room was ringed by a crescent moon shaped balcony, it's surface now bare metal, any supports either missing or reduced to rusting twisted metal protusions. Where a staircase may have once stood there was nothing but a gap, the floor of the room and the balcony torn up, it presented a single storey jump to the bottom. The main room's floor was littered with smashed tiles, concrete, pieces of wall cladding reduced to rubble, small pieces of scrap metal and various other debris; the ceiling was bare although noticably domed with it's structural supports showing, the room, like the rest of the building it seemed, had been gutted.

In the center of the room however were the crumbling remains of a stone fountain, although parts of it had been smashed, and the upper part had seemingly crashed into the main base, the rusted remains of twisted, disfigured metal supports testified to it once being three times as high as an average man; the smashed and toppled remains of stone benches surrounded it.

The rooms wall had six doorways embedded in it on each side with two wide windows on each side, nine of these doors were either collapsed or blocked by debris along with their windows, each accessible room however was the same, a fairly reasonably sized space, maybe seperated into a front and rear end by the remains of a wall composed of nothing but widely spaced girders. The walls were falling apart, the ceilings sagging, the floors littered with not only rubble and debris but also odd scraps of ancient filthy materials ranging from small pieces of paper, cardboard, shards of plastic and an odd piece of filthy cloth here and there; all of which wer mixed in with the debris. Two of the rooms had a wrecked, stripped and shattered furnishing that resembled a counter, one room had the twisted remains of a chair.

On the otherside of this room was a wide corridor with collapsed doorways along it's length leading off to an exterior balcony.

The Pathfinder looked around, it was a large enough area... it might be worth setting up a small outpost here, or at least bring down a research unit of some sort.
Pathfinder reporting in.
What is it?
As you may have noticed, alien technology seems to be scattered all over the enviroment. I suggest sending down a team to collect the small things. They might shed some light as to what happened here.
Noted. Move forward and I will handle the rest.
Understood.
The Pathfinder looked around until its eyes met the opening in another skyscaper. It noted the placement of the ramp as another sign someone had been investigating the ruin prior to the Ministry's arrival. How fortunant that the pods had landed here, so close to where the previous investigators had touched down.
------
The second figure took its time in navigating the area, not wanting to risk any harm to its own being. Amazing that the buildings hadn't completely fallen in on themselves after all these years of neglect. The figure didn't jump, but instead climbed down the walls to get into the circular room. The second figure checked each room carefully, despite the apparent lack of anything interesting, it never ceased to be thorough in its investigation. The litter around the room was something of interest, the figure took a few minutes seeing what it could find among the debris, keeping anything that might depict some kind of artistic pattern or display words from the language. After it was satisfied with what it had seen, it moved through the corridor to the balcony.
------
Suggestion.
What is it?
We should retreive one of those pods for study.
You mentioned this before. Do they concern you that much?
I believe they might yield something useful. Also, this station, despite its current condition, may still have a working database for our use.
Agreed.
Proceeding with pod recovery. Fomulating a boarding strategy.
Very well.

After the brief exchange the FM ship, still in cloak, broke its orbit to chase whatever pod showed the least amount of damage. Once close enough, the maw of the ship would opened and the pod, for lack of a better term, would be swallowed. Bringing it into the ship's hanger.

Greywatch

The opening in the skyscraper ahead of the Pathfinder led onto another corridor, the four doors on either side were blocked with debris and thus inaccessible. Ahead was another shaft, with a similar generator and the control panel attached to the wall; once again the elevator was absent. Also like the last elevator shaft a stairwell was located behind the shaft; it's steps crumbled, missing in many cases and covered with fallen rubble. Unlike the previous elevator shaft however a steady light stream of water fell down the shaft like a light rainfall from above, most of the water flowed down the shafts back wall. Water had also flowed down the steps behind although it was only beginning to flow out into the corridor forming a liquid sheen across the floor which had been cleared; it's rubble shifted to the sides.

-----

The second figure search amongst the rubble would have yielded something, a something but something nonetheless; it was a round circular metallic object about the size of ones palm, it's surface had mostly corroded into a red covering but that didn't obscure it's features. On the front was a raised metal ridge running around it's exterior edges, sitting withen it on the objects surface were a number of discs with faint markings on them, other markings also ran faintly along the metal ridge; where a circular disk had fallen off, and was not to be found, it showed small tracks, cogs and gears which the circles ran across; whatever it had once done it's parts were rusted into place.

The balcony it transpired stretched far away both to the right and the left along this floor of the skyscrapers face, the balcony gave access to numerous rooms along it's length, the surface covered with fallen components, structural supports, cladding and other rubble. The view was unobscured here, instead giving a view across the "lower" structures of the metropolis.

-----

The pod which was brought in was intact, there were no windows on it's welded industrial surface, an oblong hatchway on it's side seemed to provide access; it was filled with water although scans wouldn't show this anomaly.

The Pathfinder moved in its typical cautious manner, hounds behind it while it approached the second lift. Other than the small signs of recent alien presence, there hardly seemed to be anything of worth or interest in this place. Indeed, the only thing making the Pathfinder press forward at this point, were its orders. It took note of the water dripping down and made sure to observe its surrounding closely before pressing on. The Pathfinder assumed that it would be on its way up once more. The Pathfinder located and pushed what had now been confirmed as the up button and waited patiently for the lift to arrive.
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The second figure tapped the device on its wrist and the small, metallic object dematerialized. As small a find as it was, it might be best to analyze it later. The figure looked at the buildings below before looking up at the sky. Someone had to of had a lot of time on their hands in order to construct a place such as this. The figure began slowly walking the hall, looking for accessible rooms to look through. From what it had seen so far, there was little chance of finding anything of value; still, it had to try.
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Once the pod had been brought into the ship, symbols of soft red light began to form on the floor around it. The floor began to morph to form several arms and hands which began feeling the pods cold hull, looking for a way to access the contents. The ship also began its typical procedure of reaching out, using precise Cryption to find life signs, dangerous/interesting contents, etc. If it was lucky, there might be someone on the inside who’d be willing to explain what was happening.

Greywatch

A groaning shuddering was heard far above the Pathfinder as the lift in the shaft was activated, shortly after pressing the button the falling of water increased to a fast yet steady flow down the shaft almost forming a miniture waterfall. The lift, much the same as before, arrived in front of the Pathfinder, water seeped out of it's floor and splattered through it's open grilled roof and sides, the water which had been running down the shaft now ran down the insides of the lift flowing more efectivly out into the corridor; otherwise the internal panel inside the lift was working effectivly enough.

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The hallways were bare, even when an entire building had been abandoned it was bare, down to it's structural supports and stripped walls. The few rooms which hadn't caved in or been blocked with debris were simply littered with rubble, everynow and then the twisted rusted remains of a heavily disfigured piece of furniture could be identified pokin gout from fallen concrete blocks. Apart form that there was nothing, just the corridor leading out onto another expansive balcony that wound round in both directions, the exterior of the building.

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The Cryption "scans" would have revealed nothing, the pod was cold, lifeless, it's only heat sources coming from electrical circuitry inside the craft. As the hands flet their way around the pod they would have come across the hatchway, it spun smoothly disengaging the lock, the door was pushed open by the internal water pressure which proceeded to gush from the doorway.

OOC: I'd offer a further description onthe inside of the pod but i'll leave tha tuntill my next post, I need to "work" on some annoying factor I need to take into account...