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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 4, 2014 7:48:14 GMT -6
As the others in the group are busy with their own conversations, Artacus sits down by one of the walls, gripping his shotgun. "A new civilization discovered... interesting..." He thought to himself as he stands up, holstering his weapon and on back. He glances around the area, fully donned in his armor. "I could probably take a souvenir.. but that would be grave robbing, yes?" He continues to think to himself, remaining completely silent as always.
"Also, there's dust everywhere.. well, what could you expect from a thousand year old tomb... or maybe a million year old one?" He thought, adjusting his helmet as he goes back to his solitary spot by the wall, sitting down. He unholsters his shotgun and examines it for a brief while, checking if his weapon is up and functional.
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Post by Esteban Bridges on Apr 4, 2014 14:17:37 GMT -6
Esteban had a random thought pass through his head while re-reading this exciting discovery... I wonder how Iskra is doing? He hasn't heard much from her at all during the mission, and now she's probably fighting to save the daughter of his financier's life.
"Well.. i have never heard of the Nithian race.. this is incredible! A whole new race.. who knows how long this has been buried, we could learn so much!.....I wonder Who the Devourer of worlds was..Does this mean.. the Nithian race are.. Keepers?"
"I don't know...." Esteban replied to the Salarian after a moment's pause. "We should be able to get a full scan of the body with Iskra's help..." oh, that's why I was thinking of her... "and we can compare it with recent findings on Keepers. I remember hearing something about it on the extranet...."
His voice trailed off for a moment as he started to put together some pieces.
"I wonder what the Collectors were after? I mean.." Esteban turned to the Salarian, looking at him through his helmet. "They seemed to know this was here. What in the world could they have been after? We.... we should try to find it. It has to be important."
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Post by dargene on Apr 4, 2014 14:37:59 GMT -6
Meldom looked at Esteban as he spoke "They seemed to know this was here. What in the world could they have been after? We.... we should try to find it. It has to be important." Meldom turned to look at the plaque once more "Maybe it was the.." he motioned his hands with air quotes "Destroyer of worlds" he let out an uneasy chuckle before realizing
"Second thought.. they actually might be after that.."
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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 4, 2014 15:20:23 GMT -6
Artacus shifts his head slightly to the side, looking at the salarian through his visor. "Devourer of worlds and souls... huh.. an ancient doomsday weapon perhaps?" He lowers his shotgun and sets it down on his lap, now his head turned all the way to the salarian. "Does that translation have a description or a clue on where this "Devourer" is?" He finally speaks in a rough, but yet soft-spoken voice.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2014 17:31:24 GMT -6
Iskra smiled slightly at the man's offer. "If you are not squeamish at the thought of seeing someone's brain and spine then you are free to help me assist." She stopped for a moment, "Do not worry. I will do the heavy lifting."
Motioning over to the opposite of the room her voice came out a bit more confident. "You'll need to remove at least the top part of your armor and wash your hands 3 or 4 times for...how long was it for humans...You sing 'Happy Birthday' twice?"
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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 4, 2014 19:54:28 GMT -6
The turian patiently waits for his answer but then shakes his head, looking back to his shotgun as he continues cleaning it. "Whatever.. the answer would've probably been 'no' anyway." He thought to himself as he stands up and firmly grips his shotgun. "I should perhaps look around these tombs some more." He considered in his head, beginning to search around. "I'm going to do a quick sweep over the area.. I'll be back." He said quietly to the two as he wanders off into the tombs. "I should keep an eye out for traps... just in case." He says quietly to himself, scanning the environment around him.
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 4, 2014 21:35:34 GMT -6
Maelstrom took a deep breath as he steeled his nerves. Looking over to Cruendi'has, he said, "Ready to see if we can catch a Keeper?"
[Insert his reply]
With his submachine gun held out before him, Maelstrom approached the wall his prey had passed through. Using a couple free fingers from his grenade hand, he ran a quick scan on his omni-tool to scan for any known booby traps or automatic defenses. Nothing was detected. Hoping to gain another slight advantage should there be hostiles on the other side, he turned the light on his omni-tool to its highest setting. It flared in his vision momentarily before his helmet's visor automatically adjusted, applying digital filters.
Taking another deep breath, he pressed forward. His gun-arm experienced a moment of resistance, but it quickly gave way. Despite appearing solid, he was able to pass through the wall with relative ease. He imagined the feeling as being akin to walking through a think vertical sheet of still water. Once once his visor cleared the barrier did he see what he was walking into.
Rather than angular corners, like on the outside, the interior walls curved in an almost organic fashion. They were covered with innumerable tiny metallic compartments, by the looks of them, each barely large enough to fit one's little finger into. Also unlike the rest of the structure, the light levels were so low that even his visor was having trouble translating clear images. The room's unusual decor gave him a sense of unease, and he found himself clutching his grenade just a bit tighter. He quickly surveyed all sides of the room, finding their Keeper-look-alike conspicuously absent.
"Seems clear on this end," Maelstrom called to Cruendi'has.
He slowly swept the room with the light again. It took several seconds for him to realize that there was something moving at the edges of his omni-tool's spot light. All the edges.
Keying in a new sequence, he set his omni-tool to make the light more diffuse, illuminating the whole room. What he saw shocked him. There were thousands upon thousands of small, oblong, insectoid forms, most no bigger than his index finger, swarming over the walls. Their presence gave him such a fright that it took a moment for him to realize they were moving in coordinated waves, though apparently without any intent to reach him. There movements were far too precise to be a function performed by unintelligent life, though.
Typing in another set of commands, he set his visor to send a copy of the images back to Emily for mathematical analysis, to see if there was indeed a specific, unifying pattern at work. The other command was to capture a still of one of the creatures and identify it. There were several moments, as the computers ran a comparison between the insect life before him and all known species in the records.. Not being a science vessel, he was not surprised that the Vengeance's available data did not include them.
Instead the visor took a still of one of the creatures and projected a small, digitally enhanced version of it in the lower right of his display. He was shocked to find that the thorax and abdomen seemed to have a number of transmitter-like antennae, as well as the entire exoskeleton seeming to be covered in an extremely thin layer of microcircuitry. It took him a moment to realize that like the Keepers, these beings seemed to have four locomotion appendages and two manipulator appendages.
Maelstrom did not sense that the creatures currently bore him any ill will, but he still found himself wondering what degree of protection the fake wall would provide should he suddenly need to back out of the room and use the grenade in his hand to prevent pursuit. Again, he looked for the Keeper-look-alike but found nothing, even on the ceiling.
"Damn."
(All details approved by the GM)
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Post by Eric Lysander on Apr 5, 2014 8:54:08 GMT -6
"I've seen people blown and ripped apart every which way and smelled smells that could throw you 'cross a room," Eric defended and then winked. "Besides... it's not every day ya get to see what's on somebody's mind!"
Following Iskra's instructions, he first removed his gloves and then unclipped and detached the plating on his arms and torso, setting them on the ground against a corner of the medbay where they would not interfere with foot traffic. He had a black t-shirt with a harness-like adornment on over a lean but solid frame, a dog tag chain hanging around his neck with the Systems Alliance symbol visible on one side. He proceeded over to the sink and opened the faucet, ran his hands under the stream and picked up a bar of antiseptic soap to massage between his hands.
The medbay began to echo with the strains of the human birthday ritual song that Eric whistled in lieu of singing as he lathered, scrubbed and rinsed his hands. The first couple of run-throughs were straight forward. Iskra then noted that the rhythm changed, the melody became more drawn out and whimsical as the demo expert saw fit to jazz up the song to break up the monotony. But the almost carefree manner of his whistling stood in contrast to his diligent and meticulous scrubbing about every inch and crevice of his palms, fingers and nails. As he completed sterilization of his hands his final rendition of "Happy Birthday" sounded like one of the birds Eric had seen in animated vids when he was a child. As he shut off the faucet, his head turned to face Iskra who had a somewhat puzzled look.
"Not much of a singer," he said, shaking his dripping hands out over the sink. "I think ya've been through enough trauma for one day without having ta hear me mangle a classic."
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Post by grandest on Apr 5, 2014 9:37:02 GMT -6
"Ready to see if we can catch a Keeper?" The Merc in black asks nonchalantly. "I've never known Keepers to be a talkative bunch," Cruendi'has replied. "Don't see what use it'd be to try and capture one." The human seemed to shrug off Cruendi'has' musings, too involved in his own curiosity as he raised his weapon and approached the wall. "Well," he sighed. "If it's that important to you." He unlocked his shotgun and fell behind Maelstrom. The human scanned the wall before pressing his hand on and then into it. Then he walked through the- "What. the. fuck?" Cruendi'has stopped moving. First the Praetorian and now this. Just what kind of mission was he on now? His eyes manically scanned the wall in an effort to understand. He pressed his palm to it and the structure held firm. "Impossible," he marveled. "Seems clear on this end," Maelstrom's echoed over the commms. "Well, at least you're not dead." Cruendi'has stepped closer. "Good signs all around." He hesitantly pushed the barrel of his gun into the side of the wall until it gave way. It was a silly action, but he took a breath and pushed through. The room on the other side was dark, but for Maelstrom's light shining around. Then the Merc in Black turned his spotlight into a lamp and the whole place came into view. Not that it made Cruendi'has feel any better. "You have GOT to be shitting me!" He shouted involuntarily, jumping back. "What is that?" It looked to be an army of insects skittering about in some indescribable formation. It gave the appearance of the very walls themselves moving and twisting. The human motioned closer to the bugs and seemed to study one of them. Cruendi'has merely did what he could to keep himself together. Standing up, appearing satisfied with his inspection, the human looked around for a second before simply uttering, "Damn." "Damn?" Cruendi'has repeated? "What, 'Damn?' Damn is not what you just say when we walk through a wall in a long-lost tomb where the walls are crawling!" Composing himself, Cruendi'has rolled his shoulders and coughed nervously. Trying again, he said, "I mean... What is it?"
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 5, 2014 9:54:43 GMT -6
"I mean... What is it?" Cruendi'has said, regaining some of his composure.
"'Damn' as in 'I don't have the slightest clue what to make of any of this, and the Keeper we were chasing is nowhere in sight, but this is certainly impressive,'" Maelstrom replied. "My omni-tool is more of a military-specialized unit. Would yours be any good at doing a more in-depth scan of this all?" Nodding at the bugs, he said, "Just looking at them, they seem to be cybernetic or some kind of advanced organically-inspired tech. I imagine Bridges would like one as a sample, but damned if I'm going to risk pissing the rest of these things off."
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Post by grandest on Apr 5, 2014 10:38:43 GMT -6
Cruendi'has shrugged. "My omnitool is generally fitted to track vitals of known species, not research new ones. Bounty hunters have the habit of doing their homework before going out into the field. I could put a tracker on one of them, but they don't look quite robust enough to carry the weight. Maybe Iskra can patch us something to quickly study the bugs. If they're cybernetic, maybe Shala has something..."
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 5, 2014 10:53:29 GMT -6
Maelstrom nodded at Cruendi'has' suggestion. Tapping a few quick controls, he opened a channel to Shala'Bekk and Iskra. "Shala, Iskra, we've run into a unique situation here. We've found some... insects, for lack of a better word. They obviously have technological components, but we're unsure if they're fully mechanical or cybernetic in nature. Neither Cruendi'has nor myself have omni-tools equipped to handle this kind of research. If one of you has an appropriate application to download to Cruendi'has omni-tool or the ability to analyze these things yourselves, it would be most appreciated. I think he and I are both in agreement that it would be best not to provoke these things by removing one as a sample."
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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 5, 2014 11:29:41 GMT -6
Artacus continues to silently walk through the ancient hallways, pondering to himself many things. "If I do manage to find something.. I wonder if I can keep it as a souvenir.. or sell it to some black market on Nos Astra." He stops in his tracks, looking around once more. "The others might have some better luck than me.." He activates his omni-tool and types down on it, opening a random comms channel, which happens to be Maelstrom's. "This is Artacus.. any of you find anything new yet?" He softly speaks into the comms
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 5, 2014 12:07:53 GMT -6
"This is Artacus.. any of you find anything new yet?" the voice of the turian called over the comms.
"Got something interesting here," Maelstrom said. "Kind of hard to describe. Initiating a locator pulse."
Realizing the turian would still likely have a hard time finding them with the pulse, Maelstrom backed up and, with a little effort, pushed his right leg back through the semi-corporeal wall, to give their comrade a visual cue.
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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 5, 2014 12:27:56 GMT -6
The turian would look at his omni-tool and nod to himself. "Copy, proceeding to you locating." He replies, quickening his step to hurry to the beacon.
When he arrives at the location and looks around, trying to find the mercenary in black. Artacus then spots the wall beside him, taking a small step forward as he casually walks through the wall. "Hmm.. I assume that there's something else than this wall?" He quietly replies, letting his shotgun drop down just a tad.
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 5, 2014 12:46:19 GMT -6
"These... bugs," Maelstrom replied to the turian merc's question. "Cruendi'has and I are hoping to get someone here to analyze these. There was also something that looked like a Keeper that rushed in here. We haven't been able to find it, so far."
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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 5, 2014 13:07:56 GMT -6
Artacus walks forward to the room, stopping at the sight of them as a stares at the walls and ceiling ridden with the small insects. "Interesting... " He says, taking another small step forward to one of the tiny creatures, trying not to startle them. "And that Keeper you saw.. a type of species of Keepers perhaps." He says the to human, slowly scanning the bugs once again.
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 5, 2014 13:15:32 GMT -6
"And that Keeper you saw.. a type of species of Keepers perhaps."
"Wouldn't know," Maelstrom said. Though he knew guns would likely have little effect against the great number of insectoid beings if they should turn hostile, having a third set of hands there was somewhat reassuring. "I was too busy chasing it to get a chance to get a good scan. Then it came in here, and I had to wait several minutes for somebody to arrive as backup. By the time we got in here, it was gone."
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Post by PaladinKOSP on Apr 5, 2014 13:37:35 GMT -6
"By the time we got in here, it was gone."
Artacus nods slowly to his response, take another small step to one of the critters, still attempting not to provoke it. "I see... and these creatures, you've run a scan on them? Anything worth noting?" He questions to the mercenary.
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Post by Maelstrom on Apr 5, 2014 14:16:35 GMT -6
"Nothing remarkable," Maelstrom commented. "My omni-tool is geared more towards monitoring comms, coordinating with my ship, accessing outside systems, locating hostiles, scanning for hidden traps, evaluating weapons systems, and the like. Not microtechnological or biological analysis."
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