Alchemical Sunrise IC

[Nelle Kozera]

The entrance to the monolithic labyrinth was a set of massive blast doors with odd properties. Because of this it aloud the door, as far as simulations went. To withstand anything anyone could toss at it and shrug. The only way in was to open the door. Which up until now had remained closed, even then the massive blast doors had only opened enough for people to pass through single file.

On the otherside of the giant blast doors one could see a ship. It was close to four kilometers long. Initial scans would come back with insane readings. It seemed as if as the hull of the ship was comprised of an ultradense material that was similar in density to that of a neutron star. The second thing one would notice would be the marking of the ship. The white hull, gold markings. This was (Using the Reaver term) An Astral Shadow vessel. While there had been rumors of the Reavers having access to one, this vessel was the first intact vessel anyone has confirmed existing before.

There was a barrier between the vessel and the rest of the facility. The interesting part is the fact that the field that allowed for stable transmutation did not originate from the vessel and thus making the ship a secondary concern for the moment. Still, if this facility held an intact Astral vessel, what else was hidden within its depths?

[Samantha Arrow]

A Wurrlen battleship warps into the system, dumps a drop-ship then goes back to warp. The drop-ship got as near to the structure as it could before it dropped a pod. The drop-ship then left and found a secluded place to hide.

The pod smashes into the dirt an rock with enough force to kill someone inside. But after a moment the door was throw out onto the dirt, and a massive suit of dark gray metal stepped out. The suit reached to the pod and grabbed a large plasma weapon, and strapped it to it's back. Then the suit went to where the door had fallen, and hefted it up. There were two handles on the inside of it, one the suit just slipped it's arm through and the other the hand gripped.

Marrita made a quick check to make sure all her systems were operational. They were, and her sensors told her she had been left totally alone. She wasn't sure why this was a one-man mission, unless of course her superiors thought this was also a one-way mission. She drew her rifle again when that thought struck her, she slipped the shield back farther on her arm so that paw was free again, so she could get a better grip of her weapon.

She plotted a course on a HUD map, and started moving towards the structure.

[BIos_Reaper]

The Altinian Eastern Star-systems Alliance had been maintaining a constant watch on the unorthodox planet, its inhabitants and the monolithic structure on its surface. Thankfully the structure had not deemed the observation and planetary protection satellite grid a threat, as its sole purpose was safe-guarding the world from hostile invasions, critical planetary threats and to observe and document the worlds myriad cultures.

The Wurrlen battleship was ignored due to the Altinians somewhat steady alliance with the species, however the vessel was warned not to interfere with the culture below, the genocide of species in the ancestry of the Wurrlens genetic forefathers had something to do with security around primitive worlds being that much more tightened in the presence of Wurrlen vessels, and thus it would be an unwise move for them to drop something near the primitive culture, luckily the detected drop occurred far away from any currently established major population centers.

Altinians had a thing for studying those less along the established technology tier, never interfering in their culture or day-to-day business, merely maintaining an invisible shield over them. Coincidentally, it was one of the satellites stationed at an angular orbit so it would pass the super-structure once every week that picked up a minute power spike, followed by the crack opening of the massive structures blast doors. They sent me, Ishida "Denkou" Kiyoshi to the scene. Due to my morphological capability it would be easy enough to arrive unnoticed on the world. Altinian stealth technology wasn't at the Reaver level, but it was sufficient to keep a single-person shuttle pod launched from observation satellite platform E-27L, the pod making a soft landing the teardrop shaped mechanical vessel emitted no noise due to its reliance on non-heat emitting particle thrust.

Making my way towards the structure using orbital GPS navigation, the satellite grid helped immensely, providing me with lag-free real-time long-range holographic optical targeting and navigation data, I awaited till I was clear of any locals before re-arranging myself to my original form, donning my Vita-Life Self-Survival Exo-Frame and double-checking all of my systems prior to mission start I made my way towards the structure. I had been informed of the presence of a Wurrlen on the planet. They were a somewhat brash species given the landing the one-person pod had gone through, a quiet infiltration job was much easier, besides it didn't affect the local population or disturb any of the scenery.

I made my way towards the structure, spotting the heavily armored Wurrlen, jogging up I matched her pace, broadcasting my IFF to her so she would not start shooting. My shields were weapons-grade but still, I didn't like being under fire, besides I might need the shields for whatever was inside the Forebearer facility, it hadn't been open for hundreds, possibly thousands of years.

I decided to break the silence, since we were obviously here for the same purpose, though the side-objectives might differ. Mine was to study, possibly acquire some working piece of technology for sociological studies.

"Good day to you honored Wurrlen." I made a customary respective sign native to their culture, I was well geared towards social interactions, I didn't wish for any initial hostility if it could be avoided. "I presume you are here for the same purpose as I? To explore the innards of this massive facility? It should be interesting to see what we will find in there, the Forebearers saw fit to have the door unlock now, if only by a tiny bit, I am anxious to see why."

With that I fell silent, no need to barrage the Wurrlen with a speech he, or she did not wish for, only time would tell if the person underneath the armor would prove to be friendly or as xenophobic as the Reavers. However I refrained from gender specification with my oral analogue communication method seeing as how I could not know weather the Wurrlen under the armor was male or female, though subtle movements of the hips suggested that it was female, though this was no certified indication, most Altinians walked with a slight sway of the hips anyway.

[Samantha Arrow]

Marrita turned around to face the approaching being. She didn't have a hostile stance, she was obviously confident in her armor's level of protection. He'd need a tank to take her out with just one shot. Processors in her suit translated the creatures language, then she said "I've been sent to see if this thing is a threat." And if it was a threat, to capture it so the Wurrlens could use it as their own threat, but she didn't tell him that. "I am Mother Marrita." In Wurrlen culture, they went by different names for their gender and rank. Mother would translate about to commander. He would notice when she spoke it was in his own language, not her's or common - she apparently didn't know how to speak it, the suit was translating what she said for him. He would notice the feminine undertones in it, even though it was slightly robotic because of the translation.

She made note his species was an ally, so she didn't need to be weary. "I specialize as heavy infantry." She added, though it was more to dissuade him from trying anything foolish than it was to explain what it is she does.

[Brome Teks]

A hidden reaver probe senses the change of the status of the facility. It quickly relays this information to the reavers, and the reavers inform the AGSF, who had also had a vested interest in this world. Within mere minutes, a Perseus class vessel with the AGSF's newest reaver trainee is sent to investigate.

His mission: Threat assessment. The AGSF prefers to develop its own technology, and they're damn good at it to. They used no previously existing race's technology to propel themselves to the stars, so this anomalous world is not of that much interest to the development industry. Most of the tech they recovered would be given to the reavers, as per the bargain for information on this world. What the AGSF does want is an assessment as to whether this world could pose any threat to them or the galaxy at large, hence the Mission of the Agent.

Perseus class vessel "Vladimir" Drops into orbit around the Sun of dauntless in a perpendicular plane of orbit to the planet itself. Passive sensors sniffed the EM spectrum to confirm what the reavers had told them. Dauntless was opening up. The ship performed a step-through to a position closer to the planet, but still far enough away to let the sheer vastness of space hide them. The Engines pulled the ship for a controlled burst that put them on an ideal shuttle drop trajectory before going silent. The ship ceased all engine and shield activity and coasted into a hyperbolic path over the planet. Nothing besides a visual scan would show that they were anything besides a small rock, and in the vast distances of space, they'd have to be getting pretty close to do that.

"Report?" The captain of the Vladimir asked as the ship approached the world silently.

"Light and gravitational echoes suggest we're not the only ones here. We're detecting an ESA Orbital platform." (Fun fact: 21st century technology is sensitive enough that a cell phone on Jupiter could be detected from the USA Southwest)

"Does the ESA account for all the echoes?"

"Negative, sir."

"Pity. If it were only them, we wouldn't have to rush at all. Is Mr. Carraj Ready?"

"Aye sir. His shuttle is prepped and he's just waiting for our signal."

"Very good. Launch him when we're at the drop point."

The ship approached maximum velocity as the gravity of dauntless dragged it in, accelerating and preparing it for the slingshot that would take it to a safe hiding spot until their agent would contact them over an undetectable Nonlocal communicator. In the shuttle bay of the Vladimir, one of these things was not like the others. A one-man shuttle of reaver design was prepped for launch. Gifted to the AGSF for their agent to use, the shuttle had the full stealth capabilities of any Imperium of Shadows ship and was small enough to punt into a field goal.

The shuttle bay master signaled to Zazzack, and he signaled back, engaging active stealth systems. "Launch in 3...2...1..." The ship drops out of the bay through a door, which quickly reseals as the ship coasts off at the lowest point in the hyperbola, and the greatest speed. The Shuttle decelerates and lowers itself into the atmosphere slow enough to avoid creating a sonic boom or even needing a heat shield.

The untraceable ship smoothly and silently glides over the facility. He opens up his Nonlocal linkup. "I see two figures, judging by the armor an Altinian and a Wurrlen. They probably want to drag back any artifacts they find because lords know they can't develop any of their own technology... Or maybe they just want to worship it. Hell if I know."

.oO(Great, with a bunch of heretic brutes blindly stumbling around, They'll probably wake up any systems this facility has. So much for leaving the place undisturbed.) He looks over his sensors.

He puts the shuttle down some distance from the entrance. He unbuckles himself, and straps his two arc blades onto his forearms until he needs them. He engages his suit, and becomes as the snake in the grass. He opens his ship and exits, closing it behind him and leaving it cloaked. His visor shows the x-ray range of the spectrum. He stretches a bit, as his mentor taught him.

He unfurls his wings and flutters up, his suit hiding the sound and even the motion of the air beyond what his wings need to lift him. He flutters far over the heretics below him and right up to the entrance of the facility. He sticks himself to a wall and begins scanning the entrance for traps or animals, besides the heretics.

.oO(Hmm, most of the traps are probably made for bigger creatures. I think I'll let the heretics go through first...)

[Samantha Arrow]

Marrita wouldn't help the image of brute much with her next actions. She had gone closer to the doorway now and started doing scans of different types as far as she could. She didn't see much, but a little warning did popup on her HUD. Something was cloaked in the area, but she wouldn't be able to pinpoint it.

She growled and slammed the base of her shield against the concrete floor hard into to smash it, "Come out you coward!" She barked loudly, in her own language. She bashed her sheild into the ground a couple more times angerily, then turned back to face the Altinian. "A being of one of the coward races are here. One that has cloaking. Maybe one of them Reavers or tiny little bug things." she explained in his language. Her race is forced to develop stealth detection technology, otherwise the coward races would get an unfair advantage. "They're to scared to face us in a real battle!" She called out into the abyss again, then said back to the Altinian "Unfortunately, my suit lacks enough of the required machinery to pinpoint it's location. Just know that someone is lurking around here..." Her voice rose again "A coward that doesn't have the honor to face me directly!" She banged her shield again into the now fully crushed surface near her feet.

[Nelle Kozera]

(That guy is using Reaver level stealth tech. Your not detecting him Sam i'm sorry)

[Arratra]

Not too far away, a Draconian advanced rapidly towards the group, the thrusters on his powered suit whining faintly as he went. He had been on Dauntless for a week already, field testing this new, prototype armour and the beam weapons that were integrated with it.
He came to a stop just out of sight, and scanned the scene.
"Analysis," he said to the suit, causing it to project sensor findings to him.
"Two entities," the computer said into his ear, "One Altinian; gender unknown. One female Wurrlen."
"No one else, huh?"
"Affirmative. No other sentients detected."
"Better show myself, then," the Draconian said, and stepped out of the bushes and into the open.
"Hey!" he called; the Altinian was facing away from him, "Cruurtun Flamewing of the DRACO trooper division. Serial number DRACO5."

(Edit; There. You have your over-powered cloaking ability.)

[BIos_Reaper]

(OOC: Firstly, Brome I am not broadcasting my IFF to anyone or anything. It was a one time pulse signal aimed at the Wurrlen for identifcation and authentication of alliance, basically so she wouldnt shoot him on sight. Also Altinians developed their own technology, some of it even rivals Forebearer technology so please, that stealth suit isn't even based on your technology. And secondly, Arratra, and anyone else, no. You cannot detect my bio-droid status with something as simple as a suit-sensor. I can fool bio-molecular scans so no, nothing suit-integrated can penetrate past my skin, it's for story purposes so please, none of this annoying auto-detecting I've had to deal with it before and twice is one time too many)

[Nelle Kozera]

(Again, no you can't detect the PD using Reaver level stealth for a simple Reason. Reaver Suits have interact with the light itself to hide the suit. Its a simple matter to Analise the light and make a picture. The Reason X-Ray is used is so they can see past non dense materials like wood, flesh, low density stones. So again, detecting someone in a Reaver stealth suit is not happening. Stop attempting to thwart this ability it goes FAR beyond what you would call stealth. No one without a sensor boon can detect them threw even a prototype sensor package that was not approved by me. So now two posts need editing. Now no more detecting the PD unless he wants to show himself. And Bios, radio waves are omidirectional if you sent an IFF everyone got it if it was in the Radio spectrum.)

(Edit: Any antistealth technology will be effective against non specialization level stealth. To detect specialization level stealth you will need a boon in detection.)

[Samantha Arrow]

[[I'm not editing my post till you either A: Make your stealth the least bit detectable; or B: Acknowledge all races boons. In the way you apply stealth technology I'm applying it to my armor, which means you can't penetrate it unless your species has a boon in armor-piercing, and in the case of Altinians I'm guessing it would be the same for their shields]]

[BIos_Reaper]

(OOC: Altinian IFF signals are not radio-waves but single-direction QEC/Sub-space hybrid overseen by a SMART VI that can attune its frequency of function to that of another species communication protocols, though disturbances may off course hinder its performance. Without a direct sensor boon such as an Omni-sensor it is more than reasonable for Reaper stealt tech to be impenetrable, after all they cant fight any of us head on, also Samantha your armor is a little unfair the way you put it, since arc-blades can melt through armor but have difficulty against virtually all standard military shield systems. Brome's cloak is impenetrable because he cant fight any of us in single-combat and expect to win, hell I doubt he could even scorch your armor or pierce my shields.

[Samantha Arrow]

[[Missing the point. They get some all mighty untouchable stealth technology because it's their racial 'boon'. In order to keep it fair this means we also get some all mighty untouchable racial boon... But enough OOC in the IC, this should all be settled in the OOC topic.]]

[macrorufus]

Small craters dotted the vicinity of the doors that lead into the monolithic building ahead. The centres of these craters were dangerously irradiated. Blackened lumps of metal and scorched earth decorated the craters delicately. Some bore the obscure legend: 'Manufactured on Calera Primary.' Just inside the doors, in the relative shelter of that opening, was a prefab. It was currently unoccupied. The prefab, was small, intentionally so, as it was built for one occupant. Next to the prefab stood what appeared to be two missiles. These were folded jump drones. The Calerans, despite having access to advanced communication systems through the AGSF, still insisted on using jump drones as couriers. In this case though they were clearly intended to carry materials back and forth

There was movement at the doors, close inspection would reveal one large 'Tsar' model drone, and one smaller 'Flanker.' The Flanker scuttled around the legs of the Tsar, pausing now and then to point its two small under-hull firearms at shadows. Indeed, the reason for its behaviour would be clear, as just past the prefab lay several bullet casings and a dead alien drone (alien to the current races of AoR). The dead drone more closely resembled Swiss Cheese, and matched the size of the small flanker. While the Flanker was clearly 'normal' the Tsar was clearly a stripped down version. It didn't have any armor, so the various wires that threaded the drone's body were all to clear, nor did it carry any functional weaponry. In its arms was a arc welder, which it was attempting to use on the door's material. At its feet lay a discarded power saw, it was clearly blunt through overuse. Dejectedly the Tsar gave up attempting to weld off a piece of the door.
"No luck again?" said a voice.
The Tsar's turned to face the voice, its headlamps illuminating a Caleran female. She was dressed in a labcoat. She winced at the sudden light. The Tsar quickly dimmed its lights.
"No luck," returned the drone.
Both were speaking in the Caleran tongue. The Flanker on the other hand said nothing but skittered around Hui Er Shu's legs. The reverse engineer specialist (as was marked by her labcoat) frowned and nudged the drone with her foot, pushing it back to the door. It rushed back to the Tsar, circled it a few times, then resumed keeping a watch.
Hui muttered darkly under her breath.
"Damn 1st Gen Flankers. Nothing more than a trained pet."

[Brome Teks]

(OOC: I am posting this as if SA's latest post never occurred. Also, I removed the IFF references in my previous post, But for future reference, if you are using the word "Broadcast" then I assume that means you are broadcasting. Anywho, I at least thank you, Bios, for understanding the boon system. This RP couldn't function very well without it.)

Zazzack looks to the Draconian, then the Caleran from his vantage point He takes off and silently flutters through the air around the group of three outside. .oO(Let's see... that brings us to three heretics and one poor shmuck from the CCA.) he opens up his nonlocal communicator. "Two new contacts, a CCA researcher it looks like, and a Draconian Free Legions..." He sighs, "Power armor trooper. I don't recognize the exact model of armor, I'll forward an image over to you." He uses his hand to interact with his visual interface. He takes a few pictures of the armor in different spectrums of light and at different angles, and then forwards them back to his ship. .oO(Wonder if this is a new model they plan to use to fight the Andrians.) He shrugs in midair then returns to the entrance with the cracked open door. (OOC: I should mention that nonlocal, or quantum entanglement communicators are physically impossible to intercept or even interfere with, and are nearly possible to make with current 21st century technology. So if anyone is using them, They can't be intercepted. Also, that's why it's important to specify that you're using them, if you are.)

He silently crawls up to the top of the door and looks from the interior to the exterior. .oO(Now, would it be better to be further ahead, or behind the Heretics when they inevitably set off traps? Hmm, any traps are probably designed to take out a party of people, so that means that anyone behind the leader is also in a spot of trouble.) He begins to crawl into the entrance way along the door, silently scuttling across the wall. Once inside, he moves to the middle of the wall and stops, looking over the entrance hall. .oO(No traps so far...) He moves some distance into the entrance hall, what he considers a minimum safe distance away from the others, who he figures are bound to be setting off every trap in the facility. .oO(I should also probably keep flying in here to a minimum, there could be physical tripwires across corridors and the like.)

[Nelle Kozera]

As the species outside the door where talking amongst themselves a bright white ball of energy began form in the middle of the ship. (Where the blue orb is in the picture) It was apparent that the armor slats that would cover the this energy where open for the moment. What the energy source was based on at the moment was unknown, but its effect was easy enough to see. In the floor some forty meters from the entrance to the facility a Dimensional door appeared. From the looks of it, it appeared to be another part of the facility. But beyond the first fifteen meters the image was blurred...

[Samantha Arrow]

Since Marrita's sensor sweep of the entrance turned up negative she figured it was safe to assume their was no traps. If this building was as old as it was said to be, it wouldn't have had the power to keep traps in a cloak for so long. Marrita turned back to face her Altinian friend. "It's safe as far as I can tell."

When she turned back around, she saw the gateway thing appear. She approached it and slid her sheild off so she could hold one end of it, and she pushed it through the portal. "Rather loose a hunk of metal than my arm." She commented, before pulling the shield back out to see whether or not it was still intact.

[Nelle Kozera]

As the shield returned it apparent that there was no damage on the shield at all, seemed a little cleaner, what little dust that had settled on the shield was now gone, the energy orb of the ship Hummed quietly, it was a possibility that the ship was powering the door.

[BIos_Reaper]

Running a wide variety of passive and a single active sensor-suite I was operating a veritable comm-relay/sensor-station on my own, attempting to discern the dimensional anomaly, weather or not it was harmful I kept a watchful gaze on the CCA reverse-engineering specialist and her two automated companions. I wasn't entirely up to speed on the CCA other than the fact they had a somewhat laxer understanding of artificial intelligence and synthetic personnel creation than the Altinians did, I was proof of that. Either way it looked like she had had about as much success at chipping the door as everyone else had had at attempting to open it for years.

I ceased scanning when I noticed the Wurrlens shield came back out of the dimensional rift unharmed, however on closer examination via zoom-scan it was revealed to me that it was cleaner than before, dust particles and even stray micro-bacteria having been sterilized somehow.

Stepping up to the "doorway" I guess would be the appropriate word for it, my right arm glowed for a moment as my projected armor field engaged, I slid my arm through the portal, initiating my right arms sensor-suite, determining the room on the inside had breathable atmosphere, low humidity and even its own gravitational center. It appeared to be perfectly safe.

"Multiple-spectrum passive and active sensor analysis shows no discernible threat of any kind. I'm going through." I said, a desire to be the "first explorer" ever to set foot inside the facility sort of swelling up inside me. It would be akin to pride, but it was more like a feeling of awe. Fully sheathing myself in my personal projected armor field I stepped through the door onto the room on the other side. To say I was taken aback by the majestic design of the facility would be putting it lightly. It easily rivaled that of the grand cradles and even that of the shield-worlds themselves!

[macrorufus]

(OOC: My previous post was ok'd by Reaper before I posted it).
The Flanker at the door rushed out at the Atinian and growled. The knee high drone was a first gen, and so rather than a sentient mind, held a trained animal's mind. It pointed it's two under-hull weapons upwards at the Atinian and raised itself to make it look more threatening. While that may have worked for the original creature, it made the spider-like Flanker look like it was performing a balancing act.
"Stand down!"
The Flanker immediately stood down and scuttled around the Atinian then back over to the Caleran inside the doors.
Hui Er Shu went on over to the Atinian. She had something of a grin on her face and extended a hand.
"So this monolith awes you as much as it did me! Then home's government was right. This will be worth looting. And I'm sure the CCA won't mind losing some choice samples."
The 'scientist,' if that's a fair word, was joking idly, though on the inside she was worried. The CCA was the smallest, and least advanced nation of the major space-faring powers. The CCA played catch-up everyday, and this was a big chance to score. Now, with an Atinian, Wurrlen, Draconian and god only knew what else, the chances of scoring a big hit dropped considerably. When push came to shove, the CCA would back down, and Hui doubted that the arrivals would be pleased at the CCA's upstart behaviour. So... she'd have to ingratiate herself with them.

"All joking aside, I've been testing the doors' material, and haven't proceeded any further. Naturally, I hope to work together with you, and the others. It would be a good opportunity for co-operation would it not? I also hope you took no offense to the ah... guard dog."
Though it hurt her pride, Hui wasn't about to be arrogant or aggressive to citizens of the larger nations.
"It's fantastic is it not?"

[Arratra]

Cruurtun slowly approached the door, and scanned it with his suit's sensors. The results were inconclusive, but from the way that the Wurrlen shield and the Altinian's arm had passed through unharmed, he decided to chance it.

Passing through the rift had to be one of the most bizarre sensations the Draconian had ever felt; it was, however, not entirely pleasant.
"That felt... weird," he said, shaking himself free of the tingling that he continued to feel, "Now the-... whoa."
He unholstered his beam weapons, looking around.
"This... this is incredible!" he exclaimed, as his suit automatically scanned and logged everything in sight, "The scientists will be thrilled when I get this scan data back to them!"
He took a step forwards, his armour whining ever so slightly with his movements.

[Samantha Arrow]

Marrita growled a bit as the her Altinian was taken aside by some Caleran. But when the Draconian went through the portal, she decided not to wait for him. It was in the Wurrlen Empire's interest to obtain technology from this vessel before the others, she might already be too late seeing as the Caleran's had been here for a while.

Marrita charged into the gateway and bumped into the Draconian on the other side. "Out of my way!" Surprisingly it was in his native language. She glanced around at the surroundings, "What a waste of resources. What's the point of constructing beauty into something anyway?" If only she knew the irony, the Wurrlens very Seeder race the Lightfireans also constructed beauty into their ships, and held a high value on beauty. Obviously the Wurrlens had got the Wolvend side of the DNA when it came to their opinion on beauty.

But now that she was in she didn't know what to do, she turned around to face the portal again. Time to see if sound could pass through the gateway, "Come on Altinian! I need you!"

[Nelle Kozera]

Those that had passed through the “Doorway” Would have found themselves in a hallway with mosaics carved and painted into every Surface. For the moment there happened to be no visual interfaces on any of the walls so it appeared that there was nothing aside from ascetic detail. These carving seemed to show different events in history. Those that had decoded the laungage of the race who built the structure could read that the pictograph script that captioned the image said. "Horizon Wars" One in particular seemed to show a battle between two massive fleets on the edge of the event horizon of a black hole. Some of ships looked like the one that they had passed seen just beyond the entrance of the blast doors.

Farther down the hall was an expansive chamber, its giant opening seemed like it sunk deep into the crust of the planet, something should not have happened seeing as the seismic scans showed the facility did not go deeper than one quarter of a kilometer, and yet this chamber seemed to go several kilometers down. Aside from depth the chamber was close to five hundred meters across. About three kilometers down a structure of some kind was held by pylons, it was glowing dull violet for the moment seemingly in standby mode. Above them floating drones flew about, each one them with different tasks. Most of the drones where the size of dogs, though every now and then there would be a drone the size of the Draconian or a bit larger, all drones shared a similar coloration of white and gold.

When one of the groups reached the massive chamber safety barriers would engage sealing the open area from the possibility of one of them falling to their death. It still allowed them to look down into the open area but prevented them entering the area from the air. If anyone had documented the energy from before they would realize that this was not its source, anyone with the correct sensor equipment would be able to pick up low level temporal distortions from the device below.

Walking towards anyone that entered would be a black female dragon about two meters tall with a white cloak around her with gold patterns that where everywhere else in the facility. She appeared to be unarmed and have no defenses of any kind. One thing that was noticable about her was that both of her horns had been replaced with implants turning them into transmitters, the reason for this was an unknown for the moment.

“This is a closed facility, outsiders, this facility is property of those that came before you.” She said, “What Business do you have here.”

As the Altinian went through the portal the portal shut behind him leaving the group of three stranded for the moment. Back in the Main hanger the remaining two would have seen a second portal open, this one to a different location. This location seemed like more like the bridge of a starship....

[Brome Teks]

Zazzack flutters around the portal, sending any information his sensors can glean back to his ship. He lands back on the wall. .oO(Now, to follow them through, or to look around for another way into the facility?)

The decision was made for him rather quickly. The portal closed and reopened, showing a new location. .oO(Woah) He flutters down around the portal a few more times. "Vladimir, I am entering this portal. Wish me luck..." he flutters through and passes into the bridge of the starship.

"Vladimir, Do you read me?"

"Affirmative."

"I appear to be on the bridge of a starship..." he flutters over to an active console. It has a video link, showing the others down wherever they were. "And I have a video link to the rest of the contacts here." He sets his HUD to show visual light and watches as they are approached by the female black dragon. "And it seems they found someone else from this place."

He begins forwarding his visual and audio inputs to the Vladimir, wanting to get a full record of what this being was saying.

(Post was approved by Reaper of the Righteous. He says that QEC communications work still, but near the core tachyon based ones will be useless.)

[Nelle Kozera]

...He says that QEC communications work still, but near the core tachyon based ones will be useless.)

( OOC: That I did.)

[BIos_Reaper]

The interior of the grand hallway was truly magnificent! It held true to the word that the Forebearers appreciated fine and grand displays of artistic expression, it was odd however that it had survived the thousands and thousands of years the Forebearers had been gone on its own, the murals of a grand battle fought before most of the other species had even learned to walk, by then the Altinians had still been re-learning, still being watched over by the guardians of ancient times, their colossal fleet. Yet despite all the marvels of the halls art the center piece of it all was the most beautiful, yet also the most puzzling... Especially the female appearing before us all.

~A... A Forebearer!? I-Improbable! M-Most improbable!~ I thought. Ancient decoded records had revealed the baseline form of the Forebeares long ago, a dragon-like species of immense intellectual prowess. However something was off, and I intended to find out what, with a little social experiment of mine. Stepping up before the troupe of people that had followed me through the gateway I deactivated my helmet visor, causing it to peel backwards, the frontal visor slipped into my heavy-looking chest piece while the back of it disappeared into my back plating, revealing my pretty Altinian face for all to see.

On my cheeks I had black and dark-gray color coded metal with green glowing LED's, similar metal on my temples extending along my eyebrows and just under my eyes, with a V shaped symbol of same color on my forehead, with three glowing spheres at the ends of the V and at its heart, glowing softly, my own emerald-green colored eyes glowing, the brighter green on the iris rotating and alternating as I zoomed in on the being, attempting to discern my unease. ~What... I-Improbable! This is very improbable! She's not a hard-light projection at all! No controlled force-field or even a hint of unusual photon activity! She's... Physical!?~

Running my eyes along her form, from the base of her covered feet to the tips of her replaced horns. "You are no projection... " I stated, like a fact rather than a question (approved by Reaper), having confirmed it myself through a simple optical scan. I wasn't too thrilled now however, it was an amazing chance to get to talk to the creators of all the marvels left behind in the galaxy... Yet it was incredibly painful to look like a mere savage by comparison for that matter.

"What are you? Synthetic or organic? Forebearer or not?" I asked, my iris' expanding and tightening mix-max, one eye out of sync with the other, before the question fully registered with me. Like a child caught with its hand in the treat jar where it wasn't supposed to be I answered simplistically. "Your entrance way was open, with no evident physical or energetic obstructions in the way, I and apparently for the same reason, the beings presently accounted for decided that since this facility had been apparently dormant for in excess of thousands of years, we investigate. I do not speak for anyone but myself, but I deeply apologize for invading without right or granted authority."

I bowed my head, a standard display of regret, my ears twitching and my armored tail coiling around my lower leg. I felt woefully simplistic in the presence of a being which might very well belong to the same species that had brought most of the other major galactic powers such as the Reavers to their current level of power, yet at the same time I felt incredibly, hopelessly poor in comparison, standing before a king with mere clay and dirt to show for my efforts of progression, it was depressing to think about it, so I delegated the task back towards the rear of my mind, filing it away under "Unpleasant Sensations during Seemingly momentous events".

[Nelle Kozera]

(I should note that the posting had confused me a bit. Arratra, and Sam are with Bios. Brome is in a different place, and Marco is still in the hanger.)

[macrorufus]

Hui would have preferred to stay and attempt to take samples of materials but if the rest went further in, she'd need to follow. If only just to ensure that any... 'finds' further in could be claimed by the CCA. Course... They hadn't actually found.. anything really. The door's material was tough. But if they couldn't take a sample, then what value was that?
So, she'd left the Tsar behind, the drone was ordered to stay at the camp, in case something went wrong. With her, she took the Flanker which scuttled after her. It was behaving a little better now that she'd had time to take it to task.

She wasn't /really/ sure if the little drone was quiet because it was intimidated by the larger power suits or because it had actually listened to her for a change. (Checked this with Reaper). Course the portal had taken the Atinian, Wurrlen and Draconian. She cursed. If she'd not been worried and had been a little faster she'd not have been left behind. Now, all she could hope was that the portal still left had something. She started to walk towards it and paused. It could be dangerous too. She had a better idea.

"Flanker!" she said.
The Flanker looked up at the Caleran and rushed over. Hui gave the little drone a pat and then bent down. Huffing she picked up the surprisingly heavy drone and threw it through the portal. With an electronic shriek, the drone flew into the portal and out onto the bridge-like area. It landed upside down and flipped itself quickly, presenting weapons as it spun a sharp circle. Hui came through not long after, satisfied that the drone was still registered on her comm systems. Her eyes widened as she found herself guessing where she was.
"Now this... is a hit."

[Samantha Arrow]

Marrita watched in curiosity as some unknown being approached them, she considered hefting her gun then had second thoughts.

If this person belongs to the race of some of the things we've seen here I could probably be killed by an idle thought or something. Best to keep from gunslinging.

She listened to the Altininan grovel, and the creature before them tell them to leave basically. She couldn't help but chuckle in a dark tone, than said "If you are who you say you are. 'Those who came before us' you should know the universe, or at least this galaxy is not yours anymore. Whatever happened to your empires, they're gone now, time to move on a leave it for someone else... Speaking of that, why are you here anyway? Everyone else is gone."

Marrita was obviously not impressed like the Altinian was, in fact she had no idea what this thing was other than it was from a time long gone.

[Arratra]

Cruurtun slowly holstered his guns, and lifted his hands to his helmet. It hissed, and he pulled the face mask off, revealing his triangular snout.
"How is this possible?" he said, "One of the Ancients, still alive after four hundred thousand cycles!"

Then what she had said registered, and he frowned.
"Closed facility?" he wondered aloud, "Is the translator malfunctioning? There was no mention of this place being closed outside. It looks more like a museum."