The inside of the intraship transport car is a mess. Scortch marks on the inner walls tell of an internal explosion, and the remnants of armor tell of something more disturbing: it looks like the ship's crew was fighting among themselves, either before or after the crash. Blasted bits of standard Imperial armor are mixed with the darker, more stylized armor of what may as well be called The Followers of Ahriman.
"How's it look down there?" Gabriel shouts from the top of the shaft, 180-feet above. His voice booms and echoes.
"Bad," Tasha calls back, her voice echoing through the ship's darkened cargo bay. "I've found a severly damaged transport car along with what are probably bodies -- well, pieces of bodies. It seems the ship had fallen to infighting. The car is beyond repair, destroyed by what appears to have been an explosion. The armor pieces of one of the combatants seems to indicate a faction seperate from the crew -- probably the followers of Ahriman." Tasha steps back from the wreck, head shaking. She then takes a moment to peer up the shaft, thinking, and then calls out, "May as well climb down. It may be unsafe to rely on the infraship elevator, if we can even get it working."
"We're sending down ropes then," Gabriel calls back. "Meet at the first horizontal junction?"
"You got it," Tasha responds.
When the rope lands, Tasha wraps it around a bar in the wreckage to keep the rope from swaying. She then grabs the loose and and holds it taught, to better help easy people down.
It takes some time. Hakeber is not used to this, and Toth actually has to carry her down. Soon they are all assembled at the middle junction of the shaft, where it branches horizontally towards the front of the ship.
"This is a tomb?" Toth asks Tasha.
"I think it's safe to assume there may be booby traps," Tasha remarks as she scans the gloomy corridor. "Either from the surviving priests who retreated back in here, or relics from the fighting." She blinks at the question, having forgotten Toth isn't familiar with the history of the Expedition in her focus to deal with the threats the starship's interior pose. "No. It was once a flying steel, something like an airship made of steel. These bodies belong to its crew. A long time ago, it fell from the sky after traveling here from far, far away."
"We should find the nest," Toth says after a few moments. "The dragon's nest. The treasure will be there."
"The treasures of this place are more than gold coins and shiny jewels," Tasha murmurs. Seeming satisfied with her inspection, she begins walking. "We should locate the bridge. If it wasn't destroyed in the fighting, the atomic batteries should provide enough power for access. It won't be pretty, though. Hake, you may want to gird yourself for the worst."
"Deadfalls, tripwires.. basic things," Aaron warns. "Things that don't need power are what we should look for. This is a Forbidden Zone, so machines should be even less reliable than usual."
"A few holy books would be handy to find," Hakeber notes, a bit nervously.
"There may be a few traps that survived the centuries. What can and cannot survive lengthy SPF exposure doesn't seem to be uniform, so we can't assume we won't be dealing with high explosives, automated weaponry, or the like. It's unlikely, but we've seen exceptions before." Tasha walks down the corridor with torch held aloft, eyes scanning the way. "The bridge can supply us a map and a list of dangers. Failing that, we'll need to attempt to locate emergency backups. Keep an eye out for emegency stations, damage control lockers, and anything else that might be useful in dealing with emergency situations. Since this is a military vessel, there should be a number of them and several central dispatch and maintenance hubs." Deciding her eyes aren't enough, Yasha unlimbers a long stick she brought and begins sweeping the ground infront of her as she walks.
Moving forward through the transport shaft isn't always easy. There are damaged areas that have to be detoured around, and several more vertical shafts. They do manage to reach the forward end of it though after an a few hours. The doors are forced open, and there are the remains of a barricade beyond and more signs of battle. A few rifles remain, fitted with bayonets - and there are plenty of old swords as well. One side certainly seems to have been better prepared for fighting under Sinaian conditions. "The bridge should be up ahead," Gabriel notes, looking over the damage.
"I'm susprised to see so many low-tech weapons here," the hybrid woman comments as she wanders amongst the carnage. "How common were swords in the Expedition Era, Captain?"
"For us, they were mostly ceremonial," Gabriel notes. "The Silent-Ones and Confederates have dueling traditions, so officers were expected to have swords and know how to use them. I don't know of the Imperials having any reason to keep swords. Bayonets, yes - those are very effective in ship-board combat."
Aaron lifts one of the rifles. It looks like a magazine fed projectile sort, powerful enough do deal with armor but not a real threat to hull material. The swords appear to be advanced ceramics. Toth manages to draw blood when he tests the edge of one. "So ssssharp.." he hisses.
"Then either this ship came prepared, or their opponents did. And if the former is the case, then these black-armored figures got to them first. Either way, it shows this mutiny was planned and not a spur of the moment event." Tasha leans down and picks up one of the swords, testing its heft. "These are good weapons, by my measure. I don't like scavaging amongst the dead, but we're far from home and our resources are limited. Take what you think you'll need and leave the rest. Don't bring the rifles -- their ammunition is unstable and a potential explosive hazard." She then picks a sheath off the ground, sliding it in beside the one containing Apollyon's sword before sheathing the new blade along side it.
After sorting through the weapons, even Hakeber has a sword - while Aaron prefers a bayonet for some reason. "A knife has more uses," he claims, even though it's still a rather big knife. The side corridors show more signs of fighting, and it looks like the barricades were meant to prevent the mutineers from heading forward. A short corridor in that direction ends at an airlock style hatch.
Tasha nods as she walks amongst the dead, frowning but not surprised. "It makes sense they'd try to seize the bridge; with bridge control it would be easy to force the remaining crew to surrender, or crush pockets of resistance." She shakes her head and gives one of the cultist bodies a kick. "Pirates and mutineers." Then curses something in the squawky language of Vartans.
The kick releases a cloud of organic dust from the mummified corpse. Like the other pressure doors, the bridge hatch opens inward, and it's clear that whatever locking mechanisms it had were burnt out with some sort of heat-cutter. It hangs slight ajar.
After glaring at the body a moment longer, Tasha moves on. She approaches the unsealed door and folds her arms. "This is going to be grim," she remarks at the singed lock, gesturing at it a second later. "Hake, want to wait outside?"
"They're mummies or dust," Hakeber says. "I can hold my nose."
"Then I'll try and restrain my anger, too." Stepping forward, Tasha runs her stick up and down the slight gap between the pressure doors.
Nothing gets snagged, so at least there aren't trip wires. And nothing else reacts to the movement yet.
"Toth, help me with these doors." Tasha returns the stick next to her backpack, then braces herself against the cold metal, pushing for all she's worth.
There's some resistance, but then the door moves under the combined strength of the two. The smell of the swamp was being held back by some sort of plant or fungal sheath over the door, but now it comes through. There's stagnant water ahead, and lots of mushroom-looking fungus. The torch barely illuminates the bridge, which seems severely damaged. The front wall is gone, just a ragged hole into a larger chamber beyond.
Aaron dashes up next to Tasha, sniffing and looking around quickly. "Don't touch those purple ball fungi," he warns. "Toxic spores. The rest are mostly harmless."
"I didn't cover my nose soon enough," Hakeber complains.
Tasha's ears flatten against her head. "Well, it doesn't look good. but at least we can be certain that the mutiny occured while in orbit. There'd be little point to taking the bridge after the crash. Still, we should check to be sure." She nods to Aaron, then pats his his head for some reason. "Thank you. Everyone, be careful of the purple ball fungi. Proceed with caution. Lets see if we can find anything." And with that she wades in.
Toth is ready with his spear, but there doesn't seem to be any animal life yet. Torchlight reflects off of various flat clear surfaces that must have been display screens. The control panels have been torn apart, likely scavenged for anything useful. There's some light flicking across the water in the chamber beyond.
The hybrid woman makes her way among the terminals with a great deal of head shaking and tsking. "Nothing yet, but ... Oh?" Cathcing the flicker in the corner of her keen eyes, she turns and points a finger at it. "I see something. Heading that way to investigate."
"Be careful!" Gabriel says. Toth is right next to Tasha though, being more familiar with moving through the swamp (and scales don't get fur-rot). The flicker is definitely a reflection of sunlight though as Tasha gets closer, the ripples from her movement affecting the flicker. The chamber is large, with heavy shapes now draped in muck and shadow.
Encumbered by her bulky armor, it's slow going for Tasha. While she might be manuverable in the air, wings are just more resistance when slogging through swamp. "I know, I know," she calls back as she and Toth make their way. Once they reach the aparature, she stops to inspect the gloom.
"It looks like some sort of chamber," she reports, head cocked to the side. "The reflection is sunlight. The cavern may be natural -- I can't tell from here. Lets check it out, Toth."
It doesn't look natural, just.. overgrown. There are gantries and other shapes that Tasha recognizes: this was the Titan bay. One of the outer doors has been bent back to provide access to the outside, but the opening is covered in vines and creepers, letting in only a few beams of sunlight.
"I'm wrong, it's the Titan bay," Tasha calls back. "This must be where Caspar clawed his way out." Trudung forward, she makes her way in to the hangar proper and begins searching around. "Lets see what we can find."
At the very front of the hangar is a semi-familiar locker, rising from floor to ceiling. Around its base are.. shiny things, even under the water. The rest of the equipment in the hangar is either ruined by rot or mangled - possibly when Caspar 'woke up' and went wild.
"I've found the Titan's locker -- it's secured and undamaged. There seems to be other things around it, but I can't make them out." As she makes her way towards the locker, Tasha can only wonder at what sort of havok the possessed Titan wrought upon the hangar; neither cultist nor crew could have anticipated an unpiloted machine would power up on its own and go berzerk.
"I'm coming out," Gabriel says, and is soon next to Tasha. "Do you think Caspar ever came back after breaking out?"
"I think he did, but he wasn't armed with any optional equipment. He may also lack the means to access the locker. However, look there." As the draw closer, Tasha points at the glimmer beneath the water. "I think we may have found the gold. There's a possibility the Marker is here as well." the red woman kneels down in to the murk, fishing around for the sparklies.
What she gets is a handful of rectangular metal bits, connected to chains. They look golden.. or bronzish at least, and are covered with Imperial sigils. But no two are quite alike in their inscriptions.
Tasha holds the find up to a light, ears going askew as she stares at the object with an expression of bemusement. "What are these?"
It then occurs to her a second later, as she thinks on their shape. "These are Progenitor Cult holy symbols?"
"Dog-tags," Gabriel says. "Identifiers for the soldiers. If one dies, the others grab the tags so they can be accounted for."
"This pile is the crew," the Karnor notes. "Their names and ranks anyway."
"Oh." Tasha murmurs, looking momentarily lost as the severity of the find hits her. She gently lays the object back down where she found it. "I guess this is where they made their last stand. Or were ... " She decides to leave the rest unsaid, and simply shakes her head and murmurs a prayer in a language Hakeber and Toth are unfamiliar with, though Aaron and Gabriel remember quite well.
After she's done paying her respects, Tasha turns to face the locker and walks over to it in silence. As she nears, she raises a hand, then gently places it upon the door.
"These are grave markers?" Toth asks, scooping up more of the tags. "They must have been great men, to warrant such things."
As she waits to see if the locker responds, Tasha answers, "They were indeed great men. Every one of them."
The locker is cold and metallic. Whatever locking mechanism it has, the only thing that looks like a latch is a circular patch set midway up - ten feet off the deck of the hangar.
"The locker doesn't appear to have a automated pilot recognition system. Toth, could you help me reach that?" She points at the latch high above their heads.
"You can stand on my shoulders," Toth offers, and takes up a position at the base of the locker.
"Thank you; I'm sorry if this is uncomfortable." Tasha steps up on the man's shoulders, then carefully walks her hands up the side of the locker as Toth rises. Even with their combined height it's an awkward grab, but she manages it and slowly she begins working the mechanisim.
This time there's a reaction, although only Tasha can really see it: the tattoos on the backs of her hands (now covered up again by fur) glow blue. The disk-shaped latch turns clockwise until there's a click, followed by the much louder thunk of bolts being drawn back.
"It's opening! Get clear!" Tasha hops off Toth's shoulders to land beside him, then offers him a hand to help him pull away before the massive doors open.
The dog-tags are swept aside as the doors of the locker swing open. Front and center is the triangular Marker Stone, showing its depiction of the original Naga forms. Beside it on either side are two Titan-sized scimitar-like blades.
Tasha runs her hand back through her hair as she takes in the sight. "There it is," she breathes, voice full of awe. "I can't believe we've found them all ... And look at those scimitars!"
"They are too big," Toth claims. The Marker seems to confuse him, if only for the odd material. It may just like a pair of gods on it to him.
"We still have to get it out of here," Gabriel notes to Tasha.
"Not for what they were meant for. But ah ... The Marker!" The young half-Vartan woman makes her way through the muck, stopping before the artifact and grinning widely. "I still can't believe we're looking at it. All three of them ... It sends a chill down my spine." She brushes the back of her hand over the Marker's surface. "And look, the original forms of the Naga. Dragons. A fitting shape for the last piece to be found. And now that it's infront of me, I can't help but feel a little apprehensive of the future."
As always, the Marker surface feels.. there and not there at the same time.
"You weren't apprehensive before?" Gabriel asks, putting a hand on Tasha's shoulder. Toth begins collecting the dog-tags into a sack.
Close as he is, Gabriel can see Tasha's expression as she stares at the peculiar object: a look somewhere between excitement and fear. Her ears are canted back, eyes wide. She bites her lip for a moment, then reaches to lift the object up, taking it and cradling it in her hands.
"I was, that's true. But, there's something about seeing it in front of me. As long as there was just one more to find, there was always the uncertainty ... and maybe the promise that there were always more steps to take. More trails to follow. The adventure would continue and everything would remain the same. Now that I hold the last step in my hands, I know it has to come to an end. I need to turn my thoughts to what's ahead, but I don't know what will happen. I can't see any farther, and the future is uncertain," Tasha whispers, so that only Gabriel and Aaron can hear.
Edging back, Tasha leans her head against Gabriel's chest, looking up in to his eyes. "But you're right. One thing at a time, right?"
"Last step?" Gabriel asks. "Do you know something I don't, like: what are you supposed to do with them?"
"I don't, but this is the final part. All that would remain to do would be to try and bring them together. But before we do that, we need to know how -- and before we do that, we should distribute them for analysis. They have historical and scientific value beyond their place in the mission-porm, and should be studied." Tasha takes a deep breath, then exhales and smiles at the wolf. "I guess there's still a lot to do. You can tease me for brooding, if you want."
"I'll tease you when we're out of the haunted swamp in the middle of a Forbidden Zone with a mechano-veggie monster stomping around," Gabriel promises.
A little grin crosses the young hybrid's face. "I'll hold you to that. Do you want to stick around and look for anything we can salvage, or just get out of here? The clock is ticking for us, so this isn't like other ruins. We might have a problem if we remain too long."
"I think we've found all that's worth carrying," Gabriel says, while Toth scours the floor for any tags he missed.
"I will bring these to Nagai City," he hisses. "I will be rewarded by the Keepers of History."
"I think so too. Lets get out of here." Tasha beams a smile at Toth, then thumbs up towards the pried open hangar doors. "So back out the way we came, or want to try hacking our way through that?"
There's some rapid splashing, as Aaron and Hakeber run up to the others. The scholar in particular looks like she's about to start gibbering. "Hack!" Aaron suggests. "Quickly!"
"Um? R-right," Tasha stammers perplexedly, blinking at the sudden rush but knowing better than to question it. Wasting no time, she turns and bolts towards the cleft opening, leaping in to the air and gliding through the gap, plowing in to the vegetation and landing with a thump. She quickly turns around and begins hacking, trying to clear enough room so she can secure a rope.
The others bring their swords to the fray, and start making progress. Hakeber whimpers as there are splashing sounds from the hangar.
Frusterated with their progress, tasha draws her second sword and begins tearing in to the vegetion like a whirlwind of sheers. "What's happening?!" She barks out in a low voice, knowing better to slow down but hoping she can get some idea what they're up against if things get out of control.
"Zombies," Aaron says, simply. "Crumbly ones."
"Zombies?!" After hacking enough away to expose a upright twist or rent metal, Tasha sheathes her weapons and ties her rope, tossing it down to the party below.
Escape secured, the hyrbid leaps from her perch to land behind the rest of her party waiting below. She draws her weapons all over again, dropping in to a fighting stance. "Hurry out! I'll hold them off!"
"Don't try too hard!" Aaron yells as everyone scrambles up the rope. Sure enough, when the first zombie shows up, it doesn't look like it would be put off much by a sword. Less an animated cadaver than a ghost with bits of mummified (and disintegrating) flesh or bone and suspended armor, it still manages to hold onto a sword, even though the hand isn't physically connected to anything. "More like revenants I suppose!" the Lapi offers in passing.
Tasha meets the specter's sword with her own, quickly deciding she won't make any progress trying to press for victory. Instead she focuses on defense, standing her ground and utilizing her weapon and armor to try and deflect blows as best she can. The clash of swords echoes through the ancient hangar as Tasha yells, "We're not your enemies! You don't need to fight us!"
If the spirits understand her, they don't show it. More of them are coming too! "Tasha! Hurry up!" Gabriel calls down. "Stay in the light!" Aaron offers.
It's only then that tasha sees just who she's up against: the shadowy armor of the mutineers makes itself known in the faint sunlight. Tasha bares her teeth, declaring, "Forget I said that! You brought this disaster upon yourself! You were decieved by Caspar along with all the others, but you didn't have to murder the crew to have your way!"
tasha grunts as she catches a heavy blow, shifting to deflect it but only succeeding in having it slide off her second weapon and rebound off her armor with the ringing of metal. She backs up slowly, but doesn't turn to grab the rope. "I don't have enough distance to climb up, and I can't fly with this thing infront of me. Hold on!"
The sound of hacking reaches Tasha from above and behind her, and a mass of greenery is torn away from the entrance, letting in more light. The revenants that get illuminated fall apart.
Seeing her chance, Tasha erupts in a series of blows, throwing all her strength behind her attack in an attempt to drive her opponents just far enough so she can turn around and run.
The monsters aren't quite smart enough to try and throw their weapons at the retreating figure. In fact, they bow down once the Marker strapped to Tasha's back faces them. This makes it much easier for her to climb out. The door opens near the top of the mound, on the gentler forward slope. "Are they following?" Hakeber asks hysterically.
"They seem to revere the Marker and have stopped -- we should hurry out of here before they realize what's going on!" After ensuring her things are secure, Tasha simply picks Hakeber up and begins running towards the light.
Once outside, it's a matter of getting back to the raft. The sun is starting to set, and there's no telling what horrors come out at night in the swamp. "Well, now comes the hard part," Aaron claims.
Tasha lowers Hakeber down to the ground, then drops to sit on a mound and catch her breath. "As much as I would have liked to have given them a piece of my mind, I don't think I want to fight a specter ever again. It was liked fighting the wind." She heaves a breath, then starts checking herself over for damage, recovering the presence of mind enough to ask as she searches, "You mean, because they'll be able to chase us when it gets dark?"
"No, because now we have to get back to the Rake, past mercenaries and bandits, while carrying a priceless artifact," the Lapi points out. He's the only one not out of breath it seems, aside from Toth.
"I guess a zombie attack then would just be a bonus." Seeing she's largely intact, Tasha pushes herself up to standing and then looks upward, off to the setting sun. "We'll have the best luck if we exit the Forbidden Zone at night. The mercenaries and bandits probably won't utilize full force inside the city, so if we can just get there we can hole up in a tavern until The Rake arrives. If that fails, well ... I'll think of something. Lets get going, we have a a long road ahead of us."
Logfile from Envoy. (OOC) Log start: d:\logs\fenris\2012-09-13_dragonpalace2.htmlThe inside of the intraship transport car is a mess. Scortch marks on the inner walls tell of an internal explosion, and the remnants of armor tell of something more disturbing: it looks like the ship's crew was fighting among themselves, either before or after the crash. Blasted bits of standard Imperial armor are mixed with the darker, more stylized armor of what may as well be called The Followers of Ahriman.
"How's it look down there?" Gabriel shouts from the top of the shaft, 180-feet above. His voice booms and echoes.
"Bad," Tasha calls back, her voice echoing through the ship's darkened cargo bay. "I've found a severly damaged transport car along with what are probably bodies -- well, pieces of bodies. It seems the ship had fallen to infighting. The car is beyond repair, destroyed by what appears to have been an explosion. The armor pieces of one of the combatants seems to indicate a faction seperate from the crew -- probably the followers of Ahriman." Tasha steps back from the wreck, head shaking. She then takes a moment to peer up the shaft, thinking, and then calls out, "May as well climb down. It may be unsafe to rely on the infraship elevator, if we can even get it working."
"We're sending down ropes then," Gabriel calls back. "Meet at the first horizontal junction?"
"You got it," Tasha responds.
When the rope lands, Tasha wraps it around a bar in the wreckage to keep the rope from swaying. She then grabs the loose and and holds it taught, to better help easy people down.
It takes some time. Hakeber is not used to this, and Toth actually has to carry her down. Soon they are all assembled at the middle junction of the shaft, where it branches horizontally towards the front of the ship.
"This is a tomb?" Toth asks Tasha.
"I think it's safe to assume there may be booby traps," Tasha remarks as she scans the gloomy corridor. "Either from the surviving priests who retreated back in here, or relics from the fighting." She blinks at the question, having forgotten Toth isn't familiar with the history of the Expedition in her focus to deal with the threats the starship's interior pose. "No. It was once a flying steel, something like an airship made of steel. These bodies belong to its crew. A long time ago, it fell from the sky after traveling here from far, far away."
"We should find the nest," Toth says after a few moments. "The dragon's nest. The treasure will be there."
"The treasures of this place are more than gold coins and shiny jewels," Tasha murmurs. Seeming satisfied with her inspection, she begins walking. "We should locate the bridge. If it wasn't destroyed in the fighting, the atomic batteries should provide enough power for access. It won't be pretty, though. Hake, you may want to gird yourself for the worst."
"Deadfalls, tripwires.. basic things," Aaron warns. "Things that don't need power are what we should look for. This is a Forbidden Zone, so machines should be even less reliable than usual."
"A few holy books would be handy to find," Hakeber notes, a bit nervously.
"There may be a few traps that survived the centuries. What can and cannot survive lengthy SPF exposure doesn't seem to be uniform, so we can't assume we won't be dealing with high explosives, automated weaponry, or the like. It's unlikely, but we've seen exceptions before." Tasha walks down the corridor with torch held aloft, eyes scanning the way. "The bridge can supply us a map and a list of dangers. Failing that, we'll need to attempt to locate emergency backups. Keep an eye out for emegency stations, damage control lockers, and anything else that might be useful in dealing with emergency situations. Since this is a military vessel, there should be a number of them and several central dispatch and maintenance hubs." Deciding her eyes aren't enough, Yasha unlimbers a long stick she brought and begins sweeping the ground infront of her as she walks.
Moving forward through the transport shaft isn't always easy. There are damaged areas that have to be detoured around, and several more vertical shafts. They do manage to reach the forward end of it though after an a few hours. The doors are forced open, and there are the remains of a barricade beyond and more signs of battle. A few rifles remain, fitted with bayonets - and there are plenty of old swords as well. One side certainly seems to have been better prepared for fighting under Sinaian conditions. "The bridge should be up ahead," Gabriel notes, looking over the damage.
"I'm susprised to see so many low-tech weapons here," the hybrid woman comments as she wanders amongst the carnage. "How common were swords in the Expedition Era, Captain?"
"For us, they were mostly ceremonial," Gabriel notes. "The Silent-Ones and Confederates have dueling traditions, so officers were expected to have swords and know how to use them. I don't know of the Imperials having any reason to keep swords. Bayonets, yes - those are very effective in ship-board combat."
Aaron lifts one of the rifles. It looks like a magazine fed projectile sort, powerful enough do deal with armor but not a real threat to hull material. The swords appear to be advanced ceramics. Toth manages to draw blood when he tests the edge of one. "So ssssharp.." he hisses.
"Then either this ship came prepared, or their opponents did. And if the former is the case, then these black-armored figures got to them first. Either way, it shows this mutiny was planned and not a spur of the moment event." Tasha leans down and picks up one of the swords, testing its heft. "These are good weapons, by my measure. I don't like scavaging amongst the dead, but we're far from home and our resources are limited. Take what you think you'll need and leave the rest. Don't bring the rifles -- their ammunition is unstable and a potential explosive hazard." She then picks a sheath off the ground, sliding it in beside the one containing Apollyon's sword before sheathing the new blade along side it.
After sorting through the weapons, even Hakeber has a sword - while Aaron prefers a bayonet for some reason. "A knife has more uses," he claims, even though it's still a rather big knife. The side corridors show more signs of fighting, and it looks like the barricades were meant to prevent the mutineers from heading forward. A short corridor in that direction ends at an airlock style hatch.
Tasha nods as she walks amongst the dead, frowning but not surprised. "It makes sense they'd try to seize the bridge; with bridge control it would be easy to force the remaining crew to surrender, or crush pockets of resistance." She shakes her head and gives one of the cultist bodies a kick. "Pirates and mutineers." Then curses something in the squawky language of Vartans.
The kick releases a cloud of organic dust from the mummified corpse. Like the other pressure doors, the bridge hatch opens inward, and it's clear that whatever locking mechanisms it had were burnt out with some sort of heat-cutter. It hangs slight ajar.
After glaring at the body a moment longer, Tasha moves on. She approaches the unsealed door and folds her arms. "This is going to be grim," she remarks at the singed lock, gesturing at it a second later. "Hake, want to wait outside?"
"They're mummies or dust," Hakeber says. "I can hold my nose."
"Then I'll try and restrain my anger, too." Stepping forward, Tasha runs her stick up and down the slight gap between the pressure doors.
Nothing gets snagged, so at least there aren't trip wires. And nothing else reacts to the movement yet.
"Toth, help me with these doors." Tasha returns the stick next to her backpack, then braces herself against the cold metal, pushing for all she's worth.
There's some resistance, but then the door moves under the combined strength of the two. The smell of the swamp was being held back by some sort of plant or fungal sheath over the door, but now it comes through. There's stagnant water ahead, and lots of mushroom-looking fungus. The torch barely illuminates the bridge, which seems severely damaged. The front wall is gone, just a ragged hole into a larger chamber beyond.
Aaron dashes up next to Tasha, sniffing and looking around quickly. "Don't touch those purple ball fungi," he warns. "Toxic spores. The rest are mostly harmless."
"I didn't cover my nose soon enough," Hakeber complains.
Tasha's ears flatten against her head. "Well, it doesn't look good. but at least we can be certain that the mutiny occured while in orbit. There'd be little point to taking the bridge after the crash. Still, we should check to be sure." She nods to Aaron, then pats his his head for some reason. "Thank you. Everyone, be careful of the purple ball fungi. Proceed with caution. Lets see if we can find anything." And with that she wades in.
Toth is ready with his spear, but there doesn't seem to be any animal life yet. Torchlight reflects off of various flat clear surfaces that must have been display screens. The control panels have been torn apart, likely scavenged for anything useful. There's some light flicking across the water in the chamber beyond.
The hybrid woman makes her way among the terminals with a great deal of head shaking and tsking. "Nothing yet, but ... Oh?" Cathcing the flicker in the corner of her keen eyes, she turns and points a finger at it. "I see something. Heading that way to investigate."
"Be careful!" Gabriel says. Toth is right next to Tasha though, being more familiar with moving through the swamp (and scales don't get fur-rot). The flicker is definitely a reflection of sunlight though as Tasha gets closer, the ripples from her movement affecting the flicker. The chamber is large, with heavy shapes now draped in muck and shadow.
Encumbered by her bulky armor, it's slow going for Tasha. While she might be manuverable in the air, wings are just more resistance when slogging through swamp. "I know, I know," she calls back as she and Toth make their way. Once they reach the aparature, she stops to inspect the gloom.
"It looks like some sort of chamber," she reports, head cocked to the side. "The reflection is sunlight. The cavern may be natural -- I can't tell from here. Lets check it out, Toth."
It doesn't look natural, just.. overgrown. There are gantries and other shapes that Tasha recognizes: this was the Titan bay. One of the outer doors has been bent back to provide access to the outside, but the opening is covered in vines and creepers, letting in only a few beams of sunlight.
"I'm wrong, it's the Titan bay," Tasha calls back. "This must be where Caspar clawed his way out." Trudung forward, she makes her way in to the hangar proper and begins searching around. "Lets see what we can find."
At the very front of the hangar is a semi-familiar locker, rising from floor to ceiling. Around its base are.. shiny things, even under the water. The rest of the equipment in the hangar is either ruined by rot or mangled - possibly when Caspar 'woke up' and went wild.
"I've found the Titan's locker -- it's secured and undamaged. There seems to be other things around it, but I can't make them out." As she makes her way towards the locker, Tasha can only wonder at what sort of havok the possessed Titan wrought upon the hangar; neither cultist nor crew could have anticipated an unpiloted machine would power up on its own and go berzerk.
"I'm coming out," Gabriel says, and is soon next to Tasha. "Do you think Caspar ever came back after breaking out?"
"I think he did, but he wasn't armed with any optional equipment. He may also lack the means to access the locker. However, look there." As the draw closer, Tasha points at the glimmer beneath the water. "I think we may have found the gold. There's a possibility the Marker is here as well." the red woman kneels down in to the murk, fishing around for the sparklies.
What she gets is a handful of rectangular metal bits, connected to chains. They look golden.. or bronzish at least, and are covered with Imperial sigils. But no two are quite alike in their inscriptions.
Tasha holds the find up to a light, ears going askew as she stares at the object with an expression of bemusement. "What are these?"
It then occurs to her a second later, as she thinks on their shape. "These are Progenitor Cult holy symbols?"
"Dog-tags," Gabriel says. "Identifiers for the soldiers. If one dies, the others grab the tags so they can be accounted for."
"This pile is the crew," the Karnor notes. "Their names and ranks anyway."
"Oh." Tasha murmurs, looking momentarily lost as the severity of the find hits her. She gently lays the object back down where she found it. "I guess this is where they made their last stand. Or were ... " She decides to leave the rest unsaid, and simply shakes her head and murmurs a prayer in a language Hakeber and Toth are unfamiliar with, though Aaron and Gabriel remember quite well.
After she's done paying her respects, Tasha turns to face the locker and walks over to it in silence. As she nears, she raises a hand, then gently places it upon the door.
"These are grave markers?" Toth asks, scooping up more of the tags. "They must have been great men, to warrant such things."
As she waits to see if the locker responds, Tasha answers, "They were indeed great men. Every one of them."
The locker is cold and metallic. Whatever locking mechanism it has, the only thing that looks like a latch is a circular patch set midway up - ten feet off the deck of the hangar.
"The locker doesn't appear to have a automated pilot recognition system. Toth, could you help me reach that?" She points at the latch high above their heads.
"You can stand on my shoulders," Toth offers, and takes up a position at the base of the locker.
"Thank you; I'm sorry if this is uncomfortable." Tasha steps up on the man's shoulders, then carefully walks her hands up the side of the locker as Toth rises. Even with their combined height it's an awkward grab, but she manages it and slowly she begins working the mechanisim.
This time there's a reaction, although only Tasha can really see it: the tattoos on the backs of her hands (now covered up again by fur) glow blue. The disk-shaped latch turns clockwise until there's a click, followed by the much louder thunk of bolts being drawn back.
"It's opening! Get clear!" Tasha hops off Toth's shoulders to land beside him, then offers him a hand to help him pull away before the massive doors open.
The dog-tags are swept aside as the doors of the locker swing open. Front and center is the triangular Marker Stone, showing its depiction of the original Naga forms. Beside it on either side are two Titan-sized scimitar-like blades.
Tasha runs her hand back through her hair as she takes in the sight. "There it is," she breathes, voice full of awe. "I can't believe we've found them all ... And look at those scimitars!"
"They are too big," Toth claims. The Marker seems to confuse him, if only for the odd material. It may just like a pair of gods on it to him.
"We still have to get it out of here," Gabriel notes to Tasha.
"Not for what they were meant for. But ah ... The Marker!" The young half-Vartan woman makes her way through the muck, stopping before the artifact and grinning widely. "I still can't believe we're looking at it. All three of them ... It sends a chill down my spine." She brushes the back of her hand over the Marker's surface. "And look, the original forms of the Naga. Dragons. A fitting shape for the last piece to be found. And now that it's infront of me, I can't help but feel a little apprehensive of the future."
As always, the Marker surface feels.. there and not there at the same time.
"You weren't apprehensive before?" Gabriel asks, putting a hand on Tasha's shoulder. Toth begins collecting the dog-tags into a sack.
Close as he is, Gabriel can see Tasha's expression as she stares at the peculiar object: a look somewhere between excitement and fear. Her ears are canted back, eyes wide. She bites her lip for a moment, then reaches to lift the object up, taking it and cradling it in her hands.
"I was, that's true. But, there's something about seeing it in front of me. As long as there was just one more to find, there was always the uncertainty ... and maybe the promise that there were always more steps to take. More trails to follow. The adventure would continue and everything would remain the same. Now that I hold the last step in my hands, I know it has to come to an end. I need to turn my thoughts to what's ahead, but I don't know what will happen. I can't see any farther, and the future is uncertain," Tasha whispers, so that only Gabriel and Aaron can hear.
Edging back, Tasha leans her head against Gabriel's chest, looking up in to his eyes. "But you're right. One thing at a time, right?"
"Last step?" Gabriel asks. "Do you know something I don't, like: what are you supposed to do with them?"
"I don't, but this is the final part. All that would remain to do would be to try and bring them together. But before we do that, we need to know how -- and before we do that, we should distribute them for analysis. They have historical and scientific value beyond their place in the mission-porm, and should be studied." Tasha takes a deep breath, then exhales and smiles at the wolf. "I guess there's still a lot to do. You can tease me for brooding, if you want."
"I'll tease you when we're out of the haunted swamp in the middle of a Forbidden Zone with a mechano-veggie monster stomping around," Gabriel promises.
A little grin crosses the young hybrid's face. "I'll hold you to that. Do you want to stick around and look for anything we can salvage, or just get out of here? The clock is ticking for us, so this isn't like other ruins. We might have a problem if we remain too long."
"I think we've found all that's worth carrying," Gabriel says, while Toth scours the floor for any tags he missed.
"I will bring these to Nagai City," he hisses. "I will be rewarded by the Keepers of History."
"I think so too. Lets get out of here." Tasha beams a smile at Toth, then thumbs up towards the pried open hangar doors. "So back out the way we came, or want to try hacking our way through that?"
There's some rapid splashing, as Aaron and Hakeber run up to the others. The scholar in particular looks like she's about to start gibbering. "Hack!" Aaron suggests. "Quickly!"
"Um? R-right," Tasha stammers perplexedly, blinking at the sudden rush but knowing better than to question it. Wasting no time, she turns and bolts towards the cleft opening, leaping in to the air and gliding through the gap, plowing in to the vegetation and landing with a thump. She quickly turns around and begins hacking, trying to clear enough room so she can secure a rope.
The others bring their swords to the fray, and start making progress. Hakeber whimpers as there are splashing sounds from the hangar.
Frusterated with their progress, tasha draws her second sword and begins tearing in to the vegetion like a whirlwind of sheers. "What's happening?!" She barks out in a low voice, knowing better to slow down but hoping she can get some idea what they're up against if things get out of control.
"Zombies," Aaron says, simply. "Crumbly ones."
"Zombies?!" After hacking enough away to expose a upright twist or rent metal, Tasha sheathes her weapons and ties her rope, tossing it down to the party below.
Escape secured, the hyrbid leaps from her perch to land behind the rest of her party waiting below. She draws her weapons all over again, dropping in to a fighting stance. "Hurry out! I'll hold them off!"
"Don't try too hard!" Aaron yells as everyone scrambles up the rope. Sure enough, when the first zombie shows up, it doesn't look like it would be put off much by a sword. Less an animated cadaver than a ghost with bits of mummified (and disintegrating) flesh or bone and suspended armor, it still manages to hold onto a sword, even though the hand isn't physically connected to anything. "More like revenants I suppose!" the Lapi offers in passing.
Tasha meets the specter's sword with her own, quickly deciding she won't make any progress trying to press for victory. Instead she focuses on defense, standing her ground and utilizing her weapon and armor to try and deflect blows as best she can. The clash of swords echoes through the ancient hangar as Tasha yells, "We're not your enemies! You don't need to fight us!"
If the spirits understand her, they don't show it. More of them are coming too! "Tasha! Hurry up!" Gabriel calls down. "Stay in the light!" Aaron offers.
It's only then that tasha sees just who she's up against: the shadowy armor of the mutineers makes itself known in the faint sunlight. Tasha bares her teeth, declaring, "Forget I said that! You brought this disaster upon yourself! You were decieved by Caspar along with all the others, but you didn't have to murder the crew to have your way!"
tasha grunts as she catches a heavy blow, shifting to deflect it but only succeeding in having it slide off her second weapon and rebound off her armor with the ringing of metal. She backs up slowly, but doesn't turn to grab the rope. "I don't have enough distance to climb up, and I can't fly with this thing infront of me. Hold on!"
The sound of hacking reaches Tasha from above and behind her, and a mass of greenery is torn away from the entrance, letting in more light. The revenants that get illuminated fall apart.
Seeing her chance, Tasha erupts in a series of blows, throwing all her strength behind her attack in an attempt to drive her opponents just far enough so she can turn around and run.
The monsters aren't quite smart enough to try and throw their weapons at the retreating figure. In fact, they bow down once the Marker strapped to Tasha's back faces them. This makes it much easier for her to climb out. The door opens near the top of the mound, on the gentler forward slope. "Are they following?" Hakeber asks hysterically.
"They seem to revere the Marker and have stopped -- we should hurry out of here before they realize what's going on!" After ensuring her things are secure, Tasha simply picks Hakeber up and begins running towards the light.
Once outside, it's a matter of getting back to the raft. The sun is starting to set, and there's no telling what horrors come out at night in the swamp. "Well, now comes the hard part," Aaron claims.
Tasha lowers Hakeber down to the ground, then drops to sit on a mound and catch her breath. "As much as I would have liked to have given them a piece of my mind, I don't think I want to fight a specter ever again. It was liked fighting the wind." She heaves a breath, then starts checking herself over for damage, recovering the presence of mind enough to ask as she searches, "You mean, because they'll be able to chase us when it gets dark?"
"No, because now we have to get back to the Rake, past mercenaries and bandits, while carrying a priceless artifact," the Lapi points out. He's the only one not out of breath it seems, aside from Toth.
"I guess a zombie attack then would just be a bonus." Seeing she's largely intact, Tasha pushes herself up to standing and then looks upward, off to the setting sun. "We'll have the best luck if we exit the Forbidden Zone at night. The mercenaries and bandits probably won't utilize full force inside the city, so if we can just get there we can hole up in a tavern until The Rake arrives. If that fails, well ... I'll think of something. Lets get going, we have a a long road ahead of us."