Suiting up was done with a bit of haste, before anyone could really overcome their usual issues enough to voice any dissent. That means Gabriel stayed on the bridge to give people a focus. It was the relatively unflappable Dr. Knight that helped Tasha and Dr. Karaktinio into their respective environment suits. Specifically, he made sure the nutrient supplies and catheters were in place, just in case they needed to spend a lot more time in their suits than planned.
The Confederate suit was a bit like a Belter one: very little in the way of armor, and very snug to allow for thermal regulation. The only part that seemed to be alive was the membrane that spread out over the Eeee's wings. And then it was down the elevator to the lower cargo bay-slash-hangar-slash-crib. The hypership had calmed down a bit, but was also 'suckling' on the special nipple that had been installed. It was more of a pacifier anyway.
It pains Tasha to use the little ship, but the entire situation is so delicate and dangerous some sacrifices are warranted to help stave off true disasters. Sacrifices including herself and the Tadpole's pilot, Dr. Karaktinio, so at least she doesn't have to suffer the doubt and grief that comes with sending someone else in to danger. For her part she opted to wear her Titan special model powered armor. It's buikier, containing nutrients for both brain and body, designed for long term use of a mind-computer linkage while also reinforced to survive cockpit failures and, should the worst come to pass, can function as a life boat for longer periods than a basic Achillies. It's the last function and the armor that make it of most use now, as she has no idea how long they might remain in the alien Waybringer nor what the powers arrayed might do to it or them. To round out her supplies, she has a multifunction scanner from the expedition stock, her halitool for forcing doors while not seeming to be a weapon, and her datapad for expert advice.
It's a lot to squeeze into the cockpit, but the Tadpole hasn't tried carrying cargo yet - and the equipment is by necessity the sort of stuff that needs to be kept close at hand. The Eeee pilot's only take-along is bio-sampling kit: not even a scanner, or at least not one that Tasha can recognize. The only other thing that got sent along was a neutrino flare, even though Dark Horse couldn't penetrate the alien hull with its deep-radar system. It's always possible it only blocks incoming neutrinos, after all.
"Ready?" Karaktinio asks, after he's gotten himself situated within the Tadpole's brain.
Tasha settles in as best she can, head resting back against the organic bulkhead. The halitool, her own height in length, rests across her lap locked in place by her own equally locked suit motivators. Everything else is stored around her waist, in dedicated containers. She gives the man a thumbs up. "As ready as we'll get. Lets go meet a legend." Gods, she hopes it's a friendly one.
The signal is sent, and the cargo bay 'opens', in its own manner. The Tadpole eagerly dives out into the vacuum, which is probably a bit more particulate than she's used to, given the debris that hangs close in here. It's easier to think of it as debris, at least, and not dark-blood or whatever Lukthu-hem had shed when most her body vanished. There isn't much for Tasha to see, however, since the inner lining of the cockpit isn't the best resolution, and whatever wavelengths the Tadpole uses aren't easily interpreted. But the little ship is excited, and probably knows where to go.
Tasha makes do by checking and rechecking her suit's vitals, rehashing the earlier scans of both Lukthu-hem and the Waybuilder, and wracking her brain to remember all she can about both. She can't make much more sense of the two ancient beings, one of whom may be beyond the concept of time itself, at least not more than she already had and that was she might charitably declare 'limited'. While inspecting Lukthu-hem again she thinks to warn the pilot, "Be ready for psyhic disturbances, attacks on our mind or other phantoms. Being pulled in to alternate spaces or dialogue modes. Lukthu-hem is the most likely attacker, so also avoid those phased out tentacles. Be sure the ship knows about these dangers as well."
"I don't think we've been noticed then," Karaktinio notes. "We're inside the Waybuilder now. There are.. a lot of routes here. It's like a brachial tube on an insect, only the tubes aren't getting smaller. Letting the ship do the navigating for now."
From the displayed visuals, Tasha may as well be inside of a kaleidoscope - which once lost an entire afternoon to as a child, before she got hungry enough to overcome the shininess of it all.
Of course, unknown to anyone else is Tasha's Marker. The uncomfortable Yellow Marker of Hastur, with its even less pleasant sign; A calling card. She slid it in to the last pouch on her waist, one labeled for emergency supplies. Bringing it is an emergency of sorts, she can't very well subject the crew's faltering mental health to another long voyager under its influence, so she made a choice to protect them and brought it with her. Only Gabriel and a few others know, least of all Thoth, though she thinks he must know by now its scent has moved on. Having to trick her would-be sponsor hurt immensely, not to mention lying to him, and she may do far more still before this trip is done. She can only hope they -- everyone really -- can forgive her for the chocies she has made.
As Tasha gazes at the multispectral haze, the memory of childhood's simple pleasures comes as a comfort in the face of adulthood's worries. She wasn't exactly happy back then, but her understanding was limited and her problems as well. She could find simple enjoyment in things like this, and put the world aside. She's pleased to see she can almost do it still, even with how things are now.
The reverie is disturbed by a sudden bouncing. It isn't difficult to discern the likely cause though: gravity! The Tadpole is no longer in freefall. There's a hue of frustration added to the visuals now. "She can't go further," Karaktinio explains. "It's low gravity for us, but she's not strong enough to overcome it yet, and it's getting heavier further in."
"Did it suddenly show up or was it already there?" Either way, Tasha begins to rise. She unlocks her suit grip and picks up the halitool, hunched over and craddling it like an ancient infantry spear due to a lack of headspace.
"It's a gradient we've been following, but she can't go further without risking getting beached," the Eeee notes, and is already pulling out of the pilot harness. "We walk from here."
"I did want to see the inside for myself," Tasha agrees, though she figured it'd come down to a personal experience eventually. She undoes the last of the straps keeping her from moving and proceeds for towards the exit hatch. Given the limited space to get around her, she heads out first.
Once outside, it's possible to use the suit lights. And the first glance at the walls reminds Tasha strongly of the tunnels leading to the Source. Only without the eyes and mouths, and probably more like intestines. There are even big vein structures, but everything is shiny and black, without any apparent softness. The tunnel is wide enough for the hypership, of course, but when Karaktino stands in a different spot along the curve of the wall it become apparent that gravity isn't pulling in any particularly direction.. just towards the walls. It must be uneven enough to be causing trouble for the Tadpole though.
"I wonder if this is some sort of ... gravitation ducting? Maybe the gravity is a side effect of whatever is in these, um, walls? Organs?" Tasha certainly doesn't know. The whole being surrounding her could be a ship, a person, some form of hybrid organo-tech robot, something in between or an existance completely beyond her experience. The Waymaker is absolutely beyond the scope of her own existence, something or someone from beyond time and possibly beyond reality. A stranger's stranger, such that even the Outter Gods and Vril-ya see them as unknowable. She knows that Atum has spoken to one, but even that great being found them hard to comprehend, and that was just the young ones. She looks around for a moment, then points further in. "We should get going, we can talk as we go."
"At least our suit radios work," Karaktinio says as the continue forward. As they progress, gravity seems to start having more of a preferred vector, so the end up side by side. "Does your gizmo indicate any atmosphere?" he asks.
Tasha fishes out the scientific tool and attaches it to her halitool by magnet. She then taps it on, and scrolls down to a general compatibility test to see if the area is safe for life. Lucky for her, profiles for Vartan, Karnors, and Eeee were provided for by the good Doctor Knight. "Lets see what it says. It'll need a moment."
The atmosphere is thin, but even as they walk it gets denser. There are some gasses that aren't generally found in terraformed atmospheres, but there's nothing toxic. Just not a mix that matches known profiles. There's oxygen though.
Tasha scrunches up her brow at the readouts. Well, the air is as weird as everything else at least. She isn't sure if she'd have been more or less discomfitted if the atmosphere had been entirely TerraGens-normal, or for that matter absolutely alien. All she can decide is that the atmospherics are just conventional enough to be familiar, but with a foreign makeup throughout that is decidedly alien. And not just alien, unknown. Much, she decides, like the Waybuilders themselves: Inexplicable. "Take a look," the young woman offers, leaning over to shoe the report. "It's not exactly Terra or Zion, look at these unusual gas makeups, but it's not going to kill us either. That's surprising. I was expecting either-or."
"That's a mixed biosphere," Karaktinio pronounces. "Organics - the oxygen producers.. and silicates it looks like. You.. generally don't see those together. Not sure why neon is high up there. Could be another byproduct. Hmm, might be some sulfur metabolites too.."
As the air thickens, there's also light reflecting down the curving tunnel from somewhere ahead. White light.
Tasha nods as she walks along; she doesn't really follow the explaination in depth but being engaged helps her nerves. "Does it tell you anything about who or what we're dealing with? I don't know much more about these beings than what you do, now. They can communicate and they pursue a kind of war against beings like the one outside, but--" Pausing at the light, Tasha lifts her scanner and runs a new series of tests against the brightness. "What do you think that does?" She asks, not really expecting a serious answer.
"Lets you see things," the Eeee guesses. "Turn on your microphones, the air is dense enough to be able to hear things by now."
Tasha shrugs at the answer; who can really know how anything works around here? It could be a light she supposes, or something else. A light would only need to exist here if they were known, or if someone else walked these halls. Maybe the simplest answer is the right one, in which case she can reasonably determine they're known and also that the entity hasn't acted against that. A good sign. She engages her external mic using a a tongue gesture, and keeps walking.
There's a windy sound, and rumbles that sound far too distant to make sense. There's also, very subtly, a sound that Tasha associates with ruffling feathers. "I hear movement," Karaktinio notes, with his more sensitive ears. "Maybe.. stamping. Feet stamping. On soil."
"Maybe it's the welcoming commitee," Tasha japes, proud of the irreverent humor and thinking it might have been something Gabriel would say. Her her head cocks to the side a moment later and she nods. "You know, I can hear something now, too. There's wind, that's not a surprise, but something else. Something like feathers in the breeze. I think I hear the stamping, but just barely. A machine, maybe?"
"I can't think of any feathered internal organs that stamp against other things, unless we're in an ear canal," the Eeee notes. The tube straightens out a bit.. gets wider. There's a cave-like opening ahead, where the bright light is coming through. The contrast of being in a dark tunnel makes it difficult to see anything beyond, however.
"Maybe it's some sort of filter system or a large fan?" The tought of encountering a large feathered fan strikes Tasha as amusing up until she decides it's not an impossibility, then the idea is just disconcerting. Disconcerting like Bosch is disconcerting. At least her adventures never took her to that cursed place, something that makes her feel a little better as she trudges forward towards the light. Her visor dims against her sensitive Vartan vision, trying to adjust to the high contrast while also attempting to help her see through the brightness.
Soon enough the issue resolves itself when they're close enough to the opening for the glare to die down. The portal leads to what seems to be a dry riverbed, complete with river stones. On either side, two brightly colored flightless birds with axe-like beaks face off in some sort of dominance dance off. There's fluttering of big poofy fan-like wings as the three-meter tall creatures try to out-strut the other. Crests flare up and down. Taloned feet claw and kick at the grassy ground beyond the riverbed.. and somewhere out of sight there must be a hen of the species. Beyond them, the landscape curves up.. and up.. and over. The light comes from thin, sun-bright line in the center of the sky that runs off beyond the view from inside the cave. But the nearby jungle is green beyond the clearing, but gives way to other colors as it follows the curve.
"You've got a range-finder on that sensor, I hope?" Karaktinio asks very quietly.
"Um." A world? "Right here, uh, moment." Tasha manages to pry her gaze away long enough to adjust the settings, then she points the device down the tubular enclosure at an end she can't even see. As she does, she thinks about the size of the Waymaker as viewed from outside, then reaches over and punches that in as a comparison number. Couldn't hurt to find out how much of the ... ship? ... is composed to living space. Which isn't exactly true, she could be quite startled by the revelation. She certainly hadn't been expecting to find live birds inside, or grass, or jungle. She had always assumed the Waymakers were more ulitarian, task-orineted beings.
The results seem to indicate that the minimum diameter of the 'tube' is still twice the width of the Waybuilder. But it's still tiny compared to what Tasha remembered of the Way itself. This 'little' tube-world can't be more than ten or twelve kilometers in diameter. She knows there are similarly structured space colonies that are wider.
"It's not hab-sized," Tasha begins, sounding uncertain, " ... but it is larger in diameter than the hull of the Waybuilder. Twice as large, uh, actually." At least Tasha can say her impression of the Waybuilder technologies remains firmly in the realm of awe. She's met beings that can warp space, or time, or any of a number of other things but rarely so many options so expertly, and certainly not while skirting in and out of realities, times, and places beyond. She's really beginning to see why the elder beings revere them, grasping as they must so much more of their nature than her limited senses and mind can fathom. "Sooo, well, we should keep walking, the question is where." A nice walk through the countryside would help her nerves, if it wasn't an alien countryside inside an alien war zone. "I'll see if I can spot something that looks like a facility or elevator."
As Tasha looks, her gaze sweeps by the two fighting malee birds. Well at least some things haven't changed. She has to laugh, if quietly.
"Away from the very big, very aggressive looking birds," The Eeee notes. After all, they look like birds to varying degrees themselves. Skirting around the rise that covers the 'cave', at least, provides a better view. The tube isn't unlimited.. Tasha can see one end of it, which seems to made of spiraling cliffs getting ever steeper as they rise to meet the.. sun-beam. There even clouds. But the other end is hidden behind a black storm.. or smoke from a fire.. or something in between. There is movement in the clouds too. That end is further off, and unless they've been completely turned around (and who can say in a space like this) that would be the direction towards the 'head'. There isn't anything like looks like a structure though. Some of the crystal-growths a third of the way around the curve look like just another form of jungle, rather than purposeful structure.
Tasha cranes her neck as she looks around. For all the world it really does look like images of TerraGens habitats she's seen, especially the tubular sealed ones or the ones composed of mirrors and plates of land and structures. "There's no rotation here, so it must be artificial gravity. We could fly. Do you want to risk whatever is in this land in the air or on the ground?"
"Would you be hurt if I noted you are the bigger, slower target in that scenario?" Karaktinio says, but then immediately squats down and collects a soil and grass sample. "Let's head towards one of the more alien looking areas."
"It's not the first time I've done this, you know. Half my crew is smaller or faster than me and they know it." Still Tasha shakes a finger at the man, then points it towards the distant storm. "I want to head towards the fore, where we're more likely to find some central authority. What kind of authority I have no idea yet, but probably something. I notice we haven't seen any of the half-phased tendrils yet, so my guess is that these regions aren't tactically important and so probably not where we need to be. They should show up closer to vital areas, so we can use that as a guide." She glances around again, then points to a region of flora she doesn't recognize at all. "How about that way? It's along the route fore."
"Alright, lead on," the Eeee says. "Watch out for anything that looks big and might have a sticky tongue."
So here Tasha is, hoisting a giant axe-hammer-spear-tool she made to deal with bulkheads and salvage, leading a scientists in to what she can only assume is a forest while watching out for dangerous animals. She expected many potential problems, but orienteering and nature survival was not among them. "It's like we're back planetside," she remarks, keeping her head on a swivel and her easy to repurpose tool in her hands. "Maybe this is some kind of zoo? The Waybuilders travel universes, these animals could be from anywhere or any when. Survivors of other timelimes? Maybe even pets."
"There must be something keeping the biospheres from interacting," the Eeee agrees. "So we should land before reaching the boundary to the new area, and keep monitoring the atmosphere."
"It also tells me we may not be expected, we just happened to enter here, so we definitely need to be careful of automated systems." Tasha gives the man a little shrug, then turns to sprint down a hillside. With her armor on she reallys needs the extra run up time, but soon she's in teh air and angling towards the exotic forest -- if it's a forest at all!
It turns out that it wasn't a forest, per se. There wasn't a barrier that prevented them from entering, but the atmosphere did change once past an invisible line. There just wasn't a great distinction between flora and fauna in this zone.. and even Karaktinio couldn't say for sure if they were dealing with a single or multiple organisms. They certainly weren't interested in the alien intruders, or to the Eeee collecting samples. "Is there a crystal zone on the way?" he asks Tasha. "There look to be several of those, and if they're all different silicon-based biospheres it'd be quite the breakthrough."
"I'd, um, heard of a crystal based sentient species once. Long ago, First Ones era old." Tasha gentle pushes aside what might be an animal, might be a plant, or might be something entirely different in order to get a look beyond the new biome. She thought she saw something glittering in the distance while in flight and it still looks hazy from the ground. She thinks it could be mist, or perhaps weather. "We can try the place over there." She points. "It's definitely got a lot of reflective surfaces. If you don't like that one, I thought I some other sthat might be crystalline, or at least crystal-like."
The shiny area is full of rocks. Rocks that sing, and appear to be full of holes. "Possibly silicate versions of communal organisms, like corals," the Eeee muses, and tries to get a sample without resorting to bashing. This involves lots of rubbing instead.
For her own part, Tasha hunches down to watch a rock sing. She finds it soothing, and then finds she kind of wants one now. Being the mature adult she is, she leaves the creature alone, knowing that she wouldn't appreciate being picked up and hauled off to unknown lands by some strange alien from an incomprehensible universe. Instead, she pats the rock very gently and then scans it for record. "So far we've seen a lot of variation across biomes, it'd be hard to believe they all came from the same world. Given that the Waybuilders travel and seem to engage with beings like Luk'thu-hem, these could be survivors, or maybe samples in case of the worst. We haven't encountered anything that's obviously sentient; maybe they're somewhere else?"
"These could be experiments," the Eeee offers, as they move to the next one. "If these are world-builders, they'd want something to live on them, wouldn't they?" The next biome seems organic, but the light is different. It has more variety, even if most of it is in the form of giant, reptilian centipedes.
Tasha keeps well away from the centipedes, with a rock between her and the nearest one. She never stops watching it, even when she's scanning another one. "I don't know if they build worlds, but they do seem to protect them. You might be right though. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe they have something to do with the Seeders? Except," and here she risks a glance towards the Eeee, " ... I had expected the Seeds to be connected to a being like Luk'thu-hem. There's, um, evidence they had some role in early life. Seeing contained biomes like this make me think both entities may be envolved somehow, even if not with the Seeds. or, maybe it's a coincidence. I mean, we have life on our ships, too."
Dr. Karaktinio is hesitant to approach the centipede creatures as well, but does swoop into to collect what might be a stool sample off the ground. "These are the biggest animals we've seen since the flightless birds," he notes. "But there hasn't been anything small yet either. Maybe this is just a garden?"
"I don't know," Tasha admits while trying to keep an eye on the lizard-like centipedes (or perhaps centipede-like lizards), the Doctor, and their surroundings all at once. She has no idea if an of these creatures are friendly and from what she has seen so far they seem as feral as any wild animal she might find back home. "But it does seem like there's a purpose to collecting so many dissimiliar biomes. This may be some sort of living warehouse, a garden full of pets, or something much more serious. There's also the possibility time flows differently in here, we already know that space has been warped."
"So.. does your gizmometer measure anything like that?" the Eeee asks, as he flaps upwards and looks for the next biome over, towards the storm.
Tasha lowers her halitool to scroll through the various scanning modes, many of which she has no experience with and a few containing names whose words sound suspiciously made up. She scrunches her muzzle and side-steps around the rock she's been keeping between herself and one of the lizards, ensuring it stays between her and it. "I think I found one. I remember Tachyons are related to time, and we've seen a lot of those around the conflict site. Give me a little bit and I'll join you in the air." She runs the test for 'Tachyonic Spread' and 'Chronospatial Drift'.
The result is.. that the hand scanner needs to be in contact with the base station in order to make such measurements. The closest thing she finds is a Pi detector, which detects that Pi is 'off' by some odd measure, indicating a localized warping of space. It appears that the majority of the scanning functions rely on a data-link to the rest of the equipment back on Dark Horse.
But at least they aren't being irradiated.
"The scan reports the scanner isn't much help," Tasha tells the empty air around her, the Eeee having flown off beyond the range of even her prodigious yelling range. She quickly runs through a check of other functions to see which of them require connection to the base station and disengages them so she doesn't accidentally rely on them in the future, then turns to the nearest lizard and gives it a wave. "My name is Tasha, when the other lizards ask about the alien from beyond, I'm Tasha." She winks, then she hurries in to the air to catch up.
The next few biomes are either all flora or things so esoteric that it's impossible to tell. One does let them enter at all, and seems to be full of colorful gasses. After detouring around it, the find they've reached a biome that is bordering the storm. This one is noisy with the sounds of animals. Potentially very big animals.
Standing just outside the biome's 'wall', Tasha plants her halitool butt-down and lays a hand on her hip. "So, giant animals and a even bigger storm beyond. Of all the things I was expecting, weather and big critters wasn't one of them. Of course," and here she shrugs, head rolling to the side, " ... I'm never really sure what to expect, either, and this place is is on the far side of beyond. This is a place even gods fear to tread, we may be the only sentient beings other than the Waybuilder itself to have ever seen this. When the Old Ones and the Outsider Gods dream of what's beyond, this must be what they dream of."
"Beyond what, though?" Karaktinio has to ask, his ears scanning about. "Those are some disturbing sounds."
"Beyond them. As beyond them as they are beyond us." Tasha leans forward a little, squinting. "Well, I didn't come all this way just to turn back. I have a job to do and if I can I have help to provide. This is the only way to make our way deeper, towards whatever is at the core of this being, if it has one. I don't see the tentacles breaching here, though, so I think whatever Luk'thu-hem is attacking it's not here. We must reach it." She begins forward, then pauses to glance back. "If you don't want to keep going, I can head in alone? This is my job, after all."
"Everything I hear is on the ground, should be safe," the Eeee notes, and sticks his head through the invisible barrier. When he doesn't start choking, the rest of him goes through as well. This biome seems to be a jungle, but at least it's a green one. And the air seems.. energized? At least for Tasha, breathing it makes her feels like she has more energy, or is more alert.
The extra spark is a welcome change for Tasha, an extra edge she can add to her vigil as they make their way ever inward. She lowers her halitool and begins the usual scans, her gaze shifting between the readout and the device as she sidesteps trunks and ducks under vines. "At least this region seems a little familiar." She whispers, knowing the Eeee can still hear her while hoping the creatures lurk her cannot.
There are some confusing heat signature readings in here. Right up until they stumble across a giant, disembowelled reptile hanging from a tree, as if it had been picked up and dropped there. It has a lot of teeth and claws, but isn't giving off any odor of decay.
The hybrid grimaces. It's hardly the first time she's seen a large creature in a state such as what she's looking at, she's seen much larger back on Abaddon, but she's rarely been so far from backup when it's happened. "Anything that could move a animal this large must be big," she notes, taking a moment to scan it as well while prodding one of the teeth with an armored finger. "Even this little guy looks like he could toss someone like us over a tree. Whatever they're doing here, I don't think they're pets. It's almost like a collection, or, I'm not sure, some kind of, uh, warehouse like I said. A warehouse of life. And these ... " Another prod. "They could be from anywhere."
"They're Terran," Karaktinio claims. "I think a version of gorgosaur, extinct there for about 70 million years. I couldn't tell you if this was the same breed, or one that has been evolving."
"Terran." Tasha breathes the word. Terran! She supposes the region feels familiar because it is, at least on some distant level. Wolves, the precursor species to Karnors, evolved on Terra and the thing before her must have, too. "And here they are, of all places. Extinct for millions, and right here." She rubs the poor creatures snount, head shaking. "Well, maybe not this one so much, but the others maybe. I wonder what Gabriel will think of discovering ancient Terran creatures?" She exhales; the universe continues to astound her, or so she'd say if she wasn't standing in a being beyond even such things as a single universe. "Well, we'd better get going unless we want to test how well our armor stands up to getting bit."
"What killed it isn't Terran," the bat notes as they press on. "I'm certain of that."
"Really?" Tasha glances over and frowns. "Why mix everyone up? We now know at least one of these creatures is from Terra, that suggests the others may be from scattered world, too. If you were gathering species from worlds to save them, then why would you put them together? As an experiment? or maybe because they can't go home? You'd contaminate the originals if you were trying to recreate somethign that was lost. Then again we're in the body of a Waybuilder, so whatever they're doing here could stretch beyond anything so simple. Across worlds, across universes." She brushes aside a branching, highly flexible plant she suspects would baffle Galactic science for a thousand years all by itself if she knew what it was and keeps going.
The jungle thins out a bit as they press on.. until they reach a clearing of sorts. It's more like something tore the trees up from the ground and carried them off, leaving churned earth behind. The sky is visible here, and the storm is very close.
Tasha hesitates to walk in to the open, halting at the forest line to lean out and look up. "We could fly the rest of the way, but I know storms and that one looks like it might bounce us off the cliffside. I don't like the look of this clearing, either, though. I'm not sure why whatever was here took all these trees either. Maybe it's a nest of sorts, or it eats trees?"
"Or it likes to pick things up and drop them somewhere else," the Eeee offers. The jungle is quieter here as well. But Tasha's motion-sensitive eyes pick up something moving.. very slowly.. under the churned up ground.
Tasha stops, freezing in place. "Hsst," she utters, somewhere between hiss and growl. "/There's something moving ahead. Three o'clock low. /Slowly/."
"What?" Karaktinio asks quietly. "I don't see a clock.."
The young woman resists the urge to roll her eyes, not wanting that to be the last thing she does. She'd never hear the end of it in the beyond, where ever that is supposed to be in her life now. "Front and thirty degrees-ish to the right, down, moving slowly."
The earth rises and falls where the something is moving under it. Then something sticks up, slightly. It's the top of a small, black-scaled head with pointy ears. Golden cat-slit eyes also blink at the alien invaders.
"Soooo, any idea what that is?" The hybrid inquires, further resisting the urge to point. Whatever it is it's not terrifyingly large, but then she's seen very tiny beings to miraculous things.
"It doesn't make sense, unless it some sort of a scaled non-reptilian," Karaktinio claims. Any further elaboration is cut off by a rather loud command of "DUCK!" that Tasha hears in her head.
An adventurer like her doesn't need to be told twice to duck. Tasha immediately drops to the ground and takes her halitool with her, mantling her wings as she goes down and pressing her head to the jungle floor!
Karaktinio does so as well, before the light dims and the sound of trees being uprooted all around them is heard. There's also a distinct chill.. almost freezing.. that accompanies the sound.
Tasha shifts from her duck to roll on to her side, then her back in order to bring her weapon around and not be blindsided by whatever is coming. She registers the sudden drop in temperature on her suit's visor, not certain what to make in the alarming temperature shift.. If anything, she would have expected a large breeze or perhaps an increase in temperature from an approaching beings radiant heat. More importantly remains the question of what is coming; she scans the rapidly diminishing canopy for answers.
What she sees is part of the storm reaching with a cloudy tentacle, laced with red lightning. It opens along its length, revealing claws or worse, teeth, as it scoops up trees and throws them into the distance.
Tasha goggles for a long moment, rapidly deciding her halitool isn't going to be any help at all against a living storm. Instead she inches the shaft downward until her multifunction scanner is infront of her visor, poking at every left that doesn't need a connection to the base system. Given the nature of what she's seeing, she can only suspect a certain kind of life: Dark life.
Aside from the temperature drop, the scanner unsurprisingly detects nothing. The storm is just a cold spot. But then it also doesn't seem to detect the beam of light that runs the center-length of the odd chamber. "You shouldn't look at it," the voice in her head notes, and then Tasha is treated to an upside-down view of the head of a what may as well be a black, baby dragon. It licks her visor. "Where did you come from?"
The shift of her gaze becomes very slow and awkward as the tongue moistens the young woman's visor. She blinks at it, uncertain quite how to respond for a moment as she struggles to juggle the heirarchy of dangers that surround her. While she might be trained for this sort of thing, she does have experience. Very quickly the roiling storm of cold nothingness goes to the top of the list followed by the little creature who is very probably not about to chew on her helmet. She shifts her gaze away from the monstrocity, rolling her eyes to look up and up at the baby creature. Her gaze lingers as she puzzles over it, her brow furrowing as she realizes it's definitely not speaking when it talks. Projection? Psionics? She considers debating it further, but then realizes she might be causing offense.
Besides, maybe the tiny dragon-like creature can read her thoughts. Best to focus, she decides, before she thiks of something she'd rather not.
"Can you hear me?" The hybrid thinks, trying to focus without exactly knowing how to sound clearer in her mind. With Tatha-hem she has a lot more time to think, not to mention peace to focus and a decided lack of tree-tossing vortex to worry about. "Do you understand?" It also occurs to her that the little dracoform is really very adorable, something she'd have noticed sooner if not for the danger of being eaten by weather.
"Yes. No. You aren't making sounds, so I do not hear you. But I understand you," the voice replies. "Who made you and how did you get here?"
Well, that was certainly clear, the hybrid decides. She suspects she just projected that as well, then decides she's be annoyed but the little dragon creature really is cute and she can't find it in her heart to be mad at it. She also realizes she's now rambling in thought and yet also out loud in a fashion, bites her lip realization, then hurriedly presses on to dialogue before the snowball grows any larger. "We are from beyond this being, the Waybuilder. Our ship discovered the Stelya'rhyan engaged with a servant of the Ogdoad above the Galactic Plane during an exploratory mission and I have come to assess the situation and provide help if I can. I have met Atum in the Way and I belive the Waybuilder know me." She thinks to leave it at that, then feels the urge to reach up and try to pet the creature and presses on. "I perform a duty similiar to the Waybuilders on Atum's behalf, to combat the Ogdoad's servants. I was created on a world called Sinai in the Primus System by ... " It's a long story, so she tries something new: She tries to project the understanding of it, images and all.
"That is a very weird explanation," the voice notes. "I do not know Vril-ya, or Atum, or any of those other names except for Stelya'rhyan. But you think that one incorrectly. Not Star Horses. Waybuilder is also Stelya'rhyan?"
"It's hard for me to say," Tasha admits, reaching up to tap her visor and indicate her muzzle with a lift of her head. "Waybuilders are what the Vril-ya call the Stelya'rhyan, because they built the Way -- the corridor that passes beyond time and place. I came to know the Waybuilders through the Vril-ya, the emissary-fragments of the universe called Vril. I have been doing what I was asked to do ever since I left the Way." She tilts her head now, muzzle pursed, deciding to risk it. She untangles her left hand and reaches up to gently try to touch the alien being. She thinks it's such a strange urge trapped under a phantom like the storm, but some warm part of her urges her to do it anyway. For the little dragon, and for herself. "Do you know what has become of the Stelya'rhyan who controls or is this being? We are worried."
The little dragon leans into the petting. "Charon? I am embarrassed. The Monster Mom is trying to eat me. She needs my power core to regrow herself, but cannot access it yet."
Tasha's hand pauses at the answer; she squints. "Maybe I'm not explaining myself well, I am looking for the controller of this ship, or being, so that I can try to help it against the 'Monster Mom', Luk'thu-hem. I was hoping to speak to both the Stelya'rhyan and the Ogdru-hem and work things out between them. Do you know what negotiation is? But, the situation has become complicated because of outside interests. The weapon-being we possess can't be used while those interests might influence it to attack the Stelya'rhyan, a patron I owe a favor to is threatening my crew if I don't bring the Stelya'rhyan its Marker, yet I fear I will harm the Stelya'rhyan if I do, and the the Vril-ya emmissaries may turn upon me for doing so. Maybe they are right to do so. You see we are also now caught between warring powers. I would like to resolve things to everyone's satisfaction but I fear I must chose sides." The young woman bites her lip, head shaking. "Maybe I am not very useful after all, but I must try anyway. Please, is it Charon? Is that who is the authority here?"
"There is only Charon," the voice claims, and the little dragon tries to chew on the thumb of Tasha's gauntlet. "All here is Charon. But some things are more Charon than others. That is what Monster Mom seeks."
"And you ... are also Charon?" Tasha resumes petting the little dragon. Deciding her halitool isn't going to help at all anymore, she lets it slide from her grasp and reaches out with both hands to run the other over the little faux-reptile's neck. Despite the situation, it makes her smile, staving off the anxiety. It surprises Tasha to realize petting something so cute can carry a sacred feeling. "Well Charon, I won't let her win. I had hoped to speak to both of you and learn from you, but even more so I won't let the Ogdru-hem claim a Waybuilder, a Stelya'rhyan. I don't really know why, not really, but I know that can't be allowed to happen."
"It would be very bad for me to be eaten," Charon agrees, the dragonet arching like a cat. "I wouldn't like it at all. Also, I need to finish killing Monster Mom. I'm not very good at it, it seems."
"It's very hard," Tasha agrees, finding tears have begun to sting her eyes, equally inexplicable. Is this what the Vril-ya have wondered at? Is this what the the Niss title with so much respect? Whatever the Stelya'rhyan truly is, she feels its nature not as a godlike being but as a sort of penetrating innocence, perhaps even purity. A white light that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere, without ever manifesting as any one thing. It is in the biomes, in the eye she saw in the Way, in this place, and more than anything in this being that chews on her thumb and enjoys her touch. She has to swallow, even if she doesn't need her voice to speak. "It is ... It is very hard, we know. We know. And, we will do what we can to do it again. We will help you, even if I never return from this place, I will help you." She can feel it now, the reason behind Thoth's hand, the fear, and the urge to protect. She wonders how much more he knew. Perhaps she'll never know. But that doesn't matter now. "Let's go together."
"We need to move away from here," Charon claims. "If she eats my remote she will get more control. She's already gotten one of them."
"I can fly, lets move back towards the direction my associate and I came from. The storm is more distant there, though I don't exactly know how much that will slow her down." It seems to Tasha she has picked a side after all, or rather that her heart has. The sacred feeling, the glowing innocence, and the need to protect remain where doubt had been. While she regrets the loss of her neutrality, recent events have shown that road to be near its end anyway. "Can you evacuate the one who came with me back to the vessel we arrived in? I need him to tell the ship and the crew to withdraw from this space. Our ship is a danger to you while it remains, and I am a danger to the ship. It will be safer for everyone if they retreat from here. I will remain with you to fight, even if it's to the end." She studies the dragon for a moment, then scoops it up, aware of how it feels like she's cradling a child. Once she's back on her feet, she hunches and begins to move away from the storm.
"The little shiny demon-powered one?" Charon asks, and sort of clings to Tasha. "Can you fly very fast?"
As Tasha picks up speed she reaches up and pulls her helmet off, tossing it aside. Piece by piece she abandons her space suit until just her chest and legs are covered with the undersuit exposed underneath. Whatever strange gasses or radiations that flow through his place fade in concern to flying far, and quickly. "I will fly as fast as I can. We will be safer once my ship is away, it is very dangerous should its two parts come together and it chose to strike at us. The Outter God who offered his service to build it is cruel, he may compel his servant to destroy you. To strike at all of us, Luk'thu-hem, you, and me as well. It would be a great victory for him, I have always suspected he was waiting to use our deal for his advantage." She's picked up speed but it's not enough. Off goes the armored chest piece and leg pieces, leaving her unencumbered. No armor will save her here, and slow poisons will mean less than nothing if she fails first. "Is there somewhere we can go that will help us win?"
Karaktinio flies lower.. Eeee being built for aerobatics more than long-distance speed. "Away from here," the clinging dragonet offers. "She can sense me, but not very accurately. Enough that I could not use any of the bronchi near her incursion. Which Outer God are you beholden too?"
"I have deals with the one who calls himself Thotep, but I honored that one. I still think he will use it against me, against us. That he knew this moment would come. They are like you, outside of time. Perhaps it is enough I have used the ship to eliminate his rival's agents, but I don't think anything is enough for a being like him." Tasha picks off the supplies on her belt, the advanced material having contracted with the removal of the powered armor suit. Emergency supplies, go everything except the flare, her datapad, and the Marker. It is the last item she explains. "I am sorry to tell you I carry the Marker of the Yellow One, of the one whose name is poison. I owe him still, because he saved us when our world line was twisted and we lost ourselves. He says it will not harm you, but I don't want to risk it nowm that is why I can't return. Maybe, we can use it. "
"Outside of time? Then they are not living things after all, are they?" Charon asks. "That thing you call a Marker, it isn't [timestone]. What is it?"
Tasha considers that, even with time short at hand. The nature of the Outer gods isn't known to her, they seem like manifestations from beyond her universe that seem to exhibit inexplicable powers and knowledge yet while they might seem superficially living she can't say if they are truly alive, are concepts somehow given existance and form, or are but shadows from another reality whose true nature can never exist in her own. "I don't know," she admits, head shaking in the rush of oncoming wind, "They have told me they possesss certain powers, specialities in certain area where they are strong. They are correspondingly weaker in areas they do not influence. Hastur is fascinated by Yellow, to me that is his strongest trait. Not the color, but the pure essence of Yellow. It drives living things from this universe mad. Maybe it can drive Luk'thu-hem mad, too. Perhaps that is all that it is, pure Yellow and the Dark the Outer gods come from. If it isn't that, I don't know what it is."
But there is a little more, Tasha realizes. The Sign and Yellow have become linked in her mind, each connected to each other like they are to Hastur. Perhaps they are even of him, are him, and the body he sees is the real shadow. "And there is his Sign. His Mark. It, too, drives the living mad. It is dangerous to see it."
The original clearing is coming up quickly. The giant, posturing birds seem to have settled their challenge and moved on though. "And this god is antagonistic to the Monster Mom?"
"Hastur is of the Dark and of Chaos, as is Thotep. They are rivals but they support the same idea, I think it is somehow universal and vital to them, more so than what we mortals think of it. It is maybe like Yellow, the very essence of Chaos, and its opposite, Order. They are like nations or sides in a great war for them, but somehow more than that. A univeral, maybe akin to a being like the Null." Tasha swoops down to land in a run, spinning to meet the Eeee and running towards him. "The Ogdoad are of Order, yet also fo Dark. Of the same essence but on the other side. Both Thotep and Hastur oppose them. Of all of the agents of the Ogdoad in this universe, Luk'thu-hem is the oldest and most powerful. She is above the others my crew and I have faced, second only to the gods that made her."
"She was very tough, but I am inexperienced and not a warrior anyway," Charon claims. "I made a mistake. I should have called for my mother. She will be very upset with me as it is. I am curious about the yellow Marker now."
Karaktinio lands and falls to his knees. His lighter suit shows his chest heaving. "That was not pleasant," he notes.
Tasha stiffens at the idea of having to explain the situation to an elder Stelya'rhyan, wondering how overwhelming a presence that must be. Well, she will be glad to answer if it comes to that because it will mean that they have survived. "Then we must do everything we can so that we can face her with pride and with new of success." The dragon -- or remote as Charon calls the being -- is hefted to rest in Tasha's as she walks towards Dr. Karaktinio, head dipping. "I will tell you about it when he is off and away. It is dangerous for him to even know of it."
"Then you're going to be very excited when I say it's time for you to get out of here, Doctor. Please return to the little ship and return to the Dark Horse at once. Tell the Captain and the man I call Thoth that I have made contact with the Stelya'rhyan and am remaining to behind to protect it, and also the ship from myself. They are to remove the vessel from the region ASAP so that it does not threaten the Waybringer." She sucks in a breath, upper hand running along the alien being's head as she builds her courage. "Tell them both that I am also very sorry, but I had to do it. And, a-and tell Gabe and Katie I love them. Now, please depart immediately. We will attempt to destroy Luk'thu-hem once you are away."
"And you'll set off the flare to let us know when to come and collect you?" the Eeee asks.
"If I can," Tasha agrees. "But if I can't return or we cannot win, then we should try to disengage from Luk'thu-hem and exit this universe where she can't follow you. We can rest and return to beat her if that's necessary, maybe call your mother. We don't have to fight to the end if we can run." "But if not I will go where the Waybuilder takes me and return when I am able."
"And do you honestly believe your crew will abandon you?" Karaktinio has to ask. "But I suppose Amuntaton and Sam aren't exactly useful in this effort."
"No I don't, but the ship is a danger to the Waybringer and I am a danger to the ship. I won't return so long as that is the case." Tasha reaches up and taps the side of her head. "I ahve my obligations and I promised that I would remain to fight. So long as the Waybuilder survives, I think I will too. If we need to run from the fight, then we may flee far away from this universe. It would be best if the ship wasn't here when we do that. And, there are other powers that might interfere. I won't be able to help stop them as long as I'm fighting here."
"So, there could be more of those monsters out there that are just pretending to be dead, waiting to pounce?" the Eeee asks.
"There have always been. They are older than all the Galactics, all First Ones, and many of the Old Ones. Old when stars were young. But, they're not invincible. It's just that the weapon we have isn't suitable this time. I'm going to have to find a way to fight without it, but I have this cute little guy to help me," the Stelya'rhyan-remote has its head patted again, then Tasha gives it a little kiss on the head because she's rather wanted to, " ... so I think we stand a good chance of winning. I won't hold it against the others if they come and save us, and maybe that's also why I'm here. I don't want the Stelya'rhyan to be sacrificed just to protect me."
"Do you know, I think that Luk'thu-hem is Tatha-hem's mother, her creator? If it can be helped I don't want to force her to kill her own creator. Or mother. Or both. She is sad enough. I fear interference from the Outer Gods, even but if the ship is away Thotep can do little. It will just be Hastur," Tasha confides as she awaits an answer.
"I'll try to get the Tadpole to leave then," Karaktinio relents. "There's no way we can contact you to let you know when we're at a safe distance."
"It's the Dark Horse, if there's any ship that can be away in time, it's our ship." Tasha smiles a little, hugging the remote to her chest and laying her head on its head. "I'll be all right. We'll find a way."
"Your ship wouldn't let us move away from Lukthu-hem before," Karaktinio reminds Tasha. "So if you have to do something, you really shouldn't depend on us being safely away." He then starts back into the cave, toward the Tadpole.
Tasha tries to subvocalize her groan. Every time she tries to protect everyone, everyone always seem to run right back to her. She's grateful, of course, but it really would have been easier if she could isolate the risks from each other. Easier still, if she didn't need to risk the people she loved by being unable to accomplish that. "Very hard," she agrees with Charon once more. She watches the man until he's out of sight, then places the remote on a rock, and pulls the Marker case around to thump it on the ground before the dragonete. "The Marker is in here. It is very dangerous to living beings, I won't be even a little mad if you tell me to leave it here. It's my bargain and no longer want to risk you, even if I have been told it won't I can't be certain of that. I really can't say what it may or may not do to you, or even to Luk'Thu-hem, except that I know she is alive."
The little dragon picks up the case.. and tries to bite through it. "Poison. Poison to Monster Mom, or poison to minds though?"" Charon ponders.
Tasha drops down to watch the dragon, who is really the Stelya'rhyan, chew on her emergency supplies bag with a little grin on her face. "Poison for everyone. That is why I thought, if I were to get her attention and open her mind to the poison, maybe you could strike at her when she is distracted. Do you think that would be enough?" She reaches forward, then pats the bag. "Hastur told me it wouldn't endanger you. He said it was really some sort of question, he wanted to know how you felt about Order or Chaos. Which side you're on, I think. He's never really lied to me, even if he's really kind of scary and I think it's his nature to injur mortals who know about him. They all seem to work like that, at least a little. Maybe it's just what he is?"
"I don't think they are separate things," Charon replies to the suggested question, and finally gets the case open.. immediately sticking his nose into it.
Tasha can't help but squeeze her eyes shut. If the Stelya'rhyan falters because of this, then it's all over. She'll be lucky if anyone survives, and even if she does she'll have to explain to Thoth, the elder Stelya'rhyan, and who know who or what else how she botched something so important. It's enough to make anyone whine; so she does.
The Marker is pulled out and chewed on. And with a loud crack, the dragonet manages to actually bite a piece off of it!
When the world doesn't implode and when she doesn't find herself staring in to a nightmare of swirling winds and teeth, Tasha risks cracking an eye open. She spots the mising piece, looks to the remote, then back and forth a few times to be sure of what she's seeing. Yes, she're very sure. "AHH!"