The excursion to the wooden derelict is an eclectic mix of individual suits, mechanized armor and shuttles - along with one curious Tadpole. Hera and Yue were fine with being practically naked to the vacuum in their skinsuits, while the Karnors kept to the shuttle, where Gabriel needed help anyway with the closeup scans. The Eeee rode inside the Tadpole, and the Vartans clung to Melchior - or rather Lacci did. Shojo was controlling the Grunt Suit, which in turn was acting as a reaction control system for Melchior, with Tasha armored up inside (with matching gauntlets no less). It was a slow seeming transit, since Dark Horse was parked over ten kilometers away from the most intact looking section, which also put the bulk of the derelict between it and the remains of the Lukthu-hem drone that did battle with it.
Having the least extra-vehicular experience, Professor Stanislav remained on Dark Horse to make sure everything was recorded and also to monitor the special equipment that couldn't easily be attached to vehicles or suits. Modo also declined to come along, since he claimed that he didn't go into space to climb trees. Dr. Amuntaten also travelled in the shuttle, while Samael was riding on Melchior on the shoulder opposite Lacci. He didn't bother trying to simulate a space suit.
Without much to do in terms of piloting, Tasha has spent her focus watching the assembled scans, all spread out before her mind's eye in a collage of virtual windows and senses. In addition to the mundane scans, she's kept her own unique eye aimed squarely at the approaching vessel in an effort to spot any exotic energy that might still be present, and has further left communications open in case anyone wants to speak to her. With so much to watch she hasn't been talkative herself.
At this distance, she can't sense much. The Dark Horse is already far enough way that Tatha-hem's presence is gone, leaving just Samael as the strongest signal. But, using the distance to the shuttle and other metrics, she can tell that.. well, she can't tell much yet. The problem is that Tatha-hem is shielded by the saddle to a good degree, so Tasha has to be in the chamber with her to really see her. Hakeber is likewise 'masked' by her soul (or some other being-alive and made of matter effect). Only Sam is a pure source of Shadow.. and he's just a few meters away, so easy to detect. The Markers aren't making their presence known (and she did leave them on the ship). The odd third-eye likewise doesn't seem to detect the Marker embedded within Melchior. "No heat or other energy signatures detected yet," the AI reports, but then one of the virtual displays zooms in on the surface of the ship. Etched(?) into the bark(?)is a spiral symbol, that of the Galactic Library. Like the one discovered at the Abaddon libration point, this one has five arms.
"We now have a rough estimate of how old it is, unelss they're faking that symbol, and I can't see why anyone would." Tasha blinks, then snorts a laugh. "Wood. Would. Annnyway, it's Old Ones era, last Galactic cycle, obviously before the Sifra got tired of everyone and after the Vril-ya departed, way after the Niss departed. This could very well be a pan-Galactic Library fleet. That's exciting."
"Librarians are the not what I would consider warriors," Melchior notes. "Except for the famous fictional one, Conan. The symbol of the Galactic Library is common on ancient Galactic ships however, as a sign of their civilization."
"I know that reference now, and now I know your humor unit has been upgraded somehow." Tasha pats the command chair; I love you anyway. "Well, if it's not a central-authority based task force it's still the result of a huge amount of military and civilized might all gathering together for a single purpose. Most civilizations either enslave or ignore the Ogdru-hem, so somewhere way back in time someone sat down with all these species and decided a large amount of military might needed to deal with Luk'thu-hem. That's interetsing in itself."
There are still big holes in the ship as they approach, but less floating chunks. At least the hole they're being nudged towards is big enough for all of the ships. The interior, once the various lights are turned to illuminate it, looks a bit like a broken open wasp nest - just with sturdier cell walls than paper.
"Structure that uniform suggests ablative armor," Dr. Amuntaten notes over the comm link. "A lot of it."
"This seems like more than just a scientific expedition, then, unless this species just tends to armor everything excessively. Given the amount of ships, it seems to me they knew they were in for a battle and planned accordingly. That they still lost might mean they didn't know how to assess their enemy or that this was one of their first encounters with a problem like this. Maybe they assumed Luk'thu-hem was of the same class as the other ones?" Tasha turns her inward gaze to watch the lighted structure, letting scan readings she's poorly trained to understand fade out to make room. She wonders if the crew were gigantic insects.
Not gigantic enough. At least, not enough for Melchior to fit through any of the cells. "Detecting something like a corridor past the smaller cells," Gabriel notes. "Radar works fine against wood, even if it's high carbon wood."
"They did manage to injure Lukthu-hem," Amuntaten points out.
"You're our designated lumberjack, Tasha," Gabriel says, and the target area shows up on one of Tasha's displays.
"Can't bring just any wood to your grand battle," Tasha agrees, leaning forward even if it's strictly unecessary. "And that is true, they did. And she'd have been at her full power back then, so something like a demigod. A galaxy-level threat, if probably a slow-acting one. I saw what she could do when she dying and fighting a adorable mini-god. Okay, enough talking, time for chopping. Lacci, Sam, get ready."
The Melchior braces itself against what Tasha opts to call 'floor' and 'wall' to keep them in place and make sure her swings have actual kinetic impact, then heats the shaard in the Melchior's right hand and begins cutting away. "This is very nostalgic, you know."
The shaard actually meets some resistance from the wood, but does saw through eventually. The exposed space beyond should be large enough for the Gryphon and the rest to get through.
Tasha takes point and proceeds inside, reaching out and snatching the remove section to both keep it from floating off and hitting something or someone, and also because she has an idea about trying Titan-sized whittling. Whittling, as it happened, was one of her favorite past times back on The Rake, even if she wasn't terribly good at it. It was everyone's favorite past time really, because wood was plentiful and portable and it kind of seemed like you were doing actual ships' work. "In we go. Lights on. No giant insect-people. Step lively, step lively ... "
Step carefully. The ship apparently was never intended to have gravity, or else big spherical chambers had some other purpose. But the curved wall is filled with either sculpture or the crew. The figures are larger than Vartans, but also horribly deformed, and it isn't clear if they are coming out of the wall or being pulled into it. Petrified roots or vines seem to entangle them, making it difficult to tell what may or may not be a limb. The faces are stretched and pulled in various directions, no two alike. It's hard to read the expressions of an alien race, but they don't look happy. It also isn't clear if they were made of wood as well, or just became wood as part of whatever process captured them.
The giant Titans stops to regard some of the silent figures: a god in consideration of the tragedies and follies of mortals. This effect is ruined somewhat when Tasha throws in her own reaction. "This brings back memories. Recent memories. Bad memories. Poor aliens, I know exactly how you feel. If only you had had a space whale buddy, too." The Titan's head shakes.
"Their own ship ate them?" Lacci asks. "Where they the fuel source?"
"It is not unlikely for a vegetable sapience to feed on animals," Amuntaten chimes in.
"Maybe the ship was crippled, or, Luk'th-hem was able to gain control of it. She tried very hard to invade our mind and convince me to obey her when we were attacking her during the final battle. Charon also reported a take-over attempt," Tasha notes, her Titan pushing off and floating on down the way. "Other Ogdru-hem have also tried it, in their own way. We had several crew members crippled by it."
"I got better," Hakeber claims. Yue and Hera are floating over to one of the bodies, and the Tadpole has come to a stop and disgorged the Eeee to also collect samples. Nobody leaves the shuttle though. "Now that we're inside I'm getting better radar returns," Gabriel says. "Building up a map."
"I wonder if the Library unit comes in wood? They can't all be the same types of unit, can they?" Tasha doesn't wander far, keeping to nearby halls, energy channels, transport tubes or whatever they may have once been, carving away structure as needed and collecting the pieces. "And I wonder what sort of FTL this used. Or power. Psionics, maybe?"
"Who knows?" Gabriel says, but Amuntaten then explains, "Library units are standardized. That was the whole point. It was only the user interfaces that varied depending on species. It would likely be near the center of the ship as well, in the most hardened area."
"Can't there be multiple standards? But then who am I to talk, I produce standard copies of myself now." Tasha pulls up an external map of the ship and combines it withthe growing internal map, which further incorporates her own mapping efforts. She purses her muzzle, then points at the location out of habit. "I think I see where it might be. Should I go look? It's going to take some time to get there, and there's probably going to be a lot of cutting to do, too."
"Might be easier to go 'on foot'," Yue says, floating near what is probably a corridor, but one that is more root-like scaffolding than wide open space.
"We'd still have to get the unit out," Gabriel reminds.
"We do have a Grunt," Lacci notes.
"Being on foot is more being eateny on foot, though," Tasha notes, but then she perks up at Gabriel's solution and gives him a gigantic thumbs-up, which he's enevr seen her do before. Nora. The thumbs up immediately goes away and is replaced by another finger gesture, aimed up at Lacci, which is also Terran. "Fiiine."
It takes some time to reorganize outside of the corridor. If it were fully cleared, the Tadpole could probably fit, but that seems unlikely. Those with the least amount of armor would have the easiest time getting through - namely the skinsuit-wearing primates who are used to zero-g. Everyone else (save for Sam) is too clunky.
"So, send the psychic munchkin in first, are let Shojo batter a path?" Gabriel asks.
Tasha hangs out on the Melchior's shoulder with Lacci and Sam until the party is ready, but does not take the lead now that she's reduced to mere millimeters of armor plating between herself and danger. She's also brought along the railgun, because she's not about to repeat the last few days events, especially unarmed. If she'd die unarmed, she would feel very dumb, after all. "Not just Yue. The psionics can disable her, she'll need someone of a different mental arrangement, or at least mentally resilient," Tasha suggests.
"Are you volunteering me?" Samael asks. It's unclear how he's talking to them all, unless he's got a comm set inside of him somewhere.
"I have qualms about letting the demon go ahead of us," Amuntaten predictably argues.
"I could fit, and no psychic vulnerabilities," Hera offers.
Shojo has already used the Grunt to grab one of the root-struts and is testing the strength of it.
"I might have but I must now be the balance between darkness and light. Since I'm busy being a incarnate metaphor, is there anyone el-- Okay, Hera. Just be very careful, we'll be close behind. If you hear anything like sudden desires, compelling to surrender, offers of power or wishes, tell us immediately." Tasha follows the two up to the squeeze-in spot and nods. From the ground she begins to help Shojo locate loose bits, pointing them out.
"You make it sound like I'm going into a bar," the Belter woman says, and then easily slinks her way through the infrastructure. The crew were bigger after all, so there's plenty of room for her if not those with bigger suits (or wings). Once she's a safe way ahead, Shojo starts crushing things. The wood here isn't so strong as in the hull armor, and crumbles easily enough.
Tasha collects some of the wood and sits down nearby, simply bracing herself against two outcroppings and wedging herself there. In that pose she begins trying to carve up the wood in her hand using a survival knife that's part of her standard kit, muzzle scrunching up as she concentrates. It gives her something to do while she waits. "So, any thoughts about things, anyone?"
The wood doesn't carve well, being mostly petrified and brittle. "The crew is creeping me out," Hakeber claims. "All this wood, but no way to properly date it without knowing the world of origin," Karaktinio laments. "We probably could cleared this faster using the gun," Gabriel points out, after testing some of the wood for himself.
"I'm trying not to think about the crew what with the whole being gibbletized part from a few days ago." Whittle, frown, whittle. "Maybe the Library has a backup dating mechanisim, or there's some other black box?" Nick, whittle, head shake. "I'm a little leery of seeing like a hostile invader, but if the ships really dead we'll try it soon." Whittle, stop, disappointment, toss over shoulder. Tasha stands up. "Or now. Can someone feed me targeting info? I don't want to accidentally rail Yue, because I'd have to hear jokes about it forever."
"Wait for me to head back," Hera notes, as Shojo moves the Grunt out of the way. Working out the firing solution is tricky, since the corridor isn't exactly straight and the goal it to clear it rather than blow holes in things. Using the circular-pattern setting, however, should clear a lot of the scaffolding without creating too much debris or holes - after all the power can be dialed back as needed. Then it's just a matter of lining up the scope to the virtual display in her helmet.
There's also the matter of securing herself in the rigth spot after all the calculations finish, which pust Tasha hanging 'upside down' from the 'ceiling'. Once everyone's back, she gives a, "Powering up shooty-mo-tron, aligning lazy-enablement circles, full power to not shooting friends and passengers, wondering if there's a smaller model I can buy when we get back annnd ... three, two, one, ka-pew."
There's no sound or flames or pressure wave, just a lot of splintered wood that just mostly stays where it is. But that can now just be pushed out of the way until it's time to clear another swath of corridor.
"Thank you for chosing Tasha's Wall Shooting Services. We also shoot other things, ask about our shoot things that endanger the universse plan," says Tasha as she uses the butt of the weapon to push off like a broomstick, sailing deeper in to the vessel.
It's like floating through.. a broken forest. The wood doesn't pose any danger to even the skinsuits, but clearing it in zero-g is tedious. But eventually the next spot on the route is reached, and more is cleared away. None of the intervening chambers seem to make sense. There are more half-merged-into-the-walls people, but never anything that looks like a control surface (unless that's what pulled the crew into the walls). The figures appear to be naked as well, with no signs of armor or environmental protection - and no metal or anything harder than wood encountered yet.
"Aliens shouldn't be so alien," Katie notes. "We didn't find anything that looked like weapons on the hull.." The next chamber is different. There's a piece of Ogdru-hem drone running through it; a dark, warty-looking tentacle covered in eyes and mouths.
Tasha tries not to think of the similiarity between the pulped ship and the similiarly shredded forest inside Charon; she does consider Luk'thu-hem may have really hated trees and tree like objects. For the most part she chips in, or chips walls with the rail gun, as needed, which is useful. She also makes commentary, of dubious use.
"Aliens are all sorts. If you think these are weird, you should see some other ones." She then yips at the sight of the Ogdru-hem drone, immediately pushing off to the other side of the corridor and proceeding to eye the thing warily -- through the scope of her railgun. "And some of them are too familiar."
The others keep their distance as well, shining their lights on it. Except for Sam, who walks (because gravity is a matter of Sam-ness apparently) right up to it and knocks on it with a bare fist. "It's not going to move," he claims.
Even with Tasha's new third-eye, it doesn't have any shadow color. It may have been completely made of matter to begin with.
Karaktinio has his little sample pick out and starts chipping away at it.
"Good job Sam. Now bite it, and lets keep going. There will probably be more. Bite those, too." Tasha does still give the thing the eyeball though, all three of them, and wonders if the lack of energies is because it's dead or because it never had any to begin with. From what she's learning, the energies themselves may be quite rare indeed, even so close to the largest example of Ogdru-hem encountered so far.
"They look more like prehistoric armored squid from a distance," Gabriel says, and doesn't touch the thing. He consults his map before pointing to the next corridor to clear, as they head deeper towards the center of the ship.
"Dark beings really like squid-shapes for some reason. And stonework. With eyeballs and teeth. And popping up behind you," Tasha explains, rambling on about their many characteristics as they head deeper.
An hour later, through more of the same, Gabriel announces, "The central chamber should be coming up." The last corridor is cleared, and the 'prize' is supposedly ahead.
"If there was a battle inside, that's where the damage could be the worst," Lacci cautions.
"I agree, so lets have the Grunt first and people with armor stronger behind. Sensors, special senses, do your sensing," Tasha declares, taking position in the second line which puts her beside Gabriel.
For whatever reason, Sam takes up the rear, behind Hakeber. But there are also those who want to crowd in behind the Grunt. Gabriel and Lacci stick closer to Tasha, being the ones with the heaviest armor. There is debris that isn't wood floating around when the reach the end, and their beams illuminate the chamber. The walls are a weave of heavy roots, with bodies entangled in them and more tentacle chunks drifting about. The seem to spread out from a central point at the far end of the spherical space. The glossy surface of the library unit is near there, nestled between the hooves of a large stone statue. The figure is seated on a throne of sorts, and is covered in strange symbols. But it's also clearly Baphomet. Or Thotep as he's known to his friends.
Once Tasha gets a look at the statue, and a second look at that, she immediately remembers Samael's position and immediately pushes off and away from it in retreat. What she also remembers is Horus's explaination of the energies she can now see, and what it might mean for her to get close to them. This whole process comes with a sudden and alarmed bark of, "OH GREAT."
"So.. you wondered if someone organized this fleet," Gabriel says to Tasha. Hera and the Eeee are not familiar with the figure in question, however. "Is that a god, or the Librarian of the Apocalypse?" the Belter asks.
Tasha absolutely does not hide behind a clump of vines towards the rear of the chamber. "That's Goate-- um, Thotep. I probably shouldn't even tell you his name, but you've already seen him and you've met Sam. He's an Outter God, a kind of pan-universal being, probably pan-temporal and certainly co-locational. You could say he's kind of like my sponsor, but it's more accurate to say we have an understanding. My actual sponsor is another Outter God. Thotep is, well, he's ... not super nice to his followers."
"But he does hate the Ogdoad and their minions," Samael offers. As with the tentacles before, he goes up and raps on the stone shin of the statue. Nothing happens.
"My concern is for the library unit," Yue says. "Picking up anything weird around it? Booby-traps would be expected in these circumstances."
"Just seeing wood," Katie replies, since she's carrying the hand scanner.. which looks like a large-muzzled pistol with a screen attached.
And so Tasha slowly makes her way back over to the statue. "He doesn't like the Ogdoad, no. Order versus chaos, even if they're both Dark gods. or Shadow gods if you like that better." She stops nearby and turns her gaze on the surrounding area, searching for traps.
There are a lot of bodies here, especially in the roots beneath the statue's hooves. Most seem to be reaching out in supplication.. or for help.
"Yeeeeah," goes Tasha who nudges one of the bodies with her railgun, " ... he's really not nice to his followers."
The body explodes, sending petrified particles outward in every direction. It isn't enough to cause damage, but will leave scratches on the armor of those close by.
Tasha flinches, she then gives a long, long sigh. "And this is the sort of thing he does, too. Looks like Modo will be busy. Nobody's hurt, right?"
"I'm glad there's no noise," Hakeber says. Everyone else seems unscathed as well.
"Do you want me to pick up the unit?" Shojo asks, since the Grunt needs to be used to move it back anyway.
After waving people back, Tasha proceeds to pop all the bodies standing between the Library unit and recovery, enough to allow room for accidents. Rather than pop them herself, she throws chunks of debries at them. "Sorry aliens." Pop. "Sorry." Pop. "I know how you feel." Pop. "If it makes you feel better I helped kill her." Pop. "I avenged you, don't curse me please." And so on.
Once things are cleared Tasha moves away and gives the black Vartan a thumbs up as she floats by. "Just be careful! Thotep is tricky, million-years tricky."
"Be gentle!" Yue urges. Shojo carefully grips the unit to pull it free from the wooden footings. At least it's self-contained. "Anything else we want to look for?" Gabriel asks around.
"It'd normally say yes but I can't identify most of this stuff, and I'm not even sure we could use it or learn anything if we could. Maybe we should pick a ship with more familiar construction, next?" Tasha replies, spinning about her axis as she surveys the scene. Dead bodies, vines, dead aliens. Nothing beyond the Library that looks educational or useful beyond its visual suggests.
"I've got samples," Karaktinio says. "No spatial or dimensional anomalies to poke," Soshelle laments. "I'm not sure if any of this counts as exotic matter or just weird matter," Hera chimes in.
"Everything is dark and gray," Katie complains.
"Nothing is compelling me to speak in tongues," Hakeber admits.
"We should not linger," Amuntaten agrees.
"Something less creepy would be welcome," Lacci says.
"Seems like the vote is, "we learned some things but now it's boring," so lets get out of here before the statue animates and wants to say "hi."" Tasha thumbs over her shoulder which offsets her spin, making it seem like she's ready to depart in a wide, rotating conical region. "Lets get out of the woods."
Liza is waiting for Tasha as soon as she leaves Melchior. "Are you ready to take a bath now?" the Lapi asks.
"I was ready before, I was just busy!" Tasha insists as she removes her helmet, walking over to the lockers before having the rest of the suit fold open in its complicated way. "But yes," she adds when done, and primly at that.
The Karnors are exiting the shuttle as well, along with Amuntaten. "A bath sounds nice," Gabriel agrees.
"Looks like it'll be a bath for two then," Tasha informs Liza. She steps over to stand with her, wearing just her (now somewhat baggy) undersuit.
"What about us?" Katie asks, with Hakeber next to her.
"Four," Tasha corrects, holding exactly so many fingers up. "Shall we, my my collection of sweet crumpets?"
"Now I'm hungry for crumpets," Hakeber says, as they all head towards the private elevator.