Scene #5769: [D]esert Heart

Owner	Pose
A2	Compared to the city ruins, the advance outpost for the Resistance could scarcely look any more different, despite being only a few miles to the south at best. Gargantuan specimens of ancient subtropical trees and vines solidly dominate the landscape all the way there, where the slowly crumbling shells of futuristic buildings sink into the soil and become covered in grass and moss, and thus habitats for wild animals, utterly unafraid of humans. There's no sign of the landscape transitioning into anything else at all. No gradual shift of climate or terrain or temperature. Travelers simply end up closing in on a natural rock formation that provides a tall, canyon-esque wall, much like the gorge to the west, and after following it for a short while, they turn a few corners and find themselves almost immediately trudging ankle deep through sand Here, it seems that centuries of wind have worn away a deep crevice in the stone, much thicker than it had initially seemed, and eventually widened it until it had become a winding passage. The greenery, and much of the sky, disappears behind the windswept sandstone and red granite walls that rise up on either side, making travelers negotiate their way down several steep slopes covered in thick layers of shifting grit. When a few minutes of walking have taken them to what feels like a few miles into a desert, they end up at what seems less like an 'outpost' and more like a collection of crates and chars under a tarp, with the remainder of the passage blocked off by a towering wall of what appears to be scrap metal, compressed to extreme density, and plated and welded all over. There appears to be no actual gate mechanism built into it. Indeed, there are many points across it where it menaces with spikes or sparking live wires. There is also literally one person there. A woman in tan and grey 'desert camo', for lack of a better word, wearing combat boots, a heavy grey cloak and mantle, and a bandana so badly angled that it covers a third of one side of her face. She seems to be in the process of dismantling and cleaning sand out of a weapon, and sitting next to a pile of remotes, some also in various states disassemble. One of the crates is cracked open and seems to be filled with unmarked blocks of something or other wrapped in plastic. Another appears to be a cooler, filled with what might actually be beer and frozen fish. That's the whole outpost. Even when people approach, the Android barely looks up from her work, and makes little more than an almost-not-even-interested noise before knotting up her cleaning rag around her glove. "Took you long enough. You're the weirdos that Anemone sent out here, right?"
Iria	Whether rocks are natural or put there by someone else, it doesn't matter to Iria. They're just obstacles she has to get around or get over if necessary, which is easy enough thanks to her gadgets and her acrobatic skills. But this turns out just to be a guide if you will, which gives way to a deep crevice. The slopes are a bit steep, but nothing Iria can't handle with a little caution and skill. In fact, getting to the outpost seems to be just another day on the job for Iria. Of course, calling it an outpost seems like a loose term, since it looks almost very makeshift, as if it was built with limited supplies and/or resources. Of course, whoever built the wall of metal did a pretty good job on it, and from the looks of it, it's pretty sturdy too. Iria scowls deeply at the mention of being called a weirdo and responds with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. "Yeah, we're the 'weirdos' that were sent here!" She folds her arms while emphasizing the word 'weirdos.' "Although frankly, if you want to see a weirdo, you should see the things I have to hunt!" She runs a hand through her hair. "At any rate, we are here to help you and your outpost, so if you require anything, let us know."
All-Seeing Eye	"Weirdos?" The Alchemical crosses his arms and levels a nonplussed look at the bandana'd android. One hand briefly raises to flip his hair over a shoulder. "Darling, please. Glass houses, stones, et cetera." That same hand vaguely gestures towards her off-kilter garment, dipping up and down dismissively. "I mean, what's going on here? What is /this?/" He pauses, holding a palm outwards. "Ah, never mind." The annoyed frown on his face melts into a soft smile with ease that might be cause for concern. "Anemone did send us, yes. My name is All-Seeing Eye--she no doubt gave a much more... detailed description of me than your spartan and, frankly, quite impolite appellation." His smile widens like a common gossip about to raise a cup of tea. "But let's not dwell on that! I have a few concerns, as I'm sure you do. Firstly, have you had any contact with I30?" His hand slides free of its resting spot once more to reveal his index finger, pointed upright. "Second," he says, as the next finger is raised. "Your outpost. Have you any needs that aren't being met presently? Supplies," he says, golden eyes darting briefly down towards the fish in the cooler. "Repairs, manpower, that sort of thing?"
Ezekiel Gravez	Ezekiel arrives upon the camp, desert dust falling away from his duster and boots. He looks like he belongs in this kind of environment, as if born to it. The spurs on his boot jingle as his steps telegraph his approach. He gives the woman a momentary lookover, and then unfastens the strap from his environmental mask. When the breather comes free, he licks the dryness from his lips and tips his hat. "G'day Miss. That might be myself, and those included. You get many strange folk from abroad 'round these here parts?" He gives the woman a mirthful and genuine smile. No matter what the woman or the others say, he tries to find a comfortable seat for a moment to pull his boots off, with the hopes to remove any particles and pebbles that may have gotten trapped. His gun belt slings gently against his hip, while the needle retracts into the cyberglove in order to make the process more comfortable. He steals a look at his companions for a moment, wondering to himself how the more obviously cybernetic among them must be dealing with the environment. When finished, he takes a sip from his metal canteen. On the outside of it, is the symbol of what must be presumably an organization. The word 'STRONGHOLD' along the outer circle, while inside looks to be something resembling masonic iconography. Following up on his own previous advice, he studies his companions closely, mostly while they are pre-occupied with the woman. He watches them in order. The sounds of footfalls and clanking gear being of particular attention. They hold themselves in various ways. Body language is often far more truthful than words in most cases. There is a simply honesty in the visceral reactions, but the moments shortly after tell more. He internalized it all, or at the very least - what they advertised.
Krusty	As the lush, green terrain quickly gives way to rough, sandy desert Krusty finds himself wondering if that's normal. Admittedly he's not had many opportunities for visiting hot, dry landscapes like this before. Most of his life spent in actual civilization. But then Krusty gets distracted at the sight of the resistance 'outpost'. Right. That's generous. Still, it seems like they've hit a bit of a brick wall, made out of metal. But at least their resistance contact is apparently here, if a little rude. Not that Krusty is one to speak, wearing heavy metal armour on a mission into the desert. That probably does qualify as weird. Krusty adjusts his glasses as he confirms, "We're tracking down a missing YoRHa agent. Supposedly came through this way. I don't suppose you saw them?"
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 is wearing something very like desert camo, having come from a place that is very like a desert. She's also come from other places, but "home," such as it is, is the most recent. The multi-lens essence scope hanging near her customary, red-eyed mask is a sign of other, prior operations, still fresh in memory. The unpopulated greenery makes for a stark contrast against recent battlefields, and she's unlikely to mind if the "unpopulated" part, at least, continues. "A single android" is close enough. "Yeah, probably," comes her vague response, having possibly missed a prior encounter that would have provided further context to this meeting. "This wall yours?" Calling it a "gate" seems premature. She shifts her equipment, redundantly adjusting her carrying setup. Guns here, supplies there, unfilled loot sacks over here. The casual, schoolyard-level name-calling doesn't really register on her, as she only seems to notice it after others reuse the word, and just gives a glance over. She tactically avoids saying anything about All-Seeing Eye's appearance, behavior, or nature... out loud. By her equipment, one would guess A-39 to give plenty for Ezekiel to listen to, but her footsteps are unexpectedly quiet, in practice.
Mei Hatsume	"That's us!" Mei boasts proudly as she moves along to give the covered android a broad grin, snickering a moment later at All-Seeing Eye's fashion commentary. In comparison to the android, Mei's dressed relatively well and much more cleanly, if a bit plain: Blue jumpsuit, big harness/backpack combo, steampunk-y goggles, some sort of rocket boots, and a pipe to... ... Well, she might need to whack something, and the wire arrows aren't ideal for shooting at tough robots and still working as movement aids later. "You have anything that needs fixing or looking at? I've got the tools in here if you've got the time for me to pore through them~" She isn't very subtle about wanting to dismantle and study just about anything she can get her hands on, already starting to glance around slowly at the disassembled weapons. "... Did you take those all apart yourself?"
Starbound Flotilla	The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here, in their standard Durasteel equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a divine-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow runes and inscriptions lighting up on stylishly gleaming golden armor and robes. Albert the monkey-man is wearing what looks like lab technician gear with extensive sets of tools and chemical protection, which integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a futuristic combat EVA hardsuit that glows a gentle red at the flat faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator. "Hello, yes, this is weirdos." "What direction did liassson go? And Floran isssn't weird." "Friendly. You're unusually great, Biteblade! And, hello, pleasure to meet you!" "We're here under orders of the Resistance commander." "How'd the YoRHa liason get through that big thing anyway?" "I am not looking forward to the hydration matters out there. What is the extent of this biome? Both the weed and I /somehow/ share certain faults when it comes to matters of desert operation." They're immediately hassling this stranger with friendliness and questions, but are quite eager to move on. They've brought with them the beacons for beaming in some hoverbikes, and as soon as possible they intend to blast off into the desert and follow hints or directions they've been given to see what they can find on their search for the liason.
Batou	Batou would have rolled his eyes if he could move his eyes. Or if he had "eyes" in the organic sense. Instead, he scoffs as Tachikoma and himself roll up, wearing a pair of goggles he probably doesn't need, but he doesn't wanna get those precious sensors scratched up. "Tch. Don't be so condescending. We wouldn't even be here if your pals hadn't asked us over," Batou scowled. Tachikoma, friendly as ever, greeted everyone will a spin, which, since Batou was on top of it, meant he got spun around, breaking his whole "cool" vibe. After regaining his composure he hops off, dusting his combat suit off, and acknowleging Eye in particular. "Yeah, what he said. Need any help? And what about your... uh... coworker?"
A2	"Nnnnope." the Android says in response to All-Seeing Eye, taking extra special care to enunciate the P at the end. "To all questions." she then 'clarifies'. "Never heard of you, never talked to her, and the only thing I'm missing is my useless subordinate taking his sweet time." Even if Iria wants to emphasize the word 'weirdos', all the Android does is look at her, then lean over in her seat to look around her to see the others, then confirm "Looks like it." From there, she starts putting her work back together, screwing and snapping pieces to each other one by one at a steady, unhurried pace, punctuating her speech with the emphatic clacking of bolts and catches. She does it while stealing a peek at Ezekiel's canteen, which is impressive considering her other eye is covered up. "Nada. Nobody comes through here except the Resistance and the occasional YoRHa doll. I guess the latter sure counts as strange though. Almost creepy." she says, not at all minding when Ezekiel takes one of the folding chairs, better suited for fishing than staking out. "I saw her though." she then says to Krusty. "She went through, damn I don't know, maybe a month back? If she hasn't talked to anyone since, she's dead. The city's mostly safe, but out here you start to see more Machines still connected to the network, instead of just wandering around like they hit their head too hard. Freaks. At least when their eyes are glowing red you can trust them to try and kill you." She scratches her nose. It's oddly human. To Batou, she says "Guy. Like I care. Do I look like I need your help? Furthermore, do I look like I care about the ice queen fashionista? Probably snapped a heel somewhere and forgot how to walk." She looks to Mei, with the first tiny glint of interest in any of the blatantly Multiversal visitors this entire time. "I put them together myself as well. You have any idea how boring this job is? I don't get a supervisor, so I have my hobbies." When the Flotilla starts hassling her with a question, she finishes screwing on some kind of massive compensator on the increasingly intimidating gun in her lap, groaning loud enough to drown out the capacitor charging whine. "It's not all that big. This place used to be a plateau, same as everything else, just higher up, or so I hear. The desert's contained. Hasn't spread in centuries. You don't have all that much space to search, so long as she didn't go underground before she bit it. The cavern systems are nuts. Just don't go too far south or you run into permanent storm winds." Looking at A-39, she says "Damn right it is. Nobody goes through it on either side unless I say so." How anyone actually /could/ is an unanswered question. Finally, the Android snags one of the remotes from the pile next to her, which looks suspiciously like a garage door opener. "You wanna go through? Fine. You're friends of Anemone, so that's good enough for me. Stand back for a sec." She then pushes the upper button on the remote, which bleeps like a car alarm turning on. The entire wall, being at least several tons of solid steel, explodes in a glorious shower of blossoming pyrotechnics, blasting the sand away for twenty meters on a wall of wind and excavating a crater at least a couple of meters deep. The actual mass of the wall seems to have pretty much disappeared, without so much as a smoking chunk left, though the next thirty seconds pelt everyone present with tiny rocks and blunt pieces of hot metal and plastic falling from the sky. The Android gestures to the freshly opened way like a valet holding open a door. The wrecks of several Machines that had apparently been lurking on the other side lie smoking in the sand. "Have fun. Be back in an hour because I'm bored shitless so I'm not gonna wait to start building a new one. If you need me, use the shortwave radio and ask for Jackass. That's my name."
Mei Hatsume	Mei watches the Android curiously as she keeps working with those parts, observing her technique and how those parts go together all while listening to her speak. Mental note: See if she's willing to have some help later. Between this Android and the Quartermaster, Mei just might be able to come up with something new soon! Maybe. "Doll? Hmm.. There really are all sorts of androids, huh? That's not surprising, though..." The inventor puts a hand on her chin, tilting sideways slightly to get a better look at that strange gun. "I remember reading about that. Even lush grasslands can become deserts if... Well, if all sorts of things happen to them. Winds can pick up, and... Well, /permanent/ winds, though? That's not something she recalls reading about ever. Mei goes wide-eyed at the sudden EXPLOSION of wall, slowly breaking into a wide grin before starting to move towards the hole. "Will do! Don't worry, we'll be back early, and then... Maybe we can work out a little gadget trade, hm~?" She pauses briefly to turn around and give the Android a big thumbs-up, then takes all of two steps before turning around again. "... Jackass?"
Kyoko Takada	"Jackass, got it." Alpha-39 says, without a hint of condemnation, as she pulls up the hood of her camo cloak against the sudden change of weather. Clear skies, hot debris. She starts walking, pausing only briefly to take a new look at the supply of fish. "Androids eat that?" she says, more talking to herself than expecting an answer, and not willing to wait for the last piece to fall to discuss machine digestion. She does pause, on the other hand, to pick up the most interesting-looking piece from the fresh wrecks beyond the absent wreck of a wall, one gloved hand tossing it into a strapped-down loot sack as she then resumes the silent hurry onward. There's time afterward to give Mei an answer, or at least part of one. "Flatter the place, windier it gets. Should have looked at landmasses that time from orbit. Might've seen some mountains missing. Or seen new ones." Not that this bit of info would usually be important on any Earth, sans apocalypse.
Iria	Iria simply sneers but says little else as the Android begins to speak. Whether or not they're actually weirdos is irrelevant right now, as there's a job to be done and Iria wants to get it done as quickly as possible. Although the comment about ice queen fashion does get a slight smirk from Iria, but there's little else in terms of reaction from the bounty hunter. Then the Android takes out a remote and then there's the sound of a car alarm activating or something like that. Of course, that sound seems kind of trivial compared to the loud explosion that occurs, causing Iria to twist sideways in response, before looking forwards again and seeing that the way through is apparently open. "Jackass, huh?" Iria asks without cracking the slightest hint of a smile. "Fine, I'll remember that. Now let's move out!" With that, Iria takes off with the others.
All-Seeing Eye	Eye chuckles with evident flatness at the Android's response--not amused in the slightest, but clearly trying to keep himself from a snide rebuttal. "I wonder why," he says with exaggerated curiosity, in response to her claim that no one comes through. When the Android opens the way, he raises his eyebrows. The interest fades when the aftermath results in a brief shower of detritus. With a put-upon sigh, he brushes it from his shoulders and his hair. "Interesting name," he says with a smirk. "I believe it's the name of a beast of burden on most Earths. Usually inbred, I'm told." The Alchemical places a finger upon his lips and adopts a 'thoughtful' expression, before edging past her and walking through the entrance. "Ta~" Once inside, he analyzes the soil for any disturbances which might bear investigation. Granted, if the winds carved this place out he imagines there's little chance any such disturbances would last past a few months... but any good investigator needs to be thorough.
Krusty	Well, at least they've confirmed that the agent came this way... A while ago. Krusty agrees that if it's been this long, it's extremely unlikely that the person they are looking for is alive anymore. Although it makes him wonder why it took this long to get a search team going. Oh well, not his problem. Krusty can hazard a guess to what's coming as the resistance member activates the remote. And sure enough, he shields his face with his arm as the gate explodes. As bits of debris rain down on them, Krusty looks amused, "Well, that's one way to do it." Krusty listens as the resistance member gives them a time limit. To which he responds, "You might want to wait, or we're likely to blow up your new one on our way back." With that said, he begins to move with the others through the new opening. His only response to the resistance member's parting words is, "Makes sense."
Ezekiel Gravez	The cyberdeck comes alive with emergency messages a split second after the remote arms. There is very little time to react to the outward explosion. Sand, dirt, hot wind, and assorted charred shrapnel bits collide into a hexagonal emergency shield. The words DANGER DANGER flash out along a marquee of very advanced mathematical sequences that lasts a fraction of a second. A shimmering azure blue field made of interlocking hexagonal disks grow out of thin air. The cyberdeck reacted more quickly than Zeke had, which resulted in him practically choking on his mouthful of water as he bolted into a stand. The bits and bobs that were blasted towards him collided with the field, which caused any disk hit to pulse with a visible glow - deflecting any damage that it may have caused. It wasn't a harmful explosion, but the lack of warning didn't quite make it harmless either. His next reaction was nearly to draw The Patriot and begin combat mode, but a second was enough to notice the reaction of the group seemed far less twitchy than his own. His gun hand met leather, and his thumb was on the hammer, but he stopped short of actual pulling The Patriot from its cradle. He took a deep breath, trying to spend the next moment to will his heart to slow down. He shook his head. "Thanks, Jackass..." Were the only words he could muster. Zeke waited for the rest of the group to enter, before falling in behind them in a guard position. Despite feeling somewhat familiar in some ways, there were definitely no shortage of surprises.
Starbound Flotilla	"Floran likesss thisss new friend." Biteblade concludes in a definitive tone, before attempting to hug Jackass. So weird. "Floran will be back! Wanna help rebuild! Floran thinksss: Decorate with machine headsss on ssspike, /then/ electrify ssspike!" She seems to be very cheerful about having met this person, and then heads off a short distance and sets off her beacon. The rest of the Flotilla set off their own in turn, and pop a series of personal hoverbikes here... As well as an odd little religiously Pavo-branded vending station where it's possible to rent a hoverbike from the teleporter in orbit. Really, Pavo? Well, the Flotilla, at least, sets off, intending to move at a modest, steady speed into the desert, looking for landmarks or other visual spots of potential interest where a YoRHa liason might have been drawn all those weeks ago.
Batou	Batou didn't think he could scowl more, but it turns out that he could! Very much so. "Grunts being bored of gruntwork. Who would've thought," But he does enjoy the self-lambasting(not that he'd let on). "Well at least your name is spot on. I'll be /sure/ to radio you, if I need help getting covered in sand or something. Nice gun by the way~." And with that Batou steps forward into the giant hole in the wall with Tachikoma nearby, it emoting all the way into the darkness. Batou makes short work of activating his camo as he enters, sidearm at the ready. No need to be clumsy, even though there's been a massive explosion.
A2	"Yeah. All sorts." Jackass says in total deadpan to Mei. "If you've got something interesting, maybe. Most of what I do is explosives. You wouldn't believe how much stuff out here blows up if you wire it up right. Call me up if you need a big boom." She looks to A-39 with a tiny bit of interest as she comments on the fish. "No, but I'm looking for volunteers." The way she delivers it, with the kind of grin that should absolutely be illegal, explains even less than the answer. She shrugs at Krusty, in a slightly better mood. "Don't care. That just means I get to blow something up twice in one day." She holds both her arms up and vaguely out of Biteblade's reach, but awkwardly pats her on the head when being hugged. "Bring me back some nice ones." she says. A total non-response to goading relating to donkeys is quite plausibly because she has no idea what the fuck a donkey is (or inbreeding for that matter), but she seems to be perfectly aware of the vulgar connotation of the word anyways, if not even proud of it when Batou moves on. It definitely seems like the kind of name she appropriated for herself, rather than being given. Who knows how names work here. All the YoRHa types just have model numbers, and the Resistance seem to have a flower motif going on. Beyond the tight passage, where the winding channel in the sandstone opens up into the blinding flash of open sun reflecting off golden-white sand, a better idea of the strange spot-desert can be gained. The 'rock formation' extends from both sides around them, curving off into the horizon to the east and west in a near-symmetrically curved fashion, like an extremely small and localized mountain range, roughly circular in proportion. The ground ahead gradually descends on a shallow gradient, and seems to do so from all sides, giving the feeling of constantly walking just slightly downhill, as if the entire place were bowl-shaped. Despite being filled with massive dunes of sand, there's clearly no space where wind should be blowing to carry it in, nor any terrain formations that should suggest desertification. It's definitely hot --baking even-- but it's an artifact of the heat released from the sandy ground more than anything. A circular patch of desert somewhat smaller than Manhattan island, right by the coast, deep in the dense heart of an overgrown ruined city. Hm.
A2	Getting a close look at it, the sand appears to be only half the normal kind of silicates, and made up of a great deal of sand-grain-sized ceramic beads or pulverized concrete, endlessly blown around in this dust bowl and mixed with a fine degree of rust. It makes it very dense, and annoyingly slippery to walk on, meaning that even just jogging down the side of a slope is begging to turn into a downhill surf. It doesn't retain footprints very well to say the least, though near the edge, it doesn't look like any wind has stirred it in quite a long time. There's no obvious sign of the storm Jackass had been talking about. On the outermost edges, close to the mini-mountains, the place is still full of the same crumbling husks of buildings that had been claimed by nature just beyond, though these are in more advanced disrepair, frequently tilted or crashed off their foundations, and buried in sand. Most of them have their south-facing walls caved in, or metal supports completely wilted through, and are totally exposed to the elements, like they'd blown over. Some sections of street are left, but they jut sharply into the air like broken bones, and pieces of road are scattered like jigsaw puzzle pieces whenever they're found. Hoverbikes make the going tremendously easier. Even the hard ground is difficult to walk on, and there's the ever-present risk of tripping on the odd chunk of rubble or uprooted pipe. Anything made of conventional iron or cement is long gone, which means these hazards are annoyingly sturdy. Stalking through these ruins, no signs of immediate activity greet anyone, save signs of past salvage. The odd footprints can be found, and the odd signs of combat, but they're all very old. Most obviously belong to Machine Lifeforms, while some are 'human' prints or similarly discarded batteries or fire starting supplies, but they're much older than the person they're looking for. Eventually, any member of the group going far enough forward will reach the periphery of what is starting to look more and more like some sort of office or apartment complex to rival Shanghai, and gaze upon the vast, near-unbroken plane of scorching sand rolling out ahead of them, where the natural depression significantly deepens. Off in /that/ direction, the ruins are fewer, more recent, and much different. No sign of advanced human habitation exists in any form. Instead, arches of stone and pillars of crumbling granite dot the landscape here and there, as if carved by a more ancient society, but probably hundreds of years later. Those grounds are littered with archaic junk, save an old vending machine hilariously out of place in the mix. Nobody gets points for guessing why it's there. The boundary between the old-new and new-old cities is host to more recent, and much more severe damage, from what look to be heavy impacts and energy weapons, having blown out large chunks of standing buildings and left huge tracks and glassed patches in the sands. Large Machines, or military vehicles, may have been involved, judging by the size of the craters to be found, though they must have been thoroughly salvaged due to the near-absence of scrap. Red blood has soaked into and stained some of the sands surrounding various impact points, which could obviously only have come from Android pilots, though any survivors or corpses have been picked up a while ago. One trail appears to have gone a little ways into the dunes and disappeared. Another back into the complex, deeper into a cluster of more intact buildings.
All-Seeing Eye	Golden eyes narrow as they survey the makeup of the soil. "Interesting," notes All-Seeing Eye. Half-dictating (as if for posterity), half-addressing his allies, he shares his findings. "The soil makeup is partially synthetic. This, taken with the location, shape, and gradual decline of the desert..." He gestures towards the 'center' of the desert with a hand motion. "...suggest an explosion of immense power. Note also the arrangement of detritus around the 'epicenter.'" Another motion, this one circular, referring to the buildings and the jagged streets rising from the sand. His first thought is to search the perimeter, in the hopes that I30 might have simply been trapped inside after Jackass put up her wall. When that proves fruitless, he summons his own hoverbike and heads for the alternative: the 'caves' that Jackass had mentioned. His best guess as to their location would be somewhere near the bottom point of the gradual decline. He could, of course, radio and ask... but he won't. His flight takes him to the complex, and he has his choice of two paths. His eyes zoom in, then actually pierce the sand. Looking first at the cluster of buildings, he aims to see if the caves Jackass mentioned are there. If not, he'll move closer to the dunes and try to scan them for the same thing.
Ezekiel Gravez	Having not much in terms of intel on this planet, he casually entered ready mode hoping things wouldn't get out of hand too quickly but if they did... "Pete, this is Zeke" He called into his comm channel, "I'm leaving my remote beacon open. I've travelled a bit from the dropoff and were into the arid zone on the planetmap south of your location. I need you to take the Hauler and get closer, to less than twenty clicks from my signal. I am not hopin fer trouble, but if'n it comes I wanna be able to have a rapid dust-off as quickly as possible." Smoky Pete, the ships' AI automaton raised his bowler hat in response. "Coordinates are received and locked in Mr. Gravez. Shall I put the kettle on for you and your companions as well?" Zeke chuckled, reaffixing the mask. The muffled noise blocked out what might have passed for 'smartass' but he simply switched off holo. The meeting place to this A2 agent shouldn't be far now.
Iria	"Explosives, huh?" Iria comments without looking back. "Remind me to stay out of your way when you're in a bad mood!" Again no smile from Iria as she walks along. Apparently, Iria's really feeling sarcastic today and is not holding back on her one-liners. She stops to take a drink of water from her canteen as she sees the desert, which apparently makes her feel thirsty. Then again, it would most likely make a lot of people feel thirsty, wouldn't it? When the time comes for hoverbikes or whatever, Iria takes out her Deppandai and proceeds to go into hang glider mode, giving her more speed while she assumes a prone position in the air. "I hope Fujikuro managed to fix his," Iria thinks to herself. "Then again, poor Kei would probably make him feel like an amateur!" She chuckles a little before Bob pops up in AI form (as usual) and gives her the coordinates. "All right, let's get going!"
Mei Hatsume	Another mental note: Figure out what Jackass needs between now, finishing the job, and coming back. Explosives would be easy, but that's not really Mei's wheelhouse. Something to aid explosives, though... She'll figure it out later. For now, it's time to explore! Mei has a bit of trouble adjusting to the not-sand initialy, wobbling this way and that and even nearly sliding down a hill facefirst. It doesn't take long for her to show off another invention, however: Two wing-like devices pop out from the sides of her harness, and they release little blasts of air as she starts to move with much more balance and poise! Should anyone ask for some to help their descent, she's more than happy to oblige with a smaller set from her backpack. She makes sure to collect some of that ceramic sand as well, but her interest isn't truly piqued until they reach the recent battlefield. Freaking craters. Blood, too, strangely enough, and the trails have the inventor quirking her eyebrow. "I didn't think there'd be blood out here of all places... How strange. Can androids even bleed, or is that some sort of fake...?" She extends a rod from her harness to poke at some of the bloody sand and see if it sticks, then starts moving in the direction of the trail leading to the dunes.
Batou	The helpful (by direct orders, Batou guesses) Jackass allows them to pass into this... strange place, where time seems scewed... but that's only from his Earth's perspective. This place is torn apart so bad you can hardly tell what's worth looking at and what's just junk, though it seems others have tried to find the good stuff... Batou scans for any cold spots he can find among the complex first, hoping to find cold air from the underground cavern drifting into the hellish heat. He listens to Eye give his analysis, and nods quietly, while Tachikoma struggles over the destroyed city's "streets". Tachikoma is practically walking over the rubble at this point, until it finally gives up, jumping with Batou on top of it towards the declining sand, sighing to itself."You'd think they would've cleaned the place up a little bit..." Batou gives a chuckle. "I doubt it," he says, hopping off tachikoma and sliding down into dunes. "The people who would have lived here have been gone for... probably millenia. This is the best you're gonna get..."
Kyoko Takada	For various reasons, Alpha-39 continues trudging along on foot. She doesn't act like she's in any particular hurry, though she's keeping an ear to her comms and maintaining situational awareness. Ignoring any offering of mobility assistance implicit or explicit, she goes the slow way down, taking the additional time to "search" by sending the obvious comment and question back to Jackass. "This place looks like shit. Seen any battles recently?" Okay, two questions, at least one of which was obvious. "And where's that cave entrance?" She's putting aside both the weirdness of androids bleeding, which is less new to her, and androids needing campfires, which is as new as the fish bit.
Krusty	Krusty shields his eyes at the sight of the bright sands. This could take a while... As the others use whatever vehicles they have to speed up the search, Krusty follows suit. Though he has no vehicle to speak of, instead pulling out a small object from beneath his tunic. Blowing into it reveals it to be a whistle, judging by the high-pitched sound it makes. And after several seconds the whistle is answered by a bird-cry in the distance. From seemingly nowhere, a creature dives out of the sky, large wings flapping as it quickly approaches the rocky ground that Krusty stands on. After hover for a few moments it drops the rest of the way to the ground. The griffin folds its wings up, leaning its head into Krusty's hand as he moves to pet the creature. After greeting his trusty flying mount, Krusty climbs up onto the saddle and takes hold of the reins. Within moments he's soaring along above the sand dunes, beginning to make the rounds as he searches for any signs of the missing agent, clues as to her possible path through this annoying landscape, or a possible location on the cave that has been mentioned.
Starbound Flotilla	"There is something deeply, fundamentally wrong with the hydrosphere here." "Not a great place to start my water park franchise, that's for sure." "No, no. Wrong on a global scale. Something's wrong with how it's /made/." "Hmmm. Or formed? Floran doesssn't think made, but maybe reshaped?" "Hmph. Complicates global war tactics. Nothing else too relevant." "Anxious. It makes me worried for how humans will live when they return..." Time to head into some ruins! The third and final specialty of the Flotilla will always be dungeon-dives, and ancient, decaying structures, however mundane, tend to transmogrify into dungeons over time. They're still looking for that stuff Anemone needed on the way, and that's a likely site of machine lifeforms. Or an unlikely one? Honestly, they haven't seen any out in the open, so the assumption is that they must be taking shelter most of the time... Right? Maybe to prevent weather damage? The blood trail is regarded but ignored by... Most. Not Seft, of course, she doesn't like seeing any sites of battle, but the Flotilla for the most part is focused on just getting deep into the site and seeing what's in the middle of those buildings.
A2	Aforementioned cave system isn't difficult to find under the sand with advanced sensor equipment. There's a /good/ chunk of sand and old infrastructure deeper down between it and the surface, but good survey hardware can start tracing out the rather extensive network beneath one's feet, mostly comprised of thin, winding corridors spiderwebbed between isolated chambers, like cracks on a windshield. The main issue is finding where to /enter/ them, considering their extensive breadth and how much digging it'd be to go bore straight into one, never mind what chunks of old city might be wedged between the sandstone and sand itself. The blood remains sticky when Mei pokes it, which is as good an indication as any that it's convincingly artificial, rather than the genuine article having oxidized. For the older Androids, ostensibly built to mingle in ancient human society, that could make sense, but why someone would go through so much trouble for military models that don't even get names is perhaps something to consider. From the air (or from really high up in the sky with adequate sensors), there is a more workable map of the area. The archway and vending machine seem to sit close enough to the center of the bowl, where everything else is completely leveled. Stone ruins begin cropping up close to it, but well inside of the area that the futuristic buildings have disappeared, and especially cluster up to the east. The apartment complex seems to ring the north walls of the rock formation, and bear telltale signs of former highways and parks. The trail leading back in especially leads to the rusted remains of what appears to have been a playground, before meandering down a slope and under a toppled skyscraper. The west is mostly blank, save for an odd cluster of giant, spherical formations that don't seem to be especially interesting. The far south side of the central desert are, just according to Jackass' description, hidden behind what appears to be less a storm and more a gigantic twister of sand --a dark, howling tower of whirling sand and wind that remains perfectly static, extending quite a ways up, as if a storm cloud had sat itself down on the ground. There are signs of movement and aberrant heat all over the place, indicating a great number of mechanical entities patrolling in large packs, but they're so scattered it may as well be called 'wandering around', and they pose no threat at the moment. There is no sign of any Machine stronghold or infrastructure, at least none currently intact. The second blood trail that leads out to the dunes quickly dries up, leaving would be trackers going forward somewhat blind. It vaguely points them in the direction of the out of place archway and associated vending machine, which probably makes sense, given that the machines are (poorly, in this instance) camouflaged infrastructure used by YoRHa for . . . something. There had been one in the city ruins at least. One ostensibly used by the same Android they're tracking now
A2	A-39 radios Jackass as she gets walking, and after a really annoyingly long pause, gets the right voice on the other end, though sounding less bored (and hard to hear over the sounds of welding). "Huh? Every so often a salvage or recon team goes in there just to make sure nothing's up, but the Machine base that used to be underground was busted up by YoRHa a couple of years back, so it's just skirmishes most of the time. Don't get me wrong, too many of the clanky bastards survived that operation and haven't left since. There's probably thousands crawling around down there, though they like to hide underground most of the time. We decided it wasn't worth the cost of trying to exterminate all those troops for no real tactical advantage, so we walled it up." A bunch of crackling and clanking goes on for a few more seconds. "Oh right. YoRHa went back there a couple of months ago. Never said why. Orbital descent operation even, didn't come to us. Don't know what the hell happened, but I didnt see any of the flight units take off again. Hell of a lot of noise too. I'm guessing they tracked down a Goliath there and blew it up, but lost all their guys doing it. They haven't gone back at least, so it's probably safe. I guess." "If you're crazy enough to want to go underground, there's an entrance in a part of the complex to the north that caved in through the ground. There's another on the east edge where there's this huge-ass cliff, exposed in the wall. One more in those ruins out in the middle, little to the west." Going by those directions, the way the group is currently headed is roughly aligned to the third path at the moment. Those that stop to pay any mind to the vending machine set up under the arch of what looks to be a broken chunk of stairs will indeed find footprints in the shade, sheltered from the wind, but the technological barrier that had protected the previous one fails to appear at their arrival. It looks severely damaged, though even an idiot can tell that it's been torn open with a bladed weapon rather than crushed or shot, and quite thoroughly at that. It seems whoever they're tracking stopped here and then moved on to the ruins. It also isn't the same person as whoever was bleeding --that trail stopped a while ago. Their predecessor might very well have scoped out the same trail and been unable to send a report when they found this machinery broken. Going from there to the closest cave entrance, those looking for it find themselves looking at an archaic sandstone ziggurat now halfway buried into a giant dune, surrounded by splintering pillars, and exposing a deep, dark set of stairs that plunge far underground. It's so picture perfect to some dramatic scene of an ancient, abandoned temple that it almost seems fake, though it's hardly inconceivable that some primitive civilization could have briefly flourished here after whatever apocalypse had claimed it. Anyone going down will find that it is seemingly bereft of any fitting traps, as well as any kind of loot. The only things of note in the bare corridors of red granite are places where salvaged metal has been worked into basic amenities like doors, sconces, tables, pull-chains, and similar, at a sub-medieval level. It continues on like that, the most boring dungeon in the world, until they arrive at an intersection with lit torches on the walls. Perfectly ordinary torches means they've been lit some time in the past 24 hours.
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 continues trudging. There's not a lot for her to do without significantly higher mobility and the will to check out any of those weird, somewhat distant landmarks, so she doesn't. "Relaying coordinates" could have been a good idea, but they're already heading toward one of them, and she's unhelpfully decided against sharing anything else Jackass told her until she thinks it's both relevant and personally advantageous. As such, she is most likely among the last to arrive at the torches, quietly pulling up, looking up at this sign of recent habitation, and pulling her mask into place with its IR feed activated. Submachine gun raised, she begins stalking the path of greatest visible energy.
Krusty	Krusty's search from the sky doesn't give him many opportunities to examine the finer details those on the ground might have. But it does give him a decent view, including one shows some kind of temple in the distance. Pulling on the reins he brings his griffin around to head in that direction. Krusty brings his mount down towards the edge of the half burried ziggurat, its large wings briefly kicking up a cloud of sand before it settles down on the ground just short of the structure. Krusty jumps down from the creature, patting its body for a moment as he says, "Stay here." He then proceeds to enter the ziggurat, starting his descent into the depths. Meanwhile the griffin takes its orders a little loosely, following so far as the entrance. It then lies down and closes its eyes to get some rest in the nice shade. Krusty cautiously makes his way through the underground, eying the makeshift furniture. It seems someone was, or still is, using this place as a shelter or the like. Though it seems they aren't home right now. As he comes across the torches, he notices their state. Recent use is an interesting sign, as he wouldn't expect the machines would require use of such a tool. Krusty raises a hand to his ear as he reports over the channel, "We may have something here. Signs of recent activity."
All-Seeing Eye	For a time, All-Seeing Eye tries to find the entrance to the caverns by simply following the winding paths they cut through the rock beneath him. This proves to be a Gordian knot before long, taking him away from the rest of the group. He pauses in his efforts to surveil a gaggle of Elites heading in roughly the same direction. When Krusty reports signs of activity, Eye chimes in on the local frequency with a hint of annoyance. "I can confirm the presence of caverns, but they're too numerous to trace back to an entrance. Regrouping." His finger leaves his temple, and he tromps his way through the slippery sand to rejoin the group. It takes him a little bit to get back, and when he enters the dimly-lit 'dungeon' his cybernetic hearing begins listening to the sounds around him. While A-39 searches the infrared spectrum, he begins cataloguing and filtering out the passive sounds of the Elites nearby: heartbeats, breathing, personal effects, and so on. As he slowly filters out these sounds, all that's left is the crackling of the lit torches--and whatever might be in the dungeon with them, with any luck. Just to provoke whoever might be hiding into making some sort of move that might reveal them, Eye kneels, picks up a bit of rubble, and tosses it down the lit hallway, sending it bouncing off of the walls.
Ezekiel Gravez	Zeke removes a glove and runs his fingers across the ancient sandstone. It's nearly comical, considering the types of environments that were once in place. Whatever apocalypse happened here, it didn't happen all at once. There seems to be these landscapes like scenes floating in time, bereft of most of their context. There was so much evidence of battle but the meaning hasn't really caught on yet. The only one they could get as much information from would be from this Agent A2, and yet still not much sign of them - and once more.. apparently witness reports she or it or they (whichever the case may be) points to the fact they do not speak much. As an unknown factor, Zeke wasn't even sure if they were already on its radar. This android in female form could be damaged or malfunctioning, making things all that tougher. What did they really know about it? In reality, only what we were told. And what did that mean? All-Seeing Eye seemed to be the strongest investigator of the group, simply by studying. Most of the probing questions he posed with the strongest of presences, regardless of the space he found himself in. He looked over to him, and sees him picking up a portion of stone. The sound of the stone hitting the wall sent out vibrations. He speaks to his subvocals to the cyberdeck, "Track this event" and he opened up the scanner. Mathematical sequences sprawl across the screen, playing out energy patterns in the air and the surrounding structure. He mutters a few more directions under his breath and the scanning starts to track all manners of sonic pinging. The vibrations record all the superstructure, and all anomalies are present, which may include.. tadaaaaaaa!!! maybe A2 as well. Better living through technological extrapolation.
Iria	Iria opts for the same method that All-Seeing Eye is using. Somehow she has a hunter's instinct that tells her to go this way. She follows along and makes her way to the dungeon as well. She frowns a little as she lands. "I think we're onto something," Iria says as she draws her pistol and loads a clip into it. "Are we gonna go in?" She scowls as she watches Eye toss a piece of rubble down the hallway...
Batou	Batou lets Eye do the hard work of walking down the caverns, but decides against going in himself. Tachikoma might get stuck, and that's no good. But, he is interested in the blood spatter on the ground, curious as Mei is. "Hey is that blood still sticky? If it is, then it ain't human, not with this kind of dryness and heat." Batou aims his sidearm down the same hallway Eye tosses a rock, his thermals scanning. "Eye, if there's something unfriendly down there, you get first dibs for throwing the rock."
Starbound Flotilla	"Concerned. ...Why have they been making torches?" "To /see/, dumb toaster." "No, she's astute. Archaic behaviors." "Is it truly an atavistic behavior if they were never savage?" "So this might be whatever the YoRHa liason was interested in? Kinda mundane." "Isss why would be interesssted. Thingsss going on here that aren't fighting. Sssome kind of building. But not... Normal for how drone weaponsss work. Go deeper. Find more!" Yeah, this is a weird situation, but it's something the Flotilla can at least work with. Structures have a purpose. And while the structure itself is weird, at the very least it implies that there's a weird purpose, and so, they move further in, following A-39 at almost random since she's using more effective IR equipment than they are. The lack of machine lifeforms is almost concerning in a way. If this structure isn't for androids and isn't for machine lifeforms, what is it for? The aliens? Surviving humans? Some mysterious third party? They're just going to assume that the machines will surely be found even deeper into the place.
Mei Hatsume	After poking and prodding at the blood some more, Mei retracts the pole enough to get a closer look at the substance. It's not quite blood, but it's a close enough approximation that it just makes things more confusing. "Pretty sticky! Definitely not dried out, so either this is fresh, or it's not all the way done yet." Why would they go through the hassle of making fake blood only to stop before making it truly convincing? Something else to ask the androids themselves, perhaps. Following the clues left behind, the inventor takes particular notice of the barrier-free vending machine and the cutting damage. "Oh, we can check that one out later, maybe. Maybe figure out what makes these tick..." Once the group reaches the dungeon itself and finds itself at the intersection, Mei turns her attention to the hallways themselves rather than the torches. She glances down each of them and looks as far as she can with her enhanced vision, trying to scope out potential threats in a straight line from the intersection!
A2	With everyone crowded down the same steps and around the same intersection, there isn't much that can be missed. Though the place certainly doesn't look even remotely furnished to human specifications, it's easily old enough that such things could have crumbled to dust. Though it would logically also be sized for Androids, it's dramatically less useful and more overly built, as well as having no portability or aerial access. For Machines, it clearly possesses no useful faculties whatsoever and is sized only for the smallest humanoid models, and even then there's no way they'd need torches or tables or anything of the sort, never mind a place to avoid the desert sun. That's exactly what Ezekiel's deck tells him is around the corner, though. Two dozen of them. The smaller, spindlier types of humanoid shapes, neither the hulking eight foot tall models, nor the stubby three foot hoppers. They're arranged haphazardly in a much larger room, but in little pods, and remain roughly static in small groups throughout. They seem to be clustered around as much of that lasting metal 'furniture' as could be dragged in. A humanoid figure can be picked out at the far end, but shows no energy signs. Even without advanced mapping, the distant echoing of stomping and pounding carries down the corridors for those who strain their ears. All-Seeing Eye especially can hear what A-39 hears as she creeps closer. The noise is almost like that of a workshop, save the sheer amount of mechanical whirring and clattering of old joints and pistons propelling the workers around the place. Hammers on metal, saws on stone, scribbling on hard surfaces. Approaching the last corner, she even finds it extremely brightly lit, flush with so many torches that it's basically like being inside a modern lab. In addition to the sounds of incredibly archaic work, a chorus of tinny, poor-quality voices, completely without tone or inflection and possessed of a grainy echo, rises and falls repetitively alongside the 'work'. She has to actually peek around the corner to see why. The Machines that Ezekiel reads are there, but not like the coordinated and murderous ones, nor the broken and aimless ones they'd met previously. They have the same, near-cartoonishly simple, mass-produced and heavily armoured shells, but in addition to that, they've gathered up scraps of cloth and wood, and bits of chalk and metal links, and bizarrely dressed themselves in deranged approximations of cloaks, masks, and jewelery. Despite many of them having advanced equipment integrated into chassis, they're wielding plain hammers, rulers, chalk pens, and other implements of primitive construction and measurement.
A2	It briefly looks as if they're constructing something in some incredibly outdated fashion, but on closer inspection, teams of Machines are just standing around empty tables, beating their hammers on the flat surface, and chanting "BUILD. BUILD. BUILD." Another is scribbling meaningless chalk designs on a wall, similarly droning "DRAW. DRAW. DRAW". A team is chucking ingots of scrap metal into a fire, retrieving them when they're molten, then dropping them on the floor and throwing them back in when they're cold again, repetitively intoning "FORGE. FORGE. FORGE." The rest are carrying bundles of chiseled stone in circles around the room, placing them down and then picking them back up when they come back to them a second time. "WORK. WORK. WORK." All of them have the amber 'standby' eyes the disconnected Machines out in the ruins had, but their meaningless fake-labour seems to be centered around the Android corpse at the far end of the room. Specifically, the holographic map still being projected from its communication unit, displaying blueprints of the zigurrat they're currently in. The Android was almost definitely reading the map when they were killed, since the currently zoomed section corresponds to exactly where they are. The body has been badly mangled and worn away --apparently most of the metal lumps being thrown in and out of a fire were originally functional parts. All that's left now is a greyish mockup of a female body, effectively the serial-stamped Android equivalent of a skeleton, creepy noseless/lipless grimace and all. For Batou at least, it's really not dissimilar to cyborg bodies just starting on the production line. Obviously there's still some power in 13O's equipment if the map is still projecting, and since the basic frame itself hasn't been destroyed, the internal memory unit is probably still intact. When All-Seeing Eye chucks a rock down the hall, one of the 'porter' Machines stops to take a look at it with its glowing yellow eyes peering through its wooden mask, and then picks it up and begins ferrying it around the 'workshop'.
All-Seeing Eye	The chorus of voices ringing down the hall is... oddly familiar, for All-Seeing Eye. "Noted," he says over the radio. Not that he has to--Zeke is likely within 'hushed whisper' distance. He approaches the sounds, edging past others on his way, and turns the corner, having already seen the grisly sight thanks to his Mass-Penetrating Scan. Eye steps through the portal as if he belongs there, standing straight up. The sleeve of his synthweave shirt bulges with the hard, angular shape of a weapon being activated--but hopefully, he won't need it. Standing amidst the automatons like a foreman, he beckons to the robot carrying the small pebble he tossed down the hallway. With a slight frown and a tone that seeks to brook no argument, he gives an order. "Come." A warm, taupe brown finger points downwards, to a spot only a foot or so before him. He gives the automaton five seconds to comply. Whether it does or not, a sleek, dark metal spike is soon inserted forcefully into its chassis. The Exalt searches the drone's internal memory for a record of who killed 13O, and who gave the orders that are so robotically being repeated and carried out seemingly ad infinitum.
Starbound Flotilla	Pavo is the one who moves forward as fast as she can out of the Flotilla swarm. Crafting. She KNOWS crafting. "BUILD. BUILD. BUILD." She insists, joining one at its table. With her highly advanced tools stored away in her Matter Manipulator, she begins to craft heavy pieces of Avian-styled furniture... Including several altars. PROMINENTLY mostly altars. "DRAW. DRAW. DRAW." She joins in the drawing, making elaborate and incredibly religious-looking imagery on the walls, extensive and entirely functional drawings of large bird-shaped religious idols that double as huge power-generation centres. "FORGE. FORGE. FORGE." She joins in the forging, grabbing up a heavy iron ingot and forging it far more swiftly than ought to be safe into a stylish, religious-looking blade, jagged but soon etched with complicated, artistic imagery displaying Pavo amid the robots. "WORK. WORK. WORK." She takes up a chiseled stone and begins carving it in her mesoamerican style into a winged icon of herself, surrounded by a heavy stone halo covered in stylized depictions of her slaying strange beings. She continues. She is trying to grab the cycle they're in, to create input that will not be disregarded, to provide something to what she perceives as a... Need, of sorts. "I AM PAVO, GOD OF THOSE WHO BUILD, GOD OF THOSE WHO DRAW, GOD OF THOSE WHO FORGE, GOD OF THOSE WHO WORK. I AM SHE WHO HAS BUILT DIVINITY BY HER OWN HAND. I BUILD THE MOUNTAINS OF THE DIVINE. I DRAW THE DESIGNS OF HEAVEN. I FORGE THE WEAPONS THAT SMITE. I WORK THE MIRACLES OF GODS." She calls out to them, trying to inject... What one might think of as a /hostile process/ into their actions? Something meant to almost take over their efforts? With her own work seeming like an 'incentive', she hopes that her words can inser themselves into their actions almost like a side-loaded piece of code slipped in through unsanitized input. "Disgusted. Not this again." "God damn you, get the hell in here and help me." "Disgusted. Help you abuse mentally deficient robots--" "It's cool, Seft. I hope this works, because I've already got optimism." "We certainly could not brook backing out now. Perhaps it will open options." "Mmh. It could be interesting. Unutilized power..." "Floran wanna make sssmall toy robot prey friendsss, sssure!" "Reluctant. ...If we get them to make the supplies Anemone needs first." "Let's see if we can make them do anything at all first." If this works, the Flotilla will get to work on trying to... Repurpose what's going on down here, and get some shifting done to these behaviors. They are, after all, powerful experts on this topic.
A2	For some reason or another, the Machine that All-Seeing Eye gestures to blithely acquiesces to his order, waddling over to the exact point he beckons to and precisely putting the pebble in that spot, as if laying the founding block for a building. The spike goes through a seam in its ancient, patina'd chassis, and makes some sort of connection with an internal intelligence, though it may very well be the most bizarre experience the Soulsteel Alchemical has ever had with that particular tool. Rather than having the Machine Lifeform's thoughts, or what passes for them, laid out before him to brows and sift through, he experiences a complete stop in objective time and the vivid sensation of being transported somewhere else. At first it seems like it might be dangerous, as if he'd been 'sucked into' the Machine, but he doesn't lose any kind of connection with his body. It's the feeling that his awareness has, rather than tapped into code, brain signals, or more ephemeral thought patterns, invaded some isolated space with its own subjective time. It's not much of one though. So simple, crude, and 'cost-efficient' as this model is, he finds himself nowhere more impressive than standing atop a floating cube of nondescript beige matter over a surreal, equally beige void. An orb of nondescript black material hovers motionlessly at the floor's exact geometric center. Faintly glowing square panels exist on the corners of the cube, which 'active', or more likely synchronize, at his approach. One merely gets him the audio/visual feed of the world outside, projected around him panoramically. One only gets him a monolith of meaningless serial numbers and logged contacts and disconnects with other meaningless numbered nodes and serials. One opens up what could be described as a window, but all it does is flash at him GIANT RED LETTERS in some bizarre, unreadable script composed entirely of lines joining constellations of dots. The last gets him what should probably be some kind of archive, since it summons a 'shelf' of 'books' that are compressed panes of film frames and text, but all of it is extremely badly corrupted, with the only readable files being a few clips of a factory interior, and extensive reference to the holographic map. Data as old as thirty seconds ago seems to be deleting itself. The eerie part is that while he searches, he can hear the same garbage, tinny voice inside of this space as well, echoing from some distant, all-encompassing location, somehow separated from the actual software he's browsing, aware of the software it surrounds, but unable to be seen from within the framework of said software. The disembodied voice could be generously (if you're a Cartesian dualist into conspiracy theories) likened to an inner monologue, for its bare resemblance to a train of thought, but the creepy, monotone echo is completely limited to repeating the words: "CONNECTION LOST. ORDERS NOT UPDATED. CONTINUE CURRENT ORDERS. BUILD. WE BUILD. I BUILD. BUILD. BUILD UNTIL FURTHER ORDERS."
A2	Outside, Pavo manages to merge straight into the crowd. The Machines that Krusty had encountered before acquired him as a target and attacked when he approached, switching to that red-eyed mode characteristic of the coordinated mob that nearly killed the last party at the abandoned factory. Here, they don't even do that. At least not to her, anyways. The stump machines shuffle aside as Pavo comes to their tables and their fires and their chalk-covered walls, chanting in unison, until she moves away from their station, where they immediately begin copying what it is that she just did, and then begin copying off of each other. Their disjointed repetition starts to blend together as a couple follow her to different stations, apparently breaking out of their individual, tiny, infinite loops, and joining a larger, more networked, equally bullshit loop. "BUILD. MOUNTAINS. FORGE. WEAPONS. DRAW. DIVINE." It's at this point that 'Eye is ejected from his weird little subspace soujourn, when his client Machine totters off to join the rest, now crudely smashing alloy slag from the dead Android into the angular approximation of a sword. Completely absorbed in their work, it becomes possible for anyone to move about the room basically undisturbed, so long as they don't bump into one of the broken robots (or accidentally have molten metal dripped on them). They don't even notice at this point if the projection is shut off, never mind whatever becomes of the Android body. They have their new blueprints.