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Phobos Planet Xuoth-VI is the sixth of six planets in the Xuoth sector, and not especially important to much of anyone. Population is low, low-tech, and dead average in every respect. The sector isn't near any resource of importance, either. It does, however, have a Warp Gate, by the greatest stroke of luck.

Located directly next to the largest settlement on the planet, a village by the name of Gladwell, it is guarded by two decaying human bodies, countless wires and cybernetics keeping them upright and at attention. They do not react to people passing through, besides giving a glance and then losing interest.

The village itself is surrounded by stone walls, and looks like it could easily fit a few thousand people in it. Not your usual, small village. Atop the ramparts of the wall and by the entrances are more of those cyborgs, ever at attention, and yet never reacting when you approach or prod, or even if you enter the village.

There's some infernal noise coming from underfoot. Maybe mining operations? It sounds like drilling and demolishing. There's no way the locals can rest with that kind of noise, that's for sure. But there's nothing that resembles a facility or entrance outside the village, so it must be inside.

There's no sign of whoever sent the request for help. Presumably, they aren't allowed to leave, either - and if it's really that bad, there's probably more than one grumpy villager inside the walls. You'll have to go in and figure out what's going on.
N'Raha     Never let it be said that N'raha doesn't know how to 'blend in' or 'be subtle'. he knows. He knows the concepts. He knows when to look like a proper Eorzean Knight and when not to be. Offworld nonsense like this? In the great Stellar Sea? It's not the time for looking like you just walked out of Ishgard.
    Actuall, scratch that, the Garlond Ironworks are in Ishgard now, aren't they?
    Okay, yes, he's looking like he just stepped out of Ishgard.

    There's a revvvvvvv of a cerulean engine, and a rumble of machinery as a sleek looking motorcycle eases out of the warp gate, carrying Raha and Inga. Raha, for his part, is clad in his finest Magitech Ironworks gear, all steel and leather and aether and fancy glowing stuff. The speaker on his helmet crackles. "I'm guessing we're not going to be the only ones to respond to this, my love. Be on your toes..."
Mairead Sandilands     A lone lady, standing at a height of 5'6" who has waist long red hair that reaches down to a foot below her butt. Her hair is lose and not braided or in a ponytail. She looks around with emerald green eyes as she walks and weights probably about one hundred and 50 pounds. Her nose is petite and eyes glow like they are full of life. As she exits the warp gate, upon heaing a request for assitance, she stops and looks aorund.

    Age wise, she appears to be about 18 years old and is wearing a school unifom. Thinking, she walks onward nodding to the guards as she approaches and is carring no weapons, although she has a few with here, except for a small weapon of sometype int he top of her left green legging. She looks onward, her eyes moving this way and that way as she listens tot he noise. She is not too worried as her sensors are giving her alot of information on the area, such as GPS, temp, compass direction and radar. She is ready for whatever is here, but so far, just hears that infernal noise and she is currently looking for someone to talk to and stops as she picks up a noise that was not here when she arrived, a motorcycle.

    Turning her head, she looks in the direction to see who or where it is coming from. Looking at the warp gate, she steps out of the way and is not a local person as she looks nothign like the residents here, especially with her attire.
Corona Arclite A Warp Gate into a mediocare sector of space was like a route through bland mountains: nothing to see but needed to get from one place to another for some reason. Which is exactly what Corona had been doing, taking a shortcut between gates through the sector on a completely different endeavor when her ship picked up the distress call. Better check that out. Such is the life of the space cowboy.

The Steamhammer Express made a detour to take orbit around X-VI and moments the shimmering red-orange beam of a teleporter deposited the fennec engineer on the surface outside the town the SOS had apparently come from... No reaction from the guardian cyborgs. Nothing for a walking talking fox woman? Very well then, moving on.

Despite the lack of response from the guards she still tips her hat as she passes. That's just being a polite guest and all.
Inga Freyjasdottir She'd had her radio on, listening for chatter or any alerts while she busied herself at home, and her hands still smell of the sage she'd been picking then tying up to dry from the rafters of her cottage in the woods. Indeed, she's arrived still wearing a plant-stained apron over her a long blue dress and white linen underdress, the sleeves drawn up to her elbows and a kercheif on her head, long white braid trailing down her back.

She looks like she stepped out of illustration in a children's book of fairy tales. A hedge witch, her carved wooden staff in hand, a belt around her waist from which hangs a leather pouch and a few bone talismans, a silver hammer on a chain around her neck.

It's incredibly incongruous to arrive on the motorcycle behind Raha, her arms around his waist holding perhaps more tightly than strictly necessary because this thing is far faster than she's used to traveling. "Yes, there are a few others who will answer the call," she says with the certainty of a Seer.

She dismounts the motorcycle with a hand from Raha and gathers her staff, limping toward the others that are arriving from the warpgate. She glances downward, frowning slightly. "What..." she murmurs, but shakes her head. They'll find out. Upon examining the guards, she sighs. "It's always something off-putting, isn't it? Could we just have a normal, non-creepy situation once in a while?" she sighs, then turns toward the others to greet them. She nods to Corona and Mairead. "Greetings, come to answer that message I assume. I'm Inga Freyjasdottir," she introduces.
Staren     Staren prefers not to 'blend in' or 'be subtle.' After arriving, he turns to the others with a smile, "Good to see you all again!"

    Despite someone just walking around in power armor, the undead cyborg guards ignore him. And there are no villagers in sight! So Staren just turns up his armor's speakers, like a megaphone.

    "ATTENTION, TOWNSFOLK. THIS IS STAREN WIREMU, HAND OF THE CONCORD. PLEASE COME FORTH AND EXPLAIN IN FURTHER DETAIL THE HELP YOU NEED. OR JUST RADIO ME."

    
Lezard Valeth There's a call for help. Lezard Valeth isn't one to normally answer such. Most people who request assistance tend to be too weak to be worth courting. But this specific universe happens to be something of interest to the Sorceror of Midgard.

    Also, he saw Staren running for the Gate like a bright-eyed bushy-tailed mad scientist. Again. And someone has to keep an eye on him after what happened. Despite his opinions on Staren, he's too valuable to just let get murdered casually.

    As such, it might not be surprising that a magical circle draws itself within the village in question, a flash of light within which manifests the slightly bored-looking Lezard as he appears with a small amount of fanfare. "It seems that even in this universe peasant villages continue to proliferate." He comments cynically behind Staren. "And yet there is obviously something unusual occurring beneath our feet. Mayhaps we should simply blast away the intervening ground and expose it?" Lezard, as always, being direct. Of course, who knows how people might react to seeing An Actual Sorceror walk into here with the general Opinions about magic that are prolific in this universe.
Phobos     There is ever a lack of response from the guards. They are, in fact, dead - those aren't people, and they're not "cybernetic warriors" exactly. These are corpses animated by sticking machine bits in them. Well. Animated. That's a strong word, considering they're not doing a whole lot of animating right now.

    As people cycle into the village one by one (or as a group), nothing of note happens. Villagers stick their heads out of their homes' windows and then hide again. Further, near the village square, a few villagers hurriedly carry groceries to their homes. Some of them have cybernetics. A leg or an arm. Crude, but clearly functional. The kind Staren might throw together if he didn't want to waste resources on someone but still needed to replace a missing limb for whatever reason.

    One villager finally braves the group - he has a cybernetic arm, himself.

    "Oh, thank god! Stop drawing attention to yourselves, come inside! And don't turn back, you'll be shot the moment you approach the gates out of the village. People can come in, just... not go out."

    He gestures towards a run-down pub. Looks like it's been burnt, but it's still most of a building. Once inside (if people follow), he closes the door behind the group, looks out the window, and then with a sigh, turns back to the group.

    "Sorry, sorry. There's a few of us who aren't happy with how things are. It started two days ago when the new apothecary arrived. It started with these limbs," he motions his cybernetic arm around. "We were grateful. And then... she emptied our graves and our morgues. Said we weren't allowed to leave for our own security. The guards shoot anyone who tries. Then that -noise- started. People've been going missing. Including her."
N'Raha     There's a grunt from Raha as he parks the bike, gently lifts Inga off and... well. Lesard and Staren get a /look/ before he follows after the helpless barman/citizen. What can he say? He's always been up for a quest. Such is his way, after all. But this...

    The catman's visor parts and he looks around to the others and then to the sevitors and... everything. "What sort of 'apothecary' are we talking about? A proper one, or..." He makes a sawing motion at his arm. "Or are we talking she gave you those and took your proper arms? How crazy are we getting at here?" His ears twitch in his helmet as he looks to Inga.
    Emptied out the graves. He doesn't even need to say that one to the Seer. It's in his eyes.

    Raha does not like necromancy.
Mairead Sandilands     Looking at those who come in from the warp gate, Mairead curtsy's to all of the."Aye, I am here to assist," she says with a Scottish accent. "Me name is Mairead Sandilands," she adds. Lookign as other arrive she blinks and is not amazed at the appearance of everyone. However, she dues turn as Staren speaks. "I think ye might have scared everyone or got whatever is going on here to show up..."

    "Does anyone have any idea what the name of this town is?" she asks those here. "I am not familiar with this place nor this location," she mentions as she appears to be one of the only ones here not geared for battle. However, she can be in a matter of seconds if it is needed. Plus, she does not know who these people are, so will wait to see what is going on here and where she can assist and who knows what this situation is. Although, she is happy to be in the field again. Since becoming an new instructor at the IS Academy where she was attending, is attending, its nice to do something else.

    As she waits, someone approaches, smiling she begins to speak before the lad speaks and ushers them into a building. "Oy, what is going on here? And what do ye mean we cannot leave?" she asks the lad and the others as this all happens. "And what is with that noise?" Mairead asks as she waits and sees what happens with everyone else.

    Mairead does go to the window and looks out of it and even opens the door to see what is going on outside, now that the situation has changed. Thinking, her cloths change with a shimmer as her outfit disappears and is replaced with a more perfect outfit. As the catman speaks and asks, she nods, "Aye, what is going on here?"
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite just... applies a palm to her face when Staren barges in and starts bellowing at the town itself. Mad scientists, go figure. And then Lezard has to go and only contribute to that situation.

... Not that she should really talk. But she's an ENGINEER, not a SCIENTIST there IS a difference that no one really cares to remember.

"Wailin' to the heavens like pyrote ain't gonna help, boy. Sometimes ya gotta go look for the answers." She's not going to disagree with Inga that it's a bit off putting, though to her its more the lack of reaction from anything than it being all stoic machine-men. That part isn't so weird feeling. Like I said, engineer. "That's no reason to blow it up 'fore findin' out what the act'al danger is." A pointed look is cast in the direction of Lezard and hopefully not Staren actually considering taking that advice.

Fortunately someone does step forward before they can, and leads the group into a fairly poor excuse for a saloon. Oh well. Corona still makes herself at home, opting to lean against a wall that still looks sturdy, one foot propped against the structure and crossing her arms. "Looks like as it started as the former and becomin' the latter," she drawls in response to N'Raha.
Staren     Staren makes a dismissive gesture at Lezard's suggestion. "We can at least give them a moment to show up... I do like your suggestion about just digging to the noise, though. ah, here they are now." He follows into the pub. "Alright, first thing's first, let's kill the guards so you can escape. Time after time I've had people refusing to leave shitty situations, so I'm all for /encouraging/ your good sense."

    He sends a couple of drones to fly out the town gate watching to see where the attack comes from. Unless drones don't count, and then he'll have to try something else.
Inga Freyjasdottir Inga groans when Staren arrives, though its a fond sort of groan. Right to it then. She suppose he doesn't waste any time. She is far less pleased to see that Lezard has come along and brought his superiority complex with him. That will be a treat to deal with, as always. She nods to him, but otherwise pays him no mind as they enter the village. She remembers the warning about no one being allowed to leave.

When the man shuffles them off into a pub, she is wary, but follows with the others to hear his story.

Inga sighs, pursing her lips in response to Raha's look. She doesn't have a problem with necromancy as a concept so much...only what people tend to do with it. "Mmmph. Sounds as though someone found a nice place to raise herself an army," she comments. "We'll need to find her of course. Could you tell me a bit about this 'apothecary'? What she looks like? Did she have a shop or home here in town?" she asks.

Inga then looks to Staren, and nods back to the man. "That option isn't a bad one either--though they are very much /dead/ already. So, perhaps destroy is a better word."
Gilgamesh      "Fuhuhahahaha!"

     That's never a good laugh to hear. Especially not when the music kicks in around it, the swelling, pulsing instrumental, the quiet chanting of awestruck voices. That laugh and that song can only mean that the King of Heroes has arrived, and not for any altruistic reason.

     A slow clap accompanies the King's walk. He's dressed in his brilliant, gleaming golden armor, a rare sight from the god-king of Uruk that's almost assuredly a provocation for the Imperials as much as it is his own flight of fancy. The sound of gold against gold, the clanging of metal against metal, echoes through the village. He radiates a golden aura with it, an aura of wealth, power, and perfection unmatched by human bodies and unmatched by human hands.

     "Congratulations, you mongrels. You've made enough noise to intrigue me. Count yourselves lucky that I needed a vacation from that unbearable hellhole of bureaucracy! Rejoice, and praise your King!"

     He crosses his arms over his chest and glances at Lezard with a brief nod. He also gives a surprising glance to Staren, a red-eyed gaze full of some measure of respect Staren probably hasn't seen out of the King before.

     "Now, then." The Gate of Babylon ripples, producing a very literal floating golden...beach chair, but infinitely fancier. The King sits down on it and reclines, gesturing. "Well, get on with it. One of you is going to begin the festivities; I'm much more interested in that than listening to all of you bark about what you should or shouldn't do."

     "I'm here to relax, after all. How can I relax with all this yowling when the main event has yet to begin?"
Phobos     "At first? It was just the injured. I lost most of my arm in a smelting accident years ago, so this... it wasn't that bad? Until we realized these need to be refueled every so often, and she's the only one with the stuff." the villager answers N'raha, lowering his arm.

    He looks at Mairead. "Gladwell. There's a well at the center of the village, always has pure water. Can't be exhausted. Weird... metallic, clanking noise come from it every now and again, but that's always been like that for as long as the village existed, and never hurt anyone."

    "The noise, though? No idea. Can't be good, though. The ground's been quaking more and more often.

    Staren sends drones out. The guards cast an idle glance, and then look back straight. Seems they don't care.

    Inga gets a nod from the man. "Sure, her clinic was in the town square. But no one's been allowed in since the ruckus started. No one besides the bodies of those who tried to leave, anyway."

    The man stares in awe at Gilgamesh and his chair. He just can't bring himself to say anything.
Corona Arclite "And just what is it they ru--" is what Corona was starting to ask, until she's rudely interrupted by Gilgamesh barging in, making his presence impossible to miss, and immeadiately being lazy. Her ears visibly slick back as she leans towards a window... and no, nothing from the guards. Not even in response to the His Royal Pompousness.

"Ayup," she drawls in assessment. "They really are dead on the inside."

It's the only way to explain someone not getting some manner of worked up by Gil.
Lezard Valeth     Staren advises a moment of patience, one that Lezard seems to relent to spare. "One supposes." Lezard, audibly recommending explosive mass excavation, pauses in his advice as he gets a /look/ from N'raha. He simply looks back and shrugs at him with a smile. At least he's not pestering Inga for the moment, thank Odin for small favors, right?

    Still, he waits on a decision on that as they are approached by a villager. Lezard follows along and takes one look at the place before sighing to himself, disappointment visible on his face. "You likely do not even have a proper ale or mead here." He mutters. "Truly you are bereft." He sits down and listens to the tale and nods, listening. "And those abominations are the result? I suppose one cannot complain to much, one must begin somewhere with basic necromancy, but one is eventually expected to innovate." Another shrug and a smile. "The dead are a stepping stone for the living. So you say that they are attacking anyone who leaves?" Lezard asks, a dire light entering his eyes. "Very well. Assemble your people, we will provide you with an exist. Stay out of the way until the explosions cease."

    Lezard, at this point, simply up and walks out of the pub, heading straight for one of the gates. Even if they don't respond to the drones, they'll respond to a man blatantly walking towards the exit. Whether they do or don't doesn't matter, however, as Lezard aggresses first. He reaches into space, drawing out a book without title, and it flips open to hang and page through itself before him, A flash of energy roils around him as he begins channelling, and he thrusts out his hand at the guards at the gate. "FIRE LANCE!" He proclaims, blatantly attempting to simply destroy the creatures in the way and trigger whatever defenses the place may have available, daring them to show their hand.
N'Raha     Raha sighs a bit, and then nods to Inga. "Right, before this lot start blowing everything up, let's at least see if there's naught to do about the noise in the well." He looks to the man, and-

    And then Gil. Right. Gil and Lezard in one place and the Asshole Ratio is now over Raha's limit. The visor snaps closed, and he sighs.

    Lezard and Staren go out to poke at the defenses, and Raha moseys his way to the well. We'll split the party fine. That's okay, right?
Inga Freyjasdottir What in the world? Inga turns to see Gilgamesh arrive with his own music, summon a chair, and decide this is all meant to be a show for his benefit.

There is a long suffering sigh, though the summoning a chair trick...that she would like. Still, she bows to him, holding onto her staff. It rarely hurts to be polite.

Inga looks back toward the man, nodding to him. "Well, I do believe we can do something about that," she replies. "If she isn't there now, I can find her once I have an object that belonged to her," she adds.

A glance and a raised brow toward Corona as she replies, "by the smell, I am fairly certain they are dead on the outside as well."

...and off goes Lezard, to test (and likely explode) those guards. "Well, that's alright with me I suppose," she responds to Raha. But before she leaves...to the man with the information, she asks. "Would you kindly point out the clinic of this apothecary?"
Staren     Gilgamesh is here, and he brought theme music this time! Okay. Staren wonders what, specifically, the look was about, but now's not the time to ask. The drones don't draw the guards' ire. Well.

    "Cyborg parts that run forever are kind of a big ask unless you want a reactor implanted in your body, but even then, normally you just plug them into a wall outlet or change a battery or something. We can get you better ones as long as you can contribute, somehow."

    And then Lezard decides to walk right into danger! Staren /almost/ did that, but didn't feel like risking unknown trouble to his person after recently dying. Still, he can at least follow Lezard, ready to counterattack whatever comes for him. He really does expect it NOT to be the gate guards but a surprise attack from elsewhere.
Gilgamesh      The look of awe is such an expected thing that the King of Heroes doesn't even take notice of the man.

     Inga gets a glance of acknowledgement as she bows - proper manners are worth noticing. He doesn't actually know her name, but the fact that he glanced at her is a far cry from his flat-out ignoring the little people staring at him in stunned disbelief. He rolls his fingers around, and the Gate of Babylon ripples above him, dropping a golden goblet of sweet-smelling alcohol into his gauntleted hand. He's treating this as a vacation, complete with drinking.

     Mairead speaks. "I am the King. I am always well." True enough. He has little reason not to be. He's been so engaged with an actual challenge, after all!

     Lezard goes storming off towards the gate. The King laughs, his fingers brushing through his hair again. The fire lance fills the air with light and heat. Staren goes to join him. The King's flawless lips purse in a thin smile, the smile of a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass in the hot sun, as his chair just sort of floats over towards the whole affair. He rolls the goblet around thoughtfully.

     "It wouldn't do," the King says idly to No One In Particular, "For the King to cut the ribbon himself on the festivities. What, then, would the ministers do but fret that the rest of their jobs are to be stolen next?"

     He leans his head on the back of his knuckles, watching the Mage work. "Lezard Valeth, it's uncharacteristic to see you out in this manner. Is there something that you hope to gain in this village? Some secret you're hoping to unravel?"
Phobos AT THE GATES:

Lezard wastes no time picking a fight. His fiery lances shoot straight for the two Servitors at the gates, causing an explosion to blow chunks of the stone wall along with them. And in the flames' wake... the Servitors still stand!

Charred, burnt - their fleshy bits mostly serve to hold the machines together without needing to make an entire robot body. Looks like these are built to take at least one solid hit before they go back to the grave.

They raise their arms, and others on the wall do too. Cannons click out, unelegantly popping out of the arms. They glow a dim green - and fire blasts of green lightning straight for Lezard, and only Lezard.

The very act of firing their cannons seems to cause their arms to steam and catch on fire, the metal turning red hot and deforming. These are Necron weapons! ... but they're obviously defective.

Still powerful enough to atomize anything mundane the blasts hit, though.

BACK INSIDE:

The villager grows nervous at the noises outside. He shakes his head. "I'm not going out there. The clinic, you can't miss it. It's the only guarded building in the whole village. And there's piles of bodies outside, waiting to be collected. Good luck!"

N'Raha, Inga (and possibly others) heads to the center of the village. The well looks like your typical well indeed, with plenty of buckets nearby for people to help themselves. If people bother, the water pulled up is pure and sparkling. Whenever someone sends a bucket down, though, there's some kind of... clicking noise. Like machinery operating at the bottom of the well.

The clinic isn't too far. It is indeed guarded by two more Servitors, rotting bodies kept up with cybernetics. There is a third one - a floating human skull, cleaned of any flesh or gore, loaded with gizmos and even a small anti-gravity reactor underneath it. That one is directly in front of the door. It's not armed. Its lone green optic is shaped like an upside down moon crescent.
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite wanders over to the well with the others. When the bucket is lowered back in and machinery clicks below her ears perk up. "Well now..." she murmurs. There's one way to investigate this.

After a bit of rummaging through her hammerspace inventory she pulls out a small clockwork drone and sets it on the edge of the well, twisting a small rotor on its back to turn it on. It clicks and clacks softly as it powers up, while Corona raises her wrist-worn analytical computation device and fiddles with the dials and switches. The screen flickers to life in grainy shades of green like an -old- computer monitor to display what the drone sees as it skitters over the edge of the well and crawls down the side to investigate the depths below.
Staren     If Staren knew that was Necron weaponry, capturing it intact for study might be a priority, but his only encounter was with scarabs and flayed ones.

    When Lezard comes under fire from the servitors, Staren responds with the beam cannons on hid right arm. If these things are breaking down just by using theoir own weapons, he might not have to escalate to explosives and more exotic fare.
N'Raha     Raha looks to Coronoa, looks to the well, looks to the drone, and considers his own inventory. And the gear he's wearing. And... well. He makes a... let's call it, a calculation. A risk assement. A smile to Corona, and he murmurs. "Better get this stuff changed while I'm here."

    He focuses his energy a moment, and where there was heavy armor and magitek widgets and gismos... now there is a light summer shirt, some deck shoes, board shorts, and the sorts of things one ought to be wearing if you're going for a swim, rather than heavy ass magic armor.

    Gotta love glamours.

    Another look to Corona. "Going down. Guide me if you can. I'll see what's what." He taps his linkpearl behind his ear, and smiles...
    And then hops the side, into the darkness of the well.
Gilgamesh      The weapons are, at least, more entertaining than the King of Heroes was expecting from this backwater world. That torturing-ants-with-a-magnifying-glass smile grows a little bit wider as he watches them take aim on Lezard. Yes, that was much more interesting than expected.

     The King swirls his goblet again out of habit. "A show worthy of a reward. To think that something like those husks would have such an interesting arsenal."

     "I think I want one."

     Gilgamesh snaps his fingers. "You two!" He says to Staren and Lezard, "Your competence has been proven to me time and again. Capture one of those weapons for me before they burn themselves out and I'll reward you. Your King wishes to play with one for himself."
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite looks up for a moment just to see Raha jump into the well.

"At least his name ain't Timmy," she murmurs to herself and returns her attention to what her drone is hopefully transmitting.
Inga Freyjasdottir Inga watches Corona get her drone going, shaking her head a little. "Well, that is handy. I'd have left my body behind and gone down but..." well, there Raha goes. "Be careful dear!" she calls down, then looks to Corona. "I'm not going down there," she says, as if the very idea is crazy. "I believe I will investigate this clinic. It's just over there it seems," she comments, then pulls a small knife from her belt. She uses this to slice into her opposite arm, flicking her blade outward to create a glowing crimson cloud of mist. Blood-magic ward ready, she begins to approach the clinic, her staff gently clacking against the pavement.

Once she is within a good range of the dead-guards, the runes along her staff begin to glow. She stops, raising it high. A lightning bolt cracks into existence, slamming into one guard, then the next.
Lezard Valeth It's not the most pleasant of situations, but it is certainly more exciting than skulking about. To be fair, Lezard IS technically from a Nordic environment, and it's hard for certain elements to not stamp itself /somewhere/ in his psyche. But is there anything worth pillaging here? That is an interesting question indeed.

    Initially, Lezard would have said 'no', and he all but confirms as much when Gilgamesh speaks to him. "I doubt there is anything of note in this hovel, King of Heroes, but someone must look after the more idealistic fools of our number." He doesn't gesture towards Staren, but the indication is obvious.

    Lezard was expecting the conflagaration to result in utter devastation. To see that the mechanized monstrosities survived, but are also equipped to return fire gives him a moment of surprise. "What?" He grunts, the first shot blasting across an arm and vaporizing cloth and flesh with equal facility, leaving a painful-looking flesh wound. Instantly, he is on guard, his eyes focusing as he begins to take this threat more /seriously/. The expendable creatures are busily expending themselves, but the salvo requires his attention to ward off as pages splay out from the book, absorbing several subsequent shots. "That is not the kind of technology I would have expected to see in this place." Lezard states. "Perhaps there is more to this after all... But first." There is a crackling rise of electricity around him, that surges into his hands as he claps them together with a thunderous blast. "LIGHTNING BOLT!"

    A surge of chained lightning radiates from his hands in an arc as he unleashes a sorcerous classice, returning the green lightning with his own blue-white blasts. "MWAHAHAHA! BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!" He cries, fully intendeing to blast the creatures to pieces. It's okay, Staren can poke at them afterwards, surely. "Do you believe you can analyse this corpses and identify their nature, Staren?" Lezard asides to the scientist... And he glances over at Inga as she, too, summons lightning. There is an irritated scowl that twists his lips, as if her mere presence aggrieves him, but he keeps his violence focused on the enemy of the moment.
Mairead Sandilands     Mairead went with the others and is looking at the well as well and than moves to look at the apothcary with the two dead guards and the floating skull than to Corona, "I'm going to go to the clinic and look at it as close as I can. Although I may start a fight," she says in her Scottish accent. "However, I will cover you and make sure they stay focused on me and no one else." she adds as she grabs a bucket full of water and if tied, unties it and carriers it towards a building that will take her infornt of and past the clinic and asshe approaches, she moves away like she is staying clear of the three.

    As she approaches, she thinks and her IS is active as it scans the three creatures and the clinic and she scrinches up her nose due to the dead bodies. She says nothing as she walks but is ready to fight and she knows a fight will occur. Than the bolt of lightening comes form the sky and slams into one of the guards, "Well, that went well," she says as she summons her IS and moves next to Inga to offer cover. "I will keep ye covered," she says as she summons Bean-Nighe, a pair of double barrel beam gatling guns and she steps infront of Inga to be the meat shield for her.
Phobos AT THE GATES:

Lezard and Staren open fire with greater zeal than before.

Beam weapons from the latter and thundering lightning blasts make quick work of the Servitors this time around - though it looks like a few of the ones on the wall managed to get off another round of green gauss lightning before they got shocked right off and onto the ground.

Like the cybernetics of the villagers, analysis of these reveals they're very, very thrown-together. They weren't made to last. They're not an army meant to tackle a real threat. They can take a hit, in case of a riot, but not fight in a war.

It seems deliberate.

Pieces of Necron technology are crudely grafted inside them, barely compatible with the Imperium augmentics they're otherwise using.

But finally, they get a response.

The servo-skull hanging by the clinic whirrs, and flies towards the partially destroyed gate.

It projects a light green, crude holographic portrait of a hooded head. Three green optics, arranged in an upside down crescent moon, shine underneath said hood. A digital, heavily synth female voice transmits from it.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

It's very polite.


AT THE WELL:

Corona sends a drone down the well, and N'Raha just straight up takes a dive. There's water! A lot of water. It's a pretty big pool down there. A hundred meters down. Two. Three. And then...

N'Raha and the drone hit a metal floor. Light from the drone illuminates the area - and then something stirs within the machine. The walls are dark gray, almost black. Green circles in various formations cover the walls, now glowing. They're inside a machine? There are latches that look like they could open. Probably for maintenance. It'll empty the contents of the well into whatever area is beyond, though.

Proceed?

AT THE CLINIC:

Mairead lands on the roof of the clinic. There's a chimney but it's way too narrow to crawl inside. The windows have all been heavily barricaded with various pieces of metallic scrap, and there's no back door.

Inga casts lightning bolt, smiting one of the Servitors. The lightning, unusually, refuses to arc from one to the other. As it scorches away the guard's skin, the machinery inside glows a bright, arcing blue. Electricity? And only THEN does it start arcing between the guards?

They're walking Tesla coils!

They spew out a ridiculous amount of blue lightning arcs, tiny but endless, right back at Inga and Mairead. This, however, seems to be damaging them as much as it might hurt the pair, if not more.
Corona Arclite A few things come to the engineer's mind as she observes. Either the machinery is pumping the water from somewhere else, the machinery is what purifies it, or some combination of the two.

Corona positions the drone to illuminate one of the hatchways with it's light, then depresses the button for her comm to sync with Raha's linkpearl. << The drone don't got large enough manipulators on it, ya'll have to open one of the latchs to investigate farther if ya fancy. >>

She does glance briefly over her shoulder as she feels her tail frizzle up a bit from the electrical discharge in the air, but it looks like Igna and Mairead have that situation hopefully under control.
Staren     Staren collects the cybernetic parts, to give some to Gilgamesh. There probably isn't much left of the flesh. "Analyze them for what, exactly? To see if they're humans from this village? They look KINDA like servitors, which the Imperium uses in place of robots. Using brains for processing power because they can't make computers without screwing it up."

    The skull yells at them. Staren decides that Lezard or Gilgamesh will have a better answer than anything he says, so he focuses on harvesting parts for now. Afterward he can investigate the clinic, or the underground noie, or help the villagers run away. The future is full of a plethora of options!
N'Raha     Raha hastily fiddles around in his bag for a Airy Breathing potion and quaffs it before going deeper. We're on a timer now.

    Down and down it goes, and Raha listens in with Corona, nodding a bit and nodding at one of the portals. He shiffles a bit, and yanks out Bravura from his Armory, the heavy axe light in the catman's hands, even in the water. Though... he's not swinging it. No. He instead levers the pointy end of the counterweight in the handle, and uses it to crank a door open. He can apologize for the water later. Or have a conjuror come fix it. There's shit that's wrong past here.
Mairead Sandilands     Mairead is hit and grunts formt he shock as Nighean Clota, her IS adjusts and shields her. As the lightening hits, Mairead smiles and moves forward, putting herself at the target of the lightening arcs from the two Necron Tesla Coils. Approaching, Mairead still takign hits and damage raises the guns and pulls the triggers, firing at each guard as she stands there. Her shots are not on target, as she is getitng hit with electricity, but she is going to stop both of them. Right now, firing with the double barrel beam gatling guns.

    The arcs of energy are doing some damage, but it is giving her a shock and she is going have to move off and take Inga with her. But this is her job as a Paladin, protect people at the cost of her own well being, and once the two Necron Tesla Coils drop, she will stop firing...
Gilgamesh      The skull is something new and entertaining. Gilgamesh actually sits up a bit - no, wait, he's just shifting his position to a more convenient one so he can produce some food that smells of sharp, exotic spices from a time long ago out of thin air.

     "Tell me, mongrel," the King says idly to the hologram as he sets the plate down in front of him, a spearing a hunk of meat on a gleaming fork from the Gate of Babylon, "Do you always ask stupid questions? They're destroying these eyesores, of course. The poor craftsmanship is obvious to anyone; they're hardly worth preserving when the bits are so much more interesting than the sum of their parts."

     Gilgamesh leans forward, red eyes glinting as he raises the meat to his lips. There's a sadistic, predatory look on his face as he bites into it, staring at the hooded hologram. "Is this really the best you can do? Are you really so distressed by the destruction of these half-hearted half-men you've slapped together to hold this village - or, I suppose, for some other purpose, but really, I couldn't care less about that."

     He swallows. "Come now. If you can do better, then what's the point in being distressed about these scribbles? And if you can't do better, then why should I care about your outrage?"
Inga Freyjasdottir Well, that is an interesting development. Things do not usually end up trying to shock her back after she's hit them with lightning. But her ward is in place, so she isn't too concerned. There is also the girl in the armor, intent on protecting her. "Well, thank you, but at least let me get a ward on you hmm?" she says, and tucks her staff into her elbow to again wield her little knife to open a fresh wound, flicking a blood-ward toward Mairead. This will protect her by lessening the damage she takes as well as providing a healing boost.

As lightning had an unintended side-effect, Inga changes tactics. The air around her chills, the temperature plunging as she gestures toward the guards. If Maireads guns haven't taken them out of commission yet, Inga shouts "Iss!" and encases them in ice.

She'd been wondering what to do about the floating skull, but it seems the ones at the gate are enough of a distraction to take care of that. "Well, that's helpful," she remarks. "Shall we?" she says to Mairead, then strolls into the clinic. She's going in.
Lezard Valeth     "To see if there is anything of interest, whether technique or material. Also, see if you can salvage a useable sample of the weapons to present to the King." He's not just ordering Staren around, this really is More Staren's Thing than the Sorceror's. "I care nothing about the source unless you discover something of note, but perhaps we can turn this into a learning experience and take the measure of our resident necromancer."

    Lezard is more prepared this time, but he still has to focus to keep the ramshackle-yet-potent Necron weapons from blasting holes in his defenses... And thus himself. The paper shield crackles and hisses ad the gauss lightning blasts into hit, the sorcerer bringing it back up the moment he is done blasting them. However, they are effectively spent afterwards, Lezard grating his teeth at his carelessness in allowing himself to be harmed. He has /appearances/ to maintain.

Still, it gets the needed response. At the digital shrieking from the hologram, Lezard turns to face it. "Ah, finally, the management." He drawls, shrugging his cloak to cover over his wounded arm. Never let them see you bleed. "What I am doing is asking you that precise question. What /are/ you doing here, especially with such animated constructs being considered necessary? Since you did not see fit to have a proper represenatative on the surface to inquire, I decided to garther your attention." He shrugs. "It is not as minor undead are irreplacable. Perhaps if we come to an understanding, you might find that this is but an inconvenience in a greater arc."
Phobos AT THE GATES:

Enough survived to make Staren's day. Though, the Necron bits just... don't make a lick of sense. Indeed by any and all scientific knowledge he has these are not weapons that should work without causing catastrophic overheating, and he saw that first-hand when they fired. So why would anyone build them?

The rest is bog-standard Imperium technology. Cybernetic gizmos you shove in bodies to make them move. Brain-interfaces. That sort of stuff. Useful scrap to keep, but strictly inferior to Staren's own technology in many respects.

The servoskull, meanwhile, screeches at Gilgamesh. "Of course these aren't masterworks, they're discardable trash I put there to deal with total non-threats and keep them from running off! I care because you're going to ruin EVERYTHING!"

The skull transmits a whirring, clanking noise, like a hard drive stalling. It listens to Staren, and then the woman's tone shifts. "Data updated. Alright. I'm calming down." She doesn't sound like it. "I am calm, and collected, and absolutely not caught flat-footed while prying open a delicate power source."

The voice pauses, stalls a few times, and then: "Are you guys hypothetically any good at wiping out armies of killer technoskeletons? I'm asking for a friend. Provide data immediatly."

The skull clicks rapidly. "Like, immediatly-immediatly."


AT THE WELL:

The water drains from the well, emptying into a room even larger than it is. It sloshes down into black and green hallways, eventually thinning itself enough there's barely an inch of water on the ground.

Now that N'Raha and Corono have a better look at it, the well... isn't a well. It looks like a very complex fabricator, or maybe a forge. The water must be to cool down objects it makes, or alloys it works with.

Servitors, as rotting and falling apart as the ones in the village, are slowly dismantling it, plate by plate. They completely ignore the group. These don't seem to be armed. They're workers.

Beyond this room, it all looks sterile. Black, lighted by green circles on the walls in strange, rune-line formations. In many of those walls are slots, almost eerily coffin-like in appearance.

From even further ahead, one can hear the source of the voice yelling at Lezard, Gilgamesh and Staren. She sounds very unhappy. There is a lot more noise and green light coming from there.


AT THE CLINIC:

Encased in ice and then shredded by Mairead's guns, the threat of the Servitors ends as quickly as it started. Inga and Mairead enter the clinic.

It's full of gizmos and weird machines. Body parts. A lot of blood. Cybernetics lying in piles. A lot of black, green-runed metal scraps, too. More importantly... an access shaft leading into an elevator.

It seems like it goes very, very deep down below the village.

Take it?
Inga Freyjasdottir Still on her guard for anything else that may try to attack them, Inga moves inside and looks around for a bit until finding the elevator. She raises her eyes toward the heavens, "Thank you gods, it isn't stairs," she says, then looks to Mairead. "Well, we have come this far," she offers with a shrug, and moves onto the lift to go into the depths.
Gilgamesh      Gilgamesh levels his fork at the hologram. "Careful, mongrel. I don't care for your tone. I am the King; I will ruin what I please. Such eyesores are made to be ruined."

     He resumes cutting into his meal with the relaxed attitude of a man in complete control. It's savory. It's sumptuous. It drips with juices and fills the air with a spicy scent. Most of the people on this world have probably never eaten a fraction as well as the King is flaunting right now amidst the former battlefield.

     He raises another bit of the meat to his lips. "Are you really asking if I am capable of killing skeletons? Tch. What passes for necromancers in this day and age." Chew, chew. "There are few things that can threaten the King. Skeletons are not one of them. Take care not to insult me again."
Mairead Sandilands     Upon entering the clinc, Mairead winces at thes mell and nods to Inga, "Thank you," she says to her as she looks around, "What sort of barbaric actions happened here," she ask as she spots the shaft and the lift at the bottm of the shaft. "Allow me to carry you down," she says as she offers a hand to Inga and if it is taken, hovers and Inga hovers as well as she places her arms around her, Inga and begins to decend down the shaft.
N'Raha     Okay so. Imagine if you will, that you're some sort of former Imperial turned heretic. You're in an ancient bullshit Necron techno-store in some backwater hillbilly space town. You're now in a very precious position involving several Elites, including two very determined and literal jerks blowing up your stuff. And there's some shit going on that you don't even know about.

    And now a water-logged xeno catman wearing beach clothing and carrying an ax as big as he is sort of wanders up and out of the darkness of the business end of said Bullshit Necron techno-warehouse.

    Raha jerks a thumb at the now empty well and the large puddle of water he's trailing behind him. "Hey, sorry, the door was busted, have you got a towel? I am very damp."
Lezard Valeth     Lezard seems to be pretty deadpan in the face of the indignant screeching. It's not the first time that he's unilaterally Ruined Everything in order to push things in a direction and it won't be the last. "I could render this village a smouldering crater in short order, as could Staren. King Gilgamesh possesses weapons that could shatter the planet if he saw reason to deploy them. I would say yes, I could likely defeat an army of 'killer technoskeletons'. Certainly with the forces arrayed here. Regardless, you have yet to explain yourself. Have you, perhaps, /excavated/ these unusual materials from below the village, and are working to capitalize on the discovery?"
Staren     "Well, I've never seen anything quite like these weapons. I'm not sure why they're nearly melting themselves, though." Staren replies to Lezard. To the servoskull, he answers, "What do you mean, technoskeletons? Are you fighting off a horde of them or something?"
Corona Arclite A few minutes later Corona walks up behind N'Raha, having reverse wall-jumped her way down the well shaft once the water was draining out. She'd make a snide remark about wet cats, but she doesn't smell much better with damp fur so doesn't. Along the way the drone is picked up and tucked away, having done it's job.

She squints a bit. It doesn't take an engineer to tell what a smithy is, otherworldly or not, and that the necro-borgs are trying to take the place apart. But why, and where's the so-called apocathary in charge of these things... Oh? The vixen's ears twitch forward, picking up the yelling from farther on. "Ah reckon we're close to our missin' medic," she mutters as she draws one of her oversized handguns, spinning the chamber with the other hand to check that it's loaded and then slapping it into place.

They haven't been attacked yet, but she saw a bit of what was going on topside, and her paranoia would rather be ready to shoot first and ask questions after if need be.
Phobos AT THE GATES:

"I don't know where to start correcting you," the skull rattles, evidently annoyed. Luckily, Lezard seems to hit jackpot.

"Well, one of you can actually cogitate, would you look at that. Have you ever heard the saying that there's no point being faster than a threat, you just need to be faster than the slowest person? In this analogy, the village is the slowest person. The threat isn't awake... yet. Call it my backup plan."

The skull turns to look at Staren. "No, but if you clowns keep firing your weapons and damage something you shouldn't, YOU will be! I'm going to be on my ship, counting my spoils from this place. This was supposed to be SIMPLE--" The woman seems to turn to face something else. "WHAT NOW?"


THE NECRON ROYAL PYRAMID:

N'Raha intrudes on Phobos' work. She's tall, robed entirely in tattered red, the hood hiding her head save for those glowing optics. There are a lot of mechanical limbs sticking out of her back. Three of them are busying themselves trying to remove a large, glowing green crystal from a pedestal.

There is a large metallic coffin behind the pedestal.
Smaller ones line the room's other walls entirely. A few have been pried open by Servitors, revealing metallic, skeletal warriors inside them. They're being disassembled with unusual care, coming from rotting bodies.

"WHAT NOW?" Phobos rumbles, one of her mechanical tendrils pointing at N'Raha. There's a glowing blue barrel on it, evidently lighting and powering up. "How did you even... you're wet. Did you come in through the well? Unpredictable. I hate it. Please leave, or you're leaving anyway except in pieces."

The threat goes for Corona too, if she approaches, who gets another mechanical limb pointed at her. That one's glowing red.

The Servitors keep working. Some occasionally shuffle off into side-rooms from which they don't return for a while.


AT THE CLINIC:

Inga and Mairead descend into the Necron pyramid as well, landing into the heart of the operation. There's a large, empty room around them, which judging by traces and marks used to be multiple rooms but the walls got dismantled. Servitors load pieces of the pyramid and chunks of Necrons into containers, which they then take into side rooms. There are many, many crates here. It all looks pretty valuable. And fragile. Very fragile.
Mairead Sandilands     Looking around, Mairead whistles, "What the..." and she walks over to a container and opens it. Looking inside, she sees.... whatever and than at one of the rooms, "What is this place?" she asks as she studies everything and looks at Inga and gets ready to fight if necessary.
Gilgamesh      The King of Heroes's face doesn't even flinch. He makes no motion other picking up his fork and knife and cutting into the stake.

     Something goes shooting past his face. It ripples his hair. It would muss his clothes were he not wearing his glorious golden armor. It shoots straight at the servoskull with enough force to cleave through a very large tank. Someone paying close enough attention, or with a slow-down feature on recording software, would see that it's a long, slender spear made of elegant wood polished to a shine, with a head of silver that resembles a crescent moon in reverse, like a Chinese blade flipped around, or a halberd that was levelled out, or a scythe with two blades.

     The king raises his fork to his lips as if he didn't even notice the thing happening. The blade will probably pass through not only the servoskull, but the wall, and likely a chunk of ground before it hits, discharges in a glorious explosion, and then vanishes back into the Gate.

     "Stupid," he says idly as he raises the meat again, examining it.
Corona Arclite "Now now, it ain't polite to point," Corona drawls at the gun-limb being directed towards her. She doesn't return the favor per say, but her handcannon is rested against her shoulder with one hand, where it can be easily snapped out and fired should she need to. She's paranoid, not triggerhappy.

Usually.

There's also a level of curiousity involved, and that tends to not be solved by shooting first, when it comes to people that could just as well explain things.

"So how's 'bout instead of bein' a rude host y'all explain just what the smeg yer doin' down here, and won't let none of the village folks leave? From one machinesmith to another."

There's no cybernetics but her gear is clearly augmented with the bits of gadgets and glowing greebles, and as many tools stashed in her belt as there is ammo. So it's clear she's not fibbing about the machinesmith claim.
Inga Freyjasdottir Inga really doesn't know what to make about what she is seeing, but continues on through, taking the most likely path the orchestrator of all this would most likely take. She's on guard, watching the workers, but if none stop her, she continues. "I do not know. If you have a camera, could you perhaps take photos of what is in the crates?" she asks Mairead.

Inga stops then, listening. "I believe I hear someone up ahead," she says lowly, then keeps moving toward the voice. She's not the fastest, but she doesn't think they are far. Her senses tell her this is the very same place Raha may have found inside the well.
N'Raha     Raha lets out a gasp, and then remembers... he's got a towel. He yanks it out of his inventory, and then bends over to start drying out his hair, the long ponytail ruined and flopping out into a mass of black locks. "Look, I honestly wouldn't have cared much except you were killing the townsfolk, so that's a black mark on my end."
    He flips his head back up and hangs the towel around his neck, before hoisting up the axe again and looking at that angry lasery thing. "That said. I reaaaallllllly don't appreciate the jib of that magitek doohicky you got there, Miss Angry Lady. And I-" He hears the explosion upstairs from Gil. "I don't think you're going to have the time you want to get this garbage packed up and out of here."
    There's another one of those... loose calculations. They're underground, a good few dozen yalms. In a big old crypt full of technodead crap. And while he has that urge in his tail to start going all Berserk-y on stuff... Diplomacy? Maybe?

    A grim smile to Corona's statement. "So. I suggest you leave. As quickly as you can, and let these people alone. Or else someone here is gonna get all... adventurer-y. And I'm sure that's gonna just ruin your day."
Mairead Sandilands     Nodding, "aye," she responds backin kind as she gets images and photos with her IS. As she follows, she does nto draw any weapons, and walks, "I think you are right," she adds as she listens to the radio and speaks back to Raha as she looks and ponders as she looks, "He does have a mouth on him," in reference to Gilgamesh as she keeps her eyes open.
Lezard Valeth     Lezard actually laughs at this. "I see! You are clever indeed to profit in such a way while minimizing your risk. There is no way you could have expected this to happen, one supposes." He taps his chin...

    And then Gilgamesh attenpts to execute the servoskull. "Curses." Lezard mutters, and holds out his hands. He's gathered enough information. N'raha mentions they're about half a malm down. The woman mentioned a power source. Lezard is going to see if he can detect it, images flashing before him as he works to scry out the location. Once he does so, he will raise his hands, a teleportation circle beginning to draw itself beneath him. "This is an opportunity that one cannot allow to slip away." Lezard states.
Phobos AT THE GATES:

The skull offers no resistance whatsoever. It's a radio, not a combat unit. The spear wrecks the gates, and craters the ground. The earth beneath the village quakes rather ominously.

THE NECRON ROYAL PYRAMID:

As the entire pyramid shakes, Phobos' multitools go from carefully trying to analyze and extract the crystal, to scratching it and causing it to stir in its socket. She turns from N'Raha immediatly to glare at it.

The coffins that line up the walls of the entire pyramid start glowing.

The ROYAL COFFIN starts opening.

Phobos' optics mimic a squint, and she just removes the crystal from the pedestal outright. This seems to accelerate the wake up process of the Necrons by a factor of ten. She doesn't seem to care anymore.

"I'm going to stop you right there, because I wouldn't have called them "alive". Flesh and blood is a crude immitation of real life. To bask in the Omnissiah's light, one must shed that ugly, fragile exterior."

Then to Corona: "Puh-lease. Your toys look nice but you're not one with them. You're half of a machinesmith at best! Specifically, you're just a smith!"

The large coffin is fully open. A very large metal skeleton man, wearing stupidly ornate green and silver... metallic... clothes? and a cape? but it's metal? gets up. "WHO AWAKENS ARAKHNET THE BREAKER?!" he bellows.

Phobos points at N'Raha and Corona. "They do."

And then she slams some piece of machinery under her robes. It's a... teleporter?! Phobos makes off with the crystal! But she's abandoning the rest of her resources, apparently, in order to do so. Sloppy.

The Necrons begin marching out of their coffins. There are... thousands of them, across the pyramid. And that's only what you know is there for a fact.

None are in the room Mairead and Inga are in, yet. That's a small mercy. They could make off with a crate or two, if they wanted!

    And of course, Lezard can just... teleport wherever he wants in the pyramid. There's no active shielding. Phobos must have made sure to take that out so she could escape if needed.
Lezard Valeth     Lezard locates the proper area, getting a glimpse of the woman, and locks in on that location. He expands the circle to take Staren and Gilgamesh with him...

And within the Pyramid, Lezard's teleportation circle appears, the three fading into view.... Moments after she makes her escape and the Necrons begin to awaken.

    Lezard is not pleased. "What!?" He grimaces, completely ignoring the Necrons to immediately begin attempting to cast about to find where the woman went, trying to find what she used to escape.

    The others can deal with the Necron horde. He doesn't give a damn about the village. Or the planet.
N'Raha     Raha just... gapes a bit as the coffins start opening up and... well, there goes his plans to be Heroic and Shit because NECRONS. There's no way he's fighting several thousand points worth of Necrons. He's not that cool.

    That said, he growls, watches Lezard and the others teleport in, and spits on the ground as he skids over to Corona and wraps an arm around her waist. "Have goddamn fun with your toys, you two. See you later, King." That... that came out less than reverently. Oh well.

    And then with a motion of Aether, Raha too teleports out. Though Lezard will be able to more easily track him. He's not going far. It's just to Inga, as he hits topside.
Gilgamesh      The King of Heroes is not enjoying his vacation as much as he'd expected. Sure, he got to watch Lezard and Staren strut their stuff, which is always pleasant. Sure, he got to execute that annoying little skull thing. And, sure, he's having a *delicious* meal, though that's just normal for him. It's somewhat relaxing, being away from the planet.

     But on the other hand, he's been insulted three times, and that really puts a cramp on his mood.

     Lezard teleports them down into the Pyramid. The King's flying chair comes with it, and the sumptuous smell of the King's meal fills the room full of walking skeletons. The King's eyes fall onto Arakhnet the Breaker.

     He sets down his fork and knife.

     "I am quite done with this," he says, in a firm tone, "It is no longer amusing or entertaining to me. I have been insulted by a tiresome mongrel and been forced to watch artisan craftsmanship be slapdashedly splattered into ugly meat without a care for elegance or good work. It is only by good fortune that I have a fine meal to keep me in a good mood, else I would not give you permission to speak."

     The King stands off his golden palanquin. It vanishes in a ripple. So does the food. So does the wine. He's annoyed. It's clear from the look on his face, from the radiant power rolling off him in waves. It's strong enough that even people who aren't magical can feel it - that aura called 'Kingliness', that power called 'Rule.' His aura is overwhelming, oppressive in all senses of the word - a choking cloud of perfection that fills the pyramid to its core. He does not walk forward - he strides, secure in the knowledge that he is the King of All That Is, Was, and Ever Shall Be.

     "Go back to sleep," The King orders, "And do not awaken until I call for you."

     It is a booming order that echoes through the pyramid, a call to all the mindless thralls that live within, eager to please a lord.

     The King is more of a lord than any Necron upstart will ever be. He is walking straight up to that Necron without fear, red eyes locked onto green ones.

     "As for you. You will come with me. I have an interest in you, mongrel. You may be useful to me. If you are, you will earn a fine place at my table, and have glory to spend and share. If you are not, I will kill you here and now."

     The Gate of Babylon yawns wide. Weapons fill the room - swords, spears, axes, all of the highest make, all of enormous magical potency, all of perfect craftsmanship that defies all logic.

     "I am not asking," he says to the Necron lord, "I am telling you to bow if you want to live."
Inga Freyjasdottir Inga turns to Mairead. "Take one of those crates and get back on the lift!" she says, backing up. She knows Raha can get out, and he can take Corona with him. "They haven't come this way yet...and goodness gracious, I appreciate your desire to protect me dear but you should really get behind me," she says, and pulls a few objects from her pouch, chanting as she places them in a line on the floor. A finger bone, a shiny rock, a small animal skull... then she draws her knife, ready to connect them with her anima infused blood. A splash of blood and a glowing wall comes up before them, blocking the lift. "There, let's go!" she says, getting onto the elevator with Mairead. Hopefully, it's a fast elevator!
Staren     Gilgamesh hangs up in the most Gilgamesh fashion. Staren turns to see what Lezard's doing, then investigates Mairead's feed -- to see something he never expected to see! Those stupid skeleton-machines that blew up his bag and teleported away last time he tried to study them! Yeah, he's not missing this chance to figure out how they work and device countermeasures. He explains this to the others on the radio.

    And then they teleport in... to the necrons waking up. "What?! No, NO!" Staren looks around for any that aren't awake yet to grab and run, but... it seems instead they'll have to talk to ARAKHMET THE BREAKER.

    And, really, Gilgamesh's imperious style is either going to work great or aggro this guy, so, Staren watches him, ready to start shooting if he refuses.

    If ordering the necrons to sleep actually works, Staren grabs one and holds it tight in his left arm. He WILL study this thing, dammit!
Mairead Sandilands     Looking at Inga, she hears the bellowing of the voice over the radio and the secondary phrase, "I think we are in a lot of trouble," she says to the lady as she summons both of the guns and four pods appear around her. Looking, around, Staren would see the vision change he had with Mairead as a sensor grid appears with red dots filling it. Additionally, he would see a shield status appear in his vision as well as readouts of the suit and Mairead's health. Pretty much a full tactical display as well as a secondary view of a full 360 view.

    "I have my sensor ready and we are about to have some unwelcomed company." she mentions as she looks at the screen, "And we have more than a thousand targets appearign and they are increasing." she adds. Looking at Inga she nods and the guns disappear and grabs a crate with ease as she picks it up one handed.

    Once at the elivator, Mairead looks, "We need to get up there fast," and she uses her oher hand to hold onto Inga, "Hang on, I can have us there in a matter of seconds," she says as she starts to fly up the shaft with the container in her hand.
Corona Arclite There's an old joke about how foxes are just canines running CatOS. It seems to hold true to a degree with the way Corona's hackles and tail bristle at the insult towards her craft. But the multilimbed woman grabs her babble and runs like hell before she can make a rebuttle, leaving them with the swarm of angry necrons and more waking up necronic borg-corpses. She holds out her blaster, but even she knows she can't spread fire fast enough to deal with the awakening horde of bionic undead.

The Raha grabs her around the waist, and she yelps something over the comm at Inga before they're ported away topside again. Just to make sure there's no wrong ideas about things and this was just a dramatic retreat.

As soon as they're on the surface again she mutters, glancing at the well. "Ah could toss some bombs down there, but this whole place is gonna be no good for the locals either way, between the freakin' zombiebots and collapsin'."
Inga Freyjasdottir Well, Inga and Corona can commiserate later about being picked up and rushed off. Inga is sort of used to it. It wouldn't be an adventure without feeling like a sack of potatoes.

She holds on!
Phobos     ARAKHNET THE BREAKER glares at Gilgamesh.
    The Necron warriors... backstep into their coffins, which seal right back up. Arakhnet considers the threat of the countless weapons levied at him.

    His glowing green staff lowers, and he rumbles in a voice only a metallic skeleton man could produce.

    "We shall listen to your proposition, KING," and yet Gilgamesh could not possibly feel more like he doesn't have the lord's respect yet, as it crudely spits out that word without meaning it at all.

    That... surprisingly resolves the situation. No, not only that, it gives everyone access to everything Phobos had harvested and left behind. Disassembled pieces of the pyramid, lesser power sources, Necron weapons she no doubt was going to slap onto more Servitors. It's not a bad haul.

    MEANWHILE, ON THE GREAT AFFRONT:

    A ship that lives up to its name. A wreck, formerly some manner of Imperium ship, cobbled back together with a dozen technologies each more heretical than the last. But it -works-, and that's what matters.

    Lezard tracks Phobos to her main laboratory, which has a teleportation pad in the center for just these occasions. She almost drops the crystal at his arrival, caught by surprise yet again.

    The totality of her mechanical limbs point at him, leveling all manner of weaponry and tools towards the necromancer.

    "Of COURSE one of you had to be a Psyker. Fantastic! /Get off my ship/," she demands. Junk around the room starts coming alive - dozens of servoskulls mounted with guns, acting like funnels or bits, and half-assembled Servitors and robots of various makes. Can you say triggered?
Mairead Sandilands     As they rocket up the shaft, Mairead thinks and two of the pods appear infront of her and they open up as missiles come flying out and the target is the roof of the clinic. As the missiles impact, there is an explosion and the roof or part of it is taken off and Mairead with Inga and a container shot out and land next to Raha and Corona, "Lets get the citizens out of here and through the warp gate," she says as she looks at the others as she hears Gilgamesh,. She blinks, "I wonder what he did?" she asks. .... "Thank you m'lord Gilgamesh," she states.
Gilgamesh      "How wise of you," Gilgamesh says, his own lips contorted in a sneer.

     His red eyes remain locked on the Necron. "What I want from you is thus. I am about to have a large number of corpses that will take up my time and energy to dispose of. You apparently specialize in turning corpses into useful things."

     "You are going to do this for me in order to speed up my reconstruction processes on another world. In exchange, I will not only not kill you, but grant you useful purpose and probably a domain of your own. I believe in rewarding useful minions, after all. Make yourself useful and you will find the rewards of the King outstrip any would-be of your wildest dreams of power and glory."

     The Gate of Babylon goes quiet. The King turns away. "I am Gilgamesh, King of Heroes. Remember it well. It is your new sovereign's name. Betray me and find my wrath without end. Serve me, and find yourself richer and more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

     "The choice is not a difficult one to make."
Phobos     "Corpses? USEFUL?" Arakhnet growls in absolute fury.
    "Life is a blight upon this galaxy! We do not USE it, we ANNIHILATE it!" But Gilgamesh's offers aren't without consideration. He made his show. He established he can deliver on his promises.

    "... to that end, I would eliminate the life that blights YOUR domain, and you in return will provide the power I need to extend mine. That is ACCEPTABLE, King Gilgamesh."

    He actually meant it, that time.
Gilgamesh      "I have no trouble with that, provided you do not cross into the space of the Imperium or my own," the King of Heroes says idly to Arakhnet, apparently thoroughly unbothered by 'we love wiping out life in all its forms.' "It would violate my agreements and annoy someone I am much more fond of than I am of you."
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite hisses at the comm, mutters something about 'shoulda known it was anything but helpin' under her breath, and turns to wander out of the villiage in typical lone gunslinger fashion. Gilgamesh put her in a foul mood, and she's leaving before she does something worse that cuss him over the radio.
Lezard Valeth     Lezard appears in his classic fashion, fading into existence in the column of light that his teleportation creates. The Sorceror of Midgard casts his look to one side, and the other, observing the innumerable weapons that are pointed at him. Inconvenient. His gaze moves to focus upon Phobos herself in the... well, one could not really call it flesh. Mechanics? That would suffice. "Do not be ridiculous. If I meant you harm I would certainly not be exposing myself here in person." He says smoothly, providing a florid bow to the heretek.

    He straightens then, and he smiles. "Let us just say that you have made quite the impression upon me. You are someone of intellect, skill, and most importantly... ambition. There is a place in the Multiverse for those people. A place where they can exercise their works without the constant danger of the pitchfork-wielding mob."

He gestures. "I will not demand acceptance. This is, rather, an invitation. Should you decide you would prefer allies, come to the Grand Dorado. We will be waiting. At that, farewell. I pray we shall meet again."

    Once again, Lezard stretches out a hand, another teleportation circle forming beneath him as he takes the requested leave. His message has been delivered. He sees no need to press the matter now that the concept has been introduced.
Phobos     "Allies, huh?"

    Phobos emits clicks, still like a hard drive stalling. Eventually it stops. "Computed. Last time I had 'allies', they decided my methods aren't for them. I need more data before I decide."

    Lezard makes his exit. Phobos' limbs fold back up, save the ones holding onto the glowing green crystal.

    "Gains 89% lower than expected. Better than a total loss. I really needed this thing anyway," she rattles off, finding the right socket on one of her many tables to slot the crystal into.

    "Mapping next destination."

    The Great Affront leaves the planet's orbit.
Mairead Sandilands     Listening she sighs, "What did Gilgamesh do?" she asks those near her as she looks around, "And who was behind all of this, and what was it they wanted?" she adds as she sighs and thinks, her IS fading form view and she appears in something liek a one-piece swimsuit. Looking over at Inga, she bows, "I apologize for carring you out of there. I meant no disrespect," comments to her as she nods to Raha and Corona as hse leaves. "You think the people here will be safe or ok? Or will we be back again?" she asks.
Inga Freyjasdottir "It's alright, I'm used to it," she replies to Mairead.

"I will stick around a bit and make sure people are alright--and perhaps show them what real healing skills are," she sighs. It's going to be a lot of work, she's sure.
Mairead Sandilands     Looking, Mairead nods, "I will stay and help," she says as she thinks and her hunting outfit appears on her. "I am ok with first aid, but I am more skilled as an educator and language."