RP [S.E.A.R.C.H. Initiative] Ch.1: Hanya Secrets

In'anna looked on as the others spoke. The little Daur raised her hands as if to speak up. She didn't get the chance as Igia seemingly disappeared into the depths of the age-old structure. With a squeak, In'anna made to follow, only taking a few moments to look back at the other three giant aliens seemingly discussing how to murderate their potential enemy. Torn between the two groups, safety versus exploring the unknown, she made her choice to follow after the Iromakuanhe female. Igia's legs were longer, and therefore her stride wider than her own. In'anna pumped her little legs along to catch up with the woman.

Inside the Temple

The tension in her team was a bit too high or her taste, but Igia didn't blame anyone as the bodies, the attack on her equipment and such was unexpected, distasteful and rather disturbing. But Igia had seen these things before, she knew the risk when taking a Nep contract could lead to such findings. Was it cultural? Was it pre judgmental? Or manner of common sense when dealing with these folks? Igia was trying to figure that herself, yet she kept the focus on her surroundings and notice the Daur trying to keep up as Igia slowed a bit down in her pace.

Looking at her side, she saw In'anna walking "What is your opinion about the temple scripts? The ancient civilization of the Hanya should gain some interest for you?" Igia said with a soft smile trying to calm down the Daur and make her enjoy this temple digging. However, when going downstairs they entered a beautiful old room that had clear signs of being a gathering hall of some sort "Split up and if you find an artifact, let either In'anna or myself check it if its worth to bring along. I would suggest staying in this room until we cleared it...watch out for any traps"

In'anna finally caught up with the taller Iromakuanhe woman who thankfully shortened her stride. The little fox huffed and puffed a bit, the almost comically large backpack weighing her down just a tad. Had she been on her homeworld, the thing would've been unbearably heavy. Here on Nepleslia, with the weaker gravity, it wasn't such a hindrance. Her cheeks tinged a bit red from the exertion, In'anna's ears angled toward Igia at the question. Blinking, the archeological oriented Daur turned and looked

Parts of the walls and columns had a scratchy, almost cuneiform script upon them. Behind the goggles, her jewel-like green eyes squinted at it. Like all of her kind, In'anna was blessed with a superior sense of smell and hearing. Yet also like her kind, she suffered from an impairment of one of her other senses. In her case, her eyes were weaker. While she could have corrective surgery, the Daur hadn't given it much thought. Thankfully her goggles helped alleviate this weakness a bit.

Lowering her backpack to the stone and earthen floor with a dull, weighty 'thud' she began rooting around inside. Her tail swished from side to side, a clear indicator she was in a good if curious mood with the charnel house of the outer temple complex now firmly out of sight and mind. Humming a little, In'anna pulled forth her Lazarus Consortium dataslate out and began taking pictures.

"Th-The nice old lady t-told me the tongue they speak is the tongue we hear. Ho-However..." she knew the written word could differ from the verbal, and in this case, it had. "This s-seems li-ke the cryptographical equivalent to runes as a written language." she nodded with a 'Hum Hum' as she did so. The fox took a few more pictures. "Very interesting!"

"Security personnel, check the corners, floors, ceilings - anywhere. Eyes peeled, moderate spread among squad members, and on the watch for any traps not yet set off."

Seidreainne preferred two weapons, one in each hand, but given the nature of the enemy her personal defence weapon was being complemented with the large grip of a scanner network-connected to her own armour. One hand aimed a compact short-barreled weapon, sweeping over anything in sight - jars, vases, jewelry, cobwebbed corners, the moss-ball like plants sprouting out from between some cracks, and the slowly crumbling statue-heads emerging from the archways of the doors.

Her scanning device on her other hand was set to silent; they were making enough noise anyways and with its connection to her armour, there was no need for an audio reminder of the pulses it sent out, attempting to find any signs of life or movement. And she did; small blips, darting about on the sectioned screen reflected from its display onto her HUD; the shapes small and serpentine, darting amidst rock and brush. Far from what they were watching out for given their minuscule inches-long build.

And possibly the prey for whatever dwelt here when larger sentients were in short supply.

"In'anna, remember if you pick up the scent again, let us know immediately."

Gunny gave another inward sigh as Igia gave the order to look around. She understood the archaeologist's desire to get to work, but they'd walked over actual bodies on the way in. They needed to secure the location. Check for traps before sending their researchers out.

She watched In'anna walk past her, goggled eyes intent on uncovering the places secrets.

Seidreainne's words snapped her out of a long stream of mental cursing. She nodded to the - whatever she was, Gunny needed to check the file again - and began to search the room for any sign of hostile activity. Despite all the tension, her arms wielded her rifle with mechanical precision.

"More examples of this place being used recently," she muttered. "It's been tidied up but you can't really cover your tracks in an old place like this. Too much dust and debris. If whoever did all this isn't here right now, good odds that they'll be coming back."

She peered down another hallway. Movement at the bend in the passageway, close to the ground, caught her eye. Gunny frowned at it, looking back to the others.

"Got some movement over here. Seidreaiine, that scanner of yours picking up any large critters? Say, knee-high or so?"

The eel moved immediately, sliding up to the wall, weapon raised in one hand and the scanner peeking around the corner. From her HUD she began to analyse the readings; something larger than the previous organisms she detected but they moved fast leaving her with afterimage blurs like powdery smears against the micro-screen of the data-matrix flashing inside of her head.

"Tracking seismic patterns... they're moving down that corridor fast. Too late for a sonar pulse but they definitely were aware we were here before we entered. Can't get a grasp on the size; reading is blurred but I think roughly knee height. No idea if it's our killer but I'm hedging on something bigger or a lot more of these guys."

So they were made, basically. There were multiple entities on the reading, at least three or four. That meant that they were social and if so, there was a high likelihood there were more. Yet they hadn't moved close; observed from afar.

"Everyone watch the entrances to the room and if you detect any movement, let us know. I don't think what we just saw are the killers as these long corridors are a bad place to ambush from; all the distance they'd have to travel means they'd be shredded if they tried to get close. Likely scavengers, smaller predatory organisms - but if they can survive here, they're definitely food for something larger."

In'anna made affirmative noises both for Seidreaiine's sake but also to herself. A couple of more pictures were enough to piece together a complete print on the data slate. The fox began tapping on the slate with one hand her ears seeming to twitch in time of every press of a button. "It w-will take some ti-me t-t-to decypher full." she sounded rather happy, pleased even of being useful for her first-ever dig. The slate, connected to the InterNEP contained some rather useful language databases. They still had a fair bit of traffic, even if they didn't contain a prodigious amount of slang, curse words and other obscenities as Trade. Still useful. She connected with them and watched as the slate did its work.

Temple, Main Hall

"Th-The nice old lady t-told me the tongue they speak is the tongue we hear. Ho-However..." "This s-seems li-ke the cryptographical equivalent to runes as a written language.""Very interesting!"

Kneeling down to the side of the tabled and letting her hand slide over letters as Igia smiled softly and nods to herself in agreement that this was amazing, the cultural win they would gain from this dig was going to put S:I on the map with many other potential contacts. Bit of danger was not going to put this team back or anything. Looking at her security detail, she narrows a bit her eyes and refocused on the wall "Decypering, In'anna follow me up..." She said hoping to combine their skills together to solve the language barrier.

"Got some movement over here. Seidreaiine, that scanner of yours picking up any large critters? Say, knee-high or so?"

"Tracking seismic patterns... they're moving down that corridor fast. Too late for a sonar pulse but they definitely were aware we were here before we entered. Can't get a grasp on the size; reading is blurred but I think roughly knee height. No idea if it's our killer but I'm hedging on something bigger or a lot more of these guys."

There was indeed something out there, shadows were moving from entree point to entree point. There were optional pathways that leads to other parts of the temple. Something was watching them, something was keeping an eye out of the invaders that ignored the warnings to enter the temple in the first place. But nothing showed up into the light of the security forces.

"Everyone watch the entrances to the room and if you detect any movement, let us know. I don't think what we just saw are the killers as these long corridors are a bad place to ambush from; all the distance they'd have to travel means they'd be shredded if they tried to get close. Likely scavengers, smaller predatory organisms - but if they can survive here, they're definitely food for something larger."

Then the scanners would indicate a sudden withdrawal from the area and nothing was shown on the scanners. Were they safe? Was, whatever it was, it gone now? The researchers did not really notice what was happening around them. They were focused on the material in front of them. The security forces, however, were on edge most likely.

"It w-will take some ti-me t-t-to decypher full."

Igia narrowed her eyes as she held the pad in front of the tablet and the words started to change slowly "We will get there In'anna ...I am reading that the temple of sun and bringer of light was held here..." She looked at the riddle on the tablet " "Enter the temple with clean and pure thoughts, do not lie, do not sway for its tricks. Lust will be your biggest temptation. Stay on the path of right and you will find the light" Igia blinks "Weird..."

In'anna's ears perked up as Igia read just what the elderly woman had told her. "Th-that's what the old woman told me!" she exclaimed excitedly. Though she felt a chill in the air. Her tail wagged with a little more force as she read what was being translated on her dataslate. With a squint, she nodded to herself with a 'Hum Hum' accompanying it. The warnings surely reminded her of those poor lost souls out in the ruined camp. "Per-perhaps we shouldn't take a-an-anything from here." she suggested. This temple was still in use hundreds of years later, she could smell moldering flora and rancid flesh offerings in the air. Though there was something else, something she couldn't quite pin down.

Her ears turned, swiveled as if she were trying to listen for anything out the ordinary. "W-We sho-should warn the others t-to not touch anything. For now a-atleast." In'anna added after a moment's thought.

"The bringer of an early grave is here too. I love your dedication to archaeology, I really do, but whatever is in here is definitely waiting for us to make one wrong move before it slices us open before we can blink." Personally, she preferred being the one doing the ambushes. They were "safe" here in the sense that having automatic weaponry in long corridors meant that whoever tried to assault your position was going to have a wonderful time getting close enough to do so. The problem was that it also meant moving out of this room would be tricky and if anything closed in on them, it was going to be very confusing and likely lethal getting away from them.

"I wonder how fun all this deciphering will be once we're simultaneously having a shootout."

"An additional conic matrix here would give a better rotation, but there is the massive risk of an electron avalanche frying everything from the grinding effect" Egwene looked over a half-finished blueprint and thought. Sure, her brain moved several times faster than a human and she could calculate requisite calculations at a phenomenal speed. But, the detachment made it hard to invest in a project and as a result made it hard to really want to finish it. So she spoke to herself as a grounding effect to avoid that.

"Though, something like that does sound fun. If we can build a machine capable of inspiring a radical negative charge, and then some electrodes at our fingertips, it would be great theatrics, if nothing else" she doodled a bit more, and then sat up and cocked her head. Mechanical brain or no, she wasn't immune to forgetting things. After all, it didn't matter how strong you were if you just sat on the couch eating chips.

She cycled through what she had earmarked recently, and then came across the expedition she was meant to be going on with S.E.A.R.C.H.
"NYA! I'm late!" she exclaimed, hastily gathering her stuff that she would need and sprinting out of the door. She made good time, given the mechanical nature of her body, but nobody could run fast enough to be on time if they were already late.

Turning up to the site with her tools and clothes that seemed a little tighter than what their appearance should imply, Egwene stood awkwardly and nodded at the rest of the people. Due to the rapid and hasty entrance she made, the blood and other things putting the team on edge went entirely unnoticed by Egwene.
"Hello! I am here and not totally late at all"

Gunny trained her weapon on the newcomer. The combined stress of what was creeping around in the halls, combined with the woman's rapid arrival, was enough to fray a few nerves. If she'd been any less experienced, she'd likely have pulled the trigger. She was glad to see that the others with her had similar discipline.

"Who in the bloody hell are - wait," she muttered gruffly, mentally going through the dossiers. "You're the no-show. Did you.. walk all the way here?" She waved a metal hand in the air, motioning for the others to stand down. "This is our field tech, everyone. Very smart, or so the papers say, but not very timely."

Gunny lowered her weapon and took a few menacing steps towards the newcomer. "You nearly got yourself blown to pieces there. We're dealing with unknown hostiles and you are lucky to not count yourself among them. Well," she sighed as she looked around, "we're glad to have you, late entrance or not. I'm Gunny - part of the security detail here. If I say jump, you jump. Hear me? Seidreainne and Horus will also be doing their best to keep you safe.

Igia will probably have more orders for you. Go make your introductions and see about being useful."

The blonde paused as she started to walk away. "Keep an eye out and if you see something, say something."

"Th-that's what the old woman told me!" "Per-perhaps we shouldn't take a-an-anything from here." "W-We sho-should warn the others t-to not touch anything. For now a-atleast."

Looking at her side to the little Daur and blinks at her rambling "What old woman.... you mean the old woman from the village?" Igia looked back at the translated languages "Would she know already what this place is about? Oh damn it....we should have asked her more in detail. At the other side of the coin, she was pretty isolated and wanted us gone out of her village and perhaps even worse" Igia crossed her arms and shook her head as if she was talking to herself and looked at In'anna when she mentioned the last part and raise a finger "That is a keen observation, we shouldn't be tempted by anything in this temple" She nods to herself.

"I wonder how fun all this deciphering will be once we're simultaneously having a shootout."

Rolling her eyes as she heard the complaining "Oh shush it you..." She said with a smile on her face looking at the data "We are doing our job and you guys need to do your job...what's the deal with the people around us or bleeps" Igia was not very well trained in all these security details and actually blinked when she saw the Nep woman walking into the room with Gunny aiming her weapon, of course, a logical reaction. Well, she deals with that and looked back at the data.

"Hello! I am here and not totally late at all" "This is our field tech, everyone. Very smart, or so the papers say, but not very timely."

Not paying attention to the interaction between them she just put her right hand and wave slightly "Yo..." Igia said a bit to relax. As she nods to In'anna "Let's get going then. We don't want the gunners to get tenser. Keep that nose in check young lady, its use right now" She winks at her and follows Gunny to the hallway that brought them deeper into the temple. She looked at the new gal and leans a bit to her side "Igia is the name, I read your profile Egwene...that's how you pronounce your name right? Right...the sitrep here is that we are in a temple that got tons of great findings, traps and some bleeping here and there" The excitement was to be heard in her voice "Your job is pretty much to understand or try to understand the mechanical systems within this temple, like..." They stopped at a room with a door that was solid shut "That...."

The room they were now in was for sure deeper into the temple and daylight was seen from the top, there were mirrors everywhere with circle-like shapes but they were not used for quite some time. Igia eyes looked further and saw some coins laying around and other metals "Leave the metals and coins on the ground, that is an order or we will have a bigger problem" Looking back at the door, there were symbols, drawings and four blue crystals at the top, two at each side of the door. Igia sighs and puts her hands at her side "Egwene good luck with figuring that one out..." She looked at her side to In'anna "Your program has a general idea of the language right now right? So far I can make out of the picture is some kind of history print" Igia looked at the door and back into the room slowly seeing more of these prints "Which is common among old civilizations that are ...not that far developt..."

Meanwhile, among the searching and securing the room, a blinking reflection hits Gunny's eye from the side. When her focus would gaze upon that direction she could see a shape of red stone, a piece of jewelry that ...is known to her.

"Hostiles?! That is terrible!" Egwene exclaimed, staring at the woman and then sort of just going blank and gazing into nothingness for a few moments before snapping back into the reality of the moment and listening to the woman. The place was horrible, they were all going to die, and the door in front of them was locked. Which, was not much of a problem for Egwene, honestly. She just set her cybernetic eyes to deep-scanning it. While her magnification wasn't microscopic, it was roughly x10 or so, and she could get a good grasp of the material and the fault-lines if she needed to bust through it.

The drawings and crystals were interesting though. She set TONY to scanning the composition of the crystals as well as the door and had it crunch the numbers while she looked around and tried not to feel really wigged out about the whole thing.
"I am going to need to hide behind you for a few moments. I didn't expect hostiles here! And, I sort of am late but I was sure this whole thing was tomorrow, but I lost time in some plans and tomorrow became today before I realized it"

In'anna squinted as she read the in-progress translation. She hadn't so much as jumped when this new, extra stranger suddenly appeared so intent on her job she just kept going. In'anna tapped at the screen, finally taking notice of Igia's moving. She had pictures and a translation working anyway so the small fox was ready to move on. On tiny feet, In'anna trailed behind the taller, longer limbed Iromakuanhe as she spoke to the new person.

The archeologist's tongue stuck partially out as she found her happy medium of focus versus flat out terror of someone new. So she kept an eye on the newbie just in case. Yet she was still excited to the point her fluffy, bright golden furred tail swished back and forth. All of a sudden she frowned, her nose crinkled before looking up. Her head turned from left to right, tail stilling a little as she glanced about.

"S-S-Something smells s-strange..." In'anna announced with a brief pawing at her tiny nose. There was no telling at how much dampened rock, moss, fungi, stagnant water, and moldering offerings had left their mark here. It didn't have that same deathly sick smell to it from the outside. But it smelled odd on a planet filled with odd smells. So intent was she, In'anna had all but forgotten Igia and the new person at the moment. She trotted around the immediate area, sniffing here and there. Perhaps it was just 'age' having left its smelly mark on this place. "No-Not a wh-wh-whole lot l-like outside though."

Gunny watched the newcomer as she settled in and seemed satisfied. She wasn't certain what the woman's contribution would be, but an extra set of eyes couldn't hurt in this situation.

"A smell?" Gunny asked aloud, listening to In'anna as she walked over to the odd object. "Let us know if you find anything. And be careful - stick your nose in the wrong place and you might not get it back."

Warning issued, she crouched down to get a better look at the bit of jewelry.

"Strange," she thought, "my mother had a necklace like this - but it was custom made."

The security officer was wavering between poking it with the tip of her gun or just picking it up. Just before she started to poke it, she remembered Igia's orders.

"Hey, boss?" she asked, looking for the diminuitive researcher. "Got something weird over here. I'm pretty sure only one of these was ever made and my mother isn't the type to wander around a place like this. Wanna take a look?"

"Somebody go smell it with her our little friend." Seidreainne called out. "Or better yet, start digging and see what happens."

Someone needed to keep guarding the entrances. It was clear they were not alone here and there was no telling which corridor danger would come barreling their way.

"Actually, while I'm waiting, what does it smell like? Details please."

"Hey, boss?" "Got something weird over here. I'm pretty sure only one of these was ever made and my mother isn't the type to wander around a place like this. Wanna take a look?"

Looking at the direction of the Nep, Igia walked towards her and kneels down to look at the said jewelry. It was quite beautiful and yet Igia didn't feel drawn to it, for her it was just a rock "Custom made you say, what happened towards the original of your mothers?" She looked at Gunny and blinked a few times "Are you really sure that this is the same one your mother wears?" But for some strange feeling, Gunny felt drawn to it, felt sure of it, it was her mother's jewelry.

Meanwhile, the smell became intense, it was sweet, bit sour but not like rotten flesh or something. It draws the little Daur to the side of the walls, no it came from a different direction. Something was not tipping it, she knew that smell. A smell from home? Meanwhile, Seidreainne and Egwene would notice stones moving from their eye corners, but when looking at the direction...nothing was moving.

Gunny rubbed at the back of her neck while she thought, the metal of her fingers cool against her skin. "As far as I know, she still has it. It's been a while since I saw her. There's even an inscription on the back. Here, let me show you."

The security chief reached down, picking up the necklace and turning it over. She expected to see a simple message from her father etched into the back.

"Re-Remember w-hat I s-s-said about t-t-t-touching t-things." In'anna warned once more before a familiar, almost nostalgic scent tickled her sniffer. The tiny Duar sniffed again, the scent wafting up to her little nose as she tried to track it. It reminded her of the fruit and flower bearing trees of her family's estate. She used to sit in the branches of a large fruit tree and read as a kit. It had been her haven from bullies and other unhappy things. This gentle reminder made her tail wag a little too vigorously as she scampered around trying to pin it down. The walls? Sniff, Sniff. No, it had been strong there but seemed to come from elsewhere.

Up above her, it seemed to be a little stronger. Enough for her to hop up and down, the comically large backpack jingling as its bearer managed to jump a rather respectable height despite the weight. The benefits of a heavy gravity homeworld had made its presence known the moment she'd left the Nesha Prime and into the weaker gravity of other inhabited planets and stations.

The small fox xenoarcheologist frowned, unable to fully track what wafted to her. The frown creasing her lips, as thoughts of home and her family came to mind. "Th-Th-This p-place is s-s-trange," In'anna announced as she fiddled with a handkerchief rubbing her nose with it. Looking to one of the security chiefs, and to the Iromakuanhe woman, In'anna made a little squeak of warning, hands flailing about as she tried to politely and gently try and get them to stop touching things.