Ancient Trials, Ancient Sins

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Right, no touching."
Mainframe signals to follow her closely, as she moves toward where the gate to perhaps take a better look. Along the way, she manages to come across one of the probes, which she quickly used it to access the data collected and carry it with her for now.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As Mainframe approached gate, what she found was... curious.
Where one would have expected some monolithic doorframe what she found was an almost circular plate in the wall. there were no visible slits in it indicating to where or how it would be opening but it was clearly spearate from teh surrounding walls.
On the surrounding walls, stylised figures were depicted, some kneeling, their heads to the ground, others the hands raised up as if in praise or awe. On the gate itself, was a large, vertical stylised eye. Lines going going out from it like a radiance, all ending at the eye itself, surrounding it seemed to be what almost looked like a sort of crown, marking the border between the walls and the gate itself.
There was something unsettling about it, less about the depiction itself but more about this particular instance of it, as if it had a presence in of itself.
Taking a closer look at the surroundings,s he could not find Hal, he was likely walking somewhere through the darkness, the light too dim to show his position, however one the walls themselves she noticed figures she hadn't seen before.
There some bent over in agony, some kneeling instead of their hands on their ground, seemed to be holding htier heads and writhing agony, some of those she presume praising, looking like they tried to gauge out their eyes in painstaking detail the carving in of themselves should not be able to depict at this scale.
It was as if the gate had suddenly grown ever so slightly larger before her.

Whatever it was that rested here, they had certainly found something.
The question was, whether this was what they were looking for.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Mainframe murmurs, her hand still fiddling with the probe while scanning through the figures, thinking to herself..
"A crown, worshipped by mortals, the sign of divinity..."
fitting for what they were aiming for, yes.
"But...pain...?"
She recalls the oopart...the scroll which tells the story of the wishing grail, and the hints from Herald's confirmation. but none quite fits the theme of gory suffering. Albeit, the "everything", the price of using the grail, can somewhat be interpreted as such, but even then this sounds a bit too mild and of bad taste...
"Well in religions Gods are known for their bad taste, so....eh better prep some painkillers I guess..."
Subtly adding another minor adjustment to the preparation within her mind, Mainframe approaches the gate, and places the probe approximately five steps away from the archway, before turning back to where the guide is sitting.
Be it what they were looking for or not,
no touching.
for now

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As she approached the guide, she could hear him, before she actually saw him, likely courtesy of all of the interference on this planet. His voice genuinely surprised for one.
"Oh, you're back already?"
As she came closer she saw him tilting his head, as if looking for something besides, or behind her, which was not actually there. Though even more strangely, the man was not wearing his hood anymore, showing what could be pale skin and what could be silvery white hair, he squinted, his pupils a dark colour, though any of this was hard to determine with certainty, given the light they had given her was not exactly optimal. From what she could tell he could be anywhere from 30 to 50 years old, if human standards applied to them at all.
"Where is your companion? Haven't seen him since he you walked off, are you trying to distract me?"
It was now that she noticed, Hal was in fact not here, nor had she met him on the other side, or seen him at any point between. Which likely meant he was still looking at the walls.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Huh"
Mainframe shrugged, still mostly occupied with how things should go when nighttime comes.
"Last saw him wandering deep into the darkness, no clue where he is right now, probably still over at the walls."
She points with a finger toward where she last saw him, and a look as irresponsible as she can look.
"We are just in partnership for the same goal, theres no right for us to control nor most be notified of every move that he makes. Plus he seem to know more about the ins and outs of this planet than us anyway. and we don't really have the obligation nor the motive to return here, instead of doing whatever-you-are-thinking ourselves."
She and Yuki takes a seat next to the guide, and shared water and packet of biscuits.
"He should return back to here soon, so better off for us two to wait here instead of going out and get lost in the darkness. Of course, as partnerships go, we will deal with whatever consequences that may arise using my life. By the way, you seem to worry about more things than you have shared so far, mind telling us what it may be?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
The man frowned and looked at her for quite a while, then shook his head.
"Strangers are a rarity, be they from here or elsewhere.
Some die out in the ash, others try to steal from us. Some are worse than that."
He looked out into the dark, Hal had still not returned.
"If you let a stranger in your house are not wary of them?
The deserts are a dangerous place, more so than you have witnessed, one needs to be careful or their days will be few."
The expression that entered his face was hard to read, he likely hadn't told her everything, though nor would he tell her anything more from what it looked like. The silence dragged but eventually, there were steps in the dark, shortly followed by a dim red light, gently swaying up and down in the dark before Hal came into view from direction of the gate.
"I see you're back."
There was a moment of silence as the man listened to something without Hal answering, their companions expression seemed to have no significant change from when he left, though he did seem to be in thought, which wasn't the first time.
"We're going back to the surface, I take it you've seen what you wanted, we'll be leaving tomorrow morning once the sun rises."
Hal simply nodded and followed as the carvan leader stood up and headed upstairs.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Mainframe shrugs and stood up as well, followed by Yuki. The two of them follow the caravan leader's steps, although Mainframe lagged behind slightly and stuffed a small piece of paper in Hal's hand, with the following message quite roughly etched onto it:
A little talk before you sleep tonight, just in case anything happens.
No additional indications from Mainframe, or at least none that's oblivious enough to be perceivable. Soon enough they reach the surface, and Mainframe just abruptly releases a "Hmm" out of nowhere.
"Hey Yuki, you got any idea about sending a signal over vast distances?"
"...I thought you forgot about me already...also, don't you got flares and stuff?"
"Well visibility is an issue depending on the distance, plus the whole jamming with radiation...ah."
Mainframe eye the morphs on Yuki's hand suspiciously.
"Wha...what do you want"
"Do you still remember where our ride is left behind?"
"well...about that direction..."
"Cool, send these there then."
Mainframe pulls out a flare gun out of nowhere, loaded three flares, and fires them into the sky without any warning.
"You-"
Yuki, who is visibly frustrated by Mainframe's doing, sends her morphs chasing the three flares, each cocooning around them like a spindle while leaving some space for the flares to be visible before flying off.
"Next time, say something before you do it."
"But I did say something didn't I?"
"Oh you old hag-"
Yuki starts throwing fists toward Mainframe, who smiles lightly and dodges them, but her gaze is fixed towards the clouds, on something that got briefly outlined by the flares, something of a quite familiar shape to them...

"Oh hey, they are back."
Galar, still eating dust above the site, finally got some visual while hanging his head out of the cockpit.

Are you sure its them?

"Well its quite hard to miss their vibrant hair colors, so unless there's a dyeing factory down there, yes its them."

......Unusual heat signatures noted, Chance of collision: 0, Holding position

"Why is she launching flares..."Emergency", "Converge", "My location", huh looks like there will soon be a party."

......Let's hope we have what it takes for messing around

Click...Clack...
Cogs, primitive and rather basic for mechanical units, but undoubtedly precise with adequate protection provided. This cog slowly turns, counting down time with each teeth lodging and unlodging with another, waiting to undergo the command it is briefly programmed for.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal took the note and opened, but not before giving Mainframe a somewhat confused look, he made no further comment on it other than nodding absently but at least he read it.
As they reached teh surface and mainframe fired her flare gun, both Hal and her guide almost jumped out of their shoes, followed a string of foreign curses from the guide as he stared up at the disappearing balls of light and then back at mainframe.
"By the stars, are you crazy?! What are you trying to do attract the Hazra to this place?!"
He stared out into the ash in the dim evening light, clearly uneasy and searching for any form of movement, luckily for them there was none, at least none they could see right now. He grumbled, almost growled then half turned back to the group.

"By the Untouchable, I swear if we'll have to deal with Hazra tomorrow at sunrise when we planned to depart I'm going to throw you out as bait..."
He left them standing where they were and headed to the other natives looking up at the lights with concern.

Night approached, soon it would be time to rest.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos (I took the guess that there's still somewhat bright sunlight when doing the dumb move...but I guess its equally dumb regardless XD)
"Well then..."
Watching the sun, or at least, the drastically dispersed glow of what's left of the sunlight fades away in the far horizon, Mainframe, along with Yuki, simply stand where the guide left them, putting a decent amount of distance from where the majority is.
"Say, what exactly did you do down there? All i notice is you planted something"
"Honestly discovering those probes down there is a surprise, but that does give me a chance to hopefully activate the gate from a safe distance away... that is if it doesn't need niche criteras like soul or blood..."
"So a 50/50, but why before sleep?"
"Do you remember what i told you about our aim? "To reduces collateral losses as much as we can while striving to achieve godhood""
"Still sounds a bit iffy to me especially when you just launched three big bright flares without warning..."
"Well if all things went south ima try and buy some time for you all."
A faint gloom lingers on Mainframe's face as she say that, but before Yuki can ask more about it, gentle footsteps rustle against the dirt as Hal returns, as according to that little message.
"Glad to have you back, now...if you sense any sort of vibration, run towards the camp and tell everyone to gather up. Yuki, take this."
Mainframe hand over the flare gun, loaded with a shot.
"Once you think everyone is coming to you, fire this upward, help should be near."
"And you?"
"Depends."

Click...Clack...
...Tick
With the cog reaching the predetermined trigger point, the probe previously settled by Mainframe slowly inches towards the gate, four steps...three steps...two steps...and....contact

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
There was a silent clack of metal on rock as the drone made contact, eachoing through the massive pitch blqack hall in the depths beneath them.
Following it came a long, drawn out silence, the echo returned, followed by an even longer drawn out silence...

...and nothing.

Whatever way there was to open the gate, it seems the drone would not do, before any further tests could proceed, the two above ground were approached, this time it was Hal.
"You wanted something?", he asked eyeing them with mild curiosity.
"It's not going to be another thing upsetting the inhabitants of this place is it?"

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Huh..."
Checking on the time for a second time before finally putting the pocket watch away, only an exhale of mixed emotions is released by Mainframe, a mixture of dissatisfaction, confusion, and a bit of relief. After a brief moment, she turns to Hal, with a mild sour look on her face.
"Well... it was, but now it isn't. Long story short, a deployed timed probe touched the gate back down there, but nothing happened. Ignoring that it may have gotten damaged or destroyed by those big Glugras down there, perhaps pure mechanical construct isn't sufficient to activate it, or that the gate simply refuses to respond."
After taking a pause, perhaps to calm her emotions, Mainframe continues.
"Now onto the good...ish news, first, these gates....assuming that there are others in other temples, it seems they are what we looking for."
Mainframe points at herself and Yuki when she says "we", perhaps a doing of subconsciousness, or perhaps a planned act, but it seems to have ruled out Hal from the party.
"If you know anything about them, that you are willing to share that is, that would be greatly beneficial. The caravan leader just refuses to leak any of the secrets, probably a display of their faith towards their "Gods" " She shrugs.
"Secondly, our ride, the Antaeus Airlines, its what I assume to be fixed and currently hovering above our head. Of course, landing it here would raise unwanted tension and attention, but it does provide an alternative path for us all to explore this planet without the guidance, and perhaps monitoring, of the natives. I prefer hearing your thoughts before deciding our next move, since you seem to know more about this place than the two of us do."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
There was a long moment of silence, in which Hal was simply looking at the two, opposed to before, where he looked either determined ucnertain or unsettled in various stages of their time on this planet, now he looked almost... tired, though there was a strange look in his eyes, something almost calculating. Then he seemed to have made a decision.
"I feel like they have plans on their own, otherwise they would not have showed us this place to begin with, I don't know if our guide is aware of it but the elders definitely have something in mind."
He paused looking at the guide from a distance who was currently talking to the others around a small fire which even from here smelled like burnt meat.
"We could go back and see what they want, if it doesn't line up we can still go out, and use your... ship, under other pretenses. It would also cause less issues than disappearing in the middle of the night."
He did not actually look at Yuki this time, so it was uncertain if he referenced her or not.
"What do you think? Anything else?"

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Hm, sounds nice enough."
Mainframe shrugs slightly, seemingly not displeased by the avoidance of the first request, or, not visually at least.
"Well guess that's everything for tonight. Sleep well, Hal."
She turns to Yuki, who is still somewhat zoned out, perhaps just concentrating on moving those morphs over vast distances.
"Yuki, recall those morphs, and let's get some rest."
"...huh? oh....ah, okay."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal nodded and they parted ways, leaving for the nights rest, soon enough the lights went out in the camp and only stars and the strange red glow of the core shone above, as the last rays of light disappeared over the horizon. Once more, despite their actions, the night seemed to be relatively calm or at least no more eventful than the last. Once more the Hazra shrieked in the night, but the sound of shifting sands was no closer than the night before. Galar stood by in silence in the sky, conversing with the AI. Once more the natives were standing guard in the night, until morning came.
...and morning came.

Once more the steps of their guide approached them, with an at best annoyed tone of voice.
He looked around apparently searching for something as the sun rose in their backs.
"Where is your friend?"
He paused, looking over to Hals bed, moving over in an almost paniced manner. As the group still processed what the man just said.
"WHERE IS HALCYON?! WHAT GAME ARE YOU PLAYING HERE?!", now clearly angered.

Unlike the other mornings, Hal was gone, his bed was empty.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Ah..."
Mainframe seems to be expecting such an occasion, as shown by her rather calm expression and somewhat slacking attitude against the issue.
"No clue boss, we exchanged some information last night and without a warning, he just disappear, as you see here."
Mainframe paused for a second, pursing her lips, and looking at the temple.
"Say, instead of suspecting each other here and wasting time, perhaps we try to deduce where he went? for instance...where did he do something similar?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
The man had his fists clenched, looking back and forth between mainframe and his own group for several moments as the morning sun rose over the horizon, then he made sound that was almost like... growling, then he cursed.
" 'Where he did something similar?' What would I know about that?! There's only one place he could've gone, otherwise you would've heard the Hazra all night..."
He yelled a couple of what could be orders to his group who in return continued packing for the departure, as one of them waved and then nodded he, moved over and pulled something long and thin off one of the sleds, as returned to Mainframe, it turned out to a spear, it looked simple, nothing more than a long staff with a sharpened end, though this was the first weapon they had seen on the planet at all, not even the guards had any.

Taking a closer look, it seemed almost like it was from the same material as the building they stood on, giving it an ominous aura.

"You are coming with me, this is your fault, you came here together so he's your responsibility! We've done you no wrong and yet you...", he stopped and turned away, heading towards the entrance mumbling under his breath and then disappeared with quite obviously agitated steps, that were surprisingly fast and nimble.
However, beneath the anger there seemed to be something more, an urgency, like something was wrong.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Yuki, who had been behind Mainframe this whole time, exhaled disappointingly and sidestepped with near-parallel agility to keep up with the guide. Her morphs changed into two purplish daggers with a serrated dorsal side, one on each hand while the third morph hide behind her back. She didn't make much of an apparent move aside from remaining within the guide's visual range, but such obstructions do be quite annoying in such emergent times.
"Look, I understand that our rustbucket hasn't been so friendly nor helpful this whole time, but that's just us being a complete stranger to this place with neither your side nor Halcyon willing to share crucial intel with us. At this point where every decision matters, either you start telling us what you know so at least we can help, or continue keeping the secrets to yourselves, and we will just end up being two additional loose ends setting off every trouble that you didn't tell us not to."

After hearing Yuki calling her "rustbucket", Mainframe murmured under her breath, but remains in silent right behind the two.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Steps echoed and raced downwards, already they were at the bottom of the stairs and the man seemed to have no intention of slowing down, in this moment all caution was out of the window.
"Tell you what?! Things I don't know myself?!", he was clearly agitated, for all he cared they should have fed all of the strangers to the Hazra as soon as they arrived.
They stepped into the room, it was as dark as ever, though the clicking noises were gone, so were presumably the Glugra, though in the complete darkness it was hard to tell. Though he did not stop, presumably having visited this structure dozens of times he found his steps even without the light.
"I am a caravan leader because I am trusted by the elders, because I hold onto the rules and not step over them at every opportunity!"
They turned at the end of the room, into the lower area which had the door and the wall carvings.
"Each and every child is taught not to enter the temples! Nobody who did or even tried ever returned! We are taught to resist desire, to not to search for the..."
His voice trailed off and he fell silent, a last couple steps stumbling forward in disbelief as he did.
The room was brightly lit in an ominous red shine, flickering shadows dancing across the walls, produced by the carvings and the fickle lightning, making it look as if the walls were alive, a faint whisper emanated the thin atmosphere.

The door was open.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Yuki stopped by as the caravan leader held his step, comparatively less frightened but equally astounded by the situation. But for Mainframe, she still lingers behind without much care.
"Hm~"
In contrast to the caravan's faltered voice, Mainframe seems to be more intrigued by the current situation.
"Now this is our responsibility, here."
Mainframe handed some painkillers and plasma substitutes to Yuki.
"Yuki, go back up and call down Galar, dispense these to everyone you come across and relocate them to somewhere safe, it should keep everyone alive for a bit more time in case things really go south."
Without a word, Yuki stumbles back up the stairs, while Mainframe turns to the caravan leader, still relatively at ease with her lousy posture.
"If you wish you can join her as well, run as far as possible, leaving this to someone who dares to tread past rules just to do what they believe to do, and just go back telling the elders that the stranger fucked up. Surely those old slicks have something up their sleeves."
In almost floating fashion Mainframe slid closer to the door and picked up something from the ground. She then points at the spear in the leader's hand, a weapon, and probably the only weapon that ever appeared openly in this relatively peaceful world.
"Or, strive against the unknown as a puny mortal, take matters into your own hands despite objectively impossible, and just try to save the good in this world, even if it is all in vain."
Mainframe threw whatever she got from the ground away from the gate after briefly holding onto it, and held up one of her hand in a welcoming fashion towards the leader.
"So, what is your decision?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
There was a stretch of silence that felt like minutes but were in fact just seconds.
Her former guide stared at the open door and then, ever so slowly, his gaze shifted to her, for the first time since they met him there was something in his eyes that looked like...
...doubt?

His grip faltered and his fingers became shaky.

He was a caravan leader, a trusted of the elders, he always fulfilled his tasks. But what would he even be able to do? He always looked out for his people.
...but there had never been a decison where so much hinged on him. True, he could run now, tell the elders what happened, the outsiders betrayed them and broke their agreement, it wasn't even... wrong.
...yet, it felt wrong.
He remembered the day he was called before the Elders to take up his duty, it was a simple task, one that wasn't even that important compared to the elders or some of the bigger settlements but it was his.
It would be running away.
He had a responsibility, people counted on him to lead them home. Opposed to what the strange woman may think, he did in fact knew nothing of what was beneath but letting her down there alone was just recipe to disaster, it was leaving fate in other peoples hands.
He cursed the day on which the strange people from the stars appeared he and then let off a sound that almost sounded like a growl.
His grip tightened and his back straightened, showing new resolve.

"You are not going to get rid of me this easily." Whatever is down there Halcyon knew as little about it as them, with any luck they'd be able to catch up if they followed his trail.
"Come, we need to hurry, your talk of mortals and struggles tires me, I know nothing of who or what you are but I have responsibiltiies here and Untouchable curse me if I throw them away at the first hurdle."
He stepped forward, straight through the gate, without hesitating any further, what waited behind, was a pit, a faint red glow from somewhere beneath, the dust kicked up from hsi movements, simply floated up to the ceiling, fact that didn't go unnoticed by him.
He breathed in...

...and jumped

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
A slight wistful smile appears on Mainframe's face, as if recalling occasions similar to this, both as someone who witnessed such resolve, and as someone who becomes determined to their path, albeit...
"Heh..."
No, those bad endings shall not happen again, for I am now Mainframe. She thinks to herself, putting the pessimistic thoughts aside, and focusing on the objective. She follows the guide's steps, a small bottle of silvery liquid silently slotted within her grasp.

"Everyone! Attention here! Please!"
After sprinting up the entire stairway, Yuki panted for a quick few seconds before waving her hands to grab the attention of the travelers, even attempting to use her molds to nudge and turn some to her direction forcefully, but to little avail. Most of the groups are chatting to themselves, too absorbed in their own discussion. Perhaps adding to the disadvantage, the previous show of anger by the Guide and the lousy response of Mainframe pushes their credibility to near rock bottom. Even the few who manage to lock their gaze on Yuki, they simply veer off their gaze distastefully and continue what they were doing beforehand.
She fondles through the pile of goodies with the help of her morphs, in hopes of something that can quickly avert the situation. Just as she decide to stop digging and put her hopes on sending her morphs up and hoping Galar is still there and manages to see them, she finds a small gun at the bottom, one that has quite the caliber for its size. She immediately seizes it with a morph and shoots it skyward without a second thought about what it is.
Turns out its the flare gun, or more precisely, the exact same flare gun that Mainframe fired the night before. A bright red flare lit up in the sky, adding a red hue to everything, with moments later the sound of roaring rocket engines, with Antaeus descends from the clouds.
"Woooo-! Antaeus Airlines reporting for action! .....uh...Whats the situation?"
Perhaps being left isolated up in the skies for too long, Galar yelled at the top of his lungs, before noticing everyone looking at him weirdly. Yuki quickly jumps up to the cockpit and brutely takes over his seat by doing a perfect jump kick, silencing Galar in the process while using the onboard comms for her announcement:
"Attention everyone! I know we didn't quite contribute much and contributed to the troubles to some extent, but we don't exactly have much time! Yes, i know our previous doings make us as perhaps the least trustworthy beings here but we do hope to do something in compensation! So please, come abroad and listen to what we got at our hands!"

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