Alipier Observatory
Hallway
A quiet, decaying whine was released from the glaive as the extra weight pressing it through the informants poncho and into the tile began to die. It wasn't long before the rightful owner came to reclaim the hefty polearm, which seemed to fall out Ausse's hands towards the approaching Overseer. The glaive wavered and stopped halfway down, the business end lining up with OSC-01s out stretched wing.
"The pilot said it. Cloak signature logged." The Overseer said brazenly, an eye falling briefly to the dropped fabric. With a flick of their arm, the polearm spun around, snagging the loose white veil with the hook on its back end. The glaive followed it's owners wing as it raised towards the ceiling, folding neatly back into a feathery shape with the fabric caught snug in the seam between light and dark metal as she turned back towards the stairs.
Nave
Deimos had likely begun to regret his decision about halfway through the vent, past the point of no return. "Vent" was a bit of a loving term, as it was more of a utilized crevasse in the mountain itself: tight, uneven, and cold. After a few minutes of struggling, covered in dust and husks of deceased insects, he emerged at the other end of the Nave, on the balcony outside of the the Observatory dome. He managed to finally squeeze out of the gated hole, but with some loss. His pata (and several pieces of metal arm) were stuck firmly wedged at the exit of the vent. It seemed like the sword was not coming out without some kind of obnoxious force. It would have to wait.
From his new vantage point, he could see Marie treading about the Observatory dome, as well as the new silky black banners that were strung from the ceiling. At the opposite wall of the grand hall was a pile of stacked pews, concealing something dark behind them. It appeared to be a large set of double doors. At the end of the balcony was a small ladder, which ran down one of the many support columns.
There was no sign of the man named Bryce, or his mechanical follower- however, there laid abandoned on the balcony the guts of... some form of machine.At first there was no rhyme or reason to the pile of loose casing and machinery, but it seemed that it originally formed a ring. It had been laid out on a mat, but then that mat was shoved loosely out of sight from the floor. Given the rusted and broken state of some of the finer guts, as well as the gutted wiring, however, it didn't look serviceable.
Most notably, it seems someone had been there to inspect it first. Laying at the basin of the dissected ring was a piece of paper, stuck to a flat reddish crystal nonchalantly with a piece of tape.
-FUSE NONVOLATILE
STATUS: Gate's fucked. Too much lost to degradation.
GATE M# EC-412??E
FUSE M# Homemade.
REGISTRY -
AVISTEN: No Avisten stops registered.
VOFEL MANU: No.
OAKHI: Possibly. Near province.
INCIPERE: Messy. Destination has either been destroyed, moved, or something has gone wrong in between.
Two unregistered locations, one possibly nearby. Similar errors.
Stuck to the bottom end of the page was an equally snarky post-it note. "Zever, Peter. I told you to upload it."
---
As Marie circled the device, she could feel a familiar draw causing the hair on her neck to stand. Also, quite the possibility of her stomach turning as well. Outside the cold windows, she could see the partly-excavated remains of some kind of courtyard, grey bricks and stepping stones quickly becoming covered by ice once more. There was a broken fountain in the center of the courtyard, whatever stone figure it was meant to bear having been eroded by constant weather. The sound of a quiet wind chime could be heard through the cracks in the pain, barely powering through the swirling wind.
Just beyond the fountain, however, was a series of out of place metal pikes. It looked as if someone has ripped them out of a gate and stuck them carefully spaced apart. They were recent, but their wear suggested they may predate the "restoration" . There were four in total.
Galley
"That looks a little like the crystal from Loinia" Befuddled the captain, shortly before interruption.
Rhea fumbled about the bolt, getting a grip before she could let it drop. The crystal gripped firmly between her fingers, the orphan could feel a familiar tinge to it immediately. As she rotated to face the captain, a small force reverberated through the bolt. It grew in frequency and magnitude quickly, as a bright blue spark ran from one tip to the other.
Within a moment to bolt detonated with force, sending a searing blue beam of heat and light towards the wall with howling cry that echoed clear through the entire observatory. Dahlia let out a less-than-heroic yelp and jumped straight into the air, fall out of the door frame and into the hallway behind her. The bolt did not lose it's trajectory as it punched straight through the stone wall separating the galley and the bunkroom, leaving a baseball-sized hole in its wake.
Rhea's hands were left lightly burned, with small flakes of crystal puncturing her fingertips in several places. The crystals didn't stick around for investigation however, and quickly began to seep into her very skin.
Hallway, Again
OSC-01, in light of the news received through her Pixy unit, OSC-01 was prepared to hasten her search of the other detachement of the group. The Overseer's head snapped around a clean 180 degrees at the sound of the familiar screech of echyllis, raising a hand in alertness. In the cargo bay, the Pixy mimicked the motion away from Romulus, unintentionally transmitting the sound as well.
The Overseer reached back, twisting around to grab Ausse by the still-whole half of his poncho. With a heave, the robot swung the man away from the back of the hallway with an urgent amount of force. Not a moment afterwards, the door to the bunkroom erupted with roaring flames, the gasoline within ignited by the wayward bolt. The flames trickled out of the room, slowly igniting the more diluted fuel that had seeped away from the source.
Nave, Again
Shortly after the howl permeated the air inside the nave, it became dead silent. After a few moments, a loud thud echoed from a room beyond, in the opposite direction. The brief ruckus came from the left side of the room, behind the large stack of pews.