Dahlia sat there as the rest filed into place, collecting her notes together to get this thing underway. She cleared off some of the excess books on the table surrounding her, and leaned down to grab something out of her duffle bag. Her torso returned above the tabletop with a small projector in hand, spotting a few of the new arrivals along the way. "Welcome, welcome!.."
The blue-haired scholar set the projector on the table beside her before stopping herself. She looked back up at one of the new members, realizing she'd seen the fox before. It took only about a second to put a name to the face. "Deimos, is that you?"
He didn't notice the likeness of Dahlia at first, thinking her as your average dark-haired girl. But it was her voice, and the deep hue of her eyes blended with a look of wisdom that gave her away. "Dahlia Morgan." the halfbreed hummed, a small smile emerging on his face. "Should have known that you would be a part of this ragtag bunch."
His metal hand emerged from his cloak and racked along the table with an oddly hollow sound, like tin cups being knocked against the wood in rapid succession. "It's been what, two years since our last expedition?" He raised an eyebrow, one ear lowering while the other flipped up to face her, tail wagging behind him. He looked around at everyone. "And if that outburst a moment ago was you. That must mean you finally convinced some codgers that old city you've been trying to find is more than just some wive's tale."
Dahlia smiled, correct in her assumptions. "Aye, it's been a while!" She didn't stop her work to talk, but continued setting up anyways. "I've been getting information from all over, and this time I've got it all nicely compacted..." She took a moment to turn on the datapad she had set on the table, placed neatly beside a reinforced blue binder. "I didn't expect quite so many to answer, but I think it'll be grand. How's the arm treating you?"
"Despite having it for more than ten years, it still makes a lot of things difficult for me, but better to have a clumsy arm than none at all. Just wish I didn't get so many weird looks." He looked to the metal palm, raising it in front of his face before flipping it around to look at the shining metal on the back of its gauntlet. "You've got so many strange things out there and a half-fox with a metal arm is enough to warrant stares. Probably wouldn't be as odd if it weren't such an artifact." A chuckle escaped him before his slipped the limb towards an empty seat. "Mind if I sit? I want to see what kind of mission briefing you have in store. Maybe I might tag along."
Dahlia nodded, looking back at the half-fox. "I can understand. I've been lucky enough to not lose anything yet." She smiled at the question. "Sure thing! I'm just about to get started here..."
The elder but fit man from earlier reappeared in the study, taking a place to the side of the table. After a moment passed, the 'blueberry' stood again, clearing her throat. "Welcome, everybody. As he said, I am Dahlia Morgan, scholar and captain for this joint venture." She laid one hand on the table as she spoke. "And this man is Mervius Talamon, the owner of the Downrider Inn." Mervius gave a small disgruntled wave, eyeing some of the troublesome members here.
"Most of you that are here likely heard from my calls a bit of what were getting into, but for now I'd like to elaborate." Dahlia paused for a moment, collecting her words. "My whole life I've heard countless stories pertaining to an ancient race. Not just fairy tales, but rather stories like those found in a bible. They told the tales of a dark place called Arcadia, and how fate ultimately destroyed it. These stories intrigued me, and as I grew older I started collecting them. Any bit of information I could get on them."
She tapped the top of the blue binder sitting on the table." You can ask Deimos, I once had a whole trunk full of the things. After so much collection, I spent months compiling everything down into this one book." The scholar held up the binder, which was bound with a weather-proof cover and featured distinct silver characters emblazoned upon the spine and cover.
Moving on, she spoke quite prominently. "The more I collected and compared, the more similarities started popping up. Informants from the far reaches started to confirm my suspicions that something big is out there. After spending the past year on back and forth charter trips, I know that these stories are not fiction."
The scholar turned on the miniature projector on the table, and motioned to the side of the room. Mervius dimmed the lights before cutting them completely. Within seconds, a broad square of light appeared on one side of the A-frame ceiling. The slide was blank white at first, before it transitioned to display a sector map with an audible click. Several red lines and circles were drawn on the map, all of which were far 'north' of their current planet. "This is the proposed route I've laid out, based on my recent travels. It'll take us a ways out, where a drone of mine captured..."
With another click, the slide transitioned to a satellite-perspective shot of a thick forest. It was a little grainy, but the shapes of an unusually shaped building could be made out. It appeared to be partially caved in from the looks of it. "These." A few more photos flickered by, showing the building again. "The probe tells me that the site has a slightly higher level of radiation than normal, as well."
She turned to face the crowd again, changing the slide back to the route map. "I haven't been on the planet itself yet, but informants have told me there's been an unusual amount of activity in the area in the last year or so, a lot of which undocumented." She took a break to let people examine the map, bringing up her bag. "But that's not all that I've got..."
The scholar seemed quite excited, pulling out a black soft case from the duffel bag. Out of that bag she pulled... a pile of oddly shaped and colored rocks? One appeared to be round and concave, whole the other three were flatter, almost like shields. The central piece had a battery pack wired to it. Upon closer inspection, the whole pile looked almost rusted, like metal...
"I picked this up from one of them along the way." Dahlia grinned. She leaned to the center of the table, flicking on the switch connected to the battery pack. At first, nothing happened, but soon the thing started to shudder lightly. The little shields started to almost gravitate towards the central piece, it a bit wobbly. "Feel free to take a look."
