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Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Consider how we start from a certain lizard statue, if your starting point isn't the obelisk, I would advise us to change our current heading, despite going on the same path"
"i thought you are just a spear eh?"
Gillian looks up at the pair as he fiddling something on the ground, before looking back at what he is building: a sheet of sort composed of purple rectangular pieces, all arranged in polygonal structure to maximize its surface area. After assembling the last few pieces, Gil stands back up, does a little stretching, and casually sits cross-legged on the metallic mat, followed by the pair.
"phew...well then, if you don't mind, step right in, we will finish this in no time."

Drakador_Chaos Dumb
"Alll right, off to walking again I reckon then. Cya gents in a jiffy."

The circle of replicants dissasembles itself and gather around like a small platoon with the usual replicant model as the leader of it, he looks for a few moments inquisitively at whatever Gillian is doing, but ultimately he shrugs it off and begrudgingly walks away from the central area, dissapearing into the ominous darkness.
Once again they follow their telemetry data to get to the aforementioned point, taking to hurry in their strides.

    Dumb
    Fort_Master_Gustav


    Hals gaze followed the replicants as they left the plaza until the eventually disappeared in the darkness, he stood there a while longer, for a couple of moments only, then went over to Gillian and his companions.
    "So, we are using this thing?"
    He nodded towards the mat.
    "Alright. Fine with me. It doesn't really matter where we start, so long as it's not on the same path as them we should be able to complete both cycles with adequate haste."
    Without any further questions, or permissions, asked he sat down on the thing and waited.
    He frowned.
    "I don't know what, but something is off about those guys, we should move quickly, I feel like it would be better if we arrive back here before them."
    ...that being said, he eyed Gillian and his companions almost equally as warily, he did not seem to fully trust them either...


    In the meanwhile the replicants made their way off into the darkness, if wasn't a straight path they were walking and if it hadn't been for them being Replicants, finding directions, or anything really in this darkness would've been an issue, however, it was an easy task for them, to navigate the swirling abyss they found themselves in.
    Considering they had already made half the way there was an obvious choice to make, the others probably had already left the plaza by now...
    Would it matter if they sent one theirs back to keep an eye on the central plaza?
    On the other other hand, as biased as the mans words were... there was some logic to them.

    Drakador_Chaos
    Gillian looks Hal in the eye, then turns away with a hint of smile on his face.
    "Speedy it is."
    With a snap of the finger, two metallic panels spring up behind Gil and Hal, supporting the entire back as well as the head, and a set of six-point seatbelts firmly wrapped around their body. While two half-dome emerges right in front of the seats, with the twins tucking in each of them, possibly to shield against the wind
    "Sorry if it's a bit uncomfortable, but we do not want to accidentally do any physical harm... Ahh yes, remember to tuck in your arms as well if your body cannot sustain high Gs, we prefer not to have broken limbs for our passengers..."
    "Sorry to interrupt, but should we tune it all the way up?"
    "Nah, just subsonic, we don't know what effects would be influenced to the actual embassy yet, and a sonic boom on a pavement is certainly not something we want to find out the hard way."
    "Aight, Gev, coordinates set?"
    "Since this is considered as abnormal territory, only relative coordinates are inputted. Otherwise, all lights are green."
    "Good, speed set to 250 m/s, expect...well the hecc do I know about weather forecasts for some enclosed space......but all things aside, hope we don't collide into the other party..."
    "Ahem"
    "Yes....well then, 3, 2, 1, lift off!"
    Following Chesed's command, the entire metallic complex floats up, before dashing to its designated destinations: The lizard sculpture -> Obelisk -> Bi-pyramid -> A dual-spiral monument -> lizard sculpture -> middle plaza

    Drakador_Chaos
    There was no reason for the replicants to sprint back to the center of the place, after all why willingly make themselves a target in this hazardous environment by screwing a plan up, when they could just take it easy. The small gimmicky thing the others had would buy them a few minutes at most.
    The original version just waited for the others in a rendezvous point close to the center, but with the center still out of sight, and each of the replicants went to one of the points of importance, slightly staggered so that they'd arrive at them at the right sequence, and then they came back.
    After the team was gathered back at the original and leader replicant, they went back to the middle plaza to meet with the others.

      Dumb
      The construct lifted off and charged into teh darkness before Hal could make any more inquiries or any form of objection, with a tense looking expression he seemed to hold into the construct for his dear life.
      After the passed the sculpure and the obelisk he seemed to say something though the airstream was too loud to understand anything.
      Like this they passed the Bi-pyramid and as the reached the spiral monument, Gil heard him screaming into his ears...
      "HAAALT!"
      Whether he was a warrior or not, he certainly wasn't used to this sort of technology...


      Fort_Master_Gustav
      ...in the meanwhile the replicants made their way towards their respective monuments through the darkness, their advanced sense for orientation coming in quite handy.
      The first one to reach their target was obviously the one to the fountain, as it was the direction they had been going to anyways, notably, nothing of note happened when they reached.
      The next one who reported in was the one towards the cube though there was nothing of note there either.
      Were they doing something wrong or did it just take the full sequence?
      Then, the sign, which seemed to be broken, degraded similarly as all the other construct they had found in teh alst stage of the darkness.
      ...then as the the last replicant reached its destination, the pillar...
      Suddenly, there was an actual, change.
      ...as expected.


      [@ both]
      As both cycles were completed, the monuments uddenly fell to ash, the was bright red light from the center, before eitehr of them could reach back onto the central plaza, shadows danced in the diffuse light, looking as if there were nothing but countless monoliths standing in the darkness, casting shadows and silently standing watch...
      Whatever they did, they had certainly done it now.
      On the central plaza a brigth red pillar had erupted, visable from each location they had went to or were standing at, the presence they had felt near the thin red line was now washing over the entirety of the dark realm, it felt... ominous.
      ...nothing new at this point.

      Drakador_Chaos
      "Aye aye, halting!"
      The metallic flying carpet immediately stops right in front of the spiral monument, almost propelling its passengers with the momentum if not for the seatbelts, but still left a bitter aftertaste in Gil's mouth when he and Hal dismount from the ride in one piece. As for the two slimes, they are barely able to maintain their shape, and simply seeps through the construct before reforming in a half-solid state
      Grabbing a water bottle from one of the storage units to have a swig, Gil holds the bottle towards Halcyon after finish washing away the unpleasant sensation, while looking at the newly erected red pillar.
      " Here, it's just plain water, let's do some tidying before we go find out whatever that is."

      Drakador_Chaos
      The replicants observed the phenomena taking place, as the weird obelisks that formed the displayed geometries disintegrated themselves, some crouched down to observe the dust, checking whether it was something normal and ubiquitous or rather, specific and interesting. Nevertheless, they all coalesced back towards the main replicant in the end, and together, they made their way back towards the newly formed pillar at the centre.

      Dumb
      Hal nodded and took the bottle, emptying it with a contemplative look whilst observing the pillar of light...
      He handed Gil back the bottle and continued to look in direction of the central plaza.
      "Hm... maybe I will finally get out of here."
      Finally he turned towards Gil and the two slimes.
      "Something is there, I can feel it."
      He paused and narrowed his eyes.
      "Let's not waste any time, remain cautious."
      Once they were done tidying up, they collectively headed towards the center, the shadows making space for a red glow, the central place itself hadn't changed particularly... yet, the pillar of light emanating from the pedestal drew the shadows longer, and making them look almost... alive. Atop the pedestal, three octagons glowed and amidst them a star of two overlayed squares.
      As they strode onto the central plaza, so did the replicants, it seems they had come back just in time.


      Fort_Master_Gustav
      The dust itself seemed to ubiquitous in nature, whilst they could touch it and it felt almost like sand, it disintegrated before they even had time to properly analyze, likely just anoteh rgimmick of this place.
      As they headed towards the central plaza, the shadows in the corners of their eyes seemed to be almost... shivering, though never when directly looking at them, although the light at the center didn't seemed to move or even flicker.
      The replicants, like the others, felt the odd presence as they moved ahead and when they stepped onto the central plaza they found out they were just in time, seeing as the others had returned in roughly the same time.
      Amidst the plaza was still the the pedestal, now emanating the pillar of light, on the top side glowing three octagons and a star of two overlaying squares.

        Drakador_Chaos
        The trio follows Hal from behind during the return, while the twins seemingly lagging behind on purpose.
        "Do you think that this Hal..."
        "...seems like so, but cannot confirm until everything ends..."
        Meanwhile, with the RCDS transforming back to a pack on his back, Gil turns around and faces the twins while walking backward at the same pace.
        "It's not good talking about others behind their back yall."
        That said, he gently taps the concealed headphone on his right ear, before turning 180 again and pace up to move alongside Hal.


        Drakador_Chaos Fort_Master_Gustav
        As the group finally returns to the central plaza, and notice that everyone is here as well, Gil resumes his cocky posture, tucking both hands into the pocket once again.
        "Well then......I suppose this is meant to happen, instead of being some sort of negative feedback?"

        Dumb
        "Well, I reckon that is so, I mean, something happened didn't it? That's already a step forward."

        The replicants at general spread out around the central pillar, whilst the main replicant simply stood at the edge with his hands on his hips, looking up into the newly generated lightshow.
        He awaits for reaction to the others, however, they seemed to stand back for the moment, so, he exclaims:

        "Alright then. I'll be the one to test it out."

        The main replicant moves up to the main pedestal and tries to interact with it in various ways, touching it or seeing if it reacts to any kind of stimulation it is given.

          Dumb
          Fort_Master_Gustav
          Hal simply nodded in response to Gils remark, he also watched the Replicants enter the plaza and didn't make any more comments on them, it seems for now it was enough of a proof of trust to him that they did not simply wait on plaza.
          "I would argue that if we did something wrong we likely would not be standing here, one way or another."
          He continued to watch with faint signs of tension as the Replicant approached the pedestal, the hand reaching towards his back, or more precisely the hilt of his sword, without actually taking it.
          Touching the pedestal seemed to be all stimulation it needed to activate, as the Replicant eveidently didn't get to do anything else before the shook and he rociled from teh pedestal, pushed by an unknown force, the obelisks seemed to be shaking and then, much like the monuments before fell to dust, carried away by an immaterial wind in all directions, out of the sight of the group...
          The earth continued to shake, the pillar of laight began to concentrate back into a thin string and the presence seemed to intensify.
          A mute yet deafening roar, unable to be defined, numbed their minds, as the pillar of light tore the pedestal apart and ripped open the skies...
          Then, as sudden as thinsg had began... silence.
          Calm, serene almost, the presence faded, the line split and opened to a elliptic shape...
          Silence.
          Beyond the shape was darkness, complete and perfect, yet moving almost a mind on its own, just for the fraction of a moment, then it... blinked?
          ...and the hollow ellipse turned into a portal.
          Descending from the portal came a figure, clad in black and red robes, slowly floating to ground...
          It was the Herald.
          Hal reached for his sword but apparently wasn't quite sure what to do, eyeing his fellow captives warily.
          As the Herald descended, he clapped a couple of times, slowly, deliberatly, until he came to halt on the ground, between the fragments of the pedestal.
          "I applaud you, seekers, wanderers. You did better than expected."
          He smiled thinly, with an expression that was hard to read, then briefly looked at Hal who was still holding the grip of his sword at the ready, the expression dropping for visible disapproval for a moment before it returned to the former one.
          Hal let go of the sword and approached the man, the Herald continued.
          "I suppose, you have earned yourself a key, each of the groups, or each one of them?"
          He seemed to ponder, for the first time, the Heralds presence could actually be felt, there was so much power behind it, it was outright oppressing, preventing them from speaking up or even thinking about doing such.
          "Yes, yes, everyone will get a key, it will be more entertaining that way."
          He raised his hand and select few of fragments of the former pedestal rose.
          "Go ahead, take one, though keep in mind the journey will not get easier from here on out."
          He turned, towards the leading replicant, apparently addressing him directly this time.
          "As for you and your friends..."
          He paused.
          "...do you, have any strong desires, any wishes, that are distinctively your own and not those of your masters?"
          The oppressive aura faded, they were able to move normally again, albeit, a bit shaken.
          Hal moved to the group taking one of the shards without a word, whilst he kept an eye on the Herald.

          Drakador_Chaos
          The replicants, if given to them, would acquire the fragments in silence. However, the leading replicant stood by idle for a few seconds, before starting his speech:

          "Ah, yer our little wolfman's friend eh? I've seen ya in the telly. Nicely met."

          He smirks for a bit, and after a few seconds of silence, continues, fumbling into his coat, he acquires a small box, which he opens and produces one single cigarette from, turning the box upside down, nothing but a small ammount of lint falls down.

          "Do ya know why I like to smoke? Lemme tell ya a lil' lesson kiddo, there ain't no such thing as wishes and desires."

          He elevates the cigarette up to his face and touches the tip with his finger, the finger lights up a bright shade of turquoise and vibrant orange before dissapearing again, leaving the tip of the drug in cinders, he puts it in his mouth and continues.

          "Now why do I smoke? Is it because I want to, or because I was programmed to?
          Why do I want a refill, is it because I was programmed to want one?
          "

          He takes a deep inhale and releases a small cloud, continuing.

          "Why do you ask questions or make these riddles? All of this circus here?" - He gestures broadly towards the Herald.
          "Is it because you want to, or is it because you were programmed to do it?
          Do you have any strong wishes and desires that are your own?
          Or are you a product of programming, mind ya, you don't need to computer to program my friend. The world programs, yer ties to the bloodcult program, your wolfman programs.
          There ain't no such thing as a strong, original desire. Ah' do as I do cus' our desires align, hunoring the push 'n pull of the forces that be.
          "

          He takes one last big swig and exhausts the cigarette down to a stub, holding it between his fingers.

          "Now if 'yer, from the high chair right there are gonna sit me down here and tell me dat you're unbidden by anyone and that yer wishes are truly your own, well my friend..."

          He flicks the cigarette bud towards the Herald, falling short on his feet.

          "Ah' think yer full of shit."

          Drakador_Chaos
          Pulse slowly rises, body temperature increasing to somewhat uncomfortable levels, even the entire frame starts to shiver uncontrollably, typical fight or flight reaction of all organics when facing a superior predator. Everything fits what Gil learned back in Xaneroth, or during all those simulation battles, but the sheer magnitude is simply different for a face-to-face encounter with a real entity.
          "...As if getting doused by an entire dam instead of just a fishbowl..."
          Gil thinks to himself while signaling to stop the twins from retrieving the key. Judging from the predicted plans, a conflict is almost destined at some point in the future, while a direct confrontation is almost impossible to win, the odds can still be tilted, either by having Herald not using his full power through acceptance of ideals, or... playing weak so the Herald underestimate them. The latter is obviously the most probable with Herald's Darwinistic approach, and which is why any sort of contact with Herald must be kept at a minimum, especially for the main weapon and armor.
          "...Next thing, myself..."
          Obviously, Gil mustn't show any sort of hostility nor fear, or else the whole plan would simply divert from its path. He takes several seconds to reconfigure his facial expression back to the usual look, gripping his palm to suppress the shivering, and slowly approach the Herald, grabbing three keys and nothing else, even ignoring the interaction of Herald and the Replicants.

            Fort_Master_Gustav
            Dumb


            The Herald looked at the leading replicant, listening carefully to every word, without any visible change in expression or trying to interrupt him, once he was finished, he just stood there for a while, as unreadable as ever.
            The Tension began rise, afterthe ensuing silence began to stretch and at the point where it was almost certain they had likely upset or even angered him...
            He suddenly just burst out in hearty laughter.
            "Well, well, interesting, a very interesting point of view, I see you certainly have guts, I will give you that. You are lucky I am not the type to slaughter people for their insolence."
            His expression returned to a more serious one and he continued.
            "...but does that answer my question? I think not. I suppose you may have misunderstood my words, If your wish is to serve your masters because it serves your owb purposes? Then so be it. If you just retorded all this, merely to spite me? I could not care less. Regardless, I will remember your words, but I will take it as a no, at least for the purposes of this journey.
            Your reward will be the information you gathered here, go and report it to whoever you deem fit, I will even give you one of the shards, make sure to take it on your way out."

            He paused, as the portal above him lowered to the ground and looked at the others now.
            "As for you. Go to the core and find where the shard leads you, your next task will be awaiting there."
            He turned around without waiting for any answers and left through the portal, disappearing from sight shortly after...
            Hal in the meanwhile, was looking at his shard with narrowed eyes, staring at it quite intently...
            "The core...?"

            Drakador_Chaos
            As Herald is giving the instructions, Gil is busy dealing with his own problems, still.
            "three more steps to go, tit, tat, and......bingo, now turn around slowly..."
            Gil had found that using clear and simple commands to himself in cases of extreme pressure helps to perform actions more efficiently, but just like all sorts of coping mechanisms, it got its own downfall...
            "Oh Fuc..."
            The sudden disappearance of Herald almost made Gil tripped over, luckily for him, there are the twins here to record and assist. Gevurah just appeared exactly at the right position where Gil stumbled into his chest, and the mouthful of slime sure helps Gil regain his composure.
            "Thanks..."
            "No problem"
            "You alright?"
            "Yea... what did Herald say?"
            "something about next task being in the core, along with Hal here"
            "Hmm, no surprise for that, judging how the core had been mentioned along the way so many times..."
            Gil turns towards Hal, his pale face covered with sweat but still manages to somehow maintain a smile.
            "Hey Hal, we are going back to our home first for some organizing and preparation, wanna join us?"

            Drakador_Chaos
            The main replicant laughs together with the Herald, he removed his hat and bowed down in a stravagant manner, placing it back on with due haste.

            "Hah! At least you get it mate. I'll be having this trinket and consider this whole ordeal done."

            Dumb

            The replicant turns to the group, and points at them in general.

            "You all take care and make sure to do it all right, and watch yer backs for backstabbin'. I know I would've."

            The rest of the replicants go taking their leave from the location one by one, with the main one overseeing them. At last, he leaves as well with one of the shards.

            Dumb
            Hal looked up at him as if interrupted in deep thought, he seemed confused for couple of moments, frowing at him...
            Then he looked at the portal.
            "...yes. I suppose we can do that."
            He walked through the portal without hesitation, briefly disappearing from sight, before the group stepped through themslves.
            On the other side, they found themselves on the embassy once more, no portal in sight where they had just stepped through, some of the people passing by frowned, indicating they had likely just appeared out of nothingness, though they moved on quickly, such occurances were nothing particularly out of the ordinary here at this point.
            Hal in the meanwhile, was standing in the middle of the plaza, looking around.
            He seemed... even more confused now than before.
            "What... is this place?"
            He looked at them, tilting his head, apparently slightly intimidated by the environment, seemingly on edge, he genuinely hadn't been here before, it seems...


            Fort_Master_Gustav
            As the Replicants stepped through the portal they found themselves at just another plaza on the Embassy, the man on the pillar, sitting and thinking as ever before.
            Neither the Herald nor the other seemed to be in sight, indicating they had been dropped off in different locations.
            Although some of the passerbies gave them weird looks, understandably considering they had likely just appeared out of nowhere, nobody seemed to particularly care.
            Whether that was an effect the Herald had caused or if it was just natural to the embassy would likely remain a mystery.

            Drakador_Chaos
            Gillian opens his mouth as if he got some questions to ask, but then realizes where he is at as he notices the environment, postponing the questioning and did a slight shrug.
            "In brief, this is The Embassy, a galactic political center which also dubbed as a galactic economical center and the peacekeeping union. The leader of the Embassy is a wolfman called the Ambassador, and based on what I knew at least, was part of a former galactic threat called the Delta, so....heh"
            He tries to intimate a burst of mocking laughter, but ended up almost coughing his lungs out, metaphorically of course.

            Drakador_Chaos
            The replicants quickly scattered about, as to not draw much attention from the policing inside The Embassy, after all, if they gathered too much attention the whole operation could fall apart. They soon reduced themselves back into the multitude of maintenance tunnels that sprawl under the Embassy.
            The shard would eventually leave The Embassy in an outgoing cargo vessel from a GL&M subsidiary, and picked up by a discreet ship running laps across the galaxy between stations in the rim, finding its way back to the secretive GL&M research planet, and eventually reach the hands of The Board.