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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.

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.

Dumb
Hal looked at him for a while with a contemplative look, then at his surroundings and eventually at the shard, there was almost something like a spark of understanding in his eyes.
He stayed silent for a while before he eventually answered.
"No, no, There are... some things I will have to settle. before going to this... core."
The way he worded it was somewhat... off, as if he still wasn't quite sure what it meant, though he seemed to be determined to handle the next few steps on his own.
"Where is your home? I suppose we may meet there eventually."

Drakador_Chaos
"Hm......"
Gillian seems to be trying hard to construct his sentence......at least, before he simply slump over and give up on it.
"Aye, see that?"
He points far towards the horizon, where the faint tip of an evershifting construct juts out from the cluster of low lying scenery.
"Walk towards there, enter the wooden door located next to the tower, and tell the woman approaches you that you are here for the campaign, got it?"

Drakador_Chaos
"Cya"
"See you soon!"
"goodbye"
The trio walked off after waving at Hal for a couple seconds, and entered the entrance of the Forge.