Ancient Trials, Ancient Sins

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Hmm...well they probably should be here soon..."
It seems Dasha isn't quite interested in chewing into the detail, be it due to respect of personal privacy or some other reasons...or simply because she doesn't have the time for that.
"Sorry about that, we had some assignments that needed to get sorted."
A female with snow-white hair descends from midair right behind the whole assortment of furnitures, followed by two...somewhat junior individuals, the trio walks around the assembly, and stopped beside Dasha's couch.
"Oh...hey Mainframe, wasn't Gil responsible for this?"
A slight shade of disappointment crosses Dasha's gaze, but it only retained for a brief moment before Dasha is having that usual, bored gaze.
"He requested to have something "sorted out"...perhaps he got some insights? I didn't ask so I am not quite sure about the reason..."
Mainframe, with that air quote hand gesture and that near-to-perfect body ratio, should theoretically be quite charming to basically anyone, but her expression...or rather her expressionless face makes it quite outlandish.
After answering Dasha's doubts, she glides forward to Hal and has her right hand out open for a handshake.
"You must be Halcyon, Thanks for accompanying Gillian and his team in the Embassy."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal eyed her somewhat suspiciously, but accepted the greeting and shook her hand, the sword still in the other hand. He seemed to take note of that something was off with her but apparently couldn't quite tell what.

"I assume you are 'Mainframe' then?"
He noted, his tone somewhat unsure.

He let go, taking a step back, proceeding to answer her own question.
"Yes, I am. The gratitude is mutual I would say.
You are likely accompanying me on the next part of this... task then?"
He put the sword and sheathe back on his back and fastened the belts again, checking if everything sat right and firm whilst waiting for Mainframes answer.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
While Mainframe is interacting with Hal, the two junior individuals at the back seemed to be having some sort of heated argument, to a point which weapons begin materializing on each other's hands but their voices remain pretty low, probably effort on suppressing their voices to not let Mainframe notice the affair...
"Ahh...excuse me for a second."
...but these simple measures seem futile as Mainframe, as she turns around and signals something to the two individuals. Visible fear instantly filled the eyes of the two, followed by their weapons dissolving immediately and slowly, timidly step up, looking down on their feet.
"Mhm, i am Mainframe, and this is Galar and Yuki..."
She first pat the pale individual with the mention of "Galar", and then pat the other, remarkably orange-haired afterward.
"We will be replacing Gillian for this task, as he got some personal...wants?, which he wished to get sorted out, and thus render occupied in this time period."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal tilted his head, seeing the two figures in the back, they seemed to be similar to the other two he had met, one of the many races he couldn't identify.
Curious.
He pushed the thought aside and nodded.
"If there are things he thinks need to be done, I will not be the one to stop him."
He paused, if this man felt the need to abandon a task like this, something important must have happened or they had been tasked as group not individuals.
He frowned.
"Is there anything else which needs to be done or talked before our departure? We are probably not pressed on time, given the time in the otherworld, though we likely shouldn't dawdle around either if it can be avoided. in that regard it may be better to ask questions now, rather than later."

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Hmm......?"
Mainframe thinks for a brief second with her head dipped slightly, before raising back up.
"Do you have any experience related to what we will be encountering? Any sort of insights would help greatly for us to prepare for whatever upcoming issues."
Meanwhile, Dasha and her belongings seemed to disappear while they are chatting, leaving the four of them in vast empty white space.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Halcyon looked at her for a couple of moments, he seemed to be thinking.
Eventually he answered, reluctantly.
"I... I do not know I'm afraid. There is very little I know about where we may be heading, what I do know is that the man you call the 'Herald' is rather hard to predict. If anything I know that he is testing us, so what we should be prepared for is likely any sort of combat, hardship or task be it physical or mental in nature."
He paused, apparently unsure what else to say, if anything he seemd a bit clueless.
"I'm sorry I cannot be of any more help in this regard."

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Mainframe casually shrugged in response.
"Ahh...its alright, we will simply deal with whatever we meet then...now, for our means to get there..."
She steps away for a bit, and pluck towards the empty space behind her. The space seems to react as if she had touched an invisible curtain, as the background slowly ripples and drops down behind, revealing a peculiar "ship", with a fighter's nose and cockpit fuzed onto a cluster of boosters. Mainframe joyfully walk towards the rear, and with a pat on a seemingly random surface, a ramp opens up which resembles the interior with warm lighting, sofa, television, and even wooden doors, resembling an old-school apartment from every aspect
"Welcome to Antaeus Airlines, Galar, go take the controls......Galar?"
Galar just stood there, completely in awe, taking several seconds to even register Mainframe's command. With his hand trembling, he slowly points to himself, as if confirming that the target of the command really be him.
"Yep, Mr. Battle Fairy, I even got the same OS for this, just without the former data, now jump in, we got a calling to respond."
With haste, Galar sprint towards the craft, and sealed himself inside the cockpit, while Yuki, smiling as if she know the cause of Galar's excitement, slowly walks up the ramp, while Mainframe just standing there, signaling Hal to go inside.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal started following her, slowly, looking around the rooms with suspicion. It started to become obvious he seemed to somewhat alienated by the repeatedly changing interiors.
"I... see."
Was the only thing he noted for a while, as he sat down on the sofa.
After a while a pulled out the shard he had gotten from the Herald in the otherworld, The shard pointing in a certain direction towards the core whenever he didn't hold it too tightly.
He sighed as a question seemed to come up in his mind.
"So, what do you know about the Herald? I take it your people had... former experiences with him?"

It felt odd questioning strangers about a being that was considered a god where he came from, then again, if he wanted to reach his goals, he would have to get a grasp on any available information, whatever the good or bad it would do for him.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Hmm~ well, do wait a bit, need to do some checks first."
Yuki went into one of the rooms and closed the door, leaving Mainframe and Hal in the "living room". As for Mainframe, she went out and scooted around the ship before coming inside, closing the ramp and Sitting next to Hal. A slight vibration is sensed, which means the vessel has probably taken off and started moving according to the guidance of the shard.
"Honestly we haven't had much interaction with the Herald... the first time i actually meet him is over in the Embassy, the place where you and Gil hung out, where we had a meeting with a lot of other individuals, and that is where we get ourselves to be involved in this series of events, and to a certain event, trying to achieve our dream and probably the dream of many mortals as well..."
She leans forward and taps onto the wooden console. Two circular openings appear on the flat surface and two cups emerge from the openings, filling the room with the aroma of some sort of tea. Mainframe held the cup closer to her, and takes a small sip before continuing.
"...There was another...encounter I suppose? That one feels like a dream for even a mechanical being like me, so I'm not sure if that is really "me" me, but it was way back when Herald was still the warlord, and he sought after a piece of Calamity, the piece which allowed my predecessors to build the foundations of what leads to us right now. During his excavation for his goal, he had a blade, a claw, and lots of runes, though considering that he is no longer the warlord of bloodcult, maybe those abilities would be different from what he has currently."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
'Mechanical?', was the first thought that came when she mentioned it.
He looked at the mainframe, she did not look like a machine at all.
He shook his head, he shouldn't judge things by their looks, especially not in this world.
Then there was already the next thing which caught his attention.

"Warlord?"

He knew the Herald was a being of many names, Herald, Prophet, Firstborn, Untouchable, Creator, but this one was new to him. Picking up the cup he eyed it with some suspicion but the took a sip from it.

"Can you tell me more about this... Warlord?"

He had never seen the Herald fight anything, the few times he saw him at all that is and he never made the impression as if he had the need to fight anything... so what was the reason for this?
Could it be some sort of weakness he could exploit?

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
The content within the cup is just ordinary tea, as a slightly bitter yet natural taste spread in Hal's mouth. Mainframe held out one of her hands and slowly flex the fingers, in such movement which seems to be checking the limit of the joints, her gaze fixated on the palm while clouded in thoughts.

"well...as far as we know, he was named as "The Warlord" of a certain hivemind called Bloodcult, with organic forces originating from an Ancient ship called the Calamity. Being a warlord, though unknown whether it is his own ability or some bestowment from the cult, he has the power to seize control of units with lower levels of hierarchy than his position, as well as various red-themed abilities, such as the blade and the runes... at least what I assume they are."

Mainframe carefully guides the explanation away from mentioning the warlord's vault and the grail, as an extra contender would certainly mean extra work, and perhaps even be fatal to the plan, which is what she wouldn't want to see, especially if the contender is caused by her own actions.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb

Hal pondered, none of this sounded familiar to him, or at least not immediately, yet something was nagging at his mind to dig deeper.

"I see, I see. So what is this Bloodcult then?"
Before he even finished his sentence it clicked in his head.
The Bloodcult.
The beasts from the sky.
The first children of the Universe.
The guardians of heaven and hell.
Could they be one and the same?
...and weren't they...?
"Were they not the ones which rampaged around a number of factions recently? Something about 'Attacks in other factions territories? Did they... say anything?"

She seemed to have steered him away from the grail successfully. Although the question remained, if she was here for the grail, why was he?

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"I don't know for sure if that had happened, as my source of intel regarding such issue are mostly privateers here and there, and although some of those which said to be affected are in the Embassy with our faction, we haven't really formed any formal connection as of yet, so...sorry about that part."
Another sip, before continuing.
"You know anything related to the bloodcult lately? Their ranks composed of mainly these...red flesh-composing space creatures, but it's been some time which we had any sightings of them."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
There was a period of silence after her answer, eventually he nodded.
It seems he would not receive the answers he was looking for today, though the resemblance was going too far to be coincidence in either case.
"Hm, I see..."
He paused for another moment before he continued.
"No, all I know is... rumours. So most likely nothing you do not already know."
He shook his head and then took another sip from the tea, looking around the room afterwards, there was no indication of where or how fast they were moving, nor whether they were moving at all, it was... somewhat uncomfortable to think about.
"When would you expect us to arrive?"

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"hmm...alrighty then..."
May Halcyon be telling the actual truth or not, Mainframe still let the matter slides with a slight shrug. She puts back her own cup and taps on the table.
"...Now that you mention it, Cabin to Cockpit, what's our status?"

Cockpit to Cabin, all systems normal, approaching exit in T-10 seconds, over.

"Huh, guess he really submerged in his role...well then, full-screen visualizer, let's see what the environment is."
The surroundings dimmed for a brief moment, and start showing the surroundings right as the ship drops below FTL speed.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As the ship returned to realspace, the place they found themselves in was... right outside the massive wall of black fog, surrounding the core.
It was... different. It moved, something seemed to stir deep inside...
However, apparently, that was not what they were here for.

Halcyon rose from the couch as the shard lifted from his hand pointing... to their side, ratehr than towards the core, not that Halcyon even knew they were at the core, given the room had no windows.

"We're there, aren't we?"
Was the only thing he noted.

A few quick course correction later something odd happened, or rather, came into sight.
It was not as if it 'appeared' out of nowhere, more as... it shifted into sight from a corner around reality, the feeling was... weird.

Standing infront of the ship, was a shimmering gate, colourless, neither black nor white, as if it concept inside, the edges, burning in rainbow colours at the corners of their eyes.
They were indeed, there.
For a brief moment, Mainframe felt as if she had picked up a audio anomaly, like a distant malicious giggle, by the way Halcyon began turning his had, he had heard it too.

He grumbled.
"It is time, no going back now."
He said that, although within he had known that a long time ago, there had never been a 'going back' not since his wish to the Herald.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
As the real-time image of the environment outside the craft slowly fades in and replaces the original roomy texture as if they are in space without any sort of shelter, Mainframe silently looks at the shimmering gate, while her mind races, loading up something seemingly completely irrelevant yet...somehow familiar.
Once upon a time, back before the establishment of the colony in Xaneroth...even back before humans even make their way into space, a certain fiction mentioned a superior being, one which particularly associates with gate and keys...
...But if this really is that gate...where is the silver key? Mainframe glance towards Halcyon, being skeptical of his identity...
"Hey, we arrived already, right?"
Suddenly, Yuki busts into the room, which with the visualizer displaying the black mist, it looks like she literally breached space, and in addition, stopped Mainframe's overthinking.
No going back indeed... Mainframe stand up from the couch, clutching the shard. Who cares if Herald really is The one? Gillian, the only surviving master for Mainframe, already gave full permission for the plan, even sought guidance for what's about to happen...she certainly won't give up his hopes, not by a long shot.
"Yep, lets see what's on the other side. Galar, go towards that gate."

"Aye"

In response, the craft slowly moves forward, towards the shimmering gate.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As the ships slowly passed through the portal, there was another audio anomaly, this one sounded almost... amused.
The glow of the portal grew stronger as the ship passed through, Mainframe thought she'd received a message from the control room for a moment, though it was distant, if sent through veil, the door to the room opened, but nobody came through instead they were faced with the same glowing wall of non-colour as they witnessed on teh outside, a faint humming, It grew closer and closer…

Halcyon who was sitting besides her seemed almost eerily calm, either he didn't care or he had gone through this before.

The wall moved and swallowed them up, before they could do as much as react…

For the next few moments there was a swirl of indescribable colours, no sound, no thought, no feedback from the sensors, as if Mainframe was alone in her body once more.
Then…
The moment passed, the otherworldly event faded out, no, just… disappeared.

Instead it was replaced by the blaring of alarm sirens and emergency messages, mainframes thoughts were flooded with errors, damage reports and nonsensical data from the ship itself, there were messages from the control room but they were drowned in the wave of data and impressions.

Their altitude was dropping, rapidly.

Now even Halcyon had jumped up from his seed, he seemed to be not entirely sure what was going on but was familiar with the sensation of falling so started looking for anything to hold onto, Yuki burst into the room once more, saying something about ‘crashing’, ‘bracing’ and ‘impact’, moments before there was a loud crashing and the lights went out…

Minutes later, the lights went back on. Mainframes sensors and readings normalised and she saw Halcyon, slowly getting up from the ground.

Halcyon in the meanwhile had his own thoughts on the situation.
Did they just crash out of the sky? They passed the portal, did they do something wrong?
Was it all an elaborate trap from the Herald?

He calmed down as his breathing slowly returned to normal, he stared it his right arms, hanging off his body in an unnatural angle. It was broken.

He cursed in a language alien to Mainframe.

No, no, this had been planned but it hadn’t killed them. What were the Heralds intentions with this incident?

In the meanwhile, Mainframe began getting new data from the cockpit as Yuki righted herself up, or rather, the data that she received no data from the outside of the ship.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Right after their craft comes to a stop despite the sensors showing there is nothing inside, Mainframe retrieves full control of the craft and calls back Galar to the cabin.
"Galar, i have control, come back here."

"......"

"Galar?"

"...roger that, you have control."

"Yuki?"
"Hm?"
"Make a mold for our guest to hold his arm, correctly that is."
"Aye."

"Roger that, you have control."
Alone in the cockpit, Galar closes his eyes and retrace on what happened just now, the light, the overwhelming optical stimulations, and the mass of conflicting errors...he has experienced similar events before, one happening in a place that absolutely does not correlate with this world, and where this "Galar" became what he is now... but the entire...assembly of the event, feels drastically different from what JAM/he did...
Sitting back up straight, he looks at the display on the console, with a remarkably long string of question marks at the bottom.
"I know, I know, no need to worry, just treat if we are dealing with JAM again...any clue of our status?"
A short pause, as even an advanced AI needs some time to compute the estimations for such a scenario.

Craft integrity: Normal
Controls: N/A
Surroundings: Nil 
Now checking systems...

"Nah, Mainframe will do those, hows's the cabin?"

System check halted
Cabin structure: Normal
One wounded detected

"huh...even though i highly doubt Mainframe will let me fix the guest my way...eh who knows, see you later, Yukikaze."

...
Good luck, Lt. Fukai

"...call me Galar next time, good luck to you too."
Leaning back on his seat, he gets dumped back into the cabin as the ovoid cockpit unit just slides back and turns a 180 to empty its content.

"ow ow ow..."
"Stop pretending, you can shift into liquid form if you want."
"tsk...you are no fun."
Standing back up immediately after planting face-first on the table, Galar looks around the chaotic cabin. furniture and cups lying everywhere except the middle of the room, Yuki busy molding a piece around Hal's broken arm, helping to fixate it to a better angle, and Mainframe still casually sitting on the sofa.
" Say, what do you want me to do? Obviously, you call me back for something, right?"
"Not so timid anymore eh?"
"...just say it already."
"Ok, I want you to go out and scout for us, sensors are probably all fried so we need some optical confirmations."
"hm...and permission to split?"
"Granted. we need you after all."
With a subtle sigh, Galar divides into two copies of himself, albeit smaller and younger than before. They look at Mainframe, then towards each other.
(Galar 1)"So... you or me?"
(Galar 2)"Lets decide by rock paper scissors."

1d3=3 (Scissors)
1d3=1 (Rock)
Galar 2 wins

"Well then, farewell and godspeed to you."
"Likewise."
The small Galar on the right simply dissolve into a puddle and seeps into the edge of the room, while the remaining Galar jumps down from the table and sits on the floor. Yuki's makeshift metal arm sling is almost finished as well, with a bit more final touches.
"Just notify me if you want to move or remove it, i will try and not crack any more bones."
Yuki says it jokingly, perhaps trying to lighten the situation.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Halcyon watch as Yuki tended to his arm, oddly enough teh man didn't even flinch when she righted it. However, he did grimace and curse, so it seems he did in fact feel pain.

"Thank you."
He noted, as she finsihed, slowly getting back up and turning towards Mainframe.
"So, where are we? What happened?"
He looked around the room which was in chaos, then back at Mainframe.
"Are you ok?"

In the meanwhile, Galar left the ship, dropping onto the surface of the planet which, fortunately, did not immediately kill him.
The landscape was... odd.
The ground was covered in a dusty grey particulate, which seemed to be dense enough to walk on. The atmosphere had a red tint, in fact, everything seemed to have and looking up he saw a distant red dwarf. Radiation and heat permeated the quite thin atmosphere, in the distance he saw mountains reaching quite considerable heights and odd trees, with black bark and leaves of an odd tone of red.

Looking back at the craft he saw the quite a short brake mark, which was really looking more like a crater, it seems they had crashed into the surface almost vertically and the ship dropped into the horizontal afterwards.
No sign of the portal they came through and no signs of where they should head first.
...and no explanation as to why the sensors weren't working either.
Turning around once more, almost out of impulse he saw... something in the distance.
Small shadows moving, from the mountains, apparently headed towards their craft, he couldn't make out any details yet and they did not seem to be particularly fast but it seems something was living here.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Well...yes, kind of."
Mainframe closes her eyes, and immerse herself into the ship system to check for errors. Shortly after, she opens her eyes again, with her gaze still clouded in thoughts as usual.
"In brief, we have landed on a flat surface with minor damage after a bit of a freefall, but the bad news is we cannot know what we are landed in or non, as all exterior sensors stop functioning normally for some reason, not even a single optical camera. So that's why that Galar was sent outside as he can exit while keeping this place relatively air-tight, while this Galar here-"
"Heyo"
"-acts like a little relay which let us know what the other Galar's status is."
Meanwhile, with his now kindergartener physique and chubby little limbs, Galar hops off the table, gathering stuff and putting them on the table, before sitting on the lap of Mainframe.
"That said, I can only know whether he is alive or not, and the general direction of his whereabouts, anything other than that would still need him to come back and report."

"Huh."
Confirming that there is indeed something inbound instead of mirages or his eyes playing tricks on him, Galar walks around the craft, occasionally touching the ground and putting grey earth into his mouth, and after a whole circle, returns back to the bunch.
"Hey, something's approaching."
He simply tosses the news out like a usual greeting, and fuze back with the other Galar.
"That was fast...bleh, what is this, for you perhaps?"
"Ah sample, well then."
Accepting the small pile of grey dirt and stashing it elsewhere, Mainframe went towards the exit and open a side cupboard, taking two masks and giving one to Hal and the other to Yuki.
"Self-recycling respirators, just in case the air outside is toxic to humans and such. Let's go greet our first contact and see if they can provide any intel to our situation."