Ce-matoran found an invisible building on the island and start making an underground facility.
Using NAMES tech, the base is quickly hollowed out. It is stocked with a printer conveyor belt for production reasons, and the facility is equipped with doors and lights and other things bases have.
Using NAMES tech, the base is quickly hollowed out. It is stocked with a printer conveyor belt for production reasons, and the facility is equipped with doors and lights and other things bases have.
Experiments begin involving a dead matoran.
Tests begin, using mohtrek and healing disks to retroactively repair the subject just before their death...
Tests begin, using mohtrek and healing disks to retroactively repair the subject just before their death...
They are sent back. Retroactive timestream adjustment. Hours ago, the scientists find the matoran they were planning to experiment on is actually alive, and proclaims he recieved miraculous healing from mata nui moments before death. They study his account carefully, and realize the effect is nigh identical with what they expected their planned procedure to give... Interesting. They begin applying the project to other dead matoran, and reinforce the facility's cloaking and defenses.
A Firedrake Wing teleports above the sea and begins using kraata of teleportation to teleport large swaths of water away. This, of course, hardly makes a dent in the sea. The Firedrake teleports away after a little while of this.
The massive sails of the Star Horizon cast a dark shadow over the water's surface as it journeys across the sea. The crew lounged around on the deck, chatting, drinking, and laughing. Mortraz stood at the wheel, one hand resting casually on the topmost spoke. The current in these parts was fair and weak, so there was no force to be had in steering. Standing beside him, leaning on the quarterdeck's railing was the Skrall, a stein of drink clasped firmly in his sword hand.
"So how do you know which of the Great Beings' trinkets would fetch us a lofty price? Why not keep the lot and play around with them a bit, to see if any be of use?"
Mortraz breathed deep and glanced over at his quartermaster.
"I've been around long enough, and seen plenty enough to know what will kill, and what will make us rich. There are a few that we'll hold onto, but the rest is just dead weight if not profit."
The Skrall chuckled and raised his mug.
"To profit, then! If it were up to me I'd have every button pushed and all the levers pulled, just out of curiosity. Aren't you curious?"
"Nothing makes me curious, anymore."
"Ah... nothing down here, anyway. You spend more time stargazing than captaining. What do you expect to see up there? Gods? The solution to all the world's problems? A heavenly woman?"
It's Mortraz's turn to chuckle.
"Rurak, if I spent all my time looking up waiting for a pretty girl to hit the deck, I'd... "
"Captain! Starboard ho!"
The shout came from the crow's nest spotter. Rurak took a sloppy swig of his drink and flipped himself over on the rail as Mortraz left the wheel to join him. Floating out on the water was what appeared to be a spherical mass of metal. Not a vessel, but simply a great round object haphazardly made from layers of various metals. The Fire Glatorian returned to the wheel and steered the ship to the anomaly.
The large sphere of metal was hoisted from the water by net and crane, and lowered onto the deck. The majority of the crew stood around it in a dense circle, but the superstitious lot kept their comfortable distance. Mortraz was the first to approach the artifact, peering at it with narrowed eyes and remaining cautious enough to stop a few feet away from it. Rurak spoke up behind him,
"Captain, you hear... ?"
"Of course I do."
An extremely low hum resonated from within the sphere. It did not strain the crane's pulleys, nor did it cave in the deck, so it wasn't particularly heavy. So either it was solidly made of a lightweight alloy... or it was hollow. He steps closer.
"Captain... "
"Shut up."
"But if it's dangerous... "
"We don't steal, murder, and ravage because we want a cozy life."
Deep within the ocean, down on the depths of the ocean floor half covered in sea weed and sand an Olmak lays forgotten.
Tower Surveillance drones adapt to be able to survey the ocean floor. The Olmak is discovered, and the Tower is notified of it. Several Tower drones fly here and adapt for high pressure diving, and go to retrieve it. An Olmak would be useful.
Deep within the ocean, down on the depths of the ocean floor half covered in sea weed and sand an Olmak lays forgotten.
Tower Surveillance drones adapt to be able to survey the ocean floor. The Olmak is discovered, and the Tower is notified of it. Several Tower drones fly here and adapt for high pressure diving, and go to retrieve it. An Olmak would be useful.
Tower Surveillance drones adapt to be able to survey the ocean floor. The Olmak is discovered, and the Tower is notified of it. Several Tower drones fly here and adapt for high pressure diving, and go to retrieve it. An Olmak would be useful.
Any alive rahi seem to like said Olmak. Oh dear.
Any interfering Rahi are blasted by plasma and rail guns adapted to work underwater.
It burns. It burns horribly. Mortraz cries out in agony, but doesn’t pull away. Rurak and several crew members move to help their captain, grabbing hold of him and attempting to rip him away from the artifact, but to no avail. His hand is solidly grafted to its shell, burning and blistering and melting his armor.
The crew steps away as Mortraz drops to his knees, and what looks like a bright blue vapor extends from the artifact, winding itself around his arm as it creeps up towards his torso, noticeably cooking both metal and flesh within it. Rurak, seeing no other option, draws his sword, and in one clean motion, cleaves his captain’s arm clean off. Mortraz falls away and hits the deck, writhing and groaning in pain, clutching the stump with his remaining hand. His severed arm flops against the side of the strange sphere, instantly welding the armor to it and becoming totally engulfed in the vapor-like substance. The crew watches as the flesh in the arm turns to ash within just a few moments. Rurak growls,
“Throw that cursed thing back to the depths! Nobody touch it! I want—!”
“No.”
Mortraz is sitting up now, still clutching his wound. A couple Agori push through the crowd and kneel next to him, applying medicine and bandaging it. Mortraz doesn’t even seem to notice them; he just stares ahead at the artifact with a glazed look in his eyes.
“Captain?”
“Xia. We’re sailing for New Xia.”
“Now hold on just a fragging minute! We need to get this... this... this evil off of our—!”
“They’ll want to study it. We’ll make a fortune selling it to them.”
“But—“
“Trust me, Rurak, this is going to be a good one. I know it.”
When the medics are finished, Mortraz stands, still staring at the artifact. Rurak looks to him, then the artifact, then back to him, then to the crew.
“Well? You heard your captain! We sail for Xia!”
The crowd scatters to their posts, and the Star Horizon turns its bow toward its destination.