In Negav

"What the hell is your problem!? Do you have any idea how likely that thing is to cause a cave-in?"

Sean didn't aim for the mechanical beast just yet, as any attempt to use lethal force right away would prompt its pilot to attack. The human clenched his teeth hard. The one time he could have used Lightning and he was already bonded with an essence.

Samiel stood firm, looking right at the scorpion-thing, eyes blazing away with anger.

"Just who the hell do you think you are?" he barked back. "Your not the goddam Police! We can handle ourselves just fine, thank you very much. Some of us are quite at home here underground. At home enough to not need to go plowing through it with some ridiculous looking machine. And how the hell did you find us anyways? And, more importantly, WHY?"

"That's right!" Horamus said, standing beside Samiel as he approached the mechanical scorpion, tearing off his nighteye goggles so that Geeran could see the glare in his eyes, his ears folded back as his tail swished violently in rage. "You have no right to intrude on the affairs of others, Geeran! I can understand why you want to protect other people, but this is going too far!"

"And another thing, drop the dark voice. You know damn well your fear mongering tactics aren't going to work here." Horamus concluded, the last few words dripping with venom as he glared at what he assumed was the cockpit.

Geeran shook his head within the cockpit at the various objections. "Your not listening... It's not about interferance, it's about saving lives. You where not supposed to go this far."

Sean Okotami wrote:

"What the hell is your problem!? Do you have any idea how likely that thing is to cause a cave-in?"

Geeran almost smiled at this, but his voice remained cold. "If you think that my laser excavators were bad, you have yet to see the tunneling capabilities of a Tonorion, or a Earth Naga... They make what I just did a triviality a best... Like I said, you are far from ready."

Jætte_Troll wrote:

"Just who the hell do you think you are?" "Your not the goddam Police! We can handle ourselves just fine, thank you very much. Some of us are quite at home here underground. At home enough to not need to go plowing through it with some ridiculous looking machine. And how the hell did you find us anyways? And, more importantly, WHY?"

A cold ire shot up Geeran's spine, and his own eyes blazed at Samiel through the transparisteel cockpit. "I suggest you shut up Samiel... Your the primary architect of this being needed..." Geeran said as the scorpion machine turned to face the group.



"Hunter number 434786, Geeran Holden. And there are some things you all need to know. The seventh platoon of the Intelligence Division, the Kenshas, have a price on Nagi's head, possibly yours as well due to guilt by association... I came down here for 2 reasons, one was to get you out of this place, because the severe lack of planning involved, and my mistrust of Samiel, the other reason is because even if you did make it back, the Kenshas would be merciless to you upon your return. The Intelligence Division doesn't care about a rag tag group like yours, they would sooner just kill the lot of you. Now I notice Nagi is not here, and thats a start... And if you think your ready for what is down here, I suggest you take a long hard look at yourselves, then tell me if any of you are prepared to fight, kill and die, for a bunch of trinkets..."

The Joker wrote:

"That's right!" "You have no right to intrude on the affairs of others, Geeran! I can understand why you want to protect other people, but this is going too far!"

"And another thing, drop the dark voice. You know damn well your fear mongering tactics aren't going to work here."

"No, going into a relatively uncharted labyrinth with a group of people barely prepared, under equipped and with not a clue as to the dangers down here is going to far, and is going to get you all killed! How long did you actually spend planning this little expedition? a couple of hours?! Half your team has never even spend a minute in a cavern, and people with YEARS of experience have died down here... Thats not courage, or even desperation, thats suicide! The treasures down here may be nice and valuable, but they are not worth your lives!" Geeran retorted, then he closed his eyes at his friends last statement.

"You've never seen me pilot a machine outside the walls before... So I understand why you would say that. But... This is the way I am when I'm outside Horamus... You need to be focused, you need to be sharp out here... Complacancy gets people killed out here... To survive, you have to be stronger, faster, smarter, more cunning and more determined than any opponent you face. You are not ready, none of you are, not for this." Geeran said as heopened his eyes and looked over the group once more.

Breida just stepped back from the mech as it surfaced. At least it wasn't a predator as she feared, but still, meeting this machine was proving to be irritating, especially given the condescending way it spoke to the group. Breida thought it's advice was rather foolish anyway, and she couldn't think of many ways that were as good at saying 'here I am' to the predators than the racket it made. She just shook her head as she forced herself to relax.

"Friend, I believe you make your warning in good faith," Breida said, trying to sound more friendly than she felt. "But I have lived nearly all of my life outside of the protection of the eye. And much of that in the wilderness, both above and below ground. And I have done it without a machine the size of a house to armor me. Such would be hazardous anyway. It strikes me as a good way to draw attention to oneself. I have always found that stealth is the best defense against predation. Negav's policy of brute force seldom works outside of its walls and the eye."

"Exactly. Breida is a pro at this." said Samiel. "And I don't buy your "protection" crap. From the sound of it, you just want a piece of a bounty. Well, let me tell you something... there is no bounty for anyone here. Check with the Investigators if you want. Nagi isn't here and I only learned of the bounty after he left so you or anyone else can't blame any of us for co-operating with him."

"We are here on a little treasure-hunting trip. Well, I mean... "archaeological retrieval." Regardless, it's none of your business as to wether we are safe or not. What are you going to do? Kill us all so we don't get harmed by something else down here? You may not trust me but you know what? That doesn't matter at all. I don't trust you much either, Mr. Stomping around the Underground in a ridiculous looking machine thingie. It's our decision how prepared we are. Let us get our prize and go after yours - speaking of, the more time you sit here talking to us, the farther away Nagi is getting. He's an idiot, but he's a slippery and potentially dangerous idiot. Heck, he's so dangerous and slippery I'm sure Bounty Hunters, Mercenaries, Adventurer Guild Elites and bored Isolon Fist operatives much more deadly than you are all after him right now. So - thanks for the warning, but no thanks. Unless you want a really pointless and wasteful fight, I'd stand aside."

Tuc135 wrote:

"Friend, I believe you make your warning in good faith." "But I have lived nearly all of my life outside of the protection of the eye. And much of that in the wilderness, both above and below ground. And I have done it without a machine the size of a house to armor me. Such would be hazardous anyway. It strikes me as a good way to draw attention to oneself. I have always found that stealth is the best defense against predation. Negav's policy of brute force seldom works outside of its walls and the eye."

Geeran almost chuckled again, but still his voice remained icy. "You say that only because you don't know what it is that I do lady... I don't go out to 'Protect myself against predation'. Quite the opposite actually... I'm a Predator Hunter. I use my machines to destroy those who would take innocent life. Wether that be from predators, or people closer to home."

Jætte_Troll wrote:

"Exactly. Breida is a pro at this." "And I don't buy your "protection" crap. From the sound of it, you just want a piece of a bounty. Well, let me tell you something... there is no bounty for anyone here. Check with the Investigators if you want. Nagi isn't here and I only learned of the bounty after he left so you or anyone else can't blame any of us for co-operating with him."

Geeran's voice hardened again. "You know nothing. What use would I have with bounty hunting? Or treasure seeking? I live with one of the wealthiest individuals in Negav... And I work for my money, I have no interest in stealing it. I merely for-warn this group of people because Hue clued me in, I had to wait for Nagi to separate before I could relay this to you because I was under strict orders not to approach him. However, Hue is not one of the Kenshas, and heaven knows what they will do when they find you down here. I didn't blame anyone here of co-operating with him, but do you honestly beleive they will care?"

Jætte_Troll wrote:

"We are here on a little treasure-hunting trip. Well, I mean... "archaeological retrieval." Regardless, it's none of your business as to wether we are safe or not. What are you going to do? Kill us all so we don't get harmed by something else down here? You may not trust me but you know what? That doesn't matter at all. I don't trust you much either, Mr. Stomping around the Underground in a ridiculous looking machine thingie. It's our decision how prepared we are. Let us get our prize and go after yours - speaking of, the more time you sit here talking to us, the farther away Nagi is getting. He's an idiot, but he's a slippery and potentially dangerous idiot. Heck, he's so dangerous and slippery I'm sure Bounty Hunters, Mercenaries, Adventurer Guild Elites and bored Isolon Fist operatives much more deadly than you are all after him right now. So - thanks for the warning, but no thanks. Unless you want a really pointless and wasteful fight, I'd stand aside."

Geeran audibly sighed over the intercom, then his voice finally lightened "No... I cannot stop you should you choose to proceed... I am worried about a friend of mine, thats the major reason I came before you here, at this threshold... Because once you go beyond the Eye's effect, I am unsure if I can do anything for you should you get into trouble... My machines are built for combat, not escort and rescue... your friend is right, my machines can draw in all kinds of curious creatures, including predators looking for their next meal, thats part of the reason why I'm effective at my work, sometimes the targets come straight to me... I'm not here for Nagi, I may not like the punk, but as I said, I'm no bounty hunter... My mission here was given to me yesterday, it was to clear away dangerous organisms and map out the deeper caverns... Since you all are so underprepared, but determined to proceed despite it, I'll leave this for you..."

The mechanical scorpion lowered into a crouch, and a single crate was lightly jettisonned from the undercarriage onto the ground, it was a large capsule.

With that Geeran backed the Zoid up away from the group and from the crate.

"That crate contains the supplies you will need, including my latest map projections... It's as far as you can possibly get and still know the way back, but be warned, if you go beyond the scope of that map, depending on how deep you go, it may take years for anyone to find you, and your supplies will not last more than a few days bitween the lot of you..."

Sean's cold glare didn't vanish at all. Even though the pilot calmed down and became more reasonably, he continued to shoot daggers from his pupils at the person in the mechanical monstrosity.

"If all you wanted was to give us even more supplies and preparation, then why'd you bring your big metal scorpion? You never thought it'd collapse the ceiling and kill us all? You want to protect us? Good, but don't force anything on anyone just cause you disagree on what we're doing. There are two types of people I never trust and listen to their blah blah: so-called autority figures, and hypocritical extremist fuckheads. Guess which one of those you're part of, fuckface?"

Nagi yawned and entered a large, mostly empty chamber with a vertical orientation and several indentions in the walls. He jumped into one of them and bounced ideas of what he could do.

Geeran finally grinned and replied. "Firstly, I am a hunter, I always hunt in my machines, it levels the playing field, And your concern about collapsing the tunnels is unfounded, My laser excavators recompact the dirt and rock after they have moved. Secondly, I operate alone, always did. I am on mission, but I was also aware of your spur-of-the-moment spelunking trip, and being that I know what the situation is down here, I knew you lot where woefully underprepared. What I did, I did out of concern for your safety, not mine. Finally, I don't give a shit whether you listen or not, it's your choice, and if you want extremist authority figures, you'll get them in the form of the Kenshas, and beleive me, they will not be as nice as I am. The moment innocent people get endangered, I will make sure the door is open... You want to close that door yourself, that is your choice... Hopefully my digging will draw anything unsavoury away from you... Goodbye."

The mechanical scorpion turned and moved forward, deeper into the labyrinth, before turning left and beginning to burrow into the wall once more.

---

Once Geeran had moved out of range of the group, he opened a comm channel, the transmitter antennae extended from the cockpit, and was boosted from the receiver back inside his bunker where he housed all of his machines, which in turn relayed the signal to Negav.

"Hunter number 434786, Geeran Holden reporting in, priority communique to Sargeant Hue Loch, Investigators, Public Security. Over."

Geeran waited for the patch through.

"Hue, Geeran reporting, I have another update... It seems the motley crew of spelunkers have advanced their schedule, they are already down here, at the edge of the Isolon Eye's area of effect. They plan on proceeding despite being woefully unprepared. Interesting thing though, they are down here minus one bounty target in Nagi... It appears they separated after entering the labyrinth. That said, the only humanoid lifesigns I managed to detect down here besides the group was about 375 meters below us, along with two Fungoids that retreated when I appeared... Unknown lifesign could be your target. Over."

Nina stayed silent, watching the metal machine disappear before stating, "I believe there is some truth to what he says about the dangers. Though I am concerned about another. I don't know if people of it, but I've read about beings of elements. Since we are in the underground, I fear that person may have disturbed one mayhap. I think it would be best for us to get what we came for and leave before any beings of elements came and find us."

She looked around, her head fins twitching and flicking slightly. She gripped the hilt of her sword tighter. Her face bore a worried look before she looked over at Samiel, asking, "Group leader, do you think beyond here that there may be earth elements?"

Samiel shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I've occasionally seen earth elementals near Negav, but only small ones. Down here I don't know what we could find. But I don't plan to stick around to find out. We're not going down into the unknown abyss. We are going to go a little bit further and see if the treasures further down this cavern. Now.... crap... that idiot scared off the fungoids. I wanted to ask them if they've seen anything. Damn. Any of you figure you can track them? Surely they have a village or house or something?"

"Sorry. First time I've seen 'em."

Sean grit his teeth as he walked to the crate of supplies. Damn that Geeran guy! Even if it was to protect and prepare this expedition, that bigass mech could have seriously put them all in danger. Even without a cave-in, if its claws were off and hit someone, he'd be a goner. How could he desire his and the rest's welfare, and bring about a fucking mech? All he could have done is yell them to wait, come over with a crate of supplies, and that's it! No oversized scorpion, no mining laser shit, no chance of fucking accidents! Next time they meet Geeran, sans his mech, he'd have to deck him just for this carelessness. He examined the capsule, then tried to open it.

Horamus only groaned and facepalmed in an irritated manner after Geeran addressed him, it seeming to him that the entire reason that he had come down here was to cater to his safety, as if it didn't occur to him in the slightest that was precisely the reason why he was with the group in the first place. He held his tongue, however, sighing to himself when Geeran finally moved on.

After he left, he turned to hear Samiel ask if there was a way to track them down, to which he responded, "Knowing fungoids, I'm pretty sure that they have a settlement around here somewhere...possibly near a mycodryad if there's one around here. Not sure, though. Doubt it's worth it, however, because fungoids can't talk and they don't use any sign language. They only communicate through the lights on their body and through spores. Unless you can find a way to make a light show or something like that, you're not going to get very far."

Sean turned to Horamus as he mentioned a light show.

"Well, Nina can light up her scales, so that could be useful, assuming you know how to 'speak' in their language. Wouldn't advise going out of our way just to track the mushrooms. Best-case scenario, they're really closeby. More than likely, looking for them would waste time, which we don't have much of when the cops are coming."

She looked at Sean with an offended look. "I do not 'flash' like fungi folk do. Though that doesn't mean I can't try, but don't assume I can exactly the way they do for I am merely a being of flesh and blood while they are not," she said, sheathing her sword before crossing her arms over her chest, staring at the fighter, her body dimly glowing. "Be more careful when choosing words for as the saying goes 'Hell Hath no fury than a woman's scorn'."

"A myco...dryad?" said Samiel, slowly to Horasmus. Technically, they were right off the edge of the Isolon Eye so seeing a dryad was not impossible. Not something he had expected... but not impossible."

"Well, we'll see. Aren't any of you people good trackers? Geeran mucked up this area but we should be able to find the footprints again. Oh, and another thing to make clear to all of you - the only one in any trouble with the Investigators is Nagi. So don't get your panties in a twist over them. Worse comes to worse I'll handle that. But, still, let's not let this take longer than it needs to."

"Surface worlders, they think they know everything..." Breida murmured after the scorpion mech left. "...erm, present company excluded, of course. Sorry," She quickly added sheepishly, realizing her faux pas. She rubbed the back of her neck a moment before continuing. "Anyway, Like I've been telling you since we started. Of course there are dangers. The underground is just as dangerous as the surface. Earth elementals, and to a lesser extent water elemetals are a danger. As well as the predators. But don't worry about the food situation, I can forage enough of the local plant life for us to keep our bellies full."

"But the mushroom men aren't one of the dangers. We've seen them from time to time in the caverns. As near as we can figure they're a nomadic race, wandering from cavern to cavern. Seem to have some affinity for mycodryads or mushroom dryads, but we haven't been able to figure out how to communicate with them ourselves. Anyway, they're largely harmless, we ignore them and they ignore us. They aren't dangerous, unless you attack them or steal from them. Beyr doesn't know of any permanent homes or settlements, though they often inhabit groves of mushrooms like this one. Mind, we've only seen a few groups, some could have easily settled down in particularly rich areas without Beyr's knowledge."

She sighed as she looked around. She didn't see the fungoids anywhere, but they did leave sizeable tracks that were easy to follow. She began following them.

Sean turned to Breida as she shared her knowledge of the underground, then followed her as she began following their track. The light from his lantern began to dimly light the area around the Terra Elf. He looked away and his cheeks rosened, should she look his way.

"Just so you know, I'm coming with you to track the shrooms only because my job's to protect the people on this expedition."

"Well, no need to waste time, let's go, let's go." urged Samiel. "Come on, when we get the loot we'll all eat somewhere really fancy. Now let's move.

He followed Breida as she followed the tracks. The cavern floor started to incline upwards until they were hiking up a hill. The glow also grew brighting. Then they crested the ridge. Samiel looked down into a little underground valley.

"... Huh." was the scope of how much of his wonder he let loose. Below, were many fungoids, even some crude stone fungoid-houses (At least, what he assumed were crude stone fungoid houses.) But in the center of all this was the most impressive sight - for the mycodryad (he assumed it was a mycodryad - half woman, half mushroom, right?) towered over all. His attention was focused on her - not because of her impressive height, or impressive body (er, half-body). All around here was piled treasure. Some of it she was even wearing as jewelry, on her arms, on her stalk, in her hair. It was clear this particular mycodryad had a thing for shinies.

Nina came up next to Samiel, her head fines flicking a bit. "Hm, well seems as we found the treasure, a bit sad its being guarded by a plant woman," she stated, taking mental notes of the surrounding area for future journeys for trade or at least possible exchange of resources. "It would appear she has a thing for things that shiny... Perhaps if we have something of similar value we could give her in exchange for some of the treasure. Though, why would a mycodryad want treasure."

As Nagi stood around, he began to grow impatient. True, he told himself, he had nowhere to go, but he was still getting bored and didn't feel like sleeping was necessarily his best move in his current situation. He quickly jumped down the chamber and walked off into one of the passages. As he walked, he noticed a few strange spots in the wall. They appeared to be the remains of tunnels. He raised his guard at the sight of these and continued into another chamber, this one almost directly below the mycodryad, though significantly deeper.

Horamus merely chuckled at Brieda's apology, putting his nighteye goggles back on and following the group as he replied to her statement with, "None taken, miss." He looked around the tunnels curiously as he followed behind the track followers, pleasantly smiling to himself until they reached the fungoid settlement. His face changed to awe as he viewed the fungoids living their lives while moving about in their village, with the giant mycodryad looking down on them adorned in her jewelry like a queen.

"A dryad right under Negav City...who would've thought...?" the neko whispered to himself in amazement. The feeling washed away rather quickly though, as he realized that if their presence here was discovered, the fungoids would probably have them delivered straight into this fungus woman's hands, and if they thought that the tunnel-happy Geeran had been part of their group...

At this, the neko silently made his way to the front, moving beside Samiel as he quietly noted, "Erm...maybe we should just consider our good fortunes and turn around before we're noticed by anyone. I mean, I don't think the dryad's going to be very keen on having us waltz up and swipe what she's got on her..."

"Thanks for the information, but I will need a little more." Thane answered, "Did your contact give the last whereabouts of this Nagi?"
As he spoke, Thane looked carefully at the officer, noticing the man's dull expression and tired eyes. That explained why the officer's behaviour, he was sleep deprived. Thane thought. Just one of the dangers of working in law enforcement, still it probably did make him a little easier to deal with.

Breida kept near to the ground as she saw what lay beyond the ridge. Below her was the wide valley, dominated by the giant mycodryad in the center. But she was also fascinated by the settlement the fungoids had built. Beyr thought them to be just roaming nomads, but this was clearly a permanent settlement, focused around the dryad. She had never seen fungoid architecture before. And of course, was the treasure piled around the trunk of the mycodryad, vast and rich enough to put any dragon of myths to shame.

It took a second for her rational mind to catch up to her wonder. She began creeping back down and away from the dryad as silently as she could. "Come on, lets go!" She whispered tersely. They were lucky enough to have seen the dryad before it saw them. No sense in tempting fate with hanging around. "Well, this operation has failed. Taking abandoned relics is one thing, but this?" Needless risk aside, the people of Beyr had rumors that mycodryads like these could be harmed by no weapon forged or enchanted by mortals.