Journey of a Drow

"Geese...Delve." she muttered to herself quietly with discrete and moody tone. She knew that now that Delve gave away her position and wouldn't have the chance to cloak herself so to let the person pass and meet the other outside the cave.She turned around and said "No Delve, but there is some wanderer down here, I'm going to tell him what's up, then get Seline and the elf back up here so we can all catch up for the night." She looked back down in the cave to answer back on the anonymous Person, which looked like he was vigilant for a fight with her."Weapons down if you choose too. I wanna talk to you so hurry up and get to my position." She was quite amused that the person she was calling towards also had a supplemental self stock of technological gear on him, This made her very amused, as she never ran into this much random people who were for the most part self reliant in technology and goodly equipped. Beside her interactions with the Fist of Islon. It gave her an early smile as she saw the stranger coming up to her.

Once he made it to the ledge, the drow stopped his levitation and landed, making his way through the tunnel to another ledge that was slightly higher than the ledge that Kalian was on, looking down from it to see what exactly had happened. Observing the area, he noticed that there was one girl that was holding supply containers, but she looked like she had only just arrived. The only two people he saw that had been there before Delve was the red-haired human who was holding a rifle, and Thane, who was standing right beside his broken torch, the dark elf immediately figuring out what happened, his face crinkling with a disgusted annoyance.

"Stupid surface dwellers!" he snorted, walking back the way he came as he left that area of the cave, going back to the ledge he was on. "Stupid human wasting her ammunition for a cheap laugh..." he grumbled, turning his head as he saw the ariformid crawling on the wall to where he was. "Anyway, I do believe I was asking why I should even trust you to begin with." he said to her, his eyes narrowing in mistrust as the words came out of his mouth.

Seline quickly put the last of the distance between herself and the Drow behind and stopped in front of him. "Why should you trust me, you ask?" She asked while rubbing her chin. She then switched into a relaxed position, folded her hands behind her head and smiled happily. "Because you want to live" Her voice was completely honest. "This world..." Her smile disappeared, though she remained in the same position. "Felarya, is something like a dimensional crossroad. It has a habit of randomly connecting to other worlds, dragging either a single person as yourself, or as much as whole countries into itself. The predators of Felarya, the absolute top of the food chain, will find and eat anyone who might be dragged here with no knowledge of the world. Even if no living things is near, you are still at the mercy of the carnivorous plants. Only rarely will outsiders who has come to Felarya unwillingly survive, seeing that even the natives have a hard time" She offered the Drow her hand. "So? Is that reason enough to trust me?"

Geeran squirmed inside the sealed cockpit, getting out of the now very unconfortable flight suit and was dressed only in a pair of loose slacks, his chest now layed bare. The pilot gripped the painfilled cluster of veins and arteries tightly.

Typing in a few standby commands into the Grevious Angel's console directly, he wrapped himself in a thermal blanket and adjusted the pilot seat into a horisontal position, making a makeshift bed, before laying down with his head pointed at the console. Ragged breaths soon eased into fitful breaths of light sleep.

Spoiler:

Slightly annoying about being ordered around by a complete stranger who had just shot some of his equipment, Thane still thought it best to hear what she had to say, as she seemed to know what was happening here and he also knew that first impressions weren’t always accurate. It still seemed like a strange joke to play on a complete stranger though. He lowered his weapon and walked towards Kallan.
“You’ve got a strange way of greeting people here, shooting at them. Is that normal around here?” Thane said as he neared her.

"Only normal if you had bad turns. which is the usual forte about this with this world." She looked behind Thane and noticed that there was no further noise being made inside the cave besides from the two of them talking. "looking at your equipment, i take it you know where you are. so i don't need to explain that." Kallan greeted Thane with a quick salute "Names Kallan by the way. Tech/weapons engineer and scientist." She said with a smile as she shook Thanes hand with her free unhurt one. You can tell me your business in this specific part of Felarya while we're walking to acquaintances i meet earlier Exploring out here. She materialized a eyepiece for Thane and threw it to him as he caught it in an excellent fashion. "That isn't a low quality eye piece. you'll be able to see night,thermal,and infared vision up to 250ft away, so it'd be useful in a cave like this.Though please do return it, it's not too easy to build and it's the only spare i have." She Explained as she continued to walk down the cave. giving a gesture for Thane to come along. "Oh yes, its night time. So we gotta hurry before most of the life and fauna start their early morning feeding."

"Who is it?" Delve called out as she wandered through the cave's snaking passageway. It was hard to see now, Delve having to resort to feeling her way round with her free hand. The damp rocks were cold to the touch; some seemed to be covered in a moss like growth. "Damn it," she said quietly to herself "I hope that pilot put a torch or something in here" Delve muttered as she dug her way through the supply boxes. "Ah, bingo." she announced in a cheerful voice having found a flare. A bright purple flash lit up the cave as Delve ignited the flare; the loud hissing echoing off the walls as white smoke erupted from the hot burning mixture. With her new found light source, Delve was able to look around the cave in some detail; small stalactites hung from the ceiling; other strange formations seemed to fill the higher walls. A slight flash caught her eye as the flare's light reflected in some metal. "That must be Kallan." she whispered, focusing on where she saw the flash she could make out Kallan's silhouette, and that or a broad man, "and that must be whoever she found." she continued. Delve continued walking the short distance towards the pair; able to avoid the cave's obstacles. Upon reaching Kallan she dropped the flare; still giving her ample light to see but not so it would blind the others. "Hey Kallan, Geeran went to bed in his mech, said something about this place being dangerous, but he gave us these." she dropped the containers in front of her. "Looks like we'll be eating well tonight." she continued while looking up at the pair "And hello handsome, looks like this day might get a bit better for me." she said with a big smile upon noticing Thane. Delve quickly narrowed her eyes as she looked Thane up and down but only for a second.

Spoiler:

The drow looked at the ariformid's hand for a moment before looking back into her face, a blank uncaring expression on his face. "Even if what you say is true, your attempts at earning my trust are useless. I trust no one, not even members of my own race. ...However, given the dangerous nature of this world, I am willing to enter a truce with you." he stated, taking a firm grip on her hand and shaking it once before letting go.

"However, should you attempt to harm me or if anything happens that becomes inconvenient for me, then this truce is off, and I will never associate myself with you again, insect. Do you understand?" he said, crossing his arms as he made his statement.

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Shortly after Geeran fell asleep, a fairy with red hair and green eyes had started to fly in his direction, lazily eating a piece of fruit that was about as big as an apple as she did so. She immediately stopped, however, when the Grievous Angel came into view, her eyes going wide and her jaw going slack, the fruit she was holding falling out of her hand as she gazed upon the mech in awe.

"Oh...my...god...that's AWESOME!! This is the biggest robot I've ever SEEN!" she squealed with glee, flying around the mech a few times to get a good look at it, flying up to the head of it immediately afterwards, regarding the sleeping human with curiosity. "Hey, human, is this your robot? Human? Huuuuuuman?" she asked, knocking on the glass relentlessly to try and wake Geeran up.

Seline smiled widely as The Drow took and shook her hand. She listened carefully to his terms of the truce and when he was done, she put her hands to her sides and nodded once. "Don't worry, I'm a warrior of honor. i will not do anything to you unless you attack me or agree to a fair duel" She said securely. "Now, I am Seline, my hives first born and strongest fighter" She said a made a horizontal bow, with her left arm across her stomach and right arm stretched out to the side. Coming up from her bow, she looked lightly concerned at the Drow. "May i ask if you hold any discontent against humans?"

Spoiler:

The eyes of the machine lit up slightly, and a smooth intelligent voice came from it's vocalisers.

"Statement: I am sorry ma'am, but you will not be able to awaken Master Geeran by hammering on my chassis. He has been weakened far too much to awaken within the next 12 hours at the very least, possibly longer." it said as it's main optical sensors came online.

Thane returned the salute; his quick movement defying the weight of his gauntlets. "Actually, I’m not too sure where I am, I didn’t control the portal that brought me here. Not really that uncommon for me though. He looked on as Kallan seemed to craft a device out of thin air; 'seems we have more in common than I first realised' he thought as she tossed it to him. Catching it, he gave it a quick inspection before putting it on. Tapping it to ensure it was in place he took a quick look around; testing its capabilities.

Neural Implant Log:

Turning back to Kallan he said “This certainly is a useful piece. I’ll be sure to return it."

Kallan seemed helpful, but her way of ‘greeting,’ even if it was just a joke showed a real lack of discipline. The kind that got men and women killed. Thane knew many who would have immediately responded with force, no questions asked.
Hearing her comment about the time of day "Damn wizard, he could at least have gotten the portal to get me to a place at about the same time of day, though this device of yours should really come in handy..." He stopped himself in mid-sentence as he his enhanced hearing picked up the the sound footsteps shortly followed by the slight sizzling sound of a flare. He tensed slightly, shifting his stance to defensive. As the flare carrier drew closer Thane was sightly surprised to make out the silhouette of a woman. He held his position, knowing that as far as threats were concerned, gender meant nothing. He watched her carefully as she placed the flare on the ground, in his mind he tried to anticipate any hostile movements. He finally relaxed upon hearing her call Kallan by name. If she was Kallan’s friend, he would give her the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, even though Thane had learned not to judge by appearances, she didn’t look all to threatening.

Yet Thane was taken by surprise when the woman called him handsome, regaining his composure he noticed her looking straight at him; he returned the gaze. He hadn’t expected to see anyone like her here; she seemed an odd companion for a weapons engineer. That didn’t mean he was displeased to see someone like her. She seemed quite attractive judging by the light of the flare she had just dropped. He looked at them both, a slight smile on his face. “The destruction of my torch notwithstanding, this is a better reception than most I get upon arriving on most new worlds. I’m Thane; mercenary and weaponsmith.”

Neural Implant Log:

"Tch......" Kallan gave a sharp miffed noise towards delve as she drooped the container and looked at Thane with great enthusiasm.She gave her attention to Thane also. "Great to hear, maybe you can help me repair the faulty part of my back pack. Can't really use all but one energy weapon with out it." She looked at delve who was still in a daze at Thane and smiled for her and was going to regret ruining her moment with the next comment "Sorry Delve...you might have to carry those a bit longer till we are at the mouth of the cave, its still largely unexplored, and i doubt the two down there went to its end. Besides, this maybe a place for.....a naga" she looked back at the two and didn't take thought into account that they knew what a naga actually is. noticing Delve raise an eye brow and Thane giving a plain and intrigued expression on is face. "You two do know what that is right?" Kallan said as she started to look at them with sympathy.

"Well it's very nice to meet you Thane, I'm Delve a refugee from Mara, but I'm not going to bore you with that story." Delve announced; smiling at the man in front of her. Yet underneath her cheery expression she scrutinized Thane in her mind; identifying weapons as well as any noticeable insignia. While it is possible that his race may not have been a past target; the protocols did identify something on his person. Perhaps the better route would be to ask him directly. Delve looked at Kallan upon hearing her question. By the way Kallan was referring to them it seemed they were hostile, perhaps they were what Geeran was talking about earlier. "Nagas? you mean those mythical creatures the head of a human and the body of a serpent?"

The drow rolled his eyes as Seline made her bow and made her claim about being the strongest of her hive, obviously not impressed. When asked if he had any discontent about humans, the drow scoffed, looking down to the ground as he replied, "They're stupid, ignorant surface dwellers that lull themselves into a false sense of security and easily fall prey when danger strikes. To associate myself with those inferior...things is an insult to both my intelligence and my honor." He then looked back up, his eyes narrowing intently as he asked, "Do you expect me to dirty my hands with their ilk?"

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"Ah, really? Aw, that's no fun!" Cazaria pouted as she looked over the sleeping human inside, noticing that he looked slightly familiar, but immediately shrugged it off as she looked around for something else to keep her amused. When she noticed the cave a little ways away, the fairy immediately smiled as she just found something to do, flying off into the opening of the cave and calling out, "HELLO?! ANYONE IN HERE?!"

Seline raised an eyebrow as the Drow did not introduce himself, but refrained from saying anything since it might not be custom where he was from "I would not be so quick to call humans stupid and inferior, though they might be ignorant at times, they are most certainly not stupid, wait and see" Seline said very seriously. "And i do not expect you to dirty your hands, but neither do i expect you to survive without the help of either the humans or another race in this world. I experienced first hand your impressive skills of stealth, but it will not help you in this world"

The eyes of the Grevious Angel dulled as Cazaria moved on, the mech focussing it's attention back to it's pilot.

Spoiler:

Geeran twitched in his sleep, a sign that he was entering the dream world of his own mind. Here he relived the days of his youth, before the attack that changed everything he once was into everything he is today. He enjoyed the company of his family, and talking with the friends of his village.

he even had talks with their controversial part time trade partners in the predators of the region, notably Driders. Before the betrayal, he never had a problem with the predators, he was content. He knew how the cycle of life worked, and he new that the predators where intelligent enough to recognize a good deed and deal when it was proffered.

However, Geeran's dreams as of the last few weeks had become nightmares.

And it was happening once more.

The power generators suddenly exploded in a shower f purple and black flames... His inhuman friends suddenly became viscious, unholy light glowing in their eyesm preying upon former friends like it was their last meal in Felarya!

Geeran began to twitch ungontrollably. and shudder with every death his mind's eye witnessed. The black veins that marred his chest began to glow faintly with an eerie purple light.

Spoiler:

The Grevious Angel send a computerised message to Kallen to warn them all to remain within the cave at this time, as hazardous energy was perforating the area.

The cockpit of the Grevious angel was then covered py a powerful internal shield, and 7 straps made of hardened Dridder Silk was strapped over geeran's body to restrain him.

Seeing the crushed and twisted metal on the left side of her pack, Thane raised an eyebrow. “That’s more than faulty. Still, it’s not anything irreparable, I’m sure something can be done.”
Hearing Kallan tell Delve to carry the supplies again, Thane picked up one of the boxes. “If we’re all going to be using these, we should share some of the load at least... But what was that about a naga? I’ve heard tales and legends of them, but never seen one in the flesh.” He hung the supply box over his shoulder. “Still, you make them sound like a threat, so we’d better get going.”

"they are...very much a threat." she said as she began to walk, but not where the group was wanting to go. " I still have a Comrade down there. I don't know what her and that ignorant elf are doing, but shouldn't we get them first before heading up?" she Said while looking back at the other two. She then felt a disturbing reading going off insider her head. A reading that was towards Geeran's direction. Noticing her encryptions in her OS system giving her negative signs on Geeran's overall being. She then faced her body at Delve and Thane with a concerned look. "hey...maybe this isn't the best time to be heading back up. lets wait a few ten minutes. I just got a bad feeling about going back." She said with her face troubled as she started walking down again.

Delve looked rather confused at what was going on as she easily lifted one of the boxes. To her this was the perfect time to have a closer look at that machine outside, but doing so may raise suspicions within the group. No it was better if she helped them for now, afterall she still had no real idea where she was. "Kallan's right if there are others in here we should regroup before going back outside." she said softly; throwing a wink towards Thane.
"So aren't you going to tell us more about these nagas?" Delve asked Kallan tilting her head to oneside.


(Well nice to know this hasn't died. However I have made several changes to Axis tech and what not since the RP went on hiatus; the major addition being their ability to disrupt electronic sensors such as cameras and detectors, due to radiation being emitted by them; if you want to know more about this send me a PM. As Delve has few actual metal components, metals and other dense materials retaining the radiation better, these effects will be less pronounced but some minor interfearence will be caused. The second main addition is agian related to the radiation; surface to surface contact with magical energy will cause an exothermic reaction; say if a mage were to touch Delve's arm the mage would feel an unusual heat; if a fairy tried to use a shrinking spell on her there would be a rather large explosion. Anyone with a magical aura or who is magically sensative would feel the area round Delve to be much warmer than usual. This heat is can be detected at the point of contact however the interference due to the radation would distort or cancel out the readings.)

(OOC: Err, I think it's Reptile then Jokers turns isn't it?)

"If you knew the dangers of the Underdark, you would not be so quick to dismiss my abilities, insect. And you should not be so foolish as to assume that I could not use humans for help. After all, manipulating fools is so much fun." the drow said with an evil smirk, sheathing his swords as he continued, "Now, let us meet with your party so that I may humor myself with their antics."

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Getting no reply, the red-haired fairy huffed in annoyance as she flew inside, forming a fireball in her hand so that she could see inside the cave. After a few second, the fairy put two fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle, following with, "Hey, is anyone in here or not?! It isn't nice to leave a lady here all by herself!"

completely ignoring the fact that the Drow seemed to think of humans as nothing more than toys, Seline had made a frown at his comment of her dismissing his skills. "Not once did I do such a thing as dismissing your abilities. I merely stated that stealth will not help much against predators of Felarya. The level of your stealth skills would most likely be able to fool most human sized races, but predators do not need to rely on hearing, sight or smell, they have the ability to sense you and they will sense you long before you will see hear or sense them" She said and just as she was about to gesture for them to go towards the rest of the small gathering of people, she heard the whistle and, even though there were no chance of seeing anything from here, instantly gazed in the direction of it, the first thought crossing her mind being. 'Predator'

The Grevious Angel's eyes lit up once more at the sound of the whistling, and as the mech turned it's head slightly towards Cazaria and the cave entrance, it transmitted another message to Kallen, stating who and what they where dealing with.

Spoiler:

After the transmission, Geeran's body suddenly tensed and arched against the restraints, letting off a pained yell. The bruised cluster on his chest grew substantially, and was now glowing a bright purple.

"Soon... you will be even worse than any of the creatures you hunt boy... far worse!" was a faint but powerful voice in the back of his mind.

Geeran's face contorted a little in recognition. "That voice.... I've heard that voice before..."

"Agreed, it is probably for the best that we get them," Thane replied as he turned to follow Kallan "I'd think that deeper into this cave they're in more danger of encountering a naga." Just as he turned, Thane saw Delve throw him a wink. 'What is she playing at?' he thought as he started following Kallan, only to stop again as she turned around with a troubled expression on her face and a disconcerting message. Just as Thane started walking again, he heard a shrill whistle and the sound of a female voice shouting coming from the entrance to the cave. He stopped and turned slightly. "Is that another of your comrades or is it the cause of your bad feeling..?" he said, reaching around to loosen his voulge in it's sling on his pack.


(OOC: This has to be the fastest written piece I have ever written. By that I mean from the time that I had to start writing to the time I finished writing.)