Hell if there ever was one

[vahlok sed volum]

"I can't tell if this is a reward or punishment," Justice said, huddled in her blanket. The insulation was supposedly the best in the galaxy, but by Volum, it was cold.

Mercy responded, "Volum: an orphan world cast in perpetual night. With a methane atmosphere, -200 degree weather, diamond shard rain, electrical storms, skin-shredding blizzards, pressure storms and a 6000 degree troposphere; the planet is considered uninhabitable.

Additional mention from preliminary scouting reports suggest a daunting amount of unbound beserks such as Revenant, Wraiths, and Shades. Whatever happened to this world; Colagartrune Necromancy was involved, and it's still here."

"Was that supposed to clarify it for me?" Justice said irritably.

"Perhaps not," Mercy said, neutrally.

Faith chimed in, "it's quite obvious this was a gesture of faith. You know this already Justice. He thinks highly of you, perhaps naively so, but we were sent here to accomplish a mission. Accomplish it he believes we can, and accomplish it we will."

"Right then," Justice said, enjoying her cocoa, ignoring crackling lightning and gunfire, and the deafening howling that came from outside. Her shift was over. She'd be out there again soon enough, but for now, she was enjoying the break; even if it killed her.

Mercy finished strapping his armor pieces to the time rig, and stepped into the airlock. Through the windows, Justice saw his form disappear behind a screen of white, whipping wind, save for a few blue lights and flashes of orange and blue followed by cracking explosions and shuddering thumps.

[Zerta]

A shadow was seen briefly in the dark before moving out of sight. A brief murmur of, "blasted thing where could it be" followed shortly by an enraged bellow.

[vahlok sed volum]

"Sir," one of the soldiers made his way through the blizzard and gunfire to Mercy, as he struggled against a pair of blackened and disfigured men. The soldier opened fire from a rifle that blasted one back a few feet and Mercy took the opening, and together they fell back into the safety of their own ranks.

"What is the emergency soldier?"

"There's a fluctuation of energy on the planet, readings are showing its not far off from the base. At first we made note for an archaeological team, but now it's moving," the soldier pressed a button on his wrist where a holographic display appeared, he tapped a few buttons, and geography of the area showed up; practically unrecognizable through the storm, "and a scouting team saw a figure near the location,should we break off a few teams to investigate?"

Mercy looked at the readings; magical energy in the area was nearly void. Something was scattering the energy, and absorbing it. Whatever it was, was a powerful source of darkness. This warranted a careful decision.

"I will speak of the data with Justice and Faith, then you will have your answer."

"Justice already approved sir, she sent me ahead to confirm with you; Faith puts it on your decision."

I thought for a moment, less than surprised Justice would send someone so quickly. Tavarius would at least like a report, I assumed.

"Very well, prepare a shuttle. I will escort the team personally."

[Zerta]

"Damn this weather" the figure mumbeld "its bad enough I have to comb the entire planet alone for 'IT' but I have to do it in this weather" he sat back and began to relax himself "still, its better than most worlds I've visited to find the clues" a laugh escaped the cloak.

As the fog that had been summoned to conceal the figure faded it took notice of what looked like a warzone " ooh! Diner and a show! To think so lucky" a few minutes later it paused about halfway to the war zone "you know if you keep following me i might get the wrong impresion."

[vahlok sed volum]

A large metallic vehicle erupted through the battlefield halting on the side opposite the scout zerta had addressed. From the back, Mercy and several other soldiers piled out. Some of the soldiers, more heavily equipped, formed a ring around the group; opening fire on the creatures whose attention they caught. A small group of others joined Mercy as he regrouped with the scout and approached zerta.

"Professor Zerta," Mercy nodded, "interesting that you would be on this world. Interesting, but not surprising. What is surprising is that you would scour it alone. You may be able to survive out here alone for whatever indefinite amount of time; but even one as powerful as you are can't accurately read a planet's magnetic and seismological telemetry.

We required a fully funded excavation team, complete with security complement to simply establish a lead on our search; yet for whatever reason you chose to come and attempt to search this planet alone. I can take a hint. I won't attempt to pry knowledge from you about what you are after; it would be a waste of time for both of us, but I cannot ignore your presence on this planet. So I, in the name of my Emperor, offer you this proposition: we have the most advanced archaeological equipment technology available, some magical and non-magical. We also have shelter. It seems to me you're wasting quite a lot of power weathering this storm; power better used in whatever research you are conducting. So we will offer you our assistance, if you will offer your knowledge and expertise in our own research."

Mercy's blue lights were the most defining features in the blizzard, the yellow flares of explosives being the only indicator to the shape of him and his men through the razor sharp particles hurling through the air, clinking off of their armor.

[Zerta]

Zerta cursed under his breath "ha, i had hoped to avoid those who knew me. He gave a sigh very well I would definatley appreciate the help though and would be more than happy to help your research as well." His tone dropped "but I will not allow anyone to touch the artifact I seek once I have found it" he laughed returning his tone to normal "oh and this is sopposed to be a secret but Im actually planning a diplomatic trip to your home world soon" he tapped his nose twice "from caelum of course"

[vahlok sed volum]

"I see," Mercy said, "so there are some things you know about me. Never hesitate to ask anything you wish to know directly Professor, especially now that we work together. You'd probably be surpirised by the kinds of things we are willing to speak of. As for the research we are doing, there is a powerful energy reading at the core of this planet. The energy signatures and its positioning near the core are consistent with a Colagartrune device we have very little knowledge of ourselves. So we are investigating the ruins of this civilization in hopes to learn more about ourselves."

[Zerta]

Zerta gave a chuckle " do you mind if I see the readings you have on the core the thing i seek has a subtle energy signature that can be easy to miss if you dont know what your looking for."

[vahlok sed volum]

"Let us return to the base first," Mercy responded, rallying the soldiers back to the transport and climbing aboard himself, offering Zerta assistance up the ramp.

[Zerta]

Zerta gladly accepted the assistance and climbed the ramp. He then sat patiently as they headed to the base.

[vahlok sed volum]

Mercy buckled in and not a moment later, there was a thundering boom from outside. The lights in the cabin flickered, and in seconds the pilot was alerting them to opening the boarding ramp.

Now in the center of an open icey platform with several other similarly designed ships, Mercy followed the soldiers inside beckoning Zerta to follow. Before they could enter however, Justice exited the airlock, Faith following close behind.

"Mercy you are way out of line," she roared at him.

Mercy gestured to Zerta, "we have a guest Justice, a little more tact would go a long way."

"Up your prissy little asshole Mercy, that was not your call to make!"

"She's been shouting at me in here," Mercy tapped his helmet speaking to Zerta, "the whole way here. It's not your call either Justice."

She stiffened with frustration turning to Faith as if for guidance.

"She is right that you should not have offered so much so rash. You took hardly a moment to consider whether or not Tavarius would disapprove. He will likely be less than ecstatic about this, but what has been done cannot be undone, and there is no doubt advantage in the deal Mercy has made. Zerta knows enough now that we cannot reject him without considerable risk to security. Mercy's decree will stand."

Justice stomped off like a kindergartener, grumbling in her suit, and they all followed inside, Mercy gesturing for Zerta to join them until they reached a room with a holographic projection of the battle occurring outside.

[Zerta]

Zerta chukeld "oh dont worry there is very little outside this relic that I desire" he followed and watchedthe projection with some interest " there formation isn't bad" he commented

[vahlok sed volum]

"Considering most of them were once berserker class dark dragons, we're quite proud of the progress we've made in building our army. It hasn't been easy convincing the King to trust us so deeply. He believes we're here in his name, so of as little as I will ask you, I would hope you would keep up that small charade for us," Mercy selected a panel floating above the battle, and a projection of the archaeological site appeared.

Guards patrolled ramps on small towers that the creatures for some reason didn't dare approach. Within the site itself a small projector kept the harshest of the weather out, allowing the dig to go relatively smoothly. Rodriun again pulled up a panel that showed a blob of images, and tapped a circle in the middle. A block of text and graphs appeared.

"These are the energy signatures found at the core of the world," Mercy explained, "time and space bends in inconsistent patterns around it, making accurate readings extremely difficult to interpret for even our Colagartrune physicists. All radiological and magical energy appears to be counteracted within this ring around the object. Beyond the ring closer to the object elemental signatures spike and wisp, further they seem to be being drawn in like a black hole. On the object itself, all magical readings suggest exactly this, but radiological readings imply nothing. The object itself is maybe five hundred feet tall, but the anomaly of energy seems to be sourced beneath it in the core of the planet."

[Zerta]

Zerta smiled widley " oh my, it may very well be a spire." He laughed with glee " if that is what i think it is I would be very careful who you show it to. Or an army of, what did your people call them again..." He paused " oh yes, an army of necromancers will appear to claim its power. However the core confuses me, I've never quite seen interference like that though to be honest looking for the object I seek will be impossible so long as that maintains itself." He gave a small sigh " I've never wanted to have the key elsewhere so badly."

[vahlok sed volum]

"We believe that the anomaly is a result of the spire being active," Mercy revealed, "somebody long ago used it, but the ritual appears to have gone wrong at that time. Whoever intended to use it was likely sucked into the anomaly, and now the entire planet and its inhabitants suffers the consequences. Turning off the spire should gain control of the situation, and remove the anomaly, but also seal whomever it was that activated the device on the other side."

[Zerta]

Zerta thought for a moment "hmm, do you have any way if getting down there?" He asked "I may yet have a way to avert such an unseemly fate. I just need to see the inscriptions around the walls."

[vahlok sed volum]

"As of yet we have been unable to make much progress digging our own route, the locals have seen to that. However there is undoubtedly a way to access it elsewhere on the planet, of which we are yet unaware. On Colagart there is an elevation platform that lowers to the core. Such a primitive method seemed like the best option to gradually introduce the changes in air pressure to anyone who would venture into the depths by Colagartrune engineers. It took advantage of an extensive cave system that led to the core, but would take months to travel by foot. We believe similar methods were applied here. If someone had the confidence to activate the machine, they had plenty of access to it beforehand."

Mercy tilted his head inquisitively, "so you believe you may be able to extract the being from the anomaly? How would you plan to do that?"

[Zerta]

Zerta smiled "i won't know the answer to that until Ican study it. However if they did what iI think they did and jumped the order I will merely need to access the different spires in the right order."

[vahlok sed volum]

"Here," Mercy pulled out panel on the side and navigated through various files before opening one titled reconstruction, "this may do you some good."

A three-dimensional map opened of the spire and its surroundings.

"We have been able to penetrate the ground with an uber-precision laser over the last few weeks. It's not complete, but for all intents and purposes, it is a fully navigatable three dimensional virtual reconstruction of the site; almost down to the atom, not so much on the color I'm afraid."

[Zerta]

Zerta observed the hollomap closely before smiling contently and pointing above the door of the tower at the roman numeral XII "will take quite some time I'm afraid " he said still smiling "it is twelve; the hanged man, this is the tower of sacrifice and acceptance. Unfortunately it is the second to last tower in the sequence. It has taken me quite some time to even reach where I am now in finding the relics that unlock these towers and I'm afraid the towers are harder to find still." He sighed "however if this is urgent, there is an alternative way to open or close the door, you must embody the arcana of the tower, in this case we should need one willing to sacrifice themselves and who accepts that role." Zerta sighed "it is near certain death."

[vahlok sed volum]

"Whoever's in there has waited a long time, they can wait a little bit longer," Mercy said, "those of us willing to sacrifice ourselves are still far too valuable to the structure of our organization. Whoever is responsible for this mess hasn't hindered our progress quite that greatly,"

[Zerta]

"Good to know" Zerta replied "though I am admittedly disappointed that this wasn't a lower number. Though I guess the harsher the environment the more difficult these things get to find. Makes me terrified of where XIII will end up." He let out a sigh "anyway I've found what I came here for, I now owe you a debt and would like to repay it. So, how might I be of assistance?"

[vahlok sed volum]

"Well, your knowledge in necromancy combined with ours may prove useful in interpreting and deciphering data here. The ruins on this planet show life once thrived here, and the suggestion is that they thrived on a necromancy based hierarchy. We don't know a lot about the truths of our historical past, but..."

Justice stepped in, swiping a few patterns across furiously, before coming to a tablet with symbols etched upon it. She spoke.

"But Colagartrunes did once write. We have bits and pieces, not enough to officially recognize a language, but there are documents on our home world that archaeologists have uncovered with obvious patterns of speech. This tablet was recovered here on Volum; it predates most civilizations, and is a form of writing that our analysts believe evolved into those Colagartrune forms recovered on our home world. We need to know about your home; more specifically Tavarius does. You said a lot of things on Tempo Regine, but we need specifics. Samples; writing, weaponry, armor, clothing, entertainment, architecture. It doesn't have to be modern, it doesn't have to be functional, it doesn't have to be intact; anything is good. In addition to that, we'll need your help working with samples on this planet of more unusual nature. Mainly artifacts with less than usual functions, such as magical apparti."

[Zerta]

Zerta grinned "would you care for a sample of the old tounge? I can still speak and write it. Though I doubt it will help you with your own laugage much." He turned away from the hollow screen. "As for the rest I am always more than happy to be given the opportunity to reaserch ancient artifacts and laugage, necromancy on the other hand, well that depends what you wish to know there are some secrets that I have learned are not to be shared, For instance there exists a technique to rip the soul from a living body and bend that body to your will. Or to create a blade from said soul... And many beside." He gave a small sigh "I will tell you what I know of the dark arts but not the ones that lead one to where I now stand. Is that alright with you?"

[vahlok sed volum]

"This will do," Mercy answered.

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