DECEMBER XII 824 A.S | PLANET BALTRAM ATMOSPHERE; THE VAULT
There was a clunk as the Athena moored with the Vault. Beeps and clicking could be heard as the Exit Bay decompressed itself. Suddenly, with a loud whoosh, the Bay doors slid open and Nathan Archos with a detachment of 6 Core Marines. They were all clad in dark blue AP-ARM battle armour, with golden shoulder guards and a circular golden plate on their upper torso. Archos had a burgundy cloak that covered his neck and extended down to his waist. They held their almost-alien looking rifles tightly in their hands, with sharp Iridium combat daggers holsters on their waists. hung They embarked into the Vault, with two of them sticking near the entrance to guard the exit. As they walked into the landing area, they spied Ezrael Vertiga and the crew of the La Rochelle from the Marine Royale Gauloise. He raised a clenched fist in the air, signalling to The Core marines to halt.
"Marvelous!" Archos proclaimed, clapping his hands as he walked towards the other inhabitants of the Vault. He was dressed in similar attire to the Marines, except with a burgundy cloak that covered his neck."What a glorious occasion this is - The Core and the Gallic Royal Navy in one room!". He stopped and then turned his gaze to Ezrael "And... you..." he said bitterly. Although to The Core Ezrael was a criminal, it was through his efforts that they were able to walk in the abandoned halls of the Vault. "The Core thanks you for your help, Vertiga. We will see to it that our agreement is met, provided you keep your end of the deal".
Archos crossed his arms, before addressing the group. "For the sake of those ill-informed, I suggest we introduce ourselves before moving further into the Vault. My name is Nathan Archos. I am the Supreme Guildkeeper of The Core and the discoverer of this station. I currently hold the highest authority in our military, bested only by that of Guildmistress Loyola who is currently attending other duties".
December 12th, 824 - Sigma-15, Baltrum Orbit: The Vault
Of course the new Supreme Guildkeeper would enjoy a big entrance. Trying not to show the tension or annoyance, he allowed Archos to have his little show, while Ezrael himself sat stood with his back to the hull at the Talisman, surrounded by four armed Kishiro Service Robots. Looking at how many people were around now, with both the crew of the La Rochelle and the group lead by Nathan Archos, the Curacaoan looked down at his legs for a moment, to his holster and the plasma pistol attached to it. Other than during his first visit here on the Vault, he refrained from using an EVA suit, simply as the station's control room showed all rooms being unharmed and habitable when he was entering the access codes. He wore a faux-leather jacket over his Apahanta suit, a preference simply to have pockets for PDA and other stuff. It also didn't look bad. As Archos approached the Gallic group, Ezrael made a few steps towards them as well, followed by his KSRs. While he felt rather safe, as he made preparations before returning to the Vault, he wasn't keen on risking too much, and he didn't see any reason to not play along their rules. He knew to what level the Core was keeping their words, and they knew he wasn't stupid enough to meet with both Gallia and Core without having something in the backhand. At least he expected it.
"I see no reason to oppose the Core, Supreme Guildkeeper. If circumstances would have been different, I probably would still be with the Core," Ezrael sounded, speaking the truth here. "I'll keep my word." It was obvious he was treating the Supreme Guildkeeper with respect - simply as there was no reason not to do so. It was not the people of the Core he opposed. Only their methods. Looking over to the gallic crew, then to Archos again, he added something. "I hope your gallic is on par with your latin. My gallic is limited to ordering red wine and a pick-up line."
Listening to his little speech towards the gallic group, Ezrael remained silent. A big diplomatic play was happening here, so Gallia and Core had the highest priority in their interactions. He himself was just additional fluff. A compromise both Gallia and Core tolerated. He was fully aware of the value they saw in him, so he didn't want to push, annoy, disrupt or interrupt anything. With an eye for the detail he looked over to the gallic crew, their uniforms, the way they moved. Their armaments. The curves of the female crewmen. And how they eyed back to him, with distrust.
12th Decembre, 724 A.G.S.
Atmosphere of Baltrum; The Vault
La Rochelle's crew members had already been waiting in the area, a bit further from the docking hangars and closer to the entrance that led deeper into the station. There were a total of five next to the entrance, and three more visible guarding the chambers towards the mooring platform of La Rochelle itself. The Gallics were clearly prepared for the worst that could happen - wearing mixtures of light and heavy armour, assault rifles presumably used in ship takeover situations. The armours were blue in colour, featuring decorative golden trims and a fleur-de-lys decorating each shoulder with pride. Three guards (two in normal Gallic standard armour, one in bulky heavy armour which gave off an intimidating enough presence to pacify a raging giant) in addition to a more elderly looking man along with a woman in uniform were in clear sight to Ezreal as the five stood by the entrance, waiting.
They eyed Ezreal and his robots carefully, up until the bay doors loudly hissed and the Core detachment spilled out, their attention drawn to the spectacle. They were clearly a bit astonished as the man in the middle began clapping as he walked towards the group. The silent hissing of the robots as they marched closer didn't help ease their suspicion. The man in the group mutters silently to the guards: "Soyez vigilant."
After hearing their small dialogue, the aged man walks forward to introduce himself. "My name is Antoine-René de Merteuil, Commanding Officer of La Rochelle, Commandant of the Marine Royale Gauloise. As you're aware, we're here under authorisation from Commissaire Général Rosalie Saint-Yves to make sure we get all the details we need." He then gestures to the woman in a different type of blue uniform next to him. "La demoiselle is the... overseer of this operation, Commissaire Laure de Valmont."
"I can speak for myself, Commandant." the woman harshly interrupts. She was busy battling eyes with Ezreal, noticing his attention towards her and staring daggers back in disgust. Sickening. "I am the one who originally decyphered the code and the data on the first clue that we had, so Madame Saint-Yves has assigned me to be on board the ship to see to it personally." she spoke in a proud manner. The Capitaine shifted his feet, offended by the interruption but remaining silent.
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. We'll finally get to unlock the secrets of the people who built these soon. If you are prepared as you look, I'll make sure to mention a kind word to Saint-Yves in my report. However, are you really sure about the odd one in the room here?" she spoke as she directed her look to Archos.
A large, ambient roar of metal rushed through the room as lights flickered just slightly, indicating that something certainly wasn't right with stability of the station.
Archos smiled at Laure. "Don't worry about him. He's lucky enough to be here. And he understands that we have an agreement that will be respected, and that includes respecting our guests..." his eyes shot back to Ezrael and he furrowed his brow, signalling to Ezrael to watch where he was placing his eyes on Laure. He began to outstretch his arm for a handshake "It is an honour to meet you, code-breaker. I-"
But before he could finish, a large, ambient roar of metal rushed through the room, and the lights flickered in response. Once the commotion had stopped, he crossed his arms once more before looking at the failing lights. "It doesn't seem like this installation is enjoying our presence," he quipped in a solemn tone. "We best begin our expedition into its depths, before it decays further. We can discuss the diplomatic fine details later".
Archos begins to walk towards a wide-open corridor at the other end of the room. "Follow me," he commanded, taking the lead, Core marines on both his flanks. "I don't know what we'll find inside, but you best be ready for a fight just in case". He flicked a switch on his rifle, causing it to start to hum and pulsate with blue light. "Audentes Fortuna iuvat".
Fortune favors the bold. An old saying, but looking at where Ezrael was right now, it was true. So much that could have gone wrong as he explored the Titanic and the Vented Smuggling Facility. And he almost died in Omicron Chi when he lost his consciousness in the EVA-suit. Not wanting to waste a thought on it, Ezrael made a few steps towards the gallic group, waiting for them to follow the Core. He kept the Captaine in his view. It was good Rosalie Saint-Yves wasn't around. That would have made things probably more difficult.
"After you," he said with a smirk, nodding in the direction of the Core.
12th Decembre, 724 A.G.S.
Atmosphere of Baltrum; The Vault
The group stared at Ezrael for a few seconds. They weren't happy with the idea of this person following them from behind along with his gang of robots. Nevertheless, they turned around and started walking in the direction the Core personnel went. Their guns were unlocked and ready to respond in a second's notice.
Heavy footsteps reverberated through the chambers as the heaviest of the lot started moving. If anything, the armour wouldn't be penetrated easily by the robots behind them - it was something that had incorporated a powered exoskeleton to move more effectively, giving a clear idea of how heavy that suit was. That, and the heavy footsteps.
The party exits out of the metal corridor, they enter into what seemingly resembles a dining room. It is brightly lit, with golden chandeliers filled with glowing candles hanging from the ornately painted ceiling. A circular table with three chairs stood in the middle of the room, the table was covered with a red tablecloth. On the table are candles, and three plates with three sets of cutlery, all of which are placed equidistant from each other. On each plate was a note. If one were to read it, they would all say the same thing: "WELCOME. PLEASE SIT". There are no visible doors or other means of pressing forward.
"Very... homely..." Archos noted as he scanned the room. "I cannot say I was expecting this. Regardless, I don't like it". Archos slowly walks towards the table, pointing his rifle at it. As he approaches, he spies one of the notes. He picks it up, lowering his rifle. "It says.... welcome, please sit?" he said, turning back to the group with a confused look on his face.
The exploration just took an extremely weird turn. Ezrael looked over to the Gallic group, then to the Core. "Fortune favors the bold, Supreme Guildkeeper." Moving a bit closer and around, the man with the long black hair scanned everything with his eyes, following the cables, inspecting the chairs, the table, the chandelier and the note on the table. "I mean, I doubt this has anything to do with the stuff we're looking for, and time is running. But it looks like someone was expecting people to come here. 137, sit down here." The latter was directed at one of the robots. It followed Ezrael's order, taking seat there while Ezrael moved towards the door. The last thing he was looking forward to was getting trapped in some room, so he took a step ahead just to leave it and look back into the room. He often looked over to the Gallic Captaine.
The Gallic group observed the room and waited for something to happen as the robot sat down, a click sounding both under the chair and towards the wall just as some weight was pressed onto the chair.
The captain had noticed that all the doors were magnetically operated on this station, and in no way was this a dead end. To his mind, this was clearly a poor Sirian attempt in trying to set them up for something bad to happen. There's not a chance there'd be something honest in this region of space, especially on a derelict station that had tricks like these. There was one thing that always repelled underhanded tricks based on the history he has experienced with Sirians - bringing in sheer firepower that they wouldn't expect. If the mechanism wouldn't be powering the doors, then they'd lose power and automatically unlock given their magnetic nature.
The captain gestured to the marine in heavy armour, ordering him in Gallic to plant a charge in the middle towards the wall where the second click was heard. Lumbering over, he opened a small interface on his gauntlet and gave it a few taps. A storage compartment opened up on his back, ejecting a long strip that he picked up and slammed onto the ground where directed, The strip's halo at the top started glowing yellow, emanating a sound that was constantly increasing in frequency.
He gestured the others of his group, along with Archos, and started walking out of the room. The captain smirked as he walked past Ezrael. "You may want to get your robot off the chair."
Ezrael's eyes were following that heavy gallic marine. Maybe it would be a good investition to buy some of those heavy Ageira robots he once saw in the online catalogue, just to have a bunch of them. His Kishiro Service Robots were good for several duties, but it was obvious he was outgunned here. But he knew that the moment he decided to join this adventure with Core and Gallia. As long as they kept their words, he had nothing to worry about. And if they changed their minds, they would definitely have something to worry about.
With Gallia warning him right now, he smirked at the Commander, then at the Captain, then at Archos, who was following the events carefully. "137, come back here to me." Brute force then? Let's see how far Gallia can go with that. The Vault was unstable, there were sounds of bending metal every now and then. Standing in the corridor infront of the room, Ezrael smirked at the gallic femme. Then at Archos. "The station is big. I hope you guys don't mind it if we look around on our own for a bit."
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