Archeotech 2 – Treasure Hunt (RPG IC)

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

The crabs screamed in the boiling water. He added some harvested mussels to the water and made broth. 

 

He gave a crab to each of the party and showed them how to get to the the meat. 

 

"Better than Snake and will cure all chills!" 

 

 

 

[A.T.]

Aria

 

The layout of the ruins seemed to make more sense with the lines down, but Aria had no point of reference to draw upon for their likely size - she had spent her youth aboard a ship, and in service after had seen little but build up hives of activity or the luxury apartments of Helenes peers. This place was neither, but perhaps one of the locals would have seen the like in the smaller communities of this world.

 

The guardsman perhaps would see the patterns that Aria could not.

 

Awareness = 47 vs 44  - pass only if she can get an assist

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

How much can I tell them, they's Others?

 

'Praps a little is not a Lot...

 

 

 

PER 33 +0 (Awareness) = 33. Result: 16, Pass 1DoS

Add assist to Aria

 

 

 

Fiddling with a crab claw, he had an insight.

 

 

"Tole you I did. I is native Orealis. I member that my Us from further away. We childs of Elders far bak an Bak" said Varn, thinking looking at the map that Aria had drawn.

 

"We always putted out our tents in this way" pointed at map "Tole that is was sky god ship, praise Empr. It was layout, as all places Sesta's placed big tents like. Bridge, spears front, Gins bak!" Varn pointed at parts of map.

 

"Gins at bak, wudent be in water. Erf has moved!"

 

 

 

 

 

[Trokair]

I have taken Ravias prerolled result for K7, together with Aria Awarness test and Varns assist wit hteh same to get you a good chunk of map. The yellow coloured part of the giant building in the corner are still to be uncovered, but have been sucsefully deduced by Aria and Varn and marked out with rope. There may still be stuff to be found by digging/metal detector but you do have the foundation to guide you with the overall site.

G10, as only half a square that Kazimir randomed into I have bled over into G9 for a bit more uncovered.

@Petragor make your rolls when you have time, we can always added any result to the next map update.

 

Map Day10 Noon(ish)

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Ravia spent more time then probably had been wise on trying to get the radar machine to be compliant to its task this morning, but it was sullen and uncooperative. Instead she let it sulk for a while, taking the time to assist the others who were clearly onto something.

 

When sufficient time had passed by the Adpet’s estimation for the machine spirit to be contrite for misbehavior she took it back to David for a full proper strip down, clean and rebuild. Perhaps then it would be pliant to the task.  

 

Indeed, after midday rest and prayers led by Helene, Ravia took tried first on a flatter part, in case it had been the uneven ground that had upset it so. Not 10 minutes in the radar returns begun resolving into something. Meticulous back and forth across the area slowly resolved into a shadow image of the world below ground.

 

Somewhere between 5 and 10 meters deep there was a serious of irregular objects, not rock or stone, the diffraction of the radar pulse wired, from some direction clear, and yet from another when focused on the same spot nothing but errors. No matter what approach Ravia took it did not add up to anything recognizable or whole. For a while she suspected the little machine was acting up again, but whenever she took it elsewhere it worked just fine. Whatever it was they would have to dig to discover the truth.

 

I5 has something buried that will need to be dug out. This can either be later (day 11 morning for example), or after the afternoon exploration (ie the other characters won’t be aware re Ravias find in I5 until their afternoon squares have been selected and rolled of) by everybody working together into the night. The latter option will incur a point of fatigue for everybody as you work as a team into darkness, but will not require a roll.  

[Trokair]

Roll Catch up

Helene, D9 Metal Detector L2, Per: 34, D100: 43 Fail

Helene, D10 am Metal Detector K3, Per: 34, D100: 71 Fail

Helene, D10 pm Metal Detector Random Square F5, Per: 34, D100: 02 Pass, 3DoS

Aria and Varn, D10PM, I1 and I2, Per34/33 +10(Ordinary), D100: 63/20 = Sufficient pass

Ariel Metal Detector, F7, Per:33, D100: 16, Pass 1DoS

Kasimir, D10 PM Digging, F9, S:50, D100: 76, Fail, 2 DoF

 

Helene

While the others disbursed across the nearby area you started just outside their makeshift camp. Step by step, walking a grid, sweeping back and forth as the instruction and demonstration session back in Keringrat had thought them. They had made it sound simple, and Helene hoped she was doing it right.

 

Alas the ground did not have any secrets to give that day. Hardly disheartening given that it was only the first few hours of the first day, some of the others had found a few things but nothing major, they would be here for a few days at least.

 

The next morning, eager to get started, Helene set out before breakfast to cover more ground, following the same principle as before. Starting near the camp but headed to where the others had found the remains of a structure the day before. If that was the focal point of the settlement then working towards it was more likely to bring results, but she would follow on from where she left the day before. Being hasty would just result in missing stuff.

 

However with the sun blazing on her back, and no beeps from the machine all morning, doubt was beginning to nag at the back of Helene’s mind. She had worked hard, methodical, but aside from cleared vegetation, some explorative shallow digging and the uncovering some stones, much like in the other structures already being uncovered. She had to trust the Emperors’s guiding hand.

 

After the midday break Helene sought out the Red Priest, she had not had much to do with Ravia up to now, but if there was something she was doing wrong the machine the Tech-adept would know.   As it transpired the Metal Detector was in good working order, she just had not found anything worth detecting.

 

Despite her earlier intention to stick to a plan and be methodical the mornings doubt, while alleviated by Ravia’s aid still lingered. As so often when assailed by doubt prayer was the answer.

 

Sometime later, with new found confidence, Helene let her feet guide her as she wandered, stopping to sweep with the detector when the place felt right. As before it remained astutely quite, till mid afternoon, springing to life in the sandy soil near the lake.

 

It took her the rest of the afternoon, but out of the sand and dirt slowly emerged a heavy chest or container, iron perhaps, for the outside was encrusted with rust. Approximately a meter in width and half meter tall and deep. On one long side the remains of a handle falling away as Helene strained to pull the object out of the ground. A rap and echo showed it was hollow, but under the rust and dirt she could not find a lock or opening. Perhaps the mech solider could carry it back to camp and they could seek a way to open it with some of the tools aboard David.  

 

Kazimir

After the midday meal Kazimir returned with shovel in hand to where he laboured that morning, digging he could do, as plenty a trench in his past could attest. It was repetitive work, best carried out to the rhythm of a mantra, hymm or song, depending on how close the officer were.  He did however marvel at the ease with which the newfound strength of his augment body carved through the earth, his old self would have struggled.

 

Ariel

Eastwards of where she had spent the morning there was a clump of bushes, and as she came back from camp it looked almost like they grew atop a mount. Circling them it become clear that the ground here was firmer and raised compared to the surrounding.  Bringing the Detector to bear it almost instantly gave a return, but it was week, hard to pin down.

 

After her earlier experience Ariel did not expect to find much from such a weak signal, perhaps a fragment of the chair she found down slope. But no matter how much she searched there was nothing to find, while the signal remained. Perhaps it was buried deeper.

 

Returning to camp for a proper spade, the little digging tool she had used so far insufficient to unearth whatever the detector was beeping at. Later, with aching limbs Ariel had to admit defeat for the day. She had dug at least a meter where the signal was strongest, and it was getting stronger as she dug down, but had yet to uncover anything.

 

Aria and Varn

With the success of the mornings join exploration, and recalling the fragment of wall that Varn had found in the shallows the previous evening, the two headed back to the shore.

 

While the others felt the afternoons heat during their labours, Varn took the opportunity to stay in the cooling waters of the shallows while tracing the foundation of whatever structure had stood her long ago.   

 

 

Map, Day 10 evening. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Trokair

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

Something Look, look again. Intrigued he returned to his dig

 

In a hole in the ground there was Varn...

 

 

Pickaxe dug at earth and split stone on it's search for something. It split on the hard earth, his hands bled from burst blisters.

 

He laboured all day and at the end of the day, he found something with his splintered pickaxe. Maybe?

 

 

 

 

 

Location; I5

 

STR 36 = 36.

#1. Result: 96, Fail 6DoF

#2. Result: 89, Fail 5DoF

#1. Result: 03, Pass 3DoS[/spoiler}

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Machine God
I5

[A.T.]

Aria

 

With the boundaries of a structure uncovered Aria joined Varn, assisting him with the dig. The nature of these closest buildings would perhaps tell them the value of the rest and the value of further and more difficult exploration beneath the water.

 

Digging rolls:

49, 65, 78

Pass, Pass with assist only, and fail

Edited July 9, 2023 by A.T.
(added rolls)

[Trokair]

Day 11 Spoils of the Earth

 

For recap:

• We have buried things giving ground radar/metal detector returns in I5 and F7.
• We have a rusted metal container aprox 1m x 0.5m x 0.5m
• We have had a suggestion to go deeper in one of the uncovered structures
• The normal exploration of the rest of the site, if anybody is so inclined

 

For digging in squares previously examined (I5 and F7, or if speculative digging in one of the uncovered building foundations) it will be a Routine +20 Strength test. This should make things easier for you and represents the preparation from the previous exploration and an idea of what you are looking for.

 

Freeing the metal box of rust, locating any opening mechanism and getting inside will require either a pass on an Ordinary (+10) Agility Test (representing tool use) or Ordinary (+10) Intelligence Test (representing analysis and logic approach).

 

Other exploration of the lakeside is as before.

 

 

You also need to decide when, what and if you report anything to HQ as to progress and discoveries.

 

 

As I have had no suggestion otherwise I will assume that the above post for Varn and Aria are Day 11 morning digging into the I5 location, if I have misunderstood your intentions please say and I will edit accordingly.

 

Ariel and Helene are currently on Autopilot, so I will deploy them to assist where it makes sense once I have had everybody else’s actions.

@TechCaptain are you better and ok to be Kasimir again? 

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

[Lord_Ikka]

Ravia

 

"Varn, Kasimir, perhaps you should work on digging out the areas that have shown good returns with the others' assistance while I attempt to open the box?"

Ravia looked at the rust-covered metal box, hands twitching with excitement as she thought of the possible treasures within.

 

"If we find anything of value, the Expedition will reward us greatly!"

[Trokair]

Day 11 Spoils of the Earth – Noon(ish)

 

 

Ravia and Helene

 

While the others headed out to their allotted task Ravia made a makeshift work bench out of the top of one of the ration storage boxes from David. Between the two of the, for Helene had insisted that she would assist, this had been her find after all, they maneuvered the unearthed chest onto the work bench.

 

Taking spaces on opposite sides of the chest they began to thoroughly clean the outside. After a few conversation starts that just petered out they fell into a pattern of working mostly in silence, with only practical words spoken. Despite both being devout believers in their faith there was little commonality. Furthermore, having travelled together, even if they had not exchanged many words directly, both knew enough of the other that debates on doctrine and faith would in all likelihood not be productive.

 

Powered tools would have made quick work of what they had achieved so far, but not wanting to risk damage to the inside, either due to heat or accidently punching through. Instead they had worked through a variety of gentle methods. Water and soap for general dirt, deruster and wire brushes to work away at the most encrusted parts.

 

It took Ravia a while to work out what had been unsettling her about the chest. The lack of any forge stamp. There was no serial number or date of manufacture stamped into the chest anywhere. No marks of origin, no claim of workmanship.

 

 

The inbuilt lock, now freed of dirt and rust, looked simple enough, but it refused to yield its secret as Ravia carefully examined it with the myriad components of the omni-tool that was part of David’s manifest.  It appeared to be a purely mechanical lock, but the gears refused to turn. Perhaps the rust had crept further in then they had supposed.

 

You can leave the chest in its current state, as it is clear from your cleaning and examination that it is not of standard imperial manufacture and could therefore be of value, and given the nature of the expedition, something that the Archmagos and his experts might want to study themselves.

 

Alternatively you can try to force the chest open, either by cutting with saw, grinder or similar or you can use a heat based method such as cutting torch or such. David will have any tool you need In this regard. Either method runs a chance of damaging the contents, so consider with care. If you decide to try and force it open you can do so naratifley, there is no test you need to pass as you have plenty of time. However if you do this I will need one D100 roll to see if there is any damage to the contents.

Edit: random thought, but I guess explosive could also be used to open it if you really wanted to...

 

 

Varn and Aria

 

The first two meters or thereabouts were relatively easy, with only the occasional rock or bolder to hamper progress. However below it there was a layer of clay, and while it to yielded to the assult of your spade and pickaxe it was tiring work and the two of you shifted into a pattern of one digging while the other took the unearthed clay to dump it a little way away from the hole, swapping roles as needed.

 

Now well over three meters down you paused in the decent to rig a makeshift ladder and shore up the sides with some of the same clay that previously hindered you, a side collapsing in would be a nuisance at best, and deadly at worst.

 

At four and a bit meters, now in full shade so deep where you, even with the sun climbing high in the sky, you begin to notice the soil is damp, and small puddles begin to form around your feet, quickly mudifying the very ground you stand on. You were now below the water level of the lake, and in time the hole would flood. For now however you could keep ahead of it.

 

Not long after you hit what appeared to be a large boulder, but as you removed earth from around it in an attempt to dig it out you realise it is far larger and heavier. This is no mere boulder. With some clean water you wash away the mud enough to see that it had a metallic sheen, brass perhaps, or similar, and it was cool to the touch, chillingly so.

 

On you dig, though with some care now so as to not damage your find. As you uncover more you begin to speculate as to what you have found. Was that a hand perhaps, with two fingers and a thumb? Then that would be an arm. By the time you had dug around it enough to pry it loose  and shift it it was clear that it was a statue or sculpture of sorts, a humanoid figure, perhaps half the size of a person, with a oversized featureless head, or was it a helmet?

 

Despite your best effort and plenty of ropes it was beyond the two of you to lift it out of the hole until you enlisted Kazimir to aid you with his augment strength.

 

 

 

Kazimir and Ariel

 

Returning to the little pit she had started on the previous afternoon Ariel was accompanied by the Mech solider Kazimir. She had seen the handiwork of his strength and the walls of the ruined buildings he had uncovered around the site. Whatever she had found with the detector was deeper then she could manage.

 

Kazimir dug in with the space, quickly widening and deepening the excavation pit.  At regular intervals Ariel run the detector again, narrowing their search area based on the signal return. Now that they were closer it became apparent that what had been a week dispersed signal had been several  overlapping readings.

 

Soon after, as Kasimir dumped another spade full of earth to one side, Ariel cough sight of a gleam in the freshly deposited earth. Running her fingers through the loose earth she pulled out a sliver of something. A little water to wash away the dirt left a silvery bit, about an inch long, curved to one side at the top and otherwise straight etched. It looked to smooth to be scrap.

 

Over the next hour more slivers turned up, all about the same size, but of many different shapes. The final puzzle piece was somewhat larger, at about three meters down Kazimir’s spade struck something hard, at first thinking it was another rock he simply dug around it to free it for removal. A rectangular piece about half a meter tall and half as wide, inlayed into the surface where the metallic silvers, with clear gabs and indentations where some had come lose, no doubt the ones they had uncovered separately.  Turning over the stone there were more markings on the back, the same slivers of symbols, and while fewer where missing from this side there were still some gabs.

 

Digging a little further they uncovered more slivers, though until they tried to match them all u there was no way to tell if they had found them all.

 

 

 

Everybody - at camp

 

With such a successful morning the spirits were high at the midday meal in camp, David to their back, the finds laid out on makeshift tables. The hard work over the previous day, and the arduous journey had paid off. This was defiantly pre-imperial settlement artifacts as far as any of them could discern or speculate, and where there was some there might be working Archeotech.

 

The tablet and the assorted loose letters of an unknown script, all cleaned and reassembled as best they could based on the indentation within the stone itself.

 

The statue with its strange proportions, this limbs and legs, tiny torso and a head that should make it top heavy, and yet it stood perfectly balanced.

 

The sealed chest, bereft of imperial indicators, still guarding its secrets.

 

Amongst the many questions under discussion as you eat your rations is whether to report your find to Expedition HQ now, and let them send the experts and labours to take the site apart in detail, or if you should try yourself a bit longer and see if there was an even greater treasure for you to find.

 

Varn - Only 

Spoiler

Like the others you had a closer look at the lettering on the tablet, and while one side was defiantly unknown to you, the other, maybe, had some familiarity. You cast your mind back to your childhood, to the elders of the Tribe and their stories of the times when all the land was for the people to roam. The wooden carved trinket old grandmother Eldest would pass through her fingers as she told the tales of the Tribes. The memory is vague, you where only a small child when she passed on to the ancestors.   

 

Ravia - Only 

Spoiler

Like the others you had a closer look at the lettering on the tablet, and while one side was defiantly unknown to you, the other, maybe, had some familiarity. Years ago, when you were still new to the service of the Arch-Magos, there had been an expedition to a death world. Another place of interest in Ilmarnin’s long years of research. The ruins there had symbols cared in decorations, you had caught a glimpse of them when the attending scribes and other attendants to the Arch-Magos had to evacuate the prefab bunker complex that had served as the base of operations. During the 50m dash through the poisonous atmosphere to an Triaros Armoured Conveyer you had passed by some of the remains that had only just been excavated by the servitor workfore. You never saw them again, as after the bunker breach Ilmarnin abandoned the site and planet.

 

 

Aria - Only 

Spoiler

The more time you spend near the statue the more you can’t shake the feeling that there is something strange, something other about it. Even when you are not looking at it you can feel it presence, no not feel it, more an absence of sort. It is unsettling in a way you have only know once before, many years before aboard a voidship, when by chance a party of armsman had escort the one of The Navis Nobilite past you and your fellow passengers on their way from the transport hanger to Navigator sanctum.  

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Trokair

[Lord_Ikka]

Ravia

 

Looking at the tablet, Ravia thought back to the deathworld where she had seen similar etchings. The Arch-Magos would want to know about this find, he had been looking into similar artefacts before. Sharing her insight with the others, she put forward a proposal to send a brief report on the findings to the Expedition command and continue to search the site for further items. The locked case should stay locked until the team had more delicate tools to open it, the risk of damage too great with the Goliath's current toolset.

[Trokair]

Ravia

 

While the others contemplate the proposal you start drafting the report for efficiency, if the others agree you would be ready to upload it straight away. As part of the preparation you take a serious of images of the find with a pic-capturer. Reviewing the images on the little preview display, the resolution terrible, but you know that the pic-capturer would have taken enough data that on an analytical cogitator it would be rendered faithfully down to the minutest details. The various angles of the chest and tablet where fine. The humanoid statue however was hazy on the little screen, blurry and indistinct, as if the pic-capturer was suddenly of a lower quality. You try again but the statue remains resolutely low resolution.   

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

Varn looked at the lettering on the tablet...

 

There, there, no something. Think!

 

 

Varn jumped up suddenly.

 

"Nanamuta! Nanamuta, Nanamuta!" he shouted out happily.

 

 

 

 

[A.T.]

Aria

 

A buried statue... Aria poked the mud at its joints looking for articulation or signs of servo-mechanisms that would mark it as perhaps some buried example of a servitor or construction machinery long abandoned by the original human colonists but none was found. Undiscovered so close to the surface was not a promising sign of advanced Terran technology but perhaps some noble would pay for it should the Ecclesiarchy or Mechanicus not have it melted down first.

[Trokair]

Day 11, afternoon. 

 

37.09 minutes after Ravia had uploaded the team’s findings a short message pinged in from Expedition command.

 

+++ Data-missive, recipient adept Ravia Phi-Ro +++ 

From: Expedition HQ, Keringrat 4362448.M41

To: Expedition Survey Teams: North East

Thought of the Day: His Word is Our Strength.

 

Report acknowledged. Congratulation on your find.

 

Specialist excavation teams have been dispatched.

 

Cease all preliminary investigations; the specialists will take over from here. Secure the site and await their arrival.     

 

Seal of Expedition Command

+++ Data-missive end+++

 

 

As a team you need to decide if you comply with order, in which case your characters a free to do what they want aside from investigation, hunting, prayer, meditation for memory recall, etc.

 

If you choose to ignore the order to cease investigation then you can continue as per the rules previously posted for digging/metal detect, ground radar.

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

Varn sat down and hummed to himself a lullaby, as he traced the letters on the back of the tablet.

 

In the bak an' bak. Afore times, the more ffolk times that Nanamuta had sung about when he was little.

 

 

 

Varn tried to remember about the letters and stuff that he had been told in the songs

INT 37.

Result: 16, Pass

 

 

 

 

[Trokair]

Varn

 

As you cast your mind back and recall tales of wonder, stories for children, and yet more than that, you recall more of the symbols. Not just carved from wood, but embodied in cloth, carved in Ursarchus tooth and a dozen other places, hid in plain sight. Alas however there meaning is beyond you, just charms and patterns. If the elders knew their secret they kept it for themselves.

 

 

GM Note. The context of the text on either side of the tablet is not important to the story. What is a little relevant (in so far as it will provide some context for other things) is that there two different scripts, one on each side.

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

He remembered the songs as he hummed and the symbols had been seen. Memories now.

 

He worked out something though.

 

 

He pointed to the familiar script and then at the other side as he spoke.

 

Pointing to the familiar, "These are mine from years gone, but I can not read it!"

 

He pointed at the script on the other side, "This letters not same, difrent speech riting!"

 

 

 

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Ravia

 

Two languages... a translation tablet? If Varn knew the script that she hadn't seen before, maybe they could work together to translate the unknown language that was on the tablet and at the death world site. 

 

"Perhaps we should wait for the specialists, but if Varn and I can work on translating this tablet then we would have one more step ahead of them..."

Edited July 16, 2023 by Lord_Ikka

[Trokair]

Ravia

 

GM Note. The tablet is indeed a Rosetta Stone analogue. No translation work is required for story progression.   

 

 

Some 40 and a bit minutes after the transmission from Expedition Command David’s cogitator pinged again, another message had been received.

 

+++ Data-missive, recipient adept Ravia Phi-Ro +++ 

 

+++Security Pavonis, Arch-Magos Ilmarnin seal lock verified.+++

 

+++ Praise the Omnissiah for your diligent work, standard mark two compliment for you and your team. The Arch-Magos has revived your report, secure the uncovered artefacts and only release them to a direct representative of the Arch-Magos. Official convoy dispatched by Expedition command ETA analysis 91 to 114 hours, advance elements not yet confirmed but the Arch-Magos is putting pressure on Expedition Command to dispatch same.

 

Satellite analysis shows Convoy of an unknown party consisting of at least ten major vehicles that abruptly changed direction 27.53 minutes ago, projected your position as destination with 71% likelihood, ETA 17 to 25 hours. Analysis inclusive as to nature of party, backtracking inconclusive.  Be Vigilant and let the Omnissiah will be done. +++ 

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Ravia

 

"We have possible hostiles arriving in less than a day," Ravia quickly laid out the missive from the Arch-Magos to the rest of the team. The situation did not look promising, as ten vehicles could hold a large number of enemies. The official convoy would arrive a minimum of two days after the intruders and holding out for two days against such a large force was...unlikely. She also didn't like the fact that whomever this unknown convoy was clearly had access to Expeditionary vox-codes and information. 

 

"We cannot let these artefacts get into the hands of bandits. What are our options- to flee, fight, or otherwise?"

[Machine God]

Varn:

 

"We's too small against tha many vehicles. Lucky wiv ambush. No we go. Take tablet and chest, we go Mountain site on Map!" said Varn.

 

"Stone man, Big Head he too heavy to move. 'Chine sent dreams to Magos so they no site where is!"

 

"Must hurry."

 

[A.T.]

Aria

 

"The statue is buried deeply, it would be a quick matter to bulldoze dirt and sand onto it once more from the direction of the water allowing both to submerge it and signs of our digging. Churn up and submerge the ground so that there is no clear place to dig for those that follow."

 

It had taken them more than a day to dig out the statue in dry conditions. Aria supposed that they might just as easily drag the statue to the surface with chains and the raw power of their vehicle but saw no appeal in transporting the oddly disturbing xenos relic across this world, nor any practical way to take it further short of draging it behind them.

[Trokair]

With the unwelcome news from the Arch-Magos’s aid it does not take you long to confer on a plan, staying is not an option in your mind.

 

Dismantling the camp is an easy enough task, by now you know your way around the tents and equipment and within half an hour all is squared away.

 

The artefacts take a while longer, in part due to uncertainty on how best to store and transport them, and in the case of the statue, whether to take it at all. The chest was simple enough, while non standardised size it slots into an empty space in David’s hold easily enough, just one more crate amongst many. The tablet and letters eventually find a home in an emptied ration supply box, with a spare canvas blanket acting as insulation and cushioning. The assorted slivers of script likewise  got individually wrapped, two rolls of bandages from David’s First Aid kit giving their lives to protect the find.

 

The statue stood all alone on the ground now, there was plenty of space in David to take it, especially if you took the Wolfquad out the back and drove it separately, or towed it. However there was still indecision amongst the team, abandoning such a hard worn find would be a waste.

 

The distinctive whine of a Valkyrie interrupted your discussion. Kazimmir picked up first, having heard it countless times before in all sort of conditions.  Shortly after you spot it come in from a south westerly position, growing larger by the second. It banks as it reaches the lake, taking a long sweep along the shore while dropping altitude.

 

A second circle around the lake, skimming low over the trees growing along the waterfront before it settles to land somewhere south of your position. The final decent you could not see, too much landscape was in the way, but it was not far from the dig site.

[Trokair]

Old ‘Friends’

 

 

You can hear them make their way through the undergrowth for well over a minute before you see the first of the party that must have come from the landed Valkyrie. It is a party of three, and as the first spots you he waves as he lets his comrades know where you are.

 

As they come closer you can make out more detail, well armoured and uniformed, a variation of what you have seen on PDF troopers, but better quality. All were armed, though they kept their guns at ease, there because a solider is never without his weapons, whether he expects trouble or not.

 

The leader of the trio stops and calls out.

 

“Hey there, we have been...” He stops, having taken a closer look at you and David.

 

“Oh, it’s you thieving scums, stolen somebody’s luck to find this then?.” It is Sergeant Rahul, charming as ever. 

 

“No matter, as I was saying, we have been sent to fly your find out of here. Orders from on high you know.”

 

Seeing you all just stand there he set of towards you again, his two comrades following hastily, one had just tired to light up an Iho stick and was now franticly trying to put it out.

 

“Unless you hidden a closser landing zone for the Valk you better get to it, it won’t load itself.”