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[HexaDoken]

During the conversation, HexaDoken has seemingly fallen asleep. Or got carried away with his thoughts again. Either way, blasting off has returned him to reality. He casted a gaze in the darkness of deep space, and whispered something to himself. Noone could hear it.

"Xilla... right?" - red haired man speaks, while still looking in the nothingness. - "My full alias is HexaDoken, if you ever care. And I agree with MkLear that we should stop pointing pointy things at each other. This does not work well."

Once again, HexaDoken's words sound like we are not in a capsule drifting in the deep space, and what awaits us is not a suicide mission. More like we are peacefully drinking tea at our homes. And if like Xilla was holding not a deadly crossbow which shoots bolts perfectly capable of piercing a man's skull, but rather a toy pistol which shoots completely harmless pellets.

But HexaDoken's face expressed different feelings. It looked much like his mind was split, with minor part peacefully speaking with his colleagues, while major part was busy looking in the void... as if searching something there. Something very valuable, something what could dramatically change the flow of the things if it was found.

But what could he find there, in the infinite darkness?

[Esther]

Xilla disassembles her crossbow and starts cleaning it. When she's done, she puts it back into the backpack. Then she takes out a wetting stone, spits on it and starts sharpening her sword.

[Klear]

"This might be our last chance for some time to talk openly," MkLear suggests looking at the team, but then he reconsiders. "You know what? Feth this. I'm gonna have a nap. Wake me up when we get there."

[Silhar]

And so you drift through the eternal night.
Each second draws you nearer the black globe. The beast reaches for you with its invisible tentacles. About to feed. About to gnaw your bones, tear your flesh, swallow your soul...

Suddenly, you realize how hot is inside. One couldn't feel it right away, but it is there. Growing slowly yet unstoppably. A gentle nudge turns into warmth. Warmth turns into heat. Heat turns into flames.

The light is also here. The night turns into a day. For scant seconds you can see sunlight dancing atop bright, white clouds. The vision is strange. Strange, and yet beautiful. The sunbeams flicker with endless colours.

And then, the fall. The heat slowly fades out.

Suddenly you cross the line, find yourselves underneath the soft layer of cloud.

It's unbelievably dark. The sky is part crimson red, as if raining blood, part purple, part deeply violet. There is no sunlight anymore and what you can see right under you looks like some sea of ash and ember.
And you keep drifting, keep drifting into this sea, swirling ocean of shadow.
It's cold now. So cold...

You can't really feel the moment when the lander blasts against the surface. It is like complete silence until you realize how loud is it.
Thrill, tremble, shake.
The earth drags you down, yet belts are holding.
And then, the cascade of noise. Immense roar of dust, scream of torn steel, you can even hear belts stretching and twiddling. Or is it your bone?

After a split-second, everything is gone.
Loud hissing. The door blasts open, letting this cold air in. It chills you deeply, right to the heart.

Suddenly, you find yourselves...

Act one: Longing for heat.

[LuckyDee]

Lazerus elbows MkLear - fully knowing he could have never slept through this: "Wake up. We're there."

He wields his autogun and steps out of the pod, surveying the surroundings.

[HexaDoken]

During the whole flight, HexaDoken was staring out of the window, no matter what happened. No matter what. No matter how much the pod was shaking and how loud the noise was. No matter what.

And when they landed, he said silently, still looking at the window - "Yikes..."

He then stood up rather suddenly, said "Welp" without any readable feelings. Then HexaDoken jumped out of the pod, took a look at surroundings, and yawned.

[Klear]

"Thanks Laz," MkLear grunts with irony. "So are we dead yet? And if not, where are we?"

He starts to unstrap himself slowly, clearly in no hurry to get outside.

[Esther]

When the pod hits the clouds Xilla puts away her wetting stone and sword. She checks the inside of her backpack quickly and then braces herself for the landing.
When the door blasts open and the cold air comes in, Xilla unstraps herself. She sniffs the air as if she is searching for something familiar. She then steps out of the pod and checks her surrounding.

Then she takes the stone knife out of it's pocket, kneels and starts scratching some markings into the surface as she mutters some sentences in Tribal Dialect. She then rolls up her sleeve, cuts her arm (many more scars become visible), spills some blood on the ground, mixes it with dirt on the ground and then rubs it back into the wound. She pulls down her sleeve as she gets up. Then puts the knife back into the pocket on her thigh. The hole thing took her less then 30 seconds in which she kept on edge the hole time. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If we step into some kind of trouble right away, then forget about the second bit.

[Silhar]

What you see upon stepping out of the battered pod is both monumental and unnerving.
It's not unlike a huge mountain of black steel, its top touching the clouds you even touched a moment before. Low-orbit crafts hover around it like flies around some pile of rubbish. All in a background of black ash and crimson sky. Nothing else, not even a tree, can be seen on the horizon. You're not far from the city wall - or rather, a mountain wall. About five hundred metres apart...
It's also cold. And the chemical stench of soil and air is nigh on unbearable, as though nitrogenium and chlorine were the only ingredients of the planet's atmosphere. The air is also filled with constant humming.
After a while, Doken catches a glimpse of probable source of the toxic smell.
It's a huge, averagely ten metres wide round pipe straying visibly from the construction. It probably leads into the sewers. There used to be bars protecting the inside from unwelcome guests, but now they are bent and it can be accessed, yet not without some fatigue.

[Klear]

MkLear walks out of the lander and breathes the rancid air with disgust.

"For some reason I thought we'll land somewhere in the city," he says at last, surveying the surroundings. "I should have known the inquisition won't be making this easy for us, sure as sure."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Is there ANY possible way we can get into the city without crawling through smelly sewer?

Edit: Talked with Silhar on IRC... nope.

[LuckyDee]

"'Easy' isn't in doubt," Lazerus says, nodding towards the sewer pipe. He then walks over to Xilla, and has a look at the markings Xilla has been making.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Es, please give a more detailed description.
Silhar, any signs of life here, vegetable or animal? Human even? Any buildings besided the hive itself?

[Esther]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Xilla carved two symbols in the ground that could represent numbers. There is a little bit of blood on them. This thin cut will probably end up looking like the many scars on the inside of her arm. Like stacked bracelets from her wrists upwards.

[Klear]

"It seems we don't have a choice but to go that way," MkLear notes, nodding towards the pipe in the distance, then turning to Xilla. "Ladies first?"

[HexaDoken]

HexaDoken takes a distant look at Xilla's markings as well. However, he does not seem to be very interested.

He walks towards the pipe and crouches before it.

"Woo, what a wonderful smell I've discovered..." - says mercerenary as if quoting someone. He then turns to MkLear. "Gentlemen, are we, like, thrice as sure that this is the ONLY way to get in?"

[Esther]

Xilla checks the pod door to see if they could still use it if they needed shelter. After that she uses her tracking skills to see if there has been any recent activity on the ground between the pod and the gate. When she arrives at the gate, she looks at Hexadoken. "Dirty is a lot better then dead." After looking into the tunnel through the bars, she continues: "I fit through easily. I'll go in and check if this is the easy access it seems to be. Things are hardly ever what they seem" She then takes her crossbow pistol out of her backpack and loads it. Slides through the gate and puts her backpack back on, then whispers with a grin: "If i'm not back in minutes, this way is trouble"