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TIME: 12:07 AM

Another barricade stands at an entrance to a building that looks somewhat like a giant Lego: a large and squat rectangle with an array of domes studding the top. Curiously, this one is partially dismantled, and looks like it's been in the middle of a struggle between someone who wants to keep it up and someone who wants to take it down. There's obvious drag marks in the stone where a piece had been pulled away. The gap it left behind leaves some space to peer inside -- and while it's hard to make out, there's definitely some kind of activity going on in there.

An agent with enough experience and a keen enough eye might be able to teleport to the other side, or there may be some other way through. It's probably unwise to try going in alone.

Surtur
Deep Space Senshi of Desolation

MOOD: Wishing for shinier rocks. Relatively good spirits.
ACTION: Inspecting rock, then building exterior with Ymir.

“What do you think? Not shiny enough?”

Surtur had a rock in his hands and he was turning it over to inspect it from all angles. He’d told Almadel he would look for things for him, and maybe pick up a few things for himself, but he didn’t know the other man’s tastes. Sure, he’d seen the tables of objects, but everyone liked a nice, shiny rock, right?

His attention was pulled away from his inspections when Ymir asked about the buildings, which were not as interesting as some of the rocks he’d found. Still, their minimal explorations had taken them closer to the large rectangle building with its strange marks and appearance of being dismantled.

“On Surtur, when buildings became too dangerous to enter, or if they’d already been overtaken with Chaos, I would barricade them to remind myself not to get caught inside when the fog came in,” he shared, looking up at the part of the building Ymir was inspecting.

“However, I am not sure of the purpose for the barricade here. There is likely something inside that others do not want accessed, or perhaps something inside that is not intended to be released.”

The ever-vibrating Bo would notice that someone had been trying to block this place off again. It couldn't have been one of the other robots, either. None of them would ever have thought of doing such a thing. It would be cruel to do such a thing. The consensus had been to make sure this doorway was kept open until they found the culprit behind these persistent blockades.

It would be up to Bo whether to reveal this to the organics, however.

In its current state, the barricade had a small number of gaps between the pieces of pillar and anatomically-indulgent sculpture that made it up. It was made of heavy stuff, but in its incomplete state could potentially be moved or knocked down with an appropriate application of power.

Surtur
Deep Space Senshi of Desolation

MOOD: Cheerful
ACTION: Terebellum can hold his rock while he tries moving the barricade.

The other Senshi (Terebellum) that approached them didn’t seem to be human, and the comment about doing similar things on Terebellum made him wonder if this Senshi was more similar to them than most of the others.

“Then. Terebellum, I presume?” Surtur asked with a flourished gesture in greeting of their newest companion in their adventures.

“Surtur and Ymir. I see you have befriended one of the locals. Greetings, we come in peace,” he said to the robot (Bo), and then leaned closer to Ymir with a hand near his mouth to hide what he was saying.

“I learned that from Earth.”

Although he’d dropped his hands to his hips by the time he added “They’re just obsessed with trying to convince others of peaceful intentions.”

A slight sigh of exasperation, his rock still in his hand as he moved forward to inspect the artistic sculpture that had been used to block the opening.

“Since we have no Mauvian,” he flashed a grin in Ymir’s direction as he stretched out his shoulders with pulling his arm each across his chest -- although he tried not being too obnoxious about it. He knew Ymir got irritated with him easily.

He temporarily handed the rock to Terebellum (with a cheerful word of thanks), before reaching out to try and find a good hold or something to grasp on the sculpture so he could hoist it out of the way.

Bo
Something precise

MOOD: A bit huffy?
ACTION: Bringing the donors inside

"Greetings, Ymir, Surtur. I am pleased by this meeting." The ram greeted in kind, though seemed rather focused on the building. Bo seemed to... huff, a little? If a robot could huff. The ram passed, staring at the blockade with an energy of frustration, though the robot didn't express any of this to the organics around her. No. That would reveal that the building was used for something the organics may or may not want to interact with. That wouldn't do at all.

Bo quietly watched as the organics removed the blockage. The vibrating stopped for a few moments, almost as if Bo was staring into space and thoughts were elsewhere.



Bo looked up at the three senshi. "I shall lead, in case there are more blockades or dangerous apparatus. " said the crystalline ram. She gave nudge to Terebellum and her fellows to follow.

Then the ram dipped her head, and slipped in side.

---

Terebellum
Deep Space Senshi of Resonance

MOOD: Curious? Cautious, but curious
ACTION: Following the ram, she supposes

"Terebellum, Senshi of Resonance. Please, call me Tere. It's a bit of a mouthful, I know," she said, bowing her head in introduction. She gently held the little rocks Surtur handed her, glee at the colors and pretties. She liked shiny and pretty rocks just like anyone else, thank you very much. Even more so when your entire world was based around crystal.

It actually gave her a feeling of relief that Ymir was cautious around her. Too many seemed to be too trusting, too fast - herself included - and it was refreshing to see a healthy level of caution around others. Ymir didn't have any sort of real noticeablely 'other' though perhaps he was a bit too thin by Earth standards. Surtur had some horns that looked more like they were attached to his tiara than his skull. Beyond the slitted pupils, he also passed very well for human.

Tere continued to stand out, even among her fellow far flung cosmic senshi fellows. Ever would she shoulder on, she supposed...

Surtur moved the blockade - a questionable statue it sort of looked like - and the Resonator said it would lead the way. Bo, she had to remember it's name was Bo. She'd never known one to gain this level of sentience before, though that was probably due to whatever had taken Bo from Terebellum in the first place.

She leaned down to the opening and looked inside. "It looks safe enough. Lots of cables and... a light? Further inside," she said to Surtur and Ymir. "... Also there maybe a serpent of some kind?"

Pulling her hood down to reveal the mass of curly white hair and curled gray horns over furry ears, she gave a look to the other two senshi, before slipping inside to follow the ram.

Surtur
Deep Space Senshi of Desolation

MOOD: Cheerful and skeptical
ACTION: Going into the creepy structure

“You’re welcome,” Surtur smiled pleasantly as the robot and two other Senshi managed to squeeze through the opening without a word of thanks. It was no matter. This was a stressful situation for all of them, what with the dangers of robots and whatnot.

It took him a little more time to maneuver the statue out of the way so that he could fit through the opening. He was both taller and broader than any of the others, so it took some careful planning to squeeze through without getting his uniform caught on anything. Although if it did get caught, he would just have to remove it.

The interior did not look safe. It looked like it was an unkempt dragon’s hoard of strange cables and debris. He also did not trust the robot leading the way, although he supposed if there was any chance for them to make a run for it, it would be easier to kick it in the butt before fleeing.

He wished he had his full magic back. He wouldn’t have even considered running at that point. This derelict structure would look pristine compared to what his magic could do.

“So Tere. Are you super familiar with our generous leader?” Surtur asked as he observed his surroundings. “Its origins? Motivations? Reason why they’re here without any organic life-forms when there was clearly sign of some kind of organic life previously?” If those statues were any indication. "Or if it would be so kind as to explain what this structure is without, I don't know, leading us all to an untimely death. That would be very disappointing, personally. I can't speak for everyone," he said with a charming smile flashed towards Ymir, although he clearly preferred they all survived... whatever this was.

He didn't manage to survive hundreds of years on his own to die now.

This building was rather starkly-decorated compared to the lavish and indulgent aesthetic seen elsewhere, and grew starker with the descent downstairs. Instead of decadent sculptures and lavish lounge furniture, there were simply foreign markings that labeled the space for whoever once worked here. A low, pleasing hum reached the ears from the direction of the pale light, which shone from within one of the rooms lining a long, dingy arched hallway.

It was a power generator of some kind: here, employed as a life support. An array of mechanical forms were gathered around it like exhausted wilderness survivors around a campfire. Each one was in horrible shape. They bore exposed, sparking circuits, missing components, parts that twitched and parts that didn't move; one was making an insufferable buzzing noise that sputtered and staggered and stopped and started over and over again; another looked like it might once have been two machines at some point. Like the rest Astraya's unwitting visitors had met, they all bore a golden globe of some crystalline material somewhere on their bodies.

The room was equipped with an array of stone platforms that appeared to be beds, which the huddled group draped themselves over in various languishing positions. They were now all looking at the people Bo had led inside. Somehow, they looked hungry.

One of them clicked and beeped warily. "Insufficient quantity available. You must retrieve more."

Then, a voice haggard with static and rust chimed in. "And we must proceed. Restrain them."

Each one alone had almost no power to speak of, but together they could perform one final task before their destiny was fulfilled. There were only four organics here -- and the terminally damaged robots outnumbered them easily. Sparing the green target Bo had reserved, the group leapt at the remaining three with intense desperation. They worked as a neatly coordinated force to push the organics onto the beds.

The beds with shackles.

Ymir
Deep Space Senshi of Sleet

MOOD: Numb.
ACTION: Fighting back on instinct more than intent. Remaining free.

Perhaps Surtur had been joking, but it seemed an untimely death might be in store for them after all.

Insufficient quantity took no time at all to understand with the recent warning from the Velencian still fresh in Ymir’s mind. The inorganics… They seem to have a concerning interest in starseeds. In the face of so many derelict robots, Ymir had to wonder if that may have been a bit of an understatement.

He had little time to consider the situation beyond that.

Restrain them.

Ymir’s gaze landed on the stone platforms. The platforms which looked like beds. The beds which boasted shackles. Ymir backed into Surtur, alarmed. His vision tunneled. His breathing grew labored. He couldn’t look away from the beds.

At least until a robot broke his line of sight — vaguely person-shaped, with a missing limb where an arm should have been and another that had clearly been salvaged from something else, long, thin, and segmented, with a pincer grip. It reached for him just as another robot appeared out of the corner of Ymir’s eye. More swarmed around. He could make out very few of them. The one with the pincer grip grabbed his arm and pulled.

Ymir acted on instinct. Perhaps, if he’d had the time to consider what was happening, he might have let things progress. He was tired, without purpose. He couldn’t even be sure why he was still alive, assumed it to be some sort of cosmic fluke that would inevitably repair itself. Perhaps this was how. If he let it happen, allowed one of these robots to draw him onto one of the beds, everything might be over. He needn’t bother to find answers that probably didn’t exist in the first place.

It was the restraints that did it, the thought of being strapped down. The robot attempted to drag him bodily toward one of the beds, while others pushed and shoved. Ymir struggled. He yanked his arm free. He pushed a robot away, knocked it over with a clatter, then flung magic at the next one that drew too close, spraying them with pellets of sleet.

For once, it seemed, his magic worked as intended. Flecks of ice entered the robot’s circuitry. With a hiss and a pop, the robot halted, then collapsed with a crash of sparking parts. Ymir shoved another out of the way, sending it careening into one of its brethren with a loud bang.